Depth 086 "Apparently they're related."
"… To summarize, you want us to lie low for a year and then you'll deliver the Commander to us yes? How can we trust your words when you're threatening us within your warship?" Is what Dr. Vahlen asked me, her question made sense though, I mean I for one wouldn't trust someone who's threatening me with a big stick, although she's wrong in one point, I'm not actually threatening her though.
"You don't, although it's completely fine if you wish to die here anyway." Not that I'm going to let that happen, I went as far as manipulating time itself just to keep you alive. "I see… Considering your impeccable timing, it would seem that you know of what conspired at my settlement."
"Yes I do Dr. Vahlen, and tell your Psionic guard to keep his mind on his own lest I drill his out of his tiny little head." Now it wasn't nice that her escort, a well-built bald man with purple eyes that seemingly looks like an ordinary rebel from Half-Life 2 is currently toting his mind onto mine but utterly fails because of my anti-psionic earrings. Dr. Vahlen and her guard stiffened at my apparent knowledge of their psionic capabilities, in fact, Dr. Vahlen herself can use psionic abilities, unlike what the games and novels depicted, it seems that this Dr. Vahlen was able to use psionic powers although her powers are weak compared to her guard. It's like comparing a ping-pong ball to a bowling ball.
The cautious yet audacious Dr. Vahlen composed herself and ordered her guard to stand down, "To think you that even know about it… I truly wonder, who might you—" I cut her off and forced her to choose. "Stop, so what will it be? If you stay here then I'll at least provide boats for you to use." Lies, all lies me.
"… We accept." In which I faked a perked up expression by clapping my hands together and raising the volume of my voice, "Fantastic! Well then, all you have to do is enter the bridge and stay inside!"
"…. Is that is?" Dr. Vahlen genuinely surprised, asked me. "Yes! That's all you have to do and I'll take care of everything else!" Still surprised but she agreed and I lead them inside the ship towards the bridge, inside, unlike what some of them blatantly thought of, was actually a futuristic looking bridge, similar to Iona's I-401 Bridge but larger and better. "T-this is… Amazing… Those are English... These designs are… Human…" Said by the good Doctor.
As the Doctor inspected the entirety of the bridge, I warned her of one thing I purposefully let out. "Ah, Dr. Vahlen, I'm sorry to have not inform you but to meet the Commander, we have to do some space-time travel shenanigans." At Dr. Vahlen's surprise at my words. I 'paused' time in the entirety of my ship-body with the exception of my Mental Model which I dissolved, I modified the bridge to ensure that they'll live in case of stasis failure and they were able to move about inside my D-Storage, although I tried moving my Avatar inside there once, there's no telling what'll be the effects if other living beings than my Avatar.
After I stored the victi— Err, I mean, survivors, I prepared to travel back to the 'present'.
As I turn the tides of time, I couldn't help but think that I may have caused the Avenger's downfall due to my intervention with Dr. Vahlen. A fleet disappears with no warnings? That warrants heightened military presence and aggressive approach. Even I would do that, I'd hate it if one of my fleets, my groups, were to disappear without a trace.
As time transitions back to the present, I scanned the area for any immediate threats, knowing that nothing's waiting to ambush me, I received a signal only I can detect and receive, this signal taught me of the Revenge's coordinates, of course before chronoshifting back to the aerial warship, I redeployed my fleets all over the system, this time Battlegroup 3 is secretly lurking in lunar orbit, Battlegroup 1 in low-earth orbit, Battlegroup 2 ready to support Battlegroups 1 or 3 and to response to any unexpected threats, Destroyer group 1 and Carrier group 1 guarding the Mothership in yet again, Jupiter's Ring.
Once inside the Revenge, I acted as if nothing happened and walked towards the bridge, along the way I came across the guy from Metal Slug that fires energy balls from his hands like a goddamn Saiyan or the guys that uses Hadouken, yes that blonde man is the same within the one in the games, except this one isn't naked with only his boxers but rather, wearing a proper XCOM2 uniform complete with a sniper rifle, along with overgrown hairs in his head, 'what are you a human with a bush as a head?' is what I thought.
