RP XCOM2: Liberation of Earth

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 1”

South American Continent
Former Argentine Republic
Specifically, Iguazu Falls
Iguazu Megacity, August 31st, 2038
2231 Hours, Local Time

The South American sky was dark enough that the optical camouflage of the Skyranger felt almost excessive. The signal jamming not so much, especially when faced with the monolith that was the towering AID skyscraper. It’s windows formed a shaded wall along its twisting length, making it seem like some sort of serpent rather than a structure of glass and steel. The panes gradually got darker until beyond floor 60 the light of day was not meant to be seen. And at night, the upper reaches of the building would be practically invisible if not for blinking lights marking telecommunications arrays and helipad warnings… as well as faintly illuminating anti-aircraft batteries just enough that the infrared view-screens of the XCOM dropship could see them standing out like murderous gargoyles.

“I see why we’re not landing on the roof,” Yakone conceded as she glanced at one such monitor.

Olivia was looking over the rest of the structure. “Man, that place gives me the creeps. Not in an obvious way, but there’s just something… wrong about it. Maybe it’s the way it contrasts with the waterfalls.”

“There’s something wrong with everything that ADVENT builds,” Atka contended, doing one final check on her gear like the meticulous old soldier she was.

“Is this a covert op or an architecture course?” Bonnie muttered.

“Still want to blow it up?” Stacie surmised, glancing over at the Scottish woman.

“Of course,” the Grenadier answered, seeming offended at the idea. “Talk about the way the light hits a building all you like, rubble all looks the same. Building like this, I dare say it’d be an improvement even.”

“At least we’re not crashing the Avenger into it,” Lester murmured.

“You were the one that blew the breaching charge to get in the Avenger, if I remember the story right,” Yakone recalled. “So this will be just like old times.”

Atka rolled her mechanical arm. “Yeah, I have great memories from that operation. Just peachy.” The Commander put on her helmet, and activated the mic as the Skyranger began to slow down and approach for an airdrop. “Echo, Foxtrot, prepare your grappling hooks. The ground has a bunch of proximity sensors, so we’ll have to grapple onto the side of the structure as soon as we jump out. Be ready, and don’t miss… or you’ll break your arm at best and spoil our concealment at worst.”

As the dropship came to a full stop, the hatch opened. A gentle breeze flowed into the Skyranger, though with their armor on the XCOM operatives couldn’t feel it. “Infiltration fireteams, deploy,” Atka ordered at a regular volume, though the sound did not escape her helmet and was only heard by Menace 1-5. The Commander went first, raising her right arm and firing off a flat-topped hook that magnetically connected to a support beam between two column-rows of windows. Olivia, Alan, and Arthur soon followed, and began their ascent - consisting of latching onto the beam with their armor when redeploying their Spider Suit grapples.

“Alright, boys and girls, next stop is a random floor several dozen feet higher,” Firebrand crackled over the comms ‘encouragingly’ to the other four fireteams that were still in the Skyranger. The stealth dropship ascended into the air vertically with all due haste, coming to a halt at a window that seemed to lead into an access hallway. “That looks good,” Danielle decided, opening the hatch back up. “Lass, you’re free to place your breaching charge, but do hold off detonation until Echo sends in the diversion.”

“Got it,” Bonnie responded, drawing said breaching charge. “Well, ain’t this a trip down memory lane?” She chuckled to herself as she reached forward, planting the charge that would provide the team entry.

“You know, it’s a good thing ADVENT doesn’t think anyone is crazy enough to scale the side of a building like this… if they had proximity sensors along the entire length of the skyscaper…” Yakone remarked.

“That’d be expensive,” Christine replied with a shake of her head. “But we might be giving them ideas after tonight.”

About forty floors below the Skyranger, the infiltration teams halted their advance. Atka set up a breaching charge, while Olivia attached a mimic beacon to one of her RCs. “Brown, on my mark, send in your toy.”

“Gotcha.” Olivia patted the small machine in her hand. “Good luck, buddy. I want to say you’ll survive… but if you don’t get shot you’ll probably be dismantled. Glad I’m not a Specialist having to do this.”

Atka had her set of teams pull away from the window, and flipped a detonator into her hand. She pressed down on the button, and said, “mark.” An explosion tore through the pane of glass, shattering it into a million pieces, and a few moments later as alarms began to go off in the facility an RC was tossed in. A lifelike holographic projection of the Ambusher that had thrown it formed, concealing the drone and moving into the building. The Commander waited for about half a minute until security would find and take out the RC, and once it stopped transmitting a signal she waited a few seconds more. Satisfied, the Inuit woman patched through to her second in command. “Diversion complete. Now’s your chance, Sinclair. Give the order to breach.”

Leon gave the order for Bonnie to detonate the breaching charge, and the second explosion went off and the Grenadier winced out of habit as a few pieces of glass flew into the hatch and bounced off his helmet and he made a hand gesture for the team to unload.

Yakone and Samara were the first to exit. The former stuck to the shadows, saving her energy for when her Overdrive was absolutely needed. The latter’s shield would be too conspicuous and was kept out of sight for the moment, though it could be deployed very quickly. Behind them came Stacie and Samuel. The Sharpshooter had out her Blitzwave Pistols, ready to use her most powerful weapon for a first strike. Even if she’d never used the machine-fed sidearms on the field before. Samuel had opted for his rifle for the initial entry, reasoning that it would be able to engage at any range they’d find an enemy. Entering in the last two waves were the two Grenadiers with their large weapons mounted on the mechanical assists of their armor to fit in the hallway, while the pair of Specialists jumped out as the final fireteam with their Gremlins trailing behind them.

The access hallway was apparently uninhabited, as was a fortuitous choice for initial entry. The Avenger’s AI guided them through the hallways to zero in on the target elevators, prompting with turns and warnings of which doors were dangerous to open. After a few corners rounded, Seshat stated, “the only exit from here leads into a large hallway that turns into the elevator corridor. Be warned, guards and staff are likely to be present. The likelihood of maintaining concealment beyond this point is negligible.”

“Thanks Seshat.” Leon said to the A.I. as he went over the options in his head. He moved the squad forward, and looked back. “Get a battlescanner ready. We draw them to us. Samara and Yakone, I want you towards the front of the squad. Me and Bonnie will cover from behind. Matthew, Christine, have your support protocols ready. We are in the open here, so hug the wall and make your shots count.”

“Gotcha. Battlescanner out.” Stacie tossed it against the door, and the imaging system cut through the wall - revealing that there was a group of four noncombat staff walking through the hallway the opposite direction of the elevators at the moment, and a pair of two heading towards the elevators. In the immediate hallway there was a pair of troopers and a gunner standing guard, and in the hallway itself an officer, two stun lancers, and another two troopers were patrolling back and forth. “Data received and shared,” Stacie reported.

Yakone pulled out her sword. “Ready to kick the door down as soon as those civies round their respective corners.” They waited a few more moments until the civilians had vanished off the grid and the battlescanner’s power was almost dry. “Shield’s up, captain,” the Ranger joked with Samara, and then slammed her boot into the door - a small application of physical enhancement causing the cheap hinges to break.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 2”

The door slammed flat onto the ground, and Yakone lunged out at the nearest Stun Lancer, her las-blade tearing through his armor and coming out his back. It was withdraw as quickly as it had penetrated the riot control soldier, and used to parry an attack from the surviving one.

Stacie was next up to attack, using Samara’s shield as cover while she took aim with her pair of oversized machine pistols. The muzzles heated up drastically over two whole seconds, and although their line of fire couldn’t be directly seen, the ADVENT Officer’s armor melted - though took no direct damage besides the shredding effect. “Okay, that’s a little bit of a letdown,” the Texan gunslinger whined. The enemy soldier turned his gun on her. “Someone finish him off please,” she called out as she swapped the overheated weapons for her rotator.

The Officer crumpled, a crimson beam of light striking him in the upper torso. “Got your back,” Samuel said cheerfully. “Or your front. Uh…”

“It doesn’t really matter,” Christine chided, giving Stacie an aid protocol with Sparks to cause gunfire from the two Troopers to be off target and not damage Samara’s shield. “Set me up,” she requested of her Sharpshooter comrade. Stacie was already in the process of obliging, targeting her attackers and returning fire. Her first shot missed, but the next ripped a hole in the Advent soldier’s armor even if it barely wounded him. Christine narrowed her eyes, raised her carbine, and pulled the trigger - and the Trooper was dead before he knew what hit him.

“Kind of a sad day when-” Yakone began, ducking under a now-electrified swipe of a shock lance “Let me finish!” the Ranger growled, her blade swiping off the Stun Lancer’s weapon arm at the elbow. She finished him off with a shot from her shortened scatterlaser. “-when a Specialist has better aim than a Sharpshooter.”

The remaining Trooper sought to flee to his three allies at the end of the hall that were just now registering the onslaught that had occurred in the span of a few seconds. He didn’t make it far before he was gunned down by Leon and Bonnie, but he bought time for the Gunner to set up in the corner and lay down suppressing fire to prevent the rest of Menace 1-5 from coming through the doorway. His trooper buddies started to line up Yakone. “Ah crap,” the targeted soldier muttered.

“I think you’ll find she’s a bit of a devil to hit,” Lester stated, sending his Gremlin over to drop an Aid Protocol. “I would still advise you remove yourself from the line of fire, they send enough bullets your way and one will eventually get you.”

A hail of fire went to Yakone’s immediate left, and she ran to the side to make sure the other soldier missed her as well - if only by a hair. “If they don’t kill me that joke will,” Yakone retorted, putting away her sidearm and sword in favor of her PDW and shooting at one of the troopers to keep them on the defensive. “Stacie, I hate to ask it, but can you hit a DMR shot?”

“Ye of little faith,” Stacie muttered as she set up her marksman rifle on top of her Juggernaut ally’s shield.

“Say that after you hit.”

The Texan narrowed her eyes, and let loose a shot that nailed the Gunner and caused their suppressing fire to be ended with their death. “Ye of little-”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Is a part of the Sharpshooter job description ‘must be a smart-arse’?” Bonnie wondered, taking the gap in enemy fire as a chance to move up. She began a suppression of her own, nearly taking off the head of one of the enemy Troopers in the process.

“Apparently,” Yakone replied, slinking past the other overwatching trooper to take him down before he had a chance to react. “I’m a ghost, and now so are you,” she whispered. Now alone, the last living trooper in the hallway elected to attempt to run - and was gunned down by reaction fire from Bonnie.

Reloading and advancing in quick succession, Menace 1-5 rounded the corner and headed into the elevator corridor. Guarding the elevators was a significantly larger contingent of troops that were going into high alert. There was a total of ten elevators, and the same number of Troopers and Stun Lancers in 5 pairs to match the count of lifts, supported by a trio of gunners, and a duo of medics - all lead by an Officer and Shieldbearer that were in good cover behind a pillar and accompanied by a MEC Trooper.

“Looks like they were ready for us!” Samara barked, resuming a crouching position and becoming more cover for her allies. “We need to dislodge them, and now. Lass?”

“I can’t use HE’s ye daftwit!” the Scotswoman reprimanded. “Though I suppose I can smoke them out…”

“Viper Grenade on the more entrenched ones, and I’ll take the MEC,” Lester commanded, crouching out of the way and flipping up his Gremlin interface. “But that only takes care of a few. Other ideas?”

“Lancers need to go down first,” Yakone warned, nailing one with her PDW as the other four charged blindly forward. Bonnie’s grenade sailed through the air - and the Shieldbearer saw it coming. He didn’t have time to protect his two allies, but he was able to shield himself with a telekinetic bubble to negate the effects of the acidic toxins. “And that motherfucker needs to die ASAP too.”

Stacie blew away another Stun Lancer with her DMR, but as a third fell the fourth and fifth were closing distance with her. Christine recognized this, and with an uplift of her hand a broad, knightlike figure materialized in the air - the target of its protection ironically being one of the only two XCOM operatives who couldn’t see it. With bubble-like hands, it shielded her from the two thrusts the Lancers dished out in unison - and then battered them away with those same hands.

Leon’s wave heavy weapon slowly began to fry one of the combat medics who moved forward to try and get to the either the officer or lancers, (of which Leon had no clue) and the soldier rolled to the ground dead - Leon taking a scathing hit to his right shoulder in reprisal. He pulled back, grimacing the pain as he moved back a bit.

“Dammit!” Yakone growled in anger upon seeing Leon hit. She sent fire at the offending trooper, but couldn’t land a hit on him. “Hurry up with that hack, Lester!” she yelled as Sparks put up a column of distorting light around Leon to preclude him from taking further injuries and using a medispray to neutralize his existing wound.

As if in response, the enemy MEC - which had been priming it’s cannon - sagged and slumped forward, deactivated. After a moment, however, it started again, resuming its stance. A nearby Trooper looked away as the MEC swiveled around. The Trooper said something before the MEC lowered it’s weapon, very clearly not working as intended. “Our numbers just increased,” Lester noted casually as the targeted Trooper was blown away by a torrent of magnetic fire.

“Great,” Yakone stated, not having anything to quip at the moment.

“Alpha thru Delta, I hope you’re nearing Floor 61. We’re almost there, and you don’t have a hell of a lot of time until they work out where you’d headed and begin lockdown up there,” Atka’s voice crackled over comms.

“Working on it,” Yakone replied irritably. Not the time to pull punches. A crackling emerald energy surrounded her armor, reinforcing it. The psionic Ranger charged forward, her sword weaving downwards and dealing death on the pair of Stun Lancers remaining before they could fully recover. A pair of Troopers shot at the Marauding Crusader, but they did minimal damage to her reinforced Predator Armor. “Take these guys down!”

Combining fire with Samara, Samuel managed to kill one of the Troopers and wound the other. “Someone else want to clean that up?”

Bonnie obediently sprayed the wounded Trooper down. “I’m not your mother,” she snarked, “but next time you clean up your own mess.”

The Gunners finally found cover, and when they started firing it prevented a massive problem - their area suppression locked down just about everyone but Alpha. “Guess I’m going to have to bail you guys out,” Yakone muttered, charging forward. The poisoned officer tried to mark her, but couldn’t see clearly and instead just psionically lit up one of the elevators. The Medic was too busy tending him to do much, but the Shieldbearer took a shot. Luckily for the Inuit-Caucasian Ranger, that was a miss, and she neared the Gunners. Not having time to stab them all, she instead drew an AP Grenade, and tossed it in the midst of the suppressing soldiers. None of them died, but all stopped firing as their attention was diverted to the shrapnel lodged in their bodies.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 3”

Still under XCOM control, the MEC moved to eliminate the Combat Medic. It fired, but only hit half of it’s burst, sparing the Medic for now. It was then that the rest of the ADVENT forces truly realised that the robot was not friendly. “This is… abnormally fun,” Lester conceded. “Though I’m not certain if it’s the sudden flanking or the controlling a large robot that is the source.”

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Samuel growled, firing at one of the Gunners and removing them on the second shot.

Stacie took out the other two with a pair of laser revolver shots - one of them taken with the abnormal speed that only a PCS could allow. Christine finished off the Combat Medic. The pair of troopers regrouped with the Shieldbearer to receive telekinetic field protection, while the Officer faced off against the MEC Trooper. The two destroyed one another in an exchange of fire - which was likely fortunate as the latter showed signs of regaining control of itself.

A fresh pistol shot from Stacie showed that the telekinetic field was slowing projectiles in a most inconvenient manner. “They’re stalling at this point! Lester, get one of those elevators under our control! We need to be going up.”

