X-COM (updated M-W-F)

[Lazybones]

Session 3 (April 28, 2008)
Chapter 7


The roar of the Skyranger’s engines filled the transport’s main compartment, which was separated from the pilot’s cockpit by a large metal hatch. The space inside the vehicle was cramped, with eight seats in two rows flanking a narrow aisle, flanked by numerous compartments and lockers that filled every inch of remaining space. Some of the containers looked more than a bit unusual, with warning emblems indicating that the contents might be dangerous in a variety of ways. The eyes of the recruits kept returning to the big one in the rear of the craft, a coffin-shaped oblong that was marked with the ominous words, “Live storage.”

The ride was much smoother than it had been coming over in the C-130, Vasily thought. The Russian was still rather overwhelmed by everything that had happened since he’d arrived here in America, but he did his best to keep his uncertainty buried under a stoic expression.

Aliens. It was certainly a lot to take in. He wondered just how much his government knew about these Sectoids, and how many incursions had taken place on Russian soil. None had been recorded in the X-COM database, but he knew better than to accept that as proof that none had occurred.

He glanced over at the others. They seemed nervous, although some were hiding it better than others. The British woman seemed very cool, the American woman somewhat less so. The American doctor seemed to have accepted the reality of the alien threat faster than the others, and had focused on the practical challenges of their work. The last, the computer hacker, was a concern; he seemed barely able to keep it together, and Vasily was very leery of the fact that they’d given this Buzz Olloff a firearm.

The whine of the VTOL craft’s engines changed, and Vasily felt himself pressed hard into his harness as the Skyranger shifted modes from horizontal to vertical flight. “We’ll be down in five,” Ken Yoshi’s voice came over the cabin speaker. “Better get ready.”

Vasily was ready. It would have been better, though, if he’d known just what they were getting ready for.

The three days that followed their arrival at X-COM’s Nevada base had been hectic. They’d gotten their uniforms, lighter in tone than the khaki outfits the American soldiers wore, outfitted in a camouflage pattern. The suits included a vest of armor that protected the torso, a composite material similar to the “Dragonskin” that Vasily knew the Americans had been testing, only lighter and more flexible. He carried various devices issued by his new organization in the suit’s many pockets, but still felt woefully underprepared.

X-COM’s research teams had started work on laser weaponry, although Vasily knew it would likely be some time before they saw practical results. In part the decision had come from Alpha Team’s urging for better armaments, although they had the best that the world’s armament manufactures could provide. Vasily still carried his G-36, which now sported a laser sighting device upon its top rail.

Jane Swift lifted her rifle, checking the mechanism with an efficiency that was obviously practiced. There wasn’t supposed to be any shooting on this mission, or so they’d been told, but Vasily knew better than to stint on being prepared.

He remembered the doctor’s words from the mission briefing. “In the unlikely event we encounter live aliens, what are our instructions? Garret had blabbed about collecting information, but it was Drake’s response that had stuck in his mind.

Capture if possible. Shoot to kill otherwise.

That was something that Vasily could understand.

The Skyranger’s doors opened onto a breathless vista, the snow-crested peaks of the Rocky Mountains stretching in every direction all around them. It was cold, but to Vasily, trained in the harsh realities of the notorious Russian winter, the chill in the air seemed almost like a welcome.

“The Ranger station is about three hundred meters up the road,” Ken Yoshi’s voice came to them through the xPhone’s speaker. The communications device, nestled in a pocket high upon Vasily’s chest, was connected wirelessly to an earpiece that provided an open communications channel with the other members of the team. They’d been trained on everything he wore or carried, but he was already quite familiar with such technologies; you saw people wearing similar devices on the streets of St. Petersburg, and apparently they were ubiquitous in western Europe and America. It was reassuring, almost, to find familiar realities in the context of this mission.

“All right, let’s find this gentleman, and have a little chat,” Catalina said, leading them down the dirt road.

His name was Niles Jansen, and he greeted them out in front of the Forest Station, his right hand resting on the butt of his holstered pistol. He wore the green uniform of the United States Forest Service, and while his look wasn’t quite hostile, there was a noticeable chill in it as the five members of Alpha Team approached.

“Hello!” Jane called out.

“Hey there,” the ranger said. “You responsible for that loud booming noise I just heard fly over my place?”

“Indirectly or directly?” Catalina asked with a grin.

“For a minute, I thought… well, nevermind.” He gave them a looking-over, his gaze lingering over their uniforms, the weapons that they carried quite openly. “You guys with Homeland Security or something?”

Catalina offered a hand. “Catalina De Farrago, X-COM.”

After a pause, he took it. “X-COM? Never heard of them.”

She showed him her identification badge. He frowned over it for a moment.

“What can you tell us?” Jane asked.

“We heard you had something a little unusual happen,” Catalina added, taking back her ID, still smiling at the Ranger.

Jansen ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it’s like this. A few nights back, saw some things. Some… weird things.”

