Disclaimer: This story is written purely for entertainment, I own nothing and definitely am not getting any money for this!

Any references to games, movies, books owned by someone else are exactly that - owned by someone else, not me. No disrespect intended towards any real people mentioned in this story, living or deceased.

Authors Note - Thank you everyone for your reviews, both positive and negative. I always knew the last chapter would be controversial. I wish farewell to all who have stopped reading (though obviously you won't get this message, but still, the thought is there), and congratulations to everyone who has the intestinal fortitude to hang in there.

Interestingly enough, the outright slaughter of thousands, racist language and attitudes, rape, war crimes, pre-meditated

murder and support of Drug Cartels and the full blown support of the apartheid regime caused not an eye to be blinked. Gank Nelson Mandela and throw a wrench in the Global Warming machine before it gets going, and it generates the most outraged responses yet.

The Cerberus trio are from the FUTURE. They know what is coming, including (as was previously mentioned), the South African Civil war and Ebola plague, and the outcome of the whole Global Warming / Climate Change movement (which I am assuming would have become a damp squib in their future, but not before causing significant waste of resources and time, and delaying humanity's development). And yes, Mandela would have been explained this chapter regardless of requests received.

We are getting closer and closer to time skip land, which I am grateful for. The important pieces are pretty much all in place. Onward!

Chapter 21 - Vigilance. Confidence.

August 1988, Cerberus Security, Texas.

Anderson sat at his desk, rubbing his temples with his fingers. The headache was not shifting.

In front of him were a newspaper, and the latest Cerberus report from South Africa.

"MANDELA DEAD" roared the newspaper headlines. The article continued it's reporting with sparse details. The 70 year old had been reported as having been suffering from his tuberculosis, and had passed away peacefully in his sleep on the night of his 70th birthday.

The South African government statement pointed out that even though Mandela was co-founder of a terrorist organisation, he had served his life sentence with dignity and had been a model prisoner.

Condolences from world leaders and numerous organisations were being reported worldwide in a six page spread.

In direct contrast was the Cerberus report. He skipped past the Cuban combat action reports, down to the internal reports.

The ANC organisation was being ripped to shreds, thousands of the recently called up reservists were literally storming buildings flagged as ANC linked property, and were rounding up everyone in the buildings and shooting anyone that resisted.

There had been several deaths of white officials, all linked to (unsuccessful) negotiations with Mandela. And then there was the report from one of his more effective killers, who had 'successfully eliminated the high profile target NM as instructed by higher command. Happy Birthday.'

If there had been any Cerberus involvement in the death of Mandela, he needed to know. And there was only one person who could issue an order he wouldn't know about, one person other than him that all of his units knew to obey.

Jack.

With a trembling hand, he picked up the phone and requested an urgent meeting with Harper, striving to keep the rage out of his voice.

August 1988, Cerberus Logistics, Texas.

Anderson walked into Jacks office two hours later and ignored the greeting, turning to ensure the door was closed and locked. He then dropped the paper and the section of the Cerberus report from Cooper onto the desk.

"Anderson?" quizzed Jack, looking puzzled at the report and newspaper and then back up to Anderson.

"Read that report JACK, and then look me in the eye" coldly demanded Anderson.

Jack picked it up and skimmed through it. He glanced at the newspaper headlines and look at Anderson, eyebrow cocked.

"Did you instruct local Cerberus assets to execute Nelson Mandela. Yes or No." bit out Anderson through gritted teeth.

Looking straight into his eyes, Jack responded. "Absolutely".

The next second Jack was reeling back in his seat, blood pouring from his mouth that had just exploded from Anderson's fist.

"That felt right. Now, explain to me why I shouldn't put a bullet in you" snarled Anderson.

Jack pulled a cloth from his pocket and wedged it under his lips to soak the blood.

"Reapers. The extinction of humanity. The continued extermination of all intelligent life every fifty thousand years. ONE CHANCE to stop it. You want to be the man who failed to save trillions of lives when he had the chance? Go ahead, pull the trigger".

