UFO FanFic - Chapter 1

[The Veteran]

In hangers two and three stood the bases entire defense wing. For two hours now they had both been stationary and in hangar two's tactical command center stood a very bored pilot.

*I'm ready when you are,* said a voice from his collar as he stood watching the engineers below him.

"Here I come" Trigger called into his comm as he set off for the hangar floor.

In hangar three Grizzly had already leapt into his cockpit and fired up the twin engines. "Things are going to be different around here from now on" he called to Trigger thrrough his personal comm. "No more Lightning on Hurricane flights! This time it's Hurricane to Hurricane! Head to head! Let's do this thing"

Trigger pulled himself into his own Hurricane, Interceptor One, and switched the comm to the cockpit systems. "Well now that isn't technically true." he said firing up his engines. "Did the techs tell you what they did to your Hurricane after it got here?"

*What are you talking about?* replied Grizzly over the comm.

"Your engines have been tinkered with. To dissipate heat so they said... Who knows, you may even beat me this time"

*Come on then let's do this!* shouted Grizzly over the comm, switching his comm to Tactical Command. *Tactical command this is Davies, requesting flight clearance for hangars two and three for low level practice flight.*

"Acknowledged, stick to the usual route and you're good to go. And hey, you never know, today may be the day"

Davies cut off the comm and switched back to the link with Trigger's Hurricane. "We're good to go! Bring it on"

In both hangars there was a deafening pulse as the Hurricanes' twin engines ignited. Both aircraft lifted slightly off the ground and raised their landing gear, slightly dropping their tails.

A deafening roar pierced the very construction of Pine Gap's sublevels and in seconds the craft were airborne and travelling faster than any civilian radar could track.

"How do you like this then cowboy" Grizzly yelled into his comm link as Trigger's hurricane began to fall behind his own.

*Oh come on! You really think it's all about speed?* he replied over the comm.

"Hey I'm the one winning aren't I?"

*How would you know that when you can't even see where I am?* asked Trigger smugly.

Grizzly looked around and saw no sign of the other Hurricane. 'Damn this thing is fast,' he thought. But then his eye wandered to the built in radar system. "What the hell?"

*What's the matter? Did you lose me?* said Trigger laughing, then called into the comm, *Heads up!*

"Jesus Christ" yelled Davies as Trigger's Hurricane shot up in front of his own craft. Trigger's Hurricane spun in the air and then looped around behind Grizzly again before he pulled it alongside and waved to his constant rival.

"You pull of some fancy tricks but they won't get you anywhere agaisnt this baby" said Gizzly accelerating to pull away from Trigger once again.

Risking a glance behind him, Davies saw that Trigger had peeled off high and fast, but not fast enough. He was falling behind again and Davies was almost reaching his improved fighters new top speed.

*You know what your problem is Davies? Everything is about the hardware with you. Haven't you ever noticed that birds fly faster when they let the wind do the work?*

"Oh you have got to be joking..." said Grizzly as a shadow fell over his cockpit. "You seriously have got to be joking"

[Alitorious]

At exactly six in the morning, Daniel was rudely awakened, once again, by the base alarm. After realizing what it was that woke him up, he shoved his head underneath a pillow and tried to ignore the commander's voice over the PA. The flight mechanic on the other side of the scaffolding cursed, and started to get up. After hearing the light flick on, Daniel was gratefull for the scaffolding dividing the room - it was originally intended to help the scientists not keep the other roommate awake while working late on problems, but now it served to prevent Daniel's retinas from burning away. When Daniel finally did get back to sleep, his own alarm clock started blaring out barely a minute later. After grumbling to himself, he shoved his covers off and began to get dressed for the day.

 

Before heading out for some breakfast, Daniel glanced at the memo he had on his desk. Motion Scanner... That was that crazy idea I had last night. Now that he was looking at it again after a night's rest, he could see it might actually work.

 

He thought about it on the way to the mess hall. There were some theories that space-time was a fluid. And movement in fluids created eddies and turbulence, which might be detected. Maybe using some sort of amplifier, like focused...

"Would you like some syrup with that?"

"Sorry, what?" He looked down at the breakfast laden plate he was holding.

"Your pancakes," the chef explained, "you want some syrup on them?"

"Oh, yes, please. Thanks."

After a nod from the chef, and some maple syrup poured over his food, Daniel sat down at a table. Where was he? Fluids? Amplifier? What would work?

 

Approximately ten minutes later, Daniel noticed Dana sit beside him.

"Hi. Mind if I sit?"

"Oh, not at all Go ahead. Did you just get up?"

"Nah, I got up when that base alarm woke me up. The Tank Team has to polish up the Heavy Weapon Platforms for a demonstration today. I've been working on it since then, but only just remembered to have breakfast."

"Okay." Daniel took another mouthful of hashbrowns.

"Say, Dana, do you think it's possible to... uhm... detect space time movement eddies with the, er... proper device?"

After a pause, Dana replied, "You mean motion detection, right?"

"Yes. Would you need some sort of amplification?"

She furrowed her brows, staring at her plate. Daniel took this moment to stuff a forkful of breakfast into his mouth.

"I think I remember there being some sort of device that's sensitive to magnetogravitic disturbances... Maybe with electromagnetic magnification... Or something could analyze changes in graviton patterns, which would be movement."

"Those could both work."

"I'll think about it, and get back to you at lunch. You should e-mail Photon, ask him permission to be reassigned to this motion tracker."

"Do you really think it's that possible?"

"I'm not sure, but I have a strong feeling about it. I think it can work."

"Thanks a lot." Daniel stood up, "I'll go send that letter now. Meet you at lunch." He began to clear his place up.

