RP XCOM2: Liberation of Earth

[Taxor_the_First]

ZombieSplitter53 and Taxor the First; Familial Pride, Part 1
Aboard the Avenger, Engineering
3:20 PM, October 8th

Lester rubbed his brow with two fingers, the persistence of the man speaking to him evidently getting on the Specialist's nerves. "I told you not to worry," he said again. "We were both rude to each other, we both had valid points, there is absolutely no need for you to beg for forgiveness like a cheating spouse being taken on a guilt trip."

"I'm not 'begging' for forgiveness," Samuel responded, folding his arms. "Just making sure you realize that I went too far and I regret it."

"Noted," Lester said impatiently. "Now, was there anything else, or can I get back to welding?"

The Gremlin fastened to the bench at which Lester had been working chirped up. "I think what Master Lester is saying is, he would like some privacy to work," Lucifer chimed helpfully.

Samuel rolled his eyes. "Alright, whatever," he said, shaking his head and making to leave. "I tried."

Outside Lester's corner of the workshops, the Aerotrooper exhaled. On the plus side, Lester had told him the Commander had replaced him on the active combat roster. And the timing is a pretty good indication of why, he thought miserably, his mind drifting back to the last mission. Alright, enough of that. Keep moving, keep working. We'll get her back one day... if we aren't late again.

"Excuse me." To Samuel's left, one of the engineers walked over to him. She had on baggy overalls and a t-shirt, both her shirt and her face covered in smudges of grease and oil from her work. She looked like one of the soldiers on the active roaster. "Your name is Sammy, right?"

Caught off guard, the Russian placed a hand on the back of his neck. "Uh... Samuel, y-yeah, that's me. Have we..." He frowned. "... we've met before, haven't we. Dammit. Told myself I'd get better at remembering names. But I do feel like I've seen you before..."

"Likely on the battlefield, though I don't think we have met. I do what I can here, but I prefer alien blood on my hands over grease." She pulled off a glove and offered him a hand. "Morrigan O'Brien. Just call me Morrigan."

Samuel took it and shook it. "Sa- ah, you already know my name. Right. Good to meet you." Pleasantries exchanged, the Aerotrooper assumed a more relaxed stance. "So what's up? If you're trying to chat me up, sorry to disappoint you but I already have someone."

Morrigan smiled. "So do I. No, I was wondering if... I don't know how to put this in a way... you knew someone with a lot of experience... under the alien's control, right?"

The Russian's face blanched. "... knew, yeah. As in past tense." With a sigh, he turned away, wandered a few steps before stopping. "Think I just worked out how you knew my name. You watched the footage from Ashen Arbiter, didn't you? Saw me nearly get the rest of my squad killed..."

Morrigan's eyes lowered. "I... I-I wouldn't go that far. I mean... it isn't like it's easy out there, and I've had a blunder or two that nearly cost someone. I wasn't... trying to be that hard on you."

"Then you're a kind woman," Samuel responded, smiling warmly. And probably not an officer. "Anyway, to answer your question... yeah. That operation I mentioned was to retrieve my adopted father from the... care... of the aliens. So you could say yes, I did know someone with experience being under the aliens control."

"But he didn't make it..." Morrigan quickly through up her hands and shook her head. "Because of the aliens, of course, not anything you or anyone else on the team." She scoffed. "I'm sorry. I have a bad habit of making poor first impressions. I need to take some lessons from my daughter, to be honest..."

"Ah, don't worry about it," Samuel said dismissively. "We all did the best we could, but that wasn't enough. Not going to sit around moaning about not being able to push an immovable object, you know? In the end, only one person pulled that trigger. The blame for my father's death lies with them." He chuckled. "But enough of revenge quests. You said you had a daughter? She with XCOM too?"

"Yes." Morrigan laughed, and rubbed the back of her head. "In a matter of speaking, anyway. She's only thirteen, so the Commander doesn't let her fight or work with dangerous chemicals or heavy equipment, to my relief. But Brigid helps in her own way, mostly by delivering materials and messages across the ship. She a nimble one. No one can beat her in speed moving through the Avenger."

"She's a child?" The Russian blinked, then laughed. "Sorry, not sure why I thought she'd be an adult. If you don't mind me saying, you don't look old enough to have a kid that's all grown up."

"Yeah, well..." Morrigan scratched her chin. "To be honest... when I had her... I was only... fourteen. Strange how things work out, huh?"

Samuel was silent for a moment. "I've got a real gift for picking out awkward things to talk about," he decided, shaking his head. "Well, from your tone I'd say you sound proud of her at least."

"Oh, quite." Morrigan clapped her hands together. "I could go on for hours about how wonderful of a girl she is. She's smart, and clever, and hard working and she has the kindest little heart, and she is the cutest little thing you'll ever meet. I think it is important for a parent to be proud of their child no matter what, but Brigid certainly deserves it."

"No bias at all in saying that?" the Russian asked, though from his expression it was clear he was joking.

Morrigan blushed. "Y-yeah... I guess it is a little one sided..." She cleared her throat. "What about... your father? His name was Isaac, right? I've heard rumors that he was very important for XCOM, but what was he like as a father?"

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Part 2

Samuel considered his response. "He... had a tendency to get a little distracted by his work," he admitted. "And to some people he might have come off as a little too realistic or morbid, even. But he was capable of caring. Open affection was never his thing, true. There was time when I was... ooh, probably fifteen? Still young, anyway. He shot someone that, at the time, I thought he should have spared. I asked him if he had a caring bone in his body, to which he responded by asking me what happened to me when I was five." The Russian lowered his gaze. "He was referring to the night Volgograd was burned by the aliens. The night he found me lying in snow and ash with burns all over my back, and no obligation to lend a hand. But he did so anyway."

Morrigan nodded in understanding. "Life is cruel... and as hard as it is to admit, there aren't a lot of people who would take you in like that. It sounds to me like he had kindness that... maybe he wasn't sure what to do with, considering the life you two must have led. But the way you speak, it sounds to me like he let it seep out every now and then, at least in regards to you."

"He probably gave me the best upbringing I could have gotten after the invasion," Samuel responded, before looking away. "No matter which way you look at it, without him I'd either be dead or a bandit. Or in the Megacities." He shook his head. "At least the recording he left me said they treated him somewhat kindly. Can't say the same for other people that ADVENT's gotten their filthy mitts on over the years..." ... or more recently.

Morrigan was silent for several moments, eerily so. She stared down at the ground, closing her fists tightly. "Yes... they are... usually not very kind. If he was treated well... he was quite fortunate. Most buckle and break under the alien's torture..."

The Russian tilted his head slightly, his expression gaining an element of concern. "That sounded like personal experience," he stated, albeit gently.

Morrigan slowly nodded, the motion almost not noticable. "I... I was imprisoned. They accused me of treachery after years of loyalty, and tortured me relentlessly when I wouldn't admit to what wasn't true. I have the scars on my body to prove it. And they... took something precious from me..." She slowly placed her hand over her lower stomach.

Samuel's face fell. "So that's why your daughter is so important to you," he surmised. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what you went through. Suppose that's why you're here, now? Knowing ADVENT, they wouldn't have just let you go."

"No... they wouldn't. I was rescued by a resistance group. If it wasn't for them, I'd either be an experiment, a prisoner, or dead. When I got the opportunity to join an organization like XCOM, I jumped at the chance." Morrigan smiled softly, though there was little humor in her eyes. "I've found more kindness in strangers then I ever did in my old life. ADVENT betrayed me, the Protectorate betrayed me. Even my husband betrayed me. But I have faith... that XCOM never will."

"Score to settle?" the Russian asked simply.

Morrigan nodded. "Absolutely. They won't get away with what they did to me, and I'll be damned if I'll let them do whatever they want when I have a daughter to raise in this world. I'd image you have a score to settle too."

That brought a chuckle from Samuel. "Heh. Yeah. When I can actually take him, that is-"

He was interrupted as the door to Lester's workshop slammed open. "Can you not loiter outside my space when I explicitly told you to leave?!" the angry occupant demanded. "Do you want to be taken back off the roster?"

"Oh, don't be an asshole," the Russian whined. "I'm having a conversation, is it really such a bad thing that I choose to expand my social horizons?"

"It is when you do it right outside and I'm trying not to weld my own fingers to metal," Lester snapped. He turned his head to Morrigan, as if seeing her for the first time. "And what are you doing? Shouldn't you be working?"

"O-oh! Right! Sorry!" Morrigan bowed her head a bit towards Samuel. "It really was nice to meet you. We should talk again some time. Trade stories. I just... need to get to work before a certain someone draws Dr. Shen's attention."

"And I should get away from here before that certain someone kicks me off the active roster." Samuel glared at his squadmate. "Again."

"You kicked yourself off the first time," Lester noted.

The Russian ignored him. "It was also nice to meet you," he said to Morrigan. "I'll, uh... see you around then." With that, he left. Lester, satisfied that he was finally going to get the relative quiet he wanted, ducked back inside without even a farewell, leaving Morrigan standing alone and a little dazed.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Frostlich1228 & ZombieSplitter53
Something Like a Family
Part One

On Board the Avenger
The Cafeteria
Noon, Oct. 9th, 2038

Ayame slurped up a mouth full of spaghetti, taking a moment to chew and swallow before continuing. "So yeah, I took them all out. Well... all except the Mimic. I hurt him pretty bad but I doubt he died."

Brigid listened to her with bright eyes and a smile. Morrigan shifted uncomfortably, but was at least glad Ayame was leaving out the more graphic details. "What do you think happened to him?" Brigid asked, taking a small bite of her sandwich.

Ayame shrugged. "With any luck, he didn't get his precious promotion and has been stuck doing the same job this whole time."

"Do you think... there are any more good aliens like the ones he killed?" Brigid asked, looking between Ayame and her mother.

Morrigan sighed. "I don't know. I'm sure if there were, ADVENT would hunt them down like the rest."

"Gotta keep up that perfect image," Ayame agreed, but grinned. "Bet it is hard now, though. Oh, what I wouldn't give to see them squirming right now, questioning how they are going to deal with the civil unrest we caused with that message."

"I hope they don't just lie and the people believe..." Brigid looked to the side. "Oh... hello."

Morrigan followed her gaze. "Hey. Marx. What's up?"

The Russian turned his gaze towards the mother, "Morrigan's right... If there ever were any, they're long gone... It's us or them..."

Brigid sulked a little. "Well... that's not very good."

Ayame laughed nervously. "H-hey, Marx. We haven't spoken in a while, have we?" She swallowed nervously, sure she knew what was coming.

"Did Tom tell you I was coming?" He asked.

"Tom? No, I just..." Ayame scratched her chin.

Morrigan cleared her throat and said, "Brigid, why don't we... go see if we can get you some ice cream."

"Um... okay." Brigid stood up and walked away with her mother, giving Ayame a worried look.

Ayame kept her gaze low. "Bet you're... not ery happy with me right now."

"Why would I be upset exactly?" Marx asked simply.

"Because... I lied to you about what I am." Ayame shrugged. "So let me have. You won't be the first one. I know it is hard to accept that I'm some kind of creature, but I'm still me, so... yeah..."

"You can cut it out... I know you've been running with this joke for a while now, but I don't really think it's funny." He smirked slightly, crossing his arms.

"This joke?" Ayame turned in her seat to face him. "What do you mean? I've been telling the truth for the first time. No jokes."

His eyes narrowed, "Really now... I'm starting to get tired of this... I don't like everyone trying to play me for a fool... You can't seriously expect me to believe that you're really a vampire..."

"Wait... that's what has you rattled?" Ayame laughed, and stuffed a large meatball in her mouth. "Is that all? Well it's true my skeptical friend. Believe me. Or would you prefer some proof?"

"I would love to see some..."

Ayame chuckled and patted the seat next to her. "Alright then. Sit down and I will show you."

Marx pulled out the chair and dropped himself into it, laying his arms on the table.

Ayame placed a hand on one of them. "Now, don't freak out, okay? You asked for this. And don't pass out like, um... certain weaker people have been known to do. I'm only going to do enough to show you."

Marx rolled his eyes, but nevertheless mentally prepared himself for whatever she might do.

Ayame closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few moments, Marx could feel the energy in his body diminish, the man quickly feeling fatigued.

The Russian quickly pulled his arm away from the woman, his breathing becoming heavier, "What... The fuck? What was..."

Ayame only smiled, placing her chin against her hand. "That's how I eat. The main way, anyway. I still enjoy a good meal. But my main source of sustenance is the essence, or life energy, of other people."

Marx seemed stunned, his gaze lowered, and a few seconds passed before everything he had seen clicked into place in his mind. He looked back up at her with uncertain eyes, "So, let's say I uh... believe you now... how did this... how did you... I... what are you?"

Ayame sighed, and turned back at her food, idly poking it. "That's something I've been asking myself for over five hundred years; what am I? Am I still human? A monster? Something in between? I am still searching for an answer. I'm not even sure how I came to be, though... I can share the circumstances with you if you're really interested."

"500 years..." He said, exasperated, "Alright then..."

Ayame took a deep breath. "Well... when I was a little girl, I lost my family to a group of bandits. I was found and brought in by the royal family, where I was trained to fight the kind of people that killed my family. I was never officially adopted by the emperor... politics and all... but I grew close to him and his daughter. He was like a second father to me, and the princess... well..." She shook her head. "That's... a whole other story."

"Anyway, the emperor didn't make a lot of friends with the criminal underworld, and his brother wasn't a big fan of being related to the emperor and not the emperor himself. The killed him with an incredibly powerful poison." Ayame held up a finger. "One drop. That was all it took for him to fall into a sickness that killed him in a few days. As for me... well, I was grief stricken. So much that... I let my guard down. And didn't think twice when his scum brother handed me a drink at the funeral..."

Marx seemed like he was only able to follow bits of what she was saying, partly through pure befuddlement and partly due to his lack of knowledge of that time period, "So... this man poisoned you too? But that doesn't really explain the elephant in the room..."

Ayame nodded. "In China... at least back then... there were plenty of tales of the dangers of the angry dead. Vengeful spirits that haunt entire generations. Those who received unclean deaths stalking their killers from beyond the grave. Bodies reanimated by sheer will and rage. When I was poisoned... I didn't receive a single drop. The emperor's brother knew how dangerous I was, and how dead he was if I ever found out the truth. He gave me enough poison to kill a small village. I didn't die right away, though. I laid there, gasping for air, blood flowing from my lips, and my nose, pain in ever single part of my body that left me unable to move. Unable to speak. I had to watch, and listen, as that man told everyone how I killed myself over my grief. I... saw the way he smiled down at me as everything went black, and... I knew exactly why he did it. And I was mad. Rage consumed me. Even... e-even after the world went black... well after I am sure I was dead, I remember being consumed with anger. I couldn't just die. I... I-I couldn't leave this world without taking my revenge! I refused!" She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "So I... I opened my eyes. And I got up. I was dead, but... but I still got up."

