The Commander stared at the Hologlobe, attempting to grasp the situation. Multiple icons littered the projection. Red markers were everywhere; battles were being fought, some with or without XCOM intervention. There were over a score of UFOs globally, without counting those that had been shot down. With XCOM achieving global coverage, it was natural that Henry could now fully grasp the scale of the war.
The war had been mostly fought in America from Henry's perspective. Only a few words in his daily reports reminded him that the invasion was indeed global. Now that the Hologlobe monitored the entire glove live, it was the first time that he had truly seen the invasion for what it was. The workload increased no matter how much he wanted to fight back.
Thankfully for him, the Executive Officers in the other bases took care of business on their end. Henry did not have to manage every single situation in every seven continent. The other XCOM bases were far from complete, in fact, so was XCOM HQ. Instead, the Council urged the workers to work on the integral facilities to at least allow the bases to function. They were much needed to supervise the war effort.
The nations breathed a sigh of relief now that XCOM was supporting them on all fronts. Not all nations were on the same page when it came to developing weapons and tactics to fight off the aliens. It did not help that they could not utilise the alien technology for themselves. International law was international law. Some did not seem to be phased by the restrictions. The pressure on the Council's legislations kept mounting up. Just when would it pop?
"Welcome, Executive Officer John Bradford," the AI announcer said.
"Commander," Bradford greeted, acknowledging his presence through a saluting gesture.
The rest of the officers saluted him in their seats. Bradford walked down the stairs dividing each row of workstations. He looked around and quickly analysed the situation.
"So, have you talked with the other Executive Officers?" Henry asked.
"Yes, Commander. They are very capable! They will focus on monitoring in their own regions while sending any data of use to our system. I'd say that our officers won't be overworked now. We just have to focus on North America."
"Good. Good. . ."
Bradford followed the Commander's gaze to the Hologlobe.
"The States are fighting a lot," he reacted.
"Yeah," Henry affirmed. "You would've been down there if you hadn't joined, no? Still wonder how an American entered the Canadian Army."
"Yeah well, they let me in. I mean hey, I've got dual citizenship! But, that's all in the past. Right now, It feels as if I'm in service to the entire world."
"I'm afraid they don't see it that way," Henry reacted, ending with a cynical laugh.
Bradford raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean, Commander?"
"Sadly, I don't know much myself. We've potentially got a new problem on our hands. The Council is doing what they can. If it all fails, they'll involve me. For now, I'll just have to trust them."
Bradford let out a sigh.
"I don't envy you all. Seems like a tough job."
"You lucky Executive Officer bastard," Henry fooled with a sarcastic distaste. "With great power comes great responsibility, eh? I don't want to say this isn't what I signed up for, but. . . this isn't what I signed up for."
"You're doing a great job, Commander. We all have our challenges we can't predict. I mean think of Exalt! It's funny. Our latest captive, we sent him into Vahlen's chamber where all of his secrets would come out. But when we pried into him, he knew very little about what, why, when, who, where or even, how! Exalt is just as mysterious as it gets! Even he didn't know what he was doing!"
"Don't remind me!" Henry protested. "I want to at least have lunch before I start digging through all the reports on Exalt."
"You should go soon. The cooks should've started by now. I'll head out after Irel comes back. She can handle things while I'm off to eat. If you need anything, feel free to tell her."
Bradford accompanied the Commander while waiting for Irel to come back from her lunch break. As soon as she came, he handed over the reins to her and went to the cafeteria. The officers were unphased by the lunch curfew announcement repeated throughout the base. They looked focused on their work.
It was after that the announcements were done that Henry realised that the officers were typing much more frantically. The noise from their keyboards got louder by the second. Irel rushed to every officer to hear what they had to say. Everyone seemed on high alert. The Commander could sense something was up. He looked around inquisitively to figure out what was happening. Irel had enough information to report.
"Commander, we have received a request for assistance from the United States," she informed. "It's in Texas, sir. Civilians in the area came under fire by aliens. The army was deployed, but they found no traces. They're requesting our assistance."
