Colony Chaos
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
ASPECT SIX:: Colony Chaos
- - -
The rumble of the ocean doors opening, followed by the odd-
sounding *whoosh* of the Manta attack submarine leaving its pen and
achieving maximum velocity in a few seconds, caught Zander's attention
quite easily as he stared up at the dark ceiling of his quarters trying to will
himself to sleep. No alarms had sounded, so apparently the Manta was off
on a patrol mission. Horrible hour for a patrol, though. Zen tried to forget
about it and get back to sleep.
Twenty fitful minutes later Zen knew he was not going to achieve any
form of unconsciousness anytime soon. There were too many things on his
mind, chief among them what was happening to the psis both old and new,
long before the new psi labs had been constructed and begun their
"Molecular Control" implantation and training. The nature of the new training
bothered all the veteran troopers, especially the psis, quite a bit: implanting
a piece of metal in the trainee's skull, supposedly so they could make the
new psi-amps work? Lyudmila didn't buy it, and neither did Zen. Something
was wrong with that picture.
Lyudmila had told him about the things she'd seen and heard, about
the new manifestations and development of psi in more and more people.
He'd known it was true, because he'd felt it all happening in himself, from the
moment he'd come out of cryo. His awareness of everything around him
was heightened more and more with each passing day, almost to the point
where he could feel the presence of everyone -- and everything, including
the bugs -- around him. More and more he could understand what Lyudmila
was going through.
Lyudmila. There was a source of concern, far greater than Himiko's
(or anyone else's) problems. Going through much the same thing as she
could help Zen identify with some of her troubles, but Lyu had always been
considerably more powerful than Zen, or any of the other psis. She had
been getting progressively more edgy as the months had rolled past. Part of
it was certainly the fact that she spent more of her time cooped up in the
base by virtue of being the base's commander. Zen experienced the same
sort of itch himself, although his lower rank did permit him to go into the field
more easily. But, it was not just being stuck away from the battle.
Something a lot deeper was eating at her. He had some idea of what it might
be, from educated guesses, but he didn't like where the resulting
conclusions all seemed to lead. In fact it scared him a little: there was a
growing sense of unease among all the high-level psis he'd spoken with, an
increased sense of being watched. The implications, if he allowed himself to
think about them, were frightening.
It didn't help that he kept hearing Marcelle's voice in his head,
quoting: "Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time."
Finally he couldn't take it anymore and rolled out of his bunk,
shrugging into enough clothes to make himself presentable, and began a
long, winding path through the corridors of the base, listening absently to the
sound of his shoes on the metal decking, trying to get his mind focused on a
more pleasant subject.
The X-Com top brass had thankfully remembered a few things from
the First Alien War: Atlantia had been constructed in such a way that the only
path from the sub pens to any of the other base facilities, and vice-versa,
was by way of the airlock. And further, the facilities were strung together in
one long line. While this sometimes made getting from place to place a bit
of a chore, it also made the base much easier to defend from attack. Neither
base had been assaulted, thankfully, but with the ongoing interceptions, it
certainly was only a matter of time. He hoped the new Pulse Wave Torpedo
defenses -- the aquatic equivalent of the old Fusion Ball defenses -- would
be completed before then. Presently he found himself approaching the
base's command center. He regarded the door for a moment, weighed his
options, decided he wasn't going to feel better until he got a few answers,
and tapped the access button.
Lyudmila almost turned at the sound of the opening doors, but she'd
known who it was, and so didn't bother. In another time and place it might
have bothered her that she *had* known who it was, but not now. "What are
you doing up?" she simply asked, her eyes never leaving the geoscape.
Her voice betrayed the fact that she hadn't slept in a while.
"I could ask you the same thing, Lyu," Zen replied. He wasn't
surprised by what he'd seen; he'd have been more surprised if she hadn't
been in here, in fact. What bothered him was what he felt.
He looked up at the geoscape, which was currently centered over the
Caribbean. A stationary yellow cross appeared in the waters there,
apparently identifying their Manta. The datascreens indicated it was
engaged in a patrol sweep, as Zen had guessed.
