Chapter 4 - The Psi-Center
The Psi-Center was a marvel of Ethereal technology, very similar to the XCOM Psi-labs, though much more efficient, and with a much more sinister purpose. Annette looked out of the van Megaera was driving The white windowless van had a surprise of their own in it. A collection of wires, barrels, and a variety of explosives. It had been a week since the original broadcast where humanity had 'allied' with the Ethereals, a hollow alliance as the aliens worked the worlds leaders like puppets.
Despite the Psi-centers as being a mandatory procedure, very few expressed interest in them. Most civilians protested the creation, as not all bought the lie of the Ethereals of a supposed faulty Psi-link, and Humanity's majority proved they would not bow to the Ethereal Collective as the aliens had intended.
Sparky annoyingly flew around the van, looking at the homemade explosive, strong enough to destroy an entire building. Annette saw the Psi-centers. They were so unlike anything built by man. The massive silver building was without windows, and instead possessed the strange energy field seen on alien ships to prevent air from leaving the ship while in space.
The building was made entirely of the alien alloy, and in a curious dome shape. A guarded wall erected to prevent any undesirables hoping to destroy the center was all that stood between the Furies, and the Psi-center. While many of the guards were humans, there was added alien security. Heavy floaters patrolled the sky, Several Mutons stood in front the center as well, and worst of all a massive Sectopod that patrolled around the building, slow but powerful.
"Shit, why out of everything we had to deal with, is it a damn Sectopod. I wish I had my Sniper Rife right now", said Alecto.
"I don't think the van can get past that wall The only way in is through the gates, and that means through the aliens. And they will be shooting at us, and if even one shot hits a barrel, we all die in a flaming inferno", said Tisiphone.
"Any ideas Annette", asked Megaera who discreetly parked a block away from the Psi-center.
Annette looked at the center. The protesters there would make getting in difficult without killing people, and the aliens only made it worse. Annette looked to the Sectopod as it moved around, then an idea hit her. She turned to Sparky and smiled.
"Sparky, I have a job for you", said Annette.
The guardsmen looked at the hundreds of protesting people around the building. He could empathize. He to wanted nothing to do with these aliens and their Psi-centers. It was too bad he could do nothing about it.
His head hurt at the implants in his skull. Before he had all but forced into those coffin-shaped machines of the Psi-centers, the threat of a dishonorable discharge was more than enough to get him in that machine.
He should have just ran. He looked through eyes that were no longer his own, as his body moved against his will. A continuous silent scream within himself as he found he could still see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. But his movements were not his own.
He knew why, the mechanical implants in his brain worked to boost the aliens signal, make him obedient. He did not possess the gift of Psionics, and he was forever under their control. How he wished he could move his arm to take the rifle in his hand and end the horrors of not being in control of your own body, but still entirely aware of what was happening.
The solitude, the screaming that went unheard, and the worst part the end to his suffering was strapped to his hip, and he could not do anything about it. Internally he cried as his unheard hysteria continued on.
He then saw it, a curious drone that was making its way to the Psi-center. Said drone was colored red and gold He saw it, and despite the odd coloration, his body did nothing Neither did the aliens around him. He wondered about it and for a brief glorious moment the madness of being trapped within yourself was no longer on his mind, but eventually it came back. For it always came back.
Sparky was just an alien drone taken by XCOM on one of their last missions. Normal procedure was to destroy the drones after a mission in case it turned back to the side of the aliens, but that did not happen. It was Alecto who painted it, and the Furies who kept it. Flying over to the Sectopod the drone went entirely unnoticed.
Despite the coloration, many of the aliens did not see color as humans do, and they hardly noticed as it flew overhead. After all a drone was not an unusual sight, and with XCOM gone the aliens had no way of knowing the tiny robots true allegiance. The drone went up to the energy fields of the Psi-labs and simply looked around.
Annette looked at the screen. After a while they were able to modify the drone somewhat, allowing them to see what the drone did. They looked at the pods within the Psi-center. All were shaped like coffins, making them somewhat off-putting. There were several dozen all around being monitored by humans, Sectoids, and Thin Men.
Annette watched as one of the pods could be seen with a man inside. Annette guessed he was a soldier based on his build. A screen net to the pod showed his face as blades cut into his head, past the skull and into the brain before small electronic devices were implanted into the skull. The man's eyes were wired open leaving them constantly leaking tears. The eyes had a slight purple glow to them.
The sight was horrid, as the man seemed to be tortured by the device, until the machine began fixing him, not even leaving a scar. A Thin Man walked to the pod and let the man out as the tubes and wires retracted from him. The pod slid open and the man dropped to the floor before he stood up with a blank expression.
