Epilogue: Annexation
Sydney, Australia
"Hey, can you hand me the wrench?"
Robert Haynes sighed and reached over to the toolbox to pick up the one Brandon was pointing at. "Here you go."
"Thanks," Brandon said as he went back to the leaky pipe. Just another day working in the wonder city of Sydney. He did love it, truly, but days like today he just wanted to go home and sleep.
But duty called, and his employers weren't running a charity.
But something seemed off. He hadn't been able to put his finger on it all morning, but everything seemed really, really weird. Not quite surreal, like a dream. But distinctly off. He had no idea what it was, everyone was acting the same…but also not quite the same. Almost as if they were faking it.
He scowled to himself. Ridiculous, and it just proved how tired he was. He was getting way too spooked from the stuff he'd read on the internet. Body snatchers killing and replacing people, government experiments on humans, alien abductions. Even if all that was true, it probably wouldn't happen to him. He wasn't that important to the world, and was perfectly content with that.
"Hold, this, will you?" Brandon asked, motioning to the pipe. "Just need to tighten it."
He complied and held the pipe steady as his friend focused on tightening the pipe.
Then it clicked.
It was incredibly subtle, and truthfully on the outside it looked like nothing had changed.
But everything had.
Either this wasn't Brandon, or Brandon had been lying to him ever since they'd met.
Because he knew that Brandon was planning to kill him.
"Got it?" He asked nervously.
Brandon pursed his lips. "Yeah, I guess so. You good?"
He didn't know that he'd figured it out. Robert swallowed and gave a nervous smile. "Yeah…yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."
Brandon shrugged and turned away. Robert backed up slowly, wondering what he could possibly do. He had a very small chance to do something, and any minute this killer would figure out he was onto him. Kill or be killed, there was no other option.
With shaking hands he picked up a hammer and cautiously walked behind Brandon, raised it, and brought it down directly onto his head. It hit with a loud crack and he went sprawling.
Almost as if he hadn't been expecting it.
Robert didn't give him a chance to fight back and quickly brought the hammer down again and again until the hammer head was buried in the skull. Shaking all over, he didn't initially notice the blood splattering his arms and chest, but didn't care at the moment. They had to know he knew now.
He had to get out of here.
But where?
The ground shook and he heard an explosion. Oh god, it was starting. Whatever it was, it was starting.
He grabbed a long Philips screwdriver and dashed up from the basement and out the front door without even letting the family know what had happened. For all he knew they were in on this too. But what greeted him outside was even more of a nightmare.
Mouth gaping open, he looked around to see Sydney had become a warzone. Another explosion rocked the area and he saw a skyscraper collapse, and looking up he felt terror fill him as he saw silver discs shooting across the sky, hunting down fighter jets with brutal efficiency, the green bolts sending the planes colliding deeper into the city.
Wait…no, he was seeing this wrong.
They were under attack…but it looked like the flying disks were defending the city. Not attacking it. Because…the government was attacking Sydney? But….but why? He looked down the street and stumbled back into the wall as he saw the army approaching. Hulking humanoids clad in green armor, pinkish skin and beady eyes on their alien faces.
Mutons. He'd seen them on TV. Never expected to see one in real life. But the news had seemed to get them all wrong. If they were so bad, why were they attacking all the obvious fakes? The weapons in their hands that shot out green projectiles were only targeting the fleeing fakes, somehow exposed by the aliens.
He cautiously stepped forward. He wasn't a fake. That meant that he was safe…right?
One thing was sure, the alien leading these mutons was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. It towered over the mutons, twelve feet easily. It was clad in a silver armor, all four of its arms encased in bracers, gauntlets and steel. A blood-red cape fell from the shoulders, above which sat a helmet that reminded him of a knight; ornate yet functional.
Or maybe he was only reminded of that because of the massive greatsword the alien carried at its side, one right hand holding it firmly as it marched forward.
"Civilian! Get back!" Someone called, and he turned to see a dozen or so soldiers running up. He was able to instantly tell what they were. They were here to kill him!
