The Soldier and the Ethereal

Summery

An X-COM soldier encounters an Ethereal, but not in a way you expected.

Story

Chapter 1: Encounter

Jack, a Human man who was trained in the Historical and Archeological field, was an X-Com Soldier on a mission. He was order by the Commander himself to do a one-man scout and research mission at an undiscovered Mayan site in the jungles of Mexico. The main mission was to see if the site was a good location for the X-COM headquarters for Latin American Operations. The Side Mission was to see if there could be any interesting new historical information about the site. So when Jack was able to reach the site, it seemed as if it was left abandon by the Mayans themselves. Everything seemed untouched and peaceful, until a loud whistling sound started to become audible in Jack's ears. Jack looked up and saw a Flying Saucer coming in for a crash landing in the forest, about a thousand feet away. He soon heard a loud boom, when the space ship made impact on the ground. Large clouds of smoke started to rise above the tree lines about 500 feet away from where Jack was standing. Jack immediately ran towards the crash site to see if there were any survivors.

10 minutes ago before the UFO Crash Landing…

"Alright, we were able to escape ADVANT Air Space and everything seems to be in good shape. Rex, status report on our crew" said a female Ethereal to a male MUTON. "So far everyone is recovering from our Evac from the ADVENT base in El Paso Commander Celeste" replied the male MUTON. "Thank you Rex, that is good to know that the crew is doing alright. Victoria, contact X-COM and tell them that we would like to make a truce with them and in return, we will give them every dark secret and classified information about ADVANT" said Celeste to the female Viper. "Will do Celeste, it's time for ADVANT to face the consequence they have done to every species under their control" said the Female Viper.

Before Victoria could make contact with X-COM, the communications were hacked and a screen appear in front of the commanding center of the ship. Everyone looked at the screen and soon everyone glared and had angry looks on who appeared on the screen. On the Screen was an Ethereal General looking directly at Celeste with an angry glare. "How could you do this to us Celeste, you were our best scientist and warrior to the Ethereal Monarch. You were going to become a general with a bright future within a week, but no, instead you throw it all away and decide to betray us by running to X-Com and telling them about our secret plans to annihilating them" said the male Ethereal General.

Celeste glared at him, she knew this general to well. If he was able to hack their communications, then that meant he had a horrible surprise for her and her crew. She feared if the Ethereal Monarch found out what she knew, they would immediately execute her and make her look like she was a criminal to the Ethereal civilian community.

"How could I, I'll tell you why. I joined the Ethereal Monarch military to protect our people and the innocent lives of other sentient species. When I found out that my own military and government are experimenting on innocent species without their consent, when they are attacking innocent human settlements, when you are nearly destroying a sentient species for your own personal gain instead of helping that race, that is where I draw the line. X-Com was right, we are not humanity's so called saviors who stopped their own wars, hunger or disease. We are their invaders who ravaged their lands and their people, they have a right to be afraid of us. I plan I stopping this madness by joining X-Com and putting a stop to this psychotic plan that the Ethereal Monarch created. I plan on showing not only those ADVANT human civilians what the Ethereal Monarch is doing, but also to the Ethereal civilian community as well. When everyone sees these plans, not only will the civilians go against ADVANT, but also ADVANT soldiers, pilots and sailors will go against ADVANT as well. We will show the universe the truth, even if we have to give our own lives to show the Universe the truth" said Celeste in a commanding voice.

Every Crew member on the ship heard Celeste's speech and were proud of her for what she had said. Before Celeste knew the truth, she was one of ADVANT's best warriors. She was able to easily take over area's controlled by X-COM. She was also an excellent scientist, when she had spare time. She was able to find new cures for both humans and Aliens and was able to create new gadgets that helped soldiers in combat.

The reason for joining the military was because of what happened to her mother and brother. She was only 4 years old when her mother and brother die. Her mother and brother were stationed on a space ship that was flying over the south west region of the U.S.A. All of a sudden, the ship was attacked by the U.S. Air Force and completely destroyed. She remembered when she received the news about her mother's and brother's death. Her mother was only 45 years old and her brother was only 18 years old. Her mother was only a doctor, while her brother was just a recruit. She remembered crying for who knows how long. Then she realized the best way to honor them was to join the military and help save lives.

