Apocalypse Fanfic

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Doc France

Warlord punched up his tactical overlay, saw that Doc was out for the count. Without a tactician, he would have to micro-manage the entire raiding team himself. He toggled the team's frequency.

*Alright, guys, you're in the clear. I'm having HQ upload a map of the sewers onto Bloke's HUD... he's your new tactician. I'll take care of the government goons up here, then I'll meet you all back at Bravo. Good luck, team.*

The download bar on Bloke's HUD activated, and within seconds he had a complete tactical overlay of the sewers, complete with the directions back home.

"Alright. We've got two wounded people and a map home. We NEED to get them to the medbay, and its about three clicks to our sewer hatch. So. Who's up for a light jog?"

The team grumbled at Bloke's chipper attitude. They hit their suit flashlights and fell into line.

Senator Harding turned to face Warlord.

"Well, commander, you've done the right thing. Both you and I know that the government is the right force to clean up this mess."

Warlord scowled. " 'Clean up,' sir? With all due respect, all your boys did was storm in and look pretty. How many of your men have died, Senator? The last time I checked my men's vital signs, I would say they already took care of that for you. SIR."

The Senator returned a glare, much like a schoolteacher looks at a petulant student. "Your force's losses have been noted, commander, and I'm sorry that had to happen. But I suggest you watch your tongue when addressing your 'organization's' major source of political and monetary support."

The commander steamed within his armour, careful to retain his poise. "Yes, senator."

Harding turned around and stepped into his private jet-black Phoenix. He called back to Warlord, "I look forward to working with you again, commander. Godspeed."

"Alright, tell me what you guys think, and be honest."

Doc walked around the mess hall table with a large pitcher in hand. He still had a minor nano-pack on his forehead from the major concussion he received.

"Doc, last time you almost poisoned us," Tammy griped. "What swill are you serving us now?"

"Hey, this 'swill' took precious hours to make. It takes a decent amount of time for it to ferment, not to mention the trouble I went through to get our Engineering division to replicate me the right grains and hops. Give a guy some credit, Tammy."

He poured a dark brown, foamy liquid into everyone's glass. "This is my newest creation, its called Oatmeal Stout. Real popular back home, although it was easier to get oats back home too."

Ego smelled the brew. He detected what he thought was stale urine.

Ki-tat yelled out "Gawd, Doc, you know I hate oatmeal..."

"Yeah, yeah, its not quite... Ah, just drink up."

Carlos, still in bandages from his chest wound, raised his mug. "To a mission accomplished. Cheers."

"CHEERS"

The team choked down the stout, and proceeded to punch Doc in the shoulder.

********

END OF CHAPTER 1

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

CHAPTER 2

********

Instalment by The Veteran

Around the base things were just getting back to normal after the disaster that was the raid on one of the temples belonging to the Cult of Sirius. Doc was back up after his close encounter of a high explosive kind and his personal skills were providing a well-deserved distraction for the rest of the squad. That is with the exception of Ki-tat of course, who had made it perfectly clear that he wanted as little to do with Doc's homebrew as possible!

Scientists were busy inspecting the items that the squad had picked up on the evacuation of the temple and the Biochemists had their hands full with several brainsucker pods that had found their way into Alan's backpack. Just one of the advantages of lacking a biological composition was the safety from these 'homing chickens' as they had become known.

The training rooms were all empty save for the few rookies who were struggling for promotion. The medical bays on the other hand were far from empty. The medics were centring their attention on the recovering Carlos who was still laid up after the skin graft. Base security had already been implemented in the medical bay to prevent Carlos returning to his training after he had been found missing immediately after his graft.

The minor cases were free to come and go as they pleased but several of the worse casualties, including some from previous missions suffering similar critical injuries to Carlos, were still refined to the med lab.

Carlos was in fact in a surprisingly good shape given the circumstances but his squad had other reasons for keeping Carlos on ice for a while.

It was in fact only three days until the Jackal turned eighteen years old and the base was still in the early stages of planning a celebration for their friend. Doc was working overtime to supply enough of his wares and everyone was chipping in to do their part including the free engineers who were in the process of customising Carlos' gift.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Carlos the Jackal

Carlos sprinted down the walkway, trading pot shots with intruders as he ran. Coming upon a locked office door, he crashed into it with his shoulder, the thin Kevlar of his jumpsuit absorbing most of the jarring shock as chunks of chipboard flew away from what was once an entire door. Carlos rolled off to the side as a scattering of bullets drilled holes in the floor and doorframe. Carlos realized he had no idea where or what his squad was up to. He tapped one of the tiny buttons on his headset.

"Everyone, where the hell are you? Report"

"Sarge, It's a mess here. We've blown the elevators, and we got the stairs, we need backup..."

"Sergeant, I'm holed up in a office... shit, I'm bleeding, oh god..."

"Jackal dude, we got the Comm room back, some tech wants to talk to someone in charge, I'll tell him to find someone who's competent, should I?"

"Private, put the tech on, and get a team down to level 45, some recruit's bleeding out"

"Affirmative"

Carlos thought quickly, the men under his command were way too strung out, and his attempts to raise anyone else in command were unsuccessful. His men held the floor below and his men in the Comm room 3 floors above were in a constant skirmish with the mercenaries. The floors between were no-mans lands, which, Carlos decided, was not a good place for the only person giving orders to be. Carlos glanced around the room, noting the large Tasman Enterprises logo on the wall. Carlos gave a small smile. Loyal employee, workers weren't required to have the logo, most didn't. The radio crackled to life again.

"Sergeant Carlos... Paul?"

"That's the name on my tag, yeah"

"Hi... um, one of your men lent me his radio. I'm a weapon researcher, from the labs, but I can work this equipment..."

"Well, so can I... so..."

"Look, um... There's no backup... Transtellar hit all our major buildings"

"What about our much vaunted A-ADO? "

"Retaliation. Transtellar H.Q is ablaze"

"Ok, what about internal Comms? Where the hell are all the other squads, I can't raise anyone! "

"I don't know... it's a mess... If it's any help, our happy friends down the way are pretty disorganized as well. I think a drone gun took out their commander"

"Ha, good news, about time I started to hear some"

"Ah... Sergeant, look..."

Carlos hit another button on his headset, silencing the scientist. He heard a single person run down the corridor, and he knew that none of his men were on this level. Carlos waited... the unknown person was no doubt heading towards the room, drawn to investigate by the shattered door and bullet holes. Carlos raised his pistol, aiming at the point where the intruder's head should appear. Sure enough a Transtellar operative jogged though the open door, clenching a SMG inexpertly, not even looking to the side as he ran in. Carlos charged the man, slamming him into the office wall, kicking away the SMG, and pushing his pistol into the operative's neck. The operative, a man of average size, with a boyish face opened his mouth in an 'O' of shock and surprise, raising his hands high above his head.

"Don't move"

"Ah... sure..."

Carlos removed the man's sidearm, and then snatched his headset as well. Glancing at it, he saw it worked the same as his. Carlos punched the button that broadcasted only to a soldier's squad leader.

"This is Sergeant Carlos of Tasman Enterprises security. I assume you're my counterpart"

"What the... yeah, ok... this is Captain Farrow of Transtellar operations. What do you want"

"A bargain, get out now, and you can leave untouched"

"Why the hell should I do that?"

"Cause you're even more strung out than we are and you know that. You can't push any further and nether can we. Sooner or later you know A-ADO will rock up, and then it's all over"

"Yeah, well why don't you just wait for that then?"

"I've lost enough men already. And so have you. Your employers have failed. Transtellar burns tonight; no one else need die for what is already a failed attempt."

The voice at the other end paused for a brief moment.

"Not a single shot, every one of us pinned down can walk out?"

Carlos was surprised, from the way the battle had been going, he was not aware that any Transtellar soldiers were pinned down, in fact, quite the opposite.

"Yeah, everyone, even this guy here who kindly donated his radio"

"Alright... cease-fire... hey... for what it's worth, thanks"

A loud buzzing suddenly filled the room. Carlos's vision began to blur, what the hell was going...

"Urrrrggghhhh"

Carlos awake, ungracefully as usual, automatically reaching out to punish and silence the vile clock alarm that disturbed him. Climbing out of the devilishly soft bed, shaking away the last remnants of sleep and dreams, Carlos gathered and pulled on clothing scattered at random on the shag pile carpet that filled every square inch of his small living quarters. XCom pay was generous, and home decorating was cheap. Every experienced XCom operative's quarters was a tiny 3 by 5 meter palace of avarice, and Carlos made attempts to ensure that his quarters were ahead of the pack. Carlos scratched at the itchy corners of his skin graft, top-notch medical attention ensured that there was not even any scaring, the new skin was simply slightly pale. A smaller graft was on his back; a legacy of a cultist rocket fired just off target.