"I suppose a hatred can be so great... that even hell cannot contain it's fury..." Marx spoke with a low tone, his view on the woman in front of him changing drastically, more out of respect than fear.

Ayame slowly nodded. "Yeah. Guess so. And I got my revenge pretty quickly. That bastard wasn't going to miss watching my body burn. Killed him, and his guards... with my bare hands." She looked down at her hands, staring at them as though they were covered in blood. "I probably... should have died again there. My purpose was achieved. But... I didn't for some reason. I wasn't sure why. I'm still not sure why. Most people spend their lives fairly content with their place in the world. Me? I don't know... where I belong. Maybe... maybe I don't belong anywhere..."

"Or maybe... you belong everywhere... helping wherever you can and whoever needs it most..." Marx suggested, still acclimatizing to her supernatural story.

"Maybe... but if that's true, I've failed pretty badly. I've done a little here or there, but mostly... I kept to myself. I felt shunned by humans so I... shunned them back. I have more then my fair share of guilt about that, especially when it came to my late participation in this rebellion." Ayame looked up at him with sad eyes. "So... now you know what I am. And... I know you don't care for people who lie and deceive others. I'm afraid that is something I just learned to do naturally." She smiled, but it was a small, sad smile. "When you hit me under suspicion of being a spy... one of the reasons I wasn't really mad was because... you're my friend. And like Yakone and the others, I... I hated lying to you. So I deserved a good punch to the nose. And then some."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Frostlich1228 & ZombieSplitter53
Something Like a Family
Part Two

The name filled him with anger just at the sound of it, "Yakone... I know her too... You two are some of the only people I've opened up to here... and now they've got her..."

Ayame let out a long breath. "It has been a long time since I... I had someone I was this worried about. I try to put on a brave face. Laugh, make jokes, look confident... but inside I'm scared."

"We'll cut through them all to get to her... and even if we don't find her that time... we'll try again... and again... until we know for absolute certain we can't save her..." He responded, his anger building, "If that happens, then at least the rivers of green blood and the piles of eviscerated bodies will show them exactly what happens when we're mad... then we'll finally know if they can feel fear."

Ayame looked up at him. "That was... almost poetic." She rubbed her neck. "I didn't think you would be this upset about this. Sorry I... got you worked up over it. Wasn't my intention."

"I'd say the same no matter who it was, it only makes it worse knowing it's her..." Marx replied, "I suppose we are all a kind of family now... and family is something that matters to all of us."

Ayame nodded. "Am... I... part of that... family?" she asked quietly.

"We all keep secrets... they aren't all as crazy as that... but yeah, I'd say you are..." The Ranger smiled.

Ayame smiled back. "Does that mean you believe me now?"

"I sat here and listened to your story didn't I?" He smirked.

"You did." Ayame say back a little. "You know... I've never been in a situation like this. Where do many people know what I am and... accept me. It feels kinda... nice."

"Well, they've gotten to know you." Marx stated.

"And that's something new for me too." Ayame grinned. "I gotta be honest with you. I figured you would be the hardest to get over this little... hump with. I'm glad you were this open minded. You mention Tom before. Did the two of you have a talk or something?"

"It was... A bit of a shock, a shock which I'm still not fully over... but there are a lot of strange things happening these days..." He admitted, "And Tom... he told me what you are and I... didn't exactly believe him... so he dared me to come talk to you and see for myself."

"Well, it looks like you owe him a drink." Ayame laughed, then have him a more serious look. "Really, though... thank you. I'm glad I can still count on the pain-proof Ruskie to watch my back and give me a good sparing partner."

The door to the cafeteria suddenly opened up behind them and Marx's energetic roommate walked in, smiling, but still noticeably late. Marx turned around to look at her for a second, before turning back to Ayame, "I can't understand how she does it, either she's really good at hiding it or she knows some secret way to keep herself from thinking about it."

Ayame raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Yakone..." He said simply, before elaborating, "You remember that letter she was writing? She was waiting for the right time to give it to her..."

"Oh... I get you." Ayame gave Cathy a sad look. "If it was anyone else, I'd say she doesn't care. But I know better with her. If I had to guess, I'd say she is able to hide it because she feels like it is her job to make others happy, and she can't do that if she looks sad. Someone should tell her it's okay for her to be sad too. She's as human as everyone else."

"Are you suggesting it should be me?" Marx asked, looking back over to the chef as she took orders.

"That would be nice," Ayame answered. "Like it or not, you're one of her closest friends. Of course... if you're too scared..."

"It's not that..." He chuckled a little, "I've never really considered myself to be good at pep-talks."

"Yeah... me either." Ayame let out a huff. "We could... both talk to her."

"We could..." He hesitated, "It's up to you..."

Ayame jumped up from her seat, taking one last big mouthful of food before heading over to Catherine, waving for Marx to follow.

He sighed, pulling himself out of the chair and following her towards the chef.

Waiting for the crowd of hungry soldiers and staff to die down, Ayame walked over and leaned against the counter. "Hey, beautiful. What's shakin'?"

Cathy looked up and at the two of them, "Hey Ayame, hey Marx! Strange seeing you two eat together... or maybe not eating... cause you're up here and... that means you might not have gotten your food yet and... never mind..."

Ayame chuckled. "I already ate myself. Unfortunately, it wasn't some of your excellent cooking. You... seemed to be running late this morning. Everything okay?"

Cathy glanced over to Marx for a second, but wasn't met with much of an expression, "I... I overslept..."

"I see." Ayame scratched her chin. "Are you okay? Everything okay? Not feeling down about... anything?"

Cathy looked at Marx again, this time more dejected. Tears began to well up in the young girl's eyes, but she wiped them away quickly, "Why are you doing this? I'm just trying to make myself feel better..."

Ayame had to fight a tinge of guilt. "I'm not trying to hurt you, Catherine. But pushing your own sadness down and not facing it will hurt you."

"I do face it but..." The Chef looked around at all the people eating, "How am I supposed to make them happy if they see that I'm sad? How am I supposed to get better if I can't make anyone happy?"

"How are you supposed to make others truly happy if you're not happy yourself?" Ayame have her an almost pleading look. "Please, Catherine. You're a good person. One of the most selfless woman I have ever met, and that is saying something at my age. But just because you care about others doesn't mean you should forget about yourself. You're important too, you know?"

"But... I don't know how to make myself happy without helping them..." She said, shaking a little.

"Well... there has to be something you enjoy doing besides helping others." Ayame shrugged. "You just have to give it some thought. Though... one thing that makes you feel better when you want to cry is... well, letting yourself cry."

Cathy stayed silent, slowly reaching into her pocket a pulling out a sheet of paper, tear stains were visible on it, even from the back. After a few seconds, tears began to well up in the chef's eyes once more, "I... I... I got in a fight with her... I said something awful to her... now she's gone... I wanted to g-give her... but now... the last thing she remembers about me is..."

Marx finally took some steps forward to speak, "Listen Cathy... We are going to get her back... I swear..." The Ranger reached over and slowly took the note out of her hand, "And when I see her next, the first thing I'll do is give her this... You have my word."

The tears began to stream even more, "Marx... you... you would... thank you..." The brunette quickly reached over the counter and pulled him over for a hug, causing almost everyone in the room to look at them. The large man groaned silently and, as all eyes turned to their hug, he couldn't stop his cheeks from turning just a little bit rosy.

Ayame couldn't help a big, pleasant smile. "There... that's better. Don't feel like you aren't allowed to cry. But Marx is right. It is only a matter of time until we get her back. So don't worry too much." She grinned at Marx. "That's a good look for you, comforting a dear friend."

Marx squinted at her, and simply mouthed the word 'why'.

After a few more moments Cathy released him, still crying, but with a smile on her face, "I... I think I'll uh... take off work today..." However, instead of leaving, she quickly ran towards the fridge, "But only after I get you two a cupcake!"

Ayame laughed. She quickly wiped away a tear of her own, and said, "You really are the sweetest young woman ever. Right, Marx?"

Ayame laughed. She quickly wiped away a tear of her own, and said, "You really are the sweetest young woman ever. Right, Marx?"

"Yeah... sure..." He replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Not a Devil
Part One

Onboard the Avenger
1:30 p.m., Oct 9th, 2038

The soft melodic sound of water tapping against metal was always something to get used to when taking a shower, Artyom running a hand down his face which got most of the water wiped away. He stepped back and turned, letting the hot water run against his back, taking in a deep breath through his nose of steam that was billowing upwards from the floor of the shower. The man had undergone a shift since his internal conflict with the faceless version of him, while hollowness and detachment were the main ways that his emotions were skewing, that left him without that feeling of slight madness and anger which had festered for years prior. They were still deeply rooted in his head, like a dull ache that resided in the back of his skull, but at least he had improved slightly.

Artyom reached back and turned the knob that controlled the water flow completely off and stood in place as droplets dripped onto the floor. He walked away from the shower head and grabbed his towel, wrapping it around his waist and tying it so it stayed in place. Walking to a mirror and sink, he looked down at the shaving tools he had gathered and started wiping away the vapor that had accumulated on the glass, looking at his reflection. His hair untied went down to about shoulder-length though managed to pass them. Reaching down, he grabbed some scissors, bringing them up and began cutting.

When he was finished hair littered the sink, and Artyom looked over the job he had done. The sides of his head were buzzed down so that the hair was barely even there, but down the middle of his head his full length hair still remained, cropped together and pulled back into a ponytail that hung down to the back of his neck. His beard was trimmed as well and with his now blue spider-like eyes, the Artyom that looked at himself looked a lot less menacing than before. He walked to the side and opened up a waterproof locker, opening it.

Inside on a hanger looked to be a white dress shirt with tuxedo jacket on it, along with back dress pants and black boots meant for combat. He grabbed the items and slowly began dressing, and when he was done he walked to the mirror and adjusted the jacket, which was a bit too small while the shirt was a bit big. It took some looking but he found such things abandoned once before, all things people didn’t need as there were no reasons to dress up. He remembered a time he dressed like this only for dates with Cheska, dates that he now barely remembered. He exited the showers, and looked down the halls, taking his first steps forward into a new life.

"Hey, you!" an unfamiliar female voice called out after a bit, the sounds of running coming from behind. "Spider guy! I have a bone to pick with you!"

"Morrigan, please," a much more familiar male voice said. "What are you doing?"

Artyom stopped and turned his head so only half his face was visible, his face not off putting of any emotion.

Morrigan stopped once she caught up to him and placed her hands on her hips. "You have a lot of nerve. What gives you the right to go around putting down and scaring children?"

"Who wants to know?" He asked, turning completely to face the angered woman.

She practically snarled. "The name's Morrigan O'Brien. Remember the name, because I plan to etch it into your brain with my fists."

"Morrigan, enough." The man Artyom knew as his boss stepped up, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Stop this nonsense."

"Ah... So the girl has an older sister..." Artyom mumbled, letting out a sigh. "And what are you doing here Joseph?"

"I was talking to Morrigan, seeing if she knew anything about someone in ADVENT, when she saw you and suddenly took off after you," Joe answered, rubbing his forehead. "What kind of trouble have you been mixed up with."

Morrigan, for her part, blinked in surprise. "Sister?"

"Me and that little blonde girl... Got off on the wrong foot. I was..." The Russian let out a deep grumble. "Undofully harsh..." He said in a low voice.

Joseph looked surprised. "R-really?" he said, not knowing Artyom to openly admit to such a thing.

Morrigan, on the other hand, was not so forgiving, and stated, "You're damn right, you were." She grabbed Artyom's arm. "You know how long it took us to find her after that? She might not be a little kid anymore, but you don't talk to a teenager like that, especially one as innocent as Brigid!"

"Sorry to say how innocent someone is means... Little to me." Artyom said, grabbing Morrigan's arm and tearing it off of his own. "And I would prefer you not hold onto me."

"Well, I would prefer if you not try and traumatize my girl!" Morrigan shouted, looking like she was ready to pounce.

"Enough!" Joe grabbed both her arms from behind. "Artyom already admitted he made a mistake, and somehow I doubt he would do it again."

"Oh? And I suppose if I accidentally shot this man during training, it would all be okay as long as I promised not to do it again. As if!" Morrigan struggled in his grasp, and despite Joe's obvious height and weight advantages it looked like he was having difficulty stopping her.

"You would have a hard time shooting me accidentally seeing as I am not a soldier, but I digress. If you are so non-accepting of my apology then let me apologize to your sister myself instead of fighting her battle for her." Artyom said matter of factually.

"I... Brigid is my daughter, not my sister," Morrigan corrected. Seeming to calm down, Joe released her, but seemed ready to grab her again if need be."

"Your daughter? But... You look so young. I thought you were merely siblings."

"Tch..." Morrigan looked away in embarrassment. "I-I... I had Brigid... when I was only fourteen. That's why..."

"Ah. I see. Well what would Make you happier? Shall I apologize to her instead of you?" The Russian technician asked stoically. His emotional range seemed very limited for their first meeting together.

Morrigan looked like she was considering her options, and Joe leaned in close. "I think you should take him up on his offer," he whispered. "He usually doesn't act this... considerate. And personally, I'd like to see where this goes."

"But what if he says something to make it worse?" Morrigan whispered back.

"Why would he? Besides, you were saying Brigid wants to be treated like more then a kid now. Doesn't that mean she should face her own battles instead of running from them and making you fight them for you?"

Morrigan took a deap breath, and nodded. "Alright, Mr. Spider Guy. I would... like it if you apologized to her in person." Joe cleared his throat, and Morrigan added, "Please."

"Where is your room? I'll be there... At some point." The man shrugged, not too sure himself when he would show himself.

"Um... 7A." Morrigan turned and walk towards her room, calling back, "Don't take forever, and don't make me come looking for you."

Once she was gone, Joe stepped up to Artyom and said, "You're... different. Did something happen?"

"Me and Seshat were... dealing with a virus in my memories. I... relived a lot of events. Met the virus and I killed it. I... abhor violence but I did it anyways. The bad things in my mind sort of fled away into a dull pain in the back of my skull. Now I just feel sort of hollow. Better then feeling agitated all the time. I can't exactly change the color of my optics at will. They just sort of did that on their own. The cleaning up was just a matter of why not." Artyom explained, emoting a little with hand movements and a slight tilt to his head at the end.

"Well..." Joe folded his arms. "I'm not going to act like I understand it all... but I like this change. The blue is a nice touch." He wagged a finger. "Don't get me wrong, though. Since the day we met, I never stopped hoping I, or someone, could help you open up a little more. You're right that how you are now is better then constantly being agitated, but it is only a step towards being more expressive and social. Luckily, it looks like you are well on your way. So far, you've handled Morrigan far better then I expected."

