Ethereals: Dossier

Aegis

"The issue with Aegis was never his dedication, it was his loyalty."

- The Overmind of the Ethereal Collective

These are the ideals we hold above all else:

Order: We preserve the peace throughout our Empire, we settle disputes and hand down judgment clearly and fairly, removing our personal biases for the betterment of the Empire. We defend the outer systems from the debased criminals, killers and scavengers that threaten our brethren.

Protection: We dedicate ourselves to the protection of each and every Ethereal regardless of status and position, and will never abandon them or bring them to intentional harm. We are both the first line of defense against the enemy, and the last ones to leave the battlefield. We are never far from the side of the Battlemasters, and shield those who bring the wrath of the Empire down upon our enemies.

Strength: We dedicate our minds and bodies to the constant improvement and training to increase our power to protect and defend. An Aegis never reaches mastery, but strives for it in all aspects nonetheless.

Integrity: An Aegis holds themselves to a standard that will never be tainted, always acting for the good of the Empire, rather than out of personal ambition or incorrect leadership. An Aegis' directive is to protect the Empire and our species at all costs, even from ourselves.

- Code of the Imperial Aegis' (Abridged)

It was several decades after first contact with the Synthesized, when we were still attempting to determine the most efficient way to kill them and defend our worlds. I recall the debates clearly, the scientists and engineers frantically trying to determine solutions to this unexpected threat they could only theorize about.

Perhaps it was complacency. Perhaps it was arrogance that made them believe that this was just another problem that could be solved over the course of millennia. I am not an exception among that number, though I wanted to see firsthand this mysterious and horrific disease that was spreading through our Empire.

It was not difficult to find an Overmind that was willing to take me to the front lines of the war, as most of our military forces were occupied; buying time with lives as I know now. Those who are aware of who I am know that my ability with the Gift is not insignificant, even if now I merely regard myself as a historian of what is now lost, so I insisted on going down to the battle itself, certain I could protect myself despite the warnings from the Overminds.

Why they let me, I think has to do with that they intentionally wanted me to see the truth that the others were still blinded to: This enemy wasn't a minor issue, but a threat to our very survival. The Overminds and Battlemasters had said as much, but of course it was known that even the most recent ones were several generations old, and lacked the clarity of the newer Ethereal minds.

An issue for another time, but I landed on a world we called Yawen, and from my research on the planet, knew it was primarily a research outpost where scientists were experimenting with the unique wildlife that had some kind of extraordinary regeneration capabilities. Imagine my surprise when I stepped out of the Gateway and beheld what could only amount to sheer devastation.

The research outpost could only be compared to a military installation now. Soldiers guarded every exit, patrolled in groups of six every ten minutes. Engineers kept expanding the boundaries, repairing the automated turrets while the Healers rushed frantically around, attempting to heal Ethereals who were missing limbs, hacking blood and screaming in pain. And the moment I saw a heap of corpses, I realized something I had never considered before.

I had never seen one of our own die. Not naturally, not ever.

And the pile held at least two dozen corpses, likely not even reflective of the greater total. I never thought to ask. I quickly walked the battlements and beheld the world itself. No longer was it the lush and green world, but huge swaths were just…gone. Purple residue still remained on the scorched dirt, the echo of the psionic devastation upon the last assault. Hundreds of abominable mixes of flesh and metal littered the area, the bodies not even recognizable as the aliens that had once been our neighbors.

I do recall that was the moment when I wondered if I had made a mistake coming here. Where were the fleets? Why were they confined to this one area? I quickly set out to find the leading Battlemaster and learned that she had died holding off several hundred of these Synthesized. Only the Aegis was still alive, still holding on.

I simply asked why they were still there, why they didn't have support. The Aegis simply answered that this planet wasn't a priority for the fleets, and he was here to defend the soldiers who'd been ordered to remain, as his code dictated. To see an Aegis still dedicated to such was an uplifting sign, and a testament to who the Aegis of the Skyllian sector really was.

As it turned out there was a renewed attack on the installation, one with the twisted black ships of metal screaming towards us with the intent to kill all inside once and for all. One thing that must be realized to those reading this is that our Empire was peaceful, there was rarely conflict, and certainly never conflict warranting the usage of the Aegis. I had seen demonstrations, and had even attempted some practice of the tactics of the Aegis'. But nothing compared to the display of power I witnessed that day.

Within seconds the installation was shielded in a purple-tinted dome and deflected the ships crashing against it. More landed further away, transports I assumed, and what remained of our forces rushed to the walls and began raining down devastation upon the Synthesized and modified aliens rushing toward us.

The Aegis did more than simply protect the installation. Barriers of energy sprang up on the battlefield, slowing, tripping and harassing the mindless brutes. Entire lines of alien charges were frozen in stasis for precious seconds, which allowed the charging soldiers to quickly slice them to pieces. The remaining melee soldiers were few, but most had been disciples of the now-deceased Battlemaster, and were quickly becoming as deadly as she had been.