Carlos ran the dream through his head again as he dressed. That night, a week before he left New Sydney. The night that he made a minor hero of himself in the last remaining city of his homeland. The night he saw Transtellar broken and destroyed, a serpent devoured by its own hungry greed, at least it's holding in New Sydney. Carlos finished dressing. Black, of course. Black steel cap boots. Black Cargo pants. Black polo-style shirt. Black UV Sunglasses. Black leather trench coat. Carlos opened the metal locker, bearing the XCom logo in the corner, he drew a pistol, and two spare clips from the locker, tucking them in a holster built into the trench coat. Carlos also drew a sheathed knife, procuring it in his cargo pants, and a wallet, fat with Mega-Primus credits, placed in an inner pocket in the trench coat. Carlos looked at himself in the mirror, patted the thin Kevlar vest underneath his shirt, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Damn... not even 18 yet... man have I lived"

And so Carlos started another day.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Ego Terrorist

"How's that?" asked Ego as he stepped away to admire his handy work.

"Much better, thanks sir." The Rookie slid off the table, his arm was now healing and it wouldn't be too long until the nano bots had repaired the bone and tissue damage. Ego reminded the rookie to go easy on the arm for a while. He glanced about the medbay, there was still several people on the critical list, two of them he didn't except to live, the damage done to their organs and brain was very severe, Carlos had recovered quite well, although, he wouldn't be put back on the active operatives list at least until he was 18-teen. "17-teen year olds in a military operation. "Oh well at least he's a good operative, even though he's just a kid..."

Ego nodded to the nurse that was on duty, he had decided to get some kip in his office, he was still exhausted after the last mission. John my boy, you're either getting old or you need to work out more. He decided that he needed to work out, after all 34 isn't old...is it?

An hour later, Ego woke up he looked at his watch. He wondered what he had dreamt of, took his feet of his desk, and looked at some paper work. Alien autopsies, several would have to be done soon, expense report, medical reports that will need to be filed and a letter from his girlfriend, Ego pushed the other pieces of paper aside and read the letter, for what must of been the seventh time, he smiled and opened a draw, he picked up his Walther PKK 4 and lifted out a photo frame, his girlfriend Anne Ford, stood there, he remembered the scene, it was a beautiful day at Woodson Memorial Park, he remembered.

The Nurse knocked on his office door "Excuse me Doctor, Rookie Gates passed away half an hour ago, I didn't wake you as...well..."

John paused he closed his eyes and thought, there was nothing he could of done, the unlucky bastard had caught a bullet in the head, he was still alive, but he was slowly dying, damn he thought, what a way to die, to die in chaos, without his friends and family there, just the team. Not even the team, he thought. He'd been asleep! "Right...how's the other one doing?" he said groggily, as one does after an hours sleep.

The nurse leaned against the doorframe. "No change."

"Okay, I'll contact Rookie Gates' family, ask them what they want to do with the body." There were really two options, burial, or he would be 'sacrificed' to the Recycling facilities. The nurse turned around and left the office. John picked up his videophone, selected the name and number from the list and hit dial. He hated this part of the job. "Hello Mrs Gates? This is Doctor Pickering from XCom, it's about your son."

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Cold Apple Pie

"See you there" Cap hung up his phone.

"Who was that?" Ki-tat asked who was just entering his quarters.

"My girlfriend. Her name is Jane. She's the hottest chick in Mega-Primus"

"Where are you taking her?" Ki-tat asked.

"Mario's, you know that Italian restaurant? I'm taking her there."

Later that night Cap was taking Jane home. They got out of the car outside her home.

"I had a great time, Kilam." Jane said.

"Same here." Cap replied.

Their heads started moving closer...they were about to kiss, when suddenly "uh. Sorry, that's my comm link." Said CAP as his comm beeped loudly. "I better go, I'll call you... Bye..."

"Bye." Jane replied.

Cap got in the hover car he borrowed from HQ, he lifted off and answered the comm at the same time. It was Ki-tat.

"Why the hell did you call me?" Cap practically shouted in the comm.

"Hey what's your problem?" Ki-tat asked.

"I was about to kiss her!" Cap was still shouting.... silence....

"Well, how'd it go?" Ki-tat asked.

"It went fine until you called"

"Well I didn't actually call you to ask about your date, I was calling because Pete wants to talk to you. He wants you back here in 30 minutes."

Cap accelerated the hover car...

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by The Veteran

"Want another?" Asked Doc staring at ego across the table.

"Why the hell not. Go on pour us another..." Ego had been sampling for Doc for hours now and was slurring his words quite badly.

"Look, it's not like you could've done anything about it is it? He was shot in the head! The head! He was lucky to last as long as he did."

"But he was... alone..." stammered Ego as he downed another homebrew. "He dieded alone... No friends... No familily... Noone... Imagine how that must've be-en." said ego with a hiccup.

"Look I think you've had enough mate. I'd better get the rest of this made up before Carlos turns up. The medical staff are having a hell of a time with him." said Doc as he resumed his brewing.

"They only went and found him in his own bed today didn't they?" called Ki-tat as he walked past the doorway of Doc's hideaway.

"What's that? Carlos?" called Doc from behind his workbench.

"Yeah," Ki-tat hung up his jacket outside and walked into the room. "They reckon he must've got out in the night somehow and found his way back to his quarters. I've just seen him in the training room. Said I wouldn't report him though."

"Well," said Ego from under a blanket of semi consciousness, "wha's the point? Is not like 'e ever lissens anyway."

"What's his problem?" asked Ki-tat turning to Doc.

"The medics just lost Slang. He died from a bullet in the brain and now he thinks it's his fault" replied Doc indicating to Ego.

"Well there's no point talking to him about it now, I'll catch him in the morning." with this Ki-tat turned and left, collecting his jacket on the way out.

"Where are you off to now?" Doc called after Ki-tat, but all he could make out was "I'm going to catch CAP before Pete does..."

Just then at the other side of the base there was a very weathered and dented Hovercar pulling up. The HQ owned three hovercars for staff excursions. This was the one reserved for CAP.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Alan

Tinboy was doing several things at this moment, but mainly he was waiting. He would have been in the rec room with some of the other agents, helping to set up for the impending celebration, however, as usual he had been roped into helping in the labs. It made sense really, as he was one of the few people on the base who could handle the brainsucker pods without causing them to open. Now, however, he had already placed them into the containment chamber in the middle of the bio lab.

Tinboy was sitting in the corner of the biolab, with a cable running from one of his comm ports to Bravo base's main computer. He sat there sifting through data as the scientist worked around him. This was fairly standard procedure, as for them it was like having a walking talking data processing computer... in fact, it was having a walking talking data processing computer!

He sat there, tinkering with his autocannon. He had just finished attaching a laser sight, and was polishing the gun.

Regardless of this seeming activity, Tinboy was really just waiting. He was waiting for Doc France to call him and tell him the latest batch was ready so he could go and carry it to the rec room.

A flagged message caught his attention while he browsed the base's database. It was an obituary, for rookie Gates. Tinboy got the feeling that he would be waiting for a while longer.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Doc France

Kilam piloted his Hovercar into the parking bay, twisting through the maze of launch ports. Fortunately the craft was on autopilot, or his nervous shaking would have made him collide with one of the walls. He knew what he had done, he'd taken a Phoenix without permission from HQ to take Jane on a date. He knew he was getting a lashing from Pete and Ki-tat.

Ki-tat opened the door to the parking bay just as his little brother's hovercar landed. Kilam opened the cockpit and snapped to attention. Ki-tat walked over. "At ease. I can't discipline you as an officer, so I'm going to discipline you as a brother before Pete arrives." Kilam relaxed, but then tensed back up.

"What the hell do you think you were doing? We had no clue where you were, or that you had taken the Phoenix. And for some stupid little girl. You're supposed to be an XCom soldier, not some hormone-ridden teenager, no matter how young you are. When you joined up, you knew you would have to give up certain things. You can't just go gallivanting around the city with your 'girl-friend' in a government-owned vehicle! What's next? Drag racing in a Stormdog? You put us all through a whole lot of hell this evening. I was worried about you."

Ki-tat stared at Kilam, his icy-blue eyes burning red-hot holes in the back of his brother's mind. Through the glare, Kilam saw that he truly did care. After their parents were killed in a building collapse in Hong Kong, Ki-tat took it upon himself to look after his wayward brother. Even if it meant becoming more like a father or mother to him.

Pete stormed into the room, almost blazing red in anger. Both Kilam and Ki-tat stood straight at attention while the commander finished his spiel, spittle flying into both their faces. Nearly ten minutes went by, and Pete's voice was rasping and Kilam was shaking so violently he was vibrating the metal plates on the floor.

Pete wiped off his mouth. "Ki-tat, you're dismissed." Ki-tat saluted him, waited for Pete to return the salute, and walked towards the door. "As for you, we will inform you of our disciplinary actions tomorrow. For now-"

Ki-tat opened the door, only to run into Tinboy.

