RP XCOM2: Liberation of Earth

[DarkGemini24601]

BMPixy, Dahlexpert, and DarkGemini24601, “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 2”

Alpha Team

That left the others to deal with the fliers, the last approaching chryssalid taking considerable time to recover and rush Russell. Grant eyeballed the fliers, and decided against trying to take a shot. Instead, he sent his Gremlin to do some quick work. First, it flew up into the air to come optic to optic with one of the assault drones, and finished off the alien model with the other charge of it’s electric cannon. The holo-targeting on José disappeared, and the drone went to Atka to counteract the remaining aim assistance on Atka with an aid protocol distortion field.

The Floater for its part lined up a shot against Carlos, doing its best to hit him but only landing a glancing blow that didn’t penetrate his armor all the way through. And for its trouble it got hit by the Sharpshooter returning fire - which didn’t hurt it, but it still reeled and made itself an ideal target for a finishing shot.

And José tried to capitalize on that opportunity, drawing his own rotator, lining up the shot, taking a deep breath to steady himself, and squeezing the trigger. The beam lanced forth from the pistol - and passed harmless in front of the the Floater, a foot off-target. José’s curse - quite profane to those familiar with his native tongue - was slightly more on target, as was a follow-up shot that scored a narrow rent in the the Floater’s armor.

Atka tried to finish it off, but for once her years of experience and her marksman stock failed her, and the Floater dodged out of the way. She swore in a language that no one around her understood, and the Floater raised its weapon, starting to fire blindly in an arc in front of it. While its shots didn’t score many hits, merely grazing Grant and Russell, it did break apart some of their cover - leaving them in the open as it went into an automatic dual overwatch mode.

However, this proved to be short-lived, as Carlos - now recovered - lined up a shot on the Floater with his Anti-material rifle. “Sorry buddy, this is a no-fly zone,” the sharpshooter quipped as he squeezed the trigger, sending the Floater crashing to the ground as either the round or the joke blew the flying robot’s mind into a mess of shrapnel.

The Commander sought to correct her earlier mistake by taking down the Chrysslaid that was now harassing Winslow. It was too close for her ATR but she pulled out her concussion grenade, giving it a toss and hitting the Chryssalid with a burst that caved in some of its internals and allowed her to finish it off with a rotator shot. Pained roars sounded the deaths of the other two from Grant’s beam rifle and the Marauder’s assault rifles. However, the sound of human dying screams meant there were still more out there. “Keep moving!” Atka shouted, dashing forward and waving off civilians she saw out of the corner of her eye, huddled behind a dilapidated wall.

What Alpha came on next was a fine mess. There were only two chryssalids, but as they got a better look at the large classroom they were inside the XCOM soldiers could see three cocoons around mangled corpses that spawned three smaller chryssalids before their very eyes. “This is new,” Atka muttered as the three hatchlings charged at them along with one of the fully-grown bugs. The other vanished further into the building. “Someone go after that thing before it eats more of the civies!” she shouted as she blew off the head of one of the miniature chryssalids.

“I’ll get him, i’m not letting any more civilians die in that grotesque manner!” Luke shouted going after the cryssilade that tried to escape. Luke used his pyrokinesis to scare off the in front of him giving him room to go after the adult chryssalid. “Don’t you people die on me, your hear that commander!” Luke shouted getting further away from the squad.

“Don’t intend to,” Atka responded, deciding it was time to use her psionics as one chryssalid hatching died only for three to take its place. She created a sheet of ice underneath them to throw them off. “Not so good at ice skating are you?” She then mindfrayed the adult chryssalid barreling for her, throwing off its precision enough that it stabbed a hallucination next to her with more force than intended. It’s claws imbedded in the ground as another hatching bit the dust, leaving three left capable of dealing serious damage should they recover.

However, José was well on his way to taking care of those last three. Knowing he wouldn’t have the time to set up one of his IEDs, he instead attached the pressure sensor directly to the explosive, and lined up his toss. “Hasta la vista, pendejos!” the Mexican shouted as he hurled the explosive amongst the trio of ‘lids. As soon as the IED hit the floor, it exploded in a conflagration of shrapnel and fire, killing two of the Chryssalids immediately and crippling the third.

Without an ounce of pity Russell finished off the downed hatchling with his double-barrelled pistol, the small enemy not having the durability to survive the shot. That just left the visible ‘mother’... until a third wave of hatchlings burst out, deflating the cocoons completely of organic matter to use in their internal factories. “Enough already!” the former police officer growled, taking a step back and blocking one with his shield, being cut by a swipe from the second and spared a blow from the third by a laser beam from Grant.

Atka blew away the offending chryssalid, and then Grant went over to Russell to spray him down with her medkit over the shallow wound he had taken. “Wouldn’t want you keeling over dead from that poison,” he said with a shake of his head as the European used his renewed vigor to shield-bash the last Chryssalid to make it an easy target for executing shots.The first and last Chryssalid started to run, and an icy helix impaled it through the head.

“That’s quite enough out of you,” Atka growled.

***​

Luke chased down the cryssalid down the hall not being able to reach it. Damn this thing is fast, I don’t think I can catch it.

The chryssalid then turned into a classroom looking to get it’s next victim. Luke got into the classroom, seeing the terrifying alien standing up ready to sink it’s claws into a civilian. The rest of the civilians stood behind the class in horror. Luke tackled the chryssalid into a nearby wall and starts to punch it.” Don’t worry everyone the cavalry's here, get out of here there are solders west of here that area is clear go!” Luke shouted and the civilians left the classroom in droves. The chryssalid whipped its head back hitting Luke's nose and to him sticking a claw into Luke’s armor. But thanks to his blast padding it didn't do much damage. Luke used his fire cracker with his punch every punch caused a small explosion to the chryssalid stunning it. Luke kicked the chryssalid off him and pulled out his street shotgun and fired at the bug-like alien - shredding its armor by tearing the chitin wide open.

The chryssalid still in close range to Luke grabbed his shotgun out of his hand and tried to sink it’s claws into Luke. Luke dodged and backed off getting a good distance for the Chryssalid. Luke then pulled his minigun off his back and opened fire on the chryssalid unceremoniously killing it. Luke continued to shoot the dead alien until his gun was empty. “Go and rot, you worthless bug.” Luke fell to his knees due to the poison and him using so much of his psionic power. Luke wiped his mouth and sees blood on his fist. “Damn, went a little too far.” Luke picked up his shotgun and reloaded his shotgun and his minigun. “I need a medic, I’m hurt pretty bad.”

A few seconds passed and then Grant’s Gremlin appeared from the doorway, flying over to Luke and releasing a burst of healing nanites that cured his poison and mended his wounds. However, as the drone flew back it nearly was shot down by a pulse laser from an alien drone, and the sounds of jets encouraged Luke to rejoin the squad through the back door.

***​

When he came back out he found himself in the beginning of what would likely be a protracted firefight. Atka had taken a point of high ground on the building behind the set of classrooms, her back to a vent with Russell’s deployed shield serving as her frontal cover. On the ground within the building was Grant and Russell guarding windows on opposite sides, the civilians that had fled from Luke’s cleared structure huddled inside. The three manning the make-do bunker were defended from a point a little further by Carlos and José, huddled behind rubble cover along with another batch of civies.

The reason the civilians were so scared was the mass of robotic units in the air. To the north, west, and east there was a pair of drones each - one assault variant and one worker variant. To the south, a pair of Floaters. And floating a bit of a distance away, there was a Hover SHIV suppressing the two Hispanic XCOM soldiers - marginalizing their support. Russell tossed down a smoke grenade to deal with the fact that he and Grant were both holo-targeted - and to cover the civilians. Atka was left high and dry, or so it appeared until she sighted Luke.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

BMPixy, Dahlexpert, and DarkGemini24601, “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 3”

Alpha Team

“Luke!” She hissed over comms. “Either send me some smoke cover or shoot at them!”

“Got it sir.” Luke loaded his grenade launcher with a smoke grenade near Atka and Russell giving them a little more cover or the power to change position. Luke then fired his minigun to get the attention of the Floaters. One of them darted upwards, getting more height - and getting its armor shredded as it did - while the other was missed and shot towards Luke, tossing a black grenade with a red pulsing light his way. Luke got out of the way of the grenade and the explosion, Luke got himself together and fired at the floater that threw the grenade at him, shredding it’s armor.” Someone take that thing down!”

With both of the Floaters shredded, they made for slightly easier pickings. Grant fired upwards at the one he could see with his battle rifle, the thick beam tearing into the armor but not quite knocking the Floater out of the sky. It did make them fall back to some degree, the damaged one not as inclined to use its other grenade for fear that it would be picked off.

Atka had forgone her ATR, and instead created her two icy helixes. They’re just in range, she thought, eyeballing the pair of drones to the north that were closest to her. With a swipe of her arms, she caused the twin projections to curve outward and then converge inward, ripping through the two mechanical units and causes pieces of them to rain down. This caused the western pair to change tactics, starting to fly over to the civilians next to the two Mexican operatives with the intent of taking them out. The two remaining - along with the Floaters - kept firing to keep the three soldiers in the building pinned.

Up to you again, Luke, Atka psied. Send your other batch of smoke cover José’s way. “Nunez, Espina, you need to get out of that suppression as soon as you get smoke coverage! Otherwise you’re going to lose those civies! Take down those drones!”

Yea alright commander, Luke psied back to her, Luke loaded his last smoke grenade to Jose giving him some cover. Luke lifted his Minigun and fired at one of the floaters shredding it’s armor further and separating it from the group.

As the smoke billowed out around José and Carlos, the Ambusher made a decision. “Carlos, get ready to move to a better position - I’ll break the suppression,” José muttered, peeking over the rubble at the Hover SHIV that continued to fire intermittent bursts at the two.

“Wait- wha-?” Carlos began, but José didn’t give him a chance to finish the shot. As one burst spooled down, José stood from his cover, arc rifle snapping up to form a bead on the enemy machine. The trigger was squeezed, and for once the burst of electricity was dead on, nailing the Hover SHIV and shorting out it’s weapon - and briefly overloading its anti-grav generators, causing to plummet for a second before it could reinitialize them. Upon seeing this, Carlos bolted for new, heavier cover amongst the civilians. José moved to follow his comrade, but a shot from the worker drone caused him to instinctively dive to the side - unfortunately, out of the protection of his cover.

Seizing this chance, the assault drone lined up its own bead on the now holo-targeted soldier, as José scrambled to get out of the way. Thankfully, this panic was short-lived, as Carlos - with a quip drowned out by the roar of his AMR - downed the assault drone, allowing José just enough time to slide behind a pick-up truck that had miraculously survived the assault before the Hover SHIV could get its weapon functional again.

That just left the worker drone, which Atka was able to deal with using her primary weapon. “Two more drones, and two damn - shit.” The Inuit woman dived out of her cover, yelling, “heads up!” before an impulse grenade impacted with the roof she had been standing on and caved it in, small debris and dust raining down upon those inside the building that now had a large sunroof. There was no sun however, and the rain poured along with the two Floaters.

Russell darted behind his fallen shield, ducking low enough that the Floater shot at him but narrowly missed. The other aimed to blow a hole through a civilian. Grant’s Gremlin darted in front of the blast, but its sacrifice only turned a sure killing blow into a shot that removed one of the inhabitant’s arms. “Robby!” Grant cried out, before unloading on the Floater that had destroyed his mechanical partner. Already battered and rent, the robot was dropped, and Atka’s rotator claimed the other one with a screech as she recovered.

The two drones went after Luke. Both barreled towards him, the worker charging up an electropulse and the assault preparing its pulse laser for the ‘gun’ part of its run and gun.

Luke saw the two drones coming after him and knew won't be fast enough to shoot them both. Luke used his pyrokinetic power to set them both on fire causing some small damage to them. Luke used his Minigun to fire at the drone with the pulse laser taking it out. Unfortunately this left Luke open to the other drone hitting him with the electropulse, causing him to yell in pain. The robot spun, and charged up its beam to finish off Luke, but he was rescued by Winslow, who blew the worker drone to pieces.

And then, only the Hover SHIV was left. But it was a formidable opponent. It opened the back of its chassis, sending out some sort of radio signal and preparing a missile surge to come down upon the building Atka was in. The Commander noticed this, however, and psionically instructed Carlos to jam its call for help while calling out for the civilians inside to scatter. They didn’t move at first, horrified by what had happened to the now one-armed man. “Dammit, move or you’re all going to die!” She ran over by the injured civilian, easing his pain with her medkit. That proved to be enough to galvanize the others, and they ran for it while Atka helped the injured one of their number out.

The building was obliterated only milliseconds later, knocking Atka and her wounded baggage to the ground from the shockwave. Not satisfied, the miniature alien hovertank aimed its main gun at the two, needing to kill a few to fulfill its objectives. Grant shot it to get its attention, doing minimal damage however. The Hover SHIV turned on him, and flushed him out from the new cover he had taken, tearing apart his armor and burning some of his flesh with merely a few hits out of many misses from its stream of plasma.

Russell ran nearby, slamming down his shield. He wanted to heal his comrade, but knew if he hesitated they might all be dead. So instead, he grabbed his fallen comrade’s missile launcher, and sent a micro-missile burst barreling towards the SHIV. The armor-piercing tips didn’t all collide with it, but enough did and exploded in red bursts that tore apart much of its circuitry and permanently grounded it. Then, he had a chance to use his medkit on his comrade.

Atka slowly pushed herself off the ground, taking in a deep breath. Then a few more. “Luke… if you… have the strength… get this guy out of here. The rest of us will hold the line.” She glanced at a hatchling chryssalid peeking out and being shot by Carlos. “We’ll be needed.”

Luke - still lying on the ground - finally stood up, and turned to the civilians. “See, I told you the cavalry is here.” Luke started to cough up blood. “Well that’s not good, I think I’m…..gonna …..sleep now Commander.” Luke passed out on the floor.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601, Frostlich1228, and MarineAvenger: “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 4”

Roughly 17 minutes earlier, Beta Team

The Skyranger began to make a downward spiral, circling around the Sooner Stadium. “Sorry guys, looks like there’s no good spot to slip in from above. I could try dropping down the ropes but I’m liable to take fire, and this lightning is making me nervous. I’ll drop you off at the entrance.” The XCOM dropship touched down in front of entry booths that were worn by wind, rain, and time.

“Just make sure you find somewhere safe to land the ship for extraction. I doubt much support is going to be an option if you go back to the Avenger and we need a quick getaway.” Brad noted as the drop ramp came down and he activated the light attached to his rifle given to them before they left to make things easier to see during the storm. “Stay safe. That goes for everyone.” He said to both the pilot and the squad.

“Maybe more for you than me, I’ll be fine.” The gruff Russian responded, cradling his shotgun.

“I’ve been at this since before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye. I don’t need to be told to stay safe. It comes naturally Ruskie.” Bradford told the man, moving forward. “I am sure Yakone can vouch in terms of experience I might be as good as Atka. Stripped of her powers of course.”

“Yep. Trust our Central Officer, he knows what he’s doing,” Yakone agreed. “And I’ll be here for the psionics, never fear.”

“Make me proud my girl, not make me call back the ship for you.” The CO warned the girl, but also being light hearted and supportive about it.

“Aw… you two are cute together.” Gwen told the two, snickering behind her helmet.

Yakone rolled her eyes. “Keep your fanfiction to yourself, Gwen.” Activating the floodlights on her helmet, but at a dim setting so their battery would last, she foraged forward. “Yo, Marx… one of us should keep a sword out since we’re going to be in tight quarters. I vote myself if you have no objection.”

“That works, I have my shotgun… I’ll keep you covered…” He replied.

The group went through the booths, noting a security post that contained a very-dead guard with a silenced pistol. The two Rangers naturally took point, being cloaked in the shadows thanks to their new Phantom training. Close behind was Stacie, her machine pistol out and ready, and Gwen with her alloy shield. Bradford and Sanchez took up the rear guard.

And there’s our first contact, Yakone mentally informed the others, sighting a trio of ADVENT Troopers, a pair of Stun Lancers, and an Officer. The two lancers impaled a few corpses with their melee weapons to confirm their kills - the bodies being half a dozen civilians hastily thrown into a pile. Goddamn butchers… ready to chop them up on your order boss.

