DISCLAIMER: "X-COM" and all aspects of the trademark, together with the computer games "X-COM: UFO Defense" and "X-COM: Terror From The Deep" are copyrighted material of Infogames/Firaxis. This story is fan fiction and can be reproduced as long as the author's rights are respected. Please do not make any unauthorized chances into the text or take the author's name out of it. Any comments or questions are more than welcome through the following email: aadlg@rocketmail.com

"X-COM: Eulogy" is a short story that takes place after the author's "X-COM: The Unknown Menace" and is set upon events of the X-COM official timeline.

X-COM: Eulogy

Late 2009
Mars, Solar System

The planet was a dead world, frozen in time after it had lost its atmosphere to space and its temperature dropped to glacial levels a long time ago. Over the surface cratered by meteors and torn by long dead volcanoes few things moved other than the occasional sand whirlwinds that like small tornadoes formed and quickly vanished under the blue and pinkish sky. There was still water and in the mornings the frost that formed on the rocks would quickly sublimate as the Sun rose on the red horizon but any other physical changes on the landscape came after years, as the aeons of time took its toll.
Hang by the delicate threads of gravity mechanics on the Solar System between Earth and the Asteroid Belt, Mars was seen by visionaries and scientists as one of the stepping stones for mankind's expansion to the universe. But since Percival Lowell had looked at the planet through a telescope at the beginning of 20th century and his vision and mind tricked him to see what he thought were artificial channels, other scientists had made claims that the planet had some very interesting characteristics of its own when compared to the rest of the solar system planets.
Underneath the rocks and sheltered from the deadly radiation microscopic life had developed, most scientists now agreed on that, after having examined the few rocks that had been brought back to its surface on the advent of the X-COM mission to Cydonia seven years back. Of course, back then Mars had other life forms walking on its surface they were both intelligent and hostile, although they had not originally evolved on the planet. While the microbes found could be called correctly as 'Martians' these creatures were both aliens to Earth and Mars. They had gone here to the planet to monitor Earth and the development of human society and to use it as a forward base on the later war. The Greeks had been the first associating Mars, or Ares on its Greek name, to the god of War due to its red color. Unknowingly to them, three thousands years later a small force of human soldiers had been sent to the planet to fight the decisive battle for Earth's victory against enslavement by the aliens. For three years the planet had been under attack and manipulation by the Starspawn, an alien empire bent on bringing humankind over its domination, much like the Persians had tried to do with the Greek city-states. But like Alexander had done, after years of fighting X-COM had decided to strike down at the heart of the empire and remove the binding factor of all the races the X-Com was facing. Like the death of the Persian emperor had brought an end to his empire so had the killing of the alien King that controlled UFOs and monsters using mental powers at his underground chamber on the now battle scarred plains of Cydonia Mensae stopped the war. The human soldiers destroyed the vast monuments and buildings that were the ancient base on the planet and the alien's ranks were devastated until there was no more threat left. And the same way as the mausoleums and palaces left behind by the dead conquerors of the ancient world, the Sun rose and went down. But this time its flaming disk traveled under a pink and red horizon of the sunset and dawn of the Martian day several times, the planet appropriated itself of the remains of the great battle. Dust slowly covered the dead bodies and the pyramids that once had been occupied by the aliens until one day they would be nothing but a memory on human minds, like Alexander had also faded into the annals of history.
But not just yet for now it was still a period of passing and like all transitions both old and new live together, none suspecting of its role since guessing would be like reading the stars in seeking advice.
Anyone looking at the small creature could see that something had happened to put it into his state of nervous excitation. It traced the bright dot of light that had appeared unexpected on the Martian night sky with his large black eyes, a new body that seemed to have joined Phobos and Deimos, Mars's natural satellites. His gray skin had taken a dirty yellow tone from the thin layer of dust that refused to be cleaned off, no matter the number of times he had done it in order to be able to feed itself by absorbing nutrients through its epidermal cells. As its thin legs took large hops over the dark landscape it kept racing and following the path of the beacon that he had seen on the sky.
Although it was still too high for him to be able to classify what sort of craft his vision had still been able to identify it as artificial as it crossed the planet's dark side. His eyes had originally evolved to suit an underwater environment with deadly accuracy with the entire optical globe being used to capture a vast visual range that was a nanosecond later reconstructed in fine detail on his brain. As it paddled through the sand covered plain the thick and flat plants of his feet helped him to gain an easy stead on the unstable surface, with only a short amount of dust being dislocated at each step. But as he moved and avoided the occasional rock his rational thoughts were still locked thousands of kilometers away in orbit, mixed with what some wrongly classify as a strange mixture of relief and apprehension.
**********
"Orbital insertion complete. Altitude seventy thousand kilometres, speed six thousand and fifty kilometres per hour. Radar receivers and hyperwave decoder show no electronic noise in the area".
"Hold her steady and keep scanning, major". Looking through the cockpit canopy in front of him and through the electronic signals projected in front from him, Colonel Ronald E. Clark wondered what he was doing back there on Mars together with Seymour and at the controls of the last flying Avenger craft. It had been seven years since he had taken part on the X-COM mission that had struck at the alien base on Cydonia and killed the Brain that was coordinating Earth's invasion. Back then he had flown the leadship of the class, the Avenger, although now he was at the controls of the Valiant, which had also taken part on the Cydonia assault although it hadn't been a part of his group of ships.
"Aye, Spectre". The mention of his former call sign on X-COM almost made Clark wince at the reminder of his old callsign, back from the days where he had been strapped to the chair of an F-22 Lighting II stealth fighter blasting UFOs out of the skies. He had left the force more than four years ago and had rejoined the U.S. Air Force as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. People now simply called him 'Colonel' and he didn't find it important to correct that since his top dog days where way over. He could easily be leading one of the Air Force's F-22 wings at the moment if he wished since he was in the top ranks of fighter aces after the Alien War but he had decided that he would never shoot at a human again.
And unlike X-COM, which was slowly being dismantled after the alien menace had vanished, he had found a lot of work flying prototypes at Edwards Air Force Base, California, that were based upon alien technology. It also meant him closer to home, where he could raise his two daughters in a nicer place than the deserts of Arizona, where his former base was located. He hadn't been called that in years since the name had been given to him by the crews after the Cydonia operation to reflect his attitude after the war. Probably the only one left in X-COM that still knew it was Seymour, since the had flown hundreds of missions with the other officer, including the Avenger.
Clark nodded to him from his seat as he prepared to go to the cargo area of the craft to notify Commander Boronin and authorize Dr. Johannes to start her preliminary analysis of the surface. Not that it was likely that she would be able to pick any indication of Elerium down on the planet. Seymour already had covered the surface on their orbit to slowdown using Mars' own gravity as a celestial pole to perform a skidding maneuver. Seymour and the threat computer had already checked the scanners to see if there was any active Elerium energy sources on the planet. She now would be combing the data to try to determine any passive ones, which greatly amplified the hardness of the task.
Still what mattered Clark more was that to get his part done and hand the rest to her as quickly as possible before getting back to the cabin for him and Seymour to take the ship on the descent. They were the only crew of Tiger flight that had survived the operation since the Majestic had been blown out in the sky by an alien Battleship as it tried to stop the extraterrestrials from bombarding the ground troops while the Challenger had crashed landed after taking a number of critical hits and its crew had suffocated on the deadly Mars atmosphere when the cockpit was breached. Him and Seymour had been lucky to leave the planet alive since the Avenger had also crash-landed after they had bombed the infamous 'Face' formation that had been built by the aliens. He had spent the weeks of the return trip without saying a word and during all that time he had hardly left his bunk onboard the craft, trying to put away the faces of the people he knew that had been killed on Mars.
Until now.
Almost half a year ago Commander Boronin had paid him a visit after he had presided the decommissioning of Area 51, the major X-COM US base, and had told him that the Council had finally approved one last mission for the Avenger craft and that he needed an experienced crew for it: to go back to Cydonia to look for Elerium, the transuranic element that powered the ship's anti-gravity drive and that wasn't natural to the Solar System. Clark had wanted to refuse the offer since there were still a couple of good Avenger pilots back on X-COM. Not that he didn't knew the necessity of finding Elerium since Earth's stockpile had been nearly depleted by scientific experiments that tried to built a faster than light engine that would allow humans to leave their home and by a number of wars fought meanwhile. He had simply come because he had decided that he wanted to see Cydonia again before he died. Hell, in his opinion this would most likely be the last manned mission for the planet in a long time and it was a chance that he couldn't miss.
Going through the hatch he saw the tall figure of Boronin looking at him with an anxious face. All of the faces staring at him of the small group of men onboard the Valiant's cargo area were relieved when he nodded to them and announced that they had safely entered Mars' orbit. But now the hardest work of their mission was ahead of them, to locate any remaining Elerium deposits left by the aliens on Mars. While it was relatively easy to track any machine that used the exotic fuel due to the tachyon transmissions it was a completely different matter when trying to locate unused catches of E-115. Most of the Elerium isotopes, which differed only on the number of neutrons at the nucleus of the atom, had short half-lives and they would decay into a more stable element by slipping and emitting radiation that could be detected but those were less than 0,1 percent of the fuel used by the aliens due to its purity. The underwater salvage operations run by X-COM usually took months to detect crash sites that still contained active Elerium and those were rare since the material become inert on saltwater.
However the underwater missions had something they didn't have on this mission: time. Due to fuel restrictions the fuel supply onboard the craft would only allow them a week on Mars before they had to lift off back to Earth with a very thin safety margin in case something wrong happened on the flight.