Throughout all of it, the Aegis never forgot to protect them either, all of them bore shimmering barriers around them that deflected projectiles, claws, blades, and anything else that tried to harm them. I confess I did participate as well, and realized just how ineffective my own abilities were compared to even the ones soldiers wielded. While I had to concentrate to telekinetically crush just several, one of the Battlemaster's disciples was lifting a dozen at a time while systematically hacking them to pieces with a greatsword. The psions unleashed maelstroms of energy on hordes of charging enemies, killing hundreds at a time. Even the long-range support soldiers brought a precision and devastation to the battle that I hadn't believed possible. From what I understand, they focused the Gift inward, heightening their focus and concentration and as a result, they never missed a single shot.

And throughout it all, the Aegis never wavered or expressed exhaustion. I lost count of the hours the assault continued, all that I knew was that I was exhausted and we had only lost six Ethereals. For me at least, it was the Aegis' iron will that kept me going, even as the hordes seemed endless and I wanted to give up.

But then at last it was over. I believed that it was not possible for there to be another attack on this scale soon. But the Aegis simply shook his head. They would come back, he said, they had always come back. But the longer they held out here, the more time the other divisions had to kill the Director Flagships.

The possibility of another equally deadly attack so soon was immensely upsetting to me, but the Aegis barely reacted, only asking that if I was to leave, that I spread the word that the Synthesized were a much larger threat than we could have anticipated. I promised I would, and soon left to do so.

But soon after that I returned to the war, and I can personally attest to the great feats of the Aegis of the Skyllian sector, more of which I will detail in this section, and am honored to call him a friend.

- The Annals of Aegis of the Ethereal Collective and Skyllian Sector, authored by Ethereal Cogitian

So it was a perfectly ordinary day. I was getting used to the oddities of XCOM, talking with the soldiers, watching the news anxiously and the stuff we were normally doing when there's an alien invasion going on. XCOM's a bit strange, true, but there was definitely a camaraderie that went beyond anything I've felt before, especially from the veterans. There was definitely something about the way they acted that really made us wonder how much they'd gone through before we showed up.

They hate aliens though, so they're good in my book.

Well, apparently only some aliens (Which does happen to be most of them).

Anyway, so I'm exploring this Praesidium and feeling pretty good, oddly enough. Which is really weird for me. And I saw the Research Labs and thought something like "Huh, you know, I should go in there and see what's up."

Nooo, nooo, bad Allison. You do not go into places you don't belong and I knew I didn't belong there. But for whatever reason I got it in my head that it looked interesting, and so I went. It was the most bizarre feeling. I didn't have any hesitation at all and strode right in. Wasn't much security, or people just didn't care as I went in and sort of looked over what they were working on.

I'm not anything close to a scientist, so that stuff was pretty much another language, but I did see some green stuff lying around, and some canisters of that apparently magical substance called MELD (Not sure if it's an acronym, but everyone puts it in caps for some reason). So I go a little further in and see an actual alien.

A Vitakara, they're called. Guess there's subraces of them too, but I just thinking of them as Vitakara. No, that wasn't shocking because I actually was told that XCOM was utilizing alien researchers in their experiments. They probably had some sort of bomb in them or something, I didn't ask, but probably only because it didn't enter my head.

Because that bizarre confidence that had gotten into me, took over and I went to get a closer look at the alien. It was the first live one I'd seen that didn't seem violent and it was…well, interesting. It was scarily humanoid and much taller than me. Had greyish skin and eyes that would have made me give it a wide berth if I caught them looking at me. Pretty, but utterly cold.

But instead I looked into the glowing blue eyes like some kind of idiot teenager, somehow fascinated at how they looked. And they were fascinating (They were glowing!), but I would never in my right mind ever try and hold a staring contest like that for pretty much no reason (What the hell happened to me then?).

So was that the strangest thing there? Ha ha, no, of course not! Why the hell would it be here? (This place is becoming creepier the more I think about it). So I finally break off my idiotic staring contest with the likely extremely confused alien and turned around and my heart probably stopped for a few seconds as I saw a fucking Ethereal standing in front of me, casually chatting to…gah, what's her name? Varren? Vahren? Whatever, the head-scientist woman. Just chatting and talking like nothing was odd at all.

You know what? I didn't feel terrified at all. I was terrified that I wasn't more terrified. I wasn't worried at all because something was telling me that this was all under control and I shouldn't have to worry. And you know what else I felt? Curious of all things! So what would be the natural thing to do, Allison? Back away slowly? Scream? Run away in terror? Nope! Walk right over to get a better look.

I'm such an idiot.

