Alien forces have begun a war for earth, but the allied forces of the world fight against them with Xcom. But they aren't ready for another alien visiter, Twilight Sparkle, newly crowned Princess of Equestria.
Twilight is lost in another world which is already facing an extra terrestrial terror. Will these strange humanoid creatures see Twilight as a friend or foe? Will she ever go back? And what will happen to her home while she is lost?
Twilight was anxious, and she knew she shouldn’t be. Sure, this event had the villainous trio’s statue in the event, which she always felt unnerved about. And sure, both Princess Celestia and Luna were there, the previous rulers of Equestria, which they might judge her about how well this went. But, she knew she could handle all of that, she was a good ruler herself now, and her friends were nearby if she needed support. But even despite that, she felt like something was going to go wrong. Very, very, wrong.
“Twilight, it is just a museum opening in Ponyville! It’s not that important and you can handle it!” She said to herself as she paced just inside, her feelings defying her logic.
She then saw Spike give her the signal, and she took a deep breath. She then walked out and began her speech on her past adventures and the threats they faced. Though her friends were around through the speech, and everything was going as planned, she still felt like something was going to go wrong.
She quickly finished her speech, and grabbed cloth covering the statue of the villainous trio, and pulled it off. Many ponies oled and oohed, but Twilight got more and more worried. Pinkie's worried look didn’t help much either.
"Aww, come on Twilight," Pinkie said as she tapped her hoof rapidly on the ground, "Can we speed up the whole revealing the meanies. There's an afterparty with your name on it! I wrote it myself!"
“Sure thing Pinkie” Twilight said before a beam of light engulfed her…
And that was all she remembered.
{April 2st, 2015, United States of America, 4pm}
Twilight didn’t feel right. The young alicorn groaned as she awoke, her eyes refusing to open. She sighed and rolled onto her hooves, then started to stretch her wings, which refused her commands.
“What in Celestia’s name just happened? Ok think Twilight, you were opening a museum… pinkie said something about a party… then… light? UGH, that’s just great! I have no clue what that was! Am I even still in the museum?” She asked herself as she tried to open her eyes again, but they felt heavy, and useless.
Grunting in pain, Twilight slowly stood up and tried to recover her balance. As she pushed herself up she noticed the ground being unusually hard and rough. Quite unlike the floor of the museum but more like... Manehattan asphalt?
“Ok, that’s new for Ponyville,” She thought, her mind filled with hundreds of new questions, "Wait, am I still in Ponyville?. Maybe I was forcefully teleported somewhere else? But where, and why? Did it have something to do with-”
Twilight had her thoughts interrupted by unnatural hissing in the distance.
“EEP!” She yelped as she went flat to the ground, hoping that whatever creature had made that noise wasn’t close, as she heard two more hisses. “Ok, Twilight, you are a Princess now, not a scared filly. Just need to open your eyes.” She finally managed to force her eyes open, and found herself blinded by the glare from the afternoon sun, which didn’t help her confusion. She got over it after a second and found herself surrounded by barrels made of metal on one side, and a large brick building on the other.
“Ok, this definitely isn’t Ponyville, but where am I then?” She said as she heard two more hisses.
Trying to get her bearings she looked around for a vantage point to assess where she was. She spotted a balcony above her, unfurled her wings, and flew up to it. Unfortunately, her wings began to sting in pain as she crashed onto the balcony instead of a soft landing.
“Ow… my wings are still... asleep, I think?. That’s fine, I didn’t even have them for years, so going without them won’t be that hard… right?” She shook off her fear and pushed open the door to the balcony, and found the room inside in total disarray. There was a flipped-over bed laying against a wall, while a dresser had large cuts in it. She gulped and rushed out into the hallway. She reasoned that this was most likely a hotel.
She heard something land hard on another balcony. She gasped as her heart began racing, “O-ok Twilight, I’m s-sure that it was just something like a P-pegasus landing f-from a flight… s-so why am I s-so terrified?”
She began to hear bizarre noises and light footsteps. Her heart raced faster as a door opened, and something walked out. It was something looking vaguely like a human from the other world, but there were too many small things off about it. It had an unnatural bend to it’s form, it’s head was too small, and it’s eyes seemingly too tiny to properly use. It’s “hair” looked as flat as Twilight's own coat, it had scales that reminded Twilight of Spikes molt, and the entire creature lacked the vibrant colors of humans and ponies alike. The oddest thing was the object it was holding, a mix of gray, black, and green panels and boxes placed on some twisted microphone. It seemed unnatural, and dangerous.
Whatever the creature was, it quickly spotted Twilight, and pointed the object at her, as green energy collected in it. Suddenly, a door opened and another creature, a smaller one of whatever this creature was, stepped out with a teddy bear. Twilight recognized it must be a foal of these creatures. It seemed to speak to the larger one, and it pointed the object at it. Twilight didn’t have time to question what was happening, before the large creature blasted the smaller one with the energy like a spell…
That’s when she saw the hole in the foal’s chest.
Twilight suddenly began to hyperventilate. She knew what had just happened, that the small creature had been killed. She had read about death in a book when she was young. But this… It had happened in front of here, and by a creature seeming to be of its own kind!
The large lanky creature straightened itself and pointed the device that had killed the small creature at her.
“NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! PLEASE, STOP!” She screamed, but as she saw its eyes, previously obscured by its glasses. It showed a look of a complete lack of compassion towards her, and she knew… It wanted to kill her. “NO!!!!” She screamed with pure terror as she tried to push it into the floor with her magic. Her latent magical strength was so vast, and now unleashed in hope of survival, that she crushed the creature in an instant.
Twilight stood there, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened, and what she just did. She didn’t have time to, as she quickly felt her body course with energy, and she fell unconscious…
---
Lawrence walked cautiously through the roads, trying to locate the last known Xeno the squad had found. He mumbled about the bloody name, “Thin Man” the rookie called it before getting shot into a car by it’s weapon. Lawrence was shocked when they stood back up and punched the thing. He heard a shot from the xeno inside a hotel, and rushed up a nearby ladder to get up to it. When he arrived, he saw a thin man, and something like a cartoon house made of flesh and blood, with wings and a horn no less. He prepared to fire before seeing the horse seem to radiate energy from its horn before seemingly crushing the Thin man. He fired his arc thrower at the creature, knocking it out.
“... Commander. Mission accomplished. Some Casualties but prep the lab we are bringing in one alive. And it's a strange one to be sure.” Lawrence said over his radio.
“What do you mean strange?” The Commander asked over the radio quickly
“Well I have never seen Xeno's fight each other and, well, you’ll see.”
{April 2st, 2015, United States of America, 6:48pm}
The sounds of the hanger were something Dr. Vahlen had to get used to, but she was always the first non-technician at it after a mission. She stood out of the way of the landing, but was close enough to immediately see whatever the soldier’s managed to bring back. This had given various people incorrect impressions about her, but she ignored them except when they brought it up to her face. Today was no different, though now she had someone else with her.
“Hello Doctor Vahlen, glad to see you are still making your trips here.” Dr Shen said,trying to have a conversation with Vahlen.
“I don’t have many reasons to be glad, seeing as another pair of soldiers have gotten killed in this war. The only saving grace of this mission is that one of the xenos has been captured alive this time, unlike the many times our soldiers used explosives… and yet there is an entire specialization for it now.” Vahlen said, trying to shut down this conversation quickly.
“... So, what do you think the new alien is anyway?”
“According to a recording of a radio communication from the soldier who found it, it attacked another x-ray, so I’m going to guess it is some sort of attack dog that was poorly trained, at least till I’m able to see it for myself” Vahlen said, looking over her messy note about her first impressions at that information.
“Perhaps it is really some sort of mechanical creation that had a glitch in it’s system. If that is the case, then it could perhaps be remade by us as a soldier.” Shen said, his hand holding a camera, hoping to get any information on any alien technology they obtain.
“Unfortunately, that is impossible, given machines can’t be shut down with the Arc Thrower, meaning it has to be organic.”
“Fine, then what if it is something like one of the units we have seen before, but it attacked another due to infighting” Shen asked, and Vahlen began to ponder about that possibility.
“If what you suggest is the truth, what would cause this infighting? The xenos so far have shown no major interactions with each other, other than the Sectoids’ mind merge.” Vahlen asked.
Before either got an opportunity to figure out an answer, the skyrangers returned to base. As they do, various personnel began rushing around, from engineers to scientists, all having everything handled. As the backs of the Skyrangers opened, Shen saw a group of scientists get really happy and a few others passed around some money. He was used to a few soldiers doing that, but why the scientists?
“I’m guessing the scientists have a bet on if they would bring any in alive today?” Shen asked, remembering losing a 20 because of his bet.
“... No, it is something… different…” Vahlen said, glad she didn’t participate in it.
The both of them walk towards the Skyrangers as the soldiers step out. Out of the 2 squads of 4, 5 came back alive.
“They are all yours Doc” A soldier named Lawrence said to Vahlen as he passed by the pair.
That’s when they saw… it… She almost wanted to think it was a prank, but there it was, a purple, quite small, horse.
“That looks like one of Lily’s toys became flesh and blood without any changes at all” Said Dr. Shen.
“I hope that doesn’t mean you’re going to get attached to it. After a preliminary examination, it will be immediately Interrogated, as would any other specimen captured alive.” Vahlen said, while looking over the name of it, and was happy to find it was still empty. “Now, this… Pforda-”
“Ah, I think you mean Cerapter” Vahlen was interrupted by Shen, and just stared at him and shook her head.
“Though, I doubt the invaders are trying to create infiltration units for horses, it seems to be a twisted facsimile of a horse. For example, in addition to the easily noticed wings and horn, there seems to be no clear hoof structure on its legs. The “coat” of the creature also is an odd purple color, as well as it’s “mane” sharing the color in different shades, though I can’t currently determine if it is genetic manipulation that causes the color or if it is a dye.”
Both doctors followed alongside the specimen as it was moved towards the lab. Vahlen grabbed one of its wings and lifted it as the specimen let out a dull groan. “It appears that the wings of this creature are either meant for high speeds or passive soaring, though they don’t seem to be powerful enough to lift it. There is a high chance that it uses some other force or ability to fly, in addition to the wings.”
“Or it could be like how bumblebees fly,” Shen remarks. Vahlen breathes in deeply, and clenches her fist a few times before returning her focus to the specimen.
They arrive at the labs, as Vahlen pulls the transport platform farther in and continues as the other scientists prepare the interrogation chamber. She then moves the lips to examine the teeth. “Interesting. It seems that it is a herbivore, like the horses of earth, which is odd as we are not sure how the aliens obtain their nutrients given the sectiod’s lack of a mouth. There also appears to be a bit of food still stuck in these molars, which I will have tests run on so I can at least determine its origin. Now then, is the Interrogation Chamber ready yet?”
One of the scientists nods, as Vahlen steps back as another moves the specimen into the chamber.
“I would watch this historic discovery, but I don’t want to have to think about my daughters toy scream bloody murder when I get home.” Shen said as he walked out of the lab, with a faint feeling that something bad was about to happen.
---
Twilight groaned, her eyes heavy and her head feeling like it was hit by a brick! She attempted to open her eyes, but they felt too heavy. “Ugh, what happened? The last thing I remember is… I don’t even know right now,” She tried to open her eyes, but she quickly got blinded by a bright white light, “Oww, that’s annoying.”
