In Utter Darkness: Chapter 5: No Place Like Home
#6 of New Beginnings
Be careful when you stare into the abyss...it is waiting for you.
In Utter Darkness: Chapter 5: No Place Like Home
Date: (Unknown)
Location: Davidson Civic Center (Unknown)
As we approached one of the remaining APC's I heard the commander issue orders to search the building for any survivors or intelligence on the aliens. "You won't find anything," I coughed, "We are all that's left." He grimaced at that but replied, "That may be the case but I still have my orders, if there is any chance anyone is left I have to look. Speaking of which, how did you three manage to survive and escape." I thought to begin our story with what exactly had happened in the center, but Janko gripped my arm and shook his head faintly. Deciding to play along with him, I kept silent as Janko related details of how we had hid from the aliens the whole time and that we ourselves were on a mission from higher up. Arlen looked perturbed by this outright deception but it worked, the commander just sighed and said the words I had been hoping to hear. "All right let's take you three to headquarters so you can get a hot meal and get debriefed. You," he said looking at me, "probably need to get that back looked at by a medic. I haven't seen anything like that before, it looks nasty." I looked down at my side and was shocked at what I saw. Earlier in the fight it had felt that I had actually been hit by the aliens but I ignored it as I would have been killed if I had, the evidence however was proving me wrong. The skin all along my back and sides was burned or scraped off but I wasn't bleeding and it didn't even hurt. What the hell was going on with us?
As the commander busied himself with speaking with those wounded in the battle, Janko signaled to Arlen and I to come over behind the APC...I eagerly complied, I wanted to get my answers to his behavior myself. "What the fuck are you doing?" I whispered harshly at him, "You just lied to those soldiers, we aren't on any 'secret mission' and believe me they will find out!" Arlen muttered his affirmation to that as well and we waited as Janko seemed to gather his thoughts. "Considering the changes myself, you, and Arlen have gone through I think it is the wisest course of action to wait to relay sensitive information till we reach the base, where we can both find a doctor and report our findings to the intelligence people there," Janko began, "Plus, the last thing we want to do is relay that you now have the knowledge of this whole facility in your pocket. Believe me, if we need a bargaining chip that will be quite a powerful one." "How did you find out about the-" I began, but Arlen cut me off, "He is right you know, I have dealt with spooks before, it's always best to keep sensitive information private until they can debrief you, telling every yahoo from here to camp can't be good. I am disappointed that you haven't told me anything about this "knowledge" you got in the facility though, I thought we could rely on each other." "Here, look at it," I said, pulling the crystal out of my pocket, "I sure as hell don't think we have any device that can read it and even Janko didn't know about it! How he managed to find out about it and knew about the alien ambush is beyond me and I think it is time for some answers of our own."
"How did I?" Janko commented with a grin, "The same way I imagine Arlen has managed to get through this without a scratch or how you, Ryan, managed to spit fire and survive multiple energy blasts which would have killed anything else." I shifted uncomfortably as he eyed my blackened exterior from the shots. "Regardless of what the commander thinks, I don't believe you need to see a medic right now," Arlen muttered, "A scientist is more like it, that stuff looks a hell of a lot like scales." I ran my fingers over the holes and I agreed with him. "So be it," I told Janko, "We will play it your way; you have some valid points and a heck of a lot more experience than I do." Arlen winced and said, "As much as it galls me to say this, you are right Janko, do you have any more bright ideas." "Not at present," was the reply, "I think I am all tapped out right now." Arlen just grinned wryly at that and we moved to rejoin the rest of the troops. Arlen grabbed a jacket off one of the dead soldiers, and I slid into it, I didn't need any more questions as to why I had scales instead of flesh.
