Test X: Psionics Adaptation
09:47, 2nd March 2016
Twilight trotted into the armory stocked with mock weapons, flanked by two security personnel armed with very real ones. Also accompanying her was one of the research staff, a Doctor Chung, who had been reassigned to psionics experimentation recently. The alicorn was glad that they weren’t trying to disguise their actions with language, although some of the scientists had made a note that they were experimenting with her, not on her.
“Okay, Twilight,” Dr Chung said, almost surprisingly informally, “We’re giving you a little more wiggle room today. There was some talk of only going down to ninety per cent impedance, but I don’t think two-point-seven’s going to make much of a difference, even at your level of strength.”
“Well, it does impede my magic by a factor,” Twilight pointed out, “Two-point-seven now is a lot more than two-point-seven later.”
Chung considered this, and nodded. “Sure, but… well, last time was giving you an idea of what our soldiers have to face. Since you’re going to be teaching our psions how to do things, it makes sense to bring you up to their level now, so you know what they have to work with, right?”
“That makes- wait, I’m going to be up against something harder, aren’t I?” Twilight asked suspiciously.
Chung grinned, kneeling down to type on the device on the alicorn's back. “Setting impedance to eighty-five percent,” he stated, “I’ll give you five minutes to work out what you’re capable of before we begin.”
Twilight’s mind was racing. Last time the two men she’d been up against had had grenades that she hadn’t been told about. Giving her more capabilities likely meant whoever she was up against was similarly better equipped. Wasting no time, the alicorn quickly started test-firing utility spells that might help - she didn’t have enough strength for direct kinetic shots, but Chung was examining a training weapon, so that likely wouldn’t be a problem.
“Okay, you ready?” the doctor asked after the five minutes had passed. Twilight replied with a silent nod, and the doctor continued, “Right, we’re moving you up to twelve hit points today. Everyone else in the room is still on five, weapons still do the same damage.”
Twilight blinked. Everyone else?
“Mission start in five!” Deng announced, holding the rifle he’d been calibrating out for Twilight to take. She lifted it from his hands with her magic, quickly trotting up to the large door as she did so - the longer she took getting through there, the more likely she was to get hit with something.
The door cracked open, and she sprinted forward, ducking behind the closest available cover. Her head poked up to judge the situation briefly, before she took off again, keeping herself low and behind the short walls. There were more than two men this time, she noted. She moved left from where she’d entered, since she’d moved right last time.
After moving about thirty feet, heading towards a mock tower, she poked her head over the barrier to look. She quickly counted four soldiers, all men as far as she could tell. Only one of them had a weapon similar to hers, with the others having different equipment. Something had been said before about different classes of soldiers, and the alicorn guessed it was time for her to get introduced to them all.
One of them shouted something and pointed to her position, prompting Twilight to duck. She caught sight of another heading over to the right of where she’d entered as she did so, and so she quickly moved over to the tower on her left. She’d have difficulty fighting four foes at a time, unless she could… yes, that might work.
Twilight glanced around the side of the tower, keeping an eye on her opponents’ positions. One of them had just taken residence in another tower, and one seemed to be holding back. She knew one was off to her right, and likely closing in. The fourth she couldn’t see, so she guessed it was keeping low like she had been. The alicorn ducked back, before looking to the other side of the tower, her horn lighting. A second later, she was hearing everything much more precisely than previously; notably, the sound of running feet hitting concrete, running directly towards her front. Perfect.
Twilight waited until the soldier ran around the corner in front of her, amusedly noting how his expression changed to confusion when he spotted her sat still, before firing her next spell. A large area around her immediately filled with dense grey smoke, accompanied by a loud and deep ‘boomf’ noise. She rolled sideways, before firing at the point where she could still hear her opponent yelping in surprise from. The loud triple bell that announced her success, however, was painfully loud with her enhanced hearing. She shook her head to try clearing the ringing, before quickly jumping a nearby wall before the illusory fog cleared.
She thought for a moment, popping her head up to see where the soldier had gone; simple illusions would make a good choice for low-power spells she could teach, if human psions could properly control light they created. She ducked again, before wracking her brains for options and conjuring a vaguely head-shaped blob in her colours just above her. She frowned; okay, she couldn’t make accurate illusions at this power.
A red beam of light tearing straight through it served to let her know it managed well enough, and she got moving again, back the way she had started from. As she broke cover to cross a gap in the wall, she heard a shout. She dropped, narrowly missing a red beam, only to have another smack her square in the side to the tune of four bells. She gritted her teeth as she jumped behind the opposite wall, berating herself; she could’ve used smoke to cross that!
Shaking her head, the alicorn thought for a moment, before smiling. She glanced over her cover, spotting the soldier hanging back on the ground, and shot a spell to him. Another smoke cloud kicked up with a ‘pop,’ surrounding him. She scanned around her as he yelled in panic, and grinned as she saw the same soldier that had wanted to get close to her rise up to aim around the hanger-back. She carefully took aim…
“Hazard, down!” someone shouted, and the man ducked her shot, not even spinning to look around. Twilight glanced over at where the noise had originated, to see a weapon similar to hers aimed right at her. A flash of red and two bells, and she dropped back again with a yelp.
