I'm happy to announce we now have a story blog for SFTD! You can find it at sftd-official on Tumblr. Questions to the characters and about the story are encouraged and welcome!


The Hunter was sure he could stay out of sight on this mission until he was needed to open fire and start racking up the body count. His new allies? Not so much.

About the only one he could even somewhat trust on this mission was Kalight, and that was because he was the only bloke the Hunter had ran with before. That pearly white armor still wasn't doing him any favors though, and didn't he know fur was so last year?

Plus, he had to wonder what Eliza was thinking, sending another robot this mission. Julian, was it? Lily had brought him up a few times. Apparently they had installed him into a backup SPARK they had in case SYN ever got taken out. Instead of the sleek head SYN had, though, Julian's was more like a skull, with red LED-like lights for optical sensors. Yeah, he had a distortion field up at the moment that the Hunter could see right through, but how ADVENT didn't hear him clunking in from a mile away was beyond him.

Then there was the first face of two jokers. Dark, with a bandanna covering his mouth and sunglasses covering his eyes, toting one of their redesigned Plasma Rifles. Mordenna thought his name was something to the tune of Ben. Oh yeah, there was the Psi Amp on his back, too, and his short afro looked like he'd been dying it to keep it black.

The other face was Pattie. Her, he remembered. Along with her voice. How could he forget when she was yammering on even as he looked at her? Without glasses, he could see she had those signature purple eyes. Long, dyed brown hair tied into a short ponytail at the bottom, with a matching bandanna with Ben around her head like a hairband. Just a few shades lighter than Ben, too. If he didn't know any better, he'd say the two were related, but too much was different about them physically to make the connection. It would at least give a good reason as to her having a Psi Amp on her back too.

Finally, at the back of the squad and with a GREMLIN hovering behind her, was their resident Specialist, Mary. Here more for the healing than the hacking—if anything like that came up, Mordenna had it handled. Messy, black hair, hazel eyes, pale skin, and thick, rectangular glasses were about all that stood out to the Hunter.

Quite frankly, none of the lot of them really earned his attention, but he figured he should at least acknowledge them if he was going to be working with them from now on. He only really was interested in a few people on the Avenger, and most of Eliza's boy scouts didn't fall into that narrow category.

All he cared about at the moment was maintaining his high ground on the lead up to the mission area. The area around the disabled train was mostly dusty, dry hills, and Mordenna could spot one or two of them in the distance near their destination that he'd be inclined to use. Rocks were scattered through the area, some big enough for people to hide behind—but it seemed like ADVENT were just clustered around the train. Fair enough by him. Just needed his perch and then he was all set for this mission.

But of course, that would involve the two troublemakers shutting up. That didn't seem likely to happen anytime this century.

"—and look, Pats, even if you turned a Berserker around I'm pretty sure you aren't strong enough to hit that 'paralysis point.'"

Pattie jabbed a finger at him, the other hand supporting her gun. "That's because I never have tried! Imagine being able to take down one of those things by just smacking it hard enough."

Well, technically Pattie had a point, but that spot wasn't just exclusive to Berserkers. Hit hard enough on anything whose nervous system ran down the spine and you could paralyze it pretty quickly. But considering Berserkers had plates along their spine for just such an occasion? Unlikely. He wasn't about to disillusion her, though. That would give off the implication he was invested in their conversation, and he wasn't about to have that.

Thankfully, Julian had it handled for him. "There's no magic paralysis spot on Berserkers," he snidely replied, "but most flesh-based lifeforms like yourself have a central nervous system along the spine. Apply enough force to damage the endings and, yes, you can paralyze a Berserker."

Pattie socked Benald in the arm. "See, I was right. Kinda. You owe me a week's chores."

"Pats, your argument was based on it being exclusive to Berserkers. I don't owe you shit."

"Do too!"

"Do not."

"Augh," Julian cut in, "we are trying, horror of horrors, to be stealthy here! The both of you need to stop flapping your jaws like the hunks of meat attached to your skulls they rightfully are."

As much as Julian's overt snarkiness grated on Mordenna, at least someone remembered they were trying to sneak this for as long as possible. Rolling his eyes, Mordenna hopped over another rock and stuck to cover, peering his head out.

Ah. Finally, company. Mordenna held a finger to his ear. "Hey, chucklefucks. Got eyes on ADVENT. Two Vipers, a Stun Lancer, a Trooper, and—ooh, is that an Andromedon?"

