The Devil's Toysby WeakOptimizationProcessChaptersOperation GangplankAn Unknown EnemyAftermathOperation Gangplank"Dammit, missed the target!" Sergeant Varun Dutta readjusted his sniper rifle, trying to line up a headshot on the muton down the hall. The majority of his squad was occupied with taking down the cyberdisk and chryssalid in the engine room while Corporal Marina Johnson repositioned to engage the thin man that had come from the bridge. The support quickly took aim with her laser rifle and pulled the trigger, burning a hole in the alien's chest. "Thin man has been taken care of," she announced as she dropped down to the lower level, planning to finish off the cyberdisk. She never got the chance as an LMG rained bullets on the disk, causing it to drop to the floor. A couple seconds later it violently exploded, a chunk of it narrowly missing the gun's wielder, Lieutenant Shaojie Zhang. As Zhang confirmed the kill, Sergeant Lexi Gibson targeted the charging chryssalid. Her minigun roared to life and proceeded to spew bullets at the insectoid. Unfortunately, the powerful attack failed to connect with its target, which was now almost on top of the MEC trooper. Luckily for Gibson, Corporal Kate Kerrigan now had a shot on the chryssalid and took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate one of its legs. The alien stumbled as the limb suddenly gave way. Captain Alejandro Vega stepped out from behind his cover and fired his shotgun, ending the chryssalid's life. The muton took a shot at Dutta, but the plasma blasts missed the well-protected sniper. Dutta returned fire, this time hitting his mark. The muton fell backwards, green blood splurting from its head. "All hostiles in the engine room are down," Vega reported to central command. "Copy that, squad leader. Proceed to the bridge," came the response. "Understood. Squad leader out." The assault turned to face his men. "Alright, Gibson and I are taking point," he ordered swiftly. "Johnson and Zhang, you're behind us. Dutta and Kerrigan, cover us from the hallway's entrance." Kerrigan moved up beside Dutta as the squad advanced through the hallway. After confirming that there weren't any aliens in the next room, they made their way to the bridge. Vega and Zhang took up position on either side of the doorway while Johnson and the two snipers hung back behind a strip of partial cover. Gibson stood directly in front of the doorway since she was too large to benefit from cover. Vega quickly poked his finger through the alien door, deactivating the force field that separated the squad from their objective. The three thin men on the bridge immediately moved to take cover behind the consoles they had been operating while the outsider crystal formed its body and positioned itself on the other side of the doorway. The first shot came from Gibson, who obliterated the closest thin man with her minigun. Zhang took a shot at another thin man, but it ducked behind a console before the shot could hit. Dutta managed to hit the farthest thin man, but Kerrigan and Johnson both missed from their distant position. Vega bravely ran into the room, flanking the outsider at the cost of exposing himself to it. He fired his shotgun and hit the outsider, but no damage was done to the central crystal. The semi-corporeal alien leveled its rifle at him and fired, wounding him badly but not quite putting him out of commission. The remaining thin man chose to shoot Gibson, heavily damaging her armor but not piercing it. The MEC trooper rapidly approached the thin man while firing up the rocket boosters on her left arm. She pulled her fist back and activated the boosters, kinetically striking the thin man hard enough for its body to leave a sizable imprint in the wall behind it. As the outsider prepared to finish Vega off, he quickly pulled his ARC thrower out and fired it at the alien, destabilizing its body. Soon all that remained was a light plasma rifle and a crystal. As the battle against the aliens was unfolding, Commander David Bradford stood in XCOM's HQ, watching. Exactly six windows existed for observing the fight, each one provided by a helmet-mounted camera. The other two prominent figures in the room, Dr. Moira Vahlen and Dr. Raymond Shen, were wrapping up the organization of their research on alien craft and preparing to give instructions to the soldiers. Both of them attempted to conceal their nervousness, but they weren't completely successful. While Bradford was just as worried, his demeanor gave nothing away. Soon the sense of dread in the room became justified as Vega made his announcement over the radio. "Central, this is squad leader. The bridge has been secured." "Roger that, squad leader," Bradford replied. "Has the first objective been completed?" "Affirmative. All hostiles have been eliminated." "All right, I'm putting Shen on now. Prepare to receive instructions." "Standing by." Bradford looked at Shen. "You're up." Shen nodded and turned on his headset. "All right, let's see here..." He compared the image of the battleship's computer to his notes. "Try pressing the flashing glyph in the bottom left corner. That should cause the ship to stop following the transponders." The camera feed