February 28, 2035 - XCOM mobile command base 'Avenger'

As commander Faleg thought over what to do with supplies he then had a thought in his head and gave a message to Shen.

"we have no suppression and no way to control enemy fire and we got very lucky in that first mission." He said to Shen.

"Well commander we could build some Flash-bang Grenades, they can disorient and disrupt the enemy aim and abilities, they have be known to knock out Sectoid psi abilities." Shen showed Faleg the Flash-bang Grenade's blueprints.

"I will take two." Faleg replied to Shen.

"Commander doing that will use a major of our supplies we could build one Flash-bang Grenade and one Medikit or Smoke Grenade." After hearing Faleg's suggestion.

"It would be better not to be hit in the first place." Faleg said.

"OK commander." As Shen and her GREMLINs quickly built the two Flash-bangs.

With the XCOM mobile command base the 'Avenger', a former alien transport ship, active again, it began flying around to gather resources and help get to area of interest with the first one they found something about some intact structures which should lead to some rookies and take four days.

After scanning the area, they found four people how was living in the area and they then join xcom as rookies soldiers and right after that a report of an old Battlefield in the area of New Brunswick which would have valuable supplies which would take a few days.

But a day later the 'Modular Weapons' research was completed.

Codename: Tinker

'We've had the troops digging through scrap piles and looting corpses, and at this point, it's safe to say they're on constant vigil for anything we could use to improve our gear. All the raw materials in the world won't mean anything if I can't find a use for them, but I think this modular weapon system is a good start. Having pushed our existing designs about as far as I thought possible, the integration of a few key alien components provided the much needed stability we've been looking for. With these modifications in place, we should be able to attach larger upgrades for even more firepower. The troops will like that. L. Shen.'

'Research Unlocked: Magnetic Weapons'

'Items Unlocked: Weapon Upgrades'

After Tygan rest the research lab to start a new research project, Commander Faleg gave him the authorisation to have a look at the chip which he had removed from the commander brain's Occipital lobe (Alien Biotech) though Faleg was interested in Magnetic Weapons but Tygan estimated the time to be about 2 months which was way too long for him till he got Tygan some help.

But after just a day or two a new mission popped up, a Guerrilla Ops:

'Operation Knife Shriek'

Objective:

Hack the Workstation in ADVENT Facility.

Reward:

Dr. John King – Engineer

Location:

New Mexico formerly Yuma, Arizona, USA

"An engineer could help build the Guerrilla Tactics School fast." As Faleg talk with Bradford, Shen and Tygan in the bridge of the Avenger

"Or we could have him clear out some space on the Avenger but we need to complete the mission." Shen gave her opinion

"Well then it decided let's go" as Bradford took control and in a random corridor two XCOM personnel were thrown into the wall as Bradford's flying sent all unprepared personal and everything thing not bolted down flying as Bradford flew.

"Bradford you were just in the bar weren't you." As the commander was holding on for dear life.

"maybe." Bradford replied trying to cover himself but then hiccuping as the ship's automatic balancer took over keeping the ship barely stable as it headed off to over to northwest New Mexico.

'Operation Knife Shriek'

'BRIEFING: Hack workstation – ADVENT Facility'

OBJECTIVE:

Neutralize all enemy forces.

Recover Equipment Allocations from ADVENT network.

Soldiers:

-Ivan 'Cypher' Ivanovic (Specialist), just like last mission but now having a red GREMLIN

-Monica 'Payback' Yeager (rookie), a woman from the USA, she had red and black Kevlar armour with an orange rife she took a Frag Grenade.

-Gabriel Yu (rookie), he was a Chinese male, who was middle aged with black hair in a ponytail with a pair of glasses and wearing the Kevlar armour with its colour being a light tan with the leggings and pouch being a light brown colour and his rife being a similar colour to his armour. He took a Flash-bang Grenade for the mission.

-Ray Deft (rookie), a British man with black hair and glasses with red Kevlar armour and white leggings and a purple rifle, he took the other Flash-bang Grenade for the mission.

At the Skyranger, Ivan looked over to the rookies as all looked ready for the mission.

"Well I hope your ready I've been brought along to keep an eye one you and to help with the hacking as I can get my little friend to help as it has better hacking ability and can do it remotely." As Ivan chat to the rookies and had a look at the red GREMLIN that he was given after becoming a Specialist.

"Then why not just send the GREMLIN." As Ray look over at the GREMLIN.

"They need a handler and should one get captured I fear what might happen." As Ivan check his GREMLIN as it gave off little beeps and boops.

"quite an interesting piece of tech." Monica said about Ivan's GREMLIN

"Well If I die you have him." Ivan said back to Monica jokingly

"Keep that chatter down there, were just about to get to the AO!" the pilot shouted back in as they got to the drop site.

As the soldier set down they were next to a house with a car and a basketball Backboard right in front of the car with a dog house and swing set in the garden with a warehouse just north west which had the still on ADVENT workstation but the network was to be shut down in a few minutes.