"Anything, Zero-Two?" Lyudmila keyed her comm.
"Nothing on scopes, Atlantia," the Manta's pilot replied, with a hint of
what could have been annoyance. "Commander, I don't think there's
anything down here."
"Keep scanning until fuel hits critical, Zero-Two," Lyudmila replied, a
bit testily. "I need to be 100% certain there's nothing down there."
"Roger that, Atlantia," the pilot sighed. "Continuing patrol."
Zen waited until the channel was closed again, then turned to Lyu.
"The Caribbean? There hasn't been any activity there since the port attack
in March."
"That's what bugs me, Zen," Lyu answered, and Zen noticed that she
was fingering something in her left hand. Didn't take much guesswork to
figure out what it was. "They've come back to all the other zones, all the
other oceans, but not this one. Like they're purposely avoiding the area."
"Maybe they already got what they wanted from that zone."
"No, that area's got too many of the things they want: mineral
resources, gold, trade routes, you name it. So where are they?" she began
gnawing on one of her knuckles.
Zen was silent for a long time, again weighing all options, before
speaking: "What's up with you, Lyudmila?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for one thing, you've been acting less and less like yourself
as time goes on. You're obviously not getting enough sleep, you're
focusing on feelings and theories instead of solid fact... and frankly people
are starting to wonder about your command fitness."
For the first time she looked at him. "*Who's* worried about my
command fitness?"
"Me, if you must know. Something is happening to you, Lyu, and
you're not telling us what it is. I'm the second in command, and I'm having
trouble doing my job because I'm not getting the full story from my CO. I
need the full story, Lyu. Don't make me relieve you of command to get it."
They stared at each other for what seemed like hours. Finally, when
it became quite clear that Zen was not backing down until he got some
answers, Lyudmila relented.
"Remember the new alien you found on that cargo ship?"
"Yeah. I've been wondering why you haven't released the reports on
it."
"I haven't released the reports because I don't have them, Zen. I
don't know *anything*. Haven't heard a word from Tsunami about it since I
sent the body to their spooks for analysis. It doesn't take this long to
generate an autopsy report on an alien, no matter how weird it is. Worse,
whenever I send a query about it, nobody seems to know what the hell I'm
talking about. Now either the body somehow disappeared..."
"...Or something's being hidden from us," Zen finished, realization
dawning. Secrets within X-Com, with the personnel themselves not cleared
to know them?? Something was wrong here. "Why would they hide it?"
"I don't know, but they did. I could feel it over the phone line -- that
scares me too, Zen, that I can feel these things over video channels.
Deborah and Captain Collignon, they all but denied the existence of the
damn thing, which makes *me* think," Lyudmila's cool front slipped a bit.
"That they found something *really* damn scary, and if we don't find out
what it *is*, *soon*, we may be in serious shit, okay?"
Zen didn't know what was more unsettling: what was going on in X-
Com's top echelons, or what was happening to Lyudmila. She almost
seemed to be on the edge of panic about this. "So why are you sending the
Manta to patrol an inactive zone at this god-awful hour of the night? What
does that have to do--"
"Atlantia!" the voice of the Manta's pilot interrupted them. His
annoyance had been replaced with what sounded like excitement. "Picking
up trace energy readings!"
Lyudmila all but lunged for the comm. "Lock on, Zero-Two! Locate!"
"Locating now, Atlantia... locating... and... got it!"
A new marker appeared in the exact center of the Caribbean Sea: a
purple box. The standard identification symbol for an enemy base.
"Bingo!!" Lyudmila exclaimed.
"Goddamn, Commander," the pilot said. "You were right!"
"Good job, Zero-Two!" Lyudmila replied. "Now get your ass back
here. Atlantia out."
"Roger that, Atlantia. Manta Zero-Two returning to base. Out."
"Zen, get the squads together and get the Triton ready!" Lyudmila
said as she got up from her chair and headed for the exit. "We're going
down there!"
"Negative, Lyu."
Lyu spun and faced him, wide-eyed. "Excuse me??"
"My troopers are not going anyplace right now, Commander. And
neither are you."