jiggled as Vega reached down and tapped the glyph. "Well, it felt like the ship just stopped, but I can't confirm anything," he said. One of the personnel in the room spoke up. "Sir, sensors indicate that the UFO has just ceased all movement." Shen sighed. "Now for the hard part." He scanned his notes again. "Ok, the third glyph from the left in the top row should be the—" "Actually, I believe the second glyph in the bottom row is the one you're looking for," Vahlen interrupted. Shen double-checked the image of the alien console. "Nevermind. You want the second glyph from the left in the bottom row." "Aye, sir." Vega pressed the specified glyph, and the screen instantly switched to a new set of glyphs. "Now then, the next glyph in the sequence is probably—" Shen was cut off once again, this time by Vega. "Sir, the screen just changed again! And I think the battleship changed course, too!" Shen looked up and discovered that the computer had indeed switched to displaying another screen. The course change was confirmed soon after when a technician said, "The alien craft has just begun accelerating straight up, sir!" "Did Vega do that?" Bradford asked. "I don't believe so. If I'm reading this right, the battleship has just received instructions from an outside source," Dr. Vahlen replied. "Instructions? To do what?" Dr. Shen responded first. "I believe it might be an order to return to the alien's homeworld. The amount of power being routed to the engines just drastically increased, as if the ship is preparing for interstellar travel." "Can it be overridden?" Bradford demanded. Vahlen proved to be fastest at answering this question. "I highly doubt it. The order itself is quite obvious, but any potential way of countermanding it isn't. It would take us at least a few days to figure out how to override it." "Shit!" Bradford activated his headset. "Big Sky, this is Central. How soon can you provide evac for alpha squad?" "We can be at the battleship in two minutes, Central," Big Sky responded. "I want you there in one!" "Understood. We're already on our way." Bradford switched channels. "Squad leader, Big Sky is on its way and will arrive at your position shortly. Begin making your way to the extraction point immediately!" Bradford ordered. "Solid copy, Central. We'll—" Vega was suddenly cut off as the transmission was lost and replaced with static. "Sir! We've lost the squad's signal!" a technician quickly informed Bradford. "Damn," Bradford muttered. "Is the UFO still in range?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "Negative, sir." Bradford began to consider all that had been lost on this mission. The soldiers were wearing the only carapace armor XCOM had, and they also possessed the prototype laser rifle. Not to mention they were by far the best squad he had. He sighed loudly. This was going to be a long war. An Unknown EnemyTwilight Sparkle was reading her newest book on transmutation theory when Celestia teleported into her room. The unicorn had just had a long day and had been planning on reading a little before going to bed. Instead, she ended up staying awake half the night and was now exhausted. "Princess Celestia! What are you doing here?" Twilight shouted. "Oh, I see that you are already awake." Princess Celestia responded. "I'm afraid there's a problem of great urgency." "Problem? What kind of problem?" "It'll be easier to show you." Celestia proceeded to teleport them without any warning. "Gah!" Twilight cried out in surprise. "What... is that?" She stared at the strange creature trapped inside a magical bubble. "That is what I'm hoping you can help us with. This creature and many others like it attacked Baltimare this evening. According to witnesses, they came in some sort of large flying craft that launched objects like this one"—she indicated the abduction capsule next to the prisoner—"at the city. When they landed they began to spew some sort of gas that grabbed ponies and trapped them as it solidified." Twilight gasped. "That sounds terrible!" Celestia nodded. "It was. Had my sister not stepped in and stopped them, many ponies might've... truth be told, I'm not sure what would've happened. I've never seen anything like these creatures or the objects their ship dropped." "Speaking of Luna, why didn't she come get me? She is the one in charge during the night." "The craft these creatures came in managed to injure her before she forced them to retreat. She's currently recovering from the attack." Twilight walked over to the creature to get a closer look. It was small and gray with large, soulless eyes dominating its face. It currently stood on four short, thin legs, though it seemed designed to stand on two. Even as Twilight watched the creature straightened to a two-legged stance. It pointed a small silver device with a glowing green core strapped onto one of its front limbs at her. The device fired several green bolts that dispersed harmlessly when they came into contact with the magical energy field. Twilight backed up a step, startled by the sudden attack. The alien attempted to take advantage of this by mentally assaulting the pony, but the magical prison once again foiled its plans. "Did it just use mind magic?" she