Chapter 3

Well... that had been a lot to take in.

Jack was usually not one to be too invested in after action reports, both in regards of reading or writing them. It was a thankless task, buried in more technicalities and paperwork that one could reasonably be put through, in his humble opinion.

Still, for once he was making an exception, his eyes wandering over the various documents everyone around them had been given. He could hear General Hammond - or was it Commander Hammond? - talk about the previous efforts of various nations and national groups to formulate responses to the alien invasion before the latter had escalated to this open attack, but that sounded like politics stuff that he firmly put aside.

For now, his attention was on other stuff. Handguns that had cut right through even Puma fighting vehicles, killing with even just individual hits.

The aliens had managed to appear in the middle of a major city and nothing in here indicated that either German or NATO air command had noticed anything. Possible stealth systems?

His mind wandered to the rings of Rah, these strange floating devices that had allowed for instant matter transportation of even nuclear armaments as far as orbit. He shuddered at the strategic implications.

Stealth that made much of their air to air missile and detection systems obsolete might very well still be the better scenario here.

The "sectoids" were the designation for the little gray lookalikes, they didn't look tough, not at all compared to the burly guys who had served Rah. Of course if their version of a sidearm could melt a Bradley, that didn't help much.

Their very presence implied an established hold on the sole system, perhaps even on Earth. He closed his eyes, fighting off the headache that tried to form.

"Heh, Colonel, looks like we're back to fighting the good fight huh?" Kawalsky's eyes showed much the same seriousness as his, still his attempt to lighten the mood was appreciated.

"Seems like it." He shrugged, looking over to the other people seated around them, the shock and concern on their faces. He whispered German, French, Italian and English. Hammond had stopped and looked at them expectantly, allowing everyone to come to terms with the... several bombshells that had been dropped on them.

"Sooo..." He tapped the pen that was provided with the documents on the table, in the manner that had to get everyone's attention. "What do you think one of these grays is worth compared to one of Rah's guards? I'd say one of them could take on three of them!"

"Three? Are you joking, Sir? My six year old niece could bench press one of these goblins." Feretti grunted dismissively, writing his name in the non disclosure agreement and a whole slew of other legalese stuff.

"Yeah. gotta take five of them at least. And their little ray guns don't look half as scary as the big staffs they had." Kawalsky didn't even look at his papers as he put his signature down. "Wanna bet this whole thing's gonna end again with us blowing up some nuke in the face of the big bad in chief?"

"Suckers bet." He read through his, unlike them he had only arrived before, so he hadn't had the full chance yet. Hmmm, acknowledgement of the high risk to personal life? No brainer. Demotion to a Private under X-Com Command with the expectation of rapid promotion? Harsh, but it made sense. No one here would be a recruit but experienced officers and soldiers in their own right, and no one here save for Hans over there had any real experience in fighting these aliens. So they were effectively starting from zero. Plus he was going to keep his US rank. Payment... huh. There were a lot of zeroes.

Neat.

Jack signed, handing it over a few seconds before Kawalsky and a few more before Ferretti slid his. Honestly, they were being about as blunt as a hammer here, but Jack wasn´t trying to be subtle.

The reminder that humanity had in fact faced an enemy unknown, an alien force before, not once, but twice - if Daniel's theory about the ancient humanity's revolution was true that is.

Yeah, chances were they absolutely were going to die, but no reason to let morale collapse now already. Plus, he already had been on a suicide mission and came back. That made one appreciate not seeing everything so tightly set in stone.

Looking up, he could see Hammond give him a short nod and he grinned back. Making things a little easier for the commander couldn't hurt.

"We are expecting more attacks in the style of Hamburg." Hammond's voice was a powerful baritone as he spoke, his hands folded together. "You will all be divided into teams, rapid response taskforces with different tasks. We will need to ascertain the purpose of these assaults, retrieve technology with which we will better defend ourselves and limit the collateral damage inflicted. You all have your duty. We all have our duty. To our nations, our people. To our entire species and to earth. I ask you all to keep this in the back of your heads. You will be the first and the last line of defense, for all mankind. Soldiers for a struggle for which there likely has not been an equal in the entire history of our species."

