RP X-Com Role-Play Missions

[Taxor_the_First]

Crusade, Part 4

Market District, Cairo, Egypt
10:56 AM, November 24th, 2018

Isaac exited the shopping center a few minutes later, carrying a heavy heart and a head filling with anger. He’d taken Samuel’s shotgun – he could carry it after all. Why not get a bit of poetic justice with it?

Upon reaching the corner of the center he gazed out into the flat no-man’s land stretching all the way to the battleship. For a moment, he considered storming onto that ship himself, cutting through every alien aboard. But even in his inflamed state, he could tell that such an action would be suicide, at best. Besides, he didn’t really have enough ammo for that anyway.

He was distracted by a hissing sound nearby. Looking around to determine its source, he saw a local beckoning him into a café set into the side of the center. After a brief moment, he accepted the unspoken invitation and entered, being met with the suspicious faces of nearly a dozen civilians. Not one gun between them. They were lucky to have survived this long.

A quick question, met with only confused looks, confirmed that he was the only one who spoke English. Or Russian, for that matter. Exasperated, he gave the pistol to the one who was the calmest, a woman who merely narrowed her eyes at him when he offered it, though she took it without a word. He kept the shotgun and sniper rifle for himself.

Wordless himself now, he took up position behind the counter and waited for any sign of an enemy. Knowing his luck, they’d come to check the café soon.

Murphy’s Law struck again, a Muton punching open the door and receiving a bullet through the eye for his trouble. The shot was clean, and passed through the Muton’s head and into the one behind it, killing it too. The third Muton, who had at least expected to have more warning before being the first in to a hostile area, panicked and ran away from the door. Moments later, the glass serving as two of the walls of the café smashed open, and as one, a troupe of Mutons and Thin Men stepped through, raising their weapons and firing.

Several civilians who had refused Isaac’s ‘suggestion’ to get behind the counter were hit by the plasma, most of them dying instantly. Those behind the counter shrieked in one way or another, save the woman with the gun, who merely returned fire.

Isaac himself grabbed Samuel’s shotgun, and fired several rounds into their assailants, each round hitting home and killing an alien. Sensing that it would be a tactically poor idea to continue in this fashion, the remaining foes retreated back out the shattered glass, running out to any form of cover they could find.

Isaac’s mouth twisted into a grimace, determination etched across his brow. He had a defensible position, a partner watching what he wasn’t, and a decent pool of ammo. He could last here for some time, certainly long enough for help to arrive or for the aliens to give up.

“Come on, then!” he shouted. “Superior firepower? Bullshit! Keep your fancy plasma, I’m doing just fine with plain old lead!” To illustrate, he switched back to the sniper rifle and took a shot, killing the Muton it was meant for.

Isaac ran out of ammo when the last Muton attempted a charge through the side of the café, his last bullet hitting dead center. He cursed, throwing the sniper rifle to the side and holding out his hand to the woman with his handgun. Somewhat reluctantly, she returned it, along with a few clips. Not much, but enough to take out the remaining Sectoids and their Commander, surely.

A hail of plasma stopped that though in its tracks, though it impacted the Sectoids instead of him. With the aliens panicking and trying to deal with this new threat, Isaac grabbed the rifle again and peered through the scope. He smiled when he saw the armor.

“About-bloody-time.”

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Tempered Humilitas: Epilogue
Taxor the First and Zombiesplitter53

The black-clad man fumed, waving his handgun around. “You don’t seem to understand,” he stated impatiently. “I’ve got commitments. I can’t go flying off to some hole in Siberia!”

The pilot waved his hands, his eyes watching the gun, not wanting to get shot. “I-I’m sorry, sir, I… I have my orders! I can’t just send you back out into a half destroyed city because of some ‘commitments’. And… h-how do… how do you know… where we’re going?”

Dammit. Isaac scoffed. “Irrelevant. I’m not an enemy, if that makes you feel better.”

“And why would we think that?” Asked a voice behind him, a hand quickly wrapping around his gun hand.

Noting that it would be counter-productive to his argument, the assassin refrained from resisting. “I can’t divulge that information,” he said stiffly. “You people, of all people, should understand the need for secrecy.”

“And who are we, exactly?” Aya slowly took the gun from his hand. “You seem to know things, and say things, that make me suspicious, and we’ve only we’ve only been talking for a few seconds. You have to insist you aren’t our enemy, there might be a reason why…”

“A-and he… knows about Siberia…” The pilot nervously added as he powered up the dropship, the rest of the squad filing inside.

Isaac was silent for a moment. “Ms. Brea, you’re making a huge mistake here. My boss will not be happy, and the Council’s not going to like this.” Implying they’d even care.

Aya chuckled. “Is that so. Look…” She sighed, running her hand through a few blond locks. In a sultry, almost seductive voice, she said, “I’ve had a long day.”

“So have I.”

“Two of my people nearly died, one of whom has a wife that is probably going to kick my ass for letting him get so beat up. I have a little engineer that is going to hit the ceiling when she finds out about all the tech we broke. And… I’m just tired. So please understand if I sound a bit impatient.” The smile faded from her face, and she lifted the handgun. “Who are you, and how do you know my name? And I want a straight… fucking… answer.”

The man shook his head. “Then I’m afraid I have to disappoint you. I’ve found that very few answers are straight during my life.” He turned his head slightly. “Why should today be any different?” he goaded.

Aya raised an eyebrow. “You… it is rare for me to find someone who… infuriates me so quickly.” She shook head, and glanced at the pilot. “Shut the door. We’re leaving.”

Repressing the urge to protest, Isaac watched as the view of the outside grew slimmer and slimmer, finally disappearing altogether as the door closed. He sighed inwardly, and accepted his fate.

Now, things were going to get complex. He didn’t like complex.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

XCOM Player Mission Parameters
Double UFO Crash Site
Operation Lupine Vanguard and Operation Azure Matriarch

Location: Northern German Plain
Date: December 9th, 2018
Time: 0600 Hours, Local Time

Mission Details:

A few minutes ago, our firestorms shot down two UFOs in Germany. (Ironic indeed that the place where our first operation took place should be the site of one of the last battles in this war.) Both ships contained psionic signatures indicating Ethereal presences. The first was an Abductor, and will be assaulted by a team lead by Legion Field Commander Emma. With hyperwave data indicating a human onboard, it was downed with EMP attacks. Be careful, and expect heavy resistance.

The second ship was an Overseer-style craft complete with a cloaking system. It took hits to the engines and went down, but not hard. Its cloak appears to still be functioning, so Colonel Atka has been dispatched to use her ‘natural’ talents to track the missing ship down. Ideally, before it can be repaired and vanish without a trace.

Number of Soldiers for this Mission:
Lupine Vanguard: Six (6) soldiers accompanied by one (1) Legion Trooper and one (1) SHIV
Azure Matriarch: Seven (7) soldiers accompanied by two (2) Legion Troopers and one (1) Infantry Airframe

Soldier’s Names:

Lupine Vanguard:

*Colonel 5 (MSGT) Atka Ipiktok (Scout) (Blue Psionic) [Adaptive Bone Marrow Regenesis]
MSGT Sutherland, Colin (Assault) [Iron Skin, Adaptive Bone Marrow, Aerobic Respiration Boost]
MSGT Beckett, Maggie (Infantry) [Hyper-Reactive Pupils]
GSGT Ashley Van Dam (Medic) (Blue Psionic)
GSGT Ogedei (Muton Heavy Trooper) [Adrenal Neurosympathy]
(A) Subject 180: “Hidalgo” (Rocketeer) [7, 15, 17]
Legion I (Sniper)
Alloy S.H.I.V. Unit 2: "Taqukaq"

Azure Matriarch:

*(E) Subject 158: "Emma" (Shadow Operative) [7. 10, 15, 16, 17] (Purple Psion), “Knight”
(Honorary) Dorian (Assault)
MSGT Ammelia Cross (Sniper) {Shadow}
(A) Subject 175: “Indigo” (Infantry) [1, 13, 15]
(A) Subject 161: "Diego" (Engineer) [9, 12, 13]
MSGT Mary Thomas (Gunner) [Dextrous Muscle Fibers, Magnified Bicep Structure, and Secondary Heart] (Green Psionic)
MSGT Jacobs, Scarlet (Rocketeer) (Purple Psionic)
Legion IX (Assassin)
Legion X (Assassin)
IA-006 (Stealth Drone)

*Squad Leader

Italics are player characters.

Gear - Player’s Characters will be equipped with the following items:

-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)

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

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

-Equipment: Two (2) of the following; 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, walker servos, or an Arc Thrower.

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

Terrain:

The two alien spacecraft crashed into on the Northern German plain just north of a forest. Expect fields with tall grass, shrubbery, and flowers in abundance, and spare trees. Lay low, and use the disparate treeline to your advantage if possible. The smaller size of our teams is meant to utilize this, but we also have the utmost confidence in the abilities of our soldiers to handle the enemy.

The Abductor has the normal layout for such a ship, with the back entrance flanked by the engines, two storage rooms separated by a central walkway and one on either side, a room for the storage of abductees with two power supply rooms on either side, and the bridge at the front.

The Overseer craft is a medium UFO with double the normal power sources for a regular medium-sized alien ship. Unlike the interior of similar ships we have inspected, however, it is lacking the ornate symbology and stained glass we are familiar with. Instead, there are practical work stations and meditation rooms, making the ship rather austere within.

Enemies:

Lupine Vanguard:

One Group containing four (4) Sectoids
One Group containing one (1) Sectopod, four (4) Drones
One Group containing two (2) Thin Man Snipers, two (2) Muton Assaults, two (2) Drones, one (1) Outsider, and one (1) Cyberdisc
One Group containing one (1) Sectoid Commander, one (1) Muton Elite, and one (1) Ethereal, “Sapentia”

Azure Matriarch:

One Group containing six (6) Sectoids
One Group containing four (4) Thin Men and two (2) Sectoid Commanders
Two Groups containing five (5) Mutons
One Group containing four (4) Chryssalids and two (2) Incubators
One Group containing one (1) Ethereal “Lapis”

Special Enemy Notes:

Sapentia is a major yellow psionic with minor green and orange abilities. He makes use of a powerful telekinetic field to protect himself, as well as biokinesis for emergency healing. Psi inspiration is one of his weaker talents, due to a lack of confidence, but he will use it to boost his powers slightly, if not the will of others. His only offensive talent is a combination of teleimagery and telekinesis to make a powerful illusion that will fight for him. He seems hesitant to fight, likely on his way to retreat when we shot down his ship, and thus may attempt to flee.

Lapis is a mainly purple psionic that extends heavily into red but very little into blue. As such, expect powerful Mind Control attempts and Mind Frays, but also watch out for equally dangerous Psi Lances, Pyro Conjuring, and Telekinesis as well. She is proud and considers herself to be culturally above the other ethereals, even her own superiors. This, and her strange beliefs when it comes to the path, have alienated her from anyone but her now deceased sister and Invidia, it would also explain that, despite the fact that she is a surprisingly old Ethereal, she has never risen above her position as Lieutenant. Expect her to be vengeful towards X-COM for the death of her sibling, but perhaps this can be used to your advantage to cause her to make mistakes that leave her vulnerable.

Conditions for Completing the Mission:

(1) Defeat of all enemy forces.

or

(2) Evacuation from the mission site.

Civilians:

Whatever human(s) are contained within the Abductor.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Azure Matriarch, Part 1

The dropship containing Emma’s forces set down about a kilometer away from the downed Abductor, which was quite clearly intact as intended. Unfortunately, that meant the ship’s occupants were very much alive as well. The plane’s hatch lowered, allowing the squad of ten to exit.

Emma quickly had her troops form up when they were on solid ground. “Dorian, Diego, you two will be in the front with me,” the shadow operative, acting as a scout-sniper, informed the assault and engineer. “Legion, one of your frames will be on either flank. The infantry airframe may take center.” The robots hovered into position as the two frontline troops did likewise, followed by their commanding officer. “Indigo to the right of the IA, and Thomas to the left. Cross and Jacobs, you two will take up the rear.”

Dorian nodded slowly, looking over to Mary and Ammy as they spoke, “Understood.”

“‘Ot ‘et” (Got it)

Strike Two treaded across the cold plains, their footsteps rustling in the grass, alloy meeting organic material. As they neared to half a kilometer with the ship, Emma held up a hand, narrowing her eyes. “Feel something with my bioelectric skin… five contacts and… an additional one… right…” Emma turned her plasma rifle to the side, only to scare off a terrified-looking lynx.

“I do not believe that is an enemy contact, Lady Emma,” one of the Legion Troopers intoned quietly.