Well, at least the Ethereal didn't seem to mind, he…she… (Do Ethereals have genders?) it sort of looked at me and then my brain finally caught up and I decided I needed get out of here ASAP. So I walked, all calm and reasonable out of the labs and straight to the barracks and immediately took a cold shower and probably threw up several times. I'm not sure all that wasn't a fever dream. I'm not like that. I don't act so impulsive and do things just because I'm curious.

Whatever happened there was fucking scary. I don't know what came over me, except that is what would happen if I ever threw caution to the wind and didn't care about any sort of safety. Which is that I would act like an idiot and see killer aliens like Ethereals (!) and just feel mildly curious. I'm mostly writing this down because if that did turn out to be a dream…uh, well, it's a story. But it doesn't feel like it. Or if so, I haven't woken up yet.

Gah, I'm never going back to those fucking labs again. And if that was some weird hallucinogenic drug, Dr. Voran, fuck you too.

- Journal entry of Allison Monder, XCOM Soldier

XCOM Profile 0666

Authorization Level: Internal Council

Subject: Aegis

Threat Level: Currently Minimal

Assessment Author: Haley Yates, XCOM Psychologist

Approved by: The Commander of XCOM

SECTION 1: Physical Characteristics

Hair: None (Ethereal)

Eye color: Solid orange, almost identical to Vitakarian eyes

Skin color: Dark purple

Height: 9'2"

Weight: 254 lbs.

Scars or markings: None that I was able to identify as such. Ethereal regeneration is so robust that I suspect that scarring is impossible (Will have to confirm with Dr. Vahlen for further research).

Physical Condition: Ethereal physiology is such that it appears to always be in top form, and Vahlen has confirmed that there are clear signs of genetic tampering. Even without genetic modification, Aegis is likely at least as strong as our own genetically enhanced soldiers, as Ethereals in general are naturally far more fit that Humans.

SECTION 2: Brief Assessment

I will admit, while I expected XCOM to have some secrets, I did not imagine that one of them would be a live Ethereal, one that wants to help us no less. Thank you, Commander, for springing that on me with absolutely zero warning. For future reference, information like this is best shared in a meeting, and not by introducing me to said Ethereal.

Ahem,

Method of introduction aside, Aegis is without a doubt the most fascinating alien I've been able to interview yet. He was surprisingly eager to talk to, and our conversation lasted far longer than I had anticipated, though if that was entirely coincidental is a point of contention. I will elaborate more on that later. But he was willing to share quite a bit about himself and the Ethereal Empire as a whole (Documentation on that is separate).

Aegis specifically did not have a natural birth, but was "born" in one of their labs after a gestation period of nearly a century. He was part of an experimental group which was attempting to increase psionic potential without negating other positive traits. The experiment itself was only halfway a success, and I mean that almost literally. Nearly half of the group was birthed with extremely high psionic potential, but were mentally handicapped significantly. Aegis suspects that they were either experimented on or converted into biological material.

A somewhat irrelevant point, but Aegis was fortunately in the successful half, and spent most of his life honing his psionic talents into that of a defender. He had decided in his early decades that he wanted to be an Aegis, saying that particular ideology appealed to him, and sure enough, worked to that goal within fifty years, extremely fast for such a young Ethereal.

I should quickly clarify that a "young" Ethereal is one that is between zero and four hundred years. Aegis' current age (Removing the time spent in cryostasis) is 1,978 years old. And that isn't "old" by Ethereal standards by any stretch of the imagination.

Continuing on, Aegis served as the Aegis of the Skyllian sector, which was on the outskirts of the Ethereal Empire, and was initially one of the more "outlaw" sectors of the Empire, with some other alien species occasionally raiding and observing. Aegis literally stopped all illegal activity within one month and there was no further activity until the war with the Synthesized.

When the war began, to sum up his participation, Aegis participated from the very beginning, up to the time when the Imperator asked him to join him. During the time in between, he defended worlds, protected soldiers with little to no support, and even apparently took down one of those Director Flagships once.

Moving several decades forward, into more modern times, Aegis has actually participated very little in the Collective itself, as he is still unsure that the aliens within it are acceptable forces for the "coming war." Instead, he has been focusing on improving himself and several internal Ethereal projects in the Collective. Remember that the four or so centuries they've been awake after cryostasis is not much time for them at all.

I also want to add that Aegis' claim that he is "not a scientist" is, excuse my language, complete and utter bullshit. Out of curiosity I asked how much he knew about psychology and the answer equated to "a lot." It was a fascinating discussion, especially since he was what I would deem an expert in areas of psychology that aren't even invented yet.

So with that in mind, I decided to test him and ask what he knew about quantum physics. He instantly answered that was a field he was "somewhat unfamiliar with" and then proceeded to give an explanation that would give actual physicists pause. What he explained was so far beyond me that I gave up trying to follow and finally asked him to stop.

