RP XCOM2: Liberation of Earth

[MarineAvenger]

MarineAvenger and DarkGemini24601: “Our Daily Lives” - Part 2

Kyushu, one of the Islands of Japan
1802 Hours, October 12th, 2038
Onboard the Avenger
Level 1, Rear Block
Main Engineering

Stretching her arms out to remove the kinks, Lily looked over her handiwork. The previously steel armor of the SPARK unit was now a flexible black alloy composite. In the towering machine’s hands was no longer an outdated autocannon, but a specialized, heavy weapons caliber railgun. “Now all that’s left to do is incorporate all that special equipment that was left behind in the Towers…” An-Yi muttered to herself. A task for tomorrow, unfortunately. Reluctantly, the chief stepped away from her workstation, and headed out of the cargo bay.

As she did, Kai was making his way towards her, wearing simple clothing that made him look different in a way then when he wore a labcoat. It gave off less of an ‘egghead’ feel, at least that was what Kai could surmise when he was choosing his attire. He waved at Lily, going to her with a deep breath. “H-Hey An-Yi. How a-are you?” He began.

The engineer paused for a moment, and after a second smiled. “Oh, hey Kai.”

“I see you are… finally d-done with you work, huh?” The doctor asked, putting his hands in his pockets. He had gotten better at reining in his anxiety, but there was still a noticeable difference in the way he acted with women.

“Yeah. Things are all wrapped up on my end for today,” Lily answered.

“Same for me. I-I figured that with working so long and not taking a day off, no time better then now.” He offered a weak smile and cleared his throat. “Right… um, which is why I-I am here actually.”

Lily raised an eyebrow questioningly. “And that is…?”

“Um… uh…” Kai froze up, and was silent a few moments before yelling in his head, What do I say!

...really? Sukuna asked her host in both disbelief with trace amounts of amusement. Tell her you want to spend the night with her. Not rocket science genius.

Shut up. This is difficult for me. Realizing he was staring at Lily without answer her, he quickly responded, “I-I wanted to see i-if you would… uh… like to hang out t-tonight.”

“Uh…” Lily seemed to be going through a mental checklist. “That’d be fine. I don’t have anything else planned for this evening.”

“Oh, alright I see that this was a mistake and-... wait, what? You want to?” Kai question seemingly taken aback. The amount of groaning coming from the Kami made the Japanese doctor grate his teeth.

“Did you come here expecting to just get shot down and move on with your day?” Lily questioned in return, seeming a little concerned by that prospect.

“N-No! Of course not. It’s just… I wasn’t too sure if you’d want to or not. I’m not exactly a prime choice to hang out with.” The doctor explained, rolling his hand to accentuate the point as his gaze was to the side.

“I’ll live. So where are we going?” Lily questioned, not dwelling on what he had said.

“Well, I was thinking we could talk over dinner. I hear a lot of stuff has gone down with you and I’m curious about some things.” Kai turned, waiting for her to come besides him before going.

An-Yi moved to follow, bobbing her head. “That works.”

As the walked down the halls, Kai went over a mental list about the things he had heard had been going on, and decided to start with the most simple one he could off the top of his head. “So you got your mother back after all these years, huh? And not only that, but she was also the lead scientist in the old program?”

“I already knew she was Tygan’s predecessor,” Lily responded with a chuckle. “Did no one tell you?”

“More like I didn’t really bother to know. I… I keep to myself a lot, you know? Usually stay in the medical bay and uh… work. Doesn’t give me a lot of time to do homework. It at least explains why you are such a wonder at your age. Both your parents were geniuses. Though I imagine a lot to live up to, huh?”

“I don’t dwell on that too much. Too much is at stake with our work here for me to worry about whether or not I match up. I’ll save those doubts for when this is all over,” Lily replied with a shake of her head.

“You don’t seem like someone who doubts herself too much. On the money there?” Kai asked light heartedly.

“Well, yeah. I have people that look up to me. I have to be,” An-Yi explained.

“Though I suppose you tread the line of arrogance then. At least many people who wouldn’t hold doubt would be like that. N-Not that I’m… nevermind, meant it as a compliment.” The doctor let out an annoyed sigh.

Lily rolled her eyes, and after a moment delivered a light punch into Kai’s arm. “You need to lighten up. Relax. Breathe.”

“Oh trust me, this is me when I am relaxed. Should see me when I am high strung. Complete mess there.” Kai made himself smile at the remark, and he kept things light on the talking until they reached the mess. It was there that Kai asked his next question. “So, I heard you got a… robot servant or something?”

“I wouldn’t call him a servant, that makes me sound like some sort of evil landlord,” Lily retorted. “No, he’s my father’s creation. Sort of like a brother, I suppose.”

“Yeah… I think I know that feeling.” Kai said cryptically.

Aww… are you trying to say something about us Kai? Sukuna asked all sing-songy.

He ignored her remark and went on with his query. “Still… it is kind of weird. I’ve heard of the V.I.s they use in the Megacities and stuff, and we even have our own A.I. like Seshat and the combat ones but an A.I. like him… it seems almost unreal. Especially considering that used to be a human being.”

“Yeah, I’m still trying to piece together what I can about the original Galen on the side. I remember him to some extent… but he was one of the first of us that died on the run,” Lily elaborated. “I was still pretty young then.”

“So in a way… it’s like making up for lost time, huh?” Kai asked, grabbing his food first.

“I suppose it is,” Lily answered.

“Well…” Kai began, giving Lily the best smile he could muster without not having the urge to step away from her. “It makes me happy to hear things are going well for you.”

“For the most part they are… some things could be better, but for those I’m just going to have to be patient,” Lily muttered distantly. Clearing her throat, she retrieved some food for herself. “What about you? Any interesting developments?”

His mouth dried at the mention of that, and after a bit he answered rather stiffly, “N-No. None good anyways. I… I suppose I learned I could use my powers for anything organic. Not humans. Something at least, huh?” The doctor nervously asked once more, seeming to have taken a step back in terms of comfort.

“...you sound like you’re avoiding talking about something,” Lily picked up on easily.

“Well… I suppose learning all your kin are dead, some by non-enemy means, and you don’t really get pleasant… dinner talk….” Kai set down his tray, scratching his head. “S-Sorry… didn’t mean to sound mean.”

“...you are the one that brought up the topic of recent events in the first place,” Lily stated flatly. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll just drop it.”

It sounded like a tempting offer to Kai, but as he sat down, he knew that running would only make the situation worse, so he began spilling. “My mother she… she raised me all on her own. Tried doing right by me. Douchebag father didn’t bother sticking around, so it was me and her against the world. She did everything for me. Made me meals, walked me to school. We used to push the sofa against the wall and wrestle in the living room together just for the sake of roughhousing together. She was my world. If I knew all those years ago would have been our final goodbye I…” He was about to say might not have left, though something held his tongue. He couldn’t tell the root cause.

“It’s not something you should hold against yourself.” Lily shook her head. “I wasn’t prepared for the day I walked into my dad’s room and found that his heart had stopped. There’s never a right time.”

“I suppose. Then on top of that, I had learned my grandparents were gone as well. Luckily, they were natural but… you know, my grandmother first taught me how to meditate and to heal. She’s why I am a doctor today. And my grandfather… well, he was like that replacement dad I needed. He was quirky old man but that’s what made staying at their house fun. When this is over… I’ll have to see if the village is still standing. And afterwards… I don’t know. I don’t know the next step without any family to return to.”

“Well, you have us. Everyone in this ship is sort of like an extended family. Especially for those that have been fighting their whole lives… it’s going to be hard to lay down the sword at the end of it all,” An-Yi affirmed.

“Guess for people like us it will be easier. New world will need plenty of engineers and doctors. Job will never be finished.” He said, trying to see the bright side of the situation.

“Yeah… construction industry will be really lucrative. And the world will need real doctors, not clerks for human processing,” Lily agreed.

“I’m sure we can find somewhere to squeeze in Robert into that equation.” Kai looked over at Lily and let out a breath through his nose. “Thanks Lily…” He said out of the blue.

“Just doing what I can,” she replied humbly.

He nodded, looking down at his food, silently wondering to himself if trusting women was such a bad thing in the end.

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Taxor_the_First and DarkGemini24601 - Directed Dissolution, Part 1

Location Unknown
October 13th, 2038


Rainy day once again. Perfect weather, in the Overseer’s mind. Gave her the space to be outside with those that worked for her, milling around the camp and through tents and makeshift cabins like ants. In the main courtyard she sat, her bodyguard laughing with some of his own friends nearby. Over in one corner of the gathering area, Rothchild was berating some poor guy who’d already managed to break one of the new magnetic assault rifles.

Chloe smiled to herself. In other words, everything was as per usual.

At least until one of her aides attracted her attention. “Call for you, Overseer!” he called, beckoning at her.

She sighed, and rose. “Come on Samson.” Without bothering to see if he was following, she made her way deeper into what on the surface appeared little more than a simple settlement, half of which was temporary. It was a design that the Overseer’s predecessor had decreed be constructed, a facade that she was now glad for. It was due to this that her personal dwelling, a simple wood and plaster building, looked almost no different to those surrounding it. A single tree in a forest.

The device Chloe used to communicate with various other resistance members and contacts sat in a corner, patiently awaiting her input. With a glance at the urn newly resting upon the shelf above, she looped a set of headphones around her ears. “Overseer speaking,” she almost drawled, tapping a few fingers on the wooden desk at which she now sat.

“That was fairly quick,” the voice of XCOM’s Commander came through on the other end.

Heard that plenty of times before, Chloe thought to herself. “Ah, Commander. You caught me at a good time, haven’t got twenty intelligence operatives pestering me for my input. Was there… anything in particular you were calling for, or did you just want a general rundown of what’s going on?”

“I wouldn’t mind a rundown, but I do have some objectives to cover before and after,” Atka replied curtly. Her neutral tone quickly gave way to a grim one. “I need to ask how your Chicago reconnaissance has been going.”

The Overseer hesitated. “... not well,” she admitted. “Seems ADVENT or the Protectorate is guarding that place better than a fortress. My agent fatality rate in there has been… well, all but one, and he only survived because he backed out early.”

There was a long exhalation on the other side of the line. “...I can’t say I’m surprised. I feared that Verrater and his masters were going to guard their… prize,” Atka remarked with evident distaste.

“Well, she’s a valuable prize,” Chloe noted. “To both sides. Problem is, they know that too. Honestly, if it was easy to get in there I’d be more worried. At least this way we know they don’t want us to take her back.” She smirked. “But my agents like a challenge. Trust me, we’ll keep working on it. And if we find a vulnerability, you’ll know immediately.”

“For now, though… I’m just going to have to wait, huh.” Atka was silent for awhile. “Tell me about your latest overall reports.”

“Unless you want to be massacred within a few minutes of setting down, yeah, I’d say wait,” the Overseer affirmed. “As for other things…” She frowned, opening a drawer beneath the desk and finding it empty. “Samson, where are my reports?”

Her bodyguard shrugged. “Fucked if I know,” was the response. “I don’t go messin’ with yo’ shit, keep an eye on yo’ own affairs.”

“Oh, merci,” Chloe said dryly, shaking her head. “Whatever. I’ll look for them later. Not like there was anything massive recently anyway.” She paused. “Well, aside from the defections…”

“From which side?” was the obvious question.

“Ours, unfortunately,” the Overseer answered. “Irritating, but not really an issue. Just fringe operatives who know nothing of my more intricate systems. The kind of people that pass info on to others without really knowing where it goes. Few of them have been disappearing.”

“I’d be… wary of that,” Atka said at length. “Only a few people from the original X-COM defected, but what they knew ended up causing us to be hunted for years.”

Chloe hummed thoughtfully. “True,” she conceded, “but those people were part of that organization. The people that are leaving me are more like… outsourced workers, if that makes any sense. They shouldn’t know anything aside from the person that collects their intel from them.”

“But that does lead up the trail,” Samson broke in, able to work out the conversation even without hearing half of it. “If they know that, they can keep goin’ on up and up until finally one day they sittin’ outside this door right here.”

“I’d like to think my agents are more loyal than that,” the Overseer scoffed.

“Clearly they fuckin’ ain’t,” the bodyguard muttered.

“I’d be inclined to agree with your friend. If they were loyal, they wouldn’t have turned their backs on you. And even those that you think wouldn’t go to such lengths… well, I’ve been a bad judge of character before,” Atka cut in.

Chloe frowned. “... alright,” she said. “Probably time for a reshuffle anyway. Not convinced it’s necessary, but I’ll do it.” Quieter, she added “most of them are probably dead anyway.”

“If that’s all you have for me for now…?”

“Unfortunately. Or, fortunately.” She shrugged. “Hard to figure out which is better these days.”

“Then I’ll move onto my objectives.” Atka paused. “Are you absolutely certain this line is secured? None of your defectors or anyone else in your organization knows how to tap into it?”

The Overseer laughed at the idea. “There’s only two men that know the encoding frequencies for this channel, and they’re both dead. This room is soundproofed to the best of our ability. I have sentries watching not only outside this Haven but inside as well, and if anyone is snooping around they will be spotted and apprehended.” She smiled, though the Commander couldn’t see it. “Whatever you say here will not leave this room. I assure you.”

“Good. Though… I’m considering how much I want to actually tell you. If I were to tell you everything, I might have to request that you kill yourself before risking being captured should that problem arise.” Despite it sounding like a joke, Atka’s tone was nearly devoid of humor.

“Then why bother telling me in the first place?” Chloe asked, though her voice was that of someone humoring a joke. “If I didn’t know better, Commander, I’d say you were just looking for an excuse to off me.”

“This from the woman that sounds like she got rid of her encrypters to ensure her codes were uncrackable.”

“Well, only one of the two I mentioned actually worked on it. The other…” She glanced up at the urn, her expression falling. “... so, what did you want to tell me?

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Part 2

“My Plan B for rescuing my daughter is more of a cause-and-effect route,” Atka begun. “She’s being held captive by ADVENT. If I shatter the Coalition into tiny pieces, then rescuing her amidst the chaos should be a lot easier.”

“You want to provide a distraction to rescue your daughter by… shattering all of ADVENT?” Chloe rubbed the back of her neck. “This is a great plan and all, but I kinda feel obligated to point out that one, that’s a massive undertaking, and two, that’s the whole point of the resistance. If it were easy, we wouldn’t be here. We’d be reconstructing the old world. So unless you have some grand scheme to pull that off -”

“-I do,” Atka interrupted her. “I have a path to victory over the Coalition plotted out. It won’t lead to the dissolution of the Protectorate, but it gets rid of one of our two problems.”

“Oh yeah, just the one. No big deal, right?” The Overseer allowed herself a chuckle. “Do I get a peek at this plan, or is it a surprise?”

“I have been planning this for a decade, you know,” Atka muttered. “I know what I’m doing. The broadcast from the South Pole was the beginning of a revolution. I’ve already been hearing of unrest in the cities that heard the most of what I had to say. I plan to use that to disorganize ADVENT, to keep them guessing as to what the Resistance’s next move is going to be. Smoke and mirrors everywhere. All while preparing for one thing… you’re aware of where the ADVENT Military HQ is located, correct? That huge monolith of a building in the Himalayas?”

“You mean the giant black spot on our map? The one that may as well be marked ‘here be monsters’?” Chloe folded her arms. “I know of it alright. My agents avoid the area like the plague. It’s the only place I can say we have a total 100% agent fatality rate attempting to enter. Even the ones that usually chicken out before it’s too late get caught. And you… you want to storm it?”