Weapons up and ready. We fire on three… two… one… With a second more to confirm nothing unexpect popped out to make them stall their plans, Bradford pulled his trigger first, his laser gunning straight for the Officer’s unsuspecting head.

The shot indeed collided with their helmet, but while the alloy plating was breached the Officer was mostly unharmed besides his hair being singed. The Officer shouted something in the ADVENT “Jabberwocky” code-speak, and started to move. Stacie, however, had him dead to rights. Her machine pistol revved up, and two bursts of bullets impaled themselves into the Advent Sergeant’s head through the hole Bradford had made. His body collapsed backwards, and the remaining five were thrown into a slight panic. The Stun Lancers recovered first, high off combat stimulants and itchy for battle. One of them rushed at Marx, while the other was running towards Stacie with a trajectory that would spoil Yakone’s concealment.

So the Inuit-Caucasian Ranger worked with it, stepping out with her sword in hand. The Stun Lancer hesitated for only a fraction of a second, but that was enough for Yakone to bring her sword down and split his chest open. Genetically modified blood spilled out, and one Stun Lancer was no more. The move left Yakone exposed, especially with her sword out. Luckily for her, Gwen was there for the assist as a round just narrowly was skimmed off of Gwen’s shield as she covered with her rotator. “Too close…”

The other stun lancer quickly reached Marx, narrowly dodging Marx’s shotgun rounds. The Russian quickly pulled out his combat knife, moving into close range as the lancer reached him. The lancer swung his baton, but Marx quickly ducked it, driving the alloy knife into the leg of the trooper, quickly bringing it down to open a huge gash and cut his achilles tendon. However, as the lancer fell, he sent a powerful kick into Marx’s chest with the other leg, knocking him onto the ground, but it only launched him back into beam pistol range, giving Marx the chance to finish off the incapacitated trooper with a clean headshot.

Miriam managed to shoot a trooper that was still out of cover, downing him with a shot straight through the heart. The other two had recovered though, and entrenched themselves behind support pillars. One had fired at Gwen, his shots glancing off her shield and torn gouges into it. The other aimed for Bradford, but couldn’t get a clear shot, and instead went into overwatch.

Both Gwen and Bradford looked at one another, a quick plan forming between them that they quickly put into action. Gwen moved out of cover, drawing the soldier who was aiming at Bradford off of him as she drew overwatch, Bradford moving to meet her halfway. Gwen dropped the shield and locked it in place, popping up to fire on the overwatcher as Bradford suppressed the one that was watching Gwen, forcing him into cover. This left his buddy all alone as a laser shots from Gwen’s rotator burned through him. Switching to her laser pistol, this time she shot at the one behind cover to keep him there as Brad moved up with shotgun in hand at gave the pinned trooper quite a surprise through the face of his helmet. “Enemy down.” He confirmed to Gwen and everyone else.

“Think the injured one hightailed it,” Yakone responded. “Which means he’s off to tell his friends. I suggest we keep moving, sir.”

“Well then let’s get moving instead of talking about it.” Bradford told Yakone as he put his shotgun against the magnetic clip and took his laser rifle in hand again, making a signal for the Rangers to move behind him and Gwen this time since the last one knew they had them. “I’ll use my radio jammer if we need.”

“A radio jammer won’t exactly stop him from just going to his friend’s location, we should prepare for them to find out anyway.” Marx replied, moving into formation.

“You have a gun in your hand with ammunition. How much more prepared do you need to be?” William shot back to Marx as they moved forward, having to guess (and hope) the man merely kept going straight since there would be no blood trail to follow.

The darkness they were in was alleviated slightly as they exited the hallway behind the ticket booth, and came out into the middle of the football stadium. The main area was no longer just empty field for the most part. Instead, it looked more like a market square, with shacks set up in haphazard locations with various goods hanging from each roof. Several wooden beams supported a network of what was essentially treehouses over the market area, connected by curved bridges to the rusted stands. Near where the XCOM squad came out, several stalls had been blasted apart or burned, and the housing above had been knocked over and crushed.

The perpetrators of this dual destruction quickly became apparent. Supported by an ADVENT Trooper and Scorcher was a pair of alien troops. One was familiar in some manner to the squad members. The Muton that saw them coming into view readied his plasma rifle, and took aim. The beast that he was supported by was familiar only to Bradford, who had seen blurry images from terror sites at the end of the invasion of such a creature.

It was what had been dubbed by the freedom fighters that knew of it a “Reaper”. The creature was a bipedal carnivore that stood perhaps eleven or twelve feet tall - even more massive than the Muton - and had monstrous muscles in its legs and jaw. It was decorated in black and gray armor that looked vaguely Egyptian in its inspiration, though the protective glass over its eyes was nigh-invisible, and showed off vicious crimson eyes that thirsted for blood. The roar it gave was not exactly a pleasant noise either, sounding like a drawn out bark of ten bulldogs mixed with a deep elephant’s call.

Their comms crackled to life, meaning someone long range was calling in, a strong Russian voice saying to the squad, “Be careful of these Reapers. Their bites are deadly, so any of their saliva gets into your body you will not be returning.” Rasputin noted, the comm going silent once more.

“Pull back and find cover. We can’t let the Reaper get in close. That Muton won’t be any pushover either!’ Bradford ordered the squad, taking pot shots at both the aliens. “And the Scorcher too. Basically don’t let anyone in close!”

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601, Frostlich1228, and MarineAvenger: “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 5”

Yakone pulled out her Viper grenade. “I’ll make the small fry go away then,” she started to say, but the Muton caught the movement and laid down suppressing fire to prevent her from making an effective toss. “Someone shoot that asshole! Then I’ll do that!” Meanwhile the Reaper bounded forward with startling speed, the Scorcher and Trooper taking a bit more time to go wide for flanks on either side. Stacie pulled out her sniper rifle, a bit indecisive about what target to take before reasoning that the higher damage output would be better suited to use on the hulking beastial alien charging straight for them.

A crack of a high-caliber round echoed as the Sharpshooter fired at the Reaper. The shot connected, punching a hole in the shoulder armor of the huge alien and digging in, but it didn’t so much as falter. If anything, it seemed angrier and moved quicker.

Quickly choosing whether to go for the Reaper or the suppressing Muton, Marx decided to go for the closer, arguably more immediate threat of the former. Quickly moving out of cover, Marx fired a shotgun blast into the chest of the Egyptian behemoth, but before he could take another one, an ADVENT soldier fired at him, hitting and punching into Marx’s side. However, thanks to Marx condition, the shot did little to faze him, despite the wound, letting him get in one more shot before ducking back behind his wall.

The Reaper roared even louder, the first beam from Miriam’s rifle hitting a bad spot, but upon readjustment she managed to drive a laser into an exposed portion of its body, and hit something vital. The creature fell onto its face, and slid to a stop in front of the squad - its corpse making for convenient cover for those that weren’t pinned down. The Scorcher would have none of it though, and pulled out an incendiary grenade, aiming for a high toss. It forced the XCOM soldiers to scatter out of the way again, and it was well that they did. The flames licked the Reaper, and then burst into a configuration from contact with the creature’s flammable tissue.

Gwen didn’t know what to think in the moment, with the massive beast having almost run them down and now fire being a problem she pulled back a bit, breathing a bit heavily as she used her shield for herself and didn’t move to a position were assisting would be immediate.

Bradford noticed the slightly panicking Juggernaut and let out a disappointed sigh at how many times he had seen it happen before, though he was glad she at least had protection while some other poor souls were not so lucky. He laid down suppressing fire on the Scorcher to make sure it didn’t try to do anything else unexpected, and he said over the comm, “Yakone, see if you can’t outflank that trooper. Without an extra gun at our backs this pyro won’t be much of a threat.”

“I would, but this-” a plasma beam went just over her head. “-damn Muton won’t have any of it still! Stacie, could you get this asshole off of me?”

“Just wait a second, and…” Stacie pulled out her Anti-materiel Rifle, lining up a shot on the alien shock trooper with the powerful extended-range firearm. “Boom.” She pulled the trigger, and a high-caliber round shot through the air, colliding with the Muton. It punched through the skintight armor of the extraterrestrial, and then destroyed a good portion of it. The force of the hit threw the Muton off, and Yakone didn’t waste the opportunity.

The Inuit-Caucasian Ranger advanced a step, and fired off her PDW’s double-burst laser at the Advent soldier, taking them down with a one-two beam punch. Returning to cover, she gave a nod to her CO. “Make sure that Scorcher doesn’t try anything funny, I’m going to get myself a new toy,” she trailed off, going limp. A second later, the Muton hunkered down, clutching its head.

“A little bit more warning would be nice next time…” Bradford said with a despaired sigh, moving left to get a better line of sight. I hear things are difficult with her right now. Is it partly my fault? Should I have stayed behind? Bradford thought to himself, though it almost cost him his life as he nearly ran past the cover he was aiming for and a wall of flame shot up, almost having burned him alive if he hadn’t snapped out of it. Thinking during a fight is bad. He affirmed to himself, grabbing his rifle as he went around the other was and fired a pot shot that burned the Scorcher’s armor. “Damn it, someone else pick up the-”

He didn’t finish as a laser shot blasted into the injured enemy, causing him to twist and fall back dead. “Enemy down.” A certainly perturbed, familiar French woman’s voice said.

And the other enemy is mine, Yakone’s voice echoed in the heads of the squad. The Muton stood back up at attention. Before I cut off the psi network connection I got some codenames I don’t recognize… uh… “Alaequator” and “Goliath”, to name two. I assume they’re either for enemy units in charge, or ones we haven’t met yet.

“Regardless of who they are, we’re going to have to fight them without one of our team,” Miriam noted, kneeling down next to Marx. “Shot cut across your leg muscles, man… how did you not notice that?” she sprayed down the affected area with her medkit. “I can patch it up, but you’re out of the fight. You won’t be able to keep up, and we’ve got civies to save.” Marx opened his mouth to protest, but a look from Bradford silenced him.

“Good job Yakone.” Bradford told the woman, looking at the Muton very warily, a bit put off by the thought that the woman who was almost like his daughter was in there. “He’s all yours?”

Whoa whoa whoa… unless you want to give me a seizure again, I can use this thing to our advantage. Speaking of… Being further up front in her Muton body, Yakone sighted a group of ADVENT troops coming out from a burning shack. With a grin that was plastered a bit unnaturally onto the big alien’s face, Muton Yakone reached down for the alien grenade on her puppet’s belt, and tossed in the enemy’s way. It landed inbetween them, and the plasma blast crackled like thunder, taking out all but one which she finished off with her plasma rifle. Alright, that’ll do it, you guys can shoot in three… two… Yakone left her puppet before finishing with ‘one’.

Stacie and Miriam fired in tandem, and with a confused roar the Muton toppled. Bradford merely rolled his shoulder, a slight chill running through him at the sight and the mention of a seizure but he pushed it out of thought, moving forward. He led the team (warily) through the self-constructed buildings, wondering what might be lurking in any of the buildings. Much to his relief and puzzlement they didn’t run into anything and he started moving the team back up the stands.

In the dark and rain, they had to be careful about slipping and falling even with the use of their flashlights, though the rust left on the metal sort of helped gripping down their boots. However a light suddenly appeared in front of the team, almost as if a tiny spotlight and all guns pointed up but halted when they saw a few dark forms waving a light, obviously trying to get their attention. From the lack of gunfire it was safe to assume they were civilians and they moved up quickly, trying not to cause the stands to bang and rattle. Gwen stacked up on the door and Bradford fastened his laser rifle on the magnetic clip next to his shotgun and he pulled out his sidearm, slowly opening the door and stepping in.

Inside was a small conglomeration of people, at first glance the total being six. The adults formed a small ring around the two children in the back as if for protection by the sight of weapons, even if they knew from getting a good observation from the fighting that they were at least there to kill Advent troops. Every single one of them were soaked from the rain, though mostly were only damp, indicating they had been hunkering down in the box for a while now. One of the kids was completely muddy, likely from slipping. “Weapons down guys.” Brad ordered, taking a lax stance but was ready for anything to pop up.

“Roger that.” Yakone put away her PDW on her back. “Don’t worry about us, we’re here to help. You’re safe now that XCOM’s here.”

“Hey, there’s someone else coming from out there. Looks like another civilian,” Miriam noted.

“Hold on, I’ll go meet them.” Yakone backed out of the box, and approached the person in question. They were dressed in similar clothing to the others - various stitches holding together scraps of cloth forming a patchwork in many places. The Ranger noted them pop a cherry into their mouth. “Dude, you have balls of steel if this attack doesn’t phase you.”The man didn’t reply, but suddenly seized up, and then seemed to be melting. “Whoa whoa whoa what the fuck?!” Yakone exclaimed in shock as their form lost cohesion, and then grew to be a full story in height.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and MarineAvenger: “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 6”

What had previously appeared as a civilian was now a towering creature with twin shrunken red eyes, elephant-like feet, and triple scythe-like claws on each hand. The rest of their form was a pinkish goop that seemed to fluctuate between liquid and solid at irregular intervals. Before Yakone could gather her senses from the shapeshifting act she’d just witnessed, the creature swung down with its claws. The Ranger only had the presence of mind to start charging her Overdrive, but that saved her from having her armor pierced by the giant’s wicked claws.

Yakone’s eyes went wide and she stumbled back. “That’s no human! Someone shoot it!” she gasped, fumbling around for her sword. Miriam seemed momentarily paralyzed still, and Stacie picked up on another threat from the other side. “We’ve got two Assault Drones coming in fast, and a… Cleric?”

Indeed, that was what the flier with a triple rocket plasma jetback and four armored wings looked like, but its color scheme was different. It wasn’t all whites, golds, and greens, but rather blended into the darkness more with black and red, only sharing gold with a Cleric. And it proved just how different it was when it lined up the XCOM squad and blew apart Stacie’s cover with a streak of red energy that forced the Sharpshooter to relocate.

“Scratch that, I reckon that’s our Alae...whatever. Looks like a freaking Seraphim to me,” the Gunslinger stated.

“Stacie use Gwen as mobile cover and protect us from those fliers! Miriam, help Yakone!” Bradford ordered, firing twice into the shapeshifting alien in rapid succession, stunned how it did not die from his bursts.

“Me and you cowgirl.” Gwen mumbled with a roll of her eyes under her helmet as she moved with the sharpshooter. “If you need use my shoulder for stability! These helmets help deafen close noise anyways so I won’t go deaf.”

“Gotcha.” Stacie picked out her targets as the drones first, the Seraphim darting around too much for her to get an accurate bead on the angelic alien. The drones, on the other hand, were barreling straight for them and charging up their oscillating pulse lasers. One crack of her sniper rifle later, and only one of them was doing that.

Yakone in the meantime finally found her sword, and made a leap a bit into the air to get a powerful downstroke on the spot Bradford had hit. The burned pair of holes had gone entirely through the creature, but somehow it still lived and was even starting to seal up automatically. However, the Ranger sighted what looked like nerve cords hidden in all of the goo, and targeted those with her swipe. That proved to be effective, and the alien giant stumbled and then collapsed backwards, starting to melt away into an oversized waterfall down the bleachers. “Miriam! Snap out of it! Drone!”

Miriam finally came to her senses, and spun around to face the Drone that was gunning for her. Not entirely confident that she could get it with her rifle, she instead tapped on her wristpad and set her drone to do the job. The Gremlin met face to face with the Assault Drone, the latter’s optics adjusting upwards just before an electric jolt went through it and caused it to detonate with a small series of internal explosions.

The Seraphim had time to make another move. It raised a hand, and a red glow spun around its clenched fist before fire expanded outwards in the booth. The flames expanded more and more, catching two of the civilians in the configuration. “Jesus! Someone take that thing out!” Yakone yelled, finishing her Overdrive and running in to act as a living shield thanks to her psionic defenses rendering her immune to the blaze.

“Tch…” Gwen was enraged at the sight of the two civilians getting hurt from the alien, knowing that it didn’t care if they were innocent in all of this or not. She planted her shield and locked it in place, using her now free hand to hold both her pistol and her rotator as she fired both off at the flying angel. “Allez en enfer, démon!” She shouted.

