X-Com - The Unknown Menace

X-Com – The Unknown Menace

Chapter Six – Bad Moon Rising

March 3rd, 1999

Azamas 36, Siberia, Russian Federation

The industrial and scientific complex dated back from the 1970's, when the Soviet Space Program was at its full height, supported by the Communist regime as a way of proclaiming Socialist superiority in the space. The other function it served was less glamorous and propagandistic. It had been also built for the development of space weapons, which made it an above top-secret facility. Its own existence had only been revealed after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991 and since then the military aspects had been cast aside until now, due to a change in the political and economical situation of the new Russian Federation.

The grey concrete buildings that once served as homes for thousands of scientists and engineers were now mainly deserted due to the cutbacks on the program and the job proposals that had been made to the skilled personnel to work in the civilian sector and in other countries. But the few remaining inhabitants had noticed some changes in the past months. The security had been stepped up recently and all roads that lead to the city now had military checkpoints, manned by Ministry of the Interior troops. Inside the complex it was even tighter, with constant FSB patrols and a monitorization of all phone calls. But the people who worked there hardly took any annoyance of the changes. They meant that Moscow was interested again in their work, which meant better pay and conditions than generally found in other towns in Russia. Some wondered what had happened in the world for those changes to happen, but none cared to open their mouths since it was not wise to bite the hand that fed you.

The city was powered up by a nuclear reactor. While it allowed all buildings to have heating in the long Siberian summer, it had been installed specifically for the purpose of supplying power to the high-energy weapons that were being developed. And today its power would be unreleased again after a lapse of years.

About a kilometre to the west of the residential buildings, a massive bunker had been built and now the dozen meters wide opening on its ceiling was open. Mechanical engines slowly and carefully pointed the device inside the bunker to its target. It looked nothing more than a cylinder almost two meters wide in diameter, but the power it released could easily destroy the star at the horizon to where it was pointed.

In an underground facility a group of scientists and military men were gathered in a control room. The final ground and space checks were made and after the green light was given from all stations, the chief scientist of the project asked the military commander of the facility for permission to fire which was given. The scientist then ordered one of his subordinates to execute the test.

The fluoride laser didn't have any natural colour. But when it was inside the barrel of the weapon located inside the massive hangar the high-energy photons it contained interacted with the argon inside, energizing it and releasing energy in a blue wavelength. The inhabitants of the city and the security patrols who happened to be looking at its direction when it was discharged retained the image on their retinas for some minutes, disturbing their vision.

The crew at the Mir Space Station knew the safety procedures. If by any change they were nearby one of the windows and caught the blast they would turn blind instantly and they would die shortly afterwards, their internal fluids boiling and giving them a painful dismissal. But the calculations had been precise. The beam hit the mirror brought by the Progress supply ship that had been installed and calibrated over the last weeks by the extra crewmembers that had came on the Soyuz spaceship.

The mirror itself was a wonder of optical design. It concentrated and reflected nearly all of the energy the laser had released, directing to another point in space. The high-energy photons, after having regained the destructive power that was lost in atmosphere dispersion travelled at light speed to its intended target. The whole action took less than a millisecond. But by then the deactivated Cosmos satellite, originally launched by the Soviet Union as a communications satellite had suffered the full effects of the blast. Its internal electronics were fried the same instant and the outer hull melted. The few remainig manoeuvring fuel it contained exploded, adding to the damage already caused by the laser.

On Earth a group of scientists congratulated themselves. Despite of the technical difficulties and the crash program that had been implemented in such a short notice, Project Umbrella had just become operational. The military commander smiled and went to his office to write a full report to be sent to the Kremlin.

At the same time, alarms started going off in locations on Earth and elsewhere.

White House, Washington DC, US

Ten hours after the Russian test there was an emergency meeting at the Situation Room in the White House. One of the satellites that hovered in low orbit looking for possible Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launches had detected the huge energy blast and sent a warning to NORAD. The technicians had analysed it and breathed in relief as they eliminated the possibility that a nuclear warhead had just been launched and detonated by the Russians. But the test had sent other disturbing signals to the US hierarchy.

"Gentlemen, I've just got off the Red Line phone after having a conversation with President Larianov. He assured me that the weapon won't be used for Anti-Satellite purposes and that Russia has the right to defend itself from the alien menace with whatever means they chose to. I want to know your opinion about this matter" Winston wasn't appreciating the attitude of his Russian counterpart at all. The thing that they did not need now was a loose Russia, acting on its own.

The Secretary of Defence and the National Security Advisor started talking at the same time, but then both stopped and the secretary said: "Go ahead Mrs. May"

"Thank you Edward. Mr. President, this represents a serious threat to the US. They just acquired the ability to hit any of our space assets and also they most likely can hit targets on the ground"

"Not only that sir, but they just violated the ABM treaty and the Non-Militarization of Space agreement, when they placed that mirror in the Mir Space Station", the Secretary of Defence added.

"Hmm. Doctor Millard, what is your opinion of the capabilities of this weapon?"

The Special Scientific Advisor responded: "I doubt it can hit targets on land, due to the dispersion of the laser beam on the atmosphere. The use of the mirror allows then to recharge the destructiveness of the beam after it travelled over the atmosphere to space, but I doubt it can still have the same potential if reflected back to Earth"

"But if they gain access to the laser technologies that X-Com has developed it would mean serious trouble, Doctor" Candace May added.

"That why to minimize that risk that the X-Com Charter has a clause that keeps the release of all alien technology breakthroughs under the supervision of the UN leadership." The Secretary of State added.

"A wonderful clause that now leaves us in the dark" Defence snapped. "If we had automatic access to such technology we could devise a counter to it"

"We and who else, I might ask? The Iraqis? The North Koreans? The Libyans? Castro?" May countered. "I continue to fully support that clause, like I did when the treaty was signed. If the technology gets out on the street we will be in serious problem. Just imagine if the Russians knew that secret now: we would be under a continuous threat"

"Very well" Winston cut through the discussion, "I recognize all this arguments from before and I retain the decision I made then, that was ratified by the Senate later in a special secret session. What I want to know is if we can resolve this through diplomatic means"

"Unlikely sir" State responded. "We could bring it to the attention of the UN Security Council, but it would bring it out to the public. And if we agended it to the next meeting of the X-Com Council, I doubt that we will get any support. After all, the treaty says that every nation has the right to defend itself, using whatever means it seems fit, as long as they respect the secrecy of the invasion".

"But can this be used against the aliens? Dr. Willard, what to do think?"

"If they located a stable target, they might be able to hit it. It was designed for killing ICBM missiles that have a predictable flight pattern and are slow, as compared to a fast moving UFO. While it is a technological breakthrough, the practical effects against the alien menace are quite limited"

"Do we have anything similar?"

