XCOM: The Advent Directive March of the Battlemaster, a x-com fanfic

March of the Battlemaster

The Cultro, En route to San Francisco

The Overseer-class craft sped silently across the skies, no indication within the craft itself that it was flying at all. The Sectoids may have been an inferior, vindictive and selfish species, but their intelligence could occasionally produce excellence. But everything in the craft itself was superficial to him; displays, seats and weapon stands. They had mistakenly believed that comfort was something he placed value on.

Fools. But he had no reason to dwell on it further. The city was approaching and the humans would no doubt be preparing for an army.

They would not expect only one, but a Battlemaster was far more dangerous than any army, as the humans would soon learn. Today was the day where XCOM would learn the price of defying the Imperator, and Aegis would realize the mistake he had made. He bore no ill will towards Aegis because unlike some Ethereals, he stood by his beliefs, although such a drastic step was strange, even for him.

It ultimately mattered little. Not even Aegis could resist him, and it had been a reason why he had made sure to learn all he could from Aegis, because he suspected the day would come when he could no longer rely on his friend.

The holographic humanoid figure suddenly materialized before him, a golden feminine projection who blinked and fizzed as if mere static. The figure had supposedly been based on a Vitakarian female, but it now reminded the Battlemaster more of Human females. The figure was faceless, obscured by a black mist with shining eyes.

He had programmed her for a military personality, so she appeared standing before him in an even stance, hands clasped behind her back. "Battlemaster," she began, the synthesized voice transmitting directly into his communications implant. "We are approaching the Human city known as San Francisco. J'Loran, Disciple-7 and Lura'irinena'borelia are awaiting your command."

"Connect me to them," the Battlemaster commanded, rising and towering over the small projection.

"Connecting," she said, then her form multiplied and morphed until he was standing before near-perfect, golden recreations of his subordinates, complete with the static fuzz. The CODEX system truly was one of the greatest unexpected creations of the Collective. He would not have imagined Cogitian's archive system could have such widespread and practical usage.

"Begin your assault," the Battlemaster commanded. "J'Loran, press your advantage. Bombard the city and draw Patricia to you. They will not be able to resist taking revenge on your species."

"I am expecting her," J'Loran boomed. "If the city is evacuated, we will raze it to the ground."

"Capture any civilians you can," the Battlemaster ordered. "Remember: Do not kill them unless they are actively assisting ADVENT or otherwise fighting Collective forces."

"Acknowledged," J'Loran stated. "Beginning the assault now."

The Battlemaster turned to the Borelian as J'Loran severed the connection. "Irinena, begin your own attack. Hold back initially until you see what they have."

"It will be done, Battlemaster," Irinena growled, baring her incisors before she placed the black helmet over her head. "May you find victory on the battlefield."

As she blinked out of existence, he turned to the Sargon dutifully awaiting his orders. "Disciple-7, begin your own assault. Be prepared to counter the psions."

"I understand, Battlemaster," the Sargon stated, in guttural tones of his species. "I have analyzed the entirety of the city and estimate between thirty to fifty thousand ADVENT soldiers for defense and have adjusted my forces to account for this fact and the possibility of XCOM being introduced as a variable. Further variables within XCOM have also been taken into consideration."

The Battlemaster nodded approvingly. He was continually disappointed when the Collective simply used the Sargons on pointless administrative duties and training. Disciple-7 had proven to be as competent as any subordinate, and possessed a near-perfect memory thanks to Ethereal genetic modification.

A shame it was often wasted on trivial tasks that could simply be run by a CODEX system.

"Good," the Battlemaster said with an approving nod. "When you evacuate the civilians, destroy the city and hold your position. We cannot expect universal victory and will not push forward beyond our limits."

"I obey, Battlemaster," Disciple-7 confirmed, bowing his head. "Glory to the Ethereal Collective."

The figure blinked out of existence and the CODEX appeared once more. "Battlemaster, the city approaches. We are close to the drop position."

"Noted," he said, and reached back with his upper right hand to grasp the greatsword strapped to his back. The weight felt familiar and comforting as he held it firmly at his side, letting the point rest on the cold alloy of the spacecraft. The scarred blade that had put millions to death would soon be submerged in blood once more, and he looked forward to testing his strength once more against an alien army.

This time, he hoped they would actually present a challenge.

The Citadel, Mission Control

It was almost nostalgic, being back here in the now-ADVENT controlled Citadel. They had turned it into a very fortified base that was stocked with what he could only assume were specially trained soldiers. This was apparently where the Lancer base of operations was, which made him wonder if ADVENT was planning on deploying Lancers to defend the West Coast.

The Commander wore his silver armor, helmet tucked under his arm and weapons attached to his back. He doubted that he would personally be participating in any fighting that took place, but it never hurt to be prepared and if nothing else, it gave a morale boost to the personnel here. Soldiers, Officers and supporting staff all gave quick salutes to him as he walked past, relief clear on their faces and reflected in their emotions.

The doors slid open with a familiar hiss and he stepped through to the open area of Mission Control. It remained largely the same, but it seemed that the once-massive hologlobe was being used as more of a geoscape map, with the blue hologram displaying the majority of the west coast, and, it appeared, positioning of both ADVENT and Collective forces.

People in the room made way before him and he quickly approached the small group that was appraising the situation, and the woman who bore the red and white stripes of command straightened up as he approached, and turned to face him. "Commander," Laura Christiaens greeted, not smiling but giving him a firm nod of acknowledgement. "It's good that you're here."

"What's the situation?" He asked, looking down at the geoscape portraying the massive battlefield. "I have three squads with MEC accompaniments ready to assist where needed."

"Good," Laura said, also returning her attention to the geoscape. "There have not been any hits I would consider major, but the first alien ships made landfall approximately twelve minutes ago here, here and here." She pointed at southern California, Oregon and Washington. "All dead ahead of the major cities."

The Commander appraised the map. "Seattle, Portland and LA. I don't suppose this was unexpected?"

"It wasn't," Laura agreed, a grim ghost of a smile on her aged face. "We knew that the aliens would probably strike the major cities. Strangely enough, San Francisco appears to be clear, but that is likely to change."

"What about the cities themselves?" The Commander asked. "Have they been evacuated?"

"Impossible to fully evacuate them," Laura admitted, frustration clear in her tone. "I attempted to get permission to do that a week ago and was advised not to until there was a credible threat. It's only been started in earnest two days ago, when I got permission from the Chancellor herself. At best the cities are half-evacuated, and I am assuming those that are outside are lost."

"Unfortunate," the Commander muttered. "But little we can do. Where are your forces stationed?"

"I knew they would be coming here eventually, and I made sure ADVENT is prepared," Laura began, zooming the geoscape to focus on Portland. "Each city contains a Battalion of ADVENT soldiers who have been strategically positioned through the area. Portland itself has several choke points we can use. You see the river running through it?"

"Yes," the Commander nodded.

"We pin the aliens there to start," she explained. "Explosives have been rigged on the bridges in case they become overwhelmed. I've also stationed soldiers up the entire river beyond the Vancouver area, with more behind them to prevent us being surrounded. I imagine that will make it slightly difficult for the aliens, assuming they are fielding their heavier units."

"They might be," the Commander warned. "Cyberdisks and Floaters don't need bridges to cross. However, the entire army is unlikely to be composed of them alone."

"And indications are that the army heading that way is largely composed of Vitakara," Laura pointed out.

"Which kinds?" The Commander asked.

"Not enough intel," she shook her head. "But we can safely assume Borelians and Vitakarians."

"What about Seattle?" The Commander asked.

"Supremely to our advantage," Laura confirmed. "The city is on the coast of a lake, which means it is possible that we can repeat our defense that we used in Japan. Unfortunately, all indications are that the aliens learned from their mistake. We just got word that Olympia just went dark, which means they're coming up the long way. I've just sent soldiers to reinforce Tacoma and Kent."

The Commander could see what she meant. Olympia was southwest of the city itself, and if it followed the road up to Lakewood and then straight up, they could directly attack the city. But the good news was that it was very direct, and they would not be able to do anything but commit to it entirely. "Still easily defendable," the Commander noted. "But they might attack from the North as well."

"They are," Laura confirmed. "But in a much smaller force. They are clearly bringing the main bulk of their army up from the south. What I'm concerned about is the composition. It appears to be mostly Andromedons and Mutons."

Considering that the Andromedons were the reason the Collective had any ground in Japan whatsoever, that was concerning and raised several questions. "Seems odd to attack Seattle with such a large force," he said slowly. "I would have guessed a larger or better defended city."

"As did I," Laura muttered, pressing her lips together in a thin like. "Which is why I think it is the most vulnerable. I didn't anticipate an Andromedon-majority force."

The Commander smiled. "That's why we're here. I'll send my best team and psion to reinforce. The city will be defended."

"I appreciate that," Laura said, moving the geoscape towards the south. "California is where our strongest defenses are. San Francisco has an entrenched army large enough to withstand an Andromedon attack, and the aliens will likely have no choice but to either repeat what they did in Japan, or go out of their way to establish an isolated beachhead. The coast is highly useful here."

"Perhaps that's why they are leaving it alone," the Commander mused, scratching his chin as he looked at the blue map. "However…"

"However, that will only work in the short term," Laura finished, pointing at the state. "If we control San Francisco, we can effectively counter and outflank every alien force that moves further in. Ignoring it is a bad strategy."

It was, and the Commander was getting a growing suspicion as to why the city was supposedly being left along. The Battlemaster wouldn't make such an exploitable error, which meant there had to be some plan for the city…and unfortunately, he had a decent guess as to what that was. "What of LA?" He asked, wanting to know about that before voicing his concern.

"Almost the same deal," Laura said. "But the aliens do have an opening here, which they are taking. Oxnard has been taken, and they are fighting into the city that way. More difficult for us, but they are almost all Mutons, which can be handled easily enough, especially since we have the advantage."

"It might be a distraction," the Commander wondered aloud, trying to puzzle out why an all-Muton force would be sent. "Perhaps a feint? They know Mutons don't work well against us."

"The attack seems straightforward," Laura nodded. "Too straightforward. I'm missing something, but there have been no other attacks near the city. Just from the direction of Oxnard."

"They might be holding some forces back to get you to weaken other positions," the Commander suggested. "Maybe don't take soldiers from the perimeter, but perhaps the inner city. They can't land a force there without you noticing, but they can attempt to surround the city itself before you realize it."

"Good point," she nodded. "I'll see-"

"We've got an alien craft heading towards San Francisco!" An analyst called out.

"Only a matter of time," Laura grunted, moving over to the city. "How many?"

There was a pause; surprise clear in the analyst's voice. "Just one."

"One?" Laura narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Is it a scout then?"

"No," the Commander said slowly, a cold feeling building inside him. "San Francisco wasn't forgotten by the aliens. It's being targeted by the Battlemaster himself. And he is about to attack."

"No one can take an entire city by themselves," Laura said, looking at him in clear disbelief. "Not even an Ethereal. I doubt your telepath could do it either. And especially not the most protected city on the West Coast."

"You need to prepare your forces to retreat if needed," the Commander warned, making her face turn to stone. "I hope you are right, but these Ethereals are not like us, and I somehow don't think that the Battlemaster is ignorant of the fact that it is supposedly impenetrable."

"Ethereals are aliens, not gods," Laura said coolly, turning away from him. "You proved that when you killed the one that attacked you. And you did it with under one hundred men. This Battlemaster faces a battalion of fifty thousand soldiers of ADVENT. No one can survive that alone, not even an Ethereal."

"Maybe not," the Commander muttered as he prepared to give his orders to the squads. "But I can guarantee that he is sure going to try."

San Francisco, United States of America

"Dropping."

The hatch underneath him opened up and the Battlemaster began falling towards the sandy beach below. The air whistled in his ears as he sped towards the ground, angling himself like an arrow, cape flapping in the wind. The army before him became more visible as he approached terminal velocity.