The siquttipaa turned, focusing its attention on Gwendoline - which graciously meant the fire stopped being artificially spread and allowed Miriam to run in with her medkit and Gremlin to treat the burns the two injured bystanders had. However, that did mean that she beared the full brunt of its next psionic attack, which consisted of a firecracker explosion between her shield and her body not unlike what Luke was capable of.

Gwen yelled out in both surprise and pain as he forced herself backwards, landing hard on the ground as the front of her armor was burned, but luckily didn’t hit skin.

Meanwhile, Bradford reloaded his rifle and fired at the Seraphim, his trained eyes and experience making it easier for him to lead and hit his target then the sharpshooter. The laser shot bit into its elegant armor, but didn’t quite penetrate all the way through. The Seraphim was certainly angered though, and fully intended to finish off Gwen as it started preparing yet another ability, this time causing Stacie’s AP Grenade to glow in a fashion that reminded Bradford of another psion he had once known.

Bradford’s eyes widened slightly, and he called out to Stacie, “Throw your AP, now!” He demanded the woman, hoping she acted fast enough to stop disaster. The Sharpshooter snappily got rid of the ‘nade, lobbing it at the enemy flier to make the Fuse attempt backfire. With an explosion of shrapnel and the ignition of the Cleric counterpart’s engines, the Seraphim was blown out of the sky.

“Everyone alright?” Yakone asked when things quieted down again. The civilians were for the most part unharmed, though the two that were burned were still in a good deal of pain that the medkits couldn’t really help with. Yakone grimaced, looking to the side and murmuring, “Never a time I wished more that I could heal other people…”

“We are all good at something Yakone. We all have our roles.” Bradford assured the woman, now able to clear his head with no action threatening to hurt him from talking or thinking during the action. “You don’t see me beating myself up for not being able to wear a tutu and dance like a fairy, now do you?” He said as a lighthearted attempt to make her see she was being hard on herself for no reason.

Yakone sighed, and nodded slightly, looking around the stadium. “At least it seems like we’ve cleared out most of this place. And… the way things are falling apart, Danielle can totally just pick us up from above now.”

“There’s still the other end of the stands,” Stacie cautioned. “We’re not out of the woods yet. I doubt that’s all they deployed on this op. And don’t we still need to find…”

“Bronze Cub! Right.” Yakone put a hand to her comm button on her helmet. “Hey, Central - not you Bradford for once - can you send me the coordinates of her safehouse?” The Ranger listened for a few seconds, and then nodded. “Got it.” She turned to the others. “The locker rooms just across from us. Which is… also the one place we haven’t sweeped. We’d better hurry.”

The XCOM team rushed down the stands, noise no longer being as much of an issue. Making tracks across the football field, their flashlights found nothing at first. Yakone, worried about the Marauders’ psion, upped the power to her floodlights to illuminate the path into the locker rooms that had once been used by American football players. The doors had been barricaded by massive rusted iron bars that looked like they’d been support beams in a past life. They were terribly worse for wear though, and suddenly a barrage of plasma cut through them completely and knocked down the doors.

Her head reflexively snapping to the right towards the source of the attack, Yakone revealed the breacher. “Oh… shit…”

A Sectoid in extremely heavy armor stood in the path of the XCOM Ranger’s light, and reflexively raised an arm - if the plasma turret servo could even be called that - momentarily to shield itself. However, it quickly went into overwatch upon seeing enemy contacts, lowering its twin plasma minicannons at the Resistance forces while its leg servos curved to push it into a balanced stance. To either side of what could only be called a Mechtoid, a Sectoid darted into what debris cover they could find, and a trio of ADVENT Troopers on the other side of the door - partially cloaked in the thunderstorm shadows - pressed up against a shack.

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601 and MarineAvenger: “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 7”

“Shit!” Bradford fired into the Mectoid but grit his teeth when nothing happened, now worried. “Fall back! Fall back now!”

“If we do that they’re just gonna kill Cub!” Yakone responded in frustration, even if she moved backwards a bit just to get distance. The instant she tried to move, the Mechtoid fired upon her with a flurry of plasma bolts, it’s right minicannon landing a hit on her. “Aghh!” she cried out in pain, the sheer power of the mech’s weapons piercing even her imbued armor and cutting into flesh.

Before anymore hits could land on their teammate, Gwen rushed to the woman without any regard, only holding up her shield haphazardly as she wrapped an arm around her and ran a few feet before falling behind some stable cover. “You… okay?” She asked, panting a bit heavily from the mad sprint.

Yakone grit her teeth as her self-biokinesis got to work patching up her wounds. “I’ll… be fine in a minute…” She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. “On the l-left!” She grabbed her Viper Grenade, but didn’t have the strength to throw it at the flanking Troopers.

Gwen covered Yakone with her body, putting her shield behind her as a few shots hit her shield but one punched through, hitting Gwen’s lower back as she took her one smoke grenade and popped it, the denser smoke covering them as she grit her own teeth in pain and dragged Yakone with her despite the pain, her vision swimming as she felt blood pouring down her back and dampening her pants.

“D-Dammit, you should have thrown…” Yakone managed to force the muscle in her arm to respond, and the Viper Grenade landed amongst the Troopers, terminally poisoning them and preventing them from doing any more damage. In the meantime, one of the Sectoids sent a mind-merge the Mechtoid’s way, causing a telekinetic shield to form around the already-durable robot. The other Sectoid hit Miriam with a Mindspin, disorienting her.

“T-They must not want me using my launcher…” Miriam said, holding her head in pain and frustration. There was no way she could get a shot like this.

“God, damn Sectoids to hell,” Stacie growled, pulling out her flashbang grenade and hurling it amongst the Sectoids. A protective screen went up over the Mechtoid’s eyes and it was unaffected, but the blast of light and sound disrupted the concentration of the Sectoid buffing its mechanized counterpart, and the shield fell. “Now we just have to get through-” Stacie ducked under a barrage of plasma. “Well not everyone has to be having a shitty day like you apparently are!” she snapped at the enemy, masking her fear with bravado when her return fire did nothing. The Mechtoid once again went into overwatch to lock down the XCOM squad’s movement.

Gwen finally gave way, her strength finally waning as her adrenaline died down, falling forward to the ground. She breathed heavily, her hand fumbling back for the medkit she carried, but she couldn’t find it, and Yakone would hear indignant whimpers from Gwen that seemed impossible from the prim woman she gave off at base. “Not now… please not now… not after what happened…” As she tried and failed looking for the medical device, her fight with Alexis before the mission haunted her. “Damn it where is it…”

Yakone was able to find it more easily, and got to work patching up the grevious gash across Gwen’s back. “You’re going to be fine…” Brad, try and kill those Sectoids before they recover! If they put up another shield we’re not going to make it out of this… if that Mechtoid advances knowing we can’t do shit to it we might not make it either.

Time to bring the war to these fuckers. Bradford thought to Yakone as he dashed out of cover. Miriam, while disoriented, was still able to send her Gremlin to use its last electrical payload to deal a little damage to the Mechtoid and remove its overwatch to prevent it from nailing her CO. Although he knew it wouldn’t be used for the intention it was designed for, Bradford dove behind cover and fished out his knife and radio jammer. He popped off the back and sliced a few wires, knowing that the jammer would send a single pulse instead of the multiple it usually did to disrupt the comms, hopping that blowing the single strong pulse would buy him the minute he required. Not bothering to replace the metal back, he threw the jammer and it landed by the armored alien and the pulse went off, frying the alien’s comms, likely causing the speakers to blow and buy him that minute from the defining static.

The XCOM trooper ran out once again, one of the enemy ADVENT troopers catching him, as the three split up trying to find Gwen and Yakone before the poison claimed their lives, Bradford merely quickening the process of the one who found him by driving the alloy point through the weakspot in the neck, leaving the knife imbedded in him as he fell dying. The crack of a sniper rifle and the squeal of a Sectoid indicated that Stacie had used the opportunity to take down one of the Sectoids.

The other had recovered by now and elected to go after Miriam again instead of throwing up a shield. However, this proved to be a mistake, as Yakone was quite sick of her team being denied their missiles. The Ranger took aim with her Beam PDW, and ripped through the second Sectoid. “I killed your friend, motherfucker!” she yelled at the Mechtoid, ducking behind cover again when it opened fire on her. She was unharmed by the two barrages that went her way, but her cover was practically disintegrated in the process, and she had to throw down a smoke for herself and Gwen. “Miriam! Kill it!”

“Roger that,” Miriam said, shaking a bit but steadying her aim knowing that this shot would either be their victory or their doom.

Don’t let the pressure get to you… come on… Yakone thought apprehensively.

With a fiery scream, a flurry of Micro Missiles exited the barrel of Miriam’s missile launcher, and swarmed the Mechtoid. Colliding with its armor - which seemed to be unsettlingly regenerating from the damage Sparks had done to it - they punched all the way through the armor before exploding in a glorious fashion. The Mechtoid was temporarily obscured in smoke, but then a mechanized leg stepped out, damaged but not destroyed.

“T-That was a direct hit!” Miriam protested.

“I’ve had enough of this shit!” Yakone clicked her PDW, found it was out of charge and she was nearly out of time as the Mechtoid lined up her and Gwen with one arm and Miriam with another. The Mechtoid fired right, its shots colliding with Miriam’s cover and hitting the Specialist herself to Yakone’s horror. Then, in reprisal, Stacie’s sniper rifle bit into it, just barely managing to breach the armor and drew a spray of blood from the Sectoid pilot’s chest. The Mechtoid wobbled, and the pilot’s head dipped. And then the superheavy mech was still.

Yakone immediately rushed over to Miriam’s side. “Miriam! Shit, please be alright…”

“I-I’m fine,” Miriam gasped, the wind knocked out of her. “It... hit my cover for the most part.”

Yakone shook her head, looking at herself and her other injured squadmates, the now-deceased Troopers, and the three fallen Sectoids. “Well… that… was fun…”

“Too bad… your… knight in shining… armor wasn’t… here… Miriam.” Gwen told the specialist with a weak laugh over the comms, Gwen in too much pain to really care for the consequence that came from teasing the woman.

“I… don’t want anyone to take that sort of risk for me again,” Miriam mumbled.

“Relax, you were practically the VIP of this whole op!” Yakone responded, shaking her head adamantly.

The broken doors were pushed open, and Yakone spun around with her gun ready to fight, but lowered it upon seeing two South Marauders escorting a woman cautiously out. She wore a baseball cap and had long brown bangs and cautious eyes of the same color. “Is it… over now?”

“That you, Bronze Cub?” Yakone greeted with a wide smile. “Welcome to the mech graveyard.”

“Yakone?” Cub glanced over at the Mechtoid. “Wow, you guys did a number on this thing… we couldn’t even scratch it,” she called out, lowering her voice as she regrouped with the XCOM team.

“I’m surprised that my sniper rifle even bit through it,” Stacie said, rubbing the back of her neck. “Couldn’t have done it without you though, Miriam…. Miriam?” The Specialist wasn’t responding.

Yakone snapped her fingers, starting to walk over. “Hey, are you alright? Gwen didn’t mean to offend…” Then she saw it. The purple spiral attached to the back of the Specialist’s head.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and MarineAvenger: “Operation Crimson Visitor, Part 8”

The Mechtoid pilot wasn’t quite dead. It had a high-caliber round imbedded in the side of its chest, but its heavy armor had precluded that from being a fatal wound. It’s mindspin had given it control of the Specialist, but it knew that it wouldn’t be able to use her backup rocket to take out her allies in time. Instead, revenge was on the dying alien’s mind. You nearly were the death of your comrade… you will be again… you should not exist… kill yourself. Kill yourself! KILL YOURSELF!

Miriam pulled up her laser pistol. “M-Miriam, what are you-NO!” Yakone cried out, trying to stop her. But it was too late. She pulled the trigger, and a laser bolt went through one side of the Specialist’s head and out the other. Yakone froze in stark horror as the sound of conventional weapons fire sounded the death of the offending Sectoid, the two Marauders taking it down. The rain seemed to fall harder.

***​

Not one word was exchanged between the occupants of the Skyranger as Beta Team was extracted from the stadium. Bronze Cub was in the front with the pilot, unwilling to sit in the seat of someone who was now wrapped up in a bodybag. Victory, the evacuation of the Shantytown, the prospect of new subjects of study… none of it was consolation for the life that had been stolen so swiftly and abruptly. All sense of time seemed to be taken away as well, and before long the XCOM dropship touched down on the landing pad. The rain was still falling, and it was as dark as midnight - so much so that the crew that came out to treat the wounded and process the mission’s loot all came equipped with flashlights.

Yakone stumbled out last, ignoring any reassurances Firebrand and Bronze Cub tried to offer her. She weakly stepped out onto the deck, a hollow look in her eyes. She glanced up, and in the blackness and then sudden flashlight illumination had trouble recognizing who walked out to meet her.

Seeing Yakone in a state that she had never witnessed her daughter in sent chills down the Commander’s spine. Options were weighed, and a decision was made in a single heartbeat. Atka stepped closer, and embraced Yakone tightly. The Ranger didn’t have the strength to resist, but did ask:

“Why?”

“Because we have to support each other. I won’t just let you suffer alone. Never again,” Atka promised in a whisper. “I don’t want forgiveness. I just want to be able to be at your side.”

Yakone shakily nodded, not able or willing to deny her mother that much, and returned the embrace as she finally let the tears flow.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and ZombieSplitter53: “The Mavericks, Part 1”

North American Continent
Former United States of America
Specifically, Michigan State
Woodlands, July 1st, 2038
0722 Hours, Local Time

The treeline was, at first, tranquil. Birds chirped, the odd bird of prey flew overhead, and the wind gently rustled the leaves. Then a flock of birds scattered with a symphony of frightened calls - spooked by the sound of gunfire - and the calm was swiftly stolen away. The source of the pandemonium was below.

Surrounding an impressive stack of crates hastily masked by a camouflage tarp were five guerillas. With a thick row of trees to their back, the group of insurgents ran to defend from enemies coming from the north, east, and west. They split up in order of importance; the least dangerous western flank went to a female carabiner, the eastern area to a man with an assault rifle, and the hot northern front was guarded by their leader - armed with a battle rifle. Near the crates the fourth rebel was working on a device, and in the middle a fifth was ready to cover whoever needed it.

“Wasn’t expecting them to find us so quickly,” the leader noted, ducking behind his tree to weather a burst of magnetically accelerated rounds fired from the rifle of an ADVENT Trooper. “18 hours? Not bad for the Coalition,” the stocky Norwegian named Christoffer congratulated the enemy.

“They’ve been cracking down on the resistance more and more lately, remember? Especially in the U.S.,” the spry and muscular guerilla with the assault rifle responded over the jury-rigged radio each had welded onto their headsets. “Though…” A barrage of machine gun fire pinned him down. “...please don’t compliment ADVENT. It gets my blood boiling, Chris,” the lean Dominican who went by Maxwell - or Mac for short - warned.

“Apologies,” Chris responded with a chuckle, not seeming very worried about their predicament as he opened fire on a Trooper, punching into their armor and managing to hit something vital and down them. “Huh. Usually takes two shots. Well, one down, two Troopers to go on my side. How are you doing Christine?”

“n-Not at all good… w-why did I get the Assassin to deal with?” the Anglo-American mumbled.

“Because you’re shorter and harder to hit,” the fourth duly noted. “Give me a second more and I’ll black out their communications. Gute Nacht, sweet radio jammer,” the Brazilian of German descent called Heinrich spoke softly to the device before driving a screwdriver through it and shorting out enemy and friendly communications alike. It gave them the chance to catch the enemy off-guard and down another Trooper and a Gunner, but then the enemies fell back. The guerillas regrouped.

“I’ll bet they’re regrouping,” Chris surmised, this time aloud rather than over comms that were now shorted out.

"Then we should use this opportunity to prepare for the next wave," the fifth guerilla said. The fifth – an extremely petite Asian woman – checked her ammo. "Where are they? How much longer are we expected to hold out on our own?"

"They ran that way," Christine answered, pointing towards the northwest.

"As for the second question... not really sure," Christoffer stated.

Heinrich rubbed his forehead before grabbing his ATR. "You... didn't ask them when we were going to meet for the exchange of supplies," the Hispanic-German groaned. "You are a world-class idiot."

The small woman grinned, cracking her neck. "Makes it all the more exciting, doesn't it? No one likes a boring mission."