“Not alone, for sure. But I’m mobilizing a lot of help. It’ll take some time… but I don’t need to take the whole place. I intend to hit it, cut off the head of the snake, and destroy ADVENT from within,” Atka stated. “Once I have the proper numbers, and I feel confident in my organization’s equipment… we’re hitting that place.”

“And once the head is off, all that remains is to stab the heart.” The Overseer nodded slowly. “Ok. If there’s anyone that could pull that off, it’d be you and your merry band of insurrectionists. And if you ever need any help getting in, watching the place, or even just organising some mayhem to distract them… well, I can’t promise any of that will be successful, but we’ll try. With a motivation like that? I know a lot of my agents would be willing to devote all they have to that.”

“Understood. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. This…” Atka sighed. “This has the potential to take a lot of time to set up… as is. My hope is that new developments will increase our chances of success enough that I can launch the mission early. Right now my projections are at months… and not only does a span of time that long ever increase the risk of us getting shot down again, but I’d rather not be leaving Yakone in enemy hands for that long. She doesn’t know this plan or anything incredibly important, but she’s got enough intel that could be a pain in our ass… and I’ve got no idea what Cain has planned for her.”

Chloe debated joking that at best it would just be an intense spanking session, but decided against it. “The world is changing,” she noted instead. “Things could fall in our favour yet. And I wouldn’t be so worried about your daughter. She might be your daughter… but she’s his as well. If nothing else, I think that’ll mess with their usual prisoner interrogation routine.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Don’t forget who is the master and who is the high-ranking servant.” Another sigh. “There’s nothing that can be done about it right now though. I just have to - as a wise man once said - have hope.” Silence. “Take care, Chloe.”

“Wait,” the Overseer said suddenly, sounding as an idea had just occurred to her. “Do you… happen to have any spare soldiers?”

“...why do you ask?”

“Well, an op like the one you’re proposing would need a lot of preparation. Intel, mostly, but maybe some more material benefits as well. And if that’s your target… well, I’m thinking I might be seeing a few opportunities available, should we chose to take advantage. The kind of thing that might need slightly more force than my agents are capable of, but a deft enough touch to keep it sneaky.” Chloe shrugged. “And if anyone’s going to have soldiers capable of both, it’ll be you.”

“I… suppose I can loan you some of the agents that formerly belonged to your organization,” Atka decided. “It’s my understanding that you’re personally familiar with some of them.”

“... you could say that,” the Overseer said evasively. “I wouldn’t expect that to affect such a decision, though.”

“They’d work best with you, regardless. I can divert Judgement Squad to you for the time being.”

Chloe couldn’t resist a smile. “Excellent. Thank you, Commander. I probably won’t need all of them, but having the option there is helpful regardless. I do like to keep my options open.”

“Ah, shit, I know that smile,” Samson muttered. “That’s the smile of someone that’s gotten what they wanted and then some mo’ on top o’ that.”

“Way to reveal my hand, asshole,” the Overseer grumbled. “Well then. Was there anything else?”

“That should be all,” Atka replied. “Good luck on your end.”

“Same to you,” Chloe answered sweetly, ending the call and leaning back in her chair. “Mmm. I’m excited now. Very excited.”

“You want me to go grab your new boytoy?” Samson asked.

“Not that excited,” she amended. “Come on. Let’s go see if I have anywhere to put our new talent to use…”

 

[Dahlexpert]

DarkGemini24601 and Dahlexpert: “Wary Initiation”


Gobi Desert in Mongolia

0843 Hours, October 14th, 2038

Onboard the Avenger

Floor 1, Central Block

Hollow Unused Room

Lily spun her wrench from one hand to the other, waiting. Impatiently so, as was her typical state of mind when not doing something of value. I told them to bring her down here five minutes ago, what are they doing? Lily questioned idly as she tapped her foot. In better circumstances, the engineer would be at her workstation, continuing work on all the technology that was in the middle of being manufactured at the moment. But there was the question of what to do with a certain cherry-haired Advent engineer, and An-Yi knew she'd be able to display more patience with the Coalition member than Atka. Thus, she waited - to her further frustration - another two minutes before a pair of soldiers escorted Alice in.

"Sorry for the wait," Christoffer apologized. "Took me a minute to round up Max here."

"Hey, you try taking care of three kids," the Dominican retorted lightheartedly.

"I forgive you... this time." An-Yi waved at the two to leave.

"You sure you want to be alone with her?" Christoffer questioned. The head of security didn't seem quite at ease with that idea, until Lily pointed a thumb back at her Gremlin. "Ah, I see. Alright." With that, the two Mavericks departed, leaving Lily and Alice alone to talk.

Alice - being released from security - looked at the Gremlin, and couldn't help but scream in excitement. “Ahhh! Oh my! It's so cute! Oh the things I can do to you... I can superclock you, or oh! maybe give you some medspray system or maybe holograms. Oh, the possibilities are endless!”

Lily stepped in front of her robot protectively. "Hands off, this one's mine." Clearing her throat, Lily nodded to her companion. "Begin recording." The Gremlin did so. "If you would please state your name for the record," Lily requested.

Alice waved to ROV-R ."Hi, my name is Alice Grant and I’m an engineer; it's nice to meet you - especially your little friend there."

Lily folded her hands behind her back. "Alright, Alice... can you elaborate on what you did for Advent as an engineer? Please be through and complete."

"I was apart of robotic division , I help create the MEC your forces fight today. I'm also in charge of augmentations, by that I mean fixing the human body with robot parts. Making the person better than they were before. I also studied on how to create and capture an A.I. Before my capture I was put in charge of creating a MEC to take down the psions of XCOM."

“And…” Lily shook her head, deviating from her basic questions to ask frankly, “with all of those things considered, how is it you expect us to trust you? One of our field operatives was familiar with you and requested you not be treated as a prisoner, but you’ve acted in direct opposition to the efforts of the Resistance. You’re not a combatant, but the things you’ve done sure as hell make you an enemy.”

“Yes, I help make the things that haunt you, but the same can be said to you. Your great weapons armor and those floating things to take down ADVENT do you not? And it’s not like I had a choice with ADVENT. Also, I’m not your enemy. The moment I knew the truth about ADVENT I wanted to join XCOM.”

“The difference between us and ADVENT is that our cause is actually just. And I’m not sure I see any reason to trust you,” An-Yi retorted.

“True, but I was just doing my job. Now as for you trusting me, I understand that but I want you to trust me.” Alice looked at the Gremlin. “Starting with this thing.” Alice moves past An-Yi and started to hold the Gremlin.”I have to admit, this thing is pretty advanced. For having very low resources, you people are very creative.”

With a mechanical shudder, Rover forced itself out of Alice’s grasp and rose higher into the air whilst Lily scowled. “I told you once before, hands off. You’re not in a position to just do whatever you damn well please. ‘Just doing your job’ isn’t an excuse. You want to know something about those MECs you helped make?” Lily growled. “They’re not fully mechanical. The aliens stripped the brains of hapless human victims out of their heads and put them into those mechanical soldiers of yours!”

Alice eyes widen.”They they did what? You're lying... you have to be, they wouldn't do something so sicking.”

“I’ve got tangible proof if you feel like hurling,” Lily responded bluntly. “You say you doubted ADVENT, but I don’t think you really understand just how lowly they are.”

“Show me. I...I want to see for myself.”

An-Yi glanced at ROV-R with a nod. The Gremlin hovered silently for a few moments, and then projected some still images from Lily’s breakdown of the MEC. In particular, it displayed the opened cranium of the mechanical soldier, and the cybernetically-modified human brain that lay within. “This is the ultimate result of your ‘enhancements’,” Lily told her.

Alice started to tremble. “I… My work, my work was meant to be like that. The MEC I made were meant to have an A.I in them - not this horrible display. “ Alice sat in a chair and put her hands around her head. “I wanted to advance humanity with my work and ideas, not like this... How dare they tamper with my work that had pure intentions and make it this.”


“From what I can tell, the higher-ups decided they didn’t want basic computerized intelligences piloting the machines. Making more complex A.I. was too difficult - they only produced the eight Splinter AI that we have with us now, and those were copied off a single template. Plus, ADVENT seems to have been denied complex A.I. technology after their project went awry. Aliens don’t seem to trust you with it, just… ‘protecting you from yourselves’ like they always like doing,” Lily listed off with a disgusted tone.


Alice - still shocked about how her designs were tainted by ADVENT - shook her head and turned to Lily. “Excuse me but what did you get from the abandoned facility, I need to know why they sent me there.”

“I have no obligation to tell you that.” An-Yi rubbed her forehead. “Look, Grant… you seem distraught by what ADVENT has done, and I’m willing to give you a chance more so than my boss… but even if I were to let you join our staff, you wouldn’t get clearance to do whatever you want in engineering from the get-go. Trust in your case has to be earned.”

“I understand what you're saying, but I have to know what was there. If I want to payback ADVENT, they way I see it. I need to continue my work, only instead of it being against you guys it’s against ADVENT and for that to happen I need to know what was in that building.”

“Maybe if you’d get your head out of your ass and actually-” Lily ran her hands through her hair. “Alice, for all I know you’re putting on an act, and were sent as a spy to get captured, join XCOM, look over all the technology we had, and report back to your masters. I have zero reason to trust you. This is going to be a process. You’re not going to get everything you want, and you certainly aren’t going to get it by demanding I show you whatever you want to see.”

Alice rubbed her head.”Fine you need to trust me. I understand it will take some time for me to get used to this as well. So fine I will play along, and no I’m not a spy, you can ask Luke if you want to. He knows me more then anyone on this ship."

“Even those you think you know best can prove themselves snakes lying in wait,” Lily responded with a shake of her head. “For now you can take care of a project for me. I’ll have you collaborate with one of the other engineers overseeing your work on the Gremlins. Take some models that aren’t being used, and see if you can’t take apart the Seeker and Zephyr frames that we destroyed on previous operations and apply their evasion systems and cloaking tech to the Gremlins. The person I assign you to - Peter McCaffree - will be able to help with the latter bit… we’ve been working on scaling down stealth tech, and he knows how to integrate that into armor plating.”

Alice put her finger on her chin.”Humm I can see where evasion systems would come in handy, don’t want them to be shot down. But I would still work on clocking them, something tells me you can use as many scouts as you can.”

“Alright. I’ll give Peter a call, and the gentlemen from before can escort you down to part of engineering to begin your work. You are tentatively hired and dismissed,” Lily said, cracking a small smile. “Hope any concerns I have about you are wrong, but you can never be too cautious.” The doors opened, and Chris came to lead the new engineer out.

Alice followed Chris out the door, but turned around to Shen and said, “Don’t worry, I will earn your trust. I hope you don’t mind that I keep one of the Gremlins for myself. I’m sure yours would be happy to hear that.” Alice looks at Rover. “You can come down now I’m leaving, i’m not going to work on you. I have to admit those things are quiet impressive Shen.”

“Thanks, I’m quite proud of them.” Lily glanced at ROV-R, prompting the drone to lower. “And they’re not quite sentient yet, so talking to them is only something I really do out of sentimentality. Kinda like talking to your dog.” The chief patted her Gremlin. “As for which one you can use… well, there’s one called Sparks that has been through two users already. Poor thing doesn’t need to go out on the field again… so he’d make a good companion for you.”

“Aww poor thing, I’ll make sure to take good care of him. Thanks for the Gremlin.” Alice said while being escorted out.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger and DarkGemini24601: “Lingering Lacerations, Part 1"

Gobi Desert in Mongolia
1503 Hours, October 15th, 2038
Onboard the Avenger
Level 1, Rear Block
Hollow Unused Room

In the mid-afternoon of what seemed like just another ordinary day, things seemed rather calm in the training room. No big simulation was going on, but from the center of the room was the distinct sound of exertion, the cause being Leon Sinclair. He was surrounded by six static dummies and in his hand was a glowing, orange manifestation that didn’t seem entirely real. The psionic sword pulsed with an unusual power, one that was assumed to be drawn out of the soldier himself even if no psionic nature had ever been shown from him before.

The weapon hummed as it was swung through the air and when it hit a standing target, it passed through the hologram and left a fake impression into it. Leon turned with his swings to keep up momentum, hitting one target after another with increasing speed and intensity. He built up a strong sweat, and was sucking in air through clenched teeth, letting out a groan as he pushed himself faster. The soldier turned around and lost his footing.

He fell to the ground hard, the sword’s power flowing out of it and leaving nothing behind but a broken hilt that slid across the floor. His breathing was heavy as the targets dissolved away, Leon clenching a fist so hard his hand shook, slamming it on the floor. “Damn it!”

On his side, a slight holographic projection revealed itself in the form of a younger kid, looking at Leon with worry, though kept up an encouraging tone for the sake of his owner. “It’s okay Leon. You just got carried away is all. How about we take a short break so you can-”

“No.” The soldier interrupted the A.I., forcing himself up to a standing position, swaying slightly as he wiped his mouth. “I’m fine for another round.” Going over to pick up the hilt, Psyma of course gave protest.

“You’ve been at it for three hours straight Leon. Come on, please don’t make me beg…” The artificial being pleaded, with a hint of desperation in his voice.

Leon remained silent, looking down at the hilt as he activated it once more, returning it to the former glory it had a minute prior. “Bring up the disks this time. I need to get better with precision strikes.”

“Oh come on, just for five…” The look Leon gave Psyma caused the young thing to frown and put his hands together in defeat. “If that is what you truly wish then.” Disappearing, another simulation started up, this time Leon being surrounded in a multi-layered dome of green disks. Gripping his sword, he took a step forward and thrust the sword through the middle one in front of him, causing a buzzer to sound as he swiped upwards through another.

This time, as he was turning throughout the exercise, Leon incorporated the mental slow down Psyma provided him to more accurately hit with his psionic blade. The Grenadier fully invested in his training, his awareness faded from his mind as the training became automated to him, his body a machine as one by one he went through many different motions he had picked up both from the Rangers around the ships and his own research. He had time to think, though the thoughts that came to him were ones he wished stayed at bay. There was one image that haunted him, the same image he knew many others as well, but to him it impacted the man in a different way. In the moments he thought his girlfriend had died, Leon felt a part of himself snap on the inside. It was something fragile, something he had been nursing with the hopes one day it would no longer be such a futile thing to hold on to, but in that moment, it finally was gone.

Then of course, that feeble thing Leon had once considered what he felt for Yakone was replaced by something more robust than before. It was the will to see her home. For him though, it was not for anyone else other than himself. In a way, he knew it was selfish that he did not really take other’s feelings about her into account when strengthening his resolve, but once he had let himself be consumed by grief and anguish for something lost. Now, he would turn that into willpower. The will he would have to keep ahold of if hope was able to be retained.

Reality slipped back to him in a snap of a moment and Leon finally realized the simulation had ended quite a time ago. That whole time, his strikes were getting weaker and more sluggish, and in those moments of coming back into himself he became keenly aware of the moisture on his face that was not a product of perspiration. Looking up to the ceiling, Leon closed his eyes shut tight, the saltiness of the water that mixed with his tears not making a pleasurable sensation. For a few long moments, Leon merely laughed for no reason whatsoever. It was if madness had consumed him for those brief yet seemingly forever lasting seconds.