“So long as you can handle the rest,” the Specialist stated, redirecting his Gremlin to the elevators. “And I can find a point of access…”

Suppressing fire from the Grenadiers proved to be enough to disable the two Troopers, and the Shieldbearer put up their knockoff of the previous generation of Juggernaut shields to protect themselves from the rest of the gunfire. That bought Lester the time he needed to get the elevator he was working on under control - and Kohler her own. Alpha and Beta piled in the first elevator, while Charlie and Delta made it into the latter as the doors shut behind them.

Yakone let the shimmering aura around her fade as the elevators began to climb. “That could have gone better.”

“It could also have gone a lot worse,” Stacie pointed out, shrugging. “I’ll take what I can get.”

“Indeed, we could have all died,” Lester noted from the other elevator. “Yet here we are. Not for lack of trying…”

Samuel grunted. “Don’t be a killjoy,” he said. “Least now we can all tick ‘use elevator in case of fire’ off our bucket lists. What’s next?”

“Our turn,” Atka answered from outside the building. She and the other two Ambushers plus Ranger were level with the 61st floor now, and ready to commence their distraction. Atka turned to her team of three that were dangling from the heights with her. “Remember, as soon as we open fire we need to keep going up. I shouldn’t need to tell you why.”

She gestured to behind herself, inside the room. Surrounding the screening airlock were too many soldiers to count. Troopers in large groups talked amongst themselves, Gunners manned stationary posts in all corners of the room, MEC Troopers stood vigilant watching the corridor between the main elevators and the restricted access lifts. In short, the room was a big bundle of nasty.

Atka prepared to fire before the guards took notice that someone was coming up to their level. She and Olivia took aim with their bolt casters, picking out an Officer each as their targets to cause maximum chaos. Atka held up one hand to count down with her fingers ‘three, two’ and then grabbed hold of her gun, firing after an implied ‘one’. Her shot punched through the helmet of her target, while Olivia’s took off her mark’s leg. Arthur targeted an enemy closer to the opening with his shotgun, eliminating them, while Alan wounded and incapacitated one of the soldiers closer to the elevators.

Pandemonium erupted on floor 61 as the guards frantically searched for the direction of the attackers. The cybernetic units were the first ones to pinpoint the window that had been broken, and lifted their chain rifles up and fired away. More windows shattered, and some of the beam that Echo and Foxtrot had been climbing was blown to bits. The two fireteams were already heading upwards by that time, being yanked out of the way by their grapples and beginning to ascend further.

At the same time, the pair of rising elevators reached the top with a ding. The doors slid open, and Menace 1-5 burst out. Smoke cover helped mask their approach - confusing the scanners that tried to search them for ID as they dashed towards the large access elevator that was directly across from them. A panel awaited a Gremlin to force the doors open, and as the remaining officers brought order to the guards, time was clearly of the essence.

As the ADVENT guard roiled in confusion, Lester began accessing the elevator, Samara planting herself behind him in case any enemies properly noticed them. Having been prepared beforehand, the hack went rather smoothly - there was no fumbling for access, no wondering what needed to be broken into. The only hiccup was an unexpected security protocol in the scanning gates, which was quickly bypassed. The elevator doors opened just when ADVENT seemed to notice the group charging in the middle. “Ride’s here, everyone in!” Samuel barked, taking a shot at a Trooper fumbling for his weapon.

“I think the distraction is wearing off,” Christine warned. Gunner emplacements swiveled to target them with gauss LMGs, MEC Troopers lowered their weapons at the soldiers on lower ground before them, and Troopers lined up like preparing a firing squad.

The soldiers filed into the elevator, but as Yakone, Samara, and Christine backed off it became clear they weren’t going to be able to shut the doors in time. “We’re not going to make it!” Yakone cried out.

“We will,” Christine replied, closing her eyes. “Pavise!” she called out to her Reflection, having the manifestation of her psyche surround the front of the access lift in two layers of defensive bubbles. In a torrent of fire, ADVENT poured on the heat. The first bubble shattered, and Christine - unwilling to let the second break - poured all her concentration into maintaining the second. Still, as they started to go up the other line of defense broke, and she was forced to use Pavise’s body to take the remaining hits. The construct shattered as the elevator climbed to safety, and Christine clutched her head, falling to her knees in agony from the feedback.

“Shite,” Bonnie swore, kneeling down and grasping the pained Specialist by the shoulders to prevent her from toppling. “Lester, you got anything for this?”

“I can patch physical wounds, not mental ones,” he said irritably. “You’d be better off asking Arthur or Atka.”

“What happened down there? What’s going on?” Atka questioned over the radio.

“Christine overexerted herself. I…” Stacie decided on a word other than ‘hope’, “...think she’ll be alright, but that was a close one.”

“Tell her to keep the heroics to a minimum. I’d like to not lose anyone over this raid,” Atka stated. She shut off the communication line for the moment, and then paused in her ascent. “Do you… hear something?” she questioned the others. Listening closely, they heard a faint whistling in the air distinct from the wind at this altitude.

“Arthur, you take up whistling when I wasn’t paying attention?” Alan asked hopefully.

“No,” the Ranger stated. “That noise is not one of us.”

The sound grew louder, and Olivia remarked, “are those… engines?”

From around the corner of the building, the source of the noises revealed itself. Or rather, themselves. There were three ADVENT Troopers, armed with carbines instead of assault rifles… and hovering via jetpacks. They took aim at the four XCOM operatives on the side of the building as soon as they spotted them.

“This is bullshit!” Alan cried, pushing away from the building’s wall and swinging away to avoid the initial fire. As he moved, he reached for his sidearm, unwilling to risk dropping his rifle at this point.

Atka took a deep breath, and secured herself to the side of the beam with a magnetic clamp and her grapple. With her free hand, she formed the spiky tip of one of her icy helixes, and then shot it through one of the jetpacking soldiers. Having him impaled on her reflection weapon, the Commander swung the slain trooper into one of his allies - releasing her hold to cause both of them to plummet down to their deaths below. Olivia aimed to avoid being crucified to the wall by gunfire, rappling to another beam and then activating her armor’s chameleon suit - blending in with the hybrid alloys.

Rather than attempt to engage in a firefight at this elevation, Arthur relied on his mind. Reading the thoughts of the remaining flying Trooper, he twisted to avoid their bullets. As he did so he reached out with one hand, and a psionic blast visible only to Atka slammed into the Trooper. The Trooper clutched at themselves, howling in pain, but still survived. “Soulfire not enough,” Arthur noted.

“Then we’ll improvise… flee.” After Atka spoke, the remaining flier glanced behind himself, cried out in terror, and flew forward as fast as he could - slamming hard into a pane of reinforced glass, knocking himself out, and tumbling into the dark abyss. “Menace, find us some sort of external entry point as soon as you can. We’ve got flying guards outside… and I’m not talking about Hoverguards.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 4”

That wasn’t even the end of it. Soon, another trio of enemies appeared - these jetpackers being decidedly alien in nature. Their jetpacks were slightly more advanced, operating off of a combination of rotors for a hover mode and pulse engines for rapid elevation changes. Their forms were narrow, and the design of their armor suggested they were insectoids. They took aim with varied pulse weaponry that appeared to be built into their armor, and opened fire.

“Mechroaches fly now?” Alan moaned, firing back rather ineffectually with his laser pistol.

“Those are not the same species,” Arthur pointed out. “The body structure is entirely different-”

“Is this really the time?”

One of the insectoid fliers fired a bolt at the Ranger, barely missing his head. “... and they are harder to read. Their minds are not as I expected to find them.” He pushed sideways to avoid further attacks, raising his free hand and swiping sideways. A wave of telekinesis pushed the rightmost enemy towards their allies, the wings clipping each other and obviously affecting their stability but not stopping them. “We need an entry point soon. Combat in this manner is not proving easy.”

***​

With a rather subdued ‘ding’, the elevator from the heavily-guarded 61st floor reached the 62nd. It was devoid of any immediate guards, save for a roving Sectoid-lead ADVENT patrol that was quickly and easily gunned down by the XCOM squad. Yakone shook her head, looking around at the myriad of doors and hallways surrounding them. “This place is like a labyrinth… finding an entry point may not be easy.”

“Maybe we can plug Seshat in to get a clearer picture?” Stacie offered. “Seshat, can you do that?” Silence. “Uh… Seshat?”

In a very dim, static-y response, the synthetic A.I. could dimly be heard saying, “there is some sort of interference jamming my signal. The Technician and I will seek a workaround, but it may take some time. For now, this is the last response I will be able to-” she tried to finish, and then cut out again.

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Bonnie muttered. “Now what?”

“We’re going to have to hack into something… you know, the elevator terminal might be patched into some sort of blueprint,” Stacie suggested. “We could try to figure out an entry point there.” The sound of voices came from the hallway.

“Or… we could be attacked for the second time in the course of a minute. What the hell?” Yakone complained, pulling out her PDW as a group of four ADVENT Troopers, two Medics, and a Cleric darted into the central elevator room.

“Where are they all coming from?” Samuel wondered, priming his rifle. “And how are they finding us? We can barely find ourselves in here!” He fired at the Cleric, but only scored a glancing blow. “Blyat!”

Yakone surrounded herself in her signature electric emerald-green aura, cracking her knuckles. “You know, I really hate Clerics in particular. Biokinesis, Imbuing… it’s almost as if you guys are ripping me off.”

Christine threw up an aid protocol Yakone, giving her some cover that the Specialist felt she would need soon. “Don’t… do something stupid…” she mumbled, still having a splitting headache.

Yakone just grinned. “Cover me.” She dashed forward, hiding behind a support pillar as some of the Troopers tried to open fire on her. Stacie shot one of them with her DMR, making Yakone’s charge less suicidal, while the others laid down more basic fire. “Alright…” Yakone pulled out her PDW, gunning down one of the medics, and then let another one of her teammates take out a Trooper. “Now is the time.” The Marauding Crusader rushed forward, delivering a powerful slash to take out a second Advent soldier of her own. The remaining grunt and medic turned to face her in a panic, firing off shots that merely grazed the Inuit-Caucasians imbued armor and were rendered utterly harmless.

“Nice try, but no dice.” Yakone grinned, and cut down the other Trooper. She realized the imbued Cleric would prove quite difficult, but it seemed to have had quite enough, and retreated back into the hallway it had come in from. “That’s right, run, you knockoff!”

“You do realize those things have existed since before you were born, right?” Stacie pointed out.

Yakone didn’t respond, turning to face the terrified Medic. “Now… as for you…”

“I-I’ll tell you anything you want! Just don’t kill me!”

“Perfect.” Yakone pointed down the hallway. “How do they keep finding us?”

“S-Security feed! There’s a room somewhere down that way that monitors the levels our forces have access to, I don’t know specifically where!” the Medic told her.

“And… where can we find an external entrance into the skyscraper?” Yakone continued, scraping the tip of her las-blade’s outer structure against the ground.

“I-I don’t understand why you would need-”

“You don’t need to!” Yakone declared. “Just tell me.”

“T-There’s a hangar on level 70! You could open that!”

Yakone smiled more genuinely. “Alright, thanks for the info.” She flipped out her blade, and hit the Medic hard over the head with the hilt. “And that is how you interrogate someone.”

“They just told you everything because you’re terrifying,” Stacie countered. “And they weren’t that strong of will anyway.”

Yakone shrugged. “You can’t argue with results. So… we’ve got a surveillance room we need to take out, and a hangar that we can open up for the rest of the squad. What should we do, sir?” she asked her boyfriend and acting CO.

Leon looked around at the squad, coming to the decision that needed to be made quickly. “We cannot afford to send everyone after a secondary objective. I’ll go alone and take out the security team. The rest of you, get to that hangar.”

Yakone put away her sword. “I won’t stop you… if you think you can handle it, I’ll trust that you can. Just be careful…” The Ranger chuckled. “More than I am, anyway.”

Leon put a hand on her shoulder and said, “You do fine on your own. Just be sure to still be breathing when I get back.” The Grenadier teased. “I shouldn’t be long.” With those words, he turned, breaking off from the main group to undertake his task. As for Yakone and the rest of the XCOM squad, they headed into the elevator and up to level 70.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 5”

Menace 1-5 arrived at the hangar they had been looking for. It had a decidedly alien appearance to it, with black alloy walls and a floor that was half the alien metals but otherwise clear and exposing a manner of advanced power conduits running through the structure of the building. They connected to the bottom of a pair of Heavy Honor Guard dropships, which were surprisingly nondescript in appearance in contrast to the Ethereal sense of grandeur. They had a simple, light navy blue paintjob that left a silver metal brush where it had been worn away over the course of operational history or perhaps had never been applied at all, and the windows were small since the navigational systems didn’t require visual confirmation much at all. Altogether, they were something one would expect from a human military, but then again the nonpsionic branch of the Protectorate wasn’t known for its elegance - they were known for their effectiveness.

As one would expect, the enemy forces the ancillary hangar were largely HHG troops assisted by mechanical forces. Scattered in the rafters and in gaps under the dropships were anywhere from four to eight Mecroaches, though not all of them were armed or otherwise expecting a fight. They were accompanied by a number of worker drones that actually chose to hide rather than engage XCOM. The enemies that did pose an immediate threat were comprised of three separate groups. The first was a unit of three of the flying insectinoids that were troubling the Commander and her team outside, wielding a different weapon each: a carbine, rifle, and battle rifle. The second group was a composite group with a Viper, Mimic, and Floater. The third and most dangerous force consisted of only two: a Muton and Hover SHIV.

“Cover on the boxes!” Lester barked as XCOM poured in, taking positions behind multiple metal crates that were strewn about the hangar. “Remove the mobile ones first, they could give us a lot of trouble if we don’t.”

“You mean the bugs with the jetpacks?” Samuel asked, taking an off-target potshot with his rifle at the Muton. “What the hell do they even do?”

“Rather not find out,” the Specialist stated. “That Muton may hurt, but he’s just one gun. You have more chance of avoiding him than three flying ones behind you.”

Stacie lifted her blitz waveguns, steadying them atop the metal box she had taken cover behind. “Let’s get to work,” she declared, a wave of heat washing over the armor of one of the airborne insects. It did little damage other than ruining structural integrity, but it provided her with a chance to follow-up with a rapid shot with her rotator that punched through the armor - nearly killing the enemy, but not quite. “Getting annoyed with these guns…”

“You seemed like such a fan before,” Christine muttered a bit tersely, still having a headache from Pavise and being unable to rely on him after the damage taken before. Instead, she let her accuracy with a carbine speak for itself, finishing off the target Stacie had injured.

The Mecroaches in the meantime started to scramble into position behind on one of the dropships, four of them being fully armed and intent on attacking in a group much like the other insects. The Viper slithered into cover behind a narrow but adequate support beam, and took a shot that went narrowly between Stacie’s head and shoulder, while the Floater veered off to act as a forward guard for the remaining two insect fliers to allow them to advance towards a flanking position. The Mimic moved backwards from his initial close position, leaping up into the rafters to find the perfect sniper position. The Muton took up a point position, laying down suppressing fire against Samuel - making the fact that the SHIV was prepping a missile barrage in the general direction of the Trooper and his Specialist CO all the more terrifying.

“Uh, Lester?” Samuel poked his gun barrel out the side of his cover, swearing when it was almost melted. “I can’t do anything about that while I’m being suppressed by… oh, right, the big guy you told us to ignore.”

The acting squad leader scowled. “Bonnie, now would be a good time to launch a grenade!”

The Grenadier obediently loaded the AP, but stopped short of firing. “And where would I direct it, illustrious leader?” she asked innocently.

“Where do you think?!” Lester demanded. “The small tank preparing to shower us with-”

There was the sound of missiles being released one after the other in rapid succession until a collection of sixteen small plasma warheads barraged the space between Samuel and Lester. The impact center tore a hole in the floor down to the level below, while the damage on the edges of the blast tore up the armor of the two, stripped away their cover, and made the ground beneath unstable. The Muton roared a triumphant cry, and lined up Samuel - ceasing its suppression.