The small group of individuals onboard the craft was composed of Boronin plus a eight-man security squad, with his own wife, Eva leading the other two scientists which would conduct the scans of the Cydonia Mensae area. The soldiers on board were all old time vets from the war and Clark had even flown with some of them on the mission to the planet seven years ago. Any aliens that had survived their attack were supposed to be dead by now since Mars was a dead world and the X-COM soldiers had destroyed all alien facilities on the region. But there was still the possibility that a small outpost lost in the planet could have survived and would track their descent. The worst case scenario involved them being under attack by the aliens and the sixteen persons onboard the Valiant could have a rough time completing its mission or even getting back to Earth. But so far the planet was silent with no traces of any transmission.
"Are we in place?" Boronin's face showed both tiredness and determination.
"Yes, commander. We have a drop window into Cydonia in a couple of hours and we can be on the surface of the planet shortly afterwards".
The commander nodded to him and then turned to Clark's wife. "Dr. Johannes? What do you think?"
Clark already knew what his wife wanted and wondered, no was almost sure of what would happen next. "I would like to go through the data first before we drop down". She had said it again. "You can analyze the data on the ground doctor". Boronin's reply was short and before she had a chance to argue back he turned to Clark. "Drop us in Colonel". He nodded in acknowledgment but when his eyes crossed his wife's Clark detected a flash of anger hidden underneath them. Let's hope she doesn't take it too hard. She had objected to the idea that what could be mankind's possible last mission to Mars to land on Cydonia, since the area had been devastated and instead had argued for a landing on a place with a bigger scientific value. But Commander Boronin had struck down her complaints and Clark understood why: time was short on this mission and there was only one goal: get Elerium. During the briefings it had bothered him that apparently nobody had thought or wanted to discuss what would happen if they didn't find it on the planet. Clark didn't knew what would happen then but he thought that things couldn't get any worse from what mankind was before the aliens arrived.
"Commander...." Opps. "Chances of finding Elerium are better if we remain in orbit while I examine the first scan. Then we will be able to center the sensors on specific areas of the planet that show any promise". Oh boy, I hope she's ready to ride that long horn! For a moment Colonel Boronin simply stared at her while the rest of the crew members had all listened to their words very careful from their rest bunks or seated on the chairs that littered the cargo area of the Valiant. Clark hoped that Boronin wouldn't be too hard on at affirming his authority in front of everybody. Generals don't get contradicted by junior officers and sure as hell not by civilians under their command.
"Doctor..." His tone was uncertain and that made Clark worried. "...we'll drop down to the surface at once. Now if you find anything interesting report me at once". He looked at Clark with little more sternness and the officer knew that he should have been already gone by now. Still, he noticed Eva's concerned look at the officer as he left. Anyone who knew her would attribute it to her attitude towards the military since she considered them to be a necessary evil, even though she had been working for X-COM for years. He had had a fair amount of fights over the issue dating back from the days where they had meet at Area 51, the former X-COM US base. However, Clark knew that it had nothing to do with her reservations. According to her Boronin had become increasingly erratic and angry in the past months preceding the launch of the mission and rumors were going along on Mother One about the X-COM commander's mental stability. Apparently the Council of Funding Nations that supported X-COM thought otherwise since they had assigned him to the mission but Johannes had told him that she was worried of what might happen on Mars and her pleas had made him accept the invitation forwarded by him by Boronin. "Seymour, notify Mother One of our arrival and our intent to descend into the planet". Arrival transmission to base, check. He still had a long checklist to perform.
Half an hour later the Valiant was cruising through Mars's atmosphere at more than twenty thousand kilometers per hour of speed. The planet's very low atmospheric pressure avoided the burn and fierce reentry common on Earth landings but it also had meant that they would have to take a very long descent to Cydonia in order to decelerate the craft. Their approach vector to the region took them over Vallis Marineris, the huge set of canyons that were cut into Mars surface millions of years ago as the result of immense tectonic forces applied on the planet. As the Valiant over flew the system of gorges that was in some places several hundred meters tall most of its passengers that were looking through the view ports built on the craft looked in nostalgia at the natural formation.
But while the scientists looking at the orange and brown landscape were marveled and thrilled by the prospect of stepping into another planet, the soldier's feelings were of a different nature. On the back of the Avenger, sergeants Jeremiah Jones and Juan Rodriguez were also wondering about what they would find in the surface of Mars. As the rest of the eight man squad brought along to provide security they were all clad into thick white suits of metal powered by small Elerium engines that provided energy to the armored turtle shell. The suit's helmets were removed and rested at their feet revealing the black and slim features of Jones' skin and wide open eyes as he gazed through the window. Seated up straight next to the turned figure of Jones, Rodriguez had by now his eyes closed and was stroking the thin mustache he had allowed to grow as he made his mind relax. "Man, how did we get ourselves back to this shit hole?" The comment made Rodriguez turn his head that was sticking out of his power suit towards Jones, who was seated behind him. "You volunteered for it you plasma fried brain". The jab brought smiles to the other members of the squad as Jones shook his head and Rodriguez continued. "Besides, you're the pinche who have been bitching the rest of us all this time complaining about the lack of extraterrestrial butt to kick".
"No... no I mean yeah. Shit, how come we only brought lasers for protection? I'd think that for this one they would have allowed us some heavy plasmas. If a Muton shows up we'll be better off using this lasers to bang them in their heads". He looked at the metal butt of his rifle: most likely it would bend against the armored skin of a Muton.
Rodriguez grimaced. "If we come to use these things I doubt even the plasmas would help us Jonesy".
Jones' face showed concern and after a while he shook his head. "You know, I still have bad dreams about this planet".
"Yeah, I'm not particularly found of going back to that hellish underground chamber myself and seeing the place where Captain Jerrel and all the other guys lost their lives...." He left the sentence unfinished and Rodriguez knew why since he had also been there right at the end. "I know. Why did we made out and they didn't? That's what's on your mind".
"Shit, Rodriguez, didn't knew you had become a mind reader". That brought a scowl from the Hispanic trooper who was about to reply when another soldier snapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey! I think I can see the camp" Corporal Lazarus Sharkey's voice cut through their conversation and as the eight soldiers seated on the starboard side of the Avenger immediately turned to attention the scientists wondered what all the fuss was about but the only thing they could see was the breath taking canyons of Vallis Marineris.
The only person who had not bothered to look at the location of mankind's first settlement on Mars was commander Boronin. Mars City One. I wonder whose idea it was to give that name to our base camp. He didn't bother looking because he knew it was impossible to spot the remains of the first human settlement on Mars at this altitude. Instead he gripped his red laser rifle and mentally went through a sequence. Operating procedure for the type XV laser rifle. Check weapons' power level. Select rate of fire by moving the lever. Remove protective cover from the barrel of the weapon. Release safety. Avoid looking directly at the beam and remember there's no recoil. But as his hands automatically went through the motion his thoughts soon started to drift in other directions. Unlike the others onboard the flying war machine who were either looking in awe at their first time on the planet or remembered the last time they've been there, Boronin was unconsciously searching on the red landscape for the white figure of commander Illyuschenko looking at him.
What has happened, Dmitri Stepanovitch? Did you knew it all along what was going to happen with us when you decided to stay behind on this forsaken planet to die? Was all of this inevitable? Boronin had always wondered why the X-COM commander had decided to stay behind on the planet after the success of the assault on Cydonia. He had taken command of X-COM following the return to Earth and had easily destroyed the remaining alien forces. There was no possibility that Illyuschenko had managed to survive for seven years on the planet and Boronin knew that it wasn't the commander's wish in any case.
Their approach to Cydonia, taking them over the flat plains of the Acidalia Planitia region was much less intense so far than their assault although Boronin still feared that there might be any alien survivors left on the planet. They had killed all aliens near the facility that were a threat after the death of the Brain and razed all facilities that could support the aliens on this cold planet. Like Earth, Mars had been sterilized from the alien menace for good, it seemed as Clark's voice on the suit's intercom told him that they were starting to approach the highlands of Cydonia Mensae and less than eighty miles from their target.
For a while all of the killings he had seen and done seemed justified but then everyone seemed just to forget the entire war. If things keep getting as bad as they have it will be only a number of years before the Council decides to shut the door on X-COM, even if we managed to find more of that damned Elerium here to supply all of those fools who only think of squandering it. To Boronin the hardest part of his job was dealing with the Council of Funding Nations, the UN body composed of representatives from the nations that controlled the force's budget. He wondered if he had conceded too much from them on the planning of this mission. The Moon base should have been completed and fully operational by now. If we had been able to launch from there we could add an additional week or two on the ground because of the fuel savings. We should have assumed that there are still alien survivors and brought plasma weaponry and a larger force. And we are risking the few assets still remaining for nothing and will have to find Elerium or leave before we risk depleting our fuel reserves too much.
Or should we remain here for as long as it lasts since the more time we spend the higher the chances are of finding the damn Elerium? The question had been on his mind the whole time during the flight but now he couldn't ignore it anymore. The verbal orders given to him at the Council had been quite simple: discovery of E-115 had the highest priority even regarding the lives of crew members. Boronin had thought the entire situation pathetic as they reminded him of the severe energy crisis ahead of them or even the argument that Earth's defenses couldn't be left underpowered in case the aliens returned. Yet, no matter how much greed disguised amongst the desperation he had seen with repulsion he also realized the vital need of their mission. We need to find Elerium! What will happen if the aliens return and we have no means to power our weapons and ships? The worldwide E-115 scarce supply still remaining had been restricted to military uses but it still wasn't enough to cover the demand. Most of the research made to develop faster than light spacecraft had stopped due to the lack of it and the scientists had instead turned their few resources into creating artificial Elerium, although it would take years or even decades to achieve any results.
