Once the spawning chamber went belly up and exploded, XCOM's vessels, along with those of the colonies, returned to Earth for repairs and to treat the minor injuries the operatives had suffered fighting the aliens. Idly, I noted that the doctor handling most of the treatments was an android, yet XCOM's personnel had no problem with him not being human. This, combined with how XCOM treated human alien hybrids and the aliens that had surrendered following the alien wars, made me smile: it looked like XCOM was able to see beyond those conflicts and seek peace with its enemies, unlike what some fanfics would have you believe.

While that was going on, I moved my new captures over to my alien containment facility on Chiron, with eventual plans to transfer them to my hubworld. First, though, I wanted to find out just what my new captures were. Specifically, what were the big bug aliens I'd rescued, and why had they attacked the aliens? I mean, they'd shown up with literally no warning and had begun attacking the aliens when the queens had been revealed...hmm...

Their actions did suggest one course of action, but I was unsure how to prove it-oh wait, one of them had woken up, as had one of the Queenspawn. Good, that saved me time and allowed me to test out my hypothesis.

I quickly transferred the aliens into a room spate from all of their compatriots and place the two creatuers on opposite sides of that room. From there, I just sat back and watched what happened.

The minute the insect alien noticed the Queespwan, it began making exaggerated movements - pushups, bellows, jump, even flips. The Queenspawn stared on for a moment, before, with some difficulty, using its tentacles to turn itself around so that it wasn't looking at the other alien in the room. Undeterred, the strnage beast continued its odd display, this time adding in the ability to change colors and different calls. The Queenspawn seemed to ponder this for a moment, before, again with difficulty, using its tentacles to turn itself around and seemed to nod at the new creature, which approached her and...yeah, my hypothesis was correct, and I'm glad Rory wasn't watching this.

Also, I could now give the new alien a designation: the Kingspawn.

"How unoriginal."

WAAH! What the hell??...Oh.

"Did you have to surprise me...wait, you're a ROB, the answer to that question is rather obvious."

"Indeed it was, my pawn."

"Where were you when we fought all of those aliens?"

"Eating popcorn. The battle was most impressive, though too much of a curb-stomp for my liking. Of course, you're a commander, so that was expected."

"If you wanted me to be routinely challenged, you should not have made me a commander."

To my infinite surprise, Melissa actually smiled at that comment. 'Touché, my pawn, touché."

"...Anything else you have to say?"

"No, I'll leave you to your experiments." Indeed, she did just that, slinking away to the pantry in my meteor shower observation site. I briefly examined the amount of food eaten (which was very high), then sent in an order for more from my hub world. At this rate, Melissa would eat all of it before the dimension gate generator was destroyed.

XXXXXXXX

Back on Earth, XCOM was busy examining the Queen. While normally I would be wrecking the alien dimension, for now, I was content to wait for them to finish their analysis of the queenspawn, as that was how they created the alien gas weapon, which would be useful for the coming battles. While I had no intention of using them on sentient beings (I'd rather not commit a war crime, thank you very much), anything less intelligent and innately hostile would not be spared this fate. Plus it gave me the opportunity to work on some other topics I wanted addressed.

Namely, dealing with my psychic patients. Most of them were now up and about, and had been spending enough time exercising to be able to walk unassisted. Since I hadn't really thought of any way to convince them to stay with me as Melissa had suggested, I reluctantly decided to let them go back to their colonies. Besides, they deserved to be back with their friends and families, who ahd all been worried sick about their missing relatives/companions. For convenience, I built a small dimensional gate (which, given where the aliens were coming from, I'd likely need to rename a multiversal gate) by the medical rooms where they were staying and linked it up to a sort of airport on Chiron. Directions had been provided to which aircraft would take them to their home colonies, and I'd included escort robots to help them find their ways back home, since some had been missing for well over a year.

A few of the psychics remained, though: they had medical issues that needed much longer treatment than their fellows, which meant at least one more week for them on my hub world. Why EXALT never thought to treat those issues was rather surprising: they'd sent orders, but due to bureaucratic inertia, no one had read them. Unbelievable.

Turning my attention back to Earth, I sent a few subs down to where the remains of the temple ship resided. Somehow, fragments of the ship had survived the assault by XCOM, and were now collecting dust on the ocean floor. It'd take a few hours to reach that depth, but I could wait. Occasionally, I picked up something on the sonar, but those usually disappeared rather quickly. I assumed they were either whales or sharks attracted by the mysterious objects descending through the depths. Though they did seem to come back after a while...

Eh, probably nothing. It's not like T'leth was still active, right?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I, unfortunately, did not to see those ruins, because just an hour before my subs would have reached the ocean floor, something big happened in the alien dimension. Oddly, it happened just about an hour after XCOM finished researching Alien Gas and started making rockets and grenades full of the stuff, which I managed to procure in exchange for grenadier grenades.

For a moment, everything in the Alien Dimension was calm. Then I detected movement from one of the buildings, our next target. I quickly remembered that this was the Organic Factory that the aliens built their UFOs in. Guess they were getting ready for another attack.

At first, only a few scouts came out. Then some bombers, then escorts. A tough fleet, but I could take them, though I was still giving XCOM some warning.

Then two nine story high red ships emerged from the Organic Factory. Oh joy, battleships. Well, they weren't two bad. XCOM had to have defeated at least one, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to field annihilator aircraft (several of which had taken part in the aerial battle that had followed my arrival to Earth). True, they would likely pose a true challenge to me, but they weren't anything that I couldn't manage.

Then one last ship emerged from the factory, this one a mix of red and yellow. It was shorter in height than the battleships, capping out at seven stories.

It was also much, much, MUCH wider.

...Crap. They were sending in a mothership, with at least twenty ships escorting it.

That could be a problem.

XXXXXXXXX

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