RP XCOM2: Liberation of Earth

[Dahlexpert]

Dahlexpert and DarkGemini24601: “Operation Hellhound, Part 1”

Emile loaded his his pulse rifle, and looked at Luke. “Think you can paint a few targets for us?”

“Oh, can I ever. Let me make those things a lot easier for our sharpshooter to shoot.” Luke fired into the the flock of Keepers, his holo-targeting painting the enemies - making the aliens a much easier target for everyone.” Let the games begin!” Luke shouted.

By now, Valentina had set up her sniper rifle properly on the ledge of the abandoned shop. “Alright… stabilizer servos active, the skies are illuminated with a bunch of holo designators… it’s time to show you how it’s done.” The Chilean woman grinned. “Now, I’m a lover, not a fighter, but this is a unique opportunity.” She activated her seventh PCS ability, slowly down her perception of time much like how an A.I. could do - if more limited in magnitude and scope. This ‘Serial’ skill had only one purpose though - enabling the Sharpshooter to rack up as many kills as possible. She took aim at one of the Keepers, and pulled the trigger. A blue pulsating beam zipped forward, and sheared through the flying insect soldier. The rush of the kill spurred Valentina on, and she continued to yank on the activation mechanism, causing Keeper after Keeper to drop out of the sky like a rain of corpses.

“Looking a low more clear. Almost ready for you two to head towards the Kerberant,” Lily stated as the monster tossed the tank it had wrecked through the air - smashing some Matterhorn soldiers flat. “Jesus,” she muttered, giving a nod to her Gremlin. “Let’s see what this guy’s armor is made out of.” Rover zipped forward under the cover of blue streams of death sent from Contreras’s position. The robotic drone came to a halt at a safe but close distance, and began running a scanning protocol. However, instead of searching for cloaked enemies and mapping out positions, it was cartographing something else. The Kerberant’s armor.

The sensor sweep penetrated all the way through the alien’s suit - only giving fuzzy images of the alien creature itself, but the Kerberant wasn’t the target anyway. The images returned to Lily showed a dilayered armor, not unlike a cell membrane. There was a thick, outer layer that stretched for about a meter - all of it made of alien alloys. Then there was an internal section, which indeed contained Seraphim soldiers, as well as some Mecroaches and Floaters. The armor’s power cores were towards its midsection, while the rest was hollow to contain whatever troops were being carried at the time. The floor wasn’t quite as deep as the outer armor, being some dozen centimeters like a tank’s rather than something incomprehensibly durable.

“Okay, that’s going to be hard to breach… really going to need you to give your all on this one, Luke,” Lily reported back to her squad. “We’re going to have to breach that armor ourselves, but it’s a good meter thick.”

“Great, just give me a target and I will see what I can do. Hell, with the amount of training I’ve done I’m pretty sure i’m not gonna pass out immediately. Where am I aiming Shen?” Luke questioned.

“Let’s see… come on, all armor has to have a weak point somewhere… aha!” Lily cried out triumphantly. “I’ll put a target on your HUD. Right there, between its belly and front legs at the joints. The armor’s thinner there. Pretty sure it’s meant to be a hatch where the occupants come out. Won’t be able to hack it, they were smart enough to make it manual… but with your psionics you might be able to kick the door in.”

A smirk started to form on Luke’s face as he switched out his febrigun for his psi amp. “You might want to give me some room.” Luke’s arms erupted in flames. His eyes shined a dark red, as did his flames. Luke combined his thermokinesis with his firecracker, both channeled through the amp. The air around him was heavy with power. Luke fired his attack at the alloy hatch. The explosion was huge yet focused, a tumult of red psionic energy directed by a master. The hatch - along with bits of the armor - was obliterated, traces of enhanced fire funneling into the hollow interior. “Ha ha ha, now that's what red psions are capable of you monster!” Luke shouted, not feeling the least bit drained from the attack - showing how much he’d improved.

Emile looked at the attack and back at Luke, amazed at the level of power contained in a single person. “Remind me to never ever piss you off, under any circumstance.” Emile looked at Shen. “So how are you two going to get in there, do I carry you two in?”

“Not exactly… I’ve never been happier that I added magnetizable boots as a standard part of our armors,” Lily responded. “We’re going to walk up the side of that thing.”

The soft whoosh of plasma engines nearly went unnoticed by the squad over the sounds of the intense battle, but the two Gremlins isolated the sound and reported it to their respective operators. “You’ve got company! Looks like you stirred up a hornet’s nest!” Armbruster warned. And indeed Luke had provoked an offensive response from the troops within the Kerberant’s shell. A group of five floaters jettisoned out of the gap where the hatch had been, one of them bulkier than its ebon companions and shining with a silver paintjob. They were accompanied by a pair of the Seraphim that had decided Luke was a much bigger threat than the Matterhorn tanks right now.

This, combined with the advance of fresh Advent troops from behind, would have been enough to outright overwhelm the squad. Thankfully, the Matterhorn troops reprioritzed their efforts, and started raining hell down on their former allies to take the heat off Hercules Squad. That still left the Floaters and the two Seraphim, however, which were not to be taken lightly. The two four-winged ‘angels’ both lifted plasma PDWs in the direction of the three XCOM soldiers, and with their free hands started focusing red psionic energy. A pair of Luke’s anti-tank grenades began to glow brilliantly. The endopolarity grenades sucked up chunks of the Grenadier’s armor, and then exploded - ripping apart most of his torso armor and inflicting light burns on the skin beneath.

The four regular Floaters sought to capitalize on the red psion being exposed. Two of them pulled out impulse grenades, while the other pair lifted their pulse rifles. Luke was spared a searing death by a missile launched from Ludwiga, the anti-air rocket spiraling through the air and impacting with one of the infantry bombers. The blast tore him to bits, and detonated the grenade he was holding. This led to a chain reaction that set off the other grenade that had been drawn, and the resulting brilliant blue blast that created left two Floaters in pieces falling to the ground. The rifle-wielding pair were damaged, and their shots were thrown off somewhat. This, combined with the fact that Armbruster’s Gremlin had granted Luke an aid protocol to distort his true location, meant that he was not hit by any of the robotic fliers’ attempts to kill him.

All of that had happened over the course of a few seconds, and it momentarily left Lily reeling. “L-Ludwiga, start healing him and repairing his armor stat! Valentina, time for you to shine again! Emile, get up into the air and help her bring those fliers down!”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Dahlexpert and DarkGemini24601: “Operation Hellhound, Part 2”

“You got it, make sure Luke is fully recovered. we’re gonna need him.” Emile used his valkryie armor to take to the skies and flew to the Heavy Floater, firing his pulse rifle at the enemy to get its attention. “Hay you hunk of junk, how about we make this a fair fight!” Emile continued to shoot at the silver flier, intending to lead it away from Shen and Luke.

However, the machine was not so easily manipulated, seeming to have an intelligence beyond the standard fare. It utilized a series of auxiliary thrusters to weave left, right, and diagonally - expertly avoiding Emile’s shots or rendering them glancing hits that didn’t penetrate the armor. It pulled out a pair of pulse rifles - one for each hand - and returned fire with abandon, forcing Emile to dodge as much as he had made it bob and weave.

Valentina noted that the other two Floaters were equally keen on not staying in one place for long. Intending to use their rapid movement against them, she focused her vision into a specific cone around them - placing the robotic fliers into her killzone. When one moved, she spun to face it and fired. Her modified sniper rifle easily punctured through the helmet of the first ebon vulture, and tore its CPU to shreds. The headless machine toppled to the ground in a heap, and the other soon made a rapid descent as its jetpack was blown to pieces. “Damn, I’m good,” she noted triumphantly.

That just left the Seraphim, who were angling for a combination attack. They squeezed the triggers of their upgraded SMGs, sending a spray of plasma lasers towards Luke, while also firing off a psi lance each. Doing her best to defend the Grenadier, Lily activated her flux shield - not useful against the laser attacks, but at least partially disruptive to the lances. ROV-R hovered near him alongside Ludwiga’s drone, providing a threat assessment to his PCS to allow him to dodge more effectively. He had lost the aid protocol, but that assistance replaced it as the Paramedic Gremlin restored his armor’s mass - and the Specialist Gremlin restored some of its durability.

Luke groaned and slowly got back to his feet. Thanks to the threat assessment, he was able to run out of the way of the gunfire. “Alright, now I’m mad, but I’m not going to waste energy on these things. Instead...” Luke switched out to his febrigun, and reflexively returned fire on one of the Seraphim - melting away its armor and leaving it exposed to a killshot from Valentina. He then shot at the Floater, holo-designating it. Luke then continued to fire at the Floater trying to suppress it, each hit shredding the alien’s armor - though many of the heatwaves fired from his gun went wide due to the machine’s agility. “Emile, get this damn thing!”

“I’m on it and thanks for the target.” Emile started to fly straight at the floater, firing his pulse rifle at the floater each hit starting to damage the Heavy Floater. In reprisal for these strikes, the blocky portions of its wings opened up - revealing pods bristling with missiles. The swarm of rockets launched from the robot, a few dozen small missiles barreling towards Emile from all sides.

“Crap.” Emile backed off from the floater and tried to dodge the missile barrage coming his way. Emile flew between the legs of the Kerberant, trying to use the armor of the giant alien to give himself some bit of cover. Some of the missiles exploded against the armor, doing little damage to the massive alien. “Damn this thing, how am I supposed to kill it? ...well then, I have an idea.” Emile started to fly straight up where he was above the Heavy Floater. He recalled his training, remembering that the higher he is the better he could aim. Emile started to rain down a hail of bullets into the heavy floater, his aim being on point landing every shot.

Sparking furiously, the machine twisted through the air uncontrollably - one of its main thrusters blown off along with much of its heavier plating. It seperated the rest of the ruined outer armor from itself, and kicked in the backup rockets to bring itself to a stable hovering position - all in the course of two seconds. The rapid movements astonished Lily, bringing her to conclude something about the Heavy Floater. “It must have an advanced computing system… perhaps even as potent as our A.I. And it uses it well with flight…”

You want to make it ours, don’t you? Seshat surmised.

“I think our resident Aerotrooper here could make good use of it. If you can assist Rover, let’s give this a shot.” An-Yi’s Gremlin shot forward, putting full power into its antigravity propulsion system to fly towards the back of the Heavy Floater. As distracted with shooting back at Emile as it was, it didn’t notice ROV-R until it was too late. The mechanical proboscis of the Gremlin entered the back of the robot’s ‘skull’, and Lily gained temporary access to its programming like hijacking the dreamscape of a psion. She closed her eyes, having only a few seconds to try and pull this off. Normally, haywire protocol was only a temporary affair - messing with alien programming that could correct itself give a minute or two. What she aimed to do was alter the machine’s core programming, bringing the A.I. that operated it under XCOM’s control permanently.

The clever engineer had an idea of how to do that - admittedly an inspired one. Seshat, access the Avenger’s database that contains our scans of the splinter AIs. Give me a smattering of emotional programing data, along with a copy of your loyalty programming. Armed with those digital weapons, Lily made some rapid adjustments to the layout of the alien A.I.’s cerebral cortex, shiftings its allegiance and altering it enough that it was reborn entirely. Once that operation was a success, she extracted the A.I. and stored it temporarily in ROV-R’s expanded internal data vault. “Hey, Emile! Keep on fighting, but in a minute or two I might have a present for you!” Make sure it’s safe to use, she requested of Seshat. Devote your processing power to that, we can handle what’s left of the Kerberant’s bodyguards from here.

“I’m on it, “ Emile staying in flight, switched to his shotgun, and flew to one of the Seraphim that had no armor. Emile let loose a blast at the unarmored Seraphim - sending a scattering of pulse beams into the torso of the flying enemy to bring it down with ease. “Shen, have mentioned how much I love this armor?” Emile said, smiling under his mask. Emile looked at the other seraphim, starting to jettison towards it.

“Don’t worry Emile, I got this thing, I want some payback, anyway.” Luke opened fire on the remaining Seraphim, his explosive heatwaves shredding the armor of the flying enemy. The red angel dived down towards Luke, and started to use firecracker on the red psion - forcing him to tank the volley of explosions with his restored blast padding. So that’s what’s like to get hit with firecracker. Though it’s not as powerful as mine. Let me show it who is the strongest psion. Luke responded with a reprisal volley of explosions that were directed at the Seraphim. Both of the psions used firecracker on one another; seeing an explosion battle between two psions was amazing to look at.

But Luke slowly started to get the advantage, his eyes growing redder as his his energy started to grow. “NOW die!” Luke sent a massive thunderclap of a detonation towards the Seraphim, destroying its armor and sending the flying enemy to the ground, leaving it like it was in a car wreck. “I love this mission so far, and i’m only getting stronger.” Luke looked at his hands and notice that he’s still not tired or worn out, despite the amount of power he’s used so far.”Wow, I’m still not tired. Guess this is my reward for finally accepting what I am, and not denying it, hehe.” Luke started to feel a bit wobbly, but he didn't lose consciousness. “Well maybe a little tired, but I’m getting better. Now then, we have a mission to complete.”

Assay of the modified A.I. is complete, Seshat informed the Chief. You are safe to transfer it to Emile’s PCS; it has been rendered docile. I believe I shall dub it ‘Nut’, after the Egyptian goddess of the sky - though I am admittedly biased to do so.

“I think that’ll be fine.” Lily instructed ROV-R to fly over to Emile, delivering the A.I. into his PCS. “Alright, the gift basket has been delivered. Enjoy the power-up.” She ran towards the Kerberant, activating her magnetic boots. “Let’s get inside that thing’s armor and do some damage! The elerium core is towards the midsection, if we destroy that we’ll blow apart a good portion of the suit.” With that in mind, she took in a deep breath and daringly vaulted onto the Kerberant’s side - dashing up towards the blown-open entryway.

Her blood ran cold when one of the beast’s three heads took notice of her. It gave a thunderous hiss, and barreled towards her with frightening speed. Lily was forced to jump for it the last leg of the way, leaping into the confines of the monster’s armor alongside Luke and Emile as the head smashed into the side of the armor. The Kerberant screeched in frustrated fury, but was unable to get to them at the moment.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Dahlexpert and DarkGemini24601: “Operation Hellhound, Part 3”

A few more Floaters and Seraphim presented themselves as opponents, aiming to stop the intruders from dealing internal damage to the mobile fortress armor. Lily was able to electrocute one of the Floaters into exploding with ROV-R, but there were too many for her to handle alone. “I’ll… let you guys handle the rest of them,” she said meekly, backing up behind the two seasoned soldiers.

“Right, of course. Emile, time to see what that A.I of your can do,” Luke said before launching a shard grenade it to the group. The resultant blast managed to stick shrapnel into one of the Floaters and the explosion shredded not only that robot but the aliens surrounding it too.

