Prologue

A.D. 2084
MEGA-PRIMUS

        Flanked by her ever-present detachment of security guards, Himiko
Nagano watched impassively as the dark green Leviathan cleared the final
decontamination gate and settled to the ground.
        #ATLANTIS CRUISER L-01 HAS ARRIVED,# the PA system blared.  #ALL
MEGAPOL AND MARSEC PERSONNEL TO ALERT STATUS FOR THE DURATION.#  The
guards surrounding Himiko all stood a little straighter, the picture of
strict discipline and control.  Himiko continued to watch quietly as the
flying submarine powered down and its port hatchway opened.  Several
Atlantean soldiers emerged, clad in the dark blue uniforms of the Sea
Force.  At a glance one might have mistaken them for Gillmen, but their
blue-green skin and more prominent aural fins identified them as members
of the new Piscine race, the Atlantean eugenics program's attempt to merge
the Dreamer and Gillman species into a single, stronger people.  Their
attempts had been successful so far, due in no small part to the Dreamers'
ability to interact with the alien technology left over from the previous
war four decades ago, and all observations indicated that the two races
would be fully unified by the end of the millennium.
        Assuming Atlantis survived that long.
        The Piscine took up guard positions around the submarine's hatch,
and a Dreamer emerged.  She was slender and well-proportioned, although
the robes she wore concealed this fact, with deep blue skin and a long
mane of golden hair.  She looked youthful, though her face and eyes --
though they were totally black orbs they were nonetheless expressive --
bespoke decades of life experience.  Not for the first time Himiko
briefly envied her seemingly eternal youth, but let it pass as she stepped
forward and met the approaching woman halfway.
        "Steffie," she said by way of greeting.
        "Himiko," Stefanie Dreyfus answered, leaning forward to hug the
older woman gently.  "It's good to see you again."
        "And you," Himiko said.  "Glad you could make it."
        "I know," Steffie sighed.  "Would that I could be both here and in
Atlantis at the same time."
        "How are things under the ocean?" Himiko asked as they turned back
toward the concourse.
        "Most of my people are in stasis or will be soon," Steffie
answered quietly.  "They voted to reactivate the cryochambers and ride out
the cataclysm.  Food is too scarce and the water too impure for all of us
to use at once."
        "The planet *is* regenerating," Himiko offered by way of
consolation, but she knew it was little.  The contamination had hit the
aquatic species the hardest, and unlike the air-breathers, emigration to
offworld colonies was less of an option for the Atlantean races.
        "I know," Steffie sighed.  "I can only hope my people will live to
see it."

        Through the window of the airlimo, Steffie gazed out at the
streets below, and knew the recent statistics about the situation in
Mega-Primus were correct.  The buildings in this particular area showed
many of the signs of urban unrest she had been familiar with as a child:
trash scattered about, graffiti with various ethnic and religious slogans.
Not far away a street brawl was breaking out, complete with just
about every weapon, both purchased and improvised, imaginable.
Megapol hovercruisers were already sweeping in, sirens and lights blaring,
but Steffie knew from the resigned look on Himiko's face that it would
take more than just a few cops, no matter how well-armed, to quell this
disturbance.
        Not for the first time Steffie wished she could have devoted more
time to the problems when they'd started in 2080.  She wished she could
have spent more time here, helping the Senate actually debate and
resolve these issues, rather than simply hearing about them through
vidscreens in the Atlantean Parliament and offering her commentary in
absentia.  But the inescapable fact was that, voice of the Atlanteans on
the surface world or not, her first responsibility was to her own nation,
her own people, and to resolving the problems the water-breathers faced in
the ocean depths.  The humans had understood this and had given her the
leeway she desperately needed.  Until now.  Now, her skills and knowledge,
not to mention her powers, were needed here.
        "Emigration is at an all-time high," Himiko sighed as the airlimo
left the violence behind and continued deeper into the heart of the city,
toward the sectors in which Megapol forces were regularly backed up by
Marsec corporate muscle, and as such were much more orderly and clean.
"Soon a majority of the population will be people who can't afford to
leave."
        "This was never supposed to happen," Steffie said, unnecessarily.
"And I suppose the Sociology Team still has no results to speak of?"
        "None," Himiko grumbled.  "'Nothing conclusive.  No known cause.'
Every single time they fail to find an internal trouble source."
        "So obviously it's an external threat."
        "Which is 'impossible'," Himiko snorted.  "And getting the
bureaucracy to go around that will be a challenge and a half."
        "Oh, of course."
        The two women exchanged a knowing look.  By virtue of the things
which had happened in their lives, they knew more than most people.  They
knew that there was much more to the problems plaguing Mega-Primus than
met the eye.
        "The problem is," Himiko sighed.  "There's no physical evidence to
confirm the existence of any external threat.  Whoever, or whatever it is,
we can't tell where it's coming from."
        "Then we must find out," Steffie replied.  "Marsec is the only
company making any real profit here now, and I imagine Megapol is stretched
to its limits already."
        "Beyond," Himiko said.  "Much longer and we won't be able to
maintain order at all, even with Marsec's help."
        Steffie nodded gravely.  Social collapse here would, to understate
hugely, be bad.