asked. "I believe it did," a troubled Celestia responded. "But mind magic's been outlawed ever since your rule began! No records of how to perform it still exist!" "That doesn't appear to have stopped this creature from learning how to use it." "I'd better start figuring out what these things are right away then!" "As much as I want to get to the bottom of this, you're too tired to work on it right now. You need to get some sleep." "But Princess—" "No buts, Twilight. You've been up all night, so you can't work effectively right now anyway." Twilight sighed. "Fine. But I want to work on it first thing in the morning. I don't like not knowing anything about a threat to Equestria." "Of course." Celestia looked at one of the guards. "Take Twilight to one of the guest chambers and make sure she's not disturbed." "At once, your highness," he replied, and then gestured towards the door. "Right this way." Twilight followed the guard to the nearest guest chamber, where she immediately lay down on the bed while he took up watch outside. I sure hope I can solve this before something else bad happens, she thought as she drifted off into Luna's domain. After several days of studying the creature and looking over everything in Canterlot's libraries and archives, Twilight Sparkle had finally come to the conclusion that its species had never been present in Equestria before this encounter. "Have you made any progress?" Celestia asked as she walked into the room where Twilight was observing the creature. "As a matter fact, I have," Twilight replied. "I've determined that whatever this creature is, it has never been seen in Equestria before." "If it hasn't been seen in Equestria, then where is it from?" "I have a theory about that. Do you know what direction their ship left in?" "Luna said it fled straight up." "Just as I suspected." Twilight turned to face Celestia. "I believe these creatures are aliens from another planet." "You mean they're not even native to Equus?" "Assuming I'm correct. They could just be from a part of the planet we haven't explored yet, but I doubt it." Twilight suddenly remembered what had happened to Princess Luna. "How well is Luna recovering?" "According to the doctors, she's almost ready to resume her duties." "That's good news." Twilight paused for a moment. "Do you think I could speak to her? I have a few questions that might help me with this project." "She should be up for it. I'll come with you." "OK." Twilight and Celestia began making their way to the medical wing. They had walked about halfway there when a deafening explosion shook the castle. "Oh my Celest—gosh!" Twilight yelled. "What was that?" Celestia didn't even notice Twilight's slipup. "That came from the medical wing! My sister could be hurt!" She teleported without a second thought. "Princess!" Twilight quickly teleported after her. As she exited the teleport, Twilight quickly noticed several things. The medical wing's roof was missing. There was fire everywhere. Multiple dark shapes were raining green flames from the night sky. And the royal sisters were battling a taller version of the creature they had captured. Well, its height wasn't the only difference. For one thing, it was wearing red robes and some sort of headdress. It also had four arms and was hovering just off the ground. And most importantly, while the first creature couldn't do anything about the magical bubble it was trapped in, this one was holding off two alicorns. Actually, it was beating two alicorns. As Twilight froze in awe of the fearsome struggle, a chilling voice burrowed its way into the minds of everypony nearby. "Submit!" it commanded. While the full force of the voice would surely have convinced anypony to obey, the wielder was currently too occupied with defeating the alicorn sisters to use it to its full effectiveness. It did weaken the Princesses, though. As an unmoving Twilight continued to stare at the scene, the attacker mentally subdued Celestia and Luna. Once the sisters ceased resisting, swirling pink and purple strands of light immediately enclosed all three combatants. Soon the lights faded away to reveal only empty space. Twilight watched the objects in the sky fly away and began to weep. Her mentor, who was one of Twilight's closest friends, and the sister of that mentor, whom Twilight had helped redeem, were both gone, quite possibly forever. Aftermath"Squad leader, Big Sky is on its way and will arrive at your position shortly. Begin making your way to the extraction point immediately!" "Solid copy, Central. We'll—" Vega began to reply to Bradford, only to be cut off as the ship lurched violently and caused him to stumble. He fell to the ground and cried out in anguish, gritting his teeth and clutching the plasma burn on his chest. Johnson whisked a medikit off her armor as she rushed over. She gently moved his hand away from the wound and applied the concoction of drugs. Vega winced in pain from the stinging of the various sedatives and healing agents. "Any idea where we are right now?" he asked once he regained as much composure as he could. Gibson turned to face him. "I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, I'd go with space!" she said sarcastically. "Thank