/Activating...

/Running_basic_protocols...

/Basic_functions_restored

/Analyzing...

/Welcome back general. You have last logged in 364589.76918964928 cycles ago. How can I help you today?

/User: Run deep scans of the population in your designated sector based on this sample.

/Requesting_sample

/Sample_received

/Scanning...

/Scanning_Bio_Chemical_components...

/Done

/Match has been found. Location has been send to your personal data adapter. Is there anything else you need?

/User: No

/Please insert further orders.

/User: Begin awakening protocol of installation 04 and 05

/Are you sure you want to proceed? Y/N

/User: Y

/Protocol engaged

"Is everything ready for the final ascension?"

"Except for the Empress's private projects, everything has been prepared and set motion."

"Good. How long will the initial landfall take?"

"Approximately two hours before the basic landings zones are under our complete control."

"Good. Activate all systems and be ready. In two sun cycles we shall take action."


December 5 2015, Penn Station 11:59 A.M

Normally, the mother of blacklight was bored. Ever since she managed to take over half of Manhattan, things began to change. The sudden appearance of aliens and their attack at both her and human soldiers, forced a stagnation in the war against humanity. With Ceph so close to her zone of control she could not really order her children to continue their attacks. With how powerful the aliens were, she was unable to gain any ground and the human groups have fortified their positions so well, that her children were unable to root them out. Even after she allied herself with a human rebel called Robert Cross, she was still unable to gain advantage over her adversaries. The only thing she could do for entertainment was toying around with genetic structure of her virus, however she quickly found out that being confined to this rotting city greatly limited her options at evolution.

Normally, the mother of blacklight was bored. However, this was about to change, as a very loud shrieking noise got attention of everyone in New York. What emitted the sound was the Ceph central spire itself. With a ear shattering howl of metal grinding against metal, the massive tower rotated itself. It was then raised even higher up in the air causing a huge earthquake all around it and dragging tons upon tons of soil with it. Finally when it was done, three tentacle like tubes drilled their way above the ground and coiled themselves around the structure, before finally attaching themselves to it. Every blacklight, sentient or not, watched this event happen with distaste. They knew what this heralded. The last time the spire did something similar, was when it dispersed the spore and caused a global epidemic. The living virus greatly disliked the idea of using such powerful bio weapon globally, as they themselves were caused by a similar outbreak.

Elizabeth watched this unfold from her nest, using millions of tiny, eye like structures at the side of the hive. Just when she was about to turn her attention to something else, she spotted three sleek vehicles exiting the spire. The gunships flew in tight formation until they reached the water. Then the group broke in two as one of them made a sharp turn and flew right towards the blacklight occupied area. The other two shuttles dove into the water, heading towards Europe. Mother watched with great interest as the single ship flew overhead and began to land nearby. Intrigued, she formed her body out of puddle of infected flesh and began to slowly walk towards the landing zone. Using the hive mind, she order all her children to stay put and attack only if provoked. When she walked outside, she saw that there was a group of strange individuals, having a staring contest with her right hand, Alex Mercer. He stood there, glad in his chitnous armor plating, claws at the ready. Flanking him were three other evolves, all donning their own versions of the bio armor and weapons.

All four of them, alongside at least hundred infected zombies, were staring at a group comprised of five ceph wielding energy barriers and seven troopers equipped with standard alien rifles. Following them, was a single human with a black cloak covering its entire body.

"What is the meaning of this?" She spoke with a echoing and demanding, yet calming voice. All the evolved, including Mercer parted, letting their mother pass. Strangely, the Ceph did the same allowing the hooded humanoid to walk out from the group.

"I come with an offer." Said the figure. Elizabeth could easily say that it was a girl and most likely a rather young one. Maybe ten or so years.

"And what is that offer?" Alex asked before Elizabeth could think of a good answer.

"Simple. The world is about to come under our total control till the end of the year. So you either join us and live peacefully in a new order we will established." Said the girl, she then raised one of her hands up from underneath her cloak. "Or you oppose us and die." She continue, making a crushing motion with her gloved hand. Every single infected creature growled at the girl, and the Ceph raised their guns and shields as an answer.

"We do not fear you. You might try to intimidate us, but you will ultimately fail." Said Elizabeth as she allowed her eyes to change color to a menacing red. The girl seemed unimpressed.

"Look, the guys my boss is controlling have enough fire power to burn you off the face of the planet in matter of minutes. If It was up to me, I would have simply taken over the earth and kill everything that is not one of my species. However, I swore to listen to my empress and she wants to save as many as she possibly can. So please just tell me your decision so I can get back inside the litho-ship." She then wrapped her hands around herself and lowered her head a little. "It's cold out here... I want to get back inside..." She mumbled under her nose, causing some of her alien soldiers to let out something akin to a chuckle.

