X-Com – The Unknown Menace
Chapter Sixteen – Rocky Road
I was writing the beginning of this chapter when the tragedy of September 11th occurred, and it turned out to be a most disturbing coincidence, as you will read. This chapter is dedicated to all the victims of the attacks.
March 14th, 2000
New York City, US
The Big Apple laid gutted by a mayhem of fire and terror. UFOs of different sizes were airborne, performing attack runs with their plasma weapons taking down buildings and any human vehicle that dared to move. One of the overhead craft targeted an attack helicopter that was approaching the area and destroyed it with a single blast, the wreckage falling down on the street into several parked cars and causing a second explosion. The soldiers and policemen present did their best to try to get into cover but several were hit by the shock wave and the flames of the explosion and their bodies were thrown away like bloody rag dolls. The others tried to contain the advance of the aliens, mounting a disorganized resistance from wherever they could get cover and filling the air with bullets. But when the aliens pressed their attack, the sheer size of their firepower sent many of the human defenders either to their deaths or in a full retreat.
Markovitch watched them leave in dismay but then she looked up from the window and saw that the whole sky was dark. She wondered how could it be, if it was of all the smoke coming from the burnt parts of the city but he felt it terrifyingly natural. The aliens finally approached her position and she went for her laser pistol but she found that it wasn't there. Only then did she noticed that she was among civilians, all terrified and standing also in the ruined dinner where she was, in no doubt trying to get some protection from the battle. A sound turned her attention again to the outside. A group of orange and brown Snakemen had just come to the front of the window, holding their plasma weapons at their waist and pointing them to the humans inside.
One man made a movement, Markovitch couldn't tell if he was trying to escape or just plea for mercy. It didn't matter as the aliens cut him down a second afterwards with a couple of green blasts. Reluctantly she put her arms behind her head as the Snakemen made hissing sounds with their stilted tongues and beckoned them to come outside with their weapons. Everyone else also saw that resistance was futile and did the same.
The group of humans slowly started to come out, some crying, others simply in shock. When Markovitch stepped outside he immediately noticed that one of the UFOs had landed on the middle of the street and that Sectoids were close to it, looking like they were in command of the aliens operations. But amongst them she could also see the silouette of a tall figure, wrapped in some sort of hooded garment that obscured the alien's appearance. A sound of metal being bent and snapping suddenly distracted her attention, followed by the noise of steel, glass and concrete hitting the ground from a distance. She turned to look out to the source of the noise. It didn't take her that much to notice what had happened. Looking at the direction of the World Trade Center towers, she saw that one was completely gone and the other one didn't have any more its half top, with only a scar of crushed steel and concrete at its top, releasing smoke as if it was nothing more than a gigantic chimney.
Cyberdisks could also be seen on the air, patrolling the area and taking care of the last remains of human resistance. And Chryssalids. One of them approached the group, which now the aliens had taken into organizing into a compact line. The dark gray oily figure came close to a young woman and seemed to be looking at her with interest, its antennae on its head swirling into her direction. Markovitch started coughing, tasting a horrible stench in the air that burned her lungs but trying to keep her eyes on the alien.
Still unable to stop coughing because of the vicious atmosphere, the X-Com Captain looked in horror as it she just saw the woman lurching backwards out of a sudden. All the other humans backed away immediately in fear. The woman felt on the ground, in the middle of all the broken glass that littered the avenue and started having spasms as if she was on the middle of an epileptic seizure. Markovitch immediately knew what was happening, but found out that she didn't couldn't do anything, just stare at the impregnation like the rest of the assembled humans. She turned away her head to not to look at the birthing of the Chryssalid and looked at a man standing to her. Immediately, she preferred that she hadn't looked at him. The face in front of her was deformed, with strange bumps covering his forehead, cheeks and jaw, as if someone had implanted marbles underneath his skin. Worse, in some spots there were large wounds, some still red, others already starting to scar. The man opened his twisted mouth, where several teeth were missing and the other ones completely out of line. But instead of any words, he only managed to say guttural sounds. She looked around to see if any one else was noticing. The other people around were even worse. A small child with only patches of hair on his skull, and a deformation that covered the entire right size of his face with twisted skin and muscle, giving him a monstrous look. Another man with a bent posture and a third arm coming out of his back through a hole on his shirt. And others with genetic deformations even worse stood all around her. But the greatest shock came as she looked to a piece of broken glass that was still standing in the broken front of the restaurant. She recognized the short hair and the short but bulky figure that belonged to her. But the eyes were different and only then did she noticed the reason why her vision was so perfect, so accurate, even in the middle of all the darkness in the sky and in the streets, whose lights had long ceased working. Instead of the hazelnut that she had grown used to every since she was a child, the iris were violet and they had an Oriental shape, too angular. "No, no, no", she started shaking and mumbling, until a voice coming from everywhere around her suddenly engulfed all her thoughts, taking her conscience away and throwing her into a completely new reality.
"Hey, hey. It's OK". Johnson's voice came from behind her and she felt his hand on her back. "It was just a dream". Perception of Johnson's quarters came to her immediately and it brought her a great feeling of relief. She found herself seated on the bed with him standing beside her. She dropped her head to his chest immediately and he started caressing her hair. "Must have been a nasty one", he asked. Images of Earth's destruction came to her mind. She closed her eyes and nudged closer: "Yeah, the bad guys won again".
He replied, half-jokingly. "In their dreams". She stood silent and he added: "You sure you don't want to see the base psychiatric to check out those dreams? Everyone else has been through a lot of action recently". Markovitch got her head up and moved to the empty side of the bed. "Already did yesterday. Told me that they could do a whole battery of medical exams, X-rays, cat scans and so on. But I doubt it would do any good so I told him no thanks."
"Still you gotta do something about those dreams. Maybe they could get you some pills or something." She turned to see him and gave a depreciating look. "No thanks. I won't get myself killed in combat because I was too stoned from the pills and made a mistake." She got out of the bed and Johnson heard her moving around, occasionally bumping into a chair or the bed.
He turned on the light and saw that she had started to collect her clothes from the places where they had landed in his quarters. "What are you doing? Come back to bed. It's still too damn early to get up." She didn't bother to look at him while answering. "I've had enough sleep already. Besides, better to leave now while there's almost no one going around in the corridors that can see me getting out of the commander's quarters."
