RP X-Com Role-Play Missions

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Ethereal Base Assault

Operation Dedicated Industria

Date: October 16th, 2018
Time: 2000 Hours

Briefing:
Satellite imagery directed on our southern most continent has finally picked up something fruitful. We've been searching Antarctica diligently since we learned of the Ethereal Overseer there, realizing it would likely be one of the hardest to find, and we finally have results.

We have discovered what appears to be a mining operation. No base appears to be within the vicinity, only the energy signature of a large ship, and while the psionic readings are that of an Ethereal, they are unusual in their intensity. However, this would be consistent with the odd powers our hacked files would suggest Acadia has, and considering the conditions of the continent, it would not be surprising that the Overseers headquarters might be a mobile fortress.

Investigate the sight, and infiltrate the ship. Pacify any alien forces you locate, and eliminate the Ethereal.

Number of soldiers for this mission: Twelve (12) Soldiers, accompanied by two (2) Alloy SHIVs

Soldier Names:
Captain 4 (GSGT) Arturo, Maximillian (Heavy) [Muscle Fiber Density, Iron Skin]*
GSGT Cross, Ammelia (Sniper)
TSGT Lynch, Stephan (Sniper)
TSGT Thomas, Mary (Gunner) [Dextrous Muscle Fibers, Magnified Bicep Structure, and Secondary Heart]
GSGT Wayne, Damian (Scout) [Adrenal Neurosympathy]
GSGT Stewart, Jamie (Assault) (Red Psionic)
GSGT Koslov, Maxim (Infantry) [Adrenal Neurosympathy, Hyper-Reactive Pupils]
TSGT Krause, Kieran (Engineer)
GSGT Malkovich, Johnathan (Support) {Shadow}
GSGT Wilson, Laurent (Medic) (Green Psionic)
GSGT Wagner, Christine (Rocketeer) (Orange Psionic)
GSGT Kwan, So Ji(Goliath) [MEC]
Alloy S.H.I.V. Unit 1: "Bandersnatch"
Alloy S.H.I.V. Unit 2: "Taqukaq"

*Squad Leader

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

- Primary weapon: Either a Pulse Stengun, a Pulse Carbine, a Pulse Rifle, a Heavy Pulse Rifle (Infantry, Assault, Scout, Medic, Engineer, Support), a Scatter Blaster (Infantry, Assault, Scout, Medic, Engineer, Support), a Pulse Sniper Rifle (Sniper), a Blaster Rifle (Scout, Sniper), a Pulse Autoblaster (Gunner, Heavy), or a Gatling Pulser (Gunner, Heavy)

(Blaster Launcher for Heavies and Rocketeers, Particle Cannon for MECs, Superheavy Plasma for SHIVs)

- Armor: Banshee Armor, Aegis Armor, Titan Armor, or Seraph Armor (Four Shadow Armors also available)

- Secondary Weapon: Either a Laser Pistol, a Blaster, or a Hand Scatter Plasma Blaster (H.S.P.B.)

- Equipment: Two (2) of the following; a medikit, combat stims, alloy plating, reinforced armor, chitin plating, a battle scanner, an AP grenade, an alien grenade, a psi grenade, a smoke grenade, a chem grenade, a ghost grenade, a high-capacity magazine, a targeting module, a mind shield, or an Arc Thrower.

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

Details:
The mission can be said to be split into two parts. The first part of the mission will take place in a composite mining structure/shipyard area. The alien battleship is located in the center of the shipyard. The area itself is not too large on its own, but has several work and repair stations. Below the shipyard, connected by several connecting tunnels, is a sprawling network of mining corridor. Soldiers will have no reason to explore the tunnels themselves. Just be wary. With so many tunnels on all sides, there is not shortage of places the aliens can attack from, and you can be easily flanked. For this reason, the team will be accompanied by several drones meant for the sole purpose of mobile battle scanners, as well as a pair of snipers to take advantage of the narrow corridors the enemies would have to run through to get to you.

After the battle heats up a bit too much for Acadia's liking, you'll find the battleship powering up. You'll need to get on the ship before it can take off, as there is no telling when we'll get another chance to take out Acadia again. This is when the second part of the mission will start. You will find yourself in the center of the battleship, having entered through the side. From here, you'll have to make a choice of which direction to go, and whether you should explore the back of the ship and take more time, or go straight for the bridge and risk a back attack.

The ship itself will be surprisingly comfortable, Acadia obviously sparing no expense in keeping it well heated and protected from the harsh Antarctic conditions. Near the rear of the ship are the ships small engineering room, laboratory, and cargo hold, completely skipable should you not go in that direction, as Acadia seems to keep areas of actual work as far away from her as possible.

Weapon controls near the bridge have fusion cores. As usual, we request caution around these, as they are needed to upgrade our firestorms and make more blaster launchers. Of course, soldier lives takes priority over this.

Enemies:
Mining Yard:
One (1) units with three (3) Mutons
One (1) units with two (2) Mutons and one (1) Berserker
One (1) unit with one (1) Cyberdisc and two (2) drones
One (1) modified Sectopod

Battleship:
Two (2) units with three (3) Sectoids
Two (2) units with three (3) Thin Men
Two (2) units with three (3) Mutons
Two (2) units with One (1) Mectoid and two (2) Drones
One (1) unit containing two (2) Incubators and one (1) Sectoid Commander
One (1) Modified Sectopod
Acadia, accompanied by a pair of Muton Elites

Special Enemy Notes:
The Mutons and Berserkers in the Mining Yard wear special armor to protect them from the environment. The armor makes them more damage resistant, but is quite encombersome, making their reflexes and movements slower.

The two Sectopods have been heavily modified for mining purposes. Their armor is meant to protect them from freezing rather then for blocking attacks, and as such, they will likely be easier to damage, but they can still take a beating. Furthermore, their missile banks have been removed, and their particle cannons have been replaced with a significantly weaker cannon, though they can fire this one a lot quicker and more frequently then their usual weapon.

The Incubators, located directly outside the bridge/throne room, are not linked to their Sectoid Commander as you might believe at first, but are rather linked to Acadia herself. Is the creatures disposition seems to be directly linked to the being enhancing them, you'll find these incubators to be a lot calmer then the usual fare. This means our usual tactics of playing at their arrogance and tempers likely won't work as well. At the very least, this also means they won't be quite as savage, and will not act recklessly in an attempt to rip a target apart.

Finally, Acadia's sloth has led her to develop very little in the way of strong abilities. However, centuries of storing power has netted her a massive pool of psionic energy to draw from, so expect any simpler abilities she has, such as mind-fray, mind control, psi inspiration, and biokinesis, to be powerful. What's more, she does have one ability of her own that might catch you off guard.

Conditions for Completion:
The elimination of the Ethereal Overseer of Antarctica, Acadia.

Civilians:
The mines will find several human workers along with the Mutons. None will act hostile towards the X-COM forces. All seem to be in a hypnotic state, and many will continue to do their jobs, even amongst the fighting Mutons. You should avoid hitting them if at all possible, but do not let their presence and safety put you in danger.

More humans, acting in a similar manner, can be found within the ship itself. In addition, you will find an alien species known as the baʒir. Resembling three feet tall, upright anthropomorphic cockroaches, they'll appear intimidating at first, at least to anyone the an aversion to insects, and unlike the humans, they are do not appear to be under anyone's control. However, they're entirely non-hostile, and will not attack the soldiers, even if they are threatened. Rather, they'll cower away and hide as best they can. Communication will not be possible with them, as they either can not understand our language or will be too frightened to communicate, so your best course of action will be to ignore them.

 

[Frostlich1228]

Operation Dedicated Industria: Pt. 1

Date: October 16, 2018
Time: 2000 Hours

The Skyranger rumbled softly as the soldiers reached their destination. Max stood up in the middle of the vehicle like usual, grasping on to a handle securely bolted to the ceiling of the craft. He looked over his soldiers, most of them seemed exceptionally nervous, the results of the last Ethereal mission filling their hearts with dread. However, Ammelia had a look of calm determination on her face as she looked over to her sister, who was lifting her Gatling Pulser up and down like a dumbbell, enjoying her new strength. Max stepped up, "Alright, I'm sure you all got the jist of what we're doing from the Commander, but let me just clarify. Acedia's base is in middle of a large mining complex, it almost looks like a shipyard of sorts. There are mining tunnels on all sides, so we have to watch out for flanks, but that's why we have our snipers. It'll be their job to gun down the aliens that line themselves up in the tunnels trying to leave. The rest of you, keep them in safe while also dropping any hostiles we run into. Also, the Commander thinks that this Ethereal's base is in fact, a mobile fortress. That means we have to reach it before she has a chance to take off, if she does, it'll probably take us weeks to find her again. Finally, since we have no room for any more tall grey guests, this is an elimination mission, our job isn't done until she's laying in a pool of her own blood. Understand?"

The soldiers in the Skyranger nodded in unison as the ship landed on the dense snow, kicking up an cloud of ice particles as it landed. The large metal door whirred open once again, but this time letting in an unfamiliar, biting cold that sent a shiver down the spines of most of the soldiers, despite their internally heated armor. Arturo stepped out into the snow first, his feet sinking about halfway to his knees. The rest of the squad moved out, readying their weapons as they scanned the frozen mining facility. The black night sky was alight with millions of bright stars, something completely foreign to Mary. She stared up, taking a second to admire the view as snowflakes collected on the visor of the weather resistant helmet she was wearing. Maximillion broke the silence, ordering the squad forward through the thick snow and closer to the complex. Arturo gave the signal to stop and the squad moved into the nearest cover they could see. The squad leader and his team looked on as other humans, also in special protective suits, carried boxes and minerals from one side of the complex to the other.

"Are those other humans?" Stephan asked, looking over to Max.

"Looks like it..." He replied thinking, "Let's hope this isn't another Avaritia situation... We don't need more people to deal with..."

"They don't seem to be interested in us... They more than likely saw us land after all..." Ammelia thought out loud.

"Well, if they don't fire on us I guess that means they're friendlys, if that's the case, be sure to watch your fire and avoid hitting them at all costs."

"'Civvies' en' th' 'ine 'eh 'ire? 'At's gunna' be eh' pain 'en th' ass..." Mary responded, looking down at her cumbersome weapon.

Arturo was about to open his mouth before a group of three Mutons, clad in special armor, lumbered out into the snow, plasma weapons in hand.

"I don't think they've seen us yet..." Arturo spoke softly, "Let's take them out at the same time... Cross, you take the one on the left, Lynch, the one on the right, we'll handle the one in the middle and finish off the other ones if they're left alive."

Ammy nodded and prepared her shot along with Lynch, firing at their designated targets after a few seconds. Ammelia's shot connected sightly lower than where she aimed it, taking a chunk of the Muton's neck and shoulders away and coating the pure white snow a sickly green. Lynch's shot however hit his target in the upper chest, causing the target to crumple to the ground, his heart having exploded from the impact of the energy. The final target had a split second to react to the sudden death of his comrades before being torn apart by the storm of gauss heat.

Maximillian and his crew kept in cover, partly to see if the civvies would respond, and partly to keep as low a profile as possible, the other aliens more than likely not hearing the whistling of their weapons fire over the sound of the cold arctic wind. After observing for a few seconds, the civilians simply ignored the deaths of the three aliens and carried on with their work.

That... Doesn't make sense..." Arturo thought over the intercoms, "If they were working with her they'd react... If they were mind controlled they'd fire on us... If they were simply prisoners they'd take cover or try to flee..."

The blonde sniper thought for a second, "What if... They're in some sort of trance... Maybe like hypnosis..."

Max turned towards her, "Like... Indirect control? Perhaps like suggestion... That means they won't be a threat then... Good, this was probably the second best scenario for us..."

"'Econd?" Mary asked.

"It would've been better if they weren't controlled at all. Then they'd run for cover instead of walking into our line of fire." Max said, motioning for his squad to move up past the first tunnel entrance. "Alright Snipers, watch those tunnels, we don't want to be caught off guard..."

Almost on queue, two Mutons carrying large crates walks up the tunnel on the left, their eyes widening when they spotted the X-Com snipers taking aim. Their shots whizzed though the air and down the tunnels, so close together it was hard to tell who was whose. The first connected with the mutons's head, the glass visor of his suit failing and sending shards into his face along with the blast. He crumpled on his knees, the second shot just whizzed over the dead Muton's shoulders and connecting with the lungs of the second Muton, sending his weapon flying and him to the floor, gasping, but not killing him. A third Muton in red armor that towered over it's compatriots turned to walk up the tunnel as well. Upon seeing his comrades and the X-com forces, the Berserker went it a rage, roaring at the top of his lungs and charging through the rest of the team's gunfire and out into the snow.

The Berserker made it surprisingly far before it fell to the barrage, the tougher armor allowing it so soak even more shots than one normally would but still succumbing to the onslaught before even getting twenty feet from them. "Heh', neh' e'en close." Mary said, smirking a little under her mask and letting her weapon cool down. However the roar seemed to have stirred up the hornet's nest as the lights around the complex started flashing brightly accompanied with blaring sirens. As Max's stealth plan fell apart, he ordered his team forward, "Shit... You know what that means! Double time people, we have to get on that ship!"

The team started to pick up the pace but were stopped in their tracks by the sight of a massive Sectopod that looked to have been modified for mining in the colder climates. Smaller plasma blasts than usual shot out of the hulking machine's front cannon, but still forcing the X-Com team into cover. The mech took aim for Damian, blasting his cover to pieces in two blasts spaced about two seconds apart. His cover now gone, the Sectopod to aim for the killing blow, but Bandersnatch whirred into the shot, saving Damian's life and providing him much needed cover. The SHIV's threads bad been melted off by the plasma, however, causing it to sink helplessly into the snow whenever it tried to move.

Ammelia took aim at the monsterous mech but was forced back into cover when a Cyberdisc floated up behind it to give it covering fire. Two small drones flew around the alien tank's gigantic body, patching up any damage that had been done to it thus far.

Max looked up to see that the Sectopod was almost completely repaired and clenched his
fist. Dammit... We don't have time for this... "Christine!" Arturo shouted, "Hit em' with the heat!"

The rocketeer nodded, firing her blaster launcher while still in cover. Ammelia and Mary watched as the green ball gently maneuvered across the battlefield, landing in the middle of the enemy forces and exploding in a emerald cloud. Ammelia instinctively powered her SAaIDA off before the bomb exploded as she had done many times before, when she turned it back on, she could see that all that was left of the Cyberdisc and drones that they were fighting was two flaming, melted wrecks, and a single, undamaged drone. The Sectopod, however, was still standing, but had it's armor almost completely melted off by the blast. The stubborn machine attempted to fire off a single shot but a sudden rush of cold blew into the now unprotected core of the machine. The core rapidly cooled down as the tank took it's final step forward, it's lights shut down slowly as the one great creature lowered it's head, permanently powering down and succumbing to the chill of the south.

The squad could hear sounds of energy building up, they looked over to the ship that was about forty feet away now, and saw it light up, the engines kicking up the snow around the ship much like the skyranger. "Everyone, It's taking off, we have to go!" Arturo shouted, vaulting over his cover and breaking into a mad sprint towards the alien craft, the rest of the team following soon after.

 

[Frostlich1228]

Operation Dedicated Industria: Pt 2

The noise grew louder and louder as they dashed towards Acedia's fortress, however they thick feet of snow slowed their movement to about a half of what it would normally be. Even though Arturo had started first, Mary quickly pulled ahead of him thanks to her new gene-mods, Ammelia followed closely behind Maximillian with Johnathan Malkovich behind her, then followed Wayne, Lynch, Stewart, Koslov, and Laurent with TSGT Krause, Christine, So Ji, and the SHIV Taqukaq in the very back.

The last drone, who was closer to the ship than the rest of the team, fired a bolt of energy into a specific spot on So Ji's massive legs, this let enough cold in to cause the servomoters in his right leg to lock up, preventing him from moving effectively, much less trek through the feet of snow. Krause and Christine took a second to turn around and look at their friend, helplessly stuck in the snow, contemplating what to do.

