XCOM: The Advent Directive

by Xabiar

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

24. Counterattack: United States of America

Counterattack: United States of America

---

Outside Hillsboro, Portland – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 9:38 A.M.

Things may not have gone well for ADVENT recently, but Roman suspected that was going to change at this moment. For what seemed like the first time for him, the full might of the ADVENT military was gathered and marching from Portland to the alien strongholds in Hillsboro and Salem, two small cities that had been under alien control for months.

"[A good day for killing aliens,]" Anton said as they marched forward, still undetected by the aliens. "[They won't see us coming.]"

"[Maybe not,]" Galina said as she looked into the fog. "[But they are going to hear us.]"

Roman grinned under his helmet. That they would. ADVENT had pulled out everything for this attack. At this moment the entire legion was marching on the split streets of the now-destroyed city of Beverton, and multiple squads were moving through the forests at the same time. American armored fighting vehicles like the M3A3 Bradley and Stryker were on the roads, guarded by MDUs and the new SHIVs.

That was where Roman and his squad were now deployed, alongside two of the Bradleys, with him in the front, as was his role as Shieldbearer. Behind the first line of tanks were dozens more squads, and multiple Strykers following them. But what Roman knew was really going to get the attention were the front lines, the shining white MDUs that marched silently, with the SHIVs and their operators closely behind.

But in front of even them were the Lancers.

Roman had known about the elite unit of the ADVENT military, even if he hadn't actually seen it in action that much. But seeing them in person was something completely different. Their domed helmets and pitch-black armor that looked even stronger than his own made for a foreboding image.

They weren't just at the front either. They were scattered throughout the ADVENT force, either alone or in small groups of two. The isolated ones had been holding sniper rifles, and their armor was slimmer than the others, so he suspected they were the sniper unit. The main Lancers; they were unique. Most carried some kind of firearm or gauss rifle, but others carried melee weapons in their hands; actual swords and hammers.

"[Executors,]" Stanislav had explained when the Lancers had started arriving. "[You saw the ones that XCOM called Templars?]"

He'd nodded. "[Yes. For fighting the Battlemaster, right?]"

"[Apparently,]" Stanislav had shrugged. "[The Lancer Executors are that same concept, but for ADVENT.]" He'd raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "[Supposedly they're dangerous.]"

"[I hope this fog dissipates soon,]" Elena muttered, checking her rifle again, bringing him back into the present. "[While we make a dramatic entrance, I'd prefer to actually see the aliens we kill.]"

"[Give it a half-hour,]" Roman suggested. "[It should be gone by then.]"

A half-dozen dogs started barking, and the Lancers froze, the leader immediately raising a fist and the entire army came to a halt. Once they stopped, the dogs immediately went quiet. That had been another recent addition to the ADVENT military. Roman liked dogs, he assumed most people did, but the Molosser Hounds as they were called, they unnerved him.

The explanation he'd been able to find is that they were currently genetically engineered and MELD-enhanced German Shepherds and Huskies, which seemed like a poor description for how enhanced these dogs really were. The damn things were up to his waist, their eyes were rimmed golden, and he could actually see the muscles under their fur.

Galina had stayed far away from them when the Molosser Handlers had brought them out. She was terrified of dogs, and ones that could probably kill her with a single pounce and bite was not something she'd wanted to be around. Had the dogs not made him slightly terrified himself, he would have found it funny.

However, he doubted ADVENT would use them if there was a risk of them biting Humans. Even the Handlers didn't use leashes, and instead stayed close to their Hounds, which were covered in padding on their bodies and top of their head, while the belly and lower jaw seemed unprotected. Probably for mobility, and the padding also had some pockets he saw the Handlers reach into occasionally and pull out some kind of treat for the Hounds.

"[Guess that means we're close,]" Konstantin said, lifting his autorifle, the grin present in his voice. "[Those dogs are smart.]"

Roman could only see the outline of the main city in the distance, since they were in the suburbs area so far. The distinctions were clear. The street was cut off by an alien barricade, and there were turrets and AA weapons mounted on and behind it, as well as the nearby buildings. The buildings themselves seemed connected by the barricade the aliens had built, and he could see faint outlines moving behind it, and on the roofs. "[Maksim, what do you see?]"

"[One second,]" Maksim raised his sniper rifle and looked through the scope. "[Hmm. Not much. They are not prepared at all. Some Vitakarian guards, a couple Borelians. No Mutons yet.]"

"This is Chief Marshal Peterson," a voice suddenly interjected into their helmets. All of them listened raptly as the Chief Marshal of the Third American Legion spoke, something he would not do unless it involved the entire army. "We have moved to acceptable locations outside Salem and Hillsboro, and both groups are in positions to attack the enemy unawares. At my command, open fire and wipe these aliens off the face of this Earth. Remember Vegas, San Francisco, Australia, Japan, and take no prisoners today. Retribution has come, and the aliens will pay for it with their lives."

"[Hell yes,]" Anton said, readying his weapon.

The Chief Marshal finished up. "Wing Captain Holder, you are cleared to begin your aerial assault. Morning Sky, you are cleared to deploy XCOM soldiers at your designated location. All ground forces, you are cleared to engage at will."

The Bradley tanks aimed their weapons, which in contrast to heavier tanks, weren't traditional tank cannons, but autocannons which he assumed were gauss-powered. All of them fired at once, breaking the silence with the sound of high-powered automatic cannons. Several alien guns exploded, and more alien bodies were thrown into the air or ripped apart outright. "Advance!" The leading Lancer shouted, and the black-armored soldiers rushed towards the fortified city.

"[Stay close to me, like we practiced!]" Roman shouted to his team as they gathered around him in formation. He pressed several buttons on his wrist, and the silver antenna on his back rose. His HUD blinked green. "[Emitter online! Move forward!]"

They shouted affirmatives and they, along with multiple other squads, charged into the fog that was beginning to be lit up with the green plasma of the alien defenders, and red lasers and brief orange streaks of gauss rifles being fired from the MDUs, tanks, and soldiers, all of whom slowly advanced. The tanks were continuing to fire at identified AA emplacements, and now the aliens were beginning to wake up.

"[Squad of four up ahead!]" Elena called, firing her weapon. "[Going into cover!]"

"[Emitter still good,]" Roman assured her. "[Keep moving!]"

"[I really hope the ADVENT engineers were right,]" Stanislav growled as the aliens prepared to fire. "[If I die, I'm going to haunt them.]"

Anton fired and killed one of the aliens, but the rest of the aliens started firing their plasma weapons directly at them.

Moment of truth.

The plasma streaked towards them, and then it suddenly bounced upwards or to the side as if hitting an invisible wall. The bolt dissipated a few seconds later, and the aliens froze once they saw what had happened. Maksim whooped and used that to snipe one of the Vitakarians in the head, while Konstantin and Galina focused on pinning down the last two with their autorifles.

"[Grenade out!]" Elena called, and chucked one towards the final two aliens. They yelled something in their language and ran back, warning several more aliens coming to reinforce of the danger, right before it exploded in a bright flash that was not shrapnel like he was used to, but instead closer to a massive firework.

The aliens screamed as the sizzling fire hit their silver armor, which seemed to offer little protection as it burned through the armor and aliens themselves, before Anton and Maksim killed them with a hail of gauss rounds. "[They were right,]" Elena said, sounding rather impressed. "[Thermite does work well.]"

They reached the actual line of alien territory, and fell into cover, with Roman tapping some more buttons on his wrist. "[Arrived at checkpoint. Shutting down emitter. Forty-seven percent remaining.]"

"[Good for another push!]" Konstantin shouted as the aliens began pouring out into the streets, and directly into the line of Lancers which were ahead of the leading ADVENT squads. Roman watched in amazement as one of the Executors directly charged a group of Vitakarians, and the other four Lancers just laughed off Plasma fire as they took shots, but it didn't seem to slow them down at all.

The Lancer Executor was happily bashing the Vitakarians in the knees, head, and chests; caving in the armor and shattering their bones. The other Lancers systematically took apart a Borelian team, flanking and using explosives liberally. Aircraft streaked overhead and missiles were fired in the distance, even as the AA defenses the aliens had set up began working, shooting plasma and lasers into the sky.

"[We need to take those out!]" Roman called as a laser shot one of the Ravens out of the sky.

"[Got one marked on that roof,]" Maksim said, sniping from a makeshift elevation built on several crates. Roman looked over to where the massive laser battery was built onto the flat roof of one of the many abandoned stores in this city.

He nodded. "[Maksim, Galina, Konstantin, provide covering fire. Everyone else, with me!]"

"[Providing suppressive fire!]" Galina called out in affirmation as the rooftop manned by several Borelian soldiers was suddenly under heavy gauss fire. The MDUs were now in the city with them, and were advancing, drawing more fire away from them.

"[Forward!]" Roman yelled, and they ran down the narrow streets, which were still heavy with plasma fire now that the aliens were forming another barricade up ahead, with enough firepower to force the Lancers to hold temporarily. Roman kicked in the door to the shop which broke and swung open, throwing the alien behind it to the ground.

Stanislav chuckled as he blew apart the Vitakarian at point-blank range. "[One to the left!]" Elena warned, swinging her weapon and firing at another alien, this one a Dath'Haram which was much less armored, and subsequently died as the gauss rounds tore it apart.

"[One more,]" Anton called, as there was one final alien, backing into a corner, its hands up. "[Think it's surrendering]"

Sure enough, the alien was yelling at them in their language, and clearly trying to be as non-threatening as possible. Roman pursed his lips and slowly walked over to the alien, pulled out his pistol and jabbed the barrel under the chin of the alien and pulled the trigger, splattering its brain over the wall.

"[No prisoners,]" he stated to the corpse, before motioning them to move up. "[Let's take out that battery.]"

---

Salem Airspace, Oregon – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 10:04 A.M.

It was one thing leaping out of a Skyranger in Archangel armor, but it was something else to do the exact same thing during the beginning of a heated firefight.

Didn't make it feel any less amazing.

"This is Seraphim Morrow to Morning Sky," Sierra said as she sped through the air, flying upward so she could get a good view of the situation. "We are in the air and preparing to make our first strike."

"Copy, Seraphim Morrow," Morning Sky replied. "Good luck up there."

Sierra grinned as she noted that the aliens were already falling to the attack of ADVENT, led by the Lancers and MDUs, with tank support while hundreds of ADVENT squads moved forward. "We ready for this?" Anna asked, speaking through their internal comms, and coming up to hover beside her. "Should we recon first?"

"Yep," Sierra confirmed. "They have AA defenses, so we'll need to get rid of those first. We'll have to fly low to avoid getting shot too often."

"I can take care of the turrets if you cover me," Ted told them, hovering a bit lower, his arms already emanating psionic energy. "Unless you want to rely on bombs?"

"Nah," Sierra said, angling her body down and providing a thrust to her jets as she shot towards the city. "We're wasting time. Let's go!"

They swooped down, now getting a better view of the street-to-street fighting that was currently taking place between ADVENT and the entrenched alien forces. "Let's introduce ourselves," Sierra called, as she spotted an opening where a collection of Mutons were entrenched against an ADVENT force. "Right behind them!"

They approached the ground at a speed that would be lethal if they weren't enhanced, and at just the right moment, Sierra turned her body upward, killed the jets, and fell to the ground, already reaching for the grenade on her waist and tossing it. It was a special weapon, one of the more dangerous explosive chemicals.

It landed right in the middle of the group and exploded in an anticlimactic burst, but then again, the explosion wasn't the danger. The white smoke that expanded from it however, was. The effects were immediate. The unmasked Mutons immediately began clutching their faces and making grunts of pain, while their parts of their armor spontaneously combusted in small patches of flame.

White Phosphorus had been described to her as a half-acid, half combustible agent, which was absolutely lethal for anyone caught in a blast. It, like many chemical weapons, was not exactly approved of, but ADVENT and XCOM were a lot more lenient about what types of weapons were considered acceptable. And personally, Sierra thought that if it caused the aliens as much pain as it seemed to be, it was perfectly fine.

She fired her own laser rifle at the Mutons outside the smoke, and Anna killed three in quick succession with her autolaser. Ted tossed a White Phosphorous grenade of his own to another group of Mutons, and jumped into the sky, with Sierra and Anna soon following, all aliens in the area either dead or dying.

"Let's hit their nerve center," Sierra suggested, making sure to keep them all moving since staying still would let the aliens get a better shot, and the air was already lighting up with plasma as the aliens realized there were new threats. "Where do you think they'll be most clustered?"

"City center, probably," Anna suggested as she swooped down and tossed a plasma grenade onto a sniper nest, blowing it up in a bright green explosion. "Hitting the back would help."

"Then we go there," Sierra ordered, and they shot across the air, going extremely fast, albeit near to the rooftops. "Lot of aliens ahead."

"Split and circle around," Ted stated suddenly. "Let me have a shot." His body suddenly swung vertically and he hit the metaphorical breaks on his jets, and swung up his arms that were wreathed in psionic energy, which grew more and more intense until unstable beams of psionic energy shot out to the street below.

Sierra had already swooped off to the left while Anna had gone to the right, so she unfortunately missed the initial attack, but swinging around back to Ted's position, the results were apparent. There were at least two dozen corpses on the ground, with the street turned a scorched black, the corpses themselves charred and eaten away by the corrosive energy of psionics.

Ted was already moving forward, wasting no time, and Sierra and Anna shot after him. "Nicely done," Anna complimented. "Hold on, going to blow up this turret." She picked one of the plasma batteries that was firing up in the sky, swooped down and landed beside it and began killing the aliens around it.

Sierra thought she might as well try it. "Going to get the one on the left," she said, eyeing her target, which had a fairly small safe landing area. There were three guards on it, all fortunately Vitakarians or Dath'Haram, it was hard to tell with the armor. She gritted her teeth, this was going to be tight.

She killed the jets at what was probably the closest she could risk, and landed right beside a surprised alien, and unceremoniously, knocked him out with the butt of her rifle, sending him over the edge of the two-story building, and immediately shot the other two before they could react. She found what seemed to be the control panel, ripped it open, and fired a sustained laser into it.

There were a couple of loud pops, and the turret went still. Good enough. She switched cells on her rifle, and shot into the sky once more. An explosion further in caught her attention, and she saw Ted had blown up one with a devastating psionic lance. "Up ahead, that square," Sierra said as she angled herself to circle it.

This was clearly where the alien control was. It was a fortress within a fortress, all the buildings were interconnected with a black alloy wall, and each rooftop was equipped with AA defenses and equipment for sniper nests. "That's a nice fortress," Anna commented. "It would be a shame if something were to happen to it."

"It was nice of them to trap themselves there," Sierra commented as the aliens continued to try and fruitlessly shoot them. They were just too slow to get an accurate shot on the Archangels. "We drive them out. You have the rocket?"

"Two," Anna corrected, already readying the weapon attachment on her wrist. "Priming!"

"Alright, commence the White Phosphorous bombing run," Sierra ordered. "Ted, you have the grenades?"

"Affirmative," he said as they all swooped up. "In hand."

"Loose them when you get a chance," Sierra commanded. "Turn that fortress into a prison."

Sierra herself tossed several of her White Phosphorous grenades into the fortress area when she got an opportunity, spacing them as she flew around the perimeter, covering as much ground as possible. Anna was aiming her own WP rocket at the most open area, though Sierra wasn't sure that would be needed. It was going to spread no matter where she shot it.

Ted was also back in his psionic turret mode, blowing up another AA plasma turret, and whatever aliens around it he could see. His armor was slightly marred from taking some hits, but Archangel armor was designed to be able to take some plasma fire. The WP rocket Anna fired exploded in a mist of white smoke that immediately began spreading, already forcing the aliens to run away.

Sierra saw several Vitakarians on the edge of a building, trying to shoot at them, and she got an idea. "Pick your targets," she told Anna and Ted. "I think we've done enough to destabilize their operations."

"Copy that," Anna said, and rocketed off to the front lines of the conflict with ADVENT.

"Confirmed," Ted also acknowledged, as he seemed content to stay put and kill anything that entered his line of sight.

For herself, she angled her jets towards the Vitakarians on the roof and fired with her laser rifle, killing one immediately, then quickly attached it to her chest so her hands were free. When she got close enough, she killed the jets again and slammed into the alien, knocking her to the ground, if not knocking her completely out.

Sierra hooked her fingers under some bands of her armor, and leapt up, engaging the jets and soaring into the sky. The genetic modifications essentially made the weight of the alien she was now carrying irrelevant. Not that she was planning to hold onto her for very long.

She waited until she was at a reasonable height and then let the Vitakarian fall, who was only now conscious enough to realize what was happening. "So long!" Sierra called down as the Vitakarian fell to her death. Well, that was fun, if a little pointless. Still, considering how well everything was going so far, she could justify doing that.

Sierra looked around the battlefield, knowing there was a lot more to do. She grasped her laser rifle in her hands, and went hunting. She was curious to see if the aliens would be able to adapt in time before they fell to ADVENT.

She snorted. And the real XCOM squad wasn't even here. She would hate to be facing them right now.

---

Seattle, Washington – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 10:02 A.M.

The attack on Seattle was well underway as the Commander stepped off the Skyranger, followed by the squad of XCOM soldiers, and the Archangels close behind. The MEC Pilot Gloria had been dropped in her Ballista-class MEC, and all of them were waiting for the Commander's orders to move in.

They were slightly elevated, and the Commander had a relatively decent view of the city in the distance, the heart of Seattle. The smaller towns outside it were not nearly as protected. Creed snorted as he saw it in the distance. "Andromedons. Too clever for their own good."

"They are smart," the Commander agreed with a nod as a squad of ADVENT soldiers jogged past. "That makes them dangerous."

In the distance, the heart of Seattle was protected by a red-domed shield, which seemed so far to be impervious to any outside attack. Several missiles had been fired into it with seemingly no effect. A problem, but the Commander knew it could be dealt with eventually. "Let's find out who's in charge." He motioned to the Seraphim of the Archangel squad. "Hwan, take your team and begin assisting ADVENT where you can. You will be contacted if we need you."

