BMPixy
Well-Known Member
The alien SHIVs fell to the floor with a thump, however the tank, devoid of power, had a much more interesting end. As it plummeted to the floor, the proximity mine below detected the motion, and detonated, blasting a hole in the weak under-armor of the tank and sending the front careening up a few meters before crashing back to the ground. A moment passed as Kwan got clear of the tank, and a secondary explosion rocked the vehicle, blasting the back of the tank to shreds.
A cheer echoed forth from the XCOM troopers as the tank was felled, however it was short-lived as the alien SHIVs reactivated and re-assumed their positions in the air. However, from above two sonic booms cracked through the air of the hangar, two trails of ionized air punching into the SHIVs.
Above, Fay did her best to keep her grip on consciousness, the strain of accelerating the two tungsten projectiles to such speeds draining her immensely. However, her efforts only managed to disable one of the SHIVs, the other turning to open fire on it’s XCOM affiliated counterparts, to which the Alloy and Hover SHIV responded with their own barrage of plasma. Under the combined fire of the two SHIVs and the XCOM troopers, the hostile mech collapsed to the floor, slightly molten from the heat of all the fire poured upon it.
“Alright. Now that’s the last of them,” Albert remarked, loading a new charge pack into his pulse rifle. “Well, for now, at least. Palmer, Quinn, check the inside of the tank for any survivors.”
“Roger that,” the assault trooper said, readying her Scatter Blaster as she and Quinn made their way around to the blown-out back of the tank. After a moment, she called out, uncertainly, “Uh, do any of the X-Rays bleed red?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Wilson replied, running through his mental knowledge of alien biology.
“D-does that mean...?” Crystal asked hesitantly, his grip on his auto-blaster beginning to shake.
Albert cursed under his breath. “Sending out our own to take care of us. That Avaritia is really making a good case on why it deserves a hole in its head rather than a tazer.” Shaking his head, Albert stepped out from cover, taking a good look over the ruined hangar bay. “Right, let’s get moving. Formation, everybody!”
Quickly, the team returned to their original formation, conspicuous holes where the deceased troopers would have stood. A hand signal from Albert ordered the team forward, and they proceeded past the destroyed alien armor and through the blasted out doors of the hangar. Slowly the team moved through the winding corridors, barely wide enough for the tank that had passed through minutes before.
“Glad we didn’t run into that tank in here,” Malkovich commented, “We would have been nice and clustered up, one shell would have turned us into over-ripe tomatoes.”
“I would have survived,” Kwan retorted, “Takes more that one shell to down a MEC.”
“And that’s why they don’t make them one-shot weapons,” the Support shot back.
“Kill the chatter,” Albert cut in, “We’re approaching another room. Quinn, pop the door.”
“Got it,” the engineer replied, making his way over to the console beside the door, and he began tapping away at the controls as the team got into breach positions. A moment passed, and the door slid open, the team quickly filing in.
“Area clear,” Palmer said, lowering her scatter blaster.
“Looks like some kind of lab,” Trapp observed, the various holding tanks and medical benches making it obvious.
“Well, seems like our host isn’t much for the biological sciences,” Albert added, noting that most of the tanks were empty, though a few corpses laid upon the experimentation tables, some having their limbs replaced with mechanical equivalents.
“Hey, we got a side room over here!” Crystal yelled from the right wing of the lab. “Looks like we got people in here!”
“How many?” the Infantry asked, making his way over to the Heavy’s position.
“‘bout eight I’d say, must be some kind of test subjects.”
“Quinn, get over here and unlock this door! We need to-” Albert suddenly cut himself off, remembering the warning in his briefing that was confirmed by Emily. “Belay that, they might be Avaritia’s thralls. We’ll leave ‘em for clean-up.”
“You sure, sir?” Quinn said, half-way up the steps to the side-room.