Lines of soldiers in black armor, red Officers dotted throughout and snipers, gunners and explosives experts all poised in preparation for an invading force. Unfortunate that they were insufficiently armed to deal with him. The greatsword in his hand was made out of metal that cut through the alloy harvested on Helion-3, and the armor these Humans wore was a diluted variant of that.

He was getting close to the ground…

Now.

He thrust his lower hands down to telekinetically stabilize himself, flipping right side up and landed in the shallow water with a moderate splash. Straightening up, he appraised the army before him, hidden behind barricades of black metal, with the city itself behind them. It truthfully did not matter where he was, all that did was the removal of ADVENT from this city.

The battlefield was dead silent as surprise emanated in waves from the Humans before him. The Battlemaster was not surprised as he placed one armored boot forward, the water lapping around his ankles. A telepath he was not, but he could easily imagine the thoughts running through their heads.

Is this it?

Only one?

He allowed himself a smile as he brandished his sword in the air; a formal salute of respect before the engagement of an enemy. The early sunlight turned the blade into a gleaming beacon of light, one that would soon be awash in crimson.

Then the order finally came: "Open fire!"

The beach was lit up with the sound of hundreds of gauss rifles all firing at once. Gouts of sand and water shot up before and around him as they indiscriminately fired in his direction.

Time to begin.

With slow, ponderous steps he marched toward the closest line of soldiers. Projectiles bounced off his armor like water, nowhere near powerful enough to even scratch the forged metal of the Battlemaster. His greatsword was held idly in his lower right hand as he walked forward, impervious to the weapons before him.

A rocket suddenly sped towards him and he casually held up a free hand to catch it telekinetically, then sent it back towards a line of soldiers without breaking stride. He barely heard the screams of pain as he fell upon the first group of victims.

"Fire!" One screamed frantically as all of them backed up. "Kill it now!"

Too late.

With speed that would be perceived as inhuman, the Battlemaster suddenly lashed out with his greatsword, decapitating the first solder, and transitioning into cut that sheared the arm of the woman next to him in two, then grabbed a third soldier telekinetically and pulled him forward to meet the point of the sword in his throat.

Without stopping, the Battlemaster threw the man back and dashed forward, impaling another soldier in the chest before grabbing another one by the head with a free hand and slamming it down into the corner of a crate, killing him instantly. One group down, time to pick up the pace.

A hail of projectiles slammed into his chest, temporarily giving him pause before he located the sources. Four gunners were concentrating their fire, under the direction of several Officers who were directing more regular soldiers to keep firing at him. More were running up, hoping to kill him by numbers alone.

The Battlemaster transitioned his hold on the greatsword to a reverse grip and threw it with psionically-charged speed to impale one gunner in the chest, while with another hand he extended his telekinetic reach and pulled, then leapt towards the group of thirty soldiers as their weapons were ripped out of their hands.

He slammed into one soldier, then crushed one helmet under his boot before grabbing the two closest ones standing beside him and tossing them towards the others while tossing the grenades on their belts. Obliterated by their own weapons, he turned and telekinetically grasped another four soldiers and crushed their throats before they could even so much as gasp.

The greatsword returned to his hand with a telekinetic call and he continued butchering the soldiers who were still unsteady from his pull. He sliced the throat of a woman who'd tripped over another corpse; another fleeing soldier was lifted into the air and pulled backwards to be impaled on his blade; two more soldiers were decapitated with a single swing shortly after realizing there was no escape.

Blood and gore staining his once-sterling armor, he continued marching to the next enclave of humans, who were now trying a different tactic. They'd now organized into large teams of fifteen to twenty soldiers, and seemed to be splitting up to try and outflank him. He chuckled, even as projectiles flew all around him.

He clenched a fist and drew upon the psionic well inside him, engulfing his body in purple flame. The shouts of surprise and terror gave him direction as he picked the first group armed against him and charged. Power coursing through him, he sped toward the group of soldiers in a second, hitting one with enough force to break every bone in his body and send him flying back, while every soldier before him on the right fell to the ground, heads rolling away.

The Battlemaster completed the slash, decapitating the soldiers in a clean ring around him, before charging with the same force towards a nearby soldier, grabbing him by the helmet, and slamming it down on a nearby spike. He spun towards the three soldiers from the group that were still alive and dashed towards them with a bloody flourish that rent their bodies in pieces and sent the parts flying back.

The next group was trying to fall back, but there was no escape from him. He threw the greatsword towards one of them who gasped as the blade buried itself in her chest, then screamed as he seemingly materialized in front of her from a charge. He kicked her off his blade into two more soldiers and easily transitioned into a series of quick chops that decapitated, dismembered and otherwise maimed what remained of the entire group.

Remembering the third group, he spun on his heel to see them frantically retreating. He dug a foot into the sand and charged, turning his vision of the world around him into a blur, only focused on his targets. He hit the leader of the retreat with the force of a high-speed crashing Sectoid craft, pulverizing the poor woman and sending her flying in multiple directions, already dead from the fist-sized hole in her chest.

He switched hands, took a reverse grip and sliced backward, executing the immediate line behind him and impaling another soldier which he promptly stabbed into the ground before telekinetically lifting the remaining soldiers and letting them hang as he systematically dismembered them before letting their corpses fall to the ground in piles.

An explosion rocked the beach, then two more hit close beside him, and as he looked to the source, one hit him directly in the chest, the impact forcing him to take a step back. He looked at the line of soldiers armed with grenades and rocket launchers, all grouped up and hoping that sheer amount of explosives would be enough to kill him.

The surface of his armor was now a mixture of soot, gore and blood, with a good few scratches to add to the already present collection. Sand sprayed all over him as explosions rocked the ground near him, but he resumed his steady march through the minefield, sheathed in a purple aura that only burned brighter the longer he fought.

They were already beginning to back up, and now was the time to strike. He balled one hand into a fist and charged once more towards the line of soldiers, feeling the armor give way to flesh that split open, shattered bone, then emerged out the back. The scream of utter torment reached his ears and the Battlemaster pulled his fist out of the soldier's chest and instantly decapitated the two shaken soldiers beside him, before grabbing another nearby one and charging towards a wall where he smashed her head on it with a sharp crack and a fairly large splatter.

The remaining fifty or so soldiers seemed to realize that running was pointless, and so instead stood their ground. Falling to their knees to line up shots, barking final commands and the persistent sound of gauss fire never let up once as they hoped and prayed for something, anything, to hit. They knew their lives were forfeit, and perhaps want to make a final sacrifice.

Their reasons mattered not, but he would oblige their wishes.

Sword strokes cut soldiers apart in seconds; a telekinetic grab crushed throats and skulls; men and women were decapitated and dismembered in surgical fashion as he wielded the greatsword as tall as some of them like it was made of air. More soldiers kept arriving from the flanks, all standing in the open, realizing cover was useless.

All of them fired gauss rounds, rockets, grenades; whatever they had on hand.

Nothing could touch him, and he continued his slaughter. First it was dozens who fell to his blade, psionics or hands, then the number or corpses around him grew as he sped from group to group, executing them in seconds before repeating the procedure with the inevitable reinforcements.

He lifted another soldier up with a hand and quickly stabbed him through the armpit before tossing his body towards another female soldier. A quick slash behind him bisected the soldier attempting a close flank with a splatter of blood. A quick application of telekinetic pressure crushed the woman's skull into paste.

Projectiles ricocheted off his armor as he turned to see more soldiers approaching, but this time they had what was referred to as a tank. It rolled up, aimed its massive barrel at him and fired. He took the impact square in the chest and he was actually blown almost ten feet back, rolling onto the ground and reassuming his position.

He grinned, baring his teeth under the helmet. Already he could feel his body healing for the bruise that weapon had caused. A respectable try, but another futile effort. The tank was slow, and he was not. He charged, the world turning into a blur around him and transitioned into a spin that instantly executed the row of soldiers to the right of the tank.

He picked up the lone survivor, sped away, quickly line up his target and charged towards the massive barrel of the tank, the soldier still in hand. With a sickening splintering of metal and crunch of bone the soldier was bluntly impaled on the tank barrel, blood spurting from his wounds as he hung limply on the metal pole. A single swipe up cut through the barrel and it fell to the ground.

Several more chops and slices later, the remaining ADVENT forces on the opposite side of the tank were in pieces. The Battlemaster jumped onto the top of the tank and telekinetically opened the hatch, then pulled the first stunned driver out, snapping his neck and tossing him aside before repeating the process for every one that was left.

The sound of more boots charging his position caught his attention and he turned to see what was at least fifty soldiers charging around the corner, weapons at the ready, then skidding to a stop when they saw what was before him. Whatever went through their minds, they still fired on him and he decided to just stand there and let them fire.

Let their terror grow as they realized what stood before him, right before he ended their lives.

For he was a Battlemaster and he was invincible.

Portland, United States of America

"Sierra, Matthew, and Mark, you will reinforce the ADVENT forces on the I-405 Bridge," Zara ordered rapidly as the skyranger fell into a steep descent. "Me, Karen and Tamara will reinforce the bridge near their Waterfront Park. Nati, Charlie, you will reinforce the Goliath where it's dropped. All clear!"

"Yes, Overseer!" They shouted in response.

"Then let's kill some aliens," Zara stated, intensity dripping from her voice. Sierra could easily imagine the woman smiling under the helmet. She steadied her gauss rifle in her hands, sincerely hoping that the Iron Skin mod would actually work as advertised. Not that she was going to try and get hit, but the possibility was extremely high.

Splitting up the squad seemed risky, but given how much ground needed to be covered, it seemed like there wasn't much choice. The good news was that the alien were being forced into choke points on the bridges, so that had halted the assault severely.

The skyranger settled on the ground with a thud, the sounds of gunfire and concussive shots already reaching her ears in the distance. The door hissed open and Zara waved them out. "Go! Go! I'll be in contact."

"Copy!" Sierra shouted as she charged down, flanked by Matthew and Mark Castle, their medic for this op. They dashed down the street filled with trash, abandoned cars and scorched buildings. Artillery and tanks were set up on the streets and nearby buildings, firing shells and rockets across the river to the other side, hopefully hitting some alien encampments.

The entire area bordering the river had been haphazardly reinforced and heavily improvised, not with the standard ADVENT barricade, but with a mix of crates, trucks and cars that soldiers utilized as they exchanged potshots with the aliens across the river. In front of the bridge itself was a proper ADVENT barricade several layers deep that just barely encroached on the bridge itself.

There were several Officers directing the ADVENT forces who were doing their best to establish a killzone for the entire bridge, and from the dozens of alien corpses lining the road, they appeared to be doing a good job. "Officer!" She called to one of the red-armored men, who had just directed several ADVENT gunners to relieve two soldiers. "Report!"

He snapped to attention the moment he saw her. "Yes, Operative. We've been able to hold this bridge for the past hour, but it's only a matter of time before they begin advancing." He motioned to the bridge. "These appear to be mostly Vitakara. Borelians and Vitakarian soldiers. We haven't seen any others."

Alright, that was decent. "Are the bridges rigged?"

"Yes, but we're only to detonate if we lose control of them," the Officer answered, flinching as several plasma bolts flew dangerously close to his head. "We don't want to isolate ourselves, and detonating the explosives on the bridges might force them to begin a concentrated shelling of the city, which would be catastrophic due to the-"

"Enough!" Matthew interrupted, raising a hand. "What is your objective?"

"Hold this position for now," he answered. "As long as we control the bridge, we can kill them pretty easily."

"If that's the case, we need to press forward," Sierra said, looking towards the bridge. "You can't just stay here."

"We can't establish barriers," the Officer protested as more alien fire slammed into a nearby truck, killing the soldiers behind it in a sudden explosion. "Anyone who goes onto the bridge is dead without protection. This works both ways."

"Mark, go help them!" Sierra pointed towards the group of wounded and dead ADVENT.

"On it!" He answered and charged to help assist.

"He's a medic," Sierra explained briefly. "He'll help with the wounded. And I get that. Do you have the capability to establish barricades?"

"Yes," the Officer nodded. "There are several engineering teams. But I can't send them out just to be killed."