"No sir. The freeze out of the Star Wars program put into a halt almost all of our beam weapons programs. It would take months, even years for us to develop something similar at our present technological level. The only thing similar that we have is the kinetic weapons program, but even that one is far away from deployment and it was built to destroy single missile launches, not a fleet of spaceships"

"I think I heard enough gentlemen then. From now on, the US will develop such weapons and a strong message will be sent to the Russian government acknowledging their right to protect themselves but also that the weapon is seen with great concern by the US. Any use of it against American assets or military sources on the world and in space and also against our territory will be seen as an attack that will be responded in similar terms"

March 5th, 1999

Mansion outside Paris, France

Number Three had just arrived from a long flight and was feeling the effects of the jet lag. Still he tried not to be affected by them. Too much was at stake already. First the damn X-Com force and this latest communication from the aliens. They weren't pleased with the opposition encountered from the Earth's governments and it sounded as if they were questioning the whole deal. The bastards! How dared them, after decades of mischief and deception from them? The original intention of the creation of the group had been to develop ways to communicate and acquire alien technology. After the first contacts it seemed as they had a purely scientific interest on the planet and would pretty much leave it alone. When their real plans become known through the group's investigations, they became shocked and felling powerless, not knowing what to do. A deal was suggested and the members who opposed it were eliminated, others appearing to take their places. But even when an arrangement had been made, for several times the aliens forced it, or acted against the terms they had specified. How ironical that this is finally happening now, he thought. Then he cut through the ongoing discussion saying:

"Do they think we did it on purpose or do they assume we don't have the control we told them?" Curious looks around the room focused on him. Number One spoke, after a second:

"Why would that be important? We have to be seen as blameless on this".

"It centers about it. If we negate any knowledge they will think lesser of us and make us irrelevant to their plans. On the contrary, if we make them think that we planned the whole event, they will be more careful and have to respect our power and us. The difference between death and survival".

An unspoken agreement flew around the room.

"We can make them wonder if we really did terminate the SDI program, as they ordered, after they discovering that we were behind it." Number Three knew that his position in the Group had just been raised, but probably not enough, as he wanted. It was time to make another climb.

"And we can help our services if they wanted to act to destroy the Russian laser. That way, not only we tell them that we still want to collaborate but we keep a control over things."

"But what about X-Com?" Number Two interrupted.

"We reduce its capability by arranging damaging encounters with the aliens. Their new laser technology is good, but not enough for all that is to come. And we start to manipulate certain social and political players"

"Reveal our existence?" One interrupted, suddenly angry for the way things were turning.

"Offer our assistance. But leaving no evidence, hiding our history and talking only to selected, high ranking officials, who can be easily eliminated if they betray us. Or, better yet, posing as aliens"

"And I believe you already have determined some candidates?" One's voice sounded of defeat.

"Indeed I do" Then Number Three proceeded to explain his variation to the plan.

March 6th, 1999

Manhattan, New York City, US

Evan Blake pressed clicked his mouse to give the command to see the video again. When he had arrived at his desk on the Times and started off his desktop, he noticed that his email program was downloading an awful lot of big messages, which was unusual. He become suspicious when he saw the size of two megabytes of the first email, and that the following nine emails still downloading also had the same amount of data. Most disturbing was the fact that it didn't have a sender identified nor a direction to reply to. When he clicked to play the file it showed footage from a gun camera on an aircraft. The waiting period for the rest of the video files was well worth it. It was a recording taken by a military aircraft of an encounter with an UFO that looked as if had ended sourly for the plane. There was no indication of the date or place where it occurred or what plane was involved, but he had some clues from the footage. The background showed that it must have happened over the West and the apparent speed of the aircraft seemed to be more than supersonic, if not hypersonic. Which could only mean that it was a black-budget highly classified project. He needed to do some checks on the images, to see if they could be a forgery and to verify the speed of the plane, but he knew that this was a major story. Someone inside the military must be tired of the secrecy about this whole UFO situation, he thought, and how the establishment is dealing with it. This didn't prove that there were aliens out there, but it would raise some questions as to what was the craft involved and what happened on that incident. The Pentagon would be forced to give some answers to the whole thing. And it also told him where to look for Colonel Johnson. There was only one place where to look for highly classified research projects and that was Nevada. It was known that the U-2, SR-71, F-117 and B-2 advanced planes had been developed there. There were also rumours of that the secret replacement for the SR-71 plane was based there and that had supersonic capability. And that the US government had acquired since the 60s Soviet military aircraft and had tested them on Area 51. Most likely the Colonel would be placed on one of those bases, he thought. The problem was that they were highly classified facilities. If you took just a few steps inside the area around the facility you could be arrested and sentenced to jail. Worse than that, the Federal Government refused to acknowledge the existence of Area 51, which meant that his queries would be dismissed.

And he knew he needed some hard evidence for his editor to believe in the story. He had already been rebutted because of his interest on the subject. "Get me a little green men from Mars and you can write about aliens", his boss had said, "if not, stick to reality".

In any case, if he could prove the authenticy of the video it would be a fantastic newsbreak, whenever it was really an UFO that had shot the craft out of the skies. And if he could trace the whereabouts of Colonel Johnson and link the base to the Los Angeles attack and the shot down of the plane it could even be Pulitzer Prize material.

Middle of the Indian Ocean, Earth

The massive alien craft had just entered Earth's atmosphere some 200 miles south of the Maldives islands and was on a south-westerly course, heading for one of Sol Three's continents. No significant indigenous activity had been detected on the sector, which pleased and annoyed at the same time the Sectoid Commander on board. While he wanted to hit back the Sol Three's forces he knew that his mission called for discretion, since it was needed to advance the forward deployment of the fleet's forces. The natural satellite that orbited Sol Three's helped conceal the invasion fleet from detection, but it was also too inhospitable for the deployment of forces. And the supply lines were already too stretched out, which prevented fast reaction to hostile opposition.

The other ships that comprised the detachment had also successfully entered the atmosphere and were travelling to the target area on schedule. But his ship would be the one who would secure the landing zone. The war machines it contained would prevent any Terran interference and allow for the next step of the invasion.

March 8th, 1999

Mother One, Black Forest, Germany

Commander Illyuschenko moved his arms to his chest to check for the manoeuvrability of the body armour he was trying. He found it amazing that he hardly noticed that he was wearing it, since it didn't hamper any of his movements. He had been the first to wear to be issued the new Type 17 body protection, strenghtened by the use of alien alloys,  by Dr. Chevereux's orders. He had counter ordered it and told that the ground troops should be the first equipped, since he wasn't going to do any combat operations soon, but the scientific chief had just started another discussion, saying that more important was to assure the survival of the military leadership. The whole question ended up at the UN's Secretary General desk, which had supported the doctor's decision.