'What was her decision?' Elizabeth wondered. She looked back at the Ceph spire. Right now she could clearly see many ships circling around it in a defensive fashion. Some even entering a skirmish witch blackwatch Anti-Ceph aircrafts that flew overhead. She could also see the now active alien artillery opening fire at the other side of the Hudson river. Even if the girl was lying and they did not have all that fire power, it was obvious to her that the Ceph alone could destroyed them if they wished so. Sure, they would suffer great casualties and maybe even lose the Manhattan structure, but they still had their main hive on Lingshan. From all she and her children knew, the aliens could have structures such like the New York tower build all over the world. If that was true, she had no chance at defeating them. Sure her children were strong. Alex was strong and she was strong, but there were three hundred evolves at the moment fighting an entire army of technologically superior foes. She looked back at Alex and the other evolves for advice. Without a word she understood as she saw them nodding. She could also feel them agreeing with her trough the hive mind. The mother smiled slightly and turned back towards the girl and her soldiers.

"Me and my children accept your offer."


December 6 2015, 12:30 Geneva

"We cannot tolerate the aliens any longer! X-Com was obviously a failure as our enemies now control both New York and a sizable chunk of the Pacific! We need to send all our forces in or else we will soon face extinction!" Yelled the American representative as from time to time he motioned with his hand towards a virtual presentation displayed on a wall behind him. It showed many charts, some about the military strength of the entire UN, others about the victims of the Spores. Everyone in the room knew what he meant. He bragged about it since the GENTEK facility in New York fell, and Ceph were confirmed to move further in land, slowly, but surely approaching cities like Washington DC.

"What about the mutants? We have official confirmation that we are dealing with a new, earth born intelligent species here. These so called Diclonii are..." The German representative was cut off by the American one.

"They are a inconvenience nothing more. Besides we do not even know if they are truly sapient or not. They are working with the Ceph and as we all know, the squids are known for shooting any human on sight."

"Then you should consider yourself lucky human. We have still not shot you." Said a raspy voice from behind the spokesman. Everyone turned towards the source of the voice and panic broke lose as a single Ceph glad in black armor appeared out of thin air. Instantly, some guards raised their weapons and tried to shoot the alien. However, they were quickly dispatched by their fellow guardsman and other Ceph stalkers that uncloaked all around the room.

"What is the meaning of this?! How did they get in here?!" Yelled the now terrified man as he stared into the cold, red visors of the alien soldier that towered over him.

"I can tell you, but you will have to shut up and listen well, as I will not repeat myself." Said the alien. Without waiting for any confirmation of understatement, it walked past him and grabbed the microphone, causing it to emit unpleasant cracking noises.

"This is the message to all of you humans. Our great empress has granted you mercy and gave you a single chance to join her. All those who wish to survive what is soon to come will surrender and allow our forces to take over their lands." It said and pressed some buttons on its gauntlet. The presentation glitched for a few seconds before turning into a image of a young woman with pink hair and horns on her head. All Ceph instantly bowed their heads as she coughed and opened her red eyes.

"Thank you Kil'Roth. Now humans, I have a proposition for you. You see, tomorrow a fleet of more than five thousand space faring ships will land on Earth and conquer it in my name. Your race has been deemed... hopeless, by my allies. They will purge this planet of your species and I assure you. You will not be able to stop them. And this, is the proof." Just as she said that, a image of the moon was showed. It was broadcasted from a NASA satellite if the logos in the right top corner were any indication. Everyone gasped in horror when they saw hundreds upon hundreds of massive black ships orbiting the moon, waiting for something. The very image was terrifying to watch as the ships looked like enormous squids with two pairs of blazing yellow eyes each. The image then turned to short movie showing the surface of the moon that was littered with the same ships, standing on their five legs with their gazes fixated upon the blue planet below. The screen then showed static for a few seconds before turning back to the girl that had a sad expression plastered on her face. "There is hope for your survival however. Surrender your weapons and allow the Ceph to enter your territories. This is your first and last warning. I begged them to find a different solution, however they did not listen. They only gave you this one chance, so please use it. If you do not..."

The screen showed the ships from before landing on a unknown planet with unknown aliens running around in horror. Buildings were burning and falling apart as the invaders fired streams of red lasers that melted anything they touched. "You will be harvested and ultimately, brought to extinction." Said the girl before the screen was overwhelmed by static until it finally exploded in a rain of sparks and shards of glass flying everywhere. The Ceph then yet again raised the microphone to its face and cackled.

"This is your only warning humans. If you accept, tell your leaders to post any kind of indication on any kind of social website. We will be waiting..." It said before disappearing alongside all other aliens. The human soldiers that betrayed their species, threw down their weapons and sprinted outside to two alien crafts that left as quickly as they appeared, leaving everyone all over the world in panic.


It took the world only half an hour to descend into complete anarchy. Leaders all over the planet realized that the end of their race was soon to come. Very quickly, space agencies from all over the globe confirmed what the now named Empress of the Ceph showed to the humanity. The moon was really overtaken by aliens that possessed numbers and firepower that were definitely capable of whipping out all humans within a single week. Governments of all Countries began to decide what to do next, and some actually accepted the offer of peace the girl gave them. This caused a world-wide outrage as super powers such as Russia, China, Japan and US threatened their former allies with nukes.

Religious zealots rose and proclaimed the Empress to be a daughter of god, a woman that will lead them to new frontiers and give them immortality. Papacy denied this claims and proclaimed the newly formed sect of alien worshipers as heretics and enemies of humanity. They also called the believers to the last prayer, in hopes that god will have mercy on their souls.

