AN:HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE XCOM MEETS RWBY BONANZA WHERE I TRY NOT TO LOSE IT AS I HANDLE MULTIPLE CHARACTERS A-LA SPARTAN ASSAULT! Among these characters will be characters of the members of the REMCOM RP Group that I so easily frequent thanks to finding and reading DrAmishMD's XCOMxRWBY Crossovers, RWBY Within and Remnant Unknown! Shoutout to Doc for being an inspiration and to everyone on that server for being so nice as to allow me to fight and grow alongside all y'all! I'm sorry I can't include all REMCOM RP Characters, but for now? I hope this cast will be an enjoyable one.

So enjoy, as our mishmash of Strike Team commanders and XOs fight together once again on Remnant's shores to combat the evil that is Salem and her Cronies! And possibly whatever else Remnant(or I) decides to throw at them.

Addendum:This is based on Long War and will include elements of "The List" within it.

Operation:"Broken Temple"

Location:Above Southern Atlantic Ocean, aboard the Ethereal Temple Ship

His powers far surpassed what even the Ethereals had expected of him. EXALT had cowered when he had deployed with Strike-1 to take them out. And now, with the singed Corpse of the Uber resting by his side, the Psionic Operative simply known as 'the Volunteer' marched toward the shimmering ball of energy that was the Gollop Device. The Alien Temple Ship began to crumble around him and Strike-1... He wanted to turn to tell them to leave, but soon saw them approaching him... A pair of striding Titans in heavy, reinforced armored plating that were their MEC Troopers, Archer Master Sergeant Marie "Vee" Victoria-Louise and Goliath Tech Sergeant Armin "Reaper" Voss...

Following them was a rather large complement soldiers, five of which were clad in the shining Powered Armor set known as the TITAN Suit. Gunner and Field Commander Peter "The General" Van Doorn stood face-to-face with the Volunteer, his stern gaze now filled with worry... Following him was Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang, a Rocketeer Major and one of XCOM's best demolition experts. The old, grizzled Chinese man watched the bodies of the Ethereals left behind by their onslaught...

Up next were Tech Sergeants Vivienne "Totem" Dupont, Dunstan "Spades" Pierce, Maria "Countess" Rovinesti and Aala Haataja. Whilst famously members of other Strike units, Covert Operatives and such, the four members had become quite closely-acquainted with one-another as they'd cooperated in many a mission beforehand. Vivienne, Dunstan and Aala were the ones lucky enough to wear the Titan armors, which they personalized to the fullest... Maria being a scout, was not lucky enough to don one, but instead she wore a standard, lighter variation of the armor.

"This place is falling apart..." Lieutenant Gillian "Robyn" Grayson mused as the ship shuddered underneath them... She, alongside Major Annette "Witchy" Durand, served as the Volunteer's supporting Psionic team. Even as the Psionic energy around them started to flow deeper into the ship, the Volunteer could feel their worry... Gill continued "Any longer and I don't think we'll be able to run!"

His head throbbed as visions of Earth's death at the hands of a black hole came. The ship's antimatter reactor was going critical thanks to the death of the Uber Ethereal and that meant it was gonna be a sudden, albeit fast death for Earth and all of her inhabitants. He couldn't let that happen, but his team was still on board... He couldn't do anything unless... He looked to Van Doorn and said "Go!"

"What?" The man furrowed his brows.

"Geist, are you crazy?" Annette's thick French accent came to him, her voice full of worry as she looked around at the Psionic tendrils about to envelop the ship.

"Annette's right!" Vivienne chimed in. "We are not going to leave you behind."

"The entire ship is gonna collapse into a black hole... Take Earth with it if I don't take control and blow it to hell..." The boy explained bluntly, staring Van Doorn in his eyes. The boy's eyes shimmered with Psionics. "With all due respect... XCOM may need you all post-war... I volunteered for this and I'm an unknown." He said solemnly, looking between his 9 compatriots... Dunstan stared at the kid from behind his gas mask and simply shook his head... The man must've been a loose cannon when he came to XCOM, but since then, he'd become one of the most respected soldiers among the team.

"Fuck that, kiddo." Maria returned promptly, shouldering her Pulse Laser Stengun. "You're staying, we're staying."

"I'm siding with the rest of the team here, Geist." Van Doorn spoke, taking the kid's attention to him as the Psionic energy of the Gollop Device sent a wave of energy through the entire vessel once more, with the team struggling to stay on their feet. To make clear his seriousness, Van Doorn cued his Microphone, then said "Big Sky, this is Strike-1-Actual... You are cleared for take-off. We're staying behind!"

"What!? Sir, you can't be-" Big Sky wanted to protest, but Van Doorn cut him off "I'm serious as can be... RTB. We're staying with Geist, to make sure everything goes smoothly."

... As much as the pilot that had flown them from mission to mission time and time again desired to voice his dislike for the idea, he instead chose to keep his mouth shut... Central would chew him out, but if the Field Commander gave an order... The team watched from the bridge of the Temple Ship as Skyranger left, a thundering sonic boom echoing as the aircraft entered supersonic mode...

Geist stared with eyes as wide as onions at his Commanding Officer... Van Doorn simply smirked in return, giving him a light slap on the shoulder and backing off... He nodded to Annette and Gillian, then looked to Geist and said "Do your thing, Sergeant." as he let the other two Psions join him. Annette put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile, with Gillian giving the boy a beaming one as well... The Operative turned toward the Gollop Device, walked up the pedestal and, as practiced with the device they'd got from the Overseer... Placed his hands around the orb...

