UFO: X-COM Enemy Unknown - Herald of the Agregate

[Uros_Osium]

UFO: X-COM Enemy Unknown

–

Herald of the Agregate

 

*^-Introduction and Notes-^*

 

*Notes Section*

 

Beware of bad language! Other warnings will flare up and be marked in sections as they are needed.

 

This is a Re-Imagination (Thanks to the new game) of one of my first works that I made while I was 14 or so, when I first got a computer and discovered the joys of NOT writing in paper since my writing sucks when you have to read my handwriting, seriously it is total garbage. I made the original story, now lost except a few old notes in my notebook and some memories, to spawn the 3 original X-COM games, with minor tweaks. I explained the reasons the aliens had, I made them present much sooner than when they were found and I made them experiment in humans to solve the reason they came to Earth before the brutality of war, the slaughter (Or attempt) of humanity, was needed.

 

It has been ten years, I have a work now, for now at least, and I have little time to write and my own projects, adult themed or otherwise, going. Yet I could admit to be taken by nostalgia when I saw X-COM returning from the ashes not being SHIT and a FPS. Shame is I cannot say I own it, not yet, being in Spain means it will arrive in time and I will buy it, or probably it will be bought to me as a present, these Christmas. Until then I am seeing Lets Plays in Youtube because, even if you see it, the love to such a franchise and the DESIRE TO PLAY just grows, no matter if you saw what will happen before you got your hands on it. That is how you know you want a game, the same way as I wanted Brutal Legend.

 

Now, I set this around 2034, 21 years after the story starts in the new game. I know it is forward in time, but with how technology is developing that should be long enough for it to be somewhat to the point of the game, maybe not, but I am the writer and in my story I am god as far as I can make it have some sense with a simple ‘I say so’. This story will be gory in some points, language and maybe adult themes will be present (MAYBE) but will have so many warnings fired upon them that you cannot read them by mistake, I mean it. If you read them by mistake you weren’t paying attention and you better burn! (Kidding). It is not cannon, I am not trying to make it cannon and it will also be slightly AU just to inform you, as my original story was.

 

Of course… you may want to know about it by reading, right? Let’s see what you think then, onwards to the story.

 

*^- Chapter 1: Isolation -^*

 

It was a sad day for ‘Thor’, a sad day indeed. Looking at the grave the poor and young man could not think of anything but his fantasies, as his father had asked him: ‘Believe in your fantasies son! Write, draw, act! Do as you like and guide yourself by heart! I had been told since I was young that I would have to fight to be a writer and damn right those people were by telling me… but now here I am!’ His father had told him that when he was only five, he had told him that when he admitted he was adopted when Thor had reached fourteen and he told him that when he sat in front of his son after the accident three months ago. Now his father was dead, brain damage, severe lacerations, organ malfunctions… the car crash had been harsh and he was only alive because he had shielded Thor with his body.

 

In a perfect scene it would be raining, it would be crowded and it would be a gloom day. This wasn’t perfect; sun was up, the birds chirped and no one had been here all day. His family left his father to his own means once he became thickheaded and turned to his writing before anything else. Friends were scarce, he was not a social man and, to be sincere, Thor wasn’t either. No one mourned him but his fans, yet none had come, probably because this funeral was no more than looking at an empty grave after spilling his father’s remains in front of the ocean, as he had asked him to do.

 

The laminated grave, pure grounded steel, reflected him. Thor, most known by those outside the web as his real name: Armando Gonzalez Fernandez. He had been asked by his father if he wanted HIS last names or if he would go with what was biologically his thanks to his parents, but being abandoned probably had some to do with his decision of stay with what his adoptive dad gave him. Tall, taller than his dad by a few inches, he was six feet and around two inches, wide shoulders, small nose, perky ears, a bit of a prominent chin and, also, unlike his dad (Who ended up bald), Thor had long brown hair and was muscled up thanks to his dad’s encouragement to buff up and not get bullied. It took him a couple of years being teased for being a fatty to change that though. If something was to be said though, is that he wasn’t pretty, just average, but those green eyes were alluring to many.

 

Usually he would be dressed with a light vest, white or black shirt and probably army pants and reinforced boots. Today was no different, his father told him to be strong, happy and to evade depression and dark thoughts. It was hard, he was crying, a grown up man crying at the lost of probably the one person, related by blood or not, that had decided to give him a chance and cared for him. It was sad, but he had left him all he owned, his father had given him all he would ever need, including time; time to create, to construct, to do as he wanted. It would take time but he would be happy again and do what he loved.

 

Today though? Today it was time to turn it in and sleep. He would be able to do nothing feeling this down, as much as his father had helped him prepare for the worst things with a big smile.

 

***Somewhere else, during the night…***

 

*BOOM!*

 

Another explosion rocked the cockpit around and the two figures in it squealed over while giving grunts, hisses or other sounds at each other. It was hard to make anything over the alarms, the pressure being lost and the mixing of gases from the many openings in the craft that got the pressured mix they were used to escape to the outside world. Where they in space like a few minutes ago, they would be screwed, but here? Here they just had annoyance, headache and a harder time maneuvering the scout ship.

 

They both had escaped, they were the first two, but there was hundreds more, maybe thousands. The problem is that they were few, they were weak and they were not that superior to humans as the OTHERS were. It had been a hit or miss in the others’ part, and it had missed. They both knew it had been an idea for the greater good, but it had not turned out like that in their heads as they both knew, every single one of them probably knew, that the others would hurt mankind no matter what. The solution would maybe cut humans’ wings forever… if they had to pick allegiances, they would not pick their creators’ side on this one, as there were two sides and the biological one was stronger for them than the one engineered in their brains.

 

*CRASH!* Another hit, right in the engine room. It would not explode, they had modified the thing with help of one of the others that wanted to help and for that reason it had much less power, but was much sturdier (In hopes to hide it and use it in the future without repairs) than it would normally be. They knew they probably would never thank him, but his help had made sure they would survive, or at least survive a bit more as the ship went straight down towards the Earth’s surface.

 

It had been so pretty up there, far away, but now they questioned how their ideas of beauty had been betrayed as they saw the concrete and steel of the city as they went over so few gardens or green areas of the city. It was a ravaged world, even if years of care and repair had made Earth recover much of what it had lost. The brutal nature of the human had only forced the species to heal the planet in 2020 after the third world war was adverted ONLY because a nuclear missile was fired and it caused catastrophic events in Africa. Radiation had been cleansed, the place had been helped, wealth of the world had been evened and mass destruction weapons abolished and destroyed with clean energy and newer technologies applied.

 

And still the world looked ugly thanks to how much humans had ransacked it during their whole life as a species.

 

Had it been alright for them to break from the program to come and warn them? A few of their companions would probably escape in time, some were already in Earth in the hidden bases, but they knew most of them would be placed in stasis in the main base, hidden from the temptation of rebellion. This brought the question, the IF, because those that were here could, maybe, have seen what happened in Earth closer than both friends had. If it was uglier than what both friends could see, maybe they would be alone in this to the end.

 

Whatever the case, they had committed themselves to this, and they would see through it to the bitter end, an end that approached as fast as the small house on the residential area full of cars, street lights, small gardens and a few trees. The impact would hurt, the fact that the other scout was on their tail, and that it had deployed the pods to capture specific humans with a certain something to them. The terminology wasn’t exactly in their heads as the ship finally crashed. They knew they had forced plan B on their creators: War. Yet war was much easier in any sense: Victory for the humans would bring them possible salvation, the retaining of their free will and newer technologies. Victory for their creators would force them to appear in front of the humans and guide them to what would best help the whole.

 

Two options, both with good and bad things happening, but none of them being able to mingle with each other as humans would not like to give what their creators asked in exchange of their help and foreshadowing. It would be a slow attrition and a sure defeat to humans by plan A, or a possible destruction or win by Plan B. Either way they had made it, even if consciousness escaped and survival looked a distant possibility now.

 

*** ‘Thor’s’ House ***

 

Sleep hadn’t kicked in today. Thor had just let himself fall on the couch inside the so empty room without even eating, tired from hiding his sadness and mentally spent as he tried to cope with the loss. The only thing he did before getting his useless body on the black leather couch was to take every movie; every book and every object in the main room to his father’s room, at least anything that made him remember what he had lost. He would bring everything back once he finally got himself together, but for now it would not be possible, his mind, and his usual cheery nature, were not really as they used to be, not at least right now.

 

So bare he had left the room that the only things he could see was the table they ate in, his own chair, the TV, the little table it stood in and his plate with a day old food. On the side was the window that showed night sky, filled with clouds that let rain come at least, pouring like there was nothing to stop it after being needed, even if for a childish reason, during the day. On the other side was the exit, a heavy black jacket perched near the door if he decided to get a night stroll under the rain and one of his father’s handguns to protect the house from would be robbers. For once Thor desired someone would try to break in, something that didn’t happen more than once a year, tops, but that usually scared him… now he wanted someone to blame and hurt.

 

The crash was surprising, the explosions not so much… but the tremor that came with them? Hell that stirred him up ok. Thor had been told that planes crashing close to your position would make the ground tremble and throw you to the ground, but this had been quite powerful, maybe enough to hope for a damn jumbo when the bigger thing around the sky over the city was a small police or news chopper. It startled him, and it startled everyone in the neighborhood, when he finally decided to get his ass up and go check around five minutes had gone by as his cold sweat told him not to get involved with whatever happened, only to finally see something incredible on the outside.

 

A UFO, a big ass, well, not really huge, ship with impressive lights, alien design and blue fire out of many of the hull’s cracks! It was surprising, hard to describe from a long range and obscurity as his house was not in the right spot to see it with so many cars, the crater of the impact and a few… pods? There were some pods, taller than some cars, that had been thrown around seemingly at random near, and even far away, from the craft. They were cool, or he guessed they should be, they didn’t look human at least and with how much fantasy his father had put on his head, Thor was interested in anything alien.

 

It was an interest that partially died once shit hit the fan.

 

The pods seemed to open, spraying some weird green goo all over the people that had concentrated around them and the crash site of the UFO. Some walked away unscathed, running for their lives, while others were engulfed and ‘cocooned’ by the green goo, crystallizing in horrendous and still forms that let everyone see the ones still alive within the green sludge. Even from where Thor was he could see that they were alive, why? Because some people walked away, head covered in the goo, obviously dizzy and confused but able to move, even sit down and take a breath when the dizziness was too much. Whatever the thing was had the intended purpose of capturing, not killing, though it took ample force to pry off and anyone heavily covered on it would not be able to free from its grasp.

 

Seeing enough, and fearful of what might happen, Thor nearly decided to get back to the sofa, close the window and even reinforce the door, but people out there needed help. His father had been a writer, reclusive, taciturn and had admitted openly that he didn’t like humanity all that much thanks to all the betrayals he had suffered and how badly a lot of the world had been treated in front of his eyes. He had been quite blunt to a lot of short sighted people telling them he would probably kill a human before an animal to scare them off, though he was serious. Thor was not much better, but he knew that even his father would’ve helped the people out there.

 

Having an excuse to maybe harm something and take his pain out on something, Thor decided to get his jacket and his father’s gun, a pair of prepared clips near the weapon and head out. It was going to be quite the night and nothing would be the same no matter how things ended.

 

***

 

Not even the alarms of the police echoed in the night as the cries faded away, only the brittle droplets of rain as they fell on him and all around where he was. A thunder struck close, hitting on one of the pods that had already spent the green goo though this one had gotten nothing out of it. The thing was like a little pyramid, though it was slightly round on the edges, mounted on four arms and anchored to the ground by a huge spike for what Thor could see once he got close to it. An octagonal body seemed to hold the green goo within its main core and four of the sides were open, sporting three rows of two openings each from where the stuff came out like if it was a silky web in search of prey for its arachnid master.