"See you."

At that, Daniel set back off to his quarters, forming the letter in his mind before he even reached the lift.

[Loonie]

*Paintball game, Spider Valley*

 

The house, in which Squad 1 was quite succssesful at dealing with the blues, died down. Warlord sent out a message to his soldiers: "The main blue contingent has been neutralized. Clear the house of any remaining 'lone wolves'."

 

Upon hearing the message Martin began to concentrate. He actually liked going up against squads better, since they were easier to spot, whilst lone hiding soldiers had to be carefully looked for, since they could just as easily take down an entire squad. He knew that from his own experience back with the corporation. However this was also his element and he knew he would preform in it much better indeed than in the previous 'flag rush' ordered by Warlord.

 

He checked the surroundings of the room where he was again to see if he was targeted by anyone from any hidden location. Upon noticing that the room actually had just one furniture item, he then closed his eyes whilst concentrating on the noises coming form around the house. Somewhere someone would give him or herself away.

 

-----------

 

Poison hurried down the stairs of the house and looked around her. "Urban fighting is sooo much better than in open terrain, I can really do a lot of damage this way, hehe." As she looked inside a room with her head swiveling quickly across it, she could tell right away that no one was in it as there were no places where one could hide, except of course if he or she shrank down to the size of a mouse. The sight of cracked and dirty walls and a dusty floor reminded her of her previous life amongst the streets, since the room also looked as empty as a drug addicts' home. Only one thing had seemed to be missing in this reminder of street life...

 

A split second later as she entered the room she quickly remembered what that missing thing was through a precise paintball shot in her back. Pain! As she fell to the ground she wondered how long it would take for the shooter to come over to her and brag about his kill. However this was not the case apparently and as she turned her head around she saw Terrick through the room's open door just as he was quickly and silently heading to the house's kitchen area where he had picked up some noise.

[Hankosha]

Hankosha had reached the bottom floor. Through use of the dumbwaiter. He had always believed that the safest place to be was in the mouth of the dragon so to speak. Sneaking up on a yellow talking into his com. He carefully lined up his shot and hit the guy in the back with a paintball. The man twisted as he fell, trying to get off a last shot before he 'died'. The shot scraped Hankosha's knee and impacted on the wall behind him. Hankosha looked at his knee and swore. The fluke shot had stung like crazy but according to the rules it wasn't a fatal shot as only part of the paintball had hit him. While he stood rubbing his knee, he had an idea. He took his com and put it in the dumbwaiter. He sent the com up. He heard the sounds of running over his head. This trick would give him some time but he still wished he'd found time to hide.

 

A shot impacted onto the wall beside him. Hankosha spoted the shooter, who was aiming for another shot. Hankosha tried to jump out of the way, but the shot hit him in the leg. Hankosha went down flailing, but managed to throw his flashbang at the person. The flash blinded the person, leaving him time to escape. Hankosha felt a sharp pain in his leg and heard a crack but inored it. The way Hankosha remembered, he wasn't out until he was shot in the head, or shot five or more times. Unfortunately the rules here were very different and checking his tactical map he saw a white cross in his location. Holding up his weapon he reluctantly limped out of the building, past a very smug looking soldier.

[Tammy]

After she was put out of the paintball fight, Poison headed back to the quarters she shared with Tammy. The quarters were empty because according to her note, Tammy was with a group that was decorating the rec room for the New Year's Eve party. Poison wandered down to see what they were doing. For some strange reason, she found that she wanted to see Tammy-she couldn't remember the last time she wanted to see somebody. For the brief walk to the rec room she toyed with the idea that maybe she'd made a friend. It was a very strange feeling for Poison, but she thought that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

 

She walked into the room to see Tammy stretched high overhead fastening a banner on the wall while Warlord, still in his paintball gear, steadied the ladder. Neither of them noticed when she entered the room, so she studied them for a moment. They seemed so comfortable with each other, as if they'd known each other for years. Poison wondered how it would feel to be that comfortable with another person. She watched as Tammy glanced over her shoulder at Warlord, and they both laughed.

 

"They sure get along, don't they?" a voice behind her observed. Poison turned to find Sandy holding some party decorations. Maybe this is a good time to try out some social skills , she thought to herself. She smiled at Sandy and nodded, then asked if he could use some help. Sandy looked surprised, but he quickly recovered and said that he sure could. The two of them headed over to one of the tables and hung Sandy's banner behind it, chatting idly about the day's paintball fight.

 

Meanwhile, Tammy finished with her banner, and Warlord helped her down the ladder. She stopped at the bottom and smiled at him. "Time for me to go and make myself gorgeous for the party" she laughed.

 

"As if you weren't already gorgeous," Warlord rolled his eyes at Tammy. "What could you possibly do to make it better?"

 

"Put on a red velvet dress and high heels for one thing. I might even take a shower," she winked.

 

"Hey, I'm not busy. Need some company?" he asked with his most angelic smile.

 

"Um...no," she smiled and slipped deftly past him toward the door. "Though if you'd like to be the first to see the dress, you can stop by my quarters in an hour-but not before," she warned with mock severity. At that moment, she caught sight of Poison and nearly called out to her to join her, but then she saw that she and Sandy seemed to be enjoying themselves, so she slipped out and down the corridor to her quarters and a long-anticipated shower.

 

When she got back to her quarters, she pulled out the red velvet, running her fingers across its soft smoothness. She knew it really showed off her dark hair and green eyes, and she loved the matching shoes. She laid everything out on her bed and began stripping on her way to the shower. She sighed, thinking that some sleep the night before would've been nice. Stepping beneath the hot needles of water, she let her mind wander back over the day and let the hot water work its magic on her aching muscles.

