XCOM: Resist

Chapter 34 Part 1-Falling

Reason for this will be explained below.

It's been a week since the discovery of Neo Exalt. DuelMaster and Titanium, along with the others who followed them, were dropped off somewhere in Russia before going their separate ways. They left a lot of information involving Neo Exalt's plans and locations to several supply caches. They told them about the man who attacked them, Thunder, a man who had claimed to take on several Mutons on his own.

Everyday since, Chailux had been in the AWC beside Rose who had a bandage across her eyes. The medics on duty say that she had gone bind but the cause was unknown to them. Every now and then, Eliza would pop in to see her mother if she wasn't on mission despite both her parent's disapproval.

The Commander awakes to panic and sees Bradford be wheeled in on a stretcher. "What happened," Chailux raised his voice over the panic and more and more started to pour in.

"We encountered another Ruler," Bradford weakly said as they inject him to numb the pain, "a Muton Queen of all things." He groans again as they move him onto a bed. "What the hell was Vahlen thinking? Took it out but the wall just received a couple new names." Chailux breaths a sigh of relief before being ushered out of the AWC.

He heads up to his quarters and looks around at trophies he kept. Damaged Advent armour and weapons, fragments of alien weapons, original XCOM armour, and a pair of broken glasses. Chailux sighs as he falls into his chair, staring at all of these and more. He checked his terminal at the data and XCOM's current objectives. The European Resistance Cell reported some strange activity in Norway and a team had been dispatched to investigate. "Will it ever end," Chailux mutters to himself and Asaru appears hovering over his shoulder, "will they ever stop?"

"I wish I could answer that," Asaru sadly said, "these Ethereals are more ruthless than the ones of my time. But then again, I only knew of one other."

The Avenger suddenly shutters and the lights flicker. Chailux looks back towards Asaru to see him vanish. An operative quickly enters the room out of breath. "We've got a problem," they obviously say, "in the cargo bay." Chailux grabs his rifle and follows the operative down to Engineering.

As they reach Engineering, an operative was seen thrown through the doorway, sliding across the floor. Inside, a massive red Archon was ripping apart the place and tossing people around. Every shot made at it didn't seem to affect it at all. It stops at the sight of the Commander and point's its staff toward him. "You," it said in a low voice, "you killed my siblings. Now you shall die."

It swoops down towards Chailux as he tried to roll out of the way. The Archon lets out a scream as missiles begin to track down his every move through the crates. A rocket hits the Archon and it emerges from the smoke, turning back to see the Spark Unit preparing to fire. The Archon holds up its staff as the shot harmlessly ping off as it moves closer.

Chailux peaks around the corner to witness them but then turns back at the sound of heavy breathing. Lily lay slumped against the wall, bleeding from her stomach. "I'll be fine," she insisted, "I medkit myself already." Chailux leans down to help but Lily pushes him away. "That thing blew a hole straight through the armour and none of our magnetic weapons are equipped to deal with it. I was working on some power armour and plasma weapons in the firing range. It's still a prototype though so it may not be stable."

Chailux looks back to see the Archon rip the Sparks's arm off and toss it aside. "I'll use whatever," he told her before vaulting over the crates and making a dash for the stairs to the firing range. The Archon turns to see him and and charges up it's staff, aiming it at him. Chailux dives as the plasma leaves the staff and he rolls down the stairs.

The Archon leaves the wrecked robot and hovers to the stairs. It charges it's staff again, aiming it down the stairs. It sees a glow and fires, engulfing the entire lower level in smoke. It waits patiently but then dodges back as another plasma ball is fired back. From the smoke the Commander leaps, uppercutting the Archon and sending it back into a pile of crates.

Chailux lands in unfinished power armour and holding an experimental plasma rifle. The Archon bursts from the crates, looking at it's staff to see it broken. "No matter," it tosses the staff aside, "why don't we take this outside." The Archon flies low and knocks Chailux off his feet, grabbing in and taking him outside and flying high into the air. "Have a nice fall," it releases him and let's him fall.

Two reasons why I decided to make this a two parter. One: I do a maximum word limit of around 800-900 per chapter (may change depending on the story). Two: I skipped the Muton Queen and honestly the Archon King was probably my favourite (if not the hardest) Ruler I've encountered. There is a mod which adds an Avatar Ruler which I have yet to encounter on the 50th Modded Playthrough (so many mods require a full reset to take affect).