Maxim jolted awake in a cold sweat, gasping for breath
"What's up?" Aya asked. She was already up, fully clothed, and was watching T.V. Maxim didn't know what time it was, but was pretty sure it was late. She could seem to move across rooms almost instantly, recover from being hit with a ball of energy in like 3 seconds, and he had never actually seen her sleep, even when they'd been in the med bay, he'd always gone to sleep first and woke last, did she even sleep, he'd even tried a few times, but no matter how late he'd tried to stay up, he always found himself out before she was, and he was the one with special abilities.
"Bad dream"
"What happened?"
"I can't remember, it felt so real though"
"Just your mind being stupid" She reassured him
"Normally, I'd agree with you. But what if this was a psionic thing?"
"Doubtful"
"But what if it was a premonition thing"
"You have shown no ability for precognition" She turned off the T.V and looked at him "If it happens again, go to Vahlen"
"Right, sure"
"Have I been wrong before?"
"No"
She smiled (Maxim often wondered if she was actually smiling, or just doing it for his benefit) "Then go back to sleep. Aya will protect the Vampire"
"Why do you always call me Vampire"
"How would you know it was me otherwise?"
Maxim drifted back into sleep, Aya sitting on the bed beside him, as if she actually was protecting him. The Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain, protecting him from harm. If he had an artistic bone in his body, he would have drawn that as soon as he woke up, as it was, he let his mind draw it, as it was more elaborate than anything he could make. Aya, the Psychopathic Valkyrie, protector of the Vampiric Gamer.
"Hey Karl" Maxim called as Karl came into his room "What's up?"
"Not much. Just wanted to see if I could play COD"
"You are aware you still suck at it, right?"
"Yep"
"Just checking" Maxim quit the game he was on already, and put it to multiplayer so Karl could join in.
They played in, relative, silence for a while, Maxim focusing on the game, and Karl cursing every time he was shot, celebrating every time he managed to get a kill, and just generally shouting at the game.
"How's the art coming?" Maxim asked
"Pretty good. Still keeping with my 'Fuck the Aliens' theme"
"Good theme"
"It has it's moments"
"Have you repainted the skyranger yet?"
"Yep. What do you think I'm doing here"
"You said you wanted to play COD"
"I wanted to do that, but I needed an alibi"
"I'm surrounded by criminals"
"Don't say that around Masambe, he'll give you a lecture about killing in war"
"Good tip. You might want to not walk on that mine"
"What mine-. Oh, that mine. FUCK YOU MINE!"
"How can you still rage at this game"
"I'm not raging, I just like shouting at inanimate objects"
"You sound like Harold"
"Nah. I just shout at them. He goes through training dummy's like it's going out of style. Pretty sure I saw him rip one's throat out once, with his teeth"
"Haven't been seeing much of Ryo in a while"
"Nah. He's been sticking to his room and the training area. In fact, I haven't seen him in the same room as Harold, Masambe, Keith or you in a while"
"He probably just hates the psionic stuff. It's not regimented, and he can't control it, so he isn't going to stay in the same room as it unless he's ordered to. Annd, sniped"
"Dude. That was me!"
"We're on free-for-all. You're fair game"
"How about I shoot you then"
"You can't spray and pray me through that window. I'll take 1 hit and be out of sight"
"What about grenades"
"You can't throw a grenade to save your life. I think I saw you kill yourself with a combat axe once, and I didn't think that was possible"
"Oh hardy har har"
"All operatives please report to the Command Deck. All operatives to the Command Deck"
"She sounds serious" Karl said, dropping his controller on the bed, and heading outside
"Always in the middle of the game" Maxim said, sniping one last time before turning off the console, and following Karl outside
"What's going on?" Maxim asked Masambe as he arrived, he wasn't last this time, yay, but he was near last. Only Ryo and Eva hadn't shown up yet
"I believe it has something to do with that Gollop Chamber they've built around the device we got from the alien ship" Masambe replied
"Interesting" Maxim said, slightly sarcastic, but he did mean it, he was pretty sure the thing was very psionic, so they might find out a thingy about psionics
"Mr Goto, Miss Solovyova, glad you could join us" The Commander said, as the 2 came in through the door. Ryo looked his usual self, all prim and proper, if X-COM gave badges Maxim was sure they'd be blinding to look at. Eva on the other hand looked a bit ruffled up, her hair was all over the place, and it looked like her shirt was on backwards. "Now, to business. As you all probably know we have recently finished construction of the room known as the 'Gollop Chamber'. This is a bit complicated, so I will let Vahlen explain the rest, but listen up"