We ended up having to ride on the top of the APCs the 12 miles back to base. With only two APC's left there were too many of us to fit into both of them. Arlen was the one to suggest that the three "special forces" soldiers should sit up top and I wasn't complaining. It gave us a chance to talk freely and I had finally managed to get a gun from one of the dead soldiers. "So how exactly did you manage to find out that stuff, Janko?" I queried, "And what is up with your eyes changing color?" He looked serious and responded, "Ever since we were injected, I have managed to 'know' things. It is like a sense of déjà' vu or just the "feeling" that something is a certain way. This happened right when you activated the alien console and as we approached the door, I "knew" what you had done and in the other case that there were aliens coming around the corner." "Remarkable," commented Arlen, "So it is similar to a limited sense of foresight?" Janko just shrugged and replied, "I guess so, I will have to test it more to find out its potential but it isn't really far seeing, just a few seconds at most." "This is weird," I chimed in, "I have a portable fire starter and Janko has his foresight...have you noticed anything about yourself Arlen?" He thought for a moment before responding, "Besides being a hell of a lot stronger than I was before? No. However, this is something that happened in the fight that I will try to explain if I can find the right words to do so. As for now I would recommend we drop the subject." I nodded, we were nearing the camp and I was eager to get debriefed so that I could find out more of what was wrong with the world...that and get a damn shower and food, I hadn't eaten in at least a day and I was starving.
We were first sent to see our "superior officers" whom Janko claimed were in the intelligence division. That ruse over with we moved into the tent and Janko quickly relayed that we were captured by the enemy and had survived. The young man's eyes bugged out before he made a call to what we assumed were his superior officers. We were then hurriedly moved to a different building and ushered underground. The camp itself was barely more than a shantytown of military hardware and equipment, the aliens had really down a number to this once mighty military installation. The man who greeted us eyed us suspiciously but still introduced himself as Sgt. Major Jackson Marlowe; after the introductions were over he motioned for us to have a seat. "Why don't you boys tell me all that happened in there," he drawled, "I have reports of thousands of civilians going into that building but only you three coming out." "Do you want details of how we were captured?" I asked, not knowing the proper procedure for these things. "Why not, soldier," he responded, "What unit were you with at the time and under what circumstances were you abducted." I chuckled and corrected his mistake, "I am not a soldier, I helped with the evacuation of New York when I was knocked unconscious by debris and woke up in the facility." I then proceeded to give a detailed account of what had transpired since my awakening. "Remarkable," he breathed "and what of you two, what units were you with?" Arlen chimed in first with the affirmation that he was in Washington D.C. with his unit when they had come under heavy fire from the initial attack. He had gotten separated from his squad and while he was trying to reach the rendezvous point, an enemy fighter had fell out of the sky and a chunk from it had been flung from that into his skull. He then related that he had undergone the same treatment as I had received and detailed his own experiences up till now with the short, punctuated manner that I should have used. The spook then turned to Janko and queried of him the same that he had of us. "Who I work for is of no concern," was all Janko would say, "I report to them and only to them." Arlen and I looked at each other...this probably wouldn't go well for the Russian if he didn't comply.
The Sgt. Major just grinned, "Put that petty nationalism aside," he barked, "Who do you work for? The SOI (Soviet Operations and Intelligence)? Well guess what, there are no loyalties to nations now, the UN issued an emergency declaration in the light of recent events. The chain of command is to be followed regardless of the nationality of the soldier. Hell, an Italian general could come up to me right now and ask for the same information I have just learned from you and I would be obligated to tell him. So start talking before I get real nasty." Janko for his part looked stunned, "You are correct," he replied hesitantly, "I do work for the SOI in the role of a Shadowblade, I also was in Washington D.C. at the time that I was captured. I am not part of a unit but my orders at the time were to follow certain heads of state that were there at the time and report their doings back to my superiors. If possible I was also to assassinate the French Prime Minister. I observed Sgt. Arlen get picked up by the aliens and I reasoned that my best chance to stay alive was to play dead. I must say It worked quite well, the aliens must not have cared what condition their prisoners were in, only that they were alive at the time of injection." Arlen however looked horrified, "You're a goddamn Shadowblade?" I was confused at that one, "What is a Shadowblade?" I asked clueless as to why Arlen seemed to react so strongly to it. I expected Marlowe to answer but it was Janko who did so, "A Shadowblade is an elite operative for the Russian equivalent of the Israeli Mossad. We are usually picked from the ranks of the Spetsnaz and are given additional training in assassination and information gathering. There are currently only 12 such operatives active at this time. Now are you happy?" I nodded; knowing that it just meant Janko was a certifiable badass. I then asked the burning questions I could feel were on the tips of Arlen's and Janko's tongues, "What the hell happened, what do the aliens want, and what do we do now?" The Sgt. Major just sighed, "Where to begin," he murmured.