The men and women on the table had stopped their chattering, slowed already by his own remarks.

"I am well aware and I want you all to be well aware of the risks involved here. Of the sacrifices that lie ahead of us, sacrifices that XCOM, that all of humanity will have to make." The former US General wasn't the tallest man and he wasn´t that physically imposing, if Jack had to be brutally honest. The bald man was clearly way past his prime, at least what his body was concerned, yet his voice was utterly unshaken and iron in its authority. "You are the best your nations can offer. I will not force anyone to be part of x-com who does not desire to be. For this, for as long as it still is an option, I will only accept volunteers. Anyone who does not wish to be here can leave."

No one did.

Hmmm, as far as raising moods went, Jack preferred doing it with some sarcasm, but the speech was decent.

"Good. You all will be assigned to your posts soon. Dismissed." With one more nod Hammond marched off, allowing the conversation to buzz once more, this time with renewed intensity.

"Say, Private Jack, think I've I make it to Colonel before you, you´ll have to refer to me as sir?" Kawalsky walking past him and O'Neill could feel Ferretti grin besides him. Hmmm, the two were feeling a little cheeky, huh? Just because they were now the same rank?

"Kawalsky, the day you make it colonel before me is the day the Earth stops turning." He had been careful to collect every document before him. He would go through them in concrete detail later.

"Sorry, but I gotta agree with the Colonel here." Ferretti murmered out.

Yeah, at least one of them still had some sens- wait.

Jack narrowed his eyes and both Ferretti and Kawalski laughed. "Alright." He sighed. "Let´s spice it up then? First one to make it to Colonel gets his beer and Sausages paid for... ohhh, let´s say half a year."

Both of his now fellow privates paused, but they couldn´t back down now. Their pride was on the line, how could they possibly withdraw?

"You're on." Ferretti held out his arm, smiling with his eyes narrowed. Jack grinning, winking as his hand slammed into his.

When they turned to Kawalsky however, he was rubbing his chin in thought. "On second thought, the missus has been worried about my cholesterol levels… I'm just yanking your chain."

Their arms slammed together, all three men grinning resolutely.

"Ahem, sirs?" Oh right, they had work to do.

The blonde airman in the labcoat, Captain Carter, was gazing at them expectantly, but with a hint of impatience. Not exactly disapproval Jack noted, there was no eye rolling or the like. All she did was gesture for them to follow.

"If you'll come with me sirs, I'll give you a short tour of the facility. It will help you familiarize yourself with future operations." All business, but with a trace of a tone that said she would rather be doing something else.

As a rule Jack tried not to look down on REMFs, he was in the wrong branch to be casting shade on desk jockeys. Oh sure he could mock career minded officers all he wanted, and he had a scathing dismissal for men who only had their jobs due to personal connections. For the men and women who filed paperwork, guarded bases, repaired equipment, and as Carter likely did, expanded into the scientific fields, he could appreciate them. So they didn't hump it through the jungle or get shot at regularly or rot away in a stinking Iraqi prison, it didn't mean what they did wasn't important.

Jack glanced at Kawalsky and Feretti, meeting no disagreement. Good, he didn't need to have a talk about manners.

"Lead the way Captain." Jack gestured, following the swishing coat as they headed deeper into the base.

Cheyenne Mountain was an expansive facility, but when they passed a taped off construction zone Jack saw that some renovations were on the budget. A lot of renovations. The kind that usually only happened when the base was brand new and the budget was still huge… or when the brass was in panic mode.

There was a new hallway, large enough for several deuces to drive side by side with room to spare, and currently being extended. Crews were working at the tunnel as he watched, trucking away stone being ground off by a borer, worsening the air quality even with several blowers doing their best. Right at their heels another crew was laying down concrete, spilling some while making what couldn't have been the most stable surface.

