Welcome. For those who have read some of XCOM: Conquest, cheers! And those that haven't don't worry, the story will have featured characters from the old one and running side by side until the old one is complete, then i'll throw in some crossover details.
-This story will contain it's own standalone plot-
With that said, enjoy! I did this as a way to refresh away from the old one if i get bored. Two chapters side by side released. Chapter 1-2.
The tapping of feet echoed through the empty streets of Adelaide, New Australia shouts of binary code and rhythmic tapping of boots patrolling metro. Martial law had been in effect for almost an hour now. ADVENT troops searched door to door looking for him, so why you might ask?
Horus was a computer programmer for the ADVENT media block, he had only turned 24 and was still a virgin. Using the cover of the dark areas he avoided the too uniformly moving ADVENT troops, their movement seemed to be rigid and inflexible they only travelled in straight lines and never strayed from a formation. Horus had found this one single behavior to aid him tremendously through avoiding them, that and the anonymous caller who had been giving him directions and had first warned him of ADVENTs imminent arrival at his dorm. His unfortunate roommate had gone to answer the door and had gotten a high density mag slug to the head for his obedience.
That had been the last straw for him, his peers had their unwavering loyalty to the new administration but he had his doubts about the administration. He was a lot older than his peers so had had actually bore witness to the opening days of the invasion 20 years ago, even if he was too young then to remember much. His parents had coincidentally went missing right after a pact of mutual understanding had been signed between the UN and the aliens. Left alone there wasn't much an abandoned child could do for himself, his extended family was nowhere to be seen.
In the end, ironically it was the new administration that took him in and sponsored his childhood till he became an adult. So he couldn't really they had ulterior motives then. His employer sent him to New Australia to do analysis on the percentage of pro-ADVENT supporters in that region.
Because Australia had one of the highest insurgent activities throughout the world. The vast terrain of the continent meant that the insurgents could hide or pop out anywhere however they wished. ADVENT was already having a hard time keeping the urban cities safe and they needed him to produce the figures who would support a large scale operation to clear out the extremists and alien haters was how his boss had described it.
"So why am I being targeted?!" Horus lamented to himself. It made no sense. He thought of all the possibilities that led to his current predicament.
-You saw something you weren't supposed to and now they want to keep it that way.-
The voice replied to him through his earphones. Clearly the moment he started interacting with this caller was the moment when all hell broke loose, it seemed too convenient to blame others for his own faults. But he had a feeling it had been when he dug up that heavily encrypted file from the network, he was only trying to do his job by going the extra mile to source figures.
Apparently they didn't appreciate his snooping around. He only had a day with the file and noticed some strange pattern occur in the code written down, the word kept popping up, 'Avatar'.
"So what do I do now?" He asked calmly.
-Mmm? You seem a lot calmer than most of those seeking asylum.-
"What's done is done! There's no way I could turn back time, I have to live with the consequence of what I did even if I don't know what it was exactly. I need to make do with what's available, starting with you." It didn't pay to dwell on the past, that was what his parents had taught him though he didn't think it would be used in this kind of scenario where he became a fugitive to the administration.
The caller remained quiet for a while, as if processing his words. He could do nothing but wait till that person gave him instructions on how to evade the patrols and get to safety.
-Aren't you curious of who we are?-
"..."
-...Why we're even taking an interest in helping you?-
"At this rate, if you said you were extremists from some cult I'd still accept!" Horus was a very pragmatic person and it won him a fair share of enemies in the academy when he refused to join the unions whom were ADVENT sponsored. He merely sought his own means in climbing up in the world, but the union groups took it as being ungrateful to the administration. Somehow they had access to his history and had made his journey throughout his schooling days a living hell. He could do nothing but suck it up and work hard, the teachers and lecturers took notice of his diligence and had paid special attention to him. This had granted him their protection through until his graduation so he was not at all upset at the end of the day.
-(giggle) And what if we are really them?-
Horus had a gut feeling that the caller was a woman from the way he was being teased in a highly stressful situation.
"Um... I'd love to chat and perhaps meet up with you but I'm currently running for my live so if you could please lend a hand that would be great!"
-Oh don't worry! Help is on the way and they're coming to you, they can already see you from here.-
Horus looked around on reflex but all he saw was darkness and flaying light from those scanning posts.
(Binary code) His position was revealed shortly after and ADVENT troops began to fire at his position which he quickly displaced. "Shit!"
