RP X-Com Role-Play Missions

[MarineAvenger]

Ammelia’s eyes widened, she quickly took a corner and lined up a shot with her Sniper rifle. Grant stood in the middle, firing his laser lance down the hallway, forcing the aliens to grab cover.

One of the SHIVs rushed forward and suppressed the nearest alien, giving cover for Damian to get close to use his Shatterray. Desmond ran over next to Kevin and pulled him to his feet and tried to talk him back to action as the second SHIV pulled up in front of Ammelia to provide her better cover and a platform to steady her rifle.

Ammelia steadied her rifle on the top of the SHIV, taking a shot at one of the hulking beast but only managing to blast a hole in the wall behind it.

Megan and Karen took cover next to Ammelia, they tried to get a clear line of sight on the massive alien, but they couldn’t without leaving themselves in the open.

With the aliens seizing an opportunity in the chaos, one charged forward and let out a deafening roar, while the one behind it fired at the suppressing SHIV, melting partial bits of it’s armor but leaving the rig undamaged. Desmond popped an AP grenade and chucked it down the far end of the hall, hitting the two furthermost aliens but doing no damage except to their armor. Damian took the opportunity and fired twice at the large target, killing it.

Ammelia lined up another shot, this time slamming a laser into the alien’s shoulder and causing it to stumble back. Grant took advantage of this and riddled the beast with fire from his laser gun, causing it to fall down in a pool of smoking, syrupy blood.

Seeing it’s allies down, the remaining alien tried to run, but Kevin ran up behind it and let a blast from his Scatter Laser hit it square in the back, killing it. Before there was a celebration a hail of plasma came from down the hallway as Thin Men approached. Harvey tried to provide cover for the exposed Nash and the SHIV that was covering Ammelia charged forward and fired as well.

Megan pushed Ammelia behind her and took cover next to the wall. She readied her rocket before firing it down the hall and into the group of Thin Men. Blood and noxious gas went everywhere as the missile hit the ground in the middle of them, leaving no survivors.

Kevin slowy scrambled back near the rest of the squad. “Thanks for covering me with that rocket there.” Desmond, Harvey, and Damien scouted ahead and seeing no survivors or reinforcements they allowed themselves a moment reprieve to reload and recuperate.

The Mec allowed his laser lance to cool down and looked towards Megan, “Nice shot.”

Ammelia patted her on the back, smiling, “Yeah, way to go!”.

Harvey continued talking to the frightened crew member and turned back to his comrades. “You may want to hear this, turns out there is a security room somewhere in the crew quarters. It has cameras throughout the ship and would really help to find the remaining forces and survivors,”

“But do we know where that is?” Karen asked.

Harvey asked the man and nodded his head. “He knows the way. Anyone wanna volunteer to be our eye?”

Ammelia shrugged, “Not me, I can’t read computer monitors or TV screens.”

Desmond sighed. “I need to stay here and lead the squad.” He looked over the rest but Damien stepped forward. “I will go, if anyone near by is in trouble, I am the most likely to respond to the situation.” With no one objecting Desmond nodded. “Then we are counting on you.” The Scout nodded and ran off with the crew member.

Kevin walked up to one of the hulking aliens and poked it with his shotgun and looked at his squad. “This...this is just unnatural.”

Ammelia walked up behind him, “They just keep getting bigger and tougher looking don’t they?”

Harvey looked up at Grant and raised an eyebrow. “I guess we are as well.”

Megan walked up to Grant, “I can’t wait till you get to punch something with that.”

“Don’t worry, in these close quarters, that’s a Grant-ee.” He replied, snickering a little at his own joke.

“That’s… Not funny…” Karen said, turning to him.

Kevin snickered and said. “Hey, it was worth a shot there big man…”

Desmond peeled away from the group as they bickered playfully and put a hand on his ear. “Central, this is Walker. We have encountered a new kind of alien, it is a hulking brute to say the least, very aggressive.”

“Copy. Continue with the mission and report any other strange behavior you encounter.” Bradford stated.

Desmond walked back and rejoining his squad and looking over the troops.

Ammelia looked over at Desmond, “So, what did they say?”

“We are to continue the mission and report any other encounters and behaviors with these things.” He said pointing his rifle at the corpse.

“Well, lets move out then.” Grant said, his laser lance finally cooled.

The squad moved on, moving across most of the deck they were on. The had found no other aliens but Damien’s voice came up over the radio. “I am at the security room and I have access across most of the ship. Right now I have movement in the solarium in the middle of the ship and some movement on the outside of the ship, that is all right now.”

Desmond put a hand to his ear to confirm the intel. “Alright, thanks. Keep watching out for X-Rays.” He took a deep breath and looked at Grant. “Grant, take the SHIVs on the elevator and head to the solarium. The rest of us can go on the outside and check for any aliens out there, if anyone wants to go with Grant, speak up now.”

Megan raised a hand, “I’ll give Grant a hand.”

“Anyone else?” Grant said, scanning his squadmates.

When no one spoke up Megan followed Grant up to the solarium.

 

[MarineAvenger]

With the others gone, the remaining squad member heading back the way they came, heading out the doors and out into the winds and rain. They moved along the left side of the ship and kept their eyes out for any aliens. Lightning crackled up in the sky and for a brief second, illuminated a squid like machine flying towards them. “Seekers!” Nash called out, clambering behind an overturned table.

The Seeker quickly cloaked and Ammelia looked around confused, “I can’t see them!?”

Everyone took what cover they could and secured their positions in pairs. Desmond pulled Ammelia out of the way of incoming plasma fire from behind them and Harvey fired into the darkness. Desmond looked her over and seeing she was alright he said. “You can’t see anything can you?”

“No, I can’t! It doesn’t make any sense! Can they mask their Infrawaves somehow?” She answered, looking around with her sniper rifle.

“They use cloaking tech, so it is possible. Just stay down, and I will call out a shot.” He waved down Nash and ordered him to move forward, drawing fire, and for Harvey to go into a overwatch for the second Seeker. Seconds later, another flash of lightning came down and revealed the cloaked machines. Harvey fired at the closest and Desmond called out the farthest for Ammelia.

Ammelia quickly raised her rifle and fired at the seeker, blasting one of it’s tentacles off, but not killing it as it cloaked for a second time.

“It’s still alive!” Ammelia shouted as she looked in all directions.

Everyone looked around, trying to desperately spot any sign of the machine but plasma ripped through the sky from three different directions. “There must be two more out there! What do we do?” The ship rocked suddenly to the left and jerked everyone to the ground.

Ammelia slid over to the rim of the ship, holding on to it while trying to regain her footing on the slippery deck.

Karen’s head slammed into one of the walls, disorientating her as she tried to find the seekers.

Kevin tried his best to get up but he was slipping on the sleek surface of the ground and when he looked up he saw a decloaked Seeker heading for him. He managed to roll to his side and pull out a shotgun, just killing the Seeker in time.

Desmond laid on the ground and slowly pushed himself to his knees, bringing out the pistol on his hip

Ammelia pulled out her pistol and scanned the deck of the ship, but as she was looking mechanical tendrils wrapped around her neck and attempted to pull her off the side of the ship. She dropped her pistol on the wet ground and clung to the rim of the ship with all her might, but she could feel her grip slipping.

Desmond’s eyes widened as he saw his friend gripping for dear life and he ran over, gripping hard onto Ammelia. He pulled with all his might but the machine was fighting him to no end. Kevin and Harvey grabbed on as well, adding to the tug of war over the girl. When they couldn’t pull her back Desmond made a desperate move. He took his metal hand off of Ammelia and using what strength he could muster, started to wail on the head of the Seeker. When it released the grip he dove for the stray Laser Pistol on the floor and shot the compromised metal, ending it’s operation.

Ammelia fell on her hands and knees, gasping for air as Desmond a reached a hand out to her to help her up.

“You okay Ammy?” He said picking up his rifle and pistol from the ground, as Nash walked over and helped up Karen.

“Ah… Yeah… I just need… a second…” She said, still gasping for air.

Desmond put a wet hand to his ear and tried to get through to Damien. Unfortunately all he got was static. When he tried to reach Grant he got the same outcome. “Lets make our way to the Solarium, we need to check on Grant…” He took Ammelia’s rifle and let Ammelia use Harvey for support as Nash helped Karen. Their progress was slow, but they had finally made it inside and managed to stumble into an elevator as Desmond pressed a button and they ascended up.

Ammelia let go of Harvey and tried to stand on her own, confident that she could walk without his help she asked for her rifle back, but instantly realized that she had left her laser pistol on the deck of the ship.

Desmond looked over at Ammelia and unclipped his pistol and handed it to her. “Never know…” The elevator stopped with a ding and he looked at his squad mates. “You guys ready? You can stay behind if you can’t…”

“I’m fine,” Ammelia said, looking over to Karen.

“Yeah, I’m okay too…” she replied, holding a hand to her head.

Desmond nodded once and brought out his rifle as he moved out of the elevator, looking down both directions of the hallway to make sure nothing was waiting for them. When the coast was clear, the whole team moved out and headed to the solarium. When they arrived, Grant was sitting against a wall with Megan at his side and two battered looking SHIVs in the middle of the room, one operational and the other completely broken. Bodies of chryssalids lay strewn along with that of the undead and several Thin Men. It was obvious that they had fought hard and this was where the aliens were operating from. “You look like shit Grant…” Kevin blurted out.

“Thanks asshole…” He replied, “What the hell took you guys so long?”

Desmond let out a sigh. “We were ambushed by Seekers...they almost pulled Ammelia overboard and had us pinned. The storm was messing with comms so contact was impossible.”

“So, let me get this straight… You took all the people and still struggled to fight a few Robo-squids, while me and Megan here ran into the brunt of them and still survived?”

Kevin stepped forward and held up a finger. “Hey, you had the heavy firepower! We were out in the rain and darkness against machines that use stealth tactics. Not to mention the fact that we almost died, while here you are sitting on you giant metal ass!”

“Oooh, the dark is so scary!” he said, waving his giant hands around, “Anyway, I found out this powerfist is great for pummeling Chryssalid.”

Desmond walked up to Grant and looked him in the eyes. “Look, sorry I split us up. This is not the time for fighting among us though…” He looked over at Kevin. “So just sit tight, we can…” Damian came up over the comms and talked in a hurried voice. “Guys, you have three of those big mutants heading your way!”

 

[MarineAvenger]

Ammelia took a corner and readied her sniper rifle in preparation for the creatures. They charged around the corner and lobbed grenades down the hall, two of them sliding right past Ammelia, who threw herself to the side to dodge them.

The squad scattered in all directions, no one moving to cover Ammelia. While everyone did their best to fire on the giants, none of them managed to land a shot. Desmond looked over the position of his squad and noticed that none of them appeared to notice that Nash was hiding in a concealed position. Desmond got on the radio and gave his order. “Kevin, run and gun between position to get one of them to notice you!” He followed the order and as the hulking alien turned to the soldier firing at him, Desmond ran up behind him, pulling the pin on his HE grenade and landing it in the ‘bowl’ of his suit, causing the explosive to blow up in his face. Desmond slid under the alien’s legs and ended up next to the assault.

As the other two aliens took aim at Desmond, Ammelia picked herself up and prepared to shoot, but a familiar creature wrapped it’s metal coils around her from behind. The Seeker wrapped it’s tendrils around her body this time, pinning her arms to her sides and pulling her into a empty room, out of sight of the rest of her squadmates. She tried to scream and alert her friends but the creature wrapped a final tendril around her head to silence to her. The Seeker started to constrict her body, pain shot through her as she struggled to breathe. After a few seconds, the sickening sound of breaking bones filled her ears as the pain suddenly went away.

Damian flipped through the cameras and saw Ammellia in the the room, “Guys! Ammelia is being attacked by a Seeker! Room 47B!”

Desmond looked over the room and saw that she indeed wasn’t in the room and panicked slightly. Everyone else was occupied with the remaining two aliens and he threw down his weapons and started to bolt across the room. Desmond attracted the attention of the aliens and started taking fire but he still pressed on. He rounded the corner and saw Ammelia with a Seeker on her, the Seeker missing a tentacle. His eyes flared and he glowed red as he burst forward.

He pulled out a knife strapped to his thigh and plunged it at the Seeker’s head. The knife scraped off the metal but it had caused it to release Ammelia and dropped her to the ground. The machine seemed to stare at him and it charged. He held out his hand and a smaller orb appeared in his hands and he blew open the Seeker as if it’s front half was blown up by a grenade. He released his energy and ran over to the limp Ammelia. “Karen, get your ass in here now!” He looked over Ammelia and from what he could tell, she was not in good condition.

Ammelia’s eyes opened as she looked around the room, “Desmond? I can’t… Feel anything...“

Karen ran into the room and knelt next to Ammelia, her medi-kit in hand. “I can’t see any outward wounds, but I do see a lot of bruising, more than likely she has quite a few broken bones.”

Desmond put his metal hand on Ammelia’s and he looked at Karen. “We...we are leaving…” He stood up, placing a hand on his ear. “Damian, if you tell me there are any more of those god damn things on this ship…”

Damian replied on the comm quickly. “No, they are all gone sir.”