The Templar drew his longsword and saluted with his free hand. "Yes, Commander. We will be awaiting any orders you have." He motioned to the other two Archangels, Catherine Gosslin and Liliyane, another new Templar with a rather peculiar weapon of her own; a poleax of all things. But it fit an Archangel fairly well, and he knew she'd been practicing with it. "Up we go! Good luck, Commander!" All the Archangels leapt into the air, jets activating, and flew into the sky.

"Commander!" An ADVENT Officer came running up, accompanied by two Lancer Predators, the main fighting force of the Lancer Corps. "Chief Marshal Wilkins wishes to update you on the current situation!"

"Lead the way," the Commander stated, already moving. All of them broke into a jog as they went to where the Chief Marshal was waiting, which was a commandeered store-turned-command center, heavily guarded by Lancers.

Chief Marshal Blake Wilkins was standing over a makeshift holotable, in full armor and helmet, with one of the Lancer Executors beside him, and some other Officers. "Commander," he greeted as he looked up. "Glad to have you here."

"What's the situation?" The Commander asked. "My Archangel squad is already assisting in the air, as are our own Firestorms and Ravens."

"Appreciated," Wilkins nodded, motioning to the Lancer beside him. "This is Executor Jackson, Lancer Corps. We're only launching smaller incursions now until we have a better idea of what we're facing. With Andromedons, you can't be too careful."

Good. This person wasn't an idiot. "How much do we have?"

"We are in Lynnwood now," Wilkins pointed to the holomap. "Our army is coming from the north and the east, as well as some support from the US Destroyers we were able to get from the Puget Sound, that large lake."

"I know what it is," the Commander told him. "And you're having issues?"

"Not necessarily," Wilkins amended, tapping a finger on the holotable. "We wanted to get an assessment of what they have, and we do now. They're entrenched both within the heart of Seattle itself, and outside. The force is mostly composed of Andromedons and Mutons. We're also coming under sniper fire, so throw some Vitakara in the mix."

"We have marked the main locations they are entrenched in," Executor Jackson stated, pressing a button and various areas on the map lit up red. "Along with known and suspected enemy composition. We've held back our heavy hitters until this is determined. Now that you're here, the actual assault can begin."

"What are the casualty numbers so far?" Creed asked.

"In the low hundreds," Wilkins stated. "We didn't send them on a deliberate suicide mission if that's what you were wondering. We didn't want them to advance, only engage and hold the line. That is what they've done, and taken a fair number of aliens with them."

"How is the air situation?" Rebecca Carr, one of his soldiers asked.

"Manageable," Wilkins said. "So far they haven't mobilized much, mostly Scouts. Their AA weaponry is making it difficult to provide air support on the ground."

"We can help with that," the Commander said. "And what do you plan to do next?"

"We send in our second wave," Wilkins said, clasping his hands behind his back. "Our tanks, support vehicles, Lancers, Purifiers, and a few other tricks we have. And your people, of course. There is no point delaying it further." He began walking to the exit, and all of them followed and they saw the massive line of tanks rolling into the cities, accompanied by MDUs and dozens of ADVENT soldiers.

"What is that?" Ellinor Aagard asked, noticing one of the leading vehicles.

The Commander was not surprised at the question, and he hadn't actually seen one of those used in combat before. It was a grey standard M1150 tank, but with an attachment on the front. There were two arms that extended a good ways from the body of the tank, with a roller on the ends. Attached to the roller were lines of chains.

"That's a Mine Flail," Creed said in amazement. "I didn't even know they still existed."

"Still exist, and I doubt even Andromedons can fully hold up to them," Wilkins said coldly. "We run into a deadlock, we send this in and fuck them up. I don't have an unlimited number, so I'm using them wisely. Tell us where you're headed, and I will order the assault."

"Uh," Rebecca Carr, standing beside Creed interjected. "So how does that work?"

Creed glanced over at her. "Originally? It swings the chains around rapidly. As the name implies, it detonates mines to make it safer to move over. But since we haven't seen the aliens use mines…" he trailed off contemplatively.

"Oh."

The Commander was somewhat amused at that, but returned his focus to Wilkins. "Where is the fighting heaviest?"

"Pacific Highway intersection," Executor Jackson answered. "That's where the strongest Andromedon line is."

"Then we go there," the Commander ordered, motioning to his squad. "Let's go!"

"We've got transports to take you there," Wilkins pointed to a couple of Humvees. "Though your MEC will have to run."

"Not an issue," the Commander said as they entered the armored transports. "We'll give you support where needed."

"Understood," Wilkins confirmed. "Good luck, Commander. Glad to have you here."

"Seconded," Jackson added. "My Lancers will be assisting you when we can."

The Commander only nodded, then entered the Humvee and closed the door, and they sped off into the battle ahead.

---

Moapa, Nevada - United States of America

11/6/2016 – 8:32 A.M

The ADVENT Army fully assembled was an inspiring sight. The flat landscape of Nevada made it perfect for ADVENT to reliably deploy their heavier weapons and vehicles, and the lines of Abrams tanks, Strykers, M6 Linebackers and a few more additions she hadn't seen before, put the size of the ADVENT Army to scale.

This wasn't counting the thousands of soldiers, MDUs, Purifiers, and aircraft that she knew were going to be deployed. Their own arrival had not gone unnoticed, and while they were not in range of Vegas, that was intentional. They were waiting for her, upon request. The temporary command headquarters were under a plastic shelter, and would likely be taken down soon.

"Fatima, Viktoria, Jim, follow me inside," Patricia ordered as they walked up to the command headquarters. "The rest of you stay outside and await orders."

"Yes, Overseer," they answered in unison, even as she could tell they were wanting to start the fight. There was a tangible feeling of anger and vengeance permeating the men and women here. That was only growing stronger and more emboldened as more and more arrived. She hoped it wouldn't spill over into overconfidence.

She had specific plans for Fatima, and the two Seraphim Archangels, and they needed to know what to do to be most effective. The figures at the holotable were already waiting, and she sensed them becoming more confident as she walked in. Flattering how she'd developed a reputation, but one that was definitely earned.

Funny how they had no idea they were also accompanied by Viktoria, another Leviathan. After this, Patricia suspected she'd develop a reputation of her own. "Psion Trask, welcome," a man in full armor greeted, clearly older than was typical, with greying hair and an eyepatch. Definitely a veteran. "Glad we have you to assist us. All indications are we're going to need it."

"With any luck, I'll make sure you don't have to worry," Patricia assured him, smiling under her helmet. "We're all ready to assist."

"Good," the man gave a curt nod. "Since we haven't met, I'm Mathis Stettler, General of the ADVENT Army." He gestured to the woman beside him, also in full armor. "This is Chief Marshal Sally Collins, American Legion Seven, and beside her is Predator Lorian Rudin, Lancer Corps."

"A pleasure," the armored Lancer nodded. "Your reputation precedes you, Psion Trask. I look forward to working with your squad."

"As do we," Fatima said. "We've worked well in the past."

"Deus Vult," Lorian recalled. "Yes, that was certainly a success."

"And now we will continue those successes," General Stettler redirected, raising a hand. "The short version, Psion Trask, is that Las Vegas is effectively an alien stronghold now. The city itself you are familiar with does not exist. The aliens destroyed any buildings they didn't need, and heavily fortified the rest."

"What did they remove?" Jim asked.

Chief Marshal Collins snorted. "You'd be better off asking what they kept." She motioned to the holotable. "They cleared out a large section in the middle of the city, presumably for aircraft. The smaller buildings they seem to have turned them into a kind of barracks, and destroyed neighboring ones, maybe to free up space. They've kept many of the larger hotels and casinos, and turned them into sniper nests."

"Nellis Air Force Base has been turned into a storage area of sorts as well," Stettler added. "They seem to be keeping the majority of their heavy vehicles and weapons there. Cyberdisks, Sectopods, Mechtoids. Likely drones as well. I'd expect they're storing Sectoid Fighters and Scouts there as well."

"Using the hotels for sniper nests is smart," Jim nodded approvingly. "The landscape is perfect for that."

"Which is a problem," Stettler grumbled. "Until we actually reach the city, we will be completely exposed. And we're not getting in without a devastating fight." He pointed to the perimeter. "They built a wall around the entire perimeter; a high one too, dotted with anti-personnel and anti-aircraft turrets, and manned by Mutons and Andromedons."

"A problem," Patricia repeated, thinking. "How many do you think are in the city?"

"An estimate?" Stettler looked over to Collins. "Ten thousand? Maybe more? They have Gateways, so until we shut those down, this battle won't end anytime soon."

"Enemy composition?" Patricia asked.

"The full extent isn't known," Lorian stated. "But this is a military base. I'd expect pretty much anything."

"Organic units mostly, then," Patricia said. "Good. I won't be able to help with the mechanical ones, but unless they've made modifications, the Mutons and any other organic enemy shouldn't pose a threat."

"The problem is they'll figure out fast we have a telepath," Collins noted. "I don't know how fast you work, but if a large part of their military is augmented, you could be neutered. No offense intended, psion, but we need to prepare for that possibility."

Patricia was more impressed than offended she'd been so blunt. "None taken, Chief Marshal. Which is why I want to go out ahead. Let me work before the main army gets here."

Stettler frowned. "With the amount of sniper nests and flat terrain? You might get shot before you have a chance to do anything."

She clasped her hands behind her back. "Unlikely. I know what to look for, and I don't need to be close to begin working. They will be looking for an army, not one person. Trust me, General, I know what I'm doing here. I work first, and we don't have to worry about their leader neutering what I can do. But that means you don't attack until I give the signal."

Collins cocked her head. "And what will that be? You telepathically contact us?"

Patricia shook her head. "Not you, her." She motioned to Fatima. "It is difficult to focus on a specific person at long distances, but I can pick out psions easily enough, telepaths especially. She will inform you when to attack."

"And how long do you estimate it to take?" Lorian asked.

"I don't know," Patricia answered. "It could be as little as a half hour, or more than three. Time is difficult to track when I use it over a large area, and try and do it right."

"Fine," Stettler conceded. "You're too important an asset to waste, so if you say this would help, I'll allow it. We can delay the attack until you're ready."

"Thank you," Patricia told him sincerely. "You will not regret it."

"Maybe," Lorian chuckled. "You might make it too easy for us."

"I think we could use an 'easy' win," Collins sniffed. "At least I have no problems with it."

"I'll have a Humvee take you out," Stettler said. "You can get off whenever you want."

Patricia followed him as he exited the shelter and directed her to where the armored Humvees, Bradleys, and Strykers were parked, many of which were already loaded with soldiers. The General spoke with one of the drivers, then motioned her over as the young driver quickly got into the vehicle. "He'll get you there," Stettler said. "Just tell him when you're close enough."

Patricia stepped into the passenger side of the vehicle and they were immediately driving off, down the road, leaving the rest of the ADVENT Army behind. She couldn't see the face behind the helmet he wore, but her driver was definitely nervous; clearly he hadn't expected to be driving her around, and she supposed to someone unfamiliar with her, she would be intimidating.

Her telepathy was likely also a source of it. She could only imagine the stories of what she could and had done. The funny thing was that a good part of it was probably true.

"Relax," she told him. "I'm really not someone you need to worry about accidentally making angry. Trust me, if I had issues with random people I suddenly met, I wouldn't get anywhere." She reached up and took off her helmet, knowing that an actual face might put him at ease. "And don't lie, either. I can tell when people do that."

"Sorry…Psion Trask," he stuttered, not sure what her title was. "I've never met a psion before, especially not one like…well, you."

"Patricia," she offered. "And that's understandable. Though we're still Humans, just ones with some extra abilities."

"I suppose," he said cautiously. "If you don't mind me asking…how does it work?" He gestured at nothing as they drove through the desert. "Are you reading my mind now?"

"Yes and no," Patricia answered, thinking how best to phrase it without it sounding worse than it was. "I've…trained…enough, where I just hear thoughts just by being around people. Sometimes random images flash into my mind. You know how in a crowd you can hear dozens of conversations going on at once? It's like that, but louder." She smiled. "The point is that even if I am technically reading your mind now, that doesn't mean I'm listening. I don't do that just because I can, privacy is something I can respect."

"Uh huh," he looked around nervously. "Although I think I'm the only one in that crowd right now, unless you can still hear people from the base?"

"I'm also good at blocking out what I don't want to hear," she offered. "You have to learn that eventually…otherwise the voices will overwhelm you."

"Ah." A few moments of silence. "Is it easy?"

"Now?" She thought. "Fairly. I suppose it depends on the scale." She looked into the desert where the sun was rising over the barren landscape. "An army is difficult to properly control. You have to continually impress your orders upon them, but fortunately the minds of aliens and men are weak. An individual is easy to manipulate, an army is difficult to direct without proper focus."

She rubbed her forehead. "Hard to explain without you being one, but I believe psions can only become stronger, not the other way around."

"Does XCOM have psions in their intelligence branch?" He asked, glancing over. "That sounds invaluable."

She blinked, realizing that the answer to that was actually no. Huh, that was something that Zhang had brought up some time ago, but at some point they'd focused on having all available psions on the front lines, and intelligence was not something that had even been addressed.

That needed to be corrected. It was a major oversight. "Sorry, classified," she told him. "So, my turn for questions. You're American right?"

"Malu Aolani," he answered. "US Army Motor Transport Operator, formerly of Hawaii. Wasn't deployed there when the aliens hit, which is likely why I'm still alive."

She just nodded. "We'll take it back."

"Hopefully," he didn't sound convinced. "But I don't think there's anything there anymore. I doubt the aliens left anyone alive, or any building standing."

"The aliens are effective, but they are generally not genocidal," Patricia shook her head. "Not unless they need to be, and this current alien leader, the Battlemaster…He doesn't target civilians intentionally. I doubt everyone left was killed."

"The alternatives aren't better though," he said emotionlessly. "You probably know that better than most."

Unfortunately, she certainly did.

"We're getting close," Malu said, looking down at the GPS. "I don't want you to be exposed to snipers, and…your armor is somewhat noticeable."

"I'm aware," Patricia said dryly. "Which is why you'll drop me off here." Malu immediately slowed the Humvee to a stop in the middle of the road. "Stay safe and get back there alive," Patricia told him, putting on her helmet again. "The next time you come here, you'll hopefully be attacking."

"Good luck, Patricia," he said, giving her the ADVENT salute. "Make them suffer."

She smiled under her helmet. "They will die, Malu, I can promise you that." She returned the salute and shut the door, and he turned around and drove back up the road, while she turned to where Las Vegas was in the distance. Now she needed to be somewhat conscious. There would be snipers, so she needed to find a place that wasn't obvious.

She walked leisurely up the road, beginning to expand her mental reach, not too difficult since there was no life around her. It would make aliens trivially easy to spot. A few minutes of walking found her behind one of the rare, and rather pitiful, trees, looking into the now-fortified city of Las Vegas. Stettler hadn't exaggerated. It appeared to be an impregnable fortress, one with a black wall around it, and focusing her sight, she could see faint figures manning the walls, with turrets lining the walkways and entrances.

The larger hotels had indeed been turned into sniper nests, some with the windows busted out throughout the building and small platforms extending from them. The bad news was that they would be almost impossible to stop without getting close. The good news was that she was definitely close enough to begin working.

She assumed a kneeling positon, placing her hands on her thighs, bowing her head and closing her eyes, beginning to breathe in and out at a steady pace, and let her mind extend to the city before her. Alien minds were distinct, and with nothing else close, it was remarkably easy to pick them out and begin entering their minds.

Much as she would like to take Malu's advice about making them suffer, she wasn't going to do that initially. That would simply let them know something was wrong. Maybe once ADVENT arrived, but right now…the opposite approach was what she wanted. There were thousands of minds to corrupt, and she was going to do so to each one.

So she slowly began spreading her control, planting herself with hooks in their mind; backdoors no one but psions would even think about. She was a silent observer to their most personal memories and thoughts, all rushing and vanishing from her mind in an instant, and so once she set the hooks for her entrance, it was time to begin rewriting how they saw the world.

Aegis and Geist had been right in pointing out her flaws, and today she would correct that. Every being, no matter if they were alien or Human, had a small voice in their head, a monologe that dictated what they were thinking about and how they were feeling. This voice was typically the person's own, or occasionally a close companion or friend. Most of the time it varied.

But no one ever paid attention to it beyond that. No one questioned what their mind told them.

And they would also not notice that the voice in their head that they had heard since consciousness, was not theirs, but her own. The thoughts were still their own, but the voice that dictated them was her own manifestation. She idly wondered if a change like this was permanent or not, as it didn't technically affect their mind.

It did set the stage for her first commands.

She spent minutes or hours, she wasn't sure which, reprogramming the voices in the minds of the aliens, to be the one that represented her. It was interesting how much of the same concerns and thoughts aliens had that Humans did. Thinking about their mates, stressing over deadlines and commanders, wanting their shift to end because they were hungry. Even Mutons displayed some kind of preference for certain people, even if they knew never to express it.

Ironic that was only making it easier for her to exploit them.

Now it was time to act.

Everything is fine.

Everything is normal.

There was no Army, there are no soldiers, everything is normal.

She began repeating this mantra every few seconds, over the course of uncountable minutes, bombarding their minds with this subconscious realization that nothing was happening. It was an ordinary day. Nothing worth raising an alarm. Patricia repeated this over and over, and decided to test it.

Jump, she directed toward the mind of a Zararch sniper, perched up in one of the sniper nests. He did, of course, and not once did his friends react as he calmly walked off the edge.

Everything is normal. Everything is fine.

The sniper felt nothing as he plummeted to his death.

Everything is normal.

This is fine.

She looked through the eyes of the aliens on the ground as they saw the sniper slam into the ground before them, becoming a yellow splatter on the ground, mixed with armor.

This is normal. No reason to stop working.

Everything is fine. We have work to do.

Excellent. She sent the prompt to Fatima. Begin the attack.

And she continued the mantra, drilling and impressing the command until they repeated it in their minds. No living alien was unaffected, and no alien was aware. They simply continued on, as if it was an ordinary day. And when the first bombs hit, the first shells landed, and when the encroaching army appeared on the horizon they did not panic, they did not worry; at most they simply wondered if this was even something they should bother thinking about.

Everything is normal.