"I must say," he began, "You three have done an amazing job so far and I want you to know your efforts are appreciated. That being said, with the changes you have related experiencing, after debriefing I am going to have our resident doctor/scientist examine you. After that, I want you back here with her reports. The first thing we knew about the aliens was three days ago when NASA picked up five large anomalies headed towards us from the asteroid field between Earth and Mars. We don't think they aliens originated from there and we have people working on that, but that is where/when we picked them up. NASA drug its feet as it believed they had an equipment failure and they neglected to inform anyone else until about 18 hours later. As soon as the military found out about these "anomalies" we went on high alert and the evacuation of major metropolitan areas was planned but not initiated. The President called an emergency meeting of the UN which is why so many diplomats were in Washington," he said with a nod to Arlen and Janko. "As to what the aliens want?" he began again, "The simple answer is that we don't know. Their five capital ships have stationed themselves over the Midwest, Central Africa, Eastern Russia, China, and Australia. What hit us here was just an attack force of fighters and dropships originating from the one capital ship in the area. Below those locations where the capital ships are they have begun either excavating or constructing towers that are releasing an odd energy source. If I had to guess I would hazard that it is similar to what the aliens exposed all of you to." Arlen, Janko, and I looked at each other and I heard Arlen mutter, "Holy Shit!" "Why they are doing this we don't know," he continued as if he hadn't noticed Arlen's comment, "We cannot get anyone close enough to confirm anything and nearly all of our satellites our offline. If we assume that the aliens are building the tower as a weapon it stands to reason that they would want confirmation that it works. That is my hypothesis on why so many people were exposed to what you describe. We need to know more about what is going on with your systems so at this moment, you three are dismissed. You have your orders gentlemen. Get to it."
"Jesus," I said walking out of the nearly destroyed building, "That is incredible. Are you guys all right." Janko nodded his affirmative but Arlen just glared at Janko, "I can't believe I was actually beginning to trust a Russian...only to find out you are a goddamn Shadowblade." "Seriously what is your problem with Russians," I heatedly asked, "I mean for Pete's sake, I am about an 1/8 Russian, my grandfather came to the U.S. about 80 years ago." He just sighed and dejectedly said, "You wouldn't understand, I may tell you both later. And Janko, it has nothing to do with you particularly but something that happened when I was on a mission once." With that he just shook his head and remained silent.
Arlen volunteered to visit the good Dr. Summers first. "Go get something to eat and clean up," he offered, "I am good for the moment." Janko and I thanked him for doing so and I wandered off to find some clean clothes, food could wait. About 30 minutes later I joined Janko in the mess hall, he had already begun eating but he called me over and offered me some. My stomach rumbled as I gleefully took him up on his offer, it had nearly been a whole day since I had even had so much as something to drink and I was starting to feel it. He just chuckled and warned me not to eat so quickly otherwise I would lose it all. After we had finished we just sat around and I bugged Janko about his days as a Shadowblade, although he was hesitant to reveal much about that aspect of his life he soon opened up and was regaling me with tales of his various missions. He was beginning to tell me about his days in Israel when Arlen joined us looking none the worse for wear, he grabbed some food and joined us, motioning for Janko to scoot aside. "Your turn, Janko. It's not too bad really; she just asks some questions about what had happened and what changes I was experiencing and drew some blood. It doesn't hurt that she is easy on the eyes too," he commented with a wry grin. "I can manage that," responded Janko, "I am fully expecting her to be a hideous troll now that you have commented on her beauty." Arlen just chuckled and I was suddenly alone with the big man. "So what is your story?" I asked, "Are you going to ever tell us about you loathing of Russians?" He sighed and looked defeated, "I will, but I want Janko to be here for it, it involves something that happened a long time ago, before their government changed hands in the last coup." I nodded, "That works," I said, "As long as we understand we can try to avoid bothering you." He grunted and just dug into his food with a gusto even I had not possessed. I spent the next thirty minutes or so fighting sleep as it threatened to overtake me, the only times I had "rested" was when I had been unconscious and that hadn't been any fun at all.
