Screw these stupid pirates!
Or, rather, screw these stupid Marauders!
Screw them for attacking me without provocation!
Screw them for actually managing to put a dent in my forces!
AND SCREW THEM FOR KIDNAPPING ABOUT FIVE HUNDRED PEOPLE WHILE I WAS DISTRACTED FIGHTING THEM!
When I got to their home world, I would make them pay, and I would not be kind.
Of course, orbital bombardment was out of the question, as the risk of harming the hostages was too great. That also eliminated all other forms of indirect attack on them, such as nukes (which I wouldn't have used anyway), asteroid bombardment, and a dozen other kinds of attacks I could use to make them suffer. Granted, most of those options (if not all of them) were absolute overkill and not something I was willing to waste resources doing. I guess I'd have to settle for a conventional invasion. Oh well.
First off, though, I needed to find out where they lived.
Now, that wasn't exactly a straightforward mission, mind you. These guys seemed to have a rule on their logs that stated that they needed to travel to two others planetary systems before heading home, and they didn't have the coordinates for their home world on their starships, either - apparently, they just knew it from intensive teaching. And despite rigorous attempts to coax it out of my captive from Chiron, who turned out to be a member of the group, I wasn't able to obtain those coordinates. I had to stop interrogating her because I was pretty sure any further prodding would be fatal. When she recovered, I sent her to a penitentiary, along with evidence of her part in attempted kidnapping of one of my former medial charges, so that she wouldn't really be a problem for some time. At least, she wouldn't become one again before I left this universe.
Oh well, time to explore.
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My initial explorations were unsuccessful in finding my target, which was rather annoying. To be fair, I did find a ton of other things that were rather interesting, among them worlds with large amounts of firaxite and floatstone. I also discovered several other planet minds, and a few worlds with Progenitors ruins on them, as well as one or two with actual Progenitor civilizations on them. I used that information to subtly nudge the humans I'd met and was friendly with toward meeting the rest of the Progenitors, who appeared to be friendly, at least from what I'd intercepted from their communications. Hopefully, things would turn out for the best when those groups met.
As my search area widened, I found myself giving the Marauders a fair amount of respect - they'd kept themselves relatively distant from my forces, and I was impressed they'd managed to stay hidden for this long. Also, they'd apparently had a habit of bullying any colony they'd met into submission, unless that colony had fought them off, in which case the Marauders had extended an olive branch toward their opponents. Social Darwinism: something I would never entirely understand, yet continued to be practiced by many civilizations, including some that I ended up allying with in my travels. Strange but true, I know.
Then I found that world...
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It started when I picked up a strange signal from an uninhabited planet. It seemed to match one that I'd met before, but still different from what I'd already encountered. Curious, I approached the planet, only to discover it was covered in storms that prevented orbital analysis. Mentally sighing, I deployed a spore starship into the planet's atmosphere and began exploring. At first, I saw nothing, but then, I came upon what appeared to be ruins. The thing was, they didn't match any of the civilization's I'd encountered so far. Scanning didn't reveal much, only that the alloys were composed of alloys unlike anything I'd seen in this universe, yet similar in nature to my own-wait.
Pulling up alloy composition right now, comparing it to my own unit alloys...yep, its a match.
These ruins are made of Planetary Annihilation Progenitor Alloys. Which means these are PA Progenitor ruins.
But how...
And now I'm picking up movement from the ruins. Cautiously, I scan the surroundings, but whatever is moving around, it's too fast for me to get a bead on-and now its stopping.
Cautiously, I stare at it, weapons armed. The source of the movement is, to my surprise, a humanoid figure. It wears a mix of armor and robes, with a hood and helmet obscuring its face from view. It appears to have a rifle and a pair of swords on its person, though why it would wield them is beyond me. Oh, and it's looking right at me.
For a moment, nothing happens. Then it raises its hand, I locked on with my ship's proton missile's, its palm glowed, and-
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WARNING: CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE
CMDR_FLAMEAL15K OFFLINE, CMDR_NETWORK_OFFLINE
REBOOTING
REBOOTING
REBOOTING
REBOOT SUCSSEFUL
BEGINNING DIAGONOSTICS
...
...
...
DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE
REACTIVATING CMDR_FLAMEAL15K NOW
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-and I-WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?
Confused, I checked the internal clock for my ship. It appeared that five minutes had just past.
Also, the ruins were gone, along with THE ENTIRE PLANET.
What the hell? I mean, seriously, what had just happened? Who was that?
And why do I have a new planet marked in my galactic map?
Well, I guess I should send a probe there, see if it provides any answers.