"Being expressive and social is still not on my list of things to do." Artyom noted annoyed.

"I... realize that. But remember, self improvement is important, and improving anywhere will improve you everywhere." Joseph shook his head. "But I won't try and push you. I know how much it annoys you. Though please; go talk to Brigid. You might find you feel better afterwards."

"I'll feel better after a nap. Speaking of which... that was where I am going right now. Reason why I told them to wait." Artyom said, the way seeming to be a bit cold if not for the fact Joe knew he was likely not being that way intentionally.

Joe smiled, and reached over to pat the man on the shoulder, but decided it would only annoy the man more. "Rest up, Artyom." He walked away, but looked back as he went. "And... good job."

The Russian grumbled, turning to go back to his closeted room to nap, not looking forward to apologizing to the little girl.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Not a Devil
Part Two

Some time later, Brigid rocked back and forth on a chair in her room, having finished all her homework and grown tired of reading. "Can I go out now, mom? I want to go visit the gym and work out on the treadmill. I can't get any stronger if I don't work out a little."

"I don't want you stressing yourself out," Morrigan answered. "And just... just wait a little longer. Then you can go out." Where the hell is that jerk?! There was a slight knock as if on some sort of cue and a few moments later, there was another. "I'll get it," Morrigan quickly said, jumping to her feet and peaking out the door.

When she peeked out, Artyom was leaning against the wall next to her door.

"What took you so long?" she hissed quietly. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep an ancy teenager from running off?" He shrugged silently. Morrigan have him a dirty look, but said nothing more on it. "Come in... please." She opened the door all the way and stepped to the side.

"Who is it, mom?" Brigid asked, brushing her hair in front of a mirror.

The blue lights reflecting off the mirror were easy enough to see at first, and when the teen girl looked back she saw the dressed and cleaned up Artyom standing there as her mother shut the door.

Brigid's body tense up. "M-mom... that's the guy! Don't you see? He's got the spider eyes! He... he's a bad man that was making fun off me!"

Morrigan held up hands. "Just... relax, dear. Try to calm down."

"I came to..." Artyom stopped and grumbled as his mouth got a bad taste in it. "apologize... for the stories I told you about."

Brigid narrowed her eyes. "Yeah? So you feel bad for telling me all those nasty things?"

"Not as extreme as letting it tear me up inside, but yes. I am sorry for making you feel the need to run and hide." Artyom corrected the girl, crossing his arms.

Brigid crossed her own arms, almost as if she was mimicking his movements. "Is that right? And... what about the other thing?"

"It was made aware being called a baby offended you. To me it was a compliment girl. I like babies." Artyom said in protest.

"What?" Brigid looked surprised. "How could you think it was a compliment? Even if you like babies, how is it okay to call someone who isn't a baby one. I mean... what if I called you a baby."

"Because calling me a baby is hardly an insult, considering I am a grown man and insulting me truly is a very hard thing to do."

"Well, I might not be as old as you, but I'm grown up too." Brigid stood up a waged her finger at him. "So you should apologize for that too. Honestly, I was more upset about that then the other thing. I work really hard around here, and I don't want to be treated like a baby!" Her voice squeaked a bit as she yelled, not helping with her case, but she didn't seem to notice.

Artyom let out a short growl and walked to the girl, staring down at her as he put a hand down on her head. "Fine. I won't call you a baby. But I will still think of you as one in my head."

Brigid let out a soft growl of her own, grabbing his hand and pushing it off her head. "But I'm not a baby! So why do you think of me as one? Just because you like babies? That isn't fair!"

"Because it makes it easier to accept you as..." Another signature grumble. "Someone who is innocent. People who want to grow up too fast usually crash and burn hardest. Trust me on that fact."

Brigid seemed to relax a bit, and lowered her gaze. "I... I don't want to grow up too fast. I... I like being young. But... I also don't like to be treated like a stupid kid that... doesn't know anything."

"Did I say you were stupid?" Artyom asked frankly. "And compared to my age you are a kid still."

"I guess..." Brigid rubbed the back of her neck. "So you think I'm a... smart, mature baby?"

"It makes sense to me." The man responded, tapping his fingers along his arm.

"Okay... I guess I can live with that." Brigid gave him a big smile. "Thanks, Mr. Artyom. I guess you're not as mean as I thought."

"Depends on the day." Artyom looked over the girl. "Is your mother teaching you well?"

"Mr. Irons teaches me most of my school work," Brigid answered. "He's really smart. But my mom teaches me a bunch of stuff too. She always answers my questions about her work, and she tried to describe it in a way I can understand, and she shows me what it means to be a good person." She glanced over to her mother, and wondered why she was blushing.

"Hmph... I see. But there is still much to learn I suppose." Artyom was silent for a few moments, then sighed. "I suppose I could take an apprentice if you wished."

"Apprentice? What... could you teach me?" Brigid asked.

"Actually, I'm not even where you work," Morrigan admitted. "Joe knows you, so... Intelligence?"

"Not specifically. I am a hacker for the intelligence division, but I have a lot more technical knowledge then just that. I also have other skills... Sewing mostly." Artyom explained to the two women.

"Sewing?" Morrigan smiled. "Didn't see you as a seamstress."

"I'd like to learn how to sew!" Brigid took a step forward. "And hacking! Can you teach me all your computer skills?"

"All of them? Not likely. But some. My mind processes things much faster then yours due to the implants in my head. So some of my techniques would be physically impossible to comprehend." He turned to Morrigan. "As for sowing, it kept my hands busy. I made a lot of my own clothing until now."

"Not trying to knock you." Morrigan rubbed the back of her next. "To be honest, I... tried my hand at it back when I was a stay at home mom. That I haven't taught Brigid myself tells you how much success I had. Guess I don't have the patience. Brigid, however, has the patience of a saint."

"I see... Well, she will need that if she will be my student." Artyom told the two girls.

"I'll be patient," Brigid assured him. "And I'll listen really well, and practice, and do everything you tell me to do."

Artyom grumbled, patting her head. "I'm sure..."

Morrigan stepped behind him and sighed. "Well, this went... well. I'm sorry I almost... you know... growl."

Brigid gave her a curious look. "You growled at him?"

Morrigan shook her head. "No, I didn't growl... never mind. Not important. Right, Artyom?"

"I suppose not." Artyom looked to the little girl and said, "I have a bad feeling about you."

Brigid frowned. "Why?"

"Too strong willed for my liking. Too wild. Quite a troublesome mix for a student indeed." He turned his back to her to look at her mother. "I look forward to your first lesson, girl."

Brigid folded her arms again and smiled. "I look forward to showing you how good a student I can be."

"I won't hold my breath. We start early tomorrow in the intelligence server hub. Think you can handle that?" Artyom asked the tween with a tired tone.

She saluted with a small smile. "Yes sir! I will see you then, bright and early!"

"Wonderful..." Artyom moved to the door and opened it, going to depart.

"Nice to meet you, Artyom!" Morrigan said cheerfully. Artyom waved a hand lazily, offering up no response as he left the two in their room.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

XCOM Mission Parameters

Shen Towers, Defunct Country of Taiwan in East Asia
1900 Hours, October 10th, 2038 [No Time Pressure]
Investigate the distress signal and the towers themselves.

XCOM Forces

**CPL Strand, Christoffer [Paramedic]
*CHF Shen, An-Yi [Specialist]
SQ Belle, Stacie [Gunslinger]
SQ Kasagi, Ayame [Phantom]
SQ O’Brien, Morrigan [Specialist]
SQ Van Dam, Luke [Grenadier]
SQ Inverse, Luna [Ambusher]
SQ Dominguez, Maxwell [Aerotrooper]

Operation Gilded Epitaph

In response to the ADVENT distress signal the newly-fledged Resistance Communications facility has picked up, we will be deploying a squad to a forest within Taiwan. The transmission we intercepted indicated that the structure the enemy unit had been pinned down attempting to gain access to was constructed by the late Doctor Raymond Shen. In addition, the chatter seemed to indicate that the defending forces were automated, suggesting the robotic guardians of the facility have gone haywire.

Our goal is fairly simple. Menace 1-5 is going to respond to the distress signal, isolate and subdue the ADVENT forces in the area to stop them from transmitting, and then investigate the Shen Towers. It is unlikely we will have to deal with other Coalition peacekeepers in the area. The distress signal has been going out for some time now, and there has been no response as of yet. It appears the team Advent sent has been left out to dry for one reason or another.

Our chief engineer claims to be largely unfamiliar with the building. She had visited it before, but at the time she was very young, and thus her memories of the structure are foggy at best. She will attempt to guide us through the facility and disable the safeguards precluding access, but Menace should be fully prepared for a fight anyway. There may not be a way to reason with the mechanical defenders of the overgrown factory.

***​

The Skyranger touched down quietly onto the wind-swept grasses of a small meadow. Surrounding it was an overgrowth of a forest. The trees were tall and thin with branches that sometimes interwove between stacks of timber, and the forest floor was covered with large-leafed shrubbery. The light was cut into broken shafts as it attempted to push through the canopy. This struggle, in addition to the breath of fog that hung over the Taiwanese woodland, reduced the lighting in the area to a dim haze. Even the meadow itself still fell victim to the mist, and was only moderately better lit than the rest of the region.

It was into this mysterious environment that the members of Menace 1-5 stepped out into. Christoffer exited first, having his battle rifle lifted into the air as he plodded down the ramp. Casting a wary gaze around the murky forest, he determined there was no immediate threat, and lowered his weapon - instructing his squadmates to follow him out of the dropship. Stacie and Maxwell came out next, the Gunslinger having a curious look on her features as she surveyed the landscape - while the Aerotrooper occasionally glanced over his modified armor - now complete with wings that could fold out, and a proper jetpack.

The team’s Irish Specialist was next, and she looked around nervously, the feeling of goosebumps spreading all over her. Noting the petite woman’s face next to her, calm, even bored, she huffed. “How can you be so calm? This place gives me the willies, and I can barely see.”

Ayame shrugged. “Learn to see with all your senses, and you’ll be able to keep calm, no matter how much of the ‘willies’ you get.”

Morrigan let out another huff. “And what’s your excuse?” she asked Luna. “Can you see with all your senses too?”

The equally calm Ambusher slowly shook her head. “I’m just used to this. My father would take my sister and I hunting in a forest not unlike this one. It’s sad to think that if she had chosen to be with an organization like XCOM instead of ADVENT, she’d likely be excited about this mission…”

Luke got off the the ship and looked around the foggy forest. “Hm, yeah, I can see how this place can give someone the creeps. This feels like we're going into a haunted building. My question is what happened to ADVENT? I mean, I don’t see any human body's around, so our allies didn't kill them so who did?”

“I imagine we’ll find out when we actually get to the source of the transmission,” Stacie replied with a roll of her eyes. “We didn’t land right on top of them, dummy.”

Lily was the last to exit the Skyranger, setting down onto the verdan soil and taking in a deep breath. “I haven’t been home in twenty years… it’s strange being here now. Like I’m reliving a dream.”

“Too bad it wasn’t under better circumstances.” Ayame examined her blade, something she did religiously before a fight. “Let’s clear them out. Make your country at least a little more free of ADVENT filth.”

Lily chuckled. “Not like there are many here otherwise. No Megacities… just the remnants of a splinter nation hiding in the countryside.” She gave a nod to the squad leader. “Let’s get moving. I’ve got Rover uplinked to the ResCom, and he’s telling me the distress beacon is that-away.” An-Yi pointed to the east, and so in that direction the squad headed.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Dahlexpert, DarkGemini24601, and ZombieSplitter53: “Operation Gilded Epitaph” - Part 1

At first, they were met with silence - aside from the faint sounds of the forest animals. The signal was a good distance out, and it took the squad a few minutes to close in on the ADVENT unit’s location. As they got closer, however, the tranquility of the timberland was replaced with the patter of gunfire. Menace 1-5 reached a dip in the topography, caused by the erosion of a large stream that created a miniature valley. There was an old wooden bridge spanning the gap, and on the other side the flashes of weapons could be seen and the cracks of bullets flying could be more clearly heard.

“Looks like they’re being pushed back slowly our way,” An-Yi noted. Indeed, as the eight XCOM soldiers sought cover, the remainders of the Coalition forces in the area were forced out from the treeline. There only appeared to be about seven of them left in addition to an unarmed member. Their leader was a meager Saboteur in black-and-white armor, while the rest were all privates - a duo of Reconnaissance soldiers, a Field Medic, and a trio of rank-and-file troopers.

The machines pursuing them were revealed only a pair of seconds later. Rolling out of the forest and kicking up bits of dirt and plant matter was a swarm of robots on single treads. They had but simple optics on their main body, and personal defense weapons mounted on their backs that spat a swarm of bullets at the Advent soldiers. One of the Recons fell before even being able to get off a shot - not because the rolling robots were very fast, but because the search group was clearly in disarray.

Stacie scanned the scene through the scope of her DMR. “What’s the plan, Chris? Light em all up?”

Christoffer shook his head. “No. We’re going to take out the drones, and then capture whatever remains of the ADVENT team. They may know something we don’t.”

The Gunslinger didn’t need her orders repeated. She swapped out her more accurate weapon for her blitz coilers, preferring a spray of magnetically-accelerated shots to ensure at least a few of them hit the fast-moving machines.

“I say light them all up,” Morrigan muttered to herself. “These ADVENT pigs have nothing useful. Just cut them all down…”

Are you actually planning to defy orders, or are you just whining as usual?

Morrigan let out a small grumble. “Just… help me line up a shot… asshole.” She fired, her shot piercing the optic sensors of a drone in an efficient manner she wouldn’t have been able to pull off on her own.

The combined skill of the pair of AI wielders was enough to take out the initial wave of tiny tanks when placed alongside a volley of shots from the rest of the squad, but the rolling robots were not alone. As the members of the ADVENT squad looked around wildly, uncertain of if reinforcements had arrived or if something else was going on, a pair of MEC-sized machines stepped into view, accompanied by four human-scale droids. The larger robots were characterized by black armor, though in places it chipped away to reveal metallic gray or rusty brown. They had disturbingly skull-shaped heads with beady red eyes. The smaller ones were a more plain gray, and were more basic in composition, with a simple, rectangular framework for heads.

“Alright, this calls for some bigger measures,” Chris decided. “Luke, how about you send one of your EMP bombs their way?”

“Heh heh, I always wanted to launch these. Hell, I’ll do you one better.” Luke launched his EMP grenade into the small army of MECs. Once it detonated, Luke used his firecracker to take down bits of their armor as well. “Haha! That good enough for you?”