"Irel, perform a lifeform scan in their area. Let's see what they're dealing with. Then, I'll send the troops," the Commander ordered.
"Yes, sir. Shall I notify their captain?"
"Tell him we received their request and are analysing the situation. I'll see if the threat is small enough for them to handle themselves. Ah, but don't tell them that."
"Got it!"
The officers kept their eye on the scans and data from the area in question. They managed to confirm an alien presence by looking over camera footage. By that alone, there were three confirmed humanoid aliens present; Thin Men. The lifeform scan would provide more conclusive results.
"Commander, the scan is picking up vague traces of Thin Men. The system can't calculate the number of aliens," Irel reported.
Henry quickly walked over to her station. He looked at the screen and examined the detected traces.
"What do you mean vague traces? What's happening?" he asked, perplexed by the failure of XCOM's technology.
"It's hard to say, sir. The logical explanation is that the aliens must be in hiding and our spectroscopes only picked up a few signs. Even so, it should be enough for it to at least estimate given what information was found."
Odd, was all that Henry thought. XCOM was overreliant on its technology. Surely, a day would come when it would fail. This proved to be such a situation.
"Either way, there are aliens confirmed to be in the area and they're in hiding. I'm deploying with Alpha-1. Keep a team on the area to monitor any alien activity once they come out of hiding. And, notify Bradford."
The Commander walked towards the main hallway while pulling out his personal device to queue Alpha-1. He tapped in a few commands into the base's AI and the announcer came online.
"Attention! Squad Alpha-1 is requested at the armoury. Squad Alpha-1 is requested at the armoury," the announcer said.
Alpha-1 marched through the barracks and joined the Commander to suit up. They ditched their everyday clothes for those tailored for maximal comfort while on the field. They put on their under-armour and the plasma-resistant vest on top. By grabbing their weapons and inserting batteries into their armours' slots, they were ready for combat.
"Irel, how's our status?" Henry asked.
"Everything is fine on both ends, Commander. Vitals, camera feed, audio and the stims are responsive. Everything is green. You are clear to deploy," she confirmed.
The squad marched towards the Skyranger as it was fueling. With one last check, the handlers waved to Big Sky. He received the order to initiate take-off from the radio and prepared the Skyranger's thrusters. The squad got into their seats and attached their belts and railing. The hatch door closed and the Skyranger let its upward thrusters do their job. In no time, the aircraft was airborne and inbound for the town in the southern United States.
"What exactly are we dealing with, Commander?" Natalia asked.
"Vague traces of Thin Men have been detected in a town in Texas. Local forces requested our help after receiving reports. We believe there to be aliens hiding in the area. This a search and destroy."
The Skyranger came down in an intersection. The lack of cars made it easier for Big Sky to put the transport down. The hatch opened and Alpha-1 walked out. Everything seemed normal. The local soldiers patrolling the streets did not reinforce the idea of imminent danger hiding around; they seemed unusually easygoing.
The streets were lifeless, except for the soldiers and occasional inhabitant strolling. The townsfolk preferred to stay indoors since, after all, there was an alien presence in the area. They also seemed to avoid interacting with the soldiers. Most who came out of their homes were forced to talk to them. Hiding in their homes would not spare them the talk either since the army was knocking on doors and inspecting every house for aliens. The task was no doubt difficult considering the number of soldiers in contrast to the many buildings to search.
"This place doesn't look like an abduction site," Haidar commented after taking in her surroundings.
"You're right about that. Doesn't look like anything went down here," Arthur affirmed.
"Everyone keep your eyes peeled. We're here for a reason!" Henry reminded, putting his soldiers back on high alert.
The American troops greeted XCOM and pointed the way towards their Captain. The squad walked their way through the small town until they saw a man in uniform clinging to his handheld radio. The man was busy checking up on all of his troops until he noticed XCOM forces approaching him.
"Ah. Good to see you here. Captain Ledger," the soldier greeted.