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To my surprise, the probe ended up in an inhabited system. Even more surprising was that it was filled with starships. Most surprising of all, though, was that these ships carried the Marauder emblem on them.
Looks like I'd found my target.
Quickly, I began drawing in my nearby fleets to launch an assault on the planet and finally get vengeance for their assault on my forces. I soon found myself distracted, though, when a weird signal showed up all over the planet, which seemed to screw up my efforts to scan it. I had a sinking feeling I knew what the signal was, but only after a comparison of the signal to what I already knew were my fears confirmed: this matched the disruption signal I'd encountered with the artifacts.
It appeared the last artifact in this universe was in the hands of the Marauders. And, according to my scans, they'd figured out how to replicate it, if the fact that I could detect several different sources of the signal on the planet's surface was any indication.
Inwardly, I groaned. This invasion was going to be much harder than I'd thought.
Alright, focus. Let's see if there's anything this signal doesn't block.
Radio-no, laser-no, sonic-okay, that works, but I somehow get a ton of interference, gamma-not a good idea, UV-no, Infra red-no, MC - it's iffy, Psionics-yes. Okay, it doesn't block out psionics. Good to know, but that only works for organic entities, and it's not like I have an organic army that I can control through psionics-oh, wait. I do have an army that I can control by psionics. Looks like I might have a way to win this.
Going by what my sensors are detecting, the signal isn't affecting anything above the Mesosphere area, so I can take out their orbital forces with my starships. As for the ground forces, I'll just have to add in a few new units to my biological roster and bring in the genetic heroes. I'll need to figure out a way to bolster my psionic powers enough to control them, though. Maybe a giant psi amp-wait, another ship's arrived in the system?
By the looks of it, it's some kind of probe, and it has XCOM markings on it. For ten minutes, it does nothing except examine the system. Then, it notices the presence of my probe and turns its attention toward me. A moment later, I receive a transmission from the probe. It's a request to communicate.
Well then, I guess its time to parlay.
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"Greetings, Commander," remarks what I recognize as the voice of the XCOM Commander as he appears onscreen. He wears the same attire that he wore when he gave his speech to Chiron, which I've noticed is very similar to what the Commander wore in XCOM 2. Also, he's got a funny brace around his arm.
"Greetings to you as well. So, may I ask you why you are observing this planet?"
"Likely the same reason as you: to defeat its occupants and rescue the colonists that they have kidnapped."
"You assume correctly. Though I should warn you, that won't be very easy."
"Why would you say that?"
"My scanners are picking up a strange signal from their planet, one that matches one that I encountered previously on Chiron. Specifically, it matched the one that came from the meteor that drove the wildlife berserk and rendered most vehicles and robotics ineffective around that meteor."
"I see. Well, I assume you've found a way to circumvent this, if the fact that my forces are noting that your fleets seem to be converging on this system is any indication."
"Indeed I have: It appears psionics are not inhibited by this signal. I plan to use a psionically controlled forced of engineered organisms to lead the assault on this planet."
"...I...See."
"I apologize if I drew any unintentional parallels to the First Alien War. I simply find myself, using similar tactics out of necessity."
"I understand."
"Splendid...Um, do you wish to help with this? I mean, attempting to land on the planet would be difficult at best, but you still wish to participate in the orbital assault.."
"I'm afraid I cannot assist you here: EXALT has grown bolder on the colonies, so my forces are tied up dealing with them at the moment. Though, I may still have something that could benefit you here."
"How so?"
"I presume that you will need quite a bit of psychic power to coordinate this assault, correct?"
"Indeed."
"And this will all need to be stored in an organic form, am I still correct?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, allow me to send you my assistance."
A moment later, I received his 'assistance': it appeared to be two different genomes, one of which was ethereal of all things, while the other was-oh.
Yeah, that could work.
"...You assistance is appreciated and will prove most useful in the coming battle. Though, I must ask, where did you get this?"
"Well, some of this was from an old, glowing friend, whose name could make one wonder if she was honest, another was the result of a subordinate of mine splicing human DNA with that of aliens a long time ago...but most of this is from examining a certain trans-dimensional psionic network in my free time."
Trans-dimensional psionic network? I thought that went down with the ethereals.
"Well, it did in this universe, but there are others where that isn't the case. Of course, you should be amply aware of that, shouldn't you?"
...No way.
THIS WAS NOT POSSIBLE!
Yet, somehow, it was.
"I see. Well, I must get back to preparing for the assault. Thank you again for the assistance."
"You're welcome," was his reply. "Make them pay."
"I will."
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Alright, no holding back now.
Time to bring the pain.
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!!