Sectoids: Planets
Helion-7
"It's the perfect planet for the Sectoids. Artificial, elegant, and soulless."
- Aui'oyarra'harrel
Helion-7 is, of all the places I have visited, purely alien. Even the Andromedons follow some kind of format and structure, they have systems, and their cities feel like people inhabit them. The Sectoids, now they understand architecture, or at the least it appears like they do. For such a small species, their buildings are some of the most elegant and beautiful I have ever seen.
It is difficult to describe it without seeing it for yourself, but there is nothing like it in the Collective. The Sectoids have mastered the art of functionality, and yet I feel like all of it is nothing but an accident. It is one thing to wander their Hives in wonder, marveling at how it all seems to work together so effortlessly, and realize that you are the only one impressed by it.
The reason I believe comes down to this: Helion-7, and all other Sectoid planets, are sterile and cold. There is no energy, there is no life. Sectoids are emotionless creatures, and they go about their tasks with no excitement or joy, nor even resentment or anger. The cities they inhabit don't feel made for them, like if insects were put into a model town. They will soon adopt it as their own, but they ultimately don't care how much effort or care was put into it.
It is bizarre, because it doesn't feel like the Hives were designed by Sectoids, but instead some other alien species, and now they are just inhabiting them, though I know logically this cannot be true. The homeworld of the Sectoids is Helion-7, and this kind of flowing architecture can be found throughout their spacecraft and space stations.
What's more, these Hives are clearly not designed for alien life. In the entirety of the Hives, there are approximately four rooms that would be considered appropriate guest quarters, and it genuinely appears that the Sectoids do not know how to properly prepare for such events. It feels fake, like they are imitating what they imagine hosting planets would have, but not knowing exactly why.
Food looks like what I am used to, but that is where the similarities end. Every single dish, without exception, tastes exactly the same. Bland, dry, and just…nothing. Every drink tastes like water, regardless of coloring or texture. Furniture that appears to be made out of exotic materials like wood or plastic is exactly the same alloy the rest of the Hives are made out of, just textured and painted to resemble something familiar.
Plants are made out of a rough fabric constructed to look similar to the real thing, but fail under close scrutiny. Blankets, clothing, and other similar amenities provided feel exactly the same, but look wildly different from each other in form and function. Do the Sectoids genuinely believe that these imitations fool those who visit? Do they even understand the concept of luxuries?
Or do they just not care?
The Sectoids are disquieting because they are not like us. Even the Andromedons we can understand and empathize to a certain extent with. They have outlooks and desires that are similar to our own, they have individuals. They understand us, and we understand them. Sectoids are different. They are truly alien, and we simply cannot understand or comprehend how they think, because in the end, they are not even remotely similar to us. They can only pretend to be.
Helion-7 is a monument to this. Art without purpose; imitation without explanation; a home with no soul. And one of the most disquieting parts of walking around the Hive was thinking of the Sectoids not as an alien species, but some kind of drone inhabitants, whereas I was the only living being that mattered.
Only with the Sectoids can you feel as though you are alone in the city.
- Vit'poria'vitaria, Vitakarian Xenobiologist recounting a visit to Helion-7
REPORT 000011111010
PLANET OF INTEREST: HELION-7
HELD BY: THE GREATER HIVE COMMANDERS
POPULATION: 1,627,722,011,199 (ESTIMATED)
PLANET TYPE: URBAN
INDIGENOUS SPECIES: SECTOIDS
ANIMAL LIFE: NONE (PRESUMED EXTINCT)
POSSIBILITY OF COLONIZATION: NONE (OCCUPIED)
INFORMATION OF NOTE: PREVIOUS ANIMAL SPECIES HELD IN SECTOID GENETIC VAULTS
INFORMATION OF NOTE: SUSPECTED PLANET OF HIVE COMMANDER CREATION
INFORMATION OF NOTE: SEAT OF POWER FOR THE GREATER HIVE COMMANDERS
INFORMATION OF NOTE: WORLD COMPLETELY URBANIZED
VULNERABILITY TO PENETRATION: LOW
THREAT LEVEL (ALLIED): MEDIUM
THREAT LEVEL (HOSTILE): UNKNOWN – SUSPECTED HIGH TO OMEGA
ADDITIONAL MANUAL COMMENT: Helion-7 is the center of influence for the Sectoid Hive Commanders, united under the Greater Hive Commanders. The planet itself has been turned into an incredibly efficient resource that holds one of the greatest production outputs anywhere in the Collective, as well as a city planet that holds over a trillion Sectoids.
