XCOM: The Advent Directive

by Xabiar

Australia has been annexed, the United Nations is in chaos, the world is under siege and the Ethereals have taken the field. Facing the full might of the Ethereal Collective, the Commander must rally XCOM, the newly formed ADVENT, and several other allies and rivals to unite the divided nations by any means necessary, for failure now will mean the fall of humanity once and for all.

7. Battleground: Japan

Battleground: Japan

---

Kochi, Japan

"Here they come!"

Duri wasn't sure who called it out, but he immediately saw the glints on the horizon, sparkling metal reflecting the morning sunlight. He could see a US destroyer some ways out into the sea before Kochi, which looked almost pitiful compared to the coming swarm of alien ships.

One, two, six, ten…he swallowed as what seemed to be an uncountable swarm drew closer. "In positions!" He ordered his team, as they knelt behind established metal barricades, similar to the other twenty teams that had set up position in front of where they expected the aliens to land. There was just enough space to bait them into coming, but with almost zero cover.

Would they take the bait?

Well, if not, there were fortunately other backups. But it was becoming quickly apparent that this was not going to be a battle they might even have a chance of winning. The UFOs were much clearer now, and there was a tangible thrum in the air from what he could only assume was from the alien engines.

"ADVENT Command to Kochi Defense, be prepared for missile defense systems and naval warships to begin deterrent measures. Be prepared for insertion."

"Copy," Duri acknowledged into his helmet, and he heard the echo from the rest of the ADVENT Squad Officers. "Beatriz, you still have a clear shot? See anything?"

"Clear on my end, Officer." A pause. "The ships are big. Very big."

Duri glanced up as a squad of four fighter jets roared overhead towards the oncoming fleet, and were soon accompanied by several dozen more squads. "Calvary's here," Cara chuckled, lifting her autorifle in preparation for the attack. "Good luck to them."

And that was when the battle began.

The air around the fleet began to be filled with missiles, gunfire and flak from the ADVENT fighters, splitting the unified alien coalition. Circular UFOs rose from behind the transports and began returning green plasma fire at the fighters, blasting several out of the sky instantly. All the fighters broke off into evasive maneuvers and engaged in a true dogfight with the alien interceptors.

The Destroyer floating in the bay in front of the city began firing, as did the missile systems installed around the city, shaking the ground from the volume of projectiles launched into the air. The leading transport was hit with a devastating barrage that ripped several gaping holes in its sides, and a second barrage made it stutter in the air, and begin a slow collapse downwards.

The soldiers cheered as it crashed into the ocean in front of the destroyer. One problem dealt with. The only problem was that it was only the leading transport; there were ten more following and there wasn't nearly enough concentrated fire to take all of them down. "Weapons ready!" Duri roared as the rectangular transports hovered over the water just in front of the tiny beach.

He did a quick count, and the sounds of the battle waged elsewhere faded as he concentrated. Four transports so far, carrying God knew what. With a hiss they opened and out charged a mix of the green-armored Mutons and Vitakarian soldiers. Borelians and Vitakarians if he identified them correctly, clad in silver armor and fully covered for war. These must have been their regular infantry, since he was pretty sure they had never been encountered by XCOM before.

"Open fire!" He ordered, and the battlefield was filled with the sound of hundreds of rifles, pistols, shotguns and autorifles discharging at the exposed alien horde. The mutons didn't even try to hide, but stood in the open and returned green plasma fire at the entrenched ADVENT soldiers. Several dozen of the hulking aliens were cut down in the initial barrage, as were many of the Vitakarian soldiers, but others were only grazed.

"They're establishing cover!" Kang warned as he shot one of the two Borelians attempting to stab two connected pieces of metal into the ground. Duri soon saw what those did, as several teams managed to establish them successfully, and between the two pieces of metal projected what was likely a red energy shield of some kind.

He shot at one Borelian who was hiding behind it and noted that the shield did seem to stop gauss weaponry. Good to know. "Cara! Suppress the team moving up!"

"Acknowledged!" She shouted and turned her autorifle on the team of three Vitakarians charging forward, presumably to establish some kind of defensive perimeter.

"Heads up towards the back," Beatriz warned as he fired at a muton shooting at another ADVENT soldier. The alien screamed as his shots connected, and fell to the ground dead a few seconds later. "Got some new ones coming."

Duri focused at the transport and saw a team of a dozen of what appeared to be…Andromedonscharging out. But these weren't the green-helmeted ones. These Andromedons had red-tinted helmets even though their hulking suits were largely the same. But they also seemed to have some kind of drone flying over each one of them, with each drone seemingly being unique.

"VIPs," Duri called. "Beatriz?"

"Targeting."

They were definitely the most important ones for the aliens, if the reactions were anything to go by. The remaining mutons immediately went to form something of a guard around them, and he personally saw the strange Andromedons ordering and pointing the remaining alien forces. Unlike even the Mutons, these aliens seemed unperturbed by the chaos and danger around them, shrugging off direct hits and focusing intently on the shield spikes planted by the Vitakarian soldiers.

"What are they doing?" Johan called as he shot a Borelian to death, and began shooting at a Muton on one knee that was trying to fire back.

"I don't-" Duri began, when the beach littered with alien blood and corpses seemed to flash and all the energy spikes planted suddenly interconnected into walls of light that extended above the Andromedons themselves, effectively protecting the entire beachhead in an imperfect semi-circle. Fuck. Those Vitakara weren't planning them randomly, this was planned.

At least the targets were clear. "Shoot the poles!" Duri ordered.

"At least they can't do anything either," Cara commented as she fired on a section of the red shield wall.

Maybe not, but they were definitely planning something. The red-helmeted Andromedons were patrolling the shield with a mechanical precision that worried him. From the transports came the Drones that XCOM had fought, likely for the purpose of repairing the shield.

"Clever," he muttered to himself. "ADVENT Command, this is Officer Eun-Jung of Squad Eagle-224, requesting artillery strike at the following coordinates. Copy?"

A few seconds of delay, and then. "Copy, Officer. Standing by to receive coordinates."

"Provide covering fire!" He ordered, risking a stand and switched on the marker built into his armor. A weak laser pointer shot from the marker in his wrist, and he aimed it at the center of the shield which was being pounded with barrages of gauss fire. "Target locked," a voice confirmed. "Stand by."

"Incoming!" Duri yelled, as a few seconds later shells streaked over his head and lit up the beach in a series of massive explosions. As the smoke cleared, Duri noted that there were definitely gaps in the shield, and some of the poles were sparking, but it wasn't nearly enough, and now the aliens were preparing to retaliate in full force.

Out came flying creatures from the transports, Floaters he believed, but these weren't the horrific blends of flesh and metal XCOM had described. These were flying units clad in gray armor and carrying plasma cannons. They shot above the barrier and towards the line of ADVENT soldiers and began wreaking havoc.

It was an aerial threat fast enough to fully occupy them, and they were too slow. Soldiers screamed as plasma melted their armor from shots from the evasive Floaters. Duri shot one out of the sky, and another fell from Cara's concentrated burst, but two more swept around their flanks and wiped out an entire team with a single well-thrown plasma grenade. They were both taken out by ADVENT snipers, but the damage was being done even as the Floaters were slowly brought under control.

Except they weren't. Not really. It was after he'd shot one when he realized how little they were actually doing. He must have shot it somewhere vital, since it was leaking a yellow fluid and it infuriatingly managed to slip past his shots and retreat beyond the red barricade. He almost moved to another of the two dozen flying targets, when he noticed one of the Andromedons heading towards it, and appearing to repair it.

He watched in morbid fascination as the alien seemed to shudder in pain and throw its head back in a scream as the Andromedon and its drone worked on it, sparks flying off the body, but then a minute later the Floater was roaring back into the fight, nearly as good as new. "The Andromedons are repairing them!" He warned to all the squads. "You can't just wound them!"

This was not good.

Two Floaters streaked towards him, firing wildly as they attempted a strafing run. Kang risked standing, lining up a shot, and hitting one of them in the head and it crashed to the ground a few meters from where he was standing. One more shot finished it. The other was thrown off course by another shot from somewhere else, and Johan took advantage and blasted the Floater in the chest several times, apparently hitting one of its engines, then watched it spiral into a building with a small explosion.

"Beatriz! Can you get a shot on the Andromedons?"

"Negative!" She answered, voice strained. "They're smart. Hiding behind the shield. I can't damage it either since they fix it almost immediately!"

"What's the plan, boss?" Kang demanded as they weathered another strafing run by another Floater. "Those things will kill a lot more of us than we them. And those other ones aren't going anywhere."

"I know!" He scowled, trying to think. He took several shots that missed against another Floater trying to outflank a separate squad. It fortunately couldn't kill any of them, and was shot a few times, but it simply flew away and back behind the barricade where it was fixed up by the Andromedons and drones.

The other aliens were standing in an orderly line behind the barricade, watching expressionlessly as the Floaters slowly whittled the ADVENT army down to nothing. "Beatriz! How many Floaters are left?"

"Uh, hold on," he heard a shot. "Eight? Ten? Something like that. We're running out of people, Officer."

"Ok, new orders," Duri said. "Only target the ones who are wounded and heading back for repairs and kill them. Suggest that to the other snipers."

"Will do."

"Kang, Johan, pick a Floater and don't stop shooting it till its dead," Duri continued. "Cara, target one of the shield nodes. Take at least one Andromedon away from repairing Floaters."

"Acknowledged," she yelled, and began shooting the shield. He raised his rifle towards a Floater that had just tossed a grenade at a duo of soldiers which killed them in the ensuing explosion, and fired his weapon, hitting the Floater square in the back. It didn't damage the engine, clearly, but it was damaged apparently bad enough to send it flying back beyond the shield. Come on, Beatriz…

Then it blew apart with a miniature explosion as one sniper must have shot the engine. The corpse slammed into the shield and fell outside it as a charred wreck. "Good shot!" Duri called to whoever was listening. To his dismay, he saw a new wave of Mutons coming out of the transports, which meant that the aliens knew their borrowed time was up and they were preparing a new offensive.

"ADVENT Command, we're under heavy attack from Floater units and the aliens are preparing for a massive strike. Requesting reinforcements."

"Request received, stand by."

"Got it!" Kang whooped as another Floater crashed into the yellow-soaked sand. "Johan, focus on the one to the left!"

"I see it!" Johan confirmed. "Stay still, you bastard…"

"Squad Officer Eun-Jung of Kochi Defense, this is Gray Sky," a new voice said. "Request understood and reinforcements are on the way. Hope you have enough room."

Duri frowned, not sure what that meant. Whatever, it was good. Was that an XCOM designation? He supposed it didn't matter as long as they were coming. "Glad to hear it," he glanced at the Muton and Vitakara army preparing to attack, even as the remaining Floaters were eradicated. "But please make it fast."

With that, he aimed his rifle at another Floater, and continued contributing to the defense of Japan, one pounding gauss shot at a time.

---

Skyranger, En route to Japan

Nuan stopped herself from unconsciously tapping her gloved hand on her knee. Whatever reservations that had flown through her mind about XCOM, the people she was with, and pretty much everything else had been pushed aside as the very real realization that she might die set upon her as they flew towards a battle that was said to cover the entire country.