His Vortex Armor, the most powerful of Psionic armors created by XCOM, shined a deep violet as, from the amplifiers on his back, the psi-energy coursed down through the muscle-like fiber of his arms into his palms and the device itself... Its once spherical form now started prickling, turning into what could only be described by Geist as a purple porcupine... He felt Annette and Gill's Psionics enter the device as well...

We got your back, Geist... Gill thought toward him, a warm smile on her face still.

Oui... And we won't let anything get to you. Annette added, grinning.

The Psionic pulsing intensified as the ship began to shake violently... Geist slowly threaded his way into what felt like the ship's own consciousness. It was not an AI, it was not human, but rather... Definitely Alien, Ethereal even. He heard a dozen voices talk to him at once, distant and hushed. Most strongly and loudly, he heard Gillian and Annette's voices... He stayed as calm as he could, even as his headache grew... He delved into the ship's systems, finding semi-biological and Psionic components even there. His search led him down many a path, until he located it...

The Reactor Core. It blared a scarlet light at him, yelling, screaming and kicking... Using his friends' backup, with Gillian's 'Empathy', a strange power in and of itself, Geist worked to soothe the Bio-machine that hollered at him to get out, caressing its head, petting it... He felt the ship under his feet slowly stabilize and found no other Ethereals out to hound him, either from Gill and Annette's intervention, or from them being dead...

He soothed the ship's core, but it warned him... And as his eyes blasted open, he felt the Gollop Device start to heat at its core. He looked to the French woman that had served as his mother and teacher for the better part of his life as a Psion and then, at the other motherly figure, the Italian woman that worked tirelessly to keep him and the others of her squad safe... Both smiled at him, their eyes ablaze with a purple flame... He nodded, pressing his lips together, before all three brought their hands together...

The ball of energy began to shrink, slowly, but steadily... And as the ship shuddered one last time, signaling the now-calm reactor's return to optimal levels, Geist felt another prickle through his spine and another vision of Earth's heat death... And lost his grip willingly. The ball of Psionic energy contained within the Gollop Device's amplifiers expanded outward, swallowing the entire team in a wave of psychic feedback, before collapsing back in on itself and forming, yet again, into that blob of lilac that was contained...

Back at HQ...

... Central Officer Bradford had ordered the scramble of every available bird to intercept an incoming tidal wave of Alien Assault Ships. He himself had fought on the Front Line within Mission Control, with only his Magnetically-enhanced sidearm, against the horde of enemies that flooded the base... He watched and listened as the alien creatures screamed in unison, before they collapsed on the floor, dead...

He'd taken down six Sectoids, a Sectoid Commander and three Mutons by himself... And now all other creatures, under fire by Base-Sec and other XCOM Operatives still on-base, had fallen over. The man looked to Doctor Vahlen and asked "Status! What the hell just happened?"

"... I'm looking into it now, Central..." She said as she read and reread the data, eyes wide. "The Alien Ship... It transmitted a 'Kill' command on the Hyperwave Network." She mused, walking with eyes wide toward an Alien, one of the big burly ones known as Mutons to the troops... She knelt beside it, drawing a scanner and waving it over the creature... "It's got nominal life-signs... It's still alive, but it..." She scanned its brain and gasped "... It is..."

"What?" Bradford asked, stepping up beside her as she stood to her feet...

"... For lack of a better explanation, it's... Braindead. All of them are." She looked down the corridor filled with aliens, both dead and alive. She turned to Bradford, then said "I think Strike-1 just finished it..."

Bradford paused for a moment, thinking over the implications... Before his mind raced again and he looked to one of the Base Techs. With conviction, he ordered "Radio Strike-1 Actual, now!" before putting his headset back on. The Base Tec gave the Okay to Bradford to speak and so the man did, with worry prevalent in his voice "Strike-1 Actual, this is Central. HQ is secure. Status report..."

Nothing... Once again, Central asked "Actual, repeat, this is Central. The Anthill is clear... Whatever you did just saved us... What's your status?"

... And yet again, nothing... "God dammit, Pete, answer me, man! Status report!" He partially begged as a heavy atmosphere settled in Mission Control...

... "Bradford...?" Vahlen walked up to him, brows raised and mouth agape. She extended her tablet and Central skimmed over the readings... One singular Psionic burst that contained the 'Killswitch' command flew on a high bandwidth through the Hyperwave Relay that was on the ship, disabling about every alien unit and craft in the sky in one swoop... But at the same time as that burst, Strike-1's vitals went... Offline? Not flatlined?

"They didn't Flatline..." Central murmured, staring at the readings with disbelief

"They just disconnected..." Vahlen stated, bemused "Most curious..."

"... Doctor, tell me what you think happened... In detail if you have any theory that may just seem plausible to you at this moment. It may help us bring them home..." Central spoke... If their vitals did not flatline during that burst, but instead just went offline, something must've gone either horribly wrong or... Extremely right. Eitherway, there was still a high hope of the best of Earth's saviors being alive. And the Ethereals and their armies be damned if Central was gonna have any sort of victory celebration without his best there.

XCOM had faced extinction at the start of 2015, when an Alien armada descended upon the Earth with countless ships and troops, poised to enslave or destroy Humanity as a whole. Two years of arduous fighting and many lost, both within the organization and among the population of Earth... And Humanity prevailed. But even so, John Bradford, Central Officer for the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, with the victory before him assured, still had one last job now. And if the Council would allow him to do it, he would... He would bring back XCOM's finest. Bring them home... And make sure they were welcomed as heroes...

... Whilst they, he hoped, stayed safe... And fought as they usually had, wherever they were now.

They would be found... That was a promise Bradford would keep.