"So, what can you do?" Karl asked. They were in the bar, Aya was behind serving drinks, Keith was sitting with a scotch, Karl was next to him with his own drink, and the new girl, Eva, was sitting next to him with a drink as well, Maxim had been sitting with a drink, but had been forced to try and explain how the Psionics work to Keith, after butchering the explanation, Karl then asked his question.

"Well, I can do the, Mindfray thing, where I just hurt and disorientate them" Maxim answered

"Well we know that, anything else?"

"Vahlen said more powers would probably develop as time went on, but so far, I've only had one"

"Well. What is it?" Asked Eva.

"If I focus, I can, do a thing, I don't know how to explain how it works, because, I'm actually not sure myself. But, basically, I can, kinda see through some materials"

Eva began slowly moving her arms to cover her breasts

"I'm not doing it now"

"What can you see through?" Karl asked

"I'm not completely sure, I haven't tested it properly yet, I can see through skin, and... Other things. But I can't look through metal, or things like that"

"Can you control what you look through, or do you go full X-Ray" Karl asked again

"It takes me quite a bit of focus, but I can only see through what I like and-" he noticed Eva starting to look really uncomfortable "-and this is just making me seem like a creep isn't it"

"No, it's fine it's just. A bit, disconcerting to know you could... Do that" Eva replied, still looking uncomfortable

"If I really wanted to look at... Those. I have a computer" Maxim replied, he was starting to feel uncomfortable as well

"What's the problem with it?" Aya asked, hoping over the bar with her own drink "If he wanted to it's not like it's going to affect you in any way"

Eva looked at Aya with a strange expression

"She is a sociopath. She doesn't understand emotion very well" Keith explained

"I thought she was a psychopath" Karl replied

"They are difficult to define, but Sociopath sounds better, so I prefer to use it"

"Anyway. Sorry if I'm making your uncomfortable, I wish I'd not mentioned it" Maxim apologised

"No, it's fine, I'd rather know" she was still sat with her arms crossed over her chest "And, from what the others have said about you, and your file, you don't seem like the type to abuse that anyway"

"Wait. I have a file?" Maxim asked

"The Commander has files on all of you. He has to send them to the council so they know what you guys are up to. I read them before I came here, so I'd know who I'd be working with"

"The file didn't mention Aya's thing?" Karl asked

"Not in any detail"

"Anywa-" Keith began

"Would Operatives: Maxim Popov, William Ward, Aya Haidar, Masambe Digkale, Keith Taylor, and Karl Wagner, please report to the Hangar"

"Well, looks we go gotta go" Karl said, finishing his drink and getting up "Seeya later"

"Yeah, talk to you later" Eva replied, going back to her drink

"Again, sorry for making you uncomfortable" Maxim said as he got up

"No, it's fine, don't worry. Just head out and kill some aliens" Eva smiled

"Hey Max, check it out" Karl walked into the hangar, with a new suit of armour, very similar to Maxim's, but coloured red instead of black. "I got a new suit"

"When did this happen?"

"While you were doing your training" Maxim had stayed in the training area for a few days longer to train some more

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to make it a surprise. It's more fun this way"

"Did you re-pain the skyranger as well?"

"Yep. Big Crysalid head now. I figured it was more fitting than a shark"

"I can't believe Shen hasn't made you fix it"

"I think he likes it. He just doesn't want to admit it. So he's pretending he hasn't noticed it"

"Did anything else happen while I was busy that no-one told me about"

"Not that I can think of"

"Vampire, see anything" William asked as they exited the Skyranger, emerging into the forest the ship had landed in. They always seemed to land in forests.