She closed her eyes again, and heard different groups of unintelligible noises. She managed to open her eyes again, and saw a lot of different Human-like creatures in lab coats, though she had to look through glass to see them. She began to stand up, and clear her head.
“Ahem, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I’m not sure how I got here, but your help in getting home would be greatly appreciated.” Twilight said, not sure of how else to get their help so quickly. They seem to ignore her.
“... um, hello? Can you understand me? Hello?” Twilight asked worriedly, as one of the creatures pressed something, as odd metal hoove-like structures came out of the walls.
“W-what are you doing? I-I don’t like this!” Twilight cried out, her fear beginning to take over, and her horn beginning to glow brightly. One of the creatures began to press more buttons, as another looked worried. The metal hooves began to buzz loudly as blue energy surrounded them.
“G-get those away from me!” She screamed as forced the things back, and the metal bent and tore. Many of the creatures began to back away as the hooves coursed with even more energy, and Twilight began to feel it in her head! She screamed out in pain as her magic poured out of her horn and she suddenly teleported above a desk, falling onto it.
The desk broke under Twilight’s weight, causing so many things to go everywhere. Her entire body ached, and her mind felt like it was on fire, which wasn’t helped by sudden alarms blaring. She groaned, and began to try to get up.
---
Vahlen watched the creature begin to freak out like the others, but something was horrifyingly wrong.
{April 2st, 2015, United States of America, 7:13pm}
Ney Bens carried a chessboard with him towards the infirmary, knowing that his friend was in there. “Seriously, Jerry is the only guy I know who would literally put the mission above his own life, but he ran towards an x-ray to punch it!”
He entered the infirmary, and saw Lawrence talking to Jerry, who was covered in bandages, but still getting back up.
“Jerry,” Lawrence said while rubbing the bridge of his nose, “you need to rest. You got thrown into a car, and you still want to head to continue your workout? I’m not even sure how you survived”
“Heh, just lucky I guess. But seriously, what's the problem with a workout?” Jerry replied.
“You could tear more muscles and cause even more damage to your body. Plus you're on a lot of pain killers and you don’t have good hand eye coordination currently, let alone balance!”
“You kidding? I take stronger on weekends for fun!” Jerry said, which Bens tried to ignore
“..., ignoring that, still, the commander won’t let you go anyway, and I don’t want to get on his bad side. I haven’t seen that man smile since I've been a part of xcom.”
“What are you talking about, last week he laughed at Bradford’s joke” Jerry said, which was a surprise to Bens.
“I meant a real smile, tell me that laugh wasn’t forced as all hell” Lawrence said.
“... that laugh wasn’t forced as all hell” Jerry said, just before an alarm went off.
“Oh shit! That x-ray must have escaped!” Lawrence said to himself as he grabbed his rifle, as Jerry did as well. Bens tossed the chessboard and grabbed his pistol and sniper as quickly as possible. As if this day wouldn’t get any worse, Bens thought to himself.
---
Twilight finally managed to dull out the alarm in her head and stood up. Ok… what do I do now? She thought to herself, as she looked around. The location was mostly taken up by the terrifying chamber in the center, with a catwalk around it with guard rails along it. She seemed to have landed in a small work area near one of the two doors, and destroyed what appeared to be the only table there. Way to go Twilight, you destroyed someone else's table without thinking. She grumbled to herself as she finally realized that the alarm was gone.
“Finally,” She said with a small smile, “now maybe I can figure out how to talk to these… creatures... “ Why did they attack me? She thought, before pushing that thought out of her mind. She handled worse, at least she hoped she did.
She began to look around at the mess she made in her escape, and picked up the papers and one of their pens, though it’s similarities to the ones of the human world continued her confusion on what these things even are. She sat down, and sorted the papers into two piles, ones with writing, which she couldn’t understand, and blank paper. After that bit of organization, she took one of the empty pieces, and began to make a simple message, before crossing it out and rewriting it. This needs to be easily understandable she thought to herself just as a deafening alarm started! Twilight screamed in terror and pain as her heart began racing. She jolted up and forced open one of the doors. There was only one thought right now, GET OUT!
---
The Commander ran to the security room, the alarms blaring loudly around him, and threw open the door. “How did an x-ray get free?” He asked as he caught his breath. Vahlen and Shen were in the room, looking as terrified as he was.
“Somehow the captured specimen managed to “teleport” out of the interrogation chamber, in addition to destroying the control arms. I’ve never seen anything like it’s capabilities!”
“Dr. Vahlen, what do you mean teleport?” The Commander asked with worry in his voice.
“It went from inside the chamber to in the air above a desk without damaging the glass in the chamber, in a few seconds, though I wasn’t able to get an accurate time. In addition, and this is the more terrifying part in my opinio-” Vahlen said before getting interrupted by the Commander.
“Wait, what can be more terrifying than teleportation?”
“... it seems to be able to manipulate matter remotely, including the crushing of the control arms, at strengths beyond any human capability. There is currently no known explanation for this, and I fear that it is connected to it’s teleportation capabilities as well.” Vahlen said.
The Commander thinks for a moment then clears his throat, “I see. This is becoming a big old mess. We need to get this situation under control. Send a squad with arc throwers to capture it. If that proves unfeasible, kill it.”
“Yes sir… hey, the alarm is off?”
Shen rolls his eyes, “I warned those people that the Intrusion alarms were all undermaintaned, and now one of the most important ones failed” he said as Vahlen informed a small squad of three about the Commanders orders.
“Shen, get a different alarm going then! We can’t risk people thinking that the situation is secure when it isn’t!” The commander said, and Shen quickly nodded and got to work.
A minute or two later the soldiers were at the entrance Vahlen had said it was near, and were ready to breach into the room, when an insanely loud alarm suddenly blared in the base, causing everyone to cover their ears!
“SHEN! WHAT IS HAPPENING?” the Commander yelled.
“THE ALARM WAS SET TOO LOUD! I’LL FIND A WAY TO SHUT IT DOWN!” Shen yelled back as the Commander saw the X-ray escape out the door.
---
“Lawrence! Get the net!” Jerry said as they all went next to the door, much too the annoyance of Lawrence.
“I still can’t believe they are still trying to capture this liability! It’s already been able to escape it’s containment once, what’s stopping it from getting out again! Besides, Vahlen said it wrecked the chamber anyway, so why are we capturing it alive? And Jerry, why did you grab a net from the armory before knowing about our orders to bring it in alive if possible?” He said as they all got ready to open the doors.
“No idea, but we have our orders… Say, what does this thing look like Lawrence? I never got to see it.” Bens asked.
“It's a purple horse alien. Just help us catch it.” Lawrence said with a straight face.
“... I’m sorry what” Bens said looking very confused.
“You heard me” Lawrence said as suddenly a debilitatingly loud alarm went off!
They all covered their ears trying to shut it out, but to no avail. Suddenly, the doors were forced open and the purple horse alien ran out and past all of them. Lawrence pulled his pistol and attempted to fire at it but missed terribly thanks to the blaring alarm. The trio ran after it, but they struggled because of the noise, though the creature seemed mostly fine traveling the halls.
The alarms finally stopped just as Lawrence took another shot, but he still missed again. The creature just kept running, seeming to only run in fear, not looking for an escape? Bens didn’t understand it, but kept up the chase. It randomly just turned around and ran at them, it’s horn glowing with an unknown energy. So this is how I die, to a purple horse because I wasn’t ready? Bens thought as it kept running at them. Just before it reached them, they were all covered in a similar energy and were unable to move! Yep, this is how I die. Bens accepted before seeing the creature only run past them and then release them from the energy?
“Why didn’t it kil-”
“Probably didn’t have time!” Lawrence yelled as he fired at it again, this time with his aec thrower, but it missed. “The hell is wrong with these things today?”
They managed to chase it into the canteen, where Jerry picked up a bag of sliced apples, and Lawrence fired at it again with his arc thrower, missing once more.
“Oh come on! That’s it, I’m killing that thing, since we can’t knock it out anymore.”
“What? I thought Jerry had an arc thrower!” Bens said, as Jerry shook his head”
They managed to chase all the way to the hall of offices that the higher ups had for themselves. Before it could run through the hall, multiple gunshots hit the ground and forced it into an office, where another soldier closed the door on it.
“Phew, thanks… um… who are you?” Bens asked politely, getting a laugh from the soldier.
“The name is Salanda, and you are welcome” She replied.
---
Twilight dashed down a hallway, entirely lost at this point and her fear only growing with all the loud noises and the creatures chasing her, only to find another creature blocking her path only for the creature to unleash a rapid fire hail of small fireballs at the ground between them. She scrambled to her hooves and went the other direction, and into another room. By the time she realized there was no other way out, she had the door closed on her. She tried to calm down but her brain and heart were just going too fast. She peered out at the creatures, and began to notice differences between them and the odd creature that she… “Dreamt”, like the fact they were all shorter, and lacked any glasses. She also noticed they all had hair, but each had different colors, lengths and other differences to them, and none of them seemed to have any as long as the girls back in the human world.
They all had some form of shared clothing, though one was covered in bandages and had pieces of it missing, made up of a rare thick material that Rarity had mentioned once, called “Leather”. They had shoes like the ones she wore to the fall formal in the human world, though smaller and in black. Other than their heads, and the one in bandages, their skin was entirely covered. She also noticed that there was a symbol on the outfits, though she couldn’t make out what it ment. One was the color of burned wood, and seemed to have been the one that had gotten her in this room. Another looked lighter, like most of the creatures in that first room, but they seemed to have a sword on their form, which she had only ever seen in her books. The one covered in bandages seemed to be holding a small bag, Twilight couldn’t really tell the contents of it. The last looked the most angry of them all, and she seemed sure it was the one that nearly shocked her.
She couldn’t worry about that at the moment, she just needed to figure out how to get them to stop fighting, find out where she was, and how to get back home. It was a tall order, but she was sure she could handle it.
{April 2st, 2015, United States of America, 7:19pm}
Bens sat down in front of the door to catch his breath, and decided to ask Salanda a few questions.
“So, how did you get here to herd the thing into this office, and did you have to fire at the ground in front of it? That could have hit us”
“I was just here looking for whatever caused the alarms to go crazy, when I saw that hisan running at me. Oh, and just be glad I didn’t have a grenade this time, or you really wouldn’t have liked my help” She said with a smile.
“... um-”
“That was a joke. Anyway, what the hell are we calling that thing anyway?” She asked as she looked in the office, and saw it stare back at her, before ducking to try to hide itself.
“Hmm, Horse racer? No, Excuse for Ketimen?” Jerry said with a smile as the others groaned. “No, WAIT! “Gigapossum”.”
“Jerry, we are not calling it Gigapossum. Just… just no.” Was all Lawrence could say.
“So… what now? We don’t have any Arc Throwers that aren’t empty, and the thing isn’t doing anything yet” Bens asked, as he caught the creature looking at him too, before hiding again.
“Well, how about me and you stay here and guard the door while the others grab a new Arc Thrower?” Jerry suggested as he sat on the ground with Bens.