“Weird? Okay, what did you see?” Catalina asked.

“Lights in the sky, sounds, to the north. At first I thought it was a helo. But I served two tours in Iraq, and I never did see no helo that flew like that. Up, down, back and forth. Called it in, but after a few minutes it shot off into the sky, like a rocket. Nothing came closer, so I went to bed.”

“In the sky, you say. Over there?” Catalina asked, pointing vaguely north.

“Yeah. There’s a valley up there, trail leads up through them hills,” he said, indicating a gap about a mile distant.

“How close were the lights to the ground?” Catalina asked.

“Tough to gauge. Looked pretty close to the mountains, but it could have been a hundred feet above the ground, or a thousand. I went up there the next day, to check on a guy who lives up there.”

“A guy?” Buzz asked.

“A hunter, lives on federal land, has a permit. Not a bad fellow, but a bit of a hermit. You know the type?”

“I wonder if the Unibomber had a permit,” Buzz muttered.

Vasily grunted, and Catalina said, “A little bit of a loner, eh?”

The Ranger nodded. “Anyway, thought I’d better check on him. But I was attacked by this wolf… it was crazy or something. I didn’t appear to be rabid, but it came at me like I was covered in barbeque sauce.”

“That’s unusual, I take it?” Catalina asked.

“Yeah. The wolves up here, they know better than to screw with humans. Most of our hunters never even see one. Anyway, the thing, I’m glad I had my gun. I don’t normally carry it, but those lights had given me the creeps. Put one between the eyes, more luck than anything. Craziest thing I ever did see. I admit I was a bit shaken… more than a bit… so I came back, called it in.”

“You get the body?” James asked. “The wolf’s body?”

“I came back for it, that evening, but it was gone.”

“Wonder if it’s rabies, or something… else,” James said.

“Did you try to find it later?” Catalina asked him.

“To be honest, by then, I was feeling a bit creeped out.”

“Natural,” Catalina said.

“I’m glad you came,” the Ranger said. “I thought maybe that the guys at headquarters thought I was going buggy or something.” He looked them over again. “So… ‘X-COM’… you guys like spooks or something? You know, like Area 51 stuff?”

Catalina smiled. “Oh, nothing special! Now, can you point us to where you killed the wolf?”

“Yeah. It was near the entrance of the valley, just follow the trail up through the pass. It doesn’t really go anywhere else. It’s not too bad, you can be up there in a few hours if you keep a good pace.”

“Thanks,” Jane said, echoed by Catalina. “Thank you, sir.”

As they were making their way up the trail, Buzz whined, “Oh great, now I am a mountain climber.” He looked around the trail. “They got bears around here?”

Vasily touched his comlink. “Sky Ranger, this Team Alpha. Sightings to north, we head to investigate.”

After a slight pause, Ken’s voice hissed in their ears. “Roger that, Alpha.”

“All right, let's be careful - one or two up ahead, others cover,” James said.

“Catalina and I got point,” Jane said. Vasily lingered in the back, taking the rear without further discussion.

They made good time up the trail, although the air grew swiftly colder as they ascended. It was still early, maybe an hour past noon, when they saw the valley through a break in the hills ahead. A thin fog hung over the dell, persistent despite the otherwise bright day.

“Ya think it is supposed to be this cold?” Buzz asked.

James headed off to the right. “Doctor!” Vasily yelled after him.

“Over here… got something!” James yelled back. The others hastened after him. The floor of the valley was heavily forested, with thick undergrowth in the area off the trail. It only took a moment to see what had alerted the doctor, but James pointed to it just in case.

“Is dead bear?” Vasily asked.

“Let me take a look.”

“You want to examine it after we’re sure it’s dead?” Jane asked.

“Wait,” Catalina added, but James was already examining it, careful not to touch it with his bare hands. Vasily came forward to join him. “It look… burned.”

Catalina sighed. “Great, big boots everywhere.”

James bent low over the dead bear. It was a big black, maybe five hundred pounds. He took out a scalpel from his kit and prodded at the marks that had been burned into its torso. “Penetrating burns. Not normal gunshot wounds.”

With Vasily and James investigating the bear, Catalina and Jane had taken a look around the immediate area. Jane signaled over the communicator, “Building up ahead to the north.” She and Catalina headed in that direction; after a moment’s hesitation, Buzz followed after them.

The building was a small cabin, somewhat crude-looking, clearly nothing more than a one-room structure. The front door was open, and Catalina approached it warily, glancing in through the tiny front window before pushing it open with the barrel of her pistol. The inside was a mess. “Hunting rifle in there,” she said, pointing at the floor.

Jane’s voice drifted to her from the far side of the cabin. “Aah… better take a look at this,” she said.

Vasily and James came up as Catalina joined her. Jane was standing over a patch of mud. “What is it?” Catalina asked.

“See for yourself,” Jane said.

The tracks in the mud were obvious. They looked vaguely human, but the foot was about half the size of theirs, and it had three toes instead of five.

