[You Interviewing Amalie]

"I never liked 'humans' as a species… if I'm going to be honest." She said with a smirk while staring at her pistol. "Your kind, as a whole… are always too… individualistic… for my liking. Always thinking for yourselves, not for your 'species'. As the war demonstrated…"

She glanced back to you while putting the pistol away.

"Oh yes, your lives became so comfy… so 'safe', no poverty, comfortable homes, beautiful cities… but tell me, what did it cost you?"

"Oh sure… maybe the lives of a few billion, maybe the slavery of your entire species… perhaps the knowledge that your world is no longer 'your world'… but really, does any of that not speak to your species' individuality?"

Amalie's left eyelid shifts knowingly.

"My Vipers, for how simple minded and single minded we are to my will… stay true to who we 'are' as a species." She said proudly. "The Hierarch Mother's will is what guides my species, only those whom 'we' surrender to, or choose to follow… dictate who we become as a species."

She then winks at you with a grin.

"My 'friend' has his ideas for after the war… and I have 'mine'… if you 'catch my drift' as you say…"

=Chapter 12, Counter Offensive=

(007's PoV)

[You're approaching the Power Plant's main control sector agent, once you gain access head to the Command Center and await further orders.]

She nodded as she strolled through the facility, acting just like any other employee there.

As she turned a corner, she approached the checkpoint to the command center, guarded by two Advent Troopers. They were scanning employees for hidden equipment and to ensure they were supposed to be in the highly protected area of the facility. The only people allowed to be here were Advent Personal involved with controlling and monitoring the entire city's power grid.

Naturally she wasn't allowed as an XCOM agent.

[Going dark, call back when your past the checkpoint.]

She nodded as she scratched the back of her head, switching the earpiece off that was so perfectly camouflaged to her ear it was practically invisible.

"Hvalt!" One of the Advent Troopers said, holding their hand up as she neared it.

She dumped her bag on the conveyor belt, took out her electronics and dumped them onto it as well, and pulled out her obviously authentic identification as a Chief Engineer for the power plant.

They pulled out a scanner and checked it, and it registered as belonging there.

Then the bag was checked along with her and both were given a green light.

She pulled her bag up and walked onward, fumbling for a moment as the bag slipped and she had to quickly catch it before heading toward the command center.

What the guards didn't notice was she hit a short-range hacking device that temporarily switched the checkpoint scanners to only detect 'Biological' signatures.

"I'm in…" She whispered as she tapped her earpiece on again.

[Good work, Amalie's spy inside is working inside the command center waiting for you. Once you locate the room and find her, signal her to identify its you by pulling out the lunch box and placing it handle-side up. She'll then reply with a rule saying 'no food near the computers' and tell you to place it on the ground. Place the lunchbox to the right of hers when she does.]

She nodded and continued to the command center.

[The Seeker drone is following behind you, looks like that toy Shen came up with last minute worked, we aren't detected.]

She nodded again.

After a few minutes of walking she swiped her ID card and gained access to the Command Center. Inside she saw several computers manned by people and one lone Viper, looking dull as she watched the city's power grid. She walked over to the Viper and sat down in the seat next to her, reaching down and pulling out the lunchbox and placing it on the desk, with the handle-side up.

The Viper glanced over and nodded ever so slowly, pretending to be tired and staving off sleep. But her words came out perfectly clear and with precision. "No food near the computers, put it on the floor." She hissed.

She nodded and put the lunchbox to the right of the lunchbox that was on the floor already, both looking exactly the same down to a small dent in their handles.

[Alright agent, in approximately thirty-seven minutes you're going to have to hack into the mainframe and retrieve some data XCOM needs. Water Dragons Squad is going to be causing a distraction for you to do this, when you get the alarm, grab the lunchbox on the left, while Amalie's spy takes the right one. It took a lot of work, but we smuggled your rifle into the plant via Amalie's Vipers. The box you brought has a special detonator that is going to wipe out their entire network's memory which her spy will use during the chaos.]

{Just be grateful that it works, and make sure she plants it properly for maximum effect, we lost a few good people from the resistance to test that device in the field!} Shen called out.

She nodded and pretended to monitor something on the screen while she pulled out a flask of whiskey she'd hidden in her sleeves.

Benefits to being a colonel with honors: she gets first dibs.

She hid the flask back in her sleeve as someone was passing her by from behind, and paused at seeing her.

"Hey I know you!" The guy said.

She steadied her breathing, relaxed her muscles, and slowly curled her fingers into her fists while edging her left hand to her glove, moving to grab a cleverly hidden one-time-use needle that contained a dose of one of Mercy's venoms. It was a 'emergency-distraction-tool' she was only to use if her cover was about to blown, and she'd only get one shot to use it.

