X-COM: Eulogy
Part II
The location of the landing of the second manned mission to Mars had been chosen according because it had been the largest alien facility on the planet and it was possible that something had been missed on the hasty search made by the X-COM soldiers after the battle. Boronin had argued for the landing to happen on the City, the area to the northeast where the alien Brain had been located. But instead the Council had overridden his authority and had ordered that mission touched down at the D&M Pyramid, a massive artificial construction with a height exceeding one mile filled with inner chambers that spread underground.
The Valiant approached the Pyramid from the northeast until it was half a kilometer away from the building then it stopped on the air and slowly dropped down like a dragonfly on the vicinity of a large impact crater. Slowly moving his right hand downwards Clark tried gently to bring the craft down although he was having a problem with the lesser gravity of Mars, which made some sudden drops for the Avenger. But as the landing gear deployed Clark already had the craft with a safe descent rate and a few seconds later the vessel shook as the landing pads hit the soft Martian soil underneath.
The honor of being the first human to set foot on Mars had been already taken by a soldier who had raced down the Avenger's ramp when they had landed first on Vallis Marineris. Private Nikolas Schmidt had stepped into History as the first man to step on Mars, after a computer had chosen randomly through the spaceships' crews and soldiers. Unfortunately he hadn't lived enough to be able to tell about it on Earth since he had died on the 'cauldron of death', the crater close to the Pyramid that housed the main entrance to the alien base that Boronin and the main force had assaulted wrongly, believing it to be the location of the Brain. The cauldron had been the field for the most vicious battle of the Alien War, where more than a hundred X-COM soldiers had thought thousands of aliens in a pitch fight. Less fifty human survivors had walked out of the crater, most of them seriously injured and without any hovertanks left. As they were about to be overwhelmed the other force successfully killed the Brain on the city and threw the alien army into disarray. It still took them nearly the rest of the day to kill the rest of the aliens on the area, with the exhausted soldiers salvaging weapons from the dead fingers of extraterrestrials as their ammunition run out several times.
As Boronin cleared out the entrance hatch built into the side of the Avenger the first thing he noticed was the irregular rim that marked the brown wall of the crater. Standing on the small pad next to the retractable stairs that were deployed he checked the horizon and was satisfied to see no movement on the area. Clark had already made a low pass and there had been no aliens on sight so he let his rifle hung from his shoulder as he moved down to the sandy surface.
No proper footage had been taken of the first landing since the troopers were more concerned in securing the landing zone for the other craft that were coming down from the sky. No matter how historical the occasion was Commander Illyuschenko had been adamant in keeping with tactical procedure since they were dropping into a hostile location. Today a tiny camera deployed next to the door was keeping track of all his movements as he stepped down. There would be no speeches, no planting of flags since the Council had not decided on which banner to place since there were things more important ahead. His first step was a determined one although he was cautious that the dust might be deeper on this area. Cydonia Mensae's ancient plateaus and mesas were constantly under the duress of the Martian winds that would periodically replace the dust cover over the hard dark red rock but the first expedition had discovered after a number of incidents that the planet's surface was very dynamic with quick sands on some areas where the sand run deeper. Completing his descent he looked around again. The damaged ruins of the Pyramid lingered over his head while another X-COM soldier was already coming down. One by one they came down until the nine soldiers were fanning out with their laser weapons on their hands. They would start searching for the Elerium immediately. Wish us luck Dmitri Stepanovitch. We will need it.
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In the aerial battle that took place on the skies above Cydonia seven years before one of the several UFOs that were attacking the X-COM ships had been caught by a stray shot fired by a larger alien Battleship and it had been one of the several 'friendly fire' casualties that had occurred during the battle. The powerful blast had cut through the Harvester's hull in a three feet wide hole with the energized particles vaporizing all Sectoids that were manning the chambers on the side that had been pierced by the blast. In less than a second and with a critical failure of the antigravity field that held the UFO on the air it had dropped down to the planet's surface as the crew onboard tried to bring the Elerium engines back online. But falling out of control from the sky it had crashed into one of the several rugged hills that were common on Cydonia and had burrowed itself on the sandy side of the elevation.
The most of the aliens who had survived the crash had been injured and in a complete state of confusion following the death of the Brain on Cydonia. Stumbling out of the wrecked hull of the UFO they had stood for days in a catatonic state, waiting hopelessly for the mental link to be reestablished while the X-COM troops were busy sterilizing Cydonia. Fortunately for them their crash site was too far for the human soldiers to take notice but after they were gone the infighting between the aliens had started with several of them dying on the confrontations.