"Sir, I have something I need to inform the Squaddie of."

"What is it, Tinboy..."

"With your permission, sir, it requires some privacy."

"Carry on. Tell him his confined to his quarters until further notice."

"Yes, sir."

Both Ki-tat and Pete left the room. Outside, Tammy was standing around the corner, snickering to herself.

"Something funny, Tammy?" Pete demanded.

"Well, sir, with all the buzz over Kilam running off on us, Tinboy and I did a little research on this "Jane" girl. Turns out she's not all she's cracked up to be, and that's what Tinboy is telling Kilam in there. Care to know her real name sir?"

Pete gave an inquisitive look.

"JA22015NE."

An eerie, hair-splitting scream came from the room behind them, followed by pounding and several more high-pitched shrieks as Tinboy emerged from the parking bay. Pete tried his hardest to maintain his composure.

"Tinboy, make a note. No further disciplinary action necessary for Squaddie Chung." Pete walked back to his quarters, cackling hysterically all the way.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Warlord

Meanwhile, on the target range, Warlord was doing his best to melt down his Lawpistol. He had already run 500 rounds through, but instead of relieving the stress as usual, he seemed to get madder with each shot.

The casualty reports were in, and grand total X-Com had lost 38 soldiers in the botched raid. There were only two possible explanations for the fiasco. Either the XCom soldiers were not up to par on their training, which he knew was not the case, or Intel had completely dropped the ball. Slowly a third possibility was creeping into the mind of the commander.

Warlord finished off the clip and set down his pistol. He then picked up his commlink.

"Pete."

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favour, I want complete background checks on all Intel personnel. I want to know everything about everyone right down to their shoe size and what colour underwear the wear."

Pete frowned at the unusual request.

"Ok, I'll have a couple of my guys-"

"No, I want you to do this personally. And keep it very quiet."

"Sure, when do you want it?"

"Yesterday."

Pete swore under his breath, calling Warlord a few choice names, then regaining his composure. There had to be a good reason for this, and Warlord's gut instincts were rarely wrong. Now his temper on the other hand...

"Yes, Sir. I'll have it for you ASAP."

"Thanks, Pete. I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I get some answers. Carlos' party is tonight, right?"

"Yeah, Doc has been working around the clock on his latest witch's brew."

Warlord laughed, "Careful calling it that, we don't want to offend him, or we might have to start buying our beer. Since this is a special occasion, I'll give everyone a break. Have the team ready for physical training at 0700 instead of 0600. I figure they can use the extra hour of sleep."

"No problem, Sir."

Pete swore again. He'd just have to take it easy on Doc's brew tonight...

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by The Veteran

"Hey Doc," called Kilam cautiously peering into the small brewery that was Doc's personal workshop. "Doc?"

"He's not here." Came a reply from somewhere in the corner of the room. "I'm trying to find him myself. " Came the mystery soldiers' voice.

"And who are you?" inquired Kilam.

"I'm from the Biolab. The boys and me have just finished working on those brainsucker things the team brought back from the last mission. They're gross. We've got a personal break for a few hours so I've been sent up here to grab some of this stuff," he replied, holding up a small bottle of Doc's most recent brew. "We're going to see if we can find out what's in it! Don't tell him will ya?"

Kilam chuckled briefly before coming back to his senses. "Yeah fine whatever. Do you know where Doc's gone?" he asked the scientist.

"I'm not sure but the last person I spoke to on the way here said he was in the rec room. Preparing a do for one of your boys aren't they?"

"Yeah that's right, Carlos is turning eighteen tomorrow so we're having a party tonight..." said Kilam without really trying to.

"Yeah, well," the strangers were beginning to get uneasy around each other. "I'd better get back to the lab so..."

"Yeah... I'll maybe see you around sometime..." said Kilam heading off to the rec room, leaving the scientist behind him to collect up his belongings. After walking for several minutes Doc came into view. He was on his way to the workshop from the rec room. "Doc" called Kilam.

"Hmm? Oh Kilam. Look I'm sorry I'm really busy at the moment. What is it?" asked Doc without stopping.

"It doesn't matter. I just wanted to talk to someone and at times like this you're usually the best guy to talk to. Forget about it, " said Kilam and began to walk away.

Doc stopped and called after Kilam. Kilam turned around. "Look whatever it is I promise we can talk about it later. But... Well, I'm just really busy at the moment, we all are. With Carlos' party. Can't you talk to your brother about it? I'm sure he'd be a much better help than me."

Kilam nodded at Doc then turned around and walked off.

"So what have you got for me then?" said Ego as he walked over to the centre of the biolab.

"It's strange. They aren't actually alive while they're in the pods, but as soon as they sense human activity..." The Biochemist made some vague hand motions to indicate that he really hadn't got a clue what was going on then dropped his arms to his sides and waited for a response.

"So basically?"

"Basically they are weird little bald chickens that home in on human activity and suck their brains out through their throat..." he replied in one breath. "Basically..."

"Right..." said Ego uncertainly. "Well I'd better be going. I've got a lot to be doing..." and with that he turned and left.

In the workshop everyone was standing back and admiring their work.

"It's a bit over the top if you ask me... I mean who paid for this thing?"

"God knows... Nice though..."

"Mmm..."

"Impressive" called Doc as he entered the workshop. "You boys have done wonders with this thing." Around the workshops several conversations died and there was some muffled laughter in a corner somewhere.

"Well sir you'd be amazed what these guys can do given time." Replied the head mechanic.

"Well I think the guys'll all be very impressed with this. What was it originally? A Stormdog or a Phoenix?" said Doc.

"It was a phoenix. It took a bit of work but we've been able to do what we set out to do."

"You all deserve to be very proud of yourselves," said Doc turning to the small cluster of mechanics behind him. He turned back to the head mechanic, "And well done for holding the project together Trigger. At least you're good at something, even if it's not fighting..."

"Yeah, yeah... Shut up..." replied Trigger who was just starting to think he was having a pleasant conversation with another member of the squad.

Doc chuckled to himself and shook his head as he walked out of the workshop. "Arsehole..." he muttered to himself under his breath.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Carlos the Jackal

Cold, it's so cold. Black, all around me. Shit, can't move, let me out, let me... what? Visions of weapons. Holding, loading firing... killing. But I've never shot a real... A light, a line of white... expanding... It's a... door...

"Whoa... he's only a kid"

"Yeah, but he's an expensive kid"

"Why the hell is he so important anyway"

"Some experiment, took ten years"

"How long was he been on ice?"

"Hmm, says here about 80 years"

"Christ! What the fu-"

"He caught 2 hollow point rounds in the heart, turned it into pulp. Fragged him good"

"But this was back when cryo was freeze and pray, what happ..."

"Just read the file for once, would you? I got to take these wires out of his head"

Two... shadows, shaped like men... talking... but I can't hear anything. Cold, but my chest burns like fire... something important about that. More guns... get out of my head... how to shoot... what to shoot. He's reaching over, flicking a switch on the side of this... box? Oh, god... worms... in my head... crawling out... God NO!

"Ahh... uhh... not that one... I hate that one"

Carlos opened his eyes, and climbed out of his... hospital bed? Oh, that's right, Ego wanted "One last night of observation" Carlos knew he was just doing his job, but he was not a fan of medical bays.

"Hmm... last nights clothes, hospital PJs or hospital gown?"

While Carlos made this important decision, Ego left his office and entered the bay.

"Hey, Carlos, How are you?"

"Ego, what's up doc?"

Ego rolled his eyes at the corny joke.

"Look Carlos, when I was looking at the grafts I found something"

"Doctor, doctor, give me the news"

Ego rolled his eyes again.

"Around your chest cavity, there's been a lot of surgical activity... and your heart, well... have you had a heart transplant?"

"Yeah, A legacy of working in Tasman Enterprises"

"What for, a heart defect?"

"Yeah, kind of. T.E med techs fixed it up"

Ego frowned; Carlos came with absolutely no medical history. Actually, when he thought about it, Carlos came with no history of any kind, except a 7 month long stint working as a security chief at Tasman Enterprises, New Sydney. As sergeant... ok, some companies did employ teenagers as armed guards, but how the hell does a 17 year old suddenly become a sergeant, commanding experienced soldiers?

Carlos grabbed his clothes, flashed a grin, and headed off to the showers.

"Today's the day, right?"

"Yeah... 18"

"Any plans?"

"Me, ah maybe going out, getting drunk for the first time... Legally"

"Ha ha, no party plans or anything"

"Hmm, nope, haven't really planned one"

Ego nodded his head in satisfaction as Carlos wandered off the med lab shower room.

"I know something you don't know" he said to himself smiling.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by The Veteran

"Come on Carlos quick" yelled Ki-tat as he threw open the doors to the med lab.

