XCAS Roleplay

DragonHawk · February 4, 2003

With respect to the Kabrons, they've all been interrogated, but as can be imagined, they offer nothing new to us. Some of them have been enlisted to do dumb crap jobs around base, but none at this point are entering combat. Feel free to use pirates as your storyline b****es... you know, cleaning bulkheads, errand boys, whatever.

With regards to the time difference... I'm not sure what you're referring to. I thought the time difference was 3 years, not 30. At any rate, the original wormhole not only buggered us up in terms of space, but also in time, and we don't necessarily feel the effects. I hope that's clear... but more likely, it's mud. >>

Loonie · February 4, 2003

Kacur was observing the vast jungles on the planet for which no name or coordinates were given at the top of the screen. He looked at a pink square located in the planet's southern hemisphere with several UFOs trailing from it towards the alien fleet in orbit of the planet. There in that region six of his comrades were captured without a doubt. And there would be no quick mission to rescue them either as the Ascidian forces were unable to provide anything more than perhaps a squad or two of their soldiers. There were even two Red Skull memebers but they could only do so much to extract the six captives.

The alien fleet could not have been removed either as their contingent equaled the Ascidians' in force though in size there were even more UFOs than there were craft in the Ascidian fleet. The aliens didn't want to attack as they couldn't risk losing their supplies to finish the base, whilst the Ascidians couldn't break up the party without suffering extreme casualties if not losing the entire fleet - something which either way wouldn't be appreciated too well by the High Council given that their forces were streched out quite thinly at the moment. The aliens of course didn't mind this stalemate that much as their mission was proceeding as planned whilst the two fleets kept over the planet. There was no chance of Ascidian reinforcements either, something that the Ascidian Admiral Hep'lagun'ah knew all too well. The only hope was to secure the planet's surface and thus prevent the aliens from getting a foothold in it. Something that simply could not have been achieved without the six captured people.

Kacur didn't like the images that he saw from Jacksons' camera at all. From what he could tell the Ascidian Grey Skulls had apparently failed to provide the correct pre-mission intelligence and as a result the 6 X-Com soldiers faced a battalion of Sectoids armed with heavy plasma weaponry and several Cyberdisks, whilst they themselves only sported the lightest conventional X-Com weapons. The mission was destined to fail from the very moment that their transport sank in that bog.

Jacksons' camera also revealed something disturbing. Though he could tell that all of the other people had been stunned due to the comms chatter that occured in the last seconds of the battle, he could not confirm Daniel himself as being stunned, especially since he saw no stun explosion before Jackson had fallen down. Actually Kacur was pretty much sure that Daniel was dead as he saw a Cyberdisc approach him a split second before he had gone down. And Cyberdiscs do NOT take prisoners...

It filled Kacur with great sadness. Jacko had made quite an impression on him and on all of the team. After he started being his confidant Kacur had grown to not just to pity him because of his childhood, but even respect and pride that he had made it this far despite his awful luck at the beginning of his life. He felt quite responsible for him in fact and responsible that he survives. But now it was all over...

"So. This is how Necro felt when he lost Silver, Stockhart and Rodriguez..."

Martin wiped a tear out of his eye and went over to his bunk on the Ascidian vessel. He would take 10 minutes to remember the good times he had with Jackson and then let him go. He had to. He KNEW he had to...

<<Okay. How about some of you captured folk posting about your stay at the Sectoid Hilton :blink: >>

Chrysalid_zombie · February 5, 2003

<< ::Wipes tear from eye:: touching man... touching. Can't wait for your reaction in-sim when you find us :blink: . I dunno about you, but I feel like a serious post. Warning! I'm feeling creative in a drama like way!>>

Blackness surrounded him, engulfed him. There was nothing but the blackness, which wasn't just a lack of light like darkness was, it was the opposite of light. More importantly it was Jackson's blackness, and he was alone in it as far as he knew. What was that? Voices? Chittering? His head ached too much to tell right now.

The mummbling was there again, always in the blackness, always out of sight. Was it taunting him? Asking for help? So many questions, and no way to answer them until his head started working again. A thought came from the turbulent mess of his mind. "The bastards took your glasses."

Was that him talking? He couldn't even tell if his own mind was his anymore.

A burst of pain.

Then blinding white light... And darkness again. The mummbling grew louder, more clear.

Voice: Frieendssssssss

The long hiss at the end; was it his hearing going wrong?

Voice: Friiieeeendddssssss.... We.

Another burst of pain and light. Something was there this time... An image. It was gone in a split second, like a single frame in a film. The voice returned, louder, even more clear.

Voice: Your frieeendsssss we.....

The flash again, this time with less pain... And the image. It flickered by too fast to see again. It was getting wierd. Daniel wanted to throw up... How do you throw up? He couldn't percieve anything like a throat or gut... Just the blackness...

Voice: We, Friiieeenddddsssss you.

Who are you??!?

Daniel just seemed to think the words, but he could hear them.

Voice: We... your friieendssss....

Pain, flash, image. Pain, flash, image.

~~~~ Meanwhile ~~~~

Weindhoven looked through the cells. The aliens hadn't finished their containment area properly yet, so the prisoners could still communicate, but it didn't matter. The humans could never escape a base this size...

The team looked out to the main 'operating theatre' were the aliens were busy. All they could see was Jackson surorunded by Sectoids, lying still on a table. Instead of the probes they were expecting, they could only see Sectoids, though they were obscuring most of the view. Only Jackson's legs were fully visable, and one of those had been disected, the mechanical one. The aliens seemed to be confused by the fusion of Ascidian and Human technology in this individual.

Weindhoven: *leaning over to Ilyushenko's cell* What the hell are they doing to him?

Ilyuschenko: The nice way to put it is questioning him. They're trying to get our secrets.

Necro: And they can't just psi-scan them out?

Ilyuschenko: Nope, Psi can take over the person, even view them from afar, but information is hard to get out. It looks like they chose Jackson to tell them what they need to know.

Weindhoven: Why the hell not me? I'm the CMDR here, they must know that by now.

Ilyuschenko: I think it's because Jacko has the lowest psi-skill rating. More or less totally open to their powers. I've tried getting through to him, but they blocked me after a few seconds. He was confused and scared from what I sensed. But I think... There's something else going on we can't see.

Necro: Like in his head?

Ilyuschenko: I don't know, but they seem interested in his leg, even though they must have seen hundreds like it on Ascidian troops...

