A/N: So this was supposed to come out quite a bit sooner. At the same, this chapter had a lot of extra cool shit that ended up getting packed into it, so I'm not even mad. In fact, I don't think I've been this proud of a chapter in quite a while. The combat was a blast to write, and the finale felt incredibly satisfying.

Hope you enjoy it.

"I have to admit, Ozpin: your little XCOM friends are quite competent."

Ozpin allowed himself a brief smile as he continued to watch the battle unfold from his seat next to Salem. He knew well enough not to try anything stupid during his 'house arrest,' as his captor enjoyed calling it, and so it allowed him small luxuries such as being invited to watch the unfolding events of the engineered terrorist attack and subsequent Grimm invasion over dinner. Then again, he also knew that Salem's actual reason for the invitation was to gloat and make him feel powerless as he watched her throw wave after wave of monsters at his allies.

"Are you really surprised?" He asked as one of the servants refilled his glass of wine.

Salem shook her head as she took another bite of her ribeye. "No. Although… I do wonder how they managed to be in the right place at the right time." She looked away from the menacing orb that floated in the middle of the table and cast a mildly accusing glance at her guest. "Is there something you aren't telling me, Oz?"

There she went with the tests again. And as always, Ozpin was obligated to play along. "You have me under constant surveillance wherever I go, and I know full well that if you caught me doing anything, you would not hesitate to use your nuclear option. Do you really think I would be callous enough to risk that just to give a tip to XCOM?"

"Good boy." Salem said with a smile as she returned her attention to the Seer's reflection. "But that still leaves me with the important question of what I'm going to do about our friend Bradford."

"You mean because his arrival hindered ADVENT from taking all the glory?"

Salem stared at Ozpin, and he wondered if he should have used a slightly less patronizing tone. "And also because it doesn't let ADVENT's withdrawal from the desert front result in such a tragedy. Cinder could have hammered that heartbreaking lesson on the airwaves if your little tin soldiers didn't come along to ruin her fun. Very good, Ozpin, you do have functioning eyes."

Ozpin chose not to rise to Salem's barb, and the two of them instead returned their attention to the battle. Ozpin had to admit Salem had made sure ADVENT had a very good reason to withdraw to the docks. The fighting there was certainly bloody. Even if XCOM saved the day in the desert, Cinder could proclaim plenty of footage showing ADVENT's heroics that she could play for her new friend on the VNN.

But between ADVENT and XCOM, it was very clear which of the two was merely a force of zealous, inspired volunteers and which was an elite company of commandos. Ozpin was impressed with all the groundwork Salem had laid over the years to allow ADVENT to spring up practically overnight, but all the resources in the world couldn't give Cinder's foot soldiers the raw experience that XCOM had earned in the crucible of their own war. Sure, several huntsmen had joined Cinder's cause. They were made into the commanding officers that directed the rank-and-file, but that didn't change the fact that the bulk of ADVENT's manpower was comprised of energetic neophytes. It was a point that Salem had grudgingly acknowledged several weeks ago, and one that Ozpin had quickly learned to never bring up again.

"Do you really have to do anything, though?" He asked. "While it's true that you don't get to cast XCOM in a negative light this time, you still prove that ADVENT should be trusted, and the whole thing throws a smokescreen over the organization's other, less pleasant operations."

Salem sighed dramatically, a sign that she was choosing to acknowledge Ozpin's point. "I suppose so, Oz. But you don't know me as well as you think you do if you expect me to let XCOM skate to an easy victory."

"Perish the thought." Ozpin quipped.

"Oh, you can act coy and sarcastic all you like, my friend. I suspect you'll be singing a different tune once you find out what I intend to throw at them."

Ozpin doubted that. "Whatever it is, they can handle it."

"My, my! Such confidence! I normally admire that in a man, you know, but it becomes a turnoff when it isn't tempered with humility. And besides… don't you know better to tempt me?"

She had a point. Ozpin bowed his head slightly and offered a well-practiced, "My apologies."

"That's what I thought. Now, I suggest you eat your steak. I suspect you won't have much of an appetite for it in a few minutes."

Open season didn't even begin to describe the chaos of Annette's battlefield. Even with Ruby forging ahead like a little red murderblender, there was still plenty left of the horde for the remainder of Strike One and Two to deal with. They managed to keep the chaff away from the Striders long enough for the Reapers to do their work, and Annette relished the sight of those spider abominations falling to the ground.

Over the comms, it sounded like the defensive line was handling the Striders well enough.

"Bolos set!"

"Target the closest Strider."

"Aye, sir!"

The screeches echoing in the night from the frontline rose above the rattling of her squad's weapons. The birds were causing problems, but nothing that they couldn't handle.

Danger.

The gentle nudge from her backseat driver snapped Annette's attention back to her battle and the fact that the ground shuddered beneath her feet.

"Airborne. Now!"

Jump jets fired, and huntsmen leapt into the air moments before another batch of those damnable sand sharks broke through the desert surface, teeth snapping loudly in search of a meal.

"Tell me what these things are called again!" Annette spat out as she leaped away.

"Lamnidae, apparently," Arlsan nervously huffed back.

Ah, yes, Annette thought bitterly.. Armored assholes that burrow beneath the shifting sands and moved as though they were swimming through water. The only exposed flesh was on their underbelly (usually hidden in the sand), between their armored back plates (a hard target to hit), and in their mouth (a dangerous target to hit). Strike Two had already lost a pair of operatives when one of the fuckers bit off the leg of one soldier, which meant his partner had to jump jet him back to the medics stationed by the Odin.

Annette pivoted as she heard the sharks breach and pooled psionic energy into her hand and flung a psi lance at the closest monster. The mental energy passed through the armored plating on the shark's face and boiled its brains from within. A fusillade of weapons fire chorused from the other operatives as they took potshots of their own at the Grimm offensive.

Protect.

A quick survey of the skirmish showed Nadir scrambling in the sand, trying to outrun the shifting silhouette of another Lamnidae. Arslan was able to attach herself to Reese, and Bolin used his staff to vault himself out of harm's way. Nadir, though? He apparently didn't have time to hitch a ride with someone before the sharks arrived.

"Switch to Gauss, and keep firing!"

Annette's jets whined as she dove back towards the sand with her Kingfisher wings deployed. A nudge in her mind helped her roll out of the way of another shark as it tried to get the jump on her. Shotgun fire at her 4 o'clock caused Annette to look back and see Kelly flying in formation to assist with the rescue. Up ahead, she saw Nadir running and firing shots into the sand in a vain effort to slow down his stalker. From her position, Annette could see several other burrowed sharks turning to chase down the huntsman.

"Strider down! Prepping firebombs to clear the Scarabs!"

"Two more incoming!"

The squeal of a sand shark to her rear indicated that the operatives were able to bag another of the slippery monsters. Once they had a chance to equip their Grimm Killer ammo, Annette noticed that the armored sharks went down a little easier. Another boost from her jets put Annette ahead of the Grimm giving chase to Nadir. Jane unloaded her shotgun into the sand to slow the assailants down while Annette swooped in for the rescue. Nadir looked up in time to see Annette grab him under his arms and yank him into the sky.

"T-thanks." He muttered, embarrassed that he needed saving.

"Don't mention it." Annette said, banking into a hard left so that she could reposition Nadir somewhere away from the sharks. "We don't leave our own behind. Surely you've learned that by now."

The pitched battle raged, with XCOM working to keep the flailing Strider clear of Canis while also dealing with the sand sharks. One by one, the armored bastards fell, though not without inflicting their fair share of casualties. No deaths, thankfully, but Annette sent a psychic warning to Ruby that her defensive backup was starting to dwindle as operatives fell back to the medics.

Push.

And Annette still had her backseat driver giving her suggestions and guidance. La Volonté cleaved another Canis in two as Kelly kept a second beast off her back. ABRN hustled in to assist the Reapers with their Strider target, with Arslan swinging around the monster's body while Bolin began to cripple its legs from below. Maybe it was One-Five's Adrenal Neurosympathy, but for a minute, the Major allowed herself to be lost to the chaotic bloodlust of the battlefield. More than once, her teams crossed paths with Captain Rose (who was busy letting out all of her frustration and rage on the seemingly unending supply of Grimm), and the two locked eyes and threw a small surge of psychic encouragement each other's' way.

The combat elation was short-lived, however, when even newer Grimm variants arrived.

Fliers.

They made their presence known when ABRN and the Reaper team had almost downed their second Strider target. As the hellish creature started to fall, some kind of oversized, leather-winged hellbat ripped through the Strider's vulnerable sac with its spiked tail and tore the membrane wide open. The Reapers reacted almost instantly, using their unique abilities to shadowstep away from the insect swarm pouring out of the creature's body. Arslan however, was thrown off-balance by the Strider's sudden lurching as it died.

Escape.

"I'm not leaving her behind." Annette muttered aloud as she fired her jets and prepared to help Reese rescue her team leader. She keyed her mic to scream the order, "Fall back!"

