X-Com – The Unknown Menace
Chapter Twenty-Two – Ghosts of the Past
February 8th, 2001
UN Building, New York City, US
"X-COM AGENTS HAVE DETECTED AN ALIEN BASE IN NORTH AMERICA". The message had arrived to Bomaka's special coded pager that put him in direct contact with Commander Illyuschenko. As he finish reading it, he immediately dismissed his aides and secretary who where present at his office without an excuse and made sure that the door was locked after they left.
Proceeding to his desk, he unlocked a drawer and took out a small rectangular object from it. Clearing his desk, he turned to a wall covered by an Earth map that showed all of the political boundaries and pressed a large red button on the remote control he was holding. The large map opened on its middle to reveal a blank display screen and he punched his own personal authorization code in the numeric keypad. The image first resolved itself into the twin symbols of the UN and X-Com, before they disappeared into a view of Illyuschenko's own private office at Mother One in Germany.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Secretary. We have a problem: Colonel Robinson just informed me that one of his staff and a CIA operative have discovered strong evidence leading to a presence of an alien base on the United States. This was nothing new for the intelligence Bureau, who already had indications of such a possibility, but now they seem confirmed".
"What are you planning to do about it General?"
"Colonel Johnson is already working on a base assault. However, we need your assistance sir. The US leadership hasn't been informed about it yet".
"I see. But didn't you tell me that a CIA operative was involved? Hasn't he reported yet?" From the look on Illyuschenko's face Bomaka knew that the reason that made the general call him had to do with that matter.
"No. Until recently he was one of their top analysts on the alien situation but Vaughn removed him from his position immediately after taking power. He got involved into this whole matter because one of Robinson's people had already worked with him before and decided to request for his assistance in tracking down the alien base".
"I don't like this Commander. We can't risk alienating one of X-Com's top contributors but sponsoring the actions of someone who has been considered as incapable by Vaughn do deal with the alien situation".
"Sir, I know I think about the whole matter in general. However the operative has worked with us before: a lot of people at Area 51 have attested to his integrity, including Robinson himself. Moreover, what he told us is that Vaughn is already considering a chance of policy concerning the aliens and X-Com. Seems that the American president is about to go the same way that the fool Larianov and trying to act independently of X-Com".
A feeling of dread went through Bomaka's stomach. "Is that bad? I heard the campaign speeches but I never took them much attention".
"Johnson can't confirm it, but he says that in some of the latest UFO recoveries a number of interference from federal agents have been reported. He wants to act fast but he felt it better to leave the decision about how and when to inform Vaughn to us".
"Does you think that Vaughn will try to interfere?"
"Most likely he could demand that the whole operation is placed under US control, since it's in their soil like Larianov tried to do in Siberia. Johnson concurs with this opinion".
"So what do you require from me Commander?"
"According to the plan, the operation should start as soon as before the aliens can be fully ready to deal with the strike team. But we would like that you bring the news directly to Vaughn as soon as the team is about to hit them. That way if he decides to intervene, the US forces will arrive too late for any thing than help our own soldiers, in case they run into trouble. In any case, there's a strong need to maintain secrecy about this whole matter".
"From what you told me, he won't be pleased".
"Mr. Secretary, I don't care about what Vaughn thinks about it and I would be more than happy to scrub it on his face. The US signed the X-COM Charter and is obliged to its dispositions. Even if his attitude turns out to be different, we probably would have to do the same to catch the aliens as fast as possible to guarantee tactical surprise. Or at least to avoid then knowing when we would attack since there is already evidence enough that points to alien infiltrators on Earth".
Bomaka scratched his mustache in thought and stood there facing the screen, with Illyuschenko waiting for an answer. "Inform me when we are about to hit the base and the coordinates of its location. And wish Colonel Johnson good luck".
The military commander of X-Com nodded in appreciation. "He will sure need it. Mother One out".
Area 51, Nevada, US
When Markovitch entered the officer's briefing room she wondered what the troops might be thinking of all the agitation that was going around the base in the past hours. All of the senior officers had simply disappeared from plain sight and all leaves and exercises had been cancelled or either postponed. Something big was on the air, they all knew it from the morning when a Skyranger had brought back Davis and a civilian from an unknown location and the base had been placed into full alert. Base gossip seemed to be at his best since she had noticed that on her way to the briefing room all of the troopers she had passed had carefully watched her to try to understand what was going on.
She immediately noticed that Williams was already standing in front of the group of assembled soldiers, together with Robinson and Johnson. The intelligence officer had his injured arm locked tight against his chest. There wasn't much space in the room left: all of the officers and non-coms of the combat squads were present, together with a number of staff officers that included Major Prescott of base ops. Moving forward she saw that Sergeant Krenon and Lieutenant Digriz had saved her a seat in-between them on the front row. Both of them were trying to relax, although they shared the waiting look of all that had no idea of the mission that the Colonel was about to brief them. They both looked at her but she simply sat down. When all officers were accounted and present, the doors were closed by armored guards who stood outside and Johnson begun, bringing into action a display of the US on the electronic wall behind him.
"Good morning all. As you might have guessed, we have a major situation. An alien base has been detected on US soil, more precisely in New Mexico. According to the information brought to us by Mr. Williams of the CIA, who is present here and Major Davies of our own intelligence bureau, it is located in the eastern part of the state, more precisely on this small plateau here". A satellite picture of the Archulleta Mesa appeared, focused on one section of the plateau that stood closer to a plainer area. "Our job is to take it out of commission".
Noise of conversation and shifting on the chairs was heard as everyone started to consider the operation. Then one lieutenant from the Fourth stood up and asked: "Colonel, I might be a boot lieutenant, but isn't that sketchy intelligence? And how can you tell that there's something inside that piece of rock?" Even Johnson smirked at the remark as the majority of the people in the room smiled but were also agreeing with the junior officer's comment.
Williams asked to reply to that one. "I know it might seem harmless, gentlemen but me and Major Davis have been close to it and nearly lost our lives. This is the place to where the Supply Ship you shot down weeks ago was heading".