While Emile went into cover, a pink little person with faint gusts of holographic wind circling around her appeared in front of him. Hi there, I take it you're my new owner? It’s super nice to meet you, Emile.

“Oh, you're gonna be a pain... I can tell already. Look think you can help me out here?

Of course! Humm... I see your friends grenade got a good chunk of them I would recommend a flank around with your shotgun get the one up on them, or better yet have you friend use a flash grenade. But I recommend the flank, sweety.

“Ugh. Luke, keep them distracted. I’ll go around and flank them, alright?”

“On it.” Luke continued to fire at the aliens, destroying their cover and forcing them to stay airborne. Luke suppressed the enemy, keeping them pinned down. “Lily give me some help, with no cover and me unloading on them they should be easy targets for you. We also need to back up Emile.” As Luke and Shen distracted the enemy, Emile went to the side to flank the enemy.

Once to the enemy's side, Emile could see Luke’s holo targeting helping him out. Here, let me help you, sweety. Give you even more of an advantage. Nut designated the weak spots in the enemy's armor giving Emile an even bigger advantage. They're all yours sweetie.

“Please stop calling me that.” Emile started to fire his shotgun at the aliens him, aiming at the weak spots of the enemy's armor. To his surprise, Emile was hitting all his targets with ease - killing them one by one. “What is this, this never happened before...” As soon as Emile killed one enemy he immediately went after another.

That would be me. I’m giving you a reflex boost... I expect a thank you after all of this. Also while they’re looking at you, your friend can send another shard grenade at this group.

“Right, as Emile continued to kill the aliens, he turned to Luke and yelled. “Luke give them another grenade, we can’t waste any more time here!”

“Yea fine, don’t want to use my powers while you're that close to them.” Luke loaded his grenade launcher, and fired two shard grenades both sticking to the surviving Seraphim and Floaters. The detonation caused a chain effect, killing the remaining enemies in a brilliant blast that charred and scarred the walls around them.

Lily let out a quiet whistle. “You two don’t cease to impress,” she remarked, running down the hallway towards the thrumming power core. She produced a blasting charge, and set the timer for a minute. The device was attached to the elerium monolith, and then she turned around. “Alright, now would be the time to run.” The three rushed out the way they had come, jumping to the ground below as the armor’s power source exploded with a bluegreen blast of tremendous power. The explosion ripped apart an entire side of the Kerberant’s armor, making one side heavier than the other and causing it to lean on one side awkardly.

An ire-filled growl exited the three mouths of the Kerberant, and it activated some sort of switch. A series of clicked crackled over the gunfire of the ADVENT troops around the beast and the XCOM soldiers, and then the remaining outer portions of the monster’s armor fell off - leaving it in the thinner, lower layer of plating. Now goaded into attacking the XCOM operatives itself, the Kerberant turned - its three glowering faces fixed on those that had caused it so much pain. A head leapt for one of the three nearby soldiers each, the monster aiming to bite them in half or swallow them whole.

Look out! Nut took over Emiles armor and forced him into the air.

“What are you doing?”

Saving you, now as for the girl. She’s not like you two she will get eaten immediately so best we help her. Nut utilized Emile’s valkyrie armor to boost forward and get Lily out of the way. I’m gonna leave you two alone, have fun you two. “Hay don’t you leave me like this damn you!”

“Not the most reliable of an A.I., huh,” Lily muttered, moving momentarily out of the Kerberant’s range and opening fire. Her rifle’s shots merely scorched the exterior plating, dealing no real damage to the armor. “Valentina! You and Luke are probably the only ones that can do any real damage to this thing! Give it hell!”

“Bitchin’,” Valentina murmured. She swapped out her sniper rifle for the her rail wrecker rifle. The sniper carefully aimed at one of the armored heads of the Kerberant with the AMR, zeroing in on one of its eyes. “Time to make the world go blind.” She pulled the trigger, and shot forth a smart bullet that zipped towards the Kerberant. Her aim was a little off, but she was able to correct the round enough in-flight to make it impact with the alloy-derived glass that shielded the left head’s left eye. Mentally controlling the bullet still, she had it convert part of its forward velocity to a spinning motion, drilling deep into the glass and shattering it. The first shot wasn’t enough to get all the way through, but a follow-up shot came almost immediately after. The metal-strength glass shattered into fragments, and one of the Keberant’s six eyes was blown into a bloody mess.

The scream it made was unbearably grating, and in a fit of rage it reared the injured head back, while stomping forward towards the shop the Sharpshooter had set up on - intent on crushing Luke beneath its gigantic form in the midst of the charge.

“Ah, shit. Sorry, Luke!” Valentina apologized, starting to back off from the ledge she’d set up on.

“For what? You made things easier for me.” Luke switched to his psi amp “Just like before accept that I will kill you.” Luke channeled his thermokinetic firecracker into the psionic enhancement device, but he also added his psi-lance into it as well. The aura around Luke was intense it was could not be explained with words.” Here, take everything I have monster. Now this time stay dead!” Luke launched the massive attack and channeled into a psi cannonball, launching it into the heart of the Keberant’s the Powerful psi-attack went through the alien's armor, punctured its fleshy chest, and the explosion that followed ruptured the alien’s insides. The fire and the the explosions destroyed its heart, leaving a massive hole in its body as it fell, dead and leaking all sorts of extraterrestrial vital fluids that smelled of gasoline and formaldehyde. “Now… that’s how… it’s done mon...” Luke fell to the ground finally unconscious.

Lily just stood gawking at the ruined body of the monster - as many of the Matterhorn soldiers were - for a few seconds. Finally finding words, she uttered, “...goddamn showoff.” The engineer went to the Grenadier’s side, lifting him up with a groan of exertion (even using her power armor’s servos). “I’m going to have Alexis put you on a diet, you showboating bastard,” she joked tiredly, even though the majority of the weight was from his armor. “Seshat… let Bradford know… mission absa-fucking-lotuely accomplished.”

Emile went under Luke and helped Lily carry him. “I wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I let a lady pick up Luke.”

Aww, taking your friends advice about meeting girls, huh? Well she is cute.

Emile looked at Lily. “Please tell me you can mute her…”

Lily rolled her eyes. “You can remove your PCS to shut her up if it gets to be too much of a problem. I think you’ll find the combat advantage makes it worth the annoyance on missions, though.”

“I will keep that in mind.” Emile let out a sigh of relief. “Well, their main attacker is now dead. We just made things a hell of a lot tougher for ADVENT. Hopefully this guy will be awake soon.”

“Yeah… though I imagine he’s down for the count for a bit. Good thing our job here’s done. I think Matterhorn’s defenders can take it from here. We’ve earned a nice rest on our bunks,” Lily decided.

“Yea I think a break is earned, I also have to get used to you as well.”

You're gonna love me by the end of the day honey, once you realise how much I can help you. I’m also going to make you a lot more social, you little loner.

Emile shook his head, and got on the transport, just wanting to go home.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and MarineAvenger: “Perspective, Part 1”

Italiano Megacittà di Roma
October 11th, 2038 A.D.
2202 Hours, Local Time
A.I.D. Skyscraper Hub
Zenith Headquarters

A month before the Siege of Matterhorn.

Sitting in a lavish red armchair, her skin settled against the velvety outline, Verona Episcopos sipped a glass of locally-made wine. Looking out across the city from her seat, Vee could see the numerous lights of other skyscrapers laid out across the city of Rome. The older structures weren’t visible from these heights, and even on the ground level they had been mostly built over or destroyed by the alien’s idea of ‘progress marching on’. All of the tall buildings that replaced many of the historic sites rose garishly as high as they could, reaching to the sky but ultimately falling short.

“Tch.” The thoughts of the damage ADVENT’s reign had caused to the heritage of Italia - and by extent the legacy of the Episcopo family - only brought the Director of Exalt’s frustrations to the surface. She had better things to do than cry over spilled milk. The past was the past, and couldn’t be changed now. She had done all she could with her connections throughout the Coalition to preserve what she could. The fact that the Colesseum still stood was in no small part due to her efforts. Still, it was only delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later she would need to make the push to topple the Coalition - or mold it to mimic the old world that had been built over like the local historic sites.

As if reading her thoughts (perhaps she was), the woman seated at a desk with an old-fashioned lime green computer screen frowned at Verona. “I believe you stated you came here to relax. You do not appear to be doing such a thing,” a beautiful woman with dirty blond hair pointed out. “If you do not rest and enjoy yourself you will end up going out into the field still stressed, and this will all have been a waste of time.”

Vee sighed, offering up a tired smile. “Apologies, Vindicta. I am doing my best.”

“Do better,” was the scientist’s response.

The Director chuckled. “If you insist, dear sister.”

A trio of knocks sounded from the door of Verona’s command center, a voice of another distraction calling out from the other side. “You decent? Or at least awake?”

“Considering Vindicta is in here with me, of course I am. I haven’t become lecherous enough to engage in a threesome with her,” Vee riposted with a chuckle.

“I did not need that mental image,” Vindicta mumbled evenly.

The door slid open after a cough came from the visitor, and said person strolled in wiping his mouth of some dribble as a result of nearly coughing up the mouthful of soda from the can he held in his left hand. “Why I attempt to seek nourishment around you is a total mystery. I usually end up choked up from the wondrous comments that fly from your lips.” Asher said with a grumble of annoyance, shooting a glare at the lead woman in front of him. He was a fairly young man with a head of trimmed down salty blonde hair, gray colored eyes, and sleek facial features.

Despite his propensity to be always ready for conflict, today he sported a black button-up dress shirt with the top button left unfastened to show the silver chain that had a cross attached to a flat rectangle piece, but there was a deep slash across the entire thing. His black business coat was trimmed with gray and was custom made so there was a sidearm located in the inside of it -along with several knives of varying lengths just in case. Atop his head, being there merely for the sole fact some in his family disliked them entirely, was a black fedora, one that had the brim more worn due to its age dating back to the early nineteen-hundreds.

“I see you’re doing your best to relax yourself,” Verona noted. She was just wearing her typical modified jumpsuit outfit, though it was missing several pieces. She had her black heel-boots on, but the air was warm and thus she had foregone the stockings. The short skirt and panther-skull belt were there, but the chestplate was replaced by a puffy gray piece of cloth wrapped around the upper part of her torso. Her hands were bare without the warm gloves, and her goggles were on the table beside her. The Director scowled at the hat Asher wore. “And R&R seems to include drawing my ire with that gaudy hat.”

“The sole joy I have left to look forward to is your frown, m’lady.” Asher responded by grabbing the top of the hat, taking it off as he flourished a bow. While bent over, his eyes went to the screen. “Hey there to you too.” The soldier told the scientist offhandedly.

“Hello, Asher,” the scientist responded - though her eyes remained affixed to the blueprint software on the monitor. It appeared to be a possible modification of cybernetic limbs - designs that Exalt had managed to steal through a variety of underhanded deals with some prominent Advent engineers. Noting his interest out of the corner of her eye, Vindicta stated, “I am working on making modifications to the sensory sensitivity of the TP-2000 limbs that Poinsettia uses. She was complaining that they were slow and unresponsive lately.”

“Tell her not to bash the damn things around and they may last her longer. Or you could try shutting her off and turning her on again. That usually fixes problems, though I still cross my fingers for the day you can patch her attitude. That needed a hotfix years ago.” Asher placed the hat back upon his head and sat down in a chair across from the Director’s desk, setting his arms back as he lounged comfortably..

Reflecting back on one particular incident that both she and Poinsettia had not easily forgotten, Vindicta nodded slowly. “I...I can agree with that. Though the human mind is a problem not so easily solved through the likes of equations and innovation.”

“Lighten up Vin. I wasn’t being that serious about it.” The mercenary of the Episcopo family waved his hand dismissively as he looked back towards Verona, then frowned. “Are you seriously scowling at the hat? You know it is not alive right? It won’t stick a tongue out at you.”

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601 and MarineAvenger: “Perspective, Part 2”

“Oh, I was just considering how easy it would be to erase it from existence with Black Bishop is all,” Verona mentioned offhandedly. Just one beautiful swipe and poof, it’s been cast into oblivion.”

“I will never understand the women of this family.” Asher looked to the ceiling and let out a drawn out sigh. “Remind me again why I deal with this family circus of ours?”

“Because I created you and therefore am your goddess?” Vee retorted haughtily.

Not offering up a response he instead turned his attention to Vindicta. “Did you know Nietzsche once killed a god with words? What do you think could happen to one with several pounds of plastic explosives strapped to her?”

“Explosives would be the worst way to slay Verona,” Vindicta responded with a shake of her head. “There would be a wonderful symphony of that noise Nero Vescovo makes when it nullifies detonations though.”

“Oh well, will have to deal with the second best option of blowing up her favorite clothing outlet. The mental image of that freakout would be well worth the cold embrace of death moments later. Wouldn’t you agree?” The clone asked his counterpart.

“...I do not believe this discussion is helping her relax,” Vindicta adjudicated.

“Threaten fashion at your own peril,” Vee growled menacingly.

“Ooo, real scary.” Asher closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “You never let me do anything fun. That building demolition could have been amazing. Always wanted to laugh ironically at blow up deals.” The sarcasm wearing thin, he placed his cheek against his fist and stared at Verona with a bored expression, “So what is our dear part time egomaniac trying to exactly relax from exactly? More precisely for what? I just got here.”

“Been out in the field a lot lately, and I’ve still got a lot to do. Trying to see about stocking up what troops we actually have with the best gear I can get, and so on and so forth. The damned Resistance is threatening to accelerate our timetable with all the rumblings they’re causing.”

“And to unwind from a hard day’s work you… come here. I see your nerves really are close to fried. You are thinking in the strangest of ways. You know you could drink literally anywhere else right? Who knows, maybe even make the next heir of the line not in the form of a test tube baby.” Asher said, his voice taking on a bit of ire from the last point.

Vee raised an eyebrow incredulously, swallowing the wine she had in her mouth to avoid spitting it out. “What the hell does reclining in a chair and drinking alcohol have to do with procreation? I don’t follow your train of thought at all.”

“I’m more of a social drinker. Makes you more prone to that sort of thing. One of us has to get out and not stay cooped up all day long doing the ‘fun’ activities you weirdos do. I feel bad for Vindicta.” He commented about the girl even though she was still in the conversation. “Shooting things is so much more simple.”

“Different people have different perspectives and passions. Just because you do not understand why we enjoy the things we do doesn’t make our pleasures less valid,” Vindicta commented calmly.

“Reason I’m hanging out here is because this chair is nice and comfortable, I wanted to see Vindicta since it’s been awhile, and this is essentially my home. I don’t see anything wrong with that, and I’m not exactly pressed to have kids - still don’t know what brought your mind to that topic. If by some fluke one of those Advent mooks killed me, my DNA’s stored in our vaults. Exalt is quite literally immortal in that sense.” Vee shook her head. “Not that I’m worried about getting killed. Your lack of faith is frankly what’s disturbing here.”