The next thing he knew, he was up against the wall, and Lyudmila
was staring him in the eye. For a minute he thought he saw a red glow in her
eyes, but it could have been his imagination. Dammit, Zander, this is
*IMPORTANT*!
Lyu, *calm down*, he thought in response, as calmly as he could
manage, but some red speckles started creeping into his own field of vision.
What the hell is happening to you?!
That seemed to make Lyudmila realize what she was doing, and she
released him, backing away. "I'm... sorry, Zen..."
"Lyu, I *will* get the squad together for the assault," Zen said. "But
not until everyone who's going has gotten at least eight hours of sleep. And
that means you, too. If this is as important as you say it is, you need to be
prepared... or you're liable to walk into a trap, and get us all killed."
Lyudmila was silent. Everything he said was true, and she knew it.
It also seemed to have dawned on her what she'd been doing. Suddenly she
looked very very tired. "You're right, Zen... you're right..."
"We can leave tomorrow morning, Lyu," Zen said, willing to
compromise a little. "That'd put us there in early afternoon. I'll have the
ship ready and waiting. Now get some sleep, okay?"
"Yeah..." Lyudmila answered quietly, and shambled out of the
command center. Zen watched her go, watched the door close behind her.
For several minutes he kept watching the closed door, then his eyes
traveled over to the computer screens, to the geoscape. He watched the
Manta's yellow cross draw closer to home, then focused back on the
Carribbean, to the glowing purple box.
He wondered what was waiting for them down there.
* * *
At surface level it was a beautiful, crystal clear day over the
Caribbean Sea. But only a small fraction of that light penetrated to the
depths which Triton Zero-Four was descending to: the target area was bathed
in a cold, gloomy twilight which would make fighting more difficult. All the
Alien colonies X-Com had encountered so far had been like this, built in the
darker depths of whatever oceans they were in. Not so deep that they were
unapproachable, thankfully, but that was not much of a consolation.
"Everybody suited up?" Zen called to the troopers, who were in the
final stages of sealing and energizing their armor -- the new ion-based power
armor, far more sturdy and effective than the old plastic -- and snapping clips
for their sonic weapons into place. A chorus of affirmatives came back.
"Ready on this end, Lyu."
"Right," Lyudmila answered, sealing her own armor. "Ten seconds
to touchdown. Kill the lights and prep for flooding."
Zander threw a switch and the inside of the Triton became dark
except for the glow of the onboard sonar unit and the control panels, then
threw the lever which flooded the interior. Lyudmila felt her inner tension
increasing noticeably as the water surrounded her, but fought it back down
just as quickly. She was really edgy on this run, and the closer they had
gotten to the base, the worse it became. Her awareness of the enemy
presence, here, now, grew more intense. They were here, and waiting...
She checked her armor one last time to calm herself: it was sealed
and properly energized. The new power armor, in addition to providing a
much thicker hide, gave everyone greater mobility, regulated internal
temperature, and generally had increased everyone's survivability by a
significant measure. Lyudmila, for her part, was wearing an experimental
new version of the Ion Armor, sporting a small additional displacer unit in its
backpack which theoretically would enable her to float through the water
without any effort. She was looking forward to putting it to the test.
"Okay, people," Zen keyed his comm-link. "Far Squad will consist of
officers and high psis. Dujardin, you and the tank will head up Near Squad;
hang back until we clear the area around the Triton, and try to stay out of
sight so you don't get turned into a mind puppet."
"Yes sir." Dujardin was one of the troopers who, after being
identified as a strong potential psi, had consented to the new implantation
operation. The way he carried his Molecular Control Disruptor -- the fancy
new name for the psi-amps; most people preferred to just say "MCD" -- told
Lyudmila that he would feel more comfortable with a Blasta or a Sonic
Cannon in his hands, but he knew the best way to improve his skill was by
doing. She felt for him.
