Chapter 9- Blitz

July 8th, 2163

Asari Colony: Lusia


Aliana T'lios looked up at the beautiful sky of the asari world, watching the meteor shower. It was a beautiful sight, streaks of light raining down upon the planet, bathing the small city in their light. Little did she know, her life was about to be changed forever. A loud roar indicated that a meteor was coming closer. Then, it slammed into the ground, in the middle of a pair of intersecting pathways. Looking down, she saw several curious asari approach it. Suddenly, a blackish gas sprayed out of the pod, all asari breathing it being knocked out, or worse. The pod's side doors opened, and several batarians in full combat armor jumped out, spraying bullets indiscriminately. One struck her salarian bondmate, his blood splashing out over her dress. She stood still, shell shocked, as the batarians gunned down civilians below her. One noticed her, and fired. The bullet slammed into her thigh, jolting her out of her stupor, flooring her on the balcony she was standing on, now covered in her bondmate's blood. Her tears now mixed with it. How could this have happened? Where was the military?

As if on cue, asari commandos entered the fray, firing their new ferrofluid rifles. Acting like water cutters, the rifles tore into batarian forces, killing some and wounding more. A batarian gunship screamed overhead, raking the area with weapon fire. Several commandos went down, while others managed to throw up barriers to block the bullets. The gas from the drop pod continued to expand, and Aliana swore that she could see some form of black sludge spreading slowly out of the bottom of the pod. That vision was confirmed as a commando stepped into said sludge, rebreather protecting her against the gas. She screamed as the liquid swarmed over her, as if it had a mind of its own. She was enveloped in it soon enough, and her struggles ceased shortly afterward. The sight was too much for her, and Aliana screamed. A batarian heard her, and the last thing she ever saw was the bright red glow of a laser sight in her eye.


Matriarch Seryna Ri'lisa looked out at the frantic scene on the bridge of the asari dreadnought ARS Perfect Union as the remaining asari fleet rallied against the batarian attackers. They had come out of nowhere, with no warning whatsoever, opening fire on the unprepared asari fleets, jamming all comms, preventing them from calling for help. There were only five refitted ships in the system, the rest of the three hundred asari ships not being fitted with the latest prothean based tech. The number of non-refitted craft was slowly dwindling, with at least a hundred of them being lost in the first half hour. The asari fleets were forced to retreat and regroup, giving the batarians the chance to release drop pods into the unprepared cities below. Now, the asari fleet had returned, ready to avenge those fallen in the batarian raid. The hum of the thanix cannon spooling up signaled the beginning of the asari opening volley. A column of bright blue streamed out of the main gun, slamming into one of the lead batarian vessels. Several more streaks signified the particle beams firing, each one carving into its designated target. The batarians returned fire, red thanix beams lancing out of their ships. Several asari vessels went down in bright flashes of light as their eezo cores exploded. The Perfect Union took several hits, none of them penetrating the ship's shields. The dreadnought's main cannon spoke again, spearing two batarian ships with a column of white hot metal. Slowly but surely, the asari began to retake the space above Lusia. Then, it all went awry. A massive black ship, at least two kilometers in length, emerged from the batarian ranks. It fired its main gun, destroying several asari vessels with a single hit. Several seconds later, it fired again. It expended its entire shot into a refitted frigate, barely dropping its shields. The batarians swarmed all over the stricken vessel, and it went down fast. The Perfect Union fired its main gun, scoring a direct hit on the massive ship. Its shields held, barely, before particle beams cut through the barrier, scarring its armor. One of its strange 'Tentacles' was cut off, the appendage slowly drifting away. The ship retreated, firing another shot, this time at the asari dreadnought. Alarms blared as shields dipped down fast, dropping from 60% to 23% in seconds, before the beam stopped, and the giant ship retreated. A communication came in from the surface, choppy and full of static.

"What are you... up there? Where... our warning? We've... heavy cas... enemy... repelled. Need... support... frigate in atmo. Help... Goddess, they're overwhelm-" The transmission cut off, the sound of gunfire and explosions replacing it. The batarian fleets were in full retreat, having taken heavy casualties. Seryna ordered several frigates into the atmosphere, ready to provide fire support for the ground troops. She prayed that it was not too late.


Commander Sarlia Lesha hunkered down behind the hastily assembled roadblock, batarian bullets flying above her. The roar of an asari frigate entering atmosphere was music to her ears, the ship taking a position above Monoi. Missiles lashed the batarian ground forces, while GARDIAN lasers wiped out a flight of gunships coming in for a strafing run. Several asari fighters soared above her, raking the area with missile and machine gun fire. A missile struck one, causing it to spiral out of control, slamming into the street several hundred meters in front of Lesha's position.