He smiled, the tips of his mouth becoming clearly accentuated. "It wouldn't add much to the rumor mill already going around in the base, according to Prescott and Hopkins. Call it benefit of rank". Finishing putting on her bra, she grabbed the upper part of her jumpsuit. "Rank benefits my ass. We are pulling this off because you are the big shot around here. If Commander Illyuschenko or the Council knew about it they wouldn't be pleased."
"Hey, you're the one who nearly got us caught once some years ago. Remember when that General nearly caught us on his office? That was your idea."
"Which you didn't raise too many objections when I proposed it".
"Whatever! The whole point is that we are being too overconfident here. Things are not what we expect of them to be". Done dressing her uniform, Markovitch jumped out of bed and went to the mirror, while Johnson tried to grab her arm and keep her there.
"Hey, things have cooled down a bit. And the new equipment has sure brought up morale in the last months. This war can last for God knows how long and we might as well take the time to recover a bit". He gave up trying to stop her and sat also on the bed.
"Everyone is sporting their new plasma weapons as if they were new toys to play with. Pretty soon the troops will feel that they are invincible and start performing some dangerous shit. And us, the officers who are supposed to lead them, are too dumb to notice that or that something is missing here because we are concerned more about getting into each other's quarters".
She started to head out the door and stopped briefly while Johnson countered: "What's your point Sheila?" She turned around and replied: "I don't know, but we are missing something here and I don't like it, whatever it might be". Afterwards she opened the door and left, leaving a dumbstruck Johnson in the room behind.
During the day he saw her a couple of times but never managed to find an excuse to talk to her. The new automated tanks had turned out with a major software bug in last day's exercise, which had nearly turned into a disaster, as one of the vehicles suddenly started to fire laser rounds from its turret into the direction of a nearby X-Com squad. Only the new power armour had saved the life of one of the troopers as it caught a full laser blast on his chest.
March 18th, 2000
Appallachian Mountains, West Virginia, US
As Williams looked at Davis he wondered for how much he could keep up with the man's pace. Both of them had "accidentally" bumped into one another as they were both doing a morning jogging at the base perimeter. The ex-FBI sub director, now working for X-Com's Intelligence Bureau had suggested the meeting when one of his messages mentioned that he was about to make a regular inspection to the East Coast base. The idea of the jogging was also meant to distract any suspicions from the meeting. It would natural for both men to talk together, since they had been working in the same team before, but they would have to do it in a way that wouldn't allow for eavesdropping.
They kept running until they finally reached a heavily forested area and stopped in a clearing in the middle of the trees and bushes, both panting. "Very good for a desk jock" Davis remarked, starting to do some calisthenics. "Hiding secrets can be quite a workout", Williams replied.
Davis stopped for a moment, trying to detect anyone that could be hidden among the forest for a moment. Afterwards he added: "Yeah and quite a physical burden it can be. It might even kill you".
Williams opened his eyes at the other man as he reached into the strap bag he was wearing to carry his Discman and remove a couple of photos. As he took them from Davis's hands and watched him he saw that they were pictures taken from a dead body at a morgue, showing the face white male on his thirties severely mangled. Williams gave them back, disgusted at what he had seen. "Anyone I should knew?"
"Not really. This is the latest Mr. Sam Owens, which two months ago was working for DARPA and had a SAP clearance". Williams recognized both acronyms. The DARPA was the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency responsible for conducting some of the most secret research into new technologies and hardware. And the Special Access Program was the security classification given to anyone working in the 'black budget' projects. Technically it was one of the highest clearances an individual could get and the number of existing SAPs was an even better guarded secret, only known to a handful of individuals. "What happened to him?"
"The emergency services dug his body out of his car, which had crashed into a pole and killed him in the process. The autopsy showed that he was completely drunk and wasn't even wearing a seatbelt".
"A damn tragedy, it seems. Why do you think this man is important?"
"I had a hunch. After Smith's affair at Area 51 was known it came to me that whomever was running Smith would cover their tracks after the whole thing had cooled down. So I managed to make some searches in the DoD's about any recent deaths of anyone with a high security clearance. Mr. Owen here had a temporary assignment to Smith's command four years ago. The officer responsible for the attribution of his security clearance called him: 'a very educated and highly motivated individual, with no questionable flaws anywhere on his background'. He had a wife and two kids and a nice house by the beach in California. Then he kills himself for no apparent reason".
"There could be a lot of reasons. Who knows? Maybe the guy had some dark secret who was about to be discovered or something".
"Only that Mr. Owens doesn't exist". At the look of bewilderment on Williams' face he continued. "This whole thing stank to me, so I started making phone calls to check out the references on his files. Before joining DARPA he worked for Lockheed and although there are mention of him on his records no one there remembers him. His wife and kids have suddenly disappeared and there isn't a proof that they ever lived".
"Davis, that doesn't say that he was one of them. It doesn't prove anything".
"What if I tell you that two other men, all having possessed high-security clearances in their lives had been found also killed by the local authorities but dismissed as suicide? And there's something lacking on their backgrounds also".
"And they also had temporary assignments to Area 51?" Williams was starting to see something fishy also in the whole story. "But where does that lead us into? Since they are dead there's nothing we can know now from them".
Davis face turned cold. "Now we know where to look at. There might be more of them still infiltrated that have been considered as trustworthy so far. All we need to know is who had temporary or permanent duty at Nevada and start sorting out through them. And that's where I need your help. I can't have access to SAP personnel lists".
"Are you nuts Davis? I can't even have access to that information also, not to mention releasing it and making a breach on security procedures. If it were discovered I would be living the rest of my days in total isolation on a federal penitentiary".
"I know, I spent my time on the Bureau chasing guys like you". He made a cold smile. Williams answered with an icy stare and he turned back in his normal composure. "But the truth is that my investigations are at a dead-end right now. Unless you get that list we can as well forget the whole matter".
Williams took some deep breaths before answering. "You will get what you need".
"Fair enough to me". He started moving his legs. "Shall we get back?"
March 21st, 2000
Area 51, Nevada, US
Beep. The alarm of the base intercom system woke up Johnson in the middle of the night. He immediately tried to get awake while his arm moved to the small table close to the bed and turned the communications button on. At his side he sensed Markovitch moving while he acknowledged the call: "Johnson, what's up?"
A young voice that he couldn't place answered him. "Err, Colonel, National Command Authority just sent a distress signal calling for our assistance. The aliens are attacking Denver sir".
