Currently, the President is an NPC. 

Andrew James "AJ" Shepard, an experienced federal prosecutor and senator from Colorado, Republican. Just won the presidency against Joe Biden's VP, who we haven't named yet, because Joe Biden died from the pressure of office at his advanced age. (Sorry Joe, I actually love you bro.)

Your characters joined the campaign at various times...or, unexpectedly, the President-Elect reached out to people as if forming a crisis cabinet, ignoring party lines and conventional thinking and picking people for raw capability. This results in a diverse cabinet, including some democrats, and some holdovers, similar to Robert Gates and others staying on in 2009 during the worst of the financial crisis.

The press is speculating as to why, but has so far not cracked the code.

Of course, during the transition, people are fully briefed and realize what they are dealing with. There is proof out there of alien life in the form of a probe that arrived in the Solar System whose communication was deciphered by scientists, which led to the 'initiation of communications protocol" by the probe, which instructed that Earthly authorities, "Reporting receipt of response. Stand by for followup communication." 

The intelligence and science types are doing every sort of analysis possible even while initiating communication through the probe. The secret is burning people's consciousness, and someone is bound to let the cat out of the bag. 

Then they were told that followup communication will ensue, standby.

Your characters are thrown into this. 

[@Byrd Man][@Jester][@Darth Shadow][@CaptainBritton][@Romero][@Ferrocerium]