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File Fragments Recovered after Power Surge Damaged Psi Lab Server Storage Cluster Theta 84-0.

Document Name: Re:Psionic Transmission Testing Results Document Type: Email Sender: <unknown> Receiver: <unknown>

“....So as you can see under test 240 to 345 we progressed from mental static to raw emotions, to controlled sequences of emotions. The subsequent testing focused on sensory data, with a dozen for each of the classical senses.”

“At this time we do not believe supplementary senses should be progressed with, as at least with humans, the level of cognition related to something like barometric pressure sense or magnetoception, while present to minor degrees, are not high enough in priority to the humanoid test subjects to occur on a higher level awareness.”

“We can do it with lifeforms more dependent on such sense, but leading birds in circles isn't much of an offense or defensive measure. Although the requested use of hammerhead sharks as test subjects has been repeatedly declined for purely faulted logic this may be a more active use-}” Common Sense: Use it, this is not going to turn into a Hitchcock film, nor a Spielberg one. Sharknado is just right out”

“Tests 435 to 687 consisted of subjects actively attempting to transmit meaningful forms of communication via neural transmissions. Emotions evidently transmit much cleaner then visual or auditory information, likely due to their functions being deeper seated in instinctive mammalian responses then visual or auditory stimulus.”

“Supposition: This degree of control may be what is used by sectoids for control over basic infantry units such as Orks. Triggering Anger to promote attack, fear for a retreat, possibly contentment or infatuation for protection or guard duty. Fine manipulation such as pure muscle control overrides may be used for when a more direct control is required.” We need Facts, not guesses. Further testing with Extra Terrestrial Test Subjects is authorized. If this is true we need to know now, as interfering or overwriting enemy commands is a dream come true for a Military Commander.

“Further testing on neural transmissions for coded transmissions progressed slowly. Simple Morse Code does not leave itself open to objective delineation when the medium is spikes of anger or sudden urges to use the washroom”

“More Conclusive results were the results of tying an emotional reaction to a mental image and allowing the receiver to interpret the corresponding action. This requires a more significant degree of autonomy in the receiver to be properly executed, but produced quick, direct results. Current limitations appear to limit the specifics of this application, early tests were color and fear in lab rats, prompting similar response as negative reinforcement testing would convey in fewer trials.”

“Note: Transmitters and receivers familiarity with the image being sent does appear to aid in communication to a strong degree, with more familiar objects and persons being received as more realistic. However the 'mental image' is also a subjective vision, and if transmitter and receiver have a significant difference in how they observe an object, recognition and interpretation of the message suffer. See Test Data 593: The Killer Rabbit: Non Python Control Group” for more significant illustration of this problem”

“Supposition: use of cloning and identical maturation conditions would allow for a uniformity of both biology and mindsets, similar to that of twins observed in humans. This may allow for better control for Extra Terrestrial units due to the lack of variation within combat units. Dissected commander specimens appear to retain some level of independence, perhaps suppressed by chemical or psionic control during combat operations.” ~~Requests for service men and women with siblings and other family within armed forces to be transferred to~~ This line of investigation will be examined at length at a later date. Do not Make further requests.

“Test Subjects currently committing improvised and undocumented “training” on combat and defense using psionic transmission skills, however requests for direct observation and documentation of such training has been denied due to 'concerns over privacy'. Requests and demands to monitor subjects has been resisted by staff, and threats of physical violence. ~~I recommenced immediate nationalization of test subject(s) and lab equipment! This information is of critical import~~ Alternative options are already being considered for the acquisition of additional, more compliant test subjects, Do NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT INSTIGATE X-COM ....

(As written by Kip Hawley)

"... in summation, it turns out that someone was still using their gmail account without going through our proxy, which is probably why some email messages may have been intercepted. I doubt that it's X-ALT's doing. Given that our proxy is a black box, however..."

"The science team put a proxy in front and behind of the Council's proxy."

"So did we, and so did the IT folks. I assure you that all together, we're behind seven of the damn things."