Max turned his head back towards them while he ran, "Don't stop for him! Big Sky'll pick him up! If you don't keep moving you'll be left behind!" Krause and Christine nodded towards each other and continued their sprint towards the ship. The drone fired another shot towards the back line, this time clipping Krause in his leg, causing him to stumble for a second and fall behind his allies even more as Christine passed him. A ways in the direction they came, a Muton exited one of the farthest tunnels, a familiar bloody hole in it's chest, it's redundant organs and the cocktail of drugs in it's system keeping it conscious as it raised it's plasma rifle towards the incapacitated engineer. He quickly stood up and brushed himself off as the plasma soared out of the barrel of the Muton's gun, slamming into his back with enough force to sent him forward into the snow in front of him. So Ji's eyes widened as he turned his barely mobile Mec suit in place and raised his weapon towards the Muton, finishing what the sniper squad had started. Mary finally reached the drone, pulling an Arc Thrower off her belt and firing it at the small machine while she ran, the bot lost a few inches of altitude for a second while it restarted but afterwards began to follow Mary like a loyal puppy. Laurent turned back towards the injured Krause as his blood dyed the snow around him, after a split second decision he made a break for Krause, pulling the medi-kit off his belt and tossing it to Christine as he passed her, knowing that not only did his teammates need it more, but he could simply use his psionics to heal him instead. Without words, Christine realized what he was doing and attached the kit to her own belt, still running for the ship as it grew ever louder.

The team had finally reached the ship just as it took off, those who had made it looked around to see who would be joining them for the final fight with Acedia.

Mary, Maximillian, Ammelia, Malkovich, Wayne, Lynch, Stewart, Koslov, and Christine.

Ammelia leaned up against the wall of the surprisingly cozy feeling ship and took a second to catch her breath, she looked over to Mary who was currently toying with her new friend, poking it in it's large glass eye, unphased by her recent sprint through the snow.

"I can't believe we lost Laurent..." Max said, looking through the force field that covered the door they just came in, seeing the land below blurring as the ship accelerated, "I understand why he did it... But he was our only medic..."

Christine stepped up, "Don't worry, he tossed me his medi-kit when he ran past."

"Remind me to... Thank him for thinking ahead." Arturo said, looking up at her.

Christine chuckled a little, "Gotcha, M.A."

"Se' 'ats our plan 'ow?" Mary asked turning away from her drone.

"Well..." He considered, "I'd rather not get shot in the back while we're dealing with Acedia... And I think we still have enough people left to clear the entire ship first."

"Then that's the plan..." Ammelia added as a small group of three sectoids walked around the corner to check the entrances for intruders. They ran into what they were looking for, however hey were unprepared for the number of them still remaining and a few reaction shots from Mary, Malkovich and Lynch dealt with them faster than they could react.

"Everyone, take cover! They know where we are now!" Maximillian spoke as soon as he saw the sectoids hit the floor. The team did what the team leader said, taking cover wherever they could in the narrow hallway they were at. They room closest to them appeared to be a cargo hold of some kind, metal crates of Minerals and Gems like they ones found outside also filled this room, it's clear they're mining operation has found more than a small amount of success. Three armed Thin Men entered the room, looking around for the source of the shots and voice, not wanting to give them the chance to fight back, Max used his hand to point out the group, giving an 'open fire' signal at the sound of three. When he reacted three the Thin Men who taken out in the same way the Mutons had been taken out before, Ammy and Lynch took two, and the rest of the team dealt with the third and any survivors.

"Alright... Move up..." They moved up into the storage room, boxes on all sides giving them plenty of cover if they were to be attacked, however it left them open for ambush if something was hiding behind the creates. As Ammelia walked her augmented hearing picked up a slight chattering noise coming from behind one of the boxes, "Guys... There's something behind that box." She spoke, readying her blaster and slowly leaning around the box. On the other side was a strange three foot tall bug creature, resembling a cockroach standing upright on it's hind legs. The creature jumped a little before backing up against the nearest wall, a strange sense of fear in it's eyes. Jamie jumped as well at the sudden appearance of the creature, taking a few steps away from it with her gun barrel locked onto it's head, "Eh! What is that thing!?"

Max looked over to Stewart and gave her a 'calm down' look before speaking, "It's unarmed... We shouldn't shoot it before we know if it's hostile or not..."

"B-But... look at it! Hostile or not, I'm staying over here..." She replied, not taking her eyes off it.

"'At de' ye' 'ot 'ike 'ugs 'er sumtin'?" Mary asked giving the muscular woman a slight smirk.

"I... I don't have a- I mean bugs are..." She sighed, "Alright fine! I don't like bugs! Happy?"

"'Course 'eh 'em, eh' strong 'oman 'ike you 'ared 'eh bugs? Priceless."

"Oh go f-" Stewart glared, being cut off by Max.

"We don't need to worry about these guys, but my rule is that if they don't shoot first, they're friendlys, got it?" He said, looking at Jamie.

"Fine... Doesn't mean I don't be watching my back around these things though..." She responded, lowing her weapon slightly.

"And Thomas." He said looking over to her, "We don't need you antagonizing people."

She rolled her eyes at squad leader, "Eh' in'nt 'ink she'd be se' 'ostile."

Arturo looked over to the bug man once again and took a few steps back from him, signalling for it to leave. The alien looked over to the left and took off to hide behind another box while it had the chance. The team exited the storage room and headed through another cozy hallway and into the next large room that they could see, what looked to be a Laboratory of sorts. Inside, three mutons stood watching the door, taking shots at the first person who came into view, Mary. She jumped back instinctively, her muscle enhancements sending her back quickly enough to dodge the shots. The team set up by the door, Max peeking in to see the Mutons taking cover behind a large, sturdy alien alloy table. "Alright, Malkovich, let's blow their cover."

He nodded as they both pulled their alien grenades from their belts and tossed them into the room, bouncing them off the back wall and causing it to land squarely in the middle of the room and behind the Muton's cover. They looked down, the rightmost Muton had the quick thinking to try to toss the grenades back, but the cooked grenade's fuses were just too short and instead of throwing them, they simply detonated in the Muton's faces, leaving them nothing but blooded, charred piles of meat inside a smoldering crater. The last and final room to check was what looked to be an engineering bay of sorts, but still extremely cozy and radiating a calm atmosphere that conflicted with the raid that was going on.

 

[Frostlich1228]

Operation Dedicated Industria: Pt 3

Inside the room was another mining Sectopod, sitting inactive on a raised, circular segment of the floor. They entered slowly, checking the corners of the room for any hostiles, finding none. Maximillian looked up towards the inactive Sectopod, "Looks like it's still functional... We should take it out to make sure no one decides to activate it behind us."

He took a few steps closer to the machine and as he did, a panel opened up on the floor behind it, raising Mechtoid and another two drones from an area in the lower compartments of the ship. The alien MEC took aim at Arturo as his eyes widened in surprised, it raised it's double arm cannons and him, but a disabling shot snap shot from Ammelia flew from her Pulse Sniper Rifle, slamming through both of the Sectoid's main guns. The Sectoid looked down at his ruined weapons with frustration, slamming them into each other in a vain attempt to get them to work. It looked up at the drones as they attempted a repair, but two shots from Max kept them from even trying. It looked back over as the X-Com soldiers took aim at it, the Mectoid tried to dodge behind something to get himself out of his enemies line of fire, however another disabling shot from Lynch crashed into it's legs, preventing it from moving. It tried to drag it's foot away before Mary and the rest of the squad focused fire on it, but it failed to move fast enough to get away and was torn apart by the focused barrage. The decimated machine crumbled the floor, the pilot still barely breathing as it looked up at the ceiling, then at the X-com soldiers once again. It's large black eyes struggled to stay open as it's chest cavity filled with blood, it reached it's arm out of the cabin towards the soldiers in a vain attempt for a mind fray, but the creature had so little energy left that the aura didn't even form. Ammelia walked up to the struggling creature and pulled out her blaster, taking aim at the creature's head. She could've simply left it to suffer, but something inside compelled her to do this, it just seemed too cruel to leave it to slowly bleed out, even for a creature as sadistic as a Sectoid. Ammy took a breath and squeezed the trigger, ending the small creature's helpless struggle.

As she did a faint whirring could be heard from the Sectopod as it's lights flashed on. The team ran behind the nearest cover they could, which was mostly lab tables or the occasional box. The main gun opened and took fire at Mary, she rolled out her cover as it was blasted apart, she dodged it's next shot to the left, and then to the right, all the while firing her Pulsar into it's chassis. The hulking machine took fire from all sides, it's weaker armor buckling and twisting against the blows from all directions, eventually a precision shot from Lynch finished it off, causing it's legs to fail and the tank to fall off the elevated platform, exploding on it's impact with the ground.

Ammelia fast-walked up to her sister, "Are you alright? That thing seemed like it had a vendetta against you..."

"Yeh', 'ese mods 'ake 'odging an' straf'in 'eh breeze!" Mary answered her sister, the petite drone still floating near her head, occasionally rotating the four spot welders poking out of the center of it's body, "Eh'm regrett'in net' gett'in 'ese earlier."

Maximillian stepped in front of his team, standing tall, "Alright guys, we only have one place to go now... The throne room."

Ammelia looked over to him confidently and took a step forward, "I'm ready..."

Mary stepped up after her, "Meh' te'."

"And me." Spoke lynch as he followed their lead.

"Then let's kill us an Ethereal." Arturo replied, grinning slightly.

They circled around the way they came to get back to the other end of the ship, when they did, they spotted a large group of alien hostiles consisting of three Thin Men, three Sectoids, and three Mutons, all waiting for them, having probably been pulled back to defend the area near the entrance of the throne room when they realized that intruders were on board. As soon as they saw Max the group opened fire, however Arturo and the rest of the team managed to pull into cover before any of their slight misses could turn into hits.

"Shit... That's too many to handle in a straight up gunfight... Christine!" Max spoke looking over to the psionic rocketeer, "Have anymore rockets left?"

She nodded, keeping her head down to avoid the fire, "Yeah! A shredder and a Normal!"

Maximillian gave her a grin, "Then hit them with the normal while they're bunched up! If the rocket doesn't kill them, we'll just finish them off."

The orange psionic pulled out her upgraded launcher, firing another glowing, vibrating orb towards the enemy forces. They panicked for a second, but were unable to escape the blast radius of the explosive, leaving the hall they were standing in a pile of rubble along with them.
The team advanced forward, quickly checking the bodies to be sure they were dead, satisfied, they moved forwards. Coming across a corner, the team leader took cover, angling his head out to see what he was up against.

It was guarded by not one, but two large Incubators along with a single Sectoid Commander. The Commander looked different than usual, it was missing it's right arm, instead having what seemed to be an alloy prosthetic. The Sectoid 'felt' a presence with his psionics and turned towards the team's direction, a large, glowing, red eye on a metal plate took of up most of it's face as it pointed it's metal arm in the direction of the intruders.

The two Incubators approached the corner that Arturo was hiding behind, Max took blind shots from around the corner, The incubators dodged but the fact that he didn't know where he was aiming threw them off a little. They took off in a run towards the corner, but were stopped in their tracks by a floating green orb guiding around the corner and heading towards them. Max smiled as the ball exploded, catching one in blast but giving the one closer to the throne room door time to jump back. The first Incubator stood up on it's wobbly front legs, it's fur burning and it's flesh torn by the surprise shredder rocket. Mary moved around the corner, firing her pulser at the first incubator as she did, the cat dodged the first two shots but the damage to one of it's back legs prevented it from dodging the third, then the fourth, then the fifth, until it finally fell. When it was dead Mary moved into cover behind a piece of alloy jutting out of the side of the thin hallway as Christine and Lynch took cover next to her. The Sectoid Commander tried for a Mind Control on Christine but the orange psionic resisted, just long enough for Lynch to take off it's prosthetic arm with a single sniper rifle blast. The frail creature squealed, the pain of losing the arm shooting up into his chest.

The Incubator took cover itself, pinned down by Mary and Christine's gunfire, unable to back up because of the narrow hallway behind it and unable to charge and dodge the shots due to the amount of rounds at the size of the hallway in front of it, it was stuck. The Sectoid turned the corner and poked his head out quickly, firing a blast of energy from the eye on it's head, the blast flew through the hall and connected with Christine's leg. She grasped it in pain and the Incubator took this chance to charge now that one of the two suppressors was forced behind her cover. It rushed out, barreling down the hallways with a clam hatred in it's eyes. Ammelia, Lynch and the rest of the team fired at it, it dodged the sniper shots with ease, jumping to dodge the first one and ducking for the second, however Christine fought through the burning in her leg and pulled her weapon over the cover to join Mary in filling the hall with as much energy as possible. The Incubator didn't expect her to simply tough it out and tried to backpedal, but it was too far down the hall to go back now, the creature dodged as much as it could but was simply overwhelmed but the sheer amount of firepower heading it's way. The CyberSectoid looked at the dead creatures with despair as it attempted to open the force field door to Acedia's throne room but was stopped dead by a sniper round though the head, sending shards of metal, glass, and blood running down the energy field.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Dedicated Industria: Part 4

After a minute to reload and check for wounds, the team stepped past their fallen cybernetic opponent and opened the door to the bridge. A soft hum came from the computers, another from the large, impressive heating units that made the room feel like a tropical paradise, despite the ship still flying over the Antarctic continent. Several of the insect-like aliens turned to look at the approaching humans, and all but one ran to hide. The last used every ounce of bravery within it to switch the ship to autopilot before running for cover itself.

As they stepped further in, each soldier was struck with a sudden sense of dizziness, the entire squad feeling a headache come on, only lasting for a few seconds, but painful enough to bring a few of them to their knees. As it went away, they were left with silence, no attack coming at first, no sounds of plasma fire, just the faint sound of murmuring further into the room.

Ammelia grasped her head, whispering, “W-What was that…?”

Maximillian looked over to her, “I don’t know… Perhaps it has something to do with her psionic energy…”

“Makes sense I suppose…” Lynch responded, looking further into the room and seeing what looked to be the corner of a dark red robe, “I… She’s over there, I think I saw her robe….”

“Then maybe she hasn’t seen us yet… Let’s see if we can catch her off guard…” Arturo said, advancing slowly with the rest of the team behind him.

I’m sorry to burst your… bubble? Is that the… the phrase… whatever. I’ve known you were here since you KILLED my PETS! Do you have… ANY… idea how hard it is to find Jei’los that aren’t tainted but New Ones with anger issues. Because… because it’s hard…

“Do you think we care what happened to your pets? That’s a small price to pay for all the people you and your kind has killed.” Max said raising his weapon alongside the rest of the team.

Yes, I… I suppose… that makes sense, not sure… why I thought you’d… ahem. The lights came in the the back of the throne room, Acedia sitting amongst several trance-like humans, all pampering her in one way or another. To each of his sides was a Muton Elite, shifting uncomfortably, either out of blood lust, or because they were incredibly uncomfortable in the hot room and their bulking armor. Welcome, humans, to may… do I really want to welcome them? She looked at one of the Elites, and it only shrugged.

“‘Is is th’ Ethereal?” Mary asked, turning to her friends, “‘’Ittle ‘isapoint’in if ye’ ask meh’...”

You… you now I can hear you, right? You two, kill the… the rude one! Acedia waved her hands forward, and the Elites rushed forward, able to get into cover before the squad had a clear shot away from the humans.

The squad backed up into the nearest cover they could, going behind the large alloy support beams that held up the throne room. Arturo looked over to his snipers, “Cross, Lynch, take out those elites, we’ll keep Acedia pinned!”

Ammy nodded, leaning around the corner and taking a quick shot at the right-most elite. The blast slammed into it’s head, but other than being forced to take a few steps back, the creature was unaffected, not even leaving a dent in it’s helm. “W-What? What kind of armor do these things have!?”