“Well, the commander will at least wanna hear about this. We have to decide what to do from here, either trying to stun her again or tossing grenades to blow her up, or something like that… And I just realized I didn't grab my radio…” all of them got griminced after hearing that, “And it looks like you all did as well. Salanda and I will let them know about the situation. And before you ask why Salanda, you were the one to catch the thing, so you might get some leeway. I’ll just take whatever punishment they give me. ” Lawrence said, with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
“Alright then.” Bens said as Lawrence and Salanda left to let the Commander know about this. After a minute or two, Jerry pulled out his apple slices bag, and opened it up. They both of them heard a loud stomach growl, and Bens took a look at Jerry.
“Wasn’t me. I think it was that thing in there.” Jerry responded, as Bens then turned to see the creature staring again, this time at the bag. Bens looks at the bag, and swipes it from Jerry.
“HEY! What are you doing?”
“It’s hungry, and this is the only food around right now.” He replied as he turned around and looked at the creature, and raised the bag of apple slices as it started to duck away. It stops and stares at him. He then opened the door a crack and tossed in the bag, and shut the door right after. He then watched as it’s horn began to glow and the bag began to float, then a single apple slice rose from the bag, both items covered in the same energy as he was before. It then ate the apple slice in one bite, and then looked at the bag, specifically the logo, and suddenly seemed, sad?
“Dang it, and I liked Jack’s apples.” Jerry said mockingly as the creature ate another slice, then looked back at Bens with a human-like smile. As he looked at it better, he saw that the eyes were unnecessarily large, larger even then a sectoids, and looked like a human’s as well.
“What was this one made for…”
“I don’t know, maybe as a pet for the aliens?”
“Maybe, but then why would it be so powerful?”
The creature continued eating as it seemed to think. It then picked up a marker from a desk in the office, and drew a smiley face on the door window. It then smiled again, as Bens snickered lightly. Lawrence, Salanda, Vahlen, and the others finally got there, slightly out of breath.
“Alright, what is the situation?” The commander asked, looking at the door with confusion, seeing the drawing and the creature eating, “And where did it get those apples?”
“... I have no idea sir” Lawrence said, ready with more Arc Throwers, and ready to use all of them.
“Ahem, the creature is currently contained and seems to not be attempting to flee any longer.” Bens said with a small salute.
“This thing also seems to be good at acting friendly.” Jerry said with a light laugh as Lawrence looked at him, pissed.
“You cannot possibly be falling for this Jerry. Just like a Thin man it is designed for deception. Don't forget what it nearly did to us.” Lawrence said, with an honest disdain in his voice.
“Um, what does a “Thin Man” look like anyway? I haven’t gotten a chance to see one anyway.”
“Let's just say they look like a human but are too tall and thin. They have reptile features on their bodies. It is a bit of an uncanny Valley. I think this is their horse version of that.”
“... and the tactical advantage to that?” Jerry asked, which stumped Lawrence for a moment before ignoring that.
“What you are doing now fawning over it rather than doing your job. Giving it an opportunity to finish you like that Thin Man tried to do to you Jerry.”
“No, I’m trying to understand why they would make this thing look like a horse. What tactical advantage does it give them?” Jerry tried to explain as the Commander spoke calmly.
“Lawrence, given its capabilities, I fear if it wanted to kill us, it has had plenty of time to do so, as well as the power to do so even now.”
“Didn't I just stop it from killing us Ben?” Lawrence asked, getting worked up.
“... When?”
“The cantina with that strange energy it has. I scared it into letting you go!”
“Those events happened at separate times, and the time you fired at it it was far ahead of us and still running. And when it had the energy on us, it just ran past us, and you didn’t get to fire then” Bens reminded a now quite angry Lawrence, most likely for messing up the events.
“Considering what it did to the containment chamber and that Thin Man, how do you think your unarmoured human body would fare against that. It still has to be dealt with.” Lawrence said as he calmed down, leaving Bens with a new set of questions.
“Agreed Rookie, but we have no good form of containment, and we can't risk it acting in self defense in our base and causing more damage. I suggest we try to keep it away from everyone and everything until the interrogation chamber is repaired, at least. Until then, we need a security detail to take it out if it tries to escape.” The Commander said, though Lawrence wanted to argue, the Commander's word was law in this base.
“Yes sir. But how will we transfer it? Shock collar or drugging it senseless?”
“Hmm, I suggest a form of shock collar, so it doesn’t dodge the effect, or die because of its alien biology,” Vahlen said as she typed on her tablet, “so, does anyone have a shock collar, or shall I need to make a special one?”
“Special. Use an arc thrower. Maybe explosive if necessary.” Lawrence said as Vahlen mumbled under her breath.
“Fine. Give me a few hours to Jerry-rig something.” Vahlen sighed, though Jerry giggled. “Oh, and be careful, it seems to be able to teleport, so stay on your guard” she said as she walked away. “Wait, WHAT?” Lawrence said in confusion as the Commander and Vahlen walked away to figure out how to handle the thing.
---
Twilight watched as the creatures went in different directions, some remaining on the other side of the door, seeming to argue about something. Better figure out how to start to communicate with them soon, she thought, eating another slice of apple as she did. She looked back at the bag, and frowned upon seeing it. It has three apples on it, in the same pattern as Applejack’s cutie mark. She worried she might never understand those creatures, let alone get home, when she got an idea. She looked under the picture of apples on the bag for anything that they might be called here, and found a set of 5 that appeared quite often. That is hopefully their word for apples, she said as she grabbed an empty piece of paper and a pen from the desk in the room. She copied the symbols as best as she could, and then drew some apples next to it, and put it up to the door.
“Please be right” she said to herself as she waited to see what they would do.
---
Lawrence wanted to strangle Bens and Jerry. “What were you two thinking! That thing is a hostile alien, and you both are convinced it didn’t mean to harm us? It paralyzed us with unknown energy! What if it was controlling you! I shouldn’t have even brought it back alive!.”
"Look, I get what you're saying but that thing doesn’t seem to be trying to harm us, and for all we know, it is some alien’s pet. I think we should just go with the commander’s plan here.” Bens said, as Jerry looked shocked at the door.
“Guys-”
“Bens, give me an actual argument! You don’t know for certain it wasn’t trying to kill us there!”
“Guys-”
“Hey, I have as much of an argument as you do about this Lawrence! If it was trying to kill us then, why isn’t it trying now!”
“Guys!” Jerry yelled a bit, startling Salanda, and angering Lawrence more
“What is it Jerry!” He yelled, as Jerry pointed at the door.
They all then noticed the sign with a picture of three apples, and the word “Apple” on it, though the word looked like a kindergartener drew it.
“...Well we can cross off just acting off instinct. Score one for an infiltration alien.” Lawrence said with a smile, though the others just stared at him.
“... an infiltration alien… that looks like a toy horse… that has only written the word… Apple?... Are you sure about that theory Lawrence?” Salanda asked, still feeling that this creature is dangerous, but couldn’t subscribe to that crazy theory.
“Considering how much Jerry is fawning over it I would say yes. Why else would it be that strong and look like that?” Lawrence replied, as Jerry walked without responding.
“Look, Lawrence, we have it contained for now and that's all that matters. We’ll figure out what is up with it later. Can we please stop arguing now?” Bens asked.
"Hardly. It's just hanging out in an office, and it can teleport!"
“Look, we are only keeping the thing here until the collar is done and we can move it to a separate location” Salanda replied as Jerry returned with a full apple.
“Fine. For now let's make sure it doesn't get out.” He said, just before Jerry opened the door to the office, and placed the apple he had in it. “Oh great, Jerry is a freaking idiot who would hug a tiger or let a thin man go because he looks like he is in the middle of his crossword puzzle!”
“Hey, might as well. Maybe if we feed it, it will cooperate with us.” Jerry responded as the creature picked up the apple and seemingly squealed with excitement, surprising everyone.
“... One of these days Jerry is going to get himself killed.” Lawrence said as Jerry closed the door.
---
Twilight waited for a while, but eventually, the door opened and another apple, this time a whole one, was placed in the room.
“YES!” She screamed before realizing how loud that was. “Ok, so I can use writing to communicate with them… but how in Celestia’s name am I going to figure out all the right words…”
She began to look through everything in the office for anything with pictures and words on it, and unfortunately she didn’t find much she could understand. Though something she did find was a repeating series of 4 symbols on almost everything. “Hmm, I wonder what this one means? Maybe it is a brand or something?” She then looked at the creatures outside the room, and noticed they all had the symbols on a patch on their clothes. “This is definitely important to them.”
She then drew them out with as much care as she could, and showed it to the creatures who seemed confused, though their attention was pulled away by another creature. They opened up the door, and placed a large screen on the ground with a card memory game on it into the room.
“Odd, but alright… hmm, I better draw the cards so I can remember what they are and where they are.” She said to herself as she grabbed some more paper, and hoping whoever this room belonged to didn’t mind. What followed was a simple memory game with the cards flipping over as she tapped them with her hoof and after choosing 2 they flipped back over on their own. “Simple, but might be something to try to recreate at home.”
It took Twilight a while, but she eventually beat the game, and the door opened a bit. She waited, then realised they wouldn’t open it more with her watching it. More odd things, she thought as she walked to the other end of the room, and sat on her hind legs. One of the creatures then opened the door more and removed the screen, all the while staring at her as if she was utterly alien, which she could guess would happen a lot more in the future. They then closed the door. Twilight yawned a bit and curled up like a cat to get some rest, though a small thought entered her mind as she dozed off, Why am I here…
---
Bens stared at the creature’s replication of “Xcom”, trying to understand why it did that, when he got tapped on his shoulder.
“Mr. Bens, you mind if I do something?” Shen asked, as Bens saw the older man was carrying what looked like a table the size of a small Tv screen.
“Um, depends on what it is you are trying to do.”
“Well, given Valhen is handling the engineering for this next project, I thought I might as well do a simple test to figure out how intelligent this creature is. It is only a simple memory card game, and entirely digital so I can be a safe distance from it as it is tested.” Shen said in response, with a slight smile on his face.
“Oh boy. This is going to be a long day.” Lawrence mumbled, his hand hovered over his arc thrower, “Shouldn’t we wait for it to get it’s collar?”
“It is already in the room, so might as well take the opportunity.”
“Well, if you insist on doing this I will cover you just in case.” Lawrence said as he opened the door for him, and Shen placed the device into the room. They all watched as it looked at it, and then grabbed paper? Shen nearly lost his mind when it drew out the cards on the paper as it flipped them in order to know where they were.
“It understood the game, and made a simple tactic to play it… as soon as we gave it the test… Incredible.” Shen said, already lost in thought about what this could mean, when he saw the writing, “Wait a minute, did it manage to write down apple AND XCOM?”
“Hey, that's a job for scientists. I just do security.” Lawrence said as the creature completed the game. Lawrence then slowly opened the door, and watched it. It then backed away from the door and sat on its hind legs like a cat. He picked up the device and closed the door. Why did it sit like a cat, was the thought in his head as he gave the Device back to Shen.
{April 3st, 2015, United States of America, 11:20am}
Bradford waited impatiently outside of the Commanders office, with a pile of papers in his hands, and he looked pissed. The Commander checked his clock and hoped he would leave soon. He has been in front of the commander’s office for nearly three hours by this point. He finally gave in and stepped out to get to eat something.
“Commander, Sir, would you care to know about what happened to my office. Cause there is no way you would allow what happened to happen if you knew about it.” Bradford said passive aggressively, as any other form would give him the possibility of a court martial.