Digriz turned to Markovitch. "So it was a Supply Ship?" She nodded. "Figures". Krenon added. "Why would someone be driving all of that stuff into battle?" Williams was exactly explaining that point. Another question arose from the audience. "That doesn't change a thing Colonel. We are still going to attack an enemy facility of which we have no idea of the layout or the number of defenders. At least with UFOs we have an idea of both".
Markovitch grumbled as the doubts she had expressed when planning the thing with Johnson appeared. The Russians of Stalingrad base had gotten themselves beaten into a corner in Siberia in a situation that had too much liking with this one for her taste. They could be finding themselves in the middle of hundreds of armed Mutons or some other aliens more nasty and tough.
Johnson raised his arms. "Those points have also been considered. We don't know how many aliens might there be or of what kind. Therefore we are going to drop over a squad before to do some reconnaissance work".
That seemed to bring to calm the discussion. Sergeant Baker rose from his seat. "Sir, will that be with the new flying suits?" The new powered armor had been developed using the anti-gravity ability supplied by the Elerium engines that powered them in conjunction with a miniature version of the guidance systems used in the new Firestorm craft. One of the rocket scientists back at Mother One had come up with the idea after seeing a video of the flying chair that the astronauts used on the Shuttle missions.
They were basically looked like a power suit with some small modifications and they literally allowed the X-Com trooper inside to hover in the air or take really long jumps. However, the complexity of the control mechanism reduced their combat use. A soldier had more things to worry in a battlefield such as taking cover and firing his weapon at the enemy than making himself a big airborne target for the enemy. But it was also very difficult to control a descent to the ground, even with long jumps. If the soldier wasn't proficient enough he could seriously hurt himself since he was flying several pounds worth of armor and equipment. The suit also used a large amount of Elerium to power itself, which was also in short supply since the only source was intact engines recovered from the alien's UFOs. For all of those reasons only a number of squads at each command had been equipped with the new suits. It offered a bit more protection against a plasma round but they took too much training and Elerium to justify issuing them to all the squads.
"Sergeant, I know Alpha and Zeta are eager to try them out, but this will involve a high altitude infiltration over the target area. Both your squad and Zeta have been training as much as you can but we have decided against it. I'm not going to risk your lives in a drop for which you aren't fully qualified yet". Baker nodded, agreeing but still not one hundred percent happy and Markovitch understood him, since she was also aching to make such a drop. They would however be wearing them during the main assault.
"That leaves the job to Omega". He looked at King, who simply nodded. "They will drop using a Hercules posing as a commercial plane. The Company will follow afterwards and will deploy to the target area considering what Omega tells us about the opposition and its outside defenses. We think that there should be a hangar or at least some sort of opening here". He pointed to the side overlooking the flatter area. "Depending on which Omega tells us, we can either stage an assault or we try to find some other way inside and catch them unguarded. Colonel Jackson's company will be our tactical reserve: in case we run into trouble they either reinforce us or help in withdrawing".
Another hand rose in the air. "What aliens are going to be facing sir?" Johnson looked at Williams and it reminded Markovitch of the discussion that she had during the planning meeting. Both intelligence officers seemed to be holding something and Johnson looked also to be a part of the whole scheme. The matter had appeared when they were arguing about the alertness of the aliens for such an attack after they had detected the officers had been attacked so close to their base. Williams had brought the point that they might not suspect any attack since he and Davies were posing as tourists. He had claimed that they had left the area after being replying to the attack and killing the aliens and most likely they haven't found out about the missing guards yet. That idea had struck Markovitch as ludicrous, since any decent commander would be aware of such a thing as base personnel disappearing. That's when the hammer came down. "Captain, we were attacked by hostiles that were human in appearance, most likely assigned to pose as a part of the local population and drive prevent anyway from getting too close. They might only have to report only in specific dates". That had gotten her firing off a lot of questions to her, which they either tried to respond or just kept their mouths silently. Finally Johnson had brought an end to the question by proposing to send the recon team. She wasn't satisfied totally but she decided to forget it for the moment and focus on the mission.
Johnson hesitated before answering. "We…aren't quite sure yet. The Supply Ship was crewed by Sectoids, but we have indications that there might be alien-human hybrids inside that base".
"What?!" The cry came immediately either spoken or not from the majority of the soldiers present. Johnson calmed them down. "Intelligence has data indicating that the aliens are developing hybrids based upon both races. According to them, these aliens are almost impossible to detect from normal humans at sight, but there are some things to look for, like the color of their eyes and skin who is close to an albino. Bottom line: if he or she is carrying any weapons then the humanoid is to be considered as hostile. But you encounter any unarmed humans on that base be extremely careful when approaching them". That seemed to have assured the troops, although Markovitch still heard some low complaints.
"Any questions?" Hopkins raised his big bulk from the chair. "You haven't mentioned Beta's new toys, Colonel. Are we allowed to bring them along?" Johnson smiled at him. "You will Sergeant, since it might be good to have some extra firepower inside that base. However you will only use them if and when I give the order". Hopkins seemed satisfied and sat back. "No more questions? This briefing is over then. Go to your troops and let's get ready for the action".
Archuletta Mesa, New Mexico, US
As the members of Zeta squad moved along the fourth level of the base, Markovitch couldn't keep a dreadful feeling over the whereabouts of the humans that had occupied the higher levels of the facility.
Omega had found the location of the base after their drop, right where William and Davies had reported but hadn't found any sign of aliens outside. They had searched the area around the plateau but there were no indications that there might be a base inside. Looking for the supposed hangar at the base of the hangar had also proven to be a wild goose chase for them.
However, as the Skyrangers carrying the rest of the team were about to land in an area nearby to hide their approach, King had reported that they had discovered a concealed entrance on the top of the mesa but that is seemed deserted. All of the platoons had moved into the location after touching down on the ground and they had found an old dirt road that led them directly to the location where Omega was waiting.
