"We could possibly construct more bases, if this one goes down like you say we can use them as a back up." suggested Bradford.

"Hm maybe, but since the council would fall under elder rule wouldn't they rat out the base locations?" asked David.

"That's a good point, and we wouldn't be able to do it on our own to hide it from them. Very smart there." replied Bradford, placing a hand on David's shoulder.

David smiled "Ahhhh!" he thought, internally having a breakdown.

"Commander to the situation room! Commander to the situation room!" the A.I voice rang through the base.

"The council must have a message for me, wait here." The Commander ordered, walking away to the situation room.

"Hmmm… meld I think this is." David mumbled with a hand on his chin "Mind if I turn on my laptop? I could do missions to double check what happens in them."

"Hm, that could be effective but wouldn't most missions be different from the game?" asked Bradford.

"Yes, but there's some missions that should happen almost the same as they do when we encounter them. Most being council missions." replied David, grabbing his laptop bag and taking his laptop out of it "Still working." he said as he turned it on.

The commander walked back into the room "We have reports of aliens transporting some substance and the council has asked us to see what the substance is, stop the aliens and retrieve some of the substance if possible."

"That substance is called MELD, biomechanical and can be used to enhance people or make incredibly strong machines. Thing is, the aliens also use this as well as the strange fanatical EXALT." David explained, not looking up from his laptop trying to sort it out.

"I see, then it will be imperative we retrieve some of this 'MELD' and use it against aliens." replied The Commander.

"May I ask, how do your squads work? I mean do you only have four in a squad or six?" asked David.

"We only send in four, but we have two backup members for our two current squads. They'll either be replacements for injured squad members or when we get clearance, a full member of the squad." explained The Commander

"Ah okay, that makes sense. Annoying that we dont have six, it'll make everything so much easier but that's fine." replied David as he opened XCOM on his laptop "I believe we'll be in Canada for this, but I don't know."

The Commander nodded "We'll use Alpha squad for this mission." He tapped a button on one of the panels and the sound of footsteps running could be heard off to the left.

Roughly two hours later, the squad was deployed to the mission area in Mexico. The current members were the rookies Eli Golan, Margreet Peters and Holly King and the squaddie support Karen Jordan.

"Alright squad, let's do this!" Exclaimed Jordan, readying their assault rifle.

Peters went behind a light pole and a MELD canister as cover, she opened the canister reaching the pale yellow hexagonal crystal inside with yellow smoke around it. Golan went behind a black and white police car and a white and orange striped barricade. King went behind a small tan coloured car door and its hood. Jordan ran over and got behind a small wall in front of several tables and chairs at a fast food place. The rookies went into overwatch in case an alien revealed itself.

"Keep an eye out, just in case one of those 'Sectoids' show themselves." Explained Jordan.

"Like they'll get the jump on us." Replied Golan, examining the area around them.

Golan moved to a small light blue coloured car door and the car itself. Peters moved behind the wall and a table, spotting a small Sectoid as it opened a door and went through it.

"Spotted one, Sectoid." Explained Peters, pointing her gun at the door. The others nodding in response

Jordan moved behind a red newspaper bin. King ran over behind a large truck's trailer. Everyone aside from King went into overwatch.

The Sectoid ran back through the door, Peters fired at it but the alien ducked down and went behind a stove and fired back at Peters who felt the hot plasma fly past the head, the shot shattering the front shop window.

"That was close." Stated Peters as she let out a sigh of relief.

Golan moved up to behind the wall and fired at the Sectoid, hitting it in the chest and severely wounding it "Hit it in the chest, it isn't doing so good!" Exclaimed Golan.

Peters then moved up behind a different table and fired at the Sectoid again, she barely missed the Sectoid's head "Dammit!" Peters grumbled

Jordan moved over behind a table and fired at the Sectoid, hitting it in the head and finishing the alien off "Xeno killed."

King ran over behind a pile of trash cans "Still have more trash to take out." She smirked at her joke.

"Not bad five." replied Golan with a chuckle

Golan moved to a table and the wall. Jordan ran over to between a table and the wall. King ran over to a table. Golan then went into overwatch. Peters reloaded her rifle as the others moved up.

"Hey, wait for me guys." Stated Peters.

"The don't be so slow." Replied King.

The rest of the glass at the entrance of the fast food shop shattered as Golan moved behind a table and the wall of an ice cream store directly beside the fast food shop, spotting the second MELD canister beside an larger indoor table. Jordan moved up behind the wall of the shop and a table as well. King ran over behind the small outdoor wall. Spotting a Sectoid beside a truck as it moved beside a medium cactus green car.

"Got another Sectoid, going up beside a green car." She explained, training her gun where the Sectoid was.

Peters ran over behind the wall with King "I've got ya." She trained her gun at the same location

"Everyone keep an eye out!" Exclaimed Jordan.

Both Jordan and Golan fired at the Sectoid as it ran from the car to a bench, but the alien ducked down, the bullets whizzing past it. The Sectoid returned fire and hit King in the chest, slightly wounding her.

"I'm hit, not extreme but God that hurts!" Yelled King, covering her wound with her hand.

