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"For the dead and the living, we must bear witness."
~Elie Wiesel
Chapter Twenty-three: Black Site Raiders
"Give me good news," Jane Kelly ordered, as two forms appeared from the dark shroud of nightly mist hanging over the thick Swiss snow. The Irishwoman shivered, grateful for the parka thrown over her kevlar, even as she wished for something a lot heavier.
"The facility is heavily fortified," Pratal Mox reported, which didn't fit Jane's definition of "good news" very well. "There are automated turrets covering most points of entry, and mobile patrols of lancers and mutons, as well as MEC units further in."
"Lovely." David checked his grenade launcher. "Does that mean we go loud?"
"Not unless we have to." Jane supposed it was all psychological, but this whole op made her acutely nervous. She was Lieutenant Kelly now...so it was her team and her rodeo. Then again, she'd basically been in command on the last few drops(minus the one with Central) when you looked at rank and rank alone. Still, it all felt very different at this level, even though XCOM was no one's idea of a decentralized organization. "I wanted good news, Mox."
"All the Advent units are following standard patrol patterns," Elena Dragunova chimed in. "There are gaps in their coverage protected solely by the turrets, and between Mox and I we can bypass them relatively efficiently."
"I don't like relatively," Jane admitted. She blew air through her teeth, ignoring the white mist cloud that resulted. "All right. Mox and Outrider take point, and I'll follow up with David and Julie." She couldn't help but glance at the psi-op, still favoring her side when she walked. Her unnerving yet beautiful violet eyes had no give in them, even if she struggled to keep pace with her teammates.
"I'm fine," she insisted, for about the sixteenth time. "I can do whatever you need me to do."
"...right." At that exact moment, Jane wanted Julie to do nothing more or less than clamber back into the Skyranger's drop bay and play I Spy with Firebrand. Somehow, she suspected getting XCOM's senior psionic killed in action would put her under just a bit of a cloud.
"Right." She waved Mox and Elena on, unaware of how closely her thought process paralleled the Reaper's in India. "David and Julie with me, for the main body. And in the rear..." She eyed the hulking tan MEC a little warily. "Junior."
"I will comply," the MEC agreed, without a trace of hesitation. It hefted the biggest, meanest gun Jane had ever seen, and the BIT floated aggressively around its shoulders. "Call on me when pitched engagement begins."
"Sure thing." If Jane had her way, there would be no pitched engagement on this stealth op, but she had very rarely gotten her way over the last few months. And she remembered what had happened to James' stealth op under much more benign circumstances, so maybe having a killer robot in reserve wasn't so bad.
"We're still under com silence," Jane finally reminded her detail, before Elena and Mox could scurry off. "Only contact each other or Avenger in dire need - or once the shooting starts, because they'll know we're there at that point anyway."
"Yes, mother," Outrider scoffed, and Jane tried very hard not to take offense. "This isn't my first drop, Irish. I know the plan."
"I'm just..." Jane coughed. "I'd rather repeat myself and tell you things you already know than..."
"You're talking to a Reaper," Outrider insisted. "I probably have a better idea of what to do than you do."
"I, for one, would much rather hear things I already know," Mox objected. "In my experience, if a soldier needs nothing explained to him, it is more likely he has misunderstood something critical and does not realize he has than that he fully understands his mission." He nodded to Jane. "I understand mine."
"Good." She resisted the urge to cough again. Nervous tic, it had to be. "Then let's get it done. Lead the way into the black site."
"Sir?"
"John?" Edward Gallant glanced to the steaming mug in Bradford's hand, then held up a finger. "Not yet."
"Sir, what do you..." Bradford trailed off as Gallant popped little red pills into his mouth. The Commander took a deep drink from a glass of water.
"Now, then." He offered the empty glass. "Trade you, Central."
"...of course, sir." Bradford looked quite confused, and Gallant enjoyed that as he took his coffee with great relish.
