Chapter 3- EXALT Evolved
Zhang had just deactivated a second primer when the Mechtoid began to chase after him, shooting with its plasma cannon at near every opportunity. Zhang's plasma pistol had little effect against the cyborg alien, and if anything, pissed it off more than hurt it.
Base cybernetic implants were much more sluggish than normal arms or legs. There only real advantage was the strength that could be put behind them and that getting tired was virtually impossible. The numerous blades welded to Zhang's forearm was little help against the Mechtoids armor, and the plasma pistol could only do so much.
Looking around Zhang saw the littered bodies of Sectoids and the purple poison clouds of thin men he had already killed. Then his eyes focused upwards. As he looked for any advantage he saw low hanging power lines.
Taking his chance Zhang made a break for it. Plasma firing in his direction every few seconds as he took aim and shot the powerline. Sparks followed by every light around going dim momentarily blinded him, and Zhang saw as a bolt of plasma hit his left arm. He did not slow, nor did he focus on his now melting arm. Even as red-hot slag fell as he ran.
He could hear the Mechtoid running after him as he slid on the ground and grabbed the powerline by the rubber to be safe in his right hand. Using it as a rope he dragged himself out of the side before turning around. The Mechtoid was closer than he thought, but he reacted quickly. He shot his hand out and pressed the sparking part right to the Mechtoids forehead.
Immediately the tell-tale screech of a dying sectoid was heard as the armor crashed into him, causing him to lose his grip on the powerline. He grunted as the extremely heavy armor now lay across his chest.
He struggled to move the armor off of him. The downed powerline that had saved his life now threatened him as it danced around nearly hitting the armor again. It was only luck the powerline did not hit either Zhang or the Mechtoid armor. With a huff, Zhang pushed the mechtoid off with his arm. Only to notice his now molten left arm had cooled into a mess of a shape.
Though his remaining arm proved more than enough to get the thing off him. Zhang grabbed his side and could feel that at east one rib was broken, limping up he pressed a button on his shoulder, one in a spot most would not see. His arm hissed before it fell off, leaving Zhang with only his right arm, and the many knives welded to its frame.
Zhang limped over to the nearest primer, shutting it off before he moved to the bomb. Once the plasma bomb was shut off Zhang leaned against it, clutching his ribs. He fell into blissful unconsciousness after that. The last thing he saw was a helicopter landing.
A sickly man stepped out of the helicopter, holding onto his rifle. He looked down at the unconscious MEC Trooper without there armor, and missing an arm. The Mechtoid lay dead not far away. The sickly man slung the rifle over his shoulder and put his middle and fore finger to his ear.
"This is Howard Phillips, Plasma bomb has been deactivated, preparing extraction. Also I have found a unconscious ex-XCOM MEC Trooper, and a dead Mechtoid being. What are my orders"
The sickly man waited before the static sound and code was spoken in his ear, eventually the voice became clear.
"...Bri..em..in...I Repeat, bring them in. Well done Agent Phillips"
"Phillips out"
The thin and sickly man leaned over the unconscious trooper before walking away, allowing the other EXALT operatives to pick him up.
Annette and the Furies watched the news. Not ten minutes after they got back, an world wide broad cast was shown. The President of the United States stood at a podium. Standing Next to Him was an Ethereal who surveyed the crowed. Annette barely controled her anger as the President moved allowing the alien to speak.
The creature hovered over to the microphone, surrounded by all sorts of extra terrestrial beings and soldiers as guards.
"Greetings humanity, we are known by you as the Ethereals. A grave mistake on our part has resulted in unneeded bloodshed. While passing through the Sol system, one of our scout ships experienced a technical malfunction. A leak of one of out Psi-link orbs had caused one of our own to become consumed by rage. These orbs are the controls for our ships, though precious few have them. They use a mental command feature enabling them to be piloted by any psionically gifted race, however there are dangers. The mind is a complex thing, and a faulty Psi-link orb can cause insanity, and sickness"
The creature moved to allow several sectoids to roll in a device Annette knew well. It was the Ethereal Device found on their cloaked ship.