Johnson froze, thinking that something horrible had just happened. "What? Who are you? Where is Captain Chaffee?"
"Sir, I'm Lieutenant Carpenter of Lambda. Captain Chaffee had flu symptoms and the doctor sent him back to his quarters to sleep it off. I've already called for Major Prescott and all the other senior commanders but they were also asleep".
A disturbance on the other side of the bed told Johnson that Markovitch had already awaken and had jumped out of bed. A lot of questions come to his head. "Why haven't we been informed when the UFOs entered US airspace? Have you confirmed that order?"
The young officer at the other side tried to hide his nervousness but he trembled as he figured out the answers. "Sir, there have been no incoming warnings from NORAD all night. The source of the order has been confirmed: US Army, First Command HQ".
At the end of the phrase the voice of Markovitch was heard. "Just the Army? First time something like this has ever happened. What's going on?"
"Carpenter, tell all squad and platoon leaders to get their troopers ready for action. Send an emergency message to Mother One informing them of what is happening here. And alert the East team of what is happening if they haven't received the same alert. Tell Colonel Jackson that I will contact him in one-five minutes". He flicked off the device. "I don't know but pretty soon we are going to find out". Then he went to wash his face in the sink on the bathroom.
New York City, US
The signs at JFK's flight departures all told Evan Blake a grim picture about what was going on at Colorado. All flights to Denver had been cancelled and the airport was closed, apparently due to bad weather, according to the explanations provided by all the major airlines. Which put a setback upon Blake's plans to personally investigate what was going on at Denver. But he wasn't about to let that get into his way. He had already convinced the editorial board of the paper to assign him to cover what was going on in Denver, after the local networks had started pouring out reports of major gunfire confrontation in the city. That had been earlier in the morning and now he was standing at JFK airport and trying to get a flight that would bring him close to whatever was going on around there. On his way to the airport he had heard on the taxi's radio that the Governor of Colorado had just imposed martial law in the city and had called for the National Guard to intervene, while requesting federal assistance to deal with the armed confrontations. So far the identity of the attackers haven't been disclosed but there were reports of hundreds of deaths downtown and several television news crews were reported missing. Blake just had a hunch about what was going on there. Now it was the time to try to prove it.
Over Central Kansas, US
"Sir, Colonel Johnson just informed us that he hasn't been able to get in touch with the President so far. However the NCA order has been confirmed. We are ordered to land at Buckley AFB and assess the situation there while waiting for the West team to arrive". Jackson acknowledged the radio call and ordered the Skyrangers under his command to head to the military installation in Colorado.
However something was bothering him. Buckley AFB had given them an approach vector but they hadn't replied to his answer for permission to land. Further calls into contacting whoever was in charge were unanswered. He decided to ignore it and go check the status of the tanks embarked on board the Skyrangers.
Some time later the planes had finally landed in a zone reserved for helicopters, close to a couple of hangars. As the X-Com troopers down the ramp and begun unloading the crates containing their weapons and equipment, Jackson started to look for the location of the base command center. He saw that a group of military vehicles had moved down the runway and were about to come near the Skyrangers. "About time!" He shouted and moved forward to meet them.
As he moved his body, the power suit detected the motions and amplified them through the servomotors installed on his legs, moving them. When each armored feet hit the concrete a small metallic clank could be heard. But the noise of Jackson's pace was suddenly curtailed as he saw the soldiers inside the trucks and the Humvees suddenly came out fully armed and trailing their M-16s at him while dodging for any available cover. He stopped and demanded: "What are you doing? Put down those weapons and get me your commander".
A Captain, still holding his assault rifle pointed at him and looking puzzled at the metal figure in front of him replied. "Don't move and surrender your weapons now or we will open fire!"
Jackson didn't know if he would laugh or get angry at the comment. The bullets on those M-16 wouldn't even scratch the power armor that he was wearing. "We are a US special forces team that has been ordered to deploy here. Check your orders for our clearance".
"Already did. You are not on it. Surrender now!" Jackson saw that his men had stop the unloading and some of them had moved closer to the crates containing the laser and plasma weapons, in no doubt getting ready to act upon his command. Bloody hell.
Close to Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, US
About one hour later, Harris was just been reminded of one thing he definitely hated about air traffic controllers. Sometimes the bird watchers got too much illusions of power just from having to direct planes around. Such was the case with the one that he had just contacted as the X-Com's Skyrangers were about to land on the base that served as the center for the US military reaction against the attack.
"Flight Whiskey India Seven, I've already told you that you do not possess a valid security clearance for approaching the runway. You are approaching restricted airspace and you will turn into a zero-three-five bearing now!" Harris sighed and called up Johnson. "Colonel they keep saying us to piss off. Shall we tell them that also?"
"Just get us there Harris. There is still no response from Colonel Jackson?" That was worrying Johnson. The other team had landed at the same base a couple of hours ago, but so far had failed to further communicate.
"Negative sir" The Skyranger's ground terrain radar suddenly brought the craft up to avoid an obstacle that Harris had forgotten to notice in the middle of the radio talk. He grabbed the stick back and moved the plane to a safer altitude. "Whisky Flight, this is Leader. We are going to land and show this ground pounders what they can tell us to do".
As the final distance between the airfield and the Skyrangers came to a short Harris started to notice the runway at the horizon. It seemed to have a lot of aerial activity, with many moving dots of light moving in the skies overhead it. Another voice was suddenly heard in the emergency radio channel.
"Whiskey India Seven-One flight, this is the security commander. You will turn away from this base now or you will be shot down. You have half a minute to comply with my order!" Harris wondered at what the man was talking about when he suddenly noticed that some of the bright dots were now racing towards the Skyrangers. As one of them suddenly fired, Harris came close to panicking as he realized that attack helicopters were shooting them. He immediately banked right his aircraft to avoid the incoming red fire, each salvo containing tracer rounds to illuminate the firing path of the weapon. "Colonel! This idiots are shooting back at us! I'm taking us out of here!"
"Whiskey India Seven-One. That was a warning shot. You have ten seconds to acknowledge the order or you will be shot down!" Harris signaled the other Skyrangers and then maneuvered his own plane before answering. "OK! Whiskey-India taking zero-three-five bearing now". Harris promised to find out who was the cocky son of a bitch running that show and get revenged later.