But it had also prompted the Sectoids to turn the wreck of their crashed ship as a refuge from the harsh Martian environment and now the alien how had observed the human ship was walking on one of the inclined corridors. His body's metabolism and configuration allowed him to endure conditions that would kill a human in minutes, including brief periods on the vacuum of space without the need for an environmental suit. But he still had physical needs that were better fulfilled with some sort of a shelter besides the necessity of a place to hide in case any hostile life forms appeared. With time the sand had covered the Harvester but the Sectoid had managed to keep most of the inner chambers clear and had even made several hidden entrances to the crashed Harvester.
The alien was the last survivor of the crew of the UFO and as a Leader had been the commanding officer of the ship. He had been surprised by the emergency alerts made as they had tracked the human fleet approaching the base and had immediately taken off since his craft was about to get ready for a new mission on Sol Three. The humans were proving to be extremely troublesome to pacify and losses had been high but they didn't matter much for the Sectoid or the Ethereal commanders who knew that they would simply wear out the humans for the final crush. They conquered several other species more quickly but as they had launched from the Pyramid the prevailing sensation throughout the psionic net was that the humans and their arrogance and deviousness would finally be conquered using the old methods: complete eradication of human culture and society and appropriate disposal and use of any remaining specimens. But then everything had turned upside down for the survivors. Some had simply panicked and run away on the Martian desert, never to come back while others had been prey to the remaining hordes of aliens running on a hunting and killing spree. And as for the others…the Sectoid paused as he approached one of the circular glass food-processing units that stood on the main bay of the UFO. Inside frail thin figures like he rested floating on a clear liquid, the dead Sectoid bodies preserved for later consumption. He had taken every measure possible to survive, including getting rid of the rest of his crew in order to save precious resources and hold out until the Starspawn returned, something that he did not question. It was the only measure to take, after there were no more useful bodies of the dead aliens left to feed the nutrient processors.
But it had been a costly one to bear in mental terms since the Sectoid had been left completely alone, something that he had never imagined possible and therefore had never thought of considering the consequences. Coupled to the disorientation felt by the death of the Brain it had thrown him into countless states of panic and desperation, only countered by his own psionic powers. But now he wasn't alone anymore and the Sectoid looked at the dead members of his species floating inside the liquid and trying to make any logic out of his thoughts. Why were the humans coming back?
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On the small world of spacecraft the Valiant wouldn't rank any points for the beauty of its design. Unlike the sleek and simple space capsules that had taken the first astronauts to the edge of Earth or the later US Space Shuttle it had no need for an aerodynamic fuselage since its hull didn't made contact with the atmosphere because of the anti-gravity field provided by its twin Elerium engines that repelled everything around it. The field could also be used in case a micrometeor breached the hull to prevent the loss of atmospheric pressure and keeping the air and the troops inside from being sucked to the outside.
The small, compact Elerium engines were amongst the best ever adapted by Earth's engineers from the original ones mounted onboard the UFOs, allowing it to reach speed of several thousand miles while airborne and permitting the ship to reach Mars in weeks rather than several months. They compactness and smallness were also a blessing to the designers of the ship, to whom space had been at a premium in order to prevent the Avengers from becoming monstrous craft due to its original requirements to be able to fight the huge alien Battleships while being able dropping 26 fully armed combat soldiers to any location on Earth and space. They had ended up with a craft that was nearly the length of a 727 but extremely more powerful than Boeing's venerable jetliner. The call for the quick development and production of the craft had made them to take the easiest approach to its design, with short and stubby wings that had the only role of holding the craft's weapons, a cockpit section where the two pilots were jammed into, and a major bay area that composed most of the ship, with all electronic equipment set on the sides of the craft.
Inside the plane's belly the X-COM engineers had made a number of modifications that allowed it to be home to the sixteen humans were its crew. The elongated rear where the exit ramp was located had been filled with supplies for the mission, preventing the exit to be used but they had also added a small decompression chamber on the side to allow humans to operate outside. Next to it a small hygienic facility composed of a zero-gravity toilet and sink had been installed. There were no shower facilities available because of the water and space restrictions placed, which had the side effect of a grievous stench onboard the craft no matter who much the air recyclers worked but by now all crew had become used to it.