More and more troopers began to converge on him as he ran through the streets seeking avenues for escape, his skid against the permacrete floor as an impassible obstacle lay before him. A wall stood before him denying him passage further, he tried to double back whence he came but the ADVENT troopers led by their red leader had blocked his only route.
He backed up against the wall helpless as he had no means to escape or fight back. (Binary speech) The red leader ordered the troops to take aim, they formed a line as they did so. It looked almost like a firing squad that he read about in those books. Nobody read from those anymore, not when everything can be found at a tap on the screen, then again even before the invasion that was already happening.
How short his life was, he would not even have time to find his parents let alone start a family like he always wanted. Those days of loneliness were finally over but not as he had expected, he was to be put into an eternal slumber.
"..."
Another bark in binary ordered the cocking of their rifles. This was truly the end for him.
"Arghhh!...Fuck it!..." He had enough of living as other dictated it, it left a sour taste whenever he achieved something it was all because someone else had done helped him to attain it.
As the ADVENT troops aimed their rifles to take his life an unexplainable emotion had come over him, his body seemed to have this itch as if he had not expressed it for a while. Now was a better time than ever, it would be the last time he could express it. As he did a pleasurable sensation had filled his body.
The red leader and her fellow ADVENT soldiers stumbled upon their movements for a second, caught off guard by something. He was not sure whether he had expressed it before or not. But whatever it was it made the red leader hesitate.
Gunfire overhead shredded the lined up ADVENT soldiers like they were the ones being executed by gunfire instead. "CLEAR!" A voice called out and multiple silhouettes revealed themselves from the shadows, in the lead was a petite female with a hood over her head and a machete on her back.
"Pfeeww! And just in time, you're a very lucky man you are! ADVENTs policies are usually to shoot on sight, whatever you did to delay them it se-...something funny?"
"I don't know what you mean?" The woman looked at him weird for a moment and then asked.
"Then why are you smiling?"
"I was...smiling?" That unfamiliar expression was him smiling? Horus thought back for a moment, had he not smiled before?
No. There was one time he smiled, it was on the day his parents took him to the beach on a sunday. The water was so clear you could see your feet buried within the fine smooth sand and the smell of sea water had brought a smile to his face. He realized that ever since then, he had not felt joy even once. It was so laughable that he unconsciously smiled, mocking his own existence when he had been forced to come to terms with it at death's door.
Truly laughab- "Hheeeellllooo!"
Horus returned from his inner monologue, and turned to the petite woman.
"Oh! Sorry, and thanks for the rescue!" He may never have another chance with the pace of everything.
"... You ok? Blanked out for a while now, not to mention you still had that creepy smile on you."
"C-creepy?! No way!"
"Ehehe! Yes, way! I'm not sure whether you do that all the time or what but please don't let anyone else see it, it'll ruin your image." The woman advised him.
-Firefox, come in! This is Alice, have you secured the VIP?-
The radio call the hooded woman received sounded familiar. Wait a minute, that's the caller!
"Firefox to Alice, VIP secure and returning to Evac site!"
-Change of plans, ADVENT is bringing in reinforcements on the Evac point. Switch to secondary landing and dig-in until we arrive, Firebrand is already on her way, over.-
"Firefox copies, will hold at secondary. Happy hunting, Alice. Over."
The petite woman raised her hand and formed a fist, this action caused her companions to gather around in a circle around her. Horus stood near them to listen in on the conversation, but he couldn't help but notice her companions were all towering giants which out-classed her in the height department, she was protected all-around by them.
"What's the plan boss?" One of the men asked.
"Change of plans, ADVENT is peppering the South exit. We'll run to the secondary and hold and wait for Alice and the rest. Right! Gunman take point, the rest follow."
"""Roger!""" Her companions responded as one.
The woman walked back to him.
"I'll need to call you something over the firefight that's about to happen, you have a name I can call?"
"Horus, just Horus!"
"Alright, just Horus! Follow me and stay close." She smiled.
They moved cautiously through the streets, guiding Horus along with them. There were random patrols which they avoided effortlessly as they slipped through a checkpoint towards their unspecified location.
"So what did you do?"
"Huh?"
"Why're they trying to kill you?" She specified further.
"I'm not sure myself but, it seems I peeked at something I shouldn't have in the network."
"Mmmm….. So what's your occupation?"
"Computer analysis and programmer, 1st degree. Worked in the media branch for ADVENT, my job comprised of finding figures in the population into charts and a little of programing involved in building the mainframe in this regions branch."