“Yeah, not taking any chances with your lives. Let’s keep moving.” With a wave, the squad got back into formation, and made their way into the next set of corridors. Down the halls they proceeded, until they came across another door. Once more the team stacked up for a breach while the engineer hacked the doors and prodded them open.
As the doors slid open, the team was greeted by a barrage of hostile fire, intense but not as much as the team’s initial greeting. Palmer, So Ji, and Trapp rushed in, finding cover and providing supporting fire for the rest of the team to make their way in. Fay poked her head out from the left side of the door, scanning for targets. In hastily fortified positions stood three Sectoids, three Thin Men, and hovering menacingly in front of them was a single cyber-disc, accompanied by two drones. A single shot from Fay’s Blaster Rifle brought the drone count down to one, and she ducked back into cover.
“We don’t have time for these small-fry!” Albert barked over the din of fire. “Crystal, nuke the fuckers!”
“Roger that, firing rocket!” the heavy replied, raising his rocket launcher and leaning out from behind his cover. Lining up an ideal shot, he yelled, “Back-blast clear!” With that, the rocket shot forth from his recoilless rifle, blowing the alien’s cover to hell and killing most of the infantry, the remaining two Sectoids gunned down by Malkovich and Bandersnatch respectively.
All that stood was the cyberdisc, and a proximity mine-alien grenade combo from So Ji and Quinn ruined the alien mech, the two explosives blasting the cyberdisc into several large pieces.
After a tentative pause from the XCOM troopers, waiting for a secondary ambush, Temple called out, “Area clear!” With that prompt, the troopers lowered their weapons, keeping them at the ready just in case.
Glancing around and noting the various human vehicles in assorted states of disassembly, Albert remarked, “Well, glad we hit them before they could get any more of these vehicles operational.”
“Aye sir,” Laurent replied, reloading his pulse rifle, “We had a hell of a time just dealing with one tank, who knows what would have happened if we had to face-”
“Holy hell, is that a Maus!?” Charles exclaimed, pointing at a tank that far out-weighed every other vehicle in the lot. “I thought there was only one of those in the entire world!”
“The hell is a Maus?” Johnathan asked, examining the super-heavy tank.
“Experimental WWII German super-heavy tank,” the heavy explained, “Only two were built in the entire war, both prototypes. Both of them were captured by the Soviets, but one was destroyed. The other was kept in a museum in Mosc- so that’s where they got it!”
“Alright, enough with the history. I’m sure the Russians will be glad to get this piece of history back, and who knows, with the alien tech it might even be usable against the aliens,” Albert said. “However, we got a mission to finish. Let’s get a move on!”
A chorus of affirmatives echoed from the team, and they got back into their formation, heading for the opposite exit. Another series of winding corridors greeted them, and they steadily made their way through before reaching another door. As was the ritual, Quinn got on the console, while everybody else stacked up on the door.
As before, once the door was open, plasma fire poured into the entrance, but the quick movements of the breaching team ensured that the only damage was done to their armor. However, one thing caught the notice of the troopers as they sought cover in the barracks room.
“Humans!?” Trapp exclaimed.
Charles poked out of cover, and yelled, “Hey assholes, we’re humans to-” He was rudely interrupted by a plasma bolt to the face, the heat of the projectile bursting his skull apart in a small explosion of bone fragments and bloody giblets, the headless trooper falling to the floor.
“Dammit!” Albert yelled. “Murder those fuckers!” A few shots from his Pulse rifle downed the traitor responsible for the heavy’s death, while a single shot from Fay replicated his manner of death upon another.
“Repulse the Resistance!” one of the traitors exclaimed, “Protect Avaritia with your lives!” One of the enemy troopers hefted a rocket launcher, but a barrage of covering fire from Malkovich brought him down before he could fire.
