< A brief overview of the events from the 3 of March,
2084 to the 6 of March 2084 in the X-Com base 'Java' >

Tim, Sarah and Mike Were assigned quarters and almost immediately went into training. A day later they found out that the calm and collected agent Long was actually a big heavy metal fan, not only that but generally the most unpredictable of the troops. How he actually managed to act like a 'suit' was a mystery. One of the troops that met them, Sam Fergusson, was probably the only 'real' soldier. Sam was a former Marsec security officer. There were some others with military backgrounds but the only one who really showed it was Sam. Sam started and ended each day with twenty pushups. He kept his clothes neatly. In battle from what Tim heard Sam was calm, cool and efficient. A real soldiers soldier. Then there was Frank Isaacs. That guy was massive. He tended to stare up at the night sky whenever he could. He was a spacer by heart. He had family in the frontier. They shipped him to earth so he could get a formal education. Carla Brooks, Now that was an interesting woman. Originally recruited out of an asteroid jail, she had made several escapes from many of the earth based ones. She was quoted as stating her favourite break out was the 'New alcatraz' one. New alcatraz was situated on an island in what was left of the gulf of Mexico. Highly irradiated from T'leth's destruction. Noone thought anyone could make it out and get to shore alive. She managed to smuggle herself aboard a leaving transport. Once it hit land she left and a month later she was caught again. Also she shared Toby's love for loud music. They actually made quite a pair. A few days on a hybrid was recruited. Samantha Greene. Part Sectoid, part human. She was an excellent Psi but very reclusive. A few of the more Psionically aware heard a 'psychic hum' around her. As if she was talking to herself Psionically. About a day before X-Com was due to get put on the roster two other recruits were found. One, a psychopathic guy recruited from Diablo. Mitch Wilson. Tim actually spent three months trying to find the guy in connection with an assumed 'Psiclone addict murderer' when he was working homicide. The truth was far more horrifying. Mitch had a scar running the length of his arm, both sides and they aligned through the bone. Noone really wanted to think about that one too much. The other recruit was Pete Davids. That guy was weird. A five foot nothing that looked like he owned the world. Actually he was a solmine tech gone postal. Very handy with equipment. Most of the others gave him a wide berth.

< Marsec Earth Orbiter one five zero. 23:00 Mega Primus time. Monday 6 March 2084 >

"Straight from the senate huh?" "Right from the senators mouth Sir. X-Com is becoming active again." "Any idea where?" "Not really. Think they could be a threat?" "No, just the opposite really. We just need to manoeuvre ourselves into a position where we can control them more effectively than they can us." "Why?" "Hey, we don't employ A few hundred Hybrids to be in the good books with the mutant alliance my friend."

< The Civic Project. 2:00 Tuesday 7 March 2084 >

A guard sits sleeping in a dimly lit shack set up on the roof of a building. A slight dim light comes from somewhere to the south. The light gets shadowed by several strange figures, then after a slight sizzling noise is gone all together. The guard stirs as a slight wet thunk noise comes from the roof of the shack. He stands up and looks at the roof of the shack. There's a slight ripping sound and he steps outside to take a look. He looks up at the roof of the shack taking a step or two back. A strange yellow thing with little dark eyes suddenly leaps off of the shacks roof at the guard. He screams, jumps back and falls six stories to the ground.

< X-Com Base Java. 5:00 Tuesday 7 March 2084 >

The same old mechanised voice. "X-Com Alert. Possible alien infiltration in the Civic Project Slum block." This repeated for five minutes. The troops managed to get up, slowly mind you. After the voice ended they were all in the training room seated facing the large Vid screen on the wall. The commander was at the smallish podium. After everyone was seated he started. "Well, seems were getting our first situation all too quickly. In future were all going to get into the designated transport then get briefed in there. We just got a call from Megapol. Some slummer was killed, five story fall. They found a dead yellow 'bug' on his chest which they turned in too. Seems these thing have been getting filed away in Megapol for a while now. Everyone thought they were just some sort of mutation. This is scary stuff people. Get suited up and get into the Valkyrie. We don't have a transport unit for organic stuff right now but just take anything weird you find and dump a few grenades under it and run. We don't want an alien coming out of nowhere and killing us all in our sleep. Now, hustle." The commander said then headed back to his office. The other ten troops all looked at each other then headed for the store room with their stuff in it, got suited up then headed for the parking area just a few levels above the base. "If earth is going to make it through this war we are going to have to work at this." The commander muttered as he reached his office door and walked in sighing.

< The Civic Project 5:28 Tuesday 7 March 2084 >

The faint glimmer of a dawn to come shimmered on the horizon. A slight red shadow glided over the main slum wall. A slight darkness crept towards the parking bay entrance. Several points of light flared up as blue flames halted the shadows progress. Thin stalks unfolded from the bottom of its rocket shape as it slowly descended into the landing tube.

"Squad assignments." The computerised voice chirped out. "One is Banks, Deevans and Davids. Two is Wolff, Wilson, Brooks. Three is Long, Fergusson, Greene and Isaacs." The ten troops looked at each other. There were no leaders so far. For now they just went with the first name as leading. The all filed out of the craft and headed into the building.