Everything is fine.

---

Seattle, Washington – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 10:52 A.M.

Nuan felt somewhat inadequate compared to some of the other soldiers fighting beside her. The first engagement against the aliens had gone…extraordinarily well. The alien force was primarily composed of Andromedons and Vitakara, who had set up in entrenched positions in a shelled intersection, black alloy barricades set up providing cover, not including the buildings the aliens were also using.

The two Templars, Pall and Ellinor had immediately rushed into combat. Ellinor was protecting herself with a psionic shield and Pall thrust a hand forward, sending a telekinetic wave which knocked the Runianarch soldiers he was charging off-balance. He immediately laid into them with his battle axe, nearly taking the head off one and caving in the chest of another.

Ellinor was performing similarly, Dane Axe in hand as she buried it in the unprotected seams of armor. The rest of them were taking up cover behind the first alien barricades, rallying the ADVENT soldiers behind them to advance. Creed, Rebecca, and herself were suppressing the back left line of Andromedons, while Cole, Ricardo and Eddison were focusing on the other half.

The Commander was on the roof, surprisingly enough not holding any weapon, but she'd seen him pulling out some kind of small spheres. She would have guessed they were marbles, but she knew that couldn't be right. The genetic enhancements were definitely coming in handy, she was amazed how much of a difference they made in actual combat.

She could actually zoom in on an enemy, and fire accurately while doing it. It had taken some getting used to, but it was an amazing feeling. The result was that the Andromedons were pinned by unnaturally accurate fire, while the two Templars cut through the Vitakara force with laughable ease. Ellinor had a small shield before her as she advanced on a pair of Borelians, while Pall was incorporating his telekinetics into his attacks; disrupting balance, breaking limbs, pulling weapons out of hands.

Eddison was also acting in a highly supportive manner. "Acquiring targets!" Purple energy flowing off him, he extended a hand to a group of Andromedons in cover, and twisted his wrist, while pulling back his arm. The Andromedon soldiers were suddenly lifted into the air, completely exposed.

"Concentrate fire!" Creed commanded, and every XCOM soldier with a rifle began firing on the suits. They could take damage, but not even Andromedon suits could hold against a sustained barrage of gauss fire. The viewports of the suits broke, and then went limp. Nuan didn't know why they weren't fighting back, but then realized that Eddison was likely keeping them in place telekinetically.

"Eddison!" She called, pulling out a plasma grenade, another gift from Aegis she'd heard. "Can you direct them?"

He got what she was asking, and gave a quick nod. She tossed the first grenade towards the suspended suit, and he raised his free hand as if to catch it, and moved it until it was in the shattered viewport of the Andromedon. Nuan repeated it for the second suit, with both suits exploding in a spray of plasma and fire.

The aliens had snipers as well, but the Commander was supposedly dealing with them. She glanced up at the rooftops to see Vitakarian corpses either hanging over the railings, or slumped on the ground. There were two left on one rooftop, and the Commander was just kneeling behind another nearby rooftop, one hand palm up.

Something flashed from the palm, a streak of silver, and the alien screamed and went immediately silent. Another flash and she saw that it was that marble thing in his hand again. Some kind of projectile? Whatever he was doing, it was working.

"Muton reinforcements approaching!" Ellinor called out as she turned to face the reinforcements coming from the nearby street.

"Move up!" Creed waved for them to follow. "Cut them down where they stand!"

"Overseer!" One of the ADVENT Officers came running up. "We'll clear this street for you."

Nuan looked back to see several ADVENT Engineers moving into place some kinds of launchers, which were large enough that they required trailers to transport them, and aiming them at the street where Mutons were pouring in. "Copy," Creed waved them to the sides. "Provide covering fire! Let them do their work."

Nuan looked at the launcher, knowing she'd seen it before, then her eyes widened. "Mine clearing charges!"

Creed glanced over to her as he fired down the street. "Yep. Seems ADVENT thinks they're useful for more than just mine clearing."

"Snipers cleared," the Commander added, jumping down from the roof and pulling out his sniper rifle finally. "That technique was surprisingly effective."

"Matthew knows what he's doing," Eddison agreed, pulling his hands back towards him, and a half dozen Mutons stumbled into the street.

"Fire!" The ADVENT Captain called, and the launchers shot out long cables into the air with a bang, right down the length of the street. The Mutons didn't know what those were, and the cables actually landed on some of the exposed Mutons. "Detonate!"

The street was lit up in a series of explosions as the Mine Clearing Charges did their work, though instead of mines blowing up, it was Mutons. "Forward!" The Officer called, while Creed and the two Templars moved forward.

"Keep pushing them!" He called, as even then Nuan saw more aliens coming in the distance. Another intersection was coming up.

"Nuan, ready your Thermite grenades," Creed said as they moved forward, firing towards the next alien blockage. "Let's see if Andromedons can stand up to that."

"Yes, sir," Nuan said, holstering her rifle and pulling out the two grenades delicately. XCOM was getting more brazen in their deployment of dangerous chemicals. Not that she necessarily had a problem with it, but just because ADVENT was using ClF3 didn't mean that Thermite and White Phosphorus were suddenly safer.

But they were effective.

Ellison hooked her axe on her belt, and fully devoted herself to erecting a shield that protected the entire street. "Get into position!" She roared. "Nuan, now!"

Nuan quickly took a look at where the heaviest concentration of enemies were. She decided to focus on the left groups, since they were composed of more Andromedons. "Grenades out to the left!"

She chucked them to the left, and the Andromedons nearby backed away, or at least as much as they could before the Thermite flared and burned through not only the nearby Mutons, but the cover as well. Unfortunately, while it did damage the Andromedon armor, it didn't look to be fatal, and enough Andromedons had gotten out of the way.

"Shield collapsing!" Ellison warned, picking up her axe again. "Charge forward!"

"Center group being raised," Eddison stated, lifting a palm up, and the front line of Mutons were raised into the air, and subsequently cut down by a combination of gauss and laser fire. The Muton forces were being completely overwhelmed by the combination of suppressive fire, and the Templars moving in and killing them within seconds.

The Commander was on the roof, and working on taking out some snipers on the opposing side of the street, to some success she saw as there were corpses on the other side. The Muton lines decimated, XCOM and ADVENT advanced further still, and now the Andromedons were retreating back. Seeing the Templars approaching them, they switched tactics, spraying acid from their gauntlets, forcing them to stay back.

"We've got trouble coming," the Commander warned from the rooftops. "Elites, and a lot more Andromedons heading our way."

"Understood," Creed stated, taking the time to reload his weapon. "We fortify here." Nuan took a position beside him, grateful for the aliens for making such useful cover. To her sides were more ADVENT soldiers, emboldened by the advance. Nuan wondered if they'd just gotten lucky so far. The aliens clearly hadn't expected such a vicious attack, and were now paying a heavy initial cost.

But the aliens weren't stupid. They would try to adapt eventually.

And this looked like the first true test.

Looking down her rifle, at the titanic Mutons approaching, easily twice her size, she couldn't help feeling a little intimidated. But then she looked to the front, where Pall and Ellinor were standing firm, Ellinor with a psionic shield in front of her, taking the brunt of the initial fire. The Commander was sniping from the rooftops, Eddison was readying for another attack, and ADVENT was moving more Mine Clearing Charges into the area.

Maybe this wouldn't turn out so bad after all.

The plasma began raining upon them, and the battle began anew.

---

Las Vegas Ruins, Nevada- United States of America

11/6/2016 – 11:12 A.M

Oliver had been told that the aliens had built a fortress, but seeing it in person was something else. Whatever ruins there had been were gone, and in its place was what appeared to be an impregnable base. The black alloy wall that went around the perimeter was especially foreboding; especially as the harsh sunlight from the noon sun only made it stand out more.

"Begin firing!" One of the Officers called out, and the hundreds of tanks that had accompanied the ADVENT Army began their assault.

"Let's see if I can get some shots," Cassandra muttered, raising her sniper rifle as the MDUs began moving forward, as well as the Humvees and Breacher Vehicles that began zooming towards the desert. Explosions appeared on the alloy wall, and some into the city itself. Curiously enough, it didn't look like the aliens realized they were under attack.

Odd.

"Load up!" Blake Harkin ordered, the XCOM soldier in charge currently as Patricia was occupied doing…well, he assumed she was the reason for the lack of a response. "Fatima, do your thing."

"Got it," Fatima confirmed as all of them boarded a Stryker. Oliver really hated traveling in confined vehicles, because he knew that everyone was just one bad rocket or mine away from being killed in suitably meaningless fashion. If he was going to die, he'd prefer it be because of his own mistakes, or even just being outnumbered. Anything as long as he had some control over it.

"I hate these things," Mona Eriksson echoed his thoughts as she climbed in it.

"Have you even ridden in one, Mona?" Lin Zexian, one of the new Taiwanese soldiers asked.

"I don't like confined spaces," was her answer. The ones with them chuckled at that.

"It won't be for too long," Blake said as the Stryker began moving out. "From the sounds of it, it seems like the whole alien base isn't even aware we're here. Patricia did her job well."

"They don't even have automated defenses?" Fakhr asked skeptically.

"It's not that easy," Blake corrected. "The perimeter defenses are online, but there are no soldiers supporting them, there aren't any aircraft, and I assume the Sectopods and Cyberdisks have to be activated manually. They might come, but by then it might be too late."

"Pity," Mona looked down at her gauntleted hands, which Oliver noted were different than the others. Thinner and made out of some different kind of fabric and no actual armor. Probably had to do with her abilities. Offensive Psions couldn't use the same stuff as the rest of them since they were destructive enough to damage what they were actually wearing. "I was hoping to actually try some stuff out."

"Believe me," Oliver grunted. "You'll have plenty of opportunities."

"This is Seraphim Hammarström to appointed Overseer Harkin," Viktoria's voice said in their helmets. "Looks like it's sadly not going to be as easy as it looked. Guess the Cyberdisks are on some kind of contingency, and there are…" There was a pause. "Yep, I would say a few thousand coming to defend the wall."

"Copy," Blake confirmed, as the sounds of battle became more audible. "We'll be ready. Fatima, I'd say start it now."

"Affirmative,"

That was the benefit of having two immensely powerful Telepaths. One for neutralizing the enemy, and another for supporting allies. Oliver had heard what it was like to have Patricia supporting people, and he wasn't sure it was something he was necessarily looking forward too. Anything that messed with his mind too much wasn't something he was a fan of. But here he didn't really seem to have a choice.

It probably wouldn't hurt.

The Stryker stopped, and Fakhr hit the doors open and they charged out, first behind the tank so they had some cover from the enemy fire. The Strykers and other armored transports had parked largely the same way; horizontally to the wall, giving the soldiers cover until better defenses could be established.

ADVENT Engineers were already working to construct barricades between the tanks, supported by the rest of the ADVENT forces. The MDUs were still far behind the front line, but they were advancing and firing, and in the midst of them was the Goliath-class MEC, firing its massive railgun at regular intervals.

"Laying down covering fire!" Lin shouted as he began firing his autorifle at one of the turrets on the top of the wall. Oliver also began raising his own rifle to get a good look at what they were facing. The wall was even larger up close, probably close to twenty feet tall, with turrets lining the ground, middle, and top of it.

The ones on the bottom appeared to be gauss-based, or at least used some kind of solid projectile. The middling ones sticking out from the wall were exclusively plasma, and the ones on the top were a mix of plasma and laser, the latter of which was proving to be the most lethal. Computers were more accurate than Humans, and alien programming was at least equal to that of MDUs, and Oliver ducked down as he saw an ADVENT soldier get sniped by a laser directly to the head.

He swung his rifle back up, focused directly on one of the laser turrets in question, and fired. His enhanced vision allowed him to make a shot he would never have been able to without specialized equipment. The turret sparked, and exploded in a red burst. "One down!" He called.

Several tank volleys took out a few more turrets, even if they were largely not having a major effect on the wall. The main line of Abrams tanks were providing good suppressive fire, and making a lot of dents in the wall, but they weren't quite as accurate. That however was going to change as they began moving forward, and the MDUs strode ever closer.

"Cyberdisks!" One of the soldiers screamed frantically, as the disk-shaped machines swooped over the wall, and immediately deployed into their attack formation. The green plasma fire that was slamming into the sand around them was soon joined by the hissing golden streaks of Cyberdisk rounds.

"Cover!" Fakhr called, out as she stepped back and loaded a rocket into her launcher. Oliver and Lin complied, and lit up the area around them, even if that seemed somewhat pointless since they were only dealing with machines which were harder to manipulate and distract. A yell from Mona, and Oliver saw a sizzling purple streak launch into the air and slam into one of the Cyberdisks, shredding the delicate insides and sending it plummeting towards the ground.

"Firing!" A rocket shot out and slammed directly into another cyberdisk, destroying it instantly while causing shrapnel damage to another one nearby. Another purple psionic lance, and another Cyberdisk was vaporized. Cassandra was doing her own share of work, resting her sniper rifle on the edge of the Stryker's corner, and shooting at the turrets up above.

"What's wrong with them?" She muttered as Oliver saw another turret explode. "They aren't doing anything."

Oliver aimed up to see what she was talking about, and frowned as he saw that the walls actually were being manned. They were definitely aliens, he could see at least a few Mutons and Runianarch soldiers up there. But they just stood there, looking down. It wasn't even like they were frozen or incapable of moving. He could swear one of them was doing a patrol from the calm way they just walked across the wall.

Well, at least until a sniper shot from Cassandra ended his life. Or was it a she?

The Cyberdisks still kept coming, and had appeared to realize that not everything was ok, and began taking better positions and retreating as needed. More still were destroyed, and the turrets were gradually taken out. Throughout the battle, Oliver felt more and more calm; more focused; he didn't have to think about where to shoot next because he knew his target would be there.

Fatima's telepathy, he assumed.

Hm. Perhaps this was not as bad as he thought.

No words needed to be spoken by anyone as the ADVENT soldiers were under the same spell as the rest of them. Fire became concentrated, shots became focused and accurate, soldiers acted in time to save each other's life from things they would have previously not been aware of. And slowly but surely, they began advancing the battle line forward.

The new wave of armored transports flew past them at some unspoken signal, approaching the wall itself. Out of them poured the Lancer teams, who destroyed what ground turrets remained around them, and began pulling out grappling equipment to scale the wall. Blake motioned them forward and they advanced to where the Lancers were.

This wasn't so much a battle anymore as it was a rout. However, Oliver was not going to get his hopes up for an easy victory. This was just the outer wall, they still had the city itself to take, and it was only a matter of time before the aliens realized what was going on.

And yet, as he thought about it, he wondered what the aliens could actually do to stop this.

Hopefully, they couldn't.

---

The Cultro, Earth Orbit

11/6/2016 – 11:52 A.M

They were launching their expected counterattack.

It was much larger than he had anticipated.

The Battlemaster looked down at the golden haptic display of the West Coast of the United States. They were attacking beyond Portland, which was…not entirely expected. Out of the possible targets, he would have thought those would be lower on their priority list, and should the outlying bases fall, that would put the entire northwest at risk of collapse. Even if Seattle were to hold, it wouldn't last long if the Portland area fell.

A problem. And given the scale of the attack, he knew the bases there were not equipped to handle it. Not without reinforcements. XCOM and ADVENT forces were cutting through the defenses with a disturbing amount of speed, and their technological progress had been far greater than he had anticipated.

Armored vehicles, these new flying XCOM soldiers, chemical grenades, and their plasma dissipaters. That alone was giving ADVENT a massive advantage, since the local forces were equipped with primarily plasma weaponry. That ADVENT had been able to, if not negate their weapon type, interrupt it, was not a good development. They should not have managed to do it so quickly.

Hm. Perhaps they had been pushed too quickly. That ADVENT was primarily using this told him that Aegis was unlikely to be behind it, since Aegis knew that if they pushed too hard, he would have no choice but to put a very quick end to this war. This was not a major problem ultimately, but right now the current battle strategy was insufficient to counter it.

Then there were the reports of a new kind of ADVENT soldier that seemed to be invincible, much like certain XCOM ones. Lancers most likely, and ADVENT had probably turned them into MELD-enhanced super-soldiers. Not unexpected, but the bases primarily composed of Runianarch soldiers would fall easily to them. That was a problem that he needed to solve later.

The bases in Hillsboro and Salem were likely lost, and all that remained would be to extract a large cost from XCOM itself. If it was going to fall, he wanted some idea of how best to handle them. It wasn't worth direct intervention, but there wasn't a need to sacrifice the Vitakara unnecessarily. "Establish a connection to Runi'Yularan'sarrah."

"Establishing," the CODEX said. The golden figure of the Vitakarian overseer of the Portland regional defenses appeared, in full combat armor and holding a plasma rifle.

"Battlemaster," was his curt greeting, looking around in response to something. "Good to hear from you. We're not holding well against-"

"I am aware," the Battlemaster interrupted, raising one fist. "Your orders have changed. Your own forces are insufficient against what XCOM and ADVENT currently have. Order all Runianarch soldiers through the Gateways to safety, and you will follow them."

Yularan was clearly surprised. "Retreat?"

"You will die if you stay," the Battlemaster stated flatly. "I will not sacrifice your soldiers for a defeat. And while your soldiers will retreat, I fully intend to keep ADVENT and XCOM occupied. I will order Muton units from Desolan itself to reinforce the cities. In addition, I will be releasing the new Sectoid Vanguards, as I feel this would be an adequate field test for their skills."

"But to be clear, the intent is not to win," Yularan noted slowly, once more glancing around. "Then why continue fighting? Especially if you're having our forces retreat?"

"Information," the Battlemaster explained. "Both in how these new developments have changed ADVENT, and how the Vanguards perform. They are expendable and can be replaced. Your soldiers cannot. Carry out my orders and signal my ship when your forces have evacuated, and establish Gateway connections to the ID numbers my CODEX will send you. Execute this without delay." The Battlemaster cut the connection and looked back to the map.

Seattle was likely going to hold. Even if it didn't, ADVENT would pay a heavy price to acquire it, and likely not get much more than a leveled city. Collective Andromedon Overseer V'Thrask had spent his time well, and made sure Seattle would not fall easily, if at all. The Andromedons might suffer severe losses, but holding the city was important, because if that fell, then so would the Northwest.

