April 4, 2035

05:50 Mountain Time Zone

Canadian Countryside

"Are you sure you're up to this?" John asked quietly.

Since to Van's brain it was almost four in the morning and she still hadn't gotten sufficient coffee into her system yet, she just grunted in the affirmative. When she realized he really was that concerned, she managed to dredge up words. "Yes. I just won't be up to field duty any time soon. Beside, we've already sent Menace 1-5 out."

"They can still be recalled."

She eyed him as she took a long swallow from her mug before she answered him. Yes, she was a bit wobbly emotionally, but she was more than capable of directing a combat op from Mission Control without having hysterics. "What gives?"

Still keeping his voice down, he asked, "Not allowed to worry about you?"

"Of course you are, but normally you aren't willing to abort a mission like this."

"Know you're not a morning person."

She flashed him a grin. He learned that painful lesson early on in their working relationship, which is why he always made sure there was coffee waiting for her in Mission Control.

John just shook his head, but he smiled faintly in return. "But you seem more out of it than usual first thing in the morning."

Well, he did have a point there. Getting out of bed had been harder than usual that morning. In fact it had required John to yank the covers off of her and haul her into the shower to help get her going. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Jet lag. You may be used to it, I don't know if it's day or night anymore."

Well, jet lag after four nights of not much sleep.

At least things were still good between them. Though she probably shouldn't fuss over him fussing over her after the inadvertent scare she gave him.

Comms Tech Eriksen saved him from having to come up with a reply. "Commander, the drones have arrived at the target location."

"Put it on the main screen."

The area that appeared was scrubland with little cover, except for a few ramshackle buildings that looked like they'd fall apart if someone sneezed on them. There were small patrols of ADVENT troops, but as she watched their movements she could see there was an invisible line they didn't want to cross.

John muttered. "Doesn't look good."

She nodded, but something was bothering her about the area past the ADVENT soldiers. "Ms. Eriksen, can you have the drones advance a little further without detection? I want a better look at the area if possible."

"Yes, ma'am." The tech's hands almost blurred over her console and she frowned. "Ma'am, I'm not sure just how far we can go, there's a lot of psionic energy and it might interfere with the transmission."

She exchanged uneasy glances with John, then asked. "Is it hazardous to humans?"

"Not yet, but the atmosphere might feel like it's overcharged with static electricity."

"Thank you." The Commander frowned at the image before hers. "What are those plants?"

"Checking the database now, Commander."

John rubbed his chin. "I'm going to hazard a guess that those aren't normal earth plants."

"I'll save your people some time," Tygan said from behind them. "They won't find them, because they aren't native to earth."

John grunted. "Take your word for it."

The doctor gave him a sharp nod before going over to one of the consoles to examine the readouts. With the scientist turned away, Van flashed John a quick smile and a near silent thanks. The grin she got in return was just as fast.

Then she sobered as she touched her comms. "Menace 1-5, I'm afraid I have the usual bad news…"

Shieldmaiden seemed philosophical the details, though there were some overly loud groans from the usual suspects.

Prophet asked, "Any idea if there'll be any effects on Flashbang and me?"

She looked over Tygan. He looked up at her and fiddled with his glasses. "There shouldn't be any negative effects. If anything, Prophet, the two of you should find yourselves more energized."

Privately, Van had a feeling that might be a negative for those around them, but she trusted them like she did the rest of her soldiers. So if either of them experienced a problem, they would say something.

"Commander," Eriksen said, "I'm going to have to pull back the drones. The amount of energy is going to fry them otherwise."

"All right." She turned to Lily who had just entered the room, yawning broadly enough to crack her jaw. Van couldn't help sympathize with her Chief Engineer, she felt the same way, but she had more urgent things on her mind. "Chief, if the drones are being affected by the excess psionic energy, how will our people's electronics hold up?"

Lily blinked at her, then went over to the console that Tygan was at to look at the readings over his shoulder. John commented. "They are designed for soldiers."

"And that means what?"

"They're more rugged. Our current lot of soldiers are surprisingly careful with their gear. Normally it's not unusual to see someone drop an important piece of equipment in the mud then step on it. And that's if you're lucky."

Suddenly some of the comments made by her officers during the invasion made sense.

Lily nodded without looking away from the display. "Yeah, it's like Central said. I've designed their stuff to take abuse. And they sure can test that most days."

