Episode 10: A Voice in the Shadows
On an otherwise quiet night, Swiss base picks up transmissions from the US space shuttle, Atlantis, suggesting that the spaceship has been attacked by UFOs, shortly afterward it is detected entering the upper limits of the atmosphere. NASA denies that there is any problem, but XCOM hackers Chip 'n' Dale (i.e. computer specialists Dale Kasdan and Kenji Yoshimura) are able to break into the NASA system and copy the last image transmitted by the Atlantis' on board cameras. The picture clearly shows a saucer of some kind.
Admiral Greer contacts an acquaintance in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Wilbur Curtis. He agrees to get a KH-11 spy satellite over the predicted splashdown area to transmit its data to XCom. When the images come in, they show the silhouette of the shuttle being escorted by two saucers towards the pacific island of Nauru. Nauru is a desolate island, ravaged by two centuries of strip mining, a perfect site for an alien base. A further set of thermographic images show the outline of the shuttle hidden beneath a lake. Other satellite images show recent construction of some sort in the centre of the island, at two sites. On further inspection they appear to be encampments of some sort.
The following morning (although few at XCom slept at all that night), Admiral Greer sends the image taken from the NASA computer to the Whitehouse. Curtis tells him that the President wants US troops to be involved in any operation on Nauru, which suits Greer fine, as XCom doesn't have the troops for a full fledged invasion of even a tiny state such as Nauru.
The plan is simple, XCom Ranger teams are assigned to secure the suspected site of the alien base (the old nitrate refinery). XCom Mobile Infantry are assigned to secure the government centre, in case the government has been subverted by MIBs. The US Marines are to land on the opposite side of the island in force, and sweep towards the centre, another likely site for an alien base.
The first part of the plan goes off almost flawlessly. The Ranger team observes 'Slug' aliens at the refinery, but are spotted. A brief firefight ensues, the Rangers are victorious and capture over fifteen Slug technicians attempting to escape in Land Rovers. Suddenly, a swarm of light UFOs burst out through the roofs of two warehouses. Four saucers begin to strafe the area, with no regard for their captured compatriots on the ground. The reminder head south towards the centre of the island.
Meanwhile, the Mobile Infantry secure the government centre with barely a shot being fired, and the US Marines encounter no resistance until they reach the first camp. This turns out to be a lightly guarded concentration camp where the local population are being held. After dealing with the guards, the Marines quickly reach the second camp just in time to encounter the UFOs from the refinery.
Back at the refinery, the Rangers have excellent luck with LAWs and Macroguns, and manage to bring down the saucers attacking them, but at the cost of five lives. One group of prisoners is killed when Lt Jackson blows up their Land Rover, in order to destroy the saucer hovering above it. Another group dies when they try to escape, and are gunned down by 'Dutch' with his macrogun. Unfortunately, in this incident, PFC David Johansson AKA 'The Swede' is hit and severely wounded, and later loses a leg.
The US Marines aren't quite so lucky at the second camp. Greer orders the Interceptors in to take out the saucers, the Interceptor from Canton base being accompanied by Hawk (now known as 'Ace'. They manage to take out the light saucers, but a secret launch bay opens on the base and a 'mothership' takes off. The Interceptors peel off, and begin target spotting for the USMC F14s just off the coast, launching stand-off AMRAAM missiles. They take down the mothership, but not before it launches its own complement of 'fighters' These ignore the Interceptors and head out to engage the F14s. After a very one sided dogfight, the F14s somehow manage to shoot down the UFOs (although more through luck than skill).
With the air cover take care of, the operation on Nauru becomes one of mopping up. At the camp the troops uncover an underground facility, with whole areas designed to look like typical human living areas, shops, houses, bars and even a cinema. It is either a brainwashing centre, or a training ground for agents, but no-one is certain.
When operatives reach the lake they can find no trace of the shuttle. There is no way that the aliens could have moved it without it being detected by the orbiting spy satellites. The only possible conclusion is that the satellite images were fed to the satellite by some outside source, or that the data was corrupted on Earth. Either way, it remains a mystery as to who would have left such obvious signs to the alien base, and why.