A pair of operatives grabbed Bolin and Nadir while Annette and Jane raced towards the Strider's decaying body… and the scarabs. Annette felt a second's worth of hope when she witnessed Reese swooping in beside her team leader in hopes of hauling Arslan to safety. That hope crumbled swifty when two scarabs leaped at Reese. The twin creatures collided with Reese, knocking her sidelong, and slinging Arslan just out of reach.

"Tossing a grenade." Kelly warned. She must have cooked it, because the fuse lasted just long enough for the explosive to fall into the closest tendril of the swarm before detonating.

"Scarabs are loose." One of Annette's operatives warned on the comms, "Some fucking birds came out of nowhere and tore one of the Striders open."

Jane's grenade stunned the insects long enough for the duo to scramble next to Arslan and Reese.

"Sector Four, prep fire defenses to deal with the Scarabs. Watchtowers have identified the unknown fliers as Wyverns."

"Wyverns?!" Beagle interjected over the comms. "When did we get dumped into a game of Dungeons and Dragons?"

"Dungeons and Wyverns, sir."

"We gotta move," Annette snarled, grabbing Arslan. She'd learned early on in her interactions with ABRN that Reese's board, while capable of a lot of things, was not good at moving quickly when it carried more than just Reese.

"No argument here," the skater girl agreed. She yelped as a few of the scarabs latched onto her arm and got to work on their latest meal. "Sooner would be better."

"More Scarabs inbound! The Wyverns are tearing the Striders apart!"

The back of Annette's head tingled as Arslan strapped herself to the Major's suit, and she knew what her passenger was suggesting even without hearing a word. She pivoted around to look at the approaching swarm, pooled the chaotic energy in her mind, and unleashed it on the Strider's corpse.

A psionic void tore into existence, and the roiling vortex pulled the small bugs into its personal gravity well. The sound of reality rending in half filled the battlefield, followed by the crunching of chitin and the shrieking of scarabs. When the vortex reached critical mass it imploded, sending Grimm guts flinging everywhere and knocking the remaining nearby scarabs into oblivion.

Arslan had just enough time to whisper, "oh shit" before Annette fired the jets. The four operatives took off towards the rest of Strike One and Two as they fell back to the Odin. Wyverns attacked them as they flew. Annette's sixth sense allowed her to roll out of harm's way on several occasions as several bony spikes sailed past her flank. Jane pumped shotgun shells into their attackers whenever they flew close enough.

The Lieutenant grunted as a razor-sharp projectile grazed her calf and she fired back at the offender. "This is ridiculous."

DANGER.

Annette's skin crawled. Her passenger had never been that aggressive with a warning.

But then the ground shuddered, and the Major watched a shockwave ripple through the sand.

"Not ridiculous enough, it seems," she deadpanned.

"The fuck was that?!"

"... Oh no…"

"Was it…?"

"Chieftain Belladonna, Sector Four is in dire need of Atlesian support. The Gigas has awoken."

Ghira almost choked when he heard the report from Sector Four.

"The Gigas…?"

"That's not good." Sienna Khan muttered to his left.

The two of them stood in Kuo Kuana's equivalent of a command center. With an elevated view of the city and stocked with an array of communications and telemetry readouts, the city's leaders could mount a coordinated defense in the event of an emergency.

Such as this one.

A new warning flared up on one of their screens. The militia commander in charge of Sector One's defense at the docks raised an alarm with the same threat level as Sector Four's Gigas. And with the docks much closer to Kuo Kuana's civilians than the desert…

Ghira looked tersely over at Sienna as she hailed Sector One. "Commander Kolton. Report."

"Lady Khan," Kolton answered. "Leviathans. Three of them. We spotted them less than a minute ago, and they are headed directly for the port."

"Shit."

"Agreed," Ghira declared with a heavy voice. "The Gigas is certainly a problem, but Leviathans would wreak unthinkable havoc on our people if left unchecked."

Sienna Khan seethed. "As much as I am loathe to admit it, we need all of Atlas's firepower to keep those monsters subdued."

Ghira nodded and pressed his mouth into a hard line. It meant he needed to deliver the bad news to Sector Four's commander.

"You won't be receiving Atlesian support, Wardlow," he said with a sigh. "Docks have a bigger problem, and therefore they get priority for our air support resources."

The commander swore.

"Then we're as good as dead, sir. We've got Wyverns breaking open the Striders, which is causing enough panic among the soldiers. Finding out that we're on our own with the Gigas? It's… it's going to break them."

"You won't be on your own, Commander," Sienna interjected. Ghira looked over at her with a raised eyebrow as she continued, "you'll have me."

"Are you serious?" Ghira asked, incredulous.

"I… you don't have to do that, ma'am."

"But I do," Sienna answered, already gathering her gear while Ghira continued to stare. "What kind of leader hides behind her warriors and demands that they throw down their lives for her?"

"Err…"

"One that isn't me," she answered. "Keep fighting, Wardlow, and spread the word that Lady Khan is on the way."

"Understood, my lady."

Sienna Khan looked firmly over at Ghira as she made her way to the door. "One of us needs to stay here and keep the defenses organized."

"My thoughts exactly," Ghira agreed. "I'm still surprised by your decision, though."

Sienna shrugged as she stepped through the doorway.

"It's about time that I find out for myself how XCOM fights."

"Let's try this one more time," Ilia hissed, "and I'll remind you that lying will earn you the tip of my sword."

Mikhail groaned. The few places that his captor had already nicked him were starting to ache. Whatever poison she coated her weapon with, it was potent. "Threats won't get you want you want, Ilyushka. What I've told you already is the truth."

"Stop calling me that," Ilia warned.

"Fine. Ask me your questions."

"Where are you from?"

Mikhail rolled his eyes. "Earth."

"That's not a real place."

"Yes, it is."

"Why is XCOM here?"

"We're stuck here after we travelled through a wormhole to help during the Vytal catastrophe."

The Russian winced as Ilia lashed out and nicked him again, this time on the shoulder.

"Keep lying to me, and the pain will start to get unbearable."

"Have you listened to even a single word I've said?"

"Let's just kill him," one of the other faunus called out from across the room.

"That would be a fatal mistake." Mikhail deadpanned.

The faunus laughed. "Why? Because of your 'Night Witches'? The ones that 'we will never hear coming'? It was a good story, old man, but we're not stupid."

A knock sounded on the door. The faunus froze. Mikhail raised an eyebrow at the man who was laughing at him mere seconds ago. "Your door guard is calling for you. Aren't you going to answer him?"

The knock repeated itself, and the room's occupants started to cast awkward looks at one another.

"Come now. Don't keep him waiting. It sounds… urgent." Mikhail emphasized. An idea occurred to him. "Unless… could it be that you have a secret knock, and that wasn't it? My, oh my…"

"Shut it, old man."

Ilia positioned herself behind Mikhail, held her weapon up against his throat, and nodded at the agent closest to the door. The muscled faunus nodded stiffly and lumbered towards the entryway. He reached out to grab the handle, then hesitated.

BANG.

The door shattered, and a fiery-colored human exploded into the room a split second later. Mikhail watched as one Yang Xiao Long crashed into the hapless agent before her momentum (and a well-timed blast from her gauntlet) carried the two of them out of sight. He felt the ground shudder as his rescuer apparently crashed into the far wall. While Mikhail couldn't see the reaction of his captor, he felt her weapon go slightly slack against his neck before he heard Yang cock her gauntlets for dramatic effect.

"Knock knock, assholes!" The huntress greeted, and all hell broke loose.

A crack from the darkness beyond the doorway echoed, and Ilia dropped her weapon with a yelp. Mikhail immediately started to awkwardly hop his way towards the door while Yang carried on with her explosive rampage.

"Oh no you don't!" one of the agents yelled. Mikhail looked over in time to see a shadow materialize behind his would-be assailant and deliver a swift pistol whip to the base of the agents skull. The bindings tying Mikhail to the chair came loose, and he heard Blake whisper in his ear, "Are you okay?"

Mikhail rubbed his wrists, "This Ilia girl stuck me with a poisoned-"

"Ilia?"

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. His heart skipped a beat. He could only recall maybe twice when Blake used that tone. "Yeah. You know her?"

But Blake wasn't looking at Mikhail anymore. And if looks could kill…

"ILIA!"

The young woman in question flinched as Blake screamed her name, and then her eyes grew wide as she realized that her friend was here. Blake let loose a primal yell, flung Gambol Shroud's grapple, and yanked herself into melee range of her once-friend. It was all Ilia could do to defend herself from Blake's brutal onslaught.

Mikhail grabbed the club off of the unconscious agent and slipped into the shadows as the firestorm that called itself Yang drew in the attention of everyone else in the room.

"I hoped to everything that I held dear that you weren't a part of this!" Blake shouted, "I wanted to believe that you, of all people, would respect all that my father worked for!"