Hmm… organized. Gonna make me get up, aren’t you… whatever. Acedia waved her hand, the door to a side room opening. The humans all stood up, and robotically left as the Ethereal stretched. Raising her arms, a fireball formed in one, the beginning of a psi lance in a second as the other two started to glow violet. Lets get this over with…

The team started to focus fire on the Ethereal, but the energy blasts simply glanced off her shield with no effort. “Shit!” Maximillian cursed as he slid back behind his cover, “Whatever you do, don’t get hit by those!”

Hit by what? Oh, you mean these? Acedia flicked her wrists, a fireball slamming into the post next to Max, a psi lance punching a hole in the ground next to Jamie. Behind Acedia, a large, sharp pole lifted into the air, and shot forward with incredible speed, bearly missing Mary as it punched several feet into the wall. Surrender humans, and I might go easy on you.

“Telekinesis? Pyrokinesis? Psi Lance? I thought she was a Blue psion? Was our info wrong?” Christine spoke under her breath.

Arturo looked with a feeling of dread at the pole in the wall, “Everyone! Hit the Elites, deal with them first!”

The team listened, focusing they’re fire at the one that has already been hit, a few shots connected with it’s chest but did absolutely nothing as it moved behind a pillar in front of it.

A high pitched chuckle emanated from the Ethereal’s mask. Come now, it is no use! Give up! You can’t hurt them, because I… I’m… protecting them! Yeah! They can’t die as long as I’m alive, and if you focus on me… they’ll kill you! Surrender, humans!

Ammelia noticed the stutter in her ‘voice’. Is… Is she lying? Why would she lie? Something’s not right…

Arturo hid behind his pillar, thinking a mile a minute, sweat beads rolling down his face, I-Is she Imbuing their armor? No, there’d be a glow… Can she hide it? There has to be some way to…

Acedia let out an exaggerated sigh. Just… come on already… why keep fighting? It is impossible to beat me, so why... She lifted all four of her arms, and the computer near her floated into the air, and flew towards Ammelia’s hiding spot.

The sniper leaned out for only a second, but just long enough for the computer to connect with her arm, breaking it in several places and throwing her to the floor. She screamed in pain as it hit her, grasping her limp arm.

Mary looked over to her sister, “Ammelia… Bloody ‘ell…” She gripped her weapon tightly and tried to make a dash to her sister’s pillar, but despite her speed, a ball of plasma still connected with her leg, severely burning it. The pain of the impact caused Mary to trip, sliding across the slick floor, she crawled behind something as fast as she could and swore as she looked back over to her sister, now cringing from the pain. Mary looked around but noticed something peculiar, the drone that she had hacked was no where to be found and had not followed her into the throne room. “‘W- ‘Ere es’...”

Ammelia moved back behind her cover, her arm trembling with pain and looking over to the enemy. No… This makes no sense… Her shield is so powerful but… She’s a blue… She’s using red with ease even though… Wait a minute… That Avaritia said something about her having a special power of some kind didn’t he? Could this be it? Is all this… Fake?

Acedia’s abilities faltered for a moment, the Ethereal looking around frantically. Suddenly, where all else had failed, one of the pulse shots punched through the chest of a Muton Elitie, dropping it like a bag of rocks. You… you managed to kill one, but… but I can stop you with only one… or by myself! Yeah… so… so give up! It is only a matter of time!

“Guys!” Ammelia shouted, looking over to her teammates, “Something’s not right, I think this might be fake!”

Arturo stopped his wild train of thoughts and considered what she was saying, “Of… Of course… She shouldn’t be able to use the power’s she’s using… We know how much she hates work, why would she even bother fighting us herself…” He turned back towards his team, “Everyone! This isn’t real! None of it!”

Y… yes, it is! Look, her… her arm is broken. How could I… fake that? Acedia lifted her arms again, a giant fireball appearing over her head. This… this is your last chance! Give up, or I burn you… um, roast you! Roast… right?

After realizing what she was doing the pain in Ammelia’s arm disappeared. She moved it up and down and gripped the bottom of her rifle again. “It can’t hurt you if you know it’s fake! Just keep firing at her!” Maximillian and the rest of the team did so and her shield began to fracture from the continued fire.

You… fine! But I… I’ll show you how much something fake can still hurt! Acedia hurled the fireball forward, the room erupting in in light, blinding everyone.

As the world started to come into focus, and Ammelia blinked rapidly, Elene stepped back, placing the bandages to the side. “Well? How is it?” The Exalt heiress asked. “It should have been a complete success.”

The room glowed a bright white as Ammy turned her head towards Elene who was wearing a all white lab coat with short black hair. Ammelia covered her mouth, “It’s… I…” She couldn’t speak, she looked over to the other side of the bed, Buniq standing over her with a smile on her face. The dark purple of her chryssalid plates, matched the bright blue of her eyes and the solid black of her hair well. A huge smile stretched across the sniper’s face as she looked at her love, just as beautiful as she had imagined. “It’s amazing…”

“Welcome to the world of sight,” Jessica said, standing next to her with big smile on her face.

“Not that you needed it,” Desmond quickly said, “but… it’s a nice place to be in, so…”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “I… wonder what you… oh, I know! You and Buniq should go and find of, beautiful batch of the brightest patch of flowers to look at!”

“Y-yeah! That sounds wonderful!” Ammy replied, still beaming.

Alexia sighed, sulking a little on Ammelia’s other side. “That isn’t fair… I wanna go too. Maybe you should have gone out with her, Jes. Then you could have invited me, too.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Dedicated Industria: Part 5

Jessica shook her head. “Hush, Alex. This is Ammelia’s big moment, something she waited until that nasty war was over with to get done. Don’t take it from her.”

Alexia grinned. “Oh, come on. She knows I’m just kidding with her.”

Ammelia smiled faded as she looked at the spitting image of Jessica standing next to her, realizing that something was very wrong. “What… Y-You’re not Alexia… Who are you!”

Alexia chuckled. “What do you mean? Elene, I hate to break it to you, but I’m not sure it was a complete success after all. Seems it messed with her brain a bit.”

Jessica leaned over. “What’s wrong, Ammy? Of course this is Alex. Considering we’re twins, I think I would recognize my own sister, silly.”

“N-No! You’re not twins like that! I…” The sniper looked around rapidly, “I have to be dreaming… This isn’t real… It can’t be…”

The color started to fade from the people around her as Desmond frowned. “Why… can’t you just be happy with it, Ammelia. It is a nice dream, right?”

“Because this isn’t right… You’re not Desmond!” Ammelia started to panic a little, taking out the IV’s in her arms and trying to get out of the bed.

The other occupants sighed, and all lifted their hands, the world turning black in a combined snap.

==========

Mary sat in the middle of a rather colorless, average looking living room. She looked at the Tv in front of her, it was playing one of favorite childhood shows, My Little Pony, as her adopted father sat next to her, watching it with her and softly stroking her hair.

The thirty year old man had a rugged appearance with his five-o-clock shadow and rather messy hair. He looked down at her and smiled, “Hey, Mary Berry, want me to get you some popcorn?”

“Y-Yeh!” She spoke in a soft voice, hugging on to her dad’s side, “I ‘ove ye’ dad…”

“I love you too sweetie…” He said as he got up from the chair, grabbing a yellow plastic bowl from in between them and carrying it into the kitchen with them.

Mary waited for him to return, looking at the table in front of her, the clutter that covered it was a common sight in their home. Bottles, empty cigarette cartons, and decks of cards were among the more interesting bits. Her father came back into the room with a piping hot bowl of buttered popcorn, Mary’s favorite snack.

“Here you are sweetie.” He spoke, wedging the bowl in the middle of two cushions on the couch. There they sat for a while, eating popcorn telling each other jokes, and enjoying the show. It lasted until Mary’s father clicked the Tv off, “It’s getting late hun, it’s time for bed alright.”

“Aww, ‘eally? ‘Et’s ‘enly se’en thirty!” She spoke with a slight squeak.

“Yeah, but you need to get your sleep, I’ll be down here if you have any nightmares alright?”

“Al’ight…” Mary responded, a hint of disappointment in her voice as she drug her feet up the stairs. She was also at her room when she heard a knock on the door, normally daddy didn’t want her downstairs this late, but she always wondered why. She decided to peek back down the stairs to see who it was that was always coming by so late. The father opened the door and three men stood there, all in rather dirty looking clothing and two with a large amount of facial hair.

“Hey, you guys ready to play?” Mary’s dad spoke, looking at the group of men.

“Damn right, I ‘ant to see if we can get e’en more eh your money tenight!” He chuckled heartily.

“I don’t plan on letting that happen again, Mac.” He replied.

“Ye’ better be, dun’ know how much ye’ ‘ave left.”

“I’ll get it all back tonight just watch me.”

“Ye’ say ‘at every night…”

They all gathered around the table in the dining room, setting up cards and taking out their wallets. Mary watched the strange game for a bit and only after a few minutes her father slammed his hands into the table, knocking some of the cards to the side.

“Ye’ lost, again. Time to pay up…”

“I look… I’ll get you the money… Later… I have Mary to take care of right now…”

“You ‘aid ye’ were gunna pay, I’m seeing ‘cuses, not dough…”

Mary took a gulp and walked down the stairs into the dining room, determined to stop these people from bullying her dad. “H-Hey! Why are ye’ ‘uys ‘eing mean te’ my ‘ad?!”

Mary’s father almost leap out of his seat, “Sweetie, I told you to say upstairs didn’t I?!”

“Buh’ ‘ese people are ‘eing mean te’ you! I ‘ant ‘em te’ stop!” Mary slammed her foot.

Her father walked over to her, crossing his arms, “I said go back upstairs!”

“No! Net’ ‘till ‘ey stop!”

“Now!!” He yelled this time, causing Mary to take a step back.

“N-Neh!”

He cleched his fist and walked closer to her, taking his hand and slamming it against her face, bringing her to the floor.

“Ah!...” Mary cried as she started to cry, “Wh- Why… Ye’... Ye’ ‘ould ne’er do ‘at… Ye’r not meh’ ‘ad! Yer ‘ot!”

“Of course I am! I just told you to go upstairs!” He shouted again.

“No! Go ehway!” Mary replied, sprinting towards the door to the house and swinging it open and stepping out into the street. The environment seemed unfinished, buildings half made, no one on the streets, like this place was something she was never suppose to see. The ground broke under her and she fell into a black abyss, closing her eyes as she fell.

==========

When the world started to come back into focus, Ammelia and Mary found themselves on familiar ground, within the X-COM headquarters. What was unfamiliar was the atmosphere, the air heavy with the smell of death and decay. Littered before them were the bodies of several X-COM soldiers, several of which they recognized.

Why? Why couldn’t you just accept the happiness, Ammelia? Why couldn’t you just fall in line like a proper child, Mary? Why… why fight? Just… accept it? Do you think I enjoy doing this? Do you… I could have started with this, when you were still convinced it was real! Just… stop fighting!

“I’ll never stop fighting you! I refuse to just sit around like some sort of pet while my friends fight this war without me!” Ammy yelled, ignoring the body as she knew they were fake.

“Yeh’, eh’d ne’er let eh’ bloody cunt ‘ike ye’ ‘ell me ‘at te’ do!” Mary added, glaring at the Ethereal.

Acedia rubbed the back of her night. Jeez… so much trouble. I’m… so tired of this. Fine, then… suffer… I guess... She snapped her fingers, and the decimated bodies around them slowly rose to their feet, shuffling towards Ammy and Mary. Dream world or not, it’s only a matter of time. They might not be able to break your bodies, but they’ll break your minds.

“We won’t let you! This is our mind and we’re in control of it!” Ammelia yelled, causing the zombified corpses to stop in their tracks.

“We’re en’ con’rol ‘ere an’ we ‘an ‘orce ye’ out!” The gunner spoke. The corpses turned back in Acedia’s direction, their wounds slowly sewing themselves together.

“Ye’ messed wit’ the wrong two ‘isters ye’ bitch!” She yelled, a faintly green aura beginning to surround her. The corpses skin began to return to it’s normal color as weapons materialized in their hands. They all glared at the Ethereal, pointing their weapons up at her and getting ready to fire.

 

[Frostlich1228]

Operation Dedicated Industria: Part 6

You… you’re absorbing my… stop it! How did… Luxuria control… Acedia extended her hands, trying to exert her energy on the aiming soldiers, but the strain of controlling all of their squadmates, fighting the sister’s combined will, and delving too deep into Mary’s mind was too much for her. As a series of weapons powered up, Acedia shuddered in pain and frustration. Why… h-how are you… doing this…

The gauss weapons in their friend’s hand reached full power, “‘Ame o’er, Ethereal…” As she said that the guns fired, sending blasts of powerful energy straight towards Acedia with no chance for her to block. The shots ruptured though her pitiful attempt at a shield and began connecting with her body, the pain bringing her to the floor.

Consciousness snapped into the sister’s minds, along with those of the rest of the squad. As they looked around, they could see the shattered remains of the SHIV and two Muton Elites being cleaned up by the insect aliens. Looking more closely at themselves, they were no longer in their armor, but rather some loose-fitting white cloaks like the ones the humans were wearing when they came into the bridge, assuming any of that had been real. Ammelia stood by a shuddering Acedia, grapes in her hand, while Mary found herself on the floor, the Ethereal’s feet in her hands.

Ammelia dropped the grapes on the floor while Mary quickly stood to her feet, wiping her hands on the robes she was wearing. “Eww…” The gunner said as she looked up at the Ethereal, shuttering on her throne, “Eh’m ‘oing te’ take ‘eh ‘ice ‘ong shower ‘en eh’ get ‘ack…”

Lynch looked around the room in a daze, looking at both the girls then down at himself, “Uh… What? What happened?”

“She trapped us in our own minds… I think…” Ammelia explained, looking around in an attempt to find her weapons, “We beat her though, I guess she couldn’t keep all of it up at one time.”

Acedia shuttered, slowly pointing at Mary. Yes, I… I-I overexerted myself, But… but she was too resistant. To many… mental blocks. Had to put… a little of myself into those illusions. She… stole some of my energy…

“Eh’, Eh’ did?” Mary asked, finding her Pulser on the floor next to one of the pillars, also picking up her drone that sat powerless on the floor in the corner, but still in working condition.

“So does that mean you’re… Psychic?” Ammelia looked over to her sister but all she did was shrug.

M-minor… limited... psionics… please don’t… judge her harshly, Ammelia. Like… your special friend. Acedia moved to stand up, but fell back down, placing her hands over her head.

“Why are you being so nice to us? What’s your game?” Ammelia looked back over to the exhausted Ethereal.

Acedia chuckled lightly. No game, I… I am just tired. I don’t… I can’t anymore. Please, just… just end this. I can’t do this anymore. She weakly raised her hand, and snapped her fingers. Th-the… hypnotized humans… all of them... I released them… now please… just end it already…

“That’s easy enough for me” Lynch said, picking up a sniper rifle off the ground.

Ammy hesitated for a moment but stepped in front of her, blocking his shot, “Wait… I… I think we should… Spare her…”

“What do you mean? We can’t take her back with us anyway, we have no room.” He said, taking a few steps closer.

“She had us right where she wanted us… She could’ve killed us whenever she wanted but she didn’t… I don’t feel right just… killing her…”

“‘En ‘at do ye’ ‘ant te’ do?” Mary said, lowering her weapon.

“Maybe we could just… Let her go…” Ammelia suggested.

Acedia looked between the soldiers, seemingly confused. Would you… could you do that? I… or are you just… torturing me with false hope?

“I don’t like this… If the commander finds out we could get kicked out of the project for disobeying orders.” Lynch replied.

“Well… We don’t have our armor anymore… That means she can’t see what we’re doing, right?” Ammelia said, “And besides, we already know all her tricks… If she comes back we’ll just kill her no problem…”

“I… Ergg… What do you want me to tell Arturo then?” He put down his weapon.

“Tell him that she… Got away… That she used the time she was controlling us to escape the ship…” Ammelia answered, looking back at Acedia.