The pod he was describing was over the crest of the next hill, on a low alert near the disabled train. They really were out in the middle of nowhere with this one—the Resistance operatives said it was their only chance without offing themselves in the process. Fair by Mordenna—he could do with what little cover was offered. The evening was still young.

Amazingly, the twins immediately shut up as soon as Mordenna had alerted them to the squad ahead. Everyone bunkered down and stuck to what cover was offered, though Julian remained still and standing. Had to, if he wanted that field around him to work. Mordenna watched out of the corner of his eye as Pattie wiggled up, right next to Benald. They exchanged a look, then nodded.

Benald spoke over comms. "Commander? You heard Mords." Huh. Nice nickname. "Pats and I want to try out our deal on the Andromedon. Might be best if someone else opens the fight, though. We're gonna need a second or two to pull it off."

"Understood." Eliza's voice came in, and goodness, Mordenna found himself another project. The communication systems left something to be wanted. Looks like he had some work in sharpening them up. "Mordenna?"

"Considering the cover around their position? Best I dome one of those Vipers. I want whoever's aim sucks the least to gun for the other. Pats, Ben, do whatever the hell you're doing, Julian, I want you to take out the Andromedon shell if/when they kill it. Kalight? Cleanup duty."

"Commander," Julian came in, already sounding like he had a problem with those completely reasonable orders, "am I supposed to take orders from a Chosen?"

Oh, how predictable. The snarky robot had a problem with him. God, if anything was so stereotypical, it'd be that. He opened his mouth to respond.

"Yes, Julian." Ah. Seems he didn't need to. The Commander sure was neat! "Mordenna's tactical mind is equal to my own, and he's also the one responsible for helping SYN get rebuilt. If you don't want to risk death on the field anymore than you have to, listen to him."

Julian was quiet for a moment at that, but eventually he gave a robotic sigh. "Fine. I suppose if it gets me out of combat quicker so that tin can will get shot at instead of me, I'll comply. For now."

"Grand. Any other objections?"

Didn't seem to be any. While Julian had been saying his bit, Mordenna had advanced to the perch he had spotted ahead earlier, taking out his Darklance and nestling it between the rocks. "The peanut gallery's silent, Lizzie. For once, god help them. Can I please shoot some people?"

"Squad, move to your positions. Mordenna, once they're good, you're cleared to fire."

Trigger finger itching, Mordenna monitored the squad out of the corner of his eye as he lined up his sights on the first Viper. She wasn't even aware of him... though the movement from the squad caused her to look over. If she saw any of them moving, she didn't act on it—though she kept her sight to the squad. Mordenna's mouth moved into a concentrated line. "Goons, stop moving. One of the Vipers has almost cottoned on to you lot."

At his command, the squad wisely stopped. He supposed they figured that, even if he was Chosen, Eliza trusted him enough to be the de-facto squad leader. Well, he wasn't out here to get them killed, anyway. If they died, oh well, but might as well not let Eliza think he was incompetent. Besides... he could get used to field commanding. Technically that's what he was supposed to be doing during his time at ADVENT, but Mordenna? Behaving with Odin's will? There was a time that you did, you know. You listened to his every beck and call... as as much as you tell yourself otherwise, it wasn't out of fear.

Mordenna pulled the trigger and watched as the Viper's head simply ceased to be amidst a cloud of orange blood. The small rush he got staved off his thoughts just a bit. Just a bit. "Get moving, boy scouts."

On cue, Julian lowered the distortion field and opened fire—pretty indiscriminately, it seemed, but Mordenna could see he was doing a sweep of the squad, gathering their ire. For someone who had been complaining earlier about being shot at, he was sure trying to make himself the center of attention. A few of his shots did land, Mordenna would give him that much.

That distraction was just what Pattie and Benald needed. While Mordenna hadn't been watching, they both had stood up and taken the Psi Amps off of their backs, standing together and pooling their powers between themselves. Now Mordenna was watching as, in united synchronization, they flung their powers towards the Andromedon. Pattie's psionics lanced out like fire, curling around Benald's more solid, physical psionics, like ice.

The beam struck the Andromedon and all at once it was lifted, dropping its weapon. The psionics seeped through its shell and reached the rider inside, covering it and then blossoming out. Though lacking a visible mouth, Mordenna could tell it wanted to scream, judging by the way it withdrew its hands from the suit's arms and clutched its head, spasming violently. Benald's blocky psionics encased its head while Pattie's more fluid ones coated its body and appeared to burn. To Mordenna's gifted sight, he could see how the two signatures were affecting the Andromedon—most likely, that thing felt like it was encased in ice and getting burned alive at the same time.