While they dug other crews were tunneling new rooms into the halls, setting up wiring and air ducts at the same time. Jack spotted heavy duty filters being hoisted up, installed first before they could later put in a door he guessed. For a second a man pulling a cable slipped, almost making a huge filter slam to the floor before he caught it, his partner dropping a jackhammer to help him set it down. Rather than get yelled at, the puller was sent away by the foreman, he overheard something about an 18 hour shift.

The same story was repeated again, and again, and again… "How many rooms are you building down here?"

"Well, i´m not responsible for the expansion of the base, but since chayenne mountain has been made the headquarters of X-Com, I think something like 20 new rooms have been added, as well two large special facilities for scientific analysis of any alien related material or data and an engineering facility to produce and test prototypes based on our findings."

There was a perk to her step, enthusiasm filling her tone. She was slowing to inspect some of the rooms being built, not trying to intervene with the work yet clearly wanting to. Jack guessed at least one of these new rooms would be hers when they were operational, which seemed to be sooner than he expected.

"Hmmm." He acknowledged what she said with a grunt. So the x-com base was going to also double as a lab and a production site? Did they plan to make Cheyenne a whole subterranean city or something?

"Sirs…. if I may also ask a question?" Carter halted to turn around, fidgeting her hands like she was trying to fumble with a clipboard. Otherwise her expression was fairly controlled, she made an effort to stop her palms.

"Go ahead?"

"How was…. traveling to a different world?" Ah, of course. "I have read the reports, but I can't imagine those accurately reflect the real experience…"

Jack planted his hands in his pockets, exhaling into the dusty stale air. Feretti and Kawalsky were checking out the rooms, not helping. He couldn't dodge this.

"Well… where to start… I walked into a puddle, stomped around a desert, got into a couple fights, blew up a spaceship, and came home." Jack saw how her gaze visibly dried up. "More? Fine. I'll tell you more along the way."

Carter led them to a shallower room that was already much larger than the rest, a new hangar by the looks of it. He saw launch ramps as well as retractable blast doors for a roof, apparently whatever craft they planned on using was VTOL capable. He doubted it was something as simple as a Blackhawk, that seemed too simple for these guys.

Heh, he thought it would be wild if they stole an alien craft.

"Alright… I didn't think it would actually turn on, I wasn't too happy when they figured it out. I kinda thought it'd be tingly, with a side of discombobulation. You know, like Star Trek. Instead it was… kinda wet? But not. Felt a little cold, and I was dizzy as hell when we spat out the other end." Jack decided to omit the recruiting process, as much for her sake as his. "As for the other side… you know, closing my eyes I could almost think I was in the desert here. It wasn't quite the same, the air was dry as hell, and it was… a little cleaner? Like the air was hot but was a little more oxygenated."

"Makes sense, without centuries of industrial activity as well as some effects of the lack of foliage. I am a little surprised that you didn't mention anything about gravity though." Carter frowned in thought.

"…huh, didn't even think about that. I didn't feel like I gained or lost any weight." Jack cleared his throat.

"Apologies sir, just curious. Anyway, shall we continue? The new armory is up ahead, we have new prototype equipment you should get familiarization training with." Carter looked like she had more questions, but shook her head.

Ferretti was asking a construction worker a few questions, he didn't look so busy so it wasn't that big of an issue. Kawalsky meanwhile was looking around the hangar, lowering to the balls of his feet to look at what seemed to be a catapult launcher. The rails weren't placed yet, but the setup seemed to be way bigger than a standard hydraulic system.

And this was just the start. Jack glanced back the way they came, around at the new space, and ahead with a massive amount of new construction going on. Cheyenne Mountain was being rebuilt into something much bigger, much more important than just a nuke resistant NORAD HQ. It wouldn't be the same after this.

He wondered if that would be true for the rest of the world too.

AN:
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always, feeback is welcome and I hope you all have a great day and a happy easter