"Your Sara, right?" He asked with a cheerful tone.

She grinned as she turned to look at him with a happy smile and bouncy tone in her voice. "That's me 'Greg'!" She said warmly, noticing his ID tag had his name just as she finished saying the word 'me'.

"Where ya been Sara?" He asked as he handed her a cup of coffee and sat next to her.

"Oh, you know, here and there, got a job offering here and decided to take it!" She replied happily. "It's certainly a lot better than working at the Advent Burger place down the street from my housing complex!"

"Oh, tell me about it." He said in agreement.

"Well since you invited me, it certainly is better than at my old place. I was working in the table area taking orders, ugh and let me tell you those people are annoying as can be." She said in a flirty tone. "I remember, had this one guy ordered a double with cheese and pickles with the special sauce, bring it to him like ten minutes later and then complains there weren't any pickles! Asks for a refund after only taking a bite and argues with me because he didn't 'pay' for it yet…"

It wouldn't take her long to begin her mission, as just over half an hour later, while she was busy pretending to type in commands into a prompt, a massive explosion sounded nearby and the whole facility shook.

[All Personnel Evacuate, All Personnel Evacuate!]

It was a mad rush as everyone began to panic to get out, grabbing their things as alarms began blaring and another explosion took place, rocking the whole floor. In the quick flurry of bodies and movement, she grabbed the lunchbox on the left while the Viper got the other one.

"Third door, on the left… as you leave the room, I'll wait for you there!" She hissed before they left the room and she dashed with the other humans, while Advent Troopers pushed past her.

During the shoving she slowed to a crawl just enough to trail behind everyone and then slid down a corridor that was now empty of traffic. After that she bashed in another door, a Janitor's closet and began taking her 'civilian clothes' off, revealing her hidden Kevlar amour. Civilian clothes gone she opened the lunch box and began to assemble her old Plasma Sniper Rifle with its many, many modifications.

Despite the gun being old, having been given to her during the old XCOM days, she had used it over the years to hit Advent wherever she could when XCOM went dark. It was by far the most heavily modified of all the guns in the Avenger, and so powerful that it could kill almost any alien or human in a single shot. The downside, the heat generated from the plasma bolt put so much strain on the nozzle of the gun and the firing mechanism, that it could only fire a single shot before needing to cool down considerably before another could be fired.

Still, as she attached the sight, it served her purpose.

[Agent, are you ready?]

She pulled out her hidden cartridges of bullets and tapped her com, "Agent 007, ready." She whispered.

(Commander's PoV)

He watched through the eyes of the cameras of the facility while focusing also on his Water Dragons Squad as they gave Advent hell and created a nice 'distraction' for his agent.

[Alright agent, move out, the coast is clear of civilians.]

"Moving out!" She said, unlocking the door and slipping out quietly.

She looked both ways and showed that the corridor was indeed empty, yet at the end of the hallway he saw an Advent Trooper standing guard not facing her.

[One second there's an Advent Trooper blocking you, if they spot you before you reach the mainframe, we're going to have company. Same with 'you' killing him… that gun of yours isn't exactly subtle Agent.]

"Have you got a plan then boss?" She asked in a snarky tone.

[Indeed I do…] He said, before giving the Seeker the order.

Moments later a wisp of smoke began to appear behind the trooper, and within moments the Seeker appeared, wrapped its tendrils around the trooper who tried to scream in surprise, but was silenced 'instantly' as it jabbed them with a drill to the front of its skull. The trooper went limp as the tendril slid out, trailing a clump of orange blood and brain matter, before vanishing into another wisp of smoke.

[Shen, your father would be proud of you, and Frankenstein would be scared of you.]

{You said Commander, 'I need a device that kills Troopers silently without their chips alerting their superiors in the Advent Network!'} Shen chuckled.

{We owe Amalie's psionic chip a round of applause, thanks to the research my team did with her help, I discovered the signal that allows us to negate the chips using a simple electromagnetic discharge released at the right setting!} Tygan said.

He owed Amalie a thank you as well, his friend had offered her now 'expired' psionic chip to assist in the research to take advantage of the Advent Network.

[Move on agent.] He ordered, giving her directions.

"On it." She said quietly before she moved on down the corridor.

Security was indeed light thanks to the Water Dragons' distraction, who were currently blowing up a Sectopod that had arrived onto the scene. Most of the security for the power plant has been diverted to their position, so only a few random Advent Troopers were left to guard it on the inside.

