Operation Liberating Strike, Part IV
“Atka, move!” Amanda yelled out, but the distracted Lieutenant didn’t realize what she was saying until the shot was about to fire. “Shit.” Amanda stepped in front of the scout, taking the fusion blast head on, raising her mechanical arms defensively. The shot practically vaporized the limbs, and blasted the suit to pieces. The former medic, now without any limbs, slid back next to the stairs, wounded herself, and grimaced. Her CO turned with a look of horror, and Amanda shook her head. “Get it together! I’ll be fine.”
The barrier around the Sectopod went back up as it charged for another shot. From behind it, a group of four Sectoids, three Thin Men, and three Mutons came rushing forward into cover. With the Mutons was a creature in red armor, its size and shape similar to the mutons, but it only appeared to have a pair of large claws on each hand. A Chryssalid, with thicker plating then the others X-COM had usually seen, rushed towards the alien troops, immediately tearing into one of the Sectoids. The red-armored Muton grabbed it by the neck and flung it towards the X-COM soldiers. It regained its balance, and charged towards unit one while the red-armored alien rushed towards unit two.
With the chryssalid charging directly for the X-COM members in his squad, Dallas showed no hesitation in blasting it with his alloy cannon, hitting it in it’s legs and torso. The Indian troops tried to support the assault’s attack, firing their rifles at it, but the beams simply bounced off the chryssalid’s advanced plating. Dallas ordered the Indians to focus on the other aliens and the X-COM troops to focus on the chryssalid. The swift bug lunged forward and poked Megan Connor with its two front claws, shattering the armor and sending her flying to the ground. It reared back excitedly, drooling from the mouth. Before it could bite down, Sylvia Christel rushed forward with alloy cannon in hand, shooting it square in the head. The chryssalid whined loudly as it skittered away, dodging the fire of Emily and Nika’s fully automatic guns as it did.
As the chryssalid sprinted away, Dallas noted the Indians being under heavy fire from the thin men and mutons on the other side of their cover. Nicolas Griffith and Janina Adolfsson distributed their fire at the aliens, killing a couple of the Thin Men and one of the Mutons. Freed from the suppressive fire, the remaining Indians shot and killed two more Sectoids. The chryssalid rushed back from it’s retreat, leaping onto Dallas behind the X-COM firing lines. He cursed and shut his eyes as he pushed the claws from him before it could pin him down. Suddenly, he heard a loud crunch and saw a bright flash. He looked up at the chryssalid with its face little more than a smoldering hole, torn off by a large-caliber gauss bullet.
“Fuck Chryssalids,” Sven muttered from behind.
As Unit 1 was engaged with the Chryssalid, the Berserker charged for Unit 2. Atka glanced back at Amanda, and then at the raging Muton. Shit... what do I… Atka clenched her fists tightly, trying to calm herself. I can do better...I can… She took a deep breath. Don’t think, act. The Inuit woman sidestepped just as the Berserker lunged at where she had just been, and she raised a palm, her eyes taking on a solid blue glow. A mindfray spike plummeted into the creature’s skull, and it grasped its head in agony as images flashed through, too much information for its limited thinking capacity.
A succession of shots hit it, tearing away chunks of the Balmadaar’s armor, from a pale-faced Maggie. The creature turned, roaring, and widely slashed in the air, moving towards her with frightening speed. The Infantry’s eyes widened and she backed off without a second thought in terror. Taqukaq rolled in front of the Berserker, and fired off a succession of gauss rounds at its legs. The armor was torn away, and Kevin did not waste the opportunity.
The assault ran forward, and shot his alloy cannon at a piece of hanging armor. The spike exploded on contact, shredding the rest of the leg armor, and the spikes dug through the muscle of the legs. The Berserker was effectively hamstrung, and stumbled forward, its claws scraping the side of the alloy SHIV. As Jonathan, Sarah, and Karen shot it in the head with their gauss rifles, Atka heard the familiar thrum of a charging fusion cannon, and her expression darkened in hatred.
The Inuit scout dashed forward, moving to dodge the reflexive fire from the remaining two Mutons and Thin Man. The Balmadaar turned on her together as she neared them in surprise that the human dared to get this close. Icy helixes leapt from Atka’s palms, one wrapping around the Thin Man and knocking him into the Mutons, while the other punched through the head of the living Sectoid. The three aliens looked at Atka in confusion, especially the Thin Man. It wondered why the female had not simply killed it like it did the Sectoid.
