...And Back?

Three muton elites rushed from the far end while Goose was exposed in the middle of the balcony. All walls had been reduced to rubble and dust in the fierce exchange between the squad and the sectoids and Goose took a glancing blow from one of the mutons' plasma rifles. He hit the deck on top of Hipster and felt a loud crack.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

44: Nailed two.

Broden: Nailed the last one.

Goose: I...I think Hipster is dead.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Hipster was gone. He had been bleeding quite openly for a short while and all the combat literally on top of him sped up his expiration. Goose swallowed hard, closed Hipster's fixed eyes that were staring at the stars somewhere far away and continued along the hangar. Radio was mostly silent, but based on the ambient grunts and pants it was evident that the squad was in terrible shape. Harmony Lad's breathing was hissing and scratching like a broken record and Goose suspected he was running on fumes. Better hurry.

The squad arrived at another set of corridors and control rooms, after which the ship corridor opened into a big, symmetrical hall. 44 told that the voices were getting louder, so this had to be the correct direction and possibly what XCOM was looking for. There were elevated balconies on both sides, so the team split in half, with snipers on both sides and ascended to the balcony. Ironside, badly wounded, leaned to his alloy gun in the middle and descended a small slope to lean against a large structure. He closed his eyes and was partially drifting away, when he came back to his senses on loud noises and an unpleasant buzz in his head. Ethereals had arrived.

Harmony Lad was so exhausted that he ould concetrate only on one thing; the one that required him the least effort. Shooting the plasma sniper rifle. He shot the closest ethereal on his side down, and drew a couple of deep breaths while he could not see anything else. He was too tired to move even a meter and this was after all a good vantage point.

44 exerted all his will at the ethereal on his side. There was one more ethereal further down at the pedestal near its own orb-like device, but this had to do for now. 44 felt the ethereal gave way to him as he thrusted himself inside its mind and all of a sudden saw new things. Two muton elites on the platform just above Ironside. He started to ready his sniper rifle.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

44: Damn it, there are muton elites as well. This is going to get bloody.

Goose: Get?

Ironside: I'll even the odds.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Ironside, knowing there's not much left on the tank kicked himself into motion on 44's remark. He rushed up the slope onto the platform straight below the ethereal and hugged the corner. Then he let go with his alloy gun, but his wounds were already taking their toll. He hit with the first one, but the second shot trailed harmlessly past the muton's head and Ironside knew this was the final destination for him. Before, he had stood up to near-mortal wounds and taken unearthly amounts of beating, but now he felt he's becoming the passenger. The muton elite shot at him from point blank range and he could see himself falling down to the floor. He was now watching this bloodbath from above.

Goose made a gesture towards the other muton, which then grabbed its head and collapsed in a heap. On their vantage points, Harmony Lad and 44 were back at their most familiar business: peppering the far ethereal with sniper fire. It was buried on a salvo of plasma bolts and now there was only one ethereal left in 44's control. It was clinging to his mind like a flypaper for a while, but then he could feel it going away.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

44: I think it's getting loose, stay frosty!

Broden: Aiming at it, point blank.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The ethereal disappeared from 44's mind, but instead of wreaking havoc, it simply collapsed, after which the ethereal device at the far pedestal started to resonate and tremble violently. 44 felt it gaining power and all of a sudden all of his consciousness was screaming that he should get out of here. Not from this ship, but from Earth. The ship started to rock and some structures were starting to give way.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Harmony Lad: Jason come on, we have to go!

Broden: Hurry, this thing is going to blow!

44: No.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

44 understood that this was going to be a one-way trip, and that it was up to him to decide is it a one-way trip for himself, the remaining four, or six billion. He exerted a thought in his mind and so Broden and Harmony Lad were flying through the corridor and through the doorway, which 44 then locked off. He knew, that the device was going to explode, and upon detonation it would release so much energy, that there would be no Earth to save. He reached deeper into his mind to find the control system for the temple ship and commanded it to thrust skyward as hard as possible. Slowly, the gigantic ship started to rise.

[XCOM CENTRAL TRANSCRIPTION]

Radar Operator: The temple ship is moving, sir!

Central: To?

RO: Um...yes it's moving. Up.

Pilot: Skyranger calling Central, Central come in.

Central: This is Central.