[Hankosha]

Hankosha went to the control room. His kill count dissapointed him. He had though he had 'killed' somewhere around 10 yellows, but it seeemed his 'kill count' hovered around 5.

 

"Congratulations," Hankosha turned, and found himself face to chest with the man he had taken out in the kitchen.

 

"On what," asked Hankosha.

 

"On taking me out," The man replied.

 

"Thanks," Hankosha felt grateful for that bit of thanks. He had always been a bit of a 'loner' in University. He had been known for his agility and speed more than his personality. He hoped he could get to know some of the people here better. He looked at the place where he had gone down. A second white x was next to it. It seemed that there had been a blue behind the guy who had shot him.

 

He laughed and headed off to the infirmary, to find something for the pain in his leg. He had twisted as he had gone down, and hoped that it wasn't broken.

 

Arriving at the infirmary, Hankosha recieved the bad news that he had craked a bone in his leg. It had been weak from a previous injury, and the combined force of the paintball hitting it and the fact that it had been wrenched in his fall had cracked it.

 

The Nurse put a cast on the leg. and told Hankosha that it would probably be off in a week.

 

"Damn," thought Hankosha to himself, "I hope there won't be anything important happening soon."

[Loonie]

Martin was slowly undressing himself in his room. The second match in the house went quite better than the first and his previous experience with the corporation was obvious. Unless he kept himself in a team then he would not last too long out in the open, but in urban combat he was no doubt one of the best, though he had met his match during paintball. He had managed to take out 2 more people with almost no sound, but it seemed that Escalar was tracking him very well and almost took him out. If it wasn't for his reflexes and assistance from Rick, Terrick would've been knocked out with just one more blue to be taken out before the yellows won. He made a mental note so as to check his six every now and then when he was stalking his victims.

 

Now however was time to ready for the party at hand and Martin didn't feel one bit like joining it. However staying in his quarters would obviously raise suspicion and so he decided to try out the tux that the company had provided him with. Just looking at it made him wonder with what kind of money the company had bought it. Laundered? Drug money? Arms money? Or extrotion, the way that he was currently experiencing?

 

He did not like to consider the possibilities and he decided to quickly put it on and head out towards the place where the rest of the personnel would gather for new year. He wished that he could've enjoyed himself, but that was not the case and he knew that he had to preform another task. This event might distract him from studying the stolen base map, but it would however provide him with an ideal opportunity to get to know the base personnel more thoroughly........and see who he could exploit for his mission...

 

As he walked into the room he already noticed several early arrivals which were putting up some banners and amongst them was apparently Andrews who had just finished helping Sandy with a banner and began to converse with him. Martin had heard quite a few rumours about Andrews, or Poison as the soldiers liked to call her. He knew what rumours can do to a person's life if he or she is susceptible enough. They can mold the person into exactly what they say. Therefore he was definately not going to contribute some more rumours to the already high number that she had, since he himself had experienced that all too many times during his professional life in the corporation. She also had some problem conversing with people, which was noted by Martin, as she had apparently stopped talking with Sandy and asserted her eyes on Terrick instead. She began to walk towards him in a determined pace and Martin knew that she was most likely going to either commend or loathe him for the paintball match. Somehow he had that feeling about it and since he considered the latter more possible given her personality, he readied himself by putting his hands behind his back...

[Alitorious]

Charles Bruheme entered the Rec Room, and glanced around at all the people setting up for the upcoming New Years Eve party. Off to the side, a familiar, and large, figure caught his eye, putting up a banner.

"Excuse me, Warlord?"

"It's Jack Thomas, soldier. I'm Warlord on the field."

"Sorry. I remember that it was you who took me down in the first round. I wanted to come and shake hands" said Chuck, holding out his hand.

"You the goof who popped up and fired twenty clips a minute at us?" Warlord took his hand.

"Yes, sir."

"You gave us a bit of a scare there! Good thing you can't aim, eh, soldier? Oh, mind helping me out with this?"

 

----------------

 

Earlier that morning:

 

When Daniel got back to his quarters after breakfast, he realized that he could just as easily go talk to Photon and present his idea personally. First, however, he needed to write down what he remembered from breakfast with Dana. (device can detect magnetogravitic disturbances?(!) Analyze graviton changes (?)(.)) He then grabbed the few notes he had written on the subject, and headed out for the research labs below.

****

After a little more than half an hour of searching for the head scientist, Daniel was beginning to see why Dana suggested email. He then remembered that the soldiers were getting a presentation, and Photon was likely to be there.

 

Daniel arrived at the briefing room just as the presentation was being finished, being much later due to having a little trouble finding and consulting a map for its location.

"Photon, may I have a word?"

"Yes. I thought you were on laser research, Psawhn."

"I am, sir, but I've had an idea for a new technology. Could we discuss..."

"Yes, we can discuss this, but not right now. I'm rather busy at the moment. Perhaps at lunch?"

"Sure, lunch is okay."

"Now if you'll excuse me, please..."

As Photon hurried by, Dana noticed Daniel, and started to talk before Daniel noticed.

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but I haven't had any ideas yet."

"That's okay, uhm, Photon just asked to talk about this at lunch..."

"Oh, okay. I don't think I would've put much more thought into by lunch either, so this works out."

"Yeah. How about we come up with ideas tonight?"

"That sounds great. I'll see you there."

"See you, Dana."

[Spaceman42]

Heather woke up to the sound of a rather insistent alarm. She turned over, groaned, pulled a pillow over her head and tried to resume sleeping.

