[27th October 2010]
[Conference Room, Beneath Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia]
"So here we sit..." she stated simply as they reviewed the summaries of the recent fight in Metropolis two days ago. One prepared by the US Army by General Lane, another provided by the Justice League to the US Government and finally a third by their allies who'd be involved in the matter "...prospective alien infiltration into the criminal underworld, weapons and other technology generations beyond our own appearing across the, and the agents of so-called Evil Alien Space Gods running around Metropolis. General?"
The dozen people assembled for this top secret meeting either nodded or merely glanced at the aging member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as he cave a curt nod of his own "Unfortunately that is the abbreviated summary of the situation, and does hint at the possibility of a future invasion, though officially this has been ruled out by the government at a higher level than ourselves. Due to the lack of our own...Arcane...experts on such matters we must sadly defer to the advisory of the Justice League and our international allies on the 'Alien Space God' nature of these New Genosians and Apokolipican aliens..."
Amanda listened attentively as the General went into further detail, occasionally referencing Doctors Magnus and Hamilton, and their respective laboratories, for findings on certain elements of the operation. Using the 'Arcane' or 'Arcanotech' words used in the Irish and British summary rather than the 'M' word used by the Justice League and by several of statements of the unit leaders involved in the arrests of this 'Intergang' organisation. Magic was a rather hated word it seemed by her scientists and the most trustworthy colleague from the military branches; rather problematic issue in fact due to the desperate need for them to gain a reputable and, more importantly, trustworthy magician of their own.
It was rather embarrassing when the British, and even minor nations like the Irish, were seemingly years ahead of the United States in establishing their own organisations with such individuals. Long enough to seemingly know how to use the correct words to get government officials on side without saying 'magic, because I said so' as cropped in so many reports. Even worse it was rather clear that they'd based much of their original underpinnings on studies the US Army had done with Doctor Fate back in World War II. Almost seventy years later and they were even further behind than back then.
'Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous' she told herself with a mental grimace. Even worse was that said Doctor Fate was still alive and active all these years later...and rather thoroughly unhappy with the US government for sidelining his efforts during and after the war. Unsurprising really, but it was even more disastrous when the one rather clear and loyal source they had on the subject had been snapped up by their allies across the ocean. If she could build a time machine she'd go back and shot that McCarthy imbecile in the head till he was dead. So much damage and they had only realised it when they were on the verge of falling off the abyss...
"Where do we stand on a defence plan based on what we know?" she asked clearly of her still unnamed working group. Unnamed and still secret thanks to that damned fool Rickard and his sweeping cuts to 'less needed' agencies like the military and Central Intelligence Agency. Even that madness of putting the pussy whipped piece of hippie trash Hugo Strange in charge of Belle Reve as part of his 'Reform, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation' program. She known taking that damned nabby pampy help reform the murderous lunatics baldie was a mistake at the time. Damn but she should have found a way to get someone more competent into the role of Vice Warden. Everything she was hearing out of Belle Reve was as she'd fear; rotating out all the competent staff and bringing in a bunch of whiny liberal peace and love bastards to replace them.
"Almost nowhere Amanda..." Lane replied unhappily "...we've managed to get the units in the Metropolis area taken off proposed cuts going through Congress, but it's merely switching them with cutbacks in the Mid-West and around Central City. President Rickards is rather insistent that the Justice League were successful in putting down the criminals, the other aliens proven friendly, and any talk of threats is merely fear mongering by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as Congress are about to vote upon his Tax Cuts, Infrastructure Investment and job creation Bill. That the Justice League will handle any danger like the always have"
She sighed, resisting the dream rising up of tying the President and his coterie of imbeciles up in a barn and throwing in a lit match. It was unpatriotic after all, even if he was an imbecile who was ruining everything and forcing her group to rely more and more on black ops budgets to actually get anything done. Indeed creating this joint small arms company with the British and Irish would at least allow her a further avenue to get funding together for badly needed projects. Allowing Luthor and his group to go ahead with Cadmus Labs had failed rather badly after all it considering their 'Weapon' was now an Irish citizen who was working towards joining the Justice League...
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[27th October 2010]
[SHIELD Headquarters, Beneath Custume Barracks, Athlone]
"...and you did manage to take them down, which would indicate that at least some of them may not be as strong as feared" the Commander finished as we went through the more 'unofficial' parts of the mission brief with a full meeting of SHIELD's department head's. A very nervous Dr. Serling Roquette included; now that she'd signed The Contract and got to be the Senior Researcher and Department Head for the newly founded Science Division of SHIELD. I merely shook my head and gave a look around the table.
"They were basically drunken alien college students, rich drunken alien college students at that, who got it into their heads that they could impress Mammy and Daddy by going off and fighting 'the bad guys' who'd stolen their stuff. Bad guys who'd they'd thought would be a bunch of primitive barbarians that couldn't lay a finger on them at that. So I would not put those idiots up as a basis for their standard soldiers or leaders..." I paused "...but in terms of raw strength; their strong, really strong, and the bleed of energy like demigods would and in the same vein as Wonder Woman possibly. They'd just no idea how to use it effectively in a proper fight"
"Is that why you're rather insistent that this be classed under the Omega Protocols" he asked again, more for the table than for himself. He'd already agreed with me prior to the meeting that if such an eventuality as an invasion came to pass then it was a utterly disastrous and possibly unstoppable situation. While I'd never specified under any Scenario the true nature of Apokolips - I had managed to one under Evil God with Demons invading done up by Constantine, and another of generic evil aliens with advanced tech by committee. Merge them together and you got the Scenario and Contingency before us; though honestly it was worse than that probably.
