+Chapter 3+

+Battle Lines+

(Void's POV)

{Sending virus to you now} Shen said, over the coms.

|Got it, thanks Shen| The Commander said, before plugging himself into a terminal.

When the Commander did, the screen turned from red, to blue. The Commander began installing the virus, when an alarm went off.

|Ummm, I don't think I did that| The Commander said, confused as to how the alarm went off.

"You're merely uploading a virus, not hacking the system" Wolf said, just as confused.

"Defend the Commander… we've got company" Void said, running back in.

His sudden return from being a look out, was followed closely by the sounds of hypersonic, hollow-point, rounds whizzing through the air. Boomer raised his Mag rifle, and started firing it, like he would do if he had his Chaingun, in a suppressive manner. Void and Wolf, on the other hand, were taking a few seconds to aim, then fired short, controlled bursts.

They'd already killed a few dozen of them, but there still seemed to be more.

"Bloody hell, how many troops do they have?" Boomer said, trying to find another clip.

"I've no idea, but considering the size of this place, I'd say a few hundred" Void said, getting the stun baton out, because he was all out of bullets.

"Commander are you nearly done downloading that virus yet?" Wolf yelled, getting out his piece of X4. "Might as well use it" He added, setting the timer, and throwing it behind the enemy lines.

The X4 detonated, making a hole in the floor, the ceiling, and destroying any nearby sections of wall.

|Alright, I'm done| The Commander said, disconnecting himself. |Shen, you should have control of their defences now| The Commander radioed to Shen.

{Copy that Commander, I have full contro…} Shen started to respond, only for the signal to go dead.

{Most impressive Commander, most impressive indeed, although, I would guess my sister had a hand in it, am I correct} An unrecognised, echoey voice radioed to them.

|May I ask, to whom am I speaking to?| The Commander asked, as he floated after the others, as they made their way to the landing pad.

{How rude of me… I am Admiral Shadar, of the Second Orbital Fleet. I am sure Soleirus mentioned her dear brother} The voice replied.

|No, she didn't| The Commander responded, as they got out into the open.

{To any extent, I am looking forward to meeting the infamous Commander of the terrorist organisation, XCOM} Shadar said.

|If that's in person, then you'll be sorely disappointed… but if you wish to meet me, then why don't you come out of hiding?| The Commander sarcastically replied, as they approached the landing pad, where Eagle, Gears and Bud, were in the middle of a firefight.

{And why would I do that? When I'm quite comfortable where I am} Shadar replied.

|You know, I was expecting to meet you on the landing pad… I mean, it's what Soleirus would've done| The Commander said, as they boarded the dropship and took off.

{She was a fool… look where being outside of a command centre got her!} Shadar replied, angrily.

|Well as much as I enjoyed our chat, I'm afraid I must depart| The Commander said, before telling Wolf to radio Shen, to tell her to bring it down.

As they made their escape, they watched as the Naval guns turned and begun to destroy two of the massive support structures, and watched as the troops tried to get to the dropships, only to fail and see the crafts slide into the ocean, as the facility began to topple, but not before a lone dropship escaped.

"I can only assume that to be Shadar" Void said, removing his helmet.

|As can I| The Commander agreed, as the dropship's doors closed.

"I'll assume he's the one who triggered the alarm" Boomer said, removing most of his armour.

"Most likely" Wolf answered, sitting down and leaning against the wall.

"That's a good look for you… you should keep that armour" Eagle said, dropping her rifle.

"Well… I will admit, it is rather comfortable" Wolf admitted.

"Bud get any kills?" Boomer asked.

"Two or three… but mostly he was keeping them in one place, allowing us to kill them" Gears said.

|We could make you the new Support class, and give you the new SAW we developed| The Commander said.

"Hey Bud, Bud…" Eagle said.

Everyone looked to Bud, to see he'd fallen asleep.

"Guess gettin' shot at to this extent, tired the poor kid out" Eagle said, sitting next to Wolf.

'They act like they hate each other, but I know they have a thing for each other… yet they never show it, properly, around us' Void thought to himself.

It was true, they had a thing for each other, but only Void has caught on to it.

But in any case, it was a hard fought battle, but in the end, they emerged victorious. But they were all in need of a good rest. They just had to get off the dropship, blow it up, and get on the Skyranger.

(Soleirus's POV-Two hours later)

"Thanks to your information, and 'help', the team made it back in one piece… however, you forgot to mention the presence of an Ethereal, your brother, I believe" Central said.

At the mention of her brother, Soleirus went ballistic.