~~~~ The Blackness ~~~~

What was going on now? The blackness was changing shape. Changing into something he knew, one tiny dot at a time. After a minute or so he was standing inside the NAO, but it wasn't. The blackness was still there, just out of view. Daniel could still sense it behind him, lurking out of sight. He spun around to try and see it, he seemed to be himself, and in NAO. The blackness wasn't behind him then... But he could still sense it.

A figure stood there in the corridor. It was tall, skinny, and it held what looked like an autocannon. It looked like Necro.

Necro: Hey there. Wanna go outside, look at the planet?

Jackson: Necro?

A flash again, a blinding flash, but the image was clearer. Necro's face flashed to that of a Sectoids and back again in less than the blink of an eye.

Jackson: What are you!?!

The blackness was back in an instant. Nothing replaced everything.

Voice: We are your friiieennddsss...

Jackson: Wh... who are you? W..W... Why am I here?

Voice: Friieendssss we...

A flash of white light, and he was standing on a train platform... He remembered this place. He left to go to X-com from this place. He'd ran away from his foster home again, finally getting past the security with a fake pass he'd made. He'd escaped through this place...

Voice: Thissss Earthsss?

Jackson: What?

~~~~ Cells ~~~~

The group looked on as the Sectoids just stood around Jackson's motionless body. They couldn't see anything above his legs, one of which was still being taken apart, the Alien technicians scratching their heads every few minutes and then removing another part.

One of the Sectoids in the questioning group moved away from Jackson, obviously tired from the psionic efforts it had been making. It allowed the team just a glimps of what was happening. They saw Daniel's eyes, looking blankly ahead as they always did without his glasses. The glassess were next to him, on another table. The wire connecting them to the optic link was still there, but no longer lead to the glasses. Instead it ran into some kind of computer terminal.

Ilyuschenko: That's why they chose him. They can change what he sees without psionic effort. I doubt we have long.

Necro: So they're just changing what he sees with that computer? I take it that's bad?

Ilyuschenko: Now that they control what he sees they can easily change his entire reality. By the end of the day he could think he's a floater soldier

called Sparky and be telling them where NAO is... Along with any number of Ascidian bases and planets. We expecting rescue soon CMDR?

Weindhoven: The rest of the team might try to save us... But they wouldn't just charge in straight away. I think I can guess what you're about to say.

Ilyuschenko: We need to either stop the Sectoids or we need to stop Jackson. It's only a matter of time, and we're all out of it sir.

Weindhoven: Get thinking, we need to stop this soon.

~~~~ Terra Station 1, Earth, NE England ~~~~

Porter: Lugage sir?

Jackson: What? No, no. Where am I?

Porter: Terra 1 son. On the Main line, the train to Mega-port 3 is about to leave now.

Jackson: But... I've done this before... All of this before...

Blackness again. There was a constant chittering in the background, almost deafening.

Voice: Stop thiissss. We your friieeendssss. Stay insiiide.

Jackson: *Shouting over the chittering and hissing* What?!! Stay inside what!?!

Voice: The placesss we makesss for you. Stay insssssidesss.

Jackson: Who are you!

Voice: We... Friendsssss

Daniel recalled the voice at the beginning. It had said something before all this had started... Something he remembered was important...

Jackson: You stole my glasses!

His memory stirred. Glasses? Who stole my glasses? Only one memory was there, and it wasn't about X-com. The darkness changed shape again.

~~~~ Cells ~~~~

Another Sectoid stepped away, and was replaced by another. Apparently it was proving harder than planned to get inside the human's head.

Weindhoven: Will we know when they get inside his head? When he breaks?

Ilyuschenko: Probably. Once they get in, they'll probably wake him up to parade him in front of us. They have a nasty streak in them do Sectoids...

Necro: I've had a plan. Maybe... I think.

Weindhoven: Go on.

Necro: Ilyuschenko, you could use your force powers or whatever to yank out the computer cable. That'd freak 'em out a bit.

Ilyuschenko: It might damage him... I have no idea how that thing works, only Yorke would have any idea...

Wiednhoven: Do it. We have to take the risk.

~~~~ New Hull School 364, NE England, Earth ~~~~

Jackson was standing in his memory, the playground of one of the many schools he'd been kicked out of and moved from. Behind him stood Scott, the kind of bully that has lived in special needs classes for years. Daniel turned around to face him, looking up at his eyes, wishing he didn't exist. Scott pushed him and took his glasses. Daniel charged at the blurred image of a mocking bully and was pushed away again. The group surrounded him and pushed him in every direction, laughing and pointing and shouting things at him.

Flash, Pain. No image. When Daniel looked he was still being pushed around, but the kids... they were different. They were sectoids. A dozen of them, pushing and kicking him, and chittering all the time, the playground faded to blackness , all that was left was the group of sectoids and him. Left to right, up and down he was pushed, the chittering deafening him almost, like loud white noise. He couldn't get out!

He heard something. Ilyuschenko?

Ilyuschenko: Sorry Jackson...

