Final Chapter
AN: Okay this story is basically done now for good. Unless I make changes. Which I probably won't. Because it's done now. For good. Kind of a rushed ending, I know. I rush through chapters of "Light Weapons" more than any other story, and hopefully it won't have too many errors as a result. You guys notice I do that a lot. No excuse, but as I said, I am writing other stories than the Fan Fiction that I write for craps and cackles.
But I wanted it to be done. Which it is now. For good.
PS: OpenXCOM with Ironman settings. Talk about tense!
PPS: Gauss weapons still suck.
PPPS: Maybe change the name to "Enemy Above?"
Everything is not going to be okay
-A Scanner Darkly
[1]
That was when the nightmare for the day truly started. If asked, Mars would have honestly told you a couple hours ago that the aliens had no more tricks under their sleeve.
The UFO engines and computers, the plasma weaponry, the alien alloys, and the alien themselves—all had been researched. Much of it had been reverse engineered.
The funny shaped alien weapons had been converted into ones more appropriate for human hands with no reduction in power.
The UFO flight computers had been converted into targeting systems for the Firestorms. They'd gained info on every alien ship, from the Goomba-like scouts waiting to be stepped on, to the supply barges with their vast storage unit big enough for a Sectopod or two, to the battleship.
The data on alien lifeforms allowed the soldiers to better target the alien's vitals, effectively increasing the damage that could be done with a single shot. They had Psions. Master level Psions (like Missionary) that could try mind control and have guaranteed success on everything but a Sectoid Commander or an Ethereal. Technology had evolved not just in leaps and bounds, but in fucking sprints. They had powered armor, gigantic exoskeletons. They had soldiers with their DNA altered. They had to deal with jokes about being compared to the X-Men. They had to deal with jokes about being the Splicers from Bioshock.
There were no other tricks. No way. No how.
No such luck.
[2]
The sky was eerily silent. The Temple Ship was loomed in front of them, a grotesque city
(in the sea there's a city in the sea)
full of terrible machines and destruction.
We've lost, Maria thought and the thought was a queer relief
(what? why?)
and had they really been stupid enough to think that they had won? That bastardizing the advanced materials would matter? That a few hundred alien casualties would stop the inevitable? Fools. All of
(you)
had been fools. Bursting with misplaced pride and misplaced intentions. Look upon us and despair, humans. Look upon our ancient weapon—our colossus, our Demon—that you would slay with your tiny swords.
Mars shook her head. Get out! Get out! "Everyone..."
She didn't hear what she said next. She didn't hear much of anything. She heard Traverse shout in shock and fear, and more shouts from the other pilots. Nothing that she could make sense of.
Mars thought that perhaps she'd told everyone to open fire. That's what had ended up happening, and the results were no surprise but still horrifying just the same.
Later, Mars would think that perhaps she'd told them to retreat. That would've been the smart thing. The ground troops encountered unknown enemies all the time. In some cases, like with the Chrysalids on the first terror mission (and all the terror missions after that), it meant a hasty-as-hell retreat.
But a retreat isn't what happened. On the battleship, a massive turret began to rotate. Unlike most alien ships, it didn't fire something that could be called plasma. It fired a fusion lance. It cut through the air, a brilliant blue light that left an afterimage in the eye.
It took Vegas' plane and completely vaporized it. There wasn't even enough time to scream on the radio.
A second blue line cut through the air. This time, it was Midland who did have time to scream...but only once.
That enemy fire was met—far too late—by plasma and laser bolts from the rest of Eastern squadron, and from Rebel. It opened wounds on the battleship, but not large ones.
The fusion turret continued to swivel, impossibly fast for its massive size. It began to warm up again, and Mars' body clenched.
Who dies next?
But then the turret stopped. It stopped glowing, as the fusion reaction was shut down. It rotated to its neutral position.
What the hell is going on?
She looked toward the Temple Ship. Just looking at it was hurting her. Just seeing it for a few moments made the ship seem to grow in size. At the same time, it seemed the distance between her and it was getting larger.
Mars felt the psionic wave coming long before she saw it. Her mind clenched, almost like it as a skeletal muscle in the process of a great feat. Her hairs stood on end, and she felt a great force somewhere inside the ship. It seemed to press her entire body backward. Then a great shudder—
Her hand moved up instantly, on mere reflex. The psychokinetic field she made was not large—she wasn't that good—but it was strong.
Purple light streamed across the length of the Temple Ship, from back to front, traveling in large cords that did not curve but bent at hard angles. An orb appeared on the tip of the capital ship—a large purple sphere. It swirled and writhed with so much power that it looked truly unstable.