"So you not from around here?"
"No, I'm not an Aussie. I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."
"It's Heather, Heather Fields. I'm a combatant for XCOM."
"XCOM?"
XCOM was the public enemy number one for the list of insurgents of ADVENT. But Horus remembered who they were, the official story was they had been the vanguard of humanity against the invasion. But when world leaders signed a peace treaty they went rogue and went into hiding, becoming a terrorist group.
"Huh?... didn't you know who was rescuing you?"
"My caller never specified her organization, besides I only received the call a few hours ago."
"Is that so, well at least you know who we are now, don't you?"
Horus nodded, Heather was trying to make him as comfortable with the situation as possible. Not that he was hysterical or anything. Heather noticed his unusually calm mannerism.
(Giggle)
"What is it?"
"You know, you just might be the first person we've ever encountered who wasn't panicking or breaking down in this situation. Don't you know your losing that secure and comfortable life you once lived in the city?"
"..." Perhaps most people were unadaptive to changing environments, but he wasn't most people.
"Live was never comfortable in those cities, i had a sheltered living with everything provided for but the home was empty."
"...I think where we're going might give you just what your looking for!" She seemed to have some understanding.
"Thanks but i'll save it for when we get out of this place." His pragmatic reflex kicked in.
She nodded and went ahead to check with her pointman. They reached the end of the alley to a large atrium, the air was quiet with not even a breeze blowing.
They peered around the corner of the alley.
"Two guards by a sentry turret, piece of cake, boss?" The pointman declared and asked his boss for further orders.
"Anyone else?"
"The square looks clear, the guards don't look like they're expecting anyone either."
Horus had a look around the corner, he carefully analyzed the surroundings.
"There's something else watching this square." Horus told them straight.
"What do you mean, Horus?" Heather ask politely, but also attentive to suggestions.
"Bah! When did the city-dweller become an expert in ambushes? I'm telling you there is nothin watching that square cept those guards!" The pointman spoke in a cocknee accent, dismissed his worry.
"Those guards are usually accompanied by a red one or one of those aliens. Aside from the absence of any other activity in the area i would say something is watching overhead, giving those guards a sense of assurance in the event they really get hit."
The pointman didn't seem pleased at his suggestion and pushed his superior to take the position.
"We're on a tight window, boss! Any minute now, Alice is going to appear and find that we have not secured the place and gotten her pincered instead."
"..." Time was short, at any minute now Alice and the remainder of their strikeforce would return with a horde of hostiles on their tail. The last thing they needed was to be bottlenecked.
"... We'll proceed with the plan, the probability of any other hostiles besides the two guards are low because of Alice's diversion but keep your eyes peeled."
The group complied and the cocknee fellow gave a smirk at Horus, but this was none of his business.
"Go! Split in two and flank them." She directed their movement through the square's many benches and holo-panels.
There was barely a fight, with a timed takedown they disabled the two guards with ease, the sentry turret had not been activate at all so there was no worries. Horus walked out of cover to their location at the centre of the square as they moved to set up positions.
Was he wrong about this place having some eyes on it?
"Thank god it wasn't as bad as you said, got to appreciate the small opportunities that luck provides us." Heather chirped.
"Haa! See city-boy! There's nothing wrong with this arrangement of guards, don't go preaching about things you've barely even gone through! We on the other hand have done this countless number of times!" The cocknee fellow jeered at him.
"Seems that you've got a lot to lea-(slice)..." the cocknee man didn't even have time to react nor believe what he saw, a fist size hole appeared right through his heart and he dropped flat on the ground.
"Contact! Take cover, suppression fire!" Heathers orders awoke the others out of their disbelief.
They carried out their orders with extreme prejudice.
"God, where are they?!"
"Who cares just fire?" They sprayed rounds all over the place.
"Anyone see the shooter?" Heather called out.
"No ma'am! Nothing!" As the man replied a tracer of green pierced his torso and ended his life as well.
The group continued to shoot but now at the direction of the shot.
Horus watch the events unfold and took a look at the cocknee man's corpse, a large hole with the tissue cautarized from the inside was visible. Horus guessed the point of origin from the hole and which direction the corpsed collapsed in.
He scanned the windows looking for clues as to where the hidden assassin was, he saw a glint of shining metal. There!
He scavenger the deadman's corpse and pulled out his assault rifle and a couple of grenades and dashed to the foot of the building while maximising his cover.