I woke up with Janko gently shaking me awake, "Rise and shine pup," he said, "You are next on the chopping block." "That bad?" I asked. "Not at all," he responded, "Oh and by the way Arlen was right." Arlen overheard him and started smirking at us. "Told you," he said, "Now get over here so I can talk to you." I walked out of the mess hall as Arlen was razzing Janko about his doctor's visit. Marlowe had told us that Dr. Summers "office" was adjacent to the infirmary and finding that wasn't too difficult, all one had to do was follow the moaning of the injured. I grimaced as I knocked on the door to the burned building, I had a feeling this wouldn't be pleasant. She called me to come in and I walked into the well lit room with a sense of apprehension, I didn't really want to find out the extent of what was happening to me. Dr. Summers was a short, skinny woman probably about 5'4" with light blond hair. I had to admit, that Janko and Arlen were right, she was beautiful. "Hello Ryan," she started, "My name is Doctor Vivian Summers, I need to ask you a few questions and get a blood sample for comparison with baseline values as well as to compare your changes with your friends. I would also like to see what you can do that had them talking so reverently about you" I nodded my assent as I blushed, they had already told me what to expect but it wasn't often I was talked about like I was something special. "It's nothing really," I murmured, "I didn't really do anything that remarkable." She ignored me on that one and the questioning began.
After the basic routine questions, "What is your age and weight, who is your family, how did you come to this point, etc." she got to the more pointed questions. "What changes have you observed happening to your body? Has your mental state changed at all since you were injected? Did you actually survive being shot by energy weapons?" "Slow down," I commented, "I can't keep up; let me answer those before you ask me anymore. As for the changes, my hearing and eyesight are significantly improved, I feel taller but I don't know if that is actually the case right now. I don't know about physical strength but overall I feel healthy, which is unusual as I didn't before this whole experience. As for the mental state well...that's a harder one to judge, I feel normal when I am not under battle stress, when I am stressed though it seems like my mind enters a whole new state. I can think faster, I don't freeze up, and everybody just stares at me like I am some kind of super soldier even though before yesterday I had never fired anything other than a .22 rifle and a shotgun." She stared intently through all of this and was busy writing furiously in her clipboard. "How I survived being shot by and why I can spit fire you will have to tell me Dr." She hummed under her breath, "I might have a hypothesis as to what is going on but I want to test a few things first." "What do you need doc?" I asked. "Just your honest cooperation in just a few simple things," she said with a wink. I grinned, how hard could it be?
"Subject is showing remarkable resistance to pain with no impact to dexterity," she droned into a recorder, "He acknowledges that he feels the stimuli but it doesn't bother him nearly as much as it should. Possibly due to deadened nerve endings underneath the dermatological anomaly, further study is required." I grunted as she started poking my forearms with more needles while I was performing tasks such as untying difficult knots. "Dexterity is significantly higher than normal as is muscle mass. Subject is not nearly as strong as Sergeant Arlen or as skilled as Shadow Janko but is still remarkable given no training," she continued, "Subject's weight and height are significantly greater after exposure to alien energy, height now stands at 6'4" as opposed to 6' originally, and weight is approximately 227 lbs, a weight gain of nearly 100 lbs. As subject is not obese it stands to reason that the increased weight comes from either the dermatological anomaly, the increased muscle mass, or changes to the skeletal structure. I will have to take an X-ray and blood samples as well as a dermatological scraping to confirm." "You don't have to keep calling me 'subject' you know," I said irritably, "My name is Ryan." She ignored me and prompted me to turn around. "Skin damage is severe," she droned on, "consistent with other cases of energy burns; however the shots seemed to have dissapated once it hit the anomaly leaving only damage to the epidermal tissues. Observational evidence indicates that the anomaly has similar qualities as scales but with a few differences." "Scales," I called out, "What the hell are you talking about." "The 'scales,'" she continued, "Appear to serve as a sort of armor for the subject, dissipating the energy in a similar manner as the alien's armor. It also appears to be resistant to punctures and tears as indicated by the subject's fight with the Titan and with what appears to be bullet impacts in the tissue." "Please tell me what is going on," I growled, "Now would be preferable." She held up her hand to silence me and replied, "Just a minute, let me finish this first." I sighed and she restarted the tape and asked me to open my mouth. "Ryan, has two abnormal glands on the inside of his mouth," she said into the device, "if what Arlen and Janko have said is true, it stands to reason that those glands produce a jelly like liquid that burns once combined with both each other and air, I will have to conduct a test to this effect but I first need to brief him." I held still as she walked in front of me, "I suppose I owe you an explanation," she said. "You think?" I snarled, "I don't appreciated being treated like a lab rat when I don't even know what the hell is going on." "Hush," she patronized me, "And I will tell you what I think."