If anything were to touch that, Mars thought, it wouldn't even be destroyed. It wouldn't even be vaporized. It would just be GONE. It would completely cease to exist that would be that.
"Guys!" Charles Palomo said. "I think we should—"
And Charles Palomo said nothing after that.
The whirling sphere of psionic energy exploded out. It was contained one second. The next—a tidal wall of psychic energy was hurtling towards them. There was no point calling it big, or massive, or gigantic, or immense. It size seemed to eclipse everything. It was greater than existence itself.
Palomo's Firestorm was the first to be hit. His craft winked out of existence and so did he. Next up was Traverse, who did have time to scream.
But only once.
Then the psychic wave upon Mars. Mars with her pathetic psychic shield.
The wave passed her, and its bright purple light robbed her of sight completely. She was seemingly pulled apart in ten different directions at once.
That's it. I'm dead.
She saw—in her mind's eye—a great planet. A gas giant. A green gas giant, with ten different moons around it. She alien space stations surrounding the moons. She saw Thin Men shedding their skin, becoming horrible man-snake things with long fangs that dripped venom.
She saw the snake aliens and the Mutons strapped in a chamber not much different from the ones in the psi-labs. Only these aliens were attached through cords that traveled almost throughout their entire bodies. They glowed with faint purple light, a loud humming from somewhere below the chamber, and the creatures writhed back and forth in agony. At last, they were still. Dead.
Another image. Humans attached to the same machines, subject to the same trials. A black man in his late 40s. A redhead girl with a red "Jesus Loves Me" shirt. A fat white man in swimming trunks with bronze skin. A fat girl with cuts near her wrists. Another black guy with green-dyed hair that looked suspiciously similar to that little known drummer in Madison's Murder who'd gone missing two months ago.
One by one they Mars watched them fail...with the exception of the 40 year old man, whose eyes began to glow faintly.
Another image, Maria Estevez herself, strapped to a machine. Her eyes glittered like nearby stars.
Then the voice...
(You have succeeded...where we have failed...)
[3]
She was in one of their psychic chambers. Cords emerged from all over her body. They attached to different parts of the chamber's smooth inner walls.
In front of her was an Ethereal. One with an even more ornate helmet than the ones encountered in the field. It wore flowing purple robes instead of red ones. Its psionic presence was enormous and so was its pull. Mars felt herself being sucked in towards the creature as though it was a black hole.
It introduced itself as the Uber-Ethereal.
Hello New One, it said.
Hello yourself, she said.
You have succeeded where we have failed. You will be our weapon against the coming Threat. You will save us all. You will help us win the war against your people. For their own good. Then we will destroy the Ultimate Threat.
Maria Estevez said nothing. For her, she knew the battle was over. By herself, she was now almost completely powerful. Most of the wires webbed through important sections of her body: her brain, her heart, her spine. She would paralyze herself just trying to escape.
She was able to speak through her mouth, but only with a great effort. "I will...do as you...ask."
She sensed the creature smile under its large, decorative mask..
She was able to conceal her thoughts as she said this. She made a facial blank, and a psychic one.
The Uber-Ethereal left, leaving her under the watchful eye of Ethereal Leaders.
She was able to make contact with the Ethereal Device. It had been dormant this whole time. Now it was on. The Psion nicknamed Missionary was in front of it, struggling to use her psychic abilities to activate it.
All of a sudden, the glowing orb began to speak to her, They have me captured.
Missionary screamed in fear and shock. It was actually pretty funny.
Who is this, Missionary asked. Her telepathy was crisp and clear; not fuzzy at all, like it was for the other Psions.
This is Maria Estevez.
Mars?
Yes. I have been captured. I am on the Temple Ship. The Ethereal device is activated.
We will rescue you.
No, Mars said, as loudly as she dared. In front of her, the Ethereal Leaders tilted their heads. They knew something had happened, but not what.
You have the coordinate to the Temple Ship. The Ethereal Device will guide you in. It ill deactivate their shields.
Missionary had been on her ass up until this point. The scare Mars had given her had been bad. But already the slender blonde Medic was getting her composure back. It seemed karmic (?) that Missionary had come on a whim. A reward for completing an abduction in North America. She would be the key to winning the First Alien war...and what a Long War it had been.
The device will protect you from the Uber-Ethereal's psychic wall, Mars said. It will allow you to enter on the landing pad at the stern. Kill them. Kill them Missionary...
Kill them all...