“Well Bradford, feel free to evict our new guest if you feel so strongly about it.” The Commander said as he began to walk faster to try to lose him.
“Alright then, I will.” Bradford said, keeping up with the Commander, trying to continue the conversation.
“Oh? Then how do you plan to do that without killing it? It has unique abilities that may not be functional after death, and there was only one spotted at all, so we might never see another.” The Commander said with a stiff smile, as they both got into an elevator. The commander could already tell this was going to be a long day.
“Oh… umm… so is it just going to be stuck in my office till the war is over?”
“No, Vahlen is making something to help with it’s transport.”
“You mean she is designing it, right”
“...”
“She is only designing it, right?”
The elevator stops as a more tired than normal Vahlne runs in with something that looked like a medieval torture device in her arms. “Finally got it working!” She said too enthusiastically to be natural, like she was forcing herself to not scream at it.
“Dear lord in heaven she made it herself” Bradford said under his breath as they both stepped out. When they got to the office hallway, Lawrence was the first to see them, and made the sign of the cross over his chest when he saw the “Collar"
“Wow,” Bens said as he saw the thing, “Starting to think you should have taken your shot Lawrence. Death might be preferable to that thing.”
“That thing might be a creation of evil aliens, and is most likely one as well, but it has my sympathy today” Lawrence said, shivering as he did.
“Ok, we are a secret force to fight aliens and it's more the Geneva suggestion up in here but even I draw the line at this.” Jerry said, with Vahlen begging to mumble in annoyance.
“Vahlen, please don’t tell me you added stuff onto it to use to interrogate it.” Salanda said, the device reminding her of a heretics fork, an old slave collar and a neck torture device, all of which she was shown in a museum just before the war.
“Look, we need a way to get it to cooperate with us moving it, and this will work to do that” Vahlen said with a yawn. Lawrence looked back into the room with the creature, and remembered the test and the apples.
I can’t believe I’m doing this, he thought as he spoke out. “Um, how about we use the thing if it doesn’t cooperate.” He said, as everyone looked at him like he was the alien in the base.
"And how exactly are we supposed to put it on if the alien is being uncooperative? I’m sure the Commander wi-”
“I agree with Lawrence,” The Commander said, glad someone else said something about it, “But, since he was the one to come up with this plan, he has to handle it”
God damn it, Lawrence thought to himself as he realized what he had to do. He grabbed an Arc Thrower and opened up the office door, as everyone saw the creature curled up like a cat, while on a green sweater. Bradford looked more annoyed at this.
“I wonder, why does this creature seem to have small similarities to cats?” Vahlen said as she scribbled something onto a paper and passed it to Shen.
“No idea, but that isn’t important now.” Lawrence said as he picked up a broom handle from a nearby closet, and poked it. It yawned as it looked up at him, as it seemed confused. “Um, what do I do now?” He asked, as everyone shrugged, “Great.” He motioned for it to follow him, and surprisingly it got up and began to follow him, though it looked confused as they walked. The other soldiers stood behind it, and had their hands near their weapons if anything were to happen. Everyone else was behind the soldiers, and keeping a close eye on it.
“Lawrence is a horse whisper confirmed!” Jerry said as he followed close behind.
“If you say that again I’ll sick it on you” Lawerence replied jokingly, as they arrived at the empty room that was being designated Sunset Containment. “... Why is it called that of all things?”
“Until we have a better name for the creature, this room and all of our tests are going under the project id Sunset Glimmer.” The Commander said, causing everyone to look at him funny.
“...Why?”
“That’s what the random name generator came up with.”
Lawrence opened up the room, and the room was mostly barren, though there was a makeshift bed in the corner made from some towels and a pillow, with a blanket next to it.
“Well, this doesn’t look secure” Lawrence said.
“We didn’t have time for many modifications after the destruction of the interrogation chamber, though I assure you it has ways to “handle” the creature if it tries to get out.”
Sehn stepped inside the room and placed down a pile of papers, some crayons, and a bowl of apples.
“Shen,” Vahlen started, as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “are you trying to make this a daycare?”
“It has already shown the ability to write and draw, and I felt it would be best to provide it with the resources to do so. As for the Apples, I feel it better to get it on a schedule for its food, rather than have it asking at random times. So, in that vein, I’m going to bring in a bowl of apples every noon or so.”
The creature steps inside the room, and looks around. It spotted the paper and it’s horn began to glow, as a piece was surrounded by the energy, as well as one of the crayons. It quickly drew a picture of a book, and then carefully drew the word apple onto it. It then levitated the paper to Lawrence.
“It seems to really like apples.” Ben said, as Lawrence looked down at the paper, and passed it to Vahlen, who began to walk away. “Hey, where are you going, Vahlen?”
“I’m going to run some tests on this paper to try to identify how it just did that.” Vahlen said with a yawn.
“Alright then. Now, until we can get a group of dedicated guards, you four will continue to keep watch on our “Guest” in shifts. I would have more security, but given its appearance and it’s capabilities, I need to screen everyone before they are turned into dedicated security for this project. Can’t have anyone running away with it or shooting it under the guise of “Saving Humanity” unnecessarily. ” The Commander said.
Jerry began to argue, “Seriously? What about our training regiments! I need to keep going after that last mis-”
“All of you will receive combat pay for your houses guarding it”
“I call first shift” Jerry said excitedly, which got a light snicker from the Commander.
“Lord give me strength. Look, I will take either missions or guard duty, but not both” Lawrence said, annoyed at the extra load of work he seemed to be assigned too.|
“I think I would be better focusing on guarding this thing, and miss out on missions where I’m able to.” Bens said, seeming to be in a similar boat to Lawrence.
Salanda laughed, “You know, I’m sticking with Jerry this time and doing both. With all that extra money I could buy myself a nice house once the war is over.”
“In that case, Lawrence will be relieved of Guard duties, Bens from normal operations unless we do not have the manpower for them, and Jerry and Salanda will be doing both.” The Commander said, and that was it for that conversation. Lawrence got up and left for the barracks, and the Commander, Bradford, and Shen went back to their work.
This project has been created to handle an Unique Alien captured on April 2nd, 2015.
That day, at about 1pm, the research on the alien material now known as “Meld” was finally being presented to the Commander and Officer Bradford, but before the major decision about what to focus our time towards was able to happen an electromagnetic shockwave centered over the east coast of The United States of America, which caused rolling blackouts across the entire continent (The issue was somehow repaired by 6:30pm). Seconds later, a series of alien fighters descended onto the location the shockwave was centered on. We sent two Skyrangers to the location, and arrived after most of the fighters were destroyed thanks to the United States Military. Unfortunately, our soldier’s luck ran out then as they were ambushed by the X-rays known as “Thin Men”, and after most of the fighting ended, a pair of soldiers lost their lives and one was heavily wounded. Soon after, there was the live captor, which I now almost wish was simply a kill. The Creature, currently without an official designation and will go under the temporary coe name of UC (Unknown Creature), was apparently found next to a crushed Thin Man, and was distracted long enough to be taken care of with our Arc Throwers, and transported to our base. The other base staff will place their important information into this project.
-Personal Notes (Remove before submitting report)- The Council had better not hear about what happened today, or I’m going to have them breathing down my neck asking why I’m keeping it alive when it’s containment is decimated. I need to get together a good explanation, and nope this “gut instinct of mine” was right this time.
PROJECT ID: Sunset Glimmer
Attached notes by: Dr. Moira Vahlen
{First Impressions: Thin Man}
-From their remains they seem to be highly human-like in appearance, and given they seem to have clothing, seem as if they are meant for infiltration
-They have reptilian-like scales at the base of its neck, and reptilian eyes as well, bringing many more questions to mind about these creatures
-According to a soldier that, supposedly, got into a melee battle with one, they seem to have a poisonous cloud they can shoot out into a range, like some form of natural gas grenade. Whatever causes this also produces this poison upon this creature’s death, which the soldier only survived thanks to their Medikit (Personal Note- Figure out how that actually happened)
{First Impressions: —-}
-This Creature has no current designation, so I will refer to it by the Arconim “UC” (Unnamed Creature)
-It has odd similarities to a miniature horse in size and shape but with significant differences listed below (I will use various Terms that relate to equine for this reason). We currently don’t understand the significance of these similarities.
-It has a coat color of lavender, and a multicolored mane and tail of various shades of purple and or a shade of pink.
-It has a singular horn on it’s upper forehead that has circular markings on it in its entirety. This will be elaborated on later
-It has a pair of wings that seem to be used for passive soaring, except for the fact that they seem too small to lift the weight of the creature. This may be some sort of unused evolutionary change, but I can not be certain.
-There is a symbol on both of it’s flanks of 5 six-pointed stars, and another one larger than the others with another six points coming from angles formed by the star. This is one of the higher points of speculation, as it could be any number of things, from a designation for the aliens, an indication of rank, an equivalent of a human tattoo, or any other number of possibilities. Perhaps it even has some form of Cultural significance. This will be something for significant research later.
“With all due respect to everyone in the Xcom organization, but today has been an utter mess. The “UC” was brought to the base and I began the examination like I usually do as soon as a new captured alien is brought in. At first I thought it would be a normal operation to pull off, given it even has the same minor scarring from whatever bizarre operations the aliens do to them like the others did. Unfortunately, as we got to the interrogation chamber, it began to somehow wake back up, so we had to rush to get it in. After we started the interrogation, its horn began to glow purple and it managed to destroy the control arms, and though we have exact knowledge of how much force it applied to them, it was well over a ton of pressure, from how the metal was crushed and torn. It then managed to “Teleport” out of containment. Scientist personnel fled the lab, and later on the alarm system malfunctioned and it ran. During the chase the soldier who chased after it said that at one point it managed to stop their movements entirely and run past them, though it is not known if it physically stopped them or if it was something along the lines of the fear that sectids are able to manifest. It managed to be forced into a temporary containment, and I volunteered to make a shock collar for it, though now I know I should have assigned it to Shen. Though in my absence others have learned many new things about the creature. It seems to be able to consume apples without any harm happening to it, and it appears to be intelligent, as it has been able to replicate words and images for basic communication, which is quite intriguing, seeing as it has a very animalistic form. What is more interesting, is the simple fact it is actually attempting to communicate with us in the first place. This a contrast to all known specimens of the x-rays (Discounting the claim of a Thin Man swearing at a rookie after it was hit, as that is not proper communication), which seem more than happy to blast at us without a single question or order to freeze. This presents an opportunity to learn about the alien's motives, tactics and language, thought this all may take some, intense “Persuasion””
-Personal Notes (Remove before submitting report)- Shen is in deep shit now. How was it that the control arms managed to fail from this creature, the specific alarm for an alien escaping failing as well, and the other alarms being that loud! And after all that, he still has the gaul to perform a “Test” without any of the research staff there! Not that they would be any help right now, given they are CURRENTLY ARGUING ABOUT WHAT IT IS! At this rate we might be able to perform an autopsy of the Thin Man just in time for the aliens to raise their flag on the final country. Why does that thing look like that, and why is it so god bizarre with it’s abilities. And most of all… Why is it here?
