RP X-Com Role-Play Missions

[BMPixy]

“Goddammit, what’d I say about suicide charges?” Albert barked, before ordering, “Everybody else, suppressing fire on the Mutons! Chem grenade going out!” With a pull of a pin and a couple bounces the aforementioned projectile burst among the Balmadaar warriors, coating them with the mixture of poisons and acids their Thin Men allies used.

As the Mutons ran for new cover away from the opposing gases and liquids, two dropped from a shot from Ian and Cage. “Now that’s what I’m talking about, Foulke.” Cage shouted. “Keep this up, and we’ll…” He was cut off but the sight of Ian slamming into the floor next to him. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, and looked down at the claws sticking out of his stomach from behind. The claws were violently yanked out, ending his life.

Predictable humans. So easy to sneak up on.

Isitoq ran up to try and aide his sister, counting on his mechanized strength. He punched the Berserker with a heavyweight punch, causing it to falter. One of its claws whipped around at the annoying creature, and the hardened alloy spikes slashed off Isitoq’s left arm. The cyborg screamed in agony, the only feeling ever felt from the arms being the pain of detachment.

As he crumpled to the ground writhing, Buniq lost her nerve. “B--b-broth-!” she began in anguish. The Beserker did not waste the opportunity, slamming its fists down on the hybrid. The blow knocked her to the floor with a crunch of some of her chitin, while the mad Balmadaar did not let up. Its sharpened blows rained down again and again, shattering plating and coating its hands with her blood.

The hybrid started to laugh oddly, and snapped up, blocking the next set of strikes with her arm claws crossed. “I-it doesn’t hurt...it doesn’t hurt!” she screamed in denial, and stabbed the Berserker in the shoulders. The Muton angrily grabbed her, ignoring further slashes to it’s right arm, seizing her by the throat and lifting her up.

“Arschloch!”Albert yelled at the Incubator as it tore through the surprised Cage, spilling his life-blood across the floor. Quickly glancing down the hall and spotting the remaining aliens, pinned under the hail of fire from the assorted staff and soldiers, he decided to take his chances. The reports say most died in single combat, let’s hope that trend continues! With that thought, he motioned for the girls to stay where they were, and he bolted from cover, charging the Incubator.

The large, alien feline gave him a look of disbelief. You think you can handle me by yourself, human? How amusing. A Sectoid ran to its side, taking aim at Albert. One quick swipe of the Incubator’s claws, and the Sectoid’s head rolled a few feet away. Do you mind? Not anymore, I suppose.

“Let’s go!” Albert exclaimed, holding the last vowel for a second as he turned his sprint into a flying knee, soaring towards the Incubator, who slid out of the way of the attack a moment before it struck. Quickly recovering before the alien cat could exploit the opportunity, Albert hopped back and settled his arms into the orthodox shoulder roll stance that had been drilled into him all those years ago.

I see you have a bit of skill. And you are quite fast for a human. But not fast enough. The incubator leaped forward, taking a few test slashes at Albert, trying things out, gauging the man’s reflexes, all the while scanning all of the possible outcomes for the perfect time to strike.

Come at me from whatever direction you like, Albert mentally shot back, it doesn’t matter if you can see the future, if I can react to your every movement! The man shot his left hand up to parry one of the slashes on his armored wrist, and used the momentum from his defense to throw out a right hook straight for the Incubator’s jaw, missing by a few centimeters as the alien ducked back. The alien in turn returned the favor by sliding a claw along Albert’s outstretched arm, only a quick tuck preventing the minor cut from becoming a serious injury.

You test my patience, human. I doubt you can predict everything I do. For example… The incubator charged Albert, the hardened man ducking to the side. As he regained his stance, the Incubator continued running forward, and sank its teeth into the back of a security guards neck. It turned back towards Albert, the dead guard in its mouth, blood dripping to the ground. How does this fit into your reaction time?

As Buniq kicked wildly, her throat going try as the grip tightened around her neck, the Beserker reached with its other hand, and grabbed her skull. It started to pull, trying to rip off her head, and the hybrid let out a strangled scream of abject terror. The alien screamed in pain, reaching back instinctively as a plasma round punched partially through its armor. Behind it, one of the Muton’s let out a small victory roar before its companions obliterated it in a shower of plasma rounds. As it slammed to the ground, Eve let out a cry of pain, a small bit of blood trickling down her chin as the three girls tried to keep her body safe.

Buniq used the brief opportunity, kicking with everything she had. Her leg claws punched through the Berserker’s throat. “Go...g-go to hell!” She used a swipe of her feet to lop off its head. The hybrid dropped to the ground, coughing as her throat mended quickly, and glanced over at Isitoq. She immediately paled as she saw one of the security guards pressed her pistol against the side of Isitoq’s skull. “W-what a-are y-you…”

The woman looked over with a blank expression, her eyes hued by a cruel violet. She reached for the trigger without a hint of hesitation. Buniq could not hesitate either. Twin, serrated chryssalid claws came out the woman’s back, coated in blood and gore. The control faded, the subject nearly deceased. “W...wh..” the woman could barely whisper.

Tears filled Buniq’s eyes as she retracted the blades, mouthing, ‘I’m sorry’ as the life drained from the security guard’s soft blue eyes.

The whispers at the back of Al’s mind suddenly intensified, and Albert lurched forward under the sudden onslaught. Not… now! he thought, shoving the voices down. The Incubator saw the opportunity, and lunged forward. The man tried to react, but he was slightly too slow and only slightly redirected the blow, sending the claw skewering into the Amero-Anglican’s stomach, penetrating the armor and piercing out his back. With a cough, splattering some blood onto the Incubator, he whispered, “Not… now…” He vaguely heard Veda scream ‘Foulke!’.

All too easy. To think my brethren could fall to such pathetic creatures such as you. Still, you did entertain me for a while. I think I’ll enjoy a quick meal. Consider it a privilege. Or don’t. I don’t really care.

I- I know what you’re going to say next, arschloch. ‘Now to finish these pathetic creatures!’

Now to finish these pathetic creatu- what!? In that moment of distraction, Albert had slid the gauss pistol off his belt and pressed into the Incubator’s forehead. With a quick pull of the trigger, the alien’s head exploded in a mass of gore and skull bits, the pair collapsing to the floor under the dead Incubator’s weight.

Chandra rushed out of cover, ignoring the danger, and had to be covered by Inderpal. “Bēvakūpha aurata…” the heavy muttered.

The healer knelt down as Qamut started to shove the corpse off of Albert, her hands resting on the wound and quickly becoming bloodied. “Oh…oh my...” She shook her head. “Please no…come on…” her hands took on an intense green glow, trying to accelerate his healing. She quickly realized it was not a wound his body could heal on its own, even accelerated. Live, damn you. She coughed up blood, using another source for biokinesis. Her own body.

The two both in critical condition, Qamut set to stabilizing them with his medkit. “You’re both fo…” He heard the click of a plasma rifle. Well, Ugalik, I guess I’ll be seeing you soon.

A combination of human and Muton blood splattered as the Balmadaar claimed Qamut’s life, and was quickly repaid by Inderpal in his fury.

“No…” The three girls all cried in unison. Kataktaq muttered a quiet prayer.

Hitomi let out a soft growl. She looked back a forth, the eyes landing on the object of her desire. She rushed forward, Rei practically falling forward as she reached out to stop her friend. Dashing from cover to cover, the young girl reach one of the fallen guards. She grabbed the large rifle at her side, but couldn’t lift the heavy weapon. She settled for her grenades, and rushed back towards her friends. Seeing the final pair of Mutons preparing to fire at Inderpal, she pulled the pin from one of the grenades, and raised her arm.

She let out a shrill cry as a bunch of over sized fingers wrapped around her arm. A Thin Man pulled the grenade from her hand and shook its head. Hitomi cowered a bit as the Thin Man turned and tossed the grenade at Albert and Chandra, a torrent of smoke bursting from it. The Thin Man then pointed at the Balmadaar and said, “On their left.” Hitomi smiled, pulled the pin from the other grenade, and threw it with all her might. As it landed just to the left of the Mutons, the Thin Man shot out a plume of poison to their right. The aliens ran to the side to avoid the smoke, directly over the grenade as it went off, killing them both with a point-blank blast.

 

[BMPixy]

Albert slowly pulled himself up, bleary eyed as he scanned the battlefield. All seemed clear for the moment and the Infantry let out a gentle sigh of relief, before seeing one last group descend into the elevator shaft. An enormous Balmadaar, standing a good half a head over the rest of it’s kin, plated in bright crimson armor and hefting a plasma cannon that looked more fit for a Sectopod strode forward, accompanied by three Floaters.

“If you wish for mistakes to be fixed,” the Balmadaar Elite muttered, “You must correct the error in person.”

Chandra stared up weakly at it, her vision blurred as her expression set into resignation. “Can’t...save...everyone...depressing that I can’t even save us, after all that,” she mouthed, a small, bitter laugh escaping her lips.

From behind her, two pairs of small arms wrapped around her as Keiko and Rei desperately tried to pull her to safety. “P-please don’t give up,” Rei said. “I… I sure we…” she trailed off, not sure how to finish her sentence without sounding like she was patronizing everyone.

Seeing the Elite raising its gun to compensate for the addition targets, Nouja reached forward. Leave...them...be…! a spiked mindfray helix shot into the Balmadaar’s skull, a flurry of images spoiling its aim.

The Muton roared in response to the mental challenge, beating it’s chest in an attempt to intimidate the offending psion. The Elite ordered the Floaters forward, while it took cover on one of the corners of the hallways.

“Dammit, I bet the people out in Delta Section have it easier,” Albert muttered tiredly, picking his gun up from where he dropped it in his rush to fight the Incubator. He snapped off a pair of shots at the Floaters, but his aim was spoiled by his injuries and the rounds went wide.

One of the Floaters suddenly held its head, eyes going wide with terror, and it flew around frantically, seeking cover, and ended up smashing into the ceiling. It tumbled to the floor, and was filled with LMG bullets.

Veda pulled up her rifle again. “That’s for Qamut, you monsters.”

Kataktaq pulled Nouja down as the second Floater fired at them. “Think you pissed it off…”

A laser tore through the third, Isitoq lifting his gun-arm weakly. Buniq slowly stood up, her claws coming out again, though she allowed herself no emotion, her yellow eyes fixed on the Balmadaar Elite with a single thought as she rushed forward. Kill. She did not even feel the plasma carbine shot that melted her right shoulder plating and burned flesh underneath.

“Covering fire!” Albert yelled, putting fire down range, managing to score a couple glancing hits on the Elite’s shoulder armor, but nothing substantial or penetrating. Fire picked up from the remaining troopers, trying their best to not hit Buniq but keep the Muton in cover.

The hybrid reached the ornately-armored Muton, ducking under a plasma burst. Her claws scraped against the heavy alloy plating several times in quick succession, the two disappearing behind the wall as Buniq forced the Balmadaar back. In doing so, however, she unintentionally isolated herself.

The Thin Man let out a soft growl, rushing forward to help Buniq, not caring for its safety for obvious reasons. It paid for its recklessness as the remaining Floater pelted it with shots. Too injured to continue fighting, it made a beeline for the last Floater, getting close enough before it died to cover the flying alien with poison. Around the corner, Eve hunched over, wheezing violently as she coughed up a mouth full of blood.

“They have their own-!?” the Elite yelled as he ducked out of the way of the hybrid’s claws. “No matter, you will perish as well!” With a heft he swung his gun as an improvised club, aiming to knock Buniq away so he could line up a shot.

Buniq crossed her claws, but even they were cracked by the sheer force of the Balmadaar’s strike as she slid back and slammed into a wall. Barely able to maintain her balance, she desperately ran straight for the Muton Elite, and then slid under his next blow, trying to get back out into the open to allow the others shots. In doing so, however, she knew she was opening herself up to potentially be shot at again.

The Elite swung its weapon onto the magnetic holster on its back and used the momentum of the action to swing into a wild lunging haymaker towards the hybrid, approaching closer to the edge of its cover with the blow, but not quite reaching the same exposed position Buniq had. The surviving Floater looked to seize upon this opportunity with a reflexive shot towards her, but a quick spray of covering fire from Albert tore the alien’s flimsy arm from its body. Another burst from one of the remaining security officers took down the crippled alien.

This attack the hybrid did not even try to parry, dodging to the side and narrowly avoiding a crippling blow as she backed off slightly further. Buniq was afraid to move too much more back and allow the Elite space to fire, however, and instead stalked from left to right near him, keeping herself an immediate threat.

With a menacing grunt, the Elite slid its hand over one of the grenades on his belt. With a quick thrust the beeping device bounced a few meters forward towards Buniq, as the thrower hopped backwards to shield himself from the blast.

Buniq had no means to defend herself other than raising her arms, the blast tearing away more of her plating until very little was left. She looked at her badly burned body with an odd smile. “I guess...I’m not so much...of a chryss...alid...anymore…” She started to step forward to go on the attack, and then crumpled to her knees.

Shrapnel plinked off the Elite’s armor, the wounds inflicted by what few pieces struck exposed portions slowly healing. With a snort and a quick check of his HUD, the Balmadaar said, “Tactical situation losing control. Retreat most likely option for continued survival. But, to make this trip somewhat worthwhile…” The Elite retrieved his Plasma Novagun from his back, and stepped out of cover, laying down a hail of suppressing fire down range in an attempt to pin down the remaining XCOM Troopers. As he did so, he edged out of cover, and carrying the enormous weapon one-handed, hefted the defeated Chryssalid hybrid over his shoulder, and backed out the way he came.

“Ethereal Guard Commander Jiokjiok to Craft GBWY-443, requesting immediate tele-exfiltration, authorization code pIqaD-32-jajvam,” the Elite said, and his request was fulfilled a moment later as the Muton and Buniq slowly vanished from sight with a dim blue light.

Buniq’s head drooped, the hybrid not having the energy to fight back anymore. She looked down at her arms, the plates slowly regenerating along with the rest of her surface tissues. “I’m sorry, brother.. .Nouja… Ammy…” She closed her yellow eyes. “I was never truly human anyway. I’m just glad I had the one chance to feel like one, even for a short time.”