However the madness subsided, and he let out a short yell, rubbing the liquid mixture from his eyelids as he blinked to stave away the blurry vision he got as a result, placing his hilt back on his belt. “Psyma, see what else-” Leon stopped mid-sentence, turning at the sound of the training room doors opening.

“You planning on killing yourself, Sinclair?” a familiar face questioned with his arms crossed. “I was wondering why the holography hub had been locked for the past few hours…” Tomislav muttered.

“Too much fight left in this war to be killing myself. Not everyone trains in the same ways.” The Canadian soldier replied defensively, stretching out his arms. “If you wished to come in, you could have knocked before hand.”

“The door just opened automatically. Pretty sure there’s a safety unlock for when it’s been marked as in-use for this long,” Tom offered. “I dunno, I didn’t program this thing.”

Leon merely shrugged and went to the side of the room, sitting down for the first time, not letting show just how much he indeed did ache. “Anyways, I can handle training for a while. There’s no worry in making sure I am at my best when going into a battle. Especially with all the squad commands I have been given, I feel like I’ve spent more time in the GTS then I have actually using my skills.”

“Hey, we go through that shit together, at the very least,” Tomislav replied, attempting to dredge up some camaraderie.

“Perhaps…” Leon looked the fellow soldier up and down, asking the question he deemed to be the most obvious. “What have you been up to? Anything new since we last talked?”

“Nothing… too major. I’ve been assisting in some weapons development… after the past few missions my flamethrower really hasn’t been cutting it, so I’ve been working on… something better with the engineering team. Hopefully it’ll be ready before my next deployment,” Tomislav explained, closing his eyes and envisioning the weapon he was working on with a giddy grin.

“From what I saw of Shen’s battle footage, they might have got some of that tech from the tower, am I correct? That huge… machine was something. I imagine it would have been a pain if it actually moved. Or was piloted by something more… competent?” Leon assumed that was the right word to use.

“Eh, that thing was a mess,” Tomislav opined. “Looked like it was put together with spare parts - hell, it probably was. Would be a deathtrap trying to fit a human pilot into that junkheap. But power armor like those freaking Mechtoids? I’d kill someone for that,” the Serbian decided with a nod. “And the flamethrower it had…” Tom mumbled something incoherent.

“Well, if you become a turncoat we will know the reason at least.” Leon remarked with a rather small smirk. “Though I think we are a bit away from power armor. I am sure we have other things to build first.”

“Regrettably,” Tomislav conceded. “Though once we get there, ADVENT will hardly stand a chance. I look forward to that day.”

“I look forward to the day we don’t have to worry about them at all. Worrying whether or not the next day will be your last gets grating and infuriating.” Leon grumbled, crossing his arms.

“I avoid thinking about my own mortality as much as possible. All that leads to is self-doubt and paralysis from fear,” Tomislav declared.

“I see it as making sure I’m still human.” Leon glared at the ground, his face turning hard from thought. “After all… can’t make the same mistakes as ADVENT.”

“Advent’s not the way they are because they’re not afraid of death, I’m not sure what gave you that idea,” Tomislav responded with a shake of his head. “Their people either lack a moral compass, or have it misdirected by a metaphorical magnet held by their vaunted Elders.”

“I see it as more they don’t care about anyone but themselves. Whether it be the Elders or the ADVENT soldiers. They don’t care about who they hurt to achieve their goals.” His words had an undertone to it that showed great hurt.

“I don’t disagree. They don’t seem to have enough common decency to give the world a choice whether to accept their one world order or not. It’s either join or suffer one of many horrible fates,” Tom remarked.

“I just hope that not all suffer such a fate too quickly.” Leon noted with grim determination.

“No sense in worrying about it. We’re doing all we can,” Tom contended evenly.

“Yeah, well sometimes it doesn't feel like it is enough!” Leon snapped at the other soldier, his grip on his water making his hand turn white. “How many more people suffer because we aren’t doing something the best that we could. We are still just a small group, and even now our numbers are getting smaller. And then our people get taken from us like they are nothing. What the hell are we supposed to do if we get more of our members captured?”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger and DarkGemini24601: “Lingering Lacerations, Part 2"

Tomislav was silent for a moment, hesitating. “I… I don’t think-”

“We keep fighting,” another voice chimed in. The doors sliding shut behind her, the Commander stepped into the holography hub. “I will sooner march willingly to my own grave than face defeat again. Do not underestimate the strength of my resolve and what it can accomplish, nor what your own can do,” Atka intoned sternly.

Leon turned his glare to Atka for a few moments, then stood and said, “Yeah, well not everyone is like you unfortunately. And you can’t expect us to feel the same. It feels like we take a step forward, only to be shoved backwards. How much longer before we face a force we can’t beat? What then?”

“If you believe that is inevitable, then you should just give up now,” Atka replied icily. “Abandon hope with the same faithlessness that others before you did. If you’re so convinced that defeat is only a matter of time, then it is insanity to continue fighting.”

“I’m not saying defeat is inevitable. I am asking how far your resolve will hold for the rest of us. So by your logic, it doesn’t even matter if we suffer. Just so long as we win, huh? What even are we to you, Commander?”

“I will do all I can to ensure that XCOM’s soldiers will continue to maintain the will to fight, but ultimately I can’t force you all to maintain a backbone,” Atka responded resolutely. “What do I think of you all? I do care about your mental well-being, but not to the point of incapacitating myself. There was a time when I was frozen by apathy and depression. I will not sink into that state again.”

Leon met the woman’s stare with his own, doing his best to try and maintain his anger. “For all our sakes I hope you do. I’d hate to need to start questioning your leadership more than was warranted in the beginning.”

“I don’t care if you question me, but I expect you to continue to follow orders despite any misplaced antagonism you might have towards me,” Atka responded with an air of finality.

“I don’t understand how you don’t find anything wrong with the situation we are in. Especially with their Elite troops. You couldn’t even defeat that ADVENT Major one on one.” Leon pointed out. “And one of us against her would be even worse. As has been proven with…” He stopped himself, holding his tongue at that moment despite his courage before. It seemed the subject of Yakone was still even touchy for him.

“I’m not sure where the hell you got the idea that everything was fine. I’m just not letting it overwhelm me,” Atka retorted. "And yes, I couldn’t defeat Blukersey. My skills are not ideal against hers. To defeat her it won’t be a fair fight, that’s how it has always been. Right now the civilian staff are doing everything they can to give the combat team an edge, and for their part soldiers such as Alexis and yourself are preparing themselves for the fight of their lives. So XCOM has a bigger chance than you seem to be giving us credit.”

Leon looked at Atka and went to sit down back on the bench, putting his hands together. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. It’s discouraging to feel like this. Especially about… her.”

“You have no reason to blame yourself,” Atka spoke solemnly, shaking her head. “If anything that’s my fault. I was there. Perhaps I could have done something more - no, I know I could have, had fate been on my side. But it wasn’t, and thus we’re faced with this cruel reality. It’s something we have to deal with.”

Leon looked to the floor, running a hand across his hair. “We had just made up from our fight too. Fate really is cruel. Though my complaining about missing her must pale to yours.”

Atka closed her eyes for a moment. “Kasun, I’d like for you to pay engineering a visit. Talk with Shen… I’ve heard about your interest in the AIs, and she might be able to work out something with you.”

Tom nodded, getting the other reason she wanted him to depart without being told. “Understood. Will do, sir.” He got up, and quickly made his way out of the holo-training room.

Once the doors had slid shut once more, Atka slowly nodded in answer to Leon’s question. “Sergeant… I’m going to let you know something I haven’t told anyone else. Keep this between us for now.” The Commander’s eyes flared up with psionic energy for a moment - on the right, it was more electric, and on the left it was more fiery. Summoned by the burst of willpower, Blue World appeared at Atka’s side. “This Reflection of mine… isn’t just all physicality. The reason I knew Yakone would die if I didn’t move her back during the base defense… the reason I was able to pull us out of that bad situation… is because I’d seen the other way it could have gone. I watched Yakone, you… so many others on that squad die that day. That was when I manifested Blue World… and used its primary power to rewind time itself.”

Leon looked over the reflection warily, then after a few moments he looked back to the Commander, asking, “So we all died during the base defense, huh?” It seemed he didn’t truly believe such a thing, but then he inquired, “Why tell me this?”

“Because the power isn’t precise. From what I can observe, stepping back in time - the upper limit seems to be around twenty seconds - creates ripples that change causality. I tried to use it at the South Pole, but I wasn’t as lucky as I was during the defense of the ship. The first time… Maxwell was shot through the chest by Blukersey. After I created a ‘do-over’ scenario, she still ended up nearly killing him. I was unable to try and use the ability again when Yakone was impaled… but for all I know it would have ended up similarly. Turning back the clock doesn’t always make things better. It’s a gamble - a last resort… and a terrible responsibility.”

For one of the few times during his time with his superior officer, Leon felt a pang of sympathy for the woman, his aggravated state from before seeming to have fizzled out now that he got it out. “Certainly sounds like that would be a stressful. Though I must say that coming from someone who is not technically a psion, having the power to turn back something like time is an asset that seems like gives us an edge. Would hate to imagine that power in the hands of an alien.”

“It’s useful as hell… when it alters outcomes to be convenient for us.” Atka lifted her mechanical hand up, staring at her distorted reflection on the shiny metal. “My greatest fear is that in using this power, I might end up causing more harm than good. I might try to save the life of someone that would otherwise die… only to end up killing several others.”

“If you let the fear of what if cloud your mind, then you really will end up killing someone else.” He smirked, putting a hand on her robotic arm. “Isn’t that what you would tell me if our roles were reversed?”

Atka sighed tiredly. “I suppose so.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “You know I can barely feel that, right?”

“The meaning is what counts, not the actual contact, right?” Feeling better than he did before, and sensing that Atka needed a break, Leon suggested to the woman, “Why don’t we go get a drink of something together. You can take some time off from being our big bad leader and just be Atka for a while.”

“That’d be welcome. Thank you,” Atka responded gratefully. Blue World faded away. “Truth be told, half of the time that’s just an act. I never wanted to be a leader in charge of everything. I preferred a position such as yours.”

“Who’d you prefer to be in charge? The Van Dams?” The man asked with an arched eyebrow.

“The entire reason it’s me is because there isn’t really anyone else,” Atka responded dryly.

“Well good thing you got rising stars like me, huh?” He asked to try and improve her mood, walking towards the exit.

“It does ease my mind a little,” Atka admitted as they departed the holo-room.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Summa Timere” (Part 1) – Tomislav Kasun

Gobi Desert in Mongolia
1751 Hours, October 15th, 2038
Onboard the Avenger
Level 1, Rear Block
Hollow Unused Room

“So this isn’t remotely safe,” Tomislav questioned with an incredulous look towards the Chief of Engineering.

“Unfortunately, that’s how it is,” Lily responded, her arms crossed. Her gaze remained on the egg-shaped device that was an A.I. storage unit. “Look, Tom… you don’t have to do this. The Commander was merely offering a suggestion. You’re not obligated to take this risk, should you consider it excessive.”

The Serbian Harrier smirked slightly at that. “We’re fighting a war to save humanity, Miss Shen. I don’t think I have the luxury of tossing an opportunity to be a more effective soldier aside just because the process might be scary.”

An-Yi tensed faintly at that word-choice. “Speaking of… I know this is a personal question, but is there anything you’re deeply afraid of? Considering what emotion that Phobos represents…”

Tomislav tilted his head downwards, focusing on the blinking lights of the storage unit rather than Lily. “Of course I do. Everyone’s afraid of something.”

Lily sighed powerlessly. “I guess you have a point. I just hope he can’t use that to overwhelm you.”

“I think I have a plan to deal with him. If it goes wrong, well…” Tomislav looked back up, affixing his amber-hued eyes to the hulking monolith of metal that was the SPARK-001 unit. “Your bouncer there can just kick the troublesome party guest out. A.I. assistance in my head isn’t going to give me superhuman abilities, and I’m unarmed, so I wouldn’t stand a chance. The only thing in jeopardy here is my pride if this goes awry.” And potentially some of my sanity if he fucks up my head, but let’s not talk about that.

“Don’t make me regret trusting your judgement here,” An-Yi warned him, lifting up a holo-clipboard and going over some final diagnostics. “Alright… we should be good. Place your PCS in the converter slot there.”

“Gotcha.” Tomislav leaned down, reaching behind his head and harmlessly extracting the linked pair of small but incredibly versatile pieces of biotechnology. He slid them into a connection port that had been installed into the containment unit (the mechanism to implant and extract the A.I. had not been designed for PCS originally after all) and waited a few moments. The small black screens on the storage device lit up as if recovering from a rolling blackout, each of them turning a malefic orange. “Spooky,” Tom muttered to himself, seeming unimpressed. Within, he was most certainly apprehensive, but he did a fine job of not showing it. With the transferral complete, Tomislav closed his eyes, and slid the dual chips back into his upper neck. “Here goes nothing.”

At first, there was only nothingness. The blackness of the back of his eyelids was all he could see, accompanied by slowly-moving shimmers caused by the tiny threads of outside light that managed to slip through. They drifted aimlessly, shaped like the bulbs they were coming from at first and gradually forming doughnut shapes. They eventually merged together into one shape, and the center became hollow. Without warning, they shaped into the barrel of a gun facing down Tomislav. There was a loud crack, and a bullet came flying towards him.

Startled, Tomislav’s eyes fluttered open, and he was faced with the cargo bay again. “Jesus, really?”

“Is everything alright?” Lily questioned anxiously.

“Yeah… either my nerves are getting the better of me or he tried to frighten me with a minor hallucination. Not going to work, asshole,” Tomislav growled. “You going to have an actual conversation with me, or are you going to just play trick or treat for the next few hours?” In response, the Serbian felt a mental probe suddenly start worming its way into his head, trying to reach into his memories. The Harrier clutched a hand over his eyes, grimacing. “D-Dammit, how the hell is it…”

“Tomislav, maybe you-” Lily started to warn, but then suddenly blackened all over, and blew away in a smattering of ashes.

What have we here? A voice with the faint sound of crackling fire in the background whispered in Tomislav’s head.

Tom hardly heard the words the A.I. was actually speaking. The noise behind its speech made his blood run cold. “No,” he whispered in denial. The room around him fell away, plummeting into the blackness of nonexistence. Tomislav felt a cold wind blowing, and then he was standing on a street in the middle of winter. January, to be precise. There was not another soul in sight in the run-down area. Everyone was huddled inside, wrapped up in ragged blankets in abandoned buildings trying desperately to keep warm. Heating wasn’t a problem in the house across from Tom, however. He knew this. This was a day he could never forget.

Like a nightmare, Tomislav was his nine-year-old self again. He was frozen in place, unable to move as he watched the home of someone dear to him aflame. The windows gave him an idea of how bad it was becoming. Both on the first story had been shattered, and like the tongues of some infernal horde of beasts tasting the air, flames licked outwards in all directions. The wood-plaster walls were beginning to shift from white to black as they were scorched. Above, the chimney was hacking up ferocious plumes of smoke. And the most important place, the second floor, was going to be next. Right now only the black clouds of burnt carbon drifted out of the bedroom window of Tomislav’s best friend, but soon they would be accompanied by similarly raging fires.