"Move! The pilot could still be alive!" She screamed, before vaulting over the cover, firing her gun as she went. She was using one of the new particle rifles issued to commandos, while her non commando companions fired Thanix rifles. The batarians returned fire, while a squad of them moved towards her. A black grenade was thrown, landing at the feet of an asari squad, exploding in a sea of black fluid. Several asari were struck by it, and immediately began to scream as the sludge wormed its way inside their mouth and nose. They collapsed, thrashing, before slowly going still. Lesha put several bullets in each of their heads. Anyone killed by the black liquid would soon rise as an abomination. She would deny them the chance to do so.

A loud scream signaled incoming Risen, as the abominations were called. One teleported in, crackling with biotic energy, its blackened skin glowing with cybernetics. Where the batarians had gotten such a horrible weapon, Sarlia could only guess. She fired a pulse at one of the Risen, only for the beam to be deflected with a biotic barrier. A machine gun turret opened up, lashing the ground with bullets, several Risen succumbing to the endless tide of metal pellets. Sarlia fired a long burst of particles at the risen in front of her, scoring a direct hit, removing its head with a lucky shot. The abomination collapsed, and the asari troops pushed on towards the downed fighter. Reaching it, Sarlia opened up the cockpit, and saw that the pilot inside was unconscious. Taking cover as batarian fire raked her position, she pulled the pilot out into safety. The roar of fighter engines came again, with the asari squadron coming in for another pass. Missiles lashed the batarian position, causing them to take cover. This gave Sarlia the opportunity to aim and toss a grenade, the explosion killing several of the four eyed invaders. Running over to their position, she saw that one of the Batarian soldiers had had his hardsuit ripped open, revealing unhealthily pale skin, covered in softly glowing cybernetics.

Two hundred meters ahead of the asari squad, there was a sea of slowly expanding black fluid. It was, slowly but surely, swallowing up the city.

"Attention all asari forces groundside. The planet has been declared a Class 3 hazard zone. Immediate evacuation is necessary. Please head to nearest evac points." Came the sudden order, followed by a set of points lighting up on Sarlia's HUD. The squad moved towards the nearest one. Once there, a shuttle took them off world, where they got their first good look at the city as a whole. Much of the center was now a lake of black fluid, with only the tallest buildings still standing. A cloud of smoke rose over the once proud city, as fires all over Monoi burned.

"Evacuation is complete. Orbital purge of hazard sites will now commence." Came the communication. Several seconds later, the first of a series of kinetic strikes slammed into the city, the shockwaves making the shuttle shake in the air. The few surviving skyscrapers fell as a mushroom cloud rose over the city. Several more strikes slammed into the city, proceeding to level it. One of the asari in the shuttle started to softly cry, as she watched her home city burn.

The bombardment of Monoi would continue for thirteen hours, with the other asari cities on the world being destroyed shortly afterward. The colony of Lusia, once home to 2.2 billion asari, now lay deserted, its cities reduced to craters and ash. The batarian attack had been repelled, but the result could hardly be called a victory. Lusia had been lost, not to the batarians, but to its own people. As the asari fleets left the burned world, they did so with one thought. They would make the Batarians pay, regardless of what the council thought. The people of Lusia will be avenged.


2 weeks later

Human colony of Elysium

Captain Sean Finn looked out of the bridge of the TAS Nimitz. The Victory class battleship formed the flagship of the Elysium defense fleet. Said fleet had been put on high alert ever since the Batarians began attacking asari space. Suddenly, sensors blared out a warning. Hundreds of Batarian warships exited FTL, likely having used the slow mode of FTL travel to arrive in system, the relay linking into it having been destroyed years ago. The human fleet rapidly formed a defensive screen around the colony, their hyperwave comms sending a warning down to the world below. The lead batarian ship hailed him.

"Puny Human. Your kind thinks that they can fight us? You have grown soft, dependent on your technological advantage! Now, we have the Leviathan, and we will destroy you!" Came the message. The batarian who said it had seen better days, as glowing cybernetics covered his skin, two of his eyes completely gone, replaced by cyber-optics, and a third eye being converted to cybernetics as Finn watched.

The batarian fleet parted, revealing a black ship, in the rough shape of a cuttlefish. It would have been massive, if compared to a council vessel. When compared to a human vessel, though, it barely qualified as a cruiser.

"Fear the Leviathan, for it is the vanguard of your destruction!" The batarian said.