"This was supposed to be an easy job though," Christine said weakly. Her eyes widened as she saw something flying through the air and land in front of the group. What looked like a robot with a silver barrel-like body and a domed head with two square blue eyes shimmered into view behind Christine, and reached out with a pair of shield-covered hands containing aqua-colored bubbles to protect herself and Ayame. The two weathered the plasma explosion at the far end of its range, protected from the worst of its effects.

"Muton!" Max shouted, opening fire on the hulking alien as it returned with the Trooper and Assassin - the latter advancing with alloy sword drawn. The Dominican seemed to be the only one other than Ayame to see the strange being Christine summoned that was now fading away again.

Ayame placed a mental reminder in her head. We'll have to talk about that more later on. She snapped to cover and took aim at the Muton. A pang of guilt made her hesitate, and her shot missed by a split second. "Shit. Get it together, Ayame, you're too old to make these mistakes." She steadied her aim and fired again, several of her shotgun's pellet spray hitting it in the arm and forcing it to dive into cover.

"And the news just keeps getting better," Christoffer shouted as a Sectoid and Floater began creeping and spiraling (respectively) into view. "Ayame, show that Assassin who the real swordmaster is. Panzer, take the robot," he continued, referring to Heinrich. "Castaway, Sectoid's yours."

"Or would be if the damn thing would sit still," Maxwell noted as the bulbous-headed alien darted between the trees just quickly enough to evade fire. "Who are you, the Predator?"

"Do you want to jinx those into reality?" Heinrich cautioned as he lined up a shot on the Floater. With a squeeze of its trigger, the Anti-Tank Rifle shot an armor piercing round through the machine's CPU and downed it with a rather unceremonious clang against dirt.

Ayame drew her sword, a sleek katana she had brought herself, and jumped over cover, heading with incredible speed towards the assassin. They swung at Ayame once, twice, three times, but she dodged each blow, looking for her opening. When it arrived, she grinned widely and spun, rushing back to cover before his head hit the ground.

"Not bad," Heinrich said, clearly impressed. Meanwhile, Max was preoccupied with what he said before.

Maxwell paled. “You don’t think I could really…”

“Richy’s screwing with you,” Chris reassured him. “Only Survivor can create… what did that old gypsy woman call them?”

“Thoughtforms?” Christine pitched in as she wounded the remaining ADVENT Trooper. “And I still resent that callsign…” she added with an insincere smile.

"Back on topic though... that Muton is still kicking and well..." Chris suddenly held his head. "Agh, goddamn Sectoid Mindspin!"

"At least you're not spontaneously puppeteered," Heinrich said dismissively, trying to scare the Muton into retreat with his ATR's shot. However, the alien seemed unfazed and nearly took off his left side with a plasma laser that only barely missed.

When things seemed dire, a savior arrived. From above there was the crack of a sniper rifle, revealing a dropship with the cancellation of a ghost field. A Sectoid squeal a heartbeat after confirmed a kill.

"Aerial execution successful," Stacie muttered with a hint of pride and plenty of vengeance.

"Whoa, Alamo, is that you?" Max called out in surprise.

"Focus on killing the Muton!" Olivia warned him, taking a potshot from next to Stacie with her arc rifle to temporarily disable the Muton's weapon.

"On it, Thunderbird," Chris answered, having his team concentrate fire to finish off the x-ray shock trooper.

With the threat gone, the Skyranger touched down next to the stack of crates, and a pair of mechanics exited to start loading up the crates. "So yeah, when I left the Mavericks to do 'something important', I meant joining XCOM. I just wasn't allowed to peep at the time," Olivia explained.

"And I ended up doing the same by coincidence," Stacie added, looking over Ayame. "Who's the new kid?"

Ayame's eye twitched, but she was used to it. "Kasagi, Ayame. Close Quarters specialist. I joined about a month ago. Nice to see a friendly for a change."

"Well, you could all see a lot more." Olivia glanced between the five, then looked at Chris. "If you want, I can probably get the Mavericks to join XCOM. We need more troops, especially after we... lost one." Stacie winced next to her. "I can vouch for you four..."

"Maybe the Mavericks can make a bigger difference as part of XCOM," Chris mumbled. “Alright then. No hesitation, we're in. And as for Ayame, well... guess who compiled all that sword mastery knowledge for the Resistance?"

Stacie looked over the Japanese-Chinese woman. "No shit? Damn... maybe meeting you'd get Yakone out of her funk."

"Yakone?" Ayame shrugged. "Sure. I'm game. Better then leaving behind, though I hope my contribution is enough for me to get the amount of cash the others get."

"...mon-" Stacie began.

"She used to be a mercenary. Not used to the whole 'freedom fighters' thing yet," Heinrich stated.

"Ah..." Stacie shook her head to clear her thoughts. "And Yakone is a friend of mine, Ranger-class like you'll be almost assuredly."

"On the topic of XCOM again," Christoffer cut in as he began following Olivia into the Skyranger. "What's the base like?"

"Oh, you'll see," the Algonquian woman replied slyly.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and ZombieSplitter53: “The Mavericks, Part 2”

Hours later, Ayame looked in awe at the command center of the Avenger. "This is amazing! Even knowing what the aliens are capable of… this... blows my mind!" Not one for technology but always fascinated by it, the short woman turned her head every which way, her eyes dancing across the screens, the people – and just the scope of the ship itself.

"You haven't even seen the laser weapons yet," Stacie responded, glancing down at her safetied machine pistol. "Soon I'll have a laser sniper rifle at least... and maybe something new for the old gunslinging if those prototypes take-" She and Olivia stood to attention as Atka walked in through the door.

The Commander was wearing her military uniform to be a bit more formal, but she kept the black jacket as the final piece over the rest. Her dark blue eyes scanned the five newcomers. "So these are your acquaintances? Christoffer Strand, Christine Kohler, Maxwell Dominguez, Heinrich Bauer, and Ayame," she paused, glancing down at her dossier. "Kasagi." Atka straightened her jacket. "I am Commander Atka Ipiktok. Your files check out, all except..." her gaze rested on Ayame. "Hers. The Resistance's intel on her is spotty, inconsistent even."

"From her anecdotes about a Mimic she doesn't have any love for ADVENT," Chris defended. "And she provided you with the... what was the skill?"

"Blademaster," Olivia assisted.

"Hm. And the six of you vouch for her?"

"Yessir," was the response accompanying a chorus of nods.

"Well, I suppose another Ranger couldn't hurt. Kohler, you'll make a good Specialist to fill in for our loss. Dominguez can be a Trooper. Bauer... Grenadier. Strand, I'll... think about what role would suit you best."

"What exactly does a 'Ranger' do?" Ayame asked in a casual tone of voice.

"They're our forward scouts and assault troops," Atka answered. "Use a shotgun and a sword typically - a bill you fit. And like other soldiers they watch their tone."

Ayame raised an eyebrow. "I apologize... sir? I guess I wasn't prepared for a resistance group to be so formal."

The Commander turned on her mic. “Tell Firebrand I’ll be on my way to the hangar to pay Toronto a visit.”

Maxwell and Heinrich both coughed, and then gave each other the evil eye.

Atka sighed. “What is it?”

“We have… people in Toronto that we’d… appreciate taking onboard,” Heinrich said cautiously.

“Civilians?” A nod from each. “Would they make good staff?”

Heinrich nodded. “My girlfriend’s better at science than even I am,” he begrudgingly admitted.

“Good,” Atka replied. “We could use more for the labs. And you?”

Maxwell shook his head. “No, they’re a bit too young to be of much use. But they are… my children.”

Atka opened her mouth to protest, but sighed. “How many?”

“Three.”

“...fine. I’ll pick up those four while I’m there. Come on, Olivia.”

“Why do you need me?” The other Ambusher questioned.

“Security, and your mother’s in town.”

“Oh, really?” Olivia started walking with her CO, and then shrank at her death glare. “What?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were Melissa’s daughter?”

“It… never came up. And it would bias you.”

Atka paused, thinking of a retort but failing to come up with anything substantial. “Fair enough…” Olivia breathed a sigh of relief.

***​

The two landed in Toronto at around noon. The Skyranger touched down in a square beneath a building familiar to Atka, and yet so foreign. A towering building about fifteen stories tall rose before her, boasting balconies on every other floor and windows on each and every floor. Many of the glass panes were now grimy, shattered, or flat-out stolen – the contents of the many apartments likely burgled by scared, fleeing residents during the terror attack that hit the city in the flaming months after X-COM fell. The recollection of hearing about it over the radio in Taloyoak made a pit in Atka’s stomach.

“You lived here before the invasion, right?” Olivia asked as Firebrand opened the hatch and the pair of Ambushers disembarked. The brown-haired woman had a pair of aviators on, borrowed from Stacie’s small collection of the stylish sunglasses.

Atka nodded ever so slightly. “It was a beautiful city. Vibrant and lively, with wonderful people. When I heard it had been targeted as part of that grand demonstration to cow the rest of the world leaders that had yet to give in, it was… crushing. I didn’t realize your mother had even survived until the other day.”

“You two were good friends, I heard,” Olivia noted. “She always talked about how dutifully you did everything, from outpost maintenance to operations in the Middle East. You always took your job seriously. Maybe…” the half Algonquian trailed off awkwardly.

“Maybe what?” Atka questioned, narrowing her eyes – both at one of the men eyeing their metal bird with a bit too much awe and at what she suspected Olivia was going to say.

“You don’t want me to finish.”

“But I’m going to make you.”

“…maybe too much. You didn’t let yourself take too much enjoyment out of life then either,” Olivia finished hesitantly.

Atka started to open her mouth to retort, but a voice she hadn’t heard in twenty years interrupted her. “I guess people never really change completely then,” a woman with faded purple dye in her otherwise black hair spoke, having a wide smile that seemed to make her blue eyes sparkle.

“Melissa!” Atka said in surprise. “It’s really you… grew your hair out a little more. You don’t look much worse for twenty years, though.”

The former hair stylist snickered. “Neither do you. I like the fauxhawk… always wanted you to branch out.” She rubbed under her eye with a sniff. “And you finally did.”

“Don’t be melodramatic,” both Atka and Olivia said in unison.

“What did they use to call it?” a man in a black jacket that waved off the potential Skyranger thief asked rhetorically as he approached and rested a hand on Melissa’s shoulder. “Stereo?”

“Oh, come on, even I know that dad,” Olivia complained.

“I’m even more surprised you’re around, Senior Airman Brown,” Atka stated, crossing her arms. “I thought ADVENT snatched up a lot of the Royal Canadian Air Force for their interceptor fleet.”

“I respectfully declined. And then disappeared to help the Resistance with my family,” Melissa’s husband responded. “What, did you think Olivia had my jacket as a memento of a dead parent?”

“I didn’t even realize…” The Commander rubbed her forehead. “It really has been a long time… I’ve forgotten everything.”

“We should keep on contact on radio if and when that is possible,” Melissa offered. “Both for two old friends and a mother and her daughter.”

“Right…” Atka responded, the last comment hitting a nerve.

“Atka… tell me,” Melissa started.

“I… may have had an affair during my time in X-COM. And had a daughter after it fell,” Atka admitted.

“Really? What’s her name? Can I meet her?”

“Yes, Yakone, and no, we won’t have time unfortunately. This supply drop I’m collecting from you is part of a series. We’re gearing up for… something and something big.”

“Aren’t at liberty to say?” the former Senior Airman asked.

“I can tell you what the supplies are primarily for. We’re about to build some composite alloy armors,” Olivia spoke up.

“As for the ‘something big,” Atka added, “Let’s just say recent intelligence has given us a new target, and it might be in a location that needs our help. So it’s a win win, but we need to get moving.”

“I wish you luck then. Let’s at least catch up before you have to go, though,” Melissa demanded, wrapping an arm around Atka’s shoulder.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Atka agreed as they began to walk inside the old apartment building to talk while the supplies were being loaded.

“So about your relationship with your daughter… not great?”

“How did you…”

“Personal experience. Though from that expression earlier it’s pretty bad, huh?” Melissa questioned.

“Yeah…” Atka conceded.

“Well, let me offer you some advice…” Melissa trailed off as the double doors shut behind them.

Olivia sighed. “And here I am stuck on guard duty while she gossips about me…” Her father smirked. “Oh, don’t you start.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

DarkGemini24601 and ZombieSplitter53: “The Mavericks, Part 3"

Taking Ayame and the other four down the elevator suspended in an adjustable localized gravity field column, Stacie went over the next phase. "Alright, so next we'll need to get you all rooming assignments. Heinrich, there's space in my room. They're typically set up with one bunk for a pair of guys and one bunk for two girls."

"So can I bring Josephina...?"

"Well, Olivia's on the other bunk."

Heinrich crossed his arms. "You could move her to some other room."

Stacie paused. "I guess if you feel so strongly about it. Christoffer, you can have the other part of the male bunk. As for Christine, you could room with Yakone since hers is empty. And... wait..."

Maxwell chuckled. "I'll need my own room for me and the kids."

"I guess Ayame can be with Christine and Yakone then. The male/female ratio isn't a diehard rule," the Texan decided.

"Anyone else in the room with us?" Ayame asked, studying the control panel.

"Nope, it'll just be you three girls," Stacie answered as the elevator came to a rest and they minded the gap as they exited. "Though I suppose I can just move Olivia to the last spot so she isn't all by herself. I'll go help Heinrich and Christoffer move in, the room you and Christine should look for is C207, down that-away."

"Alrighty. Shall we see if our roomy is home?" Ayame asked Christine.

Christine smiled. "Sure."

The two passed down a tight access hallway, one that would have been wider if Shen had gone with her original plan to just have the entire hallway be filled with rows of bunks. Instead, individual rooms were adjacent to the hallway, including the one they eventually arrived at: C-207.

Christine knocked. There was no response, and she waited about a minute. The Caucasian American knocked again. There was no response. She waited, and then started to go for an early third knock when the door opened.

A woman with black hair that was more frazzled than normal and dark green eyes that seemed duller than usual dourly looked over the two. "...what?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Wait, I don't recognize you two." She pulled out a street shotgun from the back of her black jeans. "You'd better not be spies!"

"Whoa, now!" Ayame raised her hands. "That any way to say hi to your new roommates, girl?" She moved slightly to the side, standing between Yakone and Christine, even if she made for a lousy human shield.

"Stacie can vouch for us!" Christine said quickly.

Yakone slowly lowered her weapon. "...roommates? I'd really prefer to not have to put up with that right now."

"Put up with..." Ayame give her a confused look. "Well, if you have your Aunt Flo over, we can come back later, but we were assigned to this room. And from the bitchy aura your Commander was giving off, I doubt you'd be allowed your own room."

"Yes she wou-" Wait, she wouldn't. Yakone sighed. "Fine, come in."

Ayame laughed, stepping inside. "Just as long as you promise not to shoot us. You on edge about something or is that just a normal howdoyado for Ms. Yakone."

"I watched someone be psionically coerced into shooting themselves," Yakone replied, coldly and bluntly. "And it's just Yakone."

Ayame fell silent for a moment before muttering, "Well then... don't I feel like the queen bitch?"

"You are a little, yeah," Yakone muttered, sitting back down on her bed.

Ayame twitched at the momentary processing of the 'You are a little' part, but said nothing. "Well, sorry. Though to be fair, I think the shotgun was a worse introduction."

"If you don't take things seriously people wind up dead," was Yakone's rebuttal.

Ayame scoffed. "Cynical much? I would think, working here, you would have seen death by now."

"I've seen plenty, but not since I became a soldier until now."

"That... sounds depressing." Ayame sat on one of the bunks. "You want top bunk or bottom, Christine?"

"I'll take the top," Christine replied.

Ayame nodded, and turned back to Yakone. "So how long you been here? Are they really as impressive as all this tech implies? All the other groups talk about the great XCOM, after all. I'm just wondering if it can live up to the hype."

"I've been part of XCOM since birth," Yakone clarified, a hint of pride returning to her features. "And we're the best hope humanity has at evicting the aliens from our planet."

"Confidence. I like that in a woman," Ayame said with a laugh, laying back. "So what is your role here? You mentioned you were a soldier. What kind?"

"Ranger. We operate in the shadows and do sword-y stuff."