 

The alarm kept on beeping, until Heather had no choice but to get up, walk over to it, and shut it off.

 

The shift Dherzhin had made her and Gilbert work reassembling the Hurricane had kept her up half the night - but they'd still managed to make the modifications. A lopsided grin rose to her lips. Dherzhin had stayed up running simulations, and had eventually had to agree that the modifications would work. Her grin broadened.

 

She was walking to the WC, shower gear in hand, when a sign pasted on the wall caught her eye. It was an announcement of the New Year's Party coming... today?! She panicked. She had so much to do, so much to prepare... She turned back towards the WC and started running... and, of course, almost collided with a trooper...

 

*****

 

Gilbert, on the other hand, was sleeping like a bear. While he'd wanted to go down to the labs to look at the laser prototypes, he was still too tired to move. He hadn't slept well, either. He kept dreaming about aliens, trying to get into his head... He shook his head to clear it, then looked around his 'room'.

 

No-one had wanted to share it with him, with good reason. The floor was littered with books about military equipment, magazines about new gadgets, and assorted pieces of... stuff... he'd "collected" over time. If you looked carefully, you could almost tell where they came from...

 

He fell asleep again, and dreamed of big, beautiful explosions...

 

*****

Iain Waugh was bored.

 

Bored enough to almost - *almost* - wish for an alien craft to appear. But not quite.

 

Iain took another sip of his beer.

 

He was the Weapons Loadout officer, and so far he hadn't done much of what his job title implied. Instead, he hung out in the bar - not a bad life, but not what he was trained to do. He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, a trooper staring at his Akubra. He flashed her a grin, tipping his hat at her.

 

"G'day" he said, attempting to perpetuate the Australian stereotype. He was, oddly enough, one of the few Australians on base - he thought there was a Aussie trooper, and a few engineers - so he played the Australian image hard. Not that it was that difficult; after the first few times explaining the rules of cricket, most tended to believe him...

[The Veteran]

As the sound of jet engines died down in hangar three, Davies was immediately aware of someone watching him. Sure enough turning around he was greeted by Trigger's grinning face in the tactical command centre above him in the hangar's back wall.

As he watched the window he saw the pilot disappear behind a monitor and promptly reappear on the hangar floor.

"Congratulations," said Davies unhappily.

"Well I did say it wasn't all about the hardware..." replied Trigger laughing. "Just face it Dave, you're never going to beat me! Why do you insist on trying so hard?"

Davies approached Trigger allowing a grin to creep onto his own face. "You know you're right? Why bother trying if I'm never going to win?"

"Precisely" said Trigger smiling.

"Of course you know w have thirty minutes to get ready for the new years party?"

"The what now? There's a new year party? Is there food?"

"Can you think about anything without bringing food into it" laughed Davies.

"Sure I can! But I'm hungry! I haven't eaten for hours and when I did they said they didn't have enough for an extra helping..."

"They only said that when you asked for the fifth time"

"Still... So is there food?"

Davies sighed, "Yes Tj there's food. Now are you coming or not?"

"Coming where?"

"You may be a good pilot but you really do have the attention span of a female goldfish..."

"To be honest I probably won't bother... Getting ready I mean. After all it's not like it's the first New Year I've seen here and, well it's never been anything special..."

"So you don't think much of any of the new recruits then?"

"Well they're ok but I haven't seen all that many that I think are cut out to be in an organisation like this..."

"I'm not talking about skill, I'm talking about 'talent'" said Davies.

"Ah... Right then... What do I think of the talent..." he paused for a second then said simply, "Nope"

"Really?" said Davies looking genuinely surprised. "I thought you seemed to be getting on pretty well with the new pilot, Gia wasn't it?"

"Gia? Well, yeah we get on ok but I hadn't thought about it like that..."

"You really are something... Anyway, you may want to turn up in a flight suit but I'd rather look a little respectable," said Davies beginning to back towards the door. "If you're there I'll see you later. I'll just look for the grey suit standing in the middle of the room"

Trigger watched Davies off and then looked down at himself. "Maybe I had better go change," he said to noone in particular and then left the hangar.

[Snikers]

Keller was going over her paintball battle as she walked towards her room.

In her first paintball match she had managed to take out one competitor before being shot in the gut herself. In the second she had somehow managed to get hit by her "reaction-firing" buddy while moving up from behind him to hit his assassin. While Ki-Tat, who spotted the display, had later admitted that the stunt was impressive in her own right, she knew that didn't kill aliens. Both times after being hit she had eagerly hurried back to the casuality room in order to watch the rest of the preceedings - and learn from her betters.

Keller had noted with a frown that, after the debriefing when the entire tape was shown, she didn't act according to the playing field. She wasn't moving for urban combat. She was still acting for long range. What she was doing was good in a forest, a cornfield, a desert, the arctic - but she knew that in a city, she'd be dead as fast as in the paintball range. And, erring on the side of caution, she could only assume the aliens would be better.

So lost in her thoughts it was a surprise when the red-haired young woman with shower gear dashed around the corner at her. Keller jumped back a step, military reflexes coming to action. The other woman didn't fare as well and fell forward with a thump.

She pushed herself up on her elbows and looked up at Keller through a fallen strand of red hair. Keller herself halted for a split second as she noticed the woman, who she could tell was rather attractive despite dumped to the floor, was just that - dumped to the floor.

The red-haired woman, just as aware of her situation as Keller, muttered something unintelligable and pushed herself off the floor. "Can't you watch where you're going?" She quipped accusingly.

Expect the unexpected - Keller had a response immediately. "You came around the corner - I'm sorry."