Acedia continued to watch them for a moment, using what was left of her energy to scan Ammelia’s thoughts. Satisfied with what she found, she slowly reached up, and unlatched her mask. She pulled of her helmet, and placed it in front of Ammelia. I… I tire of this constant struggle… I am faithful to the Path. I strive for Ascension. But the way we have gone about it… In your time, I have been at this for over three hundred years. I… I can’t anymore. I need to find a way to reach it on my own, away from all this experimentation, away from all this death… away from… all this work…

“Then go… And don’t come back… There has to be an escape pod or something on this ship, take it and never come back. If you do, I won’t be so merciful the next time you see me.”

Acedia nodded, climbing to her feet. You have my word. Thank you. I… I see what Avaritia saw in you humans. She floated over to one of the walls, hitting a hidden panel. The wall opened to a small ship, just large enough for one or two occupants. She hesitated for a moment, scanning the room. She pointed towards one of the strange aliens insects near the back. The… one on the left. She can pilot the ship for you. It is yours. You earned it, of course.

“Thank you…” Ammelia said, looking down at the mask, “Now go, before I change my mind…”

Of course. Acedia entered the escape ship, the wall closing behind her. A few minutes later, the room rumbled slightly as the pod detached and rocketed away.

Ammelia sighed, looking over to Mary and Lynch, “Let’s go find our armor… The commander’s probably worried sick…”

The three soldiers left the throne room together and found their armor sitting on a large table just outside what looked like armory. Ammelia picked up her helmet and placed it on her head, flipping the comms on. “Hello? Can anyone read me?”

“CROSS!” Morrigan practically screamed into the comm, leaving a slight ringing in Ammelia’s ear for a few seconds. “Oh, my Lord, Ammelia, are you… where have you… are you okay!?”

“Everyone’s fine… Why are you screaming?” Ammy asked.

“What… why do you think?” Morrigan laughed grimly. “We thought you were dead! Alice lost her signal with the SHIV hours ago. We assumed the worst when everyone else’s feed went dark.”

“Hours!? We… Ran into some complications… Acedia trapped us in our own minds and we were acting as her servants. We got out, but, Acedia used the time to escape…”

“She did?” Morrigan was silent for a few moments. Finally, she said, “Okay, we’ll get her next time. At least we trashed her little operation and took her mobile base. How did you… doesn’t matter, I’ll read your reports. You… said everyone is okay. No casualties?”

“No, she had us under her power, completely vulnerable, but I guess she didn’t want to…”

“Hmm… guess she lived up to her name…” Morrigan sighed. “Then mission success, Ethereal or not. Do you… know where you are?”

One of the small aliens tuck its head out the doorway, watching the soldiers talk to the Commander.

“Not really… But I think we’ll be able to get a ride home… And we’ve got a present for you, a big one.” The sniper replied looking over at the insect alien, smiling.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Council Mission: Target Extraction Mission

Operation Hot Water
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Astoria Tower

Date: October 19th, 2018
Time: 2000 Hours (Local Time)

Briefing:
An important friend of the Council has come under attack by aliens in the United States. It would reflect poorly on our efforts if we were to allow such an important ally to be killed by hostile forces. We'll need you to ensure her safe return to XCOM HQ.

The individual in question was attacked directly in her apartment in Chicago. Her status should have kept her location hidden from them, more so then many others, and yet all accounts seem to suggest she was their target. Regardless, their presense at the sight suggests she is still alive, but her condition is otherwise unknown. Make haste to the seen, and find her.

Number of soldiers for this mission: Twelve (12) troops, accompanied by two (2) Hover SHIVs

Soldier Names:
Major 5 (MSGT) Atka Ipiktok (Scout) (Blue Psionic)*
GSGT Wong, Sarah (Sniper) (Blue Psionic) [Depth Perception, Muscle Fiber Density]
GSGT Nash, Kevin (Assault) [Smart Macrophages, Muscle Fiber Density, Bioelectric Skin. Neural Feedback]
GSGT Smith, Kris (Gunner) [Magnified Bicep Structure, Reaction Time Overclocker]
GSGT Connor, Megan (Rocketeer) [Dextrous Muscle Fibers]
GSGT Ortiz, Amanda (Guardian) [MEC]
Emma Exalt (Shadow Operative) [Bioelectric Skin. Neural Feedback, Reaction Time Overlocker, Lusett Eyes, Avanix Implants]**
Vee Exalt (Destroyer) [Muscle Fiber Density, Adrenal Neurosympathy, Iron Skin, Aerobic Respiration Boost, Magnified Bicep Structure, Dextrous Muscle Fibers, Reaction Time Overlocker, Lusett Eyes, Avanix Implants, Body Enhancements]
Subject 160: "Guillermo" (Infantry) [Hyper-Reactive Pupils, Adrenal Neurosympathy, Magnified Bicep Structure]
Subject 176: “Casin” (Engineer) [Muscle Fiber Density, Magnified Bicep Structure, Dextrous Muscle Fibers]
Subject 170: "Ongla" (Support) [Adaptive Bone Marrow, Reaction Time Overlocker]
(M.E.S.H.A ) A.V.A.N.I.X (Medic Role)
Hover S.H.I.V. Unit 1: "Jabberwock"
Hover S.H.I.V. Unit 2: "Jubjub"

*Squad Leader
**Second in Command

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

- Primary weapon: Either a Plasma Stormgun, a Plasma Carbine, a Plasma Rifle, a Heavy Plasma Rifle, a Reflex Cannon (Infantry, Assault, Scout, Medic, Engineer), a Plasma Sniper Rifle (Sniper), a Reflex Rifle (Sniper, Scout), a Plasma Novagun (Gunner, Heavy), or a Plasma Dragon (Gunner, Heavy)

(Blaster Launcher for Heavies and Rocketeers, Particle Cannon for MECs, Superheavy Plasma for SHIVs)

- Armor: Banshee Armor, Aegis Armor, Titan Armor, or Seraph Armor (Four Shadow Armors also available)

- Secondary Weapon: Either a Plasma Pistol, a Plasma Mauler, or a Hand Scatter Plasma Blaster (H.S.P.B.)

- Equipment: Two (2) of the following; a medikit, combat stims, alloy plating, reinforced armor, chitin plating, a battle scanner, an AP grenade, an alien grenade, a psi grenade, a smoke grenade, a chem grenade, a ghost grenade, a high-capacity magazine, a targeting module, a mind shield, or an Arc Thrower.

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

Details:
The team will be dropped off on the roof, after which the dropship will land on the ground one block from the hotel. It will only be one floor down to the target's apartment on the twenty-fifth floor. The formally impressive 2 bed, 2.5 bath, 1820 sq. ft. apartment is now little more then a room full of destruction and debris, with a large, gaping hole in the west wall. You'll find a number of dead aliens in here, along with one dead human. The human is so far gone, it will be difficult to recognize anything about them other then the fact that they were a woman. However, the continued attack on the apartment tower suggest it is not.

Look through out this floor for the target, and move down from floor to floor until she is located. If you can find someone who might know her location, good. If not, there is a reason there are two blue psions on the team.

The aliens are littered throughout the building, and the intensity at which they will attack you will increase if and when you locate the target. Upon reaching the ground floor, it is a one-block sprint to the dropship. Good luck. The Council is stressing the importance of finding the target. Additionally, energy readings suggest that a low-level Ethereal might be on the sight, so stay on guard.

Enemies:
Two (2) units of three (3) Sectoids each
Two (2) units of three (3) Thin Men each
One (1) unit of three (3) Mutons
One (1) unit of Two (2) Mutons and one (1) Berserker
Two (2) units of Two (2) Seekers
One (1) unit containing (1) Cyberdisc and two (2) Drones
One (1) unit containing two (2) Heavy Floaters
One (1) unit containing one (1) Ethereal and two (2) Muton Elites

Special Enemy Notes:
The Ethereal, Belial, is a Green Ethereal with minor Blue psionics

Conditions for Completion:

The Extraction of the target. Regardless of the results of the mission, the target's death will result in the mission being declared a failure.

Civilians:
There are likely a number of civilians within the apartment tower that were unable to evacuate. As with most other extraction mission, they should be pointed towards already cleared zones but not taken with, as doing so would only put them in danger, and the aliens focus on the target will likely result in the attack ceasing once the target is extracted.

Special Civilian Note:

Target: Rebecca Carter
Age: 47
Nationality: African American
Hair: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5'7"

Rebecca Carter's relationship to the Council is unknown, but a quick information check has her as a high ranking government official. She has fifteen years of experience in the Marines under her belt, so she can likely handle herself for a while. She has, however, been out of the service for nearly fifteen years, she is pushing fifty, and recent health issues have left her in a weakened state. In addition, even if she survived the initial attack, there is no guarantee she is uninjured. Notes and her service record have her as a stern individual and someone hard to handle by those she isn't close to, but she is knowledgeable about the chain of command, and has respect for authority, even amongst those younger then her. Her knowledge of the aliens as a whole is unknown, but as X-COM and the war is kept out of the public eye as much as possible, do not expect her to know much about the aliens or anything about us. Thus, it might take some coaxing to convince her to trust you.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Hot Water, Part 1

Chicago, Illinois, USA
2000 Hours, October 19th, 2018
Astoria Tower

The hum of the Skyranger’s engines was accompanied by a question. “So… uh, what are we doing, again?” Vee asked, tapping on her plasma novagun like a child who had been given a new toy.

Emma sighed. “If you had been listening, we’re looking for a Rebecca Carter. Aged 47, African American, 5’7. What she has to do with the Council of Nations, I have nothing more than guesses.”

Atka glanced at the familiar faces of Sarah, Kevin, Kris, Amanda, and Megan, noting their hesitance. “Yeah...we don’t exactly have a lot to go off of. I’m sure there’s more to it than what we’ve been told.” The Inuit officer lifted her helmet, activating the communications systems within it. “You sure their briefing doesn’t say any more than what you told us, sir? Going in blind has its dangers.”

“I’m no more happy about it then you are,” Morrigan answered back. “And I don’t like the sense that we seem to be set up for failure here. It has been nearly two hours since the attack. The chances of her being alive are slim. It is as if they want a mission failure the moment you step off the ship…”

“It certainly is an illogical course. One that requires consideration,” Avanix stated.

“We can ask what’s up after we shred whatever aliens are there, right?” Vee responded. “I say we focus on finding this person if they’re still alive, and wipe out the enemy. Then we can worry about ulterior motives and all that jazz.”

Atka smiled slightly. “You do have a point there.” The Major slipped on her helmet, and the others did the same in preparation as the Skyranger reached its destination. The support engines tilted downwards to allow the dropship to touch down briefly on the roof, and unload its cargo of fourteen.

“SHIVs and MECs take point as usual, and I’ll be close by them. Everyone else, follow in a loose formation, and be ready to get into cover if a firefight takes place. I don’t like confined quarters with a squad this big, but we’ll make do, and this is a large building.” The mechanized troops accompanied Atka at the spearhead of squad, being about as heavily armored as her. But unlike the base defense, the reflex rifle-wielding scout was in heavy titan armor, Seraph armor not really that useful inside. Just don’t fa-no, I’m not even going to think about that.

The XCOM soldiers began to file down the stairs, and came into the remains of a massive room. Some of the ground was stained with water spurting up from broken pipes, remnants of an exquisite bathroom. The liquid mixed with others, ichory alien blood tinting it a sickly green. The rest of the room was rubble or fragments, laden with bodies to make it look like a warzone.

Kevin kicked over the facedown corpse of a Muton, shaking his head at the deformed mass of flesh left over. The front half was more or less blown off, and the Legion clones reported the same for all but one of the Sectoids.

Emma looked the gray alien over, shaking her head. “Plasma… unless one of the alien’s detonators was malfunctioning, someone had both a plasma weapon and an alien grenade.”

Atka raised an eyebrow. “It took us so many months to just get this tech… so either a rogue alien is involved, or…”

“Someone with access to our technology, though they’d have to have worked fast,” Avanix surmised. “Likely the former, but if it were the latter…”

It is beginning to look more and more like we were set up, Avanix. I hesitate to jump to conclusions, but we are aware of any significant dissident factions amongst the extraterrestrials, and they are all under our watch. Emma glanced up from the Sectoid corpse as Amanda called out another body, this one human.

“Can’t tell much, but I’m pretty sure this is a woman. Can’t be sure if this is the one we’re looking for, but if they’re in the penthouse, surrounded by a bunch of dead aliens…” the Guardian stated grimly. “Looks like we’re too late.”

“Well that’s perfect…” Vee sighed deeply. “So, what? Should we head down to the ground floor and go home?” Fucking...nine hour flight…

“I guess we don’t have much choice…” Atka raised a hand, and the squad formed back up in more of a column this time.

From the corner of the room, some of the debris rustled. There was a quick flash of fur, as well as a low pitched, feline sounding growl.

Kevin swerved around, aiming his reflex cannon for a moment before slowly lowering it when he saw it was just a cat. “Sorry… you know… Incubators.”

“I doubt any of us are getting pet cats after this war…” Kris muttered.

“Hold on. This might be a chance to find out something, rather than go home empty-handed.” Atka had the others stay back, slowly walking a bit closer to the cat. In a gentle tone, she conveyed, I will not harm you. Can you tell me what happened here?

From the shadows, a savannah slowly stepped out and looked Atka up and down. It looked over at the missing wall. Wall was gone. Everything fell. It looked down at the dead woman. Susan fell. Pogi is sad. From behind the cat came the faint whine of a dog. The cat looked at the aliens. Bec pounce, big one kick. Boom. All dead, but not one. Bec grab arm, green flies, last falls. It looked towards the doorway. Bec leaves. More come, more leave.

Atka smiled. Well, thank you for the help, Pogi. I will find Bec and protect her if I can. Just stay here, someone will come to help later. The scout rose to her feet. “Sounds like our VIP might still be alive; we came across a friend. We’d better get moving if there’s still a chance.” The squad quickly following, Atka moved with haste down the next flight of stairs.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

A chill ran down Kevin and Emma’s spines as they reached the bottom, both their heads turning to the left just in time to see a metallic tendril sticking out of one of the rooms disappear from sight. A moment later, a Thin Man stuck his head out, took a quick, clumsy shot, and ducked back inside.

“Oh? I think my spidey-senses are tingling…” Kevin ran over to the side of the door, hefting his plasma-tier shotgun. The assault gave a nod to Ongla on the other side, and the clone engineer balled a fist, knocking open the door to give Kevin a shot. An elerium-charged shot thundered out from the hand cannon, and the Thin Man within collapsed into a cloud of shattered false skin and toxin.

The Seekers within were coated in the substance, which interfered with their cloaking field, revealing the two to sight. The first had a hole blown in its head by a bolt of plasma from Atka’s reflex rifle, and the second was gunned down by Ongla.

From two other rooms, the Thin Man’s allies peered out in surprise, and were quickly rewarded with two particle beams that punched clean through their narrow frames.

Atka looked over the barrel of her rifle. Kind of like it, actually. It’s light and effective, but fires like a good old marksman rifle. Pushing her gratitude to the lab crews aside for the moment, the Major nodded to the others. “Let’s continue on.”

Another floor down, and another chill alerted the team to nearby seekers up ahead, though these were able to cloak before they could be sighted. From down the hall, a Muton stuck its head out of a room on the right, and Sectoid being enhanced from a room on the right. The Sectoid took pot shots as the Muton prepped a grenade and rolled it down the hall.

Avanix unfolded her shield to easily block the small arms fire, but the grenade was a more pressing threat. Atka unfurled a telekinetic helix, catching the grenade in the middle of the hallway and managing to push it back a bit before it detonated between the aliens and XCOM troopers.

“Ongla, collateral damage,” Emma ordered, before vanishing from sight thanks to her shadow armor. She lifted a plasma pistol, readying it to fire upon any seekers that showed themselves.

The engineer nodded, his toss covered by Guillermo’s suppressing fire. The grenade impacted between the two aliens, killing the more feeble one and opening up the Balmdaar to a slew of plasma fire that it had no hope of surviving. From a pair of much, much closer rooms, two more Sectoids and two more Mutons rushed out, trying to blitz the X-COM and Legion forces, filling the hallway with plasma fire. Behind the troops, a shimmer of light shone as one of the seekers came into sight, reaching for the first target it could get a hold of.