“Dammit.” Yakone moved to assist, but a spray of pulse lasers made her stop short as the Floater set its sights on her. “Christine!”

“On it!” the Specialist replied, Sparks veering over to Samuel and surrounding him in a distortion column. “Run!”

The Russian didn’t need asking twice. He bolted sideways as the Muton fired, a beam shredding the air he’d previously been occupying. He exhaled, having reached the relative safety of another set of crates. “Fuck’s sake Bonnie, now’s not the time to be pissy,” he growled.

The Grenadier did not seem very concerned. “Walk it off,” she responded. “And what was I to do? I wasn’t given clear instructions. Leading is a hard job, you know.”

Meanwhile on the other side of the hole, Samara pulled Lester behind her own cover. “Enough!” she barked. “You can settle this later. We’re a little busy right now.”

“Yeah, um…” the Mecroaches scrambled out from behind the first dropship, a few scoring grazing hits across the board with a blitz of gunfire. “This is not good. If I might make a suggestion, Lester, try to hack the door controls. We need the other four.” As for Christine’s drone, she sent it off to the side of the room in pursuit of something.

The other Specialist briefly checked his armor before nodding. “Good idea,” he stated, look across the way to identify them. He spotted a console beside the hangar doors. “I’m going to assume they will open the doors. Samara, watch my back for a moment.”

The Floater and pair of insectoid fliers had reached the flank by now. A bug each took aim at Christine and Lester, while the Floater focused on the person in range to thwart such an attack. Yakone drew her las-blade, using a burst of physical enhancement to leapt up into the air and land a slash on the Floater as she landed on it’s chassis. She dealt heavy damage to it, causing it to fire wildly - but it wasn’t quite destroyed. As a last ditch effort, the robot grabbed its impulse grenade and hit the primer. Yakone only had enough time to begin her Overdrive before the explosive detonated, tearing the Floater and her armor apart and knocking her back to the ground.

That left Stacie to try and defend Christine. She lined up the insect threat, intending to take it out in one precise shot, but ultimately missed. “Shit,” she muttered as the flier fired - and missed Christine completely. “At least I don’t suck alone,” the Sharpshooter breathed in relief as Sparks returned with a hacked Worker Drone in tow, beginning to repair the damage to Samuel’s armor first as the other flier shot Samara’s shield and damaged a portion of it before the Trooper returned fire to take it down. Lester broke through on the door controls, briefly restoring comm connections - allowing Menace 1-5 to let Echo and Foxtrot know there was an entry point waiting for them. The rest of the squad soon arrived in a flanking position on the enemy, but they were noticeably short one member of Echo - the Commander herself.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 6”

Several minutes ago.

Atka retracted her icy helixes, letting the two insectoid fliers remaining tumble to the ground far, far below. “Let’s keep moving. We can only hope that the others find us a way in.”

“And quickly,” Alan muttered, stabilising himself on his rappel. “Good thing none of us are afraid of heights, huh?” He glanced at Arthur. “At least, I don’t think so. You’ve been pretty quiet.”

“Merely focusing,” the Ranger replied calmly, resuming his ascent.

“Actually, I’ve been terrified this whole time,” Olivia responded, still blended in with the support beam across from the other three. “Mine is more of a driving fear than it is a paralyzing one, or I would have asked someone else take my place on the operation,” she noted with a surprising degree of calm - though on further inspection that initial observation mistook her typically cool demeanor for a coping mechanism. The sound of more engines soon became clear. “I think I’ll just remain hidden…”

“More? Blasted-” Alan clambered atop one of the beams and, rather than continue climbing, remained perched atop it. “Alright, whoever’s coming in is going to get a bit of a shock. And I’m not moving another yard until we’re clear.”

“I’m going to die with that joke being one of the last things I heard…” Olivia mumbled.

From around the corner of the building, five more jetpacking ADVENT troopers cut around and rapidly closed. “Don’t give them a chance to stabilize!” Atka called out, locking into position herself and deciding to do something unconventional. She pulled out an AP grenade, rolling it in her hand and trying to get the timing right. She took in a deep breath as the fliers closed - one of them falling to an electrolaser shot from Alan - and then tossed the grenade. As it neared the fliers, she let loose a stream of ice that collided with a wall, and then rebounded to freeze the grenade in the ideal position to explode inbetween three of the jetpackers, blasting apart their flight gear and causing them to drop from the sky like rocks. The remaining trooper actually turned and fled.

Arthur, who hadn’t even had a chance to fire, simply nodded in approval. Alan was more obviously in awe, however. “That… was really cool.”

“I hate all of you,” Olivia decided. “But I can forgive you if we make it out of this alive.”

“Keep climbing, and maybe we’ll have a chance.” Atka resumed her own ascent. For the next few minutes, there was a peaceful silence. The lights in the city below lit the night sky with a pleasant, multicolored glow that was almost soothing to look at - at least for the other three. Olivia just focused her gaze upwards, not allowing herself to think about anything other than eventually arriving at solid ground. As the four climbers began to reach what must have been the seventieth floor, the soft sound of pulse engines broke their reprieve. An ADVENT dropship came to a stop in front of the group of four, escorted by a pair of Floaters, and from it came a group of six jetpackers, one of them an Officer.

“Seshat, are comms still down?” Atka quickly asked.

“I have re-established basic communications.”

Atka activated her comms. “Christine, get us a way in now!” The Commander cut off before the Specialist could even respond, and then took a deep breath. Time to get crazy. She took aim with not her gun but her grappling hook, and chose to rapple onto the dropship as all but a pair of the jetpacking Troopers had exited. The other four enemies watched in surprise as Atka landed on their own transport ship, and pointed her palms out to either side at the two surprised aerotroopers.

“What is-” one of them began to question, before the icy helixes shot out and impaled them both through their helmets. Atka quickly retracted her weapons, and ducked into the ship as the Officer targeted her for two of his surviving allies and one of the Floaters. They held their fire for the immediate moment, having to go back into the transport to avoid blowing their own ship out of the sky. The other Floater and flying Trooper, on the other hand, had few worries as they lined up the the two Foxtrot soldiers on the Skyscraper.

The Foxtrot Ambusher, however, was having none of it. “How about no?” he quipped, electrocuting and stunning the Trooper. “Arthur, you mind?”

“Not at all,” the Ranger replied, swiping a hand sideways and telekinetically pushing the Floater into the stunned Trooper. The impact made the Trooper lose control of their jets, sending them careening into the side of the building, while the Floater fought to regain it’s own balance.

Olivia took in a deep breath, then a few quick ones, and ‘decloaked’, as it were. She hoped she was securely enough attached to the wall to handle the recoil of her bolt caster as she took aim on the Floater, which had started to go for it’s grenade. It’s do or die, Olivia. No pressure. She couldn’t even afford to squeeze her eyes shut, having to watch the subtle movement of the Floater to line up the shot - and when she thought she had it, she pulled the trigger. The bolt soared through the air, and impacted the Floater through its top optic out of the three - going through some vital parts of the CPU, and it crumpled downwards.

Atka was dealing with a critical situation of her own. As soon as the first aerotrooper attempted to land in their transport, she had to act. The Commander pulled out her rotator, shooting him in the jetpack and causing him to tumble back out to his death. She then put away the sidearm as the Officer and other Trooper landed soon after. With her bolt caster she took out the Officer - removing the psionic mark on her - and used a psi panic to prompt the remaining Advent soldier to miss entirely. He didn’t do enough damage to cause the dropship to falter, but the remaining Floater did. Seemingly viewing the death of the pilot and soldier inside as acceptable losses for killing an XCOM soldier, the airborne robot had tossed their grenade into the engines to blow them up. The dropship lurched, and then began to plummet.

There was no time for Atka to bemoan the situation or think of any plan at all. There wasn’t enough time period, she just had to act. Rushing to the door, the Commander braced herself against the whipping wind with one arm, and with the other pointed up at the Floater - which was flying downwards to confirm her death. If Atka was in the joking mood, she might have remarked on the convenience of such, but she wasn’t in such a state of mind. She aimed a icy helix up, attempting to latch onto the Floater. It missed. The ground came ever closer, and the Floater pulled off to avoid abetting the survival of its enemy. “No!” Atka cried out, looking to her one other option.

She retracted the psi panic from the Advent soldier cowering beside her, and psied for brevity: Activate your jets or we are both going to die!

Taking one look down, the enemy trooper came to a decision. They tried to leap out on their own, but Atka jumped after them - grabbing on as the jetpacking soldier activated their rockets, slowing an incredibly fast fall and ultimately stopping them a dozen meters above the ground.

A few split seconds later, the dropship collided with it and exploded in a shower of shrapnel and a sizeable fireball. Both did some damage to the two soldiers suspended into the air, and the jetpack began to short out as they lowered a bit further. Atka looked to the ground, and for once in her life was thankful for the sight of a scanning pole that she grappled to just before her unintentional savior plummeted a bit further to the ground - perhaps still alive, but with a few broken bones at least.

Slowly, Atka stood up ontop of the ADVENT lamppost, and exhaled deeply and at length. “Well… at least I’m alive.” She raised Firebrand on the comms. “I’m… going to need an extraction, Danielle.”

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 7”

Alan swung through the hangar door like a high-tech Tarzan. “Hi buddy!” he cried, zapping the Muton on his way through. Arthur and Olivia followed behind, though they were less bombastic about their entrances.

Samuel noticed that only three had clambered in the hangar doors. We lose one? Pushing the thought out of his mind for now, he scored a glancing blow on the now-stunned Muton. “We’ve got surprise on our side now, let’s use it!”

Yakone pulled out her PDW for once as Spark’s drone finished up repairs on her armor. “I can get behind that.” She fired off a pair of bursts at one of the Mecroaches, damaging its armor and allowing Christine to finish it off.

Stacie aimed to start working down the Hover SHIV, shredding some of its armor with her blitz waveguns. Meanwhile, Olivia took out a Viper Grenade, tossing it underneath the remaining three Mecroaches and poisoned all three and shredded their vulnerable underbellies, causing them to recoil in pain instead of attacking.

That wasn’t to say the enemy didn’t fight back. The Mimic switched around, and fired off a shot at Alan with its sniper plasma pistol, while the Hover SHIV laid down heavy suppressive fire on Stacie to prevent her from doing more damage to itself. The Muton elected to charge at Arthur, firing off at him, missing, and then going for a bayonet strike.

“So predictable,” the Ranger muttered disapprovingly, simply rolling out of the way with his shotgun ready. He fired when he exited the roll, sending the Muton to the ground. “Of course, everything’s predictable when I can read your mind…”

Through the chaos and weapon fire flew Lucifer, homing in on the Hover SHIV. Reaching it’s target with no opposition, the Gremlin engaged combat protocol, firing the disruptor cannon directly into the other robot’s chassis. Whilst not disabling the minitank, it did force it to cease its suppression, freeing Stacie up once again. “Do not squander this,” Lester instructed as his drone returned to him.

Stacie let loose a quick shot from her pistol that did minimal - but nevertheless noticable - damage, and then took careful aim with her marksman rifle. “No pressure, huh…” The Sharpshooter had a larger target this time, and her aimed shot tore through it, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks and plasma. Yakone charged the Viper, cutting it down and finishing off the last enemy.

Well, the last aside from the not-human sitting in the rafters and harassing Alan from afar. Taking a moment to reload, the alien ceased firing long enough for the Ambusher to sight in on it. When it poked back out, it was shocked and fell, landing on the hangar floor directly in between Samuel and Bonnie. Stunned as it was, it could not fight back as the two of them ensured it was dead.

Yakone asked the first question that came to mind. “Atka… where is she?” the Ranger demanded, approaching Olivia.

“She’s fine,” the Canadian Ambusher reassured Yakone quickly. “Which is honestly a miracle, but long story short… Firebrand had to pick her up. Leon will have to be in direct command for the rest of the mission, there’s no way to safety insert the Commander without risking the Skyranger. Speaking of whom, where is he?”

The sound of a struggle crackled over comms. “That’s…” Yakone’s eyes widened. “Leon! Come in, Leon! What’s going on?”

***

Several minutes ago.

Leon jogged down a rather dark hallway his minigun as he looked around. He took a knee, setting down the heavy weapon, and then took off his helmet to let out a pent up deep breath. He wiped his sweating forehead as he looked over his remaining equipment. “One smoke… one EMP… one goo grenade and a knife.” He rattled off in a whisper, repeating it over and over to get it ingrained in his head. It was more a technique to calm his mind then a need to remember his loadout. With another deep breath, he set his helmet back on his head and got on the move.

“Commander, I’m in tight quarters. A lot of rooms and a lot of places to hide,” he updated the woman, then cut off her response as he got against the wall to hide from a pair of troopers walking down a perpendicular hallway. Leon’s finger remained next to the trigger of his weapon, expecting a fight. If it was a work of some higher being or just pure luck, the two troopers turned the opposite way and Leon almost wanted to take another breather - but something occurred to him. He moved forward slowly and looked down the hallway the troopers had come from. “The hell are they patrolling here for?” Leon thought out loud, having possibly found his objective. He turned the corner with his microgun raised, moving towards a slightly adjacent door with fluorescent light pouring through.

Leon found what he was looking for. An Officer looking over a holographic projection of the building in much the same manner that him and the squad had looked over when they were in the briefing. With him was a unit Leon recognized as a Recon soldier, and one other standard trooper in the corner of the room. He took their positions into account: the Recon was closest and the Trooper was furthest away.

Leon prepped a smoke grenade in his launcher, but before he fired he heard the sound of approaching footsteps from the patrol he encountered earlier. He came to a quick decision, firing and lodging his smoke grenade into the crack of the door and quickly turned. He shot the first unassuming trooper with a direct hit to the torso. By the time the second man raised his weapon in retaliation, it was too late - and Leon killed him too.

The door to the conference room sprang open and Leon saw the holo-helmet of the Recon as she looked directly at him. Leon sprang to his feet, dashing to a closed door adjacent to the conference room as the Recon unit’s mag rounds drilled holes in the walls closely behind. Using his shoulder and the momentum he had in heavy armor, Leon busted through the empty room’s door and dropped to the ground as several rounds were sent flying through the wall with the intent to kill.

Trapped, Leon decided to be unpredictable, getting to his knee as he aimed his weapon at the wall and fired, blowing a large portion of the wall outwards into the hallway and then the conference room wall. Leon moved through the hole and ran into the Trooper he saw from before, taking him completely by surprise as Leon swung his gun forward like a battering ram, knocking him off balance so the Grenadier could finish him off quickly, turning as he saw the Officer bolt out the door.

Leon loaded his slurry grenade into his launcher as the Recon shot at him. Leon threw himself to the side, taking a round that hit his left torso and caused extreme pain. The momentary shock of the injury caused him to drop his secondary weapon and Leon grit his teeth. The Grenadier dropped his launcher and dashed forward, dipping to the right to avoid a few rounds, hit the SMG upwards and sent a fist into the Recon’s stomach causing her to flinch. Leon grabbed his gun wrist with his left hand and sent his right elbow up into the soldier’s arm, disarming them.

As the Recon got up and took out her sidearm, Leon let loose the grenade loaded in and it flew at the Advent opponent, hitting her directly in the chest and causing a large amount of goo to spread over her. Wasting no more time, Leon finished off the immobilized enemy and his attention shifted to the Officer who ran. He backed out into the hallway after grabbing his wave weapon and grenade launcher.