Looking at himself at the mirror on his quarters at Mother One, he thought that he was still in a prime shape to do some fighting on his armour, to take it to the field and test it. The years and the battles he had seen had brought him a lot of grey hairs, wrinkles and scars to show for, but he considered himself still quite fit for a man on his middle fifties. And by the way of it, he wasn't sure if he wouldn't have to occupy one of the seats in the Skyranger in the next missions. "Could I do it?" He asked to himself. Then he remembered Afghanistan again and the reports from the Los Angeles attack. It had been a civilian massacre. The clean up crews had reported that entire families had been gunned down in their houses, and in some cases human organs and blood had been removed from them, with the victims still conscious. It was happening all over again and he couldn't do anything to stop it, just send more men to be killed while they tried to defend the civilian population.

He looked at his desk, which was pilled up with personnel files of possible new recruits to replace the soldiers lost in the Morocco operation. While he had given a public reprimand to Colonel MacTaggert about the order he had given to ram the alien, considering it reckless use of equipment and putting his men into danger, he had also congratulated him for taking an action that probably had saved the entire team. The Skyranger was still on the repair shop, but they didn't have a full team ready to deploy anyways. But it would take some time before it could be repaired. The spare parts hadn't arrived from Russia yet and his conversations with his government were turning sourer day after day, with President Larianov being short of calling him a traitor. The latest discussion had involved the demands of the release of the laser technology but Illyuschenko had been firmly against it, after seeing the reports of the development of the orbital laser. The weapon had no tactical use whatsoever and if both advances could be integrated it opened the possibility for the development of a new mass destruction weapon. The Russian appeal for a reversal of his decision to the X-Com's Council of Representatives had been dismissed and he thanked that not all politicians could be so short sighted. Of course, he knew that he had only bought some time, since the information would eventually be disseminated without his approval, through the use of intelligence operatives inside X-Com. The political aspects were just taking too much time and the damn intelligence agencies are just doing what they know best, he thought, which was complicating everything instead of helping, he thought.

But things were looking up in general, he thought, as he looked at his new laser sidearm. It was durable and reliable in the test field and the new version of the pistol that was being planned would incorporate alien alloys that would make it even more resistant.

"Do they really are getting better or are they only going to get worse?" The voice inside him brought painful memories, of soldiers being torn apart in ambushes in the Afghani mountains, of the troopers who were captured by the enemy to be found cut into pieces. There were just too many things in common, he thought, too much casualties, too much blood. He looked at the cabinet where he had stashed his bottle of vodka, unsure of what to do.

March 9th, 1999

Middle of Alaska, United States

The first thing that John Dulmer thought when he woke up was that he had fallen asleep and was late for duty. He worked as a technician for the Ballistic Defence Missile Warning System site that had been built by the US government in northern Alaska in the middle of the Cold War for detect possible Soviet nuclear strikes. Although he wasn't a part of the military that owned the place he had a very specific contract with them for the radar maintenance and they had activated a clause that obligated him to work overtime, although at a very convenient compensation. He didn't know what was the reason, although he suspected of trouble with China or Russia or something like that. The last weeks had been tough, with him having to pull a lot of extra shifts with no absence from base allowed. Until yesterday. Although it had taken him several hours, he considered the ride to the nearest town quite agreeable. It was nice to be back into civilization, although the town could hardly boost a thousand inhabitants. Memories of the day begun to come to his mind and he started to remember how tough the jeep ride back had been, for him to be still so tired that he couldn't hardly move. Then he realized that he wasn't on his bed and, worse still, he was naked with no sheets on.

He opened his eyes and tried to get up from wherever he was but there was a strange force tying him down. After a brief moment of confusion as he stared on a grey metal ceiling unlike anything he had seen before, his brain picked up another presence in the room. He turned his head to his right side and become speechless as he looked into alien eyes that looked back at him, emotionless. As he opened his mouth to scream, his thoughts remembered the crackpot base rumours that said that NORAD had taken a peculiar interest into Unidentified Flying Objects.

British Columbia, Canada

The Skyranger was racing across the Pacific Northwest once again and Johnson looked at the familiar mountains and forests that made this part of the continent. It was the first mission of his team after the near disastrous raid at Los Angeles. He hoped that everything worked out as planned, since he hadn't time to finish training the West Coast team, as he would have wished before engaging in a new confrontation with the aliens. Especially when the UFO detected was one of medium size, which didn't pose well for the success of the operation, when considering that it was similar on size to the one that had brought the terrorists to the Los Angeles attack. Although it had landed on a pretty remote area, which excluded the possibility of another such strike by the aliens, the area where it had chosen to come down to Earth was another bigger concern. The request for assistance had come up once again from the highest authorities, because of the possibility that it was a raid destined to destroy the missile warning radar site situated in Alaska. The radar sometimes also gave some forward warning against UFO incursions, which made it a very important strategic asset. That had to be defended at any cost.

The minus temperatures and the bad weather at this time of the year in the area had precluded an aviation strike against the craft, as it would have been desirable if they were in a search and destruction mission. So his team would have to sneak up on the aliens and take control of the craft in one swift strike. And there were other worries. He and Hopkins were the only ones who were wearing the new Type 17 armour underneath their cold weather garments. The other twelve members of the team had to rely on the old Kevlar body protection, which was close to nothing.

Johnson checked again the power on his Mk III laser rifle, that had been painted white and grey, matching the camouflage that they were wearing. The weapon just looked too fragile and nimble for the power it could release. During the initial tests it had proven itself as being very efficient and, better yet, silent, which made it a perfect Special Forces weapon. At least the engineering department had managed to build enough rifles to equip completely the entire squad with them. Although the things hadn't been tested yet for cold weather operations, the scientists had theorized that they would work. Yeah right, my ass, he thought. That's why every team member had been issued a personal sidearm, consisting of either a Mark I laser pistol of a M9 nine-millimetre pistol that they all were underneath their clothes to keep them away from the heat. He looked at the team and felt a shiver, considering that most of them were rookies, although he had managed to keep some of his best men on the team. Hopkins had fully recovered and still stayed in command of Beta, making life miserably in general to the three new members that had arrived to fill the losses. Dennis, Garcia and Andrews were gone, moving to the base on the Appalachian Mountains to give some combat experience to the new team that had been formed, along with Captain Hunt.

Tyrell's voice cracked on the combat radio, filling it with his Californian almost annoying accent. He had come from the Navy and was a Golden State native, based on San Diego.

"Colonel, sir, just got the latest indications from NORAD about the fast mover's position. I could land the craft away from it to prevent us from getting detected."