Further along the corridor his agent came across yet another pair of Advent Troopers.

[Alright, scans indicate that these are the only two remaining troopers between you and the mainframe. Let's see if your rifle is as powerful as I know it to be, take a' Lance Shot'!]

"Got it…" She replied, getting down on one knee, kicking the stand out and aiming.

Moments later she fired a powerful Plasma Bolt that penetrated not only the first Advent Trooper, but the one behind him. The first one died instantly, but the second one was only shot in through the mouth, causing them to writhe in agony and pain.

Wearily they tried to activate their comm.

[I don't think so…] He said, before ordering the Seeker to finish them off.

The Seeker appeared in a wisp of smoke and fired a single plasma bolt from its central body into the Advent Trooper's face, causing their arm to go limp.

Meanwhile Agent 007 walked forward, holstered her rifle on her back, before pulling out a pair of pliers from her pocket.

[Do you 'have' to do that now?] He asked her.

"My kill, my prize." She countered, leaning down and opening the trooper's mouth and proceeding to extract a tooth.

{Commander, we're running out of time, reinforcements are starting to enter the combat area!} Central chided. {Advent is becoming suspicious of the activity in the power plant, I'm not sure how much longer they're going to wait before they catch on to your plan.}

[Understood Central.]

After 007 got her prize, she moved on with the Seeker behind her invisible and reached the powerplant mainframe.

Moments later a bomb explosion sounded, but it was fortunately covered up by the explosion created by the destruction of the Sectopod by the Water Dragons.

[Water Dragons, never fail to make a big boom.] He commented. [That sounds like Amalie's Viper was successful in her mission with our detonator, this means the power distribution data for this plant are now wiped out as well as any remaining security records for the past few weeks. The only remaining records are in the mainframe backup systems, which we will kindly take before blowing up the mainframe.]

"That's my que." She commented, before going to the mainframe and proceeding to hack into it.

Her device activated and began to hack into the mainframe, downloading all the files they needed.

"Done, now let's get out of here!" She yelled.

[Planting the charges, step back.] He said and ordered her to leave the room while the Seeker went to work.

The Seeker rematerialized and sent out it's tendrils in various directions, gripping and stabbing into mainframe towers. Seconds later each one released a powerful corrosive chemical, this one of 'Amalie's creation for the goal of not only causing irreparable damage to whatever they came into contact with, but left such a horrid smell that anyone 'living' without the immunity to Viper Poison would feel their lungs becoming contaminated with the invisible toxins left behind in the air.

It wasn't the prettiest way to go about this task, but it was necessary to deal the damage they wanted.

{Commander, Advent has gotten wise to us, they're sending in a team to the facility, and we have a UFO on route to the Water Dragons, we must get out now!}

[You heard him Agent, get out of there, Amalie's spy will meet you at the escape point, make your way through the sewers to the rendezvous point. Skyranger will pick you up there.] He said, before disconnecting from the cameras and focusing on the Water Dragons.

(007's PoV)

She headed down to the third room on the left from the mainframe room, as the Viper Spy told her to go to for her escape route. Just as she reached the door, an Advent Officer rounded the corner and opened fire on her.

"Tareesh metof!" They screamed, while holding a hand to their helmet.

She instantly returned fire and scored a shot through his skull, but the armor of the helmet managed to shield them 'just' enough to avoid being instantly killed. The shot had broken through the right eye socket, causing a fountain of blood to pour from the wound, and from the back of his neck where the bolt exited the body. She was honestly impressed that the officer was still alive despite that shot.

"Gyaaaaaar!" They screamed in pain as they fell backward. "Ge…gr…"

Not liking leaving a job unfinished, she holstered her gun and pulled out a side arm, even as the Seeker broke the door open and zoomed into the room she was supposed to go into. As she approached the Officer, trying desperately to crawl away, she kicked them over and smirked.

"Pees… tovo…" They said in a begging tone, before she aimed her pistol at them, pointed it straight at their other eye, and pulled the trigger three times.

*Bang, Bang, Bang…*

The officer's arm fell to the ground in a thud and went limp.

Then she pulled out her pliers again and knelt, opening their jaw and tugged at one of the canine teeth. After a bit of tugging, she pulled it out and walked away from the body.

With two prizes taken, she entered the room, closing the door behind her and climbed down the sewer entrance that the Seeker had lifted for her. After pulling the lid over the hole so that Advent wouldn't realize where they'd escaped, she slowly made her way down into the underground sewers of the city.