 

Touching it may be not the best idea, but Thor was curious and so he did it. The feeling was smooth, nice, strange… it was metal but seemed like it could be worn on top of skin with little problem and it would feel light and right unlike a lot of clothes. Maybe it was just his mind pulling tricks on him as he wished to take a look at it with more time, scientist or not, just to satisfy his curiosity. However a muffled cry took his attention as he turned, seeing no one, only to look to the path between his house and one of his neighbors’ own.

 

A young man, Terry Oxford, his neighbors’ son, was struggling to take the stuff from his arm, chest and, soon, his legs. The kid was fifteen, hated Thor’s guts and was the obvious bully from school that would fuck with you given the chance. Still he had a good heart even if he dressed like the stereotypical fat biker with chains and leather all over his body, even a red bandana over the black hair and sunglasses covering his brown eyes. For his short stature he was broad and strong, liking to push others around, but now? Now he crawled over the ground, part of the green goo getting to cover his eyes and mouth, making him obviously groggy.

 

His dad was quite vengeful, Thor? Well, a bit, but the young man needed help and that he was an asshole was not reason enough... well, let’s say he would simply help him.

 

Thor came close to the teen, forcing him to stay put as he took a firm grasp of the stuff and pulled, tearing part of the goo that was over Terry’s face and chest, helping him free from the green crap as fast as possible. It took a whole minute for something that looked like putty, but it came off and finally Terry could breathe free, though not out of the stuff’s effects.

 

“Holly shit man!” The teen cried out as he half embraced his savior “Those things came out so fast! Didn’t you feel the shock? And that fucking UFO man! I wish my parents were home so they told me to not get my nose where it doesn’t belong!”

 

“Calm down Terry!” Thor shook the young man before lifting him from the ground “Get in your house and call the police! I am going to try and free anyone caught with this crap ok?”

 

“You crazy man?”

 

They weren’t in the USA, but being born there, Terry’s parents had the habit of having weapons at all times near them. Terry’s father was, unlike his son, short, bulky and not really that smart, so he thought it would be a great idea to give his son an old revolver modified with modern technologies. Twenty years ago, this revolver could’ve punched a hole in a tank, for today’s standards? It would still kill a people without armor, but even shirts and normal clothes offered a bit of armor, so it was a dangerous tool, but not the worst.

 

“I am going with ya”

 

“Like hell you are going!” Thor pushed the young man against his house’s wall. While looking like wood and like the common mass produced house, these things were made out of the newest mix of concrete. The idea was to hurt and scare him into getting to safety, the only way a bully learned sometimes “Get to your house, NOW!”

 

It backfired, though, as Terry got up and against him “You got me even if you don’t want it, pal”

 

“Kid, I can get you knocked out with a well placed punch. Why should I let you come?” Thor was just about to punch Terry in the face and get on with it, but then the kid pointed to the sky “What?”

 

A round object, larger than a bus and twice, maybe thrice as wide, an exact copy, intact at that, of the UFO crashed close by was getting closer to the ground, maybe a kilometer or two away from where Thor and Terry where located. For some reason it seemed that they had fought between them and maybe the ones in the UFO were friends, or maybe it was the other way around and the ones trying to help were on the crashed ship. There were few options for Thor’s mind as he looked around to see at least twenty people ‘cocooned’ and a crashed ship when not even a single army fighter was around the place. Thor had to think that someone in there was a friend, or this would get very bad very soon.

 

“Ok kid, you’ll help me: We free everyone as the goo seems to stay still once it captures someone, ok?” Terry nodded at Thor’s words before he let the teen go “Get their faces and arms open and then get to the next, even if they are dizzy we need to get them all free before whatever is in that ship gets here ok?”

 

Terry nodded again and got free from Thor. He had to wonder how a young guy like that was so much like a grown up and had so much malice, anger and violence inside… of course his dad used to tell him that the pair next door wasn’t exactly your common one and that they were maybe a bit violent and blunt. Even in this age some people will always be a bit more like an animal than a person, but at least animals don’t show their young how to kill others or threaten them for fun. In any case Terry got two persons free while Thor worked over his thoughts and only freed one, he had to be fast and think latter.

 

It would take around five minutes, time he didn’t think he had, but everyone would be free, if only because everyone else tried to help. Once the deed was done the group scattered, searching for more survivors and heading away from the large ship that finally touched ground on the horizon while a sea of people running in the other way got past them in hopes of getting out of the way of whatever was coming. It was disheartening to see cooperation only from those who had already suffered from the attack, but Thor thought he couldn’t ask for much more.

 

A few of the civilians that hadn’t decided on running after the group scattered finally yelped in terror as a green shot of some kind came too close to comfort and burned the base of a close lamp post, throwing it to the ground with a loud crash. They ran off the moment we saw what was coming: Greys.

 

Greys are the ‘mythical’ aliens so to speak: They are human looking, slightly shorter than us, hunched, with long spidery fingers, big yellow eyes, no mouths and a huge head that shows their capabilities being more mental than physical. While obviously weak and, probably cold from the rain, there were eight of those monsters coming slowly, weapons strapped to their arms like bracers and pistols mixed in one with green energy running down their connections, powering up the death bringers they were aiming at the still pair that were Terry and Thor.

 

“Fucking move man!”

 

The aliens took another shot before Terry pushed Thor to the side, avoiding the green ball by an inch. Their attention turned to the disk like UFO that had crashed there not so long ago, inside a small crater that offered protection and at least a sense of security. The thing was huge, looked sleek and aerodynamic at the same time as resistant and probably capable of doing things human craft couldn’t. It had two doors made out of blue light, or maybe they were force fields? Whatever they were, they offered entrance to the craft and a possible safe haven as the green shot just melted harmlessly on the surface of the strange metal.

 

Terry was already running towards the door, skidding down the small crater as a few shots went wide over his head, going so far as to burn the side of his left ear only barely, but turning him into a shrieking mess as Thor went down with him, seeing how a small droplet of something green ate at that little area to the point of burning a good chunk of it. The sight was gross as it just MELTED right on top of itself, a bit of the upper part of the ear just falling to the ground before it stopped, that appendage ruined even if it hadn’t been rendered useless.

 

Even being young, and probably at least one feet shorter than he was, Terry was used to pain and the burning of his ear didn’t make him stop running, he didn’t even cry, only smiled maliciously as it enraged him to the point where he turned, ran up and surprised the aliens. Thor could see how the bullet he fired went straight towards one of the things’ eyes, cutting through it, plastering the brains against the others behind him and going so far as to impact on the one behind and stun it for a second. Weird thing was that a totally different alien just had his head EXPLODE as the first one died, like something had overloaded it, basically the same as an overheated potato.

 

“FUCK YOU, BITCHES!”

 

Showing his face for more than a few seconds had been a mistake, flipping the bird to the aliens had been much worse, but we were dealing with a teen here, and one driven by anger and pure rage at that. It was just pure luck that the aliens had been dazed by the obviously brass, and lucky, act of the young male, otherwise the few shots they could fire at him would have been much better aimed and, unluckily, would have taken much more than just his raised hand with that well aimed shot.

 

Losing a hand WAS more than enough for a grown up man to cry out in pain, for Terry it had been way worse as the wrist, and part of the hand, had been intact, though the fingers and more than half of it had been gone as the green shot went through it. Now the remains of that green attack were eating at the flesh, making it melt slowly and painfully as it burned bone, tissue, blood and anything inorganic, including the clothing and metal, like they were nothing. Thor was only lucky that he got Terry as he fell down only when the green sludge had finished its gory path and the stump had been left alone, already burned to a crisp.

 

Seeing as Terry had passed out, though not before crying out profusely, Thor rushed to the doors of the fallen UFO, being missed only by a few inches as the aliens got closer. It was by now obvious that rain was affecting the aliens or something was making them stagger a bit, because so many shots missing weren’t normal. It was made apparent that it was not once he got inside the UFO and turned to see if he could close the doors again as the force field had powered down and the automated door had opened. Why was it obvious? Because kiddy gloves were gone and the aim of the Greys suddenly turned much better as a myriad of shots went straight at him.

 

A strange kind of sound, clicks and other kind of ‘voices’, made the defenses come back online, letting only a bit of the green energy through, though it was enough to burn down on Thor’s right leg and cut also his right arm with its remains, making him stagger and fall down, taking care to not hurt the teen in his arms as he crawled away from the entrance.

 

The defenses, and what reassurance Thor could get from them, burned down quickly with a few shots though. As he looked around, seeing if more enemies were about, he could only see a large upper level, not much over most adult humans’ height (Probably tall enough for a Grey to be a second level), that occupied half the craft. In that place two forms laid slumped against command chairs in front of a fried computer. They were larger than the Greys and looked also vaguely human, but with a leg hurt and panic racing through his mind, Thor didn’t have the courage to try and get up to see if they were alive or any help could be had.

 

Trying to get up was out of the question, quickly. The bone of his leg had been hit slightly, his muscles burned and his flesh hurt enough to send alarms over a large area. The damage was ‘minimal’ compared to what he believed such a weapon could do, but saying a lot of curse words and thinking it would be worse would make the pain go away no faster than shooting at the bastards that made him suffer. Thor could basically just shove, slowly, Terry to a safe position away from part of the ship’s broken components as he crawled away to get closer to that second level, using it as cover for when those monsters came in.

 

Speed was not of the essence though, the creatures were chatting outside in some way, linking each other with purple emanations that got from one of them to the other, forming pairs and, somehow, making it possible from both to be aware of the other’s perspective. It was unnerving, but also something Thor was made aware of, and very important if he wanted to get out of this, as only half of them were looking at him, the other half eyeing the surroundings with their attention all but on him, yet the weapons on their hands pointed at him with pinpoint accuracy thanks to the others being able to see through the force field that shielded the entrance.

 

A pair of them was dead, probably the ones that had good aim because of that link, the ones that hurt Terry first. Now they all were ready to terminate him and probably Terry to, though he could think of many other desires that the aliens would have towards an unconscious and live prey, even if it had been wounded and was in not a perfect state. There was, at least, something to feel safe with as Thor’s handgun was of the newest models: sleek, powerful and capable of firing bullets in a way that would put the famous Desert Eagle to same. Though they were all generic and boring, their power was something he relished right now as his only anchor to life.

 

Miracles were stuff of fantasies though, so when two of them finally decided to walk down the other four remained vigilant. This was going to be, in the worst case, a small war of attrition: Thor was about to pass out and his right arm, his good one, had been harmed. He could hold his pistol but the aim was going to be crap in the best situation possible here, so two of those aliens were going to be a mortal threat, four or more at once? Well, he was fucked.

 

Suddenly a flurry of gunfire took place on the outside and two aliens went down, one of those that was about to enter was also killed by the feedback of whatever that purple link did, the other just looked stunned, hurt and could only tumble forward to instantly get shot down by Thor as he emptied the thirty round clip in his general direction, being able to hit two or three times. To his surprise the gun was not all that effective on a naked body, but the ones outside didn’t seem to be able to hold back against a lot of guns firing a massive amount of bullets at them, finally ending the last pair’s lives with little effort even before they could open fire. This was, probably, a sight that would never repeat itself easily in his presence, if at all.

 

Threat averted, pain subsiding as well as his consciousness, Thor got up as best as he could, wishing to look to the other side and, luckily, seeing how Terry was still intact, even if he was probably not going to be awake anytime soon. Then the figures that had been initially in the UFO took his interest. He turned towards them, but as he did so, and as voices of humans came crying out for him to stay still, Thor finally fell down, consciousness leaving him for the time being.

 

***

 

He didn’t know when he woke up, he only knew that his leg and his arm were killing him, not literally, but fuck the pain was annoying. When he opened his eyes and saw the intense and bright light in front of him things went worse as he angrily swatted away the one holding it in front of her while seeing if Thor was responding to the stimuli and at least partially conscious.

