Last Day on the Job: Part Two
Having dashed to the side and behind her, Jackie wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, lifting her in the air and slapping her gun away with his free hand. "I'm sure if you were a soldier, you would have known not to take your eye off an opponent like that." Walking over to the Commander's body, he said, "You know, I'd be more sorry about this if you didn't constantly report to the Commander about my actions. I'd be willing to bet your the one who deleted my changes on his behalf."
The woman smiled weakly as Jackie pulled out his sidearm. "Go...to...Hell..." Jackie fired six shots into the woman's back, then a final one into the back of her head.
Moment after Jackie had dropped her onto the Commander, two soldiers ran in. "What happened!" The first yelled.
"Patty, she...she murdered the Commander!" Jackie pushed the woman's body to the side and pulled the Commander onto his lap. "How could she do this? Why now?" He closed the Commander's eyes, and said in disgust, "How unforgiving. For him to have to fall to an EXALT knife."
"No, Colonel, look." The second soldier picked up the knife from the ground and handed it to Jackie. "This knife has the X-COM logo on it!"
"Of course!" Jackie punched the ground in rage. "She must be a spy. And to think she was one of the Commander's most trusted crew members." Gently placing the Commander on the ground, Jackie climbed to his feet and headed for the door. Over his shoulder, he said, "This base needs a leader right now. Join me out there after you've barricaded this room. We need to make sure the Commander's body stays safe in here so he can have a proper burial." Jackie quickly walked out of the room. Cracking his knuckles, he said to himself, "Now let's see if I can salvage this."
(An hour later)
"Colonel, I don't know how much longer we can hold them!"
Jackie looked around the main command center. He sneered angrily at the flickering hologlobe as though everything was it's fault. "We need to do something to turn the tide. Stay here and cover me." He quickly dashed to right, diving through the doors before him, barely avoiding a shot in the back.
As he quickly made his way through the soldier's lounge, he flinched at the sounds of gun fire and explosions around him, X-COM destroying the base that Jackie now controlled. Not content with his reign being the shortest in history, he stepped up the pace. But as he reached the center of the room, he stopped at the sudden feeling that he was not alone, that familiar tingle of his bioelectic skin running through his body. Resisting the urge to start firing around the room randomly, he closed his eyes and trusted his hearing and instincts. A few moments later, he turned 180 and pointed his handgun forward. He could vaguely see another soldier aiming at him, nearly invisible thanks to mimetic skin. "You again!" Shouts a familiar voice.
As his opponent dropped her cloak, Jackie chuckled loudly. "Barbara, right? Or do you prefer Barb?" Jackie's eye's momentarily dart towards her rank insignia. "Lieutenant, huh? I see you've moved up through the ranks. I'd make a joke about outranking you know, but to be honest, my Commander is...was kind of an idiot, so my rank doesn't mean much."
"And I see you didn't take my advice." Hannigan sneers at Jackie. "You're still wearing that fucking ridiculous uniform. Seriously, you're a black-op group wearing something that makes you stick out like Thin Man in Munchkinville. If you weren't going to take my advice about reassessing your choices, you could have at least tried to fight your superiors to change into something less conspicuous."
"Oh, but I did, on both counts." Jackie steadied his hands, keeping an eye on Hannigan's trigger finger. "Trust me, I thought about my situation. Long and hard. I looked at what EXALT was, and what it stood for. And I decided that, between them and X-COM, EXALT had the right idea about the aliens, they were just going about it the wrong way. I needed to stay with them, to do what I can to set them on the right path."
"Stay with these monsters?" Hannigan shakes her head slightly. "Do you know how many good people have died because of you?"
"Good people?" Jackie smirks. "You're the one who said the decision about who's good and bad was best left for after the war. Besides, you can't just expect things to get better unless you're willing to work at it and make the necessary changes. That's what EXALT is all about. But they forgot that they had to keep themselves in check too. You know, when I reached the rank of major, I came across a group of my men pulling the same shit as the guys you took out all those months ago. I executed them myself on the spot. And as for the uniform? What can I say? It grows on you."
"We found a female soldier surrounded by a group of dead EXALTs, but she was already dead."
"Of course she was." Jackie raised an eyebrow. "I executed her as well."
Hannigan clenched her teeth. "Her name was Clara, and she was my best friend."