They had all individual cots for sleeping, nearly coffin size cabinets located slightly above head level that were cushioned and had curtains, providing the only privacy aboard the ship. Underneath them there were the scientist's workstations weapons racks, together with seats and two small tables that were either used for eating meals taken from the food dispensers. The conditions were more akin to those on submarines on whose boats space was also a very valuable asset that was used on the more efficient way possible. The power suits and other material hung from the ceiling, tightly held by straps, together with other equipment necessary for the mission.
The first two days had gone uneventfully as the soldiers had swept the area around the Avenger and the outside of the D&M Pyramid, only to find it empty of any life forms. Dr. Johannes had been going through the data taken on the orbital pass although no concrete indications had surfaced so far from the numbers and figures on the computer displays that she had examined. But now commander Boronin had finally authorized a close examination of the massive structure and Lieutenant White was looking at the members of the team assigned for the duty. With only eight soldiers on his command and a lot to worry about he was worried that they might be outnumbered but he had no other options. He would go with Hopkins, Rodriguez, Jones, Camay and King while Sharkey and Prune would help the remaining scientist to haul his precious rock and sand samples as he dug the ground around the Valiant.
Major Seymour had already given him today's forecast: temperatures near 0º Fahrenheit with a few winds on the early Martian would be autumn. The planet had seasons although they were more akin to the weather experienced on Antarctica than anything else known. The power suits would keep them warm while they hiked around but he everyone was taking double precaution with their weapons to prevent them from malfunctioning from the cold. While laser and plasma weapons had few moving parts that were prone to become brittle by the low temperatures, unlike slug thrower weapons nobody wanted his rifle to jam in combat and the other five soldiers had finished their inspections. White had done his own check already so he turned to the five large armored figures that still had their faceplates upwards and to the two smaller scientists on EVA suits and said: "Let's move".
**********
Dr. Eva Johannes had been on a battlefield a long time before during the war together with most of the soldiers that now were pacing through the flat surface of the cauldron as armored phalanx moved in a loose formation as they approached the entrance to the Pyramid looming on top of them. The crater still showed many remains of the fighting that had taken place with the wrecked remains of human hovertanks and the tall Sectopod killing machines tossed around the landscape, surrounded by numerous smaller mounds of sand which marked the location of fallen aliens. They carefully avoided them as they walked into the dark entrance set at the end of the crater against the side of the pyramid that led into the underground areas.
On her side Master Sergeant Elias Hopkins was scanning the area with the sensors on his helmet but he was relaxed enough to occasionally talk to her. She had come to respect the tall and burly Afro-American plus he was one of the few members of the expedition that she was comfortable enough, besides her husband.
A protruding black limb stuck out of the sand and she froze as she looked at it as Hopkins noticed and laughed on the private channel they were using. "Yup", he started, "it's what you're thinking m'am. BBQ Chryssalid. It won't kill you but the indigestion might". This whole area seemed to be covered with bodies of the vicious creatures as she noticed the irregular ground and the fact that she felt something underneath the sand and the soles of her boots as she walked. "What was this like Sergeant?"
"Well…I'm not the person to talk about it since we weren't assigned here, Mrs. Johannes. Of us the only one that has been here is Commander Boronin". She nodded to him in reply. "I couldn't help notice his face on the first day when we came back onboard. He looked as if he had seen a ghost".
Discussing his commanding officer's moods was not something Hopkins would do normally, even with other X-COM members but he sensed concern on her voice plus he had seen the friction that had slowly grown between her and the commander. So he made sure that no one was listening them on the radio and kept his pace as they moved over the rock and metal arch that was the entrance way to the pyramid. "Commander Boronin has been through a lot of pressure m'am. You've been present at the Council meetings and know it better than me. And I could tell you stories of what happened here that I heard from men and women as they cried them out for me".
"True". She paused as she reached the large opening and tried to look inside. "Still I doubt there's anything here of any importance".
Barking an order to Rodriguez to move up Hopkins went back to her afterwards. "Have I ever told you that my mother was an emigrant from Haiti, Mrs. Johannes? She believed in stuff like voodoo and I would occasionally caught some strange shit laying around the house but I didn't ask any questions about it".
