X-Com: Into the Darkness
Chapter 1
A New Development
A/N: a few things that I should mention right now: this starts out fairly early in X-Com Enemy Within so there aren't any energy weapons on the side of the humans, the world doesn't know about the existence of the alien invaders, yet.
Also I've only read to the part where Hatsuna joins the group in the manga, so you should expect things to become AU very, very quickly in regards to most of the plot and will more than likely contradict what has been set up in Brynhildr's canon. This is especially emphasized in regards to the motivations of the organization that created the lab, the witches and the Drassil creatures. And finally as the manga hasn't really stated where in Japan the story takes place I'm going to assume that it's somewhere in Kyoto judging by how the town resembles that particular city in Japan.
One final note, Ryouta and the others aren't going to show up until the next chapter.
- China, Hong Kong, Slums-
The long, busy day had come already and gone for the people living in the bustling city of Hong Kong and now it was just past midnight. Some of the people living in this particular section of the city were in their beds trying to get some sleep, all the while hoping that their small dwellings wouldn't get broken into while they slept.
Like many cities there were many poor neighborhoods where people lived in poverty and in this particular neighborhood crime was rampant. There were many small gangs that operated in the city limits but they were just small fries when compared to some of the larger criminal syndicates such as the Triads whose influence in the city ran very deep. One thing for sure was that no one that wasn't part of the criminal underworld went out at this time of night without some form of protection.
In a back alley near the edge of the slums was a man with closely cropped white hair and several scars on the right side of his face. He wore a rather expensive looking business suit and was holding a large briefcase in his left hand put a cigarette into his mouth before lighting it with his right. This man's name was Shaojie Zhang, a member of the Triad crime syndicate. Zhang was a minor lieutenant in this particular branch of the Triads and had always been more focused on his own survival rather than making his way up the ranks.
It was this policy that led him here with the briefcase that contained a number of, disturbing items that had been smuggled out of Japan. He didn't know who brought it here or even how it was smuggled out of that country but when Zhang saw what was inside he knew that his boss was a fool, trying to sell something like this to the highest bidder was completely insane.
No it would be much safer in the hands who actually knew how to handle something like the things in the briefcase. Because of this he used his contacts in the Chinese government to get in touch with a black ops organization that dealt with things such as this. Apparently his contacts referred to it only as X-Com. It had near unlimited funding and had the support of some of the most powerful nations across the planet, including that of his homeland. From what he'd been able to gather, X-Com dealt with strange things like what was within the Zhang's briefcase.
A small, almost unnoticeable tap interrupted the silence of the back alley causing Zhang to reflexively draw his P99 pistol from its hiding place in his suit as he turned to face the direction of where the noise was coming from. There he saw a group of six soldiers all in completely black fatigues and their faces were completely obscured from view due to the helmets they wore. They wielded several unique looking rifles, shotguns and a light machine gun.
Zhang had never seen any of these models before in his life and quickly deduced that they were probably custom built. Zhang smiled as he'd been told that his contacts would be wearing outfits that were similar to that "So you must be my contacts," he stated more than he asked. "After all only those who wouldn't fear reprisal would make an appearance like this." The leading soldier let out a low humorless chuckle.
"You got that right, now do you have the package?" he asked. Zhang kept his smile on as he raised the briefcase he had been carrying "Of course I do, and I hope that you remember my price for bringing it to you."
Zhang's price hadn't been what any of X-Com's leaders had been expecting. Rather than asking for a large sum of money like many people of his kind of background would undoubtedly have done in his position, Zhang only requested that he be evacuated from the country and be allowed to join X-Com as a soldier.
"We keep our word Mr. Zhang, now stay close and keep your head down as best you can, we've received Intel of possible hostiles in the area, and more than likely, they're probably after whatever's inside that case." Zhang then noticed something that was just a couple of meters behind the X-Com soldiers. The creature was skinny, hunched over, its head was rather large and bulbous for its diminutive size that contained a pair of almost glowing yellow eyes but there wasn't a mouth or even a nose.
It held in its hands a small green device that was glowing slightly that was obviously a weapon. Immediately Zhang raised his P99 and fired off three rounds at the creature. The three rounds struck the creature in its center mass making it fall down to the ground in a heap. It made a noise that was a combination of an avian like chirp and a squealing noise all at once. Sparks covered the weapon that the alien was holding for a few moments before it fell to pieces.