“I don’t suppose that’s Bigfoot,” Catalina asked, as Vasily and James joined her and Jane in examining the tracks.

“Um… guys!” Buzz cried, panic tightening his voice. “Guys!”

The others turned to see a group of five gray wolves emerge from the undergrowth. The creatures’ jaws were drawn back into snarls, and deep, throaty growls came from them as they watched the members of the team.

“Nobody make any sudden moves,” James said. “We’d better…”

But he didn’t get a chance to finish, as the wolves abruptly launched themselves at the members of Alpha Team, surging ahead in a frenzied attack.

 

[Vurt]

I never did play any of the X-COM games, but many a low-level party has been ambushed by wolves, I reckon!

Great update, Lazybones! Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

 

[Lazybones]

Yeah, there weren't any wolves in X-COM either, but I figured I needed to build to the aliens. Especially after what happened during this session...

* * * * *


Session 3 (April 28, 2008)
Chapter 8


Gunfire exploded in the clearing around the cabin as the wolves attacked. Catalina tried to make it to the door, but a wolf cut her off, leaping for her throat. The creature jerked in mid-leap, hit by a round from Jane’s high-powered rifle.

Buzz screamed as two of the wolves leapt at him. He got his pistol out and started shooting, but none of his shots came anywhere near his attackers. He staggered back, and barely kept his balance as the wolves pressed him, jaws snapping at his legs.

Vasily killed one wolf with a short burst from his G-36, then targeted another that was attacking James. James had shot the wolf with his own rifle, but the wolf kept pressing, seizing hold of his left leg just below the knee. Vasily switched to single shot, putting one, two, three rounds into the wolf’s body. Even then the wolf didn’t go down, until James lined the barrel of his rifle up with the wolf’s skull and pulled the trigger.

Jane turned to help Buzz, knocking one wolf off him with a bullet that clipped its skull. Catalina started to follow, but the wolf that had attacked her suddenly surged back up to its feet, snapping its jaws on her forearm. Crying out in surprise, she lifted her other hand and pumped half a clip of pistol rounds into its body, tearing free as it sagged to the ground, really dead this time.

The last wolf had gotten a good grip on Buzz’s leg, but as the humans rallied it drew back, snarling viciously. Even outnumbered and surrounded by fallen allies it surged forward to attack again, only to crumple as Vasily shot it right between the eyes. The Russian breathed heavily, although the fight had lasted less than a minute. “They not kid.”

“Gads, it bit me,” Buzz cried, limping heavily on his wounded leg.

“That… hurt,” James said, already digging out his medical kit. He was limping too, but he turned first to Buzz. “Buzz, sit down on that porch there, I need to stop the bleeding. Cat, you hurt?”

“Yeah, but it’s not too bad,” she said, checking her bloody arm.

“Can you tell if they are rabid or anything like that?” Jane asked, poking at one of the corpses.

“Damn! It hurts!” Buzz yelled, as James cut away the cloth around the man’s wounds. “On the Nature channel they run away after they are being shot… especially after one dies!”

James worked quickly, cleaning the wounds and spraying them with antiseptic, then binding them with a bandage from his bag. After he’d treated Buzz, he did the same for himself, and then Catalina. “Buzz and myself will need some better medical attention soon,” he said, once he was finished.

“We need to hurry then,” Vasily said. He activated his communicator again. “Sky Ranger, this Team Alpha. Do you have fix on our position? What is likely of landing in mountains, over?”

There was a hiss of static over the communications link. “…no go, chief. Satellite shows no good spots I could put the Skyran…” The link hissed out. Vasily tapped it a few times for good measure, but the voice didn’t come back. He reloaded his rifle, and looked down at Buzz, sitting on the cabin’s tiny porch. “You okay to move?”

Catalina had gone inside the hut, and was poking around. She reemerged as Buzz got to his feet, with Jane’s help. “Hey, I am a geek with a gun, not superman. But yeah, I’ll manage.”

James cocked his head. “Do you hear that?”

Vasily looked over toward him. “What?”

“Thought I heard something, from over there. Be alert, guys.”

They headed in the direction the doctor had indicated. The ground was harder here, with the muddy earth giving way to stone. They could see the valley wall rising up ahead through the trees, and as they made their way ahead, they could see a broad pool up ahead of them, with a sheer cliff face behind it.

“What’s that?” James said. He pointed at an object half-buried in the muck at the near edge of the pool.

They carefully edged forward. The object James had spotted was an oblong bulb, immersed at the edge of the pool.

“It green?” Vasily asked, squinting at it.

“Well, it doesn’t look like it belongs here,” Buzz said, grimacing with each step he took.

“Water looks green… nasty,” Catalina observed.

Jane edged closer to the object, but Vasily stopped her. “Hold! Remember exploding box.”

“Some kind of green goop around it,” James said, careful to give it a wide berth as he edged around the border of the pool. “I’ll get a sample.”

“Careful,” Jane said.