"You know, John, it's too damn early in the morning for something like this." Gallant stood in his pride of place, eyeing the holodisplay laid out before him. It showed a map of the black site area, but at the moment no transponders flashed to show soldier locations. Gallant drummed his fingers on ceramics. "They've got to be freezing their asses off."
"They're professionals, sir. And I imagine once they get inside that building, things will be a lot warmer." John studied the map as well, and Gallant could see the nerves in his tense posture. "In more ways than one."
"They're armed with new-model weapons," Shen pointed out, from where she manned a diagnostic tracker keyed to Junior - another thing that wasn't transmitting at the moment, as the team ran the risk of a silent infiltration. "Even if their cover's blown before they find the base commander..."
"Their odds are good," Tygan agreed, from Gallant's left. "But odds only carry us so far."
"They're the best soldiers in the world for this kind of fight. They have to be." Gallant frowned. He reached out to the display, and with a touch he pulled a different feed up. His lips thinned as he contemplated the bar. "Apparently we're not the only ones up at the Devil's hours."
The screen was blank, and every minute of that blankness sent new stabs of concern through Aileen Quinn's heart. She fidgeted, sitting up at the bar with more whiskey than was probably wise at this hour, grinding her teeth over each other in a way that was probably also less than wise.
It didn't matter. Jane was out there, and David too. Her friends...and she was drinking whiskey while they potentially faced death or worse.
"And they sent a bloody robot in my place." She contemplated that for a long few minutes. "Maybe us soldiers ought to form a union."
At some point, the screen would go live, showing at least a general picture of the current mission's status. It always did, even if most people preferred to watch from the sidelines on the bridge so they could be privy to the decision-making process itself. Aileen would have been there herself, if she hadn't liked the idea of drinking herself sane a lot better.
"It'll be fine," she muttered. "It's Jane we're talking about! She'll be...she'll..." Aileen blew air through her teeth. "It's Jane. Damn it."
She shot the screen another glance, hating every second it was dark. Then again, dark meant no news, right? She chewed on the concept. No news was good news...or, it could just mean Jane had been impregnated by chryssalids already and no one knew it.
How's that for a thought that'll linger?
She paused. Aileen's eyebrow quirked, and she shifted on her stool.
"Hey." The blonde rose, and she hurried down the line of booths with drink in hand. "What are you doing here?"
"Me?" Sylvie Richard's hair hadn't whitened yet, nor had her eyes gone purple. Instead they were red and bloodshot as she looked up from the coffee she nursed. She coughed. "I'm just...getting a drink."
"...right." Aileen frowned, then glanced at the screen. "Say, you've got an awful good view from over here."
"I do?" Sylvie probably had some talents, but...
"Kid, don't take this the wrong way, but you'd never last in Ireland."
"What?" Sylvie blinked. "Kid?"
"You're what? Nineteen?" Aileen snorted. "And you can't lie worth a damn, Paris."
"I am from Nice," she insisted, a stubborn light popping up in her eyes. "There is more than one city in France!" Now she turned away. "And I am hardly un enfant."
"Point being," Aileen pressed, "I know you're here for a reason."
"No, I'm just getting coffee-"
"And I bet it's the same reason I am." The Irishwoman sat without asking, right across from the psionic-to-be, meeting her eyes until she finally, slowly, wilted and nodded. Aileen took a drink. "They'll come through all right, Sylvie."
"I hope so," the Frenchwoman muttered. "If they don't..."
"Jane's as tough as they come," Aileen insisted. "She'll get Julie through this, I'm sure."
"I really hope you two know how to get through this," Jane muttered, resolutely trying to ignore the towering and shadow-casting buildings looming left and right. She eyed the roaming alien patrols and the angry turrets sitting astride the main lines of advance. "Because I don't have a clue."
"Analyzing." Junior quieted after that, and Jane gave David and Julie a "can-you-believe-this-shit" glance that they both returned in equal measure. Robots...on their side!
