RP XCOM2: Liberation of Earth

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 2

New York City, The United States
May 3rd, 2018
1900 Hours

New York City was in flames. About an hour ago, attacks on the prominent US city commenced by alien forces. Transport craft dropped off swarms of previously unheard-of aliens, monstrous quadrupedal creatures with sharp claws for limbs and chitin plating. They were accompanied by the alien Drones, the mutilated Floaters - believed to be a cyborg version of the Mutons - in addition to strange new machines that seemed to be firing rail-accelerated bullets.

X-COM was sent to respond. Four separate dropships touched down in the city at about the same time, accompanied by a set of evac dropships - on loan from the US government - each. The purpose of the X-COM troops presence was clearly laid out for them: this was a rescue mission to hopefully keep the United States in the project despite whatever results the attack on this city might have. They couldn’t hope to fight all of the enemy themselves. Especially not when the bestial attackers seemed to be… multiplying.

Out of one particular dropship, four X-COM troopers stormed out, guns at the ready. There was the Sniper Atka Ipiktok, armed with a Laser Strike Rifle and Laser Pistol. Along with her was the Assault Desmond Walker, armed with a laser rifle and pistol and the Heavy Kris Smith, wielding a shiny new Laser LMG. The fourth member was the squad leader, Madelyne Wheeler, a Support with a Laser Carbine.

“Remember, our priority is to save whatever civilians we can. We should only focus on the enemy if they stand between us and the noncombatants,” Madelyne asserted, her eyes darting from place to place as she spoke, confirming for herself that they weren’t going to be shot at immediately. Luckily, that seemed to be the case.

“So… anyone else startled by the reports of what those new aliens are doing to the populace? I honestly hope it isn’t true.” Desmond said, for the first time actually seeming a bit shaken.

“I can’t say it fills me with a warm and fuzzy joy, but we should be prepared for anything,” Atka responded, placing her marksman rifle on her back so she could move and fire with her pistol.

Desmond checked over his weapon for what seemed like the twentieth time, the helmet he was wearing covering his worried expression, but his stiff way of walking conveyed it enough. “Let’s just be over with this as quickly as possible.”

As the team of four advanced town the street they had landed on, they encountered their first contacts. A trio of Floaters was firing upon a building, blowing holes in the side of it in an attempt to melt the civilians trapped inside. Atka quickly moved behind a pile of rubble, and stashed her pistol in its holster, bringing her long-range rifle to bear. “Get in a little closer and then I’ll kick this off,” the sniper suggested. As the others found cover close to the distracted fliers, Atka’s strike rifle fizzed, and a laser tore through the engine of the furthest Floater, sending them careening into a concrete sidewalk.

Kris opened fire with his LMG while Madelyne lined up a shot, but the former only served to make the other two aliens scatter, doing little to no damage to them. Desmond lined up his shot and fired, only scathing a Floater due to his shaky hands, but he quickly took a deep breath as he turned his gun to the other flying in the opposite direction but this time hit home, killing it.

Madelyne’s shot stabbed through the last one, blasting it out of the sky. She wasted no time in moving up, waving backwards to the previously-trapped civilians. “Dropships are that way! Get out of here!” The terrified New Yorkers didn’t think twice about the offer or the strange weapons the X-COM operatives had come with, fleeing in the direction the team had come from.

As more and more people fled out of the building, Desmond moved in to make sure everyone was out. He called it out and moved in a bit farther, and stopped dead in his tracks as there was the soft pattering of feet coming from up above him. “I think we got movement upstairs guys.” He called out. “Sounds like a lot of people too. I think they may be stuck.”

“Alright, we’ll just have to-” Atka began, before the window above shattered, and out rolled a man who had twin holes through his lungs. The ghoulish civilian lunged sluggishly at Desmond.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” He exclaimed, stepping back as he unloaded lasers into the ghoul’s chest, causing it to fall to the ground, still slowly crawling. “What the hell is that… thing?”

Atka seemed frozen for a moment, trying to calm her mind. “I… I have no idea…” A subsequent clatter resounded from the upper floor, and she didn’t fall prey to the same trick. Moving backwards, she caught a set of three violet arachnid creatures burst out of a window, each a floor above the last, and leapt down at the team. With a collective shout of surprise, Atka, Madelyne, and Kris opened fire on them. Kris and Madelyne tore through one of them, and Atka missed the second as it dashed at her while the other seemed to want to finish the job it’s zombie started.

Desmond fired only a few shots into the alien before his clip seemed to be empty and he fell back, drawing his Laser Pistol and sent a few calculated blasts into the purple thing’s face, causing it to leave a trail of goo as it slid to a stop in front of him. “Atka!” He yelled in warning.

The Inuit woman didn’t seem to have time to swap out her laser strike rifle for a pistol as the alien was upon her, and instead she tried to mindfray the creature. To her horror, it seemed to reel for a moment, but then raised its claws, able to overcome the mental attack. Then - with a blue glow around her hands that not only Desmond could see - the Chryssalid stumbled onto its back, its hind legs frozen to the ground.

Madelyne was surprised, but she didn’t let that cost Atka her life, drilling a laser into the creature’s skull that left it writhing, and Kris finished it off with a semi-overkill laser spray.

“Damn it… what is going on in this damn city?” Desmond asked after an extended period of silence, reloading his rifle.

“Hell if I know,” the heavy replied, replacing his exhausted charge pack with a fresh one. From the second-floor window, a civilian stumbled into view - another zombie - only to hold his chest in pain for a moment before a chryssalid ripped itself out of his body. Reflexively, Atka and Madelyne fired at the newly-born alien, taking it down. Another period of silence followed, before Kris added, “I suppose that explains how they’re multiplying.”

Desmond shook his head slowly, pushing himself to not hunch over and hurl. “This is one of the most populated cities in the world. If they multiply by people, this may be more trouble than any of us realized.” The Assault said, looking around.

“I’m not even sure we can stop them if there are many more…” Atka muttered. “We… we have a job to do though. We can’t back down just because there’s a risk we might not succeed.”

“Should we uh… burn any bodies we come across?” Desmond asked Madelyne with an apprehensive look.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 3

Madelyne frowned, and lifted a hand to the side of her helmet. “Central, do we have any other confirmation of these bugs? Any idea how long it takes for them to morph bodies?”

“Strike One, we lost contact with Strike Two to a pod of those… things. One on the members was killed and the bugs must have implanted… something into the body. Satellite feed showed it took around two minutes for incubation to bursting. The… entire team was caught off guard.” Bradford confirmed to the squad. “Current position shows a large group of Shamblers to your east, so I would avoid taking that route.”

“Shit…” Atka swore under her breath. “What are we supposed to do then?”

“Likely our objective is more geared towards evacuating as many people as we can, and holding back the enemy tide until the local military can save more people and try and beat these things back,” Madelyne offered grimly.

“Risk our lives over a few people? That sounds…” Kris began.

“Every life matters,” Atka spoke up adamantly. “The minute we start considering people expendable… no matter how painful it might be to lose them… is the minute we give up.”

Madelyne nodded. “Agreed. Let’s keep moving, Strike One.”

Desmond put a hand on Kris’ shoulder and shrugged as he took point and moved with the squad to the back door, the Assault kicking it open and stepping out into an alley, looking down both ways. He looked the area over and an idea popped into his head. “Atka, you’ve gotten better at climbing, right?”

“I have…” The sniper smiled slightly, seeing where Desmond was going with this. “I can take up a position on a rooftop.” She glanced around. “Where do you think would be best for that?”

“Well… we got two ways down an alley.” He started explaining. “If I give you a boost, you could probably reach that fire escape up there and help us choose a route. Can you reach if I help push you?” Desmond asked seriously, not making a height joke.

“If not…” Atka held up her hand, forming ice tentatively in it. “I have a new ability that should do the trick. Let’s do it.”

Desmond positioned himself under the fire escape and put his hands together to make a foothold for Atka, and he opened a private channel saying, “Keep safe will you?”

“I will,” Atka promised, boosting herself up to the ladder and darting up it. As she neared the top she paused to grab her laser pistol, and then vaulted over the ledge. Seeing nothing, she put away the sidearm and drew her marksman rifle. The sniper went to the opposite ledge of the building, kneeling down by a ventilation shaft and searching the streets for any contacts.

There appeared to be a pileup of cars that were blocking off the streets around the right side of the building that would make advancing hard, and from the left, there was a pack of five of the new aliens going around and making sure everything was still dead, two of the walking dead bolstering their ranks. Down below, Desmond checked his remaining equipment, still having his HE grenade and medkit handy, though with what damage some of the aliens could deal, he wondered if it was smart bringing the medical equipment.

Atka’s voice broke the silence over the army of four’s comms. “I’ve got five more of those spider-things, along with two of their zombies,” she reported, speaking of the undead still feeling odd despite the fact that they were fighting aliens. “Right side of the street is blocked up with cars, the pack’s on the left.”

“Got it.” Desmond confirmed, looking to Kris. “Still got that incendiary grenade?”

The Heavy grinned. “Just give me a target.”

Desmond nodded and he moved down the alley with Kris right behind and Maddy trailing back a bot for support, and the assault peaked his eyes out. “If you throw that baby right in the middle of the pack, I get to work my magic… psionics… whatever, you get the point.”

“Alright, Magus Walker. Kill us some walkers.” Kris chuckled at his own joke as he tossed the incendiary grenade, lighting the chryssalids and their companions alight - save for two of the arachnids on the far left. While the others panicked, those two rushed for the offending X-COM operative.

Desmond stepped out and he held out his hands as he reached out and began taking control of the fire, his eyes glowing as he began weaving the fire into spirals and brought them soaring at the two aliens like twin dragons that enveloped the chitin plated monsters as they passed, Desmond weaving the two in a circle that made a small flame cyclone to clean up the refuse left behind before he dispersed the psi fire.

The rest of the burning enemies were little more than a shooting gallery, and were mopped up the sniper atop the rooftop along with the support on the ground. Unfortunately, while they were doing well…. “Strike One, this is Central. Strike Four is down, repeat, team four is down. Floaters in the AO overwhelmed them while supporting US Marines to evacuate a busy block. Unfortunately, those Floaters are heading your way.”

Madelyne nodded. “We need to keep moving, then! If they wiped out a team equipped just as well as us, even with two psions I’m not sure we could hold out without severe casualties. Times Square is up ahead I think. If we can secure that, we can evacuate one of the most populated centers with aid from the military.”

“Let us hope that Time Square is not overrun yet then.” Desmond said, taking his weapon back out. “I know a shortcut there.”

“Lead the way then,” the squad leader offered, reloading her carbine to cover the assault.
“Yo, Atka! Gonna come join the party?” He called up to the roof as he began leading the other two towards a grouping of buildings.

The sniper made her way down the ladder, getting halfway before trying something out: she created a slide of ice to hasten her return to the group. “Was making sure we hadn’t stirred a hornet’s nest there.”

“Thanks for watching our ass. Nice for a brief role reversal.” He joked, nudging her arm as he began running. “We cut down the next two alleys and then through an old music store and we should be right at the square.”

“Right.” Quieter, Atka asked. “How do you do it? Stay upbeat, despite everything? I thought I could be like that at one time… but I never experienced loss on a level I have here. My casualties were always low.”

“I grew up here Atka.” Desmond told her. “Seeing this city burn scares me shitless. But… If I am going to die in this shithole, I don’t want my last memory to be of me sniveling scared. Would rather know I enjoyed it till the end.”

Atka smiled weakly. “Well, you’ve certainly grown from the scared rookie I met at the start of all of this.”

“You’ve grown too. None of us would be alive if not for your being around.” He said to her encouragingly. “Maddy may be the brains, and Kris the brawn, but you are our soul. Never forget it.”

“I won’t,” Atka replied, rounding the corner into Times Square. Down the street, a horde of Floaters - too many to count - was approaching as discernible from a mass of jetpack engine smoke. “Dear God…”

“Atka… how much energy you got left?” Desmond asked slowly.

“I don’t feel tired, but… I’m not sure how many of them I could hit with my power. Don’t tell me you… exhausted most of yours with that display,” Atka questioned apprehensively.

“You kidding? I feel like a million bucks. Time for a Mount Saint Helens part two… wanna help?”

“What do you need me to do?” Atka asked with a raised eyebrow.

“We need… to build… a wall.” Desmond ordered as if he was coming up with the plan on the spot.

“You want me to make that out of a power I just learned.” Atka said in disbelief.

“Well you know what? Throw spikes at them or something, and I can try out a new move of mine.” He argued.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 4

“If you insist,” Atka replied, setting up her laser strike rifle in an optimal piece of cover below a billboard and preparing a sheet of ice in front of her.

“Now… aim for a big cluster, and I will take care of the rest!” Desmond told Atka as he threw his rifle to Kris and took in a deep breath. The Floaters came into effective range of Atka’s marksman rifle, and two of their swelled numbers fell before they were close enough for Madelyne and Kris to open fire. Along with that extra laser fire Atka sent a flurry of ice spikes the fliers’ way, some hitting home and doing minimal damage and others going up exhaust ports and blowing up jetpacks - and their wearers. Still the horde pressed forward.

Desmond looked at the Floaters Atka hit with her ice and he smiled, the red psion holding up his arms once more as he concentrated power. Soon, one of the spikes began glowing brightly as it exploded like a mine, sending fire and what ice shrapnel didn’t melt into the nearby floaters, one after another, the spikes blew up in a firework show of destruction, but after a while Desmond fell to one knee, the explosions coming more slowly.

Fortunately, as Atka deployed a smoke grenade to try and shield Strike One from a hail of plasma fire, help arrived. Several military helicopters flew into view, gatling gun fire causing the Floaters to scatter as Marine/ deployed to the ground and moved to assist. Desmond chuckled tiredly, his vision swimming a bit as he fell to his side, his mind hurting like someone took a railroad spike to his skull. Due to this, Atka went to his side. "So much for having plenty of energy left," she muttered audibly despite the clamor of the firefight.

"Agh... Don't rub it in!" Desmond painfully groaned as he grabbed his head. "Never channeled that much energy before is all."

"Well..." Atka paled. "We may still need you." In the direction she was looking, a trio of airdropped soldiers fell to a stream of yellow energy. The perpetrator, an unfolded gray alien disk with complex internals, turned its attention to the XCOM team.

"After this... Me and you are taking the next week off." The man complained as he picked himself up with his weapon and with the help of Atka moved to cover.

"If only that were an option." Atka grimaced. "Doubt mindfray's going to do much to that... but if it has any hydraluics maybe I can freeze it." A laser spray highlighted the barrier to that plan.

"Easier said that done!" Madelyne helpfully pointed out, her and Kris hitting the Cyberdisc's shell as it closed up after its latest burst of fire, doing minimal damage.

"How the hell are we supposed to damage that thing?" Desmond asked Atka. "We would need to get close to do anything."

"I could if I had a distraction of some sort... Doubt my flashbang will suffice. You have any nades left?"

Desmond handed his High Explosive grenade to the woman. "You better not be thinking of doing something that will kill you..." Desmond warned.

"Don't plan to. Just light it up for me!" Without waiting for further argument Atka tossed the grenade, blowing it up on contact with the Cyberdisc to preoccupy it for a moment while she charged forward, jumping onto the low-flying machine as it opened up.