She was very good at her job, no doubt about that. But it was one thing to work with a special team in a relatively safe environment, and another to be on the front lines, plasma and bullets flying over your head. Nuan was extremely grateful for the helmet that covered her face, since anyone who looked at her would be able to very clearly see that she was scared.

It shouldn't have been like this. Why was she this affected? It wasn't like she'd never been shot at before.

This is different, a voice told her. An annoying, persistent voice that spoke uncomfortable truths. This is war of thousands, and you are only one.

She looked around the silent skyranger, wondering if she was remotely alone. All the rest had their faces obscured, so they were as expressionless as she was. But she knew they were veterans. They had seen the aliens. Iosif, Gyeong, Seok, the EXALT woman Zara, even the traitor Shun had fought before, and if there was anything Inori was feeling right now, it was probably anger. She'd expect nothing less from someone defending his homeland.

Only Anna was as much of a rookie as her, and even she had the calm demeanor of one accustomed to battle. Don't panic and you'll live. Someone had told her that, and she hoped it would be enough. She was here to support XCOM and ADVENT, not be a goddamn hero.

Don't throw your life away for nothing. Don't take stupid risks. Use your brain.

Easy to repeat now, but would it hold up when they landed? Was she strong enough?

She didn't know, and that scared her.

No matter what she thought of these people personally, she was going to be trusting them with her life, and conversely, theirs with her. She didn't want to, of course, but she would rather put her life in the hands of foreigners than try to survive on her own. It didn't work that way, but she couldn't shake the suspicions she had about them, a paranoia instilled by years of service that she couldn't forget overnight.

But she had no choice now. She had to turn her back to the assassins and trust them…and hope she survived the fallout.

She flinched as a hand rested on her arm, and looked right to see it belonged to Iosif. "Don't worry," he told her quietly. "You're going to be fine. Just follow my orders and do your job."

How did he...ah, she almost forgot he was a psion. He didn't have that odd presence that Patricia had. With her you knew something was off about her the moment she entered a room. Iosif was much more subdued. It seemed he kept his talents to himself, which she could respect. But one constant with all psions is that they could sense emotions and read minds.

She flushed, not sure how she was comfortable she was with him reading her. But maybe it couldn't be helped. Maybe she was screaming emotionally. But she was almost grateful, and gave him a small nod in return as she consciously tried to lower her heartbeat to a reasonable level. And she privately hoped he'd keep his hand on her. She needed some human contact from someone who wasn't as worried as her.

"This is the Commander to all teams," the Commander said. "The aliens have engaged ADVENT forces in Japan, as expected. We are deploying teams where the fighting is worst, though be prepared to redeploy if necessary. All teams report in."

"Angel Team, reporting in," Patricia said.

"Astro Team, reporting in," Carmelita confirmed.

"Oriole Team, reporting in," Iosif finished.

"Good luck, teams," the Commander said. "The outcome today will set the tone for this war. Today XCOM shows the world that the aliens can be defeated and sent back to the stars. Your pilots have received directions. Vigilo Confido, Commander out."

"This is Lightning Sky to Oriole Team," a smooth British voice said over the comm. A new pilot if Nuan had understood correctly. "You are being deployed near Shibetsu, at the north end of the island, where the aliens have taken the beachhead and are moving inland. ADVENT has set up strong defenses close by, but require heavy support."

"And information?" Iosif asked, flexing his free hand. "Enemy composition? Losses?"

"Stand by," a pause and the pilot continued after a few moments. "Appears to be mostly Andromedon, a new kind we haven't seen before. Not many details. Drones have also been spotted and some…mechanical thing. No details. ADVENT is holding steady, but are taken slow losses where it seems the Andromedons haven't suffered a single one."

"How?" Inori declared, outrage clear in his voice. "They lack the means to kill one?"

"Unknown and unconfirmed," Lightning Sky answered calmly, as he physically lowered the altitude of the skyranger. "Regardless, it seems Andromedons are hard to kill."

"Yep, you can say that," Shun muttered. "It took twenty-some soldiers to kill four when the Citadel was attacked. I can only imagine an entire army."

"Good news is that there are several Japanese and American warships shelling the beach," Lightning Sky informed. "You'll get some reprieve there, but limited air support, unfortunately."

"Noted," Iosif said coolly. "Stick to the plan, soldiers. We're entering a warzone. Stay close to me until we can safely get to cover. I cannot protect all of you at once. Understood?"

"Yes, Overseer!" They shouted.

"Prepare for insertion, Oriole Team," Lightning Sky said, and the skyranger lights flashed to a solid red. Regrettably, Iosif took his hand off her arm and she was alone inside the shell of her armor. But she stayed very close to Iosif, beside him at the front as the skyranger shook when it lowered. She didn't know who was behind her, but it wasn't important.

Swallowing, she tightened her grip on her pulse rifle. "You can do it," Iosif said quietly, not looking down to her. "Just stay close."

Then that was what she would do. Stay close to the psion who would protect them. Even if he was a Russian.

"We are coming in for a landing," Lightning Sky warned as there was a sudden drop, then a shudder as the aircraft touched down. "Godspeed, soldiers."

"Same to you," Iosif said with a smile in his voice. "Don't get shot down. We need a ride home."

"The damn aliens aren't scratching the paint on this. But do kill as many as possible. Makes my job easier."

Iosif gave a low chuckle at that, then raised his left hand, clenched in a tight fist and Nuan watched, mesmerized as a purple ball of energy manifested itself around the fist, then as he unclenched it, grew larger to expand until they were encased in a shimmering purple sphere, Iosif at the center. "Again," Iosif rumbled, his voice layered from the psionic power. "Stay close to me."

And with that, the ramp lowered and the sounds of battle finally reached her ears.

She swallowed once more. Do or die.

---

Near Shibetsu, Japan

A town engulfed in flames was the first thing that Nuan saw, the second was the plasma beams in the air and the army in the distance. "Forward!" Iosif ordered and they charged out into the grasslands peppered by metal barricades with ADVENT soldiers fighting back against the encroaching aliens.

Behind them were established missile and artillery systems, and Nuan counted….hundreds of ADVENT soldiers, spread across the battlefield already marred with metal, bodies and blood. A green beam hit Iosif's shield, but dissipated instantly and he kept going with no recognition of what had just happened.

"Dropping the shield," he said. "Ten seconds, get to cover while we figure out what's going on."

"Understood!" Zara stated, already firing her plasma rifle into the aliens in the distance. Iosif nodded, and lowered his hand. He must have been also blocking out some of the sounds, since everything Nuan heard was much more intense. The artillery shook the ground, the air was filled with the sounds of gauss rounds being fired and plasma beams discharging.

Stay close to me.

So she stayed by Iosif as he pushed past the ADVENT lines who were continuously moving and reorganizing depending on where the attack was worst. "Situation report!" He demanded from an Officer organizing an ADVENT squad to target a group of Andromedons in the distance.

The Officer snapped to attention as she saw they were XCOM. "Not good, sir. We've lost the city decisively. We didn't expect to get hit so hard here…and these aliens…they don't die. We wound them and they keep coming back. We can't replace our own soldiers, but they seem to be doing it."

Nuan surveyed the battlefield briefly as the Officer gave more details. A very open area, with some trees providing sparse cover between the ADVENT defenses and the city itself. No one was risking going beyond the safety, creating a no-man's land that was almost certain death for anyone who tried to cross it.

The aliens also appeared to have locked their side down completely. They were definitely Andromedons, green-tinted helmets and all. Above them were drones, but aside from that, she spotted no other alien forces. She pursed her lips as she saw them taking turns firing at the ADVENT soldiers. Their rifles were different, or at least fired differently. Instead of bursts, it was a straight lance of plasma similar to a laser. Maybe more accurate and powerful, but likely not as efficient.

Nuan raised her rifle and started firing, using a concentrated beam to focus her shot. An Andromedon hiding behind a shed was skirted by her beam, and stepped out, arm smoking and leaking some kind of yellow gas. Interestingly, it immediately pointed her direction while she reloaded and…ran away?

A few seconds later two more Andromedons rushed over to where the first one had been and bean firing her direction. She ducked under the metal barricade as twin beams of plasma shot over her head. "You got their attention," Zara commented as she slid into position near her, and began firing on the two Andromedons. "Anything interesting?"

"We're getting shot at!" Nuan spit out, as she pulled out a smoke grenade, wondering if she should use it now. "What do you think is interesting?"

"Hold that thought," Zara said, standing again. "Anna! Can I get some fire on those two?"

"I can't hit anything from here!" She called back, standing regardless. "But I'll do my best!"

The Andromedons fell into cover as the shed was almost torn to shreds from Anna's gauss heavy autorifle. Nothing hit, of course, but it allowed Zara to set up a carefully aimed shot. "Stay still…" she murmured, just before the fiery laser spat from her own rifle and hit one Andromedon straight in the chest.

It immediately jumped back, but the damage was done, and it was leaking some black fluid, yellow gas and sparking from the hole in the suit. But similar to the last one, it ran off and the other Andromedon focused directly on Zara, forcing her back into cover.

"They have something repairing them," Zara warned as more plasma beams flew overhead. "Each time they get hit, they run away and get help. No wonder they aren't being killed."

"I could have guessed that," Nuan hissed. "But we're too far away. Nothing is going to change until we gain some ground."

"Nuan! Gyeong! Anna! Come with me!" Shun ordered, rushing up. "Iosif needs us."

Nuan nodded and with Anna, dashed after Shun towards near the center of the ADVENT line where Iosif was standing with a team of ADVENT engineers and soldiers. "We're going to advance forward," Iosif stated, pointing to a distance about ten meters beyond the current wall. "Not much, but we need to do something otherwise we're just going to get picked off one by one."

"We protect them while they establish the defenses?" Nuan asked to confirm.

"Correct," he revealed, shifting as a plasma bolt shot uncomfortably close over their heads. "I'll provide protection, and you'll need to provide covering fire as well."

Nuan swallowed. "Understood."

"I won't be able to protect you forever," Iosif warned the ADVENT soldiers and engineers. "Work fast."

"Yes, sir!"

Iosif raised a fist and repeated the gesture he'd done earlier, and the entire group was soon encased in a purple sphere. "Move out!" He ordered, and they stepped into the exposed battlefield. Nuan took out a smoke grenade and popped it.

"Covering smoke!" She called and ignored her reservations and jumped to the front of the sphere, letting the smoke drift back and theoretically make it difficult for the Andromedons to get a clear shot. With one hand holding the smoke grenade, she used the other to pull out her gauss pistol and took some shots at the Andromedons.

Their move forward had attracted all of their attention, and Nuan couldn't help but flinch as plasma pounded Iosif's shield and she saw several shots that would have probably killed her outright. But luckily the sheer amount of firepower they were shooting out in return, particularly from Anna and a couple ADVENT gunners, was forcing them into their cover, with the rest of them adding what they could.