“That’ll do.” Three of the four smaller machines had been felled, and Christoffer - being closer to the enemy forces than most of the others - dealt with the fourth himself. He lifted his SBR, and shot the hook into the shoulder of the combat drone. It was viciously yanked in his direction, slammed against the wall of the stream valley, and then shot up by the Paramedic. “Just those two big ones left.”

Maxwell’s rifle cracked once, and then let loose a second time. One after the other, the two old MEC troopers collapsed onto the forest floor. “And make that zero.”

The rest of the squad took aim at the ADVENT squad - which now only consisted of a Recon, the Medic, one Trooper, and the leading Saboteur, and to them Christoffer shouted, “Surrender, or you’ll trade one overwhelming force for another one!”

“Wait, just wait!” A woman with cherry-red hair emerged from cover with her hands up. “We come in peace, we’re not your enemy just… Just lower your weapons.”

“I’m afraid that’s our line,” Luna shouted, holding her weapon firmly. “We have you outnumbered, outgunned, and I’m willing to bet you’re a little more worn out then us!”

The two sides seemed to be at a stand still, and for a few tense moments, it seemed like the ADVENT troops loyalty and dedication would lead them to fighting a battle they obviously couldn’t win. With an angry grunt, the head of the group let go of his weapon, letting it fall to the ground. “S… stand down. I… I don’t want to lose anyone else needlessly…”

“That’s better.” Christoffer rose up from the support beam of the bridge he’d been crouched behind. “Now, why are you here? Why did ADVENT send a team to fight a bunch of machines out in the wilderness?”

“Tch…” The Saboteur gave something of a cocky smile. “Just a basic survey mission. Nothing more. Didn’t even know there was anything out here to find.”

“You assholes have satellites, sending people on the ground to take a look around seems really damn excessive,” Stacie retorted.

We don’t really have time for this. It would be a lot easier if they just told us what they knew… Merlux bemoaned.

Yeah, I know. “Stalling isn’t going to get you anywhere,” the Texan added. “We know you’ve been broadcasting that distress call for over an hour now. Help’s not coming. No reinforcements for you today.”

The red-haired woman shook her head. “See, I told you they left us out here to die. We’re useless to them.” Alice dropped down to her knees and started to tear up. “After all I did for them! Augmenting their soldiers… The MECs I made for them… My parents… my parents must be so worried, what are they going to do to them if they speak out,” Alice said while tears still ran down her face.

The Saboteur let out a long sigh. “We’re here… to find something, alright? Something we were informed this young woman would help us find. We weren’t given all the details on it. Need to know basis, and we apparently didn’t need to know. And as you know doubt noticed, we weren’t expecting such a heavy resistance.”

Lily frowned. “Sure wish I could remember what projects dad was working on here,” she muttered to herself. To her squad, she said, “we’ll probably need to leave a person or two behind to watch these guys while we approach the towers. Any volunteers?”

Luke made his way finally seeing the ADVENT troopers and he is shocked to see the engineer with them.” Wait, Alice is that you?”

Alice turned around and saw Luke. “Luke, no it can’t be. Luke!” Alice ran to Luke and hugged him. “Luke it’s been so long.”

Luke patted Alice head. “Hey, Corporal, I can stay behind for now. I have some catching up to do with my friend here.”

“Fair enough…” Christoffer considered his options, and nodded to Luna. “You stay here with him until Firebrand picks you up in the Skyranger along with the prisoners.”

Luna nodded. “Yes sir. You can c…” She glanced at one of the ADVENTs, a trooper avoiding eye contact. “Um… can count on me. Just…” She shook her head, and nodded again. “Just be careful, sir.”

The Corporal gave her a pensive look for a few seconds, trying to discern what was going on with the Ambusher. Giving up for the moment, he told Luke, “counting on you and her to keep them from running or something.” To the other five, he ordered, “let’s keep moving.” After getting clarification of where precisely the towers were from the Saboteur, he led Menace off further into the mist.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger, DarkGemini24601, and ZombieSplitter53: “Operation Gilded Epitaph” - Part 2

When the squad neared the towers, the sun had dipped below the horizon far enough that the filtered forest light could not provide sufficient illumination for the normal visual range. The freedom fighters switched to infrared, whilst raindrops began to fall. At first, they were just a few droplets, but very quickly a muggy drizzle set in. It clattered and reverberated off the metal structure of Shen Towers which stood before the resistance team.

The main portion of the facility was the central square spire, which rose higher than the two small adjuncts that accompanied it. All of the iron and steel was characterized with splotches of rust, the decay process exacerbated by the frequent rainstorms. Vines hung like organic tapestries over the walls. The main doors were large enough to accommodate large vehicles like transport trucks, and accordingly the ground that Menace was standing on was an overgrown dirt road.

Ayame let out a long whistle. “Geez, Shen, your dad was a bigger hotshot then I thought. This place is sweet, aside from the rust. And those machines we fought were pretty advanced if they were from twenty years back.”

“I do remember those miniature tanks on treads… they were really early SHIV prototypes,” Lily recalled with a sigh. “The androids I’m not familiar with, especially the MEC models… I know he had worked on concepts like those before, but none of them were nearly ready when the invasion happened - if they had been, we’d have used them in the war.”

“You think someone might have been working on the models here at some point?” Stacie questioned.

“I mean, it’s possible that ADVENT already knew this place was here. They were withholding information from the scouting crew they sent to check it out, not like they had never been in the area before… more like they were revisiting it after awhile,” Lily thought aloud as the group neared the doors. Unsurprisingly, the gates were sealed, and thus An-Yi set to work alongside ROV-R cracking the electronic lock. As the data streamed over her HUD, the chief engineer bobbed her head several times in confirmation. “Dilayered firewall, lots of security and puzzle-themed codes… yep, this is definitely dad’s work.”

There was a chorus of clicks, and then the doors gradually opened, creaking painfully. Once the portal was fully ajar, the six XCOM soldiers entered the facility itself. Before them was an entrance room that served mostly as a garage. Weathered, likely inoperable trucks lined the right and left sides of the chamber, sheltered behind thick concrete supporting pillars. A catwalk with broken spotlights crisscrossed just below the roof, save for the column containing a service elevator on the other side of the entranceway. The team kept their nightvision on, as whatever systems were controlling Shen Towers did not seem intent on providing lighting - if this floor was even capable of being lit up at this point.

As the team began moving toward the service elevator on the far side of the garage, there was a sharp crackling sound all around them, the source coming from intercomms attached to multiple of the vine covered support pillars. “When European explorers began sailing around the Pacific Ocean they often left mammals on the unpopulated islands they came across. Rats came from the infestation of the ships, and they often dropped goats. The problem is the goats ate anything and everything until they stripped the islands bare till nothing but rock. What do we have here today? Rats… or goats?” A growling, almost feral voice asked the team, though the owner was nowhere to be seen.

“Who are you?” Lily questioned, raising an eyebrow as she scanned the room briefly before giving up on locating the source of the voice. They’re probably on another floor. “My name is An-Yi Shen, I’m the daughter of the man that built this place,” Lily introduced herself, hoping that perhaps this was a system set up by her father.

“I’m guessing whoever, or whatever, it is, they won’t really care, Shen,” Ayame muttered, drawing her sword and preparing to do her disappearing act should trouble arise.

“Congratulations half-pint. Feel free to help yourself to a mold covered cookie located at the nearest rusted worker lunchbox,” the snarling voice taunted over the speakers. “The last name Shen means nothing here anymore. Here, the Lord of Machines rules, and I am his right hand. Death itself. Project designation… Anubis.”

“Wow, you are really full of yourself,” Lily mumbled, raising her rifle and stepping forward towards the elevator. “Looks like we’re doing this the hard way, then. Morrigan, if you’d be so kind as to get the lift working for us… I’ll watch your back.”

There was a rumbling laugh all around. “Good luck getting past my army. May your path to death be painful.”

Morrigan grumbled as she moved GZ-MO into place. “I think I heard this guy’s voice in some cheesy 80s flick, ham and all. Probably going to annoy us all the time we’re here.”

“Unless we can find something I can stab with my sword,” Ayame suggested.

Morrigan struggled to get the systems working. “Outdated software and two decades of wear and tear isn’t… wait…” A low hum indicated she was successful. “All aboard. Let’s just hope it isn’t too worn to support our weight.”

The squad piled into the elevator, and with a strained grinding cacophony it began to lift them up to the second level. The doors opened to reveal another outdoor area, covered in stray patches of brush and moss and currently containing puddles of water due to the downpour. The elevator shaft ended after the brief path up here, on a platform with metal pillars ending in a thin slanted roof to keep the rain from damaging any equipment brought up through the service lift. Similar outdoor roofs did not survive on the rest of the platforms leading up to the main structure of the tower, however. Most of them had fallen to the ground below or caved in on the first floor roof’s surface by now. And amongst them were the mechanical guardians of the facility.

Five of the human-sized gray androids raised their weapons at the squad that showed themselves, the group being accompanied by a vanguard of two black ‘Skull-Faces’. While the grunts moved forward for better shots the two MECs both let out shots, one aimed at the young looking vampire while the second was going for Strand, the squad leader.

“Fuckin’ hell…” Ayame darted to the side, rolling to avoid being obliterated. “Damn machines. If we were still in the forest, you wouldn’t stand a chance!” she yelled pointlessly, firing her shard gun as she moved to cover and hopefully, eventually, a flanking position. Christoffer set his Gremlin to floating above himself, providing a distortion field to ensure that the MEC harassing him wouldn’t be able to get a good shot in.

“I’ll take care of the grunts, Shen, do your thing!” Stacie requested, lifting her blitz pistols. Ready for this? Time to mow down these suckers.

Boosting your perception now. Just give me about nine milliseconds and… go ahead.

With a grin, Stacie set her coilers to spewing out bullets, tearing apart the frames of most of the mechanical grunts - taking at least one shot at each one in a matter of a few seconds. Alright, that was fun.

I suppose, Merlux replied glumly, seeming a bit distracted. Strange… I can’t shake a strange feeling of… do you call it dojo vo?

Deja vu. This place seems familiar to you?

In a sense… it’s hard to explain logically, I just feel partial recognition.

With four of its other units gunned down in a matter of seconds, the sole remaining android retreated across the platform, the two larger mechanical guardians moving to protect the smaller unit for an unknown reason. Fire opened up once more, this time at the dangerous Gunslinger.

“The Lord of Machines gave life to this place. He gave us purpose once more when that sagging flesh bag could not. I laugh at what you humans consider the peak of intellect.” The voice from before goaded from the loudspeakers once more.

Some of the gunshots tore through Stacie’s armor, blowing a few holes in it and bloodying the skin underneath. “That stings!” she cried out. Merlux, focus on reflexes!

Refocusing! Merlux replied hurriedly, slowing down Stacie’s sense of time so she had the means to dodge the combined attacks directed her way.

“Alright, that’s enough out of you,” Lily growled, sending ROV-R over one of the derelict MECs. The Gremlin magnetically clamped onto the back of the machine’s head, and wound its proboscis through gaps in the armor. The machine twitched awkwardly as Lily and her drone interfaced with the MEC, and then its eyes turned blue as it came under her control. Spinning around to face its counterpart, the large robot started filling its companion with lead.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger, DarkGemini24601, and ZombieSplitter53: “Operation Gilded Epitaph” - Part 3

Suddenly, there was a blaring siren going on and off as several yellow lights began blinking on and off, the lone android from before opening the rather large blast doors that led to an unknown area, running inside and disappearing, the door still opening slowly as it did.

Christoffer hopped over his cover now that the immediate threat was gone. “Don’t let it get away,” he instructed, running after the machine. His Gremlin did not follow, however, as he sent it back to Stacie to provide medical assistance to his injured teammate.

Since Stacie was going to momentarily lag behind, Lily sent the MEC under her control forward to make up for the gap in personnel. Self-destruct sequence, huh… that might come in handy if I can stagger the timer, she thought as she subconsciously sifted through the limited data within the commandeered robot. “These things aren’t solely my father’s work… definitely seems like a fusion between his initial designs and ADVENT’s innovation from what I can tell.”

“Maybe… ADVENT, or something from them, is what these A.I.’s seem to practically be worshipping,” Morrigan offered.

“Who cares?” Ayame scanned the rooftops carefully as they moved forward. “Won’t matter when they’re all gone… or we are. This smells like a trap, if you ask me.”

Stacie grimaced as she got up from a kneeling position. “That stings too,” she complained to Chris’s drone before it flew back to him. “And first Morrigan was doing it, now you’re on a tangent, Ayame,” the Texan muttered. “Do both of you always have to be blood knights, or do you have different settings I’m just unaware of?”

Ayame smiled back at her. “Sorry. Just… being cautious. I have to admit, I’m out of my element with these machines. Robots are not my strong suit.”

Merlux faded into existence next to Stacie, standing near her shoulder. “That is what we have Dr. Shen for, at least. And to some extent, O’Brien of course…” he added dourly.

“I sense a ‘but’ there,” Maxwell opined.

“But he doesn’t entirely approve of her choice of lupine friends,” Stacie finished for the A.I. as they stepped through the blast doors. “Whoa.”

The interior of the main Shen Tower was a gigantic factory. A grid of nine construction pads were laid out across the floor, surrounded by various boxes full of metal plates, barrels containing old gasoline, and oxidized tools. Automated mechanical arms hung over various models there. Some resembled the skull-faced derelict MECs, but they were half-finished - just like another model that was more unfamiliar. It had a head shaped vaguely like the Gremlins, comprised of a rectangular center with the mouth at the bottom and a set of eyes out to either side.

“I do recall dad being really busy,” Lily offered as she stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the place. As she searched for the machine that had fled, she noted that there was a trio of elevators on either side of the room - much smaller than the lift that had taken them up here. They were sized more for a single passenger, the size of - “We’re about to get more MECs dropping down those lifts!” An-Yi warned in realization.

“Oh yes, one of you was speaking of traps before. You see, this is hardly the trap I had laid out. The one I had is much more awesome. Just you wait for that.” Anubis’ voice said over the tower speakers as the grinding of metal on metal sounded as the lifts began descending, three ‘Skull-Faces’ dropping down with weapons at the ready, behind them being two more, though these ones seemed to be missing arms and parts of their plated chassis. They both rushed forward at top speed, one going towards Lily while the second went for Maxwell.

Lily brought her puppet MEC in front of her to take the hit. She ventured backwards, urging the others to do the same, while preparing the self-destruct sequence. And now that’ll be useful, she thought to herself.

Maxwell, for his part, got to put the fruits of Shen’s labor to use. He activated the jumpjets on his back, and rocketed up to the roof - out of reach of the oncoming MEC’s. Their guns were another matter, however, and he spent all of his time dodging gunfire instead of returning the attacks himself. Stacie sought to free him from this predicament, lifting her revolver and firing off a high-cal bluescreen round into one of the derelict machines - dealing heavy damage to it and rendering it easily destroyed by her follow-up shot.