PROJECT ID: Sunset Glimmer
Attached notes by: Dr. Raymond Shen (Majorly unedited)
Given Vahlen seemed like she was going to throttle me after finding out that I did my own experiment on it, I might as well write down my thoughts before she gets me. (After a bit of review, I feel it best to explain that this is a joke)
The current alien captive subject, which I shall call a Cerapter, is something that looks like a toy horse brought to life as flesh and blood. Vahlen may not say it, but I’m sure that she too would agree that it looks Cute adorable interesting, to say the least.
If I were to make any theories on it, I would hazard a guess that this creature is some form of alien pet, quite possibly for a general, if the aliens have that form of leadership. This explains the large amount of craft heading to the location it was found in. It also seems to be easily frightened, given the killed Thin Man near it, suggesting it hasn’t personally seen many of the aliens in their forces. As for its capabilities, I can’t explain any of it better than to say it is simply magic (Giving Vahlen more reason to kill me for that line) (That was also a joke).
The most surprising part of it for me, other than the magic, is it’s intelligence. It has been able to understand games from us without instruction, suggesting they have a similar version, and have been able to understand how we act enough to try to calm down Rookie Squaddie Lawrence… Don’t actually know his last name. It also was able to ask for more apples without any teaching, meaning that actual communication may be possible, though it might be like talking to a translated dog more than a person. I wonder how it would sound to talk with a Translated dog Anyway, I feel as- {File stopped here as he left for they day}
PROJECT ID: Sunset Glimmer
Attached notes by: Central Officer John Bradford {Audio Transcript of videos filmed by [Redacted By Request]}
7:58PM “WHY THE HELL IS THERE A HORSE IN MY OFFICE?”
8:05PM “WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN’T REMOVE IT?”
8:07PM “IS IT SLEEPING ON MY SWEATER?”
8:28PM “WAIT, IT’S AN ALIEN! WHY IS THERE AN ALIEN IN MY OFFICE?”
{April 3rd, 2015, United States of America, 11:25am}
Twilight watched as most of the creatures left, and she began to worry that they may not understand her message. Oh, what if they don’t have books! Wait, they have written symbols and paper, they have got to have books… What if their books don’t look like ours though! She shook her head and regained her focus, and looked at the room she was now in. There was a simple bed made of towels, though she would have preferred a construction of books, she couldn’t understand their language so it made sense not to waste them. She turned to the bowl of apples, and snickered.
“At this rate I’ll be a relative of Applejack’s by the time I get back home” She said as she picked one up, and grabbed a paper and layed down to figure out what to do next. Should she try to understand her “dream”... no, she thought nervously, It was just a nightmare. She started to sketch out a set of blocks on her paper, and took some of the symbols from the bag of apples and placed them on the blocks.
She then walked over to the door, and knocked on it with her hoof, which seemed to startle the creatures outside. Laying the paper on the glass window, she stepped back and waited for their response. It was to open the door, causing the paper to fall down, and then reclose it. A bit rude, she thought, until she saw a small paper get placed on the other side with a pen drawn on it. Twilight shrugged and drew another vegetable, a carrot this time, and held it up to the door for a bit, before removing it. The creatures outside then placed a paper with six symbols on it, and she noticed that one of them was from their symbol for apple. She repeated it onto the paper, and showed it to the creatures, who responded with a thumbs up, like the humans and dragons do, an odd coincidence.
She continued to do this with other simple items, though some of them, like a carrot dog and hay fries, they didn’t seem to know. She also began to realize how many of the symbols are repeating in different “words”, and she drew all of them onto a different paper for later reference. One of the creatures seemed to notice, and wrote down 26 symbols, most of which she had already seen. That must be a list of all the symbols in their language, she thought as she finished up her list, and noticed the different order that their list had. She then copied the paper entirely, not wanting to have something ordered out of place.
One of the creatures, the one with burned wood skin, then pushed another out of the way, and began waving its arms around.
“Um, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, as the thing began to nod its head, then it SLAMMED a paper onto the window! Twilight jumped and her heart began to race as the creature began to nod rapidly. Twilight hesitantly wrote the symbols on the paper down, and nodded back at the creature, which smiled in response. It then shook its head at her, and slammed another paper onto the window. Twilight copied the 2 symbols again and showed it to them, shaking a bit from how aggressive that one seemed as it was doing it. It then smiled, and Twilight took a sigh of relief. It then pointed at Twilight, almost accusatory, and she became stiff, as it slammed another paper onto the window.
“What? What does that mean?” Twilight asked worriedly as it continued to point at her, and slammed the paper against the window again. Twilight didn’t know what they meant, but she wrote them down like the rest. The creature then tossed the paper, and began to rub it’s stomach.
“O-oh, that must m-mean hungr-” Twilight said as the creature slammed the paper against the window in a way that caused her to actually jump! She rushed over and drew the symbols down, and showed it to the creature, even her magic shaking as she held it aloft. It smiled, and got up.
---
“There we go! That’s the way to teach it!” Salanda said proudly as Bens watched the creature still shaking from her “Lesson”
He glared at her, “Bloody hell Salanda! Are you trying to give the thing a bloody heart attack?”
“It’s fine. Plus, I taught it a bunch of different concepts quickly! It now knows yes, no, you, and finally, hungry!” Salanda said proudly, as Bens still glared.
“Maybe we should try... a different approach. Don't want to overwhelm it.”
“Well, we were doing your approach, but it only was learning what it wanted to know, not what we need it to know! If it knows yes or no, maybe we can ask it questions. Speed this all up a bit, you know”
“Assuming it even understands us.” Jerry said, which stopped the three in their tracks.
“... What do you mean Jerry?” Bens asked, glancing back at the still frighted alien.
“It might not understand yes or no or even what you two are saying.” Jerry said, which caused the two to go quiet, and try to figure out how to handle that issue.
Vahlen then walked into the area, with a cup of coffee in her hands, and very quickly a confused look on her face seeing three adult soldiers surrounded by sticky notes and sitting on the floor.
“Um,” Bens said, trying to come up with a good explanation, “hi Doctor Vahlen… we were just… doing some testing.”
“Oh?” Vahlen said with “tired of this” tone, “Then which researcher asked you to do this exactly?”
Jerry had a very dumb smile as he said, “Doctor Pepper”, as everyone stared at him.
“Well, unfortunately he was disgraced five years ago, so he wasn’t chosen for the staff here.” Vahlen said with an annoyed sarcastic tone, before continuing, “So, you all have been doing unauthorized “testing” without anyone’s knowledge. I’m sure that can be used to court martial you three somehow.”
“...Shen did some unauthorized testing too” Bens said apprehensively.
“And he got away with it because he was the head engineer. But, I might as well see what you have managed to do. Xcom is not a petting zoo so you either have to produce meaningful results or we can use more direct methods.” Vahlen said calmly, as Bens gulped.
“Well, it has already doubled it's vocabulary, not counting the word xcom”
“A whopping four words. What purpose does teaching it English accomplish?” Vahlen said, hoping to see if they have any good reasons. She knew something like this could be useful, but she wanted to make sure they weren’t doing it to train it like a pet.
“A way of gaining information that doesn't cause the creatures death, and an understanding on how brainwashed the alien soldiers and/or civilians are into obeying who ever is in control of them”
“Hmm, even if you do understand them I don't think that will stop the alien invasion. If they are brainwashed then I doubt your words will reach them.”
“Also, they could, in turn, help us understand the alien language, so that is a massive improvement to our tactics against the aliens”
“True. But have you considered that you are helping a possible Alien infiltrator?”
“Jerry said a thin man swore at him in English and Russian, I'm pretty sure the aliens can normally pull off translating our communications.”
“Other than the fact I haven’t had a chance to check that information, you are not getting the point. It could be a sleeper agent. It has already shown it has destructive capabilities.”
“We aren't going to teach it anything that can be important to the alien forces or our own. And why would they make a sleeper agent like this? For all we know it could be a civilian or something.”
“Then explain why it can tear apart several inches of titanium? It can play dumb until the right moment to strike or is activated by a code word or certain condition. Perhaps it’s brainwashing didn't take and the thin man was supposed to destroy it but failed.”
“If it's the second, then we have an alien super agent that is friendly to us, and that the aliens are willing to take out, on our planet, meaning, for all we know, if it freaks out, it could be like a nuke. The point is that it is better to try to communicate with it, and figure out what we can, as carefully as we can. and teaching it the word for bread is the next step to that. If you want to argue about this, then we can have a meeting with the Commander to explain our points. I don't want that thing to have a "Parents are fighting" like image in their head if they aren't acting, Thank you very much.” Jerry interjected, though Vahlen had no idea what he meant by the last part.
Before Vahlen could continue, the group turned to the door and sullenly observing as he let himself in. They then placed down a laptop, and opened it up. It instantly boots up to the silhouette of the Spokesman.
“I feel that that statement alone is worth stopping whatever you are doing, considering you are housing said possible nuke in the same base where you live. Please tell me what you think would happen to Xcom if it goes off? You are putting a lot of faith on gambit that may bring the catastrophic end of Xcom and possibly mankind. It's not a guarantee even if you could speak to it, what are the chances of it wanting to fight for a different species.” The Spokesmen said, in a worryingly flat tone.
“...How did they hear that?” Both Vahlen and Jerry asked at the same time.
“You really don't think we didn't get the alarm you activated when that alien broke containment, do you?” He asked as the Commander ran in, slightly out of breath, and his eyes went wide.
“...shit” He said quietly as he noticed the Spokesman there. He had hoped this was only some random guy sneaking in, like one of his soldiers suggested.
“Commander, I would like an explanation for this incident.”
“We captured an alien that we have not encountered more than one of, and brought it in for an interrogation. It revealed a massive amount of power as it damaged the Interrogation Chamber, and somehow "Teleported" out of it. The situation is being handled, though it is still unprecedented.” The Commander said, catching his breath between sentences, trying to hide the fact that he was entirely unprepared for this today.
“Let me get this straight.You have a live alien running around the base and have done little to recontain or eliminate such a threat.”
“Incorrect. It is in a contained room, as we figure out how to keep it contained permanently. It is under constant guard, which will soon be handled by absolute professionals that will attempt to recontain it if it gets free somehow, and if that isn't possible, to eliminate it. The previous containment wasn't strong enough, so we are attempting basic forms of keeping it pacified, which is showing signs of working. We believe we also have a way to keep it in it's containment through the material meld, though it isn't at the point where it can be tested on the creature itself.”
“Hmm, I see.” The Spokesman said, “It's ability to "teleport" makes me less than confident on how secure the specimen is but it will have to do for now. The council hasn’t been able to conven yet, so I will allow you to keep doing your testing as you see fit for now. However, if this project doesn't yield any useful results soon, then it is to be terminated, along with the alien.”
“... I understand. The time the results must be shown is by the next scheduled council report, am I correct on that fact?” The Commander asked hesitantly.
“Correct Commander. By the next council report we will reevaluate the progress of Project Sunset Glimmer and whether it has a future. We will be in touch, Commander.”
{April 3rd, 2015, United States of America, 11:30am}
Twilight’s heart was still beating so fast, and her ears ached, but she didn't understand why. She had dealt with dragons and yaks and griffons before, all of which were very loud when they wanted to be, but that one creature was somehow louder than them all. No, she realized, they ALL were. She heard the creatures beyond the door communicate, but it was just so loud now, and she didn't know why.