Admiral Greer had left the XCom base to attend an emergency meeting of the eight funding nations in Reykjavik when Swiss Base detects a Wedge UFO crash landing in the Sahara. A Ranger team is despatched and they enter the wrecked UFO. An explosion inside kills one soldier and wounds another, but the troops face no real opposition. Professor Tregear, in charge of Swiss Base in Admiral Greer's absence, orders the UFO to be taken to a secure airfield in Germany, for examination off site. It is only after further examination that the UFO is brought to Swiss Base.
Meanwhile, a joint team run by Dr Harriet Kramer and Prof. Louisa Kline make a breakthrough. They determine that the alien device that they have been studying for some time is actually a form of mind control device, responding to the users own brainwaves and 'overlapping them' onto the target.
In Reykjavik, Greer meets a council of the funding nations, and gives them his report. He tells them that there are two, possibly three forces currently battling for control of Earth. Humanity, he says, is not one of them. Following this, the various leader fall into a heated discussion as to the best course of action.
A few hours later, the soldiers involved at the crash site begin to sicken. They report symptoms of headaches, nausea and dizziness. The wounded soldier is the worst hit, quickly lapsing into a coma. Tregear immediately orders the base sealed, along with the secure base in Germany.
The illness seems to have two main effects. Firstly it reduces the victim's red blood cell count, and secondly it affects the nervous system. The soldiers' conditions grow worse, and further cases are reported, including some of the scientists sent to study the wedge, and Lt Cdr Dinova, who as head of security was one of the first people to have contact with the Rangers on their return. The interior of the UFO is searched intensely, looking for a source for the illness, but there are no biological agents found. The only trace seems to be a form of metallic dust, which seems to have been spread by the explosion. In another puzzling revelation, the main engines do not appear to have been used, and the ship's weapon racks are empty.
In Reykjavik, Greer is summoned for a meeting by the President of the US, and the Prime Minister of Russia. They hear Greers opinions as to the state of the war, then offer him a vastly enlarged XCom, operating on a larger scale than currently. He is offered a vast increase in budget and far wider ranging powers. Remarkably Greer declines! He has his own conception of how XCom should develop, and wishes it to follow those lines exactly, or so it seems. The President and Prime Minister both agree to Greer's requests : Greater budget, especially to be allocated to the science division, and faster production of Interceptors.
Swiss Base now begins to suffer various system failures, starting with the soldiers weapons, then affecting equipment in their quarters and on the VTOL. Clearly something that they brought back from the UFO is affecting machinery, as well as the virus. The composition of the metallic dust is studied, it appears to be of some form of ferrous metal. Similar traces are found near corroded electronics. As the scientists race towards a conclusion, the first of the soldiers dies.
Tregear orders the dust examined under electron microscope, and the mystery is solved. The dust is actually composed of microscopic machines, or nanotech machines. These are apparently attacking both the human and mechanical parts of XCom. The base begins to suffer systemwide failures as the nanites spread throughout the base. The race is on to find a cure.
Tregear's first idea is to use a powerful magnetic field, which is successful in attracting the beasties, but it only immobilises them, and any form of electromagnet is quickly attacked by the nanites. Then comes a revelation, troops whose quarters are heated warmer were affected by the nanites much slower than others. In addition, their quarters suffered fewer system failures. Temperature seemed effective in slowing down the nanites. Although the XCom scientists never really understood why, this is because the nanites were designed using body temperature superconductor technology, when the temperature rose anywhere above this, they were impaired. This was why the UFO was dropped into the Sahara. the intention was not to wipe out the whole planet, merely to attack XCom.
With some experimentation it is found that a sufficiently high temperature is enough to kill the nanites. However that temperature is almost enough to kill a human being too. With some trepidation, the scientists 'cook' a volunteer, who survives, and the nanites in his system were destroyed. The process of curing all infected personnel begins just in time, and there are no more casualties.