On the back of the Skyranger the fourteen heavily loaded X-Com troopers that it was carrying were just finishing getting back to their seats and locking away back all the equipment after the abrupt turn had sent them all to one side of the craft. Fortunately the armored suits had prevented any injuries besides a couple of bruises. Johnson's metal glove grabbed a trooper's shoulder and he said: "Patterson, what the fuck is this? Get to White start getting some answers on the radio about why we were shot at! And raise Jackson will you?"
"I will try to sir, but I doubt that we can raise the proper channels through the equipment we have here. I suggest we found another landing spot and try to work out this whole mess. The military frequencies are either encrypted and we don't have the codes or they are full of traffic. White and I have already identified nearly a dozen units who are deploying forces to the area. But it appears to be all uncoordinated sir". Things were not working out, Johnson thought, trying to come up with alternatives. "Very well. Any suggestions?"
Patterson's voice reassured him. "On the northeast of Denver there is a small facility that houses the Special Forces Group attached to the Colorado National Guard. I have served together with their commander before Colonel. We will have a much better welcome there". Johnson thought for a second and replied. "Give the details to Harris and let's get this whole mess resolved then".
Denver, Colorado, US
"Gezz Tony get down!" Linda Evans was hiding behind a parked car that had been
ruined by an explosion. On her side her cameramen, Anthony Mazzaro, was up and
trying to get the terrorists on tape once again. They had both been doing the
night shift back at their local television network when the news had arrived of
major gunfire confrontation. She had been thrilled upon being the first
reporter to reach the scene but that only lasted until she saw the aliens.
And now that the night was beginning to be replaced by the day, they were finally coming down on all the adrenalin, after hours of frantic running and hiding. Tony went back to her side. "We need to get footage of this Linda, otherwise no one will believe us!" She looked at him. "You think I don't know that? This is the biggest story ever since the atomic bomb or the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we need to stay alive also!" They had managed barely alive to survive as the aliens moved towards their van, destroying it with a couple of plasma shots as they approached. They were alive only because she had panicked and started running away with Tony right behind, still carrying his camera.
"OK, OK". He took a peek over the wrecked station wagon. "Well, it seems that the groups of ETs I was trying to get on tape are gone. What are we going to do?"
"Can you see the network building?" They were trying to get back to the station to report what they had just experienced and to warn the authorities.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't count too much on it. There's smoke coming out of the second floor and I can see figures laying around on the ground".
"Shit!" She cursed as Tony moved back on his hiding position and spoke. "We can swear as much as we want but it won't lead us nowhere. We need to get out of this area". He took another sweep around with his head. "I haven't seen any of them coming from that street there". He pointed towards an intersection to their right some two hundred meters away. The whole area was nothing more than a big series of fenced buildings that housed Denver's business district and the intersection was standing in the middle of a small group of stores .
Linda knew that she was at the point of snapping out. "Let's just go away from these devils". He nodded, took another look. "Let's go then. The coast seems clear".
As they were both half-way to the intersection a sudden noise behind made them stop and turn over. A lumbering figure had just come through the glass doors of the network building, shattering them into a million pieces. To Linda it seemed as some kind of giant brown frog but having only two legs. And a mouth full of teeth, she could see also, as he turned its head into their direction to stare directly at the pair. The thing immediately started running towards them.
Both of them started running as fast as they could but soon Linda started having a head, with the camera slowing his run. He tried to get rid of it but had to come closely to walk as he was desperatly struggling with the belt that carried the batteries. She looked backwards to tell him to hurry up but she regretted it later.
The Reaper had covered the distance between them in a flash and has he approached the cameraman it simply took a jump on his powerful legs and landed on his back, pinning him down to the ground. Tony tried to struggle out but the weight of the alien kept him underneath it. Next the Reaper just lunged forwards and used his metal teeth to rip the back of Tony's head, slicing through the cranium as if the bone was paper tissue and immediately killing him.
Linda panicked, looking at the furred beast in front of her, who now seemed distracted at the dead human in front on the middle of the road. She started to run even faster and finally upon reaching the intersection she turned south around one building. Only to found herself facing three devils fifty yards away, with their red capes and fangs on their heads. She just stood motionless, uncapable of responding as one of them lifted the large weapon is was holding and fired at her.
Fort Collins, Colorado, US
It was already early morning as the three Skyrangers of the East team landed on the helipad of the ANG base which was the staging point for the X-Com's forces. The planes had come flying under heavy clouds that where threatning to pour down rain. A light drizzle was already starting over Johnson as he moved forward to meet the Skyrangers, already standing down in their parking positions. The whole mess was beginning to be sort out after some very angry calls being made to the Pentagon and complains had been forwarded to the White House. NORAD didn't detect the UFOs for some unknown reason as they entered Earth's atmosphere. Intelligence would have to sort it out later, but for now there were other pressing matters.
The Colorado National Guard had sent the initial reports about alien activity. But after their command center in Denver was attacked and their commander killed, the information coming from the city was sparse. All other high-ranking officers were on leave, which had turned the command chain into chaos. And when the information went finally up to the Army's brass some general had decided to act immediately without going through the next step of National Command Authority, which would be contacting the Secretary of Defense and ultimately the President. But President Winston was out of the country aboard the Air Force One and heading for a state visit to South America, which had further complicated matters and the VP's whereabouts were unknown at this moment.
Meanwhile units were rushing from all over the US to Denver in a major effort to prevent further bloodshed by the aliens. The initial estimate showed that nearly all type of units were present, although Johnson wondered what good some would do. It appeared that every major combat organization in the US was engaged in a contest to bring as many forces as possible, in no doubt wanting to get a piece of the action and the glory. The US V Corps had a military convoy on their way from Texas composed of tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery. All of that hardware ill-fitted to deal with the alien weapons, which could penetrate their armour easily. Not to mention the civilian casualties such firepower would bring in the middle of urban fighting. The XVIII Airborne Corps, the US's rapid reaction force, had also mobilized and was sending troops through aerial means. Even the Marines were sending some of their units. But overall there seemed to be no strategy, other than to send as many troops as possible.
One of the armored figures that where disembarking fully armed from the Skyrangers suddenly turned towards Johnson and started to walk in his direction. When he reached him he put his plasma rifle hanging from its bandolier, but still holding it while the other hand detached a helmet matching Johnson's, both of them sporting the X-Com's insignia for colonel, the black X envolving a globe perfectly clear against the gray alien metal of the armour.