"Oh?" Ayame sat up again. "How about that? I am to be made a Ranger too! Perhaps you can show me what is expected of me. God forbid I do anything more to annoy your Commander."

"What did you do?" Yakone questioned apprehensively.

"Just... talked back to her, I guess. She was all high and mighty… and how was I supposed to know she had a stick up her ass? Guess I'll have to avoid her until she forgets."

"Talk back to her... how? You didn't insult her authority, did you?" Yakone pressed.

"Something like that." Ayame sighed. "I tried to be cool with her, you know? Start off on a good, friendly foot. But she snaps at me about watching my tone and how this is the military, even if it isn't ADVENT. And I'm thinking 'geez, lady, I was just trying to be casual'. Guess she has a lot on her shoulders, though. Either way I made a bad first impression. At my age, it was far from the first."

"Well, she's had enough people try to undermine her authority alre-" Yakone paused, and then started laughing. "Okay, okay, that was funny... I needed that," she said gratefully, utterly convinced Ayame was joking. "You're probably the youngest soldier on the base. Let me guess... you're sixteen? Seventeen?"

Ayame shrugged. "Let's go with twenty. That's a good age, right? Do you doubt I'm a soldier?"

"I don't doubt you're a soldier, these are trying times." Yakone shook her head. "But you are not twenty. You sounded like you made that up on the spot."

"No, no." Ayame grinned. "I told the others that too. I just had to remember what I told them. You know, to keep the lie going?"

Yakone crossed her arms. "What, are you fourteen then and that's why you lie about your age?"

Ayame's eye twitched and her grin dropped a bit. "Four... teen?"

Yakone shrugged. "Twelve then? I'm gonna keep counting down until you give me an answer that's not a lie."

Ayame crawled to the edge of her bed. "You want the truth? I'm 554."

"Ten then?" Yakone continued with a raised eyebrow.

Ayame sighed and rose to her feet. "Don't... do that. You seem like an okay person. I don't want to start us off with me kicking your ass."

"Oh, that would result with you holding your foot in pain, trust me," Yakone replied, unfazed but now frowning. "And it'd be your fault for lying to me and getting angry at me wanting the truth as an answer to a very simple question. None of us are girly-girls here, so asking your age shouldn't be an issue."

"Like you would just tell me your age?" Ayame asked with a smile.

Yakone held up a hand. "I will, but I reserve the right to punch you if you try and turn my own joke on me. I'm nineteen."

"Nineteen?" Ayame smiled and walked up to Yakone. "Really? Younger then I expected. But still legal. That is quite impressive."

"Legal?" Yakone questioned uncomprehendingly.

Ayame waved her hand. "Old thing. Kinda an inside joke with myself." She stepped away and placed her hands behind her back. "I'm an adult. Eighteen. But I say twenty because... well..." She waved her hands down. "Look at me. No one takes me seriously unless they think I'm at least in my twenties."

"It's a two year difference," Yakone deadpanned.

Ayame narrowed her eyes. "You calling me a liar, or demonstrating you can subtract?"

"Why would you lie for the sake of two years? I'm pretty sure no one would give a shit about a two year variance," Yakone insisted. "You're digging yourself into a hole."

Ayame glared at her, and scoffed. "Fine. You want the truth? The body you see before you is that of a sixteen year old. Happy? Gonna go run to your Commander and get me kicked out?" She laid down on her bunk and turned away. "See if I care. At least I'll get a nice bunk for one night."

"Did you not listen to me earlier? Desperate times, we'll take anyone that we can get. You'd have to be younger than that to get relegated to mechanic duty," Yakone responded.

"Yeah, well... it's embarrassing." Ayame didn't turn back. "Do you know what it is like for everyone to underestimate you. Nice on the battlefield, but off of it, it's infuriating!"

Christine raised her hand. "I don't underestimate you."

Ayame slowly looked back. "You don't? Even when I said I'm... so young? And look even younger?"

"You cut down an ADVENT specialist trained in hand to hand combat in a matter of four seconds and provided XCOM itself with swordplay knowledge. I'd be an idiot to underestimate you," Christine elaborated.

Ayame slowly smiled. "Thank you, Christine. That means a lot to me." She looked at Yakone. "And you... you're okay. I think I like you too."

Yakone shrugged. "Good enough for me."

***​

Olivia paused at the door to her former room, noting Stacie carrying her belongings out. “Stacie… what are you…”

The Texan placed them gently down, folding her hands together. “Well, you see, Heinrich needed room for…”

“God dammit! And what, you’re just gonna make me sleep in the hallway now?” Olivia said with exaggerated anger.

“You get to share a room with Ayame, Christine, and Yakone,” Stacie corrected.

“Oh…” Olivia chuckled. “Good enough for me.”

 

[MarineAvenger]

The light of the camera slowly flashed red as the Colonel of the ADVENT Coalition Armed Peackeepers stood, dressed in rather normal attire like he usually did, his name on the jacket saying Verräter, and he opened his mouth to speak but stopped, shaking his head as he shut off the camera and deleted the footage. He placed it back in the stand, prepping it as he got back into place. After a few more seconds, he saw the red light again. “My name is Cain Verräter, Colonel of Advent’s forces. Recently, there was a retaliation op that took the lives of several Advent forces in the old shantytown stadium after Peacekeepers were sent in under the tip off that there were terrorist sympathizers operating there. The tip was correct.”

The Colonel paused, considering what to say and how to say it and he started again with the same forced authoritative voice. “Unfortunately the members of the terrorist organization known as XCOM came to assist this ‘South Marauder’ group and got away. However, we are currently handling the situation as best we can and all law abiding citizens have nothing to fear.”

The man felt the words burn in his throat and he took another pause, shaking his head as he looked forward again. This time, determination took his face as he reached up and took his name patch, ripping it cleaning off of his jacket. “And now to interrupt this regularly scheduled programming…” He mumbled, shaking his head as he dropped the patch. “My name is Desmond Walker, and this is a message directly to the Commander of XCOM. I know what you are trying to do and this fool’s crusade of yours is going to do nothing but drag this world into another war we don’t need. For the first time since Earth’s beginnings we have full global unity and stability. Now you would go and destroy that all on a false hope.”

He crossed his arms. Desmond stared directly at the camera. “For old time’s sake I am giving you this one time warning. I am forming a task force of Peacekeepers with the sole mission of stopping you under my direct command. I know there are people in that organization who care about one another, and if you do not wish to lose your friends you will abandon the woman who will only lead you to two things. An uncertain future or death. And if no one leaves… well, you have my respect.”

Desmond closed his eyes and breathed deeply, thinking on his next words, words he barely knew were the ones he wanted to say, so he scrapped it all, cleared his mind and said what came to him. “If it isn’t obvious already we will not allow you to bring all that we have worked for to ruin. I won’t allow what little peace we have be shattered for broken idealism. We once fought for the entire world, and when things got tough they each abandoned X-COM one by one until we were defeated. Do you really wish the self interested, greedy, narcissistic lot who abandoned us to rule this world once more? To allow spineless cowards to yell at one another every day getting nothing accomplished except fulfilling their own agendas? I am sorry but I refuse to let us go back to that.”

Desmond opened his eyes, glaring at the camera. “Consider this your one warning Commander.” Goosebumps rolled over Desmond, a lump forming in his throat as his anger built up and he leaned forward, his palms pressed against his desk. “And Atka… I know.” He said cryptically, ending the recording there.

Dark Omens (DarkGemini24601, MarineAvenger, & ZombieSplitter53)

The second half of the message addressed to Resistance channels only ended, and the Situation Room screen went blank again. Atka stared at the screen as if someone would die if she did so long enough, but didn’t react vocally just yet.

Joseph swallowed hard. “Well, um… ahem…” He shifted uncomfortably. “It was only a matter of time, but… wasn’t expecting him…”

“This… this certainly is a surprise. Especially after what we did to clear his name from our records.” Bradford noted grimly in that gruff voice of his, standing straight as he crossed his arms.

Atka rested her hands on the railing in front of the screen, squeezing the metal so hard her knuckles turned white. Her features compressed in outrage. “That… good for nothing, turncoat son of a bitch! You don’t say it’s a surprise?! I let him desert, I let him run away and Yakone ended up without a father… all for him to turn traitor? The only consolation I have is that if he’s not lying about that task force I’ll be able to kill him myself!”

Bradford let out a sigh, never seeing Atka this angry before and though he wasn’t stunned, it did worry him. “Atka you need to calm down a bit and think. There could be a wide array of reasons why he is with Advent. He could be… being used or brainwashed or something.” He also rubbed the back of his neck. “And to be fair not even you knew you were pregnant with Yakone until after he left.” The second in command said, trying to be a voice of reason to her rage.

“There’s no point in being fair with him! If the coward’s not doing this willingly, that doesn’t excuse the root problem that he ran away! He had all that power, and instead of helping us he just gave up and left,” Atka rejoined with utter disgust.

“We have to also face the possibility that he has joined them completely of his own will. And what he could give them. We might not have records anymore, but all of the original member’s faces are in his head, free to be scanned. He also knows how many of us think, and he’ll be sharing them with ADVENT, willing or not.”

“Knowing how ADVENT operates he probably already has given them all that,” Lily finally spoke up. “The aliens don’t let their subordinates keep secrets.”

“Maybe somehow he has.” Brad spoke up, letting out a sigh. “Look, I am not trying to defend him here but we need to think of all possibilities.” He tapped his foot, shaking his head. “Why would he warn us though if he was completely against us?”

“Because there is some part of him that still thinks he can ‘save’ us. Thinks we have just lost our ways, and it is his job to bring us into the light. Stupid bullshit ADVENT philosophies that… that he was already starting to believe when we were still fighting together.”

Atka turned to face Joseph. “He… what?”

“Before… before the end…” Joe knew this day would come, but wasn’t sure he was prepared for it. “We talked… and he was saying how he wondered what the point of fighting was. I believe he gave his all in the end. At least, I’m sure he had. But… I think he had half given up before the base was even assaulted.”

Atka’s head slumped. “I feel like a fool that I ever fell in love with someone as spineless as him.”

“Atka, you and me both know he was a lot of things but spineless. And you shouldn’t feel like a fool. You were happy for a time. At least cherish that.” Bradford told the woman sharply.

“Why in God’s name are you lecturing me?” the Commander questioned, pushing herself back upright. “This is not the time unless you’re angling to piss me off.”

“What I’m angling is for you to stop moping about things we cannot change now. You cannot change the fact you were in love or the fact Walker is gone. All you need to do is focus on two things, and that is how to deal with this threat and a particular someone who needs you.” Bradford told the younger woman calmly, glancing off to the side. “Ma’am.” He added.

“If I want your advice on how to live my life I’ll ask you for it,” Atka replied coldly. “For now I don’t think we have enough to go on to do anything but remain as cautious as we always are. I have a flight path to South America to work out with Slater.” The Commander walked towards the exit. “And if any of you so much as breathe a word of this to my daughter you’d better have invented a jetpack first, or learned how to psionically fly.” We’ll tell her when the time is right. Or more specifically, you will if she still won’t take it well from me, Atka added silently to Lily before exiting.

Joe sat back, and gave Bradford a sad look. “You tried. But that message was meant to psych us, and especially the Commander, out. And it looks like it worked to a degree.”

Bradford let out a deep, rumbling sigh. “Sometimes she is infuriating. I try and calm her to a degree and she gives me the cold shoulder. Sometimes I think she forgets I once outranked her. You think I would be the one she sought guidance from most.”

Joe held up a hand. “She does think that of you. But she needs a chance to let her anger out. Especially after…” He shook his head. “After that last threat of his. I think we all know what he was saying he knew.”

“Yeah…” Brad pulled up a chair and sat down in it, tapping his foot wishing he had something strong. “Poor girl.”

“She… didn’t think fondly of him before, but we really shouldn’t tell her right now,” Lily insisted. “She’s already lost a friend recently, she doesn’t need to have her view of her father tainted further. Especially when that might carry over to her mother, and… there’s a chance that something might actually be mended between them for once.”

“I agree.” Joe gave Lily a sympathetic look. “I don’t even want to think of how she might take it. I know I wouldn’t be very happy. But she will need to be told eventually. She’ll find out either way, and better from us rather than rumor or chance.”

“Yeah, and she is going to need all of us as support. We are her family.” Bradford said with certainty. “Let’s just hope that when the time comes… our little Ranger will be able to handle it.”

 

[Dahlexpert]

The fallowing is a colabe between Dhalexpert&Zombiesplitter53

Legacy

Onboard the Avenger
hospital
June 1
Luke is in the med bay currently sleeping, he's dreaming about the last mission and see the destruction around him. He also sees humans with big cocoon coming out of there cheats and popping out chrissalids, Luke sees the chrissalids going after his aunt Alexis and Gwen. "Get away from them, you will not take my new family you monsters."Luke tried to use his psionic but nothing happen, he tries to use his weapons put there jammed, Luke can't do anything and sees his friends his aunt and his Girlfriend dying in front on him. "No!" Luke turns around and sees his mom and dad looking disfigured, "Why didn't you save us Luke? you had this power all along, why diden't you save us."


Luke feels a feels a cold hand on his shoulder, he turns around and sees a disfigured AlexisYou promise my dad that you would protect me, you promised me that you would take me off the ship. You are a liar."Suddenly a chrisslaid pops out of Alexis stomach. Luke wakes up screaming in
horror

"Luke!" Alexis grasped his shoulders tired, an expression of worry plastered on her face. "Calm down! It was just a nightmare. I'm... I'm here for you."

Luke finished screaming and sees a normal looking Alexis, and hugs her tightly. "Darling ou thank god your alive, it was a dream thank god it was a dream." Luke lays back down and sees that he's covered in sweat.

Alexis walked to the sink and moistened a towel, bringing it back and starting to wipe him down. "Tell me about it. It might make you feel better."

"I saw you and my aunt being torn apart by those monster chryssalids,I saw you disfigured and with there cocoon coming out of your stomach."

"Really?" Alexis nodded. "Yeah, that would have me in this state too." She used a separate towel to dry his face. "I know it is so hard on you. I wish I could have been there to watch your back."

Luke weakly laughs"Yea it would have been nice to have you there, huh look at you all worried about little me." Luke coughed and bits of blood came out.

"Damn it." Alexis wiped his lips and said, "Relax. Don't make your injuries worse. Take off the top of your gown and lay back."

Luke layed back and tried to relax." Heh look at you Alexis, taking care of me and being worried you look so cute being a nurse."

"Maybe I should get a cute little uniform," Alexis suggested, wiping the sweat off of Luke's bare chest.

"Heh that would be nice, hay darling you don't seem as nervous as you did before when you saw me like this."

Alexis slowed a bit, and swallowed. "Well, uh... um... I, uh... saw something else that... made this... less bad..."

"Ou and what would that be?" Asked knowing what it could be.

"W-when you were out, I-I came to see you, and one of the nurses was..." Alexis looked away. "Ch-changing you out of your uniform."

"Well that would explain how I got into this hospital get up, so that's what pend when I was out. So what did you see my underwear or something?"

"Well... no. They wanted to... make sure all your clothes were clean, so... I-I kinda walked in at... the worse time. Or best time, depending on how you look at it." Alexis' face turned red and she yelled, "I'm not a pervert! It was just... I didn't mean to!"

"Alexis what did you see?” Luke ask out of curiosity.

Alexis' eyes darted about. "I... I-I saw your... your... I sawit."

Luke looked down at his equipment "Ou you saw my junk, ou well then what did you think? Luke asked very casually.

Alexis stuttered. "Don't... you... this is a big deal, jerk! I... I have never..."

"Ou I know haven't, I mean you were going to see it eventually way latter down the line." Luke smiles at Alexis "Still so innocent even tough you make all sorts of sexual flirting."

Alexis glared at him. "I-I am not innocent! You... I liked it! It looked nice, and it was bigger than I expected!"

"Alexis you know you don't have to impress me right, I know your inexperienced that's why I never forced myself on you or anything like that."

Alexis pouted and folded her arms. "But... it's embarrassing. I don't want to look like an innocent little baby. I'm twenty-three, damn it."

"Alexis you been in XCOM most of your life, with no guy your age. Then you met me it's fine if your nervous, also thanks for staying with me."