It seemed that Celeste was going to have a bright future ahead of her, when she was given the rank General. She was official about to become a general, when she had one last mission left. She and her team were going to raid a X-COM safe house in Albuquerque because the house contained valuable classified information. When her team and her stormed the safe house, all hell broke loose. When the fighting was over, there was only two survivors left in the safe house. A man in his 30s and a boy that was 10 years old. At first they thought the man was holding the boy hostage, but soon realized that the boy was not a hostage, but was the man's son. The man had no weapons or bombs. Then that's when the universe was turned upside down when the man showed them the videos of every dark secret that ADVANT and the Ethereal Monarch was withholding from the public and the military. At first her team and her didn't believe what they were seeing, until the boy allowed Celeste to look into his memories, since she had telepathy. What Celeste saw in the boy's mind was pain, lost and traumatizing. The boy lived in a small human settlement in the country side. All of a sudden ADVANT came in and captured everyone, including him. At first she thought that he was going to be taken into ADVANT child protection, what happened next hit her heart and soul. She saw the boy being taken into a lab, and instead of getting any treatment, he was soon put into a tube filled with liquid. She soon saw the boy being experimented on by ADVANT black ops Scientist. She saw that the boy found his mother and sister in similar container and before her own eyes, she saw them being disincarnated. The boy was too young to see his own mother and sister to be killed. She saw everything that ADVANT and the Ethereal Monarch did to him. She felt sad for the boy and Anger at ADVANT and the Ethereal Monarch. The Father revealed that he was a part of the X-Com raid at the ADVANT Albuquerque base because he found out his son was there. After finding out the Truth, Celeste and her team decided to let the Father and Son escape before ADVANT arrived on the scene. The Father and Son were able to leave Albuquerque before ADVANT arrived.

Ever since that incident, Celeste and the team were never the same and decided that they were going to EVAC their base and head towards an X-COM base somewhere either in the South tip of the U.S. or in Mexico. Now, Celeste was looking at the General on the Ship's video screen. She knew something bad was about to happen and she prepare for the worst.

"I'm disappointed in you Celeste, instead of saving our race, you choose to put all sentient species near extinction. These humans are nothing but perfect lab rats, their genes and DNA can make the Ethereals stronger and faster. They were meant to be ruled by us, if we had left them alone, they would have gone extinct.

It's funny if you think about it, your mother said something similar to me, when she found out about our plans. She told me that this was wrong and we should had come to earth with open arms instead of invading them. She was going so far to actually helping X-COM to stop us, I guess it was a good idea then to have her ship's core blow up and make it look like it was the U.S. Air Force that did it" said the Ethereal General.

Celeste's eyes went wide open, as well as her mouth, when she heard what the General told her. Everyone on the ship gasped when they heard that, the General just revealed that he was responsible for killing 1,596 lives on that ship, including the Commander's mother and brother.

"You Killed THEM!" screamed Celeste. The General had a stern face on Celeste and continued. "Yes Celeste, I killed them. I had to because if they had help X-COM, then X-COM would have won, the Earth would have been saved and united and worst of all they could have brought more alien on their side than us. It's sad you and your team will have to suffer the same fate as your mother and brother. You are now a disgrace to your officers, your race and your family. Good bye Daughter and good riddance said the General who turned out to be Celeste's Father.

All of a sudden, a loud explosion shook the ship and everything went crazy. People flying, screaming and loud alarms blaring. Celeste did her best to keep ever member of her team in order, but it was no use. The ship took 45 degree dive and was heading straight towards the jungle. Celeste grabbed Rex and Victoria who were the only people on the commanding center and create a force field around them. Celeste looked at her friends one more time before she looked at the window to see that they were about to make impact. Her vision became white and she felt immediate pain, while hearing screams and agony on the ship. After that, Celeste lost consciousness.

Jack at the Crash Site…

When Jack got to the crash site, he saw that the Flying Saucer was torn in half and right in the middle of a big crater. The Ship was about 50 feet long and 30 feet high. When Jack got closer to the ship, he started to see dead bodies on the ground. He saw that some of them were either burnt, crushed or even split in half. The bodies were either Human, Sectoid, MUTON, or Viper. It seemed that there were no survivors of the crashed UFO, until Jack heard a small moan. Jack followed the source of where the moan came from and found that there was a female Ethereal laying on the ground with her stomach. Jack immediately ran towards her and picked her up. "Are you alright miss" Jack asked. "Ughhh" was all the female Ethereal could say. Jack knew what he had to do, he carried the female Ethereal all the way back to the Mayan Site where he had set up camp. While he was able to get out of the crash site, he turned around to look at it one more time. All of a sudden the ship exploded and soon, the ship was no more. Jack looked at the female Ethereal in his arms and saw that she was passed out.