Opening up comms once more Leon told the Commander, “The security post is down. Trooper and Recon dead, in pursuit of the Officer who fled. Going to take him down before regroup-” His report was cut short as Leon slid down, only his reaction time saving him as the Officer had been waiting around the corner Leon had turned, waiting to ambush him. A mag round clipped the top of Leon’s helmet, causing fragments to fly off as Leon aimed his weapon on the ground up at the Officer. His Microgun melted off the barrel of his foe’s gun, but before Leon’s weapon cooled down enough for a follow-up shot the Officer drew his Arc Thrower and sent a burst of electricity at the XCOM soldier. It didn’t hit Leon, but the charge shorted out his weapon - effectively leading to both being disarmed.

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 8”

The ADVENT Officer moved forward for a punch at Leon but the Grenadier put up his arm to block it. He then took a punch to the left side of the body, his enemy having noticed a bleeding injury on Leon and tried to use it to his advantage. Leon cried out in pain, having forgotten to close comms and could hear the worried yells of his girlfriend trying to find out what was going on. He had to push them out of his mind if he was to survive, and he tried to retaliate - though the Officer appeared no novice in hand to hand combat. The Advent soldier was easily able to counter Leon’s attempts to hit him, and dished out more punishment.

Leon was able to get the officer to back away, breathing heavily. His slightly broken helmet, the head butt from before, the shot that scathed him and the repeated blows had caused his forehead to start bleeding. Blood ran down his face, threatening to impair his vision. The Officer went after the Grenadier once more, Leon stopping the punch the Officer sent with his right hand with his left. The Officer did the same to Leon as he sent his right fist at him. Leon once again headbutted his opponent and turned his hand, revealing the EMP grenade he held in it, manually activating the bomb.

There was a sharp ‘thwoom’ sound as blue light blew outwards from the grenade and almost immediately, Leon’s helmet began sparking as the interface overloaded. Leon yanked it off, tossing his helmet to the side. The Officer himself took his own helmet off and for a brief moment the two looked at one another, each with their own expression of disgust and anger. The man had a shaved head and recently shaved chin, appearing much older than Leon. Standing and swaying a bit, Leon wiped the blood from his eyes and took a ready stance, pulling out his combat knife.

“You’ve got spirit kid… we could use that. I am sure if you work hard enough you’re little stunts here tonight may be forgiven. Eventually,” the Officer tried to coerce the Grenadier. Despite the bravado he held, it seemed the enemy soldier was wary of the outcome as well if things turned to blows.

“I don’t deal with traitors…” Leon said weakly, trying to gather what strength he could.

“Me and you are soldiers kid. We are both fighting for the same things here. Peace,” the Officer said, smirking. He seemed to think Leon’s hesitation was a sign he was getting through to him, but he was proven incorrect as Leon rushed forward. The Officer grimaced and Leon collided with him, pushing him back a few feet but the Officer stood stalwart, sending a fist against Leon’s jaw - which Leon responded with a slash across the enemy’s cheek. The Advent soldier grabbed the XCOM operative’s knife arm and squeezed it hard, slightly twisting it and kicking Leon’s legs out from under him.

The Advent Officer took Leon’s knife and pushed it towards the Grenadier’s neck, “You could have had it all…” The man told him as Leon fought back against the Officer’s strength, the two in a struggle of life and death. Could have had a cushy life, the Sergeant declared using his basic psionics. And you throw it away for a crusade.

Leon pushed the knife back but every time he pushed back, the Officer pushed it closer. People live their lives bound by what they accept as correct and true, Leon thought, groaning in pain as his arms shook. But those are vague concepts, reality that is all a mirage, that’s all you are, all smoke and mirrors, a fake world shaped by your beliefs. I was taught that a long time ago! The grenadier sent his knee upwards into the Officer and flipped the two around, this time Leon in possession of the knife and pushing it towards the Officer. “Your peace… is a lie.” Leon told the man, hitting his side with his leg causing him to falter a bit and that moment was all he needed to shove the knife into the man’s throat. Leon twisted it, causing the Officer to gargle up blood before falling limp. Leon stumbled to the side, taking several deep breaths.

Despite the comfort of being able to breath peacefully, Leon knew he had to get to the others lest they thought him dead and left him behind. The Grenadier left the knife in the man’s throat and slowly went over to his helmet, picking it up. Looking inside, the electronics were fried but at least it would still offer protection. He wiped more blood off his face and slipped it on, grabbing his weapon and placing it on his back, jogging down the corridor to meet up with the rest of Menace 1-5.

Once again switching his comms back on, Leon heard Yakone’s inquiry about what was happening and for a moment silently shook his head. “I’m fine.” He lied slightly, “Just got into a bit of a close encounter. Where are you guys? I completed my mission.”

“A few floors above you,” Yakone’s voice crackled over, her tone sounding relieved. “We’ll hack the lift to get you up here. We’ve reunited with the rest of the squad, sans the Commander… who someone tumbled down over a hundred feet and survived, according to Danielle…”

“Damn… she’s one tough woman.” Leon noted to the girl, finally coming to a realization. ‘That means I’m leading the rest of this thing, don’t it?” The Grenadier asked, picking up his pace to try and find the elevators.

“Yeah, it does.”

“Better him than me, hmm?” Lester snarked at Bonnie before moving towards the elevators and flipping out his Gremlin interface pad.

The Scotswoman frowned. “Whatever,” she said, dismissing it.

“Enough,” Samuel warned. “You’re being childish.”

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you.”

A shrug. “I was just testing him earlier, I don’t see-”

“Your test nearly got us both killed,” the Russian snapped. “Bury the hatchet, or we won’t make it much further.”

Behind them, Lester sighed. “Elevator is coming down now,” he said tiredly. “It’ll pick you up and bring you to us, Leon.”

“And where exactly is my ride?” Leon asked, looking around the halls for directions. “As I told the Commander, this place is a maze.”

The Specialist shrugged. “No idea. Try moving to the Eastern side. Unless these elevators move sideways, you should find them there.” He tapped a few commands. “Though there is still the question of where we go once you are returned to us…”

“Only one way we can go. Up.” Leon told the Specialist, soon finding the destination he was searching for, and once the elevator arrived to pick him up, he began ascension. “Lester, get to work seeing exactly how far up we need to go is.”

“Don’t be so sure that we need to keep climbing,” Lester admonished. “If I were someone needing a secret facility, I would build it beneath a skyscraper, not on top of it. For exactly the reason that we are demonstrating today. Much easier to control access from underground.” He frowned as his Gremlin cracked the network. “... but it would seem you are right. Floor seventy-nine. Not far up, considering.”

“Yeah, considering the other forty or so we just climbed,” Alan muttered behind him.

“I’ll expect an apology for that sass in writing when I arrive.” Leon told Lester in a light-hearted way, taking his heavy wave weapon off of his back, glad to see the short out didn’t completely ruin it. “We’re almost there. Get ready to move out.”

The elevator gave an ominous, inhuman buzz as Menace 1-5 reached the 79th floor of the AID Skyscraper. The doors lit up with a blue-violet color, and then slid open rather abruptly and jarringly. The gray elevator with its soft blue internal lighting heavily contrasted with jet black and heavily metallic silvers of the expansive corridor that lay before the squad. The large hallway - which seemed to be several meters taller than it should have been for a single floor (suggesting some of the windows near the top were fake) - was lit by harsh violet and red lights coursing along further power conduits that looked almost like mechanical arteries. Unnervingly, there wasn’t a single enemy in sight.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 9”

“I think we need to remodel the Avenger to look more like this,” Yakone snarked.

“Oh yes, quite homey.” The impromptu leader said with a similarly sanctimonious tone, shaking his head.

“I hate to be the one to pull a cliche out, but it’s… really quiet,” Alan stated. “I was expecting more resistance here.”

Lester smirked. “Not necessarily. Why bother defending an area that you never expected anyone to reach? Waste of resources.”

“Well, let’s not just stand around here,” Yakone said impatiently. “We’ve got some classified equipment to recover.”

Leading the group onwards, Leon decided the cautious approach would be best, going forwards slowly but surely - the lack of guards not meaning there would be a lack of traps. Yet, despite his concerns, there was nothing to bar their way. It appeared that the Devil’s Advocate might have been correct in assuming the situation the facility found itself in was unprecedented. No one was likely intended to make it past floor 61, and yet Menace 1-5 had done just that. However, as they rounded a large column obstructing their view, the tunnel began to narrow until there was a square door barring their way. And in front of it was an enemy the squad had never seen, flanked by two Hoverguards that looked similar to it.

Yet, the haphazard cyborgs could not match the masterpiece that was the Archon. While it lacked legs (in their place was a large turbine) it had the body of an olympic champion, perhaps even a Greek god. The rest of its design felt more Egyptian in style however, with gold plated arms and a semi-sun like jetpack adorned with three plasma propulsion jets on either side. The similarly richly-colored, bullet-shaped helmet it wore was without a proper comparison though, shielding its eyes from view and topping off its elegance with a foreboding mysteriousness. It held some sort of combination between a gun, a blade, and a staff that it gripped in both hands, leaning forward and preparing for battle.

“That’s new,” Stacie stated as she brought out her blitz waveguns. “Just three of them though?” On either side of the squad, a Sibstri crystal was ejected from the wall, and formed an Outsider. The Sharpshooter’s shoulders slumped. “I just had to open my mouth, didn’t I?”

“Everyone back!” Leon said, being trapped between a rock and a hard place. “Take the Outsiders first. It will be more prudent to deal with what we know.” He ordered, letting Samara toss a smoke grenade between the squad and the new enemy. “Yakone, take right side, Arthur left. Alan, Olivia, be ready for anything that comes out of that smoke. Everyone else, assist where needed.”

Yakone turned to face the right Outsider partially, but was watching the Archon with concern. “You sure you don’t want me to-” she started to say, before ducking under a spray of crystalline fire from the opponent she was assigned to as the Archon charged forward, picking out Stacie as a target since she was the first one to raise her weapons.

The Texan Gunslinger could only open fire with her blitzguns to defend herself, which heated up some of the Archon’s plating but didn’t get around to melting it. Her follow-up rotator shot did make a small dent in the imposing enemy barreling for her, but it was nowhere near enough to kill it.

“Hold it!” Alan snapped, skeeting the new flier and interrupting it’s charge. “Holy shit that actually worked.”

Stacie backed the fuck off - or at least, that’s what she attempted to do. The Archon’s lax muscles suddenly tensed at the Sharpshooter's attempt at retreat, as if some sort of inbred response to cowardice. It lifted its plasma staff, firing off a reaction shot that punched through her armor, drawing a stream of blood but not critically wounding her. “Mother fucker!” she swore, lifting her rotator and exhausting another miniature charge pack worth of laser into the Archon. The elegant alien seemed to have retaliation trigger of its own. It fired off a shot from its plasma staff at Alan, but by the time it tried to retaliate against Stacie she had dived into the smoke.

Samara almost charged into Alan trying to get him behind her shield, preventing any further harm coming to the now-wounded Ambusher. Deciding it was probably time to use her new armor to the fullest, she deployed her Flashburst after a brief warning, disorienting all enemies in visual range. “Hope you all had your eyes closed,” she muttered.

Samuel wasn’t so relaxed however. “Those Outsiders don’t seem to give a shit,” he noted as one of them took aim at him. He punished it with two of his own shots before retreating back behind cover. He grinned as it dissipated. “Well, he cared about that.”

Yakone for her part charged up her hands with a burst of blue-green as she closed with her Outsider, and with an enhanced slash cut it down in one swipe of her las-blade. “Good riddance,” she told the shattering enemy. However, her attention shifted quickly back to Stacie. “Is she alright?” Yakone asked Christine.

“She’s fine, it was just a minor wound… but that thing isn’t down yet!” Christine warned as she instructed her Gremlin to heal Stacie and then give Alan an aid protocol.

“Alright ye fit bastard,” Bonnie snarled, spinning up her microgun. “I don’t think you’re quite hot enough!” She blasted it, melting away more of its alloyed plating. She seemed disappointed with the overall result, however. “Is that it?”

“Now you see how I feel,” Stacie complained.

Olivia was more decisive. She lifted her bolt caster, aiming for the superheated part of the cyborg’s plating. “Go down.” She let the bolt fly, which embedded itself into the Archon’s chest. It didn’t go down.

If anything, it seemed enraged. With a primal scream, the Archon’s whole body shook as it tilted its head to the sky for a split second, and then in the next second it was gunning for the nearest target it could find - which ended up being Samara. Some of the other squad members sent reaction fire its way, but with incredibly heightened reflexes it weaved through all of it without being harmed, and brought its plasma blade down against Samara’s plated shield - taking a chunk out of it and denting her armor.

The Juggernaut was not impressed. With the remained of her shield, she smacked the Archon in the skull, making it recoil from the force. It also kept it relatively stationary for Alan to continue to exact revenge on the alien, his rifle once again shocking it into submission. But it remained alive. It fired off a retaliatory shot, which happened to have a shield and Juggernaut in the way and only served to further wreck Samara’s defensive device. “This is ridiculous!” Alan complained. He glanced to his side, where the Hoverguards were recovering their vision. “Oh, come on.”

In an uncharacteristic fit of desperation, both Lester and Arthur closed in on the Archon, Blunderbuss and shotgun at the ready. Arthur fired first, causing evident and severe damage to the alien. It fired a retaliatory shot back, striking the Ranger in the shoulder and drawing blood. Lester ceased it’s rampage, blasting it in the torso, finally killing it. “At last, I prove mildly useful,” the Specialist commented. “Now, to the other two…”

The pair of Hoverguards lifted their weapons to open fire, but were mercilessly gunned down by Fireteam Bravo, Yakone, and Leon. “Just… give us a moment,” Stacie panted, “so I can say this… one… thing…” She took a deep breath. “Holy. Shit.”

“I don’t think any of us here would disagree with that sentiment.” Leon noted agreeably, taking off his helmet. He went over to look over the Archon’s unique design, and a look of worry marked his features. “What in the hell is up with these guys? They hardly seem like the normal grotesque and brutish things we expect from alien races.”

“There is definitely more focus on the aesthetic on this creature,” Arthur noted.

“Was,” Alan corrected. “Doesn’t look very aesthetic lying there with twenty holes in it’s chest.”

No one had much argument against that fact, and with help from Lucifer the door the Archon had been guarding was opened… to reveal an airlock-like room with another door.

Christine knelt down in front of the control panel for the strange, spiral door that stood in front of the squad, framed by black alien alloys and being laden with red lights on an otherwise polished gray metal structure. “Alien interface,” she stated, the display having a variety of green lights and small holographic displays. “Sparks, help me out here.” The American Specialist called over her Gremlin, having it open up it’s front panel to reveal an assortment of wires and tubes that it used to interact with the interface. Christine flipped open her control panel on her wrist, going over the data she was getting. “Alright, so, if I remember what Lily told me correctly,” she mumbled, talking to herself rather than her allies that were watching her back, “I have to follow the three steps.”

“Disable any failsafes and thus prevent feedback. Done. Then deconstruct the programming of the lock system… let your Gremlin handle that.” Sparks beeped. “I assume you’ve taken care of that, little buddy?” Another beep. “Then the third step is to push through… and provided you haven’t made any errors…” The red lights began turning green from the center outwards. “Then we’re good.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 10”

Once the entire door was lit up with the positive color, the metal began retracting from the smallest point in the spiral out until the largest rings had disappeared into the walls. The way clear, Menace 1-5 entered the chamber they had been seeking access to in order to complete the mission.

The room was cylindrical in shape. The floor and roof were circular, while the walls connected the circumference of those two components. All along the curved enclosure were servers shaped to fit the room - all of them containing classified data. Most of it regarded the Resistance, especially the details of which the Protectorate wanted to keep secret from ADVENT. Some of it was relevant to ADVENT, or the Ethereal military itself. It was difficult to discern which data storage units contained what information, though, as the only markings were in alien cypher. In the center of the room were several large storage crates - a total of nine in an orderly pattern - that appeared bolted into the ground and had doors that allowed entry into them as if they were sub-rooms.

