Chapter 1: First Contact

The air conditioning hummed deep, almost drowned out by the roaring of the jets outside. The six faces illuminated by the orange glow of halogen lights betrayed emotions ranging from focused and determined to worried and nervous. All of them understandable really; it's not every day you are one of the first responders to an alien threat on your home planet.

The briefing had been quick and to-the-point: stop the abduction of civilian targets undergoing at Nagoya, Japan. They were all prepared for these sorts of urban operations, most of XCOM personnel being former SWAT, military or various counter-terrorism units like GIGN or GSG 9. However, none had ever fought an enemy like this before.

"What the hell?"

The exclamation caused the commander to halt his briefing. The OP room was filled with murmurs by the six operatives seated around the table. Projected on the silver screen was an image of a small, gray humanoid creature with large, segmented eyes and no visible mouth.

"Would you mind, Private Medve?" The commander spoke in a cool tone, yet there was a clear line of amusement running below the surface. The large, broad-shouldered ex-SWAT, somewhat embarrassed by his sudden outburst, muttered an apology and seated himself back at the table.

Across from him, a lean woman with dark skin and cool, calculating eyes spoke up, "This thing can't be larger than a 10-year-old human. What's the catch, commander?"

"I was about to get to that, Private Foogleman." The commander clicked on his remote and the picture of the little gray changed to that of a human police officer leaning against a brick wall. The man was undoubtedly dead, with a massive hole where his left lung was supposed to be. The uniform around the wound was burnt, and the wall behind him had green scorch marks on it and a smear of blood running down to where the officer lay against the wall. There was another wave of whispers around the room, but this time they died out on their own without an intervention by the commander.

"We believe the enemy has access to weapons systems that far exceed our own. Our research and engineering are talking about potential plasma-based weaponry, but we will need to obtain actual evidence from the field ourselves to make more sense of this. Whatever the case may be, I don't want any of you to end up like this guy right here. Use extreme caution when engaging the enemy, you hear me?" The room responded with collective nods. "Now, let me wrap this up quickly, there's no time to waste. Further instructions en route and at the op zone."

The voice of the pilot over the intercom announced an ETA of 2 minutes until touchdown. Medve scanned the faces of his fellow operatives. Foogleman, the woman who seemed hard enough to take down any man or alien for that matter. Kamikaze, a German with dark hair and serious eyes whose face remained stoic and calm even under these circumstances. Atlanton, a young Aussie girl keeping her eyes shut and taking deep breaths. Orgun, an Irishman with freckles on his nose had his usual jolly demeanor replaced by a far-eyed stare. And lastly Drake, an Indian-American woman with caramel skin and dark hair, gently stroking the side of her assault rifle.

Drake caught Medve's look and smiled a little. Returning his gaze, she spoke good-naturedly, "You ready, big man?"

Medve took a deep breath and straightened his back. With a booming voice only slightly tinted by his Dutch origins, Medve took the attention of the operatives as the Skyranger began its descent:

"This is it, people! We are touching down in what is going to be the most important battle any of us have faced yet; hell, more important than any battle Man has fought before! Now I want this done by the book; no heroics, no turning back, no bullshit. Every man and woman stand together, and we'll all make it home in time for chow. Look alive soldiers!"

The response was immediate. The Skyranger was filled with confidence, operatives acknowledging and rogering the order, slapping the people next to them on the shoulder and picking up their gear right as the aircraft was touching down. Medve caught Foogleman staring at him, amused with a little smirk on her lips. She making fun of me? An angry thought crossed the big man's head

The Skyranger came to a smooth landing, and everyone lifted the safety frames from their shoulders. Foogleman rose up next to Medve at the top of the ramp that would soon lower, signifying the beginning of the operation.

"Nice speech", Foogleman noted laconically. "These kids really needed the pick-up." Turning her head a little, she noticed Medve staring at her quizzically.

"That was a compliment, by the way", she informed him, slapping Medve on the back before chambering a round into her assault rifle just as the Skyranger ramp began to lower. Medve uttered a thank you, still somewhat puzzled by the mysterious woman next to him. But there were more important things to worry about right now.

"I hope you're ready for the welcoming committee E.T!" Orgun shouted from the back of the Skyranger just as the ramp crashed to the pavement at the car park of a pizza place somewhere near Nagoya. Medve raised his rifle and strode out of the Skyranger, Foogleman on his side and the rest of the operatives following suit.

Author's note: Welcome to reading Alive and Impossible, my first actual writing project. Unfortunately, this shows in some of the early writing and the format of the story. I grew a lot as a writer over the course of this massive undertaking and looking back, the early bits are not that well put together. There's a lot of things I would do differently now, but editing the format of the early story is just not realistic due to the length. If you find the writing to be lacking or grow tired of the filler chapters (which there are quite a lot of unfortunately) I recommend skipping over to Chapter 51: Heroes and reading from there on out. It's a lot more cohesive without any of the filler. To avoid missing any key plot points, I would also recommend checking out Chapters 10, 10.5, 13, 18, 20, 24, 28, 33 and 46. Whether you decide to skip forward, read the whole thing or just check out a couple of chapters, I hope you enjoy your time with Alive and Impossible!