"Get back!" He yelled, brandishing the screwdriver, knowing they'd be killing him.
"What?" The soldier shouted, genuinely sounding confused, yet still trying to fool him. "Get away before-"
He gasped and was lifted into the air and flung forward. Robert suddenly turned to see the alien charging with a speed the belied his size, drew back the sword, and stabbed forward, impaling the oncoming soldier in the chest. Wasting no time, it jumped forward and slashed down upon the group of soldiers who were scattering.
One was instantly decapitated, and the rest began firing. With no hesitation, the alien singled out two of the soldiers and stormed towards them as they fired seemingly useless bullets. With no finesse it smashed the sword into one, slicing deep into her chest from the shoulder, and at the same time it raised an opposite hand and the remaining soldier was lifted into the air. The hand closed into a fist and the head imploded into bloody chunks.
"Retreat!" One of the remaining soldiers screamed as they ran up the street, firing wildly in the direction of the alien, apparently not worrying about hitting him or others.
The alien seemed in no hurry and methodically turned and pursued them. A lower hand pulled back and one of the soldiers was flung towards the alien who slashed upward, dismembering and decapitating him. Another independent hand twisted and the fleeing soldiers suddenly collapsed to the ground screaming, their legs at unnatural angles.
With no hesitation or mercy, the alien approached each of the wounded soldiers and either executed them with a quick stab to the heart or chest, or somehow snapped or exploded their heads. Robert looked over to the mutons walking past him. One caught his eye, pinning him under its intense yellow stare, but after what seemed like forever, it grunted and moved on.
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Ok, so he was safe. But where should he go? Where could he possibly go?
The Opera House. Yes, there had to be somewhere safe there.
He started running down the street, trying to ignore the screaming in the distance and the blood on the street before him. Buildings were on fire and smoke filled that air and he stumbled through the nightmare. Two more planes were shot down by alien ships, which landed deeper in the city. Then for the first time, he saw someone real.
She looked as shell-shocked as he no doubt was, and her hands were bloody like his. They exchanged glances, but no words needed to be said. They needed to get somewhere safe. Fortunately the aliens were controlling this part, as they had muton guards placed around the streets, almost as a way to guide people the way forward.
It was actually very helpful. Where there were aliens, it was safe.
It made a lot more sense why XCOM was so secretive now. They were trying to hide the truth. The aliens weren't here to conquer or attack, they were here to save them. If they were so bad, why was he still alive?
There were a lot more people here now, men, women, children, all with blank, dazed expressions on their faces. Trying to process the reality that they had almost died horribly. How they would have died if the aliens hadn't intervened.
But hope was in sight. There was some kind of massive alien transport on the ground, right before the auction house. All around him were dead people, fakes, he supposed. But the amount of aliens was increased as well. No instructions were given because they were so obvious. Board the ship to find shelter.
Robert did notice one alien different from the others. It stood just off to the side of the ramp, flanked by two muton-like creatures in red armor and ornate helmets. They towered over the smaller being in the middle. Although even this small alien was at least eight feet high, and cloaked in some kind of orange robe that obscured the face.
He felt some stirring of curiosity, so he tried peering under it and only caught a glimpse of two purple glowing eyes which met his.
Go inside.
He swallowed and quickly broke eye contact. Right. Probably a good idea. They knew what they were doing.
So he entered the ship, together with hundreds of others, knowing that no matter what happened or what would happen…
They would be safe here.
He knew that.
Skyranger, En Route to Abduction Zone
It was really happening.
Everyone was silent on the skyranger, a mix of angry, conflicted, scared and concerned. When news of Australia being attacked hit, the Commander had made the rather obvious decision not to intervene. Not only would they have been significantly outnumbered, but there were sightings of multiple Ethereals on the scene.
Australia was lost, and buying the rest of the world precious time to prepare.
And it seemed that they were also going back to their old methods as a town in France had just gone dark. Not only just gone dark, but they'd been explicitly warned that aliens were here right before the line had been cut off.