"we could move up and hack it through the window and that should take 3 minutes if we have no resistance." Faleg gave some order to the soldiers

"I will scout ahead." Gabriel said as he moved up to some bins and could see down the street and could see a car and a bus stop and the back exit to the warehouse and then dash over to a tree stump and saw a Security Tower with two trees next to it.

"I will join you." as Monica ran up to a boiler by the house.

Then Ivan and Ray both ran up to the big Cactus but as they got there a Sectoid walk over but it didn't notice them but since ray was flanked he went over to a piece of cover.

Both Gabriel and Monica got ready to open fire with Ray aiming up to shoot the Sectoid and when he did he got off a really good hit and Gabriel finished it off but in the house there was a ADVENT trooper with Ivan getting ready to shot that trooper should it get in visible range but as it ran to through the house Monica got a shot on it and killed it.

Gabriel then moved up to a big bin but spotted 2 troopers and another Sectoid who then went to cover with Ray's response being to move up to the warehouse which the enemies were located and then threw a Flash-bang Grenade disorientating all of them.

Monica then ran over to the same bin that Gabriel was using as cover. And then threw a Frag Grenade destroying part of the wall.

Meanwhile Ivan had his GREMLIN going over to the Security Tower to see what he could hack out of it. The GREMLIN gave a 56% chance to get anything out of it but decide against it so his GREMLIN return to him so he took a shot at one of the troopers and badly injured it with Gabriel deciding to shoot the other trooper missing it.

The unharmed trooper then opened fire on Ray killing him instantly despite the trooper being Flash-Banged.

"Holy fuck, he was flashed-banged." Faleg said over the radio with Monica, Ivan and Gabriel think along the same lines.

While the other trooper moved to get a shot on Gabriel but missed all while the Sectoid got back into a more defensive area to help overcome the Flash-bang.

Monica then ran to get a better position to shot one of the troopers but took a hit from the Sectoid's wrist plasma gun surviving it but panicked as a result and fire upon the trooper and destroyed the only piece of cover that the trooper had. Ivan then threw a grenade but it destroyed the cover of the other trooper and injured the trooper with Gabriel finishing off one of the troopers.

But just after that the effect of the Flash-bang Grenade faded the Sectoid used Psi-Panic making Ivan panic and move up to the building, missing as he tried to shoot the Sectoid while the remaining trooper moved to a flank position on Monica but for some reason he tried to shot at Gabriel and missed ignoring an easy kill.

With Gabriel the only XCOM operative not panicking he threw his Flash-bang at the trooper but after that the Sectoid decide to raise a dead ADVENT trooper as a psi-zombie despite it having multiple bullet holes in it and it's orange blood covering its armor.

"No respite for the dead – the aliens have found a way to mind-control them now." As central noted about the psi-zombie while the trooper moved to the bus stop and shot at Gabriel with the same effect as last time.

"Menace 1-5 the ADVENT network is almost locked down. We're running out of time, get to that terminal." As central told them that they had only 3 minutes 'till network lock down.

Since both Ivan and Monica manage to shake of the panic, Monica decided to run over to the Security Tower which got to a flanking position then the trooper said something that sounded like

"Don't shoot me!"

But she missed destroying his cover. Then Gabriel ran over to a tree which gave him a flank on the trooper with the last shot in his magazine he killed the trooper. After that Ivan ran over to the remains of the bus stop as he tries to outrun the zombie but the Sectoid followed him and shot Ivan.

Monica went over to the tree behind her and took a shot at the zombie with the last shot in her clip. While Ivan went over to some debris but could not see the workstation so he took a shot at the zombie killing it meanwhile Gabriel reloaded and got ready to shoot any enemy that got close.

"Menace 1-5, the ADVENT network terminal is shutting down. This is your last chance to secure the data!" Central shouted as they had less than a minute to hack it.

As Ivan moved up he got a clear look at the workstation it had on it screen 'update 471 out of 480'

"GO!" Ivan screamed as the GREMLIN went over and hacked it, also it had some satellite data that will help increase the Avenger scanning capacity for a few weeks.

"We've confirmed successful acquisition of the ADVENT files, eliminate any remaining hostiles in the area." Bradford informed the XCOM operatives.

As the GREMLIN came back to Ivan it went through the door and left them open.

"No way, dammit, I'm exposed." Ivan said as the GREMLIN flew through the door opening it and when it got back he knock it on the top part as a result it looked sad.

"Don't worry we will cover you" as Gabriel moved up and got ready while Monica reloaded and got ready to supply covering fire as well.

But after about a minute nothing happening as the Sectoid which they were waiting for didn't move forward so Gabriel, with Ivan, moved up to doorway, despite his injuries, then had his GREMLIN have another look at Security Tower but it was not worth it as failing would bring in ADVENT reinforcement which in their state they couldn't take. After Monica moved up they all got ready to open fire on anything alien or ADVENT.