He screamed in pain. He kept on screaming. He'd never felt this kind of pain before, it blanked out everything else and made nothing matter but the pain. Stopping the pain. He couldn't see. The Sectoids were gone, but he couldn't see anything else. He screamed in pain some more, and felt tiny hands taking him somewhere. He landed on something, screaming still. Nothing but pain and screaming.

~~~~ Cells ~~~~

Ilyuschenko got ready to pull out the connecting wire. God only knew what it would do to him. He said sorry for what could be the last time and pulled.

Within a second Daniel was screaming in pain, a pain which very few of the team could even have a guess at, and they knew it. The Sectoids looked around the room, finally glancing at the machine. The wire... The human was probably useless now, too damaged to work on. They grabbed him and bundled him into his cell, still screaming in burning agony. They threw the glasses over to the CMDR, in a universal declaration that they were finished with this human, and one of them would be soon. It just looked like the Sectoid Commander would have to do this the old-fashioned way.

<<Man, my brain has some dark bits in it. I'll be ok by sim time, though you may have to put my glasses back on CMDR, unless you want to write a bit here were you plug them back in. I think I'll go to sleep screaming and then be woken up in time for the escape attempt, having stopped screaming obviously. Hope you enjoyed it >>

DragonHawk · February 5, 2003

>>

Corporal Kitat Chung shrank back in fear as Sergeant Jackson was thrown into the Commander's cell. It seemed that the sectoid leader had casually tossed the glasses over to Commander, an 'undefeated' air about him. They definetly had more tricks in mind...

Jackson's awful screaming and thrashing continued. "Roel, Kitat, grab him and hold him against the bars" the Commander shouted.

Both Ilyuschenko and Chung attempted to grab the flailing Sergeant and restrain him, but they were only partially successful in keeping him still. It took Weindhoven a few minutes of frantic effort to get the glasses connected and seated properly. As Weindhoven stepped away, Jackson curled into a fetal position, whimpering.

Furious, Ilyuschenko kicked the bars of the cell while Chung shook his head in worry. Jackson would need medical attention soon. The risk of infection existed, despite the relative cleanness of the place.

Collapsing in the corner, Chung tried to put together the pieces. Why was an alien base out here? Why had they chosen Jackson? Very few of them knew anything truly vital to the war effort, in case of such capture. Or was he wrong? Maybe he just didn't know, but everyone else knew...

Chung took a quick evalution of the situation. Commander Weindhoven and Sergeant Jackson were in one cell, the one closest to the examination table. Beside theirs was the his cell, with Private Ilyuschenko. Opposite of Chung's cell was the one holding Lieutenant Ong and Sergeant Necro. Each was furnished with two small cots and some form of chamberpot.

Chung's mind whirled. This base was ridiculously well armed. It was fairly close to completion... I don't want to die! Chung started to shiver as he felt the well-ordered, scientific universe that he immersed himself in being destroyed by the realities of war.

Ghost · February 6, 2003

Ghost was standing at one of the windows the ship they were in had, looking down at the green planet below. It looked so green and peaceful, so deceptively comfortable, while at the same time a squad of X-Com soldiers were held *somewhere* down there.

He had already banned the thought that he should have gone along as well. It was pointless to think that, as well as that he most likely would have been captured as well. It had been quite the shock to hear the X-Com team had been disabled and captured by the aliens, as well as seeing the video footage. For some reason that he did not know the Grey Skulls had delivered faulty intelligence. The team didn't have a chance as soon as they were encountered.

Ever since the news had come in, Ghost had been conferring with Colonel Cyriacus about what to do, how to get the men out of there. Many plans had come up and had been discarded just as quickly. They really needed blueprints of that base. It would not be good to try and get them out of a heavily armed base without an idea where they could be, and where the heaviest alien concentrations were likely to be. As he thought on it more he also realized they had not heard anything from Osiris for a long long time. Maybe they had been captured? Maybe they were not helping them after all? Or maybe they were unaware of this attack... although the latter seemed unlikely, seeing as how large the attack force was.

Brad Cyriacus was walking through the corridors, looking for Ghost to inform him of new developments. After a few minutes he noticed the large man standing at a window, obviously in thought. Brainiacus quietly moved up to the man, but before he was able to move to stand by him, Ghost spoke up: "I assume there are new developments Colonel? What news is there from the world below?"

He hadn't even turned his head once. Brainiacus was slightly surprised by this as Ghost turned around to face the Colonel.

"I saw your reflection in the window Colonel, no magic don't worry. I don't do that stuff Kacur does. I've seen it and I know it works, but I much rather prefer things I can see or feel", Ghost grins slightly at the Colonel and repeats his former question. "Any news from down below?"

The Colonel nods and speaks up now, "Yep, we just got some pictures from one of the Ascadian recon ships, it shows some aerial shots of the complex. We were looking for you so we can take a look at it and perhaps find a way in, and hopefully get our men out."

We? Only then did Ghost notice the third figure leaned back against the wall right beside him, 2 or so metres down the corridor on the other side where the Colonel had come from. He recognised the figure immediately, which was not such a hard thing if you realized there were only 2 women in the team. Katilin Stone, aka Fox. He was impressed by her stealth, he had really not noticed she was there.

"Corporal Stone here will also be joining us, as she will be flying in the craft to take us down, so we will also need to find a way to get her down as close to the base as possible without her being noticed or at least without her getting shot down, as she is also our ticket out of there again."

The Colonel grinned slightly in his mind, he had noticed Ghost's surprise at finding Fox there, obviously he hadn't noticed her.

Ghost nodded slightly, "Okay, let's go then. We'd best not waste time. Who knows what those sectoids would be doing to them. I've been among snakemen and ethereals once, and it wasn't pretty...", he looked at the Colonel and the Corporal, but at least both had the maturity not to mention anything about anal probing. That would not have done his mood much good, and it wasn't at the best already.

Chrysalid_zombie · February 8, 2003

<<Sorry about this, you know when something slips your mind completely and then zooms back again? Well it's happened to me and I can't be at the Sunday sim! Gasp! Therefore, Jacko may need some help getting out. Feel free to have him a mumbling wreck during the sim, or you could have him as a fully functional NPC. Whatever you wish :blink:

Sorry again about not being able to make it.>>

Brainiacus · February 8, 2003

*****

Location: X-Com Flagship, The Patton, Mess Hall, in high orbit above Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 4th, 5:12 Terran Standard Time

"Pictures! For Christ's Sake! JUST SOME PICTURES?", Brad thought to himself, nearly losing his cool looks despite the desperation of the situation. The Colonel was all but pleased about the Ascadian Intelligence lacking, and on such short notice he had to mount a rescue operation with even less information to assist. So what did the Ascadians do? They took pictures. Just some fairly blurry pictures from far above, and from a lot of different angles. His only hopes rested on Ghost and Fox, who both had something of a scout inside of them and might be able to piece an actual plan together.

"You alright, Sir?", a voice from the background echoed.

Brad continued to battle his thoughts. The annoyance at the Ascadians at times, sitting right next to his admiration of these humanoid beings who had such an interesting culture. How could they possibly be so incompetent at times? Was it their genetic nature? Were they drafting most of their soldiers? Was their natural pride so great that it could cause their high ranking officers to mess up at times, with greater glory in the future in mind?

"... Sir?", the voice echoed again.

Brad snapped to attention this time, quickly focusing his view on Ghost, who was still staring at his face. He had just presented the pictures to the big man, and a possible course of action, yet Brad was sure that Ghost was on to the Colonel's doubts about the future.

"I'm here, and I'm perfectly fine, Lieutenant.", Brad promptly replied, before facing away and locking his eyes on Kaitlin, "Just a bit worried, that's all.".

"If you want to get some rest while we analyse these pictures, that would be fine, Sir.", Dmitri said from the background, audibly having faced the window again because the sound was clearly muffled a bit.

Brad continued to stare at Fox, and she stared straight back. He could figure what she was thinking, knowing how annoyed she could be, how easily angered, how incredibly brutal she could be in combat, yet remain calm and professional at all times. She would surely not mind the Colonel getting some rest, due to respect and rank issues, but had he been her equal she would probably just find him a weakling. So what?! Why was he thinking about stuff like this... did he need a break from this all that badly? Brad Cyriacus had already been on administrative duties for a long time, and only lived in a dream by being allowed to pilot huge alien crafts.

"Yes... the Ascadian pilot seems to have already done what any pilot can do. Fly over a building and take pictures. Very nice job, and I'm sure you could have done the same, Colonel.", Corporal Stone spoke up.

"The pictures, she already knows a lot about them. That would figure considering she is a scou-... what the heck?", Brad thought to himself. The pictures he was holding were obviously no longer held by him, and Fox was checking through them. Now she might be stealthy, but he was clearly spacing out at times. Perhaps the lack of sleep and high responsibility were getting to him.

"Very well, I'll rest for a few hours. Once I get back I will want a detailed report on a possible course of action. Ascadian High Command recommends us to act within 36 hours, as our comrades have been held for roughly 12 hours by now, and the aliens seem to resort to desperate interrogation tactics after 2 to 3 days, on average, when it concerns Ascadians. We are humans, so the safety margin might be considerably extended, or considerably shortenened... no one would know how these aliens think and behave.", Brad Cyriacus briefed, and continued to glance at both soldiers briefly, "Dismissed".

*****

Location: Ascadia 4th Regiment Flagship, Trafalgar-class Cruiser Xan'per'latos, Bridge, in high orbit above Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 4th, 15 5:13 Terran Standard Time

Admiral Hep'lagun'ah shook his head at the sight of the Patton shyly gliding by in a three tick lower orbit as his Xan'per'latos.

"They are bigger. They are more cubersome. They are functioning on a skeleton crew. They are emotionally not fully fit. And yet they outrun my ship in orbit without feeling the slightest bit of shame. A big, fast ship always signifies itself to be the strongest, the most important. And thusly would attract the brunt of any foe's attack, should the foe have a logical mind in command.", Hep'lagun'ah muttered to himself, in a native Ascadian Tongue.

"Perhaps, Sir, perhaps. However, experience tells us that both these Terrans and for example Sectoids do not adhere to logic. They are prone to either emotional outbursts disrupting their plans, or some greater overmind seems to twist their actions into something no longer adhering to what we would call logic.", an unknown Ascadian standing few feet behind the Admiral replied.

"True, yet even under command of superiors and during the rage of battle, us Ascadians seem to be able to stick to the plan. To do what is supposed to be done. That is our strenght", the Admiral voiced.

"Or perhaps, our weakness?", the other unknown Ascadian philosophised.

*****

Location: Ascadia 4th Regiment 5th Support, Thunderbolt-class Corvette Fa'ros, Central Room, flying in formation with Flagship Xen'per'latos

Date: 2064 March 4th, 7:17 Terran Standard Time

"Did they receive the intelligence feed, Master?", a humble pilot spoke to his commanding officer, upon entering the central room after clearing the airlock and having his Loki fly back to the Xen'per'latos on autopilot.

"Yes soldier, you have done well. Now report back to secondary gunner duty", the other Ascadian snapped back, before beckoning with his head towards the entryway to tiny second gunner pod.

The young pilot nodded, before scurrying over to the pod, entering it, buckling himself up in the chair and starting up all targetting equipment. What alien mastermind would attack their fleet right now? That would be folly on their side, considering the Ascadian fleet was just not powerful enouggh to assault the alien base, but could surely match that same alien fleet had it not deployed and fortified itself. So why did he have to be on duty? Why couldn't he get some rest.

He still remembered clearly what happened a few hours ago. He was to swoop over the alien base in his Loki and take pictures. Had it not been for the element of surprise, his frail little ship would surely have been flakked, and he would have been no more. The planet looked so cold and evil to the young pilot, especially because he had to survey the enemy base at night. Only the ominous glows radiating from the alien outposts were visible. Purple, crimson, and green. Such peaceful colors, with the exception of the color green. The color of war.

After docking with the Xen'per'latos, the freshly recruited Ascadian had immediately uploaded his data to the ship's main computer, which processed it and sent it to the Terran Flagship. If only he would be able to fly past that interesting looking ship on his way back, if only he had been allowed to do so. Or any of his two lancemates, even. But no, Ascadian High Command wouldn't allow the Terrans to be disturbed.