Anderson wilted slightly, then shook his head "I get that. God, you really are as big a bastard now as you were before. but WHY? Why him? I know my history, he was a beacon of hope in a dark time for Africa, so why?".

Jack looked at Anderson, obviously weighing his thoughts. He picked up the phone and instructed his PA to cancel all meetings for the day, reached into his drawer and pulled out a bottle of vodka and two tumblers.

"Sit. Drink."

Whilst Jack poured out two very healthy measures, Anderson, after some internal conflict, pulled back a chair and dropped into it with a grunt.

"Mandela was one of the best. He would have dragged South Africa back into the international community. Brought hope. And that was the problem. Once he was gone, when he dies, you would have had a kleptocracy in charge of 70% of the worlds platinum production. The corruption would have led to a civil war which would have raged for five years, before the Ebola plague swept through and turned the country into a graveyard. We, as in Cerberus, and humanity as a whole, can't afford
that."

Jack took a sip of his vodka, face scrunched in pain as the liquid burnt into his lips.

"I may have spoken to Botha. Pointed out that Cuban and Soviet support for the various organisations they are fighting against was on the verge of disappearing. That Cerberus fully supported their government, as long as they keep producing the strategic metals, especially the platinum. That Cerberus would be looking at a major space program, and South Africa was perfect, IF they had stability. And that the ANC needed to be dismantled."

"Including their most famous figurehead and leader, who was currently in prison. Don't get me wrong, he would have been a great president, but would also have been indirectly responsible for fifty million deaths. More than Stalin and Hitler combined."

Anderson wiped a hand across his face, removing the wetness from his cheeks "But why us? Why did it have to be someone from Cerberus? And how did you choose who would pull the trigger?".

"Two words. Plausible deniability. Botha will be able to confirm he ordered actions against ANC, but never against Mandela. I read the reports from South Africa as well Anderson, and have spoken to Cooper's commander. He's a very disturbed man, has absolutely no regard for human life, and considers anyone with less than white skin, to be less than human.

He is also an exceptional killer, with no ties to South Africa, and had zero qualms about his mission. He has been instructed to keep his mouth SHUT, as there are millions of people who would kill him if they found out what he did."

Jack shrugged. "Look, in three hundred years time, if we WIN against the Reapers, feel free to put a bullet in me. Until then, I will do anything - ANYTHING - that I see as necessary to achieve that goal. Shepard still has flashes of morality when it comes to civilians, but from a military perspective is willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve the goal. I wouldn't expect less from the Butcher, from the man who sacrificed a human fleet to save the council, who took a ship and his crew on a suicide mission."

"You though? I have concerns Anderson. He was just one man. The needs of the many - in this case, the GALAXY, will ALWAYS outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. I did what was needed. So I want you to drink the rest of that tumbler of vodka, and then head back to Security and have a long hard think, and ask yourself - could you have done the same? And if not, does that make you a better or worse person than me?".

August 1988, Cuernavaca Ranch, Colombia.

It was the very rarest of gatherings, all of the heads of the Medellín Cartel and most of their seconds under one roof.

With them were the Cerberus head of local security, Captain Anton 'Benito' Mussolini, and his hand picked men. There were over a hundred Cerberus troops guarding the building, and another two hundred securing the local area.

The meeting had been called by Colonel Diedericks, along with Commander Carlos Gil of the recently reorganised MAS.

Diedericks, with support from Gil, had confirmed the anti-FARC operation had been completed. The 'revolutionary' organisation now numbered less than a thousand it was estimated, which would take years to hunt down and exterminate.

The smiles and clapping from the assembled drug lords lasted for a few seconds. The Cerberus and MAS officers walked backwards as soon as they had finished their report, and without any warning, the stationed Cerberus guards drew silenced pistols and opened fire on their assigned target.

The withering fire lasted for four or five seconds, before Anton issued a ceasefire command.