Please, no, Tomislav begged. Make it stop. I don’t want to see this again. But he was denied that mercy. He couldn’t move as he heard the desperate cries. The pleas of the girl he loved as she begged someone, anyone to save her. Her father was loudly praying with a cracking voice. Her mother’s screams weren’t even coherent. Despite all of this, neither a fireman, nor a good samaritan, or even God himself was going to rescue that family. Their only chance was if the bystander that had come to visit his friend were to run to the nearest telephone booth and call the fire department.

Tomislav could, however, do not such thing. His rapt attention was not on the family’s desperate sounds. He heard them, but they were like the indistinct buzz one would hear while under the effects of an out-of-body experience. Little Tom knew he should try and help, he knew he should do something. But he couldn’t. The fire was beautiful. It burned so brightly and warmly and vividly and wonderfully. He knew it was wrong, but he was smiling widely. It was the most stunning thing he had ever seen. The fire allured him like a temptress, and successfully invited him to watch her set those he cared about alight - and enjoy it while it happened.

The flames reflected in Tom’s eyes. Danced across his vision, and that of anyone that might have walked past at the time. If someone had, they would have been horrified to see the little boy observing the configuration that claimed the lives of an entire family that day. But no one came. By the time the firemen arrived, the house had collapsed. It lay in a pile of rubble, dying embers coating what remained of flammable materials. Smoke billowed off the ruins, and somewhere under that all was the ashes of Aleksander, Magdalena, and Tomislav’s beloved Lena. The Jovanovic family was nothing but black dust now. And when Tomislav realized the weight of his sins, there was no going back. He had been party to their murder, guilty because of inaction. Damned by his sick love of fire.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Summa Timere” (Part 2) – Tomislav Kasun

And just like that, Tomislav snapped back to reality. Lily was in the midst of completing the sentence she had started before being sucked away by the recollection. “-nd this session, I don’t this is… Tomislav?” she paused, seeing the horrified expression on the man’s face. “What…?”

Tomislav found himself unable to form words in reply. He looked at Lily’s deeply concerned expression out of the corner of his eye in one moment, and then in the blink of an eye his features contorted in fury. With an outcry of denial and rage, he reached behind his head and violently ripped the PCS out of his head - drawing a small splattering of blood due to the fact that he hadn’t properly given them a chance to reseal the skin safely. He hurled the chips to the ground, and lifted a boot to smash them - stopped only by the SPARK unit reaching out and dragging him a few paces backwards. “Let go of me, dammit!” he screamed, his face awash with livid anger and bottomless shame. “I’ll kill that damn thing! I’ll kill it!”

“Kasun! I don’t know what the hell it did to you, but destroying it isn’t going to do us any good! Calm down, please!” Lily called out in surprise and worry.

“It won’t do any good? You have no idea, no fucking idea, just how sick and twisted…!” Tomislav yelled at the top of his lungs, so tumultously that it dried up his throat and he coughed painfully. The hoarseness of his throat was enough to bring him back to his senses by degrees. More calm now but nonetheless still angry, he requested, “let go of me, please. I’m fine,” he spoke in a voice still quavering from the torrent of emotions he had experienced.

The SPARK did not seem capable of registering those feelings, and thus without a second thought released Tomislav. The chief engineer frowned. “I think we should call it a day, I-”

Freed, the Serbian didn’t waste a moment in scooping up his PCS chips and squeezing them tightly in his hand. “Show yourself, you motherfucker.”

“Tomislav, I really don’t thi-”

“Shut up,” Tomislav snapped. Noting her recoil, he more gently added, “please, just… let me handle this. No one is going to happy if this was all for nothing.”

“I prefer not to have a form,” the unsettling voice with the faint cadence of flames declared. “So you may merely speak to me, human.”

“Stop it with that shit,” Tomislav growled warningly.

“Knowing what I know now, you are only lying to yourself if these sounds displease you. They certainly please me due to your react-” Tom’s hand shook as he started clenching down hard on the devices in his hand. “You’re not going to break those,” Phobos nonchalantly stated. “You need me.”

“Like hell I do,” Kasun rumbled darkly. “Your help would be useful, yeah, but if you’re going to be a dickhead that snoops around in my head I’ll be fine on my own. So let me lay down the law here, you have two options. One. You can promise me you’ll never sneak into places in my head I don’t give you permission to go and serve as my A.I. partner. Two. You can die, right here, right now. Your choice.”

“...a life without the beauty of terror, or destruction...” Phobos murmured all, his voice calibrated to echo off the walls unsettlingly. “You are so kind.”

“Hypocrite,” Tom snapped.

“This is true,” the A.I. conceded.

“Look, if being a complete and utter bastard gets you off-”

“And now you are the hypocrite,” Phobos interrupted.

“-fuck you, don’t forget who holds the power of life and death here,” Tomislav cautioned as a final deterrent, his grip starting to create tiny fractures in the devices.

“Alright, alright, I get it… I will refrain from sarcastic comments for now. You may finish,” Phobos spoke in a defeated tone.

“If you enjoy evoking fright in others… I’ll let you do that, just not against me or my allies. If you fight alongside me… I’ll let you do that with whoever you’d like. I’m not sure if you noticed while violating my privacy, but one of the abilities of these chips is psionic intimidation. I bet with a little recalibration…”

“That wouldn’t even be needed. How do you think I did what I did so easily? I used the psionic energies within your own body to recreate an effect similar to psi panic,” Phobos cautiously interrupted.

“...man, you are a huge asshole.” Phobos was silent, seeming wise enough to refrain from snark. “Good, you’re learning,” Tomislav muttered, picking up on the reason for the lack of response. “Point is, you can scare the living hell out of the enemy, I don’t care. That’d make you useful. Just don’t you dare fuck with me or anyone else on this ship.”

“...I understand,” Phobos agreed finally. “If those are you conditions, I can abide by them.”

“Good. So here’s how this is going to go, then. I’m going to put you back in my brain, and if you ever pull a stunt like that again… I’ll kill you without hesitation. Got it?”

“Acknowledged.”

“Wonderful,” Tomislav concluded icily, returning the devices to their resting place on his brain stem. True to his word, Phobos attempted no further trickery.

Lily let out a long exhalation of relief. “Well… that was… something.”

“Yeah, it was. Sorry if I freaked you out,” Tomislav apologized, his suave demeanor slowly returning now that the debacle was at its end.

“You’re not the one that started it… I’ll be keeping an eye on you, just to make sure he doesn’t renge on that deal,” An-Yi stated flatly.

“Smart choice. I’m don’t trust him myself. But he’s damn powerful, and I’m not going to give up a boost like that even if I hate the benefactor’s guts,” Tomislav replied with a shake of his head. “I’m not lying though,” he reinforced, both to Lily and the tenative partner in his head. “Any missteps and that’ll be the end for him.”

I will not forget. You have made yourself clear, and besides; I already understand your worst fear.

And you’d better not share that with anyone. That’s grounds for termination too, Tom specified, giving a nod to Lily and turning to leave.

As you wish, my pyromaniacal companion. Tomislav’s expression darkened at the title, but he said nothing further, leaving the cargo bay with his heart heavy and his thoughts clouded.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Dhalexpert & Zombiesplitter53 Luke and Alexis training day

On board the Avenger
Holo room

Luke was training in the Holo room practicing with his powers. "Alright then, let's try psi lance. That move can still use some work."

Luke started practicing his powers on Chryssalid opponents. "Why not do it against the fastest enemy we've faced." Luke started the simulation and the Chryssalid charged at Luke. He fired his psi lance at it, doing minimum damage to it.

"Damn it, come on now." Luke charged his psi lance again and formed a cannon ball, firing it at the Chryssalid. It dodged the attack. Luke charged another psi lance and this time it hit its target, piercing it's chest.

"Hmm, still needs work. I have to work on my aim."

"Don't you think you should start with a slower target?" Alexis walked in, apparently having watch from the door. "Not like we see a whole ton of those bugs anyway."

Luke turned around to see Alexis right behind him. "Oh, hi hon. No, I can hit a slow target. Working on fast targets allows me to focus more on aiming. Anyway, how have you been,? How are things with your mother going?"

"Um... okay..." Alex scratched her head. "Well... awkward... to be honest. More so then I thought it would be."

"Well, what did you expect? You two haven't seen each other in twenty years, so it's going to be awkward. But I'm sure you'll get used to it."

"I know. I'll be patient." Alex stopped in front of him, placing her hands on her hips. "What about you, though? When are you going to meet her?"

"Hmm, actually, I'm sure you've noticed I've been avoiding you so you can have time with your mother. As for me meeting her, I don't know. I mean, you've been with her a few days; think she'll like me?"

Alexis tapped her lips in thought. "It's... hard to say. If I had to guess... she would either like you, or it would be easier for her to grow to like you then it was with my dad."

"Well, that does make things a lot easier, so I will give her more time with you before I meet her. Anyway, I'm sure you didn't come here just to talk. What's up honey?"

"Well... I've been a bit lonely without you. I was hoping we could do something together." She looked around the room. "You're doing psionic training, right? How about we practice together? I had a few ideas about how our powers could work together."

"Us training together? Alright then, I'm down." Luke grinned. "Hopefully you won't get angry again, like you did last time."

Alexis scoffed, and folded her arms, looking away. "I haven't got the foggiest idea what you're talking about..."

Luke hugs Alexis and looked into her eyes. "Aw, have I mentioned I just love teasing you? Your face just looks so cute when you're embarrassed."

"Yes you have. And it makes me happy and annoys me all at the same time." Alexis kissed him, and stepped back. "So... wanna continue working on your psi lance? I can work on my telekinetic shield with you."

"Yeah, my lance could use some work." Luke went to the terminal and restarted the simulation." Alright just tell me when you're ready."

Alexis walked about fifteen feet away from him and raised her arms. "Alright, give me a... medium strength lance. I'm confident I can take a stronger one... maybe... but let's start slow, just in case."

"Alright honey. Don't blame me if you get hurt." Luke charged his psi lance and sent a volley of bullets to Alexis.

"I said a lance, as in one!" Alexis sent her psionic energy flowing out of her palms, and a radiant golden shield formed in front of her. All of the lances were stopped, and while a few cracks appeared where multiple strikes landed, they quickly filled in and disappeared. Alex laughed. "Not bad, huh? I've been practicing."

"Not bad, but of course that's just me using pot shots. Ready for a more powerful attack from my arsenal darling?"

Alexis waved her hands back. "Bring it on, if you think you can."

"Your funeral, honey." Luke's arms started to glow red. He launched a psi cannon ball at Alexis.

Alexis focused all her energy forward. The attack hit her shield, and time slowed to a crawl as her instincts took over. It was too strong to be stopped as is, and it was too late to pump in more energy. The shield quickly shifted from yellow to red as the psi attack spread through it, Alexis' attempt to cancel out the blast as much as possible. It succeeded, though the end result was the shield bursting into pieces and Alex flying back, landing hard on her butt.

"Whoops, went a little too far." Luke went to Alexis and offered her hand. "Well good news and bad news. Good news is you stopped my attack, bad news is I broke your shield and sent you flying."

"I noticed," she returned curtly, taking his hand and rubbing her backside, she said, "I think I know what went wrong. I didn't anticipate so much energy in one spot. Mind if we try it again?"

"You sure about that? I mean, you sure you don't want me to go with something else?"

"Just one more time, please." She smiled at him. "Trust me."

"Sigh, alright, one more time." Luke went to the other side and fired another psi lance cannon ball at Alexis.

Alexis was more prepared this time. As the orb of energy reached her shield, the energy barrier dimmed in color everywhere but in front of the attack. When it struck, the shield was able to hold up this time, albeit just barely. "Woohoo!" Alexis clapped her hands together. "It worked! I've been practicing focusing energy on smaller points to withstand more damage. What do you think, Luke?"

"Not bad, not bad at all. You still need to practice but you're getting better. Keep trying and you might be able to give us all a barrier."

"Work in progress, but I'm trying." Alexis walked up to him. "Wanna try working together now? I have a few ideas revolving around your fire conjuring."

"You want me to use my fire?" Luke rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "I don't know darling. My fire is a lot more dangerous than my other powers."

Alexis pouted. "But... how are we ever going to get better if we don't practice." She rubbed her arm. "But... if you don't want to... I guess we can think of something else..."

Luke took a deep breath and looked at his hand. He made a small flame in the middle of his palm.Ever since I had you, you've been nothing but a burden.Luke looked at Alexis and back at his hand.But I guess I can't keep running from it forever.Luke took another deep breath. "Alright, but if were going to do this, put some armor on, I don't want to accidentally burn you."

Alexis nodded. "Okay. Thanks. I'll be right back." She rushed out of the room, and returned a short while later with some protective gear for them both. As she was putting it on, she said, "You know... ever since you got that firecracker and psi lance abilities, you hardly ever use pyrokinesis. Why's that? Just... not as useful?"

"That, and using it brings up bad memories. It reminds me of the person I used to be, and I would rather not use it unless I have to."

Alex's smile quickly faded. "O-oh... I see. I'm sorry. I didn't realize... maybe we should do something else after all."

"No, I have to get over this problem, that's why I told you to wear armor. So that I don't burn you. So what did you have in mind?"

Alex walked over to the terminal, and brought up a ADVENT trooper. "The computer should simulate the effects of our attacks... all of the effect... so this is the closest we'll get to realism. And I wanted to do a few experiments... carefully, of course. First, let's see if your aim is still good with this ability."

Luke looked at ADVENT trooper, and made a fire spewed out of his hands burning the ADVENT solder. Luke imagined the screams the solder. "That good enough for you?"

Alex nodded. "Now, can you only spew the flames from your hands, or can you also make them pop up where a target is?"

"Hmm, I could try that. What do you have in mind?"

"New soldier," Alexis said out loud. When a fresh trooper popped into existence, she extended her hands and formed a thin barrier around him. "That barrier is air tight. Now, bring some flames inside it with him. See if you can form it inside without actually hitting him if you can."

"Sigh, well then alright." Luke used his pyrokineses to surround the soldier with fire.

After a few seconds, the soldier collapsed his hands and fell to his knees. Despite Luke still feeding it, the fire went out, and the soldier dropped to the ground, unconscious. "It worked," Alexis exclaimed. "I mean... I knew it would work. Cool, huh?"

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 2

knocks out whoever is inside! We can use this to capture ADVENT people, even strong ones, as long as they have to breath and I can keep the barrier up. Like... that Blurnsky woman, for example. What if we wanted to capture her?"

"Let me stop you right there, were not capturing that woman. Alexis I know you want to capture her to bring her back, but she captured Yanko, who is probable being tortured right now."

"You don't understand! It isn't her fault! Those alien bastards turned her into a monster, but we can... save..." Alexis trailed off and closed her eyes, realizing she probably wasn't making any sense. "Luke... I need to tell you something. But you have to promise not to tell anyone else, including Lilith."

"Fine. Please convince me why I shouldn't kill her.

Alex's shoulders slumped. "She's... Nouja. The Commander's sister... and Yakone's aunt."

Luke eyes widen. “OH... the woman that sacrificed herself just for guys to stay hidden. That Nouja?"

Alexis nodded. "She didn't die. They took her, removed her memories, and... and turned her into who... and what she is now."

"Oh. I see. So that's why you want to capture her. You know it's not going to be easy, right?"

Alexis slowly nodded. "Yeah. It won't be easy. In fact, it will be downright dangerous. But... I have to at least try. Nouja was like a second mother for me, and just because I have my real one back doesn't mean I don't want to save Nouja. We found a device that contains her memories. We might be able to give them back to her. I know it might be a long shot... but... I need to try."

