Project Covenant

Overview

Project Covenant was founded shortly after World War II when an alien vessel landed in New Mexico, followed shortly thereafter by a landing outside of Kapustin Yar ("Russia's Roswell") in the USSR. People had seen what horrors man had ushered into existence just a few years before with the introduction of nuclear weapons; the possibility that one superpower or the other might gain the upper hand through researching alien tech was unthinkable. Nuclear weapons were already out of the bag, and there was nothing they could do to stop proliferation and an eventual arms race. But what if one of these technologies made even nuclear weapons useless? Sometimes the most threatening weapon is an impenetrable shield...

A small group of spies, scientists, military leaders and politicians broke their oaths of loyalty and founded a new Covenant for the sake of humanity, vowing that the weapons and technologies they discovered would never be used by men to conquer men, and also to build a secret military infrastructure--an extraterrestrial combat force--to repel a full-blown alien invasion should that threat someday come to Earth.

Since 1947, Project Covenant has been responsible for investigating possible alien activity, covering up XT influences and hoarding and protecting XT technology. If there ever were any Men in Black, these guys most closely fit the bill.

Project Covenant's response protocol was drawn up from information teased from the data banks of multiple alien computers from several ships that landed and were captured. The alien strategy became known as the SAIC doctine: surveillance, assimilation, infiltration, corruption. This method of invasion evidently takes years to complete, so the founders planned to take advantage of that window. They focused much of their efforts on counterintelligence and intelligence-gathering, hoping that if they could at least spot the first two steps in the XTs plan, they might stop the last two. During this window between detecting an invasion attempt and alien boots on the ground, the founders figured they would have years to come out of the shadows, fill their ranks and get a fully staffed force ready to fight the enemy, a state they referred to as "invasion-ready."

These plans, however, did not account for the fact that the aliens (the Collective, from whom all the captured ships had been stolen) were in the process of changing their tactics, and the data in their ships' computers did not convey this updated information.

As they say, "You're always ready to fight the last war again."

Project Founding

The following history of Project Covenant is recounted to members of the Elma Resistance by Agent Lillian Kjelstad, custodian of Bunker November

"...The inspiration for the project began before the alien ships began to land on Earth, though those events really gave the founders motivation to turn their concerns into a reality. With the Manhattan Project bringing nuclear weapon technology into reality, many in the scientific community had grave concerns about how the control of such destructive weapons would change the world.

Some scientists such as Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer were approached by this concerned group, but Oppenheimer plunged forward with his research regardless, driven by the perceived need to end World War II. The weapons were not developed until after VE day, and were too late to be used against Germany, which Oppenheimer was reportedly disappointed by. He and many of his colleagues were grateful to be able to contribute to the war effort, but were "very upset" when a second weapon was deployed to bomb Nagasaki, feeling it was unnecessary. They naively realized then that control over the technology they had discovered had slipped out of their hands, if they ever had any control of it at all. Oppenheimer slowly crept back to those concerned scientist with a much-humbled view of his own importance.

Within public circles, though, the father of the atomic bomb found a certain scientific credibility, and Oppenheimer used this clout to lobby for international control of atomic power and to avert nuclear proliferation. In the next few years he met with many other scientists and foreign interests to further these aims. With the start of the Cold War, the first alien spacecraft began landing on Earth, complicating matters immensely. Oppenheimer, along with many noted scientists, were called to examine wreckage.

Seeing what they had on their hands--honest-to-God extraterrestrial technology--they saw a second chance to maintain control where they had failed so miserably before. With notable scheming, treachery, misdirection and co-opting of key officials (and no small amount of luck), the scientists barely managed to conceal the original landing, passing it off as something mundane. To this day, conspiracies abound, and the truth is caked beneath so many layers of deceit that it may never be truly known.