They had found the entrance was empty of aliens. It was inside a ruined hut that was surrounded by an aged rusty fence with a sign that said in near gone letters: "U.S. Geological Survey – Meteorological Studies – No Trespassing".
However, inside the ruined small building, they had found a locked door on its basement that, after being opened, gave the way to a large facility inside through a series of staircases.
The X-Com team was now on the process of going through a facility that was deserted until now, spreading over what seemed to be four levels inside the plateau. They had found no aliens; only the signs that this seemed to have been a secret government facility. Markovitch had wondered if Williams and Davis had actually bothered to ask the government if they had used this place and then abandoned it long ago.
But that was until they first started to find the signs that some sort of confrontation had been taken place inside and that its occupants seemed to have left the base in a hurry. Personal belongings were scattered everywhere on the personnel area and the kitchens were full of rotten food, long turned into unrecognizable darkened lumps attached to the plates and pans. And alongside, in some corridors and rooms there were spent cartridges as if some intense fighting had occurred. And the identity of the attackers was plain for everyone to see in the spent plasma clips that occasionally would be standing on the ground, together with the holes made by the fire of the alien weapons.
The passageway where Zeta was now moving was also full of bad omens regarding the past events of the base: there were paper sheets spread out on the floor, with a dark mark on the white plastic tiles of the floor. Markovitch had already stepped upon a pair of glasses, crunching it into a million pieces. And there were large holes burned on the walls by plasma weapons, revealing broken plastic wires and tubing. The whole place was bathed in darkness and they had to use their suits's IR equipment and flashlights attached to the barrel of their weapons. Dare was constantly keeping an eye on his motion detector while the remaining squad members hold their weapons with both arms, keeping them ready for any foe that might jump from the side corridors.
They kept moving down the corridor, carefully checking every intersection in a time consuming process, until Prune, who was at the front, stopped by a pair of heavy metal doors that had been blown off their hinges and looked inside the entrance. With a gesture he ordered everyone to stop and the rest of the squad did so, bringing their weapons up to full readiness. "Cap", he called, "come here. I think we just found ETs ride".
Markovitch turned towards Dare, who looked again at the motion detector and confirmed her that there wasn't any movement nearby besides them. She then moved forward to join Prune who had now crossed to the other side and pointed towards the end of the side corridor. Markovitch took a look and saw a bright violet glow coming out of its end. She recognized the light as the one coming from the lifts the aliens used at their UFOs. Nodding to him, she then ordered the remainder of her squad to keep an eye on the corridor while she contacted the Colonel.
The image came flashing through her eyes and she was turning away from Prune. Deep, sleek alien eyes peering out from every corner of the corridor she was in, until finally they all meshed together on a Sectoid face gleaming white at the end of the corridor where they had just came from. A sudden fear took every inch of her and her reflexes kicked in, making her lift her plasma rifle and fire down at the ghostly appearance.
But as the super-heated plasma traveled the way towards its intended target, giving the white passageway a greenish hue as it disappeared on the depths of the corridor, she realized that the image simply vanished before her eyes. Markovitch blinked them, while the other squad members were turning positions to deal with the new threat. "Cease fire!" She ordered the same second; leaving them a little puzzled about what had just happened.
"Markovitch what's going on over there?" The call from Johnson came up afterwards. "Colonel, we found an alien lift leading down. I overreacted to it".
He seemed relieved by the explanation but his voice was slightly accentuated from the stress that was also building on him. "Hell of a way to put it. One of the rookies on Tau almost pissed on his suit as the shot went two feet in front of him. Keep your heads cool and watch that lift while we finish sweeping over here". She acknowledged and passed along the orders, wishing that they could finish the job fast. To her, the damn base looked more full of ghosts than aliens.
* * * * *
Johnson couldn't stop wondering who had built the base and why. The first four levels of the underground facility were markedly designed to be used by humans: in the first level they had found security checkpoints and an underground garage that opened into hidden doors on the top of the mesa. The second was designed for housing personnel, containing individual and group accommodations, together with a mess hall and recreational facilities while the third and fourth levels seemed to be related to some sort of scientific research.
As he and the rest of Sigma passed through another room full of abandoned workshops, he paused by one of the tables. The whole place was reminding him of Area 19, the top-secret facility close to Area 51 where he had discovered Billings' true identity and also the secrets that General Smith had hidden there, right under X-Com's nose. He wondered if the late general had anything to do with this facility also. If not, then who might responsible? It was evident that millions of dollars had been spend in digging up the plateau to construct the facility and its sheer size meant that it couldn't just have passed the scrutiny of the higher chain of command. Billings, or now Dr. Young, apparently knew nothing of the place and if his story was correct it didn't surprise Johnson at all. He had slowly learned to trust the hybrid and his word: without the help that they had given X-Com, the design and building of the new Firestorm fighter aircraft had probably been impossible for them to achieve on their own. And they also had gone beyond the agreement established between him and Billings: their scientific contribution in a number of areas had been highly praised by Dr. Mantell.
Williams on the other hand might knew something about the identity of the humans behind this but the circumstances had made it impossible for Johnson to try to find out more about how they had discovered the place. The intelligence officer seemed too much concerned about his own personal quest, whatever it might be and that troubled Johnson. The fact that Vaughn had dismissed him from his position as being the top analyst on the CIA for the extraterrestrial menace didn't help in favoring Williams on his own eyes. He would have to answer for some things when he got back to the base.
Major Patterson moved closer to him. "The squads had finished their sweep of this level. Again, zero for aliens found but Lambda says they found out another of the alien lifts close to our position".
"What's your opinion Mike?"
"I feel that something strange has gone here and the rest of the troops also are talking about it. I mean this is a typical US classified facility and it seems as if the aliens have overrun the place long ago. How come we never heard of this before or when we signed up for X-Com?"
"My thoughts precisely. Probably the whole place might be deserted, but we need to find out more about what happened here". Moving towards one of the doors in the large dark room. "Notify the platoon commanders: we are getting down to find out what's below us".