Desmond nodded and ordered him back to the Skyranger. When he turned to look at Ammelia a sharp pain came from his side as he fell to his knee. He put a hand on his rib and saw that one of the plasma bolts had scraped him.

“We can’t carry her like this, we could end up doing more damage…” She said, looking around the room. “Aha!” She exclaimed as she pulled a white sheet off of the closest bed and gently pushed it under Ammelia, “Desmond, you grab one side, I’ll grab the other!”

He grabbed one side, but as soon as he exerted any strength, he fell to his knee in pain, suppressing to scream out.

“Desmond, someone else can help carry her, you’re hurt.” Karen said.

Ammelia looked over to him, “It’s okay… I don’t want you to hurt yourself… carrying me…”

“No!” He shook his head. “I can do it…” He clenched his jaw and picked up the girl along with Karen. They carried her out back into the solarium and the squad all jumped up. “L-lets...go…” He managed to get out, as the squad moved behind them to get to the Skyranger.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Mini-Mission

Operation Confused Muskrat
Porto, Portugal
June 8th, 2018

Mission Details:
A UFO of has crashed landed in the outskirts of Porto, Portugal by some... unknown means. Whatever the reason, most of ship was destroyed in the crash. However, despite there being little hope for salvageable materials, we still need to investigate the area to make sure the alien forces are eliminated.

Soldiers: Ashley Van Dam & Six more soldiers.

Alien Forces: One Muton (severely injured but still dangerous), four Sectoids, two Thin Men, and what appears to be a malfunctioning Outsider.

Terrain: Severally damaged section of the city. All surviving civilians have been evacuated.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Before Operation Confused muskrat

(Special guest DarkGemine24601)

The announcement speakers ring with a new message. “A UFO has crash-landed in Portugal due to...what we may believe is an error by its pilot…or a mechanical failure” Bradford announces, the guess being almost unbelievable but the only thing he could think of at the moment. He begins to list off names of soldiers that were to report to the hanger in 15 minutes, and Ashley’s is one of them.


Ashley gets her gear ready. “ Bye baby girl, mom will be right back in a few hours.”


Cassia hugs Ashley’s leg. “Be careful mom I love you”


“Love you to.” Ashley leaves her room and grabs a carbine rifle, heading to the Skyranger.


On her way to the Skyranger, the medic-class soldier is intercepted by an Inuit woman wearing a shirt with the red Canadian maple leaf. “Think you could spare a few minutes before you go?” Atka asks with a serious expression and tone.


Ashley gets a confused look on her face. “Um, can it wait till I get back?”


“I don’t think it came,” Atka replies. “We’re not going to have issues with you following orders or behavior with you, are we? I don’t mean to imply all members of your family are like that...but the last one put a lot of lives at stake by being recalcitrant.”


Ashley looks at Atka with confusion. “O.K. First, who the hell are you and what the hell are you talking about? And what do you mean people of my family?”


The scout sighs. “I’m Corporal Atka Ipiktok, scout specialist. We had someone called Scarlet Van Dam as part of XCOM before, and she frequently disobeyed orders, got into fights, and was overcome by bloodlust on the battlefield. I had to deal with such as her commanding officer on a mission.”


Ashley puts her hand on her forehead. “Of course she did. Let me guess... she beat the hell out of you didn't she or threaten to kill you which one was it?


“She assaulted Ms. Cross a couple of months ago, before we discharged her, and did the same to another soldier. Not to mention she had trouble obeying the simplest orders,” Atka said with a hint of frustration in her tone upon remembering the difficulties she had with Scarlet.


Ashley is getting a frustrated look on her face. “ OK, hear this. I am not Scarlet I, am not my cousin in any way. What she did is between you and her and keep it that way. Ashley puts her hand on her forehead. “Look, I get it you're nervous about me. I understand, but I’m not my cousin, so can you please just give me a chance to prove I’m not like her?”


Atka slowly nods. “I hope you will prove that, I sincerely do. Good luck on your mission, Miss Van Dam,” she finishes, stepping aside.

Ashley heads to the Sky ranger. Great nothing like getting good and pissed before a mission.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Operation Confused muskrat.

Ashley get's on the sky ranger and waits for her fellow solders, when the solders got on the sky ranger they were a little nerves because of her last name. Which made Ashley even angrier. The fire team lands at the crash site were they see that most of the building was gone. The team moved into the crash site area and found a thin man with two sectoids next to it.

We went to cover and the aliens spotted us, the got into position and opened fire on us. Our gunner picked off the thin man while me and the infiltrator took out the the remaining aliens.

We moved forward and we found the damaged ship, and this ship was in bad shape worse than the any other ship the others ships that x-com took down before. We kept on moving and when we found the ship we went in to the damaged ship and saw that most of it was damaged we went further into the ship we found the main chamber of the ship were the remainder of the aliens were hiding.

We stood in the room we were in taking out the last sectoid and thin man, now all that's let was the muton and the outsider both were wounded in the crash landing and were easy to take on.The muton put up a better fight for a wounded alien lucky because it was wounded it only took a few shots for us to put it down, but instead of killing it our engineer captured the alien, we moved to the other room and found the outsider. Once again thanks to the crash it was injured.

Now it try ed to heal it self but we never gave it a chance, the bloody thing once again put up a little bit of a fight before killing it once the mission was done the solders were a little more comfortable with me now, after they saw I can fallow orders.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Alien Base Assault Mission

Operations:
Triumphant Vengeance
June 13th, 2018

Location:
The Land of the Dead, India

Time:
1200 Hours, Local Time

Mission Details:
The time has come to go the offensive, and truly start kicking these invaders off our planet. The data received from the alien's power relay camp in Hawaii, as well as the signals given off by the key made from the captured Outsider, has revealed the location of a massive base located under the Thar Desert. We have reason to believe that the existence of this base has a lot to do with influences the Indian Council members to abandon the X-COM project, and we hope they can be brought back into fold should we succeed.

Thermal imaging has revealed three separate entrances, and rather then sending everyone into one entrance and risking the aliens regrouping, we will be sending a team into all three. The teams will meet up in the center of the base, and proceed to what is believed to be the main command center. All the while, a fourth team will be left outside of the base in order to protect against alien reinforcements.

Number of Soldiers for this mission: Eight (9) Soldiers on each squad, accompanied by One (1) SHIV

Soldiers Names:
Alpha Team:
Arturo, Maximillian (Heavy)*
Aegerter, Eva (Infantry)
Van Dam, Ashley (Medic)
Camilo, Victor (Scout)
Murphy, Kelly (Sniper)
Mallory, Quinn (Engineer)
Lopez, Steve (Gunner)
Shake, Letz (Rocketeer)
Malkovich, Johnathan (Support)
Alloy SHIV Unit 3: "Jubjub"

Beta Team:
Foulke, Albert (Infantry)*
Clark, Issac (Sniper)
Summers, Holly (Engineer)
Townsend, Devin (Support)
Trapp, David (Gunner)
Reston, Jay (Heavy)
Jacobs, Scarlet (Rocketeer)
Lovikov, Randall (Scout)
Palmer, Erman (Assault)
Alloy SHIV Unit 2: "Bandersnatch"

Delta Team:
Ipiktok,Atka (Scout)*
Dragonmirov, Modya (Rocketeer)
Adolfsson, Janina (Infantry)
Nash, Kevin (Assault)
Wong, Sarah (Sniper)
Fujioka, Airi (Engineer)
Harker, Wilhelmina (Support)
Ortiz, Amanda (Guardian)
Kasagi, Ayame (Gunner)
Alloy SHIV Unit 4: "Taqukaq"

*Squad Leader

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

- Primary weapon: Either a Laser Shatterray, Laser Carbine, Laser Rifle, a Heavy Laser Rifle, a Scatter Laser. a Laser Sniper Rifle (Sniper), Laser Strike Rifle (Sniper, Marksman), AutorLaser (Gunner), or Gatling Laser (Gunner)

- Armor: Kestrel Armor or Carapace Armor

- Secondary Weapon: Laser Pistol, a Heater, or a S.L.P. (Scatter Laser Pistol)

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

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

Terrain:
Upon arriving in the central room, the teams will have to team up to take down two Sectopods. There will be no shortage of cover for the soldiers, as well as two tower-like structures and risings on the sides of the room that can give the soldiers high ground, but keep in mind that this will leave them partially open to attack, as they will have little room to retreat should they be targeted.

Upon the destruction of the machines, the team will proceed into the sizable command center, which have a lower platform leading to a upper area, which will unfortunately give the aliens a small height advantage from the beginning. This room can be reached through a ramp on the left and right side of the room, as well as a large opening in the center (should the soldiers decide to climb up there). We would ask that the alien computers be left as unscathed as possible, but we don't want to risk soldier lives for pieces of equipment. We will ask, however, that the team do their best to take the bases CO alive if at all possible, should you be able to find which alien is said CO.

Enemies:
Two (2) units containing One (1) Sectopod and two (2) Drones in the center of the base
Two (2) mechanized units in the center of the base, similar the SHIVs with hovering abilities, acting like miniature cyberdiscs, with a small number of missiles and a miniature plasma lance launcher
One (1) unit containing three (3) Floaters in the center of the base
One (1)unit containing three (3) Mutons in the command center
One (1) unit containing two (2) Sectoids and one (1) Sectoid Commander in the command center

Conditions for Completing the Mission:

(1) Successful elimination or capture of the base's Commander

or

(2) Retreat from the base should too many soldiers be lost.

Civilians: Several abducttes located in a room in the back of the Command Center.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

X-COM Mission Parameters
Alien Base Assault Mission

Alpha Team Mission:

Alpha Team will need to pass though the base's primary cloning lab on the way to the center of the base. There will be little in the way of the high cover in the center of the room, though there will be a variety of tables to act as low cover, and the strange cloning pods lining the walls can act as high cover.

Upon entering, you will find a small armed resistance force that won't pose too much of a challenge. However, they will quickly start activating the clones in the room. Naturally, the alien clones won't be equipped with weapons, but they all have their own talents, and their main strength will come from their sheer numbers.

Additionally, you will see the results of the alien's cloning efforts on the local lifeforms, particularly humans. Be wary of these, as they too might be dangerous.

After leaving the cloning lab, will will pass through a smaller room with a number of abductees. I'm sure it goes without saying why it is that close to the cloning lab.

Enemies:
One (1) unit containing three (3) Sectoids in the cloning lab.
One (1) unit containing three (3) Mutons in the cloning lab.
Nearly two dozen unarmed aliens, including Sectoids, Thin Men, and Mutons, as well as several cloned humans, some hostile, some not, some intact, some less then whole, some with a variety of 'enhancements'
One (1) unit containing three (3) Thin Men in the Abductee Holding Facility
One (1) unit containing three (3) Sectoids in the Abductee Holding Facility

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

X-COM Mission Parameters
Alien Base Assault Mission

Beta Team Mission:

Beta Team will need to pass through the base's primary Chryssalid Breeding Room. Aside from a small force of armed aliens, your major threat will be the massive Chyssalid near the end of the room, believed to be some types of Queen. Should the aliens release her restraints and allow her to awaken fully (and they will), she will be able to control the various humans, animals, and even other aliens scattered around the room, acting as Chyssalid 'spawning points'. Due to the sheer number of said spawning points, you will never be able to take on all the Chryssalids, and your failure would put the entire base at risk to be overrun by the Queen's children. Your only hope is to take out the Queen herself.

She is no push over, mind you. While slower then normal due to her massive size and weight, she has a terrible reach, and is incredibly powerful. Her armor is much thicker then the average Chryssalid, and it will take several hits on a single point to pierce her shell. She'll hit like a truck, and you will need to deal with her children acting as a constant distraction.

After leaving the breeding room, you will need to pass through an Abductee Holding Facility. We shudder to think of the reasons why this facility is slow close to the breeding room.

Enemies:
One (1) unit containing three (3) Sectoids in the breeding room.
One (1) unit containing three (3) Mutons in the breeding room.
The Massive Chryssalid Queen, as well as the smaller Chryssalids of various shapes, sizes, and strengths she will constantly spawn as you fight her
One (1) unit containing three (3) Thin Men in the Abductee Holding Facility
One (1) unit containing three (3) Sectoids in the Abductee Holding Facility

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

X-COM Mission Parameters
Alien Base Assault Mission

Delta Team Mission:

Delta team will need to pass through the base's primary Enginnering bay, where they will have to face down some of the alien's mechanized forces. This massive room, complete with plenty of cover, will have put you in a fight against several of the mechanical enemies we've encountered so far, as well as some new ones that the alien's seem to be experimenting on. Team work and coordinated efforts will be more important to take down these mechanized monsters. As unusual as it might sound, it will be important that the computers in this lab do NOT survive this fight. The unit leader of this group will have a special virus that needs to be uploaded into the computer, and then the computers should be destroyed. We need to make sure that the aliens will have no chance of recovering the data from this engineering bay.

