Winter said there had not been any other storylines proposed, so I thought I'd write one up.
Radio broadcasts by humans are detected at light speed delay by deep perimeter probes in the void near Capella, transmitted to early-warning systems.
Initial mission sent to originating point to establish information feeds and initial understandings of originating life.
Diplomat type arrives in mid 1930s, disguises himself as a human and makes contact with the government of the US. The only country UFOs ever seem to land in.
U.S Government establishes Olive Branch, a deeply classified intelligence organization tasked with studying and understanding the alien.
The Taman diplomat works with classified government scientists for twenty years to create a common language interface. His name is Khel'Anask Bhavrade. Human personnel refer to him as "Bob."
Upon completion of their exchange of understanding, the alien offers humanity the terms of a peace agreement, as he is authorized to negotiate it.
The contract is a conditional surrender agreement, placing control of humanity under the Taman empire. In six-hundred pages of interstellar legalese.
Command of Olive Branch is passed from Intelligence to military control, and the organization is re-branded PHALANX/Shift Light, under the command of USAF SAC commander Curtis LeMay.
Humanity, unbeknownst to Bob, had previously determined the location of the diplomat's main support vessel, and his smaller craft. Both use invisibility mechanisms which hide them from ordinary detection, but regular transmissions allowed them to be found.
The government annexes the desert surrounding the main vessel and uses a "routine" nuclear test to destroy it, severing the Taman's FTL communications link.
Former Olive Branch agent in charge, Richard Newton is assigned to head the research effort of the smaller vessel. The government moves it for study to a newly established research facility near Groom Lake NV. They use development of classified spy planes as a cover for the more secretive activities.
The Taman diplomat is imprisoned in a facility in New York. Complaints of nightmares among staff from Bob's psychic output and mental distress force his relocation to a facility with better shielding.
The Three-Mile Island nuclear facility served as a cover for an extensive and well-shielded underground facility until an unrelated industrial accident brought excessive attention to the site in 1979.
Also in 1979, a mistake by a research technician at the Groom Lake facility caused a core detonation within the remaining Tamun vessel, code named "Step Sister." The explosion resulted in the complete destruction of the vehicle, along with electromagnetic damage to nearly all of the facility equipment, and an EMP wave sufficient to disable a prototype aircraft flying in the area.
Bob was relocated to a much smaller, decommissioned Titan-2 missile base outside of Denver CO. This base, ostensibly passed into the hands of private citizens, and was renovated into a secure data backup facility. This cover allowed the continued presence of security and employees in the facility, though under a civilian shroud.
Phalanx, under the guise of the CIA, turned control of the Groom Lake facility over to the Air Force, removing all research from the facility. Some items were stored in salt mines owned by cover corporations, some were moved to Colorado, to a front company with an extensive underground complex in Denver.
In 2003, a Taman Light Scout Cruiser arrives stealthily in Earth space, and a mixed assault team is dispatched to recover Khel'Anask from prison. Casualties among ground security forces and Phalanx support staff at the facility are very high, an incendiary device inside the complex of tunnels ensures little remains of the equipment as the team leaves. Attempts to intercept the landing craft before takeoff, and to destroy the cruiser in orbit, fail.
With the failure of Phalanx to prevent the rescue of their prisoner, and to prevent the escape of the Taman craft, the operations oversight committee decides to shut Phalanx down. Without a hostage, any renewed negotiations with the Taman will be in preparation of outright war, and secrecy will no longer be necessary.
In 2037, Phalanx is only a memory in the hazy minds of a very few retirement-villa-dwellers. A Taman Heavy Carrier Group arrives in Earth space and begins broadcasting to the planet an intention to subjugate human population under the control of the Taman empire.
This is a good point to tell you a little something about the Taman empire. The Taman are a peaceful, harmonious race, as only a highly empathic race can be. Some three hundred and eleven years before, their planet was invaded by a greatly violent and constantly-warring race; Ortnoks. The Taman were swiftly and brutally subjugated, and they became part of the Ortnok empire. The Ortnoks themselves, having already taken control of the other two intelligent species from their own planet, were now instigating interstellar conflict. For a race of warriors, the lack of resistance of the Taman was unsatisfying.
You might wonder how the Taman came to call the empire their own in the face of this violence. By violence, as it happens. The Ortnok believe in hand to hand fighting as the superior method of determining superiority in their hierarchy. And it was by a direct challenge, from the leader of the Taman faction, to the emperor himself, this transition was begun. The Taman leader, Tell'Aran Suor, proceeded to punch the Emperor straight in his nose. The Ortnoks were shocked and dismayed to find that this attack caused Emperor Khchothok's head to explode from the inside. In a clearly unarmed combat, the Taman took over control of the empire. To this day, a Taman has only to shake his fist at an Ortnok warrior to put the fear of Tell'Aran Suor into it.
It goes without saying (though I am going to say it anyway) that Tell'Aran was not some martial arts mystic, channelling the power of his essence. Nor was he a psionic master, using the power of his mind. In reality, he had simply caused Khchotkok's teeth to be filled with explosives during the last twenty years, as the Taman introduced dentistry to their conquerors.