With Swiss Base still crippled following the nanotech plague, Admiral Greer returns from Reykjavik to transfer his flag to the XCom Defender, formerly the Soviet missile cruiser Arkady, bought and refitted by XCom for marine operations. The Defender has been modified to carry an Interceptor, a VTOL and two Harriers, plus approximately twenty Rangers. The main weapon systems have been replaced with an experimental laser weapon, based on the laser rifle/laser cannon designed by Prof. Louisa Kline. The ships close in SAM systems have been replaced with launchers for the standard anti-UFO 'Avalanche' missiles.
The XCom Defender detects a wedge UFO attacking a small boat approximately 30 nm away. The Interceptor, piloted by 'Ace' Hawk, is launched and quickly deals with the wedge. On the boat, the interceptor can see a Golden Android attacking the boats human crew. Seconds later, two more wedges are detected entering the atmosphere on an attack run. These are well above the horizon, so the Defender locks on with its laser cannon, blowing them out of the sky. Greer scrambles the Harriers and orders an attack on the boat, as there is no way to get a Ranger team safely on board. The Harrier strafes the boat with its 30mm cannon, neatly severing the rear third of the boat from the rest, separating the android from the humans. The VTOL then picks up the survivors.
Back on board, the survivors tell their story. They are a field team from Astrodyne Technologies, one of the three companies that XCom licences alien alloy technology to. They had travelled to Odessa to acquire a sample of alleged former Soviet cybernetic research. There were two sample crates, one was to be smuggled out via sea, to Africa and then back to the US. The other was to travel overland to another destination. While at sea, the curious scientists opened the box, and the android was somehow activated. Admiral Greer is not impressed, and has the whole lot thrown in the brig.
Meanwhile, as Professor Tregear is struggling to bring a crippled Swiss Base back to full operating efficiency, he receives a message from Dr Cheng. The captive Slugs are communicating telepathically and wish to talk to someone in charge. Tregear meets them, with Dr Cheng, Dr Harriet Kramer and two security guards present, with Admiral Greer observing via satellite link. The aliens confirm that they are working for the Grays, and that they are the product of cross-breeding experiments between humans and Grays. They insist that all they've done has been for the greater good, but they have grown disillusioned with the Gray treatment of humans. The slugs are proud of their human heritage, and are distressed that the Grays still treat humans like cattle. The two captives announce that they are willing to help XCom in any way they can. They also mention that part of the Gray plan has been to try to set up one force to rule the world as their Regents. Tregear replies that they knew about the UR, and that given the aliens' brutal treatment of humans in the past, merely saying 'sorry can we be friends now' would not suffice.
A Ranger team is meanwhile landed at the warehouse in Odessa that the Astrodyne staff got the android from. However, a saucer has beaten them to it. The slugs have already slaughtered everyone on the site, but do not appear to have found anything, so Greer orders the Rangers not to engage, and the saucer leaves. Although the Admiral had hoped to track the saucer in order to follow it to either the alien base, or to the second android, this is not possible, as the saucer merely leaves the atmosphere and goes into orbit outside XCom detection.
At a teleconference set up later, Admiral Greer echoes those sentiments, and orders that the aliens are not to be trusted in any way. Meanwhile Chip 'n' Dale try to hack Astrodyne, and come up against very serious security measures protecting their US operation. They then turn to the corporation's holdings in Eastern Europe, and manage to trace a possible overland route, by truck through to L'viv, then by boat down the Dnestr river, on to the Vistula River to Warsaw. Although XCom were not able to trace the route any further, getting side-tracked at this point, the next leg of the journey would continue down the Vistula to Gdansk, and then by sea back to the states.
After some time, Tregear gets another message from the aliens, saying that they wish to speak again. This time they tell Tregear that they did not fully understand what he had meant before about the UR, as they knew little of the world outside their assigned area (Africa). They are, however, certain that the UR subversion was not part of the Gray plan. Shocked by this, Tregear asked who the Grays were priming for the role of regent.