"Lock weapons on the batarian cruiser. Destroy it." Finn said to his gunner. A few seconds later, the main fusion lance spooled up and fired, a streak of bright white light crossing the distance between the human and batarian fleets in a matter of nanoseconds. The 'Leviathan' exploded in a ball of nuclear fire, debris spreading out fast. It was the start of what would later be called the Great Elysium Turkey Shoot. The human ships surged forward, fusion lances blazing, disruptor beams raking through the void. Bright red ferrofluid fire came from the batarian fleet in response, splashing over the human disruptor shields.

Two hours later, the entire batarian fleet had been converted into scrap metal, the massive debris field spreading over thousands of kilometers. The only human casualties were a few lightly damaged frigates and many, many laughter related injuries, Captain Sean Finn among them.


1 hour later, TAS Apex Situation Room

Jack Harper looked over the report, worry clear on his face. Although the battle of Elysium had been considered a defeat, there was one disturbing point. The cruiser that the Batarians deployed matched the profile of an Ancient One cruiser. The implications of this were staggering. If the batarians had gotten their hands on an Ancient One, they could already be indoctrinated, which was verified by the extent of the cybernetic modifications exhibited by the batarian captain. Kar'Shan had likely fallen to the Ancient Ones already, and they were using the batarians as their puppets. It would explain the sudden offensive by their race, which normally was content to prey on terminus colonies. Now that they attacked human space though, the path was clear. A massive counter-attack was in order, with the human fifth fleet being readied to lead the charge. Harper knew its admiral. Stephen Hackett had distinguished himself in the turian war, and now was being pointed at another enemy. The Batarians, and their Ancient One masters, would know the might of the human race.

Sending the orders to the admiral, Harper sat down in the situation room chair, watching the screen, which showed the assembling fleets. He watched as the fifth fleet entered a dimensional gate, ready to take the fight to the enemy.


Kar'Shan Orbit

July 23rd, 2163

Matriarch Seryna looked out of the bridge window at the scene of battle before her. The batarian and asari fleets had been pounding each other for hours now, neither making significant headway. The batarians' advanced technology was mitigated by the even more advanced refitted warships that made up 10% of the asari fleet. However, neither side could break through.

The ship's main gun fired, slowly carving through a batarian dreadnought, only for a pair of cruisers to replace it as soon as it went down. How the batarians managed to make so many ships was beyond her, she was only there to destroy them, to avenge the lives lost at the battle of Lusia.

"Matriarch! Massive radiation spikes are being reported behind the batarian fleet!" Came the voice of a young sensors officer. Moments later, the bright lights of human dimension gates began to appear behind the batarian formation. A massive fleet poured through, weapons blazing. Disruptor beams and fusion lances sliced into the rear ranks of the batarian armada, while the psi-amps on the front of their warships glowed a bright purple, sending lances of psionic energy at their targets, shattering some of them, while causing massive rifts to appear in the place of others. Seryna looked at the scene in shock. The refitted asari vessels were nothing when compared to human might! She even saw a few Quarian and Geth vessels among their lines! In a few minutes, they had cut a sizable hole in the batarian fleet's ranks, taking some of the pressure off of the asari forces.

After an hour had passed, the batarians were all gone. They had not fled from their superior opponents, which Seryna found unusual.

"The lead human ship is hailing us. Patching them through." Came the voice of the ship's comms officer. True to her word, the human leader appeared over the holographic comm unit.

"Hello. I am admiral Stephen Hackett, and we are here due to a batarian attack on our colony of Elysium, as well as to investigate evidence of the Batarians being under Ancient One control. Scans of the planet's surface have indicated a near universal presence of a strange form of nanobot. Orbital bombardment is the most expedient solution, one that we shall commence. If you do not like watching planets burn, I suggest you leave the system." Came the voice of the human admiral.