With the cuts on its budget increasing every year Boronin had problems finding its own Elerium supply. The Valiant was the only spacecraft of his fleet that was still operating with all the others having being mothballed and put into storage. Most of the combat teams and scientists were also gone having only received a small pension fund and a handshake after having been on the force since it's beginning because there weren't funding anymore.
As the craft kept on its course and approached their landing area Boronin simply disconnected any conscious thoughts and looked at his troops. The eight X-COM soldiers were all veterans from the first war that somehow had stuck around for all this time after the end of the war. For nearly all of them they had no place else to go, Boronin knew since like them his family was the force. Many of those who had left hadn't either settled down having found work back to the armed forces of their countries or even as mercenaries or even illegal careers. And what about us? The words of the council kept ringing on his ears: all personnel are to be considered expandable while pursing the mission's goal of finding an Elerium source. He had been ordered to take any necessary measures to increase the chances of finding the precious material. What am I doing? He couldn't answer that question and it was starting to trouble him more even more than the prospect of not finding any of the Elerium. Both Illyuschenko and the Council had managed to keep one another in tight leashes, with each side fighting to get his own way but now that he and the aliens were gone Boronin had found that dealing with the representatives was worse than tackling with a Chryssalid: both would try to infect you and turn you into one of them. He had been ordered to take his best remaining troops to a nearly suicidal mission and had only complied at that order by demanding to be allowed on the expedition. The Council had been more than happy to oblige his request: even if he got back to Earth his absence wouldn't be missed by them. Only those two men who had come to talk to him on the eve of the expedition to give him a very special briefing and unauthorized proposal had shown more care than anyone else back on Earth. I have a task at hand. I will make sure that the job is completed. The answer didn't satisfy him but for now it would have to suffice while they were on Mars.
By now having decelerated to a speed less than Mach One, the Valiant glided over the thin Martian atmosphere at a safe altitude from the mesas that littered the area. From his cockpit Clark immediately recognized to the southeast the ruined pentagonal pyramid that once had housed a massive alien base on his inside. And to the north he could see the remains of the City where he had dropped the strike team that had killed the Brain. The mission orders called for a flyby of the entire area before setting down to see if there was any indication of recent artificial activity on the area. On his side Seymour was keeping both a close watch on the known locations that the aliens had formerly occupied plus the visual display unit that showed 360-degree view of the area around the Avenger. If there was any radar, infrared or tachyon transmission for more than one hundred kilometers around them Seymour and Clark would immediately be alerted by the threat detection computer but so far the area looked as dead as the rest of the planet.
Mimicking the gesture of grabbing a thrust lever with his left hand Clark slowed down even further the speed of the Valiant as the craft reached the flat area between the Pyramid and the infamous Face on Mars, which now was nothing more than a pile of broken rocks. A string of alphanumeric text scrolled down on the air in front of his eyes as they approached the navigational waypoint where they would make a long turn to overflow the Face before finally setting down on the planet. Unlike the attack mission the Martian sky was clear of the dust clouds that had bathed the area on a red and dark penumbra where the Avengers were desperately fighting a cloud of UFOs that were bent on bombarding the X-COM troops on the ground.
"Avenger! Where are you? I can't shake them off" Back then the voice had been abruptly cut on the communications channel back then as Clark and Seymour tried to reach the Challenger as it as being hunt down by three alien battleships. But Clark would occasionally recall it, the fear and desperation of Sykes as the pilot realized that he was running out of options to shake off the UFOs that were hunting him like a hungry pack of wolves.
The Challenger's pilot had tried to gain altitude and hide on the maelstrom of the dust currents that were being carried throughout the planet's atmosphere but he had never made it. Still entrapped in a deadly aerial ballet with another battleship, Clark and Seymour had barely time to notice the explosion above as the Avenger's engines had gone hypercritical and the safety restrainers had failed due to the plasma fire of the UFOs, consuming the craft on a Elerium explosion that had lightened the red sky with an orange fireball. The third Avenger, the Majestic, had already crashed into the ground leaving Clark and Seymour as the only friendly craft in the vicinity of the city but they had been unable to provide any cover to the troops below. They had run away from the area, hoping that the UFOs wouldn't give chase, knowing that if the mission failed someone would have to report back to headquarters that Earth was doomed. But at the last minute before they headed towards the planet's atmosphere they had finally been informed that the ground teams had been successful in defeating the aliens. However the casualties had been too high. Clark had later checked on the wreckage of the Challenger and had found that the crew had survived the crash only to choke to death on the Martian atmosphere as the hull was breached and all life-support functions had failed. The pilots had tried to get their individual breathing systems but the door to the main body of the craft was jammed and their injured bodies had been found out close of the hatch with their helmets tossed to the side and their faces covered in blood from the decompression. Even the Avenger was more of a flying wreck than a combat spaceship and the travel back had been plagued with system failures. Due to financial reasons it had never been completely repaired and it had been mothballed with the majority of its systems still damaged.
Clark leisurely brought the Valiant on a slow turn over the Face looking in satisfaction that it was still pretty much the same after he had blasted it with the plasma cannons onboard the Avenger. The massive construction had once represented a humanoid face but now the eye socks had collapsed inwards and the mouth and nose areas showed the effect of a large inner explosion that had sent large boulders of rock and metal to the area surrounding the Face. "That was some fine shooting, Spectre". His lips tightened as he heard the comment but instead of answering started the landing procedures. Yeah. Hurrah, we made it back.
He had never understood what where the aliens trying to do when they had activated whatever was lying underneath the Face. Later some people from Intelligence had asked him a number of questions but when Clark had tried to get some answers out of curiosity he had discovered by their nervous attitude that they didn't had a clue either. The call on the tachyon frequency had baffled him since it had come at a time where everything on the aerial dogfight he was engaged had turned into non-sense. He had already accepted that he was going to die as two Battleships had finally caught up with the Avenger and several others were waiting to get their shot at the human ship. Then the aliens had by magic broke off the pursuit momentarily while the other UFOs had started flying erratically on the Martian sky as if the alien pilots had turned mad in less than a second. First he had thought that the voice was another of the mind tricks that the aliens used to distract the pilots but Seymour's reaction to it. Finally free of the UFOs he had raced across the Cydonia plain and had hit the Face's lit features with the plasma cannons still mounted on the wings of his spaceship until the formation had crumbed and exploded. Only afterwards he had been informed of the bloodbath that had taken place also on the ground.
**********
At the same as Clark was taking the Avenger down to Cydonia, the small figure had almost reached its destination. Swiftly moving across the Martian landscape, the orange covered Sectoid already knew that the newcomers weren't from the Hierarchy as he approached the side of the hill were his hideout was located. He had been a major officer on the aliens' service, being responsible for a full fighting ship and crew, having being cloned and bred specifically for that role. To maintain control the alien had also been given something that most members of its race didn't possess: psionic powers. Originally the Sectoid race's mental capabilities were restricted to their own species since they had all lived as part of large communal societies on their homeworld. Two Sectoids could maintain a mental link several kilometers even separated by several kilometers. But as the Ethereals were created from their own DNA and other races were brought into the Starspawn, the over ruling entity of the alien empire compressed of all aliens, a specific superior caste of Sectoids capable of using psionics on other races had been created since the Ethereal population was too small to handle all command tasks. He could sense that the craft that seemed to be heading towards the now destroyed main base was crewed by one specific race: humans.
His trek had been filled with what would be called by humans as a mixture of thought and emotion, both classifications invented by mankind philosophers that simply didn't apply to his race. He was the last survivor of its race on the planet and had considered committing suicide, something very rare amongst Sectoids since their hive conscience detected immediately any individual errors and the individual member would be punished before he could even consider that course of action. The loss of the Brain had affected all aliens and the remaining Sectoids had managed to retain a partial and diffuse conscience.
That had came up as a survival measure with then going back to their ancestral ways, learned millions of years ago during their evolution and that their scientists had been wise to leave on their DNA code as a safe back measure in case anything went wrong with the Starspawn. But it hadn't been enough.
After the human crafts had left the planet the scattered survivors who had escaped the onslaught of the X-COM soldiers had simply run into another disaster. The few Ethereals still alive had managed to regain control of the Mutons just in time to contain the rummaging hordes of Chryssalids that had been freed of any control. Already they had impregnated hundreds of dazzled aliens when the other races had come up with some impromptu organization to hold back and eradicate what seemed a black locust plague. But soon right afterwards the surviving aliens had simply turned their weapons into one another as disagreements between the Ethereals and the other races immediately boiled in several deadly engagements over the planet's surface. In less than a month the thousands of aliens that had survived X-COM's attack due to their far positions from Cydonia had been vastly reduced due to the fighting. The loss of the support facilities at the base had merely doomed the remaining aliens to a slow death, trapped on Mars. The Sectoid had refused to believe it and that was the reasons why he was still alive, the only one of his species left, although he suspected (and feared) that there where still other aliens around.