The dust fading with the last alien attackers gone, most of the remaining guards let out sighs and cheers of relief. The three girls stared at where Buniq had just been, Rei clenching her fists in anger as Hitomi and Keiko dropped to the ground, sobbing loudly. Rei tried to hold it together, but quickly joined her friends in crying.

Isitoq stared up at the ceiling, the throbbing pain where his mechanical arm had been no match for the empty feeling he had in his heart. He slowly raised his intact arm over his face, not wanting the others to see his anguish.

“Shit…” Albert muttered as he lowered his rifle, scanning the desolation. He took a series of deep breaths, calming himself down from the adrenaline peak he had reached. “Alright everybody, we got some time to breath!” he barked, settling back into commander mode, “Restock on ammo, stabilize and move any wounded! Ike, Rob, and Lucy, get on moving these bodies, we can give ours the respect they deserve later, and the lab boys will want the x-rays!” At the command, the three surviving security guards began the ordeal of moving the corpses of both friend and foe.

Chandra shakily got to her feet. “Caution...is...sensible, but if that...one retreated...it’s probably over.” She went over to the younger Brea’s side, tending to the girl with regular first aid with a touch of psionics, unable to do more for fear of passing out again. “Poor...Buniq, though.”

“Or he’s getting some buddies to thrash us again,” Albert replied, “And don’t worry about her. She came through the first time this happened, in a sense, and we’ll get her back.” He slid down the wall he had been hunkered behind, realizing just how exhausted he was from the fight and his injuries.

 

[MarineAvenger]

ZombieSplitter53, MarineAvenger, DarkGemini24601, and BMPixy: “Engineering Defeat” Part 1

XCOM Headquarters, Somewhere in Siberia
1630 Hours
Engineering Bay

Electrical fires flickered gently among the dimmed lighting of the engineering bay, giving the silhouettes of distant aliens something to stand out against, just before a crack of Fay’s Alloy Strike Rifle tore a meaty hole in the subject.

“Sectoid down,” the Sniper said from her vantage point, confirming the kill via the distinctive green flash of the alien’s weapon self-destruct. “More en route, three Mutons with Floater escort, Cyberdisc with two Drones.” Another shot rang out. “One drone.”

“I got the escort!” Ayame leaped forward, springing off a large machine. trying to aim her weapon in midair, she gave up on the endeavor and simply slammed the large Gauss machine-gun into the floater, rocketing it to the ground with a thunderous slam. Her enhanced muscle fiber density easily cushioning her landing, she shouted, “Damn, why didn’t I get these earlier!” She tossed a grenade over her shoulder, hitting nothing but forcing the Mutons to duck away so they couldn’t shoot at her.

Modya set up his rocket launcher, sending a HEAT warhead into the front of the cyberdisc. The blast blew apart its armor, revealing a damaged interior and laying waste to the remaining drone. “Someone finish this one off,” the Russian requested as he reached back for his heavy rifle again.

Ryan ran past all the battered and destroyed engineering equipment and raised his Gauss Rifle, shooting the vulnerable spot that Modya had opened up. “It’s down!” Ryan shouted, getting behind cover and waiting for a target to come.

Ayame pulled out her sidearm, wanting to use her fancy new eyes to conserve ammo in the main weapon. Slowing her breathing, she let loose a series of shots, knee-capping one of the Mutons. She glanced to her side, and grabbed a nearby AP grenade. “A present, for me? But I know someone who would like it more.” She let the grenade fly. Two off the mutons ducked away, but the injured one took the full blast.

A reflexive shot from Fay tore a hole through one of the repositioning Muton’s armor, but the metal slug was deflected just enough to avoid the alien’s vital organs. “Please refrain from moving,” Fay muttered as she loaded another magazine into her rifle, and repositioned herself for a better shot on the aliens below.

Ryan took this opportunity to move to a better offensive position and kept the Mutons that were looking the other way distracted for his allies.

Modya took aim with his heavy rifle, having time to steady his shot with the distractions. He let the rail-accelerated bullets fly, some of them plunging into flesh thanks to the gap in the target Balmadaar’s armor. “Spasibo za igru.”

Ryan changed his priority from distraction to killing the last Muton and he moved the weapon a little to the left, severely injuring the flanked alien.

Ayame fired of several more shots, finally taking down the alien that had been pelted from all sides. Ayame grinned as she took aim at the final alien, and a tingling in her skin made her jump a bit. She turned her handgun and pointed into the face of a security guard who had run up next to her, causing her to yelp and fall back. “Oops. Sorry.” Ayame grinned sheepishly. “Still getting used to the spidey-sense.”

“Smooth,” Modya said with a raised eyebrow. “If anyone comes up behind us, I think we’ll find a long rifle round in their back, so there is no need to worry.”

“Front more likely,” Fay commented, “As that will be the direction they will be facing.” Sliding her rifle up to eye-level once more, she scanned the halls leading into the bay for any more incoming aliens.

Ayame took aim again, and noted the slowly opening doors in the back. “Possible contacts, twelve o’clock.” She steadied her weapon against the container in front of her. “Switching to overwatch.” Modya nodded, doing the same, but was ready to pull out his rocket launcher if need be.

Ryan turned around to face the doors, and added to the list of overwatchers. Fay, meanwhile, slid over to the other side of the platform she stood on, steadying her aim and preparing to line up a shot on the approaching alien attackers.

A Berserker ran into the center of the room, and let out a mighty roar, before immediately being blasted by Ayame, Modya, and Ryan, the combined fire power enough to make even a creature like it stagger. Three Mutons took cover behind it, followed by a lumbering Mechtoid with its usual Sectoid partners. The Sectoids to cover, and one prepared to raise a shield.

An alloy-coated round quickly ended the ambitions of that Sectoid, splattering alien gore across the cover it was hunkering behind. Fay readied herself to line up another shot, but the Sectoids skittering further behind the crates they were taking cover behind prevented the action.

“Hey, Modya, why not blast that thing before it gets a shield?” Ayame shot suppressing fire at the remaining bulbous-headed alien so it wouldn’t raise said shield. Meanwhile, the Berserker regained its footing, and ran forward, an obvious limp in its step.

The rocketeer grabbed another missile from the assembly line, and sent it flying at the space between the Mechtoid and Sectoid. The anti-armor rocket destroyed the Sectoid and its cover, as well as blasting apart some of the mech’s armor.

Ryan took aim at the Mechtoid and let a steady stream of energized ballistics at the armored unit. He managed a lucky hit on one of the alien’s cannons and it’s entire left side was consumed in a green explosion.

“Since no one else is…” Fay muttered, aiming at the approaching Berserker. A crack of flash-ionized air echoed through the chamber, and the round tore through the alien’s wounded leg, sending the beast crashing to the ground under its own weight.

“Nice!” Ayame sprayed fire over the trio of Mutons, causing them to duck down before they could shoot. “They don’t stand a chance! Why are they…” The female guard suddenly lunged forward, wrapping her arms around Ayame’s neck and squeezing.

 

[BMPixy]

Modya’s eyes widened, and he let go of his weapon, trying to pull the mind-controlled guard back. “Someone...with an arc thrower…”

Ryan jumped from his position and he helped Modya pull the guard off Ayame. Ryan held the girl in a bear hug and he ran her to a safe position where he could restrain her appropriately.

Ayame coughed and wheezed, needing to take a moment to catch her breath, even with the enhancements to her lungs. “Th-thanks, guys. That’s embarrassing.”

“Ensure no repetition,” Fay said, taking down one of the Mutons with a well-placed center of mass shot.

“Not a chance.” Ayame quickly grabbed her weapon and scanned the room. She leaped into the air, gracefully landing on an catwalk. From her new high ground position, she let loose on the retreating Berserker, ending its existence.

Modya picked his rifle back up, and laid down suppressing fire on the two surviving Balmadaar. “Someone finish them off.”

Ryan came back from tieing up the guard and pulled up his already reloaded gun and flushed the Mutons from their cover and into the waiting fire of Modya.

As one fell to Modya’s fire, Ayame took down the other in a final rain of fire. Jumping down to rejoin the others, she noted the restrained guard and grinned at Ryan. “Still looking out for me, huh? Just like when we started out.”

“I try. Though I hope you will need my assistance less and less as time goes on.” Ryan smiled and he went off to find a good place to set up for the moment.

Ayame shrugged. She patted Modya on the shoulder, and yelled out to Fay, “Hey, new girl! You ain’t half bad!”

“Strive to ensure such is the case,” Fay responded, reloading her strike rifle. “You were not ineffective either, if reckless.”

“Like Ryan said, I try.” Ayame lifted her weapon and slowly made for one of the entrances. “Cover me, I’ll see if my little tingle picks up any hiding greys.”

“Affirmative, covering now,” Fay said, bracing her weapon for firing.

Ayame slowly made her way through the room. Her aerobic respiration boost kept her muscles relatively well supplied with oxygen, but she wondered if she should have got the same boost to her arms as her Russian squadmate. A chill ran down her spine, and she turned to duck away from a Muton’s large arm swinging at her face. The alien didn’t let up, and Ayame dropped her weapon, ducking and weaving. “Uh… found one! Little help!”

Fay tried her best to line up a shot, but the frantic motion of the fistfight made it difficult to ensure a clean shot. “No shot, get clear!” she said with an uncharacteristic shout.

Ryan ran from his position and he moved to assist Ayame. Ryan fired off a few shots but his gun jammed. Cursing under his breath, he threw down the gun and he ran into the Muton, staggering it. The Muton turned to Ryan and the alien’s large arm slammed into him, sending the assault backwards; the distraction gave his team time to take it out.

Modya took the risk of running forward, and flanked the Balmadaar, finishing it off with a spray of bullets.

Ayame shook her head as she retrieved her weapon. “Son of a bitch! Always sneak…” The familiar sound of servos and stomping made Ayame’s eyes widen. “Crap.” She rushed towards Ryan, scooping up his weapon, shoving it in his hands, and rushed back towards Fay and Modya, all the while shouting, “Crap, crap crap crap crap!”

Modya started to back off, hearing the sounds as well. “Don’t tell me it’s one of those…”

“One of what?” Fay asked, as she hopped down from the catwalks, seeking cover in a new position.

“Sectopod,” the Russian rocketeer intoned grimly, loading up a shredder rocket.

Ryan managed to get up but his leg wobbled and he fell back down. “We have a problem here!” He looked back at the ground and saw that his leg landed on a piece of torn machinery and it was cut pretty bad.

“Damn it!” Ayame placed Ryan’s arm over her shoulder. “Stick close to me, soldier. It’s my turn to watch your back.” She looked up as the neared the cover in the back, the loud stomping getting closer and closer. “Anyone have a medkit? Where’s a support when you need one?”

“You don’t have to do this. Just go and fight, I am not going anywhere.” He managed to chuckle slightly but it died as soon as it came out.

“Shut up. No soldier left behind and all that jazz.” The sectopod turned around from behind the machinery, and aimed its cannon directly where Ayame and Ryan were, mere feet from cover.

A Gauss round impacted the Sectopod, doing minimal damage, but redirecting the Sectopod’s attention to the offending soldier. Fay slid further into cover as the Sectopod’s targeting algorithms reacted to the damage and returned fire, the fusion cannon blasting deep holes into the crate the Sniper was taking cover behind.

Ayame yanked Ryan, and the two dived into cover. “Thanks.” She looked at Ryan and said, “Now, keep your head down and provide cover.”

The shredder rocket tipped with HEAT slammed into the Sectopod’s chassis, creating jagged lines across its armor. While not going all the way through the Titan, it made its overall structure weaker. The rocketeer quickly reached for another anti-armor rocket, as the Sectopod seemed to change tactics. It’s shoulders opened up, and not one, but two missile barrage pods opened up, targeting quicker than normal. The missiles launched at Ayame and Ryan, as well as Modya. The second set impacted, damaging the Russian’s Aegis armor, and nearly detonating his rocket launcher if he had not had the wisdom to throw it away to defend himself.

Ryan yanked Ayame to the ground and used his good leg to kick down some nearby crates on them, Ryan crouching down over the Asian girl’s body.

The Sectopod closed the missile bays, and three holes opened up in its center body, another set of explosives primed to fire. Three alien grenades were launched out in a sequence, the Sectopod shifting to hit its targets. The first laid waste to one of Yaralria’s SHIV’s that rolled up to the defense of Ayame and Ryan. The second killed a group of three security guards with a powerful explosion, and the final one soared towards Fay.

Fay, caught off guard trying to line up another shot, rolled out of the way a moment too late, and was caught on the edge of the blast, the alien grenade tearing through her cover and the protection given by her Banshee armor, shrapnel puncturing her right arm and leg, dealing deep wounds. With a half-restrained cry of pain, she pulled herself back into what was left of her cover. However, as she peeked out through the remains of the crate, she noticed something inside: an intact Gauss Long Rifle.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

ZombieSplitter53, MarineAvenger, DarkGemini24601, and BMPixy: “Engineering Defeat, Part 3"

Modya went to grab his rocket launcher again, and started to lift it up, the rocket already loaded. He felt cold as he saw the Sectopod shift its focus onto the crates where the two soldiers were half-buried. Its fusion cannon charged up, primed to fire, and fire it did. It was repaid by a rocket to the frontal armor, finally going further through, but it was still at about 25% integrity on the front.

Ayame pushed what was left of the crates off herself and Ryan. “That was some quick thinking, Ryan. This things a little more decked out then we’re used to.” She watched the lumbering machine as it regained its footing. She rapidly scanned the various marks, scortches, and cracks, and focused on the weakest point. She steadied her weapon and let out a torrent of HEAT rounds, hoping to open it up even more. Her eyes darted around the room as she fired, cringing at the sight of the lost security members.

The Sectopod stumbled more as the HEAT rounds opened up a hole in its armor, and its reactive targeting sensors turned on Ayame, it’s plasma cannon flipping out of the top and firing as it prepared to fire its main cannon at Modya and Fay. Small sparks flew from the most damaged portions, as repair servos got to work, and two drones flew in behind it to hasten the process.

With an audible crack, a single round flew out of the Long Rifle Fay acquired, the anti-armor round punching deep into the enemy mech, just below the plasma cannon. The Sniper muttered a curse, and scrambled in the ruins of the crate for another charge pack to replace the now depleted one.