"The turrets are coded to examine areas in sections, to defeat dedicated sensor-defying equipment." Mox checked his bullpup. "We can bypass their visual scans on the left side, and if we are quick, we can evade the lancer patrol."
"Right, the lancer and his friend." Jane chewed her lip. "What about the hulking white menace over there?" She pointed to the Advent MEC circling the general line of the yard, passing under the raised watchtower that gave field of vision - and fire - over most of the compound, including the railway cutting straight through the facility. There was a dormant train now, and Jane supposed the operating crew was either armored and on patrol or bunked down in one of the nearby structures like semi-sane individuals.
"It could make timing tight," Dragunova agreed. She leaned out from the shadow of the building they used as cover, obviously contemplating the monstrosity. "But tight is not impossible. Follow me and Mox, and we'll guide you through."
"And if worst comes to worst," David chimed in, hoisting his machinegun, "I can shred that bastard good and proper."
"Yeah. Let's fire bullets at a robot." Jane checked her shard gun, then reached up to touch the hilt on her back. Not the axe this time! She had a sword again, a sword fresh from R&D and interwoven with mechanical and electrical advantages. Shen had personally assured the Ranger that her new blade could stop a pissed-off muton.
If I die because she fucked up at her lathe, I'm going to haunt her so hard.
"Analysis complete." Junior turned to Jane. "We will have a twenty second window to cross the yard from the moment the MEC patrol turns to follow the north wall to the moment the lancer patrol turns back about. And we will have to be mindful of the turrets during the dash."
"Oh, good." Jane took a breath she hoped was surreptitious. "How long until our window?"
"It begins in three seconds."
"Three sec-" Jane swore as she saw the MEC turn. "Well, shit."
"Move!" Elena popped out from the corner, and Jane growled under her breath.
"Junior, protect Julie!" Then the Irishwoman moved out, following Elena and ahead of David and Mox, forgetting psi-op and SPARK. Her boots sunk in snow and straight through to permacrete, and she ground her teeth as her breath hissed away in misty gouts.
"Turret!" David caught her shoulder, and the two slid down behind elongated green containers with black reinforcement, stacked in great job lots. Jane clutched her gun tightly as she waited on the optical sensor to move past her position...
"Wait a minute." She reached out to the container, and with a gloved hand she rubbed the glass. "This looks like some kind of storage pod."
"More like a coffin." David paused after that, and the pair traded a glance.
Jane actually swallowed.
"Move careful, now," the Grenadier urged, as the sensor pushed on. "Ten seconds."
"Ten-" Jane cut herself off, and then scrambled on and up, bolting for the looming boxlike building ahead, coated in snow that didn't manage to cover up the Advent sigil on the side.
"Get through that door!" she cried under her breath, or as close to it as she could manage, skidding to a stop by the portal in question. "Come on, woman!"
"Don't call me that," Elena snapped, as she hit buttons on her datapad. Mox eyed the corner, bullpup at the ready, and Jane checked her gun again. Her heart thundered.
"Five seconds," Junior warned, rejoining the group with a stumbling Julie in tow. "Four."
"Got it!" Elena stepped back and the door hissed open. "Go!"
"Three," Junior continued, as Jane waved David, Elena, and Mox inside. "Two."
"Go!" Jane seized Julie by the shoulder and practically hurled her through as the SPARK's big metal feet hit solid floors. "Close it!"
Thankfully, Elena didn't argue. Jane threw herself inside, flying through the electronically-closing doors with inches to spare, and it re-sealed just a heartbeat before the Advent patrol turned about to look.
And she flew right through an infrared sensor when she did it.
Beep.
Her meditation was not something she liked being disturbed at the best of times, She floated in the air, slowly rotating, hands on her knees in what humanity called the lotus pose, in full armor with weapons on her back. It took considerable focus to maintain her levitation, and even the slightest interruption could jolt her to reality.