                                 * * *

        One of the perks of being the Atlantean Ambassador to Mega-Primus
was access to one of several lavish penthouses in the upper-class arcologies
of the central city, reserved for the members of the Senate, foreign
dignitaries like herself, and other very-high-paying guests.  It was from
this ideal vantage point that Steffie looked out across the glowing
expanse of the city and reflected on all that had happened in the past
century.
        It had all begun in 1999, when the Starspawn had first openly
attacked, abducting cattle and humans and terrorizing the planet.  The
resistance known as the Extraterrestrial Combat Force ("X-Com" for short)
had been created to oppose them, and succeeded, destroying the attackers'
staging base on Mars.  That had only been the beginning, though, for the
Starspawn colony vessel which that alien taskforce had been sent to
retrieve began to awaken, the aliens within creating a telepathic network 
which began to reshape the fabric of sentience itself.
        It was into those changing times that Steffie had been born, and
came face to face with the denizens of that colony vessel.  They had
abducted her, torn her human body apart and remade it in their image of
the ideal servitor race for the planet.  But with the aid of X-Com,
particularly the powerful warrior known as Lyudmila "Elemental" Mannski,
she had escaped their control and allied with the humans, using her
power against the Starspawn.  Again, humanity succeeded, obliterating
the colony vessel and driving the Starspawn out.  The Gillmen, desperate
for leadership after millennia of mindless servitude, had accepted Steffie
as one of their own and their leader, and together they had taken the
abandoned Starspawn colonies and turned them into the nation of Atlantis.
        Sadly the undersea republic faced an uphill battle from the very
beginning.  In its death throes, T'Leth had contaminated the oceans, and
the lingering aftereffects from both Alien Wars, plus the everpresent
habits of humankind, tipped the ecological scales and brought about a
cataclysm of global warming, ozone holes, and extinctions.  As attempts to
correct the ecological imbalances failed, many humans emigrated to the new
offworld colonies in attempt to remove human influence from the planet.
The Atlanteans lacked this option, and so many chose to enter suspended
animation in the Starspawn cryochambers, protected from the contaminated
waters outside until the planet could repair itself.
        Those who did not go to sleep allied with the scientific minds of
the human world in attempt to find a way to remove the fingerprint of
humanity from the planet without abandoning it altogether, and it was from
this scientific discourse that the Mega-Primus project had been born: a
complete biosphere, designed to be totally self-contained and
self-sufficient, producing its own resources and recycling them
completely, keeping itself totally separate from the planet in so doing.
The project was a success, the inhabitants of Mega-Primus enjoying a
comfortable existence which, while not utopian, was certainly positive and
peaceful.  The environment surrounding Mega-Primus had shown signs of
recovery not long after, and this success spurred the nations to construct
many more megacities across the world.
        It had all gone well until the year 2080.  The corruption had
begun to set in then.  No social scientist could find a reason why the
fabric of Mega-Primus society had begun to deteriorate.  Violence,
familial breakups, crime of all sorts, civil unrest, and finally strange
religious cults, began arising with increasing frequency, with more and
more troubles each week.  At first the citizens worked to try and resolve
the problems, but when it became obvious that despite the best efforts of
the Senate no progress was being made, they began to emigrate, either
offworld or to the other Earth megacities.  The loss in tax revenue
created the beginnings of a downward spiral which, unless something was
done and done soon, would culminate in total anarchy, possibly infecting
the other megacities as well.
        That, Steffie could not let happen.  For the sake of human,
Gillman, Dreamer and Piscine alike, she would have to find the source of
the trouble, and deal with it--
        >ENEMY.<
        The jab of blackness in the pit of her gut pulled her up short.
It was a feeling she had not experienced in over 40 years, but it was all
too familiar nonetheless.  There was something here.  Something which did
not belong.  With her eyes she scanned the darkened room, searching the
shadows--
        Then a shadow lunged at her.
        The thing was lightning fast, leaping into the air and coming down
on her head.  She shrieked and fell to the ground, her alien instincts
screaming >CONTROL IT!< at her.  Her eyes glowed brightly as the brought
the full force of her considerable mental power to bear on the creature.
It faltered, relaxing the four stubby legs gripping Steffie's head, and
Steffie wrenched the beast from her head and hurled it across the room.
It impacted the wall with a wet thud and a splatter of yellowish blood,
and sagged to the floor, its punctured body seeming to deflate into a
formless puddle of flesh.  She remained poised for any further attack, but
the enemy presence was gone.  The creature was dead.
        Finally she became aware of the guards pounding at her door and
hurried to let them in, yelling at them not to break the door down.  This
matter had to be dealt with immediately.