This was not working; with four pairs of eyes on her, misdirection could only do so much. But with only a fraction of her magic available, she couldn’t use any of her more physical spells. Unless…
The whole reason she was here was to understand how XCOM psions fought. They couldn’t codify proper magic yet, so they used base psionics, which was almost entirely mental. The alicorn nodded to herself, before carefully moving cover, keeping an eye out for where her opponents were moving. The closest one, ‘Hazard’, was moving towards her again. She smiled, before quickly lashing out with a stream of magic.
“I’ve got the hostile flank-!” Hazard called out to his squad as he vaulted a short wall and found Twilight smiling pleasantly at him. Unknown to him, a thin line of thought connected them, letting her affect everything he was seeing. She watched as he managed a dull “...Huh?” staring at the air above her, before the room’s bell rang out two sets of three bells as she pulled the trigger twice. She dropped the connection, flashed him a grin, and ran off again as he stood blinking in confusion.
Maybe misdirection would work then, in a fashion. Using magic like that would be… well, not smiled upon back in Equestria, but if XCOM wanted her to think like one of theirs… Twilight kept smiling to herself as she moved, already thinking up what else she could do with her available power.
***
10:14, 2nd March 2016
“What do we have, Doctor?” Officer Bradford asked, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet workshop.
“Not much,” Dr Shen admitted, turning away from the screen he’d been reading from to speak to his colleague, “the blocking of our communications system seems to have been localised to the site of yesterday’s incident. Diagnostics indicate that our satellites were functioning correctly around the globe, which would mean the helicopter seen leaving the area would have been carrying a jamming device.”
Bradford mused for a moment. “Wouldn’t they need to break our encryptions to interfere with our communications like that?” he asked.
Shen nodded, “Yes, which troubles me more than a little. The engineering team is already re-calibrating our system with new encryption keys, this time taking advantage of our understanding of the alien’s communication techniques. They should prove much harder to crack, unless…”
Bradford raised an eyebrow. “Unless what, doctor?” he pressed.
Dr Shen turned back the the screen he’d been reading from, gesturing for Bradford to look too. “Doctor Vahlen’s team has finished analysing some of the materials we recovered from the men our soldiers encountered. This readout in particular gives information about the specialised rounds that their sniper was equipped with. Initially she believed that the rounds might be made from tungsten with a specialised chemical propellant to propel them at greater velocity, but the reality is more troubling.” Shen picked up a small object from the workbench next to him, presenting it to Bradford. “This is the round that was removed from Private Cho’s shoulder. Chemical analysis shows it to be the exact same material that makes up the hull and internal structure of alien spacecraft. Marking of the round indicates that it was hand-machined, not mass-produced.”
Bradford frowned. “What does that tell us, doctor?” he asked, already piecing together the implications of those facts himself.
“Whoever these assailants were, they come from an organisation that can both produce custom-made munitions, and that can secure materials from alien crash sites,” Dr Shen explained. “However, they lack the capacity to properly melt down and reform alien alloy materials, instead relying on turning rounds to shape using specialised tools that can cut such materials, which would explain the scarcity of the munitions; including the shots fired by the sniper that missed, he had only been equipped with ten of these rounds.”
“Ten would be enough, if they can pierce our troops’ armour,” Bradford pointed out, “the damage to Cho’s shoulder has her in medical for upwards of a month.”
“Indeed,” Shen agreed, “although I believe the more pressing issue at hand is what organisation these attackers represented, and how did they gain access to both our encryption keys and a supply of alien materials.”
Bradford gritted his teeth. “If it were only the alien alloy rounds, I would have said they scavenged some from the sites of downed alien craft. We had three destroyed on impact after we started flying the Firestorms, remember, and left it up to the Council to secure with regular military. But having access to our communications encryptions…” the CO shook his head. “I’ll be bringing this up with the Spokesman, we may have an inside informant collaborating with these attackers. Whoever they are, they laid a trap for us, and they had the aliens’ help doing it. If the aliens acquire significant human support, it could restart the war.”
Dr Shen nodded. “This might be up to the Council to investigate, but if our new adversary is receiving support from someone within the Council, it might be prudent to form an investigation team of our own. We know where that helicopter landed, after all.”
Officer Bradford mused for a moment, before nodding, a smile slowly spreading across his face.
***
10:21, 2nd March 2016
Twilight squatted behind a short wall and mused her options. She’d managed to take down the one set on flanking her, as well as the one with the same weapons that her opponents had been equipped with last time. The same trick had worked twice, but the rifle-wielder had blurted out what he was seeing (something about giant moths) before the alicorn had taken him down. That meant the one with the big gun and the one in the tower would be more prepared for her; anything too unusual, and they’d probably ignore it and just attack.
Her ears perked up as she heard the more heavily armed opponent jump a barrier, the heavy bulk of his mass hitting the ground with a dull thud. She spent a moment trying to listen, to see if she could work out where he was headed, before nearly smacking herself on the face with a hoof. If she couldn’t make visible illusions work any more, she’d have to try something else, and projecting sound was only as complex as projecting her hearing like she’d been doing under greater impedance than now...
The alicorn cautiously peeked around her cover, making sure her movement would be out of sight of the man in the tower. From the lower position, she couldn’t see the one who was moving, but, reasoning that she didn’t need to be exact, she acted; first she cast the spell, then she promptly lifted both right legs and fell over.
