Fire and smoke.

Sunset and Jane crouched against a concrete wall; the only thing separating them from the inferno. The call had come in just a few hours earlier. One of the settlements near to the Avenger's current location was under a terror attack by ADVENT. Although they did not want to risk giving away their identities, the settlement was a key point of contact with their supply lines, and a frequent spot for meeting with prospective Engineers or Scientists without putting the Avenger at risk.

Another explosion rocked the area, followed by shouts and weird screeches the likes of which Sunset had never heard before. She cast a fearful look at Jane, who had gone deathly pale.

"Chryssalids," she whispered.

Sunset sucked in a breath, remembering the stories Bradford had told her about such creatures. Arachnid-like from the waist down, with a human-like torso, scythes that could pierce through metal, and serrated pincers that could inject both, venom and also implant Chryssalid eggs into their victims. And as if it weren't enough, they were covered in strong exoskeleton, could jump several stories high and were fast as hell.

Bradford had more than one story of entire guerilla teams being taken by surprise by the speed and viciousness of these creatures.

"Now, I know those things are dangerous," Bradford's voice came on the radio. "But we are neither helpless nor unable to take them down; follow my instructions to the letter, understood?"

"Yes, sir!" came the team's reply on the radio.

"Alright team, we have made contact with the local resistance, so they know we're coming. Our next point of contact is straight ahead. We will support them. Save as many civilians as we can. Diwaker," Bradford called in, "Head over to the guard tower, I want you sniping anything non-human that moves. Takahashi, follow Diwaker and cover his location. Kelly, you and Sunset take the lead, initiate contact with the resistance. Schoenherr, you're with me."

"Here we go," Jane muttered. She turned to Sunset and indicated the count down. Sunset nodded. The moment Jane gave the hand signal, they both burst out from around the corners of the wall, running straight ahead.

The first thing they saw was a chryssalid running an unarmed man through the chest with one of its long scythes. The creature didn't even hesitate to inject venom and an egg into the man the moment he was down.

"Oh, shit!" Sunset shouted, scrambling to a stop. Mox and Betos had drilled her through the scenario, but they weren't here, and stabbing the thing in the mouth wasn't an option. Still, her training kicked in, just as the creature was turning her way, and she shouted as she opened fire.

The bullets seemed to just bounce off of the thing, although here and there she could see damage on its carapace. Jane knelt next to her, opening fire herself, both unloading a clip on the creature in an instant.

It wasn't enough.

With a shrill shriek, the chryssalid charged straight at Sunset, swinging its scythe at her. Sunset barely managed to lean back far enough, as the sharp appendage scratched through her armor in a shower of sparks and carved a line on the dirt below.

Before it could attack again, another shot took it in the head, and the damage finally proved to be enough to take the creature down, which collapsed, twitching, on the floor. Clearly, Diwaker had managed to set up his sniper nest just in time. Beyond it, the man it had poisoned had clearly died, and his body was slowly bulging up and secreting some sort of goo that was slowly starting to cover him completely.

"Jane, Sunset," Bradford radioed in, "go on ahead, we'll take care of it and hunt the other chryssalids. You need to catch up with the resistance."

"Yes, sir."

The pair ran on, changing clips as they did. Behind them, they could hear Schoenherr's minigun rattling away.

"I see them!" Jane called.

Right in front of them was a series of huts, with a large group of people crouching and taking cover behind any conceivable surface that would provide it. A few people were armed, and were shooting at a group of ADVENT troopers that had them on the ropes.

"Engaging ADVENT!" Sunset called in, rolling behind an empty camper. She leaned around the corner, and opened fire on an ADVENT Captain, taking it by surprise, and managing to take him out.

Jane had ran past her, taking cover behind a tree and shooting at the remaining trooper. "We have them flanked!"

It was then that a loud roar shook everyone.The crouched civilians screamed as a large, bipedal monster looking like it was just muscle and sinew literally brought down one of the smaller huts as it burst through it.

"Berserker!" Diwaker called on the radio, just as a shot hit the creature on the head, tilting it slightly.

The resistance fighters that were there turned around to face it, unloading their weapons on it, but the creature ignored them, grabbing a random woman by the neck. It viciously slammed her on the floor, making her spit blood, then raised its foot and stomped on her body, crushing it under its tremendous force. Nearby a child tried to run their way, but they were held back by another adult.

"Sunset!" Jane shouted over the returning fire of the trooper. "Let's get rid of this guy and help them!"

Sunset turned around as the berserker backfisted a resistance fighter, and concentrated her own fire on the trooper. Between the two of them, they made short work of the trooper and ran around the structure to join the resistance fighters in shooting the creature and trying to draw its attention.

"It's ignoring us! It's just targeting civilians!" Jane shouted in frustration.

Another of Diwaker's shots hit the berserker, this time on the shoulder, but the creature still ignored them, picking another civilian by the head and crushing it into a pulp with negligible effort.

"Dammit!" Sunset shouted, "Over here, you cretinous brute!" She punctuated her challenge with another burst of bullets.

"Surround it!" Bradford ordered, and they could see him and Schoenherr running around on the other side. "We've taken care of the chryssalids, this guy is the last one!"

Sunset and Jane followed orders, dashing to the encampment and standing in the open as they kept shooting. The resistance joined in, and Schoenherr's heavy weapon unloaded from behind the berserker.

