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.

31. Alien Base Assault: Sectoid Hive

Alien Base Assault: Sectoid Hive

---

The Citadel, Barracks

The Commander had considered the best way to deal with the distribution of the knowledge that "Soran" was a spy, but had finally decided the best way was the most direct. He'd initially thought that letting the information get out on its own would be sufficient, but then realized that way might lead to important details being distorted until what was being shared wasn't true at all.

With that in mind, after Patricia had put together a list of soldiers for the assault, he'd ordered them to assemble in the Barracks and just planned on giving them some basic facts. "Soran" was an alien, had turned himself in, and had provided them with the location of an alien base. The details about the aliens themselves would be restricted until they could they knew what they were going to do with it.

He'd declared it informal, and the soldiers knew at this point that he meant it. Not that he'd been overly concerned they'd take advantage of that; in the barracks now there were no soldiers that unprofessionally dressed. All of them wore the plain XCOM fatigues at least; only the soldiers selected for the assault were geared up and ready to go. At this point, few of them aside Patricia knew the full, or even partial extent of what was going on, but there had undoubtedly been speculation.

Still, he hated speeches like this and didn't know how best to start it, so he opted for the direct approach. "I've asked you to assemble here to ensure that I am the first person you hear this from. This is one rumor that cannot go unconfirmed." He paused. "The former XCOM soldier known as Soran Kakusa has turned himself in as an alien spy."

There was a barrage of gasps, sharp intakes of breath, widened eyes and looks of surprise and shock from the soldiers gathered across the room. They refrained from quietly conversing with their neighbors, but just from their expressions and body language he could tell they wanted answers. "I'll stress that it was voluntary," he repeated. "And because of this he has revealed to us a great deal about the aliens themselves, of which the important parts of which will be compiled and distributed. But what immediately concerns us now is that we have the location of an alien base established on Earth."

He inclined his head to Patricia who was standing to his side. "Overseer Trask has chosen the team for this assault, which will commence once I've finished here. As of right now, the alien spy is safely in captivity and his ultimate fate is still being determined. He has expressed a willingness to assist our operation, and we will be utilizing his knowledge of alien technology, weaponry and tactics as safely as we can, starting with this assault." His gaze swept across the room. "I know several of you were friends with him, so I will say that it is not your fault for not noticing. There are people to blame, but you are not among that number. However, we are now taking steps to ensure that no other alien spies are within our ranks. Starting now, Vahlen will be conducting blood and DNA tests on everyone within the Citadel, including me."

He gave them his salute. "That is all." He looked to Patricia. "Prepare your team for deployment. The rest of you, dismissed."

A low wave of dialogue began immediately after that and Patricia stepped forward. "Thunder Team!" She shouted. "Load up and converge in the hanger now!"

There were several shouts of "Yes Overseer!" and all the armored soldiers began moving towards the front and his job done, the Commander turned away and began walking up to the Situation Room. He clicked his earpiece. "Van Doorn?"

"Here."

"Have Nartha brought up now, ensure he's restrained effectively, and tell everyone else the operation is about to start."

He heard the nod in Van Doorn's voice. "Will do, Commander. See you up here."

---

The Citadel, Holding Cells

At least they'd moved him out of that containment module.

Nartha didn't know if Vahlen had deliberately designed the module to be as uncomfortable as possible for non-human life, but he'd been unable to sit still or focus completely during that entire interrogation. Actually, knowing Vahlen, it was very possible she'd deliberately set the atmosphere or conditions in the module to specifically make him uncomfortable. He knew XCOM had captured Vitakara agents before, and likely had placed several of them in the same module.

Still, he could at least feel some relief at not having to hide who he was anymore. After that conversation, the fear of execution had died down somewhat. He no longer expected that to happen to him, but the question now was what would happen to him.

Despite his offer to the Commander, he doubted he would ever wear the XCOM armor again, and he didn't blame them in the slightest. At the very least he expected to be questioned again individually. Zhang would probably want to know the inner workings of the Zararch; Vahlen, the biology and history of the various species; Shen, maybe on Ethereal, Sectoid and Vitakara tech, for what little he actually knew.

But the important parts he'd condensed to the Commander and now everything relied upon what he did with that data. At least he'd sent some false data to the Zar'Chon before deciding to turn himself in, so he had some time before they suspected his death or betrayal. It wasn't inconceivable that the Commander or Zhang would use him to funnel bad intel to the Zararch, though they had to know that would only work a few times before they caught on.

He did wonder how his friends would react, even though they likely would consider him one no longer. He suspected not very well; it was traditionally accepted that anyone, regardless of species, wouldn't exactly cope well when learning that someone they'd become friends with was all a lie. He wondered if any of them would come speak to him, should they even be allowed.

The door to the cell abruptly swung open and Nartha looked up, assuming a neutral expression. Two armored and helmeted XCOM soldiers he didn't recognize walked in. "Up," the taller one ordered, his armor striped with navy blue on the chest plate and legs. Nartha complied and presented his hands.

"Other way," the smaller soldier, a woman, corrected as she motioned him to turn around. Made sense, binding him from the back was smarter. He felt the cool binders snap on and turned around to face them once more.

"May I ask where I'm going?" Nartha finally said as they began escorting him out of the cells.

"To the Commander, on his orders," the woman answered, her own tone tight. "You apparently wanted to help. I guess we'll see how true that is."

Really. Hmm, now he had an idea of why he was being escorted up. The Commander likely wouldn't waste time after he'd revealed the Sectoid Hive, and since he was the only alien with knowledge of how they operated, it would make sense for the Commander to exploit his knowledge. This reinforced his decision to trust the Commander with this; he was fortunately acting exactly like he hoped he would.

"Why did you do it?" The man asked as they walked, his tone more accusation than anything. However, Nartha wasn't quite sure how he should answer. They could be asking why he'd worked against them, or asking why he'd turned himself in. Those had very different answers.

"Do what?" He finally asked.

"Give yourself up," he clarified, shooting him a helmeted glance. "Traitors generally don't do that."

Nartha shrugged. "Because your species doesn't deserve a fate worse than mine…and because I believe XCOM has a chance to win. A slight one, but more than has existed before."

"How noble," the woman commented sarcastically.

"No." Nartha shook his head. "Not that."

"Hmm," the man muttered as they walked, but kept silent as they escorted him up to the Situation Room. The door hissed open and they stepped inside. Every one of the Commander's inner circle was there. Zhang, Van Doorn, Shen, Vahlen, all crowded around a holotable. The Commander was in the center, behind the holotable, looked up and greeted him with a nod.

The rest of them looked at him with expressions ranging from neutrality to disgust. Bradford and Van Doorn were on the latter half, but Nartha wasn't entirely worried about them. Knowing where he stood was knowledge in it of itself. Vahlen and Zhang were much harder to read, though he suspected Zhang wanted to bleed him for intel while Vahlen would be more interested in dissecting him.

"Here he is," the woman stated. "Orders?"

"Thank you," the Commander said, motioning to the door. "Dismissed. We can handle him."

The soldiers saluted and stepped back as they exited the room. After the door slid shut, Bradford sighed. "You might as well get over here and make yourself useful," Nartha complied and began walking over, figuring best not to push his luck in asking the binders be removed. "Be careful," Bradford warned harshly, steel in his voice. "One false move and-"

"I'm well aware how this works," Nartha retorted wearily as he reached the holotable, standing opposite the Commander. "Though I doubt you would be the one to kill me. Director Zhang would likely beat you to it."

"Likely," Zhang agreed as emotionlessly as ever, as he eyed the alien dispassionately.

"Now that we've established the obvious, let's get to work," the Commander interrupted, looking at all of them in the eyes. "You wanted to make yourself useful, Nartha. I want to see just how true that is."

"Provided I have the knowledge, I will tell you what I know," Nartha promised.

"Good." The Commander pressed a button and the holotable lit up and displayed a map of the world. "I've just authorized a strike on the alien base you revealed to me. Two squads and Myra are headed there now."

As he'd suspected. He wondered if that would be enough. That number of XCOM soldiers, along with Myra, would likely be able to deal with the forces inside, though likely not without casualties. But then again, the danger here wasn't the sectoids.

"I'm glad to hear you're acting so quickly," Nartha complemented, inclining his head.

"Thank you so very much," the Commander commented sarcastically. "But we're entering uncharted territory here. We're likely going to encounter things we don't understand, so to prevent unnecessary casualties or difficulty, I need to know how extensive your knowledge is of this alien base."

Nartha paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts before speaking carefully. Half these people likely wanted him dead, so it would be best to make himself as useful as possible without antagonizing them anymore. "I do not know this specific base…but I have a pretty good idea of what you'll find."

"Enlighten us," Van Doorn ordered coldly.

Nartha recalled what he knew of the Sectoids. "The base is likely going to be staffed with mostly sectoids, as should be obvious," he started, shifting in place. "The majority will likely not be the pilots you've encountered. They'll be specialized for labs and experimentation."

Shen raised an eyebrow. "Pilots?"

Ah, right. They didn't know. "Yes, the majority of the sectoids XCOM has fought have been of the pilot variety. Even those you've encountered on abductions. They make poor soldiers, but they are the most expendable of the species. Combat-oriented sectoids are generally not created without a major cause."

"Created," Vahlen noted. "You mean cloned?"

"Grown," Nartha corrected her, maintaining eye contact. "And yes, each sectoid variant is grown from a pre-created template. Pilots, scientists, engineers, leaders, all are specifically designed and created for one specific purpose."

She frowned. "They couldn't have always been like this, yes?"

"I'll get to that in a moment," Nartha said, looking back at the Commander. "But as to the rest, I would expect mechtoids and outsiders for the rest of the armed forces. But those aren't what you should be worried about."

"And what is that?" Shen asked.

"Two things," Nartha said, grimacing as he continued. "The sectoids will be performing…experiments on your species. Likely on others as well, but primarily your own. Should they deem it necessary, they may release their test subjects against you. I cannot predict what that will entail, though."

"I doubt those will cause too much of a problem," the Commander said, pursing his lips. "Especially since there might be chance they turn against the sectoids."

Nartha frowned. "The sectoids have likely psionically influenced their test subjects. Even if they are passive, I find it difficult to believe they'd attack their sectoid masters."

"What is the second thing?" Zhang demanded neutrally.

"A base this important will likely be under the control of a Hive Commander," Nartha revealed, shivering at the thought of those creatures. "You asked about the sectoids before they turned to genetic modification, Vahlen. A Hive Commander is one of the sectoids from before they turned to cloning completely. I don't know much about their history, but from what the Zararch have learned, the sectoids lived in a caste system of sorts, and one day the ruling class of sectoids decided to perfect the species as they saw fit. A goal the Ethereals helped them fulfill. Those ruling sectoids are now the Hive Commanders."

Nartha paused. "Sectoids don't think like we do. They operate in a pseudo-hive-mind. Individuals can perform basic functions on their own, but are essentially useless and vulnerable without guidance or support from nearby sectoids. They communicate telepathically with each other and can psionically fortify and support another sectoid if needed."

"And I suppose a Hive Commander controls the hive-mind?" Vahlen guessed, actually sounding curious. "Or gives the instructions?"

Nartha snorted. "If only that were it. A Hive Commander is much more dangerous than a simple overmind. They can think for themselves, are highly intelligent thanks to genetically modifying their minds, and are powerful psionics."

"Define 'powerful'," Bradford suggested.

"Powerful enough that your soldiers should be extremely wary," Nartha cautioned. "I've never met a Hive Commander, but if what I've been told is accurate, the Hive Commander will begin toying with your soldiers as soon as it knows they're there. Hallucinations, irrationality, suicide, even mind control. Those are real dangers when facing a Hive Commander, and one who can telepathically issue commands to its entire defense force."

"I suppose it's lucky we've got a psion of our own," Van Doorn commented. "Can Patricia…shield soldiers from the potential effects?"

"She probably could," Nartha answered, trying to explain as carefully as possible. "But unfortunately I'm not a psionic, and do not know how to even begin such a process. But the good news is that she'll likely sense if she's being psionically influenced."