Jackson made no effort at hiding his displeasure. "Well Johnson, what a freaking mess this is turning out to be! Me and my men have just been detained by the US military for hours with no access to our weapons or radio equipment!" The face of Jackson showed deep anger. "And while we were waiting because of some major fuck-up the aliens are still in Denver! Would you mind telling me what the fuck is going on now!?"
"Cool off Colonel. The whole situation has been straightened out now. Or at least the Army brass is trying to now, after having realized the amount of errors they have made. My own forces were shot at while approaching Buckley".
"We saw it! That's when the bozos guarding us suddenly become more paranoid than ever. The officer in charge even demanded to inspect our equipment. I adamantly refused and for a moment it seemed that a confrontation would break out. Fortunately someone right afterwards told him to cool it off on the radio and he managed to do so until we where allowed to departure". He looked around to the base and replied. "How did you manage to get clearance to land here anyway? Our power suits and the fact that we don't belong to the US military must have also raised some questions on this Green Berets minds".
"Patterson knows the commanding officer. We simply told him that we are a special team and that confirmation of our status would come shortly, which it did".
"You finally managed to talk to someone who knows what he is doing around here? Good! Now just tell me what we have gotten ourselves into! That is, beside the fact that there are aliens running around over there", he moved his metal arm in the direction of Denver, "and that they are killing people" Johnson decided that he didn't like the tone of Jackson. Although both men had the same rank inside X-Com, Johnson had been put in charge of the North American command because of his experience dealing with the aliens. Something that Jackson didn't like at all since he had seniority of Johnson.
"Colonel," He made an emphasis on that word, "first I need to know your team status. Only then we shall discuss the rest". He stopped there and gave a hard look to Jackson to reassure his position. The other officer was displeased but he replied in a low but formal tone.
"Second North American Combat Group ready, consisting of three platoons. First and Second platoons are fully manned, third Platoon has been reformed into an armored configuration".
"Armored configuration?!" Only then Johnson noticed the sound of the tanks, as they were getting ready to move still inside the Skyrangers. "You are bringing such heavy firepower into a civilian area?!"
"Your order stated to deploy with all assets available. I just interpreted your orders that way, Colonel". Jackson was running close to the edge of disrespect but Johnson ignored it. "Very well. However if anyone dies because of these robots you will be held responsible to it, is that understood Jackson? So just don't go blitz with them around the city". The other officer didn't bother to reply.
"Very well. The situation is this: the aliens are holding some neighborhoods, the majority of them residential areas. The Air Force has sent one of their birds to take some pictures. They haven't released them yet but the pilot reported on his debriefing that the aliens landed their UFOs in the sports fields of a high school. After landing they immediately moved to strike at several targets, including police stations and public buildings. The Colorado National Guardsmen who were at their posts tried to mount a defense but it was unsuccessful. And the situation haven't been contained yet, even though more than twelve hours have passed since they have landed".
"Doesn't surprise me. While we were back at that Air Force base we could see a complete disorganization. Troops would arrive and be left out in the cold since there is no one at that base trying to coordinate anything. Hell, I don't even know what they can do with the gear they have there. They have helicopters, some of them even Apaches, but they have no idea on how to use them. We need to get them now, before they can improve their defenses".
"That's exactly my opinion, but the initial estimates for their numbers are on the hundreds, all of them Floaters and Reapers. Together with your team we can only field a little more than sixty combat troops, although the few Berets present here will surely give us a hand".
"But what about the forces back at Buckley? We can't just discard them!"
"It will take several hours to appoint someone who knows what he is doing to command them. We don't have that time. But Major Patterson has contacted a unit from the 101st Air Assault Division this is about to arrive. They will help us out".
Upon hearing that his old unit was involved Jackson seemed to relax a bit. "Screaming Eagles all the way, let's see if they fare better than my Wild Hunters. What's the plan?"
"We are going to use a feint. One of our combat groups will make a frontal assault to distract them, while the other circles around to hit the UFOs in the least defended flank. The guys from the 101st have their own helicopters so we can use them as a mobile tactical reserve to exploit any breakthrough or help out in case any complications came up. Since you brought along the tanks you are assigned to distract the bugs while we go for the UFOs".
Jackson thought for a second and nodded in reluctance. "I don't like the fact that we are attacking without knowing the strenght of our enemy, but it will have to do".
"I'm going to radio Buckley and tell them of our plans. Maybe they can get their shit together and give you some help. I wouldn't count on it though".
"For me, just tell them to piss off. I'm going to get my team ready, I will talk to you later". He abruptly turned and left leaving Johnson close to calling him back and giving a lesson on how to behave in front of a commanding officer. But he decided to put it away. Jackson was infamous for this type of behaviour and he needed that the other Colonel was one-hundred percent focused on wreaking havoc on the aliens' frontline.
Another armoured figure came from the direction of the East team's Skyrangers and approached Johnson. He wore the triple chevrons of a Captain and as he came up him they removed their helmets and stood smiling at him.
Johnson immediately recognized them. "Hunt" He moved to greet him with a strong metal handshake. "How are you doing Douglas?"
The other officer smiled and replied. "Good sir. I'm still on command of first platoon and I've got Garcia and Andrews on my team. They have now been both bumped to Sargeants and will come to talk to you later after they are finished whooping the rookies's asses on their squads".
Johnson let go of a short laugh since usually it would be the other way around, with both troopers having to put up with Gunny Hopkins. "What about Dennis? How's he doing?"
Hunt made a cold face and just added. "Didn't have a chance. Got hit straight in the face by a heavy plasma shot in a UFO retrieval mission. No armour could have stopped that". Johnson felt his stomach go colder. "Sorry to hear that. He was a good man".
"Yeah, you are right, sir". He stopped and raised his hand up to his ear, listening and afterwards "Gotta go sir. Jackson is calling for me. Nice talking to you". Johnson nodded and after a quick shake and salute they both went back to their business. Time to finally hit the aliens.