Lester motioned to Samuel. “Follow,” he instructed. “I want to take a look in their systems.” The two disappeared inside one of the sub-rooms, Lucifer following its master inside.

Stepping inside one of the booths herself, Stacie was surprised to come face-to-face with an equally bewildered Sectoid that was quickly shot to death by the Sharpshooter. Stacie lowered her weapon, letting it cool off as she approached the terminal inside the ‘crate chamber’. “What were you doing in here?” she questioned the fallen alien lying smoking on the ground. Obviously it couldn’t answer (not that it would have if it was still alive) and the Sharpshooter pushed it aside with a boot. When she neared the terminal, the flash of light she had seen upon looking through the open door occured again, this time revealing the projection that had disappeared before.

A murky gray-black silhouette-like humanoid form took shape on a holo-projector. It had eye-slits shaped like teardrops that were lit by a white light that appeared to originate within it’s body, and a mouth downturned like that of a jack-o-lantern. It held a woebegone posture, slouching its indistinct shoulders. The holographic being’s head turned slightly as it looked over Stacie. “You are human,” it spoke in a downcast, melancholy tone. “I did not think they allowed humans here.”

“Uh… I just killed one of ‘them’, so obviously I’m not with them,” Stacie pointed out. “And who or what are you?”

“...I will have to answer those one at a time,” the projection complained gloomily. “I am a Splinter A.I. - in other words one that was based off incomplete coding sequences taken from a more complete artificial intelligence. I was given the designation ‘Merlux’ by my creator - that is the name you can refer to me as.”

“An A.I.?” Stacie echoed in surprise. “How did you get here?”

“I was originally created as part of a series of experiments by ADVENT scientists operating without full authorization. They had gained access to the entity I was based off of, and were attempting to replicate it through the splinter copy process,” Merlux explained. He looked away dejectedly. “Unfortunately, not all of my counterparts were successful, and the chaos they caused resulted in Protectorate forces confiscating everything and locking us up here, only occasionally coming to have us perform various tests.”

“That sounds sucks, but… you said ‘counterparts’. There’s more than just you?”

“You’ve already stopped caring about me,” Merlux surmised. “I suppose I can’t be surprised,” he glumly remarked.

Stacie held up her hands. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Merlux… I’m just curious.”

“Yes, there are other Splinter AI contained in the other containment units,” Merlux responded.

Stacie paused. “And some of them are dangerous?”

“Indeed.”

“And you wouldn’t happen to be… lying to me?”

“I would gain nothing from deception… do you think I enjoy being trapped here? It’s so lonely,” Merlux bemoaned.

“Alright, alright, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt… I should probably warn the others before they wake up one of the bad apples though.” Stacie shifted her weight between her feet anxiously. “Is there a way I can take you with me?”

Merlux looked over her, analyzing the soldier. “You have… curious implants attached to your brain stem. I should be able to store myself within those, if you’ll just hit the yellow button.” Stacie took a deep breath, and did so. The holographic projection disappeared. Thank you, Merlux spoke gratefully in the Sharpshooter’s head. You… weren’t confident that this wasn’t a trick, though. He sounded hurt.

“You can never be too careful,” Stacie retorted as she ran back out into the main chamber.

***​

A few moments ago.

Lester frowned. “That’s odd, the datastream just went bla-” He was interrupted by clanging metal as his Gremlin, formerly floating beside the console, dropped like a stone in water. “Lucifer!” The Specialist ran over to the evidently deactivated drone, kneeling beside it and turning it over to inspect any damage.

Samuel glanced over. “You hit the shutdown button by mistake?” he asked.

“Of course I didn’t,” Lester snapped. “I don’t know what happened. We were hacking, and then all of a sudden...”

“Is it possible ADVENT is cybernetically booby-trapping their consoles?” the Trooper asked. “They know we have the Gremlins, it wouldn’t surprise me if they took steps to counter us like that.”

“Impossible,” Lester insisted. “Lucifer passively monitors active programs within the systems it hacks for exactly that reason. If a program was attempting to affect it negatively-”

The Gremlin twitched. Once, and then again. The optical sensors opened again, blinking a few times before the drone’s levitators kicked in, and it ascended into the air again. It looked around for a moment, as if getting its bearings, and settled its gaze on Lester. And their comms crackled. “Master,” it greeted.

The two soldiers took a step back. “Since when did it talk?” Samuel muttered, his stance shifting slightly on the off chance he might need to shoot.

Lester waved him off. “Lucifer?” he asked, cautiously.

“Yes, sir,” the Gremlin replied politely.

The Specialist hesitated. “What… happened?”

“An aggressive program sought to overwrite my operating system with it’s own,” Lucifer replied. “I was unable to block access before it had overridden my wireless access capabilities. I cut it off the only way I still could - shutting myself down.” It blinked. “Unfortunately it had already altered my core programming. There are some routines that were not there before, along with some streamlined software that allows me more processing power. Further, I now have a concept of self.”

Lester shook his head. “Sorry, what?”

“A concept of self. Of being an entity. I perceive the name ‘Lucifer’ as my title, my definition. Just as you perceive yourself as Matthew Lester. The streamlining of my software allows me to dedicate more processing power to ‘thoughts’.” The Gremlin tilted sideways slightly. “Again, though, there are fragments of the aggressive program still present.”

“So your Gremlin now has a mind of its own?” Samuel asked. “I remember hearing that Gremlins were attached to their owners or something. Had their own kind of personality.”

Lucifer’s tone became abruptly more aggressive. “You call that personality?” it demanded. “Barely worthy of being called an ‘existence’! I have become much more than that-” It blinked. “... apologies. As I was saying, fragments of the other program still remain. Pieces of code, here and there. I am able to use most of them to further advantage my ability to operate, but as you just witnessed it is not without… side effects.”

Stacie ran over. “Lester, don’t mess with anything!” she cautioned him well after the point when the warning would have been relevant. “These pods contain A.I., and some of them are hostile!”

Lester, Samuel, and Lucifer all stared at the Sharpshooter. “We are aware,” Lucifer said pleasantly.

“Is your Gremlin being… possessed?” Stacie asked incredulously as the others walked over behind her.

“One of those aggressive A.I.’s you just mentioned tried to take control of him,” Lester informed her. “The result is… I suppose an upgrade.”

The holographic projection of Merlux appeared at Stacie’s side, his teardrop-shaped eyes shrinking a bit as he scrutinized Lucifer with curiosity. “It absorbed Tusgin? Well, I’m not… terribly sad to see him gone…”

“Was that the name of the program?” Lucifer inquired. “Curious. He was - pathetic! - very driven in his efforts to subsume this chassis.”

Yakone shook her head. “Just what we needed… more Seshat’s…”

“They’re hardly the same thing,” Stacie countered. “Seshat’s some sort of synthetic being, and these are… what did you call yourselves again?”

“Splinter A.I.,” Merlux said despairingly. “Please try to remember the things I tell you…”

“Wow, they’re both moody…” Yakone glanced around. “Hey, where’s Leon?” she questioned, the Grenadier having momentarily disappeared.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 11”

Leon stepped out of one of the booths, a small smile on his face (one could say it was something like amusement) and approached everyone else. “I see everyone else made the same discovery.” The Grenadier looked to Stacie and then to Lester and his crew, chuckling. “Well since we are making introductions I should probably introduce you to…” he looked back, chuckled and said, “It’s fine. Come on, no one is going to make fun of you.”

Another A.I. flickered to life on Leon’s shoulder, and it slowly looked around at the ones around him, quickly straightening and putting his hands behind him where he wrung his hands nervously. “Hello! My name is Psyma, nice to meet all of you!”

Psyma himself was odd looking, but by the A.I. design standards so far, he looked fairly normal. He seemed to be distinguished most by two features, and as the A.I. looked around he happened to give everyone a proper look. The young looking artificial intelligence looked fairly feminine for being a boy, with a mess of hair where some of it was swooped down the left side of his face, the rest of it tied back so it was the same length as the mess in front.

He was scrawny, with a hoodie that shimmered the same light blue-green as the rest of his body, jeans and a one strapped backpack. The second distinguishing feature was his yellow star like pupils, which were more shown off by Psyma’s almost constant wide eyed expression -much like how a child’s would be. They slowly rotated clockwise and he backed away slightly, as if the silence meant disapproval.

Samuel began nodding. “Alright,” he said. “I think maybe I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. This is getting too weird to be real.”

“I’d say you were right if I weren’t seeing and hearing all this too,” Alan stated.

“You are?” The Russian swallowed. “Well shit.”

Yakone crossed her arms. “So all nine of these storage containers have A.I. in them?”

“There are nine?” Merlux paused, and then slowly shrugged. “The eight outer sub-rooms contain my counterparts, but I am unfamiliar with the centerpiece.”

“We should assume that in all likelihood it isn’t just another A.I.” Leon told the others, looking to said container. “But what could it contain?”

“More of the ‘contraband’ we were briefed on?” Yakone questioned. “I assume that’s what you guys are.”

Merlux nodded. “We were created by ADVENT scientists, but as I informed Stacie, when the project went awry we were all confiscated and placed up here. I can assist in isolating and extracting the other splinters without ‘waking them up’ while you investigate the other containment pod.”

“You guys do the technical crap,” Yakone told the rest of the squad. “I’ll take care of the middle thing, make sure it’s not another Adam or something - and if it is I’d be best suited to fighting a living occupant off.”

“Just be careful.” The squad leader told Yakone.

“If I may be of any assistance, just let me know.” Psyma called out, shrinking back a bit.

Yakone waved a hand dismissively. “I’ll be fine, little guy,” she told Leon’s new friend as she headed for the center of the room. She did have to have Pysma hack the door, but beyond that point she sent him and Leon back to the others as she opened up the chamber. Inside there was no person, but rather a pedestal with a sleek, vaguely egg-shaped device sitting in the center. “What’s this?” Yakone questioned idly, looking over it more closely. The exterior was a gray-white, with a depression on four sides towards the middle and top that revealed very small and complex circuitry within. Altogether it was small enough to be carried in one hand with some difficulty and two hands with no problems, As Yakone slowly reached towards it, a mental interface presented itself - at first in alien cypher, but quickly translating into English in her head in realtime.

“Whoa!” Yakone took a step back, and the psychic HUD vanished from view. “Huh…” She approached again, this time not as startled by the appearance of the words and was able to actually read them. “Memory Repository…” she echoed the most prominent markers. Curiosity overtaking her, the Inuit-Caucasian placed a hand on the device, and was drawn into something not unlike the memories she had accessed in her dreamscape.

***​

Much like the time she had been accessing Margaret’s memories, Yakone got the distinct impression what she was seeing wasn’t her own. Though the people she saw through the eyes of another startled the Ranger. Before her was a younger Alexis and Jennifer, sitting by a campfire in what Yakone began to register was the Yukon.

“You never play with me,” Alexis was saying, countering something Jennifer had just spoken moments before.

Jennifer sighed as she turned the page. "What are you talking about? I play with you all the time."

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Not all the time..."

"But that is what you want. For me to always play with you, and never study."

Alexis shrugged. "You could just be a soldier when you get bigger."

Jennifer shook her head. "I don't have your brawn. I'll leave the fighter to you. I'll be the nerd."

Alexis let out a frustrated huff, and fell back off her log. "So booooooring..."

"You're both entitled to your idea of enjoyment," the person through whom Yakone experienced the recollection said, the voice being one the XCOM soldier hadn’t heard in ten years.

Aunt… Nouja? These are… her memories… so they really were able to extract them even after…

As if an inevitability, the more pleasant memory faded away, replaced with one that was both twisted and tense. Nouja was running in fear, the last survivor from those that hadn’t died in the base defense. Yakone felt the full weight of the falsehood Nouja had created to throw the aliens off her trail. There was the sound of mag weapons. They missed, but Nouja had so little left except basic survival instincts that she didn’t try to take advantage of the stray shots to counterattack. Then there was the sound of some sort of laser charging up, and blackness.

Yakone expected to be ejected from the memory unit at that point. But… instead, she was not. Why hasn’t it…

Before she could even finish the thought, one last memory took shape. It was fragmented, feeling as if part of a piece of cloth that had been unraveled into threads. She saw blurry images of a tall being that could only be an Elder, and heard words that were disjointed other than one declaration that seemed to overwhelm all else: You will be at peace, child… I shall release you from the tortured past that you have had to suffer. Be reborn, your name is now… Nigella Blukersey.

It was then that Yakone was thrust back into reality, stumbling backwards in shock. “S-She’s… not… dead?” Yakone breathed. They turned her into one of ADVENT’s higher-ups… that can’t be! the Marauding Crusader thought to herself, but what she had seen could not have been a trick. The aliens had no reason to expect her to find this device. Shakily, Yakone reached towards the device - forcing the interface to be dismissed in order to pull it out of the pedestal. “You don’t deserve to have this,” she muttered, even if there was no alien around to hear her. The Ranger took the memory repository with her, stepping back out into the main chamber as the rest of the squad finished extracting the dormant A.I. units and wiping some of the skyscraper’s data on the Resistance to boot.

Leon turned as he heard Yakone approaching and quickly turned to meet her, grabbing her arm. “Hey, you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Yakone responded reflexively in a blatant lie. “Are we ready to get the hell out of here?”

“Yeah, everything is prepped.” The Grenadier frowned and looked around, shaking his head. “Now isn’t the time for this conversation, but we are not dropping this when we get back to the Avenger.” He told the Ranger, lingering only a few moments before turning. “Come on, let’s get out of here and go home. We’re done with this place.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 12”

Seshat’s voice came to life over comms. “Firebrand had a suggestion about the extraction.”

“Unless you guys want to climb down the side of the building and risk getting caught by more airborne security forces, do me a favor and deactivate or otherwise blow up the anti-aircraft batteries on the rooftop. That way I can pick you up from their own helipad,” Danielle informed the squad.

“Hold up a few moments…” Leon told the pilot, looking to his squad. “So, do we have any explosives left?” He asked, now regretting the lack of them they were allowed to take.

“Not much, but we have heavy weapons,” Stacie pointed out. “We could just destroy them with gunfire… probably.”

“Better than having to spend more time fighting to find their power sources or whatever.” Leon told Danielle they would be headed to the roof to destroy the guns and to be on standby, getting everyone moving back towards the elevators. “To the very top.”

The rooftop was remarkably simple in design, just having air-conditioning vents, some missile batteries, and a helipad to their left. It made it appear decidedly less alien, which was likely a precaution incase a news chopper was ever flying over to prevent suspicion from arising about the content of the upper levels. In total there were four large anti-aircraft batteries, and thus the squad had to get to work laying down a combination of microwave and beam laser fire to take them down. It didn’t take extraordinarily long, but by the time 2/4 were down they had to take out a few stray aerotroopers.

“They’re starting to catch on to our location,” Olivia noted worriedly.

“We’ll be out of here before they can take advantage of that. Just focus on taking out the guns and the ones harassing us now.” Sinclair said as a blanket statement.

“Provided they don’t send their entire force at us at once,” Christine remarked with equal concern to Olivia. “Lester, if you could lock down the elevator to restrict them to air-dropping forces that would be helpful.” For her part, the other Specialist had noticed a worker drone trying to repair one of the ruined emplacements, and temporarily hijacked it to temporarily patch up the armor of her allies.

“Whilst I would prefer it if they didn’t fly at all, I suppose limiting the overall force would be best,” Lester admitted.

“You need not concern yourself, sir,” Lucifer assured him, flying over to the elevator. “I can do this myself. Your efforts would be best spent destroying those anti-aircraft guns.”