As the battle raged, the Interface gave up on the last SHIV, going over to a headset on the countertop beside her. She placed it onto her head, swooning as it began to leech her limited psionic pool. Yaralria’s eyes split open to reveal their silver light tinted by a psionic blue as she struggled to get the device working.

The shot was delayed as the power supply to the plasma cannon was damaged, but it soon fired anyway, while two fusion blasts in quick succession shot out. One shattered Fay’s cover and the ground before her, leaving the sniper in the open, and the other ravaged Modya’s cover as well, and what was left of his armor. The Sectopod opened up its grenade launchers and missile pods, red targeting sensors filling the darkened room as it prepared to unleash an onslaught.

No. I will not allow you to slaughter them. Yaralria reached out with a tight thread of psionic energy that spun into the Sectopod’s hull as she tried to assert her dominance over the machine. The titanic robot faltered. The Interface held her head in agony as she felt the strongest possible resistance to her actions when she connected with its systems. Blood trickled from her mouth as her nervous system was wracked by the Ethereal’s counterattack. Then, as suddenly as the attack had begun, it ended, and the Sectopod’s targeting sensors faded, its ‘bomb bays’ closing. The controller had, for whatever reason, abandoned the machine.

Ayame held her weapon steady, staring intensely at the large machine. After a few moments she let out a deep sigh. “Jesus… oh, thank you, sweet, merciful cyborg lady.” Her relief was short lived as twin plasma rounds flew towards her, one taking a bit of shoulder with it. Ayame ducked down, screaming in pain as a cyberdisc accompanied by two Thin Men and three Mutons ran in.

Yaralria ignored the burning pain controlling the Titan brought, and had it turn on its lumbering legs, opening up its explosive pathways again. Three grenades shot out in a triangular pattern, while the rockets targeted the spaces the Mutons and Thin Men were most likely to run towards, blasting off.

Ryan was injured but he managed to get himself to a slightly elevated position and he trained his gun on the aliens. Before the grenades went off he managed to flush any strays closer to the pack and into the killzone. Modya added to this with another shredder, ensuring that the resulting missile spray would be deadly beyond compare.

Meanwhile, Fay retreated to heavier cover, a limp present in her dash to safety. “Pain is nothing, pain is nothing,” she whispered in between ragged breaths, fumbling with another charge pack for her acquired rifle.

As the aliens dropped one by one, one of the Balmadaar let out an order in its own language. The cyberdisc opened up, and blasted the Sectopod with everything it had, drawing its attention. The machine targeted the disc, and as the Sectopod’s primary cannon loaded, the two remaining mutons targeted a pair of cooling hatches that opened up on the cannon’s side. They fire, and the damage, combined with the machine’s previous damage, caused a chain reaction that obliterated the cannon. The Sectopod switched to it missle launchers, but the moment the missile pods opened, the Mutons fired, hitting the first of the missiles as they came out. One missile after another went off, and the goliath was blown apart from the inside out.

Yaralria held her head in agony, her vision going red, and rapidly white. Criticalfailurecriticalfailurecriticalfailurecriticalfailurecriticalfail- she managed to rip off the short-circuiting headset before collapsing from the pain and overload of her computerized brain.

Steadying herself as the debris rained down from the ruined mech, Fay leaned back, quietly whispering her mantra as a HEAT round tore a gaping hole in one of the Mutons. She fumbled through the action of reloading, reality doing its best in conspiring to disprove the Sniper’s words.

Modya and Ayame managed to shoot the remaining Muton, while the cyberdisc unfolded again and took aim at the uncovered troops.

Its attempt to take someone down with it was spoiled as chryssalid claws fused with alloys tore through it and knocked it into a wall. It exploded, breaking into pieces, and Amanda Ortiz lowered her kinetic strike module. “Fore.” Her victorious expression was stolen as she looked at the battered troops behind the Sectopod wreck. The Guardian walked up to them as XCOM troopers followed her into engineering. “Sorry for the wait. Damn aliens locked us into the barracks. Those of you that are wounded, gather around.”

“Madre de Dios…” Ayame grabbed Ryan, pulling him along. “Come on, friend. Let’s get you patched up.”

Fay limped over to the MEC, caught between pain, exhaustion, and slight awe at seeing the mechanized soldier. “This is a MEC? Fascinating…” she whispered.

Amanda leaned down, and the restorative mist spray on her back send out a gust of the healing nanites that set to work repairing tissue like a mass-medkit. She used two charges to ensure the more effective repair of more serious wounds, and smiled gently, standing back up. “There you go. We’ll get you proper healing once we clear out the rest of this crap. You guys just rest, we’ve been itching to handle the rest. Especially So Ji Kwan.”

Fay leaned back, using the Long Rifle as an improvised crutch, ignoring the warnings in her mind about weapon safety. “Appreciation… for your support,” she said tiredly.

Ryan managed to get on his feet again but rather than risk walking for now he took a seat on a nearby crate and looked over the destruction of the engineering wing. “It got totaled...it will take a while to replace all these machines.”

Modya quickly looked around to see the condition of the others. “Someone, take care of Atka’s mother. I…I have to go find Jessie.” He took off out the door.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Innocence Lost

As the alarms rang out, Dante watched three security guards run towards his cell, weapons raised. "Can I help you? It sound like you have other things to worry about right now."

"Your people are destroying the base. Do you think we're just going to leave you to join the rest of them?"

Dante shook his head. "Even if I was somehow involved, do you really think they would waste their time coming to get me?"

"We'd rather not take that chance." The guards all aimed their weapons. Dante sighed, realizing this day would come eventually. However, he wasn't ready for that day just yet. He watched as the guards slowly pulled the triggers. A moment before they fired, he fell back, and shot out a plume of gas as the rounds punched through his special cell. One of the guards hit the release for the door. Satisfied that nothing was moving, he turned to the others and said, "Alright. Let's see if we can join the others and..."

Dante reached out of the poison cloud, grabbing the guard and holding him between himself and the others. They hesitated, and he shoved the guard forward. As the three toppled to the ground, he rushed forward, and with three kick punches, the trio laid unconscious. Waiting for the poison to dissipate, the Thin Man threw the guards into his cell and closed the door. "Apologies, but my death was promised to another."

Dante made his was out of the brig and through the hallways, most of the humans too busy with damage control, rushing to fight the intruders, or dealing with their mind-controlled colleagues to notice a single Thin Man sneaking through the shadows.

Turning a corner, Dante was surprised to nearly run into another of his kind. The other Thin Man looked him up and down. "What... happened to you," it asked in their own language, commenting on his shabby appearance.

"The humans have held me captive for weeks," Dante answered. "When I would not give them any answers, they tortured me relentlessly. I am now ready to pay them back tenfold."

"Good to hear," the other Thin Man said with a creepy smile. "Before the high-one's little pet was lost, we got a lock on the psionic reading of the Commander's child. We shall take her, and destroy everyone around her." It glanced down the hallway. "Come. We head to the human healing facility. We shall join the others..." Dante suddenly yanked the plasma rifle from his kinsman's hands and fired. The other Thin Man didn't have time to react before hitting the ground, dead.

Dante looked over the other Thin Man for something he could use, but only found extra energy packs. His eyes locked on to the body of a fallen human, an unusually tall fellow with a comfortable looking uniform.

===================

Brigid watched in silence as the various doctors and nurses rushed to deal with all the injured rushing in. Occasionally, she noticed Ellie or Cassia's mother, both of which would give her a quick look to make sure she was still there, but all in all, it was all they could do to keep up with everything and not pass out from exhaustion.
The sound of gunfire rang out in the hallway. The doctors and nurses continued their work despite it, but they all suddenly looked like they were about to panic.

Brigid snuck away from the group, looking out of the infirmary to see what was going on. One after another, the soldiers and guards fell to an onslaught of aliens fighting to get in. One of the soldiers suddenly ran towards the infirmary, noting Brigid as he entered. "You shouldn't be up here, child," came the man's muffled voice behind his helmet. "Come on. We need to find the Commander's daughter and get her to..."
"I-I'm the Commander's daughter," the child answered timidly.

The soldier looked around, then suddenly scooped Brigid up. He rushed down one of the empty hallways of the infirmary, Brigid to surprised to struggle. Finding a small ventilation shaft, the soldier yanked the cover off with one hand. He placed Brigid in front of it, and pulled of his helmet. Brigid screamed at the sight of the Thin Man's face, and Dante placed his hand over Brigid's mouth. "Quiet, child. I'm not going to hurt you. If I was planning to do so, I already would have."

He pulled his hand away, and Brigid shakily asked, "W-what do you want?"

"Come. Out into the hallway. The aliens are looking for you. You are unsafe here, and I am afraid everyone else is unsafe as well as long as you a near them."

Brigid let out a soft gasp, the idea that she might be putting others in danger frightening her more then anything else. She reluctantly crawled through the shaft, Dante following closely behind her.

Dante rushed through the halls, Brigid in his arms. Stopping near a corner, he overheard two Thin Men mention the aliens were pulling away from the infirmary now that Brigid's location had moved. The pair continued to dart through the base, desperately trying to find a place they could be safe. They finally ducked into one of the labs, and Dante found himself looking at an angry blond woman, an alloy cannon in one hand, and ball of fire in the other.

"What are you doing with Brigid!" Aya shouted. "Release her at once!" To Aya's surprise, the Thin Man did as she ordered without hesitation. Brigid remained at Dante's side, and Aya said, "Come here, child. That thing is dangerous."

"But... but he saved me from the aliens attacking the doctors!" Brigid wrapped her arms around Dante's leg. "He isn't like Mr. Kitty... I-I think..."

"I... believe that is the cooperative alien from the brig," Dr. Vahlen said, taking cover in the back of the room with Shen and several other senior scientists and engineers.

Aya cautiously lowered her weapon, and the ball of fire dissipated. Dante and Brigid joined them, and Dante said, "They know where she is. They can follow her through the base."

"Then we'll just have to kill them until they give..." Aya started, then fired at the doorway, a pair of Sectoids hitting the ground. "Until they give up."

Dante nodded, and shot a cloud of poison at the doorway to deter anything from running inside. He continued to do so every minute or so to keep the cloud full, until he seemed to run out of poison after ten minutes. Two Mutons ran in as soon as the last cloud dissipated, and immediately erupted in flame. Aya, Dante, and what few techs and engineers with weapons that knew how to use them spent the next twenty minutes blasting anything that moved.

Without warning, a wall at the side of the room was blasted apart. Four chryssalid rushed in and headed straight for Aya, Dante, and Brigid. Three fell before reaching them, but the forth raised its claws, bringing them down towards the small, screaming child.

Dante rushed forward, tackling the creature. It pinned him to the ground, driving its legs into his arms and legs, and slashing at his chest with its arms. "Blast it!" He yelled through the pain. Aya hesitated, and Dante shouted, "Destroy it! DO IT NOW!"
Aya shook her head, and lifted her arm. A torrent of fire enveloped both the Chryssalid and Dante. Brigid let out a shrill scream, tears flowing down her eyes.

Five more Mutons rushed into the room, one shooting at Aya and hitting her arm, causing her to drop her weapon. The firing stopped as the outgunned humans realized their fate, and one of the Mutons grabbed Brigid, lifting her with ease with one hand as it pointed its weapon at an enraged Aya, ready to end this.

"No," Brigid whispered in a monotone voice, and the Muton lowered its weapons. The other Mutons looked at it in confusion, and Brigid gave them a sinister look, staring daggers at each one of them. "Drop... your... guns..." The aliens did as they were told. "Let me go."

The Muton holding Brigid let her go. Three more Thin Men ran into the room. "Stop them!" The Mutons rushed forward, and tore the Thin Men apart with their bare hands.

Aya stepped behind Brigid and placed a hand on her shoulder. "A-alright, Brigid, that's..."

"Pick up your guns!" Brigid's eye twitched as the Muton's retrieved their weapons. "Out!" The Mutons stepped into the hallway, several squads of aliens watching them. "...die..." The aliens lifted their weapons to their heads and pulled the triggers.

Brigid stepped into the hallway and stared intensely at the remaining aliens. Their eyes darted between Brigid and the dead Mutons, and one by one, they withdrew.

Aya carefully approached the young girl, tears streaming down from her blue, tired eyes. She knelt down ad squeezed her tightly. "Ssh. It'll be okay." She lifted Brigid into her arms, and carried her back into the room.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

The Nightmare Becomes Reality

Jessica woke with a start, the nightmarish images of her dreams still swirling in her head. They were quickly forgotten as she looked around in horror. She was in some laboratory, the technology around her the same as the tech seen in the alien ships.

She slowly slid off the examination table she awoke on, suppressing her panic and desperately trying to recall how she got her. Shivering from the cold against her nearly naked body, she quickly found some of her clothes sitting nearby and slipped them on. Suddenly, she could hear Bradford's voice, and it took her a few moments to realize the voice was in her head.

<Jessica? Can you hear me? Thank God, we finally got a signal.>

"What's going on?!" Jessica looked around in confusion. "Where am I? Where are you?"

<Try not to panic. I'm speaking to you through a communication chip that was secretly implanted in all X-COM members when they first joined. The base was attacked last night, and several members were taken. I'm afraid it looks like you're the only one they haven't started experimenting on.>

Unable to maintain her composure, Jessica started to shake violently. "Oh God, w-what... what do I do!?"

<Calm down. Before you were taken, Dr. Vahlen was able to attach an experimental holo-imaging device to you. We've activated it remotely. You should look just like a Sectoid to the aliens.>

"Holo-imaging... what are you talking about? "I've heard of no such..."

<It was a secret project based on some alien-tech we recently discovered. Only the senior staff knew about it.>

"What? No!" Jessica said loudly. She stood in silence for a few seconds, then said in a softer voice, "All projects were shared amongst the lab crew. Why would this one be any..."

<There's no time! We don't know how long it will last, nor do we know how long we can maintain contact!>

Jessica thought for a moment. She let out a sigh, and said, "Alright. What do I do?"

<We have an attack force waiting to storm the base. We need you to take out one of the generators so we can force the door open.>

"O-Okay," Jessica answered nervously. "How?"