The planet itself is not large, and gravity is slightly weaker than standard, but the Sectoids have made sure to use every single resource of the planet, as well as any available space. To understand just how tightly controlled Helion-7 is, it is important to understand how it is constructed. There are several major parts to the planet: The Hives, the Veins, and the Underground. This is not taking into account the Helion System Fleet, which is an entirely different section.
Hives: Sectoid hives are the most well-known Sectoid piece of architecture. From the smooth metal ground of Helion-7, they rise like massive obelisks, smooth and flawless from a distance. They are deceptively uncomplicated, and it is only when you take a closer look do you understand just how complex the Hives actually are.
To begin with, they are spaced exactly half a Hive apart from each other, in any direction. Why the Sectoids follow this convention is a mystery, but as a result there are large swaths of land where there is absolutely nothing. There is no soil, sand, or any other covering on the surface of the planet itself. Only a smooth alloy. Any mountains or uneven terrain were removed long ago, leaving only unbroken surfaces dotted by Hives.
These Hives extend upwards to the Stratosphere, all with internally controlled pressure and oxygen. However, this is not the most fascinating part of the Hives themselves. They are pillars of a sort. Most people at a distance mistake Helion-7 for a smooth ball, when in reality they are simply seeing the first layer of the planets defense. Helion-7 is covered by a sphere of alloys, held up by the Hives with only heavily defended points of entry to enter the planet itself. If those inside look up, they will simply see the sky is a white light that never dims. Sectoids do not follow sleep patterns, and the concepts of day and night do not matter to them.
With the scale of the Hives established, we can devote some time to their inner workings. Each Hive is made up of six hundred levels, each of which has a specific focus for each floor. Without fail there will always be Engineering, Scientific, Genetic, and Breeding levels, though this is where the similarities with each Hive end.
Each Hive is to some extent, a reflection of the designated Hive Commander. Some favor a focus on bioweapons, and as a result there will be a multitude of floors devoted to nothing more than a constant synthesis of bioweapons, for multiple species animal and alien, each different species getting its own floor. Apply the same logic to a Hive Commander focusing on Xenobiology, and you begin to see how the Hives are put together.
There is no such thing as a 'benign' Hive. Each Hive Commander sanctions experiments that would not even be tolerated in the Federation, let alone the Aui'Vitakar. The Sectoids have no understanding or respect for individualism, and observation leads me to believe they do not entirely understand that most consider the average Vitakara or Andromedon to have some value, whereas the individual Sectoid is a disposable tool. Or more likely, they do understand but reject any notion that this way of thinking has merit.
The defenses of each Hive are extensive. Do not be fooled by the smooth exterior. If needed, each Hive has anti-air defenses for enemy fleets, and internally each floor has automated laser defense systems that are programmed to execute non-Sectoid life on detection unless specifically requested otherwise. In addition to that, each Hive is held by the personal army of the Hive Commander in charge. Helion-7 Defenders, Leaders, Cyberdisks, Sectopods, each of these are stationed throughout the Hive, although the exact composition is difficult to determine unless the Hive Commander is known enough to draw conclusions as to the likely army composition.
The final floor of the Hive, the very top, is the Dome of the Hive Commander. It is impossible to penetrate without being discovered, and only highly valued outsiders are even permitted to enter, which generally only extends to Ethereals.
With one exception, all Hives are the same size with defenses and utilities that are functionally identical. Said exception is a Hive exclusively devoted for the Hive Commanders and what passes for their government. It consists of nothing but Hive Commanders and their defenses, and largely appears to be the only kind of social event on the planet, and even then it is almost exclusively related to business and projects. This is Hive 000, and is only half as large as the other Hives, but there is almost always no fewer than twenty Hive Commanders inside, more than enough to destroy nearly any army.