"A faulty version of this device caused one of our people to, for lack of a better term lose his mind. Though in truth the effect was much more complex. This poor soul attacked your people in his madness, and you rightfully defended yourself. When our collective arrived, we believed you to be the aggressors. Thus we retaliated"
Annette threw her half filled beer can at the screen.
"Damn Liar", she screamed in rage.
"It was only recently we have discovered our mistake. Our people are willing to make amends. This Psi-link enables more than the control of our technology. Should you possess it, the gift will be unlocked, this gift is known as Psionics, the power of the mind. We extend a hand in friendship and hope you do not judge us for a grievous error"
The creature floated away as the President walked to the stage.
"We, must not let this mistake turn us against our brothers from the stars. Right now many governments are accepting Ethereal aid, and the aid of their allies. Several groups within he collective however have not yet received this message, and the attacks still come. I your elected leader have come to several decisions and have the entirety of several groups of interest support. The first is the new Psi-center now under construction in many capitals across the world. A mandatory medical procedure will be administered at this site every day as more are constructed so we can see if others possess the gift of Psionics, with the gift the ability to use the Ethereal technology is available to us. Again I am glad we have been able to reach an end to the conflict with the Ethereal Collective, and though I know many have lost Mothers and Fathers, Sons and Daughters, Brothers and sisters, friends and family, I ask you to put that behind you, this war was the result of a grievous misunderstanding, and I am glad to say the Human-Ethereal War is now over. Thank you"
The President walked away. Right before the News Report ended, the Ethereal nodded before turning to the camera. The video ended there.
"Cowards, every one", said Annette.
"They can't help it Annette, they are under Mind Control", said Tisiphone.
"These Psi-centers are no doubt a trap. My guess is it unlocks psi powers, then mind controls you", said Alecto.
"I got an idea", said Megaera.
Everyone turned to the now smiling Psi-soldier.
"What", asked Annette.
"Well, they said this thing is being built in Washington right, I say we blow it the fuck up", said Megaera.
"Now you're talking, show these X-rays what happens when you mess with humanity, right before we kick their candy asses back to whatever planet they came from", said Alecto.
"I'm all for it", said Tisiphone.
Sparky moved around them, before it moved up and down, in an odd form of nodding. Annette smiled.
"Why not, I took chemistry. We all can get the right stuff, and make a good sized explosive", said Annette.
"And maybe blow a few aliens away with it", said Alecto.
Zhang woke in a daze. He attempted to get up, only to find both arms and legs were missing. Leaving him a torso and a head, but nothing else. The ex-triad felt fear when he heard a voice call out.
"You're awake"
Zhang turned to see the familiar suit of an EXALT operative, though this man was sickly in appearance. Zhang narrowed his eyes.
"It seems as if I am at your mercy", said Zhang.
"Now, now. No need to believe we are inhospitable, allow me to introduce myself, I am Howard Phillips, I and my co-workers found you and brought you here, fixed your broken ribs. There is no reason to feel suspicious Mr. Zhang"
"You know me", asked Zhang calmly.
The man nodded.
"I know you are the reason XCOM was able to take in an alien battleship while it was still flying, I know you were once a member of the Triads, I know you lost your arm to a cyberdisk and chose to become one of those MEC troopers, a waste Meld if you ask me, we here have found much better uses for the substance", said Phillips.
"Really, do tell", said Zhang, in truth he wanted to gut the man sitting next to him, but his current dismembered body left that as an impossibility at the moment.
Howard seemed amused as he removed the bandana from his face to reveal a horribly scared mouth. He removed his gloves as well, and when Zhang saw what was underneath he gave an audible gasp.
"We at EXALT believe Meld is the key to genetic perfection, when XCOM was arround we could only collect so much. Now, with you gone, we have been able to enter a new age of genetic augmentation. Unlike you we do not use just aliens", said Howard as he stretched his fingers.
Said fingers appeared normal, though the tip of each was anything but human. They resembled the stingers of a scorpion, positioned in such a way as to appear as claws.
"The stingers are from an Emperor Scorpion reinforced to prevent breaking, the poison produced naturally, this poison is a cocktail of several species of snake, spider, scorpion, and even fish. A combination Hemotoxin and Neurotoxin with The poison of a Thin Man added for flavor, and thanks to our friend the Dragon Millipede, cyanide is also in this little cocktail, after all there is no kill quite like overkill", said Howard as he examined the claws with a smile of razor-sharp teeth.