"W-" She started to speak as she heard her own voice bouncing around in the room, and it was louder too. Her ears ached more as she laid down, and tried to tune out everything. She glanced over to the bowl of apples, and began to pull it over when she heard the loud scrape of the ceramic on the odd stone and winced, stopping any movement it had. She shuttered and lifted an apple and brought it to her mouth instead.
"CRUNCH!!" She winced again from the sound it made as she bit into it. Why is everything so loud? She asked herself as she slowly chewed the chunk she removed from the apple, each bite she heard at an uncomfortable volume. She also heard her stomach angrily growl at her like a timberwolf. Ugh, why did I need to be so hungry all of a sudden! Why can't I just handle my ears right now! She thought with a sigh, as she took another bite, and shuttered from how loud it was again.
She listened to the creatures outside as then all seemed to speak quietly, which she felt very glad about, but there was still this unbearable noise. It sounded like something had messed up a set of bells and shook them in front of a megaphone.
She spent a long time just laying on the ground with that horrible noise in her ears, though she was almost sure it was at least an hour. Eventually, her hunger won out, and she decided she needed to eat again. So, she moved her pillow from the makeshift bed and a towel, and tied it onto her ears. She then picked up her apple, and quickly ate it, then picked up another, and ate it as well. Why am I so hungry? She wondered as she grabbed another, then another, then another. She ate the entire bowl of apples in minutes, and was still hungry. It felt like she hadn't eaten in weeks, if not months.
She laid her head on the ground, and closed her eyes, thinking a nap might help her, when she felt a sudden jolt of piercing pain go through her left wing! She screamed in pain as she began to breathe hard, never feeling this much pain in her entire life! She felt herself begin to tear up as she just laid there, having no clue how to handle this. This must have been close to what Rainbow felt when she injured her wing and ended up in the hospital.
T-that can't b-be right, she realized as she tried to push through the pain, I h-had an entire pian-no fall on me, and I w-walked it off! W-why does this hurt so much? She couldn’t manage to look back as her every movement caused the pain to spike again, so she didn’t know what was wrong with her wing. She just laid there, hoping that this would just go away.
Minutes passed into hours as Twilight slipped in and out of a pained haze. In her more lucid moments she contemplated trying to get help, but the idea of the sound of her own hoofsteps was enough to make her head spin, nevermind the thought of calling out. At one point the pounding of footsteps drew her attention, distinguishable from her own heartbeat only by its volume. Squinting up against the harsh artificial lighting she saw a large figure looming above her, clad head to toe in a bulky, ill fitting yellow suit. It crouched to peer into her eyes before waving some small object back and forth in front of her mouth too swiftly for her wavering vision to make out. Deliriously she wondered if she was having a strange fever dream or if this bizarre apparition was this place's version of the Pale Horse. While she tried to remember why that was a bad thought, the figure disappeared in another thundering of footsteps and the blessed silence returned. Twilight drifted into a fitful half-slumber, just wishing it would all go away.
{April 4st, 2015, United States of America, 8:37am}
Twilight has barely moved over the day, the pain just being too much. She wasn’t sure if the creatures understood what had happened the day prior, but after her screams of pain, they only watched over her. Ok Twilight, she thought to herself, you got to get over this, and everything else. You need to eat, and too continue to learn the language of these creatures so you can get out of here. She tried to move the apple bowl again, but stopped after hearing the screech of the bowl on the ground and winced, as the pain flared up again. For Celestia's sake! We have MAGIC! She yelled at herself in her head, as she lifted the bowl and placed it down with a loud "CLUNK". It was loud, but much more bearable than the scraping of the bowl.
Unfortunately, however, she discovered that the bowl was empty, and she realized that no one had refilled it from the other day, or the day before that. Terrible hosts, she thought with a chuckle, before wincing from pain.
Then, she felt something deep in her, something forgotten, something… primal, awakened in her mind. I can't keep lying here in pain! That's just giving them a chance to finish me off! GET UP!. With that, she forced herself upright, and clenched her teeth as pain coursed through her. She was shaking, but at least she wasn't easy prey. W-what am I thinking? "Easy prey"? Why was I thinking that? Sweet Celestia, this bucking hurts!... Why is bucking an activity that farmers do, and a swear?... Why did I question THAT of all things? Why am I so scatterbrained today?
She looked out the window, and back at the loud creature with the darker color. Great, I get up and now it's time for- she couldn't finish the thought before they hit the door, and Twilight… Snarled at them? Twilight nearly facehoofed right then and there, until it glared at her. It stepped up to the window, bared its teeth, and growled so loud it almost felt like it would deafen Twilight. She started to breathe hard and fast, as her horn began to spark wildly. Her entire body was shaking, and the pain was still there through it all!
Another creature steps beside the loud one and seems to speak to them. The loud one looked annoyed, but backed away anyway, which she was glad about. She glanced around, wincing slightly when turning her head caused the pain to flare. Grabbing up a sheet of paper and a crayon in her magic she hesitated for a moment trying to work out how to convey the idea of 'medicine' over a language barrier. Glancing up she saw the creatures watching her curiously, so she quickly sketched a glass of water and a belladonna plant. Scrutinizing it she deemed it sufficiently recognisable and held it up with a hopeful smile. The creatures collectively raised an eyebrow, but didn’t seem to do much.
The creature who had done most of the writing stepped up and after a few seconds of scribbling, held up a sheet with a foalish image of a tree with a word beneath it. Groaning in annoyance, Twilight nonetheless dutifully copied down the words and showed them the Equestrian translation as well. As she was trying to work out how to make her message clearer, the creature had apparently decided they had started a lesson. It held up a paper with the image of a unicorn drawn on it, and a word. In truth, focusing on the academic exercise had distracted her somewhat from the pain, so with a sigh she wrote down the word and its translation, and lifted it to show them. They nodded and pulled out another paper with a pegasus on it
She copied it down and showed it like the other, silently wincing as her wing twitched suddenly. The creature smiled and pulled out another paper, this time with both a unicorn and a pegasus, a question mark, and an arrow pointing at her. They want to know which I am, I’m guessing. I’ll just draw out a horn and some wings for this. She thought as she drew. When she revealed it to the creature, it looked confused. It stared at its own paper for a minute in thought, then shrugged and pulled out another sheet, this time with a house on it. For a time, they exchanged words for basic objects and concepts and Twilight was glad for the distraction of the monotonous task. Occasionally the creature would raise a picture of something Twilight couldn't recognise, like strange flying structures which looked like something from Spike's comics or tools obviously designed for a creature with hands. A few times she'd had to respond with more pictures, breaking down some abstract idea until they could both understand what the other was showing. After an hour or so Twilight had accumulated quite a pile of papers covered in cramped hornwritting and sketches. She looked up from straightening the stack to see the creature holding up an image of the sun in various positions above an abstract horizon. Twilight smiled a bit remembering her teacher as she wrote the word under it, taking incredible care to write it as perfectly as possible, as she realized she could use this to start to explain her situation in some way. She barely got a chance to look up as the creature switched the paper with one with the moon. Luna… I wonder why she wasn’t there during my nightmare… She shook her head and scribbled the word down quickly. She showed the words and she was surprised to see the creature raise an eyebrow and jot something onto the previous papers, before placing a new image on the window. Twilight suddenly saw an opportunity to show her… whatever these creatures were to her… that she wasn’t bad. She grabbed a paper and made a careful drawing then a small arrow, another drawing, then wrote her new word down with a smile. She then showed the creatures as their eyes widened.
Crystal Star Ch8: Injury (Running out of naming ideas)
{April 3rd, 2015, United States of America, 11:43am}
Jerry looked over at the Commander as he sighed, and sat down. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, an utterly alien scream of pain was heard from the room, causing everyone to jump, or fall over if they were sitting.
Lawrence managed to hear it all the way from the cafeteria and came running over to the area, while everyone else in the base got worried or confused.
Bens quickly raised his weapon to the window, and the others did as well, while the Commander quickly got back up. “What the fuck was that?” He asked, before coughing and regaining his composure. Lawrence rushed into the hall, and crashed into the Commander, causing them both to fall over.
“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry sir!” Lawrence said as he helped the commander back up.
“... Lawrence is an anime protagonist confirmed!” Jerry says with a laugh, though keeping his eyes on the alien in the room.
“... Sometimes, I wonder why I work here.”
“To protect humanity against hostile aliens” Jerry said sarcastically, somewhat lowering his weapon.
“Ahem, right, I need to figure out how to handle the communication with the alien, so I will be taking my leave.” The Commander said, though he also wanted to sit down and scream into his hands after having another thing added to the ever growing list of tasks from the council. He quickly left, glad everyone was too confused about everything to ask for his orders at the moment.
Lawrence spotted the creature lying on the ground inside of the room. “This is going to be a long day… what happened to it?” Lawrence asked as he walked toward the door, and saw it seemed to be in serious pain. “Ok, that seems to be far from ideal. How long has it been like that?”
“For about a minute or two? Right after it screamed… why exactly?” Bens asked as he stepped closer to the door.
“It seems to be injured.”
“That’s odd. It wasn’t injured when it arrived, unless the injury is internal” Vahlen said, walking up to the door as well.
“Remember when it broke out of containment? I heard it fell onto a table and broke it.” Lawrence said as Vahlen mumbles to herself about forgetting the obvious
“Oh, so you think it hurt itself trying to escape?” Jerry asked.
“It is the most likely scenario,” Lawrence said, though he kept his eyes on the creature. He felt a bit sorry for it. “So, what do we do? I know how to treat horses but alien horses are a little out of my depth.” He asked Vahlen, who looked around for a moment thinking.
“Ahem, well… How do you treat normal horses?” She asked, as Lawrence remembers that she has no experience in that regard.
“I can tell the signs of distress and pain but I cannot help this one because I don't know what's wrong.”
“... right… Well, I’ll get someone with a hazmat suit in there to look for the source of the injury, then we can think of a solution” Vahlen said, as Salanda kept back, and looked confused.
“Wait, we are really planning on providing healthcare to an alien that may very well be planning on killing us?” She asked, not out of anger, but of confusion.
Lawrence took a moment to think of a good answer to this question logically, and replied, “Think about it this way, Salanda. An autopsy provides less information than a live captive.”
{April 3rd, 2015, United States of America, 1:03am}
Lawrence stood next to the door as a scientist in a hazmat suit exited the room. “Well,” the scientist started, “I found nothing about it to be toxic to human life, so that is a good thing. From what I could tell, it’s left wing seems to have a greenstick fracture.”
“Oh boy, that explains a lot.” Lawrence said, now seeing it’s wing was bent out of shape.
“I’m sorry, a green stick what?” Bens asked.
“A greenstick fracture is where your bone doesn't break fully and bends to one side.”
“Ow, that sounds painful.”
“It can be, in more extreme cases like this, especially since wings are full of hollow bones which can be fragile and tough to heal.” Lawrence said, as Vahlen began thinking.
“So, has anyone here treated something like a bird that had a broken wing?” She asked.
“That is more of a job suited for you, Valhen, since you work on aliens.”
“Yes, but I haven’t had any experience with healing broken wings” Vahlen said as she pinched the bridge of her nose
“... Seriously?” Lawrence asked, hoping back what he wanted to say because she is higher up then he is.
“Look, I am a xenobiologist, not a veterinarian. I’ll look into how to heal wings tonight, and tomorrow, then I will start treating it.”