“I know what I’m doing,” James replied, taking out a small plastic case from his utility kit.

While James attended to the alien artifact—if that was indeed what the strange object and its green ooze was—Catalina continued poking around the edges of the pool. “More footprints over here,” she said. “Our three-toed friend.”

“Do you hear that?” Jane asked.

They stopped moving, and listened. There was a faint sound of wind blowing through the trees, but then they could hear another sound, a faint humming noise, high-pitched, almost beyond perception.

“There!” Buzz shouted, pointing through the forest. They just had a chance to see a dark metallic object, hovering in mid-air, before it unleashed a bright pulse of energy that slammed into Buzz’s chest, knocking him over onto his back. He laid where he had fallen, and did not move. His companions stared down in horror at him, saw that his armored uniform had been burned away by the hit, leaving a blackened hole from which rose the sickly sweet smell of charred flesh.

 

[Lazybones]

Session 3 (April 28, 2008)
Chapter 9


Vasily opened up on the hovering disk, which flashed as bullets pinged loudly off its metallic frame. It was maybe a meter across, its body glinting slightly with the sunlight that filtered down through the tree cover. They could see no obvious motors or jets to indicate how it managed to float there in the air, but it had no difficulty flying between the trees, drawing closer even as more bullets struck it.

James and Catalina ran forward and grabbed hold of Buzz, who didn’t stir as they dragged him back behind the rocks at the edge of the pool. Jane lifted her rifle and took aim, snapping off shots that struck the flying thing. The disk returned fire with another blast, a bolt that streaked past her head to hit the cliff behind her. Rocks exploded in a spray of dust and stone shards from the point of impact.

“Take cover!” Vasily yelled, putting his own words into action as he dove behind the nearby trunk of a fallen tree. Another bolt followed him, exploding half of the big log in a storm of destruction. The Russian yelled and popped up long enough to fire off another burst.

Catalina crouched over James as the doctor worked frantically on Buzz. She fired off several shots at the disk, which continued its slow approach. It turned to track Jane, who ran along the base of the cliff, darting behind a boulder moments before a shot from the disk blasted half of it into dust. It started to follow her, but as Catalina started scoring hits, it swiveled back toward her and James. It was tough to tell who it was targeting, as there were no gun barrels or other obvious projectors, just a crease that ran around its entire circumference, from where the energy blasts originated.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Catalina yelled, ducking back into cover as a shot streaked overhead.

Vasily drew up out of his position, drawing back the bolt of his rifle after he slammed in a fresh clip. He and Jane took aim together, both hitting the disk with their attacks, Vasily’s spray of autofire punctuated by the larger bullets from Jane’s sniper rifle. The disk listed almost onto its side, released a high-pitched whine that was almost painful, and exploded.

Debris rained down around the clearing. Bits of metal were still falling when Vasily ran over to the spot where James was still working on Buzz. “What his condition?”

“He’s bad,” James said, without looking up. “We need to get him out of here now.”

Vasily cursed in Russian, trying the communicator again without success. Meanwhile, Jane and Catalina were poking around in the remains of the alien disk, gathering a few of the larger pieces.

“Can he be moved?” Vasily asked.

“No choice. He’ll die if we leave him here. I’ve done everything I can for him now.” He bent over Buzz as if to pick him up, but sagged as his wounded leg gave out under him.

“I get him,” Vasily said, picking Buzz up and lifting him into a fireman’s carry.

Their communicators started working again as they were retracing their steps back out of the valley, but there was nothing they could do but return to the original insertion site along the mountain road; the terrain along the trail was too rugged for Ken to attempt a landing. Catalina and Jane scouted ahead while James protected the rear, following Vasily, who carried the dying hacker. The Russian did not complain or stop to rest, but his face was red from exertion by the time that they reached the Skyranger. Ken had the engines running, and had patched in Stan White from the X-COM base.

Damn it, he’s crashing!” James said, as he bent over Buzz, once Vasily had laid him down in one of the Skyranger’s jump seats.

“How long to get to hospital?”

“Too long…” James took a syringe from his kit, stabbed it into Buzz’s chest. He started doing CPR. “Open that cabinet there,” he ordered Vasily. “There’s a defibrillator unit inside. Yes, the red box. Open it and turn it on!”

While James worked frantically, White’s voice drifted in over the Skyranger’s internal speaker. “I’ve got a medical intervention team ready back at base.” The engines fired, rocking the ship as Ken lifted off. James and Vasily had to scramble to avoid falling back into the rear of the ship as Ken transitioned quickly to horizontal flight; Jane and Catalina had already strapped in, and were watching the scene with wide eyes.

“I won’t give up on him!” James said, grabbing the unit’s paddles from Vasily and pushing them against Buzz’s chest. “Clear!” Buzz’s body jolted as the charge hit him, but he didn’t otherwise respond.

“It’s no good, the medical indicators are showing flatline,” White said. “We might be able to revive him back at base, but by then there will be too much brain damage.”

