UFO FanFic - Chapter 1

[Ki-tat Chung]

*1243 Hours, Mess Hall, Pine Gap, WA, Australia, Australia, Earth*

 

"So, what's your name?" Ki-tat asked Green as he dropped his fake Aussie accent.

 

"Carl Green. But you can call me Green. So what's your name again?" Green replied.

 

"Ki-tat Chung" He answered in an American acccent.

 

Green grinned. "Looks like you're quite good at accents."

 

"Sure am. Salutations one and all. Welcome to X-INV: The world's last hope." He said with an English accent.

 

Kilam looked around uneasily. "So, who wants to talk about hot kitty action?"

[Tammy]

Over the course of their "eat and compare notes" session, Tammy and Warlord decided that Ms. Graham would be a better target for their proposal. Word on the base was that she had good sense and could get things done for her people. They'd decided that the two of them could definitely work together and that Rick Chez, callsign "Ping" was a good bet, too. They debated Poison for a long time, but they finally decided not to ask for her. She and Warlord had already clashed, and Tammy wasn't sure if she and Poison could handle being together that much. They looked over a few more names and then headed off to see Ms. Graham together.

 

**************************************************************

 

 

At the shooting range, Poison hefted the pistol they had handed her. It wasn't one she'd used before, but she was sure she'd figure it out.

 

Behind her, the two men who'd ridden in the elevator with her came in looking at her curiously. A few steps behind, came a guy called "Ping." The look he gave her was more hostile than curious. Hostility, she understood. She ignored him and proceeded to shoot several fast shots at the target. She glanced over to where Rick Chez was shooting to see that he was firing more slowly, but he was hitting the target more accurately. She challenged him to some speed shooting, though, and he couldn't keep up. The hostility in his eyes intensified. He muttered something about women staying where they belong and wasting ammunition and stalked out of the firing range. Poison chuckled, then sobered and slowed down to see what happened if she aimed more carefully.

[Snikers]

Keller sat at one of the tables, a soft drink cradled in her left hand. It was unopened. She only had it so that her hands, so unfairly deprived of a brain, would have something to play with while she thought.

 

So. Aliens. Well. It was official. Briefing and all, it seems the rise in UFO sightings was true. She read the tabloids when she got leave, but she didn't believe them; they were usually good for a cheap laugh

and sometimes she could, to relieve the occasional mind-numbing characteristic of her job, actually expand the articles in her own mind when she really felt she had to do something with her brain.

 

But, the aliens were real? Well, she had always thought they were real, the universe is a big place, but they're here and screwing with humanity? Golly gee. She'd have never thought it. But why? Why mess with Earth? Did they want resources? Did they want the colonizing space? Are they simply interested in the life on Earth, thinking that in comparison to them humans were little more than mindless bugs? Or did they have minds so bizarre, so different, so - so alien that she couldn't possibly comprehend their reasoning? But wouldn't, as life, have the same motivations for actions - food, aquisitiveness - if only even the most basic?

 

Keller's mind, so absorbed with its thoughts, was left sheltered from the outside world. Her hands, perhaps not quite so unfortunate to be mindless, continued to play unconsciously with the soft drink bottle. The brown liquid sloshed against the plastic sides of its prison. Keller's gaze was locked in front of her, staring blankly and unblinkingly directly at Gardener, whom was uncomfortably alternating between looking down into his meal and looking up to check if she was still giving him that weird stare. He was becoming embarrassed.

 

Keller's near-meditation was disturbed when Jennings accidently bumped into her table and flinched backward almost violently. As if suddenly released from hypnosis Keller blinked and was jerked back to reality. She noticed she was still holding the soft drink in her left hand and stared at it as if it were some incomprehensible and inconceiveable object, blinking twice.

 

She shook her head lightly. Now, if she had been hired to contemplate the alien's motives she would have been one of the scientists, wouldn't she? She decided that a much more military attitude was needed to whip her into shape, starting with the firing range.

 

She was halfway down the mess hall before she realized she was still holding the unopened bottle of soda. She looked around and saw Gardener was closest and walked over to his table. "Hey. You want this? I changed my mind." She said to him. He looked up from apparently studying his meal and met her eyes. "Yeah...sure." He took the soft drink and stared at it much the same way Keller did; only he was wondering what

was the significance of this act.

[Wormfist]

Worm watched the two in the Hurricane for a moment, then decided it was time for him to make sure his bed was still there. He had just left his bag there to get back after the intelligence update.

 

***************

Slice had listened to the Generals speech about EBE's rather fascinated. He just new there was more than just us, he just knew.

 

-"They told us, and I am telling you, UFOs are real.

For some of you, this may be the biggest shock to your comfortable existence since you discovered sex. I advise you get used to it quickly."

- "Our mission is to save humankind."

 

Slice turned his head to his friend and followed with just moving his mouth saying without any sound "Told you so" Worm smiled thinking 'that idiot played too many games, hehe'. He replied to Slice with the same manner of speaking, "Just a lucky shot... like always..." The General paused for a moment as he figured the people needed a few seconds to process this extraordinary information. He continued his telling using the picture beamer to show some relevant pictures, maps and project plans. 'I've seen some high-tech stuff', he thought, 'but not as advanced as this!'

 

-"That is all." The General turned smartly and walked over to speak with his administrative staff. A guy from administration handed over a list with names and pictures to the General, who in his turn studied it for a moment looking at the crowd that had become quite aroused.

He walked towards Worm and Slice, "Mr van der Wal and Mr Alparada?" Slice turned his head then poked Worm to do so too, "Yes?"

"I believe you are the computer specialists with some capacities on other grounds, am I right?"

"You are sir, though I'm not sure about the other guys here", Slice answered a little bit uneasy. He wasn't quite used to this kind of formality; after all, he wasn't exactly a grunt. Ofcourse he had some history with military hacking projects, but he always communicated via some mediator.

"Then you will probably be happy to hear we provided your room with an extra computer connection. I'm told it is of the hyper-firewire type?" Worm's eyes grew greater when he heard the word 'hyper-firewire', he knew it was a connection use in military surroundings only, but even then, it was rarely used. The General continued, "With that connection you can login into our knowledge database and libraries aka ufopeadia. All our connections go via satellite, upload and download."

"Worm and I will make sure that connection will be used to its purpose, sir".

 

The General turned away to study his list with names again. The conversations went on for hours.

***************

 

Slice was already in the room when Worm entered it. Actually, Slice had already plugged into the connection plug-in installed in the wall. "This is really amazing, all that stuff and I haven't heard of almost every single piece of technology even once," Slice mumbled. Worm lay down on his bed, totally sunken away in his thoughts. After a few moments he began talking, "You know, those aliens we're talking about might just be our ancestors. I mean, a lot people believe in the big bang another lot of people believe in the hand of God in it, so why not believe in aliens that created us?"

"Mmh, that wouldn't make sense, 'coz who would have made the aliens then..." Slice turned his head, "You should only be thinking when you're behind a computer."

"On my way in here I heard some shooting, yelling and killing. There's another guy playing CS I guess," Worm grinned, "Perhaps I'll check him out."

[Carlos the Jackal]

Paul watched as Andrews burned off some jerk in a speed shoot. Tim was already blasting away behind him, racking up a decent score. Paul decided to leave his personal sidearm in his holster, instead grabbing some heavy, black pistol that seemed to be the standard, as Andrews was using the same type. A sly grin rose on his face.

 

"Hey, Andrews"

 

The woman swiveled her head at him.

 

"What?"

"Want to go against an expert?"

"Sure, but you'll do as a substitute"

 

Paul laughed and started firing quick shots in rapid succession. His first shot went slightly low, and he immediatly compensated for the weight for his second. Ten shots later he's emptied out just before Andrews fired her last shot. Her shooting was very good, but Paul had blitzed her. Andrews dropped her pistol on the metal bench.

 

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" She asked.

"Army, they wanted me to go sniper"

"And did you?"

"No, A.S.I.O, see the suit?"

 

Andrews mumbled something about spooks, but Paul didn't mind, he got that a lot. Oblivous to the whole exchange, Tim was up to his forth clip as he slowly, methodically aimed and fired single headshots. Paul decided to push his luck.

 

"Hey, so what's the C on your badge stand for?"

"Poison"

"Poison, huh? Another triumphant moment for public education"

 

Paul recieved the middle finger in return. He shrugged, and was about to reload when a flash of red caught his eye. He turned and watched a big, Russian looking bloke with scrubby red hair wander in, and smile as he saw 'Poison'. 'Blimey' thought Paul, he's not much smaller than that big American gorilla talking to that 'Tammy' woman.