That hesitation bought Atka the few seconds she needed to fire her strike rifle at the Sectopod. The shield deflected the shot without any trouble, but the robot turned its attention on her, standing just to the side of the Mutons. She quickly ran behind them and then past, as the titanic machine targeted the spot between her start location and current location. Red warnings appeared on its screen too late as it’s pilot realized what it had done, and the fusion lance tore through the three hapless aliens, vaporizing them whole.
The shield closed again as the Sectopod targeted unit two’s position, preparing for a missile barrage. The lights of the room finally flickered on as three Floaters zoomed forward. From the sectopod’s left and right came a Mechtoid and Cyberdisc, with their usual respective pairs of Sectoids and Drones. In addition, eight more drones rushed out of some of the side rooms, all near the X-COM and Indian forces, all firing the weak but accurate beams. Finally, two small white animals quickly ran across the room, sticking to the sides so their camouflaging fur kept them nearly invisible.
“Typical people on the Floaters, and anti-armor people, please take out those robots in my stead,” the limbless Amanda called out, filling in for Atka while she was being efficient, if reckless. The Inuit woman seemed to register her command, and nodded. “Seconded. Modya, you’re clear for the last rocket.”
“Otpravit'sya v ad , kazhdyy posledniy iz vas mashin,” Modya muttered, sending his shredder rocket screaming into the space between the Cyberdisc and Mechtoid. Their armor was rended, but it also took out the weak Sectoids accompanying the mech, along with the two HEAT-vulnerable drones.
“Whatever he said!” Ayame added, and dropped the cyberdisc with a storm of accelerated bullets.
Sarah brought Maggie to her senses, and the two fired upon the Floaters. Maggie missed her first shot, but a second took down the first one. Sarah took down the other two, her hardened heart more easily able to disregard the death around her.
However, in the midst of the new threats, they had failed to realize what the Sectopod was doing. A storm of missiles launched out of a hole in the shield, and rained down upon Sarah, Maggie, Ayame, Modya, Karen, and Johnathan. Those with Aegis armor endured, but Sarah was not so lucky in her Banshee armor. She dropped to her knees with a strangled cry, burn marks apparent on several parts of her body. An Indian trooper suffered an even worse fate, as several of the drones shot him up.
“You fucking bastard!” Atka took quick aim with her alloy strike rifle, and shot at the gap in the shield, but it closed quicker than she could get a shot in, her aim off regardless.
Dallas ordered the Indian troops to take aim at the drones coming from behind both of the X-COM squads. The little drones fired slowly and unreliably at the soldiers from the back of the room, but it was still a threat nonetheless. As the Indians fought with the drones, the X-COM soldiers pointed their efforts towards the imposing mechtoid in front of Unit 2. Kris stepped forward with his gauss autocannon, loaded with HEAT slugs and freshly reloaded. With a massive stream of bullets, the already damaged and weakened mechtoid stumbled back, its systems and limbs exploding as the suit ripped apart. The sectoid popped out in a panic and was instantly cut down by Unit 2’s guns.
With the Mechtoid dead, the squad split their attention between the harassing drones and preparing for the Sectopod’s next attack. From the side of the wall, a loud roar unsettled the troops, and a giant muscled beast emerged. With long claws and large arms, it rushed forward and sliced into one of the Indians before they could react. The attack inspired the ire of the entire squad, and they unleashed a hail of gunfire both laser and gauss towards it. The beast dodged and rolled with surprising efficiency, what bullets being able to connect barely even slowing it.
Dallas quickly surmised the beast had some sort of premonition, based off the reports of previous missions he had read. He asked Emily if she had anything to slow it down, and she thumbed through her belt, looking for any grenade that would help. Grabbing a green and white canister labelled flash, she flung it over her cover and into the target of the squad’s bullets. With a loud, white bang, the beast was blinded and deaf, along with a couple of the Indians who didn’t look away in time. Dallas leveled his alloy cannon at the beast, blasting a hole straight through it’s torso. With a loud shriek, it crumpled into a pool of alien blood.
“Alright, everyone who’s still got explosives left, get ready to hit that Sectopod when the shields go down.” A bolt fired from behind him lodged into his leg and he flushed with irritation. “And everyone who doesn’t, kill those fucking drones!”