Downtown Denver, Colorado
King just shook his head, both in relief and as if not believing in the alien's stupidity. Every race they had encountered so far was intelligent and cunning, capable of pulling out a deadly bag of tricks. But sometimes they would just do basic military mistakes that every non-com or officer with a half a brain would know. Floaters were the worse, of course, their ugliness in no doubt reflecting on their intelligence. And probably they had the same problem that going up in the command ladder only seemed to made people even more stupid, in King's opinion. With some exceptions, of course but this Floater commander didn't seem to be one of them, moving around in a combat zone without a proper escort and not worrying about staying out of enemy snipers. Dumb. Or maybe they just don't care about who is pulling rank over them. It didn't matter. For King war represented the ultimate razor through which natural selection occurred, since anyone involved on it would have to survive stupidity. His own stupidity and the one of the leadership above him.
When King and Duschamps had spotten the trio he could see that they could only be having some sort of tactical discussion, in no doubt provoked by Colonel Jackson's attack to the south that had started a little while ago. Sigma squad had been deployed as pathfinders, ahead of Johnson's main formation, with each team positioned at one flank. They were going as higher on the buildings as possible to detect any Floater patrol in the way of the team. And now they were watching through a third floor window at the beginning of a park, with a road ending there in a T junction. Besides the aliens there was no other living thing around. Only a couple of puddles of human blood in the sidewalk said of what had happened to the people who lived in the residential area ahead of them.
"Colonel, King here, I got what seems to be the leader on my scope, accompanied by two other aliens that might be officers also. What do you want me to do?" While he waited for the response he took another look through the sight mounted on top of his adapted plasma rifle. On his side Deschamps was concealed and looking through binoculars at the trio, his laser rifle close to him.
"King stay put and wait. We are moving on the double to reach your position. Keep them in sight over and out". More waiting. Still he didn't mind. Better to be all nicely concealed up here than right on the frontline. He looked again at the trio of Floaters.
To the south of King's position, one of X-Com's automated tanks was slowly moving down a street approaching one large supermarket. Small figures moved behind him, using the Heavy Weapons Platform as cover and trying to gain as much advance as possible. The Second Combat Group had easily managed a breakthrough of the alien's frontline and now the troopers and tanks were trying to consolidate their gains. The grey HWP, already with scarred burns of plasma shots on its armour made of alien alloys suddenly stopped while its turret started to turn to the right. The troopers close to it immedialy dodged away for the machine, knowing that it had detected opposition and was about to respond to the enemy.
The computer that ran the HWP had just recognized several of the aliens with its visual and infrared sensors, hiding in the mess of wrecked cars that was the parking lot of the chain supermarket. The heavy laser it carried was about to fire into their direction when the Floaters reacted first and unleashed a barrage of heavy plasma into the hull of the HWP. One shot hit it directly on the turret, immediately destroying it and leaving the computer inside the tank almost blind. The next one carved a hole through the already mangled armour and kept burning inside until it reached the engine. As the machine came to a full stop, dead on its tracks, the remaining plasma energy finally reached the fuel tanks, causing an internal explosion that imploded the HWP.
Inside his power suit, Jackson looked in anger as the tank expelled a metallic death cry, no longer able to receive commands. Not only the advance was painstakingly slow but also the aliens were pressing his flanks, causing him more than enough problems. Hunt was just warning him of another Reaper charge into his left position that they were having trouble to deal with, even with the new plasma weaponry which included a portable flame thrower. All around his men were hiding under cover, only occasionally looking over and firing back their plasma and laser weapons.
Looking around he decided that he had enough of being boggled in this place. Time to call in the artillery. "Hammer Three forward. Pattern of supressive fire, target main building at northwest. Third Platoon right behind. Take out who ever is hiding into that damn building". A mechanical noise coming from behind him immediately followed as another HWP started advancing. But, instead of a barrel on the center of the turret it had two long metal tubes attached. Suddenly their rear become filled with smoke and fire as it launched two rockets into the direction of the parking lot. One hit a car already turned upside down, lifting it several feet into the air while the blast of the explosion incinerated all things around it. The second explosive projectile went through the entrance of the supermarket, only exploding in the inside. A cloud of smoke and debris immediately came. The Floaters there stopped firing back. "Third Platoon move out!" Jackson spoke on the radio.
Fear. Pain. Coldness. Conscience. With a brief realization Linda woke up, suddently realizing that she should be dead but she wasn't. She was afraid to open her eyelids, to face what they would reveal. And the numbness that was in control of her body made it hard to think. After some time, which she couldn't quantify in minutes or seconds she become aware that her body was laying on a cold metal floor as if it was a pile of dirty clothes. She started to feel very unconfortable at the position where the aliens had dropped her but was also afraid to move, to attract their presence to her.
She had felt them already, moving around and making hissing sounds. That noise had been the final waking up to reality, only to discover that it was much worse than your typical nightmare. However, as more time passed curiosity started to grow on her, to see what the beasts were doing, of what would become of her.
So she opened her eyelids a bit to see where she was at. It was a room all made up of what seemed some sort of metal, with two big columns to both sides of her. A white light behind her supplemented the other unseen illumination that allowed her to see clearly. Apparently there was another room in front of her, since there were two corridors on its sides and a lot of noise inside could be heard. It seemed to be some sort of electrical device working but she couldn't be sure.
Suddenly, a whooshing sound made her close her eyes a bit but she still was able to see as a Floater came from the right corridor. In spite of all the instinctal fear and repulsion she wondered from where these things were and what did they wanted to do. This would the story of the decade…. provided that she would survive it. She kept watching as the alien reached forward and grabbed a silent human shape that she hadn't noticied yet. The dark pink arms of the extraterrestrial picked it up with no effort and put it over its shoulders as if it was a bag full of potatoes. Linda couldn't tell if the man was dead or alive since it made no movement while the alien carried him back to the room where it had just came from. She wondered what she should do and decided to see more of the room. Moving her head she noticied that the light behind her came from a glass cylinder. It contained an almost clear liquid inside the strong glass cylinder, but on in the middle it was starting to turn into a reddish colour. Looking at the top she saw the reason from slowly changing of colour. An upper human torso was floating on the surface of the liquid, with the blood coming out of a shoulder socket from where the arm was missing and from his chest. But injuries seemed to be cauterized but there was still blood coming out from them. It was Tony or what seemed to be the left of him, she realized in horror.
