Once I was safely back at my hub world, I started examining all of the technology I had acquired. Most of the regular XCOM stuff only amounted to minor improvements to what I had, if at all. Well, aside from the plasma weapons - apparently, barring the weapons mounted on a Commander, Planetary Annihilation units didn't use plasma weapons, being more dependent on lasers, missiles, or good old fashioned bullets (often fired out of railguns). Part of me wished that I could've had access to the Fusion Lance technology, but that was not to be. For now, at any rate; I could likely procure one later if I played my cards right.

What really interested me, though, was XCOM's marine technology. The gauss weapons had great potential for their versatility, as they could be used on land, in the sea, or, as I soon found out, even in space. Sometimes Kinetic weapons really are just better than energy weapons. At least, they were right now. As for the Sonic weapons, I started integrating a few heavy sonic oscillators into everything I had, but especially into my subs. A few sniper bots also received sonic weapons, because sonic attacks leave not bullets behind, so no tracing a sniper attack back to me.

As cool as sonic weapons were, though, they did have their weaknesses - namely, that they were useless in space. Well, there were ways I could remove that issue, but they would be ridiculously impractical, not to mention wasteful, as I could just use weapons that did need special conditions to work in a vacuum. Like, for example, the already available lasers, plasma cannons and gauss weaponry. As a rule of thumb, if you have two options, and one is cheaper, more efficient, and just as effective as the other, go with the more efficient one. Thus, only use sonic weapons in engagements in areas that have atmospheres or are underwater, with priority for marine engagements.

In regards to the new alloys, well, I was pretty surprised at what XCOM gave me. Now, they did give me samples of ethereal alloys and aqua plastics, but they also gave me practical examples of their applications. Said examples were functional sets of armor, ranging from carapace and plastic aqua armor to Titan suits and Ion armor. They even had a few archangel and Magnetic Ion Armor sets in there, as well as some cloaking tech. The only things that were missing were armors that influenced psionic abilities or molecular control, likely so that they still had some aces up their sleeves against me. While machines were immune to mind control or panic, Enemy Unknown had taught me that lacking any will whatsoever left you wide open to directly damaging psychic powers, which would probably wreck my bots in a fight. I'd need to work on fixing that later, but for now, I'd just have to make do with it.

The Elerium and Zrbite weren't really all that special, though they were very good fuel sources. Combining them with my existing reactors managed to skyrocket their power levels up 200%, which I was definitely going to exploit the hell out of. The UFO and USO tech I received was pretty interesting, though more so the USO tech, since I didn't have a base to compare it to. How would enemy feels when they were attacked by flying submarines of all things? Though, given that I only had access to fighter sized flying subs/UFOs, at least for now, I'd need to do a little innovating before I could really get mileage out of them.

OF course, what really had me interested was, of all things, the most archaic set of weapons I'd been given, which were a set of swords and drills that compromised XCOM's close quarters arsenal. I don't know why, but these weapons made me extra giddy. Probably because I really liked hack and slash games. Whatever the reason, I was definitely going to use them in my armies.

It didn't take me long to design a human sized robot equipped with a basic sword, which I'd codenamed the Fencer. Thanks to XCOM providing me with three different sword types, I was able to create three different variants of the Fencer: Alpha series used traditional swords, Beta used an Arc Blade (for fighting other mechanical forces, and yes, it was grounded), while Gamma series was equipped with the Fusion Blade, for fighting zombies and other things vulnerable to fire.

Of course, there was one problem with using swords: robots didn't exactly know how to swing a sword. Fortunately, I had a workaround.

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Slash left, dodge right, duck, stab, parry up-GAH

I tumbled to the floor, chest stinging with pain.

"Get up," ordered Goliath. "We have much work to do."

Training robots how to use a sword was not easy on this planet, as there weren't any videos to teach it. Fortunately, I had an alien warrior with me who was a master swordsman, not to mention part machine himself, that I could work with. All I needed to do was hook up motion capture equipment to him and start filming. Problem was, I wanted to learn how to use a sword, too, because it looked awesome and because it would be helpful if I ended up in a fantasy universe. So, I'd put mo-cap gear on, pulled up a training sword (easily made out of wood) and started swinging at Goliath.

Unsurprisingly, I'd lost fifty times already, and was unlikely to win anytime soon. Of course, what would you have expected? The only thing the greatest warrior in the world should fear is the novice, but only if the battle is to the death; otherwise, they become predictable. I was definitely predictable right now, hence my losses.

"I'm getting up...did you have to punch me in the chest?"

"A real foe will not fight fairly."

"True enough," was my response, before charging at him.

Swing left, duck right, parry above, side step to the right, strike from aboveOHGODIHITHIM-oh.

[AVATAR PAIN SENSORS REDUCED TO 10% EFFICIENCY]

"...Did you have to kick me between the legs?"

"No real fight is fair."

"Touché. Though I did hit you."

"You are correct. Now get up."

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We continued on until, thanks to my body being able to conserve energy better do to optimization (thank you promethean genome), I finally won a battle against Goliath. Now my Fencers had the data that they needed to fight.

As for the drills, well, I was able to integrate them onto existing bots chassis without issue. These bots duel-wielded their melee armaments, giving them two drills a piece to battle with. To achieve this, I'd had to increase the size of their torso and legs, with the head essentially fusing into the shoulder area. I also made the optics unit larger, for better sight applications. Finally, like my previous melee drone, I'd commission three different production lines for the robot: Alpha, which wielded the Vibroblade, meant for light assault and skirmishing, beta, meant for general purpose use and armed with the thermic lance, and gamma, which was meant for sieges and heavy combat and was armed with the Heavy Thermic Lance. Overall, the design was reminiscent of a certain type of armored diver, which contributed heavily to my choice of designation for these new bots.

Henceforth, this model would be known as the Levine.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!