“I can see that,” the shadow operative replied, glancing downrange several dozen meters. Her nightvision was still enabled, as the sun had yet to rise in the early, chilling morning. “However, those appear to be a scouting party of five Mutons,” she spoke into comms. “Ammelia, see if you can take a few out before they have a chance to react, and we’ll clean up the rest. No sense in wasting invisibility charges yet.”

“Alright.” Ammelia replied, laying down in the grass to steady her sniper rifle, her new scope marking the targets clearly. She waited until two of them were lined up before taking a shot, blasting through the first Muton’s head and through the other’s neck as she slid her rifle over, taking two quick shots at the other Mutons, blasting a hole through the heart of one but only hitting the lung of the other.

The injured Muton tried to roar in pain, but swooned when the action sent a spike of pain through its chest. The other looked around, setting its gaze on the direction in which the attack had come from. It raised its rifle at the enemy, but before it could give a bellow that might have alerted other enemies to the XCOM squad’s location, Emma advanced and filled its helmet and chest with a few bursts of plasma. The other Muton had no chance, being gunned down by Diego’s stormgun.

Emma had the troops lower their weapons again. “Quick and clean. Well done.”

Scarlet sighed. “Not the biggest fan of all this sneaking around…”

“Your lack of subtlety is noted,” the Field Commander replied.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes as the clone began advancing again. “Bitch…” she muttered under her breath.

Ammelia augmented hearing picked up what was said, “Red, just trust her…”

“I do, they’re just annoying sometimes… a lot of the time,” Scarlet replied, shaking her head.

Making it close to the hangar, Emma elected to have the squad hunker down beside a few trees and some brush for a moment to take in the ship’s defenses. Behind the processing bay and some crates were the other five Balmadaar. On the side balconies appeared to be two Thin Men on either side, though they were far enough away that they would have to dash forward to engage the enemy. “Now would be the time for cloaking, I believe. Legion, IA-006, engaged stealth devices. Ammelia, when we open fire, give the signal to attack. We shall take one of the Thin Man groups and a Muton or two.”

Receiving an affirmative nod, Emma and the three robots vanished from sight, and moved forward. The two Legion troopers, one armed with a reflex cannon shotgun, the other wielding a carbine for heightened speed, silently reached the side balcony, noting the presence of a Sectoid Commander as well. Reassessing their priorities, the shotgunner aimed at the bulbous-headed creature, while his carbine-wielding ally prepared to gun down a tall alien.

As for Emma, she was accompanied by the Infantry Airframe. The Field Commander had her robotic comrade take aim with its main gun at the Sectoid Commander, while pointing its two secondary pulse pistols at the Thin Men. The Lady pointed her rifle at the back of a Muton’s head. Now!.She ordered through her implants.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

The Legion Troopers opened fire about a second before Emma, punching a hole through the head of their Sectoid Commander and the torso of one of the Thin Man. As the other frantically leapt into the right cargo bay, starting to disappear from sight, Emma’s side went on the attack. The living Sectoid Commander had heard the gunshots, and cowered behind his console, the scaredy-cat move actually saving his life, the pulse beaming hitting the computer and not him. The two Thin Men were shot up with lasers, and stumbled to the sides trying to escape, but were gradually gunned down. The Muton targeted by Emma didn’t stand a chance.

Mary stood up, firing her plasma dragon into the group of Mutons in an attempt to suppress, but didn’t complain when she managed to catch two of them out, sending them to the ground and filling them with bright green plasma. Dorian moved up for cover to cover, using his stealth skills to bridge the gap as much as he could without being detected. He managed to reach the other side of a Muton’s cover, slipping around and shredding it with his brand new Reflex cannon. The final Muton attempted to take a shot at Dorian while he was vulnerable, but a shot from Ammy promptly disabled it’s weapon, allowing her bodyguard to kill it with ease.

Scarlet put one hand to the side of her head, and stretched out her right, a strong thread of purple connecting her to Emma. Correct your robot doggie’s mistake, please.

Emma nodded, running back to where the Sectoid Commander was attempting to flee. It raised a hand, and tried to hit her with a mindfray. Needless to say, Emma shrugged it off and used her neural dampening to sent it straight back. In a panic, the gray alien tried to mind control Emma, sealing its fate, for it could not seize control of her in its weakened state and with the mind merge up. “Such a pathetic creature,” the Lady Gray decided before putting a burst of plasma through the frail alien’s chest.

Ammelia, Mary, Scarlet, and the two Legion androids guarded one door, while the other five walked up to the other. As one, they opened them. On the right with the two sisters were four chryssalids that had finished tearing the Thin Man who had foolishly jumped into their pen to shreds, and rushed their four foes that were nearby, the sniper being further back. On the other end there were two familiar cats that transformed into their feral forms and leapt at Emma and Dorian.

Dorian instinctively slid back about a few feet to just barely dodge a swipe of its claws; it went for another strike but found it difficult to get a read on Dorian’s actions because of his unique mind. He aimed his reflex cannon at the Incubator, but it promptly dodged, going in on what it thought was a vulnerable soldier, only to be surprised by the combat knife that Dorian had concealed underneath the barrel of his weapon.

The blade pierced the large cat’s flesh as Dorian positioned his weapon to try and blow its head off, but it jumped, causing the shot to blast of its front leg instead. In a last ditch attempt, the incubator opened its massive jaws to try and rip off Dorian’s arm; the teeth sank in, but some psionics from Mary managed to stop it’s heart, the autopsy reports she had found the time to look at paying off.

The other one attempted to read the Lady Grey’s mind, and found an unpleasant surprise similar to Dorian’s, but different. A painful buzz echoed in its head, the neural dampening countering the form of ESP passively, and more intensely for how specifically it had targeted her brain. With a ghost of a smile, Emma lifted her gun, blasting a shot into the beast’s shoulder. It stumbled back, but then rushed her again, only for the clone to step to the side, easily evading the creature used to the help of precognition and mind-reading. A few more shots finished it off, and Emma glanced over to see how the others were faring with the Chryssalids.

Scarlet had managed to gun down one with her heavy rifle, but stepped back as the other two closed their distance, the third a smoldering corpse from the combined fire of the two Legion androids. The other two were easy shots for Ammy, leading them to compensate for their speed. Ammelia looked over to her long time friend and, seeing that he was injured, unlatched the medi-kit from her belt and sprayed his arm. Dorian’s face puckered a little as he tried to ignore the pain, succeeding long enough for the spray to halt it completely. “Are you alright?” The sniper asked, Dorian responding with a simple nod.

Emma allowed the squad a brief respite until Dorian could stand again, and then continued into the ship along the main pathway in the middle. They came upon the room containing the typical six human stasis containers, but the people that were suspended inside all looked as if they had undergone the process of becoming Mecs, missing their arms, legs, and even eyes, all cleanly, surgically cut, but without the mechanical parts to replace them. Six Sectoids moved about the room, checking the conditions of the prisoners, as they sensed the group enter, taking cover where they could.

Emma activated her cloak again, and the two Legion Troopers followed suit. While Diego and Scarlet carefully suppressed two of the Sectoids, the three invisible soldiers leapt down, taking out the three Sectoids hidden behind the canisters. The one remaining died to a shot from Ammelia, and the other two were quickly gunned down by Indigo before they had a chance to cause any real trouble.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Operation Lupine Vanguard, Part 1

Strike One’s dropship touched down upon the breeze-kissed grasslands with a soft pneumatic sigh. Atka was the first out, with the assault Colin Sutherland at her side. Behind her, Taqukaq rolled out with Maggie moving to the robot’s left, and Ogedei on its right. Hidalgo, Legion I, and Ashley made up the rear of the formation of eight.

“Alright… we’re looking for a cloaked ship, so I have an idea,” Atka began to explain. “Legion is going to use his illuminator gunsight to look around for the ship, but we need to narrow down our venues. Thus, we need to move quietly, and tell me if you spot any wildlife. Wolves would be nice in particular for their good noses.”

“Yes, wolves would be nice for allies. Hum... wish we could find some right off the bat, their sense of smell would really come in handy for tracking a cloaked ship, especially if one of the aliens is bleeding.” Ashley said with a smile on her face “Alright Colonel, where am I going?”

“Just follow with the rest of the squad for now, but keep an eye out,” Atka replied, placing her reflex rifle into the archangel armor’s gloves, and gripping it. “Let’s go find ourself an Overseer UFO… even if it doesn’t have one in it.”

“Just a lackey,” Ogedei scoffed. “Are running thin on troops indeed.”

Atka smiled grimly beneath her helmet. “Yeah. Looks like we have made a dent after all.” Having Strike One move onward, the six soldiers and two robots spread out slightly, searching for their foes or the local fauna, whichever came first. As it turned out, it would be the latter, as Ashley spotted a pack of wolves.

“Hold up here,” Atka intoned. “I’ll go see what I can learn.” Removing her helmet and holding it at her side, the Inuit woman cautiously approached the pack a fair distance away. I mean you no harm… I wish to ask you something.

The wolves, recieving the message as an assortment of images explaining her meaning, paused, and the alpha female stepped forward, curious. What information do you seek? And what is the reward?

I may have something for you to eat with me… but first, have you seen anything unusual? Outsiders?

The wolve's visages seemed to light up excitedly. A gray mass with four smaller raised objects around it, not far from a strange depression in the ground. The direction they gave was interpreted as northwest.

Atka smiled, and pulled out a piece of meat she had convinced central to allow her to bring on the flight, tossing it to the wolves, who dug in quickly. Thank you. The Colonel returned to her own pack, and told them the news. “It sounds like there’s a Sectopod hunkered down in the grass to the northwest with four drones assisting it. I bet that’s our mark.”

“Great, a Sectopod. Just perfect. Hay, Atka if I may. These things are probably used to the howling of our friends there, so may I suggest that they start howling to at least make the machines be a little calmer when they hear the grass rattling what do you think?”

Atka nodded in thought. “They would interpret the animal life as beneath a threat, probably… good idea, Ashley.” To the wolves across the way, Atka added, Could you do me one last favor? Continue to howl as you typically do when calling to each other to distract the gray ones. They are our prey, and we would be grateful for the help.

I expect another meal. But we shall, the alpha female replied.

Atka and the others continued their advance, with the slightly eeriy howl of the wolf pack accompanying their quiet trek towards the northwest. About two kilometers in, with the wolves following a kilometer behind, they spotted the mechanical titan.

The Sectopod was scanning the nearby area idly, but did not seem on high alert, at least not in the direction of the wolves. Its controller had deemed the animals to be a distraction and a non-issue, and focused its scans in other paths. Essentially, this created a upwind patch in which the XCOM hunters could stalk their robotic prey.

“Father Hidalgo, do you have that shredder ready?” Colin whispered, amused at his own joke.

The Adam clone raised an eyebrow, but merely nodded to answer the question, prepping the shrapnel-filled blaster bomb. “Chem grenade first, Colonel?” he inquired.

The XCOM scout smiled, her helmet back on but not entirely darkened. “Sounds like a plan.” A soft blue glow surrounded her, heightening her strength for a moment, and Atka held the acidic grenade in one of her telekinetic helixes, spinning it like a baseball pitcher. “And… strike one.” The blue psion let it fly, the grenade bursting beneath the Sectopod and weakening its armor. Before it had a chance to react, the shredder rocket collided with it, tearing deep gashes and punctures into its frame.

“Don’t let the drones repair it!” Atka warned. Maggie shot down two of them, being an expert at takign down flying targets at this point, and Legion I took out another. The last one managed to get in a weak repair cycle before Colin closed the distance and blew it out of the sky. He hit the floor as a fusion burst from the Sectopod Chest Cannon obliterated a tree behind his former position.

“Damn, that was close,” the assault muttered.

Ogedei glanced at Ashley as Taqukaq and he prepared to fire. “Enemy weakened… let us finish it.”

“Right, let’s give this thing a quick death and move forward.” Ashley and Ogedei fired their plasma rifles at the weakened Sectopod destroying more of its armor and destroying the giant robot. “Sigh... I have to admit these things used to be a challenge, I miss that now it’s just too easy.” Ashley said with disappointment in her face. “Hay, Atka tell our friends thank you for me and tell them I will give them a bunch of alien meat when we're done. I would do it myself but I never had a chance to talk to animals like you did.”

Atka chuckled. “Let’s not get too overconfident… we still have an Ethereal to deal with. I’ll make sure the wolves get something, though I think they’d prefer terrestrial meat to the extraterrestrial variety.” Pulling out her reflex rifle again, the Inuit woman added, “Though remind me to try and teach you animal empathy when we get back to base. Taqukaq’s good practice.” Glancing over at the robot, she clarified, “The husky, not the robot.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

No sooner did Strike One notice the depression where the cloaked ship was did twin bolts of plasma streak through the air, ripping through the Legion android and making it nearly topple to the ground, its arm and leg servomotors temporarily out of commission. Turning to get a better look, they saw two Thin Men wielding what appeared to be reflex rifles, behind a tree each. Between them was an Outsider crouched behind a rock, taking aim, and a cyberdisc floating into position a few meters behind it. Two drones accompanied the flying robot as always, and two Mutons with plasma shotguns were charging forward.