Pilot: Evac underway, we're soon home. The ship started rising to the sky.

Central: Is 44 with you?

Pilot: Negative, sir. I have only Harmony Lad, Broden and Goose.

Central: *silence* Ok, head home safely.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The ship skyrocketed through the atmosphere, out to the space and finally detonated there. Chunks of debris scattered the skies and fell back to Earth on a monumental display of shooting stars. Back at the Central, the commander checked his watch. It was almost the war anniversary, but not quite. 5:19 PM on the 23th February, 2016. Tomorrow, there would be no need for an alarm. Hopefully.

Into the Fire...

So it was time. Engineers had hammered together the last pieces of equipment for the squad that was to be sent to assault the alien mothership and drive them from the Earth for good. Gollop Chamber was prepared for 44, who was supposed to activate the ethereal device and gain access to the mothership.

The ethereal orb showed him things. Brutal, erratic, violent things, men and machines, men united with machines and then he knew. His mind went blank, but everything was crystal clear. The final assault would be carried out with the best of the best: 44, Goose, Ironside, Harmony Lad, Broden and Hipster. Two snipers would provide valuable firepower against anything and Hipster's proven heavy plasma gun should work possible sectopods. In addition, 44 was the only one to know the secrets of mind control, so he might be busy with other things than shooting aliens in the head.

Skyranger left the base and roared towards the Brazilian coast. The descent to the docking bay felt like neverending story.

[SKYRANGER CABIN TRANSCRIPTION]

Ironside: So...this is it. I hope, at least. It's not like they can hide much bigger ships like this on the face of Earth.

Harmony Lad: After this ends, I have deserved a bottle of vodka.

Hipster: I'm sure you can have two. Sauna?

Harmony Lad: Damn you. After this ends, I'll kick your ass too.

44: I hear voices. They are speaking to me.

Ironside: Well that was some change of topic.

Goose: No, he's right, I can hear voices too, but I can't unfortunately tell what they are saying.

44: I can. They are saying they are grateful I bring them new specimens and food.

Broden: You mean...

Ironside: I could have easily lived without that knowledge. But it will make a good story.

Pilot: Megawatt, Branca, Snake Catcher and other folks wish you luck, cutting the comms to base now. Ready for landing.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The "temple ship" as the abacus-wielders call it was about as huge as the biggest ship we had seen this far. It was impossible to tell any proportions of it, but 44 felt it's best to go with the flow. Wherever the voices take us, they'd go. The squad split in three pairs to cover all three entries and it did not take that long to reach the first action station as just after the first doors, some sectoids and thin men were found from the rooms beyond. Even two cyberdiscs appeared from out of nowhere, but snipers were ready and destroyed them before anyone could even react. The smaller aliens were quickly killed, along with a sectoid commander that got to taste its own medicine as Goose fried its brain good. Further down, a berserker came along with four muton elites.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Goose: Backing off, we must ambush them in the corridor.

Broden: Aye aye, right side of the room seems clear, we keep the post by the slope. Here they come!

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The berserker rushed down the slope straight into the arc of fire of both Broden and Hipster. Berserker got peppered and burned by alien metal and plasma so fiercely, that Broden had to squint his eyes in the heat. Still the berserker stood, and a fist size of a fridge slammed onto Hipster. While his previous experience with the berserker almost ended his life, the newly-built chitin plates absorbed majority of the damage. His ghost armor creaked, but held. After that Hipster gave the berserker a good plasma bath. The rest of the mutons were picked off one by one by snipers and Ironside finished the last one that was wandering across the slope in the middle of the room.

The next section seemed to be some kind of a split corridor with a huge hangar-like space in the middle, with a wide balcony overlooking it. The reason for the hangar became clear as two sectopods emerged. One was always bad news, but two sent the team scuttling for covers and tactical positions and still, there was not too much time to waste. Sectopods peppered the balcony already with their missiles and while there was no good positions available for the snipers, Ironside and Broden had to react. Goose got hit by the formidable red laser cannon and retreated to treat his wounds. For the first time, Ironside was thinking that maybe this will be a one-way trip after all. Brushing that thought aside, he jumped down the balcony, straight into the sectopods' crossfire. Having trained these maneuvers thousands of times, he barely ducked under the first blast, but the second caught him. His ultra heavy armor was almost completely vaporized, but he rushed on to take cover behind a large storage structure and pumped two quick shots at the first sectopod. It stood up, smoking, sending sparks flying around and its left side on fire.

