XCOM: The Atlas Protocol

by Xabiar

After the destruction of the dreadnought, tensions between XCOM and the Council are higher than ever. Despite growing opposition and oversight, the Commander doesn't hesitate to push humanity further into uncharted territory, as well as dealing with an ancient global conspiracy, and a growing number of countries looking to take advantage of an invasion that is only just beginning.

23. Research and Engineering V

Research and Engineering V

---

The Citadel, Situation Room

"With that we'll have covered over half of Europe." Van Doorn finished his update as he directed their attention to the screen that showed the latest areas with satellite coverage. "We'll have to make more satellites if we want to continue."

The Commander nodded. "I'll have Shen begin construction. Thanks to the recent influx of funding, we should be able to afford them no problem."

"The Russians acted fast," Bradford commented, as he rested his chin on his hand while looking at the screen. "I wonder how much was already in place before you secured the alliances with them?"

"Knowing Russia, likely only the bare minimum," Van Doorn said, looking over at Bradford. "They don't invest in something unless it is going to benefit them. If I had to guess, they likely started investing in the bordering countries soon after, or right before, they made their offer to the Commander."

"Whatever the case, I'm not complaining," the Commander added as he picked up his tablet and began scrolling through it. "In addition to their increased funding, they also sent over an entire squad of CT agents. More than I expected, to be honest."

"I'm just glad our forces are back up to an acceptable level," Van Doorn commented, his features relaxing in relief. "The latest batch of soldiers was desperately needed."

"Agreed," the Commander nodded, and he really was feeling better about the situation now. The new soldiers brought the total armed forces of XCOM up to forty, and this time he'd been sure to screen them a bit more thoroughly before accepting them. He did not want to have to deal with another situation like Shun's, which still needed to be sorted out.

He still wasn't sure if the Chinese had intentionally sent her intending her to end up discovering that her mortal enemy was actually in XCOM and then cause trouble, or if it was just an honest mistake that the Chinese had forgotten to mention that detail in her profile. He pursed his lips at the thought. There was so much wrong with that statement, that he wasn't really sure why he'd thought in the first place. He didn't trust the Chinese for a multitude of reasons, but they were not that careless or incompetent.

Still, thanks to Soran's warning, he was able to avoid this situation and would work to ensure it didn't happen again. "Any additional fallout from the video?" He asked Bradford.

"Depends on where you look," Bradford answered, looking down at his tablet. "For the most part, the negative side of the controversy has died down. You've still got the extremists on social media who are convinced this is some hoax, but we countered this quick enough to prevent widespread outrage."

"And I get the feeling that there's something else to add," the Commander guessed, just from the serious look on Bradford's face. "What is it?"

"People are asking questions," Bradford clarified, handing him the tablet with the title simply being, Who are XCOM? "We've had media attention before," Bradford continued. "But it was always accompanied by some other event. We received some brief coverage during the Hamburg attack, but then the Hades Contingency happened and the new Chancellor grabbed the spotlight. When the Dreadnought attacked, people were more focused on the fallout of that than our statement explaining our role."

"And since there's nothing eventful going on, they're focusing on us," the Commander finished.

"Yes," Bradford confirmed. "I imagine that this scrutiny on us will entice the Council to confirm that XCOM is a United Nations force."

Van Doorn furrowed his eyebrows. "Unless there is an objectively large gain to be had by revealing that, I'm skeptical. It may buy them a few initial public points, but then the lens starts turning towards them. They won't like that level of scrutiny, and they're going to be faced with a very rightfully angry NATO about why they weren't told."

"I'll ask the Speaker about that whenever they decide to call," the Commander said, frowning. "I'm somewhat surprised they haven't yet."

"Maybe they're still deliberating," Bradford suggested. "Going public about XCOM will have significant political ramifications."

"Not to mention that it will likely come to light that quite a few governments knew already," Van Doorn added. "That could cause problems."

The Commander chuckled. "Good point. So how should we handle this if the Council decides to keep things the way they are?"

"Good question," Bradford muttered. "I would normally suggest some kind of public statement, but I doubt you want to open XCOM up to the press."

"No," the Commander stated. "Unless the press is blatantly lying about us, let them speculate. Unless it begins to directly hamper our efforts, let them talk about us all they want."

"That isn't a bad idea," Van Doorn said, his lips twitching. "But this could be a potential opportunity for us. We could shape the public image of XCOM more positively if we take the lead on this before the speculation becomes rampant."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. "And you have something in mind."

"We find a news station you trust for the most part," Van Doorn explained. "Then hold a press conference and take a few questions from the public. As XCOM becomes better known, it's only a matter of time before this is needed. I know public relations isn't really your…priority…but we can use this."

The Commander thought for a minute. Controlling the narrative was important, but he wasn't convinced that talking to the public was going to give them a clear advantage. He required no approval from civilians to do his job well, and aside from the public being more comfortable with XCOM, didn't see a tangible benefit to this.

Then again, there wasn't a tangible downside to this, and it might play well with certain people. The thing was, he didn't necessarily see this as going to increase public approval for XCOM since the majority of answers would likely be "Classified." It would be viewed as a PR stunt and rightfully so.

"I assume you would do this?" The Commander asked. "I doubt that finding out that a subordinate to the Commander was in charge of XCOM would calm people."

"I would be the best choice," Van Doorn agreed. "I have a good reputation and we can use that. It'll make the public more trustful of us, to say the least."

The Commander looked at Bradford. "Central?"

"I think it's a good idea," Bradford agreed. "We guide the narrative and make the public less suspicious of us."

"Our narrative is going to be 'classified.'" The Commander commented with a sigh. "But I don't see how this would really hurt us either. Fine. But if we're doing a PR stunt, we're not going to hide that. Make it absolutely clear that questions directly related to operations and personnel are classified. The most anyone is going to get out of this is that our purpose is to defend humanity from the aliens, nothing more or less. Nothing political."

Van Doorn nodded. "Clearly. I'll begin setting that up. I doubt we'll have much trouble finding a willing network."

Bradford snorted. "They'll probably be tripping over each other trying to get something with us."

The Commander turned away from the screen and to the holotable. "Alright, moving on. Anything else new in the world?"

"Well, the United States presidential race is well under way," Bradford answered as he walked over to the end of the holotable and pressed some buttons. A map of the United States appeared, various states red and blue.

"I know that," the Commander answered. "I suppose you brought that up for a reason?"

"Well, you asked," Bradford shrugged. "Apparently one of the Democratic nominees has just dropped out."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. "I assume this wasn't because of poor polling?"

"No," Bradford confirmed. "Sexual assault. Several women came forward with accusations and that was the death blow to his campaign. I'm not surprised, to be honest."

"Good riddance," the Commander muttered. "Hopefully he'll be prosecuted. People like that shouldn't be permitted to run. That only leaves one major Democrat running, yes?"

"Yes, and he is pretty much the weakest candidate of them all," Bradford confirmed. "A run-of-the-mill politician from a well-known family with ties too many lobbyist groups, questionable nations, and positions that are safely Democrat."

"So a moderate?" Van Doorn asked.

"Pretty much," Bradford sighed. "Though I'd personally say he's the embodiment of everything wrong with the US political system. His obvious weaknesses combined with the alien invasion have essentially ensured that the Republicans are going to breeze through unless the candidate they select is an absolute moron."

"And how is the Republican primary going?" The Commander inquired, curious.

"Right now Jonas Malik is leading," Bradford updated. "But not by much."

Ah, right. The former Admiral, the last time the Commander checked the candidates, he'd seemed the best choice out of all of them. From a purely military viewpoint, he was really the only valid choice. Policy-wise, things got a little more questionable. But at this point, a stronger military was the better option, and Jonas was likely going to provide that the best.

"Who's his competition?" The Commander asked. "I remember Kerry was also polling high."

He grimaced at that. Something about that man made him suspicious, he seemed the embodiment of a conman, saying whatever it took to get elected. It also didn't help that he used religion as his main selling point. Personally, the Commander felt that the religion, or lack thereof, in a candidate was irrelevant in determining if they would do a good job or not. It was unfortunate that a disturbing number of people didn't actually know what was meant by the separation of church and state.

"He was," Bradford nodded. "But he's recently falling due to the rapidly rising Kamili Rono."

Van Doorn brightened. "Ah, that's good to hear."

"Interesting," the Commander commented. He was somewhat surprised at that. "I'm surprised she's managed to get that far despite her lack of experience."

"Because people like her," Van Doorn explained with a shrug. "She's done excellent humanitarian work, not to mention is the embodiment of an American success story. It also helps that she's not marred by the scandals most politicians deal with, founded or no."

"She's a pacifist," the Commander remembered with a frown. Truthfully, he'd been rather impressed with her up to that little point. "Regardless of her good qualities, we can't afford someone like leading America."

Van Doorn snorted. "I highly doubt she'll let that interfere with the alien invasion. She's not an unreasonable person from what I've seen."

"We'll see," the Commander said, letting the matter drop for now. "We've got a long way until the election, though."

"I'm curious," Bradford suddenly asked, cocking his head. "Where do you fall on the spectrum? Who are you leaning towards?"

The Commander shrugged. "Personally? I'd prefer we keep President Treduant until the alien invasion is decided one way or another. Changing leaders during a war is a bad idea, and I like her. She's decisive and level-headed, judging from how she handled the Vice President corruption charges."

"She did handle that admirably," Van Doorn agreed slowly. "If not for her they'd likely still be in the process of charging him. Forcing a military trial was bold, and definitely didn't play well with the Republican leadership."

"But if you're asking for a party affiliation, I don't have one," the Commander continued. "I was always an independent. Sometimes I voted Republican, other times Democrat, whoever I felt would lead the country best, which did admittedly swing more Republican for me," a smile came to his lips as he remembered something. "Though one year both candidates were so bad that I just wrote in the name of my immediate superior. He probably would have done a better job than both candidates put together."

"Makes sense," Bradford nodded. "I generally vote Republican in presidential races. Congress is usually more mixed. A lot of them are really unreasonable."

"And I just watch your government and sigh," Van Doorn chuckled. "I hope the Netherlands never gets to this point. Though it is entertaining in a sad way. I think that's why I'm hoping Kamili wins. She's a cure to all the corruption there."

"For now," the Commander warned. "People change once power is given to them. There's a reason politicians are distrusted, they earned their reputation."

"Well, then I'd argue that we should promote those that actually aren't corrupt," Van Doorn argued. "Idealism isn't always naïve. Change only comes when people start working towards it and not accepting the status quo."

Well, he didn't put much stock in idealism anymore. The world didn't work that way and he saw no reason to give himself much hope that one uncorrupted woman was somehow going to change America. But he knew he was a cynic, Van Doorn was not. "I hope you're right," he finally said.

Van Doorn nodded. "Anything else?" He asked Bradford.

Bradford shook his head. "Nothing worth noting that affects us."

"Good to know," the Commander nodded. "Thanks Bradford. Van Doorn, anything to add or does that cover everything?"

"More or less," Van Doorn answered, as he stepped back. "I'll get started on planning for XCOM's first public appearance." He saluted. "Commander."

He returned the salute and Van Doorn exited the room. The Commander rested on the table for a moment. "Well, now I suppose I'll check in with Zhang, Shen and Vahlen."

Bradford suddenly smiled, or more accurately, smirked at that. "Looking forward to one in particular?"

The Commander eyed him suspiciously. "Does it matter?"

"I'm just curious," Bradford continued, looking very amused. "So, when are you going to make it official?"

The Commander was now fairly certain what he was referring too, but wanted to be sure. "Make what official?"

Bradford chuckled. "Come on, you and Vahlen. What? Did you think we're all blind?"

