Episode 5: Shadow of The Dragon
The Rangers’ "Snake Company" have rotated round to China Base, and Jackson and Zakalwe are due for some leave. Private Michael Keogh (Mickey to his friends) invites them out to a meal in Hong Kong, at a restaurant he knows from his time serving there. The restaurant is away from the usual tourist haunts, and Keogh knows the family who owns it, so the others let Mickey be their guide.
The food is excellent, as promised, although the restaurant is perhaps more ethnic than Jackson or Zakalwe are used to. As the trio are finishing their meal, they hear a ruction coming from the kitchen. Mickey heads off to investigate, but is back seconds later with a girl in tow. Mickey shouts to the others to make sure the girl gets away. They refuse to move until he tells them why. "Men In Black" he says.
Looking out the front, they find two men in black standing by a car. They try to sneak out, but the MIB spot them and a fight ensues in which Mickey is shot. The three Rangers and the girl make it to a flat above a bar several blocks away owned by a friend of the girl’s family. Once Mickey’s wounds are tended to, she tells her story.
Her name is Jenny Chow, and her uncle owns the restaurant. She was just visiting the family when the MIB’s turned up looking for her and her father. The kitchen staff tried to fight them off, but the Men were inhuman. Mickey confirms that he saw one unfazed when a cook with a meat cleaver chopped his hand off.
Jennys father is Professor Earnest Chow, an astronomer at the People’s Observatory (formerly the Royal Observatory) in Kowloon. She doesn’t know much about her father’s work, but she knows he thinks he’s found a new celestial body and that he has been in contact with Jodrell Bank looking for confirmation. (The Rangers exchange knowing glances; with the British government subverted by the aliens it’s hardly surprising the MIB are involved). She’s not sure but she thinks the professor is currently at the Observatory with some students plotting the path of the object.
Unwilling to trust any other authorities, Jackson decides to head for the observatory in case any MIBs have gone after the professor there. Obtaining a shotgun from the bar owner (a Mr Woo), they head for Kowloon, but are tracked down at the subway terminal. They manage to get on a train through the tunnel from the island to the mainland, but when they get there they quickly realise that the other station has been staked out. Unable to leave via the main entrance, they are hotly pursued through the staff service areas, but manage to find a back exit and leave the MIBs temporarily behind.
When they make it to the Observatory, they find the place has already been hit by MIBs. They find the bodies of the professor’s students, but no sign of the professor himself. An old VW camper parked outside looks as if someone had tried unsuccessfully to start it, then escaped through the woods. Jenny suggests that the Professor might have been heading for the university campus in the city.
Searching the whole facility, Jackson also finds a bomb set in the main telescope, but manages to defuse it in time, saving all the notes and data the Professor and his students had collected.
With no more leads, Jackson finds a ham radio transmitter in the offices and calls up China Base, Colonel Moore listens to their story and tells them to remain where they are until an XCom chopper arrives. Jackson tells him to send someone to the University first, to try to pick up the Professor. Their call is interrupted by the sound of a car arriving outside.
The car turns out to be full of Men In Black who surround the building they are in and open fire. Keogh takes a slug early in the fight and is knocked out, while Zakalwe and Jackson dish out all the firepowe they can. Both are wounded, Jackson twice, and Zakalwe volunteers to stay behind while Jackson gets Keogh and the girl away. Looking his faithful sergeant in the eye, Jackson considers it, knowing it means a death sentence for Zakalwe, then shakes his head with the words "What the hell, I feel like dying tonight."
Both come out shooting like Butch and Sundance, only this time the Bolivians get what’s coming to them. The MIBs are killed, and the Rangers remain conscious long enough to see an XCom Osprey arrive to pick them up.
Back at China Base, they hear the good news, Professor Chow has been picked up by XCom, and his data points conclusively to the existence of a new object in Earth orbit. Jackson and Zakalwe are both badly wounded and will require a couple of months to recover, and both make Mickey Keogh promise never to invite them out for a meal ever again.
7th May 2001. It was a day that would live long in people’s memories. Some would call it the beginning of the end, others would say it was a return to form. Either way, on that Thursday morning the world woke up to learn that Russia had invaded Latvia, and that country had effectively ceased to exist as a sovereign state.
The political ramifications shot around the world like wildfire, the move was denounced by the western world, the alien controlled United Republic of Britain sat on the fence while China became very nervous at the thought of a newly belligerent Russian bear on their border. The crisis hit the long delayed reconciliation between Admiral Greer and President Jackson of the United States, and the planned meeting had to be delayed. XCom Intelligence assets in the area (Bureau 9) reported nothing unusual right up until they went off the air. Worried that there might be some alien involvement, Admiral Greer ordered a reconnaissance flyby of the area by the Blackbird.