Dr. Vahlen is too busy to discuss what, I hate to admit, was probably my fault as far as data leaks go - what we did manage to salvage from the battleship is essentially a small fusion reactor. By the look of it, it's what the aliens have been using to "recharge" the Elerium with more antimatter in the lattice.

The Council has offered no comment about it. Bradford says that we should weaponize it -- the alpha particle beam from the deuterated water it uses as fuel would be even more devastating than the plasma cannons -- but we're going to reverse engineer it for peaceful purposes instead. Shen decides that it would be most efficient to set it up to recharge Elerium, and then use the stuff in a reactor.

"Why not a fusion lance like you said, or some kind of blaster-"

"Because we can mass-produce plasma guns. What'd be the point?"

"We don't need the extra power, either."

"If we win - when we win - we will. Elerium is a fantastic fuel source, but it's non-renewable. This has the potential to be."

Fusion lance and fusion blaster designs are generated, but not seriously worked on. While we build a containment chamber for the Soul Sphere, the R&D facility holds a bit of an open house, with Dr. Vahlen asking us what we'd like to see worked on.

Kip wants to do some gunsmithing, as a diversion, in case something good comes out of it.

Vee wants a flamethrower.

Kite wants her collar decorated with what's left of the lich's brain implants; we are not sure if is due to a placebo effect or what, but her performance in psi sparring improves significantly once we do that.

I want more work done in that sense - Vahlen's team picks up some tidbits of data that were provided to us from the Mars Society, about a "crystalline body suit" intended to enhance the ability to focus via piezoelectric emitters. Vahlen thinks that it's bunk, but a prototype -- built inside a flexible suit of armor -- shows to have positive effects as well. The armor is presented to Kite after Kip judges it a bit too magical-girl for his tastes.

Kip's debriefing about his induced panic attack, and how he got out of it, is interesting - he should be able to stop something like that from happening, either on himself or on a squad member. Dr. Vahlen theorizes that it should be possible to replicate the effect.

  You say you want a revolution
  Well, you know
  We all want to change the world.
  You tell me that it's evolution
  Well, you know
  We all want to change the world.

Paul McCartney wasn't on the shortlist of names most people would expect Kite to listen to. But then, if anyone were to be looking at her as she sat by herself in the corner of one of the storage warehouses where normally the 'unofficial classes in psi-resistance' took place, they could hardly be blamed if they assumed she didn't hear it.

She stared hatefully forward at an inoffensive patch of wall. It wasn't what she was looking at. It just happened to be in the way.

 "Lord, you will keep your promise, right? Heaven awaits... right?"

Lily was supposed to have been reliable. Someone who taught others how to stand for humanity against the aliens. And yet in seconds that abomination from beyond the stars twisted her to its side. Made her honeyed promises that sung sweetly enough in her ears to make her forget streets chocked with the dead and the dying. To forget the twisted visages of those who'd been caught in the discharge of the 'abduction devices' but judged unworthy of being taken, left there to asphyxiate as their own bodies were turned against them by the foul gas making them secrete their own imprisonment.

  I gave her the means, she had the will
  I kept on pushin', for the kill.
  I never thought, she'd finish me
  As she shot me down and left me to bleed

Whatever promises it made didn't matter. Even if they were true, even if the aliens really had come to earth for some kind of glorious uplift that would, in its aftermath, make all the carnage and slaughter and pain worth it to everyone in the world still alive. Kite had seen Lily's eyes, Lily's face, right before Gabriella turned both into a splatter of blood and shattered flesh on the floor of an alien ship. She'd seen that kind of face before, sworn she'd never see it again. It hadn't been in a mirror this time. If THAT was any part of the alien's plan for humanity, then there could only be one solution. Kite rose to her feet. There wouldn't be any 'class' here today. Those who could mourn needed to do so. She walked out to head down to the ranges. The old-monkey calculus had never lacked for hate to drive it. For fury to weld eyes and mind and will together and bring violence to the enemy. Still, it would be... inadvisable to be anything but alone until having things back under control. Lily's final moments provided so very much new fuel for an old flame.