The redhead shook her head. "All is forgiven - I'm in a good mood. Heather O'Reilley, pleasure to meet me I'm sure." She said, half-jokingly.

"Christel Keller."

"Righto. Didn't hurt you, did I?"

Keller shook her head. "No problem. Where are you going so fast?"

"Need to be speedy if I'm to make the New Year's Party," said Heather, already starting to move down the hall and picking up speed, "and your little 'intervention' didn't entirely help matters"

[Hankosha]

The doctor examined the leg. "It seems you had a previous hairline crack in your leg," said the doctor, "and the paintball cracked it a bit more, and the fall just broke it."

 

Hankosha thought back to several days before to when he had come to the base. He had taken a nasty fall from a roooftop while chasing a kid who had stolen his wallet. He sighed. He had landed leg-first, and heard a crunch. He had it examined, but the doctor had just said it was bruised. He had ignored the pain, and it had eventually gone away, but now this.

 

Hankosha limped into his room. His crutches were far too tall for him, but he endured them. propping himself against his bed, he changed, preparing himself for the party. He would probably meet more people tonight.

 

In the meantime, Hankosha started playing some of the games he had on his laptop...

[Zager]

"Yes, I will be going to this party," Zager said to Photon. "It's been about two years since I last took a vacation, I deserve a break today. My research has been going well, it'll be a few days before I can finish the new prototype of the biocell."

 

"Excellent, how long do you think it'll be before we can have laser weapons functioning?" Photon asked.

 

"We'll probably be able to start producing functional weapons by the middle of the month. That's just an estimate, though."

 

"Perfect."

 

Meanwhile

Gaston was digging up some good bottles of wine for the party. Earlier that day, he had demonstrated his explosives expertise by destroying a small building with just one kilo of C4. It was beautiful, the way it had collapsed in on itself.

[Tammy]

Tammy emerged from the shower and reached for the soft terry robe she'd had since college. It looked a little threadbare, but it fit like a second skin by now. She dried and brushed her hair to a glossy sheen and then set about applying the small amount of makeup she'd wear to the party. She finished with some red lipstick in the same shade as the velvet dress and then walked to her bedside where the dress lay waiting like an old friend. She'd had it custom-made a couple of years before, and it had seen her through more than one boring official function and a few less than boring unofficial ones, too. She dropped the robe to the floor and heard the door signal at the same time. Her eyes flew to the clock on the bedside table. It couldn't be Cleo; she would've just come right in. "Who is it?" she called out, reaching for the robe again.

 

"Hey, it's me" answered Warlord.

 

"You're early, you know. I should leave you standing in the hall until I'm ready," she countered.

 

"You wouldn't" he called back.

 

Tammy cinched the robe around her waist again and went to the door. As soon as it opened, she pulled Warlord inside and closed it again. She stood tapping her foot and glancing at the clock for a second. Warlord attempted to look innocent, failed miserably, and grinned. Tammy wordlessly pointed at the chair and turned to pick up her clothes. Warlord smirked a little at the silky underclothes that fell to the floor. Tammy stuck out her tongue at him, and he laughed out loud. Then she disappeared into the bathroom to dress.

 

When she emerged, Warlord's grin slipped from his face for a second, and he emitted a low whistle. Tammy smiled as she turned slowly to show off the dress. While she donned the matching shoes, Warlord finally managed to speak again. "You know, when I walk in there with you on my arm, I'd better have a pistol in the other hand."

 

Tammy and Warlord reached the door just as Poison was hurrying into their quarters. They nearly collided, and Poison motioned for Tammy to come closer so that she could whisper something into her ear. Tammy nodded and smiled. She motioned to Warlord to wait in the hall for a moment and turned to the closet. She pulled out a black sheath dress and handed it to Poison with a wink. Then she joined Warlord and headed for the party.

 

When they entered, several heads turned, accompanied by whistles and various flirtatious remarks, many involving sudden need for medical treatment. Tammy laughed off various advances until her eyes met Rick's. He had a strange expression on his face, and he turned away when he caught her eye. Tammy's expression grew thoughtful, and she started scanning the crowd for TJ to see what he thought of Rick's reaction. She still had her concerns about serving with him in the field until she understood him better. She didn't see TJ yet, so she turned to Warlord and smiled up at him. "Let's find some food" she grinned.

[Hankosha]

Hankosha was finally dressed. His Tuxedo had not been ruined by the blood splatter from the previous party, so it would survive the night. He Had fixed his crutches so that they were the right height for him, and adjusted his tie. He always had looked good in black.

 

He grabbed his alcohol-filled breifcase and headed to the party. A few heads turned, and someone noticed the suitcase. He put it on the refreshment table and limped towards the stage. He wondered if the DJ would let him take a shift.

 

"In a bout a half-hour."

 

Hankosha headed to the tables and sat down. He decide he had time to kill and went around to meet some people. He looked around not many people were here, so he decided to go meet one of the ones at the tables. He limped over to a guy with a crewcut.

 

"Hi, I'm Hankosha"

 

The guy seemed surprised, and turned towards Hankosha. Hankosha Extended his hand. The guy took it and shook it. It was as strong firm handshake.

 

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Warlord."

 

Hankosha looked and saw a lady approaching the table.

 

"Your lady?" Hankosha asked Warlord.

 

"Yes," laughed Warlord, "so don't get any ideas."

 

"Hello, I'm Hankosha, and you are?"

 

"Tammy."

 

"Pleasure to meet you."

 

Hankosha kissed her hand, and saw the expression on Warlords eyes. He decided to leave before Warlord saw him as a threat he limped away, heading for another table.