* * * * *
The first thing Private Greaves thought as his feet stepped on the metal floor was that the aliens had simply buried one of their spaceships inside the hill. Going down through the elevators that they had found, his squad had first reached a massive cave carved into the natural rock. The Captain had told them that it probably was a hangar since they seemed to be at ground level according to their Global Positioning System attached to the motion scanners that they were using. However the doors couldn't be discerned, just walls of polished granite that sparkled if anyone pointed a light at them. After a quick search, the fifth level was also determined to be deserted of any aliens like the four preceding it.
Moving on as point squad, they had found that the level before was nothing more than a large chamber, only this time lighted by some green fluorescence that came out of the floor, in contrast with the darkness found above. Everyone looked at one another before positioning themselves to go further down and Greaves took the northwestern position. It seemed that something at the base was still working after all. The four troopers stood ready, each one in the corners of the square lift.
As all of them moved further into the pits below, Greaves found himself facing the intersection of two blank gray walls, made of the same material that the aliens used on their UFOs. He heard no warnings from his squadmates, so he left the lift to leave room for Epsilon, who should be coming right behind them. Only then did he noticed that they had arrived at a chamber about the same size as the one above, but this time there were passageways on three sides of it, with the eastern part ending on natural rock. The Lieutenant and Werrett were already moving towards the southern entrance, only stopping to look at the western one before crossing it in a quick dash. Greaves wondered if the aliens could hear the sound of their steps on the metal floor as he positioned himself to cover the west side. Reaching the position he took a peak: a large chamber that seemed much bigger than the one that they were standing was right next to the lift, sprouting eight foot cylinders. Some of them glowed with a yellow light that seemed to be coming out from their interior but others were filled with some semi-transparent liquid, where fuzzy shapes could be seen floating inside. No sign of any aliens though. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he turned and saw that Epsilon had already arrived. But where were the aliens?
* * * * *
On another location at the alien base, Jones and the remainder of Gamma had already moved into an adjacent chamber south of the lift and had found it also empty of aliens. But they seemed to have reached the base's southern limit, since now the chamber only had passageways west and east. Pairing up with Garcia they both started moving towards their right, trying to keep as much possible to the walls as possible. Jones wanted to put a plasma round up the arse of the alien who had designed the place. These empty chambers didn't had much for cover, and if you approached one of the small corridors that connected them you risked taking a shot on your back or sides if the other passageways weren't clear of hostiles.
The corridor linked this room to a darker one, it seemed and both men had trouble seeing what was on its inside, even with their passive IR scopes. Then both of them saw a figure moving on the shadows inside and they dropped to their knees. An armed Sectoid was moving away from them on the other chamber, apparently oblivious to their presence, going further into the depths of the darkness.
Jones heard Rodriguez whispering to his mike. "Captain, we have….Coño!" Jones had seen it also. A Cyberdisk had moved into their view, hovering two feet above the ground and following the Sectoid's path. But the smaller alien had stopped on his tracks to look upwards and it made the alien machine stop right by the entrance to the chamber, where it started to turn into the X-Com's troopers direction to choose another path.
He set his plasma rifle into autofire and discharged a burst, but only his first shot hit the target. The rest of them went wild into the ceiling as Rodriguez threw his metal bulk over him, sending both men crashing into the walls of the room where they were standing.
The maneuver probably had saved Jones's life since the Cyberdisk immediately completed its turn and fired back at its attacker, filling the space where the troopers was with heavy plasma fire. Then both men were filled with a shock wave, followed by heat and the wailing sound of a dying Sectoid. The two other troopers on the other side of the room had heard the warning but had refrained from shooting until their comrades were clear. But the moment Rodriguez pushed Jones they had fired their weapons at the body of alien war machine, breaching its armor in several locations. As the energy of their plasma bolts bled to the engine that powered the Cyberdisk, it detonated the Elerium inside in an explosion that left no trace of the machine and killed the alien behind it.
Meanwhile the rest of First Platoon had also established contact with the aliens on the north as they tried to link with the Fourth. As soon as Lt. Hanley was leading Delta into a chamber close to the main storage area they had been greeted by shots coming from their left. Looking in that direction he saw a Sectoid standing at the end of a small corridor, that afterwards went back through a door on its far end, in no doubt the place from where it had came from originally.
He waved Kyle and Bearpaw forwards to flush the alien out of its hiding. But as both men started to approach the door, walking close to the walls of the corridor, Bearpaw suddenly came to an abrupt stop and jumped towards Kyle's direction. A plasma shot hit the location where he had just been standing coming from the wall in front of the door. "Sir, there's a window there!"
"Get back!" He looked in the direction of the storage area, in time to see Bradley also recoiling to avoid a series of green bolts that darted from that direction. "Captain, we're in trouble here!" But no response came over the radio.
* * * * *
"How's it going?" Johnson called to White and Patterson as soon as he cleared the lift and placed himself against one of the walls, with Crossett right next to him. The sound of battle could be already heard through his suit built-in microphones when he had reached the Seventh and last level. Looking around he saw that Fourth Platoon had already moving and only his squad and Beta remained from the Third.
"Colonel", White started, "we have became separated. First and Second are some distance to the southwest, according to the GPS. Captain Jerrel has found some strong opposition and they are trying to surpress it. The Second is trying to link with us but progressing slowly since they have encountered some sort of bunkers. So far they have only found Sectoids and Cyberdisks". Patterson's voice came next. "The Fourth is to the north, getting ready to move into a huge chamber that is directly next to us. Lt. Cruz is leading Omicron and Omega and trying to link with the Second".
Johnson looked at the other end of the chamber. Sergeant Hopkins and Levine had already taken their heavy weapons from their backs and were busy loading them with football shaped projectiles, while the rest of Beta took a watch at the storage area next to them. "Let's hope we don't need that".
* * * * *
Moving eastwards, Markovitch found that it would take time before joining with the Third and clearing this portion the base from aliens. Kappa had first reported the existence of what they called 'bunkers', enclosured rooms that at least seemed designed to them as fortifications although there seemed to be no aliens inside them.
