He'd seen this sight ever since he was a little boy, and even in his adult years he still couldn't get used to it. Beyond the bay lies an alien sea. One the color of blue-black that disappears with its back to a wall of mist so thick it blocked out light. If not for the Mist Repellers built by former XCOM Chief Engineer An-Yi Shen - may her soul rest in peace - that curtain of fog would have stretched to cover every city across the known world. Gotta say she built these things good… better than good actually. These things have been running for over 60 years now and still haven't faltered. Most amazing thing is its working despite not being arcanotech, so no extra-dimensional magic, no psionic output, just pure metal and electricity.
"Hurray for small miracles." Solomon muttered staring out at the bay, his XCOM issued Ares AR-1 in his hands as he waited, forming a perimeter around the bay harbor. 42 XCOM troops had pulled themselves out of hiding for the moment, how many would go back into the shadows and how many would be put away in a body bag was the question left unanswered.
"Fucking hate how quiet it is out here." Solomon glanced at one of his companions nodding as he watched them adjust their own Ares Assault Rifle to get a better grip on it.
"It's always calmest before the storm." His helmet distorted his voice but they still heard it. "Just be ready, No telling what's coming out the water."
"Right." His counterpart muttered as they gazed ahead, their own helmet obscuring their identity. Still he didn't need to see their face to tell they were nervous. Body language gave a lot away.
"First time dealing with Pandorans." It wasn't a question
"Yeah." Was the honest reply he was given. "I've had sims but never ran into the real thing before; What about you?"
"Not my first rodeo dealing with these guys." Solomon admitted casually.
"Oh…" Came the reply. "So uh~ if you mind me asking, what are things, I mean really."
"Frankenstein's sea monsters." Solomon muttered.
"What?"
"There's this haphazard mesh of sea critters, mostly crab and deep sea fish. Swear it's like someone just tossed them in a blender and hit puree." He muttered before seeming to think.
"So what's the best way to deal with these guys?
"A few rounds of lead in the right place seem to work well." Solomon paused for a moment. "A well placed grenade or a rocket will work too. Helps get the soft stuff out in the open."
"The soft stuff?"
"Yeah." Solomon muttered. "Pandoran's use some kind of psionic network to relay information to fellow members of their species, and with that info they start to "evolve" to counter what we work with. Doesn't matter if it means making new carapace armor to soak up bullets or if it mean making limbs to carry our own weapons and use them against us.
"Please tell me you're joking."
"You know I wish I was." Solomon released a hollow chuckle. "But I'm not. These things evolve in ways designed simply to better their chances at combating us and taking us out. That's what makes them so dangerous; they learn from every victory and defeat they face, that's why we've been stuck dealing with these guys for over forty years."
"Damn…"
"Yeah."
"So any advice?"
"We got movement."
Solomon raised his Ares AR-1 and took aim at the ocean, as the others followed his example. The alien sea is silent, for a while but they see the churning of waves from beyond the bay trying to creep closer. It disappeared not long after, and again the ocean fell silent. "Come on…" Solomon muttered as he focused on the last place that the target was. "Where'd you go?"
That's when they heard it, a shrieking baleful moan from beyond the bay, right where their weapons had been trained. Light flickered beneath the waves for a moment before releasing a steady glow.
Solomon's helmet went on the fritz, going completely black as he heard sparks go off near his ear. On impulse he ripped the helmet off his head seeing sparks starting to fly before dropping it on the ground. "Oh~ what the hell?"
"Ow fuck!"
"What the?" He looked around seeing the others ripping off their sparking helmets as well as they voiced their complaints.
Everyone's helmets were frying and…
Solomon let his gaze turn towards the city, his attention turning to the streets at his back starting to flicker before going dark.
"What the hell is going on?"
"It's an EMP!" Solomon shouted as he addressed the others. "They've figured out how to create an organic EMP to mess with our gear."
"They can do that now?!"
"That's not all they've done." Another voice called out as they all looked back to the bay, attention turning to see the wall of fog rolling in. "The EMP must be disrupted by the Mist Purifier; they're trying to make it go dark!"