"Roger that Captain". He then tried to get some sleep.

Some hours afterwards they closed nearby the UFO's position. The Sun was beginning to come up, which was good for the attack, although the heavy cloud cover limited its light. That is, if the aliens were affected by the same sleep patterns than most animals on Earth, including humans, they would be either tired at this hour of the morning or starting to wake up, with their attention lower than usual. The Skyranger landed in the middle of a tundra field, the exhaust from its jet engines throwing snow and rocks everything and blasting the sparse vegetation. It had been attached with ice skates instead of wheels, one of the advantages of it being built and designed by Russians.

The three squads quickly exited the plane, taking cover on the nearby snow elevations and looking for possible hostiles that might be in the area. Once the all clear had been given for the landing zone, Johnson and King exited the craft and joined the other men. The dark haired sniper looked nervous as if being out in the open was an unnatural condition to him.

Without a word being spoken, the assembled on a line and started moving towards their target, with Kowalsky being assigned point. The short man just acknowledged the order and started moving.

After they had walked some distance Kowalsky suddenly made the all stop sign and squat down, with everyone following his warning after advancing. Johnson and Forrester moved up to see what had come up. Moving through the line of his men as they took cover on the available nearby snow and ice mounts, he reached the trooper's position. Kowalsky was lying down and as he saw his commander's arrival, he pointed to a direction in front while making afterwards the sign for hostiles. Johnson crawled on the ground until he could get a better look.

Some two hundreds yards away the alien ship could be seen, laying on the ground. It was an unrecorded type. It was bigger than anything they had ever raided and its shape, while remembering the classic saucer, had sections that came out of it, remembering petals of a flower. And an alien was standing between them and the UFO, assuming a sentinel position with its Elerium rifle. It was patrolling the area, moving around with an almost choreographed rhythm and scanning through its dark eyes, but it had failed so far to detect the X-Com's troopers. And the dumb idiot was standing directly between them and the craft. He signalled Kowalsky to stay put and motioned the rest of the team to deploy. The plan called for the team to circle the UFO and detect all aliens that were standing outside to take them all out at the same time. That was the easy part. The hardest would be afterwards the assault on the UFO itself. Moving slowly, Alpha, Beta and Gamma squads circled the craft, while Jones moved closed to him and stayed put, keeping a close look at the alien guard. Johnson wondered how it could be just standing there in the middle of the cold wind that was blasting through the landscape. The snow had stopped to fall but the sky was still heavy on clouds. He trailed Gamma as they moved over the right side of the craft. The   door was visible, with two other Sectoids guarding it. Looking over he also saw that Alpha was guarding the opposite end from where they had arrived and were placing themselves into position. Beta was out of sight, but he trusted that they had already assumed their places on the left side. They would be responsible for taking down any stragglers that were far away and would race back to the craft after the shooting started. His radio came active with a single click, followed by two others. Alpha had detected two aliens and was ready to take them out. Two other clicks cracked on the channel, followed by the same number of sounds and finally three clicks come up, followed by a single one. Counting the one King was keeping under his sights, that made six aliens outside, Johnson thought. How many more inside? He pointed his own laser rifle at the nearest alien. Then he talked to his microphone a single word: "Go!"

All the men from the team that had been assigned laser rifles fired them one second later at their targets. Since the weapons were almost soundless it had been decided to use them instead of the cannons to avoid making any noise. The laser beams travelled at the speed of light towards their targets. All the aliens outside the UFO died the next instant, their grey bodies cut down by the invisible beams.

"Gamma go! Alpha cover the door!" Johnson shouted while looking around for any possible aliens that might be on their way back to the ship.

The second Corporal Pershing heard the Colonel's voice he got up and started running Behind him, Rodriguez and Jones were a bit slower to respond to the order, the same with Jerrell, the new Lieutenant in command of the squad. He knew that they would eventually pick up on him, but for now his reactions had the upper hand. Carrying his Russian heavy cannon was no big feature for him. He weighted almost two hundreds pounds, the mass sculpted into a tall figure of straight muscle. As he was close to the craft, the door suddenly opened and a Sectoid moved out, searching for the fate of his now dead companions. Pershing didn't even bother to respond. A second, later laser beams from the other squad cut down the alien, his body instantly dropping on the ground and keeping the door opened. Pershing reached it and took a look, trailing his gun at the same time. An entry room greeted him, with a door on the other end. Jones reached him and he said: "Go!" while kicking the alien corpse out of the way. The trooper quickly moved and reached the door on the other side. The rest of his squad arrived and he and Jones then moved closer to the other door, the other Gamma members covering it with their laser rifles.

When both X-Com's troopers arrived they took position on both sides of the door and Jones them moved his hand to open it. The alien device detected the motion and moved the metal surface up. Two rounds of automatic laser fire from the soldiers on the back followed into the room and Pershing and Jones then pointed their own weapons.

A dead alien laid on the floor with their back pointed at him hit by the laser salvo in several locations. The room reminded Pershing of some kind of hospital room, he thought, as he noticed the two tables on both sides with what looked like surgical instruments on the tops and a table at the middle, where the dead alien now laid in front of. And a patient. A human one. And another life form present in the room.

Jones fired first, but the three laser bursts that come out of his weapon all missed, hitting the walls and the table where the alien was close to. The Sectoid tried to take cover but while turning hit the table and the collision took out his balance, making him fell to the ground. Pershing pressed the finger on his trigger but a second afterward a new feeling come up to him. He moved up to the alien, who was trying to get up, raised his weapon and clubbed the alien on the head with the stock. The Sectoid immediately dropped to the ground again, but this time it stayed there, motionless. Payback time, you bastard.

Meanwhile the rest of the squad had just entered that room, covering another door that was on the other side. Pershing saw that the Lieutenant was giving him a hard look, but he decided to tell to him to shove later if he brought the subject up. He assumed his position and, a second later, a trooper opened the door. This time the laser salvo failed to hit anyone and Rodriguez took a look. He told Pershing to cover the left side and dashed afterwards to the left side, the Corporal following him across the door. The room lead into a corridor that whose walls were bare but showed the geometrical inside of the flower like design of the UFO. He looked on front and saw that it ended with a turn to the left and he continued walking, taking a close look at the corner. A plasma round was suddenly heard, followed but the hum of a laser rifle in operation. The thump on the ground heard afterwards reassured him that his buddies still had the upper hand on that side. When he reached he took a quick look at the continuation. It led to a dead end, with two cylinders found like the ones inside the smaller UFOs attached to the right side and giving an orange light. Looking closer he saw that there looked to be an opening on the ceiling, leading to another door with an orange light coming out of it and lightening the floor underneath the opening with a strange red.