The biggest issue was that there was only a limited amount we, as in me and Ireland in general, could actually do in terms of conventional forces. Even bringing in the British, as was the next level of discussions for my bosses in the coming days, wasn't going to do much really even with them having an actual proper army, navy and air-force. Problem was twentieth century weaponry (and they lagged badly over my previous Earth's even) was going to be very little use against what I'd seen in my memory recall meditation all yesterday.
Or 'visions' as I sold them to the others. If Darkseid invaded in the next few months it really was down to throw Justice League at him, and for us to implement Plan B; or get every magic user on the lists we were assembling and get them to throw magic at the problem as well. Oh, and have the Department of Foreign Affairs desperately try persuade the United Nations Security Council to have Nukes Fly Try Make Aliens Die before they fully established a Foothold.
While it might not kill, or even harm frankly depending power levels, Darkseid it would hopefully take out a significant chunk of any invasion force. Sadly with the current US government's, and the Justice League as well honestly, attitude to such actions we could be forced back to an Omega Black situation. I resisted shuddering or showing any indication of thinking on that End of the Line even if we somehow won scenario; or the Constantine We're All Screwed Anyway So Lets Try This Option as I liked to think of it. Still...hope for the best, plan for the worst here. Any invasion could be years away after all and these just opening moves.
"Yes, if any invasion comes anytime soon the world is not ready for it. The New Gods are, by many definitions Gods...or at least Elemental Beings in flesh husks – basically avatars of their godly domain. They also have technology centuries ahead of us even with help..." and boy was it fun to imagine the M60 updated variants the United States were still using instead of proper tanks like the M1A1 Abrahams going up against the Hover Tanks from the DCAU images in my head "...so there will be a small window of opportunity to delay or stop any 'Boom Tube' invasion. If they come by space..."
I shrugged "...then they win if they take out the Justice League and any anti-missile satellites in orbit. Though they'd have to deal with Mars as well, and these New Genosians by their treat evidently if they go that method...but if aliens get to sit in orbit its game over right now. We might be able to hit them with a mass ritual spell, but no guarantee"
"Is...is...it really that bad? Um...sorry to ask" Doctor Roquette began before seeming to instantly regret opening her mouth as eyes swung towards her. I couldn't do anything but be honest here.
"I got shot by an energy weapon; directed plasma that blew through my protection against missiles like it wasn't there. I could protect against it...but that's rather taxing and I can't provide any real numbers of body armour against it to our troopers. And this was in the hands of a civilian alien basically rather than a soldier – and their truthfully given summaries of the military of Apokolips puts such weapons as frontline standard for their 'Parademons' makes us the Aztecs against their Conquistadors. They conquered dozens of worlds already, and clearly sniffing us out right now. We could have years, even a decade or two, but they could come tomorrow for all we know"
Also the fact they'd got that fucker Glorious Godfrey here already riling people up. I'd never made the connection till I started my mediation yesterday; and I couldn't exactly point a finger right now at the infiltrator as I'd no proof. Even finding a way to get him under investigation, even to Black Ops with an 'accident' would be monumentally hard. And how knew how many more like him were lurking around trying to undermining our planetary defences. Amazing Grace? We'd already seen DeSaad a few days ago as he fled and left Intergang to its fate just like in those comics...
'Which would indicate some time at least' I admitted pressing down the urge to panic as the table began a true discussion of the reports. Intergang's links with their benefactors was incredibly recent, though how long and deep Biayla's relationship with the aliens was up for debate thanks to the Sphere. At least now the Justice League and a several international governments were going to actively investigate the situation...and hopefully take steps to deal with that state if the need arose. Queen Bee and Qurac after all had a variety of issues and wouldn't it be a real shame if a Quraci-Biaylian war erupted and she got assassinated. So very sadly and terrible indeed...
Really though for the moment, assuming there was no immediate invasion, the truth was all that we could do was start expanding and pouring funds into all the projects on the drawing boards. The dam on the Tropico funds were about to break and even pacifist Roquette was starting to show willingness to start work into Defensive Technologies. Or at least on her Nano-Fog thing - and maybe my hoped for Power Armour based on the stuff from World War II like Krako the Samurai Robot, and even the still in operation Russian Rocket Red Battle Armour. Or the Chinese Socialist Red Guardsman even if the Great Ten didn't seem to exist in this dimension as yet.
'Calm down my boy and worry about your own area of things' I reminded myself as the various projects that we could actually work on were discussed, power armour included. After all I knew little to nothing on the mechanics of that, and being a wizard meant that angle; and there were options there. Dangerous, horrible, and terrible options that might require getting materials from other planes, though talking to Doctor Fate and Kent Nelson was next on my list...after trying to de-stress for a few days. Because the Team were still shook up badly, and stressed out Team did not make them effective even if the fight with those New God idiots had gone shockingly well...
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