Notice
Originally posted December 24 of 2020 under the title Mythos Immortus -Lost Bird as a small oneshot, I decided finally get back to trying to turn this into something. Once again, this story will pretty much be XCOM meets Phoenix Project meets Cthulhutech. Criticism is welcome.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
Twenty years.
Twenty long years.
That's how long it took for XCOM's war with the Elder's to end. Contact didn't go so well for us. We fought as hard as we could, lost a lot of good people along the way, experienced victory and defeat to protect humanity… and for what? In the end the world leaders forced a unanimous surrender. XCOM was disavowed and scattered… I got put in a tube for decades and Bradford, - bless his ironclad soul - was the one who kept the fight going. He fought for twenty years without me, spent em running and fighting, spent em gathering allies, spent em looking for me.
No matter what they say that man's the reason XCOM stayed alive, not me. He's the reason we won in the end, and though I had my part to play it doesn't compare to his.
He spent twenty long years fighting, I got involved only during the beginning and the end of it.
But just because the war is finally over, doesn't mean that everythings gone back to normal, let alone the way things were.
Look down the streets and you'll find aliens and humans and hybrids alike.
Our victory came with a price; the Adven't false peace shattered to give way to make it seem like the world is falling apart. No one trusts the aliens anymore, less trust the hybrids like good old Beto and the Skirmishers.
This is where the hard part starts.
We may have stopped the war, liberated humanity and Earth from the Elder's and Advent's control but WE gotta fix everything else now.
I don't trust the world governments to not fuck everything up and fuck us over again…
From the Journal of Doctor Richard Tygan
Since the discovery of Dr. Vahlen's research facility, I have taken the liberty to examine notes my predecessor has left behind. In doing so I hope to better my understanding of some of her more "eccentric" creations such as the Rulers. In my readings I find myself both amazed and horrified at what she left behind. Her theories and concepts for genetic modification are astounding, but they are unethical. The further I dig into her research for Meld, the more unnatural the depth she sought to reach. I can understand gene therapy, but many of her future experiments seem to border on the line of madness. It is frightening, and I begin to question whether my predecessor had some condition we had not been made aware of. Her obsession with Meld gene modding is… concerning and I am frightened by the possibility of studying her research further in order to seek a means to assist humanity.
From the Journal of Chief An-Yi "Lily" Shen
It's still hard to believe it's finally over. I mean there's still ADVENT troops to deal with but… it's really over. I just wish my dad was here to see this. Since XCOM was disbanded years ago, it became his dream to defeat the aliens and ADVENT. I'm just glad I was able to help make it a reality, and dad, you helped make all this happen. You left me SPARK and he's been a great deal of help to the resistance. ROV-R likes him too. I think they're gonna be great friends.
Speaking of which I've been learning things from SPARK's digital blueprint. Not just how to potentially mass produce him like how ADVENT did their MEC, but… dad left me some files for other creations like XCOM's old S.H.I.V. Platforms. I'm thinking of building my first S.H.I.V. soon too, that way SPARK and ROV-R get another friend to spend time with, but first there's something I gotta do, there's somewhere we all gotta go.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
Bradford and I went home today; we returned to the old Ant Hill. She's a mess, but she's still standing.
I think… I think Bradford needed to be here, I needed to be here. Needed to see what had become of the place where all of this started. Needed some form of closure for what happened here twenty years ago. Being here, walking these halls with him; I don't think I've seen him so… broken and distant in all our time together. Our Ant Hill meant a lot to him.
I want to clean her up, bring her back to working. I think it's only right.
She was home once, she can be home again.
From the Journal of Doctor Richard Tygan
As many unnamed men have said; "perhaps there are some things man was never meant to tamper with". I fear my predecessor Dr. Vahlen may have delved too deep into the scientific possibilities of Meld only to be consumed by madness. These genetic experiments, unethical and perhaps impractical are something no sane soul would dare come up with.
Her experiments are frightening, but in looking back during my time with XCOM I find something more concerning.
Genetic manipulation… and Meld itself frightens me.
A tool like Meld is something once considered the world of science fiction. XCOM has used it in war just as well as the Aliens during Contact. And yet… Why is something like this so easy to use but so hard to understand? Why did the Elders drop their Canisters only for XCOM to acquire them and use them as efficiently as they could? What was their reasoning; for humanity to grow dependent on this foreign material, to follow the path that they have down and may very well lead to their own damnation?
