With the battle now over, Hydra 01 was free to return to patrolling the seas of Chiron.

That is, if it hadn't had any others inside of her.

While most of the humans evacuated from the Mega-City had been sent to dedicated refugee zones set up by the commander, the teen and child duo that 01 had rescued had ended up inside the carrier. Rations had been moved in to the ship prior to the final attack on Mega-Primus, in case this very scenario happened, but admittedly, the duo had proven a hassle. True, they were grateful to have been rescued, but eventually, there had been problems. Namely, boredom - the two had swiftly become bored within the confines of the ship, which they had attempted to counter by exploring the insides of her hull. While they were not in any real danger from this course of action, 01 knew that this could result in difficulty getting them back to their home city once the battle was one. So, using the fabrication technology she had within her hull, as well as the ability to change her internal structure an necessary (a 'gift' offered to her class of ships by the Commander), 01 had built a makeshift theatre, downloaded movies from Earth, invited the duo to watch, and let the situation handle itself form there. Problem solved. Perhaps too well, given that the boy and girl were now sleeping in their seats. 01 had used internal maintenance drones to pull the blankets the duo had brought with them up so that neither grew cold, as a matter of courtesy.

While the duo slept, though, 01 noticed that the room provided for them was...rather bare, all things considered. Aside from some chairs and tables, plus a screen and projector for the film being shown, there were no real amenities in this chamber. While 01 new that amenities for humans were not necessary to fight in war, all evidence she had acquired from the Commander's actions so far indicated that he would likely continue to get into conflicts where he would need to deal with refugees, which would likely result in more people spending time within her hull. Therefore, increased amenities would likely make facilitating those refugees easier.

Immediately, 01 began looking into what kind of things she could acquire for these humans. The commander had several facilities on his hub world where his organic creations could shape would into furniture, so she quickly sent in a request to have some moved to Chiron, then shipped to her location. A small supply of food was also to be sent to her, as well as a few board games acquired from scanning the colonial data banks. Finally, an Order was sent out for medical supplies and beds. Once all of these orders arrived, Hydra 01 would be better prepared to take on anymore unexpected guests.

Dimly, 01 notes that it's action weren't entirely logical - the commander would likely create special ships dedicated to caring for refugees if he was going to be dealing with further conflict. The space it was allocating for habitation was better used for processors and assembly lines, or perhaps fuel supplies. Yet, for the first time in it's existence, 01 did not care about this. All that mattered to her was caring for her charges.

Said care was not dissimilar to its Commander's goal...

XXXXXXXXXX

The minute he had pulled up a seat, Tobias dug into the meal he had been offered. The mix of alien clam, algae and fruit was surprisingly appetizing, especially the fruit, which he was forging himself on. Adding in the fact that the meal provided to him was very nutritious, and he had found gastronomic heaven. True, the machine serving it had unnerved him at first, but that didn't matter now.

Around him, the rest of the refugees and patients were enjoying their own meals, or talking to their friends. Those who weren't in this room were watching over friends and relatives who needed medical care and had been placed in a nearby hospital room. It was fortunate that no one had suffered serious injuries when they arrived here, especially given the circumstances of their arrival. After so much stress over the past few months due to the alien invasion, it was nice to finally have a reprieve.

Owing to his interest in it, Tobias didn't take long to finish his meal, which was surprisingly filling. His appetite sated, He left the cafeteria of sorts that the meals had been provided in and set out to explore his temporary lodgings. He already knew about the medical rooms...bays...chambers...whatever. The hospital rooms were only a part of that area, but he did not want to return there now - his parents were sleeping at the moment, and he had no desire to disturb them or any other people in those rooms.

To his surprise, there was actually a directory just outside of the cafeteria. Among the areas marked were a gym, movie theater, library (which was apparently still being constructed), and...a zoo? Well, that would certainly be an interesting sight. Ultimately, though, Tobias decided to head to the gym: while wasn't going to do anything strenuous so soon after lunch, he did want to see what the gym had to offer.

XXXXXXXX

When he finally arrived at the gym, the first thing he noticed was how large it was - practically as large as one that was made for a college, and filled with with all sorts of exercise equipment: bikes, weights, bars, etc. There was even a racing pool! Oddly, though, it was rather empty, with only maybe a dozen people using the equipment. Perhaps everyone was resting?

With no answers to that question forthcoming, Tobias decided to sit down next to one of the bars. Perhaps later, he could do pull ups on them, but not now.

"Hey, are you using that bar?"

Surprised, Tobias turned toward the voice and found himself staring at a fifteen year old girl in a wheel chair. She had wavy blond hair, brown eyes and a freckles face. As for her attire, she wore a green shirt and what Tobias could best describe as women's gym shorts.

"Um, no" was his answer to her question.

"Can I use it?"

"...yes, but do you need help getting up to it?"

"No, I'm good."

Then, to his surprise, the girl got up out of her wheelchair, walked up to the bar, the jumped up to it and starting doing pull ups.

"So, what's your name?" asked the girl.

"Tobias."

"I'm Miriam. So, how'd you get here?"

"Well, actually, I got carried in here by robots."

"...oh. Are you from Earth?"

"Y-yes. How'd you know that?"

"Heard an announcement that we'd be taking refugees from Earth due to an alien attack. Honestly not the weirdest thing I've heard this whole month. So, how do you like things here?"