The Veins: This refers to how the Hives are connected to each other. This is not the Underground, but rather, the layer right above it. This is where the major utilities of the Hives are controlled and regulated. Temperature, oxygen, electricity, all of that is regulated in the Veins, and all individual stations are connected to all nearby Hives, so that in the event that one fails, the Hive does not suffer as a result.
Within the Veins are specific corridors for transport between Hives. Transports are conducted by a high-speed rail system that follows an interconnected railway that spreads throughout the entire planet, and is fast enough that one can reach any Hive on Helion-7 in less than four hours. This system is primarily used for transporting raw materials, which is what the Sectoids designate for nearly every single thing, barring live test subjects which are simply called 'subjects'.
The Sectoids seem to be nearly as uncreative as the Zararch at times.
The Underground: If there is one place that the Sectoids have not truly 'conquered', it is the Underground. The Sectoids have shaped the surface to what they desire, and they are only expanding downwards. It is important to note that there are many different, intertwined and extensive cave networks that exist deep below the surface of Helion-7.
It is also home to the only sources of water on the planet, the underground rivers that the Sectoids carefully regulate and harvest water from. There are massive underground water reserves, and the Sectoids are intent on using them up with no intention of replacing them. If Helion-7 had oceans, it is likely the Sectoids drained them long ago and they will do the same to the rivers below the surface.
This is also where the majority of their mining operations take place, where they harvest the metal from which their alloys are refined from, and they will not be running out anytime soon. They will not rest until they strip the planet clean, and with each mine they clear, they simply expand further down and will likely continue until their actions threaten the planet core.
Even then, I would not be surprised if the Sectoids tried to harvest the planet's core for their own purposes.
The Helion System Fleet: The Helion System Fleet is twice the size of the Desolan Fleet, but as it is spread out throughout the entire system, it gives the illusion that it is smaller. For the purposes of this report, I will simply cover the defenses for Helion-7 itself. The first line of defense is the Helion-7 Shell, which is configured with millions of laser, gauss, and plasma turrets and missile defense systems.
The Sectoids do not have a mid-size warship, so as a result, nearly the entirety of their fleet is composed of Hiveships, nearly four thousand in total, each containing a swarm of Fighters and Scouts. Around the planet itself are the Moon Hangars, which appear to be artificial moons that were placed around Helion-7 in an artificial orbit, and are not moons at all, but sphere-shaped Hangars that contain several thousand Sectoid Fighters each. Minimum.
This is not including the similar structures and ships around Helion-6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. The Gateways that enter the system begin at Helion-1, and if any invading fleet attempts to reach the Sectoid Homeworld, they have to go through a death trap to arrive, and even then, victory is far from assured.
The Greater Hive Commanders were smart in designing the defenses of their homeworld, and any enemy that wishes to destroy them will pay a heavy price to do so.
RECOMMENDATION: DETERMINE PURPOSES AND HIVE COMMANDERS OF ALL ESTABLISHED HIVES, INCLUDING HOSTILE UNIT COMPOSITION; DETERMINE EXTENT OF GREATER HIVE COMMANDER PLANS FOR EXPLOITATION AND HARVEST OF HELION-7 RESOURCES; CONSTRUCT PROXY GATEWAYS FOR SURPRISE ATTACK; COMPILE LIST OF HIGH-PRIORITY HIVE COMMANDERS TO NEUTRALIZE
REPORT COMPILER: SPECIAL OPERATOR 017; ANDROMEDON FEDERATION [ERROR! DATA NOT FOUND!]
END REPORT
RETURN TO FEDERATION FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS
There is little on the Sectoids that they were willing to publically share with us, and history is unfortunately not something my kind is always in pursuit of. Nonetheless, the species of the little grey and orange aliens has intrigued me from the moment I stepped foot on their sterile world of Helion-7. The grand architecture of the Hives seems in direct contrast to their petite size; the juxtaposition already piquing my interest of what exactly happened here that led to the creation of such structures.
