Sorry this was later than normal. I got Total War: Warhammer, and have been playing it furiously, so I didn't get around to writing this for a while. I also haven't been much into writing for a while. And I'd rather wait until I'm feeling it, so I don't end up putting out some shit. Besides. I put out almost 1 a day for a week, so you can't complain. I tend to go through phases where I get super into something. So once I get back into XCOM, these'll get pumped out again.

Aya limped towards the med-bay, Pyro supporting her left side, which was now just searing pain as the painkillers wore off. She could no longer bear to put her foot down, so she hoped along on her right leg. Pyro opened the door and they stepped in. Zacharie already had everything ready, so Aya was plopped down on the bed, and Pyro went out. Zacharie began working, checking out her wounds to see what she would need. She would wince whenever he got too close to most of the wounds, but wouldn't notice when he moved her arm.

"It's likely your going to lose this arm Aya. Its not infected, but it looks like the shot completely shattered it, even if it heals, it wont work quite as well as it used to" Zacharie said

Aya could barely hear him, her head was swimming and she was fighting just to stay conscious.

He kept talking, but his voice blurred, and she couldn't understand him, and she slipped into unconsciousness.

The Commander limped back into his room. He'd just finished recovering when Aya was brought in. '1 in, 1 out'. It seemed very convenient. Ah well, random shit happened perfectly some times. He got into his room, looked over at the stack of papers on his desk, there was always a stack of damn papers. He hated paper work. He wasn't going to do any today, his left wrist was still in a cast, so he'd have to write with his right, which would never be readable. He sat down in his chair in front of the desk, took a remote from one of the draws, and pressed a button. The wall slid to the sides, revealing the screen he talked to the Chairman with.

"Hello Commander" the Chairman's blacked out figure said "Why are you contacting me"

"I just wanted to hear your voice it's so soothing"

"Very funny commander" he didn't sound amused

"I just wanted to check in on how things went on your end. We got the facility, and we got a hit against the Hammer and Anvil, looks like they retaliated though. It's going to take a while to set up another resistance cell in Eastern Europe"

"An unfortunate event commander, one we cannot afford to repeat"

"Yeah yeah, I know, stop focusing on the negatives. We've lost 1 fight in what, 20, that's pretty good odds"

"Not good enough"

"Whatever, how'd it go for you and the Mr's"

"We managed to deal a heavy blow to them, but they have regrouped, and pushed us back to the havens. We did a significant amount of damage before they reorganised. I don't know exactly how well the Mr's did. But they claim they managed to eliminate the majority of the information ADVENT had gathered from the sites"

"Great, we have some breathing room"

"For now"

"Stop being such a downer"

"You said you wanted a Naysmith"

"Don't use my own words against me, that's my thing"

"Goodbye Commander"

"Goodbye Awesome voice guy"

The screen turned black, and the wall slid back in. He looked at the clock 8:30pm, then looked to the stack of papers, then back to the clock. "Fuck it. I deserve a nap"

He got up, and went over to his bed, it was true, other than his stay in the med bay, he rarely got sleep. He swear he went a week with no sleep once. As he dropped into the bed, he noticed something different, the pillow was a lot harder than he remembered, he picked it up, to try and fluff it, when he noticed several books had been lying underneath it. That's why it was lumpy, he was really glad it wasn't a pea, he didn't think he could handle the responsibility of being both the Commander, and a Princess. The Princess Commander, it had a ring to it though. He shook that thought from his head, he had a tendency to go off on tangents when he didn't have anything to focus on. He looked at the books, they were leather-bound, and had no writing on the front. He opened up the first one, and set about reading.

"Commander" Alice said as she stepped into his quarters.

The Commander looked up from the book he'd been reading "Yeah" his eyes seemed slightly unfocused, like he'd been reading for a while. Alice had that herself sometimes, you get so engrossed in a book, that when you stop reading it makes the 'real world' seem a bit strange for a minute until you get your bearings back. She wondered what he was reading, but decided to wait until later.

"I need to ask you something"

The Commander folded a corner of the page, and set it down next to him. She knew it was pointless giving him that bookmark. "Whats up?"

"It's about Aya"

"I swear if you're here to complain about having a psychopath-" he was smiling while he said it

"It's about Maxim"

"I thought you said it was about Aya"

"Its about both"

"Is there a point here, or are we just going to start naming everyone on the ship?"