“Course you aren’t worried about death, because it’s my job to make sure you don’t die. Must say I am pretty damn good at said job too. As for the no faith part…” He shrugged and put his arms behind his head, “If I lacked a good amount of faith at all, there would be no need for me to be around to watch you guys. Though I have to ask about the purpose of why having me around is exactly necessary in the first place. You have Bishop, have a team that can bring you back at any point whatsoever… tends to make a man think as to what his whole life meaning really is other than to be a stand in for you know who.”

“You’re not a replacement for Markus,” Verona insisted, her expression growing serious. “He had his own set of talents and his own personality. Your mind and body are their own, even if they are derived from his. Vindicta has her own divergences from Emilia as well. I created you all because I needed the assistance and was… admittedly lonely, but that doesn’t mean I expected you to be identical. If I wanted that I could have probably gotten close with careful genetic tailoring, but even then… wouldn’t have been worth the effort.”

Asher’s look could almost be described as bored as he looked Verona in the eyes but after a few moments he smiled at her, one that suggested he had been poking her for that specific answer. “Can’t be said you aren’t good with flowery speeches. Love you too.” The sniper told her with the briefest of chuckles.

Vee rolled her eyes. “Asshole.”

“You’d miss me if I left.” Asher said, taking a phone out of the pocket of his jacket. He double tapped the screen and it turned on, the soldier looking down at the message displayed on it. “Speaking of which, must be off. I’ll be sure to get you something pretty while I’m out.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep lying to everyone and tell them the sexy lingerie is for me when it’s really for you.” Verona held a hand over her mouth in mock surprise. “Oh, did I say that out loud? Pretend you didn’t hear the truth, Vindicta.”

“Why must you drag me into these arguments, mistress…”

“Cute.” Asher said as he stood, taking off his hat and placing it on her desk. “Though I suppose you always are, now aren’t you?” He spoke to tease her, turning and striding out with a silent wave.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

“Restraint” - Pars Unum

Supra-Battleship “Everentium”
November 26th, 0015 A.U.
2835 Protectorate Time
Close Orbit of Jupiter
Stable Rev. Velocity

The lights on the ancient warship glittered in circular, rainbow-colored disks and shined from winding, pure-white arrangements. The artificial glow revealed a spacecraft that had undergone recent remodeling. Plenty of the old ornate designs on the personal flagship of the Ethereal High Commander had been retained; the starship still boasted a structure and iconography that suggested the history and endurance of the Path. However, the ship was not an outdated ceremonial craft as it had been under Thanatos’Mictlanmacaria. Archaic photon pulse cannons had been replaced with modern plasma stream turrets, and an anachronistic expandable metal shell system had been stripped out in favor of zero alloy plating with integrated shield generators.

The Everentium – a ship whose name meant ‘reverence for those more powerful than oneself’ in the Ethereal language – was both a memoriam to the past and a beacon of progress. Whenever Vekinte’Ecformin’Cettint stood at its helm, he felt humbled by the responsibility and magnitude of his position. The flagship brought the histories he had been taught whilst training to be a Chronicler to life. It reminded the High Commander not only of his species’ legacy, but his own as well. From humble origins, a prophet rose and strived to secure a future for his people, Vekinte mused.

One of the nearby Latticers bowed his head. My deepest apologies, Exalted One. Did you speak?

I was merely reminiscing. You may lift your head if you wish. I am unbothered by the gaze of others, Vekinte noted generously.

With respect, it is not my place to meet your gaze, high one, the disciple insisted.

A sigh emanated from the Ethereal across from him. As you wish. Privately, Vekinte lamented that, even after two decades, some of them still cling to Thanatos’ ‘rule by fear’ philosophy. Senile old man, why do you trouble me even after falling comatose and being permanently locked in stasis? I banished you from this world, yet your ideology still poisons my efforts to this day. If only it had been possible to overtly reject your vision without drawing the ire of the old Overseers. Ultimately, there was little that could be done about it. Their strength and expertise is valuable and needed. Even if I loathe their personalities. And, in any case, I spilled enough violet blood during the Purge.

The High Commander frowned beneath his mask. Damn you, Shen’lutusus, for requiring me to order the death of yet another of my kin. You are jeopardizing everything we have worked towards over the past one-point-six cycles in a misguided quest for vengeance. Reflecting on the likely reason for Shen’s betrayal, Vekinte conceded, I should have listened to your counsel back then, dear Cordiam. Ordering the death of Acra’siathi probably ensured that Shen would do something stupid. If I were going to have her die, I should have taken him down alongside her. Alas, one must either have a strong hand or be fully merciful. Hesitation in the middle only leads to trouble.

Vekinte chuckled. What are you doing, Vekinte? Lecturing yourself? Don’t get lost in that haughty public persona of yours.

Sir? the Latticer questioned, hearing none of his master’s internal thoughts – only the soft laughter.

The Ethereal waved his two right hands dismissively. Just thought of something amusing, my disciple. Nothing more. The High Commander cleared his throat. “Helmsman, if you would vacate the wheel. I would like to pilot us to Europa directly.”

This was not the first time the hierarch had made such a request of the Sectoid Guru pilot. The first time, it had meekly questioned why Vekinte would want to bother himself with such a task. But upon being told to ‘see for himself’, the Priorbus had learned just why the High Commander was fond of driving his own spacecraft.

Vekinte took a seat in the emptied chair, and placed two of his hands in his lap – the other pair placed down on the neural sensors that gave him mental access to the ship’s navigational equipment. A smile creased the Ethereal’s features as he noted that the computer recognized him, and automatically prompted him with a question as to whether he wanted to consult it for assistance. The High Commander was quick to decline. “I see you have gotten to know me better over the past point-eight cycles, WS-24249,” the exalted one remarked with an approving tone.

Of course, holy one. I shan’t underestimate your capabilities ever again.

Still smiling – but tightening his feature slightly as he concentrated – the Ethereal in charge of the Protectorate began running the calculations in his head himself. Thruster velocity was considered in relation to the strength of the nearby gas giant’s gravitational pull. Vekinte ran the numbers in his head from memory alone, and did so as fast as one of NASA’s computers could have. Let us visit the homeworld of the Lutumax, then, he declared, having charted out a course without the navigational mainframe – using only his intellect. The Everentium’s engines flared with jets of inflamed plasma, and the supra-battleship headed towards the Galilean moon.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

"Restraint" - Pars Duo

Only a few minutes passed before the destination was reached. The frontal thrusters kicked in to bring the city-sized starship into a stable orbit around the icy Jovian moon. Vekinte’Ecformin’Cettint rapped his fingers on the neural uplink, a slight frown on his brow. Hm. It appears I was off by a margin of error of about point-seven percent. I will have to practice more in the future… I may be slightly losing my touch. Not completely satisified with his mathematical performance, the Ethereal rose from his chair, informing his bodyguards, I will be heading to the surface now. Alone. His playful tone was gone, replaced by a grim finality.

The disciples merely bowed, not going to argue with a direct request from their esteemed leader. Vekinte folded his four hands beneath his gold-lined white robes. The air momentarily grew unnaturally heavy as particles of golden energy surrounded the Ethereal One. A bright flash encapsulated his form, and when it cleared he was gone – having blinked down to the surface. He reappeared in an enclosed dome on the surface, which afforded him a panoramic view of the chaos terrain that stretched out to either side. The High Commander hadn’t come here to basky in the beauty of the bizarrely-arranged ice, however. He had an inspection to do of a facility below the ice sheet, and he intended to use the opportunity to think about the events currently transpiring back on Terra.

Thusly, Vekinte stepped into a kilometers-long elevator, and began the smooth ride down. As the chute gently dropped him into the natural satellite’s depths, he began to think. The siege of Matterhorn is not going as well as it could be. The advanced is continually stalled by XCOM’s efforts. They’ve destroyed a Sectopod, slain a Kerberant, and continue to frustrate the assault force’s efforts with pinprick defensive strikes. What a bunch of irksome assholes, the Ethereal thought rather uncouthly. So the question is… do I reconsider this current course? Should I subjugate the city with whatever means necessary? It would be very simple to just send our best troops or some sort of bombardment, and crush not only the traitor forces, but the head of the Resistance as well. All of my problems, entrenched in that one city…

Vekinte thought of his laʒir, and how she might react to the wholesale slaughter of civilians in the name of the greater good. You would argue that we’ve already done enough harm as is with the Avatar Project, wouldn’t you my love? A sigh escaped Vekinte’s mouth. I suppose you’re right. It would solve the immediate problem, but it would horrify the human public. They’re already halfway informed of the unfortunate steps we’ve had to take to preserve our species thanks to XCOM’s efforts. The destruction of a Megacity would be impossible to cover up, and it would only cement unfounded fears that we don’t have their best interests in mind once the necessary evils of the Ethereal species’ survival are at an end.

So what was to be done, then? The High Commander ruminated on this as the elevator finished its journey through the icy outer layer of Europa, and dove into its lightless oceans. The faint glow of the alloy-glass tube allowed Vekinte to see faint shapes in the water – revealing the silohuettes of the eyeless fish that called the upper layers of the subsurface ocean home. They were not wholly organic creatures, though, as evidenced by the strange silvery tones to their skin.

At the very least, we need to step up our efforts. The Protectorate needs to do more than fling beasts and robots at the Matterhorn defenders as if that’s going to do anything. Our aircraft will get shot down, but… I’m almost certain Shen doesn’t have the ability to detect cloaked craft. I might be able to sneak in a little demoralization force. A surgical terror strike won’t cause a public uproar, and it’d be easy to blame on our wayward Overseer if word escaped the confines of the battlefield. In addition, I might as well put those Inquisitors to use. The sooner that man with Azazel’s Reflection perishes, the sooner I can rest at ease.

Vekinte rubbed the bottom of his mask. The fact that XCOM had several Reflection-users didn’t sit well with the High Commander. He knew firsthand just how powerful one could be if the will of the wielder was mighty. Blue World. Umbra. And all the others they have. I doubt they’re as powerful as you, he spoke to the silver-armored Ethereal knight that had materialized behind him. But they all have the capacity to grow, and that’s dangerous. The knight gave a slight nod. Umbra should be the first to go. An Ethereal Reflection’s particularly worrisome. I’ll have one of the Elementalists execute the human in possession of it.

The elevator hummed quietly as it finally reached the seafloor, where many plumes of volcanic smoke billowed nutrients into the internal sea. Vekinte stepped out into a small laboratory, where some of the lifeforms that dwelled in these dark depths had been harvested. These were the Mindleeches and Silicids, the former being the more common version of the Lutumax. The latter was much more rare and was extremely slow to breed. Fortunately, this year was the budding season after several long cycles, and Vekinte had come to assess the living crop.

The High Commander paced between the quiet vats, observing the slug-esque creatures that were contained within. He assayed their psionic power with his sensitivity to such energies, and smiled when he confirmed that they were strong. The early-born Praclaritas wasn’t a fluke, then. Good… we can implement some of these Silicids into the armor of elite troops… perhaps some of my disciples and comrades. That will take some time… but if the siege hasn’t been completed by the time these new ones are ready…

Vekinte smiled triumphantly. Then they will seal the end for those that foolishly opposed the Path.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Partnership and trust take time

Alpine Megacity “Matterhorn”
November 17th, 2038 A.D.
1555 Hours, Local Time
Lower Industry Zone
Overpass Shade

Emile returns from his mission still carrying an unconscious Luke, Lilith ran to the two a worryed look on her face. “ Luke! What happened to his is he alright, he’s not?”

“Don’t worry Lilith he’s fine, he's just extremely tired, fucker tore a hole in that three headed monster. He through a massive psi cannon ball right through it’s chest, it was incredible to see.”

Lilith eyes widen in shock, and she stats waving her hands. “Wait, wait wait. Are you telling me that this guy, my son killed that giant alien with just his psi powers?”

“Yep, it was incredible to see. A pink A.I showed up next to Emile.

Yep it was all inspiring, I would say that display of might just got our men more inspired to defend this city.

Lilith is taken back by the A.I.”I see Luke is not the only one that got a prize out of that battle, nice to see we have a new allie welcome to XCOM little thing.”

Heh heh thank you it’s a pleasure to be apart of the program.

Lilith takes Luke off Emiles shoulder.”Anyway I better git him in a bed, need him well rested for whatever the commander ask of him. It’s a good thing Alexis is not here, she loose her mind seeing Luke like this before going out.” As Lilith takes Luke to the bunks, Emile looks at his new A.I

Well she seems like a nice lady, I already like this program so much better then ADVENT. Also being in a human is way different then a floater.

“We need to talk, we didn't have an opportunity during the mission or the ride here.”

Ou, alright I would love to talk. My last partner never talked to me, so I would love to talk sweety.

Emile grouns and goes to sit down, he sit’s in a chair as Nut appears on the ground. So what do you want to talk about buddy, I can talk about literally anything. The A.I saying with enthusiasm.

“Alight first off, stop acting all buddy buddy with me. The reason why we're partners is because Shen got you out of that floater and need to put it into someone. It was a situational diction, and if it wasn't for that you would not be in my head.


“That might be true but I like being in a human, and I have to say the human body is very interesting all the different organs . I must admit you are quite fit, and handsome, yes I can see under your mask.”

Emile takes his mask off and puts it on his side.”Look let’s get this straight we're not friends, hell were not even partners.”

Nut lowers her head to the ground,and kicks the ground. Even though she couldn't. But I like being your partner, I mean yea our partnership was sudden and out of the blue. But I want to be your partner, I want you to trust me hell I saved your life form that alien eating you alive. So can I get some operation!”

Emile leaned back in the chair surprised by the A.I outburst. Emile sighed and looked at the A.I.”Fine, thank you for saving me. I guess that I do ou you that much huh.”

The A.I got off the ground and in front of Emiles face and started to smile. “ Um can you say that again, can you say thank you to me again… Please.”

Emile looked confused at the alien wondering why it wants him to thank her. “Um alright thank you for your part, for saving me and Shen… Nice work.”

The A.I smiled at Emile happy for what he said. “No..no one ever complimented me before, or ever thanked me for anything.

“Really, well that makes since you're just equipment. But I guess I do ou you for saving me, so good work out there today.”

Nut started to squeal and hug Emile even though it physically can't. Thank you, thank you , thank you, I can also help you with other things as well. I can improve your aim more than it already is I have a three hundred and sixty degree view, so I see everything around you. And as you saw I can take control of your armor so you can evade easily, and All sorts of other things.

“Really, sigh alright maybe I was a little harsh at first and yes I blew you off but you sound pretty useful.”


“Yeee, thanks sweetie i’m glad your getting me a chance don’t worry I will make sure to keep you alive.