Alexis nodded. She lowered her eyes, but not from embarrassment. "When they brought you in here, before I knew anything, I... I was afraid. Other then Yakone, I don't think I've ever been that worried about someone."

"Hum, I'm glad you care so much for someone you only knew for a little while." Luke forces himself to get into were he is sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Luke, please. You need to relax." Alexis placed a hand on his shoulder.

Luke raps his arms around Alexis waist and kiss her. "Heh look at you so caring, I never had someone care for me this much I think you deserve a reward." Luke continued to kiss Alexis being a little more aggressive then usual, actually sticking his tongue in her mouth french kissing her.

Alexis was surprised, unsure what to do, so she just went along with it and tried to mimic what he was doing.

Luke lifts up Alexis shirt and started to rub his face in her breast, Luke seems to be acting on instinct like he's in some sort of trance.

"Luke!" Alexis shouted, her eyes going wide. "I know I got to see yours, but don't get ahead of yourself!"

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 2

Luke seem to be ignoring her and took off her bra and is licking her breast.

"Luke!" Alexis let out a soft moan, this being a new experience, and regardless of the surprise, she couldn't help but feel good. "Luke... what... you... doing...?"

"Leaving behind a legacy." Luke let's go of Alexis and put's his head down. "Twice now twice now I nearly died, that mission were the ADVENT assassin shot my shoulder if it wasn't for the smoke grenade I be died right now. And then the last mission, me going one on one with a chrissalid and it tearing apart my armor and poisoning me, then me getting electrocuted. The way I’m going the next mission I go on I might die."

Luke turns Alexis around and starts to message her breast and lick her ear. “So why not leave behind something before I die."

"Luke, I..." Alexis gave him a sad look. "I'm not sure if I'm ready."

"What and you think I am, I’m scared Alexis I’m scared of dying. I’m scared that the next time I go out there I will not come back, or worse like what happen to beta a sectoid takes over me and I kill you my aunt and everyone else." Luke let's go of Alexis breast and puts his head on her back. "I don't want to die darling I don't want to kill you ether, I mean look at me."

Luke turned Alexis around so she can see the bandaged up Luke "I'm barely able to move hell even standing up right is taking all, my insides are bleeding I’m a fucking mess."

"Well, that is one of many reasons to wait." Alexis placed a hand against his chest. "I know you're scared. I understand. But let's not do anything to make you worse. Please... lay back down before you pop something."

Luke rubbed Alexis head "I'm sorry darling for fondling you, and doing all that to you. I let my fear get the better of me and leaving behind a legacy was all I could think of, and that nightmare didn't help."

Alexis adjusted her clothes and helped him back into bed. "It's okay. But... you would really want a child now?"

"Ugh don't get me wrong someday I would like a family but now in the middle of this madness, probable not I will have to find diapers close and other things." Luke rubs Alexis stomach "Pulse, I wouldn't want you to stuck on this ship for nine months, that would be torture.

Alexis nodded, but looked like something was bothering her.

"Is something up darling, what's wrong?"

"I-it's stupid, but..." Alexis looked away. "Was it because it was me... or would you feel that way regardless of what woman was here?"

Luke rubes his head and plucks Alexis forehead. “Darling I care for you I would not do what I just did to any other woman, so yes it was because of you.”

Alexis smiled again, and climbed into the bed with him. "You know... I've never really thought about that. Children, I mean. I figured... what business do I have being a mother. Never had any good role models for it. Well... there was one, but... we lost her when I was still young."

"I never had many good role models ether, my aunt isn't the best role model. Who was this person your talking about anyway?"

Alexis sighed. "The Commander's own sister. She... she was like a second mother after Jenn and I lost our own. It is because of her that any of this happened. She sacrificed herself after rewriting her own memories so ADVENT would scan her mind and believe she was the last of XCOM. If she didn't, we would have been hunted until we were all caught or killed."

"Damn I'm sorry to hear that darling, I didn't know about that i'm sorry."

Alexis nodded. "It's okay. I just wonder if I'll make a good mother someday. Like I said, I never even thought about it as a possibility. Then again, I never thought I would find a man I cared this much about either."

"I never thought I would make a father ether, hell I told you the life I lived. I never even thought about being a dad. But after the last two missions, and me meeting a woman I actually care for that might happen someday." Luke brings Alexis closer to him, and groins a little "Um, you know this feels nice like i'm getting better already you feel relay warm Alexis."

Alexis giggled. "Thank you." She gave him a light kiss. "Hey... Luke?"

"Yea what's up darling, what's going through that head of yours?"

"If... if the day comes that... that I'm not needed on the battlefield... could we..." She shook her head. "Sorry. I'm just being stupid."

"You want to have that family don't you?"

She smiled sheepishly. "It... might be nice. Though I guess we should worry about getting our first time out of the way first, huh?"

"Well we could that now, doctors won't be coming for a while." Luke said jokingly

Alexis chuckled. "Tell you what. You come back from your next mission uninjured, and maybe... I'll reward you."

"Heh don't tempt me darling, that just might motivate do that."

Alexis kissed his forehead. "That's the idea, dum-dum." She rolled off the bed and grinned at him. "Now get some rest. I want to see you back to 100% ASAP, got it?"

"Yes mam I'll be to be back to normal ASAP, and darling. Thanks for visiting me, I really do appreciate it."

"I know." She leaned over and gave him another small kiss before leaving him to try and sleep."

Luke sits on his bed “A reward if I don't get hurt huh." Luke looks at his hand, and slowly gets an evil like smile on his face. "Alright darling on top of my payback, I will be sure to do that."

 

[MarineAvenger]

"Unexpected Inquisitions" (MarineAvenger and BMPixle)
Congo City, Central African Precinct
1631 Hours Local Time; July 2nd, 2038
ADVENT HQ, Congo City Central District

Akker sighed as he tossed away the last of his datapads into the outbox on the corner of his desk, glad to be finished with the last bit of paperwork for the day. The logistics of running an organisation as widespread as ADVENT's military was not to be underestimated - every day a new barrage of issues to deal with, meetings to attend, press conferences to organize. However, Akker considered himself more than enough of a man to deal with this, and dealt with it he did.

"Henderson," he called out after tapping on his commbead. "Just finished the paperwork - remind me, is there anything else on the schedule for today?"

"The Verräter situation, sir," his subordinate officer replied in her trademark clipped tone. "Also, Benjamin requested that he stay at Christian's house for the night - your response?"

"Christian? Yeah, he's a good kid. Tell him he can if he takes care of all of his homework first," the Lord-Commander replied.

"Very well, sir. Henderson out," Henderson replied, killing the commline, leaving Alfons in silence.

With a shake of the head, Alfons tapped a few keys on his keyboard, bringing up a directory of ADVENT officers. He took a long moment to scan the list and find the correct one, whereupon he sent the number over to his vidphone and began the preparations for a secure channel. What was to be discussed was to be kept secret, hopefully even from the Protectorate as well. A moment later the vidscreen popped up over the Danish-American's desk as the call began to be executed, and Alfons leaned back to wait for a response.

Desmond paced the room of his office, scrolling up the lsit of potential people he called to be screened, wanting not just the best, but those who would work well together, and all the elite troops he was seeing while skilled, would never be able to coordinate well with a team. His moments of concentration were messed up as the vidphone on his desk began ringing and the Colonel growled, throwing the pad down on the desk as he practically slammed down on the key to answer. "I asked not to be disturbed!" He yelled, not having bothered to see who it was from.

Alfons arched an eyebrow at that response. "Well, that's certainly one way to greet the man capable of shutting down your particular project, Colonel Verräter," the Lord-Commander said icily. "Though I'll give you a chance to try that a second time."

"Oh, it's you." Desmond said, his anger immediately vanishing. "Hey Alfons." He greeted casually, sitting down. "Thought you were someone from here. Hard to concentrate when people annoy you for stupid reasons."

"Yes, but that is one of the duties of command," Akker answered neutrally. "Though that is not the matter I wish to be discussing with your, Verräter. Or do you prefer to go by Walker these days?" he added, steepling his fingers under his chin.

"I've always gone by Walker. Just had to change it because no one wanted me associated with the original X-COM." Desmond crossed a leg over another and sat back. "You must have been really watching those resistance networks if you caught that unedited version I sent out."

"I watch everything, Walker," Alfons answered. "Some might say I'm the most well-informed man on the planet. Which brings me to the reason for this call - you have information on OpFor. I'd like you to divulge everything you know, it will be of great use to our information network should we be able to get profiles on the OpFor officer's personalities."

"You have records, look at them. Anything else?" Desmond asked simply.

"I don't think you understand the situation, Walker," Alfons said, leaning forward. "There are no records. None on Ipiktok. None on Bradford. None on you. And it was done in such a way as to make it look like they never existed. The only thing we have is the Nouja Memories and what broadcasts they've made. So please, if you would."

"I would not." Desmond told the man simply. "I haven't seen them in over two decades, memories get a bit fuzzy, you know how it is. Wouldn't want to give you the wrong impression." It was obvious Desmond was toying with the man. "Besides, I thought we made it all too clear years ago... I don't take orders from you. I take suggestions and see how they scale. And your suggestion would only be a waste of breath. Sorry you wasted you time."

"Listen, Walker, let me be succinct with you. The situation has been altered. Tell me, how would it look if one of ADVENT's finest colonels was suddenly revealed to be a former member of XCOM - and he himself admitted it live on camera? Why, we'd have to perform some... drastic actions to clean up such a stain upon our public record." Alfons relaxed slightly. "I've only tolerated your insubordination because you made a capable officer, Walker. But I am your Lord-Commander, and from now on I expect you to follow the orders I give out. Do you understand, Colonel?"

"And allow me to make something clear with you 'Lord-Commander'. I lead the army, you do the domestic stuff. And do not forget... I have my own little tidbits on you. How do you think the public would react if I gave them some peaks into some special video feeds I have from labs and blacksites around the world? My... that would be a stain the Elders would have a hell of a time liking cleaned up from you." Desmond flashed Alfons an intimidating glare. "I do my job, and you do yours. We don't step on each other's toes. I do what I do for a reason. If and when you find out that reason is solely up to me."

"I don't believe you quite understand your position, Desmond," Alfons shot back. "As Lord-Commander of ADVENT, I am the military. I can have your own subordinates take you to the nearest blacksite for in-depth questioning, and there is nothing you can do. That is what this is for," he added, tapping the side of his head. "Your doctored footage will not see the light of day, you will begin to follow the orders I lay out, you do not pass Go, you do not collect two hundred dollars. Otherwise, I will find a suitable replacement for you. I'm sure I can find one or two individuals capable of filling your position."

 

[MarineAvenger]

"Hmph... that isn't your call to make." Desmond said, his smirk widening. "After all, I was placed her by the Elders themselves. You mess with me, you mess with them. That is why all you are saying falls on deaf ears. Your empty threats may work on underlings but not me Alfons. You are not that cunning a man as you would like to think. If you disagree I will just have to explain to Cordiam how a certain pompous ass is making threats against a Colonel she does find the only one capable."

"You act as though the man the Protectorate trusts the most is swayed by a single Elder thinking poorly of him," Alfons said dismissively. "You may have favor, but I have influence. Should I find you incapable, incompetent, insubordinate, all I need to do is make my case before the Elders and my wish shall be granted. I mean, I'm certain they are displeased at your repeated failures to quash the rebellious hold-outs across the world. One might even begin to think you were letting them live."

Desmond chuckled. "Maybe they wouldn't be rebelling if you did a better job making sure the populous is happy. Maybe step into some armor and help out. See what it's like." His previous chuckle held no humor. "And as I have implied you are nothing special. You may have influence, but so do I. You want to start this battle, and I will give you a war. But of course... you are not a stupid man. Now are you? You know when to step back and let the qualified people handle their own divisions."

"Yes, now would you mind finding one for me?" Alfons said mockingly. "Oh wait, you think you're able to ignore my orders, never mind." Taking a brief moment to let slip a small smile, he added, "And you continue to act as if Lord-Commander isn't a military position. The Speaker handles the people, I keep fools like you in line. I worked my way up from a lowly Trooper to this position, so do not think that I lack the experience you do - or are you suggesting that I should start trusting the member of the organisation that lost their war to handle military matters over the skills I myself cultivated over the decades?"

"We lost the war because the world abandoned us when we needed their help." Desmond told the man bitterly. "And if you are suggestion you are a better military leader then me, you are sorely mistaken. A leader doesn't sit behind a desk. Atka knows that well. It is why she is out there kicking our troops asses."

"Logistics wins wars, and if that means I have to spend the rest of my life behind a desk so that we can do that, I will do so gladly," Alfons replied. "Unlike a certain someone who thinks broadcasting to our enemy that we are building a kill team specifically to destroy them is a mark of good strategy. The reason your beloved Ipiktok takes to the field so readily is because she is a fool - offing the leader is just as good as destroying an organisation like her's. But you'd probably hesitate on pulling that trigger, wouldn't you?"

"Not if it was you on the other side of the barrel." He stated. "And no, I wouldn't. Atka wants to bring this world we have to ruin. I won't let her." It was a half truth. He would do anything to stop Atka, but there is one he would refuse to shoot.

"And since we're on the subject, how about that information on her - you might still hold something of use, after all," Alfons said, smirking as the conversation began to turn back to what he originally wanted.

Desmond let out a sigh, crossing his arms. "Fine, want to know information two decades out of date, fine. She is a strong willed woman, not intimidated at all and is one of the strongest psions I know. There."

"Both you and I know there's more to that - if we can get a full profile on her, we can figure out her plans, once we do that, we can figure out what she's going to do next. So please, for once in your career, co-operate with me, Walker. In fact, I'll even be kind enough to give you time to write it up in a report. Everything you know about her that could even be remotely of use. Past careers, childhood traumas, taste in lovers, whatever you can think of," Alfons said, leaning forward. "Alright, once you get your team together, I want that list. Then I can hand it to the intelligence people, and they can get you some solid objectives, okay?"

"I'll only give what's necessary. Oh, and Alfons... I'll even one up you. The mission I leave strictly under your control. You win, I fall in line. But if XCOM beats us once again I won't hear a single fucking complaint about how I handle things, got it?" Desmond asked simply.

"Very well. Then, unless you have any last complaints to bring up...?" Alfons asked, arching an eyebrow as he waited for a response.

"Yeah, my vidphone has the face of an asshole on it, how do I get rid of it?" He replied snarkily.

"Stop using it as a mirror, that may solve the issue," Alfons answered. "Regardless, Akker out," the Lord-Commander said, tapping a button on his vidphone, cuasing the image to vanish. With a sigh, the Danish-American leaned back in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Well, at least something is getting accomplished for once," he muttered to himself.

As soon as the call ended the vidphone burst into flames on Desmond's desk, the man gripping the chair hard in frustration, but he had a large, toothy grin. "Hehe... I know XCOM better then you Akker... with your thorn out of my side... I may finally be getting some progress done." He growled in a mumble as he stood up and walked out with the pad he had before, ordering the troops to take care of the blaze he left behind.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Medical Professionalism Part One (ZombieSplitter53 and MarineAvenger)

On Board the Avenger
Medical Bay

Jennifer quickly stepped into the infirmary, holding her arm tightly. It was obvious she was in pain when she walked up to the counter. "I-I need to see the doctor. Please."

The nurse behind the counter stood up and walked around the desk. "What happened?" He asked.

"Helping... malfunction... burns..." Tears formed in Jenn's eyes. "Doctor, please!"

"Okay, okay... Calm down, miss." The man assured her as he looked around. "Shit... Had to be during the dead shift. Come on." The nurse led Jennifer towards a back room and he knocked on it hard several times, and on the third time the door opened.

"Yes?" A rather young man said, looking between him and Jenn, the man tensing.

"This girl has suffered some burns. She needs immediate care." He said hurriedly.

Kai looked at Jenn again and rubbed his arm. "There isn't anyone else?"

"Oh, come on sir. It is on her arm, not her breast." The nurse spoke rather hastily.

Kai tensed again and shook his head. "Come on." Kai told Jenn, the nurse going back to his post at the front desk as Kai led Jennifer into an unoccupied side room and he shut the door. "U-Up on the t-table please m-ma'am." He said nervously, taking a deep breath.