<Exit the room you're in, and head left down the corridor. Take you fifth left, go up the elevator, and go down to the right. The first door on your right is where you'll need to be.>

Jessica took several deep breaths. She opened the door, and suppressed a yelp as two Thin Men ran by. They both looked at her, but continued on.

<Jessica, I know this is difficult, but remember, they can't tell you're human.>

Biting her bottom lip, Jessica quickly stepped out into the corridor. As she followed the directions she was given, she avoided eye-contact with the Sectoids and Thin Men she walked past.

<You'll need a weapon. Quickly, that lone Sectoid.>

Jessica swallowed deeply, and rushed forward. The Sectoid had a moment to look at her in fear before she slammed her elbow into
its face. She picked up it weapon. "I... is this a laser pistol?"

<The alien's must be running out of supplies. Please, continue .>

Jessica stepped into the room she was directed to. As she made her way to the back, she stopped suddenly.

<What's wrong?>

"How..." Jessica thought for a moment. "How do you know where I am? And how did you know about where this power room was?" After several seconds of silence, Jessica asked, "Bradford? Are you there?"

<Sorry, communications cut out for a moment. Something must be interfering.>

"You didn't answer..."

<We didn't want to worry you, but we had another person infiltrating the base. He was able to tap into the base's camera system , but I'm afraid he was caught soon after...>

Jessica shook her head, and looked back towards the back of the room. She rushed forward, and reached the large generator. "Alright, how do I shut it off."

<A directed beam towards the center of the device should be enough to overload it. Simply aim slightly above the center...>

"Are you crazy?!" Jessica shook her head violently. "I'm no soldier. I can't do this! I'll be... I'm... they..."

<Modya is on the base!>

Jessica's eyes widened. "What... are you... Why didn't you tell me?"

<I'm sorry. We didn't want to worry you more then you already are, but he's there.>

Jessica's mind raced, and her body seemed to move on its own as she looked for the proper place to fire at. "I-is he..."

<We don't know. But we'll try to find and save him. But we need you to hurry.>

Jessica shook her head, took a deep breath, and placed her finger on the trigger.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Fish out of Water

Alexia's consciousness awoke suddenly and jarringly, in a way she had never awakened before. Worried, she called out to Jessica, but for one of the few times in her life, she received no answer. Odd, considering the sensation that they were on the move. Alexia pushed her consciousnesses to the surface, something that normally took a great deal of willpower to do, but for some reason was relatively easy now.

As she thought, Jessica was up and about. She tried to take in her surroundings, but she was somewhere she had never been before. Based on what Jessica was looking at, it appeared to near the main power room for X-COM. As Jessica quickly made her way through the hallway, Alexia was shocked to see people fighting one another. As she tried to contact her sister again, Jessica suddenly mashed her elbow into a soldier's face, knocking him out. She reached into his holster and pulled out his laser pistol before continuing on. She stepped into the power room and in front of the main Eelerium Generator, and in the slightly reflective glass, Alexia could see their glazed-over eyes.

Alexia desperately searched for Jessica, and she realized there was another voice in their mind. She called out to it angrily.

<Sir, the subject is resisting somehow.>

<Impossible! How could she...>

<No, not the subject. Another one, another mind. It resists, but it is not as dominate as the other.>

Jessica raised her arm towards the generator, and Alexia tried to exert her will, but she she couldn't gain control. Then, just as she was about to give up, she noticed her reflection again.

Jessica, look at that woman in the mirror! That's not you! It's me! All you are is a reflection, and you know it! The sooner you except it, the sooner I can get MY body, and you can just fade away!

<Sir! Some... wrong...can't keep... losing consciousnesses...>

Jessica stared intensely at her reflection. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes and slumped to the ground, the gun clattering to her side. After a few moments, she opened them again. She let out a sigh of relief and muttered, "So, Jessie. I'll make it up to you somehow."

"Don't move!" yelled a voice behind her, a pair of boot steps approaching.

Alexia slowly raised her hands, and glanced back at the two soldiers behind her. "Calm down, boys, I'm cool."

"Right, and I'm sure you weren't just pointing that gun at the generator," the first soldier responded.

"Yeah, that's fair, but I'm cool now."

"How do we know you aren't just playing human?" The second soldier asked.

"Get your head out of your ass!" Alexia yelled. "If I was being controlled, do you really think I'd care about this body? I'd grab the gun and shoot the generator, and just let you kill me!"

The two soldiers exchanged a look. The first shrugged, and they lowered their rifles. The second walked up to Alexia and picked up the laser pistol. As Alexia climbed to her feet, the soldier handed her the weapon. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

The trio quickly exited the power room. They passed by several soldiers guarding what looked, to Alexia, like their fellow soldiers. A small explosion shook the base. "What the hell is happening here?!"

"Communications are down throughout much of the base," the first soldier answered. "As best we can tell, the aliens found a way to mass mind-control dozens of staff members, and they're using the acts of sabotage they caused to assault the base enmasse."

"So, um..." Alexia looked around in confusion. "What do we do? I'm honestly not very good in a fight against aliens."

"This way." The second soldier opened a pair of large doors. "We'll cut through the east access tunnel and drop you off at the labs. Just try to keep your..."

The sound of a plasma rifle echoed through the room. As the second second soldier flopped to the ground, Alexia slowly reached up, tracing her face and staring at the blood on her fingers. The first soldier grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a wall. "Shit!" He quickly looked over his gun. As Alexia stared forward like a deer in headlights, the soldier lightly tapped her on the cheeks. "Snap out of it!" He looked down at the gun in her hands. "Do you know how to use that?"

"I... I, uh..." Alexia looked down at the weapon. "I helped with the research to develop them, so a-a little..."

"Good." The soldier looked around. "'Cause we're gonna have to fight our way out of here."

From behind the wall, an alien grenade rolled by. The soldier shoved Alexia. She rolled several feet away, and the grenade exploded. As Alexia was covered in carnage, she looked down at her blood-covered clothes and screamed. A Muton ran around the corner, and Alexia screamed louder. She lifted her pistol towards it, but the Muton simply slapped it away.

The Muton wrapped its gigantic hand around Alexia's neck, lifting her into the air and squeezing. Alexia pawed weakly at the Muton's arm. As she started to lose conciousness, a shot from a distance punched through the Muton's head, its alien blood splashing her in the face.

Shots rang out across the room, and Alexia wrenched herself from the Muton's dead grip. She quickly grabbed her pistol as she desperately tried to catch her breath. Hyperventilating, her eyes wide with terror, she clambered into a nearby door and sat against the back wall. Tears streaming down her blood-soaked cheeks, she trained the weapon on the door, and stared. She quickly found her grasp on the world fading, the terror overwhelming her.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Friends on the Worst of Times
Part One

Ammelia slowly entered the room, her Gauss Rifle raised and ready to fire. The front of her shirt was covered in a thick coating of crimson blood, her face, splattered with dried droplets and tear stains running down to her cheeks. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she scanned the gore-soaked room looking for the source of the previously heard screams.

As she carefully opened a door with a bloody hand print on it, another scream rang out and a stream of laser fire flew out of the room. After a minute, the laser shots stopped, and Ammelia could hear the sounds of someone pulling the trigger of an empty weapon.

Ammy quickly jumped back from the laser fire, her breaths coming faster and faster. "It's okay!" Ammelia spoke to whoever was in the room with a panicky voice, "I'm f-friendly!"

"A-Ammelia?" Jessica called out. "I-is that you. I'm sorry, I thought..."

Ammelia quickly entered the room, shutting the door behind her and backing away from it. She turned to face Jessica, who was covered in blood and gore just like she was. "Jess, you have no idea how good it is too see you safe! I was so scared I was going to find you d-dead..."

"I... I can't remember..." Jessica shuddered, rocking back and forth. "I was having this nightmare where I was trapped in an alien base. Then I woke up here, covered in blood and holding a gun. I tried asking Alexia, but she..." Jessica looked Ammelia up and down, noticing her state. "Oh God, are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?"

Ammelia clutched a slash on her pants leg, covered in dark red blood, and cringed from the pain, "I-I was... Caught by one of the engineers on the way here... he slashed me with a kitchen knife... I..."

"What!" Jessica looked her clothes over, and settled on a relatively clean sleeve. Tearing it off, she got to work on examining Ammelia's leg and wrapping it. "I... what is going on? Why did someone attack you? Why are you covered in blood? Why am I covered in blood? Why do I have a weapon? Was there some kind of mutiny? Please, I'm so confused."

"You don't know?" Ammelia shook her head, assuming Alex was in control when the assault started. "The b-base is under attack..." Ammelia answered, looking over at the dead Muton, "Most of the staff members went crazy and started attacking everyone... I was training when it happened, when I left the shooting range to find out why the alarms were blaring, one of the engineers tried to kill me with his knife..." Ammy looked down at her blood covered shirt, "I... I had to... k-kill him..."

"I... I can't believe..." Jessica took a few deep breaths. "Alright.... alright, um..." She looked at her weapon, sitting on the ground, and wondered if she had been forced to kill someone too, or worse. What if she had killed someone after going crazy like whoever attacked Ammelia. She shook her head, and asked, "So... w-what do we do?"

"I... I don't know..." Ammelia said while Jessica wrapped the piece of shirt around her leg, "Someone over the base intercom told all the soldiers to get to control and hold it, but my route there was crawling with aliens so I came to look for you instead... I guess we could just... hide here until help arrives. I'm not really in my element in these close quarters anyway..."

"I... know it isn't the bravest option, but I think that might be best, for now at least. B-besides, you're injured, and I'm a non-combatant. I-I barely know how to use a weapon." Finishing with Ammelia's leg, Jessica retrieved her weapon and asked. "Do you have any more charges for this. I'm afraid I emptied it during my little freakout."

Ammelia nodded, detaching a laser charge clip off of her belt and handing it to Jessie, "I don't know where Modya or anyone else is. Hopefully they're with the rest of the soldiers defending central... I wish we could go and look for them, but they're so many aliens out there, and I don't think I could handle k-killing any more staff members like that..." Ammelia said, unable to stop herself from picturing the engineer that she had been forced to kill.

Jessica bit her lip, unsure what to say. She had never killed an enemy before, let alone someone who was supposed to be an ally. "Y-you know it wasn't your fault, right? Regardless of the circumstances, if you were being attacked, you had to defend yourself."

"I k-knew him. We talked in the lunchroom a few times... I am so sorry Madison." Tears welled up in Ammelia's eyes as she spoke, "I should've... tied him up... or s-something... b-but I..."

"I know you," Jessica insisted. "If that was another option, even remotely, you would have done it. You would have only killed him if it was your only option." She grabbed Ammelia's hands. "Don't do this to yourself. You know who is really to blame."

Ammy looked Jessie in the eyes, trying to calm herself down as much as she can. "We'll make them p-pay then..." Ammelia replied with a glint of rage in her stare. "D-Did you go to bed with Modya last night?" She asked with hesitation, looking down at Jessica's blood soaked shirt.

Jessica's eyes widened in shock. "What? I... why would you... I mean I... I-I've been meaning to... to talk to you about... a-about Modya, I..."

"Did you?" Ammelia asked again with a great deal of concern in her voice, "Jessie... That's not y-your blood..."

Jessica looked down at herself, her eyes wide in terror. "I... I don't remember. I mean, I went to bed with him, but when I woke up, I was here. I don't know where the blood... oh God, I... couldn't, I ... oh, God, Modya..."

Ammelia quickly wrapped her arms around Jessica, unsure of what to say to her.

"What if I hurt him? W-what if this is... is his... I couldn't live..."

"W-we don't have any proof of that yet. He could be perfectly fine..." Ammy said softly, trying to reassure her.

Jessica nodded her head, but didn't look convinced. "Ammelia, I... I'm sorry. I remember what you said to me before. But I... I love Modya so much. B-but I need you to know, in case we don't make it, that even if I don't care for you that way, I... I'll always love you."

"I love you..." Ammelia said as a loud bashing sound came from the door on the other side of the room. Her eyes widened, "Jess, get behind something! They're trying to get through the door!"

Jessica scrambled behind a large storage container. She pointed the laser pistol at the door, her shaking hands a clear sign of her inexperience with the weapon. "I-I'm sorry, Ammy. I-If you hadn't come looking for me..."

"This isn't your fault!" Ammelia pointed her rifle at the door in preparation for whatever creature would slam through it. After a few more bashes the door broke off its hinges and a Muton charged into the room immediately having it's head blasted apart by a shot from Ammelia's gun.

She pulled out her laser pistol to give her rifle a chance to cool itself down as two Sectoids scurried into the room, easily being able to hide their entire bodies behind the metal storage containers.

Jessica aimed carefully, letting what little instincts she actually had take over. Alexia knew a little more about weapons, but even now, Jessica couldn't reach her. Jessica fired a pair of shots, both going incredibly high. Her hands shaking so wildly it was a miracle she didn't drop the weapon, one of Sectoids peaked its head out to try for a mind fray. The attack struck home, and Jessica let out a shriek. She fired again as the panic overtook her, and a beam of laser punched through her attackers neck.

"Jessie!" Ammelia screamed as she saw her friend take the psychic attack. In retaliation, she stood and took aim at the other Sectoid, pure rage filling her heart as she melted a hole straight through the creature's bulbous head. Ammy quickly rushed to her friend's side, "Are you alright!?"

Jessica nodded slowly, rubbing her head. Her eyes locked onto the Sectoid that had attacked her. Her gaze darted between the spreading pool of blood and the weapon in her hand. "I... I k... I ki..." She looked as though she would have a panic attack.

"It's okay... Those things are just monsters without any kind of mercy. You did good, alright?" Ammelia said, trying to calm Jess down.

Jessica nodded. "I know, I'm sorry. I've just... n-never killed anything before. I-I always took it for granted, you and Modya having to do it for me, I... I'm okay, sorry."

"No need to say you're sorry." Ammelia said, "I'm just glad that you are alright." All of a sudden, Ammelia's blue eyes became slightly dulled and her expression settled. She gave Jessica a slight smirk and brought her in for a hug.

Jessica hugged her back, chuckling nervously. "Uh... Ammelia? Are you okay?"