"T'varak" She said, in her own language, whilst sending out a powerful shockwave, which threw everyone against the wall. "Never mention brother again… filthy coward" She said, enraged.

"Why do you say that?" Void asked.

"Like me, but not honour tradition… fight out of battle, safe, away from fight" Soleirus answered, a bit calmer.

"Hmmm, I see, makes sense when you think about it, they do not honour your bloodline's traditions, then they are not fit to be part of those who honour tradition" Void considered, sympathising with Soleirus.

"An old way of thinking" Central pointed out.

"As time change, tradition change too fit" Soleirus said, returning to her cell.

|Void, how are you able to sympathise with her?| The Commander asked, curious.

"While I personally don't follow my family's tradition, simply because died when ADVENT was born, but it was something that I will always remember my father telling me" Void replied, leaving.

"Commander, if she continues to behave this way, we'll have to 'terminate' her" Central said.

|She's not some, animal, she's an intelligent being, but even if she was an animal, just because it behaves badly once, doesn't mean it needs to be put down if it's bad again| The Commander replied, slightly disgusted by his words.

Little did they know, Soleirus was listening, and was hurt badly by their words. She knew that they weren't going to be extremely kind, if kind at all, but she didn't expect this. She wiped the tear, that had formed, away. She didn't want to die, not yet at least. She wanted to see the Elders fall, before she died. 'Humans at their finest… beings capable of great compassion, but also great hatred' Thought to herself. She knew Central would feel better, if she wasn't on board the ship. But after her capture, she had nowhere to go, except this ship, or six feet under. She thought that by giving them facility locations and a way to destroy the largest one, would, at the very least, earn a small amount of trust, but she apparently thought wrong. She was just laying there, when she heard the door slide open. She saw Void walk in, with no other guards.

"Solierus, I have asked the Commander if I can unlock your cell" Void said, unlocking her cell.

"Why?" Soleirus asked, confused.

"Because I want to be able to face the Elders in a battle of the mind, should it come to that, or a gatekeeper" Void said.

"You seek help, from me?" Soleirus asked, puzzled as to why he would ask for her help.

"Well… yeah, I mean from my understanding, you're not a threat" Void explained.

"Cannot improve Psionic potential, but can teach new abilities" Soleirus said, standing up.

"What kind of abilities?" Void asked.

Soleirus held an open hand up, and an orb of Psionic energy appeared in it.

"You've seen reanimation ability, yes?" Soleirus questioned.

"Yeah, I've seen them, and felt their bite" Void remembered, scratching a scar on his arm.

"Only work on recently deceased. Focus on their dying mind, then take command" Soleirus said, sending the orb into Void's head.

"Wha… What did you just do?" Void asked, recovering from the shock of it.

"Gave you power, ability to bring dead back… temporarily" Soleirus said.

Void was just practicing his ability, to the limited extent he could, while Soleirus watched, when the entire vessel shook, as a wave of energy swept through the ship.

(Central's POV)

"We've lost power! We're goin' down, FAST!" Central yelled, as he held onto a railing, while the Holo-Globe flickered behind him, and the screens went staticky and sparked.

"Impossible! There's no damage to the engines!" Shen said, in a somewhat calm manner, as she looked at the only functional screen. "Unless… they used an Electro Magnetic Pulse! If I could just bypass all this alien circuitry… hold on!"

"Shen!" Central said, as the altitude metre went down faster than he could read it.

"It's not accepting the transfer!" Shen said, fairly calmly, as error messages in ADian appeared on the screen. "Interface ready… it's not accepting my commands!" Shen said, as even more error messages appeared.

"SHEN!" Central yelled, as he watched the altitude metre turn red.

"Right!" Shen said, as she moved away from the monitor, and over to a panel on the wall.

She ripped the panel off of the wall. She turned a small device inside, reversing the power flow, turning it from green to orange. It released a surge of energy which blew her back. All of the deck crew began to panic, until they heard the engines start to spin up. Their rapid decent began to slow as they passed through the cloud cover.

(Wolf's POV-Minutes after landing)

"Did anyone catch the number of that UFO?" Wolf, sarcastically, asked.

"The driver's going to get a few points on his license" Eagle responded, attempting to stand up, only to fall over again, as she hit her head against one of the bunks.

"Here… let me help you" Wolf said, going over to her, and helping her up.

"Come on Bud… get up" Gears said to Bud, who was, partially, unconscious.

"No Mum… I don't wanna go school today… the other boys make fun of me" Bud, unknowingly, said.

"Sorry about this" Gears said, as she slapped him hard across the face.

"OWWWWW! What was that for?" Bud yelled.