The two drones flanking it shot at her, and one hit, singing her back. The sniper gritted her teeth and poured ice into the cracks of the machine, causing the disc to seize up and collide with the ground. Satisfied, Atka leapt off it and blasted the drone that had hit her with a pistol shot. Desmond fired and shot the second drone out of the air above her as the drone was aiming for a kill shot and he let out a sigh of relief.

The Marines seemed to handle the rest of the Floaters, and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity Times Square was quiet again and the civilians there were evacuated. A separate transport soon came for the X-COM operatives, though surprisingly when the hatch opened up, Bradford stepped out, this being the first time anyone seen him kitted out for battle, the British man approaching the four. "Heard you guys needed a ride back home."

Atka nodded, though her expression was a mixture of surprised and perplexed. "What about the other team?" Her expression slowly gave way into dread. "We're... the only one that made it... huh?"

"It is why I wanted to come personally. Strike One was our only assault team to make it. The... Council... Is calling this a successful mission despite the... circumstances." Bradford told Atka with an eaual amount of dread and fury.

The Inuit sniper nodded slowly. "At the very least... we saved some people. They're trying to save face."

"I do not know..." Bradford muttered, looking around. "I do not count this a success... We lost three entire squads, and their equipment with them."

"Do we even have a way of replenishing that manpower and firepower?" Madelyne mumbled.

"We're trying, but no doubt this attack will have shaken up North America... And that doesn't make things any easier. For now... I am here to get you home, that is all that matter currently." Bradford said to the squad. "Strike One move out."

 

[MarineAvenger]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 5

X-COM Headquarters
May 5th, 2018
2000 Hours

A man stood encircled by a group of men and women, a small group but a group none the less, the man himself young looking, with a shaved head and a smooth face that indicated he hadn’t shaved a day in his life. He had a beer bottle in hand and every time he turned to look at a different part of the crowd, a little flew out the top. “So there my unit is, being moved out of Harlem after it fell, and we all assumed that we would be going back to base for some R and R while the next division moved in, but suddenly we get this order of a mass evac going down in Time Square, and of course we all groaned but get this man…”

The ex-Marine, now newest X-COM soldier took a swig of his beer and he laughed as he continued. “So our helicopter takes a sharp right after a collective groan from our weary unit, and I shit. You. Not. We come around and there is this small group of people with those crazy laser weapons, and one of the women I think is hurling ice at these large swarm of those Floaty guys and as they get hit the damn things explode like they were filled with Napalm!”

Having finished his beer, he placed it down on a nearby table and he clapped his hands together once. “So as we are seeing this you could see all the heads just poke up one by one, and this shit was amazing dude, and they start dropping the ropes and tell us to get down there and help out, so we do, one after another, and we start hammering into those flying guys. Sure enough we send them into a full retreat and get the civvies into the evac ships and save the freaking day, no joke. After that, I went to my superior officer, slammed my fist on the table and said, ‘I want in!’ and that is how I ended up here, with the League of Amazing Badasses, doing my part to represent my small corner of the world. Story over.”

The man did a mock bow and from the crowd a man chuckled and called out, “Bullshit Johnny, you did not slam your hand on his desk. Those officer types would have your ass stamped and sent home with a ruler whacked across the back of your hand!”

The group seemed to laugh and even the Marine was as well, who waved his hands dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, but you really want to hear about a twenty minute tale of how I had to butter him up to put me through?”

“Depends, were you on your knees begging and praying to get accepted? Heard you Marine guys like that sort of stuff.” There was another collective laugh.

“Yeah, fuck you too buddy, we aren’t as bad as your French army though. What, you sit around knitting all day? Or, what?” When there was no response the group broke out again, some having to step away before they passed out from laughing so hard. “Yeah, nothing to respond? Get the fuck outta here man, you lost this roast.”

The French soldier flipped him off with a smirk as his two buddies started elbowing him and throwing teases as the small group dispersed to go back to what they were all doing, the mood from the room having gone from defeatist gloom with actually a few smiles being flashed.

Desmond rolled his eyes with Joe next to him, the red psion chuckling. “Was it that cool?” He asked as he shook his head. “I don’t remember it being as badass as that, only the wicked headache I had after I did it.”

“Cool is in the eye of the beholder,” Joe answered. “For some, it comes from just being flashy, and your abilities are the definition of flashy, in that us mere mortals can see it. For others, like myself, it all has to do with the results of your actions. And considering the lives you saved… yeah. Pretty cool.”

“Yeah, a couple hundred or thousand evaced and ten times as many dead or turned into those Shamblers. Yeah, seeing my home city burn feels like a real A+ on the report card there.” Desmond grumbled to him.

“Yeah… I know, Desmond.” Joseph took a slow swig of beer. “It doesn’t feel like a win , huh? Especially with the… the number of soldiers we have left. But at least it was a win, right?”

“Maybe. I sometimes wonder though…” Desmond began but then stopped.

“Wonder what?” Joe smiled at him. “Don’t hold back on me now.”

Desmond’s look falled a bit and he narrowed his eyes, leaning forward with a dark look. “I sometimes wonder the price of what we are fighting for. How far we have to scrape by for peace. What… lengths are we willing to go? I know for myself… anything is better to keep peace than war. Sometimes things must change. The less people who die, the better. This war has already taken too much.” He slowly looked over to Joe. “Tell anyone what I have just said and I will not hesitate making you extra crispy.”

Joe slowly took another drink. “I’m not sure I appreciate your sense of humor right now, Desmond. Besides… I’m no snitch. But… do I have a reason to snitch. I mean… we’re just two guys, enjoying a drink and talking about various crap, right?”

‘Yeah, but people are paranoid. They will do anything if you say the wrong thing.” Desmond gave a small smile. “But yeah, just two guys drinking, right?”

“Do mind if we talk about a few hypotheticals, Desmond?” Joseph asked.

“Go for it.” Desmond told him, downing his entire drink and pouring a new one.

“Let’s say… the aliens said that there would be an end to this war… and all we have to do is bow to their whim. Would that be better than fighting for our free will?”

 

[MarineAvenger]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 6

“Our free will?” Desmond asked. “How much free will do you think we already have? Here, we serve under officers, a Commander, and most of all the Council. In your normal life you are a slave to your job, or family, or any other commitments that hold you down. Anything and everything takes away free will Joe, and that is all I am saying before we get into a pointless philosophical debate about if we have free will or not. I am here to save lives. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less. I have seen too much here to really care either way.”

Joseph nodded. “So why continue? It seems a bit pointless at this point, especially the way you put it. Why not try and walk away? Why not give in to the aliens? If free will is an illusion, might as well side with the ones that are about to win, right?”

“Because of Atka, and Kris, and Maddy, and everyone else. I am still not at the point entirely where I am ready to give up. Would take something drastic to fully destroy my resolve for this initiative. Besides, I have nothing to go back to. All family is dead, and I don’t have any possessions. X-COM was a chance. In fact, it was really the only choice I had for a life.” Desmond explained, sitting back. “I wonder about Atka though…”

“What about Atka?” Joe gave him a worried look. “You afraid she doesn’t have what it takes or something?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love the woman to death. She is my life. My fear though is that she will or has invested herself too much into this fight. That war and winning will become the most important thing to her, and that everything else would take a back seat. Everything.” The man had a worried look, showing that he counted himself among that long list.

“Atka fights for us all, including you. She wants an end to this war as much as any of us.” Joseph leaned back in his seat, giving Desmond a serious look. “This war will not go on forever. One way or the other, it’ll end. And she’ll need someone to help her move past it, especially if she gets too invested. The question is, will that someone be you?”

“We will see I guess. See how much more this war is willing to take from us before I know that answer.” He scratched his head, and out of the blue, Desmond asked, “You think she is the motherly type? I mean… honestly?”

The Council Rep was a little caught off guard. “Um… I-I don’t know. Not really… the one… maybe? She seems the kind who likes to take care of others.” He laughed. “My future wife and current mother of my children would be the better person to ask, but if you do, she’ll probably blab to Atka.”

“I don’t know if I am really a father type. I feel I would be horrible at it.” Desmond said, running a hand through his hair.

“Why?” Joe asked bluntly. “Is this negative self assumption based on something tangible, or are you just putting yourself down for the sake of negativity?”

“All parents in my family were shitty. My Dad and Mother, their parents, and most likely the parents before them. I blame them for how my brother turned out.” Desmond told Joe.

“And you’re afraid that ‘bad parent’ is something that is written into your DNA?”

Desmond chuckled. “I wouldn’t write that off, personally.”

“Well… there is always the idea of nature versus nurture.” Joe leaned closer. “If Vicky was here, she’d go on about the biological aspects of it. But I think you should take in environment and teaching. Let me ask you… are you familiar with the theories on how bullying is passed on?”

“Well… my brother was one and me and him would get into scraps constantly, as well as with others kids as a team sometimes. We had a weird relationship growing up.”

“Sounds like it.” Joe tapped his fingers together. “Honestly, I was more on the receiving end. I remember asking… someone, I can’t remember who. I asked them why the bullies are the way they are. I was told that it was because they were bullied themselves. Someone is bullied at home, a result of bad parenting, bring it to school. Then they grow up, do the same, and create another generation of parenting. I’m more understanding as an adult, but at the time, I didn’t understand why the bullies didn’t simply recognize who bad other bullies or their parents made them feel, and do the opposite. What about you, Desmond? What do think of that?”

“Let me start giving you wet willies and hang you by your panties on a flagpole and I will tell you then.” Desmond joked, shaking his head. “I don’t know… maybe a kid isn’t the best thing for me and her. I can’t say for sure. What I do know is… if there is ever a chance we do have a child, and no matter the situation… I’ll take care of them. At least as best as I can. I could never hurt my own kid.”

“And I believe you,” Joe said sincerely. “I know you would do everything you could for them. And if you ever doubt yourself, just look at what your parents did that hurt you as a child, and do the opposite. And… trust Atka. If she ends up having a child with you, then she thinks you are ready.”

Desmond nodded his head and slapped Joe on the back. “Even if this all goes to shit, me and you will be friends. I won’t deny that at least.”

“And I’ll be there to help you out, friend.” Joe sighed, and took a quick chug of beer. “If it makes you feel any better, I was nothing but smiles when Vicky told me about our girls… on the outside. Inside, I was terrified. So I know how you feel.” He extended his hand. “Friends to the end, right?”

“Or at least until I get sick of you and kick your ass into oblivion. But then I would have a scorned wife to deal with huh? I would rather die at that point.” Desmond laughed again and drank.

“Ssh.” Joe shook his head. “Avoid the word wife. I already promised we’d get married after this, but she is still persistent to get it done quicker. Kinda… really, really persistent.”

“Oh?” Desmond whispered. “Would be a real shame if your wife heard that!” Desmond said in an intentionally loud voice. “Too bad Chambers!”

Joe snarled at him. “You have a really mean sense of humor sometimes. Anyone ever tell you that?”

“Yeah, you just did.” Desmond joked, lightly punching Joe’s arm.

Joe lightly punched him back. “You know I’d kick your ass if not for the fact that if we tried, you’d easily win in a fight.”

Desmond brought his hand close to Joe’s face and fire erupted from it. “Case in point.” He said sinisterly.

Joe chuckled, and stood up. “Why do I get the feeling that one of these days, I’m going to want to kill you for real?”

“Because I make enemies a lot better then I make friends.” Desmond said, quenching the flame and shrugging.

Joseph placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Just promise me you’ll try to not make an enemy out of those who are already you friends.”

Desmond rolled his eyes. “Get out of here you nut.”

Joe gave him one last pat on the shoulder, and walked to the exit. He turned back and asked, “Are you and Atka still eating dinner with Vicky and I tomorrow?”

“Schedules permitting.” Desmond answered back.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 7

X-COM Headquarters
May 15th, 2018
2030 Hours

The Skyranger returned to the hanger, accompanied by two other dropships. One of them contained only four of the six soldiers that went to France. The other one was empty, all forces from the Mexican Council Mission lost in combat. Only the Skyranger’s team had successfully completed their missions without any losses, but the occupants - informed by Big Sky of the status of the other two teams - could not relish in their victory.

Madelyne stepped out of the VTOL craft, followed by Atka, Desmond, Kevin, Kris, and the marine that had joined the organization less than two weeks prior. Kevin was followed by a curious bald man, while the other surviving team - while they had failed their mission - cautiously hauled an unconscious Sectoid over to the waiting research team.

“Good work, Strike Two,” Madelyne said with a nod to her team, and went off to assist them and try and raise their spirits a little.

Atka shook her head. “Good on them for the Sectoid, but it seems like we’re the only ones that can actually take care of business… and the ten of us are the last X-COM soldiers here now,” she said somberly.

“But hey… we can… just get more soldiers, right? I mean there must be a lot of people we could choose from… right?” The ex-marine asked with a nervous chuckle.

“Yeah, the fact we are down to ten really shows the eager waiting list wanting to get into X-COM.” Desmond said harshly to the soldier, shutting him up almost immediately.

“Still…” Atka sighed. “That gray bastard could be our last chance. If we can get any sort of vital information from them, we can get the Council off our backs. I doubt saving Van Doorn is enough to placate them at this point… even if I’m sure they’re as much of a fan of his work as I am.”
“A fan of his work?” Desmond asked. “This guy really famous or something?”

“You’ve never heard of Van Doorn? He is like… the single greatest battle tactician of this century. Man is a legend in the tours he served. He is probably the greatest asset we could get. With him on our side, we will have a huge advantage.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but he is the only competent U.N. General I’ve read about,” Atka told the former marine. “I’m sure he’ll be helpful to Bradford and Jones from herein.” She shook her head, rubbing her arm. “Wasn’t easy to get him, that’s for sure… the other team may have had to capture a Sectoid, but we had to deal with those damn Seekers trying to tear our limbs off. And that… centaur thing? The aliens seem to have an endless bag of tricks. I’m glad we shot that thing up before it could get in close…”

Desmond rolled his eyes. “If this guy is as good as you two claim, he should be fighting with us, not staying behind until one of us soaks up a plasma bolt.” The soldier angrily said, obviously holding a grudge.

“Not all tacticians can fight on the battlefield. We’re far past that age,” Atka replied with a shake of her head. “Believe me, I’ve been offered higher rankings, but I’ve never wanted to get too far removed from my troops. That’s not the path for everyone.”

“We need boots on the ground, not more people sitting on their ass debating our next move.” Desmond said, looking over one of his broken empty mags. “I’m sick and tired of this… just waiting until it is one of us who dies…” He quickly threw the mag to the ground angrily, breaking it further; as it shattered it made a loud crash against the ground and slid away. Desmond walked off seething. “Fucking bullshit!” He yelled.

“I… know things are bad… but…” Kevin trailed off, seeming more than a little surprised.

“I’ll go talk to him. Tell Central I’ll be at debriefing after I’m through.” Atka nodded to the other three soldiers and ran off after Desmond.

Atka would catch up to the man making his way to what it would seem the mess hall, the soldier grumbling inaudibly to himself until he finally noticed the woman gaining on him. “I don’t need you chastising me right now.”

“I don’t intend on chastising you. Things have gone to hell. We’re down to ten soldiers, Strike Two lost a man chasing after what may be a dead end, the council will be riding our ass regardless of what we tell them, and the entire world’s unity is crumbling. I don’t blame you for being angry, I’m damn well angry myself,” Atka said sternly. “But I cannot… cannot give in. The minute I throw away any hope that we’re going to succeed is when I crumble.”

