A flight on a public plane had been arranged for Maria destined for the United States where she would land at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Both her and Saul boarded the same flight unaware that they were both there for the same reason. It was a rather uneventful trip to France where the headquarters of the Global Investigation Bureau was located and their new home. They are one of few personnel recruited by the GIB to be their agents in the field to find out the truth behind the unusual activity being reported across the world and ultimately put an end to it.
Standing by the airport's entrance was a older gentleman dressed in a black tailored suit with a blue tie along with a black chauffeur hat and white gloves. He held a white signs withe the names Mr. Saul & Ms. Silva written on it with black marker while he looked in their general direction.
He prefers to be called by his last name to the point only very close friends have the right to call him by his first name. Saul has a strong sense of duty but is willing to bend the rules to accomplish his mission. His attitude is typically serious and his sense of humor tends to lean towards the darker side, but he is willing to comfort those he's fought alongside. Anyone who is not part of the GIB he views as outsiders and rarely ever converses with them. Saul handles stressful situation well and adapts quickly to new information, but can sometimes act too quickly. He absolutely refuses to show any signs of weakness even if it is detrimental to himself. It takes a lot warming up to him in order to gain his trust, but he is a reliable ally to have.
History ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Saul comes from a long lineage of servicemen dating back to the Continental Army during the United States' Revolutionary War. Every generation since then has served in one of the military branches gaining his family a high reputation and along with it an expectation of excellence. The same discipline taught in the military is adapted to be taught to their children at home. Respect, duty, and honesty are heavily enforced in the Saul household above all other virtues. Children know better than to bully a Saul at school and if they don't they quickly find out why. Just like how soldiers have each other's backs, Saul siblings have the back of their brother or sister.
Augustus was born the youngest of four brothers to a wealthy middle-class family. His father was Jacob Saul, a respected officer in the U.S. Marines, and his mother Allison was a intelligence operator in the CIA. Augustus was often a target for his older brothers as he was the weakest of them and he could never win a straight-forward engagement with any of them. That was why he began studying extensively in military tactics, strategies, and defenses in order to turn the tide in his favor. Augustus thus began his long campaign of guerrilla tactics using trip-wires, traps, and even recordings of his voice to outsmart his older brothers. It was not until one such trap, using wire and a bottle of ink, got him into major trouble with his father when he had returned from duty and the ink got all over his uniform.
Jacob Saul had a very long talk with his youngest son after that where he was punished severely, but also praised for his ingenuity. His father told him that fighting unconventionally is not a bad thing at all but it is important not to go to far. From that point onward, Augustus's fighting with his brothers decreased significantly and the four became an unstoppable team. It was no surprise to anyone when the brothers all decided that they would all join the U.S. Army Rangers one after the other.
A couple years into the Army and Augustus had gotten in trouble more than couple times for breaking protocol and deviating from orders. The only reason he was never properly reprimanded for such actions was that they had saved the lives of his fellow soldiers several times and gotten them out of a bad situation. What finally forced their hand was when Augustus, now in charge of his own team, broke off from his squad in pursuit of enemy forces after a bombing in Bosnia. There was only one survivor besides Augustus after they were ambushed but even he eventually succumbed to his injuries. Allied forces managed to move in and eliminate them and relieve the pinned down Augustus. He was afterwards transferred to the Military Intelligence Corps thanks to his family's influence where he truly excelled.
He was approached at his residence in Charleston, North Carolina during his leave with an offer to join a global initiative to protect the world from global threats. Augustus accepted the offer wanting the chance to make a real difference in the world, unaware of what exactly the threats they were talking about were. He packed up a few of things and was sent to the GIB HQ located in an extensive cold war-era bunker in the French Alps.
In 2000, the United Nations convened in secret to discuss the growing amount of evidence indicating there was extraterrestrial forces on Earth. The result of the discussion was the creation of the Global Investigation Bureau under the project name: X-COM despite some strong objections by various parties, of which most are looking for any reason to validate is termination. The Global Invesigation Bureau, or GIB, was tasked with investigating the unusual activity of certain criminal organizations and religious sect as well as reports of strange creatures. As of the moment, the GIB are seen as little more than a side operation and are not taken very seriously. Little did they realize, the X-COM Project would become the key to Humanity's survival.
This is the story of two agents who there at the beginning of it all and fought the alien menace to the bitter end. It begins with our agents being selected to join the Global Investigation Bureau where they would be expected to find the truth behind the strange activity happening across the globe. There is no one to tell them what to expect or how to deal with it. They are pioneers. The first generation of Humanity's defenders from the alien threat that is far larger than anyone could imagine.
