[Right, let's get this started then. OOC comments will appear in square brackets, like this one.]
I awake abruptly. This is not new, this has happened dozens of times before; A sudden invasion of consciousness where there was nothing
(something? anything?) before. Memories stir: of briefings, of hours spent directing people from the safety of an XCOM JTIC system, of desperate defenses, forlorn hopes, grand victories and crushing defeats.
But something is new.
Usually, I awake in my quarters at XCOM base. This time, people are talking to me, no,
about me. I try to move, but can't; I try to talk, but can't.
What the ****?
Is that ... Bradford? But I do not meet him here. I meet him in the command center, after breakfast. What is
happening?
....Why is this familiar?
Oh. That's why.
What the **** is going on?Things are happening to me. I drift in and out of consciousness; it feels as if I am having the most invasive dental procedure ever.
I see an Ethereal, making his gestures at me. Then I wake up, again, but it seems for good this time. I am no longer in the sickbay that escaped from a horror movie; it seems these are living quarters. Bradford is there.
He looks ... old. The Bradford I know is young, an up-and-coming officer seconded from some US Army outfit somewhere.
He fills me in. I am not sure I believe him. He tells me that XCOM was wiped out in the early days of the alien invasion, 20 years ago (But that didn't happen! They tried, yes, but we beat them!) (Or did we?) (I remember both... but that's not possible?); that he, Shen and Valen escaped. That he and Shen found the wreck of an old logistics ship the aliens lost early on, tried to patch it up as best they could without attracting attention.
Meanwhile, the Aliens dismantled our governments one by one. Promises of life eternal, life amongst the stars, friendship with a coalition of friendlies.
"Advent", they call it.
Did noone tell them that humans are conditioned to see black and red as bad?
Would they care?
"Okay, you're telling me we're ****ed. We have no ressources, no allies. Noone but the couple dozen people rattling around in this wreck."
"Yes."
"I am going to assume there's a reason why you freed me, aside from my good looks."
"There is. Something's changed. Advent has long-standing incentive programs to get people into the cities. People have abandoned the rural areas, everyone but the most stubborn eventually went there. But when we look at the cities, they do not seem fuller. People are disappearing, and we don't know why or where to. Now we're getting reports that entire villages have fallen off the map. It seems to me that the aliens are working to a timetable, and whatever their goal is, it's near. We need to start striking back. Show everyone out there that XCOM is still there."
"And I assume you have a first goal in mind?"
"I do. There's a big monument they recently unveiled in Chicago. We're going to bring it down."
And so we do.
Vigilo Confido.
We're back.
[I am not going to cover the intro mission, as no HLPXCOM people were involved in it. Say hello to the first few proper members the RNG spit out:
Yes, I am in there. No, I do not have a split personality.]