 

“Subject seems stable after the last dose of the medication” While warm in her tone and in her face, it was obvious that the woman treated this as something unimportant, which didn’t bode well with Thor and made a very bad impression “Your name is Armando, is it not?” Armando nodded and the woman smiled “Good, good” The accent seemed to be thicker on her with only a few words “You suffered plasma wounds in your arm and legs. Tissue has regenerated appropriately but you have seen things you should not seen… and you had a minor dragged into the action”

 

“He wanted to come and didn’t seem to be bothered by carrying his own toy gun around” Thor didn’t seem to like the woman very much and it showed, not like he had great ways with people anyway “I told him twice and he just wanted to come. It is the kid’s goddamn fault”

 

“For what we have seen, that is true” The woman hrumped as she got up “I suppose you would want some answers?”

 

Thor nodded and finally looked around. He was in a medic bay, nice comfortable beds littered the place with him being the only occupant of the very, and by that Thor meant VERY large room. It looked full with equipment and personal ready to threat twenty, maybe thirty persons at once with little effort, even if for long periods of time. All the equipment was top notch, things that went from light implants, artificial limbs and general health care were around. Thor even had his clothes on as it probably had been deemed much easier to heal him without trying to remove the fused up cloth and skin until the skin and tissue had regenerated, so this was a very good place that made no mistakes.

 

“This is the medical area of the barrack of the X-COM base” The woman took him out from his scrutiny and brought his attention back on her “I am Doctor Vahlen, head of research. My mission is to direct the team of scientist here to discover whatever we can about the aliens that are attacking the Earth”

 

“X-COM? What is that?”

 

As Thor got up from the bed, he eyed the Doctor with analytic interest. She had treated him as an experiment, probably sizing the damage of light wounds made by plasma in a grown up since she probably saw the ones done in Terry already. Vahlen had brown hair done in a pigtail, not overly large for practical reasons as she probably would have it mess with her work otherwise. She wore glasses, though as she put them away it was obvious she didn’t really need them much. Her brightly blue eyes shone with intellect and her pretty face was always looking curious and quite happy, probably with reasons to as she was in such an obviously important place doing a job most would kill for. Under her green and white coat she was probably slim and not really much more than a egghead in complexion (Meaning quite weak, no matter if she was pretty).

 

It was a weird world when small biological engineering had allowed nearly no ‘ugly’ people to be born in the last twelve years… though this woman showed that with, or maybe even without that, you could be smart and still look like a cute pencil. Now, personality wise though… Thor didn’t like her much for now, so she would need to show another side of her if he was to change his mind.

 

“X-COM is a project that has been alive since before the XXII century, to be specific I think it was founded in the year 1993” Vahlen got her gases back in place with one hand as she looked on her datapad “Yes, 1993 it is. It was put down as a dormant project with a skeleton crew during the last nearly forty years. Its intended use was to prepare humanity to contact with aliens once they came in or, if they were dangerous, fight against them. During all these years it has been known that aliens were around us, but only three weeks ago did we finally get see them showing their intentions: War against humanity”

 

“Three weeks?” Thor eyes widened as he looked at the doctor with shock “How long have I been out?”

 

“Nearly as much as your young friend, but do not worry, it has been little more than eight days. Though you had neural overload and the pain receptors didn’t stop for nearly two weeks, moment in which we started working on you” She smiled at that as if it was perfectly normal “His hand has been replaced with a new one, but sadly he cannot go home now that he knows this much, much less after he made a few of my men blab” Vahlen had quite an angry look on her face as she said that “We will have to keep him her alongside you until this ends. Letting you two go would endanger the secret and we already rely a lot in special programs, medical compounds and politicians to hide the alien attacks… Yours was the first attack and one that gave us the biggest hoard to this point, but it was also the cleanest of all the fights”

 

“You mean the ships?” When she shook her head Thor wondered “Why not? One touched the ground unharmed, the other was half destroyed but it was there anyway”

 

“Yes, but the one that was left untouched had a safety mechanism: It flew away when our troops got close to it, four creatures of pure energy, or what we assume is pure energy, manned the controls as a security measure” Vahlen sighed, obviously displeased because she did not have such a rare thing as an OVNI to study “But we got two alien specimens that are being held in our laboratory area thanks to you two holding off the Sectoids until we could get there, otherwise they would have been killed for sure”

 

“They are alive? I sincerely thought that they had fought against each other for some reason out there… I didn’t see any other way that thing had crashed there with only police helicopters around my city” Thor gave the doctor a questioning look “Why would the aliens fight againts each other and also try to abduct people?”

 

“Cover up operation for what we have been told” Vahlen just nodded at those words, a sure expression being what she lacked in her face “The captives speak perfect English so we can understand them, the problem is that it seems a security measure was forced on them and they cannot remember most details from the operation that the aliens are launching… Would you want to come and visit them? They are interested in meeting the pair that helped them”

 

“You would… allow me… Terry and I… to see them?” For some reason it sounded fishy to him, but since it meant only contact between fellow captives…

 

“Yes, we have little to gain keeping you all apart, besides, you are isolated from the rest of the world for now” The Doctor didn’t seem to register Thor’s disapproval at those words “We also think it may help them: They have enough knowledge to work in our society if needed, but we would like to help them regain their lost knowledge and stimuli to the brain is our greatest hope as we do not have the aliens’ technology for surgery. Would you like to visit them then? Terry will come along once you decide”

 

Thor had little to lose; besides, he could spy the layout of the base only in case. Being a prisoner was not in his to do list.

 

***

 

It had been only a few minutes for Thor since he last saw Terry; sadly it had only been a few minutes when it should’ve been around twenty two days of pleasurable silence. Now Terry was nagging at him nonstop to say how cool the place was and how frigging awesome it had been to see his hand being reconstructed in two weeks’ time. He hadn’t been allowed outside of the barracks but he had meet the team that had saved his ass and had seen pictures of the ships used to combat the aliens, shots from a few of the Sectoids (The Greys) aliens that they had fought, how they were inside, weaponry in the field… The kid was having a blast and didn’t seem to mind the idea that his parents had been told he had suffered great injuries during the ‘terrorist attack’ on their city and that he would be in a high security medical facility until he was well again.

 

Thor himself had seen some of them, but hadn’t been able to meet them properly. All in all, he had seen around twelve persons of around fifteen or so, a big elite group of both buffed up boys and girls left and right, though most of the buff was made of the armors they had and them being top notch geared with weaponry too. The Sky Rangers, the transports these people used, could go around the world in less than one day, maybe twelve hours or so going ‘slow’, but the transport capacity for personnel was small and for that reason it made sense only a few soldiers were around, for now at least.

 

For what Thor had been told, in the three missions there had been no causalities, but nearly every guy and girl had been wounded once or twice. Four days at the hospital was the best you got from a plasma burn right now, and some had been nearly as long as he or Terry. The first mission for Thor had seemed like no danger was involved, but there were a lot more abductees in the city and two more UFOs came to land troops and leave, so the men ended up banged pretty badly after the mission ended. It had been whispered that the team had eighteen, maybe more than twenty soldiers before, so there was probably a mission no one was talking about there.

 

He also wanted to meet the ones in charge and other important guys around the facility, but beggars can’t be choosers and he had enough being given a small map and also being guided towards the research center. Thor wanted more out of this experience, but being a prisoner of any kind made him have few options when it came to what he would do in the future and how to make sure he would not be pushed around this place for too long. One idea came to him quite quickly, but after the last, well, the first encounter with the aliens… it wasn’t appealing.

 

During the walk he found some personnel: All with green in their shirts and clothes as well as brown pants or similar clothing and quite serious faces. They all were duty minded, but were gentle towards the pair and the doctor, not seemingly bothered by the fact that a child or a civilian were here, only happy to know that they were somewhere safe. It was a reminder that he was away from all he once cared because danger was rising, yet it was not enough to take his mind to the fact that he was very much alone no matter what. If this had happened with his father around, Thor would be really happy to be here and have this chance, probably could do something to tell these guys to bring his father here. He was quite the strategist and had a bright mind developed with age, unlike Thor, whom got shot the first time he saw an alien.

 

Of course… the elite teams here also did get hurt, or worse, so probably he hadn’t done THAT bad, maybe.

 

“We are sure that the aliens are safe here as much as you two”

 

Vahlen had been trying to explain to them what the rooms they passed did, like the Situation Room, where information about awareness and panic as well as funding to X-COM was always detailed to the latest bit of information, or the Mission Control room with the huge Earth 3D model and highlited points of interest for possible missions. She made sure to repeat it a lot: they were safe there, at least until now as they approached the lab.

 

“However we cannot stress it enough: Things will get ugly, fast” She admitted as the door opened and the laboratory, full with various rooms with materials, a good group of nine scientists and a few small workshops in plain sight was presented to Thor and Terry “We need a lot of help and few problems; we would like to ask you two to remain out of trouble and cause as little as possible to our men”

 

“Hey doc, I want to get revenge on the monsters!” Terry jumped up and down, while not developed to its full potential, the teen was quite vivid and he was ‘too much a man’ to back down “I said it once and I say it twice: I want to go kill stuff!”

 

“And get yourself killed too? I do not think so” Vahlen scolded him and waved it off as they continued “You need to be very special to get in one of these teams, if you aren’t, you die”

 

Thor shrugged at the conversation (or better say discussion) that ensued; he wasn’t all that interested in them nitpicking at each other, instead looking around the lab to see what this place had to offer to him. There were to access doors, one to the upper level and Mission Control, the other to go to the Engineering area. Outside that, there were the lodges for the scientists and a ‘minimum security area’ for certain materials and test subjects. Outside that the laboratory had many computers, either in the workbenches, some small cubicles on the side and obviously more space as huge windows showed that there was a testing area on the other side of the facilities.

 

“Come on! Many others saw the aliens and the UFO and you didn’t bring them here! We are special!”

 

“Young man! You are underage in ALL countries and too frail to get any armor but a woman’s in this team! You will remain here until the commander tells you to go home” Vahlen was getting exasperated it seemed “And we brought you here because you were wounded and such wounds would have been a dead giveaway that our cover was just that, a cover story. You two were the only ones to be immersed in the action”

 

For some reason the excuse seemed weak, but it probably was because anyone would be a skeptic in this kind of situation. Whatever the case, the two were at each other’s throats and they didn’t pay much attention to Thor since they wanted opposite things and all Thor desired now was to satiate his curiosity and maybe get sidetracked so he wouldn’t have to think on what he would do for the time being. It was lucky that only a few scientists were located here for now though; they all seemed amused at what was happening between the teen and their boss so Thor was only a side attraction that no one wanted to look at much.

 

It hurt his pride a little bit that they didn’t find himself a treat worth looking after, but as he moved away he had to remember that his leg and arm were still recuperating a bit, as when he tried to put too much pressure on his leg to be sneaky and not make a sound it hurt like if it was on fire, which made him grab for the nearest workbench and suffer the same fate on his arm. Cursing and simply walking away normally, Thor got inside the storage area with little problem. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a storage area per se, but an elevator to the first or second level of the thing: Storage for alien equipment and holding cells. Thanks to the information pamphlet for new researchers and engineers, it showed that this was one of the two access lifts used for personnel only, the hangar having the third that was designed to move the scavenged components when they were too big.

 

All the new information only meant to him that probably no security would be down there, so he would be able to get to minimum security with ease. Pushing the button, he ‘enjoyed’ the elevator music that seemed to plague even the most secret and harder to reach place in the world. It was a relief when the thing got down and the music stopped, it was not so great when a soldier of t he USA (Mark right on his shoulder pads) gave him a bright smirk and welcomed him in.

 

“Hey there dude, you are that…”

 

“I am Thor” He winced at his little escapade being foiled and probably being watched again in the base. Feeling like a prisoner was not making his mind ease “The doctor and Terry are bitching in the lab”

 

“They do that a lot” The soldier nodded, obviously used to that “You were going to see the weirdoes, right?”