 

The big redhead stopped and looked at a loss for what to do when Andrews turned back to shooting. Paul walked over, smiled and offered his hand. Pleased to meet ya, mate, I'm Paul Jasper.

[The Veteran]

"So how come your bird has two engines? Mine only has the one," asked Gia as Trigger helped her out of his Hurricane.

"This is the agreed design. The one that you're flying right now is the prototype. That's what I learnt on." replied Trigger as they walked to the end of the hangar.

"Well that's fair" said Gia sarcastically. "Why do I have a prototype?"

"I don't think we were expecting a second pilot here actually. They'll get you one in soon hopefully. Trust me the difference between the two models is immense"

"How so?" asked Gia turning to Trigger.

They stopped and Trigger pointed to the ceiling of the hangar. "You know the hydraulic lift you rely on to get to the surface? I don't use that anymore." he moved his hand down to point further along the top of the bay. "You see that? That opens up for the Hurricane and you just fly straight out. It muffles the first sonic boom if you're lucky."

"I want one of those..." said Gia vaguely staring at the ceiling.

"Like I said, hopefully you'll get one soon! It's boring with noone to fly with" replied Trigger watching the insect like shuffling of the mechanics around his craft.

"So how do you fancy going up for a while now?" she asked him after a brief silence.

"What?" he replied slightly taken aback.

"What? You don't think they'll let us?" she asked.

"Oh they will, it counts as training. I just don't think you quite understand the difference in power and maneouverability between these two models."

"Hey, the harder you try, the faster you learn" said Gia. "So are you going to go and get your gear or what?"

"Sure thing but you don't know what you are letting yourself into! I'll see you in the air" said Trigger and then just as Gia began to leave, "hey what do I call you in the air?"

"Raven," said Gia, "just Raven."

[Warlord]

In the specialists briefing, Warlord was grinning from ear to ear. It seemed to make some of the people around him a bit nervous, but they would get over it. He looked at Tammy and she grinned back at him. He then turned his attention back to the weapon on the table that had caught his eye.

 

It appeared to be of a similar design to the classic minigun, but with a bit of a twist. It was considerably shorter, and fired a much larger caliber of ammunition. It also appeared to be clip fed rather than belt fed, which was very odd for a rapid fire weapon, such as this appeared to be.

 

The weapons tech that was giving the briefing moved over to the weapon and introduced it as the Autocannon.

 

"The autocannon is a rapid fire weapon intended for use in a supporting role. It's weight prevents it from being used as an assault weapon. It is capable of firing three different types of ammunition. The most common type is HE, or High Explosive. It can also fire IN, incendiary, and AP, or Armor Piercing shells. The High Explosive shells fragement on detonation, bursting with somewhat less force than a standard issue grenade. The incendiary shells spray white phosphorus on detonation, igniting anything in the immediate area. This can be useful for forcing an enemy out of cover, as well as for denying them an avenue of approach. The armor piercing shells are capable of defeating all known forms of body armor currently in production by any manufacturer on the planet. They can also puncture light vehicular armor, such as that found on recon vehicles."

 

The tech moved on to what looked like a rocket launcher of some type, but Warlord wasn't interested. He had found his weapon. The autocannon looked like it would make short work of anything foolish enough to cross his path. His only concern was the magazine capacity of the weapon. 12 rounds of ammo was not a lot in a firefight, even if the rounds were high explosive.

 

He was surprised to find out that they had produced white phosphorus ammo, or "willie pete" as it was known to grunts. Incendiary weapons had fallen out of favor with most governments. They were dubbed as "barbaric" by the pansy beaurocrats that had never seen any sort of warfare outside of their own living rooms. Granted the effects of the weapons were brutal, but so was war.

 

He listened to the tech drone on and on about the other items on the table. Just when he just about couldn't take any more, the tech thanked everyone and left. He resisted the urge to give the geek a standing ovation. He looked over at Tammy, and it was like she was reading his mind. Her look told him that it would not be one of his better ideas.

 

The subcommander moved to the front of the room.

 

"Any questions?"

 

Warlord raised his hand.

 

"Yes?"

 

"When can I have one, and where do I go for practice?"

 

The subcommander laughed a bit.

 

"I assume you're referring to the autocannon?"

 

"Yep."

 

"You can have this one now. I need your signature before I can let you leave with it though. Unfortunately, our range is not equipped for you to fire either HE or IN ammunition. You'll have to settle for AP for now. I assume you know where the range is?"

 

"Yes. Thank you."

 

With a quick signature that looked more like the aftermath of a ballpoint pen with a siezure, Warlord was off, toting the autocannon the way most people would carry a rifle. He had several clips of AP ammo tucked into his belt. He entered the range quietly. Everybody was intently watching the two spooks he had seen earlier. They seemed to be having some sort of contest with their sidearms.

 

Warlord quietly moved to the end booth and loaded the autocannon. The last shot was fired, and everybody clapped and cheered. The celebration was cut short by a high pitched whine followed closely by a series of what sounded like explosions more than gunshots. Twelve shots later, the only thing left of the target were two splintered boards that had once been the target frame holding a standard silhouette target.

 

Warlord stepped back and looked at the people still recovering. A couple were still standing up, having hit the floor when he opened up with the autocannon. All were giving him looks that were best not translated into words. The two spooks seemed a bit upset that his impromptu weapons demonstration had removed the focus from their pistol competition.

 

Warlord looked around at the dwindling crowd, then back at the spooks.

 

"Don't let me interrupt you boys. By all means, please continue."

 

One shook his head and stepped back into his booth. The other continued to glare at Warlord.

 

"Is there a problem?"

 

"Yes. You are a problem. I hope you don't pull stunts like that in combat."

 

Warlord's mood darkened considerably. He set the autocannon down in the booth and walked over to the spook with the mouth. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper, yet was more intense than any scream could dream of being.

 

"Don't you ever question my combat abilties boy. You will find yourself on the receiving end of my talents. Do I make myself clear?"

 

The spook just continued to glare.

 

"That's what I thought."

 

"If you pull a stunt like that in combat, I'll kill you myself."

 

"You, and what army?"

 

The spook went back to his booth and began to fire another clip. Warlord turned to go back to his booth, and almost knocked Tammy down. He hadn't heard her come in.

 

"I see you're making friends already," she said with a smile.

[Snikers]

Keller felt the weight of the pistol in her hands. She looked out of the corner of her eye at the man with what appeared

to have been ripped off of a tank talked to the spook. Then she turned her attention back to the target.

Okay. Those guys, the ones that had just had their little contest, did fairly well. If she was correct, all of their

shots had hit the target. Let's see just how well she could do.

She exhaled fired. She tried to go as fast as she felt she might need to in a combat situation, but that sort of thing

could be difficult to predict. Soon in the space of seven seconds she had emptied a fifteen-bullet clip into the target.

She inspected her handiwork. Most of her shots had hit, but it was nowhere near as good as the others. She frowned

at herself. She would have to do much better at this. Her skills leaned more towards rifles than pistols.

She turned and went to see if she could get another type of pistol, and bumped right into what seemed to be a

mountain made out of flesh. She craned her head up and saw that it was in fact the enormous human being with

the gigantic multi-barrelled weapon.

"Sorry." He said simply, and she backed out of the way as he moved past.

She continued on her way but looked over her shoulder. She got an odd feeling from this guy...

[The Veteran]

"Tactical Command, this is Hurricane One. Requesting flight clearance from hangars two and three."

*Affirmative Hurricane One, you are cleared for take-off when ready. Both aircraft are to be back at base by 2300 hours, understood?*

"Got it Command, thanks a lot. Requesting vertical assistance for hangar three?"

*Acknowledged. You're cleared for take off in both hangars. Remember, 2300 Trigger.*

"Yeah, I know. I'll see you in the morning"

Trigger cut the radio transmission and the hangar was suddenly full of a tremendous heat and sound as his Hurricane's twin engines pulsed into life. About ten meters in front of the Interceptor a large section of the ceiling slid back into a recess in the hangar's concrete roof and the light of a full moon flooded into the room.

*You ready?* Trigger's radio spluttered to life again.

"Sure am," he replied to Gia in hangar 3. "Are you on the surface yet?"

*I'm waiting for you to go by then I'll follow you up.* said Gia confidently.

