Template:Featured Articles/12-2008

Thermopylae: Mistra's operations came to a final bloody end on the Greek island of Youra on March 19, 2005. A joint taskforce comprised of US military, FBI and the X-Men landed on the island after receiving intel that the tattered remains of the former government program had gone to ground there. What initially was intended to be a relatively bloodless apprehension of the remaining operatives and their controllers became a bloodbath when director Carmella Ruiz released the Masada trigger, a scorched-earth contingency plan that turned the second-generation operatives into single minded killing machines. First generation operatives, general Mistra personnel and the children who were undergoing the conditioning process were their primary targets, and casualties were high despite the best efforts of the taskforce. The chaos was ended with Cable, almost the sole remaining survivor of a last stand to defend the training barracks - with some fifty-odd children inside - from the triggered operatives. He released the Trojan Horse psychic trigger, wiping the minds of every surviving second generation operative. This action saved the lives of dozens, but came too late to save the lives of many of Nathan's first generation compatriots, including many of those who had broken their conditioning previously and joined the taskforce in putting an end to things. Mick Foley and Tim Morgan, two of the slain, are buried on the mansion grounds, the site marked with a headstone beating the following inscription: 'Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by; that here, obedient to their laws, we lie'. Another secret memorial to all of Mistra's victims can be found at Arlington Cemetery, if you know where - and how - to look.