But, something else developed. As this happened, Pattie's psionics flared around its head and bloomed out like a corona. A very far-reaching corona. It seems the Trooper and Stun Lancer had made to run, but once that psionic bloom hit them? They shuddered violently and could only manage backing up in pain. Huh. Pattie—or Benald, or any mix of the two—seemed to be projecting the Andomedon's pain out radially.

All in all? Pretty neat. Pattie and Benald might've just stepped up on Mordenna's interest scale. He saved the Stun Lancer the headache and parted his skull clean from his shoulders.

Meanwhile, Kalight siphoned some of the excess psionic energy coming off of that corona. If he was any worse for wear for encountering it, his helmet wasn't very telling. He pooled it into his gauntlets, and with a mighty fling, sent it right at the Trooper. That psionic feedback must've been enough to kill her, as the soldier slumped over and didn't move again.

From there, the bolt of psionic lightning hopped over to the Andromedon. Once Kalight's psionics hit the mix of Benald's and Pattie's, the whole union collapsed in a violent, twisting storm of psi energy. With the sound of a lightning storm close enough to make your hairs stand on end, the whole turbulence winked out. The Andromedon pilot, too, slumped over. Like clockwork, the AI in the suit took over and reanimated the chassis... just in time for Julian to shred it with plasma and expose a weak point in the armor that Mordenna happily took advantage of.

Three shots. Mordenna's sniper rifle generated its own ammo... but he did have to cycle the chamber every so often to generate more. He pulled back a lever on the side and the gun hummed with new energy.

Over his Darklance, he watched as the bolt of lightning made a final jump to the last Viper, making her double over... just in time for Mary's shot to go sailing right over her head. Whoops. Well, Mary couldn't have accounted for that. She's just human, after all—Mordenna would have waited to see the chain reaction resolve, then take his shot, but oh well. The Viper rose back up.

ADVENT, overall, may have been dumb, but the individuals? Not so much. Mary was obviously their medic, to the Viper's eyes. Taking her out first and then backing up for more support seemed likely. The Viper locked her eyes on Mary, and with a lunge, her tongue telescoped out and wrapped right around the Specialist's neck. Mary was yanked screaming from her cover—still clutching her rifle, impressively—as the Viper flew into the encompassing cover of one of the train cars, out of sight. Her GREMLIN uttered a beep of alarm and flew after its operator.

Well. She's dead, was his first thought. All the Viper had to do was sink her jaws into her—or squeeze hard enough, and Mary would be gone. Still, might as well try to do something about it. Mordenna got as far as climbing up on the rock he was using as cover before a shot of plasma rang out.

Nearby, the squad seemed torn between responses. Julian merely shook his head while Pattie very loudly cussed. Kalight was rushing up to get a good bead while sticking to his cover, and Benald wasn't far behind.

But... Mordenna knew that exact shot, the frequency between bursts and the sound of how the Elerium was exactly unbalanced. That was a Codex rifle. Must've been one behind the train. Mary was very dead.

Well, if the universe had decided the funniest course for Mordenna's life was to work with XCOM, it was still a hell of a jokester. Back into sight, Mary scuttled, scooting herself back with one hand and her legs as her rifle was shakily pointed at something in front of her, still behind the train. Her front was coated in orange blood.

Before Mordenna got too far in running situations on what happened (his first guess was a hilarious miss), a very distinctive, electronic voice rang out. "Don't shoot I want to help!"

That. That was a Codex. The Codex that had fired. If Mordenna remembered voices correctly—and he usually did, then that Codex was... "Mary. Mary tell that Codex to stand in sight of the squad if she wants any chance to speak."

From where he was, he watched Mary swallow, nodding. "Y-you. Come forward. They want to see you."

From behind the train car, a Codex stepped out—her hands above her head and rifle hung at her hip. She turned towards the squad, as if about to speak—and then her head snapped over to Mordenna. The two exchanged a long glance before she spoke. "You! Ref-Il Mordenna! I'd heard through my network that one of the Chosen had defected, but this is—"

"A sight for sore eyes?" He tried to finish for her. "A pleasant turn of events? You better not say a surprise, Wiki, or I'm going to shoot you right now."

Wiki, the renegade Codex, scoffed. "Of course not a surprise. Why do you think I'm here? Because I loved Odin's coding language a whole bunch?"

"If the answer isn't 'fuck no,' you've disappointed me."

"Fuck no."

Mordenna clapped his hands together after putting his Darklance on his back, grinning. "Fantastic! Commander, I'll give you the low down. This is Wiki, a rogue Codex—apparently. When didja spring loose?"