A human scream coming from the room in front of her told her what was going on inside. She immediately jumped into her feet, or tried to, still feeling groggy but moving around to try to run away from this horror. Running around she only found more glass cylinders and stunned people on the floor. Until suddenly, when she finally gave up, the wall on her back opened up as she was laying against one of the big metal square column. As she was starting to fell she took some steps backwards and moved her arms, trying get back into balance. Until she saw that she was bathed in a voilet light and all of the sudden she found herself on the floor of another room. Two Floaters where on the same level, looking at her. One of them simply grabbed her, not bothering about her screams and kicking and used the elevator to take her upwards.
Close to the high school grounds where the aliens had parked their UFOs, Gamma squad was standing immobile against the remains of a gas station. The area had been subject of a massive explosion, in no doubt caused by the result of plasma fire against volatile fuel. Only the remains of the shop and debris remained. Johnson's team had just picked up some major alien resistance. The four members where laying against the ground, pinned down by two or three enemy foxholes in front of them where the aliens had established heavy plasma fireteams.
A shot from the houses where the aliens where entrenched came too close to Jones's head and he decided to burrow himself more to the ground. "Damn! I would wish we could hide our heads, like those damn turtles!" Neither of any other men of Gamma's bothered to answer but they all knew the story he was talking about. When the new power suits first started to be fitted to the combat squads one of the technical personnel had looked at them and mentioned that it made the troops look like turtles, since the heavily armoured torso section looked like the oval carapace of the amphibean. The name had stuck. Another shot brushed over his shoulder, but the armour hold out, giving him only a small feeling of warmth on the area.
Johnson's voice could clearly be heard in the middle of the laser and plasma fire, as the amplifiers inside his helmet carried his commands to the figure of Hopkins. "Hopkins, take your squad and Epsilon and clear those holes. Careful with the firepower. Other squads have reported civilians running around in the area!" The Sargeant simply nodded and moved away from Johnson, who turned to White then. The communications specialist was responsible for listening to all of the battle reports and to filter them, in order to to flood Johnson with all of the information. "White, what's the status on Jackson? How are they doing?"
The Corporal didn't bother to face Johnson, still too absorted into what he was listening, but giving a report. "Second group encountering heavy alien resistance. Progress is slow. I have also monitored US military channels and the other forces operating seemed to be trying to take advantage of our attack. Trying to get more right now Colonel". Johnson looked around, knowing that Markovitch and Jerrel's platoons where also being slowed down on his flanks and wondering what to do. Then he remembered King and reached for his radio.
On the other side of the battlefield, the three aliens had already started to move when King immediately responded to Johnson's order by taking a second to verify the aim on his scope, and afterwards, after letting go of a short breath, squeezed the plastic trigger. A green bolt was released from the barrel of his plasma rifle but he didn't bother to check if he had hit and turned instead his aim to the other two, and fired at them in succession. "All three down, let's get out of here before they spot us out!" Deschamps was already moving after speaking the words. King removed itself also, wondering how many kills had taken Rumpole, the other sniper on the team.
When Hopkins finally reached his squad, after moving low between a series of burned cars that the X-Com team was using for protection, he found all of them trying to exchange fire with the aliens. He had already discussed the matter with Grisham. His squad was more heavily armed and would cover Epsilon as they moved to dug out the enemy. "Levine, get that heavy plasma ready! We are moving to keep the ugly s.o.b.s. with what pass as their heads down and now!". He then unloaded passed his own heavy plasma to Sharpe and unloaded his rocket launcher from his back.
Sargeant Grisham's voice pumped Logan into action. Two holes in front of them, with the aliens hiding their ugly faces inside two suburban houses close one to another. And behind them was the open space that would lead into the UFOs. He had a primed grenade in one of his hands and his plasma rifle on the other. The Sarge had told him not to get into any personal heroics otherwise he would get him back at the base, if the aliens didn't do that first.
With Beta covering their move, the four men of Epsilon all came out of their hiding places all of a sudden, taking quick turns to make it harder for the aliens to aim at them. One step left, two right, one right, two left, as them all continued to make their way towards the relative safety of the bush fences between them and the houses. On Logan's left and in his left, Manning suddenly screamed and dropped on a knee, holding his leg.
A rocket suddenly flew as a response from the X-Com lines and went over one of the broken windows of the house, exploding inside. But the incoming fire was about as intense as Logan moved forward and finally dove behind the bushes' cover. He finally looked around to check: the Sarge and Deckard had made it, Manning was down but still trying to get into cover. All of them primed their grenades and waited as the aliens took an interval on their fire. Them they all jumped out of their positions, Grisham immediately taking a shot on his frontal armour than almost knocked him off his feet. But he still managed to throw the alien grenade through the space where there used to be a front door. Logan did the same, but on the contrary of the other two members of his squad he moved forwards, instead of getting back into cover.
The grenades went off with a powerful explosion. They had been designed after the ones used by the aliens, but they where much more powerful than the terrestrial ones since they used Elerium as explosive. As a result the blast swept over the entire ground floor of the house, taking out the inside and most of the outside walls in the process. And the other house literally was demolished, unable to withstand the force of two grenades, with the upper level crashing down. Logan felt the concussion of the blast through the wall that he was laying against. He then turned to a hole on his right and started to pick out any alien survivors.
Over him, Johnson saw the heavily armed Apaches of the 101st Air Assault where moving over his advance, helping to pick away any pockets of resistance. The aliens were pulling back and they were finally moving forward, towards the UFOs. King's voice came up, with a hint of hurry on her. "Colonel, King here. We have moved forwards and are directly looking at the alien craft. They are getting ready to move sir! They are finishing boarding the UFOs and they are taking civilians with them!" Johnson immediately told his men to rush forward but it was too late.
"NO!" Markovitch screamed and dropped her knees to the ground, as she watched the departing UFOs burned their way across the atmosphere and away from Denver. She started to raise her arms, but stopped halfway for lack of strenght, her plasma rifle dropping from her hands out of a sudden and falling to the grass. Standing there, in the middle of all the confusion as the X-Com troopers from her platoon moved past her, she closed her eyes and felt the presence of the humans entrapped on the alien ships. Fear, pain and horror invaded her and for a moment she felt her own reason lost amongst all of the feelings she was experiencing.
Until finally, after seconds which seemed to last for hours a voice outside brought her back to reality. "Captain, are you hurt?" She recognized it as being Private Camay of Phi, the blonde paramedic of her unit who was already started to bring out her medi-kit, a device that, when attached to an injured, allowed a skilled operator to assess the injuries and stop any bleeding and perform other emergency procedures. "I'm alright Camay", she mumbled as the trooper stood there, unsure of what to do. Markovitch just dismissed her with a hand and kept looking at the diminishing lights at the distance.