EIGHTEEN HOURS LATER
ICEHOUSE BASE, GREENLAND

        Steffie stood in front of the line of cryopods, waiting and watching
in silence.  The determined look in her obsidian eyes made some of the human
technicians nervous, but the equally determined eyes of Senator Nagano kept
them focused on their tasks.  They understood that what they were doing now
was of extreme importance and left no margin for distraction.  They did their
jobs.
        Perhaps flinging the dead alien body down in front of the Majority
leader had been a bit extreme, but it had certainly gotten the point across:
the presence of an alien confirmed that external forces were indeed at work
in Mega-Primus, forces which were well beyond the ability of the conventional
forces to control.  Himiko had introduced the reactivation measure, and after
only token debate it had passed unanimously.  The organization known as X-Com
had once again been empowered to act against the alien threat.  Now it
needed its leaders.
        The seal on the central cryopod broke, sending clouds of vapor in
all directions, and the lid slowly raised upward.  Presently the steam
dissipated, revealing the pod's occupant: a tall, muscular blond woman.  She
stirred and slowly sat up, and her icy blue eyes opened, focusing directly on
Steffie's black ones.
         Lyudmila Mannski said, using her mind instead of her voice,
mindful of the raw throat which accompanied post-cryogenic recovery.  Almost
immediately she felt the seriousness of Steffie's thoughts and knew, even
before the words flowed into her mind.  
        >Yes, Elemental,< Steffie replied.  >You are needed.<


                                 * * *


           X   -   C   O   M       S   A   G   A       I   I   I

                          A r m a g e d d o n


                                  by
                              Larry Mann


                                 * * *


           "X-COM: UFO Defense", "X-COM: Terror From The Deep"
                        and "X-COM: Apocalypse"
            Copyright (c) 1997 MicroProse and Mythos Software

               "X-COM Saga"  Copyright (c) 1994 Russ Brown

       "X-COM Saga III: Armageddon"  Copyright (c) 1997 Larry Mann

                                 * * *