With a soft bump, the Triton settled into the dark sands. Lyudmila
hefted her DPL -- "Disruptor Pulse Launcher" was such a cumbersome
name; why did everything's identity have to be so complicated? -- in one
hand, a task made much easier by her power armor. The weapon was the
aquatic equivalent to the old Blaster Launchers, and was really meant to be
carried and used with two hands, but her other hand was busy holding her
own MCD. The scientists had warned the existing psis that the MCDs would
be less reliable without an implant, but Lyudmila was going to try it anyway,
if for no other reason than to prove it was possible to use it without one. The
notion of having something stuck in her head bothered her quite a bit, largely
because the aliens had much the same device stuck in their own skulls.
This was a direction unlike any X-Com had taken before, and it struck her as
fundamentally wrong. Many of the other vets had shared her sentiment.
Zen hit the release pad, and the hatch snapped open, the illumination
from the Coelecanth's headlights piercing the gloom a few meters in front of
them and revealing a small guard tower to the southeast. "Tank out," he
ordered. It dutifully rolled out and swung around quickly, sweeping the
semicircle of gloom in front of them. It found a target almost immediately,
aiming for the faint undulating glow atop a nearby guard post and snapping
off two gauss rounds. There was a splattering noise, and fragments of a
jellyfish-like Hallucinoid sank to the ocean floor. Instantly Lyudmila felt the
tension in the water increase: they were alerted now, alerted and ready. And
so was she.
"Let's go." Zen and Himiko darted out from behind the protection of
the Coelecanth and began edging along the side of the Triton, toward the
ship's rear and toward the eastern arm of the base's entryway, while
Marcelle and Tonida ducked around the front of the Triton to prevent any
ambush from behind. Lyudmila also jumped out, but instead of following
either of the 2-person parties she keyed the controls on her armor. The
backpack made an odd humming noise -- very similar to the sound made by
the enemy units called Bio-Drones, a corner of her mind noted -- and she felt
herself lifting off the sand, into mid-water. Presently the roof of the Triton
came into view, and she floated forward, stepping onto its surface and
crouching next to the vessel's small sonar tower. All her instincts told her
this was the place to be, for the moment.
Her instincts were quickly proven correct: no sooner had she attained
her perch than she spotted movement to the north, approaching. Through
the gloom she could see that it was a Tasoth, armed with a DPL of its own.
She knew Zen and Himiko would be too close by now to risk using her
Launcher. Time to put the MCD to the test, then: she raised the device in
front of her, and focused her will. Instantly a strong sense of calm filled her,
and she felt herself reaching out toward the presence in front of her.
Reaching, and seizing.
"Tasoth north!" Himiko called as she spotted the creature herself.
"It's got a DPL!" she continued, more loudly.
"I've got it," Lyudmila replied instantly, and with the unearthly calm
she'd always displayed when using her power. There was a brief struggle
for control as she invaded the soldier's mind, but she shoved the alien's
conscious will out of the way with minimal effort, and its body was hers to
command. So much for needing the implant to make the MCD work; she was
going to have a talk with the spooks about this. She made the alien clear the
waypoints it had programmed into its Launcher, then turned it to face their
less protected western flank, where she sensed a building presence.
Through the Tasoth's sensitive eyes she saw what her own could not
possibly have detected. Two more Hallucinoids were beginning to float
away from their perches on the southern arm of the base's entry, and a
Tentaculat was there as well, swimming toward the Triton and presumably
toward Marcelle and Tonida. Stupid animals, bunching so close together like
that. Lyudmila spared one second to make sure none of her troopers were
too close, and then had her mind puppet program waypoints in its DPL. One
second later the shriek and red glow of a Disruptor Bomb cut through the
darkness, followed in the next by a brilliant flash. The southern arm of the
structure was shredded, along with the three aliens above it, and a section of
the upper southern wall was shattered as well.
Yes! Lyudmila thought. The damage to the wall was unexpected
but certainly welcome. Previous base raids had shown that the area
surrounding the entry portal was always heavily defended. One good shot
through that hole with her DPL would set off a chain reaction which would
hopefully kill or severely maim much of their opposition--
Suddenly the sound of gunfire rang out... underneath her. A scream
split the comm channel, followed by panicked yells. She spun in place,
checking her surroundings with lightning speed. "Dujardin, what the hell's
going on?!"