Tensions sky rocketed, when the Ceph actually kept their part of the promise and send soldiers to the countries that laid down their weapons and swore their allegiance to the Empress. Europe felt the fallout of these actions the most, as Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Turkey and Sweden belonged to the newly formed Alien Coalition. England, Spain and France instantly bolted into action, threatening the Allies to kick out the aliens or they will use nuclear weaponry. Russia also stepped in with rockets in Kaliningrad Oblast aimed at Warsaw, Berlin and Vilnius.

And all that happened in a single day. Who knows what would have happened if Kaede made her speech earlier? Finally, after so many years the hour zero came and everything shattered. The old world was no more, replaced by a fight of survival and the last days of a dying race that was humanity.


21:12Paris

As the light of the sun slowly faded, and the sky turned black, creatures of the night awakened. Sunako, one of the oldest living Shiki and the leader of a small group of her brethren slowly opened her eyes, and felt as her dead body began to move. She slowly raised her head and looked around. 'Strange' she taught checking every inch of her room. 'Mister Muroi usually is here when I wake up.' Sluggishly, she got up and walked towards the closed door. Before she could grab the handle, the door burst open and in came Isis with her cloak wrapped tightly around her. She looked worrier and her hands trembled.

"What's happening? Why are you so nervous?" Asked Sunako with her innocent voice as she walked up to her friend. The girl looked at her with a terrified expression plastered on her face.

"No time to explain! Grab your things and get ready, we are leaving in half an hour." Said Isis as she walked by her and looked out through the window. A red hue was visible on the horizon with trails of smoke staining the nights sky.

"Leave? Why? Did something happen?" Sunako then froze and looked Isis straight in the eyes. "Did someone find out?" She asked with fear in her voice. Isis shook her head at that.

"No, but everything around us is going to shit as we speak. We have to cross the German border before midnight or we risk our lives. Now get ready, I will explain everything in the car." Said Isis as she rushed out of the room.


2 hours till the EVENT

"Bradford report! Give me anything!" Said Lee as he nervously walked around the command room. The entire X-Com HQ was a mess. Everyone running back and forth trying to figure out a way to stop the aliens from destroying humanity. Some, determined to fight till their last breath were fully equipped to fight. Others, locked themselves in their rooms and committed suicide as they saw no way to defeat the invaders.

"Europe has descended into complete chaos with some of the major countries joining the aliens. The same can be told about the middle east, as Israel and Egypt joined the coalition as well." Said Bradford as he pointed towards the holographic earth. Now the moon was also displayed with it being completely red and surrounded by thousands of small, red triangles that represented the enemy ships. Multiple countries all over the world also shared this red hue, which indicated their allegiance to the aliens.

Suddenly, the entire base shook and everyone fell to the ground. All the light blared and alarms flared to life. Lee looked around and caught a glimpse of something terrifying on the cameras. He got up and rushed towards the surveillance systems, to see dozens of Ceph gunships and dropships followed by hundreds of scouts. This horde of enemies surrounded the base and began to circle around it in the air. Soon, the ground shook again and Lee could clearly see what caused it.


Outside of the X-Com HQ

The surface of the earth shattered and broke as the massive body of the Alpha Ceph drilled itself outwards. He raised his head high into the air and looked down at a smilingly empty field in front of him. He snarled as his three powerful MOAC turrets activated and opened fire at a small hill nearby. The fake ground quickly crumbled to reveal a massive metallic outline of a underground base. He roared and withdrew his head as a bright, blue orb of energy appeared in front of it. Snarling yet again, he fired his singularity cannon. The orb launched with a deafening sound and impacted the armored wall of the X-Com base, reducing it to nothing but dust, leaving a sizeable hole in it.

Taking this as their signal, the dropships lowered they flight path and launched countless pods. Following closely behind them several scouts made a impressive barrel roll while launching dozens of small capsules, all packed to the brim with mechanical drones. The Ceph soldiers that made landfall quickly scrambled to the ground and dashed towards the base, while their allies, such as Viper, Sectoid and Geth troopers followed closely behind. The final nail in the coffin of the powerful organization that was X-Com, was announced by a thundering sound of something pushing its way through the atmosphere.


Both Bradford and Lee watched in horror as they saw what emitted the ear shattering noise. The clouds parted to reveal five, armored legs of something massive. The machine then stopped midair in order to open up its legs and then fell to the ground, causing another massive quake. The machine flexed its body, looking around for few seconds, before straightening its legs and letting out a defeating roar. At that moment chaos overwhelmed the entire facility, as several X-Com soldiers and scientist grabbed the nearest weapons they could and opened fire at their unsuspecting co-workers.

"Traitors!" Shouted Bradford as he grabbed his pistol and knocked out a nearby scientist that tried to stab him with a kitchen knife. Following his second in command example, Lee dashed towards a nearby weapon stand and grabbed a fully loaded SCAR rifle. Without a second taught he opened fire at the incoming hostiles. Only a small group of the enemies managed to get behind cover, before high impact bullets rained on them from the fully automatic carbine. Lee managed to kill at least seven traitors, before he run out of bullets and was forced behind cover by advancing hostiles. He looked back towards the camera feed, and saw enemy forces entering the facility. He quickly grabbed his radio and activated it.