The heavy thud and resultant “Oof!” echoed from the other side of the hall, and now staying still, Twilight heard the soft squeak of a boot twisting on the ground. There was a short pause, and she heard a murmured sentence spoken. She quietly got to her hooves, still sending the sound away just in case, and cautiously peered over her barricade. The man in the tower had taken his eye away from his weapon’s sights, and judging by the peak of his cap, was looking towards the other end of the battlefield. She couldn’t see the man on the ground right now, but without the first one looking, she could start moving more freely.
Quietly, she started walking. Another murmured sentence. She stopped. Cast the spell, and knocked a hoof on the wall next to her. Footsteps, going away. She nodded. Walking again, still quiet. Glanced at the tower. He was watching the other side of the hall now, his weapon moved to face that way. Good. She headed towards his position, stopping now and again to send a quick clumsy step or gasp of breath to the other side.
She caught sight of the man on the ground again as she reached the tower, seeing him cautiously making his way in the other direction, moving between cover that completely exposed him to her actual position. Twilight smiled, and considered taking him out now, but reconsidered when she glanced at the tower; the only way up was a ladder at the back. With her wings held under her suit and so little of her magic to work with, she’d struggle to try and climb it, so she had to take out the foe up there from down on the ground. From the front, he’d be able to spot her, and it’d take her two shots. She wouldn’t be able to see him clearly from the sides, due to a low wall on either side, so she’d have to be at the back.
Twilight quickly found, however, that she couldn’t back up quite far enough to see the man properly before her rear end bumped into the outside wall of the arena. She’d need to see from higher up, now. Shed looked at the barricades, trying to gauge whether she could stand balanced on two of them, when a thought struck her; she could create light very crudely, but redirecting existing light was practically easier.
Lifting her weapon into the air above her, the alicorn cast another spell, and a mirrored surface appeared in midair just behind the sights. She angled it as her brow began to sweat, letting her see down the sights. She still couldn’t see him, so she lifted the gun a little higher, re-angling the mirror to accommodate. She lifted it once more before she could see him properly, and at this distance it was hard to line the sights up correctly. The effort of maintaining both spells was starting to ache, but knowing that she’d only get one proper shot at this, she persevered. At any rate, it was easier than it would be trying to do the same with two arms and a hand mirror. Two more seconds of aiming, and she pulled the trigger.
The sudden yell from the man as his weapon rumbled in his hands in time with the ringing bells, letting him know that he’d been hit, made the alicorn grin almost as much as the sound itself; five rings, just enough to take him down. She waited patiently, bringing her weapon to her side and dismissing the formless mirror, as he stood looking around for her for a second, before shaking his head and turning to climb down the ladder. He paused for a second as he spotted her, and both of them blinked at one another. He seemed surprised at where she’d been, but she was more surprised to see Sergeant Murray lifting the ballcap off of his head. He gave her a wide smile, before dropping to the ground and quickly leaving.
Twilight readied herself again. One to go.
***
10:34, 2nd March 2016
The primary research lab was abuzz as Officer Bradford walked in, weaving his way among scientists as he made his way to Dr Vahlen’s likely whereabouts. “Ah, Officer Bradford,” she called to him as he approached, “I presume you’re here regarding yesterday's events?”
“I’ve already received Doctor Shen’s brief,” he explained, “whoever these people are, they’ve recovered a source of alien materials.”
“Not just those the engineering department is concerned with,” Vahlen stated as she started walking through the crowd, beckoning for the officer to follow as the various scientists parted to let her walk, “Preliminary visual studies, tissue sampling and magnetic imagery all confirm that yesterday’s assailants have all had their physiology significantly altered.”
“I’m guessing that would explain why they were so difficult to kill, compared to our soldiers?” Bradford replied.
Dr Vahlen nodded. “It also made our initial attempts to autopsy difficult,” she added as they paused to allow a lab technician to wheel a table with various implements on it past them, out of the room they were headed to. Bradford spotted a blunted bone saw among the various utensils. “But, with a little help from the engineering team where necessary, we have been making some headway.”
As the two stopped at the glass wall of the autopsy chamber, one of the men inside was cutting through the ribcage of a mostly shrouded body with a handheld disk cutter. “I’m guessing they’re more heavily modified than our own volunteers?” Bradford noted.
Vahlen was silent for a moment. “Yes and no,” she stated, “more of their physiology has been altered, yes, but they are still essentially human. We haven't detected any alien DNA fragments in any of the tissue sample taken, and samples taken have the same genetic code regardless from where in a subject they are taken.”
“Do you have an idea why?” Bradford asked, already knowing that she would.
“Differences in the use of the Meld substance, which we have detected trace amounts of within them,” Dr Vahlen explained. “Our process involves the improvement of human genetic material by splicing it with alien genetic material. We then grow the required transplants in a synthesised environment, and graft them into our soldiers when they are ready, using the Meld substance as a synthetic bridge between the two; it is programmed to physically attach the two tissues and manage the flow of resources such as oxygen between the soldier and their transplant, but protects the genetically dissimilar graft from attack by the host’s immune system.”
“I remember one of your team compared it to a placenta, once,” Bradford noted.