"What about that trick you used?" The Commander asked, straightening up and crossing his arms.

"Even if the soldiers could master it immediately after I told them, it wouldn't do anything," Nartha explained. "That only works if the psionic doesn't know you're there. Not to mention the Hive Commander would not even be hindered by such a simple trick. These creatures are powerful, Commander. You can't underestimate them."

"We won't," the Commander promised, looking down at the holotable. "Thunder Team is almost at the coordinates. Once we land we'll be receiving armor cam footage. You'll watch it and tell us anything out of the ordinary or answer questions we have. Clear?"

Nartha nodded. "Perfectly, Commander."

"Good," he nodded. "Time to see what the sectoids are doing."

---

Skyranger 1, En route to Alien Base coordinates

"I can't believe he was…one of them…" Samuel muttered quietly as they sped across the sky. He was still clearly unable to state the obvious. All of them were still processing the Commander's update, as well as questioning…well, a lot of things.

"You heard the Commander," Alexei said, resting his arms on his legs as he leaned forward. "We can't blame ourselves for that. Seriously. He looked perfectly human."

"Maybe, but it could have been far worse," Samuel protested. "If something had happened…"

"But it didn't," Creed finally said, leaning back into the skyranger seat. "I don't know why, but…he did surrender."

Something Patricia had been thinking about since the revelation. She'd been there when Soran, or Nartha as he'd called himself and he'd seemed to be telling the truth when he'd explained himself. Although she wasn't sure how much she should say now, since the Commander likely had his own plans to distribute the information. Creed had asked for details and she'd just shook her head and told him she wasn't authorized.

She'd been a little blindsided by the sudden promotion, but flattered as well, though it was subdued after everything that had happened. The Commander had promised to bring her up to speed on the higher levels of XCOM after she returned from the assault. Even with everything going on, she was still cautiously excited to learn about the stuff that the soldiers didn't know. The Commander was one of the most transparent military leaders she'd ever known, but every command had secrets that were kept from the regular soldiers.

When she'd been initially transferred to XCOM, she hadn't expected…well, anything like this. Definitely not becoming psionic and certainly not becoming part of the Commander's Internal Council. She was good at her job, yes, but she'd never thought, or hoped, to be promoted so high. She'd asked if she'd be restricted from combat missions and the Commander had assured her that she would not be.

A relief, since she might have refused if that was a condition. This was where she belonged, and from how sincere the Commander had been when telling her that, as well as his emotions and body language, she believed he held the same opinion about himself. In his case, it was understandable. The Commander couldn't be risked, and she wondered how hard he'd fought to go on the Mercado Estate assault.

Although, knowing how he worked, he'd probably just said he was going and that was that.

She suddenly felt unreasonably tight and looked down at her hands to see them clutched into fists. She then realized that she was physically reacting to what everyone here was feeling. Tense, tight, on edge. Not really unexpected, and it varied from soldier to soldier. The newer ones, Fakhr, Maria, Lautaro, they were much less intense than the ones who'd actually known and worked with Nartha.

They were still talking, and she'd lost track of the conversation but knew that it needed to end before they got too much farther. They needed to be completely focused on what she knew would be a hard fight. "He did it because he thinks we have a chance."

They all looked at her.

"What?" Alexei asked.

"Why he turned himself in," she said wearily. "You wondered, and that's a reason why. It also helped that the propaganda he'd been told about humans didn't match from what he saw with us."

"How do you know?" Samuel demanded, his helmet not hiding the intensity she felt from him.

"I was there when he was questioned," Patricia said. "We need to focus now. We can discuss or worry about this later. We can't let this distract us, otherwise that's going to get us hurt or killed. Got it?"

She felt some resignation from all of them, even as they nodded, but they did relax a little which she was grateful for. She rested her hand on the cylinder on her belt which contained the outsider shard. Nartha had said that the signature it emanated would be essentially an all-clear signal which would open the door and let them enter the base.

"This is the Commander to Thunder Team," the Commander said, his voice back to the professional they knew well. "You're close to the coordinates, and once inside the alien base, you will be entering uncharted territory."

"What should we expect?" Carmelita asked from the second skyranger.

"I've decided to use Soran to provide us information on what we might find," the Commander said. All of them looked at each other, and Patricia felt a wave of distrust ripple through the skyranger. Personally, she was glad he was using Nartha. He undoubtedly knew what they'd find better than them. "This base is under the control of the sectoids. So expect mostly sectoids, mechtoids and outsiders."

"But your greatest concern will be what Soran has designated as the 'Hive Commander,'" Vahlen interjected. Interesting. Patricia couldn't remember her ever observing combat operations before. "From his descriptions, it's an old and psionically powerful sectoid. Much more so than any encountered previously. We are unsure of it's actual power, but there is a good chance that it will try to psionically influence or control you. Be wary and careful, because the thoughts you have might not be yours."

As if on command, all of the soldiers in the skyranger turned to look at her. "Is that possible, Overseer?" Maria asked, her voice tight. The Ukrainian was still getting used to everything, but she'd so far been very composed despite how hectic things had been since she'd arrived. Mind control had probably not something she'd had to worry about in the Berkut.

"Mind control? Yes, I know it is," Patricia said softly. "I've done it before, and if this Hive Commander is as powerful as me, it can probably do the same thing."

"I don't suppose there's a way to block it?" Afif asked, clasping his hands together. "Or at least mitigate it?"

"Not that I know of," Patricia shook her head. "The only thing I can suggest is keeping the possibility in the back of your mind. Mind manipulation is insidious and is almost unstoppable, especially if you don't realize it," Patricia flexed her hands. "I might be able to sense it if one of you is being influenced…but I don't know if that will work. We have to watch each other, make sure we're all acting normally."

"A good plan," the Commander agreed. "Once you get the door open, you'll likely drop into a hanger of sorts. It's also possible it's being used as a storage area as well. Expect immediate resistance and secure the base."

"What about captives?" James asked.

"Keep all possible captives in their cells," the Commander ordered. "Do not release any until the base is clear. We don't know what the sectoids have done to them, and it's highly possible that they're compromised. Do not listen to anything they say, no matter how much they plead."

"I can always verify to make sure," Patricia suggested. "I might be able to sense psionic tampering. I know what to look for."

"Do that if they have information," the Commander amended. "But do not free them. Those orders stand. Understood?"

"Yes, Commander," Patricia confirmed.

"Good. I will keep updating you based on new information," the Commander finished. "Good luck. Citadel Commander, out."

"This is Big Sky to Thunder Team," Big Sky said over the comms. "We're approaching the LZ now. Fallen Sky, maintain flight until the hanger doors are open. Overseer Trask will secure the initial area."

"Copy, Big Sky," Fallen Sky confirmed. "Maintaining flight."

"Prepare to deploy!" Patricia ordered, standing up and heading to the end of the skyranger. "Weapons at the ready in case they have defenses!"

"Yes, Overseer!" They shouted and she felt their initial tenseness, shock and confusion fade away as determination, resolve and fury set in. They were ready to take revenge for the thousands of humans who'd died or been abducted. Today would be another day they struck a blow to the aliens, one they wouldn't forget.

The altitude fell and the skyranger shook as it landed on the ground. The ramp descended with a hiss onto the sandy dunes. "Deploy!" She ordered. "Weapons ready!"

They charged out with their weapons raised onto the desolate and abandoned desert. Sand dunes extended as far as she could see, except for one oddly flat square area. She motioned them forward, and they took cautious steps towards that direction. She had them surround where the square was and she cautiously stepped onto it and slammed her foot down.

A muffled clang echoed up to her and she looked up and nodded at them. "This is it. Search for the hidden sensor." They all nodded and quickly scoured the nearby area. After a few minutes of searching Alexei waved her over and motioned for her to kneel down and look at a dull gray device he'd uncovered.

It was unremarkable, plain, and didn't have any visible markings, panels or buttons. It was a cylinder that seemed buried in the ground which only extended a foot or so up. Easily covered and protected. It might just be a sensor, so she pulled out the outsider shard which glowed a faint orange, encased in whatever containment field Vahlen had made.

Here goes nothing. She waved it over the device and waited. Nothing happened at first, but a half-minute later, the flat area that had seemingly been desert opened up. Two panels slid into the sides, sand spilling down into the hidden base. Patricia looked down into the dark abyss, and saw faint pulsing lights on the bottom.

"Base is open," she confirmed. "We're ready to enter."

"Copy that, Overseer," Fallen Sky said. "Commencing deployment now. Grab onto the ropes once the second team is inside."

"Will do," Patricia agreed as the skyranger became visible and hovered over the opening. "Let's get to work."

---

Sectoid Hive, Hangar Entrance

Patricia slid down the rope and landed on the ground with a soft thud. She quickly looked over the soldiers behind her and did a quick head count. Everyone was here, and Myra towered over everyone in the back. Good. Time to move out.

Now she turned around and took a quick look at her surroundings. Already she was reminded of the Dreadnought. The walls were the shimmering alien metal, and the faint pulsing that she remembered was stronger than she'd ever felt before. It wasn't lit well, and the only purplish lights came from some small ones attached to the wall, which also helped brighten the room as the metal reflected it.

Directly and front of them was a multi-colored shimmering shield, like the ones on the UFOs and Dreadnought. It was about the size of a typical garage door, but would be easily big enough for all of them to get through. She sincerely hoped that the sectoids weren't waiting for them on the other side, since there was almost no cover before the entrance and she couldn't see beyond it.

"Maria, Samuel, get into position on the corners," she ordered, weapon raised as they approached the entrance. Her reasoning being that their gunners would be able to provide covering fire for the rest of them to get into position.

"Copy, Overseer," Samuel confirmed as he took position on the left, and Maria on the right.

"Sarah, James, Carmelita, get ready to charge in," Patricia added as she let the barrel of her autorifle fall to the ground as she prepared to try and sense what was beyond. "Everyone else do the same. Maria and Samuel will provide covering fire once the door is open. Let me see what's beyond."

As she felt her senses dull as she mentally probed the area, she noted the three assaults going up right before the door and falling to one knee, weapons raised. Creed and Afif stood at each of her sides, protecting her as she worked. The rest of them either took a firm stance or fell to one knee as well, weapons all pointed at the entrance.

She closed her eyes and pushed outward. What immediately hit here was that there were a lot of quiet minds in the next room. Like sleeping…but even quieter. Sleeping people had bursts of activity, usually from dreams, but this was just flat. Human?

No…wait.

She could sense distinct minds now, those that felt nothing like humans. It was less individual minds, and more like one mind with several different points. She nodded to herself in her trance. That would line up with what Nartha had told them, of them communicating telepathically, and with them being clones, it might follow that they had the same thought patterns as well.

She hesitated before trying to get a better read. Sectoids were psionic, so there was a distinct possibility that they would sense her and they'd lose the element of surprise. So instead she just hovered around the immediate area and also noticed a subtle difference between the alien minds. Several were…less active. Psionically active. She could sense the sectoids were psionic, but there were much less so.

Probably Mechtoids, since they'd never seen evidence of psionic activity from them. "There are a lot of sleeping people inside," she muttered in her trance, her voice to her sounding underwater. "I think they're human. There are fifteen sectoids, and I think four mechtoids..." she scowled. "Possibly outsiders, but I can't sense them."

"Understood," Carmelita muttered. "We're ready when you are."

"Wait for it," Patricia cautioned, raising a fist as she formulated her attack. The Mechtoids might not sense her, which meant she might be able to use it. She clutched her fist, as she'd learned it helped with visualizing what she was doing. She charged directly into the mind of one of the quiet alien minds and found herself in what seemed to be shifting, shimmering purple ball.

She grimaced as the random flashes of the alien language disoriented her, she raised a hand and willed everything to stop. She knew she couldn't begin to understand what was going on in this mind. Inserting commands in English might work, but it would be instantly recognizable and would depend on the mechtoids understanding English to begin with.

No. In this case all she needed was a feeling.