you, Gibson," came the equally sarcastic reply. "Now that we've established that, we need to figure out our next move. As I recall, Shen mentioned something about the alien homeworld, and I don't want to arrive there without being prepared." "You are not figuring out anything. You have a severe wound to recover from on an alien ship that may not be landing anytime soon," Johnson said sternly. "Dammit Johnson, I don't have time for this! I need to—" "No, you need to get some rest." "But—" "But nothing!" Johnson looked at Zhang. "Zhang, could you please help me move Vega into a different room where he can recover?" "My pleasure," he replied as he walked over to where Vega lay. The two able-bodied soldiers picked up Vega and carried him into the nearest room as gently as they could. There wasn't anywhere convenient to leave him, so they just put him down on the floor. "You better update me on our situation when I wake up," Vega got out through his once-again-gritted teeth. It turned out Zhang wasn't the best person to have carry injured around. "I'll update you when I think you're ready and not a moment sooner," Johnson said in a tone that allowed for no compromise. She and Zhang returned to the bridge, where the other soldiers were discussing their predicament. "So first we have to land this thing, and then we have to survive on a planet full of hostiles. Why are we trying to prepare for this again?" Gibson asked. "Well, we've proven we can fly the battleship. And there's no guarantee we'll end up at the enemy's homeworld," Kerrigan replied, trying to be optimistic. Gibson snorted. "We proved we can fly this thing? That was all Vahlen and Shen! And hoping we don't end up at the homeworld won't help us if we do arrive there." Dutta decided it was his turn to speak up. "I, for one, agree with Kerrigan. Who here joined XCOM just to give up when things got a little tougher?" "I certainly didn't," Zhang replied as he walked into the room. When he reached the spot where his LMG lay, he picked it up and pulled the clip out. "I'd much rather be prepared to give the aliens a fight," he said while reloading it. "And as the highest ranking soldier here, I get to make the final call." Gibson threw her cybernetic limbs in the air. "Okay, I give up! Clearly none of you are willing to listen to reason!" she shouted in frustration. "No, we're just not willing to listen to pessimism," Kerrigan rebutted. "Same thing." Upon hearing that, Kerrigan paused for a moment. "Oh really? How are they the same thing exactly?" "Well—" "Enough! Stop bickering over something you can't control!" Johnson interrupted. "Zhang is the highest rank not in critical condition, so he makes the decision now." Zhang, having come to his first decision, started taking charge. "Thank you, Johnson. The first thing we will do is collect all resources as if this was the end of a successful mission." "We have to waste our time gathering corpses and weapon fragments!" Gibson complained. Zhang glared sharply at Gibson, causing the MEC trooper to involuntarily take a half step back. "I will not tolerate insubordination, Sergeant. Do you understand?" "Yes, sir!" "Good." Zhang turned to address the rest of the squad. "Why are you standing there? Get to work!" Bradford was a very stoic individual. He could watch a soldier be mutilated by a chryssalid and not even blink. This was a necessity since he watched people die far more often than anyone should ever have to. Unfortunately for him, this talent didn't help with enduring the pain at all. So as he walked over to the Situation Room to give his latest report to the Council, he only appeared to be unaffected by recent events. In truth he was distraught both from the result of Operation Gangplank and the soon-to-occur judgement of that result, though mostly from the former. As he walked into the room at the preappointed time, a silhouette of the Council's spokesman materialized on the screen dominating the wall in front of him. As always, the spokesman sat with a perfectly straight back and folded hands. His face could not be made out, and his surroundings included nothing but a desk, a light, and a wall. "We are extremely impressed with the progress of the XCOM project thus far, Commander. However, your most recent mission has left some members of the Council... concerned. While we are pleased that you were able to drive away the alien battleship, the loss of XCOM's best soldiers and equipment is disturbing." Well, here goes nothing, Bradford thought nervously. "There was no way we could afford the bombardment of Council nations. If we failed to stop the battleship, it would have destroyed our supporting countries and ended this project. As far as I'm concerned, the risk of losing our best men was more than acceptable if it would increase our chances of taking that thing down." "I shall inform the Council of your viewpoint on the situation. Do you have anything else to add?" Increase our funding. By a lot. "No, nothing more." "Very well, Commander. Remember, we will be watching." Bradford sighed in relief as the screen flickered off. He wiped the sweat from his brow, then turned and walked out the door. He knew he wasn't out of the woods yet, but he had at least gotten a brief respite.