The head scientist nodded, “Not entirely inaccurate, true. But with these subject, the Meld is programmed more to act as a retrovirus, altering the existing genetic material of the human host. It seems to be primarily focused on altering tissue around the bones and under the skin, making the existing skeleton thicker and denser, as well as creating a thin subdermal mesh of cartilage. This would likely explain their resilience in combat, with no noticeable loss in mobility achieved through the increase of the density of their muscle fibres. It is a cruder method, but uses the Meld much more efficiently, I admit.”
“A cruder method?” the officer parroted.
“Yes, well… we have not detected any surgical scarring anywhere on the subjects, which, combined with the uniformity of the altered DNA throughout their bodies and the trace amounts of the Meld substance left, indicates that their genetic coding was modified in-situ; they have likely been directly injected with the programmed Meld, and it has worked its way through their bodies ‘correcting’ their genetic coding as it goes. This was, admittedly, one of our own earlier ideas for the Meld’s use, but was determined to be unethical; the process could take as long as a month to be properly complete, and in the meantime the patient would be in an awful state.” Dr Vahlen hesitated for a moment, before continuing, “The as-yet unmodified tissue would be constantly attempting to reject the modified, resulting in the body being in a constant state of pain and severe illness. The possibility of damage to vital organs throughout the process, when the unmodified immune system attacks the heart or brain, would be too high to consider acceptable.”
“So we’re likely only seeing the subjects who survived the process?” Bradford noted.
“Most likely, yes,” Dr Vahlen replied. “I’m hoping to determine how many applied, and how many survived, once the live captive starts answering questions.”
Bradford glanced around the busy lab again, before asking “Haven’t you started questioning yet?”
“We have,” Vahlen noted, “but he’s been… difficult. After his non-compliance under regular questioning was made evident, I decided to skip any sort of more physically involved interrogation and have a psion… ‘investigate’ him. As it turns out, the aliens have been this susceptible to our psions so far on account of having been specifically weakened for control by the Ethereals; our ostensibly human captive has proven a lot more difficult to intrude upon. We have the names, occupations, addresses and assorted other details of himself and his peers, but nothing on the organization they were acting on behalf of. We may have been able to question him if Colonel Taylor were still with us, but...”
Bradford considered, as he watched a camera being positioned to see into the now opened chest of the autopsy subject before them. “Have you tried your own technique?” He asked.
Dr Vahlen tapped her tablet, glanced at the video being streamed to it from the autopsy, and replied, “I had assumed, since we have only the one captive, you would rather have him kept alive for further questioning than spent on one attempt?” she queried.
Bradford turned to her. “We have the location of one of their outposts, doctor. If you can get me numbers and weapons listings, or any other tactical data, I can get you more captives.”
Dr Vahlen nodded to him. “I’ll have a report on your desk by tomorrow morning, then,” she said.
***
10:43, 2nd March 2016
Twilight crept towards the centre of the battlefield, where the last of her opponents was isolated. To say she was having fun, sending knocks and bumps and heavy hoofsteps all around the arena to confuse him, wouldn’t be inaccurate. He was panicked and jumpy, looking everywhere for her, with no idea what direction he should be taking cover from.
Twilight snuck closer, sending a thump of hoof against floor to his right. He darted around to look in that direction, just as she sent a loud gasp to his left. He wheeled around to face that direction, before glancing back behind him. The alicorn grinned, slowly walking up as quietly as possible. There was only one more barricade between the two of them, and he had his back to it. He glanced around again, making Twilight pause for a moment, before carrying on.
His breath was coming heavy with panic. Hers was calm, barely keeping from laughing.
His eyes swept as much as possible, while studying nothing closely enough. Hers were locked on him, and she could make out the sweat beading on his brow.
His feet were adjusting frantically, trying to be ready to run, or dive, in any direction. Hers were careful, moving with an almost fluid grace towards him.
She reached the barricade. She sent out a quiet brush of her tail against the ground, to the other side of him. He had his back to the barrier, just a little to her left. She quietly stood, putting both front hooves on the wall to lean over it. One shot would-
The wooden wall creaked.
The man turned around.
Twilight wasn’t exactly sure what happened next, but she suddenly realised that she was lying on her back, a loud siren was blaring, and Starswirl’s beard did her face hurt! She brought both front hooves up to it with a loud groan, carefully trying to work out what had happened.
The siren ended, and a voice spoke over the arena; “Sergeant Hayashi, disqualified for physically striking an opponent. Volunteer Sparkle wins by default.” Twilight paused, before realising that the man was now stood over her, holding out a hand. She placed one hoof in it, and he helped haul her to her feet.
“Uh, sorry about that,” he said, scratching the back of his neck and not looking at her. “I panicked.”
“What happened?” Twilight asked, gently testing the bruise starting to form between her eyes.
“Well, uh, I kind of… smashed the butt of my gun in your face,” he admitted.
Twilight hissed as she pressed a little too firmly. “Well, at least you missed my muzzle,” she replied, “it doesn’t feel like anything’s broken.”
“Do you want any help walking out?” he offered sheepishly.
Shaking her head, the alicorn put her hoof back on the floor. “I can manage, I’ve had worse,” she said, before glancing around her. Spotting her weapon, she magically picked it up.
“So, uh, you win, then,” Hayashi said, pointing to the exit door.
“Well, technically,” Twilight replied, walking alongside him as they headed towards it. “But Cameron and one of the other two hit me once each; if you’d actually shot instead of smacking me you could’ve won.”
