The War for Liberation is the name given in XCOM: Chimera Squad to the events of the XCOM 2 campaign, when the Commander was reinstated as leader of XCOM in 2035 and led XCOM and allied Resistance networks to overthrow ADVENT and destroy the Elders.
Background[]
At the conclusion of XCOM: Enemy Within, world leaders unconditionally surrendered to alien forces in 2015. XCOM was left shattered and the aliens established a global coalition ADVENT government with human politicians. ADVENT presented itself as a benevolent force for peace and prosperity. Under ADVENT rule, the Earth was divided into 16 regions.
Following XCOM's defeat, ADVENT held the Commander captive in a stasis pod in an ADVENT facility and implanted them with a chip that psionically linked them to ADVENT forces. ADVENT used the Commander's strategic and tactical expertise to maintain ascendancy over the scattered resistance forces. Without the Commander's guidance, XCOM was unable to effectively lead a unified campaign to oppose ADVENT.
Pockets of resistance individuals and groups remained active against ADVENT rule. These included John Bradford's attempts to rebuild XCOM; Lily Shen, who joined XCOM as chief engineering officer; guerrilla operative Ana Ramirez, who trained XCOM recruits; Peter Osei, who lead a resistance cell called the Wrecking Crew; Jane Kelly, who lead the resistance cell Children of the Earth; the Spokesman, who served as a double agent under ADVENT and acted as a liaison between resistance operatives and XCOM; a Resistance Radio DJ who built a radio network across territories free from ADVENT control; and the three resistance factions, the Reapers, Skirmishers, and Templars. Some of the activities of Bradford and other resistance operatives during the years before the War for Liberation are covered in the Tactical Legacy Pack DLC.
Key events[]
The missions of XCOM 2 comprise the War for Liberation. The exact order of events may vary between playthroughs. If the tutorial is skipped, the first two missions recovering the Commander and the power converter will not occur. It is possible to skip the Avenger Defense mission if the campaign is completed before the alien UFO intercepts the Avenger.
Commander's reinstatement[]
Bradford rescues the Commander from an ADVENT facility.
The war began on the twentieth anniversary of Unification Day, when ADVENT took control of Earth. John Bradford, Jane Kelly, Peter Osei and Ana Ramirez launched Operation Gatecrasher, acting on Resistance intel to rescue the Commander from an ADVENT facility. XCOM's chief science officer Richard Tygan removed an ADVENT chip from the Commander's brain and the Commander was reinstated as XCOM's leader on March 1, 2035.
The powered-up Avenger takes off.
XCOM had been working out of the Avenger, a grounded alien craft converted to a base by Dr. Raymond Shen. The Commander now deployed Kelly and three rookie soldiers to recover a power converter from an ADVENT convoy, allowing Chief Engineer Lily Shen to power up the Avenger. With their newly mobile Avenger base now operational, XCOM launched a guerilla war on ADVENT.
The Blacksite[]
Through analyzing the chip removed from the Commander and a similar chip removed from an ADVENT Officer, Tygan discovered that ADVENT was using a psionic network to augment tactics and disseminate orders from its central command. He developed a skulljack which XCOM used on an ADVENT Officer to access the network, summoning a Codex and retrieving a Codex Brain.
XCOM recovers a vial from the Blacksite.
The Spokesman contacted the Commander to let the Commander know that civilians were disappearing across the world, possibly taken to a nearby ADVENT black site. He told the Commander to contact local Resistance cells and take charge of global resistance operations, find the black site and shut it down. XCOM located and launched an assault on the site, discovering that ADVENT was transporting people in stasis chambers to the facility and processing them on an industrial scale. XCOM soldiers recovered a Blacksite Vial from the black site.
The Avatar Project[]
The Spokesman let the Commander know he had discovered the existence of a secretive Avatar Project. He advised the Commander to locate and attack more hidden Avatar facilities to disrupt its progress, uncover the truth of the project and destroy it.
XCOM locates a Psionic Gate.
XCOM built a Shadow Chamber to analyze the Codex brain and black site vial. Tygan retrieved data and coordinates from the Codex brain and XCOM sent a team to investigate. They discovered a Psionic Gate and brought it back to the Avenger. The data revealed that the Elders were dying, and had been searching for a cure for centuries by procuring genetic information and material from species and moving on to new worlds. They had found something on Earth to cause them to set root here. Tygan told the troops to use a skulljack on a Codex to gain further information on the Elders' plans.
XCOM recovers a stasis suit from the Forge Facility.
Tygan retrieved coordinates to the AVENT Forge Facility from the black site's vial. XCOM attacked the facility and discovered pods containing ADVENT bodies. Shen realized that the abducted humans were being used to create ADVENT forces. XCOM recovered an ADVENT stasis suit from a room in the Forge Facility. Analysis of the suit revealed that ADVENT soldiers consist of predominantly human genetic material acting as a bonding agent, with fragments left open to insert alien DNA. The prototype stasis suit suggested human DNA with psionic sensitivity, indicating that ADVENT had been using gene therapy clinics to harvest civilians for black sites, screening them for psionic capabilities to create a being of signicant power.