Operation Gangplank"Dammit, missed the target!" Sergeant Varun Dutta readjusted his sniper rifle, trying to line up a headshot on the muton down the hall. The majority of his squad was occupied with taking down the cyberdisk and chryssalid in the engine room while Corporal Marina Johnson repositioned to engage the thin man that had come from the bridge. The support quickly took aim with her laser rifle and pulled the trigger, burning a hole in the alien's chest. "Thin man has been taken care of," she announced as she dropped down to the lower level, planning to finish off the cyberdisk. She never got the chance as an LMG rained bullets on the disk, causing it to drop to the floor. A couple seconds later it violently exploded, a chunk of it narrowly missing the gun's wielder, Lieutenant Shaojie Zhang. As Zhang confirmed the kill, Sergeant Lexi Gibson targeted the charging chryssalid. Her minigun roared to life and proceeded to spew bullets at the insectoid. Unfortunately, the powerful attack failed to connect with its target, which was now almost on top of the MEC trooper. Luckily for Gibson, Corporal Kate Kerrigan now had a shot on the chryssalid and took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate one of its legs. The alien stumbled as the limb suddenly gave way. Captain Alejandro Vega stepped out from behind his cover and fired his shotgun, ending the chryssalid's life. The muton took a shot at Dutta, but the plasma blasts missed the well-protected sniper. Dutta returned fire, this time hitting his mark. The muton fell backwards, green blood splurting from its head. "All hostiles in the engine room are down," Vega reported to central command. "Copy that, squad leader. Proceed to the bridge," came the response. "Understood. Squad leader out." The assault turned to face his men. "Alright, Gibson and I are taking point," he ordered swiftly. "Johnson and Zhang, you're behind us. Dutta and Kerrigan, cover us from the hallway's entrance." Kerrigan moved up beside Dutta as the squad advanced through the hallway. After confirming that there weren't any aliens in the next room, they made their way to the bridge. Vega and Zhang took up position on either side of the doorway while Johnson and the two snipers hung back behind a strip of partial cover. Gibson stood directly in front of the doorway since she was too large to benefit from cover. Vega quickly poked his finger through the alien door, deactivating the force field that separated the squad from their objective. The three thin men on the bridge immediately moved to take cover behind the consoles they had been operating while the outsider crystal formed its body and positioned itself on the other side of the doorway. The first shot came from Gibson, who obliterated the closest thin man with her minigun. Zhang took a shot at another thin man, but it ducked behind a console before the shot could hit. Dutta managed to hit the farthest thin man, but Kerrigan and Johnson both missed from their distant position. Vega bravely ran into the room, flanking the outsider at the cost of exposing himself to it. He fired his shotgun and hit the outsider, but no damage was done to the central crystal. The semi-corporeal alien leveled its rifle at him and fired, wounding him badly but not quite putting him out of commission. The remaining thin man chose to shoot Gibson, heavily damaging her armor but not piercing it. The MEC trooper rapidly approached the thin man while firing up the rocket boosters on her left arm. She pulled her fist back and activated the boosters, kinetically striking the thin man hard enough for its body to leave a sizable imprint in the wall behind it. As the outsider prepared to finish Vega off, he quickly pulled his ARC thrower out and fired it at the alien, destabilizing its body. Soon all that remained was a light plasma rifle and a crystal. As the battle against the aliens was unfolding, Commander David Bradford stood in XCOM's HQ, watching. Exactly six windows existed for observing the fight, each one provided by a helmet-mounted camera. The other two prominent figures in the room, Dr. Moira Vahlen and Dr. Raymond Shen, were wrapping up the organization of their research on alien craft and preparing to give instructions to the soldiers. Both of them attempted to conceal their nervousness, but they weren't completely successful. While Bradford was just as worried, his demeanor gave nothing away. Soon the sense of dread in the room became justified as Vega made his announcement over the radio. "Central, this is squad leader. The bridge has been secured." "Roger that, squad leader," Bradford replied. "Has the first objective been completed?" "Affirmative. All hostiles have been eliminated." "All right, I'm putting Shen on now. Prepare to receive instructions." "Standing by." Bradford looked at Shen. "You're up." Shen nodded and turned on his headset. "All right, let's see here..." He compared the image of the battleship's computer to his notes. "Try pressing the flashing glyph in the bottom left corner. That should cause the ship to stop following the transponders." The camera feed jiggled as Vega reached down and tapped the