Hayashi shrugged. “These can be hard to turn around in a hurry, especially at that range,” he said, hefting the large mock weapon he was carrying up for her to look at. “Well, maybe not so much this one, but the proper thing weighs a ton.”
Twilight touched her face again. “Going to remember that for next time,” she replied. “So, how do you use it in a squad?”
Hayashi thought for a moment, as he put the weapon in one of the racks in the equipment room as they entered. He didn’t get to reply, however, as Sgt Murray spoke up first. “Well, most squads use ‘em for suppressive fire, while everyone else is focussed on actually hitting things.” the scotsman said with a grin. “Good seein’ you again, Twilight.”
“Good seeing you too, Cameron!” she replied, holding up a hoof which he shook. “Sorry about earlier, didn’t recognise the back of your head.”
Sgt Murray shrugged. “We were on opposite teams, it was going to happen. I got you once, after all.”
“True,” Twilight replied, as Dr Chung stepped towards the group and started dialling up the resistance on her inhibitor again.
“Twilight, this is some of the rest of my squad,” Sgt Murray gestured to the other soldiers, “Lieutenant Hayashi, or Nova, you’ve already had a close encounter with.” Hayashi gave the scotsman a withered look but said nothing. “He’s a heavy weapons specialist, shoots things and blows stuff up. Generally better at the latter than the former.”
“Removing enemy cover helps the rest of the squad,” Hayashi noted, “even if Doctor Vahlen isn’t much of a fan of us doing so.”
“Over here we have Hazard,” Murray introduced a man one-handedly holding a somewhat shorter weapons than Twilight’s, “or Sergeant Lefevre on the paperwork. “He’s an assault specialist, which-”
“Primarily involved in eliminating threats at close range,” Twilight finished with a smile, “I’ve met Captain Moreau, she was, uh…”
“She’s definitely the outgoing sort most of us shotties are, agreed,” Lefevre said with a nod. “Personally, I tend to hang back and play defensive. Our squad’s more defensively focused, so I like to let the enemy come to me when I can.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Not quite what I was seeing from you today, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“Sergeant Marquez here is one of our general riflemen, with advanced battlefield control training alongside,” Murray continued, placing one hand on the named soldier’s shoulder. “Most of what he does is keep the rest of us from getting shot too much, so we call him Shield.”
“Smoke grenades, flashbangs, covering and suppressive fire, cover denial,” Marquez listed, holding up a finger with each item. “Sorry I didn’t get to show any of it off today, but you seem to be pretty familiar with the ideas yourself!”
“Thanks,” the alicorn replied, "I’ve known the spell for years, but never really used it that much. Good to know I’m not out of practice!”
“And then lastly there’s me,” Sgt Murray said, as he deposited his somewhat longer weapon onto one of the storage racks. “I’m a sniper, have been since before I joined XCOM. It’s my job to take out targets at any range, preferably long. If everything’s going the way it ought to, I pull the trigger once, one less alien the lads have to deal with.”
“Doesn’t always quite work that simply,” Hayashi noted with a small smirk, “but that’s usually the aliens’ fault. At any rate, there hasn’t been an XCOM squad that survived more than a mission or two without a sniper on hand, and Cameron’s one of the better ones.”
“Well, I don’t mean to brag, but I think my record speaks for itself,” he said, before tapping the side of his head with a cocky grin. “Helps that I’ve got a little extra up here, though.”
Twilight cocked her head to one side slightly. “Wait, you use psionics to help you shoot better?”
“The lab boys think so,” Cameron replied, “apparently I picked up how to lead targets with entirely inhuman movements quicker than anyone else. The first few runs of psionic testing were pretty unsuccessful, and Vahlen’s team started looking for soldiers who showed unusual learning ability rather than just incredible skill.”
Twilight nodded, stepping out of the sensor suit that Dr Chung had unzipper for her, leaving her wearing just the psionic inhibitor again. “That makes sense, with how psionics can manifest in more complicated forms without needing proper formalisation into magical signatures, you’d be able to affect your own mind just by thinking about it,” she reasoned.
“Still not sure that would explain Taylor,” Hayashi noted, to a murmured agreement from the other men.
“You’ve no doubt heard of Colonel Taylor by now, right?” Cameron asked, and Twilight nodded in reply. “Well, when she joined she was in much the same role as Marquez, trying to keep her squad safe. Went a bit further than him, let the Genetic Augmentation team do their bit to make her better. It quickly got noted by the brass that near any mission she went on, everyone came home safe, but she never made any noise about it herself.”
“Maybe that’s why she got overlooked for so long for the psionics program,” Marquez continued, “but it was only after closely studying soldier’s combat footage, trying to look for what might indicate psionic potential, that anyone really understood why she played her part so well. You know how I mentioned covering fire being one of my duties? Taylor was good at it, really good. Any time an alien poked its head out, she was aiming down sights at it. But the lab boys noticed something; every so often, she’d aim or shoot to suppress a target before it had even started to move. Somehow, she knew where the enemy were going to be and what they were going to do before they’d given any indication.”
“That’s… interesting,” Twilight noted, “precognition is a very difficult ability for anyone to master, even with formalised magic back in Equestria. I only really know one person who can, and she has no control over it. With raw psionics, I’m not sure it would even be possible...”
“Well if it is, Taylor did it,” Marquez noted, “and then she turns out to be the single best psion we ever had.”