It was done. The Medellín Cartel had been executed. The Cerberus and MAS officers drew pistols and moved through the Cartel corpses, methodically putting two bullets into the head of each one, to be absolutely sure.

Weapons holstered, the Cerberus officers turned to Gil, the MAS commander who had accompanied them, and offered their hands.

"You stood with me against FARC" said Diedericks "And you stood with us against the Cartel. Cerberus will be seizing the assets of the leaders, but the contract we have still stands. Fifty percent of all profit will be assigned to Cerberus, the rest? Up to you."

Anton nodded and spoke "Harper, our highest commander, has suggested a strong investment into infrastructure. health care, education and job creation. Spend the drug money on building up areas the government ignores. If the other Cartels give you shit, Cerberus will drop an army here."

Gil looked at the corpses of his countrymen, and spat on them. "Whatever is good for Colombia, whatever it takes" he said, and shook the offered hands.

"It was a pleasure to finally eliminate this scum" commented Anton, "And after all..."

All three completed the oft said saying with a chuckle "Orders are Orders!".

August 1988, Area-51, Top-Secret location! Okay, fine. Nevada.

Shepard and Freeman walked through the sixth guard point and sixth set of steel pressure doors.

"You know" commented Freeman, shifting the large duffle bag he was carrying from one shoulder to the other "It's almost like they take security seriously here. I'm just surprised we haven't been take off to side rooms for a bit of full body cavity action.".

Shepard slapped a hand across Freeman's chest, getting a startled grunt in return. "For gods sake Freeman, please do NOT give them any ideas!".

The large room in front of them held desks, various electronic equipment, half a dozen USAF security, and two men in lab coats. One stepped forward with a clipboard, obviously about to start a long lecture, but was stopped in his tracks by a raised hand from Freeman.

"Blah blah shut it. We have authorisation from the head of everything. We know these fucking things exist, and have our own collection of bits, we now want to see what you have. Me Crazy Genius. Him Mad Skillz Engineer. And yes, we have permission to record, and even remove shit if we deem it necessary. If you want, call anyone, including POTUS, and ask if we are allowed to do this shit. Right Shep, what first - bodies or bits?".

Keeping an eye on the slack jawed lab technicians and security personnel, Shepard dropped his own bag onto a desk and pulled out a pair of video cameras, handing one to Freeman.

"Bodies. Lets get a look at the physique of these aliens before we take a look at their engineering. Oh, and you might want to avoid Anderson for a while. He wants you and his fist to have a chat about some random medical experiments on nearly dead security personnel?".

Freeman paused in his response, casting an eye over the security guards and lab coat wearing human statues. "Meh. He'll have to find me first. Air vents and a crowbar will get me anywhere." He fired up the recorder and panned it across the others in the room

"This is Dr Freeman recording live for the Smoking Gun, where we expose the TRUTH behind the alien conspiracy coverup to the world. You, Airman...Edwards. How long have you been part of the Illumanati New World Order? OW!".

Freeman turned an offended look at Shepard, who was rubbing his hand after slapping the back of Freeman's head. "Quit messing with them. I don't want to get accidentally shot whilst they are trying to nail you."

"Uhhh..the bodies are through here." offered Edwards, indicating the door behind him, and swiping his card on the lock, which beeped, flashed green, and the door lock disengaged with a clunk.

"You know, I haven't seen a dead alien in months, not since I killed that Elder God back in crazy land. Normally I would say the only good alien is a dead one, but I think we need to capture some live ones for vivisec...Mother Of God."

Freeman and Shepard followed Edwards into the room, recording as they went, straight into the sight of multiple glass tubes filling the room. Suspended inside the tubes were body parts, partial corpses and what looked like a fully intact head and torso. Judging from the bits, the creatures in the tanks would be over seven foot tall on average.

Freeman skipped up and down the tubes, recording as he went "Ugly, Ugly, Ugly. That's a hell of a set of toenails. Is that a lung? Looks like a lung. Well, at least I can't smell them. Shepard? Earth to Shep? Wakey Wakey?".