"Commander Henry Avant," Henry responded.
Ledger looked at him with a curious grimace. His expression was partially hidden by his sunglasses.
"Commander? You mean you're the Commander of XCOM. Some grit! I can't believe someone like you is here in person!"
Henry chuckled at the comment even though the Captain could not decypher his amusement through his closed helmet.
"So, what's the situation here.", Henry asked.
"Well, my men are patrolling the streets and knocking on doors. We're trying to find the aliens before they can cause more harm. Some of my men are in camp, eating. We might be here all day so we set up some tents a few roads away from here. I've lost three of my men so far to the aliens. Nasty plasma wounds to the chest; fatal. Aside from that, can't find a damn trace of the aliens."
"All right, we'll find those aliens," Henry declared.
He could not say anything definitively since the situation was very unusual. The aliens were deliberately not showing themselves and the lifeform scan would not help. Even after the hours that passed during the flight, Irel could not pinpoint any hostiles.
"Central, could you patch me through to Irel?" Henry requested.
A moment of silence ensued until Henry saw that Irel was connected to his communications network.
"She's on, Commander," Bradford informed.
"Irel, have you made any progress?" Henry asked.
"Still the same, Commander. No contacts, but I believe I may have a lead. It's just a theory, but it's worth looking into."
Henry waited a while for Irel to prepare what she needed to. He took the time to observe his surroundings once again. The aliens were still lurking around, they just were not showing themselves. His American allies were loosening up or questioning any locals walking by. At least, he could aid with that.
"Okay, Alpha-1. Form fireteams and aid our friends to secure the town," he ordered.
The squad split up and joined the Americans to aid in finding the aliens. They exerted more caution than their comrades, mainly since they were not accustomed to the calm due to the uneventful nature of the deployment. Eventually, the American servicemen understood the gravity of the situation. XCOM's soldiers exerted much more caution and their allies followed their example.
Henry waited, accompanied by a small fireteam to guard him. He looked around his surroundings once more. The quiet kept engulfing the town. Only the hustle and bustle of the soldiers used up his external microphone's power.
He noticed a cafe a street away from him. A soldier was talking to an untanned man with blackish hair. The Commander decided to make himself useful while waiting. He approached the two talking men. What they were saying could not be made out, but he could pick up a faint wheeziness in the voice of the interrogated man. I guess some people just have bad days, he thought.
He observed the inhabitant more from the sidelines. His hair was too dark to be called brown, even if factually speaking, black hair was just a really dark shade of brown. It was probably because he dyed his hair black. It explained the somewhat unnatural look.
"Commander," Irel radioed in, snapping him out of his analysis. "I'm performing the lifeform scan again. You should be receiving it in your interface."
Every being around Henry was highlighted in either blue or green. There was no red, meaning no aliens were detected. Henry looked around to confirm it but found another anomaly. The man that he was observing was not picked up by the scan. He was unhighlighted.
"Officer Irel, something is not right. That man I'm looking at wasn't scanned. What's up with the satellites?" he asked.
A pause went by as Irel looked through each soldier's cameras and finally reached Henry's.
"You're right. Why? The lifeform scan is slightly off today. Okay, I'll make a custom scan. If I can focus the lifeform scan on only detecting Thin Men, that should yield better results. Then, I'll proceed to other species."
"All right, good luck," Henry replied.
He made a mental note to talk to Shen about troubleshooting the satellites. He looked to the sky; it was as clear as glass. Only the azure could hinder the spectroscope, but that usually did not cause any issues. It's not like the satellites were unlucky enough to be blocked by a cloud while scanning either.
Irel went silent again. Henry was still curious about the sick man. There was no real reason to suspect him of anything, but it was better than just standing meters away and staring. He approached him and the soldier questioning him.
The two noticed the heavily armoured soldier bearing XCOM's insignia. His entourage of two accompanied him. The American soldier looked intimidated by the man covered entirely in ceramic plates.
"Hello, soldier. What's going on here?" Henry asked.