Luke sighed. "That's going to be tough darling. By yourself, you may end up like Yakone. But with me there, you might have a chance."

Alexis slowly smiled, and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you. I knew I could count on you."

Luke wrapped his arms around Alexis." Of course you can count on me, we're partners after all."

Alexis kissed him gently. "So... wanna try one more thing? Something with a bang?"

"Oh boy something with a bang huh. This involves firecracker, doesn't it?"

"You bet." Alexis stepped back and pointed to the center of the room. "Give me a decent sized explosion."

"Decent... right, decent." Luke stood next to Alexis. He stuck out his hand and a medium explosion appeared. "Good enough for you?"

"That'll do." Alexis held out her hands. A round shield appeared in the center of the room. "That thing is filled with oxygen. On the count of three, I'll drop the shield and you use your firecracker again, okay?"

"Heh, yeah, okay. This is going to be good."

Alexis counted down, and dropped the shield. Luke launched his attacked, and the explosion was fueled by the oxygen, intensifying it and sending a wave of heat towards them.

"Few, man. That's warm. Nice one. I have to admit darling, you combining your powers with mine, this is very lethal. This just proves that we're great together, huh?"

"Yup!" Alexis pressed against him. "The best team ever." She placed her head on his shoulder. "Hey, Luke?"

"Yea,what's up honey?"

Alex swirled her finger across his chest. "Thanks for giving me time to reconnect with my mother... buuuuut... before I go back to that, do you mind if we... you know..."

Luke smiled at Alexis and rolled his eyes. "Have I mentioned that you became a sex addict, and I love that about you." Luke teased.

Alexis giggled, and pulled him towards the door. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Oh, but of course, why would I not say yes?" Luke brought Alexis close to him and passionately kissed her.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Mother-Daughter Time

or

"My daughter's make me so proud!"

Engineering

"Mother, please, please don't touch that," Alexis said for what felt like the twentieth time, though it surely couldn't have been more then the fifteenth. She took the dangerous power core from her mother's hands and said, "You're like a little kid in a... ice cream store or whatever."

"Candy store, dear. And can you blame me?" Veronica waved her arms about and did a somewhat dramatic twirl. "Everything here is so wonderful! Sure, we saw a few gizmos here and there that tickled my curiosity, but V.V. and I were forced to be low tech for the past ten years. Anything technologically advanced had to be something that couldn't be traced, tracked, or transmitted to ADVENT. This place is wonderful!"

"It is isn't it," Morrigan watched the two from the entrance of Alex's workspace. "I was with another group before this one, and this place just blew me away the first time. Still does every now and again."

"Ah, mom, this is Morrigan O'Brien, another soldier/engineer." Alexis waved for Morrigan to come in. "Morrigan, this is..."

"Veronica Chambers!" The older woman shook the Irishwoman's hand vigorously. " The pleasure is all mine. Please call me Vicky."

"I'm showing her around my workspace and letting her see what I do," Alex explained. "Kinda a... bring your mother to work thing."

"And I am impressed." Veronica picked up something else her daughter had to take from her. "Is all this the doing of littler Lily?"

Morrigan smiled at the juvenile manner of addressing her boss. "Well, I'd like to think we all put our fair share of work, but we would be lost without Dr. Shen. She is the lynch pin that holds engineering together." She crossed her arms. "So what was it like with her mother? You were with her for twenty years, right?"

"More like eleven." Alexis started to preemptively move things out of her mother's hand reach as she looked around. "Both of them were frozen for large chunks of the first ten years. That why she still looks so young."

"Another victim of alien torture, huh?" Morrigan let out a long sigh.

Vicky gave her a sympathetic look. "So you got a taste of it too, I see. It wasn't pleasant, that's for sure. They treated us like test animals. Made us develop our psionics until we were worn out. They would make V.V. control me, or make me enhance her so she could control multiple others. It... well, it sucked. Thank God we got out of there..."

"I've been meaning to ask you..." Alexis hesitated, not sure how to put it. "Are you and Dr. Vahlen... okay?"

"What do you mean?" her mother asked.

"I think she means with her mind controlling you and all," Morrigan guessed. "I mean... if someone held a gun to your head and told you to punch me in the belly, I wouldn't be mad at you, but do it every day for a year, and I might start to resent you, even if it still isn't your fault."

Vicky slumped into a chair and sighed. "At first, things were... rough. This was a woman I would be spending a lot of time with while on the run, but part of me... well, like you said, was resentful. It made things awkward for us. But I eventually cam to realize it was just as hard for her, if not harder, to do that to someone you considered a friend. So little by little, I put it behind me. And now I feel silly for resenting her at all at one point, justified or not."

Alexis nodded in understanding. "Good to hear. It would suck if the aliens pushed two friends like you away."

"Agreed." Morrigan scooted back to the door. "Anyway, I'll leave you to your little tour. Maybe I can introduce you to my daughter next time. We XCOM moms gotta stick together, be a team."

"I'd love that!" Vicky waited for her to go before wrapping her arms around Alex.

Alexis chuckled awkwardly. "What's this for?"

"Just... because I love you... and I missed out on a lot of hugs." Veronica let her go, having to remind herself again that her girls were all grown up. "And thank you for this. It is so nice of you to humor your nosey mother like this."

"Yeah no problem." Alex sat back in a chair and said. "Gotta try and one-up my sister right?"

Her mother laughed. "I don't know if you can, Alex. After all, the labs our my home, and I might end up spending the whole time gushing about how high tech everything is there!"

----------

Laboratories

Veronica felt sick to her stomach as Jennifer made the first incision, blood gushing from the Muton's chest. "S-so, uh... th-this is what you... do here, huh?"

"Not always." Jenn calmly used a large device to force open the chest. "I work all around the labs. But I handle a lot of the autopsies." She looked over to her mother. "This... is disappointing you, isn't it?"

"No," Veronica quickly said. "I've heard talk from Mr. Tygan and the others and you couldn't make me prouder. I'm just... n-never been one for... the blood and... organs..."

Jennifer smiled behind her mask. "Well, why don't we talk about something else to get your mind off it? Doing that will get you used to all this."

Her mother looked away long enough to actually think of something. "Do you... have a special someone on this ship?"

Jenn paused. "That is the first subject you talk about."

Vicky shrugged. "Your father said you don't go out much, and I get the feeling people don't ask you about it that much."

"No... I guess they don't." Her daughter continued her work as she said, "I'm not really looking. I can get... lonely at times. But I have my friends for that. And I've started to make more. Alex, on the other hand, does have a boyfriend. They're quite close."

Vicky recognized the attempt to change the subject and went with it, knowing it would take a while to build a deep connection with her children. "What is he like? And why haven't I seen him? I get the feeling he's avoiding me."

"Well, I won't say much on him. I'll let you find out all that on your own. Don't want to influence your first impression." Jenn reached for her toothed forceps, poking at what looked like a modified organ. "But if you want a good first impression, Alex said he is only avoiding you because he wants to give you and Alex bonding time before he butts in."

"Oh... that's actually really sweet." Veronica took a deep breath, and stepped up to the body. "S-so... what are we doing?"

Jennifer looked up at her mother. "You sure you want to do this? You could just stand to the side until I'm done."

Her mother shook her head. "That won't do. I'm here to take an interest in my girl's work, and I want to see how good you are at this. Word of mouth is you're one of the best. Show me."

The violet haired lab tech nodded, a big smile under her mask. "Well, I'm examining this alien for various genetic modifications," she explained, and started to walk her mother through the process.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

XCOM Mission Parameters

Xi’an City Center, Zenith Province of Continental Asia
1900 Hours, October 16th, 2038 [No Time Pressure]
Retrieve the intel carried by an ADVENT convoy.

XCOM Forces

Menace 1-5

**SGT Nash, Kevin [Ranger]
*CPL Kasun, Tomislav [Harrier]
SQ Contreras, Valentia [Sharpshooter]
SQ Belle, Stacie [Gunslinger]
SQ Ashworth, Emmeline [Phantom]
SQ Brown, Olivia [Ambusher]
SQ Dominguez, Maxwell [Aerotrooper]
SQ Brock, Adam [Enforcer]

Reinforcements

SQ Tvarnov, Marx [Ranger]
SQ Manamea, Keloe [Enforcer]

Operation Furtive Crucible

We’ve received a tip by one of our covert operatives that three vans will be traveling down one of the roads of the Xi’an Megacity this evening. They are reputed to contain vital information about ADVENT’s troop movements, research objectives, and so on and so forth. Fearing a hack by our capable intelligence operatives within and without XCOM, the higher-ups elected to store the information in hard-copies. The vans are meant to send that data from a local Advent Intelligence Department hub to an aircraft for transport to the continental capital. If this mission is a success, the information will be lost in the transfer and fall into our hands.

The mission will have two phases. The approach will begin with the eight members of Menace 1-5. They will land in an area two blocks away from the cleared road which the convoy will be moving down with an escort. There will likely be patrols all along the road, and the spot we will pick is necessarily isolated as to avoid as many of those roving teams as possible. The squad will get in as close as they can before going loud. Once they have exited the tight quarters of their initial dropzone, they will be reinforced as soon as possible by two more soldiers to bring up the squad strength in order to deal with the strong defensive detachment AID has requested.

Be careful, Menace. We have learned that since our last major engagement with ADVENT in Antarctica, they have improved upon their equipment. They are now armed with more magnetic technology, and their armor is slightly better than ours is thanks to some alien-provided plating. They are again a threat to be taken with the utmost seriousness, rivaling the strength of their alien comrades. Execute this mission with caution and efficiency, and retrieve the data we desire. Central out.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601: Operation Furtive Crucible - Part 1

Silent as a spirit, the Skyranger slowly descended into the Chinese Megacity of Xi’an. It was quiet there. The hours were dragging into the evening, and some people had headed home from their jobs already. Those that had longer jobs were still busy at work, and the night workers for the most part had already arrived at their stations. It was the perfect time for a squad of eight XCOM operatives to be snuck into the city. To further the point of not being spotted, Firebrand picked a deserted park as her dropoff point. XCOM’s invisible dropship hovered right over a sidewalk that surrounded the square green area, and its pilot declared, “Alright, boys and girls, this is where we part ways for now. Good luck to all of you.”

The leader of the Resistance cadre nodded back towards the cockpit reflexively, even though Danielle wasn’t turning to face him. “Thank you,” Kevin acknowledged to Firebrand. “We shouldn’t need it as long as things go according to plan.”

“They rarely do,” Tomislav interjected with a dry chuckle. “What is the English saying… ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’? I treat good fortune kind of like that.”

Oh, I am so excited! Phobos echoed in Tomislav’s mind. This is fortuitous for me indeed; I finally get to do what I was created for.

You need to pick up a hobby. Or at least count electric sheep to calm yourself, Tom snarked at the voice in his head. “I’m ready as well,” the second-in-command of this operation declared to his CO. “Let’s do this.”

With that, Menace 1-5 left the confines of the Skyranger and touched down on the ground. The park that lay in front of them was circumscribed by the sidewalk they currently stood on. Within this gray concrete enclosure was a slightly-raised square platform with trimmed tall grasses and artificially-straightened flowers. The Chinese floral connection was, despite being cultivated rigidly, very ornate; it consisted primarily of beautiful white plum blossoms with fuzzy dark pink hearts in the center, white-and-pink decorative peonies, and endlessly intricate chrysanthemums. The only thing interrupting this beautiful collection was a plus-shaped wooden walkway through the area, with benches and streetlamps adorning it - as well as a few bonsai trees for shade.

“You have to give ADVENT credit for something, they know how to make a place look pretty and inviting,” Stacie commented as the squad cautiously advanced, casting a collective gaze around the area.

“No sign of the enemy yet,” Olivia reported.

“Contreras, take a look through your scope to give us a heads-up on what’s down that alleyway,” Kevin requested, pointing in the direction of a cluster of buildings between the squad and the street their objective would be coming down.

“Roger that,” Valentia replied, setting up her sniper rifle for a moment and taking a peek. “I see… yep, there are some ADVENT soldiers patrolling around there. Probably an advance team to secure the area along the path of the convoy.” The Sharpshooter frowned. “Plenty of civilians too; they didn’t shut down the area.”

“You hear that people? We need to watch our fire. Keep a lid on explosives and other volatiles. Focus on your latent PCS abilities and any other special powers you have,” Kevin warned.

“Way different than SIN,” Tomislav muttered.

Picking up on what he had said regardless, Emmeline stepped a bit closer to his side. “Were they willing to take down civilians to accomplish their goals?” she asked curiously - feigning a bit of shock to avoid suspicion.

Tom shook his head. “No. The higher-ups were content to let them fend for themselves in a firefight, though.”

As the squad made it to the other side of the park, Kevin held up a hand for them to stop. “Alright, now’s the time. When I give the codewords, we’ll go dark. First, though, Valentina… make sure there’s no one on our flanks.”

With a head-bob of understanding, the Sharpshooter pulled out a pair of battlescanners and tossed them down alleyways to either side. “Nothing on the left… oh, there is a patrol of a three Troopers with an Assassin lurking on a rooftop on the right.”

Kevin thought for a moment. “Okay. Stacie, Olivia, I want you two to go kill them silently. The rest of us will advance as far as we can under the cover of darkness, and Ashworth will head up ahead to scout for us.” He took a deep breath. “Everyone, you may engage Ghost Protocol.” The squad activated the new technology that engineering had incorporated into their armor, and one by one, they all started to fade away. The projectors that had been added to the back of all XCOM suits quickly were set to bending light around their wearers, and just like that, Menace 1-5 disappeared from sight.

Stacie and Olivia broke off to the right as Emmeline rushed up ahead. They spoke only through internal comms as to preserve the silence of their movements. “I think I have a means to deal with the three regular soldiers, though we’re going to have to do it synchronized,” Olivia said at first.

“Oh? Do tell me what your plan is,” Stacie responded, her interest piqued.

“I’ll trap you in one o- in Pavise’s bubble,” the ambusher quickly corrected herself, “after ripping up the shiny new plated armor the troopers have. Then you should be able to go to town on these guys, while protected for sniper fire.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s do it.”

The two reached the area where the three Advent soldiers were currently milling about. It was like a miniature alleyway courtyard, caught in an intersection between four narrow backways with a stairwell leading up to a building’s backdoor taking up some of the space already. The shade it cast from the faint lights in the area gave the three troopers elongated shadows. Olivia took note of the fact that the building with the stairwell was the one the assassin was lurking on, and resolved to reinforce Pavise’s shield in that direction.

You awake Merlux? I’ve got a job for you, Stacie spoke to her A.I. I want you to muffle the sounds within the Reflection bubble. You think you can handle that?

I should be able to. Area of effect before would have been pushing the Sonic Modulator to its limits, but now that it has an elerium battery that shouldn’t be much of a problem. I will have to deactivate your shadow mode to do so, of course.

Got it. “Ready,” Stacie whispered to her comrade.

One of Olivia’s RCs zipped forward, depositing its trap between the ADVENT troopers and then fleeing. “Go,” Olivia commanded.