Freeman walked back and stood next to Shepard, who had the camera he was carrying locked onto the mostly intact torso and head, but was just stood there, presumably staring at it.

"What's it saying to you Shepard, huh? Can you hear it? Does it want to suck out your brains, and wear your rib cage as a hat?" whispered Freeman.

"They were much smaller in my Cycle..." muttered Shepard "We need a sample, one of these tubes, an arm, or a leg. The rest can stay here."

Shepard turned to Edwards "And where are the recovered equipment and materials?".

"Through the doors at the end, we have to have another security pass though to get in" Edwards looked at one of the lab coats that were lurking, who jerked his head in a nod and walked down to the far end of the hall, taking position on the left hand side of the doors, as Edwards walked to the right.

"On one. Four, three, two, one" said Edwards, and both swiped their cards at the same time, both lights turning green.

The doors pulled apart, revealing a ramp down into a high ceiling, wide and long room. Numerous glass domed tables stretched down the length of the room, each containing fragments of metal or technology.

"Nothing organic is kept here, and most of the items are under a nitrogen atmosphere to prevent corrosion, which are what the the domes are for. The largest parts of the crashed ships are right at the back" explained the Lab Technician as he walked through the room with Shepard and Freeman, who continued to pan the cameras back and forth as they walked.

"You recovered some of the blade weapons, right? Is the ship structure made of the same material, or something else?" asked Freeman with interest.

"Oh, it's something else, mostly super dense titanium and steel, with a little carbon nano-tubing thrown in there. We might be able to make something like it in twenty or thirty years, but it'll be a hell of an expensive alloy." confirmed the Lab Tech. "is there something in particular you were after?".

Shepard and Freeman looked at each other. "Dude" explained Freeman "This is alien tech, we want everything. But to start with, I'm going to just see what you guys have managed to salvage. Shepard needs...uh...engines?".

"Engines, and power supply" confirmed Shepard, staring towards the end of the hall with hunger.

"Ohhh-kay. Whelp, good look with those, we've managed no significant progress with them in the last thirty or so years..."

The Technician and Shepard drifted further down the hall, leaving a quietly cackling Freeman to search the accumulated artifacts for his new test materials.

August 1988, Cerberus Logistics, Texas.

"What happened to you?" asked Shepard, eyeing the bruising and split lip that Jack was wearing.

"FUCK! OW! OW! STOP HITTING ME!"

"That" responded Jack smugly, nodding to the corner of the briefing room, where Anderson had Freeman in a headlock and and was alternately punching him in the face, or ramming his head into the wall.

"YOU WILL NOT FUCK WITH MY MEN!" Anderson roared, and in a normal voice continued "are we clear?".

"YES!" was the muffled response from Freeman, upon which Anderson released him.

"Seriously Gordon. It was a good idea, but you need to talk to me first before you do shit like that. What if it unleashed some messed up plague, or turned the ones who were injected into alien zombies or something? You were the only one who knew about these injector tests until Jack found out."

Gordon looked at the others and dropped his head, in a sheepish voice he admitted "Okay, feeling embarrassed now. Didn't consider that. I did use it on a bunch of mice first, and got about a 5% survival rate from ones that should have been corpses. I figured two birds with one stone right? Human trials, and might actually save someones life".

Jack spoke up in response "Whilst I admire the goal, Anderson is correct. We could have drummed up a dozen people who were on the verge of death and offered them a chance, with appropriate legal waivers and monitoring. Still, we have a confirmed case of one miracle recovery."

"Swart has currently undergoing a battery of tests. So far, no major adverse impact. His body temperature is running a bit warmer than norm, he feels the cold more, and a bit more light sensitive."

"Apart from the obvious advantage of NOT being dead, he also seems to have slightly improved night vision, endurance and strength. Nothing like superman or anything obvious, but he confirmed he FEELS healthier and stronger."

