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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4935549" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 3 (April 28, 2008)Chapter 9Vasily 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.</blockquote>

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