“Why do they have to start copying our tactics?” Colin groaned, before ducking behind the Sectopod wreck as the two Mutons opened fire, their shots digging holes into the wreck.

Maggie took cover behind a tree of her own, setting up suppressing fire on the dangerous Outsider. “Ogedei, those three are close enough for a grenade!” she yelled over the sound of Taqukaq launching his rocket at the cyberdisc, punching through its armor and damaging it heavily. It returned fire, but only battered the SHIV’s armor.

The Balmadaar nodded eagerly, though was wise enough to glance at Ashley. “Give smoke cover,” he requested, before preparing a grenade to toss at the two Thin Men and Outsider.

“Right.” Ashley threw a smoke grenade at the squad blinding the aliens view of them. Ashley started to fire her rifle at some of the Thin Men. “Get outta my way you worthless aliens, you're not worth fighting or our time. So if you will be so kind and just die that will be much appreciated. “ Ashley says while firing her plasma rifle at the Thin Man.

Ogedei’s grenade soared forward, unhindered by enemy fire, and landed amongst the three sharpshooter aliens, blasting apart their cover and injuring them. The Thin Man attacked by Ashley tried to flee, but the Van Dam gunned him down without cover to protect his hide. The Outsider suffered a similar fate to double response fire from Maggie, and the last Thin Man fell to a shot from Hidalgo’s carbine.

Atka took stock of the situation, deciding that Colin needed the most help. She took aim with her reflex rifle, kneeling beside the wreck of a drone, and shot one of the advancing Muton assaults square in the shoulder, slowing him. He tried to move forward, but was nailed once, then again, and finally fell to a third shot to the throat. The other was obstructed from Atka’s view, and a thunder of plasma fire made her heart jump. However, it was Colin that stepped out, his armor damaged but the Briton was unharmed.

Legion I stood up again, surprisingly, the advanced repair subsystems bringing him back to operational status. Taking aim with sniper rifle, the robot took out the remaining two drones, and Taqukaq finished off the cyberdisc.

“Sigh this boring, they used to be strong now that were on the same tech as them well they don’t stand a chance. Why don’t they surrender. Ashley walks to the ship “Hay Ethereal would you come out and play, and spare us the absolute murder of your men because let’s be honest we're going to mow right through them!” Ashley yelled into the ship.

Of all the people, why did I have to be sought out by their Colonel and one of those Van Dams? A telepathic voice said in anguish. The ship began to fade into view, mostly intact except for some damaged engines that were being worked on by some four Sectoids and their more powerful cousin. They did their best to not flee in abject terror as they saw the XCOM troops. From the main door of the ship, an Ethereal with a surprisingly bland mask for his station, accompanied by a Muton Elite, floated out.

Atka and the others lifted their weapons cautiously, while the Ethereal surveyed the eight before him. You… Sapentia intoned, pointing a finger at Ashley, assisted in slaying Gula, did you not? As if the one that slew Invidia wasn’t a danger enough…

“Ou so you know of me great, now I’m a very busy woman and I have things to do so i’m gonna give you two options. Option A, you get on your knees and surrender. Or option B you can do something really stupid. Hay, Atka what do you think?”

 

[Frostlich1228]

Operation Azure Matriarch, Part 2

Mary walked up to one of the tanks, putting her hands on the glass and looking up at the limbless man inside, “‘Ucking ‘ell… She ‘ust… ‘acked off ‘eir ‘imbs?” (Fucking hell… She just… hacked off their limbs?)

Ammelia walked up to the tank behind her, unable to see into them due to her SAaIDA’s limitations, but was kind of glad about that fact, nevertheless, her stomach turned at Mary’s words, “Missing their limbs? That’s… Sick…”

Dorian simply stared up at one, both of his eyes had been plucked out.

Terrible… Rook spoke into Dorian’s head, We’ll make that creature pay for this.

Scarlet did her best to not think too much about the captives. “We’ll do what we can later… right now we’ve got an Ethereal to kill,” she mumbled.

Emma nodded, and lead the squad of ten up to the bridge door. Making sure they were all ready, she pressed the unlock panel, and the forcefield dissipated.

As they entered, they saw that the bridge was completely empty; terminals, left unattended, the Ethereal’s throne, devoid of it’s owner. There was, however, a solid alloy door that led out of the bridge, strange, considering that this door was completely unique to the ship as the other abductor class UFO’s usually had the same layout.

“She’s… “ot ‘ere?” (She’s… Not here?), Mary asked, looking around dissapointed.

“There is one remaining room…” Emma countered, having the squad take cover in the upper portion of the room. “IA-006, open that door, would you? I’d prefer to engage on my own terms.”

The Infantry Airframe drone whirred, and charged up its central pulse laser, firing the rifle-like beam and its pistols in short bursts at the door, whittling its hinges down with assistance from the two Legion Troopers until it finally collapsed. A ice cold wind blew in from the room on the other side, giving a few of the soldiers goosebumps. Inside was an average sized hallway, four cages on each side, all filled with sleeping people, all missing various limbs or appendages, some without arms, others without legs, a few just missing fingers. The floor in the hallway was a mostly white, imitating tile, a few bloodstains were present though, most by the cages.

Scarlet sucked in a deep breath, while Emma had the squad reposition slightly to face the hallway. “Ethereal! If you think you can hide in there, you are going to lose this war of attrition!” Emma called out, aiming down the pathway with her plasma rifle.

A voice echoed back, as the door glowed purple, swinging itself open, Perhaps you’re right… Join me then… Your parts will be fine additions to my collection…

“I have yet to meet an opponent so decidedly… annoying.” Legion, send one of your frames in, cloaked. Take a shot, and then fall back.

Legion X vanished from sight, and approached the opened door cautiously. It lifted its rifle, taking a peek around the corner before it would fire. Racks of refrigerated limbs and other body parts covered the surface of every wall, all of different species, Muton, Thin Man, Chryssalid… Human… Esc. Lapis stood in the middle of the collection, waiting for the team to enter the room. She knew she could deal with these neanderthals easily, but she hoped the sight of her vault would fill their hearts with dread.

The android frame lifted its gun, and fired off a single burst at Lapis before ducking behind the safety of the wall, out of sight. Lapis rapidly moved out of the way, her legs clanking against the metal, If you’d really like me to come in there, I can, I just thought you’d care more about… collateral damage… She spoke, picturing the civilians in the room.

The Legion Trooper momentarily wondered why an Ethereal made a clattering noise, before falling back at full speed into the bridge, a line of waiting guns holding their fire until the Ethereal made her way into the bridge. They were on either side of the room, so Lapis could only see the robot from the hallway.

The Ethereal sighed, knowing about the obvious trap, but of course the humans would resort to such pathetic tactics, it didn’t matter, she knew she could easily dispatch such sad creatures, no matter where she was. Lapis chattered down the hall, her long flowing robe still covering her legs as she lift a surprisingly bulky looking hand, charging a psi lance in preparation for the fight.

As soon as she made it to the room, the Legion trooper ducked back with the others, and they opened fire, save for Emma, who prepared to receive any psionic attacks. Lapis fired her lance into the group while dodging the shots as best she could. She aimed for Dorian but a legion mech purposefully took the blast instead, being torn apart instead. As Lapis dodged, she managed to evade most of them with her strange speed, but a shot managed to graze her mask, leaving a melted hole in the side. As she entered the bridge, light revealed the strange bulkiness of her robes more clearly as a muscular pale green arm reached out from under her robe, touching the side of her mask. How… Dare you human… I suppose I’ll have to take your faces as repayment… I’ll be happy to wear them while my mask is being repaired…

“The hell are you, Dr. Frankenstein?” Scarlet growled, taking another shot at Lapis, while Emma had caught the psi lance with noticeable effort, and now hurled it back at the Ethereal. Lapis used her power to redirect the lance into one of the nearby walls, but this left her vulnerable as Scarlet’s shot tore through the rest of her helmet, causing it to fall into pieces.

Underneath, the Ethereal had an oversized jaw full of dozens of razor sharp teeth fused into her face in some places, and bolted on with metal in others as even her eyes weren’t her own, one clearly human, while the other slanted and reptilian. Lapis began laughing as she removed her bulky red robe, the full extend of her bodily modifications revealed. In place of her legs was what looked to be the entire lower body of a Chryssalid queen connected to a torso that looked Ethereal, but with two hearts noticeably beating under her skin. On her sides were four Muton arms, two covered in Berserker armor, arm blades included. All these different parts were grafted by bolts of fused with her like her jaw, but there were clear signs of rotting in some places on her chest, making it obvious that this body wasn’t stable.

Lapis smiled, Behold the glorious work of art that is my body… The thing that even makes other Ethereals shudder with fear or silent envy... I’ve put centuries into picking the perfect parts… Using my sister’s power to keep them stable… That was… Until you murdered her…

Lapis rushed forward with surprising speed, a tactic that was completely unheard of for Ethereals, as she slammed one of the Legion mechs out of the way, heading directly for Emma.

 

[Frostlich1228]

The Shadow Operative took the wise course of action when faced with such a blitzkrieg. She punched a button on her armor, vanished from view, and jumped out of the way. Indigo sent plenty of firepower at the horrifying monstrosity, while Diego stepped back in fear and tossed an AP grenade that detonated on the Queen hide, doing little damage.

Scarlet swore under her breath, backing up as she realized her rockets wouldn’t be very useful in confined quarters, and instead began unloading with a rain of plasma. Mary joined along with her in an attempt to stop the mad abomination.

To avoid the fire, Lapis dashed behind a pillar, a thread of purple energy reaching into Mary’s head to help alleviate the heavy suppression. Everything in Mary tried to resist but the power of the purple psion was simply too strong as Lapis forced Mary to turn on Scarlet. Thankfully, it took the Ethereal a second to properly work the weapon, unsure of how exactly to use one in practice rather than on paper; this gave Dorian the precious time he needed to tackle her to the ground. Ammelia carefully aimed a shot at the beast, the shot strategically aimed to shatter the bolts holding her arm in place.

It hit, causing the limb to fall off the body, leaving it to twitch on the ground and leaving her with only one weapon. Lapis, gritted from the pain, but fought through it to send a mindfray towards Ammy, keeping her from taking another quick shot. Lapis figured that the only way to make any progress was to simply rush the nearest soldier, if she stayed here, she would be overwhelmed quickly. The abomination rushed one of the clones, slamming it’s single arm blade into his chest and lifting him into range of it’s razor sharp teeth.

Emma’s eyes widened, and the pressure on Lapis went up, but it was too late, the teeth tearing through Diego’s form, and the abomination sliced him in half. “Yo-you…” The Shadow Operative grabbed Dorian’s discarded reflex cannon, and dashed under Lapis rather than flee from her. Aiming the shotgun up, she decloaked, and fired through the soft underbelly.

The weapon shredded her underside, breaking some of the bolts holding her torso to her legs. She tried to swing at Emma, but her arm malfunctioned and froze in place, the signals from the brain being rejected by the grafted arm. As Emma recovered, a feeling of surprise filled the ethereal, M-My body… How could it fail me…

“A fitting way for a monster like you to die,” Emma muttered, and a hail of fire, along with another shot to her stomach before the shadow operative ducked out of the way, followed her words.

The bolts in it’s torso broke apart completely, causing Lapis’ body to split in half, falling into two parts on the floor as a pool of blood formed around her. B-but… I w-was… Perfect…. How…. With that last word, the last of her blood was pumped out of her body, only aided by the second heart she had installed in her chest.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 2

Before the Inuit could answer, Sapentia asked his Sectoid Commander, How soon until the engines are repaired?

A few minutes? the Sectoid replied meekly.

Sapentia nodded slowly. All I need do is buy time then. Very well. Yellow psionic energy flowed out from his back like a waterfall, coalescing into a form not unlike his, but this astral projection was stylized with armor, and wielded four swords, the bottom two shorter than the top two. My Athos shall be the judge of which of us can last those few minutes!

Atka sighed. “I thought maybe you’d see you were outmatched here.” Telekinetic helixes surrounded her hands, and she shot them forward, the two psionic manifestations crossing in an ‘x’.

‘Athos’ blocked the strikes with three crossed swords, and stepped to the side as if walking on an invisible pathway, seeking a better defensive angle between the Sectoid repairmen and the XCOM squad. The Muton Elite was drawn into a test of skill with Ogedei, firing off a series of blasts. Both shredded eachothers cover and kept moving to the left.