Jack absently poked at his sore lip, wincing "in fact, I would go as far to say, you have developed a bastard version of medi-gel. Unfortunately the supply would be massively limited, and the fact it has only been used in terminal cases means we don't know if the injection itself is potentially fatal".

"Okay, that term obviously means something to you three, and I can guess from the name and conversational context what it probably is, but what do you mean by Medi-Gel?" queried Freeman.

"One of humanity's most important future contributions to the galaxy. Technically illegal, as it is classed as a gene or bio modification, the gel heals everyone, keeping even massive trauma under control, until the body can heal it. The healing speed and capability of the body itself is also accelerated by another aspect of the gel. And amazingly, it's universal, regardless of..."

Shepard paused "Race, species or blood type, even works on synthetics and machines...how the hell is that possible?".

"Space magic" affirmed Anderson with a straight face "you know, I knew that glowing stuff reminded me of something. If you have ever seen medi-gel that has gone seriously past it's expiry date? Starts to look a bit like what Freeman cooked up".

Jack sat down at the conference table, drumming his fingers on the smooth wood. "if it turns out that Freeman has accidentally invented medi-gel, I'm going to be seriously pissed. That may mean in some shape or form, Sirta Foundation had access to Predator remains".

Shepard dropped into a chair opposite "that brings me to what we found in 51, that Predator remains access is not as unlikely as you might think. I've got the feed from the camera loaded, watch the screen." Freeman and Anderson quickly seated themselves.

Shepard fast forwarded past the initial meeting with the guards, and played the section where they encountered the body parts.

"Okay, take a good look at the head and face. If you knew nothing else, that would remind you of a Turian more than anything right, mostly because of the mouth?". Anderson and Jack nodded.

"Well it's not. It's a Yahg. It's a Yahg from some point in the last sixty thousand years, that someone has been genetically fucking with, uplifting them. If I had to make a bet, I would say Protheans or one of the the other races from that Cycle. It looks very, VERY similar to memories that Javik shared with me. Note the height and muscular build. These things were already very strong and fast before someone got their claws into them."

"Yahg..." murmured Jack "I take it the Shadow Broker you fought was NOT one of these Predator types?".

"Nope, that one was one of the big types, bigger than a Krogan. But if a Yahg could take over the role of the most powerful information brokers in the galaxy, that shows they are potentially very intelligent. Hell, one of the last reports of their home world was they were edging toward spaceflight as a species. This from a species that still has a rule of 'you keep what you kill'." answered Shepard.

"Wait what? You mean the MediGel magic stuff is made up of Predator-Yahg? No way, that's just stupid" exclaimed Freeman.

"Stupid? Don't know about that, but it was definitely a strange product. I mean, it works on everything - how? If it's basic building block is something from an alien race, instead of something whipped up in a lab designed specifically for humans, that would make a little more sense. And if P-Yahgs have the same level of healing as Krogan, that would also explain what the stuff is so effective." noted Anderson.

"No more injecting people Freeman. But we are definitely going to be putting your discovery through testing and production. This could be the basis for Cerberus to corner the medical industry, in the next 15 or 20 years. Now, moving on. Anderson, Colombia?" Jack stated.

"Total success. Cerberus has recovered a goldmine from the Cartel leadership, well in the excess of 100 Billion dollars. We also have a projected average income of a billion dollars a month, as long as we can keep operations at the current level or higher, and no significant cost increases. The new Cartel head has asked for us to start looking at eliminating the competition. He also floated the idea of working WITH elements in the governments, both Colombia and US."

Jack froze. "Totally didn't see that one coming. Yes on the competition elimination, maybe on the Colombian government approach, absolutely not on the US side, at least not yet. Bush will be president soon, so we need to see how the new administration acts. And South Africa?".

"...with the loss of Nelson Mandela as a rallying point, the crushing of the majority of the ANC organisation within South Africa itself, the withdrawal of Soviet support from the border states, and finally the failure of the latest Cuban campaign, the apartheid government has a level of security that was unthinkable just a few years ago. In no small part thanks to our support." reported Anderson sourly.