Once he got to his camp, he put the female Ethereal on his bed, immediately got his first aid kit and started the procedure. It seemed that the Ethereal was pretty scratch up, she had scratches on her arms, her legs, her stomach, her chest and her face. She was also bleeding on her leg with green blood. The good news was that Ethereals don't have acid blood, but the bad news was that if she was not cleaned and patched up, her cuts would become infected.

Once Jack was able to clean the cuts, the blood and patch up everything else, Jack got a better look at the female Ethereal. She was 6 foot and 3inches tall, while Jack was 5 foot and 6 inches tall. She wore a white lab coat, with flour sleeves and black like latex suit. It seemed that her clothes were almost shredded by the crash. She had grey lips, had an hour glass body, her skin color was grey and her breast size was a C Cup. Jack had to admit, this female Ethereal was pretty attractive. When she opened her eyes, he saw that her eye color was blue.

"What…Happened, who are you" asked Celeste with fear in her eyes. Jack felt sad for the female Ethereal. "I was walking around this area, when I heard your Space Ship coming down. When I looked up to see where the sound was coming from, I saw your Space Ship coming down for a crash landing. I immediately went to see if everyone was alright and I found you. How are you feeling by the way" asked Jack in a sincere voice. The Female Ethereal gave a small smiled and said "Terrible, but I'm starting to feel better. Thank you for saving me" said the female Ethereal in a tired, but happy voice. Jack smiled back and asked "Do you know what caused your Space Ship to crashed"?

The Female Ethereal look down on the ground with a sad expression. "There was a bomb in the core room and before we could detect it, it exploded. We were falling from the sky with no power and were afraid of crashing into a small village. So we decided to crash by the jungle, that way no civilians would get hurt. When we made impact, I tried my best to create a force field around my team. I thought I could save them, but when we made impact, the impact caused the ship to be torn in half. My force field was able to protect me, but I don't know what happen to team members. All I remember is being carried out of the wreckage by you before passing out" said the female Ethereal.

Jack saw tears in the female Ethereal's eyes and decided to tell her the bad news, so that she could have disclosure. He told her that all the crew members were dead and how sorry he was that she lost her whole entire team. He soon saw her crying and weeping and decided to hold onto her to give her comfort. Once she was able to stop crying, she looked up at Jack and said "Thank you for saving me and trying to save my team mates as well." Jack said in a calm voice "Your welcome. If I may ask, what is your name? The female Ethereal looked into his eyes and said "My name is Celeste, what is your name?" "My name is Jack" replied Jack in a happy tone.

Celeste looked at Jack from head to toe. He had black hair, had white skin, look to be 25 years old and seemed to be in good shape. He wore a camouflage suit and saw that he had an X-Com symbol on his right shoulder and an American flag symbol on his left shoulder. Celeste had to admit this human was very attractive and was wondering how fit this human could be under his uniform.

Celeste relaxed, when she found out that Jack was an X-COM soldier. She decided to tell him her mission and told him the rest of the story. Once Jack learned the whole entire story of what happened, he felt pity for her and would be glad to take her back to base.

After getting to know each other a bit, Jack decided to call X-Com so that they could get pick up. After about a couple of hours later, Jack and Celeste could see a Skyranger over the horizon. Jack smiled, knowing that help was about to arrive. He looked over Celeste and saw fear in her eyes. "It's alright Celeste, X-COM will welcome you with open arms. They are not racist humans as ADVENT proclaims them to be, X-COM only dislike of what ADVENT is doing to my species" said Jack putting his arms around Celeste. Celeste soon relaxed, lean her head on Jack's chest, looked into Jack's eyes and smiled "Thank you Jack" said Celeste. As Jack and Celeste looked at the Skyranger coming in closer to view, they looked to the horizon. At the horizon, they wonder what the future will hold for them if the war between X-COM and ADVENT would end. What they didn't realize was that even though the future looked gloomy and dark, it seems that history can always show the viewers that when the dark times end, the future will turn out brighter than expected.