Maxim looked around, focusing his powers and engaging his X-Ray vision. He didn't have his helmet on this time. They'd done some tests, and something in the helmets disrupted his ability to focus his powers. He'd need to watch his head during this mission. His eyes took on a slight purple glow as his Psionic enhanced their vision. He scanned the area, the bushes and the tops of tree's becoming almost invisible to him. He looked around, he couldn't see any aliens, but they could be hiding behind trees or hills. He saw a shape in the distance, which he couldn't see through, it wasn't a plant, too long. He stopped focusing and his eye's return to normal. "Over there" he pointed with his rifle "Just over that hill"

"Excellent" William said "Everyone, move to the hill, stick together. Remember, this was a landing, not a crash, they may know we're here"

They began jogging towards the hill. Maxim and Karl began to outpace the others, the servo's in their armour allowing them to out-run the others with ease.

"Muton's" Karl called. he took cover behind a fallen tree, and bringing up his rifle to take a shot as it dropped behind a tree, skimming the edge of the tree, Maxim dropping down next to him.

"More of them" Maxim called, as 3 more Muton's showed up on the other side of the hill "Oh crap". 2 Thin men also appeared, dropping down from tree's.

"Grouping" William called, brining his rocket up, firing at the Muton's on the left that Karl had spotted. Destroying the rock's they were hiding behind, killing one, and badly hurting the others.

Suddenly, Aya appeared on the right side, taking cover behind a tree, and firing at one of the Muton's, which immediately turned and ran off.

Maxim got up, and fired at the Muton Karl had driven into cover, his shot missed his initial target, but struck another Muton as it ran past into it's own cover, striking straight into the gun. "Nice" Karl said, as he vaulted the log, and ran to another tree to get a better angle, and fired at the one Aya had scared off as it was running back to a rock outcrop, 2 shots struck the alien, one hitting the back of the knee, making it stumble, and the other shot drove straight into it's skull as it fell over.

The rest of the squad were moving up, taking cover behind the log Maxim was behind, and another one behind him.

One of the Muton's on the left side ran off, Maxim tried to take a shot, but it had already disappeared behind some rocks. One of the Thin Men raised it's pistol and took a shot, but the plasma bolt struck the tree Aya was behind.

The other Muton's began moving forward, Karl took a pot shot, but the Muton ducked under the laser. One of the Muton's tried to take a shot, but the weapon didn't fire. Maxim realized it was the Muton Maxim had hit in the gun.

Aya sprinted over, and pumped a shell into one of the Muton's, dropping it to the ground. Keith raised his rifle and fired at the last one on the right, the shot missed the Muton, but struck the tree it was hiding behind, the top part of the tree toppled to the ground, the shots weakening the trunk enough that it couldn't support the weight. The Muton was left partly out of cover now. Masambe raise his LMG, and began spraying at the tree with light. The Muton quickly dropped, it and the tree completely destroyed by the laser fire.

Maxim was about to take another shot, but, put his rifle away, and ran forward, putting his should against a tree, and, looking at the Muton, projecting his thoughts into the creatures head. He heard a screech, but no-one else did, and the creature didn't open it's mouth. The Muton dropped to the floor.

"It's running!" William called, levelling his LMG and firing at the Thin Man as it ran. Maxim didn't know what had happened to the other one, but saw it's dead body nearby. The Thin Man outran William's spray, leaping up a hill and running down it, out of sight.

"He'll be getting friends" Keith called.

As if in answer to his statement, 3 Muton's came running down the side of the cliff the Thin Man had jumped up. One of the Muton's was a head taller than the others, and had no gun in it's hands, one of the 'Berserker' variants, as they'd been dubbed by Karl.

Maxim quickly spun his rifle around, firing a shot into the Berserker, the shot drove directly into it's skull, and burned a hole through, but it merely roared, and continued running at them.

"Damn it" Karl shouted as he ran over, and fired a volley into it's chest, the shot driving into it's chest, it turned and began charging at him"Is there anything important in that thing we can shoot at", he fired his 2nd shot, but the laser skimmed the Berserker's shoulder, burning the plate of it's armour.

