Timeline of events detailing humanity's interaction with extra-terrestrial life:

1962-The United States Bureau of Strategic Emergency Command (USSECOM) is founded by President John F. Kennedy with the mission directive of organising the US military and its assets into a coordinated insurgency in the event of Soviet military forces occupying the United States. Numerous special agents are recruited from the US army, CIA and FBI in order to provide a wide range of talents and experience to the group. Director Myron Faulke has these operatives search the world for what he believes is technology not from the Earth.
Midway through the year, Earth is attacked by the Zudjari. These aliens strike at important military installations and some isolated towns and villages all across the world.

1963-The USSECOM shows to be the most effective group at both fighting the Zudjari troops and covering up any evidence of the invasion at all. If one were to ask an average civilian at the time if an alien invasion was happening then they would be looked at like a crazy person. Similar groups in other nations report successes to their own governments and begin sharing intelligence with one another. This leads to President Kennedy extending an invitation to combine anti-alien divisions to all NATO members. The USSECOM is combined with the British Unified Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), the French Division of Intelligence and Republic Security (DIRS) and the Canadian Dominion Protection Service (DPS) to form the Extra-terrestrial Combat Project, or XCOM for short. Faulke is made the Commander of the Project.

1966-The Zudjari begin to get desperate as XCOM grows stronger through the reverse engineering of what limited alien tech they can get their hands on. The leader of the Zudjari force authorises a simultaneous attack on Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin and Jerusalem. The Zudjari soldiers sent are given express orders to try and make it seem like an attack from NATO. XCOM forces are deployed to counter the incursion. Soviet military forces make contact with XCOM and the situation is explained to Soviet High Command. The attackes are fought off and President Johnson, reluctantly, offers an invitation to the XCOM project to the leaders of the Warsaw Pact and, less reluctantly, to Israel, Japan, China and Iran.

1967-The Zudjari leader is captured after XCOM launches an assault on his undersea headquarters. The Zudjari Invasion is beaten as the last remnants are hunted down. Over the next year, all evidence of the alien incursion is covered up with only conspiracy theorists having any idea the danger humanity was in. The Project is closed down until such a time that it is needed again.
Future XCOM Commander, Andrew Bishop, is born on the 27th of November in York, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

1971-John Bradford is born on the 14th of January in Manhattan, Kentucky, United States.
Dr Moira Vahlen is born on the 30th of March in Strasbourg, Grand Est, France to a German mother and Italian father.

1988-Andrew Bishop joins the Royal Marine Commandos.
John Bradford joins the US naval cadets.
Moira Vahlen begins college studying chemistry, biology and astro-physics.

1991-John Bradford joins the US navy as an officer.
Moira Vahlen begins her university studies.

1996-Andrew Bishop passes the test to join the SAS.

2004-The Council of Nations receives word of an unknown contact entering the solar system. Scouting for new XCOM personnel begins.
Andrew Bishop is promoted to Major before being honorably discharged on medical grounds after taking a sniper round just under the knee, nearly severing his leg.

2014-Unknown contacts first spotted at the edge of the Solar System are identified as alien craft. The Council recruits its scouted personnel into XCOM. The Project is reactivated.

2015-The Etherial Invasion begins as Hamburg is attacked by alien forces. XCOM deploys to counter every attack made against Earth under the direction of Commander Bishop. Near the end of the year, the alien 'Temple Ship' is destroyed by XCOM forces led by the Volunteer, one of the first Psi-Ops, a French woman named Annette Durand. The Volunteer does not survive the mission. A month later, a fleet of Temple Ships arrive and force the Council to surrender. XCOM HQ is attacked and the Commander is taken after a brutal fire fight. Bradford, Engineer Shen and Dr Vahlen escape with the aid of the 'Furies', a group of XCOM soldiers known for their brutality. The ADVENT Coalition is established as a puppet government by the Etherial Collective, led by the Elders. The Japanese attempt to resist for as long as possible with the aid of the XCOM base built there to monitor the UFO detection satellites above Asia. This results in what has become known as the 'Kiryu-Kai Disaster' to any XCOM friendly groups.

2035-Operation Gatecrasher marks XCOM's official restart as the Commander is rescued from ADVENT by Bradford and a small group of brave soldiers. The Commander almost entirely changes the course of the war as the resistance, led by XCOM, gains victory after victory against the Elders and their puppets. Later that year, XCOM tracks a strange energy signature to the North American wilderness. Dr Richard Tygan, XCOM's new head scientist, theorises it to be a portal of some kind...

_

It'd been a long day for Colonel Lucas 'Viking' Kolbeck. He and his squad, Menace, had been assigned to protect the scientists and engineers sudying the weird yellow orb that the local Resistance Haven had discovered and so far, nothing had happened. The engineers, being directed by Lily Shen, had built a kind of scaffold around the thing so Tygan and his crew could better monitor the energy output and attempt to theorise on what, exactly, this glowing orb was. Wraith One, the other squad assigned to guard duty, were mainly watching his own team playing a game of cards. "Full house! Lets see ya beat that!" Said the familiar Australian voice of Major Dave 'Outback' Hash, Menace's sharpshooter and Lucas' closest friend. Two of the other players groaned and put their own cards down. "Scheisse, how are you so good at zis game?" asked the team grenadier, a dark skinned German man named Wolfgang 'Panzer' Keller whose black hair was tied back in a Nordic style braid and a pair of dark glasses covered his eyes. Numerous scars covered his face from a close encounter with a Chryssalid. A cigarette hung from his lips. The Polish Specialist sat next to him, Oskar 'Hussar' Slawinski, nodded in agreement. Dave let out a chuckle and took the ration bars being used as currency for the game. The third player placed their cards down, looking confused. "I do not understand these human games." Said Pratal Mox, XCOM's first Skirmisher.

