A/N: I want to start off by saying that I am absolutely humbled by the influx of responses to my request last week. The feeling you get when so many people enjoy your writing enough to take the time and submit creative suggestions... it's amazing. Some people wrote incredibly detailed messages to me, and I enjoyed going back and forth bouncing ideas off of more than one of you. I even value the couple of messages I received along the lines of "I can't think of any ideas, but I really like your story!" because it conveys the same enjoyment you have for my writing. So thank you all for coming out in force and helping me out.

On the subject of your suggestions, I want to mention that you won't see them for a few chapters, and that's because of several reasons. First, it makes sense in terms of story logic that these plans/designs will take some time before Shen can produce them. Second, I try to keep a 3 or 4 chapter buffer between what I post and the chapter I'm currently writing. This lets me still have something to post on Fridays even if I am unable to write a full chapter on any given week. So it would be difficult for me to go back and try to shoehorn tech into a chapter I've already finished. The awesome fusion of Remnant and XCOM design philosophies will come soon, I promise!

Finally, I also want to make a comment on continuity with regards to the Long War mod. I assume that some (many?) of you have played/completed a Long War campaign. While I absolutely love the tremendous versatility LW provides over Vanilla, I have never progressed beyond Laser Tech in a LW playthrough. What this means is that the timing between events, when XCOM would usually advance to plasma, what month certain aliens show up... there will very likely be some level of disparity on these sorts of matters between my story and what usually happens in LW. I feel like it's not that big of a deal, but I just wanted to point this out in the event that something I write may cause some of you to go "hey, wait a minute!"

Anyway, that's enough chatter from me. Enjoy the chapter!

The last few days had been extremely stressful for Central Officer Bradford. Things began rolling downhill horribly when a UFO managed to slip through his interceptor net and splash XCOM's satellite over the United States. In any other country, this would be a minor setback that could be quickly rectified by launching one of the several satellites kept in reserve for this very reason. It only takes three days for the new hardware to come online, and coverage of alien activity could return to business as usual.

Unfortunately, the United States housed XCOM HQ.

This meant that, for the three days it took for the replacement satellite to come online, XCOM was blind against any alien activity in the US. Abductions, bombing run, terror attacks… the aliens employed numerous methods that spread panic among the nations of Earth. While XCOM couldn't possibly block every attempted alien mission, Bradford prioritized keeping the operation's home country safe whenever possible. If the US ever fell and the aliens managed to get a foothold here… Bradford shuddered at the idea of the aliens locating XCOM HQ.

Even if the alien operations didn't succeed in convincing the American government to pull funding from the XCOM project, responding to abductions or terror attacks meant fielding a Strike team, and that meant the squad would need several days to rest after the mission, or more if soldiers sustained a serious injury during the operation. As it was, Bradford already had Strike Eight out of the picture after Vahlen convinced him to approve Psi Testing four days before the aliens shot out his eye in the sky. After Vahlen delivered her less-than-fortunate news to the team yesterday, Bradford didn't have the heart to return them to active duty. He had enough teams standing by to handle operations in their absence, but coupled with the fact that several other teams were still fractured due to an unfortunate string of recent combat wounds… it would be tight if the aliens decided to throw a curveball at Bradford.

At the end of the third day, Bradford felt like he could finally breathe easy. With the satellite due to activate in five minutes, the Central Officer noted that the aliens didn't launch a single abduction against the American populace. With a relieved sigh that he'd been holding for three days, Bradford called over the intercom to deliver the good news to XCOM's residents: business at the base would soon be returning to normal. Bradford basked in his good fortune for a solid minute of silence before he forced himself to resume his regular duties.

"Alright team, let's get to work. Our new sat will be linking up in a minute, so we're back to business as usual. We've been lucky that we haven't had any other incidents with either the aliens or EXALT over the past few days, and it's unlikely that the trend will continue for much longer. Now we can shift back to our regular flow and put this stressful incident behind us."

"Sir?" One of the techs spoke up. "Comm sat is coming online in three… two… one…"

The geoscape instantly updated with the fresh information coming from the new satellite, and Bradford's heart plummeted.

"What the hell…?"

Yang was pissed. It was one thing for the stupid psi testing to be as boring as watching paint dry, worse even. She could have tolerated that. She was also perfectly happy to chill in a testing tank, suspended in frigid water while a bunch of wires ran signals through her noggin and recorded the reactions from her scrambled brain. The discomfort was totally worth it to get her Aura back. Sure, there were a few times when Vahlen ordered them to exit the tanks and observed while they followed instructions given to them by a screen prompt. That would have broken up the monotony of sitting in an ice bath, except the instructions demanded incredibly boring tasks like "walk across the room" or "drop to your back, then stand up again." After an hour of prompts, and it was back into the tanks for RWBY.