"Hello XCOM, I was just talking to this man over here. We were ordered to talk to everyone we see. He lives nearby," the recruit replied.
"Sir, what is your business?" the Commander asked the ill man. "You are aware that it is currently unsafe to walk around. Not because of the pandemic but the fact there are aliens running about. Their goal is to capture people like you; abduction!"
"I am just a person, soldier. I am going to the hospital," the man replied with his wheezy voice.
He must have a sore throat. Or maybe he caught the trendy SARS. He could be a heavy smoker too, but he doesn't look like the type that would smoke. Henry laughed internally at the odd conclusion. Detective work was not his strong suit.
"I see. If you don't mind me asking, do you have a sore throat? You've lost your voice."
"I don't mind you asking. Yes, I have a sore throat. My voice is affected," the sick man replied.
Do people talk like that? His way of talking was very odd. It almost felt like talking to a robot. On closer inspection, the man looked normal if not for the oddities. His skin was pale beige, he had a moustache and looked young. His black hair looked fake; almost like a wig that was glued onto his head. His eyes were a vibrant brown. His moustache was very dark as well. All of his hair was too black and plastic-like. Since when do people dye their moustache?
"All right, then. Be careful. It's dangerous outside."
Henry backed off but still stared at the strange man. The soldier went back to his task. The man was asked to provide identification, but he explained that he did not have any on him. The soldier proceeded to find another way instead of making him go back home to fetch a card or some other document.
Henry felt a sudden brushing noise coming from his comms. It was Irel.
"Commander, I'm redoing the lifeform scan. This time the scan will only detect the markers of Thin Men," she said.
Every species had traits unique to itself so detecting them allowed for the satellites to identify them. Usually, the satellites would do all species at once, but the odd performance required some workarounds. Ah well, what can you do? Henry hammered it in that he had to talk to Shen about it.
Irel performed the custom scan she made. After about ten minutes, she confirmed the scan to be active. The scan came up in Henry's interface. No man or woman around him was highlighted since, after all, it was targeting Thin Men only. He looked around some more to ensure his safety. Something was off. The sick man who looked no different than anyone else was in red. What?
Henry marched up to the soldier and the man still talking. He rose his gun up until it dug into the man's scalp. He rapidly squeezed the trigger. A bang almost ruptured his comrade's eardrums.
"What the fuck!" the soldier barked from the sudden move.
Henry kneeled to inspect the body. The man's clothes were made out of actual fabric, unlike the processed flesh Thin Men wore. Henry's heart pounded after the realisation that he could have made a mistake. He grabbed the man's head and inspected his neck hidden by the turtleneck of his shirt. There were small scaly spots on its neck. Oh, shit.
Henry rapidly pressed the button on his arm device to communicate to his squad.
"Everyone, regroup on my position! I'm going to the American encampment! The Thin Men look exactly like humans!"
The soldier was still stunned and stared at Henry who surveyed his surroundings. A small glow came from around the corner and the man erupted in a yelp. Henry snapped his neck to spot the man tumbling down, spinal cord vaporised by a green substance burning at him.
Henry dashed into the coffee shop and scanned around with his rifle. The shot came from about 93 degrees from his helmet's compass. He scanned around as his fire team did the same. Natalia busted into a building where she suspected the plasma to have come from, accompanied by Haidar. Seconds later, they walked out of the building, still on high alert.
A loud clang could be heard under Haidar's feet as she stumbled. She stepped on a loose manhole cover.
"Oh, that scared me! Why are they keeping such a loose manhole cover?" she complained.
Henry carefully exited the coffee shop and rejoined his escorts. He kneeled down to lift the cover. It came off without any give. It must have been taken off recently.
"Haidar, Natalia, you're coming with me!" he said.
He selected his comms to communicate to the entire squad.
"Alpha-1 you have permission to investigate any civilians, using force if necessary. Stay on high alert in case of an ambush! Look for any scaly spots on the necks of everyone around you, including our American allies! Anyone with unusually pale skin or saturated hair is highly suspect!"