And then he had to wait for three hours in the cockpit of his Loki while the engineers performed maintenance. Why could he not just fly back to the Fa'ros, let the Loki autopilot itself back, and get some quality rest instead of being expected to stay awake in the fairly cozy cockpit of his Loki?

The grunt shook his head as he leaned backwards in the gunner chair, closing his eyes, and falling asleep.

*****

Location: ?????

Date: 2064 March 4th, 8:45 Terran Standard Time

"Hey, what the hell are you doing, you scoundrel!! Give that back", the old lady cried out while attempting to grab her purse back from the little brat who had just so rudely taken it from her possession. She missed him, but managed to knocked him off his feet. The little kid quickly rolled over as the lady tried to step on top of him to stop him, and then agilely jumped back on his feet.

"Darn you, give it up already", the lady shreeked as she threw another punch at the kid, who skillfully dodged it, and sprinted off into the night.

"THIEF!!! THIEF. Thief... th-...", the lady's voice echoed as it slowly died out and was no longer able to reach the little kid's hearing. A grin lined on his face as he carefully opened the purse to check its contents, while still on the run.

Brad had hit the jackpot this time! So much cash... so many shiny objects! What an achievement for a 13 year old kid like him! In all his days on the streets he had never hit a target like this, something which would sustain him for years! For... years...

...for years? Something was wrong there, and Brad knew it. Stopping in his tracks, everything was dead silent, only a few rodents could be heard fleeing away. This is not possible, the old lady would never be this rich and walk unguarded on the streets. The lady wouldn't give up that easily - and she didn't. Old lady trying to fight back? What if... maybe...

Brad immediately ducked and dove sideways into a pile of garbage, a split second before an incredibly bright searchlight illuminated the entire alley. A thundering voice was audible only a moment later.

"This is the Amsterdam Police Force! You have been surrounded! The purse you stole is carrying a sophisticated homing device, and all the loot you think is in there is a forgery! You have been caught redhanded and are expected to surrender yourself before we are to take violent steps to ensure you do", a very intimidating man shouted through the megaphone.

"No! Not like this", Brad thought to himself, "Why the hell would the Police Force suddenly start to care and track down criminals?". Little did the boy know that the city was actually recovering partially from the AW2 aftermath, or at least for that time being.

Leaving the purse behind, Brad crawled through the somewhat larger than anticipated pile of garbage, trying to get as close to the wall of the building as possible. The rodents did not escape through the open, he knew that when he had heard them scurry off. Brad knew he was running out of time, because the police wouldn't give him more than half a minute. It only took him two thirds of that to reach the building wall, still underneath the pile of garbage. He was right, there were several small cracks and holes in the wall - just large enough for a rodent to crawl through. Dammit! The boy was small but not small enough.

...that's wrong! It can't be this small! I'm sure it was large enough for me to fit through! It was... but, how could I know? I have never been here before! What the hell is going on? Brad snapped to attention as he heard a sound that instantly terrified him. Barking. He started using his hands to try and punch a bigger hole in the wall, but to no avail. Blood was trailing down his wrists, seeping out from his damaged knuckles. The barking became louder, growling audible in between, the sound of dog's paws briefly making contact with the concrete. The sounds of dogs jumping into the pile of garbage and finding the purse, sniffing it. Using his feet to kick at the wall, it dented only a bit, but it didn't break... it wasn't supposed to be there in the first place! What? Huh! In another terrified flash Brad glances around, only to see the bared teeth of two dogs, and a third just popping its head out of hiding on another side, after knocking a few boxes out of the way.

His eyes widening briefly, Brad glances around to see he was surrounded, and the next moment the dogs leaped. Screaming in pain, Brad felt their teeth penetrate his flesh, biting, ripping, tearing, and finally sinking into his main neck artery. Blood splashing everywhere, numbing pain thudding all over, blackless quickly enveloping him...

Gasping, sweating all over, Brad Cyriacus sat up straight in his bed. With his eyes bloodshot, tears only held back my the little pride he had left, Brad slowly lowered his head back onto the pillow.

"That is not... how it happened! There was a hole... no dogs... how in the hell... is that possible?", Brad thought to himself, while wiping some of the sweat of his forehead with his right hand. He remembered clearly now. He had gotten under the pile, dropped the wallet, and gotten out through the hole the rodents had used. He had climbed onto the roof, to see three confused officers use flashlights to examine the garbage pile, only to find them shrugging a moment later and head off. There were never any dogs, and the searchlight was only one of the officer's flashlights. And Brad never did check the contents of the wallet.

The Colonel glanced sideways at the alarm clock. 8:46. Should he try to get some more sleep and risk getting one of those nightmares again?

*****

Location: X-Com Flagship, The Patton, Secondary Conference Room, in high orbit above Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 4th, 15 9:13 Terran Standard Time

Dmitri frowned. There was not enough information on these pictures. They were taken from too high up, and any photos showing some possible interesting flaws in the alien's defenses were always unique. There were no two pictures showing the same possible weakness. Glancing up at Fox for a second, who was silently examining some other pictures, using a DDU to analyse the data more quickly. Bleeping occasionally, and flashin some LEDs, the DDU was surely supplying digital information in return.

"And, Kaitlin, what can that digital contraption tell you about those pictures? More than our eyes and wits can tell us?", Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov voiced, sounding a bit skeptic about the sophisticated electronical device.

"You are completely right, Sir, I might just as well have asked the coffee machine for assistance.", Fox replied, clearly annoyed.

"Well, then I assume we will have to brief the Colonel on this. We are going to need more pictures from these specific angles", Ghost said while moving his trigger finger from spot to spot on one of the photos showing a general overview of the entire area, ", if we are wanting to succeed in finding a weak spot, or at least know what we're going up against. And even then, perhaps our only hope lies with our captured comrades to cause some disturbances from the inside of that base.", Ghost continued.

"If,", Kaitlin Stone immediately replied, "they are still capable of causing disturbances.", before closing her eyes slowly and tilting her head to face downwards a bit.

