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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4930818" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 3 (April 28, 2008)Chapter 7The 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.</blockquote>

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