"I did what I had to do!" Ilia shot back as she danced around Blake's strikes, "I respected your father, but he's lost sight-"

Blake bodychecked Ilia. Mikhail assumed that Ilia was keeping an eye on her sword and wasn't expecting the charge. A tactical mistake, for sure. Blake's furious shove cut Ilia off mid-sentence.

"Don't you dare finish that thought, Ilia! This was a terrorist attack, and you are a part of it!"

Blake's words, it seemed, had given Ilia a second wind. "And what was Amity?!" Ilia roared back. "How can you justify working with these monsters after that?"

The two women continued to clash, each driven by a combination of rage and adrenaline. Mikhail watched as, one by one, Hogarth and his shadowy friend took down the other agents in the room (he was amused to see that Hogath chose to shoot Jane Doe in the ass again) while they tried to assault Yang. Blake and Ilia only had eyes for each other, however.

"XCOM saved lives!"

"XCOM murdered Adam!"

Their weapons locked as the two huntresses muscled for the upper hand. From his angle, Mikhail could see the cold fury brewing on Blake's face as she glared daggers at Ilia.

"I killed Adam, Ilia."

Ilia froze long enough for Blake to deliver a knee to her gut, before following up with a spinning kick to the torso that sent Ilia spiraling to the ground."He murdered my friends in cold blood-"

"Cold isn't how I would describe it." Mikhail muttered to himself.

"And he tried to murder my partner!"

Ilia, bruised and broken on the floor, stared at Blake. Her chameleon skin rippled and flashed with nearly every color combination imaginable, cycling from blue to red to green to orange as she tried to process this new information.

"He wasn't who you thought he was, Ilia." Blake continued in outrage, "And I know you're not who you think you are, either."

Ilia hesitated, if only for a moment, then gritted out a terse, "You're wrong."

Before either Blake or Mikhail could react, Ilia snatched up her sword and whipped it out at Yang. It was pure luck that Yang cocked her fist back at the right moment, and the blade embedded itself in her forearm. She looked back in surprise, then grabbed the whip-blade. A dangerous grin spread across her face as sparks crackled within the impact site on her arm.

"You'll have to do better than that, bub."

Again, Ilia froze. This time, a rope (a whip? Mikhail wasn't sure) shot out from the darkness shrouding the far end of the room, wrapped around Ilia's leg, and yanked her through the air. Mikhail followed her trajectory, and almost choked at the sight of the snake/human/thing that was now wrapping itself around Ilia to keep her constricted. Neither Blake nor Yang appeared to be bothered by the newcomer, though, so he had to believe that it was on their side. The two huntresses finished putting down the last of Ilia's agents as Mikhail walked (with a slight limp, much to his dismay) over to the ringleader's struggling form.

"I suppose I was wrong about one particular detail of my story." He said, shrugging as the snake deftly put its victim into a sleeper hold. "The Night Witches did come for me, but they didn't come silently."

Ilia struggled against the arm choking her, but both of her hands were bound at her side.

"Take it easy, little Ilyushka…" Mikhail said, "Why fight the inevitable?"

Indeed, it only took a few more seconds for the struggling to stop and for the body to go limp. The snake waited another couple of heartbeats before releasing its hold and unbinding Ilia. Despite her burning anger less than a minute ago, Blake rushed over to take Ilia from the snake. Her face, Mikhail noticed, brimmed with sadness.

"C'mon," Yang said, pulling the sword out of her arm with annoyance as she rejoined the group. "Let's get you out of here, Misha. Everything is going to hell in a handbasket outside, but I think Firebrand could spare a minute take you and Ilia back up to the Avenger."

"I won't say no to that." Mikhail answered, rubbing his shoulder. "Probably a good idea to get the Doc to look at these wounds, anyway."

The extraction team slipped out of the interrogation room, leaving the unconscious bodies of the other agents behind.

"Scarabs inbound, Ryder!" Terry chirped.

Ryder saw them on his HUD. Quite a few of the nasty buggers, along with a bunch of those stupid Wyverns who were pulling into a dive-

"EVERYBODY DOWN!"

The Odin's arm snapped forward into a bracing position, and the hard light shield flared to life. Gizmo's shield was enough to cover her MEC and maybe one or two other operatives, on account of the light-weight, mobile nature of her Vanguard suit The Odin, however, did not have such limitations.

Bone shards collided against the transparent shield, which rippled with each impact. A small indicator on Ryder's HUD popped up to provide him a readout of the power generator's capacity to keep the shield online before overloading. The Wyvern attack did cause a small spike in the readout, but it wasn't anything that the suit couldn't handle.

"Terry, how's our MLRS looking?"

"Fully loaded, Ryder!"

"You got a lock on those Scarab swarms?"

"Yes sir!"

The splinter storm died down, and Ryder lowered his shield.

"Then you may fire when ready."

Eightball raced after the Wyverns as they flew overhead moments before the Odin unleashed a salvo of microrockets that fanned out and detonated across the swarm's front in plumes of orange and red

"Central, this is BFG. We've recovered Misha and an interrogation subject. Requesting evac for them both to the Avenger before returning to the fight."

"Acknowledged, BFG. Get them to the Odin's location. Firebrand can arrange the pickup."

As the smoke cleared, a very much reduced swarm continued towards the defensive line. Gouts of flame erupted from several frontline thrower-wielding militiamen and scorched the Scarabs into ashes. From the rear, the crack of sniper rifles echoed as XCOM's marksmen worked with Eightball to take down the fliers. On the ground, XCOM's huntsmen pushed past the Scarab swarm to meet the Canis and Cockatrices head-on while the militia dealt with the bugs.

"Shit." Eightball cursed, "These guys are a helluva lot harder to deal with than Nevermores. At least with them you know you're safe if you're above them."

"How are we looking with those Scarabs, Terry?" Ryder asked. He aimed his cannons skyward and joined the Snipers in giving Eightball a helping hand.

"They are thinning out, Ryder! I have also identified the remaining members of Strike One and Two returning from the field."

Ryder looked across the sands to see the outlines of his winged allies lit up by the suit's HUD.

"Well, Yatsu and Fox are doing a good job keeping the ground clear of the dogs and chickens." Ryder said, "That's about as good of a welcome mat as they're gonna get-"

The ground shuddered, causing Ryder to stop talking. The volume of gunfire also dropped significantly as a good portion of the defenders paused to determine if what they had just felt was real or imagined. The second shudder, easily stronger than the last, told Ryder that he definitely wasn't imagining things.

Seconds later, a rolling murmur spread through the faunus ranks, and Ryder could hear one word repeated over and over again.

Gigas.

Commander Wardlow's voice called out, "Retreat back to the watchtowers immediately!"

Ryder and Gizmo synced up and unleashed hell, providing heavy covering fire while the huntsmen and shotgun-toting operatives fell back. Several of the Menagerie soldiers were still dealing with the last vestiges of the Scarab swarm. Overhead, the Mako streaked by as it danced with the Wyverns.

"Ground Team," Bradford called out over comms, "We're getting word from Menagerie's command channels that a new contact is emerging. Something on par with Vale's Dragon."

About a hundred meters out, the sand erupted as the maw of a giant wurm burst from below. Layered, bony armor covered the entire length of the monster's exposed body, and the rows and rows of teeth that ringed the creature's circular mouth gnashed and quivered as gravity pulled the behemoth back to the sand with yet another rumbling shudder.

"Have you ever read Dune, Central…?"

Beagle answered for Central, "You have got to be shitting me."

The monster roared, vibrating the night air with its energetic expulsion.

"Negative, Captain." Ryder answered, "This thing is going to be a bitch and a half to take down."

"Strike Five and Six. Prep for deployment." Bradford ordered, "Sergeant Xiao Long? I think we'll need you to join Agent Sokolov on the flight back to the Avenger. As skilled as Talos is, something tells me that we're going to need a Devastator MEC pilot that can pack a supernatural punch."

"... With pleasure, sir."

"Terry, patch me into the externals, if you'd be so kind."

"Oh! A rallying speech!" Terry cooed, "You can start whenever you like."

The external speakers on the Odin vibrated as Ryder's voice boomed across the defensive line.

"STAND FAST, BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ARMS. WHILE THIS DEMON MAY BE FORMIDABLE, YOU HAVE XCOM FIGHTING BY YOUR SIDE, AND WE WILL DIVE HEAD-FIRST INTO THE JAWS OF HELL ITSELF IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO SEND THAT MONSTER BACK TO THE SHADOWS WHERE IT BELONGS."

The XCOM operatives whooped in response to Ryder's declaration.

"Warriors of Menagerie!" The militia commander called out, "Take heart: Lady Khan herself is on her way to join us in the fight against the Gigas!"

A wave of murmurs rippled through the faunus ranks at the news, and while Ryder didn't exactly know much about Sienna Khan beyond her being the leader of the Fang, it sounded like she carried incredible respect among the community of Kuo Kuana.