The other X-Com operatives turned around and noticed the creature, a Sectoid on the ground with three bullet holes in its chest that were pouring out green blood onto the ground. Zhang spared the dead alien a glance for a moment before looking at his gun "Not all that different from killing a man," he mused nonchalantly as he gestured for his new colleagues to lead the way to the extraction point.
The X-Com operatives advanced slowly and cautiously through back alleyways as they didn't want to risk exposing themselves to the enemy that was no doubt out there somewhere waiting for them. They also made a note to keep a fair distance from one another whenever possible due to the likelihood of Thin Men showing up in the area as they had been making more frequent appearances where covert action was required.
Thin Men were perhaps the most human-like alien that X-Com had fought thus far, or at least they were at first glance. They had similar skin tones, body types and facial features that humans had, hell they even wore business suits and had hair that was kept neatly combed and cropped as though they were on their way to a business meeting. However if one was to take a closer look then they would see several glaring differences.
One was their unnatural height and elongated and incredibly thin bodies, then there was an area around their neck and wrists where the skin was a disturbingly green color. The last feature however were the eyes which had many similarities to that of Earth based reptiles so they wore shaded spectacles to keep up the false front of being human.
They were also walking chemical weapons. Each Thin Man was capable of spitting a concentrated venom that turned into an aerosol upon hitting a solid surface. This cloud could cover an area up to several meters in diameter and last up to several minutes. The poison itself was even capable of killing a person in ten to fifteen minutes if they weren't given proper medical aid.
And sure enough a trio of Thin Men appeared from just beyond the alleyway, each one with a plasma weapon in hand. Immediately the X-Com soldiers dove for cover and started to open fire on the new targets. Given how ridiculously agile the Thin Men were, all but one managed to emerge from the gunfire relatively unscathed. The last one though took a burst in its right thigh as it tried to dive behind a dumpster, causing it to fall face first into the ground. It attempted to raise its small scale plasma rifle and fire it at the soldiers but its neck was soon riddled with bullets and shotgun pellets.
It died instantly from the damage it took and the instant it died fumes rapidly poured forth from its wounds and soon a large noxious green cloud soon formed in front of the X-Com operatives. As soon as the cloud started forming the X-Com operatives started laying down a suppressing fire with their assault rifles and light machine gun. Even though the group was laying down suppressing fire on the Thin Men they still blind fired at the human soldiers with their plasma weapons in an attempt to take some of the heat off but they didn't succeed at hitting anything.
The lead operative pulled what looked like a frag grenade from his belt and yelled "Fire in the hole!" before tossing the grenade out at the green cloud where the other two Thin Men were lurking inside. Two seconds later there was a loud boom and much of the cover near area that the frag grenade had been thrown into was destroyed and a pair of corpses were blown a few feet upwards before they fell back down and released more toxins into the air.
This wasn't good, they were in a cramped alleyway without any decent cover or room to maneuver and couldn't take the same route back to their transport thanks to the toxic gas being given off by the Thin Men. Under normal circumstances they would just wait the couple of minutes for the gasses to evaporate but this wasn't the team wasn't equipped for a prolonged engagement with the enemy. Besides the area they were in was a bottleneck, which wasn't a very good place to be if there were any more Thin Men around.
The lead operative reached for the side of his helmet and said "Checkmate, this is Lieutenant Michael Richter, Echo One actual, our route back to the Skyranger has been cut off by toxins emitted by Thin Men, and our GPS is malfunctioning, we cannot wait for the toxins to dissipate, please advise on alternate route."
"Sorry Echo-One actual there's a problem with the Satellite, we'll try and do what we can but right now we aren't getting all that much, we will update once the bug has been fixed out." The voice on the other end of the line was the leader of X-Com, Commander McNeil (aka: Checkmate) a veteran Special Forces officer that was brought in to lead X-Com shortly after its inception. Richter tried to explain that they couldn't just wait around that long for them to get info on their new route but they said that it was going to take a while to get the satellite monitors back up and running again. Apparently some kind of software problem that was interfering with their equipment.
Lieutenant Richter muttered a few obscene phrases while Zhang quietly made his way over to Richter and said "Lieutenant I have intimate knowledge on the surrounding area and I should be able to lead you back to your craft if you can tell me exactly where it is."