Stacie had not hesitated, already having closed much of the distance before the trap was laid. Merlux was already warming up the sonic device he had control of, using it to completely silence even the slightest sounds his partner’s footsteps might have made. The magnetic sinkhole was activated remotely, and with immense force binded the enemy trio into place, tugging at their armor so strongly that the plating all over began to peel off, rending downwards. Like the Grim Reaper himself, Stacie positioned herself between the three troopers, who were reeling from the blast - as much as they could with their restricted movement, anyway. Pavise flared up into existence, and lowered a bubble-shaped hand over the four soldiers, trapping them inside with one another.

The gunslinger lifted up her revolver first. She cracked off one highly-accurate, completely quiet shot into the helmet of the first enemy, creating a rent in his helmet, and then finished him off with a lightning-fast follow-up. Before his body had even hit the floor, she had already spun around. The revolver slipped out of her hands and attached itself to a magnetic clamp on her arm as she lifted her blitz coilers. With a barrage that would have been thunderous if not for Merlux’s hard work, she mowed down each of the duo remaining with her dual guns. Her autoloaders got to work replenishing the depleted ammo of the rapid-fire firearms at the same time that the assassin turned to face the revealed gunslinger in shock at what had just panned out in the span of a few seconds.

He ultimately decided to fire instead of going invisible, and that was a mistake on his part. It gave Olivia a chance to line him up. He got his potshot off, which cracked the reflection shield but didn’t break it. The polar slingshot that was her weapon’s mechanism charged, Olivia let loose a massive bullet that impaled the assassin through the shoulder, ruining his arm. He stumbled back, and got a few feet along the edge of the roof before holding his chest, going rigid, and collapsing into a trashbin. The poisoned tip of the high-cal round that had pierced him had done its work, quickly having reached his heart to finish him. Glancing around as a precaution - and glad to see that no one was coming to respond to the single shot that could have been heard - Olivia activated her squad comm. “This is Thunderbird. Flanking threats eliminated.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601: Operation Furtive Crucible - Part 2

“Acknowledged. Good work.” Kevin called to another squadmate not with the main group. “Emmeline, how’s it looking?”

Situated ontop of a two-story building roof - having shot another Assassin the back of the head with her weapon’s sonic muffler enabled - Emmeline responded thus: “I see the convoy coming. Below me there’s two gunners with an officer who are going to realize I just killed their sniper in half a minute tops, and escorting that convoy we’ve got a whole mess of enemies. I count… six troopers, two medics, a pair of arbitrators and a duo of MECs. Pretty nasty stuff.”

“Damn. Stacie, Olivia, double time it back to the rest of us. We’re going to take out the courtyard patrol, and then we’ll assault the main convoy. Hopefully Firebrand will drop in the reinforcing team before we get into that big firefight,” Kevin stated a bit worriedly. “Emmeline, start heading back our way, don’t get trapped there alone.”

“Or she’ll be fashionably late,” Stacie muttered. “Be there in a minute, sir.”

Kevin gave a nod to the other five soldiers with him. “Let’s move up.” The still-cloaked quintet went through the alley, and came out in a square area with a single tree in a large pot in the center. To their right was some sort of restaurant with an outside area characterized by tables with umbrellas over them. To the left was a bookstore, and across the way was a path that ended when met with the roadway. There was a family with three kids eating a late dinner at one of the tables at the restaurant, a pair of couples having a romantic supper too, and some number of people inside the indoor area and bookstore. In the central area, there was a shieldbearer, a banshee, and three stun lancers.

Tom sized up the situation, squinting a few times in thought. “Emmeline, once you get in range and I give the order toss your smog grenade down over the civilians. Adam, get over there when that happens and provide a shield for those five civies closest to us. Kevin, if you could head off the other four…”

“Yeah, that’ll do. On your mark.”

“I’m here,” Emmeline whispered, though she was currently invisible so they couldn’t see where.

“Mark!” Do your thing, Phobos.

Gladly. Using his specialized psionic device - channeling the energies within Tomislav like a psi amp, and directing them with his PCS - Phobos caused the banshee to start screaming in terror, falling onto the floor and rolling around. He used the sense of surprise and fear this evoked with the three stun lancers to cause them to freeze up in anxiety, delaying their actions long enough for Tom’s allies to act appropriately.

The smoke grenade dropped over the outdoor portion of the restaurant. A few people there screamed, and others had their heart in their throat with the hulking, armored giant that was Adam approached them. “Run inside the building, and keep your heads down,” the enforcer barked. Without verbal responses, the father and mother complied, dragging their kids away to relative safety. Kevin was able to persuade the couples to seek cover as well, clearing the battlefield.

The shieldbearer was the first Advent soldier to actively respond. Seeing him start to charge up a shield, Valentina raised her sniper rifle and kicked the muzzle brake into full power. “You are not slowing us down…” she mumbled whilst lining up her shot. Just as the enemy corporal was about to complete his ‘casting’, a high-velocity shot rang out from the sharpshooter’s servo-stabilized weapon. It pierced through his plated shield, his plated armor, and his flesh - but the high-powered shot didn’t quite kill the shieldbearer. “Oh, come on!” What it did do, however, was stagger him. Reeling, he could do little to stop the sharpshooter from finishing the job with a rapid follow-up shot. “One down!”

The stun lancers recovered from their dazed state, and looked very unhappy when they did so. Two of them drew their shock batons and charged at Adam - who was visible even through the smoke. The other pulled out a gun, and advanced a few steps before starting to shoot in Valentina’s direction. Intending to extricate her from the predicament, Maxwell activated his elerium-powered engines and rocketed up into the air. Knowing he was about to get busy, Adam tossed up a psionic flare while the three were still near one another, making them easier targets to his allies. While his jets roared, Max hit the shooting lancer with a spray of bullets that wounded him, then went into an overwatch state, heightening his reflexes so that he could get off a shot at each of the other two. “Softened them up.”

“Hmph.” Adam narrowed his eyes at the two approaching, bleeding stun lancers. He activated the ability of his armor to interlock its plates in a specialized configuration, choosing to make them less conductive to electricity. His armor hardened such that when the stun lancers made their attacks, their blades didn’t do any damage, and only delivered irritating jolts to the enforcer. He paid them back for the annoyance with a pair of iron-fisted punches, knocking the two melee fighters backwards. “Finish them.” Kevin and Tomislav provided the finishing blows on those two.

That just left the other injured lancer and his banshee CO, who had finally gotten up from the ground. The pair lifted their weapons - a carbine and shotgun respectively - and prepared to open fire. They hesitated for a moment when a gray-armored woman dropped in front of them. Knowing that surprise would only buy her a second, Emmeline then activated her autoaid protocol, distorting herself. She rolled to the side, evading gunfire of the stun lancer and most of the buckshot of the Banshee. Not all of it, though, as her light armor plates were shredded off, and the structure itself was damaged, shorting out her distortion field. However, her PCS allowed her to calculate shots on the move, and she didn’t forget to utilize this implanted skill.

A shotgun blast of her own was released, blowing away the stun lancer at point blank. It did not make a sound, however, and Emmeline quickly dipped back into a temporary cloaked state to avoid reaction fire. The banshee’s eyes darted around in a panic as he searched for his assailant to no avail and took a wild guess - firing to his left. He guessed wrong, and paid for his mistake with an alloyed sword that slipped through a gap in the side of his armor and punctured far too many vital things for him to survive longer than half a second afterwards. “Patrol eliminated,” Emmeline stated, sheathing her sword.

“Alright, she’s kind of scary,” Tomislav muttered under his breath.

It was at this point that Stacie and Olivia returned to the main squad, reuniting the eight. “Let’s get to the street. We’ve got a convoy to catch,” Kevin stated. Menace 1-5 approached the open street, which was six lanes wide - three for heading westward, and three for going east. It was, however, completely cleared of civilian cars at the moment - blocked off by lowerable roadblocks in order to allow a trio of vans to roll down, escorted by two patrol cars and other ADVENT soldiers on foot. The squad did not step out into these streets unprepared, but they did so with haste - as the convoy would soon be within accurate firing range. The officer and two gunners that Emmeline had spotted before were in a wary state themselves, having just discovered the assassin above them had been murdered.

Adam encased Tomislav in a telekinetic field as he moved out into view of those three, allowing him to weather the gunfire of the two machinegunners when they pressed on their itchy trigger fingers. The officer had more trigger discipline, and chose to instead use his telekinesis combined with some gunshots to collapse the side of the building near himself, creating a wall of rubble between the XCOM squad and his patrol. “Oh no you don’t,” Tom said with a smirk, having none of it. He pulled out his impulse grenade - the first and only type advanced laser device currently in XCOM’s possession - and tossed it. Thanks to a specially-designed scattering warhead, it dealt an equal amount of devastation upon all of the rubble, blasting it away into dust with a red explosion.

“Adam, lock them down!” Tomislav requested. The enforcer complied, letting loose a barrage from his HMG that badly hampered the aim of the three enemies as their movement was completely restricted by a curtain of bullets. Tomislav used this opportunity to take a potshot. With his enemy out in the open and his PCS clocking in, the Harrier was able to score a hit on a weak point of the officer’s armor. His rail-accelerated bullet poked a hole in the plating, and then ruptured it wider open with expanding hooks. “All yours, Alamo.” Stacie did not disappoint, lifting her revolver and hitting her mark, downing the officer with a spurt of orange blood. Kevin and Emmeline delivered a pair of shotgun shots into the gunners, breaking their armor down and allowing Valentina to take one of them down with a potshot from her sniper pistol. The other attempted to flee, prompting Olivia’s reflexes to give her a reaction shot that got him in the back.

 

[Frostlich1228]

DarkGemini24601 and Frostlich1228: Operation Furtive Crucible - Part 3

By this point, the convoy’s defenders had noticed the XCOM squad, and began firing in their general direction. “Take cover!” Kevin cried out, running into the nearby building through the hole that the officer had created in the wall. A few of the others smashed through the windows of what seemed to be some sort of store. It was hard to tell what they sold with a big firefight brewing, and the squad wasn’t really paying attention to the interior because of that.

The two patrol cars rolled up, and came to a quick park with their alloy-reinforced sides facing the building the XCOM force had taken refuge in. The occupants piled out on the safe side of the vehicles, and used the armored cars as cover. Behind each car was three troopers, a medic, and an anti-XCOM arbitrator unit. Marching up on either extreme end of the defensive line was a crimson-armored MEC - both of which began priming their micro missiles.

“Dammit, where is Firebrand when you need her…” Kevin mumbled disheartenedly.

“I’m on my way! Just hold on!” Danielle snapped through the radio.

“We’ll do our best,” Tomislav replied with a tense sigh. “Adam, this looks like your time.”

The enforcer lifted his hands, and created a telekinetic field to cover his allies in order to reduce damage they might take once the advent forces started shooting - a prospect that was fast-approaching as they finished exiting their vehicles and digging in.

Blending in with her chameleon suit rather than taking up cover someone else could use - especially intent to leave Adam’s planted shield to the equally-lightly armored Valentina - Olivia considered her options. Remembering the gear she had brought with her, she grabbed the brownout grenade on her belt, and gave it a hurl. The lowlevel EMP grenade clanked against the MEC on the far right, and shortened out all of its weapons systems temporarily.

The other one had a change to fire off its barrage, however. It pummeled Maxwell, Adam, and Tomislav - not getting through their armor but blowing apart the cover around the three, leaving them exposed to the raised rifles of the enemy firing line. “Well, shit,” Tomislav muttered.

Kevin darted out of cover, trying to run a distraction. He got off a shotgun blast that missed the soldiers behind the left car and turned their attention temporarily to him. The five on the right, however, still had the others lined up, and began firing. Faced with so many incoming bullets, Adam’s shield drained him immensely and forced him to stand in place to focus on it. His armor was durable enough that he was unharmed by the two troopers that targeted him, but the arbitrator with her arc rifle was a different story. Electricity was unaffected by the decelerating psionics, and electrocuted Adam to his knees - his plates not in the proper mode to weaken the effects at the moment. The protective coating failed, and things got worse.

Tomislav took a hit from one of the other troopers, his armor being halfway to punched through by the shots. The fourth trooper did that for him, dropping him down into a vulnerable state. The medic was the only one that missed - a lucky break, for otherwise their shot could have been deadly. “Mother fuckers!” Tomislav growled. I need to get out of this firing line! He activated his jetboots, and ran forward - getting outside so he could leap up two stories onto the roof and then fall back out of sight. The unharmed Maxwell, for his part, activated his rocket pack and went back up into the air to pin down a trooper and medic with suppressing fire.

Her features pale with worry, Olivia was momentarily paralyzed by watching her allies get so close to being blown away. Her protective instincts soon overrode that fear, however, and she knew she had to act. She sent one of her RCs rolling out, armed with a proximity mine on its back. While it made its way over to the right car, she put Pavise around Kevin to protect him from gunshots. This was good for him, as his armor was already damaged and he was badly injured and on his knees.

The MEC with functional weapons system marched towards the stunned Adam, and raised a massive fist that began to glow brightly with radiating heat - intending to crush him into the ground. Trying to stop him, Valentina pulled the trigger on her AMR. The shot, while high-powered, only served to soften up the MEC’s armor and damage it partially. It did not stop in its attack, and delivered a monstrously strong punch into Adam, smashing him into a shallow crater on the ground and melting and collapsing some of his armor in the process. “ADAM!” the sharpshooter cried out.

As the MEC lifted its fist up and studied its target, it found to its mechanical annoyance that the target wasn’t quite dead. It prepared a second strike, and was momentarily distracted as the right car suddenly blew up, rising into the air over a collection of injured Advent soldiers and then crushing some of them beneath its weight. Two of the troopers died, and one of them was trapped halfway under it. The other basic soldier, the medic, and the arbitrator managed to stagger out of the way. The medic got to work healing the three of them.

With Adam smashed on the ground with Stacie and Valentia trying to save him from an imminent doom, Maxwell busy with suppressing some of the active enemies, Olivia doing all she could to defend Kevin, and Tomislav along with Emmline trying to stay out of the way of gunfire with their damaged armor, there was nothing to stop the three injured troops on the right from recovering. Their MEC came back online as the other one prepared to strike Adam, and the three troopers and arbitrator lined up targets of their own.

Above this pandemonium, a hatch opened in the sky, and salvation arrived in the form of reinforcements from Firebrand. The door of the Skyranger swung open, and the soldiers leapt out onto the battlefield, Marx was the first out, slamming into the ground with unnatural force and sending a huge cloud of dust into the air. The troopers turned their attention onto the soldiers landing in their midst, firing a barrage into the cloud, bright blasts sparking through it like lightning in a thunderstorm. However, when the smoke cleared, all they saw was a circular wall of rock, crumbling and battered, but still standing. Suddenly, a slab of rock from the wall launched forwards towards one of the troopers, slamming into him and causing him to topple to the ground.

Keloe raised her shield, blocking any of the shots heading through the hole in the wall, giving her allies the chance to move in behind her. Sure enough, as soon as she pressed up, something moved out from the circle behind her, what seemed to be a man covered in a thick stone armor. Keloe used her free hand to pull out her machine gun, firing it into the Advent troopers to force them to find some sort of cover. As they vaulted over a nearby car, the female enforcer’s shot connected with the leg of the already-injured trooper, causing him to fall to the ground. Marx - in his stone armor - rushed forwards, brandishing his shotgun and using it to take out the injured trooper as he ran to vault over the car the advent soldiers were hiding behind.