"Leave that to us!" Sierra promised, motioning Matthew to follow and they dashed to the front barricade directly before the bridge itself.

"You must have a plan," Matthew said as she raised her rifle and began firing across the bridge while also taking stock of the situation before her.

"Something like one," Sierra admitted, managing to snipe a Borelian who'd attempted to dash to the side. "What's the range on your telekinetics?"

"Reasonably? Depends on the size," he answered, looking down the road. "The bigger it is, the easier I can focus on it."

"Good," Sierra nodded. "See the cars the aliens are moving?"

"Of course I do."

"Can you get rid of them?"

She could imagine the tight grin in his voice. "That I can. Cover me, would you?"

Matthew stood up and purple energy began flaring around him as he raised his right hand towards the alien forces. Sierra took a breath and leapt over the barricade and slid to a stray crate in the street that barely offered any protection as she knelt behind it, laying down a firm line of suppressive fire as plasma sprayed all around her.

One bolt clipped her shoulder, another hit her side, but she didn't feel anything despite her armor being scorched where it was hit. She managed to hit a Vitakarian soldier, who was dragged away by another alien, possibly for treatment, and the plasma fire suddenly became a lot more concentrated on her. She gritted her teeth as more plasma bolts clipped her and scorched her once-clean forest green armor.

The integrity of the armor was still intact, barely, but if XCOM was right, the plasma shouldn't be able to pierce her skin without several consecutive direct hits. Still, it was getting way too close for comfort. The cars that the aliens were hiding behind were suddenly lifted into the air, and the aliens seemed stunned, which she took advantage of, killing several Vitakara within a few seconds with a simple sweep of her rifle.

One car was tossed towards the opposite end of the bridge, killing and crushing a couple dozen Vitakara running to reinforce, and the other was tossed off the bridge into the deep blue water with a splash. Sierra stood and began walking forward, aiming at the now-exposed aliens and executing them methodically before they could react.

There was a lull in the return fire. She looked back at the ADVENT line. "Come on!" She yelled, waving her arm forward to get them moving. "They're going to start again!"

That propelled the ADVENT soldiers to get moving, and she was soon flanked by men and women in black armor, sending a lethal hail of projectiles down the road as the engineers quickly began building a barricade about an eighth of the way into the bridge. Slow and methodical, that would work fine.

Sierra took the opportunity to contact Zara. "Overseer! We are beginning to take the bridge. Army composition is all Vitakarian and we're in decent position. Copy?"

"Acknowledged," came Zara's cool response. "We're doing the same. It does appear to be all Vitakara. Interesting, but we're pushing them back. The Goliath is also holding well."

"Good," Sierra nodded. "I'll update if there are any changes."

"Reinforcements incoming!" An Officer shouted, and Sierra looked down the road to see a mix of Vitakara soldiers rushing up, with what looked like heavy weapons in their hands.

"Get down!" She yelled, as Matthew raised his hands.

"Stay put!" He shouted. "I've got this."

The aliens fired simultaneously, shooting glowing green grenades and red-streaked projectiles at them, some of which would have certainly hit had the air directly in front and around them not suddenly became distorted, as if looking through water. The first grenade that hit the shimmering field froze in mid-air, and it was immediately clear that the field was acting as a trap for all the rockets and grenades shot their way.

Matthew waved his hand around, and thrust it out, and all of the projectiles were thrown the exact opposite direction. Some slammed into the bridge itself with brief plasma explosions, most hit the road, creating new holes in the asphalt, and some more hit the area around the alien line, killing a dozen instantly and wounding even more.

ADVENT cheered at the destruction of the Vitakara line and continued pressing forward with renewed enthusiasm. Sierra and Matthew still led at the front, killing the stragglers who hadn't retreated off the bridge and the hail of ADVENT fire preventing any further retaliation.

Halfway across, with the engineers building a new barricade as several dozen soldiers provided covering fire and Matthew removing or killing any new alien offensive, Sierra began to develop a hope that they just might be able to pull this off.

Los Angeles, United States of America

Compared to some of the soldiers he was sitting beside, Oliver felt uncomfortably normal even if he wasn't the only unmodified human here. Catherine, Jesenia and Anna were similarly unmodified, but then again, most of them were just as new, or newer, than he was. They also didn't have one, but two psions that specialized in offensive attacks. What those were was something he could only speculate, but beyond that some of them were modified in ways that quite frankly, made his skin crawl.

He had gotten the impression that Carmelita wasn't entirely a stable individual, but possessed an unquenched hatred for the aliens and would do whatever it took to give herself an advantage. That apparently involved the installation of a strange tentacle/stinger into her fucking arm.

It apparently provided yet another tactical tool for her, but it was disconcerting to see the pale stinger extend out of her arm through her modified Aegis armor like some kind of worm or parasite. And of course she wasn't the only one that had that particular improvement. Their other psion, Nataliya, had also elected to undergo the procedure.

Well, if nothing else they would probably decimate any aliens they came across. "Stand by for deployment, Mariner Team," Lightning Sky informed as the skyranger lights flashed red. "Coming in for a landing."

"Acknowledged," Carmelita said, standing and the rest of them joined her. "Any notes on army composition?" She asked as she once more checked her alloy cannon.

"Appears to be largely Mutons, as suspected," he answered as the Skyranger dipped. "Looks like they released Berserkers. ADVENT isn't handling it well."

"We'll deal with them," Carmelita said coolly, in a way that Oliver imagined she was smiling underneath her scarred helmet.

The skyranger set down, and the ramp extended onto the cracked asphalt. The roars of Mutons howling in pain, triumph and rage were everywhere, as was the constant barrage of ADVENT gauss fire. The buildings in the area had taken massive damage and some were even in danger of collapse. The ADVENT line directly in front of them was broken, with three Berserkers decimating the retreating ADVENT soldiers; wrist blades slick with blood.

"Lesedi, get into position; Nataliya, Chan, help me kill the Berserkers," Carmelita ordered calmly as she took stock of the situation. "Everyone else reestablish that line now!"

"Yes, Overseer!" They shouted as they charged into the street. They were joined by several more ADVENT squads who were rushing to reinforce this position. The Muton soldiers themselves were well established, and Oliver immediately noticed something off about how they were composed.

All of them were in well-established cover, either abandoned vehicles or buildings, but were already different than the Mutons he expected because all of the soldiers had helmets over their faces. They didn't seem complex, but they were covered up nonetheless. There were also several different kinds that he could see.

There were the soldiers, but there were also some that were holding heavier weapons such as massive rocket launchers and packs filled with grenades. Behind the Muton lines were the black-armored Centurions, as XCOM had dubbed them, appearing to coordinate the attacks. That was also when Oliver noticed a distinct lack of Muton corpses on the other side.

Carmelita and the two psions wasted no time getting to work killing the Berserkers. Carmelita leapt towards one of the enraged aliens, blasting it in the chest with her alloy cannon, causing it to stumble back, then followed up by charging at the Berserker, alloy cannon raised and unloaded three successive shots directly into the head of the Berserker, killing it almost instantly.

Nataliya performed almost the exact same maneuver, given she was just as modified as Carmelita, but this time lashed out with her stinger, jabbing what he assumed was the point into the spot on its neck, before holstering her alloy cannon, raising her free hand and as she was suddenly engulfed in purple flame, squeezed and psionic rifts of energy materialized around the Berserker and began tearing it apart.

The alien flailed around, before it collapsed to the ground, dead or dying as Nataliya turned her attention to the established Muton army. Chan was less flashy, but far more direct in his own manifestations of psionic attacks. He drew his hand back, energy gathering in it before thrusting forward, sending a purple lance of energy that split the leg of the Berserker in two.

He repeated the same tactic, firing several more lances of energy, each one taking off an arm, another leg, and finally the head. Oliver slid into the ADVENT barricade which was also taken up by the respective reinforcements and began firing his rifle. If he got close enough, he would use his own alloy cannon, but for now the rifle was best.

Now the Centurions were coming up, grunting and roaring in their language as they pointed at the line of Humans. A purple energy shield covered them, and suddenly Oliver found himself under the barrage of its plasma cannon – and he wasn't the only one.

"Pinned down!" Jesenia sputtered, plasma fire raining down nearby, rendering using her autolaser lethal.

"Same!" Catherine called, despite trying to contribute more to helping the wounded ADVENT soldiers.

"More Centurions are coming up!" One ADVENT soldier called, and Oliver risked a peek to see that they were right. There was an unprecedented six approaching, and it dawned on him that he realized what they were doing.

"They're targeting us!" He called to Carmelita. "We need to get rid of them!"

"Stand by!" She snarled from behind him, and soon she leapt over him to the front and landed directly beside a Centurion and fired point blank into its faceplate, piercing the metal and killing the alien while her stinger shot out of her raised wrist and impaled itself in a gap of the armor of a nearby Muton soldier.

Nataliya clenched a raised hand into a fist and another two Mutons were suddenly engulfed in energy storms that threatened to tear them apart. But the break in fire allowed him to rise and begin shooting. Or would have, had the ground suddenly not started shaking from the sound of explosions.

But not at them. "They're targeting the building!" Catherine called in disbelief as she pointed towards the Mutons armed with rocket launchers and grenades who had fallen back and were purposefully targeting the building right next to them, firing a steady barrage of explosives. Oliver frowned, trying to puzzle what-

"More Berserkers!" Jesenia called as six of the red-armored aliens charged into the fray. Two broke off to charge Carmelita, forcing her to leap back while firing almost non-stop and the other four charged them directly. A lance of psionic energy sliced through the head of one, but the others surprisingly simply ignored him and the ADVENT soldiers and it became clear what their goal was.

"The psions!" He called. "They're targeting the psions!"

Not simply them either, but Carmelita had been specifically targeted as well. She was jumping all around the battlefield, firing her alloy cannon and using her stinger liberally, but while she could appear to handle one Berserker with ease, two was at least enough to keep her occupied, which Oliver was realizing was the whole point.

Whoever was leading these Mutons knew damn well what they were doing. They had expected a fight with XCOM and had a fucking plan to go along with it. But a Muton?

Or more than likely, there was another alien behind this. But a very, very smart one. "We need to get out of here and regroup!" Lesedi hissed into his earpiece, firing her sniper rifle from the roof of a building far behind him. "We've got a lot of trouble approaching."

"Like what?" Oliver demanded as he fired a sustained burst at a soldier, and unfortunately only hit the leg, wounding it but not quite being able to kill it before it was dragged away. "I think we've got enough trouble."

"There are twelve Muton Elites coming," she hissed. "And some other Muton. Never seen one like it before. I think it's in charge."

Elites were not something that they could really handle right now. "Overseer! Orders?"

"We hold here," she snarled, as she executed the final Berserker after her, splattering her armor in golden blood. "They want to fight us? Let them come."

The two psions had taken care of their own Berserkers, but their delay had allowed more Mutons to take over and reinforce this street-turned-warzone. ADVENT soldiers were falling every few seconds as Muton fire continued unabated, and the number of ADVENT reinforcements was only getting smaller.

"We need help," Chan declared in his altered voice as he executed another Centurion, psionic energy flowing off his killing arm. "We need reinforcements."

"Lesedi! Call more in!" Carmelita commanded as she once more took point, executing Mutons and Centurions at close range, even as the aliens in the back turned a hail of plasma fire onto her, forcing her into temporary cover. The smaller woman's armor was scorched, cracked and had clearly taken a beating, but she seemed no less determined than before.

"ADVENT Command, we need more reinforcements on our position," Lesedi called. "It appears that the commanding force is behind this attack. Current forces are insufficient to hold."

A pause as the sounds of battle raged around them. "Copy," came a male voice. "Redeploying several units to your position. Recalling the Marauder as well."

"Acknowledged," Lesedi finished. Oliver remembered that Amahle and her MEC had been deployed to a different part of the city, but he agreed that this was more pressing.

Something in the air caught his eye, but he ignored it, assuming it was an effect of one of the psions. Carmelita shot another Muton in the head while poisoning two more with her stinger which was proving to be a devastating addition to her own lethal arsenal. The roar of more Berserkers sounded in the distance, and he prepared for yet another wave. They only had to hold out a little longer before the reinforcements arrived.