When Rodriguez joined them both men started approaching carefully the light. He clicked on his radio. "Lt. I got an opening here on the ceiling". The lieutenant voice replied. "Cover it and hold. Will be joined you in two seconds. Dead end here".

When all men of Gamma squad were joined they approached the opening with great care. Pershing looked to the Lieutenant and got the okay from his look. He moved directly underneath the light and looked up. Nothing. He took out his combat glove and tried to see if the light had some effect on the air. As he suddenly moved his arm upwards he felt himself going up, moved by some invisible force. His first reaction was to try to escape from it, but the velocity of his ascent prevented him from having the time to step out of the lift.

He met himself on the upper floor of the craft, directly over the opening, with the same invisible force preventing him from falling down. In a brief moment of panic he looked around. His eyes caught a corridor on his front that seemed to have no end. And on his left there was another corridor. And a figure had just stepped into it. Pershing threw himself to the empty corridor, the green bolts going through the same position that his body had just left. As he hit the ground he concentrated on holding his gun near him and getting a grenade out of his belt. He took the cap out and pressed the trigger, rigging it with a three  second delay. He then stretched his arm and threw it afterwards in the direction of the alien. A squeak was heard afterwards, followed but an explosion. The other members of Gamma figured out the lift and started it, joining him on the upper floor. He saw them move in front of him as he got up his feet and then followed them.

Johnson's radio cracked: "Forrester here. We have secured the UFO. Gamma met some tough resistance on the upper floor, but have no casualties, besides some minor burns. And we have rescued an abductee"

"Say that again, Alpha?"

"The aliens apparently abducted a worker in the BDMWS facility. He was extremely lucky not to get hit by our own weapons in the shootout, with an alien taking a lot of shots that would have hit him instead"

"How is he?"

"Shaken, but stable. We are getting him some clothes and are giving him the US military team story, but not saying a word about the aliens. Speaking of which, we have captured a prisoner of war"

"A live alien?"

"It has a bruise on his head the size of a shoe, thanks to Pershing's hitting him with the butt of his heavy cannon, but he's still alive"

"Restrain him. Any reports of mental interference?"

"Negative. Gamma's boys say they felt something weird on their minds when they were storming the upper floor, but it ended shortly afterwards when they got the last alien"

"Have a guard close to the alien and have all men on sight of the guard. The moment the guard sees any of them point the gun at one another he is to kill the alien instantly" Forrester voice replied: "Roger".

Johnson suddenly detected a presence on his left side and he dropped to his knees while turning and pointing his laser rifle at the figure. His training prevented him from squeezing the trigger as he saw a human figure dressed in cold weather clothes looking directly at him. The individual froze on his tracks when he noticed Johnson and a second later hid himself behind one of the snow elevations that had formed over high spots on the cold terrain. Johnson released the pressure on his trigger and shouted:

"Sir, this is the US military. This is an quarantined area, please leave this second". He tried to spot the figure, looking at the direction to where it had moved. Five seconds passed and no answer came.

"Sir, have you heard me? Please show yourself". Johnson started moving into that direction. Great, just what I need, a frightened civilian. This one will take some time to convince that this was just a military exercise, he thought. He ran towards the elevation, climbing over it to get a better picture of where he was. When he reached the top he saw that the men was almost reaching the other elevation, turning back to check on him and regaining his pace afterwards. They had been running for minutes now and Johnson wondered about the physical abilities of the man. If not for his own combat training it would be nearly impossible to catch up with him. He kept running as fast as he could and activated his radio to talk to Tyrell.

"Tyrell, a civilian is going on your way from the southeast, some two hundred years from your position. I'm after him. Detain him"

"Roger that, Colonel"

He kept running across the ice and snowfield, catching occasional glimpses of the man as he moved between the elevations, unknowingly going on the way of the Skyranger. As he circulated the final ice boulder, he heard an alien weapon shot. He first considered that one of the Sectoids had been away outside the craft and was now returning, alerted by the previous gunfire. Suddenly all those thoughts stopped.

Tyrell was lying on the ground bleeding profusely of his abdomen, tainting the white landscape with the crimson red. He wasn't moving. The figure had stopped and was turned into Tyrell's direction. He heard Johnson's muffled steps in the snow and turned. Johnson stop on his tracks, mesmerized by the eyes that faced him. The figure in front of him was human in appearance and was wearing human clothes, with a protective mask worn to protect against the snow and the minus temperatures that were being felt. His snow goggles were up on his forehead revealing the only part of his face that wasn't covered, which was his eyes. Human and expressing fear. But with a violet colour. And a cat like pupil.

The Colonel become petrified, his brain unable for a few seconds to respond to the vision that was now concentrating on him, pointing the Elerium pistol it had on his hand to Johnson's direction.

A blast was shot and suddenly Johnson was projected back, but as he was hitting the ground his training clicked and he moved in the air to soften the effects of the fall and prepare to respond to the threat. As he landed on the snow he was already turning to lay down on his ground and point his weapon at the man. But the cringing pain that come from his chest disabled him to point and fire as he saw the figure start running away again. He looked down at his chest that was pinning his weapon arm to the ground and saw that it was littered with small holes, with blood coming out of them. The armour had worked to prevent him from getting killed from the alien blast, but barely. If he had taken such hit on the back or head he probably wouldn't be alive anymore. Seeing that the man was getting further away he laid on his back and used his free hand to key his microphone.

"Johnson here. I need some assistance. There's still a hostile in the area and he almost got me". Hopkins immediately acknowledged the order. As he waited for his men to arrive he got his medical pack off his emergency medical pack off his belt and started to stop the bleeding. While taking care of himself he started thinking about this new apparition and how hell was getting loose again.

March 11th, 1999

Las Vegas International Airport, Nevada, US

 

Eva Johannes didn't even noticed the 747 hitting on the tarmac during its landing. She was used to getting sleep wherever possible, thanks to long nights of study and assignments at college and she only woke up when the passenger next to her bumped into her leg on the way out. She looked around and saw that almost all of the passengers of the flight had already gotten up and were waiting to leave the craft. Until a recent time such travels made by X-Com personnel were made using planes available to the force, but budget and operational constrains had limited their availability. So she had to take a commercial flight from Frankfurt to New York, and then another to Las Vegas were she would be picked up by a ride from Area 51. She checked her watch and it marked four o'clock in the afternoon. No, wait, eight hours less here, so it should be around eight in the morning. And a pretty damn jet lag to go with it, she noticed as she also got up and collected her jacket from the storage compartment on top of her seat.