After hearing this so-called "non-scientist" talk, I can only imagine what their actual scientists are like, and if this Sovereign-level technology is giving their scientists trouble, I don't even want to think about Shen and Vahlen trying to figure it out. I am also of the firm belief that there is no such thing as a stupid Ethereal, because I asked and this was the minimum level of education most Ethereals had by their first century:

- Ten years in biology

- Ten years in physics

- Ten years in psychology and mental influence (His words, not mine)

- Twenty years in various computation fields

- Five years in biomedicine

- Twenty years in genetics

- Ten years in quantum theory

And that isn't counting military service, psionic training and a dozen other electives most Ethereals did just because they could. We're dealing with literal geniuses, Commander, keep that in mind. There is no such thing as a stupid Ethereal.

SECTION 3: Psychological Assessment

I hesitate to even try and figure out the mind of a being that's older than my entire extended family's age combined, but I will do my best. What I am most concerned about is that Aegis is smart enough to know what I am doing, and I highly doubt he wouldn't be above only showing specific sides of himself that he wanted to be seen, or altering my mind without any knowledge.

Nevertheless, I will report what I observed.

First important point is this: Aegis is not a traitor. I'm not exaggerating. He honestly doesn't believe he is a traitor to the Ethereals. The Collective, yes, but not to the Ethereals themselves. To him, allying with us is the best move to preserve his species and if you read his code, which prioritizes the survival of Ethereals above all else, it fits extremely well.

Aegis is extremely analytical, which makes sense both because of his tactical background and that Ethereals naturally take years to decide or set up what we would do in months. He particularly specializes in observing and exploiting vulnerabilities in enemy forces, and has a catalogue of weaknesses, both for enemies and allies alike, which he attempts to fix or exploit as the case may be.

He has one for you as well, Commander. You might want to ask him about it.

Aegis' views on the Collective species is…interesting. He respects the Vitakara, though believes they are too naïve to be useful soldiers. The Andromedons he isn't concerned about, even though from his descriptions they are the weak link in the Collective. The Mutons he views mostly as mere beasts, barely sentient at all and the Sectoids he despises for their cruelty and intellectual sadism. Their society is, in his words, "an abomination."

I would not describe him as xenophobic, but more…difficult to impress. He believes without a doubt that Ethereals are superior to most species, though oddly enough views humanity as highly as his own, and I believe this centers around our ability to utilize psionics. But then again, if that is the case, should he not feel the same towards the Sectoids?

I am unsure of what his true feelings towards humanity really are. On the surface he seems to believe our species is worthy of at least some respect, but he is an Ethereal, and one I am unsure I completely trust. However, I do believe him when he says that he will do whatever it takes to destroy the Synthesized, and he is without a doubt driven by some form of vengeance, no matter how calm and collected he appears.

Aegis does not have a traditional "moral code" as we would define it. His mandate is honestly similar to yours, Commander, which is, in his case, the preservation and protection of Ethereals at any cost. However, the difference is that he would never harm an Ethereal willingly, nor sacrifice them for the greater good. Even now he has repeatedly stated to me that he will never kill one of his own. I do believe that he is less fully joining our side as making a point to other Ethereals, and trying to convince them that he is right.

If so, this makes all of us pawns in his game. But I might be looking into this too deeply.

SECTION 4: Concerns

Being around Aegis changes you.

You're already aware of it, but I want to firmly reiterate this. He has some kind of psionic aura that removes any inhibition or fear. You ever curious what it feels like to stick your hand in lava? Go ahead and do it. You ever wonder what it would be like to kill someone? Why not do it and find out? I am not exaggerating when I say that Aegis should be kept secluded from the rest of the base unless he brings it under control. It's an addicting feeling of helplessness and empowerment that is both terrifying and liberating.

It's not natural or safe, and if we just allow him to wander around the base there are going to be a lot of problems as regular Humans simply can't resist the auras Ethereals emit. Psions are resistant to a degree, though are definitely still affected, and the good news is that Patricia assures me that the effects of the aura can be negated rather easily.

The explanation Aegis provided was that it was a talent he developed over decades as a way to keep soldiers from panicking or losing morale. All well and good except that goal is really only applicable for psions. According to him he can't just turn it off, so people with no resistance are overwhelmed and can't objectively think about the actions they are performing.

I know it is tempting to want to use Aegis against the Collective, but I have serious concerns about deploying him with the rest of the soldiers. He may be more of a liability than an asset in some cases, unless he is properly isolated or disrupted by a psion.

In addition, there is of course the concern that as an Ethereal, we don't have many ways to prevent unwanted mental tampering. If Aegis is not as honest as he appears, and this is a scheme of his, we are all subject to being unable to protect ourselves, even our psions. Aegis simply being around is a high-risk, high-reward deal.

Keep this in mind before you make drastic decisions with our Ethereal friend, Commander, he may be an ally now, but I'm not convinced he is a friend.