Strike-One

Strike-One is deceased, XCOM is detroyed, and humanity is dead.

This blog is closing.

The end appeared.

The star battle contnued as an immense object loomed.

It was the size of the Moon and carried a superlaser capable of wiping a planet clean off the map.

As the last of the Geth and the Reapers disappeared, and the Covenant began to beat a retreat, Fusion Lance fire shifted to the Death Star, the combined might of humanity blasting away at the massive space station. It may have been large, but it began to take serious damage to its shields as Firestorms rushed it en masse, heading directly for its one weakness;

Its thermal exhaust port.

——

The first human turned out to be the Commander - who had temporarily turned off the Shields in her room.

She quietly studied the Benefactor and took in his words, before carefully considering her next choice of words.

Humanity was more than ready.

As the satellites detected the combined mass of ships, the Space Defense Network came online. A legion of thousands of satellite defence turrets, each one armed with multiple Fusion Lances, acquired their firing solutions with the assistance of XCOM's supercomputer network and Lotus, and opened up.

Blasts of yellow energy streaked out from beyond the earth, impacting countless ships. The Reapers and Geth, using only kinetic barriers, were entirely unprepared for the assault and their numbers began to dwindle quickly as the ship-killing Fusion Lances rended their armor apart. The Covenant ships were significantly more well-protected, and their shields took the brunt of the impact - but the smaller ships began to fall.

The fleet was reduced in number by at least one quarter when the Defense Fleet - scarred, but prepared - began firing salvos - their main guns replaced with Fusion Lances. At the same time, Earth's surface-to-space turrets opened up - hundreds more Fusion Lances joining the melee even as the Space Defense Network continued to fire on the invading ships.

As the words washed over the earth, the Commander of XCOM stared up.

"No matter. We will find another way."

"We will not be tortured by your kind anymore."

"We are not your playthings."

The stage - in this case, the Situation Room - was relatively clear as Commander Alexandria Cross - looking like she'd been put through a meat grinder - stepped out into it to face the camera SHIV. She took a deep breath and prepared to face the world.

The drone beeped.

"Greetings, humanity. As you all known, I am Alexandria Cross, the Supreme Commander of the Extradimensional Combat Unit. As you are no doubt well aware, we have recently found several nefarious - and heroic - entities have been using Earth, and as such humanity, as their playground. Three hours ago mutants appeared because something rewrote their genetics. People over the world have been turning into feral beasts, Hong Kong was destroyed by a starship the size of the Chixculub meteor and promptly restored. We are being battered."

"And I will not stand for this any longer."

"I am pleased to announce that XCOM has officially begun tests for something we're calling Operation: Lifeboat. It is clear that Earth has been foresaken, so we are going to do something nobody would have thought possible until this chaos started."

"They can have Earth. We're leaving."

"Within several days our prototype engine will be installed on one of our military starships - and I am aware this breaks several conventions, but in the end recent events have forced our hand. We will begin testing to find a new home - one that will remain unmolested by the hands of whatever ails us."

"Once we've done enough scouting, equipped enough ships, we will proceed to begin the evacuation of planet Earth. We will seed humanity amongst the multiverse, and prevent these calamities from ever happening again. While it is true that some of these events are favorable, it is clear the unfavorable events and their disasterous consequences far outweigh the benefits."

"Hold out hope, humanity. We just may survive yet."

"Vigilo Confido."

We... are not entirely sure. There is no formal name for it as of yet.

I am unsure if one will ever be applied.

The X-Genes lying dormant in the DNa of some ten thousand humans activated.

The show was significantly less brilliant than some expected. Most took a look at their newfound superhuman talents, shrugged it off, and continued life as normal - not really wanting to invoke the wrath of XCOM. Some used their powers for profit, others to fight evil.

Only a select few decided to use their powers for evil - they very quickly learned that lasers hurt, and superpowers don't work when you're dead. Humanity welcomed mutants with open arms.

Of course, however, neither of these ended up anywhere in particular.

Fortunately, the extradimensional psionic emanations were only heard in the Receiving Room.

In other news, Asia is looking for therapists.