Fanfic / The XCOM Anthology Set

The XCOM Anthology Set, by ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal, is an XCOM 2 fanfic series revolving around the adventures of the eponymous organization. Currently has two works, Tales From The Wrong Side Of The Avenger and The Ranger On The Edge Of Forever, both of which are multi-chapter stories.

Tales From The Wrong Side Of The Avenger: Usually abbreviated as TFTWSOTA or Tales, this is an anthology collection set within the Firaxis XCOM timeline, this particular entry focuses on "snapshots" of life in XCOM, ranging from serious moments to comedic ones, among other emotions.

The Ranger On The Edge Of Forever: Often abbreviated as ROTEOF, This entry of the Anthology Set revolves around the premise of the eponymous ranger, Jane Kelly, switching places with her future self.

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This work contains examples of:

• Ace Pilot: Firebrand, who can fly anything, ranging from the Skyranger to the Avenger.
• Action Girl: A staple in the cast, ranging from canonical characters like Lily Shen, Elena Dragunova and Jane Kelly, to the series' version of Menace 1-5, whose lineup is exclusively comprised of action girls.
• Adaptational Badass: In-game, the Commander is Armchair Military who lets their troops do the fighting, only joining the fray in person during the final mission via an Avatar. In stark contrast, the Anthology Set's take on the Commander casts them as a Frontline General who personally takes to the field, fighting alongside their troops on many occasions long before Operation Leviathan.
• Adaptation Expansion: Happens to many characters and factions in some form or another.
  • Faction-wise, on the side of the villains, ADVENT is the semi-natural evolution of EXALT, which submitted to the aliens after Earth fell and was reformed into the former organization. On the side of the heroes, the 2035 incarnation of XCOM is its third, following the 2015 incarnation of XCOM seen in Enemy Unknown, and the 1962 incarnation of XCOM seen in the Bureau.
  • Character-wise, one example would be Bradford, who goes from simply being the Commander's Number Two to having his backstory intertwined with theirs, being described as having been friends since high school who went into the XCOM Project together. A second would be Elena, who goes from being a Mauve Shirt Reaper with a pronounced - if apparently impersonal - dislike of the Skirmishers to having a very personal vendetta against them, rooted in Pratal Mox killing her sister while he was under ADVENT's control.
• Age Lift: Elena Dragunova is eighteen during the events of the story, compared against being a woman in her mid-twenties to early thirties as her in-game model would suggest. This is to fit in with her revised backstory, as she was thirteen when Mox killed her sister right in front of her.
• Air-Vent Passageway: The Hunter does this from time to time. It backfires spectacularly on him when he sneaks aboard the Avenger, as Tygan hears him clambering around in the vents and mines his would-be landing zone.
• Alternate Universe Fic: It does not follow the plot of the games a hundred percent, which technically brings it into this territory.
• Anthology: The name of the game, though Tales is the straightest example.
• Artistic License – Biology: Barring MST3K Mantra, this is the only real explanation for the fact that the core line-up of supporting characters consistent with real-life figures (Chrissy Costanza, Hayley Williams, Lynn Gunn, Carly Rae Jepsen, Taylor Swift and Ellie Goulding) are exactly as youthful as they are in real life, rather than being somewhere in middle age as they should be by 2035.
• Aborted Arc: Downplayed but a number of things - usually the odder ones - get brought up and then never get mentioned again.
  • The Ranger On The Edge Of Forever fell victim to this for outside reasons.
• Arc Welding: For the Firaxis XCOM continuity as a whole. The events of XCOM The Bureau Declassified and XCOM: Enemy Unknown serve as a prequel for the main part of the story, which takes place during XCOM 2. And due to Retcanon, XCOM: Chimera Squad is also welded in.
• Ascended Extra: While this could be extended to arguably the entire in-game XCOM cast, one of the most prominent examples is Jane Kelly. In-canon, she's a Mauve Shirt with minimal plot involvement, dependent upon whether one plays the tutorial or not. Here, she's the deuteragonist of the series, with a fully fleshed out character and story arc, one that drives the story forward as much as the Commander's own storyline does.
  • Firebrand. In-game, she's a faceless pilot on the side of the heroes. Within the series, she's a full-fledged character with a storyline tied to Lily Shen's.
• The Atoner: The Skirmishers as a whole, with Pratal Mox among the most prominent. Murdering Elena Dragunova's sister during his tenure at ADVENT and subsequently being made to work with her in the name of saving Earth from the Elders is the catalyst for much of his penitent behavior.