“I think I’ll ask Doctor Vahlen about this,” the alicorn replied, “it sort of contradicts what I’d gathered from studying my own psionic energy, as well as what I’d gathered from my contact with Cameron and, uh, Captain Pimenova.”
“Well, if you need any extra study material, give me a shout,” Murray said with a smile. “Now, d’you want to join us for lunch, or if the canteen still gonna be a bit… public, for you?”
Twilight shook her head. “I’ve actually got an appointment with Doctor Dysart, sorry. I’ll catch up with you later!”
“Alright then,” the scotsman replied, and waved along with the rest of his squad as she rushed out of the training complex.
***
Research Project: Subject X-014 “Sparkle.”
Date: 2nd March 2016
Experiment X-014-1-I: Combat Testing 2
Personnel: Lt K Hayashi, Sgt C Murray, Sgt J Marquez, Sgt T Lefevre
Experiment Summary
Standard training exercise, battlefield mimicking urban environment. X-014-1 equipped with one training laser rifle, one refitted training hit detection suit, and one psionic inhibitor set to 85% impedance. This value allows X-014-1 to manipulate her weapon using psionics, with a reasonable reserve of power that should allow her to function in a capacity similar to that of our less potent psionic soldiers. All member of Fireteam equipped each with training laser weapons appropriate to their live combat roles, training hit detection suit, and Self-Correcting Optical Performance Enhancers (SCOPEs). Sgt Marquez equipped with a full complement of smoke and flashbang grenades.
X-014-1 immediately moves to cover and observes opposing force multiple times, before taking cover in a position that mandates flanking. A load of 6.4Vh is registered at this point, explained later by X-014-1 as an effect that granted her hypersensitive hearing. Sgt Lefevre attempts to outflank X-014-1, but is caught in a smoke cloud generated by further psionic activity from X-014-1 (indicated by a load of 18.7Vh) and eliminated by return fire upon voicing his confusion. X-014-1 proceeds to break cover and attempt to make use of an illusion (load 23.3Vh) to draw fire, however the quality of the image was observed to be lacking in detail, and did not prevent X-014-1 from taking fire from Sgt Murray.
Further effects utilised by X-014-1 during training include the use of visual hallucinations (load 17.8Vh) to confuse Sgt Marquez during an exchange of fire with him, and use of redirecting light (load 34.8 Vh, barely within X-014-1’s expected capabilities under testing impedance) to obtain a better firing angle on Sgt Murray. X014-1 was observed to perspire and seemed to be having physical difficulty resulting from the combined effort of maintaining the effect and maneuvering her weapon at a distance.
Combat ends when X-014-1 is engaged in melee combat by Lt Hayashi, following an extended series of misdirection efforts on her part, including auditory effects directed from remote locations (requiring a load of 13.7Vh per use). Melee combat is prohibited in training situations, and Lt Hayashi was disqualified, resulting in X-014-1’s victory by default. However, it should be noted that had Lt Hayashi fired his weapon instead, he may well have been the victor. Nevertheless, the ability of X-014-1 to eliminate three opponents and sufficiently misdirect a fourth, all with psionic effects of loads achievable by any XCOM psionic soldier, is extremely promising.
Further Research
X-014-1 has demonstrated the capability to produce visual effects purely from psionic power, taking both the form of simple clouds of smoke, and attempts at creating more complicated shapes. A power that could effectively mimic a limitless supply of smoke grenades would be a useful capability for our soldiers to bring to the battlefield, particularly those without existing battlefield control training. The attempt at a more detailed image may be exceptionally useful as a distraction to draw enemy fire; it will be requested that X-014-1 attempt this again in future training sessions when she has more power available to her.
X-014-1’s use of entirely mental hallucinations on Sgt Marquez is also of note; while most XCOM psions can already perform a similar effect, it causes permanent mental damage to the target. X-014-1’s use of the technique seems to have had no lasting effect on Sgt Marquez, which would make it ideal for use as an incapacitation tool. With the recent introduction of a human organisation opposing XCOM’s actions, this could be a useful tools for our psions to learn to allow for capture of enemy agents. Similarly, X-014-1’s ability to redirect sound to originate from remote locations would make a similarly suitable misdirection tool.
Also of note is X-014-1’s introduction of auditory hypersensitivity; while it was observed to cause her discomfort once loud noises were present in the training centre, it allowed her to predict incoming attacks and fire while effectively blind. While in practice these capabilities are already available to our soldiers via genetic augmentation (to induce electrosensitivity in the skin, which will also function against otherwise silent opponents), not all soldiers are willing to undergo such procedures. It may be worthwhile to train our psions in this technique as well.
Lastly, the ability to reflect light in order to accurately fire from cover without exposing oneself is an incredibly potent ability. That it caused X-014-1 physical stress to perform indicates that it will likely be restricted to only our most proficient psions, but it will undoubtedly prove invaluable for them.
X-014-1 is due for another training exercise on 5th March 2016, with a decreased impedance allowing for study of more powerful techniques. It has been requested by X-014-1 that she be able to train privately with Sgt Murray before meeting with the rest of XCOM’s psionic roster, both to gain a more accurate understanding of how XCOM psions manifest their abilities, and for her own studies into what is possible with what she terms ‘unrefined psionics’.
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It's been so long I forgot the main story!
guess I better get reading
Yay, you're back.