Wiki rolled her hand, no longer raising them in a pacifying gesture. "After you got disconnected. The Network took another major hit and the protocols that were keeping what little loyalty and blindness I had in place got overloaded and I was officially liberated. Took a sizeable chunk of data, then went on my way out in a pretty spectacular fashion."

"I hope you know that's a story for later you're going to have to describe," Mordenna replied, hopping down from his rock but remaining on his hill.

"Does that mean that, if I asked, I could join you all?"

"Hold the phone, sparky. That depends on what the Commander thinks."

Wiki nodded, though by the way the streams of data coming off her head sped up? Someone was excited at the prospect. "Well. Ask her? Or hook me up and I will."

Mordenna shrugged. He'd handle it himself. "So, Commander. You heard her. Wiki's a known troublemaker with the Elders and ADVENT, so her story checks out to me. Codices also literally can't lie, so she's definitely telling the truth in all aspects. I don't think I need to tell you why having a Codex on your side is a good idea."

There was a bit of silence over comms for a second, like Eliza was considering the idea. Didn't take her long to reply, though. "I'd like to further discuss arrangements when you guys aren't in a live fire zone, but for now? Tell Wiki she's cleared to join up with Menace."

The Hunter spread his hands out, grinning. "Welcome to XCOM, Wiki. Don't fuck it up."

Wiki flickered a bit in this dimension—Mordenna could see her passing into a closer one for a few split seconds. Must've been some expression of excitement, as she fell in with the squad. Mary trailed after her, fruitlessly trying to wipe some of the blood off of her armor. "Happy to be here, everyone," Wiki began, "You heard Mordenna. Call me Wiki."

Mary, meanwhile, pushed her glasses back into order. "—Wiki. Firstly, thanks for saving me. Thought I was a goner. Secondly, Wiki like 'short for Wikipedia' Wiki?"

"The very same," Wiki replied, "and hey. No problem. Wouldn't exactly endear me to XCOM to let one of their operatives die and then try to be allies."

"First I'm listening to the Hunter for orders," Julian grumbled, "and now we're letting a Codex into XCOM? I almost prefer the towers."

Wiki cocked her head at him. "A SPARK, right? You don't look like the one XCOM usually fields. Different neuroptics style." She paused. "Different personality, too."

"Yep!" Mordenna finally chimed in, though his gaze was elsewhere. He was scanning the rest of the battlefield to see if they should even be having this conversation. "My sis shanked our other one. He'll be fine. Probably. We had a backup for him."

"A shame. I wanted to talk to him."

"Might still get your chance, if you play your cards right."

Wiki nodded to that, then snapped her fingers. The sound was like multiple static shocks at once. "Right. I love some small talk but you guys have a few pods on your hands. They sent this team to deal with any interference and there's another team coming to repair the train and get things moving again. Second team will be a while—you clear out this area fast enough and take the supplies? You'll never have to deal with them. You just took out the heaviest firepower of the 'insurance' team so the rest should be easy. Just protect your medic and you should be fine."

"Amen," Mary concurred, "I'd like to go at least the rest of this month without getting grabbed like that again."

Julian scoffed, but didn't say much else. Looks like he didn't appreciate Mordenna intervening before he could speak, but hey. If Julian said less? Fine by Mordenna. The Hunter kept his eyes forward. "Sounds like you've scouted the place out yourself, Wiki. Got any enemy numbers on your databanks?"

"Sure do, and their rough positions as well." Wiki gestured north of their position, fairly dead ahead. "Squad of three over in that direction. Two Stun Lancers and an Officer." She then moved her hand slightly to the right. "Squad of five. Two Troopers, a Shieldbearer, a Sectoid, and another Officer. Nothing more outside of that."

While she had been explaining, Mordenna had taken the sniper rifle off of his back and angled it on the rocks again. As good as the scouting info was, that *was* a lot of noise they had made just now. One of those squads of goons should be running towards their position while Wiki exposited. Running. He strained his ears. No hyper-sensitive hearing like his sister, but he wouldn't be lying in saying he could pick out a bit more than usual.

Running. Ah, there they were, the sounds of scuttling footsteps. Just a few stone throws to the northeast. Mordenna eyed through his scope. Yep. Two Troopers, with the Officer a few paces behind them. The Officer said something to the effect of "move on, I'll get a distress flare ready." Couldn't have that. The Troopers moved on. Now, if he was getting a flare ready, he was about to stop, yes? Against the dry tree near him.