Broden jumped down from the other side, but stumbled upon landing and barely managed to roll to take cover behind similar storage structure behind which Ironside was hiding. He could not take a shot at the still standing sectopod and there was another one somewhere behind it. The first one unloaded a full blast at Ironside. His armor was completely gone now, half of his exposed skin charred and it looked like he would be buried right there. For some reason, sectopod's second shot stroke the balcony with a loud crash and Broden could hear Hipster shouting orders.

Harmony Lad finished the first sectopod with his plasma pistol, that's all it really took. The second sectopod started shooting green bolts at the balcony in the wake of its now destroyed mechanical partner and it looked like the shots had caught both snipers and Hipster quite badly.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire it was for the folks at the balcony. Goose was already running low on the medical supplies while he had to bandage both 44 and Hipster. 44 was imperative to be kept alive for the squad's survival, but now there was no more medical supplies left. The beating the squad had taken already this far had taken its toll and more was coming. Hipster caught another blast and a good deal of him splattered Goose's armour.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Goose: Hipster is down, take down that sectopod before it destroys the whole balcony!

Ironside: *groan* What do you thing we're trying to do, son?

Broden: On my mark, go!

*fierce alloy gun fire and an explosion*

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Hipster was bleeding to death on the balcony and Goose fell to his knees to try to get him standing. Then came the mutons.

Partners

Goose woke up. It was dark, as usual, but this time it felt different, as if there was something lurking nearby. A loud klaxon went off somewhere and he heard scuttling noise. Instinctively, he ducked to find cover, but he only managed to bang his head really hard on the metal wall, after which he heard a voice. Or rather, felt a voice inside his head. It was 44 that was talking to him from somewhere and Goose realized that he woke up from in the psi lab tank as many times before, only today to realize that he was gifted with psionic powers.

Next weeks the squad executed routine missions on rather special setup. While the combat-hardened veterans got some rest before the storm, eggheads' new toy tank was sent to various places all over the world alongside with snipers, who would be watching Goose's and two new recruits' backs. Julien "Guls" Wéra and Sami "Surmuri" Rautaneva were the newest additions to the squad, carefully screened through the recruitment process as possible psi-level soldiers. The toy tank was not your standard robot with a pellet gun. It was a heavy-duty hover tank - imagine a bomb-disposal robot sized battle tank - armed with a plasma cannon and it did its job marvelously.

While the hovertank was fast and deadly, it was still unclear, whether it could ever surpass a seasoned veteran on the battlefield against aliens. The tank was tested toe to toe against a sectopod, and while expectations were high, only piles of scrap were carried away from the warehouse in Osaka, where aliens had a terrorfest going on. While Guls and Surmuri proved worthwhile soldiers and were gaining ranks rapidly, the pressure towards the usage of Gollop Chamber was rising. Council was pushing on us very hard, but we could maybe buy off another month. That would simply mean more crash sites, abduction, terror and scouting missions. The timing for the final assault would need to be perfect.

Pieces of Mind

2016 started rather uneventful. XCOM could keep the alien threat in check while desperately trying to find ways to strengthen the psionic department of the squad. 44 made slow progress and finally could also start controlling other living entities. That was a scary thought, but desperate times called for desperate measures, especially while the soldier pool was growing awfully thin on psi candidates. Megawatt, Broden or Hipster showed no psi prowess at all. And soon enough, the harvesters came. Hyperwave relay could tell the approximate numbers and different alien types, but the dirty work was again served on the squad's plate.

Hipster took the point, Ironside and Branca proved close quarter firepower, Goose and Helldorado supported and 44 watched everyone's back. The initial rush through the hangar part consisted of a few muton elites and an ethereal. The muton types the squad took out with only a little sweat and even the cyberdisc that rose to the rooftop proved no problems, but the ethereal could not be found anywhere. Back at the storage end the reason for the ethereal's disappearance was revealed: it had fled from the firefight to team up with a sectopod and a handful of mutons on the storage bay corridor.