Waiting for her was the Seeker, floating and watching silently, like a ghost of the past that she wished didn't happen. But alas, she had to deal with it, and as she watched a Viper slowly clambered out of another tunnel to meet her.

"Here." She hissed. "The smell bad down here… this will help us endure it."

The Viper pulled out an oxygen mask for them to use, but alas there was only 'one' mask.

"Could only smuggle the one, we will have to share."

She however ignored the Viper and shrugged it off, instead moving to go through the sewer system without it. "I don't need it, I'm used to sewers, the smell down here isn't as bad as the ones I used to sleep in." She commented. "If it weren't for being beneath an Advent City, I'd almost say this place is a nice place to hide out and live."

"You live in sewer?" The Viper asked incredulously as she put the mask on and followed after her with the Seeker. "Why you live in sewer?"

"Same reason you worked undercover working in a power plant." She replied dully. "No choice."

"I was ordered to by my Hierarch Mother, for the good of our species!" The Viper responded indignantly.

"Like I said, you had no choice." 007 replied dully again, moving on through the sewer.

(Commander's PoV)

Hours later the Skyranger docked and the Water Dragons clambered out, while a Seeker floated out and headed straight for Shen's engineering bay. He followed last with 007 as she sauntered out and tossed Central a datapad.

"Good job Commander, gave Advent a bit of hell and stole some data." He complimented him.

[It wasn't as easy as you think, but thankfully we got the intel we need. Have Tygan start looking into that and see if we can track down where the power is being distributed.]

"You really think the power plant is the way to find our 'friends'?" He asked as they headed to engineering.

[E.C. 1 and C.X. 2 have to be running on something powerful to keep their units active, everything needs power at some point. If we can find out where the power is going we can locate their hideouts.]

They exited into the engineering section and headed to Shen's workplace, already seeing her eagerly playing with the Seeker. Ever since she got it working she's been tinkering and toying with it, learning how it moved, how it worked, how it fought, everything to improve it's capabilities.

"Commander!" She said in shock as he and Shen entered without her notice.

[Shen, I'm glad your liking your new toy and I love how it performed…] He began saying before she interrupted him.

"Glad you thought so Commander, as you know thanks to Tygan's research I enhanced the tendrils with special blades that emit an electrical pulse that disables the chips and prevent them from notifying Advent personal of the chip user's demise!" She said proudly, pointing at the blades of the tendrils. "And, thanks to Amalie's venom, we made that lovely little 'toxin' that destroyed the mainframe and caused quite a deadly present for any advent aliens that go in there."

[Which I'm glad for but still I have to…]

"I've also got a few other modifications I want to improve upon this thing." She continued without pause. "With Tygan's help I can improve the speed at which it moves, improve the cloaking ability, I can even modify it's weapon armaments to suit whatever our needs are for future missions!"

[Which I can work with but…]

"I have some new ideas already, with your permission I'll start working on some new gadgets and weapons modified from Gabriella's Railgun, create specially modified shields based on the designs we saw used in the XCOM Base mission as a template, and even jerry rig a 'grenade launcher' based on SHIV's design!" She said eagerly.

[Shen… you have my permission… to do whatever you want… I just have '1' question.] He said loudly.

"And that is?"

[Why… did you find the urge… to paint the Seeker 'NEON PINK'?] He yelled, pointing at the Seeker. [With a yellow 'awesome face' from the early 2000 era painted on its front?]

Indeed, the alien Seeker from the past, that had once been a strange silvery steel color with hints of purple and black, where the tendrils had once been segmented purple, was now a bright shade of Pink. The front of the Seeker had a yellow circle with two upturned semi-circles on it and a wide grinning 'smile' on it. And below the face were the words 'Have an awesome day – Shen' written below it.

"I thought it could use some color since it's working for us." Shen said simply as Rover agreed with her eagerly.

He sighed and just shook his Gremlin. [At least paint it blue…]

"You got it sir~!" She said with a giggle.

He left with Central who headed to the bridge, while he headed to his room to talk to the Council.

A while later he looked at his screen and saw the mysterious face of his ally appear before him, face obscured as always.

{Commander, a job well done is in order tonight… but do not rest on what you have gained… as you know, these new 'AI' commanders have eluded my probes, despite my best efforts.}

He figured it wouldn't be that easy to track them down. [So it seems, now what do you suggest we do to go about finding them?]

{I will continue to attempt to find their exact locations from within, while you locate them from without… I suggest you continue attempting to track them through the power distribution.} The Council said. {I have however, obtained interesting knowledge about them. These AI Commanders seem to have setup bases on three specific continents and are performing operations within them. Which ones however, I cannot discover… but should you encounter one of them, I would mark the continent's location, and investigate the power distribution in that continent to track them down…}

[As you wish Council.] He said with a bow.