She had also came up into one. It stood in the middle of the chamber, some eight feet away from the walls, with windows facing all directions that allowed seeing what was going on the other side of the bunker. It seemed empty but as they were approaching it from the north a Sectoid popped in one of the windows that took a series of shots at them, taking cover afterwards.
"Get that window covered!" Dare and Yu stayed put and waiting for the alien to show its ugly face again while she and Prune moved low and forward, each one taking opposite directions as they went around the bunker to find the entrance to the place. On her side she only found another window and she placed herself out it's vision while considering if she should throw a grenade inside. Then her radio went active: "Captain! I've found the door. I…" Prune's voice went silent and a bad feeling swept through her.
She stepped backwards to see what had happened to him. "Prune! Are you alright?" She looked into the direction of the trooper but saw nothing for a second until all of a sudden he jumped back into her line of view, moving so fast that she wondered from what he was running. Confusion clicked inside her as her warrior's instincts told her that he was attacking, as he lifted his laser rifle and fired a three-shot salvo at her. They all hit on her chest and arms and for a moment she faltered, too dumbstruck from the shock of the critical injuries that she had just suffered.
Only after a brief moment did she realized what was happening and why that her armor hadn't been breached. She was wearing the new suits and their protection made the laser rifles almost useless against them. But before she could warn the other squad members she felt an electric shock going through her head while Prune suddenly stopped his attack.
For the first time in her life she felt her body was the host of two minds, and one of them was trying to overcome the other and gain control of her arms. She realized in astonishment that her index finger was already gripping the trigger of her plasma rifle while her left hand was reaching for a grenade on her belt. Closing her eyes to try to shake off the alien presence, she suddenly saw the face of a Sectoid in orange and green colors, floating in the middle of dark geometric patterns that were constantly shifting. The alien was looking straight at her and grinning and she saw that its arms were slowly expanding themselves and reaching towards her. But as they were about to touch her, a feeling of nausea and repulsion overcome her and she opened her eyes.
She found herself looking at Prune as if he was at the end of a tunnel and she wondered how long it had passed since he was still in the same position. Slowly the dark edges of the tunnel started to resolve themselves into the features of the alien base. But Prune was already starting to grip his rifle again. "Prune is mind-controlled! Get him!" She moved away from his aim and back to the other side of the bunker.
The alien controlling him probably had a good idea of her position so she crouched as low as possible as she passed below the window, on her way to circle the room. When she reached the other side and looked past the metal corner she knew it for certain. A shot came flying on her direction but it missed hitting the wall on her right. But instead of the heat of a plasma shot, she felt vertigo and a little bit of nausea. "Let's see how fast you can reload that thing".
She broke into a run to the direction of the alien. Passing through another window she saw by the corner of her eye that there seemed to be some commotion at where she had left the rest of her squad but she ignored it. Reaching the other side she turned and saw two Sectoids by the bunker's door, one of them holding a heavy plasma but with its back to her while the other was facing her with a launcher. It had been swift in reloading. She tried to fire at him but one of her feet skidded on the metal pavement and she lost her balance as the alien fired its weapon. She saw the shot, a violet ball, hitting her helmet and ricocheting backwards before detonating, overwhelming her senses and plunging her into darkness.
* * * * *
The call from Delta nearly hadn't been noticed by the rest of the First Platoon. They had entered an open and wide darkened chamber on the west of the base that was filled with luxuriant alien vegetation. The plants looked more as if they belonged to a marine life documentary. Most of them had no leaves or something that could be characterized as such. Instead they sprouted orange, blue and violet tubes coming from a central pulpous mass on the ground.
The whole cave was more of a short maze: it was two stories high and it was divided into smaller areas that were linked one to another by tight corridors that marked the higher areas about. The alien vegetation was present everywhere, together with another type of extraterrestrial life, that one more deathly and dangerous. Alpha and Gamma were trying to move along the place, but the Sectoids were entrenched, transforming the task of negotiating the corridors very dangerous.
Jones had just thrown a grenade into the direction of one of the aliens that was preventing them of moving to the next clear area. It went off setting ablaze the vegetation around it but he couldn't tell if the alien had been killed. Looking around he saw that the Captain was also busy: a Cyberdisk had just popped up in the higher ground and hit Pershing with a plasma shot that brought the X-Com soldier to his knees. He tried to help the officer in bringing the alien down but to no avail since the alien simply took a couple of steps backwards and moved out of their weapons line of sight.
On the other side of the room, Sergeant Baker dodged for one of the corridors as a grenade dropped out of nowhere. The explosion filled the area where he was with smoke and injured one of the troopers. Evans joined him in the relative protection of the corridor as he took out a banana shaped clip from his belt and locked it into the ammunition compartment of his heavy plasma. There was some green fluorescence inside the room that came out of the plants and the contours of both men's suits were marked by the hue.
"This can't go on for very long. Gamma is in trouble on the other side of this elevation". The soldier nodded as he reached for his chest with his left hand and brought his heavy plasma to his waist level with his right hand. "Alpha squad! Let's show them how we do things!" He activated the control mechanism of his flying suit and Evans mimicked his motion. Using the anti-gravity device, he gave himself an upward motion to elevate himself to the level of the higher area above. In a second he found himself looking at a Sectoid and a Cyberdisk standing in the above platform and he killed off the motion but remained standing on the air. The alien was closer to him and tried to react but Baker simply moved his weapon into his direction and fired at it. One of his shots hit the heavy plasma it was carrying while another neatly clove off its leg with the precision of a surgeon, cutting completely through the muscle and bone. The alien shrieked and fell off to the ground below.
On his left, Evans tried to replicate his movement but something went wrong. He gave too much upward thrust and his head hit the ceiling. At that moment he cut the motion but it made him to start to fall down. "Evans! Get it under control!" Baker shouted but it was too late: the Cyberdisk was on the process of turning its attention to both troopers.