Johannes paused to wonder what would be the point of the sergeant in bringing that subject into the matter. "I told to myself that I didn't believe any of that stuff but once she found something made out of chicken feathers while walking on the street and she freaked out. I remember quite well that I couldn't understand why it was so worrying to her and I tried to ignore it thinking it was old superstition but I never forget the effect it had on her".
"I'm not understanding what you're trying to say sergeant". Hopkins paused and surveyed the battlefield behind them before answering. "There's some very bad voodoo here. Too many ghosts flying around. I don't blame the commander for that. None of us do who have been here do". The X-COM soldiers ahead had turned the projectors on their suits on as they scouted through the dark chambers underneath whose metal walls reflected the white beams of light. "I still don't understand Mr. Hopkins".
"Well, momma said that no matter what you do things will catch up with you eventually". He checked the power level on his heavy laser. "And when that happens you can't hide behind her skirts".
**********
It hadn't surprised King when he had been informed that he was on the top rank of soldiers with psionic abilities after they had tested all X-COM personnel. His background as a former Green Beret had already made him an elite fighter but he had lacked the combat experience back then.
But the years spent fighting the aliens had honed his combat skills like he never had thought possible. Until the scientists had discovered psionics he could anticipate to things before they happened, alerted by some weird sense that he couldn't explain but had learned to trust it. He wasn't sure that it was related to psionics in any case so he had never worried too much about it. He had never had any use for psi-amps during a battle since he considered impossible to keep yourself ready to reply to any imminent physical threat when using them. They simply amplified the mind's perception too much and the brain would have a tough time reacting to any hostiles near you. And since his job was tracking people or aliens and taking them out there was no point in trying play tricks with their minds before specially since that would alarm the aliens to your presence. In any case the entire discussion had been settled by the Anti-Psionics Convention, which had been signed a few months ago under the U.N. auspice to ban any use of the mental powers upon humans. King knew that it wouldn't stop its use but it had meant the end of X-COM's Psi section. All psi-amps had been destroyed after their Elerium fuel had been removed and all related data like the classified field manual he had been given regarding them was gathered and locked away in some secret place.
Still, now to him there wasn't any way those same powers would help him. His power suit was kneeled with the right leg standing while he surveyed the corridor in front of him. To his surprise he had found it to end at a t-section, something that surprised him, since they were not supposed to be at any of the alien base's sides, meaning either he had missed a turn or they had bumped into something unexpected. The corridor was bathed in darkness but the IR sensors built into his suit told him what he needed to know concerning any obstacles since they would be warmer than the metal floor. And living thing would stand as a bright yellow amongst the blue outlines that filled his vision. As his left hand held his personal tracker he scanned through the few maps they had made of the base's corridors based on the searches made after the battle.
His conclusion was that he didn't know.
Which meant that they could either go back or try to get back into the path or assume that they were still on their way and for the last two minutes he hadn't been able to decide for some reason as he stared down at the end wall. The slow pacing of armored steps told him that somebody was joining him at the front. "Camay coming up".
"I heard you Zee. Join the party". She moved closer to him, holding her laser rifle but standing at the other corner of the intersection.
"What's wrong?" The paramedic was starting to worry but she was more concerned that the two civilians are going to shit down their suits if he kept them waiting back there in tension. "Not sure. That wasn't supposed to be there".
"We weren't supposed to be here either Virgil". Giving it a last look he wondered if it was possible that he was missing something else besides their location. Moving back upwards he started walking down to the right while Camay signaled the armored figure at the end of the corridor where she had came from to get moving.
**********
They had been walking through the Pyramid's inner city for hours, finding only destroyed cloning facilities, large depot areas and long dead gardens connected through a maze of corridors and chambers until they finally had reached a larger room located underneath one of the building's side. Yellow beams of light came from holes made as girders collapsed and exposed the inside when the overhead sections of the chamber had crumbled. Standing at the bottom Rodriguez brought its suit lights upwards, gazing through the wide stairway that was filled with rock rubble and torn metal. At one section the path looked closed-off but according to what they knew the entire passage was cleared up to the chamber on top of the gigantic structure on its 150 yards length. They would have to do some climbing but that would be a piece of cake using the additional strength provided by the servomotors of the suit's legs and arms and they would hoist up the two scientists using the ropes they had brought. But it would still be a stiff hike upwards although Mars' low gravity helped and King was already close to unseen, a small figure up ahead on the long flight of stairs.
