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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4928080" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 2 (April 21, 2008)Chapter 6This place is huge, Jane thought, as they returned to the rec room.  Hallorand had been as good as his word, taking them all over the complex.  It looked as though X-COM had taken over an existing facility, as some of the infrastructure had been pretty dated, but they’d also been shown rooms that looked as though they’d been bored out of the bedrock just minutes before.  The laboratories and workshops had been impressive, even though a lot of the components were still sitting around in boxes and crates.  The commissary-slash-kitchen had been simple enough but the food had been decent; Hallorand had commented on the importance of having a good cook for the morale of any large organization.  He seemed to know his business; after talking to him for a while, she guessed that he’d been an officer in a military logistics command.  She turned the small communicator over in her hand.  Grace had called it an “xPhone,” and in fact it did resemble the consumer device that was all the craze now, with a touch screen and a sleek matte finish.  But while Grace had only given them a brief summary of its features, she knew that there was more to it than met the eye.  The same could be said for all of this, this entire thing, X-COM, the base, the still-mysterious mission.  She was perhaps a bit more open to it than the others, because she’d seen, she knew already, what was coming. She glanced over at Buzz, who had already managed to get the back off his xPhone, and was poking around at the innards.  Catalina was reading a file on her device, sitting on the couch with her feet up; James and Vasily had gone off somewhere, maybe to the firing range that Hallorand had shown them during the tour.  She turned on the phone, and opened up the folder she’d only glanced at earlier. X-COM Operations, she read, and started looking for answers.It was a little after six when their xPhones chirped, indicating that it was time for the briefing.  The conference room just off the lounge was decorated with a long table, its rich faux-grain top contrasting with the recently-installed paneling that covered the walls.  Twelve black office chairs were lined up around the table.  A laptop computer hooked up to a twenty-four inch monitor stood at one of end of the table, while a large LCD screen dominated one of the walls, with a bank of touch-input screens jutting out in a row beneath it.  The room was already occupied by a half-dozen people.  Michael Garret stood at the table next to the computer.  He nodded in greeting as the new recruits of Alpha Team filed in.  “Ah, good.  All settled in?”“Working on it,” Vasily said, pulling out a chair.  The others sat next to him, facing the wall screen.  “I believe you already know Grace, and Stan White, our chief medical officer.  Allow me to introduce Doctor Kimberly Wagner, head of our research department.”  The woman standing next to the wall screen was tall and blonde, in a white lab coat over a black blouse and trousers, stunningly attractive despite the subtle advance of years evident in her features.  “Charmed, I am sure,” she said, a thick German accent tilting her syllables. Garret continued the introductions, indicating a woman with long brown hair, dressed in jeans and a sweater, sitting near the far end of the table.  “Doctor Jean Beauvois, our counselor.”“Pleased to meet you all,” she said.  Garret indicated a young Asian man standing behind Beauvois.  “Down there at the end, Ken Yushi.  He’s a pilot, and more specifically, he’ll be your pilot, in Skyranger-1.”“Skyranger?” Vasily asked. “Ah, you’ll meet that member of our team a bit later,” Garret said.  He turned to the woman seated next to him, the last to be introduced.  She was a lean woman, dressed in a smart black suit, her hair cut short.  She had a laptop in front of her, which she snapped shut as Garret spoke.  “This is Agent Inise Drake.”“Federal Bureau of Investigations,” Drake said, her words clipped.“I am certain that all of you are curious about why you are here,” Garret went on.“I think some of us had registered a passing interest,” Catalina said. “I only had a chance to speak with you briefly at the staging base,” Garret said.  “Let me explain, then, what it is that X-COM is about.  Doctor Wagner, if you wouldn't mind providing some context?”  Wagner nodded, and turned to the control panel under the large wall screen.  As she touched the controls, graphics started appearing on the screen to accompany her words.  “We have little hard data about our enemy,” she began.  “A few months ago, we started picking up unusual readings from our various orbital devices.  Space station... some secret arrays as well.”  Images of the ISS, a map of satellite orbits, and various depictions of the Earth as seen from space cascaded across the screen.  “Very fast, like nothing we had seen before.”  The new recruits leaned forward in their chairs as a grainy, pixelated image appeared on the screen: an oblong disk, with a fat bulge protruding from its center. “Various air forces attempted to intercept these, for lack of a better word, ‘UFOs’.  