This event gave Oppenheimer and his new colleagues even greater drive; the same mentality that wrested control of the bomb from them was still in power, holding that weapon at the throat of humanity. The last thing they wanted was something new and more powerful to come onto the scene and make matters even worse. They were able to draw in key personnel in the military and intelligence communities on both sides of the Iron Curtain, operatives who had been involved in some of the opening battles of the Cold War. These second-round converts understood the motivations of the political figures and parties all too well, and came to believe that alien technology in the hands of these groups on either side could easily spell the end of humanity.

Because of his work on the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer and several of his staff were closely watched by the FBI to make sure he wasn't selling secrets to the Soviets. Many of the persons he met with were Soviet scientists and NKVD agents known to the Bureau. Some of his overseas contacts were British nationals. Despite the United States' alliance with England during WWII, certain factions within U.S. government still maintained a frosty relationship with Britain, and disapproved of Oppenheimer's association with them. Because of these meetings, Oppenheimer eventually lost his security clearances and was largely stripped of any political clout and authority. Dropping out of the limelight only freed him to pursue the goals of the group he had joined. With knowledge of extraterrestrial life, and their apparent hostility, the group not only sought to safeguard humanity from having other-worldly weapons used against them, but sought to build an invasion preparedness network that could respond to an alien attack.

With the original test of the first atomic weapon code-named "Trinity," Oppenheimer joked that they should give their new group the name "Covenant," as they were making a promise to mankind that they would safeguard them from this brand of destruction. The name stuck, and the group became known as Project Covenant.

Staffing

Initial project members were mostly scientists, but they were able to lure in some political figures, as well. Co-opting military men was risky, but when nuclear proliferation became a reality and the conflicts of the Cold War began playing out, it became easier to draw in defectors. Also, with espionage between the Western and Eastern superpowers raging, it was sometimes surprisingly easy to stage kidnappings and disappearances and have intelligence agencies on both sides immediately assume the other was to blame without looking for a third party that claimed no national allegiance.

Membership to the Project was not restricted to Americans; some of the earliest supporters were Soviet and German scientists liberated from Nazi Europe during Operation Paperclip. The Soviets started out behind in the arms race (though they would soon catch up), and the Europeans saw that their homeland would likely once again be a battleground if hostilities broke out between NATO forces and the Eastern Bloc. Many Japanese researchers were drawn into the project out of respect, among other things; their nation was the first to feel the wrath of nuclear weapons. Though not a major contributor at first, in later years, Japanese interests would provide much-needed financial aid to the project and research assistance.

In the early years of the Project, the founders were able to draw personnel from many of the world's intelligence agencies that rapidly cropped up after WWII. In later years, entire agencies like the CIA, NSA, NRO, NKVD, KGB, MI6 and GCHQ would become secret arms of the project. One particular holdout was the FBI; its agents proved nearly impossible to draw into the fold, and being a much older organization (founded in 1908), its higher ranks were steeped in decades of tradition. The motto of the FBI is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity," after all; two of these three traits pretty much excluded FBI agents from being co-opted by Project staff.

After a few decades, Project Covenant effectively had thousands of operatives all around the world. Most of these were intelligence personnel, keeping an eye out for suspicious activity and monitoring signals intelligence, all to detect the early stages of an alien invasion. Because these personnel were employed by other nations, they didn't cost the project a thing, and they worked in the shadows, leaving no paper trail or footprint prying eyes could use to uncover the Project. Maintaining a full-time reaction force was beyond the means of the Project, and bringing knowledge of the existence of the alien threat to the governments of the world would likely cause mass panic and make an already fragile geo-political ecosystem even more turbulent. Their intent was to only draw in their reaction force in the event of an imminent invasion; at that point they could step out of the shadows and make their resources available to the nations of the world. Though some would criticize this plan as being nothing more than a repeat of handing over nuclear weapons to help bring about the end of WWII (because of perceived necessity), the ruling body declared that this bad idea was the best among the even worse ideas available to them at the time.