The Sectoid had already circled the entrance to see if he had been followed before moving to a location on the middle of the hill that was flat covered with orange dust with a large boulder standing and facing the sky. With a last look in both directions the alien grabbed the rock with both arms and pulled it away, revealing a dark hole on the ground. He quickly jumped inside and his thin hands briskly moved back the brown boulder, leaving only no trace of his presence or his hideout on the barren hills.
*********

X-COM: Eulogy
Part II

The location of the landing of the second manned mission to Mars had been chosen according because it had been the largest alien facility on the planet and it was possible that something had been missed on the hasty search made by the X-COM soldiers after the battle. Boronin had argued for the landing to happen on the City, the area to the northeast where the alien Brain had been located. But instead the Council had overridden his authority and had ordered that mission touched down at the D&M Pyramid, a massive artificial construction with a height exceeding one mile filled with inner chambers that spread underground.
The Valiant approached the Pyramid from the northeast until it was half a kilometer away from the building then it stopped on the air and slowly dropped down like a dragonfly on the vicinity of a large impact crater. Slowly moving his right hand downwards Clark tried gently to bring the craft down although he was having a problem with the lesser gravity of Mars, which made some sudden drops for the Avenger. But as the landing gear deployed Clark already had the craft with a safe descent rate and a few seconds later the vessel shook as the landing pads hit the soft Martian soil underneath.
The honor of being the first human to set foot on Mars had been already taken by a soldier who had raced down the Avenger's ramp when they had landed first on Vallis Marineris. Private Nikolas Schmidt had stepped into History as the first man to step on Mars, after a computer had chosen randomly through the spaceships' crews and soldiers. Unfortunately he hadn't lived enough to be able to tell about it on Earth since he had died on the 'cauldron of death', the crater close to the Pyramid that housed the main entrance to the alien base that Boronin and the main force had assaulted wrongly, believing it to be the location of the Brain. The cauldron had been the field for the most vicious battle of the Alien War, where more than a hundred X-COM soldiers had thought thousands of aliens in a pitch fight. Less fifty human survivors had walked out of the crater, most of them seriously injured and without any hovertanks left. As they were about to be overwhelmed the other force successfully killed the Brain on the city and threw the alien army into disarray. It still took them nearly the rest of the day to kill the rest of the aliens on the area, with the exhausted soldiers salvaging weapons from the dead fingers of extraterrestrials as their ammunition run out several times.
As Boronin cleared out the entrance hatch built into the side of the Avenger the first thing he noticed was the irregular rim that marked the brown wall of the crater. Standing on the small pad next to the retractable stairs that were deployed he checked the horizon and was satisfied to see no movement on the area. Clark had already made a low pass and there had been no aliens on sight so he let his rifle hung from his shoulder as he moved down to the sandy surface.
No proper footage had been taken of the first landing since the troopers were more concerned in securing the landing zone for the other craft that were coming down from the sky. No matter how historical the occasion was Commander Illyuschenko had been adamant in keeping with tactical procedure since they were dropping into a hostile location. Today a tiny camera deployed next to the door was keeping track of all his movements as he stepped down. There would be no speeches, no planting of flags since the Council had not decided on which banner to place since there were things more important ahead. His first step was a determined one although he was cautious that the dust might be deeper on this area. Cydonia Mensae's ancient plateaus and mesas were constantly under the duress of the Martian winds that would periodically replace the dust cover over the hard dark red rock but the first expedition had discovered after a number of incidents that the planet's surface was very dynamic with quick sands on some areas where the sand run deeper. Completing his descent he looked around again. The damaged ruins of the Pyramid lingered over his head while another X-COM soldier was already coming down. One by one they came down until the nine soldiers were fanning out with their laser weapons on their hands. They would start searching for the Elerium immediately. Wish us luck Dmitri Stepanovitch. We will need it.
**********
In the aerial battle that took place on the skies above Cydonia seven years before one of the several UFOs that were attacking the X-COM ships had been caught by a stray shot fired by a larger alien Battleship and it had been one of the several 'friendly fire' casualties that had occurred during the battle. The powerful blast had cut through the Harvester's hull in a three feet wide hole with the energized particles vaporizing all Sectoids that were manning the chambers on the side that had been pierced by the blast. In less than a second and with a critical failure of the antigravity field that held the UFO on the air it had dropped down to the planet's surface as the crew onboard tried to bring the Elerium engines back online. But falling out of control from the sky it had crashed into one of the several rugged hills that were common on Cydonia and had burrowed itself on the sandy side of the elevation.
The most of the aliens who had survived the crash had been injured and in a complete state of confusion following the death of the Brain on Cydonia. Stumbling out of the wrecked hull of the UFO they had stood for days in a catatonic state, waiting hopelessly for the mental link to be reestablished while the X-COM troops were busy sterilizing Cydonia. Fortunately for them their crash site was too far for the human soldiers to take notice but after they were gone the infighting between the aliens had started with several of them dying on the confrontations.
But it had also prompted the Sectoids to turn the wreck of their crashed ship as a refuge from the harsh Martian environment and now the alien how had observed the human ship was walking on one of the inclined corridors. His body's metabolism and configuration allowed him to endure conditions that would kill a human in minutes, including brief periods on the vacuum of space without the need for an environmental suit. But he still had physical needs that were better fulfilled with some sort of a shelter besides the necessity of a place to hide in case any hostile life forms appeared. With time the sand had covered the Harvester but the Sectoid had managed to keep most of the inner chambers clear and had even made several hidden entrances to the crashed Harvester.
The alien was the last survivor of the crew of the UFO and as a Leader had been the commanding officer of the ship. He had been surprised by the emergency alerts made as they had tracked the human fleet approaching the base and had immediately taken off since his craft was about to get ready for a new mission on Sol Three. The humans were proving to be extremely troublesome to pacify and losses had been high but they didn't matter much for the Sectoid or the Ethereal commanders who knew that they would simply wear out the humans for the final crush. They conquered several other species more quickly but as they had launched from the Pyramid the prevailing sensation throughout the psionic net was that the humans and their arrogance and deviousness would finally be conquered using the old methods: complete eradication of human culture and society and appropriate disposal and use of any remaining specimens. But then everything had turned upside down for the survivors. Some had simply panicked and run away on the Martian desert, never to come back while others had been prey to the remaining hordes of aliens running on a hunting and killing spree. And as for the others...the Sectoid paused as he approached one of the circular glass food-processing units that stood on the main bay of the UFO. Inside frail thin figures like he rested floating on a clear liquid, the dead Sectoid bodies preserved for later consumption. He had taken every measure possible to survive, including getting rid of the rest of his crew in order to save precious resources and hold out until the Starspawn returned, something that he did not question. It was the only measure to take, after there were no more useful bodies of the dead aliens left to feed the nutrient processors.
But it had been a costly one to bear in mental terms since the Sectoid had been left completely alone, something that he had never imagined possible and therefore had never thought of considering the consequences. Coupled to the disorientation felt by the death of the Brain it had thrown him into countless states of panic and desperation, only countered by his own psionic powers. But now he wasn't alone anymore and the Sectoid looked at the dead members of his species floating inside the liquid and trying to make any logic out of his thoughts. Why were the humans coming back?
**********
On the small world of spacecraft the Valiant wouldn't rank any points for the beauty of its design. Unlike the sleek and simple space capsules that had taken the first astronauts to the edge of Earth or the later US Space Shuttle it had no need for an aerodynamic fuselage since its hull didn't made contact with the atmosphere because of the anti-gravity field provided by its twin Elerium engines that repelled everything around it. The field could also be used in case a micrometeor breached the hull to prevent the loss of atmospheric pressure and keeping the air and the troops inside from being sucked to the outside.
The small, compact Elerium engines were amongst the best ever adapted by Earth's engineers from the original ones mounted onboard the UFOs, allowing it to reach speed of several thousand miles while airborne and permitting the ship to reach Mars in weeks rather than several months. They compactness and smallness were also a blessing to the designers of the ship, to whom space had been at a premium in order to prevent the Avengers from becoming monstrous craft due to its original requirements to be able to fight the huge alien Battleships while being able dropping 26 fully armed combat soldiers to any location on Earth and space. They had ended up with a craft that was nearly the length of a 727 but extremely more powerful than Boeing's venerable jetliner. The call for the quick development and production of the craft had made them to take the easiest approach to its design, with short and stubby wings that had the only role of holding the craft's weapons, a cockpit section where the two pilots were jammed into, and a major bay area that composed most of the ship, with all electronic equipment set on the sides of the craft.
Inside the plane's belly the X-COM engineers had made a number of modifications that allowed it to be home to the sixteen humans were its crew. The elongated rear where the exit ramp was located had been filled with supplies for the mission, preventing the exit to be used but they had also added a small decompression chamber on the side to allow humans to operate outside. Next to it a small hygienic facility composed of a zero-gravity toilet and sink had been installed. There were no shower facilities available because of the water and space restrictions placed, which had the side effect of a grievous stench onboard the craft no matter who much the air recyclers worked but by now all crew had become used to it.
They had all individual cots for sleeping, nearly coffin size cabinets located slightly above head level that were cushioned and had curtains, providing the only privacy aboard the ship. Underneath them there were the scientist's workstations weapons racks, together with seats and two small tables that were either used for eating meals taken from the food dispensers. The conditions were more akin to those on submarines on whose boats space was also a very valuable asset that was used on the more efficient way possible. The power suits and other material hung from the ceiling, tightly held by straps, together with other equipment necessary for the mission.