The recent capture of a live alien by the Area 51 team had risen quite a stir on the scientific community of X-Com. While most of the research involving extraterrestrial biological entities were made at the American base, she had petitioned to be present in the interrogations that were being conducted on the creature, in hope to understand more of the Elerium physics. And she also wanted to take a look at the equipment captured in the larger UFO, hoping that it might bring light into its propulsion system. She also would liaison with the scientists at the American facility to try to coordinate better the research efforts.

The basic qualities of Elerium had by now been determined. Apparently the extraterrestrial element possessed the ability of turning itself into antimatter when bombarded with accelerated particles. The initial tests had shown it to contain more energy on his mass than plutonium, without possessing the radioactive qualities of the former. But it still gave them no clue of how it was used to power the alien's weapons and UFO propulsion systems. Theoretically it was possible to use it for military purposes, placing a small quantity on top of a missile together with an accelerator programmed to hit it with particles when the rocket reached its target. But the scientific staff had decided to discard the idea, also because of the implications it would have if a terrorist or a dictator got a piece of the material and also how to use it.

When she left the plane she proceeded to the luggage retrieval area where she got her bags. She wasn't allowed to take with her any of her notes because of security so her stuff was minimal. As she got all of the cases two police officers came up to her. One of them was huge and had blonde hair while the other was the exact opposite, short and dark haired. The smaller one opened his mouth to speak to her, while the other one kept a watch on everyone near them.

"Excuse me madam, is your name Eva Johannes?" His look was emotionless. Looking at him, she noticed there was something strange about the uniformed man in front of her.

"Ja, I mean yes. Why?"

"Can I see your identification please?" She handed him her German passport which he looked briefly before giving it back to her.

"Is there a problem?"

"I am afraid so madam. Please come with us"

"Why? Where are we going?"

"Madam, please, this is only temporary and will be quickly explained. There's nothing to worry about. My partner will take your bags"

She looked at both of them and realized that resistance would be futile. "Very well, let's get this over with". They both placed themselves on her side and the three of them headed for a door that had a Restricted Area sign. Going through it, they guided her through a maze of corridors and rooms, without saying anything, until they finally went through a door leading to a parking lot where a black sedan with darkened windows was parked. The taller one opened the rear door and motioned her to enter, which she did. A man dressed in a civilian suit was inside and after she sat down and the door was closed he gave her a device that looked like a pair of binoculars. "Please look through this"

"What is going on?"

"Please look. I won't ask again" He produced a pistol from an armpit holster and pointed it at her. She took the strange device and looked. Only darkness greeted her eyes. "I see nothing". 

"There's a button on the right side. Press it". She did and her eyes saw a brief flash that left her blind for some seconds making her drop the device. The man picked it and looked at it. He then let go a sigh of relief and put away his pistol.

"Captain Forrester, West North American X-Com Command. Welcome to Nevada Miss Johannes"

She took his hand and gave it a small shake. "What was that all about Captain?"

"I'm sorry about the deception. It is a part of the security measures we have installed for all X-Com personnel. We needed to be sure you were who claimed to be and this machine right here just did a retinal scan to check for your identity. You passed". He pointed at the front of the car. "Those two policeman seated in the front are, in fact, Corporal Pershing and Trooper Kowalsky, also of the team based at Area 51".

"A full security detachment just for me? What is going on here?"

"Let's just say we don't want any guest to be harmed, Dr. Johannes. I'm sorry but I can't say anymore and we should get in our way".

"Very well". The driver started the car and made it roll, heading for the highway.

On the other side of the parking lot, Evan Blake came out from behind a trash canister and saw the limousine drive away. Now what was that all about, he thought? As he was waiting to pick his luggage upon arriving at Las Vegas, his boss consenting to the trip after he had proven to him that the footage was authentic, he had noticed the two policemen the moment they had entered the area. He saw them approaching a blonde woman and talking to her. But their actions were strange. First, one of them was more interested in the people around them, as if they were looking for threats. And both of them looked more like military people the way the walked and acted. When all of them left through an exit restricted to airport personnel, he knew something was up. He grabbed his bag and looked for the farthest parking lot, running as fast as he could. His instinct was right it seemed. It could even be that Colonel Johnson was inside the car, but he didn't managed to look inside. "Well, I will see ya at Area 51, count on it", he said, before heading out back to the terminal to get a taxi.

On the other end of the terminal, an eye stopped looking through a magnification lenses and put the camera down as Blake turned away. The person then placed all his material on a travel bag and headed out to another parking lot.

Area 51, Nevada, US

Williams had followed Johnson to the storage area where they had talked before. The Colonel didn't said what he wanted to discuss, but he could guess that it should be serious, according to the man's expression.

When they reached the room, Johnson closed the door and locked it. Afterwards he produced a small device from his pocket and turned it on.

"Anti-listening device. I asked Dr. Mantell to come up with one, so that we could assure that our conversations remain private"

"You could have asked me for one of those. The scientific personnel back at the Agency has devised a lot of them, I'm sure"

"Yes, but what I wonder is what else they have conceived" His voice took a sombre tone.

"Colonel, I'm supposed to be the devious person here. Please keep that role up to me and say what's on your mind"

"You heard about the Alaska assault?"

"Yes and let me congratulate you for your exit in stopping the alien's actions. I'm sorry for your wounds"

"Well, you are the second person to know, besides Commander Illyuschenko. They weren't made by the aliens but by a human using one of their weapons."

"One of your men being mind controlled?"

"No. Someone who was approaching the UFO at the time of the assault, unaware of our presence. Who was carrying one of their weapons".

"A human working for the aliens as an operative?"

"You tell me. What I want to know is how did they got anyone helping them, besides that mind control thing. He wasn't under their influence, since we had killed all the aliens by the time he arrived at the scene, which means that he was about to meet them and had a gun with him, which means that he didn't fully trust them"

Williams thought of his own conclusions about the conspirators but he refrained from saying a thing.

"There are things you don't need to know Colonel and that could endanger your life if you did"

"Let me tell you what's endangering my life! What is jeoparding this whole operation is the amount of secrets you intelligence people keep to yourselves! Did you knew about this already?!" Williams took a step back. The Colonel looked as if he was about to strangle him.

"Colonel Johnson, all the indications I have so far would point that such collaborators would remain hidden to preserve their identities. You meeting with him was an unlucky coincidence"

"Tell that to Tyrell, the pilot who got killed! And I got one last thing for you to know about that human. He had the stature of an ordinary man but his eyes where alien like. I don't know what that means, but somebody must be playing Dr. Frankenstein up there on the stars!" Or down here on Earth, Williams concluded.

"Very well, Colonel. I trust that you haven't said that to anyone else?"

"You bet I didn't. The story is that the alien who hit me ran away and died in the middle of the snow storm that hit the place hours later. But from this day on, my men have orders to keep their guard up even when there's only humans around".