"We got that in common, mate. Ain't never really been too good at poker, neither." Spoke up Lucas, his rough British accent covering his words. He looked over to the other end of the make-shift camp, towards the sixth and final member of Menace. Their Psi-Operative, Leah Williams, was meditating with Wraith One's Templar, Anna Artyasovich. The sound of a jet engine could be heard as a Skyranger flew over and set down in the centre of the camp. The back ramp opened and out stepped two figures, one was wearing a suit of green and white plated combat armor, standard issue for XCOM soldiers, and had short brown hair that was starting to grey. A 5 O'clock shadow covered his lower face and a large battle riffle was slung over his shoulder. The other man had short blond hair with a few streaks of silver running through it. A well-kept but still decent beard covered his lower face. He was wearing a black and light grey original XCOM officer's uniform with a yellow XCOM insignia on the right side of his chest. A large pistol rested on one side of his hip and a combat knife was on the other. These two were Central Officer Bradford and Commander Bishop. Someone shouted out "Officers on deck!" and every person in the camp snapped to attention in a salute. The only ones who didn't were the SPARK robots, too busy patrolling the perimeter to respond to what was happening in the main area.

The Commander looked around before saying "As you were." and walking down the ramp of the Skyranger, Bradford falling into step beside him. The Commander walked with a small but visible limp from an old war wound that never quite healed properly. "Tygan, we got your message. What's happening?" He said, approaching the scientist. The doctor turned and typed something into his datapad before addressing his CO. "Commander, Central, I believe the...orb that we've been studying here has been leaching off of the latent psionic energy that Earth possesses to power itself and that it has gained almost enough to finish whatever it may be doing."
"And what might that be, doctor?" asked Bradford, looking toward the bright yellow sphere.
"I theorise that it may be a portal of some kind though not one made by the aliens. Where it leads, we can not say for certain. However, it does appear to be growing at an unprecedented way."
"Growing?" Questioned Andrew.
"Yes, Commander. It appears that this phenomenon is increasing its size. It has slowed considerably since we first noticed, however. It is unlikely that it will grow any further and as such, will not be a threat to anyo-"

Just as Tygan was in the middle of speaking, the orb appeared to explode. If any of the XCOM members had not been blinded or knocked over then they may have noticed some humanoid shapes drop from the centre of the orb.

_

Meanwhile, approximately 600 years into the future of an alternate universe:

Why did she agree to come on this mission? What possessed her to say yes to going into some dark, killer robot filled ruin on a planet they'd decided to terraform the old fashioned way? Oh, right. Her stupid boyfriend had. It'd been about four months since the crew of the Tempest had taken down the Archon and stopped the Kett from destroying everything the Initiative had been trying to build. The people of the Heleus Cluster had chosen, in recognition of Scott's achievements and ability, had renamed the original human golden world to Ryder-1. Of course, he more than deserved it. The crew who were in charge had discovered a Remnant ruin and didn't want to risk any lives looking inside so of course the Pathfinder had volunteered and gone in with three others. Jaal, their Angaraan resistance contact, Peebee, their Remnant expert and her, Vetra, The Queen Quartermaster and Pathfinder Ryder's girlfriend. Now, they had been backed into a corner, with their communications down and a giant yellow orb thing getting bigger and bigger. "I know its getting bigger SAM, please don't distract me right now!" Shouted Scott as he sent another singularity into the ever increasing horde of machines charging at them.
"Ryder! I don't think we can hold them back much longer!" Yelled Vetra over the gunfire and explosions, fear very much present in her subharmonics, not that anyone there could tell.
"We just need to get some breathing room, then we can make a break for it!" He responded.
"I'm out of ammo!" Came Peebee's voice from somewhere else in the cavern like structure they were in. A biotic explosion sounded after.
"Scott, the orb looks very unstable! We need to move!" Said Jaal as he fired another round from his modified Kett rifle.

He wasn't wrong, either. Ever since the damn thing had turned on when they walked in it been getting bigger with more arcs of energy shooting out from its surface. A particularly strong one went all across the room, zapping the bots and thankfully shut them down.
"Oh, thank god." gasped the Pathfinder. The four regrouped, fully expecting to be swarmed yet again. Instead, the orb that had attracted the remnant bots to them began to shake and lash out at its surroundings. The room began falling apart and the orb seemed to be eating everything in its way. According to SAM, they weren't getting out in time and comms were still down. They didn't even gain the chance to say anything as the massive wall of yellow swallowed them whole and turning the world black.

Author's note:
I've had this idea floating around in my head for a couple weeks now and I thought it was about time to write it down. I hope to see you next time!

For those who are following the rewrite of Storm Warning, I'm having a small break but it will be updated soon, don't you worry.