“Come on, Buzz,” James said, charging up the paddles again. “Clear!” Again the charge had no effect.

“There’s only one chance,” White said. “If we can quickly lower his body temperature, we might be able to slow brain decay long enough to get him back. James, I need you to put him into the container marked “Live Storage.” Grace is setting it up remotely as we speak. It hasn’t been tested yet, but Buzz doesn’t have any other options.”

James went to the long canister and tried to open it, but the LED on the seal flashed red, refusing to budge. While he struggled with it, Vasily came over and gave it a hard kick; the long door at the top slid open with a hiss, revealing a dark interior like that of a coffin.

The two men manhandled Buzz into the tube. They closed the canister, which began to glow as the mechanisms attached to it came to life. A rime of frost quickly formed around the sliding hatch on top of it.

James managed to get up and fling himself into his seat. The Skyranger’s engines screamed as Ken took them past their intended levels of thrust, pushing hard at the members of Alpha Team in their harnesses.

“So much for our first mission,” James said. Although the words were lost under the roar of the engines, the sentiment behind them was reflected in the faces of each of the four members of Alpha Team as the transport flashed over the Nevada landscape back to the X-COM base.

 

[Lazybones]

Interlude: Aftermath (May 4, 2008)


Buzz shifted awkwardly in the chair in the small office. In the other chair, sitting opposite, Jean Beauvais watched him, waiting.

"Doctor Beauvais, I don't know what else to say,” Buzz finally said. “I...I can't lose the feeling of death." He rubbed his arms as he clutched his chest, arms folded across what had once been a gaping hole. "I can't help but feel something missing...something else...something odd."

“It is natural to feel a sense of loss in the aftermath of a serious trauma,” Jean said. “You nearly died.”

“I did die, for a while, there. Or at least that’s what the docs said.”

“Yes. Does that make you feel… separated? Distinct from the others on your team, and those around you?”

Buzz looked at the counselor, his eyes filled with a hollow emptiness. "It’s not that… I keep asking, how did they fix me, I mean...the only thing I remember was looking down and seeing a gaping hole! I'm not a physician but what did they do to fix it...is it all real? I should be dead." He was quiet for a long time, slightly rocking back and forth, not willing to let his mind consider some of the more paranoid options that his brain kept whispering to him. Whatever they had done, whether it felt normal or not, he was alive.

“Our medical team has some of the best emergency medical therapies available…”

“It’s more than that, doc,” Buzz said in a hushed voice. “We both know it’s more than that. Why won’t anyone tell me what happened to Doc Allen?”

“Well, it’s no secret,” Jean replied. “Doctor White wanted to send him to an outside medical facility for a few more tests that we can’t perform here. He wasn’t feeling well after the mission, and we need to be especially careful with… with what you found out there.”

“They’re keeping him quarantined,” Buzz said. “They’re keeping all of us separate from the rest of the staff. You can feel the way they all look at us, like we’re lepers or something…”

Jean’s instinct was to reach out and offer a reassuring hand, but she knew better than to try that here from what she’d read in Buzz’s file. Instead, she tried to put as much of that reassurance as she could into her voice.

“Doctor White has given all of the members of Alpha Team a thorough review, and you’ve all been given a clean bill of health. I’ve seen your files, and there’s nothing there that the medical staff isn’t telling you. They’re just being careful. Surely you can see the need for caution in this case, Buzz. The biological research team is still working out what happened to those wolves, and the possible connection to the sample that the team recovered from the mountain pool. I am certain that as soon as he has an answer, he’ll share it with you, with everyone on the team.”

Buzz looked at her. “Those wolves weren’t normal,” he said.

“We need to avoid jumping to conclusions, Buzz. Let the research team do its work.”

There was a slight buzz from behind Jean’s desk. “I guess we’re at our time, doc.”

“I’ll want to speak to you again, Buzz. We’re here to support you and your fellow team members.”

“Yeah,” he said, getting up quickly, wincing slightly as the motion tugged at the wounds still healing on his leg. “Well, Doc, nice talking to ya but I'm going to go shower... can't seem to get that medical stink off of me." Before Jean could say anything else he left, letting the door click shut behind him. For a long moment Jean’s eyes lingered on the door, then she said, “We may need to take him off the team, at least for now.”

“We don’t have anyone with even close to his knowledge of computer systems,” Garret’s voice came from the wall behind her. “In particular, his ability to quickly assimilate and comprehend the workings of an unfamiliar system.”

“That knowledge won’t be of any use if he breaks.”

“Mister Olloff is tougher than he appears.”

“I hope you’re right.” She turned her head as the indicator on her door flashed red; a moment later it opened.

“Come in, Jane,” Jean said, indicating the empty chair.

As he made his way back from Doctor Beauvois’s office, Buzz saw Vasily in the corridor ahead of him, heading into the men’s restroom. Instead of taking the shower he’d planned, he abruptly turned into the barracks. His bunk was near the door, but he kept on going to the end of the row, yanking the privacy curtain out before he tossed himself onto the neat bunk. He laid there, his face turned toward the wall, shivering slightly.