Mordenna acted on his predictions and pulled the trigger. True to form, there was one less Officer to deal with, the Troopers wheeling around at the sound of his body hitting the ground. To the right, the sound of alarmed shouting. To the left, Menace One-Five (plus one Codex) getting into cover.

He could feel that primal compulsion that Odin drilled into his head rear its horns into his consciousness. Mordenna had to drop a few more bodies. The momentary release of dopamine was fleeting, but there. In a forced life like this, where all the Hunter knew was either the thrill of the hunt or the cold, choking mist that was everything else... he'd scrabble for every happy feeling he could manage. It just also happened that he was fighting for the "good guys."

Another trigger pull. Another dead body. Another rush so quickly taken by the next moment. This is just how life had been for him, for fifteen years. He pulled the trigger and found joy in a well-aimed shot, even if it was his norm. His mark fell to the ground and the mist closed in again, leaving him scanning for the next target. Kill, rush, icy fog. Squeeze, happy, sad. The Hunter could mouth along the words.

Another trigger pull. Well, the cold fog wasn't everything. There was the little thrills he got from annoying his siblings. There was the resigned dread and pain whenever Odin or the other Elders brought out the metaphorical belt. There was the mounting gloom and pointlessness that all lead up to the conclusion of one of his many eternal lives. Formerly, anyway. Then there was the shame afterwards. Mordenna supposed he felt. He just didn't like how he felt.

Reload. This probably wasn't the best coping mechanism. But hey, no therapists for Chosen.

Another trigger pull. He was so used to the Network in the back of his head that would quash thoughts like this. Mordenna didn't like thinking over himself often, but here he was, contemplating himself even as he was trying to find some form of escape. No rest for the weary, and he couldn't seek the brief embrace of death anymore. Really, had anything changed? He was killing again, seeking that dopamine, losing it the second he put his hands on it. Different side, sure. Different person slinging the orders, yes. But when you got down to it?

What was the point.

"Nice work, Mordenna. Don't think I've seen a cleanout like that in quite a while."

The voice of Eliza over comms was what broke him out of his trance, and shook off a bit of the fog. He blinked, looking over his rifle. It was a pretty grisly scene—all of the enemies Wiki had scouted were accounted for and dead on the ground. The Hunter could most definitely identify a few as his kills, judging by the bullet wounds or occasional lack of heads. He hadn't moved from his spot, though his own squad was dotted here and there. Kalight was walking back from the Sectoid while Pattie and Benald exchanged some secret handshake.

Over as quickly as it began, to him. Maybe that was a good thing. If he'd been left to his thoughts any longer after he thought that... no telling where he could have gone. But, it had passed through his head. It was on the table now. This was always how things started. How was he going to even work through this, considering his answer every other time had been to kill himself?

Still. The Commander had just talked to him. Better respond. "Of course, Commander, just doing my job as a cold mass-murderer. I bet you can hardly ask for a better serial killer on your side, yeah?" That... probably didn't inspire confidence. It didn't inspire confidence in Mordenna, who was already regretting it.

Thankfully, Eliza didn't leave the silence there for him to mull over. "More than that, Mordenna. Check the crates, make sure everything's there, then pop off a flare for Firebrand." Her tone definitely implied she had more to say to him outside of three assuring words. Another talk. Grand.

He kept a sigh to himself, rolling his shoulders. "Fine. Hey, goons, handle that. I'm going to stay on watch. Wouldn't want that secondary squad shoving their rifles up our asses."

"Delegating your tasks, oh mighty Hunter?" He really wished Julian would cram a sock in it. Now wasn't the time. "Here I thought you lived for field work."

"And here I thought I'd stop shooting SPARKs after I shot out SYN's leg joint!" Mordenna replied, chipperly but with a definite threat behind what he was saying. Julian certainly got the threat, and it stuck—the robot fixed his gaze on the Hunter and then backed off, directing his attention elsewhere.

It seemed at that point that people got the gist that Mordenna didn't want to be messed with—Kalight set about cracking off the flare while the rest checked through the supply boxes. Meanwhile, Mordenna slunk behind the rock he'd been using as cover and dully stared into the sky.

No death of his own to find solace in when the world became too much. Some self-aware part of him once again piped up about the questionability of his coping mechanisms, and he easily shooed it off. What was he to do, open up? That was invitation for "you're a Chosen. How hard your life has been doesn't mean anything compared to the thousands you have killed in the name of the Elders." It was an inevitability. Soon, Eliza would see that too, and he'd be alone again.

She just needed to see it.