"And? Are you trying to make me feel bad for striking down an enemy?" Jackie narrowed his eyes. "You told me that if I had my weapon trained on an opponent, I should pull the trigger. I let her live, and she has the opportunity to kill me another day."
Hannigan took a short step forward. "I was hoping to turn what I saw as a decent man towards a better path."
"You wanted to convince a good man to do what was right, and in my eyes, that's exactly what I did."
The pair stood in silence for several moments. Taking a deep breath, Hannigan asked, "So what happens now? Do we just stand here hoping that our respective allies will come first?"
"I'm not sure to be honest." Jackie lightly shruged. "I don't want to die today, but I don't want to kill you either. In my eyes, you didn't owe me a thing when you speared me, so I'm still in your debt."
"Well, I have my orders, and I have no plans of backing down. I'm afraid we aren't both getting out of this alive."
Hannigan slowly moved her index finger over the trigger, Jackie doing the same. The pair continued to stare at one another. After a minute, Hannigan's hands started to lightly shake. Seeing his chance, Jackie dropped to one knee. Hannigan darts backwards and takes cover behind a pillar as Jackie opens fire. Jackie walks backward until he reaches a pillar of his own. "What's wrong, Lieutenant? Maybe that low rank is for a reason."
"Shut it!" Hannigan fires wildly towards Jackie, not bothering to aim.
"Don't tell me you're all bark and no bite, Barb. You have to have more field experience then this, right?"
"Of course I do!" Hannigan's clip went dry in the middle of firing. She rapidly reloaded, cursing softly.
"That's why you were a spy, huh? Good actor, but little fighting skills." Jackie peaked out from his cover. Seeing his opponent still fumbling with her weapon, he fired rapidly at her with his hand gun, unloading on her while pulling out a grenade with his free hand. Pulling the pin, he ran forward, firing with one hand while tossing the grenade past Hannigan with the other. She lets out out a loud yelp at the explosions as Jackie runs up behind her and slams into her shoulder first. Her rifled slid away from her, and she slowly crawled backwards, looking up at Jackie with cowering eyes.
Jackie looked down at his defeated foe. He grabed his rifle off his back and takes aim. Looking into her terrified eyes, he mumbled, "I'm sorry. I really didn't want it to end like this." Letting out a deep sigh, Jackie steadied his aim, and at the sound of two gunshots, dropped to his knees, a sudden pain running through both his lower legs. His eyes darted down at Hannigan's left hand, and the smoking DoubleTap Derringer in it. Struggling to fight the pain and re-aim, Hannigan raised her right hand and pressed down on a remote trigger, detonating a sticky bomb on the pillar she had been hiding behind. Jackie took the entirety of the explosion to his back, launching him up an over Hannigan and landing hard on his back.
Jackie looked up at the ceiling. He tired to sit up, but realized he couldn't move anything below his neck. Hannigan slowly stood up, dusting herself up and retrieving her weapon. As she stood of Jackie and reloaded, she softly said, "Just because I'm a good actor doesn't mean I can't also fight."
Jackie laughed weakly, coughing up some blood as he did so. "You're right," he whispered. "That was a good trick. You beat me fair and square."
Hannigan kneeled down next to him. "Mostly because you hesitated. When you mentioned you outranked me, I knew it was too risky to try and fight you out right."
Jackie nodded. "I guess I never did learn, huh?" His eyes darted down. "My...boot holster." Hannigan cautiously pulled the knife from it's sheath and examined it. "I always...wanted to...return..." Jackie closed his eyes, falling silent.
Hannigan checked Jackie's pulse, then rose to her feet. "Thanks," she said quietly, flipping it in the air.
Three X-COM soldiers ran into the room. One of them stepped forward and said, "Commander, we've taken the base. I believe EXALT is done for." He shakes his head. "I still think it was a bad idea for you to come along."
"Staying on base didn't save the former Commander did it?" Hannigan looked down at Jackie. "Besides, this was a very important, very dangerous mission. I had to lead it myself
Looking at Jackie himself, the soldier asked. "Someone you know?"
Hannigan nods. "Yeah. Someone I tried to help a long time ago. But I'm afraid you can't save everyyone. Shame, too. He was a good man"
"We believe we found the Commander of the base," the soldier said. "He was already dead. It looked like he had been stabbed to death."
Hannigan looked at the dried blood on her knife again. She shrugs lightly, then motions for the others to follow her as she heads towards the command room.
.