The time something went wrong and the air supply to the testing tanks cut out marked the only event Yang could have gone without. The members of RWBY enjoyed a fun forty seconds where they flew into panicked action while Vahlen scrambled to get the air supply running again. Ruby almost scrubbed the rest of the test right there, except Vahlen firmly believed she found the error that triggered the shutoff and assured the team leader that a similar event would not happen again. Thankfully, she wasn't wrong, and even though Yang never wanted a repeat of those horrifying forty seconds ever again, she would have been fine with it for the sake of her Aura.

Except the tests didn't work.

After they were done, and the four bright-eyed huntresses met up with Vahlen for the first time in literally days, the doctor dropped the bad news on them. Not only were they not psionically sensitive, but Vahlen claimed she had figured out the cause of their Aura suppression. This would ordinarily be good news, except Vahlen followed it up immediately by saying she would not be able to easily fix the problem. All Yang heard after that was "blah, blah, electromagnetism… something, something, blocking your channels… yadda, yadda, extensive calibrations." She didn't blame the doctor for sharing her findings, but it didn't solve the number one problem plaguing Yang.

Blake apparently noticed her partner's apathy after Vahlen's "I have bad news," because Yang's partner pulled her aside afterward and re-explained everything Vahlen said.

"Vahlen said that her equipment failed to directly detect our Aura, but she still detected some strange readings during the tests. Since she confirmed that we don't possess psionic abilities, the next best explanation is that our Aura caused the anomalies."

Yang flopped onto her bed and sighed heavily, "Right, I heard that part. so what's the problem, then?"

"Well, she said that the triggered reactions were extremely weak."

"How weak?"

"Weaker than a psi operative on his first day, and they get headaches when they try to move a wet noodle."

"Wonderful," grumbled Yang, "Would you mind giving me the good news? Is there even any good news?"

"Well, she does have a theory on what the problem is. That failure with the air supply?" Blake winced when she saw Yang's eyes narrow dangerously, "... It wasn't exactly a failure. While we were panicking for forty seconds, Vahlen observed the readouts on our vitals."

"She suffocated us for forty seconds?!"

Blake sighed, "Yes, Yang. She did. She admitted that the idea was horrible, and Weiss is currently having a long talk with Vahlen about ethics. The point is, she found something."

"This 'something' better be heart-stoppingly amazing, or I might be crashing Weiss's chat with the doc."

"Well, the panic pushed our adrenaline into overdrive," Blake continued, "And Vahlen's metrics for our Aura rose drastically. Where before, she barely detected enough supernatural strength to pass XCOM's psi aptitude standards, the adrenaline spike made us more potent than Captain Durand."

"Durand? She's XCOM's best psionic, isn't she?"

"When XCOM first met her, she unleashed a telekinetic shockwave that knocked MECs off their feet and caused nearby cars to burst into flame. And that was before she had the chance to improve her psionic skills as an operative.

"... Damn."

"Anyway, because the adrenal spike played such a huge role in our successful Aura demonstration, Vahlen thinks there's something different between the electromagnetic environment of Earth and Remnant."

"So we can blame the problem on some sort of science bullshit that's out of our control, huh?" Yang balled her hands into fists, "Shocking."

Blake shrugged, "I'm a little fuzzy on the details, it's Vahlen after all, but the gist of it is that the adrenaline triggered a lot of neuron activity, which in turn generated some sort of counter field that unsuppressed our Aura. We don't really know why, but the fact that it happens is enough to give Vahlen a lead."

Yang relaxed momentarily, a look of hope on her face, "Alright, then all we gotta do is get our adrenaline going and we can fight like we're back on Remnant, right?"

"Don't you think that would've happened by now?" Blake asked, "Let's face it: these aliens can be pretty dangerous, but they don't hold a candle to the Grimm. And since we've spent all our lives fighting those soul-less monsters, Mutons and Thin Men just don't provoke the same reaction from us."

Blake watched Yang's hopeful face turn to one of mute sadness, "Well, can she at least find some way to fake the adrenal response? Or create an artificial counter field?"

"Yes and no. Technically, it's possible, but Vahlen spent about five minutes going on about how complex the human nervous system is before Weiss cut her off. It'll take a lot of data collection and calibrating, and she'd need an active adrenal response during the entire collection period."

Yang winced, "Which means…"

"Yeah," Blake sighed, "Which means she'd need to do something on par with the air supply stunt to get any useful data from us. We would literally have to subject ourselves to torture if we want Vahlen to get this problem solved within the next year."