Vigilo Confido

If the time ever came to gather their forces to repel an invasion, this reaction force would be called "X-Com," the Earth's extraterrestrial combat force. This group's motto was inspired by a highly literate Soviet Osnaz soldier: Vigilo Confido. Loosely translated it means "I am watchful. I am necessary" or the more popular translation (among the Americans in the Project, at least) "In Vigilance I Trust." Though, if forced to adopt a Latin motto, some of the rank and file secretly chose their own: Confutatis maledictis; Flammis acribus addictus: Voca me cum benedictis. ("While the wicked stand confounded, Doomed to flames of woe unbounded: Call me with Thy Saints surrounded.")

Known Personnel

General MacArthur Nils
Lillian Kjelstad
Dean Vickers
Ian Church
MSG Alton Kamastafall, USMC, ret.

Facilities

Bunker Alpha--"Area 51," located beneath Groom Range Test Facility
Bunker Bravo--"Kapustin Yar," located beneath the city of Znamensk
Bunker Charlie--"Tunguska," located near the site of the Tunguska Impact Event
Bunker Delta--"Hammer," located near Luchegorsk, the site of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite impact event
Bunker Echo*--"Underworld," Located deep beneath Vauxhall Cross, London
Bunker Foxtrox--"Bikini," Underwater facility near Bikini Atoll
Bunker Golf*--"Doughnut," located deep beneath the GCHQ in Benhall, a district within the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Bunker Hotel--"Apple," located outside of New York City
Bunker India--"Lonar," located near Lonar crater lake, India
Bunker Juliet--"Princess," located beneath Ft. Meade, Maryland
Bunker Kilo--"Lovecraft," located near the site of the Araguainha crater in Brazil
Bunker Lima--"Red Square," located near Moscow
Bunker Mike*--"Whiteout," located on the northern tail of the Antarctic Peninsula
Bunker November*--"Eagle," located in Elma, Washington

Facilities marked with an asterisk (*) were founded after The Gurov Destabilization, hence, the Red Hand may not know their location.

Early Days

In the infancy of the Project, the founders sought to try and reclaim some control over nuclear weapons. With Oppenheimer as their front man, they hoped to make some headway reigning in these weapons of mass destruction. This soon proved futile, and other more imminent threats occupied their attention.

First Contact

In 1947, an unidentified flying object (UFO) was reported to have landed at a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico. Roswell Army Airfield was nearby, and personnel from the facility were called in to investigate. Shortly after, they realized they had more on their hands than they were prepared to deal with. An OSS team--the predecessors of the Green Berets--was called in to provide assistance. They checked out the landing site, finding what appeared to be a vessel settled in a small crater, and hostile forces defending it. Thanks to superior numbers and their unrivaled discipline, the men from the OSS were able to dispatch the hostiles before they broke containment. The vessel was secured, though local military officials were reluctant to report higher up their chain of command what field operatives were reporting.

This gave personnel from Covenant the only window of opportunity they would ever get. Dr. Oppenheimer was quietly called in to investigate, and his team were also able to interview some of the OSS men who had encountered and fought against the invaders. These men would be the first of many intelligence operatives the Project would draw in. With their assistance and connections, Project members were able to misdirect and deceive the military as to the nature of the landing. With help from Soviet project members, they were able to procure enough unrelated classified evidence so as to make the whole incident seem relatively innocuous. The landing was largely swept under the rug until the 1970's, when distrust of the government became more of a fad, and scrutiny of its post-war activities was not frowned upon so much. Though, by this time, members of Project Covenant (and even the U.S. military) had had a couple decades' head start in covering the incident up with heaps of lies and misdirection. By the time anyone started looking, the truth was so heavily covered that the only people who would know what truly happened there were the people who knew what happened, and as time marched on, their numbers dwindled, and the secrets of Roswell followed them to the grave.

More Landings Follow

In 1949, a similar landing outside of Volgograd drew the attention of the NKVD. They sent Osnaz troops to secure the site. Armed with intel from Roswell, they were better prepared, but there were still losses, as this landing site held a larger ship with more invaders and what appeared to be robotic combat units.