glyph. "Well, it felt like the ship just stopped, but I can't confirm anything," he said. One of the personnel in the room spoke up. "Sir, sensors indicate that the UFO has just ceased all movement." Shen sighed. "Now for the hard part." He scanned his notes again. "Ok, the third glyph from the left in the top row should be the—" "Actually, I believe the second glyph in the bottom row is the one you're looking for," Vahlen interrupted. Shen double-checked the image of the alien console. "Nevermind. You want the second glyph from the left in the bottom row." "Aye, sir." Vega pressed the specified glyph, and the screen instantly switched to a new set of glyphs. "Now then, the next glyph in the sequence is probably—" Shen was cut off once again, this time by Vega. "Sir, the screen just changed again! And I think the battleship changed course, too!" Shen looked up and discovered that the computer had indeed switched to displaying another screen. The course change was confirmed soon after when a technician said, "The alien craft has just begun accelerating straight up, sir!" "Did Vega do that?" Bradford asked. "I don't believe so. If I'm reading this right, the battleship has just received instructions from an outside source," Dr. Vahlen replied. "Instructions? To do what?" Dr. Shen responded first. "I believe it might be an order to return to the alien's homeworld. The amount of power being routed to the engines just drastically increased, as if the ship is preparing for interstellar travel." "Can it be overridden?" Bradford demanded. Vahlen proved to be fastest at answering this question. "I highly doubt it. The order itself is quite obvious, but any potential way of countermanding it isn't. It would take us at least a few days to figure out how to override it." "Shit!" Bradford activated his headset. "Big Sky, this is Central. How soon can you provide evac for alpha squad?" "We can be at the battleship in two minutes, Central," Big Sky responded. "I want you there in one!" "Understood. We're already on our way." Bradford switched channels. "Squad leader, Big Sky is on its way and will arrive at your position shortly. Begin making your way to the extraction point immediately!" Bradford ordered. "Solid copy, Central. We'll—" Vega was suddenly cut off as the transmission was lost and replaced with static. "Sir! We've lost the squad's signal!" a technician quickly informed Bradford. "Damn," Bradford muttered. "Is the UFO still in range?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "Negative, sir." Bradford began to consider all that had been lost on this mission. The soldiers were wearing the only carapace armor XCOM had, and they also possessed the prototype laser rifle. Not to mention they were by far the best squad he had. He sighed loudly. This was going to be a long war.
An Unknown EnemyTwilight Sparkle was reading her newest book on transmutation theory when Celestia teleported into her room. The unicorn had just had a long day and had been planning on reading a little before going to bed. Instead, she ended up staying awake half the night and was now exhausted. "Princess Celestia! What are you doing here?" Twilight shouted. "Oh, I see that you are already awake." Princess Celestia responded. "I'm afraid there's a problem of great urgency." "Problem? What kind of problem?" "It'll be easier to show you." Celestia proceeded to teleport them without any warning. "Gah!" Twilight cried out in surprise. "What... is that?" She stared at the strange creature trapped inside a magical bubble. "That is what I'm hoping you can help us with. This creature and many others like it attacked Baltimare this evening. According to witnesses, they came in some sort of large flying craft that launched objects like this one"—she indicated the abduction capsule next to the prisoner—"at the city. When they landed they began to spew some sort of gas that grabbed ponies and trapped them as it solidified." Twilight gasped. "That sounds terrible!" Celestia nodded. "It was. Had my sister not stepped in and stopped them, many ponies might've... truth be told, I'm not sure what would've happened. I've never seen anything like these creatures or the objects their ship dropped." "Speaking of Luna, why didn't she come get me? She is the one in charge during the night." "The craft these creatures came in managed to injure her before she forced them to retreat. She's currently recovering from the attack." Twilight walked over to the creature to get a closer look. It was small and gray with large, soulless eyes dominating its face. It currently stood on four short, thin legs, though it seemed designed to stand on two. Even as Twilight watched the creature straightened to a two-legged stance. It pointed a small silver device with a glowing green core strapped onto one of its front limbs at her. The device fired several green bolts that dispersed harmlessly when they came into contact with the magical energy field. Twilight backed up a step, startled by the sudden attack. The alien attempted to take advantage of this by mentally assaulting the pony, but the magical prison once again foiled its plans. "Did it just use mind magic?" she asked. "I believe it did," a troubled Celestia