{April 4th, 2015, United States of America, 8:20am}
Lawrence walked towards the room the creature was put into, thinking about the previous day. Look, those guys can handle this without me… Vahlen is researching how to help it, so my experience isn’t needed. He thought as he arrived at the room, where Bens, Salanda, and Jerry were, each of them holding a pile of papers in their hands. He caught up to them at the tail end of their conversation.
“Oh boy-” Bens said before Salanda suddenly knocked on the door loudly and the creature suddenly snarled at her. Salanda’s eyes narrowed, took a deep breath, and growled back even louder! Jesus Christ, I feel like the only responsible adult in the room. Lawrence thought as the creature went into a fight or flight reaction and it collected energy around it’s horn!
Oh no. She is going to get herself killed at this rate.“Salanda enough! Leave it alone! You are here to guard it, not antagonize it!” He yelled as he reached for his arc thrower, honestly not sure who he should use it on at the moment.
“The… I was just showing it that it wasn’t in a position to do anything like that! Besides, they started it!" Salanda said defensively
Nevermind, I literally am the only responsible adult right now. “Ya? Well I'm finishing it.” He said as he tapped his arc thrower, and Salanda got the message.
“Yesh dude,” She said as she backed away from the door, “I get the point, but did you really need to go for that thing? I’m just stressed out now that everyone is breathing down our necks.”
“Your mission was to guard it, not try to pick a fight with it. Till the commander orders change or it tries to escape, we will guard it. Besides, remember what I said about autopsies providing less information than live captives?”
“Wait… ‘We will guard it’? I thought you quit the guard job?” Salanda said with a big old grinn as Bens began to work through the papers with the creature.
“Well, that was because I was under the assumption that you could handle it. Clearly I was mistaken.” Lawrence said with a sigh as Salanda actually smiled at that.
“Thank goodness you said that, cause none of us know how to teach anything really. I heard you had siblings, so you have got to be better at this than me.”
“Well, I have plenty of siblings but what does that have to do with teaching ability? I can wrangle horses and other farm animals but I guess this is the same in principle… Wait, don’t you have a sister?”
“Well, ya, my older sister, who I didn't teach anything. Still, anything is better than just us right now.” She said. Lord give me restraint right now, cause if you give me strength I am going to use it to deck her, Lawrence thought as he facepalmed, hard.
Bens spoke up. “Um, guys? I think Vahlen needs to double check on the tests. This thing seems to think it was poisoned? Maybe by the water?” Lawrence shuttered at the thought that providing the most basic of necessities to this creature could be hurting it.
“I think there is a chance that there is something in the water that it can't take, but we can, cause otherwise Hazmat would have found it. Jerry, why don’t you let Vahlen and the other scientists know.” Lawrence said, as he saw that Jerry was already running to the labs, causing him to mutter something as Bens pulled out a large stack of papers and showed them to the creature.
He sighed and sat down, and watched as the lesson began.
{April 4th, 2015, United States of America, 9:26am}
Lawrence took a small sigh of relief as Jerry came back with a large smile, and a (probably stolen) veggie burger. “Well, Vahlen said that there is nothing new in the water. She also said that she doesn’t know how to handle it’s broken wing yet, but she does think we can give it aspirin. So, I stu- ”
Bens interrupted Jerry, saying “Hmm, so it wrote the sun regally, and delicately, but scribbled the moon? That’s interesting. Now, time to see about DRAGONS!” Lawrence questioned why Bens was so excited about the dragon part… Wait what? He thought as he looked over at the paper to find a drawing of a standard fantasy dragon with red scales on it, drawn with a pen and a colored pencil.
“Um… why did Valhen give you a paper with dragons? Especially when she was mad at you all teaching that thing unimportant words?” Lawrence asked, as Jerry snickered.
Salanda spoke, trying to choke back laughter, “Oh, it's just a joke from another scientist. I’m going to tell her about it right after we end this lesson, but what is the harm in doing this?”
Bens put the paper to the window, as the creature suddenly looked more excited then Bens, despite the pain it must be going through. It grabbed a piece of paper and began to draw out multiple objects, to the point where it took it five minutes to finish, and show it to the humans. To everyone’s surprise, along with the word “Dragon”, was a drawing of the creature hugging what appeared to be a small purple and green dragon-like creature, and an arrow pointing from the dragon to a sketch of a metal spike.
“This is disturbing, with the major implication” Lawrence said, trying to say face as inside, he was terrified.
“Implication? What Implication?” Jerry asked, only now getting his head around what the creature just did.
“The aliens have freaking dragons and now we may have to fight them.” Lawrence said with a shutter.
{April 4th, 2015, United States of America, 8:39am}
Salanda, unlike her other friends on guard duty, was excited for the possibility of real dragons! “Dragons! I can’t believe this! I could become a dragon hunter, or maybe a dragon rider!”
Lawrence took his hands together and pressed them to his face, and breathed in. “Salanda, how are you so excited about this? For all we currently know, it is lying to us to freak us out. And if it’s not, then we have to fight DRAGONS!”
“I have a rocket launcher. They can blow up really well.”
“... have you blown up a dragon before?”
“No, but I am ready to give it a try!”
Salanda snickered at Lawrence’s concerned face. She hasn’t seen him like this since Jerry told them all about the giant spider monster he saw at his home, and she offered to take care of it for him. She was now just waiting for Jerry to pull something, like when he said he took care of it already!
“...Don’t you need a magic sword for that?” Jerry asks with perfect timing, as Lawrence sighs.
“Don’t encourage her,” Lawrence said in annoyance.
“Look, you all do… whatever, I’ll let Vahlen and the Commander know about this development.” Bens said before running off.
Salanda laughed and looked back at the creature, and saw it drawing something new. She stares for a moment before speaking. “I wonder…” she then walks away.
“Oh no” Lawrence said, realizing that now Salanda is up to something.
“You know, I’ve seen dragons before” Jerry said with a smile, as Lawrence sighed.
“Your drug filled binges don't count.”
“Yikes. Still, what is that thing's name? The seeming dragon on the paper? Spike or something.”
“... I didn’t mention the name” Lawrence said confused, wondering if Jerry had looked over his shoulder.
“Hm, lucky guess…” Jerry said as he found himself lost in thought.
“... Right…” Lawrence sighed as he sat down in front of the door. He waited for a moment, and then turned around, as he saw the creature writing another message. “...I need something else to call it..” He said with a mumble, before the creature lifted the paper to show him.
“Hm… can of peaches… it’s face… book… the entire english alphabet…” He mumbled to himself. hold on… ‘can I book alphabet’?... wait no, ‘alphabet book’ Wow, sounds like it is learning fast.
The creature then looked at him, and was still shaking from earlier, and he could hear it’s stomach from outside of the room. “I should have known a bowl of apples wasn't enoug-” He was interrupted by the creature falling onto its front legs. “This is going to be a long day.” he said with a sigh, “You ok in there?”
It looked up at him as it tried to get back up, before wincing and lowering itself to the ground. He could hear it whimpering slightly, before that is drowned out by its hunger stomach growling. He then saw the veggie burger Jerry was holding.
“That’s a veggie burger, right?” Lawrence asked.
“Oh! Right! Yes it is, and I took the opportunity to stuff it full of Aspirin, at Vahlens suggestion. Plus a large amount of Ketchup,” Jerry said with a smirk.
“... Fine, let's give it that burger quickly…”
Jerry placed the burger in front of the creature. Before either of them could react the creature had unwrapped the burger and bit into it, as a large amount of ketchup covered it’s face, causing Jerry to laugh. It stopped for a moment, before smiling and wiping its face with the burger, somehow ridding it’s face of ketchup, and finished the burger in one bite. Jerry looked weirded out by that and walked out as it licked a bit at the wrapper of the burger.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that! I was expecting a bit of confusion, not for it to use the food as a napkin SUCCESSFULLY! … I need it to teach me how to do that!”
“It doesn't surprise me that you have no manners Jerry. Also, please stop screaming so much, we don’t want to frighten the creature.” Lawrence said as Jerry glared at him. He focused his attention back on the creature, and thought, If they can make plasma guns, manners should be no problem, but that seems offly human to do…
Before Lawrence could think more on that, Bens and Vahlen walked in. Vahlen was carrying a set of plastic cups, and Bens had a small bag of melon balls.
Jerry snickered as they arrived, and walked away, causing Lawrence to groan and rub the bridge of his nose. “So glad you could come by Dr Vahlen”
“Yes, I heard of the ‘Dragon’ discovery, and decided to hurry up and do my planned experiment before one of you did. It won’t take long, just need to do about three rounds of the ball and cup game.” Vahlen said as Bens placed down the bag and reached for his Arc Thrower, and Lawrence did the same.
“Um, really? We already know it can learn our language, so why another test like that? And if it will be so quick, why are you the one doing it?”
“Parrots can say back what it was told, and this creature could be doing the same. I’m trying to rule out that possibility. And as for why I’m here, when I leave these things to others, they end up learning something new but don’t properly record it. I might as well be here to get the information down.”
Vahlen then opened up the room door fully, and kept it open, looking to see it’s reaction as she entered. To her surprise, it just laid on the ground watching her. It watched as she placed down the cups, not moving much at all. She got a more distinctive reaction as she pulled in the bag of watermelon balls, and it licked it’s lips, though only Lawrence noticed how it rubbed it’s stomach as if trying to quiet it down. Vahlen pulled one out and placed it under a cup, and moved her hand away quickly. The creature waited for a bit, until Vahlen motioned for it to go ahead, where it then pulled the cup off and grabbed the melon ball, and ate it in one bite. Vahlen watched as it released the cup from its power, and returned it to it’s spot. At least my research concluded that whatever it uses doesn’t seem dangerous.
“Interesting. Object permanence seems to be good. Now, onto basic movement” Vahlen said as she put another ball into a different cup, and moved them around slowly. When she pulled back, the creature grabbed the right cup and once more ate the melon ball.
“Good, good. Now, let's go a bit faster” She said before doing the same preparation, but this time as fast as you would normally do it. This time it took a bit of time, but the creature managed to choose the right one and got another melon ball.
“It very well seems to have a handle on this, which is good, so we can do some more advanced experiments later on. It also seems to be incredibly cooperative, especially with the door opened. I was sure it would have tried to escape by now…” Vahlen remarked as she got up and grabbed everything.
“Wouldn't have been a wise choice, but, true.” He said, as he looked at it. It seemed that the creature was feeling the effects of the aspirin already, as it was moving more, and had a small smile on its face.
{April 5th, 2015, United States of America, 9:57am}
[...reports say a string of crimes in Canada began yesterday as a tractor-trailer and a Family Foods’s entire produce section were stolen by unknown assailants, with the only current evidence being… hoofprints? More at 11]
The Commander stared at the news for a moment, and noted that event into his notebook. “That is a bit suspicious… But why would the aliens need a truck?” He questioned as he tapped the armrest of his chair.
“SIR! Another UFO was spotted flying over Mexico! Raven 2 is already on route.” Bradford yelled as he ran into the Commander’s office. The Commander jumped to his feet and ran to the hologlobe.
“Ok, get Strike 1 and 2 ready. And have someone with rank swap in for Jerry. We need more experienced troops in the field right now.” The commander said as he looked at the images of the UFO. It was like the others they have shot down luckily, so he was certain Raven 2 could handle it. Now the biggest worry was if his soldiers could handle all the forces held within.