"Ok then, just be careful ok? That prototype isn't like any other plane you'll have flown before."

*I've been warned plenty now let's get going!*

"If you're sure," said Trigger flicking a few final switches in the cockpit. "Ignition... NOW"

The pulse of the Hurricane's dual engines sent such an intense wave of disturbance through the comm channel that Gia tore her headset off and threw it to the ground.

As soon as she looked up from her feet she saw the Interceptor soar out of the ground at about fifty degrees to level and at a speed that blurred her senses.

Quick to shake these thoughts, Gia ignited her own engine and reached maximum velocity in seconds. She released her the aircrafts hold on the twenty-five meter runway and soared into the air almost ten meters before reaching the end.

*Raven? Do you copy?* Gia heard the muffled message from somewhere near her feet and picked her headset out of the cavity.

"I copy. That was one hell of a take off! I've never felt anything that powerful before"

*Well much as it hurts me to admit it, you've done amazingly well to make it into the air at such a speed without the autopilot.* said Trigger.

"Why do you say that? It wasn't that hard."

*No but everyone who's ever flown one of these things apart from me passed out before they were even in the air! The G's were just way too much for them to handle. I guess we have a rare gift!*

"I guess we do! Now where in the hell are you? The radar is completely different to anything I've ever seen before..."

*Not a radar, it's a positioning system, run from it's own satellite along with Pine Gap's own radar and the advance warning system at NORAD. Hey Raven.* Trigger paused.

"Yeah," she replied rather overcome.

*Come catch me!* As he spoke, he passed his Hurricane within an inch of Gia's own craft but at twice the speed. *Come on! You can go a lot faster than that if you know how to handle it well enough!*

"Ok fly boy! You do not know who you are messing with! If this thing can go faster it will"

Gia's prototype Lightning class interceptor touched it's full acceleration in a second, it's pulse detonation drive working far beyond it's intended performance.

*Come on Raven! You are going to have to do a lot better than that to catch me! This isn't even my full speed yet!* Trigger wheeled around his Hurricane and flew straight over Gia's Lightning. *How about some dog fighting practice then huh?*

"You are on" she replied putting her Lightning through the sharpest turn Trigger had ever seen.

*Now go careful there! I know you want to catch me but you can't in a Lightning! Now will you slow that baby down?*

"Why? Am I getting too close?" she replied jokingly.

*Yes but that is not the point!* said Trigger laughing.

"I don't suppose there's any way that a red light means something good in one of these things is there?" Gia asked Trigger.

*No there's not. It's either the electronic systems failing or your pulse drive going critical. Either way the only way to sort it out is to slow down for a while. You're fine unless they're both on though.* he replied calmly.

"What do I do if that happens then?" she asked curiously.

*Land, and fast! Gia?*

Trigger's radar which had been following Gia's lightning so smoothly had just stopped abruptly and started to follow a course behind him.

"Guess I should've slowed down"

*Oh shit no.*

"I'm ok I can land it" Gia said into her radio.

*No you don't know how to do it! It's completely different to a normal aircraft!* Trigger yelled into the radio.

"I'lll do it" she said as the airstrip came into view.

*Disengage the engine now and use you retros to slow it down! Gia!*

"I'm ok"

*No you're still not slow enough! Take it around again, you need to make another approach!*

"I'm losing the radio" she called into the comm link beginning to panic.

*Gia? Gia!*

The pulse detonation drive in Gia's Lightning finally reached it critical mass and, lacking the shielding of the Hurricane, electronic systems began failing all through the craft.

In Pine Gap itself, the Tactical Command staff in hangar three were frantically attempting to contact the Lightning after detecting the power surge from the control centre there.

"Lightning One! Do you copy? Over," yelled one of the men into a wide band frequency.

*The radio's dead!* shouted Trigger from his own craft. *I can't get her down without contact!*

"Damn it we have no contact" the man called out to his superior.

"Then there's nothing we can do. Close the blast doors and prepare the emergency vehicles to attempt a salvage..." he replied.

"Sir?" enquired the man more calmly.

"It's all we can do." replied the officer, turning to a monitor displaying one of the exterior cameras.

It showed the Lightning clearly and it was coming in fast but with no power to support it. It hit the ground as soon as it reached the end of runway three and veered sharply off to one side. The underside of the craft was engulfed in sparks as it skidded along the twenty-five meters of runway and finally came to a stop on the now scorched grass at the end.

Immediately the emergency response teams arrived to the scene and quickly extinguished the several electrical fires.

Trigger set his Hurricane down on the blast doors of hangar three, as close as he could land. He leapt out of the cockpit without even shutting down his engines and ran over to where the salvage crew was working.

The smouldering remains of Gia's Lightning were surrounded by workers and emergency vehicles but Trigger was slightly relieved to see an ambulance on site. That, in his experience, was always a good sign.

Sure enough, Gia had been pulled out of the mangled wreckage and lay only metres away from the aircraft itself. Trigger rushed over and knelt by the stretcher, shooing some paramedics out of his way.

"Gia?" he said softly as if not expecting a response.

There was a groan from the stretcher and Gia rolled her head onto it's side to face Trigger.

"Thank God, come on Gia. We're going to the Med-lab.

[Tammy]

After making reasonably sure that Warlord wasn't going to use the autocannon on any of his fellow agents, Tammy decided to go and inspect the med-lab. She'd be spending a lot of time there when she wasn't out on missions, so she might as well get a feel for the place. It was very lightly staffed at the time she walked in, so she had the run of the place. It also helped that she knew exactly what she was doing and so appeared right at home. She was just chatting with one of the other medics about scheduling shifts in the medlab when an stretcher burst through the doors bearing a badly injured pilot followed closely by a badly agitated one.

 

Slipping into medic mode, she walked directly to the badly agitated one to shoo him away--gently, of course.

 

"Excuse me....Trigger, isn't it?" she laid a hand on his arm.

 

He cast a rather distracted glance in her direction and nodded.

 

"Listen, Trigger, there are a whole lot of people in this room who know how to use all of this high-tech medical equipment to help your friend, but they'll do a much better job if they don't have to worry about tripping over you."

 

He turned to look at her in earnest this time, and seeing compassion in her face, decided she might have a point. Tammy glanced over her shoulder and saw that the staff had things under control, so she decided she was needed more here than with the patient. She led him out of the med-lab talking in comforting tones about the expertise of the medical staff.

[The Veteran]

"I don't believe it. I really don't," said a clearly annoyed soldier running through the subterranean tunnels that were Pine Gap. "Two days until the new year and this happens! I want to be enjoying myself! Not tending to sick birds with broken wings"

As the soldier cleared the workshop on his left he came to a complete stop and fell perfectly silent. "Holy shit..." he said as his eyes landed on the mangled wreckage of Lightning One. For a few minutes he stood there, completely still and absolutely quiet.

"Excuse me, Mr Davies?" said one of the technicians cautiously.

"Huh?" came the inaudible reply.

"I think you should go to the med-lab. The pilot is being cared for there."

"Oh, right thanks," said Davies coming to his senses. "Maybe they know what's going on."

Davies turned and left the hangar at walking pace but reached the med-lab near a sprinting speed. A doctor greeted him as soon as he burst through the door. "Davies?" he enquired.

"Yeah, where is she?"

"You mean the pilot? She's in physio. Over there," he replied pointing to where Gia was standing. "But I'm afraid you can't talk to her yet. We need to ensure a full recovery before she leaves the lab."

Just as a very irate Davies was about to reply to this a woman spoke behind him. "Davies?"

"For the last time yes" he shouted. "That is me! Now what is going on here?" he turned around and met the gaze of Pine Gap's field medic, Tammy.

"You can't talk to Gia right now but the guy over there was in the air with her when it happened. He can probably tell you a lot more about what happened than anyone else here right now." she told him.

"Tj" he called marching over to where the other pilot was sat. "What the hell happened to my plane"

"Hey forget about the plane Dan! A new one'll be here just as soon as the old one's cleared away. And it'll probably be a hell of a lot better than that Lightning of yours" replied Trigger irritably.

"Ok," said Tammy stepping in to a conversation she could tell would not end well. "Let's calm down a bit ok? Neither of you were in the plane and you couldn't do anything about it unless you were so what's the point of all this?"

"He started it," said Trigger slumping back in his chair and flashing Davies a glare.

"Did not..."

"Stop it! How long have you two been working together?" asked Tammy.