"Gunners," Annette ordered, "Fill the air with enough firepower to drown those goddamn Wyverns in lead. We need air superiority if we're going to take this maggot down."

"Warriors!" Wardlow shouted, "Forward with XCOM!"

The floodlights on the Odin swept across the sands as the might of Menagerie boldly took the offensive. Canis came into view and were quickly cut down by rifles, shotguns, and railguns. The huntsmen took up positions alongside the operatives and militiamen. Taking point would put them in the line of fire, and standing with the gunmen would better allow them to protect their ranged fighters against the handful of Grimm that might slip past the bullet storm.

"Central, this is Firebrand. Package is on-board, and we're on our way back to the Avenger. Have the first Strike team prepped for boarding in one minute."

"Copy that, Firebrand. Operatives are standing by in the flight deck for your arrival."

Coco's minigun flared to life and a spray of bullets swept across the dunes ahead of Ryder as the Bullhead lifted off. At the same time, a wave of munition rose up from the ground team as XCOM's heavy weapon specialists targeted the Wyverns to keep them off of Firebrand's back. With the Bullhead airborne, Ryder took his cue to begin the advance.

"Keep those jetboots hot." Ryder warned his mechanized companion, "Burrowing Chryssalids was one thing, but this fucker is on a completely different level."

Gizmo popped off a shot at a Canis racing towards them and gave a nod to Ryder.

Annette rallied her squad from their rear. "Strike One, push with the Odin. We don't know if there are more sharks lurking, so Pegasus protocol is still active."

Ryder continued his advance as the jump troopers fell in line on his flanks. The Odin kept one arm braced in front, ready to power the hard light shields if any Wyverns or Sand Sharks tried to assault the spearhead formation. Jetpacks fired at regular intervals as Strike One and Two frog-hopped alongside the MECs, using their height advantage to rain fire down upon the Grimm racing towards them from the desert.

New kinds of Grimm made an appearance as the team pushed into the desert. Small-scale Deathstalkers skittered towards the frontline, and the near-panicked reaction of the Menagerie natives was all the convincing Ryder needed to order the XCOM units to prioritize them over other threats. Terry flipped the shoulder-mounted Phoenix Cannon into its active position and started to zero in on and fire concentrated bursts at the oncoming Canis while the operatives focused on the new scorpions. It reminded Ryder that he was missing Gidjit as his second co-pilot. Usually the Cyberdisc handled the Phoenix Cannon while Terry worked with Ryder to develop firing solutions for the Railguns and explosive payloads. Still, the Remnant AI did her job admirably, and with every droning buzz from the weapon, another wild dog was shredded into exploding bits.

"Terry, I hope you don't mind my saying so since you utterly kick ass, but it doesn't feel the same without Gidget."

Terry actually chuckled. "I don't mind at all, friend-William. I feel the same way! We make a great team. Should we tell him when we return?"

Ryder couldn't help but grin. He gladly spoke one word that held more meaning than anyone outside their trio could understand. "Absolutely."

Striders continued their spindly march across the sands, and the Reapers advancing alongside Ryder used their unique talents to neutralize the threats without triggering a Scarab swarm. With the Wyverns dogfighting with Eightball in the desert's starry sky, there was little risk of the abdomen sacs splitting open.

The Lamnidae made their appearance shortly afterwards. Ryder was ready with his shield to receive the assault, and Gizmo swiftly counter-attacked the one closest to her with a Kinetic Strike to the face, but several of the militia soldiers spread further out from the center of the spearhead weren't so lucky.

"HELP! PLEASE."

"OH GOD."

"GHHKKKKGGGLLL…"

"Engage! Engage!"

"Strike One, switch to Gauss!"

The huntsmen rushed to the aid of their vulnerable allies. Yatsuhashi and Fox devastated one shark that was busy crushing the pelvis of an unfortunate militia fighter. Annette's Pegasus Protocol for the jump troopers paid off in full, as not a single operative had been caught unawares by the sneak attack. Rifles rattled as the operatives unloaded on the sharks before they could burrow and leap again. Ryder watched as Arslan, Reese, and Annette worked in tandem to catch one of the monsters by the tail, slice away at its armored carapace, and deliver a point-blank psionic-infused strike to the fleshy interior once a weak point became exposed.

"Ground team, you've got Wyverns headed your way. I'm trying to keep them on me, but I think they're starting to catch on."

"Terry?"

"On it!"

Terry swept the Phoenix Cannon around and locked onto the incoming Wyverns. Bone splinters punctured the sand like lawn darts while the Odin's scatter cannon spit out its deadly retort. More than a couple of soldiers and operatives cried out in pain as the Wyverns found their marks.

"Keep pushing!" Ryder called, his shield covering a sizeable chunk of the offensive force. A roar in the distance drew Ryder's attention, and he saw the Gigas cock its head back and hurl a ball of black ichor through the air.

"Strike Teams, brace for bombardment!"

Terry immediately started to track the ball and fired on it with the shoulder cannon as it arced towards their position. The cannon rounds impacted the projectile and caused it to split up into several smaller fragments that collided with the sand a few seconds later. Under the floodlights of the Odin, Ryder watched the oily mass bubble and churn. The slime started to coalesce into a solid form, then two, before Ryder figured out what was going on.

"It's spawning more Grimm!" he called. "Take them out!"

"Great, because this wasn't already hard enough…"

The Gigas hurled several more balls of Grimm mass at the advancing cadre before slamming its head into the sand and opening its gargantuan maw to deliver a bone-shaking wail.

"Ryder, it appears that the Gigas has multiple methods of spawning more Grimm!"

"Yeah," Ryder sighed, "It would seem so."

Creatures of darkness poured out of the wurm's mouth the way sand pours out of a tipped jar. The Menagerie offensive was doing its best to fend off the desert-borne hordes racing towards them, and was already at risk of stalling as it fought to keep up with those Grimm. The legions spilling forth from the Gigas itself?

"There's no way we can fight through that!"

"We… we have to go back. We can use the city's defenses to help fight off the horde… outlast it."

"This nightmare is unreal…"

That breaking point, Ryder realized, was coming sooner than he'd hoped. "Central, we could really use those reinforcements right about now."

As if on cue, warheads pounded the sand, sending Canis, Stalkers, and other Grimm flying. The familiar brrrt of Coco's minigun cut a large swath of death in the ever-steady influx of monsters throwing themselves at the Menagerie phalanx. Several figures dropped into the sand, including an explosively energetic Nora Valkyrie.

"Ask, and you shall receive!" She cried out gleefully, the kinetic strike boosters on her hammer glowing white-hot. The silvery glow of Jaune's aura dropped from the sky behind her, and Ryder's battle computer caught Ren's shadowy figure slip towards the backline of the spearhead to provide medical assistance for the wounded.

Firebrand hovered low behind the Odin, and Coco continued to spray death while the other operatives dropped down to support the push.

"Cavalry's here, boys and girls!" Beagle announced over the comms, "Let's bag ourselves a creepy-ass wurm and call it a day, shall we?"

Ryder recognized another figure dropping from the Bullhead. "Hey… is that Qrow?"

"It would appear so, Ryder!"

Ruby had also noticed her uncle's arrival, and it spurred her on to redouble her efforts against the oncoming Grimm. In general, the arrival of reinforcements was enough of a tactical and motivational push to get the offensive moving once more. The Strike teams stuck close to Ryder and Gizmo in case the Wyverns decided to make another pass, and the rain of bullets continued to keep the Grimm at bay while the spearhead advanced.

Ryder kept his armaments trained on the hardened targets while Terry sprayed the weaker ones with her cannon.

"We've got them on the run! KEEP PUSHING!"

The Gigas disagreed with Ryder. It plunged back beneath the sand, and a brand new dune started to form before the offensive's eyes as the monster tunneled its way towards them.

"Oh, fucking hell…"

Ryder didn't even need to give the order to scatter: having a giant Death Wurm racing towards the soldiers was motivation enough for them to haul ass. Several operatives had the wherewithal to hitch a ride on the Odin while it jetted out of harm's way. He could only hope that the rest of the coalition was able to evade the monstrous creature.

DANGER.

Annette mentally responded with an annoyed, 'Yes I know!' as she took to the skies with her squad. She scanned the ground to see if anyone was left behind, prioritizing her own squad before making sure everyone else had an escape plan. The Menagerie guards were, predictably, the least-equipped to escape, but huntsmen and operatives alike worked to help them scatter with everyone else.

The sand dune exploded as the Gigas erupted from below, sending several unfortunate faunus that were too close to the epicenter tumbling through the air. Up close and in the floodlights, the armored head of the monster proved a lot nastier than Annette realized. Three large jaw… flap… things formed a mouth that came to a point at the end of the wurm's body which easily sat two stories tall. As it roared to announce its arrival, Annette could see rows upon rows upon rows of teeth lining the inside of the Gigas's maw. The overlapping armor on its flanks flared slightly, and more black ooze flowed out and puddled on the sand below.