Its tentacles were stopped mid-grab as its internals were melted by plasma fire from a vindicated Emma. As the shadow operative faded back into view, she looked around for the other Seeker, while Avanix and Amanda took the brunt of the firepower on the Mutons. They paid it back in kind, blasting apart the Balmadaars’ cover with their powerful guns.

Vee happily blasted through the two uncovered warriors, and the two SHIVs zipped forward on their superconductors, decimating the last Muton. The Sectoids glanced at each other for a moment, then did a quick 180, making a break for the nearest room.

Their reward was a spray of plasma dragon fire from Kris. “Still got it,” he mumbled.

As the smoke settled, a man cautiously poked his head out of the only room the aliens hadn’t come from. He smiled at the sight of the soldiers, and rushed towards them. “Are you here to rescue us from the…” he fell back, knocked out from running head first into the invisible seeker in the center of the room.

Avanix quickly moved to the spot, her metallic fist wrapping around the cloaked robot before it had a chance to move, and squeezed. Sparks flew, the Seeker appeared, and was subsequently crushed into a non-functioning condition.

The team continued through four more floors with no resistance, moving cautiously to avoid an ambush, but quickly to avoid losing the target. On the next floor, they spotted another trio of Thin Men. They seemed to converse for a while, before one of them held a finger to his ear and they rushed to the stairs. The team pursued, only to be stopped by the hum of a cyberdisc emanating from the stairwell, accompanied by the sound of chittering Sectoids.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Hot Water, Part 2

“Megan…” Atka said in warning, holding up a hand to stop the others.

“Gotcha.” The brooklyn rocketeer pulled out her blaster launcher and prepped a high-explosive blaster bomb, ready to fire it as soon as the enemy came into view. The others used the hallway as cover to the best of their ability, or utilized the MEC troopers standing like pillars in the middle of the hallway’s intersection.

The cyberdisc floated up into view, its two drones making an unusually wise choice of keeping their distance on either side. Three Sectoids flanked it on the left, and threw themselves to the side upon seeing a grinning Megan launch the blaster bomb. The Thin Men were more agile, and rolled behind concealment as well.

While it wasn’t anti-armor, the blast still melted off a layer of the cyberdisc’s armor, and the metal beneath started to steam, turning to a putty-like consistency. This made it easy to penetrate from combined fire. Vee and Kris finished off the disc, but not before it lobbed a grenade at the two MECs. The blast wasn’t wide enough to damage the cover on either side, but it did put a dent into their armor and singe the armor of the Shadow Operative and Scout using them for cover.

“Shoot at the Thin Men and Sectoids when they pop up,” Emma ordered. “I’d like a drone or two…”

Atka waited until two Thin Men peered around a corner to fire, and then hit them both in the skulls with a swift mindfray from each hand. The two fell on each other in pain, and their front halves were sheared off by plasma fire.

However, the alien’s were fond of their psionic abilities as well. A Sectoid, mind merged by one hidden, reached out, and struck fear into Vee’s heart, making her nearly drop her novagun as her eyes went wide. “S-stay away from me!” she screamed, a twisted image of a dead tormenter walking towards her.

The other attempted a mindfray, but chose a poor target. Emma. The winding threads of purple energy were suspended at her forehead, and the shadow operative narrowed her eyes, seeing what the other had done to Vee. “You sick…” She threw up a hand, and launched the mindfray into the head of the mind-merged Sectoid, empowering it with a bit of her own energies.

The now-hallucinating Sectoid gave his comrade a look of distaste, and then outright contempt as he was melted by Guillermo’s heavy rifle. He scuttled back into concealment with his partner, while the last remaining Thin Man propped himself upon on the bodies of his fallen comrades, and opened fire, forcing Guillermo behind cover.

“Sunny, deal with the last of them.” Atka turned her attention away from the aliens as the two Hover SHIVs charged forward, blasting as they went. The Inuit woman knelt beside Vee, and placed a hand on her forehead, a soft blue-green glow resonating around both of them. Banish the lie… he is dead and gone.

Vee slowly came to her senses, and stood up again with Atka’s help. “Thanks.” She smiled widely when she heard the terrified squeals of the Sectoids coming face to face with superheavy plasma guns. Good riddance.

Faced with the sheer outnumbering forces, the final Thin Man shot a cloud of poison down the hall. It spat again and again, filling the narrow passage with as much poison as possible before disappearing down the stairs.

Atka shook her head. “Great…”

“Make use of the waiting time while we clear the material,” Avanix suggested. “Locate the target.”

“The cat gave you an image of what she looked like, right?” Amanda offered, as the two Guardians stood in the poisonous gases and released a spray of medical nanites that started mopping it up like they would for anyone who was actually poisoned. Emma managed to catch the two drones as they flew through with a plasma pistol, and Casin took control of them with his arc thrower.

“Right...Sarah?” Atka sat down against the wall, and the Chinese sniper followed suit. The two closed their corporeal eyes, opening their mind’s eye. Atka’s gaze swept the lower floors, coming across a robed figure and two armored guards.

“Intel wasn’t entirely useless. There is an Ethereal here...though nothing we can’t handle,” Atka informed the others. “Find anything?” she asked her fellow blue psion.

Sarah opened her eyes slowly. “She’s two floors down.”

Vee pumped a fist. “Great. Let’s go pick her up.”

“...injured,” the sniper added.

“Eh, we can blow away the stupid Ethereal if it comes for us,” the destroyer replied nonchalantly.

“Poison is cleared,” Avanix concluded. “We can proceed.”

With the knowledge of an escaped Thin Man on their minds, the soldiers proceed carefully, two floors down, they found their missing alien, pressed against the wall outside of an open doorway. Spotting the X-COM and Legion soldiers, it made a break for it. As it passed the open doorway, however, it dropped to the ground, a small amount of poison seeping from a bullet hole in its head.

Atka slowly stepped forward, though not quite going around the corner yet. “Rebecca Carter? Is that you?”

“Maybe…” Atka could hear the sound of a revolver cocking. “Who wants to know?”

“Friendlies,” the XCOM Major replied calmly. “We were sent here to extract you from this mess.”

“That would be swell and all, but you’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little untrusting, considering the circumstances. Call it being careful, call it paranoia. I don’t care. What is your outfit? Who do you work for?”

“Special task force under the Council of Nations. Can’t say any more than that, unfortunately,” Atka explained. “I’m going to step around the corner, don’t shoot.” Don’t worry, even if she does, it’s not going to get through the titan armor, the Inuit scout reassured the others.

As Atka stepped out, the beat-up, exhausted looking woman leveled a revolver in her left hand. She raised an eyebrow, looking Atka up and down. “X… X-COM?”

Atka nodded slowly. “You...know who we are then.” Internal lights lit up the inside of her helmet to confirm she was human. “We weren’t told that you did.”

“Of course you weren’t,” Rebecca answered. “Considering that state of things, they were probably afraid you’d shoot me on sight if you knew who I was.” She grinned, trying to stand up but quickly falling back down. “I’d… like to have a little more faith than that. I have to.” She dropped her weapon. “Out of ammo anyway.”

“Amanda,” Atka said, and the MEC trooper followed her in. “Give her a medspray, she could use it.” As the MEC cautiously went to assist Rebecca, Atka continued, “I usually ask questions before I shoot, Ms. Carter. Why did they think we would be hostile to you? If you’re related to the Council in some way… we would carry out our duty to defend you.”

Rebecca closed her eyes, glad to feel some relief after dragging a broken leg around for two hours. “The Council is afraid the X-COM is on the verge of going rogue. I, and several others, are trying to convince them otherwise. I’m sorry for the mistrust. I… I just shouldn’t have been able to be found, and yet the aliens seemed to come straight for me. Makes you wonder who you can trust, you know?”

“You and others…” Emma muttered, walking up to the Major’s side. “Are you… perhaps the United States representative?”

“The… the smart answer, to some of the others, is no, I’m just a government agent.” Rebecca smiled. “But the honest answer is yes. Rebecca Carter, United States representative of the Council of Nations, code name Lady Liberty, at your service.”

“Your honesty is appreciated. It is a rare thing among faceless bureaucrats,” Emma noted. “Regardless, there is an Ethereal along with a few more aliens downstairs likely converging on our position. We should find an optimal location to engage them and clear the building of the intruders.” The shadow operative started to walk back out the door, but added, “Though someone must have tipped them off. And considering EXALT is no more, and very few are aware of your existence…” The clone paused, growing eerily quiet. “Major… we were sent late here. Abnormally late. And given very little information.”

“And… Morrigan did say it seemed like we were supposed to fail… Oh God, you don’t think…” Atka breathed.

“And now… you know why I was… cautious.” Rebecca leaned against Amanda as she stood on her good leg. “Some of the Council members see you as dangerous.” She looked at Emma. “And you as a threat. But from where I stand, I see a couple of guardian angels.”

Atka nodded slowly. “I’m glad we have some allies. Though… Emma’s thought is starting to make more and more sense. The Council members have access to alien computer technology, the only thing that could match Legion’s A.I. hacking skills. No one else could have found you… and I doubt it was the aliens acting alone. They haven’t targeted the Council itself in the past.”

“Of course not,” Rebecca said with a grim smirk. “The only way they would find us is with a Councilman’s help. And if one of them helped the aliens and the aliens failed, they might be exposed. All in all, it all means that I was not supposed to survive today.”

The XCOM Major sighed. “I think that only makes your safe departure from here to our base all the more necessary. Though if they aren’t overconfident, they’ll have a backup plan.” Atka glanced at the others. “The Ethereal might not be the last challenge of today…” she warned as they got into position to repel the last alien groups.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Hot Water, Part 3

The group carefully made their way through the building, now able to be more careful with the target riding on Amanda’s back. They eventually arrived at the lobby, the Ethereal leader confidently waiting for them in front of the door. To his left and right stood a Muton Elite, another pair of the more common variety in nearby cover, and a Berserker barely holding back the urge to rush them.

The Ethereal raised his two right arms. Why? Why? Does she still live? Why do any of them still live? Kill them! Kill them, and when I have this continent, you will be rewarded nicely!

“I shall keep the Berserker at bay.” Avanix raised her alloy shield, the enraged Muton raining blows down on it, slowly breaking through, but the defensive bulwark bought the others some time to go on the offensive.

The four Mutons obeyed their master’s orders, perhaps too well. Rather than attempt suppression on high-value targets, they instead went for the kill with every shot. Amanda was forced to hide behind a pillar, while the others ducked behind cover.

Sarah sent a thread of blue energy into the head of one of the Balmdaar Elites, disorienting it and making its aim negligible. Emma added to this effect on the two regular Mutons, tossing a chem grenade to poison them. The other Elite was unaffected due to its sealed armor, though the acid did weaken the structural integrity of its gun.

Kris negated this problem by throwing down suppressing fire on the dangerous Elite, while the others went for more deadly shots with holo targeting going up. “Ethereal’s yours, Major.”

Atka nodded. “Got it.” With the two Hover SHIVs guarding her loyally, the Inuit scout raised her reflex rifle, firing off a shot at the Ethereal.

The psionic alien raised its arms, a shield blocking the shot. While the shield held strong against the SHIVs accompanying fire, the Ethereal’s stance suggested it was a lot easier drained then its Overseer counterparts. This… this was supposed to be easy! Kill one human! ONE HUMAN! It dies, I get to be Overseer of North America. S… S-stay out of my way! Holding his shield steady with two hands, he used the other two to fire green tendrils towards his troops, one hitting each of the regular Mutons.

The two Mutons let out a blood call of satisfaction, and pulled out their grenades, violently tossing the explosives at the enemy. They exploded on the ground, blasting apart the cover of Kevin, the three Adams, and Vee. A follow-up shot from the mindfrayed Elite caught Vee straight in her titan armor, burning some of the flesh beneath.

“Vee!” Emma called out in anguish, having the presence of mind to toss a smoke grenade down to cover their fallback. Avanix let out a spray of medical nanites to heal the nearby destroyer, before her shield was shattered and the Berserker began to rain blows down on her armor.

Atka grimaced at the cry of pain from Vee. Can’t waste time with this thing… “Sunny, buy me a few seconds.” The SHIVs began to rain suppressing fire down on the Muton troops, while the rest of the XCOM forces did their best to shoot the maddened Balmadaar off of its unfortunate target. A faint blue glow surrounded Atka as she prepared for her attack.

Stupid, pathetic humans. You think you have a chance? Shoot my troops as much as you wish! I will continue to heal them, and your medicine will run out far faster than my energy! Belial extended his hands again, sounding the Elites with a psi inspiration while healing the Berserker.

The recovered Elite and its partner nodded to each other, and pulled out their own grenades, containing HEAT elements. The bombs were tossed, and blew up at the feet of Avanix and Amanda. The latter managed to shield her charge from the blast, but took heavy damage to her armor, and tasted a bit of copper in her mouth.

“Damn…” A glance over at the other mech showed the MESHA wasn’t doing much better. The HEAT blast had blasted apart most of the armor, and horrifyingly, the bloodied, barely alive Berserker didn’t even slow its attacks, euphoric in its onslaught.

Avanix had no choice but to quickly reattach her proper limbs. Before she could eject, however, the Berserker grabbed her by the throat, squeezing. The grating sound of compressing metal accompanied its fury.

A bolt of plasma arced across the battlefield, and the head of the raging beast exploded, Sarah barely having killed the Berserker in time. Avanix dropped to the ground, genuine fear reflected in her mechanical eyes.

As for the regular Mutons, they took pleasure in pinning the rest of the soldiers down, and even scored a hit on Casin, while even Emma seemed intimidated. Amanda used up her last medical spray, before dropping to a knee as her suit started to give in. The SHIVs were forced to ignore Belial to suppress the dangerous Mutons.

Atka formed a spear of telekinetic energy between her hands, and started to imbue it. Come on, just a little more… please…

I tire of this fight. Finish this! He lowered his shield, and used two hands to heal the Elites, a third to send a mind fray towards Nash, and a fourth to imbue the power core of one of the Elite’s weapon.

The powerful blasts from the imbued weapon tore through Jabberwock, sending the poor SHIV crashing to the ground in a flurry of sparks, plasma, and flashing warning lights. One of the Mutons was freed suppression, and shot a hallucinating Kevin, who wasn’t fully behind cover, in the chest. The blast got through his titan armor, if only just, and the burns sent him to the ground with tears of fear and pain in his eyes.

“Húndàn!” Sarah yelled at it, aiming her rifle at the offending Elite. “Two can play at that game.” The barrel glowed with a blue-green light, and an empowered bolt of plasma passed through, flying into the faceplate of the surprised Muton. It blasted out the other side, going through the wall before finally dissipating in the air.

The spear in Atka’s hands was ready, glowing with an intense blue glow matching Atka’s grim determination and anger at seeing her squad brutalized. “That’s enough… out of you…” Her eyes flaring with psionic energy, the Inuit woman lifted the telekinetic javelin back in her right hand, and then tossed it with physically-enhanced might at Belial. Three faint shockwaves behind her accompanied the force of the toss like a weapon’s recoil.

Oh, no… The Ethereal held his hands out, realizing too late how frivolous he had been with his energy as the javelin easy punch though the shield, driving into the being’s stomach and sending him flying back. The Mutons all turned, distracted by the sudden fall of the commander.

That was the chance the XCOM forces needed. They unloaded with what was left in their clips, melting through the three Balmdaar and concluding the battle against the aliens. Atka crumpled to her knees, breathing hard. “Still… gotta work on… energy output…”

Vee shook her head incredulously. “That’s what you say after doing something that badass?” The destroyer scoffed. “The queen of humbleness strikes again.”

Emma sighed in relief, going over to help Avanix up with a bit of concern for the android. “You alright.”

