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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5097923" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 16 (August 4, 2008)Chapter 56Author’s note: As I noted in the first post, I dropped or modified a few characters whose players only appeared for a few sessions of the campaign.  “Moshe Yahav” was one of these (his player only showed up for two games); the new character who arrives in this post was another. Initially the new character who arrives in this session was a player character, but I’ve replaced her with a character that I ran in my own playthrough of the X-COM campaign, in Mulu’s Sunday morning run. I’ve adjusted the PC dialogue to accommodate the changes, and made a few tweaks to the plot as well.When Catalina emerged from the Royal Air Force BAe 125 and stepped down onto the tarmac of Creech Air Force Base, she was surprised to find Inise Drake and another woman waiting for her.  She didn’t get along with her American counterpart in the best of times, but having just spend the last four days dealing with the aftermath of the France fiasco—including a brief sixteen-hour foray into Bayeaux to meet with representatives of the nascent French resistance—she was not at all pleased to see Drake at all.  “Long trip?” Drake asked.  Catalina bit back a biting comment; if Drake was going to play nice, damned if she’d give her the satisfaction of losing her cool.  “Oh, nothing too bad,” she said.  “Is there something I can do for you, agent?” Drake’s expression suggested that perhaps Catalina had laid on the sweet a bit too thick.  But after a moment, she shook her head and said, “This is Cecilia Sharp of the FBI, attached to the Special Extraterrestrial Unit of the Department of Homeland Security.  She’s going to be a new addition to Alpha.  I have to be back in Washington by six o’clock, and thought you could take her on to HQX, get her set up.”Catalina raised an eyebrow, and gave the other woman a more thorough look.  She looked young, was young, but there was a certain hardness in her eyes that suggested that she’d experienced more than her age would suggest.  Like Drake, she looked as though she didn’t have a spare kilo of unnecessary body fat on her lithe frame.  Unlike the agent she’d let her black hair grow long, but it was tied back in a tight bun, without a single stray lock dangling free.“Want to make sure you Yanks are a majority on Alpha, eh, agent?” Catalina asked.  “Have to keep we foreigners from gumming up the works.” “You said it, not me,” Drake said.  “I have to go.  Agent Sharp, I trust that you can find your own way from here.”“Yes, Agent,” the woman said.  She picked up a small backpack lying by her feet, then had to hurry to keep up with Catalina, who was already heading for the big all-terrain vehicle waiting beside the hangar.  The younger woman didn’t try to make small talk, which was fine from Catalina’s perspective.  The ride was as uncomfortable as it had been the first time, but despite herself, Catalina found herself drifting, and finally slipped away into sleep. She woke suddenly, with a stabbing twinge in her back as a reminder of her nap.  The vehicle had come to a stop.  She felt anything but refreshed, but as she looked up to see Sharp looking at her, she stopped herself from knuckling her back and grimacing.  “Come on,” she said, stepping out into the warmth of a Nevada evening.  The sun had set during the ride, but the evening breeze hadn’t yet started up, and the ground continued to radiate the heat it had soaked up during the long day. The topside facility looked deserted, as always.  They entered the ramshackle building, and showed their IDs to the guard on duty there.  Catalina led the way to the lift.  “Here we go,” she said, triggering the control that started the platform’s rapid descent.  The simple statement seemed to have eased the tension between the two of them a fraction.  “I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to be doing here,” Cecilia said. “Fight aliens, save the planet, stay alive,” Catalina said.  “And make coffee,” she added, with a slight twitch of a smile.Cecilia looked over at her, and her own mouth twitched.  “Milk and sugar?”The lift groaned to a stop, and Catalina lifted the mesh barrier.  “Just don’t offer it to the Mexican, he’ll want it delivered in bed.”  She turned as Hallorand walked up to them, and offered a lazy salute.  “Hey, chief.  Miss me?”Cecilia’s salute was crisper, and she came to attention when she gave it, leading Catalina to wonder if she was former military.  “Special Agent Sharp reporting, sir,” she said.  “At ease, agent,” the chief said, offering her his hand.  After a moment, she took it.  “Good to have you on board.  I was just heading to the hangar to meet with the engineering team working on the upgrades for our new aircraft.  If we ever get the damned thing built.”“The Firestorm?” Catalina asked.  “I was starting to wonder if the thing really existed.”“Well, once it’s done, it may give us a fighting chance in the skies against those alien bastards.  Anyway, I’m late.  Catalina.  Agent Sharp.”“Come on, let’s show you the facilities,” Catalina said, taking her down the corridor toward the lounge.</blockquote>

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