It was a problem, but one he was sure V'Thrask could handle adequately. He had proven competent, and the only thing that would undermine him was incompetence or luck, the former of which didn't exist with Andromedons, and the latter he didn't believe the concept of to begin with. They would have to be outfought, outsmarted, and outmaneuvered to have a chance of losing the city.

Still, no point in taking chances. He'd directed a portion of the system fleet to assist in the air defenses, and V'Thrask had established Gateways to several Collective bases full of Andromedons, Zararch, and Mutons. He was curious to see how they would handle the new ADVENT tech, since they would not fall to it so easily. If nothing else, important data would be collected.

Now he needed to figure out what was going on with Las Vegas. Of all the targets that could be attacked, he'd been convinced that would be the main one. A military base of that size, and location was too large a threat to ignore, and had adequately addressed it by making sure the Sargon there had whatever was needed to turn it into an acceptable fortress.

But he'd heard nothing from them so far. There was a general warning they were being attacked, but the Sargon Vegas-1 had not informed him they were under attack. That implied that either the force attacking them was not significant enough to warrant an actual update, or they had been compromised somehow. Which also didn't make sense, since signal strength there was perfectly fine, and all diagnostics connected to the Vegas base were online.

With that said, the Battlemaster suspected something was wrong. It had to be. "Establish a connection to the Las Vegas Command Base," he ordered. "Priority One."

"Confirmed, establishing now."

Almost instantly, the hulking golden figure of the Sargon was before him. "Battlemaster," he greeted. "I am ready to assist."

"Status report," the Battlemaster demanded. "The general alarm was sent to us. What is happening?"

"Interesting," the Sargon said, almost in a monotone. "That must be an error. Everything is normal here. Everything is fine."

The Battlemaster was instantly concerned. Sargons didn't talk like that. Not usually. They didn't use words like 'fine' either. "I will rectify this error immediately, Battlemaster," Vegas-1 continued in the monotone. "I apologize for inconveniencing you-"

"Display exterior cameras on Vegas Base Command," the Battlemaster ordered the CODEX. Normally he wouldn't force an override like this; he had a fairly good idea of what had happened, but he needed to know for sure. Holographic screens appeared, and it didn't show some paltry ADVENT force, but what he would only assume was a large portion of their army.

They were bringing everything to fight, and based on how close they were, and that the aliens on the wall were getting slaughtered like animals, he assumed they were winning decidedly. Trask. Clever. He now knew for sure what was happening, and he'd made a mistake in underestimating that. Now defeating ADVENT here would be much, much harder.

"Override Seven-Seven-Two-One-Seven, Desolan, initiate Reset Protocol, Countermeasure Two-Two-Sargon-One," the Battlemaster stated to the Sargon. They were supposedly immune to direct mind control, but there were clearly some flaws left in the programming, and so he had to reset the psionic immunity manually. Revelean needed to fix that immediately.

The Sargon visibly froze, then moved again. "Battlemaster, the situation is concerning. It appears that a hostile psion has managed to place the majority of our forces in a trance that leaves us unable to adequately respond to outside stimuli and information. We will not be able to forcefully remove them from this state without assistance."

The Battlemaster knew his options were limited, but the telepathy had to be dealt with. "Activate all mechanical units; I will be ordering a Gatekeeper to assist. That should deal with the psion affecting the majority of our soldiers. Reinforcements will also be coming, as will I."

"Acknowledged, Battlemaster," Vegas-1 confirmed. "I will begin carrying out your orders and executing the appropriate contingencies immediately."

"I will be there shortly," the Battlemaster stated, and ended the communication. "Head to the Las Vegas base," he ordered the CODEX as he began issuing orders for reinforcements. "This needs to be handled immediately."

---

Seattle, Washington – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 12:08 P.M.

They were getting closer to the shield, and now they were facing much stauncher resistance than before. The Commander fought from the rooftops, and was now joined by teams of ADVENT Snipers, as they faced the Zararch agents across the city in a duel stretching entire city blocks. On the ground the Andromedons were being supplemented with Borelians, Mutons, and Elites.

XCOM was holding the line as ADVENT was rushing to reinforce the massive intersection that was now the location of the heaviest fighting in the city. There were no more open streets, instead there were black alloy barricades and the front of buildings reinforced. The aliens were not just using the apartments and two-storied buildings as mere constructs, but were fully occupying them and using them defensively.

"Pall, Ellinor," the Commander said as he looked down the scope of his gauss rifle. "Clear the leftmost building and fall back."

"Yes, Commander!" The two Templars followed his orders and dashed across the torn street, protected by Ellinor's shield, and leapt into the window of the second floor. The Commander gave a grim smile as he executed a Zararch sniper on the roof of another building. That was one building done. Now they needed to deal with the line of aliens in the front.

"Gloria, prepare for a barrage on my designated position," the Commander said, turning on his marking laser and aiming it at the frontal alien line. "Fire at will."

"Local ADVENT forces, prepare for rocket barrage on enemy position," Creed called as he waved for the rest of the XCOM soldiers to fall into cover. The Ballista-class MEC soon showed just how dangerous it was as the missiles streaked down to where the Andromedons and Mutons were hunkering behind, lighting up the street in a bright explosion of fire and shrapnel.

The Commander fired at one of the Runianarch soldiers who was foolishly trying to take a position at a window, or perhaps use the plasma turret set up there. Another body dropped to the ground. His genetic enhancements made this almost laughably easy. He ejected the empty clip and put in a fresh one as the smoke cleared and he could see how much was actually accomplished.

He frowned. Unfortunately not as much as he'd hoped. All the Mutons, and most of the Borelians were dead, but the Andromedons were either heavily damaged, or had retreated into the buildings, and now subsequently coming out. Hm. That was new. Some of the Battlefield Engineers had a new attachment to their backs, and it looked to be one of their red shield projectors…now clearly mobile.

"Elites!" One of the snipers called. "Concentrate fire!"

The Commander looked down the smoking street to see at least twenty of the massive Elites marching down. "Concentrate fire down the middle," the Commander ordered, reaching into a pouch on his waist and pulling out his alloy spheres. "Nuan, give them another thermite grenade or two."

"On it," she confirmed. "Throwing!"

The throw was perfect and landed in the middle of a group of four Elites; it sparked with a bright flash, but unfortunately barely seemed to slow them down. The armor was torn, scorched, and weakened; yellow blood spilled from the now-exposed flesh, but it didn't appear to be stopping them in the least. The barrage of gauss fire didn't seem to be doing much more than irritating them.

It was clear what they were planning to do. Overwhelming ADVENT with Elites was a valid strategy, and one that was extremely difficult to stop. The good news was that it looked like there was very little behind this push, so if they took these Elites out, they might be able to actually advance instead of being held to a standoff.

He held a hand, palm up, and one of the silver spheres glittered in the midday sun. While he knew he wasn't the most powerful telekine ever, he had been working on a way to take advantage of what he could do, which it turned out, was more than he suspected. A small object accelerated to lethal speeds was not quite as impressive as mind control, but it was certainly more useful than what most people gave it credit for.

Not to mention he'd gotten rather good at it.

The enhancements to his body and eyes made his hand-eye coordination near-perfect, so lining up a perfect shot was barely a challenge. The sphere shot away instantly, directly towards the ornate eyehole of the Elite helmet, the weakest part of the entire thing. He was able to shoot it faster than the speed of sound, even if he needed some distance for it to be effective. But the Elites at the back? Those he could take out.

The farthest Elite in the back didn't have any time to react as the sphere slammed into its eye and brain behind it, and withdrew to his palm all within the span of a few seconds. A rubberbanding attack, as he thought of it, easy to learn as it was close to a muscle reflex. He repeated the same thing with the next-closest one, killing each one instantly with well-placed alloy spheres.

The remaining Elites, and their Andromedon support, were close enough that this technique wouldn't be effective against them. He quickly pocketed the spheres, and appraised the situation below. The good news was that they were being held at the intersection, but the bad was that ADVENT was taking losses.

"Eddison, we need to lift them up," the Commander said. "Pall, Ellinor, status inside?"

"Almost clear, Commander," Ellinor panted. "Andromedons are not easy to kill with primarily melee weapons."

"Ready when you are, Commander," Eddison also added, beginning to stand up. "Give me covering fire!"

The Commander also focused his own power, extending his right hand down to one of the Andromedons. Telekinesis was an odd feeling to him; he wasn't really powerful enough to grab more than one thing at a time, maybe two, so perhaps the experience was different for someone like Eddison who could lift a dozen.

It was both what he expected and not at the same time; an intangible hand he controlled that could manipulate whatever he saw. The invisible hand clutched the yellow-helmeted Andromedons and lifted into the air. And now came the part that he was quite good at. He might not have extensive powers, but he was going to be as lethal with the ones he had as possible.

Pressure was something he understood and applied, and he began squeezing. On the ground, Eddison, enshrined by the purple waves of psionic energy, raised both hands, and the front line of aliens was lifted into the air. A twist of his hands and they spun around, disorienting and rendering them incapable of firing back. Most Elites dropped their cannons, and the Andromedons clearly weren't familiar fighting upside down.

The Commander didn't distract himself with that, as he continued crushing the Andromedon in his grasp. The helmet casing began cracking, the acid canister on it's back shattered, spilling the green chemical onto the ground. The hands were forced into misshapen positions, and the joints of the legs broken.

He unconsciously moved a hand underneath the one he was directing his power with, adding another hand to the one crushing the Andromedon, and applying two directions of pressure, the goal being forcing the alien into a broken, ruined ball of metal, flesh, and blood. ADVENT Rocketeers fired at the exposed aliens, blowing their armor apart, and gauss slugs ripping the exposed flesh apart in sprays of ichor.

The helmet of the Andromedon shattered, and the alien let out a final shriek before the oxygen hit its skin, turning it into a shriveled corpse in seconds. The Commander kept squeezing, and didn't stop until the delicate controls on the inside were sparking and destroyed. He dropped one hand, and with an almost inconsiderate flick of his wrist, sent the ruined corpse of the Andromedon suit across the city.

The Elites were dying, slowly but surely as more rockets and grenades were tossed at them. Another thermite grenade by Nuan targeted their inverted bodies, and melted away their helmets as opposed to other parts of their body, allowing the ADVENT soldiers to fire away and kill them much faster. Andromedon suits lost their helmets, killing the pilots and reverting them to autopilot mode, which was solved by a few well-thrown plasma grenades.

Each dead alien was released by Eddison, and the aliens not caught in his telekinetic field were retreating further into the city. The Commander pulled out his sniper rifle again, and began firing at the aliens still exposed. Eddison had fallen to one knee, so the Commander knew he couldn't hold this forever.

But they did it, and the last alien fell. For a brief moment, there was relative silence on the battlefield. "Status check," the Commander said, looking down the scope of his rifle for more aliens.

"Eddison is wiped out," Creed said, who had Cole kneeling down by him and checking up on him. "He'll be fine though. Everyone else is good to go, but we should stock up before moving forward."

"We're fine as well," Pall also informed him, as he saw the two Templars step out of the building they had finally cleared, their armor smeared with alien blood and soot. "Building cleared. Doesn't sound like there are others right now."

"Take a quick breather," the Commander ordered as ADVENT began setting up a more permanent line. The Engineers were moving the massive Elite corpses towards the middle of the road, and stacking them up on top of each other, then sealing them with Symbiote sprayers as a kind of makeshift cover; a rather innovative tactic.

While the ADVENT squads moved up, they were also bringing in smaller necessities such as water, and small parcels of food for the other soldiers, which was being primarily handled by the ADVENT Medics who were treating the wounded and checking on the soldiers still alive; phasing them out with fresh soldiers so they could recharge and be ready for later fighting. The Commander wasn't hungry, he doubted anyone was during combat, but water was welcome. He turned to jump down when his HUD suddenly blinked as he was receiving a communication from an unknown source.

He moved his hand to the button which would allow him to respond, but before he could, a voice preemptively spoke. "The skills of your soldiers and yourself was not exaggerated, Commander. I am impressed."

That should not have happened. He had to acknowledge and approve any incoming communication. This was very bad, their communications were compromised if who he thought it was was actually talking to him. Instead, he moved to cut off exterior speech and communication. No one else should hear whatever this was. "Who are you?"

"I am Collective Andromedon Overseer V'Thrask, of the Andromedon Federation," the being answered. It occurred to the Commander he hadn't heard an Andromedon actually speak to him before. It didn't sound too odd; the voice was deep, even if it sounded almost watery, and while it wasn't a monotone, it didn't have any additional emotion behind it. He would have expected nothing less from a species as inclined towards machinery and engineering as them.

"I don't suppose you'll explain how you broke our network encryption?" The Commander asked. He doubted the Andromedon would gloat; most aliens, it seemed, were not overdramatic attention-seekers, which was both a relief and worrying. So he wasn't expecting a straight answer.

"Your people are skilled with what they know," V'Thrask stated. "But we have centuries worth of experience with network communications. Your methods are inferior to our own, but even still, it is not easy to break. Specialists are required, of which I am one. Most consider it not worth it to listen to one communication stream, but in this case it was warranted."

That…was a longer response than he'd anticipated. "Why bother talking at all?" He asked. "Why not listen in and keep a tactical advantage over us?"

"Orders, Commander, I'm sure you can understand the need to follow them."

He frowned. "That doesn't explain it. Why are you talking to me? We are not going to surrender, nor do we plan to retreat."

"Good, that would not be ideal," V'Thrask surprisingly agreed. "But I would not be too concerned, Commander, I do not intend for your species to lose today."

The Commander blinked. "What?"

"The shield will come down in approximately three minutes," V'Thrask continued as if he hadn't heard. "Move as many of your forces within it as possible, because it will not stay down forever. Current estimates place full repair at twenty-two point four minutes. Take advantage of this, because your assault will only take more time if you do not."

"You're helping us?" The Commander asked incredulously.

"I am under orders, Commander, I follow them." A pause. "I am unable to explain now, but the Federation needs to understand why exactly your species has captured the attention of the Ethereals, and what is actually happening on this world. The Ethereals have not been forthcoming to certain elements of our leadership. Several have decided the only way is to discover that for ourselves. They are hiding something from us, and I suspect you can tell us what that is."

Oh yes, he certainly could.

Assuming this wasn't a trap. The story sounded plausible, but the Commander was not going to make the mistake of assuming V'Thrask was on their side. He was under orders, as he said. "I agree. But I'm also not convinced this isn't a trap."

"I would be disappointed if you didn't consider that," V'Thrask said, not sounding any different. "But that is irrelevant at the moment. I will keep in communication and guide you to the shield generator, and then you will meet us. Only a small number are aware of the current plan, and you will not share this with ADVENT. We are not interested in them. You will take us back to your base of operations and we will explain the situation in detail. If you are concerned with our motivations then, I am aware of your psions, and expect you to use them."

The Commander began nodding to himself. If, and he still wasn't convinced this wasn't a trap, if V'Thrask was actually genuine, this could be an essential ally in the fight. That at least some Andromedons were willing to have their people defect to get information meant that the situation there was more complicated than any of them, even Aegis, had predicted.

When they learned an Ethereal defected…well, that would be interesting.

"Fine," the Commander said. "We'll work with you for now. And keep in contact."

"Confirmed," V'Thrask said. "Prepare for the shield to come down."

The Commander jumped down to his XCOM squad, all of whom were largely recovered. "Squad communications only," he ordered. The soldiers immediately complied. "And prepare to move out immediately."

"What's going on?" Creed asked.

"Look!" Nuan pointed, and sure enough, the massive red shield that had covered the inner city of Seattle suddenly turned off.

"The hell?" Pall asked in wonder. "What happened?" The other ADVENT soldiers were also pointing, and the Officers clearly trying to communicate with leadership.

"A change of plans," the Commander noted as he pulled out his WHEEE cannon. "Mission parameters have changed. Our new objectives are to destroy the shield generator."

"Assuming we can find it," Ellinor muttered. "It's a big city."

"Won't be a problem," the Commander said with some amusement. "Because our second objective is the extraction of several Andromedon defectors. One of whom just contacted me and informed me what was going to happen."

Seven helmets stared at him in stunned silence. "Andromedons?" Creed asked skeptically.

"I'm not convinced it's a not a trap," the Commander said. "But it appears the Federation isn't happy with the Ethereals stonewalling them on certain matters, and has some of their own to get answers. I assume they sabotaged the shield generator, but it will be repaired shortly. We need to get in there, follow the instructions this Andromedon V'Thrask provides, then get him and his other defectors to the Praesidium. And we're not telling ADVENT."

"Then we better get moving," Eddison said. "How much time do we have?"

"About twenty minutes," the Commander said as he turned towards the city. "Let's go!"

---

Hillsboro, Portland – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 12:17 P.M.

Roman fell back into cover as they kept moving deeper into the city, and the battle was in full gear for both sides. The air battle was lighting up the sky as enough AA guns had been taken out for the fighters to begin attacking in force, and the UFOs had been deployed in response. The aliens had also deployed Floaters to deal with the XCOM Archangels, which fortunately were in Salem, the other town nearby.

But the closer they got to the city center, the more entrenched everything was. The defenses were more established, and the defenders stronger. As of right now, the street they'd been fighting through now had several barricades set up in the middle of it, large enough for two aliens to stand behind and fire, and these were spaced as far as he could see. In the back were two buildings on opposite sides that had been converted into something of an anti-infantry tower, with Vitakarians manning plasma turrets and snipers on the roofs.

Not that ADVENT was in a bad position; far from it. Roman and his squad lead the charge with two other teams, several Molosser Handlers, and one Bradley tank, and hitched to that was some kind of launcher. A mine clearing charge if he'd seen it correctly. An interesting application if they would use it the way he was expecting them too.

"Maksim, can you get a shot on those gunners?" Roman yelled as plasma bolts rained down on them, even as the Engineers were working to establish better cover. Galina and Konstantin were laying down enough suppressive fire, supplemented by the Bradley to keep the ground-level aliens from firing temporarily, but the alien gunners and snipers were a different problem. They had reverted to speaking English for the benefit of the other soldiers, since communication was key in situations like this.