"They hit Gomez," Dujardin's tense voice came back. "He got
Broomski, I had to kill him."
"Shit!" Lyudmila cursed. "Zen, sounds like one of our new friends--"
And suddenly there were many voices in her head. She could have
repulsed any single one of them with relative ease, but this was different, an
en masse attack.
It is her! a high-pitched, squeaky male voice said.
It is the Elemental! The Dreamers were right! exclaimed another.
Excellent. Come to us, Elemental, said a much deeper, calmer
voice. Leave these fools to their doom and take your rightful place among
us.
*Never*, Lyudmila growled back, dropping her DPL and gripping
her MCD with both hands, trying to block the enemy attack. They were
strong... damn, they were strong. Beads of sweat began to appear on her
forehead. In the darkness beyond the small hole in the wall, she thought
she could make out the glowing red eyes of an Aquatoid. She tried to force
her way past the collective mental assault and seize the creature, if only to
get a good look at her opposition.
Your defiance is futile, another voice, nasal and higher-pitched,
said; she was sure it was the Aquatoid she could see now. You know that
T'Leth is your true master. You *will* join--what?!
And suddenly each and every one of the alien voices was eclipsed
by a new voice, female, and starkly familiar. Elemental?! Elemental!!
HELP ME!!!
Zen, and several other troopers, jumped as a primal scream nearly
blew their headsets out. Then a Disruptor Bomb shot from the roof of the
Triton and angled through the small hole in the southern wall. All of the
black portholes on the structure's walls briefly went white as a massive
explosion lit up the inside of the building, and the roof exploded in a cloud of
bubbles and debris. Zen felt the alien mental presence in the area drop
noticeably. The next thing he knew, Lyudmila was flying through the water at
an impossibly high speed -- impossible, that is, for non-telekinetics --
headed for the opposite side of the base.
"Zen! Path from the east entrance to the lift is clear!" everyone
heard her say, and her voice was positively deadly. "Get everyone to the lift
area! Now! MOVE!!"
Zen didn't bother asking how she knew that, merely swung around
and gave his orders. "All right, you heard the lady! Everybody head for the
east door, groups of two, and be ready for anything! Move it out!!"
"Where are you going?" Himiko called as Zen promptly ran in
another direction, toward the north side of the base, where Lyudmila had
gone.
"Backup!" he answered. Lyudmila did, after all, need backup,
whether she wanted it or not.
Zen rounded the east wing of the building in time to see another
explosion light up the two-story alcove at the north end of the base, blowing
its roof to smithereens and, to the accompaniment of more squeaks and
splattering sounds, reducing the enemy count even further. He could see
Lyudmila floating above him, in the gloom. She spun to the left and sent
another Disruptor shrieking through the water. It exploded against a western
guard tower, blowing a Tentaculat there into a million tiny pieces of brain
tissue. Then she turned to the northeast, and saw Zen below her.
One more at the northeast tower, Zen. Aquatoid, her voice growled
in his head.
Right, I'm on it, Zen replied as he caught the red glow of Aquatoid
eyes in the dark shadows of the northeast guard tower. He crouched and
aimed his sonic cannon; the blast shot from the muzzle of his weapon and
flew straight and true, taking a large chunk out of the thing's brain. And that
was the end of it, Zen could tell: the alien presence on the ocean floor was
gone.
Zen turned back to Lyudmila as she settled down to the ocean floor.
Again he thought he briefly saw a red glow in her eyes, and tried not to think
about it. "That's all of them, Zen. Let's get moving."
"Right," he answered, and the two of them backtracked toward the
east entrance. "Himiko, status?"
"Lift area's crystal clear, just like Lyu said," came the answer. "Lots
of spare ammo in here, too."
"Good. Spread it around and save some for Lyu and me. We're
coming in."