"Well, no," the Commander admitted. "Though I didn't think it was that big a concern."

"Well not a concern," Bradford clarified. "But I don't know why you've put if off. You both like each other, clearly, so I'm not sure what's stopping you."

That was a subject he was not going to discuss with Bradford. "It's complicated."

Bradford clearly didn't buy that. "Sure," he placated. "Well, I suppose you should have that explanation ready. Because if you don't make a move soon, I think she will. Something tells me she won't like that excuse."

The Commander was amused at that. "I'll be sure to keep your expert relationship advice in mind, Bradford."

"Touchy," Bradford chuckled. "I'll let you get to it then."

"Good idea," the Commander muttered as he walked away, glad that conversation was over. Despite that, Bradford did have a point, and he felt things between him and Vahlen were going to come to a head soon and he better figure out what he was going to do about it.

---

The Citadel, Engineering Bay

It was a shame he wasn't an engineer, because Herman was surprised how enjoyable it was to actually try to design something. True, he hadn't got to the actual mathematical specifications, just using sketches and graphical equipment, to get a general idea of what he wanted. True, he could have just gone to the engineers and stated what he was thinking, but he did want to put some effort into this.

He'd settled on three ideas to present to the engineers, two he felt were possible, one he wasn't sure on, but if it could be done, would be extremely beneficial. As he walked into the bustling facility, he did realize that there might be an issue, namely that he had no clue where to go.

Shen was the one he'd initially wanted to give them to, but since he didn't see him around, decided to take this opportunity and look around to see what XCOM Engineering was doing.

He could be wrong, but it seemed that it was busier than the last time he's decided to walk through. There must have been at least twenty or thirty people wandering around, operating machines or poring over various weapons, gadgets or alien tech. He was hesitant to interrupt them, since they seemed intently focused on their tasks.

He frowned as something caught his eye. He blinked to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Was that a dog? A German Shepherd, if he was seeing things correctly. One of the engineers was putting some kind of armor on it, while another woman stood close by. Well, this he had to see.

As he got closer he noticed that the engineer in question was much younger than the rest in this room. She looked like she wasn't even out of her teens yet, but still wore the uniform.

The woman who he assumed was the owner of the dog noticed him coming up and nodded in greeting. Up close, he was surprised by how good the armor actually looked on the dog, it didn't look particularly thick, but it covered the body and legs fully, it was jointed as well, offering even more protection.

He wondered if it would be too heavy though. That kind of armor, while great, would definitely slow the dog down. The young engineer stood up and looked at the woman almost giddily. "So? What do you think?"

Her enthusiasm was palpable and the woman smiled in response. "Quite honestly, it's very…good. Let's see how Aluma likes it." Herman assumed that was the name of her dog.

"לְשַׂחֵק!" She called and the dog got up and started running around the area, easily avoiding the few engineers moving through. She actually seemed to like it, judging from when she returned she began nuzzling her owner's hand with her armored snout.

"I didn't think I'd see that here," Herman commented, inclining his head towards the young engineer. "Impressive."

"Thanks!" She beamed. "I think she likes it."

"So do I," the woman agreed. "I'll have to put her through some exercises, but you did well. Thank you, Miss Shen."

Shen. Well that was interesting. Herman looked at her with new interest, he wasn't aware that Shen had a daughter, let alone that she was here and working. The woman and her dog walked away, and she turned to him. "I don't think we've met, have we?"

Herman smiled and shook his head. "I don't believe so. Herman Diederick," he extended a hand which she took enthusiastically.

"Lily Shen," she answered, confirming that she was the daughter of Shen. "So, what do you need here?"

"Actually, I was looking for your father," Herman told her. "You know where he is?"

She bit her lip and looked up. "Hmm, not at the moment, but I can find him. What are you going to show him?"

He didn't see any reason not to tell her, it wasn't like the Commander had instructed him to keep these classified. "Just some ideas that I think could be used to keep our soldiers alive."

Her eyes lit up. "Really? Can I see?"

Her enthusiasm was a welcome change to the dreary seriousness of everything. "Sure, why not," he answered as he pulled out his tablet. "Nothing major, but I think it might help in the longer battles against the aliens."

Taking his tablet, she immediately turned around and walked towards her workbench. Herman appraised her as pulled out a piece of paper and started drawing. "A portable turret," she muttered while she drew. "Useful. It would have to be compact to be viable."

"Right," Herman agreed, glad she caught on so fast. "I'm not an engineer, so these'll have to be converted to actual be used."

"But visual aids are nice," Lily added absentmindedly. "I really appreciate that. Anyway, this is much simpler than that armor," she stuck the end of her pen in her mouth as she thought, then brightened. "Yes! We can take the main design of the autolaser and modify it to include collapsible stands. Or just be able to be attached easily." She nodded and continued drawing.

"I didn't intend for you to do all this yourself," Herman interrupted. "I don't want to interrupt whatever you're doing."

"Oh, don't worry about that," she answered cheerily. "I'm not technically part of the team. I'm just doing odd projects, here and there. Like these, for instance."

Hmm. "And are you looking at this as your next project?"

"Why not?" She looked over curiously. "I'll have to let my father know, but I don't think he'll have a problem with it. I know how most of this stuff works."

Normally, he would have been skeptical that someone as young as her could be useful, but she appeared to know what she was doing, and provided that the elder Shen did agree, he didn't have an issue with it. "Alright. If you really want to, I'm not opposed to it."

She gave him a wide smile. "Excellent! I do want to work with you on this though, since these are your ideas. I can tell you how feasible they are or not."

Well, he'd worked with worse people, an oddly young engineer prodigy couldn't be worse. "It's a deal."

"I'll look through these others," she said, standing up straight and walking down the workbench further. "But before that, I want you to test something for me." She picked up an odd-looking weapon and handed it to him.

It was a dull silver rifle-type weapon, which was more or less traditional until it reached the end of the barrel. The last part had multiple small holes for vents, and on the top and bottom the barrel were curved pieces of metal that appeared hinged to within the weapon itself. The final detail was the metal spike that jutted out of the end.

"What is this?" He asked as he looked it over.

"I came up with it initially as an armor-penetrating weapon," Lily explained. "Something to pierce the cyberdisks or mechtoids if lasers couldn't do it. Since we've broken through on Gauss weaponry, I suppose this is kinda redundant, but I wanted to see what you thought."

Herman motioned toward the target range set up. "Well, let's see."

Both of them walked in front of the range, and Herman raised the weapon at the target. "Wait!" Lily interrupted as she dashed to a corner and he lowered the weapon. "There needs to be something better," she rummaged through the pile of targets and sheets and finally emerged holding a sheet of metal. After setting it up on the target, she jogged back over to Herman's side. "Right! Try it now."

Herman nodded and raised the weapon once more. The recoil forced him to step back as those two curved pieces of metal shot up and downwards as the bolt shot out of the barrel. After regaining his footing, he saw the bolt had torn clean through the sheet of metal and paper target and had embedded itself in the far wall.

"This thing sure packs a punch," he commented as he handed the weapon to her. "It'd have to be tested a bit more, but you seem to have developed an excellent armor penetrating weapon."

"Thanks," he answered happily. "The model is a bit out of date, since a Gauss powered one is the new standard now." She took out another metal bolt and stuck it in the barrel, then pulled down on the curved pieces of metal, securing it with a loud click.

That was the second time she'd referred to "Gauss" weaponry. He vaguely remembered something about that, magnetic weapons? He better catch up since it seemed to be the newest leap in tech for XCOM. "The only issue I see with this is that it's very…limited," Herman added, figuring a bit of criticism was warranted. "The soldier wielding it would have to have very good aim."

"Yeah, I know," she sighed as she brushed a few black strands of hair out of her face. "I might look into making it somewhat automatic, but I think we should start working on your ideas now."

"Fine by me," he nodded, ready to get to it. "You told your father about this?"

"Not this one," she admitted. "I want to upgrade it before showing him."

"Fair enough," he conceded. "But I think the Commander would be interested in this."

"Probably," Lily nodded happily. "He's the reason I'm being allowed to work here at all. I'll try and show it to him as well."

Really. Huh, well he couldn't fault the Commander for taking advantage of such talent. He knew how to use the people around him the best. "Lead the way," he motioned back toward her workbench and they both went and got to work.

---

The Citadel, XCOM Intelligence Control

"That will be our public response," the Commander finished updating Zhang on the planned public statement from XCOM. "We'll see how effective that is, but in the meantime, I want a more tangible response to EXALT."

Zhang looked stone-faced as ever, but the Commander could tell from his eyes lack of focus that he was thinking. "I'm not sure this was intended to actually damage us or not."

The Commander cocked his head at him. "It may not have been that successful, but I don't think you can say it wasn't intended to damage us."

"Not quite," Zhang clarified. "But all of this seemed less of an actual attempt at slander and more like a test. Our greatest evidence of this being a fake is that the HUD is wrong. Normally I'd chalk that up to incomplete information, but the fact is that there was a video of XCOM soldier already released."

The Commander considered that for a moment. Zhang did have a good point, since the Commander had approved an unendorsed release of a mission for propaganda purposes. "I suppose the chances of them not knowing are slim?" He asked.

Zhang fixed his with the blankest look possible, conveying just how stupid he thought that was. "Not unless they are completely incompetent at their jobs, and from our own experience, EXALT is not incompetent."

The Commander nodded, he'd had the same thought, but Zhang would have known for sure. "Then I suppose the question is why they chose to ignore obvious details like that."

"Yes," Zhang muttered as he turned to his holotable. "The site responsible for releasing this initially was not able to provide the location of the original sender, not that it would have been useful anyway. This whole situation reeks of a test, the perpetrator, execution and scenario were not just staged for the world, it was staged for us."

"So I suppose they'd like to know how well we'd respond," the Commander guessed as he thought about it some more. "A clever way to actually test our capabilities. They now know that information with no downside to them."

"That's what I'm working with," Zhang confirmed with a nod. "But it tells me I'm dealing with a competent intelligence director. Which means I can more accurately predict how they will respond."

"Except we have the advantage," the Commander pointed out. "Unlike us, EXALT thrives off anonymity. We release our own doctored video and they can't exactly refute it with drawing attention to themselves."

"There are other ways to deal with incriminating information beyond public statements," Zhang said thoughtfully. "We have a list of suspected stations that have been compromised by EXALT. Should something be released, we'll be fighting the media already compromised, and they'll have their own "experts" on hand to refute anything released."

The Commander frowned. "Unfortunately, we can't remove people in the media without proof."

"Right," Zhang agreed. "Which is why I want to test EXALT myself. We have names and places. We send a video on EXALT to them and see what happens. Should it get coverage, even questionable coverage, we could assume that the entire network is not compromised. Should it not…action might be taken, especially if we keep records on who it was sent to, then release that information when our next wave of videos hit."

"Should we find them compromised, what do you suggest for our response?" The Commander asked.

"We take them," Zhang stated coldly. "Question them for information, confessions would be released to draw more attention to EXALT. More importantly, the media arm of EXALT would be severely hampered."

"Go ahead with your test," the Commander allowed. "Now, we need actual content for these videos."

"I assume you have some ideas?" Zhang asked, crossing his arms.

"The records linking Solaris Industries to an EXALT shell company are the solidest," the Commander began. "But I don't want to release those until we've confirmed for ourselves. No, we need something for people to be outraged over. Fortunately, Vahlen has provided us with the perfect opportunity."

Zhang nodded for him to continue. "We have footage of the genetic experiments," the Commander continued. "Regardless of their necessity, I doubt it can be argued that they would be considered horrific."