The X-Com sergeant was finishing his landing when he spotted the motion of the flying disk and could only use one hand to point at the alien. His shots missed wide to the left, carving themselves into the dark walls of the chamber but the machine was more successful. Stopping its movement, it let go of its own plasma weapon at the other soldier who was only now getting his airborne movement under control. But it was too late for Evans: several green bolts hit him and his hand dropped from the flying controls, deactivating the Elerium device and putting him again under the influence of gravity.
Baker watched in horror as he felt down to the ground below and hit it with his head straight. The helmet stood in a strange angle afterwards in relation to the body: even if he had survived the injuries of the plasma shots he had broken his neck on the crash.
"God damn it Evans!" Another shot burst a purple plant close to him and his white armor became peppered by colored fragments from it. "Time to die asshole!" He located the Cyberdisk and the rest of his squad joined him in bringing down the alien. It simply disintegrated himself after taking a number of plasma and laser shots, transforming itself into a fireball that engulfed the upper platform.
* * * * *
At the order of the Captain, Epsilon and Tau squads began moving into the big storage area. They had spotted already a couple of Sectoids but they had been dropped by the squad's long range fire. Corporal Logan was one of the first inside, dashing towards one the big containers that filled the room as his squad mates covered him from any alien that dared to poke his head from cover.
Reaching the one to his left he turned his body while still racing and leaned heavily with his back against the cylinder. The other soldiers were starting to move, so he brought his own heavy plasma around the circular glass surface to cover for their advance and took a look on the right side. In the corridor formed by the alien metal and glass containers no motion was discernible, but the noise of laser fire coming from the other direction told him that Tau had just found some alien targets.
Suddenly he felt something moving inside the cylinder next to him and he took a step forwards and turned, pointing his weapon at it. A big brown and orange crab like creature sporting massive claws and a tail was floating inside the dense liquid. Its eyes seemed open but Logan saw that it was dead. The motion was provoked by when he hit the container with the bulk of his power suit. Looking around he saw that some of the other cylinders were filled of other strange bodies, although one had something quite familiar. A human skeleton was placed inside, standing on its feet and facing him. The skull had its mouth opened and it looked to him that it was grinning back at him. "What's so funny?" He whispered but catching a glimpse of movement through the corner of his eye he pumped himself back to cover.
A Cyberdisk was moving along the containers and fired a shot at him that missed and hit the side of the container instead. The alien glass vaporized and the liquid inside started to pour out into the floor. "My turn". He pointed his heavy plasma into the direction of the alien machine but found out that it was gone. Looking around the area he tried to figure out to where it had escaped but a cry from behind told him that something was wrong. Manning was moving to reach his position but as soon as he came out of hiding a full plasma blast caught him squarely on his chest. "Where..?!"
Looking upwards he saw to where the Cyberdisk had gone. The machine had used its anti-gravity drive to propel itself to the ceiling away from his view and was standing now close to one of the towers that were standing on the middle of the room, standing higher than the containers. Another shot came by from that direction and hit him on the shoulder. He felt a sudden wave of heat on that part of his body but the absence of pain told him that the armor had resisted the attack. Getting behind the cylinder again he extended his hand to try to reach for Manning, who had tried to get up by inside, only to crash into the ground again and stay there immobile. However another shot to brace himself as closer as possible to the few cover that he had. He saw the Sergeant and Deckard looking at him and Manning from their backward position but waved them off. "There one of them inside that damn tower!"
* * * * *
On the side of Epsilon, Greaves' squad was also having its share of problems. They had smoked two Sectoids that had tried to hinder their advance but now the alien snipers inside the two towers in front of him were being too efficient in pinning everyone down with heavy plasma rounds. Looking backwards he saw the Lieutenant with his hand to his ear as if trying to talk on the radio, a futile movement that came out of habit, since the suits were soundproof. They were all trying to surpress the aliens inside both towers, but to no avail. The whole thing was turning into a game of shoot and hide that was bogging them down.
The alien plant inside the room was a monstrosity that seemed to dwell in darkness on the contrary of normal plants. All of the members of Omega squad avoided getting closer to the colored tangle of vines and cones that stood in the middle of the room since it would stir occasionally by itself as if it was aware of the presence of intruders inside the room. But the humans paid it little attention, as they used the garden room on the side of the storage area to support the advance of the main force. Rumpole had already managed to hit a Cyberdisk that was on the far side of the room and advancing to bring more firepower into the already beleaguered X-Com troops. It had exploded airborne, spreading debris all over the back area and started a number of small fires but its destruction hadn't helped the main problem. There were four towers in the middle of the room, disposed in a square, and the aliens inside had learned to avoid the windows that lead into their direction after one of them had been downed by Omega's accurate fire. But there were still Sectoids inside that were pinning the other troops down and approaching the towers seemed impossible because of the amount of cross fire that the aliens were able to place.
Leaving the rest of his squad members, King moved towards the western entrance to see if they could cross into the next room and get a better firing position. He moved around the alien plant in the middle and saw that the next room was the one were Delta had been stopped on their tracks by fire coming down of a corridor.
The alien that popped out again of the door at the far end told him just how risky it would be to try to advance. A triple shot from his weapon hit the wall of the corridor close to him, with two shots passing by him. "No luck here!" He moved back to reach his squad and saw that the alien fire had hit the plant. It was now releasing some sort of greenish smoke from the holes carved by the plasma.
That brought an idea to King's mind and as he went by the soldiers he started to issue orders.
A few seconds later, Omega squad was about to get into action. King was standing down with his right knee on the ground, with Deschamps standing right behind him and holding his heavy plasma ready. They had retracted to a chamber eastward that contained one of the bunkers like the ones found by Second Platoon, leaving the other team on the alien garden.
"Get that can opener working. I'm ready". Deschamps took aim at the side of the nearest elevated structure and started putting heavy plasma fire into it. The alloys the aliens used in the walls of the base and the inside of UFOs were tough, several times stronger that Kevlar armor and capable of resisting even the most heavy plasma or laser fire. However if hit from an angle their crystalline structure would stress and eventually give in. The effect had first been noticed by X-Com troops in the middle of UFO assaults. Sometimes a stray heavy plasma shot would cave big holes in the interior walls of the UFO that had previously withstood several frontal shots.