“...will...kzzt…re…” Avanix shook her head in frustration. “Voi...kzzt...processor…-ot…”

The shadow operative nodded in understanding, and Ongla got to work ordering the drones to repair the ailing A.I.

All heads turned towards the doorway, the pathetic looking Ethereal pushed against the wall. His hands glowed a fading green as he tried to do something, anything, to stop the growing pool of blood underneath him, the javelin still sticking through him. No, please, can’t… I can’t stop it. Was… it was supposed to… be easy, Said it would be easy! The glow faded as as his energy dimmed, and he resorted to trying to pull the weapon out, with no success.

Atka pulled herself to her feet again, walking over to the dying Ethereal. Don’t inflict any further pain upon yourself. Just rest. A faint psi inspire calmed Belial down momentarily, long enough for Atka to draw her plasma mauler, and put the Ethereal out of its misery.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Hot Water, Part 4

The team slowly and exhaustively walked out of the apartment complex, the streets clear, the dropship a block away. “I think we’re all going to need a nice, long vacation after this,” Rebecca muttered. She smiled a Atka and Emma, opening her mouth to thank them, when a large military truck pulled up between them and the dropship. Ten soldiers piled out, their weapons looking oddly familiar. One with a fancy arrangement of medals stepped forward, saluting.

“Good work, soldiers,” he said. “We will take care of Ms. Carter from here.”

Vee looked up from the Ethereal mask she was carrying in surprise, laying it down. “Uh… who the hell are you?”

Atka looked at the armored soldiers with growing suspicion. “Our orders are to take her to HQ. From the top.”

“Orders change,” the man answered. “And my orders come from farther up than yours. Your base has been deemed unsafe for an individual of Ms. Carter’s position. We’ll take it from here. Leave Carter, and return to your base.”

On three, I want you all to draw your weapons. Atka shook her head at the opposing officer. 1. “Like hell...” 2. “...traitor.” 3. The XCOM squad leveled their weapons as quickly as they could.

Expecting the reaction, the opposing soldiers aimed their weapons as well, an arm from the leader the only thing stopping them from shooting wildly. “That is enough! This is a direct order from the Council of nations. Stand down, surrender Carter, return to your base, or you will be dealt with. Do you think you are in any condition to take us on? Do you wish to face a court martial should you survive?”

Rebecca shifted closer to Atka, whispering, “Stand down. I’m not worth this.”

I can’t just send you to your death! There has to be something we can do… a distraction to give us a window to strike…

Above the soldiers, high in the air, a series of small missiles rained down, striking the soldier’s truck with destructive results. JubJub dive bombed the soldiers, blasted out of the air before getting anywhere near them but successfully drawing the attention of any who weren’t thrown off by the explosion.

Time seemed to slow down for Emma as she glanced around at the aftermath. Atka and Sarah raised plasma maulers to compensate for the close quarters combat, managing to punch through one of the enemy’s titan armor, but not kill him. Kevin finished the job, while Kris managed to down another in one go. Casin blasted apart three knocked to the ground, Vee shot up another for Megan to finish off, Ongla and Guillermo killed another.

That leaves three… Amanda stepped between the three survivors, taking some hits to her repaired armor, the weakly hovering drones doing their best to compensate. Their leader, however, stepped around, lifting his plasma rifle.

“Traitors... all of you…” He fired at Atka, but Avanix stepped between them, taking a hit that seared through her torso.

System... failure... transferring to base. Avanix’s android frame collapsed in a smoldering heap, but Emma paid the enemy officer back with a shot from her plasma pistol, then another, then three. But he didn’t quite go down.

Gritting his teeth, the man aimed his plasma rifle, and managed to get a shot off at Kris before succumbing to his wounds. Atka realized where the shot was headed, and tried to block it with a telekinetic helix. She couldn’t imbue it, and her waning energies weren’t enough. The double-helix shattered, and the blast slammed into Kris’s back. The gunner collapsed to the ground.

Atka’s eyes widened. “No...Kris!” Ongla knelt down by the fallen gunner, and looked him over for a moment, before shaking his head slowly. The Inuit woman looked down, trembling slightly. “Whoever… is responsible for this… they… won’t get away with it!”

“...Atka…” Emma started to say, walking over to the scout. Atka shook her head though, walking away towards the Skyranger. Emma sighed. “...we all feel the same way,” she finished, even if she couldn’t be sure Atka heard her or not.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Ethereal Overseer Terror Mission

Operation Understanding Patientia
São Paulo, Brazil

Date: October XX, 2018
Time: 2300 Hours, Local Time

Briefing:
Alien terror attack in progress. The enemy has launched another massive assault that seems to be solely for the goal of causing destruction and striking fear. What's more, a strong psionic presence has been detected in the area of the attack. It is far stronger then that of the previous Overseers, meaning it is likely one of the final three. Based on the attack being in South America, chances are good it is Ira. We were close to finding his base, but it would seem he decided to take the fight to us.

The plan is obvious; rather than wait for us to find him and assault his base, Ira wishes to draw us into a battle on his terms, one in which we will be too distracted fighting off the alien attackers and saving civilians to withstand his attack. But what he failed to see is exactly how obvious this move is. We have anticipated something like this happening, just as we anticipated a terror mission on this scale. While we did not expect them to happen together, we none the less have a plan. Our allies in the Russian and Indian militaries are ready, willing, and able to lend a hand, and have been on stand by for just this occasion. They will handle the bulk of the rescue mission so you can focus on the Ethereal.

Be wary, though. You will still need to keep an eye out for civilians in need of rescue. You will still need to be wary of Chyssalids and their unfortunate victims turned enemy, now more then ever, as Luxuria has warned us that Ira took a 'special interest' in them. Finally, according to our information, Ira is, by far, the strongest Ethereal we have encountered to date.

Number of soldiers for this mission: Twelve (12) soldiers, accompanied by two (2) SHIVs and two (2) android Legion soldiers.

Soldier Names:
Capt. 5 (MSGT) Papadoupolous, Fedor (Shogun) [MEC]*
LT 5 (MSGT) Adolfsson, Janina (Infantry) [Hyper-Reactive Pupils, Magnified Bicep Structure, Reaction Time Overclocker]**
GSGT Modya Dragomirov (Rocketeer) [Magnified Bicep Structure, Adaptive Bone Marrow, Neural Dampening]
GSGT Ayame Kasagi (Gunner) [Hyper Reactive Pupils, Bioelectric Skin, Muscle Fiber Density, Aerobic Respiration Boost, Neural Dampening]
GSGT Camilo, Victor (Scout) [Dextrous Muscle Fibers]
GSGT Murphy, Kelly (Sniper) [Hyper-Reactive Pupils]
GSGT Sutherland, Colin (Assault) [Iron Skin, Adaptive Bone Marrow, Aerobic Respiration Boost]
GSGT Andre, Adele (Engineer) [Bioelectric Skin, Magnified Bicep Structure]
GSGT Griffith, Nicolas (Medic) [Smart Macrophages, Adaptive Bone Marrow]
GSGT Reston, Jay (Heavy) [Magnified Bicep Structure, Muscle Fiber Density]
GSGT Jacobs, Scarlet (Rocketeer) (Purple Psionic)
MSGT Kwan, So Ji (Goliath) [MEC]

Alloy S.H.I.V. Unit 1: "Bandersnatch"
Alloy S.H.I.V. Unit 2: "Taqukaq"
“Assault” Legion Trooper
“Support” Legion Trooper

*Squad Leader
**Second in Command

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

- Primary weapon: Either a Plasma Stormgun, a Plasma Carbine, a Plasma Rifle, a Heavy Plasma Rifle, a Reflex Cannon (Infantry, Assault, Scout, Medic, Engineer), a Plasma Sniper Rifle (Sniper), a Reflex Rifle (Sniper, Scout), a Plasma Novagun (Gunner, Heavy), or a Plasma Dragon (Gunner, Heavy)

(Blaster Launcher for Heavies and Rocketeers, Particle Cannon for MECs, Superheavy Plasma for SHIVs)

- Armor: Banshee Armor, Aegis Armor, Titan Armor, or Seraph Armor (Four Shadow Armors also available)

- Secondary Weapon: Either a Plasma Pistol, a Plasma Mauler, or a Hand Scatter Plasma Blaster (H.S.P.B.)

- Equipment: Two (2) of the following; a medikit, combat stims, alloy plating, reinforced armor, chitin plating, a battle scanner, an AP grenade, an alien grenade, a psi grenade, a smoke grenade, a chem grenade, a ghost grenade, a high-capacity magazine, a targeting module, a mind shield, or an Arc Thrower.

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

Details:
Field reports, flyby imaging, and psionic readings place the Ethereal near the São Paulo See Metropolitan Cathedral. Reports also place a number of Brazilian soldiers there, so it is possible he is attacking them.

Standing at 111 meters long, 46 meters wide, with the two flanking towers reaching a height of 92 meters, the São Paulo Cathedral is by far the largest church in the city.

You will be dropped off a few blocks from the sight. On the way, you will no doubt find a number of civilians in need of rescue. While it is important to assist the soldiers and take out Ira, this is a rescue mission above all else, and we can not leave them to die, or worse, become Chryssalid incubators.

As you assault our Ethereal, be careful with his troops, from his personal guard to the lowliest Sectoid. Our captive informant warns us that Ira's wrath leaves all of his forces well trained and fiercely loyal, and they will fight with everything to avoid his ire.

Should things turn against Ira, he will likely retreat into the Cathedrals crypt, a massive area below the main alter that is large enough to be another subterranean church in its own right.

Press the attack, and fittingly turn this into Ira's crypt. As we evidently have little hope in facing him head on with offensive psionics, we will instead focus on soldiers with supportive psionics and gene-mods.

Enemies:
One group of five (5) Sectoids and one (1) Sectoid Commander
One group of six (6) Chryssalids
One group of four (4) Zombies
One group of two (2) Chryssalids and two (2) Zombies
One group of three (3) Chryssalids and two (2) Berserkers
One group of three (3) Muton Elites and 2 Muton Assaults
One group of one (1) Flamethrower Mechtoid, one (1) Artillery Disc, and three (3) Heavy Floaters

Juvenile Chryssalid Queen
Matar, accompanied by a Sectopod with two shoulder-mounted gatling plasma guns
Ira, accompanied by three (3) Muton Elites

Special Enemy Notes:
The Ethereal, Ira, primarily uses offensive powers. He is a master of the Psi Lance, Pyro Conjuring, and Telekinesis, and can combine the latter two powers into a powerful Pyrokinesis. He also has use of Rifts, though he favors his other powers over them, as well as Mind Control, though he will only use it if absolutely necessary. He is additionally unrelentingly fierce, and will likely not let up until he is dead. Even if we wished to capture him alive, it would be too incredible of a risk to do so. He also tends to have a cruel side to him when he really gets into the heat of battle.

Conditions for Completion:

(1) The rescue of as many civilians as possible that are encountered.

and

(2) The elimination of the Ethereal Overseer of South America, Ira

Civilians:
A number of civilians dot the city, as the attack was too sudden to evacuate them all. Send any you encounter back to the dropships for extraction.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Understanding Patientia, Part 1

The Skyranger, accompanied by a group of dropships, touched down on scorched city streets. Flames ate away at some of the shrubbery present in the garden to the distance sitting in front of the cathedral, and plasma scorch marks lined the buildings along the roadway. While there were human corpses sprawled on the ground, there was a difference from Moscow that became immediately apparent to the XCOM squad.

Littered on the sidewalks were the bodies of Chryssalids or Heavy Floaters, high-impact bullet holes riddling the corpses. Despite the destruction already wrought, Modya allowed himself a grim smile. “Thanks for clearing the landing site, Galena.”

A voice crackled over the radio, and the Russian woman gave a simple reply. “Just make it count… since I am counting on you all. Sledite za moroznoy,” Galena finished, before running silent again.

Ayame lifted her heavy plasma weapon, looking around in despair. “Damn… was this what Moscow was like. Sure is a nice big, heaping portion of unnecessary death.” She stepped forward a few feet, stopping of a body with a distinctive hole in their chest. “Definitely Chryssies…”

“We should take care to target the chryssalids over most other enemies. Even if we fight something more dangerous initially, they can reproduce an army if left alone,” Janina cautioned as the two MECs moved to the front, and the two Alloy SHIVs guarded the rear.

Ayame quickly stepped to Janina’s side, and spoke in a low voice. “So boss, uh… we didn’t see any floaters coming in? What gives? You thinking we only have to deal with the bugs, ‘cause they’d eat anything else they fought with… um… right?”

“That’s how it was in Moscow,” the Lieutenant replied. “Though… if Ira is indeed here, he must have some way of keeping them separated from himself and any bodyguards he has.”

“Sheer willpower and intimidation maybe…” Ayame shrugged, then noted the nearby two story building. With a push down, she leaped up, crouching behind the edge. Speaking quietly into her comm, she said, “Got big head ahead. About Six. Weird, they don’t seem to be in the panic they probably should be in the middle of this. They’re more vulnerable than we are. Can’t see what they’re doing, though.”

“Let’s get a better look, then,” Victor muttered, and lifted his arm. A battle scanner shot out of the wrist-launcher, landing on the roof of a building close to the Sectoids. He took a look at his other wrist, displaying the results. “The hell is this?”

“What do you see, Camilo?” Janina pressed.

“In the alleyway obstructed from Kasagi’s sight… there’s two Berserkers right next to three chryssalids. Think they’re trying to break into a building to get some civvies...and the Sectoids are in visual range, too, but aren’t getting attacked even though they’re easy targets,” the scout explained.

“Damn it, can’t have them working together on this…” Ayame hefted her weapon up. “On your command…”

Fedor looked out from the side of a building, the only place his large frame could hide. “What do you think, lieutenant? Blow the Sectoids, then with most of them down, we’ll only have to deal with close quarters fighters?”

“That seems like the best course of action. But we have to hurry, I’m not about to let them turn civilians into chryssalid food.” Janina lifted her heavy plasma rifle. “Kwan, once the first rocket goes off move forward to intercept the melee units.”

The goliath nodded beneath his helmet, and prepared in a runner’s stance, while Scarlet mind-merged with Modya. “All yours.”

Modya nodded, feeling an odd tingle from the cords of purple energy connecting the two. He took careful aim with his blaster launcher, Scarlet moving to the side to provide an additional visual angle. The blaster bomb plunked out of the barrel of the launcher, and zoomed into the midst of the Sectoids… except for the Commander, who sensed deadly peril as soon as the rocket was shot.

While the regular grays were immolated by plasma, the Sectoid Commander scuttled backwards, ducking into a coffee shop and squealing at its brutish allies for help. One of the Berserkers and the three chryssalids ran out into the street to intercept a charging So Ji, while the other Muton smashed down the door with a thunderous strike, and lumbered inside.

“Dammit! Victor, Colin, go after that one!” Janina shouted, before filling the maw of one of the chryssalids with plasma. Combined fire brought another one down, the third clattering its claws against So Ji’s chobham-esque armor. The ceramic interior forced the thrusting claws back after shallow penetration, breaking them backwards.

The Chryssalid screeched in agony, stumbling backwards before having a hole blown in it by Modya’s heavy rifle, dropping the dying creature to the ground.

Now one on one, So Ji concentrated on the Berserker, matching blow for blow as both oversized combatants fought at surprising speed. A slash from the enraged Muton made the MEC soldier stumble back, but a few glancing blows from Scarlet gave So Ji the time he needed to charge up his attack. Before the Berserker could defend itself, a powerful kinetic strike sent it flying, the beast violently slamming into a parked car. If it wasn’t dead by that alone, it was by the follow up shots from the other troops.

Ayame watch Victor and Colin rush in behind the last enemy. She leapt onto the building, counting on her bioelectric skin to guide her to the enemy, hoping to cut him off and flank him with the others.