At least this was something they could deal with.
As for herself…she was resigned. They'd more or less known it would happen, just not where or when. Still, it was one thing to prepare for it, another to see an entire continent fall to a sustained alien attack.
It was a good thing the Demeter Contingency and ADVENT were ready to go, because time was up.
"How long do you think it will take them?" Jerra Ixe asked, one of the newer soldiers from Mexico. A quiet woman, but an excellent field medic. Of all of them, she seemed the most distressed by the carnage from the attacks. Not surprising given her profession, but she could keep her composure.
"A day, a week, who knows?" Mordecai shrugged. "Depends on what their goal is. I would guess they want it as a staging ground, since they can pretty much attack anywhere from Australia. At most it will buy us a week."
"But where next?" Blake wondered. "Every border nation is vulnerable."
"Probably China," Shun said tonelessly. "Maybe South America or the United States. Maybe all at once."
"Hey," Patricia interjected, and all of them looked to her. "We knew this was coming eventually and we can't afford to let it overwhelm us. We've held the aliens at every turn before, and we'll keep doing it. Doesn't matter where they attack next, we'll be prepared for it that time."
Several helmets nodded, and she focused on strengthening their focus. Their resolve. Hope was going to be important going forward, and she'd do her best to keep them inspired by whatever means she could. "Now there are people that need our help. Let's save these people here."
"Sounds like a plan," Carmelita agreed, pulling her alloy cannon closer to her chest. "They have a lot to atone for."
"Psion Trask, we're approaching the LZ now," Big Sky warned as the skyranger lights flashed red. "No signals coming from the town. But I do see bodies."
Patricia pursed her lips. It was going to be one of those missions. The ones people wished they could forget. Funny how that was now just a slightly more disturbing one for XCOM soldiers compared to some stuff they'd seen. Regular corpses were just not shocking anymore.
"Get ready!" She ordered, standing up and walking to the end as the skyranger leveled out. Once the soldiers gathered behind her, the ramp opened with a hiss and ropes fell to the ground. Patricia grasped one and let herself slide down until she hit the hard concrete.
And immediately noticed something was off.
She looked around the town. Just regular shops, undamaged. No fires. No signs of a battle. Not even any car crashes. Sure, some were stopped in the middle of the street with bodies slumped inside them…but they were intact, some even still running.
That was when she realized two more things.
The people around here weren't dead and there was something else here. A psion.
She froze upon that revelation. It probably wasn't a Hive Commander. They seemed to not want to participate on missions like these, and she was certain that they would have at least killed the civilians. That only left one option.
An Ethereal.
"What is it?" Carmelita asked, coming up to her.
"Jerra, check the bodies," Patricia ordered, motioning them to move forward. "Blake, do the same."
They rushed off and knelt beside some on the street. "They're alive," Jerra muttered. "They don't seem hurt…just unconscious."
"Same," Blake confirmed, standing up. "But I don't think it's natural."
"What a brilliant observation," Shun stated, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "What could have possibly given that away? The dozens of people around us?"
"Enough!" Patricia interjected, raising a hand. "We keep moving. And be ready. There's a powerful psion here. Possibly an Ethereal. Did you get that, Commander?"
"I got it," he confirmed grimly. "Do you want to pull out?"
Patricia looked around the town filled with unconscious bodies. "Not yet…this was clearly a message for us. I want to see why it was left."
"Then proceed."
They kept going forward, weapons at the ready, watching and listening for any sort of activity. And yet there was nothing. It was unnaturally quiet. All that was around them were lifeless buildings, dying cars and unconscious people.
But better unconscious than dead.
It was still too quiet.
The sounds of their breathing were the only things they heard as they kept going. Turning down streets and signs, as Patricia led them closer to the source of the power. And it was close, close enough she could touch it's mind if she wanted. But not yet, she didn't want to give their exact location away yet.
Of course…if it was an Ethereal, it would probably already know they were here.
