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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5259671" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, the stunners didn't work all that great against mutons (nothing really did, except for the Blaster Launcher), but the Alphas had better armor this time around. * * * * * Session 25 (October 20, 2008)Chapter 109There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.  With the two groups separated by maybe twenty meters of water and sand, it was almost impossible to miss. But the Alphas were ready, and even as the mutons started shooting, their return fire was slamming into the half-ring of green bodies.  Both sides had heavy weaponry, but both likewise had the best possible protection their side offered, the Alphas with Grace’s latest generation of powered armor, the mutons their genetically-engineered hides overlaid with the bright green suits of flexible alien alloys. Mary was knocked off her feet by a pair of blasts that bracketed her shoulders; she landed with a splash in a shallow pool of water.  Jane was at her side in moments, but even as she reached for the Indian doctor, another plasma bolt exploded against her side, almost knocking her onto her fallen companion.  Jane reached out and grabbed the doctor’s shoulder. “Mary, back up!” “Fall back to the Lightning!” Vasily yelled over the chatter of his autocannon as he bored armor-piercing shells into the chest of the nearest muton.  The alien simply absorbed the blasts, but several rounds struck its cannon, rendering it inoperable.  The alien dropped the useless gun and reached down to its hip; the green suit split to reveal a fat vibroblade, which began to hum as soon as it grasped the hilt.  Catalina fired the stun launcher, scoring a direct hit on one of the mutons.  The alien absorbed the full effect of the discharge, but it merely swayed for a few seconds, slightly dazed, before it resumed firing.  The stun bomb had some minor lingering effect, throwing off the alien’s aim; its first two shots went high, the heavy cannon jerking unsteadily in the muton’s hands.  Catalina loaded another bomb into the firing mechanism, but another muton blasted her in the hip, and she was spun around by the impact, falling into the sand, the launcher flying out of her grasp to land a few feet away.  “Argh!” she yelled, reaching for her plasma pistol. The alien lowered its aim to finish her off, but before it could fire again it was blasted by a bolt from Hadrian’s plasma cannon.  The bolt impacted it in the forehead, and for a moment its face was enveloped in a white-hot cloud of superheated gas.  When the explosion faded the alien’s head was a blackened mess of char, and yet somehow the alien not only stayed standing, but it kept shooting.  Fortunately its blind shots missed the Alphas, although one blast cleared Vasily’s head by scant inches, sizzling as it flashed past him. The Alphas gave ground, Jane helping Mary to her feet, while James did the same for Catalina.  Plasma bolts struck Hadrian and Vasily, but the heavily armored soldiers withstood the impacts, grunting as the heat of the explosions seared them through both through the armored plates and the insulated suits they wore under them.  Mary drew out her pistol and tried to draw a bead on an alien, her armor grinding as she tried to steady herself. “Mary, stay behind us!” Hadrian yelled at her, blasting a muton as it shifted its aim back toward her.  Once again he hit, boring a black hole into the emerald armor covering its chest.  Once again the alien remained standing, and it fired back, striking the Marine in the leg, knocking him down roughly to one knee.  Hadrian snarled and shot the muton almost on top of the initial point of impact, driving the hot plasma into its body cavity, a bright flare that finally took it out. James was hit in the shoulder, and both he and Catalina fell, the doctor’s heavy armor gouging a deep pit in the soft sand.  He lined up a shot from his back, and struck the alien that had shot him in the groin.  The mutons seemed to have no vulnerable parts of their anatomy, however, and the alien fired again, its shot striking the sand near James’s head, close enough to flash over the visor of his helmet, leaving one side of it streaked with black.  Vasily continued to pour rounds into the alien closing on him, the bullets carving gouts in its armored torso.  It kept on coming, but the loose sand slowed it, and the sheer force of Vasily’s barrage kept it from finding stable footing.  It got to within five paces before it faltered, stumbling to one knee, still clutching the deadly vibroblade in its hand.  Vasily screamed at it as he unleashed the last rounds in his magazine at it, the barrels of his cannon glowing bright red as smoke hissed from the mechanism of the weapon.  He slammed the release and dropped the weapon, unholstering his plasma pistol in the same motion, looking for the next target. But the battle was already done.  The mutons had absorbed a massive amount of firepower, but even they could only absorb so much punishment.  Two others had discharged their power cells fully, and instead of stopping to reload, had simply started moving forward, taking out vibroblades as they’d come.  They fell only seconds after Vasily’s foe finally toppled forward, their bodies blasted into wreckage by the firepower of the Alphas. “Reload!” Vasily yelled, as Hadrian, beside him, calmly did just that.  “Stay sharp.”Catalina grimaced as she rose, rubbing at her charred flank.  “Any other funny feelings, doc?” she asked James, who took off his helmet and reached for his medical satchel as he rolled over into an awkward crouch.  His heavy armor had already dug a small trench in the sand, and more of it went flying as he moved.  “I feel like you’re thinking naughty thoughts,” James returned. “Trust me, only ones concerning burying six feet under,” Catalina said, extending a hand to help him to his feet.  Jane was helping Mary, who’d absorbed the most punishment during the brief battle, but seemed to be intact.  Her armor groaned as she moved, but there was nothing they could do about that now.“Allen?” Vasily asked.  “You sense anything?”James shook his head.  “Nothing right now, I guess.”“Come on,” Vasily said.  “They probably trying to fix engines right now.”  He started trudging through the sand toward the damaged ship.  Hadrian followed after him.  The ship hadn’t moved since their arrival, and the gentle surges within the lagoon continued to wash over its half-buried hull.  Vasily poked at a long gash in the ship’s side, while Hadrian moved to the hatch at the rear of the craft.  Vasily started after him, as the Marine worked the mechanism and opened the doorway.  The interior of the large scout was a familiar format, and Hadrian could see directly down the main corridor, which was flanked by bulky pods that seemed to be attached directly to the interior of the hull.  Their purpose was obvious as the pods were open, revealing recesses roughly the shape and size of a muton soldier.  The main compartment of the craft had been streamlined to make room for the pods, and even from the entry Hadrian could see the bright glow of the Elerium storage pods forward, in between a pair of consoles that jutted out into the central space, like claws.  In the narrow space that led into the control compartment, he could see the pilot, a sectoid, which jerked as it lifted its plasma pistol, not at Hadrian, but at the source of the blue glow. “Oh, sh—” Hadrian began, lifting his weapon, knowing it was too late even before the alien fired. The explosion flashed around him, flaring down the central corridor of the ship, shooting him out the open hatch like a bullet from the barrel of a gun.</blockquote>

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