They came across the final bloodthirsty Balmadaar as it threw open a door, a man in his mid-fifties backed up against the corner. A shot from a reflex cannon tore a hole in it’s shoulder, and Camilo’s own shotgun tore off the arm entirely. The Berserker spun around, enraged even more than before, only to find itself looking down the barrel of a plasma novagun. The alien dropped like a rock, littered with scorching holes. “Eat lead, bitch… or… eat plasma…” Ayame looked at the raised eyebrows the other soldiers gave her. “What, I couldn’t think… at least I remembered to save the one liner for after I killed it, right?”

Colin just shook his head, and turned to the Brazillian in the room. “You alright?”

The man took a deep, shuddering breath, looking down for a moment to clear the terror that had gripped his heart. He then glanced over the Berserker’s corpse, and scoffed. “Would make a nice rug.”

Victor looked at him incredulously for a moment, and then pointed to the left. “Dropships are that way. Should be clear of hostiles.”

With a nod, the Brazilian ran down the stairs, heading for safety. The soldiers regrouped with the others, Ayame grinning at Modya, then at the Sectoids. “Nice shot, big guy. Way to…” She frowned. “I only count five. I did say six earlier, right?”

A spiral of purple energy accompanied Ayame’s realization, the psionic energy hitting Modya in the head. He grimaced, but managed to resist it without forcing his gene mod to paralyze him. “You little…” The Russian raised his gun, blasting apart a portion of the alien’s cover. Fedor finished the job with collateral damage, and a bolt of plasma from Kelly’s sniper rifle ended the Sectoid Commander’s futile attempt to turn the situation around.

Ayame rushed to Modya’s side. “You okay, chief? Sorry, I… should have paid better attention.”

Modya waved a hand dismissively. “I have had hangovers that are worse…” He shakily stood up tall again, contradicting that statement a little. “Besides, you were busy with the Berserker.”

“And making crappy one liners,” the British assault felt the need to add.

Ayame grinned. “Yeah, yeah.”

Fedor hefted his weapon. “Good work, everyone, but we have an Ethereal that needs bagging.” He scanned ahead, nodding towards the Cathedral in the distance. “If he’s still in the area, he’s probably inside. Let’s move out. Keep an eye out for civvies, but let’s try and get there in time to help any Brazilian troops left.”

As the squad advanced, they found three overturned cars blocking the roadway. Behind each, there was a Muton Elite seemingly guarding the way. And on either side of the buildings, regular Mutons with Chitin Plating were wielding plasma shotguns. Upon seeing the enemy, both of the Muton ‘assaults’ pulled out something akin to combat stims, and injected themselves, before rushing forward under the covering fire of the three elites.

"They have shotguns now?” Nicolas growled. “Come on…”

Colin and Victor moved to close the distance with the assaults, but Janina realized too late that this would be a mistake. Both sides’ shotguns spat out bursts of plasma, damaging the armor of all the close combat troops except the agile scout.

Colin glanced down at the gaps in his armor with irritation. “Dammit!” He ducked behind a building, but the Muton pursued him into the alleyway. Even so, with his aerobic respiration boost, the human assault was faster, and managed to turn around the next corner, shooting the uncovered Muton square in the face. “Nice job, genius.”

Camilo chose a different strategy of activating his shadow armor, and waited for an opportunity to shook the confused Balmdaar as it looked around. It wasn’t long before a glance to the side gave him the chance to finish off his prey.

“Let’s get those three out of cover,” Adele suggested, pulling out a grenade. Janina yanked her below cover as one of the Elites unloaded on their position. “Careful, they’re good with covering fire!”

Adele shuddered. I almost ended up like… “Someone suppress those bastards!” she yelled out, trying to keep the bloody image of a fellow engineer out of her head.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Understanding Patientia, Part 2

“You got it!” Ayame glanced up from cover just long enough to get a good idea of the enemy position, and even that almost cost her. “Jeez, these guys are rough.” She hefted her weapon up, firing at one of the Elites. Her shots were scattered at best, but made the alien hesitate. The MEC did the same, keeping the other two soldiers suppressed to give the rest of the X-COM soldiers room to breath.

Adele utilized this opportunity to toss a HE alien grenade downrange, colliding with the cars. They were lit on fire by the blast, and the center one actually exploded, knocking the middle elite on his back. The other two exchanged glances and tried to run back behind buildings. “Hit them now, while they’re exposed!”

As the others laid heavy fire on the exposed enemies, Fedor did a quick scan of the area, and fired a proximity mine. “Sunny! Center enemy! Flush right!” The two SHIVs opened fire on recovering Elite, Bandersnatch chipping away at its armor while Taqukaq hit the area to its left. It quickly made for the closest right, the disorientation from being blown back making it notice the mine too late. With a point blank explosion, it was dead before it hit the ground.

One of the remaining two Elites tossed a Chem grenade, a poison mist enveloping Ayame and Nicolas. The latter healed from the effects almost instantly, but Ayame was not so lucky. “B… bastard… c-copying cats…”

Nicolas fired off a quick shot, then pulled Ayame into a part of their cover away from the smoke before pulling out his medspray. “Relax. You’ll be fine.”

“My… lungs are on fire…” Ayame muttered between coughs.

“You’re okay enough to complain, right,” Nicolas said with a smile, sure the fact he was healing her was the only reason he didn’t get a knock on the head.

A spray of plasma fire chipped away at the cover of the last Elite, and Jay finished the job by blasting the alien into next week. “Looks clear to me.”

Fedor nodded. “Yeah. But this close to the Cathedral, they would have likely heard the ruckus. Along with anything else near…” The familiar sound of scuttering nearby made him fall silent. A scream came from nearby, and a Chryssalid tackled a woman out of an alley. As it chomped down on her, five more civilians rushed out, each with a Chryssalid of their own chasing after them.

Ayame cursed to herself, and took aim at the Chryssalid that had already claimed a victim, not trusting herself and her beefy weapon with one of the live humans. Her pelting shots got its attention, and it rushed forward, put down by the combined shots of Fedor and So Ji. Murphy spared one of the civilians a gruesome fate, his plasma sniper rifle blasting into a Chryssalid’s leg, sending it tumbling to the ground just before it could pounce.

Janina riddled a third beast with holes, and Modya hit a fourth square in the chest. As two more dead chryssalids tumbled to the ground, Scarlet attempted to seize control of a chryssalid while lining up a shot. Surprisingly, she managed to get a weak hold on it, but knew she didn’t have long. The screams of a civilian echoed out as the last free Chryssalid tore through its prey, and two claws punched through its abdomen in reprisal.

It was a simple matter of blowing away the mind-controlled chryssalid before it broke free. Ayame bit her lip as she approached the scene, her eyes in particular gravitating towards the two fallen human. “Um… boss, I hate to say it, but should… we…”

Janina nodded slowly, while Scarlet approached one of the civilians, blasting their cooling body with her pistol. “Gotta do what you gotta do,” Scarlet said simply.

Ayame sighed, doing the same for the other body. She noted the odd look she got from the surviving civilians. “Hey, look, they would have come back.” She stepped forward, and they all stepped back. She looked at her fellow soldiers. “Does anyone speak... Portuguese?”

Victor stepped forward, sighing. “Shouldn’t have jumped the gun…” he muttered. The scout said something in Portuguese to the four Brazilians, and they hesitantly ran towards the dropships.

At the end of the street, between the squad and the small park around the Cathedral, was a modified Sectopod, which trained laser sights and gatling plasma guns like giant six-shooters on the enemy.

Behind it was a simply-dressed Ethereal, a cord of yellow psionic energy connecting him to the lumbering machine. You shall not disturb Lord Ira! I will dispose of you weaklings, and prove myself to him… yes, that’s perfect. Let’s do that.

“You idiots talk too much.” Scarlet lifted her plasma rifle, and fired off a few quick bursts. Rather than hit the Sectopod however, they were suspended in the air around it and dispersed with a noxious smell.

Your feeble weapons are no match for me, humans! Matar gloated, crossing his lower two arms.

“Really, is that so?” Ayame called out. “Have to admit, you caught us by surprise. Didn’t expect another Ethereal. Your power must be so pathetically low compared to your boss, you didn’t even show up on our sensors!”

How… dare you?! Matar looked to the Sectopod, and it opened fire with its shoulder-mounted guns, forcing all the XCOM troops behind cover as it charged up its main cannon. T-Tremble in fear before your better! Extending a hand, jagged lines of yellow-orange energy from the Ethereal leapt at Ayame’s head in an attempt to make her cower in fear. Images of her deceased brother like a zombie flashed in her mind, though they were blurred by the effects of the Neural Dampening, and the Ethereal’s apparent lack of skill.

Still, even lacking the force of the Ethereal’s power, they brought a stream of tears to the Asian soldier’s eyes. “How… h-how could you…” The psi panic ended up having the opposite effect, the enraged soldier leaping out of cover, blasting away at the Ethereal while screaming wildly, her mad rage allowing her to handle the weapon with one hand long enough to reach for an alien grenade with the other, preparing it and launching it with surprising accuracy.

The grenade caught on the shield, and blasted a hole in it, sending ripples across the shield and making Matar clutch his head with his other two hands in pain. As he tried to lift all four to defend himself from the following attacks, Modya cut him off.

The Russian rocketeer pulled out a shredder rocket, and launched it at the shield the Ethereal was hiding behind. Upon detonation, it send burning shrapnel into the telekinetic field. Some of them pushed forward as if caught on a rubber band, and the ‘rubber band’ eventually snapped. Matar threw himself behind the Sectopod as the shards of alloy stuck into the front of the titan, putting out one of its four eyes.

The main cannon had finished charging, however, and the modified machine sent a burst of fusion energy at the uncovered gunner. So Ji registered the danger, and threw himself in front of her, taking a nasty hit that melted the back of his armor. “H-HEAT?”

Ayame’s looked at him in horror. “So Ji… I…”

“I-I’m fine,” the MEC soldier muttered, even if it was an obvious lie. They rushed into cover, and So Ji fell against a parked car, the MEC suit registering a plethora of system problems.

“Can.. can you…” Ayame looked at his shoulder. “Can you still use that?”

So Ji nodded weakly, and aimed his grenade launcher. Not knowing how long his suit would be useful, he unloaded his entire payload, half a dozen grenades exploding all around the Sectopod. The damage was minimal, but it kept the Ethereal cowering behind it, as well as throwing up a cloud of dust and debris over the lumbering machine.

“It’s shredded now, give it everything you have!” Janina shouted, taking aim at the Sectopod’s general location.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Understanding Patientia, Part 3

Those still standing sent a storm of plasma the dust cloud’s way, and the grating sound of shredded metal melting informed them of their success. With a series of internal explosions, the alien titan collapsed to the street, no longer functional.

Matar slowly backed off out of the calamity, having not been entirely successful in shielding himself from the blast. One of his arms had been blown off, and the Ethereal clutched the stump in agony as he slowly attempted to flee.

Modya glanced at Ayame. “He is all yours,” the Russian offered.

Ayame gritted her teeth. She stomped over to the Ethereal, wrapping an angry hand around its neck. “What… do you… have to say for yourself… now?”

Y-You c-can’t do this to me! Matar pushed two of his hands together, and a rift started to take shape between them, distorted by the pain of being choked.

“Watch me!” Ayame reached out with her other arm, wrapping both around the Ethereal’s head and twisting with a quick motion. Brittle bone snapped like cardboard. She tossed the limp creature to the side, scoffing as a few more tears rolled down her cheeks. “Deserved torture… you’re lucky I’m not like I was months ago…”

Modya laid a hand on Ayame’s shoulder reassuringly, but didn’t say anything. Janina slowly got out from behind cover. “Let’s keep moving. We don’t have time to spare.”

All heads turned towards the Cathedral, So Ji slowly joining their side as Adele pumped every last bit of her Arc Thrower’s energy into fixing the suit. Fedor led the charge, taking cover next to entrance. After a series of nods to assure him everyone was reloaded and ready, he kicked the door open, and looked away in shock. The place of worship’s floor was littered with the bodies of over a dozen Brazilian soldiers, most burned beyond recognition. It had seemed Matar had given his master the time he needed to take out what must have been, for him, a distraction from his real game.

“Lisus…” Modya muttered, doing his best to keep from vomiting. Janina sighed sadly, looking down for a moment, while the others cautiously checked the corners to make sure they weren’t about to be assaulted.

It would seem we have some more prey in our midst. But are these new one’s even worthy of my time? We shall see…

Two Chrysalids rushed the X-COM troops, a pair of shambling corpses dressed in civilian clothing behind them. As the alien arachnids walked over the fallen, four of the more intact zombies slowly stood up, joining in with the charge, their armor glistening with blood.

“To hell with this,” Scarlet growled, pulling out her blaster launcher, and hitting the zombies with a blast echoing like a thunderclap. The rocketeer went for her rifle again as the faster chryssalids made their charge.

Modya managed to hit one in the leg and render it vulnerable to further attack, but the other was blindly fast, knocking Victor down and jabbing a claw into his shoulder. The scout screamed in pain, before So Ji’s kinetic fist blasting the bug off him, making the creature hit a pillar with a sickening thud.

Kelly slowly backed away, batting away one of the more decrepit zombies with his rifle, reaching for his side arm and fumbling as the undead creature wrapped its arms around him, grabbing him with incredible strength. “G… G-GET THIS THING OFF ME!” As its chest started to tear open, it was knocked to the side by Ayame, who quickly followed the tackle up by pelting it with plasma. Yanking the severed arms off of himself, Kelly gave her a shaking smile. “Th-thanks.”

“No problem,” Ayame answered, helping him to his feet. “I’ve seen a much worse reaction to these undead things then that.”

“In her defense, it’s not like she was expecting to walk in on a zombie-infested simulation…” Modya mumbled.

Ayame grinned. “I know. I’ve said I was sorry a hundred times already.” She hefted her plasma novagun, blasting away the last Chryssalid as it grappled with Fedor. “Still fun to tease her, though.”

A wave of negative emotions filled them room. Displeasing, if impressive. See how you deal with this.

From below the main altar, three Heavy Floaters shot up, a fire in their eyes unlike that seen previously. What looked like a cyberdisc followed after, with a Mechtoid bringing up the rear. It postured a bit, flames shooting out of its arm cannons as the fliers to positions near the ceiling. Bandersnatch opened fire on one of the floaters, but the alien nimbly danced in the air, avoiding the shots.

“Fast for such a heavily armored creature,” Legion noted, trying to get a lock on the paraplegic Mutons. As he did so, the Mectoid’s flames washed over the floor, straining the armor of the mechanical forces that didn’t dive behind cover. The cyberdisc unfolded, having a line of missile pods instead of large forward cannons. The rockets let loose, crashing into the pillars and blowing holes in them, opening up the XCOM squad to fire from the Floaters and the next charge of the alien mech’s turrets.

“Damn it!” Fedor thought for a moment. “SHIVs on the disc get rid of that thing before it destroys all our cover. Um… Lieutenant, ideas?”

“Rocket those damn floaters, even if it risks bringing the roof down on us!” Janina yelled out as Legion only scored glancing hits. Scarlet pulled out another shredder, and sent it at the swift fliers, blasting them with shrapnel. One’s jetpack exploded and it crashed to the ground, while another was forced to land on a chandelier.

The SHIVs targeted the cyberdisc, which folded its armor in front of itself protectively to endure the hail of superheavy plasma, at least for a few more seconds. As they did so, and the XCOM troops shot at the two remaining Floaters, the Mechtoid wasn’t taking enough damage to go down. It rounded the corner in its advance, only to be shot by Kelly at close range.

“Someone, kill...oh, shit.” The muzzles of the flamethowers lit up brightly, and the Sectoid targeted the offending sniper, setting him on fire. The intense heat of the flames began to eat away at the Seraph armor Kelly wore, and quickly started getting to work on his flesh. The fuel tanks on his back burst, and drowned out his screams.

Jay and Ayame turned their attention to the cybernetic enemy, driving it back and blasting apart the fuel line of its right arm, send a plume of fire into its face. As the scorched Mectoid rushed into cover, another Heavy floater finally fell, but the third got a hit off on the distracted Heavy, and Jay fell to a blast to the back. Nicolas quickly rushed to his side, pulling him into cover and spraying his wound as Ayame covered them.

