A young woman bent down to Mederow and whispered softly into his ear: "GET UP!!!!!!" "Jee-zus! What the hell?? Where am I? Oh no, it wasn't a dream, was it?" "Sir, you are wanted in the briefing room." "And where might that be? Next to the secret alien research lab I passed last night?" "No Sir, take the elevator down 2 floors, step out and go down to the end of the hallway, turn left, and you can't miss it." "Thanks a lot." Klaus got dressed and left. The other members of living quarters #1 all said "Bye Sir!!!" when he left, in a rather sarcastic tone. As he entered the elevator, he heard some claxons sound and a red light appear. "All base personnel, this is not a drill. Repeat, not a drill. Alien Craft #47 has landed just outside our perimeter. We are under attack. All noncombat personnel vacate the base immediately. "Alien Craft #47?", he said to himself. "I wonder where the other 46 are…" The elevator door opened, and a team of soldiers in some blue armor appeared and entered his elevator. "Sir, you will need this." "What in the world is this supposed to be?" "Standard issue Laser Pulse Rifle, recharging, so don't worry about ammo. Point it at the bad guys, and kiss them goodbye." "Son, who are you?" "Captain Krause, 1st Squad Subcommander, Area 51." "Well, who are these bad guys?" "I see you haven't been briefed yet? Well, to make a long story short, we shot down an alien supply ship yesterday, and now they want some payback." "Yeah, I think I saw you shoot it down." "No Sir, what you saw was a weather balloon that exploded due to atmospheric condensation." "Atmospheric condensation? Weather balloon? Oh, I get it." A voice over the comm system of Krause's helmet came on. "Captain, take your men to Hangar 3, the Skyranger has been evacuated, so don't be afraid to fire at anything resembling a Toid." "Understood." The elevator doors hissed open, and Klaus saw some small, dark figures running around. "Gentlemen, you have permission to clean the hangar." Captain Krause and the 3 other members of his squad opened fire with laser weapons on the dark figures. Mederow heard some inhuman shrills as the figures were hit, and green blood splattered everywhere. "Everyone out! Take cover behind those workbenches." Mederow raised his weapon as he jumped out of the elevator and ran to cover. One of the figures fired a green bolt of something his way, and he dove out of the way. Behind him, Mederow saw some melting metal on the wall and ground. "Oh shit!" He fired his laser rifle and hit 3 of the little figures; all of them screamed as the laser seared a 4-inch hole through their little bodies. Captain Krause threw a grenade at the larger mass of them, and bodies flew all about after its explosion. Mederow continued firing, and he wasted the rest of them. The light was very low just with the red alert lamps burning on the ceiling, so he could not see them very clearly. "Captain Krause, report." "All toids have been cleared out of Hangar 3." "Good, we have killed the rest of them in Hangar 1 and 2, and internal scans show no more of the little turds." "Understood. So Colonel Mederow, how do you like X-Com so far?" He just looked at Krause with a shocked expression. The normal lights came back on, and now Klaus could see the carnage of the intruders. There were about 10 of the little critters lying dead on the floor, 5 of them dead at Mederow's hands. "So, how many of these did you get Colonel?" "5 I think." "Well, we'll just have to add those to your kills total." "Great. What do I get if I have the most at the end of the game?" Captain Krause replied: "You get to live."

Klaus took one more look at the bodies before they were sacked up and sent to the research lab down a few levels. He almost felt good about killing those whatsits. "Toids I think I heard them call them. Sounds like a shortened named." He got back on the elevator, and this time he arrived at the briefing room without a red alert sounding. A single person sat at the back of the room, chairs lining up and down both sides approaching his desk with a long wooden desk in the middle. "Sir, Colonel Mederow reporting as ordered." "Sit down Klaus." "Sir." "What you have just experienced was what we call an Alien Raid. They took some retaliatory action because we shot down their damned Supply Ship that was heading for their base in Baja California. This facility, as you probably have gathered, is Area 51. Now, I know you've read and watched different stories about Area 51, and some of what you've read is probably true. What I'm about to tell you does not leave this organization, is that understood?" "Completely, Sir." "Good, now. We are X-Com. That stands for the Extra-Terrestrial Combat Unit. That means we fight bad guys from outer space. Now that may sound like science fiction to you, but I've been informed that you killed 5 Sectoids just now in the defense of this base, so you know it's science fact. I thank you for helping us to repel this attack. This is the 7th time this month we've been visited by not so happy to see us aliens. Now, the reason why you are here is because your military record suggests that you are a perfect candidate to help us fight these aliens. And, since you're already an officer, I'm going to let you keep your rank of Colonel, but you will be Colonel of X-Com, not the U.S. Army. I need you to take command of our second base in France. That base is called Europa, named for the continent in which it resides and one of the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter. You will be in charge of defending all the countries in Europe, especially the ones that pay our salaries. All pertinent information will be available for you to read once you arrive at Europa. My name, by the way is Commander David Thompson. I run X-Com. I also go on combat missions from time to time, but mostly, I'm a bigtime bureaucrat. All X-Com soldiers on active duty have what they call a biorhythm. This biorhythm shows everyone how strong you are physically and mentally, how fast you are, how good of shot you are, etc, etc. The bioscanners have you down as…let's see…. 100 in each of our categories. Now that is almost not humanly possible. You must be one of the fittest humans on this planet. You make me look like a couch potato." "Ugh, thank you Sir, I think." "Colonel Klaus Mederow, I, the C.O. of X-Com, hereby order you to take command of Europa base and to run daily X-Com operations there until the time of your death or until I find someone better." "Yes Sir!" "Your transport leaves shortly, so pack up your gear, and head on out. Dismissed."