The first two days had gone uneventfully as the soldiers had swept the area around the Avenger and the outside of the D&M Pyramid, only to find it empty of any life forms. Dr. Johannes had been going through the data taken on the orbital pass although no concrete indications had surfaced so far from the numbers and figures on the computer displays that she had examined. But now commander Boronin had finally authorized a close examination of the massive structure and Lieutenant White was looking at the members of the team assigned for the duty. With only eight soldiers on his command and a lot to worry about he was worried that they might be outnumbered but he had no other options. He would go with Hopkins, Rodriguez, Jones, Camay and King while Sharkey and Prune would help the remaining scientist to haul his precious rock and sand samples as he dug the ground around the Valiant.
Major Seymour had already given him today's forecast: temperatures near 0º Fahrenheit with a few winds on the early Martian would be autumn. The planet had seasons although they were more akin to the weather experienced on Antarctica than anything else known. The power suits would keep them warm while they hiked around but he everyone was taking double precaution with their weapons to prevent them from malfunctioning from the cold. While laser and plasma weapons had few moving parts that were prone to become brittle by the low temperatures, unlike slug thrower weapons nobody wanted his rifle to jam in combat and the other five soldiers had finished their inspections. White had done his own check already so he turned to the five large armored figures that still had their faceplates upwards and to the two smaller scientists on EVA suits and said: "Let's move".
**********
Dr. Eva Johannes had been on a battlefield a long time before during the war together with most of the soldiers that now were pacing through the flat surface of the cauldron as armored phalanx moved in a loose formation as they approached the entrance to the Pyramid looming on top of them. The crater still showed many remains of the fighting that had taken place with the wrecked remains of human hovertanks and the tall Sectopod killing machines tossed around the landscape, surrounded by numerous smaller mounds of sand which marked the location of fallen aliens. They carefully avoided them as they walked into the dark entrance set at the end of the crater against the side of the pyramid that led into the underground areas.
On her side Master Sergeant Elias Hopkins was scanning the area with the sensors on his helmet but he was relaxed enough to occasionally talk to her. She had come to respect the tall and burly Afro-American plus he was one of the few members of the expedition that she was comfortable enough, besides her husband.
A protruding black limb stuck out of the sand and she froze as she looked at it as Hopkins noticed and laughed on the private channel they were using. "Yup", he started, "it's what you're thinking m'am. BBQ Chryssalid. It won't kill you but the indigestion might". This whole area seemed to be covered with bodies of the vicious creatures as she noticed the irregular ground and the fact that she felt something underneath the sand and the soles of her boots as she walked. "What was this like Sergeant?"
"Well...I'm not the person to talk about it since we weren't assigned here, Mrs. Johannes. Of us the only one that has been here is Commander Boronin". She nodded to him in reply. "I couldn't help notice his face on the first day when we came back onboard. He looked as if he had seen a ghost".
Discussing his commanding officer's moods was not something Hopkins would do normally, even with other X-COM members but he sensed concern on her voice plus he had seen the friction that had slowly grown between her and the commander. So he made sure that no one was listening them on the radio and kept his pace as they moved over the rock and metal arch that was the entrance way to the pyramid. "Commander Boronin has been through a lot of pressure m'am. You've been present at the Council meetings and know it better than me. And I could tell you stories of what happened here that I heard from men and women as they cried them out for me".
"True". She paused as she reached the large opening and tried to look inside. "Still I doubt there's anything here of any importance".
Barking an order to Rodriguez to move up Hopkins went back to her afterwards. "Have I ever told you that my mother was an emigrant from Haiti, Mrs. Johannes? She believed in stuff like voodoo and I would occasionally caught some strange shit laying around the house but I didn't ask any questions about it".
Johannes paused to wonder what would be the point of the sergeant in bringing that subject into the matter. "I told to myself that I didn't believe any of that stuff but once she found something made out of chicken feathers while walking on the street and she freaked out. I remember quite well that I couldn't understand why it was so worrying to her and I tried to ignore it thinking it was old superstition but I never forget the effect it had on her".
"I'm not understanding what you're trying to say sergeant". Hopkins paused and surveyed the battlefield behind them before answering. "There's some very bad voodoo here. Too many ghosts flying around. I don't blame the commander for that. None of us do who have been here do". The X-COM soldiers ahead had turned the projectors on their suits on as they scouted through the dark chambers underneath whose metal walls reflected the white beams of light. "I still don't understand Mr. Hopkins".
"Well, momma said that no matter what you do things will catch up with you eventually". He checked the power level on his heavy laser. "And when that happens you can't hide behind her skirts".
**********
It hadn't surprised King when he had been informed that he was on the top rank of soldiers with psionic abilities after they had tested all X-COM personnel. His background as a former Green Beret had already made him an elite fighter but he had lacked the combat experience back then.
But the years spent fighting the aliens had honed his combat skills like he never had thought possible. Until the scientists had discovered psionics he could anticipate to things before they happened, alerted by some weird sense that he couldn't explain but had learned to trust it. He wasn't sure that it was related to psionics in any case so he had never worried too much about it. He had never had any use for psi-amps during a battle since he considered impossible to keep yourself ready to reply to any imminent physical threat when using them. They simply amplified the mind's perception too much and the brain would have a tough time reacting to any hostiles near you. And since his job was tracking people or aliens and taking them out there was no point in trying play tricks with their minds before specially since that would alarm the aliens to your presence. In any case the entire discussion had been settled by the Anti-Psionics Convention, which had been signed a few months ago under the U.N. auspice to ban any use of the mental powers upon humans. King knew that it wouldn't stop its use but it had meant the end of X-COM's Psi section. All psi-amps had been destroyed after their Elerium fuel had been removed and all related data like the classified field manual he had been given regarding them was gathered and locked away in some secret place.
Still, now to him there wasn't any way those same powers would help him. His power suit was kneeled with the right leg standing while he surveyed the corridor in front of him. To his surprise he had found it to end at a t-section, something that surprised him, since they were not supposed to be at any of the alien base's sides, meaning either he had missed a turn or they had bumped into something unexpected. The corridor was bathed in darkness but the IR sensors built into his suit told him what he needed to know concerning any obstacles since they would be warmer than the metal floor. And living thing would stand as a bright yellow amongst the blue outlines that filled his vision. As his left hand held his personal tracker he scanned through the few maps they had made of the base's corridors based on the searches made after the battle.
His conclusion was that he didn't know.
Which meant that they could either go back or try to get back into the path or assume that they were still on their way and for the last two minutes he hadn't been able to decide for some reason as he stared down at the end wall. The slow pacing of armored steps told him that somebody was joining him at the front. "Camay coming up".
"I heard you Zee. Join the party". She moved closer to him, holding her laser rifle but standing at the other corner of the intersection.
"What's wrong?" The paramedic was starting to worry but she was more concerned that the two civilians are going to shit down their suits if he kept them waiting back there in tension. "Not sure. That wasn't supposed to be there".
"We weren't supposed to be here either Virgil". Giving it a last look he wondered if it was possible that he was missing something else besides their location. Moving back upwards he started walking down to the right while Camay signaled the armored figure at the end of the corridor where she had came from to get moving.
**********
They had been walking through the Pyramid's inner city for hours, finding only destroyed cloning facilities, large depot areas and long dead gardens connected through a maze of corridors and chambers until they finally had reached a larger room located underneath one of the building's side. Yellow beams of light came from holes made as girders collapsed and exposed the inside when the overhead sections of the chamber had crumbled. Standing at the bottom Rodriguez brought its suit lights upwards, gazing through the wide stairway that was filled with rock rubble and torn metal. At one section the path looked closed-off but according to what they knew the entire passage was cleared up to the chamber on top of the gigantic structure on its 150 yards length. They would have to do some climbing but that would be a piece of cake using the additional strength provided by the servomotors of the suit's legs and arms and they would hoist up the two scientists using the ropes they had brought. But it would still be a stiff hike upwards although Mars' low gravity helped and King was already close to unseen, a small figure up ahead on the long flight of stairs.
"The great hallway...or what's left of it. Amazing to see what they were talking about when they came back and described it". William Yusuf's voice whispered on Johannes's ear as both scientists started climbing large flight of stairs with each step half a meter on height. She didn't reply as she concentrated on getting a solid footing as she moved upwards. A lot of sand had already entered the building through the ruined sections and that made it harder. When the Council had informed the scientific community that only three scientists would be sent on the upcoming Mars mission there had been bursts of outrage and demands that where quickly withdrawn as they realized that the Council's alternative would be that no civilians would be a part of the crew. Johannes wanted to be a part of the mission and as X-COM's scientific director she had no problem in using her position. After all, she was the leading expert on Elerium physics and was the most qualified person to conduct the search for the mineral.
Keeping the portable tachyon detector tightly into her hand she kept waiting for the vibrating that would signal that the software inside had detected a close Elerium source. The problem was that Elerium only emitted tachyons upon being bombarded by matter so unless there was a power source close by operating there were very slim chances that they would detect it. However there was the possibility that somehow the Elerium had reached critical mass and at that time a low energy reaction would take place. When the remaining Elerium on Earth had been collected into heavily guarded and secret locations it had been discovered that, due to nuclear decay, if a certain quantity of the gold crystals were stored together the Elerium would react with itself. Nuclear decay happens since the isotopes of an element, while sharing the same number of protons, they vary on the quantity of neutrons and due to physical laws some are more stable than others. Each isotope has a half-life, or the probability that half of the isotope will decay in the future, quantified in time figures. The crystals were made of an Unp-299, an isotope of Ununpentium, the scientific name assigned to Elerium. It had 115 protons and 284 neutrons on its core and a half-life of half a billion years. During that time half of the element would decay first into element 114 by the loss of a proton, but that sped the process since the isotope newly formed had a half-life of less than a second before it and the series of decays would continue until they emitted more potent radiations.