Desmond stopped and he turned around, and although there was sympathy in his eyes, there was fury marking his facial features. “How long Atka? How long until it is Kris, or Maddy, or me or you with that blanket over us, if we are even brought home at all!? I can’t… how am I supposed to keep going out there knowing that at anytime, my friends, or the woman I love has a very good likely chance of being gunned down with no regard. I am not a soldier like you are. I am not used to this like you guys!”

“You think… I’m used to this?” Atka replied aghast. “Before this war I had fought in some conflicts, commanded a platoon at most. And rarely did I lose anyone because I was able to keep a level head and I knew enough about my enemy to predict their moves. Fighting goddamned extraterrestrials? That’s new ground for everyone here. And I know no one here has endured this level of loss before either.”

Desmond stared at Atka for a little bit and he rubbed his head slowly, letting out a sigh. “I’m sorry…” He whispered to her. “It is just the thought of losing any of you… it is too much for me to bear. I couldn’t… do this without you.”

“If anyone’s least likely to die, it’s our team,” Atka replied quietly. “We’ve got two psions. You and I are the greatest assets X-COM has right now, and I don’t say that intending to sound arrogant. We can’t even afford to fall. I’m not about to let anyone else around me bite it either.” Atka smiled softly. “I ever tell you what my name means? ‘Guardian Spirit’. My dad had a feeling I’d be taking care of the rest of the family, but I’m sure he never could have imagined I’d be fighting to protect the whole world. But here I am, and here I intend to stay to the bitter end.”

“Sorry my name doesn’t have some… deeper meaning to it. Maybe I could do more to help you feel better.” Desmond told the woman, taking a deep breath. “I just want this war to be over… for all war to be over. I am sick of thinking of the people this war has affected. I don’t think any of us will truly ever recover from this ordeal.”

“War is never something people totally heal from… but if I suffer some scars that’s a small price to pay for victory. We have to make this work, we have to make all of those sacrifices… t-those…” Atka’s voice shuddered for a moment. “Those forty-seven dead have to mean something. We can’t let their sacrifices nothing.”

“Yeah… they will mean something.” Desmond crossed his arms and held them tightly against himself. “Atka… I need you to promise me something. No matter what happens, whether I die, or you or… something else… that you will never forget what we have here. That this… bond we developed meant something too.”

“Of course. I’m not easily going to forget something like that. I’m not going to forget someone I love,” Atka insisted with a fire in her eyes - blue, but now somewhere in-between light and dark blue.

“Hey um… there is… well… you have downtime don’t you? I have something we should… talk about.” Desmond began, looking away and trying to hide his embarrassment.

Atka raised an eyebrow. “Is it something quick? If it’s not we should wait until after debriefing.”

“I know it isn’t the best time at all but… look, I talked with Joe. And Atka, I… I want to have a kid with you. To at least try for one. If I do die, I want to leave something behind, and if not dead, then something for us to have to look forward to after this… god damn war.”

The Inuit woman blinked. “I.. uh…” She took a moment to gather her thoughts, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “We don’t necessarily know how long this is going to go on for… and… I’m sure I’ve already broken a few rules but if we’re going to go that far… wouldn’t it make more sense if we were married?”

“Do you want to be?” Desmond asked after a while of silence.

“I don’t see why not,” Atka mumbled. “Though I’m not aware of anyone who’s a priest on-base…”

“We could… ask the Commander? Or just do it in secret.” Desmond suggested a bit hesitantly.

Atka sighed. “We could promise to each other… but I’m really not keen on risking a kid when this war could go on long enough that it could incapacitate me. Plus, I’m… not sure I’m ready to be a parent.”

“Neither am I but… when will we ever get the chance again? Only ten of us left, which means we will be getting even busier. It isn’t necessary I guess, but I thought it would be an okay idea at the time.”

Atka rubbed the back of her neck. “Again, I don’t intend on dying or letting you die. Let’s not get reckless with something like that… if we go down we’d go down together anyway. We’d have to be facing something tougher than we can handle or get unlucky, I think.”

“Yeah, sorry. However… that marriage proposal…” Desmond said with a chuckle. “Don’t throw that away just yet.”

“Consider it a reward for surviving. We make it out of this alive, and I’ll marry you,” Atka promised, walking up to Desmond and kissing him. “So don’t go anywhere, and I won’t.”

“Yeah… so… mission debriefing I guess?” Desmond asked with a roll of his eyes. “Sounds exhilarating.”

“Would you rather cuddle with Seekers again? I didn’t think so,” Atka asked rhetorically before starting to walk to debriefing with Desmond.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Never Flee

They did not leave the surgery tables, it seemed. For although being shackled down to a cold, metallic bed that aided the aliens in their unspeakable experiments was a horrible fate, being removed meant something worse. It meant you were useless to them. It meant that you would die...or worse. The alien hounds attested to that.

A tall one paced, watching as the bulbous-headed aliens cut humans apart, sometimes fatally, sometimes not. She wondered if she envied those that were granted the release of death. Was it wrong to feel that way? The tall one stopped at one of her kinsmen and his sister. “What have you ascertained?” the Thin Man asked them the small grays as they inspected the opened craniums of live humans.

The large-headed ones said nothing, communicating in a different means entirely that she was beginning to suspect was via mental means. The tall one sighed. “Useless, then,” he lamented, and pulled out a plasma pistol. Before the girl could even cry out for her two kinsmen, he shot them both in the head, killing them and leaving behind a gruesome scene. “Clean this up,” he said callously to the scientist aliens, who obeyed without signs of sympathy for the now-deceased Inuit siblings.

Tears formed in her eyes, as she had known them as friends before. Now...they were just more genetic material, nothing but a resource to the ones who brought them here. The tall one continued to inspect the others, nodding and mentioning things such as the ‘gift’ another had spoken of to her before, and certain colors...types associated with this ‘gift’, perhaps?

The Thin Man strode over to a young man next to her. “This one is useless as well?” he asked the lone gray beside him, who nodded its oversized head. “Only about half are useful...disappointing, I expected better from these tribals...though I should be at least thankful they’re more than just muscle like the ones that serve us right now.” He reached for his plasma autopistol.

“N-no!” she said in protest, pleadingly. “Not him…”

The tall one fixed his reptilian eyes on her. “Your opinion is noted, but irrelevant,” he said, baring his teeth with sadistic amusement.

You should not waste all of them, the Ethereal Ones spared the Balmadaar for their physical strength rather than their mental aptitude, a powerful, mysterious voice commanded the tall one, who held his head in irritation.

“Fine, fine, I understand,” he said in frustration. “Take this one to the laboratory…” he said to the small gray that looked at him expectantly after hearing the mental command from its master.

The girl watched him be taken away, wondering if he was going to suffer a fate worse than death. “What have I…”

The tall one grabbed her by the throat, anger burning in his eyes. “Do not think it was you that gave me that command. You can hear his voice, right? Your awakening lets you…” She did not answer, and he dug his other hand into her shoulder. “Answer me!”

“Y-yes…” she said tearfully. “I-I’m sorry.”

His anger subsided at her, smug confidence returning that he could still instill fear into others. He let go of her neck, which had marks on it from his surprisingly strong grasp. “Good,” he muttered. “Prepare her for further experimentation. She has telepathy, and I’m told she may be able to develop extrasensory perception as well.” With that, the Thin Man walked off. “Why does it have to be so damnably arid here…” he muttered.

She stared at the dark ceiling in despair, whispering very quietly to herself. “Atka...save me…” Nouja pleaded, hoping that somehow her sister could hear despite the impossibility of such a notion.

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 8

X-COM Headquarters
May 22nd, 2018
2130 Hours

Atka came to, holding a hand over her rapidly beating heart. “That...that couldn’t just be dream…” she said quietly in disbelief. “Nouja...I’ll save you...I swear!”

Desmond sat up in his bed quickly and he looked over to Atka, quickly getting out of bed. “Hey, hey, hey… what’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

“More than that,” Atka breathed, taking in a shuddering breath as she got up. “I… I saw my sister… the last nightmare, I swore I dreamt that my village was attacked, and now… Nouja spoke to me. Directly. That can’t be a simple dream!”

“It’s okay Atka… it’s okay.” Desmond said, putting his arms around her. “I… believe you. We… still don’t know everything about our powers. Maybe this is something…” The man sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Go… take a walk. Why don’t you… tell the Commander or something. I will be here when you get back but… you need some time.”

“I will tell him. Maybe there’s something we can do to help. I remember Lily… Lily mentioned the Sectoid we captured had information tracing back to some sort of stronghold somewhere. They could be there! That could be what I saw,” Atka insisted. “I’ll make him aware. I won’t let them take my family from me,” she growled before rushing out of the room.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 3: Shattering Charge
Part 9

X-COM Headquarters
May 23rd, 2018
0915 Hours

“I need you to locate something for me,” Commander Ross declared, beginning this meeting with the Overseer with a greater sense of purpose than prior ones.

“I’m no magician,” the information broker snapped. “I can’t just pull something out of thin air for you. And so far there’s a distinct lack of hats to pull rabbits out of.” They sighed. “The toll on my agents is only getting worse. I feel like it’s moved beyond the point of ‘accidental discovery’ into a hunt. And the more agents I lose, the less I know about a given country.”

Ross recoiled for a moment, even if his face was as masked as his correspondent’s, before explaining himself. “I know why that is, at least in India I think. I have intelligence suggesting… there might be an alien base. Even if I find the source hard to believe myself.”

“An alien-” The Overseer was silent. “Well, it makes sense,” he mused. “They’ve proven they’re not just here for conquest, what with the abductions and such. They need somewhere to put all those bodies. This… source, of yours. Who is it, and why don’t you trust them?”

“I’d like you to meet one of my organization's operatives,” Ross responded, muted footsteps indicating someone stepping over beside him. “I’ll… let her explain the details to you.”

“I witnessed what the aliens were doing to the abductees in that base,” Atka told the Overseer. “In a dream, though I know it’s not a figment of my imagination. You’re aware of the aliens having psionic abilities, correct? I do as well, and while my CO…” Atka glared at Ross, “...may not believe that I have ESP, I’d be inclined to say I do.”

“A… dream?” The Overseer made an odd noise. “If the me of two months ago had heard any of this they’d be laughing in your face. Bloody hell.” They chuckled. “Alright, I’m going to be frank and tell you, whoever you are, that I find that hard to believe myself. But let’s entertain that notion, for a moment. You say that, through a dream, you saw an alien base? Walk me through it. Tell me in the most exact detail you can what you saw.”

Atka took a deep breath. “Not a memory I enjoy replaying, but alright…” The Inuit woman cleared her throat. “It was dark. I don’t mean the sort of dark you get from normal dreams, since I could see things more vividly than a simple nightmare. There were these… medical beds laid out in rows on either side of a room with canisters in the middle.” Atka shuddered. “There were people laid in them - restrained in them - lying in some sort of… preserving fluid, I want to say. Some intact… some not. Some alive, some dead, some… somewhere in between. I’m inclined to believe it was underground, since there was no natural light whatsoever, only operating illumination.”

“Certainly sounds nightmarish,” the Overseer remarked. “But then, so are most of the monstrosities dropping from the sky these days.” They paused for a moment. “Did you get a good look at any of the people in the beds? Facial features, anything defining?”

Atka nodded. “Believe me, I did… there were some Indian… test subjects… others were Pakistani… and the rest…” she took a deep breath, her voice getting a little shaky. “Were from my home village in Nunavut. Family and friends… my… my sister, which is where I think my mental connection came from.”

“Hmm. Commander, can you confirm that her village was attacked recently?”

“I can. Canadian authorities reported a UFO landing via our gravitational surveillance satellite in the area, and upon investigating they found a wrecked villages with nearby survivors talking about “gray devils” and some being made of crystal. Sectoids and Outsiders are what we call them,” the Commander affirmed.

The Overseer coughed. “And is there any way your friend here could have known that before coming to you?”

“No, I only asked them to look after she told me about her… vision,” Ross replied, trying to keep a neutral tone to appease the sniper beside him. “I’m just surprised that she was able to make a connection over the distance she did… unless…” he didn’t go further, not wanting to point out any hints as to the location of the X-COM HQ.

“It would make sense if it were somewhere the aliens had overtaken,” Atka asserted. “Besides, that… Thin Man that was overseeing operations there mentioned it being ‘damnably arid’ where they were.”

The Overseer chuckled. “There you have it, Commander. As implausible as the foundation sounds, the devil is in the detail, as they say. The rest of her story checks out. Very well. I’ll redirect my agents in India to begin looking for any kind of alien structure, although if it’s underground like you suspect it probably won’t be as simple as spotting a new skyscraper. I’ll let you know if I find anything of use. And thank you… what was your name?”

Ross opened his mouth to protest, but Atka interrupted him. “Would telling you help anything, or are you just trying to trace me to our organization?”

“I guess that echoes what I was going to say…” Ross mumbled.

The Overseer remained quiet for a moment before he began laughing. “You’re a sharp one, I’ll give you that,” they said wryly. “What a world we live in, when you just want to know someone’s name and they don’t trust you enough to give you even that. Granted, who am I to talk?” They laughed again.

“Believe me, a few months ago I probably would have told you without a second thought. War changes your outlook on a lot of things,” Atka replied tiredly. “Hope… trust…”

“Bah. Never lose hope,” the Overseer chastised. “Nothing’s watertight. Keep pushing at something enough, you’ll get to it. Might be hard to see it at the time, but it’ll happen. No exceptions.”

“Aliens like to throw a twist into that,” Atka replied, though she sighed in defeat. “I haven’t abandoned hope entirely, though. We’re reverse engineering their strengths, one by one,” she remarked, letting a spiral of blue psi energy that only she could see twist in her hand.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 4: Final Stand
Part 1

X-COM Headquarters
June 6th, 2018
1400 Hours

A week after the combined intelligence of X-COM and the Overseer confirmed the location of the Alien Base in the Indian desert, the military cadre was ready to move on the facility. As ready as they could be. Although they had 25 soldiers, they could only reasonably send 20 of them. And only one of those two squads would be outfitted with laser weapons, and the other carapace armor. The offensive-based squad would be Alpha Squad, and it was led by a newly-christened Lieutenant Atka Ipiktok. The defensive Beta Squad would be commanded by the officer Atka had served under before and was now an equal with, Madelyne Wheeler.

Ross stood before the two teams with his arms behind his back. Bradford was at his side for this. “I know many of you are new to X-COM, and believe me, I have my apprehensions about sending a team with only limited experience in fighting the aliens to their stronghold. However, we can’t afford to fail here. From what Dr. Vahlen gleaned from the Sectoid’s mind and the data from the Outsider crystal, this is the nerve center of their abduction operations on Earth. We take this out, and we deal a serious blow to their efforts.”

The Commander cleared his throat, and continued. “You’ve all fought for Earth in your own way - be it at our side or with local militaries - up until now. You know what’s at stake; I don’t need to remind you of that. All I ask is that you take this place down. We can beat them. We may take losses - we probably will take losses. But we will not fail. Good luck, Strike One.”