Zhang cracked a smile. "Should they somehow get released with the name EXALT attached to them…"

"That will expose the name to the public," the Commander finished. "The debate over the validity of the footage will be useful, but it will propel EXALT out of anonymity."

"It also provides another way to track suspected EXALT plants," Zhang added, looking thoughtfully at the holotable. "Beyond those who comment on the video in the first place, the ones who specifically omit EXALT connections might need to be watched closely."

"The greatest irony is that it won't be fake," the Commander commented wryly. "Aside from the complete implausibility of it all."

"No," Zhang suddenly interrupted raising a hand and looking at the Commander intently. "The subjects Vahlen used are still alive, yes?"

"As far as I know," the Commander answered. "She said she wouldn't kill them until she extracted everything she could."

"When she does terminate them, tell her to preserve the bodies," Zhang stated, a glint in his eye. "I image this would make a greater impact if this was found on the body of one of the victims."

"Much harder to dismiss the footage too," the Commander nodded, a smile crossing his face. "It'll be interesting to see the EXALT react to this."

"That'll be the second release," Zhang said. "After we establish the likely EXALT plants in the media. Once that's done, we'll further refine it with the second release, afterwards XCOM Intelligence will take appropriate action against suspected EXALT plants, with your approval."

"Keep me updated," the Commander confirmed with a nod. "What are you thinking of for the first release?"

"Perhaps have some EXALT soldiers talk about their alliance with the aliens," Zhang mused. "EXALT are not the only ones who can fabricate footage."

"Good enough," the Commander said. "Are you going to move on Solaris Industries soon?"

"That will have to wait until the media plants are sorted out," Zhang answered. "But I will have a team working in the United States. Solaris Industries is a secondary objective for now."

"Fair enough," the Commander relented. "Anything else I should know."

Zhang pursed his lips. "Perhaps. The esteemed Supreme Leader made a speech yesterday that went largely unnoticed by the world in the wake of the released video."

The Commander snorted. "Big shock, that. Amazing that no one is interested in North Korean propaganda right now."

"The speech was actually surprising," Zhang admitted, as he picked up a tablet and began tapping on it. "He essentially declared the aliens a threat and said that North Korea would prepare for war against the invaders."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. Well then, that was surprising. Supreme Leader Iseul Gwan of North Korea had deliberately kept from antagonizing any countries in the past few decades, but he was undisputedly a dictator whose exact military and political strength was unknown, largely to the veil of secrecy over the country.

Unfortunate the rest of the world hadn't taken notice yet, because when North Korea was making reasonable statements, perhaps it was time for reevaluation. "Oddly reasonable of him," he commented to Zhang.

"The Supreme Leader isn't an idiot," Zhang shrugged. "He has nothing to gain from ignoring the aliens. But this was what was interesting. Look at the soldiers behind him."

The Commander took the tablet and immediately saw what Zhang was talking about. The two soldiers standing behind the Supreme Leader as he spoke were not typical North Korean soldier. They wore black armor that seemed loosely based on XCOM's own armor, though not quite as thick.

The shoulder pads were larger than was necessary, and the red paint that covered them was clearly for decoration. Lines of red paint also colored their blackened armor, and the North Korean emblem was stamped clearly on their upper right chest. But what caught his eye was the odd helmet they wore.

It was oddly angular, and completely covered the face from the eyes up. In the middle of that was a red light line that was likely the way the soldiers saw outside. The lower portion of the helmet was similarly armored, and the portion in the middle was covered with what he assumed was a darkened plastic.

The whole outfit was completely ceremonial, capped off by the red shoulder cape that fell from their right shoulders. It was projecting an image or authority and power the Commander hadn't seen from North Korea in years. The lighting of the stage where the Supreme Leader spoke was such that the soldiers were in shadow, the red light from their helmets glowing ominously.

"I guess they took some cues from us on the armor," the Commander muttered. "But the only major power that I can think of that used colors, lighting and paraphernalia like this were the Nazis and Soviet Union. A bold move."

"Which makes me wonder if they're preparing for something," Zhang said as he took the tablet back. "What also is concerning is that armor looks very sophisticated. More so than should be possible for them."

"Keep watching," the Commander advised. "But I doubt North Korea would try something now."

Zhang's lips twitched. "Let's hope so. But aside from that, nothing worth reporting."

"Good," the Commander nodded. "Then we should get started on hitting back EXALT."

Zhang gave the ghost of a smile. "With pleasure."

---

The Citadel, Practice Range

Soran raised his pistol and after focusing on the outsider dummy, nodded and Samuel who stood beside him with his own rifle raised. At that affirmation both of them began firing, lighting up the range with red laser.

The smell of charred cardboard, plastic and foam filled the air, and Soran just filtered that out, methodically shooting a small bursts of light into the heads on the targets.

"And…hold!" Mordecai called out and Soran immediately ceased firing and stepped back.

Shun whistled as she stepped up by him. "Ok, that was impressive."

Soran looked over the range of burning targets in satisfaction. Not his personal record here, but he prized accuracy over the number of hits and each target that he'd hit was a nice smoking hole in the head or center chest.

"Yes, yes, very impressive," Mordecai continued, smirking. "But in this case Samuel wins this match."

"I was using a rifle," Samuel added, amused as he turned to them. "Told you that I was going to win."

"The point was to prove a pistol isn't always an inferior weapon," Soran reminded him as he switched out the power cell with a fresh one. "Ten kills isn't bad."

"True, true," Samuel admitted, chuckling. "I guess you made your point. You're a lot more accurate with a pistol than I am."

"For sure," Shun agreed. "Especially at this range."

"Lasers seem to make range redundant," Mordecai pointed out, as he pulled out his own laser pistol. Unlike the rest of them, the Israeli soldier never went anywhere without some kind of weapon. "No recoil and unaffected by weather and gravity. That would make any weapon viable, no matter the size. Still," he nodded at Soran. "You're a good shot."

"Thanks," Soran acknowledged as he holstered his pistol. "High praise from you."

The man smiled at that. "Well, you're not a sniper, but you're pretty damn close."

Soran snorted. "Sniping requires a degree of patience that I don't have."

"It does," Mordecai agreed thoughtfully. "But there's nothing quite as rewarding."

"Question," Shun asked, crossing her arms. "When exactly are you using these sniping skills? Radical terrorism is down, especially in the Middle East, and Israel isn't involved in any wars. So what do you do?"

Mordecai gave a small smile as he looked at the smaller Chinese woman. "Inquisitive, aren't you? But a fair question, which has a very simple answer: very little. In times of peace militaries normally just patrol and do drills. I'd occasionally get brought on for a hostage crisis or some other event that the police couldn't handle."

"My sympathies," Samuel winced. "The US manages to keep all their special forces busy. There's always a crisis somewhere."

Soran cracked a smile. "Well, I think that's America's fault for deciding to solve all the world's problems itself."

Fortunately Samuel didn't take offense. "Perhaps," he admitted. "But if not us then who? The UN?"

They all laughed at that, even Shun. It seemed the Chinese didn't exactly have a high opinion of the UN either after Soran had talked with her a bit about it. They didn't really have a strong opinion one way or another. As Shun explained it, they saw the UN as a possible tool that could be used against smaller nations, but which posed no threat to them.

"I wonder if the aliens ever went through this?" Samuel wondered out loud. "It'd be interesting to know if their history played out similarly."

"Hmm," Shun seemed to think for a minute. "I mean, I don't think we can really make assumptions. I'm more interested if all these species we've seen all come from the same planet."

"Unlikely," Mordecai dismissed, shaking his head. "The chances of this many species with sentience all developing on the same planet, at the same time, would be astronomically small."

"I would also think that if they shared a world with the chryssalids, they'd be wiped out," Soran added, pleasantly surprised they were actually having a conversation about this. "It makes more sense that this is a coalition of various alien species."

"Then comes the big question," Samuel pointed out. "Which species is in charge?"

"Sectoids," Shun stated firmly. "Whenever they appear, they seem to be in charge. Not to mention they could use psionics to keep the rest of the species in line."

"Yeah, but then why are they taking part in missions?" Mordecai questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I might buy that if we'd only encountered them on ships, or the ones encased in those suits. But we've seen them on lowly abduction missions. Why would they take part if they were in charge? They clearly don't lack numbers."

"Mostly because no other species makes sense," Shun shrugged. "You have a better explanation?"

"Yeah," he answered. "We haven't encountered it yet."

"I've wondered that," Soran nodded. "But who could manage to keep the sectoids subservient? Shun has a point that their psionics are dangerous, and every sectoid has them."

"A species that is even more powerful?" Samuel suggested. "I mean, that's the only explanation, right?"

"Pretty much," Shun agreed. "Well, unless one of those thin men talk, we're likely not going to find out anytime soon."

"What do you think they look like?" Samuel asked. "When they're not impersonating us?"

Soran smirked. "Whatever they want."

"And how do you assume that?" Mordecai asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Think about it," Soran explained. "They've gotten pretty good at imitating us, which implies that they have likely mastered genetic modification. If they can do that, what's to stop them from changing themselves into what they want?"

"Good point," Mordecai conceded. "But there are limitations. They haven't managed to flawlessly replicate a human, and probably never will."

"They've gotten pretty close," Samuel argued. "Who's to say it won't happen?"

"Because of one major flaw," Mordecai continued. "They aren't human. They can look like us, but they'll never be us. They don't have thought processes like us and can't comprehend human reasoning and emotion. They might try to understand it, but won't get much farther than that."

Soran frowned. "They don't exactly strike me as that…well, stupid. Why wouldn't they be able to understand us?"

"Because they're aliens," Samuel shrugged. "Can you think like a muton or sectoid? Same deal."

"Yeah, but we know nothing about them," Shun added, pursing her lips. "Of course we can't know how they think. But if we ever learned more about them, I don't see why some of us wouldn't understand their thought process, even if it seems backwards to our own."

"Maybe we can debate that after we wipe them out," Samuel suggested. "As much as I'm interested in the aliens, I'm more interested in kicking them off our planet."

"Copy that," Mordecai agreed with a nod.

Soran and Shun exchanged a look, and she clearly thought the same as him. Even if the ultimate goal of XCOM was to drive the aliens away, if not wipe them out completely, he didn't see a reason not to at least learn about their motivations, culture and outlook. He supposed he was an outlier here, since it seemed the vast majority of XCOM soldiers weren't interested in learning about the aliens, only killing them.

Which he supposed made sense, many of them had lost friends and family, so it made sense. He supposed he could count himself lucky he didn't fall into that category. Interesting that Shun seemed to have some interest, even if she didn't feel like pressing it further.

"Come on," Samuel called as he motioned them to follow. "I'm starving."

Well, he couldn't disagree there. A meal sounded good right now, and the four of them walked out of the Practice Range in fairly high spirits.

---

The Citadel, Engineering Bay

All the engineers were hard at work as the Commander walked into the Engineering Bay looking for Shen. He suspected that he'd be in the Cybernetics Lab, so he began making his way through the machinery and engineers towards the entrance.

"Commander!"

He turned to see Lily rushing over to him with an excited grin on her face. It was nice to see someone happy in the situation they were in. "Lily, how are you doing?"

"Very well, Commander," she answered, blushing slightly. "Anyway, you're looking for my father, right?"

He nodded. "I am, do you know where he is?"

She pointed down the Engineering Bay and the Commander saw Shen standing by a table displaying what looked like new weapons. Well, that was promising. "He said to watch for you," Lily continued. "He's got some things to show."

"I see that," the Commander nodded, glancing down at her. "Thank you, Lily."

She smiled and gave a short wave. "Anytime, Commander!"