"Well, at least your awake" Boomer stated.

The lights suddenly went red, as they heard the emergency warning over the intercom.

{|All personal, Code Red. Multiple hostile contacts in bound. All personal capable of fighting are to report to the Armoury immediately|} The ships AI relayed.

"That's just fantastic… kick us whilst we're down" Boomer said, while running down the corridor.

(Central's POV)

|Emergency power online| The ships AI said.

The room was bathed in a red light, all the screens sparking, along with the damaged command consoles.

Central sighs, while taking in all the damage to the bridge. "Someone get me a damage report!" He orders.

"We've got a problem!" Shen says, whilst looking at a monitor, before a pulse swept through the ship, causing the screen to glitch, before returning to normal.

"Only one?" Central replies, walking up to her.

Shen frowns. "They just dropped… some sort of spike outside" Shen explains, the screen showing a spike of alien design. "It's generating the same type of pulse that knocked us out of the sky" Shen continues explaining.

"They don't want us… they want the ship!" Central replies, realising why they used an EMP. "Isn't there some way you can… override it?" Central asks, as another pulse swept through the ship.

"Not from here… I can't get the engines online whilst it's out there!" Shen said, looking ever so slightly worried.

"Commander, we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Destroying that spike is the only way to get out of here. We can't let the aliens take this ship… if they do, we're lost to the resistance" Central said, looking to the Commander's GREMLIN.

"I don't believe they are after the ship… compared to theirs, this thing is ancient" The Commander said, floating down to Engineering.

"Then why'd they keep it intact?" Central called after him.

"I think they're after… me!" The Commander said, as he went out of sight.

(Void's POV)

Void awoke, in a rather awkward place, for him anyway. He woke up on top of Soleirus. He quickly got up, to stop her seeing him in that awkward place. He heard the ships AI, and went to the Armoury.

"Good god man, how long does it take you to get the message?" An over stereotypical British accented voice said.

Void looked over to see Union, of the Shadow Phoenixes, grabbing his sniper rifle.

"Yep, well, when you hit your head against the wall, and nobody else is there to help you, takes you a while to recover" Void said, hastily putting his Predator armour on.

"We were going to save our home without you" Wolf said, grabbing his sword sheath.

"Ha… like I'd let you have all the fun" Void replied, grabbing Glass Buck rounds.

Glass Buck is an experimental shotgun shell type. It works like a standard buck shot, except when the buck impacts the target, it shatters inside them, causing major internal damage. Results have been, promising.

"ComeonComeonComeon! Wegottakillembeforetheykillus!" An extremely fast speaking voice said as it raced by.

"Wait up Buzz!" A man, who looked to be in his late forties/early fifties, called after the fast talker.

"Swear Buzz is on the wrong team" Boomer said, as he looked at the screen.

Buzz was a ranger, who used two modified swords, who was on the Dark Crusaders, which was made up of XCOM veterans, from during the war, and Buzz was only in his early twenties.

{|Warning! First wave inbound! ETA two minutes!|} The ships AI alerted its crew.

"Who's ready to beat ADVENT off our front lawn?" Wolf, rhetorically, asked.

"If we get through this, first drink's on me" Boomer said, grabbing his Mag cannon.

They exited the ship, via the ramp at the back, to be quickly met with heavy gunfire.

"Gears, move up and flank that Muton!" Void yelled.

"On it!" She replied, running up to a nearby tree, and shooting the Muton, that currently had Union suppressed.

"Havin' fun yet?" Eagle asked Union.

"Oh yes, so much fun, getting shot at by alien oppressors" Union, sarcastically, replied, as he hit an ADVENT Officer in head, without looking at him, just pointing his rifle at him.

"Hmph, show off" Eagle said, as she shot a Lancer.

Void ran up to the turret, that was set up by the Defence Matrix, and used it as cover. He looked for Boomer, and signalled for him to tear a MEC apart. Boomer fired an entire clip, tearing the MEC, and three troops, apart. 'Hmmm, I wonder if what Soleirus taught me actually works' Void thought to himself, as he charged up an orb, preparing to use their dead body's to fight ADVENT.

"Void, what are you doing" Shadow, another Psi Op, the only female Psi Op, asked.

"Trying a new trick I learned" He replied, as he fired.

It impacted the ground, and his eyes went purple, as the corpse got back up, and started to fight ADVENT forces.

"I don't even know what to say" Shadow said, gobsmacked at what she just witnessed.