"Hey! Wait-" Shots from another direction struck the ground near Heather's position forcing her back into cover.
Horus kicked the door down and proceeded with caution as he ascended the stairs with the rifle pointed up at the corners as he turned them. The rifle felt very natural in his hands when he was sure he had never handled one before, perhaps it was the calmness under pressure that allowed his thoughts to process the right actions available to him.
His had a hunch that the sniper nest that he was going to could see the other nests from its position as they could see his. So all he had to do was mark them with the rifle fire for them combatants.
Carefully pushing the door to an apartment space he could hear the shots from the alien weapon more distinctly now. He saw the shadow of the shooter, it wasn't human. But had a head of a cobra, the creature was still unaware of his presence but not for long.
He pulled the pin on the grenade and rolled it towards the creature. The Cobra head turned to look at what was making that noise coming closer to it, it hissed in shock as it realised too later what it had been.
From the square, an explosion from the west building facing them could be seen by all the members including the ambushers.
The aliens increased their volume of fire to pin them down hoping for reinforcements to take care of them.
Horuse carefully poked his head out of the destroyed nest and observed the buildings facing the square.
"Firefox, this is Horus do you hear me, how your fire!" Horus spoke through the earpiece as he adjusted the channel matching the one on the cocknee man's radio device.
-How di- Nevermind! Where are you?!-
"Firefox, order your team to hold fire. I'll be marking the sniper nests with my tracer fire."
-O-Ok! Fire team hold fire, watch for tracer fire and await my command!-
Horus looked again to confirm the area, he rested the rifle against the window base and fired bursts at the position right below the window of where the sniper was.
"There! 3 o'clock, second window from the ground fire!" At Heathers command a barrage of lead peppered the window until even the walls gave way and another one of those snake aliens fell to its death from the window.
"Confirmed kill. Cease fire and await tracer!"
Using his good vision, he took his time to analyse the windows. He was pretty sure where the last one was because it would form a overwatch triangle over the square, so one last sniper.
"Found you."
He fired short bursts at the wall beneath another window.
"7 o'clock, 4th floor and third window from the right, fire!"
This time a rocket flew to that designated position. The rubble erupted out of the balcony as well as the alien's blood, the rockets explosion had pulverised it.
Horus remained in his position for a while longer to double confirm there wasn't anymore he had missed out. When he was certain there were none, he pranced down the stairs and walked his way to the centre of the battered square.
Heather came to meet him.
"I'll take that off you." She raised her hand to his rifle and grenade bandolier he took from the dead man. He handed them back to her without question.
"You've really saved us this time, we owe you. If only i had listen to you earlier then gunman and welsh would still be alive." She sighed.
"That was just a feeling i had it was completely baseless without evidence. So anything could have happened, even you could have died instead. Although i wouldn't really like that!"
Heather smiled at him for his thoughfulness at easing her grief of lost men.
"Boys, dig in and secure the bodies. Alice should be here at any minute now!"
The sound of mag rounds became louder and closer just as she had given the orders,they were nearing soon. The men double timed in finding suitable emplacements to hold from as they awaited Firebrand.
"Here they come! Jesus! That's too much for us to handle!" Heather bit her lip him frustration to the continued stream of bad occurances.
Five soldiers ran with a blonde haired young woman in the leader. As they jumped over the emplacements. Heathers'group returned fire to suppress the incoming wave of ADVENT troops.
"We secured the evac with a little difficulty but was managed quickly and now we own it, what's that eta on firebrand?" Heather spoke to the gorgeous woman.
"5 minutes with a 3 minute window of exit and no less."
"With a force this size there's no way we can evac safely in time, what are our other options?"
"I've expended all my groups' rockets and grenades, there's now way of holding them back while we evac. That means someone must stay here while the rest go!" Her superior informed her.
"Your not- NO! That's out of the question!"
"Do you want us all to die here then?!"
Horus had been looking for any available features around the terrain to use to their advantage, since he felt that he had a winning streak going since his escape from death.
Then he remembered what the dead man reported, the sentry turret was deactivated. So all he needed to do was reactivate it.
He went around crawling through the rubble to maintain lower silhouette throughout his trip to the sentry turret and had finally reached the turret's console.
He tapped the screen but found it wasn't turned on so he took off the hood cover to the console revealing all the flaying wires and another console screen for programming. Then he realised, he could actually program the turret to fire on specific targets himself.
