The Way Home

CHAPTER 1: AVENGERS

She slithered down the ramp of the dropship, her long body winding and undulating as she carried a wounded soldier in her arms, dropping him at the feet of a team of medics who were standing by in the hangar. She rose up on her muscular tail, her almost imperceptibly smooth scales flashing yellow and brown in the artificial lighting as she scanned the room. Operation Broken Shadow had gone well, they had accomplished their objective of destroying an ADVENT gene therapy clinic and seriously undermined the plans of the alien occupation. Vi had become a real asset to XCOM, nineteen confirmed kills in just a few short months. Having a rebel Viper onboard XCOM's mobile base had made many of the more seasoned soldiers nervous and suspicious at first, ADVENT spies were everywhere and took many forms, however after her combat prowess had been demonstrated they had soon warmed up to her. She was stronger, faster and more perceptive than any human could ever have hoped to be, and she was invaluable when it came to infiltrating enemy bases or getting through security checkpoints.

She picked me out in the crowd of personnel, her reptilian eyes fixing on me, and with a burst of speed she shot across the space. She was like a coiled spring, liquid muscle given form, and she collided with me as the throng of people parted to let her pass. I found myself wrapped by her massive tail, like some gigantic constricting snake that meant to crush my bones to dust and swallow me whole. Her flesh was chubby and springy, soft fat lining her sinuous body under her delicate scales, her powerful muscles lurking beneath it as they tightened around me and lifted me clear off the deck.

The great alien lowered her head towards my face, flaring her fleshy hood, reminiscent of a cobra. Her jaws opened, exposing two wicked fangs as long as a human finger that retracted into sheaths in the roof of her pink mouth, and made to strike me.

She pecked me on the forehead, pressing her cool lips against my skin and leaving a fond kiss, then placed me gently back on the ground as the people surrounding us laughed heartily. This was my Viper, my Vi. It seemed like an eternity ago when we had first met, with no barracks in range to house ADVENT troops after an attack on a local facility in a remote rural area, she had been stationed in my family's old farmhouse where I had been living alone at the time. Something had just clicked between us, a mutual curiosity and attraction that had slowly grown until before we knew it, we were sleeping together.

After a frantic escape from an ADVENT-controlled city we had joined XCOM, a human resistance movement that sought to drive the occupational forces off Earth and restore control of the planet to its rightful inhabitants. Initially considering them to be a terrorist organization, my eyes had been opened after witnessing the brutality and oppression of the alien forces firsthand, jarring me out of the complacent life I had been living and spurring me into action. Now we were both rebels, resistance fighters, battling not just for freedom from ADVENT's rule but for our right to love.

The soldiers, scientists and engineers who staffed the massive mobile base that was the Avenger, a huge alien supply craft captured and repurposed by the rebels to act as a headquarters, had reacted with varying degrees of curiosity and disgust to our relationship. The scientists had been fascinated, if she did not grow restless and leave of her own accord the eggheads would poke and prod her with all manner of instruments for hours at a time, subjecting her to innumerable scans and tests in an attempt to determine just what was going through her head. They had interviewed the both of us at length, both to screen us and make sure that we weren't ADVENT spies, and to sate their own curiosity. Was independent thought the rule for Vipers, or the exception? Was the same true for the other alien and synthetic races that made up the occupying forces? Could more of the enemy be turned to the XCOM cause? It had opened up a whole new perspective for many of the personnel, that these aliens were not just mindless killing machines serving an absolute authority without question, but people in their own right who were capable of making their own decisions and even of rebelling themselves.

The soldiers had been harder to convince, the more grizzled veterans especially had often faced Vipers on the battlefield and just having her around made them twitchy and uneasy. They were slow to trust, but once that trust had been won they were staunch and loyal comrades. Some still disapproved of the relationship on simple moral grounds, but the disapproving sideways glances and the whispered comments had ceased, and the bulk of the people manning the base now saw it as harmless or even endearing.

