The Earth's governments knew of the threat as early as 2008. The XCOM Project was founded by the Council of 36 Nations in 2012. These were 36 nations
1 that had been contacted by the Elders, that agreed to confer and later co-operate with each other for the sake of humankind.
Sources indicate there may have been a previous incursion by the aliens in 1962, but this has never been verified and maybe an urban myth.
2
Most commentators mark the start of invasion as Operation Devil's Moon, the first recorded combat operation against the aliens in 2015, Cologne, Germany.
Some how an alien scout ship broke up during atmopsheric entry, debris impacting in the outskirts of the city. Several crew jettisoned to safety and deployed a biochemical area denial weapon to clear the site, while awaiting rescue.
With the alien threat still secret, a nuclear satellite was suspected
3 and the area was cordoned off. The Germans sent in an FSK200 squad to reconnoitre the site, but when all contact was lost, XCOM was mobilised, codename "Operation Devil's Moon".
Many casualties were reported at the site, victims of the biochemical weapon, including the FSK200 soldiers. The weapon was neutralised, and the ensuing shootout resulted in three dead XCOM soldiers and all aliens eliminated.
The next 6 months were punctuated by low intensity conflict, as Earth's governments and the aliens continued to butt heads and negotiations broke down. The Council of Nations started to prepare for full disclosure, and a media campaign that would solidify the alien menace in people's minds.
The Elders revealed themselves first, at the 2016 Summer Olympics. With an alien overseer ship hanging eerily over Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian President delivered their message.
The human species has potential to thrive on Earth and amongst the stars. But its progress has been stifled, and the species now collapses inwards under the weight of its flaws.
We must all take responsibility for this. It is not the governments or institutions to blame, nor one civilisation or another. These are the works of humanity.
And the Elders are equally responsible, now that they have seen our plight they cannot ignore it.
The Elders wish to become our supreme leaders, guiding our species from above, but working to advance the human species at all levels.
All are invited to this shared future, none shall be excluded, but none shall be forced, against their will, to join them.
It proved divisive with the public.
UNESCO created the office of Special Envoy for Extraterrestrials to open dialogue with the Elders.
The aliens had also been wooing global corporations and private banks for years
4, offering the technology of the future to business partners. A lucrative grey market in alien technology had emerged, unsanctioned by any Earth government.
This led to a group of self-styled captains of industry founding Exalt. Ostensibly a non-governmental think thank, Exalt's aim was to create a trade bloc with the aliens that would give them more exclusivity. They were soon inextricably linked to the aliens' cause.
There was also popular support for the Elders at the grassroots, amongst blue collar and white collar communities
5. And for 80% of the world's population living in Third World conditions, they didn't care either way.
Earth's governments needed a platform. Xenophobia wasn't fashionable, and people were just as distrustful of politicians as they were of aliens.
They had to demonise the aliens. The Elders would censure organised religions. The Elders were genetically modifying the human race. Propaganda perverted and exaggerated the Elders' intentions.
6
The aliens owns actions counted against them. Covert abductions had been going on for years; they needed human test subjects to achieve the promised advances in gene modification. This programme was accelerated and the first mass abductions occurred, targeting slums. The Elders were unrepentant, clinical, it was a job that had to be done, and they weren't afraid of making the hard decisions. Exalt gurus repeated their message, "The aliens aren't going away. And if they did, whose to say there aren't other aliens races with designs on the Earth? And they might not be so nice."
Some abductees were returned, enthused with the aliens' cause and showing how they'd benefitted from genetic engineering. But with Christian and Muslim faiths on side, the Council of Nations felt it now had a mandate from the people.
7
There were now open hostilities. Aerial battles, jet fighters, flying saucers, battles in the streets, tanks, gunships, robot walkers, buildings demolished, and riots; every day a new protest.
Although the Elders were reluctant to engage in all-out war, the commanders of their forces were just as determined and ruthless as the humans. The truth about the worst attrocities may never be known.
8
The conflict threatened to spiral out of control. The aliens had suffered severe losses to their fleet of ships, most irreplacable. XCOM were blindly re-tooling alien technology without understanding the side effects...
So the Elders decided to put a stop to it.
Generating a seismic disturbance from their mothership, they triggered the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano in 2017. North America was devasted, over 100,000 died in the USA alone. Worldwide, the slump in crop yields led to years of hardship and famine, which would have killed far more if not for alien intervention.
It was the aliens, working with the private sector that produced hardier, faster growing crops. Faster breeding, more robust cattle. They created the cures for diseases. They solved the energy crisis. After years of subterfuge, experiments, fighting and waste, the promise of the Elders finally started to be realised.
The Council of Nations was officially disavowed by the UN in 2023, as a shadowy cabal within the global intelligence community. The XCOM Project was abandoned. The functions of the UN, sans Security Council, were transfered to the new formed High Commission in 2025.
The invasion was over, the occupation began.
1. Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, USA, and Venezuela.
2. According to the Zudjari, a messianic leader called Origin had led a private army to conquer a new homeworld. They were defeated by "men in hats", descriptions tallying with 1960s USA. Zudjari measure of time would place it in 1962. There's no official record of this incursion, human, Zudjari or otherwise.
3. Afterwards, "crashed nuclear satellite" remained the official story.
4. Infiltration and mind control may have been involved. The Elders had the capability.
5. For the modern, cosmopolitan middle class, the aliens were like middle class heroes, finally talking sense and sorting things out.
6. Or did they? Many would argue that the aliens' true intentions and extent of their activities are not yet known.
7. The good feeling created by bringing together Christian and Muslims faiths on a global scale even convinced many non-religious people that the human race could go it alone.
8. Key figures amongst the Earth's governments were targeted for assassination. The aliens also used so-called "terror strikes" to induce panic in the population, undermine confidence in the authorities, and force XCOM to fight.