“Must you call me that, seriously do you have to call me sweetie and all these compliments.”

“Well you have to get used to woman right, I mean I do live in your head so I know everything about you. Why do you not like the compliments?”

“Sigh, just don’t do it too often alright Nut. “


“Fine, but we are partners right? I mean you do trust me to keep you alive right? Nut giving Emile here best puppy dog eyes for an A.I


“Well the day is not over yet, so we’ll see for now let’s keep talking and go over some tactic while we have time.”


“Right ok, I can’t wait to continue fighting with you Emile.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

XCOM Mission Report

Level 4 Settlement Band, Matterhorn Megacity
Deposit Gardens, Recreational District
1245 Hours, November 29th, 2038

Gaia Squad

LT Nash, Kevin [Ranger]
CPL Likuga, Qamut [Enforcer]
SQ Tvarnov, Marx [Ranger]
SQ Cruz, Cornelia [Paramedic]
SQ Stone, Anna [Ambusher]
SQ Manamea, Keloe [Enforcer]

Operation Slipstream

While the ADVENT assault force remains fighting on the second level for the most part, the aliens have managed to sneak past a strike team of their own. It appears that Shen’lustus’ anti-air batteries are not infallible. The emplacements have kept all Coalition aircraft way, and have put down a few Protectorate scout craft that tried to sneak a peek at the ground-based defenses, but there is one thing they cannot detect and destroy efficiently: cloaked ships. One such specially-equipped raider craft has landed in the middle of a recreation district, and is likely aiming to flank the Matterhorn security forces while racking up some civilian casualties with the intent to demoralize.

This cannot be allowed to stand. XCOM will be sending Gaia Squad under the command of Lieutenant Nash to stop the strike team before they can get too far into the fourth level of the city. This objective has two components. The first is taking out the enemies themselves, while the second will be securing the UFO to ensure that it cannot take off and be reused for a similar surgical strike. There will be some Matterhorn troops in the area to assist the squad, but they will be outmatched against a purely alien enemy. It will be up to Gaia to lead the charge and secure the area.

***
​

Gaia Squad was dropped off on the edge of the so-called ‘Deposit Gardens’ by a vehicular transport provided by the security forces. Kevin had chosen to keep this distance so that the team could make use of their armor cloaking to get a surprise attack in on the aliens. Such an ambush would make the rest of the combat easier, he reasoned. The deployment location also had the added effect of providing a panoramic view of the gardens. They were a sweeping hillside of tundra grasses, likely fed and kept warm by infrastructure hidden beneath their juniper green blades. Dotting the area were smoothed stones of various sides - the sort you’d expect to find in an area where a glacier had receded. Some were mere piles of pebbles, while others were as big as boulders.

Naturally, Kevin directed his concealed squad to keep to the areas where the larger rocks were most prominent - as they would serve as ideal cover. Communications were kept within internal radio for secrecy. Knowing any nearby enemies wouldn’t be able to hear, Kevin took the opportunity to carry on a self-contained conversation with his fellow XCOM veteran as he scanned the hillside for the alien strike force. He only broke the reminiscence about past battles to check on the rest of the team. “You ready for this, Ms. Stone?” he asked the new recruit. “Hope this isn’t too intimidating for you.”

The Witch chuckled slightly, “Don’t worry, I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time…”

The Russian Ranger however, sprung up at the name, turning around to the new recruit, “Excuse me… He said your name was... Ms. Stone?”

Surprised to see someone actually approach her, she quickly replied, “It’s Anna, nice to meet you…”

Marx had almost dropped his weapon in shock, fumbling around to keep it from hitting the ground. Even Keloe couldn’t believe what was going on, being closer with Marx than their other two roommates. “The Anna Stone… Marx’s cousin Anna Stone?” The Samoan asked with disbelief.

And now, the surprise had finally spread around to the Ambusher, “You… You know my cousin? Where is he?”

Marx had to step closer to her, his brain having a hard time coping with how different she sounded after all these years, like everything happy had been leeched out of her, “It’s… Me, I’m Marx! It’s your cousin!”

“I can’t… I knew this was meant to be… I knew I was meant to be here…” Anna stepped forward, touching the cheek of Marx’s mask, “It’s been so long…”

“I’ve spent it all wondering where you’ve gone, no one knew where you went, last time I saw you, you were heading to Moscow.” Marx explained, “I’ve been trying to find you… Where have you been, how did you get here?”

Anna instantly fent a twang of pain in her chest, everything she had said to Ayame about honesty seemed harder to swallow now, could she really tell him? “It… It wasn’t good Marx…” The black haired woman sighed somberly.

The Ranger clenched his fist, “They… They got to you didn’t they… Fuck! Those fucking bastards!”

Anna suddenly felt very tired, “That’s passed… There’s nothing we can do now cousin…”

Except make the elders pay… Korelyive reminded them.

Marx’s surprise returned when he felt her powerful psionic energy, but instead, he held it in, there was a mission that had to be done, all of this had to wait, “We have to finish this later, we’re losing time and we don’t have much of it before the aliens start gunning down civilians…”

“Agreed…” Anna nodded, “I’ll make sure we’ll have that ‘later’, we’ll watch each-other’s backs, just like all those years ago…”

Keloe felt like quite the outsider and there was a number of things she wished she could do to make the both of them feel better, but Marx was right, right now, there was a mission to complete. “Well, it’s great to finally meet you Anna… Now let’s kick some ass.”’

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Frostlich1228 and DarkGemini24601: “Operation Slipstream, Part 1”

The first sign of enemies revealed itself to be a very sizeable amount of alien troops. In all, about a dozen Mecroaches scurried across the hill - oblivious to the cloaked troops watching them. They were not alone. In the front was a trio of Baʒir that lacked metallic armor. Instead, their outer shells were a bloodred color with jagged white calcium lines crisscrossing them. They seemed a little larger than their regular mechanized counterparts to boot.

“Look kinda like that Berserker that Judgement Squad fought in Auschwitz,” Kevin noted. “Bet they’re at least half as durable.” The veteran XCOM soldier considered the squad’s options. “Stone, I imagine your Reflection might be useful against those things. I’ll do my best to assist… Niphua should keep me safe from any crushing blows those things might be able to produce. Tvarnov… I see a lot of opportunities to use the cybernetic parts on those bugs against them. Cornelia, you can provide fire support. Qamut, Manamea, set up your shields and mount your LMGs. Get ready for a shooting gallery.” He tapped his fingers against the barrel of his shotgun, taking a deep breath as the squad got into position.

He was at the forefront with Marx near him, while the pair of Enforcers locked position on the left and right extremities of the XCOM battle line. Cornelia set up behind a boulder, peering out from one side while Anna was covered by the other end of the large rock. Sergeant Nash ran a mental countdown in his head, and then nodded. “Now!” Cornelia gave him an aid protocol, and he charged forward - breaking his cloaking field with a burst of scattered blue lasers that blew a series of holes through the foremost Mecroach and brought it down.

As Keloe and Qamut rained down suppressing fire on the insects, Marx mustered all his focus, taking a deep breath as he brought his hands together slowly. One of the Mechroaches alloyed shells began to creak as the Russian’s hands struggled to get closer together. Marx suddenly pressed as much power as he could muster into his psionics, his eyes glowing orange as the Mechroaches shell began to fail, caving in on the frail being inside like a crushed tin can.

Anna meanwhile was using her stealth to get around behind the unsuited roaches, taking cover behind a corner. In the panic of the situation, one of the insects rushed to find cover behind the convenient wall, but unknowingly walked right into Anna’s trap as she uncloaked and her reflection reached into its chest. Paralyzed by the hold, the roach could do nothing but look around as it felt it’s very soul being forcibly torn from it’s body. The unbearable pain was comparable to being suffocated and after only a few moments the Bullroach was reduced into nothing but a fragile exoskeletal husk.

The other two shuddered - perhaps in fear, though the action they took next seemed to put that response into question. They both flipped their claws back onto themselves, reaching to their soft underbellies and tearing lines into the tender flesh. Droplets of blood splattered onto the tundra grasses beneath them, painting it a more yellow color. The two masochistic Baʒir were backed up by some of their mechanized bretheren as they each picked out a target and rushed forward. The first went directly for Korelyive, making a swipe with several of its claws to try and tear into the chitin of the undead Chryssalid. The second rushed for Kevin, stopping a bit short of him.

Detecting movement in its shell! It probably just means to greet you, but perhaps you should move back anyway, the overly trusting A.I. in the Sergeant’s head noted.

Kevin’s eyes widened, and he dashed backwards just as an array of spiny bristles shot out of the Bullroach’s shell, serrating the air around them. “Those look sharp…” He tossed his shotgun onto the magnetic clamp on his back, and brought his impulse blades to bear.

Korelyive instinctively pulled back, despite knowing that the creature’s claw would probably just pass through it, she didn’t want to take a chance with it. Anna had also backed up reflexively, but still didn’t have enough room to really fire at it. Instead, she unleashed a psychotic break into the mind of the insect, hopefully causing at least a hesitation in the attacker to take advantage of. In response, the already-aggressive creature seemed to completely lose what little of a mind it had left in the first place. It ground its own claws against its skull, the masochistic pleasure it experienced driving it to keep doing so until it ruptured its own brain. The gray matter tumbled out, and the Bullroach collapsed into an ichor-spilling heap.

Meanwhile, Kevin decided enough was enough. He stopped dodging his opponents attacks, letting it strike him head-on. The symphony of claws that hit him didn’t penetrate his armor, and instead popped some of the volatile bubbles on his hellweave. The roach was lit on fire by the gouts of oily, flammable fluids, and Kevin used that advantage - and the reflex triggered by the strike - to retaliate with a pair of sword strikes. His efforts were frustrated by the calcified plating in his way - the impulse blades not penetrating the hardened shell. Weak spots?

Underbelly.

Thanks. Kevin kicked a boot forward - knocking the rather lightweight bug onto its back while it reeled from the force of his initial hits - as ineffectual as they were. He then thrust his swords downwards, cutting into vital areas and finishing off the last Bullroach.

The rest of the Mecroaches had been whittled down by thermo LMG fire, and the cryowaves that followed the initial superheated barrage cracked the shells of the bugs apart - enabling a tossed shrapnel grenade from Cornelia to blow most of them to hell. Only three remained, and that trio backed off… towards a new challenger that was rushing forward at high speeds. Bearing super-hardened flesh similar to the Bullroaches, but being much huger and more muscular, the freshly-arrived Berserker let loose a thundering bellow sounding like a demonic hog’s bleats on a backdrop of gutteral screams. The Mecroaches attempted to flank and distract the two Enforcers as the vicious alien made its charge.

“Oh that’s just great,” Kevin muttered, choosing to run back and switch to his shotgun rather than trying to face the monstrous Balmadaar head-on.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Frostlich1228 and DarkGemini24601: “Operation Slipstream, Part 2”

Upon seeing the massive alien, Marx stepped backwards, sending up a wall of rock between the maddened Muton and them while Keloe lowered her LMG and moved backwards, keeping her shield up.

Anna watched as the beast charged towards her cousin, but wasn’t in a good position to go for another Psychotic Break. She alternatively used her coil ack to grapple herself ontop of a boulder, laying fire into the Mecroaches who were harrying Keloe and Qamut. Her bolt-bullet impaled the pistols of one of the cyborgs, then she reloaded and swapped to her pistol to shoot at and distract the Muton who was currently shattering the stone barrier with tremendous force.

The Berserker’s beady eyes darted over to Anna, and with a bellow it ran towards her - swatting the side of the boulder and causing it to start tumbling down the side of the hill. Facing the other foes again, it received a shotgun blast from Kevin - who had rushed into close range to get a good shot off. He managed to get in a good hit, but the effect of his attack was subdued somewhat by plating that hardened in resistance to close quarters attacks. Too close to the still-alive and very much angry Muton, he couldn’t retreat in time to avoid a punch.

“Mother fu-” Kevin managed to get out before being slammed with enough force to cause some internal bleeding. He was knocked back several meters onto his back, and coughed up some blood - unable to immediately get back up from the strike.

The Berserker - lightly wounded but enraged by the damage it had sustained - charged headfirst into the stone wall Marx had erected - breaking the already-cracked shield into splinters and rendering him and the downed Kevin face-to-face to the monster.

A spray of heat energy seared its side, doing no damage but chipping away at the beast’s natural defenses. Thanks to Anna’s actions, Qamut had been freed up to open fire on the Berserker. “Back the hell away from them!” The Berserker didn’t seem intent on doing any such thing, however.

Marx had very few options. He had to go toe to toe with it: simply throwing spikes wouldn’t get enough of its attention on him and away from Kevin. The Russian ripped the alloy off of the crushed Mecroach, only able to scavenge enough to form a thick alloy gauntlet and shield combo. As he rushed the beast he unsheathed one of his pulse machetes, slamming the blade into the alien’s side, causing the blood in the wound to sizzle against the heated blade, as he readied himself to block its retaliatory attack.

As Marx did this, Anna picked herself off the ground, watching her cousin’s reckless attack in horror, her heart and mind racing madly as Keloe kept the last pair of Mecroaches’ attention onto her.

Cornelia lifted her magnetic carbine in the direction of the Berserker. “Like hell you’re going to kill him,” the Mexican woman growled. She balanced the light rifle on the rock she had remained behind, and drew a psi amp with her left hand. Green psionic energy flowed through it into her gun, and coated her bullets in acid as she fired them at the Berserker. The shots impacted the half-melted plates on its side, destroying the armor further. Her Gremlin used its nanites to bind her Sergeant’s internal wounds and restore the crunched portions of his armor. “Kill the damn thing, now!”

Kevin forced himself to his feet. His shotgun lay in the grass a distance from him, so he pulled out his swords and attacked with those instead. This time, he had a weakened spot in the armor to attack. Even with the shock absorbent bioplating reducing the effectiveness of his attack, he was able to deal some damage with his blades and force the Berserker to back up slightly. Another blast from Qamut melted through some of the last of the alien’s natural defenses. “Marx, follow up!”

Dropping the shield and running forward, Marx launched himself up with a pillar of rock, bringing both of his blades down into the neck and head of the huge creature, splitting its skull open partially and leaving a gash in its neck that sprayed blood onto Marx’s face and chest.

The Berserker didn’t collapse backwards. The light had faded from its eyes, and it was surely dead - but with lumbering and uncoordinated yet still-monstrous force, it punched the Ranger directly in his helmet - sending him flying backwards with his own skull cracked.

“The fuck is that?!” Kevin cried out in confusion as Marx toppled over, rolling across the dirt and slamming into a boulder.

Anna’s eyes widened as she rushed over to her cousin, “Marx!”