The Commander smiled and began walking over to where Shen was. As he got closer he immediately noticed that the weapons set on the table looked far more similar to the ballistic weapons they'd initially started out with. All of them were colored a matte black, accented with darker grays, and the oddest part was that even though these weapons were heavily inspired by outdated technology they looked…compact. Refined.

"Taking inspiration from our old weapons, I see," the Commander commented as he walked up. "I didn't think we were going back to ballistics."

Shen looked over to him and nodded in greeting. "To be completely honest, neither did I. You can actually thank Israel for giving me the idea. When I heard that they were looking into Gauss tech, I wondered just how viable it would be."

He spread out his arm, indicating the table. "And as it turns out, it is very viable."

That sounded good. Very good. "Explain it," the Commander prompted. "Gauss technology is essentially using magnets to propel projectiles, right?"

It wasn't the most elegant explanation, but that was basically what the Commander had gotten from his own research into Gaussian tech. Shen winced as he spoke. "That…is a very, uh, crude way of putting it. But mostly correct. Thanks to Gauss tech and formulas, we can use magnets to propel bullets at a speed that was once thought impossible."

Impossible. That word seemed to be losing it's meaning the further the war advanced. He once again found it interesting, and somewhat disheartening, that it took a war threatening the human race to achieve all these scientific breakthroughs. Granted, some of it would be impossible without alien tech, but with the combined intelligence of the best minds from around the world, something would have been done.

"I assume that it's better at penetrating the alien armor than our previous ballistic weapons?" The Commander asked as he walked over to the table, running his hand over the sleek weapons.

"I wouldn't have approved production if they weren't," Shen declared as he walked up by him. "There is also another reason why these weapons are now viable. Has Vahlen spoken to you about the elerium?"

The Commander frowned. "No, nothing about that yet. Why?"

"Everyone has been busy," Shen shrugged as he continued. "Remember we recovered a large amount of that energy substance from the alien Dreadnought and didn't know what that was. Well, it turns out that it seems to contain an unprecedented amount of energy just waiting to be tapped into. We've managed to take some of the crystals and use the energy to power the Gauss weapons, but we've only begun scratching the surface of what this substance can do."

Well then, he'd have to speak to Vahlen about that and see if he could get that project started. "I'll speak to her about that later. We should probably look into it."

I agree completely," Shen nodded. "And yes, all of these weapons are ready for testing. I know you prefer trying them for yourself."

The Commander gave a lopsided grin. "I certainly plan on it."

He picked up the rifle and immediately noted that it was much heavier than the laser rifle and even an ordinary ballistic weapon. As he walked over to the range set up, he also noted that it did seem just slightly smaller than a regular assault rifle. Compact was a good word, but raising the weapon and getting a greater feel for it, dense fit much better.

It was without a doubt the solidest weapon he'd ever wielded by far. No part of the weapon felt unbalanced and it felt like a refined, solid weapon that would stand under the harshest combat conditions. The pinnacle of ballistic technology.

Well, until something else was discovered.

Shen had set up three sheets of alien alloys, with aliens outlined in black, a sectoid, thin man and outsider. What he found interesting was that each sheet seemed to be a slightly different color, from a dull silver to a dark gray. The alloys also seemed to get thicker as they progressed.

"Interesting target progression," the Commander noted to Shen as he took a stance. "That intentional?"

"Yes," Shen confirmed. "I set that up as a demonstration of a much smaller, but resource-saving discovery we made a short while ago."

The Commander lowered the weapon and looked at him. "And that is?"

"Thanks to the wide variety of alien equipment we've recovered, we've been able to determine that there are various types of alien alloys, not all just one metal as we've been using for so long," Shen explained, nodding towards the sheets of metal. "Like we have different metals used for different purposes, the aliens utilize the same for their alloys. We've been able to split the alien alloys into three categories: light, medium and heavy. If we discover more variants exist, we will add to them."

The Commander nodded. Good, that could potentially give them an easy way to upgrade their gear. "Good work, I assume that the heavy alloys will be for armor and MEC suits?"

"More or less," Shen answered. "Now that we've have a way to clearly divide the alloys, we can use the types more efficiently. Using the light alien alloys can be used to provide an extra layer of protection to our Ravens without having to rework the entire design. It's also useful in coating our rounds for additional armor penetration, which would have been an infeasible usage of resources under our old system. We're still exploring ways to use the alloys more efficiently, now that we've successfully categorized them."

"Excellent," the Commander stated, as he returned to aiming with his rifle. "Let's see how well this works."

He centered in on the thin man painted on the medium strength alloy sheet and fired. The barrel burst red with a loud pop and he saw a red streak tear into the target within a millisecond. He'd braced himself beforehand, but the recoil was just like the weapon itself, smaller, but packing a hell of a punch.

Prepared more now, he let off a burst of Gauss powered rounds, and with each shot taken, was liking the weapon more and more. As it stood now, this was one of the best weapons he'd used in terms of sheer power and design. Shen hadn't exaggerated the weapons capabilities, where he'd fired, he could clearly see holes in the alloy sheet.

Solid. That was what defined this weapon, in more ways than one. From its performance to the design, power and capabilities, it was at least as useful as the laser variant, if not more so.

"You outdid yourself here," he complimented as he stood back. "I don't think I've used better."

Shen seemed pleased, judging from the smile on his face. "I appreciated it, Commander. My team worked hard on it, though perhaps you should try the others before declaring this one your favorite."

The Commander grinned and walked back to the table and picked up the sniper rifle, immediately noting that the same word applied to this weapon as well: Solid. Had this been any other sniper rifle, the barrel would have been too heavy, but it all balanced out with the rest of the weapon itself. There was no wasted or unnecessary weight. It was heavier overall, but it didn't seem to interfere with his ability to aim and shoot.

Taking a wide stance, he looked down the scope which functioned as well as usual. Centering on the outsider head painted on the heavy alloy sheet, he fired. He was shocked to feel essentially no recoil from the shot, so much so that he looked at the weapon wondering if he missed something.

He did look up briefly at the target, which now had a clean hole through it. "How did you manage no recoil?" He demanded in amazement to Shen.

The engineer adjusted his glasses. "Trial, error and compromise. We figured that accuracy would be most important, so we had to make sacrifices elsewhere."

"Where?" The Commander asked as he looked at the rifle. "It seems to work fine. Perfect, even."

"The functionality wasn't sacrificed," Shen assured him. "But the magazine is a different story. You just fired half the rounds in the weapon."

Two rounds. Hmm, that wasn't ideal, but the weapon was essentially perfect otherwise, so he could overlook that issue. "Can it be increased, eventually?"

"Anything is possible," Shen admitted. "Though I doubt it. Not unless you want performance to suffer."

Oh well, well he could deal with limited ammunition, as well as any sniper worth their title. Let's see…what next? Might as well try the pistol. Picking it up, he was surprised not to feel much of a difference between this weapon and a regular pistol. True, they were already solid to begin with, so that likely explained it. But this one was perfectly balanced, unlike some pistols he'd used in the past.

After firing it several times at the light alloy sheet, he concluded that it wasn't a dramatic improvement, except in terms of power. The Gauss rounds had pierced the sheet, but the Commander knew that it wouldn't be as powerful as a rifle or sniper rifle. But any pistol that could pierce a sheet of alien metal was one he was satisfied with.

Now for the final weapon, the Gauss equivalent of the SAW. The design was almost the same, but the Commander grunted as he picked it up. It was much heavier than he remembered, but chalked it up to these weapons being heavier because of the Gauss tech. He swung the weapon towards the far right sheet and fired.

He was forced to take a step back as the weapon unloaded with a barrage of red streaks tearing into the metal. He kept the fire sustained and watched in amazement as he essentially cut the sheet of alien alloys in half. Although the weapon didn't show any signs of overheating, he decided not to push it and stopped.

That was definitely the most powerful weapon he'd wielded today, and there were going to be several soldiers looking to use it. "Well," he said, turning to Shen. "I'd say you've done your job well. Excellent work."

"Thank you, Commander," Shen acknowledged. "I think it will serve as an excellent counterpart to our laser weapon arsenal."

A counterpart. That was actually a very good note. As much as the Commander liked the new Gauss weapons, he did think that there would be cases where laser weaponry was more appropriate. Laser weapons would be much more effective on unarmored or lightly armored creatures like the sectoids and thin men, but this would be better for the heavier armored aliens like the cyberdisks and mutons.

A balance would be good, and now they had a reliable counter to the alien's heavier units. "Well, anything else?" The Commander asked, turning to Shen.

"We've begun work decoding and deconstructing the alien computers," Shen informed. "Thanks to the cipher you provided, we're making good progress on that, but it might be a while before anything substantial comes of it. In the meantime, our air force is finished upgrading. Our skyrangers can now hold eight soldiers, and our Ravens are armored and armed with a mix of laser and Gauss weaponry."

"Excellent," the Commander smiled. "That should keep us in the air game. Ask me if you have issues with the alien code, I'll be able to translate."

"I'll do that," Shen promised as he walked over to another table where blueprints were laying on. "I have one final matter to bring up with you, the MEC program."

The Commander walked over and looked down at the blueprints. "More designs, I see. What do you have in mind?"

"We have MECs fill different roles," Shen explained as he pointed at the blueprints. "Instead of utilizing them as simple humanoid fighting machines, we specialize them to suit different environments and battlefields."

"So what we have now is a Marauder-class MEC," the Commander noted as he looked at the blueprint and images of Myra suited up. "It looks a little different than what we have now."

"Because it is," Shen confirmed, pointing at the arms. "I've redesigned the Marauder to be a close-range, close-quarters, anti-infantry machine. You've seen what Myra was able to do with her flamethrowers, this is designing her to do that without the risk of serious damage."

"It is more armored," the Commander noted. "Though that won't be applicable for every situation. A more traditional soldier class isn't a bad idea."

"No, it isn't," Shen agreed as he pulled out another blueprint. "So if I'm going to create one, it's going to be the pinnacle of that concept."

The Commander's eyes widened as he looked at the dimensions for the MEC. "Is that even possible?" He asked, looking up at Shen. "It's as tall as a small building! How is someone going to be able to pilot that, let alone transport it?"

"It's called the Goliath for a reason," Shen pointed out, amused. "The pilot will be encased in the middle of this MEC, more like an actual pilot and not as simple as suiting up. It's possible, just…difficult. I've taken the transport issue into account. It will work with our current MEC transport, but it'll have to be the only one."

"Fair enough," the Commander muttered, shaking his head. "You don't think small."

"I think practical and useful," Shen answered, pulling out a final blueprint. "Which is what inspired this last design. Remember when Van Doorn told us Herman's breakdown of our military weaknesses?"

The Commander remembered all right. He'd been initially skeptical, but Herman had made several very good points and was now working on several of his own ideas to solve them. Not something he would have considered initially, but the Representative was actually proving be useful here, and for that the Commander was grateful.

"I remember," the Commander nodded. "Prolonged engagements are a problem, was the main point, if I remember right."

"That's what I got out of it," Shen pointed at the blueprint. "This is something that could help."

The blueprints for this MEC made it seem the bulkiest of them all. There were several rocket launchers attached to the arms, micro-missile launchers on the shoulders and most obvious, a massive cannon attached to the back reminiscent of one very recognizable piece of military hardware. "Artillery," the Commander noted, impressed. "I like it."

"The Ballista-class MEC is designed for it," Shen confirmed. "All the designs will need to be refined, but those are the plans. There is one issue, though."

The Commander nodded. "We need pilots."

"Yes," Shen answered, growing grimmer. "And I would prefer we not ask our soldiers. Because some of them will actually volunteer, likely not comprehending the full scale of risks involved."