After leaving the engineering bay, you will pass through a small armory. Upon arrival, you will find that the weapons in the room will already have their internal self-destruct systems activated. However, by hacking into the computer, you might be able to delay the self-destruct temporarily. It is possible that the weapons might come in handy for the rest of the bay. The recoverable weapons will include seven Plasma Rifles and two Alien Grenades.

Enemies:
One (1) unit containing two (2) Sectoids and two (2) Mectoids
One Mechtoid equipped with a large flamethrower and a concentrated laser beam, as well as two smaller, maneuverable plasma pistols
Two (2) mechanized units resembling X-COM's Alloy SHIVs
Two Cyberdiscs (2), one more operational then the other, and each with a drone acting as support
An imposing hover-tank, clunky and awkward, being in it's experimental phase, but still quite dangerous. Equipped much like an Earth tank,
it has two small rapid fire plasma guns, like machine guns, not as strong as most weaponry, but quick. It also contains a large cannon like weapon, firing a consentrated plasma blast. The weapon itself isn't quite as dangerous as it looks at first, with the machine-guns being able to be protected against with basic cover, and the cannon being slow to rotate and fire, but a single hit from the cannon will likely end anyone hit by it, and the tank is heavily armored.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Alpha team/ Base assault mission.

Somewhere in the Indian desert. Alpha team looks at the alien base entrance.

Ashley: “So this is where the aliens were hiding. Well, a desert or a frozen wasteland is a perfect place to hide. And God only knows how big of a base this is.”

Victor: “Yeah, I wonder how many people are in this base, if they’re even alive, that is.”

Eva: “Probably none, seeing how merciless they are.” Eva gets a big smile on her face. “So why are we just staying here let’s go in there and kill these bugs.”

Max orders the team to go into the base. When they enter the base, they see two sectoids ready to meet them. Both Eva and Steve open fire on the sectoids, laying them out.

Eva: “Bastards. We’re here, don’t worry, little bastards. We’re just going to hunt you down and kill you, probably shoot you up a few times, burn your base to the ground, and go home and be big freakin’ heroes. Okay?”

Kelly: “You are a messed up person, Eva, but you are right on one end. We are here to kill them and be big freakin heroes after this.”

Max: “Alright people we have no idea on what we're facing so caution is doubled here. kelly you watch our backs. Eva, Ashley, Quinn, and Letz you're in the middle. leaving me, Victor, Jonathan, and Lopez, in the front. Alright, move out people. “

Alpha team moves to the entrance of the cloning lab. When they get to the entrance, they see some weird aliens.

Max: “What the hell are those things?” The cloned Aliens charge the soldiers the x-com team fire at the weird aliens.

Victor: “What the hell they look like the aliens we faced but different some how not sure what but they look different”.

Max: “It doesn't matter what they are, they die just the same. Move out. Alpha team opens the door to the clone lab, where they were met by plasma fire.

Max: “What the hell? Looks like they were ready for us. Kelly do you mind seeing what’s shooting us?”

Kelly looks through her scoop and sees that they were mutons. “Max we got mutons. Three of them.” Kelly fires her rifle and hits the Muton in the shoulder. “Damn it, I scratched it.”

Max: “Victor, can you get them off us for a few second so we can get in there?”

Victor: “Yeah, but can you give me some covering fire for just a second?”

Eva Lopez and Max laid some heavy fire on the mutons, killing one of them in the process. Victor gets into the room and heads to cover.

Ashley and Kelly fired at the aliens.

Ashley: “Right, now where are you going?” Ashley set the rifle to semi automatic and shot at the aliens, hitting a Muton in the neck. “That will work. He’s maimed, but we can’t capture him because he will bleed out by the time we get him out of there. “

Eva continued to lay down heavy fire, letting Quinn throwing a grenade at the last Muton. To make sure it was dead, Victor shot it a few time just to make sure it was dead.

Max: Great work. Everybody, reload your weapons we’re pushing forward.”

Alpha team reloaded there weapons and moved into the cloning room, where the team sees a sickening sight.

Max: “What the hell are we looking at here?”

Ashley: “They look like humans, and they’re in these...whatever those things are.”

Kelly: “Are they alive? Are they breathing?”

Victor: “I’m not sure, but I don’t think we can help them.

Behind the group, a large headed shadow sneaks up to a computer council. Making sure it is unnoticed, the Sectoid quickly started hitting a few switches. A few moments later, the pods around the room quickly started to open, and the aliens with in jumped out, some woozily, some rearing to go. The Sectoid let out a sound of delight as several mutons and a couple humans with cybernetic parts stepped forward.

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 2

Max: “What the hell?” the team has no idea what to do to these alien enhanced humans.

Ashley shot the alien enhanced humans. “What the hell are you people doing, just shoot them. Look I get it, we're supposed to help these people, but look at them, the best thing we can do is give them a quick death.”

The team looks at the humans, and they start shooting at the enhance humans.

Eva: “Great, they don’t know when to quit do they?”
Six of the enhanced humans seem to be missing their lower bodies like Floaters, and fly up into the air, baring their sharp metallic fingers like claws and flying straight for the XCOM squad. Another seems to be augmented like a MEC, appearing perhaps 18 or 19. After analyzing the situation with his robotic eyes, he hides behind a tank to take cover.

The human mixed with Muton DNA just charges recklessly at the soldiers, while another that seemed to be a bit younger than the cybernetically enhanced human cowers behind a tank, holding her arms with chryssalid blades and chitin on them over her head.

Suddenly, three pods containing sectoids opened behind Lopez. The sectoids within, unarmed, all sent waves of energy into the gunner’s mind, and he started to shake, falling to the ground and screaming as he clenched his head. Seeing its chance, the Muton charged at him, fists raised.

Max shoots the Muton, getting it off Lopez. “We don’t have a choice Shake, Quinn blow them the hell up.

Ashley and Kelly fire at the human Floaters.

Ashley: “This is disgusting, these aliens are making me happy I’m killing humans again, But these ‘people’ do deserve a quicker death then become this.”

Quinn threw an HE grenade at the muton-human hybrid, making it angry while it charged at him. Eva punched it in the face, putting it in the ground.

Eva: “Aw! What’s wrong you hybrid freak, you angry? You wanna be angry at something?” Eva point’s at the sectoids be angry at that.

Two pods open near Eva. Two Thin Men leap towards her, spraying her with poison and swinging at her, trying to take advantage of the surprise attack.

The mechanized human glances out from behind his pod, seeing the humans opening fire and blasting alien clusters with explosives. “Analyzing situation...directive unclear. Defense of the facility, perhaps?” He holds up his right arm, which was designed to fire a powerful laser equivalent to a heavy rifle, but then lowers it. “Directive unclear...what am I supposed to do?”

“Stand down! That’s what you’re supposed to do!” Max shouts, shooting down a human floating and barely dodging to the side as three more swoop by.

Isitoq II considers the human’s word for a moment, and then raised his weaponized arm, locking on target. A laser blast shoots down one of the human Floaters attacking Maximilian. “If you are giving me orders, you must not be killed, as you are in charge. That much can be surmised by Isitoq II.”

Eva punchs a thin man sending it to the ground and grabs the other then man. “HA! HAAAAA! Oh, you dumb ass. You don’t learn, do you? I’m immune to your poison.” Eva grabs her gun and shoots the Thin Man in the stomach multiple times. Jonathan shoots at the thin man that Eva punched to the ground. “Nice work man.”

Ashley and Kelly fire at the Sectoids that are in cover. the remaining two human hybrids attack Ashley and Kelly.

Ashley: “Will you piss off?” Ashley fires her heavy laser rifle and shoots down the human floater. Once it was down Ashley shoots it in the head. Kelly shoots the last human floater in the head taking it down.“Kelly that was sick, now we only have those sectoids to deal with.”

A sectoid tries to psi panic Eva, but the ability fails.

Eva looks at the Sectoid. “You are so dead.” Eva fires at the Sectoid pinning it down.

But when the Sectoids turn around they see Victor, Steve, and the alloy SHIV waiting for them.

Victor: “You know I would say this is bad but you turned people into monsters, so I have no sympathy for you.” The small team fired at the sectoids. “Well, that was easy. What do we do with those…..things?

As the dust settles, the original sectoid, still hiding behind the computer, quickly scans the room. It hits a few more buttons, and two pods at the end of the room open. A Muton steps out of one, and turns to the pod next to it. With one swift punch, it kills the mechanized human in it by caving in its skull, and quickly rips its arm off, pulling out the laser weapon and turning towards Ashley.

Ashley: “What the hell!” Ashley get’s behind cover. “Well so much for talking to it. Looks like peace talking is off the table.”

Eva: “Hey, worm!” Eva fires a few shots at the Muton and then runs out of ammo. “Oh, crap I’m empty. With the Muton distracted by Eva, Ashley fires her laser rifle at the mutons head. “Still standing, huh?” Ashley fires her weapon again into the mutons head and killed it. “Now you're dead!” Ashley shouts out, “Are there any more bugs to squash?!”.

“I believe you have terminated them all, Isitoq II analyzes,” the mechanized human says robotically.

From behind the vat next to ‘Isitoq II’, a girl, perhaps 17, peeks out. She is trembling in fear, and is heavily genetically modified. Most of her skin seems to be covered in Chryssalid chitin, and along her limbs the blade portion of the insectoid alien’s claws are also attached, seeming to be retractable. Her irises are tinted the predatory yellow of the Chryssalids as well, and her hair is tinted a mix between violet and black, forming irregular patterns of shading.

Ashley approaches the two. “Are you two ok? Do you have names?”

The mechanized human points at himself with his non-weaponized hand. “This one’s designation is ‘Isitoq Two.’ The other is…”

“B-Bun-Buniq two…” The chryssalid-human hybrid stutters.

Ashley takes off her helmet. “Well my name is Ashley Van Dam these people behind me are here to rescue any human we can find, but what happened to you two?”

“I-I don’t...know. W-we only c-came into existence when you aw-awakened us…” Buniq 2 replies hesitantly. “I-I have s-scattered memories...b-but they’re unclear…”

“Ok look were here to help you, alright? We’re the good guys and we will help you if we can,” Ashley says calmly.

Buniq nods slowly, and the blades on her limbs seem to sink back below the chitin, causing her to grimace in pain.

Isitoq II points to the corner of the room, where a Sectoid is cowering behind a computer. “There is one left, though it no longer appears to be a threat.

Quinn pulls out his arc thrower. “Couldn’t hurt…” he walks over, the Sectoid seeming to have given up on fighting back with the odds facing it.

Why me… I-12 thought to itself as sparks of electricity made everything go black.

Eva: “Didn’t we already have a Sectoid alive, why waste it?”

Quinn picks up the Sectoid’s plasma pistol, and twirls it by the arm-handle. “So this thing wouldn’t blow up. And another for the lab boys can’t be a bad thing.”

Eva: “Can’t we just kill this thing and move on I mean we still have a mission don’t we?

Maximilian shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter, it won’t be causing us any trouble, and like Quinn said, the scientists aren’t going to complain. We can just leave it here and come back for it once we’ve cleared the base out.”

The door on the other side of the room slid open to either side, and three Thin Men raise their plasma carbines, drawn by the commotion of the battle only a minute earlier. Buniq II quickly takes note of them with her advanced eyesight, and reflexively impales one with her arm blades. The poison cloud seems to have no effect on her, similar to how it did not affect Chryssalids.

“Take them down!” Max shouts, as Isitoq II and the others opened fire on the Thin Men and the 3 Sectoids that were coming to back them up.

Victor: “Damn they don’t give up do they? They really don’t want us to press forward…”

Kelly: “Yeah, they seem to be more aggressive now than they’ve ever been,” he yells over the commotion of battle.

Letz: “Well we have plenty of ammo for them,” he shouts with a grin.

Ashley and Kelly fire at the aliens.

Ashley: “Damn it just die won’t you?” Ashley shoots one of the sectoids, and Max takes down the Thin Man.

Max: “Keep shooting people; we have the advantage.” Jonathan kills another sectoid. “Great just one more to go and we can move on.”

Eva fires her battle rifle at the last sectoid and gets a little grin on her face, “There is nothing that makes me feel more human than killing these things, makes me me feel all warm and fuzzy inside”.

Ashley: “Is that all of them because this is getting really old really fast…”

Buniq retracts her arm-blades, adrenaline starting to wear off slowly. “Th...there are people in here…” she says slowly, walking into the Abductee holding room.

Inside are a number of abductees, twelve in total. Four are in cloning vats, intact and unconscious. There are four lying on the alien surgery tables, cut open and in various states. One is clearly deceased, missing all internal organs, while another is missing most of his internal organs, save for his heart and lungs. The third is missing his kidneys and liver, while the fourth has nothing missing but still has a bisected torso. The other four abductees on surgery tables are more intact, and as conscious as those bisected in silent agony. The rest of the tanks, some human sized, some not, are filled with corpses or harvested organs.

“Dear God…” Max mutters as he steps into the room behind the clone. “What the hell were they doing in here?”

 

[Dahlexpert]

Part 3
Eva: “Great, more corpses well there is nothing we can do for those people it’s a shame but at least they're dead now.”