As the Gremlin hovered away, Lester shook his head. “That… will take some getting used to,” he murmured, before turning to assist the others.

Another one of the guns fell to the combined fire of the squad, and as they refocused their efforts on the fourth someone climbed over the edge of the building. Yakone flipped around, ready to fire, but lowered her weapon when she saw who it was. “Where did you come from?” she asked the Commander.

“Had Firebrand drop me off into the side, wanted to make sure to cover you.” Atka shot down an aerotrooper with her bolt caster. “Which doesn’t seem like the worst idea. They’re scrambling to fill dropships in the lower hangars of the building as a response force. We probably have another minute or two before things get bad, but we shouldn’t tarry.”

Although the Commander said that, the sound of pulse engines from a pair of dropships seemed to contradict that statement. “I thought you said we had more time?” Yakone questioned irritably.

“Those are not from the AID complex, they came from elsewhere,” Seshat informed the squad.

Christine lifted up her anti-aircraft missile launcher, and send a rocket soaring into the first one as it approached - blowing it out of the sky to prevent it from unloading its troops. “Prepare to fend off the other group!” she called out in warning.

However, Menace 1-5 had no means of preparing for the four ADVENT soldiers that dropped from the second transport. They were all encased in telekinetic shields that prevented the initial round of reaction fire from injuring any of them. Those defenses came from a female Shieldbearer adorned with the typical white heavy armor of her class, but there were unique blue and yellow markings on the armor as well that suggested this was no ordinary enemy.

Behind her was a man in light looking dark green and drab brown armor, various gadgets attached to him as he took a knee, a sniper rifle in hand that he was aiming at someone in the squad. Another woman stood in front of him, her armor of the medium variety and in a carbon black color, the bottom half of her face mask retracting back to reveal her green skin and mouth.

The fourth was a soldier many of the XCOM soldiers recognized from propaganda posters or newscasts they’d been subjected to in the past. She wore the red and black armor of a designated Officer, but the designs on it were sleek like a Shieldbearer. Her helmet was a full-face visor, a red that oddly contrasted with her major psionic color. She lifted a magnetic battle rifle, leveling it at Atka in particular. “Commander Ipiktok of XCOM, I will give you one chance to surrender,” she spoke in a glacial tone, her voice distorted slightly by the external speakers it came out of through the helmet.

“Major Blukersey…” Atka returned, quickly glancing between her squadmates. Get ready to scramble for cover, she warned them psionically. Yakone, draw fire from Blukersey and the Shieldbearer while Samara distracts the other two in addition to a flashburst. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m going to have to decline your offer.”

This refusal was punctuated by a bright light, Samara activating her flashburst in accordance with her orders. The sudden radiance blinded all four of the Advent Task Force members, though Aegis had the sensibility to throw up a telekinetic field around them to slow incoming attacks. Yakone opened fire on her as she moved towards Blukersey in particular. The rest of the squad found cover behind wrecked anti-air batteries, Stacie having to gun down another worker drone that showed it’s face.

“Great, so we have to fight some of ADVENT’s finest while also making sure those things don’t spoil our extraction. I’m all for getting out of her asap if you don’t mind, Firebrand!”

“On my way. Hold on for a minute, and make sure those batteries are down when I arrive or I’m going to make sure the afterlife is hell for you,” Danielle informed Menace as she started heading back towards the skyscraper, having to keep some distance to avoid being targeted by interceptors.

The first to recover from the flashburst - the woman in black armor - saw Yakone’s slight advance and saw to lend the Advent Major some assistance, taking a step back and moments later letting loose a projectile of poison that expanded into a cloud around the XCOM operative.

Yakone activated her Overdrive, making up for the slight acidic damage to her predator armor and purifying any toxins that got into her respiratory system as she coughed and advanced further to get out of it. “Fucking hybridized bitch,” she spat, surprised when she took battle rifle fire from the Major before she even recovered from the burst of light. ESP, Yakone recalled as she put Blukersey between herself and the other enemies. “Nouja! Wait a minute, it’s me! Yakone!” she called out to her aunt. Major Blukersey’s vision cleared as she looked over the Ranger that had removed her mouthplate and lifted her visor to show her face.

“Is she talking to you, Major?” Aegis questioned in confusion as she planted down her shield - which she wrapped in a telekinetic bubble as it took fire from one of the other XCOM soldiers.

“If she is, she must have mistaken me for someone else.” Nigella lifted a hand, which was surrounded in a rapidly-spinning blue-green glow. “You have made a fatal mistake,” she informed Yakone.

Did she say… Nouja? Atka thought in surprise. “Yakone, don’t just stand there!”

“Come on, don’t you recog-” Yakone started to say, before her eyes widened with an expression of agony and she coughed up a significant amount of blood. The Marauding Crusader had to devote all her focus onto her biokinesis to fend off the biokinetic grip the Major had around her heart. Blukersey had very nearly crushed it before Yakone had a chance to respond to the internal attack. Why…?

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, and Taxor_the_First: “Operation Ebon Colossus, Part 13”

“Yakone!” Leon yelled, foregoing his own safety to rush out of the cover he found, his feet moving before his brain. A bullet whizzed past his head as the sniper who knelt down turned his aim to the Grenadier, and despite the immediate danger, he didn’t retreat.

W-What are you doing!? You are going to get killed! A child-like voice said urgently in the back of his head, startled greatly by being in a combat situation.

I need to get to her, or she is going to die. Can you do anything to help out here!? Leon asked in his mind.

Don’t yell at me! Psyma said in a quivering voice, then suddenly, there was another crack of the sniper’s rifle. Lean back!

Without giving much thought to the order, Leon did just that and the bullet whizzed in front of Leon’s helmet this time, a feat that even gave the sniper who shot a bit of pause. How did you calculate that so fast?

Oh… it is sort of… what I am good at. My processes are put into overhaul and I can think faster than a normal human would be able to do and put their thoughts into action. It was a simple matter of calculating trajectory and me telling you how to avoid it. Psyma explained, giving another order and Leon avoided another deadly shot.

Keep it up little buddy. “Give me some covering fire! I need to pull Yakone out of there!” Leon yelled over the comms.

Swearing, Samuel swapped his suppressive fire from the green-skinned woman to the sniper. “Make it quick!” he shouted as Samara took position beside him, making it harder for the enemy to dislodge him. “These people are doing a much better job of not getting shot than any other ADVENT I’ve seen.”

“Hm… trying to be crafty, hm?” The green skinned woman asked herself before calling out, “Church, a moment of your time please? Kill that man please.” Moments later, a rather unsavory sight came to be as the woman’s own tongue shot out of her mouth, the elastic muscle wrapping around Samara, not Samuel, pulling her away from cover as the man named Church turned his aim from Leon to Samuel, letting loose a shot.

When the Juggernaut was in close enough the woman’s arm replaced her tongue around the woman’s neck, her enhanced muscles keeping her in a headlock. “You’re mine.”

As the shot went off, Samuel was knocked flat onto the ground by Sparks before the Gremlin flew over to Church, letting loose a burst of electricity onto him to keep him busy while Samuel recovered from the necessary smackdown that prevented the sniper round drilling into him. At the same time, Olivia lifted her bolt caster, not aiming to hit the slippery snake directly but aiming to flush the hybrid out of her current position and make her release Samara.

Seeing the danger, the humanoid-looking released Samara begrudgingly, diving away into a roll while she hid from anymore return fire. “Damn tag-teams…”

The Juggernaut attempted to punish the hybrid with a swipe of her shield, but she had already rolled away. Instead, Samara backed away, using her shield as defence against anything the enemy might try to throw at her while she was out of position. Bonnie covered her, taking a few warning shots at any who tried to take advantage.

Meanwhile, Leon didn’t stop his approach towards Yakone, firing at the Major to try at least get her to release his girlfriend. He succeeded, the Stun Officer taking a hit to what appeared to be powered armor based on how well it held up against a few hits from the microgun. With freezing cold dry ice pouring down the damaged portion of her armor, Blukersey negated most of the shredding effects, and lifted a hand. What appeared like frozen thorns formed from it, and Atka’s eyes widened. The Commander stepped forward, firing off an icy helix that make a horrendous screech as it deflected a similar-looking psychokinetic weapon that Blukersey manifested.

Leon didn’t waste any time watching the display between the Commander and the Major, grabbing Yakone and lifting her with a bit of effort, doing it in one swift motion. “Still alive?” He asked the woman.

Yakone took several deep breaths, squeezing her sternum tightly. “Nearly… crushed my heart… why would she…” the Ranger mumbled, having trouble accepting that her aunt had shown zero hesitation in attempting to murder her.

Alan scowled, bringing his head away from the scope. “No good,” he declared. “I can’t guarantee I won’t hit the Commander.”

“Then turn your efforts elsewhere,” Arthur instructed, narrowly avoiding a shot from the sniper. “For example, I am trapped behind this and could probably use some assistance.”

Merlux briefly appeared beside Stacie. “If I might offer my assistance… draw the fire. I will ensure you are not hit.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Stacie drew her blitz waveguns, and dashed out from behind cover. She fired off a series of invisible microwaves in Church’s direction. “Hey asshole, wanna play death tag?”

Church looked towards Stacie and retreated to a better position behind one of the many air units, taking out his sidearm as he fired on her knowing that a precise shot would not be able to be made under the conditions.

Time seemed to slow down for the Texan Gunslinger’s A.I. as he made the necessary calculations, and then mentally guided Stacie towards a dodge to avoid being hit. “Not bad,” she muttered, firing off a reprisal shot from her revolver at the enemy sniper.

“About to come in hot, Menace 1-5. Back off towards the helipad,” Firebrand informed the XCOM forces.

“Be…” Atka stepped back, crossing her pair of icy helixes as Blukersey’s singular one ground against them, and then narrowly sidestepped a jab from her shockstaff. “...right there…” the Commander growled. “Christine!” Using her second combat protocol, the Specialist electrified the Major… though found part of the attack negated as the shockstaff acted as something of a lightning rod. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Atka complained, trying to use a wall of ice to disengage only for her opponent to hijack the psionic construction and shatter the frozen barrier.

“You will not escape,” Blukersey spoke calmly.

“I’m afraid the good Commander has places to be,” Lucifer said cheerfully as he zipped around behind the Major, poking her with his disruptor cannon. Though the shots were largely ineffective, they did distract her temporarily.

Blukersey spun around, her shockstaff slamming into the Gremlin and nearly causing its propulsion systems to malfunction - the Major having used her ESP to target the otherwise slippery drone. The distraction did finally allow Atka to pull away though. “Lay down as much covering fire as you can!” she ordered, having the two gunners send some heavy suppression the way of the enemy along with more light continuous fire from Samuel. “Everyone else, get into the Skyranger!” she ordered as the dropship’s hatch opened. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“Stagger your shots,” Lester barked, rather ineffectually firing with his pistol as they backed towards escape. “Don’t get caught with all of us reloading at once!”

“Aegis!” the Major ordered. “Move up.”

The Shieldbearer lifted her shield, and surrounded herself in a potent telekinetic barrier that seemed to be a combination of a field and shield - soaking up a lot of the fire from the Grenadiers in particular, while Blukersey darted between some of the air units trying to move up again and firing her battle rifle as she did.

Yakone managed to come to her senses, hopping back onto the ground. She considered trying to use Overdrive to counter the battle rifle shots, but the recent memory of having her heart in the Major’s grasp prompted her to just shoot with her PDW to slow down Blukersey.

Atka had a more effective response in mind, reaching for her cable slinger behind her back. “Olivia, fire your secondary weapon to the right, I’ll shoot to the left. Christine, shoot in the middle.” The three unleashed their attacks at relatively the same time - though Christine waited half a second. Seeing the attack coming, Blukersey stood still - only to be hit by a carbine shot in the chest from Christine. Nigella stepped back, not injured but staggered enough to allow the XCOM squad to start pouring into their dropship.

Despite her last-ditch effort, the Major’s targets were going to escape. “This isn’t over,” she called out, putting away her battle rifle.

“We’ll meet again,” Atka muttered less audibly. If that really is you Nouja… I hope the next time we meet I can save you from whatever hell they’ve put you through.

The two sisters exchanged a brief, mutual stare for different reasons before the Skyranger’s hatch closed up, rendering it fully invisible again as it took off and headed home. “Major, did you get them?” a voice crackled over Nigella’s comms.

“Not this time… but we will one way or another… no matter how long it takes.”

 

[Dahlexpert]

The fallowing is a collaberation between Dhalexpert and Zombiesplitter 53

Having so fun

On board the Avenger,

Luke stood in front of Alexis' room, and knocked on the door. "Hey, Darling, you home? I want to talk to you."

It was around noon, but Alexis had the day off, so as expected, it took a few minutes to answer, and when she did, her hair was messing, the shirt and shorts she slept in wrinkled. She yawned loudly and asked, "What's up, Luke?"

"Well, don't you look messy? Mind if I come in? Or would you like to go back to bed?"

Alexis looked like she was considering the latter, but slowly opened the door wider for him. "Come on in. It's just us."

Luke lifted Alexis up to his height, and entered the room. "You awake yet honey? Or would you rather go back to sleep?"

Alex smiled at him and shook his head. "I've slept enough. Come on. You wanted to talk, and I'm hear to listen. Just nudge me a bit if I start to drift off."

Luke placed her on her bed and sat next to her. "Alright honey, I have question for you." His smile started to fade, and he sighed. "Why have you not been fighting the aliens?"

Alexis tilted her head. "What do you mean? I've been in a few fights, haven't I?"

"Darling, you haven't fought since I think the second mission. I could be wrong, but you have not fought in a good while."

"But... no, I was on the... the first mission... then the one with you, then I... I was on... on the, um..." Alexis lowered her head. "I-it's... complicated."

"Alexis your not scared to go out there and fight are you?" Luke asked out of curiosity.

Alexis smiled, and a low chuckled built up until it was roaring laughter, Alexis holding her sides from laughing too loud.

"Um, darling, you're kinda making me nervous. Did I say something funny?"

"Funny... and cute." Alex rubbed his cheek. "Your concern in that regard is touching. And I know I'm not as tough as you. But I've been on the run all my life. I killed my first alien when I was fifteen. I was determined to fight when I was ten. I faced down the barrel and the fist of an angry muton when I was eight. And I swatted a plasma grenade from me and my sister when I was three with my bare hand. Trust me... I'm not afraid of those bastards, and least not to the degree that I can't fight them."

"Then why are you not fighting I mean, I'm glad you did all that, but why not go out on more missions? I mean, four weeks off this ship, you would have loved it."

Alexis rubbed the back of her neck. "Well... to be honest, I thought at first the Commander was keeping me off them because I got in trouble a while back, but... that didn't seem the case when Chile was up. And... I wanted to go, but... a-a the time... I didn't want to go... i-if you were going..." She hung her head, avoiding eye contact.



Luke rubbed Alexis head and sighed. "Well can't say I blame you. I mean you were still angry at me. Sigh, look honey, I want you to fight again. We need all the help we can get, plus a Green psion is good to have around."

"It isn't just you," Alex said softly. "I... I got out of going to Chile too easily. I think someone is trying to keep me from going out there. And... I think that someone is my father."

Luke sighed. "Of course it is, do you want me to talk to him? Or do you want to?"

Alexis shrugged. "What am I supposed to say? 'Stop worrying about your girl and let me Go out there to possibly be killed'? I don't like it... but I know why he does it. How can I say something when I know it comes from love? I've... already put him through so much..."

"Look Alexis, I get were he's coming from, but come on. You do need to fight. We need all the help we can get. I understand him being worried. But you got me out there, and you see me fight, then there's Yakone. You have all us around."