"As Marlowe may have told you the aliens are unearthing a total of five towers around the world," she lectured, "the energy source emanating from the towers is, by my best guess, something that alters the genetic code of anything that comes in contact with it. This alteration only seems to work on an insanely low percentage of individuals whose own genetic structure was damaged or "incomplete" in some way. I have DNA on file from before both Arlen and Janko were exposed and they each had severe genetic abnormalities that probably would have significantly shortened their life span. Thankfully, most people don't have this defect and I don't have your DNA on record to make or break that theory. My best guess is that it will somehow benefit the aliens to be exposed to this unique type of energy, probably along the same lines as what has happened with you three. I have examined tissue from one of the dead avian aliens and whatever passes for their genetic structure is warped, almost as if they don't have a consistently stable form. Whether this means that the "hollow" aliens you describe are actually the same "species" as the avian ones, I can't tell at this time. All I know is that less than .1% of humans will survive if exposed to that energy source." I shuddered to think at the ramifications of that, nearly every person in the world dead just from a small exposure to something so trivial. "Is it hereditary?" I asked, curious as to whether my parents or sister would be fine if something happened. "Afraid not," she responded, "But this defect that usually ends up killing people may actually end up saving their lives. I need to finish processing the samples from Arlen and Janko before I can come to a conclusion on that but before I do that and get a sample from you, I want you to know about what I think you all are changing into." "Go ahead, shoot," I commented, "It can't be worse than anything I have thought of." "You so sure of that," she said with a sardonic smirk, "It's actually pretty interesting, this type of research would consume my life if it weren't for what was happening now."
"Your friend Arlen, from what he has told me," she began, "Is significantly stronger and faster than before he was exposed, his muscle density is off the charts and it was damn near impossible to poke him with a needle to get a blood sample. His eyes, when under stress shift to a dark brown from their normal blue and it seems he has a unique ability to avoid getting hurt. All of you have advanced cellular regeneration at least on some level, from what you have told me about your shoulder and the fact that Arlen's scars have disappeared indicate this. Whether you can grow limbs back is something I would rather not examine but for all intensive purposes you will survive things that would kill normal humans. I was conducting a test of reflexes on Arlen when I noticed something odd about the flight path of the projectiles. I had a camera going as I was doing this and after the test I watched the video for a minute and noticed that the balls never actually touched him. When they came close to him, if he didn't catch them, they seemed to move around him, almost as if he were exuding the same type of energy field as the alien armor. I wanted to see if this effect was always on so as he was walking out I chucked one at his head and it connected." We both chuckled at that image. "That leads me to assume that his ability is active only under stress, which is when your eyes change, this was backed up by Janko's thoughts about it and his test reflex test. Janko has also demonstrated significant muscle growth and has the same regeneration properties and, although Arlen is much stronger, Janko managed to pick up massive amounts of dexterity and speed. On the sensitivity test he felt every single stimuli even those that were thought to be below the threshold. He freely admitted his ability and although I was skeptical, he demonstrated it flawlessly, both on myself and on the reflex test. The best I can try to explain of his talent is that he 'feels' the energy emitted by objects, people, etc, long before the physical action of it is noticeable. This theory ties in with his extraordinary sensitivity and, like Arlen, this only happens under stress. In case you were wondering his eyes flash a gold/amber color when the effect is active." I nodded, "That seems like a good guess, it ties in with what I have seen them both do." "Now as for you," she said looking me over, "I have no earthly idea of what to make of your changes. I need to see both your saliva combust and a closer look at your data before I can make a judgment."