But even if the probabilities of decay were few they did happen and when they did there was another possibility of detection if there was enough quantity. Besides tachyons, Elerium fission released a number of exotic particles such as gravitons and others that were complete physical impossibilities according to the previous theories. And during the Elerium decay plus other sensors that could detect the resulting new isotopes and their own nuclear decays. Elerium natural fission was rare to occur and difficult to detect. The phenomenon had only been discovered after a security investigation had taken place concerning the symptoms of radiation poisoning experienced by the personnel that attended the Elerium deposits.
But all of her portable equipment was silent at the moment. She had discovered a number of ammunition clips and the soldiers had salvaged them but so far there was no indication that there was any Elerium left on this structure like she had expected. Johannes had spent most of her life studying Ununpentium and its strange physical qualities but she had been looking for other things than the ability to use for plasma weaponry or for anti-gravity transportation.
It had been theorized that E-115 was formed on the outcome of gigantic supernovae explosions, where huge stars simply collapsed into their core due to its huge gravitational pull and then blasted away nearly all of its mass in seconds, in the form of high-energy radiation and gas. But that theory had been proven flawed by the absence of any trace of Ununpentium or its decaying elements when telescopes started to examine the light coming from nearby supernovae. In fact, the inability to detect any Elerium at all on the stars close by had made many scientists to worry if they ever would find E-115 again. That worried Johannes but it had also told her that some unknown cosmic hand had been behind the formation of Elerium on the universe and she suspected that the element could give a proof of the Big Bang, the start of the known universe according to the main theory. It would be something worth working, she had decided years ago and slowly she was building the theory while continuing to work with X-COM.
They where heading upwards for the other scientists to have a look at the command chamber of the pyramid, especially Yusuf, who had a rather distinguished career so far on the academic world after leaving X-COM. But Yusuf's curricula were far more extensive since he had worked for the now defunct investigations arm of X-COM, responsible for assembling intelligence concerning the aliens. Johannes didn't exactly know with what his previous work in X-COM dealt with since the Anglo-Persian work was still classified. The bulk of the basic research learned by X-COM concerning the aliens had been publicly released years ago but certain sensitive areas had been kept as secret. Johannes was also obliged to maintain secrecy on certain areas of her work that could have military purposes. Elerium was, after all, the most powerful energy source ever made discovered by mankind and strict controls on its trade had been imposed to prevent its use. But her fears of another 'Manhattan Project' to design an Elerium bomb were almost gone as Earth's dwindling supply made it the more unlikely. All the research made by the world's nuclear powers had already been stopped cold since soon there wouldn't be enough Elerium to build a single bomb. Even the X-COM catch at Mother One wasn't expected to last much more at the present rate of consumption. Soon military and civilian use of the material would have to be nearly curtailed and restricted for scientific research.
The third scientist chosen had been Dr. Weiss, a specialist on Mars, who straggled behind as his courage occasionally failed him a couple of times as he imagined seeing hostile aliens peeking at him on the dark corners of the underground chambers. She wanted to check the locations of the base that where now only a dark and twisted hole on the ground on the opposite side of the pyramid. The Elerium reactors that powered the base had once been located there until they went hypercritical and had blasted a hole in the ground after being bombarded by the remaining X-COM Avengers.
By then they had already cleared most of the steps of the stairway with Rodriguez and Hopkins leading the way and the other two soldiers guarding the rear. "And now, the King's Chamber". The comment made the two leading soldiers looking at Yusuf. So far they had tolerated his occasional comments but nobody liked to have a tour guide on the middle of a potential hostile area. "Now look mister". Rodriguez turned to him and scowled. "Either you quit using the main channel or I'll rip your helmet off. And you're wrong by the way" Turning his back on Yusuf he moved upwards to the dark entrance above with leaving both scientists behind. Looking at the buffed expression of the Persian through the plastic faceplate she called him on a private channel. "He thinks you don't even have a clue about what happened here".
The figure inside the atmospheric suit stiffened. "Dr. Johannes, I have..."
"I know your qualifications, Dr. Yusuf but these soldiers have lived through the experience you've analyzed at your desk. For them what you call pieces of your theories are locations where they thought and died".
"Of course. But the striking similarities with the architecture of the Great Pyramid can't be so easily dismissed. This inner stairway plus the disposition of its major chambers...."
"Yes I know that. Now let's continue please". The two other soldiers had already caught upon them. The matter brought up by Yusuf was simply another matter that would occupy the scientific community for years to come. The Pyramids of Gizeh and the pre-Colombian civilizations of Central America were the structures that more bore the mark of the alien influence on the planet but there were also other more extraordinary theories. Johannes had heard such stories on tabloids before, associating the aliens with Atlantis, the imaginary civilization that had sunk into the ocean or even more crackpot claims of rock stars being abducted by the extraterrestrials. It didn't really matter what they discovered to Johannes, who was more concerned about the physical world, not about the vague considerations of Yusuf, whose work seemed to have been based on a number of uncertain assumptions regarding the aliens. Still it wasn't her field and she had also had to defer to the Council's decision. Maybe the late Dr. Chevereux would have raised hell over the councilmen and made them to change their decision but she didn't care anymore.
As she passed through to the dark large opening that led into the chamber she looked down and wondered why the aliens would have endured such a climb. Looking downwards she noticed the steepness of the stairs. But as she looked around her she found herself amazed at the dimensions of the ruined chamber. The ceiling was long gone and huge shards made of alien alloys slashed through the pink sky above with light also visible coming from openings at the ground level. She had been once to the Sistine Chapel in Rome and had been aghast by the experience and this chamber looked bigger than that. But unlike the pristine appearance of the Chapel, the King's Chamber, as Yusuf had called him only showed the ravages of war. The four X-COM soldiers spread out from the stairway and started moved through fallen superstructure plates and supporting beams together with smashed equipment and a few alien bodies that hadn't been completely covered by the Martian dust yet.
They had started at one side of the chamber and now were panning out through. Holding his laser rifle ready Jones moved closer to the long figure of a robed Ethereal lumped over a corroded terminal. He hit the ragged corpse with the tip of the rifle and in response the body felt down in pieces with the monkey like cranium of the alien hitting his suit's feet. Picking it up carefully on his armored hand he examined the skull: the Ethereal looked as if he was grinning at Jones. He smiled back at it and then applied enough pressure on the overgrown lateral lobes of the cranium until he crushed them. "Making new friends Jones?" Rodriguez voice made him smile as the other soldier had noticed his action, along with King who simply nodded at him and kept moving forwards. Finally, after they had finished the sweep Lieutenant White spoke on the general channel. "Looks clear. You got two hours before he have to head back. Don't wander off without an escort".
**********
William Yusuf had been born on Leeds, the third son of two Iranian exiles who had met and married on the United Kingdom after having fled the Islamic revolution that had overthrown the Shah out of power and installed a religious theocracy on the country. Both his grandfathers had been wealthy and powerful industrialist figures on Iran and most of their fortune was located on overseas investiments so Yusuf had been privileged during his youth to education at the top English private colleges, ending with a doctorate taken at Oxford on political sciences, with a brilliant thesis on the Middle East. At first his interest on the region had been driven by the fate of his parents, although neither he nor them had no intentions of ever going back to Iran. He had married one of his classmates in college and knew that it would be much safer for them to live on the UK even if the Ayatollahs rule was finally relinquished on his parent's country.
That belief and loyalty to the country that had accepted him had been recognized, along with his analytical skills and real world experience by the MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service of Her Majesty, during his college years and he had been recruited by the organization from time to time to ask for its opinion regarding Iran and other subjects. It wasn't too demanding: keep an eye and ear on thoughts going through the small exiled community and what he heard from people still back on Iran while being asked his own opinion regarding issues on which the MI6 was interested. But while he wasn't a policymaker nor had any political ambitions he was still concerned about the whole situation on the Middle East as a whole, if more intellectually than emotionally.
But that had changed on the late 1990s. First it had been the profusion on news on the strange lights and shapes on the sky that had appeared on the quality papers, usually relegated to a bottom position well into the paper's pages, something more akin to the stuff that went on the tabloids but that soon also jumped into the television as well. And then the MI6 had started asking for information concerning an incident where the Iranian Air Force had intercepted an UFO on the 1970's and asking for him to make discreet questions about the subject.
That had set him wondering what was happening. Why had the British government become interested into matters that so far had been completely dismissed by the scientific community and ignored by the armed forces? He did as he was asked, something made easier for the number of former Shah military officers who had escaped Iran and had discovered that the incident had happened according to what they had heard back then and that it hadn't been the only one. After gathering a thick dossier on the subject consisting of dozens of statements he had turned it to his supervisors, who hadn't even flinched or made a reaction to the material. He had wanted to make a lot of questions concerning the identity of the UFOs and why might they be showing such an interest on Iran and other parts of the world but his only query had been dismissed with a blank face and apologizing eyes that stated the unspoken answer: need to know.