"What should we do?!" Asked a rookie as he watched the alien troops entering the facility trough the vents and now torn apart wall. Leading the assault were multiple Ceph paladins and a single scout that managed to squeeze inside trough the hole. Following them were several grunts and drones as well as multiple other aliens that no one had ever seen before. There were the snake ones, that looked like very thin women mixed with a king cobra. They were mostly covered by a metallic armor that somehow highlighted their perfect, female figure. They also carried a strange rifle that emanated a bright green aura. Advancing from the left was a group of small, seemingly frail, grey aliens with massive eyes. Leading them was a massive purple mech piloted by a single small alien. On the right he could see a group of brown colored aliens with bright yellow eyes and insect like appearance.

"This is commander Lee Haru to all X-Com units! HQ is currently under attack by alien forces! I repeat, we are under attack by alien forces! Multiple new variations of the invaders surfaced and we have positive contact with a harvester! Bunker down and fight till the last drop of your blood! We also have confirmed traitors among our ranks! Vigilo Confido!" The soldiers heard the commander yell trough the loud speakers. A higher ranking officer gulped, before he peaked out of cover. His head was instantly removed from his shoulders as a stream of bright green energy impacted his face and incinerated both bone and tissue within seconds. Some of the soldiers panicked and jumped from behind cover, screaming and running for their dear life. They were quickly picked off one by one, by either the Scout impaling them or one of the snake aliens sniping them from afar.

A group of two, more experienced fighters among the X-Com ranks, tried to shoot the unshielded aliens on the right. They failed, as all their shots impacted a invisible shield that flashed purple each time it was hit, instead of the intended alien target. Letting out a low growl, the mech pilot raised its arms and aimed them towards the human soldiers. They only had seconds to think, before volleys of bright green energy bombarded their positions, melting anything they came in contact with. One of the veterans jumped out of the way, only to be caught by a long tongue of the snake alien. He screamed as it dragged him across the floor towards itself, and when he finally was in its hands reach, in one quick motion it ensnared the helpless human with its tail, strangling him and slowly crushing his bones. The other veteran tried to help his colleague, only to be raised into the air by a powerful orange aura. The insect like alien walked towards him and looked him deep in the eyes.

"Poignant creature, unworthy of our attention." It said before squeezing its hand hard. Instantly, the soldier it levitated was crushed and then with one motion of its hand, thrown across the entire room. Terrified, the rookie tried to shoot one of the Ceph that got to close. However, a single beam of energy, shot by the same snake that was slowly extinguishing the life of his captain, effectively silenced him as it impacted his arm. With pain flooding all his senses, he tripped and fell backwards with blurry vision.

When the effects of being shot finally subsided, he looked up towards the battlefield. Very quickly he realized that he missed the rest of the battle, as all his companions laid dead, sprawled all over the hangar. Trembling he looked up, and to his shock he saw a familiar face of doctor Vahlen inspecting the bodies. She was wearing some kind of strange skin tight armor and a black cloak that covered most of her body, but her face was not in any way obscured to the soldier that quickly recognized her. Unfortunately for him, she was no longer on his side. When she looked towards him, he saw it. The pale skin and black eyes with red irises. This look was unmistakable. She was one of them now, a undead that blindly followed the aliens and their leaders.

She looked at him with sorrow as she realized that he was still alive. She lowered her head slightly and mouthed a quiet sorry, before turning towards a group of three Ceph and one robed, and very tall alien.

"You missed one soldat." She said before walking off, fallowed closely by two drones. One of the Ceph, a stalker most likely, looked at him and snarled. It then sluggishly approached him and grabbed him by the neck. Its mask opened up revealing a jelly like face of four mandibles and a pair of very big red eyes. It growled and made a sharp movement with its hand which was followed by a audible snap. For few seconds his vision blurred and he realized that his head was turned in a odd angle. He made a gurgling noise that was supposed to be a plea for mercy before darkness overcame him.


"Commander we lost contact with Delta and Omega sections. Alpha sections is under heavy fire and we have confirmed contacts in Beta." Said Bradford as he fiddled with his pistol and the surveillance systems. He then pointed towards one of the cameras. "Also we have a guest that none of us expected. You should look at this." Lee nodded and scanned the feed from all remaining cameras. He instantly froze when he saw her. Surrounded by multiple Ceph paladins and some X-Rays that he had never seen before, she stood there, wearing a black cloak and a armor set that was obviously not human made. Doctor Vahlen has returned, and just as Bradford said before, she was no longer herself. White skin and black eyes, these features and the fact that she was talking with the enemy proved to him that she truly was a traitor.

"Alright everybody they are coming this way. Grab your weapons and watch the doors, I give us two minutes before they come in hard." Said Bradford as he reloaded his weapon and ducked behind a desk for cover. Following his example, five X-Com soldiers took out their SCARs and hid behind any cover they could find. Lee took a deep breath and jumped behind the nearest pillar.