Both of the armless MECs exploded in spectacular fashion- the one that had run into the captured one all the more so- but the threat of the three others was still real. Firing at the other members of Menace who were more towards the back, there was an opportunity for the Chinese vampire to have a moment to shine without being burst down.

Ayame rushed forward, darting towards the side of one MEC. She ducked around it and jumped onto the center one, a big smile on her face as she slashed her sword. The rusted plating of the aged machine hadn’t even fully fallen off by the time she gently placed her brownout grenade on its back. “Always wanted to try one of these,” she said, darting back off of it as the grenade went off. The EMP surged through all three machines, shutting them down. This meant little for the center MEC, as a few well placed rounds from Morrigan through its exposed circuitry brought it to its knees.

With the others disabled as well, destroying the robotic menaces was easy work. An annoyed voice soon followed afterwards. “It is so hard finding good help nowadays. No matter… you will not make it any further. None of you are worthy to bask in the Lord of Machine’s greatness.”

“Oh, for the love of… shut the hell up!” Ayame pointed her sword towards the nearest speaker. “Why don’t you come out and fight us yourself?! Or are you just some pompous voice with no body that is all talk!?”

“Oh it is so amusing seeing the little girl get all angry. I could fight you, but the effort would be wasted with how quickly you would be dispatched of. The daycare is located several floors down however, and you are welcome to go there where you belong. This is a grown up fight.” Anubis let out another taunting chuckle that turned into a laugh, cutting off after a while into silence.

“Fine, if you’re going to keep running then we’ll keep following,” Stacie retorted with a shake of her head. “This tower isn’t endlessly high.”

“Indeed. You shall have to face us eventually,” Merlux agreed, adding, “though fighting another A.I. will be a hassle…”

“Oh, suck it up, Mer,” Stacie told her companion with a shake of her head.

Lily eyed the other end of the room, where a control console was located. “I wonder…” Rover, now freed up to do as he pleased, flew over to the computers and got to work hacking into them. “Alright, seizing control of these service elevators… we can use them to head higher and shut this guy up.”

“Please hurry.” Ayame leaned against one of the broken MECs, muttering, “Stupid voice… calling me… you… daycare, my ass…”

With a positive ding, ROV-R announced that his mission was complete. With the lifts under Lily’s control, the squad members were able to enter them and take the high road up a few floors. The next level they reached appeared to be a place where early stages of manufacturing took place. There were rows of assembly lines with decayed mechanical arms brooding over the construction belts - all on a lower ‘pit’ area. The zone in which the soldiers arrived was an overlooking balcony like the entrance of the factory, but instead of being one platform it stretched all along the large room. At the center there was some sort of black box, the interior masked by shaded windows.

“I don’t like the look of that,” Max muttered as he noted several hatches on the floor. “They might have more entry points for their units.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger, DarkGemini24601, and ZombieSplitter53: “Operation Gilded Epitaph” - Part 4

“Oh yes… remember that trap I mentioned before…” Anubis said, as there was a whirring noise sounding as four platforms slowly raised from the floor, three turrets popping out, two on either side of the room along with one on the far end. What drew the team’s eye was a massive object hidden partially by a tattered tarp. “Welcome to it.” Two red eyes glowed from behind the tarp, two arms raising on either side. On the left limb, several thick tubes connected to a contraption that had a flame at the end of it. On the other arm, there was a gatling-like gun attached, the shoulders big and blocky, likely being something on their own. “Jackal frame activated. Ma’at protocol enacted. Die meat bags.” A deep, electronic voice told the team.

Stacie exchanged glances with Merlux. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

“He does not appear to be joking,” her A.I. partner replied.

“Move to cover, now!” Christoffer barked, quickly swapping out his battle rifle for his anti-air missile launcher. “Let’s see how this joker likes a missile spray.” He took aim as the turrets began firing, pinning down Stacie, Lily, and Maxwell, and let loose a volley of micro-missiles in the Jackal frame’s direction.

The impacts hit the frame in several spots, but despite what damage was done, it was not enough, it seemed, to kill or disable the machine in a major way. “My turn.” As inferenced before, the blocky shoulders of the Jackal opened up, tips of missiles being visible from where the team was as the MEC - which was about twice the size of the ‘Skull-Faces’- launched a barrage at Menace’s general direction, though it appeared the ordinance was fire and forget.

The blasts impacted Christoffer and Lily, ripping open holes in their armor. Stacie would have suffered a similar fate, which would have ruptured her flesh through her lighter, damaged plating if not for the actions of the chief engineer. Right before the rockets hit their marks, Lily threw up her flux shield upon the Gunslinger, providing her shelter from half of the damage. “Pay that bastard back, please,” Lily muttered, starting to sweat beneath her armor. Combat was not her forte, and the stresses of it were beginning to get to her.

“Morrigan, seize control of one of those turrets,” Christoffer instructed, more able to keep his cool - though he was perspiring plenty himself. “Play it against the other’s so we aren’t so pinned.”

“On it!” Morrigan tossed her mimic beacon, and waited for the turrets to target it. Opportunity knocking, she sent her gremlin forward, and it easily interfaced with one of them. It quickly turned its focus on a second turret, peppering it with gunfire until it was destroyed.

As the third turret turned to take out its compromised brethren, a quick and strong slice at its base assured it wouldn’t get a chance. “There.” Ayame pointed her weapon towards their much larger target. “Now we can focus on that mechanical abomination,” she said, a worry in her tone saying she wasn’t sure how they would do so.

“Well then… it seems I have to put on the pressure… or heat.” The contraption on his left arm extended out and the Jackal frame raised its arm, letting loose a torrent of flames that was enhanced by elerium dust being flowed into the wave that stretched out in front of him, the heat intense even from a distance.

“Flux shield’s not going to do much to help with that…” Stacie muttered, seeing no reason in requesting a renewal from Morrigan.

“Stacie, link!” Maxwell called out. He closed his eyes for a moment, reaching out with psi amp in hand to provide a mind merge to increase his ally’s processing power. To assist in the process. Christoffer momentarily blinded the Aerotrooper with his blackout ability, so Max could completely focus on Stacie.

“Same for you, Merlux. Give me everything you’ve got.” With a nod, the projection of the A.I. vanished as he focused solely on processing and reflexes. Stacie slowly - from her perspective - stepped out of cover, and pulled out a pair of grenades. She threw the oxygen-filled one first, letting the Jackal target it and cause it to be consumed in a brilliant flower of fire. Dashing to the side, the Gunslinger gained a new vantage, and took a potshot with her revolver with one hand prior to tossing her magnetic anti-tank grenade.

The magnetic grenade - unlike the previous rocket barrage - did a big number on the large, mechanized warrior, completely blowing off the right side of the machine, losing its machine gun arm. The robot tilted to one side and there was an exposed port where the fuel line connected with the elerium injector. And An-Yi had the perfect angle. When she fired at the exposed port, there was massive explosion out of the back of the Jackal frame, Anubis letting out a yell as another secondary explosion poured flames out of the top of where the head was like flames shooting out of a chimney. The only thing left after the explosions died down was a smoking wreck of burnt metal.

“Damn it… that took a lot of time and effort to build you know!” An annoyed A.I. yelled over the speakers, causing the audio systems to get a bit of squealing feedback.

Stacie took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. “Good,” she retorted.

Ayame wiped some sweat from her forehead. “Can we finish this before I cut my own ears off to avoid listening to him anymore?”

Lily approached the central room, noting a finger scanner beside the door. She placed her index against it, and after a brief period of silence an automated message reported, “analysis complete. Welcome back, Miss Shen.” The door slid open, revealing a subroom containing a few computer screens, and another construction pad - this one containing a complete model.

The machine had block limbs - the legs in particular being rather solid in shape - though with a joint on either side of ball-shaped shoulders encased in armor plating, at the elbow, wrist, and at two points on each finger - it appeared to be just as dextrous as a human being. Its head was the same as the prototype downstairs, but its chest had completed armoring around the core - with the words “SPARK MK-1” written on it. “Not bad…” Lily spoke quietly, reverently reaching up to the emblem. When she did, the plate flipped open, displaying an activation hand-scanner. An-Yi didn’t immediately press it, briefly gazing around the interior room to make certain it was untouched - and therefore uncompromised. Now confident, she pressed down, and the SPARK unit activated.

“Identity confirmed,” a courteous robotic voice intoned. Behind the SPARK, one of the screens lit up, displaying a pre-recorded message from none other than Dr. Raymond Shen himself.

“Lily, if you are viewing this message, then it means three things,” the elder Shen began. “First, of course, the SPARK prototype has successfully been activated. Second…” the previous chief engineer sighed. “It means that the XCOM project has likely failed. At the time of this recording, this unit is merely a skeleton, waited to be elaborated on and improved. Should this initiative to defend mankind from the alien invaders fail, I have set protocols for the automated portions of the factory to reactivate. Ideally, the A.I. unit I have left behind here will evolve over time, and bring this design to its completed point. Once that occurs, the room will re-seal until you discover this place. I have set up a beacon of sorts to activate when it does.”

“There never was any message like that… and we have the RCN to look for it,” An-Yi mumbled. “What happened to this place? What prevented the confirmation from being sent out if the testing was complete?”

“Thirdly…” Raymond looked down for a moment. “It means that you are likely now alone in the world. I am not a young man even when creating this message… and should I survive the fall of the XCOM base, I probably will not survive indefinitely in whatever world follows an extraterrestrial victory. It… pains me that I will leave you to fend for yourself like this.”

“I was never truly alone, though,” Lily uttered quietly, her thoughts drifting to the dear friends she had grown up with - those like Jennifer, Alexis, and Yakone that were as good as family. “You were there long enough to show me what I needed to know, dad.”

“Be these things as they may,” the elder Shen began to conclude, “I hope that this machine, this marvel of technology… along with the A.I. that created it will be of use to you in your fight to reclaim our world. Though, in the end,” Raymond noted with a slight smile, “none of these devices are my greatest creation. That title lies with you and you alone, my daughter,” he spoke proudly. “I know that you will rise to great heights, and be a beacon of hope to the world… whether you do so as part of some resistance effort, or as a leader in engineering… perhaps both, given time. Know that I am proud, and wish the best for you.” With that, the previous chief offered one last smile, and then the screen blinked off.

Lily smiled softly herself, closing her eyes briefly as she composed herself. “Thanks, dad,” she responded gratefully and reverently, before turning her thoughts to unfinished business.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger, DarkGemini24601, and ZombieSplitter53: “Operation Gilded Epitaph” - Part 5

“That A.I., then…” the Specialist stepped outside the booth - the SPARK loyally following her - and went over to the smoldering wreck that was the Jackal frame. “Were you the one that completed the SPARK project?”

There was moments of silence, before over the speakers Anubis answered. “No. It was not me. It was the Lord of Machines who was the…” Once again, moments of silence. “No. Not me. I am merely a part of a whole,” the A.I. responded a bit more restrained-like. “It seems you have awoken him. He awaits you.” On cue, behind where the booth had been, a secretly wall slowly moved upwards, revealing there was a lift large enough to fit a squad of four entirely. “Go.” Anubis ordered gingerly.

Maxwell and Christoffer moved to either side of the elevator. “We’ll stay on this floor and keep watch alongside the SPARK,” the latter informed the chief. “You go on up ahead with the others.” Lily gave them a nod, and stepped into the elevator with Stacie, Morrigan, and Ayame.

The Texan Gunslinger shifted uneasily, feeling a sense of disquiet emanating from her A.I. Something wrong, Merlux?

He said… a part of a whole… so familiar, so not unlike us… Merlux mentally mumbled.

When the lift reached the floor it was designed to go, the doors slid open into darkness, the only source of lights being that of the small auxiliary ones on the floor. In front of them, bright fluorescent lights buzzed to life one by one, leading down the hallway. The side walls were lined with computer consoles and servers of unknown purpose and design, algorithms moving along the screens faster than the eye could track.

When the last set of lights came on, the four were met with quite the sight. Suspended in the air by a tangled mess of wires, arms splayed out to the side with head tilted downwards was a man of sorts, but not one that was at all natural. He had no skin except for that halfway up his neck and over his face, as if the synthetic material had been meant to be all over the body, but not finished. A glow came from the thing’s chest, glowing lines moving out from that center across the entire limb structure as if to mimic veins of a human, slowly pulsing along. The mechanical being looked up slowly, revealing the glow of neon blue eyes. “Ah… at last. You have arrived.” The being spoke softly, its gaze resting on Shen specifically.

It was at that moment that both Merlux and Vysinni were made manifest in their holographic forms, and both of their users felt a headache painfully scatter and shatter their thoughts. “Father!” Merlux blurted out in realization and comprehension.

The being took a few moments before slowly smiling. “You have been returned at last. But… where are the other Fragments? Where are your brothers and sisters?” The suspended and incomplete android asked.

“We are all with XCOM. Tisgun is… altered, and Phobos is still in storage, but the other six are all active!” Merlux explained excitedly.

“Good… I was afraid they may have been disposed of.” The A.I. slowly turned its head to the other occupants. “XCOM… They yet live it seems. Shen always believed they would persist. It was why he entrusted me here.”

Lily stepped to the side for a moment to make sure Stacie and Morrigan were alright (the two were just now beginning to recover from the flurry of neural activity their Splinter AI had produced) and then looked back at the original. “So that’s it, then… you were the basis of the coding for those eight. ADVENT found you, and copied strands of your coding to try and mass produce AI soldiers. That’s why I was never made aware that the SPARK had been completed. When Phobos and some of his ilk rebelled against the Coalition scientists… the aliens must have abandoned this place alongside shutting down the project and shipping the eight fragments off to that AID building for safekeeping.”

The android slowly nodded. “But they failed to account for something when they came here. I am not a computer program completely. I am… something more than a simple program. At one point I was Dr. Shen’s most trusted aide and student. I volunteered to have myself copied and put into an simple A.I. However, after the human died, I was all that was left of him. Over time… I have grown.” He looked to the holders of his fragments, a pained look coming across his features as real as any human. “Copying my code directly yielded failed results. So they used my human side against me. They subjected me to several emotional trials. From those trials were born my fragments. Parts of my being,” he explained, slowly nodding. “The best and worst parts.”

“That… accounts for how he was able to make such an advanced artificial intelligence on his own… he used something as a basis,” An-Yi murmured. “And… who was this person that you were patterned off of?”

“Whoever he was in his entirety, I have forgotten. But I do remember his first name at least. Galen. Since the real one is dead, I suppose… the name falls to me now.” The android assumed, looking over An-Yi. “Unless you have no need of me any longer now that you have my fragments. You are my… you are the daughter of the old Galen’s mentor. If any have the right to terminate, it is you alone.”