"Working on it!" Maksim called, spinning out of cover and falling to one knee as he lined up a shot. "Got him."

"Redirect fire!" One of the Officers called. "Loose the dogs!"

Roman ordered his team to comply and they all aimed for the towers in the distance. Most didn't hit, but Roman had been appraised of this tactic and he knew what would happen. The Molosser Hounds dashed forward towards the first split alien barricades, barking ferociously. The closest aliens shouted as they were suddenly assailed by the animals, and were discovering that the massive hounds were a dangerous threat.

The Hounds had been trained well, and used their weight to unbalance the aliens first, along with chewing up the hands, which were usually not as protected. Roman also noted that the dogs were almost disturbingly smart. The Hound chewing on the Vitakarian closest to them had the alien by the arm, muzzle splattered in golden blood, and was actually dragging it in front of the barricade in a way to protect itself from enemy fire.

If Roman had been able to muster any sympathy for the aliens, he might have felt bad at seeing the hound begin biting out the throat of the Vitakarian as she struggled and screamed. A slow way to die, and the other hound had similarly dragged its unfortunate victim to a similarly covered area. The Hounds were vicious and quick, and they seemed to know when they'd done enough damage, and dashed back to their Handlers, leaving the alien to choke on their own blood.

Roman smirked as he saw the Handlers give their Hounds a treat for a job well done. Good boy.

"We need to get rid of those towers," Stanislav muttered as they dashed to the barricade. "It's only going to get more dangerous. Those turrets and snipers are not going away."

"I've got an idea," Roman said. "ADVENT Command, requesting A-10 airstrike on the following points."

"Acknowledged," came the response. "Awaiting target sites."

"Mark the buildings!" Roman called for the two Officers, who shouted affirmatives and switched on their laser markers. The rest of them kept laying down fire on the target areas, as the aliens on the ground began firing at them. Two ADVENT soldiers fell from plasma fire, and Roman killed a Vitakarian who'd stuck his head out too far.

Elena cheered as the first airstrike slammed into the leftmost building with the sweet sound of the A-10 machine guns. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like it hadn't just taken out the snipers on the roof, but shot through the roof and killed whoever was on the second floor. The second airstrike came a few seconds later with similar results.

"Push forward!" Roman yelled, motioning forward, as Galina and Konstantin, along with several other Gunners began taking the initiative and moving forward, firing while the rest of ADVENT rushed into cover ahead. The Molosser Hounds dashed forward under the hail of gauss slugs, and began attacking enemies at random.

The aliens were outnumbered and outgunned, and they were thoroughly disoriented from the thunderous assault they'd carried out. The ones attempting to run away were shot in the back, the wounded ones were executed on the ground, the unlucky ones were torn apart by the Hounds, while the aliens beside them either tried to shoot the dog, or backed away to get as far away as possible.

Some aliens were braver than others. A Borelian who was being attacked by a Hound was holding her own, even though the Hound had mangled her hand. However, she was completely exposed as a result and quickly executed. And just like that, the stalemate was broken, and they were in control of a fortified street, and the sealed city center was in the distance.

"I'll have to find a detour," the Bradley operator informed him. "Can't get through these barricades obviously. Sorry."

"We'll manage," Roman said as the rest of the ADVENT squads began appraising the area. "There doesn't seem to be anything here right now."

"Don't speak too soon," Galina warned as she reloaded her autorifle. "We're not done by a long shot."

"Right," Roman switched to a different frequency. "ADVENT Command, we've secured our immediate location. Requesting additional forces to hold the area. Plotting a path for tank support would be appreciated."

"Four squads will be deployed to hold this area," the operator said. "Your team has done a lot, Shieldbearer Kostov, you want to let someone else take the lead for a bit?"

Roman looked around, and all of them shook their heads. "Negative. We've still suffered no casualties or wounds. We're good to go. However, I could use a renewed shield battery. I'm under thirty percent on mine."

"That can be arranged," the operator confirmed. "Hold position and do not advance until the order is given. We're waiting until the majority of our forces are in the same radius, otherwise we'll be-"

"Flanked, yes, I know," Roman finished. "Not the first time I've done this. Don't worry, we'll hold this position."

"Excellent…wait, hang on." There was a pause. "Shieldbearer, get your forces into defensive positions. Looks like you have company coming your way…we haven't seen these before."

"Everyone into cover!" Roman yelled, moving forward until he was at the corner of a building, looking down the street. "Unidentified enemies approaching."

"That doesn't sound good," Anton muttered as he and Maksim moved together some heavy alloy crates for cover. "Unidentified? Command, can you tell us anything else?"

"New unit appears Humanoid, black armor, very likely Vitakarian. Appears to be from the established Gateway."

"Those are the Lurainian, right?" Elena asked, looking up at him as she helped several other engineers stack the alien corpses on top of each other for some crude cover. "We haven't fought them yet."

"Instinct says yes," Roman said slowly, thinking on everything he knew on the Vitakarian Special Forces. "But I don't think they wear black armor. And I know a lot of them are Borelian…Command, any Borelians spotted in similar armor?"

"Negative. But we've only seen a small amount. Lancers are moving in to deal with it in case it's something else." A pause. "Shieldbearer, we're trying to get eyes on your position, but you have contacts coming from the north and east streets; they seem to be taking advantage of your advance to flank you."

"Understood," Roman cursed; this was not shaping up well. He waved Stanislav and Anton over facing that direction. "Anything-"

"Contact!" Maksim yelled sharply and fired. The black-armored humanoid leapt to the side as it came around the corner, almost as if it was expecting the shot. It didn't appear to have any weapons on first glance, but when it raised its left arm he saw some kind of wrist plasma weapon.

"Fire at will!" Roman ordered, a command that was echoed by the other Officers.

All the ADVENT soldiers in the area began firing down the street, and the right arms of all the aliens flashed and they were suddenly holding purple shields on their arms, which looked suspiciously like… "Oh no." Galina said.

"Command, the enemies appear to be psions," Roman said urgently. "Requesting immediate ground and air support on our position."

The psionic aliens didn't advance, but instead lined up in a perfect line as Roman and his squad fired on them. Even though they fired a constant barrage, they didn't manage to make a single shot. Roman took a few seconds to steady his aim, and instead of aiming at the head, aimed at the feet of the alien. It was a shot he knew he could hit, and the moment he fired it, the alien shifted his feet and the slug missed.

"What the fuck?" Maksim demanded. "Why aren't we hitting them?"

"We've got bigger problems," Galina called and Roman saw another line of the aliens forming, and the hands of these were rippling with psionic energy.

"Throwing grenade!" Elena called, and threw a standard frag grenade towards the alien line, but the grenade suddenly stopped, then reversed course in mid-air and back towards them.

"Down!" Roman yelled and rolled out of the way. The grenade exploded, and wounded a couple of ADVENT soldiers, but fortunately didn't kill them. The Medics rushed to get them out of the way, even as Roman scrambled to cover.

"This is bad," Roman muttered to no one in particular. Psionics were not something they were equipped to handle, and it was only a matter of time before they began using telepathy. Even as the thought entered his mind, a nearby ADVENT soldier bolted up and began charging straight into the line of fire muttering gibberish to himself as he suffered some kind of mental breakdown.

The aliens behind the shield line fired several beams of plasma that killed him instantly.

"Ugh," Galina clutched her helmet. "Everything's spinning, I can't see clearly."

"More coming from the right!" Anton shouted, and to Roman's dismay he saw that even more of the aliens were performing the same kind of shield line.

"[Help!]" Elena called out suddenly, throwing her weapon to the ground. "[Get me out of here now!]"

Fuck. Without wasting a second he leapt towards Elena and tackled her to the ground before she bolted like the other guy. "[Get off me! Get off me!]" She screamed as she struggled. "[Get me out of here now! Let me go!]"

They couldn't defend against this. "Sedative!" He yelled towards one of the Medics, one who hopefully was still uncompromised. "Now!"

She tossed a syringe to him, and he set it down on the ground as he attempted to remove her helmet; luckily she was weaker than him, even if it was difficult to control the fully armored woman. But he got it off, and she looked completely and utterly terrified, the pupils of her eyes were severely dilated and tinged purple. He gritted his teeth and found a vein with the syringe, and a few seconds later she slowed her struggles.

"[It's going to be alright,]" he told her as the drug took effect. "[It's going to be alright.]"

Then he heard the sound he didn't think he would hear again. The sound of an A-10's guns. Stanislav cheered as the bullets suddenly ripped into the alien line, which for once they didn't seem to have expected. Roman dashed back to his position and saw that there were a few aliens still alive, but only the back line, and even then only a few had managed to protect themselves with some kind of psionic shield.

"We've got backup!" Maksim called, pointing to the opposite alien line which was very much intact. Roman watched in amazement as the entire alien line was suddenly lifted into the air and…crumpled for lack of a better word, a yellow fluid shooting from the joints and cracks of their armor as they were juiced by whoever was coming.

"XCOM!" Anton whooped, and sure enough, the welcome sight of a full squad of armored and armed XCOM soldiers came around the corner. The psionic aliens that were still alive chittered something, and began backing up as they must have sensed the XCOM psions approaching. The Molosser Handlers took that opportunity to let the dogs out from their cover, and those ran down the black armored aliens, but unlike the others, these actually turned to defend themselves.

The shields in their gauntlets suddenly shifted to some kind of energy blade and stabbed down, actually managing to pierce the hide of the Hound. It yelped and backed up, and the rest of the aliens converted their shields to psionic blades and began slashing at the Hounds, which were being frantically called back.

Then suddenly all four of the aliens were lifted into the air. Roman turned to see the XCOM psion standing beside him, one hand extended palm up. He twisted the hand in a smooth motion, and the limbs of all the aliens suddenly rolled in a complete circle, sounding audible pops and cracks as all of them were crippled beyond repair.

Another gesture and the necks were snapped, and the psion let the corpses fall to the ground. "Good thing we got here in time," he noted, looking around. "They had to start using psions eventually."

"We appreciate it," Roman said. "We're not equipped to handle psionics."

"Most aren't," the soldier nodded. "Psion Matthew Hawkins, XCOM."

"Shieldbearer Roman Kostov," he returned. "Ready to assist. What were those? I thought the only psions were Sectoids or Ethereals?"

"That," Roman turned to the corpses. "Is a good question."

"I'm checking that now," a female XCOM soldier said; Roman noted that the flag on her armor was Chinese, surprisingly enough.

"What's the status of your forces?" Matthew asked him.

"I'm down one," Roman gestured to Elena. "Several more casualties and wounded for everyone else. ADVENT is sending reinforcements, but we were attacked before they arrived."

"We're going to advance forward," Matthew said. "Hold the line here until ADVENT tells you to move forward."

"Uh, Matthew?" The Chinese soldier called out. "This thing looks a lot like a Sectoid."

"What?" Matthew marched over to where she was standing over the corpse. One helmet taken off, and Roman could see what she meant. In fact, he wasn't sure it could be anything else. No mouth, pinkish skin, that…shape of a Sectoid head…it looked like one, but if someone had decided to improve them significantly.

"Interesting," Matthew said slowly. "Let everyone know. Vahlen will need to look at this."

"I'll inform ADVENT Command," Roman told him. "And good luck."

"Appreciated, Shieldbearer," Matthew said, before turning back to his squad. "Come on! Move out!"

---

Las Vegas Ruins, Nevada - United States of America

11/6/2016 – Unknown

The attack must have started, even if she had no concept of what was actually happening. The sounds she picked up on were the muffled and submerged sounds of assault weapons, tank shelling, explosions, and aircraft roaring overhead. Yet it didn't seem important in the context of what she was doing. The mantra was still repeating over and over, and it was only getting easier as more died from assumed ADVENT fire, allowing her to increase her control over the remaining aliens.

Everything was normal.

When the attack had started, she'd come close to losing control of a portion of the aliens, but in the end, they were incapable of resisting her voice inside their heads. It was a surreal experience being so closely interconnected with so many aliens, simple and complicated. They were puppets on invisible strings that she manipulated, having no understanding of their lack of free will.

So she'd begun experimenting on just how far she could push their obliviousness; her own control over their minds. How much could she subject them to, and still not have anything be wrong?

Her will was ingrained deep enough that she could focus on specific groups, random aliens who were victims of her curiosity. Just by focusing on them for mere seconds, she was able to absorb the entirety of who they were; their desires, loves, likes, dislikes, and other feelings that were difficult to put into Human words. But there was enough overlap that she could understand them well enough.

All beings, it seemed, could be boiled down to understandable, base emotions that drove them. Some species exhibited these more than others, but the absences of some didn't equate to none at all. Fear was universal. Anger was universal. Joy was as well. Now what those meant to different species varied, but what it represented was unmistakable.

She was reminded of the psychological profiles of the various species she'd spent time reviewing. Weaknesses that they wanted to exploit. Every species had their breaking points, which could further be refined by individual. Inside the minds of these aliens, those were easy to figure out. Now to see just if she could keep their minds intact…temporarily.

Performing an act of suicide or mass murder was trivially easy. It was simple to have the mate of a Vitakarian place a pistol to her head and blow her brains out in front of him. Or another Borelian execute every tenth member of her squad. Or Andromedons casually dismembering a compliant Muton in front of a complacent and mildly curious audience.

Everything was normal.

Everything was fine.

A few cases weren't a problem, those she could easily control the reactions of. Nothing they saw would elicit a response, not yet. Once she left their minds, the full weight of what they'd done would hit them, and psychologically drive them to madness. If they were lucky, they might kill themselves before their minds snapped completely.

A win-win. Even in the event her control was somehow disrupted…she sincerely doubted the majority of the Vitakarian forces would be in a position to fight. She smiled to herself at that. Simple commands. An endless march forward, which could lead directly to walking off buildings or into the line of fire. All while thinking contentedly that everything was happening as it should.

Target practice was a normal activity, and the fact that the aliens simply decided to target other living aliens at this time was perfectly normal and acceptable. Sudden suicides were not emergencies, only something they had gotten used to recently. Death on a scale of hundreds at a time was not something to be concerned about, but merely another part of life here.

Everything is fine.

Everything is fine.

Everything is fine.

Her control was becoming more tenuous, even as more died at her commands. ADVENT had yet to engage the main alien infantry forces, but even still were killing plenty on their own. But the more she warped their minds to accept the hell she had created, the more they were starting to realize this was wrong. On some level they understood that. The voices she had supplemented were screaming at what was happening, and she could only suppress it for so long.

Even she had a limit. Or did she?

How far could she go here? What did she have to lose by dominating these lesser beings? It wasn't as though they mattered in the scheme of this war, and were only standing in the way of their eventual victory. Their fates were decided, the only question was how they would be removed from this war.

She would only get better with practice, and there was still more she was curious about…there were some limits that she needed to push, to see just how much she could subject these aliens to and prevent them from reaching their breaking point. Self-mutilation? Torture of others they cared about? Perhaps that would be an interesting test-

What the fuck is wrong with me?

It dawned on her exactly what she was thinking about doing, and what she'd already done. The distraction lessened her already slipping control of the aliens, and the dawning horror and insanity began rising, which she struggled to keep suppressed.

Everything is normal

She hadn't intended to go quite that far when she'd started…but the curiosity had been too strong. She needed to see just how much she could do.

Everything is fine.

But there was a right and wrong way to do things, and she'd let herself slip into forcing beings, even aliens, into doing horrific things for no other reason than she was curious. And she still wasn't sure why she'd snapped out of the experimental trance she'd been in. The Commander would have been disappointed in her.

This needed to just end now. She felt it more merciful to just give them a quick death. Something-

The final vestiges of control were shattered as the screaming penetrated her consciousness, forcing her to retreat into her own mind. Gatekeeper. In a rush the sounds, colors, and chaos of the world came back into view; initially disorienting, but fast enough to stumble to her feet and look forward.

The ADVENT forces were scaling the wall surrounding the city, and Rocketeers and Engineers were setting up charges to blast their way into the city. But there were reinforcements coming, and the Gatekeeper had to only be one of the units coming to assist. She opened a channel to her squad. "We've got a Gatekeeper, I've lost control of the alien forces."

"Understood," Harkin answered. "We're in the city now, and…uh, well, whatever you did…it worked."

She winced. "I won't be able to provide much assistance until the Gatekeeper is taken out. I would assume that there are also other reinforcements coming, likely from Gateways."

"Leave those to us," Viktoria interjected. "We'll locate and take out the Gateways…damn it. Looks like they're getting air support now."

"UFOs incoming!" One of the Officer yelled, pointing to the sky where there were a small fleet of UFOs coming. Twenty? Thirty? She couldn't tell, but she did see the smaller UFO that indicated an Overseer. Patricia pursed her lips and switched her channel to Sabre Squad.

"Iosif," she said slowly. "I believe the Battlemaster has arrived, and he's brought another army with him."

"Understood." A pause. "We're heading over there now."

---

Las Vegas Ruins, Nevada - United States of America

11/6/2016 – 12:38 P.M.

"Approaching enemy contacts," the CODEX stated emotionlessly. "Dropping."

The port opened underneath and the Battlemaster plunged towards the ground, allowing him an excellent view of the current situation. It was…troubling, to say the least. ADVENT armored vehicles were approaching the wall, indicating the perimeter defenses had ultimately failed, and the UFOs were engaging their air forces, so a large part of the AA defenses had likely also been compromised. The wall had not been completely breached, but there were ADVENT soldiers pouring over it via established grappling hooks that pulled up soldiers from the ground.

The opening streets were now engaged in open combat with the now-freed Mutons, which would soon be joined by Sectopods, the Vanguards, more Cyberdisks, and Elites which would be coming through the Gateways. The first order of business was taking care of the ADVENT forces inside the base.

He angled himself towards the street with the heaviest fighting, and stabilized himself with a telekinetic blast towards the ground in the middle of ADVENT forces. He crushed one under his boots upon landing; transitioning to a full circle sweep which decapitated all the soldiers in his immediate vicinity.

"The Battlemaster!" One of them yelled. "Fall back now!"