"It was a honor working with you gentleman. Now let's give these alien bastards the show of their lives." He said and watched as all his subordinates saluted and aimed at the doors. Then came the torturous waiting for what they knew was inevitable. Minutes felt like hours as distant shooting was silenced and heavy footsteps could be heard approaching the doors. Another minute passed, and a small explosion rocked the entire room. The doors were now nonexistent and three paladins rushed in, followed closely by three small, grey skinned aliens. The things skittered and crawled towards cover, peeking over it only to send volleys of green energy that burned trough metal like it was butter. All X-Com soldiers opened fire but it was useless as the bullets were blocked by either the red shields the Ceph wielded or the invisible barriers the other aliens were equipped with. After few seconds of this stalemate, a mechanical movement could be heard as a massive purple mech walked into the room. The pilot scanned the room with it massive eyes, before charging at the nearest human soldiers. Seeing this, Bradford jumped out of the way and tried using his knife to stab the only revealed piece of the pilot's skin, which was its head. The mech trooper blocked his attempt with one of its massive plasma canons that it had for arms. It then kicked the unfortunate officer while opening fire at the two soldiers that tried to help their superior. their armors and flesh were nearly instantly vaporized as the superheated plasma made contact. As this was happening, two other alien walked into the room. One was one of the massive snake and the other one was a very tall and covered by a long red cloak and a silver helmet.

Lee assessed their situation and it was not looking good. Bradford and his soldiers were obviously not capable of dealing with the mech trooper, and the other aliens were covered by undetectable shields that normal bullets could not pierce. This was a lot worse than any other scenario X-Com ever got itself into. When has everything changed? Just a year ago the Ceph had no shields and mindlessly rushed towards any hostiles. Simple machinegun fire was capable of taking down a scout, and with a help of a rocket launcher or other heavy weapons, pingers, or even hunters could be destroyed. Now the x-rays made a complete one eighty in their typical approach. Grunts stuck to cover while stalkers approached enemies with precision and finesse. Not to mention the allies the Ceph managed to acquire. With abilities that could be easily described as magic, the aliens had a very unfair tactical edge over humanity. Taking a breath he peeked out of cover and unloaded three shots at the tall one. As he expected the shots simply bounced off of a purple shield that materialized only for a brief second before vanishing again. What he did not expect however, was the small aliens shrieking in anger after they noticed him firing towards their supposed leader.

"Commander Lee Haru. A pleasure to meet you. Please step out into the open so we can talk like civilized individuals we are." Said a resonating, deep voice from all around him. Some of the soldiers grabbed their heads with pained expressions plastered on their faces. Others like Bradford and himself winced when the words were uttered. The voice was calming, yet harsh and painful to listen to, the sheer feeling of it echoing in his ears made him sick.

As if on cue, the aliens lowered their weapons and looked at him. Some like the smaller one and the Ceph with anger and clear distaste. Others, like the snake woman seemed intrigued. He shot the alien a glare and slowly walked out from behind cover with his pistol loaded and trailed on the cloaked being. Seeing the weapon the Ceph hissed and raised their weapons.

"What the hell do you want from me, alien?" He asked with pure venom embedded in the last words. The creature did not move and inch, most likely not fazed by the despiteful approach of the human. Unlike its followers however as they all gave out hateful noises upon hearing him say that,

"Trust me human, I'm not happy to be here one bit as well. Personally, I would prefer to sit back and watch, as my soldiers deal with you. You need to understand that I do not care one bit about your race. However, my Empress specifically ordered me to... sway you to our cause and to make you realize your lost position. Your race is doomed to fall. Without the gift you are practically useless to us, as you stand no chance against the darkness beyond. Your continued existence stands in the way of our lady's upbringing. Yet, she grants you mercy. She wants as much of your race to survive as possible. So I will convey your current situation to you quickly." It said, assuring the commander of his lost position, and that the girl Bradford found a month ago was actually connected to this all along. She must be the Empress everyone is talking about and she must be the girl that broadcasted the alien demands a few hours ago. He narrowed his eyes when the thing moved, revealing one of its multiple hands from underneath its cloak. It looked weak, brittle even with purple skin and very boney appearance. It held out a small orb and dropped it, only for it to be enveloped by a bright purple aura and levitate. The aura turned bright green before forming a into set of floating imaged from all around the base. Images of humans both soldier and civilian, fighting for their lives as waves upon waves of better equipped hostiles approached them. "Surrender now human and I will order my soldiers to stop. Your brethren will be spared, and you will be offered a high rank in the empire we are about to form. Resist, and these humans will die. Only you and your second in command will survive. And believe me when I tell you, that enslavement by the Nar'Shemis in not a pleasant experience." It said before taking the orb back into its hands and returning to its original, unmoving position. "The choice is your commander. Betray your precious high officials, that lead corrupt and soon to be dead countries and live as a equal, or refuse and become our eternal slave."

Lee gulped as he looked at his soldiers for support, for help in making the decision. The alien was asking him to betray his entire species and help them take over earth. But what choice did he have? Live free or live a slave? He shot a glance towards Bradford. His friend looked him dead in the eyes and slowly nodded. This was it. He dropped his weapon and slowly walked towards the being.

"Now what, sir?" He asked with disgust clear in his voice. The alien chuckled under its helmet and slowly levitated out of the room.