"The great hallway…or what's left of it. Amazing to see what they were talking about when they came back and described it". William Yusuf's voice whispered on Johannes's ear as both scientists started climbing large flight of stairs with each step half a meter on height. She didn't reply as she concentrated on getting a solid footing as she moved upwards. A lot of sand had already entered the building through the ruined sections and that made it harder. When the Council had informed the scientific community that only three scientists would be sent on the upcoming Mars mission there had been bursts of outrage and demands that where quickly withdrawn as they realized that the Council's alternative would be that no civilians would be a part of the crew. Johannes wanted to be a part of the mission and as X-COM's scientific director she had no problem in using her position. After all, she was the leading expert on Elerium physics and was the most qualified person to conduct the search for the mineral.
Keeping the portable tachyon detector tightly into her hand she kept waiting for the vibrating that would signal that the software inside had detected a close Elerium source. The problem was that Elerium only emitted tachyons upon being bombarded by matter so unless there was a power source close by operating there were very slim chances that they would detect it. However there was the possibility that somehow the Elerium had reached critical mass and at that time a low energy reaction would take place. When the remaining Elerium on Earth had been collected into heavily guarded and secret locations it had been discovered that, due to nuclear decay, if a certain quantity of the gold crystals were stored together the Elerium would react with itself. Nuclear decay happens since the isotopes of an element, while sharing the same number of protons, they vary on the quantity of neutrons and due to physical laws some are more stable than others. Each isotope has a half-life, or the probability that half of the isotope will decay in the future, quantified in time figures. The crystals were made of an Unp-299, an isotope of Ununpentium, the scientific name assigned to Elerium. It had 115 protons and 284 neutrons on its core and a half-life of half a billion years. During that time half of the element would decay first into element 114 by the loss of a proton, but that sped the process since the isotope newly formed had a half-life of less than a second before it and the series of decays would continue until they emitted more potent radiations.
But even if the probabilities of decay were few they did happen and when they did there was another possibility of detection if there was enough quantity. Besides tachyons, Elerium fission released a number of exotic particles such as gravitons and others that were complete physical impossibilities according to the previous theories. And during the Elerium decay plus other sensors that could detect the resulting new isotopes and their own nuclear decays. Elerium natural fission was rare to occur and difficult to detect. The phenomenon had only been discovered after a security investigation had taken place concerning the symptoms of radiation poisoning experienced by the personnel that attended the Elerium deposits.
But all of her portable equipment was silent at the moment. She had discovered a number of ammunition clips and the soldiers had salvaged them but so far there was no indication that there was any Elerium left on this structure like she had expected. Johannes had spent most of her life studying Ununpentium and its strange physical qualities but she had been looking for other things than the ability to use for plasma weaponry or for anti-gravity transportation.
It had been theorized that E-115 was formed on the outcome of gigantic supernovae explosions, where huge stars simply collapsed into their core due to its huge gravitational pull and then blasted away nearly all of its mass in seconds, in the form of high-energy radiation and gas. But that theory had been proven flawed by the absence of any trace of Ununpentium or its decaying elements when telescopes started to examine the light coming from nearby supernovae. In fact, the inability to detect any Elerium at all on the stars close by had made many scientists to worry if they ever would find E-115 again. That worried Johannes but it had also told her that some unknown cosmic hand had been behind the formation of Elerium on the universe and she suspected that the element could give a proof of the Big Bang, the start of the known universe according to the main theory. It would be something worth working, she had decided years ago and slowly she was building the theory while continuing to work with X-COM.
They where heading upwards for the other scientists to have a look at the command chamber of the pyramid, especially Yusuf, who had a rather distinguished career so far on the academic world after leaving X-COM. But Yusuf's curricula were far more extensive since he had worked for the now defunct investigations arm of X-COM, responsible for assembling intelligence concerning the aliens. Johannes didn't exactly know with what his previous work in X-COM dealt with since the Anglo-Persian work was still classified. The bulk of the basic research learned by X-COM concerning the aliens had been publicly released years ago but certain sensitive areas had been kept as secret. Johannes was also obliged to maintain secrecy on certain areas of her work that could have military purposes. Elerium was, after all, the most powerful energy source ever made discovered by mankind and strict controls on its trade had been imposed to prevent its use. But her fears of another 'Manhattan Project' to design an Elerium bomb were almost gone as Earth's dwindling supply made it the more unlikely. All the research made by the world's nuclear powers had already been stopped cold since soon there wouldn't be enough Elerium to build a single bomb. Even the X-COM catch at Mother One wasn't expected to last much more at the present rate of consumption. Soon military and civilian use of the material would have to be nearly curtailed and restricted for scientific research.