"What do you mean? I'm fine..." Ammelia said softly as she stared lovingly into Jessica's eyes.

"I just... after everything that's happened, the thought of you hurting yourself for me..." Jessica smiled back. "I-I wish you didn't need to come for me, but at the same time, I'm glad you did."

"Oh, I'm glad I did too..." Ammelia replied lifelessly as she gently pressed her lips against Jessica's.

Jessica's eyes widened. She didn't try to push Ammelia away, but mumbled, "A-Ammelia, please, I... this isn't the time or... and I-I told you about Modya, I..."

"No, please... I want this... I want you..." She said in the same lifeless voice as she moved her tongue inside Jessica's mouth.

"Ammelia, no! I... I..." Jessica looked into Ammelia's eyes, then around the room. "No, you wouldn't... something is wrong..."

Out of the corner of Jessica's vision she saw an incredibly thin strand of purple stretch from the door all the way to Ammelia's head. A sadistic grin stretched across the soldier's face, "What's the matter?! I thought you loved me!" She said as she slid Jessica's laser pistol across the room with one of her free hands.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Friends on the Worst of Times
Part Two

"Oh... oh, please, Ammelia. Y-you're stronger then this! Fight it!" Jessica tried to duck around Ammelia.

"Oh, believe me, she's trying. Too bad it's all in vain..." The Sectoid Commander said as it spoke with Ammelia's voice, forcing Ammy to pull the knife from her belt and slam it into Jessica's leg as she tried to get away.

Jessica screeched in pain, collapsing to the ground. "Please, no!" Jessica pulled herself away, desperately trying to think of something, anything, she could do. "Y-you don't have to do this, Ammelia. Please, I now it can't force you to do this!" Jessica's eyes locked on her pistol, and tried crawling towards it.

Ammelia grabbed Jessica by the collar of her shirt and raised her combat knife, holding it mid-air as the Sectoid struggled to force it downwards. "Well isn't that cute..." The Sectoid spoke.

Tears fell down Jessica's cheeks. "I... i-it isn't y-your fault, Ammelia. W-whatever happens, I-I'm still your friend..."

Tears welled up in Ammelia's cold eyes as the Sectoid forced the knife closer and closer to Jessica. "If only you could see how much of a fight she's putting up! It's really quite impressive. But alas, despite your race's skill with the gift, your minds are still as malleable as putty!"

"You're wrong!" Jessica snapped back, a fire lighting in her eyes. "If she wasn't able to resist, if she was that weak, she would have killed me by now! Don't you dare call her mind weak, any of us weak, while you hide in the shadows, killing people from your safe little hiding place like the coward you are!"

"Even facing death you are brave!" The Sectoid Commander stepped into Jessica's view as it forced Ammelia to lower her knife. "I like you, creature. The Master wants you dead, but perhaps if you can prove your usefulness to him he can keep you as a pet. What do you say?"

Jessica chuckled nervously. "A pet, huh? Sounds interesting. Maybe I can give it a try. But why should he get to keep your gain?"

"What are you suggesting creature?" The Sectoid Commander pondered the question that the human had asked.

"Why give me to your master?" Jessica smiled at the large-headed alien. "You did all the work, you get the prize, right? I'm sure one with such an impressive cranium could figure out plenty of fun things to do with a pet like me."

"I would enjoy breaking your mind myself, creature... But disobeying the master would be the end of my existence. Besides, if I prove myself to him, he may give you to me as a reward after his tests are complete." The creature spoke sickeningly through Ammelia. As the Sectoid spoke, Jessica briefly saw what looked to be the shoulder of an X-com soldier taking cover at the door.

"R-really? So he'll through you a bone, huh? Who is who's pet?" Jessica flashed the Sectoid Commander a seductive look. "You seem like you deserve so much more. Besides, he wouldn't need to know about me. I can be your personal, dark, fun little secret." After years of watching Alexia flirt with others, Jessica tried her hand at it, but was unsure how well it would work on a completely different species.

"It is true, I could easily tell him that I have completed my task and slain you. Whether he will not simply read my mind and kill me where I stand is up to chance. You creatures are surprisingly masochistic, or perhaps you are an exception." The Sectoid approached Jessica and stared her in the eyes. The X-com soldier rounded the corner and crept slowly towards the Commander, but without any immediately noticeable weapons.

Jessica chuckled. "My various lovers have told me something similar. But I'm not so sure. I mean, someone has to be on the bottom, right? So if it is you, why not enjoy it? Especially if you get to have a being such as yourself on the top." She smiled mischievously, winking at the alien.

"This creature finds me sexually stimulating? How peculiar that you would find a creature of an entirely different species to be a viable partner, even though our species are physically incompatible."

The Soldier, only steps away from the Sectoid now, charged it. He grabbed and slammed the Commander into the nearest metal supply crate before it could react, kneeing the creature in it's bulbous head until it caved in, even denting the steel crate behind it. Ammelia, now free of the Sectoid's control, fell on her hands and knees and started weeping as she crawled to Jessica's side.

Jessica squeezed her friend tightly, stroking her hair. "Ssh. I-it's okay. It's over. It wasn't your fault. Please, don't cry." She looked up at the soldier and worded 'Thank you'. She looked down at the dead alien, and suddenly felt like she was going to vomit.

"Oh god... Oh god, I'm so sorry... Oh god..." Ammelia wept as she held herself close to Jessica.

The soldier, now finished turning the Sectoid's head into a green paste, walked over to them, "Are you girls alright?"

Jessica nodded. "Y-yeah. But we need to get to the infirmary. We've both been stabbed in the leg." She held Ammelia a little closer. "It's alright, really. We both know you wouldn't have done it." Looking back up at the guard, Jessica added, "I can't thank you enough."

"No problem, I'm always glad to put one of those bastards in their grave... Cross is also a friend of mine. I'm Maximillian Arturo." He said, as he contacted the rest of his team, "We've got two in the east storage area, they are lightly injured and are in need of medical aid in order to walk. I'll hold position until a medic arrives." He crouched behind one of the steel crates and watched the door with Ammelia's sniper rifle.

Jessica closed her eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted from the whole ordeal. And through it all, her sister was still a no show. But she couldn't worry about that now. Alexia wasn't going anywhere, and Ammelia needed her support right now.

"I... I..." Ammelia started to shake as her tears flowed more and more.

"Please, you don't need to say anything." Jessica desperately tried to console her friend. "I... I might have done worse. Now I'm convinced I was under their control. But its over now."

"I-It... almost made me... It wanted me to..." Ammy shuttered at the horrific thought.

"And you didn't!" Jessica placed both her hands on Ammelia's head, and looked her friend in the eye. "You resisted it! That thing could have killed me at anytime. The only reason I got a chance to stall it was because you resisted. I could see it in your eyes."

Ammelia closed her eyes and didn't say another word as she huddled as close as possible to her friend, waiting for the Medic to reach the three of them. The sooner they arrived, the soon this terrible ordeal would be over...

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Technical Difficulties

The Overseer (Part 1)

Location Unknown

July 25th, 3:59 PM (Siberia local time)



The Overseer listened without much interest. Banter between colleagues could sometimes prove… enlightening, but not today it seemed. Besides, that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to check in, to make sure that the Commander was upholding her end of their deal.

The video was poor, as was the audio, but that was to be expected. The monitoring device was not of the best quality, being made to be undetectable more than anything else. Besides which, the feed usually piggybacked off local wireless networks, except where necessary, and using low-quality video and sound allowed the hijacking of the network to remain harder to notice. A few extra megabytes might not be noticed, but gigabytes? No, far better to remain undetected and have to work a bit to determine what was going on than essentially parade around yelling “Look here, suspicious data usage! Come investigate!”

That was when the phone rang.

The Overseer froze. That particular phone was only to be used in case of emergency. With a glance back at the camera feed, the Overseer answered.

“Overseer. State your emergency.”

The voice on the line was panicky. “It’s Canary. Emergency code Norion.” There was a click as they hung up.

Without waiting a second, the Overseer sent a message to the Tribe mercenaries. “Code Norion. I expect you there within half an hour. Drop whatever you’re doing and engage as soon as practicable.”

The message came back almost immediately. “Acknowledged. Moving now.”

The Overseer shot a worried glance at the camera feed just in time to see his target be accosted by her suddenly aggressive colleague. Panicking now, the other camera feeds in the base were checked. All non-independent ones had gone completely dark. Even the one regrettably installed in that Russian rocketeer’s room.

A brow was furrowed. Fingers clasped together, fidgeting in worry. Speed was of the essence.

And aside from notify the Council, all the Overseer could do was sit and wait.

*

Somewhere in Siberia’s skies

July 25th, 4:13 PM


In the dropship, the woman standing up began speaking.

“Alright, Code Norion people. That means our bosses friends have some other friends over for dinner.” She adjusted the ballistic armor covering her head to toe. “We’ve all got separate objectives, and the Overseer – and myself – expect you to complete them.”

She began pacing the length of the dropship, ignoring the rocking as it flew through the air, her reinforced boots clanking as they touched the ground. “Pillar, you’re leading damage team once I break away from you. Put that grenade launcher to good use.”

“About goddamn time,” Pillar rumbled.

“Damage team consists of me, to begin with, Pillar as leader, Kylar as tech suppression, Ice as close combat, Gazer as long-range support, Kandar as tech suppression, and Earwig as secondary explosives expert.” Her eyes settled on the people she’d left out. “The rest of you are infiltration team. If I really must call you by name, that’s Gandy Raider, who will be masquerading as X-COM staff as long as possible; Gyro, who will be responsible for tech and hacking; and Noxious, who will be utilizing chems when needed.

“Our jobs are relatively simple, if not easy. Damage team is to do damage. Kill aliens, prevent their advance. Assist soldiers where possible. Save civilians where possible, but only go out of your way to do so if they are one of the five we are specifically to look out for.” She pointed to Noxious. “You want to ask a question, or you just gonna sit there fidgeting?”

Noxious gave her a dark look, but proceeded. “Who are the five? You haven’t told us yet, Huntress.”

The Iron Huntress sighed. “You just weren’t paying attention, Noxious. We’re to save a Doctor Vahlen, a Doctor Shen, Central Officer Bradford, the Commander O’Brien, and, and the Overseer is very anxious that this last one be saved, a Penny Anderson.”

The Huntress continued pacing. “Other civilians are a secondary objective. Of course, the Commander would likely be pleased at any we can save should she survive this, but we must remember who we answer to. I will not have any of you throw your lives away on suicide missions unless absolutely necessary. We are not here to be heroes. We are here to get our jobs done.”

She walked up to the end of the drop ship and knocked on the door to the cockpit. “How much longer?”

“ETA is about 5 minutes, you’ll want to get prepped to go," the pilot responded.

Behind her helmet, the Huntress smiled. “Buckle up guys. Get yourselves ready.”

*

XCOM Headquarters, Vent System, Siberia

July 25th, 4:37 PM

When they reached the branch in the vent system, the two teams split up. The clanking of damage team’s boots faded away as infiltration team crept forward, far more silently. Raider opened a vent halfway through and dropped somewhere into the forward labs, since that was likely where their VIP was. Noxious and Gyro continued forward, stopping occasionally to wait for the Huntress, who, despite wearing a specialized EOD suit, was coming with them.

Eventually, the trio reached the exit they were looking for. While Gyro unscrewed the bolts to avoid having the Huntress kick it open, Noxious raised a hand and listened.

“Gunshots,” he said at last. “Echoing through these vents. Sounds like damage team found some company.”

“Let’s hope Pillar isn’t stupid enough to use his new toy in here,” the Huntress muttered.

Gyro removed the last screw and pried the grating off, keeping hold of it so as it wouldn’t clatter to the ground. He executed a roll forward and somehow landed on his feet. The Huntress tried hard to hide her impressed expression as she followed. Even without her armor, she’d be hard-pressed to flip like that and keep hold of the grate.

They found themselves in a room with many glowing monitors, still powered on despite the general lack of power all around the base. They’d stumbled into the room that controlled airflow and the vent system itself, obviously something considered important enough to hook up to the emergency power generators.

Noxious poked his head around the corner and then retreated immediately. “Suits,” he whispered. “Way too tall to be human, though. They’re messing with the monitor, possibly trying to flood the base with poisons.”

“That’s one hell of an assumption to make,” Gyro noted mechanically.

“I work with poisons, I know them when I see them,” Noxious retorted.

The Huntress butted in. “How many?”

Noxious took another look and darted back in again. “About five suits. There’s a big guy in there too, looks like he’ll be difficult to drop.”

“So am I,” said the Huntress, dashing out into the open. The Thin Men turned to face her, their faces contorting into anger. The brutish alien at the back, facing the door across the room, turned around to examine the new enemy, eyes narrowing as it noted her suit, and the large machine gun she was carrying. As one, the Thin Men raised their weapons, and one by one, they were cut down by bullets. Plasma sprayed past the Huntress, who sidestepped occasionally to avoid being a completely still target.

Cursing, Noxious ran across the room and took cover in an alcove mirroring the one they had come into, and raised his SMG, taking pot-shots every so often. Gyro simply waited, his expression one of someone impatient for a train to arrive.

After the death of the third Thin Man, the aliens decided that a more lengthy engagement was inevitable, and so made for cover. One of the remaining two Thin Men took cover behind the computer they’d been fiddling with, while the other and the Muton hid behind large machines.

The Huntress finally ran out of ammo, and sidestepped back into cover to reload. The Muton took this reprieve from the hail of bullets to chuck a grenade towards the group, not seeming to care whether the machinery was damaged. It was only then that Gyro showed any inkling that there was a firefight going on. In between the plasma and the occasional bullet, he dove forward, grabbed the grenade, and cracked open the side, while it still beeped. His fingers flew like a magician weaving a spell, all the while twisting to avoid gunfire, but, after only a second and a half, he’d thrown it back and dived back into his cover.

He shook his head as an explosion rocked the room, killing one of the Thin Men. “Couldn’t disarm it,” he muttered. “Too complex, not enough time.”

The Huntress clicked the magazine into her LMG and prepped it to fire again. “Next time, don’t even try. You damn near gave me a heart attack.” With that she stepped back into the line of fire, unloading upon the unfortunate Muton who had been out of cover at the time. Riddled with bullets, he fell back with a groan.