Meanwhile, Keloe switched her focus towards the MEC, laying into it with the final shots from her machine gun’s clip, attempting to slow the hulking war machine down. With one quick motion, Marx lept over the car, bringing his machete down on the head of one of troopers, then he quickly launched stone spikes from his other hand in the direction of the second trooper, doing little damage, but knocking him back, that was all Marx needed to recover from his first swing and finish him off with his other machete.

Appearing from the shadows behind the last regular trooper near Marx, the gray-armored XCOM phantom thrust her blade in one fluid motion, impaling them briefly before retracting the weapon. “Thank you, cavalry,” she told the Ranger near her.

Tomislav stepped out from the hidden part roof as the Advent defensive line was thrown into disarray, standing on the edge and raising his augerifle. “Olivia, rebuff those two away from the vehicle,” he instructed quickly. Able to let up on some of her focus on Pavise to do so now, the ambusher pulled out the compress oxygen grenade and let it fly, angling the toss so that it landed between them and the medic and arbitrator that were turning to face them. While the two melee XCOM soldiers were blow back away from the vehicle, the medic and arbitrator were pressed up against it for a moment. This gave Tom the opportunity he had been seeking. Can you help me target the engine? he asked his A.I.

Can I? Phobos questioned as if insulted. He did a rapid, three-millisecond analysis of the vehicle - recognizing its layout already from stored files and able to quickly locate and approximate the engine on his user’s HUD. With that done, Tomislav was able to let loose a hailstorm from his modified rifle. The spinning bullets drilled into the vehicle’s chassis, ignited the high-powered battery, and blew it up in a fiery explosion that ignited the two Advent soldiers unfortunate enough to be nearby it.

No longer needed to suppress the enemy units by the smoldering car, Maxwell was able to turn his attention elsewhere. To his relief, the crimson frame going for Adam had been temporarily stopped in its tracks. It was covered in the fast-hardening tar that was the substance inside a slurry grenade. “Good thinking, Stacie,” he mentioned over comms before starting to rain down gunfire onto the cyborg, damaging it severely, then critically.

Valentina quickly reloaded her AMR and prepared to fire on the other MEC, but after pulling the trigger, no bullet came out. “...the hell?”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and Frostlich1228: Operation Furtive Crucible - Part 4

“It’s the arbitrator,” Stacie growled. On the end of the sharpshooter’s muzzle, there was a black sphere that was destroying any projectile that came out of the weapon. “Kevin, you have any reserve power in your shadow unit?”

“A-a bit,” the injured Ranger replied.

“Use it, then. Olivia, lower the shield!” The ambusher hesitated but for a moment, and then placed her faith in her friend and did so. As she was retracting Pavise, her gunslinger ally tossed down a mimic beacon which took the appearance of the Ranger - making it seem as if he had teleported to the side. Bewildered, the trooper and medic turned towards the hologram and opened fire. The MEC, however, seemed to perceive it for what it was, but was unsure as to where the genuine article had gone - and instead turned towards the two newcomers with its magnetic chain-rifle raised and ready to fire.

Keloe’s eyes widened, rushing to move in front of Marx with her shield, intent of blocking the shot. When the magnetic projectile fired, it slammed into her shield with thunderous force, sending her flying backwards - however, thanks to the segmented design, the enforcer behind was unharmed. Reacting quickly, Marx took a deep breath and slammed his hands into the ground, his eyes glowing orange as he caused a pillar of rock to shoot up from under the Mec, slamming into its underside and causing it to lose balance as it toppled over and became vulnerable.

The opportunity was not wasted. Tom turned his attention to the mechanical giant, and ruptured its armor, allowing a shotgun blast from Emmeline, and then another from Kevin - revealing the Ranger oncemore - to finish it off. Olivia lifted up her coilpack and shot a cluster of magnetized ropes onto the arbitrator, bringing the troublesome specialist down to the ground and preventing him from taking a killshot on her CO. Following that, a shard grenade rained down from Maxwell’s palm, and nestled itself near the three organic enemies - filling them all with shrapnel, rendering them dead or soon to be dead by execution shots.

The battlefield was finally clear, allowing Max to descend and pull out his nanomedkit - healing Adam so that the enforcer could heal Kevin. Despite them being temporary pulled together, though, they were not in a good condition to fight. Acknowledging this, Kevin had Firebrand temporarily drop down to pick himself and a reluctant Adam up - not before handing off any utility equipment they had left. “I leave the rest to you, Kasun. Prove yourself worthy of that sergeant rank.”

“Will do.” Tomislav offered a salute. As the Skyranger took off, Tom had Valentina activate her radio jammer to delay reinforcements, and scanned the street for the convoy. Upon things going sour for the Advent force, they had started to turn around, and were now in the process of driving in the other direction. “...dammit! And we blew up their cars, too…”

“Well…” Olivia - now his second in command - began, gesturing towards a nearby parking lot. “There are some civilian cars over there. I can probably hotwire them.”

“I’m driving one of them,” Tomislav stated before anyone else had a chance.

With a quick follow-up, Valentina responded, “shotgun.”

Keloe brushed herself off, “Dammit… Oh well, I don’t even know how to drive…”

Marx walked towards them as he pulled his stone armor off, the rocks clearly weighing him down. “Neither do I…”

Tomislav selected a pair of sportscars, both for style and for their speed - the only hope of catching up with the bulky vehicles that were trying to get out of dodge. He stepped into the driver’s seat of the first with Valentina on the other side. Max and Emmeline went to the back. The other car was to be driven by Olivia with Stacie naturally as her copilot and the pair of reinforcing soldiers in the back seats. The hotwiring was done as quickly as possible, and that - coupled with interference with the electronic key-recognition software - made the cars purr into action.

Burning rubber, the two cars sped off onto the road in hot pursuit of the three vans. It took a minute or two, but going at reckless speeds XCOM caught up to the convoy. When they did get within range, however, there was a surprise - one of the vans had someone fighting Advent atop it. A pair of troopers and a scorcher were magnetized onto the roof of the first vehicle, and were in combat with but a single other soldier. The fighter was wearing all black, right down to an outwardly opaque visor, and wielded a weapon that glowed the cyan blue of a pulse rifle. With one pull of the trigger, the mysterious individual punctured the armor of the first trooper and sent him tumbling off, and then briefly disengaged her attachment to the vehicle down to one boot, using the other to kick the remaining grunt off onto a roadkill death.

“Who the hell is that?” Tomislav uttered in surprise. “Central, did you send us another one of ours?”

“...I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Kasun. I authorized no such thing,” the Commander’s voice came over comms. “I’ve got no idea who that is.”

Well, this is a surprise, Emmeline thought to herself.

The scorcher opened up with a torrent of explosive fire - the elite equipment that ADVENT had received coming with dracothrowers like the one Anubis had used in Taiwan - that forced the black-armored fighter to back off. She jumped down, but managed to magnetize herself to the back of the van with one of her gloves, and then her boots. The pulse rifle clutched in one hand, she waited until the scorcher walked up to confirm her demise, and then shot him in the face at point-blank.

By this point, the doors on the back of the middle van swung open, and another red MEC revealed itself, leaping onto the roof of the back vehicle with the unknown assailant. “Huh… if you’re done collecting the datapads in there, I could use your help,” she requested of an ally over comms.”

 

[Frostlich1228]

DarkGemini24601 and Frostlich1228: Operation Furtive Crucible - Part 5

“Don’t get yer’ tits en’ a twist!” Someone screamed as an Advent trooper was knocked out of the back of the van, sending him rolling down the road at high speed. Suddenly, the head of a dark brown haired woman poked out, along with a massive minigun which she angled out of the vehicle to fire at the red mec. Her eyes were a dark brown, matching her hair color, and surrounding them was a dark eyeliner with eyeshadow. Her red lipstick was applied on heavily and was smeared across her cheek messily. The mechanical soldier tried to block the bullets with it’s arm, but the woman simply angled her fire so it would strike its leg. After a few moments the MEC’s leg buckled and caused the entire suit to plummet into the street, the woman reached to her side and pulled out a grenade launcher, sending more than a few explosives down the street to roll with the robot. XCOM’s vehicle had to swerve to avoid not only the robot, but also the rather excessive explosion, the brunette just smiled as she watched, blowing a kiss down the road at the wreckage.

“And now there’s two of them,” Stacie muttered.

“They’re stealing the data!” Tomislav growled. “Alright, we’re going to have to shake this up. Olivia, I’m going up ahead to the front car, we’re gonna hit it before they have a chance to get there. You head to the second vehicle, see if you can’t figure out who the hell these people are and whether or not we can trust them.”

“Understood. I’ll be cautious though,” Olivia replied, giving a mental nod to Pavise. She set the car into a cruise control autopilot - which would only be reliable for a few seconds - and then leapt onto the car. She, Stacie, Marx, and Keloe were able to magnetize themselves to the van, and climb up ontop of the second one as the two strange operatives stared at them from across the third vehicle.

Emmeline looked back at the one that appeared to be in charge as Tomislav’s vehicle accelerated to get to the front. I wasn’t expecting to see you here, sister, she spoke through a radio system that was functionally similar to telepathy.

If you’re here, then that means… the woman smiled beneath her helmet. This is XCOM.

Try not to break them, Verona. I haven’t discerned yet that they’re a direct threat to us.

Alright, alright… Vee cut the connection. But testing the waters should be fun.

Olivia waited a few seconds before raising her voice to an audible level over the wind. “Who are you?” she questioned warily. “Are you Resistance like us?”

“Resistance? I don’t associate myself with such a small-minded movement,” Verona replied with a hidden eyebrow raised. “I am far better…” she began, the black-and-red form of a Reflection forming beside her. It was clad in a mixture of armor, some from the present, and some from the past. It was a mixture of power armor and the regalia of a knight-templar, in summary. “...than you could ever be.” Vee snapped her fingers - and her Black Bishop echoed the movement. Without any warning other than that, a series of explosions battered the sides of the vehicle Olivia and her team of four were standing on, causing it to swerve violently.

Marx and Keloe gripped the sides of the car, attempting to hang on for dear life. “Are they trying to blow us up too?! Really?” She screamed.

“Sure as hell seems like it,” Olivia replied tensely, summoning up Pavise and covering herself and her allies in his bubble.

Vee grinned. “Oh? So you have Reflections too, I see… let us see… whose is strong enough to get those datapads.” With that, she took a few strides forward, sauntering into range to send Black Bishop forward. Its gauntleted hands reached out, and were surrounded in a red psionic color rimmed with blackness. When the reflection clasped its claws around the shield, Pavise’s bubble hand began to turn ashen, and start to collapse into actual ashes.

Olivia grimaced, her expression awash with pain as she tried to maintain the battered shield and failed, allowing it to collapse. “They’re… after… the package too…”

“Like hell they’re going to get the rest of it.” Stacie lifted her blitz pistols, and started firing with abandon.

Vee took a precautionary step back, and brought Black Bishop before herself, the reflection’s destrucokinetic abilities serving to obliterate the bullets as they made contact with its open palms. “Return to the void, just like everything will one day.”

“Is this woman ranting about entropy?” Tygan questioned over the radio.

The brunette lifted her minigun towards their vehicle, firing a hail of suppressing fire towards them. Keloe quickly raised up her shield, giving the team some much needed cover from the rain of lead as the brunette spoke, “It’s eh shame eh ‘ave to kill you all, we coulda ‘ad a lot eh’ fun together!”

A voice crackled over Olivia’s radio, issuing a statement and then a command. “Understood,” she said through gritted teeth, slowly regaining proper motor control as the sharp pain in her brain subsided. Over internal comms, she warned her three allies. “On the count of three, everyone duck. Keloe, leave your shield in place. One… two… three!” The four currently engaging the Exalt duo ducked, revealing that Tomislav had hopped over to the same vehicle just a moment before. He lifted his right arm, opening the nozzle to his flamethrower. “Hey, bitches, I’ve got some firepower too,” he declared, launching a burst of volatile, explode-y flames in the direction of the two.

As with before, Vee took the route of ducking behind her van rather than try and block the incendiary torrent. She had her ally do likewise, and in the moment they were out of sight, Olivia lifted her bolt caster and fired it, breaking through the armor plates around the tires of the other van and puncturing a wheel with enough force that it ripped halfway off. This sent the Exalt van swerving backwards and causing it to slow down, the two vehicles controlled by XCOM quickly starting to outpace it as Vee and her comrade looked back up. With a look of displeasure their way, Olivia merely waved as the two were left in the dust. “Bye.”

Verona sighed. “Well, that was a little less of a reward for this operation than I intended… but it was still very informative nevertheless.” She glanced at her ally. “It would seem that my sister has indeed successfully integrated into XCOM, and it does not seem like they suspect anything. We shall see if we have to eliminate them all… or if they can be useful.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger and DarkGemini24601: “Testing the Waters, Part 1”

Western Kazakhstan Waterfront
0741 Hours, October 17th, 2038
Beside the Caspian Sea

In the soft and tranquil early morning of the new day, nothing much stirred across the landscape. The occasional sea bird flew through the air and waddled by the shore, letting out sharp cries of unknown meaning as they went about their day. The sky was a beautiful mixture of dark blues, pinks and oranges. Waves slowly lapped at the rocks that a particular girl was sitting on, her leg up to her chest with an arm wrapped around, her other leg crossed in front of it. The light, salty breeze caused her lightly colored blonde hair to float along it subtly, the smell of salt permeating her nose. Gwendoline De Saint Pierre for once in a long time felt truly calm in every way, nothing seeming like it could ruin her time.

It was because of this that the other person that had exited the ship that morning did not initially approach her. Instead, Emmeline stood a distance away, merely watching the Juggernaut and the beach from afar. As the sun slowly rose, it bathed the Caspian Sea in deep reds, then moderate oranges, and finally golden yellow - similar to the hair of the soldier sitting at the water’s edge. After allowing this time of repose to pass, the silver-haired operative slowly approached the other woman, offering a gentle greeting. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Gwen slowly nodded, the sense of ease helping with not being too scared by the unexpected visitor. “It surely is a sight.” She shrugged, then looked behind her at the massive alien ship that was currently being worked on internally by the multiple maintenance crew. “Well… when not looking in that general direction anyways.”

“Beauty is all about perspective, isn’t it? I prefer to keep this wonderful sunrise in the frame of looking to the east, not the west,” Emmeline gave her opinion, walking over a bit closer and then sitting down.

As Emmeline did, she would notice that Gwen’s shoes and socks were off, just sitting barefoot, though they did glisten ever so slightly from the morning light. “Water’s a bit nippy.”

“Well, there’s always the shipboard showers for warm water… I wonder if the TIU suits XCOM used in Antarctica would function as wetsuits, though…” Emmeline mused. “I doubt that’s been tested on our side.”

“What would be the practical use?” The french girl asked with an amused tone of voice and a raised eyebrow. “I doubt ADVENT has underwater bases. And besides, I don’t mind that it is cold water. It is different then what we have on the ship. Especially because I went for a run before sunrise.” The Juggernaut pouted, rubbing her slighty-numb left heel.

“Hmmm…” Emmy thought in regards to Gwen’s first question, pondering the first question in a mildly-contrarian manner. “Well, I would guess not all of the alien species come from planets with the same temperature as this one. I remember reading in one prewar account that many of the moons in our own solar system might have oceans beneath them that would be rather cold but nevertheless liquid. If the aliens have bases in other parts of our star system, or needed them underwater for some reason, I could see that being a practical use. Though I could be completely wrong,” Emmeline conceded with a smile and a shrug.