Ashley puts her rifle on her back and her eyes started to glow and sighed. “You never learn. I give you a chance to surrender and you don’t take it.” Ashley used psi inspiration to boost the squads morale and Ashleys eyes start to glow green “Well time to test these powers out.” Ashley started to gather energy and formed a large sphere and threw it at Sapentia.

The mindfray collided with his mask, and Sapentia reeled, his psionic projection flickering as he struggled to re-establish his concentration. He barely had time to put up a telekinetic shield as Atka slashed her helixes again upon him, and Maggie opened fire. With the combined attacks of those two and the relentless shots from Taqukaq, it was all he could do to keep the enemy away from the Sectoids.

But even then, a shot from Legion I rang out, punching through the skull of a Sectoid, then another. Asto tried to move forward to cut the robot to pieces, but Atka intercepted it, leaving Colin to shoot up the Ethereal’s powerful shield. Her helixes, imbued, ground against the front two swords.

Asto reached out to the sides with the longer ones, and tried to impale Atka from either side, but the helixes extended further, barely catching the two and holding them back… for now. “That’s… a strong ability… you have there…” the Inuit breathed. Her helixes cut her hands shallowly, and blood flowed forth, a telekinetic barrier shattering her icy helixes, but shoving the four swords away from herself.

A clink of a grenade hitting armor, and a pained roar sounded Ogedei’s victory over the Muton Elite, and he gunned down the remaining two Sectoids, leaving only the Commander, soon to be dispatched by sniper rifle fire. Only the Ethereal remained, and the squad and Sapentia both realized this.

I suppose… you are the victors in this, then.Asto faded into sparks of light, and Sapentia held up his four hands in a pattern to maintain his shield. Perhaps… I could negotiate my surrender, seeing as I have no chance of survival otherwise now?

“You just tried to kill us, you goddamn idiot!” Colin spat.

I fought in self defense… I have heard stories of what is done to some of the alien captives… would you willingly surrender yourself to us if we gave you the option? The fate of my commanding officer, Avarita, suggests that you would not. Such treachery that Albert Foulke participated in…

“Look, Albert had his own problems OK. But we treat our prisoners with respect I mean you ask the Muton that’s fighting alongside us. I mean... we had him for a while and now he’s fighting with us we did not torture him, experiment on him, or any of that crap. So give me a reason why we shouldn't kill you.”

Please understand my sense of loyalty… though I see that I have no other choice. Making me choice between duty and… Sapentia hung his head for a moment. I will give myself up and share what information I can offer, but on one condition.

“That depends…” Atka said cautiously, knowing capturing the Ethereal with Colin’s arc thrower would be a lot easier than facing that psionic ‘shadow’ again. “What is it?”

If you come across an Ethereal that goes by Carthigi… I ask that you try and spare her. She will likely hesitate to fight if she knows I am in your custody. Though… ideally you will never fight her. I surrender myself because I know my laʒier would not take my death well… especially if it was caused by a bitch like Lapis.

“I can… promise you we’ll at least try within reason. But you’ll have to surrender unconditionally. Lower your shield,” Atka demanded.

Sapentia likely closed his eyes for a moment fearfully, and then lowered his hands, the shield dissipating. With a nod to Atka, Colin rushed forward, raising his arc thrower, and tendrils of electricity down the Ethereal.

Atka breathed a sigh of relief that it was over. Kneeling by Sapentia, she mused, “I wasn’t exactly expecting a captive… though I wasn’t expecting to see a power like that either.”

“Hum, well all in all a good day. Hopefully they can help us out. I mean right now he’s a prisoner of war. Hell he’s not as strong as those generals we faced, so I’m sure any ethereal we see will surrender to us with no problem since their leaders are dead.”

“Any terrestrial ones that are left… though it seems like they’re in the middle of a strategic retreat…” Atka muttered. “And there’s still the Honored Overseer and Phobos. I doubt any will surrender that are truly loyal to them.” The Inuit woman looked over Sapentia. “I guess this one just isn’t that bad… granted, he gave me a run for my money, but… I dunno, something about him surrendering for the sake of his lover just seemed sweet.”

“Yea sweet, come on Atka if I remember you and I still have a mission. We need to feed our wolf friends, so everyone else can go on big sky me and Atka are going hunting.”

Atka chuckled. “Maybe if we can find something quickly. Otherwise, I’m just getting something out of the Skyranger.”

 

[Frostlich1228]

Operation Azure Matriarch, Epilogue

Mary stood up slowly as Dorian let her go, “Eh… ‘ave eh’ crazy ‘eadache ‘ight ‘ow…” (I… Have a crazy headache right now…)

Ammelia helped her sister regain her balance, “I know how you feel… Let’s explore that… Vault of hers… and get off this ship…”

Emma nodded her tired assent. “I shall secure the body and prepare the canisters containing still-living humans for transport back to our base. What little of them are left alive…”

Scarlet steeled herself. “I’ll check the vault with you two.”

Ammelia nodded, then looked towards Mary as they both followed behind her. They reentered the ice cold vault, Ammelia doing her best to ignore the stored limbs. One final small door sat left of the main entrance as the three took cover by it. Ammelia open it slowly and stepped in, cringing a little as her foot sank into the caramel textured slime coating the floor. The room was dark but pretty much empty, the only things that were worth noting was a few burlap sacks and… A prisoner in a cell much smaller than the others sitting in the back of the room, clearly awake. Sarah looked up at them all, a sense of Deja’vu washing over her as she stood up and gripped the bars, “No… No… All of you together? It’s not real… It can’t be real…”

Mary’s eyes widened as she saw the spitting image of herself, the only thing that was different being her braids, which were messy and covered in the slime, “Sarah...?” (Sarah...?)

Ammelia looked closer at the woman, walking over to her, “S-Sarah... Our Sarah!?”

Scarlet’s eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”

“Y-You… You can’t trick me L-Lapis… What’re you trying to prove?!” Sarah said, backing up from the bars.

“We’re real Sarah… We are here to rescue you…” Ammelia said calmly, turning back towards Scarlet and Mary, “Do we have anything to cut these bars open?”

Scarlet flipped her plasma pistol in her hand. “This, or we can call that Infantry Airframe back over.”

Sarah stepped closer to the bars, tears in her eyes. “You… You are real… Aren’t you? You’re really real?”

“Weh’ are Sarah… Eh’ ‘romise weh’ are…”(We are Sarah… I promise we are…) Mary reassured her.

Scarlet cautiously pulled up her plasma pistol, firing at the top and bottom of two of the side bars, and they collapsed outward, creating a large enough gap for Sarah to exit. She slowly stepped out of the bars, careful not to touch the melted metal as she wrapped her arms around Scarlet, Mary and Ammelia joining in a second later, “How’re you three here?”

“We’re part of the alien resistance forces… X-Com…” Ammy said slowly, running her plated fingers through her hair.

“X-Com? Lapis wanted to make me fight you… But wanted to instead train me under her when her ‘Mistress’ died…” Sarah replied.

“Well, the bitch’s dead now,” Scarlet offered. “So we can get you a nice shower back at base, and forget about this whole thing.”

Sarah pulled away from them, “D-Did you seen a tall man with pink hair while you were coming here? I need to know if he’s okay…”

Mary took a second to consider, before shaking her head when she realized that she had attempted to put the prisoners out of her mind.

Scarlet shook her head. “Not sure, but we’ll have the rest of the team look for him. You should just come with us back to the ship… worry about that later.”

“No! I need to know if he’s okay! Please…” Sarah begged, her pupils dilating.

Scarlet sighed. Stubborn, are we… “Fine, we can go look.”

“T-Thank you… He’s important to me…” Sarah said, standing up as Mary and Ammelia led get through the vault and into the hall where the prisoners were being kept. When she reached it, her eyes immediately locked onto one of them as she noticed his distinctive salmon pink hair. She rushed over to him, seeing that he was knocked out and leaning against the bars of the cage, she placed her hand on his shoulder and turned him around, instantly noticing that he was missing his left arm. A few tears welled in her eyes, but she pulled him close anyways, wrapping her arms around the unconscious man and kissing his cheek through the bars, just happy that she managed to find him alive,

Mary and Ammelia didn’t know what to say, so they simply stood there and watched, giving Sarah as much space and time that she needed.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Ethereal Battleship Liberation Mission

Operation White Bird
Outer Mesosphere, 80 km above Earth

Date: Dec 21st, 2018
Time: 1100 Hours, Local Orbital Time

Briefing:
With the destruction of the X-COM Siberian Headquarters, we are in dire straits. We may have been able to evacuate in time, but the laboratory and engineering bay can barely operate at half the capacity of the base, and as impressive as the former Overseer of Antarctica's battleship might be, it is little hope of facing the might of the Temple Ship we now know will soon arrive.

We are in luck, however. The aliens likely believe us all but eliminated, and we have picked up the signal of a massive battleship in orbit, likely here to assist in the cleanup efforts of X-COM. Additionally, if the Honored Overseer is anything like several other Ethereals, he likes to travel in style, meaning he might be on board. Thus, attacking the ship will kill two birds with one stone, eliminating the Honored Overseer, and acquiring a ship that can easily act as a substitute X-COM HQ.

The ship will be assaulted by our best Firestorms piloted by our best pilots, as it will no doubt be defended by its own 'interceptors'. As soon as they make an opening for us, we hit it from all sides.

Number of soldiers for this mission:
Ten (10) Soldiers per Unit

Soldier Names:
Alpha Team:
MSGT Mary Thomas (Gunner) [Dextrous Muscle Fibers, Magnified Bicep Structure, and Secondary Heart] (Green Psionic)
LT 5 (MSGT) Eva Aegerter (Infantry) [Iron Skin, Adaptive Bone Marrow, Smart Macrophages, Hyper Reactive Pupils, Adrenal Neurosympathy]
MSGT Amelia Fischer (Support) (Luxuria’s Gift)
MSGT Wilson, Laurent (Medic) (Green Psionic)
MSGT Wagner, Christine (Rocketeer) (Orange Psionic)
MSGT Ayame Kasagi (Gunner) [Hyper Reactive Pupils, Bioelectric Skin, Muscle Fiber Density, Aerobic Respiration Boost, Neural Dampening]
Legion I
Legion II

Beta Team:
Field Commander 5 (MSGT) Aya Brea (Scout) (Blue-Green ‘Psionic’)
MSGT Fay Henderson (Sniper) (Yellow Psionic)
MSGT Lopez, Alicia (Infantry) (Purple Psionic)
MSGT Christel, Sylvia (Scout) (Yellow Psionic)
Legion III
Legion IV
Legion V
Legion VI

Delta Team:
All other NPC Soldiers

Gamma Team:
Colonel 5 (MSGT) Atka Ipiktok (Scout) (Blue Psionic) [Adaptive Bone Marrow Regenesis]
MSGT Desmond Walker (Engineer) (Red Psionic)
MSGT Wong, Sarah (Sniper) (Blue Psionic) [Depth Perception, Muscle Fiber Density]
MSGT Stewart, Jamie (Assault) (Red Psionic)
Legion VIII
Legion IX
Legion X
Legion XII

Omega Team:
MSGT Albert Foulke (Infantry) [Neural Dampening, Reaction Time Overclocker]
(E) Subject 158: "Emma" (Shadow Operative) [7. 10, 15, 16, 17] (Purple Psion), “Knight”
MSGT Modya Dragomirov (Rocketeer) [Magnified Bicep Structure, Adaptive Bone Marrow, Neural Dampening]
MSGT Jacobs, Scarlet (Rocketeer) (Purple Psionic)
MSGT Driver, Karen (Medic) [Adaptive Bone Marrow]
MSGT Summers, Holly (Engineer)
MSGT Yamazaki, Ryan (Gunner) {Warrior}
Hover S.H.I.V. Unit 2: "Jubjub"
IA-001
Buniq

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, Personal Aurora Armor Available for Desmond Walker)

- 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:
Alpha and Beta team will board the ship from the side access ports. Their main goal will be securing the twin engine rooms. We have little doubt that, should the tide turn against the aliens, they will attempt to bring down the ship.

Delta and Gamma teams will enter through the main access, and cut straight through the center of the ship. Delta teams mission will be to keep the main alien forces busy while Gamma team heads straight to the Bridge, where upon they shall engage and eliminate the Honored Overseer.

Finally, Omega team will secure the main access, particularly the main hanger. They will find the Ethereal's escapecraft there. Should the Honored Overseer escape from Gamma team, or slip away before they reach him, this will likely be his destination. Do not let him escape.