"What the-!" Jesenia yelped as something materialized around her and manifested into a floating mechanical squid-creature. It wrapped it's tentacles around her and began spewing a black mist into her face. Anna and Nataliya shouted in surprise as the same kind of creatures materialized around them as well.

He spun around, already reaching for his alloy cannon, and raised it just in time as the Seeker appeared behind him. He fired and it blew apart, splattering him in hot alloy and some alien fluid as the remains fell to the ground. Carmelita had simply grabbed the alien machine as it attempted to strangle her and ripped it's tentacles off before finishing it off with an alloy cannon shot.

He was reminded that her enhancements did give her unnatural strength as a lucky side-effect. But before he could begin to help the other XCOM soldiers, the Muton grenadiers fired yet another barrage and with a sudden loud cracking and bending of steel, he realized what they had been trying to do. Sure enough, he looked up to the building and saw it was quickly going to fall down directly on the ADVENT line.

"Fall back!" He screamed as lethal chunks of concrete suddenly began falling around them. He took aim at the Seeker over Anna and fired, blowing it apart and hoisting her back, even as plasma fire flew around him.

The ADVENT soldiers were similarly retreating, and then Oliver realized that Jesenia and Nataliya were still being strangled by the Seekers. "Lesedi! Help them!" He called, trying to pull out his rifle as he realized it might be too late as the building was collapsing around them.

"There's a Seeker up here!" She yelled back. "I'm trying to kill it now!"

He could spare a look and fired at the Seeker, but it paid him no mind as the gauss rounds missed. The Mutons on the other side were similarly retreating to avoid being crushed under the rubble. Carmelita was closest to the other side and leapt to follow, or at least retreat that way. He wasn't concerned for her, because Carmelita could easily regroup later.

But despite firing desperately, even as Anna vomited up whatever black fluid the Seeker had forced down her throat, helmet tossed to the side, he watched helplessly as the building collapsed on top of the psion and XCOM soldier, burying them under tons of rubble and smashing the building on the opposite street into a ruined husk.

Down two soldiers already, with Carmelita stuck temporarily on the other side, Oliver was now very concerned that they had walked right into a trap, and worse, it was succeeding.

Seattle, United States of America

Even flying over the battle, at the edge of her consciousness, Patricia was able to easily distinguish the unique alien minds before her. It was getting easier to tell them apart now, and as a result, easier to target. What struck her as interesting was how uniform so many species were in how they worked and thought. For better or worse, most humans were unique and motivated by their own desires and fears. But the way their minds worked and how they rationalized their thoughts could be done in a thousand different ways.

Not so with most species, it turned out, with the exception of the Vitakara and Ethereals themselves, though the latter would stand out anywhere. Muton minds were simple and focused; primitive thoughts like kill, obey, fire, and other repeated words. Multi-tasking was impossible for the soldiers, and thus why they were so persistent; their minds were very often taken up by only one single thought or action given to them by someone else. So they were easy to find in their utter simplicity and straightforwardness.

Andromedons, on the other hand, were almost mechanical in their thought processes. They didn't feel emotion like humans, or at the very least, not as strongly. Their minds were filled with contingencies, plans and tactics, all being systematically updated throughout the battle. It was structured, organized, and clean, which made the domination of them that much simpler and easier to target.

Patricia closed her eyes, a hand slowly clenching into a fist as she drew upon the power and let her focus spread to the rest of the soldiers in the skyranger. Names, strengths, weaknesses, weapons, locations and plans were all instinctually known by all of them. A bond that was impossible to replicate any other way. A true united unit, no more, no less.

"Patricia, we're coming up on the Federal Way," Big Sky said over the comm. "Be ready. MEC soldier Cho is being dropped to the north to reinforce the defenses there."

"Acknowledged," Patricia stated, all of them rising as one and taking positions instinctively. Sung Cho was one of the newest MEC soldiers, and was currently commanding a Ballista-class MEC. XCOM couldn't be everywhere, but a MEC would be a significant contribution to the defense of northern Seattle.

The skyranger turned sharply around while descending and now Patricia could faintly hear the sounds of gunfire, plasma, and explosions, occasionally punctuated with the sound of a Human or Muton scream, and an uncountable number of voices shouting names, commands and battle cries. The skyranger settled on the ground with a shudder and the ramp opened before them.

The instant the ramp hit the pavement they were all charging out, already firing at the aliens that were entrenched in the small city. They were close to a major intersection, and all sides had taken positions behind vehicles, buildings and other improvised barricades. Mutons were taking on the forefront of the alien lines, and Patricia sensed more in the parking lot behind them, interspersed with Andromedons who were no doubt commanding from the back.

Mordecai glanced up at the four-story office building and leapt up onto the roof, putting his own genetic enhancements to use. "Taking position," he grunted as he immediately began sniping from the top. Two Mutons suddenly found their heads blown into beige and yellow pieces, likely regretting the lack of any helmets.

Not that it would have done much good.

Kim Yi began laying down a barrage of laser fire from his pulse autolaser at an entire section of Mutons who'd taken up cover behind a building corner. Creed and Rosario began firing towards the opposite side, the two infantry picking off Mutons who stupidly exposed themselves and wounding others.

Iaroslav and Liliyane stayed close to her as she strode out, not reaching for her heavy autorifle quite yet, wanting to assess the situation first. A cheer went up from the surviving ADVENT soldiers as they saw XCOM charging into battle. Patricia closed her eyes and quickly felt in the general vicinity of the composition of enemies.

Mostly Mutons, thirty or so just in front of her, only a couple of Andromedons. Your legs are broken, she pressed into the minds of the Mutons. They are shattered beyond repair.

The command received, she turned her attention to the Andromedons and took over their minds a quick search of their minds, she sent the command: Set suit to self-destruct in close proximity to allied units.

Their organized minds filed the information away and they presumably went away to do just that. Patricia opened her eyes and saw through her HUD that her presence had already manifested results. Mutons were lying on the ground, howling in pain as XCOM and ADVENT charged forward. Mutons were summarily executed and shot through the head, while several booming explosions in the distance indicated that the Andromedons had accomplished their tasks.

Their Medic, Joseph, was quickly tending to the wounded ADVENT soldiers while the rest of them advanced to the alien-controlled parking lot. Patricia already saw more Mutons running in from the connecting streets immediately, before they could get past the intersection, and more Andromedons were coming from the building the parking lot was connected to.

Green plasma fire flew all around them, forcing the advance to a standstill. Mordecai was picking off any Muton foolish enough to poke its head out, but now there were Centurions in the mix. The black-armored Mutons directed the horde of aliens to focus on specific targets. The Andromedons were also issuing orders, and pointing to various soldiers are more Mutons reinforced them.

Patricia noted several Battlefield Engineer Andromedons holding back behind the main alien line. "Firing rocket!"Iaroslav yelled as he aimed at the group of Andromedons taking cover behind a semi-truck, and fired. One suit was blown apart, while the other two were severely crippled and the helmets broken, killing the Andromedons inside.

"Suits coming back,"Liliyane grunted in annoyance as she began firing at the reanimated machine. "Fucking can't stay dead."

Patricia raised a hand and once more reached out to the other Muton minds. Turn on your leaders. The Command was received instantly and suddenly all the Centurions were being shot in the back, or directly in the chest from Muton soldiers with purple light in their eyes. The fire on the Humans vanished almost instantly as the Andromedons and Centurions dealt with the sudden betrayal.

That was when it suddenly stopped. Out of the corner of her eye, Patricia saw one Andromedon near the back of the building tapping buttons calmly on his wrist, and this Andromedon was different even from the Battlefield Engineers. The suit seemed larger, had more subsystems attached to it like a dedicated chemical dispenser or flamethrower, as well as heavy weapons attached to the shoulder. An odd alien symbol was etched onto the yellow helmet.

This must have been some Andromedon commander, and the moment he stopped tapping, all of the Mutons suddenly started screaming. Harsh, howling wails filled the air as the Mutons stopped firing at the Centurions and Andromedons and returned fire on an unexpecting XCOM and Human force.

"Ah!" Iaroslav shouted as a plasma bolt hit him right in the leg as he had moved to take a forward position, mistakenly believing it was safe. Joseph quickly rushed over to him in the midst of the firefight and pulled him away to fix his leg, while she tried to figure out what was going on. This shouldn't be possible!

Fine. She hissed in her mind, narrowing her eyes and extending her reach again. Then burn. The hottest fire she could imagine, she sent towards the Muton force and expected them to collapse in pain.

But they didn't. They stood and howled, all the while shooting plasma weapons at them. But now the shots were erratic and she knew she was having an effect on them, but it for some reason wasn't working.

"Patricia?" Creed called as he killed a Muton stumbling forward, suicidally firing as the fire rushed through his mind.

"I know!"She yelled back, deciding to try a different tactic. So, the Andromedons had done something to them. In that case, they could fix the problem. Kill the Mutons. She pressed on the closest Andromedon minds, and she felt them give way…all except for one. The commander, it had to be.

It should have been impossible. She knew the command had been impressed onto all of them, but instead…for that one, it was just being…ignored. She frowned and tried looking inside the mind, ignoring the inaccurate plasma around her. All she saw was a jumbled, scrambled mess that didn't make any sense, even as she pushed deeper. Images, feelings, sounds, sights, she couldn't grasp anything. No wonder it wasn't taking her commands.

Unless that was the point?

In any case, the other Andromedons had gotten the message, and were turning their suits on the Muton army. One executed three in quick precision; another turned an entire section to acid; one more turned a Muton into an acid-burned husk before executing the two beside it. Ok, Patricia noted with a nod as the battle turned heavily in their favor, all enemy fire effectively stopped due to the Mutons being unable to fire properly, We're fine.

And then that damned Andromedon leader in the back pulled up some kind of haptic display on his wrist and a few seconds later, all the other Andromedons froze briefly, and then turned their attention back towards the Humans.

Impossible! Patricia scowled in disbelief. That can't be possible!

Regardless of what should have been happening, the fact was that the Andromedons were now firing against them. She focused on their minds and repeated the command. That was when she realized that it had worked and was working. But something had taken over the suits themselves and had locked the pilots out.

She couldn't mind-control a machine, and that damn Andromedon commander had known that.

"We might have a problem," she growled, reaching for her autorifle. "They've taken direct control of the suits. I can't do anything to stop them."

"What are our orders?" Creed shouted as he killed a few more Mutons and began focus-firing an Andromedon with Kim.

With her psionics apparently negated, she would have to win this the old-fashioned way. With guns, bullets, and blood. But not entirely, of course, her allies could certainly benefit from her abilities. "Kim, Creed, focus on the frontal Andromedon force,"she began. "Mordecai, target that leader in the back. Liliyane, Rosario, help suppress the left flank of Andromedons!"

"Yes, Overseer," they shouted as they received ADVENT reinforcements of their own running in behind them. The battle continuing in earnest, they quickly entrenched themselves. But command needed to know what was going on.

"Commander," she said once she had established a line to him. "We have a problem."

The Citadel, Mission Control

The Commander had faced quite a few challenges in his career. Very few people had given him pause and none a reason to legitimately fear them. Even the Ethereals were a force he was confident he would be able to overcome. He didn't put see purpose in giving problems any more time than they deserved. People who opposed him were simply issues to be resolved later, armies were tools that could be sabotaged and systematically decimated. Weaknesses of opponents could simply be exploited. Every challenge he faced never gave him much pause, because he was confident he could develop a solution to it. The difficulty didn't matter, only the knowledge of if it was possible.

Until now, it seemed.

He had never fully believed Aegis' tales of Battlemasters that could take entire worlds single-handedly. Perhaps in specific circumstances, but not regularly. The Mutons had been simple primitives, so perhaps that was a simple explanation. But no, it seemed like Aegis had not exaggerated in the slightest.