Maybe this time he would have the courage to examine his wound.




Interlude: Base Priorities (April 29, 2008)

Four days passed, and while things were relatively quiet for Alpha Team in the aftermath of the Utah mission, the same could not be said for X-COM headquarters. There was an almost constant flurry of activity, as personnel and equipment were shuttled into the base. The surgical nurses whose absence nearly cost Buzz his life finally arrived, along with a half-dozen new scientists and engineers. For a few days, until everyone’s schedules got settled, it was impossible to move through the base’s passages without bumping into people.

Workstations and diagnostic units were installed in a new extension to the South Wing to improve X-COM's research capacity. Dr. Wagner was pleased, but one afternoon in a quiet hallway, Jane overheard Base Commander Hallorand expressing concern to Director Garret about the base's lack of defenses.

After his initial, almost miraculous recovery, Buzz spent the next few days convalescing. Occasionally he would pause, leaning against a doorjam or the back of a chair, clutching his chest. It took a while for his full color to return, and there was a hint of something haunted in his eyes when he talked with one of the other members of his team.

On the fourth day after the mission to Utah the communicators of the Alpha Team members chimed, indicating the arrival of another e-mail from base command.

FROM: Kimberly Wagner, X-COM Research Chief
TO: Alpha Team
CC: Michael Garret, Jean Beauvois
RE: Project Update

I hope you have had time to rest over the last few days. I suspect we're going to need you at full strength before too long.

Per your suggestions we have been expanding our research capabilities. The new lab in the South Wing is almost finished, and while Dr. White has been complaining about having to share his medical facilities with our scientific staff, we have been able to make some progress.

The program for the research of laser weapons technology is now fully active and moving forward. Dr. Sandesh has been given clearance to continue work on his prototype motion sensor, but priority has been given to the laser project. After consulting with Director Garret I assigned several of our biological and genetic scientists to studying the samples you brought back from the Utah mission. You heard about the unusual medical properties in the alien substance you recovered. The research team feels that this knowledge can greatly advance our medical technology, and eventually will lead to significant applications for our field teams.

At the moment our resources are fully engaged in current projects, so I do not have a list of new priorities for you this week. However, once we finish getting the new lab up and running, I will send you another report with more information.

 

[Felix]

In high school my roomates and I spent hours playing X-Com and listening to the Hendrix Experience.

LB, I get so immersed reading your updates, I swear I hear Hey Joe in the background.

 

[Lazybones]

Thanks, Felix! I spent a lot of time with X-COM 1 & 2 in grad school. Heck, if it hadn't been for those two and the Civilization series, I might have been able to finish a lot sooner.

* * * * *

Session 4 (May 5, 2008)
Chapter 10


Eleven hours.

That is how long the exhausted members of Alpha Team had spent in the swampy expanse of the Big Torch Key, one of the furthermost of the Florida Keys. While the island was only about 25 miles east from the bustling metropolis of Key West, it might have been a million miles away from civilization as far as anyone was concerned. People lived there, but they were a different breed apart from regular Floridians, content in their isolation from the chaotic pace of modern life.

With Doctor Allen still off-base, a young German named Jürgen Ritter had been temporarily assigned to bolster Alpha Team’s ranks. While a mechanical engineer by training, Jürgen had received medic training during his time in the Bundeswehr, so he carried the group’s medical kit this time around.

The investigation was a bust almost from the start. The local eyewitnesses who had claimed to have seen the UFO turned out to be individuals of extremely dubious reliability, lacking erudition, education, and in some cases, teeth. The one thing that they had possessed, universally, was a knowledge of cable television, especially those popular shows about "flyin' saucers" and "them aliens that come down and abduct folks." Their own reports had apparently been colored by a unanimous desire to be featured on one or more of these programs. With a few simple questions, Catalina had been able to poke numerous holes in their spotty and often contradictory testimony.

Still, it was a lead, and the American naval air station at Key West had picked up some unusual radar signals, so despite their misgivings Alpha Team had moved diligently to investigate. They found mudpits, snakes, and mosquitos by the millions, but no signs of any alien activity. Buzz, still weakened from his ordeal in Utah, retired to the Skyranger after only an hour, but Jane, Catalina, Jürgen, and Vasily proceeded on foot, investigating the sites identified by the local witnesses. Radiation scans turned up negative. The only thing of note that they found was a crocodile that tried to take a bite out of Jane, but Vasily was able to kill it with a few well-placed shots. An examination of the creature found that it was a normal example of its species, with no indication that it had been affected by alien contamination like the wolves in the mountain valley in Utah. Still, Jürgen took blood and tissue samples, and they continued their sweep.