Two shots of Deschamps's first salvo made hits against the wall but only his second try opened a breach on the tower's side right close to the window. It quickly became enlarged as the Canadian soldier poured more plasma fire. It was the literal opening that King was waiting for. Looking through the scope of his heavy laser, he saw the upper torso and large head of a Sectoid appearing through the hole that Deschamps had cut. He put the sight right on it and, letting go of a small breath pressed the trigger. A golden beam crossed the space between the barrel of his gun and the hole at the speed of light, leaving a burning image on his retina. After a quick blink of his eyes to clear the side effect on his vision he saw the Sectoid falling into the ground. "Left tower clear!" He then moved his aim to the far structure while on the other room was Rumpole also clearing the other two towers from the aliens inside.
* * * * *
"Go!" Logan immediately sprung into action and started to run for the base of the tower as the call came in the squad's radio channel. He didn't bother to shoot; instead he wanted to get the Cyberdisk's attention without getting killed in the process. The machine didn't disappoint him: a shot dizzied past his right shoulder and hit the side of a cylinder full of a greenish fluid.
Correcting its aim, the flying machine let go of another shot as Logan was almost reaching the tower that hit him on his left knee. This time the armor failed to protect him and he came crashing into the ground, his forward motion sending him sliding to the side of the tower. But the mini-UFO paid a heavy price for its success. Sergeant Grisham and Deckard had left their cover at the time of the Cyberdisk's first shot and now fired their own rifles at the machine. Looking upwards, Logan saw a number of red laser shot hit it and making it falter on the air, right above him.
He realized what was about to happen. "Shit!" Ignoring the pain from his wounded knee he rolled himself around the corner, barely avoiding that the now dead Cyberdisk hulk crushed him as it felt and hit the location where he was standing two seconds before. His radio immediately started cracking: "Logan! Are you alright?"
He was already bringing out his medi-kit while looking for any Sectoids that might be still lurking around this tower. "Yeah".
The Sergeant voice made it quite clearly how pissed he was at the Corporal. "You were supposed to have gone the other way! Don't you know these things go off when they die!?" Logan grinned to himself, thinking that the machine's computer probably also had thought the same, since the other side was less open. However, Cyberdisks went off when they got hit by plasma fire and besides him, the only one who was using plasma weapons on the squad was the Sergeant, who had the lowest marksmanship of the four men team. He looked backwards and saw that Deckard had reached his position while the Sergeant was helping out Manning, who stood sprawled close to the container that had the human skeleton inside. The skull still looked to him as if it was grinning.
* * * * *
The "farm" had finally been cleared of the remaining aliens but at a tough price: besides the death of Evans, Rodriguez had caught a plasma blast below his left knee that severely limited his movement. He could still fight but they had been forced to leave him behind. Gamma was now trying to flank the alien stronghold that was pinning Delta while Alpha had reached the west end of the base and was keeping an watch in a long corridor that linked several empty chambers and that ended at a single door.
Captain Jerrel looked at the corridor in front of him: it was equal to the description the Lieutenant had given him, with a door at the left side and a window on the right. Both of them seemed to form a perfect ninety-degree angle and, according to Delta there was an alien on the small right chamber. Jones was carefully approaching the window of the room. When he reached it, he took a careful look inside and saw the alien that Delta had mentioned, standing with its back turned to him. He simply brought up his laser rifle and killed it, with the alien having no notice of who had been its executioner. "The door is clear!" He heard and saw the Captain and Rodriguez, who were following him, had already gone inside the entrance behind him and were starting to use a small lift inside.
Following them, he found himself in another corridor, this time pointed westwards that turned on its end to the right, with another small lift at the intersection. "Grenade!" Pershing called and, looking around for cover and finding none he pressed himself into the end of the corridor, with the other troopers nearly crushing him against the wall.
The noise of the explosion was followed by the death cry of a Sectoid that was in the hiding in the side corridor ahead. Jones opened his eyes to see that the walls in front of him were filled of small man sized chambers built into the metal surface. The one in front of him gleamed with ice inside a glass window that accounted for half of the chamber, briefly lighted by the red and orange small lights blinking on top of it.
They all seemed empty but inside the one in front of Jones he could see the shape of a Sectoid standing immobile inside the small compartment. Its lidless eyes seemed dead but its mouth suddenly opened itself and the door of the chamber started to open. "Captain!" He shouted as the barrel of his laser rifle begun to glow in reddish tones.
* * * * *
A grenade came skidding down the metal floor, in the direction of Tau squad who now had passed the nearest towers and had cleared more than half the room. Greaves and the other soldiers took cover behind the cylinders, of whom now there wasn't any intact until it went off harmlessly. The whole place was now still a shooting alley, where standing in the open was close to jump from a plane with a parachute. However, the squads on the chambers on the left flank were making the difference as they flanked the aliens and either flush them out into the direction of Fourth Platoon or took them from their side.
As he resumed his advance, a Sectoid suddenly came out of the ground level door of one of the second line of towers that they were approaching. But the alien was unarmed and, waiving his upper thin limbs on the air, it started to try to run away in panic. He was cut down by a shot from Tau's solders.
"The aliens seem to be caving in". Someone commented on the radio and Greaves thought it also. They could now see the metal walls that marked the end of the storage area.
Then it came. A sound so small that nearly passed his attention and that looked funny to him as something too fast for him to discern raced by his right side, almost running into the side of one of the towers that were already behind him. The channel was suddenly active and someone had recognized what it was and tried to issue a warning, but it was too late.
Turning his head and looking backwards, he saw in horror as the other side of the area suddenly became lit in near blinding while light. The silhouette of the still cylinders standing up and one of the towers disappeared for one brief moment under the flare, which was followed by a shock wave that made him take a step forwards to steady himself on his feet. His suit's suppressor cut in most of the noise but the rumble was still loud enough to make him rattle. The light was soon replaced by a thick dark smoke coming out from the containers right behind him, several of which had caught fire and from the liquid inside them that had simply been vaporized by the heat released by the explosion.