Normally he might have felt inclined to take his time and get some kind of enjoyment out of this, or practice if nothing else. Humans couldn't kill him, but they could provide a faint challenge. But he'd underestimated them so far today, and he could not afford to go easy on them. He raised a hand, extending a ranged telekinetic reach and clenched his fist, crushing their skulls in one brief burst of power.

The air around him shimmered as he dashed forward, violently stabbing one of the MDUs that had come over, then immediately dashing behind the other two accompanying it, stabbing another through it's central control unit, while telekinetically grabbing the other and violently throwing an arm up, sending it into the air.

His other two hands were not idle either, both extending in the opposite directions of each other, throwing out a violent telekinetic wave which threw the ADVENT soldiers caught in it away, the force killing most of them outright when they collided with walls, or the unforgiving pavement. More MDUs jumped down from the wall, one of which he sliced in half since it landed next to him, and another he telekinetically yanked forward, pulling the weapon out of its grasp.

Then it charged him, attempting to pummel him into submission or death. Unfortunately the Battlemaster didn't have time for sparring with the inferior robot and slammed a psionic-enhanced fist through the central processor of the MDU, while ripping the head off with a free hand. The wreck he tossed back onto a retreating ADVENT team, and now noticed that there were more soldiers literally jumping down to fight him.

These were different. Lancers. He recognized the distinctive helmets and black armor. And they clearly approached him with a plan in mind. Some of them wielded melee weapons; some which made sense, like warhammers, maces, and swords, but some that didn't so much, such as daggers, katanas and other archaic Human medieval weaponry.

Clearly they had been inspired by the Templars, and he didn't have the desire to toy with them, so he charged forward with an initial swipe upward which should have dismembered and beheaded the first Lancer in question. However, upon impact all it accomplished was sending the Lancer flying back with a yell of pain.

The other Lancers with gauss weapons were holding back and spreading out. Smart, not grouping up would make them survive longer. Their only problem was that they had forgotten he didn't just fight with a sword. He thrust out one hand, blowing the melee Lancers away, and with his lower ones telekinetically grabbed the eight Lancers aiming their weapons at him and lifted.

In his grasp, he dashed forward and swung for a beheading slash. But instead of it being clean, the blade got about halfway through the neck of the unfortunate Lancer, before getting stuck. The Human gurgled and likely died quickly, but that was enough to let the Battlemaster know what he was dealing with. His effectiveness with his sword was going to be reduced since they had genetically enhanced their skin.

The Humans really had learned their lessons from previous battles. In that case, rendering them incapable of further issues was the best method of dealing with them right now. With a gesture he sent them flying into the air and over the wall. It likely wouldn't kill them, but he doubted they would bother him again.

The melee Lancers were charging him now, six in total, and he figured the best means of defense was to do what they didn't expect. Their weapons wouldn't hurt him, and his was likely to be more of a hindrance than help, so he threw it with as much force as he could summon at one of the Lancers, impaling her in the throat and sending her flying back.

They almost skidded to a stop, but he didn't waste another moment and telekinetically pulled one to his hand, grasping the smaller Human like a toy as he held it by the arm, while using his other hands to simultaneously twist the neck, arms and legs until he heard them crack. Once that was done, he tossed the Lancer aside and pulled another one to him, repeating the same thing.

Now the Lancers were retreating, but to little avail. He dashed forward right behind them, and lashed out in a solid kick to the head of one, snapping his neck back and sending him flying, while pinning another under his foot, kneeling down and pulling up on the torso, breaking their back and likely killing them.

He summoned another Lancer to his grasp, and repeated the technique, slamming the unfortunate Human's back onto his knee, eliciting a shriek before he threw her body irreverently to the side, while he extended a free hand to catch the final Lancer and held him tight with two hands while he twisted the Lancer's neck with the other one like a screw.

The threat taken care of, he telekinetically recalled his sword to his hand, and realized that no one else was around to fight. Even the wall above him was free of ADVENT, which meant they were scared, especially since he'd taken apart their best units in mere moments. Understandable, and they had put up a decent fight. They knew they wouldn't win against him, and in that context, retreat was the only valid tactic.

Muton, Sectoid, and other Collective forces were marching to his position; oddly no Vitakarians he noticed, but that wasn't important. "Spread out and eliminate the Humans," he commanded, brandishing his sword as he turned to lead them down another street. "I will assist in driving them back. Deploy the Sectopods to destroy their armored vehicles-" He cut off abruptly as the sound of an XCOM Skyranger streaked overhead down the area he was heading.

Something dropped from it, blocking his way, and the Skyranger was too fast for the plasma fire shot at it in response. The Battlemaster appraised the dropped machine…no…the machine stood, nearly his exact size, brandishing a shield and sword of its own. The armor was more refined and humanoid than similar machines, but it was no question as to what it was. A MEC.

More specifically, a MEC clearly designed to fight him.

"You will die today Battlemaster," she said, lifting her alloy shield with the XCOM logo emblazoned on it. "We will ensure it."

Just as she said it, another Skyranger flew over, and several soldiers jumped out, landing beside the MEC. All of them wore XCOM armor and wielded weapons. The Battlemaster was somewhat amused to note he recognized some of them. Iosif extended his mace in a salute, his body rippling with psionic energy. Beside him was Carmelita, who carried a longsword this time, and some kind of new weapon. She had a new helmet, with a yellow smiley face on it.

Were the situation different, he would have found that odd.

But there was no time to dwell on it.

There were three more Templars beside them, and another psion in the back, none of which he recognized. Two more of the soldiers ran backwards, and he saw the weapons clutched in their hands. Snipers. Perhaps useful if he was vulnerable to such attacks, but they would simply be detrimental to the overall battle.

"I will handle them," he told the Vanguard who had walked up beside him. "Deal with the other ADVENT and XCOM soldiers."

The Sectoid made an affirmative chitter, and the aliens behind him dissipated as he raised his own blade in a salute. There would be no toying with them today, but he expected them to put up a good fight, and that was worth acknowledging. He raised his own greatsword in a return salute, the steel brightly reflecting the sun as they prepared to duel on the torn pavement.

Then with a flourish, he charged forward to meet the soldiers head-on. The battle today would not be decided by armies, but by the outcome of this fight.

One which he knew he would win.

---

Las Vegas Ruins, Nevada - United States of America

11/6/2016 – 12:22 P.M.

"Time's up," Harkin grunted as they came under immediate plasma fire from within the control station. "Patricia says they have a Gatekeeper. Guess that's our next target."

Oliver just nodded and kept firing on the small army of Mutons that was approaching from further within the city. The good news was that they had assumed control of one of the gate stations, and it fortunately wasn't psionically locked, and had been relatively simple to open. There was a small issue in that it was in Ethereal Script, but Fatima had walked them through, even if her own telepathy wasn't working thanks to the Gatekeeper.

"Elites!" Fakhr called. "And Berserkers incoming!"

"Hold this line until the gate is opened!" Blake commanded as he kept firing, taking out one of the unhelmeted Mutons in a burst of gauss fire.

The roar of the Berserkers sounded as they charged forward, directly towards their own tenuous position. With a yell Mona thrust out her arms, shooting purple lances of energy that violently eviscerated the aliens; not quite killing them, but severing their bodies and legs, leaving smaller pieces on the ground which still tried flopping towards them before they bled out.

Oliver dashed to the corner of another building for a better shot. Several shots from Cassandra, who had set herself up high on the wall, took out several more Mutons. ADVENT still had a presence, even if grappling up on the wall was dangerous now that there were aliens firing on it. He fired a few shots, all at one of the Elites that was taking an open position and rendering the open street a death trap for anything in it.

An entire squad of ADVENT soldiers died, and Fakhr on the opposite of him hissed as her arm was clipped by a plasma bolt. "We need to take those things out!"

Duh, Oliver thought as another Elite joined the first, then another, and with the entire street covered, they began walking down the street. This was, as Fakhr had so expertly noted, 'not good'. The problem was the Elites could seemingly survive anything, and on top of that didn't feel pain. "Mona, can you do that again?"

Psionic energy was almost sparking off the psions arms as she hunkered from the barrage of plasma fire. "Not forever!" Despite that, she spun out of cover, falling to one knee and thrusting one arm out, shooting another beam of psionic energy into the middle Elite, literally blowing a hole through the neck, which was enough to kill it, and the body fell to the ground.

"I…can't do that again…" she gasped, stumbling back into cover, and Oliver noticed how bad a shape she was really in. To begin with, whatever armor had been on her arms, or any kind of covering at all, was gone, leaving her skin completely exposed. What also didn't help was that the psionic energy was quite literally tearing it apart, and it was subsequently repairing itself at the same time. He now understood why Offensive-specializing psions were required to get the Biomuscular Regeneration genetic mod.

"New plan," Blake called as the Elites held position as four more approached, and behind those were a few dozen more standard Muton soldiers. "Target the guns. We can't get their armor, but we can take out their weapons."

"Hopefully," Lin muttered as he once more tried his own return suppressive fire. "You guys take those out, I'll try and slow them down!"

"I've got the left one," Cassandra called.

"Me and Oliver can try for the right," Blake said. "Fakhr, can you fight?"

"Stings, but I'll manage," Fakhr grunted, hefting her gauss rifle; the armor of the arm that had been shot either scorched or missing altogether. "ADVENT forces, provide covering fire now!" Several of the Officers yelled affirmatives, and the barrage of gauss slugs seemed to concentrate in the center of the street.

"Aiming," Oliver called, swinging out and taking a few precious seconds to line up a good shot. The good news was that the plasma cannon was massive, and there were some clearly vulnerable areas. He aimed for the glowing plasma cells, or at least that's what he assumed they were, and fired. The gauss rounds hit dead-on, and penetrated far enough to cause the cannon to spark, which immediately got the attention of the Elite who swung his cannon to unload on his position.

Oliver heard a roar and an odd-sounding explosion, and he turned to peek out and saw one of the Elites was now without an arm, and half the armor protecting his chest was shredded or gone. A burst of fire from Blake triggered an explosion on the other Elite, which unfortunately just took out both hands, and moderately damaged the armor.

"We've got help coming in!" Cassandra whooped, as ADVENT forces were now pouring through the almost opened gate. Rocketeers and Shieldbearers led the way, with dozens of ADVENT soldiers, Gunners, and Engineers behind them. The Elites began backing up, and their reinforcements halted and instead began firing from their fixed positions.

"Protect the Flails!" One of the Shieldbearers called, marching forward and firing on the retreating Elites. "Street Sweeper stage is a go!"

Oliver was not completely sold on the Street Sweeper tactic, which involved the usage of tanks which had attachments affixed to them called Mine Flails. Truthfully, he wasn't too surprised that they were going to try that on enemy positions, but he wasn't sure if rapid spinning chains would be as effective against armor.

The streets themselves were wide enough for two, and behind the Shieldbearers, and flanked by multiple ADVENT squads were the Mine Flails themselves. They sure looked intimidating, even if the chains were idle at the moment. "Push along with the tanks!" Blake ordered as the Flails drove past the guard station. "Oliver, Lin, assist the front! Fakhr, come back to Mona so I can take a look at both of you."

"Copy," Fakhr said, and dashed over as her position was retaken by more ADVENT soldiers. The Elites tried firing on the Flails, but clearly weren't sure where to fire. They couldn't slow it down, since the Flails moved by treads, and was partially covered by the flail attachment itself. The Flail also had a main gun that was firing into the alien lines, but it was well-protected by armor, and the Shieldbearers whose emitters were rendering all alien plasma fire useless.

It was rather amazing to see devastating barrages of plasma just…turn away, not even getting close enough to cause any harm. The gauss fire by ADVENT and XCOM was unaffected, and dozens of aliens fell as they scrambled back. "More Berserkers!" Lin called, as four of the Juggernauts charged forward, unaffected by the hail of gauss slugs.

"Starting the flails," came the warning from one of the drivers. "Stand back."

ADVENT quickly repositioned and got out of the front, as the motors started working, and the chains began swinging around and around. It was slow at first, but it soon reached blurring speed in a few seconds. The Berserkers didn't know what the tanks were, or didn't care, but they were determined to destroy them all the same.

The first Berserker raised her wrist tipped with sharpened blades at the front of the Flail, ever charging forward, and with a stab forward, was immediately flung to the ground. It looked like part of the arm had gone flying off as well, but it happened too fast for Oliver to really be sure. What he was sure of was that the Berserker was first forced to the ground by the whip of the chains, and said chains completely ripped the alien apart, armor and all, in a spray of metal and blood.

Oliver blinked as the same thing happened to the other Berserkers who couldn't stop their charges in time, and were literally torn apart by the spinning chains. Yellow blood was being flung everywhere as the Flails drove over the chunks of flesh, bone, and armor that had once been an alien. The entire ADVENT force cheered, himself joining them, as the Elites began backing up after seeing just what the Flail could do.

Oliver joined the march forward, fighting beside one of the Flails with several other ADVENT soldiers as they kept advancing forward. For once, they now had a way to keep going forward the aliens didn't have a way to stop right now. The Muton forces were retreating, and were subsequently being killed off by the unrelenting storm of gauss fire.

He glanced behind him to see there were even more pairs of Mine Flails coming through the entrance, and turning onto different streets to take the fight to other areas of the city. Street Sweepers indeed.

Oliver grinned and marched forward, ever continuing their march on the aliens.

---

Salem, Portland – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 2:08 P.M.

"Two Heavies behind you," Ted called out as Sierra swooped to the left, shooting down another few of the regular Floaters that had been deployed in a questionable attempt to slow them down.

"Understood," she acknowledged, then took a brief second to orient herself and twist her body around to shoot the Heavies behind her. They clearly hadn't expected the maneuver, and swooped upward as she unloaded with her gauss rifle, shredding one and sending it plummeting to the ground. The other one was quickly shot out of the sky by Anna with several laser pulses.

"Time to get those Gateways?" Ted asked as he flew towards their position, faint psionic energy enveloping him.

"We'd better," Sierra said. "You heard Matthew's update. Some new kind of Sectoid. We need to shut those down now."

"At least we know where they are," Anna said as they blasted their way towards the city center. "They're nothing if not consistent."

"Alright, we're going to do flamethrower runs first, then touch down in the Gateway area," Sierra ordered as they approached the small fortress, or what was left of it after their continued attacks. The only things that now even tried to fight them were Floaters, and they were running dry on those, especially with the ground forces getting overrun. "Anna, provide covering support."

"Will do," Anna lowered herself to begin hovering just above the fortress wall, laying down suppressive fire on the exposed squares where the four Gateways were stationed, and deploying Mutons, Sectoids, Vitakara, and Floaters in steady streams. Sierra assumed that they weren't expecting anyone to be brazen-or crazy enough to attack here. They scattered once the Archangels flew over the wall, but for many it wasn't quick enough.

Sierra lowered her wrist and prepared for the blowback of blasting the ground with her flamethrower. The white-orange flames engulfed dozens of aliens in a single sweep as she flew over the Gateway square. Ted was having similar success, and Anna was throwing what remained into disarray. "Are we trying to capture or destroy these?"

Sierra thought about that briefly as she shot around for her ground landing. Both had merit, but it would come down to if they could effectively hold them long enough for ADVENT or XCOM to secure them. If they couldn't hold, the aliens might be able to repair disabled ones. "Destroy for now," she said. "We can build them now."

"Understood." Anna focused her weapon on one of the Gateways, none of them sending out reinforcements, at least for the moment. The weapon was surprisingly having little effect on the structure itself, so instead she turned her fire on the elerium generator next to it, and destroyed it with a green explosion that took out one of the 'arms' of the Gateway it was next to.

Now more aliens were coming out, Runianarch soldiers who didn't know anything about what was happening, so instead they just shot at whatever moved. Anna was forced to maneuver to the side, while Sierra angled herself towards a group of three; swinging her feet down and nailing one directly in the back, while shooting the ones to her left and right within seconds.

Once those were cleared, she clipped the rifle to her chest and aimed her flamethrower gauntlet at the active Gateway and fired into it. She smirked as she hoped she'd taken out a few alien reinforcements. After chucking a thermite grenade into the sightless void for good measure, she aimed at the elerium generator and fired, activating her jets to boost her back to avoid the explosion.

Several plasma bolts clipped her, throwing her off-course and she unceremoniously crashed into a stack of crates. She wasn't hurt, but it reminded her how easy it was to be taken out of commission. But she was on her feet in seconds, firing at the trio of Mutons advancing on her position, plasma bolts flying her direction.

She fell to one knee and lined up her rifle on them. Easy. It took only a second to line up a headshot. She fired, lined up another, fired, and repeated the same thing for the last one. As the last Muton body hit the floor, she jumped into the air, jets blazing as she shot into the sky. Another elerium explosion took out another Gateway, leaving only one more.

All of them were in the air, but the aliens were putting up something more of a fight, and had smartly rallied around the last Gateway. At least it would have been smart, but all it enabled was a perfectly timed psionic lance from Ted whose blast either ripped their armor apart, or threw them back. Sierra swooped around their flank, and scorched the area with her flamethrower, incinerating anything that dared stand by the Gateway.

A few laser blasts from Anna ensured that nothing would come out of the Gateways again, and, mission accomplished, they got out of there as quickly as possible, heading straight for the safety of the ADVENT line. "Gateways at Salem are destroyed," she informed Chief Marshal Peterson. "We're going to restock before heading to Hillsboro."

"Great job!" He congratulated. "I think we'll be able to take it from here. They were not expecting us to attack here, that's pretty certain."

"We'll be on call until the battle ends," she reminded him. "Things start getting heated here again, we'll fly over." With that she cut the comms, and flew towards the designated resupplying area.

The aliens were going to need to do a lot better if they ever wanted to stop them. But knowing them, Sierra suspected that this kind of attack was not going to work as well in the future. Better to enjoy it while it lasted.

---

Seattle, Washington – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 2:10 P.M.

Of all the ways Nuan had expected the battle to go, working with some (possibly) traitor Andromedons was not something she had ever considered. Granted, on some level it wasn't unprecedented. There had been the entire incident with Nartha, and then Aegis had also defected, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that an Andromedon could defect…but honestly the only thing that would have surprised her more was if a Sectoid had been the one to defect.