The third scientist chosen had been Dr. Weiss, a specialist on Mars, who straggled behind as his courage occasionally failed him a couple of times as he imagined seeing hostile aliens peeking at him on the dark corners of the underground chambers. She wanted to check the locations of the base that where now only a dark and twisted hole on the ground on the opposite side of the pyramid. The Elerium reactors that powered the base had once been located there until they went hypercritical and had blasted a hole in the ground after being bombarded by the remaining X-COM Avengers.
By then they had already cleared most of the steps of the stairway with Rodriguez and Hopkins leading the way and the other two soldiers guarding the rear. "And now, the King's Chamber". The comment made the two leading soldiers looking at Yusuf. So far they had tolerated his occasional comments but nobody liked to have a tour guide on the middle of a potential hostile area. "Now look mister". Rodriguez turned to him and scowled. "Either you quit using the main channel or I'll rip your helmet off. And you're wrong by the way!" Turning his back on Yusuf he moved upwards to the dark entrance above with leaving both scientists behind. Looking at the buffed expression of the Persian through the plastic faceplate she called him on a private channel. "He thinks you don't even have a clue about what happened here".
The figure inside the atmospheric suit stiffened. "Dr. Johannes, I have…"
"I know your qualifications, Dr. Yusuf but these soldiers have lived through the experience you've analyzed at your desk. For them what you call pieces of your theories are locations where they thought and died".
"Of course. But the striking similarities with the architecture of the Great Pyramid can't be so easily dismissed. This inner stairway plus the disposition of its major chambers…."
"Yes I know that. Now let's continue please". The two other soldiers had already caught upon them. The matter brought up by Yusuf was simply another matter that would occupy the scientific community for years to come. The Pyramids of Gizeh and the pre-Colombian civilizations of Central America were the structures that more bore the mark of the alien influence on the planet but there were also other more extraordinary theories. Johannes had heard such stories on tabloids before, associating the aliens with Atlantis, the imaginary civilization that had sunk into the ocean or even more crackpot claims of rock stars being abducted by the extraterrestrials. It didn't really matter what they discovered to Johannes, who was more concerned about the physical world, not about the vague considerations of Yusuf, whose work seemed to have been based on a number of uncertain assumptions regarding the aliens. Still it wasn't her field and she had also had to defer to the Council's decision. Maybe the late Dr. Chevereux would have raised hell over the councilmen and made them to change their decision but she didn't care anymore.
As she passed through to the dark large opening that led into the chamber she looked down and wondered why the aliens would have endured such a climb. Looking downwards she noticed the steepness of the stairs. But as she looked around her she found herself amazed at the dimensions of the ruined chamber. The ceiling was long gone and huge shards made of alien alloys slashed through the pink sky above with light also visible coming from openings at the ground level. She had been once to the Sistine Chapel in Rome and had been aghast by the experience and this chamber looked bigger than that. But unlike the pristine appearance of the Chapel, the King's Chamber, as Yusuf had called him only showed the ravages of war. The four X-COM soldiers spread out from the stairway and started moved through fallen superstructure plates and supporting beams together with smashed equipment and a few alien bodies that hadn't been completely covered by the Martian dust yet.
They had started at one side of the chamber and now were panning out through. Holding his laser rifle ready Jones moved closer to the long figure of a robed Ethereal lumped over a corroded terminal. He hit the ragged corpse with the tip of the rifle and in response the body felt down in pieces with the monkey like cranium of the alien hitting his suit's feet. Picking it up carefully on his armored hand he examined the skull: the Ethereal looked as if he was grinning at Jones. He smiled back at it and then applied enough pressure on the overgrown lateral lobes of the cranium until he crushed them. "Making new friends Jones?" Rodriguez voice made him smile as the other soldier had noticed his action, along with King who simply nodded at him and kept moving forwards. Finally, after they had finished the sweep Lieutenant White spoke on the general channel. "Looks clear. You got two hours before he have to head back. Don't wander off without an escort".