Freeman shrugged "So the same dicks are in charge now as were 20 years ago. We get our money, well, platinum, and maybe the country gets a chance to be stable for a change. I remember hearing on the news that the entire place was going down the toilet before the Black Mesa invasion. Black majority rule meant the whites fled in huge numbers, mostly the skilled people who they really needed to keep the economy going! What about from your future?".

Shepard looked at him "it really, REALLY wasn't pretty. Half of the continent was a graveyard by 2050 thanks to repeated plagues. The only way external aid could get in there, was if there was a significant armed force guarding them. South Africa was one of the hardest hit. They were busy shooting each other, then they got hammered by plague, then the survivors went back to shooting each other, another plague, you get the idea. Wasn't until the security council of the time ordered an invasion, sorry, peacekeeping force that things got under control again in Africa as a whole".

Jack looked at Anderson's stone face "What's done is done. We can't change the past, but we sure as hell can change the future. Cerberus already has a lot of political capital with the Afrikaner government and the political and military side due to our Security support. The economic side love us for the sanction busting. If we invest more heavily into the country, we can operate there with a large degree of independence, and can influence things our way. Anderson, what do you think to an XCOM facility there?".

"What? We haven't even completed the US facility!".

Jack waved a hand at the paused TV screen, which still had the Predator torso and head displayed. "These aliens aren't going anywhere right now, but I am concerned if we respond too slowly, in too limited a fashion, we won't be able to have the global impact and support I need."

Jack continued "If we have a facility in Colombia, South Africa, England, Texas, Japan and Russia, we can cover the majority of the globe, have bases in three of the five UN Security council members, with hopefully corresponding Cerberus influence. The Graser testing has revealed design issues which means an orbital system will be delayed at least a year, but no reason why we can't use the Cerberus Freedom station for Predator incursion detection, correct?"

"Uhhh...wait - what design issues? I think I would know if there was a design issue?" asked Shepard.

Jack sighed and pressed the palm of his hand over his eyes "There are NO design issues. We are just telling the military that to stretch out the contract. If we design, produce and deliver the weapons too early, we lose out on billions of funding. MJ12 will bury the paper trail, but we will use a large part of that money to fund XCOM."

Jack paused. "Or whatever the new organisation is called when it is established".

Shepard's mouth stretched in a silent "Oh", whilst Freeman sniggered "Well, someone is still swimming in that Egyptian river. And yeah, we used to do it all the time. Shove some shit code into a program, and then when they want to work more efficiently, take half the dodgy stuff out. Instant improvement!

"Same goes for most government studies. They pay you to find out if local water quality is impacting health. You find out what the study requester wants to see, angle the study result to support what the want to prove, and then claim you can get better results - if you had time for a longer study, with more funding. Sucking on the teat of government funding is awesome". Freeman ended his statement with a big happy grin, and a little bounce in his chair.

Jack eyed Freeman with distaste "Not how I would have phrased it, but effectively how the system works. We had an update from Anna and Dutch. We are waiting on some additional proof from England, but the evidence is stacking up heavily towards a Reaper or Leviathan in the Point Nemo area. Which concerns me immensely. Nothing from my memories, intra-net or anything suggests there was something on our planet already."

He looked at Shepard and Anderson who shook heads in confirmation that they too were in the dark.

Jack nodded. "Right. Well, we are not making the same mistakes as I made back in the future."

Everyone paused for a second as they processed that one.

"Shepard. Get the depth charge ready, we will use two DSV's, one to explore, one with the nuke. If we find nothing or just ruins, fine. If we find a Reaper or Leviathan, nuke it. I don't care if it seems to be dead, you know how dangerous even dormant Reapers can be."

Shepard nodded agreement, as did Anderson.

Shepard spoke "I got a chance to look at the drive and power systems of the recovered Predator wreck, and we ran a couple of quick tests on material we brought back. There isn't much to work with at all, but I can produce a likely scenario. The ship suffered some sort of engine failure, probably containment, which resulted in an explosion, which was partially shielded."