Realizing that they didn't have much time Richter said "It's in a construction yard just roughly thirty meters south from where we are now."
Zhang knew exactly where Richter was referring to. The construction site had once been an old factory but it was torn down after a fire destroyed much of it. They were supposed to be building a new housing complex but construction had been stalled for quite some time by funding issues and the amount of crime in the area. "I know exactly where you are talking about, there's an alternate route to the construction site, this way," he said while pointing down a different direction.
Richter looked at one of the other soldiers one who was slightly shorter than the others but wore the same helmet as the rest of them, and said "Squaddie Jackson, you're on point with Zhang, keep him alive," Jackson gave a nod and moved up, shotgun at the ready.
The two moved slowly down the back alley, silently hoping that there weren't any hostiles waiting for them. Silence was once again abound in the immediate area only disturbed by the relatively quiet footfalls of the X-Com operatives and the former Triad officer. Eventually they were finally out of the alleyway and were in a nearby parking lot. The group used the park cars for cover as they continued to advance towards another alleyway that was much shorter than the last one and only went for a couple of meters.
As they continued to advance towards their extraction point, one of the other X-Com operatives, a Russian by the name of Dmitri Reznov heard the familiar pitter patter of tiny feet on the pavement. He raised his assault rifle in the direction of the noise and saw a group of four Sectoids crawling around by a pair of trashcans "Contact!" he yelled to his squad as he opened fire with his assault rifle on full auto.
The Sectoids scurried out of the way and dove behind cover but not before one of their number was killed by a stray bullet when it struck the side of its head and went out the other side with an exit wound roughly the same size as a toddler's fist. The other X-Com operatives dove under cover as the Sectoids returned fire, eager to avenge their fallen brother in arms.
One of the X-Com operatives, a squaddie by the name of Philippe Weir thought he had a clear shot at one of the diminutive aliens that was hiding behind a car. Against his better judgment Philippe stood up out of cover to get a better shot but before he could pull the trigger on his weapon, one of the three remaining Sectoids fired several plasma blasts from its wrist mounted weapon. The first shot went wide but the second struck Weir in the side of his right shoulder, causing him to fire off a burst at the pavement. The third shot however hit his head, killing him instantly.
"Man down! Man down!" yelled the only female operative in the team by the name of Mei Akiyama, who was currently taking cover behind a nearby car. She raised her weapon and peaked up at the Sectoid before firing off a blast from her Shotgun. The Sectoid's head exploded like a melon sending blood, brains and bone bursting outwards in all directions. "Tango down!" she yelled.
One of the other operatives, a rather bulky looking fellow that was carrying an LMG (Light Machine Gun) started riddling up the car the remaining Sectoids were behind. Each round punched straight through the vehicle's thin hull and out the other side, eventually it blew a hole in the engine and a thick black smoke start to come from the engine compartment. Within moments that smoke turned into fire and everyone, even the Sectoids knew what was going to come next.
The diminutive alien invaders decided to trade their soon to be exploding cover for something else. However they weren't exactly quick enough completely escape the explosion. However neither Sectoid was fast enough to get out of range before the car exploded and as a result, both were caught in the explosion. The one that was closest to the explosion was sent flying a few feet before coming to rest on top of the other alien, its right arm and left leg were both bent at unnatural angles and its body was covered in burns and pieces of the car.
The creature underneath it however was still alive and only looked as if it had sustained relatively minor injuries. Jackson walked over to the struggling creature and pulled out his pistol as well as a strange looking box shaped object with a pistol grip on the back of it "Kill or capture sir?" he asked. Richter looked at his subordinate "Capture, we may be able to gather something useful about what the hell it is these things want from our friend over here," said Richter while gesturing over to Zhang who was only a few feet away from them.
Jackson nodded and aimed the device right at creature "Got it lieutenant. Sweet dreams you ugly little bastard," he muttered before pulling the device's trigger. A mass of electrical charges went from the device and straight into the creature's body, more than enough to render the thing completely unconscious.
