Part 53: Humanity's Sunset

XCOM Part 53: Humanity’s Sunset



This may be the last month of this war… or the last month of the human race. I hope everyone’s coping with that knowledge… Let’s see.



Mmmpfh! This candy is delicious!
That’s not candy, it’s cyborg food. Heavily based off of sugar due to how my bionic energy cells recharge.
I don’t care what it is, I need more of it! Mrouwfff! Muffrr! Aaaah, that’s goooood…
That berserker gland gave you a sweet tooth, huh?



Listen, my friend… let me get serious for a moment. I haven’t upgraded my body yet, but you’re almost indestructible. Of the two of us, you are more likely to survive. If the worst should happen, I want you to find my family.
Oh! Sure, man. Of course.
I don’t mean the worst as in, “I die.” The aliens have been merely toying with the earth, and with us. They could kill us all. But you’re strong enough to pull yourself out of the rubble and avenge us.
That’s… well, yeah. Of course. This is really heavy, coming from you.
Heh. The best sniper in the world may need no rifle… but he always needs a friend.



My “bucket list” item was a full pardon for all crimes I’ve ever committed, in perpetuity throughout the universe. What did you ask for?
A really, really good dog.
That’s it?
Hey, I’ve already gotten more than I deserve. A dog’s all I have left on my list of things I wanted to do with my life.



Hey, Yoko, right? You’re still going to get your face changed later on?
I suppose. Though this one is rather growing on me.
Well, if you do, let me have your old IDs and stuff, okay? For, uh, sentimental purposes.
Sentimental… what? …hey! You’re going to steal my identity and drain my bank account, aren’t you?
…not necessarily.



I hope if we beat the aliens we don’t immediately turn on each other. I mean, with all this tech, what if humanity splits off into factions of cyborgs, mutants and baselines all trying to kill each other in a horrific, Mad Max wasteland ravaged by science gone awry?
Are you kidding? That’d be awesome!
Big deal. There’s a couple of places in Nevada that are like that already.
…for reals?




The Ethereal Device has been researched. It’s a sort of… telepathic interface. Only a psychic could control it, but it’s keyed to only work for ethereals. Even the sectoids can’t use it. We’d need a special chamber to activate it properly and a special armor to act as a nervous-system enhancer.
I’ll order its construction at once. Our new plan is this: we’re going to train all our psychics on how to pilot alien UFOs. We can’t possibly defeat the mothership from the outside, but if we could insert from within, we’ll pilot it into the sun or land it in the ocean or something. Just like how we took care of the battleship over China, only bigger.



Had to scrap a bunch of spare UFO parts to finish this sucker…
It’ll take at least two weeks.
Just enough time to finish our training.



It’ll cost us a shitload of meld and money, but we can squeeze more armor and another weapon onto the MEC chassis. This sucker will temporarily shut down those giant walking tanks if we ever meet any more of them. If we ever get any more meld, we’ll spend it on more brain spikes for the troops, but we need raw power.



My god, a sniper plasma rifle. Even the aliens don’t have this!
Which is exactly what worries me. We’re able to research their tech, what if we wind up giving them ideas?
They won’t be having any ideas if I blow their brains out from a mile off! This is awesome!



The aliens are assaulting Kansas?
Kansas… Kansas?! Oh, no…
Something wrong, soldier?
I saw this in a dream! Oh, shit. I hope it goes better this time…



…then again, we didn’t have giant fucking cyborgs in my dream. Jesus, could you get any bigger, Alicia?
The bigger I am, the harder they fall.



I’m going too. I can’t stand the thought of any more innocent people dying. I’ll destroy them all!
Okay. Let’s do this…



Look well. You will never set eyes on your homeland again, Watkins.

To be continued…