 

“Weirdoes?”

 

Thor was surprised at the man calling the aliens that. The tags on him said he was called John Johansson Jones and, as it showed in his insignia, he was from the United States of America. The man was a few inches taller than Thor, had weird flat top hair, it made him remember the character of Street Fighter called Guile. J3, as the nick in the tags called him, was black, and by that Thor meant really frigging black, as much as his top hair and looked like the stereotypical badass guerrilla warfare men from Africa with big broad muscles that had to be fitted inside a probably handmade armor to fit him inside. Still he seemed amicable and had relaxed brown eyes and a bit of a smirk, though he obviously seemed blunt with what he thought.

 

“Yea… The doc says they are aliens, but they had admitted themselves that it is only half the truth” He nudged the rifle that Thor had neglected to see towards the corridor that lied behind him “Come; I’ll show you what I mean”

 

Nodding, Thor followed J3 through the corridor, eyeing the side rooms they passed, each one of them being cold storage for bodies of many, many Sectoids. In fact each room contained five bodies and he could count at least five being to full capacity as they went by with a plus shaped corridor heading forward to holding cells and to the sides for more cold storages. It was obvious that live specimens were not going to be held here, at least the dangerous ones. This made him think of how had it been possible for two aliens to survive the crash and still be friendly enough to be put in such a ‘badly defended’ area that was more a cold catacomb than anything else.

 

As they got close the sound of someone hitting the bars of a cell, like if this was a common prison, came to his ears clearly. It was accompanied by a loud hissing and the rubbing of something sleek but hard and probably ragged against metal in a nonstop way. One of the aliens was, most probably, riddled by being here probably longer than Terry had been awake by now. As Thor came close he could see it was indeed the case as the two aliens came into view at the end of the holding cells.

 

“What are you looking at, human?”

 

Two females, surprisingly resembling humans, were at each side of the little pat they were in.

 

The closest to him was the angry one; a warrior by the looks of it, the woman was taller than him by a mile, being probably over two meters in height and surprising that stature with ease. She was bald, had scales instead of skin, large fangs in the middle of the mouth that made her permanently grin with the jaws open, showing smaller fangs on the sides instead of the front and small spike like protrusions from the top of her skull to the base of the neck. Shoulder pads of strange material, probably alien alloys, were fixated on her shoulders with armor covering her chest and powerful arms, the lower body present without anything covering it but dense grey like scales in the front and the yellow/brown colored ones in the rest of the body. She lacked any legs, instead having only the tail of a snake to let her move, a tail powerful by obvious reasons as it continuously hit on the wall, leaving a mark that was growing slowly, but steadily. Instead of white, she had brown, maybe a really dirty red in her eyes with the irises being yellow like, monster in appearance, probably heat based like the common snake.

 

“Stop scaring them, we came to help”

 

The other alien was tall, as tall as him, if not more, with grey ‘skin’ that seemed to reflect light slightly, a big round head like one of the Sectoids but also proportional to the large and slim body. She had black eyes instead of yellow and he was sure he could see pupils inside of them, also she didn’t seem to have any kind of ‘light’ within her unlike the Sectoids that he had fought, as those had their chest with a bright yellow coloration. Another difference were his black, shining lips and the white teeth hidden behind with a blue like tongue inside of the mouth as well as, now that he looked, a few scrapes or wounds over her frame that still had a bit of blue fluid on them. Unlike the first one, this alien had no armor, but instead she had been given researcher clothes to maintain her ‘modesty’ as she was obviously enough like a human to need it.

 

“Krisssha, your plan of helping them ended up with mossst the detailsss wiped from our mindsss” The snake woman hissed at her friend, the fangs retracting to let her close her maw as she talked “What help can we offer that will get usss free from thisss damn place? I want to get out of here and fight!”

 

“Guiss, patience is a virtue”

 

Krisha (¿?) was relaxed, sitting on the bed she had in her cell, reading a book while being calm, the so called Guiss was, however, rubbing the claws of her hands against the bars of her own prison, slowly eroding them in what would take probably weeks to cut through the thing, but she didn’t seem to have any problem doing it or showing it to her captors. Both of them seemed completely polar opposites, but in most cases that is what made some friends.

 

“Patience my asss!” Guiss hissed as she crashed against the bar, prompting J3 to lift his weapon and Thor to jump back “We were taken from our mothersss, breed in tubesss to help subdue our former ssspeciesss for some objective we can no longer remember!” The snake woman hissed at her friend, her eyes flashing red “I wisssh retribution… Retribution and to remember! To have my life back! I want what isss mine!”

 

The snake woman trashed around for a second as it was obvious tears were getting ready to escape her eyes, though the obviously hard headed woman was too much of a headstrong, and probably simply geared, towards not showing emotions besides anger. It all lasted only a minute or so, but she calmed down once green blood started showing from her hands, arms and head. The sight worried her friend and a new discussion started again to try and calm her down.

 

“See what I told you?” J3 half whispered to Thor as the two females discussed one heatedly and the other in a relaxed way “The aliens have been around for even longer than X-COM has been operative. They say that they can remember older ‘hybrids’ around the base and that all of the other ‘hybrids’ share some genetic makeup, but they haven’t been altered excessively like the pure aliens. The Sectoid hybrid told us that ‘her species’ is divided in Queen and Workers, which is the latter the ones we are facing, though of a lower caste. The Snakemen female says her species is mercenary, though they have an agreement with the ones attacking and a part of their men had agreed to be subject to experiment to create infiltrators amongst the humans” The soldier shuddered at the thought “I wonder how long they have been around and what they want…”

 

“What do you think?” Thor wondered about the same thing, unable to decipher why the aliens were here and attacking, but J3 just shrugged as he walked away, letting the hybrids discuss “They don’t seem eager to fight us, but they also don’t seem capable to help much where they are”

 

“They still have shock trauma from the crash and the partial wipe of their minds” J3 looked back with a bit of sadness, probably pitying the two back there “Young ones kidnapped and twisted like that… it sounds horrible to be forced to lose what one is. They can turn fully human with a device installed in them though” That surprised Thor and he looked up at the soldier in awe “The Doctor says it uses the mutant factor in our DNA to transform their bodies until it is activated once it recharges as far as the hybrids have enough fat to power the conversion and is willing to feel the heavy pain it gives them. Doctor Vahlen says also that normal humans or full aliens cannot do that, so whatever kind of infiltrator the Snakeman female means is probably different than what we have seen”

 

“Have you found any yet?” Thor’s mind raced with what may be the idea of a human aiming at him, wishing to help its true masters “What does it look like?”

 

“Not yet, no” J3 rubbed his chin “We are only scratching the surface of the attacks as far as those two have told us. They say many other hybrids should be around and that they would help us, but by now they are probably being held like these two are, though probably in less kind of a way. This probably made the aliens take a bit longer to prepare a powerful assault but we will see new dangers soon enough”

 

Thor nodded and walked with J3 as Vahlen finally came down, berated at him for not waiting and Terry just ran past them to see the aliens in the holding cells, soon enough dragging Vahlen away to watch over him and scold him again. It was a funny moment, but seeing what had happened only made him turn deadly serious in his thoughts. Humanity had been isolated from the treat for too long and now, now the treat loomed over them. It would take only a little more time for the aliens to spread panic and, for what Vahlen told him, panic would make countries cut down contacts and shelter themselves in the bunkers and other facilities.

 

A few comments had told me that the first attack had been… well, it had been light and maybe it had been a misunderstanding, so it had not spawned real hostilities then, even the whispers of a fight that had ended with some X-Com operatives dead was thought to be a infight between factions. One of the guys at the Mission Control room commented how a few deaths and direct attack to a diplomat on the second incursion had flared up the alarms for sure and had made things happen and forced people to get ready.

 

He had seen and had felt how this could make you run for your life and fight to preserve it. It was not something he did like much, but with also many, if what the hybrids said were true, families broken by the lack of those that had already been kidnapped before… Thor just couldn’t think of nothing else but being taken away from his father, even if in his case it was different. No one should suffer that, not until natural causes or, at worst, an accident took place. Being taken just to be turned into something else, or killed, was something he could not condone and simply sit down to wait.

 

“Hey, J3?” The soldier turned and arched an eyebrow at him when Thor said his nickname “Do you think I could apply for a place in the X-COM team?”

 

The large man gave him a pat on the back and laughed, guiding him to the elevator and telling him he would accompany Thor to the commander and then, since he was sure Thor would get in, to the armory to outfit him. It was going to be a way of doing what his father had told him to, not how he probably hopped it would be achieved, but it would accomplish all his hopes and dreams.

 

‘Look dad, I am making a story without having to even write’ He smiled as the elevator shut down and the new chapter of his life began.

 

***End of 1º Chapter***

*^-End Notes-^*

 

Well, this was the intro; I hope everyone more or less liked it. Yes, I had hybrids in the original story, yes, I had a Snakeman female and a Sectoid female and yes, I used two civilians and a soldier as main characters alongside the hybrids. In the original story it had started in a camp area with a lonely man and his friend watching how a UFO crashed down and ‘valiantly’ defending it from an alien rescue team. You can see the bull crap pilling in the corner with such a little statement, right? Still it was one of my first 2 serious works and the one that didn’t have porn exuding every frigging chapter, so it was more or less alright, though my English sucked back then for lack of practice.

 

I decided to make things more dangerous, have some deaths, even if off screen (Following the tutorial I have seen on youtube) and starting the action around one month after the first combats began. I need to probably give much more detail to some rooms, probably the characters and so forth, but I will do so in a separate ‘chapter’ once I have some free time to create profiles with descriptions and such. I would also offer people the chance of joining the X-COM team with their guys, but after ten years of writing I have to say something.

 

I am picky, and I like detail while hating powerplay.

 

People will die, I will not have super powered people and I will try to have drama and romantic stuff to a minimum except with the main cast, and even so drama will be hard to come by with romance only being second. If you want to apply for the team you need this though: A nice description, back-story and a sound reason to be in the team and the obvious choice if you are willing to DIE or not. Only one character per person. That is it. If I don’t have enough people I will make the characters myself, so I don’t have much problem with that, but getting people to help makes it a bit more fun and may get me to have some extra entertainment and not get bored like it happens with most my works nowadays.

 

On a side note: If I don’t like the character I will go Yautaja on your ass and cut your spine to make a trophy out of your skull, got it :3?

 

Comments are welcome ^^.

[Bomb Bloke]

So a fic where other people write the characters, but you do all the work? Might see a bit more life then the collabs, been just over a year now since they last saw life...

 

Sounds like fun though, I might see if I can come up with something to supplement your "cannon fodder" bin.

 

Unfortunately I'm not sure you'll get all that many other takers... Attention to this area of the forum is very intermittent these days. Still, I suspect others like yourself will show an interest now that the new game is out. Here's hoping.

[Uros_Osium]

This game has always received little attention to my taste, that includes the fanfiction area. I see a great number of possibilities in nearly ALL games, stories, movies and such... well, the old ones at least (Sorry, most new things aren't of my liking, a perfect example is how butchered Resident Evil became after the 2º game). X-COM had always been a great game that was basically asking for people to bring their own stories and such to surface, mostly because it gives you the war, after the war, then another frigging war (two times) and many, many possibilities to do nearly anything with the species and humans. Still people limit themselves a lot when writing things up or thinking some of them.

 

I have few things that I would not write, I wanted to write a remake of my original story for a long time, but still the old game was so good I didn’t think it would be all that welcome to have it remodeled, even if a bit or a lot. Once this new one came I simply thought 'I love it!', and it is true, I love it, but it has a LOT of things that I feel it LACKS. It is not the original X-COM, it is not as good in some senses, but it is better in others. Graphically I couldn’t care less, I play Dwarf Fortress with its base graphics (So, none), when the mood strikes me. I can play games that are only TEXT and think the graphics are good if you get my meaning. The effort put in the new game is decent, but a lot of the effort was to make it aesthetically pleasant when I couldn’t care less about how nice it looks.