Now even in numbers, Palmer took this as her opportunity to charge in, using her close combat training to deadly effect in the confined quarters of the barracks, her Scatter Blaster eliminating a trio of the traitors in rapid succession. A barrage of suppressive fire from Bandersnatch ruined the arm of the one shouting orders earlier, and he hunkered himself behind a sturdy crate, waiting out the SHIVs suppression as his comrades fell around him.
A cheer echoed forth from the XCOM troopers as the tank was felled, however it was short-lived as the alien SHIVs reactivated and re-assumed their positions in the air. However, from above two sonic booms cracked through the air of the hangar, two trails of ionized air punching into the SHIVs.
Above, Fay did her best to keep her grip on consciousness, the strain of accelerating the two tungsten projectiles to such speeds draining her immensely. However, her efforts only managed to disable one of the SHIVs, the other turning to open fire on it’s XCOM affiliated counterparts, to which the Alloy and Hover SHIV responded with their own barrage of plasma. Under the combined fire of the two SHIVs and the XCOM troopers, the hostile mech collapsed to the floor, slightly molten from the heat of all the fire poured upon it.
“Alright. Now that’s the last of them,” Albert remarked, loading a new charge pack into his pulse rifle. “Well, for now, at least. Palmer, Quinn, check the inside of the tank for any survivors.”
“Roger that,” the assault trooper said, readying her Scatter Blaster as she and Quinn made their way around to the blown-out back of the tank. After a moment, she called out, uncertainly, “Uh, do any of the X-Rays bleed red?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Wilson replied, running through his mental knowledge of alien biology.
“D-does that mean...?” Crystal asked hesitantly, his grip on his auto-blaster beginning to shake.
Albert cursed under his breath. “Sending out our own to take care of us. That Avaritia is really making a good case on why it deserves a hole in its head rather than a tazer.” Shaking his head, Albert stepped out from cover, taking a good look over the ruined hangar bay. “Right, let’s get moving. Formation, everybody!”
Quickly, the team returned to their original formation, conspicuous holes where the deceased troopers would have stood. A hand signal from Albert ordered the team forward, and they proceeded past the destroyed alien armor and through the blasted out doors of the hangar. Slowly the team moved through the winding corridors, barely wide enough for the tank that had passed through minutes before.
“Glad we didn’t run into that tank in here,” Malkovich commented, “We would have been nice and clustered up, one shell would have turned us into over-ripe tomatoes.”
“I would have survived,” Kwan retorted, “Takes more that one shell to down a MEC.”
“And that’s why they don’t make them one-shot weapons,” the Support shot back.
“Kill the chatter,” Albert cut in, “We’re approaching another room. Quinn, pop the door.”
“Got it,” the engineer replied, making his way over to the console beside the door, and he began tapping away at the controls as the team got into breach positions. A moment passed, and the door slid open, the team quickly filing in.
“Area clear,” Palmer said, lowering her scatter blaster.
“Looks like some kind of lab,” Trapp observed, the various holding tanks and medical benches making it obvious.
“Well, seems like our host isn’t much for the biological sciences,” Albert added, noting that most of the tanks were empty, though a few corpses laid upon the experimentation tables, some having their limbs replaced with mechanical equivalents.
“Hey, we got a side room over here!” Crystal yelled from the right wing of the lab. “Looks like we got people in here!”
“How many?” the Infantry asked, making his way over to the Heavy’s position.
“‘bout eight I’d say, must be some kind of test subjects.”
“Quinn, get over here and unlock this door! We need to-” Albert suddenly cut himself off, remembering the warning in his briefing that was confirmed by Emily. “Belay that, they might be Avaritia’s thralls. We’ll leave ‘em for clean-up.”
“You sure, sir?” Quinn said, half-way up the steps to the side-room.
“Yeah, not taking any chances with your lives. Let’s keep moving.” With a wave, the squad got back into formation, and made their way into the next set of corridors. Down the halls they proceeded, until they came across another door. Once more the team stacked up for a breach while the engineer hacked the doors and prodded them open.