"Establish here!" Iosif called, falling to one knee seemingly to help him concentrate. The ADVENT engineers carrying the materials immediately began sticking them into the ground and creating a barricade. She would need to look over the schematics so she wouldn't feel quite so useless next time. But now she could do her best to keep everyone alive.

The smoke grenade she'd been carrying was out and the cloud was dissipating, so she pulled out another one and planted it firmly in the ground and let the cloud cover them all, at the same time pulling out one of her flashbang grenades and throwing it towards a trio of Andromedons huddled behind a crashed car.

Unfortunately, it seemed to have no effect whatsoever.

As she also fell to one knee, shooting several beams towards other Andromedons, it made sense in retrospect. Why would aliens encased in suits be vulnerable to such a tool? They would have been idiots to not think that was a possibility. The ADVENT engineers, who were being helped by Gyeong, had finished constructing the barricade and Nuan quickly positioned herself behind it, grinning as she felt the firm metal at her back.

Alright. Alright. She was still alive.

"Now we actually need to kill some of them," Iosif said, letting the shield collapse as they moved into actual cover. His voice was noticeably more strained compared to earlier. "Seok, you see that car?"

"I do," came the voice of their rocketeer. "Is it volatile?"

"Appears so," Iosif muttered, risking a glance out. "Let's see how they like rockets. Everyone, pin the Andromedons behind that car down!"

Instantly that area was peppered with gauss and laser bursts, which had the desired effect of forcing the trio of aliens hiding there to stay put. Only just a few seconds…"Rocket away!"

Nuan saw the projectile streak and slam into the car and it blew up with a massive explosion that blew one of the Andromedons in half, the other vaporized completely and the one who'd sensed the danger was blown back, the helmet completely destroyed.

And then it came back to life. "Problem!" Nuan called as the Andromedon suit shakily stood back up, the alien corpse within hanging out of the suit like a half-finished birth. It was scorched, leaking fluids and sparking like it would explode, but instead it tried to fire the ruined plasma weapon, which amusingly exploded in its hand, shredding the arm and a good portion of the upper suit itself.

"Shoot it before it runs away!" Anna called and Nuan fired her rifle at the legs of the suit. Luckily it was much slower without a conscious pilot and she cut through most of it before it began stumbling away, and to her immense satisfaction, it fell over and still tried crawling away. She pulled out a frag grenade, judged the distance, and threw it towards the ruined suit.

It landed a half-meter away and blew up and it stopped crawling. Nuan took a breath. One down…she glanced at the rest of the battlefield with a sinking heart. At least several hundred to go. "Seems they like explosives," Anna called. "Iosif?"

"Agreed," he nodded. "ADVENT Command, we need to request a bombing run on Shibetsu, now!"

"I've got another shot lined up," Seok informed. "There's a couple hiding behind some of those trees."

"Take them out," Iosif ordered, standing. "Officer! We need to make a stronger defense. Get some more engineers for round two. XCOM soldiers, with me!"

"Yes, Overseer!" They called and Nuan prepared herself for another harrowing run through the Andromedon gauntlet. She hoped Iosif wasn't stretching himself too thin this early. He couldn't do this forever. But until then, she'd do her best to keep him, and herself, alive. While they waited for the ADVENT engineers to prepare, Nuan and the rest of XCOM and ADVENT held down the line of Andromedons, doing little to definitively kill them, but preventing their advance.

Nuan hoped that bombing run hit soon and took out whatever that making sure these Andromedons didn't die.

---

Shizuoka, Japan

"The aliens are moving into the city, and ADVENT is struggling to contain them," Carmelita updated as the skyranger swept down and landed with sharp jolt. "Goal is simple: Kill as many as possible. Lesedi, get into some elevated position; Pelin, Fakhr, provide support to the ADVENT soldiers, keep that rocket ready."

"Yes, sir!"

Carmelita turned to face them as the ramp opened up behind her and jabbed a finger at him and the other designated scout. "Jamali, Sai-Kee, split up and report on what you see past the main fighting! Everyone else with me."

An explosion rattled the ground, and with a swift turn away, Carmelita led the charge out into the now-ravaged city. Jamali saw the fighting was largely concentrated in the main city highway, with both armies taking cover behind dividers, vehicles and buildings, of which there were numerous. ADVENT soldiers were shouting at each other as they held a thin line, while the aliens relentlessly charged their position.

"Mutons!" Iida called, already aiming and firing at the squad of green-armored aliens who were turning over trucks for better cover. Green plasma fire flew past his head uncomfortably close as he slid into cover and tried to get a clean shot. There were so many targets it was difficult to concentrate on just one.

Jamali heard some clanking behind him, and looked back and saw to his relief one of the Marauder MECs also charging into the fray. "We push now!" Carmelita ordered, grasping her alloy cannon. "Matthew! Amahle! With me, everyone else provide covering fire then continue your assignments!"

To the chorus of affirmatives, Jamali watched as Carmelita made an inhuman leap of at least fifteen meters to land in front of a clearly surprised muton just before she turned its face into mush and repeated the same thing with the two other Mutons right next to it. Jamali also noted there were several Vitakara soldiers in the mix as well, clearly also surprised by the sudden aggression as they turned to focus on the temporarily vulnerable human.

All a distraction as Amahle also charged to the center of the fray, wrists already leaking flames which soon turned into torrents as she turned her massive flamethrowers to the front line. The aliens screamed in pain as they were engulfed in blue and orange flames, too distracted to return fire or flee as the rest of the XCOM and ADVENT soldiers were firing relentlessly.

"Smoke at my position!" Carmelita called as she methodically executed Muton after Muton, ducking, leaping and decimating the brutish aliens at close range to which there was little they could do. The hulking aliens were just not fast enough against the augmented woman.

"Headed your way!" Pelin called, and tossed the canister to roughly her position and within half a minute nearly half the street was engulfed in a pink smoke.

"Move forward!" One of the ADVENT Officers called and with a cheer the black-armored soldiers with XCOM moved closer towards where the two augmented soldiers were destroying the alien line.

"Reinforcements incoming!" Fakhr called, falling to one knee and pulling out her rocket launcher. Jamali looked to where she'd indicated and saw a group of a half-dozen Vitakara running up…Borelian and Vitakarian to be specific.

"Hold the rocket, Fakhr!" Matthew called, standing out in the open and lifting a hand. "Save it for when we need it. Take your shots." The psion was suddenly sheathed in a shimmering purple energy as twisted his hand palm up, and lifted. The group of Vitakara was suddenly suspended in the air, arms flailing as they fruitlessly tried to escape.

Jamali executed one with a headshot, and Sai-Kee, Iida and Lesedi each killed one as well. To their credit, the initial survivors adapted quickly, and began aiming despite being so exposed. The dead alien suddenly fell to the ground and Matthew clenched his fist and the last two began contorting; bones breaking into unrecognizable shapes and the skeletons collapsing in on themselves and once they were a misshapen mockery of a humanoid figure, Matthew thrust his hand down and the corpses slammed into the unrelenting concrete with a splat.

The power faded around Matthew and he shook his hand as if it was asleep. "I've wanted to do that for a long time," he said, satisfaction clear in his voice. Jamali did recall that the aliens had kept him as a prisoner and experimented on him for months, so it wasn't surprising he'd go out of his way to brutalize them.

It certainly seemed to be having an effect. The aliens were in a full retreat, even as Carmelita and Amahle continued annihilating the stragglers, with Matthew lifting several up into the air at a time before either crushing them, or leaving them hanging to be shot. The ADVENT soldiers were glancing at the psion in awe as he strode into the fray along with the two leading women, and oddly enough, it was the psion that the aliens seemed to be most afraid of.

No wonder EXALT had been so keen to create a psion for themselves if this was what one could do. He wasn't exactly a stranger to it, but all displays he'd seen had been mostly…telepathic. This was a far more visceral display.

Carmelita raised a fist as the few surviving aliens ran off. "Hold, we shouldn't advance too far, else we'll be flanked. Jamali, head to the next street and help them there."

Jamali nodded. "Understood, I'll report as soon as possible."

She nodded and he dashed off as she turned to the rest of the soldiers, and ADVENT began also moving their line forward while he headed straight towards the sounds of fighting. Although halfway there, he skidded to a stop. Think. It wouldn't do any good to get there as quickly as possible and be killed within seconds because he hadn't seen a stray alien.

So he continued at a much more careful jog, pulse rifle raised as he mentally took stock of what he had. One frag, one flash-bang and one smoke. A limited supply, but he could make it work. The fighting was definitely much closer now, and he came to a building corner and carefully peeked around it.

Right in front of him was a much smaller firefight between a line of ADVENT soldiers and a small army of Mutons who were pushing against them. He did a quick count. Sixteen regular ones, and a larger one in black armor of some kind. He was sure he'd never seen it before. Unlike the others, it seemed to be a commander, pointing and giving orders, and more noticeably, its face was armored, the helmeted eyes emitting a glowing purple light. In its hands it also held what looked like a plasma cannon of some kind.

Several other Muton soldiers had died, but there were clearly a lot more dead ADVENT than alien, punctuated by the sight of a several ADVENT soldiers getting caught with a thrown plasma grenade, killing one instantly while mortally wounding the other, who was dragged away by medics and replaced by more ADVENT soldiers.

"Overseer, got a potential situation here," he informed Carmelita, making sure that no aliens were coming up to surprise him. "ADVENT positions are under heavy fire from an all-Muton team. This one seems to have a clear commander. Helmeted, black armor, plasma cannon. Copy?"

"Understood," she answered, more sounds of combat coming from her end. "Engage at will, take out the leader if possible. I'll send Iida and Sai-Kee your way."

"Understood, Overseer," he finished, and briefly thought about the best way to approach this. He couldn't spend much time, so he needed to create a distraction in a way that didn't bring all of them down at him at once. He was behind all of them, so it would put them in a difficult position initially, but they would adapt and he needed to kill as many as possible in that brief time.

But he had an idea. Risky, but it would give him the most time. First he raised his rifle at one of the regular Mutons and fired, then immediately threw his smoke grenade to the other side of the street, swung his weapon to the next muton and also shot it in the head. As that body fell to the ground, he threw the flash-bang towards a knot of four who howled and clutched their ears and shook their heads as they puzzled together where it was coming from.

He briefly refrained from firing, letting them draw their own conclusions. The Muton leader swung his cannon around, accurately noted the smoke and logically assumed that was where he was. He shouted something in their guttural language and began firing at the smoke, two more coming to help him. The rest returned to firing at ADVENT.

Jamali grinned. It wouldn't last forever, but it was working. He lined up a shot on the Muton closest to him and fired. He moved the sights a few inches and shot the one next to it. All of them were stupidly lined up in a row, making it trivial to kill almost five within the same amount of seconds. These pulse weapons were insanely accurate.

And then they learned that the soldier wasn't in the smoke, but on the opposite side. The Muton leader swung his cannon to his position and suddenly he was under a hail of green plasma. Now this was a problem. Jamali quickly took the opportunity to reload, acutely aware that he was extremely vulnerable to a grenade, and looked around.

He smashed the window next to him and leapt into the building, then rushed to the window facing the battle. Opportunity to kill another one. He fell to one knee, aimed, and shot an unprotected Muton with a clean beam of fire. The building shook as the corner where he'd taken cover earlier was vaporized by a plasma grenade.