That was an issue that Commander had been thinking about, and he'd come to the same conclusion. He didn't want soldiers sacrificing their limbs and potentially, minds, just because he asked them too. But then he was left with the knowledge that he had technology that could change the war that was sitting dormant. They needed more MEC pilots.

Fortunately, he'd struck upon an idea. "There aren't a shortage of wounded veterans," he told Shen. "Many of whom are in good shape aside from missing a limb or two. I'd imagine there'd be a few that would jump at the change to take part in defending Earth."

Shen rested his chin on his hand thoughtfully. "They would need to be told the risks…but…I suppose that would be acceptable. But I'm growing concerned that the process that turns them into pilots won't be able to be fixed. Myra is stable…for now, but I'd hesitate to call her content or normal."

"She knew the risks," the Commander reminded him. "And so will any new pilots. Does this sound like a plan?"

Shen sighed. "Considering our limited options, it is the best option. MELD opened a Pandora's Box and I sometimes wish I hadn't developed this after seeing what happens to the pilots. But I did and will do my best to make sure it's utilized to end this war as quickly as possible."

The Commander nodded gravely. "That's what we all hope for. Hard decisions are needed and they do change us, but that is what's needed when faced with our extinction. No soldier lost in this war will be forgotten, I'll make sure of it."

"Then I suppose I should get to work making this," Shen said, turning back to the table. "Let me know if I should prepare the procedure for new pilots."

The Commander inclined his head. "I'll let you know soon."

With that he left Shen to continue designing machines that would eventually win them the war. Even if the ending had been a little depressing, he in no way forgot what had preceded it. He grinned as he walked, the aliens and EXALT were going to be very surprised the next time they met.

---

The Citadel, Research Labs

He had been initially concerned that he wouldn't be able to do it, but the Commander had been relieved to find out that the dish Vahlen had suggested to him wasn't that difficult or time consuming. He was under no illusions that it was perfect, but he could follow a recipe perfectly well.

It had also given him some time to think as the meal cooked. Vahlen had likely managed to refine the gene mods to a state where he'd feel comfortable allowing soldiers to undergo genetic modification. At least that was what he was assuming, but he did privately wonder how Vahlen was going to take his request that he be the first one to receive them.

He figured it would be sufficient motivation for her to make sure all the kinks had been worked out, but as much as he trusted Vahlen, he couldn't completely remove some of the apprehension that accompanied that decision. Should things go wrong, he'd end up like those test subjects in which case death would be preferable.

No. Vahlen knew what she was doing. He would have nothing to worry about. He knew it was irrational, but chalked up his apprehension to basic human fear of the unknown. Even he wasn't immune to it, especially since he knew the consequences of it failing

As he walked through the Research Labs to the Gene Lab, he was once again reminded of all the progress they'd made here. Most of the scientists had turned in for the night, but a few were still up diligently working and not paying him any mind. He unlocked the door leading to the Gene Lab and stepped through and kept walking.

He shook his head as stepped into the exotic room. Vahlen hadn't stopped collecting odd animals since the last time he'd been here. A large container containing a jellyfish and another one containing a crocodile now lined the wall to his right, so he walked over by the jellyfish contained which was illuminated by a deep blue light and watched the creature bob in the water.

It really was an interesting creature, and he wondered exactly what Vahlen wanted it for. Didn't the jellyfish have some kind of amazing healing ability or was he misremembering? Regardless, he'd have to ask her about it.

"Is that for me?" He heard an incredulous Vahlen ask behind him and he turned with a smile to face her. She was wearing her regular lab coat and holding her tablet close to her arm.

He held out the plate. "Of course, this is what you requested, if I remember correctly."

She took it after setting her tablet on a nearby table. "I can't believe you remembered it," she muttered as she started eating. "Thank you, Commander."

"Hopefully it's not too bad," the Commander answered, glad she seemed to like it. "Besides, I think you deserve it."

She looked at him in disbelief. "No more than you," she commented, then pointed at the plate with her fork. "You want some?"

"No need," the Commander shook his head. "That's for you and I ate quite a bit in the kitchen." He nodded back towards the tank of jellyfish. "But maybe you could explain that."

She brightened. "A potential new kind of genetic modification," she explained enthusiastically as she ate. "Jellyfish have amazing regeneration capabilities, and I wondered if that could be applied to our own soldiers to increase their own survivability in the field. Imagine injuries that take weeks to heal could take mere days!"

"Is this preliminary or have you started experiments?" The Commander asked.

"Preliminary," she confirmed as she finished eating. "The last round of genetic experiments took a while, so before continuing new research opportunities, I wanted to ensure that is the direction you want our research to take."

Well that was promising. "Then I assume that the first round of genetic mods is ready for use?"

She grinned. "Yes, Commander. Let me show you." She made a move to walk towards the cells but the Commander held up a hand.

"Hold that for a moment," he suggested. "I'd like to know about the elerium."

"Ah," she recalled. "I assume Shen told you about that? Yes, we don't know much about how it works except that it can be used to generate a massive amount of energy," she motioned around the room aimlessly. "It's without a doubt the alien's main power source. We've been finding small crystals of elerium in the power sources, computers and even the weapons. Unlocking its secrets could lead to an energy revolution the world has never seen!"

That was becoming a recurring theme. "That's good to hear," the Commander nodded. "But you would need to focus the majority of your people on it, which would take away from the gene program."

Vahlen let out a sigh. "Yes, but I don't have unlimited scientists, sadly."

"I know," the Commander assured her. "And what you've done has been extraordinary. What of your research into psionics?"

"Preliminary," she admitted. "Patricia has complied with what I've asked of her, but I'm still not completely sure how to quantify the abilities she exhibits now, let alone replicate it on other soldiers."

"She thinks she tapped into the alien psionic network," the Commander remembered. "Perhaps that's what triggered her."

"I've thought of that," Vahlen pointed out dismissively. "But we have no way to do that here. Not unless we recover a working alien device that can connect to this psionic network. I'm working on trying to simulate the brainwaves Patricia exhibits when she uses her abilities. They seem to be limited to psionic users, so it will be easy to detect, but triggering them is the hard part."

"Would you be able to solve this if more resources were devoted towards it?" The Commander asked, crossing his arms.

Vahlen pursed her lips. "Honestly…not as much as you'd think. Our largest limiting factor is that Patricia is the only human to exhibit psionic abilities. If I had more, that would greatly help, but as far as I know, there are no others."

"Unfortunately," the Commander agreed with a sigh. "I'm sure we would have heard about a human with unusual abilities."

"More working alien technology would be the greatest help," Vahlen advised. "Although I suppose I shouldn't rely on soldiers being careful when assaulting a UFO."

The Commander smirked. "You'd have a hard time convincing them."

"I suppose," she sighed. "I do wish they comprehended what they were destroying accidentally sometimes. We could be so much further ahead."

"Don't focus on that," the Commander told her intently. "But I do want your professional opinion now. Where should we devote our resources?"

She thought for a moment. "The gene mods we have now should suffice for the time being, even if there is much room for innovation. Fully understanding the elerium would benefit XCOM greater at the moment, and potentially the rest of the world if this can be replicated."

The Commander tended to agree. Elerium would have a greater range of use than more genetic mods, at least for now. "Then consider that approved," he nodded towards her. "Let me know exactly what you need."

"I'll do that, Commander," she assured him, then motioned him towards the cells. "Now, let me show you what I've done."

They walked over towards the doors which slid open displaying the white room and glass cells. There were noticeably fewer test subjects here, but the ones that were still there…some of them seemed different.

"I assumed you disposed of the failed experiments?" The Commander stated as they walked.

"Yes," Vahlen nodded. "But don't worry, Zhang told me about your plan for them. The bodies are in cold storage."

The Commander nodded gratefully. They stopped in front of a cell with a man huddled in a corner, looking at them fearfully. Looking closer at him, the Commander noticed that his eyes were different, the irises were still brown, but were rimmed by a faint yellow. The pupil seemed unchanged, if a bit larger.

"We've tested him reading words from across the room," Vahlen explained. "In addition to the various other tests, I've confirmed that this modification is a success."

"No hitches or side effects?" The Commander asked.

"He took a few hours to orient himself and threw up multiple times," Vahlen answered with a shrug. "Honestly, that was expected. I do think it's somewhat unfortunate that we'll have to dispose of them. If only there was a way to use them safely."

Yes, that was something the Commander hadn't liked about this whole situation. Even if these people were criminals, it felt wrong to throw away a potential resource like that, even if they couldn't be relied upon.

But he had wondered.

"Have you looked into applying MELD in the brain?" He asked Vahlen, turning to her. She bit her lip and looked up.

"Somewhat," she answered. "It would have to be done very delicately, and would likely require multiple subjects to create a modification, no matter how small."

"A question," the Commander asked finally. "The greatest issue we have with using these people is there unreliability. Would it be possible to…rewire the brain to either be loyal or at least prevent betrayal?"

She blinked at that, clearly that possibility had never occurred to her. "A real-life Manchurian Candidate," she breathed as her eyes lit up. "I…had never considered the possibility."

"Maybe think on it some," the Commander suggested. "It might be useful in more ways than one."

"Yes, yes," Vahlen muttered under her breath, then shook her head. "Anyway, let's move on." She walked to the cell a few feet further. This one contained another man who looked unchanged. Although the Commander noticed that he looked unusually solid, almost as if he was on strength enhancing steroids.

"I was able to sort out the issue of muscle density," Vahlen explained, as she tapped on the glass and opened up the intercom. "Jump!"

With no hesitation the man nodded fearfully, bent his knees and jumped at least ten feet high and landed without any trouble at all. The Commander blinked in amazement, this was honestly more than he'd hoped for. "Amazing. Is there a limit to how far they can fall?"

"Not measured," Vahlen answered slowly. "But I'd imagine that they have a cushion of at least twice what can be jumped. Humans can usually survive falls twice their height in a normal jump, so I'd imagine the same rules apply here. I doubt he'd survive jumping out of a skyscraper, but off a house a couple of stories high? Absolutely."

"Well done," the Commander complimented, liking the advancements immensely. "What next?"

"I'd show you the subject we were able to get the secondary heart working with," Vahlen answered nonchalantly. "But you wouldn't be able to tell, but we've managed it excellently. However, I do think this is my greatest work." She stopped in front of another cell, this one with another man inside.

There was a distinct alteration to this subject. The body seemed dotted with almost imperceptible black dots, bristles almost on closer inspection. But unless you were specifically looking for differences, they were much harder to notice than he'd guessed. "I assume this is your spider subject?"

"Yes," she stated, obviously pleased as she opened an intercom to the subject. "Climb."

The man nodded and somehow the Commander was still surprised when the man actually started climbing up the glass wall easily. It looked very odd, but the Commander was growing ecstatic at the possibilities these gene mods were going to allow him. Once the man reached about halfway up the glass wall, he looked down, and pushed off.

He hit the ground with a thud, but otherwise seemed unharmed. "Impressive," the Commander commented. "It looks like wall-climbing abilities weren't the only improvement."

"A side effect," Vahlen confirmed. "I doubt he could survive the falls the other subject could, but falls that would hurt a normal human wouldn't to him. Strength was also a side effect of both mods. Both men are stronger than any human, this one a bit more so."

"I know I've said this before," the Commander shook his head, smiling. "But you've outdone yourself here. Thank you."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "You allowed this to happen. I made it happen, sure, but you were the one who believed I could do it, no matter what it took. I need to thank you for that."

He put his own hand over hers, keeping it there for a few seconds. "Well, I hope you're ready for your first recipient." He said after a few moments.