As this one did.
"What?" She managed not to snarl. She didn't like being disturbed, but at least this wasn't the sniveling concern of a lesser commander, or a taunt or insult coming from one of her brothers. No, this was an alert from her automated tracking system.
Switzerland? She set her legs down, taking her weight for the first time in days. Without disorientation, she strode to her terminal, reaching out with one hand to work the controls.
Yes, it was Switzerland. Not just anywhere in Switzerland either! Her eyes narrowed as she read the information on her display.
"...XCOM." The four-letter name came out low and guttural, and it made her lips curl up and her eyes light. Predatory joy rushed her veins, and she took a deep, cleansing breath of the pure air in her sanctum.
Then the Assassin turned for her teleportation chamber, reaching for the hilt of her sword and still smiling.
"Ow!" Jane came down on her shoulder, swearing more colorfully under her breath. "Stupid, stupid..."
"Give us a little more warning next time, how about?" David glared at Junior. He knelt to offer his hand, and Jane took it. "We'd have been sitting ducks if they'd turned early."
"It seemed unlikely," Junior objected, voice level. "I analyzed their deployment very carefully."
"You stupid bucket of-"
"Stow it!" Jane held up a hand. "Mox?"
"I...have no idea." The Skirmisher's voice was uncharacteristically subdued. "No idea at all."
They beheld a massive room of green lights and dark shadows, full of glass tubes tinted with white smog. They ringed the walls and stood in great rows down the room's center, and Jane's stomach turned as she fully registered the smell.
"What the...what the hell is this?" Julie wondered. She raised a hand to her throat, staring at the rows and rows and rows of suspended glass cases, and the darkened shapes inside. "Those are..."
"Bodies. People." Jane's eyes locked on the form of a woman who couldn't have been much older than her, floating gently at the top of her cell in a thick green solution, eyes milky-white and flesh stripped, but dark hair still flowing freely about her in a great cloud. "My god. The missing civilians."
"The aliens are still abducting people," Elena whispered. "They...they must never have stopped."
"But why?" David's face was just as white as everyone else's, as he regarded the cells. "Test subjects for some sort of weapon?"
"This facility is more likely to be a refinery."
"What?" Jane whirled on Junior. "Where the hell do you pull that from?"
"Those cells are likely full of a stripping acid that reduces the occupants to their base ingredients." Oh, how could it talk that...disinterestedly? "The reduced product is then processed through that equipment, before being distilled for purification there." It pointed, and Jane turned to the end of the room.
"...I see." She set her teeth, eyeing the purification system in question, and the vial set in the machine's center. "Miss Richardson, secure that vial."
"Yes, ma'am." Julie started that way, mag-rifle at the ready. Jane waved Mox after her, and the Skirmisher nodded. He kept back far enough to cover the psi-op's back in case a screaming Advent lunatic was hiding in among the bodies.
"This is..." Jane reached for her com. "We need to..."
"Jane, we haven't found an officer yet," David reminded her. "We can't break com silence when we're in the heart of the beast. If those patrols found us...if they knew we were in here, every single Advent unit in the facility would bear on us."
Jane swallowed. She lowered her hand, though, and gently paced across metal latticework stretched over dark spaces full of thrumming machinery and plumbing.
It stank and rang like the house of horrors it was.
"I don't understand," Jane whispered, reaching her goal. She took the heel of her palm and rubbed at the wall of a glass cell - just the same as those set in the center of the chamber, arranged for ease of movement by great cranes and gears set in the ceiling. "Why? It's...it's nothing but genocide-"
Wham!
"Shit!" Jane jumped backward, leveling her gun at the glass. Behind it, manic eyes shone with desperate zeal, and Jane blinked when she realized just how human their owner was.
"...some of these people are still alive!" she cried. The Ranger leveled her gun. "Get down!"