"We will contact you soon commander." It said before disappearing in the hallway, followed by all its troops.


7th December 2015, Final Event, Tokio 0:00 AM

The chaos that was Tokio suddenly froze, when the sky turned bloody red with midnight. Every single person in the city gazed up onto the stars to see that they multiplied. Some of them began to slowly take shape and a noise of something quickly decelerating filled the streets, shattering windows and forcing people to cover their ears. Then a loud roar echoed through the city, causing all the lights to flicker and die. Finally, the massive ships of the aliens landed, causing quakes all around them as their gigantic legs buried themselves into the soil. At first the ships seemed dead. Unmoving, cold and black in color.

Great jolts of red lightning jumped over their hulls, covering them in a small storm. The lights in the gaps between the massive armored plates flashed bright blue and four circular ports opened at the very front of the ships. The machines yet again let out their roars, causing the humans to cover in fear as sounds similar to the screams of the dammed filled their senses and borrowed themselves in their skulls. The opened ports lit up in a bright yellow color and the ships straighten their legs.

Those who could still observe the alien craft with the constant pain in their heads, could see two small plates rearranging at the front, with tubes sliding out from behind them. The tips of the tubes opened and bright red lights flashed inside, giving the humans the finally warning, just before massive red beams of pure energy vaporized them alongside cars, roads and buildings.

At the back of the ships more plates changed their positions, opening several hangars. Instantly, small disc shaped crafts flew out. The UFOs made some turns, before launching six pods each. When these pods hit the earth, multiple types of alien units rushed out, either right out killing any humans they saw, or capturing the ones paralyzed by the Reapers.


Director Kukazawa watched, as one of the alien dreadnaughts landed just outside of his facility. The massive machine stood tall, looking down at his life's work. He was impressed, to say the least. Not only was it so massive that it could easily stand in deep waters with it not even remotely touching its knees, but the sheer fact of it being even capable of moving in a high gravity environment was staggering. Surely, these aliens had to know secrets of some laws of physics even his brightest scientist never dreamed off. The machine looked around after its systems fully activated, and let out a loud roar that made him wince in pain. He could feel voices, digging themselves into his mind and a unspoken feel of dread slowly creeping into his brain. He shook his head with disgust. No, he will not be defeated by this simple trick. He will have his future, the future of the diclonii!

With a small glee forming at the sides of his lips, he watched as alien saucers detached from the machine and approached the facility. He also saw a X-Com shuttle, following them. He knew what this meant. The Empress has finally come to meet him face to face. Perfect, everything according to the plan. He began laughing like a mad man when the walker fired a massive, red beam of molten metal at one of the defensive cannons, obliterating it. This was just too perfect. Not only will he receive the queen of his beautiful species on a silver platter, he will also get complete control of such marvelous technology.

"Yes my little fly, come into web. When you will be entangled, my dominance over the world will be assured." He said to himself as he watched the shuttle landing on the camera feed. Soon, everything he strived to accomplish will be fulfilled.


The unlucky Blackwatch soldiers that were still near the landing pad when the aliens came, were quickly disposed off by the extraterrestrial units that were dropped into their vicinity via Ceph dropships and saucers that came from either the massive ships, or from underneath the ocean's surface. After the area was secured, a X-Com VTOL landed, alongside two Ceph shuttles. While the alien crafts deployed even more ground troops, and a single possessed collector, the VTOL carried the Empress herself. She slowly strode out of the vehicle, wearing her armor that glistered in the light of the setting sun. Following closely behind her were her closest allies, queen Mariko, Xirion and Emily.

Mariko herself was wearing a near identical copy of her armor, tough it was of a somewhat lighter color and had no mask or helmet. It also had a addition of a black cloak that the girl wrapped around herself. Her long, orange hair were completely lose, with the exception of two blue bows that covered her horns. Kaede quickly realized she got these bows from her father. Emily was in her rather big blacklight form. Her reptile like eyes scanning her surroundings as she looked for any potential dangers. Finally, Xirion was wearing a heavily modified version of Blackwatch armor. However, it had multiple Ceph metal plates bolted onto it for extra protection, as well as a identical cape to the one Mariko wore. He stood a little bit further away, with his modified SCAR strapped to his back. She also noted that the boy stood rather far from Mariko and avoided any eye contact with her. She could also feel his distress and the fact that he was a little bit uncomfortable around her. She could also swear, that underneath this grinning mask of his, he was wearing a grim expression. She decided to ignore it for now and confront him about it later, after they were done with this mission.

She looked to the left to see General Kel exit one of the drop pods. He looked around until he spotted her. He approached her slowly and bowed his head lowly. He still towered over her, but she appreciated the gesture.

"My lady." He said his typical calm and calculative voice.

"General. Good to see you." She said and bowed as well. They stayed like this for a few seconds, until both raised their heads. "Are our troops ready for the assaults?" She asked looking up at the mastermind. He nodded in response and gestured towards the alien troops.

"So far everything goes according to plan. With Muliglond here we will have no problem taking this facility. He can supply us with reinforcements for weeks, and that is if you do not include his collector cloning facility."