Carlos was still getting dressed and was so surprised at this intrusion he stopped dead. "What?" he asked quietly.

"Get your goddamn shirt on and get out here! We got bogeys in the base" yelled Ki-tat as he threw Carlos one of the guns he was carrying.

"Shit! You're joking? Now! Here" shouted Carlos fumbling with his buttons.

"No I'm not joking! Now get the hell out here! Ego you too" Ki-tat called into Egos office.

"I'm there replied Ego grabbing a gun as he ran out of his office.

"Come on then let's go" shouted Carlos as he pulled on his boot. He hopped after Ego still tying his laces. "Where are we headed?" he called after Ki-tat who was almost around the corner.

"We're taking the east end of the base," replied Ki-tat as he dived around the corner. "Quick! Get over here" he called to Carlos.

As Carlos rounded the corner he saw Ego and Ki-tat in defensive stances covering the door to the next room. "I'm there" shouted Carlos as he ran towards the door.

He landed a kick half way up the door sending it flying open. Then everything was black...

"What the?" Carlos began to say to himself, squinting to see.

"SURPRISE!!" rang the chorus as the lights came back on in the rec-room.

"Bastards" shouted Carlos as he saw the rest of the team come into view. "Bastards..."

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Carlos the Jackal

"Urggghhhh... ow... who beat me with a stick last night... oh... I remember now..."

Well, some of it anyway. Carlos arose, and graceful and steady were not words that would have come to the mind of anyone, had they opportunity to watch. Carlos stumbled around his little cabin of opulence, banging into things in an attempt to gather clean clothes off the floor. Carlos tried to think clearly for a minute, was he still off the combat roster? He picked up a piece of paper off the outrageously expensive corner table... real wood, a luxury here. Hmm... seemed Pete had given him 3 more days off. Carlos dropped the paper on the already crowded floor. Another piece of paper was on the table. Carlos immediately stuffed that in his pocket. That was important, he had a meeting today, with the single reason he had left New Sydney, not to mention a job of squad leader in A-ADO personally offered by the company heads themselves.

Carlos hated turning them down. He felt that he owed them quite a lot, but still, saving years of valuable research, not to mention 200 scientific personnel must make up for that. Finally ready, Carlos opened the door, still trying to remember exactly what happened last night. Must have been some party. The door shut behind him, something on it catching the corner of his eye for a minute.

Carlos turned around. The door was thick plastisteel, and here and there little dents and scratches could be seen in the alloy, but it still had an aura of 'newness'. Just above to the door lock and code mechanism it read: Sqd. Paul, C. Some wag had added with permanent marker 'Den of the Jackal', probably Trigger. But that had appeared over a week ago. What was new was the enormous, multicoloured 'PARTY BOY' taking up a good part of the upper door. To top that off, someone else had seen fit to add a stick figure depiction of a man making love to a kangaroo, captioned with 'Getting down under!' on the lower half. Carlos let a grin creep onto his face. Best not to make too much of a scene and draw even more attention to it. Anyway, it might turn out that he drew it himself.

Carlos wandered off the to Rec room. To find it almost empty. Only Ki-tat was there. Well, Ki-tat was about the only human on the face of the earth not to write themselves off last night, so it made sense. Ki-tat was sitting on one of the couches facing the enormous view screen. Aliens S.E was playing, but of course there always was some movie like that.

"Hey Ki-tat, how's life"

Ki-tat turned from the view screen as Carlos sat down. Both of them had seen the movie over fifteen times. Ki-tat smirked.

"I'm good, how bout yourself?"

"I feel like I've been run over by a Wolfhound, but I'm alright I guess"

"They mostly come at night, mostly" added the movie.

"Ha, that's why I don't drink! "

"What, you been on some 12 step program or something?"

"No, I just don't think it's worth it..."

Carlos smiled, that's one less potential customer for Doc... if indeed he actually had any products left after last night. He really couldn't remember if he did at the moment.

"They really kick ass, I think they'll come in handy," said Corporal Hicks of the Colonial Marine Corps.

"Did you like your present?"

"What present? Oh... THAT present"

Ki-tat grinned as a 'kid in a candy shop grin' plastered itself on Carlos's face. He had to go try it out now. Right now. Immediately.

"Affirmative" said Newt.

"Oh, yeah, did you hear about my brothers date?"

"Ha, yeah... 'How was it for you, darling?' 'Electric'"

Carlos and Ki-tat howled with laughter.

"Hudson, we need you and I'm sick of your bullshit"

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Ki-tat Chung

"Hmm... just the usual.... WOAH" said Carlos as he walked into the vehicle bay.

"Ah-ha. Impressive, isn't it?" Ki-tat said.

"I can't believe you guys kept it under wraps for so long. By the way, did you guys actually buy that built in mini-kitchen/bar?"

"No, we just ripped it off some Cultist's car on the way out. We got CAP and Tinboy to carry it."

"How come I didn't see it?"

"Well, one very good explanation is YOU WERE UNCONSCIOUS"

"Oh yeah. Forgot. Huh. 8.1 sound system. Nice."

"We built that one," the head mechanic said as he walked in, rubbing his head. "Man, now I know how you feel after a whole night of binge drinking."

"Why you..." Carlos says as he playfully punched Trigger in the arm. "AAAHHH"

"Hey, careful with that. It took the medics 5 hours to get that skin on." Ki-tat said.

"Well are you going to test the car or not?"

"Sure. Hop in peop-"

"Um... have you got a licence?"

"Oh yeah, trust you to be a law abiding citizen, Ki-tat! You must've been a teachers pet what you were in school or something."

"I was."

"So what do we do?"

"Ahhh, just leave that to me."

Ki-tat walked up to a computer terminal and inserts his driver's licence/disk into the card slot then he took it out again. All his details came up. Then he inserted a new disk. He worked on the computer for a few minutes. An error message about illegal stuff appeared.

"Here the fun begins."

"And there I thought you were law abiding."

"Nah, you're looking at MNS for that."

After some feverish typing, Carlos' details appeared.

"There. I used my drivers licence as a template and created a new licence."

"But what about Megapol's data base?"

"You don't know much, do you? As long as they see 'Employed by XCom', they don't check the mainframe. That's what I did before I got my real licence. Same with CAP."

"Um, boys, as the head mechanic, I feel obliged to warn you that........." said Trigger before trailing off as he saw Ryan and Ki-tat hop in the heavily modified Phoenix without him.

"Hey wait up guys! Don't leave without me"

As Ki-tat lay on his bed in his quarters, he thought about his past. He hated doing it, but he had to do it for his own mental health.

He thought about his parents, the accident and how he had to scrounge around for jobs. Eventually, he had a well-paid job as a security guard. Part time job so he could send his little bro to school while doing his job and taking care of him. He had just enough money to pay for the monthly bills. After a while, he was promoted and he started buying shares. After a month or two, the price rose dramatically and he sold them off. Then he moved to Australia, New Sydney. There, Transtellar hired him. Just on the day he was off duty, there was a raid. He immediately quit, even at the offer of lifetime insurance. He couldn't risk his brother's health. He was offered a high pay, high profile job in Toronto now known as "Mega-Primus". The only thing they left out was 'high risk'. He accepted immediately. Then Ki-tat and his little bro moved to Mega-Primus. He rented out an apartment block for a while before he received response from the "elite" organisation. X-com. He couldn't believe his eyes. After about a month, his little bro turned 15 and applied for a job in X-com. Back then, they still hadn't developed the psionic teaching devices yet, so Kilam wasn't "brainwashed" into a model citizen. He was a quite violent and a bit of a smartarse. No matter what was said to Kilam, he wouldn't listen.

What would've happened if you were here dad? Ki-tat pondered. Oh how different it would be.

A loud banging and screaming down the corridor interrupted his thoughts. He went to full alert. He walked over to the door, opened it and expected it to be some rookies playing some prank. There, right in front of him, was a Spitter.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Warlord

As the spitter made its signature gurgling sound, preparing to attack, Ki-tat stepped back in shock. Suddenly a volley of rounds from Ego's M4000 turned the spitter into a very nasty looking piece of Swiss cheese. Ki-tat snapped out of it and asked Ego, "Are we under attack?"

"No, one of the research interns got a bit over confident. Had the spitter out of it's containment cell."

"What was he thinking?"

"She, actually, thought that she had it under psionic control. She thought wrong."

"Boy is she going to be in trouble when the boss finds out."

"No, unfortunately, she didn't live to learn from her mistake."

"Oh..."

Later that evening, Warlord was back on the target range, as usual. Shooting somehow always seemed to relax him. As he ran clip after clip through his Lawpistol, he reflected on his life.

At the age of 14, he joined the army. He rose through the ranks quickly due to his uncanny grasp of tactics and weaponry. When he was 18, the army finally figured out that he had lied about his age, and dishonourably discharged him. After that, it was almost impossible to find a job in the "real world," so he bounced from place to place taking whatever mercenary contracts he could get his hands on.