Terror. One simple emotion that overrode everything else. And what was a better motivator than self-preservation? So she focused on one phrase, pushing it again and again until she saw the flashes around her become more intense.

"You are going to die."

"Patricia?" Creed's voice.

She snapped back into the real world with a start. She placed a hand to her head as she readjusted to simply feeling emotions. "What was that?" He asked.

A sudden squeal and the sound of plasma fire suddenly filled the area in the distance. "Our opening," she said, hoisting her autorifle up and aiming at the entrance. "Go in now!"

Maria tapped the multicolored barrier and it dissipated with a static buzz. Carmelita, James and Sarah charged in and Patricia led the charge for the second wave. Fortunately the sectoids were meticulous and highly organized.

Metal boxes were stacked in neat rows in the room, and there was a multitude of symmetrical pillars holding up the dull ceiling. On the far left wall were dozens of pods containing green liquid stacked to the ceiling and on the right everything was empty, and was also where the majority of the sectoids were.

"Covering fire!" Samuel called as he fired towards the compilation of sectoids and mechtoids who scattered instantly. One was hit and fell with a squeal but the rest managed to get into cover. Patricia stormed over to one of the crates and leaned her back against it and peeked out to get a look at the forces they faces before the plasma started raining.

The panicked mechtoid had killed three of the sectoids before being killed itself. Minus the one Samuel had killed, the rest were spreading out and beginning to rain plasma on the XCOM soldiers who were taking cover behind pillars and boxes themselves.

The three remaining mechtoids were spreading out evenly through the room as well, each one seeming to target an area and lock it down with a barrage of plasma lances. No outsiders, not yet thankfully.

"Moving up!" Maria yelled.

"Covering fire out!" Galia confirmed as she laid down fire on some sectoids which allowed Maria to get to a pillar on the far right. Unlike the previous times, Galia was without Aluma since Patricia hadn't wanted to risk the dog unnecessarily since they had no idea how the alien base affected animals.

Patricia swung out of cover and let loose a barrage of gauss fire at the mechtoid closest to her. Several rounds hit with a thud but she immediately fell back as the green plasma flew past her face, far too close for comfort.

"Mordecai! Lock down the right mechtoids!" She ordered as she saw him take the far back position Samuel had been.

"With pleasure," he affirmed as he raised his sniper rifle. "Targeting the weapons."

The bang of his gauss sniper rifle rang out even through the loud fire of the other weapons. The mechtoid cannon attached to its right arm suddenly began leaking green smoke. "Maria! Now!"

Both gunners fired on the weakened mechtoid and this time hit it squarely in the chest and head. The alien mech stumbled back and fell to one mechanical knee. One of the sectoids nearby stopped firing and began consolidating purple energy around it's head.

"Psionics!" She called out. "Take it out!"

"Patricia! We're locked down here!" Lautaro called out from the left. She scowled and looked over to see the majority of the soldiers being locked down by the mechtoids. Myra was getting focused on by the sectoids themselves and was unable to get a good shot.

"Smoke the room!" She ordered, figuring it would allow everyone to move.

"Copy!" Lautaro called and tossed two smoke grenades towards the line of XCOM soldiers. The pink smoke rose around her and she quickly set her helmet to filter it out. Eden tossed several more smoke grenades to the sectoid line which were momentarily hidden by a sudden cloud of pink smoke.

Patricia knew that now was their chance, which meant she had to take one of her own now. She let her autorifle fall to the ground and clenched her fists and she concentrated on the soldiers around her. Time slowed down as her power gathered as she mentally synched her soldiers together, now all of them knew where each sectoid was and what they had to do.

With her directed clairvoyance, all the soldiers acted as one. Carmelita jumped up into the air, propelling herself to the far back of the room behind the mechtoid line. James, Sarah and Alexei each took the opportunity to begin encircling the room, taking flanking positions and immediately began firing.

Myra took advantage of the lull in sectoid fire and charged directly into the sectoid line and raised her left wrist and sprayed out a fine mist against the center of the sectoids who squealed in terror as the cloud touched them. Patricia was somewhat surprised but suddenly gathered what it was from Myra's mind.

Acid.

The rest of the soldiers took better cover and continued firing on the sectoids. The ones enveloped in the acidic cloud squealed and shrieked as they began dissolving into gray and yellow liquid. Myra prepared to unleash another volley but now the mechtoids focused on her and she stumbled back, smoke rising from her armor as a barrage of plasma fire slammed into her.

"Falling back," she informed them as she raised her laser weapon and began firing back. Patricia broke the mind link with them once the pressure in her mind became too unbearable and gritted her teeth as she picked up her autorifle again.

She swung her weapon out again and looked at the mechtoid nearby who which was somehow still alive. But now a transparent, faintly purple shield enveloped it as it shot green gouts of plasma at Maria, preventing any sort of retaliation.

"Outsiders!" Creed called and she looked to the far back where he was pointing.

Four of the orange crystalline aliens walked in, wielding plasma rifles as calmly surveyed the room. Carmelita, who was still firing from the back, was now very exposed.

"Get out of there, Carmelita!" She ordered as she began firing on the shielded mechtoids.

"Yeah," she answered, as she pulled something from her belt. "But not before a parting gift." She tossed a small grenade towards the group of outsiders who began running towards the fight. It exploded with the black symbiote substance, immobilizing two of them. Carmelita took a running leap and jumped back to the safety of XCOM lines.

Ok, that would slow them down for a moment. A shriek and brief explosion caught her attention and she looked towards the middle to see one of the mechtoids explode and fall to the ground, leaking oil and blood. She also noticed that most of the sectoids were dead, and the remaining three were heading behind the outsiders.

"Fakhr! Take out the trapped ones!" She ordered, seeing the outsiders trying to free themselves by shooting the substance with their rifles. "Creed! Eden! Covering fire!"

The two of them began laying down a lethal spread of gauss fire as Fakhr fell to one knee and raised her rocket launcher. "Lining up the shot!" She yelled. "Firing!"

The rocket sped to the two outsiders in a second and lit them up with a brilliant explosion that shook the ground. Fakhr had also managed to get one of the sectoids as well. Fortunately the one who was also providing the psionic shield to the damaged mechtoids as well.

More gauss shots rang out from behind her and she saw that mechtoids fall to the ground, two bullet holes in the head that leaked out golden blood. Mordecai. Excellent. The two living outsiders were apparently realizing they couldn't win and began backing up, still firing their plasma weapons and moving quickly enough so none of the soldiers got a clear shot.

"Don't let them escape!" Patricia called as she charged forward, firing her autorifle towards their general direction. The final mechtoid was severely damaged now and had no idea where to fire, so Myra took the opportunity and charged forward and slammed into the alien mech, which fell onto it's back. She raised her metal foot and slammed it down on the mechtoids head, crushing the metal and flesh with the sound of crumpling steel and squishing.

"Leave them to me!" Carmelita called and leapt towards the outsiders and landed right next to the leftmost one. It turned to deal with her but she unloaded the full contents of her alloy cannon into it's face, shattering the crystal skin that protected it. She kicked the disintegrating body towards the last outsider, throwing it off-balance as she cocked her alloy canon again and fired at the chest.

The outsider, with cracks in the armor, fell to one knee from the force of the blast, and was ultimately killed by one more shot to the head from Carmelita.

The room fell silent.

"Everyone reload," she ordered, not wanting to move until everyone was ready. Once everyone confirmed they were good to go, she motioned Maria and Samuel to take up positions on the far exit and had Creed, Galia and Nazar set up as well in case something else came in.

She looked up to see if the ceilings were clear, and seeing nothing on the bare metal, looked around the room. "Let's see what's here," she ordered. "Iosif, Sarah, let's check the pods." Their Russian battle medic and Canadian scout rushed over to her and they went over to the wall of pods.

Upon closer inspection there were definitely people inside. "I guess this is where they've been taking the abductees," Sarah muttered sadly as she put a hand on one of the pods. "Though not really unexpected."

"No," Patricia agreed. "There must be hundreds in this rooms alone. Stored here until needed."

"I don't see an interface," Iosif said as he knelt down and began feeling the pods over. "Each pod looks self-contained though. They might be alive."

Patricia put a hand on the pod in front of her and concentrated. Yes, they were definitely in some kind of stasis. "They're not dead," she confirmed. "I can sense that much. They don't seem to be aware. It's like a coma."

"For long-term storage," Iosif nodded. "Makes sense. Let's hope there are some records showing how to extract them safely. I don't want to kill any accidentally."

"We'll worry about that later," Patricia said, turning towards the exit leading further into the base. "The important thing is that we've just saved hundreds of lives. But we need to clear the rest of the base first."

"Wait!" James suddenly explained. "Did you hear that?"

All of them fell silent and Patricia didn't hear anything at first, then after a few more seconds the sounds reached her ears. "Crying," she muttered as she walked forward.

"It sounds like babies," Galia added uncertainly. "But that can't be right…"

"The Hive Commander may be trying to unnerve us," Patricia growled as she felt for some sign of psionic tampering.

"I'm not sure of that, Overseer," the Commander interjected. "We're picking it up too. Unless the Hive Commander is influencing us as well, it seems to be real."

Now that was disconcerting. Patricia wasn't exactly sure she wanted to find the source, but they didn't have a choice. If there were children here, they needed to help them. "Form up and let's follow the sound," she ordered, walking up to the exit. "Be wary for a trap."

---

Sectoid Hive, Hallways

The wailing was much more audible now, and it set Patricia on edge.

The hallways were actually fairly open, though there was no cover whatsoever. They were also inexplicably better lit despite there not being any obvious lights. It was essentially a really long tunnel. They'd gone down the right side, since that was where the crying was coming from, and the further they went, the more uncomfortable she felt.

It wasn't just in her head either. All of them felt it; the dull throbbing that had only become more evident once the rush of adrenaline faded. She wondered if it was worse for her because she was psionic and was more sensitive to alien tech. Whatever. She just wished this throbbing in her head would fade.

"Do you really think they have children here?" Nazar asked quietly, his weapon raised as he looked around cautiously.

"Probably," James answered with a shrug. "The aliens didn't discriminate as far as I know."

"I'm more worried about why they're crying," Fakhr added slowly. "I don't think they're being treated well."

"Door ahead," Mordecai noted and Patricia raised a fist.

They all froze and pointed their weapons at it. It was set up exactly like the others; a shimmering multicolor barrier. It was much smaller than the other one, but still large enough for them to get through. Myra might have trouble, though. "Let me see what's there," Patricia said and closed her eyes again as she focused into the nearby room.

And nearly screamed as it felt like a screw was being driven into her skull. She stumbled back into Creed who quickly steadied her. "What happened?" He demanded.

"Pain," she gasped. "I should have felt it earlier. I think this place is interfering with my senses. We need to get in there now."

Carmelita motioned them forward while Patricia gathered herself again, hoisted her autorifle and steadied her weapon toward the center. Fakhr and James were set on the entrance edges and at a nod from her, reached over and popped the barrier.

The reaction from the other room was instantaneous. The twelve or so sectoids in the room looked up from various tables, pods and computers and were immediately met with a hail of gauss and laser fire. Seven were killed outright and the rest scrambled back but barely lasted more than a few more seconds as James, Carmelita and Alexei charged in to finish the job.

Alexei gunned one down in the back. James shredded the leg of one and finished the crawling creature on the ground with another blast. Carmelita leapt in front of the last one and unceremoniously blew it's head to nothing with the alloy cannon. Patricia herself ripped one apart as it tried to flee backwards.

She quickly swept her weapon around looking for more threats, but saw none. "We're clear," she muttered as she looked around. "Everyone in here now."

Patricia led the rest of them inside and she immediately sucked in her breath as she looked around the room. It was slightly smaller in size than the storage area they'd come through, though not by much. On the right side of the room were what appeared to be metal pods of some kind spaced evenly down the room to the end.

There were little table by them, all containing bloody medical instruments. In the middle of the rooms were large square tables, each with backlit top. Also on each was the body of a human. They were clearly dead, but each body had a different part dissected, one an arm, another a leg and so on.