Enemies:
Alpha:
Rehael (1)
Kafziel (2)
Muton Elite (x2)
Mutons in Archangel Armor (x2)
Outsiders (x2)

Beta:
Rampel (3)
Jophiel (4)
Muton Elite (x2)
Mutons in Archangel Armor (x2)
Outsiders (x2)

Gamma:
Gradhiel (5)
Germael (6)
Muton Elite (x2)
Mutons in Archangel Armor (x2)
Outsiders (x2)

Omega:
Desperatio, Honored Overseer of Earth
Israfel Units
Jiokjiok
Muton Elite (x3)
Unknown Additional Alien Backup

Conditions for Completion:

(1) The Elimination of the Honored Overseer of Earth, Desperatio

&

(2) Capture of the Ethereal Supra Battleship

Civilians:
As usual, the laboratories have several captives being experimented on. There is no need to focus on rescuing them, as our goal is to take the ship for ourselves, and they will be rescued in the process.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird
Prologue

Morrigan watched through the ship’s monitors as the sky was ablaze with the shots and explosions as the X-COM Firebirds, Ravens, and even volunteers from various militaries, struggled with the Honored Overseer’s defensive force. Naturally, things might have been easier if they weren’t trying to take the ship in one piece, but as impressive as it might be, Acedia’s ship hardly replaced the former Siberian Base, by this Supra Battleship would do the job, and then some. Seemingly built for overwhelming power, this might have made it all the more difficult to deal with as it shot down X-COM ship one after another, but if they could pull this off, it would be quite the weapon to turn against Phobos.

“Get those EMP cannons on that battleship!” Morrigan shouted. “Just because we don’t want to damage that thing doesn’t mean we should leave it to pelt us. And target those engines! Can’t have it running on us!”

As the tide of the battle seemed to turn in favor of X-COM, a combination of their surprise attack and the excellent work of the interceptor pilots, the Commander gave the order for the Dropships to take off. Morrigan took a deep breath, and opened channels to all the soldiers.

“Attention all troops. Our goal is to force those bastards that took our collective base and home and replace it. Long enough have we been forced to deal with their attacks, to push ourselves to recover what they have taken. Enough is enough. The destruction of the base is the last desperate action of an enemy backed in a corner, as evidenced by the retreat of many of their forces on Earth. That battleship will be ours, and the Honored Overseer will pay tenfold for the crimes of his underlings on Earth. Let’s give their Commanding officer a big surprise when he gets here by shoving this ship right down his throat!”

She clicked off the general channel, and looked at the alien controls in frustration. Noting her annoyance, Acedia wondered over, and pointed at the controls. Use these for the ships, these are set for all the Delta team ships, and these are individual ships.

“Thank you,” Morrigan mumbled, then hit the appropriate channels for two of the dropships. “Alright, Alpha and Beta, your mission is simple but important. We have little doubt, when faced with losing their ship, the aliens will try to take the ship down. With the majority of the X-COM forces on board, I don’t think I need to tell you how bad that would be. Thanks to our reluctant ally Sapentia, we have a short window into the ship’s computers. Not long enough to take control, but long enough for Chesire to disable their self-destruct. Once they realize that has happened, they’ll like try to take the engines themselves out. Your teams will infiltrate the ship through the side accesses, and make sure that doesn’t happen. With the main forces in the center of the ship, we hope for a lack of resistance, but they’ll know you are there, so don’t count on it.”

After an affirmative from her Central Officer and Emily, Morrigan switched to all but one of the other ships. “Delta and Gamma, your job is to clear that ship of enemy resistance and its Commander. Gamma, punch through the enemy resistance and get to the bridge. Eliminate the Honored Overseer. Delta, cover Gamma’s back. Make sure none of them interfere with Gamma’s mission, and take them all out. No prisoners are to be taken on this ship unless they surrender enmass, and I doubt that’ll happen.”

Switching to the final dropship, Morrigan finished with the final squad. “Omega, I have little doubt, when backed into a corner, and well aware that he is surrounded on all sides, he will try to escape. Take control of the hanger, and make sure the Honored Overseer does not escape. Destroy anything non-human that wonders in there.”

Hmm… glad I didn’t volunteer to go on this mission… Acedia mused.

“Like you would have, my lazy ally,” Morrigan responded, and Acedia simply shrugged as the ships made their final approach, the interceptors keeping them safe at all costs.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird
Delta Team Mission

Delta charged through the ship, Gamma following closely behind them. With the majority of X-COM’s forces, armed to the teeth, rushing together, little stood in their way. Thin Men and Sectoids fell before the onslaught, and besides the few winging shots of the occasional Muton of Heavy Floater, few stood before their overwhelming rush.

That is, before reaching the massive center of the ship, and X-COM came face to face with the overwhelming odds of the ships prime forces, including a trio of Sectopods, and a few dozen Mutons, Berserkers, Floaters, Heavy Floaters, Cyberdiscs, and Mectoids.

Desmond and Atka stood ready to order their forces to attack. “GO!” Dallas, Janina, and Fedor shouted in unison. Before they could get an argument, Fedor yelled, “This is our job! To keep them off your back so you can do your job. Trust us.” With a reluctant nod, Gamma headed to the side of the ship, to make their way through a raised platform to sneak into the bridge during the commotion.

The Sectpods opened up, blasting the X-COM troops and reducing their possible cover by a third right off the bat. With the numerous soldiers on X-COM’s side, this made things all the more difficult, but backing off was not an option. A flare of fire erupted in front of Maggie, and a quick look over cover noted several humans mixed amongst the aliens, each glowing with a variety of psionic energies. “We’ve got human psions!”

“Take them out with the rest.” Sergio closed his eyes, and fired off a trick shot that punched through the back of the heads of one of the red psions.

Floaters dropped from the sky, mutons were thrown back in a flurry of plasma, but the X-COM troops weren’t completely without losses. Marina bent over a heavy, burned far beyond recognition, and could only ease his pain before he died. Airi jumped in front of Rembrandt, materializing her energy sword and blocking the swipe of a Berserker. She ducked it the alien’s left, using her superior speed to slash it through the torso and topple it, only to turn back and find Rembrant had fallen to a flanking shot by a Heavy Floater. Said alien was downed by Masambe before it could take out anyone else.

Another dropped next to Letz as one of the Sectopods was pelted, a few drones falling around it as they tried to repair it. As he readied his blaster launcher, he noted his cover crumbling away, but only shook his head. As the rest of it evaporated away for the Secopods attack, he simply stood up and fired, the rocketeer falling to plasma fire, but lasted long enough to watch the Sectopod spark and fall, crushing a Mectoid and two Mutons under its smoking wreck.

Pushing himself to his limit, David Trapp hefted a massive storage container, putting his Magnified Bicep Structure to good use, and chucked it towards another Sectopod, two more soldiers blocking him, one falling in his stead. Hoping it contained what they thought it did, Amanda and So Ji unloaded on the container, and it erupted in the explosion of dozens of alien grenades, crippling the Sectopod and practically evaporating a cyberdisc and pair of Mutons next to it. A pair of Berserkers rushed forward to do something, anything, but were cut down by the onslaught of Dallas, Nika, Sven, and Kieran, along with the Sectopod they were blocking.

The final Sectopod seemed to back up a bit, as though to move into a more defensive spot, but had little hope of doing so. A pair of Mutons tried to reestablish a malfunctioning shield generator in front of it, but four grenades for Adele and Max ended that effort. With their enemies reduced, the X-COM forces began cleaning house. The last of the Floaters fell to the support and medics fire. Fedor rushed forward and boiled four Mutons with his flamethrower, and blasted a Berserker into a wall with his Kinetic strike before the Sectopod kicked him into a wall, leaving him alive but disabled. A few more Mutons moved to end the MEC trooped, but his fellow MECs put a stop to that.

“Cover us!” Avanix shouted, and she charged forward, Vee at her side, heading straight for a Muton loading what appeared to be a copy of a blaster launcher, struggling with its large hands. With an exchange of nods, Ammelia and Ashley took aim. One by one, a Muton or Outsider moved to intercept the Destoryer and her android companion, and one by one, they were stopped in their tracks, Mary stopping them with some well placed shots in front of, or through, their legs, Ammelia putting them down before they could recover with a shot through the chest or the head. Reaching their target, Vee leaped into the air, a big grin on her face as she drove an alien alloy and elerium knife though a Berserker’s armor and into its heart, and Avanix clotheslined the Rocketeer Muton, her body’s enhanced strength easily flooring it and opening it up for a follow-up shot.

The last of the drones charged the X-COM troops, one exploding in a suicide charge that enveloped one of the infantry. A nod between several of the troops led Ogedei, the gunners, and the heavies to sweep the skies, the kamikaze drones dropping one by one, while the Sectopod was enveloped in plasma. It set up for one last desperate missile barrage, but collapsed before it could aim, and its missiles punched into the ceiling, burying it and several of the remaining aliens in rubble.

The main threats dealt with, the X-COM forces to defensive spots throughout the room, gunning down any aliens that entered, and waiting for the order to make the final sweep of the ship, all the while hoping the other groups were fairing alright, and without as many casualties.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird: Alpha Team Mission (Part One)

With a shrill screech, the last of the Thin Men guarding the power room fell. Taking a moment for the poison mist to dissipate, Alpha team quickly reloaded. Slowly, carefully, they entered their target destination, the massive Fusion generator responsible for half of the battleship’s power in the center of the room. Ayame adjusted her massive weapon, and not for the first time, she wished she had got the proper enhancements to it. She glanced at Eva, and said, “So… here we are. Do you think the room is empty?”

“Don’t count on it, be ready for anything. This is their ship, after all, so who knows what’s in here. Listen up everyone, don’t let your guard down. Check your corners. If you see any weird shadows, shoot whatever is on the other side, and if you see any human shadows, the civilians are gone, so assume it’s a Thin Man.” Eva walked up to the generator. “Now, the question is, what do we do now?”

“Well, that’s rude,” a voice echoed out from above. Glancing up, the team spotted a lanky European man clad in alien armor, balanced upon a catwalk’s guardrail, idling toying with a plasma shotgun. “I mean, do you really have to assume anything that’s not XCOM and vaguely humanoid is one of those low-key infiltrators? Seriously, some of us are professionals here.”

Mary rolled her eyes at the man before aiming her weapon upwards. “Th’ ‘eader of Exalt ‘ad eh’ pretty ‘imilar ‘pinion of ‘im’elf ‘fore we ‘illed ‘im. Pro’essiona’ism ‘oesn’t always ‘ake ye’ ‘etter ye’ know.” (The leader of Exalt had a pretty similar opinion of himself before we killed him. Professionalism doesn’t always make you better, you know.)

“That’s what the bad guys like to tell themselves...’I might be a traitor to my species, but at least I’m an honest professional,’” Emily mocked.

The man chuckled slightly. “Good one,” he said, “Though you do make one little mistake. I’m no traitor.” With a loud THWAM, suddenly he was amidst the squad of troopers, and he quickly latched onto Laurent. “I’m the next step in human evolution!” he roared, before vanishing again, taking the medic with him.

“Dammit, keep your eyes peeled people!” Eva yelled. “Listen here, freak, if any one is the next evolution of humanity it is me, got it? So why don’t you come out of your little hiding hole and fight us!”

Several Mutons, Elites, and Outsiders stepped out of hiding. As the X-COM soldiers rushed into cover, Ayame shouted, “Eva, I’ll take the Legion bots and Christine to fight these assholes. You, Mary, and Emily can focus on these psionic guys.”

“A-and… find Laurent, please,” Christine asked with a nervous look.

“Right, come on you two, we have some work to do.” Eva led Mary and Emily away from the front of the generator room. “Listen up, you two, this will be mostly your battle. I’ll give you two support. As you know, I’m not psionic, so you two will be fighting it, and I will give them some pot shots when I can. I suggest that you two come up with a plan.”

“‘Ell, ‘irst ‘ings ‘irst we ‘ind Laurent. Not je’ ‘oinging te’ ‘et ‘im die wit’out e’en trying.” (Well, first things first we find Laurent. Not just going to let him die without even trying.) Mary replied as she attached her weapon to her back and climbed one of the ladders with surprising speed.

Emily followed along, shouldering her carbine. “What the hell even happened...are they taking hostages or something?”

Eva loaded her rifle. “Best not to think about it. After all, we've seen what they do to their prisoners, which means we better hurry.” As the trio advanced along the catwalks, they eventually began to hear distant moans of pain, growing louder as they advanced. The group turned a corner, and there they beheld Laurent, hanging from a catwalk railing by his arms, blood seeping from numerous wounds.

“I… Is that really you..?” the wounded medic asked, barely having the energy to raise his head to look at the approaching soldiers.

