Koras Kimall walked the halls of Europa base on his way to the Mess Hall. It was hard getting accustomed to the human way of living, but he was managing. The food they consumed was rather….peculiar, to say the least. Koras himself was very tall but very thin. He was used to ingesting dietary liquids through his skin, and when he realized that he would have to use his extremely small teeth to grind animal and plant matter, he almost grimaced. He wore his ceremonial battle cloak over his entire body. The humans at Europa all thought that he looked like an orange ninja master. He could hear their thoughts. But, to his surprise, there was no fear coming from them and, most suprisingly, no hatred. His race was partially responsible for the war they were fighting, so he was glad that they had accepted him so quickly without bitterness. Koras opened the door to the Mess Hall and saw his new friend Klaus Mederow sitting down with a few female soldiers. He really didn't know what to think of Klaus. Since he somehow could not read his mind, he felt almost blind. He had never had much use for verbal communication. He would just read what others were feeling and avoid any confusion that verbalizing sometimes produced. But with his new friend, he would have to physically vibrate his vocal cords in order to convey his thoughts until Klaus learned how to communicate more efficiently with his mind.

"Koras, it's good to see you. Sit down with us, and try our Earthly cuisine." "Thank you Klaus, I will sample your nutritional offerings." Verbalizing was so much less efficient than telepathy. On his homeworld, he simply had to envision consuming his liquids and his servant would immediately prepare a meal. On his own planet, Koras was a prince of the largest continent, Toran. He was not used to preparing his own meal. "Well, what are you hungry for buddy?" "Hungry for? I would prefer my liquids, but since that is not possible, I believe that this animal flesh will suffice." "Good, get two of those buns over there and put a patty of that animal flesh between them." "I understand." Koras obtained his food and sat down with Klaus and the female soldiers. "Greetings. My name is Koras Kimall. I am a Special Envoy for X-Com." The ladies all smiled at him. Squaddie Rebecca Morales looked at Koras. She was stunned to actually be so close to an Ethereal Commander. "Sir, please, have a seat." "Thank you." "So, Klaus, tell me how your base assault mission progressed." Koras took a bite of his sandwich and was surprised to the good taste of the food. "Well Koras, the information you provided on base location, layout, and crew compliment was invaluable. We found the base, sat down our Lightning, and proceeded into the base using the security access codes you provided. The Floater security guard was so surprised to see us that this strange, green liquid started dripping down his "leg"." "Yes, the Floater race uses a single appendage to move on the ground and fly in the air. It is the biological equivalent to our anti-gravity technology. The green liquid would most likely have been…" Klaus interrupted him. "Yeah, urine." "Correct Klaus." "Anyway, I blasted him with my plasma rifle, and we proceeded into the base. We split off into two groups. Mine went to the armory like your plan suggested we do. The other group ventured into the control center. We heard some firing and yelling from group 2 as they entered the "Status Room", as you called it. Suddenly, about 14 aliens floated into the armory and tried to get their weapons. We blasted them all like clay pigeons." "Clay pigeons?" "Nevermind. Team 2 had alerted them to our presence by killing the two officers in the Status Room, and the rest of the base's compliment tried to get guns to fight them off. If they wouldn't have been so arrogant in assuming that we would never even LOCATE one of their bases, maybe they would have had more soldiers with weapons in their hands, ready to do combat. But, in their complacency, they allowed us to strike a major blow against them. Thanks to your help and some good old human warfare, the aliens will not be able to strike back at us for months." Koras finished eating his ham-bur-ger and drank the beverage that one of the female soldiers had gotten for him. It tasted like nothing he had ever drunk before. "Do you like that Mr. Kimall?" "It is quite peculiar." "It's called coffee." "Interesting. Klaus, you humans are most welcome. I am glad to be of service to your race, and hopefully, this will lead to the freedom of my people." "Well, if you're finished eating, I believe Commander Thompson has scheduled a meeting for us to attend in a few minutes. Ladies, I want you to get some R & R. I have a feeling that we're going to be pretty busy in the near future." "Yes Sir." Koras stood up and left with Klaus. They made their way to Tactical Operations.