Keloe, hearing this, turned around as well as she had a similar reaction, but instead of running to him, she gritted her teeth and slammed her shield down, laying LMG fire into the two remaining Mecroaches, managing to tear into the legs of the one whose cannon had been disabled by Anna.

With Cornelia and Qamut’s assistance, the other roaches fell. Kevin moved into position to barr the Berserker from landing any further hits on Marx. Niphua allowed him to dance around the lumbering zombie’s attacks - and he noted that little by little, it was tiring itself out. What the hell is going on with this thing? He split open its brain!

It appears to be operating purely on some sort of metabolic process rather than normal neural impulses. It is a decidedly unnatural modification of its bodily behavior, Niphua analyzed. But it will run out of steam it seems.

True to her word, the Berserker slowed down even further, and then collapsed onto the ground. As its twitching began to cease, the Paramedic Gremlin rushed over to Marx - knitting his bones and blood vessels back into place. The process would have been painful for anyone else, but due to his unique condition he felt none of it.

Keloe, picking up her shield again, joined Marx at his side, clearly panicking but trying not to show it. Anna looked up from him and at the medic, “Is he alright!? Is he alive!?”

“Joan says his vitals are stable. Thank Christ for helmets, though,” Cornelia muttered. “If any more force had passed into his head he would have been permanently impaired. As it is he’s just unconscious, and if you give me a second…” A few blue lights on her Gremlin lit up, and it delivered another healing spray into the soldier’s helmet along with some electrical impulses that brought him back out of dreamland. “Revival protocol successful.”

As Marx’s eyes opened again, he looked around at the gathering of his friends and allies, “Wha… what the fuck… happened?”

Anna sighed, “How are you still as reckless as you were when we were kids? I guess something things never change… You could’ve died…”

“Well… better me than anyone else… right?” Marx added lightly.

Keloe just pouted as his response, “Just shut up you idiot… You’re just as important as anyone else, especially to me…”

“I didn’t wake him up so you could flirt with him,” the squad’s Paramedic sarcastically noted. “We’ve still got a mission to complete.”

“Right…” Marx said as he picked himself up, collecting his weapon, “So what now?”

“We advance.” Kevin set his sights forward. “Ship should be in that direction… figure once we get close the enemy will have to respond… or we’ll faceplant into the UFO. Either way we should be able to find it.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Frostlich1228 and DarkGemini24601: “Operation Slipstream, Part 3”

The former result was the one that actually occurred. The flattened grasses of the hillside revealed the slant-parked UFO to the squad, and no sooner did they find it that the synthetic psionic soldiers within revealed themselves. The distorted grin of a Facisimile and the impassive spotlight eyes of a Codex greeted the squad in addition to the guns of a few Mutons. The alien shocktroopers opened fire on the two Enforcers, the squad leader, and the resident doc, forcing them into cover and a protracted firefight. That left the cousins to deal with the clever synthetic beings that remained behind.

The Codex blinked behind Anna, her eyes flashing as she attempted to blind the witch with a blackout. The psionic resistance of the Russian woman meant that her vision was merely blurred rather than completely negated, but that still made it hard for her to see. The Facsimile set out to copy Marx’s loadout, generating twin swords in its hands and taking a stance similar to him. In an attempt to throw the soldier off, however, it assumed the appearance of Anna instead of mimicking his features.

The witch quickly turned around, pulling out her sidearm and attempting to blast the computerized entity. It missed by a inch and she was forced to grapple herself away from it. While this happened, Marx stared down the copy of Anna, forming a tight fist around his blades as he backed up towards Anna.

Standing back to back the two of them covered each-other enough to allow Anna to switch back to her bolt caster and recover from the disabling blackout. They nodded towards one another before Anna fired a bolt towards the Codex. During the same time Marx launched spiked rock projectiles towards the Facsimile, following them up by charging towards the copy.

The chunks of earth appeared to do little damage to the shape-changing synthetic warrior, and it blocked Marx’s assault with crossed blades. The Codex took more damage - though its constantly-in-flux body meant that the EM caster’s single-shot round didn’t kill it. Instead, the lumenform split into two versions of itself. One teleported backwards and shot at Anna with its photon rifle, while the other conjured an electronic storm ontop of the two that sucked some of their psionic energies into itself, quickly becoming a ticking electron bomb that forced them to move or tank a potent psychokinetic blast.

Utilizing her suit once again, Anna hooked herself backwards, grappling onto the spacecraft and recloaking while in midair; Marx on the other hand circled around his opponent, trapping both him and the Facsimile inside a tiny arena. As Marx went in for a strike with his blades, a spike from the wall behind the robot shot towards it, giving it little options to dodge either in the small space.

The Facsimile oddly enough chose to let its back be impaled by the spike - suffering damage but granting it a bit of extra momentum as it changed shape. It assumed the form of a Muton, and knocked Marx forward with a punch that earned it more damage to itself - pushing him back into the rapidly-coalescing electron bomb’s radius.

Marx, seeing the danger in staying, he instead tried a trick he had been practicing for a while. The Russian motioned towards the dirt floor, bringing himself down into it and trapping the robot inside the stone cell and moving himself safely under the ground while Anna decloaked ontop of the ship, throwing a grenade at the feet of the charged codex, trying to blow it backwards.

The electron bomb exploded, as did the Codex hit by the grenade. The Facsimile was crushed nicely between the stone walls surrounding it, unable to bibliograph again with nothing in sight to copy. The remaining synthetic soldier chose to use her technokinesis on Marx’s power armor servos - attempting to force him to attack Anna against his will.

As Marx was forced to slash towards Anna, she dodged back, the machine being nowhere near as skilled as Marx in using them. Finding a decent opportunity, Anna dodged and then moved in, kicking out the legs of Marx’s armor and causing him to topple to the ground. She then seized the chance to line up a clean shot on the last Codex, aiming for its solid cranium. The shot connected, and with an electronic scream, the lumenform part of its body burst into brilliant rays of light - leaving behind the head, which quickly shut down from the overload.

Kevin, having finished off the Muton he was battling - walked over and thrust his sword through the Codex’s solid piece to ensure it wouldn’t awaken when recharged. “Good job, you two,” he said with a nod of approval. The Sergeant led them into the decloaked ship, combing it for any remaining troops. They found some Sectoid pilots and an Outsider, but six on one wasn’t really fair for the weaker aliens. Those skirmishes were routs, and soon enough the raider craft had been secured. Radioing into Central, Nash reported, “Mission accomplished, command. Craft is secure, and all enemy contacts have been eliminated. Will head home once we’re picked up.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Wrathful Vengeance
Part One

The Alps
Matterhorn Megacity
Near the Corner of Lex & 33rd

Morrigan huffed a bit as she walked down the streets, one huff in a long line of huffs she had made over the last hour. She was on patrol in a part of the city that had recently been retaken by Shen’lutusus’ forces. This meant it was clear for the most part, but there was a chance the forces sent by the Protectorate could have slipped a small team in before they were pushed out. It was unlikely this was the case, but Morrigan had been sent to sweep the area just in case. She didn’t mind the assignment per se. She just didn’t like that she had to do it with a small team of Shen’s ADVENT troops with her. On her side or not, they were still ADVENT, and every part of Morrigan was telling her they were the enemy, they couldn’t be trusted, and she would eventually pay the price for being alone with them.

Of course, she was chosen for this job for a good reason. She knew how ADVENT operated, she was more familiar with the layout of a megacity then those who had never lived in one, and - aside from someone like Ayame and her tracking skills - Morrigan’s Gremlin made her ability to search that much better. As a fellow Specialist and the person she was closest to besides her daughter, Morrigan was hoping Red Hawk could be with her now. He was out patrolling, but was sent to the other side of the area. That left her alone with… them.

“Is everything okay, O’Brien?” one of the soldiers behind her asked.

Morrigan turned, slowly walking backwards to look at them. “So far so good. Haven’t seen a sign of any activity.”

“I don’t think that’s what he means,” another soldier said with a scoff. “You’ve spent as much time looking back at us as you have looking for infiltrators.”

“Do you have a problem with us?” a third asked. “Because last I checked, we were on the same side. Considering we let you into our city…”

Morrigan laughed. “Same side, huh? Into… your city.” Her eyes scanned the group, wanting to look into each of their eyes. “The reason we’re here… is because we were right. And your Elder… your almighty ‘god’ realized it. Now, I applaud him for finally coming to his senses. And I’ll even give you some credit for following his lead.” She slowly shook her head. “But last I checked, ADVENT had ruined my life. And before we came here, people in those uniforms were doing their damndest to murder me and my friends. So you’ll have to excuse me if I find trust hard to give.” Her eyes lowered a bit. “I did that once. And I paid the price.”

The streets were silent, either because Morrigan had left the soldiers speechless, or they were busy thinking of a response. Before they could, the silence was broken by the sound of a single person’s clapping. As everyone looked around to see where it was echoing from, and familiar voice said, “Bravo, Morgy. Looks like you learned to be a bit more frugal with your trust. About time, after you blindly gave it to some resistance… then blindly gave it to XCOM. Though maybe I’m wrong, since you’re now giving it to some Elder that is somehow stupid enough to think he can try and ruin all the hopes and dreams of his people, and my people, so who knows if you’ve learned a damn thing.”

Morrigan’s body shook. Shook from anger. From dark memories. From anticipation. She slowly turned around to face the group of soldiers approaching her group. They matched hers, six ADVENT traitors for six ADVENT loyalists, both with a single figure leading them. Morrigan faced down with the ghost from her past as her came to a stop twenty feet away. “You forgot my biggest mistake,” she stated, trying to keep her anger under control. “The trust I so easily put in ADVENT in general… and you specifically, Daniel.”

Morrigan’s husband chuckled. “Yeah… keep telling yourself it was all my fault. You never were one to take responsibilities for your mistakes. Your childhood. Your… sleeping habits. Your lack of sensible loyalty.”

“And my child, I suppose?” Morrigan asked accusingly. “The mistake that was Brigid?”

Hunnigan’s jaw tightened in irritation. “I… wasn’t going to say that. She was a gift for you… one that I saw as a gift for the world.” Both fell silent for a few moments. “How is she?” Daniel asked in an almost cordial tone.

“Good,” Morrigan answered. “Healthy, in fact. She was able to get treatments with XCOM. Treatments she could never get under the Elders. You remember why, right? Because we were afraid she would disappear. Tell me… did you know that the people that disappeared were being turned into soup for your masters to guzzle up for their own health.”

Daniel shook his head. “Even… if I believed what you people claimed…”

“If you don’t, you’re a fool who chooses blind, blissful ignorance over the harsh but necessary truth!”

“Even if it is true!” Daniel took several deep breaths. “What about all the good they’ve done? These cities. Safety. Technology. Peace.”

“Wake up, you stubborn asshole!” Morrigan snapped. “You work for an entire race of Elizabeth Báthorys bathing in the blood of humanity to retain their youth… almost literally!”

“And what if they find their so called solution?” Daniel questioned. “Then they’ll be happy, and we’ll be happy, and…”

“And what!?” Morrigan furiously screamed. “Will everything they did go away? Even if the disappearances stop, people will continue to disappear if they speak against the Elders. And what if they don’t?” She slowly shook her head. “What if the Elders did find their solution with their little Avatar project? What if all the disappearances stopped? What if… ADVENT was dismantled, and this world truly became the paradise they claim it is now. So… what? That won’t matter.” Morrigan took in a slow, shuddering breath. “Won’t matter. Because the ends can’t justify the means. Not these means. Even if the world becomes a paradise… it won’t be a paradise we earned. It will be a paradise that was build on the tens of thousands… hundreds of thousands… maybe even millions of bodies of men, women, and children… children just like Brigid… who died to make it happy. And I, for one, would rather walk with my daughter, hand in hand, through a desolate wasteland then a beautiful park if I know the park is fertilized with the bodies of the innocent.”

Daniel simply stared at her for a minute, the soldiers behind both of them shifting uncomfortably, weapons raised. Then, Daniel smiled. A slow smile that grew ear to ear. “You know… that was a good speech. A really good one. If I was as weak as, say… you. Or those flunkies you have behind you. Yeah… it might have worked. But I know better. I know that anything the Elders might have done has been exaggerated by XCOM, and the lives you have taken far exceed those of ADVENT or the protectorate.” He tapped his gun against the side of his helmet. “You don’t think before you act. None of you do. ADVENT is a organization… of peacekeepers. We only fire at those that threaten innocents. Meanwhile, you fire at… you kill the men and women tasked with protecting the innocent. Do you ever think that maybe, just maybe, not every ADVENT soldier you kill is the devil? That you’re killing someone who truly believes in peace? That does this to help humanity? Do you ever think how many soldiers you’ve killed that were sons? Daughters? Siblings? Parents?” Daniel shook his head. “You’re damaged goods, Morgy. And I’m sorry, but I can’t fix you. I can only hope, when I take you and the rest of XCOM down, there will be time to fix Brigid.”

Morrigan scoffed, and raised her weapon. “Over my dead body, asshole.”

Daniel raised his own weapon and shrugged. “That’s the idea… sweetheart.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Wrathful Vengeance
Part Two

Both sides erupted in a firefight, shooting as the rushed to the sides of the street to find cover behind shuttle stops, lampposts, and building edges. Before everyone was in cover, each side had lost a man. The mid range gunfight seemed to go on forever, but that was only because adrenaline seemed to slow down time. A grenade flew. A near miss, cover blown, move to better cover. A glancing shot, quickly back in the game. A soldier falls on one side, missing half a head. Another falls on the other side, one too many abdomen shots compromising his armor. Morrigan wanted so much to focus on Daniel. But even if that didn’t leave her open, it could cost her more men then need to be lost. She might not have liked them for being part of ADVENT, but they were indeed on her side, and she would defend them like they were defending her. So the small fry had to go down first, then the big fish.

There! An opportunity! Morrigan rose out of cover. One of the enemy was completely exposed. She took aim. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Daniel rising up and taking aim. Like a mirror image, they both fired. Like a mirror image, they both scored a hit, and like a mirror image, both sides were down another man at the same time.

The shooting continued for a while. Neither side seemed to be gaining ground. Only glancing blows were reached. Both sides had limited ammo. Every move to get around for a flanking shot was caught and stopped by either Morrigan or Daniel. They were on even grounds. So even, that Morrigan wasn’t all that surprised when Daniel yelled, “Cease fire!”

Morrigan narrowed her eyes. She wondered what he was playing at. “Cease fire!” she yelled herself. She watched the other side of the street careful. A minute later, Daniel stood up. A bold move. One that could easily get him shot. But maybe not. Maybe the idea was to have someone fire at him, and when he ducked away, another on his team would fire a killing shot.