"Roland." First Lieutenant Tristian turned to one of his fellow XCOM Agents. "I want that Mist Repeller up and running yesterday, understood?"
"Yes sir!" Roland bolted heading into the blacked out district as Solomon looked back to the light beneath the bay. "When the hell did they learn to do this?"
Location: Earth / United States /Site X / Tower-00
The power went out, that was the first thing everyone took notice of. The lights took a second to flicker before they disappeared all together. "What on Earth?" One of the trainees muttered as they looked upward, their attention turned to see the darkened ceiling as their Overseer simply snapped their fingers, a small fire burning into existence as they looked around.
"Power must be out." The Overseer said nothing, letting the trainees look around as they talked to themselves before tapping an earpiece.
"This is Overseer Heelgan." They began. "… I see. I'm on my way." He removed his fingers from his compiece as he turned to the students still talking amongst themselves. "Attention everyone, listen up. The Generator has gone out, I'm going down to see what's wrong with it. I want all of you to stay calm and stay here. Do not leave the room until I get back, understood?"
Nods and yes's filled the room as the overseer looked at them for a moment longer before walking off, leaving the room as everyone went back to talking amongst themselves.
"Hawke…"
"Yeah?"
"You know those really bad feelings people get sometimes?"
"Yeah."
"I'm getting one of those right now."
"You're not the only one." Hawke muttered as he continued staring at the door his Overseer had gone through before looking at the others.
"Hawke?" He turned to Ethan in the dark, his only real way of identifying he was there being both his voice and the fact his eyes were glowing with Psionic energy. Honestly it kinda freaked him out a bit. Not only were his eyes glowing, but so were the veins around them, it looked like his face was cracking like stressed glass.
"Yeah?"
"You good, you look like something's bothering you."
"Well, your eyes look kinda freaky."
"I'm ok." Hawke muttered as he took a breath. Just… wasn't expecting the power to go out like this, ya know."
"Yeah I hear ya."
"I didn't even think it was possible, ya know. I mean, this place runs on a D-Engine, right?" He watched Ethan blink for a moment before shaking his.
"Nah, Arcanotech makes psionics act up a bit. Something about the extra-dimensional energies influencing us in some way or form."
"Oh…"
"How does he know that?"
"How do you know that?"
"I ask." Ethan shrugged. " The more you know, right."
"Good point."
"Uh guys?" Someone called out as they stood next to a reinforced window and stared outside. "Might want to take a look at this." Ethan and Hawke looked at each other, joining all the others as they approached the window and stared outside.
The fog wall was rolling in.
"Oh that can't be good."
Location: Earth / United States / Del Coronado Bay / City 45
The fog took over in minutes, the haze like mist coming down like a tidal wave and suffocated everything. As the old saying goes, the fog was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Probably wouldn't be an exaggeration either. Worse, everything went quiet as it rolled in and seemed to stay that way.
"I don't like this." Sasha muttered, hissing slightly as she felt the mist settle on her tongue.
"Me neither." Solomon saw something through the fog and turned his rifle towards it, taking aim and got ready. His reward was getting the thing to scurry off, disappearing as he took a few cautious steps back.
He took a breath, feeling his senses start to sharpen more as a response to lack of vision than anything. Been a while since he went to work without a helmet augmenting his senses. Much as he hated to say it, it felt good.
Still, letting his gaze try scanning the fog he pointed his rifle forward to try sweeping the area.
That's when something from the fog slid against the ground towards him. He turned his rifle towards it more on impulse than anything watching it seemingly roll up to him before laying out.
He had one of those bad feelings and stepped back.
It wiggled, and all he saw was light.
The mist parted as he covered his eyes, a wave of heat going off like a grenade had gone off next to him and elsewhere on the coastline
"Fireworm!"
Fireworms; in simple terms, these bloated worm-like creatures were walking grenades. There was a technical explanation for why they could do these things but it didn't matter now. All Solomon needed to understand was that these things blew when they got to close.