"The nanovirus has infested Kar'shan? Then we will gladly assist you in bombarding the world, as the nanovirus seems to be designed to control organics. Ancient One origin is likely." Seryna replied, cutting the comm. The asari and human fleets took up positions around the batarian homeworld. Seryna looked down, and saw that the once blue oceans were now a dark grey, while the once green land was covered in a web of thick black tendrils. A dimension gate opened, and Seryna saw five ships exit. One was a Geth dreadnought, another was turian. The last three were Quarian liveships. The asari wondered what they were for. The ships answered that question by opening fire. Their Axial cannon fired a slug at an extremely high velocity, faster than the matriarch thought possible. Less than a second later, they slammed into the surface of Kar'shan, aiming at the major cities, which were now pools of black sludge. Massive explosions of white energy emanated from the impact sites, leaving craters easily seen from orbit. The rest of the human ships opened fire, their fusion lances hitting targets with the force of a nuclear bomb. Not intending to be outdone, the asari opened fire, releasing nuclear warheads and firing their main guns for kinetic strikes. Hundreds of tons of ordinance pounded the world below, slowly wiping out the nanobot infestation. The bombardment lasted eight hours, before it finally ended. The world below lay in ruins. Cracks in the planet's crust from the humans' heavier ordinances littered the surface, bathing it in an orange glow, while clouds of ash formed a death shroud over the batarian homeworld. Hundreds of detonations in the oceans had flash-evaporated them, reducing them to a fraction of their former selves. There was no sign of the nanobot infestation, although it was not likely that the bombardment had destroyed it. However, the result was clear. The batarian hegemony, or at least what the Ancient Ones had twisted it into, was gone, and the batarian people were as well. Personally, Seryna did not miss them. Their flaunting of council law, coupled with their general unpleasantness, made it a solid victory in her books, although any asari with a batarian bondmate would likely disagree. She opened a fleetwide comm channel, and ordered the asari fleet back to Thessia. She had a lot of explaining to do.


Dr. Lawson Project Completion Report: Project Infestation- Analysis of the few samples of Ancient One nanites has only yielded grim tidings. The nanites are, at first glance, designed only to replicate using any resources available to them, which if unchecked, would lead to a 'Grey Goo' scenario on any world that they are deployed on. Due to this, the nanites in captivity have been surrounded by laser fields, designed to incinerate any that get out of hand. However, what is truly horrifying is what happens when the nanites meet organic flesh, as evidenced when my pet hamster, may he rest in peace, got into the nanite vat. The nanites immediately enter the body from whatever orifice is available, and quickly proceed to augment it into something far stronger and more combat effective. However, the nanites also enter the brain, and through use of molecular control fields seize control of it, turning the organism into an Ancient One thrall. The hamster developed a miniature railgun built into its back, as well as nanite injectors in its teeth, thus necessitating its euthanization. The nanites appear to be unable to differentiate between living and dead flesh, as evidenced when we dropped a raw steak in, and watched it transform into a buzz saw like implement, capable of moving around its cage on small cilia. We have managed to create a gene mod designed to counter these nanites, although it is not a perfect solution, as in sufficient number the nanites will overwhelm the defenses provided by the modification.

Anti-Nanite System Gene mod created.


Library Completion report 1: Designation- Xenonaut

Dr. Lawson Biological report.

Xenonauts: When we first created a dead clone of the race in question, we thought that the race we designated 'Xenonaut' was a human. However, upon closer analysis, we have determined that this appearance was the result of parallel evolution on the galactic scale. Both technologically and biologically, our races have followed an almost identical path. When the Overlord invaded, both of our races created a covert organization designed to fight them. The Xenonauts even managed to reach the endgame of the war, barely being defeated when they stormed the Temple Ship, their planet cleansed by the release of a chryssalid-like terror creature. Due to their morphological and biological similarity to a human, we have gained very little in the form of gene mods from this race.

Caesan: The autopsy of a Caesan creature has revealed a lifeform highly dependent on psionics. They seem to have a variety of organs specifically designed for increasing their psionic ability, specifically creating a 'hive mind' in this race. Whether this is part of Ethereal genetic manipulation, as this race was used in their conquest of the Xenonauts, remains to be seen. The Ethereals have rated this race as 'Wasted Potential', likely meaning that they did not put up that much of a fight during their conquest. Regardless, we believe that we can use this race's psionic specialization to augment our own, increasing the effectiveness of our own mind melds and C-psi abilities.

Psi-gland gene mod created.

Sebillian- This reptilian race may be related to the Thin Men that we encountered during the war. However, this creature is obviously built for frontline combat like the muton. While its resilient hide cannot be easily replicated, we have found something that can. A large percentage of the creature's blood is filled with coagulants and unspecialized stem cells, allowing it to rapidly regenerate from wounds taken in combat. When used in conjunction with our adaptive bone marrow, it would give humans a healing factor that easily surpasses the Krogan.

Regenerative Blood gene mod created.

Wraith- This is yet another race used in the Xenonaut conquest, and is by far the most interesting. It seems to possess the ability to teleport through use of obviously artificial nodes on the side of its head. I believe that we can incorporate these into our own bodies, albeit in a more efficient manner due to us knowing more about teleportation than the Overlord ever did. As such, we can have humans teleporting without big blue hemispheres stuck to our heads.

Teleporter Gene mod created.

Harridan- At first glance, we assumed that the Harridan was a modified Caesan. We were wrong. The Harridan is a purpose built engineer, while the Caesan is a psionic soldier and leader. A Harridan brain and body is built with fine motor control and spatial awareness in mind, and I believe that I can incorporate these features into our own genome. Finally, Harridan seem to be able to interface with machines in a manner similar to Cyberdiscs, albeit less efficiently.