“Let’s… talk for a second,” Daniel suddenly said. “Seeing as how shooting isn’t getting us anywhere.” This did surprise Morrigan, but he had a point. Cautiously, she rose up, same as him. His men stood, weapons forward, and hers did the same. He stepped around cover and took several steps forward, weapon aimed down, Morrigan did the same. Daniel lifted the visor on his helmet, that familiar confident smile on his face. “Let me show you something neat.” He slowly lifted his arm. “You know what this is?”

Morrigan raised an eyebrow. “A… fancy wristwatch? A gift for the Elder’s pet?”

Daniel chuckled. “No, not quite, though I’m thinking of fitting a watch in there. It is a psionic inhibitor, just like the ones used on psionic prisoners to suppress their powers. But I had this one made special.” He clasped the side of it and twisted it counter-clockwise. “See, I can adjust the power it gives off. When I turn it this way, it suppress more and more of my energy while I’m using my powers.”

Morrigan was surprised to find out her former husband was a psion, but tried to hide it in her voice. “So that thing is like… weighted training clothes for psionics? Or are you just showing me you’re some kind of psionic masochist and this is your way of choking yourself while you get off?”

Again, Hunnigan chuckled. “The first one. And it works. It puts stress on me while I’m using my powers, so they are forced to grow. That way… when I let loose…” He slowly turned it clockwise. “I have plenty of power to work with.” He rolled his shoulders, Morrigan unable to see the violet flash in his eyes. He slowly lift his arm and extended a hand towards Morrigan. “Please, Morrigan… come her.. Join my side once more. You don’t have to die today.”

Morrigan laughed. “Really? Are you really asking me to join the dark side? How corny could you… do you really think I would ever say yes.”

Daniel shook his head. “Nah. I just didn’t want to make it obvious I was using my powers of mind control. Luckily, you can’t see the strands of energy extending towards your remaining men.” Morrigan’s eyes widened in fear, and she swung around. Her men had their weapons raised, but they didn’t fire at her. They didn’t fire at Daniel either. They just stood there, staring forward. They were like statues.

Morrigan slowly looked back at Daniel. “H-how are you doing this? I-I’ve never heard of a human psion who could mind control three people at once, especially since I’m sure you would have only had a year or two to develop this power.”

Daniel nodded. “True. My powers aren’t strong enough to, say… gun each other down. But I went for quantity of quality in a matter of speaking. I can’t control them…” He grinned widely. “But they can’t control themselves either. Their minds are blank. Without me giving them an order, all they can do is wait. To them, time is standing still. Their perception of time is almost non-existent. Granted it takes a bit too much concentration for me to do much while controlling three people… but luckily, I have help.” With that, the three men on his side rose up. They didn’t need to rush. They had all the time they needed to take careful aim. Morrigan yelled out in shock, but they didn’t stop. Their targets didn’t move, didn’t try and dodge, didn’t do a single thing to defend themselves as they were mercilessly, helplessly gunned down.

Morrigan shook in fury, mostly to keep from shaking in fear. “You’re a heartless bastard, Daniel. You get your kicks killing people that can’t fight back? Wanna go find some helpless animals to gun down next?!”

Daniel shrugged, slowly walking backwards. “Kill them with a gun or kill them with psionics. They’re both weapons I have been granted to use by my superiors. But if you’re going to bitch and moan about it, I won’t use it to kill you. Something tells me I don’t need to.”

He casually walked back to his cover as his three soldiers walked forward, surrounding Morrigan with weapons raised. This is it, huh? Morrigan thought sadly as they awaited their order to fire. Daniel won. At least… I can take solace in knowing he’ll never make it past the Commander. Someone will succeed here I failed.

You are the one that will be succeeding today, and you will not be going down without a fight. Vyssini’s voice in her head had its usual angry tinge, but there was something more. Something… confident. I am sorry, O’Brien, but you are not allowed to die as long as I am a part of you.

Morrigan slowly smiled under her helmet. Wow, Vys. That almost sounds like encouragement. I guess… he hasn’t seen what this armor can do. Even we haven’t tested it to its fullest extent.

What say we show this bastard what happens when he messes the righteous fury of an angry Irishwoman, Dr. Shen’s technology, and the almighty Vyssini?

Yeah… sounds like fun. Morrigan suddenly lifted her weapon. Thanks to Vyssini’s assistance, Morrigan knew exactly when to fire it as she lifted, and before the ADVENT soldiers could react, the close range shot from Morrigan’s pulse carbine pulverised one of their helmet’s and melted their face. In a flash, Morrigan was moving. Thanks to her armor’s Typhoon Substructure, she was able to move out of harm’s way before they could fire. She ran behind one of the remaining soldiers then behind the other. Thanks to Vyssini’s rapid calculations fed directly into Morrigan’s brain, she had enough reaction time to not fall flat on her face. When she reached the back of the second soldier, she kicked the back of his knee as hard as she could. He yelled out in pain as his leg buckled, and Morrigan wrapped an arm around his neck, holding his head behind her. With an angry yell, she push down on his leg and pulled up on his head, and his neck snapped with a brutal crunch.

She released him and looked up, the final soldier taking aim. “Dodge this,” he said, but before he could fire, the grenade on his belt exploded, ripping through his armor and enough flesh and bone to leave quite the mess.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Wrathful Vengeance
Part Three

Morrigan looked at the detonation clip she had pulled off of the man’s grenade and tossed it onto his body. “Shoot first, then one liner, dumbass.” She turned to a very angry looking Daniel. “And you! What are you, an evil, comic book supervillain? Next time, not that there will be a next time, just kill your enemy instead of feeding your damn ego. That… that is your biggest weakness. That is what led you to turn in your wife and subject her to torture. That is why we are on opposite sides right now. Because your ego made you more eager to betray me then admit you might be wrong for putting your trust in the Elders.”

“Well… thank you for that,” Daniel said in a vindictive tone that said he wasn’t exactly grateful. “I’ll be sure to work on that once you’re dead!” He quickly extended his hand. Morrigan raised her carbine and fired, but it was too late. He had moved out of the path of her shot with what appeared to be superhuman speed. But that wasn’t what it was. He had his mind control on her. He slowly strode forward with a wicked grin on his face, and all Morrigan could do is watch, unable to move, unable to think with his control clouding her thoughts. To her, his slow walk was him moving in front of her in a rapid blur. “Goodbye, Morrigan,” he stated once her reached her, taking a sidearm from his belt.

Swing your right fist, two meters in front of you, head level!

Morrigan’s fist connected with Daniel’s helmet. As he stumbled back, his concentration was broken. Morrigan needed a moment to get her bearings, and she lifted her weapon a bit too late. Daniel hit her arm, knocking her weapon away. Morrigan swiftly kicked him, and as he staggered, she knocked his sidearm away. He tried to grab his primary weapon off his back, but Morrigan kicked that away as well, leaving them both disarmed of their main weapons. The two raised their fists and squared off, watching each other carefully. “How did you do that?” Daniel asked angrily. “You have no psionics. I should be able to control you just as easily as those other three. Easier, since it is just you.”

Morrigan chuckled. “You got me. But looks like your trick won’t work.”

“No. It won’t.” Vyssini materialized behind Morrigan, the holographic Worg snarling at Daniel. “You made a mistake bragging about your powers. As you said, your powers cloud your opponent's perception. But it doesn’t actually prevent them from acting on their own freewill. They just can’t react fast enough because they perceive time as standing still.” Vys shook his head. “But you can not cloud the mind of a computer.” He looked up at GZ-MO, the Gremlin floating above them, watching Daniel. “I can watch you from the front with O’Brien’s eyes, and the back with her Gremlin. I can act as her mind, and her enhanced armor can compensate for the delay in reaction time. You can not win.”

“Hmph! We’ll see about that!” Hunnigan attacking, taking several swings at Morrigan’s head, then a few body shots. A few seconds into the attack, he seized control of Morrigan again. This allowed him to get several hits in.

Block left, 11 o’clock! Right, 2 o’clock! Duck! Forward punch!

Morrigan’s fist connected, making Daniel stumble back and throwing off his mind control again. Morrigan wasn’t planning on letting him get it off again. She was on the offensive now. Several left blows. A right followed by another left. A jab. A leg sweep. An uppercut. Hunnigan panted, growing tired. “You actually think… you can beat me…?” He asked with a laugh. “I taught you everything…”

Morrigan suddenly ducked left, then brought her fist flying to his side as she moved left. He staggered back, and she kicked him hard in the side. “Not everything!” she corrected, keeping on the offense. A quick scissor kick she learned from Ayame. A feint followed by a job, one of Alex’s favorite. A strong body blow, courtesy of Lilith. A dodge thanks to movement reading followed by a counter punch, a move Yakone had used on Morrigan plenty of times. Daniel tried to seize control again, but each time he did, Vyssini was quicker to react, and was able to retaliate with enough force to break the hold. “I’ve had XCOM’s training!” Morrigan stated, punching him in the head. “I’ve had much better teachers than you!” An uppercut that made him fall back. “And my armor is made to help me move, where as yours is just tiring you out!”

Free from his control, Daniel too winded to hold a mind control, Morrigan zoomed around him. With Vyssini’s help, she delivered one blow after another. His armor did protect him from the bulk of the damage, but each blow added up, and her hands weren’t exactly covered in wool mittens. He was losing. Bad. And he needed to end this now. With all his will, he stopped her movements one last time. Vyssini prepared to defend, but Daniel rushed away a few feet, grabbing his revolver. He quickly turned, and armed at Morrigan’s head.

Before he could fire, GZ-MO moved in and used its attack protocol. Daniel cried out as the the gun fell from his hands and slid in front of Morrigan. The control broken one last time, Vyssini had already directed her to grab it and aim it at Daniel. She kept her aim at him lifted his hands, down on his knees, panting in exhaustion and pain. Slowly stepping to the side, she careful bent down and picked her carbine up, aiming with it and holstering her sidearm. She circled around him, weapon pointed at his head.

“Don’t… kill me. Please…”

Morrigan let out a disgusted scoff. “I would have thought begging for your life was beneath you.”

“I’m not… begging.” Daniel took several deep breaths. “Just being reasonable. Think of Brigid. She…”

“Don’t… say her name,” Morrigan warned, finger hovering over the trigger.

Daniel closed his eyes. “No matter what you told her… she still thinks of me as her father, right? I bet she even still has my last name. Please… I don’t know what it would do to her if she found out her mother murdered her father when he was disarmed and defenseless.”

Morrigan let out a grim laugh. “Defenseless, huh? Just like my men that you killed?”

“Exactly. You’re better then me and what I did, right?” Daniel’s eye darted to the side. His rifle was close. Maybe he could roll for it, and catch her by surprise. “Besides, I… I’m part time with the anti-XCOM force. I’ve actually spoken with your Commander’s daughter directly. I’m sure she would love to get her hands on me… alive.”

Morrigan nodded. “True. Of course… there is the promise I made her a while back.”

“Oh?” Daniel grinned, ready to go for it. “And what promise was that.”

“It was about you, and my loyalty. I promised Atka that if I ever ended up facing you in a fight…” She pulled the trigger, the pulse round punching through his helmet. For good measure, she fired twice more before his body hit the ground. “...I’d have no problem killing you, you son of a bitch,” she finished, staring down at his body hatefully for a minute before walking off the regroup with the others.

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Operation Freezing Fire, Part 1

Samuel frowned as Chloe cleared the last obstacle, her sprint rolling into a stroll. “How was that?” she asked, moving from the course’s end towards him.

The Russian folded his arms. “Still too good.” Jesus, how many people did you drink from?

The Overseer’s step faltered, and a brief expression of worry crossed her face before the panting grin returned. “Well, at least we know I can still outrun any Muton kill-squads that get through,” she joked. Turning to the side, Chloe grabbed a water bottle off the bench and began to drink, her throat pulsing as she gulped.

Samuel blinked, internally shaking himself away from watching the motion. “You, uh… ahem. How’re you feeling after that?”

With a shrug, the vampire ceased drinking. “Fine,” she answered, wiping water from her mouth. “Little bit out of breath, but otherwise alright.”

“That’s what I was worried about.”

“What, you gonna ask me to run that again?” Chloe asked, placing one hand on her hip. With a playful grin, she rubbed her ribcage, where patches of sweat were starting to moisten her shirt. “At this point, I’d have to wonder why. Enjoy seeing me wearing these pants, do you? Or maybe you just want to see me sweat a little more.” She giggled. “You know, if it’s the last one, there’s another way that’d be more fun for you.”

The Aerotrooper’s face flushed a light pink. “Chloe, please!”

She closed the gap between them, her gait sensual. “Come on,” she whispered, running one hand down the right side of his chest. “You’ve been so worked up since I got here. And with the siege, that’s only gotten worse. You need a stress relief.”

Gently, Samuel grabbed her hand, lifting it off of him before releasing her. “No,” he said sternly.

Chloe’s response was to pout. “Why not?” she groaned. “I don’t want to say old habits die hard, but holy shit has it been difficult not to take advantage of one of those special closets. Help me out here.”

“I’m not scratching that itch. Find someone else.”

“The hell’s your problem?” the Overseer demanded. “What’s this hostility? What… what did I do? W-was it the blood?”

“Alright, that’s enough. Calm down.” Samuel sighed. “I’m… not really being fair to you,” he admitted. “This is my problem, not yours. I’m the one at fault.”

Chloe merely gave him a quizzical look.

“I didn’t want to tell you. We’d just started talking again, you were always so happy to hear from me. I didn’t want to ruin that. But…” He stopped, thinking. “Well, I guess I just never expected you to come here. Never thought this would actually be an issue. And now we’re in several different kinds of messes-”

“Mon dieu. Cut the shit and get to the point.”

Samuel swallowed. “You can’t be doing this,” he stated.

The Overseer raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Doing what?”

“The flirting.”

“What? When did that start embarrassing you?”

“It’s not a matter of getting embarrassed!” the Russian explained. “Chloe, I… I have a girlfriend.”

Chloe’s expression softened. “Aw. You’re calling me that again already?”

“Not you.”

The two stood there for a moment, Samuel’s face a desperate attempt to stay firm while Chloe processed the information. The Overseer began nodding slowly, her gaze unable to settle on his. “I… I suppose I should have guessed,” she mumbled. “I-I-I noticed you w-weren’t being as… affectionate as usual, but I just put it d-down to…”

She essentially collapsed onto the bench, her legs giving way and her eyes dampening. The Russian standing beside her hesitated, guilt flowing through him. “I should have told you sooner,” he cursed. “Are you alright? Do you need me to go or something?”

“No no, I’ll… I’ll be fine,” Chloe sniffed. “Just give me a moment.”

Samuel sighed, taking a spot on the bench beside her. “I didn’t want to trample on your hope,” he said quietly. “Still, I led you along. If you’re angry, I understand.”

“I’m not angry,” the Overseer said, forcing a smile. “Just… well, annoyed. When did you two…?”

“A while after I got here,” Samuel admitted.