She gave him a warm smile. "You have people already planned?"

"A few," he revealed. "But I'm going to be the first one."

She blinked. "You?"

"Of course," he reminded her. "If you think it's ready for soldiers, it should be ready for me."

"Right, it is," she agreed nervously. "But you're different, if something goes wrong-"

"Moira, I trust you," he interrupted gently. "And I know you won't make any mistakes here."

"Probably not," she agreed, looking down. "But if something does, I couldn't forgive myself."

"Then don't put yourself in that position," he suggested. "You're not going to mess up here and you're going to have to do it anyway before applying it to any soldiers."

She gave a dramatic sigh. "I hate when you try and be noble."

He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Noble? I like to think it's practical."

"Whatever," she said. "Well, if I must do this, I might as well get it over with. When do you want to do it?"

"As soon as possible."

"I'll get my staff ready," she said, crossing her arms as she looked up. "Which mods do you want?"

"Enhanced vision, the secondary heart and muscle fiber density," the Commander answered. "I'd imagine some are mutually exclusive."

"Yes," she confirmed. "But none of the ones you mentioned are. If you've wanted the climbing mod, it would conflict with the muscle fiber mod."

"Well," the Commander let out a breath. "I'm ready when you are."

"Sit tight," she advised as she made her way out. "I'll prepare." With that she left him, leaving his with the company of genetically altered criminals. Well, this should be interesting.

---

The Bastion, Communications Center

"In conclusion, I believe that these weapons will perform exceptionally," Tygan updated her, the scientist's hologram looking as professional as ever. "Field testing is the final stage, and Overseer Eridan as assured me that will be taken care of."

Saudia nodded in satisfaction. Excellent, EXALT would have laser weaponry and level the playing field against XCOM. Tygan had performed exceptionally, and especially in such a short amount of time. "I'm pleased to hear that," she told him. "Have you worked on integrating the alien metals with our current armor?"

"I have," he confirmed, looking down at his tablet and scrolling through it. "While I have not developed a prototype to my satisfaction, I am confident that issue will be solved relatively soon."

"Make that your next priority," Saudia ordered. "It's imperative that our soldiers survive against the alien weapons."

Tygan inclined his head. "Of course, Director. I have also informed Overseer Eridan about the possibility of genetically modifying soldiers. I believe that we can use this melding substance recovered from the aliens to increase the human body's strength, endurance, reaction time and durability. With your approval, I could begin inquiries into this line of research."

Saudia pursed her lips. "I assume you would need test subjects."

He blinked, showing a rare moment of surprise. "Test subjects? No, Director, not at all. I did not mean to imply they would be needed."

She was somewhat surprised at his reaction, until she remembered that he was still under the impression that this was a legitimate organization that followed typical rules and regulations. Test subjects weren't a big deal to her, but he was clearly uncomfortable with them. Hopefully that wouldn't be a problem. "No offense taken," she assured him. "Though that does beg the question or how you will test and create these…genetic mods."

"Carefully and safely," he assured her calmly. "I will not develop anything that is a threat to the recipient. Once I'm confident that the procedure is safe, I will only take volunteers, with your approval, of course."

"Then proceed as you need," she said after a few seconds. "But we are on a limited timeframe. Should you feel that you need to…ignore certain protocols, you have my permission to do what it takes. The survival of humanity supersedes all. Understand?"

He nodded firmly. "Yes, Director. I will work to ensure that option does not need to be considered."

"Good luck, Doctor." She told him, then reached over and ended the call. His hologram vanished a few seconds later and she sighed. One call out of the way, one more to go. She sincerely hoped Elizabeth had a good explanation planned for her, because if that was the best thing her team could do against XCOM, then there were issues.

She entered the number and a few moments later, the hologram of Elizabeth appeared. The EXALT Spymaster had her dark hair pulled back and wore the typical Falka clothing, which was far less formal than any other EXALT family uniforms. Elizabeth tended to wear a black leather jacket with the EXALT logo embroidered on the upper right chest.

It had always struck Saudia as unprofessional, but she didn't have an issue with it as long as they performed well. "Elizabeth," she greeted cordially.

She inclined her head. "Director, I assume you would like an explanation?"

How very perceptive of her. "Yes," Saudia let out slowly, putting some ice in her tone. "When you said you would wage a propaganda war on XCOM, I was under the assumption that it would be a successful one. Not one that would be exposed before twenty-four hours had passed. You failed."

Elizabeth had the grace to wince. "You would have a point, Director, but as I believe I explained before, I wanted to test the waters before beginning the full campaign. What I released was a test, to see how XCOM would react. I need to know how well they can counter what we put out."

"We do not have time for that," Saudia stated coldly. "You've had ample time to prepare something more than this. But since you've done it, I should hope you gained something useful from this."

"I have," Elizabeth assured her with a quick nod. "XCOM will not go down without a fight, and whoever they have in charge of counterintelligence and PR is good. Very good."

Saudia's nostrils flared. "Really. I assume there is no other way you could assume that for yourself?"

Elizabeth seemed to realize that she was not entirely pleased with that explanation. "I could assume, but that's all-"

"Enough." Saudia cut off, raising a fist, shutting her up promptly. "I could have told you XCOM would have staffed someone competent, that is the reason we're acting against them in the first place. You've wasted valuable time confirming something you should have assumed to begin with."

Elizabeth flinched. "Director, I cannot work effectively without solid evidence one way or another. We both know management is a numbers game, and XCOM is not the only operation I'm running at the moment. Now I know exactly how many-"

"Listen, Spymaster Falka," Saudia interrupted, sharpening her tone so the message got through to her. "XCOM is now your priority. Resources should not be an issue here with your directive clear. And in case you want solid numbers, assume that whoever is running XCOM Intelligence, or whatever counter-intelligence they have, is smarter than you."

Saudia began pacing in front of the increasingly nervous women. "You've already caused a major operation in Germany to fail because of your negligence, and have now sabotaged our objective, intentionally or not, to discredit and defame XCOM. This incident has strengthened their public image and now they will retaliate forcing us on the defensive."

She stopped walking and faced the woman, staring daggers into her green eyes. "At best, these are mistakes, at worst, they are incompetence. I understand the stress of your position, but this is growing into a problem, Spymaster. I dislike making ultimatums, but you've forced my hand here. Fail again, and I will insist that you be removed from your position as Spymaster, and Head of the Falka Family."

There was dead silence.

Elizabeth swallowed visibly. That threat was rarely invoked, but when it was it was almost never disputed. It was certainly rare for the head of a family to be removed, but each time it happened it was warranted. Elizabeth knew that, and now knew the extent of her failure. There was no question whether Saudia would follow through on her threat, that she'd stated it at all was confirmation enough.

She swallowed again. "I understand, Director. I will not fail again."

Saudia pursed her lips. "We'll see. Is there anything else you can update me on?"

"We're tracking Subject Four's trail," Elizabeth updated, relieved to be moving to a different topic. "As we suspected, she is heading toward France. She's going about it smart too, a mix of planes, trains, taxis, not strictly to obvious places either. Her misdirection is admirable, but we know where she is going."

"I assume you have people watching her boyfriend?" Saudia asked.

Elizabeth would have probably made a smart comment at that, but given the circumstances, she answered seriously. "Of course. If the phone call we recovered between them was accurate, he'll be contacted. He'll know if his devices have been tampered, so I've had people watch him and utilize tracking devices. We'll know if he goes anywhere suspicious."

"And your plan is to let them meet?" Saudia assumed.

"It would be ideal," Elizabeth answered. "Once they both meet, we can capture both of them. We can use her boyfriend as leverage in case she tries to escape again. She won't do anything if he gets hurt."

"Good thinking," Saudia acknowledged. "Hopefully they'll make contact within a few days or sooner. Anything else."

"I actually should ask you that," Elizabeth finally answered after a pause. "You saw the North Korea broadcast, yes?"

Saudia nodded.

"We need an update," Elizabeth insisted. "Your agent needs to let us know what's going on. They seem more dangerous than I anticipated."

"I'll attempt that," Saudia promised. "But we both know how hard it is to get information out. We can't risk our only agent for anything less than an impending attack."

Elizabeth sighed. "I suppose so. But we should deal with this sooner than later."

"Leave North Korea to me," Saudia told her. "Now I think we both need to get back to work. Fix your mistakes."

Elizabeth bowed her head. "Yes, Director. You'll see results shortly."

The hologram vanished, leaving her in the room alone. Time to get to work, more psionic subjects were needed, regardless if they ended up recapturing Subject Four. They couldn't waste more time, and the scientists were just going to have to do their best.

---

The Citadel, Barracks

It was getting easier.

As Patricia sat alone at the table, her eyes closed, she just concentrated on the burst, waves and consistency of emotions from the soldiers around her. It was instinctive now, when her eyes were opened she could easily pinpoint a specific person's mind by just concentrating on the general area. Each person was unique, and that made it easier to pinpoint who she sense.

She was also getting much better at picking out full thoughts when she concentrated, now she could filter out the meaningless noise and hear full sentences, images and emotions, most of which were intertwined with each other.

It was interesting just how differently people thought from each other. Some just thought in plain sentences, like words in a book, reading from left to right. Others visualized by creating an image in their head and playing out the thought inside it. But one thing that was consistent was that there was always meaning behind the thought; it was always accompanied by whatever emotion had been attached to that particular thought. Anger, joy, happiness, terror, accusation, it was clear to her now. Words were just noise, it was the emotions behind them that gave them meaning.

To her annoyance, it still happened much too randomly for her liking. When she finally could read a thought, it was pretty much never her intention. It was accidental and was now happening completely on its own, even if she wasn't trying to listen.

That was becoming more apparent to her now. She was beginning to understand, but not quite able to concentrate specifically on one specific mind, go into it and understand everything, access memories and thoughts. But that would hopefully change soon, since now she thought she knew how to figure it out.

Now she needed someone to test with. Luckily she could sense him coming up behind her. She was so familiar with his presence that she could detect wherever he was in the Citadel. On this level she knew him better than anyone ever could, she could sense things no one would have guessed otherwise. One being that no matter what emotion she sensed from him primarily, it was always accompanied by something else, a long suppressed fear.

Of what she could only guess at, but whatever it was, it was old, long ago and embedded so deep she wasn't sure he was aware of it anymore. She wondered how exactly she could broach that particular topic, even though she'd tried going into his mind many times, it seemed almost too personal.

Still, that wasn't the only interesting thing she'd sensed. He'd likely never admit it to anyone, but he was very protective of people he cared about. When she'd first noticed it, she'd wondered if it was exclusive to her, and hadn't exactly known how to feel about it. But upon further examination…it was just a part of his mindset, not exclusive to her, though she was certain she was included in that category.

It was odd, she would have never pegged him as the protective type when they'd first met. What she'd assumed was arrogance when they'd had their first one-on-one talk on the sparring floor, might have instead been his way of demonstrating that, teaching her stuff to keep her alive.

Well, even if she was perfectly capable to taking care of herself, she did find it sweet that he considered her that important. Though it was likely bound to happen given what she was doing to him, it couldn't really get more personal than that. But it did give her some pause about what she might find if she went digging around in his mind.

His unusually protective instincts, combined with some kind of ingrained fear, didn't lead to many positive combinations. The most likely explanation was that he'd experienced some kind of trauma, likely in his childhood, if that fear was as deep and suppressed as it seemed. Further proof was that he seemed well-adjusted now, so he'd likely gotten over any mental trauma years ago.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly something she really wanted to ask, for a multitude of reasons, but mostly because she didn't know for sure, even if she believed what she sensed was accurate.