There was a loud whirring noise, and Maxim glanced to his right, and saw William, standing behind a nearby tree, raising his LMG, and spraying the Berserker. The shots pummelled into it's legs and stomach, punching through the armour, the thing stumbled and fell, but dragged itself back to it's feet. Keith and Masambe both raised their guns and fired at one of the Muton's, as it raised up from it's tree to fire, wrecking the tree, and dropping the Muton under a hail of lasers.

The other Muton took the opportunity to fire off a shot as the others killed it's friend. Firing a bolt at Karl, which skimmed the side of the tree as Karl dropped to the ground to avoid the shot, the alien took the opportunity to try and keep him there, firing repeatedly around the tree to prevent Karl from being able to move. There was a loud roar, followed by a shout of pain, and Maxim turned to see the Berserker, a mess of green, acidic blood, greyish bone, and red and green armour, fall onto William, claw arm first, as it was finally dropped by the hail of lasers being fired into it by William. The claws punched clean through the armour over William's stomach, as the weight of the creature drove William, and it's claws, straight into the ground, pinning him beneath the alien carcass.

Keith runs over, and began helping William get the creature off him. Maxim turned, saw that the Muton was too behind it's tree for him to get a shot off on it, that would do more than burn it's armour, so he lowered his rifle, and focused, there was the familiar mental roar of pain as the alien stopped firing to hold it's head in pain. Karl took the brief respite from the supressing fire, to fire his grappling hook into a tree near to the Muton, pulling himself across the gap before the Muton could recover from the Mindfray, bringing up his rifle to take a shot, and firing a shot at the alien as it was disorientated, but it dropped to the ground at the last second, whether that was from the pain of the Mindfray, or because it was ducking was unclear, but never-the-less Karl's shot went high, one boring into the tree, the other burning a hole through the alien ship.

Maxim felt a burning sensation in his side, and quickly dropped to the ground, turning to see the Muton that had run off, lowering it's rifle as it went back behind a tree. Maxim fired his grapple into a tree, and zipped into a new position, almost slamming into the tree, but slowing down enough to not smash his head against the trunk, he brought up his pistol and fired, the bolt boring a hole clean through the alien's skull. He then slumped back down, and looked at his wound, he had a long plasma burn down his side, going from just below his armpit, to his hip. Maxim grimaced as the pain fully set in, and wondered why it was that you never really felt the pain of wounds until you looked at it. "You alright" Maxim turned to see Keith standing next to him, a med kit in hand. Maxim was about to respond, when he heard a roar, and looked over to see Aya, right next to the remaining Muton, fire a shot into it's head, a destroying it. "Damn, Psycho can move fast" Keith remarked.

"Yeah. Can you, uh, do the thing?" Maxim asked

"Oh yes" Keith replied, turning back and spraying his wound with the spray, the pain dissipated almost immediately. Keith then brought out another kit, and sprayed that over the area, and a cement-like substance was sprayed over the gap in his armour, sealing up the crack with a tough, flexible substance, not as strong as the armour it was sitting between, but strong enough to act as armour for the time being.

"Thanks" Maxim replied.

"Rest up for a second, reload and get ready. We're moving into the ship in a few minutes" William said, climbing up the hill, taking position behind a tree, and loading in a new cell into his LMG.

Maxim ejected his cell, and inserted a new one, as the others likewise reloaded and rested up for a few seconds.

"Vampire, see anything?" William asked

Maxim engaged Psionic vision and looked around, but he couldn't see anything around, and couldn't see through the plating of the ship. "I can't see anything outside. And the ship's too dense to see through"

"Very well then. Spray, Psycho, lead the way in. Whirr, you and I will follow them in. Vampire, Scotch, bring up the rear" William said

They all began moving towards the 'front door' of the ship. As the 'Assault's' moved in, a bolt of plasma came from the ship, heading straight for Aya, who rolled, going under the bolt, and coming up by the hole in the side, swinging round with her gun in hand. "It's gone" she called, moving into the ship.

They formed up in the ship. Aya and Karl taking cover beside a hole leading to the middle, William and Masambe crouching behind consoles. Maxim and Keith taking position by the 'front door'.