I have seen the Septoids and Advent Troopers, the Floaters and the Archons, Dr. Vahlen's Rulers and even the old EXALT autopsy reports. and I find the level of genetic modification is frightening and near blasphemous. Worse, we now have the ability to perform such actions for our own gains, and the only thing restraining us is the inability to understand how to replicate Meld technology. Perhaps it is for the best; our inability to recreate Meld may act as a necessary restraint in delving down the easy path that leads to a new horizon.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
World's calming down finally, though it's still gonna be a while till everything's back together. There's still plenty of aliens occupying our cities and the outskirts, and many want to kick them off our planet. That's going to be impossible however, as there is no way to send them off, and as Dr. Tygan once said it seemed the Elder's intended to be here for the long haul, it's hard to find a ship in one piece that we can use to get these aliens home let alone a working Psionic Rift. They're gonna be stuck with us for a while. And as strange as it seems I'm not certain if they "should" leave.
I've probably been hanging around Officer Kelly too often. I never considered her sympathetic to the Aliens but she's thinking about coexistence. Aliens, Humans, and hybrids alike just living together and working towards a common goal; a better future. It's not… a common thought, and there's certainly some protests coming within our ranks on the possibility of "forgive and forget" what they've done for twenty years now, such a thing isn't possible; but we've moved past the sins of our forefathers before. We forgave, but we did not forget lest we run the risk of repeating their actions against other people regardless of their race, gender or sexuality. Besides as it stands I'm not in the mood to cause total genocide… unless its against the chryssalids - fuck those freaky xenomorph-esque assholes.
On the plus side We finally got the old Ant Hill up and running again. Never seen Bradford so relieved. I think he's finally found that closure he needed so he can move forward. Me, I'm happy to say XCOM is officially back home.
From the Journal of Chief Engineer An-Yi "Lily" Shen
Finished my first S.H.I.V. today, gotta say even with my dad's notes she came out way better than I expected and I'm thinking of calling her E-VE. She and ROV-R like to follow me around when I'm not working and sometimes they bump into each other.
Still, everythings been pretty quiet so far. I mean there's still some fighting going on outside and Kelly's Reclamation Agency has been busy, but things are certainly better than they were before. Honestly though, I'm still not sure about all this coexistence stuff, but it's worth a shot, right? Still no point in letting our guard down in case things start going south; and there's always the worse case scenario of the Elders returning. They wanted to be here for the long haul, so theres no way they're done with us yet.
Meantime I have some projects to work on.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
It's been 25 years since the war, and coexistence has been hard earned. I've seen humans, aliens and hybrids sit at a restaurant table and share drinks and laughs. It was weird at first, but I don't mind it too much anymore.
… still, 25 years. Worlds changed in that time. After the collapse of ADVENT the world governments tried recollecting themselves, eventually deciding to take a step towards real unification. A one world government; no borders between nations, one people united and all that good stuff. I gotta say, it's been pretty nice so far.
We've had to take a few steps away from Elerium based technology; stockpiles are short to begin with and even after 25 years we can't figure out how to synthesize it. I'm happy to say that we're almost completely off the stuff the Elders tried getting us hooked on.
It's been a bit… easy I guess to pull away from but I'm still not all that sure about what we replaced it with. See; while I was still in a tube, some resistance researcher by the name of Teresa Ashcroft secretly started working on something called Arcanotechnology and her research was continued by Simon Yi and Doctor Golvash Czeny. They created something called the D-Engine but couldn't mass produce it while ADVENT was still around. Made something called the Dimensional Engine or D-Engine.
It's… nuts really. Some infinite-energy device that put Elerium and Nuclear Power to shame so easily they look like rocks neck to a mountain. Supposedly it draws energy from another dimension, I have trouble believing that but hey I didn't believe in aliens till I saw my first Septoid. It's crazy what this stuff can do, and to be honest we don't fully understand how it works…
I don't really want to either. Those that worked on the D-Engines went mad, and I get the feeling that it all traces back to the "Dimension" the energy is pulled from, or at the very least the Engine itself.
Still with the D-Engine we're pulling further away from the Elders path every damn day, but… I'm not sure where we're gonna go with this.
Either case things are… good. Everyone's playing nice, and it ain't just cause they have to. Still I look around us and wonder about the enemy within our own ranks, EXALT and wonder what's become of them. Same time I turn skyward and wonder how long the stars will stay quiet. Elders haven't reared their head in decades but I feel they're still out there waiting for another Contact War and everything.