Meanwhile, working with the data gathered from Professor Chow’s observations of the strange object in orbit, Professor Kwasivi Matti plotted a tight correlation between the objects flight path and recorded UFO incidents. It was highly probably that the object was in some way linked to the alien invasion. Along with the recon of Latvia, Greer orders ‘Ace’ (Squadron Leader David Barnes) and ‘Timex’ to take a captured saucer and ‘have a look round that orbit’.
Before leaving for America with the Admiral, Professor Tregear receives an enigmatic Email stating simply "and so it begins." Resident computer genies Dale Kasdan and Kenji Nakamura are totally unable to trace the message.
When Greer finally meets the President, relations are cool but polite. The American government’s position is still that the Bureau acted outside its remit, a point that Greer partly concedes, citing good intentions all the way. More details come out about Astrodyne, and the truth about the Roswell incident is revealed.
In 1947, an alien object did crash in the Nevada desert. However, the material recovered was so in advance of the then current technology as to defy examination, and no complex systems were recovered (a UFO hitting the ground and Mach 5+ left little more than a pile of tinfoil) however, such material was turned over eventually to Astrodyne when it was set up. Study of what material had survived led the Americans to believe that there was an alien facility on the moon, and to begin work to develop a weapon against it. Since Astrodyne was formed, they had been given the Skybolt Project to work on, and as they were involved in such a high stakes project, their slightly dubious business dealings were overlooked by all subsequent administrations (at least all those who found out about them, anyway)
In working on this, Astrodyne have developed almost total autonomy. No-one in the current administration knows exactly where Astrodyne are in this, or where they are working on it. Greer suggests that the Americans have unleashed something they have lost control of, and the President tentatively agrees that it might be the case.
In the end and agreement is reached. The US government agrees in principle to re-instating Bureau 13, and continuing investigation of Astrodyne provided that every Bureau team is accompanied by a pair of FBI agents. Admiral Greer leaves the meeting feeling that the President had just kissed his ass.(?)
Tregear and Greer retire to Moundville Base in the US to pick up on the latest news of the Latvian situation. The requested Blackbird flyby had detected no evidence of alien activity in the region, but a Russian MiG had intercepted them at one point. The pilots responded to the request for ID by transmitting a Road-Runner "Beep-Beep" and punching in the Blackbird’s main engines accelerating from Mach 1 to Mach 5 in under twenty seconds.
Less welcome was the item on the following morning’s news. The press had managed to obtain pictures of the Admiral entering the Whitehouse, correctly identifying him and describing him as "the head of a top secret United Nations Taskforce" That same morning, Professor Tregear found another anonymous Email waiting in his mailbox. Three words… "Fame at last".
Back at Swiss Base, Ace and Timex manage to get the hang of the flying saucer’s alien controls and decide to take two ‘fighter’ craft up to take a look, on the basis that it increased the chances of one of them making it back. Once in orbit, they intercept Professor Chow’s object. It is a large space station of alien construction, clearly the source of the saucer type ships entering Earth’s orbit.
The XCom pilot’s manage to get one close pass at the station, enough for some good camera footage, before the aliens detect them. Several fighters are launched and Ace and Timex make a break for the safety of Earth’s atmosphere and the waiting XCom Interceptors below. Ace lags behind, drawing the aliens to him, while Timex pulls away. But seconds later, Ace manages to pull off a daring dive beyond all safety limits, and the aliens fixate on the only available target, Timex, who has unfortunately "bounced" off the atmosphere and struggling to get away. After some desperate flying, Timex makes it down to where two Interceptors from US Base are waiting. They catch the pursuing saucers by surprise, and wipe them out.
The next day’s newspapers tell the story of the invasion of Latvia in full, the Russians unrepentantly announce that the act was one of self defence, and that they are there to stay, while the US and the rest of the western world publicly condemn the act. Also in the news: The President of the United Republic of Britain announced plans to end the long term trade war with the EU, and the business pages detail ‘anomalies’ in the EU budget (those anomalies that actually go to cover the union’s contribution to XCom) in an article by one Emma Myers. The only bright spot is the news linking Pamela Anderson and McCauley Culkin romantically ("We’re just friends").
Regarding the alien space station, after much discussion Admiral Greer, Commander Dinova and Professor Tregear decide on June 1 as the soonest practical date for an assault. The attack is planned and XCom’s Research and Engineering Divisions work overtime to produce the equipment needed. Realising that the mission itself would be a high risk, high profile operations, Greer offers the command of the operation to Dinova, who surprises him by accepting.
XCom continues the investigation of Astrodyne Technologies. An analysis of their published accounts reveals some discrepancies in their figures, the margin of error being large enough to cover a major Black Ops program. Over the last few years Astrodyne had recruited several US based physicists specialising in energy weapon research. Those scientists dropped out of sight immediately after their recruitment. Furthermore, the US shuttle Atlantis that disappeared in 2000 was carrying one Astrodyne research package amongst its cargo.