It is almost dark when the team returned to the Skyranger, covered in mud and sweat, exhausted, and ready for nothing more than a hot shower and a meal. This time Ken took it easier on them, and they were almost able to sleep over the rumbling jets of the transport, as it lifted off from Florida and turned back on course toward Nevada and the X-COM base.

“So I guess I’m a squaddie now,” Jürgen said.

“Eh?” Buzz asked.

“That’s what the guys back at base are calling people who have gone out on a mission,” Jürgen said.

“Not count if there no alien,” Vasily said, leaning back in his seat. He seemed a bit frustrated, unable to drift off and sleep as was his usual habit.

Jürgen looked disappointed, but Catalina reached out and tapped his leg. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to squeeze off a few rounds soon enough.”

Jürgen reddened, a shade that deepened to his ears as Catalina held his eyes, smiled.

Ken Yushi’s voice came over the speaker in the crew compartment. “Hey, I’m getting something from HQ. Let me patch it in.”

A man’s voice hissed and crackled over the speaker. “…chance encounter. Six USAF F-22s, engaged the bogie over Arizona...”

Ken’s voice returned. “I’m getting more info from base on my screens. Looks like the bogie evaded, and the American fighters were unable to keep up with the contact. But one of them got lucky; we show a possible missile impact, the bogie lost altitude, dropped off our radar over the northern Mexican desert.”

“Oh, great,” Buzz said.

“That was… fourteen minutes ago. I’m getting coordinates now. Looks like we’ve got an intercept mission! Finally some real action!”

“We’re going in, then?” Jane asked

“That’s a roger,” Ken replied. “Hold on, this baby can go fast.”

“He sounds rather enthusiastic,” Jürgen said, then let out a small gasp as the engines roared, and the members of Alpha Team were pressed back in their seats by a sudden jolt of acceleration.

Vasily said, “How far away are we?”

“Checking coordinates… we’re currently over the Gulf, about fifteen minutes out from the Texas Border. New course… we’ll be at the site of last contact in about forty minutes.”

“Hopefully this will be less of a waste of time than talking to those people in Florida,” Catalina said.

It was difficult to talk over the surging engines, even with their headsets, so the companions sat quietly for a stretch of minutes. Jane checked her firearms, while Buzz took apart the armrest of his seat. Finally Ken came back on the speaker. “Entering Mexican airspace. I hope our credentials are good, they’re only ‘associate’ members of our consortium.”

Buzz was playing with his xPhone; as the Skyranger continued its rapid approach to the contact site, Jane looked over at him and said, “Getting anything good on that?”

He looked up, blinked. “Oh. No, you can follow the Skyranger’s course track on this.” At that the others all reached for their devices, and at Buzz’s direction, brought up a miniature topographic map that showed their course, heading for a blinking red point in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert in northern Mexico. The Skyranger was drawing rapidly closer to the dot, the map zooming automatically as they approached.

After a few more minutes, the Skyranger was almost superimposed on the indicator. Ken reported, “Damn, I’m not picking up anything at the coordinates.” After a pause, he said, “Wait a minute, I’ve got a vapor trail. Taking us down for a closer look.” The Skyranger banked and began to descend. Another minute passed, then Ken voice returned. “Okay, I’ve got a visual. Looks like something crashed down there. Taking us down, hold on.”

The Skyranger’s engines shifted, the ship’s VTOL jets taking hold as the ship plummeted downward. Buzz clutched at his armrests; the one he’d partially disassembled came loose and clattered across the floor of the aircraft, drawing several sharp looks. He didn’t see them; his eyes were clenched shut.

The engines let out a final loud whine, then the ship jolted as it settled down. Vasily was up even before the door in the back of the craft started to cycle open, letting in a shaft of bright light from the setting sun. The others got up behind him, grimacing as overworked muscles protested.

The desert was not the lifeless, barren landscape one often saw in movies, but it was fairly bleak nevertheless. Scrub brush and other vegetation sprang from the stony soil, and they could see for miles across the landscape, which seemed to stretch almost endlessly as far as they could see, save to the north, where the faint outline of mountains could be seen on the horizon.

Dust swirled in the air, lifted by the wash of the Skyranger’s engines. Vasily strode through it, his rifle at the ready.

“Looks like the crash is to the northeast, about two hundred meters,” Catalina said, looking closely at the readout on her xPhone.

“This time, I’m staying in the back,” Buzz muttered.

Vasily grunted. “Search area.”

They spread out, Vasily in the lead as they made their way northeast. Once they had left the immediate environs of the Skyranger, they could make out the faint black plume to the northwest, indicating the likely site of the crash. A wadi ran across their path ahead, a dry bed that was probably a raging torrent in the brief rainy season in the late summer. Now, the cracked earth crunched beneath their feet as they made their way warily through the obstacle.

They had reached the top of the rise when Jürgen looked to the left, raising a hand to shade his eyes. “Did you see something move there…”

He didn’t get a chance to finish, for as they all started to turn, a small gray humanoid creature stepped out behind a small boulder. It was barely three feet tall, its bulbous face dominated by huge black orbs of eyes. The alien—for it could be nothing else—left no doubt as to its intentions, as it lifted a handgun, pointed it at Jürgen, and fired a blast of crackling white energy at the stunned German.