responded. "But mind magic's been outlawed ever since your rule began! No records of how to perform it still exist!" "That doesn't appear to have stopped this creature from learning how to use it." "I'd better start figuring out what these things are right away then!" "As much as I want to get to the bottom of this, you're too tired to work on it right now. You need to get some sleep." "But Princess—" "No buts, Twilight. You've been up all night, so you can't work effectively right now anyway." Twilight sighed. "Fine. But I want to work on it first thing in the morning. I don't like not knowing anything about a threat to Equestria." "Of course." Celestia looked at one of the guards. "Take Twilight to one of the guest chambers and make sure she's not disturbed." "At once, your highness," he replied, and then gestured towards the door. "Right this way." Twilight followed the guard to the nearest guest chamber, where she immediately lay down on the bed while he took up watch outside. I sure hope I can solve this before something else bad happens, she thought as she drifted off into Luna's domain. After several days of studying the creature and looking over everything in Canterlot's libraries and archives, Twilight Sparkle had finally come to the conclusion that its species had never been present in Equestria before this encounter. "Have you made any progress?" Celestia asked as she walked into the room where Twilight was observing the creature. "As a matter fact, I have," Twilight replied. "I've determined that whatever this creature is, it has never been seen in Equestria before." "If it hasn't been seen in Equestria, then where is it from?" "I have a theory about that. Do you know what direction their ship left in?" "Luna said it fled straight up." "Just as I suspected." Twilight turned to face Celestia. "I believe these creatures are aliens from another planet." "You mean they're not even native to Equus?" "Assuming I'm correct. They could just be from a part of the planet we haven't explored yet, but I doubt it." Twilight suddenly remembered what had happened to Princess Luna. "How well is Luna recovering?" "According to the doctors, she's almost ready to resume her duties." "That's good news." Twilight paused for a moment. "Do you think I could speak to her? I have a few questions that might help me with this project." "She should be up for it. I'll come with you." "OK." Twilight and Celestia began making their way to the medical wing. They had walked about halfway there when a deafening explosion shook the castle. "Oh my Celest—gosh!" Twilight yelled. "What was that?" Celestia didn't even notice Twilight's slipup. "That came from the medical wing! My sister could be hurt!" She teleported without a second thought. "Princess!" Twilight quickly teleported after her. As she exited the teleport, Twilight quickly noticed several things. The medical wing's roof was missing. There was fire everywhere. Multiple dark shapes were raining green flames from the night sky. And the royal sisters were battling a taller version of the creature they had captured. Well, its height wasn't the only difference. For one thing, it was wearing red robes and some sort of headdress. It also had four arms and was hovering just off the ground. And most importantly, while the first creature couldn't do anything about the magical bubble it was trapped in, this one was holding off two alicorns. Actually, it was beating two alicorns. As Twilight froze in awe of the fearsome struggle, a chilling voice burrowed its way into the minds of everypony nearby. "Submit!" it commanded. While the full force of the voice would surely have convinced anypony to obey, the wielder was currently too occupied with defeating the alicorn sisters to use it to its full effectiveness. It did weaken the Princesses, though. As an unmoving Twilight continued to stare at the scene, the attacker mentally subdued Celestia and Luna. Once the sisters ceased resisting, swirling pink and purple strands of light immediately enclosed all three combatants. Soon the lights faded away to reveal only empty space. Twilight watched the objects in the sky fly away and began to weep. Her mentor, who was one of Twilight's closest friends, and the sister of that mentor, whom Twilight had helped redeem, were both gone, quite possibly forever.
Aftermath"Squad leader, Big Sky is on its way and will arrive at your position shortly. Begin making your way to the extraction point immediately!" "Solid copy, Central. We'll—" Vega began to reply to Bradford, only to be cut off as the ship lurched violently and caused him to stumble. He fell to the ground and cried out in anguish, gritting his teeth and clutching the plasma burn on his chest. Johnson whisked a medikit off her armor as she rushed over. She gently moved his hand away from the wound and applied the concoction of drugs. Vega winced in pain from the stinging of the various sedatives and healing agents. "Any idea where we are right now?" he asked once he regained as much composure as he could. Gibson turned to face him. "I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, I'd go with space!" she said sarcastically. "Thank you, Gibson," came the equally sarcastic