Retrieving his datapad from his pocket he accessed the local network and bypassed the firewalls to get to the domain for turret that was right in front of him. He successfully located it within the local network hub under surveillance directories.
Then he began to rewrite the code for the turret at the utmost speed. Meanwhile the men and women who were fighting for their lives against the overwhelming numbers still increasing by the minute were coming to a consensus that someone had to stay behind. Most likely kill himself to avoid capture in the end.
"I'll stay!"
"Heather!"
"I've lost two of my men due to my incompetence, i hope my life will be enough to compensate them for their efforts."
Her superior looked a little helpless to change her mind on her commitment but then and unexpected surprise came in the form of mag fire directed at the ADVENT troops instead of them and was originating from their rear.
"Didn't i tell you already, Heather? Anyone can die at anytime, and having you die now would be very unfortunate to me." Horus walked up to them.
"Horus...what did you-."
"I reprogrammed the code for the Sentry to target their own IFF i just hope that whatever pickup your hoping to arrive doesn't take too long."
"I guess i owe you again!"
"You and your crew don't owe me anything, but i do want to get a lift from you out of this horrid place." Horus tried to familiarise himself with the smile but failed miserably.
"Ah-ahhahahahha! That smile, it's just... when we go back, let me help you fix it alright?"
Even the gorgeous superior couldn't help but giggle a bit.
Horus frowned slightly at their insensitivity but dismissed it in an instant.
"I look forward to it." He replied back.
The rest of the combatant whom were still fight found it hard to believe their sub-commander and commander giggling away at a conversation with the VIP when moments ago they werediscussing who would sacrifice themselves for the rest to leave. They also noticed the Sentry was firing at the ADVENT troops as well, just who in the world turned it against their former operators?
The sound of jet engines roared above them and a search light beamed down upon them, ropes dangled down into the dirt.
"That's our Evac, ladies and gentlement. Let's move it! Bodies first, VIP second then us!" The superior who was also the caller gave out her directives.
The hovering VTOL did not have to wait long because in less than two minutes all personnel both dead and alive had all been accounted for. The VTOL took off at neck breaking speed to disappear before any interceptors appeared.
There was a quiet humming throughout the aircraft which was quite pleasing to his ears, it helped muffle out the cries of agony from the heavily wounded. Heather and her superior had no time to accomadate him and were busy applying first aid to their bodies.
Horus didn't really have anything to do so he helped out when possible. Having taken a course in first aid had always been useful, they had just run out of the biofoam used to seal the wounds and were left with bandages and gauze. Ironically only one other person throughout the entire group knew the genuine first aid and that was the superior.
"I can't think of a better time that you came to help!" She said while bandaging a man.
"The feeling is mutual. You did come to rescue me after all."
"It's just as I expected, you awkward around praise aren't you." She laughed at him.
"That-...might be true!" He didn't deny it.
The skyranger as the VTOL was called had quite a lengthy ride but he couldn't complain about how smooth the trip was. They landed on a large platform that he spotted quite a while back in the middle of the forest, to be more precise it was a matte black building in the middle of the wildeness. How did ADVENT patrols miss such an obvious thing?
Stepping out of the skyranger, several paramedical crew were already on standby to collect the injured.
"Heather, take charge of things here. I'll take him to meet Central."
"No problem, and Horus, you don't need to worry about a thing. Central is quite understanding, if you want to settle into one of the havens that can be arranged. Anyway, take care. I might catch you soon!" Heather waved to him.
Two guards with metal detector wands appeared and waved around his body with them.
"That's not right. Where's your biochip?" The guard asked.
"I've never had one, I refused the micro-chipping. It only made my life hard there but at least that was my choice." The guard seemed to be rather understanding and swept him one last time with his wand to double check then let him through. He even gave Horus a thumbs-up for his choice, to which he felt shy in response.
The metal doors automatically slit open and the two of them walked side by side, her accompanying Horus through the facility, then she started a conversation.
"So have you decided on what you might want to do when you arrive at our base?"
"For starters i'd like to learn the name of my rescuer and her party."
The superior looked at him thoughtfully for a while and spoke.
"Only if you give yours first."
"Horus, full-time fugitive of the ADVENT administration." He raised his hand for a handshake which she took.
"Nice to meet you, Horus. The names Alicia, Alicia Hunor!
Again i shall elaborate that the two stories will not require reading the other to make sense of the new one. But if you read the old one you'll have the pleasant surprise of seeing recurring characters. The opening of this story is with chapters 1-2.