As he and his not-living, living meat shields, moved up, he saw something, that was seriously going to ruin his day. Charging straight at him, was a Berserker. He fired a Null Lance at it, and killed it instantly, only to be hit with its corpse, which was traveling around forty/fifty miles an hour. He hit a nearby tree, with a tremendous thud.

"Somebody else kill that bleedin' jammer" Void said, grabbing his shotgun, and dragging himself back to the ramp.

Boomer, Rhino, another Grenadier, from the Dark Crusaders, and Conman, from the Shadow Phoenixes, fired Shredder grenades at the device, making it explode.

{This Central to Avenger defence, engines are online, get back to base, or we're leaving you behind}

"Come on" Wolf said, grabbing one of Void's arms, and putting it over his shoulder.

Void looked behind, to see a MEC about to fire at Wolf. Void managed to get Wolf to the floor, just as the shots sailed over their heads, and into Boomer's chest.

"Fuck" Void exclaimed.

Somebody else dragged Boomer to the ramp.

{This is Avenger defence to Central, all personal are onboard} Void radioed, as he watched a Frag grenade explode in front of Gears, sending her to the ground in pain, and scorching the insides of the Avenger.

{Copy that Avenger defence, closing ramp. Pilot, get us in the sky} Central replied, then spoke to the pilot.

"Void! Bud's wounded, badly" Eagle yelled, worried.

Void limped over to Eagle.

"Just how ba… holy shit!" Void went wide eyed at the sight before him.

Eagle was covered in blood, and Bud was, well, the right half of his body was burned, most likely by a Plasma grenade, to point where you could see his rib cage.

{Central, we need a Med team down here… NOW!} Void yelled.

{Sending you one now} Central instantly responded.

"Eagle, what happened?" Wolf asked.

"Bud was suppressing a group of troopers, whilst I was picking off stragglers. He noticed a Plasma grenade, thrown by a Muton, none of us saw. He pushed me out of the way, and took the full force of the blast" Eagle replied, wiping Bud's blood off of her face.

"Get your hands looked at" Wolf said, noticing her hands were blistered, most likely from the superheated armour of Bud.

One can only imagine the mess underneath Bud's armour.

(Wolf's POV-One hour later)

Wolf put his glass back on the table, and got up. Wolf was currently at the ship's bar, trying to rid himself of the memory of Bud's mangled body. It wasn't working.

"Wolf!" He heard someone call, as he walked out of the bar area.

"Huh… oh, hey Eagle" He said, perking up a bit.

"What's up?" Eagle asked, walking beside him.

"Nothing much… I thought your hands were burnt?" Wolf asked, noticing her hands were as smooth as ever.

"They were, but Dr. Tygen developed an improved Med spray that can heal mild burns, in minutes" Eagle explained.

Eagle isn't called Eagle because she's a Sharpshooter. She used to keep eagles, until ADVENT burnt her home to the ground, in a 'raid'. They 'believed' that resistance forces were hiding there, and ultimately destroyed her home and killed her birds, only to be killed by Eagle.

(Soleirus's POV)

"You knew… you knew they'd attack!" Central yelled at Soleirus.

"Knew nothing of attack, unconscious for most of attack" Soleirus pointed out.

|To know of an attack like that, you must first know where they are. It's impossible for her to have known, since we're always on the move| The Commander said, in defence of Soleirus.

"You saw her tactics at the ocean facility… she's a tactical genius… she must've had something to do with it!" Central replied, reluctant to believe Soleirus.

"SO THAT HOW I BE TREATED! I be treated as liar? A backstabber? If that how you see me, then I help you none!" Soleirus responded, with lots of force and anger in her voice.

Soleirus turned around, and went back into her cell, and used her telekinesis to shut, and lock, the door. Even the guards were shocked, they'd been told Soleirus, though she had her moments, wasn't particularly aggressive, but this wasn't what they'd expected. Central and the Commander were speechless. Central tried to look through the camera in her cell, but was met with purple static.

"Great… she's using her power, to disable the cameras" Central said to the Commander, only to find he'd left.

"Great" Central muttered to himself.

Soleirus on the other hand, was silently weeping. She thought that they were going to ask her if she knew about the attack, which she didn't, but instead, they accused her of knowing about the attack, and assisting it. She was upset by the accusations. How could she have known, she knew the UFO was hunting XCOM, she'd personally overseen its launching, but she didn't know it would find them, or when. XCOM must've known they were being hunted by one, they had equipment that kept them up to date on the latest ADVENT developments.

+To be continued+

Hey guys, hope you liked this chapter. Please PM me if you have an idea. Anyway review and all that, and have a fantastic day (or night, I don't know when you're reading this)