Chapter one. Introductions.

< Containment wall section alpha thirty. 19:27 Thursday 2 March 2084 >

The View from up here is incredible. Several thousand miles of the world. The pink reflection of the setting sun on the scorched earth, the gentle roar of an interstellar cruiser leaving earth's orbit. Turning around on the containment wall I see the city. Mega Primus. Its beautiful. A Utopia. So unlike home. Anyway, I'm Sarah Deevans. I lived on Mars colony 327 up until yesterday. I just enrolled in a college level terraforming class in Lifetree yesterday. Uh, what else is there you should know.... Uh, I play Grav-ball now and then, I'm even pretty good at it... Um, my grandfather on my fathers side was a Base commander in X-Com during the second war, My father was a pilot for a couple of years in his youth, he was involved in the frontier wars. Uh, My mother was killed three years ago in a mining accident. Sometimes I sorta talk to her. Its freaky but I don't know. Maybe the dead aren't really dead, just when their forgotten. Then their dead. Otherwise, their just missing. Uh, well I better get going. I have a class tomorrow morning bright and early. Don't want to be late.

< The roof of the Utopia mansions. 20:00 Thursday 2 March 2084 >

A Redhead in her twenties walked across the small hovercar road heading for the utopia mansions entrance. Mike Wolff stared at her with his IR binoculars and whistled appreciatively. "Foxy Lady. Definitely Double D." "MIKE!" Tim Banks yelled out looking annoyed. "Were here to make sure the Psiclone deal doesn't happen." "Yeah? Doesn't stop me from... Oh momma!" Mike said still staring at the redhead. "I still don't know how or why your in Megapol. I want a new partner pronto." "No, you want me to stop ogling the  secretaries that live round here." "Well, Stop it then!" "But they're pretty!" "So is the idea of stopping ten Psiclone implants leaving the city." "How can you know?" "The deals going down. Come on man!"

"THIS IS MEGAPOL! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" "Damn! Its the Cops! Run man!" A slummer yelled while starting to run for the door. The other, a man in a flight uniform was just staring across the apartment at the window with the sack of implants. Suddenly Tim banks kicked down the door. The slummer brought up a old style shotgun, before the Slummer could put a round in its chamber Tim had sent a Lawmaker bullet through his left eye. Mike barged in behind him. Suddenly the man in the flight uniform ran and jumped out of the window leaving the sack behind. Tim and Mike ran to the window and stared as the falling man yelled out before hitting the ground floor and becoming a corpse. "Gee, That was charming man." Mike remarked. Tim walked over to the phone. He picked it up and dialled. "Officer 735 requesting a meat wagon and clean up crew at the utopia mansions. Also a cruiser to keep the crowds at bay."  Mike stared down at the corpse then saw the redhead staring quite shocked at the corpse as a Megapol cruiser pulled up. Mike pulled up the IR binoculars to his face while grinning.

< Atlantis apartments  21:00 Thursday 2 March 2084 >

Sarah opened the door of her apartment and walked in shutting the door behind her. As a mars colonist she was assigned an apartment by Marsec, it was also right across the hoverway from judgement central. It was a great place to live. A little cramped, but home. She yawned and headed over to her closet to hang up her coat. As she started heading for the bathroom to shower she heard a knock at the door. She sighed then headed over to the door and looked through the peephole. There was a man in a green and white robe outside. She sighed silently. "Hello?" "Hi, I'm with the church of Sirius and was wondering if you would be interested in learning more about our way of life. I have a wonderful pamphlet right here..." "Uh, Could you slip it under the door or something. I'm sorry. I have to study, but ill look it over first chance I get, Alright?" "Very well Ma'am." The cultist replied. There was a slight shuffling sound then a small leaflet was slipped under the door and the cultist walked across the hall and worked his work on the door across from Sarah's. She sighed again and headed for the bathroom again when there was a slight scuffling sound from outside, A yell then a knock on her door. "Ma'am? Hello? A Miss Deevans does live here right?" She stepped up to the door again and saw a man in a black suit. "Yup, that's me." "Uh, Could you open the door?" "Any ID?" The man in the suit pulled out a wallet and brought up the Id panel to the peephole. A Toby long in the special police. She sighed, composed herself and opened the door with a smile. "Hi, How can I help you?" She asked. Mr. Long sidled into her apartment somehow and closed the door behind him. "Well Ma'am, its like this. I have an offer for you. A job, fairly risky but we think you can handle it. Pay is six hundred a week, board and lodging. Its full time though." She whistled appreciatively at the Sum. After all, you could just about buy Your own turbobike in three weeks for that kind of money. "Uh, what exactly is the job?" She asked. "Its... hush hush at the moment. If you want to come with me we can pick up two other Possible employees and we can get the three of you to a more 'official' interview." "Uh, what about my Lifetree course?" "That can wait Ma'am. Trust me. This is much more important." "Well, Uh alright. Am I going to need anything?" "Not really. So, are you coming or not?" "I'm coming." The man opened the door for Sarah. She stepped out, saw the robed figure heading for the Grav lifts limping considerably. The man stepped out, let her lock the door then set off with her in tow.