Isitoq II walks in as well. “It would appear eleven of these humans are still alive, though some appear in states near death.”

Letz goes over to the one missing most of his organs. “You’re...telling me he’s still…” he steps back in horror, realizing the man’s heart is indeed still beating, if slowly.

“I do not believe that one is recoverable,” Isitoq says clinically as some of the other XCOM soldiers go over and remove the restraints of the 4 intact humans.

One of them, an Indian woman in her early forties, joins Letz, her expression grim. “I agree with...whatever you are,” she says to the mechanized human. “Better to put him out of his suffering. As for the rest, though...I think they messed around with your head, right, cyborg? Can you operate their medical equipment?”

“I am designed for combat, not medical purposes...but yes, I can,” Isitoq responds. He walks over to one of the computer terminals, and starts clicking keys in the alien’s symbology. He glances over at Ashley. “Retrieve the containers with the kidneys and the liver beside you, so that I might return them to where they belong.”

Ashley: “If I can save those people I will and me being a doctor I’ll do my best to save them. But I can’t promise anything to you.”

Once Ashley had retrieved to organs, Isitoq sets to putting them into the right place, and then uses a series of medical lasers to reattach them and seal the abductee’s torso. He does the same for the one not missing any organs. “As for the other one…” he says, glancing at the slowly beating heart of the second bisected human. “You should probably end his suffering.”

Ashley: “That I can do and I’ll make it quick.” Ashley walks to the second bisected human and shoots him in the head. “Hopefully he didn't feel that.”

The Indian woman nods slowly, and then turns to Max. “So what now?”

Max shook his head. “I can’t send you all to the extraction point right now...somethings going on upstairs. However…” he looks to Isitoq and Buniq. “I think you all can follow behind us with these two as an escort, though stay a safe distance, and don’t get shot at,” he orders.

The woman seems to agree. “I’m Veda, by the way. I’ll make sure everyone that can follow behind will, and if anything tries to sneak up on us from behind...well, we’ve got those two...and something the aliens did to a couple of us.” Her eyes glow purple for a moment, and she holds some psi energy in her hand. “We’ll be safe, just take this place down.”

“Psionics…” Max mutters. “Alright, Alpha Squad, let’s move out! We’ve got the rest of the facility to clear!” The squad heads through the rest of the medium-sized room, and comes to another door. Victor, in front, reaches forward, receiving a nod from Max, and opens it.

 

[BMPixy]

Operation Triumphant Vengeance
2015-06-16 1206 Local Time
The Land of the Dead, India
Beta Team

Lance Corporal Albert Foulke
Fortress: Part One

Gently, the doors slid open in the presence of Beta Team’s skeleton key, sand spilling down into the base. With a quick wave of the hand, my team advanced forward. Once more unto the breach, and all that jazz. The outside light faded behind us as we moved forward, and darkness slowly crept over the squad, only the green lights of the various alien equipment providing illumination. Reflexively, I switched on the flashlight on my laser rifle, prompting the others to do the same. Slowly the lights crept across the environment, highlighting anything looking vaguely like an alien.

Finally the ramp leveled off, into what looked like some massive cargo bay. Empty, thankfully, aside from some clustered crates made of the alien alloys.

“Lovikov, Townsend,” I barked, “Check the crates, make sure no aliens are pulling a Snake on us.” A confused glance from the Scout met my order, but the two split off from the pack, as we kept scanning the facility.

After a minute or two of fiddling the two managed to open the crates. “Crates are clear, sir!,” Townsend shouted, slightly assuaging my fears of ambush.

“Right, let’s hit the door then,” I ordered, “Lovikov you’re first into the breach, after you comes Bandersnatch and Imahara. Clark and Jacobs take up firing positions on the edge, and then the rest of us follow.”

As ordered, the squad assembled on the, Jesus Christ this door is massive, entry-way. With a quick count of the fingers, I slammed my hand onto the door, sending it careening open.

Or at least that’s what should of happened. Instead, my hand met nothing but open air, and opposite us we saw a trio of very confused Mutons. We were fast in raising our weapons, the Mutons were faster, but Grant was the fastest, his arm lifting up and a gout of flame spraying across the alien warriors. The flames licked and charred at the alien’s armor and flesh, and they quickly sprinted away from the avatar of flame that was our MEC.

“We’re having mutton tonight, friends!” the synthesized voice of Grant shouted as a cascade of lasers scored across the room, ending the Muton’s pained, fiery existence. Right, maybe getting all his limbs chopped off in the name of science wasn’t the best for Imahara’s state of mind, now that I think about it.

Taking initiative, Lovikov and Townsend cleared the hall. A quick scan of the area revealed a control panel of some sort as well as a second door, this one a more conventional one, plastered with numerous designs and alien text. Scarring from the laser fire obscured some of the images, but the ones that I could see showed a red Sectoid skull, and what looked like the head of a-

“Uh, is that just me, or does that image look like a Chryssalid head?” Clark said from behind me.

“Dear God, what have we stumbled into… ” Trapp muttered.

“Omae wa rokudenashi… ” Grant spat, in what I assume was some form of curse.

“Alright everybody, cool the chatter,” I said, “This is our only way into the base, and it’ll take too long to circle around and go in through one of the other team’s entrances. We’re gonna need to move fast to cover the distance, and with Chryssies it just gives us an incentive to move a bit faster.”

Pausing for a moment to think of a plan, I continued, “Imahara, since you’ve got our flamethrower, you’re on point with Bandersnatch. Try to get a nice cluster of ‘em before you torch them. Going from inside to outside of the arrow, on the left we’ll have Trapp, Townsend, and Lovikov, and on the right we’ll have Reston, Clark, and Summers. Jacobs and I be taking the center of the formation. Everybody clear?”

A chorus of affirmatives answered me, and we quickly assembled in front of the door. A gesture to Summers, and the Engineer slammed the biggest button on the control panel, and luckily the door slid open, revealing- dear God that’s a big Chryssalid.

I could see the soldiers in front of me instinctively tense at the sight of the monstrosity before us. As if sensing our presence, it turned towards us, snarling and straining at it’s restraints. T-things aren’t supposed to be that big! Standing five meters tall, a bit under seven meters long, and about four wide, that abomination, which I hereby dub the Giga-Chryssalid, gave an ear-piercing roar.

Alerted to our entry both by the door and the sudden attention of the Giga-Chryssalid, a trio of Sectoids turned away from a console. With their distinctive chittering, they split and took cover behind various pieces of machinery.

“Scatter!” I yelled, signalling to the others to find cover as I sprinted for a console. Clark slid in beside me, readying his Laser Strike Rifle and snapping off a shot that punched a hole in a chest high wall a Sectoid was cowering behind, missing the alien by centimeters.

A quick peek over the top of my cover identified the location of the various squad members. Imahara was using a support pillar to cover his massive bulk; Bandersnatch was with Trapp and Lovikov, who were hunkered down behind a console just across the path from me; Reston and Jacobs were taking cover on the edge of the doorframe; and Summers and Townsend were taking cover behind a convenient chest-high wall.

Meanwhile, there was one Sectoid hiding behind the wall that Clark just put a hole in, another behind a console, and a third one getting shot in the face by Townsend as it stood up to shoot.

A kill confirmation echoed out from Townsend, as I adjusted my position to get a better line of fire on the one behind the console. A spray of laser fire from Bandersnatch tore at the wall Sectoid, making it more resemble a charred, slightly exploded, pin-cushion.

Right, raise rifle, center the laser sight on the torso, pull trigger- gah! The Giga-Chryssalid gave a particularly nasty snarl, causing my arm to twitch and the beam to spear the Sectoid through the shoulder, the beam of light and bodily fluid explosion tearing off the alien’s weapon arm. Oh well, close enough.

The Sectoid chittered something, evidently still not dead somehow despite the massive trauma, and a single, grey arm slammed on the console, pressing a few keys before slumping over the side in silence. Nothing happened at first, but out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something… falling.

Oh dear God, those were the restraints. The Giga-Chryssalid is loose.

“Shit shit shit!” I yelled, panic momentarily overcoming me as I snapped off a wild shot at the approaching creature, missing wildly.

“It’s free, kill it!” I heard Trapp shout, his Gatling Laser adding to fire, scoring slight gouges across the alien’s carapace.

“Screw this, I’m outta here!” I heard Lovikov shout, as he made a dead sprint for the exit. However, a glass tank in front of him shattered, and a rapidly maturing Chryssalid burst out of the pod, twisting and shuffling as it turned to face the Scout.

 

[BMPixy]

Fortress: Part Two

“Randall!” Summers called out to the Scout, as he slid to a stop in front of the terror unit. Lunging forward right as Lovikov pulled the trigger on his Carbine, the laser speared off a chunk of the Chryssalid’s head, sending the twitching corpse careening into the soldier, sending him sprawling across the floor.

Alright then, the glass pods contain ‘Lids. Good to know. Giga-Chryssie is still approaching, fifteen meters and closing.

“Right, we need to move! Jacobs, Shredder on the Chryssalid, Summers, flash it!” I ordered, as I broke cover, sprinting for the right side of the room, “After me, everybody!”

“Rocket wide!” Jacobs exclaimed, as the rocket careened vertically, striking the GC in the torso, the blast staggering it. “Or… not…” the Rocketeer followed up lamely, as the flashbang went off under the alien, blinding it slightly.

A quick glance over my shoulder revealed the rest of the squad pursuing me, Bandersnatch taking up a rear position as it poured fire in the general direction of the Chryssalid. I’ll have to commend whoever pilots those things on their valor for covering us as we book it. Accuracy, not so much.

Ahead of us, more tanks. Right, they’re fairly clustered together, so that should impede the alien. Risk Chryssalids giving us the Ripley surprise? Yeah.

“Take cover in the tanks! Firing positions everybody, let’s take that Giga-Lid down!” I barked, as I put in a few last paces before sliding behind the foremost tank, raising my rifle to take aim at the behemoth. Imahara and Lovikov passed me as I snapped off a couple of shots at the beast. The first one struck it in the already damaged torso, singing a deep hole in the creature’s carapace. The second struck a more hardened location, and merely warmed the area. Summers and Clark filed past, as the previous two took up positions and added their fire to the mix. Still, the beast continued it’s charge.

Wait, what the hell is that cracking noise? God, the tank! Hurling myself away from my cover, a Chryssalid burst out of the tank, limbs flailing in a flurry of rapidly developing chitin. Dammit dammit dammit! I desperately scrambled out of the way of the X-Ray, and I saw the beast turn towards me, that visage burning itself into my mind. Time slowed, as the the beast raised it’s limbs to gouge me alive, then the alien evaporated under a burst of concentrated SHIV fire.

Oh God, I almost died there. I really need to thank whoever pilots those SHIVs. Right, well, at least I got the tachypsychia going, because that corpse is falling rather slowly.

Feeling like I was moving in molasses, I pushed myself off the floor, taking cover behind the ruined tank. A slow scan revealed that everybody was behind cover, and Clark was getting his face ripped off by a Chryssalid. Right, probably shouldn’t be so calm about that. Probably the adrenaline. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to save the Sniper, I put a pair of laser bolts into the Chryssalid’s back, striking it down in the middle of the impregnation process.

With that, I hope Clark doesn’t decide to get back up on the wrong side of the fight. Turning back to the Giga-Chryssalid, which was now a much safer twenty meters away, I took a moment to try to think of something. Maybe if we can get another rocket on that thing’s torso… if only we had the Kinetic Strike Module rather than the Flamethrower… could that thing even be suppressed?

Right, plan! Shoot it until it gets closer, then Scooby Doo away until it’s far enough away that we can resume shooting it, and repeat until it dies. No, Albert, that’s a stupid plan! Better idea, have Trapp and Bandersnatch suppress it while Jacobs and Reston use a normal rocket on it, have Summers chuck all her AP grenades at the Chryssalid, and the rest of us shoot at it until it dies.

As I began to bark the orders, I noticed, out of the darkness, more of the ‘normal’ Chryssalids approaching from behind the Giga-Chryssalid. Quickly cutting myself off, I changed a couple of the orders. Reston was to use a normal rocket on the normal X-Rays, and Imahara would circle around to torch them.

Rattling off the revised orders, Imahara broke off into a sprint, away from the tanks to complete his objective. Barrages of lasers came from the SHIV and Gunner, scoring a couple glancing hits on the Giga-Chryssalid, and a lucky shot from Trapp taking off the leg of one of the Chryssalids in the back, sending it toppling to the floor. Jacobs launched his rocket, and it struck the Chryssalid true, blasting a massive hole in the X-Ray’s torso, with a splatter of alien blood coating the floor as the impact toppled the beast- right into the path of Reston’s rocket!

The blast shattered the various quills and other structures on the beast’s back, and the Giga-Chryssalid roared in pain, as it tried to right itself, rivulets of blood pouring down it’s form. Wait, what are the other Chryssalids doing? Why are they turning around? Oh-oh God, they’re attacking the Giga-Chrysalid!?