"Move in" William called.

Aya and Keith began heading in. Maxim saw a railing, or something like that, through the hole, and fired his grappling hook, catching the railing, and pulling himself through the hole, joining up with Keith and Aya. "Hey. Where'd you come from" Karl said.

Maxim felt something strange, and turned, to see a Thin Man running in from the side 'side door' to the room the others were in, he raised his pistol, and fired, just as Keith did the same from the other room. The alien was caught between the shots, and had it's chest and head vaporised by the laser and plasma together.

"Vampire, Spray, take the left door. Psycho, take the right. Open the door, take some shots, then fall back, draw them out " William called, pointing to the control room "Everyone else, form up here, and get ready"

They ran to their positions. Maxim took position by the door closest to the others, Karl taking the other side.

Aya passed her hand through the door, at the same time that Karl did. Maxim saw 2 of the 'Commander' variants of the Sectoid's, behind the wall Aya was behind, Karl raise his rifle, and fired, his shots slammed into the closest aliens bulbous head, but, when they connected, they seemed to have little more power than a laser pointer, the energy of the shot being absorbed by the psionic barriers the aliens made around themselves to protect them from harm. Maxim could see it, as a purplish sparkling around them, but knew the others couldn't. He saw the barrier around the one Karl had shot at was not as strong as the other's was. So knew the shot's had drained some of the power from it.

"Pull back" William shouted. Maxim quickly swung around, to see what he was doing, and saw him pull out a grenade. Aya ran around, taking position on the wall across from him. He heard a beeping, and a grenade landed, right by the wall the alien's were hiding behind. Maxim turned his head, since he no longer had a helmet, it wouldn't dim his audio and vision to compensate for the flash and noise anymore. He heard the loud boom as it went off, and turned to look, seeing the wall had been destroyed, they were both still alive, but they'd been knocked on their asses. The purple sparkling around one was completely gone, and the other had only the barest amount of a glow, clearly the blast had taken a significant amount of energy to block (the Aliens could only devote a certain amount of energy to the fields, as devoting too much would require all their focus, and prevent them from being able to use other powers).

A beam of light came from behind, clearly Keith's, as there was no whirr of an LMG, but the shot went just a little too high, and missed the alien. Maxim brought up his rifle, and fired. The shot driving through the head of the closest one, killing it as it tried to get up, burning out others psionic field, and hitting it's gun. Just as the alien was turning towards him, and Maxim saw a purple glow begin around the alien, a sign that it was about to unleash a psionic power, an armoured foot lashed it straight in the head, nocking it to the floor, and breaking it's concentration. The alien rolled around, and seemed to be about to do something, when arcs of electricity shot though it, nocking it unconscious. Aya stood over the alien, her Laser-Taser (Maxim really needed to learn the real name of the thing. But still liked giving it fun names every time he saw it) in hand. She reached down, and picked up the alien by it's leg, slung it over her shoulder, and began walking back towards the skyranger, just as Central's voice came over the coms (Maxim just had an earpiece rather than the speaker's of his helmet) "No more hostile's in the AO. Good job out there".

I hinted at it before. But I decided to give the actual reasons the Sectoid Commander's could take a hit, since Maxim now uses powers as well, I decided Psionic users, can see the abilities of other Psionic users. (So the other's don't actually see Maxim's purple glowing eyes when he uses X-Ray vision). And I should really learn the name of the Taser thing, I think it's something like star-thrower, but I could be wrong. I also can't really be bothered. Maxim wouldn't have bothered either, he doesn't use one, and I do like giving it a new name every time it's used. This one also ended up being a bit longer, and other parts in the future that have a battle will probably be longer. Since we're getting closer to end-game, so the missions start getting more difficult, and we still have quite a few new things to encounter. I like the Berserkers. They're insanely tough, and never just die, so I liked the idea of: Their armour doesn't actually do much, they just don't give a fuck, and I wanted to add some more gory stuff in. I already have this rated M, so I might as well earn that M rating.