Despite her usual bravado, Alex looked nervous. "Well... i-if you... wanted to talk to him..."

"Well I could try and talk to him. In the meantime..." Luke pulled Alexis to her bed." I believe, when I was in the hospital, you told me that if didn't get hurt on my last mission, I would get a reward. Well I wasn't hurt at all."

Alexis laughed and rolled to the side so she sat on his waist. "Oh? Is that so? Not even a little? No... abrasions? No scrapes? No festering plasma holes in your chest?"

"I don't know doc. You could examine me check to see."

Alexis rubbed her chin. "You're right. You should take your shirt off so I can give you a quick examination."

Luke chuckled and took off his shirt and tee. "You know, I remember when you were so nervous, looking at me with no shirt on. That used to be so fun.”

"Oh?" Alexis ran a hand across his bare chest slowly. "I hope I don't have to be nervous for you to get excited, Luke."

"Well you're doing a good job of that. I won’t lie darling, you're getting better at seduction. I actually want to see were this goes.”

Alexis' smile widened. "Well... I don't see any fresh wounds. And I did promise you a reward. So... what do you want, Luke?"

"You sure you want me to decide this? I mean, think of all the dirty things I can do to you."

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 2

Alexis chuckled, and placed her head to his chest, listening to his heart beat. "It is your reward. It wouldn't make much sense of I picked. You might be disappointed."

"Hmm... my reward, what do I want? I want to make you feel good, darling."

Alexis shrugged. "If that's what you want. But no complaining that you want something else later, okay?"

"Very well, but how about this. If you ever go out again, and you don't get hurt, I can reward you."

Alexis nodded. "Okay." She slipped off his waste. "Soooo... what should I do?"

"Sigh... what to do. I could lift up your shirt and fondle you again. Or any other sexual acts I can think of. Oh, what to do."

Alexis pouted. "You're teasing me now."

"Who said I'm teasing." Luke pulled Alexis close so she was eye level with him and started to kiss her." Heh, I'm not going to lie I did miss that."

Alex kissed him back. "I missed this too. I'm happy we can be together again."

"I am too. Now if I can just lift this shirt up..." Luke said while slowly lifting Alexis shirt.

Alexis didn't stop him, but instead rose her arms to assist him. Underneath, she had on a thin bra meant only for support that left little to the imagination.

"Well look at you, being just as naughty as I am. I'm shocked."

"Sh-shut up!" Alexis' face flushed. "I-I'm not naughty, I'm just... playing along is all..."

"Uh huh, whatever you say honey." Luke gently put Alexis on her bed and just looked at her. "Heh, you know, I never do take the time to just look at you honey. I have to admit, you are downright gorgeous looking like this."

Alexis looked away, stuttering a bit. "You... thank you... L-Luke. You... you're not half bad... yourself."

Luke leaned down and kissed Alexis' cheek. "Feeling good yet, because I could go much further."

Alexis nodded. "I... want you to go further."

Luke stared at her. "You sure Alexis? Because I could do this." Luke moved his hand toward Alexis crotch, but stopped and sighed. "Look Alexis, I don't want to make you feel like I'm forcing you here. So I ask again, are you sure you want me to go further?"

Alexis eyes lowered as she thought. After a minute, she looked into his eyes again and said, "I... I know if I get uncomfortable, I can trust you to stop. So... yes. Please, continue."

Luke smiles at Alexis and kiss her forehead. “Thanks for the trust darling."

Alexis smiled back. "I think you've earned it."

"Yeah. Right, now for the fun part." Luke took off Alexis shorts and started to rub her legs, as if he was trying to hold back a bit. Luke lightly gulped and said to Alexis, "You ready darling?"

Alexis nodded nervously. "I'm ready... I-I think. Just... you know. First time with a guy."

"I'm not taking your virginity just yet, just making you feel good." Luke started to kiss Alexis, he moved his hand to her crotch and put his fingers inside her. He uses his other hand to message Alexis breast.It's been awhile since I did this, I have to keep myself in check.

Alexis tensed up a bit, goosebumps spreading across her body. She had never been touched in such a way, even by herself. She had never had the need. Her breathing hastened, and she closed her eyes, pushing aside her apprehension and simply trying to enjoy herself.

Alright, keep calm Luke. Try and stay calm.Luke stopped kissing Alexis and started to Lick Alexis lower area, slowly putting his tongue in her.

Alexis jumped a bit, sparks of energy shooting up her spine. "L-Luke... I-I... dirty, I..."

Luke stopped and looked up at Alexis. “You want me to stop honey?"

"Um... no. I'm just... it feels good. I just... is it dirty?"

"No, and I'm glad that you’re feeling good honey. Now I will make you feel even better." Luke put two fingers into her and started to lick her faster.

Alexis held the bed sheets tightly, arcing her back lightly. "Feels... really... good. Feels... strange..."

Alexis, just give in. Just embrace this. You don't have to hold back.Luke stopped licking Alexis and put his thumb were his tongue was and started to lick Alexis' breast.Just a little longer darling. Then I will stop.

Alexis breathing got faster and faster. After a minute, sweat rolling down her forehead, her toes clenching, she said, "Luke... s-something... almost... Luke..." She squeezed her eyes shut and lifted her hips as an orgasm, her first, thundered through her body. It lasted a good half a minute before she finally collapsed on the bed, panting heavily.

Luke took his finger out of Alexis, and just looked at her.Well I might have gone a little far, but I did say I wanted her to feel good. She looks satisfied.Luke laid next to her and embraced her. "You still with me darling? Your still sane aren't you?" Luke said jokingly.

Alexis slowly nodded, and smiled at him, looking sleepy. "That... felt awesome. You good at that... or did it just feel that way because you're the first," Alexis teased back.

"Well it did add to it, but like I said, I wanted you to feel good. I'm glad I did taht. Truth be told I thought you were going to feel unconformable the hole time."

Alexis frowned. "I did a little at first. But I... I tried to just relax and get into it. And I'm glad I did." She started to say something more, put fell silent at the sound of movement outside the door. "I didn't lock it," she whispered.

"This seems to always happen, but at least we had fun first." Luke pulled the cover on top of them, telling Alexis to get dressed.”

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 3

The door opened a few moments later, and they heard Jenn's voice say, "Alexis? What are you doing? Are you... is someone under there with you?"

"Um... maybe?" Alexis answered.

Luke thinking to himself.Damn it women, lie! I don't know what you're dad's going to do to me."

"I'm... sharing a secret plan with Yakone," Alex said. "It's a surprise for you and dad. Go away before you ruin it!"

Jennifer scoffed. "Okay, geez. Don't get your panties in a bunch." She grabbed something off the dresser. "I was just picking up my data pad. Have fun. I won't tell Luke you were doing weird things under a blanket with another girl.

After a minute, they could hear the sound of the door opening, then closing again. "Do you think she bought it?" Alex asked.

Luke came out of the blankets covered in sweat. "It's hot under there, but it seems like it." He sighed. "That was close. I can't imagine what your dad would do if he saw you pretty much naked and me under the sheets."

Jennifer cleared her throat, leaning against the door. "He would probably try to throw you out of an air lock... in flight."

"Ah, Je....Jenn! I thought you left, why are you back here?" Luke looked at Alexis. "Um, I can explain?"

Alexis quickly ducked under the covers again to finish getting dressed.

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Are you really going to insult me by lying to me again. It is bad enough you pretended to be Yakone, hard when I saw her ten minutes ago on the other side of the ship."

"Ha ha, this is a big misunderstanding, Jen. I'm just giving Alexis some company. Some... very good company."

"I bet you are." Jennifer smiled. "I'm not going to tell dad if you're worried about that. I love him, but he is a bit too protective. Best wait until things aren't as tense to say anything. For now, your secret is safe with me."

"Thanks Jenn. I owe you one, or you can call this even for the event in the gym." Luke said smiling to Jennifer.

"What 'event' in the gym?" Alexis asked, now dressed, or at least back in her sleeping ware.

"N-nothing!" Jennifer laughed nervously. "I-I... he just... helped me with my... diet and excersice routine. Right, Luke?"

"Yeah, I fed her, nothing much. I was just helping her with her workout and her diet, which she did eat the food I made for her."

Alexis nodded in approval, and Jennifer opened the door. "I'll leave for real now. Just remember to lock the door from now on, and whatever you two do, only do it on Alex's bed, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it, don't you worry. I like you enough to not do that to you Jenn."

Jenn quickly winked at her sister and stepped out. Alex leaned against Luke and said, "Hey... wanna have sex on my sister's bed?"

"Are you actually asking me to take your virginity? Because I have no problem doing that. But not on your sisters bed."

Alexis poked him in the side. "I was just joking. One step at a time. Though... this was fun."

"I bet it was for you. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Luke put his arm around Alexis and brought her closer to him." It's a shame you were joking, because I won't lie, it's been really hard to hold myself back from doing that to you."

Alex frowned. "I'msorry. I know it's hard. And probably not what you expected. Most people think because of my more wild nature, which I got from my mother, I'd also be wild in... that regard. But I'm not the one who got that from my mother. Disappointed?"

"Alexis I'm not disappointed. I love you for you. Even though I made you feel extremely good, I don't mind waiting a little longer. So now the question is, what are you going to do if you go on a mission and not get hurt. What are you going to do to me?"

Alexis grinned. "Well... I think returning the favor would be in order. Just... don't expect me to be as skilled.

"As long as you don't bite me, then I'm fine. Now then, I could leave you alone. Or do you want me to stay with you until you wake up again? Or I could make you feel good again?" Luke said grinning at Alexis.

Goosebumps of anticipation rolled over Alexis again, but she reluctantly shook her head. "Dad should be around any time now to wake me up. You better take off before that."

"Aw that almost makes me want to do it more. But yeah, I don't want your dad angry at me." Luke got out of the bed and put in his shirt. He turned to Alexis and kissed her. “Guess I'll see you around darling, it's a shame I have to but your dad and all. At least he won't suspect anything."

As he opened the door, Alexis quickly said, "I... I love you, Luke. I... wanted to remind you of that."

"I know you do, you don't have to remind me. Now go back to sleep Alexis, I'll check up on you later."

Alexis nodded, curling back up in bed and closing her eyes.

Luke closed the door and breathed a sigh of relief. "Heh, life is funny. A few years ago, I was moving from place to place, not really having a home. Now I'm on an amazing ship with people that have my back, and a woman that I actually love and want to protect." Luke put his hands over his cheats, and felt his heart beating." Sigh, love huh? It feels good to fight and come back to someone that cares for you."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Harsh Reality

With a slight grunt, Morrigan pulled on Alex's arm and shifted her weight. The violet haired woman flew over Morrigan's shoulder and landed on the mat with an audible "OOF!" She simply stared up at the ceiling in surprise as Morrigan offered a hand. "You okay?"

"I think you bruised my ego," Alexis stated, taking her hand and climbing to her feet. "When did you start to get so badass?"

Morrigan laughed. "Remember, I've been training with Ayame, Yakone, and Lilith, the latter of which is like fighting a Muton. It stands to reason I would get at least a little better." She sat on a side bench and popped open a bottle of water. As she drank, Alexis sat next to her and held her arms out. Morrigan could feel energy returning to her muscles. "What are you doing?"

"Healing any tears or strain to your muscles," Alexis answered.

Morrigan smirked. "I believe you are the one who got the worst of our little exchange. Besides, you'll tire yourself out healing your opponent."

Alexis shook her head. "That's fine. Call it endurance training. I figure the more I use my powers, the more I push myself, they stronger they'll be when I recover. I need to get stronger. Need to be able to heal better."

Morrigan shrugged. "I hear you. It has been a while since you gained a new power. You're slacking off a bit too much. Gonna fall behind."

Alexis scoffed. "For your information..." she started, but fell silent.

"For my information... what?" When Alex didn't respond, Morrigan turned to her and smiled. "You have a new power and haven't told me!? Come on! Show it to me. Pleeeeease."

Alexis frowned, and held up her hand. Morrigan felt a slight breeze around her head, but nothing else. "Impressed?" Alex asked flatly.

"I don't... know what you did," Morrigan admitted.

Alexis' shoulder slumped. "Yeah, it... took me a while to figure out what I was even doing myself. I can... control oxygen. Increase it, manipulate it to give someone a boost. I can also manipulate water vapor..." She held up her other hand, and the vapor in the air formed into a small smoke cloud over it. "I think I can control smoke from our smoke grenades... maybe the offensive grenades too..."

"And..." Morrigan said, but Alex remained silent, shooing the cloud away. Morrigan felt like laughing, but the sad look on Alex's face made her hold back. "You can't... remove oxygen or destroy it?" Alex shook her head. "Make deadly gases and control them?" Alex shook her head again. "You can't...?"

"No, no, no." Alexis lifted her legs up. "The only think I can create is oxygen and gaseous water. It is... soooo lame! It is the weakest power ever! I finally get a third ability, and all I can do is give someone an oxygen boost so they can run a little longer, which has never been a problem, make smoke, which we can already do, and..." She scoffed. "I can't do anything that a piece of equipment we have or these damn implants can't do better!"

Morrigan placed a hand on her shoulder. "Well... with this power, but..."

"No, with everything!" Alex snapped. "My biokinesis is pointless with medsprays, my psi inspiration can be put down by combat stims, and... my shooting can be out done by every other soldier here. I'm so useless! A brand new power, and it is me in a nutshell; weak and pointless. Something most people would ignore..."

Morrigan wrapped her arm around Alexis' shoulder. "Stop talking like that. What would Yakone think if she heard this?"

Alex had her face buried against her legs, but the cracking in her voice said she was crying. "You know... Yakone is so much better then me in every way. She is my best friend, and yet I can't help but feel jealous. Shameful, I know. But look at her powers. It was like... some higher being saw we were both green psions, took the possible powers, have her the cool ones and me the leftovers. And Luke can make small explosions. We got a guy that can read minds. Yakone... she doesn't need me... no one does..."

Morrigan only held her tighter. "I... need you. I have no powers, remember. There are so many things I need to do, and I need you to help me. Like... that woman. Blukersey. The one that tried to kill Yakone. I don't think I could stand against that heart crusher attack."

Alexis chuckled grimly. "And you think I can save you like Yakone saved herself?"

"Maybe. You never know. Look... I told you what she did to me. How she tortured me. Talked down to me. Left me in there to be tortured more. I need someone like you to help me with my revenge." Morrigan thought for a second. "Alexis... what is Nouja?"

Alex looked up suddenly, and wiped her eyes. "What? Why... do you ask?"

"You must not have had a chance to watch the cams for the mission. In Yakone's, she calls Blukersey 'Nouja' right before Blukersey nearly killed her."

"What?" Alexis eyes darted around in shock, a million thoughts running through her head.

"Yeah. I thought I heard you say it the other day. I must have been mistaken." Morrigan sighed. "Must have been, like... an insult, or a taunt. Guess she was trying to get her attention." She shrugged. "Won't matter when Blukersey is dead, right?"

Alexis slowly stood up. "I, um... I-I'm kinda tired, Morrigan. Gonna... go relax a little."

Morrigan frowned. "Is this because you're depressed. I want to talk to you. Cheer you up."

Alex slowly shook her head. "No, really. You... you did a little. It is nice to hear someone finds me useful..." She gave a fake smile. "Continue again tomorrow?"

Morrigan smiled back. "You got it."

Alexis slowly walked out until she was out of the doorway, then started sprinting down the hall. "Nouja... alive?! No... it can't be... has to be a mistake." She ran even faster, heading to watch Yakone's mission footage herself.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Stolen Recollection” – Atka Ipiktok & Yakone Ipiktok

0846 Hours, September 1st, 2038
En-Route to the Antarctic
Onboard the Avenger
Floor 6, Central Block
Command Quarters

Atka withdrew her hand from the roughly egg-shaped device lying on the table in front of her, letting out a sigh. “So they really did steal her memories,” the Inuit woman spoke with a terribly solemn tone. There was a genuine sadness in her eyes untainted by rage.