Henry turned on his helmet flashlight and looked down inside the passage to the sewers.
"Haidar, stow your shield you're going in first! Watch yourself down there."
Haidar looked down at the sewers and reluctantly climbed down the ladder. She set her helmet to activate her flashlight as soon as it got dark. She entered into the tunnel, unstowing her shield from her back. There was a sidewalk next to the crevasse where the water was flowing. She opted to stand there instead of the ankle-deep dirty water.
"Clear!" she reported.
Haidar held her pistol in her right and her shield in her left. Henry and Natalia hid behind her after they climbed down. They advanced through the tunnels, cautiously turning around every corner.
Suddenly, plasma flew into her shield and she fired back at the source. The thundering of her pistol echoed through the tunnels and faint hissing accompanied seconds later. Her hunkering superiors shot at the still alive enemies to end them. The Thin Mne hissed anew from the release of death.
The fireteam proceeded into the tunnel. Another Thin Man ran past and was gunned down by Henry. Natalia and Haidar killed more aliens as they ran away from them. They were unarmed. Henry noticed their unusual lack of weapons. They were not meant to kill. He ordered Haidar to secure a Thin Man corpse. Behind the cover of the shield, Henry knelt down to investigate the body. He searched the unarmed alien and took out a rod of glowing chartreuse material; Elerium. He examined the other bodies and found the same rods.
"What is that?" Haidar asked.
"Don't know. Let's keep going. I hear more ahead," the Commander ordered.
"Right on!" Natalia affirmed.
They advanced through the tunnel until a Thin Man attempted to spit poison. The hissing echoed loud enough for Haidar to kill it before it could do any harm. More Thin Men appeared, but they tried to run away from XCOM. The fireteam pursued as fast as they could, hiding behind the plasma-proof shield.
Haidar forced herself to run faster the match the speed of her unburdened superiors, shield clunking into walls and into her feet as she ran. They caught up to the Thin Men and gunned them down. Haidar took a moment to catch her breath. Henry and Natalia let her rest.
"Hey, is it just me or is it really hot?" she asked.
"We did run," Natalia explained.
"Yeah, but it doesn't get that hot," Haidar retorted.
"No, you're right," Henry insisted. "Switch to thermal!"
The fireteam walked through the tunnels and followed the reverberated hissings of Thin Men. They died down after a few gunshots, then resumed. The soldiers followed the sound until they faced more and more enemies. They were still all unarmed.
"Commander, I'm getting much hotter ambient air ahead!" Natalia reported.
The group stopped in front of a heavy door. A sign on it indicated that it led to the hospital. For some reason, the sewers were connected to the underground. Henry fixated his rifle on the lock of the door and shot until he felt the door come loose. Haidar gently opened it, shield in hand. A few armed Thin Men guarded the passage and fired plasma towards her. Her shield absorbed the heat and she shot the aliens down with her pistol, followed by her reloaded in cover before penetrating deeper.
After a room inside the underground floor of the hospital, they reached the source of the energy signature. Haidar prepared herself to open the door. It was locked by a key but she shot the lock with her pistol and prepared to breach. With a kick, the door flew open and the Thin Men were startled by the appearance. She shot them dead.
A large device caught her attention. It was black and white; made with the same light alloy for all alien devices. It contained many sockets with most of them filled with Elerium rods. They were carrying Elerium batteries to fuel whatever the device was.
"Henry?" Natalia fiddled, not knowing what to do.
Whatever the device was, it was making a lot of noise. It was not like the abduction pods. A quick look through the transparent alien plastic showed a bunch of liquids steaming and being vaporised. The vapour was subject to multiple electric shocks from the Elerium powering the device until it was conducted into vents of plasma packed as tightly as they could be in canisters.
"Is that a . . . bomb?" Henry asked.
"What do we do? How do we shut it off?!" Haidar said in a slight panic.
"Commander, there are thousands of people inside that hospital. We need to shut this bomb off!" Natalia realised.