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William Yusuf had been born on Leeds, the third son of two Iranian exiles who had met and married on the United Kingdom after having fled the Islamic revolution that had overthrown the Shah out of power and installed a religious theocracy on the country. Both his grandfathers had been wealthy and powerful industrialist figures on Iran and most of their fortune was located on overseas investiments so Yusuf had been privileged during his youth to education at the top English private colleges, ending with a doctorate taken at Oxford on political sciences, with a brilliant thesis on the Middle East. At first his interest on the region had been driven by the fate of his parents, although neither he nor them had no intentions of ever going back to Iran. He had married one of his classmates in college and knew that it would be much safer for them to live on the UK even if the Ayatollahs rule was finally relinquished on his parent's country.
That belief and loyalty to the country that had accepted him had been recognized, along with his analytical skills and real world experience by the MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service of Her Majesty, during his college years and he had been recruited by the organization from time to time to ask for its opinion regarding Iran and other subjects. It wasn't too demanding: keep an eye and ear on thoughts going through the small exiled community and what he heard from people still back on Iran while being asked his own opinion regarding issues on which the MI6 was interested. But while he wasn't a policymaker nor had any political ambitions he was still concerned about the whole situation on the Middle East as a whole, if more intellectually than emotionally.
But that had changed on the late 1990s. First it had been the profusion on news on the strange lights and shapes on the sky that had appeared on the quality papers, usually relegated to a bottom position well into the paper's pages, something more akin to the stuff that went on the tabloids but that soon also jumped into the television as well. And then the MI6 had started asking for information concerning an incident where the Iranian Air Force had intercepted an UFO on the 1970's and asking for him to make discreet questions about the subject.
That had set him wondering what was happening. Why had the British government become interested into matters that so far had been completely dismissed by the scientific community and ignored by the armed forces? He did as he was asked, something made easier for the number of former Shah military officers who had escaped Iran and had discovered that the incident had happened according to what they had heard back then and that it hadn't been the only one. After gathering a thick dossier on the subject consisting of dozens of statements he had turned it to his supervisors, who hadn't even flinched or made a reaction to the material. He had wanted to make a lot of questions concerning the identity of the UFOs and why might they be showing such an interest on Iran and other parts of the world but his only query had been dismissed with a blank face and apologizing eyes that stated the unspoken answer: need to know.
However, it told Yusuf a more precious answer: they existed and the powers that be were preoccupied. It was the right incentive he needed to start doing his own research on the area, trying to find out who was beyond the strange apparitions on the sky. Initially he had put aside the question of extraterrestrials being behind it by trying to apply more conventional expressions but the more he talked with generals and public officials on UK's Foreign Secretary he was forced to go back to that hypothesis. The SIS had also taken notice of his interest on the matter and the ideas he expressed concerning them and, in an exceptional decision they had asked for his collaboration on the matter.
By the end of 1998, when X-COM had been funded under the auspices of the UN he was one of the UK's top experts on the subject having gone a very steep ascension due to the urgency of the matter. Later transferring from the MI6 to X-COM, he had been a part of the them that had made the initial suggestion that the aliens' society was hive like and later, after the end of the war had returned into the academic world with a status that bellied his age of forty-two.
Besides looking for Elerium there was another nagging question that still worried a slowly dwindling number of concerned individuals back on Earth, although most of them were not public officials: would the aliens ever be back? That question had been on his mind since the end of the war and the Council had grudgingly decided that it was still an important issue that they couldn't afford to dismiss. Therefore when the request had came from the Council for his presence on the expedition, since he was the person on Earth to give that answer back, he was already expecting it. Commander Boronin was a good officer but he had other things to worry about concerning the trip and X-COM's more immediate future and the other two scientists had other things to worry about. He would give back the report to the Council when he returned, along with other additional information he might collect during his investigations of the ruins, but they would not be the only persons he would be answering to.
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"What's so interesting LT?" Hopkins' casual voice would have been taken as an offense by most officers but White had only gotten his officers' stripes after the war and before he had been a corporal. Still now he could call the sergeant now with in informal terms. The officer turned away from the broken large octagonal sets of alien machinery that were arraigned on a square on the center of the room. "Well this was the place where they run the entire war against Earth according to what Dr. Yusuf just told me". The scientist was away from them, apparently interested in some ciphering written on a particular console as the light beacon of his camera focused on it, revealing patches of the original violet paint.
Hopkins threw an enquiring look at the scientist. "Do you believe in all he says?"
