Imprisonment on The Maelstrom
Following an intensive three month period of investigation and research, the team finally tracked down where the aliens had moved the hive that was underneath the hippie commune. With Chalk's team in reserve, the team moved into the hive but Jeffrey was so startled by the very obvious alien environment and technology that he acted erratically and the plan quickly turned to chaos. On top of that, the aliens had laid a trap and the entire team was captured. Fortunately, Chalk's team was able to move in and steal a great deal of hardware and cause significant damage to the hive afterwards.
Brock and Anya awoke in what turned out to be a gladiator barracks where they had spent several days battling other humans to the death. An alien who called himself Paul spoke briefly to both of them and vaguely explained the situation and claimed he was purchasing both of them as his personal property assuming they won in the arena. Faced with little choice but to comply, Anya and Brock acquitted themselves admirably in the arena against two other humans who were juiced up with a drug concoction that retards higher thinking but causes significant wound regeneration. They also learned that Sectoids, humans, and a new alien race called Saurians were all looking in on the battle.
After a brief trip to the infirmary where they were proclaimed healthy, they were removed to the slave pens where they found both Charles and Jeffrey. Charles, whose diabetes made him a gladiatorial liability, was here and had been purchased by traitorous FBI agent Thomas Chandler. Jeffrey's cell was incredibly plush and had numerous amenities and the Saurian Princess Amina had apparently purchased him as a toy/pet. The team was soon visited by Sectoid Paul who laid out a story concerning the alien's presence on Earth. Paul claims that Vak'lanmar (or Vak) was dispatched to Earth fifty years ago with the mission of making first contact and bringing humanity into the Sectoid Empire as a protectorate state. The reasoning for this was that Earth was alone in this quadrant for possessing sentient life and if absorbed into the Sectoid Empire the Empire would gain a large bloc of provincial voting rights in the Galactic Union (an inter-species ubergovernment force similar to, but much more powerful, than the UN). Vak, however, had other ideas and turned Earth into his own private fief and was amassing a vast personal fortune leasing out parcels of Earth for interested parties to live in exile, construct illegal facilities, human hunting, and basically anything that would be profitable. Since Earth falls outside any governing body, nothing was regulated and Vak made sure the right palms were greased back in the Empire so he could continue his graft.
Unfortunately for all involved, the Empire had had enough and dispatched Warmaster Loa, their top military leader, to take control of Earth by any means necessary. Loa is already on his way with an invasion fleet and his mission is to subjugate humanity and he allegedly has no qualms about vaporizing country after country until humanity unconditionally surrenders. Paul proposes an alternate solution, assassinate Vak and Paul will take control and immediately go public and try to get humanity to peacefully join the Empire before Warmaster Loa arrives. The team was unsure of Paul's sincerity but had little option but to at least pretend to believe him. True to his word, Paul did release the team and directed them to their confiscated equipment.
Eager to escape but also wanting to gain some intel, the team spread out through the ship and took an alien computer server, kidnapped a Sectoid medical doctor, lured out a hybrid child whom they had met earlier in the hive, and shot up several crew members. Anya managed to figure out how to pilot an alien fighter and the team departed the ship and discovered the aliens possess a near perfect stealth/cloaking technology for their ships.