• Awful Truth: Obviously, the Avatar Project and all it entails, as per the game.
  • The revelation that Annette Durand survived the fall of Earth, was captured by ADVENT and subsequently mutated into the Chosen Assassin.
• Ax-Crazy: The Warlock and Julian, as per usual.
• Babies Ever After: The Commander and Jane, given that Tales From The Wrong Side Of The Avenger is narrated by their daughter. Tales implies that Annette is in her early teens during the time of her narrations, while Ranger On The Edge Of Forever depicts her as a very young girl.
• Big Bad: The Elders, as usual, though ADVENT and the Chosen are the more visible opponents.
  • Angelis is shaping up to be the big bad of the overarching series.
• Big Good: The Commander, the Resistance Informant, and Asaru.
• Big Damn Kiss: Rather subdued, but the first major chapter of Tales From The Wrong Side Of The Avenger ends with the Commander and Jane finally kissing, after spending the better part of 2035 dancing around their feelings.
• Blood Knight: The cast falls all along the spectrum. More heroic characters enjoy the thrill of the fight but have a degree of self-control, and more villainous ones kill simply because it amuses them.
• Body Horror: Besides anyone who gets victimized by the Avatar Project or the pod-things that created the Lost, this happened to Annette Durand, given that she looks and sounds absolutely nothing like how she canonically does, having been mutated into the Chosen Assassin and all.
• Brainy Brunette: Lily remains the accomplished mechanic and engineer that she is in-game, being able to almost instantaneously fix the Skyranger's portside thruster in her character-centric chapter.
• Butt-Monkey: Bradford. Besides the canonical events (namely, Earth falling, XCOM's first incarnation being destroyed, and wandering the Earth as a drunkard), he has been shot, stabbed, blown-up and injured in a myriad of different ways, he gets little, if any, respect from his subordinates, though it's clear this is more friendly ribbing if anything, and has a marked inability to maintain his romantic relationship with Volk, with the both of them maintaining an "on-off again" status for the better part of who-know-how-long.
  • James Ramirez, to a lesser extent. Foley makes him do everything. To his credit, Hunter Team has one of the highest success ratings of all the Covert Teams.
• Character Development: Given her prominence, Jane goes from being friendly, if fairly professional, to sharing her life-story and emotions with the Commander, to eventually falling in love with them. Similarly, the Commander goes from being a fish out of temporal water who struggles with the guilt of failing to save Earth from the aliens, to eventually regaining their much more upbeat, cheerful personality.
  • In their character-centric chapter, Lily Shen and Firebrand go from being colleagues who met by chance to good friends to lovers. Working on the Skyranger together over the course of a year gives them plenty of time to bond.
  • Elena eventually grows out of her extreme hatred of Mox, given that she's willing to tell Annette Zhang Kelly the story of Lost and Abandoned with him present to deliver his side of the story. Admittedly, this is at least fifteen years later, and she's still sour over it to some extent.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Geist, for a given definition of chivalrous, anyways. He openly hits on Betos the instant they meet and cheerfully squicks out anyone within earshot with his bedroom exploits, but his feelings for Betos are genuine, their relationship indirectly fosters a sense of camaraderie between the Skirmishers and Templars, and they arguably have the best rapport among the Resistance leaders.
  • Volk. He happily admires Bradford's eye candy, and is a caring boyfriend when they're in an "on again" phase.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Carly Rae Jepsen, one of two specialists within Menace Team and arguably the loopiest of the entire squad. The Commander arguably qualifies, at least as far as Bradford is concerned. Geist is also one, if his introductory chapter is to be believed.
  • The entire Skirmisher race, at least, those freed prior to the Commander's liberation from the Stasis Tank. Besides the fact that they strive for individualism, the Skirmishers liberated pre-Gatecrasher have, in addition to inheriting the Commander's tactical and strategic acumen, gained a measure of their personality.
• Continuity Nod: A few, here and there.
  • The 2015 incarnation of XCOM's HQ was in North America.
  • The events of the Bureau occurred in some capacity, as evidenced by Asaru's existence, Angela Weaver becoming XCOM's first Commander and playing host to Asaru during the closing events of said game.
  • EXALT existed in some capacity, crossed paths with XCOM enough times that the Commander figured out that using Arc Throwers on their operatives to get them to use their famous syringes on themselves was a good idea, and was eventually converted into ADVENT by the Elders after the war.
  • 2015-era XCOM managed to get as far as destroying the underground alien base, located somewhere in Asia, and capturing the Sectoid Commander within.