Before they could reply, an alarm goes off, announcing a fire in the containment wing. An instant later, the lights flash off and gas starts pouring into the room. (this was actually a standard item in the containment rooms, in case of an 'incident' involving the aliens, narcotic gas could be released into any room in the wing, to stop humans under mind control more than the aliens.) Somehow, Professor Tregear was able to fight off the effects of the gas (thanks to a high caffeine level, perhaps) The door to the room opens, and in the doorway is a figure in XCom fatigues wearing a gas mask. Tregear tries to rush out of the room, the figure pushes him back. Tregear tries again, this time the intruder raises the pistol and shoots the professor, point blank in the chest. The last thing Tregear hears is the double gunshot of the intruder shooting both of the aliens through the head.
When Admiral Greer is informed, he immediately hands over command of the XCom Defender to a subordinate and returns to take command at Swiss Base. He returns to find Tregear still in a critical condition, and fading, with no trace of the intruder. Lt Commander Dinova, who is still officially off active duty following the Nanoplague, is insisting that she be reinstated to lead the investigation, a request that Greer reluctantly grants.
The power cut is traced to a small explosion in a power junction box, which also may have caused the fire alarm. Shortly afterward, Dr Norman Johnson is found handcuffed and locked in a cupboard in his office. He tells of an XCom trooper, Pvt Rodriguez, who having lost friends in UFO incidents recently, had been undergoing therapy. Rodriguez had turned up to today's session armed, and ranting about rumours that XCom was about to cut a deal with the aliens. He had clearly gone over the edge, and after locking the psychologist up, had clearly gone on to assassinate the aliens, using Johnson's Palmtop computer to trigger the gas and alarms. Doc Johnson, locked in the cupboard, had heard Rodriguez re-enter the room, but has no idea when he had left.
Checking the base's security records verifies this. Security cameras show rodriguez arriving at the Doctors office at the right time, carrying a bundle (believed to be the gasmask and possibly the weapon) The same cameras show a figure leaving the office about fifteen minutes later wearing the mask, just before the incident in Alien Containment. Minutes after the shooting, the same figure is seen to return. But there is no indication that Rodriguez ever left the room again. Greer orders a thorough forensic examination of Johnson's office.
Dale and Kenji study the tapes, and confirm that there is very little chance that they have been tampered with. The only way to have done so would have been to set up a bogus feed into the camera system, well in advance. If so, the perpetrator would need detailed technical knowledge of the XCom security system, which Rodriguez certainly did not possess.
The mystery seems insoluble. The whole base is searched, but there is no sign of Rodriguez, nor is there any sign of the gasmask or the murder weapon. Lt Jackson talks to some of the troops in Rodriguez' section, they describe him a being 'just a regular guy' and are all astounded that he should have done anything like this. Greer interviews Johnson again, growing suspicious of his story, but Johnson has little more to add.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Professor Tregear begins to hear voices. One, clearly alien, talks about an experiment, which must be maintained. The second voice, clearly human, insists that the experiment has been corrupted beyond hope, and that 'they' were nearly onto him, and that he needed extraction immediately. Waking up, Tregear gets Dr Cheng's attention, but Cheng thinks the injured scientist is merely delirious, and tries to sedate him. Tregear finally manages to convince the doctor to call Greer, and tells him about the voices. Both believe that Tregear had somehow tapped into a telepathic communication between the aliens and their agent in XCom. Greer orders Cheng to partially sedate Tregear, in the hope that in a drug induced doze he will be able to pick up further 'transmissions'. Tregear also suggests talking to Dr Harriet Kramer, one of the team who had been working on the alien Thought Amplifier (and XCom's most psychically attuned member so far).
Kramer is shocked when she hears of Tregear's dream, she had been having similar dreams for the past few weeks (roughly the time she had been working with the TA. Unknown to her, using the device had been refining her sensitivity) Admiral Greer believed that the device had actively been brainwashing people, and begins making plans to destroy it.