Janina ground her teeth and took careful aim at the last Floater, ignoring the sounds of the cyberdisc whining as it crashed to the ground and detonated. She fired a spray of plasma at the flier, but only one hit glanced its arm. “Dammit!” she cried out in a mixture of anger and anguish.

Modya and Scarlet concentrated on the Mechtoid, the former tossing a grenade to open it up to their fire, as well as damage the robot. Already having taken several hits, one of Scarlet’s shots pierced the helmet, and the Sectoid MEC fell.

Ayame watched as the last floater played it safe, focusing more on avoiding damage then attacking, and wasting their time. She placed her primary weapon down, and pulled out a plasma pistol. She leaped on to one of the balconies, then onto a chandelier. Watching for the right moment, a well timed shot from Janina forced it to retreat back. The moment it stopped, Ayame jumped at it, landing on its shoulders and firing directly into its head. It tumbled to the ground as Ayame leapt clear, landing awkwardly near the cyberdisc’s shattered remains.

Janina sighed in relief. “Well done, Ayame…” Her satisfaction was tempered by the death of their comrade. Modya and the others seemed somber as well.

Well, done, humans. Well done. I await you below. I shall honor you with your deaths by my hands. You have earned it.

“Pft…” Fedor reloaded his weapon. “Let’s just finish this.” The troops filed down into the crypt down below. As they reached the subterranean room’s entry way, from the dark corner of the room, a low snarl emanated. The doors to the cathedral proper closed behind the soldiers, and a deep laugh filled their minds.

Oh… sorry. Forgot about that one. You must forgive me, I have so much on my mind. Oh well. I am sure one last challenge will mean little to such… valiant warriors.

Fight us yourself my ass. You’re a bigger coward than your friend outside! Scarlet snapped telepathically.

Modya lifted his heavy rifle in the direction of the snarl, and from the shadows a Chryssalid perhaps two or three times the size of a regular one threw itself at the XCOM forces, going for Fedor in particular.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation Understanding Patientia, Part 4

“Damn it…” Thinking fast, he uppercutted, driving his fist into the creatures jaw. It barely registered the hit, grabbing the MEC’s arm and chomping down. Despite it not being directly attached to him, the register of damage still sent a shock through the captain’s nervous system, and he yelled in pain.

The SHIVs charged forward, their plasma rounds doing more damage than the weapons used on the previous queen, but they still barely dented it. The oversized chryssalid kicked its legs, and the two armored mini-tanks flew to the side, desperately trying to get back on their treads, but instead laying helpless like overturned turtles.

Colin and Victor fired off their reflex cannons, but at close range the chitin plating of the Queen shrugged off the attacks. It swiped at the two, forcing them to jump back to avoid being sheared in two.

Modya racked his brain, trying to come up with a solution. Can’t use a shredder rocket in here… and Jay only has two rockets left anyway. None of our weapons are getting through, though!

“Concentrate fire on its underbelly!” Janina ordered desperately, firing along with Modya, Jay, Scarlet, Griffith, and Adele in a bid to punch through the armor with combined fire.

Faced with the combined fire power punching through its armor, the queen did something none of the other Chyssalids had ever done before; it backed away , attempting to reposition itself for another strike. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Ayame rushed to one of the SHIVs, dropping on her back and pushing with all the strength in her legs to get it upright. “D-damn… these thing… are heavy…”

Modya ran over to assist her, while the Chryssalid seemed to be selecting its next target. The Queen stalked low, removing the threat of being shot on its weakened underbelly again. Seeing that the two were preoccupied, the creature made up its mind, and rushed for Modya.

The Russian only had a split second to react, ducking enough that the first blade didn’t take off his head. The second, however, lurched into his leg, pinning him painfully to the ground. Taqukaq did give a reprisal of pulse fire, and the Queen drew back, pulling its claw out of Modya’s leg with a spurt of blood.

“No!” Ayame grabbed her weapon again, pelting the oversized bug enough to let Nicolas run to the fallen Rocketeer’s side. He pulled out his medspray, attempted to use it, threw it to the side when he realized it was empty, and pulled out another, albeit smaller, medspray, and got to work sealing up the wound.

“Always be prepared,” the medic said, adding in a mumble, “Though I’ll only have one more spray shot after this…”

Fedor and So Ji rushed the beast, trying to use the close quarters in their favor instead of the other way around. So Ji ignored the beast’s slashing as best he could as the two of them shoulder-tackled it, slamming it against a wall. Taqukaq rolled up with a few others at his side, blasting the queen from the openings it was given.

The Chryssalid howled in pain, the shots finally making their way into its armor. It slashed out at the soldiers before it, but for every soldier it tried to take out, there were several more ready to shoot in the back. Finally, after several minutes of back and forth, it toppled to the ground, its belly fully exposed.

Modya shakily got to his feet, grabbing his heavy plasma rifle, and pressed it against the creature’s underside. “Ya uvizhu vas v ad.” (I’ll see you in hell.) A burst of plasma rippled through the creature’s heart, and it fell still.

The soldiers all took several moments to catch their breath. Ayame crouched in front of Modya, looking over his wound. “You alright to go on, bud?”

“I’ll manage… as long as we don’t run any marathons,” Modya said quietly.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

“Then lets finish this already,” Fedor growled, the irritation all too evident in his voice. He approached the door to the crypt, violently kicking it open. Before him stood the Overseer of South America, apparently admiring the architecture as his Muton Elite guards took cover.

At last, we can finish this. You made me wait, though. What took you so long?

“I’ve had just about enough of your shit,” Scarlet spat, raising her rifle from behind cover. She quickly sent a few bursts his way, while Janina, Modya, and Jay suppressed the three Elite guardsmen.

Ira quickly moved to cover, his hands glowing red. Interesting… I was thinking the same thing about you! A stream of fire launched towards the X-COM soldiers. They dived out of the way, but the attack hit its main target, and erupted the doorway in flames. You killed one of my underlings, destroyed my best Sectopod, or whatever you like to call them, destroyed my Queen, and worst of all, killed my elite flyers. You will be LUCKY if you die here, because any of you I can capture alive will be BEGGING for death!

Ira launched a powerful psi lance, punching through Ayame’s cover inches from her head. She rushed into the most sturdy cover she could, hunkering down behind Bandersnatch. “Dude means business! Watch your cover!”

Modya nodded. “I think now would be the time to use those last rockets, Jay!”

The heavy grimly agreed, pulling out his blaster launcher and taking aim at Ira, hoping to catch a Muton or two in the calamity as well. A blaster bomb shot out of the launcher, and zipped at Ira, pulsing all the while. Adele tossed her last grenade in the direction of the other Balmadaar or two.

Ira held up his arms, and a wall of flame appeared before him. The blast was focused away from him, the only increased the damage received by the nearby Elite, almost nothing left of it when the dust settled. The other two were able to duck out of the way of the blasts, and quickly prepped grenades of their own. Ira got to work sending out precise psi lances, taking an occasional shot at the soldiers while whittling down their choice of cover.

Only a matter of time. You can run. You can hide. But you are not getting out of this building alive.

Janina’s eyes darted towards the Balmadaar Elite as they prepared to throw. “Like hell!” The German infantry turned her gun on them, catching one of their grenades with a series of precise shots. The blast detonated the other Muton’s grenade, and tore a hole in their cover. An opportunity Colin and Victor did not waste, moving up to secure the kills with their plasma shotguns.

“How do ya like your guards biting the dust!” Adele yelled out, before ducking behind cover with her plasma stormgun in hand. “You’re next, the main course of a midnight snack!”

Does this answer your question! Ira’s entire body pulsed with power as he extended his hands. A stream of fire shot towards Adele’s cover. She dodged out of the way, and the fire turned following after her as she desperately tried to escape the stream of death targeting her. Cornering her, it lunged forward like a snake.

“Lay it on him!” Fedel screamed, and everyone concentrated fire. Ira quickly threw up another flaming shield, blocking the attacks but saving Adele from joining her fallen sniper comrade.

You are persistent, but you will all die. There is no escape from here!

He fired off a series of psi lances, the rapid movement off his arms showing his impressive physicality, at least compared to other Ethereals. The X-COM soldier ducked behind cover again, hiding from the multidirectional psionic machinegun fire.

Jay pulled out his blaster launcher again. “Last shot… gotta make it count.” The heavy fired the smart projectile from the safety of cover, the bomb curving around to head towards Ira. Modya and Scarlet tried to shoot to distract him, but stopped once the latter took a hit that seared off her shoulder armor. By the time the projectile was halfway to its target, Jay’s cover practically melted away, and the psionic bolts ripped through his form.

The heavy slowly fell to the ground, at least from his perspective, watching the blaster bomb go. Wonder if it’ll… hit or not, he wondered, before everything went white, red, and then black.

Ha ha! See! You will… Ira watched as the sphere of light curved around obstacles. He threw up another shield, this one much closer. It succeeded in blocking the shot, but the force showered the Ethereal in flames. He howled in pain, placing one hand over his face as he fired rapidly and widely with the other three. Several hits slammed into Janina’s cover, blowing it to pieces. Ayame rushed from the relative safety of her cover and tackled Janina to the side. The two SHIVs moved in front of them, and Ayame let out a stifled scream, holding her upper left arm tightly against her stomach.

Janina’s eyes widened. “Why...did you…” she stammered in a strangled tone, before calling for Nicolas. The medic was close, but there was a gap in cover between him and them.

“I...I could try sliding it over, but if it gets hit…” the medic warned.

“No!” Ayame screamed out through clenched teeth. “I-it doesn’t… m-matter… now. Save… i-it…” For pushed herself to her feet, running behind a stone casket to remove herself from the fight for now, and anyone who might get hurt protecting her. She pulled out her knife, and removed the plate over her left leg, and sloppily tore at her pants leg.

So Ji cursed himself for using up his grenades. “Scarlet, are you alright! Can you hit him with something? I’m sure a mind control won’t work, but maybe it’ll do something!”

“I can try, at least…” Scarlet grit her teeth, and reached out, sending a rapidly spinning spiral at Ira’s head, even though she felt herself threatening to black out from devoting a large chunk of her psionic bucket to the attempt.

As the thread of energy struck him, Ira consented his fire in Scarlet’s direction. The Legion troops rushed over, standing in the way and falling to pieces, but protecting the psionic rocketeer. The mind control failed, but became something else entirely. The spiral twisted, straightened out, and became jagged along the edges with tons of small, triangular spikes, like the blades of a chainsaw. The mental attack cut through Ira’s mind with the efficiency the manifestation of Scarlet’s psyche would imply, disorienting him severely.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Understanding Patientia, Part 5

No! No, this can’t be happening. Turned around, Ira started firing again, but this time in the wrong direction. You’ll pay for this! I’ll kill you all! Where… oh, little purple psion, all out of energy. Show… attack me again! You never pull that off again! Go on! Try it!

Janina held her breath, slowly raising a hand for everyone to freeze, then whispered into comms. “Take aim… carefully… and once everyone is ready, fire.”

Ira continued to unload everything he had, blasting the back of the crypt to pieces. He paused for a moment, and held his arms out, the entire area in front of him exploding in flames, an attack that might have killed every soldier, if they weren’t behind him. Panting heavily, the last attack obviously taking a lot of energy, he slowly turned his head, the soldiers seeing the scorched remains of his mask and the wounds covering his face from Jay’s final attack. It… is… over?

Did Jay blind him? Oh… that’s rich, Scarlet thought to herself with a grim smile as she took aim.

“It’s over for you,” Modya retorted, and the XCOM team opened fire like an execution squad. That one’s for you, Ayame. Without time to react, without a chance to defend, without even having time for last words, the Ethereal was blasted to oblivion, it’s shattered remains falling to the floor.

After a significant pause, none of the squad speaking, Nicolas gathered his thoughts and went over to Ayame. “Deed’s done. Now you’re getting healed, even if I have to tie you down to do it.”

Ayame grinned, looking down at the bloody wrappings around the end of her left arm. “Good luck… with that. But I… think I… need an engineer… more…”

The medic swore under his breath, doing his best to patch up the wound to keep it from bleeding further. The medkit itself wasn’t enough, Nicolas having to wrap a tourniquet around it and squeeze.

Janina’s expression fell further when she saw the state of the gunner. “This… is my fault…” the lieutenant muttered.

Ayame laughed quietly. “What are you talking about? I was doing what I could to protect a fellow soldier. You would have done no different, and it wasn’t your fault your cover was destroyed.” She shook her head. “Just like Atka, gonna put everything on your shoulders, huh?”

Janina just looked away from Ayame. “I kept telling her she could get past things… but what does that make me if I react just as she did? A hypocrite, that’s for sure…”

“Makes you human.” Ayame smiled more gently. “It means you care. If you didn’t, you’d be like that sorry lump of meat over there. I think Atka made a good choice recommending you.”

Janina fell silent, having no response for that except a quiet, ‘Thank you’. Modya slowly walked over to one of the SHIVs. “I think some of us are going to need a ride out of here…”

Fedor nodded as Ayame climbed on top of Taqukaq. “We need an extract at the São Paulo Cathedral. We have… we have two casualties, several moderate injuries, one severe. We also have what’s left of an Ethereal…”

“Copy. We’re just mopping up the last of the forces. Big Sky will be on sight in five.”

Fedor nodded So Ji toward Jay, and as they walked out, he grabbed Kelly. Scarlet took care of Ira. Ayame smiled weakly at Modya as they exited the building. “Not… the smoothest missions. But… one more down… two more to go…”

“The next one’s… Invida, right?” Modya surmised grimly. “I hear he has quite the grudge against our favorite colonel.”

The Skyranger touched down, and the soldiers piled in, carefully placing their fallen comrades down. As they made their way back home, they listened to the various reports, several smiling when they heard that, despite the large number of casualties, the death toll wasn’t even near that of Moscow.

Modya of all people was happy to hear that. “Not going to lie, I was wondering if we weren’t going to make it there. But you pulled through, didn’t you, Scarlet?” He glanced over at the rocketeer, and realized she was fast asleep. The Russian chuckled lightly, leaning back into the seat. You made it count, Kelly, Jay… couldn’t have done it without you either.

Several hours later, Scarlet wasn’t the only one that needed to be woken up. The exhausted soldiers climbed out of the ship, and Morrigan waved them on, insisting they get time to heal and rest up before the debriefing, particularly one soldier in particular she watched sadly.

Reaching the exit of the hanger, Jessica rushed in, practically leaping into Modya’s arms and showering him with kisses. “Oh, God, Modya, I… I was so scared! Are you okay? You… you look terrible!”

Modya raised an eyebrow. “I imagine that is not meant to be a compliment.” More seriously, he continued, “I’m fine… we pulled through somehow, after all. Though my leg does burn a little…”

She looked down at the leg in question, her lip quivering a bit. Despite her smaller frame and significantly lower strength, she moved to put his arm over her shoulder. “Come on, we need to get that looked at right away! And no exercising for you for… for at least three months!”

Modya did his best to not put any undue strain on Jessica, even though his steps weren’t exactly pleasant. “I think that’s a little harsh, Jess…”

“Yeah, don’t fret,” Ayame said from her stretcher. “With that short friend of yours in the infirmary, he’ll be back on his feet in a week.”

“I guess. But you better not fight me if I try to pamper…” Jessica let out a small shriek. “Ayame! What happened?”

Ayame looked down at her arm. “I, uh… I dropped it… too lazy to pick it up again…”

Jessica looked between her limping lover and her maimed friend, and looked as though she would cry. “D… d-d-did you… a-at least stop the Ethereal?”

“We turned him into a pincushion… with plasma,” Modya offered reassuringly.

Jessica let out a sigh of relief. “Come on, my valiant knight. Let’s get you treated.”

Ayame grinned widely. “Valiant knight?”

Modya shrugged as he followed Jessica. “I am not complaining. See you later, ‘stumpy’.” Ayame frowned a bit, but then laughed again, waving them off with her good hand.