Jamali dashed out of sight again, taking refuge in the middle of the wall where he couldn't be seen. Ever so quietly, he inched towards the edge of the vaporized corner and pulled out his frag grenade. With any luck the Muton leader would either think he was dead, or at least moved from this spot.

He made sure a Muton wasn't going to surprise him from the window he'd just been at, and peeked around the charred brick. The Muton leader was still scanning the area, definitely thinking he was still alive, but the other two Mutons were back to taking cover behind a car. Perfect.

Jamali pulled out the pin and tossed the grenade not at the duo, but right under the car which he noted was leaking gas. The grenade alone might not have killed them…but an exploding vehicle certainly did. The car blew with a massive fireball, and the shrapnel tore the faces of the aliens apart, likely killing them instantly. It also got the attention of the leader, who turned to face the human who'd single-handedly decimated his fighting force.

But that was fine. As long as the alien wasn't firing at ADVENT, he was doing his job. All Jamali needed to do was wait for his reinforcements. But as the wall he was hiding behind began cracking, he hoped they would arrive sooner than later. He was going to run out of tricks eventually.

---

Shirako, Japan

Pain. Terror. Resilience. Anger. Hope.

Patricia sensed all these as the skyranger sped towards Shirako, where the aliens were taking a firm beachhead, apparently almost to the point of breaking the ADVENT lines, and without help they would be forced to consolidate and retreat. But it wasn't an impossible task. Aliens had minds too, they were just…different. Just as malleable and vulnerable to suggestion.

Images from thousands of soldiers and alien beneath her appeared and vanished from her mind in milliseconds, individual sounds, voices and thoughts came together in an unintelligible whole, a broken symphony of minds that she had no idea of how to separate.

So she ignored them and let everything fade except for the men and women around her. Her breathing steadied and eyes closed. All of them were ready and prepared, focused and ready, thanks in part to her. She had unconsciously fallen into her battle trance during the flight over. All of them knew what to do and what their plan was, there was little need for her to repeat anything.

They were of one connected mind. The path ahead was clear.

Patricia didn't bother to carry her heavy autorifle strapped to her armor. It was no longer her strength, nor main weapon any longer. She wondered if that was also why Ethereals didn't seem to like using weapons. It was almost more of a distraction than anything else, since she was often using her hands for something else.

The skyranger shuddered as it landed and the muffled sounds of combat reached her through her heightened state, screams, gunfire and the cascade of emotions found on the battlefield. The instant the ramp descended, all of them charged out in perfect harmony and immediately began working as one unit.

Their sniper, Nati, immediately fell to one knee and began sniping from afar, picking off enemies with an enhanced focus that could only be induced by a psion. Blake and Analyn rushed to groups of wounded ADVENT soldiers and began fixing them up with a speed that was more than simply years of practice.

Their Engineer, Fiona, tossed out several smoke grenades in quick succession to ADVENT positions under immediate threat of collapse and then slid into cover, and began shooting at the closest aliens in sight. Charlotte followed suit, and readied her rocket launcher for the right moment to strike.

And Patricia herself stood for a few seconds, flanked by Allison and Creed who also began firing shots into the alien army. ADVENT had been pushed into the city limits, with the aliens in full control of the beach. The aliens had established plenty of cover and protection beyond the beach, although from the piles of corpses, ADVENT had made them pay dearly for taking even this much ground.

Luckily ADVENT had also set up plenty of defenses in the city perimeter itself, with snipers, missile launchers and artillery positioned in places of elevation that were doing the most to keep the aliens in their position. But if their line was broken…there wasn't much left. Beyond the lines of human and aliens were the alien transports themselves, dozens of them lining the beach, with more possibly coming in.

UFOs streaked across the skies, pursued by US and Japanese fighters, while others attempted strafing runs and bombed entire buildings apart, although they seemed to be keen on avoiding the anti-air defenses ADVENT had established, and out in the distance, Patricia did see several US Destroyers, although they didn't seem to be doing anything.

A plasma burst flew into a building near her and she frowned, figuring it was time to focus on the threat at hand. Drones. Mechtoids. And beyond them, she could sense…Sectoids, and their pet chryssalids. Why had they not used them yet…unless…

The psionic energy swirled around her as she extended an arm aimlessly ahead, and focused on the most prominent pool of psionic power and pushed. The alien had clearly not expected an attack and its paltry defenses were crushed and she took control. Her familiarity with the Sectoid mind proved invaluable as she quickly found what she was looking for.

"They want to save the chryssalids for hunting," she said, startling some nearby ADVENT soldiers with her psionically altered voice. "I will deal with them. Move up."

Creed and Allison charged forward, dodging the plasma bolts flying their way. Patricia stood in the center, watching the mix of Sectoids, Mechtoids and drones take turns to shoot at ADVENT soldiers, and she risked closing her eyes to focus on the nearest alien minds. It was time to make her presence known.

"ADVENT Tokyo Command, this is XCOM Overseer Patricia Trask," she said, concentrating to spread her reach as far as possible.

"Glad to have you, Overseer," came a voice. "We could use it. Do you need anything?"

"Order all soldiers near Shirako to focus only on the mechanical units," she said, her body tensing up and voice breaking as she gathered her power. "I will deal with the biological enemies."

The man said something, but the chorus of alien voices drowned out whatever was said, and having broken into many of their minds at once, there was only room for simple commands, words and feelings. But she didn't need much. Only one word to collapse an army.

Fire. You are burning.

One command, and with it brought the horrendous pain of burning alive. They were not physically suffering, of course, but to the mind, it made very little difference what was real or not. She opened her eyes and smiled.

The Mechtoids began emitting a mechanical screech, collapsing to the ground as they tried to process exactly what was happening, only knowing that they were dying. Sectoids fell down, writhing and screeching as their bodies were wracked with heatless flames. Drones exploded as ADVENT focused on them. A rocket from Charlotte turned a Cyberdisk into scrap, and the remaining mechanical units seemed to freeze for a few precious seconds as the entirety of the battle changed.

XCOM and ADVENT didn't give them a chance to recover. Creed shot a couple drones out of the sky. Allison and several ADVENT soldiers combined their fire to destroy yet another cyberdisk. Blake and Analyn had spread out even further, fixing up ADVENT soldiers and saving them from a painful death or serious injury.

Nati was now focusing on the aliens debilitated from her psionic attack, placing direct headshots on downed Sectoids and Mechtoids with an inhuman precision. One shot, one alien. ADVENT soldiers were shouting words she didn't hear, so deep in her trance that it was equivalent to being underwater. But in return, she could sense everything.

The soldiers, who had been resigned to retreat and death were hopeful and buoyant, and she enhanced those emotions with a brief thought. Every enemy spotted by her squad was noted in some part of her mind, and in the minds of each other, enabling them to move from enemy to enemy instantaneously, their actions so in sync with each other that there was never a time when XCOM's presence wasn't acutely felt.

And she felt death. Some human, but most of it alien. More foreign minds simply ceased to exist; it was a scale of death that was almost indescribable and as more alien minds winked out of existence, the only path was forward.

A UFO sped across the sky, and she glanced up and locked on to the minds within. Simple Sectoid pilots. Weak and little more than tools, and tools they would remain. But not for the side they had once held. Very simple commands were all they understood, and thus, what she gave them.

You will crash into your transport.

No resistance. No question.

She watched, almost amused as the silver UFO streaked down from the sky with a piercing shriek right before it crashed into one of the transports with an explosion that brightened the day. ADVENT soldiers cheered at the sight, and all of them pressed forward against the now-disabled alien army.

"We'll kill them at the beach!" One called gleefully. "Come on!"

Patricia reached the city perimeter, and looked across and noted with satisfaction that her effect had been as widespread as she'd been hoping. ADVENT had not advanced in a uniform line, but the remaining alien mechanical units were retreating. Drones were flying back and Cyberdisks had folded into disks and doing likewise.

You are powerful, psion, but you cannot kill an army.

The mocking, rasping voice of the Sectoid appeared in her mind, giving her a brief pause. A Hive Commander? No…Hive Commanders were…unique. The only ones who were allowed that luxury. This one here? The one attempting to threaten her? No, it was nothing.

So she struck back, located the most powerful psion that existed on the battlefield and forced herself in, much to its terror. Perhaps not, she communicated back. But I can kill you. Kill your allies and turn your chryssalids loose on them.

The command planted, she withdrew and stepped forward, trying to overlook the beach even though most of her view was blocked. She would likely not see the immediate aftermath of her order, but she knew she would see the carnage eventually.

"What is that?" Someone called, and Patricia glanced to the right to see…something walking out of one of the transports. It stood nearly fifteen feet high, dwarfing the mechtoids walking out with it, was supported by metal legs with clawed feet which were attached to some center pod with orange lights she guessed were photoreceptors.

Well, it had been a good possibility that the aliens hadn't shown all their tricks. But even if she couldn't control it, she had an additional army of chryssalids, Sectoids and Mechtoids to throw at it. She looked across the beach and saw at least twelve more of those machines walk out, with some accompanying forces.

Her targets were clear, now it was time to give the pawns their command. So she raised her hand, pinpointed the minds and began giving her orders to the alien masses beneath her.

---

Kochi, Japan

Where the hell are our reinforcements?

Duri risked another quick attack and was immediately forced back down by the wave of return plasma fire at his position. "Beatriz, what's it looking like?"

"Bad," was the response. "There are a lot of them coming up. You need to retreat if you don't want to be overrun."

"Not a bad idea!" Cara called, as she shredded the armor of a Muton charging her position and fired another volley to kill it off completely. "We hold this position, we're going to die!"

There unfortunately wasn't much time for a debate. He could either try and hold this position, kill a lot of aliens, but maybe get his team killed, or make a brief retreat. There was really only one smart option. "Fall back!" He ordered, standing and firing suppressive fire at the aliens, forcing them back into cover or slowing them down at the very least.

It seemed the other squads had the same idea, the other Officers were ordering their squads back as well. Although not with nearly as much success for some of them. Duri watched sadly as one of the teams was destroyed by the combined firepower of a Muton and Vitakara squad. Sliding behind a concrete block, Duri appraised his new situation.

Right. Now what? They were pushed back to nearly the city edge, with plenty of cover, but the problem now was that they'd lost the beach for good, and the aliens could actually take an entrenched position. They apparently could afford to throw away soldiers. ADVENT didn't have that luxury, and he wouldn't do that anyway.

Two Borelians began taking shots at Johan and Kang, and he quickly rose from cover and fired several bursts at them. One hit square in the head, and forced the other down. Cara was sweeping her heavy autorifle back and forth along a large swath of territory where the aliens has established themselves. One Vitakarian stood and immediately jerked back as a well-placed sniper's bullet took it out.

Duri's lips twitched. Thank God for snipers. "This is Gray Sky, coming in for a landing," came the voice of the XCOM pilot. "Stand by for Goliath support."

"Whatever the fuck that means," Cara commented as she knelt into cover and quickly reloaded. "But I'll take it!"