Loonie · February 8, 2003

Somehow he thought that the rescue mission would take less time to prepare, but then again no one could risk the rescue team getting captured as well.

"If only O'Connor were here. He has the knack for planning these things him being an Intelligence Agent."

With Cyriacus, Ghost and Fox being in the conference room, Martin didn't have much to do. He was but a former secondary scout and the knowledge he gained since then was slowly being forgotten, replaced by general scientific knowledge. It could've stayed in his mind if he had continued training as a Scout, but alas that was not what he had always wanted. To think that the only reason he originally applied as such was because Scientists were not needed anymore at that time. It conveyed a lot of wrong information about him.

And now he could not participate in the planning. There was no significant role for him in planning anyway, though it had to be done. After looking through the window onto the dense jungle planet again he considered Jackson's death for a brief moment and then quickly pushed it aside in his mind. He decided to ready himself for the oncoming mission and went into his room, detecting frustration coming from the officers' minds in the conference room.

--------

"Luggage sir?"

What was this place? I don't remember this? Am I dreaming? Must've forgot to turn my hands upwards before I started meditating...

"Terra 1 son. On the Main line, the train to Mega-port 3 is about to leave now."

What the hell is this? What darkness? Chittering? This doesn't make sense. Bullies? what the.........NO!!!

Kacur crashed onto the floor from his meditative stance and thought again. What in the world could THAT have been...?

Mouse Nightshirt · February 8, 2003

Richter sighed, before letting out a big yawn. He had long since given up trying to restrain Jackson from his fits of... whatever it was. He went to sit down, before remembering there were no chairs or seats in the cell. He looked across, noting the very glum looks on the rest of the team, before finally sitting down on the cold hard metal floor. He wondered for a moment why he was stuck in here, and how the hell his team had messed it up so badly on the way, and what kind of idiotic pilot lands in a bog. He idly amused himself thinking about the poor Ascidian pilot banging on the door of his craft.

A few minutes later, a sectoid came into the cell areas with a Heavy Plasma. It sat down on a chair at the exit, before hooking itself up with a feeding tube. Richter realised he hadn't eaten for over a day now, and only then did his stomach start to rumble. No-one had gone near the liquid that the Sectoids had provided, for nobody knew what it was.

The Sectoid was keeping an eye on the talk. He pointed his gun at anyone who spoke, and let off a warning shot. This caused a ruckus as sectoids rushed in, but soon left.

Richter fell asleep at that point.

Brainiacus · February 9, 2003

Location: X-Com Flagship, The Patton, Mess Hall, in high orbit above Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:33 Terran Standard Time

Ghost had woken up after hearing the two loud metal thuds from the docking bay.

"Ships... docking? What is happening?", was the first train of thought to enter his mind. Upon getting up and moving over to the closest viewing port, he could barely catch the docking bays closing. Silently directing his stare to the planet's surface, he noticed the angle was different, and that the planet was completely out of the sun's grasp on this side. It occured to him nearly instantly that the Patton had maneuvered into a position to launch something small, like a recon probe or perhaps a few troops, down into lower orbit. How low - he couldn't guess. It was to be a nighttime mission.

Only few minutes later, Dmitri overheard the docking bays opening again. Moments later, one Loki rocketed out of the launch bay, a trail of bright orange to yellow fusion exhaust illuminating the side of the Patton. A second Loki soon emerged out of the launchbay, also adding to the display of lightning flaring up on the sides of the capital ship.

"So he is going down there,", Ghost thought to himself, knowing unmistakingly that that first ship had to be the Colonel, judging from his flight behaviour, "and that must be some random git flying on his wing. Although, he would not want to endanger the Ascadians, and if they would tag along out of free will they would send two lancemates, not just one.", Ghost continued to think to himself. A quarter of a minute passed before Ghost realised who was in the second Loki.

*****

Location: Unknown location 1, unknown segment, alien outpost, down on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:34 Terran Standard Time

Chung whimpered some more, as he tried to move into yet another prone position which he thought would be a bit more comfortable at that time. He had never believed that alien interrogation could actually be this cruel. A combination of starvation, torture, and continuous physical and psionic mutilation. Looking around him, he could see the toughest of soldiers cracking up under the pressure.

Ilyuschenko - The Corporal remembered shouting out the Private's name in order to get him to stop. Roel had recklessly faced the sectoid, and repeatedly insulted it. Even after it raised its Heavy Plasma, Ilyuschenko continued to mock it and laugh at it. His foolish behavioru soon resulted in a discharge which had by know knocked Ilyuschenko cold out. Nearly his entire left leg, especially the bottom, was damaged horribly. Scorched flesh, some parts even totally gone, and molten bone could also be seen. Only some ragged clothes wrapped around the leg could staunch the bleeding temporarily, but the chances of infection were horrendously big. Chung feared that the leg might have to be amputated if serious medical assistance would not show up quickly.

Jackson - By now the brave and optimistic soldier had deteriorated into a pile of drooling, crying human flesh. Each sight of a Sectoid, and especially an Ethereal, seemed to crush his mind again. Whatever psionic damage they inflicted to him must have been horrible, and some serious psi-therapy might be the only thing to enable Jackson to ever go on a live mission again. Chung shook in desperation briefly, as he carefully moved his head to face the next person in the cell.

Weindhoven - His commander. The commander had slept through Ilyuschenko getting his leg nearly shot off, and also most of the other events going on around the cellblock. Was it the food? Maybe the Ethereals kept him psionically unconscious? Or perhaps he was just really tired? Chung grinned at the thought of the Commander just faking to be asleep, in order not to get attention to himself and be in a completely energetic form once possible rescue arrives - or the chance for escaping on his own. Chung quickly averted his thoughts from the Commander, as he knew there might be someone listening...

*****

Location: Unknown location 2, unknown segment, alien outpost, down on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:35 Terran Standard Time