Jennifer sat up on the table and gave him a worried look. "Is everything okay? What was he saying about my... um...?"

"Right... I guess some woman have yet to hear the rumors." He said quickly, shaking his head as he pulled up the sleeves of his lab coat. "I-I s-suffer from gynophobia m-miss. Hence the stuttering and the... Um... Sweating and shaking." Kai quickly stepped up to her and rubbed his hands together. "Arm please."

"Oh?" Jennifer painfully pulled her hand from her arm, revealing second degree burns. "Is that right? My sister thought you were just some per... per-per-person w-who... um... was... off?"

"A-A lot of girls think that. It is why they avoid me and I them." Kai said with a sigh, grabbing a bottle of water he unscrewed the top. "U-Um... Y-Y-You should... Hold onto my arm..." Kai warned her, bringing the bottle close.

Jennifer frowned, taking his arm. "Th-this is going to hurt, isn't it?"

"A lot." Kai confirmed as he began pouring water on her wound. You ready to use that new technique we developed for you Sukuna?

Of course Kai. The goddess responded.

Jenn flinched and tried pulling away as the cold water hit burned flesh. "Ow!"

Still, Kai held her firmly. Ready.

Unseen to Jenn, Kai's eyes began glowing green, his hand doing the same as it hovered above her burned arm. Sukuna herself added to the power, the Goddess of Rain and Healing using the water as a catalyst that made a calming feeling roll up Jenn's arm that took away the pain, the burns slowly starting to retreat as they were being healed.

Jennifer opened her eyes and looked down. "That's amazing. I didn't know you knew biokinesis, doctor."

"Well I am not a main practice doctor. That is why. I oversee somethings and occasionally do autopsies when needed." Kai continued with his healing, seeming calmer, and more at peace. "Your name is Jennifer is it not? Robert talked about you occasionally."

"That's right." Jennifer smiled. "You're the man that takes care of autopsies during my off shifts? I read all of you reports but didn't pay attention to the name. You do good work."

"Thanks. You too." Kai said as he pulled his hand away and grabbed a cloth, dabbing the water off her arm. When he was done, not only was it healed completely, but her arm was dry. "There you go."

"Wow, thanks. The pain is all gone." She laughed. "And you said it was going to hurt a lot. That was painless!"

"I-I was referring to pouring the water on you." Kai said, his calm nature slowly starting to recede. "T-There was no way of avoiding that."

Jennifer's smile dropped. "I... I really make you uncomfortable just being a woman, huh?"

He nodded slowly. "You see why women do not take kindly to me?" Kai sighed, stepping away from Jenn, turning as he went to arrange stuff. "I do not h-hate you personally, nor do I hate women... i-it is just my p-phobia. I can't help it..."

Jennifer rubbed her wrists nervously. After a few moments, she blurted out, "The dark!"

Kai raised an eyebrow, then he thought he understood. "Yeah? I used to be afraid of the dark but eventually I grew out of it. The dark still terrifies you?"

Jennifer slowly nodded, pulling her legs close. "One of the oldest memories I have is being trapped in the dark after the destruction of the original XCOM base. Not to mention being out in the wild, strange animals howling in the night. Keeping lights out to avoid detection. Plus, there is something wrong with my eyes that gives me really bad night vision. So... regular darkness is bad, but I can manage. Total darkness, though..."

"I-I see." Kai said with a nod then chuckled. "T-Thank you for telling me Jenn."

Jennifer nodded. "Can I ask why you're so uncomfortable with women?"

"A couple of women I lived with ever since I was young. It just developed after a while." Kai explained as he shrugged off his doctor's coat, hanging it up. "Y-You don't mind i-if we stay a while? It is really my l-lunch break and I have n-no other company..."

Jennifer shook her head. "I would love to join you for lunch." She jumped off the table. "I'll run to grab my lunch. Be back in five minutes tops." She hurried off before he could change his mind.

"She is such a nice woman." A female voice said behind Kai, the goddess who assisted him leaning with her arms crossed against the table.

"She is... though I hope you don't mean to-" Kai began before being cut off.

"No, no... just noting she is a nice girl. Not going to try and hook you up." Sukuna noted as Kai rolled his eyes and retrieved his salad lunch and sat down in wait for the woman to return, wondering why she had been so excited.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Part Two

A few minutes later, a knock came on the door, and it opened. What looked like Jennifer but with purple hair instead of green, as well as a mischievous smile, poked her head in. "What's up, doc?"

"J-Jennifer?" Kai asked, Sukuna vanishing as he looked a bit nervous. "D-Did you put on a wig?"

"Nnnnnope. I'm big sis Alex." Alexis walked over and leaned over his desk. "Tell me, doctor. If I need an OB/GYN, can I come to you. I've heard you have... mmmagic fingers."

"S-S-Sorry A-Alex... we... we don't really have anyone here with t-that kind of specialization." Kai said quickly, rolling his chair back. "I-I-If you need help with that go see C-Chandra."

Alex leaned forward more. "Oh... but I really want you," she said seductively, and started cracking up as he became more tense.

Jennifer rushed into the room. "Leave him alone! I didn't bring you here to tease him!" She snapped at her laughing sister.

"Y-Y-You brought her here J-Jennifer!" Kai asked, grabbing a hold of his nose angrily.

Jennifer gave him an apologetic look. "A-Alex had some misconceptions about you, doctor. I-I... I wanted to clear that up. So I... I told her..."

Alex chuckled. "She told me girly girls scare you. Really?! That's... wow..."

Kai didn't seem amused, nor did he look happy whatsoever as he got up and quickly tried to leave.

Jennifer quickly blocked his way, her quick movement causing a bit if jiggle she didn't notice. "Please, doctor, don't leave! She'll behave! She's just... immature."

Kai grabbed his nose harder but still some blood escaped his nose and fingers.

"Oh, my!" Jennifer grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards his chair. "Your nose is bleeding! Let me help you!"

"G-Gah don't touch me!" Kai exclaimed, trying to pull away from Jennifer, the Japanese man going pale as he shook like a leaf, sweating profusely, his nose still bleeding.

"Hey!" Alex snapped. "She's just trying to help you, you..."

"Alexis, stop. I understand." Jennifer held out her hands. "Just relax, doctor. Sit down. Relax. I promise I won't touch you again."

Kai looked over the two women and he backed off a bit, grabbing a rag as he sat down, wiping his nose, when he was done he turned his back to Jenn and Alex, hanging his head. "I know... I'm pathetic. So just laugh already."

The pair exchanged a look, and Alexis rubbed the back of her neck. "Geez, man... I'm sorry. I was only fooling around. I didn't think you would really... sorry."

"It doesn't matter." Kai said, shaking his head. "I can't change it. Any girl who is past puberty affects me. This is just the curse I am stuck with. At least others get amusement from it."

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it funny, but..." Alexis sat in the chair in front of his desk, taking a bite of a sandwich she brought. "Maybe you need some female friends. Hey used to us, and you go out of it."

"No way, not g-gonna happen. Staying around women like you all the time is what got me here!" Kai admitted, crossing his arms. "Besides, what do you care?"

Alexis foldded her arms. "You would think you'd be more polite if you have experience with women."
He gave her a confused look. "I spend most of my time trying to avoid them. Besides... why would a woman want to ever be around me? I am an ex-member of ADVENT, one of I think the only few orientals on this ship, and I have an innate fear of women. Where in there is anything appeasing. Hell it took An-Yi years to get over hating me, though for somewhat different reasons."

Alexis counted on her fingers. "Let's see... I've worked alongside an ex-ADVENT soldier, and I can tell from five seconds of talking to you that you're more agreeable than Tygan. Why the hell should I care what nationality you are in a freedom fighting organization. And maybe some woman would find you interesting if they knew you. I don't know if it is true since I don't know you yet."

Jennifer scratched her chin. "A-and Lily is my best friend."

Kai looked between the two women, rubbing his hand. "Do either of you see psionics? Or at least have open minds... to anything I am about to do?"

Jennifer shrugged. "I'd like to think we both have open minds, but Alexis has psionics."

Alex nodded. "Yup. Green psionics. Biokinesis, and I've been working on psi inspiration. First time was an accident, but I think I'm getting a hang of it."

"And can you both keep a secret? Jenn I am sure you can but..." he looked to Alex and sighed.

Alexis narrowed her eyes. ""What's that look? I can keep a secret just fine."

"Yeah, you better. No one knows about this. Not Tygan, not Lily... not even Atka herself." Kai rubbed the back of his neck, sighing as he looked to the side. "Sukuna wa, kochira kara dōzo dete kimasu." (Sukuna, come out here please.)

"Hai." A voice responded as a woman was suddenly standing in the room, though it was as if she was always standing there, the girls just hadn't noticed her before. "Konichiwa. I am Sukuna-Biko-Na. Just call me Sukuna. I am the Kami of Rain and Healing." Sukuna wore a flowing blue dress that exposed her sides, a see through ribbon tied around her waist. She had leather bracers tied to her arms and she was wearing thigh high blue and white boots. She also had a golden piece of jewelry on the bicep of her arm with a blue gem in the shape of a rain drop.

Alexis rubbed her temples. "Not this again. I'm hearing voices and seeing things again. Are you a guardian spirit too? You're not actually a wolf or a coyote or a space muskrat in disguise, are you?"

"Space muskrat?" Jennifer mumbled, confused.

Sukuna giggled and strut up to Alexis more expertly seductive then Alexis could ever manage as she reached out and lightly brushed the woman's cheek. "Silly girl, you do not know what a Kami is, do you?"

Kai crossed his arms and looked away. "Sukuna is a Japanese god."

Alexis cracked up, laughing hardily. "Uh huh. Right. Japanese god. If you say so."

"Do you doubt me?" Sukuna asked, her tone growing serious.

"It is true Alexis. Back home in my village we had a shrine to Sukuna. That is how we met. I always used to pray there. Ever since I was a young boy Sukuna has lived in my head because I met her in a chance meeting. She is part of the reason for my phobia."

Alexis looked between him and Sukuna, and cracked up again. "Oh, sure. She's a god. And I have a demon living in my toilet."

"U-uh... Alex?" Jenn cautioned. "M-maybe you shouldn't... test her."

"Hmph..." Sukuna crossed her arms and suddenly a dark storm cloud formed over Alexis, perpetually down pouring on her. Whenever she moved, the cloud moved with her. When she tried shooing it away with her hand it shocked her.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Part Three

"Ow!" Alexis gave the Kami a grumpy look. "Okay... I'm willing to admit some god-like powers are involved in this. Please stop it."

"No." Sukuna responded childishly, going over to Jenn now. "Look at your arm dear. Seems my little water trick worked after all. With my powers and Kai's combined we can heal anything."

"Since when have you ever given me praise?" Kai asked a bit solemnly.

"Hey, just because I do not say it in private doesn't mean I do not want to brag about my wonderful host." Sukuna responded with a wave of her hand as she slowly ran her fingers up and down where the burns had been, the god feeling real.

Jennifer was more weirded out by the almost sensual motion. "U-uh... thank you. You're, uh... you're pretty skilled yourself."

Alexis started to shiver, the thin black tee she was wearing soaked and clinging to her skin. "D-d-doctor... I-I w-w-was nice t-t-to you. W-w-wanted to be y-your friend."

Kai let out a cry, grabbing his nose. "S-S-Sukuna! Her shirt! Enough!"

"Right..." Sukuna quickly went over to Alexis and snapped his fingers, the clouds parting. "Time to get you out of this dear!" The Kami said happily, grabbing the bottom of her black tee, yanking up.

"Hey!" Alex snapped, trying to snatch it back. "Y-you're r-rude for a g-g-god!"

Jennifer blushed at the now partially see-through bra on her sister. "Alex! Cover yourself up!"

Alex pointed at the offending being. "I would if Ms. Kami would give me my shirt back!" she yelled, making no effort at concealment.

"My, my... Even your bra is soaked. Perhaps..." Sukuna reached down, grabbing the back of Alex's bra.

Moments later, Kai fell against the table, sliding to the ground, holding his head as he looked extremely pale.

Jennifer rushed to his side, kneeling down so his view of her sister, and she shot Sukuna a dirty look. "How can you be so cruel?! Don't you see how much you're upsetting him?!"

"Uuuh... Right. I forgot." Sukuna released Alex and went over to Jenn, kneeling down. "Though your massive chest in his face likely doesn't help." She whispered into the woman's ear.

Jennifer stood up and snatched the shirt, tossing it to Alex so she could wring it out. "The doctor is obviously a sweet, sensitive man, and with all the time you two have been together, I would have thought you would have learned to treat him better. And no amount of clouds will make me say otherwise." She turned to back to Kai and said, "I'm sorry, doctor. I only wanted to be friendly, but things have been mucked up. We'll leave now, if that's what you want."

Sukuna sighed and went past Jenn, kneeling down before Kai, rubbing the side of his face. "Come on, you're fine Kai." She spoke softly, the man slowly regaining color again. "There." The Kami stood up, shaking her head. "Sorry. I sometimes forget my host is affected by my thoughts. We are unfortunately connected like that."

"And how did you get connected like this?" Alex asked, reluctantly putting her wet shirt on.

"How?" Sukuna asked herself, rubbing her chin. "Well... It would be good to tell you gods don't hold physical forms. As such, we need vessels in order to hold us. I mean, we could just stay at our shrines but those are no fun. The more modern the world became the less people visited us. One day Kai came to my shrine to meditate and we just... Clicked. He became my vessel. I help him with his healing powers and he lets me see the world in his body." She rubbed her arm. "We are apart of one another. I can hear his thoughts, him mine and when I secretly think something, he feels it. We could almost be considered one in the same at this point."

Jennifer folded her arms. "It sure sounds like you're mean to your second half."

"Yes, I admit, having a woman in your head all day, everyday when you are prepubescent may have largely contributed to his phobia, and yeah, I tease him a lot and mess with him but do not doubt that I have deep feelings of care and compassion for my host." Sukuna contested the woman, crossing her arms as she gave the sisters a sour look. "He has given me much when others have forgot. After all, gods are made by the wishes of humans. Everyone wants to be better when they are hurt, and rain is essential even though people hate it but I am only a minor goddess. No one really remembers my name anymore. It hurts. That is why I treat Kai the way I do. So he never forgets this awesome woman in his life!"

Jennifer sighed. "I didn't... mean to strike a nerve. I'm sorry."

"It is fine, I am too old for grudges." Sukuna told the women as she sat next to Kai and leaned against him. "But still... he is my partner. We are a team."

Kai grabbed his nose once more and looked to the side a bit annoyed. "Yeah... besides, she is all I really have left in terms of family. I don't know the fates of everyone else I use to know."

Jennifer lowered her eyes. "Maybe we'll find them some day. Never... never give up hope." Alexis gave her sister an odd look.

Kai nodded his head with a grunt, and he put his elbow on his knee as he sat. "I had my grandparents and my mother with me in Antarctica. We lived in Dome Fuji. I was already shipped out for a couple of years until there was the uprisings there. I never was able to get into contact so it is a massive question mark whether or not they survived." The Japanese man let out a sigh and finally stood up. "I've burnt incense and prayed for their survival. All I can do at this point." Sukuna looked up, giving Kai a worried look like she always did on the subject of family.

Jennifer smiled sadly. "Don't lose hope. You never saw a body, right? I'm sure it is only a matter of time until we find them."

Alexis gripped her fist tightly. "But you should be realistic and face the fact that they might not be okay," she said through clenched teeth.

Kai looked between the two women and he connected two and two together and he said, "Honestly... who cares?" He admitted, waving his hand. "They might be dead, they might be alive. It is good to have hope, but it is definitely a possibility they are no longer here. Only thing that matters is they loved me, right? To know that someone loved you unconditionally, no matter what fate befell them. Is that not what really matters?" He asked the two sisters.

Alexis nodded in agreement, but Jennifer exclaimed, "No! Wha... that i-it important... but they could still be alive! You should never say 'who cares' if there is any chance..."

"Enough, Jennifer!" Alex snapped, jumping to her feet. "Just shut up!"

"Oi!" Kai exclaimed, glaring at Alex. "Enough. You are right Jennifer. 'Who cares' was the wrong thing to say. Of course I care. However, there comes a time of acceptance. A time where you have to be content with whatever outcome may come to fruition."

