A/N: I am surprised that people seem to like this story. Thank you to everyone who left a review or followed! This story will mostly focus on the interactions between the cast during the inter-mission downtime. Most missions will be skipped over, except for the big ones (Annette Durand, Slingshot, Temple Ship, or Site Recon.)

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Guest-Thanks!

phantomwa1ker- The Crystal Labyrinth and Tzeentch are from WH40K. As above, thanks for the review.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no money.

Military Jargon Dictionary:

SNAFU- Situation Normal, All Fucked Up

FUBAR- Fucked Up Beyond All Recovery.

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Velasquez couldn't believe his eyes. The eight strange soldiers were cutting through the aliens that had nearly wiped out his squad. The smaller soldier in the white armor was carrying Zhang in a fireman's carry and dashed from cover to cover with an abnormal speed. The larger ones moved about the battlefield with an almost mechanical precision, almost as if they had been doing this their entire lives. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of green. "Look out!" he shouted at one of the green-armored behemoths. The figure turned, but was struck by the plasma bolt. Velasquez flinched, expecting to see one of his mysterious saviors killed. He was shocked, then, to see the soldier still standing, with what appeared to be golden lightning flickering around the strange armor. He then heard a loud double crack, and the offending thin man disintegrated above the waist. The strangers' armaments were an order of magnitude more powerful than what the Argentinian had ever seen before. After that, the group reached the extraction point with no further incidents. Needless to say, BIG SKY was hesitant to let the new arrivals on board, but relented when Velasquez explained the situation. They quickly boarded the skyranger, and the white-armored one lifted up its helmet, revealing the face of a woman with short-cropped black hair.

"Locke, he's losing a lot of blood!" she shouted to her grey-armored comrade.

"Give him some biofoam. That should stabilize him for now." he replied in a commanding voice. The soldier in the lighter grey armor handed the woman a small canister. She shook it and pointed it at Zhang's wound.

"Hold on soldier, this is going to hurt." she said as she sprayed a thick substange from the can. Zhang grunted in pain but was otherwise silent. Zhang looked up, seemingly jolted out of his delirium.

"Thank you. Now, may I at least know who you guys are?" Velasquez asked. The dark grey soldier removed his helmet, revealing dark skin that was drenched in sweat.

"Jameson Locke, SPARTAN fireteam OSIRIS." The white-armored woman looked up.

"Holly Tanaka, also OSIRIS." The one who had handed Tanaka the canister also spoke up.

"Eddie Buck, and I'm with those two." he said gesturing to Locke and Tanaka. The one in red removed her helmet and said.

"Olympia Vale, the same." The four green-armored giants shared a look. One of them, who had the image of a rabbit carved onto her lapel spoke up first.

"SPARTAN Kelly-087, Blue Team." She nudged the soldier next to her, who towered over even the other giant soldiers. He grunted before replying.

"Fred-104, Blue Team." The one cradling a monster of a rifle looked up before speaking.

"Linda-058, Blue Team." The final one, who had been silent since his questioning of Velasquez spoke slowly but confidently.

"Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117, Blue Team." Velasquez took notice of the glances the rest of Blue Team shot 117, seemingly worried about him. Buck then spoke, cutting through the awkward silence.

"Well, now that we've said are part, ya mind filling us in as to what the hell is going on. Those guys didn't look like any covies I've ever seen."

Velasquez blinked in confusion at the term, but replied, "The little greys are called sectoids, they are weak, but they can be pretty dangerous in numbers. The skinny pendejos are Thin Men, they are crack shots and can drop poison gas. The monstrosities are Floaters, they can be a bitch to outflank." Before the conversation could continue, BIG SKY announced that they were approaching XCOM HQ.

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Central Officer Bradford was nursing a migraine, and the news from BIG SKY wasn't helping. More than half of Strike One were KIA, and one of them was seriously wounded. On top of that, there were the strangers that had showed up and saved the day. As he walked towards the Commander's office, he passed a group of orderlies wheeling Zhang to Medical. He noticed that a rather nasty plasma burn had been covered in some sort of tacky white foam. He sighed, the report would be an absolute bitch to write.