---
Lawrence grabbed a newly made “S.C.O.P.E.” from a supply box, and stared at it. It looked like a standard scope, and he couldn’t notice anything about it that would warrant it having been made with knowledge from the alien’s weapons.
“I trust Vahlen and all, but why the hell did we need days of research to make a scope?”
“You mean a S.C.O-”
“You know what I mean Bens” Lawrence said as he tossed Bens one too.
“I think it has a bunch of high tech aim assist things or something. I wasn’t able to hear what Vahlen said about it other than it could improve our aim, and that the Commander ordered about 8 of them for missions.” Bens said as he and Lawrence attached the new scopes to their sniper rifles. “Though it doesn’t help that these things need an external battery pack. Seriously, I had to give up a grenade just to clip it in a good spot.”
“Same here. This had better be worth it.” Lawrence said as another soldier entered the room and pulled a medikit from the cooler set up for them.
“Seriously got to wonder when these things were made, and why they aren’t widespread through the military branches” They said as they placed it where one would normally place a grenade.
“No idea. Hey, who are you anyway? I thought Jerry was going to go on this mission with us.” Bens asked as the man turned around.
“Oh! Hi, my name is Chris Hamer. I shall be taking over for Jerry Pyre until he is fully healed.” Chris said, as Bens smiled.
“Finally another Brit! I was worried that this whole base was filled with Americans!”
“... You're British?” Lawrence asked Bens, as this is the first time he heard anything close to a british accent from him.
“Of course! How could you not tell?”
“I just never heard you speak with an accent or use British slang.”
"Don't you remember? We were told during induction to be discreet about our home countries. Something about XCom being independent of any nation… But, I’ve been meaning to ask, where are you from?”
“...Seriously?”
“Hey, you couldn’t tell I’m British, so the fact I can’t tell where you call home isn’t that bad.”
“... guess that is true… I’m from Texas.” Lawrence said, as Bens snickered.
“Well, you definitely have the hat, but you don’t have the accent.”
“Are ya’ll serious? Ah’ve had this darn accent the entire time.” Lawrence said, keeping a straight face, though he was laughing on the inside. “Ah can’t believe that ah’m hear-in tis. Ah’m tayk-in a back bay howl little ya’ll listen”
“Wait no, please stop!” Bens said in mock terror as Chris snickered.
“What do ya’ll mean? Ah’ve allhas had there darn akcent”
“What is going on here? I heard the sound of an army of Texans.” Salanda said with a snicker as she stepped in quickly to grab her rocket launcher.
“Lawrence is activating his souther mode” Bens said as he tried to not laugh
“No Ah Diddly Darn Didn’t! Ah’ve allhays ben lik tis” Lawrence said, holding back a cough from his forced accent.
“Wow, that was so Southern that it made me manifest a cowboy hat out of thin air.” Salanda said, holding a cowboy hat, though Lawerence was missing his.
“Hey! That’s mine!” Lawrence said, snatching it back.
“Well, that was fun,” Chris said as they all grabbed their main weapons. He then noticed both Lawrence and Bens grabbed sniper rifles.
“Anyway, quit yah bellyaching we gotta mission to do.” Lawrence said as they headed for the hanger.
---
{April 5th, 2015, Mexico, 10:37 am}
Lawrence sat near the back door of the skyranger, tapping his foot on the ground. “This is taking longer than usual…” He mumbled as stretched out a bit.
“Strike 1 and Strike 3, you are approaching the crash site. We have word that the UFO crashed in a recently evacuated town, and that the aliens have begun to spread out to create a perimeter around it. Be advised that there seems to be a large disturbance in our video and radio feeds, so you might end up in the dark on this one.” Bradford said, as Bens sighed.
“Great, the aliens are getting ready for us, and we are going in blind. Who wants to bet on who ends up in the hospital and who ends up in the morgue? Morgue for me, I once broke my leg tripping on my shoelaces.”
“Morgue for Salanda. She would blow herself up to take down a sectoid if she couldn’t get out of the way in time.” Lawrence joked, as Salanada laughed as well.
“Fair. You… hmm, can’t tell if you would end up in the hospital thanks to Texan Luck-”
“Let me stop ya’ll there. There ain’t no darn thang called ‘Texan Luck’. The closest thang we got es an old movie called ‘The Lucky Texan’, ya hear.” Lawrence interrupted with a smile.
“Sorry to interrupt your family bonding time, but we are at the A.O. Get moving fast.” Firebrand said as the back doors of the Skyranger opened and the squad ran out, and saw Strike 2 getting out of their Skyranger as well.
Strike 2 was made up of two rookies that no one in the group had met before, as well as Naga John, and Everest Thakor. Lawrence didn’t know to much about Naga, other than the fact of her being the first Heavy trained by Xcom, and she had a friendly rivalry with Salanda, but Everest was known as the most… reckless Assault in Xcom, having taken time during a reload to stomp on a dead Sectoid’s skull.
“Alright,” Lawrence began, “me and Bens need to get up high. Salanda, you and Naga try to find the UFO, and be ready to tear a hole in it so we can ge-” Before he could finish, a bolt of plasma struck one of the rookies, and tore through his chest! “SHIT!” Lawrence yelled as the Strike teams ran for cover as more plasma fire came raining down on their positions.
“Enemy Contact here!” One of the rookies yelled into the coms, but all he got out of it was static.
“Already?” Bens asked as he readied his rifle. “I was expecting to be able to get to a different position before I got blown to hell!” He then took aim and fired upon a Thin Man on a roof, but missed his shot. “Damn it!”
Lawrence turned around and saw that there were two pairs of Thin men, each pair on a separate rooftop. Odd, he thought as he took aim, the aliens usually go in teams of three… The scope then activated and began to point to where the bullet was actually going to hit from where he was aiming. Guess Bens was right, he thought as he reaimed and took a shot, smiling a bit as a cloud of poison came from the corpse. The other Thin Man on that roof jumped to a lower level and ran into the building. He then turned in time to fire off a shot at another one, and take it out. “Alright, we need to get moving while they are repositioning!” He yelled to everyone else.
“Good shots Lawrence. Give those filthy Xeno scum some lead to the brain!” Everest yelled as he ran forwards, as the others except Bens and Lawrence followed behind him. The both of them ran to the right to find a better vantage point, heading to a convenience store to get onto its roof.
Instead, they found a group of Sectoids still in the middle of preparing an ambush. A few were dragging overturned tables into a firing arc facing the doorway whilst the rest seemed to be concentrating on cords of purple energy which connected them. The pair of snipers took aim, and fired their shots into the group, both landing shots on a Sectoid producing the cord. The two they were connected to dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut and didn't get back up."
Before Lawrence could move to pursue them, he staggered back as a searing bolt of plasma slammed into his shoulder, followed a moment later by a wave of pain. Likely a lucky shot by one of the Thin Men who had escaped earlier. Through the blood pounding in his ears, he thought he heard Salanda screaming she had been hit as well. Bens fired at the attacker, but it ran inside the building again before the shot hit. “You ok Cowboy?” Bens asked as Lawrence held the wound.
“Fuck, ya, I’ll be alright. Hurts like hell th-” He winced as he tried to move his arm and failing, before hearing explosives going off. “Vahlen’s going to be pissed!” He joked as Chris came running.
“I heard you got hit. Salanda was too, but Mr. Haris has a medikit too.”
“Um…”
“The rookie that survived the ambush. She is getting patched up, and we have good news. They found the ship, and Naga is capturing the alien pilot right now!” Chris said as he used the new spray that Shen had concocted. Lawrence felt a cool go over his arm as the large chunk missing from his shoulder was repaired for the time being.
“Thanks Doc… But that seemed too fast… Be on the lookout though, there is still a Thin Man up in the building over there." As if to prove Lawrence right, a bolt of plasma flew over their heads, as Bens fired around where the shot came from. Another bolt struck Ben's in the back as the Sectoids began firing on the three of them as well, though the number of bolts was cut down quickly by a rifle shot from Chris.
"How the hell did we forget about the Sectoids?" Bens yelled as he tore off the smoldering armor. Lawrence got a brief glimpse of the unnatural green energy eating through the red hot armor plates before he returned his attention to the Sectoid that was left and taking it out.
"Ok, there is only one Thin Man left as far as I know. Now-" Lawrence didn't get a chance to finish his order before he heard a rocket being fired, and they all ran for cover. The explosion was above them enough that it was deafening instead of deadly, but it did still rain down a large amount of rubble, as well as some alien guts.
"THERE WE GO! PROBLEM SOLVED!" Naga yelled so that the three of them had a chance to hear, as Salanda sat on a piece of concrete, getting patched up.
"NEXT TIME, YELL…UM… WHAT DO PEOPLE YELL BEFORE EXPLOSIONS?"
"FIRE IN THE HOLE?"
"YA! YELL THAT NEXT TIME SO WE ARE READY!" Lawrence yelled as his hearing began returning to normal. "I at least want to know how I'm going to die so I can watch it happen."
"Ya, well, the bugger was behind a wall, so you four were going to have a half hour shoot out if I didn't fire my rocket." Naga said as she looked at the other buildings.
"Ya, and I'm glad you did that, but a warning is nice. Salanda does it, so that's what I'm used to on missions."
"Ya, my sis is nice like that."
“... Oh, I didn’t know you were related.” Lawrence said as Naga smirked, before nearly getting her head blown off by a bolt plasma. A Thin Man was fire on them again, but before anyone could react, Everest flew up a ladder and shot it in the chest.
“Filthy Xeno scum” He said. As he climbed back down to the street the communications crackled back into life, whatever was jamming them likely crushed by the now collapsing building.
“This is Bradford. We're not detecting further heat signatures in the AO. Strike One, Strike Three, report."
"Strike one, Lawrence. Area clear. Four injured, one kia." Lawrence responded, grimacing at the less than ideal news.
"Roger that. Firebrand and Stormbolt are inbound to bring you all back to base.”
“That is great. I can’t wait to get back to base and rest. I think my arm is going to need surgery once the medikit wears off.” Lawrence said.
“Ya… but we are in Mexico… Who wants some authentic Mexican food while we are here? We can stop by a drive through or something.” Bens said with a smile, as Everest shrugs.
“Eh, why not. That is, if we can get Stormbolt to stop.”
“Same here, except for Firebrand” Salanda said with a laugh as they headed back to the Skyrangers.
--- {April 5th, 2015, Mexico, 12:39 pm}
[In more recent news, two advanced aircraft were spotted near a fast food place in Mexico called “El Pollo Pepe”. Locals said they looked blocky and had a pair of fan like turbines in each wing, as well as having a red circle and line over a stock alien image. 7 individuals exited the vehicles and ordered 9 meals. They paid in American dollars, and returned to the vehicles, which then took off. There have been no more sightings of the vehicles after this incident.]
The Commander turned off the news and took a deep breath. He then groaned in anger as he put his head in his hands. “This is a SECRET ORGANIZATION PEOPLE!” He yelled.
Ah, yes, this is Discord Disharmonic Chacos here. After the author realized how bad military punishments are, he realized his original ideas couldn't work with this joke, so it is essentual been written out, though not deleted, for your viewing pleasure.