The Soviet scientist Vladimir Gurov, scooped up in Operation Paperclip and easily turned to serve Project Covenant, was vital to the Project's early success. Early on he had discovered how to operate the Excavator Probes contained within the vessel at Roswell, which gave a ready means to hide these alien vessels that were rapidly piling up. The Roswell craft was hidden deep beneath Groom Lake, which would later become one of the most secret test facilities in the United States. The Volgograd craft was more rapidly hidden, and piled over with Russian dirt and Soviet bureaucracy. The site became Kapustin Yar, a rocket launch and development facility. It would later be known by some conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists as "Russia's Roswell." In later years, Kapustin Yar would become a cosmodrome, further covering the secrets hidden beneath--ironically--with layers of transparency.

At first, deciphering information from captured craft was slow and difficult, as most of this research was being done in an age bereft of digital computers. Once again, the genius of Vladimir Gurov came to the rescue, and he was the first to begin cracking the secrets of the alien computers and deciphering their language. Samples of what he had uncovered were sent to agents within the Government Code and Cypher School in England (the successors of the minds behind Bletchley Park, responsible for cracking Enigma during WWII), and to allied members in the newly-formed CIA. With this assistance, Project Covenant was able to begin piecing together information from the alien computers, and formed their understanding of the alien orders of battle, how they would stage any invasion. Also, largely because of this information-sharing, the United States' government and the British government created the NSA and the GCHQ at the urging of CIA and GSCS directors who were allied with Project Covenant.

The 1950's and 1960's were a busy time for Project Covenant staff. They responded to several landings, and also formed a means to predict the landing sites based on ancient impact craters; for some reason, certain sites were the target of alien landings. Gurov once proposed that the alien propulsion systems may have warped time itself, and caused some form of disruption to be cast backward in the fourth dimension that manifested in the physical universe as a massive kinetic impact with the target (Earth). This idea was never proven, but on several occasions, based on evidence gathered from sites around the globe, Covenant reaction teams were onsite close to the predicted times that alien craft made their landings.

With over a dozen landings taking place in a little over a decade, the members of the Project were tempted to move to full invasion-ready status, but the frequency of incidents tapered off, with the last known event occurring in 1980 at Mount St. Helens in Washington State. Project Covenant also stepped back from moving to invasion-ready based on the 1972 Schism Event, which shook the Project to its core and cost them decades of progress.

The Gurov Destabilization

Almost from day one, the brightest star within the research departments of Project Covenant was Vladimir Gurov. Early on he had far surpassed even Oppenheimer's progress in trying to unravel the alien technologies. Some thought it was due to all the hands he had passed through--Russian upbringing, German captivity and American rescue. Others thought that was a far too simplistic rationale. Later investigations leaned toward the theory that Gurov had exposed his mind to hazardous alien technologies in the course of his nearly single-handed research efforts, and that one or more of these had corrupted his mind with subversive alien directives. Whatever the case, he seemed in tune with the extraterrestrial artifacts, and over the years he slowly unraveled many of their secrets, some of which (benign technologies, naturally) influenced human technologies and found their way into consumer markets to help build revenue for the Project.

In the late sixties and early seventies, as electronics technology became more advanced, Gurov was able to delve deeper into captured alien resources than he was ever able to before. Over the years, many had given up trying to keep pace with his discoveries and simply waited for his findings and progress reports. This complacency would prove to be a disastrous precedent, as it gave Gurov plenty of wiggle room when he decided to betray the project, and plenty of opportunity to cover his tracks when he enacted his plan.

To this day, no one fully understands what went wrong, or if it was simple human betrayal, but the end results became clear to Project staff soon enough. Gurov had left for parts unknown, and managed to abscond with almost all of his research and some key artifacts, as well, which made understanding the nature of his betrayal difficult (because if the change in his loyalties was due to influence of a particular device, he probably stole it when he left). The Project was left with a bunch of facilities and only a handful of artifacts they comprehended at all. Project growth and expansion slowed to a crawl, and much of their intelligence assets were tasked with recovery of either Gurov or the items and information he had stolen. On top of this, their research efforts were equally hamstrung; if exposure to alien tech had caused this mess, entire new protocols had to be drawn up for their scientists to deal with it safely. When it came to flying beneath Covenant's radar, Gurov understood the steps the Project's bagmen would take, and the resources available to them. He was able to evade capture or even detection for years, and his activities were only discovered thanks to an outsider whose methods he could not predict.