She didn't know if the wretched soul in there heard her. She got the meaning clear enough, though, because she ducked low, covering her head with both hands. Jane set her teeth - and then squeezed the trigger.
Blam! It was a different noise than her shotgun had made, but it was no less destructive for it. The cell wall shattered under the hit, and Jane worked the pump quickly, just in case. Even before the alloy casing had hit the floor, she'd dropped her gun to hang from her shoulder, and the Ranger grabbed the weakened shards of cell lining, ripping a wider hole open on brute strength.
"Come on," she urged, the instant the gap was wide enough. "Let's get you out of there-"
"Evangeline!" The woman inside was blonde and filthy and naked as the day she was born, but as soon as Jane had pulled her from captivity, she seized the Irishwoman's shoulders. She spoke, too, quite impassioned, but...
"Hey!" Jane shook her just as hard as she'd been shaken until the civilian broke off. "I don't speak French, okay?" She racked her brain. "Je ne...um..."
"English?" the woman tested. Jane nodded.
"Yeah, I can get by in that-"
"My friend! Where is she?" The blonde stumbled to the next cell adjacent to hers. "She was here...they took us from Paris..."
"Paris?" Jane paused to glance over at David, Junior, and Elena. "The hell are you standing around for? There are more cells over there!"
"Jane, we can't-"
"Open them!" she cried. "That's a direct order, Sergeant Dragunova!"
"Oh!" Really, the blonde made a more strangled noise as she beheld the specter of the deceased. She collapsed to her knees, lapsing into French for a long moment.
"How many of you are there?" Jane asked, hurrying up to her side. The woman shook, wiping at her eyes.
"She...she had a son..."
"Here?" Jane demanded. The woman shook her head.
"No...no, I don't know how many are here. I don't even know where I am."
"Damn it." Jane growled in the back of her throat, then turned and counted cells. "There's a maximum of fifty-two of you in here." That number turned her veins to ice. Fifty-two? How could her six protect that many escapees?
All of them naked, running though the Swiss Alps?
"...there are guard lockers over there." She pointed. "Go see if you can find warm clothes. It's freezing outside."
"Freezing-"
"Do it, now!" Jane reached to her belt, and she drew the little personal payment she'd insisted on keeping, all those months ago. Her teeth were set and her eyes narrow, and her breath hissed out in angry, searing surges as she turned and strode purposefully through the maze and the death and her team's ongoing rescue efforts, tossing a large X4 charge to herself. "Now, if I were a critical support column, where would I hide?"
"Jane, I've got the vial." Julie appeared at her side. "What's this about prisoners-"
Boom!
Not just any boom, that. It came down from Above with searing purpose, and Jane blanched when she saw the purple light that came down with it, tinting the entire facility through the high windows.
Join me in the darkness, called a crooning voice on the wind, almost more imagined than real. It was harsh, it was deep...and Jane found it all too familiar, as it brought back memories of a far-away place and the hell she'd lived through.
"Oh...shit..."
...and I will end this quickly!
Author's Note 23: Je ne parle pas Francais - et vous?
The black site is possibly the most horrifying place in XCOM or XCOM 2. It's the alien base from EU combined with the Abductors and the worst bits of EXALT, and nothing you encounter in the field is anything like what you see there. And it only gets worse the more you think about it.
Another thing that comes up the more you think about it: Betos, Volk, and Bradford all make references later to destroying the black site, not merely raiding it and taking the vial. Yet you never lay any charges or anything - not to mention Bradford and Shen's commentary on how some of the victims could still be alive. Shouldn't XCOM have done something to save them?
Well, courtesy of this fanfic, it did. Now we can all assume that the charge-laying and victim-saving happened off camera, and just wasn't included because it would slow the gameplay down too much. Agreed?
Then again, this is me writing this. Maybe Charlotte and the other escapees would have been more likely to live if Jane had left them in their cells...
Until next time, Vigilo Confido.