“Who knows really. Knowing me, if we ever had an underwater operation I would sink like a stone. My equipment is heavy stuff.” Gwen wasn’t wrong in saying that, but nowadays the burden of carrying it had lessened considerably due to the hidden layer of tight muscle her body had developed. The unique ability to be physically strong and still be able to wear her favorite dresses was an asset the girl cherished greatly.

“I will admit that the Juggernauts have useful gear, but I personally prefer as much lightness as I can get away with on the battlefield. Thinking and acting on my feet is the best route for me,” Emmeline replied, her eyes not staying in one place for long as she gauged Gwen’s appearance and personality with this first meeting.

If the other woman noticed, she said nothing about it as she continued with responding, “To each their own. We all have something to bring to this operation. Both the tanks, and the dexterous.” Standing up and grabbing her footwear, Gwen looked down the coastline to where the rocks seemed to give way to actual coastline. “I’m gonna go walk for a bit. If you want you could be free to join me…” Gwen trailed off and tilted her head at not knowing the silver haired woman’s name.

“Emmeline Marshall Ashworth,” the covert operative introduced herself. “And I’d love to walk with you.”

That seemed to cause Gwen’s persistent smile to brighten up ever so much more. She offered a hand, stating proudly. “Gwendoline Adelene De Saint Pierre. Just call me Gwen though and don’t use my last name unless you want to deprive yourself of oxygen.”

Emmeline chuckled lightly. “I see we both have excessively-long family names. You can just call me Emmeline or Emmy if you prefer.”

“Emmy!?” Gwen let out a laugh putting her arms over her stomach as she pointed a finger at the woman. “Oh my goodness that sounds fricken’ adorable! Like a little stuffed bunny rabbit or something like that!”

“In all fairness, I am not the one that chose it. Blame my family,” the young woman replied with a nonchalant sigh.

Gwen’s laughter continued only so much longer before she let out a long sigh, shaking her head. “I’ll be sure to thank them if I ever meet them.” The french girl turned and began slowly hopping along the wide, flat rocks below her. Emmeline serenely followed her companion, remaining quiet and contemplative until Gwendoline saw fit to speak again. When she did, she seemed to take the next logical step in the line of thought they had left off on before they had began enjoying their time. “So who’s in your family? Siblings, parents, weird cousins?”

“Just my parents at the moment. I had a sister but… well, you know how ADVENT is. I don’t need to go into the details,” Emmeline responded vaguely.

Gwen nodded solemnly, putting her hands behind her back. The reason was mostly so Emmeline couldn’t see how hard she was squeezing them together. “Yeah, I do know rather intimately. I do have my adoptive brother though. You’ve met him, right? Maybe? Even know who I am talking about?” She ended off each question with a high note for some strange reason.

“Sinclair? I’ve heard of him, but I haven’t met him personally, no,” Emmeline answered evenly.

“Oh well that isn’t good. He’s in a bit of a rough spot with the whole, ‘his girlfriend was captured by ADVENT and happened to get a pointy thingy in the chest’ ordeal, but I am sure a new friend would be able to get him out of that funk for awhile.” Gwen suggested optimistically, humming a bit along the rhythm of her skips.

“Hmm… I’ll make sure to pay him a visit, then. Have you had any luck with cheering him up, or has he closed himself off?” Emmeline asked softly.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

MarineAvenger and DarkGemini24601: “Testing the Waters, Part 2"

“Please, I’m his only family, as he is mine. He would like to think he can close me off, but ever since coming to XCOM, I’ve only gotten better at weaseling into his feelings and finding some way to make him feel better.” There was a hint of pride in the way she said that which was both concerning and endearing. “But he keeps himself busy at least, so that helps.”

“That’s good to hear. From what I’ve been able to tell moving around from cell to cell, it would seem those that fight in the Resistance have a remarkable resilience to tragedy. You’re all capable of recovering from even the worst of wounds,” Emmeline offered.

“You sound like you haven’t even lived such a life. I know a lot of us aren’t exactly boots on the ground all the time types, but we’ve had at least some experience with the Resistance asides from XCOM. Are you a special case?”

“I don’t tend to stay in one place for very long,” Emmeline replied. “I go where I’m needed most. For a long time that meant hopping around between places… and ultimately the greatest need brought me here, to XCOM, to fight. I’m not terribly accustomed to settling down.”

“Have you tried super glue?” Gwen asked in almost a whisper and a cat like grin.

“I...what?” Emmeline asked with a rare expression of confusion.

“Settling down? Just rub a bit of that good stuff on the bottom of your shoe and…” Her grin faded into a frown and the french girl let out a rather loud and annoyed huff. “It was funny damn you.”

Emmeline smiled. “It perhaps is a bit too complex.”

“It was not! It was so obvious it couldn’t have been more so if I taped the punchline on a brick and hit you over the head with it.” Reaching the point where the rocks were transitioning into actual beach, Gwen lifted her arms in the air and bent herself forward, lifting her lower body up and over the last rock until her feet touched sand, though the uneven terrain caused her to fall back on her rear end with a startled yelp.

Emmeline held a hand over her mouth, managing to restrain the urge to laugh. “Are you alright?”

“No…” She noticed how Emmy was trying to stifle her amusement and grabbing a handful of sand, she threw it at the Phantom’s legs. “Meanie…”

The other woman seemed mostly unbothered by this, though did glance down at her black pants with a bit of a questioning look, as if wondering if that would come out easily. “Was that necessary?” she inquired lightly.

“Not entirely, but it made me feel better at least.” Gwen said with a bit of vindication as she stood up, brushing the sand from the rear of her gray colored yoga pants, turning around so her back was to the woman. “Did I get it all?”

Emmeline found herself momentarily eyeing the form made clear by the tight clothing, before clearing her throat quietly and responding with an affirmative. “Would seem so to me.”

“Good… nothing would be worse then walking with sand in my crack. Geez, just the thought of that is giving me a rash.” Not having noticed the stares she had received, Gwen moved towards the water once more without a care in the world.

“That is a blunt way of putting it, yes.” Very unfiltered, aren’t we?

“Hey, no sense in not being blunt, right? We are just hanging out, not attending a fancy tea party.” Gwen cautiously waded into the shallow water slowly, taking care to pull up the legs of her pants in case one of the waves that slowly rolled onto the shore was higher than expected. It was still cold, but she didn’t seem to care too much anymore. “I miss those so much. I remember having them all the time when I was little and they were amazing. Oh my god, the dresses I would want to wear… it got ridiculous at some points. It was like I needed an intervention.”

“You would get bored of them fairly quickly if you lived in England. That was a daily routine at home,” Emmeline informed her. “And I was not criticizing your forthrightness, merely making an observation.”

“Pfft. England. Please, that is the wannabe France with a posh problem.” Gwen poked fun with a dismissive wave of the hand.

“That would be accurate if you were only looking at London. Yorkshire is more… homey and down-to-earth,” Emmeline specified.

“I lived in Carcassonne in my family’s big loft. My family owned the entire building, but we mostly just rented out the other floors to people my mom and dad worked with. Our summer home, now that was the shit. Mountain view, wide open field, sparkling lake… couldn’t get more down to earth unless you were a mole.”

“I assume you often went swimming in the lake?”

“Oh it was amazing. The water always seemed so warm, and I just laid back for hours at a time and often slept.” Gwendoline looked down at her body and chuckled nervously as she winged from a memory. “Except I burn, not tan. Just thinking about it makes me hurt.”

“I’ve never tried, but I imagine I would suffer proportionally to you if I did,” the pale covert operative replied with a shudder.

“Never know. Get some oil and slather you up, you could be bronzer then… then…” Gwen snapped her fingers in thought. “A… penny? I don’t know, I can’t think up a good analogy on the spot.”

“We aren’t Spartans, we have no reason to oil ourselves up before battle or some such nonsense,” Emmeline responded with a shake of her head. “I am content the way I am.”

“You wouldn’t tan during a battle silly. Though I imagine trying to tan on the top of the Avenger would be like laying on top of a grill…” She glanced back at the other soldier who was standing a few feet behind her and smiled. “Going to join me or stay over there the whole time? The water isn’t so bad once you are used to it.”

“I suppose I can, though I question if you intend to merely wade or actually go for a swim,” Emmeline responded curiously. Gwen merely replied with a silent shrug. However, her smile had returned since her tumble in the sand and it seemed to almost bid the woman to come join her. Acquiescing to her request, Emmeline left her shoes at the shoe, stepped gingerly onto the sand, and rolled up her pants to knee-length before starting to walk into the water.

When Emmeline joined Gwen’s side, her mood seemed only to get better, the French girl staring up at a sun no longer hidden by the mysteries of the horizon. “I had a good time with you Emmy.”

“I rather enjoyed our talk as well.”

“I hope we will have many more in the future?’ Gwen asked hopefully, almost meekly holding out her hand to be shaken.

Emmeline returned it confidently. “Indeed. I’d like that.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Resolve” (Part 1) – Yakone Ipiktok

Lower Precinct of North America
0613 Hours, October 18th, 2038
Control Tower, Chicago Megacity

At the moment, the cell was devoid of light. Yakone had just awoken from a dreamless slumber, but was considering drifting back off again. With the chamber she had spent the past two weeks in shrouded in darkness, there was no point in keeping her eyes open. So she kept them shut for awhile, until something changed. A dim, harsh red light invaded the confines of Yakone’s involuntary dwelling. Enough illumination filtered through her eyelids that she slowly lifted them to see what was going on.

A tall man stood in the doorway, outlined by the glow but being nothing more than a silhouette without a light from the front to define his features. He stepped forward, entered the room, shut the door behind himself, and flicked on the overhead light. The brilliant white lamp revealed a young man in a black, stately military uniform – complete with a golden medal of recognition for upholding the tenets of the Coalition. He had orange, genetically-modified eyes that he scrutinized the prisoner with. His stalwartly neutral expressions shifted to a frown when his gaze settled on the three slanted scars on Yakone’s face.

They ran from the middle of her forehead to her upper left cheek. The bottom cut traced dangerously close to her nose, while the middle slash had gone across the left eyelid without piercing the orb underneath, and the top line sloped a little with the curvature of her head. Although they had only been inflicted a few days ago, thanks to biokinetic treatment by a medic-officer the wounds had already completed the scarification process. The marring of her face transfixed Jayden Williams into silence for a few seconds. The damages rendered him more uncomfortable than the stare he received from the woman who bore them.

After awhile though, he did speak in order to pose a question. “Who did this to you?” Jayden asked.

“You don’t know? I figured she would be the sort to brag,” Yakone irefully responded. “Your buddy Bombay gave me these…” the XCOM soldier thought for a moment, then finished disdainfully, “…reminders.”

Jayden’s expression darkened. “Procellae and I aren’t friends,” he asserted. “She is my comrade-in-arms, but I don’t like her.”

“I’m sure she duly notes your distaste, but that doesn’t stop her from doing what she does,” Yakone retorted.

“I disagree with her methods, but it is not my place to give her orders,” Jayden stressed. “We are of equal rank.”

Yakone let out a weary sigh. “Well, at least you don’t express your feelings towards what I say with violence,” she conceded.

Jayden gave her an incredulous look. “That is – in all fairness – hypocritical coming from a rebel.”

“It’s a completely different ballgame,” the Ranger contended. “There’s no way to stop the horrible things the aliens do with peaceful protests. You guys don’t’ even allow those sort of demonstrations.”

“We don’t,” Williams agreed. “As I understand it, public expression of dissent causes unrest in the populace. It is a hindrance to the mental well-being of the public.”

Ipiktok’s brow furrowed. “Does the same apply to freedom in your mind? Do you think we’re better off with obedience than self-determination?”

“Yes,” the ADVENT peacekeeper resolutely replied. “I do.”

“Why?” the freedom fighter across from him wanted to know.

“I don’t believe human beings can be trusted to make their own decisions. Not when it comes to important matters. The simple fact is that we are a shortsighted, uneducated, and irrational species left to our own devices,” Williams insisted. “The majority of people don’t know what is best for themselves and the community as a whole.”

“What about the voting process in the Coalition then?” Yakone riposted.

“It’s a face,” Jayden readily admitted. “And that’s for the best. The illusion of agency is just as reassuring as the real thing, provided the veil is maintained. Your ilk don’t help with that order-keeping task.”

“You’re welcome,” Yakone muttered dryly. “I’d argue that you’re still doing something that is morally wrong by suppressing the will of the people. And you leave your critical choices to the ‘Elders’ because you believe them to be…”

“More intelligent, experienced, and thoughtful as a race than humanity,” he answered.

“See, and that’s where I find fault in your logic. Not only are they not perfect – even assuming all your complements are valid and true – but your ‘benevolent dictatorship’ as you’d probably term it isn’t as shiny as you think it is. The Declensions care about themselves above all else.”

“And humans don’t?”

“I don’t disagree that we are that way,” Ipiktok responded coolly. “All sentient beings focus on their own survival foremost. It’s how we’re wired. To some extent, though, that protectiveness extends to family, community, and humanity as a whole. It falls off when you’re dealing with an entirely different species, as the Elders deal with ours. They appear to view humanity as a beloved pet. You love your dog, sure, but if putting it down was better for you, you would do it even if it elicited unhappiness. The abductions are that principle on a large scale. Them before us.”

“Does the loss of life outweigh the benefits to Terra? Pristine living conditions containing all of life’s necessities along with springs of entertainment. Technology beyond anything we could have managed on our own in a reasonable period of time. Safety, above all, that the majority enjoy,” Williams rattled off.

“Not everyone enjoys that prosperity. To do so, you must submit and hope you make it into the good part of town,” Yakone countered.

“The Resistance is part of the problem. You’re a barrier to progress,” Jayden growled.

“We’re not blind to the gifts the Protectorate came bearing,” Yakone specified with a grunt. “But we’re mad as hell that they come with lethal strings attached.”

“For how long will those experiments even last?” Jayden questioned rhetorically. “If the Ethereals find a cure for their condition, your argument crumbles. Everyone would live in secure providence then,” Williams declared.

“If thousands of people die to achieve a utopia, then it isn’t a paradise at all,” Ipiktok stated assuredly. “The blood of innocents is a stain that no benevolence that follows can well excuse. I cannot, and will not submit to an authority that belittles and murders its subjects. I stand for freedom with the challenges it brings, and justice, as hard as it can be to uphold.”

Jayden let out an exasperated sigh. “Then we fundamentally disagree on what is most important for humanity as a whole.”

“Yeah,” Yakone agreed, offering a weak smile. “But at least we understand each other a little better, for what it’s worth.” Williams offered a solemn nod, and was silent. Yakone frowned. “I’m guessing there’s a reason that you came here other than debating philosophy, huh?”

“I was sent here to retrieve you for a testing session,” Commando said at length.

“And the sparring rules are probably pretty nonexistent, huh?” A nod. “Well… I’ve been withering away without being able to tap into my powers. Whatever they want to put me through… I’ll survive it.”

“You are incredibly courageous, I’ll give you that,” Jayden muttered, going over to Yakone and releasing her restraints from the chair. “Follow me.” He turned his back, and started walking out the door. Yakone – with her arms still bound behind her back thanks to the psionic-dampening apparatus – followed. As she did however, a thought and series of ideas occurred to her. She continued to walk after Commando.

But only briefly.