X-COM (updated M-W-F)

[Lazybones]

*nods* I grabbed the pdf, not much of a portable reader type.
I enjoyed the story alot, is it a kind of hook to get a mage out of the insular world of academics and into the "world of adventure"?
Reminds me a bit of Dragon Age (blood magic), and of a book series I read years ago which uses similar 'schools' of magic. All in all a nice foothold into your world

Thanks! I wrote the novella mainly to introduce the setting I'll be exploring more deeply in the novel, and because I got the idea and couldn't shake it, which is often how my works gets started. The novel will feature Keric as a protagonist, and is set about five years after the events of The Labyrinth. I'm just shy of 100k words on the novel right now, should finish it up in a week or two.

I wish you could still grab Story Hour threads as text files. I remember reading a lot of the classics here in plain text, and it's really easy to convert them to files my Kindle can read.

* * * *

Session 26 (October 27, 2008)
Chapter 114


Vasily brought his plasma cannon up, but it was too late, as the chryssalid filled the view from the vision port in his helmet. A white flash erupted against its side as someone got off a shot, but it didn’t distract the alien in the least, as it extended itself in mid-leap, lashing out with a powerful sweep of its claws that knocked Vasily from his feet and launched him flying into a heap of rubble piled at the edge of the crater from the earlier blaster launcher strike. He hit hard enough that he saw stars flash even within the protective shelter of his powered suit, but he immediately started fighting to get up, even as loose rocks and mud scattered under his feet.

The others fell back as quickly as they could, unleashing fire at point-blank range into the alien. Hadrian ducked under another lunge of its claws, firing his old holdout gun, a Glock slugthrower, into its body. He fired off an entire clip without apparent effect, and as the alien swept around he dove forward, only to be hit and knocked sprawling over the lip of the crater, tumbling head over heels into the still-glowing mess of hot rubble at its bottom.

The alien reared up as a bolt from the plasma tank exploded against its back, but its focus was quickly drawn back as both Jane and Catalina blasted it. It sprang forward and lunged at Jane; Mary leapt screaming out of its path, narrowly avoiding getting trampled in its rush. The former CIA agent held her ground and calmly fired again, hitting the alien in the face. She paid the price for her efforts a moment later as the alien picked her up and hurled her backward. She struck the bomb tank and flipped, slamming into a tree with enough force to crack the trunk. She hung there for a moment, then dropped to the ground, landing face-first in a mush of melted snow and mud.

The alien spun to face Catalina, but before either she or it could attack, it staggered forward as Vasily leapt onto its back. “Get the other one!” he yelled at her as the alien violently swung around, trying to grab or dislodge its undesired passenger. With the weight of his armor Vasily topped five hundred pounds, but the alien still managed to hop aside, twisting and finally flopping over onto its back, trying to tear the Russian free. With a roar Vasily took its momentum and flipped the thing over him, slamming it to the ground. The alien was up before he could exploit the move, pounding its claws into his gut with enough force to buckle the heavy armor protecting his torso. Vasily fell back, and that was enough of an opening for it to spring onto him, driving him down under its body as it tore at his armor with its razor-sharp claws. Vasily punched at its body, trying to get a hold, to push it off him, but in vain. The alien, frustrated in its efforts to get through the armor, reached down and grabbed onto Vasily’s head with both of its claws. It crunched down with its full strength and twisted. Metal popped and groaned as the fittings gave way under the pressure, and Vasily screamed as his neck quickly approached the point where it would snap like a twig.

It was hard for Catalina to turn from the raging battle, but she did so, running away from the deadly grapple between Vasily and the alien. As she got clear, she saw the blur of motion coming around the far side of the hill, an onrushing form that could only be the second chryssalid. She knew what Vasily had meant, knew that she had only one thing that could stop the monster.

She didn’t know whether the damned thing would even work; she’d been knocked onto it when she’d been hit by a fusion shell just a few minutes ago, and hadn’t had any time to run a diagnostic on her suit’s functions. But she activated the servo that Grace had installed, and with a whirr the heavy launcher swung up from across her back, the grip snapping into position where she could reach up and grab it. A new targeting reticule appeared across her VDU, one that superimposed the outline of the charging alien. A red indicator flashed in the corner of her viewscreen, indicating that the launcher was ready to fire.

If it didn’t explode in the tube and kill her instantly.

There was no time to think; the alien was close and closing fast, already within the safe distance that Grace had warned them about, but there was no other solution. Even as the alien appeared between the nearest line of trees ahead, she fired. The bomb didn’t have too far to go, arming as it left the barrel of the launcher, streaking through the air like a silvery football. Everything seemed to slow down around her, with most of her focus on the missile, which covered the sixty meters separating her and the alien in a heartbeat that seemed to last a minute. She clearly saw the chryssalid duck the missile, which shot past it, and even started to turn before it impacted a boulder. A disconnected part of her mind noted the range on her VDU, sixty-eight meters.

Then the bomb exploded.