“Shit…” (Shit...) Mary said slowly, before running up to him, “‘On’t ‘orry, ‘e’re ‘oing te’ ‘et ye’ ‘own.” (Don’t worry, we’re going to get you down.)

“No!” Laurent shouted, straining to get away from Mary. “Get back! They’re both still here! Save yourselves!”

Eva grabbed Mary. “Listen to him Mary,, think for a second. The aliens would use any trick in the book to get to us, including our desire to save others, there’s nothing we can do for him.”

Mary turned and glared at her with spite in her voice, “Se’ ye’ ‘je ‘ant te ‘eave ‘im up ‘ere? Cunt… ‘E’re ‘oing te’ ‘ill ‘em anyway, se’ ‘et’s ‘ight ‘em ‘ere?” (So you just want to leave him up there? Cunt… We’re going to kill them anyway, so let’s fight them here?)

“Were on a catwalk. One trip off this thing and we’re dead. We’re in their territory, you saw how fast they scooped him up. How long do you think, if you ran to him, how fast they can scoop you up and do god knows what to you? Listen I don’t want to leave him either, but it has to be done.”

“Clever, clever,” the enemy psion said, mockingly clapping his hands together from his position on a catwalk two levels above the squad. “The brave leader, reminding her troops of the sacrifices that must be made to ensure victory. You caught us, I suppose, we were hoping you’d have a bit of heart for your comrade.” Glancing into the shadows, he added, “Rehael, suppose it’s time we make our big play.” With that, he flashed forward, standing over Laurent, plasma shotgun leveled at the medic.

“How many of your soldiers are you willing to risk to kill one of ours?” a second voice echoed forth. “Let’s start the betting at one.”

“I don’t think so,” Emily growled, charging up a quick sphere in her hands and firing it, trying to knock the other psion off-balance for a stronger attack. The man reacted, but a bit too slowly, the psionic blast knocking him back into the guardrail, the plasma shotgun firing wildly.

“Dammit,” he cursed, before vanishing off into the darkness.

“Off he scurries,” Emily remarked, stopping the energy she was channeling towards her hands. “Let’s get up there, it might not be too late…”

“You two go up there, mind you, I can’t fight psionics like you two can. But I can fill them with plasma, so you two go up first. I’ll be right behind you,” Eva said.

“Eh’m ‘oing te’ ‘et Laurent ‘en, ‘an ye’ two ‘over me?”(I’m going to get Laurent then, can you two cover me?) Mary asked, already moving in that direction.

“Let’s climb and pull...we should have two up there. If trouble’s up top, we can’t reach it alone, but if it’s below, we can all get there,” Emily remarked, offering Mary a boost.

“‘Ight.” (Right.) Mary stepped up onto Emily’s shoulders to reach the hanging Medic. She grabbed his legs, and started to try and pull him down, ready to catch him if he were to fall. However, the action prompted a shrill cry of pain from Laurent, blood flowing anew from his arms, which upon closer inspection, had the bars of the railing sticking through them rather than flowing around them.

“‘Ammit…” (Dammit…) Mary cursed to herself, running her options through her ahead before finally picking something. She detatched her plasma pistol from her belt and took aim at the bars holding him, she was concerned about the plasma dripping down, but not all plans were exactly perfect. The plasma melted through the bars with contemptuous ease, and with a heave, the wounded medic was pulled free from the bindings.

Eva looks at the medic “Is he dead?”

“No,” Laurent weakly replied, slumping onto the ground. “Just… can’t feel my arms… that bitch is one hell of a biokinetic user.” Mary removed one of the medi-kits from his belt, the simple device was easy to use even without any training. She sprayed it over his wounds, taking the rest of them with her as she stood up.

“So, you finally decide to rescue your buddy, eh?” the man said once again, this time leaning against a terminal on the ground floor. Accompanying him was a woman, of similar race to her companion. The enemy psion continued, “Was wondering when you would, Rehael here was getting tired of him just hanging around.”

“Always with the taunting, Kafziel,” the woman, Rehael, replied. “I would have preferred if you just grabbed them and brought them to me, but no, you have to run your mouth all the time. Someday that’ll be the end of you, you know.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird: Alpha Team Mission (Part Two)

“How about we make that today?” Eva opened fire at the two psions. “I’m so sick of you aliens, now will you shut up and fight me?” Kafziel hastily grabbed Rehael and tugged her out of the way, teleporting the pair up towards a catwalk across from the XCOM squad, just out of the line of fire. Emily activated her Sunny-augmented Shadow Armor and ran away from the lines of fire, moving in slowly on the enemy psions.

“Jeez, you sound almost like Gradhiel with your need to fight!” Kafziel quipped, tucking into cover. “Can’t you just surrender without the violence?” Meanwhile, Rehael leaped towards another catwalk, pulling out her plasma rifle as she rolled behind a piece of cover and popped up to fire a short burst at Mary.

Mary quickly leapt back, the shot just barely missing her thanks to her augments. She raised her Plasma Dragon and fired towards Rehael, keeping her in her cover. Rehael sighed, annoyed, doing her best to keep out of the wall of plasma headed her way, and merely began channeling her powers, popping out to throw a hasty mindfray at the Gunner.

The mindfray connected, causing her to take a step back but she quickly shook the effects off and continued firing, not wanting to give her the ability to moved as the squad tried to get a angle on her.

Emily found some light cover flanking Kafziel’s cover and quickly levelled her carbine on it, firing a short controlled burst of plasma towards him as her cloak cancelled out.

“Shit!” Kafziel cursed as the plasma scored into his armor, gouging deep rends and even drawing blood. Backpedaling, he teleported up to Rehael’s position, nearly getting his head taken off by a bolt of plasma from Mary before he scrambled into cover. “Rehael, need some help!”

“Check your flanks for once and this wouldn’t happen,” Rehael replied, channeling her powers and beginning to heal over Kafziel’s wounds. “Cover me, this’ll take a moment.” Nodding, Kafziel popped out of cover, channeling his powers, and tossed a weak rift at Mary, Eva, and Laurent, attempting to throw them off balance enough to give Rehael time to do her work.

Emily noticed the telltale channel of a rift and quickly tried connecting with Kafziel to use her Psi Panic, hoping that her rooting around in his mind would at least disrupt him from concentrating. With that she was successful, the Rift malforming and quickly destabilizing into nothingness.

“Grah! You asshole!” the orange psion barked, vanishing off towards Emily, leaving Rehael before his wounds could be completely closed. Appearing a couple of meters in front of her, he yelled, “Just stop goddamn fighting it, or else I’m gonna...” His wit failing him, the psion descended into a wordless roar, and bullrushed straight towards Emily, leaping forward for a tackle.

“Goddammit Kafziel,” Rehael muttered, cutting power to her biokinetics as her companion vanished. “Suppose I’ll have to take this into my own hands.” Dashing out of cover - narrowly avoiding a blast of plasma from Mary - the green psion leaped forward, aiming for the catwalk the gunner, infantry, and medic were perched on.

Mary saw her leaping through the air and pulled her Plasma Dragon upwards to fire at her, but she knew she would need just a little bit more to stop her from simply dodging it. The gunner smirked, knowing exactly what she could do to catch her off guard. Mary moved one of her hands away from her weapon and it glowed green as she manipulated Rehael’s erogenous zones. The infiltrator’s breath caught, surprised by the sudden wave of pleasure, and she nearly missed her landing, making a hard roll onto the alloy flooring.

Standing from her kneeling position, Rehael said, “Such… base tactics. Perhaps I shall show you why the pain and pleasure centers are so close together, for such debauchery.” With that, Rehael rushed forward, snapping off a wild burst with her plasma rifle at Eva before tossing it to the side and throwing a wild hay-maker at Mary.

Mary quickly blocked the strike with her right arm, clenching as the pain flowed through it. She quickly tried for a counterattack, throwing an uppercut at the woman’s jaw. Rehael leaned back slightly, narrowly dodging the attack, before reaching out and grabbing the extended fist, the infiltrator channeling her powers forth.

“Checkmate,” Rehael muttered, before sending a wave of pain through Mary’s nervous system.

“You’re forgetting a certain human, you bitch.” Eva fired her plasma rifle at Rehael, emptying her rifle. “Well shit,” Eva said as she reloaded her gun. “Hey Mary, there's an opening, so I recommend that you take it and kill this damn thing before she regains her posture.”

Twisting to the side, a pair of plasma rifle shots impacted Rehael and punched into her armor before she could bring Mary to bear in between her and the barrage of plasma, the infiltrator pumping biokinetic power into the Gunner to ensure that the plasma rounds wouldn’t just penetrate through the improvised meat shield.

“Well shit, using one of my people as a meat shield, that’s low even for you aliens. Have some god damn shame.”

Meanwhile, Emily saw the enraged Kafziel rushing towards her, only barely being able to brace herself given the surprise charge. The infiltrator slammed into the support trooper, the two rolling across the floor for a short distance before Kafziel tried to assume a dominant position, raining down a flurry of punches upon Emily.

Emily fought through the pain and protected her face, planting a knee and then a foot against her attacker, tossing him away and scrambling to her feet. She planted into the ground and assumed a quickie stance, expecting another all-out attack soon. Kafziel quickly gave in to such expectations, rolling to his feet and blinking forward directly towards Emily, throwing an angry headbutt towards his opponent.

She blocked the headbutt with the sturdy bones in her arm, giving her just enough time to knee him in the stomach and buy some room, which she took advantage of by winding up and throwing a spinning kick towards him. Kafziel quickly squatted under the blow and lashed up, throwing a rising uppercut straight for Emily’s chin. The blow struck, and Emily stumbled back, slightly dazed by the fist. Kafziel took this as an opportunity to press his advantage further, rushing forward to lock Emily in another grapple.

Emily saw the opposite psion coming and quickly reached out her arms, falling back with the tackle and throwing him over her, quickly jumping to her feet and holding out her orange-glowing hands. The air began whipping around her, the sense of something big coming palpable to even her opponent. Sensing the oncoming danger, Kafziel began to charge for another blink, hastily throwing a psi panic to cover his retreat attempt.

Although the panic had initial success, realizing some hatred for spiders and slimes, Kafziel quickly tread into the Ethereal-marked sections of her mind. The imposing image of Luxuria’s mask fired into his brain, staring angrily towards the intruder. The sudden visage of the Ethereal seemed to nearly reverse the target of the psi panic, Kafziel recalling the tendril of orange energy in shock, his focus nearly broken concerning his getaway plan.

“You can’t run,” Emily taunted, her eyes glowing amber as the psionic power surged through her, a blinding hurricane swirling rapidly all around her, the winds lashing at everything past its perimeter.

“Fuck you, I’m the Speed of God!” Kafziel yelled, activating his teleportation. However, his taunt cost him, and while part of him managed to escape through his own personal rift, the rest was caught in Emily’s. With a rough shear, the infiltrator was split in twain, one part swirling in the psionic hurricane, the other somewhere in the shadows.

Emily noticed the half swirling around her, her mischievous air of superiority quickly faltering to a sense of guilt and horror. Her rift broke apart and she scrambled away to a new source of cover, her fight ending successfully but with no small amount of shock.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird: Alpha Team Mission (Part Three)

As Emily dealt with Kafziel, Mary was still in Reheal’s grasp. Mary slowly moved one of her hands up to her chest, feeling a large hole where her heart should be. Her vision blurred as she coughed up a large amount of blood, pain filling every part of her chest and causing her to slump over.

Dropping the unconscious gunner, Rehael replied, “Low? Life exists to survive and breed, through any means necessary. And what is the life of one mere human to a superior specimen such as myself? Father has made me strong, and I shall use that strength to crush their enemies and ensure a future for more of my kind.”

Eva looked unimpressed by Rehael’s words. “Are you done? Because this ‘lower life form’, as you called me, is going to enjoy beating your self-entitled arrogant ass up and down this room. So are you ready for the pain? Because my daughter’s love toy there is probably bleeding out, so I’m going to make this quick. So how do you want to die, painfully, or with no pain?”

“Perhaps answer that question for yourself, first,” Rehael shot back, “for your end is coming much sooner. I am the Angel of Respect, and perhaps it is time you learn some.” With that, Rehael charged Eva.

Eva stood still where she was, looking at Mary. How the hell did Vee get with this woman? Sigh, but she’s young, so I can’t be mad at her. Eva saw Rehael charging her. Wait is she... is she charging me? Well, I don’t have time to waste here. Eva released her restriction to 1 and sent her iron skin into overdrive.

“Futile!” Rehael shouted, throwing a fist imbued with biokinetic energy at Eva, intent on shoving the psionic energy straight into Eva’s nervous system.