The soldier nodded to the Thin Man who nodded back before it left. Not long after that several Mutons brought in another man who was struggling in their grasp. Annette had enough as she commanded the drone to return.
Alecto involuntarily shivered and Megaera looked away. Tisiphone and Annette however were livid. Their faces red from rage and it took a moment for both to calm.
"What do we do now, there are innocent people in there. I don't want to have to kill them", said Alecto.
"Death is better to being a slave", said Tisiphone.
"I don't think we can make a call like that sis", said Megaera.
They watched as Sparky flew outside the van. Tisiphone opened the window to let the drone inside less someone spot it. Annette leaned against the drums of explosives before her fist began to glow purple with psionic energy, and she punched one, leaving a fair-sized dent in the barrel.
"Shit", she said out loud.
It was at that point the sound of a helicopters blades could be heard.
When the red beams of light came down onto the Sectopod all at once and the thing exploded pandemonium hit the protestors as men slid down ropes shooting guards and aliens.
The aliens shot back. Howard Phillips smiled as he ran at incredible speeds sinking his claws into a Muton and physically throwing the dead alien into others of it's kind. He reached for his laser assault riffle and mowed down the aliens. Never did the fanged smile eave his face, though his bandanna hid it from the others.
The Mutons hid behind what cover they could find and shot back, many hit Howard. However each hole torn into him closed at an astonishing rate. He jumped over the Mutons landing behind them. Now that he was flanking them, he lifted his rifle, and delivering a shot to their skulls each before turning around into a sprint.
He was stopped when several agile Thin Men began shooting at him, while avoiding his shots using their incredible flexibility to 'bend' out of harms way. Even now the holes of plasma that riddles Howard's body were healing, and his suit was in rags. Howard swung the rifle over his shoulder as he clenched his fists.
Long thin quills slowly grew from his body. With a flick of the wrist, several quills shot toward a few Thin Men as they screamed and died from the potent poison that tipped each quill. With a single leap, Howard grabbed a Thin Man by the neck, and before the alien could retaliate, Howard delivered an electric shock much like an eel into the alien.
The creature fell unconscious. Howard looked around at the several dozen EXALT troopers that ran into the Psi-center and shot each alien they saw Howard looked to the downed Thin Man, before he turned to run inside to join the others.
Annette watched the commotion with interest, she could not believe her luck. EXALT of all people show up and begin to shot down the aliens like nothing. Annette turned to Megaera.
"Looks like we got ourselves a distraction", said Annette.
"You sure you want to do this Annette, a lot of innocent people could get killed", asked Megaera.
"Anything is better than mind control", said Annette.
"Why is EXALT here anyway", asked Tisiphone in confusion.
"Probably to get their greedy little hands on the tech in there, doesn't matter. I have an idea", said Annette as she saw the unconscious Thin Man.
Annette's eyes glowed purple as a stream of Psionic energy hit the alien in it's head. The alien immediately stood up, and ran toward the van. Under Mind Control there was not much it could do to stop Annette.
"Everyone out, leave the driving to the Thin bastard", said Annette.
As they got out of the Van, the Thin Man jumped and grabbed onto the van before sliding in the drivers seat. Instantly the alien drove off at full speed, narrowly avoiding the panicked civilians.
"Uhh, Annette I have a question", said Alecto.
"What", asked Annette.
"Well, I only just now thought of it, but we came here in that van. How are we supposed to get back home", asked Alecto.
Annette froze, right before the building went up in a fiery inferno. They watched the explosion for a minute before Annette sighed.
"Well, Shit. Anyone know how to wire a car", asked Annette.
Inside the flaming Inferno that had once been the Psi-center, A heavily breathing man groaned in pain as his bones sickening snapped back into place. The fire destroying most of his clothing, leaving his bulging orange glowing veins out for all to see, the strange pale coloration of his skin, his razor sharp teeth, long tail that uncurled from around his leg and strange glowing yellow eyes. A In anger Quills slid from his skin as the skin under his arms lengthened and stretched into rudimentary wings.
With a powerful leap Howard jumped into the air, a membrane like skin under his arms allowing him to glide. Several other soldiers with regenerative gene mods walked out of the fire like an unstoppable army. Howard's partially Psionic mind linked with several others on the ground, these psionics however were not EXALT.
He saw her, Annette Durand. He glared at her before he looked ahead and grabbed onto a nearby building with his claws. He then threw himself up to the nearest chopper. His weight caused the chopper to tilt to the side for a moment before fixing itself. Howard dragged himself into the chopper before walking to the Pilot.