There's also something else out there, we know there's life scattered throughout the universe, and there's something else too.
When I held off the Elders during my last field mission, they said something, and it's been nagging at me all this time.
"It will follow you, just as it followed us. You are not ready. We must not fail."
Something else is out there… "what" is the question. The Elders are running from something, something that they think will turn its attention to us.
I don't like it, not knowing what else we need to deal with. Still, if - when they show their face, XCOM will be here.
Vigilo Confido; I am watchful, I am relied upon.
PRIORITY ONE HYPERWAVE TRANSMISION: ALPHA PRIORITY CHANNEL
TIMESTAMP: 5:10 HOURS ZULU TIME, 7/4/2054
FROM XCOM CENTRAL COMMAND: CITY 71 DETACHMENT
TO: ALL XCOM FACILITIES ON EARTH
CASE BUGHUNT CONFIRMED - CHRYSSALID PRESENCE DETECTED
At 4, July, 2054 Hyperwave sensors at XCOM facility site at Monterey County experienced a Chryssalid outbreak. Hive CONFIRMED to be heading towards City 71 . All XCOM facilities are to initiate protocol CASE BUGHUNT. Briefing packets are to be unlocked and standing military personnel are to go on full alert. Al reserve and civilian staff are to be mobilized for possible military contact. All current NEG heads are to be alerted immediately.
Taskforce Strike-One Personnel are to report to the nearest XCOM facility for transportation and briefing.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
Been a week since the biggest BUGHUNT in XCOM's operational history. And I swear to high hell I've never seen so many of those xenomorph-esque bastards in one place. We sent everyone we could get our hands on to City 71 but those bastards kept crawling out the bay in wave after wave like the ocean was chuck full of em. Swear the ocean was made of those damn things…
Dealing with a BUGHUNT's always hard, damn bastards multiply like rats in a wall. When they get their hands on you, but this was different. Those ocean hiding bastards were like bleached bone and the way they kept coming, it was almost like they were spooked by something. Trying to get away from something in the water.
Freakier thing? They weren't the only ones we caught sight of leaving the ocean.
Fish, fucking fish were washed up on shore in droves, couldn't really see the edge vof the just a giant line of fucking fish…
I DON'T like this.
We got the Elders and whatever was chasing them still hiding in the stars, we got EXALT hiding in the cities and now we got something hiding in the ocean depths… XCOM is going to be busy soon, feel it in these damn bones. No matter what, we gotta be ready.
Earth and her people will not fall, not while we're still standing.
Vigilo Confido; I am watchful, I am relied upon.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
I hate being right.
Something is going on. Been a few months since the BUGHUNT and shits starting to get weird. There's this strange mist creeping in from the coastlines - not one or two - I'm talking ALL of them and the rains coming with them. News says that sea life is getting violent. Psychicics - human hybrid and alien - are having nightmares and there's too many reports for it to be coincidental. And people are WALKING into the sea. Everyones on high alert, I've ordered Tygan to examine this "Mist" and see what the hell is going on, hopefully he can get us some answers. As for Lily I want her to use whatever Tygan brings back to try pushing this mist back.
Excerpt from the research notes Doctor Richard Tygan
Mist samples suggest that it contains large amounts of some organic composite, and so far the samples don't match any of the DNA records we've compared it to, be it alien or human orientated. This organic composite possesses the largest genome we've ever recovered the oldest as well. I can only compare it to something prehistoric, but what it belongs to, what's creating it is currently beyond by understanding. I will continue my research and hopefully manage to produce something to sterilize this strange mist overtaking the coastline.
Excerpt from XCOM Post-Examination of Winston Freed
He said whatever came out the ocean wasn't human. Same as the others. I tried getting him to explain but all he could say was to look at the thing they brought in for an autopsy. He seemed hysteric but we've managed to calm him down with some sedatives. Whatever they fought seems to be affecting the soldiers in a more negative way that the Aliens ever could all those decades ago.
Excerpt from the research notes Doctor Richard Tygan
Disgusting… simply disgusting.