Haidar raised her pistol and aimed at the power slots of the device. Natalia shoved her pistol away, noticing her attempt to diffuse the situation.
"Don't fucking shoot it! Disarm it!" Natalia objected.
"How do disarm an alien bomb, Colonel?! We were never taught that!" Haidar yelled back.
Henry observed the device and looked for anything to pull on or a button to press. The plasma rushed throughout the tubes until they reached a heated canister.
"Try removing the Elerium batteries!" Natalia suggested.
The three popped the Elerium rods out of their sockets. It reduced the jolts of electricity in the car-sized bomb but it was still emitting a sound that got louder by the second. Henry noticed the cluster of brain-like flesh inside a transparent plastic-encased pannel.
Alien computers were made of brain cells, Henry remembered. The cluster is probably the computer that governs the actions of the bomb. Henry pulled out his knife and started cutting into the plastic.
"Won't that set it off!?" Haidar exclaimed.
"Fucking help me instead!" he ordered.
Haidar fiddled out her knife and knelt down to help. They dug through the plastic until they reached the slimy packet of brain tissue. Henry stuck his hand into the device and ripped the brain cluster out by cutting it out of its bonds. The bomb started to calm down until it did not make any noises or movements.
The small alloy ducts started expelling a stream of hot ionised gas. The three ran away from the machine. The leakage of plasma got more voluminous by the second and the room got warmer. Some of the plasma melted or burnt objects stored by the hospital. The surrounding mass creaked around them from the sheer thermal expansion. Temperatures got hotter until the room turned into a furnace.
"Christ! Vent out the room!" Henry barked.
The soldiers opened to doors towards the sewer so that they could release the heat. They exited the area as fast as they could to avoid getting cooked by the plasma vents. Haidar occasionally stumbled on the walkways as she ran away from the hot gasses following behind her.
Suddenly, the air around them got much cooler. Their body had gotten accustomed to the heat; the ambient air contrasted heavily to the heat produced by the presumably defused bomb. A huge sigh of relief came out of Henry. Natalia put her hand on his shoulder and Haidar stowed her shield to stretch. It was her way of relieving the stress.
Alpha-1 joined their Commander in the sewers. The squad followed Haidar's retraced path towards the bomb. They examined the Thin Men corpses and took the Elerium rods off of them to bring back to base.
Suddenly, it got hotter. They reached the source of all the heat and stress. An idle alien device stood in the room. More Elerium rods littered the floor; Henry's handiwork. A dirty mess of goo and brain matter had sunk onto the floor.
XCOM contacted the local officials to warn them about the situation. One thing was for sure, the sewage system was contaminated with potent Thin Man toxins due to the gas emissions from their corpses.
The military and law enforcement joined XCOM and declared a lockdown of the entire town. All citizens were to go through mandatory inspections. All citizens proven to be Thin Men were gunned down on the spot. The locals stared in horror as the man previously next to them was proven to be an alien and shot point-blank with no remorse. It almost felt like something out of a historical war movie. Instead, they were the ones to be presented on a screen by whatever twisted director wanted to showcase the events. The townsfolk contented with feeling lucky that the army was there to help, even if it would traumatise their young.
An entire town was evacuated and processed like cattle. Corpses were rounded up in a sealed cargo container. A bomb laid dormant underneath the hospital. The soldiers went through the sickly people in the facility. The physicians stared stunned at their patients in the waiting room masquerading as humans. The elderly and afflicted stared in horror as the odd man next to them was shot, olive green blood splattering on the walls and furniture.
XCOM simply stared at the disorder around them. The American soldiers allowed them to profit from their dinner servings. They ate whilst maintaining their guard, shutting out all of the madness ensuing around them.
"Is this how operations go?" Specialist Wade asked.
"No, Wade. No. This is. . . new," Arthur replied and slurped the remains of his bowl of soup.
The free meal tasted sour. Nobody could enjoy an otherwise good soup while the world seemed to burn around them.