I had become a soldier too, serving with an XCOM squad as promised and trying hard to make myself useful to the resistance, though we had been placed in separate teams so as to avoid any conflict of interest or the risk of one of us putting the mission in jeopardy in order to protect the other.

Vi was a machine, running operation after operation, tireless and unflinching. She was no stranger to the military life, having been completely immersed in it at least during her extended deployment on Earth, working in conditions that must have been far more stressful and taxing than anything a human could endure. She slew her former masters with a fervor that surprised even some of the most decorated alien-killers, ever silent as she lined up shot after shot, her vocal cords unable to accurately reproduce human speech. She used a tablet computer to communicate when she needed to, but even then the language barrier was a problem as direct translations from whatever alien language she spoke to English were often ambiguous or downright nonsensical. She understood, and could make herself understood well enough, though in private we barely spoke. We had been together long enough and knew eachother well enough that body language was enough to convey almost anything we needed to say, the peaceful quiet of our alone time was one of the few escapes from the noisy day to day bustle of the vessel.

The crew knew we shared a bunk in our quarters, though I suspected many of them assumed it was the relationship between a loyal pet and its owner, rather than a romantic one. Vi's relative silence came across to some people as a lack of intelligence, though she was anything but stupid.

"You ok?" I asked her, looking up at her as she towered over me, her tail unwinding from around my body. She nodded, and I patted her smooth scales, then she turned to stow her weapon on a rack as a few other soldiers disembarked from the dropship. They were clad in their heavy armor and carrying the newly refined plasma weapons the techies had been so proud of. Looked like there was only one wounded, a good result. It was nerve wracking for me when Vi left on missions, she was far more frequently needed than I was due to her superior strength and speed, but if we didn't drive the ADVENT off Earth the result would be as good as a bullet to the head anyway. There were risks, but we had to take them if we wanted a chance to live as free beings. I had done my share of sorties, but I was deployed infrequently and usually only on non-critical missions. Unlike many of the top brass I had not been a soldier during the initial war against the invading aliens, and I was a recent addition to the crew, my combat skills were still rather unpolished despite the time I had spent at the range trying to hone them. Sometimes I suspected they only kept me around because me and Vi came as an inseparable package, but that was fine too, as long as we were safe.

While XCOM's Avenger was the brain of the resistance movement, the body of it was scattered around the world in camps and compounds that were far easier to detect and far more difficult to defend. I would do whatever it took to keep us here in relative safety after having witnessed an assault on one such compound with my own eyes, the attacking alien forces being driven off only through Vi's valiant efforts.

The returning soldiers were met with praise and hearty pats to their armored backs as they removed their gear, stowing their rifles on weapon racks and disconnecting their heavy plating in sections with the help of engineers who hovered nearby. A lumbering SPARK trotted down the ramp, the massive robot jerking oddly as it walked, its weight making the deck vibrate as it shouldered its heavy cannon and made its way to engineering to seek out minor repairs.

Vi returned to me still wearing her armor, as she had no casual clothes and no uniform could be made that would fit her odd physiology. I had joked about having one of the engineers knit her a sweater, but she seemed perfectly happy to wear the black ADVENT armor on her torso, only removing it in private. Her lower body was that of a great winding snake, but her upper body was remarkably humanoid, at least until you got to the sinuous neck and the reptilian head that sat atop it.

"You hungry?"

Vi nodded, and so we started off towards the mess hall, the people in the rather cramped hallways of the Avenger stepping aside to let the massive Viper pass them. When we arrived I picked up a silver metal tray from a stack and piled it with whatever was available, creamed corn, processed meat, beans, one could not expect fine cuisine in wartime. Vi was able to eat meat, and preferred it rare. When she had stayed with me in my farmhouse she had eaten ADVENT rations exclusively, likely tailored to her biology and exact dietary requirements, but she had not become unhealthy on her current diet and seemed to have a fairly good idea of what she could and couldn't digest.