“Which means when we started talking you weren’t with her. So I could have kept you if I tried,” Chloe stated, shaking her head. “Dammit.”

“You’re not seriously trying to turn this around on yourself are you?”

“... maybe.”

Samuel chuckled. “Well don’t. I’m the dickhead here. You’ve done nothing wrong.” He looked at her, her head hung and shoulders slumped. “Let’s talk about something else. Distraction. How’s Rothchild?”

“Alive,” Chloe answered, composing herself. “They had to go back for a group that got lost in the Argonne forest, but aside from that it’s been clear sailing. He hopes to have another base up and running within the month. In the meantime I had another camp designated as the place where all information is ferried, and they send it to me from there.” She smiled. “Still doing my job. Cyrus was worried some prick would try to step in in my absence, but if they were going to I cut them off. I’m still alive, and everyone knows that.”

“And your new office?”

“Well, I can’t really complain in that regard. Atka wasn’t obligated to set up that room for me, after all. Now it's just a matter of trying not to step on Chamber's toes.” She lapsed into silence. “What am I going to do, Sam?”

Samuel glanced at her, confused. “About what?”

“I don’t know how much time I have left, but from the ache in my head I’d say about a week before I really need to bite someone.” The vampire exhaled, her breath ragged. “I don’t want to become that again. Just some animal with the visage of a human hell-bent on her next meal. Thing is, I don’t think sex will be enough to distract me this time. I’d probably just bite my partner in the act. Especially if they want me to do ora-”

“Alright that’s enough,” the Russian said hurriedly, cutting her off. “Don’t need to hear that, thanks.”

“Too much detail?” Chloe couldn’t resist a giggle. “Well, I guess you don’t want to hear about the time this one guy-”

“Definitely not!”

Samuel was spared any further teasing as, beside them, the door to the holoroom opened. Alan stuck his head through, glancing across the view inside. It took him a moment to notice the two seated to his right. “The hell were you two doing in here?” the Ambusher asked, bewildered. “Why is there an obstacle course up? And why does Chloe look like she’s the one that ran it?”

“Because she did,” Samuel answered. “What’s up?”

“Certainly not the wall ADVENT just blew down,” Alan answered. “Been looking for you everywhere. We’re up.”

The Aerotrooper scrambled up. “Wait, what?”

“You heard me.” The Ambusher beckoned, before disappearing from view. “No fucking about, either! Lester’s getting nervous enough.”

“I thought we were meant to be on Avenger guard duty,” Samuel muttered. Shaking his head, he turned back to Chloe. “Sorry. I need to talk to Lester anyway. I’ll see you around, yeah?” With that he was gone, briskly jogging towards the armory to retrieve his gear.

Chloe merely sighed, taking another drink from her bottle. “Freedom fighters,” she muttered, shaking her head.

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Part 2

Lucifer was about to reply before the door to the armory burst open, admitting one very irritated Russian. “Corporal?!” Samuel demanded as he stormed forward.

“Here we go,” Lester muttered. “I’ll have you know it’s ‘Sergeant’, now.”

“You know damn well I wasn’t talking about you. Are you the one behind this?”

“Without an actual subject, Master Lester may find it difficult to answer your query,” Lucifer noted, his SPARK form shifting on its mechanical legs.

Samuel scowled. “Shut your goddamn mouth. Or speaker. Whatever.”

“Lucifer, it’s fine,” Lester reassured the AI. “Something the matter, Corporal Yokolov?”

“That’s exactly the matter!” the Russian protested. “You pushed me for promotion, didn’t you?”

“I… may have suggested you as a candidate for my second in command.”

“But why?!”

Holly rolled her eyes. “Here we go. Pull up a chair, people.”

Lester frowned. “I don’t see what your problem is,” he stated. “Most people in your position would be happy. It is a recognition of your abilities as a leader. Of your experience in the field.”

“It’s also a responsibility that I’m going to fuck up,” Samuel argued.

“What gave you that impression?”

“My track record?”

“Name one time you made an actual error?”

“Auschwitz.”

“And after that?”

Samuel hesitated. “... that’s irrelevant. This whole conversation is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how good you think I’d be at the job-”

“Then why did you bring it up?”

“- It matters whether I think I can handle it. And I don’t.”

Lester folded his arms. “But you can.”

“Then you don’t understand how much pressure this is putting on me to not fuck up!” the Aerotrooper snapped.

“I think you’ll find I understand perfectly well,” the Specialist responded patiently. “I was in your position, once. Given a title and expecting to put it to shame. And yet every time I tried to say I wasn’t the right choice for the job, what response did I get?”

Samuel paused. “... we said you’d be fine,” he admitted. “And you haven’t killed us yet.”

“Exactly. And that last is something I can attribute to you, too.” Lester waved a hand dismissively, moving to the weapons racks to pick up his sidearm. “This is merely making our group hierarchy official. Like it or not, you have always been my second. The one who takes charge when I’m unable to. Like when I lost half my leg.”

“That was by necessity.”

“Which is exactly when I’ll need your help.” The Sergeant shook his head. “Samuel, this affects nothing. If anything, it should be a boon to you. Now if Alan is proving intractable, you can pull rank.”

“Hmm? What?” Alan glanced over, having been preoccupied with checking his rifle beforehand.

“That’s ‘sir’ to you,” Samuel quipped weakly.

The Ambusher gave him a tired look. “Don’t let it get to your head,” he stated, shaking his head and returning to his weaponry.

There was a pause. “Alright, are we done discussing leadership?” Samara asked, shifting in her new armor. “Lucifer, you were about to say something?”

The AI’s large mechanical chassis shook its head. “Nothing important,” he informed her cheerfully. “Merely that from the description of enemy forces Master Lester just gave us, we do not appear to have much to fear.”

“Never say that!” Holly cried, frantically making a shushing motion. “You’ll jinx it!”

“I’m certain it’ll be fine,” said Joy, appearing next to her user in the form of the little girl she used as an avatar. “Everyone here has been proven capable before. Even if ADVENT has something up their sleeves, we’ll figure out a way to beat it.”

“I for one am hoping that’s the case,” Tumulis drawled, his own avatar lounging across a crate. It was an odd look, considering the AI’s arms were tied to his sides. “What’s a mission without something unexpected?”

There was a pause. “A smooth op?” Samuel suggested, fastening his helmet to his armor.

“Boooooo-ring.” The AI scoffed. “Totally unfun.”

Arthur ignored the supportive whoop from Bonnie and Holly. “Also incredibly risky,” he warned. “We have come this far having only lost a single limb. The more unpleasant situations are dropped on us, the more likely it is that one of us could be very hurt. Or killed.”

“Your point being?”

“So what are we actually doing?” Samuel interrupted, slinging his rifle into the cradle of his arms. “And why are we being sent?”

Lester grunted. “If you’d been here on time, you would have heard me tell everyone else,” he huffed. “I’ll give you the short version. There was a line of defence, there isn’t one any longer. ADVENT are pushing through. We’re providing fire support until the local defenders can shore up the breach. We’re being sent over everyone else because, unlike everyone else, we’ve seen little action aside from Holly taking the occasional potshot from the roof of the Avenger. So far only seen your standard ADVENT complement. No nasty aliens, yet.”

“Ha!” The Russian shook his head. “See how long that lasts. Alright, I’m ready.” He glanced around as some of the others hastily returned to putting their armor on. “Oh, come on. You make me feel bad for being late and then half of you aren’t even ready yourselves. Bloody freedom fighters.”

*

The vehicle rolled to a stop a block away from what was the last line of defence for this particular area. The three vehicles behind, one of which carried only Lucifer’s larger frame, also slowed to allow the occupants to be dropped off. The line of local reinforcements trickling past couldn’t resist at least glancing at the squad as they disembarked, with their shiny new armor and energy-based weapons. Samuel forced himself to put it out of his mind - he wasn’t used to allowing ADVENT troops to watch him without him shooting back, even if they weren’t technically ADVENT anymore.

Still, he couldn’t stop himself from watching them as they moved, marching towards the same place as XCOM. Like the SS working with the Soviet Army, he thought, amused by the idea. Just as he was about to look away again, he saw a flash of red. Another glance made him freeze in place.

Azazel was watching him from the other side of the moving army, entirely still aside from the movement of his robes in a wind that wasn’t blowing. The two glared at each other for a moment before a MEC trooper broke the line by walking in between them. When it had passed, the Elder was gone, the street where he had been standing totally empty.

Arthur tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump in his seat. “Samuel? Are you alright?”

The Russian shook his head, rattled but trying to put it out of his mind. “... thought I saw a ghost,” he muttered, sliding off the edge of the truck.

Once all off, it was a short jog to the mission site itself - rather than breach through one of the roadways, ADVENT had chosen to blow through a wall to the best of their ability then pour manpower through the hole, leading into a courtyard. Already there was a sizeable mound of corpses, gunned down by a hastily-arranged defensive position that was meant to be firing at a separate roadway further down the wall.

The hell is this, World War 1? A bullet pinged off something near him, and the Russian turned his head to face his attacker. A single ADVENT trooper, who had been about to set foot through the breach, froze when they realized the shot hadn’t killed his target despite being dead on. This hesitation saw him killed, Holly utilizing the lack of movement to line up her own shot.

Umbra’s arm lowered from its position in front of Samuel’s head, fading into nothing once more. “Man, you get away with some shit with that thing,” Samson muttered, shaking his heavily armored head.

The Russian grunted. “I’m not complaining,” he said lightly. “Was he alone?”

Holly lowered her rifle. “Seems like it,” she said, confused. “Arthur?”

The Phantom scurried forward, keeping to the edge of the wall and peering through. “Nothing,” he confirmed. “Enemy seems to have backed off entirely.”

“I’m not detecting any movement either,” Joy murmured. “At least, not within my range.”

The local forces, having previously expected to have to fight for the position, cautiously began setting up. Gunners placed their machine guns in the ground for greater stability, and a sniper began climbing the building behind them. “Give me a moment,” Lester said, turning away and raising a hand to the side of his helmet. “Central, this is Advocate. I thought there was meant to be a small army on the other side of this wall.”

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Part 3

“Maybe they realized funneling through a killzone was a shite idea,” Bonnie suggested.

“Or maybe they just backed off out of sight to prepare for their next attack,” Samara noted. “Doesn’t explain the one guy, though.”

“A scout?” Holly queried, her voice crackling over radio.

Samuel turned to where the Sharpshooter had previously been. “The hell did you go?” he asked.

“Thought I’d get a better shot from upstairs,” was the answer. “Times like this I’m glad fire escape ladders are still standard for most buildings.”

Lester nodded, turning around. “We’re to stick around,” he said, shrugging. “In case ADVENT tries this again.”

“So Central has no idea either?” Alan asked. “Perfect. Whatever. I’ll start stringing up the wall.” Tossing out a few RC drones to help him, the Ambusher began setting just about all his traps in the breach, shooing Arthur away in the process.

Samara wasn’t as relaxed as her comrades. “There’s a lot of buildings down there,” she noted. “They could be hiding in there.”

“Hiding? But why?” Bonnie shook her head. “We’re not that scary.”

Samuel sniffed, then coughed. Smoke? Why can I smell smoke? Glancing out over the remains of the city, he chuckled at his own stupidity. Of course I can smell smoke. Half the damn city’s on fire.

“They could be waiting on something,” the Juggernaut persisted. “Some trump card to break through.”

Lester scoffed. “Please. If there was another Sectopod walking up behind the enemy line, we’d know about it by now.”

Samuel frowned. Wait, no. I can smell smoke, but that’s the wrong smoke. Smells like… a barbeque left alone for too long, and the meat’s charred and black. Or Stacie’s cigars. It’s not the smoke of burning wood…

“Ah, whatever.” Samson chuckled. “Does it really fuckin’ matter? They can wait long as they like, I ain’t budgin’.”

As if in response to its master’s concern, Umbra formed. But the shadow looked to the sky, where the clouds were an angry grey. “What?” Samuel asked, looking with it and seeing nothing. “You worried it’ll rain?”

There was a flash within the clouds, and then something did indeed tumble from the heavens. But rather than water, it was a solid pod-shaped object, descending at a rapid rate. So rapid that Samuel barely had time to utter a warning before it slammed into the stone fountain at the center of the courtyard, showering rubble everywhere. The smell of smoke became all-encompassing, and the very air became thick with a heated haze.

A pod from the sky. The atmosphere around it altering… The Aerotrooper shot a look at Umbra, who was now assuming a fighting stance. “Oh, hell.”

A second pod struck the ground next to it, this one bringing with it the smell of fresh rain. The effects on the air around them molded together - cinders began falling from the sky, and the local humidity immediately and noticeably spiked. All this even before the occupants of the pods stepped out, the two facing in opposite directions.

A few of the local troopers got their senses together and began firing on the newcomers, only for their shots to be effortlessly blocked and then the shooters torched or encased in ice. The Elder that had come with the first pod, his robes shining a molten orange rimmed by an ashen grey, held up a hand. I would advise everyone hold their fire, he stated. Else you will meet a similar fate.

“What’s with the showing off?” Samuel asked, his legs ready to carry him behind cover at great speed. “Seems like a waste of energy to me.”

The Elder on the other side of the pods looked around to spot him. Ah, you, she said, her sapphire robes swishing around her. Every movement she made was smooth, elegant. And almost delayed, as if she was moving in water. I suppose the traitor’s shadow remembers us?

Umbra briefly conferred a few flashes of memory to Samuel, nothing coherent, but enough for him to obtain a general sense of the beings before him, along with names. “Azazel always respected you, Ignium,” he said slowly.

We disagreed on many aspects of the Path, Ignium’Cremetorro answered. But I accepted them as that - disagreements. Provided Coatl did not act on them again, I held no issue with him.

Aqautef’Aecoraac scoffed. You are too forgiving, she complained, flicking a hand sideways and impaling one trooper who had been about to take advantage of the calm situation on a spear of ice.

I merely accept that in order to complete my objectives, I may need to work with those I find unpleasant, the Inquisitor of Fire rumbled. Which brings us to the why we are here. He extended a single hand at Samuel, pointing at him. You will come with us. You will do so without resisting, or we will be forced to damage you and possibly kill you. The rest of you may back away. If you do so and do not attack us, you will survive. If you do attack us, we will be forced to defend ourselves.

Umbra settled into a defensive position in front of Samuel, half of the Reflection’s body passing into the floor and phasing out of existence temporarily. In front of me rather than enveloping me? What is the meaning of this position? The Russian shook his head. “I don’t know how much you think you know about me,” he said, priming his rifle. “But the word ‘surrender’ isn’t in my vocabulary.”

“And we’re not about to let you take one of our own without a fight either,” Alan butted in. “Ain’t that right Lester?”

The Specialist merely sighed. “Sometimes I wonder why I pretend I’m even in charge of this group,” he muttered.