Catalina’s vision filters darkened her visor, keeping her from being blinded, but that was the least of her worries as she was flung over onto her back by the concussive force of the blast. She didn’t see the chryssalid being vaporized by the explosion, or her companions behind her being knocked down, throwing them to the ground with admittedly less force than she’d withstood. Ironically it was Vasily who was least affected, even helped as the shockwave accomplished what he’d been unable to do, knocking the chryssalid off him. The alien rolled heavily on its back, letting out a piercing shriek.

Vasily, battered and more than a little stunned, fumbled for his plasma pistol, but once again the alien was faster. Even as the reverberations from the blaster explosion echoed off the surrounding hills, the chryssalid twisted its body and lunged back to its feet. No sooner had it reoriented than it flung itself at Vasily again, claws outstretched. The wounded Russian tried to roll away from it, but the alien kept on coming, smashing him with powerful blows from its claws, as if it had given up on subtlety and now intended to pound him into paste through raw strength. Finally Vasily came up against the trunk of a tree, and with nowhere left to roll, the alien drew up both of its claws, fixing on the image of itself reflected in the Russian’s visor.

But before it could strike, the chryssalid felt something hard poke into the back of its neck, right under the outer ridge of bone from its armored skull. Before it could react, before it could so much as register the threat, Hadrian discharged Vasily’s dropped plasma cannon, firing a pulse of white-hot energy into the alien monstrosity. The backblast knocked the Marine off his feet, but the alien had a much worse time of it, the plasma severing its spine and driving tendrils of angry fire into its brain. The chryssalid spun and flung itself into the air, twisting in a violent paroxysm that ended with it landing in a wild tangle of arms and legs, smoke rising from the ugly opening in the back of its head. It twitched, flinched, and finally died as Vasily pulsed a bolt from his plasma pistol through its left eye.

“Hate you,” he said, unleashing a string of Russian curses at the dead monster.

 

[Faren]

glorious!

 

[Vanya Mia]

I remember those bombs, biting my fingernails even reading this. They triggered a little spell called Hellball which no bugger in their right mind wants a PC in the area of effect for, and it's a /large/ area of effect. Never launched one without thinking, "Oh god, oh god, oh god, I'm gonna die!"

 

[Smart Alec]

Just an observation I want to share before this part of the mission goes on any further: Vasily was very much inspired by a viewing of Rocky IV. But it's funny to reflect that here he really comes off as more like Rocky than Ivan Drago - taking the blocking-punches-with-his-face strategy and applying it to plasma weapons.

 

[Lazybones]

Hell, in all of my NWN games the player characters end up looking like Rocky at the end of any of those movies.

* * * * *

Session 26 (October 27, 2008)
Chapter 115


It was a bruised and battered Alpha Team that made its way through the dark shaft into the alien base. Behind them the two crippled HWPs rattled and creaked as they tried to keep up. The Alphas themselves rattled and creaked only slightly less. None of them had been successfully implanted by the chryssalids, but they’d absorbed a pounding, and Mary had depleted half of her stock of medikits in the aftermath of those initial fights, in addition to her stock of the experimental regenerative serum.

Their helmet lights shone bright beams into the base interior, as their cameras recorded the scene. The initial construction seemed familiar, even mundane, although the lighting was dim and colored everything with a deep violet tinge. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of long panels of material that weren’t quite plastic, weren’t quite metal, joined in almost invisible seams. Their sensors indicated a number of unpleasant substances in the air, but thus far it was nothing that their suit filters couldn’t handle.

They entered a long chamber fitted out with about a dozen large oblong vats, connected to the walls with various odd cable and tube linkages. The vats had segmented doors in the front that provided access to the interior, and as they entered, they could see one that was open. A dark shape materialized from within and shuffled forward toward them. Five weapons came up immediately, but their lights revealed not an alien, but a cow.

A two-headed cow, that lowed miserably as it spotted them.

“… the hell…” Vasily said.

“Sacrilege!” Mary hissed. “They will pay for that!”

“Keep moving, yes?” Vasily said. “Unless we put it out of misery, sheesh.”

The mutated cow came closer, both heads mooing now, until Jane lifted her rifle and ended it with a pair of shots that pierced its skull and drove it to the ground. The Alphas moved on, giving the rest of the vats a wide berth, and entered another corridor that opened into another chamber ahead. Catalina frowned as she worked the motion sensor. The unfamiliar construction of the alien base was causing havoc with her readings, but as they approached the chamber she held up a hand, bringing them to a halt. She turned off her helmet lamp and crept forward until she could look into the room without exposing herself to fire, and took one quick look before retracing her steps to rejoin the others.

“Mutons,” she said. “Four of them. Shall I use the last shell in the blaster launcher?”

Vasily shook his head. “Nah, is only four.” He nodded to Hadrian, who’d replaced his lost plasma cannon with one taken off the dead guards above. Both men took grenades from their belts, and moved forward. As soon as they caught sight of the hulking green forms on the far side of the room they threw the grenades together, opening fire with their heavy plasmas even before the missiles burst into clouds of stunning gas. They knew from past experience that the mutons were barely fazed by the stun grenades, but the gas obscured their vision, and their initial return fire was wild and blind, missing the Alphas as they spread out and kept shooting. Vasily and Hadrian focused in on the alien muzzle flashes, and white explosions of plasma erupted as their bolts hit alien hides.