 

[Vurt]

The alien—for it could be nothing else—left no doubt as to its intentions, as it lifted a handgun, pointed it at Jürgen, and fired a blast of crackling white energy at the stunned German.

Now he's a squaddie! (Although probably for not very long.)

 

[Richard Rawen]

Finally had enough time to devote to the best author on EW, up to the Bios' and all I have to say is:
LB+SH= RR

All caught up and enjoying the read immensely!
I've never gotten to play X-Com, actually Battletech soldier units would be the closest I've come to true sci-fi rpg, I don't count my two harrowing messed up encounters in Cyber-punk

You bring great depth to characters and combat so the scenario/theme is really irrelevant to me!
RR

Now he's a squaddie! (Although probably for not very long.)

Could it be that the medics are the red-shirt/arcanists of X-com?

 

[Lazybones]

Session 4 (May 5, 2008)
Chapter 11


“Get down!” Catalina yelled, colliding with Jürgen just as the alien gun fired. Both of them fell to the ground, and the energy bolt sizzled just over them.

“Take cover!” Vasily yelled, although there wasn’t much more than scattered brush and a few smaller rocks to offer protection in the immediate vicinity. Multiple guns fired, and little gouts of dirt flared up around the alien as bullets hit the ground and the boulder next to it. A string of bullets from Vasily’s rifle formed a track across the stone, ending in a shot that clipped the alien in the shoulder. It turned and aimed at Vasily, who threw himself aside. Another energy bolt sizzled through the air, narrowly missing him.

Jane, crouched behind a tangled scrub, lifted her rifle and took quick aim. The sniper rifle cracked, and the alien stumbled back. It remained standing for a moment, a trickle of green ooze trailing from the hole in its forehead, then it fell over backward.

Wary, the five members of Alpha Team got back to their feet and approached the alien. Vasily had his rifle trained on it, but the dead thing didn’t move.

“Damn… these things look like they are from the movies. Sorta spooky,” Buzz said.

Vasily bent down and pried the weapon out of the alien’s hand. It felt warm to his touch, and was made out of a material he’d never seen before. There was no indication of how it worked; he could see no switches or buttons, or even a visible trigger mechanism.

Before they could examine the creature in more detail, a loud noise drew their attention back in the direction of the crash. A thick black plume was rising into the air, and they could hear the crackle of flames even though they couldn’t see the crash from their position.

“Come on,” Vasily said, urging them forward again.

It took less than a minute for them to reach the crash site, even moving slowly, wary of another attack. The alien ship, which resembled the frustum-shaped crew pods from the Apollo missions, lay in a smoking trench that extended a good sixty feet behind the wreck. Smoke was billowing from rents in its hull, and from a hatch that stood open near the base of the trench ahead of them.

“We need to put out the fires,” Jürgen said. “The ship is being damaged.”

“Everything will be destroyed if we don’t get the fire out in there,” Buzz added.

“We don’t have extinguishers,” Catalina said.

“Look out!” Jane warned, as a figure emerged from the hatch. It was another of the gray aliens. This one was wounded, green and black streaks covering its bare torso, but it too had a firearm, which it lifted as it caught sight of the humans.

Both sides fired at once. The alien crumpled, hit by several rounds, while its shot clipped Vasily’s leg. The big Russian crumpled, grimacing in pain, clutching the limb where the energy blast had torn through his uniform and blackened his flesh. Jürgen and Catalina were at his side in a flash, while Jane and Buzz kept a close eye on the alien and its vessel. The creature appeared to be dead, or at least it didn’t move as they watched.

“Is he okay?” Jane asked, without looking away from her target.

“Just a flesh wound, he’ll be all right,” Jürgen said, treating Vasily’s injury with materials from his medical kit.

“We’d better get back from the ship, in case something inside decides to explode,” Catalina said. She and Jürgen helped Vasily to his feet, and helped carry him away from the burning alien vessel.

Vasily touched his communicator. “Alpha Team to Ranger. Contact, two hostiles, both dead. Definite not human. Have discovered wrecked vessel. Is on fire. Too big to transport to Main Base, over.”

Ken’s voice sounded in their ears. “Roger Alpha, I’ve been monitoring your channel. The recovery team is already en route, with a team of engineers and a helo big enough to lift a house. Local authorities have been instructed to keep the area clear; they’re selling it as a fragged up missile test. Your orders are to keep an eye on things until the recovery team arrives.”

“You want to go back to the ship?” Catalina asked Vasily. He shook his head, but picked a nearby rock and settled onto it, grimacing slightly as the movement strained his injured leg. The companions remained there and watched as the flames consuming the alien ship burned themselves out, while the sun set below the western horizon, and long shadows stretched out behind the watchers as night came to the desert.