It wasn't much of an effort for her to pick up on the fact that they thought she was worrying about nothing, but worrying about the details was part of what she did. Well, everyone except John. He understood that the devil were in the details. "I will abort if there's interference with the comms."

Mission Control fell silent except for the occasional murmured status report until Firebrand landed to unload Menace 1-5. After Shieldmaiden made her report about their status on landing, Flashbang spoke up. "Commander, Prophet and I can feel the increase in psionic energy already."

"Is it adversely affecting either of you?"

"No, but I think our abilities might have some spectacular results."

The first squad of ADVENT troops went down easily enough.

The second not so much.

The second squad had an officer that actually had a working brain. It quickly directed the troopers to take up defensive positions. Then displayed a creative use of grenades to keep the XCOM forces at bay. Thankfully they'd learned from their past misadventures so they weren't clumped up so the blasts were nothing more than a nuisance.

"Someone jam their comms so they can't call for help. Someone else take out that damn officer."

Lily had shoved Tygan away from the console and was furiously typing away. "Working on it!"

Defcon snarled over the comms. "So you wanna play with grenades, huh? Let's see how well you play catch!" With sharp movements, the grenadier loaded her launcher to send a grenade of her own flying. It landed right at the officer's feet. Proving that it had better than average reflexes, it dove away just as the grenade arrived.

Unfortunately for the officer, the dive sent it out of cover where a flurry of crimson light from multiple weapons fried it.

With the death of the officer, the morale of rest of the ADVENT troops broke. Van's people had minimal injuries as they mopped up.

While Cyber made sure the injuries were as minor as people were making them out, Shieldmaiden said, "Okay, Bosslady, where –"

A loud insectile shriek cut the ranger off.

It was answered by another. And another. And another. Many others.

The shrieks all came from a distance away from where the soldiers were, but from different areas and coordinating with one another.

"Fuck," Defcon swore, but the edge of her voice held eagerness, not fear. "Where's Bug Queen the Exterminator when you need her?"

The grenadier's comment drew a few nervous chuckles.

Flashbang held up a fist that crackled with electricity. "Maybe a bit of lightning will do?"

"Enough people, let's get moving," Shieldmaiden said as she chivvied the squad into movement.

Van nodded slightly in approval even as the bulk of her attention was focused on the readouts in front of her. John lightly touched her shoulder to get her attention. "We've got a hit on a possible structure about a half klick north of where Menace 1-5 is now."

"Good. Send it to them as their destination. We'll reassess if there's nothing there."

He nodded in return, then lowered his voice. "Will admit, those chryssalids have me worried."

She thought about that as she watched the squad slowly leapfrog their way, staying close together to cover each other should one of the insectile monsters pop up in their midst, but not so close a grenade or missile could take them out. Her voice was just as soft. "They know the things are out there hunting so I'm sure they'll be able to handle them."

The lines around his eyes and mouth deepened for a moment, then he shook his head slightly. "You're right."

Vanessa hoped she was right too. Instead, all she said, "Here's hoping that those new nanoscale vests the Chief's people cooked up will help protect against the chryssalids poison. And infection."

"Yeah." His reply was barely audible.

Over the comms she heard Prophet alert the team that he sensed something was incoming.

That's when she saw the first disturbances in the ground. "Menace 1-5, you have at least three burrows coming from the northwest, north and east of your location."

She had no idea if that was just three of the alien bugs, or more. The Shadow Chamber had been vague on exact numbers for the location, but since they were dealing with chryssalids, it was anyone's guess as to the numbers they'd be facing. There had been times during the invasion that the creatures had seemingly gone insane and everything around them, human and alien.

Considering the fear displayed by the ADVENT soldiers they were wary of being food and incubators. So that posting had likely been punishment duty. Assuming of course the ADVENT troops had some amount of free will that would let them fuck up from time to time.

She broke off her musing as she spotted a nicely rocky area not far from the team. Hopefully the ground was solid enough to keep the chryssalids from popping up beneath the feet of her team.

"Thanks, Commander," Shieldmaiden said with relief after being directed to move to the location Van had spotted.

Just in time too. Four chryssalids popped up around the team.

Even though they were prepared the insectile aliens still wreaked havoc on the squad. One got a good slash in on Naidoo's leg with a spray of blood after its claw slid down the armor of her torso, another sent Cyber flying with a whack of its leg and a third pounced on him.