• Call-Back: From time to time.
  • Bradford's "close range" catchphrase is referenced by the Commander.
  • EXALT's infamous "suicide upon being hit with an Arc Thrower" gimmick is referenced.
  • The Commander thinks that the Chryssalids are less terrifying now, referencing the shift in propagation tactics from game to game.
  • William Carter comes up in conversation as having been killed by Angela Weaver during the events of the Bureau.
• Cold Sniper: The Hunter, as per usual. Also Elena Dragunova, though she warms up. Eventually.
  • The Reapers in general are cold snipers.
• Crossover: With the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Call Of Duty, Borderlands, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. At least, character-wise. Events and backstories are given occasional nods here and there.
• Dark and Troubled Past: All over the place.
• Deuteragonist: Jane Kelly is this for the overall series, while on a smaller scale, stories focused upon one character will often have a second one in an equally important role.
  • The Commander falls into this role during ROTEOF, given that said story puts Jane squarely into the lead.
• Dead Fic: The Ranger On The Edge Of Forever. Tales is still going, though, however infrequently.
• Driven to Suicide: For darkly comedic effect, the Warlock via his Disruptor Rifle, after a teleportation miscalculation leaves him stuck in a ceiling and being tickled by Julian. Given that his Sarcophagus is still working, it doesn't stick.
  • Comes up again, for not so comedic effect, when Annette Durand, known to XCOM as the Assassin, regains her sanity and control of her body when Menace destroys her sarcophagus. After exchanging a final goodbye with the Commander, she kills herself to avoid being used as a weapon for the Elders any longer.
• Friendly Sniper: Most of XCOM's snipers are this, when they're not letting their usual traits get in the way.
• Frontline General: In stark contrast to the game, The Commander personally fights alongside their troops on the battlefield, though this only seems to be applicable when Menace Team and Jane are available. Other missions have the Commander take a backseat and let the troops on the ground handle it.
• Generation Xerox: Lily is Chief Engineer, just like her dad.
  • Somewhat more indirectly, but Bradford is the second incarnation of Central, succeeding his grandmother.
  • The Commander is the successor to their mother, Angela Weaver, of whom was the first Commander.
  • Annette Zhang Kelly looks just like her mom and wields psionics just like her dad.
• The Ghost: Xenon the Antiquarian mentions Asaru in passing, but the character has no relevance to the main storyline beyond having been mentioned as protecting the Commander during their time in captivity and saving their life whilst the control chip was being removed from them.
  • Also Vahlen, as per Alien Hunters.
  • Big Sky is briefly mentioned as being Melissa's predecessor, but otherwise has no appearance in the story.
  • Cotton Eye Joe, who causes trouble for ADVENT and is a member of the Resistance, but hasn't made it on-stage just yet.
  • Angela Weaver, the Commander's mother and the first leader of XCOM. It's mentioned that besides leading XCOM's first incarnation, she became host to Asaru towards the end of the Bureau's storyline.
• Hidden Depths: The Commander is versed in contemporary (1990-2010s era, for the most part) pop culture and is surprisingly well-versed in music, having taken up the piano in their youth. Melissa is a music buff with an extreme love of Ozzy Osbourne, which Lily takes a liking to. Jane is a talented dancer and yearns to open a dance studio of her own, and has a particular flair for ballet.
• Honor Before Reason: While she's normally pragmatic, in several cases, the Assassin will immediately drop what she's doing to fight an opponent who brandishes a melee weapon and challenges her to a one-on-one fight. She also doesn't target civilians. It's the product of Annette Durand trying to run damage control on the homicidal split-personality she shares her body with.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Julian attempted this exactly once on Melissa, who retaliated by hitting him with a rocket launcher.
  • This also happens in somewhat comedic fashion when Annette Zhang Kelly is born, with Carly, Taylor and Chrissy being the ones delivering an implied death threat in the event Jane doesn't make it.
• It's Personal: Elena has an epic grudge against Pratal Mox for killing her sister.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Everyone with a sniper rifle (and some without) do this pretty much all the time.
  • Elena shoots the Hunter through his rifle's scope, gaining his respect and sparking his crush on her.
  • Carly nails an ADVENT Trooper with her Boltcaster using one hand, while upside down.
• Insufferable Genius: Ellie, all the time. Tygan is perceived as such every here and there.
• Lighter and Softer: Is a much brighter take on the XCOM mythos overall, with few instances of Anyone Can Die and a greater focus on the characters, their interactions with each other and their day to day lives.