Picking himself up off the ground his attention turned to the Mist as rupturing Fireworms came to an end, and something charged him from the mist. He opened fire and for his reward found his shots landing on an Arthron that slammed into him, trying to push him back as it shrieked. He threw it to the ground and he fired, forced to empty half a clip before the thing stayed down and felt something trying to climb his leg. Whatever it was leapt, going for his face only to meet the barrel of his assault rifle as he shoved it down its throat and fired enough rounds to make its back explode.
Rifle fire and shrieking echoed throughout the fog.
Someone screamed before disappearing in a burst of flames and body parts.
"I can barely see a damn thing!"
Solomon raised his rifle to stop another Arthron's crab claw and watched as it snapped his weapon like a twig. He switched to his side arm and opened fire, stepping back before finding a new target to focus on. Something opened fire on him and he found himself dodging, his attention quickly turning to try and focus on the one who had fired upon him. "Friendly fire! Friendly Fire!"They kept firing on him and he found out why a few seconds later, his eyes resting on the sight of one of his own with a Mindfragger covering his head.
Mindfraggers could control those whose skulls they were latched onto. Solomon rushed past the barrage of bullets - something even he wouldn't be able to normally do without having tapped into his psionics and grabbed the Mindfragger's body before pulling, ripping it off his comrades skull but not before leaving some unfortunate lacerations where it had bitten into to fashion itself into place.. He ignored the operatives scream, instead focusing on the Mindfragger he wawa holding as it repeatedly snapped its maw at him before he slammed it into the ground and stopped it into oblivion. He turned to what rested beyond, barely catching onto a flash that ripped off part of his bleeding counterpart's head and took fire, taking only a moment to take the lost souls Ares assault rifle for himself while putting his side arm away. An Archon jumped him from the fog, aimed down with one of its weaponized hands and opened fire.
Its arm blew up. Solomon having crushed the weaponized limb in between his own before grabbing its head kicked it back with enough force the body went flying into the fog. He threw the face at a Pandoran, followed it immediately with his new assault rifle before switching targets.
"How many of these guys are there?!"
No one gave a definite answer, instead focused more on trying to stay alive. A purple-white blast of energy caught Solomon's attention, and he immediately recognized it as bolts of Psionic energy. He tried making his way over to it, struggling only when something got in his way and had to be put down and when he lost sight of the bolt's origin.
Still he made it, his attention focusing on a Septoid who was busy shielding himself from several Arthrons. They had weaponized arms tapped against the Septoids psionic shield and unloaded everything their bio-organic machine gun arms could give. Solomon focused, his own Psionics stretching out to lift the seven Arthrons up before throwing them into the ground as he stepped forward. Seven targets got their necks twisted, an audio snap breaking through the hale of gunfire as he made his way to the Septoid and helped them up.
"I gotcha."
"Thanks." The Septoid, Walter muttered as he tried gathering his bearings and Solomon focused on shooting what was in front of them. "They were combining their strength in breaking my shield… that's a new strategy."
"Yeah." Solomon saw something in the fog and tossed Walker aside, just in time for something to ram into him and push him back first into the side of a building. A pincer came down on the XCOM operative, missing and digging into the building as Solomon twisted his head out the way and started pushing it back before reaching for his combat knife and stabbed it into the Pandoran's skull. It leaned forward with the last of its strength trying to pin him against the wall as Solomon caught sight of something crawling on the creature's back.
Fireworms, a freaking belt worth of them ready to go off.
Location: Earth / United States /Site X / Tower-00
"Hawke~"
"What?" The teen sounded irritated, and a bit scared to be honest.
"I don't like this."
"Me neither." The teen muttered as he rested a hand on his head, a sharp pain suddenly running through it as he grunted in pain. He did what he could to ignore the sudden headache as he looked ahead, stepping back and away from the others as they continued to sing.
Singing… they were all singing.
That shouldn't have been weird, he'd seen people sing before. He'd even done it himself on more than one occasion, going along with a song that was playing in his earbuds. But this… this was weird.
It started with one person, a girl in their class who seemed to suddenly start humming to herself and then it eventually grew to a song, one he didn't recognize in the slightest.