"Something tells me that my little sister is not okay with this."

"Neither is Vahlen, nor would Bradford be if we ever told him. The doctor will do her best to try and brute-force the problem with intelligent guesswork, but she warned us that we probably won't see results anytime soon."

Yang fell back into her pillow, "Wonderful."

So midnight found Yang at the armory. The news infuriated the huntress to the point that she couldn't sleep, so she opted to spend some quality time at the range shooting targets and pretending they were Dr. Vahlen. After an hour of shooting alone in the dead of night, Yang grew bored and found herself no closer to wanting sleep. Her next idea took her to the live fire room, where she planned to set up a stamina-intensive course and run it in full gear. Not only would the process of setting it up take time and hopefully distract her, but running from cover to cover with a heavy rocket tube strapped to her back and a full complement of explosives would definitely get Yang's blood pumping. The plan did nothing to solve the problem of her aura, but at least it would feel good.

It took the Rocketeer fifteen minutes to set up a course, and Yang was strapping down the last few components of her armor when she heard someone cough lightly behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see Ruby smiling back at her, gear in her arms. "Mind if I join you?"

Yang shrugged. "Sure, why not? I'm guessing you couldn't sleep either?"

Ruby sat down next to her and went to work putting on her Kestrel Armor. Yang agreed to stick with Carapace Armor after her little run-in with that squad of Mutons on the roof, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't at least mildly jealous of the grappling hook that came with Ruby's suit. Sure, it wasn't as sturdy as Ol' Faithful, but the nature of Ruby's role as a Sniper meant that she stayed safely out of the line of fire more than the rest of the squad. In theory, at least.

"It sorta makes sense," Ruby started, interrupting Yang's musings on their class differences. "She talked about our Aura activating when we're really stressed out, and it made me think. Remember how I got the nickname No-Scope?"

Yang nodded.

"I saw that alien grenade get thrown at Weiss and my heart stopped." She finished strapping on her armor and began a quick check on her rifle, "My partner's tough, I know… but she had just finished blasting her way through a group of Mutons, and you don't come out of that unscathed. The grenade was going to seriously hurt her, and I knew it." She brought the rifle up to her shoulder and looked through the scope, checking to see if it was properly aligned, "I told you guys that it almost felt like time slowed down when I lined up my shot on the grenade, but after hearing Vahlen's theory… maybe time really did slow down, you know? My semblance kicked in and my reactions, senses, and motion all kicked into overdrive to make sure that grenade didn't connect with Weiss."

It made sense to Yang. She looked down at the Stengun in her hands, "Yeah… I'm pretty tough myself, but even I was surprised when I walked out of the med bay five days after I jumped off the roof. I mean, I know Vahlen said that our biology is a little tougher than the these guys from Earth, but I was not expecting to be out so fast."

Ruby stood up, slung her sniper rifle over one shoulder, and offered her free hand to Yang, "So hey, even if we don't get to use our Aura whenever we want, it looks like we still have it when we need it, right?" Her sister smiled and let Ruby pull her to her feet. "Right, shall we get started then?"

The lighting in the room suddenly dimmed to the point where Ruby could barely make out the shape of Yang in front of her. Klaxons started to go off and were accompanied by emergency red siren lights. The two sisters looked up in confusion at the alarms, not sure what was causing them. Bradford's voice over the PA quickly answered their unasked question.

"This is Central. We have Security Status RED. Rep-"

Bradford's voice abruptly cut out to the sound of a loud, metallic clang. Ruby and Yang swapped worried looks; this was a new experience for them. Did XCOM frequently go to status red, or was this a first?

"Repeat, we have a Security Status Red," Bradford's voice was ragged now, as if he was in the middle of a physical contest, "Alien assailants have been detected at the outer perimeter, and are closing quickly." The Central Officer stopped talking. Ruby heard the familiar sound of a pistol cocking, and then a single gunshot. "Sensors have picked up two Assault Carrier-class contacts, and they used the gap in our net to approach undetected. We need all hands on deck to repel this attack. Strike teams, get prepped ASAP. Base security will do what it can to hold off the invaders while you get to the Armory and gear up."

Ruby and Yang stood frozen, staring at each other, with the alarms and flashing lights merely background noise. Ruby recovered first from the shock and reach for the nearest intercom panel. "Central, this is Eight-Actual and Eight-Four. We are currently in full combat kit and ready to help in whatever capacity you need."