Fortunately, Sectoids are easily swayed, and I was able to gather enough information to begin to put together a scattered history of the planet itself, though my encounters where I could safely do this to Hive Commanders were limited, and at the moment the Imperator wishes we remain in the good graces of the Greater Hive Commanders.
Helion-7 was not, unsurprisingly, originally a sterile world. It was primarily a mountainous and rocky planet, with one cold season that lasted the entire year. Sleet storms were the most common weather event, but otherwise they had very little in the way of natural disasters. There were several oceans as well, all of them with thin sheets of ice over them at all times.
It will also not be a surprise then to learn that there was a surprising amount of alien animal life on Helion-7, including several species adapted to the cold, others to the ocean, and still more in the mountains themselves. The first Sectoids, from the best of what I could find, were seemingly just as psionically capable as what they are today. Because of this they never feared predators and often dominated them to do as they wished. Very rarely did they appear to kill them for what would be expected, such as food, but instead they developed a fascination with dissecting them to learn how they worked.
Sectoids have always been herbivores it seems. They consumed much of the plant life that grew around them, harvesting entire patches at a time for later consumption. They had always communicated telepathically, but at the time needed mouths to properly eat the food they harvested, but not once in their history have they used their mouths for communication.
I can only presume that as they advanced and developed ways to inject nutrients into their body, that their mouths became smaller until there was nothing left but smooth skin. Perhaps they made the modification themselves, which would not be surprising.
Sectoids were seemingly far more independent in their earlier history, with one clear leader who tended to telepathically dominate the others, but even the ones under him were capable of independent thought and since the various tribes and groups were capable to telepathic thought, misunderstandings were impossible.
A curious thing happened whenever Sectoids made contact with each other, every single time, without exception, they joined forces and became a larger group. Eventually they developed specific castes of Sectoids, which appeared to be based on telepathic prowess. What is interesting is that at this time there still did appear to be two genders of Sectoids, though it is not easy to tell which were males and females.
As the Sectoids advanced, they began expanding rapidly and constructing cities. Once they reached the point where they discovered genetic modification, it set off a series of events that isn't entirely clear. All that is known is that for the first and only time in Sectoid history, there was a bloody war within the species, which appears to have been between the leader caste of the Sectoids, and nearly every other caste.
The leader caste decidedly won, and after this point, it is assumed they evolved into what are now the Hive Commanders. There were sweeping decisions made after their victory, which included the extermination of animal life for biological resources, and the removal of one gender in favor of a single Sectoid template. The remaining Sectoids were brought more firmly under the control of the Hive Commanders, and individuality was stamped out over a period of millennia.
With full control of their species, the Sectoids began terraforming the planet to their desires. Mountains and hills were leveled, systems to control the weather were developed and deployed, and the creation of spacecraft sped this development tenfold. The exact amount of time it took for Helion-7 to become what it is is unknown, but is at minimum one thousand years.
It is only after first contact with the Collective are the Sectoids beginning to expand to other worlds, whereas before they were only content with the mastering of their own world. But now that they know there is an entire galaxy for them, they are willing to do whatever it takes to claim it for themselves.
- Records of the Sectoids, by Ethereal Cogitian
XCOM File 0056
Authorization Level: Internal Council
Subject: Helion-7
Threat Level: Artemis
Assessment Author: Aegis
Approved by: The Commander of XCOM
SECTION 1: Overview
Helion-7 is one of the most important planets for disrupting the Ethereal Collective. The Sectoid homeworld is the nerve center of the Greater Hive Commanders, and every single Hive Commander of note is there, and the ability to destroy them would throw the entirety of the infrastructure in place for the Sectoids into chaos.
What many Ethereals take for granted is just how much the Hive Commanders actually do in running their operations. No one likes the Hive Commanders, but none can deny that they are tenacious and driven in their own work. Creation of additional spacecraft would grind to a halt were Hive Commanders to die. This is further complicated by the fact that, as far as I am aware, only the Hive Commanders know how to create new Hive Commanders. I do not know if even Revealean would know, if only because it a contingency so unlikely to happen that almost no preparations have been made.