However, it told Yusuf a more precious answer: they existed and the powers that be were preoccupied. It was the right incentive he needed to start doing his own research on the area, trying to find out who was beyond the strange apparitions on the sky. Initially he had put aside the question of extraterrestrials being behind it by trying to apply more conventional expressions but the more he talked with generals and public officials on UK's Foreign Secretary he was forced to go back to that hypothesis. The SIS had also taken notice of his interest on the matter and the ideas he expressed concerning them and, in an exceptional decision they had asked for his collaboration on the matter.
By the end of 1998, when X-COM had been funded under the auspices of the UN he was one of the UK's top experts on the subject having gone a very steep ascension due to the urgency of the matter. Later transferring from the MI6 to X-COM, he had been a part of the them that had made the initial suggestion that the aliens' society was hive like and later, after the end of the war had returned into the academic world with a status that bellied his age of forty-two.
Besides looking for Elerium there was another nagging question that still worried a slowly dwindling number of concerned individuals back on Earth, although most of them were not public officials: would the aliens ever be back? That question had been on his mind since the end of the war and the Council had grudgingly decided that it was still an important issue that they couldn't afford to dismiss. Therefore when the request had came from the Council for his presence on the expedition, since he was the person on Earth to give that answer back, he was already expecting it. Commander Boronin was a good officer but he had other things to worry about concerning the trip and X-COM's more immediate future and the other two scientists had other things to worry about. He would give back the report to the Council when he returned, along with other additional information he might collect during his investigations of the ruins, but they would not be the only persons he would be answering to.
**********
"What's so interesting LT?" Hopkins' casual voice would have been taken as an offense by most officers but White had only gotten his officers' stripes after the war and before he had been a corporal. Still now he could call the sergeant now with in informal terms. The officer turned away from the broken large octagonal sets of alien machinery that were arraigned on a square on the center of the room. "Well this was the place where they run the entire war against Earth according to what Dr. Yusuf just told me". The scientist was away from them, apparently interested in some ciphering written on a particular console as the light beacon of his camera focused on it, revealing patches of the original violet paint.
Hopkins threw an enquiring look at the scientist. "Do you believe in all he says?"
"No, I mean, the Brain was located on the City but for their most part the aliens were just as dependent on regular communications as we where amongst their smaller units. And this". He opened his arms. "Was the central communication node. It's no wonder that all the bodies we've found are Ethereals and a few Sectoids. They run the day to day war effort from here while the Brain was dedicated to strategic planning and mental cohesion with the rest of the aliens. We originally tagged this place as the location of the Brain partly because of its tachyon traffic transmissions we had detected". Hopkins looked around for a second. That wasn't the answer to the question he had asked but he decided not to push it. "So what Cap? The moment we got the Brain all of this made no difference".
"You're right Gunny but it still it gives me the creeps to imagine them all here working for our fall". That told Hopkins that the officer also had an interest on the damn critters, just like Yusuf's. Not that it was wrong on his opinion but they had been brought up here on this cacamomie mission and it made him nervous to be walking inside an old alien base in such a small number and babysitting a pair of civilians. He ignored it and decided to go back to business. Jones and Rodriguez had wondered off to one of the sides of the chamber and he could see them checking out things, just in case any alien tried to sneak on the rest of the group while Dr. Johannes... He paused realizing that she had disappeared from view. So had King and Camay but they had informed him that they were going to check something below and their time to report back was still away. So where had Dr. Johannes gone to? He wondered and called on his radio.
**********
"You're too quiet".
"I'm keeping an eye on things".
"There's nothing to watch for. If anyone comes up here we'll heard them climbing up those stairs".
"Okay, I'm thinking about what Zee told us of how she's leaving the outfit to get to college".
"Another one gone". Besides the eight soldiers present at Cydonia there was hardly enough soldiers left on X-COM to fill two infantry platoons and that was if you included all senior officers on the mix. There were still a number of Area 51 veterans and each time one of those left the loss was even bigger like Garcia, who had retired after a Skyranger accident had left him with a leg amputated. That didn't meant that they were left for good since the veterans still got together from time to time but it was a loss to the team and, more important, to the company and friendship of fighting comrades. Him and Rodriguez had wondered at what would happen if everyone else left. What would happen then? Paradoxically their departures had the effect of turning the remaining soldiers even tighter making more easily to understand the reasons for the departure but still taking an emotional toll. In a time of war the feelings would be put aside until the proper time to deal with them but until now the Earth had been free of alien attacks although ridden with what some later called the 'phony wars'.
"She's doing the right thing Jonesy. This outfit is going to end one day or another and she's smart enough to start planning before it happens".
"Yeah but still..." Rodriguez's silence told a million to Jones. After a moment he raised himself until nearly standing on his toes trying to see what the officers were doing, although only the scientists were not aware of the plan. "We need to hurry up. I heard the commander is planning to make a quick stop at Cydonia since there's not much left there of interest except for that English doctor".
"I know cábron". He said on a snarl but the vicious insult didn't offend Jones who by now was more than used to them. "The Sarge told me. But it's difficult to get it finished".
"Hurry up! I keep worrying that anyone will notice".
"Just do your part and I'll do mine". Both of them stopped to watch the Martian landscape over the open large view ports, planted at the entire length of its five sides, which opened the entire chamber to the outside. Whoever alien architect had designed the monstrous construction it had turned it, avertedly or not, into a gasping observatory of Cydonia Mensae. The low winds kept the dust out of the atmosphere allowing for better visibility over the brown and red landscape in front of them. To the north they could the low rising pyramids and the smaller mounds of the City but the alien buildings were present in all directions with their southern sides lit by the noon Sun that was now hanging about the Pyramid where they were standing. The darker ground of the cauldron's inside while the Valiant stood close to the crater. Rodriguez amplified the view on his helmet until it was magnified enough to see the retractable landing pads of the Valiant looked more of a giant scarab that had just landed on the surface of the planet. Three figures moved there as well and he saw that everything was a ok down at the landing zone. He sling his laser rifle on his shoulder and rested both hands on the rock on the window. "The brothers man, they're waiting for us". Jones's voice came up.
"Think it will change anything Jonesy?"
"Well, we had to do something didn't we? They all died thinking things would get better".
"Well they didn't die for nothing. And we are going to remember that". He turned away from the City with his fist cocked. Jones cocked his also and hit Rodriguez with him replying afterwards. "Yeah".
**********

X-COM:Eulogy
Part III

If King had made any notice of how he had been before in a similar situation he had already stored it to the back of his mind in a place where it wouldn't disturb him as he readied for action on the dark corridors of the abandoned alien base.
Seven years before he and the soldiers too injured to walk had stayed behind and waited for the aliens at the pyramid where the entrance to the underground section of the City. They were a last effort to stall the aliens that were stepping out of the UFOs that had just arrived to reinforce the ones below in the City that the other X-COM soldiers were fighting in reach the Brain.
They had set off explosives as the aliens advanced on the corridor that led into the elevator section inside the building, effectively trapping themselves but the aliens soon managed to burrow through. The troopers lobbied grenades at them together with rounds of heavy laser and plasma fire but even as a mass of alien bodies collected at the entrance to the elevator chamber one by one the X-COM soldiers were picked and killed by the marauding aliens who were desperate to protect the Brain. Only King and Woodley had survived since he had managed to escape through the elevators as Deschamps urged him to do so right before his death from several plasma injuries, constantly holding the other injured soldier to her feet. The only survivors of Omega squad had wondered hopelessly through the labyrinth of corridors and chambers, some filled with deadly aliens until they had finally made contact with the victorious remaining troops.
And now he recognized the game of hunt all again and something kept telling him that things weren't right, King sensed as he retraced the path they had taken until the giant staircase and back into the immense subterranean city. He wanted to check out the area he had seen from a distance since they had managed to find the staircase without a problem. It could only mean that something was behind that wall that wasn't marked but he didn't blame the soldiers who had drew it afterwards. It was close to impossible to remember everything when plasma shots were being exchanged with hostiles.
Next to him Zee waved her laser rifle from one direction to the other as they walked between rows of yellow and green glass cylinders now empty. Their power suits external lights were off since they would be dead giveaways of their presence to any alien survivors on the area. It could be fatal to assume that none was left because they hadn't stumbled into one on their way and King was almost sure that they had a straggler behind them. A strange blue light was being generated on the room since the metal walls were lit with it but they couldn't tell the source of it.
Like always it had been the small things that ordinarily didn't meant a thing for people and hardly notice them. But the trick was to keep your own paranoid side under control and pick up what really mattered from all the information his brain was receiving from his body's senses. A lithe sound echoing down a corridor that sounded like others they had listened before but attributed to the slow decay of the alien base. It could simply be a piece of broken machinery finally falling on the ground after years of precarious balance hanging from the hole opened by a plasma blast, with the sound being reflected to the nearby area. Or the result of the alloyed metal of the bases' walls and foundations contracting or dilating, from the contact with the cold Martian surface around it.
He hadn't seen anything moving yet but he already considered quite probable that they had someone following them but it seemed that it was keeping a distance. Any of the soldiers above would be smart enough to warn him of his approach but the radio had been silent all this time, telling him also that nothing had happened to the other soldiers... at least yet.
In order not to alert whoever was behind that they had taken notice of him he and Zee had kept their advance with him keeping point while she took the rear. He was looking for a position where they could get a clear look to check if there was really anyone back there with his plasma rifle pointed to the head of whomever was behind them. And if it wasn't human...