 

And you know what? The story still is half frigging chewed and not complete.

 

Resume? Have at it! I am going to write this thing down even if it takes a long time. It will be better than the half baked thing given in the new game and the 'Think your own adventure' granted by the first game that only said 'Aliens invade you, bleh!'.

 

Hope you enjoy the next chapter :3 If I can finish it soon that is x3.

[Uros_Osium]

*^-Chapter 2: Before the storm-^*

 

***Notes***

 

‘Something, something’ Is telepathic communication.

 

‘Something, something’ Means thoughts.

 

“Something, something” Means normal speech.

 

Only to clarify.

 

Also a plus: I plan on bringing the old species, including old looks, back, though those with different looks will be subspecies or variations, original designs or the like. It will give this more variety :3

 

And on a side note: No action in this chapter, heavy talking, descriptions and such, so you better leave the guns at home for this one.

 

***Onto the story***

 

‘This is very depressing…’

 

“We are sorry, my lord”

 

‘That, I fear, is not enough, Exper’

 

The scene unfolding was surreal, from beyond the veil of reality for a normal person walking over Earth in a normal day at least. For the one seeing this, though, it was all but a normal occurrence. A huge room, blue in color for the walls, grey for ceiling and the floor, all of it metal, was devoid of anything but a desk that doubled as a huge computer, full of buttons from small to huge, from round to rectangular and of the many colors of the rainbow and some that could not be identified. Outside of the sparse furniture, and a single window made out of pure energy that showed the outside surface of a planet, the room had two figures.

 

The first one, closest to the door, was a female: Large in her form, with broad shoulders of pinkish colored skin covered in cables and metal, seasoned warrior face with scars in the forehead and a large gash tearing her right eye, having been replaced by a bionic component, the female looked brutish just by looking at her. Once you went past that looks and saw her baldness, and the reason for it, you would get an even less welcomed surprise. Her arms were covered in metal plates, tight to the skin, connected to the armor on the chest via cables thick and strong imitating, yet seemingly speeding, her movements. Her chest was covered in armor, heavy muscles hidden within a heavy armor that seemed connected to the flesh inside of the cold cage that spawned down to the legs equipped with feet possessing grappling claws to stay firm if they pushed forwards. To move such mass, even with impressive muscles, the female was equipped with two engines on her back capable of moving her around while her legs had smaller ones constructed within flesh and bone, pushing up through the feet’s undersides.

 

It was a marvelous, yet hideous, and powerful transformation, given to her by technology, by her masters.

 

“I understand that, master” The female kneeled in front of the other figure, her face previously half hidden by a mask that seemed to help her breathe, now showing her seemingly unscathed mouth and the strong features that she was hiding behind, even if pretty in their way to counter the cables littering the back of her head “I will do as you ask me to, as I have always. If punishment is what I require…”

 

‘THAT, will indeed not be necessary, Exper’

 

Exper, the female, looked up to her master to see the thin figure, clothed in red garbs with gold streaks at both sides near the middle, running down from the ornate helmet that hid his face, the alien let her custody see his four arms as he waved at her with a hidden smile from within his protective gear. Tall, taller than a human and much, much more powerful, the figure could have had her head for any kind of reasons but, instead, after his plans had been foiled, after his initial hopes had been squished, the alien just felt as sure as at the beginning that SOMETHING could be done, instead of abandon all hope. Now, however, he felt at least… regret, and sadness, as the most radical plan had to be forced forward, that it HAD already started and it was underway.

 

‘I feel deeply sorry for what you tried to impart to your companions was taken in the wrong way’ He spoke directly to her mind, to her, but the waves of his power made anyone else close by hear his words ‘But remember: Only us, all of us, the ones created here, are clones. We all know our duty, even I; the first one, know my place even for as high in ranking as I go. We all knew that many of us would not see our home planets, many of us only know what our forefathers knew and we have that in our minds. This, is not your case’

 

The alien turned and dropped the holographic screen of the computer, opening his arms towards the Earth ‘This is your world, Exper! Our plan would have had you all, you, the others and your companions, live there, amongst humans… But you chose to tell some of them what it would entail’ He turned his helmeted head towards the other alien ‘Your world, your history, your family… are more important than the duty given to you by those that tore you away from what is rightfully yours. If you wish to follow them, I will have to take you to detention, my Exper… but I would understand you, and believe me, I would not hold it against you as I put you into stasis’ However well he hid his feelings, part of his mind, his voice, sounded regretful.

 

There was silence, expectancy, fear… Exper had been around slightly longer than most, she had known of the plan for longer, of what would happen, and of what would be lost. However she had also known the one in front of her as her father, even if what humans would thing as ‘cruel’ or sadistic had been inflicted upon her since she was taken, only to be given this body she was in now. She had not been raised as a human, in fact she had been told a story of why she was here, as well as all the other hybrids, yet, now, she wondered.

 

“Is it true?” She asked as she finally looked up.

 

‘What I told you?’ Exper could feel disdain in his voice, the alien not liking where this was going ‘Yes, Exper, like all the others, we took you… but like a few others, some special cases, the first few, we took those that had been abandoned to not rouse suspicion’ His voice sounded concerned in his mind, scared maybe, but also repulsed, it was hard to tell sometimes ‘You were discarded, sick and about to die on Earth, that is why your design was the one you are, unlike many others: You had little chance to survive otherwise’ The alien looked down and, as few times he did, Exper knew he was in deep thought ‘Not all humans are like that, Exper, they are your people…’

 

“My parents left me to die, all of those that want to stay here and see what happens are of the first taken. We were left behind, we were unwanted” Exper rose and came closer to the alien whom turned to her, hiding, as always, his body under the robe except for a hand that touched her mechanic shoulders as she came closer “You are my father, you cared for me since I was first awake, you helped me cope, you healed me, you treated me… Father, I will help you”

 

‘Thank you, my child’ Emotion, pride, happiness, maybe more, swelled within the alien form, but both of them knew that more affection than this, even a simple hug, would do no good, not with how really frail his form was and how weak he felt now ‘Go now, join the troops, tell them you have my approval. If any other of your companions wishes to help, get them ready’

 

“How long do I tell them to wait? How long will it be until we give in and push?” Her question was devoid of fear as she took a step behind, her form not showing doubt “We can conquer them easily if we hit fast”

 

A chuckle went by as the tall alien turned, his mind pushing buttons, the screen returning, ideas forming.

 

‘You know that is not the objective of the war… and I would not wish to kill those that do not need to die, even if we will have to defend from their attacks, even if WE die’ The alien showed human analysis, samples, people captured in stasis, the DNA… then frowned ‘It would have been better if they didn’t know, if your friends had gone with the plan, but this way they will be unaltered, free… though it will costs us, both of us’ A physical, not mental, sigh was heard, raspy and tired ‘And yet…’

 

“Even… if we lose? Are you sure, father”

 

‘Yes, even if we lose, it will still happen, it cannot be avoided. And even if we won, we would not be able to escape the rising or the third eye’ The alien let his mind give a code to the machine and the many lights started to dwindle ‘But that is no concern to us, not until this is seen through. Leave now my child, and remember: Not all of them are the same as your creators were. They would be great assets in our empire, sooner or later they will be, and they will comprehend us. It is only time until they understand the help we offer, even if we lose them in this first contact. Their path is written, no matter what’

 

She nodded and slammed a hand in her chest, the mask going up to cover her face “The path is written, father. I will go with the troops and wait your command”

 

An inward smile was given by the alien as Exper turned and left the room, and then a tired sigh escaped his lips once again. To have such a charge, to have seen wonderful, yet also spiteful things done by the humans, and to understand why she hated her own species, or at least her progenitors… They would see their actions as the most horrid to them, yet they had done far, far worse on one another. How long until they understood that? How long until they saw that what was happening now was only a lesson they should learn and that sacrifices must be made even if you think you are a monster to do that? He knew they would not, they would hate them and fight them, but in doing that, they would also understand, sooner or later. They would come to ask for them and their return, even if he himself was not to be here when that happened, even if the humans would need to fight for their survival more than once and if parts of the empire he was in thought they deserved to be destroyed rather than saved.

 

He knew, he had seen it, the same as he had seen the one awakened already and seeing him ‘And the same you are seeing. But you have seen enough already’ The smile in his lips curved, teasing the one with great power to be birthed by fire ‘See you soon, risen one’

 

A flicker of the alien’s hand and everything turned a pleasant shade of black.

 

***

 

“Oh god!”

 

Thor woke up with a shudder, though what made him scream that little phrase was more the fact that he slammed his head against the bunk on top of him instead of that the dream had been unnerving. It had been eight, maybe nine days? He wasn’t sure, but for that long he had been getting weird dreams, usually nightmares of some kind, as the augmentations were accepted into his body after he was admitted by the commander. It had been a grieving process of twelve hours while his body was perfected with the latest on bio technology, upgrades that basically made him what he was before physically, but also stronger, faster and much sturdier without giving any external sign. What modern medicine does when you have the money, though it does not cure the most grievous of internal injuries, not even here, in the base of X-COM.

 

Getting up from his bed, and wondering why the fifty rooms in the barracks had double beds when it was clear there was not yet enough funding to have more than the skeleton crew assigned initially to the team, was a mystery to him. Maybe in the future it would change, but right now it had given him two small concussions in little more than a week. It was not doing more than give him an excuse to take a morning pill to ease the pain, which was already issued to him to stop his muscles from cramping and his bones from aching after the operations at the table.

 

“Fucking requirements…” Thor hissed as he got close to the lone table in front of the bed, a small and comfortable place with coffee or tea makers as well as a sink for water and a few glasses “I could have gone out as I was”

 

However Thor was sure that, as much as he would like the pain gone and this nightmares away from his head, such a statement was not true, the main reason for him to believe that was Guiss, and also J3.

 

The Snakeman female had been blunt saying that while their memories of mayor events and elements from the alien enemies were blocked out for her, she was a warrior at heart, designed to infiltrate the human military as either a fighter pilot or a commando for what Dr Vahlan could discover from her specific body modifications. She was knowledgeable in most human weaponry and even alien weapon functions had been obvious in her memories, though the looks of the weapons, what they did and what was their purpose was not retained; she just knew how to shot with ANYTHING. For what she had said, any alien, except for a specific species, knew such things and WOULD use them against humans with little remorse. She had insisted on showing it if she was given any dismantled weapon, even without ammunition if they felt more secure, so she could reassemble and arm it, which she did in record time.

 

It was not an ideal way of showing him, but J3 had to go and confirm it to him thanks to the mission that spawned two days after his awakening. J3 had been telling him how the aliens seemed to attack at least once a week trying to abduct people in one, two or even three or four places at once. That was the reason most people were wounded at least a few days: Teams were in bad condition and sometimes two missions in a row had to be dispatched. They barely won and usually it was because the aliens pulled away. They were giving them an ‘easy’ time for some reason. In the last one though, J3 and another soldier went alone because their teammate had been shot and was unable to move her leg during the deployment of the second mission of that day. J3 had received a plasma wound as three Sectoids swarmed him, his riffle had fallen from his hand as he broke one of the Sectoids’ neck and bludgeoned the next one with the first’s corpse as J3 covered his friend after a plasma shot to the belly incapacitated him.

 

He admitted it had been a surprise when he kicked the last Sectoid’s weapon from his hands, forcing the auto destruction of the thing active so as to explode in mid air, only to see the little alien dive for the human rifle and unload a flurry of bullets at him! Luckily only the last few shots were in the clip or J3 knows the armor would have not done anything but cave in, instead of only having his already weakened arm with a single and lucky shot that pierced through it. Four days in the med bay and a Sectoid with its head caved in with a harsh stomp was all that remained from such a scary encounter.