Flashbang lived up to the promise of being a human bug zapper when she unleashed an electrical torrent on the third chryssalids causing it to spasm with flailing legs. The psi-operative was right about the boost, though Van hoped the woman didn't overdo it.

With her infamous scowl in place, Defcon shredded the fourth monster with her gun while Shieldmaiden leapt up and split in half the chryssalids that was on Naidoo.

Prophet calmly picked off the one that had Cyber pinned then had to help shove the corpse off the medic.

Van studied the readouts on the squad's vitals, particularly Naidoo, with concerned eyes as Cyber checked on the injured. They couldn't afford to lose their only combat hacker left.

John lightly touched her shoulder to get her attention. He nodded to the screen and quietly said, "They're fine, Commander."

She drew a sharp breath, let it out just as quickly and nodded in return. Bird dog's death had hit her hard, harder than she cared to admit, even to herself. She refocused on the soldiers' readouts and saw what he meant. Yes, there were injuries, but nothing life threatening.

"Okay, Shield," Cyber said loudly enough for the comms to pick up. "Everyone is good to go."

Shieldmaiden nodded, then said to Van. "Got that boss?"

A faint smile curved her mouth. "Yes. You can proceed."

She didn't have to tell them to be careful, they already were doing that. Or at least Shieldmaiden was and that was the important part.

"Are the drones picking up any more of the creatures?"

"Unfortunately, the drones won't be able to go any further, the psionic energy is too much for them. So we'll have to go by what your team is carrying"

"No problem, Commander. Good thing Shen builds our stuff to be tough."

There was no civil response to that comment that she could come up with and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman in question smirk a bit.

Van just shook her head slightly as Shieldmaiden got Menace 1-5 moving again.

There were more chryssalid attacks as they progressed toward their objective and while there were more injuries, it seemed that no one was affected by the poison. By then Lily had come up next to Van to observe the main display. "So those new vests are helping then."

"Yes. I know you intended the vests to help protect against external poisons like what the vipers spit out, but they seem to be working against injectable as well."

Lily rubbed the back of her neck. "We hoped that would be the case, but weren't positive, which is why I didn't say anything."

"Perfectly understandable. I will admit that was the result I was hoping for." She saw more movement. "Heads up, Menace 1-5"

"See them, Commander."

Even as she paced and gave tactical advice, Van wondered just how many of the creatures there were. By her count the soldiers had faced ten, including the newest batch. Thankfully the team had gotten used to dealing with the creepy aliens and were able to finish the group off with only a few scrapes.

After only a few more minutes, the objective came into view and Van knew that it was definitely the goal of their mission. As if life wasn't already a sci-fi story, now it added a twist of fantasy. Something that looked like a portal straight out of numerous fantasy games she'd played over the years stood on an elevated piece of ground. The massive U-shaped structure was made of an unfamiliar metal with sinuous organic lines.

Van could practically feel Tygan and Lily salivating over the thing. "Since there's still indications of hostiles, it's going to take a bit you two."

They chorused together. "Yes, Commander."

"All right, Shieldmaiden. Approach that thing carefully, we don't know what it's going to do."

The ranger had only just begun her cautious approach when the gate flared with the too familiar violet light of psionic energies and a massive white metallic ball emerged. It had shallow grooves encircling it and at the center of the mass was a shuttered aperture.

Bradford muttered. "What the hell?"

Van really didn't like the looks of that thing. "Find what cover you can."

They were already moving before the words were completely out of her mouth. Thankfully, they didn't bunch up either, but what cover available left a lot to be desired.

The strange orb floated in front of the portal for a moment, then charged forward, flattening everything in its path.

So much for cover.

Shieldmaiden beat her to the punch. "Scatter!"

They did as told except for Defcon. The grenadier stood her ground, raised her left arm and let fly with a cone shaped hail of metal shards. At least half pinged off the armor, but there was still significant pitting of the armor once the attack ended.

The orb stopped and focused its aperture on Defcon. The soldier turned to run, but wasn't fast enough to avoid the beam of fire that shot out at her. It scored a line along her back, damaging her grenade launcher besides singing her.

"Fucker! You're gonna pay for that!"

Van growled at the pissed off soldier. "Defcon. Move!"

And suppressed her sigh of relief when the woman scrambled to her feet and hustled away from the thing. For a moment, she'd been worried that the grenadier's anger would overcome her good sense.