• Legacy Character: Spiritually, the 2035 incarnation of XCOM to it's 2015 predecessor, with the soldier classes fielded by it being evolutions of the previous incarnation. On a more personal level, the Commander is the second Commander of XCOM, following in the footsteps of their mother, Angela Weaver, while Bradford is the second incarnation of Central, succeeding his grandmother.
• MST3K Mantra: Kind of required at some points, given that the series has a questionable grasp on reality for the most part, with real-life figures present in the story not having aged a bit despite having been around during the actual invasion, to the sheer amount of crossover characters.
• Noble Demon: Amongst the Chosen, the Assassin and Hunter are this. The Assassin maintains a code of honor, refuses to kill noncombatants and will immediately draw her sword and fight her opponent in a test of strength and skill, should they draw a melee weapon and challenge her to such, whilst the Hunter empathizes with XCOM to some extent and gives his favored opponents a "sporting chance" by making them aware of his presence, similarly avoiding the targeting of noncombatants.
• Not Worth Killing: The Hunter's rationale for avoiding the targeting of innocents. It's no fun shooting someone that won't shoot back.
• Noodle Incident: Too many to list.
  • Sometime in the 1990's, the Commander and Bradford were arrested for breaking into the latter's ex-boyfriend's house to steal back his sweater. Beyond getting back the sweater and of course, the arrest, no details are given, and the Commander considers knowing the actual specifics of the incident to be a trust password of sorts, explaining why they immediately trust Future!Jane in ROTEOF.
  • Vahlen getting high on LSD during the events of Enemy Unknown. It apparently lasted for twelve hours and gave Bradford a scar in a place he refuses to show to anyone.
  • Basically any of Xenon's tangents, especially the ones involving the bog monster in the back of the shop, who once ate the Hunter.
  • The death of the Archon King, which apparently involved a half-broken ballpoint pen and a very unlucky gopher.
  • Jane getting into a fistfight with a Sectopod, resulting in a month-long hospital visit. She won.
  • Everything involving Cotton Eye Joe.
• Official Couple: All over the place. The Commander and Jane Kelly, Bradford and Volk, Lily and Melissa, Betos and Geist, Steve and Natasha, Fitz and Simmons, Jack and Nisha, Moze and Amara, among others.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: They happen here and there.
  • As per canon, Tygan getting the tracking chip in his head out via Self-Surgery, for one.
  • In the backstory, Shen Sr. and Vahlen surviving the fall of XCOM HQ.
  • Elena shooting the Hunter through his scope and (temporarily) killing him.
• Posthumous Character: Several, often with ties to a character's Dark and Troubled Past.
  • The Commander has Annette Durand. Except not so, because she's the Assassin.
  • Jane Kelly has her parents and Shaojie Zhang, her mentor/parental substitute.
  • Lily Shen has her dad, Raymond Shen, who died seizing the Avenger for the Resistance.
  • Melissa Gaskarth has her parents, who were killed during the original invasion.
• Outdated by Canon: Fell victim to this with the release of XCOM: Chimera Squad, in addition to generally just being an Alternate Universe Fic in general.
  • XCOM: Chimera Squad establishes that XCOM 2's events happened and ended over the course of 2035. The XCOM Anthology Set establishes that the war went on until late 2037.
  • Jane Kelly is not Director of Chimera Squad, because she's a dance instructor with very little interest in returning to military life.
• Power Trio: On an overarching level, the Commander, Jane Kelly, and Annette Zhang Kelly, of whom drive the story's most essential aspects forward, the former two by being the ones leading the charge against the Elders, and the latter by being the one to tell the story in the first place. In terms of XCOM, the Avengers' Wraith-One subset, comprised of Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov and Wanda Maximoff, and Hunter Team, comprised of David Foley, Jake Dunn and James Ramirez.
• Plot Armor: The Commander and Jane Kelly have this, given that their daughter is the narrator of the entire series.
  • Anyone who is interviewed by Annette in 2054 or referenced as still being alive by then has this.
• {{Retcon:}} A number of them, some altering the story in minor ways, others in not so minor ones.
  • Hayley Williams of Paramore was inserted into the story well after it started, resulting in a distinctive shift for Menace Team's dynamics.
  • Similarly, the lineup was completely revised, with canonical XCOM characters and crossover characters being shunted to other teams, with real life figures - mostly of the pop singer variety - being brought in to comprise the new, revised line-up.
  • The Commander was much more of The Generic Guy, before being altered to become a proper Author Avatar and develop a personality of their own.
