It didn't take long to load up the genetic heroes into a transport and send them toward the impact site, along with my commander unit and, against my better judgement, my avatar. I wasn't initially going to bring the avatar into battle, but the Genetic Heroes managed to convince me otherwise. Personally, I think that they wanted to see how tough I was, seeing how I'd fought both Myala and Goliath and done reasonably well in the former duel.

Along the way, we'd been rather surprised to see a siege worm headed toward our base. When the siege worm ended up attacking several tanks and bots I'd brought to support the heroes in reaching the impact site, I ended up roasting it with some satellite lasers, leaving a feast behind for whatever the vulture equivalents on this planet were. Part of me felt bad about killing such a spectacular beast, but after I learned via orbital viewing satellites that the worm had traveled toward my base from the impact sight, the feelings had faded. Best not to take any chances.

Eventually, we finally reached our destination. I quickly used my Commander to set up a perimeter and start fortifying the area, as well as get a few factories up to begin building units. The one's I'd already brought were engaging the hostile wildlife. To my surprise, they were assisted by manticores and a siege worm in these efforts, as well as the survivors of the team's the colonists had sent to examine the anomaly.

Since these people had direct links to their commanders, I piggy backed off their comms to inform their superiors that I was getting involved, and asked that they avoid trying to enter the signal's effective area. That would just lead to unnecessary casualties. They reluctantly complied, as they had prior evidence from the Progenitor Coty's signal to back up my claims.

With the colonists dealt with, I could focus on the impact site. My trio of XCOM agents had arranged for XCOM to deploy a team to assist my forces, meaning that the total force entering the area rounded out to 30 people...well, sentient beings.

"So, ready to advance, you fearless commander?"

Ugh. This was going to be annoying.

Melissa had 'convinced' me to put cameras on all of the genetic heroes, as well as on my armor, and link hem to a projector back at the viewing area I'd made so that she could watch the mission, along with Cassidy, Rory, my XCOM liaisons, and my new wards. The alternative was that she would have forced me to do what she asked with her powers. A choice that wasn't really a choice at all.

Though, I was going to exploit my ability to perceive things more rapidly as a Commander/Promethean to cut the feed of things ended up looking inappropriate for kids. I doubted Melissa would mind, given that she was a(n absurdly youthful) mother.

"Yes, actually. ADVANCE!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

The minute I entered the signal's effective zone, I felt weird. An analysis of my Avatar's biometric revealed that the signal was disrupting my avatar's connection to my commander body. Nothing major, though some memory loss might occur if my avatar died.

The fact that this signal could disrupt the connection at all, though, made me uneasy. Who the HELL could disrupt Progenitor Hypertech Bullshit? I mean, I could think of some examples, but what I'd seen of these being's tech didn't match any of the candidates I had in mind.

My thoughts were quickly disrupted, though, by the arrival of a pack of Wolf-Beetles. The hostile Arthropods were swiftly gunned downed, but more soon took their place. Unfortunately for the new comers, we were packing superior firepower. Unfortunately for us, they had superior numbers. Also, they had manticores and Raptor Bugs backing them up.

The battle toward the impact site was savage, and I'll admit that the only reason I showed it to my son, my wards, and my enemy's daughter was that they all had the mental maturity of teenagers, if not the physical maturity. Though, given that most of them were fighting over snacks, I wasn't worried about them being traumatized at the moment.

Considering that lots of bugs were getting gutted, flattened, exploded or pulp, and occasionally incinerated, I was glad that's at of my viewers weren't paying attention. Only Melissa, Fide, Synais and Lathikon were paying attention, and the latter three were rather annoyed they had to share the room with my ROB. Apparently, my dislike of her had imprinted onto them. Hooray.

Back to the battle: I wasn't really a powerhouse in combat, as I didn't really have a weapon that could do a lot of damage and my E-DNA abilities hadn't seen too much combat use, so I mostly hung back and shot at stuff, occasionally gutting an alien with my sword. From time to time, I'd use my healing spires to get a hero or XCOM soldier back on their feat, use my teleport strike to kill a bug, or drain the life out of a creature via my vampiric claws if I gor hurt, but that was about it.

I will admit I was very surprised to see a Raptor Big pack be annihilated by a mass of green orbs. What date I could get from my units outside the signal's range was that the orbs had come from manticores. In hindsight, seeing that I had seen some manticores helping the colonists outside this area, their artillery support made sense. I gues whatever was making the signal was driving the nearby wildlife berserk, and the unaffected animals had realized this and were helping deal with their mad brethren. Nice.

Eventually, though, the horde thinned, leaving us to advance further. Soon we were standing on the edge of the crater that defined the impact sight. What we saw was, well, surprising.

After all, it's not every day that you see an alien starship inside a crater.

When the shock faded, we advanced toward the remains for the ship, facing little resistance on the way. My now very glitchy link to my Commander told me that most of the bugs were trying to attack the colonists and vehicles that were now guarding the singal's efdective range. Idly, I noted that the signal had practically killed if the effectivenesss of my Progenitor based sensors, meaning that, sensor-wise, this area was a dead zone for me. Oh joy. Also, how did it bust my sensors? And why was Melissa so quiet? Food for thought.

XXXXXXX

The vessel watched as the new arrivals made their way into its mangled body, careful to watch for hidden foes. The ship noted that the security systems were already preparing to destroy them. All things considered, said system would likely fail. Still, unnecessary violence was distasteful.

Then the ship noticed the security-subroutines were examining the biometric scanner. But why? The only being that they would recognize was-oh no.

XXXXXXXXXX

As we wandered through the ship, everyone was on edge, for the simple fact that we hadn't met resistance yet. Perhaps the ship was unoccupied? Or maybe the security measures were just gearing up for a big push?

My train of thought was derailed, though, when a laser ford passed through the room, faster than any of us could react. It zoomed through the room, apparently heedless of the group of strangers in it.

Island then it stopped when it touched me. A moment later, a whirring noise filled the air.

I didn't even have time to swear before the floor fell out from underneath me, sending me falling through what I assumed was a vent.

XXXXXXXX

Sage watched the commander fall, followed by the door sealing up from under him, seperating him from them. Briefly, Sage aimed his cannon at the floor, ready to blow it open.

Then a mouse brought Sage's attention to the ceiling, just in time to notice the appearance of several gun turrets, which were now locking onto the genetic heroes and their XCOM allies.

Then they opened fire.

XXXXXXXXXX

Surprisingly, the fall was much shorter than expected, and left me in what I assumed to be a maintenance area.

More surprising still was that, when I got back up, I found an arrow pointing toward somewhere. Cautiously, I followed it, taking care to watch for threats. The first arrow lead me to another, and then another, until I finally reached a door, which had some strange letters on it. Soon, though, the letters rearranged themselves to say 'Security Control Center.'

Convenient. And suspicious.

"Wow, that isn't suspicious at all."

Thank you for stating the obvious, Melissa.

Cautiously, I opened the door.

On the other side, I found a very expansive room, filled with targets and practice dummies. Stuff you'd normally find in a weapons training area.

Oh, and a ton of gun turrets. All of which were aiming at me.

I quickly took cover behind a nearby pillar, thankful that I could teleport. A few quick shots took out some of the guns, leaving me feeling rather happy about myself.

Then I heard the footsteps.

Reluctantly, I peered around the pillar to look at their source. I almost wish I hadn't.

Just arriving onto the scene were ten humanoid robots, all carrying what looked like rifles. Laser based ones, at that.

Well, it seemed I was in for a fight.

"Good luck."

"...I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you Melissa."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

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