Chitin pierced chitin, as the various Chrysalids tore into the larger beast- and oh god they’re impregnating it! Blood pooled around the dying form of the alien monstrosity, as it succumbed to death at the hands of the smaller beasts. Were those quills something important?

Interrupting my introspection, Summers’s AP grenades shredded the beasts, and Imahara came charging up the ramp, flamethrower spilling flame across the insectoid monstrosities. With their assorted cries of pain, the Chryssalids boiled alive in their carapace, giving off a smell frighteningly similar to that of cooked lobster. Well, I’ll never be able to eat seafood again.

Right, that seems to be all of them. Breathing exercises. In, out, relax the diaphragm, activate that whatever-sympathetic nervous system. After what seemed like an eternity, time began to flow at it’s normal pace. Placing a hand over my faceplate as a calming measure against the tide of emotions that the adrenaline and tachypsychia held back, I stepped out of cover.

From what I can see, nobody’s been harmed, well, aside from Clark - not looking at the body not looking at the body - so I gave a wave of the hand to signal everybody back over to me. As the magnificent seven and their robot buddy assembled, I mentally apologized to the Sniper. Should have seen that coming, and not everybody has my luck.

“Alright, I guess the room’s finally clear,” I said half-heartedly, reloading my rifle with another charge pack, before picking up my tone as I continued, “But, it’s time to press on. We’ll have to retrieve Clark’s body on the way back, can’t exactly take the body with us right now and I’m not leaving anybody here to guard him, we’ll need everybody if this is just a taste of what lies in this tomb of horrors. For now, everybody get in formation, let’s head out.”

With a depressive round of affirmatives, the squad assembled once more, and I gave the hand signal to push forward towards the other entrance. As we reached it, Summers activated the door, revealing an airlock style entrance, similar to what we had encountered on the way in. Guess the aliens didn’t want the Chryssies getting in or out.

Quickly, the team stacked up on the door, ready for a take two of the first breach and hoping no curious Mutons would open the door before us. Three, two, one, I signalled, before slamming my fist down on the door. First in was Lovikov, sprinting for a console as plasma fire met our team. I guess they heard the commotion and were waiting for us. Three Thin Men and three Sectoids poured fire down the door way as Bandersnatch and Imahara pushed in, a couple plasma pistol shots glancing off the MEC’s hull but failing to penetrate. A snap shot from Lovikov’s Carbine took out one of the Sectoids, and I took this opportunity to signal Townsend and Jacobs to push in, as the aliens paused to reload their weapons.

 

[BMPixy]

Fortress: Part Three

“Trapp, suppress those Thin Men!” I yelled, gesturing to a couple of Thin Men hiding behind a bank of consoles. The Gunner complied, his Gatling Laser sending a spray of red light down range, tearing chunks out of the alien’s cover. A Laser Lance from Imahara evaporated one of the Thin Men’s chest, sending up the signature cloud of poison around the alien’s corpse.

I raised my rifle to take a shot at one of the other Sectoids, cowering behind- wait, is there a person on that table? Damn, can’t risk the shot. Maybe on the Thin Man ove- no, there’s a person in that tank. Dammit!

“Watch your fire! We got hostages in the tanks and beds!” I yelled, and fire from our side instantly dimmed, to be replaced with renewed fire from those craven X-Rays.

A faint red light hummed near one of the abductees, and the nearby Thin Man seemed to notice, holding his fire and turning back to the captive, starting to raise its gun. There was a vengeful shout in a language I couldn’t understand, hard to hear over the sound of battle, and then a lance of red energy blasted the Thin Man into the wall. This was followed by a Sectoid on the other side being hit by a blast of fire, and crumpling to the ground in death throes.

Wh-what the hell was that? Were those the psionics I’d heard about? Focus Foulke, aliens shooting at you. Lifting my rifle, I took at shot at the last Thin Man, the shot missing by a narrow margin. A follow up beam from Summers nailed the Thin Man, and I turned to the last Sectoid, who was now deciding that he’d take his chances with his boss’s wrath and broke cover for the exit, but I put a shot into his back as he fled.

The din of battle quieted as the Sectoid crumpled to the floor, and Jacobs gave the all clear signal. Stepping out of cover, I noticed exactly how many people they had kept in here. On the beds were the psions, along with a couple of - God, how is he still alive? - abductees who were gutted like a fish. In the tanks were a few other humans, either unconscious or unable to move.

Lowering my rifle, I barked, “C’mon, let’s get these people out of here!” I advanced towards one of the psions, who was in the process of freeing himself from his restraints. Right, not that familiar with xenos tech, but I suppose a little brute force couldn’t hurt. Grabbing one of the leg restraints, I began trying to pull it apart, creating a gap in the restraint large enough for the Indian man to slip his leg out.

A quick glance saw Summers tapping some buttons on one of the tanks, causing it to begin draining, evidently she had received a bit more training on the alien tech than I had. Finally, after a few minutes of straining, the psion was free of his restraints. The strongly-built Indian, perhaps in his late twenties, stood up and looked at the other psion. “Qamut, you speak. Better with English,” he said roughly, grimacing at the...Inuit, I think, that was on the other end.

The person he had called Qamut looked over at me. “Who are you?” he asked, seeming to be trying to compose himself after mustering up the nerve to attack the aliens in the middle of combat.

Vaguely remembering some training for dealing with civvies in hostile situations, I pulled off my helmet, tucking it under my arm. “We’re XCOM. We’re here to get you guys out and take out this base,” I replied, letting the half-truth out. While the possibility of abductees being present was considered, there was no exact plan on how to extract them in case we ran across them.

“X...COM?” Qamut said slowly. “Didn’t Atka join something called that?” he wondered, mostly talking to himself apparently. The Indian man just walked over, having a cold, hardened expression and not saying much.

Figuring it best to assuage his fears, I responded, “Atka, Ipit-something? Kinda on the small side, has a husky with a name I can’t pronounce?” I scratched my neck, trying to remember how that last name went.

Qamut nodded vehemently. “She’s come to save us, then...that’s welcome news. And we are grateful for your assistance. When you get a chance...tell her they have her sister Nouja in...the back rooms, was it, Inderpal?” The Indian man nodded. Turning back to me, the Inuit continued, “I don’t know what they’ve done with her mother, though. We only heard about Nouja by chance.”

I grimaced, the implications of what had happened finally being fully realized. “Right. We’ll get her out, and we’ll try to find any others.”

Before I could continue, Reston slid up next to me, and whispered, “What should we do with that abductee?” He pointed at the still living abductee, their organs unpleasantly visible.

Pausing for a moment to think, I decided to ask to the two psions, “Hey, any of you know them, on that table there?” I gently slid the Heavy my helmet, as I slid my hand over my laser pistol.

Qamut grimaced. “I don’t think so...the...the aliens are the only ones I think that can operate the machinery they used to do that.”

Inderpal shook his head. “Messed with some heads, remember?”

Qamut looked over at him. “True...but not with anyone in here...they were using us as test subjects with those violet terrors…” he said, and I could tell that he became very nervous as he said this. “They are all dead, right?”

Making small talk as I walked over to the poor soul strapped onto the table, I replied, “Yeah, we took care of all them. Took out the big one they were keeping captive, as well. Lost a man to them.” Then, with a swift motion, I drew the laser pistol, and placed it to the abductee’s head. “Any objections before I do this?” I said, trying to keep my cool.

One of the other abductees said something in Hindi, and Inderpal turned to look at her, saying something I couldn’t understand either back. “The abomination said that?” he said, and turned to me. “Chance that the woman Qamut spoke of can help,” he tried to explain, pointing at the hapless abductee. “Aliens might have given knowledge of technology.”

Weighing the options, I decided to ask one last question. “C-can you feel pain, when they have you like this?” The stutter slightly betrayed my composure, but hopefully they won’t notice…

The Indian psion nodded grimly, crossing his arms. “Killing him...more merciful. Northern woman may be dead.”

Qamut started to protest, but with a stern look from Inderpal he shut up. It was clear who was commanding the situation between the abductees here.

“Right, and there’s even a chance that if she’s alive, she doesn’t have the knowledge.” I sighed, and whispered to the abductee, “I’m sorry.” With a pull of the trigger, the man’s skull evaporated, leaving only the scent of charred flesh and the back of his head as testament. Quietly, I holstered my pistol, and turned back to the others, members of my squad grimly nodding in agreement at what I did.

Qamut looked away, seeming like he was going to be sick, but Inderpal did not avert his eyes until afterwards. The Indian seemed to wait for his Inuit companion to recover, since he could not convey his next question well.

Finally, Qamut looked back at me. “W-where are we supposed to go now? I don’t even know where this place actually is…” Right, gotta think of something. There was no extract plan for civvies, if I recall correctly, and I doubt sending them out front will solve anything, especially if we didn’t actually get all of the Chryssies, we’ll just either be getting them killed or just foistering them off on the rear guard team.

Finally, I decide to ask, “How many of you know how to use a gun?”

Inderpal and one other Indian nodded. Qamut tapped his foot, saying, “Well, I have these...powers...but the rest can only use things like spears.”

“Right. I was hoping there was more, but I suppose…” I paused, passing my sidearm over the Indian man, “I suppose you’ll just have to learn on the fly. Luckily we got laser guns, so just point at what you want dead and pull the trigger until it does so.” I signalled the squad to follow my example, and they, reluctantly for some, handed over their sidearms to the soldiers. All in all, it totaled four laser pistols and a single Scatter Laser Pistol from Lovikov.

“We won’t be able to evac you at the moment, so all that I ask is that you take cover, and kill any aliens that come your way,” I said, using my Captain voice to coerce the civilians, “Try not to use those crazy brain powers too much. I’ve seen plenty of brains taken out with guns, but not any guns taken out with brains.”

Qamut seemed ready to nod, though Inderpal did glance down at the shorter man. “...you have one more of those blasts in you?” the Inuit asked the Indian, who nodded.

“If needed,” Inderpal said simply.

“Right, we’ll be back as soon as we link up with the other teams and clear the rest of the base. I’ll announce my presence with the codeword ‘Marco’, reply ‘Polo’ if everything is alright, ‘Marco’ if you’re being held hostage or something like that.” I looked at the various abductees, gauging their comprehension. “We clear?”

The two psions seemed to relay my orders in their native languages, and the remaining 7 abductees nodded their assent.

Taking my helmet from Reston and sliding it back on, I said, “With that, we’ll be off. And Qamut, I’ll let Atka know we found you.” Signalling the others, we opened the next door, and pressed on.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

(ZombieSplitter53 as Ayame Kasagi and ...others. You'll see)

Operation Triumphant Vengeance
1210 Hours, Local Time (June 13th)
The Land of the Dead, India

Delta Team Mission
Part I


The engines of the XCOM dropship hummed powerfully yet softly as it was in-route to the alien complex beneath the sands of western India. Inside, soldiers steeled themselves, apprehension gripping them. They had only fragmented ideas of what was to come, from thermal imaging, Dante’s intel, and Atka’s ‘clairvoyance.’

The Inuit scout sat in her seat, checking her gear one last time. Her Laser Strike Rifle and S.L.P. were in working order, and glowed softly with their familiar red hue. The emanation slightly illuminated Atka in the darkened dropship. She tapped her Chitin Plating and Chameleon Suit, feeling confident in the heightened defense. If anyone’s going to take a hit, it’ll be me or Amanda. The scout looked at her arm launcher, containing two battle scanners. I’ll have to thank Engineering for this later. Atka glanced over at Modya, smiling slightly.

The Russian was eagerly going over his equipment. He had his typical Heavy Laser Rifle and Heater for added punch, and the rest of his equipment was, naturally, explosives. He had two HE grenades in his ‘grenadier’ holster, as well as two anti-armor rockets. “I think I’m ready…” he said, noticing Atka’s gaze, still grinning at his collection of explosives.

“Ahem.” Aya stood up, grabbing a hanging handle to steady herself. “The Commander wanted to say something to you. She didn’t want this to get out, but she didn’t want it to come out of no where, either, so she waited until now.”

Over the cabin’s intercom, Morrigan’s voice rang out. “We have reason to believe that the aliens have been doing experiments on abductees, attempting to give them the same psionic abilities displayed by the Sectoids, possibly for the purpose of adding our species to their ranks. This might be their main purpose, it may be a small part of a bigger plan, or it may be something that wasn’t initially planned at all. Whatever the case, there is a strong chance that you could encounter humans with such abilities. These humans should be approached with caution, but do not treat them as hostiles unless they give you reason to do so. Regardless of their situations, they are hostages, and we are here to save them. Are there any questions in regards to this?”

“No, sir,” came the general chorus of responses. It seemed that Atka’s team was a bit wary of her after learning of her abilities, but they seemed to trust her still. The Inuit scout pulled out the virus chip that had been given to her to destroy the alien data they might find, moving it around in her hands unconsciously. I’m coming, Nouja...just hold on a little longer.

“Good.” Morrigan’s voice softens, almost sounding motherly. “Now… I know you all have mixed feelings about both of your COs. But they both have my complete confidence. They should have your as well. And the last thing we need is them holding back out of fear of being exposed when they could use their abilities to save you life. Good luck everyone. I’m confident you will show these alien’s what we think of their decision to build a summer home on our planet.”