A roar overhead caught his attention, and that of the aliens as well as they shouted and immediately began firing at it. Duri saw why, for what was attached to the skyranger was…he blinked. No, he wouldn't be hallucinating now.

The skyranger hovered right behind Duri and released the payload, which was a massive armored…machine that stood at least fifteen feet high. Maybe even taller, and had equally large weaponry to match. It was in some sort of compressed state when it landed, but it rose and surveyed the battlefield, even as plasma fire burned into it.

"Goliath unit providing support," it said in a monotone, synthesized voice. "Firing initial barrage."

Several panels built into the shoulders of the Goliath popped out, aimed at the line of aliens in front of Duri, and unleashed a payload of micromissiles that shredded everything in a fifteen-foot radius. The aliens that weren't killed instantly were wounded beyond all salvation, and Duri put down the survivors, even as the massive Goliath lumbered forward.

"Where the fuck did XCOM get that?" Cara shouted in disbelief. "How the hell-?!" An explosion cut her off, but Duri echoed the sentiment. He'd known XCOM had machines called MECs; powerful ones too. But there hadn't been any inclination of anything of this scale.

Not that he was complaining.

The Goliath took out its primary weapon, which must have been gauss-based, and began aiming at various groups of aliens. The cannon physically vibrated the air around it, and was surprisingly accurate for such a large weapon. But it was a machine, and machines were precise. In any case that was apparently cause for concern among the aliens who immediately began retreating and firing at the Goliath, which seemed to be taking no damage whatsoever.

It then raised its cannon up, lowered a free fist and shot out a torrent of flame that Duri felt through his armor, and the Goliath directed the gouts of flame all across the beach, sentencing any who were unfortunate enough to be caught in it to an extremely painful death. "Move up!" Duri ordered, glad to give that command after the previous retreat.

Although the Goliath might not need much help, since it seemed fine roasting and shooting the aliens all on its own. It hadn't touched the shield yet, where those Andromedons were still hiding behind, as well as several hundred more Mutons who Duri noted were taking positions in the UFO transports themselves.

The aliens were losing now, and they knew it. Would they retreat? Or fight to the last one?

Duri reloaded his rifle and took aim at one of the Andromedons retreating to a transport, even as the Goliath slammed a fist into the red energy shield and collapsed the entire thing.

The line was held. Now it was time to take the fight to their transports.

---

Near Shibetsu, Japan

"Inori! Get down!"

Nuan watched helplessly as Inori took a direct plasma shot to the chest from a lucky Andromedon shot, throwing him back onto the ground. She heard him coughing, and unsteadily push himself up against the barricade.

"I'm fine," he gasped. "Don't think I can take another one of those."

"Stay down!" Iosif ordered, as he ducked back down as more Andromedons emerged from the city itself, dozens of them at a time now. They just didn't stop coming.

"Stand by for airstrike," a synthesized voice warned suddenly, and a squad of four fighter jets suddenly roared overhead, firing several missiles each that hit the town directly. Nuan couldn't see the immediate aftermath, but based on the explosions, it appeared to be a hit. "Coming around for another run. Hang on-"

Plasma fire from several UFOs filled the skies and the fighters immediately broke off to deal with the new threat. "Did that actually accomplish anything?" Anna demanded as she tried to pin down a squad of Andromedons trying to take cover behind an exploded truck.

"Couldn't have hurt," Iosif called back, looking worriedly at the growing number of Andromedons. The damn aliens really were smart. Each time even one of them was partially wounded, they would just leave and be replaced by a healthy one. It was effectively a stalemate that Nuan had no idea how to resolve. These aliens were at least partially machines, and would probably not tire as easily, but they were slower and easy targets, so they couldn't just charge into the open.

Right?

"Think we've got a new one," Zara commented, firing her weapon at a new squad of Andromedons emerging from the city. They were all regular soldiers barring one, an Andromedon with a similar green helmet, but the differences were that the helmet had some kind of symbol on it, and the left arm had some kind of attachment on it.

"I see it," Iosif confirmed. "Possibly a leader."

The assumption seemed to be correct, as the Andromedon began pointing and marching forward, and the Andromedons around him seemed to be reorganizing. The leader didn't go into cover, just raise one massive hand, notably the one not holding the plasma rifle, and all Andromedon fire stopped, and they began pressing buttons on their suit.

"I do not like this," Seok muttered. "We should take the leader."

"Go for it," Iosif ordered. "But good luck getting a shot to hit."

Despite that, Nuan tried her best, but the beams were just off, and the Andromedon was just too far away to get anything accurate. "Acid!" Iosif suddenly shouted. "They shoot acid!" He thrust up his hands and the barricade was engulfed in a purple shield once more, just as every Andromedon on the field raised their left wrists and fired shells of green blobs, small on their own, but a deadly storm of corrosion when combined by the hundreds.

The barricade where they were at now was protected, thanks to Iosif, with the acid shells dissipating the moment they hit the shield, but the ADVENT line behind them wasn't so fortunate, and Nuan heard screams of pain as the soldiers were hit by the barrage of sizzling liquid. "Check in!" Iosif called, as the Andromedons resumed their plasma attacks on them.

"I need a medic," Seok hissed, gasping in pain. "Direct hit on my arm and leg. Hurts like hell, damn it!"

"I'm fine," Zara said. "But that did its job. Quite a few soldiers got hit, and this area is now pretty much a toxic minefield. I don't want to know if this stuff eats through boots."

"You don't have to sound so impressed," Anna growled. "Shoot back!"

"Yes, of course," Zara replied sarcastically, but continued shooting at the Andromedons.

"We need Patricia," Iosif muttered, creating a psionic shield in front of an ADVENT team as they tried to repair their barricade. "Or a MEC. At some point they're going to charge, and airstrikes and artillery are too imprecise."

The ground suddenly shook and all of them exchanged looks. "That doesn't sound good," Nuan said slowly, and then she saw what the Andromedons had been waiting for. They were two-legged pods with clawed feet and a series of orange lights that resembled eyes.

"I think the Andromedons are as tired of this as we are," Iosif said slowly. "We might be in trouble."

One of the machines suddenly hissed, and several metal plates on the top part of the…main pod of the machine, she guessed, withdrew to reveal what she could only describe as a cannon of death. The interior glowed red and she knew exactly what was coming next. Iosif saw it too. "Everyone get down!" He yelled as the shield was thrown up again and the machine fired.

Three massive laser bursts shot out of the machine with deep booms. The first Iosif didn't waver, the second made the shield waver and the third one was barely absorbed with the barrier collapsing immediately afterwards, Iosif fell to the ground, breathing hard. Nuan rushed to him, and helped prop him up against the barricade.

"I can't do that often," he wheezed. "We need to fall back. We can't hold this position if those things start firing again."

"The other one is aiming here!" Anna called frantically. "Get down."

"Everyone to me!" Iosif roared, standing up and weakly raising a hand to make the sphere materialize around them again. "We retreat toward the main barricade!"

"Copy!" They and the ADVENT soldiers yelled, consolidating around Iosif. The small ground was beginning to move back when the machine fired again, this time destroying the established barricade with a single laser volley, sending pieces of shrapnel flying everywhere, catching several ADVENT engineers and Inori who hadn't managed to get under Iosif's barricade.

"I'm getting him!" Gyeong called, preparing to move to pull Inori under Iosif's protection.

"No! Stay!" Inori called, groaning in pain as he tried to reach for his rifle. "You need to get out of here!" Nuan was torn, he was right, and his leg was practically shredded by shrapnel so he would probably slow them down. But if felt wrong to just leave him.

"Get back here now!" Zara yelled. "They're moving up. All of them are charging our position!"

Nuan looked back and she almost froze up on the spot. The Andromedons were coming after them now, eschewing cover and making a concerted push to take ADVENT's position. It was a slow, methodical march, and now she saw the elusive engineers that had been fixing the Andromedons so far emerge. These were similar in armor and stature, but had red-tinted helmets, didn't carry weapons and were accompanied by a small drone-like machine.

"Everyone retreat!" One of the Officers screamed. "That machine is going to fire rockets."

Nuan saw the machines seemingly plant themselves in the ground, and metal plates slid away from the top of their pods revealing what had to be missile tubes. A few seconds later all of them fired in quick succession with concussive booms.

That was what broke the ADVENT line, and all of them went scrambling back as the line was suddenly engulfed in multiple explosions that caught dozens of ADVENT soldiers before they could do anything but try and run away. "Everyone, run!" Iosif commanded, spinning around, and converting the sphere to a solid rectangle two dozen feet wide, giving everyone the chance to run away without fear of being shot in the back. "Now! I can't hold this forever!"

The ADVENT soldiers and engineers complied, with the remaining XCOM soldiers still providing covering fire, even as they retreated step by step. The Andromedons had advanced to where Inori was, who was firing at what aliens he could. He screamed as one of the Andromedons shot his arm, while the leader reached down and picked him up by the throat.

With Inori firmly in his grasp, the Andromedon leader turned around and walked away while the remaining Andromedons continued their steady advance. "Are they gone?" Iosif demanded, the barrier wavering.

"They're safe enough," Gyeong assured him. "We didn't lose any in the missile strike either. Zara's got Seok and they're behind us. We need to run too. We'll have to make a stand at Nakashibetsu."

"Alright, on my mark, run!" Iosif ordered. "Nuan, pop smoke now!"

"Done," Nuan confirmed, dropping the canister and beginning a sprint away. Iosif lowered the barricade and they all dashed away as fast as they could, plasma fire lighting up the space behind them. And just like that, the aliens had captured their first city in Japan, a foothold had been established and they hadn't been able to stop it.

Nuan sincerely hoped that the other battles were going much better than this one had.

---

Shirako Beachhead, Japan

Kill the machines.

That was the mental command Patricia emitted to every alien she could invade the mind of. The chryssalids screeched, spittle flying from their mouths as they swarmed the massive machines which laboriously turned to appraise the situation. A plasma turret popped out from the top of them, and began shooting the chryssalids with ease, negating what little danger they posed.

But the distraction was enough to get ADVENT forces into position, and begin firing on the machines and Cyberdisks that came out. Flanking the machines was a kind of Mechtoid she'd never seen before. It was as if the Sectoids had taken the basic shell of the Mechtoid, and turned it into what could only be described as a walking tank.

No longer did it simply have plasma cannons for arms, these now seemed augmented with missile launchers of some sort, even as they were already bulkier and taller than the original Mechtoid. But it unfortunately had one fatal flaw, and that was an organic pilot, and organic pilots could just be controlled.

Patricia extended a hand towards two approaching enhanced Mechtoids, and focused on their subdued mental states. Enslaved to implants and machines, they were similar to MECs in that they were difficult to detect, and broad psionic commands had little effect. But a side effect of their invisibility was that there was little in their minds of begin with.

The machines are your enemy. She sent. Destroy them and then each other.

Instantly they raised their weapons to the nearest machine and started shooting, getting the attention of the machine which stomped behind to face them. Meanwhile the other aliens under the influence of her were quickly dying off from the combined fire of the Cyberdisks and the machines.