"Central," Annette keyed, "If you're planning on making use of the Avenger in this battle, now would be an excellent time."

"We're making our descent now, Major. Hold fast, and know that help is on the way."

The pitched battle continued as the coalition regrouped in the wake of the Gigas's destructive entrance. By this point, all operatives had switched to Gauss munitions, partly to clear out the minions quickly enough to avoid getting overwhelmed and partly to try and tear some holes in the armored hide of the wurm.

"Watch it! Fucker's whipping its head around!"

"It's spawning more of those little Deathstalkers!"

"Sand Sharks on our flank!"

Annette watched Ryder focus the Odin's heavy ordnance on the Gigas while the shoulder-mounted gun belched shot after shot at the smaller targets. If anything was going to get through the chitin plating on that beast, it would be the Odin. Unless…

"Rocketeers." Annette called out, "Take to the skies and aim for it's maw when it opens to spit more Grimm at us."

"Aye, Major."

"Terry's working on a solution to the armor with the Doc, by the way." Speaking of the devil… "They're thinking that if the armor can be super-chilled, then it might be brittle enough to break."

"You got some Ice Dust onboard that tin can of yours?" Annette hollered.

"Oh, you know it."

Annette wouldn't be of much use against the Gigas, so she joined Ruby, Qrow, and the other brawlers who were wading into the neverending tide of minions.

"Bet I can kill more than you, Major." Ruby quipped.

Annette snorted. "Bet you're full of shit."

A Sand Shark shrieked a few paces away, and the two of them looked over to see Qrow and Blake butchering the monster that they'd somehow managed to flip onto its back. "Only one way for you two to find out." Qrow said, eyebrow raised, "But you're free to start anytime now."

"Blake! Back me up!"

"Ohhh son-of-a… Arslan! Get your ass over here!"

Arslan looked up from her own fight several yards away, rolled her eyes, and dashed over to help. "How many times do I have to bail you out?" Arslan huffed.

"As many times as it takes to win," Annette quipped back. "It is called friendship!"

By now, the two of them had grown rather adept at fighting with each other. While Annette had taught Arslan the importance of determination and willpower, Arslan had worked with Annette to practice the intricacies of flow in combat. The two spent countless hours on the Avenger's flight deck, often with Reese, learning how to best combine their abilities to maintain a constant pressure on the adversary while never giving them an opening to strike back.

Annette led in with a shotgun blast to the nearest target, and while Arslan followed up with an energized palm strike to knock it off-balance, Annette finished with a form-shifted sword straight to the throat. A Canis moved in from behind to attack while Annette was exposed but was yanked away by a well-timed rope dart.

ATTACK.

Sometimes, the voice in Annette's head had a penchant for telling her the obvious. A small price to pay, however, for all the other times it's saved her ass. She switched her weapon back into a shotgun just as Arslan swung their victim around so she could blast it away at point-blank range. Arslan used the extra momentum to whip the Grimm around and smash it into one of its brethren.

DANGER.

Annette's senses perked up. She was busy tag-teaming a Cockatrice with Arslan, who was busy reeling herself towards the Grimm after Annette had sent it flying with her shotgun. Several Canis pounced at the opportunity to attack the isolated huntress, and Arslan was fending them off almost effortlessly. So what was the issue?

DANGER.

Whatever was tripping Annette's dangersense got Arslan's attention, too, as she froze for half a second after she delivered a crippling palm strike to the head of one of the hounds. And despite the alert, the Sand Shark still managed to catch her unaware and snatch her body in its jaws.

Oh fuck.

MOVE.

Annette dashed across the sand as Arslan screamed, a scream that unfortunately merely added to the cacophony of the hectic battlefield.

"Arslan!"

MOVE. MOVE.

Annette could see the rest of ABRN racing to their leader's aid. Reese was in the lead as she hurled herself over the dunes on her board, but each second they took closing the gap was another chomp of the Lamnidae's jaws on Arslan's pinned body. The young woman wailed with each bite, and she flailed her one free arm in a vain effort to break free.

The backseat driver in Annette's head seemed to be trying to grab hold of the wheel. Each time it yelled MOVE, the command felt like more than a mere word. Something tugged deep within her. It was as if Annette's body was trying to obey the voice's command in a way that wasn't humanly possible.

Another bite, and Annette watched Arslan's Aura finally shatter.

MOVE. MOVE. MOVE.

Something inside Annette snapped. Where the Major was still twenty paces away from Arslan a moment ago, her shoulder now smashed into the side of the Sand Shark's face with far more force than expected. The Grimm dropped Arslan in surprise.

STRIKE.

Something primal pushed confusion and shock to the backburner of Annette's mind. Her sword sliced through the underbelly of the Sand Shark.

PROTECT.

Bolin, Reese, and Nadir showed up and joined Annette as the four formed a defensive ring around Arslan. The girl's near-death experience drew in Grimm like blood in the water. More of the snarling, evil-eyed monstrosities closed in from all angles as ABRN dug in for the fight of their lives.

Ruby, I've got problems.

I know. What was that teleportation stunt you pulled?

The what?

We'll talk about it later. I'm trying to get to you, but the Gigas is spawning more Grimm the harder we hit it. Our Rocketeers really pissed it off.

"We've got to get her out of here," Bolin choked out, his staff a constant whirlwind as he pushed back monster after monster that swarmed in to take a bite out of the mauled Arslan.

"Easier said than done," Nadir grunted. With each Canis and Deathstalker they destroyed, two more eagerly piled in. "The damn wurm isn't running out of reinforcements." He jumped as a bone spine smashed into the sand inches away from his foot. "Shit! The Wyverns are back, too!"

Arslan whimpered quietly at their feet. The sound raised the hairs on the back of Annette's neck.

"Hang in there, Arslan." She said, injecting a dose of Inspiration into her words, "You've seen the face of Death, now tell him to fuck off."

SURVIVE.

Sword strikes, psionic lances, and shotgun blasts slew Grimm after Grimm, and yet they kept on coming. And as the monsters poured in, they continued to chip away at ABRN's vitality. A bite to the leg here, a Wyvern spine to the shoulder there… little by little, Arslan's defenders were getting worn down.

And they weren't the only ones.

"Gun's starting to run dry. Tell me we've got reinforcements on the way."

"There's too many of them!"

"Keep it together, soldiers! Failure is not an option!"

"It's… it's too much!"

"We need to fall back and regroup!"

Hearing the Menagerie soldiers start to waver only served to piss Annette off. She could understand their sentiment. Really, she could. But to turn their backs on XCOM, who put their lives on the line to protect Kuo Kuana, a city that none of them called home? That infuriated Annette.

"Hold fast! We can get through this! But we need your help to pull it off!"

"No… no. We need to retreat."

Ruby. Annette called to her friend. She cried out as a Hellion chomped down on her armored leg two seconds before she had the chance to lop its head off. We're in trouble over here.

I know, I know! But we're barely keeping the main force together. I've never seen my uncle fight this hard.

Ruby, Arslan is going to die if I can't get her out of here.

I…. I'm trying, Annette. I am! ... There's just so many!

"Central," Annette barked, "We're starting to fall apart down here. It's now or fucking never!"

"Jaegers are coming into range now, Major. They're locked onto the wurm, and firing… now."

Four explosions rocked the armored carapace of the beast, followed by four sonic booms as physics caught up with XCOM's heavy artillery.

"Reporting direct hits." One of the MEC snipers, Vulcan confirmed, "MAC systems require thirty seconds to cycle down before we can fire again."

The wurm screamed, and even the Grimm assaulting the offensive coalition shuddered as the very air vibrated from their progenitor's roar. ABRN recovered before the monsters did, and took the opportunity to clear some room so that Reese could pull Arslan back towards the main group.

Ruby, we're trying to get to you. But we've still got a lot of these assholes in the way.

"Ground Team, this is Firebrand. I've got Strike Six loaded up in the backseat, and they are itching for a fight."

"Good to hear, Firebrand. Eightball, how are we doing with those Wyverns?"

"They're a fuckin' pain in my ass, but at least I'm keeping them from being a pain in yours. My bird's gonna need some serious repairs after this is all over."

"Eightball, this is Central. Gidjit is reporting that he has sufficient control over some of his point defense armaments on the Avenger for use in combat. Draw the Wyverns over to us, and we'll see what we can do to help you out.

Annette psi-blasted a Cockatrice at point-blank range as it tried to crash into Reese and Arslan. A Canis leapt into the air from behind the bird, but its head vaporized into red mist mid-flight. Thirty paces away, Annette could see the smoking barrel of Crescent Rose, its blade planted firmly into the sand while Ruby pulled the bolt handle to chamber another round.

That's my girl.

"C'mon, guys. We're almost there!"

Even as she said it, though, Annette could feel her muscles burning for a respite. Each swing became heavier. The sand seemed like it was trying to pull her down with every step. Grimm fell with every boom from Crescent Rose, and yet Annette still struggled to fend off those that remained.

C'mon, Annette, you've got this!