"Thank you, Commander" Vahlen said, as she took a step forward, pressing a button on the control panel in front of her, changed the hologram in the middle of the room from a 3D model of Earth, to what looked like surveillance footage of a room. It had a steel pathway leading through the middle, with what looked like water on either side, leading to the device they'd gotten from the alien ship which was at the far side of the room, or the near side, depending on if you went by the door, or where the camera was "This device, as those with Psionic abilities can tell, is highly resonant in psionic energies. Until know we have had no way of properly analysing it, that was until my colleague Dr Shen pointed out, that only those with Psionic abilities can influence Psionic energies. Therefore we came up with a plan. Keith Taylor, Masambe Digkale, Harold Sanders, and Maxim Popov, please step forward"
Maxim stepped forward, separating himself from the group, and into a line in front of the group with the 3 other Psionic soldiers. Vahlen continued "We will require a volunteer to go into the chamber and, interface, with the ob-"
Even before she could finish her sentence, Masambe stepped forward "I volunteer as tribute" (Well, he actually said "I will volunteer for the task". But Maxim preferred his version)
"Are you sure Masambe?" Keith asked "We have no idea what this thing will do"
"Which is precisely why I have to volunteer" Masambe paused for a second before continuing "Harold, you are our strongest psionic user, therefore, you should not use this, in case it kills the operator, so we can keep our strongest psionicist, you also have your brother. Keith, you are our healer in the field, no offense to Joe, but you are meant to help people, not destroy, and that is what the one that uses this device must do, destroy. Maxim, you are the youngest of us, so would have the most to lose in death from this, you have a family, and someone else you care for. I lose those I cared for in the first week of the alien invasion. When I first used my psionic powers, I quoted the inventor of the Atomic Bomb 'Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds'. So now, I will live up to that quote"
As Masambe finished, Harold slapped him on the back "You're a good man, Masambe. I hope that whatever that thing does, it let's us wipe these aliens off the surface of the universe"
As Harold finished his, considerably shorter, speech, everyone in the room began applauding Masambe. Even Vahlen and the Commander joined in. Ryo gave a few claps as well.
"Well then, Masambe" Vahlen said, once the applause had died down "We had best get you suited up, and down to the chamber"
Masambe nodded, and followed Vahlen out of the room.
"Everyone else, stay here, you can watch what happens from here" The Commander said as he approached the 3 remaining psionic users. "Harold, you stay here with everyone else. Keith, Maxim, I want you to try and force field the room again"
"Really?" Maxim asked
"Yes. If something goes wrong, well, a Psionic wave would care little for steel and concrete. And, although Shen has put as much effort as he can into the construction of that facility, we still want the extra protection you guys can provide"
"Sure thing" Keith said
"Sure" Maxim added, and they followed the Commander to the elevator that would take them down. Maxim feeling like his heart was about to explode. What if that nightmare had been a premonition, and it was about this? But. No. He wouldn't believe that, this couldn't go wrong, not now, not after everything they'd done to get this far. After all, Aya had said there was nothing to worry about, and even the universe wouldn't want to make an enemy of Aya Haidar, she was basically female Chuck Norris at one point.
Maxim though of that all the way down to the chamber, distracting himself by thinking of the captions he'd put on a picture of Aya to meme her. 'Santa Clause used to exist. Until he forgot Aya's present'. 'Death once had a near-Aya experience'. 'Aya can slam a revolving door shut'. And other such things on his way, and actually had to explain what he was doing when he burst out laughing at the Santa One. And the 3 of them spent the ride down coming with Aya memes. Maxim's favourite was when Keith said "Global warming doesn't exist. Aya got cold and turned up the sun". And the Commander replied with "Aya doesn't get cold. Cold get's Aya". Apparently Maxim wasn't the only one that thought Aya was badass. The whole thing ended right before they arrived, man that thing was deep. The Commander produced a data-pad, with a picture of a man with a cast going from his upper-torso, all the way down to his legs, and said "This is what someone looks like after a night with Aya". And Maxim, feeling cocky as fuck, pointed his thumbs at himself and said "No. This is one someone looks like after a night with Aya".
"What?" The Commander asked
"... I'm a dumbass"
"Yes, Maxim and Aya have been kind of a thing for a month now"
"Really?"
"Yes, apparently they did some flying and-"
"Wait! How do you know about that?"
"Karl told me"
"Karl told you?"
"Karl told everyone!"
"Mother-trucker"
"Trucker?" the Commander asked "Your mother isn't here, your allowed to swear"
"It just felt like a trucker moment" Maxim said "So, everyone knows?"
