William Olson, he had no country to call his own, he was born in a boat, in an attempt his family had made to escape the aliens years ago. Their community in the ocean worked fairly well, always on the move, for several years they lived there drifting in the oceans of the planet, but that couldn't keep on forever their ship was one day detected and they had to run, a boat can't outrun a UFO, they were captured but they were not arrested, they were all treated well and integrated to the new world society. He was fifteen at the time; he had some friends in the boat and a teacher, Mister Oliver. He thought William several things, self defense, several languages and how to shot, the man was a soldier, he had to run as well, he always talked about the things he regretted not doing.
"I should have joined them, I was one of the world's finest I had the skill to defend the world and I didn't…and now they are dead."Oliver would tell him, he was in his sixties, had been in missions all over the world ad was a close friend of his family.
William visited Oliver whenever he could, but recently they had been busy, he had a lot of things in college, he had gotten in earlier, he was close to getting his degree in engineering, Oliver encouraged him to do that, he remembered a man he worked with in China years ago, the old engineer was a good friend of his but they lost contact years ago.
"Oliver, are you there?"William asked as he entered the house, the house had very little furniture, Oliver never really cared about it. As he entered he moved his had back catching Oliver fist close to his face, the old man smiled at him.
"You still train don't you?"He said as he retracted his fist.
"You taught me to train even if I am not a soldier; it also helps me to relax."William smiled back. The training was similar to the one Oliver had in the army.
"I heard you are graduating soon."Oliver sat in the simple table in the kitchen.
"Yes, I came here to give you something back."William picked up a box he had in his bag.
Oliver looked at the box, as he opened he saw his old revolver a Taurus cal 38, and even had ammo. That gun had sentimental value to Oliver, an old friend of his had given it to him, it stopped working years ago, and he didn't remember giving it to William.
"Not that I'm not grateful but when did you take it?"Oliver asked.
"Last time I was here, I learned to shot with that gun, I have fond memories of it, I am sure you do too, it took me a few weeks but I did it."William cared for the old man; he was always there for him.
"So how are Otto and Cassie, I haven't seen them this year."Oliver took the gun and hid it in the wall, firearms were outlawed but people still rob others at gun point.
"They are doing the treatment, the doctors said it will take some time to heal them, I tried to tell them not to but they still went to the clinic…I am worried Oliver, ADVENT is too good to be true." William hadn't heard of his parents for weeks.
"Oh, that is not good…"Oliver became silent for a moment.
"What is your idea?"William asked as he recognized the look is friend had.
Oliver stood up and went to his room; he returned with a small radio set, it looked like it had gone through hell.
"I found this in abandoned building weeks ago, can you fix it?"Oliver was serious.
"Sure, but why?"William took the radio and looked around it; he then found an insignia in it.
"I always thought they had been destroyed but they live, X-COM lives."Oliver said as he looked at the radio.
Over the next half hour William slowly repaired the radio, when he was done Oliver turned it on and started looking for the signal, eventually he found it.
"…r…b…n…d…"They started hearing pieces of words soon they could hear clearly. They heard the transmitting and as they heard the order to begin.
"What do you think they are doing?" Oliver asked.
"Today is a holiday, it is the twentieth unification day, and they must be attacking somewhere."William then turned the TV on, there was an attack to a gene clinic, his parent's had gone there but they were taken to another bigger clinic somewhere. Oliver and William knew things were going to change…
07/02/2035
Two days after the attack William went to Oliver's house again, he entered as he always did; he had some free time today, so he could visit the…
William ducked as he noticed something in his periferical vision, at first he thought it was Oliver but it was someone else, the man had a pale skin, black hair and had a machine gun, he had tried to use to hit him. He grabbed the man's weapon and pulled as he kicked his legs under it, the man fell to the floor and William aimed at him with the rifle and asked.
"Where is Oliver?"William asked.
"No need to do that Will."Oliver said as he entered the room.
The pale man looked angry at William, mostly because of his wounded pride; he had just got taken down by a civilian.
"Oliver, what is going on?"William asked.
"I contacted him trough the radio, he is from the new X-COM."Oliver said making the man's eyes widen.
"You can't just tell everyone who I am; are you crazy?"The pale man said.
"I have been a military longer than you have been alive kid; William here is the one I was talking you about."Oliver said.
"The new X-COM…you attacked the clinic right?"William lowered the gun.
"Yes we did."The pale man said.
"Where are the patients taken?"He asked.
"We still don't know."The man said.
William began thinking; he put the gun in a table and sat down, should he do it? Should he join them? He wanted to help his parents and he always heard of Oliver's regret not joining…
"You got me ready to be recruited didn't you?"William looked at Oliver.