Then slowly everyone else started singing along to this alien song she was letting out.
And they kept singing, alternatively taking seconds to catch their breath.
But they just. Kept. Singing.
"This is starting to freak me the hell out." Ethan muttered as he watched them continue this unknown song.
"Yeah…"
"I'm gonna go look for an Overseer, maybe they can explain what the hell is going on." Ethan didn't wait for a response heading straight for the door as Hawke followed after him.
It was that or stay with the chorus.
Stepping into the hall, Ethan glanced around, looking at the red emergency lights for a moment before trying to find a direction to go down. "That way leads to the dorm rooms so…" He headed off in the opposite direction as Hawke followed after him.
"It's really creepy out here."
"You need me to hold your hand?" Ethan asked good naturedly as Hawke rolled his eyes and lightly shoved him. "Hey I'm just being considerate you don't have to shove me." Ethan pretended to whine as they both moved on. "Here I thought we were friends."
"We are." Hawke muttered as he released a small smile and the emergency lights finally turned on. "It's just…" Hawle turned his head, his attention turning to the hall as he heard the same song playing in the background.
"It's like the entire building is singing…"
"Yeah." Ethan muttered as he caught on to Hawke's silence and stepped forward, letting his attention drift down the halls and took a breath.
"Where do you think the Overseer's are?"
"Probably checking out the generator room."
"Do you know where that is?"
"No." Ethan muttered as the pair turned down another hall and walked on.
That was when things started getting "weird".
"They spotted a girl walking ahead of them. Seemingly wading through the hall like it was
That was when they spotted a girl walking about.
Well walk wasn't the right word. Looking at her, it seemed more like she was wading through the hall like it was water and she was swimming.
"Nope!" Ethan pulled a u-turn so fast that he might as well have had the devil themself had shown their face. "Nope with all caps."
"Ethan."
"ALL. CAPS." Ethan stressed as he backpedaled out of the hall.
"I'm with him."
"Why?"
"Girl in the red tinted hall is basic horror 101 shit."
"Yeah well this isn't a video game or a movie." Hawke muttered as he stepped forward and the world started to blur.
W̸̗̤̐́ ̸̖̉̇h̵̨̛̛̳͔̺̽́͊ ̷̮͍͍̙̘̆͋̿̚͘͝É̸͙̻͓͌̉̋̾͝͝ ̷̦̈́̀̄̄́̏̀͝r̸̦̼͚͎͚̙̈̈́̐̾̀̌̒ͅ ̵̳̔͗͘E̴͇̥̥̺̪̺͓̺̅ ̶͈̥̪̯̱̟͔̿ä̶͚̰̖̖́̽̾͜ ̷͍̳̳̩͕̌͑̀̋̏͘̚ͅŔ̸̭̮̝̜̏̽̓̑̄̕͝ ̶̨̗͖͉̖͕̈́̂̽̿͛̒͐͜͜͝ę̴̰̗̤͙̘̣̋͐̎̿ͅ ̷̨̯̹̱̹̔͒̓͆͆͊͠Y̷͍̫̩͖̦̫̌͛̂͋ ̸̛͇͝o̴̲̗̾̏̄̅͋̄͜͝ͅ ̴̡̮͖̗̰͍̲͚̽͊̂U̵͈͎̰̰͈̠͎̘͌̓
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̷̻͓̱̬̏̐̇̾͌͆̓͝E̷̠̺̪͖͓͇͓̳͌̈́̈ ̸̛̰̼̲̺̄̑͋͘ ̴̮͙̜̝̗̃͐̂͒͌͐͜ă̸̗̻͚͙̄̓̿̋͘̕ ̴̧̛̪͙͍̝̈́͗̽͐̌̀͝R̸͕̮̖̲̥͔͂̉́̌̏͐͝͠ ̷̛͎̝̥̲̪̪̞̒ͅe̷̯͎͖͋̈́͆ ̴̡͈̾͌̀̓͑͘͜͝͝ͅỴ̷̩̪̼̼̀̒͐̅͒ ̵̡̩̬̝̼͎̰̖̓̂o̷̪̝̜̥̞͌ ̵̨̡̦͇͔͈̽̈́ͅÛ̸̯͇̙͔̥͋͑̈́̽͠
̷̩̲͋̆͛̔̆͋a̴͚͗̀̚ ̷̨̞͗̉͛̑̚ ̷̭̤̖͓̔͌̽R̸̺͚̼̰̼̅ ̸̧͔̼̓̋̅̃̓̓̅̒è̶̛̛͇̥̅̂ ̵̢̝̘̀̌͗̄̆̀̌̀Ý̵̛̛̥̜̩̳̟̗̄͆̓͆̋ͅ ̸̬̪̥̠̩̪̂ó̸̫̻̔̿͆ ̸̢̛͕̀̃u̸͈̥̘̭̳͖̻̇̆͂̿̈́
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̴̛̞̻͖̒̑͌̇̀̈Y̶̭̰̠̫̹̱̿ ̴̙̹͖̖̪͕̋͜ ̴̰̹̰̂ỏ̷̡̮̲̭͛̈́̕͝ ̷̲̻̓̽̑̎͗̂͘͘U̸̺̓