With that, the two teams boarded their craft. Alpha went separately in groups of five into either auxiliary dropship, while Beta boarded the Skyranger to touch down first. Madelyne carried the Skeleton Key that would get them into the facility. Atka glanced over at the other four in her dropship. Desmond was there, as was Kris, the ex-Marine Glenn Ferguson, and a fellow sniper, Sarah Wong. Kevin was with Madelyne, she knew, which was both a relief and a bit of a disappointment. “I’ll be counting on you three for firepower,” she noted before looking at Desmond. “Walker and I will provide the psychic punch.”

“Don’t get in the way.” Desmond advised. “We need to think about the enemy, not our own troops. You are all veteran enough to be able to be autonomous. Keep safe, and keep killing no matter what.”

The trio nodded, seeming to need to know nothing more than that. The three X-COM aircraft took off, and headed southeast for India. After a long flight and refueling at a clandestine hanger, the ships touched down in the desert at sunrise. Madelyne’s team exited first, followed by Alpha. The original Lieutenant held up the key, and an elevator rose up from the sand, beckoning the two teams to descend into the underground.

Desmond stepped onto the elevator, Glenn close to him, the ex-Marine actually for the first time looking worried. “You think they would have people patrolling outside…”

“I doubt they expected anyone to find this place,” Kris guessed. “Though I imagine they’ll be guards just below.”

“Guards on the outside would give away their location,” Sarah affirmed. “Smith is correct, however. We should prepare for a fight as soon as the doors open.”

The warning of the two proved correct. As soon as the doors to the elevator opened, the two squads came face to face with a surprised group of four Mutons. They raised their weapons, but X-COM was quicker. A spray of laser and conventional weapons fire took down three of them, and the fourth only had the time to land a glancing hit on one of Madelyne’s team before being finished off by another volley.

“Move forward!” Madelyne commanded over comms. “We’ve likely tripped an alarm.” The X-COM forces advanced.

They came across numerous stasis tanks, and Atka’s eyes darted inbetween them, but she could discern no recognizable faces through the murky preserving liquid. They’re likely further along… she tried to reassure herself.

A group of Sectoids came forward as the two teams began to move on a set of two energy doors. They were quickly dispatched by Alpha Squad, and two sets of drones assailing Beta Squadron did minimal damage and were taken down by overlapping fields of bullets. The real challenge began when both Lieutenants gave the order to deactivate the energy doors, revealing enemies in the hoop-like chamber beyond.

A duo of Thin Men took up high ground on raised observation platforms while their two Seeker bodyguards vanished from view. Nine floaters spread out over the central abyss, accompanied by a being none of the soldiers recognized. It looked more elegant than the grotesque fliers in front of it. Gold and white plated armor with streaks of green was arranged in a streamlined fashion, and ended in the back with a triple plasma jetpack and four armored angelic wings. It held what looked like a plasma SMG in one hand, and gestured to attack the enemy with another.

“Is that… an imitation of an angel?” Atka growled as she set up her laser strike rifle and shot down one of the Floaters.

“Or maybe it is an angel?” Glenn noted as he fired himself, but missed every shot.

“I don’t think they’d side with the aliens,” Atka snapped, trying her hand at sending the mindfray the enemy’s way. It recoiled, but not as much as her foes usually did. Psionic, is it?

The first Thin Man spat poison on some of the troops stacked up by the door, forcing some of them back and requiring a support to aid some that were significantly afflicted. Some of the Floaters were falling to weapons fire, but five still remained to advance. The foremost of these was nearly struck down by machinegun fire, only for a green light to surround the so-called angel’s free hand and bind the cyborg’s flesh wounds together until it looked as if the creature hadn’t been hurt at all.

“That… thing is healing it’s allies!” Desmond called out, firing at the recently healed cyborg, scoring a precision hit.

Kris sprayed fire against the psionic flier, but his eyes ended up widening in shock when he seemed to only singe it. “What the hell?”

Atka narrowed her eyes. “It’s… reinforcing its armor with psionics as well? Let me see if I can fix that.” A blue glow - visible only to nearby psions - shined around her irises of the same color, and she sent a quite-visible stream of frost the angelic being’s way. The cold coating began to weigh it down and cause it to sink, but a loud cracking signalled the effect the Inuit woman who had cast the ability had hoped for. “Shoot it now! It’s vulnerable.”

“Understood.” Sarah lifted her sniper rifle, and with a piercing being shattered the ice and the healer’s armor. A follow-up from Glenn’s laser rifle sealed the deal, searing the alien’s insides and causing it to plunge into the cavern’s darkness.

The Floaters had managed to score one kill on the armored X-COM forces in the meantime despite Madelyne and Kevin valiantly holding the frontline with carbine and shotgun, and the second Thin Man had taken out the injured trooper with assistance from his pet Seeker. However, that was the extent of the damage this group could do. Without psionic assistance, they were vulnerable to reinforcing attack from Alpha Squad, and Beta Squad regained control of the situation; the lives of the enemy ended shortly thereafter.

As the two teams recovered and began to creep forward, Atka glanced into the darkness below. “That was no angel,” she muttered in confirmation.

“Reminded me more of a cleric from those old tabletop games,” Kris responded.

“Cleric… that works,” Lieutenant Ipiktok agreed. “Hope we don’t see any more of them, but… hell, I don’t. We will. I’ll save my optimistic expectations for something more reasonable,” she said with a grim grin.

Atka. Desmond psied with concern, squeezing her shoulder. I know you are worried about Nouja… but remain calm, okay? Keep it cool. If she is here, we will find her… together. Okay honey? He whispered only to her.

I’ll be fine. “Let’s keep moving, Alpha!”

Desmond still looked worried and unconvinced but he followed closely behind Atka, wanting to keep her safe as much as possible, his eyes glued to her back. What is going on in that head of yours… Desmond thought to himself.

The next room wasn’t immediately visible, as only a power generator and a wall of metal making up a blind corner were visible initially. Madelyne held up a hand to have the advancing teams stop. “This is too good a spot to lay a trap! Grenades!”

Two of her team’s members pulled out high explosives and tossed them at the metal, hoping they would at least damage the alloys and create sightlines. While the durable synthetic metal proved too much for conventional explosives, the blast set off another explosion. The source was revealed when four angry-looking short red aliens appearing like goblins with laser-based explosive suicide vests came charging forward.

“Take them down!” A soldier shouted as anyone that had a good shot fired, and even a few people with questionably shots - leading to a single case of minor friendly fire damage - opened up on the bombers. One of them got through the pandemonium of weapons fire and chain reactions, and claimed the lives of two more of Madelyne’s Beta Team.

Desmond let his gun drop slightly and his eyes flared as another of the goblins exploded, but way too soon as he had not reached anyone yet, Desmond setting off the explosive vest. The man lowered his hand and scoffed. “Fucking suicide bombers…” He grumbled, that goblin being the last.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 4: Final Stand
Part 2

“Not like we needed another example of how callous the aliens are,” Atka noted, glancing over the smoking ashes of the enemy, all of them blown up prematurely, intentionally, or via the aliens’ deadman’s triggers. Shaking her head, she motioned for her team to move on after Madelyne gave the signal to. The room beyond the deadly corner initially was a platform they couldn’t see over the edge of. As they came to the edge, though, they found themselves overlooking a chamber filled with strange tanks containing samples of some sort. On either end were extended overlooks that had something that got Lieutenant Ipiktok’s attention. “Operating tables…” Ones that were occupied.

“Watch your fire here.. hopefully we can still save some of these people,” Madylne warned the two squads, though she had a sinking feeling as some of the bodies were bisected open - and some of those that had been were still alive.

“Man… this is some messed up shit.” One of the Alpha soldiers noted, another mumbling they thought they might be sick by just thinking about the bodies. Glenn looked around and cleared his throat. “So… we hear anything moving out there?”

Desmond shook his head saying briefly, “Keep talking louder. Makes things easier.” He said over the comms, which quickly shut the soldier up.

As the team moved on, from the back of Alpha there was a slight shimmer that they were alerted by Beta about but it was too late as two Seekers came up from behind and latched onto two of the X-COM soldiers. The alien robotic squids pulled the two over the side and over towards the bodies strapped to the tables where a group of four Sectoid scientists and two Thin Men guards had hidden themselves after the suicide bombers advanced. The organic aliens fired at the two groups equally, the Seekers ending the lives of the two soldiers they captured with their plasma blasters.

“Damn it, return fire!” Desmond ordered to the squad, the members of Alpha opening up with laser fire of their own against the alien’s plasma.

“No explosives, can’t afford to kill any survivors!” Atka warned before raising a hand and causing a Thin Man to try and flee in a panic, only to be shot to death by stray fire from Beta.

Kris held his fire, unwilling to use a machine gun in this sort of situation, while Glenn had no such reservations and punched a beam of red through the skull of the other Thin Man, who exploded into toxic gas over his Sectoid allies.

I sure hope that isn’t poisoning an abductee, Atka silently worried, grabbing her laser strike rifle off her back again and lining up a shot to finish off one of the Sectoids while the other three hunkered down, being troublesome and forcing the X-COM squad to pick them off slowly and meticulously.

It soon became clear why they weren’t firing back, as the doors on the other end of the massive room slammed open - being automatic but nevertheless being manually shoved apart by the unusual pair of Mutons that entered. Flanked by two regular alien shocktroopers each were Berserkers armed with jagged, sharp clawblades attached to their clenched fists. With roars that echoed from inside their curved ceremonial helmets they charged forward.

“Alpha, refocus fire and take those things down!” Atka warned as she took her own advice and shot at one of the Berserkers. It only seemed to be maddened by the scorching line cut across its armor - a shot that only seemed to penetrate partway through the plating - and hastened its run. Similar results were to be found with both of them, as even eight X-COM soldiers firing laser weapons wasn’t enough to immediately take them down even if it was clear they were making progress. Meanwhile, the four regular Mutons were free to advance in pairs of the vast chamber’s outer platforms.

Desmond’s hand sparked alive with flames as he threw a ball of fire that attached to one of the hulking aliens that blew up and began immolating him, cooking him within his armor. He turned and tried to give his buddy the same treatment but he was smart enough to dodge it, only causing minimal damage to his armor as he rushed Desmond, who raised his rifle and pulled the trigger but his pack was empty.

The threat of the Muton was short lived as Kris pulled Desmond away and sent a close scatter of searing laser straight through the damaged patch his teammate had left, causing the alien to fall and slide to the ground dead.

“Show off… I had him.” Desmond noted as he reloaded his weapon.

“Sure you did Pyro.” Kevin quipped as he put his shotgun away and began firing with his laser pistol.

The two other Mutons seemed content to pair up in their assault as they fired down on Alpha, not letting up as their Plasma Rifles left melting melting around the team’s cover. “God damn it! These things just won’t let up!” Glenn complained.

As the Berserkers closed, Beta finally finished off the remaining Sectoids and turned their attention to the two that came barreling up the left ramp. Madelyne aimed her carbine at the terrifyingly close Berserker which had a scorched helmet that made it only look even more frightening. With shaky hands she fired, and the shot bit through the damaged portion of the helmet and came out the other side. Still, the Berserker marched forward a few more steps, and only then did it collapse backwards.

The other was able to smash a fist through one of Beta Team’s bodies - seeming to care little about the carapace armor in the way - before it was brought down at last. A plasma shot tore through another of Alpha’s ranks from the two Mutons, causing the rest of the forces to turn their attention to them. Atka temporarily muted the threat from the two aliens, sending a chilling stream across their weapons to freeze the mechanisms. This unfortunately caused the two to draw their grenades and prepare to toss them.

Desmond was there with the assist, smirking under his helmet as they grenades blew up the alien’s faces, blowing bits of armor and alien over the walls, and Desmond let out a breath of relief before slightly faltering and leaned against a wall, taking deep breaths. “Damn that ability…”

Atka looked down at the fallen soldiers with a growing heaviness in her heart. “This had better be the last of them, or close to it…” she said with a mixture of anger and exhaustion.

“Beta… fan out and protect Alpha as they go look for survivors,” Madelyne said with an equal weight to her tone, having her squad play defense while Alpha aggressively began combining the side platforms and the middle of the room for any test subjects that hadn’t expired. Some that were cut open but were still alive were looked over by Supports with medical knowledge, though even then they weren’t quite sure what to do. Alpha did find some survivors that could still be saved, though.

“Qamut!” she said in surprise, going over to an Inuit man she recognized as a childhood friend and burning away his restraints with a precise slice of her beam pistol.

“...Atka?” he replied with equal shock, unsteadily getting up with her support. “Didn’t expect to see you here… of all places…”

“Someone has to save you all,” she responded quietly. “Are there any others still alive from the tribe?”

“Y-Your parents and sister got taken to rooms further on… I can’t say for certain,” Qamut told her cautiously. “Buniq and Isitoq are… gone for certain.”

Atka flinched, but did her best to remain true. “And your brother…?” A shake of his head. “I’m so sorry…”

“Nothing you could have done,” her kinsman replied. “Let’s just save who we can.”

“Right…” Atka let him go as he regained his balance, glancing over the other survivors - among which she noted an Indian woman sealing up the bisected abductees.

Desmond came up behind Atka and he put a hand on her shoulder. Despite feeling like shit himself, Desmond though she could use some emotional support. “I’m sorry Atka… I… I know how this feels…”

“You haven’t had your entire extended family abducted and treated like cattle!” Atka snapped before calming down. “Sorry… I just… I don’t expect you to really understand and I don’t need you to. Just don’t pretend like you can.”

“Atka… the only difference between you and me is that I don’t have anyone left to lose. All family I had is already dead. You are quite literally… all I have left to love me.” Desmond confided in her. “So maybe I don’t understand… but at least you have family left.”

Atka nodded shakily. “Al… alright.” Shaking her head, she continued, “Regardless, we need to keep moving. If my sister… and mom and dad… if they’re still alive I need to do everything I can to save them.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 4: Final Stand
Part 3

“Of course.” Desmond said, rubbing her arm as he moved on with the rest of the squad. The next room they came to was one that was hidden behind a pair of heavy blast doors that when opened revealed a large, but still fairly small for the aliens, cybernetic workshop. Multiple parts and bits were scattered around, and from a docking station, a cyberdisc detached and began floating towards the squad, four drones coming out for support. On the other side, two horrible abominations crawled from the side, looking like two Floaters who were in the middle of some upgrades as they let out a horrifying, gurgling roar and grabbed weapons from the tables.

“Take them down!” Atka shouted, going to shoot one of the Floaters with her primary weapon. Sarah nailed the other, causing the half-baked fliers to die even more grotesquely than they had detached. The cyberdisc wasn’t as easy to take down, and the damage it took was rapidly welded together by the drone honor guard it had.

“Focus on the drones, then the disc itself!” Madelyne ordered. She shot at one of them, her carbine not quite being enough to penetrate its armor. It took the focused fire of her whole team to take down just two of them, and the other two managed to avoid incoming laser fire long enough to allow the cyberdisc to attack.

It wound up its grenade and prepared to hurl it, but Atka moved faster. She slammed her hand on the blast door’s button, and caused it to shut and take the explosion for the two squads. It nevertheless broke apart and jostled the X-COM soldiers. Kris held fast with his padded armor and stepped out from cover to send a wave of laser fire into the exposed cyberdisc, damaging it heavy and making it reel as it tried to figure out a new strategy to deal with the current situation.