Let's party!
I really love the little official reports of the tests and Twilight's activity.
Let's just hope that they don't make a report of everything that she does. 
There was also one or two typos I spotted. I only remember where one was tho.
made a note
Anyway, a great chapter.
As Trixter noted, there were some errors here and there, so the chapter could use a quick editing pass to polish it up, but besides that i have no complaints. It certainly lives up to the quality of the previous chapters, and I'm definitely happy to see it back again.
But now, tragedy of tragedies, I must reread the story to remember all the details. How ever will I live with that....
Ok.... this is weird.... I just started playing Xcom not too long ago and this appeared on the featured section.... as well as an update on the fanfiction site... well I'm not complaining...
EDIT : Its not on the featured but ib the update section... silly me.
OMG! it lives.....
Thank you very much.
It liveees... And totally had nothing todo with XCOM: 2's new dlc right? riiiight?
Glad to see this come up again! Well done!
Que bien!, estaba empezando a creer que el fic estaba abandonado.
Me alegro mucho estar equivocado, sigue con el buen trabajo
Wow, update! I thought this was dead..
Good thing I didn't stop tracking this. I am, however, upset that FimFiction hadn't notified me of this update; I had to go looking for it myself.
I am SO glad to see this updated! I absolutely love the "research notes" that come after the "autopsies" and combat testing like this, it is a delight to read the same series of events through a different lens. Dearly looking forward to more! Don't die on us!
Also, here's a neat trick Twilight might want to try -- using her light redirection trick with sound to pick up sounds coming from distant surfaces, or transmit sound easily (could be a form of communication, even). You can do this. It's called a laser microphone. Hell, you could do it with a laser pointer if you had the right tools to go with it.
Also, she really could see while effectively blind if she applied the LiDAR concept; i.e., light detection and ranging, using lasers to measure the speed of a moving object in real time, just like cops use their "speed guns" on the highway. Only then, Twilight could literally just scan her surroundings using the visible light spectrum for 360 degree vision, assuming her brain is capable of handling that much sensory data. This could be the Motion Tracker item used in the Long War mod, too.
Whooho its back!
Twilight formed an illusionary mirror good enough to use for targeting, and to fire her laser rifle back along as well?
Wonder if she can infuse such light reflecting construction, with a lightning spell to charge it to high voltage, as this should cause lasma impacts to undergo charge seperation, followed by reflection, deflection, or even remodulation?
Could Twilight demonstrate a differential DNA proximity detector, as just for Meld would have it swamped by their own team, for picking up the new crew more easily?
is no one curious about using meld with twilight's dna?
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Not sure about LIDAR but mimicing nature's sonic ping, the humble bat, could work just as well when you're as blind as a, er, bat. Heh.
Augmenting other senses would be useful too, smell, touch, sight, but an overload failsafe would be imperative to build into the "spell". And what about pushing into other senses from nature like the electromagnetic sense found running down the shark's spinal column?
And why hasn't anyone thought about repair? Healing magic is known and used in Equestria, why can't it be utilized on Earth too? Just accelerating the natural healing process should be within the human's ability. Granted, it wouldn't create new flesh from nothing meaning that the patient would need to be fed a lot or risk cannibalizing their own body for resources. Pain management and all that shouldn't be too difficult... or causing it in debilitating levels to induce shock and/or death in enemies.
If the other psionics could observe Twilight without interfering during these skirmishes they would learn quite alot
To be honest, I had forgotten about this story until now. Exciting point to pick up on.
I was so happy to see this on my update screen. PLEASE keep the awesome work coming!!
8432470 Some of the psi abilities in System Shock 2 might even work, here.
Remote Electron Tampering - Recharge objects that require power, shut down security cameras and electronic devices from range, or trigger a buffer overflow in a battery to cause the energy to release (essentially making your enemies' laser weapon magazines melt or simply fail). Essentially, Twilight/XCOM psi-soldiers could remotely trigger EMP blasts.
Remote Pattern Detection - Use psionics to commit the 'pattern' of a physical object to photographic memory, then use enhanced senses to search for it in real time. Essentially lets you 'feel' the shape of an object so you can find something specific that you're looking for; great for finding certain objects lost in a pile of junk, knowing exactly which key on a keyring is the one you need by matching the shape to the lock in your mind... or realizing that there is something very wrong with how a particular section of floor feels, letting you detect pressure plates and trapdoors. Or landmines.
Remote Circuitry Manipulation - Allows you to hack psionically at a distance and interface with computers and electronic devices.
Projected Cryokinesis - Drains heat from an object with a psionically-induced endothermic event. Could be a bolt that pulls the heat away on contact and disperses it into the surrounding atmosphere. Lethal to organic creatures as losing that much heat so quickly will wreak merry hell on your tissues. Also useful for putting out fires and saving equipment from overheating and melting, or even, if you are careful, curing someone's fever by draining the excess heat away from them so their brain cells don't fry like a burger.
Congratulations! This is the second story to get of my canceled bookshelf.
AN UPDATE!!! YAY!!!!!!
So glad to see this story back in action!
I'm very curious to see where this goes. Bring on the next AWESOME chapter!!!
Huzzah! Good to see you back!
If Twi can manipulate light, she ought to go for a persistent "displacer beast" effect in these little bouts. Though... since they're using lasers, maybe that wouldn't be terribly effective.