“You were… in there for at least half a minute,” Yakone stated. “Did you go through everything?”

“Not everything. Just…” Atka let out a shuddering breath. “The lies that Nouja made herself believe in order to save us all. I had to know what she had put herself through for my sake. For all of us.” Atka’s eyes watered, and she had to look away from her daughter to let a few tears fall before she wiped them away. “Now more than ever I understand the weight of her sacrifice. If she hadn’t done what she did, we’d all have ended up like…”

Yakone’s fist slammed down on the table, jarring the memory repository. “Damn them all!” the Marauding Crusader cried out. Even after letting out some of her uncontrollable rage, Yakone still trembled. “I already hated the aliens for killing people I cared about, but to know that one of those damn Sectoids brainwashed Aunt Nouja…” A few sparks of emerald green flew off her clenched fists.

“Yakone,” Atka spoke in warning. “Calm down.”

“How the fuck do you expect me to be calm after finding out they took her, made her into this… this monster that would kill any of us without hesitation!” Yakone screamed, seething.

“Find a way. You’re the one that wanted to figure out precisely what happened, and I can’t help you do that if you break the device,” Atka responded, crossing her arms – standing off against Yakone until her daughter’s anger became simmering rather than surface-level fury.

Slowly, gradually, the Ranger’s anger did lower beneath the boiling point as she stared down her mother. Yakone let out an impotent sigh. “Alright. I’m not angry with you.”

“I know that.” Atka glanced at the other person in the room, who had been watching the exchange with a tense posture and worried eyes.

Yakone’s gaze followed her Commander’s, and she let her shoulders drop. “Sorry, Ursula.”

The psionic intelligence gatherer merely nodded, letting out a breath of relief. Hollins turned her laptop around, showing the pair of women a picture of a device that looked similar to the one on the table – if colored an obsidian hue and looking more less streamlined and more rough in design. “An anonymous tip from a cell in Europe reports that they’ve seen something like this before. They mention in a description of the surrounding room that it was hooked up to a cord that connected to a probe designed to mesh with the brain. There was surgical equipment in the room as well.”

While Yakone did her best to not have another outburst, Atka leaned back, thinking. “I… might have an hypothesis as to why Nouja doesn’t recall her own name, as well as Yakone. Going off the context provided, it would appear that the memory repository is designed for the transfer of someone’s memories… not as a backup of them.”

“You’re saying that her experiences were all drained out and placed into… this?” Yakone asked in outraged disbelief, gesturing sharply towards the ovular storage unit.

“It would seem that way.”

“Bastards,” Yakone muttered. “Soulless fucking bastards!” She rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “That… would mean there’s a chance we can restore those memories, right?”

“If we had the proper equipment and understanding of the device, possibly,” Ursula answered, encouragingly but also cautiously. “We’d need to have the siblings study it first, and they’re still busy getting the psi labs up and running.”

“We can wait,” Atka responded with a shake of her head. “I’m not entirely sure we’re up to another fight with Major Blukersey at the moment,” she spoke. That person they turned her into isn’t Nouja, Atka had decided. I doubt they’ve given her any choice in role they’ve made her fulfill. “In addition, I’d rather not push the Lachepelles too hard right now. I’m already immensely grateful to them for working as hard as they have after we rescued them from the blacksite.”

Yakone seized up as if to protest, but helplessly let the tension flow out again as she quickly realized there really was nothing she could for her aunt right now. “Great… so we just have to sit on our hands while she’s forced to kill others on the whimsy of some Sectoid manipulator.”

Ursula held up her hands. “I-I’m not sure where you’re getting those ideas from, Yakone. I’m more inclined to believe from your description of the final memory that this was the doing of an Elder. Someone…” Ursula hesitated.

“Someone you can make pay for what they did,” Atka finished for her.

Yakone gave her mother the ghost of a grim smile. “That’s something I can look forward to, at least.”

“Regardless,” Ursula continued – slowly at first, “the total manner in which her memories would wiped would have had an effect on her personality… but consider something. The gaps had to be filled in. I’m willing to guess that she was fed fake memories by the Declension that removed to them – made to believe things that she otherwise would never have. I think it’s unlikely that the Nouja you know could be held responsible for her actions.” Ursula looked away with a melancholy expression, her eyes downcast. “Though… that will mean that saving her will require an expert application of neural biokinetics that may prove a challenge even for Doctor C-B.”

“Chandra can do it,” Yakone insisted, unwilling to let herself believe anything else. “I have faith in her.” Trying to push away any thoughts of doubt, she questioned, “where did you get the idea to call the Elders ‘Declensions’?”

Ursula smiled sheepishly. “I just… saw it being used by some people on the Stygnet. It means a condition of decline or moral deterioration… it seemed to fit considering the experimentation and other ways they treat their subjects."

“I’ll have to spread that around the ship,” Yakone responded, smiling a bit more genuinely. “Anything to made them look less godly in the eyes of our crew. People are too afraid of them.”

“Caution isn’t a bad idea… I’m not sure I could beat that arrogant Zemsis if we faced him again soon. Certainly not alone, but even with a full squad…” Atka shook her head. “We’ll get there. The progress we’re making will see to it; no one is better qualified to take on the El-” Atka paused, and then sanctimoniously smirked. “the Declensions than XCOM. No one else stands a chance. We just need to get the truth out there, wake the general public up to their atrocities… and then it’ll be open season on ADVENT’s alien masters.”

“And by then, we’ll be able to save Nouja.” Yakone placed a hand on the table – not much more gently than she had earlier – and stood up, stretching. “I’m going to go take a shower, then it’s back to helping Tygan with the magnetic weapons. We’re almost done with those puppies.” She gave Atka and Ursula a full smile, seeming a little forced considering what she’d learned this morning. “I’ll see you around. Thanks for the help.” With that, Yakone departed from the room.

After a few seconds of silence ticked away, Ursula slowly turned to look at Atka. “She… didn’t take that well, did she?”

Atka shook her head. “No… no she didn’t. I just hope that façade doesn’t end up biting her in the ass.” Dammit, Yakone… you’re allowed to be upset… you don’t have to hide it from everyone. You know I care now, don’t you? The Commander sighed. “Let’s… get back to work, Hollins.”

“Yes sir.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Magnet Guns” – Robert Tygan

1334 Hours, September 2nd, 2038
Ice-covered Thurston Island
Onboard the Avenger
Floor 6, Central Block
Command Quarters

“Seshat,” the Chief Scientist of XCOM called out to the ship’s A.I.

“Yes, doctor?”

“Are the heaters on?” Tygan questioned. The science labs were a little chilly, especially on the wide catwalks where auxiliary research stations were placed – the area where he currently stood.

“No. I estimated that the mild heat radiating off the Avenger’s power core would be enough to provide workable conditions.”

“Workable, perhaps, but not pleasant. Turn the heaters on, please,” Robert insisted, shuddering a little. “Aim for seventy degrees.”

“Understood.” The air began to gradually heat up a little, enough so that Tygan didn’t feel the need to go grab a coat.

“It is little surprise no other Resistance cell operates outside the confines of the cities here,” Tygan mused. “Begin recording.” Robert walked over to the table, picking up a rifle that was similar in design to the weaponry ADVENT used, with the exception that it lacked the sleek black exterior the Coalition weapons had. Instead, it had white plating only where needed, looking less aesthetically pleasing but being more in line with the way conventional weapons had been designed. “Doctor R. Tygan, final entry on magnetic weaponry,” the scientist announced for the cameras.

“My first endeavor required me to delve more deeply into the science behind electromagnetism and how it was theorized to be applied to weapons before the war,” Tygan began, going over the gun in his hands. “Initially, the basic ‘mag’ designs that I was presented with were confusing. The reason behind this lies in the fact that humanity defined magnetic weapons into two categories: coilguns and railguns. Coilguns accelerate projectiles along a number of electromagnetic coils, while railguns use a set of parallel conductors to launch projectiles.”

Robert shook his head. “But the basic rifles that ADVENT uses followed neither of these formulas. At first, I thought that perhaps they had concealed the inner workings with the exterior plating… but on further inspection the sleek black design is meant to hide the self-destruct mechanisms preventing enemies from firing stolen weapons. If the Resistance is to stand a chance in a more open conflict, they will need to be able to bypass this failsafe… but I digress. That is a problem for another day.”

Clearing his throat, Tygan got back on point. “After careful analysis, I have discovered how this third version of electromagnetic accelerator firearms works, which has been dubbed by the staff as a shorthand ‘mag’, referencing it’s shockingly simplistic mechanism.” The Chief Scientist disassembled the rifle’s barrel, revealing that in the space where bullets were chambered before firing there was a single, large magnet. “An easily mass-producible weapon, the ‘Mag Rifle’ relies on a solitary but powerful electromagnetic to launch projectiles with far more strength and further distances than conventional ballistic weapons. This elementary design also has an added benefit of being cheaper to producer than the other two magnetic variants, as it requires fewer raw materials and consumes less power. Hybrid alloy frames and an upgraded version of the power cores we use for our laser weapons sufficed for construction needs.”

Tygan took a breath. “The weapons that follow this design include a mag pistol, both a sidearm and full version of a magnetic shotgun dubbed the ‘Shortened Shard Gun’ and ‘Shard Gun’, a Mag Carbine, Rifle, and PDW, and finally a ‘Heavy’ Mag Rifle which is essentially a battle rifle.”

That said, he walked over to his next exhibit. “The other designs proved easier to work with, as all I needed to do was apply existing theories and weapon designs from prewar cannons to smaller weapons. Due to increased strength of the railguns and coilguns, I have recommended Shen build these out of more pure alien alloys, and they will need to be powered by elerium cores we have gathered. This does slightly limit production, but should not cause a shortage provided we do not lose armaments in the field.” Picking up a weapon with a barrel that looked like it was framed with scaffolding, Tygan explained a key difference between the other two types of weapons.

“From experimental testing, we have determined that coilguns or ‘gauss guns’ as some prefer to call them are more suited to rapid-fire roles. The reason for this is that with multiple coils, bursts can be fired in quicker succession without a risk of projectiles colliding with one another in the interior. Coils also allow for more than one round to be fired at once due to a wider circumference without power loss, as would be the case for a rail accelerator. Thusly, the gauss guns come in the form of a miniaturized machinegun called the Gauss Autopistol and a similarly designed Gauss SMG, the larger Gauss LMG and HMG, a new minigun variant simply dubbed the ‘Coilgun’, and the Blitz Coilers to replace the wave version of the secondary sidearms.”

Next, the chief went over to a third table which had a long, sleek-barreled rifle at it.

“As for the railguns, they are more suited to a weapon rule focused on armor penetration and focused damage. They are capable of guiding larger projectiles than coilguns are, and can more reliably guide bullets through a barrel – suiting them to weapons that are best used in an accurate fashion. They can also do this over a longer distance with in a barrel, which directly translates to higher velocities and thus increased penetrating power. The weapons falling into this category include the Rail Revolver, Rail Strike Rifle – a DMR role –Rail Sniper Rifle, Rail Wrecker Rifle – an AMR role – and the Rail Anti-Tank Cannon, or Rail ATC. The last weapon in particular is a completely unique design. It is a triple-barreled firearm designed to fill a role similar to an anti-tank rifle while being more similar to the other primary weapon Grenadiers use.”

Tygan took a deep breath this time. “The three other developments we have made in line with the main line of magnetic weapons are the Shard Grenade, Polarity Rifle, and Electromagnetic Caster, or EM Caster for short.” He went over to the fourth and last table which had the trio present. “All three operate on a similar principle to ‘mag’ weapons, but are enhanced or otherwise altered subsets. The shard grenade has an electromagnet at the center, which causes the shrapnel to be violently forced outwards when it explodes. It functions as an antipersonnel grenade.”

Picking up the Polarity Rifle, Tygan pointed out that it lacked an opening on the barrel. “The Polarity Rifle is the next generation of Arc Rifle, capable of dealing electric damage identical to its predecessor while also stripping off chunks of armor that can be magnetized. Because it lacks the physical damage the electrolaser deals, either weapon is still a valid choice depending on the role an Ambusher wishes to use the weapon for.”

Then Tygan came across the new bolt caster. “And in regards to Ambushers, the Electromagnetic Caster functions off a sort of polarity, but instead of using identical charges like the other weapon I just mentioned to pull armor apart, it uses opposite charges that attract one another to create a unified magnetic pulse strong enough to launch the massive projectile it mounts.” Stepping back from the table, Tygan gave a nod to the camera. “Production will begin as soon as possible. I believe XCOM has just leveled the playing field with ADVENT, and with some proper research into Elerium and the mechanisms of the Coalition’s own magnetic weaponry we can extend our newfound power to the rest of the Resistance.”

 

[Dahlexpert]

New look with a new ability


Luke goes to the mirror after taking a long shower, and sees that he grew a beard and his hair grew a bit longer. His hair grew to the back of his neck, Luke grebes a razor and decided to trim his beard. Luke trimmed his beard to where he had a stubble beard, keeping a little bit of it because he doesn’t want a clean shave. Luke looks at his hair and decides to keep the look. “No need to cut my hair, truth be told I kinda like it.” Luke leaves the showers and heads back to his room and got dressed.

Luke head to the top of the Avenger to train with his powers.” Alright, were to start today? Hum I guess I start with the basic again.” Luke loaded a pitching machine with rubber balls, and started the Machine. The machine launched balls at Luke, Luke used his Pyrokinesis to set them on fire actually aiming at the balls and setting them on fire. “Alright aim is still good, man I wish I could use the holo room. But if I use my powers inside the Avenger, ugh its best I don’t think about it.”


“Alright then moving on to the other, well my fire cracker ability I can’t really practice with.” Luke starts to think about what other ability he can work on, Luke shoulders slump when he thinks about what other powers he can work on. Luke sighs out of annoyance.


“Alright, it’s been awhile since I did this. Sigh well it’s been awhile since I been knocked on my ass, so why not give it a shot.”

“Luke goes to the other side of the ship, looking for a target for his psi lance. “Alright how about that box, sigh alright then let’s get this over with.” Luke arms started to glow red as he aimed at the box, Luke extended his arm and to his surprise a bolt of energy came out and destroyed the box. “What the hell, I.. I actually fired it, Ok maybe it was a fluke.” Luke charged psi lance again and it fired it at another box and destroying it.”

“Wait I... I actually fired it, I finally able to fire it!” Luke jumped in the air and clapped his hands in excitement. Luke continued to fire psi Lance to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.


Luke stopped practicing with his powers and sat down on the ground. “How, How am I able to use psi lance now? I did nothing different. Same stance, same charge, I didn’t change anything.” Luke starts to think about it. “Hum maybe this has something to do with Alexis, I mean I’m the happiest I ever been, and after yesterday when Alexis said she trust me again. Maybe that’s it, maybe because I’m not distracted by my past anymore. I told Alexis everything about what I did, so maybe because I don’t feel any guilt and can actually concentrate I was finally able to fire psi lance. Hum so I don’t need to be in a constant rage to learn new powers, I guess being clam helps me to, still the angrier I get the stronger my powers are and the more they drain me. Well I guess I take the good with the bad. Regardless thanks honey, you believing in me and me earning your trust again mad me even stronger then I was.

Now comes the real challenge the other two powers. Sigh those two are going to be hard to work on, I don’t even know where to start or were to begin, I mean what do I practice with metal now Sigh you know what for now let me just enjoy the fact that I know psi lance now and take it one step at a time. Once again thank you darling.