He looked towards Freeman, and continued "We think the drive is Anti-Matter based, with fusion reactors for internal power. I do NOT think they use a mass-effect drive system, but this was only a small ship, a shuttle almost. BUT, they definitely use Anti-Mass material in their construction materials, and that material is definitely Eezo. Running a charge through it adjusts the mass."

Freeman chipped in "Which means we can absolutely design something to scan the area for this Eezo, definitely from the Freedom station, a local version will be more problematic. I would love to design things using the new alloy, but supply is pretty non-existent."

Jack shook his head "we have to avoid developing and depending on Eezo based tech if we can. It would constrain our development. I am sure we can develop enough to be ahead of the majority of human development in the field, but it needs to be just one aspect of our overall advancement. There is no way we can build tens of thousands of ships if we use Eezo, certainly not ships on a size scale I imagine we will need."

Anderson stroked his chin "What about duplicating their drive system and power system? If it's based of Anti-Matter and Fusion, we can develop those, right? Freeman has experience and knowledge on one side, Shepard on the other?".

Shepard looked at him "Unless you count exploding Yummy Mechs or messing with the Omega reactor control panels, I don't really have Fusion reactor experience. But I have the knowledge absolutely. Goes back to a scale issue. Any reactor we make at this point is going to be huge. As for AM, Gordon, what do you think?".

Freeman pondered it briefly, before answering seriously "Yes and no. We can generate the AM, but we can't contain it at the moment. We need a magnetic containment cylinder, pretty much the same as the fusion reactor, and again it would be scale. You might as well create an Orion drive intergalactic spaceship, it would be smaller and cheaper."

Jack looked like someone had announced they had just finished drowning his puppies.

"For the love of...Jack, we have been back a couple of years! What do you expect, Nano-Tech replicators and Dimensional Drive systems? I'm cludging together unique tools with my knowledge to make other unique tools. We are already working on stuff that is twenty, thirty years ahead of the timeline, aiming at technology that is two HUNDRED years ahead!" shouted Shepard.

"Ditto. But as far as this XCOM thing goes, you guys don't need spaceships yet, you need fighters and transports that can find and catch the Predator shuttles, down them and then get troops into them to kill everything that moves. So here is a suggestion from my memories." said Freeman "What do you guys know about Russian Ayaks project?".

August 1988, Boston, USA.

"Bravo Team, no contact".

Jones sipped on his coffee, as his teams checked in again. So far the Boston posting had been boring as hell, which was good. Considering as the alternate was mind numbing terror, lots of gunfire and explosions, and his probable dismemberment and death by a seven foot tall invisible fucking ALIEN.

"Charlie Team, no contact".

The teams had been positioned for a week now. They moved and set up in a new site each day, monitored during the night. The MJ12 team had set up cameras monitoring three possible locations where they could ambush the Predator (if one turned up).

He had seen them lurking around, all silver armour and elephant-level dart guns and stun guns. Apparently the silver armour would block the vision of the Predator, it used an infrared system (and how the hell they knew that, they weren't saying).

"Delta Team, no contact".

Seeing as he knew a Predator had survived a volley of rockets, heavy machine gun fire and a pretty impressive impact into a security fence with minimal wounds (at least from the blood trail), how the hell they thought pissy knockout darts and stun guns would work he had NO idea.

"Echo Team, no contact".

And knockout darts? Seriously? On an Alien? What if it just got high? Or turned Beserk? Or mutated into fucking Godzilla?

"Foxtrot Team, no contact. Wait."

Wait?

"Foxtrot Team, you ahhhhhh...you might want to try checking in with the tinfoil soldiers".

Jones picked up a different radio and tried to raise the MJ12 team, but with no response. Turning to the Cerberus net, he queried Foxtrot Team.

"Alpha Actual. Does anyone have visual on the tinfoil's?"

"Foxtrot Team. Roger that, and we need a cleanup on aisle twelve. I don't think the tinfoil's are coming home."