Over the years he earned a reputation for success, and a price on his head from those that were the targets of his successes. The last mercenary contract he took would prove to be his only failure. A gentleman approached him and offered a contract for a corporate espionage job. He was to get into a research facility, extract schematics for a new weapon that was under development, and get out. Piece of cake, right? Wrong.

Warlord had unknowingly accepted a contract from the Cult of Sirius. Not only that, but the target facility was an XCom research base. Warlord and his team were able to get into the base undetected, however the security systems sounded an alert as soon as he attempted to access the mainframe. XCom soldiers came pouring in and a massive firefight ensued. Even though badly outnumbered, Warlord and his team fought back savagely.

Eventually his men started falling, one by one. No matter how many soldiers and security guards they took down, there seemed to be a dozen ready to take their place. Soon, Warlord was down to one man and himself. They were almost completely out of ammo, and the XCom soldiers just kept pouring into the area. Seeing no other options, Warlord and his last remaining team member laid down their weapons and surrendered. He had lost ten of his twelve-man team, but they had killed more than twice that number of XCom soldiers and security personnel.

The base commander ordered Warlord to be brought to his office. During their discussion, the base commander offered Warlord a position with X-Com. Seeing his chance at his first steady job in 6 years, Warlord gladly accepted.

"And here I am..."

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Ego Terrorist

Ego opened the door that lead into the Alien Containment and look into the room, the clean up crews had put the body of the Psionist into a body bag, the acids had been neutralised, that left a sour smell. He opened the bag and looked into it, her face was almost burnt right down to the bones, you could almost imagine the expression of fear in her face, the smell of acid and flesh caused John to move away. "What a waste..." He closed the bag and got up, he looked to the other cells, most were empty, and with that spitter dead that meant that the research would have to be put on hold until a new specimen could be brought in. A new Psionist or biomedical researcher would need to be brought in. Ego nodded to the clean up crew and left.

Then Ego returned to the med lab. He'd have to write a report on what happened, contact the next of kin, and yell at whoever had opened the cell doors and deactivated the security system in the room. It was going to be a long day. Ego looked to his watch, he typed in the name of the person who died. Mara Kates, the computer worked away. Ego looked to the ceiling in deep thought about nothing really, best call mum and dad sometime soon, he had been raised in England and at an early age he took an interest in medical science, he passed his exams okay, went to University and did Biomedical Science and Anthropological Theorem, he enjoyed the subjects and passed both of them. At this point he had to decide what to do, teaching would be nice, but then again something a little bit more interesting would be better. He soon joined the Government's SWAT team, his father had shown him how to use guns at an early age, and had played all of the VR games which were SWAT team based, he upheld the law for five years, he'd killed a few bad guys but nothing major. He'd left the armed police, wanting a new challenge he looked about, and then came across a job ad in VRNews, it was a small ad, no details, just 'Wanted Doctor capable of doing Xenobiological Research. Must know how to handle a gun' it gave an address to a Government Warehouse in Mega Primus. He decided to visit it. He met a man, scared, who said that if he wanted the position he could have it. So Ego accepted, for a few years he had stayed at the XCom base in Mega Primus.

"Haven't looked back since." Ego grinned to himself, the computer screen caught his eye, he turned to it and frowned, he typed it the operatives name in again, and all it came up with was. "Operative file not found." This could of meant she never had one, or it had recently been purged from the system. Either way this was a major security breach.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by The Veteran

Warlord emptied another clip on his Lawpistol and began to reload his gun. He was still thinking about the last few years of his life. How did he end up working for an organisation that he had tried to destroy? Anyone else would simply have shot such a dangerous aggressor but XCom had obviously spotted his potential and hired him instead.

"Oh. Warlord. I'm sorry I didn't think anyone was in here." Said Trigger as he entered the target range and quickly turned to leave again. Almost a year of abuse had left Trigger rather shy around the rest of the team.

"Hey, just cause I'm here doesn't mean you can't be! Come on, join me." Replied Warlord although it felt very unnatural.

"Hey thanks," said Trigger returning to the target range and checking the gun racks for a suitable gun. "You've always been the only person here who's nice to me. Why is that?" he queried.

"Well someone has to be don't they," said Warlord firing off half a clip before he'd even finished speaking. "Besides, it's a free country. I figure you get enough grief from the rest of the team that I don't need to bother! Anyway don't thank me. If I was really all that nice then I would do something to shut up the rest of the guys. Then you could thank me. What are you doing down here anyway?" asked Warlord lowering his pistol and turning to Trigger.

"One of the new biochemists let our spitter out. Now it's waiting to be incinerated with fourteen rounds in it's back. I was supposed to be checking that out today but seeing as I can't do that anymore I thought I'd find somewhere quiet to hone my shooting." Trigger pushed a button on the wall and the target he was shooting at sank back into the wall, way behind Warlord's. "The new engineer's arrived now too... What do you think is the least accurate weapon here?" he asked Warlord.

"The least?" replied Warlord curiously. "Probably what I'm using. They've only got a forty-three meter range but I've squeezed it out to over fifty. If you're thinking of trying it at that range though I'd go for an M4000. You've got it over sixty meters back. Noone can hit that"

"Yeah well we'll see." Said Trigger pulling a Lawpistol out of the cabinet. He walked up to the cubicle and lined up his first shot. Warlord unloaded the rest of his clip, almost all hits at fifty meters. Trigger pulled on the ear protection and lined up the shot. Set at over sixty meters he knew how hard it was to hit and took minutes before he fired off the first shot. It sheared off to the left of the target, hitting the reinforced wall behind it. Trigger unloaded the rest of the clip into the back wall without a single hit. Then he became aware that Warlord was watching him.

"Told you it can't be done." He said returning to his cubicle.

Trigger ignored him and reloaded his pistol. He knelt down and aimed at the target. Another five or six shots went into the back wall before there was a distinguishable clink of metal against metal. He stopped firing pulled out some binoculars and checked the shot. It was a hit but barely. He resumed his stance and shot off another three bullets. Two hits. Trigger proceeded to unload the rest of that clip with almost half of them hitting the target.

Warlord was once again watching Trigger and this time without speaking he returned to his cubicle and put his target back to seventy meters. Seeing this as a challenge Trigger followed suit and the two soldiers exchanged a friendly glare while they reloaded. Both soldiers turned to their targets, Trigger kneeling again. Warlord was quick to start shooting and finished his clip way before Trigger.

When they were done they both stepped out of their cubicles and recalled their targets. Both were full of holes but only one had a bulls eye.

"Well done son. Looks like I owe you an apology." And with this Warlord returned his weapon to the shelf and left the target range.

"Yes sir..." said Trigger smugly as he watched Warlord depart.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Carlos the Jackal

>MEGAPOL ARMED PATROL UNIT: JN-32

>STATISTIC READOUT: SELECTED HOVERCRAFT

>

>Hovercraft Registration: ANZ4058375 (Valid)

>Owner: X-COM

>Hovercraft Type: Phoenix Hovercar (Modified) (Year/Model 2084, Luxury class)

>Modification not approved by Megapol

>Modification violates government protocol

>Military issue carbon polymer chassis detected

>Military grade transparent alloy detected

>IFF Tag: X-COM

>Weapons detected: Plasma beam weapon

> Amour piercing missiles (8)

> All band Jammers (military issue only) (inactive)

>Occupants: 2

>

>Driver: Paul Carlos

>Age: 18

>Employee, X-com

>Position: Operative

>No criminal history

>Current and valid licensee

>License to bear arms: Class Senate special issue

>Permit to wear military grade armour

>Senate decree: Cannot be detained on trespassing charges without senate approval

>If subject has violated trespassing laws, first contact Senate liaison, Harding before taking any action.

>If subject is detained on any other charge, immediately contact Senate liaison, Harding.

"Shit"

"You wanna book this guy?"

"Shit no, you wanna have the boss busting your ass because that Harding bastard busted his"

"Well, what do we do?"

"Note him down, get the station to send him a very polite email asking him to please register his modifications"

"And if he doesn't"

"Someone else can send him another one"

Carlos grinned as the third police hovercar that day stopped following and swung away to fight the good fight elsewhere. He loved this car; the boys in engineering had done good work. Of course, they hadn't had much else to do. After they built four alien containment units, they found themselves waiting and waiting for the lab rats to come up with something to replicate. Much as he loved the car, he knew that, present or not, the car was not really his. While it would always be there for his personal use, he knew that when the aliens came out of the gate again, one of the base's pilots would be scrambled to use it.

For someone who had hardly driven a hovercar before, he drove rather well. Of course... he just knew how to, same as he just knew how to clean, maintain, repair, load, fire and kill with most modern weapons. Knowing how to, and actually being able to, however were two different things, and Carlos had started flying around rather unsteadily. Fortunately Ki-tat had been there to help out, but a couple of hours ago he had to report in, so Carlos dropped him off.

