The beach was oddly quiet. No birds, no people, only the crashing of waves and the buzzing of insects to break the silence. On occasion a lizard would snatch up one of the bugs, or an aircraft would fly over head, or some drone would examine the beach, but other than that, the beach was empty and lifeless. This left it a golden strip of sand, its emptiness broken only by the jagged pieces of Aqua Plastics that dotted its shore.

This was Chicxulub, the home of the crater where the meteor that had ended the Age of the Dinosaurs had landed. At least, people had assumed it was a meteor, until a few centuries ago, when said meteor had come back out of the waves. There, it was laid bare for all to see: the meteor was really a mighty ship known as T'leth, home to an entire collective of aliens who wished to colonize Earth. FI that meant the annihilation of the natives, then so be it. A war had been fought, ending with the ship's destruction, but the aliens had had the last laugh, as the ship's destruction had ended up polluting the Earth, exacerbating the Holocene Mass Extinction that humans had started in their recklessness. The beach had been hit hard by this disaster, as it had been at Ground Zero when the ship blew up. The fish had died, as had many of the birds and most of the native mammals and amphibians. Only the bugs, the reptiles, the crustaceans, and a few lucky mammals had remained, though the birds had eventually returned, but never in the numbers they had before the ship has been destroyed.

The cataclysm that had followed the ship's destruction had prevented XCOM from harvesting the leftover Aqua Plastics, allowing huge components of he ship to dot the beach for centuries. Gradually, desperate vagrants and ambitious corporations had taken the remnants, hoping to make a fortune off of them. Eventually, XCOM had returned to clean up its mess, but a few pieces had remained intact, including, amazingly, an intact survey ship.

The ship had been among the last to escape T'leth before it had exploded, and while it had avoided the pyroclastic wall that followed the explosion, the blast wave had sent it crashing into the shore, where its surviving crew, unable to unearth it, had abandoned the ship and searched for rescue, eventually being picked up by a cruiser. Without anyone to unearth it, the ship had gradually become buried, until only its bow remained visible. Erosion had kept them from being covered. Still, for all intents and purposes, the ship was dead in the sand It's Zrbite reserves had almost completely decayed, though they could still give it an hour's flight from what remained.

In its inactive state, the survey ship had become a magnet for basking lizards, as it provided an easy place to warm up while still being able to see any incoming predators. Right now, a horde of iguanas, descendent from run away pets that had survived the Great Mistake, had taken up positions along the sub's exposed bow, sunning themselves in the morning light. Tow were dueling each other for the best spot, pushing and shoving each other, and occasionally grappling in a manner that resembled a hug. Nearby, a group of hermit crabs was feasting on some fallen fruit, enjoying the sweet taste of their meal.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. The dueling lizards halted their struggle, while the hermit crabs retreated toward a nearby set of crags, where they would be safe from any predators that could pull them out of their shells. Soon, the basking reptiles began to head for the trees as the shaking caused the sand and earth covering their basking spot to fall away, exposing the ship to the elements. Eventually, the dueling lizards followed them, and not a moment too soon: the minute they got off of the sub, it shot into the air, engines ignited, before circling around and plunging beneath the waves.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Several miles out, at the bottom of the sea, the battered remains of T'leth had settled on the sea floor, undisturbed by the movement of the continents and the actions of sea life. Only recently had the area become livable again for marine animals, so the few creatures that inhabited the area consisted of some wandering fish and the odd crab - with no nearby hot spots, creatures that lived sea vents could not thrive here. XCOM patrols had occasionally entered the area to try and acquire any technology that might have been missed during the Second Alien War, but for the most part, the ship's wreck was lifeless.

But not anymore.

As the survey ship zoomed across the Ocean Floor, it had to navigate around several other subs, among them several heavy cruisers looking for ores and fish to collect. Smaller cruisers patrolled the area, guarding the ruins from invaders. As for the wreck itself, lights were now emanating from it, and green shapes could occasionally be seen emerging from it, traversing the ocean floor to acquire and move the shattered fragments of T'leth back to the ship's main body.

The sub zoomed past them, until at last it reached its destination: the heart of the wreck. There, it would be refueled and repaired, but after that, the future was uncertain.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Beneath all of the wreckage, it wondered what had happened. How long had the ship been wrecked? How long had it been dreaming?

The ship had crashed on this world eons ago, but only a few centuries ago had it begun to awaken, only to be struck down by the new rulers of this world. These beings were the ones to inherit it after the Gill Men had died out, except for those who had made a pact with its servants. In only a few thousand years, they had gone from living in caves to landing on this world's moon.

Perhaps they could have been the strongest of its servants, outmatching even the mighty Tasoths, but that was not to be - they would never serve another being, and had made that point all too clear when it had tried to awaken several centuries ago. It vaguely remembered starting to wake, hearing screaming, feeling pain, then a sense of falling, then darkness came once more.

Now, a new force awakened it. It had sensed a strange power coming through to this world from another, one that was tangentially familiar. A world very different from this one, one that it could not easily access, but given time, it could go there.

It had sensed new beings coming to this world, to claim it as their own.

And it would not allow this. The natives, mankind, had managed to best its servants. Perhaps they could serve it as well, one day, but for now, they had earned their reprieve. Perhaps one day, they would pierce the barriers that would lead to its home world, and challenge its people to battle. Perhaps.

Until it thought otherwise, though, it would not allow mankind to fall under the command of another. They had earned their freedom.

There was also another reason it wanted mankind to survive: the relic.

It had found the relic before its vessel had crashed into this world. The relic had been adrift in space, floating between this world's star and the next closest star. The relic was covered in cables, wires, metal, and stone, but strangest of all was that it was, to some degree, organic, but more importantly, it was alive and had a soul. For eons, it had examined the relic, having plenty of time until its host vessel reached this world, but it never truly could find an understanding of it, nor had it received any kind of reaction from the relic.

Then, a month ago, that had changed. The relic had released a pulse, burning an image into the mind of the one examining it. It had not been able to make out a lot of details, but it could recognize some of them: the image was of a human, young, with curly black hair. It could also sense things about this being's soul, which surprised it, as few images could convey these. It felt that this being was on a journey, and would soon arrive here.

When the being came, maybe, finally, the Great Dreamer's question would be answered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They had found the artifact many centuries ago. It had been floating close to the star Proxima Centauri. They had studied it over the centuries, but those studies had not gone anywhere, and had eventually been shelved in favor of finding a new home.

Then they had received the call: the humans of Earth had called out to their colonies, asking for help in facing a new threat. They had debated for a few days, before deciding to head toward Earth; they owed mankind too much to abandon them. It would take them a few days to reach Earth, but mankind had proved itself resourceful enough to endure Origin's invasion, so they could likely stand this one.

Then the relic had activated. When it did, it had burned an image in their heads, that of a han who commanded mighty Machines. After it had burned the image into their heads, it had dormant once more.

Though they were unsure what to make of the image, they had decided to advance onwards toward Earth, where hopefully, they would find answers to that question.

Besides, mankind deserved their help. They owed that race for freeing them from Mosaic.

XXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Things are going to get crazy on Earth pretty soon.

Dedicated XCOM fans will know who the second set of beings were.

No current overpowered beings have any interest in assisting the micronoids.

Most of the animals on Chiron couldn't survive on Earth.

Yes, Worm chalice, that's the gun, but it is called the brain sucker launcher.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!