reply. "Now that we've established that, we need to figure out our next move. As I recall, Shen mentioned something about the alien homeworld, and I don't want to arrive there without being prepared." "You are not figuring out anything. You have a severe wound to recover from on an alien ship that may not be landing anytime soon," Johnson said sternly. "Dammit Johnson, I don't have time for this! I need to—" "No, you need to get some rest." "But—" "But nothing!" Johnson looked at Zhang. "Zhang, could you please help me move Vega into a different room where he can recover?" "My pleasure," he replied as he walked over to where Vega lay. The two able-bodied soldiers picked up Vega and carried him into the nearest room as gently as they could. There wasn't anywhere convenient to leave him, so they just put him down on the floor. "You better update me on our situation when I wake up," Vega got out through his once-again-gritted teeth. It turned out Zhang wasn't the best person to have carry injured around. "I'll update you when I think you're ready and not a moment sooner," Johnson said in a tone that allowed for no compromise. She and Zhang returned to the bridge, where the other soldiers were discussing their predicament. "So first we have to land this thing, and then we have to survive on a planet full of hostiles. Why are we trying to prepare for this again?" Gibson asked. "Well, we've proven we can fly the battleship. And there's no guarantee we'll end up at the enemy's homeworld," Kerrigan replied, trying to be optimistic. Gibson snorted. "We proved we can fly this thing? That was all Vahlen and Shen! And hoping we don't end up at the homeworld won't help us if we do arrive there." Dutta decided it was his turn to speak up. "I, for one, agree with Kerrigan. Who here joined XCOM just to give up when things got a little tougher?" "I certainly didn't," Zhang replied as he walked into the room. When he reached the spot where his LMG lay, he picked it up and pulled the clip out. "I'd much rather be prepared to give the aliens a fight," he said while reloading it. "And as the highest ranking soldier here, I get to make the final call." Gibson threw her cybernetic limbs in the air. "Okay, I give up! Clearly none of you are willing to listen to reason!" she shouted in frustration. "No, we're just not willing to listen to pessimism," Kerrigan rebutted. "Same thing." Upon hearing that, Kerrigan paused for a moment. "Oh really? How are they the same thing exactly?" "Well—" "Enough! Stop bickering over something you can't control!" Johnson interrupted. "Zhang is the highest rank not in critical condition, so he makes the decision now." Zhang, having come to his first decision, started taking charge. "Thank you, Johnson. The first thing we will do is collect all resources as if this was the end of a successful mission." "We have to waste our time gathering corpses and weapon fragments!" Gibson complained. Zhang glared sharply at Gibson, causing the MEC trooper to involuntarily take a half step back. "I will not tolerate insubordination, Sergeant. Do you understand?" "Yes, sir!" "Good." Zhang turned to address the rest of the squad. "Why are you standing there? Get to work!" Bradford was a very stoic individual. He could watch a soldier be mutilated by a chryssalid and not even blink. This was a necessity since he watched people die far more often than anyone should ever have to. Unfortunately for him, this talent didn't help with enduring the pain at all. So as he walked over to the Situation Room to give his latest report to the Council, he only appeared to be unaffected by recent events. In truth he was distraught both from the result of Operation Gangplank and the soon-to-occur judgement of that result, though mostly from the former. As he walked into the room at the preappointed time, a silhouette of the Council's spokesman materialized on the screen dominating the wall in front of him. As always, the spokesman sat with a perfectly straight back and folded hands. His face could not be made out, and his surroundings included nothing but a desk, a light, and a wall. "We are extremely impressed with the progress of the XCOM project thus far, Commander. However, your most recent mission has left some members of the Council... concerned. While we are pleased that you were able to drive away the alien battleship, the loss of XCOM's best soldiers and equipment is disturbing." Well, here goes nothing, Bradford thought nervously. "There was no way we could afford the bombardment of Council nations. If we failed to stop the battleship, it would have destroyed our supporting countries and ended this project. As far as I'm concerned, the risk of losing our best men was more than acceptable if it would increase our chances of taking that thing down." "I shall inform the Council of your viewpoint on the situation. Do you have anything else to add?" Increase our funding. By a lot. "No, nothing more." "Very well, Commander. Remember, we will be watching." Bradford sighed in relief as the screen flickered off. He wiped the sweat from his brow, then turned and walked out the door. He knew he wasn't out of the woods yet, but he had at least gotten a brief respite.