"Bloody good, isn't it?"

"You've said that at least 6 times now, and always with that grin like a split watermelon"

Carlos glanced at the new head engineer. Trigger wasn't hired to do the job but was simply filling in a gap in the team, as usual! The new engineer had turned out to be a real live wire, with almost as many jokes as Carlos himself had. Mark Nieberdink he called himself, earning the nickname of 'Nebo' around the base. From an old German family, apparently. Cruising around the city with Ki-tat earlier in the day, they'd had a great time. Nebo appeared not to be adverse to a drink as well, as all the tiny, empty bottles and empty glove box minibar was testament to.

"You remember anything of the party Carlos? "

"Hmm, bits and pieces, what happened"

"You know a lab rat working over in quantum physics?"

"No..."

"Named Claire?"

"Whoa... you really need to tell me what's going on"

"Ha, ha, ha"

Interrupting them, the Comm radio crackled to life, and an operative Carlos barely knew spoke urgently.

"Carlos, Nieberdink, do you read?"

"Yeah"

"Yes sir"

"Get back to base. We have a security breach"

Carlos immediately set the autopilot, and the sleek, black hovercar swung around and headed quickly back towards the base. Carlos drew a pistol from somewhere from his coat and sat it on the dashboard. Nebo fumbled around his own engineering uniform to produce his personal, and unauthorised, sidearm.

"What's the situation?"

"A single alien escaped from containment, its been terminated."

Carlos and Nebo relaxed. Nebo tucked his gun back and looked notably relieved.

"What happened?"

"Bio lab rat thought she could psi control it. Burnt her face off"

"Shit"

"Yeah, anyway, Warlords getting really nervy. Shouldn't tell you this, but they were running a standard background, you know, for sending her home to the folks. Turned up zippo. That's the breach, not the alien. That was just plain stupid"

Carlos's expression hardened, the last thing he needed was someone digging up histories, looking for suspicious backgrounds. It looked like he was going to have to talk a lot more about himself than he felt comfortable in the near future.

Carlos stood in the corridor, staring at the stain on the floor. On the wall opposite was even more dried blood, and groupings of dark circles where M4000 bullets had buried themselves into the metal wall. Having seen enough, he walked to the next corridor, coming up to a door with showed signs of recent cleaning attention. Carlos ran his I.D strip through the lock, and went inside his room. A blinking light on his computer indicated someone had sent him an email. Carlos checked, a Megapol reminder to register his hovercar's modifications. 'Well, that's Nebo's problem' he thought, so Carlos forwarded the mail to him.

Another L.E.D on the door indicated items were deposited in the doors 'mailbox'. Carlos opened the small compartment, designed to admit objects about the size of an old fashioned letter. 3 photos and a napkin were there. One photo was of his door before it was cleaned. Signed on the back was 'Rock on, from the engineering crew'. The other two were of the party, the first was him seated at a table, arm draped around a cute girl with glasses and a lab coat. The second was him and the girl clinking full glasses together and laughing.

"Hmm... this must be the mysterious Claire..."

Carlos examined the girl in the photo. Her blonde hair was gathered together at the back, she wore small, thin-rimmed glasses and a dazzling smile. She was very thin, and... very short. She only came up to his shoulders. She was certainly not a supermodel, but she was indeed very cute.

"Hmm... wonder if she's serious"

Carlos flipped though the photos, until he came to the napkin. In the middle, was a message, written in lipstick. A kiss mark. Carlos grinned, looked like he had a fan. The buzzer on the door sounded. Carlos dropped the photos and the napkin on the wooden table, and then opened to door. There she was, still in her lab coat, smiling the same adorable smile. In the flesh, the smile was heart melting and Carlos couldn't resist smiling himself.

"Hi... I just got off duty... you want to... ahh, go do something downtown?"

Carlos was supposed to stay in the base due to the breach, but that smile was devastating to his self-will.

"Sure, lets go"

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Ki-tat Chung

As CAP emptied another clip in the training room, he thought about how he got tricked into by an AI unit, AN AI UNIT, into going out with...it. His rage started up again. He reached for another clip and reloaded.

"Hey, CAP. So how are things going? I'm sorry about the date. Must've been shocking." And immediately, Tammy burst out laughing.

"Shut up." CAP snapped back.

"Ok, how about a contest?" Tammy asked while she set the target back to 50m.

"Get lost."

"Oh come on. Ok, I'll make it easy. You can have the M4000 and I'll take the Lawpistol." Tammy said while reaching for the pistol.

"Fine. Just go away after."

"Oh, no. If you win, I'll go away. If I win, I'll bug you for the rest of the week."

"Bring it on."

As Tammy reached for the ear protectors and her gun, Kilam finished reloading.

"Ready."

"Bring it on."

CAP kneeled and took a moment aiming, set it to full auto, and emptied the whole clip in 9 seconds. He called his target back, and half of the bullets were almost bull's eye, 5 were totally off and the rest were in the head.

"Not bad. Now watch me."

Tammy just shot the pistol, single-handed, about one shot per second. After she finished, she called back her target as well.

"So what do you think?"

But CAP was already out and running towards the door.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Cold Apple Pie

"So, what are you doing tonight?" Ki-tat asked one of the female mechanics as they were walking down the main corridors outside the living quarters.

"Nothing much." She replied.

Just as they were outside Cap's room, the whole corridor shook with blaring heavy metal music coming from inside.

"Uh, I'll see you later?" Ki-tat asked the mech.

"Sure." She replied.

Ki-tat went into Kilam's room getting angrier with every step. "You screwed my chance of asking out a girl, you idiot" Ki-tat shouted at Cap who was lying on his bed reading a hovercar magazine.

"Dude, chill. I only did that so that you could get a better chick. Come with me clubbing tonight to pick up some real chicks." Cap replied.

"You better" Ki-tat said as he walked out of the room.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by The Veteran

"With all due respect sir. Why do I have to show them all around myself? Can't someone else take a few of them?"

"Everyone else is busy. And besides, you should be grateful. It's the first time you've had company all week. Now get a move on they're waiting in the mess. Move"

"This is cause I beat you isn't it?"

"Yes." said Warlord. "Yes it is."

With that Warlord left and Trigger began the walk to the mess hall. The rookies had finally arrived and Warlord had made it his job to take them around the base and assign quarters, weapons, vehicles and squads.

When he reached the mess he saw Doc coming out shaking his head. He was carrying a large keg of his newest brew.

"That for the rec room?" called Trigger in the hope of a reply.

"No... This is for me... Those new rookies? There's only a fifteen year old in there! And the rest are no better... Oh no... This is all mine..." And with that Doc walked off cautiously to his quarters never relaxing his grip on the keg and, were his ears playing tricks on him or did Trigger hear Doc talking to his latest creation?

Before walking in Trigger dared a glance through the window. There were five at the tables and looked to be another three walking around.

"Eight?" he said to himself? "There aren't those many free quarters... Oh god no... Not shared accommodation please"

The last time there had been shared accommodation noone spoke to anyone for almost two weeks. Those particular two weeks spanning three UFO incursions, four building cleanups and a raid. It was not a fun time for anyone involved!

Trigger took a deep breath and pushed open the door. As the door shut behind him there was silence. Everyone turned to face the door.

"Er... Hi..." Trigger decided it was going to be a long day.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Warlord

Later that evening, Warlord sat in his office digging through the mountains of material from the background checks of the entire staff. So far, only two had caught his eye. One file was that of the intern who the spitter had killed. The other was none other than the infamous Carlos. While the intern's file was an obvious fake, with all the requisite false documents, Carlos' file contained only one sheet of paper. That paper contained only a few words:

Classified. Contact 832-976-2845.

"What the hell? I'm cleared for everything from alien tech to weapons prototypes! Classified my ass"

Warlord picked up his phone, "Pete."

"Yeah?"

"Find Carlos, and have him in my office in 10 minutes."

"Um, there's a slight problem,"

"Let me guess, he's not here."

"Bingo."

"Notify base security that he is to be brought to my office immediately upon his return. Not to his quarters for a minute, not to the bathroom, to my office. Am I clear?"

"Absolutely." Pete wondered what stunt Carlos had pulled this time. Oh well, it's probably better not to know. The whole base would probably be talking about it before long anyway. When Warlord went off on someone, you could hear him a half a mile away.

Warlord was finishing up the last file on his desk when a call came in for him.

"Sir? It's Roberts, from the armoury."

The voice sounded a bit nervous.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Sir, your sidearm is ready."

"Excellent, I'll be down in 5 to pick it up."