There were a few encounters.  Russian air force, China’s, and American.  Let us just say that those encounters did not end well for us.”The FBI agent’s stare was penetrating as she looked at the new members of Alpha Team.  “Your job is to make sure that subsequent outcomes are more favorable.”“Agent Drake is our liaison with our host government,” Garret said.  “We are on American soil, although technically, X-COM is an extraterritorial entity.”“Yes,” Drake said, “I am here to ensure that the United States government’s investment proves fruitful.”A few of the team members shared looks.  Catalina locked eyes with Drake, a staring match that was only interrupted when Wagner said, “The briefing, I am continuing, yes?”At Garret’s nod, she pressed another button on the console, and another image appeared, one that looked like the scene from the end of a war movie.  “This, we have kept quiet.”The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to the screen like metal filings to a magnet.  Doctor Wager continued, “This has been the worst incursion to date. An entire military base wiped out, in western China.  The Chinese have not been especially forthcoming, but we've confirmed that this was the work of our unidentified ‘friends’.”“Whoa,” Jane said. “When did this happen?” Vasily asked. “Seventeen days ago,” Garret said.  “Doctor, tell them the rest.”“There have also been incursions.  Landings. At least sixteen worldwide.  Some animals, and a few people, have been ... taken.”“Sixteen that we know of,” Agent Drake interjected.  “Some may have gone unreported.”“That is likely, Agent Drake,” Garret acknowledged.  “All we have is some grainy surveillance photos. Their ships are like nothing any human government has ever built.  And their occupants…” He nodded to Wagner, who brought up another picture, a grainy, long-distance shot, depicting a small humanoid figure.  It was impossible to make out any details given the poor quality of the picture, but all of them leaned forward, peering at it.“We are calling them ‘Sectoids’ for now,” Wagner said.  “You’re telling us that the Roswell paranoia that the media’s been going on about of late is true?” Catalina asked. “There has been a lot of reports in the media, most of it wild fancy,” Garret said.  “Thus far, the leading world governments have been reluctant to confirm or deny anything.”“None of this information leaves this room,” Drake said.  James leaned back in his chair and let out a held breath.  “Aliens invading and abducting humans.  Wow.”Wagner pressed a button, and the pictures vanished.  “This is the mission of X-COM.”  Bullet points appeared on the screen to match her comments, under a logo depicting the name of the organization.  “One. Investigate and gather data.”“Part of our job is to find out what we don’t know,” Garret said.  “Two.  Research and analyze.”“You’ve seen our labs,” Garret said.  “We need to collect whatever hard data we can find, and figure out what makes these ‘Sectoids’ tick.  That’s why several of you have been invited here.  You have certain skills in this area that will be vital to our operation.”Wagner stabbed at a button.  “And finally, three.  Intercept.  Destroy.”Catalina quirked a brow.  “No ‘take me to your leader’?”Garret’s expression was grim.  “We’re not primarily a military organization.  But Earth’s best militaries have proven ineffective against the Sectoids.”“They don’t appear to be interested in communication,” Drake added.  “They have ignored all attempts thus far.”“We’re not above talking to them,” Garret said.  “If we can figure out what they want.”  He drew stare down the row of recruits.  “You five are more than just our Alpha Field Team.  You all have talents beyond firing guns and tromping about in heavy boots.  You have seen what we have... but what we don't have, is a government bureaucracy.  We're small. Our resources come as donations from the countries that comprise our consortium.  We have a limited remit... and a lot of accountability.  You will be given access to all of the data we’ve collected thus far, expected to assimilate it, and to participate in the mission profiles and the setting of priorities.”He paced around the edge of the table, rested his fists on its edge.  “X-COM has fewer than 500 operatives worldwide.  We’re bringing in people as we speak.  Scientists.  Engineers.  Soldiers.  We’re building state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facilities here, and at our other operations centers around the world.  The threat is real, and we’re going to do our best to confront it. “He leaned back, sighed, in that moment looking more human than he had since they’d first met him.  “I know it’s a lot to take in.  Take the rest of the day to get settled in.  Chief Hallorand will take you to Musa Babatola, our quartermaster; he’ll get you set up with uniforms and other gear.  Doctor Wagner will send you the briefings via your xPhones, along with information about our current research and manufacturing priorities.  If you have any questions, send them to the respective department heads.  We’re busy as all hell right now, but we’re going to make this a team effort.”</blockquote>

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