A second later someone started to scream into the platoon's circuit, filling it with cries of pain: "My legs! My legs! Help me!" He turned to the direction of the blast but a call cut over the wailing voice and stopped him. "This is Major Patterson. Epsilon and Tau keep your positions and don't show yourselves. Lambda's position has been hit by a blaster bomb! We are moving to help them. Lieutenant you're in charge now".
* * * * *
Moving into location that had been targeted by the alien's bomb, Johnson found the whole area had been completely leveled by the power of the explosion. The only remains left of the cylinders were the supports that attached them to the ground and one of the towers had been reduced to pieces of its walls standing from the ground, torn and gutted by the blast. Lambda's fate wasn't less gruesome. The Captain and two of the soldiers had been transformed into piles of blood and metal that had been thrown against the walls by the force of the explosion. The remaining soldier had been somewhat away from the explosion and only the armor of his power suit hadn't killed him right away, but his legs had been sliced from the rest of his body right by the hips. A soldier had moved to help him but found out that it was already dead, probably from the bleeding and the shock of having both his legs amputated. Johnson saw the trooper indication that the downed soldier was already dead and shook his head in frustration and anger. "Alpha reports they might have found the origin of the shot". White spoke to Johnson. "Let's get back into the other chamber and feed the coordinates to Hopkins right away!"
Moving backwards they passed by Beta's Sergeant, which was in the entry of the lift's room, getting his blaster launcher ready. It was a big blue-gray tube that opened at one end looking like a bazooka. On its side Hopkins had painted in white letters: Big Momma II. Inside it contained the most powerful weapon that Johnson had ever seem used by individual soldiers on a battlefield, besides the Army's experiments with jeeps equipped wit David Crockett tactical nuclear missiles in the fifties.
The weapon was loaded by its barrel and the projectiles were the shape and size of a football. They were packed with explosive Elerium and carried a fuse that would detonate the matter-antimatter inside upon contact. Each one was powerful enough to level a whole city block and it was X-Com's new weapon, after the engineers had managed to replicate the one retrieved on the aftermath of the alien attack on Complex YY-18.
Hopkins had listened to White's and Alpha instructions and was busy introducing the data on the weapon through a small keypad set on the side of the weapon. Each bomb carried a small Elerium engine and guidance system that powered it through the way to its target. The weapon had two modes available: free-flight, were after its launch from the barrel the bomb could be directly guided by the launcher's operator to its target through a small control joystick; and pre-programmed, where the operator would introduced a series of navigational way points into the computer each one indicating for how it should travel in a particular direction before turning into the next way point. The first mode was better used in an open battlefield and on far away moving targets; the second one allowed it to be used in enclosured spaces, as long as the operator had a precise idea of the obstacles standing in the path to the targets. Any mistake could prove deadly for the soldier using the weapon and for any friendly troops nearby. But if the coordinates were correctly judged and introduced, the combination of the guidance mechanism and of the anti-gravity engine allowed the bomb to make ninety degree turns around corners or for it to stop over an enemy trench and come down directly on the enemy soldiers standing inside it.
When he was finished, Hopkins checked the coordinates again before issuing a warning. "All clear! One…two….three!" He then pressed the trigger.
Although it traveled at half the speed of sound, he saw the football clearly stopping in the storage area in front of him and moving upwards to use the clear space close to the ceiling, avoiding any obstacles as it sped towards its target area.
* * * * *
Slowly, a feeling of warmth started to fill her body, pulling her away from unconsciousness as the chemicals inside her blood stream rose her pulsation. Slowly moving her arms she found them still inside the metal exoskeleton of her suit, but they seemed cold. Opening her eyes, Markovitch found herself leaning against the wall of the bunker, with Prune lying on the ground close to her and being attended by Camay. The young trooper still had a dazzled look on his eyes as he noticed that she had awaken and turned his neck to face her. "Hey Cap. Sorry for what happened back there".
She winced, trying to clear away the last of the stun round that she had taken squarely on the face. Her cheeks and nose were burning but she didn't seem to have any other injuries. "No problem". She replied in a light tone. "But when we're back please report yourself to Sergeant Krenon for latrine scrubbing duty. What happened to you?"
"Dare and Yu had some trouble restraining me. Apparently I started applying my head as a hammer on them when they tried to grab me. But when they finally did, the alien simply gave away from me and controlled one of them". He shivered as if recalling something scary and painful. She looked away from him and to the figures of two Sectoids lying at a corner. She pointed with her head. "Is that the bastard?"
"Yeah Cap, Omicron found the two of them and you laying around on the floor. It looks like the shot that stun you also brought these two down. I'd wish I could kill both of them slowly but the Lt. said he's more worth to us alive". He tried to raise himself but gave up with a cry of pain. Camay was checking on the Captain now but quick turned to him. "Lay down your thick head shit for brains! If the blood clot I think you have on your head gets dislodged from its position you'll either die of a heart attack or the aliens better turn vegetarian if they want to use you for food!" He simply winced.
"Camay, where's the Lt.?" The female private removed the medi-kit that was attached to her arm. "They are finishing clearing the south, Cap. The other platoons are still trying to figure out the location of the command center and are moving towards the area that we haven't checked, but it's being heavily defended by the aliens". As to reinforce her statement the heavy thump of an explosion was suddenly heard. "That must be Beta at work. Am I OK?"
"Yeah. Think you need more stimulant Cap?" She asked before placing the medi-kit away. "I'm awake now". Getting up she saw the stun launcher that had brought her down, lying around the floor with a number of ammunition rounds close to it. "Keep an eye on those aliens. Use this at the minimum sign of trouble". She pointed at the launcher with her feet and Camay nodded. Locking her helmet back on, she grabbed her gun and checked for the position of her platoon.
André Galvão, 2002