"On top of that, my lungs have been augmented with the ability to spit poison as the Thin Men do, and be immune to its debilitating effects, and my jaw can unhinge like a snake to spew it, just like the Thin Men can", said Howard pointing to the scars near his mouth.
He smiled to show his razor-sharp teeth that resembled a cross of several species of animal in a way that was unnatural.
"The aliens are interesting. I even had parts of an Ethereal brain grafted to my own to unlock the psionic gift. We didn't have your Psi Lab Mr. Zhang so we improvised, but there is untold potential in the animal kingdom Mr. Zhang. I am the first to go through the treatments, I can see into both the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, My skin mimics the abilities of the cuttlefish, and so much more", said Howard.
He put his glove back on as he looked to Zhang who now was pale at what horrors he saw this man had done to himself.
"The Animal Kingdom has many interesting specimens for us to toy with, Electric eels, salamanders, a variety lizards, the bombardier beetle, even fleas, common as they are can jump 200 times their body length, I even recall an immortal jellyfish that can live forever by making themselves young again. All will be possible for humans thanks to Meld"
Zhang narrowed his eyes at the man.
"You're insane"
Howard chuckled.
"I prefer to think of myself as a visionary. With enough Meld every human on the planet can become more than human, for a price of course. Imagine it Mr. Zhang, immortality, soldiers with powers that once was only explored in fiction. And if we can gain the aliens technology we can leave our world, spread across the stars, and nothing will be able to stop us. Should we find a race who can do something we cannot, we simply add their abilities to ourselves, or take their technology. Maybe both", said Howard.
Howard put his gloved hand to his chin before looking to Zhang.
"That is what the name of our organization means Mr. Zhang, it will be us who shall exalt humanity as the superior species in the cosmos, whether it wants to or not", said Howard as he stood up and left the room.
"Why tell me this", asked Zhang.
Howard stopped before he turned around.
"I almost forgot", said Howard playfully before he walked over to Zhang.
"Mr. Zhang, I like to hear myself talk. The truth is you only know our vision for humanity, which you may have already guessed. You also know we use more than aliens for our gene mods. What you do not know is how we intend to accomplish our goals, you know precious little of our resources, or numbers, or how far we are willing to go. What you also fail to remember is this is not the first time I have told you this", said Howard before his eyes glowed a violet color.
Howard placed his hands to Zhangs head, ignoring his protests.
"I have in fact told you this information twice before. I am not able to mind control others, but what I can do is erase memories, recent memories anyway. Now you are probably wondering why I would do such a thing. The answer is simple", said Howard before his eyes glowed brighter and Zhang screamed.
Zhang fell once again into unconsciousness forgetting all he heard before Howard spoke.
"I like to hear myself talk"
A/N: I like to think EXALT is much more than a simple group who wants to take over the world. I think they are a group of people so egotistical they believe they are the only ones capable of ruling humanity correctly. I also like to think there agents are all sightly insane seeing as they would rather kill themselves than become prisoners.
I think EXALT was a brilliant move by Firaxis. Mostly as a writer. We are told they go beyond XCOM when it comes to gene mods, and you can see hints of that, but for the most part there gene mods are not that outlandish compared to XCOM.
I like to think that if they ever got rid of XCOM they would be able to get much more Meld, and take gene mods to their logical extreme. And as a writer, they enable me to have a little fun with the Gene Mods. They remind me a bit of Weyand Yutani of Aliens fame in a few ways, and the Umbrella Corporation or Resident Evil fame in others. It makes them real fun to write.
Howard Phillips is kind of the secret weapon of EXALT. I will also admit he is named after the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, H. P. Lovecraft, if you are familiar with his work you might see why I chose that name considering his modifications.
The bad XCOM ending where you lose mentions that the alien attack was a result of a misunderstanding. Obviously since the council spokes person is under mind control, we can assume that's a lie, but I tried to think of what that misunderstanding could be, so I made up the whole Psi-link madness thing up. Not ike humans are going to understand how alien technology works anyway without studying it.