"Most likely you won't have another incident like that again Colonel. But please do take all necessary precautions. And you have my word. When I can talk about it you will be fully briefed. But for now some information has to be contained or the danger of it coming out to the open would be much bigger"

"You bet you will tell me. 'Cause if you don't, I will personally give you to the aliens for them to make experiments on you Mr. Williams". He wasn't joking.

On the other side of the base, Eva Johannes had just finished her early lunch on the base mess hall, escorted by Dr. Mantell. They had discussed several aspects of the research that was being done on alien technology over the meal and as they were leaving the room she noticed a paper sheet posted near the door announcing today's film session.

"The Day The Earth Stood Still? What film is that, Dr?" Dr. Mantell let go of a short laugh and said:

"Well, some of the troops decided to start playing films using the base projection room. We are not allowed to go to the nearest town so sometimes life here can be boring. But they decided that they needed stuff about their job to motivate them, so they bought a lot of scientific fiction movies, with the plot of all of them being extraterrestrials"

"You mean movies like that one I saw in my childhood, what was his name, ET?"

"Actually no, although I would have liked to see it again. That one and Close Encounters of the Third Kind are actually censored and banned, due to, as Sergeant Hopkins put it, 'being alien propaganda to take away our will to fight them'. No, last week it was Independence Day, this one is a classic from the 50's"

"You Americans are crazy"

"Why, just because we here believe in aliens?" Dr. Mantell smiled. He was much different from her superior back at Mother One, she thought.

"Speaking of which, when can I see him? Or is it a her?"

"It's an it actually. They are asexual, although we have found some biological traces of sexual organs in some of the bodies."

"Well, I think there's an interrogation session going on at the minute. You could assist it if you wanted"

"I would like that"

"Very well, but prepare yourself". He led her outside of a mess hall and through a series of scientific laboratories where she saw other scientists going over pieces of strange alien equipment, some of it combined with more Earth like materials. She greeted them, but few of them bothered to answer back, which she understood. It also happened to her to find time a rare commodity lately.

They finally reached a door and the doctor punched in a code on the numeric keypad outside it. The sign on the door was quite explicit: "WARNING: BIOLOGICAL HAZARD. DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT FULL AUTHORIZATION". When they crossed she saw that the entrance was guarded on the inside by two X-Com troopers, both carrying M4 automatic rifles and wearing full body armour. They didn't pay any attention to her. On the room there were two military men together with a collection of scientists and civilian personnel. She looked carefully at the neck collar of the officers. The closest one had an insignia there with three circles with an X on the middle of them, which made him a Captain. The other one wore what she called the tentacular X insignia, the same worn by Colonel MacTaggert at Mother One. That made him Colonel Johnson.

They were all seated on chairs, looking at a big glass window that occupied an entire wall of the room. When she turned her head on that direction she saw what they were looking at and she felt a need to vomit. She barely constrained herself while looking at the alien. It was sitting on a chair in the middle of a room that contained only a table and a bed. A civilian and a military man were also together with the alien, trying to communicate with him through the use of a computer that was built into one of the walls, but having no success for it simply made no reaction. She turned to Doctor Mantell.

"Can he understand English?"

"We simply don't know. They must be able to understand our languages but that skill could be restricted to only some of them. In any case we doubt it would be able to replicate human sounds. Right now we are trying to use mathematics but it still won't respond. We don't know if it's because it simply doesn't understand or if it refuses to communicate".

The alien turned his head and looked at the one way window. Although Eva knew he couldn't see it, she felt that it was sensing the presence of all the people on the subjacent room.

"He somehow knows that we are here watching him. They must be able to detect thoughts even though this specimen right here doesn't have the ability to mind control like we have detected on some of the others". The Colonel noticed their presence and made an interrogating look. Mantell lead Johannes closer to him and made the proper presentations.

"This alien seems to be giving you a hard time Colonel, how can we communicate with it?"

"You don't want to know, Miss Johannes" His voice turned cold and professional.

"What do you mean?"

"I just got orders from Commander Illyuschenko telling me to use every possible mean to extract information from the alien that doesn't endanger his life. That's why some of this civilians are here"

"What?!"

"They show no mercy to us, Doctor. And we need for it to start speaking as soon as possible for us to learn more about them before it's too late"

"That's barbaric!"

"Your work is very important Doctor in the fight against the aliens. And the nature of it shields you from being in the frontline and seeing their atrocities. Believe me, if you had seen what I did, you would want to kill them yourself personally".

"The ends don't justify the means, Colonel!"

"Moral is a curious and weird concept, Doctor, even for humans. While it has kept some of us from killing our neighbour, the aliens just ignore them. And why shouldn't they? We are no better than cattle for them. And one thing I learned is that if you want to win you have to be as vicious as your enemy or he will ever have an psychological advantage over you".

"And what if you had to kill a human instead Colonel?" She started clenching her hands.

"I have had, madam. And believe me, with them I can feel remorse. With the thing over there, there's nothing to be sorry for".

"Well thinking like that could just be the reason why we are on this mess!" Her heart racing, she ignored the looks of everyone else in the room and left it through the door, furious at the Colonel. Even the alien seemed to sense some emotional distress in the hidden room next to him and he turned his head towards the direction of the door.

Mantell turned to go after her, but Johnson stopped him grabbing his arm. "This is between me and her Doctor, and I prefer to resolve such matters myself, if you please". The scientist relaxed and stepped away, nodding. Johnson headed out for the door. Picking up his pace, he eventually found her in the mess hall. The soldiers that were starting to have lunch looked at both of them, in curiosity. She still was breathing heavily while turning to him and saying: "I'm sorry for my reaction back there Colonel, but I still object against the prospect of using torture in another life form".

"Doctor…Johannes, isn't it?" She nodded. "Apologies accepted. An I wish to assure you that we won't resort to physical torture unless we really have to. We will first try other softer means"

"I don't want to know, Colonel. Do your job. I will do mine. If you excuse me". She  turned her back on him and left, towards the scientific area. Johnson scratched is head  in hopelessness, looked at this watch and headed out through one of the corridors into the direction of his office. King, Jones and Garcia watched him leave and then went back to eating their meal. After a second Jones said, almost casually:

"Looks like the CO might get lucky".

"Can it Jones. Nothing of our business and you're getting the wrong picture as usual". King kept his voice low and continued eating, disregarding the comments of the Afro-American trooper.

"Man, nothing of our business you say? We've been on a one-gender base for months were women are harder to find than UFOs and the Colonel already tries to score on the first lady that I ever saw here? Even when I was back on Special Forces we would see women and occasionally they would even wear a uniform! Officer's privilege, my ass!"