She was too large to sit on any of the benches, and so she wound herself into a pile and I perched on one of her fat coils as we ate together. She consumed a considerable amount of calories considering her size and metabolism, but XCOM seemed to think it was worth the investment. I spooned some creamed corn into my mouth and chewed, it was passable enough, in this kind of environment hunger was the most effective seasoning available. Vi had been given a tray stacked with slabs of meat by the mess officer on duty, not quite raw but rare enough that some were red with bloody juices, their origin uncertain. It was common to hunt in the area directly surrounding the Avenger whenever it changed locations, as it must do frequently in order to avoid detection and deliver troops wherever they were most needed, so it had as much of a chance of being venison as antelope meat depending on where in the world they had most recently set down.

She took a slab of pink meat in her claws and raised it above her head, opening her jaws and dropping it into her mouth, swallowing it whole. Her muscles eased it down her long neck, and her tongue flicked the air contentedly. She didn't have teeth besides the hypodermic fangs she used to inject her venom into her prey, and so she swallowed her food whole like a bird.

"Go steady, that's probably all the rations you're gonna get today," I chided. She bounced me playfully on her tail, and huffed at me as I steadied my tray of food, her way of laughing. A soldier in his XCOM uniform carrying a tray slowed as he passed by us on his way to a bench, nodding to Vi in greeting.

"Nice job on the mission today, Snake Eyes." She returned the nod, and the man continued on his way to set his tray down on a table a short distance across the room. These people were obsessed with nicknames and rarely referred to eachother by anything appropriate, the individual squads were somewhat cliquish. I had not earned a nickname yet, but the origin of Vi's was obvious, and she stared down at me with her amber pupils. I spooned more creamed corn into my mouth, getting the impression she was smirking at me in her own alien way.

There was a sudden rumbling beneath my feet followed by a short sensation of motion before the ship's inertial dampeners kicked in, the Avenger was lifting off, likely so that any ADVENT forces tracking the dropship on its way out of the combat zone would not be able to pinpoint our location. The ride was usually so smooth that even in flight it was sometimes easy to forget that you were tens of thousands of feet off the ground and traveling at hundreds of miles per hour.

We finished eating then made our way out of the mess hall and through the interior of the massive ship towards the barracks where most of the crew quarters were located. I still had not visited every room in the enormous vessel, many of which were full of debris and had not been cleared out in order to make use of them yet. The origin and nature of the ship was somewhat of a mystery to me, I had heard that it had been a cargo ship originally, that had been captured and refitted to serve as a mobile base, but everywhere you went there was strange alien technology jutting from the walls and ceiling. We arrived at the door to our designated quarters, lined up along the wall with dozens of others. Although conditions inside the ship were cramped, fortunately there was some measure of privacy to be had, as each room was a self-contained unit with a bed, a simple bathroom and a door. I stepped inside and Vi followed after me, piling her coils into the room and bringing to mind images of ice cream being forced from the nozzle of a soft-serve machine. She was almost too large, but we both found the proximity quite enjoyable, as it gave me no choice but to sleep nestled in her winding tail. It wasn't especially late yet, but you learned to get all the sleep you could whenever you had the time, it was impossible to say when an emergency might occur or a mission would require you to be awake for forty eight hours without rest.

Vi undid the clasps that held her chest armor in place, shrugging off the black plates and letting them fall heavily to the floor. It was designed to fend off laser and plasma fire, and so I doubted a short fall would do any damage to it.

She had an oddly voluptuous figure despite her reptilian nature, wide hips that tapered into her long tail where the legs would be on a human, with a white underbelly of fine overlapping scales that was soft and spongy to the touch. Her breasts hung attractively now, free of their constraints, heavy and unsupported as they bounced gently with her movements. No matter how many times I saw them, they always captivated me. Something about their impressive size, larger than my own head, or maybe it was the way the soft fat seemed to melt beneath my fingers. Vi placed her hands on her wide hips, cocking her head at me and flicking her long tongue.

"I know, I know, it's bed time."

She huffed, and lowered her body to my height, gliding towards me on her powerful tail and winding around me as if I were some hapless prey animal. Her smooth coils enclosed me, compressing me in her equivalent of a hug and trapping my arms against my sides. She was willful, not that I complained, she liked to set the pace and I was ever happy to follow.