Correction: That she was here.
Shun was the first to say the dreaded words.
"Ethereal!"
Standing in the middle of the street stood the alien. It reminded her of the Ravaged One if he had been restored to his full glory. The curved and styled silver helm with the gaping middle was pristine and bore no scars or gouges in the metal. It's robes were a deep blue with silver streaking down them, looking like they had just been created.
It's arms were tucked inside the robes, but aside from that, she saw it easily towered over her. At least three meters tall, even from this distance. It was already facing them, so it had clearly known they were here. But there was an aura around it, an effect that elicited feelings of safety, fortitude, and defense.
It was an aura of empowerment.
So it was no surprise that Patricia felt no hesitation when she gave orders. "Carmelita, circle around for a flank. Everyone else, spread out and open fire. I'll lock down its mind."
"On it!" Carmelita yelled and charged forward while the rest of them raised their weapons as Patricia let hers drop and gathered her power.
Lasers and lead sped towards the Ethereal who withdrew an arm covered in a blue and silver sleeve and simply lowered it in front of itself, palm forward. A purple shield appeared, absorbing the initial barrage and the barrier grew to completely encircle the Ethereal.
They didn't let up the attack, instead moving to being circling around it as Patricia launched her attack on its mind. It was easy to direct her power to in the sea of unconscious minds, but that didn't make it easy. She immediately found out it was an impenetrable fortress, one completely sealed off in a way she hadn't ever seen before.
She felt nothing from it. No emotions or stray thoughts. She could sense the power radiating off it, but nothing specific.
Which might be a problem. This Ethereal was clearly focused on defense, which was both good and bad. Good in that it might not have dangerous attacks.
Bad in that it might literally be impossible to kill.
The Ethereal withdrew all his arms and extended them to the attacking soldiers, purple energy encasing them. Patricia suddenly found herself unable to move, and she saw the others were the same way, sheathed in a transparent bubble encasing each of them. Stasis fields.
And he was maintaining eight at once.
Luckily she wasn't defenseless.
She threw everything she had at another mental assault on the Ethereal. Trying everything to pierce the unbreakable shield around its mind. But she might as well have been trying to crack diamond for all the good it did her.
The Ethereal withdrew the arm that had been projecting the shield around it and the purple shield vanished, and it turned its head directly to her, and then she was under attack. It wasn't painful, but she hadn't expected the ferocity of the attack. The efficiency. It was direct. Focused. Her mental defenses were a cracking wall she hadn't even known had been damaged.
She was now growing terrified that they'd made a major miscalculation. The first Ethereal may have been much weaker than they'd thought.
But this one was one actually representative of their power.
It suddenly broke through, and she literally saw her life flash before her eyes as the Ethereal seemingly sifted through her thoughts at a speed that might have been seconds or hours. But she was witness of every agonizing second of it. If she hadn't know it was happening, she suspected she wouldn't have felt a thing.
But there was that little bit of pressure in her head that didn't go away.
Then it was gone and they all collapsed to the ground as the stasis fields vanished.
All of them immediately rose and began raising their weapons. "Wait!" Patricia called, stepping forward, eyeing the Ethereal in disbelief. That shouldn't have happened.
Why had it let them go?
"Circle around," she muttered. "But don't fire."
The rest of them were as surprised as her, but the Ethereal's aura was immediately making them more sure of themselves, allowing them to gather their thoughts faster and compose themselves quicker. They cautiously approached the towering Ethereal who seemed as disinterested in them as before.
When she was about three meters away the Ethereal turned his head to her. "Put your weapons down, Psion Trask. You will not need them." His voice was deep, echoing in her mind and reverberating the air around him. Goosebumps broke out on her upon hearing it. Because she now knew who it was. The Commander had described his voice perfectly.
"Aegis…" she said in disbelief. "Why are…"
One arm withdrew and Shun and Mordecai raised their weapons, only to be waved down by Patricia. The opposite arm withdrew, and so did the lower two, all raised up to signal non-aggression. She watched in disbelief as he slowly lowered himself to his knees, though even that only lowered him to eye level with her.