< Judgement Central 21:17  Thursday 2 March 2084 >
Tim and Mike sighed as they walked from the people tubes to their Station. "Geez, That dude must have been psicloned out of his mind." Mike remarked pulling himself up the old style steps. "What drives a man to throw himself out of a building for chrissakes?" Tim wondered aloud reaching the door. "Hell, maybe he thought he was in a zoo and he would fall into a pit of fluffy bouncy penguins. You know Psiclone users." Tim sighed and walked through the automatically opening doors. "Sometimes I wish I was swat again. Just shoot who your told. No thinking." "Know what you mean Tim. Being an enforcer was better than this." "Yeah, Thinking hard doesn't suit us!" Tim grinned while knocking his head on a handy wall as they headed for the Narcotics department. A man in a black business suit was talking with The head of Narcotics. As Tim and Mike walked in he turned around. "Mr Wolff And Mr Banks, Correct?" "Uh, Yeah." "Well, would you mind coming with me? I have a proposal for you." "Uh, Sir?" Mike asked the head. The department head nodded them off. "I have the reports from everyone, you two go with this guy. I'm sure you'll find his proposal interesting." "Uh." Mike shrugged then the man in the black suit nodded and headed off. And for some reason they followed.

< Judgement Central underground parking lot 21:23 Thursday 2 March 2084 >

The man in the black suit opened the back door of the civilian unmarked car. Tim and Mike got into the back seat. Tim was seated behind a red-haired woman in her early twenties. "Hey, were you near Utopia mansions around eight?" Mike asked for the heck of it "Nope, I was going past there on the tubes about eight fifteen though, why? Does this have something to do with that crowd?" The Redhead replied a little confused. "Uh, not really. I'm Mike Wolff." "And I'm Tim Banks. Hey, what's with this anyway?" Tim asked watching the man in the black suit getting in the drivers seat. "No idea, By the way, I'm Sarah Deevans." "Nice to meet you." Tim said half heartedly watching the black suited man warily. "And for your information I'm Toby long. Just so you know what to call me." There was a harsh whine as the cars engine strained to lift the car up. "Damn rentals." Toby muttered irritably. The car eventually lifted itself up and slid across the Grav field out onto the street. "Anyway, a little more information for the boys. The job is risky, although probably at this point not much more risky than say, being in swat. Anyway, pays six hundred a week. Board and lodging, full time." "Yipe, Six hundred?" Mike asked without tact, that was after all about four times more than he was getting at present. "Six hundred." Suddenly Toby swerved the car into a side road. "Damn traffic." He accelerated and swerved again back onto the main road. Clear sailing for the next mile, at least. "By the way, what was with the cult guy in my hall anyway?" Sarah asked watching the scenery go by. "I'm not too 'Cult friendly' Ma'am. Suffice it to say our beliefs are firmly different." Sarah pondered this as Toby swerved through traffic. Suddenly she stared ahead along with Mike and Tim at an oncoming Auto-trans. Toby grinned and pulled the civilian car into the usual traffic lane, then back into the oncoming traffic lane where he swerved in between another car and a turbobike then he pulled into the spaceport, which had come out of nowhere during the 'responsible driving.'

< Transtellar Spaceport. 21:46 Thursday 2 March 2084 >

"Follow me boys and girl" Toby said getting out of the car, the other three did the same. Toby walked along, into the spaceport and to the rentals desk and he didn't lose the others. Toby handed over the car keys to the woman behind the desk filled out a form then turned around and headed for the people tubes, still with the other three following. He stepped up onto the Grav field while the others did the same. Then they continued on their way. "Anyway, our profession is an old and distinguished one." Toby said, pausing to pull out his wallet then taking out the ID badge from inside of it. He paused to tap at something then it turned out to be a Solid-image field. Highly advanced stuff. Made a fake image you could feel. Practically real. At that point Sarah shifted uneasily. Then the four of them where whisked into a warehouse people tube area. Toby walked to the Grav lifts, motioned for them to join him then they descended.