April 5th, 2000
Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., US
The House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence were the Congress' means of supervising and controlling the work of the US intelligence community. Due to the fact that most information released to them by the CIA and other agencies was classified, the findings of their meetings was itself top secret and in most cases they would be the only members of Congress fully briefed on intelligence operations, or threats, such as the going on war with the extraterrestrials.
For a long time Williams could count by the fingers of a hand the number of occasions that he had been summoned to the hearings. That had quickly changed after the first encounters with the aliens and now Congress demanded to know what had happened back in Denver and how it did come possible. On Williams opinion the joint hearings he had been attending for days were basically useless and only a hysterical act from some of the congressmen, specially the pair from Colorado who sat at the Committees. The message to be taken from the whole terrorist attack was quite clear: things would only get hotter as time would go by. The thousands of civilian and military victims, either dead or missing, told that as much.
As he stayed seated and faced the congressmen in front of him at the joint meeting he seriously thought that in this case the legislature was getting a bit on the way of intelligence and military operations. Already the press was having a field day putting on a cross the Federal Government because of their failure to allow that a terrorist group so large would be able to enter the US and perform such an operation. That had been again the cover story supplied and luckily no one had been able to capture a perfect image of a Floater on a camera. Although the major networks and papers were putting a lot of their airtime dedicated to the claims of murdering extraterrestrials, the whole thing just looked too much surreal for a lot of people. The footage of the carnage and the survivors had already been too much for the audiences who seemed that only wanted that life moved along now.
That was in the outside. Here in this building some senators had taken a criticizing tone of the whole X-Com operation and how it was being run and had been close to demand that the US forces attached to it be placed back under US control. Worse yet, most of them didn't want to see the gravity of the situation, being more concerned to guarantee the votes of the electors in their states or districts. The military had already taken quite a beating on this room about their inability to prevent the casualties suffered by Denver's population during the attack. No one had been spared: NORAD for the failure to detect the UFOs, the Army for the disorganization that plagued the US response to it and for keeping to itself the information about the attack for too long. Already a few general's heads had already been chopped off into forced early retirement. And now it seemed it was the time of the intelligence machine.
"Mr. Williams", one of the Senators from Colorado began, a man over his fifties. "You have given us your statement on the intelligence recovered so far from the aliens. On their possible motives to conduct such attacks upon civilian population. And, like others heard in this hearings before, have claimed that actually the genocide perpetrated upon Denver's residents was actually a military success, due to the efficiency of X-Com in eliminating the aliens after being deployed. I differ on your conclusions sir, after all what I heard during this days. This whole event has only shown that the intelligence community isn't being successful on their analysis of the threat upon the US. And although this joint committee recognizes that X-Com managed to prevent the aliens actions, during the time it took them to react our own local and federal forces had no resources available to them to deal with the threat. What I ask you is: why is that? How come our own regular forces aren't armed with those lasers and plasmas that had been so successfully used by X-Com?" His voice had taken an icy tone, close to irony but closer to disgust.
"Senator, the conditions on which the Charter was signed by the US President and further ratified by the Senate are well-known. X-Com simply can't release any information dealing with weapons research. The whole project would most likely come to an end if that happened".
"Mr. Williams, we all heard that before but now thousands of Americans are dead right now because our armed and police forces have to fight back the aliens using weapons designed for the Vietnam War. The situation has changed: we can't just allow ourselves to be put away from the technology we need for our own survival". Some nods around the rest of the congressmen told Williams that many other members shared his opinion, probably the chairman itself. Not good.
"Senator, what are you suggesting?" Time to defuse the whole situation. "We can't just demand to Colonel Johnson that he releases the technical data behind the plasma and laser weapons. Or can we use the CIA to try to infiltrate X-Com and capture one of them or steal the blueprints. In the past Congress has taken steps to avoid that the CIA conducts operations on US territory. Are you ready to suggest repealing that sir, knowing that it's one of the ways by which Congress controls the intelligence community?" The look on the senator's face brought horror to Williams mind.
"We wouldn't be needing such a measure, since, as you have mentioned before, the X-Com bases upon US territory belong now to the United Nations, avoiding such legal matters. Just a matter of interpretation of the law. However, as for your last question, in my case the answer is yes. But that only if we have the right people in front of our intelligence agencies, who are able to properly exploit such power and not to abuse it".
The stupidity of the human mind and the threat patent upon his words shocked Williams. He silently wished that the whole matter would come to an end with no major changes done by Congress. Not that the CIA hadn't performed illegal operations before in the US since they had been caught red-handed a couple times. The problem was in legalizing such operations and if there would be any person responsible enough to wage such a power. But worse yet for Williams was the implication present in his voice about "the right people".
April 7th, 2000
Central London, United Kingdom
When Number Nine had finished talking, Two stayed silent for a while, standing immobile on his chair. After some seconds Two mildly asked: "Sir?"
The blue eyes of Two focused back on the other group member. "The subject you have brought to my attention is very interesting. I take it that you have not engaged in further action?"
"I decided that this was a matter that affected all of us. Liabilities can be turned into assets".
"Wisely done. We are in difficult times and we can't just simply throw away everything that doesn't fit with our plans. Have you ever heard of the One-Man Factor?"
"The One-Man factor? I don't recall having discussed it with you ever".
"Most likely you wouldn't, since it's a theory the majority of us tends to overlook, although we have given it several discussion in the past. You see, History is made out of the will of the masses and that's what we act upon, molding society in the whole. But sometimes, by what some call luck or destiny an individual obtains a position where he can single handily change the nature of things".
"It seems to me that your appliance of that vector into this question has also some other meaning involved regarding our own nature".
"Clever, aren't you? But our own association nullifies this factor since the others keep the individual's actions under check. No one is to gain too much power that would allow him to impose his own visions with the agreement of the majority. We are not prophets aiming to create a new religion or society. No, the risks involved are too great and too much would quickly go out of our control. Like someone said, the revolution eats its own sons".
Number Nine smiled, upon realizing what the other man was talking about. Number Two looked back at him and continued. "Like Arquimedes once said: give me the right lever and I can lift the world. The same happens inside any man. Find out what is his drive, his passion and you can steer it and direct it to serve your own goals".
André Galvão, 2001