Was he actually…?
"I surrender," Aegis said. "Take me to the Commander."
To be concluded in XCOM: The Advent Directive
A/N: Yes, a cliffhanger, I know. But I didn't really see a better way to end it...and now it's all done. The Atlas Protocal is completed, close to a year later than when I first started it. Kind of hard to believe, and it's been without a doubt one of the highlights of that year to actually write out. This ended up being a lot bigger than I'd originally expected, both in word count and in the number or readers. A sincere thank you to everyone who provided feedback in any way, be it through reviews, PMs or email. All of it was useful to me and I hope you can see that I do my best to put that feedback into actual practice. May take a few chapters, but it does happen.
I'd also like to thank my beta reader (Known on here as Johnclaw Dragonhelm) for helping make this story work, and preventing me from making some quesitonable plot decisions as well as more critical feedback which I needed. I'd also like to recognize a couple of people, Bloodsplatboom (What he goes by) and another who wishes to remain anonymous, who have consistantly provided technical feedback on errors me or my beta missed from both the Hades Contingency and Atlas Protocol. If you notice older chapters seem improved, it is because of their suggestions.
For the final round of thanks, definitely my regular reviewers, in particular Thuzan117, Denalian, SniperRecce, Areleh and honestly anyone who leaves a level of feedback worthy of conversation. Also those who provided more critical feedback, in particular Aodyssey and baud001. I will also regonize the guest reviewers, who even though I can't reply to, I do see what you write. I also want to highlight Sancer, who is still undertaking the impressive task of translating the Hades Contingency to Spanish. I'd say go check it out, and even if you don't speak it, it's worth putting thorugh Google Translate to see some of the translations (Link: s/12242935/1/XCOM-The-Hades-Contingency-Traduccion-Espa%C3%B1ol-Oficial)
So, now looking forward. There is quite a bit I'm looking forward to writing, which includes but is certainly not limited to: ADVENT, the Ethereals, Vitakara, warfare geopolitics, and a lot of other stuff. It's not going to be an easy road for ADVENT to unite humanity, and XCOM defend it, but they have the means to make it happen, whatever the cost. It should go without saying that the scope is going to be (Somehow) larger, encompassing much more than Earth, and not quite in the way you might expect. It should kinda be obvious by now, but don't be expecting the regular Enemy Within ending. That of course is being reworked to fit better in the world i've constructed. But I think that the changes will be as well-recieved as some others.
Now when to expect it? Probably no earlier than two weeks from now, if that. I'm going to be spending time establishing (Internally) exactly how everything works, specific species history, noteable characters, enemy units. Not to mention the story outline itself, and the POV characters I'll be writing. As this will be the last book in the trilogy, I fully intend to take my time and do it right. But I can promise that I will do my best to make it worth it. As it's looking right now, it will likely surpass the Atlas Protocol in length but that really does remain to be seen.
But now I do have a request for all the readers: Please give your feedback on the Atlas Protocol and trilogy as a whole. Feedback is critical to authors and I'm no exception. A few ideas have come about as a result of conversations I've had between other readers and the story probably won't be as good without them. So tell me if you like it/didn't like it, what worked, what didn't, what could be improved, thoughts on the various characters/organizations/aliens, etc. You get the idea. And if that feedback is a scathing breakdown of the story, than by all means write it. I'll take it just as seriously as the others (Provided it's well thought-out and reasoned, of course). I don't hide negative feedback, and ultimately it does usually prove to be sometimes more useful in the long run. But either way, it will help ensure that the Advent Directive will be the best that I can do.
For some closing thoughts, I can safely say that I'm happy with my work here, and do consider it ultimately a superior work to the Hades Contingency. I've improved and want to continue doing so, and I believe that will happen. Thanks once again to everyone for sticking with and reading my story, I do this just as much for you now as for myself. Thank you.
See you in the Advent Directive.
-Xabiar