On the other side looked like a bunch of alien lab equipment, including a large computer that she didn't even how to begin operating. Beside it was a strange-looking contraption that she didn't have the faintest initial clue of what it could be. In the far back corners she saw something that looked like pods or cells. But what grabbed her attention in all this was what was covering the walls on the left side of the room.

"God," Galia muttered in horror. "Look at them all."

Set up on the walls were dozens of little transparent glass containers, each one containing a human baby. But these weren't regular, normal or healthy babies. They were abominations; deformed twisted versions of human children. The limbs were disproportionate, had extra digits, or simply lacked them to begin with.

Patricia shivered as she saw a baby with no eyes or mouth. "They're growing them," she whispered. "Us."

"For what, though?" Iosif demanded furiously as he stormed over to the wall, fist clenched. "This is…this is…"

"In case the invasion fails," Creed suggested softly. "Why wouldn't the aliens try to grow their own human soldiers? We're exactly what they want."

Patricia turned back to the entrance. "Myra, watch the outside. We're looking around here for a moment."

"Yes, Overseer."

"Overseer?" Lautaro said hesitantly. "I think you should look at this."

Patricia walked over to where he was and pursed her lips at what she saw. Four glass cells, each containing a human within them. But all of them were different in some way. One had his arms altered so much they looked like hybrids of sectoid and human skins and flesh; another woman's face had been altered so much it no longer seemed human, more like a rodent. One man seemed unaltered, but was just standing up straight, a happy smile on his face as he looked sightlessly beyond her.

"What should we do?" Lautaro asked quietly.

Patricia shook her head. "Nothing we can do right now." Upon closer inspection it seemed that the test subjects were apparently oblivious to anything around them. "Don't disturb them."

"Uh, Overseer," Maria said grimly, walking up. "I've found where the crying was coming from."

Patricia motioned everyone to keep looking around and went over to the far corner were Maria was. She froze when she saw what was at the end, a small square about the height of the tables where the distinct sound of crying was coming from. Steeling herself, she walked forward and after taking a deep breath, looked down.

"Jesus," she breathed in horror. It was much worse than she'd imagined or feared. The hole was filled with…she didn't know how many of those failed human experiments, failures that the aliens had just abandoned.

It was a sight she'd never forget. A mass grave of babies that were filled the pit, the abominations wriggled around in the pit like worms or maggots, still alive, still conscious, and still crying. She felt the sour bile rise in her throat and abruptly turned away. She wasn't an overly disturbed person…but that…that was genuinely horrifying.

"I guess that's what they do when they're finished," Maria muttered in stunned and disgusted tones. "Just throw them in a pit until…"

"They do kill them," Nartha's voice interjected. "But only to use them again."

Patricia wasn't even concerned he was speaking. "Just tell me. I need to know."

That pause must have been deliberate. "Sectoids are a practical species, Patricia. They don't value individuality like you do. Each of them is nothing but a tool and they view others the same way. Those disfigured human babies you found are discarded, but that pit you saw will reduce them to organic matter for the sectoids to use in another experiment."

"Practical," she spat. "Right." She walked over to one of the pods attached to the wall and looked inside. It was designed somewhat like a coffin, if it was metal, more curved and covered the face. In it was a naked human male, or what was left of him. It looked as though they were trying to take out his intestines…

No…

She sucked in her breath as she spotted something she should have earlier. The chest was rising and falling ever so slightly. He was still alive! She quickly pulled out her pistol aimed it at the where the head was under the pod.

"What are you doing?" Iosif gasped running up to her.

"They're still alive!" She spat, pointing at the man. "I'm not going to let them suffer anymore!"

"Maybe we can help them," Iosif suggested. "We're in control now-"

"And would you like to be 'saved' now?" Patricia demanded. "You can't recover from something like this!"

"And what if you're wrong?" He demanded. "Then you've just killed someone out of a misguided sense of mercy!"

"I…" she gritted her teeth as a sharp pain stabbed into her head. "I…Commander, what should I do?"

There was a pause. "Are they conscious?" The Commander asked.

Patricia looked down at the man and focused on his mind. Just the faintest touch was enough for her to whimper and she took a step back. "He can feel everything."

"Then put them out of their misery," he ordered. "We won't learn anything from them."

Patricia raised her pistol and fired and the chest stopped rising. Several of the other soldiers had also walked over to the other pods and repeated the same grim task. As Carmelita, Maria and Mordecai executed the tortured test subjects, she noticed Eden standing over one, her helmet off and aiming her pistol at the test subject.

Patricia frowned and walked over to her, as she'd just been standing there, not moving for nearly half a minute. As she got closer she got worried as she saw tears on her face. Oh, not good. Not now. "Hey," she demanded, trying to keep calm. "Get it together, Eden. We're going to make them pay."

"What's the point?" Eden muttered tonelessly, her eyes never looking away from the body. "One base. One alien. They won't stop. They'll just keep coming."

Now Patricia was really concerned. "Don't talk like that-"

"You don't get it," Eden interrupted in the same toneless voice, her arm falling to her side. "There's only one way out for us."

Patricia's eyes widened and she moved to stop her but was hit with a sudden sharp pain in her head. No…this wasn't normal. She had to stop it, she could sense it now!

"I'll see you soon, sister," Eden said, raising the pistol again, this time under her chin.

"Stop her!" Patricia shouted as the pain intensified, she heard soldiers running her way. "She's-"

Bang.

The pain faded and Patricia shakily righted herself and looked at…Eden's body. She looked up at Nazar and Galia who stood over it. They'd failed to stop her. "Fuck!" She growled, storming to them. "Why didn't anyone stop her? Why was I the only one who saw it?!"

"I did see it!" Galia shouted back. "But I thought you'd handle it…" her voice trailed off. "I…I was sure you'd handle it."

Patricia went cold as she got what Galia was getting at. She looked around the room and all the soldiers echoed the same shock she felt. "What happened?" The Commander demanded.

"I think," Patricia swallowed as she looked around the room. "I think the Hive Commander forced Eden to kill herself. I felt some psionic influence on her and the instant I did…well, I was in pain. I think it also slowed down everyone else, delaying their reaction until it was too late."

"I didn't notice anything," Carmelita muttered in worry. "I felt…normal. Just…something in me said you could handle it."

Well, this wasn't good. Not a bit. Ignoring the fact they were now down one soldier, the possibility that it could happen to any of them without them knowing was even worse. "We need to keep moving," she said, moving to the center of the room. "We need to be focused. If we're focused, maybe-"

"Mordecai! What are you doing?!" Samuel yelled and she immediately spun around to see Mordecai sticking his left arm into some kind of contraption that was not intended for a human arm.

"Just…getting a closer look," he said in the same listless tone Eden had used a couple minutes ago. She immediately starched out and sensed the psionic manipulation at work.

"It's the Hive Commander!" She shouted as she ran towards him.

He shook his head briefly. "Wh-oh, shi-"

He screamed as the contraption closed in on itself, crushing the arm instantly with a crunch. "It's pulling me in," he shouted, his voice echoing in pain as the arm was slowly pulled forward. "Cut it off!"

"On it!" Iosif yelled, running forward, his hand already holding the laser pistol. He took a brief second to aim and fired a sustained beam aimed downward. Another second later it cleanly sliced through the arm, just above the elbow. Mordecai collapsed to the ground, panting and whimpering in pain as Iosif knelt down beside him and pulled out the med-kit.

"I just…I just felt like there was something I needed to see at the end," he tried explaining to Patricia as she knelt down beside him. "It's irrational, I know…but it seemed normal to me. It felt right."

She looked up at the contraction that had pulled the rest of his arm in. They needed to get out of this room now, otherwise someone else was going to get hurt or die to the Hive Commander. And she was becoming increasingly worried she couldn't stop it.

"Can you keep going?" She asked.

She could hear the scowl in his voice. "Hell yeah. Even if I couldn't, you can't leave anyone alone in this place. Not while the Hive Commander is alive."

He raised a good point. Which meant that breaking off into teams was also a bad idea. The more divided they were, the easier it would be for the Hive Commander to weaken them. Right now she didn't know the extent of it's power, but it was enough that they needed to focus on killing it as soon as possible.

"Stay with him," she ordered Iosif, who nodded and helped Mordecai up.

"Keep moving," she shouted as she headed for the exit. "Everyone stay focused. If you even think you're being influenced, say something. Especially if you're sure you're not. Got it?"

"Yes, Overseer!" They shouted, each of them trying to hold onto some hope.

"We'll return for Eden after the Hive Commander is dead," she promised, looking at the corpse of the once-happy woman. She raised her autorifle. "Let's head down the other hallway. Proceed with caution."

---

Sectoid Hive, Hallways

They kept walking until they reached the beginning storage room and continued on. All of them were used to the low hum and pulsing of the base, but now she was hearing things, all of them were. Whispers, noises, things that were intangible but they knew were there. All of them had reported hearing things and the Commander had confirmed that this time it was all in their head.

You are a child. You wield power you cannot begin to comprehend.

Patricia winced as that thought was accompanied by a sharp pain. Was that the Hive Commander? Or her own frustration and inability to utilize her power to the fullest. No. She growled in her mind, gritting her teeth. That voice wasn't hers. It was Creed's, and he wasn't taking to her. He was by her side, weapon raised and completely focuses on the mission ahead.

"Are you sure?"

Now Creed turned his head towards her, his helmet obscuring his expression. "It's talking to me," she said, reaching down for her pistol.

"The Hive Commander?" Galia asked cautiously, looking around frantically as they stopped.

"This is for your eyes only, psion," the figure of Creed continued, turning to face her fully. "Your species is weak, frail and easily controlled. Even your powers can't change that, no matter what the Elders see in you."

Patricia clenched her fists and sucked in her breath. "Get out of my head," she growled, focusing on banishing the subtle psionic strands that had insidiously been working on her. She heard and felt a sharp pop and the figure of Creed vanished and she stumbled back and a hand caught her shoulder.

"Woah, you alright?" Creed asked, concern in his voice and emotions.

She looked at him, then back at the place where the figure had been. "I think so now," she answered cautiously. "I saw you. The Hive Commander can force hallucinations."

"I guess that's good to know," Mordecai wheezed, still clearly in pain from the loss of his arm. "So we clearly can't trust everything we see."

"No," Patricia agreed grimly. "We can't. Keep moving."

They kept walking down and finally reached a fork in the hallways. "Left or right?" Samuel asked, looking from side to side.

"We're going to have to clear the whole thing anyway," Carmelita noted. "But we should probably find the Hive Commander first and kill it. Can you sense anything, Patricia?"

"Nowhere specific," Patricia sighed, since she'd tried that idea earlier. "I can sense a powerful psionic here, but nothing more. It's probably blocking me."

"Damn it," she muttered.

Patricia thought for a moment. Following conventional logic, the command area would probably be at the back of the base…so in that case, the right was probably the best place to go. "We go right," she ordered and began walking in that direction.

Things proceeded for a few minutes without incident. "Woah!" Alexei shouted and fired wildly up into the ceiling and everyone fell to one knee or swung their weapons around, looking for the threat.

"What is it?" Patricia hissed at Alexei.

"Ah, nothing," he growled, the scowl clear in his voice. "Damn Hive Commander playing tricks, I think. I saw a huge spider on the ceiling and…well, overreacted."

"Think very carefully about what you see," Patricia stated, calming herself down as she continued moving forward. "The next time you might shoot at one of us."

"Yes, Overseer," he promised. "Won't happen again."

She sincerely hoped not. They kept walking until Patricia spotted an entrance in the hallway. "Hold," she ordered, raising a fist. "Carmelita, James, go check that out."

Both of them took a position on each side of the entrance. Unlike the others, this one was actually physically closed. There was no way she could see to enter it, aside from using explosives or trying to cut it with their-

"Hey, look at this," Iosif called, as he walked over to a little panel-like square in the wall she'd almost missed.

"Careful," she warned, reaching out to make sure he wasn't being psionically influenced.

He cautiously put his palm by the panel and jerked it back as a familiar purple interface she'd seen on the Dreadnought appeared. This one was almost identical, twelve alien symbols in a grid shape, with several of them shimmering.