"Years." said a voice from behind them. "They were both recruited at the same time from the same base. Ever since they got here they've been competing with each other over everything."

The two pilots and Tammy turned around to see Rick standing behind them.

"Hey Tj, heard you had a bit of an adventure without letting me in on the action! You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just waiting to see if..." he paused mid-sentence as another figure appeared in the huddle. "Gia?"

"Hey, what's going on?"

"You wrecked my plane" said Davies, fuming.

"Hey it overheated or something! Besides, I want what he has." she said nodding towards Trigger.

"Um hello?" he said trying to get back into the conversation. "You were just in a high speed impact that wasted one of the most advanced craft in the world. Please tell me that you didn't just up and walk away from it?"

"You seem surprised? Well I guess I have another rare gift huh?"she smiled and walked away.

Trigger remained completely silent as did Rick and Tammy. Davies stood for a while and then slumped into the nearest chair and exhaled heavily.

"Two days before the new year..." he said to noone in particular.

"Two days..." echoed Trigger.

[JellyfishGreen]

When his assigned roommate came in and started complaining, Karl Green was engrossed in 'The Forever War'. He usually carried a paperback to pass the time, and felt there were just enough parallels with his current situation to dig this one out and re-read the story of the alien encounter again.

 

But the nasal tones of Norton Wexford put a stop to that. "They got some psycho bitch in this unit. She tried to take Ping on in a shooting match at the range and must have unleashed a whole load of PMT on her pistol in order to beat him. Probably shot everything downrange. We're lucky no-one was hurt."

 

"Speaking of women, did you see that albino in the canteen? Jennings said she was just staring at the wall like she was listening to voices in her head. Creeped him right out. Bernard was sitting in front of her and it was like she was looking right through him. Don't know why they're bringing women into this unit anyway."

 

Green brought his eyes up over the top of the paperback and let his gaze rest on Wexford, sizing him up. Obviously it was going to be impossible to continue reading his book until this fellow's mouth ran down.

 

"And I think they had to bring that one all the way from Canada! That's not even a real country! I joined the US army to fight for America! How do they expect me to do that when they team me up with a bunch of freaks?"

 

"Mm." As he looked up from his bunk, a perspective offering an extended view of Wexford's nostrils, Green idly visualized crosshairs and the circular view of a 30x scope superimposed on Wexford's forehead. A jacketed round from this angle, 200 meters, no wind, correcting for a drop of about 3 inches, would probably give this fellow a lobotomy with no other effects save shock and blood loss. Amputating the frontal lobe has been known to do away with all sorts of behavorial problems.

 

Finally Wexford's mouth ran down long enough for his ears to notice the silence. "So, are you going to turn in, or read some more? What kind of soldier just reads all the time, anyway?"

 

Green turned off his desk light with a snap. Almost pointedly.

 

****

 

Lights-out on the base, officially, was 23:00 local time. The regular staff turned their posts over to the graveyard shift, and wandered off to seek the comfort and darkness in their barracks, but the corridors were as bright as ever.

 

It wasn't really a factor in the working hours of Sanjay. Down in the Engineering lab, he was nursing a coffee and watching the pixellated death and destruction playing out on the three monitors facing him. Figures darted and gunfire flashed. There was a thunderous crash in the muted speakers and Sanjay leaned forward as the simulation statistics came up.

 

Opposing_Force_Casualties: 3 (100%)

Friendly_Casualties: 0%

Damage_Self: 23%

 

Wow, he thought. Three kills and no friendly-fire accidents - this was the best run of his 'bot code so far. And no wall-hangups that he could see. Definitely a fit with the Cannon weapon.

 

Maybe an automated test sequence for the rest of the night, then in the morning, see about transferring the best algorithms from this QTF 'bot into some actual hardware.

 

Something like better AI with pattern recognition and identification would be needed. If that could be worked out, then you could have a true autonomous armed vehicle, like the Fire Ant - which at present was hampered by the requirement of IFF beacons or a remote operator. Something small enough to fit in this "Skyranger" transport.

 

He'd heard rumors that Honda's robotics division had been working on something similar for the Kiryu-Kai project. He made a note to look into it, and maybe look into ordering one of Honda's ATV's. A good chassis, with electronic throttle and steering interface, would do the trick. Maybe make it tracked, to support the weight?

 

He set the test sequence running and settled down for a quick nap on the keyboard.

[Ego Terrorist]

~450ft, 3 miles from Pine Gap~

 

The Bell 206-B-1 Kiowa Helicopter in the service of the RAAF flew lowlevel the pilot spoke into his mic, his passenger was sat behind him facing towards the rear of the helicopter. "We'll be arriving at the Pine Gap shortly."

 

"Right, thank you." John looked out of the main window and then returned to his file, it was an intelligence update on the major powers, nothing really of interest China was getting a little frisky with Taiwan, who inturn called on the US to commit forces in the area to 'train' it's personnel. Russia had increased troop deployments in Sibera, and France was in a state of political chaos after an attempt on the President's life. "And here I am stuck in the middle of nowhere at some unearthly hour of the morning." He mumbled to himself, though what he said was drowned out by the rotors.

 

In the distance he could already make out the buildings that were exposed on the surface that made up Pine Gap's only persence known. The pilot spoke into his radio requesting permission to land, the pilot circled the landing pad and then brought the chopper to ground level, the engine kept going as John got out, pulling his bag with all of his kit in it, he waved to pilot as the Kiowa rose back into the sky and headed back to the nearest Army facility. "Well, it isn't England, and it sure as hell is too bloody hot for my liking." He said again to himself, not much in the way of any one to greet him. John strode over to the SigInt building, which also was where the main lift was too. Inside he found himself quite at home and the cooled atmosphere much to his welcoming.

 

"Hello I'm Terrance Garvy, and you must be John Pickering?" Lieutenant Garvy had a small frame and a face that felt quite out of place in such a facility.

 

"Aye, that I am, anything came through?" John had read up on the base and it's facilities on his flight from London to Darwin, and had familiarised himself with the bases layout and capabilities but he didn't expect any messages from London, Moscow or Washington, and Garvy told him that there was none, and told where he'd find the base commander, John nodded and entered the lift, Garvy had already issued him with his internal security pass which afforded him access to all levels, he decided to see a bit of the base before seeing the Commander, the first level being the Hanger level, or Level B-1. John walked the corridors poking his head into the various rooms, nothing he hadn't seen before. John did the same on level B-2 where the accomodation was located before finally entering the Command Center on level B-3 where he found the Commander.

Commander Genega, also known as Knight by Pine-Gap's original personnel, was standing with one of the Admin personnel reading a report. John strode up to him and stopped, Knight turned his head to look at John and then John introduced himself. "Commander Genega, I'm John Pickering your head of Intelligence, terribly sorry about my late arrival, however that whole business in france - the shooting of the French President, who was damned lucky, meant that I was called back before I even had a chance to get out of MI6."

[The Veteran]

"If you'll Kindly follow me Mr Pickering I'll take you to where the rest of the Intel team are waiting for us," said Knight as he led the way out of the command centre and headed down the corridor to the briefing room.

"Sure thing Commander," replied Ego following closely behind him.

As Knight opened the door to the briefing room Ego heard the movement of a large number of chairs from inside the room. Obviously this Commander operated a great deal more respect than any others he had met in his time.

"Please gentlemen there is no need to stand. Be seated," said Knight as Ego closed the door behind him and moved to take a seat. "Now everyone knows why we're here and I believe all but four of you have attended such a meeting before but for their benefit I shall explain the significance of this gathering." Knight paused for a moment and then continued. "You've all been investigating the increasing alien activity over the past several months. You are here today so that I can discuss with you what you have discovered. Now who will be speaking on behalf of the assembly?"

"I will," said Ego rising from his seat.

"Ah of course, that would explain the lateness of your arrival! Please begin when ready." With this Knight sat down at the front of the room and the suits all turned their attention towards Ego who was suddenly feeling very nervous.

"Right," he began uncertainly. "Well I haven't really planned anything to say so I'll just tell you what I know is important. Basically the attacks have increased again in the last month and it's by a very significant number this time. Not like anything we've had before. There's a lot of activity centered in Europe, more in central America and Mexico and there's a very large amount of activity here in Australia, mostly in the outback but in some of the larger cities as well. Or course without knowing why the aliens are here in the first place we can't determine the significance of the concentration in these areas but I guess it's always good to know something about the enemy that they don't know we know"

There was silence for a moment as Ego tried to make sense of this last sentence but before he could speak again Knight spoke up.