Five minutes later saw me spitting at various objects in the hope of igniting them. "No, no no," she cried, "Try drawing the fluids from the glands, don't just spit." "I am trying," I retorted, "How often do you think I try actively setting things on fire by blowing at them?" She fell silent and as a last frustrated effort I focused, setting my mind deep into that zone where it was so comfortable with battle going on, and indeed wanted to join in it. I breathed slowly out and as I took a deep breath in I felt the unusual fluids pool in the back of my mouth. I opened my eyes once my lungs were full and spit/blew, a large jet of flame burst from my mouth, much farther and hotter than either of us had expected. I quickly closed my mouth but some of the fluids still dribbled from my mouth like drool and set my shirt on fire. "God fucking dammit!" I cried, as I shimmied out of the top half of my fatigues. Dr. Summers had ignored me; too busy trying to put out the sticky, flaming gel with a fire extinguisher. After the fire was out she glanced over at me and I couldn't tell whether she was excited at what she had witnessed or worried over my safety. When she started laughing I figured "excited" was to put it mildly. "You set yourself on fire," she chortled, "I would be feeling bad for you if I didn't know you had those scales underneath your skin." I scowled at her before examining the damage. A huge patch of skin on my upper chest had been melted away by the gel and I winced. "Jesus," she said finally sounding serious, "I guessed that the scales covered all of you body but it is still a shock to see them. Does it hurt at all?" "Not really," I said surprised that it was the truth, "It felt more like a slight tickling on my chest." She just muttered under her breath and watched fascinated as the skin started to regrow to cover up the hole. "Well I suppose I should tell you of your results then," she commented, "Your strength is a little less and Arlen's and while your speed is less than Janko's, your regeneration and natural armor, coupled with your flame abilities make you a formidable opponent on the battlefield. I suppose I should write up those reports to give to our resident spook. It was a pleasure, Ryan." "I should be the one thanking you mam," I responded, "Both you and Marlowe have been extremely helpful to us with figuring out what is going on" She just laughed, "Don't call me 'mam' I am not that old. Vivian or Dr. Summers will do fine." I bid her adieu and as it was late in the day I figured I could use some sleep.
I managed to find a soldier who knew where Arlen and Janko were supposed to sleep and I was grateful that they had left a place for the third member of the "special forces" team. I relayed everything I had been told to Janko and fell asleep listening to them banter about their respective speed and strength and debating as to whether or not they could win the doctor's "favor." The last thought I had before I drifted off was, "What had Dr. Summers meant about Arlen's scars?" I was in the middle of a particularly pleasant dream involving a hot meal and an actual girlfriend when I was rudely awoken by a soldier yelling at the front of our tent. "Gear up and report to Sgt. Major Marlowe, you three are being deployed." "What! Where to?" Arlen barked. "The Russians are preparing to launch an offensive on the capital ship they damaged in the invasion. You three, along with a Ranger company, and some support personnel are going to link up with a Marine Recon team already in place and assist the Russians. Be ready to move out in 10." Groggily, I moved to comply, grabbing anything I thought I would need in the frozen tundra. My mind still hadn't grasped the fact that we were being deployed, especially considering that I was a civilian. I turned around and bumped into Arlen who was frozen in shock. "What's wrong?" I asked but immediately regretted it as I remembered his hatred of Janko for being Russian. "What do you think? We are being deployed to Hell!" he snapped but immediately after looked defeated. "I suppose I should explain myself," he said as he gathered his gear, "I will tell you both while we are on the plane."
******
Journal Entry 1:
Author: Owl
Subject: Generators
Well, I suppose I don't know where to begin with this as I am not much of a writer. Ryan was told by command, not too long ago, to keep a log of information and observations that he had found or thought of. This idea evolved into a "journal" and he has since prompted us to write our own, probably to avoid the awkward glares of him poring away over the damn thing. Anyways, as I am not one for all the touchy-feely bullshit that goes into these things I am instead going to make this a technical manual for my observations of the alien tech. I will admit I am fascinated by it even though, for such advanced technology, it is surprisingly "primitive." I intend to illustrate this with a dissection of one of their "barrier generators." While these mechanisms gave all of us much trouble in the past they have some remarkable fatal flaws that make them, in my opinion, not fit to see the light of day.