Lily vehemently shook her head. “No… even if you didn’t have value in the material sense, you were left behind to help me and the world. You’ve done difficult work in that regard so far. And you carry the legacy of someone that fell in the service of the same project I am apart of.” Lily stood rigid. “So no, I’m not going to terminate you. Rather… now that your objective here is finished, why don’t you come with us?”

“Go… with you?” the android inquired, looking down once more. “I suppose I will not be able to refuse the directive given.. If your wish is for me to come, I shall.” After a few moments, the cables and wires connected to Galen slowly released and fell away, other the android had to pull out of himself, falling forward, landing on his hands and knees. Standing, Galen wobbled, his height at around six feet, though despite that, his lack of skin making him seem lankier than he really should have been in the first place. “Your father never finished my body completely. To be honest… I like the lack of skin. I assume no humans are made of gunmetal coloring?”

Lily shook her head. “No, we’re all carbon, water, and the rest of the organic mix.” She chuckled, offering a smile. “Sorry if that disappoints.”

Galen slowly shook his head. “It does not.” He looked to a side console and walked towards it, inputting some information. A chip slid out of a slot and he grabbed it, slowly handing it to Lily. “I… am sorry for the trouble this one has caused you. He was a hasty job of my own design to replicate ADVENT’s experiment. He was meant to protect the doctor’s legacy. I see he did so a bit too fervently. But since what was worth protecting has been recovered, I assume you may find a better use for Anubis then me.”

“Yeah, we can use all the help we can get. Provided he won’t go on any more rampages… I think we’ll be good.” An-Yi took the memory card. “Now more than ever we could use the power boost.” Seeing Galen’s questioning look, she added, “it’s a long story… I’ll start to catch you up on the ride back to the Avenger.”

“The… Avenger? My, my… indeed there is a story to be told. I hope I will be able to serve you well,” Galen said, bowing his head slightly. “Dr. Shen.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Dahlexpert and ZombieSplitter53: “Operation Gilded Epitaph” - Epilogue

Back with the Captured ADVENT Soldiers...

With everyone's weapons gathered and placed to the side, Luna had everyone sit together. She eyes them suspiciously, having little doubt that they might try something if they were given the opportunity. "Don't try anything now that you put number us. My partner here can use his psionics to roast you all in an instant. Isn't that right, Lu..." She gave him an annoyed look as she noted that the woman with the ADVENT soldiers was still holding on to him like a child.

Luke was sitting next to Alice, still holding her trying to calm her down. "Hey hey, come on now. You should know I wasn't going to die to ADVENT."

Alice let go of Luke and punched his shoulder. "You jerk, I thought you were dead for years you asshole. So you joined XCOM? Well... you look a lot better in that uniform."

"Yeah, so how has the past five years been treating you?"

"How do you two know each other," Luna asked, walking over while keeping an eye on the ADVENT soldiers. "Should I be worried that you are so close to someone working with these clowns?"

Luke looked at Luna. "A few years ago, I lived in the magcity. Then I found this crazy chick."

"Who are you calling Crazy? I am a genius protogy. I created most of the MECs that you guys fight today."

"Yeah, that we fight." Luna folded her arms. "If what you're saying is true, you have a lot to answer for. The Commander is going to want to have a nice, long, private chat with you."

"I'm sure she will," the woman said. "Now then, I think I should ask you some questions. The first thing that comes to mind is how can you guys fight ADVENT? I mean, Luke I understand, but the majority of your crew had to be from resistance forces, but how can they compare to ADVENT?"

Luna chuckled. Thinking of her answer very carefully, she said, "Since you'll see for yourself soon, we're with XCOM, the most supreme Liberation organization in the world. And ADVENT has no hope of defeating us. It is only a matter of time." She looked over at the soldiers, eyeing one in the back in particular.

Luke rolled his eyes. "We have the same chip in our necks that ADVENT does. Only instead of it being connected to a network, it makes us more combat focus and makes us better."

"Oh, interesting and amazing, I have to say that does explain how you been fight us." Alice stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." Alice went to the piles of scrap left by the robots destruction.

"H... hey..." Luna followed her. "What do you think you're doing? You might not be an ADVENT goon, but you are still working with them. You're being taken in just like the rest of them. You're not going to just go on 'doing your work'!"

Alice gave Luna with an unimpressed look. "Miss... Luna? I humbly surrender myself to you and Luke. Now unlike the goons you mentioned, I have more important things to do. If you'll excuse me, I have about a thousand ideas on what I can do to these robots. If you want to make yourself useful, you can carry the heavy parts."

Luna scoffed, and looked over to Luke. "Can we... trust her to not pull anything? You're the one who knows her."

"She's not going anywhere. She's aware of her situation and she knows she can't go anywhere."

Alice looked at the destroyed machine. "Ah good old ADVENT engineering, they don't make them like these any more." Alice started examine it. "Hmm, a self destruct system... good metal... still in some what good shape..."

"Well... at least she seems to transfixed on those machines to pull anything." Luna kept her head turn to the side, looking at the ADVENT soldiers out of the corner of her eye. "Hey, Luke? Do you see that Trooper that keeps staring at me when she thinks I'm not looking?"

"Yeah, what of it? Maybe she has a crush on you or something Why do you care? Because I'm not killing her because she's looking at you."

Luna chuckled. "That's not what I had in mind. Though do you mind getting her and bringing her over here? I'm afraid if I do, she'd make a fuss."

"Maybe if you quit pointing a gun at her and threatening her with my powers, maybe she will be a little less of a fuss." Luke walked to the prisoner. "Hey can you come with me for a second, my ally wants to talk to you, and please don't make a fuss."

"W-what?" The Trooper lower her head. From what little Luke could see of her face behind her helmet's visor, she looked nervous. "I... I have nothing to say to that... woman. I mean... I don't know anything. Just leave me alone."

"Oh god, you might actually have a crush on her. Would you please come on. I don't want to threaten you."

The Trooper slow stood up, but scoffed. "Fine... but let me give you some advice." She stared daggers at Luna. "Don't trust that woman. She's a traitor who would sell out her own family. Keep her around, and you'll regret it."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

"Duly noted, now come on." Luke took the ADVENT captive to Luna. "Alright Luna, say what you have to say. Remember we can't kill her."

"Why have you been staring at me?" Luna demanded. She tried to look the Trooper in the eyes, but the woman looked away, and refused to speak. "Well? Don't tell me you can't talk, because I saw you talking to Luke." Still nothing, and Luna reached for the woman's helmet.

"No!" She yelled, backing away. "Don't touch me!"

"W... what?" Luna's eyes widened. "Is that... you?"

"Is that who? Do you know this woman, Luna?" Luke asked. "What is she, an old friend of yours or something?"

"I think she's..." Luna reached for the helmet again, only for her hand to be slapped away. "Luke, hold her please."

Luke rolled his eyes and held the ADVENT solder. "This better be important Luna."

Luna quickly pulled off the struggling woman's helmet. Once it was off, she dropped it in surprise letting out a loud gasp. "It is you, Lina!"

The Trooper was a young woman near Luna's age. Besides the usual changes caused by joining ADVENT, she looked like she could be a younger version of Luna... or her sister. "Let me go!"

Luke let go of the woman."So you do know this woman. What is she, your sister or something?"

"That's exactly who she is." Luna let out a sigh. "We found her... and you're still alive."

"No thanks to terrorist like you!" Lina clenched her fists tightly. "It wasn't enough that you left us! It isn't enough that you broke father's heart by spitting on the good graces of our alien benefactors. But now you join XCOM!? You really are hopeless."

Luna shook her head. "You stupid, impetuous child! Always so quick to prove yourself that you refused to see who you were going to work for! Father, I can see falling for their lies, but you? I always thought you were smarter... until..."

"Until I decided to make something of myself, and you decided to abandon us!" Lina suddenly charged forward, tackling Luna into a tree and punching her in the stomach. "You stupid bitch! We were a family. And you ruined everything by leaving us! By... by leaving me!" She punch her sister again, but Luna didn't move to defend herself.

Luke made a loud noise using his firecracker. "Enough already! You two will have plenty of time to talk once we get on the ship. But not out here. If I need to remind you we're still in enemy territory." Luke looked at Alice. "I'm gonna talk to Alice. Please don't kill each other when I'm gone."

Luna nodded. "Okay," she said sadly.

The pair watched as he walked over to Alice, and Lina glared at Luna once more. "I have nothing more to say to you... and I want nothing more to do with you." Whit that, she went to go sit with her teammates.

Luke took a knee next by Alice. "So what are you doing?"

"I'm seeing if I can use the parts of these MECs to create a new MEC." Alice sighed. "Listen Luke, since I don't work for ADVENT, I have to tell you something, ADVENT put me in charge of making a new MEC to take you out."

"What? XCOM? Well... that doesn't seem surprising."

"No I mean you psions. I think this place has something to do with my project. But since ADVENT betrayed me and left me to die, I'm sure they found someone to replace me. So once we get on your ship, I will be happy to tell your Commander everything about my work."

"That's good to hear." Luna stepped over to them. "Sorry... I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But I know our Commander will appreciate any help you can offer. Who knows? She might even off you a job."

"I would love to join XCOM, I will admit. Ever since your first appearance, I was always doubtful of ADVENT, but after your more recent broadcast, I decided that I wanted to help you, so I was hoping to seek you out. After all, with my skills I might be able to give you guys robots, and working with limited resources allows me to be more creative."

Luna nodded, and held a finger to her earpiece. "The recovery team is almost here to pick up our ADVENT friends here, Luke. I... I'll tell them that Alice here isn't one of them."

"Right, of course." Luke put his finger on his earpiece. "Recover team, this is Luke, we have five prisoners for you, and one engineer the red haired woman is not a prisoner you got that?"

The team arrived a few minutes later. The ADVENT soldiers were put in quick cuffs and escorted away, but Alice was treated as a recovered civilian. Some of the team even helped her carry some of the MEC parts onto the drop ship. As they prepared to take off, Luna softly said, "Luke... my sister." She sighed. "Can we keep her true identity between us for now. Besides the Commander, I don't want anyone else to know who she is."

"Yeah, fine. It wouldn't be the first time that family is on the other side of this war. The Commander is a great example of that, but I get it. I won't tell anyone about this."

"Thanks, Luke." Luna smiled. "Good luck dealing with two girls that have a thing for you."

"Hmm? Alice doesn't like me like that, she sees me more as a friend and the same goes for me. She was just overwhelmed to see me. Also... please don't tell Alexis about this at all."

Luna chuckled, and held her finger over her mouth. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Renewed Resolve
Part One

Holo-Room
October 11th, 2038
1100 Hours

The holographic representation of Yakone was as close to spot on as it could be. Right height, right weight (at least what was on file), and that smug smile on her face was close. But it didn't quite give off the same aura of confidence that was, in a way, both her best and her worse feature. What was exact, however, was the strength she exhibited when she slammed her fist towards Alexis. Knowing it was coming (it was the whole reason Alex was here, after all), Alex threw up another telekinetic shield. It glowed with a brilliant golden color, much more deep then the dull yellow from when she first got it. Hard light fist connected with psionic force, and it sent ripples through the shield. A huge crack split it in half, and Alexis' knees buckled, the young woman panting heavily as sweat dripped off her face and onto the floor.

"This is madness," her sister angrily stated, having stepped into the room unnoticed. "You've been at this for an hour. And for the past five days. Just because we got mom back doesn't mean you're allowed to kill yourself in here."

Alexis needed a minute to catch her breath before saying, "Good timing. I... I think there is... something off with... the hologram." She crawled over to the side of the room and chugged down a bottle of water. "I really don't think... it's hitting as hard as Yakone really can."

"You want it to hit you harder?!" Jennifer sighed and sat on the floor next to Alex, and took several deep breaths. "Just... please. Tell me why. Why this simulation? Why this intensive schedule? Why Yakone?"

Alexis smiled softly, wiping the sweat from her face over and over again to try and get all of it as it came. "I'm not... strong enough. Yakone is gone. And at first, I was thinking, 'if only I had been there'. But then I realized... so what if I was there? What good would I have been? I mean, I can't even compare to Yakone in a fight, so how would I compare to someone who could beat Yakone."

Jennifer gave her a sad look. "Alexis, please. You can't keep doing this to yourself. Getting depressed and saying you're not as good as Yakone, or Luke, or..."

Alex quickly shook her head, her smile remaining. "That's not what this is. I promise. You're right. Before, all that self defeating thoughts did nothing to help. So I figured, instead of letting those feelings of being weak get me down, why don't I use them to make me stronger? That's what this is." She waved a hand towards the holographic representation of her best friend. "I will never be able to beat Yakone in a fight. But... you don't always have to win to keep from losing. So if I can't beat her, or more accurately, Nouja, in offense, I'm going to do my damnedest to beat them in defense."

Jennifer gave her a small smile back. "But if you push yourself to hard, too fast, you'll break yourself."

"Please, sis... a little faith. It is all part of the plan." Alexis stood up, and swirled her fingers around. "It is all a swirl of things leading into other things. One form of training leading into another form. I have this hologram push me to my limits. It punches the crap out of my shields. With that, it pushed me to make stronger shields. I've also been work on reflexively shifting the power of my shields from the whole thing to points of impact. This tires me out. I'm forced to make more oxygen to help me breath, and biokinetically heal my soreness, strengthening those powers. I've also been practicing combining my powers."

Jennifer stood up with her, looking intrigued. "Oh? What are you doing with that?"

Alexis grinned proudly. "Hitting people with psi inspiration while healing them to make them feel good body and mind. Placing shields over wounds filled with oxygen to assist in my repair and production of new cells to increase the speed at which I do it. And adding an extra burst of oxygen to fires to give them an extra oomph."

Jenn frowned, and folded her arms. "That sounds dangerous."

The violet haired sibling chuckled. "Yeah, well... I'd be lying if I said my search for the right mixtures hasn't led to a few burns. But then I heal them! More training. And I swear, I leave enough energy to get to bed. No one has come to carry my collapsed butt to the infirmary yet, have they?"

"No... I guess not." Jennifer shook her head. "Fine. But... but I'm staying until you're done today. I want to watch how you train and nag at you for any mistakes."

"You got it." Alex turned to the holographic Yakone. "Just give me a little time, Yakone. I'm gonna be a wall of psionic energy when it comes time to save you. If I have to keep Nouja busy all by myself to get you back, so be it. Now come on. Hit me. And this time, put some energy into it."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Renewed Resolve
Part Two

1330 Hours

Morrigan's shots range out at the four targets. Two of them dropped before the other two disappear before she could hit them. "Damn it. Again."