After the last alien fell, Richter turned to look back at the other four remaining members of his squad "Jackson you carry the prisoner, Mei you grab Weir's body, Reznov you and Carver take point with Zhang. Now let's move!" Reznov and Carver, moved up a as they were instructed and kept themselves in front of Zhang given how their body armor would keep them relatively safer. Zhang led them past a couple more alleyways before they finally found themselves literally right across the street from the old construction site.
Despite being in the home stretch, the group continued to make their way carefully towards the transport. They all knew that if there were any more aliens in the area waiting to ambush them, then now would end up being their last chance to try and prevent them from escaping.
Echo squad's leader activated his communicator and called up the Commander again "Sir this is Echo one actual to Checkmate, do we have eyes on?" he asked. The reply from command was almost immediate, "Affirmative Echo One Actual we do have eyes on. According to satellite scans of the area there doesn't appear to be any hostiles in the streets but we cannot confirm if there are any that are inside the structures, so proceed with caution."
Richter sighed. Of course it would be too much to ask to know for sure if the hostiles they had just killed were the last of them. Well at least they knew that they weren't going to get gunned down by plasma weapons while they crossed the empty street so that was something of a plus. Richter signaled the team to get ready to move across the large street.
The team moved in a circular formation, keeping Zhang in the middle so that if they did get attacked before they reached the Skyranger the VIP would be less likely to end up injured or killed. The squad didn't hear or see anything as they moved down the street which either meant that they got the last of the aliens in the previous firefight, or they were being lulled into a false sense of security.
Even after they were finally on the other side of the street they still didn't stop until they were behind at least some form of cover. The cover that they found themselves using was little more than a large white van with a title written in Chinese on it that was probably the name of whatever construction company was working in the construction site. It didn't really matter though as the group was in a safer location than they were just a few seconds ago.
Richter then signaled for Reznov and Carver to move up and check to make sure that there wasn't anything waiting for them nearby. The two soldiers did as they were told and moved up to the entrance of the construction site. A few moments later Carver's voice came over the radio "You're clear to move up sir."
The unit did just that, they moved towards the Skyranger observing their surroundings for anything remotely out of the ordinary in the event that Carver and Reznov may have missed something. Much to everyone's relief though there wasn't anything waiting to commence some last minute ambush on the team. The group then started to board their transport.
After everyone finished boarding the aircraft started to lift up off of the makeshift landing zone and up into the skies above. From there it set a course for X-Com HQ, located deep in the Nevada Desert. As the transport started to exit Hong Kong airspace Richter and the rest of his men removed their helmets and Zhang was now able to get a look at what the squad looked like.
Richter was a man in his early thirties, he had short dark blond hair and brown eyes. Dmitri Reznov at least in his late twenties to mid-thirties he had closely cropped black hair and grey eyes as well as the look of a grizzled veteran. Mei Kurosawa was a woman of clear Japanese descent and had her mid-length black hair in a ponytail. Carver was a bulky fellow in his mid-thirties, he was African American and his most defining feature was his Mohawk fade hairstyle.
Abel Jackson however was the most noteworthy as he was clearly the youngest member of the team. The boy was probably in his late teens, he was rather slim, had piercing blue eyes and he had a regulation military styled crew cut. Zhang wondered why a kid would be in a Special Forces unit but then decided that it wasn't really any of his business, at the moment anyways, he'd probably just ask someone about that when he arrived at X-Com HQ.
Zhang was broken out of his thoughts when Richter looked over at the former Triad member and asked "You mind telling me what in the hell was inside that case and why it was so important that it cost one of my men?"
"I'm not sure what it is to be honest, or even most of the details how my boss managed to get his hands on it but I do know that whatever is inside isn't from around here. All I know for sure is that he managed to get it from an unknown contact in Japan and once he received it, he put it on a black market auction. Within days we started to get offers from a wide variety of bidders. There was one individual, I don't know who it was but he offered us roughly sixty two million Yuan* just to have a look at it at what's inside this case." (*roughly ten million dollars in US currency)
The other soldiers looked pretty surprised. Granted most of them didn't know how much the Chinese currency would be worth in their own native countries but they guessed that that was quite a bit. If someone was willing to pay that much just to go in and gawk at whatever they found then lord only knew what they were willing to pay for just to acquire it.