"You intentionally trying to distract me?" She said, as she sensed him behind her. There was a brief flash of amusement from him and she opened her eyes and let the ethereal maze of minds fade into the background.

"Not intentionally," Creed chuckled as he circled around and sat opposite her. "You must be getting better if you could tell it was me."

She shook her head, partially to visibly disagree and partially to pull her mind back into the present. "I can sense you whenever I want. You stand out to me so it wasn't hard to know you were coming up."

His lips twitched as his expression stayed deliberately neutral. "I suppose that makes sense, I'm mostly been on the receiving end of your practice."

She for once couldn't tell what he was feeling from him expression, and she didn't sense any sort of accusation of anger from him. But definitely suppression of some kind. "Does that bother you?" She asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Can't you just…" he waved his hand aimlessly. "Sense it to get the answer?"

"I am," she stated immediately, then winced. "Sorry, I can't help it now. But it's not really helpful. Whatever you're feeling you're putting it down."

A wan smile appeared on his face. "Well, even if I was, I don't exactly have the right to complain. I did agree to this after all."

She frowned. That wasn't a good explanation or a reason for him to not voice concerns. "You would tell me if you didn't want to continue, yes?" She asked, leaning forward, looking into his eyes intently. "Trust me, it would be fine. But I don't want to force you to do this because you feel you have too."

"Don't worry," he assured her. "I haven't changed my mind about any of it. But it's just a little odd for me. A large part of my job involved people not knowing where I was. The idea that you can do that whenever you want will take some getting used to."

She was relieved that was it, even though she could understand exactly why he felt that way. She hoped that he realized that it wasn't constant. "It's not like a GPS telling me where you are at all times."

He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, amusement and resignation rolling off him in equal measure. "You can sense me just by concentrating for a few seconds, yes? That accomplishes the same thing, more or less."

That wasn't that inaccurate. "Fair point," she acknowledged. "Sorry."

"Well, not much either of us can do about it," Creed said dismissively. "Besides, if there's someone who can somehow always find me, I'm fine with it being you."

She smiled. "Thanks,"

"So if you can pick me out so well, have you figured out how to directly…" he motioned to his head. "Read my mind, I guess."

Patricia pursed her lips. "That's actually what I want to test out. I'm getting better at it, but it's random and unsolicited. I haven't been able to do it consciously yet, it's just sort of…happened."

"Happened," Creed repeated with a nod. "Huh, so it's sort of like the whole reading emotions thing, it just started happening and you couldn't stop it."

"Sort of," Patricia answered, after a pause. "I think I know how to replicate it now, so I guess now's as good a time as any to try reading your mind. Up for it?"

"Sure, why not?" Creed commented, half sarcastically. "So…anything in particular you want me to focus on?"

"No," Patricia advised as she closed her eyes. "Just…relax, I guess."

She heard him snort. "Will do, perfectly doable."

She suspected he was being sarcastic again, but it was fading as she closed in on his unique mind. This time instead of just trying to understand what was coming from it in the midst of all the other distractions, she instead envisioned a bubble around it, cut off from the wider world, limiting her perception just to his mind.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, a few words and phrases appeared in her mind as well as a couple images, but nothing solid yet. The atmosphere around her seemed much more grounded now, even if she had no corporal form here. Although…

What was stopping her? She had control over everything here, and a form might help ground her more. She concentrated and actually looked around the blackness she was in. The perspective was essentially unchanged, except that when she looked down, she could see her body, as if she was actually physically here.

Things seemed to be taking more of a shape around her, not in regular forms, but in lights, noises and images. She listened and heard what sounded like words coming in the distance. Time had no meaning here, so she just envisioned herself at the source and found herself in front of black door.

It was oddly metaphorical, and not what she'd expected. But she assumed this was her mind's way of creating visualizations for stuff that otherwise couldn't be quantified. Without waiting further, she opened the door and words started appearing in her mind, writing themselves out as if in a word processing program.

She's been that way for fifteen minutes? Is she still awake?

The voice that accompanied it was clearly Creed's. It made sense that he'd think in his own voice, she did the same thing and suspected almost everyone did. Blinking in her ethereal form, she realized that she was actually envisioning the words out in front of her, not simply inside her head. Furthermore, some of them seemed different, words were emphasized, bolded or otherwise marked, and she suddenly realized that was the underlying emotions accompanying each thought, in this case, curiosity and concern.

Driven by an instinctive curiosity, she focused in on the word awake and was suddenly assaulted by an image of her, eyes closed and everything, from the perspective of Creed. The image was static, though she thought she saw the air was distorted around her.

It was then she realized that she hadn't heard anything from him since she'd focused on that one thought? Had she accidentally stopped his thought process, or was he continuing on and she hadn't noticed? She made the words disappeared and a tightening she hadn't realized was there vanished and she continued letting the thoughts continue.

Now Creed was amused, if the new thought that appeared to her was any indication. "Maybe I should test that out, ha. Maybe snap my fingers in front of her or something. This was accompanied by the sudden vision of her, still from Creed's perspective, snapping his fingers in front of her and she suddenly leapt out of her chair with an overly dramatic shout of surprise.

Patricia snorted. Clearly, she was seeing some kind of scene created in Creed's head. It was a little funny though, and she let out a chuckle.

Oh wait, now she's…smiling? Huh? Now the image that appeared in front of her appeared to actually be real, and showed her in the same position she'd been in, though now with a faint smile on her face.

Interesting, it seemed that her feelings here did seem to transition to the real world. Creed's thoughts continued unabated.

Was that a coincidence? Nah, I'd probably know if someone was in my head. There was a sense of assurance here. It happened when she brought back those memories, I knew something was off. This'll be similar.

Huh, also useful for her to know. So it seemed that he had sensed that something was off, but wouldn't have known if he hadn't expected it. Now it seemed that she could access his thoughts without him knowing.

Let's see how long it's…the Hell? No way ten minutes passed unless…"

Ah, not good. Time to see if her theory of stopping thoughts worked. She pulled up the thought in progress and looked at the words in front of her. So, she could see them, as well as every single minute detail that could be imagined.

Now…

What if she could change them?

She waved her hand as if clearing a board and the letters vanished, but she knew that whatever words she wanted would appear. Puppies. She envisioned. Puppies are very, very cute.

That done, she released hold of the thought and wanted to see where he went with it. She almost burst out laughing at how things initially proceeded without a hitch.

Puppies are very, very cute, he thought, made even funnier by the sincerity that came along with it. It's too bad they didn't really have them on base. German Shepherds are nice, good breed. Actually, no, Retrievers are better. Yeah, more friendly, a golden retriever would be nice to have, maybe when I get out. Provided we win the war of course.

He really did seem to be going along with that, and she was initially concerned that she had accidentally corrupted his mind to think about nothing but puppies. I wonder where Galia got her dog, probably given to her by the Israelis. Wonder how that all works exactly. His emotions changed to surprise, then confusing. Wait. Why the hell am I thinking about puppies when Patricia is trying to read my mind? God, I hope she didn't get in yet. Sorry Patricia if you're listening, I'm trying to take this seriously.

She almost laughed at that and it gave her the perfect exit point. She waited for that thought to finish and then froze the next one before stating what she wanted him to think. Apology accepted, Creed.

Hopefully that would be clear enough. She released that thought then pulled out completely and opened her eyes, her entire body starting violently as she returned to the real world.

Creed was staring at her, wariness and shock rolling off of him. "Was that…?"

"Apology accepted?" she quoted, feeling oddly tired. "Yeah, you got it?"

"I…" He answered slowly, blinking rapidly. "You…made that happen?"

"Yes," she breathed. "The whole puppy tangent was me too, I made that appear and you just went with it until you realized something was off."

"I didn't know something was off," he admitted. "I just thought that…well, you know. I guess…this was a success then?"

"I think so," Patricia nodded, feeling more energetic after realizing what she'd accomplished. She'd actually read another person's mind and what's more, altered the thoughts to make them seem their own.

And with that, the realization of just how dangerous that ability was crashed down on her. With this little experiment, she had possibly become the most dangerous and powerful person in the world. If she really wanted to…she could control anyone she wanted, make them puppets without them ever knowing it wasn't them.

She could alter their perception, their mindset, to whatever she wanted to. Sure, it could maybe be as innocent as making someone think about puppies, or it could force a person to contemplate murder or suicide.

Her sudden realizations must have shown on her face because she looked at her intently, nothing but concern and seriousness coming off him. "I guess you've guessed the implications of this."

"Yeah," she whispered, shivering. "What should I do?"

"Tell the Commander, for starters," Creed stated immediately. "He needs to know what you can do now. But…well, what you do with this is something no one but you has control over. But…please be careful. Don't use it on anymore else unless absolutely necessary, that's what I'm here for if you want to experiment."

"But what if I do something to you?" She demanded, sounding far most accusing than she'd intended. But she was legitimately concerned about further meddling. "What happens if I accidentally change something about you? Or worse, kill you? I don't know how far this can go. I don't want to cause you to go insane because I wanted more power!"

Her voice broke at the end, and she slumped onto the table. "I'm not the right person to have this power," she whispered. "I'm just a soldier."

She heard Creed get up and sit down beside her. "And who is the right person?" He asked quietly, as he put his arm around her which she gratefully accepted. "A politician? General? Commander? A homeless man? Can anyone really be trusted with this?"

She took a breath, and sat up a bit more. It was unlike her to be this…distraught, but she was worried about the risk she now posed, even more so than before. "Maybe not," she answered. "But I now pose a risk to everyone. Who would stop me if I turned?"

"Stop." He told her firmly, his face hard as she looked up at him. "Stop this worst-case scenario planning. It sometimes endearing, but you take this way too far sometimes. The fact that you're worried about this is a reason you're the right person to wield this power. You're a good woman, Patricia. You're not going to suddenly turn on us for power."

His words were reasonable and she nodded several times. "Alright. But…"

"No," Creed interrupted. "No buts. You're getting worked up for no reason. Everyone trusts you, and so do I. The Commander himself trusts you to not screw things up, so I'd think he knows what he's doing."

"Fine," Patricia nodded. "But we're working to a new objective now. There has to be some way for people to defend against what I did, and that's what we need to work on now."

"Sounds like a plan," Creed nodded. "Take some time to recover, I'll go with you to the Commander when you tell him. He'll likely want to question me anyway."

"That sounds good," Patricia agreed. "I wonder how he'll take the news?"

"Knowing him…" Creed answered. "I'd say reasonably. Though I'd suggest not proving it to him by reading his mind."

She chuckled. "Don't worry about that."

---

The Citadel, Gene Lab

…Commander…..up….see…

The Commander groaned and opened his eyes as he heard Vahlen's muffled voice. Everything blinded him initially, the glaring white lights overwhelming his sense, he raised an arm to block it out, and realized that there was some kind of tube attached to it. Several hands helped him step out of the tube that he'd been put into after Vahlen had prepped him for genetic modification.

His eyes adjusted better after a half-minute, and with the light now dimmer, he looked down on his arms to see two yellow tubes attached to an implant just below his shoulder. Vahlen and another scientist came up and unplugged the tubes from her arms. "How are you feeling?" Vahlen asked as she looked him over.

"Everything is bright," the Commander answered, still closing his eyes closed for the moment. "But other than that, I'm fine. Do you have some clothes?"

Aside from some underwear, Vahlen had ordered him strip everything off before beginning the genetic modification, and as the sensations came back to him, he realized his was covered with a sappy, yellowish substance which he assumed was MELD residue. "Spray him down!" Vahlen called.

"Ah, where-" The Commander began, not wanting to get sprayed in the face, but was cut off when two streams of water hit him from the sides. He just sighed and let them methodically wash the residue off him which flowed into a drain on the floor.

