With the alien fleet out of commission, XCOM took a short reprieve to take stock of the loot it had acquired, while the Outsiders and colonists devoted themselves to helping Mega Primus clean up after the recent attack. I lent them a few robots to help out, but my attention was focused elsewhere.

Namely, on dealing with the life forms in the Alien Dimension: I'd recently discovered an ocean area in this Dimension, so I quickly sent out some modified ships to move them into teleported gates that would send them to a holding pen back in my hubworld. Already, I had determined a suitable planet for these creatures to inhabit in my hubworld, which I was already beginning to terraform to suit their needs. After all, every creature on this dying world deserved at least a chance to start over, even the Micronoids. What they did with it was entirely up to them.

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Eventually, XCOM decided it was time to go to battle and returned to the Alien Dimension, along with the colonists and the Outsiders. Together, we touched down just outside the Megapod Chamber. Now, as far as XCOM could tell, the Alien City in this dimension was a living thing, just like virtually all other components of the Alien Arsenal, with the various buildings acting as organs. The Megapod Chamber was the reproductive organ - it produced Megapod, which could be planted elsewhere and would rapidly grow into new alien structures.

This building was something XCOM wanted dead, and for good reason: in preparation to take Earth, the structure had been gestating thousands of Megapods, with the intention of using those to build new cities once Earth was theirs. Of course, that had been derailed with the destruction of their fleet and the factory needed to build more, but since these developing Megapods could include a replacement factory, they had to go.

The minute my first bot went through the portal, it opened fire. As it was a grenadier, Alien Gas grenades were what hit the ground, rapidly rendering the area too toxic to live in for our foes. Soon, they were either dead or unscious, with the still living ones being hastily moved out of the facility - I wanted to save everyone I could before the chamber exploded. As for the Megapods, I ordered several strikers to cut down as many pods as possible and take them back to my hub universe for examination, while I assisted XCOM in destroying the aliens still in the facility, as there were plenty, and not all of them had succumbed to my gas attack.

The fighting was awesome, if admittedly one sided: the aliens had reduced been reduced to starving, leaderless monsters, only barely able to mount an form of organized resistance. It was rather humorous to watch the aliens attempt to use brain sucker launchers on my bots, but they were swiftly cut down. I assumed Melissa was laughing at the sight, and I had to admit, it was amusing. Still, the aliens were losing and that was what mattered for now.

As the aliens cricked all around the Chamber, my bots moved more and more of the Megapods yo safety. Once they were in my hub universe, I put each one in cryogenic storage until I was ready to examine them in more detail. A couple of pods that had been destroyed by errant IV shots were also uploaded - dissections would be useful things to do when I was bored. Also, it might reveal things that scanning would miss.

Apparently, XCOM also wanted to study the pods, as live ones were being moved to their dropships, along with a few dead ones. Eh they wanted these thing eluded me, but I wasn't going to complain. Every pod the aliens lost here was one they could use in the future. All the while, the XCOM, Colonial and Outsider forces began tosetting up charges to level the building. Once we were done with it, they Aliens would never use it again.

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Once we had removed or destrohed the last of the pods, we fell back ASAP with everything we could carry. Shortly after we departed, explosions engulfed the facility, reducing it to a crisp. As it was destroyed, so too was the umbilical chord of sorts that connected the various buildings in the organic city together, leaving behind one last target: the dimension gate generator. Once it fell, victory would be ours.

It wasn't going to come easily, though. In fact, the final battle proved to be tougher than anyone in this universe had expected, even me.

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The scout ship raced through the tunnel. Dark as it was, the ship could easily make its way around the tunnels. Twisting and turning with the grace of a bird, never once did the ship hit a wall in the tunnels. Soon, it reached its destination: a great glowing cavern filled with ships, but dominated by the stalactites in the center, beneath which, three lights glowed.

The tunnels had originally been meant for majtenance, but the deterioration of the Alien Dimension had led them to be converted into a second habitation area of sorts, containing underground facilities to support the Alien War Machine. Most of these facilities were now offline, destroyed when their counterparts on the surface had been demolished by XCOM and its allies, but still, enough remained to keep the invasion going.

Now, though, things had become desperate. The loss of the Megapods had limited their ability to recoup their losses, as without them, the lost facilities could not be rebuilt so easily. Now, the situation had become critical.

One way or another, the next great battle the Aliens fought would decide who won this war. The Micronoids could only hope that it would be them.

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