“Come and get it, gorillas!” Vasily yelled, keeping up his fire as the mutons started forward, shooting as they came. Jane came forward into the room, the HWPs trailing behind her. A wild bolt clipped her arm and nearly flipped her around, but she quickly recovered and shot back, shooting the muton who had hit her on the hip.

“Jane, get the bomb back!” Catalina yelled, as the battered HWP kept rolling forward, into the room. The four mutons were clear of the gas now, but their shots were still erratic, exploding in bright puffs against the wall behind the Alphas. One of them lowered its weapon and drew out a vibroblade, its high-pitched whine audible even across the room and the noise of the firefight.

Jane yelled at the tank, but it kept on moving forward, at least until one of the mutons fired a plasma burst into it. The entire front end of the tank came apart in a mess of metal shards and flame, and it keeled over, the heavy bulge on its top clunking loudly as it hit the floor. The other HWP fired a plasma blast that struck a muton in the torso, but then its turret suddenly exploded, apparently of its own volition, showering the Alphas with sparks and and streamers of fire.

“Keep shooting!” Vasily yelled, darting to the side, drawing fire after him. The alien with the vibroblade came after him, but Hadrian pummeled it with a shot that tore away half of its neck, and it fell, struggling as black fluids jetted from the nasty wound. A second went down a moment later as Catalina and Jane both hit it. The last two kept firing until their plasma cannons fully depleted their energy cells, then they drew out vibroblades and surged forward. They ran into a brutal crossfire from the Alphas, but even then nearly made it to melee range, the last one falling to the ground a scant two feet in front of Hadrian.

“Good shooting, mister Jones,” Mary said, as Hadrian reloaded his cannon with a fresh power cell. They’d taken a few hits in the exchange, but none of them were seriously hurt. The same could not be said for the HWPs, however.

“Crazy tank,” Vasily said, as he came to the destroyed bomb tank. He bent over it for a moment, checking the integrity of its cargo, the atomic explosive that Grace had prepared for them. It seemed to be intact, its armored shell unbroken, at least to casual examination. With a grunt he lifted the wrecked chassis up, and saw the faint LED indicators on the bomb’s side were still lit.

“Going to carry it the rest of the way?” Catalina asked.

Vasily grunted, and started working on the releases that fastened the bomb to the tank. It took some doing, but he finally got it free. Grace had prepared a rude harness for them for just such an eventuality, but it took a few minutes to get it hooked up to his satisfaction. Not that he could be truly satisfied with an atomic bomb strapped to his back.

Hadrian had taken advantage of the delay to scout out the rest of the room. “Lift over there,” he said, indicating where the mutons had been standing guard. “Looks like it leads to a lower level.”

“Plasma tank’s a bust,” Jane said, putting away her tools. “It must have taken damage during the last fight, broke the power coils or something. When it powered up its cannon, it overloaded.”

“All right. We still need to find commander,” Vasily said, leading them toward the lift.

The next level of the base was very different from the last, and definitely more “alien.” The chamber at the bottom of the lift was similar to those above, but the exits led them into rooms that were populated with an eclectic collection of alien growths, multicolored flora that vaguely resembled terrestrial spores and fungi. The floor became a spongy, textured substance more like flesh than dirty, and the temperature rose quickly, until they could feel the heat even through the heavy insulation of their suits.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore,” Jane said, wiping moisture from her visor.

“This some kind of greenhouse?” Vasily asked, carefully avoiding a bulging ovoid sack that dangled from the ceiling. The pod rippled slightly as he moved away.

“This isn’t soil,” Catalina said, bending to examine the floor more closely.

“This isn’t a science field trip,” Hadrian said, checking his plasma cannon.

Mary had taken out a small medical scanner, and was looking at the readouts. “This air might be a problem,” she told the others. “We can’t stay here long.”

The rooms were connected by short tunnels, the whole forming a complex that seemed to go on for quite a ways. “Mary, can you sense that thing?” Catalina asked. “The commander?”

“Um… Yes. No. I think so. I don’t know. I’ll try…” she put away the scanner and furrowed her brow, concentrating. Meanwhile, Catalina moved to the closest of the tunnel exits, scanning with the motion sensor.

“Anything?” Jane asked Mary.

The Indian doctor started to shake her head, but then she lifted a hand. “Wait… I sense something…”

“Maybe you need take helmet off,” Vasily suggested. “They insulate these helmets against alien mind power. Maybe it work both ways.”

“A mind…” Mary said. Her eyes widened. “It senses me!”.

“Gya!” Vasily exclaimed. “Better not take off helmet, then.”

Catalina moved to the second exit, and paused. “I’m getting something!” she warned. “Half a dozen and… small?”

“Sectoids?” Vasily asked her.

Catalina shook her head. “Not sure. Signal is… erratic.” She breathed heavily. “Is it getting hotter in here?”