Never in his life had he ever seen anything like the Battlemaster systematically slaughtering an army composed of fifty thousand soldiers single-handedly. Nothing could slow him down or kill him. Projectiles might as well not exist; missiles barely slowed him down; tank shots were little more than irritants; armor was little better than paper and tactics were a laughable proposition.

The twelve-foot tall Ethereal was fast enough to execute entire squads in seconds and make a mockery out of any advanced technology. He was a demon of the battlefield, speeding across it with inhuman speed and killing anything that stood in his way.

And he legitimately had no idea how he could stop him.

Airstrikes? Too imprecise for one alien, and would probably do nothing even if they did hit.

Overwhelming numbers? If fifty thousand wasn't enough, then more than that would just be throwing soldiers away. Granted, he hadn't killed the entire garrison, but with over a fifth of the soldiers dead with no progress, that didn't paint a positive picture.

Nuking the city? He wasn't even sure that would work against the Battlemaster. Or at least, figured the Battlemaster would be smart enough to get out of there quickly.

What else was there? Sending in an XCOM team? Dropping a building on top of him? Very unlikely to do anything either. There was no way he was sending in more soldiers now, especially since the other defenses were…not going well. And dropping a building might at best trap him, assuming he was dumb enough to get trapped in a building in the first place, and the airstrikes actually hit.

Laura's face during the entire conflict had gone from confident, to surprised, to concerned and finally ashen as she'd watched the Battlemaster personally decimate ADVENT's army. He couldn't truly blame her; this should have been impossible, but they had to recognize that it was very much reality now. It wasn't as though she hadn't tried.

Smaller teams. Blatant numbers. Tanks. Bait. Smaller teams were killed in seconds; larger numbers only added to his kill count; tanks barely slowed him down and he walked into bait because he knew he wasn't in true danger.

And that wasn't including how the other defenses had, almost universally, not gone according to plan, especially with this new update from Patricia. "What do you mean 'It's not working?'" He demanded as he looked on the holomap where her team was.

"I mean I can't control them!" Patricia hissed. "Whoever is leading this attack knows how to counter telepaths specifically. They did something to the Mutons, and took direct control of the suits. I slowed them down, but we're barely holding out at best."

"Hold your position and update if the situation changes," the Commander ordered, scowling as he looked to the north. "Laura, reinforce the left flank before Mutons break through."

"I see it," she muttered tonelessly. "Ordering the twenty-fifth unit to reinforce."

As she gave the order, the Commander looked at the other situations. Portland was the only place where he actually saw legitimate progress. The Vitakara-majority army was well-equipped for the standard ADVENT military, but were not prepared for XCOM soldiers of any kind. Sierra and Zara were leading their own charges, weakening the other alien offensives, and the Goliath was stubbornly holding its ground, no matter how much plasma fire was thrown its way.

However, LA was bad. He had underestimated the Muton force by a dangerous amount. Whoever was leading it actually knew how to use the Mutons, and now the Commander could see how dangerous they actually could be. He was legitimately considering retreating if the situation didn't improve. Carmelita was cut off, one of the psions was dead, and every XCOM soldier was marked for death.

He had been played, he saw that now. The Battlemaster, for that was who he assumed was responsible for the offensive, had predicted his likely actions and he had seemingly performed them to the letter. It was very clear how easily he'd taken the bait.

The Battlemaster had known that, after Japan, Andromedons were considered one of the most, if not the most, dangerous enemy, so what was the best counter to them? One of his best XCOM teams, and his most powerful psion, which happened to be Patricia. And of course the force that awaited them was just so happened to be able to negate Patricia's telepathy, putting them in a much more dangerous situation.

Not unsalvageable. Patricia was going to have to be more creative, but he did think the battle could still be won, although not without more casualties and time. It was going to be a grueling finish at best.

The Battlemaster had also known that, thanks to Japan and previous battles, the Mutons were considered the weak link, so naturally, it wouldn't require an overly dangerous XCOM squad, or at least not a completely veteran one. But now they were in danger of losing LA because he'd relied on his assumptions on what could be expected.

Then there was Portland, and the Battlemaster had expected him to send a middle-tier XCOM squad, which was more or less what he'd done, but perhaps where the Battlemaster had erred was that a middle-tier XCOM squad with no obvious counters easily beat a Vitakara force. Which was maybe the only bright spot here.

Then of course, the Battlemaster had saved the most fortified city for himself, and the Commander could only presume that it was for the sole purpose of sending a message: You cannot stop me.

At this moment, he could believe that.

"You need to retreat from San Francisco," he told Laura firmly. "All you're going to do is lose more soldiers."

"Not yet!" She scowled. "Not even he can last forever! He isn't invincible! Something can kill him!"

"I agree," the Commander nodded, keeping his voice even. "But do you really want to find out what that is by sending more men to their deaths? What other possible ideas do you have? You can't kill him with what you have!"

"You want to sacrifice San Francisco because of one alien?" She demanded, glaring at him.

"That one alien has killed a fifth of your fifty-thousand garrison!" The Commander shot back, allowing some heat into his voice. "And it will be five fifths if you let your pride dictate your tactics! Retreating is not a bad decision."

"I…" she shuddered. "One more try. If that fails, I'll order the retreat."

"Commander! Multiple attacks are being reported in LA!" An analyst called frantically. "Hesperia, Riverside and San Clemente are all falling under Muton attack! They say there are Elites in the mix!"

"Fuck," Laura snarled under her breath. "They have us surrounded. And we have only a few reinforcements in the inner city. We sent most of them to reinforce the attacking forces. If they break through…"

"They are going to break through," the Commander stated, seeing the grim reality of the situation. "How did they do that without any of us noticing? Armies of that size should have at least warranted UFO transports unless…"

It dawned on him that that actually wasn't needed. Gateway transports were slow and vulnerable, Aegis had said, but deployed far enough away from the battle, and while he'd been focused on the frontal attack, they'd landed at specific points and prepared their strike force to attack. No UFO fleet required.

They'd been outplayed by fucking Mutons.

"Gateway transports," he said to Laura. "They can receive an unlimited number of reinforcements unless we destroy the UFOs. Have your pilots survey the area and blow them up. That should distract them and allow us a retreat."

"Retreat?" She balked. "First San Francisco and now LA? Do you realize-"

"Yes," the Commander snapped. "And I also realize that if we stay, we will be sacrificing our soldiers for nothing." He took a breath. "I have no authority over ADVENT, Commander, but I will withdraw XCOM before I lose too many of my own people. Retreat and I will have them clear a path out, but I won't leave them to die."

"Let's wait before potentially abandoning a crucial city," Laura suggested, raising a hand. "If we can hold…they might retreat, especially if we kill their Gateway transports. The battle isn't lost yet."

"Fine," he relented, looking down at the holomap. "For now, but if the situation doesn't improve, I'm not going to have much of a choice."

Los Angeles, United States of America

"They'll be coming this way!" Oliver called, as he led what remained of the XCOM and ADVENT forces down the street. In short, they were in…pretty bad shape, truth be told. Anna was still having trouble breathing, Lesedi had injured her leg and was limping alongside them and Chan was slowly becoming exhausted.

Oliver raised a fist as they came to a stop in front of another intersection. "Carmelita, you still coming?"

"Affirmative," came the voice into his helmet. He'd attempted contacting Carmelita immediately after they'd somewhat recovered and thankfully she'd still been alive, albeit now stuck on the other side. She was trying to get an accurate count or something before she came back. "I'm almost to your position."

"Oliver, this is the Commander," a new voice interjected. "You've likely got a Muton force coming up behind you and from the leftmost intersection. Position accordingly."

Oliver nodded, even though nobody could see it. "What should we expect?"

"Intel is not exact," the Commander warned. "But there are Elites, soldiers, and Centurions. Probably Berserkers as well. Amahle is almost to your position, but we might be pulling you out if the situation worsens."

"Copy," Oliver grunted, casting an apprehensive glance around the area. Hm. More buildings, no established cover…they'd have to make do.

"Did you get that?" He muttered to Catherine, who was checking Anna's vitals.

She nodded, while frowning at Anna's throat. "It sounds bad. Pulling out…if we got hit hard…" he could tell she was stressed a lot more now because her French accent was heavily pronounced compared to earlier in the fight.

"I know," Oliver sighed, motioning the ADVENT Officers over. "But we're making a stand here, like it or not. I don't think they can try dropping another building on us without catching our attention."

He turned immediately to the other Officers. "Fortify your soldiers in the buildings. Intel suggests we're going to get hit from behind and from the left. You know the drill I presume. Snipers on roofs, gunners up front and rocketeers in the back." He paused. "And use your soldiers a little better. Have the gunners focus on suppressing the masses and use everyone else to target the specialized units."

"Yes sir," one of the Officers said, and all of them immediately ran back to their squads and began issuing orders. "Lesedi," he continued, turning to the weary sniper. "Get up top again. See if you can get eyes on anything."

"On it boss," she nodded, and began climbing up the wall of the four-story building behind them. Right, he recalled, she had the modification that allowed her to climb walls, that was why her gloves were almost transparent. Some kind of gear modification to accommodate that, he supposed. But as long as she got up there, he was fine with it.

Oliver smashed the window to the building and took a position in the corner which would let him shoot from both sides. Catherine, Anna and Chan also took up positions inside the building, just waiting for the aliens to come back. "Heads up!" Carmelita suddenly called over the comms and without warning she jumped into the middle of the street, almost making him fire his gun in surprise.

She looked completely and utterly terrible. Her Aegis armor was scorched, scratched, and falling apart. Her right arm had pretty much no armor left and she was missing her left gauntlet. Most of her shin armor looked on the verge of breaking, and her torso also looked bad, but it appeared to only be superficial damage. The giant gash through her helmet visor was by no means superficial though.

"There's a lot of them coming," she warned, pulling off her ruined helmet and shaking her short hair free. Interestingly enough she didn't look tired in the least. Her golden-rimmed eyes held only fury and hate. Despite looking like she'd just gotten the shit beaten out of her, she only looked pissed off.

"Are you alright?" Catherine asked, rushing to her, med-kit in hand. "You look-"

"Fine." Carmelita snapped, scowling as she reloaded her alloy cannon again. "Iron Skin. Best thing XCOM ever made. Don't think these things can really hurt me, but they can sure slow me down. They want to kill all of us. This was a trap. They were expecting XCOM here."

"No offense, but that gem of wisdom is pretty much common sense," Anna managed, before breaking into a cough. "Of course they expected us! They'd be idiots not to."

"Clarification," Carmelita growled, shooting the woman a scathing look. "Their leader knows how to fight us. And I'm pretty sure it's a Muton leading them. Lesedi, remember that bigger green one? I'm pretty sure it's a commander of some kind."

"I didn't know Mutons were that smart," Chan commented. "Strong, yes, but not-"

"Yeah, I didn't either," Carmelita interrupted. "Ethereals probably did something to it. But I'm not underestimating it again. They've got Elites, Berserkers and Centurions coming our way-"

"Contact!" A voice shouted in the distance, and ADVENT soldiers began firing into the street leading into the intersection.

"Mutons coming from the left," Lesedi updated. "Not taking cover, and no Berserkers yet. Twelve groups of four, one Centurion per group. Targeting now."

A gauss sniper shot rang out and Chan turned his attention to down the street, as did Anna, raising her heavy autorifle in the direction of the thunderous boot steps that were reaching his ears. Carmelita leapt to the opposite end of the street and took a position near the corner as the Muton soldiers charged forward, pushing derelict cars as portable cover, Centurions behind them.

Oliver aimed for the wheels of the vehicles and fired, and they popped and deflated within seconds. He turned his rifle to the Muton pushing it and hit it several times, but it still tried, roaring in pain as he kept filling its body with gauss rounds. It finally collapsed, dead, and Carmelita began moving into the fray, a chilling smile on her face.

The Mutons seemed stunned that she was still alive, and more to the point, still killing them. Her stinger snapped out of her wrist like a pale snake, impaling itself in the necks of Muton soldiers while she executed others at close range with her alloy cannon. Plasma hit her arms and torso, but it seemed to do little more than blacken her skin and armor, only eliciting a grimace as she systematically stopped the Muton advance.