Finishing up the examination in Johnson's office, a junior technician (commonly known as Sparky the Lighting Kid, for some obscure reason) discovered by chance that the office's waste disposal system had broken down. He calls maintenance, and on opening up the device, it is found to be badly corroded inside, and the remains of a glass vial found stuck inside. Greer is called, and the whole office re-examined. In the plughole of the bath, Sparky finds a strange residue, which is clearly acidic as it melts through Sparky's sample bag. A glass container is found, and the sample is tested.
Tregear, in his dazed state, has another vision. This time, the alien voice simple orders the human to 'Begin Phase Two' He wakes and transmits this message to Admiral Greer, at around the same time that the result comes back from the labs. The residue does contain human DNA, and although the tests may take a little longer, there seems little doubt that it is Private Rodriguez. Greer orders a security alert to track down Johnson, but at that moment he enters Tregear's room at Medlab, and holds him at gunpoint, announcing that it is time to begin phase two.
When Greer, Dinova and several security guards arrive minutes later, Johnson seems quite calm and lucid. He agrees to hand over his weapon, and suggests they all relocate to the briefing room to discuss the next step. Once everyone is settled (and Tregear is set up with a teleconference from his bed in Medlab), he begins the explanation.
Some years ago, he tells them, Johnson was visited by a race known as the Plieadeans. They are a benevolent race, fighting a secret war against both the Grays and the Androids. They came to Earth to help build up a force to resist infiltration by other races. They wish only to help humanity take its place in galactic society as an independent race, not just as slaves to the Grays. The Plieadeans helped Johnson, and rapidly his ideas became quite highly respected. At their request he put forward the theories behind an organisation that would later become XCom, and managed, with help from the Plieadeans to get the project operational. He had chosen the personnel carefully, Tregear for his sheer brilliance and vision, Greer for his indomitable drive and so forth. He had been forced to kill the slugs, as they had become an destabilising influence on XCom, or so the Plieadeans had told him. Rodriguez had been a necessary sacrifice to that end, and shooting Tregear had been a mistake.
Now the aliens had decided the incident had effectively terminated Phase One of the XCom Experiment, and that it was time for Phase Two. The XCom Experiment was to influence and set up an organisation to effectively take over the role of guardians of the Earth, preferably with a minimum of interference. Phase One was manipulation without the subjects awareness, the idea being that the organisation would be stronger if the people involved believed they had set everything up themselves. Phase Two was direct intervention and support. To that end, a saucer loaded with new technology and data was on its way to Swiss Base already, carrying a representative of the Plieadeans. Time was of the essence, Johnson said, because the Grays and the Androids both had a major war fleet on its way to Earth. As a gesture of goodwill, Johnson has been given the plans for a jammer capable of blanking out Golden Android transmissions within a small area.
Greer ordered Johnson confined to the cells 'for his own protection' and discussed the situation with his staff. Dinova wanted to have Johnson shot as a traitor, Tregear wasn't too happy about him for obvious reasons, and Admiral Greer didn't trust the Plieadeans regardless of whether or not Johnson was sincere. But before any further decision could be made, the XCom Defender detects a saucer landing at a point on the Vistula River. Believing it to be the second Golden Android, Greer orders XCom1 and the Harriers to launch to support a Ranger team from Swiss Base.
Shortly after the assault team set off, the Swiss Base detectors go wild. A saucer has apparently materialised directly over the base. Either the Plieadeans have some form of matter transportation, or some sort of cloaking device to avoid detection. Either way, Greer has little choice but to direct them to landing bay three.