Jane checked one of the sensors embedded in her armor. “Air temperature is 112F and rising.”

“Get ready!” Vasily warned, as he and the other Alphas formed a defensive half-circle facing the exit. “How far?” he asked Catalina, who continued to study the sensor.

“Close… there!”

They lifted their weapons, but no sectoids, or anything else, materialized in the tunnel opening. For a moment they stood, quiet, waiting for the enemy to show itself.

“Catalina—” Vasily began.

“There!” Jane warned, pointing to the wall. Something was coming through it, an amorphous, slightly glowing… blob was the best description, some sort of amoeboid thing that was clearly alive, passing through the substance of the wall as it moved in jerky pulses forward. Its hide was an unpleasant mottled purple, slick with some sort of oily secretion that trailed behind it as it moved. The opening it left began to slowly seal itself closed once the creature was fully through, but more were starting to appear nearby, all moving toward the nearest human.

 

[Richard Rawen]

Great stuff! Though I've not played the games, I had pictured the interior of bases very much like this! If there's one thing about these bad guys it's they never seem to run out of NEW bad guys!

 

[Lazybones]

Great stuff! Though I've not played the games, I had pictured the interior of bases very much like this! If there's one thing about these bad guys it's they never seem to run out of NEW bad guys!

I think there's only one left from the original game, now that we've met the silacoids. But it's a good one.

* * * * *

Session 26 (October 27, 2008)
Chapter 116


The Alphas found themselves confronting yet another alien species in the depths of the alien base. In some ways the silacoids were the strangest yet, amoebic blobs that pulsed forward across the floor to attack.

Jane fired her plasma rifle, scoring a direct hit on the nearest blob that engulfed it in a corona of white-hot plasma. But the burst cleared to reveal that the creature was virtually unharmed, and it lunged at her, extending a pseudopod that smacked her hard on her left leg just above the knee. The agent staggered back, clutching at the wounded limb.

“Gah, it’s hot!” she warned, unnecessarily; they could all see the bright glow of her armor where the alien had smacked her. And they could all feel the sudden spike in temperature as heat radiated from the aliens like coal in a furnace.

More blasts streaked into the aliens, but while the plasma bolts had a certain kinetic impact, it was clear that the heat they delivered was of no hindrance to the creatures. Hadrian whipped out his slug-thrower and emptied a clip at the nearest alien, but the silacoid merely absorbed the bullets, the force of them slowing it for only a few seconds. Mary tried to run, but the nearest alien extended itself into a long tendril that caught her on the back of her ankle, taking her down. The alien surged forward to crush her, but Catalina and Vasily were there in an instant, Catalina pulling her up while Vasily blasted it with a point-blank shot from his cannon. The force of the blast smacked the alien back a half-step, but it quickly recovered and came in again.

“Come on people, run from them, they not fast!” Vasily exclaimed, as Jane and Hadrian fell back, shooting as they went. “What is this walking-away-from-burning-puddle-thing?”

They made their way to the far exit, the aliens literally in hot pursuit. The silacoids moved slower than the humans, but apparently solid walls did little to hinder them.

“Now what?” Jane asked, grimacing as she put weight on her injured leg. Sweat was visible covering her face through the dark plastic of her visor.

“Keep moving!” Vasily yelled, leading them toward another of the side-chambers. The aliens kept following. Hadrian paused at the entry and took an alien grenade from his belt. Triggering it, he rolled it across the floor toward the nearest silacoid; the bomb collided with the alien, which pulsed over it, smothering it a moment before detonation.

The alien—or rather, pieces of it—went flying across the room. Hadrian and Vasily were struck by bits of it, which hissed and sizzled as it struck their armor. The Russian grunted and tore a piece of it from his helmet, before the sheer heat of it could damage the alien alloys. It continued to smoke as he dropped it onto the ground.

The other aliens kept coming, but with a confirmed technique for dealing with them, the advantage passed back to the Alphas. Vasily ordered the others on ahead and lured two more silacoids after him with a second grenade, springing out of their path with the things almost on top of him. This time the grenade went off with only part of it embedded in one of the aliens’ bodies; the force of the blast knocked Vasily onto his back, but both aliens were destroyed as violently as the first.

The last of the aliens almost got to Vasily before he could get up, but Jane lunged at it with a vibroblade. The alien pulsed and shifted in mid-lunge, but Jane met it with the alien steel, cutting a deep swath in its body. It surged and smacked her again, knocking her down, but again the other Alphas were quick to intervene, blasting the alien with a point-blank barrage of firepower that transformed it into a sizzling puddle. Mary helped Jane to her feet, while Vasily tried to blink away the sweat pouring down his face. “This just a great place to be, huh,” he said. “Can see why the Chinese signed treaty. They want aliens to build theme park.”

“Nothing in range,” Catalina said, scanning with her motion sensor.

“The one we’re seeking,” Mary said. “He’s here somewhere.”

They made their way forward again through the alien complex, encountering more unfamiliar plants and other growths. Jane recorded it all on her helmet camera, but they didn’t stop to explore the side-chambers, moving steadily forward toward their eventual destination.