Aya looked around the cabin at the soldiers around her, stopping momentarily to flash a smile at Atka. “We all have our individual missions. The units in other dropship each have an entrance to breach, as does Delta team. I’ll lead Gamma team outside. Once the aliens know we’re here, they’ll likely send back-up. Don’t give that any thought while on your mission, Delta. Gamma will make sure no reinforcements show up to spoil your fun.” She sat down, leaving the soldiers to talk amongst themselves as she talked to her sister, sitting next to her in heavy armor.

Atka spoke with her squad briefly, but as the Skyranger closed in on the mission site silence started to creep in again.

“This is Thunderbolt-1,” the pilot announced. “We’re touching down now. You sure this place is here, Central? All I see is sand and rock.”

“Roger that, T-1,” Bradford replied. “It’s there alright… fifty feet below the surface…”

The side-doors of the dropship opened, the nearby Thunderbolt-2 having already landed. Its troops started to head towards where the entrances were. It seemed Alpha’s entrance was the nearest to the surface, being revealed by the beckoning call of their skeleton key. Beta found theirs in a pit that opened up like the mouth of a sarlacc from Star Wars. Atka’s team headed to the west out a fair distance.

Kevin held up the skeleton key, looking around, the noon sun beating down. “So where’s ours?”

The earth rumbled slightly, and the ground in front of Kevin split open like a hanger bay, causing him to stumble back to avoid falling down into the vertical shaft. An elevator of sorts rose up to accommodate the squad, having a diameter of twenty feet.

“Well...they have a flair for the dramatic. I’ll give them that,” Atka muttered. “Come on, we’re heading down.” A recovering Kevin placed the key into the elevator’s control panel, and it started slowly descending. The squad readied their weapons, getting into formation and aiming themselves to where the exit door was.

“Alpha and Beta have engaged the enemy,” Amanda intoned in a slightly echoing voice. “They have switched to silent mode to avoid having transmissions intercepted. In other words, we should expect company when this door opens.”

Atka leaned up against the wall next to the door, while Amanda took center and Nash took the other side. The elevator reached the bottom, and the door hissed open. Red laser lights filled the cargo bay between them and the next room, ready to reveal targets...but there was no one there. The squad leader held up her hand, listening for any noise. When she was satisfied, she had the soldiers turn off their targeting lights and they starting moving towards the door.

Modya glanced at the equipment. “Reminds me of Engineering…”

The Inuit scout nodded. “Intel would suggest that’s what awaits us...that’s why you’re here, my friend…”

The same arrangement was made for the next door. Atka took a deep breath. “Open it.”

“Roger that,” Kevin affirmed, and pressed the button with the back of his fist. The door slid open quicker than expected, and on the inside two mechanized guardians turned to face them. Mechtoids, backed up by two very surprised Sectoid scientists.

“Amanda!” Atka yelled out.

“On it!” Amanda shouted back, rushing forward at the first gray-black mech that was raising its twin plasma cannons. Before the green glow became something more dangerous, Amanda’s Kinetic Strike Module slammed into the Mectoid’s torso, spoiling its aim as it fired off in random directions. Sparks flew, and when the Guardian shoved him back, the Mechtoid stumbled, assessing the damage to its suit frantically.

Kill the two Sectoids before they can power telekinetic shields! Atka psi-ed to the squad. The scout ran to the side, firing off a shot against the other Mectoid’s shoulder, drawing its fire. Her heart raced as the plasma flew by, but she was safe for now with her chameleon suit and lightning reflexes.

Sarah took aim with her strike rifle, while Kevin and Ayame flushed the Sectoids out of their cover. The sniper and rocketeer shot them both down, preventing telekinetic shields from coming into play. A shot from Airi, followed by one from Wilhelmina, and finally two from Janina, took down the already-damaged Mectoid. The one that still stood, however, sprayed plasma fire at Amanda.

The Guardian MEC did her best to mitigate the damage, putting an arm in front of herself reflexively. One shot screamed by her left, but the other slammed into her right arm, damaging the armor, but more importantly, turning most of the Kinetic Strike Module into slag. Amanda brought up her laser lance, and repaid the Mectoid with a shot to the helmet, creating a dense gouge in the hardened armor plating.

Atka lifted her Laser Strike Rifle as Taqukaq kept the Mectoid from returning fire with a spray of laser fire, enhanced by anti-armor charges. A beam of red shot out from the barrel of the mobile sniper rifle, and broke through the damaged faceplate, killing the Sectoid within. The suit registered its occupant’s death and the core sent out a self-destruct signal, taking the rest of the battlesuit down.

The squad took a moment to breathe, looking into the robotics bay. It was a vast complex, with a wide central walkway bordered by robotics bays of all kinds. The larger ones in the back were wide, hexagonal plates with robotic arms to construct a wide manner of suits and robots. Smaller round bays, tables, and railings were present through the facility, and there were even catwalks above the squad. All of it was half-lit with blinking lights and a few strange blue lights. These same lights turned red as Atka glanced up.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Delta Team Mission
Part II

“Intruder Alert. Armored Battle Suit Guardians A and B are unresponsive. Notifying command,” a female voice intoned through the speakers, marked by a mechanical overtone.

“Why do they have a security system in English?” Kevin said slowly in confusion.

That voice...sounds familiar...where have I heard it before? “Regardless, they know we’re here. Keep moving,” Atka ordered, and the three forward troops lead the way into the engineering bay.

As they went further, there was a familiar robotic thrum, and from two hexagonal palettes twin cyberdiscs rose up, accompanied by two drones each. The first was fully operational, and spun open with its lancelike weapons primed, while the other seemed to be half-built, its strange organic components visible beneath the armor. It twirled its grenade, ready to throw.

Airi, while they’re together, toss a grenade. Ayame, focus on the finished one with Janina and Amanda. We’ll handle the rest.

The engineer nodded, and the squad scattered as the alien grenade made a dent in the alloy flooring where they had been a moment ago.

“Confirmed contacts, deploying Prototypes 1 and 2,” the female voice said with her return.

From behind the robotics bays where the two cyberdiscs had come, two robotic vehicles, strongly resembling the alloy shivs, rolled out, except they were armed with plasma. They charged forward like cavalry at the enemy, rolling to the side to dodge incoming fire from the support while Janina opened fire on the cyberdisc.

“Come on, Sunshine!” Ayame tapped the back of the SHIV, and they both rushed forward. As the alien machines turned to them, Ayame ducked behind the SHIV. It fired away at the enemy gunners, keeping them busy while Ayame took aim at the intact Cyberdisc, hitting it and causing it to wobble to the side, hitting the wall. “SUCK IT, BITCH!”

Amanda switched targets, ducking behind a robotics bay. When the enemy ‘SHIV’ closed in, she blasted a hole in it with her laser lance before it could respond.

Atka pulled out her SLP as the other knockoff SHIV got dangerously close, and her and Kevin blasted it. Its armor managed to shrug off some of the spray damage, and it raised its gun to fire. The scout reached out reflexively, and a blue helix wrapped itself around the barrel, forcing it to aim to the side with noteable telekinetic force.

Airi had been unable to catch both of the cyberdiscs together, but a toss of a heat-enhanced HE grenade caused the armored cyberdisc to crash to the ground and explode in a fiery display. Modya and the Support dealt heavy damage to the other.

“We have another Mectoid,” Sarah warned. “It’s...holy shit.”

A parting shot took down the other cyberdisc, and the squad was distracted from the ensnared Alien SHIV by the new enemy. It was a Mectoid in heavy black armor, bearing four weapons. Two were rotating, quickfire pistols on its back, and its arms were fully weaponized. The left was a concentrated laser beam, and the right was a powerful flamethrower nozzle.

Heavy cover, now! Atka warned, letting go of the SHIV after Takukaq shot it up.

A burst of flame roared from the Super Mectoid’s right arm, spraying at the XCOM troops. They all hid behind as heavy cover as they could get, save for Amanada and Sarah, the latter being far enough back. Atka fell back slightly, pulling out her Laser Strike Rifle again.

The Chinese sniper opened fire, scoring a glancing hit that didn’t seem to do much. The Mectoid turned to her and responded with a laser blast that tore through the cover, and the edge of the beam damaged Sarah’s armor.

Modya pulled out an HE, and tossed it over the mechanical arms of the building station. The heat-warheads blew up on contact with the Mectoid, blasting a hole in the armor on its left arm.

The Mectoid turned to the rocketeer, raising its flamethower and preparing to drench Modya’s cover in flames. “Let’s go!” Ayame shouted, jumping on the back of the SHIV as it rushed forward. As they approached the towering MEC, the SHIV shot lower and Ayame shot high, doing minimal damage but distracting it. The machine blasted its flamethower at them, grazing Ayame’s arm as they turned to the side. She jumped behind some cover, patting the flames off her armor. “Hey, someone more clever than me make a fire pun, will ya?”

Kevin started to move forward, but was held back by Janina. “Bad plan.” she stepped around cover as she spoke, and shot up the side of the Mectoid.

Atka and Sarah fired at the Mectoid again, but it ducked down, the two shots going uncharacteristically wide. “Dammit,” they both muttered.

The engineer and the support laid down more fire, battering the right side of the Mectoid, but no critical damage was dealt. Amanda raised her powerful laser lance, taking careful aim at the Mectoid’s left joint. The following blast sheared off its left arm, leaving it with only the flamethrower. Faced with this, the Mectoid’s plasma pistols spun up, and started opening fire in rapid, infantry fashion, effectively suppressing the Infantry, Assault, Scout, and Sniper all at once. It started to prepare another flame blast, the nozzle glowing yellow and then orange and finally red.

Atka grimaced, and then remembered the suppressive fire wouldn’t stop her from doing something else. An icy helix shot out upwards from her palm, curving towards the Mechtoid, and passing into the skull of the pilot. The effect was immediate. The mech went wild, blasting its flame against a robotic bay in distress, its pistols painting the roof with glowing green plasma. “Hit it now!”

All of the squad opened fire without restraint, breaking apart the Super Mechtoid’s armor and riddling it with laser holes. With a groan of defeat, the metal limbs gave way, and the mech collapsed. The napalm ignited, showering it with fire.

Atka held up a hand, taking deep breaths and allowing the rest of the squad to recover. “They’re not...kidding around…”

Ayame quickly ran to her CO’s side, taking advantage of the momentary break. “Hey, boss, you okay? I’ve never seen you use that power like that. It’s not taking too much outta ya, is it?”

Atka shook her head. “Two abilities aren’t that draining, especially not the mindfray. That was just an intense fight…” The scout raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you’re calm, considering it nearly turned you into a bonfire.”

Ayame grinned. “Adrenaline. Don’t let this calm, pretty face fool you. My hearts beating a mile a minute. Kinda like the combat high, though. Lets hope I don’t have to use it too much, though. I’d hate to see what else they have in store for us.”

“Prototype Beta Four is no longer functioning,” intoned the voice. “Requesting authorization to deploy appropriate countermeasure…”

“I swear, I’ve heard that voice before…” Atka said with frustration, trying to placed the mechanized tone.

“Request granted,” the voice finished. “Prototype Alpha One deployed.”

Atka’s eyes widened, paling. “Wait...that can’t be…is that…mother?”

Ayame shook her head. “What are you talking about? Why would the computer have your mom’s voice?”

“I...I don’t…”

“Do you mind if we talk about this later?” Amanda asked, as a massive vehicle came into view from the back of the room. “We’ve got company…”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Delta Team Mission
Part III

Said company was a massive hovertank. It measured perhaps fifteen or twenty feet in length, and had two plasma machine guns attached to either rounded side. It was built from layers of alien alloys that were not easy to penetrate, and most frightening of all, its cannon turret was more ferocious than any earth-based tank. It was a long, grooved weapon that glowed with condensed, explosive plasma, packing the force of several alien grenades within.

Atka’s fears were brushed aside by greater, more immediate terror. “Amanda, don’t get hit by that thing! Get behind cover!”

The MEC nodded quickly, and the others were instructed to do the same.

“Readying rocket…” Modya said grimly, knowing the time had come to put the ‘HEAT’ anti-tank missiles to use.

A thunderous blast rocketed the room, destroying a series of computers and wrecking the robotics bay Amanda stood behind. “Holy…” the MEC had time to say before putting up her arms to defend against a spray of plasma fire. “A little help here…”

Atka gestured to Sarah and Janina, who stepped briefly out of cover to fire at the vehicle. Their shots seemed to do little, if anything, however, and the machine guns weren’t big enough to accurately target. Even the laser lance only made a medium dent on the vehicle’s plating. If that rocket doesn’t work...we’ll need to find a way inside that thing, Atka warned.

“Have a little faith,” Modya responded, and stepped out with the minor distraction in play, letting the rocket fly. It thundered into the hovertank, blasting a hole in the armor plating and opening up the front of the vehicle, small cracks revealing that the pilots were likely in the turret’s zone rather than the main structure. Taqukaq widened the gap with heat-infused laser shots.