And yet it's frighteningly intriguing. Autopsies on what we refer to as the Arthrons seem to be the result of human DNA having somehow merged with sea creature DNA to create these Frankenstein monsters. I believe they are the result of the "Mist" forcefully merging the DNA in a manner reminiscent of Meld gene splicing but the results are more pronounced and horrific even by the Elder's standards. And looking at this creature and other Arthrons brought in, leaves me with the impression that it is still in its early stages of development. I can only imagine the possibility of what their "finalized" versions will take.
And yet… staring at these creatures I somehow find something familiar about them. Something troubling.
From the Journal of XCOM CO. John "Central" Bradford
God fucking damn it, its like the words falling apart all over again. There's sea monsters crawling out the ocean and the cities are in an uproar. It's not EXALT it's… something… Men, aliens and monsters, men becoming monsters and Psychicics going rogue and fucking cultists of all things… We're fighting everywhere we can, helping the police on more than one occasion because shits hitting fan that hard. I want an explanation, we all need one…
From the Journal Doctor Richard Tygan
I knew something about these creatures seemed familiar to me. The design is truly alien, but there is something I can compare it to. The notes, the ones I used to study all those decades ago trying to understand my predecessor's apparent descent into madness. The similarities are too much to be considered coincidence, I fear she knew more than she let on to XCOM.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
Dr. Vahlen… Dr. Moira Vahlen. I think about that woman every time I stare at her picture on the M.I.A. wall. It's been 21 years since I last heard word of a woman we thought dead…
And that woman just sent me some fucking books.
I thought it was a prank of sorts but I know that writing, Bradford knows that writing, Tygan knows that writing. Vahlen is alive, she's out there somewhere and… she knows what's going on.
The note attached was essentially an explanation, the sea monsters, the people causing trouble in the streets, the cults popping up everything.
Vahlen was part of some other something big, something more secret than XCOM once was.
And she knew about these things, these creatures and the cultists, claimed them to be servants of "sleeping dead gods" beneath the sea and beyond the veil of reality. She wrote that these peoples traveled the dark corners of the world, waiting to resummon their old gods who may reclaim the world. Psionics was the catalyst and creation of Arcanotech just an unintentional benefit.
Great.
Just… fucking great.
The books were old. By that I mean ancient. One may very well have been a bestiary of sorts redacted for "my safety". The other was a freaking spell book with charms and protection seals, and a lovely little note that read "Do not read for more than an hour…"
There was also this emblem she had pressed between the pages, stylized to mimic XCOM, but the symbol and motto on it are foreign.
Sapere Aude; Dare to Know.
From the Journal of Chief Engineer An-Yi "Lily" Shen
Commander says we're fighting the proxy of Old Gods now. I believe him and I'm not sure how to deal with that.
Even with the autopsy reports being brought in, this is just nuts
I mean first we have a war with aliens and now we're going to war with dead gods?
This is… this is going to be complicated. I've never built anything to try killing a god, but if their proxy is anything to go by superior firepower seems to work as good as anything. In the meantime we have enough samples to build our prototype "Mist Repeller". As the name suggests it will push that damn mist back, but that's all it will do. We still have to deal with the monsters ourselves. It's not much of a start, we'll at least be able to see again.
From the Journal of XCOM Commander [REDACTED]
It's time to step down… I gotta say I don't want to, but it's time for this fossil to be put in a museum and let someone new blood take the reins.
It's been one hell of a ride, one some 80 years long. Lily and I are the only two left. Bradford had to step down years ago but he went out on his own terms, that old soldier going into the breach one more time to save as many as he could. We can only be so lucky to go out like he did. Tygan, poor soul didn't get the chance to make it this far, pieces of that old ADVENT chip still in his head got to him, decades ago. Still he left us behind enough for the future to pick up the pieces. Lily - no Shen should retire soon, she's done enough, The weapons, the vehicles, the Gremlins and S.H.I.V.s and Mecs, the Mist Repellers… Woman's done more than enough, me? I feel like there's still more for me to do, and maybe I can do it outside this office.
Still we've left some big shoes to fill, and our successors are going to have to work to succeed up. Maybe they can finish out business.
So; to my replacement and new Commander of XCOM. I leave you an old man's unfinished work; a world still under siege. The alien sea and the wilds hide children of the Fish God and abominations of the Fungi from Yuggoth. The cities hide the Children of Chaos, EXALT and uncounted other forces. And the stars hide uncounted horrors still biding their time. These are your enemies, and their number is legion. Beware the enemy within just as much as you beware the enemy beyond. Your war will be two-fold; in the streets and in the shadows alike.