Greer does not trust these Plieadeans, and the bay is quickly surrounded by some thirty XCom troops. Ignoring Johnson's requests to join the reception commitee, Greer decides to take Dr Harriet Kramer along with a bodyguard, although he still has doubts as to whether she is being controlled by the aliens. As the small party of humans enter the bay, a portal opens in the side of the saucer, and a tall humanoid figure emerges. It is wearing a robe made from a daiphanous, gauzy material and seems mostly human. It meets the humans in the centre of the bay, and introduces itself telepathically as Mentor, come to teach the humans. Greer invites the alien to enter the base, but Mentor declines, saying that it wishes to minimise contact with the humans, however the Admiral would be more than welcome aboard the saucer. Neither side is willing to give way.
Meanwhile, Lt Jackson was in charge of the Ranger team on the Vistula. The saucer had actually landed in the middle of the river, blocking it, and the Slugs had attacked and boarded a boat, possibly the one being used to carry the Android. His sergeant, Skeffen Zakalwe suggests that according to the orders they have been given, they would be as well to let the aliens finish what they were doing and leave, like they did at Odessa. Uncertain of his orders, Jackson calls Swiss Base for clarification of the orders. Dinova, who is in charge of C&C at the time, orders an attack, on Lt Jackson's discretion.
Dr Kramer signals to Greer that something is wrong, and says that she wishes to leave to 'fetch a gift' for Mentor. Once outside the bay, she tells Dinova that there is definitely something wrong with Mentor, and that she would like to try the Alien Thought Amplifier on it. Dinova is uncertain, Admiral Greer had mentioned that he'd had doubts aboud Kramer, but she seemed to be deadly earnest in this. Professor Tregear suggested using a flashing light out of Mentor's sight in the landing bay to communicate a Morse code message to Greer. Tregear passes the message "K has doubts. Wants to use Mind Con device. Y or N"
Greer turns back to Mentor, saying 'I wonder where Dr Kramer has got to. I think I know what she's gone to get and I'm sure you'll like it'. Taking this to be approval, Dinova lets Kramer return with the device. Once in, she turns the device on Mentor, whose image flickers and disappears to reveal the face of a Gray! Greer and the alien both go for their guns, as further portals open in the disguised Gray saucer and Slugs begin pouring out. Greer narrowly avoids death, but gets a couple of solid hits on the alien leader, followed by a solid hit to the head, blowing the alien's brains out.
The overall firefight ebbs and flows. Greer personally leads a group of three men in a desperate charge to split the alien forces. Kramer manages to sow confusion by using the Thought Amplifier on several aliens. Dinova, meanwhile, leaves her post in C&C and comes to the landing bay, helping to turn the tide just as the aliens begin to gain the upper hand. Tregear orders Sparky to get to where the minitanks were held and slave it into the base computer, subsequently remote controlling it right into the heart of the enemy troops.
After a long and bloody fight, the surviving aliens flee for the saucer, only a few make it without being cut down. The saucer blasts its way out of the landing bay, only to be jumped by Bowler in XCom2. Combined fire from the base's own AAA batteries and missile fire from XCom2 are insufficient, the saucer blasts the AAA batteries and makes to flee. Bowler gets one minor hit, before the saucer's twin plasma cannons find their mark and blow XCom2 out of the sky. Bowler does not have time to eject. The saucer leaves for orbit.
On the Vistula, Jackson orders a strike by the Harriers on the landed saucer, followed by an assault by the reinforced Ranger team from the flank. The operation goes flawlessly, the saucer is destyroyed and the Slugs are cut down with no serious XCom casualties. The android is recovered, and the jammer activated to prevent the android from being animated by remote control, or transmitting a homing beacon. The Android would later be transported to Swiss Base for study.
In the aftermath of the battle at Swiss Base, seven troops had been killed, a further fifteen injured two of them critically. Dr Johnson was found to have collapsed and gone completely insane. Greer orders him shipped to the most secure mental institution and permanently sedated. The whole staff was in shock over the whole affair.
Admiral Greer also orders the Astrodyne staff released, but resolves to stop their license to use Alien Alloy technology, and also to campaign to have their US defence contracts cancelled.
With the prospect of help from the 'Plieadeans' gone, XCom stands alone, ready to face the Enemy Unknown.