The Thin Man hiding behind the console realized that it was alone. With a hiss, it spat at the Huntress, causing her to flinch and cease firing, and made a break for the door. Noxious, who always wore a gas mask with armor, stepped through the cloud and fired a few times at the alien’s back, killing it.

Gyro was over by the console within seconds, examining it. After a moment of watching alien symbols intermingled with normal human ones on a black window, he searched and found a storage device. He removed it and tossed it to Noxious. “Possibly useful, keep a hold of that,” Gyro said. His eyes darted over the screen as he attempted to remove the last traces of the alien hacking. After a while, he turned back to Noxious. “You were right. They were trying to poison the whole base. Cut off fresh oxygen supply.”

“Lucky we got here when we did then,” the Huntress muttered as she set up, watching the door. “Can you get into surveillance from here?”

Gyro stretched his fingers in the way a pianist does before a concert, and began typing furiously. “Of course I can,” he said.

“Good. We still need to find the VIP.”

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Connection Re-Established

The Overseer (Part 2, Final)

Location Unknown

July 25th, 5:11 PM (Siberia local time)



The screens lit up again, presenting a view not for the faint of heart. On almost all of the screens, there were either injured or dead or firefights or simple “feed lost” segments. Thankfully, the camera in the rocketeer’s room was one of these last.

It was far worse than the Overseer had feared.

But communication to the outside was back up, to the Overseer anyway. That was what was important. The Huntress attempted contact, and actually got an answer. “Overseer? That you?”

“No. You’ve reached – Steve – . Please leave a message after the-“

“Is now really the time?”

“You tell me.”

“No, no it really isn’t.”

“Then why have you not located her yet?”

The Huntress grimaced, and looked at the two other agents, both engrossed in the terminal, probably having realized the potential for having access to both ventilation and surveillance at the same time. She looked at her suit, heavily damaged by the glancing blows of plasma she’d sustained in the firefight. “We were caught up,” she said at last.

Even through the voice modulator, it was easy to tell the Overseer was not pleased. “Then find her, dammit. You have one job. Don’t screw this up.” There was a click as the connection was terminated.

This time the Overseer attempted contact with the “damage team”. Eventually, Pillar answered. “What the hell do you want?” the brute yelled, after which there was a clear explosion.

“Connections are re-established. Have you located the VIP yet?”

“Negative. Ran into a few heavy-hitters. Kylar’s Shock Coil is tearing the robotic ones to pieces, but there are these flying squid things that – for god’s sake Gazer, get your good eye back to the field! You can chat up the soldiers later.” There was another explosion, and Pillar grunted. “Don’t even get me started on those fucking cats. I can tell you this, none of the VIP’s are anywhere nearby. Civvies are dead or running, and I ain’t seen none at all since that disc bastard showed up.”

“Keep an eye out. Remember, that’s your job. Not ‘damage things’, but ‘asset recovery’. Understood?”

Pillar yelled something unintelligible, which was followed by yet another explosion. “Aye! We’ll keep our eyes peeled.”

The Overseer noted something as the line was severed. Raider’s transponder was far away from the others. A connection was established to determine why.

“Raider. You’ve left-“

“Shhh!” The Overseer blinked. Made connections.

“Bad time?”

“Very.” Came the whisper.

“I’ll wait,” the Overseer said. Eyes ran over the screens, one by one. The scene in each was almost exactly the same, a repetition of the same event over and over. Death, death, injury, firefight, death. Notably the Mess Hall seemed to have been mostly avoided by the aliens. Odd indeed.

Then the eyes saw something, and the brain remembered. The hidden camera in Penny’s lab! Well, it wasn’t in the lab anymore. It was… well well. No doubt a certain individual would recognise this kind of view.

The mask which Penny’s father had used, which she now wore, had a small camera hiding in one of the many folds of the mask. It was how the Overseer had kept tabs on Penny’s father’s doings over the years. The link had gone dark when the power had been cut, since keeping a signal from a device that small so far underground is rather difficult. But now that surveillance was back up…

Penny was in the middle of demonstrating that combat prowess may be genetic. The Overseer watched as she effectively dispatched one Muton, and concealed herself back behind crates.

It was evident from that punch, however, that combat wisdom was not genetic.

“Ok, go,” came Raider’s soft voice.

“Get to the storage area. Now. The VIP is there and in danger.”

*

So she did.

Raider arrived in the storage area of the base just in time to see one of the side rooms expel the VIP, and an explosion occur therein.

Before she could move to secure her however, the sound of footsteps alerted her to the fact that neither of them would not be alone for much longer.

She darted into another side room and cloaked herself in the shadows. Unfortunately, X-COM’s science staff liked flowing lab coats, and hers caught on a loose spanner, dropping it to the floor and attracting the attention of the Thin Man and two Mutons passing by. The Thin Man, puzzlingly carrying a conventional assault rifle rather than it’s favored plasma carbine, directed the Mutons to investigate while it examined the explosion.

And then Raider found herself trapped in a dark room with two Mutons. And her first thought was that that would make a good title for a porno.

The Mutons split up to search the room, looking behind crates and, humorously, lifting the lids of barrels far too small for a human to fit in. Raider, meanwhile, was in her element. Darkness and seclusion, and she had an array of rather useful items at her disposal.

When the first Muton closed in on her hiding place, she lunged out with her bigger knife, plunging it into the space under the chin. The Muton did not make a sound as it went limp, but Raider did when it collapsed onto her. It’s colleague twirled around, saw her, and let a low growl come out from it’s throat. It obviously reasoned that, since this human was not dressed as a soldier nor was holding any human weapons, she would be defenseless at range.

She somersaulted to avoid the plasma, years of intense gymnastics training revealing their use yet again. Another volley? Another twirl, and it missed again. The Muton fired again, and she spun upwards, throwing an electrified disk mid jump. It spun toward the Muton and lodged itself in it’s shoulder. It roared, clearly angry that a human it had assumed to be a non-combatant had turned out to be a queen of deception. Raider simply smiled as she landed with the finesse of a cat and turned to face her foe. The Muton raised it’s rifle again with some difficulty, but did not remove the source of it.

Good.

Raider pressed a button attached to her belt, and the disk let loose a powerful shock. The Muton cried out in obvious pain, and collapsed, if not dead then very much unconscious.

Raider sauntered out of the room feeling very pleased with herself. She was still feeling pleased when the Thin Man, who had come to investigate his compatriot’s cries of distress, clamped it’s large hands around her and began manhandling her. Caught completely by surprise, she screamed, then remembered her cover. She then started screaming louder. The Thin Man ignored her, but noticed the insignia on her lab coat. Apparently, she had the coat of one of the more senior members of the science staff. Someone the aliens might be interested in capturing.

Or killing.

Raider knew that at any moment the Thin Man could try executing her, to silence the god-awful noise she was making if nothing else. But it waited, patiently, and eventually threw her in front of a Muton wearing ornate red armor.

While they spoke, Raider cowered on the floor, making sobbing noises. If either alien had deigned to look closely at her face, however, they would have seen her eyes darting back and forth, trying to find an angle she could exploit. And she waited.

Sure enough, they seemed to decide that she wasn’t worth the trouble, and the Thin Man raised his weapon. Raider used her legs to launch herself forward, grabbing onto the strangely clad Muton’s weapon and yanking it to the ground. The Thin Man did not seem to consider this much of a setback and adjusted its aim, firing anyway. Raider jumped up on the Muton’s head, allowing the bolt of plasma to strike the Muton’s stomach (or, at least, she assumed it was it’s stomach. Hard to tell with aliens where what goes). It swatted at her with it’s meaty hands, attempting to shove her off.

Instead, she swapped sides, and shoved a knife deep into the brute’s neck. It gurgled and fell forward, momentum which Raider used to her advantage. She jumped on the ground and drew her bolas out, slinging them towards the Thin Man. It was knocked out by the blow, and it fell over with an expression that indicated it was having a bad day.

It was while Raider was collecting her weapons that she noticed someone step reluctantly out of the shadows. The two held each other’s gaze for a moment, until something clicked in Raider’s mind. She smiled.

“Penny Anderson? You can call me Raider,” she said. “Gandy Raider, if you want to throw my nickname in there.

“We’ve been looking for you.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Base Scouting Mission

Operation Leftover Dinner

Date: August 5th, 2018
Time: 1300 Hours

Details: The base is nearly back to full capacity, and it is time to get back to doing our job of kicking the aliens off our planet. Our first order of business: taking out the alien base our enemies likely attacked us from. We have found them, but someone might have beat us to the punch.

The base appears to have been the victim of another unknown force. Investigate the sight of the attack, and try to find out who their attackers were and what happened there.

Number of soldiers for this mission: Eight (8) Soldiers, accompanied by one Holo-Drone.

Soldier Names:
Maj. Brea, Aya (Scout)
SGT Papadoupolous, Fedor (Shogun)
CPL Wilson, Laurent (Medic)
CPL Kwan, So Ji (Goliath)
CPL Wagner, Christine (Rocketeer)
CPL Stewart, Jamie (Assault)
CPL Lopez, Alicia (Infantry)
CPL Martinez, Sergio (Sniper)

Terrain: Unknown at this time, aside from the outside, which appears to be covered in alien blood and destroyed UFOs.

Enemies: Unknown at this time.

Civilians: Unknown at this time.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Leftover Dinner

"There was a great battle here," So Ji said, scanning the area. "Many aliens fell to sustained fire."

"Really? Wow, you're really good," Sergio said, the sarcasm practically dripping from his mouth as her looked at the alien blood-soaked ground. "Can you teach me to be so observant?"

Aya rolled her eyes as she stepped of the dropship. "Well, isn't this an interesting sight?"

"You think it was EXALT?" Fedor asked, taking a much heavier step off the ship.

"Them or Legion." Aya shrugged. "Unless someone else out there is fighting the aliens."

"But this base is so close to ours," Christine offered, nervously running her arm. "What if it was EXALT. When they found this place, they could have found us."

"Let's hope that isn't the case," Aya said, placing her hand on the Rocketeer's shoulder. "We're pretty well hidden, so even if EXALT flew right over us, they shouldn't be able to find us."

"Unless they have some kind of infiltrators." Alicia carefully examined her alloy cannons. "Maybe some kinda evil, mutant puppy."

Aya glanced at a fairly intact fighter. Despite the evidence of a battle, and the shattered remains of other crafts near it, it didn't look like it had moved. "Hmm... MECs stay out here and cover us. Wagner, Lopez, and Martinez, start scouting the base, but don't go in too far. Stewart and Wilson with me."

As the trio walked into the small fighter, a small, bright yellow and black drone with the X-COM logo on it flew ahead of them. Hovering in front of the main computer, Alice materialized in her adult form and started typing rapidly. "Let's see what we have here."

"Um..." Laurent scratched his chin as he stepped next to Alice. "This might be a stupid question, but is it safe for you to be hear."

Alice stopped a moment to smile at him. "If that's concern for my safety, despite the fact that I'm just an AI, then of course it isn't stupid." She resumed typing. "But I'll be fine. I trust you, and I was there during the citadel assault in India, remember?"

"Yeah, but most of your programming wasn't..." Aya started, and the three soldiers spun around, weapons raised, at the familiar sound of a Outsider forming. After a few moments, they cautiously lowered them again, and stared at the flickering being as it struggled to retain a coherent shape. "What's wrong with it?" the Major asked.

Alice turned back to the computer. "Well... it's corrupted. Who ever attacked the base was able to wirelessly upload a virus into the systems. Nasty one, at that."

"Wish we had thought of that," Aya said, folding her arms. "Doubt it'll work a second time." She rubbed her chin. "You know... we might need a new key if we find where the Ethereal is hiding. Somehow I doubt our last one will work."

"Can we use this one, Alice?" Jamie asked, a pistol in one hand, an arc thrower in the other.

"I think so," Alice answered. "It might take a bit, but I have little doubt Cheshire can debug anything." Jamie nodded, and zapped the malfunctioning alien machine.

"Let's check the rest of the base," Aya said, turning to leave. The two other soldiers followed after, and she shouted back, "You coming, holo-girl?"

"I'll catch up in a bit!" Alice quickly pulled a small device from her drone and plugged it into the computer, and started to wirelessly send data to the dropship.

"What's all this," Aya asked as Fedor carried a large crate to the plane.

"Some stuff the others found," So Ji answered, carrying a similar crate. "A few weapon fragments, some loose alloys, a dead Sectoid."

"Not much, though," Fedor added. "Whoever was here before us cleaned the place off. Other then these, the only alloys we're getting are off the walls themselves."

The Major nodded, and tossed the Outsider shard into one of the crates. "Add this to the pile." She rushed into the base to join the others. Approaching them in a side room, she said, "Status report."

"Not much to report, I'm afraid, "Alicia said, rubbing the back of her head. "Some room for captives, but no captives. A power room with space from four generators, but two missing."

"Got a dead bug here." Sergio nudged a chryssalid corpse with his long rifle. "This place was really cleaned out, but there are some odd choices in what to leave behind."

Christine nodded. "Yeah. I mean, they obviously took a lot of the important stuff, so why leave behind some off the generators, since those should be big targets. And these aliens couldn't have taken up much room."

"Maybe everything else took up too much room," Alicia offered. "Can't take everything."

Christine grinned. "Maybe they were gifts."

Despite the soldiers joking tone, Aya mumbled, "Yeah... maybe they were." She knelt down beside the dead alien. "Check out these puncture wounds."

Sergio joined her. "Looks like they came from another chryssalid. Maybe the hybrid girl?"

Aya nodded. "Hopefully this means she was fighting with them, and they have her somewhere safe."

"Major!" Fedor shouted as her and So Ji rushed in, Alice 'running' behind them as fast as her drone could fly. "We've got trouble."

"What kind of..." Aya started before the drone exploded from a plasma shout, Aya's eyes going wide. "Shit!" The two MECs took cover, but the CO suddenly rushed forward, shouting back, "Cover me!"

"Are you nuts?!" So Ji shouted back as he and riddled the corridor ahead of Aya with bullets. The Major quickly scooped up the remains of the drone and rushed back to the others, and stray plasma shot hitting her in the shoulder. She flinched at the pain a dove into cover.