ENDURE.

Annette's body tried to answer the call of her co-pilot. But it couldn't.

Annette, don't you dare!

The Major stumbled with her next step, though she still managed to drive her sword deep into the chest of another Canis.

"Preparing to fire MAC salvo."

"Vulcan!" Annette heard Ruby shout on the comms. "Direct one round to fire on the Grimm at my location!"

"Acknowledged, Captain. Developing firing solution… Ready to fire."

"Punch it!"

Although her vision started to grow blurry, the impact of the MAC round crashing into the Grimm several yards away shocked Annette into a more alert state. Alert, but still fatigued

MOVE.

Yeah, yeah… maybe you can try moving these legs for a few goddamn seconds.

The other three MAC rounds exploded along the armored flank of the wurm, and the monster screeched again.

"Forward, Warriors of Menagerie!" A new voice cried on the comms. Annette didn't recognize its owner, but she called out with an air of authority that gave the Major a few guesses.

"L-Lady…?"

"XCOM stands with us in our hour of need. Do not dishonor yourselves by abandoning them now."

One step. Two steps. Annette could see Ruby urging her forward with one hand while firing Crescent Rose with the other. As fatigue tightened its grasp on Annette's mind, she felt a psychic surge of energy that she recognized as a drastic shift in the emotions of the battlefield. Whoever that woman was, she'd given the Menagerie fighters a second wind that Annette could have used right about now.

Four steps. Five steps.

The Grimm behind ABRN were swiftly turned to mulch as more operatives rallied to assist the beleaguered team. Reese swooped forward (as best as she could, at least) to bring Arslan to safety while Nadir and Bolin continued to keep the hordes at bay. Annette moved past the XCOM firing line and almost immediately crashed to her knees.

REST.

Now that was an order that Annette could easily carry out.

"You ready for this, kiddo?"

Yang grinned from beneath her helmet, even though she knew her dad couldn't see it. "I could ask you the same thing, old man. Did you remember to pack an extra pair of pants? These airdrops can get pretty intense."

Taiyang scoffed. "If you think a little altitude is enough to scare me, you should have seen some of the shit my team pulled when we were your age. Just make sure you don't forget what we went over."

"Dad, we practiced this back when I was still at Signal. It's not like I don't know what you can do."

"Right. You just happen to have massive robotic limbs now. You know... Just a minor detail."

"You should ask Nora how many times she's ridden the Fastball Express, courtesy of yours truly. I'm not going to screw this up."

"Alright, alright, no need to get offended. I just wanted to make sure-"

"Oh, would you look at that," Yang interrupted, "Firebrand just took off with Strike Six. That's our cue to drop. I suggest holding on."

Yang walked her MEC off the edge of the Avenger and plunged into the waiting desert sky. Her HUD was alight with a dizzying amount of information: operative locations, Jaeger firing lanes, and an impressively large number of Grimm marked as High Priority Targets. Oh, and the giant Christmas Tree that was apparently known as the Gigas.

"Heads up, BFG," Eightball called over the comms, "I'm dragging a couple of birdies across your flight path. Think you could give me a hand on your way down?"

"Gladly," Yang said with delight. She spotted the highlighted outline of the Wyverns, identified the one that was on a collision course with her MEC, and grabbed it by the neck as she blew past. She pinned the surprised Grimm with her mechanized legs before asking, "Dad, do you mind…?"

Tai was already crawling over Yang's shoulder and wasted no time in laying into the flier. The Wyvern screamed when he tore away the bone plate, and it tried in vain to bring its barbed tail around to stab its assailant. The attack only succeeded in giving Taiyang a new weapon, as he ripped one of the spines out and used it to gouge the monster's eye before dragging it across the Wyvern's throat.

"Get back, Dad." The Wyvern was too weak from Taiyang's attack to resist as Yang grabbed its neck with both hands and ripped the head off.

"Well, I'd say that Daddy-Daughter Time is off to a good start." Taiyang chuckled.

"Oh yeah," Yang agreed with glee. The flier evaporated into the wind, and the ground was looking a lot closer now. "But the best part is coming up. You ready?"

"You know it."

The trick they had planned was something Tai had taught Yang back when she was learning about the importance of partner synergy at Signal. Taiyang's semblance allowed him to reverse kinetic energy upon contact, whether it was his own or the object he was touching. It allowed him to either launch himself by reversing his own energy, or to increase the force behind his punch by using his target's energy against itself.

And now they were free-falling at terminal velocity, and Yang was strapped into a MEC equipped with high-torque shoulder servos.

With her dad crouched in the palm of the MEC's right hand, Yang cocked her limb back and warned the ground team, "All operatives: this is Master Sergeant Xiao Long, preparing to engage the Oppenheimer Protocol. Please stand clear of the Gigas while the tactical nuke is deployed."

"OH SHIT."

"... Oppenwho?"

"EVERYONE, CLEAR OUT."

"What's going on-?"

"MOVE! JUST MOVE!"

With one swift motion, Yang chucked her payload like a baseball. At the apex of her throw, Tai pushed off with a bang and hurtled towards the wurm.

"MAC salvo ready to fire."

"Hold fire, Vulcan." Bradford ordered, "Sounds to me like you're about to have a very large soft target."

Bradford wasn't wrong. Taiyang collided with the sand wurm, and the explosive shockwave that followed rattled Yang's reinforced frame. She saw the hardened armor of the Gigas ripple and crack as it tried unsuccessfully to disperse the energy from Taiyang's punch. The fractures widened and grew into a massive spider web before the carapace finally caved and exploded outwards into thousands upon thousands of little pieces. The only thing louder than the anguished scream of the Gigas was the roaring cheers of the groundside soldiers - from several stories below the point of impact.

"Skysnipers, open fire."

A quartet of railgun slugs rained down upon the Gigas, followed shortly by Yang's mechanized fist. The Gigas bucked in pain and rage in response to the coordinated assault, and Yang plunged her hand through exposed guts and goop before catching a piece of the chitinous shell to keep herself steady.

"Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus Christ."

"You can say that again."

"Jeeeee-"

"No, stop."

"Seriously, BFG… how the fuck did you do that?"

Yang raised up her fist to deliver another kinetic strike to the monster's armor. "Kinetic reversal."

"Right. Because that explains fuck all."

Menagerie's newest arrival wasn't about to waste the opportunity to strike. "Forward, warriors! The beast falters, and it is time that we show the Grimm who truly owns Menagerie!"

"We'll watch your six." Ryder confirmed, "All Strike teams, focus fire on the small targets while Lady Khan assaults the Gigas."

"Huntsmen, focus on the HPT's," Beagle added, "We'll handle the mutts and pigeons. It's about time I get revenge for The Great Emu War."

"The what?"

Yang tuned out the chatter and returned her attention to the matter at hand. Her dad had recovered from his airstrike and hopped back onto the MEC's grab bar.

"So what's the plan, kiddo?"

"Start ripping up these plates." Yang answered. "Our alpha strike's definitely done a number on this thing's armor, but we've got to tear it all away if we want any chance to really kill it."

Taiyang grinned. "My little girl's all grown up. Since when did you become a tactician?"

Yang clamped on to a jagged plate as much to regain her balance as it was to tear it off. "Since I got the new arms, dad," she half-joked. "Or since Ruby made me realize I need to start stepping up my game. Yeah, probably that one. Anyway, Brad asked me to be conservative with my fuel, if possible, so I probably shouldn't use my jet boots to get some airtime for another dunk."

"Fair enough. I can only pull that party trick a few times before it depletes my Aura, anyway."

The skies rattled and thundered overhead. Yang looked up to see the Avenger looming in closer to the fight. Flashes along the side of the ship caught her attention, and she figured that was the point defense guns perforating the Wyverns. A quartet of flashes dotted the top of the flight deck, and four more railgun rounds impacted the Gigas.

Right, time to get to work.

The cracked plating tore off easily enough. Some of the bone chitin had already fallen off from Tai's initial impact, so all Yang had to do was grab an exposed edge and start pulling. The fleshy skin beneath made a sickening squelching noise as the bone plate ripped away, which only spurred Yang forward to continue her work with renewed vigor. By the time the Menagerie militiamen had arrived, Yang had provided a pretty sizeable gap in the armor.

"Blah. I don't think I'll be eating sushi anytime soon," Yang muttered.

Rifles and shotguns echoed in the night. Makeshift firebombs splashed into the freshly-opened wounds. Sienna did not join the militia squad attacking the wurm's flank, and Yang guessed that the faunus leader had instead chosen to remain up by the mouth to either keep the beast distracted or to stem the tide of fresh Grimm.

"Keep going! We're cutting through its mass!"

"Watch out for those Canis!"

The Gigas didn't make it easy, that was for sure. It bucked and swayed in an effort to dismount its riders and crush the raiders, all while spitting out more protean Grimm matter to distract the attackers. The desert shuddered as it reared up and slammed into the sand, but Yang and her father hung on.

