Part 31
Tuesday, April 18, 4:00*BEGIN RECORDING*
One of the sectoids came forward claiming to be the commader of the group. It's been over eighty years, and I still can't tell the difference between one sectoid and another. I've had my psionic implants removed a long time ago, so our conversation was all verbal.
The commander told me everything. The interrogation answered some of our unanswered burning questions I posed to myself before our first entry into the alien dimension.
The sectoid race is the largest force of the ethereal empire. The powerful psionic ethereals (as fought in the first war) employ sectoids to do almost all of the work for them - Conducting science, gathering resources and fighting wars. In the millions of years they have roamed the galaxy, they have never encountered a resistance as powerful as humanity. Our ability to quickly adapt to changing situations and backwards engineer technology was something new to them. Once our scientists were able to improve on alien technology, they had no defense against it. In evolutionary terms, they were stuck, remaining the same as they were millions of years ago.
During the Frontier War, the sectoids attempted for the first time in millions of years to advance technologically. The plan was to build a doomsday device hidden from X-COM's eyes by hiding it in a parallel universe, using a black hole as a means of entry. It was discovered nonetheless, and destroyed. Reeling from continued losses to humanity, the sectoids were attempting to expand this research program by hiding not in a parallel universe, but an alternate dimension entirely. This in itself was an impressive feat. The breakthrough that allowed dimensional travel spilled into other fields - improved ships and improved weaponry. The devastator cannon is of sectoid design, modified by the aliens we're fighting with their organic technology.
The sectoids explored alternate dimensions - almost all they found were unsuitable for life or anything as we know it. Change one small constant of nature and stars will never fuse their gases or form in the first place. Change another constant and elements heavier than helium would radioactively decay. Only one universe was found that was similar enough to support them - the dimension we've been sending missions to.
The Sectoids rapidly explored the tiny corner of the new dimension they opened the path into. They found nothing of note until reaching the home planet of the species we're at war with. Like they do will all unknown species, they began abducting them, performing experiments, and eventually tried to conquer them.
They failed miserably.
The aliens fought back against the Sectoids. The biology of the aliens proved more effective than the technology of the sectoids. All the sectoids ships were destroyed or captured, along with their crew.
The sectoids were interrogated for every scrap of information they had. The sectoid told me that anthropods, skeletoids and psimorphs usually performed the interrogations, and did so psionically. This is very odd, as we've never detected any kind of psionics from the first two. If they are a psionic species, it must be beyond our means of detection. The sectoids said they could communicate psionically just fine.
In time the aliens learned of our universe, how to make dimensional shifts, and from the aliens, they learned of us. The sectoids were forced to tell them everything they knew about human biology and the location of our home planet. They were even forced to help design the brainsucker weapon. The sectoid told me it didn't know how the brainsucker worked, only that the aliens previously tried to make a brainsucker with a taste for sectoid to no avail. Pretty soon, the sectoids realized that the aliens were planning an invasion of our world.
Piece by piece, the sectoids figured out the plan the aliens have for us. Since the alien world was nearly sterilized by their sun, and they can't exist long-term in our world, they literally want the Earth. Brainsuckers would be used to subvert citizens, who would then proceed with the next phase of the alien plot. Brainsucked humans would gather power by taking over organizations, and then destroy or render useless all military installations. With that done they'd then build and place complicated dimension devices all over the Earth. Once activated, the entire Earth would be sent into the alien dimension. They can't accomplish this themselves; they need brainsucked humans to do it for them. That's why they're attacking. That's why it has to be us.
X-COM engineers have created a sample video of the final phase of the alien plan to illustrate the danger.
Video
Since the start of the war, the sectoids were no longer needed. With every piece of information extracted from them and no need for a labor force, the sectoids were sent to the food chamber to be food. There were originally thousands of them stored there. Only the fourteen least palatable ones remained. Had we not saved them, they would have been eaten.
The Mutant Alliance has been so moved by our decision to save the sectoids that they too have formed an alliance with us. When the time comes, we will be proud to stand by them and demand equal rights for hybrids. Without the hybrids, it would have been impossible to acquire all the above information from the sectoids (or at least nowhere near as quickly as humans would have done it). We're certain the remaining fourteen sectoids pose no threat, and we've turned them over to Alliance custody.
What is the source of the alien intelligence?
Why are the aliens attacking in the first place? What are their goals?
ANSWER - They're trying to bring the Earth into their dimension.
How do the aliens even know of our dimension, and Mega-Primus?
ANSWER: The Sectoids were forced to tell them everything they knew about us.
Why is the Devastator Cannon designed differently than the rest of the alien technology?
ANSWER: Because Sectoids designed it originally.
We've learned a lot in the past few hours. If we were able to capture a live Psimorph we might have learned more, so I've instructed our soldiers to capture, at all costs, any new alien life form encountered. The capture of...
*DIRECTOR ZANDER TO THE CONTROL ROOM*
Oh what is it now...
*RECORDING CONTINUES*