 

‘Who the fuck I am kidding’ Thor sighed as he poured himself some coffee, rubbing his head with his free hand ‘I just acted on fucking impulse the first time, the same when I got in X-COM’

 

Grunting as he took the pill and the morning coffee in one harsh gulp, Thor decided to simply ‘fuck it’ and go to the shower. The hot water in the morning did little to relax him as he stayed a few minutes under it, still time to spare, but it gave him leeway to keep on thinking, to wonder what he would do. The new month started and a new week was there, in wait of another attack, and very few men were ready this time, so it was obvious he was going to be dragged into the conflict, a conflict that had forced the Commander to take extreme measures.

 

The Commander… No one was sure if it was a guy or a woman, so everyone simply called the commander as The Commander (Yea, capitalized, or at least Thor thought so). The Commander was a though… guy? ‘He’ (To avoid confusion) was always in full armor, weapons at the ready and a boom box that gave him a neutral, almost robot like voice. He had been selected to succeed the previous commander and, while he was attentive to his men, it was obvious that this decision had come from the obvious fact that he was a man capable of accepting the fact that not everyone would survive and still have a cold enough mind to get as many alive as possible. He was seen little and most the times he was seen, it was to collect any information that could not be delivered to him for the actual lack of personnel and, in some cases, time.

 

Dr. Vahlen had said that The Commander was older than anyone in the base but the Dr. Shen, the engineer expert and leader of the team always ready to build or repair whatever was needed in the base. Thor had met Dr. Shen briefly; he was a nice man, much more used to human interactions than Dr. Vahlen (as Thor had been told by Shen that Vahlan was a bit of a reclusive woman). He was a bit of an old man, probably in his late sixties to maybe even early eighties, but with how much he worked, his big and always present smile and his joyous and energetic demeanor, the man seemed to be younger in spirit than anyone but Terry.

 

With his brown eyes always under his glasses, remaining white hair and wrinkled face showing the age of his body, the old Dr. Shen was always wearing work clothes, as always of green and brown as everyone else in the X-COM project, and hardly took them, even though he was so experienced at his work that he could go around the dirtiest and most mangled machinery without getting a stain in his clothes, a scrap or in fact anything he did not desire. The only problem that Dr. Shen had was that, unlike Vahlen, whom was not all that interested in human life (not to discredit her, but she was not a people’s person), or The Commander, a person expecting deaths because of his decisions, Dr. Shen only became sad when someone would not come back, or when they had the chance of dying from their wounds. It was said that he feared for his family during the invasion, and each casualty made him realize how bad things could turn.

 

On the other side was Officer Bradford. Being probably in his mid thirties, Bradford was probably the age of Dr. Vahlen and was a no-nonsense person. He had high military training and, in fact, he was not to be a comm. expert, but his body rejected augmentations given by implants or any other body modification so, while being in peak condition, he could not be deployed in the field. With his brown hair and eyes, serious face, muscular form and green and brown clothes always present, Officer Bradford was someone to respect as he talked being nice when needed and brutally harsh when the situation was required, which meant berating anyone, military personnel or not, for any kind of fuckup that deserved a mayor ass whooping. He was a man that hid his feelings well, even losing a friend of a men in the field would sake him only enough for the rest to think he was human, but a long time in the military with the best training had made him able to hide what he thought with perfect capabilities.

 

Bradford had been the one to tell him that if he wanted to fight, he would need the implants, and also he had been the one to tell him that it would be a bitch of a procedure, so he didn’t need to do it, but The Commander had believed in him and so Thor had reinforced his decision… Well, he had done so back then.

 

As he stepped out of the shower and pain flared down his spine, Thor cursed mentally about a lot of very colorful things that are better left unknown to the world. He regretted his decision and the operation the first day, now he just wanted to murder someone, but the deal was done and he had to man it up as he got clothed and donned his armor. It was no recommended to have the armor at all times, but for new recruits with the augmentation pumped in them, the extra exercise would make the muscles loosen up much faster and prevent some of the harm. He found the thing cumbersome, as well as hideous mind you, but it made him feel better to have it on him as the pain receded much easier as he went to pick up his weapon and ammo.

 

“Thor, do you copy?” And there it was, pin point accuracy from J3 “The boss said I had to get you in half an hour”

 

“Just got out of the shower” He groaned as he rubbed his still throbbing forehead “What requires half an hour from your time for a two minute walk to get me?”

 

“The Commander gave the girls the green light” J3 commented nonchalantly “I will give them a little tour and then go pick you up”

 

Ah, yea, that little thing.

 

“Ok then, I’ll just wait until you come over”

 

The link to the armor’s communicator got disconnected and Thor sighed, getting back to the bunk and sitting down. He thought it was surprising, but then all he knew about them came to mind and it suddenly wasn’t so surprising how the whole base had befriended the hybrids so fast. At first it was known to everyone that strange aliens were in lockdown, but until he and Terry were presented to them, the Commander didn’t green light the idea of telling everyone all that was known about them, moment in which everyone that had some free time wanted to go down there and ask questions, with an escort of course. More tests were done, a lot of questions asked, but the result was solid: They were human, at least seventy five percent in total. It was a throw off that physically a species could have more than one form, but it was shown that the outside did matter little to what the DNA had to say, and the only differences were mostly in the great mind of Krisha, her eyes and obviously abnormal complexion and skin, while on the other side we had the extreme muscles, tail, scales, teeth and venomous glands, of Guiss. Outside of that area, the tests showed that it was definitely a temporal brain damage, fixed by something else than what has been discovered to date. They would not recover their lost memory until certain things happened, if ever.

 

Being able to get visits more often, Thor had used the time to know them better. Being curious about the aliens, life forms found outside of this solar system, was something to be expected from the son of a writer of any kind. It was, though, mostly the morbid desire to know the enemy that brought him to them, something that neither of them minded at all, each one having their own reasons.

 

Guiss showed quickly enough that she was a cynic, did not mind the idea of dying and that she was also a huge bitch towards others she considered physically weak. Cultural knowledge was not useful to the war, and Guiss said it quite adamantly, as she admitted that Snakemen had few ‘male and female variants’, which she didn’t explain further. Males and females in Snakeman society serve as breeders, scientists and civilians, but she was programmed as a soldier in her brain and, as such, she hated the idea of finding the species that gave her the looks, mostly because if captured, she knew her fate, hence why she did not mind dying in the slightest. On the other side she valued strength, a hardened character and those as hardy as her, which came to show as she enjoyed The Commander’s visits or trying to pick a fight with the escorts that accompanied visits, mostly J3 because he didn’t mind playing her game as much as the other soldiers whom had not been close to the hybrid enough to trust her yet.

 

Krisha, on the other side, was a tranquil, patient and very well spoken woman. In her society females were rare, asexual drones or ‘males’, were most common for working, waging war or commanding while the females were queens of immense power and prone to a certain mutation after mating, one of those tidbits the pair had forgotten and obviously important. For her, though, the fact that she was supposed to be powerful by half of her species didn’t seem to give her as much of a push as Guiss, as the Sectoid was content with a book in hand and an intelligent partner to have a talk with, no matter the type. Enjoying mental prowess from those around her, she was obviously a person to feel disdain towards those not all that smart, but she was too polite to say out loud or even make some remarks on their backs.

 

These two had something in common though: They both had ‘fixed’ likings. It was either intelligence or strength, and Vahlen had already said that something was not right there, or the fact that most the other hybrids they mentioned were only females.

 

The latest talk with the Dr. had unnerved him. Vahlen had asked the two to allow her an experiment using the probes that were expected to work on a live alien, something that had not been taken well by the troops as they had been asked to try and capture some of their enemies without blowing them up. When they accepted (Guiss doing so because her friend asked), it had been proven that most of what they had in their minds had been forced there AND that Krisha was in the second of her possible forms, meaning she was between being fully human and a more or less ‘normal’ Sectoid. The test incurred afterwards showed that Krisha would probably die if she tried to mingle with humans in their own form, probably a byproduct of the crash as some of her damage was worse than Krisha, though the most disturbing of it all was simply that the pair had not been given a chance at anything. They both had been engineered to be how they were, and there was no way for human technology to change that, not even if Vahlen, as she said, could get the hands on their data since this level of genetic tinkering was probably only at the reach of the aliens responsible.

 

For a quick resume to most people: It was proven thanks to the tests that both women had been FORCED to be the way they were today, and it did not limit itself to the outside appearance. They had no choice to grow up and MAYBE like, or do, something else than they were able to now. Guiss could be a warrior, probably a soldier in a human society with ease if not one of the best at sports in the female side, while Krisha was geared towards a scientist, a writer, teacher or something the like. Yet, as things were, nothing of that would ever happen.

 

As it was, both of them had been forced a linear pat, the question was why, why give them such a fixated mind AND the capabilities to fight. The aliens had spies already as far as it had been said, why make more? Why did they abduct hundreds, maybe thousands, to make them hybrids, ‘abominations’ as Vahlen put it once the two women were out of earshot (or so she and Thor thought as she caught too late on what she said), and then let them lose on human ground? The plan had obviously not worked because for all the indoctrination and genetic tweaking, the hybrids did have partially a free mind, as Krisha and Guiss showed, otherwise they would have not revealed themselves, prompting the attacks and this state of war.

 

Thinking about it, Thor had to wonder how worse it had been if the plan had been going smoothly until the end. How many persons would have been aliens in disguise? What would they do in the shadows? What was the purpose of putting them here?

 

*Knock, knock*

 

“Coming”

 

That would be for later though, as he got up and went to open the door, a smiling hulking J3 greeted him.

 

“Half an hour flies by, doesn’t it boy?” The man chuckled as he patted the youngest addition to his team “You ready?”

 

Thor nodded as J3 lead the way. Big and friendly, the north American was not the typical soldier that is a bit gun crazy, at least something quite common from some Americans that are as zealous as he is, however he is not the smartest and that, interestingly enough, makes him think a lot. John is not a brainiac and he willingly admits he would prefer a rifle on hand, or maybe that heavy weapon that was about to be ready for him, than talking, but he has a big heart and comes from a big family that needs him alive and the revenue that this job gives him. He told Thor that his family thinks he is always out of country in secret military operations, very risky ones, and has never had the guts to tell them that he was sitting on an old and dusty base since he got his tests from the military.

 

It was safe to say that in little time Thor had become attached to the burly man; he was like a big brother to him and treated him in a friendly way unlike most his real family, with the exception of the one that was not here anymore. It was mostly like that because J3 had admitted that, while in his family most had two, three, maybe four kids even, his parents were unable to give him brothers or sisters and, for what had been told to him, he was practically sterile. Having helped Thor and being there to reassure him, J3 had admitted that he was very much like a little brother alongside the annoying baby bro that could be considered Terry. The last idea made him frown and maybe even chuckle, but it was at least nice to have more than the little pest as a friend in such a place as this. With that and the aliens, this was probably the friendliest place he had ever been to, and that probably gave everything else a gloom look.

 

“There was a transmission” Again, J3 took his mind from the clouds “It seems someone escaped the aliens and an informant of The Council of Nations told the Commander”

 

“Someone escaped? Didn’t Vahlen say that after that green goo invaded your nerves, you should be as good as in a coma?” Thor ran to get to J3’s side as they walked downstairs to the level that connected with the “I very much doubt the ‘good Dr.’ is mistaken in her overzealous studies”

 

“No, she isn’t” J3 admitted with a nod “But how or why does mater ONLY if we get there. All I could get before I was told to go outfit the girls and come get you was that the one that escaped is in Canada”

 

Nodding in acceptance that J3 would not tell him anything else, mostly because he didn’t know anything else that he could tell, they walked outside of the barracks and to the Mission Control area where Bradford was waiting for them. A quick salute on their part (Thor still doing it as best as possible), and they were greeted with an ‘As you were’ before the debriefing started.