Thus it was that a Taman commander captained the Heavy Carrier Sesstaran, and ruled with an iron fist the Taman, Ortnok and Shevaar officers under his command. The Sesstaran was escorted by two smaller carriers, six destroyers and a small fleet of support vessels. The Taman did not make war, historically. It was a lesson learned from the Ortnok, and generally carried out in Ortnok fashion. A challenge was issued, purely Ortnok in origin. Terms of war were negotiated; a Taman addition. The return of Khel'Anask Bhavrade to Taman had sent a ripple through the command ranks of the empire. Humans, as it turned out, were somewhere between the Taman and the Ortnok, in terms of general intelligence and ability to control themselves. The Taman called humanity World-Burners, for their willingness to use highly destructive weapons on their own planet. This made the Taman feel a general sense of unease and disquiet, the way one feels put off upon meeting someone who defecates where they eat.
The documents being sent to the planet detailed the terms of war, and called upon the commander of Phalanx as the human representative in the discussions.
Khel'Anask himself served as the representative of the Taman Empire, and determined that the meeting would be held in a human population center. This was presented as a sign of good faith, though in reality he hoped humans would be less likely to nuke them. They landed in Mumbai to meet with the human representative.
Unfortunately, as you'll remember, Phalanx had not had an active membership for three decades. The last commander of Phalanx, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ambrose Howard, was summoned from the golf course and immediately reactivated, the oldest active-duty officer in US history. Of course, it didn't all play out so nicely. General Howard's retirement had been forced, and a quiet disgrace. He was not happy about the reactivation, and only agreed to it at the chance to be face to face with Bob once more.
They met in Mumbai, at a park in the city. Crowds of humans gathered to watch this historic meeting, carefully watched by rings of U.N. soldiers.
Unfortunately, Ambrose and Bob remembered each other quite well, and Bob's ability to speak the language quickly caused the situation to degenerate. This was when General Howard shot Khel'Anask in the chest with a .45 caliber 1911 pistol. Things swiftly grew worse for the humans at this point, as the Ortnok honor guard expressed mild dissatisfaction by firing plasma rifles and dispersing grenades into the crowds gathered around King's Circle. Pitched battle ensued between the U.N. forces and the Taman guard, with the humans in retreat. Heavy armored vehicles rolled from the Taman drop ships, encircling the park even as the last living humans fled. Once the site was secured, the heavy ground weapons began retaliatory fire into the city, leveling buildings and ending human life where possible. Robotic search and destroy tools were deployed, forcing back the circle of human influence, ostensibly to preserve the safety of the Taman officers.
"I hope the little fucker bleeds out and gets ate by an Ortnok," General Howard was heard to say as their fleeing vehicles sped to safety.
And so, to make what is already a long story short, Taman reinforcements and human military forces began to clash in the city, both pouring in to contain the other. It was not until Khel'Anask awoke from his wounds that the inexorable advance of the Taman forces came to a halt.
Without any warning toward their enemies, the invaders retreated to their drop ships and left Mumbai. Future negotiations were done via remote communications. Despite the "misunderstanding," Khel'Anask continued negotiating with General Howard and an agreement regarding the allowable methods of war was reached.
I should like to clarify that Khel'Anask, and Taman in general, are not cowards. Nor are they eternally forgiving. Khel'Anask clearly understands human thinking, and understood the cost of expanding a ground invasion. Despite the Taman's best anti-air defenses, it might have been possible for the humans to get a nuke through and wipe out the invasion force on the ground.
Khel'Anask had no concern that this war will be lost. The agreed-upon terms were simple. Ground forces would be kept to twelve persons or less, including dropship or aircraft crew, and conflict would be limited to small-scale engagements between Phalanx personnel and Taman. Intervention in the conflict by military personnel, other than those already present during a fight, would signal violation of the agreement, and that nation's capitol would be placed under direct fire by naval assets in orbit. Following the capitol, repeat offences would meet with punishment inflicted upon population centers in decreasing population until there were none left. The deployment of biological, chemical, nuclear and anti-matter weapons was prohibited.
One wonders why humans would agree to such terms. They had no reliable ability to punish the Taman for transgressions, and their own weapons, on a one-to-one basis, were far inferior to their enemy's.
Khel'Anask explained that he had no desire to destroy valuable subordinates, only to prove their superiority.
General Howard explained that the Taman anti-matter weapons carried by the destroyers could crack the planet in half. He had this on reliable authority, tortured from Bob decades before. The Taman were dealing from a position of strength, and could dictate the terms. Howard told the U.N. to be happy there were terms.
And so begins the UFO:AI battle. Phalanx, recovering from thirty years of oblivion, under the command of a resurrected Lt. General, who looked as though he might need another resurrection any day now. Manpower and equipment slapped together in days after the agreement, reopening the old headquarters base in Denver, to the surprise of a startled Dave and Busters staff in the building above ground level. This base would serve as the inviolate headquarters for Phalanx, much as the Sesstaran was inviolate, by the agreement they'd made.
In this story line, the story would end with either the fulfillment of the Taman objectives, capturing key personnel and locations, or the capture of the Sesstaran by human forces.
Rather than a complete destruction of the alien race and the total end of the story, I think it would be better if it was just the end of the present threat, and a victory for humans. Bigger and better things to follow.
*edited: I never notice typos until later.