“We can finish it off!” Glenn yelled over the comms and he rushed to forward cover, taking out a HE grenade he had been saving for something heavy to try and be a hero, but as he threw the grenade, two other hidden drones popped out of their capsules and flanked the man, one of them charging up a shot that blasted through the back of his armor and through his neck, the last action Glenn was able to make was to throw the grenade as blood spewed from his now barely attached neck.

The grenade was way off mark though, however, Desmond wasn’t about to let the grenade become useless, and despite any protests his mind had, he manually detonated the grenade, which took out the two fliers desperately trying to repair their damaged disk shaped host. “Drones are down, kill the other and don’t let those reinforcements get the repairs going!”

Sarah nodded, seeming to be able to detach herself from the man’s death - at least outwardly - and shot a hole through the drone responsible for the casualty with pinpoint accuracy. Kevin blasted apart the other with his scatterlaser, and that left Atka and four of Beta Team’s troops to pour a laser and four streams of bullets into the miniature robotic UFO until it collapsed and exploded.

As everything caught their breath, Atka tried not to look at Glenn’s corpse and instead reached out with her newly-discovered ESP, checking to make sure the room was clear. It was, and instead of further enemies she found two capsule containing her parents. Not wasting any time, she rushed across the room to where they were stored and broke the storage units open along with Madelyne, the two easing the Inuit occupants as they groggily came to.

“What did they do to you…” Atka whispered, noting now that they were free that there were metallic attachments on both of their skulls that looked like miniaturized advanced CPUs.

“Atka…?” her mother questioned, before becoming certain. “You’ve… come to rescue us…” she said with a slightly mechanical tone to her voice.

Atka held back tears at what they had been forced to become, and embraced her mother and father. “Yeah… I did…” If only I had got here sooner… maybe I could have stopped them from…

“Damn it, more contacts!” One of the squad members of Beta called out and guns turned and fired as a large group of Sectoids came in, only to be gunned down by the tens.

“They are trying to rush us with numbers!” Another called out as some brave little sectoids found cover and returned fire.

Desmond incinerated a large chunk with a wall of flame but he was rapidly depleting energy and it wasn’t coming back quickly. “Sorry to break up the happy reunion, but we need to move to the next room and find the others. I assume you got your parents covered?” Desmond asked his partner as he stopped using his powers and began using his weapon once more.

Atka nodded. “Just stay behind us with the others, we’ll-” she was surprised by a column of flame that took out the rest of the Sectoids in the room and a few charging Thin Men. “Desmond, you really shouldn’t…”

“Wasn’t him,” Qamut replied, the red glow the two X-COM psions could see around his eyes as they glanced back starting to die down with the fire. “There’s a reason they abducted us… apparently a lot of us had the potential to be awakened to their weird powers.”

“Handy… I assume you can fire a gun?” Desmond asked the other red psion.

“...not at all…” Qamut replied with a shake of his head. “They awakened this ‘gift’ in us, they didn’t teach us how to shoot guns.”

“You point it at something and pull the trigger. Not rocket science.” Desmond said as he rushed over and grabbed Glenn’s gun, giving it to the Inuit man. “Button on the side is to vent heat and reload. You will know when to press it when the gun don’t fire anymore. Got it?”

“Alright,” he replied, seeming somewhat unsure but resolute in wanting to help. With a new team member and the biokinetic Indian from before keeping up with the X-COM forces, the two squads went in further and came to a large room with a low center and a computer-laden platform overlooking it all on the far side.

In this final room, the remaining forces had assembled to oppose those who had dared come into the secluded alien facility. There were no more fodder troops, only the best bodyguards for the unusually red Sectoid that stood behind a sturdy alien mainframe as cover. There was a group of five Heavy Floaters, having a set of three optics on metal masks the same silver gray as the rest of their intricate armor. They hovered on powerful plasma jets, and were reinforced by a pair of Clerics armed with the same plasma SMGs from before. On the ground was two trios of Mutons, one pod in the lower area and the other one guarding the Sectoid Commander. And finally, rising up from around the room - contrasting with the previous assumption that there was no cannon fodder left - was a host of maintenance drones that charged up their static weldguns in preparation for an attack volley.

“Great… here we go,” Atka said with a somewhat resigned tone, and then bolted into action as heated shots flew. They impacted on the ground just about everywhere, and some hit armor or burned flesh, but nevertheless the X-COM forces ran forward.

“Take down the heavy hitters, we don’t have time for all these robots!”

“We… we can disable them if we can get to the command console,” Ipiktok announced as he and his wife ran for cover behind the X-COM forces.

Atka didn’t need to ask how - and didn’t have time anyway. She merely placed her trust in them, and called out her assent before firing at a Muton, forcing it to duck. “Kris, now’s your time.”

“Took long enough.” The heavy pulled out his rocket launcher, prepared a shot, and fired, sending the missile careening into the first Muton trio. Their cover was blown to metal scrap around them much like the state their armor was reduced to, and together Sarah, Madelyne, and - surprisingly - Qamut finished off the hulking aliens down below.

Matters were then complicated when a spiral of psion energy went past Desmond and Atka, finding its target in Kevin and seizing control of his mind. The assault seemed to panic at first, but then went disturbing calm. “Everything’s fine,” he mumbled into comms as he lined up a shot on Desmond with his scatterlaser.

Meanwhile, the Heavy Floaters began their aerial cavalry charge, forcing Beta to ignore their dominated companion for now. The heavy among them fired a rocket into their midst, shredding the armor of three of them. Their sniper tag-teamed with an assault to damage an uninjured one and then finish it off with a powerful rifle, while their support suppressed the other uninjured flier. The other two members of Alpha moved to finish two of the shredded fliers but their cleric healers ensured that the shots weren’t quite fatal.

Faced with several threats at once, Atka chose the most pressing one. “Desmond, look out!” she warned him, having to force herself to focus on the Floaters as they lined her, Sarah, and Kris up. She charged as much psionic energy as she could on short notice, and chained a mindfray between the three Floaters to buy time - even as the Clerics began to psionically inspire the Floaters to recover from the mental interference.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 4: Final Stand
Part 4

Desmond happened to dodge an attack from one of the aliens in front of him, which caused his teammate’s shot to break the side of his helmet, just barely missing his head and Desmond whirled around in half shock. “Damn it Kevin, you scatterbrained fucking asshole!” He yelled charging at the man before he could fire again and he knocked his weapon aside, sending a fist into the other man’s torso and he brought him to the ground, slamming his helmeted head against the metal floor to render him dazed enough to break the control. “That little shit is able to take control of our forces, be careful!” The man warned, going to kick Kevin’s ass later before buying him an apologetic drink.

Although the connection was indeed severed and the Sectoid Commander seemed rather surprised, Kevin was in no state to rejoin the fight for at least a minute or two. And ultimately, despite the best efforts of the team, casualties were inevitable. Two of the healed Heavy Floaters opened fire and planted two of Atka’s Alpha Team, leaving only her, Sarah, Kris, and Desmond left in that group. The other tossed its alien grenade into the team of four within Beta Squad, damaging their armor heavily and making them targets for the Clerics.

“Dammit, these things…” Atka growled, feeling powerless versus the support abilities of the Clerics. She wasn’t about to give up though, repeating her strategy from before to send a coating of ice over them and then shoot one with her laser weapon. It paid off, and one Cleric was down, but the other managed to recover and actually imbued the ice around itself to function as a defensive layer. Still, it was distracted long enough for Kris to prep another rocket and blow the three resilient fliers the Clerics had been keeping in the air out of the air.

The only remaining Heavy Floater and the surviving Cleric met the same fate from Beta’s Heavy, leaving only the Muton bodyguards and the Sectoid Commander in the game along with the swarming drones that seemed busy cooling down their weapons. That was still a deadly group as evidenced by a volley of plasma that took out Beta’s Heavy and Support. That left that squad down to a small group as well, including only Madelyne, a quite-dazed Kevin, a sniper, and another assault.

“We need to advance!” Atka shouted, running forward as the Mutons began to select new targets. She flanked and killed one, but Sarah could only manage to whip out her pistol and injure another, having to rely on Kris to finish that one off with his LMG. And that still left the Commander and a Muton. The former reached out with its mind again, this time sending a triple psi panic forward that sent Sarah and Kris to their knees in terror. It affected Atka as well, breaking her barely-held together resolve and causing her to try and flee in a panic.

The Muton, having seen so many comrades fall, forgot any sense of honor it might have had and prepared to shoot her in the back. This time it was Madelyne who rescued her, tossing a grenade to blow up the Muton’s cover and throw off its shot. As it tried to compensate she downed it with a spray of carbine fire that emptied her magazine. “Don’t even bother trying to capture their leader, just kill the damn thing!” Wheeler said with uncharacteristic venom, equally worn thin by how many she had lost.

Desmond and the two last members of Beta seemed happy to agree, and sent out a hail of fire towards the Commander, though dying didn’t seem to be on its list of plans, and went scurrying away more in self preservation then terror. The three were quick to pursue, leaving Maddy to take care of the other dazed members that remained. The small team of three followed the Commander, one of the troops being too zealous in his approach and was shot down by the fleeing Commander, who seemed to have better aim than his counterparts.

While the other mook was stunned by the death, Desmond kept running in pursuit down the hallways, in what opened up to be a personal hanger of sorts, with a small scout like craft waiting, what guard that seemed to have been protecting it having moved up to join in the last defense. The alien moved side to side, trying to avoid the fire from Desmond’s gun as it neared the ship, but was cut off by what little power Desmond had to create flames.

This time, it was Desmond who had to dodge the alien’s fire until it overheated its weapon, Desmond using this time to tear off his already half blasted away helmet and chucked it at the Commander, who slapped it away stunned and when he went for a mental attack the psion’s boot quickly kicked him into the metal hull. “Fuck aliens man… and fuck helmets too.” He said, coughing from exertion as he fell to his knees, the other soldier he had left behind coming up and confirming that the alien was dead, Desmond’s boot having caved in his squishy red head..

“Good…” The tired red psion said as he fell to his back and closed his eyes, breathing heavily. “I will be sure to tell Vahlen to go screw herself when she complains.” He said, only having enough time to chuckle before he had to push himself up to go back to the others.

Atka had come to her senses, and her parents had ran to the console, causing all of the drones to shut down and fall to the earth in a unified clattering crash. Atka didn’t even pay attention to that, as she saw someone cowering in the corner of the computer pad that made her rush over.

Nouja saw her coming and embraced her. “You came, you really came…” she muttered over and over, the sixteen-year-old holding onto her older sister tightly.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 4: Final Stand
Part 5

X-COM Headquarters
June 14th, 2018
2300 Hours

Commander Ross Jones stood before the hologlobe with his chiefs of staff nearby along with a few other members of importance. There was Central Officer William Bradford, Dr. Raymond Shen with his daughter An-Yi “Lily” Shen, Council Correspondent Joseph Chambers along with his two young daughters Alexis and Jennifer, and three soldiers. That trio was Captain Madelyne Wheeler, Lieutenant Atka Ipiktok, and Sergeant Desmond Walker, all three practically heroes in X-COM now and certainly veterans. Alongside Atka was her sister, Nouja, recently freed from the alien base.

He spoke up to them. “I have to thank all of you for what you’ve done this far. If not for your dedication and perseverance, we wouldn't have made it to this point. We were so close to defeat, and yet now we have a new influx of recruits. The destruction of the alien base has renewed Council support, as Joseph brought to us the other morning. All the resources recovered have bolstered our weapons and armor manufacturing, and we’ve rescued a lot of people from that place - some of them psions that have joined our cause too.”

Desmond nudged Atka and he smiled, whispering, “Weird not being the only ones anymore. Is our value supposed to be lessened now?”

Nouja smiled, answering for her older sister. “Of course not… you just have more of a good thing.”

“Good when we’re using it at least… the aliens? Can’t say I’ve seen them use it for anything nice… and I don’t count the Clerics,” Atka muttered.

“That Chandra woman sure is a new breed though. She has the same sort of psionics that those Clerics were using. Hopefully Vahlen will be able to get to analyzing them with the backlog we have gotten in the science labs right now. So many new projects yet we have only so many scientists.” Bradford spoke up, smirking to himself.

“Well… we’re winning now, right?” Joseph asked optimistically. “Winning means a happy Council. And a happy Council means they will be more for us to do stuff… we wouldn’t normally be able to do.”

A hand pulled at his pants. “Daddy?” Jennifer looked up at him. “I wa-a ask da Commander sometin.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Alexis said. “Da Commander is not care about stupid kids.”

Ross knelt down on a knee. “I’m sure I could answer one question… what is it?”

Jen rocked back and forth. “Why can’t we ask so ada alins to help us? Good alins to fight da bad alins?”

“That’s two questions,” Alexis said, rolling her eyes.

“Believe me, if they opened a dialogue for peace I’d love to just end this… but as it stands they seem to have a victory at all costs attitude. We still don’t understand why,” Ross admitted. “Though with time, perhaps…”

The hologlobe shimmered, and then formed a screen not unlike the one in the Situation Room. On it was the Council Spokesman, his posture unusually slumped. Never had the man appeared distraught before, and never had he called on such short notice. “Commander… let it never be said that the efforts of X-COM were not valiant. You have done what no other military unit could do. You destroyed one of their bases, adapted their technology to the best of your ability, and gave them a fight they were not expecting. However, it appears… that they have launched into some sort of endgame.”

The screen shifted to the side, and on the hologlobe several massive contacts - alien battleships - were shown over Earth, unleashing a host of smaller ships that were hitting targets around the globe. “Humanity does not stand a chance against this show of force. Nothing we have on hand could even dent this legion they have sent upon us. The best you could do is evacuated, I believe your location is compri-” he cut off abruptly, and the hologlobe fizzed unnaturally. The base shook as if an earthquake was going on.

“No… this can’t be…” Atka whispered in horror. “After how far we’ve come… why?”

Every psion in the base felt an unusual pulse of immense psychic power, and suddenly two of the security guards in the room pulled out their pistols. One shot down a staff member manning the satellite connections, while the other aimed directly at Ross, and before anyone could stop him shot him through the chest. The Commander glanced down at the small hole that was beginning to stain his shirt red, and collapsed, his breathing hitching as the shot had gone through a lung and cut through vital arteries.

“No!” Bradford yelled, turning as the same staff member shot again at Bradford, the British man crying out as he grabbed the side of his face, grabbing the gun from a hidden compartment that he aimed at the staff members and he shot them both dead. “What the hell was that?” He asked angrily, blood pouring through his fingers where his left eye used to be.

“M-Mind control…” Atka breathed.

“Getting reports of… of the same thing all over the base!” another person called out in a panic.

“So many… over a distance… how?” Atka wondered, kneeling down next to Ross. “Stay… stay with us… we can get Chandra up here… we can…”

“Atka… it… I don’t think…” Ross coughed, a bit of blood splattering his uniform from his mouth. “I don’t think it matters… a-anymore… I don’t…” He grasped her hand weakly. “We… don’t… stand a chance… l-like this… some new strategy… n-needs to be adopted… but… promise me…Atka...”

Atka nodded, trying to staunch the bleeding but finding it wasn’t doing anything to stop him from dying.

“...promise me you’ll… continue on the fight… C-Commander Ipiktok…”

Atka’s eyes widened in shock. “I…” She saw the pleading look in the man’s eyes, and nodded. “I promise you, I won’t give in. We’ll turn this around somehow, I swear to God.”

‘Good enough...f-for…” Ross said, trailing off as he stared up at the dark metal ceiling, and then knew no more.