[Zager]

At the party, Gaston was wearing a very nice suit, and had a glass of wine in his left hand. "Magnifique" he exclaimed, upon seeing Tammy. "You are, without a doubt, the most beutiful lady in the base, non, the country," he said, bowing deeply in front of her. "Come, join me in a glass of wine, it is Chateau Valier 1724, c'est tres bien."

[Tammy]

Tammy smiled at the gracious compliment. "Why thank you very much. You are too kind. I'm afraid I have to have a little talk with Warlord here and one with Rick as well, but I will definitely see you again before long. I'm not known for avoiding men who think I'm the most beautiful woman in the country," she winked.

 

Gaston bowed again, and murmuring that he would look forward to spending some time in her company, politely withdrew.

 

"Warlord, that was mean! That poor man thought you were going to take his head off. I'm just glad you didn't do a repeat performance for Gaston" she rounded on him, torn between amusement and annoyance.

 

Warlord chuckled. "I do make a pretty good alpha male, don't I?" he said smugly.

 

Tammy sighed and then smiled again. "Now I'm going to go and talk to Rick for a few minutes. I need to know what makes that guy tick...but I don't need you over there intimidating people, so go and find something constructive to do while I talk to him." She tried to look severe, but she couldn't help laughing at the expression on his face. She walked away then, intent on finding out what she could from Rick before the night was over.

[Spaceman42]

Dherzhin looked around the room, taking a sip from his wineglass. The room was starting to fill with people, all wearing fairly formal attire. He wasn't too shabbily dressed, himself - he was wearing a dark suit and tie, a big change from his usual grease-stained jumpsuit and coverall. He spotted Heather across the room, wearing a close-fitting red dress. She was talking with Iain, who - with usual humour - was wearing his Akubra. Dherzhin idly wondered if he ever took it off.

 

So far, Dherzhin had seen no sign of Gilbert, and wondered for a moment where he was. The thought was interrupted by the appearance of the Commander, resplendent in full dress uniform, medals and insignia gleaming. The Commander stepped up to the podium at the front of the hall, tapped the mike, then sat down in a nearby chair, glancing at the clock...

[The Veteran]

The shoes and trousers were black alright, but the shirt was open at the collar and looked to be short-sleeved and blue. Over that was a grey jacket with the base logo on one sleeve and an XCom patch on the other. It certainly made a change from a flightsuit but anyone who knew Trigger would expect him to only be wearing that anyway.

As he stepped into the hall he was suprised at just how many heads turned and he was amazed at how full the hall had become. Already he was late but he'd been perfecting that timing for years now and on this particular occasion it seemed to have helped him avoid the boring bit of the evening. Or at least that was what he thought until the Commander rose from the podium and began to speak to the assembly.

"And so another new year is here," he called out over the hall, silencing the personnel. "And again we have a late arrival," he gazed over to where Trigger had just entered. This time the number of heads that turned did more than suprise him! He gave a feeble wave to the podium and said quietly 'happy new year'.

"Don't think I haven't noticed these past few years, every time there's a function you always arrive after the speeches. This time, it looks like I win" The troops with longer service at Pine Gap laughed. "Anyway, I've had confirmation that everyone is now present so I'll begin. For many of you this is your first new year here, for many others it is not. For those of you who have seen service under me before, you will have a good idea of what the new year has in store for you. All of you new recruits may have a much harder time getting used to it... You are all here because you are the best of your field available to XCom but right now you are all here to enjoy yourselves! In just under three hours now XCom becomes operational, as soon as that happens then training will be over and fighting will begin. Enjoy tonight, for tomorrow we save the world"

The soldiers were uncertain of how to respond but a cheer rose up nonetheless, though whether it was for what the Commander had said or for the fact that he had now finished could be argued.

Now though, Trigger was simply confused, and headed directly for the drinks table.

"There you are" called Rick who was sitting at one end of the table.

"Not socialising? That isn't like you?" said Trigger half smiling.

"No, I feel like a kid at a disco. To be honest I've been waiting for you just for someone to talk to."

"Well gee that's sweet but I'm not actually that way inclined Rick. Haven't you seen some nice girls somewhere? You must have been here for ages, you're always early."

"Yeah I saw most people as they came in, but I'm not really impressed."

"You never are are you? Why is that?"

"I don't know. It's been years since I felt that way about anyone..."

[Loonie]

The room was full of chatter and everyone was enyojing the festivities. Everyone? Not quite. If one would look near the entrance of the room they would see Terrick with his hands behind his back and observing the entire party. He looked more like a security guard than a partygoer as he just stood there. And that was also how he felt. He had been to dozens of such parties but at none of them was his mission to have fun and this one was no exception. He forgot what it was like to really let go at a party and have a good time because of his previous work with the corporation. Previous? That too was not entirely correct. How could it be if his mission at the party was one that would ultimately satisfy their goals? He listened to the Commander from his position near the doors and thought about the words for a brief moment: "Best available to X-Com"? Maybe,.....then again there are so many unknown talents that simply could not get their attention. He was glad that Andrews was not one of them. "tommorow we save the world"? Maybe so, but if I don't figure out a solution for the corporation, I just might be the one to make that impossible. And perhaps not just for X-Com...

 

He decided it was time to stop thinking to himself about these things. He would have more time than he would like to think about them later. Now was the time to get to know the people around here, though he wished that the purpouse of that was to be friends with them...

 

He saw quite a number of people complimenting a Medic called Tammy. As he had seen her earlier at the mess hall he knew he would be able to predict her at least relatively well and he decided to follow everyone elses suit so as to look like an average Joe soldier yet also so as not to make Warlord too envious. He would have to talk to Tammy for a longer duration in order to get to know her, so unfortunately - no compliments or Warlord would interfere all to quickly:

 

"Good evening to you madame. I wonder if you remember me? Martin Terrick the new recruit from the mess hall? We didn't really have much time to talk as Gaston began explaining explosives as soon as you arrived..."

