Sorry Guys. No pictures. Had to develop the plot some more. I have a request after the update though. What happened was I was playing, and was doing the second Base Defense of the BUILDER OF DOOM when my computer froze and crashed. Last save game was a week previous. X_X Coalition, you should be thankful as you died three times in that week. First one in every mission. 
Time: Unknown
Location: Unknown
“The
real Phalanx? Forgive me while I scoff at your claim.”
“You've said that before, and I can assure you, we are.”
“Prove it.” This was starting to annoy me. A legitimate kidnapping to pry technological and strategic secrets from my mind? That I could accept and gladly play along with. There were protocols to deal with that sort of thing. But I, the Director of PHALANX, being kidnapped by Phalanx? Oh, that's just rude.
“I don't have to. Your organization is the imposter.” The male voice opposite leaned forward into the light, and I could see the scars deeply on his face, the unmistakable telltale signs of plasma fire.
“Well, I'm the one with a UN Mandate. 2084-2011M to be precise. It's on file and everything. Even a unanimous vote in the Security Council and everything! So.... What do you have?”
He snarled. “You pathetic little piece of shit. You think you're the real thing? Your pretty little bases in Turkey, China and America?”
I hid my surprise. America? That was an odd choice. But, I suppose my second would have his reasons, hidden behind those hyper-reflective glasses of his. “Oh, and I suppose you've done better?”
“We have total global radar coverage.” His sneer became a smirk. “Unlike your limited coverage.”
It was my turn to give a gesture of contempt. “Great job with it! How many UFOs have you watched, the only chance you've had to shoot them down is being to wank really hard?”
I almost got under his skin there. Almost. He looked like he wanted to shoot me then and there for my cheek. I smiled. “At least we've tried. Won some, lost some. But hey, them's the breaks.” I tried to be nonchalant about that, but to be honest, the knowledge that people died at my command was a hard burden to bear. I cared, and the man across from me didn't seem to.
“You think that's the point? Pointless victory after pointless victory? You think Phalanx was reactivated on the 24th? Really? We knew they were coming, so we started preparing before that.”
Oh, that just put you on my dead list. I wanted to lunge over at him and strangle him, then kill every last motherfucker here. But I didn't. Couldn't really. My legs felt heavy, probably whatever they have be drugged up on. “Nice job!” I was far to cheery. “The people of Mumbai, Bonn, Johannesburg, Bangkok and Toronto all want to send you a gift basket. They've been sending that stuff to me, but I suppose I'll have to forward it all to here. Wherever here is. Where is here, anyways?”
“Don't patronize me. They were necessary losses to let them know that we are worthy.”
“Worthy? We nuked their asses. Their entire invasion fleet got burned from our skies. I'd say it is they who aren't worthy of being our friends. What's your angle?”
“THEY CONTROL THE STARS!”
Ooooh-kay. When did this guy become a Jame Bond villain? And wasn't the next movie due out in December? Damn. Have to get out of here before then. Something wasn't adding up here. Really, really wasn't adding up.
Hope I get out of here soon. This was just getting absurd.
Command Center, PHALANX HQ
The Acting Director rubbed the bridge of his nose again as the call was disconnected on the other side. Before he could make a decision, he looked at the glazed glass that was part of the door to the office. He hadn't taken down Director JonB's name, knowing full well that he wasn't in charge. JonB was.
He had to think this through from FaxModem's perspective. First, he hadn't answered the question. That alone was enough to detain him for... something or other. PHALANX also had protocols for dealing with Humans collaborating with an extraterrestrial threat.
FaxModem had violated those, which would be enough justification to remove him from his position.
Why, though? If he was working for this 'Shadow PHALANX', then why let the prisoner go, involving the Interceptor in the process?
The Sarcen interceptor was a high-speed aircraft, not exactly an elegant ferry for people. The Firebird was a common thing, not like the PHALANX exclusive aircraft, so again why?
FaxModem wanted to know where the prisoner wanted to go?
That was silly. This Shadow PHALANX would know that their man was compromised. If they were good enough to kidnap the Director, then they certainly wouldn't fall for a trick like that.
Unless, of course, FaxModem was an engineer, not an Intelligence Operative. There was no indication that he
knew that his movie-level tactics was going to horribly backfire on him. On PHALANX.
The Acting Director opened his eyes. Five minutes should be enough. “Lock down FaxModem's access to the system on violation of human captive protocols. Pull the Omega Logs from the Wenchang Base for review. Authorization ALPHA-ZERO-GAMMA-HOSTILE.”
The Omega Logs were one of PHALANX's dirty little secrets. It was accepted that bases could be attacked or destroyed, so the Omega Logs were off-site, one-way records of the past twelve hours of everything that happened in the base. Video, keyloggers, audio... In case the base was destroyed, then the Omega Logs could be used to reconstruct what went wrong. They were off-site by at least 30 kilometers, the minimum distance to avoid nuclear or orbital bombardment, and hidden in an innocuous place.
They were pulled for HQ when the Director was taken, in case our on-site records were altered. They were not.
They were supposed to be used in emergencies, when everything was simply gone. Not because one of their own may be compromised.
Alright, my request:
I would like someone to play multi-player against me. UFO:Alien Invasion supports H v H multi-player, so I need someone to play as the Shadow Phalanx against my guys. Contact me via PM or in the #ufoai channel on the freenode.net IRC server. Thanks!