"Interesting," Iosif muttered. "This is a keypad?"

"Of sorts," Patricia answered. "They had them on the Dreadnought. There's a pattern that needs to be pressed before something happens."

"Let me try something," he muttered and she blinked quickly several times as he pressed the shimmering sequence she'd seen. Which meant….

The door opened with a groan and hiss as it lifted into the ceiling. "That seemed to do it," Iosif said, stepping back in satisfaction, though appeared initially disconcerted as he saw her looking at him intently. "Is something wrong?"

"That sequence you pressed," she said slowly. "Why did you do it?"

"Several of the keys were glowing," he answered. "Brighter than the others. I…It was mostly a guess, honestly. But I knew it had to be those keys."

Patricia hesitated. "I see. I suppose this means you're psionically sensitive as well."

He started. "What?"

"Only psions can see the shimmering keys," Patricia explained. "Probably a failsafe the sectoids didn't think anyone would be able to pass. Problem was that some humans can, I was going to do it, but…well, you preempted me."

He looked down at his hand. "Uh…what happens next-"

"Nothing will happen for a few hours," she assured him. "But we should probably finish up. Let's see what's in this room."

As they moved inside, she took a moment to focus on Iosif who was now emotionally rattled. That was not good and she couldn't risk a panic attack or something similarly debilitating right now. So instead she simply pressed one emotion on him…calm.

Everything is going to be fine.

She hoped that would be enough, but little time to make sure, and she joined the rest of the soldiers in walking into the new room. Nazar spoke for all of them once they saw what was inside. "Woah."

The room was filled with massive generator-like structures, each emanating a green glow and hummed audibly as they ran. They were at least as wide as her arm span and ran along the perimeter of the room that was at least as large as a football field. In the far back was another generator that was at least twice as large and everything before that were computer stations with sectoids working dutifully at them.

Above them steel catwalks ran above them, ladders at each corner leading up. To her dismay, she saw three outsiders patrolling them and they reacted instantly to them walking in. What also caught her attention were two mechtoids hanging from the ceiling.

"Check fire!" She warned as they charged forward, taking immediate cover behind some of the desks. "One of these blows and we all die!"

The outsiders knew that as well, since their initially volley of plasma was only directed towards the soldiers who were taking cover behind the desks. The sectoids at the rest of the interior desks were either scrambling back or returning fire.

"Fakhr! Get the catwalk!" Patricia ordered. "Creed, Nazar, Afif! Pin the outsiders in! Don't let them move!"

"We'll lock down the sectoids," Samuel called out as he and Galia began moving around the room, targeting the outside sectoids and keeping them in a little illusionary box. There was a groan that came from the ceiling and those two mechtoids fell to the ground and immediately began firing at them.

The outsiders had no cover, and were faced with the choice of withstanding inaccurate gauss fire or jumping down and fighting on the ground. "Symbiote out!" Lautaro called and he tossed one of the symbiote grenades towards the outsiders. It didn't quite make it, but the splatter as it exploded in mid-air was enough to trap their feet.

"Firing rocket!" Fakhr called and the explosive sped towards the catwalk and hit with a brilliant explosion. The catwalk groaned and parts of flaming steel fell to the ground, including one surviving outsider which hit the ground with a loud crack.

"Move up!" Patricia ordered as some of them suppressed the remaining eight sectoids while the rest charge into new positions. Myra dutifully kept the attention of the mechtoids who understandably focused on her. James executed a sectoid that didn't manage to scramble away in time. Sarah also blew the eye out of another while Maria and Alexei shredded the frail bodies of two more.

Carmelita leapt over to the cracked outsider that was trying to get up. It never got the chance once Carmelita blasted it's head, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Patricia grinned, things were going well and all that was left was-

She blinked as she saw a sectoid frantically tapping it's spindly fingers on an interface. "Kill that one!" She yelled, firing furiously at the alien. Her gauss rounds tore into the computer which sparked and suddenly blew up, killing the sectoid instantly.

Myra thrust her arm forward and the mechtoid in front of her was engulfed in an acidic cloud and stumbled back, shrieking. Maria and Samuel quickly tore it apart with concentrated fire and it collapsed to the ground.

Myra then charged the remaining mechtoid, slammed into it and then blasted it with her laser weapon as it stumbled back. Several shots later it also collapsed to the ground, smoke and sparks rising from the corpse, while Myra then scanned the rest of the room, looking for additional threats.

Iosif killed the last sectoid and all went quiet. Patricia quickly reloaded and looked around the room. Whatever the sectoid had been trying to do, it appeared to have failed. "Area secure," she said. "Everyone alright?"

They all answered with an affirmative and spread out into the room to get a better look at everything. "See if anyone can get onto the computers," she suggested as she looked around the room.

"What do you think they are?" Fakhr asked, walking up beside her.

"This is probably the power room?" Patricia guessed. "Though I'm not sure with what, exactly."

"Elerium," Nartha answered "That's what powers all alien tech. Very efficient and useful, but extremely volatile."

She walked up to one of the green pulsing generators, taking a closer look. "Good to know."

"Patricia! Come over here!"

She jogged over to where Alexei was standing over a computer. "I have no idea what it's saying," he said excitedly, pointing at the purple holographic screen which was divided into tiles again, each with alien markings on them. "But I think I'm inside!"

"Congratulations, fellow psion," Iosif commented dryly as he walked up. "All the computers have the same security as the door. You cracked it, so I guess that means you'll be reading minds soon."

"It's not all like that," Patricia sighed, raising a hand to cut him off. "But he's right. If that's how you got in, you're a psionic now."

"Oh," he said in a small voice, the excitement gone. "That's…good, I guess."

"Count me too," Galia added quietly as she walked up. "I just got onto another of the computers. Don't ask me how I knew."

Ok, this base needed to be cleared out so everything could be sorted out. "We'll go through everything later," she promised, realizing she was going to have an enormous task ahead of her. "But we should move on. Try not to think about it too much. Everything will be normal for a while yet."

She could feel them growing apprehensive, which was only exuberated as they looked at each other warily. But the good news was that unlike her, they'd at least have some guidance about what was going to happen, and be able to help each other along the way. "We should keep moving before the Hive Commander tries to have us blow ourselves up," Galia finally suggested, looking towards the exit. "Let's finish this."

---

Sectoid Hive, Deep Interior

They kept going down the hallway, and Patricia believed they were heading in the right direction. The pulsing was much stronger now, the hum clearly audible, and most telling, she could sense the Hive Commander much better now.

And it frankly terrified her.

It knew where they were. It knew they were coming. And it seemed content to let them pass. She'd tried probing the mass of psionic energy but had been laughably rebuffed from learning anything meaningful, receiving sharp stabs of mental agony in return.

Sloppy, unrefined, weak. Those were the thoughts thrown back at her attempts. She sensed nothing but contempt, not just for her, but for all of them. After seeing this place, she supposed that the Hive Commander held a deep vendetta towards humanity.

Which she wondered about. And after wandering the hallways, pondering the words she'd heard and the things she'd seen, she'd come to the conclusion that the Hive Commander was lying, at least to them, maybe even to itself. Despite it's words, she knew that humanity wasn't the weak species it had derided them as. Else why experiment on humans in the first place? Why spend so much time and resources on an inferior species that would ultimately contribute nothing.

No…she now thought it was personal. Because she suspected that the Ethereals had an idea of what they were capable of, and had charged the sectoids to harness what they could from them. The idea hadn't occurred to her immediately, but it made sense the more she thought about it, and despite the Hive Commander's words and her inability to learn anything tangible…she'd felt it's emotions briefly.

Fear, albeit controlled, and oddly enough…jealousy.

It hadn't been hard to put a hypothesis together. This Hive Commander was concerned that they would be replaced or removed, supplemented by humans should the Ethereals win. The fear might go different ways, though. Fear of the disobeying the Ethereals, or fear that they would be reduced in status within the Ethereal collective.

Humans were still inferior psionically…but she knew it was only a matter of time before she could become just as strong as the Hive Commander. Armed with this knowledge, she considered how best to use it. If nothing else it might distract the Hive Commander should they need one, though she had to be careful not to underestimate it.

Because the Hive Commander was more powerful than her. She couldn't beat it on her own.

Fortunately, she still had most of her soldiers in fighting condition, and for supposedly weak and inferior humans, they'd managed to get pretty far into the base.

Because you are, the words appeared in her mind. No amount of rationalization will change that.

She responded by projecting her amusement. Really, if that's the case, then why are we winning?

Because I've let you.

And that tapped into a fear that had receded slightly, but was still very much in the back of her mind. The Hive Commander had demonstrated what it could do in that experimentation room…but had otherwise held back after that. But why? Had it just been to scare them? Or were they being unintentionally led into a trap.

That was only one of two possible scenarios she'd considered. The other being that the Hive Commander wasn't quite as powerful as they'd been led to believe. Everyone had limits, even powerful psionic aliens. Maybe forcing Eden to kill herself or Mordecai to main himself had taken more out of it than it anticipated.

But…then again, she'd felt the Hive Commander. She'd sensed no fatigue or anything to indicate it was weakened in any way. So she didn't know. It could be an illusion, or perhaps the Hive Commander was simply holding back for reasons she couldn't comprehend.

"Two barriers on the left," Sarah noted, aiming her weapon at the multicolored barrier. "Choke points if we're not careful."

Patricia observed the area briefly. The two entrances were big enough for maybe two at a time to get through. It also looked like Myra wouldn't fit unless the entrance was raised a few feet higher. Hmm. The two entrances were spaced about twenty feet apart, which made it possible that they were for different rooms.

"How many smokes do we have left?" She asked, turning towards Nazar and Lautaro.

"I've got one," Nazar said, pulling it off his belt.

"Two for me," Lautaro confirmed, reaching for one.

"I've got one as well," Mordecai said, walking up. Holstering his pistol, he pulled it out and tossed it to her which she caught and smoothly placed on her own belt in one smooth motion.

"Good," she said, turning towards the doors. "Those might be two different rooms. So we'll have two breaches. Creed, take Nazar, Carmelita, Afif, Alexei and Maria to the far one. Everyone else with me. Get into position and wait for my signal."

"Will do," Creed nodded and waved his group of soldiers over by the other door.

Patricia and Lautaro took positions on the edges of the doorways, while James, Sarah and Samuel stood just behind them. Fakhr took a knee in front of the entrance and pulled out her rocket launcher in case she needed to fire it. Iosif held back with Mordecai, ensuring that they were both out of the line of fire.

"On my order, try cutting through the wall," Patricia ordered Myra who walked up to the wall blocking the path into the room. The towering MEC gave her a sharp nod and raised her laser cannon in preparation.

"Acknowledged, Overseer," she confirmed.

"Fakhr, how many rockets do you have left?" Patricia asked, looking back at the kneeling Palestinian.

"One regular and one of Shen's experimental shredders," she answered. "We should probably save the shredder for the Hive Commander."

Patricia wasn't quite sure what that was, but she could make some pretty accurate guesses. Just based on the name she supposed it was a more powerful AP grenade, which also meant it extremely dangerous to them as well as the aliens. "Don't fire unless I give the order," she stated, then looked over to where Creed was positioned. "You in position, Creed?"

"Affirmative," he answered, completely focused on storming the room. "Just give the word."

Patricia nodded and placed the fingertips of her left hand on the wall, a tactile move that let her focus on the immediate vicinity of the next room. She noted the sectoids immediately, there must have been at least ten of them, but what stood out was that there were…others. Other minds, alien even to what she'd sensed before now.

"There's something else in the room," she muttered in a trance, wincing as she tried exploring it more. Instead she was assaulted with a series of images that made no sense to her, emotions that consisted of nothing more than confusion, pain and terror. Everything seemed to be going at random speeds, emotions flipped within seconds and there was no context to anything that she glimpsed from these new minds.

It suddenly dawned on her why. Whatever was in the next room had been driven insane.

"Go now!" She ordered and tapped the barrier which dissipated within seconds.