"You said enemy. Does that mean we can assume an aggresive stance wih whatever these things are now? Or do we still have to wait?"

"Please excuse me but I was only speaking personally. The order still hasn't been given for any change of stance but I know that everyone in this room agrees that the best way to go about it is to presume that whatever these things are they're aggresive." replied Ego completely losing his place in what he had been saying.

"Is that so," said Knight scanning the room for any disagreeable faces. He found none and rose to his feet. "Mr Pickering thankyou for your brief presentation, I don't think I shall ask any more of you today as you are clearly not in a correct state to deliver it. It seems to me that the time has come to begin the training of my men. I thank you gentlemen for your time and extend to each and every one of you the chance to remain here should you wish. It is more than likely that I'll need people like all of you close at hand in the not too distant future. For today at least you are all welcome to stay here. There is accomodation on sublevel 2 and I believe there is plenty of room in the administration quarters should anyone wish to remain stationed here. Good day gentlemen and please feel free to take a look around."

Ego Terrorist sat back in his chair and sighed heavily as the door shut behind Knight. The rest of the assembly began talking excitedly and outside the sun was just beginning to rise, bringing morning to the base.

[Crazy Photon]

~31st December, 0530 hours, Pine Gap~

 

As the sun began to rise over the horizon, Daniel Gomez was sat in a humvee wondering why his previous commander had been keeping so many secrets about the specific details of his new assignment. Daniel had been working in Australia for a couple of years now, and just recently the Army had started to take a great interest in his research about laser theory and research project management. Maybe that's something to do with his transfer to this new facility then, but only time will tell...

Daniels thoughts were interupted as he noticed that the humvee had stopped by a large hangar like building. The driver of the Humvee turned to him and said, "We have arrived Mr. Gomez. Please have your security pass to hand when we enter the building. They will request it before allowing you access to the lower levels of the facility."

"Sure thing, Sergeant," replied Daniel to this very formal request.

Both men exited the vehicle and entered the smaller of the two doors in the building in front of them. Gomez's bag was checked by a member of the bases security and he was checked himself by another. After presenting his security pass he was cleared to enter the base and one of the guards activated the access lift behind him.

"You may pass Mr Gomez. Commander Genega is expecting you at the command office." said the guard as the lift appeared in front of Daniel.

"I'm a bit new here, can someone take me there?" asked Daniel.

"It is on level 3," said the guard behind him, "just take the lift."

"Ok then," said Photon stepping onto the lift platform and selected three on a raised panel beside him.

The platform passed the first two sets of doors and then came to a stop at the third which opened to reveal a length of bare corridor leading off to the left. Daniel stepped out of the lift and checked the door directly across the hall from him. A small metal plaque read Radar Control room so he moved on to the next door on his left, the Command Centre.

As Daniel entered the room a man turned to greet him.

"Welcome to Pine Gap Mr. Gomez, I am Commander Genega. Please take a seat." he said gesturing to an empty chair.

"Thanks Commander." he replied sitting down. "And if you don't mind I'd prefer to just be called Photon.

"Sure thing Photon. I suppose you know the details of your assignment?" queried Knight.

"Actually no, but I guessed it had something to do with my work on the new laser theory." replied Photon.

"Well, yes but that's not entirely correct." replied Knight sitting down himself. "I've been checking out your past experiences on research project management and I think you've got what it takes to be the Chief Scientist for the research here. If you want to." said Knight

Photon was stunned. This wasn't what he was expecting at all. "Wow, I wasn't aware that my skills were so," Photon paused, "valuable."

"Well, that still remains to be seen," said Knight handing Photon some kind of document. "These are the details of your assignment Photon. I expect a full report by 1200 hours understood?"

"Understood. If there's nothing else Commander I'll go to my room. If the location of it is on the report that is..."

"Accomodation is up a floor on sub level 2. You'll be staying in the research staff barracks at the East end of the corridor. You have to use your pass as the key, and it'll only work for your quarters so you're bound to find the right one eventually," said Knight standing.

Photon stood as well and made his way to the door. "Thanks." he said going to leave.

"Just one last thing," said Knight. "I have to remind you that what is on that report, is for your eyes only. Understood?"

"Understood Commander," replied Photon standing in the doorway.

"Dismissed."

As Photon made his way to his quarters he flicked through the various pages of mostly red text and said to himself quietly, "There's a lot to plan then..."

[The Veteran]

Not even quarter to six in the morning and the military barracks of Pine Gap were completely silent. That is until they were filled with the low pitched moan of a klaxon alarm. After this the rooms were suddenly very much alive and full of banged heads and cursing.

*Good morning men,* said loudspeakers hidden somewhere in both of the accomodation blocks. *This is your Commander speaking and I'm afraid I have bad news for you all. It's training day!*

Knight sat back in his chair for a moment giving the soldiers a chance to groan. Then he leant forward again and said "I woke you up early to give those of you who are hungy a chance to get some food inthe canteen. Training commences at 0600 hours, we will gather in Hangar three prior to the mornings exercises. That is all," he said switching off the intercomm and standing.

"Now Mr France I have a special reason for waking you early," said Knight turning to Sean who was standing behind him. "I've been able to rush the construction of another Hurricane interceptor to replace Gia's Lightning. I want you to go and collect it from the factory in Europe. And I need it by tonight."

"What? You want me to fly to Europe and back in that time? With all due respect sir I don't really think it's a good idea to be in the air solidly for that long." said Sean.

"I appreciate that pilot but it won't take as long as you think. I've already sent your co pilot to return the Galaxy transport to it's home base. He will return via means of civilian transport. You my friend get to take this trip in a new craft. The Skyranger."

"Skyranger? I've heard a lot about them but noone was ever able to confirm their existence."

"Oh they exist, well one of them does. The skyranger is a troop transport. The latest of its kind. Vertical take off and landing, holds fourteen fully equipped men and it's built like a brick. And it's yours." Knight told Sean.

"There's only one of these things?" said Sean. "And it's mine? Why?"

"You're a very competent pilot Mr France and if I have to keep you on my staff then I want to put your skills to the best use possible. The Skyranger may still be a transport craft but I don't believe any normal pilot could handle it anywhere near as well as I believe you."

"Wow..." said Sean stunned. "So what do I have to do again?"

"I need you to collect our new Hurricane from Europe and bring it back here. Simple as that. It's already been assembled so you'll have to transport it whole but the Skyranger is easily tough enough for the job. When you get to the factory the guys there will attach it to the underside of your Skyranger. It'll spend the journey back down there and we'll detach it when you arrive home."

"That's it?" asked Sean doubtfully.

"That's it! Now you'd best get moving and I have some soldiers to train. There's an officer waiting for you in hangar one. He'll show you the ropes and the rest should be straightforward enough for someone with your experience... Are you ok with this?" Knight asked Sean uncertainly.

"Uh, yeah I guess so." he replied with much the same tone to his voice as had been used in asking the question.

"Good. Well just take it easy until you get the hang of it ok? Don't be scared to push it a little though. It'll go pretty damn fast if you need it to."

"Sure thing Commander," he replied a little more confidently.

"Dismissed." Sean gave a parting nod to Knight and left Administration and headed off to Hangar one.

Knight gave some sheets on his desk a quick glance and then followed Sean out, himself heading to hangar three. He figured it never hurt to see who the most eager soldiers were.

[Snikers]

Keller stumbled out of her quarters and into the hall, still doing up the last of her uniform. Her mind was lost somewhere between

wondering where her roommate was and wondering if she could get a bite to eat before she had to be in Hangar THree.

She stopped in the middle of the hall, looking one way and the other, her stomach growling and her brain shouting.

In the end responsibility won out over hunger and she took off down the hall towards the Hangar. She go there with about

five minutes to spare. As she entered she shouted out, "This is the training area, right?"

And thus brought the reply: "No, this is Hangar Two."

She got to the right place with about fourteen seconds to spare.

[Tammy]

The klaxon roused Tammy and Poison from their sprawled positions in their beds to standing in a matter of about a second-and-a-half. Tammy's military training and Poison's street experience had taught their bodies that loud noises meant a body needed to be alert immediately. Alert did not mean cheerful, of course--especially for Poison. She and Tammy had gone some rounds the night before about Poison's need to understand "strategy" and "people," so Tammy was not her favorite person at the moment. The worst thing was that she was right. Poison had a lot of nerve and ability, but she knew that the failed exploration attempt was at least partly because she'd misjudged both Sandy and Warlord.