"We have incoming!" Prophet's shout drew her attention back to the rest of the squad as more burrows in the distance rapidly advanced on them.

After giving the directions the chryssalids were coming from the Commander growled. "Defcon, rejoin the squad."

There was no response and she was too occupied with the attacks on both fronts to worry about one person.

She paced back and forth as she watched the battle between her people and the aliens, only dimly aware that she was gesturing with an empty coffee mug as she gave direction to Menace 1-5. When someone took the mug out of her hand, she barely noticed.

The first chryssalid that popped up went straight for Naidoo. Except Shieldmaiden was lurking nearby. She lashed out with her sword, cutting off the forelegs then followed up with a backhanded slash that cut off the front of its face.

It collapsed in a heap with ichor spraying all around it.

The next two also headed for the combat hacker, who shot at one while the other got hammered by Cyber and Prophet. Flashbang just barely dodged the leap of a third.

A fourth one popped up, but at a distance from the squad. It appeared confused to Van with the way it looked around itself. Then it saw the squad, did a little jig then ran towards them.

Then a fifth popped up behind the occupied squad, even as she yelled out a warning, there was already streams of crimson light slamming into its back as Defcon came to her people's assistance.

The orb proved to have been playing a waiting game, using the chryssalids as a distraction. It disproved Van's idle assumption that it was some sort of artificial construct as it cracked open to reveal some sort of fleshy blob inside.

Four tentacles swiftly emerged and all too familiar psionic energy began to coalesce around them. Her eyes widened as she realized how the insectile monsters caused the group to bunch up.

All Van could do was yell out. "Scatter!"

Fortunately, the time spent training on that particular tactic paid dividends since they did as told.

Unfortunately, the orb-beast proved to have a larger blast radius than the codex did. For some reason it focused the center on Naidoo, rendering her unconscious which sent Shieldmaiden, Cyber and Prophet flying. It staggered Flashbang, but she managed to stay on her feet.

Though it did take out the last of the chryssalids too. So that was something at least.

Before the spherical creature could react, Flashbang sent a blast of electricity in retaliation.

As its tentacles flailed about, Defcon ripped into it with her machinegun. It hastily withdrew back into its shell and barreled right for the grenadier. She just barely dove out of the way before it got her. It spun about, slid open the shell and reached out for her with its tentacles.

"You ain't getting me with those, fucker!" Defcon screamed as she fired on the thing.

The tentacles flailed about again, but this time in its death throws as it blew up. The blue haired soldier turned away, covered her face with one arm. "Damn. Hey Commander. Tell the Chief thanks for improving my gun's energy pack capacity. I'd've been screwed if the pack had less shots in it."

Lily smiled. "You're quite welcome, Defcon. Glad that upgrade worked as well as it did."

Van glanced over the readouts, frowned, and then looked questioningly at John, wondering if there were any more hostiles being detected. He shrugged in response.

Nodding glumly, she took back over. "Cyber, patch everyone up the best you can, starting with Naidoo. The rest of you stay on guard. Someone see if you can disable that gate without damaging it."

It had to be the source of all the psionic energy in the area. "Doctor, Chief. I think that portal, gate, whatever, is the entry point you got from the codex."

Both of them nodded, but Tygan answered. "That would be my thought as well, Commander."

"Right. Then I want to make sure that portal isn't a risk to my ship before we bring it aboard. I don't want to think about the aliens activating the other end without safeguards in place."

She didn't realize how she referred to the Avenger until she saw the faint smile on Lily's face and the sense of approval from John. She mentally shrugged a bit. The ship felt like hers in a way the original HQ never did. Van stopped thinking about it as John handed over her newly refilled mug while the four of them quietly discussed how to retrieve the blasted portal.

Hours later as the recovery teams hauled in the remains of the orb alien along with the rest of the useful detritus that was scavenged from the battlefield, she shook her head. "God. Why did they think stuffing Cthulhu's little cousin into a Pokèball sound like a good idea?"

Lily snickered as she overheard the comment while John shook his head in bafflement. "I'm not sure which is worse. That I got those references, or the fact that I keep wanting to ask about a keymaster every time I heard one of the squad call that thing a gatekeeper."

Van couldn't help laughing at that comment, which went a long ways to easing the tension of the day. Especially when John flashed her a broad grin in return.