A silence briefly fell over the room before the staff member reported the people that hadn’t been disabled were returning to normal. “I’m not sure what’s going on… the attack came and then subsided…” There was a thunderous explosion of pulse explosives that Atka and Desmond recognized as the Sappers, and the doors to the mec bay across the way from central command were blown off their hinges as alien forces began to pour in. Mutons charged forward with Berserkers in tow, blowing apart equipment and killing anyone nearby. From the vents even closer to central command, Thin Men dropped down and began rushing to cover. A few Sectoids even dropped down in the immediate vicinity, forcing the security staff that remained there to start firing wildly while Madelyne, Atka, and Desmond went to retrieve weapons.

“Everyone, run! We need to fall back to a more defensible position!” Madeylne cried out over the squeals of dying Sectoids and gunfire from both beam laser weapons and plasma guns. Atka called out her affirmation and they began to fall back, attempting to go warn Engineering or the Research Labs but finding themselves quickly cut off by Heavy Floaters that burst out of the vents and started aiming indiscriminately at any target they could find.

Atka shot at one, damaging its armor but not taking it down, and had to mindfray it and two others merely to keep them from killing more than an unlucky mechanic. “Dammit, how many of them are there?!”

Madelyne finished off the one she had injured. “...all of them?” she guessed grimly.

“V-Valda and Veronica are in the labs! We have to…” Raymond tried to say before one of the Floaters ended that hope by blowing apart the door to the labs, causing debris to block the path and cut the X-COM soldiers off from the room, the sound of muffled gunshots from within signalling they had left enemy troops in there to mop up. “No! No, please no…”

“Girls, get into cover!” Joseph yelled, grabbing a weapon off a fallen soldier.

“I want mommy!” Jennifer screamed. “I want mommy!”

“Alexis, keep your sister’s head down, okay?” Joe looked back, seeing his eldest daughter staring at an engineer’s fallen body in shock. “Alex, please! Save Jenny!”

Alexis slowly nodded, and finally rushing over to the panicking Jen and trying to calm her and keep her in cover.

“W-we need to… to escape somehow!” Joe yelled.

“There are auxiliary elevators, but they seem to know where they are!” Lily cried out in horror as more explosions rang out, some of them seeming to hit the base’s power and cause the lights to black out before emergency red ones came on.

“No… did one of the Council Members we lost… give them the blueprints of the base?” Raymond uttered in realization.

“If there’s no way out… then…” Atka held up a comm. “Any surviving XCOM operatives, regroup at sector 1-3! We’ll make a stand there! Get as many civilians to that location as you can! If you can’t make it… give them hell!” With that, she began assisting a retreat, blocking off another wave of Heavy Floaters with a thick wall of ice. She winced but shrugged off any mental exertion it caused, having no time for pain.

Joseph looked over his rifle. “Damn it! Should have trained more. Desmond, do you have any extra…” A Thin Man suddenly dropped from an air vent in front of him. He quickly knocked away its weapon, only to have the Thin Man show it was stronger than it looked as it wrapped its hands around his throat, his face quickly turning blue.

Desmond was there to assist his friend against the Thin Man, the soldier turning his rifle in hand as he swung it like a bat, causing the Thin Man to drop Joe. The man kicked the alien away and put two bullets in its chest and finished it with one in the head, the alien falling back and exploding into gas as Desmond pulled out an extra clip and helped Joe up, putting it in his hand. “Yes, I do.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair
Chapter 4: Final Stand
Part 6

As Joseph reloaded the gun and they fell back closer to the room of choice it appeared they weren’t being given a moment to breathe. In their way was a Cyberdisc that unfolded with the reassurance of five drones around it and two flanking centaur-like Chargers along with it. The first Charger lunged for Atka while the second went after Desmond, seeming to recognize them as priority targets.

Never a better time to test what I’ve been working on than now. As the Charger neared her, it’s bladed tail flicking dangerous, Atka raised up a hand, and blue-violet energy surrounded her eyes and palm. “If you stare into the abyss long enough… it stares back. Welcome to my personal hell.” Horrifying images flashed through the alien’s head, and it recoiled in a psi-induced panic, darting back and firing wildly. In the process it managed to kill off its own companion and swiped a drone out of the air.

Joseph shot at the remaining stunned alien, and turned his attention to the spinning Cyberdisc. He shot quickly, but was only able to deflect its grenade in the worst way possible. “Alexis!”

Alex looked up, and saw the grenade flying towards. Unsure of what it was, but sure the blinking lights on it were bad, she tossed her hand at it like she was swatting a fly. She cried out in pain as flesh contacted metal, and it went flying straight up.

Desmond’s own eyes flashed, the fact the Charger killed its buddy freeing his attention as Desmond surrounded the grenade in a telekinetic sphere right before the device detonated, the red psion straining to keep the force of the explosive contained as he pushed it away and let the shield drop, the grenade’s plasma spraying over a couple of drones, damaging them.

A laser shotgun blast finished them off, and the Cyberdisc found itself the target of a series of beam shots, including a double LMG spray, a precise sniper rifle shot, and a regular laser rifle. Glancing over, Atka recognized the first culprit of the attack on the robots as Kevin, while Qamut, Kris, Sarah, and Gabriel Ortiz proved responsible for the destruction of the Cyberdisc. “Don’t think I’ve even been more glad to see the lot of you,” Atka called out, running over to them with the other survivors of central command into the civilian quarters lobby.

Looking around, she recognized two other surviving soldiers in Joel Brown and Booker Bryan. They, along with Big Sky, were guarding a few remaining staff members. Two scientists, two engineers, two doctors - one of them Chandra - and a security staff member defending Big Sky’s daughter. But that was it. 26 confirmed people left alive, and as the ten soldiers that included took defensive positions alongside the security officer and David “Big Sky” Slater, the main doorway was forced open by a pair of Mutons armored in ornate red plating that beam lasers seemed to do little against. They parted to the side under cover, suppressing some of the team with the aid of two regular Mutons.

My, my, my. Such a valiant effort. I was honestly told you would be cowering before us in the first few minutes. I knew that you wouldn’t, though. Never underestimate your enemy. Pride will be your undoing. Can you believe they wanted to send me in with a quarter of these troops, and spend the whole time on mind control duty? I mean… have they never heard that there is no kill like overkill?

A tall, extremely slender wearing fancy red robes and an intricately detailed metal mask stepped into the room. Its arms were tucked into the robes, but two elbows on either side said it had four arms. It spoke not vocally, but in a resounding voice that echoed in everyone’s heads, brimming with confidence, with a tone that said this was a being of dignity, of power, and one that liked to hear itself speak.

You will all surrender at once. Lay down your weapons. No point in damaging perfectly good test subjects.

“I honestly don’t know what the hell you are… but I’m beyond the point of caring. You can all go to hell for all I care.” Atka lifted her laser strike rifle, and soon the rest of her team followed suit. They all fired at the new alien, laser beams of varying sizes and intensity shooting towards him.

The being held out its hands, an invisible field deflecting the shots away from it. It was evident that its powers were not infinite, as the field only extended to the nearby red-clad Balmadaar, but if it was struggling at all, it wasn’t showing it.

What I am is beyond your comprehension. Just think of me and my kind as… your new gods. Tell me, human. Are you the leader of this group? What is your name?

“Commander Atka Ipiktok… remember that name, because if I don’t kill you here I will someday,” Atka said through gritted teeth, concentrating a thread of psionic energy and trying to mindfray her foe to no avail.

Atka Ipiktok. An interesting name. Mine is Zemsis'jiputer. Now… as the leader, order your people to surrender. Or I will have to do this. A psi-lance quickly formed in the alien’s hand, one only the psions could see. Kris certainly didn’t see when it flew through both his cover and his chest.

“K-Kris! You goddamned bastard!” Atka tried a psi panic. Nothing. She tried to search with her ESP for anything she could use to hit him, and came up with nothing. Her laser weapon began to overheat as her shots were wasted against his shield. “Damn you, damn you!” She screamed out in detail, out of options and finally beginning to crack under the pressure.

The alien only seemed to grow bored. You. He pointed at Madelyne. Convince her to surrender.

Madelyne seemed frozen in fear. “How… how can you just shrug all of that off…?” she whispered in disbelief. Is he really what he says he is? That can’t be...

One of you must be good at taking directions. The alien waved one of his hands, and the Balmadaar stopped firing. Lifting his upper right arm, Madelyne rose into the air, clutching at an invisible force as she floated into the line of fire. Cease your firing, or she dies!

The X-COM forces paused, afraid to hit their ally and unsure of what to do. “This… we can’t…” Atka stammered.

Desmond took a step forward, his anger simmering to a boil as his eyes flashed and the red psion yelled, throwing out ball after ball of telekinetic energy filled with tiny fire that he curved around Madelyne to try and attack the regal being, throwing out a barrage that soon covered the aliens in smoke. “Why won’t you die!?”

My, this one has a lot of spirit. Catch me on a bad day, and he might actually pose a threat. I hope I can keep him. A yellow tendril of energy shot towards Desmond, hitting him with a blackout. As Desmond stopped his assault, his senses gone, the alien shook its head. Well… that was over quick…

Despite the invisible force still preventing her from breathing hardly at all, Madelyne smiled weakly. She reached down to her belt, grabbing a high explosive. If you… can’t beat ‘em… play dead… she thought, her last bit of advice reaching Atka’s mind as she pressed the detonator. The blast claimed her life and caved in part of the roof, and Atka’s arms slumped in despair.

Then tensed in rage. Negative emotions boiled over, and with a shimmering blue-black, took form as similar double-helixes to her mindfray ones. But these looked like they were made of jagged ice, and expanded outwards as she cried out, the blades on them spinning rapidly like chainsaws and cutting through the roof between the Ethereal and the X-COM forces. There was a tremendous tumult of rubble that seemed to claim the X-COM soldiers, and then what little was left of the room save for a thick wall of steel and stone was silent before the alien leader.

Zemsis lowered his hands in defeat. The Balmadaar to his left yelled something out. Noble? It cried out again. Well, when you put it that way, I suppose. Still, I refuse to leave empty handed. He turned, his companions following him out. I want the rest of the staff dealt with without killing them. I want test subjects.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story No More
Chapter 5: The End?
Part Irrelevant

X-COM HQ Ruins
June 16th, 2018
0100 Hours

There was only a dim light amidst the darkness, maintained by a small fire in the palm of the hand of an Inuit man. More than a day had now passed, and the twenty-four survivors buried behind a mountain of rubble found themselves wondering whether they were lucky to be near an air pocket or unlucky to have not died in the initial assault. But from the silence that had persisted for hours it seemed the aliens had finally departed from whatever wreck remained behind of the X-COM base.

Atka had awoken from unconciousness from overexertion, while Joseph and a few others were still out cold from falling debris. The Inuit Woman was tirelessly chipping away at the debris now, slowly carving them a way out with her newfound Icy Helixes. She hadn’t stopped to wonder if they were psionic-derived or something else entirely, merely using the tools that had been given her by her despair. She spoke for the first time in a few hours.

“We’ve lost,” she addressed those that were conscious. There's no denying that. But after everything they’ve done… after all they’ve put through… they’ll pay somehow. Someday. I swear that to all of you.”

“...no.” A lone voice said from the end of the hallway, the recently arisen Desmond stood, his power still radiating off of him like radiation. “No more… I’ve had enough.”

Atka eyed him with suspicion and disbelief. “What are you saying?” she said quietly, dangerously. “That you’re just going to lie down and be a good test subject? You missed your chance for that.”

“I’m done with the fighting… with dragging everyone else through hell for a destination we don’t even know exists. You saw the hologlobe Atka. You saw just a fraction of what they are capable of…” The man said, his tone flat. Dead. He sounded completely done.

“I don’t care how long it takes, I’d rather die than give up after everything they did to me! They took my home, and now…” Atka looked back at the stone. “I imagine they killed my mother and father, or worse. I have so few people left… and you’re talking about abandoning me too.”

“It’s over, we can’t make a dent in them!” one of the scientists agreed with Desmond. “To hell with this…”

“If we just try and run maybe there’s some corner of the earth they’ll just leave us alone in…” an Engineer added.

“I’m not going to give up that easily,” Raymond spoke with a tired but determined tone. He glanced down at a sleeping Lily by his side. “I have something worth fighting for. If the rest of you don’t, then you can go your own ways. Take your own risks or lack thereof.”

Desmond looked at his other two supporters, and he took a deep breath, walking down the corridor Atka had been making. “Maddy and Kris were the last straw. I’ve lost too many now.” He rose his hand, Desmond beginning to use his telekinesis to try and break through the stone.

“Apparently you haven’t lost enough to grow a damn backbone,” Atka said venomously, chopping away at stone with her supernatural weapons. “But if you want to go, then feel free. I have a plan to wipe our identities clear… I know someone that can do that. Anyone that wants to leave, let me know, and you can go with a clean slate! But betray us outright and I’ll find you one day…”

From the sounds of it, the two staff members that had spoken up earlier along with a doctor and security guard were in agreement with Desmond. The rest seemed resolute or unsure.

“How long have we fought Atka? How many losses did we suffer in order to save no one?” Desmond asked her, refusing to look at her. “How much did we sacrifice and we are just back to square one. We have nothing.”

“More than 51 soldiers,” Atka replied coldly. “We’ve lost the war, certainly. But conventional war isn’t always how you beat a superior opponent. If I can get in contact with the person I have in mind… then perhaps we can foster a resistance movement.” Some light finally began to show through as she cut through the wall of rubble at last, revealing the aliens had practically torn off several floors of the base and blown apart entire layers of stone in order to pick the facility clean.

Desmond let out a deep breath and built up power, pushing outwards that blew the exit open, allowing one person at a time to exit. “I just can’t. I can’t drag the rest of the world down with me. All you will accomplish is chaos and death. I want it to end. I am sick and tired of people dying because of us.”

Atka stepped out, and shook her head. She reached out with her mind to get a final headcount. Soldiers: Kevin Nash, Qamut, Sarah Wong, Gabriel Ortiz, Joel Brown, Booker Bryan. Engineers: Raymond Shen, Lily Shen, Peter McCaffree. Scientists: AJ Flammel. Other Staff: William Bradford, likely Joseph Chambers along with Alexis and Jennfier Chambers, Chandra Bandyopadhyay, David Slater and his daughter Danielle Slater, and Nouja. Nineteen with me. Five deserters.

The Commander turned to face Desmond. “Then shut up. Leave. Get out of my fucking sight. If you’re too weak to go on, if you just want whatever so-called peace they’ll offer… then take it. I can’t really blame you for being human… but I can hate you for abandoning someone you love,” she said, struggling to keep her icy tone from breaking in its resolve.

Desmond looked down, clenching his fist as he shook his head. “I just know when to say enough is enough.” He looked at Atka with a stony look, but there was no hate there. “If it isn’t already too late… Don’t let this war change the woman I love. Maybe one day things will change, but… I can’t stand to lose anyone else close to me like this.”

“You don’t… have any right to make demands of me,” Atka replied with a shake of her head, turning away from him. Her voice cracking, she whispered, “Goodbye, Desmond,” before walking off towards the Commander’s office with the small hope that it was still intact.