"No, I mean, the Brain was located on the City but for their most part the aliens were just as dependent on regular communications as we where amongst their smaller units. And this". He opened his arms. "Was the central communication node. It's no wonder that all the bodies we've found are Ethereals and a few Sectoids. They run the day to day war effort from here while the Brain was dedicated to strategic planning and mental cohesion with the rest of the aliens. We originally tagged this place as the location of the Brain partly because of its tachyon traffic transmissions we had detected". Hopkins looked around for a second. That wasn't the answer to the question he had asked but he decided not to push it. "So what Cap? The moment we got the Brain all of this made no difference".
"You're right Gunny but it still it gives me the creeps to imagine them all here working for our fall". That told Hopkins that the officer also had an interest on the damn critters, just like Yusuf's. Not that it was wrong on his opinion but they had been brought up here on this cacamomie mission and it made him nervous to be walking inside an old alien base in such a small number and babysitting a pair of civilians. He ignored it and decided to go back to business. Jones and Rodriguez had wondered off to one of the sides of the chamber and he could see them checking out things, just in case any alien tried to sneak on the rest of the group while Dr. Johannes… He paused realizing that she had disappeared from view. So had King and Camay but they had informed him that they were going to check something below and their time to report back was still away. So where had Dr. Johannes gone to? He wondered and called on his radio.
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"You're too quiet".
"I'm keeping an eye on things".
"There's nothing to watch for. If anyone comes up here we'll heard them climbing up those stairs".
"Okay, I'm thinking about what Zee told us of how she's leaving the outfit to get to college".
"Another one gone". Besides the eight soldiers present at Cydonia there was hardly enough soldiers left on X-COM to fill two infantry platoons and that was if you included all senior officers on the mix. There were still a number of Area 51 veterans and each time one of those left the loss was even bigger like Garcia, who had retired after a Skyranger accident had left him with a leg amputated. That didn't meant that they were left for good since the veterans still got together from time to time but it was a loss to the team and, more important, to the company and friendship of fighting comrades. Him and Rodriguez had wondered at what would happen if everyone else left. What would happen then? Paradoxically their departures had the effect of turning the remaining soldiers even tighter making more easily to understand the reasons for the departure but still taking an emotional toll. In a time of war the feelings would be put aside until the proper time to deal with them but until now the Earth had been free of alien attacks although ridden with what some later called the 'phony wars'.
"She's doing the right thing Jonesy. This outfit is going to end one day or another and she's smart enough to start planning before it happens".
"Yeah but still…" Rodriguez's silence told a million to Jones. After a moment he raised himself until nearly standing on his toes trying to see what the officers were doing, although only the scientists were not aware of the plan. "We need to hurry up. I heard the commander is planning to make a quick stop at Cydonia since there's not much left there of interest except for that English doctor".
"I know cábron". He said on a snarl but the vicious insult didn't offend Jones who by now was more than used to them. "The Sarge told me. But it's difficult to get it finished".
"Hurry up! I keep worrying that anyone will notice".
"Just do your part and I'll do mine". Both of them stopped to watch the Martian landscape over the open large view ports, planted at the entire length of its five sides, which opened the entire chamber to the outside. Whoever alien architect had designed the monstrous construction it had turned it, avertedly or not, into a gasping observatory of Cydonia Mensae. The low winds kept the dust out of the atmosphere allowing for better visibility over the brown and red landscape in front of them. To the north they could the low rising pyramids and the smaller mounds of the City but the alien buildings were present in all directions with their southern sides lit by the noon Sun that was now hanging about the Pyramid where they were standing. The darker ground of the cauldron's inside while the Valiant stood close to the crater. Rodriguez amplified the view on his helmet until it was magnified enough to see the retractable landing pads of the Valiant looked more of a giant scarab that had just landed on the surface of the planet. Three figures moved there as well and he saw that everything was a ok down at the landing zone. He sling his laser rifle on his shoulder and rested both hands on the rock on the window. "The brothers man, they're waiting for us". Jones's voice came up.
"Think it will change anything Jonesy?"
"Well, we had to do something didn't we? They all died thinking things would get better".
"Well they didn't die for nothing. And we are going to remember that". He turned away from the City with his fist cocked. Jones cocked his also and hit Rodriguez with him replying afterwards. "Yeah".
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André Galvão, 2003