POW-kun who's meditating in front of a board dedicated for posting of odd jobs inside the enlarge hallway noticed my gaze. "Ms. Razgriz?" he asked with a surprisingly young voice, "Nothing, just wondering, why you haven't cut those overgrowth off of you?" I asked him back. POW-kun visibly twitched at my question and as if expressing his embarrassment, he wryly laughed and scratched the back of his head. "A..ahaha… Unfortunately, I always seem to forget to cut my hair." When I asked why he said ".. Well… We don't have enough manpower, most of us are working even after returning from ground ops, the only ones not working at all are the injured ones."
That's true, so far everywhere I've been to would always have a guy or two running around carrying stuff or people talking to each other while walking, and the talks would either be about maintenance of a lot of stuff including the ship's or equipment that'll be used on the ground, the other being weapons and armour manufacturing.
"… Want me to cut for you?" Is what I asked him but the man surprised at my words, hesitated and embarrassingly agreed. "Y-yes please…" Since there's no seat here, I asked him to lead me to the nearest place with a chair, he agreed and led me to the cafeteria which was located just a few walks away from the odd jobs board.
People who were inside the cafeteria including the Commander and Central who's on break, the Metal Slug team is also here looking agape at my presence, in turn I merely tilted my head in curiosity and then paid no attention to them as PO— Ah! That's right his name is Hyakutarou Ichimonji…. Wasn't it? Eh, I forgot, I'll just call him POW-kun for the time being.
POW-kun took a chair and placed it near the trash-bin whereas I ignored the surprised gasps of the people around me as I fabricated a sheet of cloth and a scissor, spreading the sheet on the metal floor and placing the seat in the middle, POW-kun reluctantly sat down while wryly smiling at everything and everyone that's looking at us, As POW-kun is already ready, I started cutting his hair into a short trim and when I finished cutting his hair, I just noticed that he looks oddly similar to that guy in Zetsuen no Tempest anime, the one who's the MC's best friends with, that blonde guy…. I forgot his name too. Fabricating another mirror out of nowhere, I handed it to him and walked towards Commander Sophia, casually greeting her, Bradford pre-emptively returned fire with a scowl on his face in which I promptly returned fire by pulling my lower eye lids down with my index finger, closing my left eye and showing a bit of my tongue, a mocking expression in which Bradford growled in anger. 'Yes I disturbed your alone time with the Commander, got a problem bruh?' Is what I thought after confirming my petty not-so-victory-victory.
The Commander noticing Bradford's scowl and growl intervened before something snaps, she asked "Is there something you need?" and I replied with "Yes, I found Dr. Vahlen, I suggest you divert towards the pacific ocean right now, my ship is in there waiting." Abruptly standing up in surprise, she tried to run towards the nearest intercom but I grabbed her shoulders, lightly jerked her right ankle, made her sit down and told her to "Finish your meals first Lady, Dr. Vahlen's not going anywhere nor the ADVENT knows where she is, even if they somehow knew," Which is very unlikely "They're not going to be able to get her from my grasps. You know of my powers and my military powers, don't worry about it, finish that hearty meal first, god knows you need It 'cause you look like a stick that's about to breakdown." She does look very tired with taking control of every operation and managing the Havens.
"I'm not going to hand her over until you've eaten and rested properly." Is what I said before literally disappearing out of nowhere, inside my room in the Revenge, I looked over what I missed while I was gone and it seems like XCOM2 successfully recorded every and all combat data of the ADVENT in west US coast, over there they encountered the ADVENT Mooks, Sectoids, Mutons, Vipers and MECs with the addition of the newly introduced Andromedons, Archons, Sectopods and the Muton and Archon King as well as the Viper Queen.
Then while I was gone, apparently someone or rather, something tried to hack the ship but failed due to my advance electronic defence suite but succeeded in hacking the GREMLIN Lily was fixing, the GREMLIN then accessed the monitors in the engineering bay and showed a bunch of data to Lily, out of reflex she tracked the signal to Sweden, to the Lost Towers. Now XCOM2 sent a recon of 4 soldiers to scout the tower without alerting anyone or anything.
Casually glancing at the Commander, she seemed to have finished eating and immediately took a bath and rested in her room. Hours later after spending my time bullying the Ethereal Fleet in Lunar Orbit via E-War, the Commander who's now awoke, knocked at my door, I opened it and she entered and asked, "… Where's Dr. Vahlen?"
Later on I only found out that Dr. Vahlen and the Commander were step-sisters.
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AN: Thanks for the wait! Here's your fix.
As always, if you spot any error of any kind may it be grammar or spelling or a sentence not making any sense, tell me in the comments below, I'll fix it as soon as I can.