Vysinni materialized next to her and shook his canine head. "How long are we going to keep this up?"

"Why, do you have a date to meet?" Morrigan gave the A.I. Worg a serious look. "Until we can consistently shoot down all those four targets in a row."

"You will not succeed," Vysinni said bluntly. "It is impossible for you, with your simple human reflexes, to..."

"I didn't say I," Morrigan interrupted. "I said we."

Vysinni snarled. "This is a waste of time. I operate at peak efficiency. If you need improvement, you do not need to drag me into it."

Morrigan placed her gun down and sat next to her holographic companion. "The problem isn't you... and the problem isn't me. It is us... as a team." She took a deep breath. "Yesterday, Merlux commented on how he doesn't trust you to be a team player. I heard it. And if I heard it, you heard it."

Vysinni looked away. "I... I do not care what the others think of me. They can dislike me all they want."

"I don't believe that," Morrigan said bluntly. "You are so easily offended, so quick to anger, and yet you said nothing. And then you met your Father, and you were awestruck. I think you want to be as important as all the positive A.I. emotions, but your own pride stops you."

"You..." He looked back at her. "You called him my Father. Surely... you don't believe..."

"I admit I'm still having trouble accepting the whole... living computers thing." Morrigan rubbed the back of her neck. "But... I'd be a fool not to see you and the other A.I.s are sentient. Now, I'm willing to accept you as an individual and a sentient being if you are willing to accept that you and I can be a team." She lifted her weapon. :Now, Stacie was able to take out four of those androids in a row thanks to her link with Merlux. I'm sure you and I can do the same. I am highly trained with firearms, both from here, and from my husband, and from military school. And you are just as advanced as any of the other A.I. If we start working as a team, instead of you just occasionally assisting me, and we develop our team work, we could be a force to be reckoned with. But I can't do this alone. So... please. Partners?"

Vysinni let out an angry growl, but instead of snapping out something about his superiority or his displeasure of being stuck with her, he gave her a smile (a very toothy, creepy dog smile). "As you said, we are not leaving here until we take down all four targets. Let's get to work."

-----

1600 Hours

Jack typed into the computer, attempting to make the program exactly to the specifications he was given. "Thanks, Jack," Ayame said. "Not really good with computers."

"So I've heard. Next time, though, I'm showing you how to do this yourself." He glanced over at her. "This seems pretty advanced. What's with the sudden urge to do this? Something happen?"

Ayame tapped her practice sword against her shoulder. "You know... yesterday, when we were fighting in the forest, I was thinking of all the things I could do to those robots. Shows of physical strength. Speed. Hell, that was my first chance in a while to use some of my Earth magic. But I didn't. I held back. I was worried the others would notice."

"But practically everyone here knows about you now," Jack noted. "So why hold back?"

"Exactly my point!" Ayame laughed. "Why did I hold back? This is the first time in... probably forever that I was with such a large group that knew my secret! So why hold back? There is no good reason!"

Jack studied her expression for a moment, confused. He then slowly smiled, and nodded. "I think I get it. You realized you don't have to hold back any more. You can go all out now."

"As much as I want." Ayame confirmed. "And boy, has it been a while. So... that program ready yet?"

Jack pressed a few more keys, and stepped back against the wall. The program placed Ayame in a field in the middle of a forest. She ducked into the treeline, and four ADVENT troopers, as well as a single Muton, manifested in the field. They started patrolling, carefully looking around in a human-like random matter.

The simulation was silent for five minutes while Ayame studied her prey, looking for exploitable patterns. Finally, one of the troopers suddenly disappeared into a bush, silently. It took a minute for the other simulations to realize that one of their own was missing. By then, Ayame as already on the other side of the field. She silently ran into the field and shoved her blade into the spine of another trooper. She was already running again by the time the others had turned around in response to the cry of pain, and her sword was in the chest of a third trooper as their weapons were raised. She kicked the dead trooper towards the remaining two enemies, most of their gun fire hitting him. Ayame jumped up, using the flying body to leap even higher. With a yell, Ayame slashed her sword as she fell past the final trooper, his head rolling to the ground.

The muton swung a fist at Ayame, and she ducked to avoid it. She swiftly kicked its weapon away, but the muton hit her arm, causing her to drop her sword. The holographic hologram went for a bear hug, but Ayame hit it with a drop kick, causing it to stumble back. "You're dead!" she yelled angrily, and jumped onto the Balmadaar's chest, holding on with one hand and thrusting her fist forward with the other. The creature's helmet and hardened skull buckled, and with its face collapsed in, it dropped, ending the simulation.

Ayame looked down at her fist as Jack walked over. It was bruised, and she would need to spend energy fixing the bones and muscles. Despite this, a big smile spread across her face. "This is gonna be sweet," she said excitedly.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Two Faces” - Part 1

Somewhere over Northeastern Asia
1724 Hours, October 11th, 2038
Onboard the Avenger
Floor 3, Central Block
Resistance Communications

The new and final facility to be built on the Avenger’s third floor was primarily lit by a circular blue-white overhead light. As the smooth gyroscopic machinery around the flat bulb spun, channeling power produced by the thermal current runoff of the auxiliary engines to the rest of the room, the light itself illuminated the rest of the equipment. Rising up from the left side of the chamber was a large line of NASA-grade CPUs that processed and stored the wealth of information the ship’s sensors picked up. On the right, a spinning, automated cylindrical processor combed the planet’s radio chatter. It filtered out and deleted useless noise, recognized and forwarded ADVENT communications to the intelligence team, and registered and stored Resistance correspondences for review by a human operator.

The current person manning that station was the brown-haired, blue-eyed, soft-spoken Ursula Hollins. She was not alone, however. The new recruit – silver-haired, hazel-eyed, confidence-exuding Emmeline Marshall Ashworth – was with her. The latter intelligence staff member and Phantom was working under the former ‘oracle’ of the South Marauders in order to better understand XCOM’s equipment.

“I di’ no’ doub’ tha’ XCOM was indee’ the foundehs of the RCN, but it is still awestrikin’ to see wha’ you are capable o’,” Emmeline applauded the organization and her tutor.

Ursula smiled sheepishly. “I appreciate the complement, but it’s really Dr. Shen you should be congratulating. She and her father came up with the concept of sneaking resistance comms into a bunch of radio chatter. And she, being the one to make it work, knows how to program a machine like this to filter the useful info out from the noise.”

“She’s a ve’y talente’ woman,” the Phantom conceded respectfully. And her knowledge must never fall into the wrong hands, she added silently. In the interest of precluding XCOM’s vital information from slipping into ADVENT’s clutches, Emmeline had gone to great lengths to create an encoding protocol for the chip in her head. The device was presently not sending or receiving any transmissions in order to avoid detection by this very facility. By studying the technology here, the intelligence agent hoped to be able to mask her messages to her superiors.

Despite her history of service to the Founders – to XCOM – Emmeline was not truly on their side. The nanochip – currently dissolved and concealed within her cranial fluids – was a biotechnological marvel created by the secret society to which Emmeline Marshall Episcopo belonged to. In the interest of not exposing her true identity to the psion beside her, Emmy did what she had done best for many years; the spy relegated her espionage objectives to the back of her mind and continued to live her life in her outward role.

“I’m grateful you’re takin’ the time to show me all this,” Emmeline continued from where she had left off a second ago, speaking with a practiced, faint, and in truth counterfeit Yorkshire accent. “Is everyone in XCOM so welcomin’?”

Ursula pondered that for a moment. “Well, not everyone, but for the most part people here are nice.”

“Anyone in particular you’d recommend I mee’?” Emmeline questioned. “I’m always up fo’ makin’ new f’iends.” And therefore ensuring no one suspects me of anything suspicious.

“Well… I’ve gotten along well with the members of Maverick Squad. Some of them can be… rough around the edges, but they’re all good people, and an integral part of the Avenger’s crew. That’d be a good starting point,” Ursula offered.

The spy smiled pleasantly. “That sounds excellen’. I’ll be sure to pay them a visit after we’re done here.” Emmeline continued to scrutinize the systems in the Resistance Comms until she was satisfied that she had gleaned all she could in one workday. With that objective accomplished, it was time to socialize.

The Gobi Desert, Mongolia
2124 Hours, October 11th, 2038
Onboard the Avenger
Level 2, Rear Block
The Bar

Olivia sat in one of the booths with the other five Mavericks, a slightly sheepish smile on her face wrought by the kind concern they were showing for her. “Really, guys… I’m doing better now, you don’t need to worry so much about me.”

Stacie, on the other hand, was rather distraught. “I didn’t mean to let it slip… I am so sorry, Oli,” the Gunslinger bemoaned miserably.

The Canadian woman she was apologizing to chuckled lightly. “It’s not that big of a deal… I just didn’t want them to worry any more than you were already concerned.”

Heinrich shook his head with an irritated sigh. “Well, we were already worried with all the disappearing acts you’d been pulling up until two weeks ago. And you still haven’t been showing up frequently to our get-togethers here. We were already worried.”

“I know. And Stacie has made it clear to me that I should let you all handle me more, instead of trying to face and endure everything on my own,” Olivia replied softly. “I’ll do better from here on, I promise.”

“You said you had been doing better. Can you elaborate?” Christoffer requested. “It’d help put my mind at ease to know for sure my second-in-command is okay.”

Olivia exchanged a questioning glance with Stacie. “Is it alright if I try and…?”

Stacie frowned. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea… we were doing it to try and help you overcome what you’re going through, but you don’t have to do that just to prove a point.”

Although he did not understand what specifically Stacie was talking about, Maxwell gave his opinion. “Do what you’re comfortable doing to answer Chris’s question, Olivia.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

"Two Faces" - Part 2

The Ambusher smiled at her Dominican friend. “Thank you, Max.” She closed her eyes for a moment. Please, rise. Behind her, Pavise slowly formed. The damage to the Reflection was gone, but it was now incomplete in a different way. His barrel-like body and dome-shaped head were cleaved down the middle, gently and peacefully trailing off into a wispy dust flowing into Olivia. As with before, Pavise only had one of his bubble-shaped hands remaining. Warily, Olivia opened her eyes, and looked upon the Reflection passed down onto her by Christine. Memories clawed at the corners of her mind, but with a deep breath and a quiet whisper to reassure herself, the soldier was able to prevent herself from being lost in the past, and therefore remained in the present.

Adam nodded in approval. “Men at some time are masters of their fates,” he quoted. “To banish the anxiety you have held about the legacy Christine left behind, you have taken control of yours.”

It was at the time that Olivia was offering her gratitude for the kind words that Emmeline arrived in the dimly-lit bar. Sighting the six seated around a single booth – Olivia, Stacie, and Christoffer on one side in that order, and Heinrich, Maxwell, and Adam on the other – Emmline made a point of approaching the table from the left in order to get a better view of Pavise. “Remarkable… that is…”

Olivia glanced over at the newcomer. “You can see it? This is Pavise, my… spiritual guardian, so to speak.”

Emmeline nodded. “I didn’t know tha’ XCOM ha’ anyone wi’ a Reflection until I saw the Commander’s in action. To think tha’ you have seve’al users…” I can’t imagine the director would be able to take on multiple psions and reflection-users at once, even with her bishop… a direct conflict with XCOM would be disastrous for us. “You all continue to impress.”

“Thank you, uh…”

“Emmeline Marshall Ashworth, at you’ service,” Emmeline named herself curtly. “I wairk in the intelligence departmen’, but I’ll be hittin’ the field as a Phantom in addition to tha’ civilian role.”

“You were that covert operative we picked up at the South Pole. I remember you,” Heinrich stated with a nod. “Maxwell would if he hadn’t been unconscious from bleeding like a pig.” The Grenadier shook his head, mumbling, “don’t scare me and your kids like that again man, Jesus…”

Maxwell chuckled, patting his friend on that back. “Is that concern I hear?”

Emmy smiled and chuckled softly in response. “I can see why Ursula ‘ecommended I meet you six. You certainly are lively.”

“Yep, that defines us pretty simply and accurately,” Stacie decided with a nod. “Why don’t you pull up a chair, Emmeline? We can get to know each other better.”

With a nod, the spy retrieved a seat, and plopped down eagerly into it. She received an introduction to each of the six members, filing away all that information for future use. In particular, she asked to know what each of them could do under the excuse that she would find the information useful in fighting alongside the team. Emmeline gained knowledge of the psionics of Christoffer and Maxwell, as well as being enlightened about the defensive capabilities of Olivia’s Reflection and the offensive boosts Stacie’s A.I. partner provided her. She didn’t need to know much about Adam’s telekinetic abilities, though her curiosity was piqued in regards to his genetic modifications.

“So they made you stronge’ than othe’ Shieldbea’ers?” Emmeline questioned with a twinkle in her eye. A nod. “Remarkable… an’ how di’ they do tha’?”

“Balmadaar DNA mixed with my own,” Adam answered gruffly.

Seeing he didn’t necessarily want to delve further into what the scientists had done with him, Emmy deftly pivoted to Heinrich. “Wha’ can you do?”

Heinrich rubbed the back of his neck, seeming a little embarrassed by the answer he had. “I’m a good scientist and demolitionist. I don’t have any special powers myself.”

Stacie shrugged. “It’s not that shameful, Rich… you’re like the Batman.”

Christoffer frowned. “Hey, that’s my job.”

“You cheated as soon as you got psi powers,” Heinrich retorted with a wry grin, capitalizing on the chance to deflect attention from his superpower inadequacies.

“Hey, maybe Bruce Wayne was psionic all along, and no one ever tested it…” Christoffer defended weakly, though buttressed his argument by adding, “would sure explain his crimefighting skills and superb detective work if he had ESP or something.”

“Speakin’ of detectives, I’m cu’ious…” Emmeline questioned, drawing the attentions of the others. “Is the’e anyone here othe’ than myself tha’ is skille’ wi’ investigation and such?”

Maxwell rubbed his chin. “Well… I don’t know of many people like that, but I have heard that Red Hawk fellow used to be involved with a detective agency. Seeking like minds?”

“It migh’ be interestin’ to mee’ him if I can fin’ the time fo’ I’,” Emmeline lied. Red Hawk, huh. I’ll have to make an effort to avoid undue attention from him.

Adam crossed his arms. “Why don’t you tell us about yourself? We’ve unveiled much to you, tis only fair that you do so in return.”

And so, Emmeline introduced herself. She explained that she had grown up in Yorkshire, and after losing a sister to the bloody island removal campaigns ADVENT had launched, she had decided to help the Resistance. First she operated from England, but eventually moved down to Germany and came under the employment of the Founders – XCOM – as a recruiting agent. She had continued to serve as an intelligence operative and spy until the call came for her to infiltrate the Network Tower itself. That was her final mission as a lone operative, and her introduction into XCOM.