Sukuna walked between the two woman and pulled them together, her arms around both of them. "The short version, all of you are acting like children. Whether they are alive or dead you all need to accept either outcome. Alex you should not be hard on Jennifer, and Jennifer you may have to accept that whoever you love may be lost. I mean come on, you have your sister, your father, and a whole ship of men. You have people here for you."

"Tch." Alexis pulled away. "Don't bother. She won't listen to you. She won't listen to anyone. The same argument for twenty years." She walked to the door and threw it open.

Sukuna rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, another storm cloud forming over Alexis.

Alexis let out a yell of frustration, spun around, and charged Sukuna. "Bitch!"

Sukuna merely stepped out of the way and Kai let out a yell as Alexis tackled him to the ground.

Alexis rolled off him rather roughly and turned to the Kami. "What the fuck is your problem!"

"Please," Jennifer said softly. "Remove the cloud. She didn't do anything wrong..."

"I think you need a bit more compassion for your sister." The Kami told Alex, waving a hand to Jennifer. "You talk about how I hurt Kai but you, my dear, do the same thing to your dear sister. I do not think you even realize your hypocrisy."

Alexis looked away. "You don't know what you're talking about. I'm not teasing Jennifer. I'm frustrated with her. Who are you to talk? You don't know anything about us!"

"Enlighten me then." Sukuna said simply, removing the cloud.

The water washed from Alexis' face, but her reddening eyes said it wasn't all from the cloud. "Our mother is dead, okay? She died..."

"You don't know for sure," Jennifer whispered.

"She died... twenty years ago." Alexis looked away. "She died in the destruction of the original base."

Sukuna let out a sigh, shaking her head. "Why must you two bicker?"

"Because we don't know that she's dead!" Jennifer insisted. "She could still be alive! She could have escaped! She... she could have been taken, and turned into a normal citizen! Or escaped her captors! We don't know for sure!"

"And why does that idea upset you Alex?" The Kami asked the other woman.

"Because she absolutely, completely refuses to accept the fact that the possibility of that is about a million to one!" Alexis pumped her fists in rage. "Do you think it doesn't break my heart? I remember her! But I've accepted that she's gone!"

 

[MarineAvenger]

Part Four

"Even if you have accepted it and remember your mother, does that mean Jessica does too? Your sister does not share your memories. Maybe it is all she has to hope for." Sukuna suggested to Alex. "I think you two need to stop this bickering. Honestly, if your mother was alive or dead, either way do you think she would wish there to be a divide between her daughters because of her? Is that fair to her?"

Alex turned away. "You obviously don't understand. And I don't think I could make you understand. You don't know what it feels like to fight for so long to accept your mother is gone, only to have someone make you go through the pain constantly. I've accepted she is gone. So when she goes on about how she's still alive out there, it is a normal day for her. But I have to remember that my mother is dead!"

Sukuna crossed her arms. "You are right. I do not know. Because Kamis do not have mothers, or fathers... however there is someone who does understand." Sukuna turned around and yelped, Kai passed out with his nose bleeding. She turned to Alexis red faced. "Did you squeeze your boobs in his face!?"

"It's your fault!" Alexis yelled back. "Do you always blame others for everything! You're like the annoying, perverted older sister in one of those old Japanese cartoons!"

"It's called anime!" Sukuna informed the woman. "And you are the one who decided to go running at me like a locomotive! Jennifer, can you please wake him up!? He will have a heart attack if Alex does it!"

Jennifer knelt by the man's side and lightly tapped his cheeks. "Doctor? Please wake up. Alex will stay away from you if you do."

Kai groaned, his eyes slowly opening. He looked up at Jennifer's face close to his, his face reddening a bit as he looked down, having a perfect view of her cleavage.

Jennifer folded his line of sight, and her face turned as red as his. She fell back, and turned to face away from him. "H-h-he's awake..."

"J-Jenn..." Kai spoke weakly, grabbing his nose.

Jennifer sat with her arms over her chest. "S-sorry we've c-caused you so much trouble."

"Jenn please..." Kai said, sitting straighter a bit. "I-It isn't perfect b-but this is the most interaction I-I've had in a while... A-A-And w-we... Have still... Y-Yet to have lunch together." He told the green haired woman, trying to give her a smile.

Jennifer smiled back, and reached to her side, pulling out a small sub. "Yes... that is true."

Alexis dropped her soggy lunch into the trash and sighed. "Have fun you two. I'm going to go before I catch the flu. Thanks for ruining my lunch, my health, and my day, oh great Kami. If you'll excuse me, I hate wet socks almost as much as I hate wet underwear."

"Such a baby." Sukuna told the woman as she waved her hand and the moisture completely came out of Alexia's clothing, leaving her dry as the water disappeared into the air.

Kai sighed, plopping himself into a chair. "Well... All in all this was a failure."

"What was?" Alexis asked, looking down at her clothes in surprise.

"Letting others know about Sukuna. It was a mistake. Not entirely on her part. She has had only me since I was around seven."

Alex looked over to the Kami and grinned slightly. "I don't know. She has some spunk that I can appreciate."

Jenn nodded, taking a small bite of her sandwich. "And I appreciate her sense of humanity."

"And I appreciate these keeping my boy company." Sukuna said, coming up behind Jessica, lightly groping and massaging Jennifer's large chest.

Jessica yelped. "W-w-what are you doing?"

The Kami got a devious glint in her eyes and Kai merely looked away, covering his eyes as he shook his head, Sukuna working her hands beautifully. "Just testing the merchandise. I must say Kai would love these. Wouldn't you agree there Jenn? Kai is right in front of you so you can be honest."

Jennifer's face turned beat red. "P-please. Y-you're embarrassing him."

"He needs to get over his phobia somehow." Sukuna said, lightly biting Jenn's neck.

"Oh!" Jenn bit her lip. "B-but... he isn't even watching, s-so you can s-stop now..."

"No... but he can hear you." She went rougher on the woman's large chest.

Jenn let out a loud moan, and looked over at her sister. "Help?"

Alex munched away at the rest of her sister's sandwich and shrugged. "Why? I find this too funny."

As soon as Kai heard Jenn's loud moan, he let out a groan and finally looked at Jenn and Sukuna completely red faced. "That's enough Sukuna! I am so tired of you doing whatever you please just to tease me or because you think it is some sick and twisted way to help me! I wish I never, ever visited your shrine!" After that, Kai got up from his table and he quickly stormed off, slamming the door shut behind him.

Sukuna stared wide-eyed at where Kai had been sitting, her mouth open slightly as her hands were frozen on Jenn's breasts before she slowly let them fall, speechless.

Alexis frowned. "Can't say I'm surprised."

Jennifer slowly climbed to her feet, giving her previous tormentor a sympathetic look. "I'm sure he didn't mean that. He was just upset. You want me to talk to him?"

"No..." She said absent mindedly, the same look of hurt and horror not going away. "I can feel his thoughts... They weren't fake..." She said in a barely audible whisper. "He really does hate me..." Her eyes suddenly became slightly watery.

Jennifer stood up and took the kami's hand. "He is just angry. Please don't cry. We can fix this."

"He doesn't want to remember..." She said, staring through Jennifer. "I am nothing without him..."

Alexis walked behind her and placed a hand on the Kami's shoulder. "Come on, girl. This can't be the first fight you two have had."

She shook her head. "Kai never yells at me. He always bottles it in. Smiles it off. He is that kind of sweet guy. He will take on the burden of the world even if it means you will just smile briefly. If he didn't have that phobia holding him back... A phobia I helped make... He would be happy with a girl already. I am his problem."

"Then you're not going to give up, are you?" Alexis asked. "If it was your fault, you need to work to fix it. You love him, right? So help him. Just... do it in a more subtle way, okay?"

Sukuna let out a sigh, nodding. "I will try..."

Jennifer squeezed her hand. "And we'll help."

Alexis nodded. "No arguments. That's what friends are for."

She looked up slightly baffled, the Kami's mouth opening slightly. "But I thought... thought you would hate me." Sukuna told Alexis.

"Why? Just because you made me a little rainy?" Alexis grinned. "You have spunk. You are pushy. You have a devilish sense of human. I like that."

"Yeah but... I did technically molest your sister in front of Kai." Sukuna pointed out matter-of-factly. "Even though she did enjoy it in front of my host."

Jennifer blushed. "I did not!"

Alexis shrugged. "You didn't really hurt her..."

"I'd beg to differ!"

"...and it was kinda funny."

"It was not!"

"Oh dear Jennifer, if you didn't like it then why the lewd noises?" The Kami asked, approaching the sister with a devilish grin.

Jennifer covered her chest. "I'll be your friend to as long as you promise to never do that to me again without asking."

Sukuna gave her a wink. "No promises. Who knows, maybe I won't be the one touching them."

Jennifer blinked several times, and climbed to her feet. "Well... maybe next time, you should play with Alexis'. Hers are..."

"Better?" Alexis asked with a grin, and Jenn only rolled her eyes.

"Anyway." Jennifer looked up at the clock. "I need to get back before they send out a search party."

"Alright. When I find Kai and apologize I will be sure to explain in detail the elasticity and softness to him for the future." Sukuna said simply, slowly beginning to disappear.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "So much for subtlety. Try and stay outta trouble."

"Like I said before. No promises." Sukuna said, giggling before she completely disappeared.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and MarineAvenger: “Heart of Iron, Part 1"

2103 Hours, July 3rd, 2038
The Colombian Rainforest
Onboard the Avenger
Floor 1, Rear Block
The Loading Bay

Lily halfheartedly filed a report on the now fully disassembled ADVENT techound, uploading the data into the Avenger’s databanks and then filing away the components of the machine for now. The death of one of the assistant engineers that she had worked with personally still weighed heavily on her. The Chief Engineer had felt flashes of frustration - even anger - with Yakone the past day or two. The Ranger seemed to be recovering, but when An-Yi was honest with herself she knew that was mostly superficial. Yakone always put on a brave face, even in the rare times she was depressed or terrified. Shen wondered why she couldn’t do the same.

Looking up from her glum thoughts and across the desk, her eyes met the optics of a Gremlin in resting mode on the edge of the table. It was a reminder of the fallen Miriam Sanchez: her Gremlin, Sparks. The XCOM drone seemed more lethargic that should be possible for a simple machine - or, at least, that’s what anyway else would say. But Lily always saw her creations as something more than dumb AI. To her they had the potential for evolution just as much as people did, and with their quirks and mannerisms they often did personify themselves. Without its charge, Sparks seemed as depressed as she was.

What finally broke the monotony was the sound of someone coming up the stairs. It was late, and An-Yi hadn’t been expecting anyone, so the sound made her jump in surprise. After making the clang resounding from boots hitting a metal floor, she straightened her posture and tapped the side of her pants to focus herself. “McCaffree, if that’s you, don’t worry about me. I’ll be nodding off in about an hour, I just want to work on those Mechound concepts.” As the visitor crested the wide rather than tall steps, she registered that it wasn’t her fellow engineer. “Oh… hey, Artyom. Didn’t expect to see you here.” She didn’t mention how late it was. He tended to be a night owl.

“I was tempted very much not to come, but I had a feeling not even you would be unaffected from what happened during Crimson Visitor.” The Russian stated, the sound of his optics adjusting slightly giving off a barely audible whirl that was missed whenever there was even a slight sound. However there was just silence between the two as he walked over to the table, looking down at her work. He analyzed it all in seconds, but kept his gaze as if he needed longer. Usually she was the one giving helpful advice to him. It was strange almost feeling the roles reversed, which was the cause for the prolonged absence of dialogue between the ‘friends’. “How… do you feel An-Yi?” He began slowly.

“Kind of terrible, to be honest. I know there’s nothing I could do… not like I could’ve made impenetrable shield generators from nothing or something like that…” Lily sighed. “But one acquaintance is dead. She was an assistant engineer, and one of my Specialists at that. And my other friend was in critical condition until twelve hours ago, and she’s gonna be convalescent for another few days while she’s being treated. There was nothing I can do, but that doesn’t make me feel any better!” Lily slammed a fist against the table in a flash of anger. Glancing back up at Artyom, she was both calmed down and put off by the dearth of change in his expression.

However, what Lily had not seen was the slight recoil and tense of his hand when she slammed her fist, though he had done a good job of keeping his body language under control so she didn’t worry. “Is there something I could have done? Why the Commander had trusted Central under my command… I do not know.”

“I’ve watched the feed twice now. That damn Mechtoid looked dead… you couldn’t have known. Everything else you managed perfectly. I think Atka trusted that you would be able to keep a cool head and keep track of everything at once. I’m just being unreasonable with my guilt,” Lily responded with a sad shake of her head.

“Perhaps. I do not live in your head, so I would not know the specifics of your emotional state.” Without asking, he went over and took a stool from the side and he sat down on it. He stared forward at the Gremlin settled across from them, just staring at it for the longest time. “Is… that robot… sad?”

Lily nodded. “That’s what it seems like, doesn’t it? I’ve learned to not underestimate the complexity of alien tech… if I were to try and quantify what’s going on, I’d say it has something to do with a familiarity the Gremlins form with a frequent user with the proper authentication codes. Hell, I’ve found legacy code in the older prototypes that indicated some models are supposed to self destruct like the plasma weapons when their user dies. But in short, yes, it seems to be sad.”


“Is… that what I look like all the time?” Artyom asked, his hand going up to touch the alien metal fused to his face which kept more than half of it covered.

“Honestly?” Well, I’m afraid to be honest - to be honest. “Kind of. You’re not the sort of person to show emotions easily… it’s more something I inference from knowing you for the past two years. Kinda like how I can tell that Giorgos has resting mopey face most of the time. He didn’t take as long to learn how to read, though.”

‘Rasputin’ continued to stare at the drone and he stood up, walking around the table to stand next to the drone, and he put a gloved hand on Sparks, almost as if petting it. “I wonder what were to happen if a Gremlin was to be connected to my modified mind. Two computers sharing one conscious.”

“Well… A, I don’t have a sophisticated enough knowledge of alien implants to be able to synergize you that much… B, I don’t have fusing man and machine to that depth on my mind right now… and C, this one’s going to one of our new Specialists provided he ‘cheers up’. What was her name… Yakone’s new roommate… Christine Kohler, I think.”

“Trying to push it off to a new operator…” He mumbled to himself, shaking his head as he pulled his hand away. “It may not ‘cheer up’ if it is looking forward to just being handed off. Especially if it may hold that sort of preference you noted about.” Artyom spoke up more clearly. “Though I know it was not your order. They see him as just a tool. Shame.”

“Yeah… but it is war. We’re all expected to keep moving on even if we’re not happy with how things turned out.” Lily shrugged. “I guess the little guy has it worse than I do,” she admitted.

Artyom nodded. “How would you explain love to a machine Lily?” The older man asked out of nowhere.

An-Yi coughed. “I… w-well, I suppose that depends on what sort of love we’re talking about. Romantic love I wouldn’t contextualize with reproduction, for starters, since machines don’t do that.”

“No reproduction… just… love as a concept. In its purest form.” He crossed his arms over his torso, holding himself as if trying to warm up from a winter breeze.

Wait… is he talking about actual robots, or… “I’m not much of one for philosophy, Art… if I had to decide on something, though, I’d call it a connection. Love exists as something that ties people together… not always through ways they can explain. And like the connections in circuitry for robots or with the brain in humans, love is something that is vital for sentient beings. It’s why the Elders go to so much trouble to appear like they care - like they’re benevolent when they really aren’t - after all.”

“I see…” Artyom said softly, looking down to the floor. “That sounds like I remember it I suppose. When I used to love, myself.”

“I think you convince yourself that you can’t anymore. I’m not going to try and compare what you’ve gone through to what I’ve endured,” Lily said knowingly, “because those experiences are too different in nature. But if you were truly broken as a human being you wouldn’t be able to function like you still do. You’d be catatonic or something. I think you’re stronger than that,” the Chief argued. “No, like I pointed out, I have evidence that let’s me know you are.”

Artyom slowly moved away from the drone after he pat it one last time and went back to his stool. He looked down at his hand, then slowly took off the iron ring on his left ring finger - one that long since had the gold paint flecked off - and placed it on the worktable. “I assume you know what that is?”

“Your engagement ring,” Lily replied solemnly.