"Why did you do that?!" Laurent knelt down by her, spraying her shoulder with his med-spray as she knocked away bits and pieces of the shattered drone, finally pulling out a small intact part and letting out a relieved sigh. "What's that?"

"The drone's motherboard," Aya said, slipping it into a pocket and grabbing her weapon. "Most of Alice's programming was in that drone. If we lost this, we might have lost Alice. And Dr. Randolf would have flipped."

Laurent gave an understanding nod, then pulled out her own rifle. "So, what do we got?"

"Small scout, half a dozen Mutons, three Thin Men. And whoever the pilot is." Fedor shook his head. "Guess they were as curious about who sacked the base as us."

An alarm suddenly rang out, and red and orange lights started flashing. "What the hell now?" Christine asked out loud.

"Video game and movie logic would say the self-destruct has now been activated." Alicia offered. "Maybe they installed it after the loss of their other base, the the aliens here were to cowardly to use it."

"Assuming that is true, we need to get out of here." Aya looked over her cover. "What do we got incoming? I have an idea."

"Most of the aliens are making their way down the corridor, shooting down here randomly," Sergio answered, looking through his scope. "They seem more concerned with stalling us then their own safety."

A ball of energy of energy already forming in her hands, Aya mumbled, "Their mistake."

Momentarily looking up, the Latino sniper asked, "You sure that'll work? They're still pretty far down there, and we probably can't wait for them to get closer."

"Then somebody better be prepared to carry me!" Aya jumped out of cover. A beam of plasma whizzed past her head as she unleashed her attack, a beam of pure energy flying down the corridor. It consumed the aliens, and blasted into and through the UFO the aliens had come in. The major collapsed to the ground, most of her energy spent in that attack. "Did... I get... them all..."

"Most of them," Sergio answered. "There are two Mutons and two..." he fired. "...one Thin Man left."

"Let's do this then!" Fedor shouted, rushing forward to lead the charge, So Ji right behind him. Laurent lifted his CO, and the rest of the team rushed after the MECs. Fedor launched a grenade, causing the aliens to scatter. One Muton fell to So Ji's reactive targeting sensors, the other to the rest of the team behind him. Fedor charged the Thin Men, hoping his repair servos could handle the direct his to his chest as he lifted his arm, hitting the alien with a kinetic strike that killed it and sent it into a side room, its gas releasing out of the team's path.

So Ji opened his comm. "Kwan to dropship. It is safe to return to the LZ. The aliens should all be dealt with. We need immediate evac."

"Should be dealt with?" The pilot answered back. "Because I can't take another hit."

"Just get here before the place explodes!" So Ji yelled back.

The team emerged out of the base, and for a few tense minutes, wondered if they should just keep running. Aya looked over at the disabled scout, as well as the one that had just arrived, and wondered, had they been operational, if Alice could have piloted them if she wasn't just a motherboard in Aya's pocket right now. Finally, the dropship arrived, large scortch marks on it from where the aliens had fired at it. The team let out a collective sigh of relief as the all leaped on to it before it even landed.

The dropship flew away as fast as it could, more concerned with getting away then where it was headed. There was a deafening BOOM! as the horizon was filled with a gigantic blue mushroom cloud, the shock-wave nearly knocking the plane out of the sky. The team fell into an exhusted silence on the way home, each with a number of concerns, some their own, some shared with the others.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Mini-Mission

Operation: Preemptive Strike
Location: Mumbai, India

Date: August 10th, 2018
Time: 1900 Hours

Details:
Reports are coming in of a small EXALT cell setting up in the most populace city in India. Evidently, we aren't the ones trying to take advantage of the aliens expulsion from the country. While we'd like to allocate our resources to preparing for EXALT's eventual attack of our base, there is no telling when that will come, and we can not allow EXALT to spread its twisted reach across another country is we can prevent it. Besides, if we ignore the EXALT's smaller cells, they are likely to become suspicious, and realize we're on to them.

Hit the EXALT cell now while it is small and exposed. Send a message to EXALT that we won't tolerate their presence anywhere, let alone somewhere we worked so hard to liberate. This'll be a good proving ground for many of our new recruits, as well as a field test for our New hover SHIVs.

Soldiers for this mission:
LT 2 (SGT) Papadoupolous, Fedor (Shogun)
CPL Henderson, Fay (Sniper)
3 CPLs
4 LCPLs
Alloy Hover SHIV "Griffon"

Enemy Forces: 18 EXALT Clone Forces, 4 with a single gene-mod. Troops are skilled, but for from the best EXALT has, the troops picked more for their capacity to start the cell then to fight.

Terrain: A large textile factory in the center of the city.

Civilians: Scarred away by EXALT.

 

[BMPixy]

“Five of Swords, Reversed”
Operation Preemptive Strike
Mumbai, India
2018-08-10, 1900 Hours Local Time
CPL Fay Henderson

Thunder echoed across the sky, as rain bounced off my armor in an attempt to get at the dryness inside. I flicked my scope across the exterior of the textile factory, scanning for hostile movement and covering the approach of the assault team as they closed upon the factory. Despite the factory’s location in the center of the city, the area around it was still devastated from the alien retreat from the country. While bad for the residents of the city, it did make a nice and isolated base of operations for EXALT. And this isolation would also be their downfall, as I had some quite nice sightlines into and around the factory.

Movement, two-thirty. Four EXALT troopers, one with mods, patrolling. Two operatives, one marksman, and a support trooper. I commed in the contact to the el-tee, and he replied with an affirmative and an order to go loud on his mark.

Best if they stay in place, so the team can ambush them. One illusion, five observers. Running numbers, sixteen seconds of illusion. Gently gesturing in the direction of the cloned forces, I focused intensely on simulating the sound of faintly heard voices from behind a pile of rubble to the side of them. A slight yellow glow emanated from the appendage, and through the scope I noticed one of them hold up a hand, signaling the others to stop. Slight bickering emanated from the group, evidently some of them managed to resist the illusion. All the better, as the bickering and rain covered the sound of one of the soldiers rolling a couple grenades among the group.

“We’re going loud!” Papadoupolous yelled as the grenades detonated, tearing the four EXALT apart. Two EXALT approaching from eleven-thirty, acquiring target. As a crack of thunder echoed out over the battlefield, a HEAT round from my long rifle tore through the trooper on the left, turning the right side of his chest into red paste. The second trooper, caught off guard and panicking at the sudden blast of gore covering him, quickly fell to another round as soon as I loaded in the next charge pack.

The assault team was engaged with a firefight with eight EXALT troopers, two of which bore the marks of genetic modification. Ballistics, lasers, and gauss rounds poured back and forth across the cover. Too many targets, illusions would drain me in less than a two thousandths of second. Another crack of thunder, another dead EXALT. Four left, fourteen observers, three hundredths of a second duration for one illusion. Reload, steady aim. One left, trooper booking it into textile factory. Assault team moves to pursue, straggler eliminated. Van attempting to escape from garage of textile factory, two in front seat, unknown number in back-seat.

Assault team not in a position to intercept the van. No clear shot, too much rubble between my position and the escape vector. Single option. Three observers, two illusions. Eight seconds duration. With a glow, I thrust my trigger arm out at the van. As the vehicle passed between rubble, I could see the driver pull his arms off the steering wheel and begin screaming, the passenger gesturing frantically at the driver’s seemingly melting arms. The vehicle careened into, and through, a pile of rubble, flipping over as it left the ground.

The Shogun MEC stomped into position at the back of the van, and tore off the rear door. Panicked ballistic fire poured out from the van, most of it either missing or glancing off the MEC’s armor harmlessly. A gout of cleansing napalm spouted from the el-tee’s arm, catching the entire vehicle aflame. Slowly Papadoupolous walked away from the burning van, the flames blasting out as they caught upon something explosive inside the EXALT’s crematorium.

“Any more hostiles in sight, Fay?” the el-tee asked. Quickly I scanned the textile factory, checking for movement.

“Negative, no movement detected,” I replied. From downstairs of my post a blast detonated, a pair of booby-trapped frags I had borrowed from one of the troopers going off. No secondary explosion, target eliminated by trap. “Regrouping for extract.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
EXALT Base Covert Op

Operation Precious Package

Date: August 14, 2018
Time: 0200 Hours

Details:
Legion has the potential to be a great ally to X-COM, but at the moment, their leaders are being held captive by EXALT. X-COM leaves no ally behind, so the time has come to rescue them.

While we would prefer to wait until the EXALT forces are weaker, recent information about the potential immediate danger faced by the hostages has motivated us to move forward ahead of schedule. Despite this, it is believed that recent act of sabotage crippled the EXALT computer systems, so even with a full force guarding the base, it should be possible for a small team to infiltrate the base covertly and extract the hostages.

Remember that this is a covert operation. The goal is to save our new allies. Secrecy is of the utmost importance. We will almost certainly not get another chance, and exposure at any time before the targets are secured could mean their deaths. Get in, get our people, and get out.

Number of troops for this mission: Two teams of four (4) X-COM and Legion soldiers, accompanied by one SHIV and two drones.

Soldier Names:
Unit 1 (Extraction Team)
SGT Walker, Desmond (Engineer)**
SGT Kasagi, Ayame (Gunner)
SGT Wong, Sarah (Sniper)
Legion Officer Emma

Unit 2 (Support Team)
LT (SGT) Papadoupolous, Fedor (Shogun)*
CPL Welles, Wade (Sniper)
LCPL Grey, Dorian (Medic)
Legion Officer Vee

Alloy SHIV Unit 1 "Bandersnatch"
Stealth Drone 1
Holo-Sealth Drone 1

** Squad Leader
*Unit Leader

Gear: Players' characters' will be equipped with the following supplies:

- Primary weapon: Either a Gauss Stuttergun, a Gauss Carbine, a Gauss Rifle, a Heavy Gauss Rifle, an Alloy Cannon, a Gauss Long Rifle (Snipers), an Alloy Strike Rifle (Scout, Sniper), a Gauss Autorifle (Gunner, Heavy), or a Gauss Machine Gun (Gunner, Heavy)

- Armor: Kestrel Armor, Carapace Armor, Banshee Armor, or Aegis Armor

- Secondary Weapon: Either a Laser Pistol, a Gauss Autopistol, or a Hand Scatter Cannon (H.S.C.)

- Equipment: Two (2) of the following; a medikit, Alloy plating, Reinforced Armor, Chitin Plating, a battle scanner, an AP grenade, a HE grenade, a flash-bang grenade, a smoke grenade, a chem grenade, a high-capacity magazine, a targeting module, or an Arc Thrower.

(Chameleon Suit available for Scouts, Shredder Rocket for Rocketeers)

Special Gear Note: Unit 1 will be equipped with our new, experimental Shadow Armor, the only four we were able to produce in time. They may have any equipment they want, but will be restricted to hand weapons and pistols for weapons.

Terrain:
We will be using the Legion Stealth dropships to fly to the sight, as ours weren't designed for such a task. Staying low to avoid what minimal radar they have that might be able to spot the dropship, you will land far enough away to avoid detection, but close enough for a quick extraction should it be needed.

Unit two will remain with the ship in case it is in need of defense. Should unit one, unit two is permitted to engage the enemy outside and near the entrance, but actually attempting a rescue would only result in the loss of more life. So unit one will mostly be on their own.

Little is known about the inside of the base, as Vee and Desmond were the only ones on the team to move about it, and they were likely kept from entering a large portion of it. The team is equipped with a drone capable of using the same stealth tech and you shadow armor, and should be able to map out the facility and make it back to the ship before its minimal energy for its stealth runs out.

Make your way to where the targets are being held as directly as possible, but avoid anywhere with a high concentration of soldiers. Note that, even if your armor wasn't experimental, it has a limited battery life, so do not rely exclusively on it. Use it only when necessary, and never assume it will be there to bail you out.

Avoid killing any guards if possible. Should you need to dispose of an obstacle, make sure their body is well hidden. Your greatest challenge will be getting out once you locate the targets, and the last thing you need is someone finding a body on your way back.

You will be equipped with a second stealth drone equipped with a holo-projector and the A.L.I.C.E. program in case any hacking is necessary, though with the limited computer power they likely have, hopefully you won't need it.

Finally, unlike previous missions with full support from Central, there will be radio silence unless absolutely necessary for obvious reasons. As such, SGT Walker will be in almost complete control of this mission. We trust he will remember the primary mission and act accordingly.

Enemies:
Unknown, but believed to be far, far too many to be dealt with only four minimally equipped soldiers. Fighting should be completely avoided if at all possible.

Conditions for Completion:
The successful extraction of the three targets.

Special Completion Note: Any acts of sabotage should be avoided, even if the opportunity seems promising. Extracting the targets takes full precedence.

Civilians: The three targets can fight if needed, but should otherwise be considered civilian non-combatants.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Precious Package, Prologue

Over the Swiss Alps
0130 Hours, August 14th, 2018
Legion Stealth Dropships

Emma looked around at the other soldiers in the dropship, preparing herself mentally for this task. Vee was tapping her boot uneasily against the grated steel of the interior, while Sarah Wong was impassive as always, and the other sniper and medic seemed calm, if a bit apprehensive.

Ayame slowly examined the side of a large knife, seeming to look for the smallest imperfection. Satisfied with it, she turned her attention to her sidearms, a specially modified ‘silenced’ laser pistol, and a standard silenced handgun. She started dismantling the handgun, looking it over piece by piece.

Desmond sat in an eerie silence, his gaze not moving at all from the floor. He didn’t check his weapon or even move. He almost looked like a statue.

Suddenly, one of the drones came to life. The front of it lit up, and a hologram of the Commander appeared, her expression saying she found the way of communicating awkward. She clapped her hands together, and said, “Alright, people. This will be a mission unlike any you have had before. This isn’t exactly what X-COM had in mind when it formed, but those of you on our infiltration team have experience with this, so I have the utmost confidence in you.”

Her image turned to look at unit two. “Support team, it’ll be your job to make sure everyone has a way to get out of there. If all goes well, you’ll find this to be a rather boring mission. But if you are exposed, it is important that you hold your ground outside of the base. You need to count on unit one to make it out on their own, and not charge boldly but blindly into a hornets nest. Do I make myself clear?”