A few minutes later they had found a possible location to check whatever it was: a wide corridor that was a major intersection of smaller passageways before it bended straight sideways and further into the depths of the base. Leaning against the wall he brought upward the barrel of his plasma rifle until he lined the weapon towards the entrances of the side corridors. Then, as he wished for some more cover he lowered himself on his knees and brought the right eye visor of his helmet to the electronic sight built on top of the weapon, an addition made to the alien original design by X-COM's engineers. Matched with the visors on his own power suit they allowed him to scan the area in front of him in several wavelengths turning the dark corridor into an ocean of blue patterns. He preferred visible light than using IR since the infrared would take away most of the detail, adding an extra disability to target identification.
"Vislight" The suit's computer software detected his order and ordered the targeting system to switch view into visible light, ordering the micro engines on his right eye socket to deploy special screens designed to capture more photons than it was possible for the human eye. The vislight equipment then would feed the targeting system with a view that cast the corridor in tones of green as the software amplified the small amounts of photons that were not enough to provide for any visible light to human vision but now provided him with a clear view.
Just one more thing to do, King reminded himself. He then activated his radio while keeping an eye on the intersections but discovered to his dislike that something was interfering with the transmission since he received no response. They had faced the same problem on the underground base at Cydonia during the assault with something inside the alien's machinery or construction materials that interfered and blocked radio signals.
It didn't matter for in a matter of minutes they would be remaking contact with the main group and if something happened the sound of plasma was quite unforgettable for those who had heard it.
**********
"What's the problem Gunny?" Although Hopkins had been promoted past Gunnery Sergeant he still had people calling him for years by his former Marine Corps rank. Lieutenant White had picked the taller man's change of posture into an alert stance.
"Sir, I can't seem to see Dr. Johannes".
"What?" White glanced around as well but only saw three other human figures on the chamber besides him and Hopkins. "You don't think she was stupid enough..."
"Dr. Johannes, please reply, over".
A moment went before the lack of response made both men look in apprehension to one another.
"Everybody check" Hopkins' voice gave no room for delays but besides him and the other four men he found out that King and Camay were also silent, although that didn't necessarily meant the worse on their case. "Jones! Rodriguez! When was the last time you saw Dr. Johannes?"
Both soldiers where now ready for action with their arms gripping the laser rifles. "Five minutes ago or something Sarge. She was just by the stairway looking at something on the ground". Jones nodded to Rodriguez reply. "Yeah, last time I saw here too, sergeant".
"Shit! And where is King?"
*********
Something chilly had dropped into the depths of the pyramid King felt it at the same time that forced himself to blink to refresh his eyesight. Most people got dry eyes from staring at one thing for too long with the unusual attention interfering with the natural blinking movement of the eye, where the brain normally unconsciously closed the eyelids several times each minute. He tried to relax his kneeled legs but kept a tight grip on the plasma rifle he was holding.
He had switched his suit's targeting system back to IR since it gave better contrast of any heat emitting form that skulked into the corridor. A few moments ago he had heard another undifferentiated sound coming from one of the corridor and he motioned Camay to be ready for whatever was coming down there.
The IR image showed the passageway clean and there was still a bluish tone being reflected at the distance off the walls probably coming from the chamber that King and Camay had passed on their way to here. He had chosen the spot where he was standing because it was the darkest one of the passageway while the other end still had some illumination coming. As he switched back to natural light he saw the indication that he was waiting and that neither IR or vislight could give him: a shadow quickly flickered on the left wall directly facing one of the corridors.
An almost invisible looming shape covered the floor to join the darkness on the wall and has moments slowly rushed by King tightened his grip on the handle and squeezed the trigger.
Inside the rifle's magazine a small portion of Elerium was suddenly released into the end of a small particle accelerator whose main portion was less than an inch wide but consisted of a tube that was so small that unwrapped had a length of several kilometers. Equally small sized magnets lining it powered subatomic particles across its length until they collided with the Unp-115 at the end and provoked a nuclear fission reaction.
The discharge process of a plasma weapon using Elerium was threefold. First a portion of the Elerium was immediately consumed, releasing anti-matter which annihilated itself in contact with normal matter, releasing energy, which was then used to power a low intensity laser to excite the path of the beam and reduce any atmospheric friction. Second, the energy was also used to control the anti-gravity fields produced by the fission and mold them into a containment path that followed the laser. The anti-gravity field was usually the first physical effect suffered by the target as it gave a slight amount of pressure but most of its effects were centered into something else.
The last step of the process was actually a combination of the first two but it was what it gave the weapons its destructive power. The particle accelerator also propelled the remains of the Elerium charge down the barrel of the weapon. There the anti-gravity field took over and directed the still active Unp-115 through the path of the laser. As it traveled along the path of the laser the field compressed the thin Martian atmosphere to produce a cracking sound during its flight. By the time of impact with the target it was nothing more than a small mass of contained energy and anti-matter particles glowing brightly green and lighting the corridor as the weapon had already completed its reloading cycle and King scanned for his target for a second shot.
**********
"Doctor Johannes" Lieutenant White's angry voice made the scientist stop with one foot already placed upon the next step of the long stairway. She looked upwards and into the bright light beacons coming out of Hopkins' power suit, which was leading the squad downwards from the command chamber.
She raised her hand to block the searchlights pointed at her as Hopkins quickly rushed down the steps to meet her. "What's happening Sergeant?" Then she asked in a worried tone. "Who's been firing?"
Behind them Jones shared a look with Rodriguez as they stood holding their laser rifles. They quickly moved past the pair and rushed downstairs as Hopkins scanned her for any injury. "Are you alright?"
"I think my oxygen unit has malfunctioned".
"Doctor..." By now the White had joined the larger armored figure of Hopkins with Yusuf following close and the officer was not pleased. "Where the hell have you been? Are you nuts? What happened?"
She pointed downwards. "Well, I thought I had seen some carvings downstairs so I thought I might take a couple of photos of them". She waved her portable camera for them to see. "But I think my oxygen level must have dropped because I passed out and I woke up with the sound of a shot being fired".
"Doctor, don't ever go out without an escort if you want to live! That was a very, very stupid thing to do" His rebuttal made her cringe backwards but he ignored her reaction. "Rodriguez, Jones, find King and Camay! I want to know just what happened"
**********
Three hours later King was finishing racking his power suit back up to the ceiling while Camay was to his left and reading her own armor to be placed back on storage. Holding a small yellow control pad that hung from the metal trappings above him King press a button and small engines started pulling the suit upwards by small alien alloy chains. There were eight holding pods for the suits attached to the ceiling of the Avenger's main bay, each one with his own elevation system. Each tortoise shaped exoskeleton weighted more than two hundred pounds back on Earth and although Mars' own gravity reduced the weight to less than the half it was still a big mass in terms of volume to move around.
King watched the suit move upwards with the Elerium powered engine pulling it up slowly in a rattling sound. Camay had already finished locking the suit and fixing the steel chains on lifting points built into the back of the armor. The rest of the squad had already finished their securing their equipment and were inside their cabinets and sleeping, with the exception of the commander and Dr. Boronin, plus Major Seymour who was keeping an eye on the scanners. They had set portable motion scanners covering a perimeter around the spacecraft and anything moving would set out an alarm on the cockpit of the Avenger. The lights on the other section of the large cargo bay were already dimmed but he could see Dr. Johannes busy around one of the workstations while Boronin stood beyond her, both with their backs turned against each other.
Moving closer to one of the view ports he looked at the massive figure of the Pyramid and reflecting on the day's events. "Still wondering?" Camay's low voice came from behind him as she got up and reached for another control pad.
"Yeah". He assented. "There was something up there". Back there on the corridor he had been surprised when he had seen the plasma blast fly by the space where he had calculated his target would occupy based on its apparent movement. His eyes had immediately scanned again but this time they could only see the green that filled the corridor being replaced by blue as the frigid Martian atmosphere brought down the temperature. After some tense moments of waiting he had moved to the front and found no evidence of his target or any trace that it had been an alien. But he still had a certainty that he had shot at something although he might never find out what it was. After they had brought back the scientists to the Valiant the entire squad had made a sweep of the pyramid and had found nothing, which was reassuring but it still didn't explain the presence he had felt down there.
With his suit secure King picked up his plasma rifle and with a flick of a switch built close to the handle unloosed the magazine. Looking at the black clip on his hand King realized that he had just gained a ton of paperwork to fill for discharging his weapon. He would have to give a full account of how and why he had wasted ammunition worth more than a hundred thousand US dollars, according to the latest market prices. That made him curse even more than having missed the shot.
"Commander...." Taken aback from his mental wonderings by Johannes's voice Boronin turned his body on his chair on the other side of the Avenger's bay as the scientist approached him. "Well doctor?" The look of frustration on her head told the X-COM commander that she hadn't made any progress after finishing to review to the orbital scans. She had stayed awake all night finishing the examination.
"All orbital scans show negative to any tracks of active Elerium power sources. As for any deposits the background radiation simply makes the whole thing like finding a needle on a hay stack". He slowly exhaled as he paused to consider the information. Despite King's incident at the D&M Pyramid they had spend their days on Mars without encountering any alien activity and now the scans had confirmed it, something that relieved him although he knew that they couldn't let their guard down. But what it also meant was that they would have to start making scans of probable areas, without any indication of where they should look at. They already had lost a number of days at the Pyramid site and would have to start investigating other areas at once. The question was deciding which ones.
"Start making a list of sites for us to investigate after we check out the City doctor". Johannes paused before acknowledging and then said. "Commander, I believe that it is useless to stay on Cydonia much more. We should start with the areas outlaying it immediately. I have already mapped a number of possible locations...".
Boronin hadn