{Good Luck Commander… we are counting on you…}

With that the transmission ended and the screen went blank.

[Ugh, if only we could find them…]

"Is that you darling~!" He heard Amalie coo warmly from the bathroom. "I'm so happy you came back!"

[I swear if you storm out of there with not even a towel on!] He screamed loudly, but it was too late…

"I've been waiting for you for hours!" She hissed lovingly as she slithered nude over with not a single shred of dignity in her body.

[Will you put clothes on?!] He screamed as she held him close to her.

"Oh, why bother… it's only 'you' are seeing me…" She hissed warmly, picking him up and holding him close to her voluptuous body. "I've told you my friend… the only one who may see me in this manner is you… I am only yours… my Hierarch Father."

[Just cause you let me see you doesn't mean I WANT to see you naked!] He roared before shoving away from her, even as she grinned at him. [Have some 'dignity' in you please!]

"Darling, whatever dignity I had for myself in front of you was lost when I gave you back your thoughts and memories." She hissed with a smirk.

He grunted and turned back to his desk to work again.

One of the things that happened after Amalie returned his memories, knowledge, and experience was that her personality shifted ever so much. She was no longer reserved, restricted, calm or careful in her actions. She now lost some of her inhibitions and was openly flirtatious with him, offering to 'sleep in the nude' with him and openly asking how many 'children' he wished to have with her.

She'd even gotten into the habit of learning to knit clothes, wanting to learn how to make sweaters for her many, many young she wanted to have with him.

This naturally irked him.

[You are a beautiful Viper for your species and any man would 'love' to have you as their girlfriend or wife… but I wish you would 'stop' doing this until 'after' the war at least.] He groaned, trying to focus.

"I know…" She hissed sadly, causing him to pause as he noticed the shift in her tone.

Glancing back, he saw her planting her clothes on herself, strapping her normal armor and Viper attire with a look of sadness on her.

"It's just… without that knowledge in my head, I am useless to you besides as a political 'pawn' for my species." She hissed. "I cannot act as your subordinate in combat missions, I cannot direct your forces… I cannot do anything for you while you are still inside that machine. I can't even play chess to help pass the time with you… cannot even direct my own forces as used to…"

She sighed again and looked at him.

"All I can do is share what knowledge I have of Advent… after it becomes useless, what good am I then?"

Sighing he floated over and helped her sit on the bed. She held his claw with a warm smile and laid his Gremlin in her lap.

[You help me simply by being 'safe'…] He whispered quietly as she stroked him with her other hand.

"Do I though… I feel like useless female… sitting here waiting for you to come back… with nothing to do." She responded softly.

[If you stay safe here, then I know for certain that you're safe.] He replied. [Outside of my two shark toys, your all I have left of my old life now… even if you're an alien from outer space.]

They sat in silence for several minutes, before Amalie began humming a tune.

"She has two arms to hold me… four legs to wrap around me…" She hissed with a chuckle. "She's not your typical girlfriend…"

[She's my alien… my alien…] He resumed. [She knows when something is wrong… when something doesn't belong… she can read in my mind…]

"She can read in my mind…" She sang cheerfully while leaning back and laying on the bed, pulling his gremlin with her. "And she can be assured that with me, there is no conspiracy, she's not wasting her time."

[She can take me to the place that she calls home, in a spaceship that will some day be my own… please take me to your leader…] He sang warmly with her.

"Tell her I will surrender…"

[I will surrender…]

["She has two arms to hold me, four legs to wrap around me, she's not your typical girlfriend…"] They both sang.

[She's my alien…] He whispered as she turned his gremlin over to look at her face.

"Your alien…" She hissed in a loving voice.

They simply stayed that way for a little while, letting the little tune they were singing end, before she leaned forward and kissed his Gremlin with her lips.

His only regret was that he couldn't feel it, couldn't respond to it, unable to respond in any way akin to what she no doubt wanted… all he could do was sit there and stare at her, and watch as she lovingly pulled away and nodded in gratitude.

[Your still not allowed near my body…] He grunted.

"You can't keep me off you forever~!" She snickered.

[Something tells me you won't let me when this is all over.]

"Whatever gave you that idea?" She giggled.

[The fact that I have footage of you trying to sneak into Tygan's medical lab while everyone was asleep last night as I was busy writing up reports for the Council while you 'magically' decided you needed a late-night snack.]

"Drat…" She muttered as he floated off her and returned to his desk to work.

He hated Amalie some days, he really did…