In the late 1980's, Lillian Marie, a CIA field operative working in Europe, uncovered traces of a covert group she had dubbed the "Red Hand." When her reports began to filter back to the Agency, Covenant sleepers still embedded there took note, and they slowly converted Marie to their cause. She had finally gotten a track on Gurov, and this allowed the Project Agents a chance to begin recovery operations. This proved a daunting and often impossible task, as Gurov had nearly full access to alien technology, and when conflict arose, he employed it liberally, but never in ways such as to tip off the public. For years, the Red Hand and Covenant carried out a deadly dance, and for many in the Project, it began to parallel far too closely the same struggles the United States was having with the Soviet Union. They chose to step back from their pursuit and focused on their original charter, namely invasion preparedness. Certainly, they didn't want Gurov to sell secrets or try to use the technology he had stolen against humanity, but he had not done so yet, and there was little they could do to stop him.

SAIC Doctrine

One of the first things Project researchers (led by Vladimir Gurov) tried to uncover was information from the alien computers. With high-level cryptanalysis efforts, they were able to uncover reams of information. One of the most valuable early documents (or so it was viewed at the time) was the discovery of the alien Orders of Battle, essentially the generalized blueprints of how they would stage an invasion of any world, regardless of the nature of the inhabitants or what kind of society or government they adopted. This told Project staff that the invaders were expansionistic, and had made plans (and had possibly enacted them) to conquer any number of other races on any number of worlds. The mere existence of these plans told Project staff that they were barking up the right tree when it came to preparing to stop these XTs.

The first step of their plan involved surveillance of the target world. This would involve long-distance monitoring of the target's tech levels, any electromagnetic emissions from their planet, and their detection capabilities. When countermeasures could be enabled, scout vessels would visit the target world and drop off infiltrator units that would monitor for months at a time in order to learn the target people's ways, patterns and weaknesses.

When the invaders felt confident that they could mimic the natives, they would send in forces specialized to assimilate with the target population. These would become long-term "sleepers" that would gather resources, information and access within the target population. This would eventually lead to the next stage in their operations.

When the invaders felt that they had established a safety net within the target population, they would begin infiltrating with their more overt forces, beginning the infiltration stage. These forces would be used to counter the groups or agencies that the sleepers could not deal with covertly, and often staged raids, attacks and assassinations that set the sleepers up in positions of power.

The last step involved the target population essentially handing over control to planted sleeper agents, who would direct the course of the world's people to willingly bow to control by the invaders. This was called the "corruption" phase of the invasion, because at this point, the natives were often directed by native leaders and agencies that they had always trusted to take a course of action that would inevitably lead them to be enslaved by the invaders. If the campaign was prosecuted well, it would ideally end with little or no bloodshed and with the target populace all but happily marching into the arms of the invaders (because by this time all the malcontents and insurgents ought to have been eliminated).

Knowing how the invaders would approach led Project directors to believe they could develop viable counter-occupation strategies. Their plans likely would have worked, if not for the fact that the intel they drew their own plans from was decades, if not centuries out of date. By the time the invaders came in force to Earth in January of 2014, they had developed new strategies, tactics, and most importantly, different goals. None of these fit into the rigid reaction plans the founders had drawn up, and their decades of effort did little to prevent disaster. In light of this, regional Agents--the custodians of Covenant Bunkers--scrambled to make the best of a bad situation. They were not in this game to roll over and give up; they were in this to fight and win.

With entire governments toppled and destabilized literally overnight during the Sweeps, agents of Project Covenant flipped the switch on invasion-ready status. The enemy is here. Now is the time for X-Com to strike back.

Vigilo Confido..."

End of Report