"Not everyone" Keith said "Karl only told the soldiers, and Rebecca"
"At least there's that"
"Commander knows now" The Commander said "And Commander isn't good at keeping secrets"
"You asshat" Maxim said
"Asshat? I've never heard that before. Asshat. I like it. I'm using that now"
"Once more unto the breach" Masambe said over the coms as he entered the chamber. Maxim and Keith were in an observing room above him as he walked towards the strange thing on the far side of the room
"Must you quote someone before everything you do?" Maxim asked
"If i'm going to go and touch a strange glowing orb that belongs to aliens, i'm going to quote Shakespeare before I do it"
"Why?" Maxim asked
"Because I like to. And I want to teach you some random quotes"
"Fair enough" Maxim said
"We doing this?" Maxim asked Keith
"We sure are" Keith replied, as he put a hand on the Commander's shoulder, and Maxim did the same, chaining the 3 people together
"It feels so weird when we do it" Maxim complained
"Oh stop being a baby" The Commander replied
They merged. It was a weird feeling, sharing you consciousness with 2 other people, you felt like you were all one person, capable of anything, but right now, all they all wanted to do was prevent any hazardous psionic energy from escaping "We could have brought Harold" they said. It was impossible to tell which of them said it, as they all felt like the same person "He doesn't have the focus necessary to do this. He'd ruin it" they said again. It was seriously trippy. They created a force-field encompassing the platform the thing was on, just as Masambe went inside it.
Masambe stepped onto the platform, just as he moved inside, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, they'd put up the force-field behind him. He thought about his husband as he went up, focusing himself in his memories of happier times, the way he always did when he was about to use Psionics. He thought of their wedding, their family and friends in the pews, them at the alter, how handsome John had looked. He thought about their children, Stacy, so energetic, always running around, never sitting still for a minute, Zakari so studious, so smart, he'd always have a book in his hands. He focussed on memories of the happy years they spent together, he was away on deployments a lot, but he got letters from them constantly. He had the last one he'd ever received in his pocket right now, but, that was before the aliens-. No, go back, marriage, adoptions, sending them to school. He approached the orb, thinking of those happy times when he was with them, he moved to place his hands on the orb, feeling a pressure there, like when you try to push 2 same charged sides of a magnet together, he kept pushing his hands for a second, then remembered, and shifted his hands diagonally to the force of repelling, sliding one hand up the ball, and the other hand down as the same time that he pushed them in, this made it significantly easier to move his hands closer, as his fingers can closer to touching it, it changed shape becoming spiked all over, but the spikes separated around his hands, and he finally brought his fingers into contact. As soon as he did so, his thoughts of his family were pushed aside by a new force, and images began to flash through his mind, almost faster than he could comprehend, the face of an ethereal, a human being put in one of those liquefaction pods, an Ethereal using the same device he was using, or one very similar, the alien ship, heading towards the earth, and many others, he also heard a voice, whispering, and overlapping, as if a dozen voices were speaking at the same time, but not quite in sync "You have succeeded, where we have failed". The mental assault faded, and he returned to his memories, he looked up from the ball, and could feel the new abilities roiling through him, it almost burned, as if his blood had become acidic, and was eating away at his veins, but he focused on his memories, took a breath, and stepped back from the ball. Now certain as to what they must do, and, in extension, what he must do. He muttered to himself "Once more unto the fray, into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live, and die, on this day. Live, and die, on this day!" as he remembered the last phrase on the last letter he'd received fro his John, he'd always liked to quote from his favourite movies and people he admired. He closed his eyes and took a breath then looked up at the observation deck, it was one-way glass, but he could see clean through it as if it weren't there to the people inside. The other's looked like normal people, but Keith, Maxim and The Commander had a strong glow around them, purple, psionics, but there was something else, he could see the purple flowing, they'd fused consciousness's to create a more powerful force-field, but there was something else in that glow, something, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, there was something different in the aura of them, from whom it came from he couldn't tell, they were the same person for now, but, there was something there. He stepped down from the platform, and prepared to tell them how to get onto the alien ship.
We're almost done now. Just 2 more parts to go. I had a bit of fore-shadowing here, some of which I'm just giggling at and you'll have no idea that it means anything for a while, some of which are more obvious. I threw in a couple *Wink wink nudge nudge* moments in as well. And a little backstory for 'The One', as I call the person that does the Gollop Chamber thing. Now, I'm off to do the final mission. I'll have that one up by Sunday (11th), or Monday (12th), and the final, Epilogue part by the Saturday (17th), hopefully. I'll see you all there, thank you so much for reading, and hopefully I can provide an epic enough ending for this thing.