ADVENT: History
The War for Oceania
"The aliens may take our country, but we're going to make them pay dearly to keep it."
- Sadire Ferro, Commanding General of the Philippine Army
ADVENT Intelligence Report 1187
Subject: Alien Activity in Oceania
Agent: Sarah Miller
Overview: While the aliens have taken Australia in a show of overwhelming force, they have not seemed to apply the same zeal and vigor to capturing the rest of the Oceanic nations. They have sent detachments of soldiers, but nothing we can classify as a full invasion. Why they have done this is still unknown, but several hypotheses can be drawn from what they have accomplished so far.
Their strategy of overwhelming the defenses of prominent cities appears to have been abandoned in favor of a more methodical approach. You are aware that almost all of the Oceanic nations have either converted their armies to guerilla militaries, or sent the rest to be integrated into the ADVENT military, thus it is difficult for the aliens to take any decisive battles.
The approach of taking a country city by city is seemingly the preferred one, while suffering strikes from guerilla forces along the way. Many of the aliens are not suited for the warmer and humid environments, and the Human resistance forces there are taking full advantage of that by using traps, poisons and the terrain itself to weaken the army piece by piece.
If there is any crucial information we can take away from this, it is that the aliens seem poorly prepared for asymmetrical warfare. They perform best in straight engagements, but smaller groups are something they appear to have issues with, which has led to a surprisingly effective defense of nations like Indonesia and the Philippines.
We have speculated as to why the aliens seem to favor Japan as a main staging ground against Asia, and based on what is happening in Oceania, it is not out of the question to propose that it is simply easier. The aliens know they cannot take shortcuts, such as only taking the Philippines, because we would exploit it and cut them off from two points of attack. They have to not only take that country, but Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. It would be a gauntlet that would tax their forces as they would be facing at least two major conflicts, whereas Japan only promises one if they are successful. Even then, holding Japan poses its own issues for the aliens due to the climate, terrain and potential severe weather, but ultimately it is easier to hold than the Oceanic nations.
As it stands now, they have taken most of Papua New Guinea and about half of Indonesia, and they have successfully locked down all controlled territory. They are attempting to do the same with Australia, but they are also having issues due to the size of the country and the sizable Australian force still remaining. Malaysia and the Philippines are facing short incursions, but nothing they can't reasonably handle, because for whatever reason, the aliens don't want to provoke a response from our military quite yet in that region.
Nonetheless, that is likely the next location of their conquest, especially if they take Japan. We should begin reinforcing Malaysia immediately, and deploy several Legions to the Philippines as well to help them hold out against the aliens. Should they be attacked, we also need to be prepared for strikes against Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. China is also a possible location of attack, but we can do little there save for seeing if China will ask for assistance, which at this point, I do not expect them to do.
Commander,
As you have requested additional information on the state of the Oceania nations, I have compiled what intelligence I can in conjunction with Zhang. He is working with ADVENT Intelligence and the soldiers that still remain in the countries, as well as sending agents of our own to help assist them negate the impact of the aliens.
There are four major countries (Excluding Australia) that the Collective is attempting to subjugate. They seem unwilling to devote a large portion of their forces, largely because they have correctly deduced that it would be a waste of manpower, time and resources, as most of the militaries have officially disbanded and been integrated into ADVENT, and the rest have formed into guerilla squads similar to Australia, and are proving effective against the poorly prepared aliens.
Papua New Guinea is almost completely under Collective control, which is unsurprising as they were hit shortly after Australia was subjugated. There are a few holdout guerilla forces, but both Zhang and I agree that further operations there are not conducive if we wish to hurt their operations. There is some speculation that several native primitive tribes have also encountered the aliens, but due to the vast technological difference, they are likely dead or captured. As it stands, there has been no contact with them and the established guerilla forces. Regardless, the country is clearly not an important location they hold, and the guerilla squads are best utilized elsewhere, though I admit it will be a challenge to convince them to fight elsewhere, but Zhang assures me that he is working on that.
Indonesia is under heavy assault, but this is where the heart of the war for Oceania is taking place. The guerilla strike squads are taking advantage of the islands, and fighting the aliens every step of the way in the wilderness and then back on islands they have already captured, disrupting their supply and communication lines. Overall they are drastically slowing down the Collective advance as they constantly have to retreat to earlier islands and attempt to purge the area of guerilla forces that are long gone.
Unfortunately, it appears that the aliens are growing tired of having their forces systematically picked off and isolated. We are now receiving some reports of both Dath'Haram and Andromedon reinforcements in the alien coalition. The Andromedons seems to be a different variant than any we've fought before. They appear to be a walking biological weapon, and have currently rendered the entire island of Pulau Wetar uninhabitable via some kind of toxin. No word if they have done so to other islands, but this is a clear sign that if we push enough, they will destroy entire environments to deny a strategic advantage.