What makes Helion-7 such a risk is that nearly every single Hive Commander in existence is on the planet, and few ever even venture off the planet, let alone out of the system. They simply do not have the same drive to expand that many other species have, and this tendency can be exploited. The tradeoff is that Helion-7 is nearly as well-defended as Desolan, and this one exclusively by Sectoid forces.
SECTION 2: Defenses
In addition to the anti-air defenses, as well as the main force of Leaders, Cyberdisks, and Sectopods, I will instead focus on the defenses that will actually pose a direct threat to any operations we conduct against them.
The first will be the Hiveships, which will be more dangerous than usual because there is likely to be an actual Hive Commander directing them. They will use their extensive abilities in combat, and I doubt even Patricia will be able to fight against twenty Hive Commanders at once, especially as Humanity will likely be forced to fight through six layers of defenses before even coming close to Helion-7 itself. This is not including the potential reinforcements from the Collective, although the Hive Commanders may be too proud to request help.
Next on the ground will be the Helion-7 Defenders. These are without a doubt the most dangerous Sectoids after the Hive Commanders themselves. They are the primary defense force, and have the ability to be directly controlled by specific Hive Commanders, and are capable of wielding psionic power to devastating effect against ordinary soldiers, and the only ones who will stand a chance against them are genetically modified soldiers, and psions. You are fighting in the territory of the Sectoids here; the advantage will not be yours.
Then there are the Hive Commanders themselves. While you have had several encounters with Hive Commanders before, they were what could be considered rejects and irregulars. Any Hive Commander of any import would never be sent to Earth voluntarily, and now that you have shown you are capable of killing them with relative ease, they will be more prepared.
They are arrogant and prideful, but they are not powerless. The older Hive Commanders especially are exceptionally dangerous to your species, even if they would barely cause trouble for an Ethereal. Patricia would likely be able to dominate one with relative ease now, but you will be facing the entirety of the Greater Hive Commanders, and even she would not be able to withstand the combined might of the Hives. Care must be taken in moving to destroy them. All Human forces will be extremely vulnerable to mind control and hallucinations during this fight, even should I or Patricia attempt to protect them. It would not be an easy fight.
SECTION 3: The Genetic Vaults
While destroying Helion-7 is quite possibly the only feasible option when it comes to the Sectoids, there are a few things that you should be aware of. On Helion-7, there are what is known as the Genetic Vaults. These contain, to the best of our knowledge, every single Sectoid template ever conceived, as well as every documented species both on Helion-7, and encountered throughout the Collective. I suspect that Humans now have a place, quite likely several.
The reason this is worth noting is for several reasons, one being that it has Sectoid genetics from the era before the Hive Commanders took full command of the species. If there were significant differences then, those might be able to be determined from the Vaults. Why the Sectoids are keeping them is a mystery. It is not for sentimental value, and if I had to propose a guess, it is likely that they are keeping them so that in the event that they need a specific trait that they weeded out, they could reapply it later.
But the other, much larger implication, is that we were not the first alien species the Sectoids encountered. No one else in the Collective is aware of this, and the Hive Commanders are not as well. To date we have no further information on what this species was, or how the war was waged, only that the Sectoids eradicated them completely, and their genetic code rests in the Vaults.
If they have one species, they could have more. The Sectoids are old, their world is old, and the likelihood of encountering other alien species by accident is higher than you might think, and if we could acquire such genetic information, we could potentially raise extinct species for our own purposes, if not incorporate their traits into your own genetic programs.
However, accessing the Vaults will be impossible without the complete capture of Helion-7. There are Hive Commanders that observe the Vaults at all times, and any sort of psionic activity is scanned, detected, and purged through a gauntlet of defense systems that would likely pose a threat to even the Battlemaster. The Hive Commanders will never let anyone else enter the Genetic Vaults, so if we wish to take Helion-7, this should be a goal, if not a reason why.
But again, like Desolan, you must decide if the reward is worth the risk such an operation poses.