While all this is going on, Admiral Greer becomes concerned about the lack of contact with Checheyev and the "Spy School". He sends a couple of security teams to the site (a luxury house in the Swiss Alps) where they discover signs of a gunfight but no evidence of the XCom personnel. But most important of all, they find tracks leading away from the site, one man on foot followed by several more in a search pattern. There are also some tyre tracks approaching the building, apparently of large 4x4 vehicles.
Professor Tregear leads a forensics team to the house. Bullet holes match those caused by XCom automatics or Men In Black handguns, and there is plenty of blood to be found. Bureau One agents liaise with local police in interviewing locals in the area, and an APB is put out with the descriptions of Smith and Checheyev.
Admiral Greer is fuming, convinced that the enigmatic Russian and his equally mysterious British assistant are directly responsible, and vows to hunt them down. The investigation of the area proves fruitful, one local woman reports having been awoken by the sound of her cattle disturbed. When she looked out of her window she states she saw a jet black helicopter flying low over the valley, and claims to have heard gunfire. Several other witnesses reported seeing black 4x4 vehicles in the surrounding towns over the last month or so, but assumed they were rich tourists. The solo tracks are traced to the outskirts of Berne and a couple of days later, a report comes in of someone matching Smith’s description being seen in the city. Bureau 1 resources are shifted to the city, and a massive manhunt eventually tracks him down to a seedy flophouse in the city’s less salubrious quarter.
Plans to pick him up are delayed by a UFO incident which sees Timex shot down (but ejected safely) and another kill for Ace.
Assuming that Smith is dangerous, Greer orders a full Ranger team to cover the area, but sends in Woodrow Cooper to actually make contact. When Smith meets him in the hotel room the Englishman doesn’t trust him at all, holding a gun to his head, but their past exploits together in Washington stops him from shooting Cooper in cold blood. Cooper makes his pitch, asking Smith to come in from the cold. Smith retorts that he knows Greer is going to squeeze him like a grape for every last drop of information, then lock him away or worse. Greer never made any secret of his dislike for Smith, and he knows that any explanation he gave would not be believed. Cooper manages to persuade him to give XCom a chance, and as a "gesture of good faith" Smith gives them the access codes for his personal files.
The personal files contain the real life story of Joshua Smith. Born James Maguire, he was recruited into the British Secret Service and was an agent of MI6 working in Moscow pre-glasnost. His cover in Moscow included a wife and child, and his last operation was an attempt to subvert a Soviet official. The sting went wrong and when his cover was blown, MI6 left him to twist in the wind. The wife and child were killed and Maguire himself left for dead, abandoned by the country he had served and trusted.
The young MI6 agent was rescued by a Russian official by the name of Checheyev. Impressed with the young Englishman’s determination and tenacity, Checheyev had him nursed back to health and employed him as a personal assistant. Since that time, Smith had served Checheyev faithfully, until the incident at the house.
Realising the futility of his situation, Smith decides to give himself up and he is taken to Swiss Base for debriefing. He explains that he was out walking when the house was attacked, and it was pure chance that he was not taken to. He arrived back to see the house crawling with Men In Black and after a brief firefight managed to get away. He headed into Berne where he came across one of the MIB he’d seen at the house. He tried following him, but lost him in traffic. He had not come back to XCom because he believed (with some justification) that his story would not be believed. Despite extensive debriefing, he sticks to this story, and eventually Admiral Greer concedes it may be the truth.
Interviewing Smith in private, the Admiral wonders aloud what he is to do with Smith. Smith’s reaction is immediate, he wants revenge against the aliens, and believing that his mentor Checheyev may still be alive, he wants to try and find them. "Use me." He says. "Put me to work tracking them down. I want those bastards."
Despite his intense dislike of Smith, Greer agrees to use the ex spy, but still doesn’t trust him. Smith is assigned to Professor Matti to assist in the data analysis project, and is to be guarded at all times.
Finally, the weeks of preparation come to a point. XCom launches the assault on the alien space station. Six Interceptor IIs (AKA Tempests) are assigned to ensure space superiority, three refitted Elektron spaceplanes are loaded with power armoured Rangers (the so called "Space Rangers") to gain entry to the space station and a captured alien mother ship carries 50 XCom regulars to assist in cleaning out the station. Finally, as a backup, the Blackbird carries 12 nuclear tipped missiles to destroy the station in the event that capturing it is not possible.
The Interceptors split into two wings, led by Ace and Timex. Their plan is to engage the station with laser fire to draw out a response, and then deal with the fighters that are launched. however, disaster strikes when laser fire from Ace’s wing actually hits and damages the airlock that XCom later intends to gain access by, rendering it useless. The other two airlocks launch fighters and the Interceptors break and attack.