Commander Thompson looked down at the reports of all the base commanders. He still could not believe how weak the alien's defenses were. The intelligence provided by Kimall certainly helped. X-Com had destroyed all 12 alien bases on Earth. The Aliens would now have to rebuild their bases in order to conduct their more complex missions. That included Base Incursion, Terror Raid, and Infiltration. X-Com could now start waging an offensive war on the aliens. Hopefully, Koras Kimall would be as useful as he has been so far in the design of the Space War Machine. "Captain Manning, where the hell are Mederow and Kimall? We're ready to begin!" "Sir, Commander Mederow and Special Agent Kimall are on their way from the Mess Hall." "Well, I hope the had enough to eat." Mederow and Kimall entered Tac Ops. "Sorry Sir, we were discussing my last mission." "And, we were fraternizing with some females." "Koras!" Thompson raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Well, gentlemen. If you will take your seats. I believe we have some business to discuss." The room was filled with X-Com top brass. Every base commander, every Colonel, and a few Captains were sitting at the largest table Klaus had ever seen. Behind the table was a huge flat panel computer screen hooked directly into the Tac Ops Mainframe. Klaus and Koras sat down in their chairs, and Thompson began to speak. "Gentlemen and Ladies, we have reached a turning point in this conflict. With the alien bases destroyed on Earth, we are free to launch a campaign directed at the heart of the alien forces: The Master. Now, we don't know exactly what this Master is, but we do know this. He controls all of his forces directly through telepathy and psionic implants. He uses a Psionic Amplifier to send out these commands, and the aliens follow his orders to the letter. Our mission is to land on Mars, find this Psi Emitter, and destroy it along with The Master. That is easier said than done. Mr. Kimall, if you please?" "Thank you Commander Thompson. That is true. Destroying the Psi Emitter will be the easy part. Landing on Mars, however, will require much, much more effort." Mederow punched in a few commands to his console, and a Space Map appeared. "The red dots you see orbiting the planet Mars are Behemoth Class Battlecruisers." Most of the roomed sighed and awed. "As you can see, there are approximately 200 of them with smaller Scout Craft vessels as support ships. These Battlecruisers, as you all know, are extremely powerful craft. They are also extremely fast, but they do have one weakness. Their maneuvering thrusters are quite poorly designed. What we need to do is manufacture hundreds, if not thousands, of your Firestorm attack fighters. These craft are the ideal attackers when dealing with Battlecruisers. They are fast enough and small enough to avoid most of the weapon's fire that will be coming from the Cruisers. However, the Large Scout support vessels are quick enough to engage the Firestorm, and they will be easily destroyed unless we build a new type of craft." A diagram of a sleek, aerodynamic space vessel appeared on the huge viewscreen. "Colonel Mederow has named this craft: Avenger. It is capable of one-tenth the speed of light maximum velocity. While the Firestorm craft only have 2 fixed plasma cannons, they will have 4 rotating plasma cannons and 2 Fusion Ball Launchers. We will use them just as the Ramikians did: Engage the support craft while the smaller, faster attack vessels destroy the Battlecruisers. Your Firestorm craft were designed for use only in planet atmospheres, so they must be redesigned. Their new designation will be Spacestorm." "Excuse me Sir.", said a soft, female voice. "But what will we use to transport these new Spacestorm to Mars? They surely won't have enough fuel to fly there and conduct battle attacks?" "Miss Torban, please let Mr. Kimall finish the briefing." "You are correct Commander Torban. We will need several Fighter Carriers to transport the Spacestorm to Mars." "Excuse me again, but where are we going to get all this raw material? And not to mention the money for this kind of a campaign?" "The new manufacturing techniques allow your engineers to construct a Spacestorm for 1/1000th of the cost in money and materials that it currently requires. Please understand that my people are what you would consider to be ancient. We have developed these manufacturing skills over millions of years. It is not required that you understand our technology. You only need utilize it." "Thank you Koras, that was very thorough." "Now, Mr. Mederow has a few other details to provide us. Klaus?" "Thank you Commander Thompson. As you all know, our governments feel that keeping the existence of extra-terrestrials a secret, even if humanity is in a battle to the death, is of paramount importance. We can't exactly launch hundreds of craft into orbit for all to see. And we can't take the chance that the aliens will discover what we're doing and send all those Battlecruisers here to wipe us out once and for all. Their primary goal is to assimilate us. If that fails, they will attempt to eradicate us. That is why we will be launching 2 transport vessels to the Moon with all the supplies necessary to startup a mining operation there. We will then be constructing a Space Station which will be orbiting the Moon. The magnetic field of the moon will obscure us from alien detection. We will then manufacture the Carriers, Avengers, and Spacestorm vessels at that Space Station which we've named Freedom. Once our fleet is ready, we will attack the alien vessels in orbit around Mars, destroy them, and land on Mars. Then, every X-Com squadron will distract any alien resistance on Mars while a covert ops force finds the Psionic Amplifier and destroys it. Just your average save-your-entire-race-space-battle. Any questions?" "Sir, how long will it take us to build our fleet once we arrive on the moon?" "Approximately 3 months." "And during that time, Earth will not be protected?" "I have been assured by Mr. Kimall that the alien's primary concern now will be to rebuild their bases. That will take approximately 3 months." "That's cutting is pretty close, don't you think?" "Miss Torban, it's our last, best chance for survival." "I understand Sir. And I can tell you that Congo base is behind you 110%!" The rest of the officers all said "Here, here!", and Mederow made one final statement. "What we need now is for all of X-Com to report here to Europa base. The transports will be constructed in two days. I need you Base Commanders to report back to your bases, pack everything up, lock the doors, and return here in that time. Can you do that?" "YES SIR!" "Good then, Dismissed!" Koras looked at Klaus as Thompson and Torban came over to them. "Gentlemen, do you really think we can do all that bullshit we just told everyone?" Koras smiled at all of them as much as an Ethereal can smile. "We will soon see my friends. We will soon see."