The man in charge of the Global Investigation Bureau, Director Chardin is a retired member of French special forces and had worked in their intelligence department for many years. He was one of the individuals who pressure the United Nations into creating the X-COM Project and was one of the only qualified individuals available to lead it. There is perhaps no one else on the planet who believes as fully in the alien threat as the director, perhaps hinting at some prior encounter. He expects excellence from all of his operatives but more so wishes for them to return to base after every mission. Despite her youth, Doctor Ehrenbaum is widely regarded as a prodigy in the field of biology with a wide range of skills at her disposal. She has a quite optimistic attitude which combined with her energetic personality makes her quite an eccentric individual. Ehrenbaum is the person in charge of keeping GIB operatives healthy as well as the autopsy of any strange creatures the GIB may encounter. Kazakova is a former KGB agent with a record that makes it clear you do not want to be on her bad side. She was given the position with the assurance that any of her past transgressions would be expunged or pardoned. Her main task is extracting information from devices and/or people for leads on the either the aliens or the criminal organizations threatening global security. GIB operatives report having difficulty working with Kazakova. Rogers is world renowned weapons specialist that due to a medical condition in his adolescence is unfit for field duty. He is in charge of making sure that field agents and the GIB HQ are well supplied and equipped. One of Roger's additional duties is the research of any unusual armaments the GIB come across as well as developing specialized munitions.
In 2000, the United Nations convened in secret to discuss the growing amount of evidence indicating there was extraterrestrial forces on Earth. The result of the discussion was the creation of the Global Investigation Bureau under the project name: X-COM despite some strong objections by various parties, of which most are looking for any reason to validate is termination. The Global Invesigation Bureau, or GIB, was tasked with investigating the unusual activity of certain criminal organizations and religious sect as well as reports of strange creatures. As of the moment, the GIB are seen as little more than a side operation and are not taken very seriously. Little did they realize, the X-COM Project would become the key to Humanity's survival.
This is the story of two agents who there at the beginning of it all and fought the alien menace to the bitter end. It begins with our agents being selected to join the Global Investigation Bureau where they would be expected to find the truth behind the strange activity happening across the globe. There is no one to tell them what to expect or how to deal with it. They are pioneers. The first generation of Humanity's defenders from the alien threat that is far larger than anyone could imagine.
The man in charge of the Global Investigation Bureau, Director Chardin is a retired member of French special forces and had worked in their intelligence department for many years. He was one of the individuals who pressure the United Nations into creating the X-COM Project and was one of the only qualified individuals available to lead it. There is perhaps no one else on the planet who believes as fully in the alien threat as the director, perhaps hinting at some prior encounter. He expects excellence from all of his operatives but more so wishes for them to return to base after every mission. Despite her youth, Doctor Ehrenbaum is widely regarded as a prodigy in the field of biology with a wide range of skills at her disposal. She has a quite optimistic attitude which combined with her energetic personality makes her quite an eccentric individual. Ehrenbaum is the person in charge of keeping GIB operatives healthy as well as the autopsy of any strange creatures the GIB may encounter. Kazakova is a former KGB agent with a record that makes it clear you do not want to be on her bad side. She was given the position with the assurance that any of her past transgressions would be expunged or pardoned. Her main task is extracting information from devices and/or people for leads on the either the aliens or the criminal organizations threatening global security. GIB operatives report having difficulty working with Kazakova. Rogers is world renowned weapons specialist that due to a medical condition in his adolescence is unfit for field duty. He is in charge of making sure that field agents and the GIB HQ are well supplied and equipped. One of Roger's additional duties is the research of any unusual armaments the GIB come across as well as developing specialized munitions.
The year is 2020. Humanity verges of the edge of extinction following the creation of a large rift that brought creatures of nightmares into reality. This horde of monsters ruthlessly butchered all signs of life in their path. Those of religious conviction believed this to be a portal to hell itself and a sign of the end times. However, there was no salvation through rapture nor did one of the four horsemen descend upon the world. The terrifying truth was that it was a product of human corruption and desperation. An unintended consequence of using a poorly understood power, known as magic, to prevent a nuclear holocaust. It was in stopping one disaster that they created another. Screams of the innocent and the guilty cried out in one voice as abominations fed on Humanity's confusion and panic. By the time Humanity recovered, nearly 3.5 billions lives had been lost. It was only through the bravery and sacrifice of humanity's experience magic users that the tide finally turned.
XCOM is by far one of my favorite game series to come out in a long time and I have always wanted to do an RP based around it, although I have a few changes in mind. The story of this RP will follow our characters as they are recruited into an organization investigating the sightings of strange creatures and the actions of terrorist cults that have sprung up across the world. This will eventually lead towards the alien invasion we see in XCOM: Enemy Unknown and humanity's fight for survival. The RP will ultimately end with the events of XCOM 2 and fighting in the resistance against the alien overlords. I will be using XCOM: UFO Defense and its XCOM Fils mod, XCOM: Enemy Within and its long war mod, and lastly XCOM 2 as the basis for the story-line. ALL DLC will be incorporated for the most part.
The RP will be done in a thread here on the forum so their rules will apply. While romance is fine by me, it will not be the focus of this RP. I do expect a couple paragraphs per post but I would rather have quality over a wall of text. Communication is an absolute must if you are going to be absent for more than a week. If this interests you, please PM so we can talk about it further.