Surrounded, and being shot from every possible angle, the beast fumbled, as if unsure of where to go, while the remaining civilians ran out of the area. Eventually the creature staggered and finally collapsed.

Sunset and Jane approached the monstrous alien, wincing at the carnage it had brought with it. The face of the man that had been backhanded by the berserker had been deformed completely, and turned around so much that he had probably died instantly. All around them, civilians slowly staggered back into the area. The little kid that had almost rushed towards the berserker ran past them, towards the dead woman, shouting, "Mama! Mama!"

"I-I'm going to be sick…" Sunset muttered, turning around at the sight of the squashed woman and the crying child.

Besides her, Jane simply stared at the body for a moment before going to join her. She put a hand on Sunset's shoulder, and steered her away from the aftermath. "Come on, let's get away from here. Don't look at them anymore."

"Ugh, I can't believe you kept that…" Sunset muttered, hugging herself. "I still have nightmares of that day."

"I kept that one and a couple more," Jane said, shrugging. "I have… watched them over time, to remind me of things…"

Sweetie Belle was weeping on Apple Bloom's shoulder, while Scootaloo herself looked sick.

"You see now?" Jane hissed. "That's what's happening outside of your gilded walls. That's real people dying out there. Not studio-made scenery of ADVENT handing out ADVENT Burgers to hungry children.

"You can tell me all you want about how violent we are, but I guarantee you those people weren't out there trying to bring the system down. They were trying to survive."

"And you don't get it!" Scootaloo snapped. Her eyes were wet and her hands gripped the table almost desperately. "You weren't there when Canterlot City was attacked! We went to school that morning, and the only thing we were thinking about was what to do after class!" She sniffed. "I had soccer practice…"

Sweetie Belle, sniffed and sat down. "It… started with an explosion in the city. It shook the whole building. I remember the windows rattled and Mr. Cranky he looked out the window… I remember his face."

"We all went to the windows to look out, and we saw this… thing. A giant spaceship coming through the clouds, and green lightning… plasma shots, raining down on the city. Ah saw buildings just collapse, and fire was spreading all over."

"We saw a cloud of debris just blast out of the area… the trees bent away from the city, it was like a tornado was passing through," Scootaloo growled.

"We saw the ship coming, and Principal Celestia—" Sweetie hesitated when Sunset's head snapped up, eyes wide. "...she got on the speakers, and ordered everyone to go to the tornado shelter areas."

"But then the-the things landed…" Apple Bloom's voice was little more than a whisper. "Ah was still by the window when the first one hit… I saw Flash stepping away from his car and running towards the building, but one of those things hit the car and the ground gave under him. Other students were around but some sort of green gas came out and if they were around… they never got out."

"I didn't see them, but I heard them," Scootaloo said, her face sinking into her hands. "I ran. I ran… we made it down the stairs, I was… pulling Sweetie Belle with me, we ran into the restrooms, and just as Apple Bloom ran in, we felt the heat through the walls… the lights went off, and everything was shaking… I felt stuff crumbling on top of me and we heard screams and… I don't know how long we waited."

"When we got out," Sweetie said next, "the school had a clear line through the middle. The floor was red… molten. We could see our sisters, thankfully, alive and coming out from the other side… but… there were people… students and teachers that were caught in it… I like to tell myself they didn't suffer… that it was too fast…"

"But we saw… pieces that were not disintegrated…" Apple Bloom bit her lip.

"If… if we hadn't resisted…" Scootaloo sobbed. "If we hadn't fought back! Why didn't we ask for peace first?" She looked up, almost begging at Jane and Sunset. "This is why!" She leaned her head on the table. "That… day… that's why… we should have made peace."

There was silence and then…

"We tried," Sunset spoke up. "I wasn't here, of course… but according to the history files we had from the 60s and 90s... we—XCOM, I mean—tried long ago. It didn't work. The Ethereals didn't want anything less than absolute obedience. They left us alone, for the most part, for almost fifty years… but the first thing they did when they came back; the reason XCOM was fully activated… was the attack on Canterlot City."

She focused her eyes on Scootaloo's. "The attack was unprovoked… and a declaration of war on Earth. It was a terror attack, intended to break the will of its defenders."

"You can't be serious…" Scootaloo whispered. "You can't, ADVENT showed videos, they showed us people confessing to attacking first—"

"Ethereals, Sectoids and other aliens have the ability to mind-control people," Jane said. "Part of the reason XCOM was betrayed was because they infiltrated several governments, and controlled them, or their cronies, like EXALT, managed to get to them."

"You're lying." Scootaloo growled. "There never was such a thing."

"There was…" Sweetie said softly. "EXALT was a real thing. They kidnapped people and did experiments on them. Most of them were killed off by the aliens once they were in power, others…" she trailed off.

"But…"

"And XCOM was about saving lives," Apple Bloom said. "My sister was part of it."

Jane blinked, but kept her mouth shut.

Scootaloo looked at both of them, trying to think of something to say, until finally, "But… why didn't you say anything?"

Sweetie pulled her into a hug. "What was there to say? You've always known the truth."

"I think you have plenty of things to discuss," Sunset said, standing up slowly. "Jane and I will head out now to scout the Security Building again."

Jane stood up as well. "People have fought for over twenty years to give us back our world. Broken or not, ideal or not… it belongs to us. People shouldn't have to die and disappear for whatever it is that ADVENT is doing. There's a reason even ADVENT troops rebel."

She followed Sunset out of the room, leaving behind three very quiet women.