Skulljacking a Codex to summon an Avatar.
XCOM soldiers skulljacked a Codex, summoning an Avatar and retrieving its corpse.
The aliens attempted to capture the Avenger by deploying a UFO to intercept it, grounding and disabling it with an electromagnetic disruptor. XCOM soldiers defended the Avenger by destroying the disruptor and escaping.
Accessing the Psionic gate[]
Shen sends a drone through the Psionic Gate.
Lilly Shen hardwired the remnants of the salvaged Codex brain into her Rover drone so it could emit the signal the Codex used to pass through the salvaged psionic gate. She sent the drone through the psionic gate, discovering that it led to an alien fortress. The drone was unable to pass through to the new location as the gateway called for an organic signature in addition to the Codex's signal.
Tygan discovered from the Avatar's autopsy that it was a nearly perfect but incomplete fusion of Elder and human DNA. Shadow Chamber analysis of the Avatar identified the DNA sequence necessary to travel through the psionic gate. The sequence had to be part of a live subject. The complete Avatar template from the Forge Facility combined with genetic material from the Blacksite Vial allowed Tygan to create an Avatar body on the Avenger. The Commander was able to manipulate the Avatar body via the aliens' psionic network as they had already survived interfacing with it while held in the stasis suit.
Overthrowing the Elders[]
The Spokesman exchanges gunfire with ADVENT after delivering his final message.
The Spokesman contacted XCOM via the ADVENT Network Tower, a structure that provided logistical coordination for the entirety of ADVENT's forces, as well as broadcasting their propoganda globally. He warned them that with the Avatar's death, the Elders were accelerating the Avatar Project with a plan to rapidly process all non-essential human life immediately. The Speaker intended to use the tower to announce a breakthrough in gene therapy to lure humans to gene therapy clinics for processing. The Spokesman transferred information to Tygan and Shen allowing XCOM to take control of the broadcast and disrupt the ADVENT network, broadcasting the truth, exposing ADVENT's plans, and distracting alien forces long enough to give XCOM's final assault a chance of success. ADVENT forces arrived at the Spokesman's location as his message ended and an exchange of gunfire ensued. The Spokesman's fate remains unknown.
XCOM hijacks ADVENT's broadcast.
XCOM launched a mission to secure the ADVENT Network Tower. They infiltrated the tower and hacked its Central Broadcast Array, using it to send a feedback pulse from the tower that disrupted the ADVENT psionic network. They interrupted the Speaker's live broadcast of the gene therapy breakthrough to expose ADVENT's violent suppression of humans and their program of processing humans at forge facilities.
The Commander's Avatar leads a squad through the Psionic Gate to the Alien Fortress.
With the ADVENT psionic network compromised and humanity in open revolt against alien rule, XCOM launched their final assault on the Elders. The Commander entered a stasis suit, taking psionic control of the Commander's Avatar. The Commander guided their Avatar through the psionic gate to an Alien Fortress submerged beneath the planet's oceans. The Commander led an XCOM squad on a final assault on the Fortress as Resistance forces battled across the globe with ADVENT, and ADVENT intensified their attacks on both Resistance and civilian targets. ADVENT forces began laying down their arms and turning on each other as the Elders attempted to maintain the network with the tower disrupted.
The Commander's Avatar in a final showdown with the Elders.
The Commander's Avatar fought through the fortress to destroy the Avatars of the three ruling Elders. With the Elders' defeat, the psionic network began to disintegrate and the Commander activated a psionic gate for the squad to escape. The Elders made a final attempt to dominate the Commander psionically but the Commander defeated them and safely escaped the fortress. ADVENT forces retreated before the Resistance, their control of occupied areas collapsed, and refugees fled ADVENT-controlled sities for Resistance settlements.
Aftermath[]
The Creator, a relic of alien tech defeated in 2037.
In the wake of the war, aliens and humans now lived together in a world with no nations and no global government. An Interregnum Council was formed to handle the world's new governing and logistical challenges, though it deferred to XCOM's proposals.
In 2037, XCOM defeated the Creator, a clone of an alien construct called Prototype 159 that was attempting to use Elder relics left over from the war to terraform Earth into a shadow world.
XCOM developed the semi-autonomous Reclamation Agency from 2037 to 2039 as a peacekeeping organization to deal with the war's aftermath, keeping communities free of dangers left behind by the Elders. The Reclamation Agency deployed its first squad, Chimera Squad, to City 31 in 2040. By this time, the period of human history preceding ADVENT occupation had come to be known as the Old World.
The City 31 Memorial Museum includes a Liberation Exhibit that commemorates the War for Liberation. The exhibit documents events and memorabilia about the war.