The Commander was clearly skeptical, but there hadn't been much time to argue since the shield was going to come back online shortly, and they had to find and shut down the shield generator. The Andromedons helping them had surprisingly kept in contact, from the moment they had begun rushing deeper into the city.

"When you reach the intersection, hold position," the Andromedon, V'Thrask ordered.

"You're going to need to give a better reason," Creed commented as they approached the designated intersection, all of their weapons up and ready. "We're in your territory, and could be surrounded easily."

"Take your position if you need to," V'Thrask didn't sound even mildly put off by Creed's tone. "Unless you want to walk into a patrol of two dozen Andromedons, we need to lock on your exact position."

Nuan did not like the sound of that. For one, they didn't know if they could be trusted, and at the wrong moment they could betray them, killing the Commander of XCOM, not to mention all of them. Then again, there wasn't anything stopping them from doing that already. A more precise lock likely wouldn't matter much if the Andromedons really were planning to betray them.

Still, she wasn't going to stay quiet. "Commander, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Even if they are tracking us now, do they need an exact fix on us? Is there anything stopping a missile strike or worse once they have that?"

"To clarify," a new Andromedon voice interjected, only a shade lighter than V'Thrask. "The lock is for us to establish network connections with your suits. Your locations are already known to us. I am A'Darrah, Andromedon Federation Collaborative Data and Systems analyst. I intend to sync your current HUD and radar systems with information directly from our own communications network."

The frown was clear in Eddison's voice. "Wait. How can you do that? Our own systems can't be compatible with yours."

"Not originally," A'Darrah stated. "But the network and programming security of your suits is primitive and inadequate to coordinated machine intelligence hacking. The Federation has successfully reverse-engineered Aegis-level armor of XCOM, and are fully capable of hacking it if needed. You are fortunate functions are limited, otherwise this would be employed by our Battlefield Engineers. As it is, I contest the only reason this has not been put into practice is because of the small number of XCOM soldiers that exist. I would expect this to change in the future."

"Let them do their thing," the Commander said as they reached the intersection. "We're committed now." The Commander didn't sound worried, and that was likely because he probably had a plan if the Andromedons did betray them. If there was anyone who would, it was him.

The streets were surprisingly empty, even if there were clear signs of fortifications and barricades at various parts of the roads. "Seems like everything dried up," Pall commented, battleaxe raised as he looked for something out of the ordinary.

"I have redirected the necessary forces away from your current position," V'Thrask explained. "Most are currently engaged in battling ADVENT Lancer squads, and the rest are holding back against other tank-led ADVENT Offenses." A pause. "Your species is innovative with weapons of war. Your tactics are flawed, but nonetheless are effective against certain enemy types."

"Thanks," Ellinor muttered dryly. "Always nice to be considered a threat.

Nuan's HUD suddenly blinked, and instead of the small minimap at the upper right corner of her screen, it was replaced with a completely different element, that was not originally Human. Instead of a small 2D map, it was a full 3D rendering of their immediate city, along with miniature figures that were others in her squad, and red figures further on for enemies.

"Your HUD technology is insufficient," A'Darrah said, and Nuan could almost imagine the barest hint of emotion in it. "I have replaced the current and ineffective element with our own. I have also marked out a path which will take you to the shield generator. V'Thrask will attempt to redirect Collective soldiers, but you will have to fight the ones guarding the shield generator."

"Understood," the Commander said, and they began following the designated line that took them deeper into the city. "What is enemy composition?"

Nuan couldn't help but notice what the aliens had done to the city as they dashed through it. There were many buildings that were completely trashed, but the further they went in, the buildings started getting sparse altogether; clearly surgically removed, and the ones that remained were converted into small fortresses, with alloy paddings and barricaded roofs. The streets themselves were similarly protected, each intersection having barricades in all directions, as well as crates of unidentifiable supplies.

"There are two parts; exterior and interior defense," V'Thrask answered. "Exterior defense will be your largest issue. There are four Muton Elite guards, sixteen Lurainian soldiers of various races, mostly Borelians. The area is covered by four Zararch Snipers, and there are twelve Andromedon soldiers."

Nuan saw Creed exchange a glance with the Commander. "That seems like a lot."

"Interior defenses are composed of two Battlefield Engineers and several dozen Vitakara support staff," V'Thrask continued. "You will have little trouble disposing of them."

"Still," Creed sounded skeptical as they entered an alleyway, weapons drawn cautiously since they didn't fully trust the radar. "That's a lot. The Lurainian can be handled. The Elites will be difficult if we don't deal with them immediately. The Andromedons will be a problem."

"Anticipated," A'Darrah interjected. "The Andromedon suits can be temporarily shut down. The onboard intelligence can be subverted with proper authorization, but the result will be that it locks me out of the system for a half-hour afterwards. You will likely only be able to rely on that once."

Well, it was something. "And how long will that take them out?"

"However fast they decide to either contact the Overseer, or assume their suits have been compromised. Two to four minutes at least."

Not a lot, but with four psions, and all of them genetically enhanced, it wasn't technically impossible. Just highly improbable. "That'll have to do," the Commander grudgingly said. "But don't launch your attack until I give the word. We might not need it."

"Ah, and there is the shield," Rebecca noted wryly as the sky was suddenly obscured by the red shield. "Right on time."

"And we're close," Creed said, coming to a stop. "Lots of contacts ahead. We need to do this carefully."

"Thank you for the exceptional advice," the Commander said with as much sarcasm as she'd heard. "Get on the outlying buildings, I need to take out the snipers first." With that he jumped onto the nearest roof and fell to one knee, aiming his sniper rifle in the distance. "They're spaced out. I can probably take them out without alerting the main group. A'Darrah, are you blocking their communications?"

"I am personally redirecting all outgoing communications to my location," was the answer. "They will be able to call for help, but no one but me will hear it. To do more would only raise suspicion."

"Good," the Commander said. "I've located all the snipers. Firing."

He fired four quick shots, his rifle moving surprisingly little with each shot. "Snipers down." Nuan blinked. She'd never seen anyone fire that fast or with such accuracy. Well, she assumed he'd hit everything.

"How did you do that?" She asked, even knowing it wasn't the best time.

"Gene mods and natural sniping talents," he said, pulling out the WHEEE. "I'd have never been able to do that without being enhanced. With practice I'm sure you could do the same thing." He turned forward. "Alright, everyone on the roofs, we need to get a good idea of what we're facing."

Several minutes later Nuan found herself on the top of a two-story building that had once been a restaurant, overlooking the shield generator. This was one area the aliens had completely flattened and replaced. There was a wide square of nothing but asphalt and concrete, and in the center was the shield generator building. It looked surprisingly…utilitarian, which she supposed was normal for Andromedons.

The generator itself was housed in a cube structure, which curved into an arrow-like point where the antenna for the generator actually stuck out, and projected the shield. But the generator itself was massive, and she could see why it needed an entire team to work it. The cube it was housed in was at least the size of the building she was currently hiding on. There weren't any obvious weak points either. Every potentially exposed part of the antenna was covered by some kind of alloy plating, and there seemed to be another shield projected just under the roof so someone couldn't just chuck a grenade inside.

"I wish we had a telepath," Cole muttered. "This would make things much simpler."

"Well, we don't," the Commander said. "But with four psions, I think we can manage this small army. Eddison, how quickly can you kill the Elites?"

"Snapped necks should do the trick," he answered, looking down. At least the Elites were in the open, four directly guarding the door. "But I need to focus everything just for one. I can kill them all, but it'll take time."

"That'll work," the Commander affirmed with a nod. "Ellinor, I need you to protect us with a barricade. No Templar attacks yet. Pall, same thing, but I want you to hold everyone in place. How large an area can you cover?"

"Honestly as large as you need," he said slowly. "The drawback is that I won't be able to distinguish people in the field. One of you jumps down, you'll be stuck too."

"Perfect," the Commander pointed to a group of clustered Andromedons and Lurainian. "Trap those. Once I take them out, attack how you see fit."

"And what about the rest of us?" Nuan asked.

"You will fire from this position first," the Commander began, brandishing the WHEEE. "Once I kill enough aliens, or this runs out of charges, you can come down to ground level. Focus on the Andromedons. The WHEEE should be enough to kill an Andromedon or two."

"Ready when you are," Creed nodded. "Pall, Eddison, Ellinor?"

"At your command," Pall confirmed, as the psions gathered their power.

"Now!" The Commander ordered, and the soldiers rushed to the edges of the roof. Nuan quickly dropped a smoke grenade at their position, while Creed, Ricardo, Cole, and Rebecca began firing their weapons down at the exposed aliens. Several Lurainian were killed immediately, and even an Andromedon helmet shattered from the surprise attack.

"Stay where you are!" Pall shouted, likely more a way to focus than actually something he expected the enemy to follow. Both hands were held down, invisible waves emanating off of them as he appeared to be keeping something down. Eddison extended his hands and one of the Elites was yanked into the air. The Commander was surrounded by a personal shield and he jumped down and aimed the WHEEE at the first Andromedon he saw.

Nuan saw the flash of a lightning bolt and the Andromedon exploded into several different pieces. The Commander aimed at the next nearest Andromedon, and fired again, achieving the same result, and subsequently shocking the Lurainian next to it into unconsciousness or death. The first Elite was dead, and Eddison was moving on to the next.

Now the aliens were firing at them, and Ellinor responded by using her free hand to create another purple barrier; instead of it being directly in front of them, it was directly in front of the back alien line, allowing them to kill the ones close, but protecting them from fire from the Elites in the back, and the Andromedons coming to assist.

The Commander meanwhile was appearing to have fun with killing the practically helpless aliens in the face of the WHEEE. He was putting his own telekinetics to use, unbalancing the Lurainian and Andromedons trying to shoot him, and frying them with the WHEEE. Although 'frying' implied there was something left. Nuan saw the lightning bolt hit a Borelian and it was just gone in a spray of golden mist and fur.

In the meantime, they were killing the disorganized aliens trying to find cover. Nuan shot the gun of an Andromedon, aiming at the seemingly exposed elerium core, which exploded and destroyed the helmet of the Andromedon as a result. A few well-placed gauss shots to the control panel killed the reactive AI.

"Elites are almost dead," Eddison grunted, as the third Elite fell to the ground with the ornate helmet faced the opposite way. "And I want that gun."

"Think we've got them now," the Commander stated as he fried several more Andromedons clustered together; trapped in Pall's telekinetic field. "Engage at will."

"Copy that," Pall stated, as he picked up his axe and literally leapt toward an Andromedon that was still alive. In the air he swung the blade down with enough force to bury the blade into the helmet of the Andromedon, and yank it out. It wasn't shattered, but the crack was growing, and Nuan concentrated her own gauss fire on it, and ultimately shattering it and killing the Andromedon inside.

Ricardo and Cole also jumped down, and focused on cleaning up the few Lurainian who remained. But the lone Vitakara had little chance against augmented Humans. Nuan was continually amazed just how powerful XCOM was sometimes. Eddison was picking up aliens like toys, while the Commander made enemies explode with the WHEEE cannon.

They finally cleared out the majority of aliens, and the Commander gestured to the door, and telekinetically ripped it off its hinges and they charged inside. "Kill them all," the Commander ordered. "We want this place destroyed."

The two Templars entered first, and Nuan knew it was going to be a devastating bloodbath. The largely Vitakarian staff hardly put up a fight as Ellinor and Pall butchered them with their weapons. The Battlefield Engineers were helpless to do anything as the Commander killed one with the WHEEE cannon, and Eddison crushed the other like an action figure.

"We're inside, how do we destroy this?" The Commander asked once the last alien was dead.

"Do you see the main control console?" A'Darrah asked. Nuan saw the largest computer that was attached to the circular base of the shield generator. "You have two options. Shut it down manually, or destroy the generator. Destroying it can simply be accomplished by opening one of the panels exposing the interior, or making one yourself. Shutting it down requires the proper input commands, which are in my possession."

"Can you prevent anyone else from turning it back on?" The Commander asked. "I don't want to destroy this if we don't have to."

"Yes, that can be done."

"Then we do that," the Commander walked to the console. "Walk me through shutting this down."

At this point Nuan was fairly sure all of them were convinced these Andromedons were actually genuine. If they were planning to betray them, they would have done that already. It took a few minutes, but Nuan heard the shield generator power down, going from a steady whine and thrumming, to the sound of air coolers for the machines themselves.

"All done," the Commander said. "Marshal Wilkins, We've disabled the shields. You are free to launch aerial and ground attacks on the city interior. We're going after the leadership."

"I think you just won this battle for us, Commander, I can't thank you enough," Wilkins said. "I don't know what happened with the shield the first time, but we need to thank whatever idiot engineer made that happen. Hell, I'd give them a pardon."

Creed snorted.

"I'll keep that in mind," the Commander said, keeping the amusement in his voice to a minimum. "Good luck."

"Amusing, but I don't expect you to kill us," V'Thrask said. "If you want to extract us quietly, we need to meet up and be extracted quickly. A'Darrah is sending coordinates. When we meet, we will likely lose our current advantages and have to fight to the extraction point. I advise you have your pilot ready."

"Will do," the Commander affirmed as the red line in Nuan's HUD changed to where she assumed the Andromedons were. "We're on our way."

---

Las Vegas Ruins, Nevada - United States of America

11/6/2016 – 1:26 P.M.

The initial swing by the Battlemaster was unsurprisingly blocked, but that was intentional. He thrust down a free hand, sending a telekinetic shockwave that threw back the XCOM Templars closest to him, and immediately transitioned to block as the MEC swung the equally large sword in a swift dual strike.

The Battlemaster deflected one of the blows with his gauntlets and was briefly hit when the MEC bashed her shield against him several times, following up with a stab. Carmelita also leapt to him at the same time, and he attempted to take a step back, only to see that his foot was being telekinetically held in place by one of the Templars, even as Iosif and another Templar carrying a warhammer approached.

The strikes were ones he could take, and he let the MEC score a hit on his shoulder as he dropped his blade to his lower hand and stabbed at the exposed torso, while then telekinetically blowing the MEC back with his other free hands. Unfortunately the distraction allowed Carmelita to get an ineffective hit on him, but a mere alloy blade didn't even scratch it.

He telekinetically grabbed Carmelita and tossed her towards Iosif, and the Templar beside him raised a hand and caught her, setting her down gently. The MEC was also recovered, having used some kind of built in jets to slow the throw, and the stab would he had inflicted had repaired itself. Smart, and not a good sign.

The other telekine psion had now joined the other Templar in effectively securing him in place, which he allowed for the moment so he could appraise the situation. He assumed that every soldier here was severely modified, and his sword wouldn't be as effective. So he had to first deal with the telekines, and then the others.

He tossed his sword at the MEC, which impaled itself on the shield and cut right through it, though the damage was likely minimal. With his lower hands he sent out a telekinetic pulse that Iosif blocked with a shield. With his other two hands, grasped the two telekine Templars and pulled them toward his grasp.

No time to waste. Humans were far smaller than he was, and it made it extremely easy to snap their necks, which he did in quick succession and tossed the bodies away. Two down, five to go. The snipers he was not concerned with, as they had been firing already and done little more than glance off his armor. The MEC charged him again, and he recalled his greatsword to his hand to deflect the swing away from him.

All the XCOM soldiers were now shielded in purple fields; likely from the psion in the back. Iosif and another psion holding some kind of axe were closing on him from the sides, and Carmelita was charging forward with her sword the color of molten steel. That was a concern, but the MEC was not giving him any time to deal with it, as it fought like the machine it was.

The Battlemaster had never liked shields, and considered them a hindrance to his style of combat, and had rarely seen them be effective against him. But this MEC actually used the shield as a weapon of its own, not just for defense. Instead of turtling behind it, after each strike the shield was bashed against him, which while not hurting him, required him to focus on it.

Iosif was close enough to strike, and the Battlemaster kicked out at him, which the psion deflected with a shield, but did pause. At the same time the Battlemaster grabbed the shield, holding it in place while he slashed down at the axe-wielding psion, hitting him and sending him flying back several feet.

The Battlemaster pushed on the shield, twisting it to rip it off the MEC, while the attacks continued unabated. Iosif managed to score a hit on his lower leg, one he felt even if it didn't cause damage. One telekinetic push back removed him temporarily. The MEC was still attacking with her own sword while he grappled with the shield, and he couldn't stop every single attack coming his way.

Carmelita jumped from behind, and scored a hit on his arm, leaving a noticeable scrape. The other Templar he pushed away with a roar, sending him back with enough force to dent the alloy barricade he landed against. The MEC then unexpectedly let go of the shield, and he stumbled back briefly, but it was all the time it needed to raise its wrist and he was suddenly engulfed in a freezing mist.

His mind ran through the possibilities. Cold. Freezing agent. Dangerous. Without wasting another second, he dashed backwards, and jolted forward as he slammed into a psionic barricade the supporting psion in the back had created. "You're getting stronger," he told them approvingly, even as they approached again.

The purple barricade behind him suddenly had additional walls on its sides, which extended to where the MEC was; the machine was approaching and raising its wrist to likely freeze him. The suit could withstand freezing temperatures for a short time, but it would not be sustainable for long, and he ran the risk of being frozen even if he was technically alive.

But the foolish psion had unfortunately doomed the MEC in question. The jets on the MEC were already warm, and was likely expecting a telekinetic attack. But he acted instantly and charged forward; a purple blur directly towards the MEC, greatsword angled directly for her head. The shield might have saved her, but she was unable to stop the charge.

The pointed sword ripped through her head, and his direct collision threw her to the ground, sending the weapon flying. Standing over the defeated MEC, he ground his boot down into the wrecked head to make sure it was destroyed, then extended a hand towards the other psion who had helped him, and blew him backwards.

He spun around to see Carmelita approaching, and performed a precise telekinetic grab, calling the sword to his hand. With a flick of his wrist he threw it far into the city, then returned his attention to Iosif who was the lone Templar left. "You've fought better, Templar."

Iosif didn't respond, but charged forward and the Battlemaster met his mace swing with the greatsword. The Templar was more creative with his attacks now, creating barriers which sprang up under his arms, or just before his legs in an attempt to trip or distract him. It did work to an extent, and the Battlemaster was suitably impressed with his skills.