“No… I doubt this will be the last we ever meet.” He said after she was already out of sight. Desmond turned in the opposite direction that Atka had gone, reaching up to his left arm, where the X-COM patch he had once worn with pride felt like a festering wound, and he ripped it off his tattered uniform, letting the now meaningless piece of fabric fall to the rubble of his old home.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

X-COM: A Story of Despair: Epilogue

“Indonesia. Eighty-seven percent lost.” The Overseer sighed. “Australia. Ninety-three percent lost. America. Seven percent. Dammit.” He scrunched up the paper, unwilling to go further. He’d already seen the numbers, after all. Every time he went back through them he half expected them to go away, be replaced by the more forgiving ‘fives’ and ‘eights’ of last week.

The last two days had been hell. You didn’t need to be an international information broker with spies in every city to know that. The Overseer scoffed. Even that description was probably outdated. More and more, the alien forces seemed to be beating back the militaries of the world, seeping through the streets like the forces of the apocalypse.

And it’d been going so well too. Two weeks ago they’d destroyed an alien base. ‘Ross’ had even been cheery, as opposed to his usual ‘we’re all going to die’ pessimistic self. Apparently the organisation had even had an influx of new recruits to replace the ones they’d lost.

“Hmm. Maybe that’s not exactly a good sign,” the Overseer murmured.

He glanced again at the computer, his eyes for a moment dancing to the side to the picture of Helen sitting beside it. No, not now. He clicked ‘call’ again, for perhaps the fiftieth time. Their meeting was a day late already, and with the state of the world as it was… worry was starting to edge its way into his mind.

Surprisingly, the call was answered. “Am I… speaking to the Overseer?” a familiar woman’s voice spoke through the phone, static lacing her speech indicating a frayed connection. “This is Acting Commander Atka Ipiktok.”

The Overseer didn’t answer for a moment, instead running a hand through his hair. “And the bad news just keeps coming,” he said bitterly. “Well. At least I know your name now.”

“It’s not like it matters anymore,” Atka replied with equal bitterness in her tone. “We lost. Plain and simple.” She paused for a moment. “I’m guessing the situation out there is equally bad, then? They hit us without warning, and with troops we’d never seen before. As if they were giving up on some sort of game and switching to a different phase of the invasion.”

“I won’t lie. It’s pretty bad out here.” He looked up at the ceiling. “I’m, uh… actually sitting underneath a lot of firepower at the moment. And they told me a bunker was paranoid nonsense.” He chuckled. “But they knew where you were, then. I take it your Commander has perished?”

“Shot by one of our own that was mind controlled by a psionic alien powerful enough to make me look like a child in comparison,” Atka confirmed darkly. “We never had a chance.”

“Dammit.” Something caught in the Overseer’s mind, however. “Why did it take so long to answer the call?” he asked, starting to wonder if he should have a pistol ready in case this was a trap of some kind.

“Because the few of us that survived nearly didn’t,” Atka explained. “In my struggle against that being the roof ended up caving in, trapping the survivors and separating the two of us. We had to wait for a day in near-complete darkness just for their search to conclude, and it took another to dig ourselves out. Ruined the last of our laser weapons just to bore out, and even then I wouldn’t have made it out if not for one final power that manifested itself earlier.” The Commander looked over her Icy Helix Reflection she had wound over her arm just incase any aliens were still nearby.

“So we’ve lost the best hope we had for victory, finding that we never stood a chance in the first place.” The Overseer sighed. “But… you called yourself ‘Acting Commander’. Do you…” He began laughing, although there was no humor in it. “Do you really think you can win a war like this? Answer me that one question, Commander. Can you win this war?”

“Not as things are, no. This war… is lost,” Atka admitted. “But I refuse to give up the fight completely, unlike…” she clenched her fist until the knuckles were white. “...some people.”

The Overseer remained silent. “... good,” he said at last. “Knowing when to retreat is a pretty good skill to have.” He began typing into his computer. “Could you disable your firewalls for me? Odd request, I know, but I’m trying to help you.”

“Actually, that is in line with what I was going to ask you to do. If it’s still in your power… make us all disappear. Primarily for those that wish to leave, even if they’re cowards for doing so, but it ensures the rest of us go off the radar and their families are as unharmed by whatever is to come as they can be,” Commander Ipiktok replied, beginning to do as he had asked.

“You may recall I once said I was not a magician,” the Overseer started, tapping a few fingers on his desk. “This disappearing act you want me to pull… that, however, I can do.” The firewalls went down, and suddenly the Overseer had unbridled access to the files of X-COM. “What I wouldn’t have given for this level of access a few weeks ago. Alright, I’ve got the profiles up here.” He chuckled. “Nice hair, Commander. Who’d you want deleted from history?”

Atka rolled her eyes, and replied, “I’ll compile a list of surviving operatives that will be coming with us. We only have a few…” Deserters. “...that wish to leave and assimilate. I can list those by memory. Daniel Bray, Wilhelm Nesslerode, Tso Suyin, Landon Stevens, and…” She paused. “Desmond Walker.”

The Overseer nodded, although the Commander couldn’t see it. “Done,” he said. “I’ve got the names down as well, I’ll do a quick scan through every other database I have access to and delete any instances of them I come across.” He stopped. “Well, I could just wipe the whole thi- no, that’d be too obvious. They’d suspect tampering. Compile your list. I’ll go through and, uh… rewrite history. Give you all a chance to rewrite it again later on.”

“For now, I think we’re going to disappear into the great white north,” Atka informed him. “Might be incommunicado for however long it takes to recoup and ensure that our enemy believes us well and truly gone. In the meantime… try and keep an eye out for whatever they do to the world. They aren’t going to destroy everything, I don’t think… they wouldn’t have been manipulating India if that were the case. But what exactly they have in mind is beyond me.”

“Understood,” The Overseer said. “I… need to get out of Russia. Or at least this part of it. You’re making the right decision going underground. Trust me, it’s a place I know well. And once you’re ready to re-emerge into the bright, bright sunlight… you’ll find me. Or my people. Unless the aliens intend to wipe this planet clean, I’ll still be around.” He chuckled. “Let’s just say I approve of your choice of weapons, Commander. Now, compile that list. We have…” He glanced upwards again and frowned. “We have a long journey ahead.”

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Burning Bridges, Epilogue 2

Lazarus Residence, New York City, U.S.A
Time: Armageddon o'clock


“You are not going anywhere!” Evelyn yelled, following him through the house. “What about me? What about Alan? There’s too much shit going on for you to abandon-“

“That’s exactly why I’m going!” Jack snapped, picking up a gas mask off the table and putting it on. “Samantha and the guys need help, and I’m not about to turn my back on them.”

“So you’ll turn your back on us instead.”

Jack stopped, hand hovering over a P90 SMG. Old thing, from days gone by. “I’m not turning my back on you,” he said gently, turning around. “I’d never do that.”

“Then let me come with you,” Evelyn said, moving forward and grasping his hand. “We can leave Alan with one of the neighbors and be back to pick him up later.”

Her husband’s sad eyes were hidden behind the glass circles of his gas mask. “You’re not coming with me,” he said. “I can’t risk anything happening to you.”

“And I can’t risk anything happening to you! This is a death sentence you’re going to, and I’m not letting you go without me to pull you back before you get yourself killed!”

Jack stared at her for a moment before tearing off his mask and kissing her, deep and long. When he pulled away, however, he shoved a hand in front of her face, holding a rag. Seeing it coming, Evelyn immediately attempted to pull away, but after years of retirement her reflexes were sloppy. Jack held the back of her head and pushed her nose into it. She held her breath. He wouldn’t look at her as her lungs began screaming for air, and eventually she needed to listen. She breathed in, the chemicals wafting into her nose. As she went limp, her eyes angrily switched to his, the lids closing over as she struggled to keep them open.

He laid her on the couch, in a position he knew would be comfortable for her. Looking up, he saw the boy, their child, staring at him from the staircase. “She’s not going to be happy when she wakes up,” Jack said, moving over to his son. “But she’ll get over it. She’ll have to.”

“You’re coming back, right dad?” Alan asked, his eyes betraying his stoic expression.

Jack smiled reassuringly. “Of course I am,” he said, ruffling the young teen’s black curly hair. “I’ll do my best, don’t you worry.” And without any further words, he retrieved his equipment and left, closing the door gently behind him.

The driver of the car looked at him when he sat down. “You know,” Pillar said, “It’s not too late to turn back. We haven’t left yet.”

Noxious glanced at him before throwing the bag into the backseat. “I’m staying,” he said, clipping his seatbelt on.

“You sure about that?” Pillar asked. “Raider’s gonna be goddamn angry with you if you do, you know.” That didn’t seem to sway Noxious, and he sighed. “This is a death trap,” the driver continued. “I’m all for helping my friends, but I know a bad situation when I see one. You got a family. Something to come back to. We start driving out of here, you ain’t walking back through that door. You get me?”

Noxious looked out the glass window, and briefly considered going back. “… no,” he said, looking away again. “I’m here, now. Let’s just go.”

Pillar looked at him for a while before grunting and starting the car. “Very well,” he said, and they pulled away from the sidewalk.


Overseer's Hideout, Volgograd, Russia
Time: Armageddon o'clock

Isaac leaned back in his chair, it squeaking in protest at the added weight. It was done. The survivors of the X-COM base massacre, his own agents… they were wiped from record, from history. To all intents and purposes, they no longer existed. They never had existed. He glanced up at the roof, for the hundredth time. The sounds had been silent for a number of hours. It was fairly safe to assume that the show of force the aliens had been conducting was now concluded.

After sending a message to a number of his agents instructing them to, for the most part, lay low, he shut down the computer for the last time. He patted the machine affectionately on the side of the monitor before rising, picking up the heavy pistol lying on the desk beside him alongside the picture of his long-dead wife. He had most of the stuff he’d want to take with him already packed – it never hurt to be prepared for this kind of situation – but there was still a few odds and ends that he’d like to pick up. Just… nothing in here. He glanced back into the bunker-style room, where he’d been working for a number of months in peace. With a rueful smile, he turned off the light in there for the last time, trudging up the stairs and into his home.

After grabbing enough clothes, food and drinks to keep him alive for a number of days, he began packing the car. The aliens seemed to have left his neighborhood relatively untouched, although the various makeshift traps he’d set around the doorways and the street in general probably went a long way to dissuading invaders. Outside, snow billowed alongside ash and smoke. The rest of Volgograd hadn’t been as left alone, by the look of it.

He used the scoped Mosin Nagant resting next to the top floor window to see out into the gloom and smoke, spotting numerous fires and areas of rubble. The entire city in ruins… Well, it wasn’t exactly unexpected. The world had gone to shit. And the ‘Acting’ Commander was right – there was no victory to be had here. Their best course of action was to hide, to wait out the storm until an opportunity arose. The only question was when that opportunity would come. And what would the aliens do in the meantime?

What was Earth’s future?

Isaac moved downstairs, taking the rifle with him and laying it upright in the passenger’s seat. He looked back towards the house, at the blinking red lights on remote explosives, layering the inside. He had rounds, food. His guitar. Everything. Briefly, he questioned his choice. Should he maybe leave it all behind? One never knew, it could be useful in the future.

Halfway down the road, he made his choice with a fireball. No. It was far safer to destroy it all, prevent it all getting into the hands of the enemy. And he drove off into the snow and ash, leaving it all behind him.

But not yet.

He drove past a lump in the snow, the dark shape of a small jacket. As he passed, however, the jacket moved, standing up. There was someone wearing it, Isaac realized. A child.

He hesitated. He should continue. Leave this kid to their fate. It was no concern of his. The child’s parents were likely dead already. Why not let their child join them in the cold grasp of the afterlife?

But the car slowed, and slowed, and stopped. No. Even he, Isaac Anderson, The Judge, The Overseer, could not let a lone child just die in the snow.

The child opened the back door of the car, clambering in while taking care not to brush their back against anything. A boy, Isaac noted. His features were too sharp to be female. His hair too short, once the beanie was off.

He examined the child for a moment. “Injured your back?” he asked.

The child simply stared at him, not responding.

Of course. He’s Russian, can’t speak English. He can’t understand me. He pointed at his back. “Back,” he repeated. “Pain? Ow?”

The child flipped his jacket over, revealing a singed shirt and a number of burns visible through it. “Ow,” the child said, nodding.

Isaac nodded, bringing a first aid kit out of the passenger glovebox. “Here,” he said, procuring an ointment. “Now, hold still-“

It took him some time to apply the cream to the boy’s back, given that they seemed adamant in not allowing such a crime to occur. Eventually, the job done, Isaac sat back, closing the lid of the container. “You’re a pain in the ass already,” he muttered, replacing it in the first aid kit. “But lucky.”

The child stared at him, sitting sideways on his seat so as not to aggravate the burns.

Isaac pointed to his chest. “Isaac.” He pointed at the child, eyebrows raised.

The child swallowed, and regarded him for a moment as if deciding whether he was worthy of knowing even that. “Samuel,” he said finally.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 & ZombieSplitter53

North American Continent
Canada
Specifically, the Nunavut Territory
Taloyoak, September 2nd, 2018
0812 Hours, Local Time

Atka sat in a simple wooden chair, overlooking the small work hub the X-COM survivors that had come with her had set up. Datapads were a thing of the past now, and in their place was an assortment of notebooks with designs Shen had sketched out - many of them related to communications systems. The Commander allowed herself to smile slightly at that. Despite everything, the old engineer didn't seem keen on giving up, and she wasn't about to let him, the Overseer, or Ross down.

Her smile faded as quickly as it had come, though, and her mind drifted back to the problem at hand. She glanced down at her stomach, and then back at the equipment with a muttered curse. Either I ate too much of those fucking rations which is an incredibly unlikely prospect or that asshole left me with one last 'fuck you'. Her attention was shifted for a third time when she noted one of her team approaching. "Morning, Chambers," she greeted him.

"Good morning, Commander." Joseph grabbed a chair and sat across from her, his movements clearly slow. Hesitant. Sad. "How are you feeling today?"

"I feel like we should start measuring our moods on a scale between neutral and terrible," Atka admitted. "I'm somewhere inbetween those two metrics."

"Well, a few years ago, I would have had something to say about that mood. Nowadays?" Joe lowered his head. "Most of the others a physically okay. Not all of them are used to the weather, so we have a few colds. As for morale, though, it... could be better."

"Not much that can be done about it," Atka replied. "We're just going have to deal with the hand we're dealt. None of the information the Overseer will bring us will be good news I imagine."

"Commander... Atka?" Joseph leaned close. "How are you doing? And I mean... really doing. After everything that has happened... please, talk to me."

Atka frowned. "I wasn't trying to sound formal. I feel awful, Joseph. We accomplished nothing in the end. I'm continuing our efforts not on some vain hope that we can free the planet from the occupation. I just know I'd probably blow my brains out from despair if I didn't have something driving my actions."

Joe nodded. "Yeah... I know the feeling. But... we can't just..." He rubbed his eyes. "It wasn't for nothing. We showed it is possible for someone to fight back. It couldn't have been for nothing. We... w-we gave up too much for it... to..."

"Joseph," Atka said sternly. "My parents... are dead. Vahlen is dead. Veronica is dead. There's no point in dancing around that. I pray that they are, because if they're alive they're probably alien captives, and we know what they do with those."

"I don't need you to remind me of that," Joseph snapped, losing his composure for one of the few times since they had met. After a moment, he softly said. "I'm sorry, Commander."