Jones paused. Well, fuck. "All units, unsafe and check your positions NOW. Leave the channels open. If someone gets attacked, at least we will hear...".

It was a very tense fifteen minutes before Jones had all teams check in again. No issues.

"Foxtrot here. We need to bug out. Sorry to say, but someone must have called 9-1-1, as two cruisers just pulled up, and are checking out the bodies. Oh yeah, just like Greece, the officers are tossing their cookies. Guessing someone snagged a few trophies."

Jones confirmed to all teams to start extraction, and picked up the phone. He needed to report a potential security breach. The local PD was going to be asking some very awkward questions soon, and it needed to be stepped on, HARD.

The day Dutch came up with some equipment that allowed them to actively hunt these things, could not come soon enough.

August 1988, MJ12 Council, USA.

"So as you can see" continued Jack "My plan has the risk of resulting in significant collateral damage, but potential rewards are staggering".

The silence from around the table dragged on for nearly a minute.

"To confirm your proposals...You want a significant uninhabited isolated location to test Fusion Reactors and Anti-Matter containment. Not necessarily in CONUS"

"You want to establish five new XCOM bases throughout the world, including in the USSR."

"You want to set up the new space station as a Predator scanner".

"You have access to NUCLEAR WEAPONS, which is pretty big bombshell in itself, and are possibly going to be be detonating one in the South Pacific, in the next six months, but won't tell us why".

"You want to talk to the Russians and Japanese, bring them fully into XCOM, and develop new attack and transport aircraft to take down as many of the Predators and their vessels as we can in a concerted attack, even if it might result in massive civilian casualties."

"This operation, to be cleared with multiple world leaders before being launched, and once launched to be effectively in the public eye, and labelled as defending against an alien invasion".

"Does that summarise everything?".

Jack smiled like a shark "Absolutely. Oh, and don't forget the fact that you just lost a significant percentage of your field agents on a TOTALLY useless ambush, and nearly handed proof of everything to the press with your latest failed operation."

"Time to stop thinking small and local. What happens if part of DC goes up in a nuclear fireball? Or Moscow? We NEED to have Russia, I mean the USSR involved at the ABSOLUTE minimum. We need their research for starters, plus they. And to not be nuking each other when things go wrong. And they will go wrong, things always do."

The other eleven members exploded into animated discussion, furious anger from some parties, and the debate rolled on for nearly an hour. Every time it devolved into arguing over minor details, Jack dragged their attention back to the bigger view. It was Global. It would only take a few things to go wrong, the way things currently stood, for WWW3 to be triggered. R&D should be combined with other countries under threat. And the world HAD to be brought into the truth.

"Let's face it, information control is getting more difficult by the day. Hiding this from the public is going to be highly unlikely, especially when nuclear fireballs start erupting. The world has been in a state of semi-terror for the last forty years, expecting the US and USSR to bring about the end of humanity."

"So we need to show everyone that humanity is NOT alone, and the aliens are not nice cuddly E.T. types. Have all of that Cold War mentality shift to a REAL enemy. And get details to the press and people on how we have been working together for years to fight this threat. And make sure you stamp on anyone who starts pushing the 'need to open a dialogue' angle."

In the end, grudgingly and with reservations in some cases, agreement was secured.

"Mr Harper, we will open talks with our Russian and Japanese equivalents. Please have Cerberus focus on the areas you feel best able to make rapid progress in, and identify areas we need to bring in outside expertise for. Funding will be arranged accordingly, and Cerberus reimbursed for all expenditure to date."

"Details will need to be thrashed out, but at this point we have agreement to proceed on all points. Do you by any chance have a name for the new international umbrella organisation we will be forging?".

The seriousness of the situation was totally destroyed by the outright grins on a number of faces. They knew the mental dance Jack had been doing to avoid the 'temporary' label already in use.

With the world's biggest sigh, but with a smile twitching at his lips, Jack answered "It's official I guess. XCOM".