"Everybody report in," Zen called as the disorientation of being
transported into the colony proper passed. There were six markers plus the
Coelecanth's on the lift platform they had arrived at. That left two troopers
unaccounted for, and a quick check showed that it was Dujardin and a rookie
named Cheveaux who were missing, either on another lift platform or
deposited somewhere else in the base. The transport mechanism
occasionally did that for some reason, maybe because it wasn't totally
compatible with humans. "Dujardin, Cheveaux, where are you?"
"One level below you by my HUD, sir," came the reply. "Cheveaux
is right next to me. We're in a large room with a small opening in the center
floor."
"Excellent!" All of the alien colonies were composed of several
basic types of modules. The exact arrangement was different from base to
base but the components were always essentially the same. This particular
module was quite familiar to Zen. "Dujardin, you're directly above the
control center for the base. Drop a Pulser into that hole and then find a lift
that'll get you back to our location."
"Yes, sir!" Dujardin replied. This was clearly a lucky day.
"All right, that takes care of that," Zen said, mirroring Himiko's grin.
"Looks like we're getting out of here faster than we-- where's Lyu??"
The flash and blast of a Disruptor in a nearby room, followed by the
howl of a dying Lobsterman, answered that question for him. The hell is
she *doing*?! Zen growled to himself as he motioned for the others to
follow him.
Ten to one it had something to do with that scream he'd heard
topside, and he tried once again to not think about that glow he'd seen in
Lyudmila's eyes.
Elemental?
Stefanie, tell me where you are, Lyudmila thought as she jumped
through the wreckage she'd just created with her DPL and found a lift unit
which dropped her down to the next level. I've come to get you out of
here.
I... I don't know for sure... Steffie's voice echoed strangely in her
head, but it was her; Lyu'd known it was her from the moment the cry for help
had rung in her head. How... how do you know my name? Who are you?
I'm... a friend of your grandfather's. My name's Lyudmila, Lyu
answered as she crossed another small room lined with ion displacers and
entered a larger module with an enclosed area in its center. She found the
doorway to the enclosed part and headed for it. Call me Lyu.
Watch out behind you!!
Lyu spun in time to see a Lobsterman bearing down on her at high
speed, too close for her to shoot it with her DPL. She leaped to one side as
the thing swiped at her with one of its big pincers and backpedaled away,
trying to find her MCD and realizing that she did not have it anymore; she'd
left it on the roof of the Triton. Idiot! she berated herself. The creature
began advancing toward her, hefting a weapon which looked like a large
version of the Thermic Lances currently being produced at Atlantia,
obviously a heavy version of said weapon. This was not very good at all.
Then it stopped, and looked from side to side, seemingly examining
its surroundings, and then dropped the weapon and just stood there looking
at her, not doing anything.
Steffie? You in there now? she guessed.
Yes! she answered excitedly. I can control them!! Evidently
this was big news to her.
Can you make it lead me to you?
Yes! Yes I can! The Lobsterman spun and started running.
Please get me out of here! Hurry!
Lyudmila hurried after the creature as it headed towards the large
door which she had been intending to approach before, pausing only
momentarily to pick up the weapon the beast had dropped. She didn't know
how it worked but she could at least use it as a simple stabbing tool. The
door opened and Lyu followed the alien into the chamber, a room full of
neatly arranged human-sized capsules, with what looked like examination
tables scattered among them. An examination room.
As the Lobsterman led her towards the capsule in the exact center of
the room, Lyu began to get a bad feeling; actually she'd had a bad feeling
ever since she'd made contact with Steffie, felt the strangeness of her
thoughts, but now it was getting markedly worse. The examination tables
did not appear to be designed for conducting experiments on air-breathing
creatures. She watched as the Lobsterman pressed some keys on the
capsule's control panel, and then the capsule opened.
Oh God... Lyudmila thought.
Zen rounded the corner just in time to see Lyudmila following a
Lobsterman into an enclosed part of the big room they'd just arrived at.
"Lyu, what the hell are you *doing*?" he called over the radio but got no
answer. Then she was gone. "Christ," he growled in annoyance, his speech
about walking into traps clear in his mind. "Dujardin? What's your status?"
"Grenade's in the hole and primed," came the answer. "I give it
another 30 seconds before it blows. We're coming your way."
