Since nobody can be expected to just sit and wait for XCOM 2 to come out, we’ll be having ourselves a little countdown for the 1 sunday left between us and salvation. Each week I’ll be showcasing another soldier living aboard the Avenger, who they are, and why exactly it is they fight for XCOM. When the game comes out, I’ll be creating all of these and release them as a content mod for your character pool. But for now, this’ll have to do.
Keep in my that this is all completely fanfiction-based and I am in no way affiliated with Firaxis. I just do this as a fun writing exercise, because I can.
An encounter with:
Demetria “Lysander” Megalos, from Greece
Having just finished her regular briefing with dozens of resistance cells, Megalos is leaving the CIC with a smile on her face. She has just scheduled several exchanges of goods, organized a number of strategy meetings, finalized numerous mission plans and secured additional funding for XCOM.
“The beautiful thing about my beautiful homeland is that it appears to be a Bermuda Triangle for the aliens. They can never seem to pinpoint anything in there, and as long as you are mobile, you can hide indefinitely. Before this whole thing,”
She gestures around, clearly referring to the Avenger.
“we were high command for a lot of resistance cells. We had the hardware, the expertise and the manpower to be constantly on the move. ADVENT was looking for us on Donousa? We were already on a beach in Sesklio, and when they dropped in there, we had long set up shop in a cove on Tinos. Don’t know any of the names? Neither does ADVENT, it’s almost magical! Of course the Sea Peoples didn’t help: everyone in the Aegean Sea has a bronze trident brooch somewhere in their house, nobody betrayed the human race. Supply lines between Turkey and mainland Greece were constantly harassed, so much so that they ended up having to funnel everything through Istanbul and hopelessly clog that artery of global trade. The undying patriotism of these few thousand people, not just to old Greece but to the old world in general, was enough to protect senior resistance commanders from all over the world. Aliens combing through southern Bangladesh? Relocate your HQ to Greece. ADVENT inspecting every house in Rio de Janeiro? Relocate your HQ to Greece. That way, you just need one or two people to contact all of your different cells on location, and can easily plan and organize missions from somewhere nobody will ever find you. Plus, you get to exchange intel with senior resistance commanders from all around the world!”
A staffer shouts her name from back at the CIC and comes running to hand her a tablet. New reports from the Aegean Sea have come in. Megalos skims over them, grinning.
“We may not be resistance HQ anymore, but we sure do the same thing we used to do, only now it’s more about coordination and diplomacy between cells and movements. And sure do the same thing I used to do, only now I get to kill aliens with elite soldiers in my spare time. My job is to organize and facilitate deals between foreign resistance cells and the house, meaning the resistance in the Aegean Sea. Not only do we deal in security for individuals, but we are also a marketplace of resources, intelligence and recruits from all over the world. A faction on Egypt has secured a major stash of assault weapons and ammunition, but they have enough of those, so they sell them to us in exchange for food and water. Sri Lanka has plenty of able-bodied warriors, but they need weapons, so we sell the weapons we acquired earlier in exchange for fighters that we will sell to other parts of the world. We only need a small profit to keep ourselves afloat, and the service we provide to our partners is absolutely invaluable.”
She takes a right, heading downstairs for weapons training.
“Now you may be thinking: why do I fight if I am so invaluable? First of all, I’m not. If the need arises, there are plenty of people who can replace me. I go out on missions not because I’m good at it, but because I need to socialize with real soldiers, and they don’t take accountants seriously. We rely on them, but they are very different from anyone working at the Geoscape. They live under constant, enormous pressure. Every day could be their last, and the fate of humanity rests on their shoulders regularly. They have developed their own ways to cope with that, and I love them. When they first tried to come up with a nickname for me, someone suggested ‘Buttfuck’, because I’m a Greek patriot, and it almost stuck. Keep in mind, I’m a senior resistance officer. I’m with the brass, if you will, and they treat me just like one of their own. I work for the resistance because I’m proud of my homeland. I fight for XCOM, because, frankly, it’s a lot of fun.”
Who is Betty? 