As the doors slid open, the team was greeted by a barrage of hostile fire, intense but not as much as the team’s initial greeting. Palmer, So Ji, and Trapp rushed in, finding cover and providing supporting fire for the rest of the team to make their way in. Fay poked her head out from the left side of the door, scanning for targets. In hastily fortified positions stood three Sectoids, three Thin Men, and hovering menacingly in front of them was a single cyber-disc, accompanied by two drones. A single shot from Fay’s Blaster Rifle brought the drone count down to one, and she ducked back into cover.
“We don’t have time for these small-fry!” Albert barked over the din of fire. “Crystal, nuke the fuckers!”
“Roger that, firing rocket!” the heavy replied, raising his rocket launcher and leaning out from behind his cover. Lining up an ideal shot, he yelled, “Back-blast clear!” With that, the rocket shot forth from his recoilless rifle, blowing the alien’s cover to hell and killing most of the infantry, the remaining two Sectoids gunned down by Malkovich and Bandersnatch respectively.
All that stood was the cyberdisc, and a proximity mine-alien grenade combo from So Ji and Quinn ruined the alien mech, the two explosives blasting the cyberdisc into several large pieces.
After a tentative pause from the XCOM troopers, waiting for a secondary ambush, Temple called out, “Area clear!” With that prompt, the troopers lowered their weapons, keeping them at the ready just in case.
Glancing around and noting the various human vehicles in assorted states of disassembly, Albert remarked, “Well, glad we hit them before they could get any more of these vehicles operational.”
“Aye sir,” Laurent replied, reloading his pulse rifle, “We had a hell of a time just dealing with one tank, who knows what would have happened if we had to face-”
“Holy hell, is that a Maus!?” Charles exclaimed, pointing at a tank that far out-weighed every other vehicle in the lot. “I thought there was only one of those in the entire world!”
“The hell is a Maus?” Johnathan asked, examining the super-heavy tank.
“Experimental WWII German super-heavy tank,” the heavy explained, “Only two were built in the entire war, both prototypes. Both of them were captured by the Soviets, but one was destroyed. The other was kept in a museum in Mosc- so that’s where they got it!”
“Alright, enough with the history. I’m sure the Russians will be glad to get this piece of history back, and who knows, with the alien tech it might even be usable against the aliens,” Albert said. “However, we got a mission to finish. Let’s get a move on!”
A chorus of affirmatives echoed from the team, and they got back into their formation, heading for the opposite exit. Another series of winding corridors greeted them, and they steadily made their way through before reaching another door. As was the ritual, Quinn got on the console, while everybody else stacked up on the door.
As before, once the door was open, plasma fire poured into the entrance, but the quick movements of the breaching team ensured that the only damage was done to their armor. However, one thing caught the notice of the troopers as they sought cover in the barracks room.
“Humans!?” Trapp exclaimed.
Charles poked out of cover, and yelled, “Hey assholes, we’re humans to-” He was rudely interrupted by a plasma bolt to the face, the heat of the projectile bursting his skull apart in a small explosion of bone fragments and bloody giblets, the headless trooper falling to the floor.
“Dammit!” Albert yelled. “Murder those fuckers!” A few shots from his Pulse rifle downed the traitor responsible for the heavy’s death, while a single shot from Fay replicated his manner of death upon another.
“Repulse the Resistance!” one of the traitors exclaimed, “Protect Avaritia with your lives!” One of the enemy troopers hefted a rocket launcher, but a barrage of covering fire from Malkovich brought him down before he could fire.
Now even in numbers, Palmer took this as her opportunity to charge in, using her close combat training to deadly effect in the confined quarters of the barracks, her Scatter Blaster eliminating a trio of the traitors in rapid succession. A barrage of suppressive fire from Bandersnatch ruined the arm of the one shouting orders earlier, and he hunkered himself behind a sturdy crate, waiting out the SHIVs suppression as his comrades fell around him.
