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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5067689" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 14 (July 14, 2008)Chapter 47The spray of hot water rushed over Vasily’s face, trailing down his body to pool before draining away through the vents in the floor.  He stood there, his hands pressed up against the cold tiles of the wall, letting the water pour into him.  He closed his eyes, knowing what he’d see. The shower was clean, antiseptic, but he could again smell the smoke that had hung in the room like a bank of thick fog.  He couldn’t see where he was going, and there was a loud ringing in his ears that muted the noise from the several fires that burned around the perimeter of the room.  He had come upon the body, barely recognizable, her lab coat now a blackened ruin, though not enough to hide the wound from the plasma bolt that had caught her just a few inches from the plastic badge that was affixed just below the collar.  Irene Jannsen, the badge read.  She’d been new to X-COM, just a few days since her arrival to bolster Stan on the base’s medical team.  He hadn’t even had a chance to meet her. With an aggressive shake of his head, he shut off the water and leaned out for the rack holding his towel.  The movement sent a twinge of pain through his leg, a feeling that he quashed ruthlessly.  He shouldn’t be walking at all, he knew.  It was getting weird, to see people on the brink of death up and about just a few days later. He dried off and headed back into the outer part of the locker room.  Buzz was there, shaving.  He nodded to Vasily.  The Russian pretended that he didn’t see the other man’s hand shake as he lifted the razor back up to his throat. Vasily’s hands didn’t shake.  But that didn’t mean that the Russian was unaffected by everything that had happened.  In particular, he kept thinking about the episode in the middle of the battle in the hangar, when he’d suddenly froze up, unable to do anything but watch as Jane had gotten shot up right in front of him.  When he finally got back to the barracks, he saw the former agent opening the door ahead of him.  “Jane,” he said, in greeting.  “Alive and walking,” she said, with a smile, moving into the barracks ahead of him.  She looked pale, and it was obvious that the strain of her near-death experience had left its mark on her.  Catalina came around the partition that separated the male and female parts of the barracks.  “It’s good to see you walking,” she said.  She looked up at Vasily, as he tossed his personal bag into his locker.  “Are we going to take the fight to them?” she asked him. “Don’t know.  Will be told in briefing I guess.”As if summoned by his words, the familiar alarm sound rang from the speakers in the ceiling above.  “Alpha Team, report to the briefing room at once.  Alpha Team, repot to the briefing room at once.”“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” Catalina said, heading back to her locker to get her jacket.  Vasily and the two women headed for the briefing room.  As the entered the lounge, James and Buzz came in from the outer corridor and joined them.  “What’s up?” James asked. “Don’t know yet,” Vasily said, opening the door to the briefing room.  Doctor Wagner and Grace were already there, and Agent Drake and Director Garret came in on the heels of the Alphas, moving quickly to their usual positions around the table.  “Report,” Garret said.  “An alien ship just landed in the Rockies,” Wagner said.  She put the detection track on the big screen as the others sat down, showing a red track that entered the atmosphere over eastern Montana, stabbing southward like a thin knife. “Why didn’t we pick it up before?” “We’re still working on getting our radar grid back up,” Grace said.  “We hooked into the Americans’ network, but the aliens have played havoc with major installations in orbit and on the—”Garret interrupted her with a raised hand.  “Kim, where’s the ship?”Wagner’s fingers danced over her keyboard, and the track sharpened to a point that formed a bright dot over southeastern Wyoming.  “The alien ship has landed in a suburb of Cheyenne, Wyoming.”  “Urban again?” Catalina asked. “It’s atacked a retail district,” Wagner said.  “American fighters engaged the craft and were repulsed.”  She pored over the data that streamed across her screen.  “The hyperwave data reports… sectoids.  Looks like another terror attack.”“We’re going to have to hurry if we want to stop them,” Catalina said.  Garret activated the communicator on his console.  “Ken, you got the Ranger ready to go?”The voice that came back was overlaid with just a hint of static.  “We’re still working on the repairs from the base attack,” Ken said.  “I’ve got one of the strut assemblies torn down, going to need a few more hours—”Garret didn’t let him finish.  “We don’t have a few hours.  Prepare to dust off in five minutes.”“But sir…”“Ken, can you or can’t you take off in five minutes?”There was a momentary pause.  “Ah… yes, sir.  I’ll get you there.  No guarantee on getting back, but yeah.  I’ll have her ready.”Garret looked up at the members of Alpha Team.  “You heard the man.”Vasily stood.  “We go.  Now.”Ken was standing by the hatch of the Skyranger as the members of Alpha Team entered the hangar.  Most of them were still buckling straps on their armor and checking weapons.  “You sure about this?” the pilot asked.“Not me,” James said.  “I’d rather be safe than sorry.”“A risk, or hundreds of civilian casualties?” Catalina asked.  “Well, I haven’t had a chance to run a full series of tests,” Ken said, boarding the craft ahead of them.  He headed for the small hatch that led into the forward compartment. “Doesn’t look like you will,” James said. “We soldiers, this war,” Vasily said.  “It pretty simple.”“Okay then,” Ken said, popping the hatch.  They strapped themselves into their seats as the engines on the Skyranger began to cycle.  Ken had already warmed them up, and it took only about twenty seconds before he had them at full power.  The Skyranger trembled as the hatch behind them slowly lifted and latched shut.  “Hope you didn’t use up all your luck in Vegas,” Ken said over the intercom. “Where does your mom live, Ken?” Catalina asked.“My mom?  Pasadena, why?”“If it was there, then…”“Right, right,” the pilot said.  “Here we go.  But if we don’t crash, you each owe me a coke.”“I’ll buy you a case of cokes, Ken, if you get us there safely,” Jane said. The engines roared, and the ship leapt forward, lifting into the air as soon as it had cleared the outer doors of the hangar.“I always hate this part,” Buzz said, as the acceleration drove him back into his seat.  The aircraft groaned as Ken pushed it to its limits.  Catalina held onto the armrests of her seat and grimaced.  Vasily checked to make sure his autocannon was secure in its restraint.  “Simple shooting,” he said.  “Not bother with tear gas, they got masks.”They heard a rumbling noise that came from the belly of the ship, followed by a sound that resembled a garbage disposal with a fork stuck in it. “I don’t think that’s supposed to—” Buzz began, but he was cut off as the compartment suddenly exploded with flame.</blockquote>

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