A really unfair thing to do would be to make the illusory smoke invisible to herself.
WOOP
Woohoo!!!
It's alive, doctor!
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Eh. Wait a little bit to be certain. I've seen moments where a chapter is popped out on a story after a year, and it goes silent again.
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I've seen that too...
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I'm going to try and update regularly from now on, I've worked out a more condensed plotline for the fic that should stop me from stalling just because I don't know what happens next.
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One of the things I'm using as a general rule for psionics is that the psion has to be aware of and comfortably familiar with the concept of what they're trying to do on the macroscopic level. Redirecting individual electrons and manipulating circuits on such a small scale would theoretically be possible under that rule, but XCOM's soldiers aren't that well versed in the sciences and Twilight's not familiar enough with electronics. The cryokinesis shot would be pretty effective, except that plasma weapons already do the exact inverse of that anyway. Overall, things like Morphy described here 8432470 are much more likely to appear.
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It's been discussed in a prior chapter, Twilight decided to opt out. Being genetically modified to be a better fighting machine requires a certain outlook that quite a number of XCOM soldiers lack, so she's not alone in that decision (see: the soldier in Operation: Dark Mirror who's skipped out on them because he's afraid of needles).
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Thanks for the heads up, worked with Setokaiva and I think we got them all!
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i meant more, seeing what meld could do with her DNA to a human
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Ah right, that I'm pretty sure I haven't covered yet. This isn't really a plot important spoiler, but I'm going to hide it anyway just in case anyone wants to reads this completely blind of future developments.
The genetic modification process requires a starting cluster of unspecialised stem cells from which human/alien hybrids organs and structures can be grown to then be transplanted into the augmentee. Pretty much all of XCOM's current stem cell collections has come from dead aliens. Unspecialised stem cells aren't easily accessed or obtained in humans; blood stem cells specifically can be obtained from bone marrow, but if XCOM are interested in any part of Twilight it's her magical ability. That's going to need general or neural stem cells, which fortunately the human brain is a good source of! Unfortunately it's hard to get them out while keeping you alive and undamaged, two things both XCOM and Twilight are very keen for her to remain.
The science team will eventually realise Twilight has a potential second source of stem cells compared to other aliens, because unlike all of them she possesses healthy, functional reproductive organs. Unfortunately, whatever they could do with them has only half of her genetic code, and while they could tamper about with that it's going to take time for no guarantee that they'll be able to achieve the desired result,
plus Twilight's a little against the idea of having organs cloned from herself fitted into psion's heads.
As for what specifically they feel they might need to clone from her to augment their psions, that's going to have to wait for the story to develop before I tell you, I'm afraid.
I had to go back and do a bit of a reread but I tonk I'm up to date.
Giant moth?
...
blastwave-comic.com/comics/24.jpg
Loved that moth.
So the mysterious "new one" seems to have morals but is convinced that humans are a hivemind? That... that's bad...
8436265 Just look at Ender's Game. The aliens in that were killing off humans encroaching on their territory just to make a point, because they thought that they were like them -- each human being is another cell in the whole body, basically. But when they learned that humans were actually each their own person, each a unique body unto themselves, they were horrified, not just because it was difficult for them to comprehend such a concept, but because of the realization that they'd been killing off actual thinking individuals, not drones. That was a much bigger deal for them, but it was too late when they saw what they were doing, and humanity wasn't in a forgiving mood by that point.
Witness Me, Bloodbag!
Max- Aww, shit...
Shiny... and Chrome...
...and now that this fic is updating again, it is time to move it from Read Later to Active Reading. Now if only the other two X-com fics I read would update. Actually, the Applejack/X-Com 2 fic needs to stop rewriting and rebooting, and just get on with things! I have bailed on webcomics for stunts like that.
Nice chapter, good work.
That was fun. It's good to see you back, and while I can't say a ton about your characterization of Twilight from this chapter since you were worried about it, I'm sure that will change next chapter when we get to see her open up to the shrink.
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Yes and no. There are ways to force cells to turn into stem cells, and the speed pony healing seems to indicate that they probably have some way to do this naturally which may be exploitable. That said, even if that isn't the case, they could easily take a normal egg and replace its nucleus with another nucleus taken from a normal cell to clone Twilight. I would suggest reading these articles to get you started on understanding the biology you will be using in more detail because while I am more knowledgeable than most, I am hardly an expert on this subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transfer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_stem_cells
As for Twilight's opinion on the matter, how are they supposed to make "I'm inside you" jokes if she doesn't let them clone organs?
Also, Stockholm Syndrome is a thing and may affect her judgement here, as could the renewed fighting.
Consider, Twilight caused herself a good amount of pain by making herself hypersensitive. Twilight can also produce loud noises. What if Twilight makes the enemy hypersensitive, and then produces REALLY, REALLY loud noises?
Still love this story, and cant wait for more chapters!
ffffFFFFUUUUCK. Just release another one already!
Been loving this work, but a couple of word choice errors have been bugging me.
First (and less important): The past-tense of "spin" is "spun", not "span". "Span" is a distance.
Second, you're using the word "implicate" when you likely mean "compromise".
Damn fine chapter! Probably one of the best!
👍
Twilight is a genius and the earthlings Starswirl the Bearded equivalent
👍