̵͇̗͚̟̮̜̰̌̑ͅo̴͔̹̞̟̻̪̦̳͑̃̀ ̸̢̱͖̰̆͂̾̓̾ ̵̫͈͕͓̺̦̈́̋́̀͠U̵̺͔͂̓͌͌
̴̟͙̯̺̪̦̼̈́͊̽͑̈́U̷̘̠̾́͗͋̈
"Wow, what the fuck?"
Location: Earth / United States / Del Coronado Bay / City 45
Why did it feel like something was tugging at his leg?
Oh wait, something was.
Feeling his consciousness return Solomon let his eyes flutter open for a moment and released a weak groan. 'What happened?' He tried remembering, and for his effort he got the brief image of a Pandoran crossing his mind before a flash hit him. "Oh right, Pandoran suicide bomber… thats a new trick.' He groaned again. 'Damn I'm sore… but I'm still in one piece at least… never been so glad my body is the equivalent to living metal.' He thought before seeming to think. "Why am I moving?" He looked down and found a leg in the air, being pulled along by a giant crab man. He wasn't the only one being pulled towards the waters of the bay. 'They're trying to take hostages?' He frowned slightly before playing dead again and his body stopped moving.
The Pandoran tugging at him along, a Triton , looked back seeing that the body it was carrying had stopped moving. It tugged several times trying to get the dead weight to move before calling for some backup in this weird clicking, shrill like language. Other Tritons made their way towards it and they "talked" for a moment, each one grabbing a limb as they tried lifting him up. He wouldn't budge.
They couldn't even get his fingers out of the ground.
Fingers that had somehow dug into the cement like it was soil. One of the Tritons tugged repeatedly at his hands before leaning forward, poking him with one of its four arms before leaning in.
Solomon's eyes snapped open, and they screamed.
The others hiding in the fog seemed taken back by the sudden screech of their comrades, one silenced by a sudden snapping of bone that echoed throughout the area. One of them turned to address the others, seemining telling them to get the hostages in the water before looking back to the fog.
Solomon was on the Archon in seconds, his fist having caved in its armored skull and grabbed the squishy stuff beneath it. He pulled, and brain and blood and bone came out as the body dropped. Solomon took a breath and stomped his foot on the ground, his pupils dilating as psionic energy started to produce veins around his eyes.
He saw them, all of them. Comrade and enemy alike.
It wasn't as if the fog had parted, it was more that he saw… "light"; their aura, their "essence".
ESP was a damn useful Psionic ability.
He charged the closest next to him, drew his side arm and jabbed it into the creature's eye before pulling the trigger. The others started coming as he looked around, before disappearing into the mist. He tore the arms off another Pandoran and freed one of his men before slamming his fist on their chest.
Even he wasn't sure if the gasp they made was from pain of nearly having their chest caved in or not.
"W-" They began. "What happened?"
"Eyes up soldier." Solomon raised a psionic barrier as he was assaulted by bullets. "We got people to save."