“I seeee you!” Ayame shouted, laying heavy fire at the opening. The tank quickly turned to move the opening as the cannon prepared to fire. The blast rocketed towards the Asian gunner, barely missing as it slammed into a large computer terminal behind her, sending her flying forward. As she slowly climbed to her feet, trying to move back into cover but too winded to do so, her mechanized ally quickly rushed in front of her, providing cover as Ayame tried to catch her breath.

Shit. Atka ran towards the tank without a second thought. “Keep it busy!” As the squad laid down fire, Atka did her best to dodge the machine guns. There were too many shots, and three pellets hit her shoulder, leg, and chest, but the chitin plating and carapace armor did its job. The scout ran to the side, and leapt into the hole in the tank. Her boots clanked as they landed on metal grating, and she drew her S.L.P.

The Inuit woman flipped open the bottom hatch, staring up at four Sectoid’s in the piloting area. “Good night…” she shot two of them with the S.L.P, and the other two were slashed open by an icy helix. The crew dead, Atka jumped back out of the vehicle...and its cannon trained on her. This thing’s running on an AI too?

Modya’s second HE grenade landed inside of the tank, and blew up the computers within. The machine guns spun without firing one time, then twice, and then hung limp. The cannon lowered to the side as the hovertank sputtered and died, falling to the ground with a shaking impact.

Atka shakily stumbled back, having almost been turned into a crater if Modya had been a few seconds late. “Thanks...Dragomirov…”

“Prototype Alpha One destroyed. Analyzing situation...conclusion reached. Terminating myself to prevent data recovery by intruders…” the female voice decided.

Atka’s eyes widened. “No!” she tried to get up, hoping Yaralria was in the back of the room, but couldn’t quite break into a run yet.

Ayame’s eyes darted across the room, quickly trying to access the situation. Damn not good. Closest... Atka… no shape to make it. SHIV… not fast enough. Gotta get there fast… maybe throw something at her… like… “Nerd! Chariot! Amanada!” Ayame jumped on the SHIV, and it sped towards the mechanized soldier. “You, bigun! Hail Mary!”

“Hail Mary what?” Amanda asked.

“Me!” Ayame leapt towards Amanda.

Catching the flying soldier, the MEC warrior muttered, “If you say so…” She flung Ayame across the room, sending her flying over the downed tank. Ayame landed awkwardly on her left arm. Shrugging off the pain.

In the back of the room, now visible to Ayame, was something akin to the alien status tanks, except its occupant was not asleep. An Inuit woman in her early forties was cutting off the life support oxygen mask attached to her face, and lights on her headset flashed red as her oxygen levels started to plummet.

“No you don’t!” Ayame slammed her weapon into the tank, cracking it. She hit it over and over. She noted the dent she was leaving in her weapon. Damn… can’t have this thing break on me this early in the mission. Guess I’ll just have to break something else… Ayame lifted her left arm, ignoring the pain in it from the left running. After three swift punches, she broke through the tank, its contents washing over her. She quickly pulled him sidearm with her right hand, and used it to clear away the glass. She pulled the Inuit woman from the tank, laying her on the ground and immediately starting CPR.

The process being incomplete, she quickly coughed, coming to again. Yaralria looked up at Ayame. “Error..” her pupils seemed to be pushed aside, revealing a cybernetic eye mixed in underneath that analyzed the gunner. “Combat mode incomplete...course of action uncertain.”

“Just… just chill out, alright,” Ayame muttered through pants. “I promised your girl I’d save you. Don’t you dare make a liar out of me.” She stood up, smiling at Atka as she approached, and stepping to the side, cradling her hand.

Atka breathed a sigh of relief, though she looked a bit concerned about Ayame. She ran over to her mother, embracing her. “Thank God you’re safe…”

Yaralria seemed confused for a moment, but seemed to comprehend, at least to some degree. “At...ka?” The interface held her head, AI programming conflicting with her normal state of mind.

“Good… she’s still in there.” Ayame whispered, mostly to herself as she walked to the side of the room, leaning against the wall and sliding to the floor.

The rest of the squad soon caught up. “I hope that’s all of them…” Amanda said looking over at Yaralria. She relaxed when she assessed that the Inuit woman was not in need of medical attention at the moment. At least, nothing she could help with.

The interface nodded slowly. “All subjects in the Engineering bay are terminated.”

Atka stood up again. “We should send you back up…” she reached up to her ear, turning on communications. “Gamma, this is Delta. We have rescued someone…” The scout frowned. “Their channel is closed...they must have engaged the enemy…”

Sarah’s expression turned grimmer than usual. “We can’t send her up there, then. She’ll have to come with us, we’ve handled that before.”

Yaralria perked up. “In the room beyond, there is..” she grimaced as a painful thrum went through her head, censoring the information she was trying to convey.

Atka quickly put a hand on Yaralria’s shoulder. “Relax, mother...don’t try to do anything that’s going to hurt you. We’ll get that crap off you later…” she reassured, looking at the alien tech that was visible externally on her mother’s arms and head. The Inuit scout was beyond caring if she seemed unprofessional at the moment, and turned back to her troops. “She did say the bay is clear...I hope this next room is.”

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Delta Team Mission
Part IV

The XCOM troops stacked up on the door, and opened it carefully. The room was more dimly lit than the previous one, having been abandoned by its occupants. That, or Yaralria was the one controlling it in the first place. On the right was a computer console with a selection of monitors. A curious looking headset was on the small table jutting out, as well as what looked like virtual reality gear. To the back was another door, and to the left was an armory of sorts.

As the team walked through the room, a Sectoid peeked its head out from around the corner. It quickly walked up to the computer terminal by the armory, rapidly tapping on the buttons. After a few moments, a bright red light started blinking over the weapon’s rack, and the various rifles started self-destructing one at a time.

A laser blast from Ayame’s laser pistol dropped the alien. “Damn it, what did that little creep just do?”

“Weapons are set to self destruct...dangerous at this proximity…” Yaralria walked over to the computer, typing unnaturally quickly, especially for someone who had never touched a computer until this point. “I can delay the sequence, but only temporarily.”

Ayame ran to her side. “Good job.” She looked at the weapons rack. “How many we save?”

“Seven plasma rifles and two explosive grenades,” came the reply.

Atka seemed to be grateful, but at the same time was gradually having a sinking feeling, knowing the aliens had likely changed Yaralria irrevibicoraly. “What is this, then…” she muttered, walking over to the headset. Her mother simply shrugged, unsure herself.

Airi walked to her CO’s side. “Maybe it connects to someone on the base. Though I doubt anyone would be thrilled to talk to us.”

Atka picked up the headset, looking it over. As she did she frowned, feeling a ripple effect as the device seemed to sap a small amount of her psionic pool. “It’s...psionic somehow…” She put it down, and plugged the piece of technology she had been given to upload the virus to the databanks of the computer. “Alright, cat...I need your help for some things.”

A low purr came from one of the computer’s speakers. “I’m at your disposal, love.”

“Alright. Before you upload the virus, I want you to make sure that my mother is cut off from the database…the aliens were using her as some sort of...uhh…”

“Human/A.I. Experimental System Interface,” Yaralria responded, with unsettling speed.

“Intriguing. That could be quite useful, though I know a certain short engineer that might be jealous.” Cheshire was silent for a moment. “Hmm… can’t seem to… does she have a designation in this system? Hard to find her otherwise with all this alien code…”

Yaralria said something that was most certainly not out of any terrestrial language. Cheshire was perhaps the only one that knew what she was saying, but it was indeed the extraterrestrials’ designation for their ‘Interface’ test subject.

“There you are darling. And… done. I can’t speak for anything programmed into her spare parts directly, but our bug-eyed adversaries won’t be able to link to her through the computers in this base. I’ve deleted her completely from the system… after making a back-up of her files for our own use, of course.”

“Thanks. And there’s a weird headset with...virtual reality gear, I want to say...some motion sensors for the hands and feet. From what I can tell, its somehow related to psionics, since it seems to slowly drain that energy from me,” Atka added.

“Indeed,” Cheshire responded. “It appears to connect to some kind of control system, though what it connects to, I cannot say. It is connected to a program that is far more complicated than I am used to. Though it would seem that whatever it is, it is controlled using your little mind powers.”

“It might be worth testing out...if its not too much of a risk,” Atka said carefully.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Cheshire said slowly, obviously deep within the code. “Whatever it controls, it uses a lot of power. Trying to control it could completely drain you, and we can’t have that.”

Atka frowned. “We should at least see what its linked to...it could be important.”

“Alright,” Chesire responded, his voice unsure. After a moment, he said, “I’ve opened a link. Give it a try.”

Atka put on the ‘VR’ pieces, and then carefully slipped on the headset. Her vision swam and then went black for a moment, though she did not collapse. Rather...she felt as if she was opening her eyes, and hazily saw an image focus, detailed and highlighted by some sort of...targeting system? Beside ‘Atka’ was a massive mechanized walker with spider-like red eyes and two sturdy legs. It was unclear how big it was. Atka wondered, and a system of measurement appeared, though it was in the alien’s symbols and thus unreadable.

“Uh...Cheshire? Are you getting all this? What am I looking at?” Atka asked as she uncertainly looked around through something else's eyes.

“I… am not sure.” The artificial cat sounded hesitant to admit he didn’t know something. “It appears to be some sort of MEC. It will take me a while to translate the measurements.”

Atka moved her hands around experimentally. “I do feel like I have access to some sort of weapons system...uh...I feel like the system is trying to feed me information...m-missile launchers and a fusion cannon?!”

Ayame placed her hand on Atka’s shoulder. “Atka, you alright? That stuff is glowing up a storm.”

“I’m...fine for now...its not too much of a drain yet...uh. Oh. I do see our door, Ayame. The other one is right outside of it...and…” Atka paled. “It’s looking at me...or the thing I’m controlling, which I’m guessing is the same as him.”

A powerful voice echoed through the headset and the room. WHO IS OPERATING THE SECOND UNIT?

The Sectopod facing Atka’s turned towards its counterpart slowly, cautiously priming its weapon.

The image goes black. Cheshire lets out a sigh of relief. “That was close. They sent some kind of powerful feedback signal to the computer. Another second, and you would have lost about a hundred IQ points.”

Atka took off the headset, picking her Strike Rifle back up. “Well...thanks for that. Though controlling one of those things would have helped.” “Alright, Delta squad, let’s-”

At that moment, a fusion cannon blew down the door.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

ZombieSplitter53, Dahlexpert, BMPixy, and DarkGemini24601 present:

Operation Triumphant Vengeance
“Ancient Walls”
1230 hours

Fragments of alien alloys scattered as the door into the room Atka’s squad was in shattered. The fusion cannon blast also decimated a corner of the wall. Amanda and Kevin’s armor was damaged by the resulting explosion, but they weren’t close enough to suffer any real damage. All seven of Atka’s team had picked up the Plasma Rifles. Modya and Airi had split the two Alien Grenades.

Red targeting lasers filled the room. “We need to move, now!” Atka commanded her squad. “We’ve got two huge robots out there armed with some sort of cluster missile launchers!” She motioned towards Amanda, having her follow after Atka’s dash into the center room, armed with a plasma rifle. They were followed by the other soldiers and Yaralria. Briefly after they had exited the room, it was blown to pieces by a cluster bomb shot. Two Sectopods stood tall in the center room.

Around the Sectopods hovered a pair of drones, similar to the ones encountered previously, but bulkier. They were likely fitted with heavier armor to withstand the energies given off by the large robots they were protecting making them heavier and slower, and more damage resistant. From the end of the north side of the room, too far to see but close enough to be heard, came the familiar sounds of jet packs.

Albert motioned Summers to hurry up with the door at the sound of the blast, with which the engineer replied with an index finger and a few more button presses, as the panel activated and the door panel slid open, revealing the central hall to his squad. A frantic hand signal from Albert prodded the soldiers forward, and they sprang into action, seeking cover where they could.

Alpha team rushed to their side of the door after dealing with the alien hybrids.

Max: “Hey, Quinn can you get that door open any faster, we might have people on the other side.”

Quinn: “I’m sorry, but are you trying to bust open an advanced alien lock here? No, didn't think so. This takes time and effort.”

Eva: “Can’t we just shoot it open? It might be faster that way.”

Ashley: “Blue, just let him do his job, and you get ready for whatever is on the other side of that door.”

Eva reloaded her weapons and got ready for what was on the other side.

Ashley: “Hey, um… Quinn was it? How long will this take?”

Quinn: “A few seconds, so get prepared.”

Ashley: “Right let me get the medkits ready.

Quinn smiled. “And that just… about…” Suddenly, two plasma lances punched through the door, causing him to frantically fall back with a shrill cry. Moments after stepping back, the door exploded as a cluster of missiles hit it. From beyond the dust, the team could see two hovering machines, like flying SHIVs, preparing to fire again. Using the free moment during their reload, Alpha quickly filed into the room and sought cover.

The Abductees Near the center of the room, one of the Sectopods sensors went off, it turned to focus on Beta team while the other kept its attention on Delta.