Warlord grinned a very evil, chilling, grin. His newly modified Lawpistol had been in the works for almost two weeks now. It was chambered for a larger cartridge than the standard Lawpistol. This had two effects. First, the capacity had dropped from 16 down to only 12 rounds. Second, this Lawpistol hit like a freight train.

The armoury techs had resurrected a round that had been invented in the early 20th century, and is still known as one of the best man-stoppers available. The one and only .45 ACP.

They had also added an extra inch to the barrel, as well as honing all internal parts to a mirror finish. This increased the accuracy and reliability dramatically. The techs guaranteed it for 75 meters, but the lead tech said that if you were good enough it'd reach 90.

Warlord had a sudden inspiration. He quickly dialled up Ki-tat's room. When the line was picked up, he was greeted with heavy metal so loud that he had to move the phone away from his ear.

"HELLO?"

"Ki-tat, turn that down"

"Huh? I can't hear you..."

"TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN OR YOU'LL BE SCRUBBING TOILETS WITH YOU TOOTHBRUSH, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR" shouted Warlord

There was a brief sound of running feet, followed by a crash, followed by more feet, then the music died.

"Sorry, sir. What's going on?"

"You and CAP head to the mess hall. There you will find eight new recruits. You are to show them around, get them settled in, get all their equipment issues, make sure they have their shots, etc."

"But sir"

"Now, if you please."

"Yes, sir..."

"You moron" Ki-tat said to CAP, "You just got us stuck with signing in 8 rookies because of your music"

"No way! Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. Now get in uniform, we have to go now."

"Man, this sucks. So much for clubbing tonight..."

Warlord put down his phone. He was still grinning. He could imagine those two bickering back and forth over whose fault it was that they had rookie duty. He picked up the phone and made another call.

"Trigger, change of plans, report to my office."

"Yes sir."

A few minutes later Trigger walked into Warlord's office to find him cleaning a laser sniper rifle. He snapped to attention, as was customary when entering a superior's office.

"At ease. Do you know what this is?" Warlord held up the rifle.

"Of course, sir, it's a laser sniper rifle."

"This rifle will be your best friend. You will carry this rifle with you wherever you go. When you eat, the rifle will be at the table with you. When you sleep, it will share your bed. And I want you to give it a name."

"A name, sir?"

"Yes, a name. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

Trigger turned and left, wondering what Warlord was up to.

Warlord watched him leave, and thought about him. The kid was a natural with firearms, but more importantly, the kid had patience. Not just a little patience, but the kind of patience that was very hard to find. The team had been picking on Trigger since he arrived, and the kid had not fought back yet. Warlord was playing a hunch, but if that hunch was right, that kid would turn out to be one of the best snipers he had ever trained...

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Carlos the Jackal

Carlos brought the hovercar to a halt inside the hanger, got out and walked around the passenger side door. He opened it, and with a grin gave a bow. Claire laughed and stepped out.

"Guess I'll see ya later then, Claire?"

"Sure, thanks for the night out"

"No problem, nice to see there's someone else in this town who likes fried rice and honey battered prawns"

Claire smiled as she walked off, and gave a wave as she went up one of the personnel grav lifts. Real seafood cost a fortune, but Carlos didn't mind. As X-com pretty much provided everything he needed, he found himself at a loss with what to do with his pay. Claire turned out to be very shy and sweet, and Carlos found it amazing she had a fixation on him. He was only really a grunt anyway, despite his constant appearances in the labs. 'Probably going to become a lot more constant now' Carlos thought to himself with a grin. Well, he liked poking around the bio labs more, know thy enemy and all that, but quantum physics it was.

"Squad member Paul Carlos?"

Carlos whirled around. An android and two rookies were walking briskly up to him. The two rookies looked rather nervous, clenching and unclenching sweating palms hovering over holstered T-34 Glock pistols. The android was an obviously a purpose built security droid, and Carlos had no doubt that it could hit anything it wanted to with its scoped laser rifle.

"Yeah, what's going on?"

"The Commander has issued orders, you are to be brought before him now."

Carlos took in the situation. The android was doing all the talking, and could have easily handled this itself. The rookies were obviously here just for the experience. Carlos had a good idea what this was about and knew the time had come.

"Understood, I will see the commander now."

"You are to relinquish your armaments to me, and you will be escorted by us to the commander."

Carlos reached slowly into his coat and pulled out a pistol, holding it by the barrel, he ejected the clip and offered them to the android. The android took them, hoisting its rifle one handed, and tucking them somewhere around its person. Carlos also gave the droid two spare clips and a carbon-tungsten combat knife. He said nothing about the thin Kevlar vest he always wore.

"Now proceed to the commanders office, I will follow."

Carlos walked through the base to the commander's office. As he went, an engineer passed him on the way, making drinking hand signals and the thumbs up. He finally reached the office, and the droid walked in front of him, and entered without fanfare.

"Personnel is secured commander, task completed."

"Excellent, send him in, and take his weapons to the armoury."

"Affirmative."

Carlos walked in as the droid passed him, on its way to the armoury. The rookies, unsure of what to do, followed it. Warlord gestured for Carlos to sit down. Carlos sat as the door automatically closed. Warlord slid a piece of paper across the desk.

"Mind explaining this?"

Carlos looked, and then pointed at the phone.

"Can I use that?"

"As long as you're dialling this number."

Carlos picked up the phone and dialled, after only one ring, the call was answered.

"Yes?"

"This is Squad member Paul Carlos."

"Ah, someone after a little pre-history, are they?"

"Afraid so."

"No problem."

A pause and then the fax next to the phone began to print.

"How is it going, by the way?"

"It's pretty good."

"Found what you're looking for yet?"

"Sort of, I have a meeting organized soon."

"You know if you ever want to come back..."

"Yeah I know, maybe one day, when this is all finished..."

"No need to wait that long, you know A-ADO will always take you?"

"I know, but not yet. Anyway, got to go."

"Right, see you later. Ryan."

Warlord had picked up the first page of a rather large document. The Tasman Enterprises logo was plastered at the top.

"Do you want the long or short version?"

"Appears I already have the long one, lets here the short"

"Ok. A family trip to Sydney. Walking down the street with a friend. Someone tries to mug me, he gets nervous. As I reach in to get my wallet, he puts two slugs in my heart"

"And you lived?"

"Ha, well in a way. On life support, comatose. There simply wasn't any thing that could be done. Hollow point bullets. Not just my heart, but my entire chest cavity was pulped"

"Shit, and...?"

"They were about to turn off the machines. A rep from some company, Alcore I think, approached my parents. They want to use me as a test subject for cryo research. Sign here, $500,000. I was dead anyway, so what the hell, maybe there was even a slim hope that I would be saved..."

"Why so long though, they could have revived and operated forty years ago?"

"A little thing called the second alien war. As you know, after T'Leth, entire economies and countries collapsed. In a state of emergency, the Australian government liquidated all onshore private enterprise property, like the E.U and the U.S did. Alcore just disappeared, and I was pretty much forgotten about, until twelve years later, Tasman Enterprises starts a research project on refining cryo technology for extreme range space exploration."

"So they bought all Alcore's old stuff from the government"

"Bingo. Sifting through all the stuff they had bought, they found me. At first they intended to just operate and discharge me, but then they had a look at the paperwork my parents had signed seventy years ago. They were allowed to do anything, anything at all with my body. They were not even legally obligated to revive me..."

"But contracts like that..."

"Are illegal now. Not in the year 2000 when cryo tech is still Science Fiction, and someone is pronounced officially deceased. Someone decided to embark on reactivating a side project T.E had set aside a few years previously. Cryo implantation. Works the same way Lifetree teaches students, except this way, there's no active interaction. No expensive mass psionic equipment, no teacher. The 'student' doesn't even need life signs"

"I see, instant knowledge for the user..."

"Yes, but because I was the first subject they proceeded slowly. They say that it might be possible to implant entire university courses in a three month long cryo stasis. They took ten years for me. As a test, they placed a history course on the events this century, in an attempt to modernize me. They also implanted weapon training and skills and Hovercraft operating procedures."

"And this took ten years?"

"No, it took 9, they had refined the technology while they worked on me, as an alpha test for commercial viably, they inserted a University course over the space of a year. Pharmacy. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. Anyway, they even roped the university into giving me a degree for it, after I passed the final exam easily. But that was a while later..."

"So then they woke you up?"

"Yes, and it was the most surreal experience, I was slumping down a brick wall one moment, everything fading away and getting smaller and smaller, then the next moment..."

"Incredible, so they told you everything, no secrets?"

"No secrets, they hid nothing. Bare in mind, they had no need to. They had checked out all the legal angles years before. One hundred percent, rock solid legal..."

"And then they gave you a job?"

"They weren't about the throw me to the wolves. In fact, I have to credit them with saving my life, when all is said and done..."

"True, and we know about your job as security Sergeant."

"Yeah, who could forget that. Transtellar. What a mess..."

"So why are you here, you quit suddenly after that."