 

They both showered and dressed without speaking and went straight to hangar three. Sometimes annoyance was as fortifying as a good breakfast, so neither of them stopped at the canteen. They arrived in the hangar early to see mangled wreckage on the floor. Poison raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Tammy knew what had happened, but she wasn't in the mood to talk to Poison, so she wandered over to where Warlord was standing. They congratulated each other on getting the squad assignments they'd asked for--and on not getting Poison. She'd probably make a good soldier, but she had a lot of rough edges. Having her as a roommate was enough.

 

Engineers and scientists buzzed around the wreckage examining it and carting bits and pieces of it were being carted away. Poison stood on the opposite side of it and watched Tammy with Warlord. She had to admit that Tammy had the big man eating out of her hand. Maybe she knew something after all....

 

The others drifted in followed by a woman who barely made it in time and looked a little out of breath. Almost as soon as she entered, the commander began speaking to the group, starting with a sketchy explanation for the wreckage before them and an outline of the day's activities.

[The Veteran]

'I just knew it had to be something to do with TJ!' Rick thought to himself as the Commanders words drifted meaninglessly through his mind. A warriors head, that's what his last commander had called it. Said it gave a man great bravery and physical strength but could easily deprive a man of much more important things than this... He'd never understood it, but then maybe that was what he'd meant...

As Ping's mind became ever more distant from the room around him his subconscious took the chance to take a look at the gathered soldiers he would soon be fighting with. Of course he knew Warlord already and had served with him several times before. This didn't necessarily make them the best of friends but they were both very professional in their undertaking of things. Tammy he still hadn't got to know but as far as he was concerned she was only here as a field medic. That was acceptable. It was only women in a combattant role that Rick didn't approve of. There was Sandy who he'd seen about, and someone called Gardener. The albino was standing alone at the back and had arrived just minutes ago.

Apart from these few people, he had made very little effort to become acquainted with any of the new staff, his attention always seemed to go to the most unusual characters first. Just as Rick was beginning to think about metal plates he was snapped back to reality by a loud movement of people.

"Tac team One over here please, two there and three over there," said Knight indicating to three places where troops were already beginning to assemble.

He remembered reading his squad listing now what was it... He knew he was with Warlord and the medic so where were they? As the crowd dispersed he saw them in Tac team One so he made his way over to them.

"Morning," said Warlord plainly.

"No it's not," replied Rick glumly. "It's too early to be the morning."

Warlord said nothing but Rick could almost feel his grin on the air.

"And now if I could have your attention please gentlemen. We all have a busy day ahead of us." total silence descended throughout the bay, and Knight prepared to speak...

[Crazy Photon]

~31st December, 0730 hours, Pine Gap, Photon's room~

 

Feeling a bit bored, Photon finished reading his assignment details. "Time to take some rest" he said to himself. After all, it was a long trip from his previous location. He decided to play one of his favourite games on his laptop, where a bunch of soldiers try to defend the earth from an alien invasion. Laughing a little he said to himself "How ironic, playing a game that may soon represent my real situation". After playing for 15 minutes, the door bell sounded.

"Come in" called Photon, while switching to the active program on his laptop. "Mr. Van der Wal?" he asked slowly, not sure if he had remembered the correct name.

 

A guy with similar height to him and dressing 80s clothes entered. "That's right, Mr. Gomez, but I prefer to be called..."

Photon interrupted him and said "...Worm, I know. I've been filled in with all the necessary information about the scientist staff. Please, take a seat" he said moving a chair which was behind him.

"Ha, I used to play QForce when I was younger" Worm replied after taking his seat.

Photon looked at the screen of the laptop and noticed that he had pressed Alt-Tab so quickly that he probably missed the tab, so the game was still active. 'Damn!' he thought to himself then said "Well, I was taking a little rest, as I had a tough journey... I took 6 hour trip and then read all my assignment details."

"Don't worry" Worm replied. "Maybe we can play a network game when we have the time..." he said cheerfully.

"I fear that won't be the case Worm" Photon quickly responded. "We'll have a tough enough time researching the gadgets we get from the aliens, not to mention our most urgent research needs" he continued, while switching to the X-COM personnel profiles system and searching Worm's profile. He quickly glanced at it and added: "for example, your self-learning AI shall prove to be useful, especially for developing the AI for the Heavy Weapons Platforms that are in development. Just in case these aliens are a little more heavily armed than we think they are right now."

"Indeed, indeed" Worm nodded while he was saying.

"Hmm... I think we have diverged from our main point" Photon said. "What does bring you here?" he asked with a formal tone.

"I was wondering and though maybe we should have a meeting to discuss our research plan for the next month." Worm queried.

"Certainly, actually it will be today at the theatre at 1200 hours..." Photon responded while watching the computer clock. The system clock read 0759. "...which leaves me with little more than 3 hours from now to elaborate my report. I guess I should start now" he said, sounding a bit nervous.

"Ok, I'll leave you so you can do it Mr. Gomez" Worm replied while standing.

"Thanks Worm, but call me Photon" he remarked while opening the door and shaking Worm's hand.

"Sure thing Photon" Worm said. "I'll tell the others to be there at 1200 then if you wish" added while standing in the doorway.

"That would be mostly appreciated" Photon responded. "Well, gotta do it, see you later Worm" he finished in an informal tone.

"Cya" replied Worm as he left Photon's room .

After Worm left, Photon closed the door, sat back by his laptop, closed QForce and put "Paul Oakenfold - Tranceport" on WinAmp.

"Now that I'm comfortable, let's do it" said to himself and started to elaborate his report.

[JellyfishGreen]

***

To: "Stan Genega" <commander@x-com******>

From: "Jenny Graham" <admin03@x-com******>

Sent: 19:21 29 December, 1998

 

Hi Boss!

 

Here's the squad assignments for training, based on our first impressions. I've included your suggestions, and even managed to accomodate our outspoken Ms. Hillard. If she can get the same respect from the troops, I see a potential squad leader

 

Squad 1: Cpl. Rheinhauser

 

J. Thomas (HW)

T. Hillard (rifle) (medic)

R. Chez (rifle) (point)

Kt. Chung (rifle) (point)

R. Jennings (rifle)

T. Day (pistol) (scout)

S. Chen (rifle)

M. Rolston* (rifle)

C. Hiller* (rifle)

E. Dodge (rifle)

 

 

Squad 2: Cpl. Saiko

 

Kl. Chung (HW)

K. Green (rifle)

C. Andrews (pistol) (scout)

H. Escalar (rifle)

C. Keller (rifle)

B. Dujardin (rifle) (medic)

R. Ross* (rifle)

G. Duchante (rifle) (demolition expert)

N. Wexford (rifle)

L. Wethers (rifle)

 

 

Squad 3: Cpl. Wales

 

I. Zhandovich (HW)

P. Jasper (pistol) (scout)

J. Goldstein* (rifle) (point)

T. Steedman* (rifle)

W. Paxton* (rifle)

C. Dietrich* (rifle) (medic)

M. Biehn* (rifle)

Y. Yamanov (rifle)

M. Kerr (rifle)

J. Ulbricht (rifle)

 

*seconded from Sgt. Matthews until we get replacements.

 

Re: the X-INV briefing: Mr. Pickering confirmed he can make the 06:00 meeting, so I arranged a helicopter to meet him at the airport.

 

Jenny

 

*****

 

Keller snuck into place beside Green. "Dammit. This place is so confusing. I got freaked by that alarm, forgot we were supposed to wear these jumpsuits, and got lost on the way here." Green whispered back, "Be glad. You didn't have to listen to Warlord singing in the shower. I swear he had to be up fifteen minutes before the alarm sounded." Wexford looked sideways at Keller. Ki-lam just grinned.

 

Commander Genega was speaking. "There are three Corporals in charge of training today, Cpl. Reinhauser, Cpl. Wales, and Cpl. Saiko. At the end of today, they'll recommend to me their choices for squad leader. Those temporary bars will be issued for team training tomorrow. They will be confirmed after each teams first tactical mission together. Be it real or not."

 

"Most of today will be drills for assessment purposes. We have use of a military artillery range so, after some warmup exercises, Squad 1 will head for the surface, where an APC will take you to the grenade pits. Squad 2 will be on our indoor firing range, and Squad 3 is up to the surface again for a run through Pine Gap's obstacle course. After two hours, everybody rotates. Don't worry, though, it's not going to be as tough as Basic."