"What do we tell Maxim?"

"About Santa not being real?"

"About Aya being injured"

"Oh. I thought he already knew"

"He would, but he's been training quite thoroughly for the past week, so he hasn't left his room"

"Can you get to the point, I was reading"

"Should we tell him about her being injured. If we tell him, it could mess up his training"

"And if we don't he might find out anyway"

"Precisely"

"Don't tell him" the Commander shrugged "At least not until he's done his training. Aya's tough, she'll be fine. I wouldn't be surprised if she was walking around before Maxim even knew she was hurt"

"Maxim's tough as well"

"I know. But different kinds of tough. He's a bit of a baby when it comes to emotions. It's why I haven't told him about Karl being the Hammer and Anvil guy, he wouldn't be able to fight them"

"Good point"

"My points are always good"

"Commander?"

"Ryan"

"Right, Ryan. What's that you're reading?"

"Not sure. It's good, whoever left it here is either a good writer, or had good taste in books. Seems like a story from the ADVENT Officer's perspective, I don't know. I'm halfway though"

"Sounds strange"

"I know. It's good though, very descriptive"

"let me read it when you're done?"

"You know it"

Alice smiled, and headed back out. She went over to the med-bay to check on Aya, and see if she could offer some help. She had nothing else to do, and she had basic medical training. She had basic pretty much everything training, in theory anyway. Name a subject, and she'd read everything there is to know about it. she wondered if the scuba diving would come in handy, but kind of hoped it didn't.

Alice entered the med-bay, and saw it empty, she looked over to the far side of the room, and saw the 'Operating' sign was lit. He must have been working on Aya. She didn't want to barge in, and make him flinch, that could end up causing Aya to become a human fountain. She cautious peeked in the door, and saw Zacharie prepping himself. Good, he hadn't started yet. She hopped inside, and closed the door behind her. Zacharie seemed to her, as he looked up.

"Alice. I'm a bit busy at the moment"

"Yes, I was wondering if I could help"

"I don't know, can you help"

"I have read all the theory behind it. And may I help"

Zacharie smiled "Well then. It seems I may be able to do it all in one go"

"Do what all?"

"The removal and the attachment"

"What?"

"Her arm is useless. Potentially she could get some motion back, but it would be nowhere near her normal level. So, Shen made a replacement. I was planning on removing the arm today, then attaching the replacement later. But since you're helping, we can do both now. Go to Shen and pick up the arm, come back, and we'll get started"

"We're getting a lot of people with Cybernetics"

Zacharie shrugged "Easiest way to improve people's efficiency. Now go on. We don't want her waking up mid-operation"

Alice jogged off to the get the new arm. The metaphor was not lost on her. The XCOM soldiers seemed to be slowly, and literally, losing their humanity, in order to combat the aliens. She only hopped it wouldn't go beyond augments.

She reached the Engineering deck, and went over to where Shen usually was, and sure enough, she was in her workshop, messing with her GREMLIN.

"Hey" Alice called as she came over "I need a hand"

Shen looked up "With what?"

"Sorry, bad pun. I'm picking up Aya's replacement arm for Zacharie"

"I thought he wasn't going to use it for a couple weeks" She shrugged, and pointed over to an area of the workshop, which contained an assortment of parts "It's over there"

"Thanks" Alice said, and went over, and quickly found the arm. She picked it up, expecting it to be heavy, but it was surprisingly light. Ah the wonders of alien Alloys. It looked like, basically a metal skeleton of an arm, but with wires going up and down it. "Aren't these a bit vulnerable?"

"I should hope not. Those cables are made to be able to take a hit from a speeding train without breaking"

"Ah, they'll stop a bullet then"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they survived a rocket launcher. The rest of the arm isn't quite as durable, it can still take a couple shots though"

"It's amazing what you've done with the alien technology"

Shen chuckled into her GREMLIN "I'm just scratching the surface of what this tech can do"

"Lovely chat, but I gotta get back to Zach"

"Don't let me keep you" Shen waved her off. She hadn't looked up from her GREMLIN the entire time.

Sorry this one was a bit, well, quite a lot, shorter than the others. I gotta get back into writing these. I was off for too long. Next one should be longer though. This seemed like a decent stopping point for the chapter, and there's a lot to happen before the next battle.