Ayame, lay down some suppressive fire, buy me some time, Atka psi-ed quickly. She turned on her comm unit as the other teams did the same. “Alpha, Beta, I’m assuming overall command. Janina will have Delta. We have seven Plasma Rifles that have a delayed self destruct, as well as two alien grenades.” A Sectopod blast forced Amanda and Kevin into new cover. “I’ll split them when we get the chance, but focus on the drones and those two artillery units! We can’t leave them around, and it will take too long to kill these two Titans!”

Albert quietly swore as a fusion cannon beam passed through his cover, a mere meter ahead of him. Quickly flipping on his comm unit to reply, he said, “Orders clear, passing op authority to you. Be warned, Beta team is down one man and we’re low on explosives.” Pausing from his sitrep he yelled at Trapp to lay down some fire in the general direction of the drones, and then continued, “We’ll try to link up with the other teams if we can get some movement options, the Titan’s fire is a bit too heavy around this time of day!”

Quinn: “Or the aliens can blow up the bloody door and do whatever they want, fucking beautiful.”

Victor: “Will you quit whining and shoot these things, and more flying enemies... As if we didn't just face an army of fliers just a few minutes ago.”

Alpha Team stuck to cover firing their weapons at the giant robot, which seem to have no effect on the robot. The hovering robots took aim at Alpha team and fired a barrage of missiles at Alpha, destroying whatever cover Alpha had. Steve got on the ground and used one of the alien corpses as leverage to steady his weapon and suppress one of the flying ‘SHIVs’.

The non-suppressed ‘SHIV’ switched to its plasma weapon and fired at Max, hitting his armor with a glancing blow and damaging it. Eva got the artillery bot’s attention, enjoying herself a little too much. When the SHIV was focused on Eva… Kelly, Ashley, and Victor took shots at the flying robot and severely damaging it, The SHIV slowly went down to the ground due to the damage, allowing Jubjub to finish it off, but not before taking a hit from the artillery, being damaged itself.

The suppressed hover robot fired at Steve, missing by a few inches, forcing Steve to roll out to dodge. It quickly fired off another barrage of missiles at him, missing on the direct hit, but throwing him into a daze as he was thrown to the ground. Kelly fired her rifle at the false SHIV’s gun, damaging it. Its primary weapon out of commision and its missile supply spent, it charged in for a kamikaze attack. As it charged for Kelly, caught in a reload, Jubjub, Quinn, and Max concentrated their fire, taking it down moments before it hit the sniper.

The first Sectopod took a lumbering step forward, aiming towards the various members of Delta as they scattered to avoid giving an easy target. It focused its attention on the largest target, firing at Amanda as she ducked behind a large computer, and disintegrating the computer into rubble.

Ayame scanned the room, smiling at the tower. “Get to high ground. Good idea.” She rushed up the ladder and took aim at the small drone hovering over the mammoth bipedal tank. She blasted into it, making it wobble as the shot blasted into its hover engines. Before she could celebrate, two plasma blasts zinged past her head. She looked up at the three approaching floaters, and immediately clammered down the tower. “Get to high ground… bad idea…”

Atka didn’t even have time to say anything to Ayame. “Kevin, get some of the Plasma Rifles spread between the teams. No buts, you aren’t facing off against those things personally. Amanda, stay behind the tower, you’re too much of a target. As for-” The Sectopod started to turn towards Atka, its cannon lighting up. Shit, they picked me out as the leader! The Scout rolled back as a a fusion blast created a crater where she once was. Kevin complied, leaving only Atka and Modya with plasma rifles, and Airi’s alien grenade was taken to Beta along with two rifles, the other three going to Alpha.

A plasma lance similar to the ones on the now-destroyed artillery SHIVs popped out of its back, and started laying down suppressive fire over a wide area, damaging cover as well. Modya took aim at a spot on the Sectopod’s head, meaning to catch the drones in the heat-powered blast. He fired it off, and the drones took heavy damage, the ones left alive more focused on retreating back and healing each other than their large friend.

The Sectopod started focus its fire in Atka and Modya’s direction, while it turned itself towards the support, engineer, and sniper. A glow emanated from its massive barrel of a cannon, but no shot went off at the three scrambled for new cover.

“What is it doing?” Wilhelmina muttered, joining with Janina.

“Atka! It’s Eve Brea, do you read? What’s your situation?”

“We’re fighting two massive ‘Titan’ robots in the central room. Squads have met up, but even with some temporary plasma weapons we can’t make much of a dent yet!” Atka explained as quickly as she could.

“The cat AI sent us a warning up here that you might need help,” Eve answered back. “I’ll be down there as quickly as possible, but you’ll have to hold them off for a few more minutes.”

The Sectopod, done waiting for them to stop moving, snapped its readied cannon to point at Janina and Wilhelmina, firing off a powerful shot. The blast tore through the computer they were using as cover, and hit both of them with the blast. Janina took the brunt of it, her armor being practically destroyed, and she suffered heavy injuries. Wilhelmina’s armor fared a little better, but she still grimaced in agony. Kneeling behind the rubble over a semiconscious Janina, she pulled out her medkit. “Y-you’re going to be fine…”

“Harker, don’t-!” Janina tried to warn the support, before a shot from the Titan’s plasma lance shot through the cover and her chest, dropping Wilhelmina to the ground. Wilhelmina Harker was dead before she even hit the ground.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

The second Sectopod stepped away from its drones, still busy healing each other. As it took aim at Beta team, the three floaters joined it. The one in the center pointed towards Beta team, and the other two flew in their direction. The remaining one flew over to the drones, grabbing the most damaged of the three and ripping out some cords from the back of it. Grabbing it before it could fall, the floater held it in front of itself as a shield as it charged directly for Albert, the Sectopod turning its attention towards Albert’s cybernetic teammate.

Snapping his rifle up, Albert let fly a pair of beams, the first piercing the drone and destroying it, dealing slight damage to the Floater. The second missed slightly, as the Floater’s trajectory took it through Albert’s line of fire. A third laser beam nailed the floater in the chest, courtesy of Lovikov’s carbine, and the Floater spiraled to the floor, impacting with a wet thud.

Scanning the battlefield, Albert noticed that Townsend and Summers were being suppressed by one of the other Floaters, as the second advanced towards a flanking position on the two soldiers.

“Trapps, Jacobs!” the Infantry yelled, getting the attention of the Gunner and Rocketeer. “Move to support Townsend and Summers!” With an affirmative, the two broke into a sprint to secure the flank, and Albert turned his attention to the primary opponent, the Sectopod, which was engaged in a duel with Imahara.

With surprising grace for the MEC’s size, Imahara hopped aside from a Fusion Cannon shot, the beam scoring a deep gouge in the floor. A Laser Lance replied in kind, but the beam did minimal damage, only tearing off small portions of the robot’s armor.

Right, need to remove that titan from play, Albert thought to himself, trying to hatch a plan to deal with the enemy armor. A quick glance confirmed that the two Floaters had been taken care of, and Albert gave the hand signal to the four soldiers to add their fire to the MECs.

Kevin ran up to Albert’s side, awkwardly carrying two of the Plasma rifles as though he was afraid it would go off on him. “Here, Foulke. Atka said you’d be better at using this. Don’t know how much good it’ll be, but I’m sure that it is better than these useless lasers.”

“Right, thanks,” Albert hastily said as he placed the laser rifle on its harness and took the plasma rifle. “Give the other to Lovikov, he needs a step up in power from that carbine.”With a quick pat on the back, he pushed Kevin off towards the Scout in question.

Ayame rushed across the side of the battlefield, her eyes wide in panic. She stumbled repeatedly as she looked back in the direction of her fallen comrade. Reaching Alpha team as they ran forward to join the fray, she ran towards the two closest soldiers, Ashley and Eva. In a panicked voice, she extended two plasma rifles, and said, “Uh… I… h-here, take these, I’m not as w-well trained with… Atka said to s-stick together, focus fire on…” She mumbled and stuttered, obviously barely holding herself together.

Eva and Ashley took the Plasma Rifles. Alpha team moved to where Ayame came from and saw the two giant robots. The Sectopod turned to Alpha Team’s position and fired its cannon at the team. Alpha moved to the sides of the door, or rather, what was left of it. Max pulls out his last rocket and fired it at the Sectopod. It looked like it did relatively low damage, despite the heat warhead. “Well… Shit.”

Eva: “I think you pissed it off, sir. Any ideas anybody?”

“Try this,” Ayame nervously said, handing a third plasma rifle to Max. Kevin walked up behind her, and she looked back at the others. “D… draw their fire…”

The combined Alpha and Beta members with laser rifles took aim, those with Plasma wanting to save their limited ammo. As before, the laser shots did little damage, but distracted the Sectopod long enough for Ayame and Kevin to take a long, curved run back to Delta team.

Running up to Atka’s cover, Ayame said in a shaky voice, “The… the other teams have the rifles, but w-we have limited shots. Any… a-any ideas?”

Atka was holding a hand over her heart, breathing in and out quickly, trying to calm herself. “I-I…” The Sectopod aimed its plasma lance over at Janina. P-Play dead, now!

It wasn’t hard for Janina to feign collapsing, as she was drifting in and out of consciousness in the first place. The medkit lay tantalizingly near her, but it could not be risked. The Sectopod seemed satisfied with that, and aimed its cannon at the pillar Amanda was hiding behind. With a barrage of Fusion blasts, ignoring laser shots from the squad, it made the pillar collapse, and forced Amanda into the open. It switched to its plasma lance as it blasted a hole in Amanda’s armor, dealing heavy damage to the suit. It targeted the rest of the squad with its cluster bomb, particularly aiming for the two with plasma rifles.

Atka and Modya brought up their weapons, moving to new cover and firing at the titanic robot. The Plasma shots made noticeable hits, primarily aimed at its already weakened head. The Sectopod registered light internal damage, and then launched the missile barrage, moving the target as much to the side as it could.

Atka and Modya took hits to their armor, but not direct ones. It was still enough to grip their hearts in terror, but they continued to fire desperately. Airi borrowed the Alien Grenade from Modya, and tossed it under the robot, scoring a hit to a point somewhat weaker than the rest of the armor. The Titan would not go down easily, though, and prepped its Fusion Cannon for another round of shots. Yaralria used the Sectopod’s focus on the left side to run past Janina and back into the computer room, seeing that the gear to control the Sectopod was still intact, though near it lay rubble.

Behind her, from the engineering room, what appeared to be a walking bulk of armor and vests walked in, a blond girl vaguely noticeable within. She ran up to Yaralria, shrieking softly as the woman turned to face her, and holding her arms up defensively.

“I have no capability of harming you at the moment,” the Interface said, as if having memorized the words. “I wish to he-” she grimaced as the regulators sent a shrill buzz through her head like a knife. “...I wish to keep myself safe in this dangerous situation so that I might serve.”

Eve looked at her in confusion for a few seconds, then shook her head, having no time to worry about that. “The, uh… the cat… thing, said Atka connected to one of those things in there. Is it still opened to be controlled?”

Yaralria shook her head. “The Commander blocked my daughter out. However, since he is busy at the moment, I shall take over in his stead. Unfortunately, I do not have enough psi energy to last very long.”

“Don’t worry about that, I just need you to keep the Commander from cutting the connection again. Can you do that for me?”

“I…” Yaralria paused, each second ticking away painfully as she tried to rationalize that in a way that would make her loyalty appear intact. “I can localize the network to keep out intruders...but you are an intruder…” She held her head again, grimacing. “I-I c-can t-try...p-please h-hurry…” The Interface started typing quickly as the ringing grew louder and louder in her head.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be invading the equipment.” Eve collapsed to the ground.

The ringing died down. “Subject...unconscious? Intruder kept out, I can proceed in localizing the network…” Yaralria said as she continued her task.

As Atka and Modya tried to catch their breath after the near miss, the former could feel a rush of psionic energy pass from the other room, heading towards the large tank. The large machine slowly turned around, aiming its cannon towards the other robot while scanning the area. The other tank turned to face it, the breach in security immediately being noticed. The missiles were launched, taking out the remaining drones and knocking the second titan back. The two tanks fired their primary weapons, the second tank having better aim and tearing through the possessed one, while barely being grazed itself. The possessed Titan sputtered and sparked, collapsing to the ground.

Albert gave a short whoop at the sight of the titan collapsing. Even if that one turned on its friend, he thought, still good to see one of those down. “Alright boys and girls,” he shouted, “Let’s clean this last one up and then we can get out of this meat-grinder!”

With the rallying cry, Beta team poured more laser and plasma fire down range scoring hits across the battered hull of the alien craft. Imahara pushed forward to get a better shot with his Laser Lance, taking a firing position a handful of meters in front of the titan, still recoiling from the fire being poured on it.

As the MEC lifted his weapon, the plasma lance atop the Sectopod sensed the proximity of the MEC, and reacted with a beam of plasma, spearing the MEC through the torso. With a pained gurgle over the comms, Imahara’s MEC collapsed to the ground, sparks and blood pouring from the ruined machine.