"So, how'd the mission go?"
"It was a success. Our meeting with the Commander was a nice bonus," replied Gamma One.
"Good to hear. We'll be back at base...right about now, actually."
In front of the transport, it appeared that there was just empty sky. Then, slowly, a huge airship began to appear, seemingly out of thin air. The skyranger took a moment to circle around the giant aircraft before settling into its hanger. As soon as it landed, its passengers began to disembark. First off was Gamma One, then Two, then Three and Four. Following them was Gamma Five, who had been asked to sit the mission out, owing to a leg injury. While she had reluctantly agreed, Five had still requested to be on standby in-case her powers ended up being necessary to save her team. She was rather happy she had been vindicated in her decision.
The penultimate passenger to depart the dropship was Gamma Six. Six would have walked with the team, except that he couldn't...walk that, it. This was not because he had leg injuries, rather, he simply didn't have legs, only a serpentine tail. Six was one of the vipers, some of the first aliens mankind had made contact with (at least publicly). The war that had followed had been harrowing, but man had ultimately triumphed in the struggle and broken the backs of their foes.
The aftermath of the conflict had been like many on Earth: some of the aliens had wished to die fighting, but others had sought clemency. Of those that had, a few had been secretly granted asylum on Earth, provided they did not draw attention to themselves. These aliens had been met with scorn by many members of XCOM, but over time, most of the racism had faded. Now, a fair amount of these aliens, including Sectoids, Vipers, Mutons and even a few Ethereals, had become integral parts of XCOM, especially in the aftermath of the great mistake. The sectoids, who had been enslaved by virtually every race they had met and had been reduced down to mostly clones and a few individuals still capable of reproduction, were especially grateful. As for the ethereals, well, XCOM had been surprised that any of them had survived. These ones seemed to be different from the normal ones, though: they appeared to be made almost entirely out of energy, like the outsiders.
Once Gamma six left the dropship, the pilot finally took it as her queue to leave. Marion Jones, codename Monarch, did enjoy being in the skyranger, but even she needed down time, especially after a late night mission like this: Night flights weren't her specialty, so she was looking forward to a few hours of sleep.
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The ship, code named the Avenger, had been the pet project of Raymond Shen in the aftermath of the First War. With no enemy to fight, XCOM had devoted itself to trying to understand their foes, examining what had been acquired and working to synthesize it. Elerium had proven difficult to create stable isotopes of, but once successful, it had revolutionized nuclear power. Meld had made cybernetic advancements and gene therapy far more viable then anyone had every imagined.
Still, even among those advances, Shen had preferred the Avenger. Part of this was because it acted as a sort of test bed for him, a place where he could test out some of the more...questionable ideas he and Vahlen had conceived, to see if they were viable for mass production. The craft had been made from a battleship, and was just as powerful as anyone had expected it to be. XCOM had been required to make sure the Council knew exactly where the ship was at any given time, but otherwise, they had relatively free reign over the ship.
One of the big benefits of alien alloys was that they lasted a long time. With proper maintenance, they could last for over a thousand years without needing to be replaced. This meant that, since its creation, the Avenger hadn't needed too much maintenance, something invaluable when you wish to remain clandestine.
None of this, though, was on Gamma Team's mind as they traversed through the ship, careful to avoid the sections that were under maintenance. While most of the headed to the armory to return their gear, One and Four were headed to the command center: the Commander would want to debrief them personally.
As they trudged through the base, they passed by a room filled entirely with water. Within, green sectoids worked side by side with XCOM personnel, lizard-like creatures and what appeared to be sapient lobsters to create weapons that worked underwater. These beings were reminders of the Second Alien War, one that no one had expected. It had started when flying submarines of all things had become attacking cruise ships, before moving onto coastal cities, oil rigs and naval fleets. It turned out that these ships had come from an even larger mothership that had crashed into Earth some 3000 years before the First Alien War. XCOM had managed to destroy the ship and defeat the new aliens, but they didn't have time to celebrate: the ship had poisoned the atmosphere in its death throes, and before anything could be done to fix it, the great mistake had occurred.
Talks had been held over whether XCOM should have disbanded, but ultimately, they had fallen through, and XCOM remained, though more publicly known then expected. That being said, only Chungsu knew much about them on this planet, and XCOM was intent on keeping things that way.
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At last, One and Four arrived at the Command Center. The Commander had already taken a seat and was ready for debrief.
"Great timing. Are you two ready to begin?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Good. So, how successful was the mission?"
"One hundred percent: Blind Eye lost their test subjects, we got rid of all their research data, and their retaliation force is down for the count," responded Gamma One.
"Excellent. That ensures that their backers will not be a problem in the foreseeable future."
"Indeed. Though, really, we shouldn't have expected those traitors to go down after we smashed their base during the First War: they're too good at hiding for that too work," noted Four.
"Correct. Now you mentioned that the newest arrival to our world assisted you in completing your mission. Specifically, he offered to take the subjects to safety. Am I correct?"
"Yes sir," replied One.
"Do you believe he has any malicious intent in regards to them?"
"No. He claimed his people didn't really like what had happened to all of those who'd been kidnapped. Odds are he'll probably return them when he's sure that they'll be okay."
"Of course, since the planet is recovering from a recent famine, that might not be viable. Why do those bastards have to go around, manipulating everyone, when human extinction is a likely outcome?" questioned Four. "They need to get their priorities straight. I mean, seriously, poisoning tons of harvests so that they could get better market prices on the remaining supplies? Even Fielding wouldn't stoop that low."
"True. One last question: was there any information you were able to glean from your encounter with the commander that might give us insights to any weaknesses he might have had? Any hints as to what strategies he would use? While I do not intend to fight him, if we wish to seek peace with him, we must first prepare for the possibility of war."
"Sir, the only thing we gleaned from the engagement was that the commander has incredible logistical skills. He had over 100 tanks and 50 tank sized robots backing us up. All of that made in under a month. I don't think we could beat him if we tried," replied Four.
"I understand. You are dismissed."
One and Four took that as their queue to leave, though not without saluting their superior. Once he was alone, the commander leaned back and sighed. Four had confirmed what the eggheads had been telling him: fighting the commander was inviable. Flame would swamp them under weight of numbers long before they could reverse engineer a magic bullet to slay him. The fact he didn't want to fight XCOM did serve to calm him somewhat, but knowing that you are outmatched is always annoying.
Sighing again, the Commander took a moment to go and pull up a view of the training center aboard the Avenger. Within, three groups went to battle: one group resembled survivalists, albeit wearing gas masks that made them look rather deranged; the second wore pelted armor and showed some similarities to sectoids, while the third resembled knights, albeit their swords were made of psionic energy. Two of these groups had formed during the First Alien War, emerging in 2013 following the aliens attempting to add hybrid troops to supplement their armies. Meanwhile, the third had decided that the war was their signal to emerge from hiding and assist mankind as a whole. All three now sparred to see who was the best. Nearby, some engineers were examining a new shipment of weapons from Earth: XCOM could easily use wormholes to travel back and forth to Earth, which was important now more than ever: apparently, a third alien force (well, fourth if you believed the tails of aliens showing up in the fifties) had launched an attack on a new Megacity of sorts built on Earth. According to the current reports, XCOM was winning, but they still had a long way to go for victory.
With XCOM forces on Chiron already facing a war on two fronts, the Commander was glad that this Commander Flame was interested in peace. XCOM was already stretched thin as-is, so avoiding conflict was the best option for both part. How long that would last remained a mystery...
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!