"Take cover!" Creed called, and Patricia frowned as she saw one of the machines fire missiles from the top of its command pod and those crashed down on an ADVENT position several dozen meters away, killing most of the soldiers there.

"Support their position!" She ordered her soldiers, and they began shooting pulse lasers and gauss-propelled rounds at the massive machines, which seemed to have very little effect initially. Patricia focused on the enhanced Mechtoids close to the other machines, and easily converted them to betray the aliens, but it seemed that even plasma was doing little more than scorching the paint.

A shot from Nati neutralized the turret on the machine with a miniature explosion of green. Patricia quickly located the sniper on one knee and concentrated on him. Be calm and focused, she pressed upon him, even as she saw the effects. Enhanced by her power, he easily transitioned from one target to the next, shutting down the turrets on the machines with ease.

But it still wasn't going to be good enough, the machines still had missiles and a massive laser Patricia just saw being used on another ADVENT position. The machines needed to be taken out now and fast. But fortunately, she had an idea of what to do. "ADVENT Command," she said. "Send all fighters under UFO attack to my position. I will deal with them."

"Understood, Overseer," a voice answered. "There's a few heading over now."

One of the enhanced Mechtoids was blown to pieces by a laser barrage from one of the machines, another was stomped into the ground by another. Charlotte fired several rockets at several cyberdisks, destroying one and heavily damaging the others. Blake and Analyn were in completely different places, trying to save what ADVENT soldiers they could.

Allison and Creed picked off drones one by one, and finished off damaged Cyberdisks near the machines, which did seem to unsteady some which were in close proximity to the explosive Cyberdisks. And she was running out of ways to psionically shape this fight. Almost all of the Sectoids were dead, either by the guns of their own or ADVENT soldiers who just shot all aliens in sight, not that she could blame them.

The chryssalids were also all dead, and the few Mechtoids, enhanced and normal, were almost wiped out as they stood no chance against the machines, although one had managed to damage the leg of one. Still didn't save it as a rocket barrage from the machine blew it apart.

But the upside was that it freed her mind to pay attention to new arrivals, like the two UFOs streaking overhead, peppering several fighters with green bolts as the human pilots tried to fly away. Patricia closed her eyes and concentrated solely on the Sectoids piloting their fighters, letting the sounds, screams and voices of the battle around her fade.

Abandon the hunt, follow my orders.

Words would not be enough to illustrate the complexity of her order, so she instead impressed in their minds a clear image of what she wanted them to do. The Sectoids initially resisted, but like the rest, they were no match for an experienced psion.

The air around her began vibrating, and she opened her eyes to a purple-tinted vision of the battlefield. Hoping she was correct, she looked up and smiled. Roughly ten meters above her, much to the surprise and terror of the ADVENT soldiers, were the two UFOs, weapons ready and pointing towards the line of machines.

She pointed. Fire.

The pilots obeyed her commands without question, firing green barrages of plasma at the line of machines, and at an intensity and speed that actually seemed to be doing some damage. Realizing the UFOs were somehow friendly, the ADVENT soldiers shouted, cheered, and renewed their attack as the machines focused on the newest threat.

Patricia did not care as she saw the UFOs take brutal hits from the massive laser cannons. They were just pawns to be sacrificed, but she did not especially care to have a UFO crash directly on top of her. But the situation was not quite that dire yet. One of the machines succumbed to the continuous barrage of plasma fire and blew apart with an explosion of red and fire.

However, now one of the UFOs was in bad shape, judging from the panic and terror she felt from the crew. Fair enough, then there was one final command to give. Finish the line, she send, along with another image of what she wanted to see accomplished. The UFO, weeping fluids and smoke shot off into the sky, then swung around in a wide arc until it lined up roughly with the machines on the beach.

After a second of hesitation, it shot towards them, gathering speed as pieces of the UFO were visibly sheared off by the force, but nothing stopped the suicide crash that it was intending. It hit the first machine at what was probably the speed of sound, tearing it apart before slamming into the one next to it with almost as much force before hitting the beach and sliding forward into still two more, collapsing the machines as they were too crippled to regain their balance, before finally coming to a stop, just as the elerium power core inside exploded, killing any of the crew that might have survived.

Five more of the machines remained, but they showed no signs of retreat as they continued firing at the remaining UFO, in addition to concentrating on ADVENT positions. Barricades were annihilated with one pulse from the laser. Clustered squads were wiped out by missile barrages. The aliens were determined to make them pay dearly, and Patricia figured it had gone on long enough.

She physically gestured to the machines, echoing the sentiment in her mind to the UFO she controlled. End this. The UFO suddenly sped towards the two machines it had been shooting at with a speed that nearly knocked her over from the blowback, and it shredded them apart before burying itself deep within one of the UFO transports, pushing the UFO into the sea and submerging it below the water.

Up above she sensed more UFOs coming. There was no careful planning this time. No images or maneuvering to get them into a special position. These were not UFOs anymore, but guided missiles waiting for her command. Out of nowhere a UFO streaked out of the sky to impact another machine, the explosion sending out a shockwave that knocked everyone nearby off-balance and threw several to the ground.

In quick succession the other two UFOs fell out of the sky like silver meteors; the machines they hit were torn asunder with no defense as the sheer force negated whatever natural defense their armor allowed. What remained was a beach on fire, scraps, shards and shrapnel littering the sand and ocean. No alien showed itself and a silence descended upon the battlefield, aside from the whispering of flame.

All that might possibly be left were outsiders…but at most there were less than a hundred, nothing compared to the thousands of soldiers ADVENT commanded here. Still, the UFOs needed to be cleared and she planned to continue doing her part.

Or would have, if the world hadn't suddenly blurred around her and she fell to a knee as the adrenaline and rush of power faded out of her. She heard a mix of voices above her, one seemed to be…Analyn? Blake? She managed to sense Creed close by…was he the one holding her hand?

And why was she on the ground with her helmet off?

But her mind and body demanded rest after what she'd done, and she had no choice but to comply, and hoped that she'd done enough to win the battle, and that someone would bring her back to it.

---

Shizuoka, Japan

A roar from the larger Muton prompted Jamali to get out of his position, just in time too, as the weakened wall finally gave out and shattered from the concentrated bursts of the plasma cannon. However, the Muton was not going to last much longer because ADVENT was advancing, and their gauss weapons were punching through even the Muton's armor.

But at this point, Jamali was pretty sure the Muton didn't care about ADVENT anymore, and was purely motivated by revenge. He couldn't really blame it. He probably wouldn't be thinking clearly either if one person had managed to almost kill his entire squad.

That being said, he didn't particularly like it.

Jamali took cover behind a counter and quickly updated what he knew about the Muton. ADVENT soldiers were much closer, and they had hit the alien's knee, so the Muton was confined to the ground, shooting now at the ADVENT soldiers, killing one who got too close. Now was his chance. Jamali lined up his pulse weapon and fired a sustained beam at the head of the alien.

It was a direct hit and hit directly in the purple eye of the helmet, drilling through in seconds and piercing the soft skin below. The Muton let out one final roar and fell back. Jamali didn't give it a chance in case it was faking, and aimed another beam at the face, keeping the beam there for several seconds. Smoke rising from the holes he'd burned, he stood, reloaded and walked out to the ADVENT soldiers.

"Are there any more?" He asked the Officer, who was almost staring at him reverently. Come to notice it, all of them were.

But she quickly got over it. "No sir, I think that's the last in that group."

"There'll be more," he said. "Keep moving forward. A couple more XCOM soldiers should be coming-"

"Jamali!" He turned at the sound of his name and saw Iida and Sai-Kee rushing up, skidding to a stop as they observed the carnage.

"I guess you had things under control," Sai-Kee commented. "New Muton?"

"Commander of some sort," Jamali said as Iida knelt down by it. "You recognize it?"

"Never seen it before," Iida shrugged, standing up. "Vahlen will love it though."

"Let's win the battle first," Jamali suggested. "How's the rest of the assault progressing?"

"Never seen anything like it," Sai-Kee said in awe. "Carmelita and Matthew are making a mockery out of the alien army."

"Good for them," Jamali said, looking down the street as he spotted movement. "But we need to advance. Officer," he turned to the woman standing attentively. "Do you have any idea where they came from?"

"A small UFO flew over before the attack here started," she answered, pointing down the street. "About ten minutes later the Mutons showed up. I would guess the UFO is still there."

"Then that's our target," Jamali nodded. "Carmelita, you there?"

"Here!" Was the almost snarled response. "Status?"

"Alive, and we think there's a UFO at the end of this," he updated. "Raider-class by the sound of it, not a transport. We're heading there."

"Good plan," she agreed. "Stay in contact."

"Will do, Overseer," he said, and ended the call. "We have our target. Officer, follow us. I doubt that was all they had."

"Will do," she said, waving the soldiers forward. "Come on!"

They carefully made their way down the street, acutely aware of the sounds of more battle in the distance, but eventually they all felt it: the low thrum of an alien UFO. And then the alien reinforcements arrived.

"Vitakara!" Sai-Kee called, and all of them ducked, slid, or fell into some kind of cover. Jamali knelt behind a concrete divider, and peered down the scope at the alien approaching. A dozen Borelians, along with…he frowned. Were those snakes?

"What the fuck?" One of the ADVENT soldiers muttered in disbelief. "Snakes?"

Snakes they seemed to be. Three meters tall, with arms carrying plasma rifles and their thin body covered in silver armor. The faces reminded him of vipers, a sleek and symmetrical face that was what you would see in nightmares. The worst part was that these things were fast. They slithered into cover within seconds after being spotted, taking positions far beyond the main alien force.

"Oyariah!" Iida called out as she spotted the last hulking aliens. "Although these ones are…different."

Jamali froze for a brief second. What the hell was an Oyariah-ah, right. The rarer subspecies of Vitakara that was extremely tall, strong and dangerous. They apparently killed some at the Fury base, but Jamali didn't exactly recall them carrying black shields nearly as tall as him, and massive hammers along with them.

"Fire!" Jamali ordered as the Vitakara scattered into cover to avoid the hail of steel and fire heading down the street. All except the Oyariah, who raised their shields and absorbed the shots. At least there were only two of them, but that wouldn't really matter much if those hulking aliens got close.

Their positions entrenched, the Borelians began firing at them, green plasma streaking past them or hitting their cover. Jamali took aim at one of the Borelians, fired, and watched as the alien fell back, a smoking hole in its head. Iida was focusing down two more Borelians, clipping one in the shoulder and keeping the other one in cover.

Sai-Kee tossed out a canister at the man-sized snakes who were trying to move forward, using their slim bodies to their fullest potential as they crawled along cover that would have been too small for ordinary bodies. They hissed fiercely as the flashbang went off, one close enough that the impact made it writhe on the ground, and Sai-Kee quickly shot it several times in the head.

And that was when the rest of them made their suicidal move. Their small frames made it extremely difficult to hit them, and they sped up on the front line and suicidally attacked it. An ADVENT soldier yelped as one of the aliens wrapped itself around him, constricting his movement and breathing as it shot another soldier several times in the chest and head. It squeezed its coiled muscles once, killing the soldier instantly with a sharp crack and unfurled itself and tried to move on.