Naturally this made everyone want to know what was inside the case but they had orders to wait until doctor Vahlen the head researcher of X-Com had examined its contents thoroughly. Despite their curiosity regarding what was inside the briefcase, no one wanted to piss that woman off, as many had seen the rather messy results of the interrogation room when they brought in captured aliens in for interrogation.
The rest of the flight to X-Com HQ was almost completely silent aside from the noises being generated by the Skyranger's engines.
-Nevada Desert, X-Com HQ, Research Wing some time later-
Doctor Vahlen and her team were having a very difficult having a very difficult time holding in their excitement. Roughly twenty minutes ago, right before going to and debrief Zhang, Commander McNeil had personally informed her that not only had the Echo Squad retrieved Zhang and the package that he had in his possession but also there was a live capture of a still living alien. Vahlen already had half of the research team prepping the alien prisoner for the interrogation chamber while she and the rest of the group examined whatever alien artifact their new recruit had brought with him when he arrived.
Ordinarily doctor Vahlen would oversee almost all of the interrogations with the aliens personally but what had been retrieved by the team that retrieved Zhang was much more interesting at the moment. When the team opened up the briefcase they found something rather, unexpected. Originally they thought that they would be examining something more mechanical in nature but it turned out they were only half right about that.
Inside the briefcase were a number of items. The first of these were four glass cylinders, each of these cylinders was filled with a clear liquid and inside was a strange creature that was roughly the size of a small child's fist. They were all almost pitch black in color and were dotted with numerous eyes and mouths, each of the mouths were filled with tiny yet still sharp, needle like teeth.
One of the researchers even made an offhand comment regarding how they resembled one of the Shoggoth creatures that were featured in some of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. Although it was a very unprofessional assessment of the physical attributes of these creatures Vahlen had to admit that that they did strongly resemble some sort of a Lovecraftian monster.
The most disturbing thing about them however was not only were they not dead, but they showed complete and utter awareness of their surroundings. Their eyes followed the researchers that got too close to them and if Vahlen didn't know any better, she could swear that they were smiling at her with their numerous mouths. Three researchers were already in full hazard gear and were currently dissecting one of the entities to try and learn more about its anatomy.
The other items that came within in the briefcase was a box filled with another group of four canisters, only these were completely sealed off and there was no way to look inside without forcefully opening the devices. There were traces of some kind of dried up sludge on most parts of the canisters.
The top portion of the purely metal canisters had three buttons although no one knew what they were for and as such opted not to push any of them. After scans for anything radioactive, explosive or toxic inside of the containers came up negative, the researchers opened them and found they were completely empty.
However the scans also revealed something far more disturbing about the dried sludge on parts of the object. Apparently this sludge was primarily human genetic material that had been almost completely broken down. It was almost as if that the device was attached to a person at one time and that person just, melted. The mere implications of something like that happening were enough to make several of the researchers feel the need to vomit.
The containers themselves weren't created using Elerium or any of the alloys that the aliens used in their weapons or ships that much was for certain. Instead they were created using materials that were native to Earth, mainly stainless steel and a few other durable elements. Vahlen looked over at the creatures that were still gazing at her and the other researchers before a very sick and disturbing theory came through her mind.
The containers were more than large enough to contain the creatures that were brought in but also small enough to be implanted into a human without doing damage to the person's body. Vahlen also had to wonder how they managed to keep the nervous system from rejecting the container which would cause very serious health problems that could lead to death.
Perhaps they had managed to get their hands on Meld like X-Com had, this would certainly explain a lot. Meld was quite possibly one of the greatest research finds in genetic engineering after its discovery when one of their teams encountered it while scouting out a possible alien abduction site.
The substance itself was actually made up of billions if not trillions of mechanical and organic machines called nanites. The nanites could be used to combine different organic materials with one another or even fuse both machine and living tissue without rejection from the nervous system.
Some of the research data was already starting to be put into practical use. There was talk about using the substance to create new organs and making some of the original organs much more effective at their jobs than they were before. The cybernetics lab meanwhile was petitioning to make offers to military veterans who had lost their limbs in combat and giving them new robotic ones in exchange for their services at X-COM.
Shen was even going over schematics to create a Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit (MEC) for the new soldiers which would improve their combat effectiveness tenfold while in the field. Of course it was going to take a while for everything to get finished but it did look like a very interesting endeavor.