"The Colonel is OK. Even the big man needs to relieve himself once in a while". Garcia kept putting huge doses of the daily chow into his mouth while making the comment, having trouble saying some of the words.

King raised his head and said: "Well, welcome to X-Com, troopers! Against aliens, under budgets and sexual abstinence we fight" Jones just dismissed him with a wave of his hand. Garcia also stopped eating and smiling from one ear to the other added: "maybe we should get hombre Jones a date with the critter that they have locked on C Section".

"You mean, like those looneys they show occasionally on the night news making rallies to show their welcome for the extraterrestrial brothers and ask them to show themselves to Earth? Man, is that was those meetings are all about? They have a hard-on and want to have galactic intercourse?"

Both him and King by then couldn't control their laughing anymore and the remaining trooper annoyed and deciding to go over his lunch with his mouth shut.

Mother One, Black Forest, Germany

Once again, Illyuschenko felt the need to shoot the face that was in front of him. The rat faced man acted exactly like a weasel and talked like one also. The General Secretary had told him about the atmosphere in the latest meetings of the Council of Funding Nations and now the rumours were on plain sight.

"Councilman Likov, I don't need to tell you how disastrous our country's decision is! Cut back funding for X-Com is an error at this point!"

The damn politician took a deep breath, taking the posture of a schoolmaster that was putting the student in place and giving a lecture.

"Commander, the Charter allows us to change our funding, based on the general performance of X-Com every month. And we are most displeased for the results the Russian team has shown in these months, therefore our decision is final. Unless there are some changes in overall performance, we will cut back on our funding at the end of this month."

"But if you reduce it, then it will be much harder for the teams to hunt the UFOs, you idiot! We need the funds to build the second Russian base! And to buy the planes necessary to equip it!" Illyuschenko was making a huge effort not to raise his hands from where their rested on the chair's arms and smack the monitor in front of him.

"Then I suggest you pay more attention to the needs of your country, Commander! You have denied everyone of our requests! And other nations are having more success, even smaller ones than us, humiliating our country!"

"Don't blame me for the politicians having messed around Russia for decades Mr. Likov! Those nations have resources that we once possessed and their military cooperate more than ours!"

"Your X-Com troopers have no respect for the chain of command! They refuse to follow the orders of Red Army officials that are superior from them! And you refuse to allow them access to a military installation in our own country!"

At least I'm not the only one angry here now, Illyuschenko thought. "Mr. Councilman, they are not a part of Russia's military forces anymore. And they receive their orders just from one person and that's me! And under the Charter the bases are UN territory that can be entered only under the authorization of the commander of the installation!" This is pointless, he thought. The bastard won't even try to cooperate. Looking at his watch while Likov was firing another round of accusations he saw that he was already late for his other meeting. He cut through the angry speech the man was firing.

"Mr. Likov I need to tend to other matters now, but be sure that this ain't over! Good afternoon sir!". Moving his hand towards the communications terminal he reached a button on the side of the screen and touched it, ignoring the weasel's words to remain on the channel. The image was suddenly replaced by the red X on a white circle, both standing in the middle of a blue background. He pressed another button and a light blue flag with a representation of Earth on white traces suddenly raised itself and disappeared on a box close to the roof. An electronic wall suddenly appeared, showing Earth in three dimensions. Moving with the controls built into his arm chair, he made it rotate. It received all information available from radar sites on the ground and satellites. Most of the globe, like the Pacific and the Poles had a grey tone into it remembering that there were no assets monitoring the area for UFO activity.  He sometimes monitored interceptions from here but now it was going to be used for a war council. Moving the pointer with a small joystick he clicked on a menu and chose the Communications button. Another submenu replaced the other one on the screen and he chose another icon. Immediately the image of Earth started to turn and afterwards it centred and zoomed on Japan. A blue square icon appeared together with the words "Complex YY-18". A window popped up and suddenly Colonel Yamashita's face commander of the Far East team appeared. His face had cuts on it that hadn't completely healed and Illyuschenko wondered if the man had taken into sword training for his team. Looking another window that had come up over China he saw the now Lieutenant Colonel Chen staring at him. He seemed most displeased and the leader of X-Com decided that it must still have to do with the FE command being led by Yamashita, and putting the still almost inexistent Chinese team taking orders from a Japanese. That would probably change, he thought, at the next Council meeting since Japan was also being fed up of dealing with the Chinese, accusing them of stepping on their way constantly.

Another square and a word this time in another continent: "Depot S-4". It had been built in the middle of Kenya and it was being used for storage of many of the alien artefacts. Colonel Waartens, a South African was in charge of it, although he hated what he called "caretaker duty" and was constantly requesting resources to allow him to start performing interceptions and ground attacks. That was even a weirder mix, Illyuschenko thought, considering that there were also Egyptians and Nigerians on the team, all led by an full blood Afrikaner. At least he didn't show any signs of believing in apartheid.

The computer continued connecting to the different bases and when all field commanders were online, Illyuschenko spoke "Hello again, gentlemen. To be short, I've just had a word with my country's councilman. Together with China, Australia and Nigeria, they will also be cutting their contributions in the next monthly budget if we don't improve at their eyes". He went to everyone of them with his eyes, looking for reactions.

"My government was highly impressed with the Alaskan operation, sir. They most likely will increase their contribution"

"Yes, Colonel Johnson. But, unfortunately it probably won't be enough to cover the money we will loose. Worse still, base maintenance is really eating into our budget now, which will limit our ability to equip more bases and expand our area of operations and also to replace lost equipment"

"What about the bloody UN? Can' the Secretary General give us more fund?" The Scottish accent of MacTaggert made it hard to be understood.

"They would if they could, but they are even in a tighter situation than us".

"Can't we just borrow money then? This is insane! We are fighting to defend Earth and we still have to do it with a low budget?!" Colonel Jackson seemed distressed, to the point of moving his hands a lot.

"Jackson," Johnson cut in, "we are not a 'legal' organization. We officially don't exist and I doubt any bank on Earth would give the funding we need unless it had some guarantee about us. We can't just mortgage our bases and get our Skyrangers through a lease system"

"Furthermore, we can't reveal our existence, under the penalty of being hunt down by the aliens and civilization breaking into a chaos. No, we need another answer here". But which one, Illyuschenko thought. Finding no sudden answer, he turned to soften the problem as much as he could.

"All base construction will have to be halved by now. But we will continue with the expansion and re-equipment of the teams. And we will have to cut into scientific investigation also. Dr. Chevereux won't be pleased, but right now we need more bullets than lab rats fiddling with toys. We are better armed and protected right now and the latest encounters have shown us that we have closed the technological gap between us and the aliens on the ground. And that's where this war will be won".

André Galvão, 2001