The Menagerie fighters dug in.

"Keep shooting, Warriors! For your loved ones! For Kuo Kuana!"

As a final effort, the Gigas tried to retreat back underground to escape the assault. It almost succeeded, too.

"Fucker's getting away!"

"Terry, ice it!"

"Yes, sir!"

A salvo of blue-tinted explosives streaked towards the retreating head of the Gigas, exploding in a frosty, sub-zero cloud. The monster thundered out in pain, and stopped slinking back into the sand. It wailed in its dazed state. Yang watched Gizmo race forward and deliver a rocket punch to the frozen jaw with a satisfying crunch.

"Dad?"

"You read my mind," Taiyang answered while he jumped up into Yang's hand.

"Gizmo!" Yang called out. "I'm about to throw my dad at you. Do me a favor and punch him back towards the Gigas, alright?"

Yang didn't wait for an answer as she chucked her dad down towards the other MEC by the monster's head.

It was only when Gizmo's one-word reply of, "missed!" echoed in her ear that Yang froze. "Uh oh," she said.

Her father's voice, however, followed shortly after. "HooooOOOOOOLY shit!"

Among the wurm's flailing as it started to recover from the icy assault, Yang caught a glimpse of her father spinning around on a long chain. He disappeared again, and a loud crunch was followed by pieces of shattered wurm flesh exploding into tiny, evaporating shards.

"Well, that was badass. Can, uh… can we keep the Khan?"

Yang grinned, remembering how she'd thought the same thing the first time she'd tried the same move with Blake. She dashed forward along the body of the Gigas to see what had happened, skidding to a stop once she reached the head.

Or rather… what was left of it, anyway. One of the three mouth flaps that formed the end of the wurm's body was completely mangled. The massive slab of meat was still there, but it was torn to pieces, hanging by sinews, and utterly unuseable. Apparently Ryder's plan to freeze and then break it was far more effective than Yang had originally realized. Wailing on the exposed, massive inside of the mouth stood Taiyang, Gizmo, and Sienna Khan.

As one might expect from a feline huntress, Sienna Khan was practically a dancer with the way she moved in a fight. The way she wielded her chain… whip… thingy reminded Yang of how Blake would sometimes lash out at range with Gambol Shroud, but this was an entirely new level. Given that Sienna had years of experience over Blake, and that striking with the whip was the focus of her combat style, it was hardly surprising. But the way she ripped a tooth out of the monster's mouth, swung the tooth around and impaled it like a dagger into the throat of a Canis, then whipped her chain around to strike a Cockatrice, spun about to…

Whoa. It was dizzying to watch. Taiyang and Gizmo provided the heavy firepower, but Sienna just… locked down the battlefield.

"We've breached the head!" One of the Strike operatives cried out, "Let's mulch this fucker from the inside out!"

"Lady Khan! The exposed wounds on the Gigas's flank are causing it to bleed Grimm!"

Yang looked back over the wurm's body and saw several little buggers running and skittering along towards her from the gaping flesh wound she'd left behind.

"Because of course it wouldn't be easy…" she sighed quietly to herself.

"Then we shall fight it on two fronts," Sienna answered. "Brave warriors, join me and XCOM as we venture into the belly of the beast!"

"This is Central. Strikes Four, Five, and Six, stand your ground at the maw to make sure no Grimm attack the assault team from the rear. We'll continue to pound it from above. Be advised that the more holes we poke in this thing, the more Grimm we're probably dealing with."

"Then how do we kill it?"

"Through the heart," Sienna answered coldly.

"We can help with that, Lady Khan," Bradford interjected. "My team is prepping a bomb that makes generous use of Fire Dust and several other highly volatile materials. If we can get that thing delivered to its vitals…"

"Then we've got ourselves a dead wurm." Ryder finished. The Odin's railguns racked loudly and Ryder fired a pair of shots into the maw of the Gigas. Several shrill screams echoed back by way of response.

"All operatives prepping for the breach?" he said, Yang and Gizmo falling into formation behind him. "Fix bayonets."

Amidst the gunfire of the rear guard, the White Fang, and the militia, a satisfying sshhhhnk echoed as three squads of XCOM operatives flipped the fusion knife attachments on their rifles and shotguns into position.

Not one of them with Aura. Yang would be at the front, making sure they didn't need it..

"Reapers. Move in and scout ahead," Elena commanded. "These creatures will soon learn that the very shadows yearn for their demise."

Like a whisper in the night, a chilling breeze rushed into the the bleeding chasm of the wurm's head. The beast whimpered as Ryder stomped on its lower mandible to hold it open while Gizmo drove her sword straight through the fleshy lip. That didn't change the fact that three MECs were walking straight into the beastie's mouth, practically side by side.

And yet, despite the fact that three MECs could comfortably fit inside the monstrous throat of the Gigas, Yang still got a slight sense of claustrophobia as soon as she crossed the threshold. The tepid air pressed in around them almost as much as the darkness did, The pulsating walls made her feel like the monster's cavernous insides were slowly closing in on the assault team. And the large, bony spine running along the ceiling with wide, arching ribs branching off of it added yet another grisly detail to their push into the wurm. Yang was excited at the prospect of beating the shit out of the Gigas from the inside out, and yet… she knew it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Firebrand declared over the comms, "package is prepped and headed your way now, ground team. Recommend leaving a secondary crew at the mouth that can catch up once I drop off the payload."

"CQC line, advance. The heavy weapons are right behind you."

Sienna led the charge with the huntsmen (minus JNPR, who stayed behind to support the rear guard), the militia, and the Assaults and Scouts from the first three Strike teams. The Gunners and Infantrymen warmed up their rifles and fired over the shoulders of their peers and into the void. The familiar whine of Coco's minigun echoed off of the spongy walls as she joined the chorus.

As they moved past the wicked teeth of the monster's maw, Yang noticed several fleshy sacs lining the walls of the Gigas's throat. Black matter dripped from them, slowly pooling on the floor and forming small rivulets of Grimm essence.

"Those are probably how it kept lobbing Grimm Goo at us," she guessed, revving up the engines on her Kinetic Strike Module. "I'm gonna punch it."

Lady Khan was already one step ahead, lashing out with her whip-chain and sweeping it in wide arcs to inflict lacerations on several of the sacs. The CQC line advanced to deal with the monsters pour forth from further in. The sacs, Yang quickly found out, burst like disgusting, oversized water balloons when smashed with a kinetic strike module.

"Show the monster no mercy!" Sienna shouted. "We will slice, stab, and burn everything we come across. The Gigas will be an empty husk once we're done with it.

Yang couldn't disagree with that. And as they pushed further in, she realized that there were plenty of important-looking bits hanging off the walls and growing up from the floor of the monster. Several of the Menagerie militiamen hefted their flamethrowers, originally intended to burn away the Scarab swarms, and instead got to work torching the inside of the Gigas.

"Whoaaaakay, Big Boy is flaring out his armor plates like they're gills, and some beefy dudes are spilling out."

"We can handle it!" Jaune interjected. "Assault team, just worry about pushing deep enough to kill it!"

The Gigas's body rocked as four more railgun shells slammed into its flank, and the groaning roar smelled disgusting as it washed over Yang's MEC.

"... Let's keep going."

"Bomb is groundside," Apollo called out. "Escorting it now with team CFVY."

An unending tide of Grimm rose up from the ichor pooling at the base of the Gigas and poured into the limited lighting provided by the MECs' flood lamps and the rifle flashlights of the operatives. A gout of flame from Yang's arm lit up the cavernous inside every now and then, but the fire wasn't enough to deter the Grimm from throwing themselves at the assault team like demons in the dark. And if that wasn't bad enough, the wurm's body was an entirely separate carnival of horrors.

"Oh fuck!"

One of the Assaults had pushed ahead and found a tooth jammed into his foot. The walls of the corridor constricted as more teeth extended from flesh, slowly pulling the operative into a deadly squeeze.

"Shit!"

"Get him out of there!"

Several operatives hurried to help, but the floor of teeth continued to grow. From behind them, Sienna's chain shot out, wrapped around the trapped Assault's waist, and yanked him back with the tooth firmly embedded in his foot.

"Strap him into a jumpseat." Ryder ordered, "We don't have time to slow down."

Indeed, more disgusting parts of the Gigas's anatomy lay ahead. Giant pools of caustic waste, tendrils with hooked ends, constricting segments that used crushing force rather than razor teeth to pulverize its victims, seeping sores that grew wide to trap an unsuspecting operative or faunus before closing up again to cripple them. And at every step of their journey, the very walls dripped with Grimm essence to spawn more monstrosities with the sole intent of killing them.