The Dath'Haram are a much greater worry, however, as these Vitakara are apparently native to environments typically found in the Oceanic regions. There fortunately don't appear to be many of them, but they are making their presence felt in this war, and I would not be surprised if the Collective gradually began adding more to the mix until we either learn how to effectively stop them, or they kill any and all resistance.
There have been several incursions in the Philippines, but the aliens seem reluctant to begin an all-out assault, since they have refrained from stepping foot on the main islands, but are instead focusing on the outlying ones. The Philippines have a sizable ADVENT army, which wouldn't hold up against a prolonged assault, but would buy enough time for reinforcements as well as us to arrive. The Philippines have been instrumental in providing resources and personnel to Indonesia, since they know that the aliens seem reluctant to press the attack.
Malaysia has been similarly left alone, aside from some of the southern islands coming under assault, but similar to the Philippines, they also have a sizable ADVENT army ready and waiting, and are working to undermine the aliens as much as possible via their own special forces. They have also been providing support to Indonesia, and I will also note that both countries are receiving direct funding from ADVENT itself to support their efforts.
It is inevitable that Oceania falls, and some might say most of it has. But as long as the aliens are continually harassed and killed there, the Collective will not be able to effectively wage war from there unless the aliens begin a devoted purge, or they render the region uninhabitable. We shall see how far they can be pushed, I suppose.
- Ariel Jackson, Central Officer of XCOM
Battlemaster,
I regret to inform you that we have had unexpected difficulty in taking the nations north of Australia. It has taken surprisingly little time for the Humans to quickly develop counter strategies to our own. Their grasp of asymmetrical warfare is something I did not account for, and thus the forces I have are insufficient for dealing with this new threat.
The Humans call the overarching strategy 'guerilla warfare' (Not to be confused with an animal species of the same name), and it eschews front-line combat in favor on concentrated strikes on isolated squads, sabotage, assassination, and trapping. Stealth is paramount for this tactic to work, and I suspect that initial inspiration was taken from intelligence agencies, as there is some overlap.
We are having an issue of being unable to adequately respond to these fast, quick and unpredictable attacks. The majority of my forces are suited for open combat against an equal or more powerful foe, not against small squads of Humans hitting the back lines. I suspect you already know this, but Mutons are insufficient trackers and perform poorly in jungle and forest environments, which the Humans thrive in.
Borelians are not well-adjusted to the climate either, as well as being similarly handicapped in regards to dealing with surprise attacks. Oyariah have performed adequately, but they are too slow to chase once the Humans retreat, and are also insufficient trackers. My Vitakarian soldiers are doing their best, despite not excelling at any particular aspect of this situation, but are nonetheless the best I have.
In addition to that, I believe that the subdued human populaces are providing shelter or protection to various groups of Humans, and we have unfortunately not have had success curbing support for them, despite enacting discipline when necessary. It might interest you to know that we have encountered some extremely primitive Humans on the island called Papua New Guinea. They were only armed with primitive spears and blowguns, which were ineffective against our own forces. I ordered them captured as I am sure our scientists will want to look at the differences between them and modern humans. And as per your instructions, I am also refraining from antagonizing the Philippines and Malaysia and their armies. Ironically, we would likely perform better against them than the guerilla forces attacking us now.
This is what I require, Battlemaster. We need to perform a complete reorganization of our forces here and save our front-line soldiers for direct conflicts with ADVENT and XCOM. At the very least I need several detachments of Dath'Haram who are familiar with similar environments and can hunt these Humans on their own terms.
Beyond that, another useful tool would be the establishment of a chryssalid hive with Sectoid Handlers. Chryssalids would be excellent for preventing a retreat, and can be released in environments before we arrive to cleanse the area of Humans. I understand your distaste for the creatures, but if we do not take measures, we will simply lose more soldiers unnecessarily.
I would also request several groups of Andromedon Contamination Operatives, perhaps for annexing some of the smaller islands to make a point to these Humans. More Andromedons in general would be useful, since they would survive ambushes far longer than Mutons would. But they are ultimately not necessary to ensure our victory.
We have limited solutions to how to solve the civilian issue, and the easiest one is to simply transfer all Humans in the cities we capture to Australia or for experimentation. Annexing the entirety of these nations was not a goal, but I believe it is necessary to deny the Humans a potential weakness to exploit.
The other solution is to consolidate several cities into one location, under the direct control of a Sargon. That would be the only way I could be assured the civilian problem is solved without removing them altogether. However, I am aware that more Sargons would have to be developed, and we would require multiple ones for a relatively small landmass.
As we are also dealing with tactics definitely inspired by intelligence work, I would also respectfully ask you to inform the Zararch about this situation and see if they can provide agents or assistance to our mission. This is a setback, Battlemaster, but the problem has been identified and all I require is the means to ensure it is fixed.
- Runi'aream'mattis, Elevated Commander, Division of the Battlemaster