"Smokes out!" Lautaro shouted as he tossed the canister of pink smoke into the immediate room.

"Going in!" James shouted and he and Sarah charged into the room.

Patricia immediately noted that the initial part of the room was similar to the human experimentation room from earlier. There were the experimentation pods on the right side of the room that extended to the wall. In the middle of the room were also surgery tables, where three sectoids were dissecting…something.

They scattered as the smoke hit the room, chittering as they stumbled back. Patricia suddenly noted that these sectoids didn't have plasma blasters on like the other ones. Instead was some kind of surgery tool, with multiple needles, pincers and magnifying glasses on it. James blasted the head off of one and Sarah eviscerated the next one. The rest of them took the opportunity to charge into the room as the remaining sectoids chittered and fled further into the rooms.

Now the major differences between the two experimentation rooms became very apparent. This one was much deeper than the other room, and seemed to contain…small modules. It was odd, but each glass module appeared to be some kind of miniature ecosystem. One was filled with snow, the other sand and the last tropical.

The hell? And there was also something in them. "Three running back!" Samuel called as he unloaded at a group of sectoids in the far back. Myra also cut her way into the room, though wasn't really needed now. One sectoid was instantly killed by Samuel's barrage and the other two scattered. Patricia fired at the one on the left and shredded it, the bloodied corpse thrown to the ground from the force of the rounds.

Galia had also found a cowering sectoid and quickly executed it before moving on. Well, there was something new she learned today. The sectoids weren't all fighters. These ones had clearly just been scientists or experimenters and that was why they had tried fleeing once they'd attacked.

Pity that they'd been hunted down like the animals they were.

"I think that's the last of them," James said as he walked around one of the glass modules. "Didn't really put up a fight."

"Good riddance," Fakhr muttered. "I almost don't want to know what they were doing."

"Secure this room," Patricia ordered. "Like it or not we need to know."

They saluted and the rest of the soldiers fanned out and Patricia turned to one of the glass modules. The one that went throughout the length of the left-most wall seemed to be a desert environment. It was bright, filled with sand, rocks and a scant few trees and vegetation. She almost missed the creature in the far corner. Frowning, she walked over to that corner to get a better look.

"What is that?" Galia asked quietly as they looked at the tortured specimen inside the glass prison. It was an alien…though she had no idea if it was sentient or not. It was huddled on the ground, dirty, sandy and matted fur covering its skin, which was a gray, but now had splotches of pink. Even though it was huddled down, she could tell it was massive; even in it's massively deteriorated form, it must have been at least as tall as her.

It's eyes had irises like humans, but were a solid black and were focused listlessly on nothing. Unlike the rest of it's body, there was no fur on it's rounded face, and there were visible incisors in it's mouth. After taking a closer look, Patricia saw that the fur color, without all of the dirt and sand, seemed to be a pure white.

She was almost surprised that it hadn't died yet. It's fur was falling off in great clumps and scratches marred it's skin and face and it looked physically malnourished. "I don't know," Patricia finally said. "But I know it doesn't belong there."

"That is a Borelian," Nartha interjected, his voice containing an underlying anger for the first time she'd heard. "One of the Vitakara races."

Patricia blinked. "That's…your species?"

Galia looked over at her in surprise. "Sorry, what?"

"A race, yes," he continued. "This particular one adapted to harsh winter conditions over centuries. They're some of the most scientifically driven among us, as well as the largest physically. So you can imagine that a desert would not be the best place for them." He paused. "Patricia…is she…sane?"

Galia took a step towards the glass cage. "She?"

"Female Borelians have incisors and generally lighter fur," Nartha explained. "Trust me, I can tell the differences between genders in my own species, Galia."

Forgetting the fact that he was a spy for the aliens, Patricia was intensely curious about this race. Perhaps she might even ask him, under supervision, of course. But she gently reached out mentally towards the Borelian to see if it-

She flinched and immediately withdrew from the maelstrom of images, feelings and pain that screamed in that mind. "I don't think she is," Patricia told Nartha quietly. "Whoever she was before…it's gone now."

"I see," his voice sounded heavier. "In that case you must leave her in the cage. Make it more comfortable, but if you open it she will attack you. Female Borelians are dangerously aggressive."

"I don't think we'd be opening them in the first place," Patricia muttered. "But thanks. Galia, see what you can do to…well, make it colder."

Galia nodded and walked over to a computer placed roughly in front of the middle of the module and began tapping on it. Patricia turned around to the module containing a jungle environment and imagined that there was another alien inside it, perhaps another Borelian.

"Overseer, you should come see this," Iosif said, coming to her from the back of the room. She nodded and followed him to the back of the room where several rows of pods stacked five high were stored. She walked over and looked inside one and grimaced. Humans. So whatever they were doing here involved them as well.

"Over here."

Patricia turned to see four…things in individual glass cells. Each one was no bigger than a five-by-five square and had absolutely no privacy whatsoever. The things inside looked like they'd been originally human…but they weren't anymore. One had his entire body warped and misshapen, the normal pale skin intermixed with gray flesh; another was covered completely in some kind of fur from head to toe; the last two seemed to have had parts of their body systematically altered. It wasn't hard to guess that had happened.

"I guess they're doing their own experiments on integrating alien genetics into us," Iosif said quietly. "They haven't reacted to us…I'm not sure they're still…there."

Patricia looked at the vacant expressions, at least from the ones where she could see their faces, and had to agree. A quick mental examination revealed they were close. "Their minds are empty; quiet," she said sadly. "The sectoids might have wiped their minds to make them more compliant."

Iosif looked over. "Can you do that?"

She shrugged. "Eventually."

On that cheery note she headed back up to the front of the room, where the experimentation pods and dissection tables were. "Creed, we've cleared this room. Status?"

"Clear," he answered immediately. "You're going to want to see this. It's another experimentation room."

"Figured," Patricia agreed grimly, looking at the snowy module where a Borelian with all it's fur trimmed off shivered in the cold. "We've found one as well. Not pretty."

"No, but this one is more interesting," he amended. "It's for sectoids."

Patricia blinked. "Interesting. We'll be over in a few minutes."

"Got it, Creed out."

Now that the smoke and danger had cleared, she looked at what was on one of the experimentation tables. The thing on the middle table seemed to be another Borelian, though this one was much smaller, and the fur that wasn't stained with blood seemed thinner. A child? At least it was dead, and it looked like the sectoids had been dissecting the throat for…well, she didn't really know or care.

"I suppose I thought the aliens had more consideration for their own kind," James said as he looked into one of the experimentation pods. Patricia walked over and looked down into it and winced. It was a Borelian, but the eyes had been removed and replaced by…she hated to say it, but it looked like human eyes.

"Apparently not," Patricia agreed softly. "Creed just said they found a sectoid experimentation room."

"Like I said, sectoids don't think like we do," Nartha interjected. "Almost every species recognizes the individual on some level. Sectoids, with the exception of the Hive Commanders, don't. They are viewed, and view themselves, as essentially little more than living, intelligent tools. They exist for specific purposes and have no emotion, desire or empathy for anything beyond what they've been created for."

"So like drones," James suggested as he looked down. "Mindless creatures under one guiding leader."

"In this case, the Hive Commander," Patricia finished. "Nartha…are all the Hive Commanders like this?"

"Cruel? Yes, though I don't believe it is born out of malice. It's just…who they are. I don't think it's their fault, they just aren't capable of seeing others as anything more than fodder."

With the exception of the Ethereals of course. Patricia wondered what the Hive Commander thought of their alien masters. She wouldn't have been surprised to learn that the sectoids cared just as little for the Ethereals as anyone else, but didn't act because the Ethereals were helping them or were too powerful.

She supposed this was a good indication of what happened when you stripped a species or being of any empathy whatsoever. Places like this were created.

"Lautaro? What are you doing?" Patricia turned around to see Lautaro by one of the computers in front of the modules. Samuel was walking up to him, then paused as Lautaro raised a hand.

"One moment," he said, his voice partially toneless. "Almost done."

Patricia sucked in her breath and a quick mental sensing of the room detected psionic influence not from her. "Get him away!" She ordered, then sank to her knees as an unbearable wave of pain stabbed into her mind.

It appeared to affect the rest of them as well since James and Samuel clutched their heads and groaned. In the distance she heard Iosif and Galia shout in pain. Her vision blurry, Patricia looked up, raising a fist as she drew upon the energy to fortify her mind for the moment. Given how quickly Samuel and James were back up, she supposed the attack was probably worse for anyone psionic.

But they were too late. The door to the module slid up and Lautaro shook his head as quickly stepped back. "Oh no-"

A black-furred, massive and clearly insane Borelian slammed into him, throwing him into the glass barrier of the module behind him. James and Samuel began firing, but the massive alien was quicker than it looked and kept on its path. It slammed a foot into Lautaro's knee, snapping it with an audible crack.

Patricia gasped as his pain rippled through her. It then grabbed him by his arms and chest and threw him across the room towards them. Patricia ignored his scream and dodged the body and raised her autorifle and unloaded a barrage of projectiles towards the insane alien.

The combined power of Samuel, James and her was enough to stop another charge, and with yellow blood dripping from multiple wounds, the Borelian collapsed to the ground with a final growl, dead.

"Iosif! Get over here," Patricia ordered as she rushed to Lautaro. "We've got wounded!"

"Coming!" He answered, sounding out of breath. A few seconds later he was at Lautaro's side who was sprawled out over the floor, his left leg completely mangles and his right arm twisted at an unnatural angle.

"Hold still," he ordered as he pulled out the med-kit. "This is going to hurt."

"Serves me right," Lautaro groaned, gritting his teeth in pain as Iosif began setting his leg. "What the hell was I thinking?"

"The Hive Commander," Patricia said wearily. "You weren't."

"Overseer? What happened?"

"Another attempt from the Hive Commander," Patricia growled. "Lautaro released a specimen. He's badly injured, but alive. Are you alright?"

"Fine so far," he answered. "Though we're all on edge now."

"I'm coming over to see what's there," Patricia said, looking around. "I want to take a look before we move on." She looked towards James. "Come with me. Iosif, fix him up and meet in the next room when you're ready to move on. Everyone else hold this position until you're ready to move out. Understood?"

"Yes, Overseer!" They affirmed and with James at her side, they quickly walked over to the next experimentation room.

---

The experimentation room next door was set up much closer to the human experimentation room than the Borelian one. As seemed to be standard for the sectoids, there were experimentation pods and dissection tables in the first part, upon which Patricia was not surprised to see sectoid corpses resting upon them.

Although unlike all the rest of the test subjects, where the specimen being experimented upon seemed to be an unmodified specimen, these sectoids lying in the pods and on tables seemed to be modified in some way. Some had larger arms, brains, an extra finger or two, were taller. But none of them looked healthy or even complete.

"It looks like they're trying to improve themselves," Creed suggested as he walked over. "Not much of a surprise, I suppose, given how easily they can get test subjects."

Patricia looked over to the leftmost wall and blinked in surprise at what she saw. Small tubes containing sectoid…embryos, she supposed. She stopped counting how many, giving up at around thirty with at least half of the wall to go. No wonder they didn't have any problem experimenting on themselves so easily, since all they needed to do was just grow more of them.

"How quickly can they be made?" She wondered out loud.

"Too quickly," Carmelita stated coldly as she walked up, her armor splattered with fresh sectoid blood. "We should destroy this entire wall."

"We won't be destroying anything quite yet," the Commander informed her. "Vahlen will want some of those cloning tubes and the data from the sectoid experiments may be useful to us."

Patricia couldn't help but think it was slightly hypocritical to condemn these alien experiments and then turn around and essentially do the same thing to them. Although it being the Commander, she didn't know if he even felt actual anger about what was being done here. It was terrible, yes, but he likely viewed it as a consequence of war.

She suspected that she was going to learn a lot more about the darker side of XCOM in the coming days. Because as much as they tried not thinking about it…she was fairly certain all of them suspected the experiments Vahlen and her team were running weren't exactly…legal.