Finally they saw something different up ahead; the scattered growths faded away, and the spongy quasi-floor gave way to more regular construction. There was a large set of doors visible in the back of the chamber, but there wasn’t time to look around; a large party of a dozen mutons were waiting for them.

Including one holding a blaster launcher, which it lifted to its shoulder as the Alphas spotted it.

 

[Lazybones]

Session 26 (October 27, 2008)
Chapter 117


The blaster bomb streaked toward its target, detonating in an explosion of coruscating white fusion fire. Its targets were either vaporized, if they were close to the blast, or burned to a crisp and tossed roughly aside, if they were not. There were no survivors.

Catalina lowered the now-empty launcher and blinked.

“Ah… nice shot?” Vasily said.

The bomb had dented the floor and ceiling, and had ripped the doors in the back of the room off their hinges, revealing a short corridor that culminated in another of the anti-gravity lifts. They made their way cautiously forward, the superheated alien material sticking slightly to their boots as they passed through the radius of the blast zone. Blackened smears decorated the corridor, but the lift itself seemed to be intact, ascending to one of the familiar alien iris-doors above.

“It’s close,” Mary said. “I can feel it.”

Vasily stepped into the lift, with Hadrian just a step behind. The lift was large enough for several of them to ascend at once, and the others followed. The iris opened as Vasily approached, opening onto a huge chamber above.

The place was obviously some sort of control room, with machinery, control panels, and display screens all around the perimeter. A holographic depiction of the Earth hovered in the air, eight feet across. There were mutons as well, several of them, armed with plasma guns that they started firing as soon as Vasily appeared.

The alien commander was instantly discernible from the others. The creature was a muton, at least in general physical appearance, but its bodysuit was a garish mix of orange and gold, covering a body that was significantly bulkier than that of its more conventional peers, and it wore a metallic helmet that stretched over an obviously distended skull. It let out a feral roar as it saw the Alphas, who staggered under a pulse of raw mental energy. Vasily took a plasma bolt to the shoulder, while Hadrian took another in the back, but the aliens weren’t using the big cannons, and their battered powered armor held. Jane and Mary opened fire as they reached the top of the lift, while Vasily and Hadrian stepped forward. Vasily blasted one of the mutons in the chest with his cannon, then tossed it down and unlimbered his stun rod, confronting the commander.

“Okay, pal. You and me. Human race. Let’s do it.”

He rushed forward, narrowly avoiding a plasma bolt that streaked inches past his head. Jane blasted the muton who’d fired it a moment later, and the alien collapsed behind a control panel, smoke rising from its savaged leg. Hadrian followed Vasily, firing as he went, and another muton fell, its face a blackened mess.

The commander reached back and hefted what looked like a steel rod, easily six feet long. The rod started to blur as the alien activated a stud in its base, and as Vasily lunged at him it swung the weapon like a club, smashing him across the body. The Russian went down hard, sparks hissing from his dented breastplate. The commander turned toward him, but was briefly distracted by a bright flash of white plasma that scorched his armor, but did little apparent damage.

Hadrian glanced over his shoulder. “Jane, don’t shoot the commander!” he yelled into his helmet comm, charging at the huge muton from behind. He stabbed his own stun rod into its side. There was a hiss of electrical discharge but the alien seemed unaffected, spinning and slashing its rod at the Marine. Hadrian dodged and stabbed it again, driving the rod into its armpit, but the alien kept turning, and smashed him with a cross that flipped him over onto his back.

Vasily was having trouble getting up; his armor had been damaged to the point where it was reluctant to obey his commands. “Cat, stun this guy? You still alive?”

On command, a stun bomb exploded against the commander’s chest, enveloping it vapors. But once again the alien seemed unaffected, stepping through the swirling gas without hesitation. It lowered its rod and pointed it at the Alphas still lingering near the lift; a bright beam of white light pulsed from the end of it, and there was a flash that left Catalina and Mary on their backs, dazed. Jane, a few paces distant, had the muton in her sights, but held her fire. The rest of the aliens were out of the fight, leaving them alone with the commander.

Vasily rose, staggering as the actuators in the left leg of his armored suit whined and bucked. Hadrian had rolled out of the alien’s reach, and was getting up as well. “Stun rod doesn’t do anything to him,” he said.

“Hell it doesn’t,” Vasily said. “Keep trying!”

The two came forward again, flanking the alien between them. Vasily slammed his rod into the alien’s chest, but it countered with a jab of its rod that drove the Russian back and nearly took him off his feet again. Through some last desperate reserve of effort Vasily surged forward again, meeting the alien’s swing with a parry that nearly tore his stun rod in two. He thrust his weapon at the alien’s face, and actually scored along the side of its helmet, but the alien merely reached out and grabbed hold of his wrist, smashing down with the rod in its other hand. The first blow crumpled the armor plate protecting Vasily’s shoulder. The second pounded him in the side of his head, denting his helmet and tearing away the visor.

