Prologue
Larry Mann
Back to X-Com Page
"X-COM: UFO Defense" and "X-COM: Terror From The Deep"
Copyright (c) 1994 MicroProse and Mythos Software
"X-Com Saga" Copyright (c) 1994 Russ Brown
"X-Com Saga II: Tales From The Deep" Copyright (c) 1996-97 Larry Mann
"I will tell you the story of the Elemental, a truly great hero in
our world's wars against the Starspawn.
"Yes, let no one tell you differently: the Starspawn are as
real as you or I. Indeed, my people are living proof of that. They are
ancient, far more ancient than any race to walk the surface of our
planet, and their power is on a level which we can only begin to understand.
"There is much legend surrounding the Starspawn, I know. The
tales of the wars are so much legends nowadays that truth is far too
often unknowable. And before I go on I must separate the facts from the
fictions, for the truths must be preserved if our species is to continue
surviving.
"The Starspawn first became known to us at the dawn of the Third
Millennium, as their scouts and harvest vessels began returning in
earnest to reap the bounty of Earth. Plants, animals, humans... all were
taken for experiments, for resources, and for food. We were little more
than animals to them, animals and guinea pigs for their genetic
experiments. But we were not docile animals, and our fighting instincts
drove us into resistance against them. The greatest thinkers, the
strongest fighters, and the mightiest tool-builders from every nation on
Earth; all banded together to form the secret Extraterrestrial Combat
Force, X-Com.
"From the beginning our resistance was horribly outnumbered and
outgunned, and some thought X-Com's efforts to be insanely pointless.
But our aircraft were able to shoot down the enemy vessels. And our simple
weapons were effective against the creatures we found aboard those
ships. We killed them. We captured their dead vessels. We knew then that
they were not undefeatable.
"But simply killing them was no answer, for though we knew our
weapons were effective for that moment, that could not last forever. We
had to learn who and what these aliens were, why they were here, and most
importantly, how their machinations worked, in order that we might fight
them on equal terms. Through cunning and untold sacrifice, functional
vessels were captured, live Starspawn detained and interrogated. We
stole their technology and made it our own. We learned of the many
different types of Starspawn and their purposes in the aliens' vast
empire. And finally we even learned how to unlock the power of our own
minds to use as a psychic weapon against the strongest of the Starspawn.
It was then that we received our first glimpse of the power of the alien
hordes, and in some ways it is almost better that much of the world never
knew of it, for thousands would surely have gone mad.
"They attacked everywhere, spreading terror and hysteria wherever
they went. X-Com fought them. They killed. We killed. We drove them
back, held them at bay long enough for our people to find the source of
the Starspawn's power in our star system: Cydonia Base on Mars. Our
bravest and strongest X-Com warriors fought their way to Mars, to
Cydonia, to the alien base there. Against incredible odds they fought,
killed, and died. And they won. The Commander himself fired the fatal
shots which destroyed the Cydonian Brain.
"Their war machine unexpectedly and fatally disrupted, the
Starspawn fled. Victory was ours, for the time being.
"You ask why none of the secrets we learned in the First Alien
War ever became known? That, my child, is exemplary of our
overconfidence. Overconfidence can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness. Those who controlled the operation from on high -- the
politicians, the bureaucrats, the executives -- were certain that victory
was permanent, and so X-Com faded away almost as quickly as it had
formed, dismantled by bureaucracy into little more than memory. Most of
those involved with the project returned to their normal civilian and
military lives, but some of the soldiers and equipment of the
organization were never accounted for, vanishing into the unknown along
with their organization. No one knew where they had gone, or why.
"Another thing we did not know, and could not have known, was
that the forces of the Starspawn had not gone completely. Deep in the
oceans of Earth, a long-dormant colonization vessel rested on the ocean
floor. It had come here millions of years ago to take over this world,
but a massive solar flare destroyed its navigational control systems and
it crashed instead, sinking deep into the dark waters, where it remained
for millennia. The aliens we had been fighting were a Starspawn
taskforce sent to resurrect this vessel. We stopped them.
"But in the last few microseconds before its death, the Cydonian
Brain emitted one final shrill scream in the form of a tachyon beam,
which shot through the void and plunged into Earth's oceans, striking a
receptor on the colony ship. The Brain had intended to send this message
after the planet was secured, but its plans had been destroyed. Now it
could only shriek out to its brethren to awaken and hope, as it died,
that they would succeed where it had failed.
"Deep in the ocean, these ancient Starspawn began awakening.
Over the following decades they planned their strategy, drawing on
the information the Cydonian Brain had sent in its death throes. Then
slowly, quietly, they began to fan out across the globe, constructing
colonies, installing Synomium devices, laying the groundwork for what would
become the Molecular Control Net, preparing to mount their attack against
humankind and take over the world.
"It was in these decades that the psychics of our world began to
sense that something was not right. And it was into these troubled times
that I was born......"
* * *
X - C O M S A G A I I
TALES FROM THE DEEP
by
Larry Mann
"X-COM: UFO Defense" and "X-COM: Terror From The Deep"
Copyright (c) 1994 MicroProse and Mythos Software
"X-Com Saga" Copyright (c) 1994 Russ Brown
"X-Com Saga II: Tales From The Deep"
Copyright (c) 1996-97 Larry Mann
END