The squad split up and tried to surround the enemies while keeping out of sight of the sectopod so it would need to blind-fire its missiles more often, as direct hits from its cannon were not on the shopping list today either. Ironside - veteran he was - decided to make a quick work of the ethereal as it turn the battle in completely wrong direction very quickly. He jumped down from the rooftop, avoiding muton fire and planned to plant the alloy cannon barrel on the ethereal's face.

Usually it was one good and also very effective idea, but ethereals didn't seem to be your average close combat fodder after all. Elusive and deceptive, planting seeds of doubt inside the head of anyone even observing them, also this individual made Ironside's simple task much more difficult. Ironside ended up peppering the storage bay walls and floors instead.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Ironside: Jumping down, drawing heavy fire, watch the sectopod!

Goose: Flanking from the top right, in position.

44: Keeping the sectopod on the bead here.

*distorted alloy gun fire*

Ironside: *deep breath* Yes. Must be done.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Goose popped his head from behind the wall on top of the rightmost storage bay. He could see the ethereal and the sectopod, but no mutons. Judging that the mutons must be trying to run to the sides through the bays, he paid one last look at the ethereal and noticed something else far too late. Ironside was pointing his alloy cannon straight at him from the corridor below. The alien metal payload shattered his cover completely and also tore his titan armor in half. He hit the deck more due to the force of the blast than as a result of a conscious choice. Severely, possibly gravely injured, he passed out.

Out on the hangar rooftop 44 was waiting for the big robot to appear. Even that it would need to fire blindly, the squad could not take the bombardment forever and sooner or later it also was supposed to get out to look for direct targets. Man versus machine ended up as man's victory once again as sectopod moved forward on the corridor just a little bit; enough for 44 to stop it right there.

44 switched side to get a better view on the ethereal. He shot it with his plasma pistol, but the ethereal held up. It was swaying and apparently dying, but it did not let go of Ironside. Preparing to swap location once again, 44 noticed Goose to raise his plasma rifle on the storage bay rooftop. Like in a slow motion film, Goose lifted his arms and pulled the trigger at the general direction of the ethereal, a true hail mary. The ethereal fell down, and the muton elite that had appeared next to it was at the perfect position to execute Ironside on the spot.

The muton elite shot at Ironside, point blank. Ironside's armor was all but destroyed by the blast, but he grinned through his teeth, spitting blood. Then he pulled the alloy gun trigger and killed the muton. It was over and while Goose was seriously hurt, the squad finished yet another harvest mission without casualties.

No Home for Christmas

It would not be a peaceful Christmas for anyone. After analyzing the ethereal device, the eggheads came up with an idea about a chamber, much like the overseer UFO had. Someone, with strong enough will and specific psi powers would need to communicate through the ethereal device to the mothership if XCOM was to get even within hailing distance. That was the best - and only - plan we had while aliens kept on terrorizing India, shooting military research craft down in Russia and scouting Canada, again.

Hyperwave relay surely gave us the upper hand as we could plan the assaulting squad according to the opposition, but any of that did not help removing the mothership from the southern Atlantic coast of Brazil. Soldiers were tested in the psi labs in turns and to great disappointment no Harmony Lad, Snake Catcher or Branca had the gift of 44.

From the downed UFO in Canada, the squad even carried back a captured ethereal. To no avail. This robed, helmet-wearing mysterious entity gave us nothing new at all and frustrating was growing high. Gollop Chamber was ready to be used, but nobody dared to put 44 in there as long as even single projections to fry opponents' minds into meaningless pulp meant he would have bloodshot eyes and his nose bleeding for days afterwards.

Saw the Strongest Will Bending

Back at the base, while the device from the overseer ship's bridge was taken to the lab, the hyperwave relay went ballistic. Entire fourth level was shaking and small rocks were falling from the ceiling.

[HYPERWAVE RELAY ROOM TRANSCRIPTION]

Chief Engineer: Shut it down, now! The structure is not holding and we are going to bury ourselves here!

Dr. Vahlen: NO! This will not be shut down.

*gun safety click*

Hipster: I think it's best yo--

Dr. Vahlen: *glares at Hipster* ABSOLUTELY NO! This thing will be shut down over my de--look! It's settling!