360 degree awareness gene mod created.

Hyper Motor Control gene mod created.

Dr. Lawson personal note: After reviewing this report, I was struck by how many gene mods we have obtained from these few races alone. It makes me wonder where we should draw the line, as well as what we consider human. If someone from before the invasion would come here, would he or she consider us to still be human? When do we decide that we have had enough, playing god with our own genome? End Report.


Ryan Williams Engineering Report 1: Designation- Xenonaut

We started our investigation looking at infantry weapons. The Xenonauts had progressed in a manner similar to our own, going from ballistics, to lasers, to plasma. However, after plasma weaponry, they apparently chose to advance to infantry coilguns powered by Elerium power cells. While these MAG weapons are obsolete when compared to mass effect tech, I believe that we can incorporate certain elements of their construction into our artillery ships' main armaments, allowing for an even greater acceleration. I will send this to the boys down in the foundry to work on. Hopefully they will make something of it.

Elerium Coilgun available in the Foundry

In addition to their unusual choice in weaponry, the Xenonauts had developed some interesting equipment for their troops. While most of their equipment either is equal to or beneath our own in terms of effectiveness, an example being their personal armor, I have found several examples that interest me, such as their use of stun gas where we used ARC throwers. However, the only thing that we can truly gain from the infantry equipment found in this vessel is the infantry shields. Large rectangular slabs of metal are surprisingly effective at stopping incoming fire, albeit at the cost of being able to use anything larger than an SMG. Bio-steel from the alien dimension is the material of choice for our own examples.

Bio-Steel shield available for manufacture.

Some of the most interesting examples of Xenonaut tech comes from their aerospace fighters. Rather than do what we did, and practically duplicate a UFO when designing their fighters, they attempted to incorporate alien tech into their existing fighters, never truly abandoning their design conventions. Despite this, two aircraft stood out. The fighter that we designated 'Fury' looks like the SR-71 Blackbird spyplane, and is both remote controlled and capable of carrying extremely heavy munitions into battle. With some modifications, we believe that we can create a true fighter for our Cyberdiscs to use, as the standard configuration cyberdisc is not effective in space combat aside from a mobile point defense platform. Secondly was the transport that we designated 'Valkyrie'. Said plane outperforms the Skyranger on every level, capable of carrying more troops into battle at a higher speed. In addition, it has a unique method of troop deployment, dropping said soldiers inside drop pods rather than landing to unload them. If adapted for space flight, the Valkyrie could become the standard frontline transport, replacing the Lightning in that role.

F-120 Fury Automated Fighter is now available for production.

V-54 Valkyrie Transport is now available for production.

S-54 Assassin Stealth Transport is now available for production.

Orbital Insertion Pod System is now available for installation on our starships.

In terms of aircraft armaments, the Xenonauts were mostly unremarkable, their weaponry either surpassed or equaled by our own. There was one thing that stood out, though. The Singularity Torpedo is, pardon my french, the scariest fucking thing I have ever laid eyes on. It creates a miniature black hole upon detonation, enough to destroy any target with ease. The gravity fluctuations would prevent our dimensional gates from allowing our forces to extract while the singularity is active as well, so we should exercise utmost caution in our development of this weapon. If the council got their hands on this... The results are not good. This weapon, when coupled with a teleporter, becomes a weapon you CANNOT defend against. It can bypass your defenses and destroy an entire star system in a single detonation. This could be the perfect weapon for use against the Ancient Ones, but difficulties with deployment would make use extremely risky. Use with caution.

Singularity Tele-Bomb available for manufacture.

Finally, I conclude my report with several interesting facilities and upgrades that could be implemented into the Apex, as the Apex is XCOM's HQ in addition to being a dreadnought. Ranging from simple addition of laser ovens in the kitchens to biological super-computer upgrades to our science labs and nanobot forges to main engineering, we would severely improve our research and production capabilities. I will submit this to the foundry. Secondly is a Quantum Cryptology Center. Designed to crack Ethereal Hyperwave encryptions, the QCC is every codebreaker's dream. The addition of it to the Apex would only benefit XCOM.

Quantum Cryptology Center is now available for construction.

Facilities Upgrade is now available in the Foundry.


A/N: Whew! This chapter has gone through several revisions, and I am still not quite satisfied with it, but I cannot find another way to improve it. Enjoy it.

Xenonauts is the first of a series of games to be added into the library. Next is either Halo or WH40K, although the timeline would have to be SEVERELY adjusted.