Or it would have moved on had Jamali not shot it in the face, and so it died, wrapped around the body of the dead ADVENT soldier. The snakes had tried the same thing with several more soldiers, with largely the same results, killing one or two, before being shot to death.

"Back! Back!" Iida spat as she frantically stepped back, firing at the last remaining snake Vitakara which was hissing and dodging her fire, trying to wrap itself around her. Jamali fired a sustained laser beam and kept it in one place, leading the alien to unintentionally slice itself in half while trying to avoid Iida's gauss fire.

The other half of the snake writhed on the ground, quickly stopped by Iida placing several gauss shots directly into its head. "Thanks for that," Iida told him as they returned their focus to the main battle.

"Anytime," Jamali said, aiming at another Borelian who was rushing forward, and fired. He didn't kill the alien, but did slice its arm clean off, essentially putting it out of commission. "We need to deal with those Oyariah now!"

The lumbering aliens were almost to the front line, and once they arrived, it would probably make the snakes looks easy in comparison, because these aliens were armed and armored to survive close-quarters combat. So that meant some risks had to be taken.

"Sai-Kee, you take the right, I'll take the left," Jamali ordered, reloading his rifle. "We need to debilitate them. "Officer! Iida! Covering fire now! We're going up."

"Popping smoke!" Sai-Kee called, and tossed a canister at the front line which exploded in a pink cloud a few seconds later, allowing them to charge forward into the hail of plasma. They needed to get behind the Oyariah for this to work, so Jamali dashed past them, hoping they wouldn't notice, and even if they did, his plan would still work.

He glanced behind him, and saw the aliens slowly advancing, struggling against the hail of gauss fire shot their way. He glanced over to see Sai-Kee also in position, extremely close to the Borelian line. A quick nod, and Jamali raised his rifle, targeted the leg joint, and fired a clean sustained beam of red energy.

The alien screamed as the laser burned into first his armor, then flesh. It tried to remain standing, but was unable to bear the weight, and fell to one knee. Jamali quickly transitioned to the next vulnerable point, the opposing ankle, and fired. The alien turned to him and began crawling towards him, ditching the shield as it was effectively crippled.

"Iida?" He called, aiming for the head.

The crimson beam burrowed into the black helm of the Oyariah, giving him a glimpse of the orange eyes underneath it, and a hail of bullets from Iida ensured that it never reached him, and the titan fell still, not even giving a last gasp.

"Need some help!" Sai-Kee shouted as the other Oyariah, while hit, wasn't crippled and was heading towards the lone XCOM soldier, caught between the furious alien and line of Borelian soldiers. The Oyariah knew it as well, and frustratingly had positioned his shield to ensure that Jamali couldn't get a clear shot at him, and certainly not cripple him.

The alien took a swipe at him which Sai-Kee leapt away from with ease, but unfortunately right into the firing line of the Borelians. One plasma shot glanced his shoulder, and the other slammed directly into his back, sending him sprawling to the ground as the Oyariah stormed forward to finish the job. "Get back!" Sai-Kee yelled to him, frantically waving behind the alien. "Kill it now!"

Jamali understood what he was saying. Sai-Kee was going to die, but the brief moment would let him get a clear shot at the alien. So he dashed back to the ADVENT line, plasma fire scorching the paint of his armor several times and turned back once more to see the Oyariah bring the hammer down directly onto Sai-Kee's head with a crack the he could almost feel.

By that point, Jamali was sure Sai-Kee was dead, but it seemed the alien wanted to make sure and raised the hammer again, and that was when Jamali aimed at the knee and fired, as did Iida and half a dozen other ADVENT soldiers. The alien roared and collapsed to the ground, not dead, but a grenade thrown by the ADVENT Officer made it stop moving.

Down one soldier, with at least eight Borelians left, not counting whatever else was left in that UFO which he knew would be an outsider of some kind. But now they outnumbered the aliens significantly, and one by one they soon fell to ADVENT rounds, his pulse laser, or Iida's gauss rifle. Jamali cut the leg off one retreating Borelian, and it was soon executed by another ADVENT soldier with a few rounds to the back.

Iida shot another Borelian hiding behind a car, riddling the corpse with holes as they steadily advanced forward. The Borelians didn't go down without a fight, killing their fair share of ADVENT soldiers with well-placed shots, but not enough to make a difference as Jamali ended the last one standing with a sustained pulse beam to the heart.

All of them paused for breath once the last one fell, taking a moment to get their bearings once more. Jamali looked back up the street and realized just how many people had died here. Human and alien corpses littered the streets, blood coloring the pavement crimson and yellow as each side fought to the bloody end.

He did a quick count. Six ADVENT left, plus an Officer, and both of them. "How are your soldiers?" He asked the Officer, who was also looking over her troops as they reloaded and bandaged their wounds.

"We're still good," she said, exhaustion clear in her voice nonetheless. "We've still got a UFO, yeah?"

"This has to be everything," Iida said, looking down the street, the end in sight. "I think we're only left with an outsider, and maybe a few Sectoids."

Jamali hefted his rifle. "Let's finish this then, move out."

They jogged towards the edge of the street that transitioned to the small beachhead where the UFO was resting on. The area around it looked dead, empty and like a trap. Jamali sighed. In most cases, he knew XCOM would want to keep as much of the alien tech intact as possible, Dr. Vahlen in particular was particularly obsessive over functional tech.

But frankly, right now he didn't really care what she wanted.

"You still have a rocket?" He asked one of the ADVENT soldiers carrying a rocket launcher.

"Yes, sir," he nodded. "But I don't think this is going to put a dent in it."

"Those UFOs have outsiders," Jamali explained, eyeing the entrance with the multicolored shield. "I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go through another fight. The alien UFOs are powered by elerium generators, which are exposed in the UFO itself. Aim for the back of the UFO through the entrance and you'll destroy it. Sound good?"

"You got it," he nodded and positioned himself in front of the UFO, loading the rocket. "Ready on your command."

"Fire," the Officer ordered, and he shot the rocket which sped into the UFO and the muffled explosion reached Jamali's ears. Then a second later, the entire back of the UFO blew out and a wave of plasma and fire shot out all the exits. The UFO still burning, Jamali gave a firm nod.

"Mission accomplished, Carmelita, the UFO has been taken care of."

"You mean you blew it up," she corrected. "Good job. We're finishing up here. Looks like this area is secure. Report back as soon as possible. Status of everyone?"

"Sai-Kee is dead," Jamali updated. "Iida and I are unharmed."

"Update that to just you," Iida corrected, slumping to the ground. "Since the fighting's done, I want proper treatment now."

Jamali frowned and knelt down by her, removing her hand from her stomach which had suffered a direct hit. Her own gauntlet was bloody as he pulled it away, appraising the damage. It wasn't fatal, but it must have hurt a lot. "We need medical treatment for Iida," he corrected Carmelita, waving one of the ADVENT soldiers to get some bandages and medicine. "We'll meet up as soon as possible."

"Copy, and good job."

Yes, good job. Even if the street was littered with dozens of alien and human corpses, Jamali suspected it could have gone much, much worse. And it occurred to him that if they were winning…then there was a good chance that the aliens had lost this battle.

And that was almost worth everything.

---

Kochi, Japan

"Push towards the UFO!" Duri ordered as the Goliath continued pulling all of the alien fire, even as it destroyed several aliens at a time every few seconds with a burst of its massive weapon. Duri gained quite a lot of satisfaction seeing one burst from the massive gauss cannon rip through one of those damned Andromedons, shattering the helmet.

Of course, even that didn't kill them.

The suits continued fighting somehow, pulling out some small plasma rifles and shooting at the encroaching ADVENT army while the rest of the surviving Mutons and Vitakara were retreating towards the UFO transports themselves.

"Beatriz! Can you see anything in the transports?" Duri asked, as they overlooked the exposed beachhead, planning the best way to go forward. The aliens might be fine with sending out soldiers into the killzone that was the beach, but he didn't have such aspirations.

"Negative, nothing beyond the initial entrance."

Duri glanced over to the Goliath moving down the beach, killing any alien foolish enough to still be in the open. He also saw the rest of the remaining aliens in the UFO, stationed behind erected barricades within the ship, firing out at them. However, the good news was that with them effectively boxed in, it limited their sight range and possible reactions.

"Reload and get ready," Duri said, as he saw the other squads also preparing to perform some similar actions. "We're going to thread between the two transports and set up along the side."

"Good plan," Cara said. "Or we could wait for the Goliath."

Duri looked at the massive MEC to see it slowly fall to one knee in front of the transport, raise a fist towards the entrance, shrugging off the green plasma fire, and shot a cone of flame into the transport, sweeping its wrist from side to side.

"Let's not let XCOM get all the credit," Johan chuckled. "Besides, someone's going to need to actually clear the craft."

Duri raised his rifle. "Let's go!" They charged out of their cover and dashed to the space in between the massive silver UFOs, some plasma fire coming incredibly close to hitting, but they managed to get to the edge of the craft and leaned against the metal, which was surprisingly warm. Duri motioned them to get closer, and they snuck to the edge and peered in.

There were actually not that many left. Only a dozen in total. Seven Mutons, three Vitakarians and two Borelians. No Andromedons, thankfully, or maybe they were just hiding. The UFO was designed rather intelligently from what he could see. The panels that had been erected had clearly once been in the floor, which allowed enough room to hold an army, but also provided defenses in case the UFO had to be defended, such as in the current situation.

"Grenade on the Mutons!" Duri called, and tossed one towards two of the hulking aliens who were stationed behind a short panel. It was a near-perfect throw, landing next to one and killing it instantly while severely wounding the other.

"Cara! Suppress!" Duri yelled and she took his position, swinging out and laying down a brief barrage of gauss fire that forced them back into cover while Johan and Kang moved to the opposite side of the transport entrance and he took a position within the UFO itself.

"Reinforcements are heading your way," Beatriz updated. "Two more squads."

"Excellent," Duri grinned, and raised his rifle and took aim at one of the Vitakarian soldiers. "Let's give them some cover!"

Another Muton succumbed to Kang's rifle, and Cara and Johan took out a Borelian a few seconds later. More ADVENT soldiers rushed up, taking positions in deeper in the craft itself, with Duri at the front. An ADVENT soldier close to him was sniped by one of the Vitakarians, and received a grenade thrown by another Officer in retaliation.

"Up above!" Cara yelled, pointing to the back of the UFO hangar they were in, just before it transitioned to a new part of the ship. The entrance further in was seemingly protected by some kind of multi-colored shield, which dissipated as more aliens walked out. Outsiders. The guardians of UFOs, with a half-dozen Sectoids also accompanying them.

Duri pointed at one of the two glowing orange aliens. "Take those out now!"

"Targeting!" Cara confirmed and the crystalline alien was suddenly under a steady barrage of gauss fire, sparking off the body as the alien raised its rifle and began shooting.

"Preparing rocket!" One of the rocketeers called, the launcher already on his shoulder. "Firing!"

Duri saw the rocket speed past the Outsiders, and realized that the target wasn't them, but the Sectoids who had been taking cover behind the elevated platform leading to the next section of the UFO. All the small gray aliens were killed by the explosion that followed, the shrapnel tearing apart whatever alien hadn't been smashed to a pulp by the initial shockwave.