"Tell the Director that the mission failed, we couldn't get any Psi-equipment, but tell him I located Durand", said Howard.
The Pilot nodded. As more EXALT made their way to other choppers, before they finally flew off. The Pilot turned around looking to Howard.
"The Director says he is disappointed in your first ailed mission, but he has our satellites on Durand now, she won't be going anywhere without us knowing", said the Pilot.
Howard nodded and smiled before he looked to the smoke in the distance, he then looked down to his own partially naked body and cursed.
"Damn, that was a new suit to", said Howard.
Jake sat in the hotel room looking at his pack. He had to admit, even the peons of EXALT were loaded, and he had their cash to prove it.
"Not like they need it anymore anyway", said Jake to himself.
Jake put his plasma pistol and Judas aside, he was glad the Sniper rifle was collapsible. Turning to the bed he jumped on before he switched on the tv. A broadcast was playing. It showed a building on fire. Jake raised a brow before he sat up and watched.
"The Psi-center was in the final stages of completion when the terrorist organization known as EXALT attacked. Security evidence shows that another group however may have been involved in the explosion seeing as EXALT operatives were inside at the time" said the anchorman.
Jake smirked as the story continued.
"Several anti-alien groups show support for the bomber or bombers who destroyed the Psi-centers. Many members of these groups have been apprehended by local law enforcement for supposed terrorist activity. No members of EXALT were captured and many displayed super human abilities. These abilities include healing from mortal wounds, leaping to incredible heights, and even possible flight. Other unconfirmed abilities were also mentioned. A statement from several elected officials has stated that anti-alien prejudice will not be tolerated should those with this prejudice act and attack any of the aliens will be dealt with to the harshest penalty of the law, more on this story as it develops. In other news, a new religious group calling themselves the Cult of Sirius..."
Jake shut off the television after that, he honestly did not want to hear more about EXALT or the aliens, frankly he was sick of both. He idly looked to his pack. He thought about it a bit, the knowledge on the EXALT Base location was in that pack. After a few months of running from EXALT Jake honestly didn't know why he kept the data. With XCOM gone it wasn't like anyone could do anything with it.
Still never know when info like that could become extremely useful. Still he didn't know what to do next, he didn't know how to contact the commander or anyone else at XCOM. He figured however that data would be very interesting if he found any of the others.
In the Nevada desert, two men watched the news with interest, and a smile.
"seems your boys are still fighting out there commander"
"I knew they would Mr. Van Dorn"
"Call me Peter"
"Very well Peter"
Peter Van Dorn looked around before he walked to a nearby map. He then turned to the original XCOM commander.
"I'm going to level with you Commander, next to no one knows anything about this base, hell even I don't know much. When the aliens came, we knew it would be needed, so we kept it quiet. Still we don't know if it has been compromised or not, but if it hasn't it's the closest thing we have to the original XCOM", said Van Dorn.
The commander nodded, listening intently.
"Once we confirm it hasn't been compromised, the base is as good as yours, though only off the record. I'm sorry it's the best I can do", said Peter.
"It will be enough, for now", said the Commander.
The Commander stood as he walked over to the map. Looking at the base he smirked.
"Area 51 huh, who knew"
A/N:I received a review comparing EXALT to Cerberus of Mass Effect fame. This is entirely intentional, though only partly. Several fictional Evil Corporations have inspired how I chose to portray EXALT. Cerberus is one, mainly the idea of Human superiority, but EXALT is more into trans-humanism than Human superiority.
This trans-humanism ideal is inspired by the Umbrella Corporation of Resident Evil fame, more specifically Weskers idea of trans-humanism, though unlike Wesker EXALT plans on selling gene mods rather than blow up a biological bomb that might cause human evolution via the Ourobouros virus or parasite or whatever Ourobouros actually is.
(Also as a small rant, how did Wesker know Ourobouros would cause the next stage in human evolution. Every time we see it in game it turns people into worm infested monsters which Wesker called failures, even Wesker displayed these strange worm creatures when he was infected. How does he know that the Ourobouros does what he wants it to do if we never even see it make super humans.)
EXALT also takes after the Weyland Yutani in a lot, but not their expendable policy. Unlike the organization of Aliens fame, soldiers who believe in a cause so great that they would rather kill themselves than be taken as captives do not grow on trees. I find it odd in XCOM: Enemy Within that EXALT agents kill themselves, even if they have gene mods, and I know getting Meld cannot be easy with XCOM around, but I think it just showed their fanatical nature.