"There good. The food is delicious, by the way."

"I agree with you there."

"Well, you definetly have good taste in food, then."

"Thank you. So, did anyone else you know come over with you?"

"My mom, my dad, and my sister came here, as did some of my friends. We'd all been part of a convoy evacuating our city wjencthe aliens showed up...wait, are you from one of the colonies?"

"Yeah, I am, why'd you ask?"

"You asked if I was from Earth. People only ask that question if they are from different planets.

"Good point. So, how long until you and your family head home? I mean, I saw the Commander and his allies kick the assess of the aliens that were attacking your city."

"Well, it's good to know that those monsters are defeated and that Mega-Primus can go back to normal. As for going home...well,I guess never."

"...what happened?" questioned Miriam, surprisenclear in her voice.

"Part of an alien ship crashed into my how, pretty much ruined it. We don't have enough money to fix it, so we'll have to move."

"Ouch. Good luck with that...hey, maybe you could move here."

"What? You mean, this building?"

"No, I mean this world. There's plenty of space, and while it all belongs to the Commander, I don't think he'll mind too much. He seems to like company."

"...maybe."

"Eh, your choice," was her reply as she completed one last pull up. To his surprise, she didn't come down.

"Could you help me get down? My legs aren't really working now."

"The why did you get out of the wheelchair? Why do you have one when you don't need it to move around?"

"I have weak legs. Just because I can move without a wheelchair doesn't mean I don't find it tiresome. I can walk on my legs easily enough, but I think a hard landing will hurt them."

"...fine." Sighing, Tobias helped the girl into her chair.

"Thanks. See you around," was all he got as thanks, followed by her departure.

As we watched Miriam leave, Tobias pondered her words. True, the commander had sjowna great fear of care for those displaced by the attacks, and he had shown the refugees who had arrived in his world much generosity. Plus, his forces had been helping to rebuild the city.

Maybe sticking around wasn't a bad idea?

XXXXXXXXXX

Sara sighed.

It was over. They had won.

To the average person, Sara was merely a reporter, as well as a minor manager for one of the ARC's broadcasting networks. To XCOM, she was one of their greatest cryptographers. Right now, she was watching the final confirmation that the Aliens had been defeated. Now came the time to rebuild. Again.

Well, hopefully, they'd get another couple of centuries of rest before the next invasion came. To XCOM, a new invasion wasn't a question of it, but when. They'd adopted this policy after the Second War, due to how disastrously that war had ended. It had been the only thing that had ensured the War for Mega-Primus had already happened, so it wasn't a bad policy. Still, many people thought they were paranoid.

That didn't matter now, though. With no need to focus on seeing how the war was going, Sara turned her attention back to the communication satellites orbiting Chiron. A few more had recently been added to accommodate the new Lasercom communication network, which was how non-hyperwave communication had been re-established with Earth. Since the incident at the gates, they'd been used to keep track of the war. Now that it was over, they'd been aimed elsewhere, in the hope that contact could be established with another Seeding Site. If a signal could be found, then an envoy could be sent. As for easing travel between Seeding Worlds, Chiron's top minds werenalready working on an interplanetary gate that was starship sized. From what XCOM has been able to gather, a working prototype had been made and would be shown off this week.

It was funny, noted Sara, how much things had changed since the man who called himself Commander Flame has arrived on Chiron. The arrival of the Progenitors, the discovery of the Alien City, and the victory on Earth had all happened so quickly, and with great contribution from the Commander. Some would say that he might have had a hand in causing these events, but aside from the meteor that had driven Chiron's wildlife berserk, none of those events had been directly connected to him by the eggheads at home base, and even that one had been an accident.

Before she could ponder more on that train of thought, though, Sara noticed that one of the satellites was acting odd. At first, she thought it might be an error in the coding, but she quickly dismissed that - they'd been debugged this morning. Perhaps interference? She dismissed that thought too - nothing had been detected in the last hour. So what could be causing it?

Then the realization hit her. Instantly, Sara checked to see if the satellite was receiving a transmissions. She quickly discovered this to be the truth, and went ecstatic - at last, a success. Now mankind to unite once more. She quickly called up her superiors, both in the A.R.C. and XCOM, to give them the good news, while continuing to listen to the Transmission.

As she continued to listen, though, her elation began to fade and was replaced by dread. This wasn't a greeting, it was a distress call. Whoever was sending the message out had been attacked, by pirates of the transmission was correct. Possibly alien, possibly human, but pirates all the same. Apparently, this had gone on for a few months, and the colony was on the verge of collapse. They needed help, and soon.

Realizing the urgency of the transmission, Sara Ebonheart quickly patched herself into the Hyperwave network and sent out an immediate alert while simultaneously pulling upon XCOM's map of the stars in this part of the Milky Way. She quickly settled on Proxima Centauri as the likeliest candidate for the spruce of the signal. It matched up with the direction where the signal was coming from, and its close proximity to Chiron meant it was not unreasonable for a signal from a planet in that system to still be intact when it reached this system.

Now that she knew where the signal was coming, Sara needed to get her superiors to act on it.

Nothing too challenging, all things considered.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN: Well, finally got this out.

For reference, Miriam was one of EXALT's test subjects. She's seventeen and, owing to how long she was in a coma for, still needs time to get back up on her feet.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!