  • Jane Kelly's persona, backstory and traits were brought in to liven up the character and prevent her from being defined solely by her relationship with the Commander.
    • Also, her previous scar on her left arm was upgraded to her having the entire arm hacked off at the shoulder by Angelis during Operation Leviathan.
  • Annette Zhang Kelly did not exist until a story written much later down the line as a Distant Finale introduced her, at which point she was retconned in as the series narrator.
• The Reveal: Obviously, canonical events of the game, like the Avatar Project.
  • And what exactly happened to Annette Durand.
  • The extent of Asaru's involvement in the story.
• Resurrective Immortality: The Chosen, as per the game. This allows them to get away with playing center stage in the more comedic noodle incidents in the story.
• Rotating Arcs: Tales From The Wrong Side Of the Avenger invokes this in the name of ensuring the cast gets their time to shine, with the focus jumping from character to character in every chapter. Ranger On The Edge Of Forever is a bit simpler, jumping between the story arcs unfolding in the present and the ones going on in the future.
• Serious Business: Do not mess with the Skyranger's music player, which Melissa has set to play nothing but Ozzy Osbourne, with no exceptions. Doing so usually leads to bad things happening to the person in question. In fact, as far as Firebrand is concerned, anyone (save Lily, and for some reason, Foley), attempting to do anything to the Skyranger without her permission is grounds for being shot at, with victims like Bradford learning this the hard way. Given that she rebuilt the Skyranger from the ground up and has had the vessel for years before ever formally joining XCOM, her protectiveness may be justified.
  • Bradford's sweater, as per usual. Justified as he has had it for decades, with the implication that it is a family heirloom or something of similar value. It belonged to his grandmother, who served with The Bureau's incarnation of XCOM as their version of Central and gifted it to him on her deathbed.
• Ship Tease: Happens everywhere, with various characters pairing up or being in established relationships in one way or another.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Julian, though he doesn't seem to care. The Reapers in general, mostly because they're so frigid to everyone. And on the side of the villains, the Warlock, of whom the dislike for is the only thing the Assassin and the Hunter agree on.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Reapers and Skirmishers, as per game canon. Which is not helped by the fact that their respective emissaries for the series take on Lost and Abandoned have some seriously bad blood with each other, with Pratal Mox being responsible for murdering Elena Dragunova's sister before her very eyes.
  • Volk hates Betos, though the latter doesn't seem to care very much beyond adjusting to account for the hostility. Geist holds a low opinion of Volk, but that's mostly because he dislikes the man's personal feelings towards his girlfriend.
• Token Evil Teammate: Julian, who is still his usual ax-crazy self, with his backstory from the game and the events of Lost Towers more or less intact.
  • Handsome Jack and his entire Hyperion retinue also qualify.
• Villainous Crush: The Hunter invokes this with regards to Elena, mostly due to In Love with Your Carnage. The Commander speculates that her invoking Scope Snipe on him was what started it.
• Villain Episode: Several chapters of Tales are dedicated to the villain's side of things.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Just because the Resistance is united in the name of fighting the aliens doesn't mean they're united. To wit, XCOM is the glue holding everyone together, without them, it can be boiled down to "random Resistance groups won't work together, and the big factions won't either, with XCOM around, they'll at least point their guns at the aliens 70% of the time".
  • The Reapers and Skirmishers barely get along, as mentioned earlier. In turn, XCOM only sort of tolerates the Reapers while having a much stronger rapport with the Templars and Skirmishers, while conversely, the Templars creep out the Reapers, but in turn, get along with the Skirmishers.
• Was Once a Man: The Hunter, as per the game. Also the Assassin, who is, in fact, a brainwashed and crazy Annette Durand.
• Watch the Paint Job: Melissa fusses over the Skyranger like nobody's business and invokes this on anyone who so much as offers to sweep it out.
• Worthy Opponent: Some characters, yes. Others, not so.
  • The Assassin considers Jane Kelly to be this to her, after they have a few sword fights, all of which end in a draw and prove that they're equally matched. And also because she's Annette Durand, and thus has a personal connection to the Commander that mirrors the one Jane has.
  • The Hunter considers Elena Dragunova to be his worthy opponent, at least partially rooted in the fact that he has a crush on her and mostly because she shot him through his Darklance's scope once and repeatedly trounces him on the field.
  • Angelis considered the Commander to be this during Enemy Unknown, particularly after XCOM destroyed the Underground Alien HQ and captured the Sectoid Commander within. XCOM 2's events only strengthen this perception.