[Snikers]

Keller was somewhat self-conscious, knowing she was probably the least formally dressed person at the entire celebration. When she knew she was coming to the base a few days ago, she wasn't informed she had to bring anything nice-looking...she caught a few people giving her the occasional odd look dressed in the most formal attire she could find, a black sweatshirt and a pair of jeans over a year old.

She took another sip from her glass. It occured to her that she was only nineteen and perhaps she wasn't supposed to be drinking.

Oh well! Keller drained her glass in a quick movement. Just be my little secret. Not that I don't have enough already... Regaining her composure, she noticed that some of the women had really piled on what must of been a kilo of makeup. Better than none at all, I suppose, she mused, as makeup didn't come fitting her complexion.

She noticed a familiar figure in front of her, having recently left the side of Tammy, and tapped him on the shoulder. Terrick swiveled, seeming to almost fall into a combat-ready stance before relaxing.

Old reflexes die hard. Keller thought, then extended her hand. Terrick shook it, looking almost *too* serene and calm.

"Christel Keller, some call me Mouse, pleasure to meet you," Keller rapped off, giving a disarming smile.

"Terrick." The reply came smooth as syrup off the tongue.

"Do you only have one name?"

Terrick paused for a second. Keller decided her joke must of been in poor taste and continued. "Sorry. Say, you feeling alright? You were standing up there like a guard for at least a quarter hour. Nothing's the matter, is it?"

Terrick had thought out this information and planned his words ahead of time. "No, no problem, why?" Simple sentence, the first that came to mind and decided the best...

Keller raised an eyebrow. "You sure? I'm getting a nervous vibe from you. Nothing at all?"

Sweat began to seep out of Terrick's pores. "Nothing, just...I just...feel a bit anxious, you know?" He forced a smile. "We don't really know what we're up against. I mean, the motto's supposed to be 'never assume', but there were always *some* things you could count on. Now, I'm just not sure, you know?" She's buying it, she's buying it... Martin would have to pat himself on the back later. He had learned that acting dumber, weaker, or more frightened than you are is gold for disarming people, up to an extent.

Keller shrugged. "Yeah...well, worrying isn't going to change it. 'Never worry about what you can't avoid', I read it back in grade six, and I still think it's a good philosophy. Whatever happens, happens. I wouldn't sweat over it."

"Yeah...thanks. I'll keep that in mind" Praised Keller, though he thought she didn't sound overly convincing. He shot a convincing smile and left.

Keller stared meditatively at his back for a few seconds. Well, that was great.

Now *she* was worried.

[Hankosha]

Hankosha sat at his table staring at the clock.

 

Tired, he put up his legs, and pulled out a book and started reading.

 

"Hello," A french voice disturbed Hankosha's reading.

 

"Hello," Hankosha wondered if he had met the man.

 

"I am Gaston, " said the man with a flair, "I was just wondering what book you were reading."

 

"Hankosha," said Hankosha, "this is splinter of the mind's eye."

 

"Good bye, and a pleasure to meet you."

 

The man turned and walked away. Hankosha turned and looked back at his book and continued reading.

[Alitorious]

Looking around, Daniel Morlone noticed that almost everybody who was in the recroom at the time of the party were soldiers. Of course the number of soldiers in the base outnumbered the scientist and engineering staff, but not nearly as steep a ratio as this. And as far as he could tell, there were even fewer support staff. Daniel even had to check one of the posters to make sure it wasn't soldiers only.

 

He was also surprised at the formal attire of much of the people here. Some women were in full dresses, and men were in full coat and tails tuxedos. Daniel self-conciously glanced down at his own clothing - it wasn't fancy, being just a comfortable sweater and pressed pair of black jeans, but it wasn't exactly sloppy, either.

 

Dana then came up to his side, seemingly emerging from nowhere. She was merely modestly dressed, like Daniel.

"How're you enjoying this so far?" she asked.

"Fun," he replied. With his tone, it sounded like sarcasm, but Dana knew that Daniel meant it was much better than sitting at a desk right now.

"Listen, I've been thinking about that motion scanner idea." Surprisingly, this was exactly what was on Daniel's mind at the time. "Detecting changes in actual graviton wave patterns would be much more accurate and have a very large detection range, but it isn't possible to detect gravitons directly, much less analyze them. But I read somewhere about magnetogravitics, and it should work similarly, even if it's a lot worse. I looked up on it, and..."

-----

After leaving the company of Keller, Martin Terrick noticed a conversation which, at first, he couldn't get the meaning of. Soon, however, he noticed that their language seemed more like it was extracted from an episode of StarTrek, which meant scientists were talking about something. Going on alert, he straddled closer, while making sure he didn't look conspicuous at all.

 

He had managed to listen to enough of the conversation to realize they weren't talking about a mobile weapons platform. That was good - it was a nice, juicy, techy project for the company which could buy him some time.

 

Suddenly, everybody wasinterrupted by yells and cheers coming from a side table, where two massive figures, with armes intertwined, were having a go .

-----

Both Charles Bruheme and Jack Thomas were grunting, red faced, each trying to force the other's wrist to the table. If friendly competition was always a good thing between soldiers, this was as friendly as it could get. Both of them seemed to be equally matched.

 

The medic in the red dress, Tammy, was obviously on Warlord's side for this duel. But Brute was only slightly dishearted, and quickly tried to give one last gamble for victory.