"This is going to be much tougher," he grinned. "Now you'll have to learn to use your brains as well."

"We'll be touching on team training this afternoon, some theory work on building and aircraft hostage scenarios, and how to co-ordinate ground activities using tactical radio. Tomorrow you'll be putting those ideas into practice."

"I look forward to hearing the results," He said looking to the three corporals, who had spaced themselves out.

Corporal Rheinhauser shouted "COMPANYYYY...ATTEN-HUT! COMPANY, SALUTE"

Everyone, including Poison who'd only seen it in movies, did their best at a salute. The Commander returned the salute, dropped it, and marched sharply off.

"SQUADS - FALL IN"

 

*******

 

The pilots were sprawled in chairs in the ready room and could distantly hear the corporals shouting as they organized the ground troops. A neatly coifed lieutenant in full olive uniform and dark tie was perched on the desk.

 

"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Forrester, but you can call me Lieutenant Dan. I've been assigned to managing our aircraft and hangar operations. I know the Commander used to oversee flight operations personally, but I think you can appreciate his expanded responsibility no longer allows that."

 

"Now, the first item on our agenda, obviously enough, is the total loss of our prototype aircraft, though fortunately the pilot escaped relatively uninjured."

 

He looked at Gia, who was resting her leg on a second chair. She grinned sheepishly from underneath her dark curls. "I think I understand now - two red lights bad."

 

"You're a very lucky woman - err, pilot." He consulted his notes. "It says here you escaped with nothing more than a mild concussion and a dislocated hip... Anyway, the doctors say you'll be flying again in two weeks."

 

"I'm working on that. I think I can bargain them down to one. What really saved me was the crash cocoon built into those new flight pressure suits."

 

"Yeah, it says here your suit has to be replaced. I'll get that on order. Now, I wanted to get your view on the actual events leading up to and cause of the crash."

 

"He was - " Her eyes flicked to Trigger. "I mean -I thought the engine was capable of sustaining that power output at that altitude. I don't rightly think it was anything to do with a design flaw. That's what you're asking, right?

 

"Yes. We're not interested in assigning blame, although I would urge that pilots consider the importance of this project before putting themselves or the aircraft at risk. We're conducting reconnaisance missions against an unknown force, and we're attempting to do it covertly, and we really do have limited resources to do it with."

 

Rhysling "Grizzly" Davies spoke up. "So when do I get my plane back?"

 

"Hurricane production schedule was moved up to compensate. They'll have it ready in about ten or twelve hours. We're going to send Mr. France to pick it up with Mr. Davies as relief pilot. Doc, you're allowed to look in the back this time." Doc grunted to indicate slight amusement. "General Genega has already mentioned this to you, yes?" "Yeah, it's old news. Half an hour ago."

 

"We've mapped you a route to Dreamland-2 that avoids China and Pakistan, to minimize security risk. Here's the mission outline." He handed over folders to the two pilots. "Unfortunately you will have no time for familiarization with your craft or a training flight but there is an onboard computer should you require any assistance. Autopilot is also a function of the Skyranger. Now you two should leave immediately if we're to have the second Hurricane here by tonight. And you two," he said turning to Gia and Trigger, "are to come with me."

 

*******

 

 

Corporal Saiko was demonstrating the armoury cardlocks. "This is now working today. Press the card to the aah gunrack, and when the LED is flashing, click - the gun is released."

 

Kilam nudged Green, "Here's hoping your card works."

 

The one-eyed armoury sergeant took over and picked up the released rifle. "The Heckler and Koch G36 is the standard X-COM rifle. It's light, reliable, accurate, and user-friendly. Our version has a standard optical 1.5x sight, a twenty-five round clip, and a three-shot auto/single shot selector switch."

 

Green brightened up. He'd heard of this gun. If they weren't going to issue him a specialized sniper rifle, this at least wasn't half bad.

 

"Now, check out a gun, and let's check you grunts out on the range."

 

The two soldiers ahead of him unlocked rifles and slung them onto their shoulders. With a thin layer of optimism, Green pressed his card to the next rifle in the rack. The lock flashed, then went red again. "Aww no." He tried the next, and the next - wait! That one unlocked!

 

He carefully lifted the rifle, not knowing the portent of this omen.

 

Behind the armoury, a door led onto the firing range. Targets on pulleys shone white in the darkness of the 50 meter cavern.

 

Green sat down at his booth and started going over his rifle. A few shots began going off. He called the corporal over to ask about the recommended zeroing, then went back to studying the rifle and testing it's weight.

 

To the left, Poison burned off a magazine on full automatic. The corporal made his way down the line.

"Escalar, good. Andrews, too fast. Green - Green, have you fired a shot yet?" "Uh, no sir." "I want to see ten shots at least in the next two minutes, OK?" "Sir, yes sir." Green went back to looking down the rifle's sights. Then pulled the trigger, once, experimentally.

 

At the end of the two minutes, the corporal returned. "Bring that target here, let's see what you've got." The target whirred up on its pulley. "I see only one hole there..." As the target came to a stop, the corporal shut up, as all ten shots had gone into creating a single, ragged, 1-inch hole. "I'm sure I can do better with practice."

 

Green carried the rifle gently back to the rack. "Can I make sure I get the same rifle next time?"

"Number twelve? OK." The sergeant cut two narrow strips of duct tape and wrapped one around the security bar and the other around the rifle stock.

"Thank you, thanks a lot."

[The Veteran]

"And here was me thinking your leg was nicely healed up Gia," said Trigger grinning at the limping form next to him.

"It is but it's so early I haven't had a chance to stretch my muscles yet." she replied soberly.

"Well," said Lieutenant Forrester turning to the two pilots as they came to a stop in the middle of hangar two and the shadow of Trigger's Hurricane, "I was kind of hoping to have all four of you here today but it seems that won't be the case! What I'm going to show you first is the craft that will be operating here, both the Skyranger and the interceptor. If you'll follow me please." Dan led the two pilots out of the back of the hangar and into the access lift where he proceded to take them to the surface level of Pine Gap. Accompanied by security of course.

Stepping outside, Dan gestured to where the airstrip for hangar one was located. "Now when you took up the Lightning prototype you'll both remember that vertical assistance was necesary. That was because the Lightning couldn't produce enough speed from inside the hangar to clear the launch tube. The Hurricane and the Skyranger MUST use the launch tube at all times, simply because they are too large to benefit from the vertical assistance platform. If you watch the ground over to your left you will see how the Skyranger handles this..."

The group of three watched intently as a section of the runway slid back into the ground and waited for Sean and Davies. After a few minutes the ground began to rumble and a dark blue, slightly square aircraft leapt out of the opening at an angle of what Gia guessed to be about thirty degrees.

"Now notice that the Skyranger has to level out almost immediately after emerging from the launch tube? The skyranger lacks the speed of the Interceptor craft that the two of you will be flying and therefore is not as manoeuverable. That means it can't climb as steeply and even the most advanced aircraft in development can stall! Now TJ, I believe you have plenty of experience with your Hurricane. If you'd be so kind as to show our injured friend here how to land a plane at thirty degrees I'm sure she would be very grateful"

"Uh yeah, ok then," replied Trigger uncertainly.

"Go on, you may be able to impress her" said the Lieutenant turning away from Gia.

"I don't doubt that at all," said Trigger modestly. "I'm just wondering how long it is before I learn something."

"Don't worry this won't take long but your crash test buddy has to know the basics before I can start talking about the more advanced manoeuvres with the two of you. Plus I'd rather have Davies here for as much of this as possible. From what I hear you can do quite a lot that he can't."

"If that's so then how come it's him in the Skyranger and not me?" asked Trigger puzzled.

"Ask the Commander not me. He was going to send France alone but I insisted he be accompanied. When I did so he was adament that it be Davies and not you. I don't know why... TJ?"

"Oh yeah right I'll go now," he replied heading back into the access lift accompanied by one of the soldiers that had led them to the surface.

"Now Gia, Raven wasn't it? Well anyway, we're standing five meters from where the Hurricane is about to come from so I think we may want to move back a little! If you'll follow me we can watch from the radar dome." said Forrester making his way there.

As the blast door at the end of hangar two's airstrip began to slide open Forrester indicated with a slanted hand where the interceptor would emerge and said to Gia "Watch for the craft to match the angle of my hand when it exits. If it doesn't then your friend down there is at fault. Too shallow and he could hit the tunnel, too steep and he runs a chance of a stall. It's unlikely but still, with a take-off such as this everything has to be taken into account."

