A/N: ok so this one is gonna end VERY abruptly so sorry about that. been busy doing nothing and feeling bad. BUT i figured i owe the surprising amount of viewers i got something and so i'm birthing this chapter prematurely. tell me if getting updates like this is ok or if you'd prefer to wait a bit longer for a complete package.

i'll get around to writing 'part 2' later since i already know what i'm gonna write but not how to write it. probably

"Follow me, ma'am," David said as he motioned toward the door. Once they walked out the door, they were greeted with a mess of military and civilian forces rushing around, carrying various items from stacks of paper to medical supplies. David was quite amused by the fact that people seemed to put an unconscious effort into letting them pass, allowing them to walk a pretty straight path through the crowd. It only took them a few minutes to cross to the other end of the base where a sleek black car with a guard sporting Titan armor and a plasma rifle standing beside it. The guard reached over to open the car door and David got in. Elizabeth stopped for a moment outside, "Where are we going?"

"Ellington Field Base," the guard replied, "There's a Skyranger waiting for you there."

"I assume that this transport is going somewhere."

This time, David answered her question from inside the car, "We're heading to the XCOM Central base in the United Kingdom. We also have four other bases located in the United States, Philippines, Brazil, and Central Africa."

"And my belongings?"

"They're being transported to the base as we speak. You didn't have much, though we were a little surprised by the 1911 pistol you kept on your bedside table. Not a lot of people carry those nowadays."

She raised an eyebrow. "You broke into my house," she said, more of a statement than an inquiry.

"Only after you accepted."

She sighed, briefly wondering what she had gotten into. At least they were under her command now.

With that cleared up, she purposefully stepped into the car. The guard reached out to close the door, but Elizabeth beat her to it and closed the door herself.

The guard shrugged and got into the passenger seat, making the car tilt slightly. David nodded to the driver who had been making himself scarce until then, wordlessly telling him to drive. When he began driving, Elizabeth chose that moment to speak up. "Well? She said, "Are any of you going to introduce yourselves?" The driver looked at Elizabeth through the rear view mirror, presumably to get another look at the new commander. Satisfied, he returned his eyes toward the road. "Sorry ma'am," he apologized, "Agent Artyom Vorboyov. XCOM Intelligence. Was assigned to watch you about 6 months ago." Elizabeth 'hmmed' at that. That explains how they tracked her down and broke into her house so fast: they were nearby the whole time.

The new commander turned to look at the person sitting in the passenger seat who took that as a sign to start talking: "Corporal Cho Ji-Woo, ma'am. Former grunt in the Allied Military, specifically Korea."

"Do all of your operatives talk that little?" Elizabeth asked, presumably directing the question to David.

"Not all, but not talking is a valued skill in our organization."

Elizabeth nodded. She had to get used to working black ops, she supposed.

"As for me," David said as he gestured towards himself, "I will be acting as your second in command, managing XCOM's day-to-day operations as well as providing tactical support to our troops on non-critical, low risk missions."

"Low risk?"

"Low risk means we have intel," he answered, "high means none."

The commander raised her eyebrow at the statement, "Basically you send soldiers out on suicide missions."

"I was about to get to that actually," David said, "with the introductions out of the way, I was hoping to inform you more about our organization."

He pressed his thumb against the device on the briefcase, which then beeped and clicked open. He pulled out a folder with 'XCOM' scribbled on top and handed it to Elizabeth. "XCOM, formerly the Extra-terrestrial Combat Unit, was around for some time but wasn't fully activated until the Ethereals invaded," David stated while Elizabeth perused the file. "We're funded by the Council of Nations, though since every last nation on Earth is funding us now, the name seems moot."

Not to mention the fact that all those nations are 'uniting' under a single government, she thought. Doing that would require a significant amount time and effort in order to be even halfway competent. The Allied Military alone was a tangled mess of conflicting doctrines and incomprehensible ranks. That's what happens when you forcibly mash armies that have been following their own personal rulebooks for ages, after all. Still, that was the point of this 'XCOM' apparently: to do away with all that. And if this file was to be believed, they were VERY well funded and were allowed to do whatever they damn pleased so long as they get results. She could get behind that.

David took her silence as a cue to continue, "Once all existential threats are neutralized, XCOM will be deactivated, for lack of a better term. The Council would drastically cut our funding and most of our military assets decommissioned. Our research and development teams remain mostly intact, however, in order to continue their work on classified tech."

"Like your super soldiers," she mused out loud. Admittedly, she was more than a little curious about them.

David smiled, "Exactly."

He continued, "We mainly act as direct and indirect support to the main military forces; directly by sending our combat forces to secure and reinforce areas which the army otherwise cannot as well as executing high-risk but potentially vital operations. The nature of these missions dictate that our troops be deployed as soon as possible and not a second longer. Mission briefings are usually conducted as our forces are already en route to the mission site."

Ahh, that explains the lack of intel then. Trading operational safety for faster deployment. She wondered for a moment if all of XCOM was like this.

"As for indirect support, we research various new technologies and then disseminate our findings to the public if they are considered safe. All the plasma weapons and powered armors the Allied Military has originated from our labs, not to mention other civilian tech like the elerium generator."

"Wait," she said as she raised a hand to stop the man from talking for a moment. "This file tells me that you've had elerium based tech since the war. Care to explain why they only began appearing 20 years ago?"

David frowned at the question, "I've said that we only release our findings once we guarantee their safe use. Our research teams were having major concerns about radiation produced from the devices and the possible toxicity of elerium itself."

"And yet you used it anyway," Elizabeth stated. "I suppose it didn't end well for the guys who worked with it."

"Anyone assigned to experimental projects are informed of the potential risks and are allowed to back out before accepting the job."

"We're all volunteers, ma'am," the corporal interjected.

David nodded in agreement, "Yes, we are."

So all of XCOM really was like that.

Once she had finished reading the file, Elizabeth closed the folder with a snap and handed it back to David. He took it and handed her another from his briefcase. This time it was labelled 'MELD Projects.' She flipped it open and found what she had been looking for. "Genetic and biological modifications," she read out loud.

Her second in command looked at her from the corner of his eye while smirking coyly, "You've shown a particular interest in this, haven't you?"

"My grandfather loved telling the story of how he was rescued by men who could jump three stories high and healed severe wounds right before his eyes," she said as a hint of a smile began creeping on her face. "Of course mom would tell us that he was embellishing. Shows what she knew."

A/N: told you it would end abruptly. again, tell me if you guys prefer getting chopped up chapters (sort of) faster or waiting a bit longer. either way, expect valve time at random intervals. i don't trust myself enough to write regularly.