"Negative, Dujardin," Zen answered. "Head back to the lift area and
stay put. We may need to get out of here in a big hurry." The closer he got
to the big room, the more uneasy he felt. Something was definitely not right.
"Roger that, sir. What's up?"
Zen was on the edge of answering when he heard a yell from Himiko
and was forcibly shoved to one side, crashing to the floor. He saw why a
moment later as Himiko fired on a Tentaculat which was occupying the space
he'd been in a moment ago, reducing it to scrap brain tissue. From his new
position he could see glowing green eyes in openings on the opposite sides
of the room, and DPL-carrying Lobstermen emerged from those openings a
moment later. "Take those bastards down!" he ordered, and aimed his
Sonic Cannon at the closest one. Three more sonic blasts roared over his
head as he fired his own weapon, two to each bug, and all found their mark,
toppling the two creatures.
At that moment the door to the central room opened again and two
figures came running out. Or more accurately, one came running out and the
other swam out. The first was obviously Lyu, but the other one made
everyone who could see stop and stare for a minute, and not because the
second woman wore no clothing. She was human in appearance except for a
couple glaring differences: her skin was greenish-blue, and she wore no
breathing equipment of any kind.
Zen recognized the profile instantly. He also recognized the
woman's face. "Oh my god..." he mumbled. It was Stefanie. Or at least,
whatever was left of her.
"What the hell is *that*?" someone asked. Zen was too distracted to
know who had spoken, and he didn't quite have an answer for them anyway.
As they watched, Lyu hurriedly picked up a Disruptor Bomb from one
of the Lobstermen they'd just downed, loaded it into her own DPL, and sent it
flying back into the room. Steffie winced as the explosion blew out parts of
the wall, as whatever was inside was shredded. Then Lyudmila was running
toward them and Steffie was close behind, kicking through the water with
surprising grace. It was then that they noticed her feet looked more like
Aquatoid flippers, and her hands were webbed as well. "Hold your fire!" Zen
quickly shouted as he saw someone raising their weapon out of the corner of
his eye. Steffie saw it too and quickly ducked behind Lyu, fright apparent in
her eyes (which were completely black orbs, just like those of a Gillman).
"We have to get out of here *right now*, Zen!" Lyudmila all but
shouted. "It's a setup!"
At that moment a dull boom could be heard elsewhere in the base,
the sound of the Synomium unit in the control center being destroyed by a
Pulser. The strange lights in the walls flickered and dimmed. Steffie
suddenly looked around in panic, and her words began reverberating in their
minds as she spoke: There's still some left! They're waking up! We have
to hurry!!
"Shit!!" Lyu cursed and forcibly shoved her way through the group of
troopers, running like hell back toward the lift area, Steffie kicking after her
before the soldiers even had a chance to react.
Zen was fortunate to only suffer a moment's confusion, and in the
next moment he was giving orders again. "All right, back to the lift, people!!
We're outta here!!" He ran forward, following Lyu and Steffie as fast as he
could, and the others fell in behind him.
Steffie arrived at the lift platform a few seconds before Lyu did, and
stopped dead in midwater when she saw what was standing there. A
moment later Lyu arrived, and she also stopped, a curse of "oh *shit*"
escaping her. It was another former human, with blue skin and black eyes.
This one was male, and he just stood there, staring at them without
expression. Near him stood Dujardin, a blank face visible through the blue
plastic of his helmet. The body of Seaman Cheveaux lay in the corner,
obviously killed by Dujardin's weapon. Lyu reminded herself to have choice
words with the spooks if she got out of this alive.
How can you do this?? Steffie pleaded to the blue-skinned man.
She heard the sounds of Lyudmila's friends approaching from behind, but at
that moment two more blue-skinned humanoids, one male and one female,
entered the room from the other side.
It is the will of T'Leth, the man answered, and as with Steffie the
voice seemed to reverberate inside the heads of everyone present.
Resistance is foolish, child. Surely you realize this. He turned towards
Lyudmila. Your time among the humans ends here, Elemental. You will
take your rightful place among the Dreamers now.