Hadrian, meanwhile, was stabbing the alien in the back, the neck, the legs, counting off with each hit. Mary shot the commander with her plasma pistol, but it barely heeded the hit, and Jane put a hand on her arm, lowering the weapon. “Mary, can you do something with your mind?”

The Indian doctor shook her head. “I’ll… I’ll try.” She closed her eyes and focused on the alien, groaning as the sheer power of its rage surged over her.

“Six! Seven! Eight!” Hadrian yelled.

“I get it, he tough!” Vasily yelled back. He tried to tear free, but the alien spun him around, knocking Hadrian down. Its iron grip on the Russian didn’t soften in the least, and the alien bent him down to his knees, lifting its rod again. It might have killed him had it struck him on the head once more, but he brought his free arm up, taking the blow but breaking his arm in the process.

Catalina looked on helplessly as the alien battered Vasily. She drew her plasma pistol, but hesitated, unsure what, if anything, she could do to stop it.

Hadrian did not hesitate; he got up again and lifted his plasma cannon. Vasily saw him and yelled, “Not shoot him!” even as the alien jerked him roughly by his pinned wrist, almost breaking that arm as well. The alien pointed its rod at Hadrian, but the Marine stepped into it and knocked it aside even as it discharged another stream of energy that exploded a console ten paces behind him. The muton snapped the weapon across Hadrian’s face, but there wasn’t as much force behind the swing, and he took the blow, coming up almost close enough to touch it. Vasily groaned and pulled with every bit of leverage he could still manage, dragging the alien slightly off balance, pulling its face down even as Hadrian thrust the barrel of his plasma cannon into its helmet and pulled the trigger.

There was a violent explosion and all three combatants were separated and knocked down. The others were running forward, not expecting to find anything left, but the alien commander was still intact, although the left part of its helmet had been blasted away, leaving its face blackened and ruined.

“Oh my god,” Catalina said.

“Use a kit on him now,” Hadrian said, getting up painfully. Mary ran over to Vasily, but he pushed her away, standing unsteadily. “We run out of kits, remember!” he yelled.

Hadrian reached into the satchel at his belt, the one that all of them carried. “I have one,” he said, taking out the last precious injector carrying alien biotic material. He bent down and stabbed it into the alien’s thick neck.

“Is it going to live?” Catalina asked. Mary knelt next to the alien commander, while Hadrian took out restraints to secure its hands and feet. “I don’t know,” Mary said, after a moment. “It’s alive, for now.”

Catalina limped over to Vasily. “Can we get out of here? They had time to call reinforcements.”

Vasily painfully unlimbered the atomic bomb, and laid it in the floor. It only took a few seconds to arm the device and activate the timer. “Time to go,” he said.

“What about him?” Jane asked, pointing at the unconscious alien.

Vasily nodded at Hadrian, who helped him get the alien to its feet. With Vasily favoring his crippled arm, the two carried him between them, grunting under its weight. They made their way back to the lift, as a timer appeared in the lower right-hand corner of the VDUs of those whose visors were still working. The digits slowly counted down as they made their way down the lift, then back out through the complex. Vasily and Hadrian were moving slowly, both because of the awkward weight of the commander and the damage the two had suffered to their powered armor and their bodies. By the time that they made their way back to the first level of the base, the counter was ticking toward eight minutes left.

“Guess we better hope Lightning still fly, huh?” Vasily said, as Catalina and Jane cleared the way ahead. They encountered one wounded muton who got an inaccurate shot off before the women finished it off with a pair of plasma bolts. The rest of the base was empty, and they let out a relieved sigh as they saw the light of the shaft leading back up ahead of them.

“Ken, fire her up!” Catalina said, as soon as they’d cleared the entrance, and their comm units were clear of interference.

“What’s up!” the pilot’s voice came back to them. Their timers had passed six minutes, and continued to pulse downward.

“Bomb live!” Catalina said. “We’re coming!”

“Damn it, I could have used some notice!” the pilot shot back.

“Get stasis chamber ready too,” Vasily said. “We got commander, but he kind of half-dead.”

They hurried down the hill and back through the forest. They had a few hundred meters to cover, and all of them were helping each other now, with everyone but Mary carrying part of the commander. By the time that they saw the Lightning ahead through the trees, the clock had ticked down to less than two minutes.

“Is Lightning fly?” Vasily asked, as they approached. The rear hatch was open, and they could see parts scattered along the length of the wing, the engine housing cracked open. The damage that the ship had suffered earlier was emphasized from their current perspective.

“Working on it!” Ken’s voice came over their headsets. A high-pitched whine came from the ship.

They boarded the craft. Vasily cracked the stasis unit open, which seemed tiny in contrast to the bulk of the alien commander. “Oof, this one is fat,” he said, trying to wedge the muton into the compartment. “Fatter than Allen.” With Catalina’s help they were able to get the thing fully inside, and the closed the chamber, which hissed as it sealed shut. In the meantime Hadrian and Jane were struggling with the exit hatch, which had been damaged and didn’t fit cleanly into its mounting, the hydraulic systems that normally managed it inoperable.

An alarm sounded in the passenger compartment and pulsed twice before dying. “Ken!” Vasily yelled.