Disaster strikes again, as one of Ace’s wingmen suffers a weapon malfunction that puts him temporarily out of the fight. While the XCom fighters enjoy some initial success, the station launches more fighters until the Interceptors find themselves swamped. From her command post on the captured mother ship, Dinova radio’s the Interceptors, ordering the pilots to co-ordinate their fire, rather than flying as individuals.
Ace is jumped by four saucers, and his fighter is struck a crippling blow. Timex’s wing gets involved in a big hairy furball with a half dozen saucers, while Timex himself peels off to assist Ace. Despite some skilled flying, the XCom pilots just don’t seem able to get killing shots on the saucers, although several of the latter are damaged and forced to retire the weight of numbers begins to take its toll. A swarm of fighters surround Ace’s damaged fighter and in a cyclone of plasma bolts, they blast him to kingdom come. No-one sees whether or not he ejects.
Timex, now in command of the fighters, barely has time to register the loss of his leader when he is set upon by four saucers. He jinks and dodges, but even when Ace’s wingmen join the fight (including the one who by now had managed to repair his laser cannon) they are unable to help him. One of Ace’s wingmen takes serious damage to his fighter, and Timex is hit and killed instantly The damaged wingman drifts off, pursued by a swarm of fighters, and despite managing to inflict heavy damage on his attackers, falls in the face of superior numbers.
Back on Earth, Admiral Greer has been monitoring the battle and now makes a difficult decision. With the Interceptors suffering 50% losses and making little headway, he orders the mission aborted. The Interceptors disengage and the Blackbird makes an attack run to destroy the station. True to form, less than half of the missiles hit, but the damage is just enough to send the station spinning out of orbit.
The nuclear weapons exploding in orbit has the unfortunate side effect of causing major blackouts across the world as the EMP pulse wreaks havoc with electrical equipment. No sooner had the effects of the pulse worn off than Swiss Base was swamped by calls from the US and Russia asking if they knew what caused the explosions.
The XCom space fleet returns to Swiss Base amidst an atmosphere of defeat and failure. A more immediate concern grips the command staff, as large chunks of the wrecked space station threaten to wreak havoc on South America as they crash onto several cities. Greer orders the XCom Defender, currently cruising in the South Atlantic, to attempt to shoot down the wreckage with it’s laser cannon system. The crew manage to achieve this seemingly impossible task. Although not able to destroy all the wreckage, they manage to deflect the largest chunks away from the big cities, reducing the damage done significantly.
Greer finally talks to the US and Russia, represented by Chief of Staff General Curtis and Prime Minister Groschenko respectively. He finally tells them of the existance of the space station, and tells them that XCom has successfully destroyed it. He paints it as a major XCom victory, describing the station as the staging post for a major all out invasion. He does not mention the attempt to capture, simply stating that XCom went up to destroy it and was successful. To support this version, Greer has Tregear falsify telemetry data of the mission and supported by this, the politicians seem to accept this explanation.
Barely recovered from the strain of the space mission, Dinova reports on the nature of the mission. She describes the events in orbit, and states that the mission failed due to weight of numbers on the opposing side, compounded by bad luck. She makes no mention of the order to co-ordinate fire (not wishing to pin any blame on the dead) and she does not specify who gave the order to abort the mission and use the nukes (she is trying to protect Admiral Greer, who gave the order, should this report ever be seen outside XCom) She accepts full responsibility for the mission’s outcome and offers to resign her post. Realising that he will need a scapegoat for the mission, Greer accepts. Dinova retires to her quarters to pack for the one way trip to The Village. Later, Greer relents, and decides to offer Dinova a junior position on the XCom Defender. She will never again be allowed to command troops, and she will carry the stigma of this failed mission for a long time.
(Unknown to Admiral Greer, this was not the first time that Natalya Dinova had suffered a crippling blow to her career. Back in her days as a Lieutenant in the elite Internal Affairs division of the Russian Army (The post glasnost equivalent of the military arm of the KGB), Dinova was involved in an operation against the Russian Mafia. Her promising career was wrecked when an operation against organised crime went wrong, and she was blamed for the failure. She was wounded by Russian Mafia hitmen which left her with a permanent weakness in her left leg (which came back with a vengeance after her bout with the Nanotech Plague) and when she recovered, she found herself posted to a dead end filing clerk job in an "ass end of the world" airbase in Uzbekistan. Instead of giving in, Dinova fought back, impressed her senior officers, got transferred back to Moscow and managed to rebuild her career from the ground up, until she reached the point where she was a prime candidate for the new, international project known as XCom. Now, faced by this second blow to her career, and deeply upset that Admiral Greer blames her entirely for the failure of the space station, she accepts the demotion to the Defender feeling that she might not be able to resurrect her career for a third time)