There was silence after Ruby let go of the button, and she wondered if the alien attackers had done something to the system's electronics. Finally, Bradford's heavy breathing came through the panel's speaker between intermittent coughing fits, "I won't ask what you're doing… equipped for combat at one in the morning, because... it's a godsend right now. We have multiple points of entry for hostile contacts, and several are…" a particularly nasty bout of coughs interrupted the Central Officer, "... several are likely on approach to Dr. Shen's engineering facility. Get there as fast as you can and coordinate… any base defense personnel you find there. Grab one of the commlinks Shen has laying around and key yourself to channel four-five-one. Godspeed, Actual."

Ruby gave an affirmative response before nodding to Yang and bolting towards the Engineering Bay. As she ran, she raced by the occasional blue-armored base security soldier. Some were running in her direction, some not. Most quivered in terror, some were even stumbling in their panic, and all were in a hurry. She soon reached the elevator that led down to her favorite part of the base and punched the call button. The brief respite while the lift rumbled up to their floor gave Yang a chance to catch up with her swift-footed sister. Several beads of sweat already glazed her face.

"Sis, I'm carrying a buttload of heavy equipment. You gotta slow down a little if you want me to keep up."

"You heard Bradford, Yang. Engineering could be attacked at any second. We have to hurry."

Yang nodded. "Yeah, I get that. All I'm saying is this stuff isn't light, you know?"

The doors open and the two huntresses piled in while Ruby jammed the button for the engineering facility. Before the doors closed, several members of base security squeezed into the elevator.

"You all headed for Engineering?" Ruby asked as the doors closed. The soldier closest to the door eyed Ruby with a wary look before responded with a 'Yeah.'

"Alright, I've been tasked by Central Officer Bradford to coordinate the defense forces on location. Do you know how many other soldiers are assigned to our group?"

The big guy in the front turned around gave Ruby an incredulous stare. "You're kidding. Bradford wants you to order us around?"

A familiar voice sang out from the corner of the room. "Hey, pay attention who you're talking to, ya dumbfuck. Lance Corporal Rose here earned the nickname No-Scope for a reason."

Ruby turned to see Conor shove his way towards the center of the cramped elevator. "Conor…? But… I thought you were a power supply tech."

The Irishman shrugged. "Yeah, well… nobody is immune to pulling shifts as base security." He rolled his eyes. "Lucky me that the aliens decided to pop in for a pint five minutes before my turn was over."

The rude soldier at the front gave Conor a shove. "Hey, MacAuley. You know shortstack over there?"

"How the fuck do you not? She's one of the best up-'n-coming Snipers on staff, and Claymore's prodigy."

"You mean protégé?"

Conor gave him the finger. "My point is, Rose here knows her shit. And she says Bradford authorized her to coordinate Engineering's defenses. So if she says jump and you don't immediately respond with 'how fucking high,' I swear to God I will kick your teeth in."

The other soldier put his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. Jesus, man. Didn't know you had a crush on the ki-"

He was cut off by a right-hook from Conor to the face. "What did I just say, Timmons? What the fuck-"

"EVERYONE NEEDS TO SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW."

Dead silence as all eyes turned to Ruby.

"In case you all haven't noticed, there is a base assault in progress, and it's our job to repel it. I don't give a shit whether or not you respect me, but I know you respect everything XCOM stands for. So stop being a bunch of jack-offs and help me shoot some fucking aliens."

The rest of the elevator's occupants were speechless for a good second and a half before the doors opened and Ruby shoved past everyone and marched her way towards Engineering. Yang ran up and locked step next to her, a smile creeping up on the Rocketeer's face, "You either need to spend less time with guys like Conor, or more. I'm not sure which."

Ruby sighed and unslung her rifle. "I don't know either, but it felt good to chew them out. All hell is breaking loose, and we've got immature children to help us. Come on, let's go meet up with the rest of Engineering's security detail."

Yang smirked at her sister's irritation, but chose to continue their walk in silence.

It only took a minute for Ruby to make her presence known to all ten of the blue-shirts gathered around Engineering. After the base security from the elevator filed into the room with their tails between their legs, the head count bumped up to fifteen. Ruby organized them into fireteams of three: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Her next task was figuring out where they should take cover.

Ruby scanned the cavernous expanse that composed Engineering's main hall, eyes alert for ideal firing positions and likely points of entry. The massive service door on the north end was the obvious choice for aliens looking to breach the facility. Therefore, she decided to set up her fireteams in an arrangement that would require the aliens coming through that door to run through multiple firing lanes before they could even approach the base security's positions. She knew, however, not to bet everything on a single assumption, and so it was vital to ensure that each firebase couldn't be easily flanked from other directions. Fortunately, Engineering's size made it relatively easy to create interlocking fire lines between teams. The aliens would be hard-pressed to isolate one and take it down without taking heat from at least one other squad.