But such was war, and she didn't feel any sympathy for a species like this. If the rumors about Vahlen developing a virus to eradicate them were true, then she would face little opposition after what they'd seen here.

"This is all very interesting," Creed interrupted, motioning her towards the back of the room. "But this is what you need to see."

She followed him towards the back of the room, glancing briefly at the tables, some of which now had human corpses on them. At the back of the room was a large computer-like object, and off to the sides were some kinds of stasis pods.

"It appears the aliens are very interested in us," Maria commented, as she stood in front of the left-most stasis pod. Patricia walked over and looked inside. Within the green gel, a sectoid was suspended inside. But it wasn't like the other little gray ones, this one was a little taller, the muscles more pronounced.

"Keep going," Maria suggested, motioning to the other pods. Patricia nodded and kept going. Each stasis pod had a sectoid in it, but the further she walked down, it became quickly apparent what the sectoids had been trying to do. Each specimen was taller, the head becoming more normal, the fingers and toes becoming more pronounced digits.

They were gradually becoming more and more human. The last stasis pod sectoid now even had the beginnings of a mouth. Interesting. So much for a supposedly weak species, she thought wryly. So…the Hive Commander had lied, which shouldn't exactly be a surprise. But it was disturbing how much they'd been able to modify the sectoid just using human genetics.

"So what is it?" Patricia asked. "Or rather, what is it supposed to be? A soldier?"

"The computers probably have that information," Creed shrugged. "I'm guessing however they do this, it isn't quick or cheap. Otherwise why keep the previous iterations?"

"In case mistakes were made," Alexei guessed, walking up. "Aside from that, they probably have to be careful of other factors."

Maria looked over at him. "Like what?"

Alexei sighed. "I don't know. How the hell am I supposed to get inside the twisted mind of the aliens that came up with this, hmm?"

"Let me see if I can find something," Patricia said, walking up to the computer. The tile-interface came up under her hand and she quickly pressed the sequence of buttons she knew were right. The screen flashed and began displaying hundreds of lines in the alien language, most of which was incomprehensible to her.

"Progress, I guess," Creed commented wryly, coming up behind her.

She looked down on the holographic interface and concentrated on one word. Map. She'd had a theory about how these computers worked and figured it might be a good time to test it. New tiles started shimmering and she tapped them quickly. The lines on the screen changed to feature alien schematics of what appeared to be this base, all noted in their language.

"Huh," Maria sounded surprised. "Good job."

Patricia smiled. Well, that explained why the alien tech always did what they wanted to. It was sensitive to what they really wanted, be it unlocking doors or turning off power. Now that she had the map, she knew exactly where they had to go to reach the central command.

"Here," she pointed. "Commander, are you reading this?"

"I am," he confirmed. "It translates roughly to "Command Temple" though I think that isn't literal. If I had to guess, that's probably where the Hive Commander will be."

Carmelita snorted. "Assuming it hasn't relocated. That's what I would do."

Patricia closed her eyes and felt for the Hive Commander, who projected calm, control and anticipation. "It hasn't left," she said slowly. "It's still there, and it knows we are coming."

"Wonderful," Creed muttered.

"It's probably a trap then," Carmelita stated, palming the grenade on her belt. "Though I don't think we have much of a choice."

Patricia checked to make sure her weapon was fully loaded. "We don't," she agreed. "But we're going to be very careful. Even the Hive Commander has limits, and we outnumber it."

"Remember you have limits too," Creed warned. "And I doubt it will be just the Hive Commander."

"Probably not," Patricia agreed. "But the longer we wait, the more dangerous it becomes," now addressing the entire team, she began walking towards the exit. "Everyone converge in the hall; it's time to finish off the Hive Commander."

---

The map had been correct, judging from the widening hallway and increased pulses and most telling, the presence of the Hive Commander becoming for stronger for her. Another interesting sign was that the alloy walls had suddenly been replaced with transparent barriers, allowing them to see inside the inner working of the base.

There were nearly a dozen large pipes running along the walls, some transparent, some not. Probably circulating or transporting water, air or whatever the aliens used to power this base. Though she didn't fail to note the flesh-like substance also in one of the pipes. She'd considered asking Nartha if he knew what that was, but at this point, didn't really want to know.

It wasn't as though she needed more motivation to kill the Hive Commander.

"And there it is," Alexei said as the multicolored barrier came into view. Oddly enough the ceiling had also risen the further they'd got, so the height of this barrier was probably twenty-five feet tall or more. The width was probably more like fifteen, but more than enough for them to enter.

"What do you want me to do about him?" Creed asked, grunting as he tried to not drop Lautaro.

Patricia knew leaving him behind was a bad idea, not until the Hive Commander was dealt with, so she'd had Creed carry him all this way, admittedly not an easy task since even a small man in full armor was a ton. Not to mention Lautaro wasn't exactly small. But Creed was the strongest here, so she'd had him carry him until they arrived at the central command.

"Set him down close to the entrance," she ordered as the rest of the soldiers began getting into position by the barrier. "The Hive Commander should be too distracted or focused on me to try and influence him."

"I can stay with him, if you want," Mordecai suggested, walking up. "I'm not sure how much help I'll be like, well, this." He moved the stump of his arm for emphasis. Patricia doubted that this was being influenced by the Hive Commander, but she had to be sure. She quickly sensed Mordecai's mind for any traces of psionic influence and found none.

"Do it," she agreed with a nod. "Keep aware. We'll make sure the Hive Commander is busy, but there may be other aliens still here."

He gave a firm nod and she imagined him smiling under that helmet. He raised the hand holding the pistol. "That's what I have this for, yes? Don't worry about me, kill the Hive Commander. We'll be fine."

Creed set down Lautaro gently and rose back to her side. "Then good luck," she told Mordecai. "We'll finish up now."

He saluted and she returned it. With that done, she turned around and they walked towards the massive barrier where the rest of the soldiers were set up outside it. Samuel and Maria were set up at the corners as usual and Myra was at the front, ready to take the brunt of the attack if the aliens were waiting for them.

Fakhr had taken a knee and her rocket launcher was at the ready while James and Carmelita were close by the two gunners ready to charge in on command. Patricia walked up beside Myra and closed her eyes once more. But this time it seemed the Hive Commander knew what she was trying to do, because she couldn't sense anything else beyond it.

"It's blocking me," she said grimly, opening her eyes and picking up her autorifle again. "We'll be going in blind. Be ready."

"How did we ever operate before we had soldiers who could just sense everything in the room?" Alexei commented dryly, and all of them lightly chuckled at that, even Patricia smirked.

"Very funny," she answered, reaching forward. "Weapons up!"

The barrier receded instantly and they got their first look into the central command of the alien base. What immediately became apparent was that the entire room was open, at least in the sense that there was no alloy roof over them like the majority of the base. The cave simply stretched up beyond what Patricia could see.

This was probably the largest room yet, both sides had ramps leading up to an elevated walkway, which also had four stations each devoted to one specific computer, and each also getting a ramp extended to them. The middle of the room was a little different. The middle square was a small depression in the room, with the frame of the normal walkway containing ramps down into the depression.

Directly above the depression was an elevated platform, rising at least twenty feet over the rest of the room. Ramps lead directly up to it, though Patricia couldn't see what was up there. The platform was the size of the depression, and scattered throughout the room were small alloy barriers, columns and other viable cover.

"Maria, Sarah, Iosif, take the left side," she ordered, advancing slowly. "James, Nazar, Samuel, take the right."

All six soldiers nodded and rushed off that direction. Oddly enough, she couldn't see or sense any additional enemies other than the Hive Commander who felt dead ahead. "Fakhr, Afif, go up on the platform. Everyone else with me!"

With that said, Patricia began leading the remaining soldiers and MEC down into the depression and up it again. Upon walking up the ramp to the other side, she saw the final elevated platform, a ramp directly in front of them leading up to it. The platform had a small alloy barrier around the perimeter, but she could see what was on this platform.

Massive computer screens lined the walls, each displaying information, images and other things she had no idea of. Directly in front of it was a strange object. It had three short alloy legs that secured it to the floor, and then massive arms stretched from them and met at the top. Within the arms seemed to be floating rings, with some sort of orange focusing beam running through them.

"We're in position," Patricia looked to the left to see Sarah in front of an alloy barrier, ready to fire with Maria behind her and Iosif behind them bother. A quickly look to the right confirmed that James, Nazar and Samuel had set up in a similar way. Carmelita and Galia both dashed to the walls right before the ramp. Alexei, Creed and Myra stood by her as all of them focused on the one lone target.

The Hive Commander stood in front of the object, it's back turned to them. It was larger than the other sectoids, though not as much as she would have thought. It's muscles seemed more defined, not malnourished as the other sectoids looked. Also contrary to the lesser sectoids, this one stood up straight, without a hunch like the others.

The two major differences were the skin, which was a ruddy orange that seemed to pulse every few seconds, and the cranium which was much larger and the skin around it was a much lighter color, almost transparent.

"Welcome, soldiers of XCOM," it said and all of them started. Patricia hadn't been sure what it would sound like, but a deep-voiced British male was not what she'd had in mind.

"Why is it speaking Russian?" Alexei whispered to her, raising his rifle at the alien.

Patricia looked over to him. "It's not…"

"You hear what I allow you to," it continued, and Patricia suddenly realized that the voice was coming inside her own head. She didn't quite panic, since this was clearly just a projection or communication. A form of telepathy, she supposed, but it was still disconcerting. "All of this I allowed. You could have been stopped before, but I allowed you to continue."

Ok, she'd bite. "Why?" Patricia demanded. "Was it just to show off your horrific experiments to us?"

"Horrific is a matter of perspective, Psion," it hissed, the accent fading briefly as it turned around. It's mouthless face and molten orange eyes only added to the unsettled atmosphere. "Those people are useless in this world, contributing nothing with only the goal of their own personal ambition. Their empty lives were given meaning for the advancement of science. The advancement of us."

It twitched its head several times, and from the sense of amusement Patricia felt, she guessed it was an expression of laughter. "Humanity is sentimental, yet also a paradox. You will destroy yourselves over pointless ideals, governments and religions, but consider the cost too high when working to push yourselves forward. You are just slaves to ethics and a misunderstanding of the sanctity of life."

The last sentence was filled with such venom in it's voice and emotions Patricia actually winced. Creed stepped forward. "You didn't answer her question," he stated. "Why did you let us get this far?"

"For the only thing worth doing," it answered, swiveling it's head around the room. "Gathering information. Thanks to your supposed attack, this data on your skills, powers and tactics can be used for when XCOM foolishly tries to attack again. Everyone here is expendable and can be replaced," it's head turned down to look directly at her. "Including your soldiers."

It was worrying just how certain it sounded. Even in the event this attack failed, she would have figured they'd done enough damage to push back whatever they were doing…though if the Hive Commander was to be believed, they barely done more than annoy it.

The Hive Commander pointed a spindly finger to her. "But you, psion, you will be a fine gift to present to the Elders."

"Not likely," Patricia growled, raising her autorifle.

"Over my dead body," Creed added.

The Hive Commander turned it's head to him. "Your opinion is worthless, Anius Creed, as are you." It's head was suddenly flared with purple energy and Creed suddenly shouted and collapsed to the ground.

"Fire!" Patricia ordered and the room was filled with the sounds of gauss and laser fire.

The Hive Commander simply raised its hands and was enveloped by a shimmering purple shield which negated all of the rounds that hit it. Laser beams were simply reflected away. "You are surrounded by traitors, Maria," it growled, extending a hand towards her, clutching it into a fist. "Open your eyes!"

Maria suddenly shouted and clutched her helmet with a hand. "Maria!" Sarah shouted and turned back. "Are you alright?!"

Maria shook her head. "Yes," she said, oddly calm. "Everything's fine."

Patricia's eyes widened. "Subdue her!" She shouted, turning to see Maria raise her autorifle at Sarah who was turning around to focus on the Hive Commander. "Sarah-"

She yelped in surprise as Creed barely missed slicing her arm open. Only a quick jump back saved her initially and she immediately focused on a now dangerous Creed. "Stop!" She ordered as he approached, brandishing his knife.