"Here he comes," said Gia quietly as the ground began to tremble again.

"There! You see it? That was absolutely perfect..."

When Gia finally turned her attention away from the dissappearing Hurricane and back to the Lieutenant she realised that the look on his face was that of utter amazement. "Sir?"

"Well, I've never seen that before," he said turning back to Gia. "Oh right, yes. Now we just have to wait for him to get back, he shouldn't go far."

"Right, so what am I supposed to be looking for this time?" she asked Forrester.

"Just watch how it's done," he replied simply. "In the long run you'll only learn how to do it from actually doing it but for now you can at least get an example of what to try for."

"Ok then," said Gia as Trigger's Hurricane appeared again in the distance. It grew closer all the time but it had slowed significantly before it reached the base perimeter and by the time it reached the airstrip it hovered motionless in the air.

"Now," began Forrester as the Hurricane turned in the air to face the opposite way, "what happens first is the main engines disengage. You see how the aircraft dropped down a little?" Gia grunted an acknowledgement and the Lieutenant went on. "Now the pilot has to take the aircraft forward just enough so the back of it is over the centre of the tube entrance. Now watch it drop down a little more but notice it's only the back. The only difficult bit now is adjusting the vertical jets so that as the aircraft's attitude changes the pilot still retains complete control. Now it can be let to literally roll back into the hangar by directing the thrusters slightly forward and decreasing the power. And... It's done" he finished as the blast door slowly slid shut.

"Whoa... Is there an autopilot for landing?" asked Gia.

"I'm shocked that you would even ask that" replied the Lieutenant flashing Gia a grin. "Yeah there is. But no student of mines going to use it"

"Great..." said Gia.

"You aren't as confident as I'd thought you were are you. Why's that?"

"Well yesterday I wrote off an aircraft that was half as powerful as this one. I'm just not too sure I'll be able to handle it as well as everyone else thinks I will."

"I saw the wreckage of that Lightning before it was cleared away this morning... I haven't trained a single pilot in my whole career who I can confidently say would have survived a crash like yours. I don't know why that's significant but it must be somehow... I will make a pilot of you yet Gia. A Raven cannot live deprived of flight..."

[Snikers]

Keller lifted the gun. She felt pumped. She was excited. The gun seemed to have been made just to suit her personally. She knew she would not like the other training exercises in all probability, but as she raised the rifle she felt that same feeling of happiness she often felt when on the shooting range.

 

In her days as a young girl, her father had often taken her out hunting with him. Keller often wondered now if that was allowed but at the time she enjoyed it. Also, at times, beginning when she was about eight years of age, her father, who was more kind than intelligent, had handed her the gun, under the strict demand she not abuse it. He had let her shoot, not at anything in particular, but the only target she was allowed was at the moon. Keller could realize in her later years that the moon, on full nights, was most likely the only target she could aim for carefully.

 

Keller had loved that part of her childhood, with her parents. While she kept it firmly in check, it brought back fond memories whenever she aimed a rifle. This was probably because she had never shot to kill anything before. This also was probably the reason she spent so much time in the firing ranges, the honing of her skills a fringe benefit

of something she enjoyed.

 

As Keller looked down the barrel of her rifle at the target, she aimed for a second, than let go in a series of shots with little time in between. "Keller - much too fast. You aren't even aiming, you'll never hit anything like that." Keller could hear the voice of the drill sergeant. She stopped. She looked over her shoulder. The man was shaking his head in disgust. "First

one doesn't shoot, then one seems to be in a race."

 

He replaced the used target with a fresh one. "Now. If you don't take time to aim you won't connect, understand? Fire twenty shots at the speed you just did, and well see how many actually hit the target."

Keller aimed for one second, then fired her first shot. A hole was blown in almost the exact centre of the target. Keller than fired at the speed she was previously going, about two shots per second. The hole slowly expanded as Keller ullet by bullet destroyed the area around the original in a circular pattern, until the target was left with a garish looking

hole in the center of what was once a target.

 

"That's twenty shots," Keller said after she finished, disturbing the drill sergeant, who seemed in thoughtful concentration; rubbing his chin and looking down the range. The man was silent for a moment. Next someone's gonna put them through the same hole. He thought

to himself.

 

"Keep working on it," he said gruffly to Keller, then walked on to the next person, reminding himself that he had to remember these weren't rookies.

Keller, on the other hand, was quite happy to comply.

[Zager]

The previous day

Location: Zager's lab in Quebec City

 

The agent walked into the lab, and looked at Dr Patrick Zager, who was lowering an object into a storage crate. "We're late. We were supposed to be in Australia ten hours ago."

 

"Like I said," Dr Zager replied, unsympathetic, as he carefully shut and sealed the crate. "I needed to pack up all my research. I'm nearing practical results, and I'm sure that those results would be a great benefit to the organization."

 

"So what the hell took the time?" the agent demanded. He was used to having the scientists and engineers he contacted drop everything in their eagerness to get their hands on alien technology. He wasn't used to them delaying for so long.

 

"You can't just shut down a bioelectric cell prototype and pack it up, it takes time," Zager stated, rolling his eyes at the man's ignorance. "Now, why don't you make yourself useful and get some men and a truck here to load up my equipment and bring it to the plane. I'm not leaving until I'm sure it's all on board. It took me a year and a half to get this far, I'm not going to leave anything behind. "

 

"That'll delay us even more! We don't have time for this."

 

"Tell me," Zager said, looking the agent straight in the eyes. "Has X-COM shot down any alien flying saucers yet?"

 

"Not that I know of."

 

"Oh, well then, perhaps you've attacked a landed saucer, and managed to kill some aliens before it took off?"

 

"No."

 

"Ah, I see. Well then, maybe some aliens beamed down somewhere from a saucer, and you've killed them and captured their weaponry and armor?"

 

"Again, no," the agent replied wondering where Zager was going with his line of inquiry.

 

"Then kindly explain to me what the hell the hurry is for? You just said that you don't have anything I need to study, so you can afford to wait a few hours to load my research, whose results will be extremely beneficial for your organization, onto the plane. Are we clear?"

 

Now a day later he found himself at Pine Gap in Australia.

"Careful with that crate," Zager shouted at one of the workers. He was at the runway, leaning on his cane while he supervised the unloading of his equipment. "The prototype in there is fragile."

 

He muttered inaudibly to himself as he continued to watch the men unload the equipment.

[Crazy Photon]

~31st December, 1155 hours, Theatre, Pine Gap~

 

While Photon is in a hurry adjusting the final details of the report, the main door opens and a lot of human figures enter the room. He takes a peek to see who are them. He names them as he recognizes them: Knight, Vampire, TBA, Worm, Slice, Gary, and Zager and several other personnel. "Damn" thought to himself, as they have arrived a earlier than expected.

 

"Gentlemen, you have arrived earlier than expected, the meeting is at 1200" he said. "You'll have to improvise then Photon, we have many important things to do today and we cannot afford to waste even a minute today." responded Knight with a severe tone. "Acknowledged, Commander, we shall proceed now then" quickly responded while turning on the Projector.

 

"Having quickly analysed our situation, I have determined from several evidence, such as Kiryu-Kai that the aliens are more technologically advanced that ours with respect to ship technology, like engines for example." he says as he shows several sattelite pictures of the UFO spotted in Japan. He continues: "As we could not manage to capture any UFO yet, we cannot be sure about their weapons technology, but if we extrapolate similar values about the difference of technology in engines, then I have to say that we have a problem.", showing some graphs indicating that aliens weapons may be at least 3 times more powerful as he continues to speak: "Therefore, I suggest to start researching weapons that are more powerful than actual equipment, I...." Knight interrupts him by asking "Shouldn't we start to focus on armor technology? if they have good weaponry we should defend ourselves." Zager responds: "But the best defense is to attack if I can recall correctly from Sun Tzu books...", to which everyone in the room agrees.

 

"Anyway, I have determined that both Zager and I are qualified to start researching laser technology, so I propose we start researching it inmediately and coordinate our efforts..." and while handling some papers for everyone he adds "...and I have elaborated a document with specific assignments for the rest".

 

Knight says "Is it everything here?" while pointing at the papers that Photon gave to him. "Yes, Commander" responds, and adds "I recommend that everyone reads his part and start to work inmediately". Knight stands up and says "Make it so, Photon. Dissmised" and everyone get out of the room to start doing their job.