 

Jack Thomas was easily the superior, however. Charles watched hopelessly as his arm started leaning to his right. His hand hovered briefly over the tabletop in a last glimmer of hope, and was promptly overpowered down to the tabletop.

 

Ignoring the cheers, groans, and wager money being transferred, Charles stood up and offered his other hand - his right hand was turning numb.

"Well, you beat me, sir."

[Loonie]

Martin approached the table with some interest as he saw the armwrestling contest. He could already tell who was about to win but after Charles stood up and left the table, Terrick quickly took the opportunity and raised his index finger upwards: "May I challenge you to another one?"

 

Warlord looked at him rather suspiciously as Martin did not appear too well built unlike Bruheme, but didn't give it much thought and promptly accepted the challenge. Martin slowly sat down behind the table as he sized out his opponent. There was no doubt about the fact that he was very strong indeed, a LOT stronger in fact than Martin and his determination was indeed fierce. Terrick doubted he would be able to beat him.

 

"But there is another way to do this other than raw strenght..." he thought with a grin on his face.

 

As the two contestants clenched the bases of each others thumb it looked as if Martin didn't stand any chance whatsoever and except for one or two individuals, people began to talk about how long it would take for the Heavy Weapons expert to take down the new arrival.

 

When Tammy started the match Warlord didn't move a muscle and simply waited for Martin to do the first attempt and wear himself out that way. However he too did absolutely nothing and simply stared at Jack. After a few intense seconds of complete inactivity the arm of the Heavy Weapons expert began to put down a serious amount of pressure on Martins' right arm and it started to bend slowly downwards. Everything was going exactly as predicted until about halfway down when the arms stopped descending, both of them trembling and shaking in the grip. Warlord focused all of his strength even more whilst Martin closed his eyes and concentrated on his hand not moving an inch lower. After a 10 second deadlock Warlord slowly eased off moving the hand into the first original position. He then renewed his attack over and over again but every time Martin managed to stop it at the exact same spot, albiet barely.

 

Finnaly after a few minutes of this repetition Martin said rather exhausted: "I think we've both had enough, eh?" They both released their palms simultaneously and Martin began to stand up from the table. He had not beaten Jack but neither did he beat him. Warlord was immensely stronger than he had anticipated, but still not strong enough to simply bypass that special trick that Martin knew how to preform.

[JellyfishGreen]

Gia glided into the rec room accompanied by a few low whistles from the male soldiers nearest the door. The room was darkened, music was playing, and the cheers at Warlord's arm wrestling table had just subsided into puzzled silence.

 

As the arm-wrestling crowd dispersed, she saw Tammy making her way to the table where TJ and Rick were talking. She slipped past a few tables and touched the soft sleeve of Tammy's velvet dress.

 

"Hi Tammy. You're looking mighty fine. Are you up to something?"

At a glance, Tammy took in Gia's dress, which was gold satin, long and shimmering, held up at the front by a thin strap around her neck.

"Hey - Gia, is it? Looks like you did pretty well in the fashion department as well."

"Thanks. It's a Ralph Lauren - the only one I own. When they let me out of Area 51, I hit Rodeo Drive with my saved-up danger pay and picked this up at a post-catwalk sale. Isn't it great?"

"It really suits you." She glanced at Rick again then back to Gia. "Actually, yes, I am up to something. I want to see if Rick will open up more in a social situation."

"Oh, so you want to talk to him alone? I think I can help with that."

 

She appraised TJ. Black trousers. Grey jacket didn't really suit. Shirt might actually contain polyester. Nice butt, though. Rick saw her approach and TJ turned to follow his gaze.

 

"Howdy, cowboy. Buy a poor girl a drink?"

"Gia? Um, wow"

There was a pause.

She started "Look-"

He spoke at the same time. "Listen- I meant to apologize for missing your breakfast invitation. I can explain-"

She took his arm. "Come on. You can explain at a table over here. Do you dance?"

 

 

 

***

 

Squad 2 was having an impromptu bonding session. Drinking session, actually. Hiro returned to the table with another round of beers.

Green and Poison were discussing duty.

"Normally, the 'ready' squad is the first one to be sent on missions as they come up, and have to do that with minimum delay. You wear most of your gear, without live ammo, to make your suit-up time minimal. The 'backup' squad takes the mission if the 'ready' squad is unable to, or already deployed, but they're given twenty minutes leeway to wake up, zip up and find their gear. And like the commander said, we're on 'backup' from midnight precisely."

"But that's so unfair! Why couldn't he just let us have the night off?"

Green rubbed his freshly shaven head. "Well, if I were in his position, I guess Id have to strike a balance between offically being on full alert, or taking it easy on the troops. To me, it could be worse."

"How?"

"Well, we could have pulled the first 'ready' shift. As it is, I might even get to sleep off my hangover."

Keller came over to the table. "Hangover? You have this evening well planned."

"Hey, Keller. We're discussing the unfairness of the military. What's on your mind?"

Keller sat down and surrepitiously took a pull of her beer.

"Just a funny feeling about Terrick. Like he's scared but pretending to be nervous, if that makes any sense."

Hiro leaned in. "Something funny, alright. That wrestling? I think he used a very rare aikido move, and that doesn't match Japanese Regular Army training. I think... I think he overplayed his hand for the sake of his ego."

"Wow. And then there's the gadgets that keep going off at night."

"What gadgets?" the others asked.

He drained his bottle.

"I'll tell you after I get another beer."

Green got up and took a recon of the bar. He spotted a gap beside Sanjay and his slowly settling Guinness. He scanned the table.

"Yo, Keller, you want another beer? I think you're legal age to drink in Australia."