On the left side the rest of XCOM was holding back the Muton offensive who were scrambling into cover, even as Lesedi was picking them off or they were being ripped apart by Anna's weapon or Chan's psionics. The North Korean was once more sheathed in waves of purple energy, and was angry. Oliver could feel it rippling off him in waves as he directed his destructive abilities at the hulking aliens, ripping them apart with deceptive ease.

Catherine was braving the midst of combat, mostly on the ADVENT lines who were rushing to take advantage of Carmelita's attack. Quite a few were bleeding on the ground, and she was attempting to either drag them somewhere safe, or patch the wounds then and there in the heated battlefield. Oliver now realized he was doing very little back in the building. Carmelita was receiving too much heat now, he needed to do something.

He pulled out his alloy cannon and charged across the street, relying on Lesedi, Anna, and Chan to keep the left flank secure. Carmelita was actually backing up now, apparently seeing the new wave of two dozen soldiers rushing up. She took cover behind the car, and he behind the corner of a building.

The roar of a Berserker came from behind the Muton lines and Carmelita pursed her lips. "Hold this line," she stated with crystalized ice in her tone. "I'll handle the Berserker."

"I'll do my best," he promised as the red-armored alien charged around the corner, and towards them. Carmelita jumped on the car and thrust her arm forward, the stinger lashing out, presumably stabbing it in the neck before it retracted to her wrist. She followed it up with an alloy cannon blast to the face, shredding the helmet, but not killing it.

"Come and get me!" She roared and leapt backwards, and luckily the enraged alien complied and charged after her. But now Oliver was left with the horde of Mutons who were surging forward. The car positioning actually worked to his advantage as it was easy to kill several Mutons who tried to take cover behind it.

Alloy cannon shards ripped into the armor, downing, if not killing them outright, and the Centurions were noticing him and holding the soldiers back. Now he found himself on the receiving end of the suppressive plasma cannons of two more Centurions. Plasma rained all around him, far too close for comfort.

"I'm pinned down!" He called, reaching for a grenade.

"We've got Elites coming up the left flank," Lesedi warned. "Along with more soldiers and Centurions."

Fucking wonderful. "Berserker killed," Carmelita updated, and he saw her charging back into the fight. Her stamina was truly impressive, even if it was the result of genetic modification. "Moving to assist."

Then he heard the sound of clamping metal on asphalt. "MEC soldier Amahle arriving to assist." The Marauder-class MEC informed as it charge in from the right, flamethrowers at the ready. "Providing support." Her wrists were raised and blue and orange flames spat out of them and she sprayed them in such a way as to engulf the entire street. Mutons and Centurions howled in pain as they were cooked inside their own armor.

The ten-foot MEC continued into the firestorm she'd started, shooting cones of flame at Muton squads who were scattering to the wind now that she'd come to assist. Carmelita took advantage of the chaos and leapt into their disorganized lines, poisoning and executing every Muton she could see…until she leaped back to the XCOM-ADVENT line.

"Elites!" She cursed. "And more Berserkers!"

"We've got a problem over here!" Chan called, and Oliver glanced to see that the entire XCOM line was being suppressed by the massive plasma cannons the Elites carried. They were split, two Elites per XCOM soldier, in essence pinning them in one place while the soldiers and Centurions advanced unhindered. To step out was to get annihilated on site. Even Lesedi was coming under fire, even as she dropped soldier after soldier.

"Mariner Team, stand by for evacuation," the Commander informed. "ADVENT is coordinating a retreat of the city. Wait for Lightning Sky to pick you up. Under two minutes."

Based on how quickly the Mutons were closing in, Oliver wasn't sure they had that time. "Copy!" Carmelita yelled as two Berserkers charged around the corner and targeted the MEC. Amahle aimed her wrists at one and it was engulfed in flame while the other practically tried tackling her, and was summarily thrown into a wall, but disrupting her attack.

The Elites came right behind it, and began shooting at Amahle, who was not a small target. Carmelita assisted in finishing off the burned Berserker, but as Amahle was dealing with the remaining one, the half-dozen elites were firing every plasma rifle into her and it was taking a massive toll. The chassis sparked and melted under the green plasma, and one of the tanks was pierced by the Berserker and exploded, dismembering the alien, but damaging the MEC immensely.

"Critical system failure," Amahle updated with mechanical coolness.

"Fall back!" Carmelita yelled as the skyranger roared overhead and set up on the street behind them. "Run!"

ADVENT was also taking the cue to get the hell out of there. Oliver tossed his grenade at the wounded Berserker as he ran and the explosion blew its leg apart, and Carmelita finished it off with an alloy cannon blast to the face. A yell from Chan caught his attention, and he saw the psion thrust his arms forward, sending out a light shockwave that briefly caused the Mutons to stumble, which gave them all the opportunity needed to escape.

Or almost all of them, anyway. As the Elites advanced, their focus on the MEC didn't stop. They targeted the legs, busting and melting the joints beyond all repair as Amahle simply kept attempting to fight back, drawing the fire of the Mutons as the remaining XCOM soldiers retreated into the skyranger. Once a nameless Elite blasted the helmet of Amahle, the MEC went still and silent, only leaking oil and flammable liquid.

But she'd bought enough time for XCOM to escape, and Oliver watched with dismay as they flew up, the ramp closing in front of him as the aliens continued their conquest unchallenged. If they were retreating, it meant that the battle for Los Angeles was lost.

San Francisco, United States of America

One throw of his arm and a line of ADVENT soldiers were thrown back by a rippling psionic wave and slammed into the unyielding stone walls behind them. They crumpled to the ground, not dead, but he would finish them off soon enough.

The Battlemaster leapt towards one Officer that was desperately ordering a retreat and cut him down with a downward slash, immediately transitioning to three quick slices that killed and dismembered the soldiers standing right next to him. One gunner was telekinetically pulled towards him and met with a blade to the heart, and the Battlemaster clenched an opposite fist, briefly lifting three more soldiers and crushing their windpipes, before tossing them down the street.

He had lost count how many had died already, yet they still kept coming before him to die. Everything was attempted, and everything failed. They failed to grasp that they could not kill him. Or maybe that was changing. The soldiers appeared to be mobilizing some kind of retreat. They still kept firing at him, but with far less frequency than before.

He began marching up the street, paying little mind to the gauss bullets shot his way. Up ahead was an ADVENT encampment built into the street. Here, these soldiers were entrenched; rocketeers were in position and gunners began spitting hot rounds towards his position.

But they were not moving to attack. Indeed, soldiers were moving away from the barricade and the ones that stayed were clearly hoping to buy time and slow him down.

It was all he could do not to laugh. Instead he let the tip of the bloodstained blade rest on the ruined concrete and waited for them to unleash whatever defenses they had left. Gauss rounds flew from their cannons and rifles and rockets from their launchers, even as they knew that the three rocketeers they had would be virtually useless.

The Battlemaster simply raised a free hand and the air shimmered before him. Caelior had taught him this trick once, and it appeared to do the trick.

All of the projectiles were suddenly stopped in mid-air, caught by the telekinetic barrier, and the Battlemaster watched with amusement as they continually filled the barrier up with small pieces of metal. But he was tired of waiting, and so kept walking forward, the barrier moving with him. The entrenched soldiers were frantically trying to find a weakness in the barrier, firing at his legs, arms, and even trying to ricochet rounds off the ground.

Rocketeers attempted to reload their launchers even as he stopped ten feet from the barricade itself and decided to end this farce. He did find it admirable that despite facing certain death, they were still attempting to stop him.

With another free hand he extended it towards the entrenched soldiers, at a minimum of twenty, and yanked back. The soldiers behind the barricade were slammed forward into it, the ones to the sides found their rifles yanked out of their hands, and the rocketeers tumbled to the ground. Even the ones near the back were thrown off-balance by the telekinetic grab.

The moment that happened, the Battlemaster dropped the barrier and charged towards the left side of the barricade, at what would likely appear to be the speed of light to the Humans.

He stabbed one soldier through the chest and transitioned to a slash within seconds, killing two more. With a free hand he focused on yet another human and squeezed, turning her head into paste. The final soldier he lifted up with a lower hand and brought down upon the bloody tip of his greatsword as he moved behind the barricade to kill the remaining soldiers.

To his mild disappointment, most of them were retreating in earnest, while only three gunners were left, firing wildly at the massive target before them. He charged towards one and killed her with a quick slash, charged to the next and repeated the decapitation. He executed the last one the same way, pleased that he'd killed them all before the corpse of the first gunner hit the ground, heads and bodies landing in different places.

He turned to begin hunting the remaining soldiers that were running away, but paused as the sounds of chopping wind and loud engines from the sky caught his attention and he saw six helicopters coming at him from all directions. Sacrifices to slow him down most likely, allowing the survivors to flee while they could.

He did not begrudge them. There was little shame in retreating from a superior foe. Flourishing his blade at the machines in the sky, he prepared to kill them just the same. They spat more bullets at him from embedded guns which turned the area around him into a sparking mess. These were certainly a higher caliber of weapon, as the impact did force him to take a step back, and multiple angles of attack from high-powered gauss cannons might unbalance him altogether.

But they couldn't keep up with him. He charged forward to two of the helicopters, all of which were lowering to hover just above the four-story buildings for better shots, and threw his greatsword towards the cockpit of one, extendeding all of his hands to focus his telekinetic power on the one next to it.

He had no intention of bringing it down. He lacked the power to do so, but all he had to do was make it stop. His telekinetically guided blade pierced the glass of the first helicopter, killing the pilot instantly, causing it to veer away and crash into the building next to it in a shower of metal, stone and bodies. The helicopter blades on the other vehicle suddenly froze, and the machine fell to the ground like a stone, unable to fly and it impacted the ground with another explosion that killed all inside.

Fifteen seconds. And now the other helicopters were approaching and firing, and underneath them were at least twenty more soldiers that skidded to a stop as they saw him. Perhaps they had thought this was a retreat, but now found themselves exactly where they didn't want to be.

"Retreat!" One of them called out as the helicopters began spitting more bullets at him. The Battlemaster ignored the soldiers as he saw they run into a nearby building to the right, he would deal with them after he killed the machines.

He extended a hand to the downed helicopter and his greatsword flew back into his hand as he turned to face the helicopters. They wanted to sacrifice themselves to protect their comrades? Then he would oblige them and saw no reason to waste time, and repeated the greatsword throw at one of the cockpits, impaling the pilot instantly.

It crashed into the helicopter next to it and both fell to the ground, damaging the building itself and killing a few unlucky soldiers on the ground who hadn't yet entered the building, while he telekinetically grabbed one of the ADVENT corpses around him and tossed it at the blades of the helicopters. It was enough to not only chop the corpse into pieces, but damage the blades themselves, and the helicopter slowly crashed into the ground, ending with a large fireball.

The last one actually began to pull back, but the Battlemaster had no intention of letting it run, and simply stopped the helicopter blades and watched it collapse onto the bloodied pavement which soon became scorched as yet another explosion rocked the street.

He paused, recalling the greatsword to his hand as he turned to the building the soldiers had gone into. Curious. Not retreating exactly, not running, but fortifying. Inside a building. Where they couldn't possibly kill him. Clearly a trap, perhaps they would lure him inside before trying to collapse the building on top of him?

His lips parted in a humorless grin under his helmet. Fine. He was curious if they were as predictable as that. They appeared to not know he had been fighting for centuries, and the concept of destroying a building to trap him was not a new one. He approached the door and kicked it in, shattering it as he knelt under the human-sized entrance and stood once more to his full height as the soldiers inside began firing.

Luckily the room itself was high enough so he could act unhindered, so he might as well take advantage. He took a reverse grip on his greatsword and threw it towards an Officer at the end of the room, which appeared to be a furniture store of some kind, and impaled him in the throat while burying the sword deep into the wall.

Their gauss weapons couldn't hurt him, and so he slowly walked through the room, pulled soldiers into his hands and killing them with whatever he could find. Many had their heads slammed onto pointed furniture which cracked their skulls like eggs; others he killed telekinetically with a gesture and application of force; more were killed on his sword when he finally reached it.