 

“We have some time to spare” Bradford told them “The UFO that carried the aliens deployed in the Area of Operations has been chased off by a squad of five fighters from the military on Canada. Our ship will get there in little more than an hour and half at worst, so you two can take a moment to be debriefed… and for this”

 

From the door leading to engineering, a mechanized cart came with the lead Engineer, Dr. Shen, bearing a serious expression alongside two of the men that worked under him.

 

In the cart there was a Light Machine Gun (LMG), a big, bulky and long weapon that looked very much like an overly augmented rifle with bullets as big as your thumb, if not bigger and capable of shredding a Sectoid in two. These weapons had been manufactured not long ago, the technology having forced them to be the best of the best of the actual equipment that the world could offer for a portable weapon, but problems had given these weapons a slow production rate until now. On the other side of the cart was a large launcher and a single rocket, basically what you would expect any heavy weapons operator to carry around, yet the design had light alloys and highly explosive material with shrapnel made to extract the best damage out of the common rocket launcher. They were both optimized weaponry, much like the Assault Rifles that X-COM manufactured.

 

“We finally made them to work right” Shen gave a light smile “They should offer you some extra firepower during this combat, Sargeant” Before J3 could say something about that, or Thor could ask about his friend’s new rank, Dr. Shen raised a hand “Remember the cooling system has been updated according to your rank as per the Council’s instructions to spend resources only on those that achieve a higher rank. It also has a holographic projector that should predict the enemy’s movements slightly for a very short time once the sights are on them. We also made sure to support a second chamber of ammunition for you to offer suppressive fire and the extra rocket will cause spikes of shrapnel to embed themselves on the enemies for at least two or three minutes, making even their strong armor to be highly ineffective until it pushes the spikes out”

 

“I thought Sectoids didn’t wear armor” Thor commented as he looked over the weaponry.

 

“They don’t, but their skin has been engineered to act as living armor” Shen commented calmly “You saw your own bullets bouncing off them, right? Don’t think because they are ‘nude’ they are defenseless, the autopsy has showed us they are all but”

 

Giving the men a nod, Shen allowed J3 to return his assault rifle and put the rocket launcher on the back of his armor, the LMG firmly on his grasp after the ammo had been placed on the rightful place. After that the cart was pushed away and two new ones came from Engineering as the two men brought new equipment.

 

The first cart had a long Sniper Rifle, much bigger, yet lighter, than the deadliest of the ones used in the military. The oversized scope had, as far as Thor had been told, many little machines working together to predict enemy movement, heat sensors and even updates on which part of the body was weaker to what creature. It could safely target a Sectoid’s weakest cranial section to blow the thing’s head and still push through a second, if not also a third. The only problem was that the clip was huge with massive bullets and it was so cumbersome that moving and firing in quick succession was nearly impossible, and after four shots the clip had to be changed.

 

On the other cart a shotgun of the latest design, a long frame of metal with only the lower section, the pump area, made out of the heavy compound plastic that most weapons, including their armors, were made of. This shotgun was designed to deliver shrapnel much like that of the rocket at very short distances, much more effective than the old pellet or slug designed weapons that the military still used. It could easily blow a small hole into a wall, probably going so far as to tear through the armors they wore with little difficulty. The problem with this weapon, though, was that a few meters away and you would be better suited to blow off your own brains than to kill the enemy if you couldn’t get closer, because the aim and the scattering were shit.

 

“As it has been made known to me, our newest… eh… specialist… Krisha, is a very patient and meticulous woman” Dr. Shen was more prone to think of the hybrids as normal people than most of those in the base at first, but it was hard for him to chew the fact that they were going to be permitted to have guns “She is obviously gifted to be a good sniper, while her friend, Guiss, has the mettle to be a good assault specialist. We have handed them armor and the weapons will remain here until they come”

 

Dr. Shen gave a polite nod his face adamant even when it was obvious the situation was troubling him deeply. Thor had to concur on that it was troubling, not that The Commander had decided to let the hybrids join, but that, as of right now, they four were the only ones fit for duty for a few days. Some plasma burns, a heavy cut and a new arm were keeping the rest of the soldiers at bay, with most of them training to maintain their forms as the medical treatment got them back into shape. What a nasty world when each trip out of your ‘home’ meant another trip… this time to the hospital.

 

“Let’s get ready for when the rest of the team comes” Bradford nodded to one of the operatives of the giant holographic Earth glove as it centered on Canada “No more than a few minutes ago the Canadian army informed us of a sighting near their borders. The sighting got closer and when a few pods were fired over an urban area in a village on the outskirts of their territory, they called the civilian population out with our cover story of that new paramilitary group using hallucinogens and experimental weapons” Thor and J3 both nodded as Bradford continued “Surveillance as the jets forced the ship to retreat found a young woman running from a group of aliens near the village’s plaza. The photos and scanners confirm her as Anna Sing…”

 

“Anna Sing?” J3 cut Bradford abruptly, something a good soldier like him would do for no reason… except if really necessary when treating with a superior “Anne Johnson Sing?”

 

“…” Bradford hesitated for a moment but finally nodded “Yes, Anne Johnson Sing, she changed her name after the divorce with your cousin” Waiting for a reaction, Bradford nodded as John remained stoic now “We have researched anything possible about here and it says she remained amicable with your family, still visiting from time to time, is that right?”

 

J3 nodded “Yea, she came during summers and some winters, she did not have a great relationship with her family. Last winter she only came for a week, said she would come here, to Europa, to study and search for work”

 

“Then it seems hers was a poor choice” Bradford commented adamantly “But it may yet give us an advantage. The surveillance says Sectoids are searching for her, but aren’t firing at her whenever they can give chase. Whatever it is that has happened, they want her alive. The task is simple: Get her to the Sky Ranger” At that the glove changed to the Sky Ranger as Bradford gave the operative another nod “Thanks to your success and ascension, we have been granted newer plans for medical equipment in the infirmary, an enlargement plan for the Sky Rangers, already implemented, and some other boons. The Commander URGES you to stay safe… We know deaths may happen, but one man’s effort may be all we need to win enough of the council’s favor at this point”

 

Thor thought, and with reason, that it basically meant that X-COM was going to use J3, even if it was for a good cause, but it was a sad truth: X-COM was funded, funded by a secret society. The Council was not going to allow harm to come to humanity if they had a card to play, but that card was costly and, at any given time, could prove to be as bad, if not worse, than the aliens. They needed to know that their resources, humanity’s resources, were being well spent. It was the start of this marathon and they had liked how things went, even if Thor was sure that the rumors about the botched initial operation weren’t rumors at all.

 

Bradford took J3 away for a second, wanting to discuss something with him as the glove of Earth returned. As this happened the door to Engineering opened again and both Krisha and Guiss came through it, both of them wearing the armors of X-COM specially designed for them with the machine in the Engineering area that would take any and all needed measurements to craft a skin tight, yet comfortable, armor for the soldiers’ protection. For some reason it was weird to see them with such a equipment; Krisha covered from head to toe (Well, not the head) in light armor while Guiss had slabs of armor, cruder than most the light equipment used by humans, equipped all over her body.

 

Plasma technology was potent enough to eat through helmets; even most modern guns could break a light helmet in two with little effort. Wearing headpieces was only useful if you wanted a heavy one, equipped with specific add-ons, otherwise it was something not at all useful and, for that reason, X-COM did not use head protection since it was more of a hindrance than anything.

 

Still, something made him think that Krisha’s… specific physical appearance gave headshots the advantage against her.

 

“Staring is not polite” She said jokingly as she picked and revised the sniper rifle that was issued to her.

 

“Sorry…”

 

“Maybe he likes eggheads” Guiss commented in a dead serious tone as she eyed her shotgun, Krisha giving her a cold glare that her friend didn’t seem to mind “What? Not the first time I have called that to you”

 

“You are extremely happy because we are going to shot things, aren’t you?” Venom dripped from the Sectoid’s voice as she placed everything needed in her armor, from the pistol to the grenade and a small first aid kit “I told you we should wait, and you just had to try my patience taunting everyone, including the commander, just to get him to give you a chance”

 

The Snakeman woman turned to her friend, baring her fangs at her with obvious intent, though it was more than clear that the woman was not going to use her on her friend. It was just something in her that was making her angry, something she blurted about with a cool voice and no second thoughts.

 

“I have known you since we had these bodies, every memory I have is with you as my friend, at my side, Krisha. You are like a sister to me… but you are not my family, not my real one” The words were slow, yet probably more hurtful than if shouts raged in the room. It seemed that they hurt deep at least thanks to the pained expression in the Sectoid’s face “I have no means to know who my parents are, much less than you, because my DNA is human but has been altered beyond tracking; Vahlen is sure that I am just as human as you with extra genes added to the mix, but that is it, there is nothing concrete, I am just basic DNA” A neutral expression, except for the obvious anger held within, Guiss looked down at her weapon with longing “Vahlen said YOU could find your family because you are locked in that half state, because yours wasn’t so damaged. I can turn human if I want, but my history is lost” She armed the shotgun and glared at her “I’ll be in the ship. If you want to sit down and wait, be my guest, but I have issues to short and people to shot”

 

Thor was surprised when he watched the Snakeman female walk away. She had never said much during the week, beyond taunting him and everyone else that is. While she didn’t keep to herself, Guiss was always bitching at everyone, being friendly only once or twice, usually when she smelled the food around the corner, a small moment of rest that was over as she wolfed down her food with seer abandon. The woman had talked about getting payback to some of the people in the base, but usually when she was engrossed in something else and it slipped her mind for a second, otherwise not showing much of any emotion beyond what had already been said about her.

 

Krisha, however, did not seem to relish in the idea of getting back to the aliens. She had obvious distaste, if not hate, towards them, but she seemed content being safe and with her friend. Having this little and quick discussion… well, it was obvious Guiss had been looking towards this, but now it was obvious that her friend had a problem and she didn’t seem to even care about hiding it. She knew that Guiss was not all in for vengeance; maybe it was the only one in the room as all the operatives looked at the woman slitter away, but it was obvious her friend had not been all that sincere with her during last week.

 

“Seems she is more repressed on all this than she let on” Krisha, surprisingly, was not all that taken back. Hurt? Yes, yes she was hurt, but it seemed she had been thinking this would happen sooner or later “Is she fit to go into battle?”

 

Bradford just shrugged “Vahlen said all her test turned ok. She is mentally ok after the damage from the crash wore down, thus she is ready for a mission”

 

J3 was given a pat by Bradford, walking away fast towards the ship while Thor and Krisha stayed back as everyone scattered. It would be hours until the briefing and monitoring had to be made and today, with no satellites online after a small fiasco with the initial batch, no one would see if the aliens brought reinforcements. One thing was sure though: No abductions or any other problem today; the greys would have their hands full with trying to recover the escapee.

 

For everyone outside of the base it would look like a moment of respite, but everyone doing other things than their specific job only meant they would be preparing weapons, training in case something horrid happened, crafting equipment or helping with maintenance. There was not a single moment of rest, not, except for sleep… and Krisha looked like she’d love to sleep a long time after the little spat her friend had to throw.

 

“Hey… Krisha…” Thor, of course, had made few, if any, friends, and seeing one hurt for any reason was not something he wanted “Do you want to… I dunno… talk?” Of course, not being a people’s person as it was proper; helping was awkward to say the least.