  I'm gonna kill that preacher man 
  I'm gonna put him in his grave 
  I'm gonna kill that preacher man 
  Kick him with my boot make sure hes dead 
  Gave my baby promises, stole my baby's innocence 
  Gave my baby promises, stole my baby's innocence

Xcom's warehouses were fairly large. A technician who'd been doing routine maintenance on the forklifts had been wondering for the last several minutes both when the PA in here had been fixed, who'd authorized using it to play music, and who the hell had decided on such a depressing playlist. Still, forklifts done, next item on the list is... fix the PA in Warehouse 3. Uh oh.

(As written by Kite Winters)

Petitions across Canada to increase police presence have sprung up after a supposed wave of abduction, one of which in the center of Winnipeg, that we cannot confirm. Is that related to the scout UFO that we missed?

"I wonder if it was all worth it. For the aliens, I mean."

I try to share Bradford's optimism - if anything, our casualties of late have increased.

Dr. Shen asks me to not hit the Foundry for a few days, and says it's a surprise. "Are you going forward with the whole robot army thing?" He smiles. "I mean another surprise."

We scan empty skies for a day or two, grateful for the rest, when we get a signal from Vincent Mercier. The X-ALT cell in Calais is closing up shop pending further orders after this Furies project, and we have a unique opportunity to do a smash-and-grab on their servers before they are destroyed. Unsurprisingly, the French government denies us authority to operate citing a general lack of recent alien activity within their borders, so we land the Skyranger at Heathrow as a charter flight, and send a crate full of SHIVs via delivery truck.

OPERATION

The truck will be driven by Gabrielle Girard, who just got out of psi testing with a mildly positive result. She gets there to see police cordoning the area - X-ALT had set up shop inside a library that used to be a courthouse, and Vincent had to set up them the bomb in order to prevent hard drive destruction. I guess if the French government wants to pin terrorism on us, they have an excuse.

"We get signal!" Gabrielle calls, and puts on the flying armor - a quick boost and she's past the police cordon; the quadcopter accompanies her, while the other SHIVs turn their generators off and silently power under the barricades. So far so good.

Vincent is inside - all we have to do is protect his laptop and the server it's hooked up to until X-ALT is forced to ditch. The quadcopter and Gabrielle take position on the library's roof, while the tracked drones rush towards Vincent's defense.

The laptop has been set up in one of the library's computer alcoves, for inconspicuousness - the X-ALT server is actually hidden inside the nearby power substation, but according to Vincent's intel, not even their agents know this; the organization runs in a very compartmentalized fashion.

Gabrielle gets on the roof and uses the quadcopter to spot three agents. Stupidly, they walk right into the SHIVs. "Multiple hostiles inbound from where the power station is!" Gabrielle calls.

Vincent grins. "I'm making as much noise as I can on their network from right here - they'll come after my laptop first." He's surrounded by SHIVs, and feels confident. "Besides, I can still turn their guns off remotely... their DRM still defaults to on."

Six X-ALT agents, lightweight alloy armor and mutated features, advance towards the library's esatern wing... five... four. Gabrielle has an easy time picking one off, and the other walks into the drone tanks' firing solution. That destroys part of the wall, and we move one of the SHIVs to cover the gap; it takes some laser fire, and returns plasma in the same direction, scoring a kill.

The X-ALT agents keep coming in ones and twos; those that the SHIVs don't get, Gabrielle picks off. Vincent never even has to draw his gun.

Eventually, the contacts coming in stop wearing X-ALT orange and switch to police blue; the SHIVs run for it, while Gabrielle boosts off and Vincent drops his pistol and prepares to pose as a victim.

What we did not expect was French authorities ignoring his credentials and confiscating his documents about projects "Portent", "Deluge" and "Furies"; he does manage to get the one bit of urgent information we wanted, though.

"They're in Toronto. X-ALT is headquartered in Toronto."