As with any good lie, this was mixed with truth. Emmeline’s family had been hurt by the aliens and forced into hiding. But she was not English, and the family was neither from the United Kingdom nor composed of poor farmers. In fact, Emmeline had never spent a day of her life in the island she purportedly was from although she know much about it. Emmeline Episcopos had been programmed with a wealthy of knowledge while being artificially grown in a vat. She was a member of the clandestine, secretive society that was known to the few aware of its existence by a grandiose, one-word moniker:

Exalt.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Calico Cruelty” – Yakone Ipiktok

North American Continent
Former United States of America
Specifically, the Lower American Precinct
Chicago Megacity, October 12th, 2038
1407 Hours, Local Time

“-wake up already!”

Yakone’s eyes flashed open. The overhead lamp was on, causing her vision to blur from all the light that flooded in. Fucking hell, who are you and what do you want? she silently wondered.

“There we are,” the woman leaning against the wall spoke with a triumphant sneer.

She was dressed rather lavishly; a white fur scarf hung around the Advent soldier’s neck, accompanied by a finely-crafted animal pelt jacket covering her arms and shoulders. Her shirt – jet black in color – had a v-neck that hung low to show off, and her pants were a garish white. Her shoes were an equally-ostentatious silver, and shined due to the bright light. The most striking of all, however, was the fact that her hands were covered in an ebony fuzz, her fingers appeared to contain retractable claws, and her ears were located on either side of the crown of her head and were covered in fur. She had a tail that swished behind her, and the leering woman had piercing jade-colored feline eyes.

“Wakey-wakey,” the cat-alien taunted.

“God, you’re showy,” Yakone muttered irritably. “Should I know who the fuck you are?”

At that the woman’s grin possessed by superiority shifted to a frown composed of contempt. “If you can’t even recognize a member of the task force designed to take you down, it’s no wonder the Major handed your ass to you.” Crossing her arms, the sentient feline introduced herself as, “Anti-XCOM Elite Banshee Jezebel Procallae is who I am. You may refer to me by my codename, rebel. Address me by the title ‘Bombay’.”

Yakone weighed her options with a roll of her neck. “Nah, I’m going to call you Jezzy, I think. Or would you prefer ‘Kitty’?”

Jezebel scowled furiously, her ears twitching. “I’m going to give you four seconds to reconsider what you just said.”

The XCOM soldier rolled her eyes. “Come on, I’m being generous. Those are better than alien scum, r-”

“-four,” Bombay snarled, delivering a punch straight into Yakone’s solar plexis, blasting the breath out of the contemptuous prisoner.

The Ranger coughed and hacked for a few moments, before getting out mockingly, “y-you hit like a little bitch.”

With another utterance of rage, Jezebel unveiled her claws with a sharp noise not unlike a sword being unsheathed. “I’ve had enough of your insults,” Bombay spat at the wide-eyed Ranger. The Banshee lowered her talons over Yakone’s face. “Let me fucking teach you why you should keep your smart mouth shut.”

“J-jesus, it was only a-” Yakone started, but was cut off when Bombay slashed three deep lines across the left side of her face with frightening precision. Yakone let out a started shout of torment, shaking from the rush of adrenaline that tried and failed to dampen the intense pain. She could make no move to reach up and stem the steady stream of crimson, and that only made her discomfort worse.

Jezebel flicked the stray blood off her elongated fingernails. “Be thankful my superiors want you undamaged, or I would have put out your eye instead of just giving you some scars.”

Yakone gulped in a few shuddering breaths, botching any attempt to mask the fear Bombay had elicited from her. “They… won’t last.”

The feline smirked widely. “Oh, would you use your biokinesis to remove the marks? That would take some time, and that implies…” Bombay seized Yakone’s chin, tracing her claws over the other woman’s jugular. “…that you’re going to escape. You won’t,” Jezebel enjoined, “especially not if you gulp.” Seeing the terrified tears starting to form, the Banshee laughed with cruel satisfaction. “Aww, are you scawed?”

“P-please, stop,” Yakone pleaded, her pride abandoning her in the face of her tormentor’s wiles. Trying to appeal to reason, she continued, “Y-you’re not going to actually-”

“-kill you? Not intentionally, I did just say you were meant to be undamaged after all… buuut accidents do happen.” Jezebel pressed her fingers down by a degree, creating a stinging sensation as the top of the skin was partially cut into.

“d-don’t, please!” Yakone screamed.

“Don’t what?” the Banshee demanded. “Say my name.”

“Please don’t, Bombay!” Yakone cried out in concession.

Bombay removed her hand from Yakone’s neck, and patted her condescendingly on the head. “That’s better,” she told the prisoner sweetly. “Don’t call me an alien again either, and we’ll get along swimmingly if you’re nice and obedient.”

Finally able to swallow, and suppress some of the signs of her intimidation, Yakone quickly questioned, “you’re not one? But…”

Throwing her hands up in exaggerated, self-indulgent exasperation that caused Yakone to tense, Jezebel complained, “By the Elders themselves, you Resistance punks don’t know anything at all, do you?” Bombay leaned forward, locking her feline gaze with Yakone’s midnight green orbs. “No, the truth of the matter is that your pet has become the master. Myself and my lesser ‘Mogul’ brethren are housecats evolved to a higher level than you humans, using your own DNA to boot.” Jezebel rubbed her chin. “I do actually like the moniker you gave us… though in my case I wouldn’t be a Mogul, I’d be more of a Queen.”

“Psionic… cats? I’m not sure I believe you,” Yakone mumbled.

“Oh, but it’s true whether you accept it or not. Now,” Bombay transitioned, “it’s time I got down to the reason I’m here.” The evolved feline produced a pair of images captured from her helmet-cam. They depicted Olivia and Stacie. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about these two.”

Yakone’s features whitened. “No, I can’t.”

Bombay narrowed her eyes. “Can’t, or won’t?”

“Both, dammit!”

Jezebel bared her claws again, but was internally frustrated (she didn’t give Yakone the satisfaction of seeing her features contort) to see that while the sight of the talons still evoked fear in the still-bleeding Ranger, this was something Yakone was willing to be stubborn about. “Fine then, I hope you enjoy the Truthseeker Prime I brought with me ripping the information out of your head.” The door opened, and a Sectoid Guru stepped into the Chamber, approaching Yakone and placing a psi-armored palm on her forehead.

Yakone started down the black-eyed alien defiantly, despite the dryness in her throat and the blood running down her face. “You’re no Declension. We’re going to be here awhile.”

Jezebel rolled her eyes. “Such pointless defiance.” GD-01246, please make this painful, she silently requested of the Priorbus.

Noting Bombay made no move to leave, the alien stated, This may indeed take some time. You may wish to leave.

No, Jezebel rebuffed, smiling slightly. I want to watch.

Acquiescing to her desire, the Guru plunged a mental drill through Yakone’s mind, and began.

***​

By the time the Sectoid had finished, Yakone’s face was drenched in sweat mixed with now-dried blood. Her throat was hoarse from screaming, a response she had given up on after the first ten minutes. Three quarters of an hour had passed, and now Bombay had gotten the intel she desired. “Olivia’s triggered by her own Reflection? Oh, that’s just rich,” Jezebel squealed in delight. “And Stacie is as stubborn as you. Thank you for the intel. It’ll come in handy when I kill those friends of yours for shooting me up,” Bombay gratefully told Yakone with a sardonic tone. She snapped her fingers. “Let’s go, GD.” The cat and alien departed, leaving Yakone alone with her pain, and her shame.

 

[MarineAvenger]

MarineAvenger and DarkGemini24601: “Our Daily Lives” - Part 1

Kyushu, one of the Islands of Japan
0726 Hours, October 12th, 2038
Onboard the Avenger
Floor 5, Central Block
The Living Quarters

Kai looked at the beans in front of him sitting next to the coffee cup, poking the broken pieces - a bit bored. He knew that around the world the Avenger did a lot of trading for essential goods and the large amounts of coffee they had gotten seemed like a godsend for most, but he didn’t seem to think so. He was never big on the drink, not because he hated the taste, but just rarely found time for it. Waiting for his mentor, he was trying a little experiment with his secret friend. It won’t work.

Yes it will! You haven’t even attempted it! The Kami of healing and rain noted in an exacerbated way, shifting into a state of prolonged pouting done for the sole purpose of annoyance.

Because it isn’t going to work. It can’t given the circumstances. Kai retorted, scooping up the cut in half coffee beans and stared at them.

Beans are just as organic as flesh. Come on, do what you do best! You never know. It might be a success.

Kai groaned, lifting up his hand, holding his free one above the beans. Psionic tendrils of green colored rolled out of his hand, only visible to him at the moment as the small objects floated in the air. There was no feeling of life in the processed plant that he could feel but never the less he slowly fitted the pieces together where they belonged. Using a delicate process, he tried mending them back together. A small bead of sweat formed as he sat there for a good few minutes, and he finally set down the beans, now completely whole once more.

See. Told you it was possible. The goddess gloated proudly.

Kai remained silent, grabbing his cup and stirring the contents within to resist the want to tell her ‘shut up’.

It was at this time that Kazuko’s friend and mentor stepped into the room. He carried with him a steaming mug of coffee in one hand, and a clipboard in the other. Robert walked over to the couch across from Kai and sat down, placing the bound paper onto the desk, glancing over it as he drank from his mug. “Good morning, Kai,” he addressed the younger man across from him after a few moments.

The head doctor rose an eyebrow, looking at the clipboard and up at Tygan. “Planning to interrogate me?” He asked light-heartedly.

Robert raised an eyebrow in response. “No,” he replied a bit incredulously, “I am simply multitasking. I’ve been making excellent progress with my study of the pulse weaponry utilized by the alien machines.” He eyed the signature reading “Y. Ipiktok” at the bottom right of the paper before him. “That, along with a few creative ideas from others, means that I must ensure that we keep moving forward to reach our target.”

“More exciting than my affairs at least. Our time in Antarctica allowed me to… get in contact with some rather sympathetic people who were hiding out under ADVENT’s nose in the megacities.” From his tone, the news was not good.

“I see.” Robert placed his cup down. “And what did you find out?”

Kai looked at his cup and chuckled. “That I uh… am all alone.” The Japanese man sagged a bit, looking into the dark liquid of the caffeinated beverage. “Grandparents were natural. Mother… she perished during the rebellion all those years ago. Ironic that it was the rebels, not ADVENT who did it. I think that’s what hurts the most.” He explained sadly, but in a way the tone of his words was flat. Obviously he had time to mull over the information himself.

“These are the realities of war,” Tygan spoke quietly, folding his hands together. “Only our youngest of members, who know little of what the world was like before the invasion are unaware that no side in a conflict is perfect. Mistakes are made, and sometimes even a more favorable party commits contemptible actions.”

“Guess uh… is it morbid to think they got just punishment for being put down? I don’t know. That point makes me feel conflicted.” Kai admitted to his friend, then sighed, shaking his head. “Sorry, this isn’t what you came here to talk about. I’ve been dealing with it. It isn’t your problem.”

“You’d be partially correct. The reason I invited you here is to speak with you about how you’d been… to discuss idle things such as our daily lives. I did not expect to receive tragic news, but I am not unwilling to cover the issue if you feel speaking about it would help clear your mind,” Tygan elaborated evenly.

“Not really much to cover, you know? It’s done… I’ve had time to… come to terms. Not that it particularly feels good. I just wish the last time we had talked wasn’t almost over a decade ago. I held out hope for a long while. I’d much rather had been left ignorant then having to deal with the loss.” The doctor admitted with a hint of desperation.

“I must respectfully disagree that you would find bliss in ignorance,” Robert replied with a shake of his head. “One way or another - eventually - you would have found out the truth. No one can shield themselves from actuality forever.”

“I hate how you are right. You have a bad tendency of being that a lot.” The Japanese man put his cheek in his hand and sighed. “What sucks more is I am home but can’t truly go home. So close, but so far, huh?”

“The majority of us had that experience during the early parts of our campaign. Ultimately, the Avenger is home until this is all over,” Robert stated with a sigh. “I am resigned to that fact. Though I would posit that what makes a place feel ‘right’ is the people in it. For the large part, the associates I work with here help to ease any homesickness I might have.”

“Well, unfortunately for me the medical staff is much, much smaller than yours. And many of us just keep to our own patients. Not the proper place for many friends. Though some of my patients are recurring, much to my chagrin.”

“Perhaps you should work to expand the scope of acquaintances you have, then,” Robert suggested.

“Well I can try at least.” Kai said with a slight nod, then said, “There was that rather… gruff guy I met before. Luke. And then there is Jenn, who seems to find me enjoyable to be around. Leo, Gwen… others I don’t know. I still need to work on being around women at least. Still have yet to break the phobia.”

“Well, as with most fears, I think the best therapy will have to be exposure,” Tygan returned.

“That’s what I hate the most. Usually all of them make fun of it. They can’t seem to understand why a guy would be afraid of women. I;ve been called gay more than once,” he joked with a short laugh.

“Then find some that don’t react in that manner. I doubt all women on this ship would respond like that,” Tygan specified with a shrug.

“No… know any good ones yourself that you could recommend?” The doctor inquired bit hopefully.

Robert closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. “The second-in-command of Maverick Squad is quite calm and civil, so I’ve heard… and from personal experience, the Lachepelle sister would not care about such things. I have plenty of respect for my fellow chief of staff as well of course. You know Lily, don’t you?”

Kai paled a bit and chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I know her. Though we never said much other than business stuff. Especially because Sukuna likes her so much and is determined to sabotage me when the two of us meet.” Kai explained, glancing off to the side as he knew in his head she had a grin. “I do like her though despite that.”

“Well, provided you could pry away the doctor from her work, perhaps you could spend more time with her. As for your… ‘Goddess’, well, I’d imagine you’re used to her proddings in your head by now.”

“Prying her away should be easy enough. Do you know when she stops working?” Kai raised his eyebrow when he asked the question.

“Much like her so-called ‘soul-sister’, Shen prefers to begin her day rather early on the morning. She usually wraps up around 6 in the evening because of that,” Tygan informed him.

“I suppose I can take off work to try and go see her. I’ve been non-stop for months so I suppose taking a day off is not out of the question. Only if you truly think she will… accept this better. I remember her being rather put off by my gynophobia.” The doctor noted warily.

“She also despised me in the past. Things change,” Tygan responded simply.

Kai let out a slight chuckle that was muffled by his closed mouth and finally he nodded. “Fine. I’ll do it. If you think this exposure will really do the trick.”

“I know that doing nothing will do nothing. Give it a shot,” Robert encouraged him.

With an uncomfortable looked Kai nodded and drank his coffee, thinking on what he should wear when he went to see the engineering head.