Anthro-Earth: the target for an invading alien force from the depths of space. The conventional forces and individual efforts of world nations have proven to be complete ineffective against such a threat and so the multinational Extraterrestrial Combat Unit has been established. Its mission? To defend Anthro-Earth from encroaching 'UFOs' and find a way to stop the alien invaders once and for all. And so, for six months, this is what Commander Jax Valkyr and her fellow XCOM operatives have done in a clandestine shadow war. But will this state of affairs continue? What might have the invaders have planned next as they become truly aware of the efforts of this elite force? And will their response threaten to drown the world in a rising tide of blood and destruction...?

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I'm sure very few of those whose eye has been drawn by the thumbnail need any explanation of what XCOM is! It has, for many years now, been one of my absolute favourite video game franchises and so for my first ever large-scale group commission, an XCOM-themed story just seemed wholly appropriate. And I'm quite proud of the result. It weighs in at a meaty 27 A4 pages and 13.5k of wordage, so a pretty substantial read and one whose elements will be very familiar to aficionados of the game and contains my own examinations and interpretation of the XCOM 'verse and how I think certain things would be and events that would occur in a real situation. So there'll be more than a few surprises for those who have played the games, as I didn't just want to rehash very familiar territory for those involved.

And getting into those that are involved and phew, it's quite a list: There's my own battlesharksona, Jax Valkyr, in the story, but also and in no particular order:

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Phew! So as you can see, interest in this project was high and it was a challenge to make sure that everyone got their fair share of limelight and wordage and I think I managed to pull it off pretty well. Especially considering how varied a group it was, with everything from sharks and taurs to tentacled werewolves and rhinos!

I'd like to thank everyone involved for their interest, participation, and helpful and positive feedback and truly hope that everyone else who gives this a read enjoys it too. And it certainly won't be the only time that I'll be doing an XCOM commission like this!

Written Fiction © Me

Participating characters and sonas © their respective owners.

XCOM © Firaxis / 2K Games