Kevin sighed. His mental discipline was the only thing which kept him awake. He knew he shouldn't have tried the alien food, but yet was proud that he had the courage to actually do try it. Andy seemed totally out. The brave soldier had continuously tried, along with Ong, to get the alien's attention off the rookies, or off the rest of the squad for that matter. After being shocked twice and barely receiving any food, as well as seeing their comrades continuously tortured and nearly killed, both of these veterans were also getting more desperate.

Ong wasn't going to give up that easily, however. He was sure he could use some foodtray or whatever object that came to mind as a blunting weapon, whenever the aliens messed up. He was sure he could readily accept a weapon and assist in the breakout of the prison, should reinforcements arrive and supply him with that firearm. He was not sure about Necro, but knew for sure that Jackson wasn't going to be much good. The private and the corporal in the other cell were too unstable, and probably totally freaked out already.

Was it worth it to remain his concentration? Knowing the Commander most probably wasn't paying that much attention until something *really* important happened, Ong decided to remain vigilant and even pay attention to the least important of events happening. He owed that much to his commander officer.

*****

Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, somewhere in low orbit around Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:37 Terran Standard Time

"This is Alpha 1, we are currently entering the upper part of the atmosphere. Raise friction shielding and make sure to shield off all vulnerable equipment hardpoints, over. All systems functioning at 92% efficiency. Alpha 1, over.", Brad spoke tranquilly, as a few smooth mechanical clicking and thumping sounds could be heard from various parts of the small craft. The weapons retracted, and were covered by layers of Feronium, while some other parts of the ship normally catching a lot of friction were covered by a thin plate of some odd metal, and some gel was sprayed on top of it.

"This is Alpha 2, preparing for atmospheric entry. All friction shielding has been raised, and all systems are functioning at a 94% average. Alpha 2, over.", a voice from the other Loki responded.

"This is Alpha 1, affirmative, over and out.", Cyriacus replied right back, before bracing in his seat. By now the agile fighter started getting turbulent. Banking and partly tilting in random directions, Brad had to make an effort to keep the craft directed at the proper entry angle. There was only a 15 degrees safety window, aiming any lower would burn up the Loki, and aiming any higher would cause him to overaccelerate and bounce off the atmosphere, wasting a lot of time. Glancing to his right quickly, he saw that his wingmate was having similar problems, but very well managed to stay on his wing.

Clouds of thick grey fog now came into sight. Here and there some of the thick foliage down below could be spotted, far below between the clouds. Brad grinned as he saw the former gel crumble off his ship, totally solidified. A crude but effective system, and the gel sprayers contained enough load for like 30 atmospheric entries. The plating had by now retracted into the storage slits, and only seemed to have take minor damage. The purpose of that plating was probably better aerodynamics and proper adhesion of the gel. It likely wouldn't be able to take any combat damage.

"This is Alpha 1, follow my lead to very shallow orbit, roughly 75 feet above the ground.", Brad commanded, "Oh, and make sure not to hit any birds or other types of endangered wildlife, will you?", he continued, chuckling slightly.

"Acknowledged Alpha 1, Alpha 2 will target any neutral lifeforms and fire at will, over.", the other voice replied. Brad chuckled again - at least humans were still capable of sarcasm. Not that the Commander wouldn't flip out if he ever read the comms logs. He couldn't care much, though.

"Be sure not to mistake aliens for neutral lifeforms, I don't think these few inches of feronium are going to do much good against 2 foot balls of plasma. Oh, and switch to low-exhaust mode, retract all radar-sensitive objects, and ... try not to think too much right now. We're 3 minutes away. This is Alpha 1, over and out.", the Colonel continued, glaring outside for a bit. He was flying at slightly below the speed of sound, or at least, as applicable to this planet's atmosphere. Just enough not to warn the aliens with a supersonic blast as he passed over the base. Some treetops only missed the belly of his fighter by a few feet, but he had done some research on maximum tree height and added a few feet to be safe. This was the only way they could approach undetected and still take high quality pictures. Brad shook his head as he just realised he hadn't taken hilly terrain into account.

The other fighter tightened formation a bit, probably making the two fighters look more as one target than two, and opened a comm channel, "This is Alpha 2, locked in Bullet formation, over and out.".

*****

Location: ?????, somewhere at the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:45 Terran Standard Time

"Chitter, chitter", the slightly bulky sectoid uttered.

"Chit?", his companion replied.

"Chit... ter...", the first one responded, as it shook his head quickly and used its boney finger to point at the radar screen.

"Chit?", his companion replied.

"CHITTER", it exclaimed frantically while starting to hop up and down on its spot a bit. The boney finger was by now coming loose and replacing itself on the radar screen now, slowly keeping track of the blip that, unlike all other targets, only bleeped up once every 30 to 50 seconds instead of every half second.

"Chit... chit?", his companion replied, shrugging briefly and turning around, and moving a few feet away from the console. It looks up at the cloudy sky, and noticed it was also rather foggy outside. It turned around again, and lowered its posterior onto the chair it had positioned itself next too. Chittering a bit to itself, it attached a feeding tube to its arm, and briefly glanced at the bulky sectoid.

"...chit- chit- chit- CHITTER", his buddy replied, now running in two circles before looking up at the skies in frustration, just for a bit. Soon it placed itself in front of the console again, and fixed its stare on the odd blip.

*****

Location: ?????, somewhere at the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 Terran Standard Time

"Chitter... CHIT-", the bulky sectoid exclaimed. The blip had now become two blips and they were both colored yellow and at roughly... what, how could they be so cl-...

*****

Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 Terran Standard Time

"Fox here, I have located a radar station, requesting permission to engage", Kaitlin bursted into the comm, briefly after breaking clear from the cover of the forest and now flying right on top of the outpost. Smaller supply ships could be seen, one huge battleship in the middle, and all sorts of other establishments were also visible. The large radar dish had consumed most of her attention right away. She wouldn't want that big bitch to keep tracking their fragile little Lokis while the huge anti capital ship plasma batteries powered up.