"Because I found something I had been searching for ever since I woke up..."

"Yes?"

"My last surviving close relative."

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by Carlos the Jackal

>Classified: Clearance level B2 or above

>

>Information Requested:

>

>Casualty list below

>X-Com: 37 Operatives

>Cult of Sirius: 142 Members

>Government: 8 Soldiers

>Megapol: 14 Soldiers

>Alien Aggressors: 46 Organisms

>

>Breakdown of losses

>X-Com:

>22 Rookies

>11 Squad members

>3 Squad leaders

>

>Cult of Sirius:

>56 'Zealots' (Trained)

>63 'Initiates' (Untrained)

>8 'Priests' (Squad leaders)

>2 'High Priests' (Commanders)

>14 Unspecified

>

>Government

>6 Marines

>2 Black Ops

>

>Megapol

>8 S.W.A.T members

>6 Policemen

>

>Alien Aggressors

>24 'Spitters'

>12 'Brainsuckers' (Note: 2 X-COM operatives and 1 Marine were brainsucked)

>10 Humanoids

>

>Combat Breakdown:

>

>24 X-Com operatives killed by Cult of Sirius members

>7 Government soldiers killed by Cult of Sirius members

>9 Megapol operatives killed by Cult of Sirius members

>85 Cult of Sirius members killed by X-Com operatives

>34 Cult of Sirius members killed by Government soldiers

>23 Cult of Sirius members killed by Megapol operatives

>

>13 X-Com operatives killed by Alien Aggressors

>5 Government soldiers killed by Alien Aggressors

>7 Megapol operatives killed by Alien Aggressors

>29 Alien Aggressors killed by X-Com operatives

>7 Alien Aggressors killed by Government soldiers

>10 Alien Aggressors killed by Megapol operatives

>

>Combat follow up:

>5 alien organisms captured by X-Com

>13 alien organisms captured by Government and Megapol

>These specimens loaned for research to Nanotech

>See Document JNZ-78 (Clearance level B4) for details of Nanotech agreement

>

>12 Cult of Sirius members detained. Currently undergoing interrogation

>Members are not to be released without express permission of Senator Harding

>

>34 alien artefacts recovered (number of X-Com recovered artefacts unknown)

>These specimens loaned for research to Nanotech

>See Document JNZ-78 (Clearance level B4) for details of Nanotech agreement

Harding lowered the papers and glanced across at his advisor as he did the same. The advisor's eyes were balls of pure black sitting above a small nose and mouth. A hybrid, Harding had nothing against them, indeed he found them more reliable than an average human.

"Well, any news from the Cult?"

"The official word is that that particular Temple was owned by a splinter group. The cult claims to be shocked to learn of the breeding ground under the temple, and thanks us for our understanding."

Harding snorted.

"Our understanding... What word from your operatives in the cult?"

"The cult is angry and disappointed we discovered what they were up to..."

Harding laughed.

"Confirming what we all knew"

"Of course, and the raid was rather profitable. Nanotech claims to be making great progress, possibly ahead of X-Com."

"Well, that's a rather bold assertion, seeing how we have only one double agent in there keeping tabs."

The hybrid shifted uncomfortably in its chair.

"Sir... our agent has been killed, and the Commander has submitted a rather angry email almost openly accusing us of placing her there. I sent off a heartfelt denial of course."

"They killed her? Shit"

"Apparently not. She tried to mind control a spitter."

"That's stupidity, Nanotech says..."

"Well, she didn't know that. Does now..."

"Did you check the body?"

"Yes, and the security tape. Genuine. X-Com didn't even know until they did some research after the fact"

"Did they turn up anything else in the security sweep?"

"Yes, that agent that saved your life appears to have little prehistory"

"Hmm, really?"

"Yes. Worked for Tasman Enterprises, then moved here, worked for X-Com, no other details available..."

"Do some digging with our counterparts in New Sydney, find out what you can, its always best to have dirt on someone you work with."

"Of course."

Harding watched as the advisor left. He had nothing against hybrids, and nothing to fear. He had not forgot his training at Blackstar 40 years ago. He had a latent talent for such things as psi control, and he still remembered being inside a lobsterman's head, what the mind tasted like. He credited his advisor, the hybrid had never tried to even scan his mind, even though the hybrid had no idea of Harding's power. Having an ability to manipulate people with almost no possible chance of being caught, but not doing so out of ones own moral code? Harding liked loyalty and honesty like that.

[Apocalypse Fanfiction]

Instalment by The Veteran

"One more turn and..." the laser sight clicked off the rifle and Trigger set it beside the barrel on his desk. The gun Warlord had given Trigger was already in more than ten pieces littering his desktop. Sure, the gun worked well enough, he'd tried it on the target range. It was very grotty though. It was obviously pried from the fingers of one of the Sirius casualties. Probably one of XCom's rookies. Triggers room was well cared for but somehow still managed to remain a complete tip. The floor was covered with clothes and various supplements and junk mail, his locker was too full to shut and his bunk hadn't been seen for almost a week. Trigger had slept at his desk for five nights now and was showing a little wear. Still, it was worth it. Taking up almost half of his desk was the UGS Patton in all its former glory. Almost five feet long, it had been scratch built as an everlasting memorial to the lost souls of the doomed expedition all those years ago. Now that it was finally finished Trigger could see another sleepless night looming over him, or at least a very uncomfortable one.

Just as Trigger was removing the exciter chamber from the laser scope a light flicked on by the door of his quarters and a bell sounded from inside the wall. Trigger replaced the chamber and put down the scope. He leant across the desk hoping to retrieve the mail without moving but in the end gave up and rose wearily. He walked to his door and reached into the tray blindly fishing around for anything significant. Finally he pulled out several envelopes and sat back down at his desk.

"Junk," said Trigger putting the envelope he was holding to the back. "Junk. Junk. J... What?" Just as he was about to throw the mail on the ever-increasing pile on the floor behind him, a stamped piece of paper caught his eye. It was smaller than the others so he had almost missed it but he pulled it out and threw the others over his shoulder. "Hope you enjoy this as much as we did" he read to himself. "Enjoy what?" He stood up and walked over to the door again. Fishing around in the cavity he caught hold of a videotape. One of the old ones. "Blue movies... Should've known. Thanks Doc..." he said as he put the tape on the side where he was working. Stuck to the back of it was another letter. He pulled it off and opened it. "What the hell is this goo?" he said opening the letter. He pulled out a leaflet from inside the envelope. Standard XCom personal equipment catalogue, more holsters than guns but it came once a month so it was only the second he'd received. Reading through quickly he tore out one page, put it in his jacket pocket then threw the rest behind him and continued to work.

"I hate mail." He said to himself while he finished unhooking the exciter from inside his scope. "There. That's got it. Now where the... Ah! There it is." Trigger picked up a small glass lens wrapped in bubble wrap. An invention so entertaining that it was still employed to this day! He unwrapped it and screwed the lens into one end of the scope, and then he produced another smaller lens and fitted it in the other. "Much better."

Most of the rest of the soldiers were at this point in the rec-room sampling Docs finest, but not most successful, experiment. Everyone except the brothers Chung actually, who were at this moment in time taking eight hopefuls on a tour of the base. That is to say, some of the base. There were indeed some facilities that were off limits to Ki-tat and Kilam themselves. Rookies would be amazed at how much they were missing, if they knew they were missing it. Quickly passing Doc's little workshop Ki-tat led four of the new rookies to the armoury where they met a security android. This particular android was a relatively new addition to XCom's security forces and was the first that the rookies had seen. The android was depositing some weapons in the armoury and Ki-tat waited for it to leave before entering the room.

"This, obviously, is the armoury. Where you'll be given your weapons, IF you stay. And that is an important if. As I've been saying as we've been walking around the base this is not an easy life nor is it a pleasant life style. Any of you who wish to drop out should do so now rather than waste any more of our time."

Kilam was also doing his best to lose a few recruits in the med lab. In the brothers' experience, eight rookies did not fit well in five apartments. "This is the med lab, get used to it. Most of the rookies we get here spend more of their first week in here than they do out there," said Kilam indicating to the door. "Some of the really unlucky ones may not even make it back here. We have good field medics but there are no messiahs out there."

"So you're having no luck then? Or have you just decided that you like it here?" Warlord asked Carlos across his desk.

"Well," Carlos started but he was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Warlord pushed a button on his desk and the door slid back to reveal a very bemused trainee wondering where the door had gone. "Yes?" said Warlord quite bluntly.

"I'm just coming to let you know I won't be staying sir." The young man put forward a sheet of paper to Warlord who took it up and placed it on a pile on his desk.

"Very well. We're open twenty-four hours if you change your mind" said Warlord smiling at the civilians back as he left the office. "Well," he said turning back to Carlos. "I guess noone needs to share after all then?"

"No sir" replied Carlos smiling.