"Good. Order the troops to begin. I have already told my children what to do when you set them free. If you find anything that is not Diclonii imprisoned there, fill them in with our plan and ask if they will fight alongside us. Have a Sectoid or a Ethereal verify their answers. If they say yes, free them. If they decline or you find them lying, threw a plasma grenade into their cell. I do not want anything potentially lethally dangerous to us running around." She said and began to slowly walk towards the entry door. "Get these doors opened." She said looking towards a nearby Mechtoid. The pilot looked around for a few seconds before realizing she meant him. He walked in front of her, raised his mechanical arms and opened fire. What slightly shocked him and the other aliens was the fact that the plasma projectiles only left mere scratches on the steel doorway. He was however determined to fulfill his lady's orders, so he kept firing until the cannons safeties activated, forcing him to stop to let his weapons cool down. The normally green core of the mini-cannons were now red, radiating massive amounts of heat. Defeated, he lowered his head and stepped back.

"These are far more durable than some might think, believe me I tried to break through them and they only slightly dented." Said Mariko as she levitated past the depressed Mechtoid trooper. To prove her point she made a powerful swing at the door, only for it to slightly dent instead of completely breaking like most would assume. Kaede shook her head and turned to the possessed collector.

"Muliglond, take care of this for me please." She said before she pushed herself off the ground and levitated to a safe distance. The massive reaper in the distance complied by letting out a very loud roar. One of its small laser cannons slightly adjusted before firing a beam of red light. When the stream of energy hit the metal door, the sound of breaking metal filled the air. In matter of seconds the seemingly indestructible doors melted away, leaving only a large hole in the wall. For safety, a nearby scout came down from the sky and opened its maw. It then fired a bright blue beam of freezing energy and small icicles. The white hot metal was instantly covered by steam, until finally after few seconds it froze down to its solid form becoming safely cold for the troops to pass on.

The alien troops took it as their queue to begin assault, and the paladins followed closely by Mechtoids and grunts, rushed into the breach firing wildly at any human that tried to stop them. Kaede nodded to herself and pointed at one of the vipers. The snake alien bowed in response, awaiting command from her lady.

"Misha come with me. The rest of you help assaulting the facility. I also need one Mechtoid and my private guard. We are going to the director's office. Muliglond, or whoever controls this thing, lead the way. You know the maps." She ordered and watched as her soldiers followed her command. Now the only ones left on the landing platform was her and her small unit, consisting of a possessed collector, a viper medic, a Mechtoid, a undead diclonius, a vengeful queen, hateful mutant and the Ceph high general. With these kind of soldiers she felt pretty confided that she could take on anything that Blackwatch and GENTEK could throw at her. Unfortunately, she had no idea that she literally walking into Kukazawa's trap.


"When will these idiots learn that shooting us yields no effects?" Asked Xirion as he ripped apart yet another Blackwatch grunt that got in their way. A viper that was slithering closely behind him answered with her soft, yet raspy voice.

"They are primitive and determined. They will try to fight us even if it is completely futile." Xirion shot her a glare before firing a salve from his SCAR blindly into a nearby corridor. He smiled under his mask when he heard screams of pain of the now half dead soldiers.

"That was a rhetorical question." The viper looked at him in confusion.

"What is a rhetorical question?" She asked with obvious problem in pronouncing the newly learned word.

"For god sake… Muliglond, could you explain the general idea of my statement to our reptilian friend?" He asked, turning towards the reaper Avatar. It eyed him for a few seconds before walking off.

"We did not search your internet thoroughly enough to provide efficient enough translator to convey the meaning and point of rhetorical questions, which means that we are unable to provide assistance." Said the massive insect while he was walking past him. Xirion rolled his eyes and followed him.

"Great… A walking encyclopedia that has access to every single idea that humanity has ever created is incapable of creating a advanced translation program." The boy could swear that some of the machines inhabiting the alien body let out a grumbling noise. Well, at least he got on someone's nerves.

"The fact that we have access to you poor excuse of a wireless communication servers, does not mean we instantly know everything about your language. For example, even our quantum matrix cannot comprehend the idea of a 'Selfie'. Why does young human females insist on participating in taking bad quality pictures of themselves using mirrors or primitive frontal cameras that are provided with cell phones." Said the avatar without breaking the fast paced march he imposed on the company. Hearing this the boy let out a short laugh before shaking his head and continuing to walk.

"Me neither my friend. Me neither."


7th December 2015,

0:00 standard Tokio time

Multiple Reaper ships, packed to the brim with Ethereal's atmospheric transport ships began landing procedures all over the world. Invasions units consisting of all allies species begin massive assault at all major cities, slowly spreading towards the countryside. Nations that willingly joined the Sol Coalition are spared. The government of these countries officially create the ADVENT coalition, a form of a unified human government that swears to answer only directly to the Empress.

1:22

Tokio falls under complete control of the allied forces. The Reapers begin to move out from the area, spreading out, and heading towards other major world cities. The ADVENT coalition officially declares war on all non-member countries and sends out their own soldiers to the areas already occupied by the alien forces. They are met with aggression at first, but after Kaede and Mariko declare that they are to be treated as allies with at least some semblance of respect, the anti-ADVENT prejudice disappears nearly instantly.