Eva dodged the attack and looks back at Rehael with anger in her eyes. “That was a grave mistake, now it’s my turn.” Eva charge Rehael with impressive speed. The psion parried the blow, and gave a sinister smirk, before pumping biokinetic energy along the point of contact, aimed at overwhelming Eva’s nervous system with a wave of pain.

Eva falls to her knees and yelled in pain “What the hell was that? I should have broken your arm when our fists met or at least broke your collarbone.”

“You did,” Rehael said, her arm finally giving away, before being swathed in green light. “Biokinesis, son.” Punctuating her statement, Rehael threw a fierce cross with her other arm at Eva’s face, the fist enveloped in her signature green glow.

Mary laid on the cold floor of the ship, blood still running down her mouth as she watch Rehael swing for Eva. She slowly moved her arm towards her as it glowed green with the last of her energy; Mary overloaded the nerves in Rehael’s erogenous zones, causing her whole body to shudder with waves of mind-melting pleasure before passing out.

“No.. i-impossible..” Rehael managed to stutter out as her muscles locked up from the onslaught of pleasure, her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to regain control of the convulsions in her pelvis.

“Well, looks like you’re occupied with whatever Mary did.” Eva cracked her knuckles. “Which means you’re a punching bag now, and that means...” Eva got a devilish smile on her face. She started to punch Rehael in her head and continued, “Tell me, if you’ve ever seen boxing, I wonder what happens when you punch someone in the head constantly, so let’s find out.” Eva continued to punch Rehael’s skull until she decides to use the rest of her body as a punching bag “Now then time to die.” Eva punches Rahael stomach with enough force to go through her stomach. “Whoops, guess I punched her too hard. Oh well.”

“You… bitch…” Rehael stammered, blood beginning to pour from her mouth and nose even as her biokinesis tried desperately to heal her wounds. “You’re touching me!” the infiltrator roared, channeling a barrage of biokinetic energy into Eva, in a last desperate attempt to burn out the super soldier’s nervous system.

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Fighting through the pain, Eva grabbed Rehael’s arms, even as the biokinetic energy coursed through her. “You won’t be needing these anymore.” Eva placed her foot on Rehael’s stomach and pulled her arms long enough to pull them off of her torso. “Whoops, did that hurt?” Eva said with a wicked smile. “Oh well, now where was I... oh yeah.” Eva looked down at Rehael and put her foot on her head. “You see, this is when you look down on my kind.”

“...mercy,” Rehael whispered. “You… h-have bested me. A… warrior wouldn’t… butcher a f-foe who b-begs for mercy? R-right?”

Eva looked down at Reheal and grinds her teeth. “A warrior? What do you know about a true warrior! A true warrior would never butcher someone, that’s true.”

“T-then… you… will let me live?” the infiltrator tentatively asked.

“However, your kind has killed millions of humans, did gruesome experiments on civilians that you captured. And if your kind never come here, my friends would still be alive today. So die, knowing that you are a pathetic, worthless, sniveling, weak pile of shit. And die knowing that you died....” Eva gets a wicked smile on her face. “That you died to a lower life form.” Eva put enough force on to Reheal head to crush it with a meaty thwump. “Worthless alien scum.” Eva returns to normal and falls on her back. “Damn, that crap she did to my nerves, really messed me up. Now I can’t move. Great.”

Down below, the last hovering Muton crashed into the ground as Christine, Ayame, and the one surviving Legion android ran up. Ayame’s eyes went wide at the four prone bodies above her, snatched a medkit from the robot, and grabbed Christine's arm. “Up, now!”

“What…” Christine looked like she was about to panic. “B-but I…”

“Now!” Ayame screamed. Christine slowly nodded. Closing her eyes and forming her own rift, she blinked the pair up to the others.

“Hey, I did it!” Christine said happily. “Two people… people… at…” She toppled over, unconscious before she hit the ground.

Ayame hunched over Mary, spraying her chest and muttering, “Thank god for the mods. You’re gonna stay with me, right?”

Mary managed to form a slight smile, but as she tried to open her mouth to say something she only coughed up more blood.

Ayame shook her head, and gave Mary a second application for good measure. She looked around at the carnage, two barely alive teammates, another looking like she could barely move, and a fourth wandering over with the thousand-yard stare of someone who had seen something horrific. With a sigh, she motioned for Emily to take a seat to get her wits about her, carefully pulling the headless body out of sight and over to where someone had seemingly already moved half of another person behind some cover, and took aim at the door, hoping to high heaven nothing tried to attack them in this state. Emily shook off the violence and headed over, the mutilated enemies around her just another item in a long list of things the head Ethereal would pay for.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird, Beta Squad (Part One)

Taking a final bolt of plasma, the enemy Hover SHIV collapsed, its reactors shutting down automatically to avoid a fatal overload. With that, the entrance to the engine room was clear of foes, and all that stood before the squad was a set of doors blocking them from their goal.

“Final push,” Fay said as she powered off her Seraph armor. “Assume you are prepared?”

Aya nodded, and looked over the squad. “Alright, lets clear that room out and set up a defensive stance. We don’t need them blowing them, and us, out of the sky. Legion troops, take point.”

The four androids nodded in unison, and took positions by the door. With a nod from the Field Commander, they activated the energy door and quickly stepped in. Seeing no immediate danger, they waved their human companions inside.

“Alright,” Aya said in a low voice while sizing up the massive energy core. “Legion sweep left, the rest right. Let’s make sure we are alone.”

As the right-side team advanced, the sound of voices could be faintly heard in the distance. “-not there, you fool, up in the ceiling capacitor!” the voice said, whomever it belonged to out of sight.

“Voices,” Fay stated, “Thirty meters out, to our right.”

Aya nodded, and pointed to the nearby cover. As the team formed up, Aya peeked over her cover, trying to listen in on the conversation.

“We have to get those keel engines online as soon as possible, you buffoons!” the voice barked. “Otherwise you’re probably going to get shot by some XCOM Trooper in some desperate action to hold this engine room. I swear, I should replace the lot of you with Silicids, at least they know what they’re doing.”

“C’mon Jophiel, they’re Balmadaar,” another voice said, “They’re soldiers, not engineers.”

Aya sighed. “More humans helping…” She glanced at each of her soldiers, and they all gave a quick nod. Counting down from three on her fingers, they all raised their weapons, and Aya shouted, “Weapons down! On the ground! You get one warning!”

“Oh come on!” the voice identified as Jophiel yelled. “First I get pulled out to this damn vessel, then we get nailed by fighters and I have to help fix this damn thing, and now you assholes show up!? Balmadaar, time to finally do what you were bred to do: shoot them!” With a guttural roar, the four Balmadaar heaved up their weapons and began firing, two of them taking to the skies. Additionally, a pair of Outsiders materialized from a console, plasma carbines raised as they made their way to cover.

Meanwhile, the two humans drew their own weapons, a plasma sniper rifle for Jophiel and a plasma shotgun for the other, who had a look of manic glee on her face as she bounded forward. “Just as I expected, XCOM Troopers! We’re gonna have fun!” the latter human shouted.

“Goddammit Rampel, just go ahead and run off straight into their fire,” Jophiel muttered, leaping up to a catwalk with her enhanced leg muscles. “Not like people die when they’re shot.”

“Legion troops, handle the Mutons! Lopez, Christal, suppress those Outsiders!” Aya nodded to Fay. “We’ll handle the two humans.” Fay grunted in affirmation, levelling her sniper rifle and beginning to line up a shot.

“Two on two, eh?” Rampel asked, a feral grin emblazoned on her face. “Shame how much the odds are stacked against you.” With that Rampel skidded to a stop, tossing a mindfray at Aya as she slid in behind a console.

Aya snapped her fingers, trying to ignite her foe, but the mindfray made it hit too far to the right. “Damn it… psions.” She reached to her side, pulling out a revolver with six pre-energized bullets. She fired off one, testing how Rampel would react.

To Rampel’s credit, she didn’t react, even as the bullet punched its way through her armor and into her pelvis. Instead, she took that as an opportunity to vault over her cover and continue her mad charge to reach point blank range, throwing another mind fray at Aya.

Meanwhile, Fay ducked to the side as a bolt of plasma struck her previous position, and she hastily snapped off a shot at the offending enemy sniper, the shot caught inside a telekinetic field and thrown to the side. Fay cursed under her breath at this, and dashed for another piece of cover in a bid to avoid the next shot, which was successful.

“Hostile sniper has shielding,” Fay said. “Need cover to charge railgun.”

“On it!” Aya peeked up, noting Rampel duck into much closer cover. “Why do I get the crazy one?” She tapped the side of her head, grateful for the mind shield that compensated for the lack of personal shielding she had. Sending another burst of flame towards Rampel, she pulled out her shotgun and fired at Jophiel, not hoping to hit but hoping to distract.

The enemy sniper instinctively took cover against the catwalk, even knowing that the shotgun was ineffective at such a range. However, as Jophiel did so, she called forth her bonded Silicid and launched a glob of it over the side of the railing, the silicon-based lifeform beginning to crawl across the floor towards the XCOM troopers.

“Firing,” Fay announced, have completed the necessary math. With that, she grabbed one of the tungsten slugs suspended over her shoulder and launched it forth, striking Jophiel’s shield and punching through it, but missing the hostile psion by mere centimeters. Still, Jophiel recoiled as if she had been struck, her nose beginning to bleed from the sudden strain upon her psionics.

“Don’tcha forget about me!” Rampel announced as she charged through the flames, still making a beeline straight for Aya, this time adding a burst of plasma fire from her shotgun to the mix.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Aya shook her head. She hefted her reflex cannon over cover, firing blindly while gathering energy in one of her hands. After a few moments, she stood up, letting loose a beam of energy straight towards her charging foe. Jophiel, sensing her comrade’s trouble, swung her arm to the side, manifesting a telekinetic field that shunted Rampel just out the way of the energy beam.

“Yep, I’m gonna be in yours!” Rampel countered as she readjusted her balance and continued her charge. With that, she lifted her arm and sent a purple helix towards Aya, pushing out a wave of power in an attempt to pierce through her mental defenses and reach into the Field Commander’s mind and dredge up as many painful memories as possible.

Aya dropped her weapon, and wrapped her hands around her head. “F… F-Fay… h-help… me…”

“Understood,” Fay replied, drawing her plasma mauler and firing down at the crazed psion. The first shot hit home, digging into Rampel’s armor, and this prompted her to dodge, forcing the mind control attempt to break off.

“What, you don’t want your friend to have a chance at being on the winning side?” Rampel said, her wounds already beginning to heal. “How disappointing…” The purple psion fired off a blast from her shotgun, forcing Fay into cover and dealing light damage to her armor.

Aya held her hand to her head, a slight glow trying to correct any lasting damage as she stared forward angrily. Gripping her revolver again, she took aim, firing another two rounds at her attacker while lifting her arm towards Jophiel. The area around the enemy sniper ignited, and Aya didn’t let up, as she used the flames in an attempt to drain the yellow psion’s energy.

Rampel recoiled as the bullets struck home, stepping back with the momentum of the bullets as they tore into her chest. Still, this only caused her to pause for a moment, before she rolled into a piece of cover to let her wounds heal.

Up above, Jophiel was roasting, her telekinetic shield just barely holding back the flames. Seeing that there was only one way out of this, the psion leapt to escape the flames, aiming for another catwalk. She fired another Silicid glob as she arced through the air, which latched upon a server rack and began crawling forward.

However, another tungsten bolt from Fay struck at Jophiel’s shield, piercing through and digging deep into Jophiel’s side. The psion gave a cry of pain, and impacted into the side of the catwalk she was aiming for, barely managing to hold on.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird, Beta Squad (Part Two)

“Keep on her!” Aya rushed forward out of cover, using the sniper’s incapacitation to push forward. Charging energy in her right hand, she fired at Rampel in an attempt to pin her down. “My turn to charge, bitch!”

Sensing the challenge, Rampel leaped over the console she was hunkered behind, taking a round through her leg for her trouble, and bolted towards Aya, shotgun levelled and with a grin to match. “Wonderful!” Rampel exclaimed. “I’m going to maul you so horribly, it’ll make that wedding I saw in your head look tame!”

“Fucking bitch!” Aya continued forward, only the slightest semblance of her training able to push her to dive into cover. Blood coursed down her arm from a glancing shot, but instead of healing, she focused on her reflex cannon, making sure it was fully loaded. “Come at me! Lets see you recover from one in your ugly face!”

Sensing a nearby piece of technology, the Silicid that Jophiel had launched leaped up, latching onto Aya’s reflex cannon. Worming its way inside, it began to work at the internals of the cannon, in an attempt to subvert the weapon. Meanwhile, Rampel loaded another charge pack into her plasma shotgun, and tossed a mind fray at Aya, focusing on disrupting her thoughts more towards blind rage.