"Take care of him!" Carmelita yelled. "I'll deal with the Commander!"

Patricia didn't have time to see what she did, backing away quickly as Creed kept advancing. "It's me! Patricia!" She pleaded as he leapt towards her. She wasn't going to shoot him, she couldn't do that. But she needed to subdue him quickly, otherwise he would kill her. Myra, Alexei and Galia were trying to focus on the Hive Commander.

"I won't let you hurt us again," Creed growled at her. "Never again."

She didn't know what he was talking about, but he was clearly not going to listen to reason. She focused in on his mind, ignoring the rush of odd images and controlled, calm rage. The Hive Commander's influence was trapping those images and feelings at the forefront and had she time, she might have been able to remove them.

But she had to stop him now.

She knew his mind more than most, so that made it easier to push one command. Sleep.

Creed shuddered in front of her and fell to the ground a few seconds later. One problem out of the way, she turned to see Carmelita blasting away at the Hive Commander who still had the psionic shield up.

"Worthless," it sneered, and with a gesture, Carmelita suddenly collapsed to the ground. It suddenly looked up towards Afif and Fakhr and pointed. "Your nation will be annihilated, Lim. And you will watch as your people are butchered and ravaged like dogs!"

She heard a shriek and looked over in horror as Maria unloaded her clip into the back of Sarah who was thrown off the edge from the force. "Traitors!" She yelled as she swung towards Iosif behind her. "What have you done with them?!"

"Overseer! Afif's gone crazy!" Fakhr informed breathlessly. She could hear shouting in Chinese as well in the background. "He's going to kill himself or me if he isn't stopped! Orders?!"

"Subdue him!" Patricia called as she threw her weapon down. She needed to psionically counterattack if they were going to win. Weapons weren't helping. "If that's not possible…defend yourself."

"I'm going to help Iosif!" Galia called out as she rushed towards the left side of the room. "Suppressing!"

Maria was caught between two bursts of gauss fire, forcing her to stick to cover for the moment. Alexei took some shots at the Hive Commander who just looked down in disgust and motioned two him. Alexei screamed and sank to his knees, clutching his head.

Patricia immediately focused on him, trying everything she could to block the psionic influence from taking hold of him, which resulted in her feeling like her eyes were being gouged out and shouted in pain along with him. But it only lasted a few seconds and she'd successfully stopped it from taking his mind.

The pain fueling her focus, she became laser-focused on the Hive Commander in front of her. Arm encircled in a faint purple sheath, she reached out to the alien, fighting the barriers in it's mind. All she needed was one opening, one brief crack to get inside.

"Distract it!" She called, the sounds of the world becoming faint. "Break it!"

"Flamethrower activated." Myra informed and lowered her wrist towards the tiny alien.

That finally forced the Hive Commander to move to the side to avoid the scorching flames. Yet it's mind held strong and became even more focused as it prepared another attack. "Stay back!" Iosif called. "I don't want to shoot you!"

Patricia looked back to see Galia abandoning her position and steadily walking towards his position, firing a steady barrage of gauss fire at his cover. Galia was firing warning shots, but was deliberately avoiding an actual hit. She needed to be stopped now otherwise Iosif would die.

"Take her out!" Patricia ordered. "Take her out now!"

"I'm sorry," Galia said, the pain evident in her voice. But it didn't stop her from firing a clip of gauss rounds into Maria's back, forcing her to the ground. Yet she still tried getting up, reaching for her pistol and kept firing. Now Iosif stood, aimed his rifle at her head and fired, ensuring Maria would never rise again.

"Afif! Stop!" Patricia looked above her to hear a terrified shout along with a rant in Chinese and watched, horrified as Afif inexplicably leapt off the platform. He dove headfirst and none of them were in any position to try and catch him. The gauss fire drowned out the sound of his neck snapping, but Patricia could imagine it very clearly as he slammed into the ground, the impact nearly leaving his head at a horizontal angle.

"You cannot fight if you cannot see!" The Hive Commander declared as it enveloped itself in purple energy and thrust it's hands towards the trio on the right. The fire towards the Hive Commander halted and then stopped.

"Overseer, it did something," James informed, his voice calmer that she'd expected. "I can't see anything."

"Hunker down!" She ordered, redoubling her efforts to penetrate the mental psionic shield of the Hive Commander. She had to press the weaknesses she'd guessed. There was no other choice. Your species is obsolete. You will be replaced by us, the species who you consider weak.

"No!" She heard it growl, it's accent fading again. "We will never be replaced."

It was working, if she could just unsettle it a little more. But she needed to wrap up before all of them were rendered ineffective. "Fakhr! Shredder!"

As she gave the order she pressed again. Then why do the Ethereals have you working on us? A weak species would not warrant their attention. Humanity is superior to you; we are better, faster, and stronger. And that is before our psionic-"

"You are a child!" The Hive Commander screamed, the arura around him flashing. With one extension of his arm and without breaking eye contact with her, Myra was blow backwards across the room, slamming into the wall. "You know nothing of this Gift! You are incapable of comprehending, psion! Know that before you are trapped in your mind forever!"

Patricia screamed as the Hive Commander broke into her mind, overpowering her attempts of resistance easily, shifting through her thoughts and memories. You are nothing. No! She was! She was!

You are not. You never have been. You never will be.

It took every ounce of will to prevent her from just accepting that indisputable fact. Because it was indisputable, deep down she knew that. Why was she protesting such an obvious truth? It would be so easy to just accept it, so easy to just accept that it knew far more than she could ever…

"Firing rocket!" She heard faintly, as if underwater.

And everything weakened ever so slightly, and then she knew it was a lie.

"Get out of my head!" She shouted, thrusting her arms out, not realizing that the expulsion of energy emanated from her. And now she was angry, she watched the rocket fly down and slam into where the Hive Commander was. It raised it's hands to create another shield but she intervened, forcing all her will on one word.

"Delay," she growled, and the hand faltered, the shield flickered and that was all it took for the last bursts of shrapnel to break through.

The Hive Commander squealed as it's legs and body were impaled with hot metal, the concussive blast throwing it across the room. Patricia again focused all her anger, rage and power on the wounded Hive Commander. She saw it trying to crawl away, keeping itself still mentally strong while she stormed towards the tiny creature.

"Open," she ordered, grabbing the thing by the arm and slamming a boot down on it. The Hive Commander squealed as the limb broke like a twig and for just a second, the barrier weakened and Patricia broke into the mind.

The images of sectoids, aliens, tech she never knew existed, words and documents in languages she couldn't even begin to comprehend, all of it was centered in one central location. All floating around in a dome with a glowing purple ball in the center.

She found herself inside and raised a hand, willing it all to stop and everything ceased. Time froze and it's mind was fully under her control. It's sensation of time had stopped and with that assured, he briefly allowed herself to return to her physical body and looked down at the twitching Hive Commander, leaking golden blood from its torso and legs.

"…Overseer?"

She turned to see a bleary Carmelita walking up. "You're alive," Patricia sighed in relief. "I wasn't sure…"

"I think it put me to sleep," she muttered. "Damn alien."

"Overseer Trask, come in!" Oh right, the Commander.

"I'm here, Commander," she said, taking a breath. "The Hive Commander is subdued. Though there were casualties."

"You were lucky," Nartha interjected. "If it wasn't for Fakhr, all of you would have died."

"Yeah, but we didn't" Patricia growled. "We won."

"Prepare the specimen for transport," the Commander ordered. "Make sure-"

"Are you crazy?" Patricia demanded, eyes wide. "You want to capture this thing? After what you saw it do?"

"The Hive Commander is a wealth of information and could lead to further scientific advances," Vahlen said, her voice brutally cold. "We have no idea if we will ever get this chance again."

"Can you contain it?" Patricia demanded furiously. "Can you?"

"We will take proper-"

"Answer the question!"

There was a brief silence. "There is no proven way of blocking psionic abilities," Vahlen finally admitted. "But we've handled psionic specimens before."

"What, the sectoids?" Nartha commented sarcastically. "You really think those methods will stop what you just saw?"

"Quiet, both of you," the Commander stated. "Overseer, do you really believe it's too risky to bring back?"

Patricia took a breath. "If there is no way to block psionics, then yes, it's far too risky. Maybe if I guarded it constantly, and even then it's not a good idea. Otherwise it's just going to get people killed. Please, you all saw what it can do and I've felt it's intentions. Bringing it to the Citadel would be disastrous."

All of them waited breathlessly for an answer. "Very well, Overseer," the Commander said, though he didn't sound overly happy. "I'll defer to your judgment on this. Do what you will."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Commander. Before it dies…I want to see what I can get from it."

"Do it," he said. "Whatever you have to."

She nodded and looked down at the twitching body of the Hive Commander and pulled off her helmet. "What are you doing?" Carmelita asked as Patricia let her helmet fall to the floor.

Patricia curled her lips up, into what looked like a smile but what was just masking the building fury inside her again. She looked down to her right hand, flexing the fingers as she gathered the power, a shimmering manifestation cloaking her arm. Creed, Maria, Alexei, Eden, Afif, this alien had fucked with all their minds and gotten some of them killed.

Now it was time for the Hive Commander to experience the same thing.

"I'm going to practice," she said, looking down at the hive Commander. "If that thing starts waking up, shoot it. Otherwise, ignore the screaming."

She imagined the grim smile underneath Carmelita's helmet. "With pleasure. Make it suffer."

Patricia slowly knelt on the ground in front of the alien, and resumed direct control over the Hive Commander's mind. "Get comfortable," she whispered softly to the alien before the physical world faded away. "Your nightmare is just starting."

---

After-Action Report

Operation: Collapsing Dream

Personnel:

Thunder 1 (Squad Overseer): Psion Patricia Trask

Status: Active

Kills: 8

Thunder 2: Specialist Carmelita Alba

Status: Active

Kills: 12

Thunder 3: Specialist Anius Creed

Status: Comatose

Kills: 8

Thunder 4: Specialist Galia Loeb

Status: Active

Kills: 6

Thunder 5: Specialist Samuel Roche

Status: Active

Kills: 6

Thunder 6: Specialist Afif Lim

Status: Deceased

Kills: 5

Thunder 7: Specialist Sarah Liber

Status: Deceased

Kills: 4

Thunder 8: Specialist Alexei Feodor

Status: Active

Kills: 7

Thunder 9: Specialist Mordecai Korhn

Status: Wounded (Estimated Time: TBD)

Kills: 4

Thunder 10: Specialist Eden Rayna

Status: Deceased

Kills: 2

Thunder 11: Specialist James Nolan

Status: Active

Kills: 5

Thunder 12: Specialist Fakhr al Din

Status: Active

Kills: 7

Thunder 13: Specialist Iosif Bronis

Status: Active

Kills: 3

Thunder 14: Specialist Nazar Klim

Status: Active

Kills: 3

Thunder 15: Specialist Maria Olena

Status: Deceased

Kills: 7

Thunder 16: Specialist Lautaro Maetan

Status: Wounded (Estimated Time: 20 Days)

Kills: 5

Thunder 17: MEC Soldier Myra Rodriguez

Status: Damaged Suit (Estimated Time: 5 Days)

Kills: 10

Mission Director: The Commander

Pilot 1: Jason Olgard – Call sign: "Big Sky"

Pilot 2: Tristen Ward – Call sign: "Fallen Sky"

Pilot 3: Barney Kimon – Call sign: "Gray Sky"

Artifacts Recovered (Iteration 1.7):

-30x Sectoid Corpses (Moderate Condition) Note: Still being counted

-5x Mechtoid Wrecks

-1x Hive Commander Corpse (Moderate Condition)

-254x Human Abductee Pods (Alive)

-20x Assorted Test Subjects

-200x Weapon Fragments

-300x Alien Alloys (Assorted)

-30x MELD Canisters

-30x Alien Computers (Assorted)

-1x Unidentified Alien Communication Device

Note: Artifact Recovery is still adding to the list as the base is continuously cleared. Numbers may be changed or objects added or removed.