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]


For the first time, Dr. Vahlen was adamant about her decisions and almost in a rage comparable to a lion mother protecting her cubs, she rejected all attempts to shut the relay down. Suddenly, the relay calmed down, readings went back to normal as if nothing had happened. Then came the earthquake. The earth was trembling somewhere deep inside, from no particular direction at all.

[MISSION CONTROL TRANSCRIPTION]

XCOM Central: I think it's best you get up here to come and see.

Dr. Vahlen: On our way.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

On the geosphere, something had appeared. An UFO almost the size of Europe was floating above the east coast of Brazil. It could not have always been there as it would have been impossible to miss. There it was, sending pulses on the hemisphere around it, and that had to be the source of the earthquake felt in the base. Ten thousand miles away.

[MISSION CONTROL TRANSCRIPTION]

Branca: What the hell is that?

Dr. Vahlen: It must be the mothership, it would not make any sense otherwise.

Chief Engineer: There is no way we can approach that with anything, not even a Firestorm. If anyone got any good ideas how to deal with that, now would be the time.

*long silence*

On-board PA System: Psi lab cycle complete.

Dr. Vahlen: Let's go!

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

At the psi lab, the pods had started their cooldown sequence. First soldiers to drop to the floor were Ironside and Helldorado. They were alive, but exhausted beyond point of staying conscious. Last, 44 fell on his knees and held steady. Harmony Lad felt like he did not know his sniper partner any more, 44 seemed so...alien. Then 44 lifted his head and stared at the spectating crew. His eyes were emanating slight bluish hue.

[PSI LAB TRANSCRIPTION]

44: I feel...like...different. I can see you all so clear...don't worry, Harmony Lad or others.

Harmony Lad: Holy shit!

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Ethereal Business

Large abductor class UFO got shot down in USA. Firestorm shot it twice and it almost split in half. There was not much to see at the crash site. Harmony Lad got well deserved rest after a long year and Snake Catcher stood up for him. Hipster's new toy - some kind of a blaster cannon - was field tested. It seemed to turn mutons into pulp at will.

Abductor ship was cleared much in the style of standard house hoovering. Nobody even broke sweat and as the squad returned home, psi lab got ready. A cold, steel chamber housing a few human-sized, sealable pods was waiting for the first guinea pigs. What if the devices did not work as expected? Or if they deep-fried and cooked the brain of those who decide or are nominated to take the hits for humanity? First three was chosen: Ironside, 44 and Helldorado went in and hopes were that they would also come out - alive.

Hyperwave relay got ready as well. It started whirring and slowly rotating around, as it was skanning the skies for answers who the sectoid commanders talk to. First thing it found was an UFO that had roamed the skies apparently for a long time already, but no satellites had been able to detect it. Designated as overseer, Firestorm was sent again to shoot it down. It delivered, and this manifestation of air superiority found always new ways to surprise us. Overseer fell like a rock from the sky, and hyperwave relay also revealed both the UFO's objective being something related to "final preparations" and the saucer's resident crew. Muton elites, sectopod, drones, heavy floaters and something that was called "ethereal". Perhaps that meant the sectoid commanders' overseer?

Overseer UFO was not particularly big, nor were its standard defenders particularly dangerous. Harmony Lad's vacation was over and he went back to work shooting different kinds of aliens on the familiar pace, that was largely restricted by his weapon's cycle rate. Approaching the bridge, the squad fell silent and seemed to go again into the well-oiled-machine state. Broden opened the door, and beyond was two muton elites and something tall wearing a grey helmet and red robes, as if it had escaped from planet Nirn. There was an ominous, depressing feeling in the air and it was clear, that anything looking like that could not rely on physical force. Broden and Hipster took care of the muton elites while Megawatt shot plasma at the ethereal. As the plasma seared the ethereal - it was impossible to tell whether the hit had any effect on it or not - Megawatt felt a stinging and devastating headache cut her consciousness like a knife.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Megawatt: Aaaagh! It hurts!

Branca: We need to finish it, hide your arc throwers.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Branca ran up to the ethereal and shot it twice, point-blank. The robes flushed and all substance seemed to disappear from the inside. A charred and mangled alien body remained and Branca kicked it to check it does not have any tricks up the sleeve. It did not. Now the squad could also concentrate on the big, glowing orb in the middle of the bridge. It had to have a meaning, so it was bagged in as well.