But just as they got ready some ADVENT troopers and an officer appeared with Ivan killing one trooper but the Sectoid from earlier had joined them, Monica got the other trooper and Gabriel got a shot on the officer, but it managed stayed alive.

Ivan then reloaded and closed the door and went to a solid bit of wall with Gabriel joining him, while Monica went a bit more behind the car and got ready.

The Sectoid moved up and summoning a new zombie, being Ray's dead body, and the trooper moved up.

With the ADVENT moving up Ivan and Gabriel took the chance to flank the Sectoid and load bullets into it killing it and turning off the zombie, dropping some loot, with Monica moving up to the boxes by the door keeping her rifle ready to shoot if the remaining ADVENT officer moved.

But the officer then moves to a wall which Monica couldn't see and then the officer opened fire on Ivan the first shot hitting his shoulder which caused his chest to be exposed with most of the shots going through his chest killing him instantly and sending his body crashing into the wall, the remaining shots hit the GREMLIN knocking it offline.

"Hahahaha!" as the officer laughed at the death of Ivan, not realising that both of his enemies were in position to kill it with Gabriel picking up the loot which was an 'Elerium Core' and an 'Alien Data Cache'. But Monica opened fire on the ADVENT officer and emptied her rifle's clip into it ensuring that the officer was dead for good.

"To hell with you." Her rifle was clicking because it was out of ammo and she collapsed from exhaustion and injuries.

"Status confirmed, all hostiles are down and the area is secure." As central radioed in.

"Monica are you OK?" Gabriel ran over to check on Monica as she had some injuries during the mission.

"I think my legs still work." As Monica began to help get the ADVENT bodies into one pile while putting Ivan and Ray's bodies side by side. When they got in to Skyranger Ivan and Ray's bodies got as much respect as they could get while the ADVENT and aliens got a big pile of no respect what so ever. Meanwhile Gabriel helped bandage Monica's injuries the best he could, as she held on to Ivan's GREMLIN while sitting in one of the Skyranger seats.

"Well we're going to have to explain what happened to the commander." Monica said as video feed from commander Faleg was displayed.

"look I saw what happen and we just got unlucky as that trooper was stunned and I couldn't see any other way it could go with that time limit." As the commander said in a sober voice and looked over to Ivan. "we only made it in the last minute."

As the Skyranger landed with the commander and support staff some being medics and the ones in charge of the coroner with two body bags.

Monica got to be a Specialist with Gabriel getting to be sharpshooter

About 2 hours later at the Avenger's makeshift medic room

It was a room on the Avenger with on the door it had the red cross on with a few single beds with the medic healing the injuries with the only two soldier being Nytmare and Monica but then the commander and Shen had a trolley with a cover over something.

"Monica I believed that you had an interest in GREMLINs and well we do need one after Ivan's passing."

"I will take up Ivan's post sir." As Monica brought up a shake salute.

"well I got something for you. Shen." She took off the cover showing the rebuilt GREMLIN that belonged to Ivan.

"Can I name it." Monica asked Shen as the GREMLIN began to fly around.

"Well I can set it's call name." Shen answered.

"Come over here, your call name is now Cypher." Monica said with the GREMLIN nodding to the best of it ability's.

Later during that night

"Today we lost two of our good men: Ray Deft and Ivan 'Cypher' Ivanovic. They fell to give us all a fighting chance… Vigilo, Confido." As both their bodies were burned in a funeral pyre and the ashes scattered with the soldier going to the bar to drink to their memory.

As commander Faleg got into the contact room, turning on the computer with a message from the council man but in an anti-ADVENT encryption.

"Hello, commander. The council you once knew is no more. Its membership has all sworn loyalty to the ADVENT administration. With one exception. It is good to see you again. In the days since your capture I have done all I can to aid the resistance from the inside. It was these resistance operatives that provided the Intel leading to your recent extraction. As of now, resistance forces are currently somewhat… disorganized. If we are to defeat ADVENT and their alien masters, you must change this before it is too late." As it then showed an alien file. "What you are seeing are classified reports of missing civilians from across the world. Their numbers are growing. We suspect they have been taken to a nearby ADVENT black site, though its exact location remains unknown. Time is short, commander. We need you to take charge of resistance operatives throughout the world. Establish contact with the local cells and bring them into the fold. Find this black site and shut it down. Save our world. The clock is ticking. Good luck, Commander." As the video shut off.

It had a message attached 'good to see you again commander here's the location of the black site is in the eastern US and here's how to get in contact with the local. Have Tygan have a look at it. The councillor.'

A day later the New Mexican resistance member handed over Dr. John King and he introduced to every one, then was put building the Guerrilla Tactics School cutting the building time by half. But it got even better as some resistance members found a distress beacon which belonged to a well know scientist who had been in hiding for some years which commander Faleg had looked at.

And with that XCOM had some new goals both short and long term.