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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4940053" data-attributes="member: 143">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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />* * * * * Session 4 (May 5, 2008)Chapter 10Eleven 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.</blockquote>

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