Above, Jophiel finally managed to pull herself onto the catwalk, barely evading a bolt of plasma from Fay. “Good, too damn good,” the infiltrator muttered. “Need to take her down, and fast.” Hefting her rifle once more, Jophiel took aim at Fay, who was already moving to the next piece of cover.

Aya cried out in pain, holding a hand to her hand and tossing her weapon away. She fire her stored energy, destroying the reflex cannon, the Silicid going with it. Primary weapon gone and with little time to charge energy for the revolver, Aya pulled out her knife, and charged it with energy. She stared down at her arms, and considered removing her limiters in her blind rage. Barely able to resist the urge, she placed the knife in her teeth, and jumped out of cover, one hand raised to each opponent in an attempt to roast them.

Jophiel burned alive once more, her shield down to almost nothing, and ducked out of cover, narrowly dodging a bolt of fire from Fay. She fired off one last Silicid before leaping out of sight, while below Rampel endured the flames with her seemingly plastered on grin. The purple psion fired off a shot, which went wide, followed by another, which combined with the searing heat roasting the weapon, caused it to malfunction and tear itself apart under stress.

Aya raised her hand to the side, and a pile of containers were blasted apart, their contents of tools and spare parts pouring over Rampel. Hoping that and Fay were enough to cover her, Aya made a mad dash for her sniper ally, occasionally daring to look back to make sure she wasn’t about to get shot.

“Hey, get back he-!” Rampel shouted as Aya legged it, before a bolt of plasma tore through Rampel’s own leg, dropping her to the floor.

“Enough with you,” Fay said, lining up another shot on the downed infiltrator. However, a burst of fire from one of the Legion mechs tore into her armor, nearly drawing blood. “W-what?” she added, shocked by the sudden betrayal. Quickly, two of the other Legion mechs turned on their subverted ally, however the Silicid managed to escape from the ruined mech and embed itself in another. Reacting rapidly, the two remaining Legion troopers attacked the mech the Silicid had latched onto, and then ejected their power cores to prevent their own subversion from any continued Silicids.

“Aw, are your robot buddies busted?” Rampel asked, standing from where she fell. “Don’t worry, Jophiel’s very good with machines, I’m sure she’ll be able to fix them. Just like I’m going to fix all of you…” With that, Rampel threw a flurry of mind control helixes at the surviving XCOM troopers, reaching into the depths of their mind.

Alicia and Sylvia were just barely able to shrug off the attack, but Aya dropped to her knees, wide open for an attack. Before she could be hit, Alicia extended her own mind control towards Rampel, with no hope of success, but was strong enough to force her to back down. “Your two on two isn’t good enough? Fine!”

Sylvia unloaded into an Outsider, then held her hand out towards Aya. A small bubble shield formed around her, and Sylvia did the same for Fay and Alicia. “Fight fair or don’t fight at all!”

“Fair? FAIR!?” Rampel shouted, turning her attention towards Sylvia, and drawing a long, serrated dagger. “Now it’s finally fair! If you aren’t going to join me, then DIE!” With that, the crazed psion charged Sylvia, dagger raised.

Sylvia’s eyes widened, and she rushed back, firing as she went. Aya recovered her senses, and ran to Fay, yelling, “Lopez, cover her! Keep that crazed bitch off her!” Kneeling down by Fay, she held out her hand. “Give me a couple of those tungsten bullets.”

“Plan?” Fay asked as she plucked a pair of bullets from over her shoulder and placed them in Aya’s hand.

Aya panted heavily as she squeezed her hand, her exertion of energy putting her near her limit. “Let’s give these things a bit more of a punch. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of these two.” She offered the bullets back to Fay, now glowing with a faint bluish-green aura.

“Understood,” Fay replied. “Keep her in place for a moment, cannot miss.” With that, she grabbed the two slugs with her telekinesis, and began the process of charging and performing the necessary math.

Aya ran out of cover again, seemingly as unconcerned about getting hit as her crazed foe. Firing a few plumes of fire at Rampel, she charged into her fellow scout, taking a rather nasty slash to her already injured arm for her trouble. Her left arm now practically useless, she leveled her knife with her right, grinning at Rampel as she circled around her. “All this high tech alien crap, and it comes down to this, huh?”

“Yep, just two girls having fun,” Rampel offered cheerily. “Now, how do you like your liver? Filleted or chopped?” Not giving Aya the chance to answer, the purple psion lunged forward, knife aimed at Aya’s vitals.

Aya barely deflected the blow, ducking left and slashing at Rampel’s throat. When that missed, she faked a lunge, then tried to take a chunk out of the cyborg’s face. “Your… friend ditched you, it seems. Either… she has a lot… of faith in you, or she’s… as sick of your shit… as I am…” For the first time in the entire fight, Rampel’s smile faltered slightly, the comment distracting her just enough to allow Aya’s knife to dig into her cheek, drawing blood as the weapon tore through. Leaping back, Rampel put a hand to her wound, the damage already beginning to scar over.

“Aw, no, Jophie wouldn’t do that,” Rampel replied, her smile resuming. “I know she has some master plan to win this a-”

Finally seeing an opportunity, Fay fired the overloaded tungsten shell, air ionizing as the bullet flew forth at nearly three kilometers per second, before striking Rampel in the skull, obliterating it a burst of flash-boiled blood. Limply, the headless corpse fell to the floor.

Aya let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Henderson.” She snatched the knife from Rampel’s lifeless hand, and ducked into cover again. A quick scan of the room spotted no one, but she doubted very much Jophiel actually left, and a sniper in an unknown location was one of the worst things she could think of. “This might turn into a sniper fight, Fay. If you can locate her, though, I can try and flank her.”

“Perhaps I might help you in your search?” Jophiel asked, standing atop a catwalk’s railings. “You know, Rampel was right. As thick-skulled as she was, she did always have a keen mind for making loads upon loads of back-up plans.” Plasma fire shot up at Jophiel, but they merely phased through her, revealing it to be an illusion, which quickly dissipated, before reforming upon another catwalk. “And, well, this is one of them. If you thought being in here alone with a sniper was bad enough… you have no idea what you’re in for.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Operation White Bird, Beta Squad (Part Three)

“Damn it…” Aya held her hand up to her earpiece. “Sylvia, shields. Alicia, if you see her, hit her with a mind control. Even if it doesn’t work, it’ll reveal a fake. Fay, you’re the sniper here. If it was you, where would you be hiding?”

Fay frowned, peeking out from her cover to scan the environment. “Locations depend on her skill with illusions. If not capable of self-cloaking, three potential locations,” Fay whispered over the radio. “If capable, fourteen. However, have plan. Sniper cannot resist high value target. Aya, mind if I borrow your form?”

“Be my guest, Fay.” Aya scanned the room again, taking a shot at another illusion. “We’ll act on your signal.”

“Very well,” Fay answered, before channeling her powers once more and doing the mental calculations. A yellow glow enveloping her arm, she gently gestured out, and an illusion of Aya dashed from the Field Commander’s cover, rushing forward to another piece, closer to where Fay suspected Jophiel might be. On cue, a plasma round ripped through the illusion, and in the distance Fay noted movement.

“Movement, forty meters ahead, underneath terminal,” Fay said, “Coming to halt behind server bank. Fire on both locations, may have faked movement.”

Aya opened fire under the terminal, while Sylvia focused on the server bank. For Alicia’s part, she attempted a dual mind control, hoping to point out the real enemy. However, both mind controls came up blank, and a plasma round ripped from above, striking Alicia in the shoulder, punching through her armor and into her flesh.

“Faked plasma shot!” Fay exclaimed. “Above, twenty meters, moving right along catwalk!” Fay snapped off a reactionary rifle shot, the bolt striking just in front of Jophiel and forcing her to skid to a stop.

“Seems you finally found me,” Jophiel said, dropping her illusionary cloak. “Well then, good thing I had just enough time to do this!” she added, columns of electricity flowing off her now revealed form.

“Sylvia, cover Alicia! Grab a medspray from one of the androids.” Aya ran to Fay’s side, leveling her revolver. “Take her down, Fay,” she said, firing a few rounds at the electrified enemy.

“Firing,” Fay responded, launching a bolt of plasma at Jophiel. However, the infiltrator merely raised her arm, and the plasma round twisted and careened off to the side.

“The electromagnetic force!” Jophiel shouted. “Nature’s force! As long as you continue to try to throw plasma at me, you’ll only be met with dismal failure!” Punctuating the statement, she channeled forth the electricity flowing off of her body and condensed it into a solid beam of plasma, firing it forth at the assembled XCOM troopers.

Aya quickly ducked down, cursing to herself. “Damn it. I don’t suppose you can shoot a bullet at her faster then she can catch it, can you?”

Fay rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the beam of super-heated ionized air. “Need to test her reaction times, if determined, may be able to make a shot,” the sniper replied. “Otherwise, may have to push powers beyond limits.”

Aya nodded, and quickly reloaded her revolver. “Here goes nothing.” Aya ducked over the cover, flying all six round, her aim starting at Jophiel’s legs and moving towards her head. Jophiel quickly flexed her arm as soon as she saw Aya fire off the rounds, the electromagnetic fields shifting from pumping energy into the beam to deflecting the bullets, each pinging off and into the distance.

“Useless,” the psion said, charging another beam of energy, electricity being drawn to her from the surrounding machinery.

“Five kilometers per second,” Fay analyzed, a grim bead of sweat forming on her forehead. “Never… pushed that far.”

“Damn. She has us between a rock and a hard place. The only way to drop her ability’s power is to take out the surrounding machines, and that means destroying the engine we need to protect. This is the perfect place…” Aya closed her eyes, trying to think of something. “Could we… do the opposite? Overload her with energy? Maybe burn her out.”

“Worth a shot,” Fay shrugged. “But how?”

“Time’s up,” Jophiel said, finished charging. With that, she flung both of her arms forward, the primal fury of the plasma beam shooting forth with unheard of fury, beginning to score along the ground, edging along the pathway towards the XCOM troopers.

Aya jumped out of cover, gathering energy in her hands and firing a beam of energy towards Jophiel’s attack and connecting. The two attacks connected, and Aya quickly started losing ground, her dwindling pool of energy struggling against Jophiel’s virtually endless supply from the engine. “Fay!” Aya cried out. “Get… closer! Find something… to overload the… the engine!”

Fay hesitated, caught between her need to follow orders and her want to ensure the safety of her commanding officer. “No, alternate solution,” the sniper said. With that, Fay glanced at the charged tungsten slug hanging over her shoulder. Focusing, she channeled forth the energy stored within it, letting the mitochondrial energy transfer over to psionic, however inefficiently. Levelling her arm, Fay began to do math, a yellow glow enveloping the slug as the bluish-green one faded.

“More… power…” Jophiel muttered, large beads of sweat forming on her brow as her nosebleed grew in intensity. More currents of electricity drew forth onto the infiltrator, beginning to singe away at Jophiel’s hair, but she ignored the pain, instead focusing the power straight into the beam.

Aya dropped to a knee, the strain causing a burst of blood from her arm. Seemingly on the verge of passing out, she screamed, “Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast!”

“Very well,” Fay said, finished charging her attack. “The Conductor!” the sniper yelled, firing forth the tungsten slung, a sphere of plasma forming around it as it burst through the air at over four and a half kilometers per second. Jophiel tried to react, but she couldn’t withdraw power from the beam fast enough, and the tungsten slug tore into the infiltrator’s chest, the impact knocking her off of the catwalk she was perched on.

Her focus broken by the sheer intensity of the attack, Jophiel lost control of the thousands of amperes of electricity flowing through her body. As a result, the infiltrator burst into flame near immediately, crashing onto the floor a moment later with a sickening thud. A second later, Fay passed out.

Aya spent a solid minute panting heavily as sweat dripped to the floor in buckets. She finally raised her right hand to heal with left arm, but was out of juice. Luckily, the medspray off the Legion trooper still had a pair of charges left, and the three conscious women gathered around Fay, Sylvia moving her into a sitting position and lightly tapping her on the cheeks while Alicia did the closest thing she could to heal psionic exhaustion by giving the sniper a mind meld. “You… you okay, Fay?”

Slowly Fay blinked her eyes open, shakily putting a hand to her head. “Energy depleted,” she said after a long moment of silence. “Unsure of any internal damages. Not keen on attempting again.”

Aya smiled and tapped Fay on the shoulder. “Hopefully you won’t have to. Just… rest up. You earned it.” Alicia handed Aya one of the fallen Legion’s weapons while Sylvia attempted to awaken the shut down two. Aya took position near her exhausted psionic sniper, and watched the entrance like a hawk, awaiting the all clear order.