"No way in hell," Lyudmila answered, raising her DPL, fully prepared
to kill all three of these bastards, including Dujardin if necessary.
The man's eyes narrowed, and then began to take on a golden glow.
You *will* join us.
Lyudmila suddenly balked, and began to sink to her knees as a
mental assault ten times more powerful than anything she had ever
experienced struck her. Her weapons fell to the floor, and sweat broke out
on her forehead almost instantly. And this time Zen could not deny what he
was seeing: her eyes were definitely glowing bright red.
"Lyu!!" Himiko cried and aimed her cannon at the man, but before
she could shoot the alien woman's eyes also began to glow amber, and
Himiko stopped dead in her tracks, then turned toward the other troopers and
opened fire. Training and reflexes were the only thing that saved any of
them. Marcelle lunged forward and tackled Himiko, knocking her weapon
away, only to be caught in a mental vise grip himself by the same woman.
He began to raise his own weapon toward his head. Zen turned to try and
help them but found himself completely unable to move, and he could only
watch helpless as another of the troopers prepared to fire on him.
Stop this!! Steffie cried out. A faint golden glow began to form in
her own eyes as she tried to force the leading male to stop, to control him as
she had the other aliens. We were all human once! Don't you
remember??
The man said nothing, merely deflected her mental attack and cast a
brief sidelong glance at Dujardin, who immediately turned and fired his
weapon. The shot caught Steffie in the right shoulder, spraying flesh and
orange blood into the water. Steffie shrieked and fell to her knees. And then,
from amid the pain, a primal power began to rise up within her, as her terror
and anger merged into a pure, animal rage. And in that instant she knew
what she had to do. Adrenaline nullified the pain as she leaped to her feet,
her eyes glowing brightly, and she opened her mouth and screamed a
scream which jarred the brains of everyone who heard.
**STOP IT!!!**
It was as if each of the former humans had had a small quantity of
plastic explosive embedded in their brains, because the heads of all three
exploded in a spray of blood and bone. Dujardin also jerked violently as if a
smaller explosion had gone off in his head, and collapsed to the floor along
with the other bodies. Everyone else was stunned for a few seconds, and
then the shock passed, and the control was gone. Lyu staggered to her feet
in time to see Steffie swoon and collapse, and was at her side in an instant.
"What... what the hell just happened...?" Himiko croaked, totally
unsure of what to say or do, totally unsure of what it was she'd just seen.
"I wish I knew," Zen responded.
Just then klaxons began blaring, and the lighting of the room
changed to a pulsing dark red. It didn't take a lot of imagination to figure out
what *that* was. "ON THE LIFT!" Zen roared. "EVERYONE ON THE LIFT!
MOVE MOVE MOVE!!"
A brilliant flash of light lit up the ocean depths as the Triton streaked
away at maximum speed, and the sands of the ocean floor rose up on a
giant shockwave as the colony and everything in the immediate vicinity was
reduced to component molecules. The shockwave caught up with the
submarine and it was shaken savagely, but remained in one piece.
"That was close," Marcelle breathed, trying to slow his heart rate
down.
"No shit," Himiko echoed, trying to steer the sub and failing because
her hands were shaking. She finally gave up and hit the autopilot button,
and the Triton proceeded to place itself on a return course to Atlantia. She
turned back to look at the surviving members of the squad, bedraggled and
more than a little shaken. Dujardin lay prone on the flooring, a bloody
bandage covering the right side of his head in about the same place where
his MC implant had been. Gomez, Broomski, Cheveaux... all dead. She'd
watched herself almost kill Marcelle, watched Marcelle almost shoot himself
in the head... she buried her face in her hands. This was too much, just too
much...
Zen, like several of the other troopers, leaned against the walls of the
submarine, only able to watch in silence as Lyudmila, the lower half of her
face quite damp, quietly dressed the already healing wound on Steffie's
shoulder. Zen also could feel, much better than the others, a distinct change
in Lyudmila's mood. She seemed much more at peace now, but still angry.
Angry for a different reason.
They will pay for this. They will pay.
END SIX
END