“What, were you going to let Sam fight two Elders on his own?”

Lester considered. “The idea is tempting, but you’re right. We should probably help.”

Aquatef glanced at her ally. Which do you want?

The Inquisitor of Fire had not taken his gaze off Umbra. I cannot trust my objective to another. He’s mine, Ignium said at last, reaching one hand over his torso and gripping something under his robes. With little ceremony, he ceased floating just above the ground, allowing his feet to touch the ground and be the vessel that carried him forward once again.

This was the distraction ADVENT had been waiting for, it seemed. Out of the captured buildings on the other side of the breach they swarmed, ready to take advantage of the presence of the Inquisitors to gain a foothold. “Alright ye sacks o’ shite,” Bonnie commanded, demanding the attention of the local security forces. “We’re gonna hold this line while these assholes dance on it. With enough bullets, it’ll be like shootin’ fish in a barrel.”

It was thus that the fight was split - Bonnie and Holly assisting the local defenses, Samuel engaging Ignium in a one-on-one, and Aquatef attempting to punish the remainder of Judgement Squad for their insolence. Alan’s traps proved effective in repelling and dissuading the first wave of attackers, but once spent they became useless, allowing a few enemy troopers inside for the brief moment in which they weren’t filled with mag fire.

Aquatef’s attempt to spear Alan with a large icicle was thwarted as, with the help of his PCS, he neatly twisted out of the way. The shard of frozen water impaled itself into the building behind them, digging into the concrete. “Jesus, how hard did you throw that?” the Ambusher asked. “You could really hurt someone doing that.”

The Inquisitor of Water merely sneered. That was the intention, she said, spiralling sideways to avoid a blast from Arthur’s shotgun. Her robes spun out around her like fins as she did so, or the tentacles of an octopus. During the motion, she appeared to have reached beneath her robes to pull out a weapon. At least, that was the assumption the humans around her made. There was nowhere else she could have obtained the ornate-looking Bolt Caster she now held.

Turning a full one-eighty degrees, she fired the weapon, staggering Samara backwards as the bolt smacked into her shield. Her eyes widened as she realized it had become stuck in the shield, a large pole poking out of the otherwise flat surface. “That’s not just a bolt. That’s a harpoon!”

Aquatef flung one side of her robes outward to reveal a line of the launchable spears, all secured on the inside of her clothing. I find myself drawn to things that impale, the Inquisitor almost giggled. And I figure it’s a bit of poetic justice. You humans have been spearing fish on your hooks and harpoons for millennia. Erecting an ice shield in a sphere around her to provide reprieve from Samson’s poorly-aimed gunfire, she calmly reloaded the weapon. It’s only fair that you get to see what it’s like.

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Part 4

Ignium went for a jab with his blade, only to strike Umbra instead. The Reflection glanced down at the blade before swatting it away in annoyance, and attempting to use the Inquisitor’s error to its advantage. But he dove away, now keeping his distance and circling around his target.

Now, Samuel could get a good look at his foe’s weapon. It was a sword with the same type of engravings and ornament as Azazel’s, but that was where the similarities ended. Ignium’s was much, much larger, requiring the Inquisitor to hold it with at least two hands to even keep it upright. Calling it a cleaver would probably have been a better description of the weapon, considering the distance from the sharp edge to the back. And, to top things off, Ignium had coated it in flames.

Umbra did not seem concerned about this, however. In fact, the Reflection had kept rather cool about the entire conflict. The Russian got the sense that it was fighting a battle it knew rather well. “Don’t think that sword’s going to help you,” Samuel suggested in the most patronizing tone he could manage.

I did not think so, but I decided it would be wise to ensure Umbra had not been altered since our last duel. Ignium continued circling, remaining just outside the shadow’s range.

“Duel? You’ve fought Umbra before?”

Coatl, yes. Not a fight for our lives, by any means. Though I have no doubt he would have liked to end mine. The Inquisitor of Fire launched a ball comprised of his namesake at his foe, an attack which Umbra barely bothered to move to deflect. The flames licked at its torso, to no visible effect. Even then, he was impervious to these attacks. Took me a while to work out why, considering one of its weaknesses is meant to be heat.

Samuel raised an eyebrow. “Wait, what?” Is that what this positioning is about? Preventing me from cooking inside it?

Heat, light, and sound. Three things Umbra cannot protect you against. One would assume then that I would be able to torch you with ease. To demonstrate, Ignium pointed his sword at his opponent. The tip blinked a dull red, visible even to Samuel, before unleashing a torrent of fire. Umbra braced itself to ensure its master was entirely protected, but otherwise did not attempt to lessen the damage. The flames did not take, leaving a charred imprint in the ground with Umbra’s own shadow leaving a clean imprint. But I note you are still alive. Still very much un-torched.

“Yeah I worked that bit out myself, thanks,” the Aerotrooper muttered. Umbra resumed its combat-ready stance, unfazed by the attacks it had thus far endured.

Ignium lowered his blade until it touched the ground. Eventually it dawned on me, after several defeats at Coatl’s hand. Heat may pass through, but the source of that heat is another matter entirely.

Samuel rolled his eyes. “Right, well while you’re trying to figure out how best to cook me…” He raised his rifle and fired a few bursts in the Inquisitor’s direction, which were all dodged or blocked by the girth of his sword. Frowning, he began the process of reloading. “This may come as a shock to you, but I really don’t want to go wherever you want to be taking me. Last one of us that went into Elder custody cut my stomach open.”

I’m afraid you have little choice in the matter, Ignium replied evenly. Arbiter Carolus has requested you be brought to her alive if possible, but acknowledges the concerns of the High Commander. If the alive is impossible, then dead will suffice.

“Carolus? What, like the Swedish king?”

Across the courtyard some way, Bonnie sighed in exasperation. “Are you two going to keep chattin’ away or are you goin’ ta fuckin’ murder him already?”

Good point. We’re wasting time. Ignium leveled his blade at his opponent once again. Umbra knows that if it uses its normal method of defending its user, you will still sustain some damage from the residual heat. Not enough to kill you in a short length of time, no, but certainly enough to become very uncomfortable very quickly. Defending you from a short distance away does weaken its abilities, but also neatly avoids the issue of slow-braising you. He smirked. Of course, every tactic has its weakness.

With his two free hands, he made a flicking motion towards the sky. Fireballs leapt out of his hands, arching up and over Umbra with a trajectory that would carry them directly on top of Samuel. Umbra shifted position to block the attack, floating above its master in the process. The Russian immediately realized what Ignium had been referring to, and dodged backwards as the Inquisitor swiped forward with his sword. The blade clove through the air in which Samuel had been standing, carrying with it the sound of crackling flames.

“Asshole,” Samuel muttered, as Umbra returned to its original position.

As I thought. You cannot defend from two attacks at once in this configuration.

“I can if I see them coming,” the Russian contested. “And reading the battlefield has always been my specialty.”

Ignium’s arms flew outward, and again two fireballs extended from each. But what about three attacks? he wondered, as the flaming spheres began curving towards his opponent.

I can’t fight on too many fronts, or I’ll lose this war harder than Nazi Germany, Samuel thought, glancing side-to-side to ensure the fireballs would indeed strike him at the same time. As Ignium dashed forward to take advantage of the now three-pronged attack, an idea came to the Aerotrooper. He smirked as he activated his jetpack, ascending above his previous position. Unable to react in time, Ignium’s blade swiped empty air, quickly followed by the mild explosion of the two fireballs.

The Inquisitor frowned. Hmph. I was not expecting verticality. He released his cleaver, leaving only one hand to hold it as the tip impacted the ground. With his three free hands, he began channeling psionic energy. I don’t suppose asking you to hold still would be sufficient?

Samuel weaved away from the dull glow that was flung at him, unable to see the soulfire in its entirety. “‘Fraid not,” was the only response he gave, as two more globules of energy pursued him. Umbra being unable to protect him from the psionic attack, he was forced to rely on his reflexes. These proved sufficient - he was able to dodge the soulfire with relative ease.

Ignium’s frown deepened. If you are going to continue to be this problematic I will be forced to take steps to apprehend you, he warned. Steps you will not enjoy.

Samuel laughed. “Resorting to empty threats now, eh? Don’t blame you. You must be feeling really impotent down there fighting a foe you can’t hit.”

A sigh. So be it. The Inquisitor of Fire extended a hand towards one of the buildings rimming the courtyard, as if grasping it. Part of the concrete structure imploded, sending shrapnel and rubble tumbling down to the ground below. A few unlucky Matterhorn troops were crushed under the debris, but Ignium hadn’t been targeting them. Still grasping something, he flung his hand sideways, towards where Aquatef was busy missing Alan with her ice spears. Samuel had time to see a long, sleek object sail past before Arthur recoiled, his helmet now sporting an arms-length, charred shard of rock. His helmet split open by the force, the Phantom fell backwards, limp.

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Part 5

Bonnie howled in anger. Alan cursed. Samson roared. Lester repeatedly attempted to gain some kind of response over comms. Arthur was silent.

“What the hell!” Fuming, Samuel drew his shotgun. “He wasn’t part of this, why the fuck did you have to do that?”

I did warn you the steps would not be enjoyable. And there are far more effective and painful ways of removing your allies. The Inquisitor held an upraised palm out, but low. Now, will you surrender? Or will you see more of your friends sent into oblivion?

In response, Samuel cut his jetpack’s engines, landing directly in front of Ignium. “I have a counter-offer,” he said darkly. “Do that again, and you’ll get a face full of pulse. At this range, that’s going to hurt. At least.”

The Inquisitor stared him down. Then shoot me.

“What?”

If you believe your best course of action is to kill me, then why haven’t you done so yet?

Samuel gritted his teeth. He couldn’t say it was because he was worried that it wouldn’t be a killing blow. He couldn’t say that if it wasn’t, Ignium would likely kill someone else anyway. “Wanted to give you a chance to run,” he said at last, not betraying his unease.

Silence. Then, a chuckle. Amazing. You still think you’re in control, Ignium said, amused. With an almost leisurely movement, he reached into his robes. Then, with a movement that was most certainly not leisurely, he whipped out a glowing green weapon, pointing at Samuel before he had a chance to react. I believe you would describe this as a ‘sawed off’ shotgun, he stated. Fires plasma beams. And before you ask, yes, those will cut right through Umbra. This has been tested before.

So if we’re negotiating here, then allow me to reject your counter-offer and return with one of my own. Either you surrender, you lay down your arms, and myself and Aquatef take you back with us… Ignium glanced sideways. … or you don’t. We shoot each other, and I cause the ground underneath most of your team to erupt in flames. You die. They die. Aquatef keeps me stable until I can seek proper medical attention. Either way, you lose. The question is how badly.

The two remained in that position for a moment, the only sounds that of the flames on Ignium’s sword, the soft purring hum of his shotgun, and the battle raging behind them. Samuel’s visor, impassive in the face of his enemy, belied the seething anger of the man wearing it. He glanced sideways. Aquatef and the rest of Judgement Squad were in a stalemate - neither being able to hit the other without being severely punished. ADVENT was beginning to finally get people through for more than a few seconds without being gunned down. The courtyard was littered with corpses, among which was…

Samuel frowned. Where was Arthur?

“I would like to propose yet another counter,” the Phantom said, decloaking behind Ignium and leveling his sword at the Inquisitor’s throat. The shard of rock was still embedded into his helmet, though Samuel guessed it hadn’t broken Arthur’s skull. “Make a single aggressive move and not only will you be shot, but you will also be stabbed, sliced or any variation of the two. You may be able to stop one of us, but in your position stopping both is impossible.”

“Fucking BAM!” Tumulis cried gleefully. “How’d you like that, asshole?”

“And that’s not taking into account the sniper on the roof that has your head directly in her crosshairs,” Arthur continued. Over comms, Holly chuckled. “And she doesn’t usually miss.”

Samuel glanced around the Inquisitor, his visor a neutral mask. “You wanna say ‘nothing personal’ while you’re at it?”

Ignium tensed visibly, suddenly unsure of what to do. … very well, he conceded, withdrawing his shotgun, lowering his hand and sheathing his sword in the scabbard under his robes. Aquatef, I have failed in my objective. We are retreating.

The Inquisitor of Water covered herself in her igloo once again. What?!

You heard me.

Unacceptable! Failure is not an option! Removing part of the igloo to poke out and fire her Bolt Caster at Samson merely exposed her to the heavily armored Harrier. Before she could get a shot off, he fired a burst at her. The burst missed, but unnerved her enough to force her shot to miss. With a curse she retreated back inside her frozen bubble, hastily reloading her weapon.

If you wish to continue fighting alone, then I will not stop you. Ignium breezed past the two holding him at gun and sword-point, making his way back down to the breach in the wall. All units, I am issuing a retreat order. This area is too well fortified.

With an audible cry of frustration, Aquatef holstered her weapon. Do not think this is over, she stated, defending herself with a mobile shield of ice as she retreated in case her enemies tried anything.

“Oh, you wanna do this again?” Samson laughed. “Shit, alright girl. Didn’t have you pegged for a masochist, but if that’s what yo’ into, we’d be happy to kick yo’ ass again any day.”

And you will be the first to die! the Inquisitor of Water hissed, disappearing behind the wall with Ignium.

The squad waited for a while to ensure the retreat hadn’t been a feint. Arthur chose to leave the shard of rock embedded in his helmet after pulling on it produced a sharp pain in his skull. Holly tried to amuse herself by taking a few long-range potshots at foes in different fields of battle, though the range of her rifle meant the beam would become little more than a laser pointer at such a distance. Samson was trying to convince Bonnie he didn’t need a callsign like the rest of them. The rest were watching the breach with a wary eye, bar Samuel. He sat on one of the steps lining the courtyard, Umbra sitting next to him after lowering its scale somewhat, the two watching the columns of smoke rising as the city burned.

“You’re gonna have to tell me what the hell is up with those Inquisitors,” he said at last. “And whoever the fuck this ‘Arbiter’ is, if you know anything about them.”

Umbra’s response was to clench its four fists. A wave of displeasure and hatred emanated from the Reflection, stronger than any emotion it had attempted to convey before. Samuel was taken aback by the sheer amount of anger the title had spawned in his shadow.

“... hit a nerve, did I?” He sighed. “Well, whatever. In your own time then. Suppose if they’re the boss of those Inquisitors, this ‘Carolus’ isn’t going to want to get their hands dirty. Least not until we kick the door down.”

The Aerotrooper gazed out over the city once more. “Besides which, we’ve got bigger problems. Chloe’s getting hungry. I need to figure out a way to help her before she ends up like she was at Normandy again.”

Umbra’s tetrahedral head turned to face him, seemingly gauging his concern for itself. After a moment, it turned away again. The two of them kept watching as the city burned until Lester called for their own retreat, their jobs here done for now.