Unfortunate that it would be for nothing. He yanked Iosif down with a telekinetic grab, placed a foot on his chest and took a reverse grip of his sword to stab downwards. Not even his genetic modification would save him here. "Do it!" Iosif yelled.

The Battlemaster risked looking behind him to see Carmelita aiming a weapon he hadn't seen before at him, and that was enough of a warning for him to begin dashing away. The weapon sparked and his arm was struck with a bolt of pure electricity. It had barely glanced him, but the pure shock of the weapon drove him to the ground, involuntarily twitching as he struggled to stand up.

The arm that had been glanced was numb, and he couldn't move it at all. His vision was blurred and his senses were severely impaired. The suit could withstand brief electrical pulses, but he had not designed it to withstand a pure lightning bolt. He thrust out with as much psionic power as he could muster towards Carmelita before she could fire that weapon again, and his blurry vision saw her go flying into the air.

On shaky legs, he debated retreating. At the rate he was recovering, if XCOM sent another team, he would be unlikely to emerge victorious. At the same time, there was only one more Templar, and…he glanced to the side to see the other psion was back up, the supporting defensive one. He took several breaths, and thought about it as rationally as he could.

Two on one. The odds were in his favor, especially since neither were armed with those electricity guns. Defense psions were also something he could handle easily. He wouldn't retreat, not yet. The one arm hanging limply at his side, he marched toward Iosif to kill the Templar once and for all.

---

Seattle, Washington – United States of America

11/6/2016 – 3:19 P.M.

The Commander was mildly surprised to be reminded that the Space Needle had survived the attacks so far. Ironically, it was now the highest building in the city, so he wasn't entirely surprised that the Collective had apparently turned it into their main command center. It had taken some hits, and the top platform was missing some sections, but otherwise it was largely intact.

"Big Sky, do you have the coordinates for extraction?" The Commander asked as they marched to the Space Needle.

"Affirmative," he answered. "But if we're flying Andromedons back, we're probably going to need another."

"Good thing we planned for an extra," the Commander muttered. "Have Shattered Sky head over. We're not going to leave right away once the Andromedons are extracted anyway."

"Copy, good luck, Commander."

"Enemies ahead," Creed pointed forward. The Commander looked forward and saw the Space Needle defenses were smaller than he was expecting. It was likely that all of them were trying to fight off ADVENT penetrating deeper into the city, and because V'Thrask had ordered them away.

"Two dozen Mutons and six Elites?" Eddison snorted. "They really are running low."

"I'd thank our Andromedon friend," Nuan cautioned. "And I'm not getting cocky yet."

"Listen to Nuan," the Commander agreed, slowing down and letting the Templars take point. "The Elites are still a threat. Eddison, I presume you can take them out?"

"I can do a few more," he agreed confidently. "Assuming the rest of you can handle the Mutons?"

"Permission to engage?" Creed asked, raising his rifle.

The Commander raised his own sniper rifle; electing to not use the WHEEE and let it recharge. One shot, and a Muton fell dead. "Permission granted. Pick your targets!"

The Muton reaction was immediate, and they gave their battle cries and fell behind their alloy barricades. The Commander also noticed that they activated several turrets on the ground he hadn't seen earlier. They rose from the ground, and began shooting plasma bolts their direction. "Find cover!" He ordered, leaping forward to a building corner and beginning to take aim at the first turret.

Ellinor and Pall were not hindered by the turrets, and were quite easily slaughtering the unhelmeted Mutons. Ellinor buried the axe head deep into the skull of one, while Pall had his greatsword set to the high-friction mode and was slicing through the Muton armor with surprisingly little effort.

Creed and Rebecca killed one each, while Cole and Nuan concentrated on one of the turrets, causing it to explode. The Commander aimed for the barrel of another, and fired, destroying the firing mechanism. It still tried to fire, and subsequently exploded as a result. Eddison had both Mutons raised into the air, hand clenched in a fist as he brandished it in the air.

The Elites were squirming in the air, their plasma cannons lying on the ground, which the Commander assumed was the result of Eddison removing them himself. The psionic power seemed concentrated around their throats. Choking them. He approved of the tactic. One of the worse ways to go out, and he didn't exactly feel bad the Elites were succumbing to it.

The basic Muton soldiers were essentially wiped out within a few minutes, with XCOM advancing rapidly forward, as the remaining turrets had to split between the ranged soldiers, and the Templars decimating their nearby forces. But soon the last turret and Muton died, with several XCOM soldiers putting gauss slugs into the heads of the Elites just to be sure they were dead.

"The outside is clear," the Commander said. "We'll wait here."

"Commander…" Creed pointed inside the Space Needle lobby. "I think they're already here."

All the XCOM soldiers raised their weapons, and the psions subsequently lifting their weapons in warning or hands shimmering faintly with psionic energy. The Andromedons weren't hidden, but the Commander was continuously reminded of how much larger they were than regular Humans, at least in their suits. The smallest ones, the Battlefield Engineers, were eight feet, and the Soldiers were close to nine, with the proportions to match.

Needless to say they towered over the Humans the closer they got. The Commander counted. Two, four, seven…eight. Eight Andromedons were coming, four having the red tint of Battlefield Engineers, with the accompanying drones. Three appeared to be standard soldiers, armed, even though their weapons weren't raised. The final Andromedon had the same suit as the Soldiers, but there were odd shapes plastered to his helmet, symbols of some kind. It might be a language, or it could simply be a combination of shapes only Andromedons knew. It was very angular and symmetrical. Very Andromedon.

They exited the doors, and stood in front of the XCOM soldiers; two warring species placed in a very unexpected situation. The Commander didn't have his weapon up, nor did the Andromedon who he assumed was V'Thrask. "Commander," V'Thrask greeted, or at least acknowledged. "Arrival within expected time. Good. If there is anything that needs to be discussed, we should do it now. Your soldiers do not seem trusting."

"No offense intended," Creed said. "We're just being careful."

"You systematically destroyed defenses that were more numerous and larger than your own," V'Thrask said evenly. "We are currently not equipped to handle psionic forces. Attacking you would be ineffective and suicidal. Aside from that, we do not intend to fight you today."

The Commander was trying to get a sense of the Andromedons while he spoke, and he knew Ellinor, Pall, and Eddison were doing the same thing. He didn't sense any dishonesty, even if Andromedons seemed colder than most Humans, or even aliens. But he didn't seem to be lying. "Think he's good," Ellinor said. "I assume you shut off the Gateways?"

"Gateways and outgoing communications have been sabotaged and severed," V'Thrask explained. "As of six minutes ago, the Ethereal Collective lost contact with this position. It will not be reestablished in time before ADVENT claims this city."

"We have an extraction planned," the Commander said, eyeing the weapons they held. "I assume we'll be fighting at some point before we get there, but once we arrive, you will surrender your weapons."

"Fine." V'Thrask surprisingly said. "We are wasting time here. Let us move to the extraction point."

That decided, the mix of Andromedon and Human soldiers began jogging towards the designated points on their HUDs. The XCOM soldiers were still not taking chances, and Eddison along with Cole were hanging behind the main body of Andromedons, with the two Templars up front by him and V'Thrask.

"Four contacts approaching," a Battlefield Engineer he assumed was A'Darrah said, looking down at a haptic display on his wrist. "Likelihood of a Muton unit is high."

"Weapons up and forward," V'Thrask ordered, and the Commander let the Andromedon soldiers take the lead in a straight line, V'Thrask in the middle. Sure enough, a unit of Mutons marched directly in front of them. Seeing Andromedons, they didn't pay them any mind. The Andromedons raised their rifles and fired plasma beams that killed the Mutons almost simultaneously.

"Hold formation and advance," V'Thrask stated, now consulting his own wrist haptic pad. "No immediate contacts."

"Initiating drone scouting," A'Darrah said, the drone hovering over him flying off into the air, joined by the drones of the other Battlefield Engineers.

The rest of the way they didn't encounter any large armies or concentrations of aliens. Several more Muton units were encountered, but they were killed within seconds of contact. The Andromedons had no hesitation killing those who had been their allies, and seemed suitably unaffected by their defection. Maybe they were always like this, but it seemed to be treated as completely normal.

An explosion rocked the ground, and the Commander saw one of the buildings collapse as a result of shelling fire from ADVENT. The air battle was just as intense as ever, but all the Firestorms were still operational, and ADVENT was also holding their own. On the torn streets, he finally saw the landed skyranger.

"It's going to be a tight fit," he warned. "Skyrangers weren't made for Andromedons."

"We will manage," was all V'Thrask said.

To his mild surprise, there wasn't a last-second ambush and the area seemed completely secure, or as much as it could be. The drones returned to the Battlefield Engineers, and the Commander turned to V'Thrask. "Load up, and the skyranger will take you to our base. Drop your weapons here, and your drones. They will be returned if you are officially cleared by us."

"Very well," V'Thrask set his own plasma rifle down beside the ramp. "I expect you to hold to that promise."

Well, it was certainly nice that the Andromedons were being so compliant. He hadn't quite expected that from them. It was refreshing. The Battlefield Engineers even powered down their drones without complaint, and walked up the ramp. It was definitely a tight fit, with all the aliens standing, but it would work.

"We will speak when you return," V'Thrask, moving his suit in a crude imitation of a nod. "I expect there is much you wish to ask."

"To put it mildly," he answered dryly. "Big Sky, they're all loaded up. Be sure and let Jackson know what to expect."

"Will do," he said as the ramp was raised. "Aegis is going to love this."

The skyranger lifted off, and shot off into the air, carrying what might have been the reason for their victory. "So what now?" Creed asked.

"We take Seattle back and kill whatever aliens remain here," the Commander said, turning to them. "But they can't recover from this. We've won here. All that remains is cleaning up."

Several soldiers cheered at that, and with a smile on his face, the Commander led them back into the city to go hunting.

---

Las Vegas Ruins, Nevada - United States of America

11/6/2016 – 2:42 P.M.

Things had seemed to be going exceptionally well, and for the most part they were. In fact, Oliver was not going to get the image of what Viktoria had performed out of his mind for a long time, if ever, and he knew the aliens wouldn't forget either. While some people would be content with simply killing the aliens sniping from the hotels, Viktoria had decided the best course of action was to completely destroy it.

Oliver hadn't had any idea that it was possible for a psionic maelstrom of that size to even be created, and ADVENT and even XCOM had watched in stunned amazement as the Archangel single-handedly brought down a hotel, literally ripping it in half with her psionic power. As they advanced, he'd also noticed extremely odd things that he wouldn't have expected anywhere else.

They had begun finding Vitakara corpses strewn throughout the city, but all of them had either committed suicide, or…he hated to use the word, but almost ritually killed. No other explanation made much sense, or to clarify, more sense than a bizarre ritual. At least that's what ADVENT probably thought.

It was unnerving, especially since some of the positions the aliens were in were downright bizarre. Finding four Vitakarians dead around a fully cooked meal, others with plasma pistols in their mouths, and some of the corpses were smiling when found. The only plausible explanation besides a bizarre ritual was that Patricia had done this and…that didn't seem like it was a good thing.

He wanted the aliens dead and gone as much as everyone else, but this went to a level beyond what he thought was acceptable. Seeing some of the corpses, and those of other aliens…that was horrific and cruel for the sake of it. Killing aliens was one thing, even mind controlled suicide he could accept. But it seemed abundantly clear that she'd been doing far more than just ordering them to kill themselves. There was an air of experimentation and flair that wouldn't have been present otherwise.

That bothered him. A lot.

More so because he didn't know if there was a way of telling her "Hey, what you're doing is kind of fucked up" without making her angry. Well, that was a problem he would deal with later. Right now all of them were rushing towards where the Battlemaster was currently at, thanks to the triggering of the distress signal from Iosif.

That meant things were going badly.

However, they were fairly close, and after commandeering several Humvees, they were speeding towards the location of the duel. "There they are, dead ahead." Cassandra said, looking through her scope. "Yeah, it's bad. Only two are left. Iosif and Said I think."

"Weapons out and prepare to deploy!" Blake ordered. "Nuclear contingency is happening. I've sent the command, and we have to hope it works. Keep him distracted."

Their Humvee driver slid into a stop, and the XCOM soldiers deployed, where Iosif was still attempting to duel the Battlemaster. Iosif was clearly exhausted, and Said was doing everything he could to deflect the swings of the Battlemaster, who, Oliver noted, also seemed injured. He seemed slower, and one of his arms was hanging limply.

The suddenly hail of gauss fire caught his attention, and he extended a hand out to them, and Fakhr and Blake were lifted into the air, and unceremoniously slammed into the nearby building. A roar from Iosif brought his attention back to the Templar, who managed to score a direct hit on the knee of the Battlemaster, actually making him stumble. The Battlemaster slashed upwards, the flat of his blade hitting just under his chin and sent him flying, carving off part of the helmet itself.

A roar of anger came from Mona as she unleashed a psionic lance at the Battlemaster who dashed back, missing the bolt completely. He faced the XCOM soldiers briefly, though Oliver didn't know what he was waiting for, and only held out one hand. Within seconds the gauss slugs being fired filled up the telekinetic field he was projecting.

"Your Commander is willing to kill you to stop me?" He called, with a disbelieving tone. "Are you willing to die for…this?"

Oliver grinned under his helmet. He'd taken the bait. "If we die," Iosif yelled, stumbling forward, helmet discarded as he raised his mace in another salute. "You die with us."

Said created four shields, trapping the Battlemaster in a shimmering cage. A gesture sent him flying back, but it provided enough time for Iosif to charge once more to command his attention once more. "Your persistence is admirable," the Battlemaster growled as he beat back the tired Templar, disarming him with a twirl of his blade and sending him back with a telekinetic blast. "But I do not intend to die today." He looked toward all of them. "Your victory will ring hollow."

With that he leapt up into the air and the whine of the Overseer UFO sounded overhead, an opening appeared underneath it which the Battlemaster entered, and closed underneath him. And just like that, it sped off into the bright afternoon sky. Mona spoke for all of them. "It worked."

"We better hope he doesn't come back," Oliver said, rushing to where Iosif was laying on the ground. "At least we got here before anyone else died."

"Not quite as bad as you think," Iosif groaned, as Blake had also gotten up and was immediately checking on him. "Carmelita and Hugo are alive, just unconscious. He also thought he got Sung, but he just disabled the main processor. Get her out of the suit."

Oliver glanced over to the beheaded Shinobi, rather glad that the pilot's head hadn't actually been taken off in the fight. Better to be trapped temporarily than dead. "We'll get her out," Blake said. "But we need to get medical attention to everyone here. Looks like you gave him some trouble."

"Forget these weapons," Iosif grimaced. "We just need to have WHEEE cannons. I think that almost killed him. Fuck, we had our shot and missed it. He'll just come back, and he knows now."

"Hey, you're the reason we're going to win this today," Oliver told him. "ADVENT is destroying the aliens now. They're going to lose, and the Battlemaster could have rendered that pointless. You bought time, and that's all we needed."

"Hopefully," Iosif said, looking a little better now that he had been given some water. "I'm guessing it's not over yet?"

"Nope," Mona said, walking over. "But it will be soon. There are still more aliens to kill."

"In that case," Iosif said, gripping his mace again and giving a weary smile. "Let's get to work."

---

The Cultro, Earth Orbit

11/6/2016 – 3:02 P.M

The Battlemaster waited for something to happen. But as the minutes ticked by, he came to the ugly realization that he'd been tricked. ADVENT had somehow been able to fake a nuclear signature aimed for the city, and he'd subsequently been tricked into retreating. He couldn't survive a nuclear blast; he knew that, and ADVENT and XCOM knew that as well.

If it were anyone else, he would have recognized it as a trick. But the Commander was the kind of opponent that would actually go through with such a threat. If he thought he could be stopped with a nuclear blast, the Battlemaster knew that the Commander would go through with it even if it cost him thousands of his own kind.

So a conundrum. He couldn't take chances as a result.

"Order a retreat," he told the CODEX. "Activate the Gateways and achieve it without delay."

He had considered flying back down there, but he felt it would be the wrong thing to do. He'd been bested here, as had the majority of his forces. The Humans had earned their victory, and prolonging it would be a pointless waste on both sides, and there were clear flaws evident in his strategy that had been made extremely evident to him.

He had underestimated the Humans today, and as a result the Collective had lost ground. Checking up on the status of the other attacked cities was not pleasant. The bases around Portland had fallen, which had not come as a surprise, but Seattle also falling was unexpected and bad. What was more concerning was that communication had been remotely severed not long ago, which indicated that V'Thrask was either dead or captured.

He was more puzzled as to how that could happen without some kind of additional information. But right now he didn't have any idea how Seattle had fallen, and that was almost more concerning than his defeat against XCOM. Something that he'd have Ravarian investigate immediately. But for now, he needed to reassess the situation.

The good news was that ADVENT and XCOM had revealed their hands today. He now knew exactly what they currently had, and already he had ideas on how to counter it. They had had the element of surprise here, and that had let them retake three major areas, and nearly kill him, but they would not be able to replicate that so easily again.

The situation was far from ideal, but this was not a large setback. It would, however, give the Humans a morale boost and further establish ADVENT as the primary power of Earth. The political ramifications were not his concern, and they didn't matter in the scope of the war, but he knew Ravarian and Quisilia would be following the aftermath with great interest.

Today had been a wakeup call, and one he would not let happen again. It was a rule drilled into the Battlemasters from the beginning: "Underestimation is arrogance; Pride is failure; Apathy is death"

Even he, it seemed, was not immune much as he tried. He had underestimated what they were capable of, as well as believed his own forces were enough to fight back, and had waited well beyond what he should have to actually do something. The resource and unit costs would be enormous, and he would bear the brunt of that.

There would be retribution.

But today was not that day.

The Humans had won the battle; they deserved to enjoy it while it lasted.

---

A/N: New year, new college semester. You all know the drill by now. There will not be these long droughts of chapters anymore either (Apologies for that), since I've taken some efforts to have what I've written put up at a reasonable time. Good news is that there is another chapter almost ready, and a lot of XCOM Files coming. Remember that even if things aren't being posted, it doesn't mean I'm not working on it. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

- Xabiar