The physical appearance of the outside of the generator is basically an indication of its simplicity; it is just composed of a dark, metallic material which is incredibly resistance to heat and is highly malleable, this is fantastic as a material if you are dealing with high heat situations such as energy containment but it is utterly abysmal at resisting puncturing. Inside this "case" if it can be called that resides a "containment vessel" within which the core of the device is contained. The vessel is made up of an opaque crystal not native to this planet for which I cannot determine whether it is alien made or just found somewhere that is not Earth. The crystal is physically very weak, it has the strength of tempered glass, but it has some truly amazing properties to make up for it. It naturally produces perfect magnetic fields no matter the thickness of the crystal is at the time. It is usually found in a hollow spherical from to contain the core but experiments indicate that it doesn't have to be a sphere; it could be a box or anything really. The crystal usually has a cutout in one side of it over which a "lens" of a clear variant of the crystal is placed to direct the energy produced by the core.
Inside the vessel lies the part of the generator which poses the most problem to study. From what I can determine the core consists of two balls of highly condensed material. These balls are perfectly balanced and react with each other on an atomic level to produce the exact amount of energy needed. The materials each of balls are made of are matter and antimatter respectively, the two are kept apart by the magnetic field the crystal exerts but one can still observe a reaction taking place. This indicates that the two are highly attracted to each other and almost single atoms of each are coming together and annihilating each other. This results in the destruction of both the matter and antimatter but releases significant amounts of energy. This is one of the things that fascinates me about the aliens, they manage to make an energy source out of matter and the fabled substance that was only hypothesized to exist, antimatter. How they managed to find antimatter in nature and contain it or create it must require feats of technology I can only dream about. However, the fact remains that no matter how spectacular it is they left it with some major flaws that would be beyond easy to correct. I can only hope that they continue to ignore their "problem" as it works in our favor now.
Once the energy leaves the core and passes through the projector lens it is immediately drawn to several "anchors" that the aliens have placed in whatever surface they have tried to block off. There are usually six or more of these anchors and the larger the gap, the more anchors are usually needed. The energy seeks out these anchors and then jumps between each one forming a surface of energy that repels anything that it comes into contact with. One thing I have noticed is that size does matter. Usually the larger the generator the larger the core and the more antimatter/matter is reacted at once, this results in a stronger barrier or a barrier that can take up more space without needing a second one.
The generators are not without their problems though. For one, if the containment vessel is breached, as demonstrated by Arlen and Ryan, the magnetic field fails to remain uniform. As such, the small balls of condensed matter and antimatter instantly annihilate each other once the field completely dissipates (similar to an electromagnet) resulting in a massive release of energy though the projecting lens. Once again this scales with size to where the massive generators should only disabled from long range. There is another problem with doing this as well as most soldiers are on the wrong side of the barrier to reach the generator. Only two individuals, Arlen and Ryan, have successfully managed to penetrate a barrier with an object to crack the containment vessel. These maneuvers were highly dangerous and it is unlikely anything other than a HVAP (High Velocity Armor Piercing) round or a high mass shell such as what a tank fires would be able to do this.
The other way I have recently found that works is to use a strong magnetic field to distort the field caused by the crystal, thereby yielding the same results as cracking it. The only problem is that a strong magnet needs to be used on a delay which is impossible. An electromagnet is a solution to this but a soldier would have to carry around a power source, which, why infeasible, is entirely possible. As for the anchors there really is no way to disable them that I have found yet, I am still working on it but I have come up with nothing so far. The final way I recommend to circumvent a barrier is impractical in all senses of the word. Reaching a small doorway blocked by a large generator that could have blocked a distance five times that size with ease, we proceeded to cut a portion of the wall away in order to advance. This method is nigh on impossible to do in the field and I would not recommend it in the least. This brings my findings to a close.
Well what do you know? This crap actually may end up being useful. I guess I had Ryan pegged all wrong, not that I will tell him that. Next entry I haven't decided yet but I am thinking of researching the alien weapons a bit more before I turn in for the night. This concludes my entry.
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Oh boy, the end of Chapter 5, please tell me if there are any typos as this one is nearly two times as long as any of the others.
PS- 3 more squadmates left to pick up :D