They could hear the pilot’s curses through the cockpit hatch. “Damn it! Hold on… overriding safeties…”

“Safety be damned, it’s going to be really unsafe here in two minutes,” Catalina said.

“Okay, here we go…” Ken said. The engines started revving up, although the sound coming from the one on the right side of the craft sounded anything but healthy. Cursing, Hadrian closed the rear hatch as much as it would go and then jammed the barrel of his handgun into the gap, hopefully wedging it shut. The Alphas got into their seats, but Jane flinched back as sparks erupted from a console near her position.

“To hell with it!” Ken yelled. “Firing main thrusters, hope we don’t explode!”

The ship lurched into the air, the entire Lightning wobbling like a toy boat in a whirlpool. A conduit near the damaged console exploded outward, and flames flickered into the compartment. Jane grabbed a fire extinguisher and blasted the conduit, then was almost flung out the back as the ship shot forward roughly. Hadrian and Mary were able to catch her before she was knocked into Hadrian’s jury-rigged hatch.

“Gyaa, come on, alien plane, we not want to die!” Vasily exclaimed. The engines roared as the Lightning continued its erratic flight. Through the gap in the hatch they could see the landscape shooting past, not far below them.

“Just… gah, just out of China Ken, just out of China!” Catalina yelled, as the counter clicked down to single digits, and then down…

The Lightning was jolted under them, as though it had been kicked by a giant. For a single terrifying moment they could feel it tilt downward, then Ken corrected, and they again surged up into the sky. The aircraft continued to buck and rattle for another fifteen seconds, and then the turbulence eased, and they continued on a more or less level flight plan.

“Okay,” Ken reported. “We’re clear.”

The Alphas let out a collective sigh of relief. “Setting course back to base,” Ken reported. “What signal should I send to HQX?”

Vasily looked at the others. “Mission accomplished,” he said, then he promptly leaned back and passed out.

 

[Richard Rawen]

Great edge-of-the-seat story! I loved Hadrian 'counting off' on the leader heh heh. I was surprised that Cat wasn't the one that finally shot it down, the way it was simply manhandling both the 'tanks' especially.
Well, now hopefully they can get some useful data off of it.
and... well, I only say this because the game is already played out:
given the barely token resistance to getting him out... I hope it wasn't all yet another set-up, with the Leader capable of disabling their defenses or somesuch... *cringes*

 

[Lazybones]

Great edge-of-the-seat story! I loved Hadrian 'counting off' on the leader heh heh.

Yeah, he actually did that in-game. I think that the muton's fortitude was too high for the stun rod to have an effect unless he rolled a 1 on his save, so they improvised.

* * * * *

Interlude: Aftermath (October 28-- , 2008)

FROM: DR. KIMBERLY WAGNER, X-COM RESEARCH LEAD
TO: MEMBERS, ALPHA TEAM
CC: MICHAEL GARRET, GRACE THELON BELUCA, AGENT INISE DRAKE
RE: Research/Manufacturing Progress Report

The base attack mission had its hiccups, but we got what we needed. Research of the Muton Commander should be given top priority. The Avenger experimental craft has been completed and is undergoing preliminary flight testing.

There is only one thing keeping us from launching the final mission to attack the alien Mars base. Our Elerium-115 supplies have been dwindling in recent weeks, and due to the decline in alien activity we have not been able to replenish our supply. We will need an infusion of new Elerium before we can launch our attack. Expect a new briefing soon as we explore our alternatives; until then, all Elerium-based activities and projects are on standby mode. Research and manufacturing activities will not be affected unless our supply of Elerium drops to a level insufficient to power our main reactor.

* * *

Note: there were a lot of great player posts on the research and manufacturing priorities this week. They are all in the original thread over at Neverwinter Connections, but for the sake of keeping the story posting manageable I just selected these two, from Smart_Alec and Jenniza. They focus on the progress on the Experimental Heavy Armor project.

* * *

"When you're ready, Mr. Kasprjak."

It was a strange feeling, but as time went on, an amazing one, too. The weight was negligible, as he'd come to expect from the powered suits, but there was more to this. The exoskeleton was stiff and unresponsive to start with, making Vasily feel as if he was walking underwater, but Grace and her chirpy techs explained that as the suit's computer gradually adjusted to his movements, it would improve.

And, hour by hour, it did. As he stomped around the lab, flexing his arms, twisting from side to side, bending back and forth - and as Jane and the technicians gradually fitted and welded new plates to what slowly became a suit of armor, there came a feeling not just of freedom, but of power. By the time the legs were complete, he was leaping three feet off the floor; as the welding efforts reached his chest, he was lifting fifty kilograms with each arm, over and over, as easily as if the dumbbells were bags of groceries. There was no weight, no strain - almost an out-of-body experience, if not for the fact that it was under his control. The physical strength of the Muton Commander had been immense, and he'd looked back and realized he'd been lucky to hold his own for as long as he had as it had beaten him bloody. He'd been saved from death at the inhuman slab of muscle's hands only by Mary's mind powers and Hadrian's pinpoint shooting. Next time, if there was a next time, things would not be so uneven.