But for every horror the wurm threw their way, XCOM countered it without slowing down. Grenades were flung into the caustic pools, either splattering their contents against the unprotected walls with explosive force or freezing it solid with ice dust. Hooked tendrils were swiftly cut down by twin Crescent Roses, one wielded by Ruby and another by Velvet. The crushing walls were punched back by Kinetic Strike modules and Aura-infused palm strikes by Fox and Taiyang. And every time a hole tried to swallow up an operative, salvation came in the form of a Viper's tongue or Sienna's chain. All the while Reapers gutted Grimm in the dark, gauss and Dust rounds tore through the thick fleshy walls, and the entire creature shuddered and shook as explosions rocked it from the outside. It didn't matter what was inside the beast - failure was not an option.

And yet, the constant danger, the darkness, and the shrill cries from the Grimm took their toll on the Assault team. Yang would catch glimpses of her sister and watch the signs of fatigue grow across her face. Given Ruby's rudimentary ESP, Yang had to wonder if the strain was all physical or if the emotions of their companions were taking an equally heavy toll on Ruby.

A small part of Yang wondered if she was contributing to that. Since getting her MEC, she'd never had to worry about firepower. Now, for once, she started to wonder if even her Juggernaut-encased MEC had a big enough arsenal to make it to the end of this monster.

With a yell, she slammed her MEC's fists together, her Semblance flared just enough to light the beast's insides for a second. Then she slammed one KSM down, pulping an armoured, tentacled black creature and bruising the wurm's guts to boot.

Her little sis wasn't getting any fear off of her today.

The ground jolted beneath them, as though they were in a train car lurching forward from a stand-still.

"Gigas is moving!" Beagle warned.

Shit. The soldiers looked at one another while Sienna answered the comms.

"Back underground?"

"Negative, it's… it's headed towards Kuo Kuana."

"Slow it down by any means necessary. The Assault team is still advancing on its target."

"You heard her! Let's bring this fucker to its knees!"

"It doesn't have knees, boss."

Either way, the news lit a fire under the Assault team as they pushed onward with renewed purpose. The entire corridor began to undulate as the Gigas slithered forward, which added another layer of complications to the team's advance. The walls pulsed and throbbed, and Yang suspected they held arteries that supplied Grimm essence to the rest of the wurm. Among the almost-constant sound of gunfire and steel, a dull ba-dump, ba-dump started to reverberate down the corridor.

"Elena? Any idea if essence from a giant wurm Grimm would be more potent than essence from the little guys?"

"It is," the Reaper answered simply.

Sienna, however, focused on maintaining the team's momentum. "Keep pushing! I'm certain we're almost there!"

Yang was inclined to agree with her, if only because the Grimm were becoming more monstrous, more armored, and more ravenous as they pushed further inward. New threats appeared, such as small, armored bears dropping down from the roof of the Gigas's cavernous interior, wreaked havoc among the soldiers.

Worse yet, chatter among the operatives betrayed that ammo was starting to run dry. The huntsmen, however, redoubled their efforts to make up for the reduced fire support. Qrow and Taiyang laughed more than once as they continually tried to one-up each other, Yatsuhashi unleashed small earthquakes with every strike, and Sienna's endless whirlwind of daggers and chains was quite possibly the only thing keeping hope alive among the White Fang.

"This is insane…"

"We're not getting out of here, are we?"

"Yes we are!"

"How?"

The cavernous wurm shuddered from another Jaeger salvo, and Yang could hear the ratta-tat-tat chatter of Eightball's nosegun in the fight raging beyond the walls of the Gigas. A pack of armored Canis raced into view. Yang readied her fists for a beatdown. She dashed forward alongside Gizmo, Taiyang, and Sienna. The hellions crashed into her juggernaut plating and swarmed the huntsmen intent on sending them back into the abyss. MEC fists met bony skulls, and Sienna's dagger shimmered in the squad's light. With a yell, the XCOM operatives readied their weapons and charged the Grimm with the fusion knives glowing red-hot.

Cries of pain were drowned out by yells of fury. The faunus of Menagerie pushed forward with their XCOM comrades. The dingoes fell in short order, but the unspoken point was made perfectly clear. Keep fighting and keep pushing. There's no way back until the job's done.

The flamethrowers had run dry a while ago, but that didn't stop the team from ripping up every fleshy organ they saw. Yang knew she would be spending some quality time in the Avenger scrubbing Talos's MEC suit clean to get rid of all the grime and gooey viscera getting caked onto the plates and in the crevices.

Through another narrowing in the body, over mountains of acid-bleached bones, and across a room criss-crossed with dripping strands of Grimm essence the group pushed. Yang could practically feel the intangible energy driving the group forward. She grinned as she caught Ruby's eye and saw her sister give her a sly wink. As they drove deeper into the Gigas, the low beat grew louder and louder.

"Team," Elena advised, "I think our target is up ahead."

Sure enough, the group broke through one last choke point and found what had to be the nerve center of the Gigas. A giant, pulsating mass sat at the end of an uncharacteristically cavernous segment of the wurm, encased in Grimm webbing and surrounded by monsters. The vanishing carcasses of several Grimm proved that the Reapers were already getting a head start on clearing a path for the bomb, and the arrival of stomping MECs and screaming soldiers drew the rest like moths to a flame.

"Keep them busy while Yatsu delivers the bomb!" Ruby commanded. "I'll snipe it once we're clear!"

One more room. One final push, and they could finally catch a breath. That was the hope, anyway. Yang gave it her all, as did Ruby, Blake, Taiyang, Qrow… everyone. They knew they needed to succeed here and now in this moment, and they'd figure out what to do next once they got to that point.

The Grimm did not make it easy. It almost seemed as though their proximity to the nexus of the Gigas gave them unholy strength. They fought like wild animals backed into a corner. Coco rained death from atop the Odin while Fox and Velvet escorted Yatsuhashi towards the heart. Faunus and XCOM operatives cycled in a near-constant state of pulling back the wounded while pushing forward with those who could still fight. Tendrils lashed out from the walls and the heart itself to push back the assault, and more Grimm rose up from the spawning pools that collected at the base of the giant organ.

"Gun's dry!"

"Fall back and let the huntsmen fight!"

"Hell no! Not while I can still stab these assholes!"

The Odin's railguns boomed as Ryder targeted the largest of the monsters. He must have been conserving his last set of rounds for this, and Yang had to admit that the heavy firepower was sorely needed. Even with experienced brawlers like her dad and uncle keeping the Grimm at bay, the size of some of the creatures called for a more supersonic solution.

"Bomb's in place!"

"Everybody fall back!"

Yang and Gizmo stood their ground with overlapping hard light shields to cover the retreat of their squishier allies. Each second stretched on for an eternity as the Grimm fell upon them like a wave.

"All clear!"

The jetboots on the MECs screamed to life, and the duo beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of the far entryway. Once they were within punching distance of the choke point, a lone bullet sailed over Yang's shoulder. In an instant, the room became impossibly bright. Yang saw the Odin step into the narrow entryway after she and Gizmo soared past him. They took up secondary positions to shield the ducking operatives and soldiers from whatever flames would slip past Ryder's shield, and braced for the heat.

And the heat certainly came. Ryder suffered the worst of it, but the fire rolled like a purifying wave down the hall. It splashed across Yang's shield and licked at the flesh of those behind her. The heat was incredible. Whatever Vahlen and Tygan had stuffed into that bomb, it was really potent. Yang had always had an affinity towards fire, and even she couldn't help but grit her teeth so as not to cry out.

Just as it seemed to become unbearable, the flames dissipated.

"Holy shit, the Gigas just lit up like a Christmas tree."

"Hope you kids are safe in there, because we were able to see that blast from outside."

"Some of us are looking a little crispy," Yang admitted. "Target the epicenter of the blast. Maybe that bomb cooked this thing enough for you to break through."

"Target locked. Syncing firing solution so all four rounds strike the same location. Brace for impact."

The Jaegers fired once more. The first round struck, and Yang could feel the crack in the Gigas's hide as it struggled to dissipate the kinetic round. The second round struck, and the sound from inside the Gigas changed noticeably. The third round tore through the monster's skin completely. Yang caught a glimpse past Ryder of the charred heart just as the fourth round crashed into it and scattered the monstrous organ into ashes.

"Holy shit…" Yang breathed. Rays of light pierced through the new window that the Jaegers ripped open, and an eerie silence fell over the group. Some of the soldiers were whimpering in pain from the fire (or their previous wounds), but the noise was pushed to the back of Yang's mind when she noticed something far more important.

She couldn't hear any Grimm.

They had won.

A/N: Alright, so now that the Menagerie arc has come to a close and I'm not leaving you on a cliffhanger, it's time to give you some bummer news: I'm taking a few months off. Despite the slow pace of releases (at least they feel slow to me), I've been "on" for basically a year since the last time I gave myself a break. I need to take a deep breath, recharge my batteries, and then assess where I'm at with the story and where I feel it needs to go from here.

I'll still be around to chat with people on the Discord (I've become awful at responding to PM's on this site, unfortunately), so feel free to stop by, say hello, and and hang out with us while you wait. I only ask that you don't ask me when I plan to start writing again.

Have a safe holiday season, and I'll be back sometime in the new year.