A gun poked through a door frame into the stairwell. The broad frame of Tim Banks followed through in Megapol assault armour. Sarah Deevans went through to the left of the door and Davids went through to the left. Tim motioned up the stairs. "Ill go first, Deevans second and Davids holds the rear." The small man felt angry under his helmet but went along with this. There was a gentle clanking as the troops went up the stairs. Tim had a motion tracker in his left hand and the familiar feel of a lawmaker pistol in his right. Sarah was carrying a M4000 and Pete Davids was following them with a sniper rifle. Tim held out the hand with the lawmaker and pointed it at the door while glancing at his motion tracker. "Davids, stay here, Deevans get to the side of the door..." At this point both Tim and Sarah heard a low muttering from Pete. Tim nervously approached the door. As he got within sensor range of the door it opened automatically. There was a small little pink thing crawling along the catwalk outside. Immediately Tim opened up fire with the lawmaker before it even got within sight of the other two. The small thing burst apart after three bullets with a blue spray of something Tim could only assume was its blood. Pete stepped up and stared at the small corpse then at Tim through the helmet. Pete then stepped through the door to the outer catwalk and looked to his left in time to see a stream of greenish liquid flying at him. The green acid caught him in the face. There was a slight scream cut off as the acid ate through the helmet and killed him. "Damn! Aliens on the third story Catwalk!" Tim yelled, just having remembered how to turn on his Tac-Com. Sarah ducked backwards away from the door instinctively while Tim put the motion tracker into his belt while walking backward from the door, letting it shut. "Davids is dead, I Repeat, he's Dead." Tim yelled again into the Com. Then it started talking back. "Hey Timmy, Were at a corner of the building here, we can see some of these pink worms along with a blue guy and three Pink funnel headed things." That was mike. "I Got Wilson going nuts at them with an M4000, We wont let them get to the door man. Oh yeah, by the by. They're spitting some green acid all around the place" "I got ya, what do we do till then?" "Pray the roof doesn't come down once Team three join the party with their autocannon." Tim sighed then looked across at Sarah. She was shaking, the death of Davids struck her hard. She had her M4000 held loosely in her right hand while leaning against the wall. "Listen, we should get out of here." "How?" Sarah motioned to the stairs. Tim leaned over and saw a few of those pink funnel headed guys at the bottom trying to spit back at Wilson. Tim pulled out an AP Grenade. "Deevans, get behind that stuff." Tim said pointing at a pile of trash, old furniture and other junk. She nodded wordlessly then got behind it still shaking. Tim then put his lawmaker into his belt, pulled out another AP grenade, one in each hand, then flicked them both onto contact detonation. He threw one at a wall, leading presumably to an apartment, and he dropped the other down to the Pink things. He ran and dived behind the cover as the slight 'click' of the first and closer grenade sounded, then a burst of flames flew over his head as a second explosion from much farther below sounded. Sarah was laying flat behind a couch. There was a slight rumbling, then a loud crash and a long wail. Tim looked up and saw most of the stairs fall away, they were left on a perch far above the ground with a thin catwalk leading to the blast hole into an apartment. Tim looked over at Sarah. "Were getting out of here! Follow me!" He Yelled taking her hand then running across the small and damaged path to the safety of the apartment. She ran with him into the apartment. As they reached it a slight melting noise was heard. Their pathway fell away and another scream was heard. Tim looked across at Sarah then heard the distinctive 'belching' of a Megapol autocannon. A round slammed through the windows covering then detonated in a small wash of debris and heat.

"Hey, Wolff, the cavalry is here." Long said through the TacCom in-between blasting at the aliens on the catwalk. Mike nodded sending a few volleys of shots at the aliens then ducking back behind the wall. Wilson had this little yellow alien thing latched onto his face earlier, Then Wilson turned around and started blasting at Mike and Carla, not an experience they liked. It looked like Mitch had gone berserk. A few moments later however He ran out of clips then a stray stream of acid from a funnel headed guy hit him in the leg. Almost immediately he fell unconscious. Every time Mike sent out a volley he saw the shallowly breathing body and prayed for it to come out of this alive. Human was human after all. Mike came back to reality and watched as Isaacs sent High explosive rounds at the Blue guy stitching across, below, above and into the catwalk. A few moments later there was a crashing sound and the catwalk fell. Blue guy and all. Mike looked around then turned on his helmets Virtual display map, which had the positions of all the troops. "Hey, Where's Team one?" Mike said turning around to face Brooks. "Uh, they were inside the building I think." Mike swore suddenly. He Turned on his TacCom. "Is the area Secure or what?" "Well, the Valkyrie's sensor array says so." Toby replied via the Com. "Where's Team one?" Mike continued stepping out into the open and heading for the best area to look around from. Most of Team Three was walking around and dragging corpses to a corner of the building. "Dunno, I thought they were finished." Toby said a little sadly while Walking across the large tarred area towards Mike. Once they reached each other they started talking again after pulling off their helmets. "Listen, we saw Davids getting killed right?" Toby nodded uncertainly. "Well I remember hearing a loud explosion from the stairwell. We didn't see anything explosive used by the aliens did we?" "No, we didn't. Lets get up there and look around."