I blushed as she cradled my face in her hands, the heat from my cheeks warming her cool, scaly palms. Only the larger dorsal scales that ran down the back of her tail could really be described that way, as the fine scales on the rest of her body were so delicate and smooth as to be mistaken for skin. She leaned in and pressed her puffy, oversized lips against mine, and I melted into her embrace as I felt the familiar sensation of her oversized tongue pushing into my mouth. Her probing kiss seemed to sap my strength, and my muscles relaxed to rest against her soft, inviting body. She tasted of copper, her long organ exploring my head and wrestling with my comparatively tiny tongue. She teased my inner cheeks and the roof of my mouth, slipping down to glance my throat and tightening her coils as if to say 'keep still' as she roved.

When she finally broke away, a clear string of her saliva hung from my chin as her muscle retreated back into her mouth, Vi looking down at me with what I knew to be a covetous expression.

"Ok, maybe not bed time just yet," I gasped, trying to catch my breath after the prolonged kiss. Satisfied that I was primed she used her long body to carry me over to the bed, dropping me unceremoniously on the mattress and looming over me with her fleshy hood flared, a sign of an imminent attack that I would never think of trying to avoid.

She struck with shocking speed, bringing her massive head down towards my vulnerable neck, the tips of her long fangs unsheathing. She pricked my neck with them, not enough to really hurt, but just enough to tell me who was running the show. My back arched off the bed as I felt her puffy lips mouthe and plant sucking kisses that left red marks, her sinuous tongue leaving her mouth to drag wetly across my skin. I raised my hands to her face, caressing her scaly cheeks and slipping my fingers under her fleshy hood. She writhed and crooned as I traced the lip of it with my digits, teasing her, then I slipped my hands inside and stroked the smooth, spongy surface. Her hood was her weak spot, incredibly sensitive, and whenever I played with it her long body undulated and writhed in response.

She pulled my hands away and pinned me to the bed playfully, her considerable weight pressing me down into the thin mattress, closing her clawed fingers around my wrists. She brought her head down on her long neck and kissed me again, this one more invasive and lascivious than the last, my toes curling as her tongue wormed its way into my mouth. Her long, slippery organ coiled inside my head, squirming and tasting me, filling my cheeks as my growing erection pressed against her belly as she rested on top of me.

Moving with more strength and speed than my eyes could even track, she broke away suddenly, my lips lingering on her smooth tongue as it left my mouth. In a flurry of motion, I found myself propped upright, perched on her 'lap' where her torso tapered into her thick tail. Her heavy, inviting breasts pressed against the back of my head, and she pulled me closer, wrapping her arms around my chest and nestling me in her ample cleavage. The doughy fat deformed to encompass my head, the delicate, skin-like material that made up her underbelly cushioning me. She pinned my arms behind my back with the tip of her dexterous tail wrapped around my wrists, and I felt her long, alien fingers fumbling with my clothes. She undid my belt buckle and pulled my pants down, discarding them and squeezing my aching member through my underwear. I felt her lips tug at my ear, gumming with her toothless maw, the soft and wet sensation making me wriggle in her lap. She squeezed me again, feeling my member throb beneath the thin fabric, and tightened her hold on my wrists. She hooked one of her claws beneath the waistband and pulled my briefs free, letting my erection jump free to bob gently in the air as it pulsed and twitched, a bead of precum already welling at the tip. She smeared it with her fingertip, making small circles on my exposed glans, huffing at my pained expression.

Sex with Vi was never straightforward, she always had some cruel game to play like a cat that had caught some hapless mouse and wanted to get the most out of it before she ate it up, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I gasped as she wrapped her cool fingers around my shaft, taking a moment to savor its warmth in her cold-blooded palm, then started to stroke up and down. Her pace was slow and cruel, her head level with mine, pivoting on her agile neck so that we were face to face as she drank in my flushed cheeks and my fluttering eyelids. She was so long and flexible, a contortionist would not have been capable of such feats, Vi's serpentine body was almost entirely made from muscle.