But no matter what you are confronted with, follow these simple orders;
Survive. Adapt. Win. Welcome to XCOM and good luck Commander.
"Good luck Commander."
Sitting at her desk a woman simply repeated the words as looked over the edited journal entry, resting a knuckle on her chin as she reread the entry over and over again. She found herself doing this once a week or so, the act growing more into a habit than anything. Still rereading the message brought as frown to her face as she dismissed the published text on her tablet and leaned back, the hand on her chin drifting to her lap as she interlocked her fingers and started to think back.
It's 2177, it's been thirty years since she was given this office, being given a promotion after her predecessor - XCOM's second Commander passed on due to medical problems. In her heart she felt she wawa given the office more out of necessity than having earned it. TFor thirty years she's been the Commander of XCOM, and this was what she had to show for it: a world still at the brink of war. The cities are safe, the enemy beyond has been pushed back, but there is still the enemy within that her people must deal with. Covert Operations have become the new norm.
How long it will last before it's brought to light though… that's the main question.
The world is good, but it could be better, much better.
The NEG - the New Earth Government - holds a totalitarian - but strangely ok body. The people are living their lives to the fullest almost as if they are going to die tomorrow. She knows they're scared though.
Psychics, regardless of them being human, hybrid or alien are running, scared of what might happen with their powers brought to light.
Cults are still trying to awaken their Dead Gods and companies are scheming in their own little corporations.
How she had kept XCOM's autonomy was beyond even her, but she wouldn't complain. So long as they got results they kept getting the funding, and god damn it did they get results.
The NEG had figured out how to kill the monsters, but they couldn't do it like XCOM. No other power in the world had the skill and know how and know how to get the job done. Plus they couldn't train Psychics as well, or pump out the necessary weapons to put a couple bastards down.
Most autonomy they lost was when they joined with Reclamation Agency, a fellow semi-autonomous agency set up by XCOM. Even then what they lost wasn't much, with the joining helping XCOM assist local communities instead of just having to stay out and deal with the threats outside.
Inside was where the fighting really was after all.
That's the problem when the fightings at home. A knock on the entrance door caught her attention as she glanced forward leaning forward as the door was opened to let an officer in. "Central Officer Roland Pierce." She stated simply as she stared at him.
"Commander you're needed in Mission Control." Nodding her head the Commander of XCOM got to her feet and took a moment to roll her shoulders before stepping from behind her desk.
"Time to work for a living."
Note
For those that don't know and are curious...
The Fungi from Yuggoth.
Origin: H.P. Lovecraft
A Term used to describe the Mi-Go, who in Lovecraft's work are fungoid beings resembling crustaceans which hail from the planet Yuggoth - implied to be the dwarf planet Pluto. As it turns out the Pandorans from Phoenix Point are suggested to be based off of the Mi-Go from Lovecraft's work, with the comet that carried them in virus form to Earth in ancient times, and ended if frozen in the permafrost of the Antarctic. It's implied that the Pandoravirus fungi is sentient in some Lore such as the Interrogation and that the Pandorans are the bodies it creates to more directly interact with the world while terraforming it.
The Mi-Go also appear in Cthulhutech. They're also from Yuggoth/Pluto and either had established much of the solar system as their territory or were still in at the process of doing so. They found humanity's colonization to a threat and finding the situation unacceptable they chose to prepare for war so that they could drive humankind back to the world they belong - trapped on earth where they could be experimented on in secret at their leisure. Their first act of war came in the form of the Nazzadi, a near-human race they created based off of human blueprints and commanded by proxy but when they eventually found out their true origin the Nazzadi switched sides and the Mi-Go switched to using monsters before taking to the field themselves.
TLDR: Mi-Go exist in Two out of three of the game universes that are being used as the bases for this story. Both are these crustacean-like creatures that originate from beyond Pluto and come to Earth. War follows and while in Phoenix Point everything is lost in Cthulhutech there's still a fighting chance.
So anyway: For this I'm going to use the fungi from Phoenix Point which created the Pandoran's as the Mi-Go. It will either be their "True Form" or it will just be a Mi-Go Bioweapon that was created ages ago and got reacted, so they'll be replacing the Nazzadi Slave race in this story... for now. I'm not certain if I'm gonna completely cut out the Nazzadi or introduce them later. I probably won't but... thoughts for later.
Anyway hope you enjoyed the first chapter.