"You and me both, I knew you would eventually look for them, I wanted to help as well."Oliver had a grin in his face.
William looked at the old man and the pale man; he then let out a sigh.
"Fine, I will give up my degree and go then."He said surprising the pale man.
"Degree?"He asked.
"Yes William here is becoming an engineer; he would be finishing the course soon."Oliver said.
"Oh, if you join then you could probably be of help to Shen as well."The pale man said.
"He is still alive?"Oliver asked surprised.
"No, but his daughter has taken his place, you really met him? I thought you didn't join them."The pale man said Oliver then started telling his life story with the other man.
William wanted to know what had happened to his parents, where they were and he would do anything to find out.
09/02/2035
Having a sack in your head as you are taken somewhere you don't know is not the way one expects to spend a Friday night, William had to get some things before coming books some photos things he would use. When he arrived he was informed that the place was the resistance HQ, it was a big place, in the middle of nowhere. He saw people with old projectile weapons, he wondered where they came from, soon he was called, he entered a small room, Oliver and a man were there.
"Hey William, there is a test you have to do to enter you know, and some training too."Oliver told him, he was tested in everything, reflexes, strength, aim, and also his expertise with technology helped him with hacking, he was better than the average civilian but far away from being a soldier.
"Over the next month you will be trained, if you survive your fist mission for us you will be in the pool X-COM will choose from, but you might go there as an assistant to the engineers, there are a few here if you want to get some experience go help them."The man said as he signed things in his tabled.
"Nothing in life is easy kid, but it still is easier than it was before, only elite soldiers were allowed."Oliver said; he was one of the new teachers, he was happy with that.
William's room was small he had four roommates, the youngest was thirty five, so they didn't have much to talk about.
20/02/2035
Things are very alive around here, three days ago we got some equipment, the fist engineer that tried to use it well… he doesn't have a intact hand anymore, I worked with the others to figure out how to not let it happen, we did it and now we are trying to figure out how to make them ourselves, it will take some time.
"Still have your hands I see."Oliver remarked as William reached the shooting range.
"I am good with them you know; I can build a weapon and fire it."William responded as he grabbed his rifle. His aim was getting back to what it was, slowly but it was.
"Hey when do we get our mag guns?"A wall of flesh asked, he had a thick accent from somewhere William didn't know.
"I don't know, but maybe in a month or two."He shot at the target.
The people you could find in the base were mostly soldiers; most of them were not right with the head and some of the scientists too, he had gotten used to it so far, the first week was painful, very painful.
"Good, I see your aim is improving."The giant said,
"Yes, are you in the pool already?"William asked the man, he was an old soldier and had far more experience than he had.
"I actually got picked up already."The man smiled as he told that.
"That is great; I always figure you would be picked as soon as you got in it."William didn't know the man's name but they had bumped into each other while they trained.
When the night arrived William couldn't do anything other than read a book, in the alien language, there were very few people trying to learn it for some reason, when he asked someone why they didn't want to they said they wanted nothing to do with them. He believed the more he knew about them the better.
"You do know they might be able to mid control you right?"A woman said; she was a sniper in her forties she was his roommate.
"Yes but they can't do that with a book. Its Psionics not magic, besides from what I heard the guys in the biology lab got a dead sectoid to work with, they know what they can do and cannot do."William asked the head biologist himself, he was worried and got far more information about the alien's rigor mortis than he wanted to.
"I faced the old ones you know, I was in the military and I even shot them, I remember the feeling, when they tried to mind control me."The women said.
All of his roommates had experience fighting the aliens, the most he had was seeing a viper when he was a teen, and she was patrolling a station.
"I had a classmate that talked to a viper once."He blurted out.
"Is he insane?"The women said.
"No, he said he was lost, he was almost fluent in their language but he said it was disturbing, the way she speak was to mechanical, he tried to talk to her again and again and she seemed to get less mechanical, she told him nothing but he counted her as a friend of sorts."William remembered how his friend talked about the viper and how he had become friends with her."She disappeared after some time and was replaced, my friend was told not to interact with them because he could be distracting them, and he blamed himself about that."
"Really, that is weird, why would he act like that towards a viper?"The women asked.
"He became my friend long after that, he said he had no friends at the time, he had heard the aliens would shot you if you bothered them, he said he spend months with her, he called her Martha."William the thought back to what his friend had said.
"The elders are the ones that invaded, the others are just slaves."He said out loud.
"Still don't like them."The woman said after she shrugged.
I wrote this chapter a long time ago, I already have other three ready and I am planning on updating weekly, I hope you like it.