Vee nodded with a sigh. “Got it. And Desmond, remember...those four elites in the armor I told you about should be able to help you. They came with me to Legion HQ, so they’ll probably be able to escort you back to the ships.”

Desmond nodded. “What were their names again?”

“Chief, Bull, Hawke, and Fox. Don’t ask; it’s what they picked,” the Destroyer explained.

“If you find them, and you feel they can be trusted, then do so.” Morrigan crossed her arms. “But remember they aren’t the same as Elene and the others. They might have some ulterior motives, or they could have changed back to Viktors side. It is even possible they are simply playing both sides.” She smiled. “But I don’t I have to worry about you dropping your guard, right Mr. Walker?”

“Damn right.” He responded.

Emma gave one last look at her ghost armor as they neared the location of the EXALT base. “It’s time.”

As the dropship came on approach, there was a slight snowfall and the mountains were many in number. As the ship rounded around the sides of one of them, there was a bit of the mountain that looked almost unnaturally flat and it was confirmed to be the drop site. In the side of the mountain, there were two large, metal doors that would lead into the main hangar and two smaller doors on the left and right walls that would lead into the base. The dropship blew up snow as it finally touched down.

Emma glanced back at the others. “Depending on how much their systems have recovered, it might be a good idea to ghost to the doors incase they have defensive turrets or sensors.”

“It’ll give us a nice little field test for them, at any right,” Ayame agreed. Behind her, the hologram of the Commander faded, and a second drone rose up. It vanished from sight, only a slight flicker from its stealth unit bending the light visible. As it shot towards the base to do its mapping job, Morrigan’s voice popped in over Desmond’s comm. “I’m counting on you, Mr. Walker. And not only to do the job you were sent in there to do. I’m counting on you to remember the mission. Remember the people that are counting on you. And… remember not to do anything that’ll tick me off.”

“I will keep it in mind.” Desmond got up and cracked his neck. Though I am not so sure I won’t tick you off. He thought to himself.

Emma tapped a few buttons on her wrist, and from the outside in began to fade from sight. “Activating ‘ghost’ mode, charge time: two minutes until recharge.”

As the rest of the infiltration team followed suit, Morrigan said to everyone. “Good luck. Remember, Desmond is the CO. Emma after him. Radio silence while in the base. Watch each other’s back out their.” Back on base, Morrigan flipped off the comms. A few moments later, she flipped one of them on, and said, “And don’t forget your job.” She got a quick grunt back as a response, and turned the comm off again, sitting down and wishing the radio silence didn’t include the broadcast from unit one’s soldier-cams.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Precious Package, Part 1

Desmond lead the team out into the snow and to the side door on the left. “We will enter through here. The stairs lead to a hallway that overlooks the hangar. When we are past that, we find an elevator and we head down into the base to the cells.”

Sarah nodded, while Emma warned, “I’d be best if we avoided using the ghost in the hallway, as difficult as it may be. Pushing the armor too far risks it shorting out, and that could make noise.”

Desmond nodded. “There shouldn’t be any guards in these first hallways. I am guessing they will either be in the hangar or on other levels. Not like he is expecting a fight.”

The shadow operative nodded, and shut off her cloak, following the engineer’s lead.

When they got up to the metal door, it was about as large as a normal door and they would have to go in single file. “Alice, can you get the keypad encryption? I doubt they are the same from when I left.”

“I’m on it.” The holo-drone decloaked next to them. A silhouette of a hologram appeared, shaped like Alice but completely invisible except for her faint out line. She typed on a small keypad, then reached back and connected a wire from the drone to the door’s code box. After a few minutes, the lights turned green. “Done. Easier then I thought. They’re systems must be hurting without their A.I. to run things.”

----------

Elsewhere on the base, in Elene’s old lab, the light of the computer screen came on and an EXALT symbol appeared on it. Sora gave a fake yawn and stated, “Came faster than I expected. I guess it is time for me to make my move then.” Sora had been only running his most essential processes to keep himself self-sustained on the computer’s internal system but keep him undetected from any software that may have been uploaded. “Let me see if my special ride is still available.”

----------

Desmond walked through the door first and walked slowly up the metal stairs and made sure he could see no one at the top. Seeing no one, he gave his team the go ahead to follow.

Ayame slowly made her way in, examining every inch of her surroundings, every tile, every bit a loose metal, anything that could expose them. Most importantly, she watched the rest of her team, listened to their every movement. She wanted to know where they were at every second, in case they needed her, or she needed them.

Emma was equally silent, but kept her focus on being undetected and unnoticeable. She glanced down at the dimly lit F-22’s in the hanger.Avanix was able to steal some from the other two airbases...but not this one.

As Desmond walked down the hall, a clone dressed in body armor walked out of a room and closed the door behind him, turning almost right into him. Both seemed surprised by each other but before the clone brought up a weapon, Desmond had already slapped away his arm and sent a fist into the soldier’s throat. It collapsed his windpipe and the clone suffocated to death. Desmond pulled the face mask off of him and he saw an all too familiar face. “Fuck, I hate doing this.”

“They have rudimentary minds and practically no will of their own,” Emma whispered. “They are not even human, even if they appear like you. Do not hesitate.”

Desmond sighed and he looked at the face mask. “Wait a minute…” Desmond stood up and he looked at Emma. “I have an idea.”

“You might be able to pass as one, but not us. It is a distraction for further encounters, do not consider going down there alone,” Sarah was quick to respond.

“Something to keep in mind,” Ayame said as she slipped off the clone’s armor and lifted the dead man. “But she’s right. If we need to, we have that option, but don’t leave us behind.” She grunted a little. “Especially me… be right back.” She stepped out of the room, looking for a place to hide the body.

“I wasn’t going to run off…” Desmond mumbled with frustration. He went into the room the clone came out of and he quickly changed to look like the dead soldier. When he stepped back out he put on the face mask. “How do I look?”

“Irrelevant. You could pass as one of them, that is all that matters,” Sarah confirmed.

“That was what I was asking.” Desmond held his rifle casually and looked back down the hallway. “When Ayame gets back, we head for the elevator.”

“Ayame’s back,” Ayame mumbled, rolling her shoulder. “Damn, you’re heavy Desmond. Let’s go.”

He walked down the hallway as if he was one of the guards while the small squad kept low behind him. Desmond peaked around the corner of the hallway and saw no one. “One guy is not that bad. I just hope no one else pops out of a room.” In the middle of the hallway he was looking down he saw the elevator and made a signal for his squad to move.

Emma and the others slowly moved towards the elevator, ready to bring up their weapons at any moment. Ayame followed after, but stopped suddenly halfway down the hallway. Her eyes shifted around her as she slowly unsheathed her knife.

Desmond was about to press the button of the elevator but a thud and a ring caused him to quickly pull back. “Shit. We got company in the elevator.” He informed the squad. The doors slowly slid open and there were three guys inside.

Sarah already had her silenced pistol raised, and a laser quietly drilled through the skull of the first. The other two started to move, and Emma rushed one of them, an alloy dagger glinting in her hand. With a thrust, it went through the neck of the second clone, and came out the back, silencing his death gurgles.

As the final guard lifted his weapon, Ayame quickly drew her ballistic handgun. A quick shot punched through the man’s chest. He looked down in shock, and another round through the forehead dropped him. Ayame took a deep breath, but kept the handgun leveled, her knife still at the ready. She slowly closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths.

Emma seemed unmoved, merely wiping the blood off her blade onto one of her black gloves, and pushing the body to the corner of the elevator with the others. “We should expedite our progress. Four missing operatives will be noticed in due time.”

“Five missing operatives,” Ayame corrected. She threw her knife to the side as a door opened, burying it a the throat of another guard. With a face of stone, she finally relaxed a bit, holstering her weapon and going to retrieve her knife, along with the other body.

“The floor number?” Sarah asked, standing by the buttons.

“Not in plain sight.” Desmond walked to the other side of the elevator and pulled open a maintenance panel and reached his hand in. He felt around until he felt the button and he pushed it. The doors closed and he put the panel back in place. “It was hidden exactly for this sort of reason.” Desmond told Sarah.

“Clever,” Ayame said, dumping the last body on the pile and hoping they wouldn’t go over the weight capacity. “So, what should we expect. This is a some kind of research facility, right? I’m sure the holding cells won’t be that big… um, right?”

“The floor we are going to is small. Nothing down there other than cells. Nothing advanced. Just cold steel bars. All the other facilities are on other floors.” Desmond informed her.

Emma held her pistol at the ready. “Hopefully the only guards are the Elites, but there is no guarantee they’ll be the ones down there.”

As the doors opened, Desmond walked out of the elevator first and down the dark corridor. Within the one of the walls were multiple cells with metal bars for doors and a single metal, solid door on the end. In front of two of the cells were two guards each and they all looked at Desmond at the same time.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Precious Package, Part 2

One of the guards spoke up. “Does Viktor need something?”

Desmond looked at the guards, who surprisingly didn’t look like him remotely. “Depends on your answer.”

“‘Bout time you guys showed up.” The large guard said. “We are the Elites.”

“We are here for Mistress Exalt, Markus Grathem, and 156/Lily. Are all three present?” Emma intoned.

The closest one shook his head. “Elene and Markus, not Lily. She hasn’t been brought down here.” The clone walked up to Desmond and the two shook hands. “Name’s Chief. Bull, Hawke, Fox.” He told him, pointing to each clone as he said their names.

Emma put a hand on her forehead, muttering, “Oh God…”

Sarah shook her head. “If we do not know where the third is, we cannot risk the entire operation by seeking her. She is not essential.”

“I am...not...leaving her…” Emma growled.

The elevator doors opened once more and a drone with wings floated out of it. “Good thing you have me then.” A slightly British voice intoned.

Emma spun around, quickly placing the voice from Avanix’s description. “Sora. Where is she? Viktor...did he...did he do what we…”

“Relax, Emma,” Ayame said. She gave Sarah a stern look. “Everyone we are here to get is essential.” She pointed at the drone. “You… um, machine. If you can help us find Lily, please do.” She turned to the Elites. “And you, Master Chief. What’s the condition of the hostages? Can they move on their own? Are they in need of any medical attention? And are they aware of your allegiances?”

“Machine...hmph.” Sora grunted. “If I had a hand I swear I would smack you upside the head.”

Chief didn’t get why Ayame had called him Master Chief but he got back on task. “One has a wound in his side, the other is just sleeping now. Right now, my only allegiance is with my team. We will go where you need us. So far, Viktor thinks the one you call ‘Vee’ is dead.”

“Correction. Was sleeping,” a voice remarkably similar to Emma’s said from the cell behind Chief. “Would you release us?”

Chief looked at his team and nodded. Bull and Fox shot the locks of the cells to open the doors. Bull walked into Markus’s cell and lifted him up with ease. “He has lost a lot of blood. He was given very little medical attention.”

Ayame pulled out a medkit. “Permission to patch him up,” she said to Desmond.

Desmond nodded at Ayame, seemingly distracted and he began to walk down the corridor.

“Desmond. If...Viktor did what he intended to, Lily is probably around or within Viktor’s quarters. We need a plan,” Elene stated shakily.

“I know that.” Desmond replied to Elene but he kept walking to the solid metal door.

“Then what are you doing?” Emma inquired.

Desmond held open his hand and a small orb appeared. He slammed it into the door and blasted it open. Desmond stepped into the room and began to look around.

“Enough with the loner attitude,” Emma said dangerously. “Explain yourself, now.”

“He’s planning on finishing this,” Ayame answered for him. “And he isn’t going to let us stand in his way, or let us put ourselves in danger. We need to worry about getting Elene and Markus back to the ship, and trust him to do his job.”

“You know, you guys assume too much of me.” Desmond called out. He walked back out carrying a bag and he threw it on his back. “I just needed some things from my old home. Besides, we are alone down here.” He threw something at Elene and said, “I think I know where he might have hidden her.”

Ayame grinned. “Guess she owes you an apology later… maybe,” she mumbled to herself. Speaking up, she said, “Lead the way. Hopefully we won’t have to go through too many guards. Viktor the kinda guy that keeps a lot of guards around him, Elene?”

“He is usually alone in his office,” Negative Zero responded. “There might be guards on the way, but not directly with him.”

Desmond walked up to Elene. “We can get her Elene. I want you to go to the ship. Leave this to us.”

Ayame looked at the Elites. “Can you get them back for us? You could come back with us, if you want.”

Chief nodded. “We can do that. Where is the evac point?”

Ayame clicked a few keys on her wrist mounted computer. The stealth drone decloaked, and Ayame pointed to it. “Just follow the bouncing drone. It’s linked to another one that’ll go ahead and tell the other team not to shoot you.”

“Any job you need of me? I managed to sneak a trojan horse into the servers they got online so I have access from this hunk of scrap. I won’t be able to access long though, Viktor has really beefed internal server firewalls,” Sora informed them.

Desmond walked up to Sora. “Can you check security cameras?”

Sora turned his machine to resemble a shaking head. “Nope. Not from here. If I could get to a computer with server access directly to the security systems. Like I said, this body is limited.”

Elene borrowed Bull’s laser pistol, keeping the flashbang from Desmond in her other hand. “I’m counting on you,” she said to Desmond, and then walked into the elevator with the elites.

Desmond turned to his squad. “Where we are going is probably really dangerous. If you want out now, you can leave.”

Emma shook her head, while Sarah heaved a sigh. “This is a terrible idea,” the Chinese sniper affirmed, but made no move to leave. If it were Golin...

“Yes, it is.” Ayame checked to make sure her weapons were ready. “I had a boss of this PMC that would have had my teammates shoot me for even suggesting this.” She grinned. “But like I said. Everyone is essential. Lead the way, sergeant Dessy.”

Desmond nodded, and he got on the elevator. “So...we have two options. We can either go to Viktor’s office and access the system, or we could go to where I had in mind. When I was being tested on, Lusett had set up a temporary holding place for me in the lab areas. Viktor could have put her there.”

“Lily is our priority. If we try to access his office we might end up fighting him, and this is not the time for a confrontation,” Emma was quick to decide.

“Agreed,” Ayame said with a nod.