"Hell, look at this mess." Toby remarked solemnly. He and Mike were at the bottom of the stairwell. Looking up there were small areas that were untouched, not too many though. "Any other stairs?" Mike asked looking up. "Yeah, other side of the building. Lets go."

"Wow, Where are the people anyway?" Mike asked going up the northern flight of stairs. "Megapol probably sent them packing. I mean a guy did fall from the top story." "True" They reached the third level and stepped out onto the catwalk. They could see a Megapol hired cleanup crew. Luckily Megapol were allies. They stepped across the bullet ridden catwalk carefully. Eventually they reached the area that Davids was killed in. The corpse had fallen after a barrage of bullets knocked it from the catwalk. They jumped across a small hole on the Catwalk and reached the top of the southern stairwell. A few parts of the floor were still there. Mike went in. "Looks like a damn terrorist bombing. I mean look, the way the blast pattern goes." Toby nodded then edged along the remains of the floor to a small hole in the wall. He looked through then entered. A few Hi-Ex rounds got loose in here, a lot of the ceiling had fallen. Toby looked around and shook his head sadly. Mike stepped in and listened. "Crap, help me with this." Mike said starting to tug at a section of ceiling and roofing that was still in more or less one piece. There was a slight bulge or something near the end of it. Eventually the Voices got stronger and the ceiling section crumbled. Then the combined effort of mike and Toby moved enough debris aside so they could see a table top. There was a steady stream of soothing words along the lines of "Don't worry, well be fine. Its all going to turn out fine." Mike knocked on the table twice. Another two knocks greeted him back. Both Mike and Toby grinned then pulled away some more debris and opened up a corner of the table. It revealed Tim and Sarah with their helmets discarded. Tim had his arm around Sarah and Sarah was looking decidedly shaken. Tim looked up at Mike. "Explain to me again how to work all the electric wizardry in these helmets man." Mike laughed slightly then kneeled to take a look at the two. Sarah had caught a largish chunk of plasteel in her left arms elbow while Tim still had his left leg trapped under debris. Mike turned around then yelled at the clean up crew to come over and help his fallen comrades.

< Back at the X-Com Base 'Java' 6:34 Tuesday 7 March >

In the Med-Bay Sarah and Tim were talking to each other while the Nano-Bots did their work. "So you were a miner?" "Well, yeah. I want to get into terraforming though, What's so weird about that?" "Well for one your a total knockout, and for another thing, your built for modelling, not mining." Tim had absolutely no problems with voicing his mind. At this point Sarah blushed then attempted to change the conversation. "So, where are you from originally?" "Well my father was one of the foremen who built Mega Primus. When I hit eight and enough of the city was built I was put straight into a Lifetree accelerated learning program. When I was sixteen I enrolled in the Mega-pol academy. I was a patrol-man for a couple of weeks, then they shoved me into SWAT. A few years back I switched into narcotics because I found out half of the violent stuff I went to as a SWAT officer was Psiclone motivated." "Where's your father?" Tim sighed slightly on his bed then looked up at the ceiling "Disowned me when I got into SWAT. He felt it was no way for a Banks to live. I guess he's on luna colony somewhere now. Don't really care anyway." Sarah nodded sympathetically from her bed. There was an uneasy silence only broken by the occasional click when more Nano-Bots were sent in to heal the patients. After about five minutes Mike walked in with a couple of party hats he had gotten replicated, he dumped one on Sarah's head then the other on Tim's head. Sarah stared at Mike in bewilderment. "Old Timmy gets real depressed whenever he gets stuck in a medical bay." Mike explained putting the elastic string under Tim's chin. Tim was now staring very unimpressed at Mike. "Last time I believe you had an elephant attempt to cheer me up. I had much higher expectations of you man." Sarah stared at the two. "Elephant?" "Holo cube." Mike explained while pondering. "Ok, I don't have an elephant this time of day, and its a little early to be getting ahold of breakfast, but I can organise you the fabulous," A dramatic pause "Toby Long!" At this point Toby walked in with a ghetto blaster under his arm, solemnly put it down then broke into a heart rending version of 'I don't wanna see your guts on the floor no more' by Papa Dingo and His boys, favourite band of Mega Primus.
Just after the last 'No, your intestines are wrapping around my soul!' Tim spoke up. "That was just beautiful man." Tim said wiping away a non existent tear. He smiled and stared wistfully into the air. "Reminds me of the time I was stuck under Mike when he had so many bullets pumped into him the department Nano's spent five days rebuilding his stomach." Tim said smiling wistfully at Mike. "Ah for the good ol' days hey Timmy?" Mike replied acidly. Then mike turned and whispered to Toby "Hey, I thought you were gonna do some Sinatra!" "So I improvised, sue me" Toby replied grinning.
 
 
 

   X-Com, X-Com apocalypse and most things X-Com are
copyrighted to Microprose. I, Mark M. Cagnacci, Created this
 in 1998. I would appreciate feedback at Skonar@Yahoo.com