To begin with, several long assembly lines ran through the center from north to south, with bulky machinery scattered along their lengths. Both the belt lines and the hardware provided ample cover, which Ruby had no intention of freely providing to their alien guests. She stationed Alpha and Beta at the south end of the conveyors to turn the potential safe haven into a kill zone.

The southwest corner of the room had several large forklift-type vehicles that could be used as great cover and had a decent view of most of the room. Setting up a squad in a defensible position that Alpha and Beta could fall back to would be useful: they were likely the closest to the enemy contacts, and therefore likely the ones to get hit hardest. Ruby positioned Gamma among the lifts as insurance for Alpha and Beta's safety.

The east and west sides had stairs leading up to a set of catwalks that ran along the middle to connect both sides in the shape of an 'H.' Primarily used by Dr. Shen and his foremen to oversee daily production, the Chief Engineer also had his office along the east wall on this second floor. Both catwalks had stockpiles of crates and equipment, and Ruby ordered Delta and Epsilon to set up along each so that they could provide cover fire from an elevated position. The catwalks also offered superior positions for grenadiers, so the soldiers carrying Flashbangs, Anti-Personnel explosives, and Smoke Grenades were put into those fireteams.

Ruby decided that she and Yang would take cover by Shen's Office. Not only the elevated position provide an excellent view for for the two sisters, but they could personally make sure that no aliens got past them to kill the Dr. Shen.

While Ruby coordinated the fireteams, Yang checked in with Shen, who had been asked to hole up in his office by the security detail before she and Ruby arrived. By the time Ruby was done setting up her improvised squad in optimal cover, Yang returned with a commlink and a grin.

"Good news, sis," she began as she handed Ruby the earpiece, "Shen had a few SHIVs in the Repair Bay next door after a mission four days ago. He says they're pretty much combat ready. The boot sequence will take a while, but… he can control them from the terminal in his office. Those aliens will have to tread lightly once those Shenbots come online."

Ruby sighed, "Then we'll just have to give him time to power them up. How much firepower are you packing?"

"Two rockets and a shredder."

"Hopefully we won't need more than that before help arrives." She keyed her comm and hailed Bradford. "Central, this is Eight-Actual. We've set up a defensive perimeter in Engineering and stand ready to engage hostile forces. When can we expect reinforcements?"

Bradford's crisp voice came back through the link in her ear, "Soon. Eight-Two and Eight-Three have been ordered to join you ASAP, and Engineering is Strike One's second priority after they've repulsed the invaders from the front door. Other Strike teams have been assigned different sectors of the base, so you'll have to hold out until Strike One can get to your location. I've taken the liberty of patching all teams into a single channel. We'll still have a private frequency for me to relay instructions specifically to your sector, but if issues arise in other locations that might bleed over into Engineering, you have a right to know in real time."

As if on cue, Ruby heard the other Strike leaders checking in one by one.

"Central, this is Strike One. We've made it to Delta sector. Captain Durand was somehow incapacitated before the assault, and has been taken to the med bay. Be advised, sir: judging by the way she was clutching her head and screaming, there may be some psionic element to this assault."

"Central, this is Strike Four. We're in position at the labs. No sign of contacts yet."

"Central, Strike Six reporting. We've reached the hangar. All's quiet so fa-" Ruby heard a loud explosion over the commlink, and she could barely hear a soldier from Six shout, "- the Skyranger! They blew the fucking Skyranger!"

It only took that one phrase to shake Ruby. How could they get the Skyranger so easily? And how would XCOM recover from that? They only had one transport, and Ruby didn't know how long it would take to get the bird running again. In the meantime, how much panic could the aliens and EXALT sow before the good guys got the chance to once again respond with force?

Like it always did, Bradford's voice brought Ruby back to more important matters. "Look alive, Actual: you've got a wall of heat signatures about to breach your perimeter through the vents above."

"Understood, Central." Ruby shook off her previous misgivings and turned towards the blue-shirts waiting for the fight to start. Good thing she didn't bet everything on a service door entry. "We've got contacts coming in from the vents. The moment the first group drops down, I want Timmons chucking a flashbang to stun it. As more drop, Zanakos, Ruiz, and Altinsoy will also toss bangs in that order. The rest of you… light 'em up. Lance Corporal Xiao Long has rockets for when things get messy."

One of the vent gratings began to rattle loudly before the ripped open and a Chryssalid dropped down through the new hole. Then three more. Two Thin Men followed suit while Ruby heard the sound of four Seekers cloaking. The aliens certainly weren't pulling any punches in their attempt to take Engineering.

"Contacts!" She shouted, easily dropping her first prey, an unlucky Thin Man, as the firefight began.