XCOM: Knights Blue

IV. The Team Part 1

"We were a very close-knit group of friends once. That was a long time ago. A very long time ago."
~Jessie Davila, "Imperator," talking about the Gamer Blue to an unidentified person; Eleven months prior to joining XCOM

February 23, 2035; Avenger; 9:35 A.M

(Elizabeth Lopez's "Rose" POV)

I opened my eyes and took in the light of a new day.

I looked around my quarters. Nothing special. There was a Queen-Sized bed, a bookshelf that was half-filled with old, pre-war books. There was a lamppost, a desk, a few chairs, a refrigerator for my, "special," wine collection (the bar in the armory doesn't always have my wine, so a girl has to do what a girl has to do, don't judge me), a few paintings (most by me), and a window, which showed a view of a snow covered forest.

I looked to my right, and saw the man I care about the most in the entire world, Caesar Albizures, waking up with his arms around me.

Many, upon seeing this, would probably assume that we are dating. Well...you're right. However, we are not...what's the right word...sleeping...together. We just like to sleep with each other (not in that context).

I met him during Preschool in 2017, two years after the First Contact War (the war between humanity and the aliens). We became fast friends. During our 7th grade year, we founded the Gamer Blue, a group dedicated to providing a safe haven for gamers under the rule of ADVENT (by that I mean a safe haven for gamers that like to play pre-war games, not the newer, propaganda-style games ADVENT makes). We attracted many people, like Janet, Marisol, Angela, Jessie, and others. We became a very close group of friends. Hell...we became family. However, after Eduardo's...incident in 2029, the group quickly fractured and fell apart in a matter of days. After what Caesar and I began to call The Fall, we all went our separate ways. Some like Marisol and Angela left together, while others like Jessie went solo. It didn't matter; we all lost contact with each other.

After Caesar and I graduated high school in 2031, we moved together to New Boston to attend the ADVENT Institute of Advancement, the most prestigious university in the world (built out of the ruins of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), to pursue our dream of becoming Computer Engineers. There, we began to date, and became even closer, even to the point where it seemed that we were telepathic (we always knew what the other was thinking). Life seemed to be perfect, except that I only have my boyfriend to talk to and that all of my friends are gone.

It didn't stay that way.

On May 17, 2032, I was watching the news and saw that Derrick Taylor, the man responsible for 22 'terror' attacks across the globe and who was in prison, had committed suicide. No further details were released. That got me suspicious. Why would some fearless terrorist just suddenly commit suicide, I thought, especially when ADVENT was treating him fairly? And why weren't they releasing any details?

That's how I became a hacker.

On my own private time, I learned to hack into computer systems and networks. After a month of learning, I finally managed to hack into the ADVENT Network. I then cross-referenced Derrick Taylor's name to see what I could find.

I'll never forget what I did find.

There was security footage showing ADVENT Troopers beating and torturing Taylor. They were punching him, cutting him, injecting him with liquid that made his skin burn, and other horrific things that...that...I still can't recall everything. He kept screaming, and screaming, and screaming, but they didn't stop. They only did when he died.