The entire weapon was designed to kill, and that was why the hilt, crossguard and pommel all ended with a sharp spike. He picked up a nearby ADVENT Officer and dragged her to the greatsword buried in the wall still, and slammed the side of her head into the right crossguard, shattering the weaker helmet with a crack.

While blood seeped out of the now-limp body, he repeated the same attack with another ADVENT soldier who'd gotten too close, killing him with the opposite side. At the same time, with a free hand he yanked the greatsword free and charged towards a duo of soldiers and killed them with a single swipe.

Not all the soldiers were dead, but it was apparently enough for ADVENT as the building suddenly shook and an explosion hit one of the corners. Another one hit a few seconds later and the remaining humans were thrown to ground. One was knocked out, presumably, and the other two apparently realized what was happening, but more explosions prevented them from standing straight.

Unsurprising that the Humans were willing to sacrifice their own to try and kill him, but they were likely desperate now. Unshaken and unafraid by the trembling ceiling and rocking floor, he strode over to the soldiers and grabbed them by the first limb he could reach and made his way outside as a missile started the collapse of the building behind him.

Unwilling to risk being trapped, he charged out, and to the left as he saw the building collapsed behind him, crumbling into stone, steel and throwing up a wave of dust. He tossed the two soldiers onto the street, surrounded by their dead and mutilated brethren. He would kill them, but not then.

They seemed stunned they were still alive, coughing and looking around in disbelief, and up at him while they stood. He brandished his blade. "Defend yourselves." He commanded and it dawned on them that they were still going to die, but facing a Battlemaster instead of crushed under stone. The left one grabbed a rifle and unloaded it on him, while the other reached for her pistol and also began firing.

His armor sparked as the projectiles made new scratches in the metal, but he saw no reason to attack yet. The woman's pistol clicked and he flashed forward and stabbed diagonally upward through her throat, the blade puncturing out of the top of her helmet, killing her instantly. He pulled it out and swung in a dizzying arc, decapitating the man beside her.

Clean and quick kills, exactly what they deserved.

Curiously enough, the street was silent, and the ADVENT soldiers in the distance were officially in full retreat, shouts in all directions colored with fear and desperation. If they were truly retreating now, he would let them go. But until the city was secure, he had no intention of sparing any soldier he came across.

With a flash and flourish of his greatsword, he marched off to go hunting.

Portland, United States of America

"Down!" Sierra yelled as an ADVENT soldier was suddenly sniped in the head and collapsed onto the pavement. She ducked behind a burned-out car and reloaded her weapon. Snipers. Which meant they were either getting too close to established positions, or the aliens were getting a lot of reinforcements.

"I've got my sniper looking for them," a Captain informed her as he slid into cover beside the front line of ADVENT and XCOM, even as more Vitakara were fortifying the end of the bridge. "What's the plan?"

"I'll try and draw their fire," Sierra said, risking a peek out. "I can take some hits. Matthew! Give me some cover!"

"With pleasure!" He called, standing up and miming lifting his hands as purple energy flowed around him. The entire line of Vitakara was suddenly lifted into the air, incapacitating and providing some cover against the snipers. Sierra leapt over the car and began dashing towards the end of the bridge, firing at the now-exposed Vitakara.

One Borelian was killed by her rifle, and the rest were executed by the hail of ADVENT fire from the soldiers. Sierra practically slammed into the corner of the bridge and Matthew let the floating corpses and junk in his hold fall to the ground. Sierra wasted no time and began shooting the surprised Vitakara who were now attempting to reposition.

Two Vitakarians were killed by rifle fire, and three Borelians were wounded trying to get away. She grunted as he felt her arm get slammed with something hot and saw her forearm was hot with green plasma, forcing her to pull back into cover as the green faded slowly.

"Sectoids!" Someone called, and Sierra risked looking out to see a dozen or so Sectoids running up, their augmented black arms indicating they were Leaders. Curiously enough, no one could accurately say what these aliens could actually do, since all of them had been designated priority targets and killed almost on contact.

Unfortunately, they were probably going to find out now.

The alien forces were well-entrenched at the end of the bridge, taking cover on roofs, buildings and their own constructed alloy barricades as they began firing back against ADVENT in earnest. Most of the Borelian soldiers were concentrating all their fire on Matthew, and the Sectoids were now utilizing their own abilities.

She fired at one that was standing up, with purple energy beginning to surround it, and to her surprise it seemed to hit a barricade, and now she saw a faint distortion, similar to the one Matthew had erected earlier. A personal shield up, it raised the wicked-looking plasma cannon arm and fired at the front line.

Two shots missed, but one hit a reinforcing soldier in the back and flung him to the ground. Mark was close behind, and tried helping the wounded soldier to get back to cover, when the Leader chittered at it and sniper fire suddenly hit the area around Mark, and the XCOM soldier himself. Aegis armor could take a lot, but not even it could survive concentrated and coordinated sniper fire and after the helmet cracked under a flurry of plasma lances, the body went still.

It had happened in seconds, with nothing any of them could have done. Sierra gritted her teeth and renewed her assault on the front-line Sectoid, which had been joined by four more of the Leaders, who were projecting similar barriers in front of them and shooting plasma rounds at the ADVENT line, which was more or less neutralized.

Sierra pulled out a grenade and rolled it under the feet of one Leader who looked down, chittered, and was suddenly ripped apart by the explosion of shrapnel. It seemed the barriers only worked one way. Good to know.

Plasma suddenly rained down upon her position again, and she decided she might as well test the barrier and unloaded her rifle onto the nearest Leader she could. It spun to her with some surprise in its orange eyes, but didn't waste time firing at her either, though it wasn't very accurate. Behind it came another leader also emanating psionic energy, and it motioned in her direction.

Nothing seemed to happen at first, then she was wracked by a splitting migraine so bad she collapsed to the ground, rifle chattering to the ground as she grabbed her helmet, wanting the world to fade around her. It was like someone was taking a hammer repeatedly to her brain, and on some level she knew it was a psionic attack, but she just wanted the pain to stop.

The ground around her shook, and she thought someone was calling her name, but the migraine abated for a minute and she fixated on the alien that was causing her pain, and did perhaps the stupidest thing she could have: Charged at it. But she didn't care, either she was going to go insane, or die if the fucking alien kept affecting her mind.

She barely paid attention to the other Leaders who chittered in surprise as she charged past them, aside from slamming the butt of her rifle into the head of one and firing an entire clip into the face of the Leader debilitating her, blowing the face into a gray and yellow stain. The migraine didn't vanish instantly, but it did gradually get better and she fell into cover behind a silver barricade, and the Leaders realized they were in trouble.

She fired at one in the back, sending it sprawling forward, dead, and began focusing on another one when a direct plasma shot from a flanking Vitakarian soldier hit her arm, practically shattering the armor. Another bolt hit her skin and she looked down at it, expecting to see the arm gone and waiting for a flash of pain.

But it didn't come. The green plasma sizzled on her arm, but she barely felt it. The Vitakarian seemed astonished she was still alive, and so she killed him with a burst of gauss fire to the face. Matthew had evidently taken an opening as well and had one arm extended to the group of Leaders attempting to reposition, and clenched his hand into a fist.

Their heads suddenly exploded in bursts of yellow and gray gore, and the headless corpses fell to the ground and Sierra shakily rose to a kneeling position, most of the migraine gone, and half of her armor destroyed. Iron skin. Best thing XCOM ever made.

She peered up at the top of the buildings were the snipers were established, a mixture of Cobrarians and Vitakarians, and fired. She hit one Cobrarian in the…neck? She supposed it was, anyway, and then forced the rest into cover as Matthew also took the initiative, sending a wave of energy towards the aliens that knocked them back or destabilized them.

One Vitakarian sniper was taken out by an opposing sniper, and now ADVENT was taking the frontwards alien barricades, and focusing on the snipers themselves, and now the rightmost Vitakara were focusing on her. Sierra scowled and turned her weapon on them, now wanting to test the limits of what exactly she could do.

She leapt over her cover and charged to the Vitakara line which seemed surprised at her frontal attack, but still attempted to fire. Plasma scorched her armor, but she felt nothing yet. One Vitakarian she executed instantly and grabbed the other one, easily overpowering him and forcing him to act as a body shield.

Or maybe it was a she? Sierra didn't care as it tried to fight back, but the genetic modification had made her much stronger than the alien, and it did little more than annoy her as she began advancing on the flanking Vitakara barricades. They actually seemed hesitant to shoot at her, which was interesting, but worked to her advantage and she fired her pistol at them, knowing firing a rifle properly was impossible.

Once she was close enough, she blew the brain out of her hostage and threw its corpse at the Borelian and fired several times quickly in the head. His friend fired directly into her chest, being absorbed by the armor, and she killed him with a few quick shots. She glanced around her…twelve left, and ADVENT was beginning to reinforce this position as Matthew led the attack on the other side.

Covered in plasma scoring, soot, and alien blood, Sierra reloaded her pistol and dashed towards the farthest alien that could flank her. Plasma flew over, behind and in front of her, but only a couple bolts grazed her. A few frantic shots from her pistol forced the Vitakarian into cover and she leapt on top of him, putting a bullet into his head point-blank, and shooting several shots into the side of the Borelian next to him.

It spun towards her, plasma rifle firing and hit her arm again, and now she felt it burning slightly. Grimacing, she fired a few more pistol shots into the Borelian's head and ducked into cover as ADVENT advanced, and got the attention of the other Vitakara. She appraised her now-stinging arm which looked almost charred. Well, it seemed that she wasn't invincible, and should probably not get hit there anymore.

But Sierra felt like she'd made enough of a difference. The Vitakara seemed to be retreating now, and more ADVENT soldiers were coming across the bridge and spreading into what had been Vitakarian territory. "Zara, we're on the other side and establishing position. Mark is dead, but the aliens seem to be retreating."

Zara's voice held an iron tone. "Good work, I'm also on the other side of our bridge. Seems to be a general retreat. We lost Tamara and Nati is dead as well. They hit the area up by the Goliath harder than here, it seems. Charlie is wounded as well, but they held and they're being pushed back. Everyone else is alright. Portland seems to be remaining under Human control."

Sierra grinned at that pronouncement. That's what they get for coming to my homeland. "I'll assist ADVENT forces in securing the area then."

"Correct," Zara affirmed, gunfire in the background. "Good luck and stay alive. No more deaths today."

Sierra went to retrieve her rifle and reloaded it while looking into the outskirts of the city as ADVENT advanced further in. Time to help with the offensive.

Seattle, United States of America

The good news: They were keeping the aliens from advancing any further.

The bad news: They weren't making any progress against said aliens.

The Mutons may be awful shots while working through her attempted debilitation, but they were providing a large enough volume of fire to prevent anything from moving. Not to mention that they were almost instantly replaced by more. For every one they killed, another took its place within minutes.

The Andromedons were slower and more mechanical, if that was possible, but they could actually shoot with some precision, and whoever this Andromedon commander was, he was figuring out that it was actually much more efficient to use the acid all the Andromedons had.

"Back up!" Creed yelled to a squad of ADVENT soldiers as two Andromedons launched green pellets at their position which splashed and hissed where they had been. Patricia and Kim focused on the exposed aliens and fired, and the combined might of the heavy autorifles was able to bring one down.

Mordecai was still trying to get a bead on the leader, who Patricia could see still commanding from the back, personally ordering various Centurions and programming Andromedons suits to specific locations. He was irritatingly competent, and actually knew what he was doing for a change, which was in contrast to many alien leaders they'd had previously.

Of course he was going to have quite a lot of dead Andromedons when this was over, because even if Patricia couldn't control the suits, the beings inside them were enslaved to her and she had simply ordered them to kill themselves. Most had accomplished this by smashing their heads on whatever control panels they had in the suit, or bodily harm some other way.

Regardless, she imagined it was going to be messy for whoever opened the suits, and it had probably been very painful for the Andromedons within. Not that she particularly cared, but if she'd expected an emotional response from the commanding Andromedon, she wasn't getting it.