1:54

Entire Kanto region of Japan falls under the alien occupation. General public begins to question the competence of X-Com as they have not yet even tried to fight the aliens. The organization is completely silent which further pushes the claims of some that they are indeed guilty of treason. ADVENT soldiers begin to fight alongside other coalition soldiers.


"Director Kukazawa" Said Kaede after she stepped through the annihilated door frame of his office. Following closely behind her was her entire company, with a addition of some now free diclonii children that decided to followed their Empress and Queen.

The director himself was sitting in a rather comfy looking chair at the end of a long room, which was littered with books and statues, some of which reminded her of her race. He was flanked by two Blackwatch elite troopers, however they could not even raise their guns, as Mariko decapitated the one on the right and Xirion shot the one on the left. With Reaper's avatar right besides her, she slowly walked towards the man. When she was right in front of the desk, the man still ignored her and cackled devilishly. Annoyed by the man's disrespect, she used her vectors to force the chair to turn towards her. What she did not expect was how smug the man looked.

"So we finally meet! The great empress of my beautiful diclonii! How magnificent!" He then looked towards the siblings and Mariko. "And I see you brought our escapees back. Why thank you, this will save me a lot of trouble searching for them." After what he said she simply stared at him with a dumbstruck expression. He was thanking her? Did this man was so delusional that he did not realize that the only thing protecting him from being ripped to ribbons was her presence? If not for her, Mariko, Xirion, Emily, every other diclonii, damn even all the aliens would massacre him in her name or in simple act of vengeance.

"Empress this human is delusional. We suggest disposing off of him. He can offer us nothing and his usefulness has been dried the moment he spoke." Said the collector as it raised its rifle. "Do we have your allowance?" The Reapers asked trough their puppet. Kaede shook her head and walked even closer to Kukazawa.

"Why are you so sure of yourself? I'm pretty positive that this is your downfall." She said while pointing towards the group that gathered behind her. All the diclonii had their minds filled with bad intentions and the aliens raised their weapons and aimed them at the man's head.

"I beg to differ. This is my ascension! I worried so much that I would have to use this impure queen that is number 35, but with you, my plans can be carried out without interruptions." He said, causing both Mariko and Xirion to look at him with rage literally dripping from their anger filled eyes. "And it seems that the aliens also listen to your commands. I never expected this but it only brings more profit for me!" He laughed as he ended his sentence. He then took out a small device with a red button on it. With an evil smile spread on his face, he looked her in the eyes and pressed the button.

"Now, you and all your subordinates are mine!" He yelled as a strange looking machine ascended from beneath the floor. Her instincts yelled at her to destroy this device, however it was too late. It began to emanate a vibrating, ear piercing sound that could only be described as thousands of knife scratching against a blackboard. All diclonii in the room screamed in agony as they grabbed their heads and fell to the floor with pain emanating from their bleeding ears. The only one unaffected was Xirion who watched it play out right in front of his eyes. The alien suffered a different effect from the weapon. The one that was hit the worst was the possessed collector. It began trashing in pure agony as the yellow aura it emanated disappeared. With a shriek of agonizing pain it exploded in a whirlwind of energy, evaporating into yellow dust. The Ceph troopers had it no better as all of them instantly froze in place, as light on their exosuit flickered and died. General hissed in pain as he fell to the floor alongside all of his soldiers. He however, unlike all the other Ceph, began to writhe in pain, trashing, with gurgling sounds escaping his throat. The Mechtoid acted the same way, however, his MECH began to sparkle and fall apart as parts of it began to literally break from the sound. The Viper that followed them grabbed her head and hissed, but nothing more. Her rifle however reacted the same way as all other Ethereal technology. It fell apart in shower of sparks.

Still shocked at what was happening, Xirion tried to use his vectors to destroy the machine or to kill the mad human. When he tried to reach his powers however, he felt a sharp pain in his head, like someone was hammering a nail right into his brain. Determined to save the others, he raised his rifle and fired a salvo towards the machine that was causing this. Unfortunately for him he was now at a severe disadvantage. The bullets simply stopped in mid air, before launching back at him with enormous speed. He yelped in pain when all the bullets embedded themselves in his stomach, causing him to fall to his knees. He looked up only to see something truly horrible.

Looming over him was Mariko and two other diclonii children. Their eyes were blank and faces expressionless, with saliva dripping from their opened mouths. To him they looked like actual zombies, lifeless husks that simply stared at him. He raised his gaze towards the director to see him standing over Kaede with the same evil grin he had before. To his horror, she looked just like the others, like a zombie.

"Interesting… Seems like my machine has no effect on you. No matter, a loss of one mere peon is nothing, compared to the victory I achieved here today! Now watch, boy! Watch as I use your precious little Mariko and your glorious Empress to take over the world!"


The Reapers and the Ethereals have finally come to kick the humans out of the planet earth. We also get a glimpse at Kukazawa's final master plan. Can anyone guess how Xirion will fix the situation?

Sorry for the long gap between chapters, but University is nothing like Highschool. I had finals from one of my courses so I spend two weeks on studying why I originally planned to use to finish this chapter and post something new. Anyway, thanks for reading and review if you like.

Also, Merry Charismas everybody!

Have a good Day/Night!

Alien out.