"Don't apologize," she responded coldly. "It's insincere, and just makes you feel worse. If you want to leave, you can. I didn't stop Desmond and I won't stop you."

Joseph shot her an angry look. "Is that so? It almost sounds like you'd prefer that."

"If you're just going to give up then I would," the Commander informed him. "No point in you wasting your life here or your children's childhoods. It may be cowardly to go but it's not like most wouldn't make that decision anyway."

"I'm no coward, Commander," Joe said with an obvious but of spite. "And don't compare me to Desmond. You think you were the only one that was surprised?"

"I don't doubt it," Atka affirmed. "but you're not the one who-" She paused and fell silent.

"I'm not that one who what?" Joe asked, feeling a bit annoyed but trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"He didn't leave you with an unwelcome reminder," Atka muttered. "I think the bastard left me with a bastard."

"I... I see." Joe's expression soften considerably. "I'm sorry. I... didn't know."

"I didn't notice either until recently," Atka explained dryly. "And I have no way of dealing with it considering the place we find ourselves in..."

Joseph raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, deal with it? You don't mean..."

"What, you think I want the kid of a deserting... goddamn traitor like him?" Atka snapped.

"Is it right to blame the child for the sin's of the father?" Joe asked calmly.

"You act like right and wrong mean anything anymore..."

"Of course they do!" Joe snapped. "They mean everything, Atka. They separate us from those monsters. They separate us from... people like Desmond."

Atka was silent for awhile before mumbling, "Not like I'm fit to raise a kid anyway..."

Joe sighed. "You and me both. But I'm trying to take care of those girls myself. I think you can too. You're stronger than all of us. That's why you are the Commander."

"More like I'm the only one still around," Atka countered.

"Listen, Atka... I'm sorry, okay? I have an idea of what you're going through. And I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to quit either." How shook his head. "But I quit when I die. If I quit now, I... I could never face them."

"Not sure there'd be anything to face," Atka mumbled. "Regardless, I don't intend to quit, and if you don't either then we don't have a problem."

"Are you sure?" Joe folded his arms. "It sounds like you've practically given up already. No leader is better than a leader who already expects to lose."

"I wasn't referring to us. Just having a spiritual crisis, nothing major," Atka replied sarcastically.

Joe placed his face in his palms. "They... they keep asking where their mother is. I-I don't know what to say to them anymore..."

"Did you come here to talk to me or just go on about your own - " Atka began, and them for the first time in their conversation her eyes softened and she signed. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"It's okay," Joseph mumbled back. "You have your own problems. Keeping us alive. Avoiding detection. Your losses. The child. And here I am trying to add one more problem to it. I'm the one who is sorry." He slowly stood up again, feeling like he had aged a hundred years in the past few days.

Dammit, I've just made things worse. "Look, Chambers... the first time I talked to the Overseer he told me to never abandon hope. This from the guy who's probably seen some of the darkest things humanity has to offer - and plenty of what the aliens dish out lately. If nothing else we ought to match that resolve, even if it means maintaining it for a decade, maybe two - until an opportunity to strike back presents itself."

"Atka... I know how you must feel right now, after losing the base and... Walker..." He walked towards her. "Abandoned. Alone. With no one to turn to." He took a knee in front of her. "But I'm not just here for humanity. Not just for the girls. Not just for... for Veronica. I'm here for you. You are my friend. You are my hope. You are my Commander. As long as you don't give up, I don't give up. It ends for me when we win, or I'm dead. I'm just hoping it ends up being the former."

Atka waved her hand. "I'm certainly not your queen. Get up." Quieter, she added, "But thank you."

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 & Taxor the First

North American Continent
Canada
Specifically, the Nunavut Territory
Taloyoak, January 30th, 2020
1316 Hours, Local Time

Atka glanced around herself and sighed. Although she still had most of her team with her, the departure of Bradford not long ago after the Overseer had discovered that his significant other had gone missing had left things feeling a little quiet. It helped to have a second opinion from a second in command, and without that she was forced to trust solely in her own judgement. Though there was always that informant, one she did have to speak with about an important topic eventually. Glancing downwards, she sighed and patted the baby in her arms gently before handing her daughter – whom she had named Yakone, meaning ‘Red Aurora’ – over to her sister for now, and turned on the prototype communications array.

“Overseer, you there?” she asked after waiting patiently for a few seconds - knowing the connection was sometimes spotty.

The response sounded like it was far in the distance. “Yeah, sorry. Just need to- ah, come on you little shit…” There was a clunk and a satisfied grunt, and the Overseer approached his microphone, his voice unaltered now. “Sorry, Atka. Bloody tent poles fell over again, had to slot one back in. You wanted something?”

“Yeah… had a matter of importance to talk about. Something to actually do rather than just chat idly about people being gullible,” Atka replied. “Though… before that… you know my name. And I assume you’ve disappeared as much as we have. So I’m curious as to what I could call you besides some gaudy title.”

The Overseer hesitated. “I suppose I do owe you that much,” he admitted. “Even if it feels odd. My… birth name is Isaac. Last name Anderson.” A grunt. “I don’t really care what you call me, I guess. Neither of us exist anymore, after all.”

“To the public, at least, but I’d rather not die a metaphorical death by no one at all calling me by my name,” Atka returned. “Anyway, onto the matter at hand… I think it’s time we start working on pushback. Right now no one has a chance of stopping whatever new society these ‘Elders’ are promising us, but we should start building up a resistance movement anyway. Get the gears turning so when the time does come we can start striking back.”

“They certainly are advertising the future, aren’t they?” Isaac said dryly. “If it weren’t for the abductions and the terror sites and all that, I might actually be inclined to believe all that bullshit. Of course, organising everything would be a colossal undertaking. We’re potentially talking about us versus the world here. Are you sure you want to start that kind of fight?”

“If that’s what it takes, yes. I don’t care if more people believe their propoganda than not, sometimes the majority isn’t right. But I have no intention of doing this in the broad daylight. An underground resistance is what we need. Guerilla strikes is all we can hope to achieve for now, not open warfare. Not when all the normal armies are falling out of use… they’re demilitarizing our nations. But I have a feeling they’ll have an army of their own soon judging by some of the information I’ve been able to extract from that “Speaker’s” flow of nonsense.”

“I’d say that’s likely. According to some of the agents I have still spread out they’re moving a lot of materials around. You probably know that already, though.”

“That part I don’t know, I only know what I can see on the news,” Atka replied. “Hence why a Resistance would be so valuable. It’d expand our dwindling avenues for intel. Shen has some ideas about ways to connect us covertly… a sort of ‘darknet’ for starters would be nice considering the aliens are rapidly making the internet as useless as North Korea’s filtered one.”

“A darknet?” Though unseen by the Commander, Isaac frowned. “I… honestly doubt you could pull something like that off. But given his track record…” A shrug. “If it can be done, he’ll do it. And I would have a few ideas in how to utilise it. Set it up similarly to the way I operated before the world came crashing in on everyone’s shoulders.” A pause. “Might even get a few of the refugees I ended up with working on intel. Yeah. That could work.”

“We might also be able to work with radio, but the ideas Raymond had for that are just going to take more time than anything to implement,” Atka added. “But if we can get some means of communication running it’ll be easier to organize anyone who isn’t going to take part in the Protectorate’s schemes.”

“I agree. If it can be done, do it. Running people back and forth is inefficient and risky, but it’s been necessary. If you can really provide an alternative…” He chuckled. “Maybe we can get an actual resistance off the ground then.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 & MarineAvenger

North American Continent
Canada
Specifically, the Nunavut Territory
Taloyoak, June 1st, 2023
1316 Hours, Local Time

Atka sat with her back to the comms array, meticulously carving a shape out of a piece of polar bear bone. The animal - rabid and out of its mind - had threatened Taloyoak a year back and Atka had been forced to take it down. Until recently she hadn’t found a use for the bones, but now she had an idea of who they could be used to make a figurine for.

She was interrupted by the crackling of the radio. Turning around and accepting the call, she asked, “What is it?”

“This is Lieutenant Nathan Jamerson, staioned in Vancouver,” a man’s voice came through. “Ipiktok, I suggest you check the news. Looks like the Ethereal Protectorate is finally showing its intention for Earth.”

“Alright, thank you.” Atka flicked on an old TV that one of the people in the town had generously donated, and brought up a channel Nathan specified. On the screen was a man she had become familiar with over the past few years - the Speaker, a thin globalist politician that had lauded the aliens as benevolent saviors and promised humanity they would bring about positive change to the affairs of the world. He had just began a grand speech in the United Nations building in New York - the organization of which had increasingly become more powerful at the cost of becoming a puppet to the Ethereals.

“Preaching to the choir, are we?” Atka muttered, but listened intently. After posturing and restating the promises he had made, the Speaker finally got to the point.

“I stand before you all, humbled beyond my wildest dreams,” the Speaker declared. “For this day is one that will be remembered forevermore. This June 15th of 2023 will henceforth be known as Unification Day!” He gestured broadly to his present audience. “Of course, my associates here have been working tirelessly to prepare this grand transition, but I will make the people of the world that are listening aware of this accomplishment! Today is the day Earth will be reborn as Terra under the guidance of the Elders. Today is the day a world government is established! I announce the birth of the ADVENT Coalition!”

The feed cut to a podium in a city Atka did not recognize. It reminded her of a bustling metropolis with skyscrapers, but everything was bright and magnificent. There was a podium on a tower overlooking a crowd of people that had been brought in via sky transport. The being that floated out to the podium made Atka’s blood run cold.

There stood an Elder with an intricate mask over his face. The tall extraterrestrial helm was wider on the top than the bottom, with intricate designs etched in white over a seemingly recent gold paint characterizing the majority of its color. His robes were white with gold lining, flowing onto the ground and adding to his regal look. His helmet added ontop of that made him appear like some sort of spacefaring pope - a conclusion rather apt considering. Lights shined on him in a manner that made him appear almost divine.

“Citizens of the ADVENT Coalition, I am honored to greet you. My name is High Commander Vekinte’Ecformin’Cettnint, and I lead the Ethereal Protectorate that watches over you all,” he said with a grand voice, one that seemed to echo with wisdom and was neither imposing nor unconvincing. “On this monumental day I am pleased to announce the beginning of the Megacity Initiative that we had begun ever since the end of the ill-advised conflict of five years ago. Consider these new, grand cities to be one of the many gifts we will provide to you in the future.”

The Ethereal swept his arms out as if addressing his entire audience with equal importance. “Those of you gathered here are the first to enjoy the facilities provided here, including our first Gene Therapy clinics to cure humanity’s illnesses. But there will be more and more of these Megacities as time goes on. These first ones are new constructions entirely, but selected cities will also be uplifted much as humanity will be under our auspices.”

The High Commander bowed. “You are a crucial part of the Path, people of Terra. Do not undervalue your role in elevating the Elders with all you have to offer so that we might become gods and ensure eternal prosperity for all races. The future is bright, and this is only the beginning.” With that, he turned and departed, but the lights remained on.

As the Speaker returned to his posturing Atka hit mute with a shake of her head. “Nathan, get me Bradford.”

***​

“I assume you caught that damn broadcast?”

“Yeah… I’ve seen it.” Bradford said to his commander, in a darkened apartment with the blinds shut and door behind him bolted as he sat on a musty bed that served as his only place to sleep for now until he moved on. “Megacities huh… when we finally do strike back at the aliens, those will be a pretty tough nut to crack.” Bradford’s voice sounded different, a deeper and more scraggly one, being that way thanks to a rookie who blew himself up while planting an IED. Took him many months to recover, but he did, and the changed voice became an asset, seeing as any voice recordings of him talking would be unrecognizable now.

Atka glanced at the running TV feed. “And they’ve already begun forming a proper military for this ADVENT government of theirs. Which by itself is bad enough, but… I’ve been cautioned by intelligence correspondents that the aliens have taken notice of the budding resistance movement and would like to cut off its head. The Overseer lost track of one of the deserters, and that has me worried.”

“Does he know which, or is he not telling?” Bradford asked, lighting a cigar as there was no way he could mess up his throat anymore then it already was.

“He wouldn’t hide information like that unless he wants mutually assured destruction. At this point we’re all considered ‘traitors to humanity’ if we hold allegiances to past governments. At least the aliens have a sense of humor,” the Commander said without a trace of amusement.

“Well… we all know who we work for now. How about it… becoming a Prime Minister or President after we beat these aliens back to whatever cesspool they crawled out of?” Bradford asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Atka scoffed. “I think I’m permanently jaded towards politics after listening to the Speaker for the past five years. I don’t know what will happen to the world if we take it back, but that’s not my concern right now. Taking it back is king, and before that the resistance needs to be stronger and more coordinated. This ADVENT business will hopefully be a wake up call that the aliens aren’t going to respect anyone’s sovereignty. Aren’t they encouraging people to migrate out of the U.K. now?”

“Yeah… and I have no idea why. Me and my boys are still trying to make hits where we can but it seems people are content just up and leaving with little explanation as to why. I don’t know. I leave the call up to you whether or not to abandon this op and join up with your cell again.” The British man said, taking a puff and letting out the smoke through his nose.

“With the possibility of that idiot scientist having spilled her guts I can’t be sure taking a flight right now would be safe. Even if you wouldn’t be easy to recognize,” Atka insisted. “Besides, this policy of cleaning out island nations should weed out the sheep from the wolves. We don’t need lost lambs, we need hunters. And you still need to find him.”

Bradford gave a soft smile. “I will get us more and more recruits but… Atka, it has been several months and leads are… slim to say the least. I… as much as I would not like to think about what may have happened, if I must I will abandon my… side objective.”

“Even if that proves to be a lost cause, my team is leaving Taloyoak. We’re going to the Yukon.” The Commander shook her head. “It’s sudden, but I won’t let the people that have sheltered us here be put at risk if we end up being hunted. And while it will be hard, I know how to survive in this environment. We’ll be better off on the move until they lose the scent.”

“You know I trust in your abilities, Commander. I just hope the rest of us may be so lucky.” Bradford let out a grim chuckle. “Be sure to save some moose meat for me if I eventually get there.”

“We’ll make it. What kills me is the waiting. I understand that building up a force capable of actually beating the aliens this time is going to be a difficult task, and a long one, but it’s not reassuring to think that it may take over a decade.”

“Well… not much I will be able to say to reassure you, but at least you have your close ones near by.” Bradford chuckled as he let out more smoke through his mouth. “How is the little one by the way?”

“Still growing up… Shen’s daughter has taken to babysitting her a lot of the time when I’m working or training… Or simply don’t want to deal with her,” Atka admitted.

Bradford rolled his eyes. “Well… kids are always a handful when they are around her age. I ever tell you me and my husband were looking to adopt before the war? We had a few in mind but never got far enough in the process before the war called me away.”

“Why you’d want a brat is beyond me aside from the charity work aspect…”

“You should give it a chance Atka. You would be surprised by how happy a little one could make you.” There was a soft explosion in the distance on Bradford’s end and he slowly turned to look at the closed window. “Looks like they found our car bomb. That seems to be my que.” He sighed as he put out his half finished cigar in an ash tray and he grabbed his pistol. “Tell Yakone Uncle Bradford says hi. And Atka…” Bradford reached up, his finger on the end call button. “Take care of yourself.” He gave his Commander a nod of his head before the screen went dark.