By the time the helmet was being fashioned and the suit was decoupled from the external power source, he was pulling handstands up against the wall, to the surprise of those who'd dropped by to watch. It was the first time in a long time, he realized, lifted off the floor by power-assisted limbs, that he'd seen everyone in a room smile: the technicians, the spectators, and of course, himself.

***

The high hadn't quite worn off as he marched to the barracks shower block, determined not to attend the day's psi-training session covered in sweat, when he almost walked into a familiar face at the rec room door; Agents Drake, Johnson and Johnson loomed in the doorway, intent on the lift. Both sides stopped and took stock of who they faced, wearing mutual cool stares and disapproving sneers.

He stepped back to let them pass, but she merely took a few steps through before turning to face him, folding her arms, letting the Johnsons pass on behind her, waiting for an apology, or possibly just trying to think of an appropriate remark. He broke the silence first.

"Cataleena say I can't hit you."

Drake raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "And she'd be right, Crackerja- hey! Y- mmf!"

So he kissed her instead.

It took her by surprise, that was for sure. She'd not expected him to do anything, or simply hadn't expected a grab-and-hold like this one. He didn't know what inspired it - an unusually whimsical mood, perhaps - but the outraged, off-balance expression on her face for those few moments afterwards was truly hilarious, with the backhand she lay across his jaw before stalking off forming the literal punchline. Judging from the looks the Chief and the lift guards were giving him, they were probably inclined to agree, and though Drake's two shadows were unreadable as ever, they left without remark, which was an answer in itself, in a way.

Allowing himself a self-satisfied moment of triumph, Vasily walked through the open door, Vasily strolled into the rec room.

***

It was, therefore, a relaxed and upbeat Vasily Kasprjak who came to the psi-lab that day, wandering over to the chair with a spring in his step and accepting the headgear without his usual grimace.

"Okay," he asserted. "Hit me with your best shot."

Frankly, at that moment, he felt like he could tear Mars down from the sky by himself.

* * *

Once Vasily left after the initial series of tests, Jane huddled the team around some schematics she'd been working on.

One of the engineers looked at them, "Are you sure about this?"

Jane grinned, "I've had worse hair-brained ideas."

Another looked at Jane, "Yeah, but are you sure he'd go for this?"

A bunch of engineers began to debate.

"He'd have to be nuts to try this"

"I don't know, think about the possibilities."

"But think about the risks."

"What if he pukes?"

"That man has the constitution of a bull elephant."

"Can he control the systems?"

"With training, I suppose."

"But can we even build it?"

"We won't know until we try."

Grace wrapped it up, "Then we proceed with the plans to add flight systems to the Experimental Heavy Armor."

* * *

After the frenetic buildup to the base attack mission, the aftermath came as a bit of an anticlimax.

The interrogation of the Muton Commander went well enough, although Cat's attempts to analyze the alien's language led to some dead-ends for the research team. Overall the research was frustrating and intense, although by the end of the week, the biological sciences team was sending coordinates to the physical sciences team. Work began on planning for the Mars mission.

(Cat: roll of 3 on Linguistics skill, no benefit)

Work was also started on the second-generation of the regen serum. Early results met expectations, but there wais a setback as Mary accidentally deletes a whole directory of important files on one of the research workstations. The work continued, and the problem was eventually overcome as the techs were able to recover a partial backup off the mainframe, but the project ended up well behind schedule after the first week of work.

(Mary: roll of 1 on Biology skill, -2 researcher/weeks on project)

The Experimental Heavy Armor project, on the other hand, went better than expected. Jane was able to solve a tricky problem with the joint actuators, which helped to free up some engineers to help work on producing more medikits. The "flying" upgrade was more doubtful, although an emergency thrust-augmented hydraulic boost system is installed that would allow Vasily to make prodigious leaps—if he didn’t lose control and slam into a rock face at 100kph.

(While there was flying armor in the original X-COM, it didn’t really fit that well into the NWN engine.)

Two units of Regen Serum and seven extra medikits were produced, and both lines were primed for full output before the Mars mission is launched. The regen project was prepared with the new information from the Serum 2 research, so that future manufacturing of the serum lines could produce the upgraded product, if that research was completed on time.

(Jane: roll of 13 on Craft Mechanical, +17, for a Complete Success result)
(James: roll of 14 on Craft Pharma, +14, for a Major Success result)

After the impressive results from the previous week's training, the following week in the Psi Lab resulted more in frustration than celebration. However, Doctor Allen continued his streak of remarkable progress on the psi training assessments.

Will save vs. DC15 (+1 per point >14 on roll)
+1 to roll for IC posting.

Jane: roll (1 + 11 + 1) +0 bonus
Cat: roll (3 + 6 + 1) = +0 bonus
Vasily: roll (7 + 5) = +0 bonus
Mary: roll (3 + 12 +1) = +2 bonus
James: roll (15 + 12 +1) = +14 bonus
Hadrian: roll (13 + 9 - 1) = +7 bonus