Once the water stopped, he shook his head and opened his eyes. He could tell Vahlen was in front of him, but was blurry and out of focus. Sort of what he expected if he needed glasses. The light was no longer piercing, but this wasn't a good start. "Everything is blurry," he told her, keeping his tone neutral.

"That's normal," she assured him, handing him a towel which he began using to dry himself off. "Your eyes will need some time to adjust."

"I'll hold you to that," he muttered. Rolling his shoulders, testing out the rest of his body. Now that he was a bit more conscious, he noticed a drastic difference in how he actually felt. He felt unmistakably stronger, but his reflexes also seemed much faster, even in his state his movements felts much smoother and he was used to. He'd never been clumsy, but he knew his strengths and agility wasn't one of them.

Ah.His vision suddenly became clear for a split second, before going back to blurriness. "I think it's adjusting," he told Vahlen. "But I feel better now, stronger."

"Your pupils are extremely dilated," Vahlen noted, as she handed him a pile of clothes. "Have you tried looking far away?"

Hmm, well he had nothing else to test at the moment, and looked across the room. He blinked in surprise and he saw the far door as clearly as if it was right in front of him. There were a list of regulations beside the door and to his amazement, he could read them as clearly as if he was standing in front of it.

It seemed to be that his vision more or less "zoomed" to wherever he wanted to see. Since there was no other way he could read the list as clearly as he did. "Your list at the door has twenty-one listings, yes?" He asked, just to be sure.

He could see her blink and hear the excitement in her voice. "Yes, you can read that?"

"I can," he answered, looking at the list. "Rule fifteen covers proper handling of lab specimens, right?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed. "It worked!"

He looked back at her, and consciously tried to focus in on her. His vision blurred, and finally focused in on her and he could see her clearly. He'd thought his vision before was good, but this had to be beyond 20/20 vision because he could see details about Vahlen he'd never noticed before.

Frayed threads on her uniform, single hairs out of place, minute expressions so tiny they would be imperceptible to anyone with normal vision. It was like living in 720p your whole life and suddenly being upgraded to 1080p. "This is amazing," he muttered, looking around the rest of the lab. "I can see everything."

The three scientists to the right that had helped Vahlen exchanged ecstatic looks and gave each other high-fives and satisfied smiles and hugs. To the left stood Zhang, Bradford and Van Doorn and Shen, who politely applauded Vahlen who looked at the Commander with a large genuine smile on her face.

"Congratulations, Vahlen," Shen complemented, walking up to her. "I couldn't have done it better."

"You've changed the way war will be waged," Van Doorn added, while the Commander got dressed with the clothes Vahlen had given him. "Human super-soldiers have been envisioned since the beginning of warfare, but you've actually done it. You deserve recognition."

"Let me get a scan quickly, Commander," one of the scientists said, coming up with a tablet which she held up to his body. "We need to confirm the secondary heart is working."

The Commander nodded, and fiddled with the attachment on his arm. "Is this coming off?"

"No," Vahlen told him, shaking her head. "We'll need it in case you need additional treatment or want to genetically modify you more."

"Fair enough," the Commander acknowledged. If this was the only price he had to pay, if seemed more than worth it, and it wouldn't really hinder him in the first place.

"Everything is working fine," the scientist told Vahlen. "Both hearts are in sync."

"Excellent!" Vahlen stated. "Now, one more test. Commander?"

He smiled and looked around. What would be an appropriate test? The enhanced muscle density was something he wanted to push the limits of. He'd seen a man jump at least ten feet high, so…hmm…

He looked up at the beams at the top of the high-ceilinged lab. He estimated they were at least fifteen or twenty feet high. Perfect. "Let's test this out," he told Vahlen and walked out roughly under a beam, then looked up, bent his knees, coiling up like a spring.

Then jumped.

He sped through the air, within a few seconds the beam was in front of him and he grasped the beam and hung from it. A childlike feeling of wonder filled him and he laughed as he looked down at everyone under him, laughing in sheer disbelief and joy that this was even possible.

He was also holding himself up with little energy, even less that what it had taken him to initially jump up here. Alright, now was the main test. But Vahlen's work had allowed him to jump this high, give him incredible vision and another heart. Thus he felt no fear when he let go and dropped.

He sped towards the ground and hit it with a thud, perfectly upright, the impact barely worse than what he'd felt when dropping a couple of feet before his enhancement. He raised a fist and whooped in joy as he approached the group who was cheering and applauding. He hadn't felt this way in years.

Fun. There was no other word to describe jumping twenty feet in the air and dropping like a feather. "That was amazing," he told Vahlen, pulling her into a hug which she returned enthusiastically. "Thank you."

"We've done it," Vahlen said into his shoulder. "It worked. It was worth it."

"That we did," he told her, stepping back and facing them all. "This is a major achievement, no question about that. But the war is by no means won." He paused.

"Yet."

He clasped his hands behind his back. "But this will enable us to face the alien threat and annihilate it once in for all. We have the technology at our disposal and it's time to take full advantage of it."

He nodded towards Bradford. "You've received my list of candidates for genetic modification. Schedule times for me to meet with them. Shun as well, I need to resolve that issue now. Begin compiling a list of viable veterans for MEC conversion. It's time we ramp up this war to the next level."

They all saluted. "It will be done," Bradford assured him.

The Commander nodded at him. "Then let's get to work."

---

The Citadel, Office of the Commander

He was feeling pretty good at the moment. There was little that could happen that would ruin this day, which he knew he was jeopardizing just by thinking it. But things hadn't turned out this well for…well, a long time. All that would really cap off this day would be this issue with Shun be sorted out without issue.

Luckily, she'd responded quickly and was actually waiting outside now. He opened the door and the Chinese agent stepped through in her XCOM fatigues, her expression apparently neutral and the Commander wouldn't have been able to tell what she was thinking, had he had the sight of a normal human.

The minute twitches, pupil fluctuations, and subtle twitching of her fingers seemed to indicate she was either nervous about this, or apprehensive. "Specialist Anwei," he greeted cordially, indicating the seat across from him.

She took it, keeping her hands on her lap. "Commander," she greeting, her voice as neutral as her face tried to be. "What can I do for you?"

"No need to be nervous," he told her. "You're not in trouble."

He saw the faintest flash of relief cross her face. "That's good to know."

He gave a faint grin. "Why would you be concerned about that?"

She frowned. "Permission to speak freely?"

The Commander sighed, but gave an answer. "Just consider that a given, go ahead."

Shun hesitated. "I'd think the answer would be fairly obvious, Commander. I'm not blind to my position. I come from China's Intelligence agency, you are American, and are naturally suspicious of my people, not to mention Chinese and XCOM relations aren't the best, so I've heard."

"Perceptive," the Commander nodded. "I found it interesting that the Chinese neglected to mention specifics of your work in the file they provided me."

Shun blinked, and she seemed genuinely confused. "I do not understand? What was incomplete?"

"The report specified your work in counter-terrorism," the Commander answered, handing her a tablet with the report the Chinese had sent. "But I think they neglected to mention your other work against the Triad."

Shun's expression darkened as she read it. "Why?" She wondered out loud. "That…that was the majority of my work. Were they not satisfied with me?"

"I have suspicions," the Commander told her. "But I would like you to guess why the Chinese would feel the need to strike that from your file."

"Perhaps they thought it would cause trouble?" She wondered, sounding lost and her voice toneless. "But even that doesn't make sense. How could my work cause trouble?"

"You're right," the Commander told her, and her head snapped up and she frowned. "Causing trouble is the reason I believe those particular details were struck. But not for the reasons you think. If any trouble will be caused, you will determine the extent of it."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Explain?"

"You spent a good portion of your time hunting the Triad," the Commander repeated. "The short version is that Shaojie Zhang is the Director of XCOM Intelligence."

Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. "What?"

"I think it's self-explanatory," the Commander answered, raising a hand. "Before your accusations, I would like to explain how he came to be here. He contacted the Council and offered to give them an alien device in exchange for protection from the Triad. XCOM extracted him and he followed through on his end of the deal. In addition to the alien device, he also provided everything he had on the Triad. I believe you are familiar with that part of the story."

"I knew it," Shun muttered.

"The Council attempted to back out of the deal," the Commander continued. "After all, he was nothing but a criminal. I ignored the Council and allowed him into XCOM, my reasoning was that we had offered him protection and I follow through on my deals. The second reason is that he has extensive espionage experience and we needed everyone we can to fight against the aliens."

"But…him?" Shun demanded. "Was there no one else?"

"There were likely other options, but I have neither the time, nor resources to find them all," the Commander answered, his tone turning harder. "We are in a war for our survival. That means working with people who otherwise not be considered. Zhang has performed exceptionally for us, and was the reason Shanghai is not reduced to rubble today."

"Did they know about this?" Shun demanded. "Did the Chinese know he was here?"

"The Council knows Zhang is still with us," the Commander shrugged. "China is on the Council, so at least a few people know. I cannot speak for your superiors, but based on the fact that you were chosen, and essential elements of your past were erased, I would assume they did know."

"Why?" She wondered. "What could they gain from this?"

"You noted XCOM and Chinese relations are strained," the Commander told her. "That is not incorrect. I can only assume that they meant you to find out from a source other than me and likely cause issue, publicly or otherwise."

"They used me as a pawn," she hissed, now seeming to grow angry. "I was not sent here to play politics. I was sent to defend my country and our planet. They told me that!"

The Commander felt a sense of vindication at that. Provided that she wasn't faking this, and it didn't appear so, this attempt by the Chinese to sow dissent in the ranks was going to backfire spectacularly. "I am the same way, Specialist Anwei. Which is why I need to know if this is going to cause issues. If you can work with XCOM, possibly with Zhang himself, without issues, then things will be fine. But if this will be a problem, I will ensure you return to China safely with my recommendation."

She pursed her lips. "Zhang is a deplorable man who deserves to answer for his crimes. That will not change, but we were both manipulated here. I will not give them the satisfaction of disrupting XCOM. You will have no issues with me."

The Commander gave one firm nod. "Good. That's all I wanted to discuss."

She stood, inclining her head gratefully as she gave his salute. "I thank you for telling me this, Commander. Most would have covered it up or removed me. You can rely on my loyalty. Earth comes before country."

A sentiment that was sadly lacking with certain people. "I want nothing more," he promised.

She seemed satisfied and walked out of the door and as the door hissed open, Carmelita walked in, giving Shun a look of surprise as she walked by. Perfect timing. "Am I interrupting anything, Commander?" She asked, looked at him curiously.

"I just finished," he assured her. "Take a seat."

She did. "What do you need, Commander?"

He handed her his tablet. "I spoke to you about experimental programs a while ago. We now are ready to proceed with them, if you're willing."

She handed it back immediately. "I'm in. Whatever you need."

He blinked. While he was sure she would accept, he didn't think it would be that quickly. "Just like that? No questions?"

"Your goal is to kill aliens," Carmelita stated coldly, firmly. Her eyes as hard as ice. "You have proven that time and time again. That is my purpose now, whatever will be required to eradicate the aliens is something I will do willingly, no matter what."

"In that case, you'll still need to indicate the extent of the genetic modifications you want," the Commander said. "Then you will be altered within the next few days. You will be a part of the next phase of human warfare, faster, better and stronger than any soldier before you."

Carmelita marked several spots on the tablet. "I look forward to it. I mean what I said, Commander. Whatever you need, I will do."

The Commander took the tablet back. "You have my respect, Carmelita. You'll be called in within a couple days."

Carmelita stood and saluted. "Thank you, Commander. I look forward to it."