Vahlen realized that her thoughts were starting to drift further and further from the current subject of her research and started get back to focusing on the work that was important at the moment. The head researcher continued to have the team run scans on the canister to see if there was anything that they might have missed when another one of the other researchers came up to her and handed her a lab report. Apparently the dissection of one of the new creatures had just been completed.
The report contained some very interesting information regarding how the creature's functioned. The bodies had no bone structure and there were a few rudimentary organs that one would expect in a living being, the creatures did have blood although it was a clear oil like substance. There wasn't a bone structure in them, instead the creature used a strange muscle system to allow them to move around.
One detail however caught her attention though and it allowed her to realize what those other containers they had been scanning were being used for. Apparently because of the fact that it lacked a skeleton, the creature was able to, for lack of better terms, fold itself into very small shape. Once Vahlen finished reading that small part of the report everything about what they found started to piece together paint a very disturbing picture.
After a very sick theory entered her mind the head of X-Com's science division all but ran over to the nearest intercom and immediately contacted Central Officer Bradford. She proceeded to inform him that she had found something that the commander as well as the rest of X-Com's command staff needed to see the lab reports immediately and they probably weren't going to like what it was they found.
It took roughly twenty minutes for Doctor Shen, Central Officer Bradford, and Commander McNeil to make it down to Vahlen's lab and when they arrived they saw that Vahlen looked very, disturbed for lack of a better word. That made them somewhat nervous, as Vahlen was probably one of the most levelheaded people in X-Com.
Whenever Doctor she normally spoke in a calm and collected voice and although this time wasn't completely different, there were several undertones of horror and disgust. Soon they discovered why she had had such a reaction to the findings of the contents of the briefcase as she told them of her findings. They didn't want to believe that someone human would be capable of doing something like this to another person but, unfortunately the evidence was right there in front of them, no matter how much they wanted to deny it happened.
The first one to find the words to speak was Branford "Do you honestly mean to tell us that someone human decided to put those 'eldritch horrors' into a human body and whoever it was implanted in, melted?" he asked almost in complete disbelief and disgust at the mere thought of something like that happening. Vahlen let out the breath that she had no knowledge of holding in and continued. "While I scarcely want to believe it myself, the research team and I have already looked at the data and as much we wish that this wasn't the case, this is what we've been forced to conclude."
The first one to speak was doctor Shen who tried to focus less on the disturbing aspects of it and more on the reason why this was even being done "I don't understand the purpose behind these containers. Why would someone want to put these things into a human body? Would it not be much easier to put these things in more conventional packaging?" He asked.
Although he was still sickened by what he'd heard from Vahlen, Branford decided to offer his own input "I once read a report about how some members of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan had bombs surgically placed inside of their own bodies in order to get them past security checkpoints. Maybe the same thing applies here?"
Despite the fact that that theory make some sense there were a few problems with it that Vahlen quickly pointed out. The containers themselves were completely metal and would therefore be much easier to detect if put through most security systems so they would need to stay in the country they were currently. Besides it was unlikely that whoever created these things would want to take them over long distances as there would be more chances for the cargo to be detected.
More theories were tossed around the group for a small period of time before finally, McNeil decided to speak up, having been listening to the group talk and said "Right now all we have is nothing speculation, and the council wants to hear more than just that.
All we really know right now is that according to Zhang the Triads found these things in a briefcase in the Kyoto region of Japan after a gun battle with the Yakuza over a territory dispute he doesn't' know if the case was found on the Yakuza or on one of the civilians that were unlucky enough to get caught in the crossfire. So unless anyone has any better ideas I'm going to send in a team to that area to conduct a thorough investigation of the area to find out just what it is we're dealing with here."
The rest of the group did see the merit to that decision although most of the leads they had were shaky. The trail would probably have gone pretty cold by now but at the moment they had nothing else to go on.
"In four hours' time I'm sending in Echo Squad to chase down any possible leads for what we've found, with Gamma and Delta squads acting on standby support should the need arise. Doctor Vahlen, I'm going to need you to continue studying the creatures and the canisters, leave no stone unturned. I want to get to the bottom of this ASAP. Are we clear?" Everyone gave a "Yes sir" affirmative and returned to their duties while McNeil went to go inform the council's appointed representative of what had been found and knew that it was doubtful that he'd like what he would end up hearing.
To Be Continued.