The Outsiders had finally been forced into cover as the last of the alien defenders fell. Cara paused to reload, while the other ADVENT gunners advanced relentlessly. Another Officer tossed his grenade towards one of the Outsiders, forcing to step out and it started cracking as it was instantly assaulted with the weapons of every ADVENT soldier in the UFO and disintegrated like a burning piece of paper.

The remaining Outsider suffered a similar fate, not even able to get a single kill as the ADVENT gunners ripped it apart at close range within several seconds. "Move in!" One of the Officers ordered, pointing deeper into the UFO, and all of them followed that order, but Duri was confident that they would find no more aliens. Outsiders only emerged when the ship was in danger of falling, and the Sectoids wouldn't risk themselves unless there was no one else left.

So even as he went along clearing the various sections, he knew they'd won.

Kochi had been saved.

---

Nakashibetsu, Japan

"Hold him down," Zara ordered her as she carefully removed Seok's armor to treat his acid burns. The survivors had been picked up by ADVENT transports and were heading straight for Nakashibetsu, the next stronghold of ADVENT since the defense of Shibetsu had failed.

Nuan and Anna held a respective arm, while Zara sprayed the med-kit on his chest. "God, that stings," Seok hissed, panting heavily. "You almost done?"

"Shut up," Zara said. "Almost. Acid doesn't just go away, even with these med-kits."

"We need to find out how the rest of the attacks went," Iosif said, rifle aimed out the back of the transport even though there were no aliens in sight. "The Commander needs to know Inori was captured."

He adjusted something on his helmet. "Lightning Sky, you there?"

"Here, and I don't think you guys need to worry about pursuit. The aliens are retreating to the town."

Nuan looked up. "What?"

"This was essentially the only place they were able to establish any kind of foothold," Lightning Sky explained. "Almost all of the other offenses have been pushed back. I don't think they have the soldiers left to push forward."

"So…we won?" Seok asked weakly, pushing himself up. "Even though we lost the town?"

"Well, the aliens attacked all across the coasts, and only managed one capture," Lightning Sky said. Nuan almost visualized the shrug. "I'd say that this was an overall victory. And now we know where they'll attack next."

"In a way, it might be for the best the city was lost," Zara commented. "The aliens will be concentrated in one place and we'll be able to keep an eye on them."

"Except they could attack Korea or China from there," Nuan pointed out. "They only wanted Japan as a staging ground for attacking Asia. And now they've got one, no matter how small it is."

"The aliens won't attack Asia until they control most of the country," Zara defended coolly. "Unless they want to prompt ADVENT to attack them now and then isolate whatever force they send to Asia, they won't do anything until they actually control the country. Which now they do not."

"At least it's over," Shun sighed. "For now, anyway. But at least Japan is safe."

Nuan couldn't disagree with her on that. More importantly, Japan was safe and most of them were alive. She'd lived through the attack and she felt…better about the future. If this was her trial by fire, then she was certain she'd passed it.

But unfortunately, she knew it would only get harder from here. The aliens would not take this defeat lightly.

---

Forward Observation Station, Mars Orbit

Several more transport icons turned red and Ravarian once more held his tongue. The holographic map of Japan was essentially now little more than a checklist of losses. They had nothing more to gain by sending more forces, and he was going to dissuade Caelior from continuing the attack if he kept up this insanity.

Luckily, he was pretty sure he wasn't the only one who felt this way. At the moment he was grateful to Quisilia for putting a mental block around him so he wasn't affected by the auras of multiple Ethereals simultaneously. He'd had that happen before and it had been…unpleasant. Although an advantage was that he learned that it worked both ways to an extent. The one emitting the aura also had their emotions revealed somewhat. Not plainly, or course, but there were spikes in intensity, and combined with verbal and visual cues, it essentially allowed him to read Ethereals to a small degree.

Before today he'd not even known Ethereal Caelior existed, and he was largely unimpressed with the Ethereal, and didn't particularly care if the hooded Ethereal read his mind or not. His attire was certainly interesting, gray armor that only covered his torso, arms and legs, with a purple hood over the unseen helm of the Ethereal.

Ravarian finally put his hands on the holotable. "I trust you've seen enough, Ethereal Caelior?"

The hooded Ethereal looked down at him. "The battle is not lost yet," he stated, the deep voice reverberating even deeper than other Ethereals. "You understand how paltry this number was, Zar'Chon?"

Caelior clearly intended that to be the end of it, but Ravarian had quite enough of it, which would be reckless at any other time, but the fact that Quisilia hadn't telepathically dissuaded him in the first place indicated that the Unseen Ethereal was just as irritated as he was. "Perhaps not in the grand scheme of the war, Ethereal Caelior," Ravarian continued, keeping his tone respectful. "But the losses are close to half a million, with very little ground gained to show for it. The tactics used were flawed, and we need to determine a different means of attack." He pointed on the map. "We now have a foothold. For now we should hold-"

His jaw suddenly clamped up and a firm pressure rested over his body, rendering him immobilized as Caelior simply looked at him. Quisilia materialized behind Caelior a second later, just as immobile as the Ethereal keeping him pinned in place. "Release the Zar'Chon, Caelior. Now."

"If I wanted advice, Zar'Chon, I would have asked," Caelior hissed. "You have little comprehension of our plans, do not presume to know otherwise."

Ravarian was tempted to respond to that. However, he figured that might actually get him killed here. For the most part, the Ethereals he'd worked with had been…well, at least somewhat respectful to his position. Not Caelior though, for whatever reason. And now he wondered if Ethereals like Quisilia were the exception rather than the rule.

No, Zar'Chon, the Little Storm is just upset that he failed so spectacularly.

Really. Well, he couldn't really blame him in either case, although Ravarian now felt slightly vindicated because he'd predicted something like this would happen if they simply threw their forces at the Humans. They weren't stupid, and that was what Caelior had found out the hard way, at the cost of thousands of soldiers.

"Order the retreat." Ravarian instinctively straightened at the voice of pure command, one that reverberated far longer in his mind than even Caelior's. Off to the side, looking out into the stars and at Earth in the distance was the last figure in their small command room. An Ethereal who towered over all of them, clad in silver armor and crimson cape, with a scarred greatsword strapped to his back.

"The battle can still be salvaged," Caelior said, turning to the Battlemaster. "We simply need more-"

"Order the retreat." The Battlemaster repeated without turning to face him, raising an iron-clad fist to make his point. "You failed. I warned you not to underestimate the Humans and you did exactly that. I warned you what XCOM would do, and you did not prepare accordingly. I warned you that even with our advantages, our victory is not assured."

The Battlemaster turned around to look down upon the Ethereal, who now almost seemed nervous. "And yet in your arrogance, believed that you knew better. That you would somehow be able to shape reality simply because you wield the Gift. You believed this battle so beneath you that you did not participate in it yourself, and hold yourself above all species. The Zar'Chon warned you of what I warned you about, and you dismissed him simply because he is not one of us."

The Battlemaster slowly and deliberately walked over to the hooded Ethereal, who Ravarian saw almost take a step back. "You are relieved of your command, Caelior. You lack the restraint, respect and courage required to command soldiers to fight and die for you. You are dismissed. Now leave."

Caelior wisely didn't protest and almost fled the room, leaving Ravarian with a very smug satisfaction at the sight. But personal feelings aside, this was a setback they needed to recover from. "What is the next move, Battlemaster?" He asked, as the armored Ethereal appraised the holotable.

"We withdraw our forces and converge to hold the Human city of Shibetsu," he answered. "We will establish an operational base there, which will hold against retaliation. But we can do little more at this point. The Humans won this battle. Let them celebrate their victory, for it was earned, even if it was by incompetence and cowardice on our side. We will convene later, but now I must study their tactics to prepare for the invasion of America."

"Understood," Ravarian nodded. "I will begin work immediately."

"Do so," the Battlemaster said, turning away and heading for the exit. "Make this the last major victory they enjoy. And begin the acquisition of Special Operators. The Psions must be negated."

"Yes, Battlemaster," Ravarian promised, as the Battlemaster left the room and Quisilia vanished from sight, leaving him alone in the cold, dark room.

---

Supplementary Material

The Advent Directive

SECTION 8: ADVENT Military

Subsection 8.1: Introduction

Purpose: The military of ADVENT is to protect and defend from all threats terrestrial and extraterrestrial, by the usage of lethal force; in addition to offensive directives to quickly neutralize rising threats to the state of ADVENT and terminate them quickly and decisively. The ADVENT military answers to the Executive Branch of ADVENT, and to the Chancellor of ADVENT.

Structure Overview: The structure of the ADVENT Military is briefly composed as follows:

ADVENT Military Command: The central command of the ADVENT Military, composed of all ranking members with positions open for the Chancellor of ADVENT and the Chief of Peacekeeper Operations for increased coordination although the Commander of the ADVENT Military can override the Chancellor of ADVENT should certain conditions be met.

ADVENT Divisions: These are various specialized branches in ADVENT, currently composed of. All further breakdowns are composed within the branches listed below:

- ADVENT Army Division

- ADVENT Navy Division

- ADVENT Air and Space Division

- ADVENT Special Forces Division

- ADVENT Special Response Division

- ADVENT Oversight Division

ADVENT Legion: A legion within a division contains at least 100,000 personnel including support staff, and can be larger. Legions are to be used to serve as the standard defense force of a medium-sized country, in addition to additional legions from other divisions.

ADVENT Battalion: A battalion within a division contains at least 50,000 personnel, up to the size of a legion, and would ideally be used to defend regions within countries and also as an occupying force.

ADVENT Garrison: A garrison within a division contains at least 25,000 personal up to the size of a battalion, and is composed of companies.

ADVENT Company: A company contains at least 10,000 personnel, up to the size of a garrison and in composed of units.

ADVENT Unit: A unit contains at a minimum 1,000 soldiers, and composed exclusively of squads excluding all support personnel.

ADVENT Squad: A Squad is composed of between 6-10 soldiers, excluding all supporting personnel, and can be composed of various specializations and combinations.

Note: All ranks have a single commanding Officer, as well as additional support staff at ranks higher than Unit.

Military Directive Overview: The ADVENT Military exists to ensure that those who threaten the state are swiftly and surely dealt with in a lawful manner, and are willing to attack, defend and destroy those who would threaten the citizens of ADVENT and take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that certain threats never rise again.

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A/N: First major battle complete. Hope it was good (Next chapter shouldn't take so long to get out). Anyway, most of you probably know about the upcoming expansion for XCOM 2 (Which looks interesting for a multitude of reasons), and might wonder if I plan on incorporating some or any of it into this.

The short answer is maybe. I'll have to play it to be sure, but there are elements I already have ideas for converting for usage here. Not everything, but it's early enough here that I can feasibly incorporate major expansion elements without it seeming forced. But don't expect those for a while, and I can guarentee it won't be everything since some of it is strictly for the XCOM 2 timeline.

But no zombies. That is one thing I am *not* going to use whatsoever.

- Xabiar