Liliyane and Creed shot up an entire Muton line, but they were almost immediately replaced, and a reinforcement pod of four Andromedon soldiers was now firing their plasma lances on them. Rosario and Kim fired at the Andromedons, and Patricia suddenly realized there was one weakness that they'd possibly overlooked.

"Weapons!" She called. "Shoot the weapons!"

The command spread through the ranks quickly, and Creed and Liliyane risked peeking out and returning fire. A shot from Mordecai hit the rifle an Andromedon was holding and it blew up in a small green explosion, taking off the entire arm. The commanding Andromedon looked up to where Mordecai was stationed and pointed.

Two things happened in quick succession. All of the Andromedons on the field eschewed all other ADVENT targets and focused exclusively on XCOM soldiers, including the one that had just gotten his arm blown off. In fact, it charged the line itself. The second was that all Muton fire was instantly concentrated on Mordecai's position and one bolt actually hit his head directly.

It didn't kill him, but it certainly stunned him and Patricia knew that he couldn't take another shot there. But the plasma was doing far worse than hitting him, but it was weakening the floor he was standing on, and Muton Grenadiers were now firing grenades up towards the top that a dazed Mordecai couldn't respond to. "Get down from there!" She yelled up at him as she began shooting at an Andromedon suit targeting Rosario.

"I'm-" he began and she saw the entire area where he'd gone go up in a green explosion. Fuck! There was no way he was alive now, and the situation was getting worse. The wounded Andromedon had charged up to Kim's position and raised its good arm and sprayed a green mist on him that he wasn't able to avoid.

Friendly fire from the side brought the Andromedon down due to the sheer hail of it, but the acid was already eating through the weaker armor on the helmet and arms. Joseph was frantically trying to neutralize the acid with his med-kit, but the remaining Andromedon suits were still firing at him, and it was difficult for him to work in that condition.

More ADVENT soldiers were coming to reinforce, and Patricia figured they needed to do something now before things got even worse. She tuned to the ADVENT command frequency. "ADVENT Command this is Psion Trask. Requesting airstrike at coordinates that will be transmitted shortly. Acknowledge?"

"Acknowledged," came a voice. "We're standing by. We need exact coordinates though or the rockets might-"

"I know how this works!" She snarled, and pointed at the back where the Andromedon leader was. "Officers! Mark far back Andromedon for airstrike! Everyone else suppressive fire on the Andromedons!" Her body flared with psionic energy as she repeated attempting to mentally afflict the Mutons. Fine, if they wouldn't follow her commands, they would not follow any commands.

But for that to happen, she had to break their minds apart. So she inflicted every possible curse that came to her mind. Blindness, being flayed alive, skewered with hot irons, the possibilities were endless, and she made sure to amplify every feeling a hundredfold and the screams of the Mutons took on a much louder pitch as she began driving them to insanity.

They were surprisingly resistant to pain, but even they had limits. They may have somehow been enslaved to disobey her commands, but their minds were still vulnerable to the effects. There were four Officers standing up and marking the Andromedon in the back, and the rest were firing at the Andromedon suits, some of which were now sparking and falling over in ruins.

An Officer was shot and killed, but Patricia heard the planes now. "Target locked," the pilot said. "Firing."

A few seconds later a barrage of missiles struck the building behind the Andromedon leader and the concussion blast blew him forward and he fell to the ground. The tank on his back seemed ruptured, and the missile launcher or equipment on his shoulder seemed damaged, but otherwise he was alive. However, the distraction was all Patricia needed to send one final mental push to the Mutons.

And they broke.

They started turning on each other, the Andromedons and the Humans. Inhuman screams dominated them as they tried to claw, shoot and rip everything around them apart. The Andromedon leader was backing up now, tapping hurriedly on his haptic display, but having very little success it seemed.

Several more Andromedon suits exploded as the combined fire of ADVENT and XCOM overwhelmed them, even as more ADVENT soldiers fell to the plasma lances and acid of the suits. Then the Andromedon leader shouted something in the echoing and booming voice of their species, and the remaining suits began pulling back, making sure to contaminate the ground before them.

The Mutons seemed to be abandoned, and the Andromedons executed whichever ones tried to attack them, but left the rest to likely serve as a distraction. More Officers were arriving, and the engineers were beginning to making fortifications near the ruined battlefield, even as the Mutons continued killing each other.

"Commander," Patricia said, taking stock of the still chaotic situation. "What's the status of the attacks? Alien forces just retreated here."

"Affirmative, good job," the Commander answered approvingly, though the tightness in his voice was not reassuring. "The good news is that we are still holding strong. Whoever this leader was, he brought a lot of reinforcements just to attack you." Patricia looked at the hundreds of alien corpses and suits littering the parking lot.

"I figured," she said. "But if you say we're still strong…"

"I mean that the aliens haven't really retreated," the Commander confirmed. "They're pulling back in some places, but they haven't lost much ground, and we haven't either. This is more or less a stalemate for now, but the fighting itself is gradually dying down as both sides are regrouping. Forward offensives are too risky right now, especially not with this Andromedon leader."

"Agreed," Patricia grimaced. "He was prepared for us."

"The battle isn't lost or won yet," the Commander continued. "You're being recalled until the situation escalates again. We need to reevaluate our strategies against them so this doesn't happen again."

"We're pulling back?" She asked, frowning.

"XCOM is," the Commander said. "ADVENT can hold for now, and I don't want to lose more soldiers unnecessarily."

"We'll be here, then," Patricia said, wondering how the rest of the defenses had gone. The Commander never generally betrayed much emotion in his tone, especially during missions, but she had the feeling that this had not gone as well as they'd hoped.

San Francisco, United States of America

The Battlemaster stood on the outskirts of the city and watched as the ADVENT army retreated deeper into the country, away from him. They could run as far as they wished, at some point there would be nowhere left for them to go, but for now they could believe they escaped. His mission was a success and the city would now be claimed for the Collective.

The Cultro swooped down with a low hum and landed onto the ground beside him, and the CODEX figure materialized outside instantly. "The city is cleared of hostiles, Battlemaster. An estimated two-hundred to two-hundred-fifty thousand civilians remain."

"Noted," the Battlemaster said, turning around to face the city. "Give the order to bring forces to lock this city down. ADVENT is gone. The rest should be easy."

"Confirmed," the figure stated emotionlessly. "Pacification forces are now deployed."

"Status of other offensives?" He demanded of the CODEX.

"ADVENT and XCOM forces at Los Angeles have been routed, and Sargon Disciple-7 is securing the city," the CODEX stated. "J'Loran encountered Psion Patricia Trask, as expected, and there is currently a stalemate in the city between ADVENT and Collective forces. XCOM has retreated from the field of battle, though J'Loran is hesitant to press without reinforcements."

The Battlemaster nodded. Excellent. One city captured, and a stalemate was just as acceptable an outcome. Once Gateways were established, ADVENT would not be able to feasibly hold out forever. "And what of Portland?"

"Collective forces have been pushed back," the CODEX explained neutrally. "Analysis indicates the Vitakara forces had no suitable counters or strategies to XCOM MECs, psions or enhanced soldiers. Additional note: Multiple XCOM soldiers displayed additional enhanced abilities. Footage is available for review."

"Archive it for access on the Temple Ship," the Battlemaster ordered, turning on his heel and entering the Overseer. If there was any battle he predicted would be lost, it would have been the one at Portland. The Vitakara unfortunately were not hard counters to many of the more dangerous elements of XCOM, and in truth, were not exceptional front-line soldiers. This assault had confirmed it, and he would learn and capture the city another day.

Today was a victory for the Collective, and he knew the Imperator would be pleased. The beginning of the end of ADVENT and XCOM had begun with a statement the world could not ignore.

Now it was time to tighten the grip on the territories they controlled while the Humans puzzled over what to do next. He suspected that Quisilia would find it amusing.

You wanted this, Aegis, he thought as the Overseer rose and the indications of the allied transports appeared on his display. Time for you to decide how far you want to take it.

Whatever game Aegis was playing, the Battlemaster was content to play it to the end. They had been friends for too long to him to consider Aegis a traitor. There was another angle here, and he was going to find it.

But if Aegis was truly a traitor, then he would put him down without hesitation.

Supplementary Material

The Advent Directive

SECTION 8: ADVENT Military

Subsection 8.2: Structure

Overview: Below are the varying ranks and positions within the following divisions. Please note that sections specifically covering a division will only highlight relevant positions exclusive to that division. Genetic and standardized breakdowns are in the previous subsection.

ADVENT Military Command: Holds senior staff for all ADVENT branches and is the central body for decisions that affect the entire ADVENT military and even ADVENT as a whole. The following positions are as follows:

- The Commander of the ADVENT Military

- The General of the Army Division

- The Chief Admiral of the Navy Division

- The Wing Commander of the Air and Space Division

- The Chief Operator of the Special Forces Division (Can be substituted with the Chief of Lancer Operations)

- The Chief Responder of the Special Response Division

- The Chief Overseer of the Oversight Division

- The Chancellor of ADVENT (Advisory position)

- The Chief of Peacekeeper Operations (Advisory Position)

ADVENT Army Division: Has responsibility over the majority of ADVENT ground and vehicle forces and the ranks are as follows by seniority:

- General (Oversees the ADVENT Army Division)

- Chief Marshal (Oversees Legions)

- Marshal (Oversees Garrisons)

- Colonel (Oversees Companies)

- Corporal (Oversees Units)

- Officer (Oversees Squads)

- Soldier

ADVENT Navy Division: Has responsibility over the majority of ADVENT naval ships and forces, and the ranks are as follows by seniority:

- Chief Admiral (Oversees the ADVENT Navy Division)

- Admiral (Oversees Legions)

- Major (Oversees Garrisons)

- Captain (Oversees Companies)

- Lieutenant (Oversees Units)

- Officer (Oversees Squads)

- Soldier

ADVENT Air and Space Division: Has responsibility over the majority of ADVENT air force and the ranks are as follows by seniority. Note: Does not follow standard breakdown of force composition and has no standard equivalent.

- Wing Commander (Oversees the ADVENT Air and Space Division)

- Wing Captain

- Wing Tactician

- Wing Officer

- Wing Pilot

ADVENT Special Forces Division: Has responsibility for the special forces of ADVENT and the ranks are as follows by seniority. Note: Does not follow standard breakdown of force composition and has no standard equivalent.

- Chief Operator

- Chief of Lancer Operations

- Primary Director of Special Operations

- Senior Operator

- Lancer Officer

- Lancer Operative

ADVENT Special Response Division: Has responsibility over various unique aspects of ADVENT including experimental units, specialized forces and other aspects that do not conform to standardized ADVENT forces, and are equipped to respond to asymmetrical or unknown threats. Note: Does not follow standard breakdown of force composition and has no standard equivalent.

- Chief Responder

- Unit Overseer: Psionic Response

- Unit Overseer: Extraterrestrial Response Commander

- Unit Overseer: Terrorist Response

- Unit Overseer: Domestic Response

- Unit Overseer: Military Reinforcement

- Unit Overseer: Non-sentient Response

- Officer

- Responder

ADVENT Oversight Division: Has Responsibility for oversight of the ADVENT military to ensure that all divisions are in accordance with ADVENT standards and policy. Note: Does not follow standard breakdown of force composition and has no standard equivalent.

- Chief Overseer

- Overseer

- Commanding Investigator

- Chief Inspector

- Chief Interrogator

- Investigator

- Inspector

- Interrogator

- Officer

- Operative

A/N: Music listened to while writing the Battlemaster scenes was To Glory and Pontiff Sulyvahn from Two Steps From Hell and Dark Souls III respectively, if you were curious about that. So yeah, this chapter was rather fun to write. I've also found out in that time that someone made a tvtropes page for my series, so if that's something your interested in, check it out. I found it a good read, even if some of the information isn't quite accurate. Link is in my profile since there are issues putting it in the chapter itself. Hopefully the next chapter shouldn't be too long a wait.

-Xabiar