"How bad?" Asked Jordan, sounding concerned.

"Nothing too bad, the armour took most of the hit for me." She gave a thumbs up and winced

King got up and fired back at the Sectoid, hitting it in the chest and gravely wounding it "How do you like it?!"

Jordan moved inside the shop behind the corner at the front door, flanking the Sectoid, as she was about to fire, she spotted another Sectoid outside the shop, that moved behind a truck cab "Found another one, beside the truck cab!" She then fired at the first Sectoid, hitting it in the chest again and finishing the alien off.

Golan moved inside between a cardboard cut out of a cow, clearly used to attract children for ice cream, and one of the large indoor tables. Peters moved forward hiding behind the wall of the shop and a table.

"That one should be the last to deal with." Announced Jordan.

The Sectoid moved back into view behind some cardboard boxes and fired at Jordan but she ducked down as the plasma flew by, hitting the MELD canister instead.

Jordan moved up behind the MELD canister and a large indoor table, opening the canister. She then fired at the Sectoid and hit it in the head, instantly killing it.

"I'm not picking up any additional heat signatures, that's the mission done folks. We'll send in ships to take the cargo back to headquarters." Announced Central over the coms.

"Got it Central, we'll return now" Replied Jordan, holding her fingers to her ear on the earpiece.

The squad returned to the base and all left the skyranger "Another successful mission." Stated King, grinning cheek to cheek.

"Well of course," replied Golan "with us out there, there's nothing the aliens can do."

The Commander walked in and the squad immediately snapped into a straight line.

"C-commander sir!" Jordan stammered as she saluted.

"At ease soldier." Replied the Commander "Eli Golan, you have been promoted to a squaddie and based on your ability in close quarters combat you have been chosen to be an assault. Holly King, you have been promoted to squaddie as well, and based on your similar abilities in close quarters combat have also been assigned to assault. Margreet Peters, you too have been promoted to squaddie and based on your ability in precision based weaponry and long distance combat have been chosen to be a sniper. Alpha squad, you done great out there." The Commander then left as the squad let out a sigh of relief.

Eli started bouncing "We got promoted and assigned our classes!" He grinned like a child.

Karen looked at her squad members "I hope we keep this up Alpha, and amazing skills out there I must say."

Holly chuckled "You're the one who killed all three of them."

"Yeah but without your help I wouldn't have been able to, Margreet I reccomend you work on your aim there." Karen smirked, bumping her elbow against Margreet's side.

"Yeah I know especially now I'm a sniper I better work on it. But you can count on me." She replied giving a thumbs up and smiling widely.

"Hopefully, we can, I expect several holes through their head from now on." Stated Holly.

Two nurses and a doctor came into the hanger and motioned for Holly to follow them "Oh, infirmary for me then, great." Holly groaned, following the medical staff

"Hey, whenever you're out I'll get us all drinks, on me." Stated Jordan, waving goodbye to Holly

"I hope so, I could go for one after that." Holly smirked and waved goodbye as well.

The other three started heading over to their dorms, chatting along the way.

Soon after a cargo skyranger returned and several workers started unloading what was retrieved from the mission. Three Sectoid corpses, six weapon fragments and the two MELD canisters which contained ten MELD each.

David sighed in relief "Okay, that went decent." he laid back and rubbed his face "Right, I'll find what else we have to do." he trailed off and focused on his laptop.

The commander nodded "Central, launch our new satellite over China." He ordered.

Central nodded and started talking to a small group of other workers. Shortly after they started scanning for more alien activity.

A nurse came over to the Commander "Holly King will be resigned to the infirmary for the next five days, sir." She explained.

"Okay, thank you ma'am" The Commander replied, and nodded as the nurse walked away to the soldier dorms.

"I must ask, where should I go if I need to sleep?" asked David, looking up at the commander.

"We'll assign you somewhere in the soldier dorms." replied the commander as he stared at the globe scanning "Though based in the current time we shall do that now." The commander motioned for one of the workers to come over "Show him the dorms, and what room he'll be in." The person nodded and lead David away to the dorms

A few minutes later they reached the dorms, it was mostly made up of several large rooms which lead to bunks, lockers and a personal bathroom. The worker opened up one of the doors and walked inside, switching on the light.

"So you'll be staying in here, it isn't much but I'm sure it'll suit you just fine." explained the worker.

David looked around, there were three bunk beds against the leftmost wall, simple but they seemed comfy. At the rightmost wall was six lockers, probably for each squad member. And a door further down leading to the bathroom.

"This seems fine, may I ask, will I be alone here?" Asked David, pressing his hand against the mattress of a bed.

"Yes, however if we hire new soldiers I'm sure you will have company in due time." Replied the worker

"Meh, either way I'm fine." David sat in one of the beds and laid down across it "Comfy… uh thanks for showing me here."

"No problem, if you need something you know where to find me." The worker smiled warmly as he closed the door.

David sighed and rubbed his eyes "this is gonna be a long ride…" he shuffled in the bed and set his head against the soft pillow, quickly falling asleep despite being in normal clothes nor under the sheets.