< X-Com Base 'Java' 22:00 Thursday 2 March 2084. >

"Blue level caution, all personnel. New arrivals." The bottom of the Grav lift opened up and Tim, Sarah, Mike and Toby Descended into a high tech facility to be greeted by four troopers in megapol assault armour with M4000 machine guns slung over their backs. "Identification?" one asked. Come on Fergusson, you know I'm me man!" Toby said absently pulling off a wig with black hair to reveal hair dyed green, red and yellow. "Rules are rules Long. ID." Toby sighed pulling out a wallet from the back of his pants, fished around in it for a while then pulled out a card with a black X on a white surface. The X was a magnetic coating which the trooper ran through a hand console. "Ok, we'll take you to the commander." "Sure Ferg, whatever man." Toby said pulling off his jacket the recruits nervously walked together totally unsure of what was going on. The four troopers flanked them on the sides and from behind. Eventually after walking past a platform with four lasers, one at each corner,  they turned and reached a door through which Toby lead them. "Yo, Sir?" "Yeah long?" "The new recruits are here. Mind if I go now? There's a late night movie marathon on in the training room I don't wanna miss." "Go ahead long" The commander was in his late forties. He had a slight pot belly but looked pretty impressive none the less. An old gang runner, with Osiron. He was a junkie, not on the heavy stuff. Although you could generally find him pretty juiced up on the less damaging stuff, like sugar for instance. Long dashed out pulling off the black tie leaving the three new recruits to the commander. "Well, first things first. Welcome to the X-Com Base Java. You three are our latest recruiting prospects." "X-Com? What kind of joke is this?" Mike said, first to talk as usual. "No joke. We got a new bunch of aliens." "Yeah, Right." The commander sighed and looked at the other two. Doubt showed in their faces. He pushed an intercom button. "Jenks, Bring the specimen to my office. Thanks." The commander looked around. "Anyway, You three are top notch. Miss Deevans was the top shot in the colony you were at Weren't you? Also a Grav-ball player I understand?" Sarah nodded uncertainly. There was a knock at the door. "Commander, why you want this thing in your office I don't know." Jenks opened the door and strode in with a largish body bag on a Grav-cart. "Shall I string it up for Halloween or what?" "Just show us the specimen." Jenks sighed glancing at the new faces and unzipped the body bag. There was a large pink humanoid thing missing the legs and head, in the heads place there was a funnel and by the waist there was a massive tear. Sarah gasped slightly. Tim held his nose, the stench was awful. "What the hells this?" Mike said peering at it. "Jenks, take it away now." The commander turned to mike while the doctor started zipping up the bag again. "Don't know. Not from earth at any rate. It was found in a water purification plants pipe. Only found because it was blocking the pipe. Trust me, this thing is a complex organism." "So, what's going on? I mean megapol could probably handle that thing." "Yeah? Well we haven't seen anything like it before. A few rumours were floating around the slums about strange mutants but when they found that thing in hydrozone one the senate 'recalled us into action'. By the way, this is way more than you should be knowing anyway, but we need the manpower." "Yeah? Why us?" Tim asked. "Glad you asked that Mr Banks. Well for starters your all top notch. Second none of you have family or too many friends in Mega Primus. So you wont be missed. Any other points you'll want?" Tim shook his head. "Well anyway. Six hundred a week. How about it? I can have you all set up by tomorrow morning. We don't start operations till the seventh of this month because that's when a few of our 'special treatment packages' come into affect." "Such as?" "Well the most obvious is we don't need to confirm to city styling edicts. Another more obscure one is that we can hire anyone we want." "Hell, even artificial?" Mike asked a little amazed. "Hybrids too. We know how handy Psi is."  "Well the pays good. I'm in." Tim said simply. "Well ill have to hang out with you to annoy you man. So I'm in too." Mike said simply. The commander turned to Sarah. "Well?" "I'm not sure about this, but I guess X-Com is a sort of family tradition. So why not." She said shrugging. "Hmm, your grandfather was a commander in the second war wasn't he?" The commander asked. Sarah nodded. The commander nodded to himself then hit another intercom button. "Hey, Isaacs, Get over here and get the three new rookies signed up." A low voice replied over the intercom. "These contracts in the usual blood sir?" "Nah, ink should be fine." The commander turned off the intercom connection and turned to the new recruits. "Well, what can I say other than welcome to X-Com."