 

“Not really” The Sectoid female just took her rifle and gave Thor a pitiful look “I may not remember more than the things I lived with her, but I know she always wanted to know her family… When Vahlen took the tests she was crushed. Unless you can do anything about that, there is nothing to do”

 

“Have you thought actually TALKING to her, as in her way of talking? A good slap to the face could help” Not exactly a comedian, Thor did mean what he said seriously “She said so herself: She was made to be strong, didn’t she? Show some assertiveness and maybe she’ll sit down…”

 

“And rip me a new one, thanks but no thanks” Krisha at least chuckled a bit “But even if it worked, she is not a woman that likes to talk much… and there will be better opportunities to talk than this one”

 

Pointing at Bradford’s serious face, Thor had to agree. They had some time to spare, probably because the military had the aliens in a confined zone and they probably weren’t sure if their escaped captive was in the area or out with the army, so probably they would be in check for a long while as far as UFOs didn’t stray close to the area and offer them any more support. That didn’t mean that fooling around was permitted, after all the planes attacking the UFO could be downed at any time.

 

“We better get going then…”

 

^*-..-*^

 

“What the hell was that about?!”

 

In a hush-hush tone, already inside the enlarged ship. The Skyranger was seemingly a small transport ship, but in fact it had three rooms inside with also the capacity of having a huge mass of cargo being hauled near the cockpit, cryogenic cargo holds having been placed there with the best materials to carry even a tank or two within its boundaries in such a tight space that it was ridiculous, nearly impossible, but feasible if worked diligently and with patience. The main area of the ship had space for maybe twelve operatives, but most space was assigned for civilians, if necessary, with two small sections on the side for civilians in good enough condition to be literally cramped within. It was not a fancy transport, it was a machine of war, reinforced to hell and faster than nearly any other ship.

 

And no one could hear you while you were inside, it was good for this conversation as J3 was slightly pissed off at someone he had been calling friend for a while.

 

“Piss off John, I am not in the mood” Guiss snapped at the black man.

 

Anyone knowing of genetics would understand that black people were, often times, a better fit when it came to physical labor, sports, the army and such. They had grown up in need of those skills more than their minds, though they were as sharp as anyone else, but mainly their pinnacle was in the physics department. For this reason J3, with his augmentations, normal body strength (that was enough to put many to shame) and skills that he had honed over the years, was one man you’d prefer to NOT piss off, ever.

 

And guess what “Guiss, turn around or I will force you to face me” He was pissed.

 

“Like you would do t…”

 

Force against a women, human looking or not, was not expected from J3 towards a woman. He was probably a crazy bastard to most, but he was a NICE crazy bastard, and respected women with passion thanks to his mother’s teachings. J3 was not really a believer even if he prayed from time to time, unlike his maybe too devoted mother, but he had many teachings ingrained in his heart, so forcing such a large and powerful figure, but a woman none the less, was something that made him hurt. However there was something he appreciated at stake here.

 

“She is your family you idiot!” He hissed, forcing the snarling hybrid close to him “I have been the only idiot in the base to be guarding you since you were here, I was the one to hear you two, to talk to you two and while I am only a damn soldier, I have been fighting or at least training for long, but I have never lost my touch with people” Finally Guiss pushed his arms away “You are fucking it up for nothing!”

 

“NOTHING?! Krisha is Asian! Vahlen told me she knows her mother! She knows how much said mother would give to see her daughter after she was told she DIED during birth!” Guiss would not admit it, she would try to not show it, but she was crying. Her form, and her eyes, though, helped her not show it, much “I heard her talking happily with Krisha during the last checkup, but you know what? YOU KNOW WHAT IRKS ME?! Krisha wasn’t awake when Vahlen told ME what miserable mess I was! She did not HEAR Vahlen treat me like a failed experiment in someone’s part! That BITCH of a doctor you have there…”

 

A hand forced Guiss’ snout close “Vahlen is not a bitch, she just is lost in research and is more interested in new information, discoveries and making sure humanity doesn’t die” J3 offered the Snakeman female a cold glare “I was there though, wasn’t I? I heard her saying you and her were much like dogs were between themselves: Different shells, but still the same species. You are human, your DNA was damaged, yes, but think about this: Many of the hybrids probably will have this problem, yet if all goes well, if we find the others like you, they can still have normal lives… is that not enough? Is envy worth hurting the family you do HAVE here with your friend?”

 

“I want my mother”

 

It wasn’t unexpected, but the answer was not what surprised the soldier, it was the reaction. Guiss just looked down and let the tears show finally as they fell from her eyes. She rubbed the shotgun like it was her life saver, as if it would bring comfort. All she had known was training, weaponry and her friends… This was all she could hope for in her mind, but she wanted more, even if something told her that what she had now in her hands was all she should want.

 

“I want to meet her, to see her, and to have a hug from her… it is childish, but it is what I want” Her voice croaked, sobs were obvious and luckily the technicians outside were unable to hear them “I dreamed of her sometimes, picturing how she would be… But then I remember not even my skin color, my hair, are what they should be. I was told they were probably changed, that I was toyed with, that I was not what I should be when I change” She looked up at J3, her face stoic, a Snakeman not all that capable of showing emotions like a human, but it was obvious she was hurt “Yet I had to hear Vahlen pat herself in the back as she told my friend, my SISTER, that she could go with her family because the OH SO FUCKING MIGHTY Vahlen had found a perfect match with her genes?!” Baring her fangs at full length, her eyes predatory and her voice full of spite, John had to take a step back “HOW CAN I BE HAPPY WITH THAT?! HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO BE?!”

 

The next thing was a step forward.

 

And a hug.

 

“I don’t”

 

J3 had seen friends die already in this war; he knew what it was to lose someone you held dear. His family had not been touched, his civilian friends had been left alone, but a lot of people were going missing even with their efforts.

 

“But I want you to remember: Krisha won’t let you alone, you and I have been talking more than I have with her” He offered a little chuckle “She likes people with brains, I can’t fit that profile as nicely as I would hope. You on the other hand want warriors, strong people, and you have been very open with me, probably because you felt yourself slipping away from Krisha, right?”

 

Guiss nodded, still surprised, clutching her shotgun, but the fangs had reverted to their original size, she was not crying and, in fact, she was maybe purring, partially hissing maybe. She was not used to physical contact, but she enjoyed it, maybe because the only hugs she ever had were a few with Krisha during childhood as she soon tried to put a strong façade exterior. It was obvious to see that she was not mentally strong when someone became that close, and such a normal thing for a person, a simple hug, could show it.

 

She craved for it.

 

“I know you may hate the aliens as much as those in this base, I know I do for my own reasons… but don’t hate Vahlen; she is not capable of getting in good terms with nearly anyone but her staff and a few others, she is… different you could say” He sighed and tried to pull away, but as he did, Guiss’ arms covered him and he smiled. At least she was letting someone in, so maybe he could still do more “Don’t hate your friend above all else: She is your sister, you said so yourself, even if it is not by blood. I respect family above all else Guiss, don’t make me hate you because you did something as stupid as hurting the only one that you have ever hard, ok?”

 

All she did was to murmur a little “Ok” as she didn’t let go of the hug.

 

It all had taken maybe two minutes, three, but it was enough for them to be caught by Thor and Krisha, or well, be startled as the ramp for the ship opened up. They gathered themselves up quickly enough and took their seats (Guiss opting for taking the seat away and just getting the harness on her as quickly as possible) and offered a little nod at the pair as they entered.

 

“Everyone get ready” The pilot’s voice came from the speakers “I have been told to burn this baby up if needed be. We have confirmation of the UFO finally counter attacking the fighters after it. We have three hours tops for this to get done.

 

There was a group nod as Krisha and Thor sat up besides each other, Guiss and J3 on the other side as an uncomfortable silence fell around them. It was obvious that there was some animosity after the last talk and Krisha did her best to pay attention to her weapon or maybe at Thor from time to time if she or he made a comment, but didn’t spare a glance to her friend. Guiss on the other side was hurt for what she had done, but pride, and maybe a bit of confusion right now, won her over as she simply looked down. The only ones to chat a bit were J3 and Thor, whom gave the other pair looks from time to time, looks that the hybrids didn’t seem to WANT to register.

 

And then the lateral section opened up as a figure fell down, grunting “OOF!” with a small personal armor covering his figure and revolver in hand. Someone had decided to catch a ride… At least the silence was going to be broken soon.

 

***End of 2º Chapter***

*^-End Notes-^*

 

I must say I am sorry. This took longer than I thought thanks to work, rewriting, thinking and planning. I am going to be direct and say that my first work with this story ten years ago was frugging crap. I developed the characters little, made them over powerful, something I hate today, and didn’t get any drama, back-story or such in a place where it was NEEDED. I mean, I hate drama, fucking hate it, but this is a war and I was forcing people kidnapped a LONG time ago to fight against those that cared for them without a motive besides being human, I gave them no families, not that much of a feeling and it ended being almost like Duke Nukem Forever. No, it didn’t take forever to get out, but I did leave me with a bad after taste even if I enjoyed the ride.

 

Guiss was basically Rambo back then, I know I made her hate her ‘creators’, but that is about it. The character that inspired ‘Thor’ was your average Joe made Super fucking Saiyan. Terry was basically the comedic relief, but still kicked ass and the soldier was god mod with the one that was Krisha being basically my horny feelings. I was a teenager, I like interspecies stuff; sue me for all I care. For that reason it was obvious I had to do things right.

 

It is a fucking burden to read such a chapter like this one? Well, sometimes it is, it means giving a lot of information at a fast pace early in the story, but it has been one week for the main character to know the others, at least SOME of them (Wink at the public, we need people here), while also relying on others to know about them better (Like John, he gossips a bit). I am going to say I had been trying to get this around 20 pages long instead of the nearly 10 it is, however it became tedious as battle after so much data was a bore to do. I thought I had to pace out and let those that like this story digest what had just happen, as well as maybe give someone the chance to make the pilot a character, he (or she) will appear a LOT with this team.

 

I am also going to say that it is a high chance that of the first terror mission happening in either chapter 4 or, for sure, in chapter 5. Veteran soldiers won’t die, now at least, but I need to know if there are volunteers. Newbies for the team WILL probably die then, one or two, and gruesomely mind you. I will expand things and let the first group of people (enough to fill the remaining veteran soldiers) to create a 2º character (Newbie or veteran, though the idea is for a veteran) so they can survive until… well… probably near the end, or maybe through it all! I am just going to say that the end battle, if we reach that point, will have a lot of deaths, but if we don’t have people dying in the middle we are screwed, so… volunteers? (Pilots are also needed).

 

Outside of that, the next thing to be done will be biographies for the people to clarify what has been said today: What they know NOW, how they are, physically or mentally, and drawings… Hah, the last one is not going to happen EVER (I don’t draw), so you’ll have to do with my descriptions. I will not do the official characters though, those are not mine to decipher.

 

Now remember the rules put earlier for YOUR profiles:

 

*Must not be god mod.

 

*Must have nice description, and I mean NICE (Well detailed and written pwease?)

-Back-story is a must, but don’t get too crazy.

-Physical and mental description is needed.

-Likes, dislikes, hates, etc. If you do one with a friend here in the forum, you can put friendship, I will do my best to not kill those off… separately, maybe.

 

*If I give you permission, you can make a 2º character for the original soldiers that are still alive (If you read this far, you will know how many spots are there). Those will PROBABLY be unkillable for a long while or until the end, if they die that is. The main pilot is ADDED to the 1º team, so you have to count ANOTHER spot as well as ONE fighter pilot that MUST survive and be slightly badass.

 

*Remember to say if you don’t mind (don’t want or WANT) the character to die, this will be of importance. However it is not a 100% chance that they will have the end you ask for if you want, or not, for them to live. If there are too many that you people want alive, I will croak some of them anyway, no super heroes here, this is war (Main characters live for plot purposes, but they won’t get off lightly, I am a bastard if needed be).

 

*You CANNOT make hybrids, I will explain why, though for the 2º game, if we reach that point, you MAY be able to :3 But you’ll see limitations later in the story.

 

Also: Comment if you like, have ideas or such. Don’t be too harsh, but don’t kiss my ass! Moderation is good.