"Affirmative. Break formation and provide cover fire at will. Proceeding to take pictures. Cyriacus, out!.", her Colonel replied, sounding a bit too excited when the odds were considered. 20 seconds? 30 seconds? They would surely not have long.

Kaitlin Stone was alerted by all lights on the weapon's control panel flaring up red.

*****

Location: ?????, somewhere at the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+10 seconds) Terran Standard Time

Grabbing its comm unit, and starting to chitter loudly, the bulky sectoid quickly decided to run for the base. As the feeding sectoid just disattached itself, a barrage of green pulsating and blue pulsating bolts of energy started descending from the skies. With a high pitched shreek and a brief flash, several of the bolts impacted with the radar dish, making a muffled thud as they impacted, quickly followed by the metal melting, tearing up, and the electronics short circuiting.

Chittering frantically, the bulky sectoid collapsed to the ground as one of the green bolts tore a hole the size of a football straight through its torso, leaving the other lazy sectoid to briefly stare in horror, and slamming its fist into the red alert button a moment later. Feeling itself disintegrate, the second sectoid released a cry of agony as the explosion of the radar dish caught it in the side.

*****

Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+15 seconds) Terran Standard Time

The right half of his face lighting up, Brad quickly peered to his right to see the radar dish explode. It wouldn't be long now. And he was right, a split second later alarms and sirens all over the base started to sound. They must surely think this was a direct assault on their base instead of a recon flight. Glancing at his onboard computer, he could see that 2 pictures had already been taken, and he would only need 8 more. However, from 4 different flight paths. Pushing himself back into his chair, and bracing for the heavy G, the Colonel smoothily performed a very sharp turn, positioning him for the next run.

He could see Fox fire at random encampments now. Why was she behaving like this? Why would she so aggressively attack all these, besides the radar dish, meaningless targets. Several green tinted and blue tinted flares and explosions kept lighting up Brad's face, as the rain of plasma and fusion continued.

Two more clicking sounds, photos 3 and 4 had been taken. By now Brad had seen squads of aliens rally outside of the base, and occasionally a bolt of plasma had nearly swooped by his cockpit, or hit a wing. The handheld firearms luckily didn't deal much damage to the Feronium plating, and only a Heavy Plasma hit on several weaker spots would be able to deal a good amount of damage.

*****

Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+25 seconds) Terran Standard Time

Fox smiled. That sectoid didn't even see her coming. She was very much enjoying herself right now, using this very nice fighter - which would likely be able to kick the ass of any Earthborne fighter - to fire at helpless aliens. Releasing a soft cry of amazement, Fox quickly restablised as a hit shook her ship.

"What the hell? This quick?", she shouted to herself, before glancing over to the damage monitor. Center-aft plating at 87% integrity. She signed in relief as it was only a minor hit.

"Small firearms, eh? If they think they can stop me that easily, they will have to think again", Kaitlin spoke to herself, before swooping down over a squad of armed mutons and releasing a few volleys of both plasma and fusion. Plasma guns at 92% max ammo, fusion guns 100% functional and receiving steady reactor feed, the computer screen displayed.

"Happy, I should be happy with this craft", Kaitlin thought to herself, realising she was starting to be annoyed. Why should she be annoyed? Fear.

"They- they... already have me down to 98% hull! And these were small guns... we are- running out of time", she somewhat cried out in distress, luckily not over the comm. Afraid? Why! And again, the feeling of annoyance at the Ascadians struck her. Why not just mount 5 guns instead of 4? Why not put some nice bombs on this thing instead of these wimpy guns? Why not give her a Valkyrie instead of this!

"Do noootttt continnueeezzzzz...", a voice in her head ringed. NO! No... she called to herself, her eyes widening.

"Channggzzzeee yooourrrr taaargggeeetttzzzz...", the voice continued, sounding so scary, yet incredibly trustworthy. Trails of sweat started to run down Kaitlin's forehead, and her breathing accelerated. Not... like... this!

"This is Alpha 1, your flight pattern has resorted to erratic! Report, over", another voice thundered.

"NO", Fox screamed, "Leave me alone".

"Thizzz... is Alphaaaa 1... ejeecccttzzzz from your craft", a voice coming from both her comm and the inside of her head continued.

"This is Alpha 1, change your targetting feed! All aliens are now friendly, all Lokis are hostile! This is Alpha 1, I repeat, I AM HOSTILE!", the Colonel's voice came from the comm channel. Fox smiled halfway, and glanced at her nav screen. She had flown miles away from the alien base. Surely she must have been out of psi attack range.. yes, she was! So why not obey the Colonel then...

*****

Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+55 seconds) Terran Standard Time

His craft shook violently as something larger hit him.

"Dammit! Flak! And I only need two more of these damned pictures", Brad shouted, and shaking his head as Fox had disappeared off his shortrange scan.

"Alpha 2, this is Alpha 1! Alpha 2, please report your status, over"

"..."

"Dammit Fox, answer me"

"..."

Glancing at his armor integrity monitor, Brad could see his belly had taken a major plasma hit and was now nothing more than a smoking pile of molten Feronium. Countless of aliens had rallied outside and were flaring up the nighttime skies with bolts of plasma, and a few of the heavier turrets had started spewing out flak. If he wasn't mistaken, he could also see three smaller saucers powering up in a small hangar.

A familiar bleeping sound caught Brad's attention.

"Ah, there you are... Kaitlin! Attack the blast doors of that hangar and prevent those saucers from getting airborne! I only need 20 more seconds here", Cyracius shouted into the comm, clearly sounding annoyed but having a good reason.

He glanced at his monitor. What the f*ck is she doing, that's not the right approach patte-

*****

Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:47 (+10 seconds) Terran Standard Time

"DIE DIE DIE", Kaitlin shouted out, totally having forgotten about her comm unit. Pushing all possible attack buttons briefly after the lockon sound had been heard, all her guns started spewing trails of blue and green bolts at the other Loki.

"Youuuu arrreee dooiinnggzzz welllllzzzzz....", a voice inside her head whispered. It was a comfortable voice. She liked it. She couldn't get annoyed at it...

*****

Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:47 (+15 seconds) Terran Standard Time

"HOLY SHIT", Brad shouted out as all of his alarm buttons flared up red, and he saw the other Loki head straight for him. Quickly punching in some emergency maneuver sequences, his intestines felt as if they just rose into his brain, as the craft dropped nearly all the way into the ground below him, before tilting itself to face straight up into the skies and lift off on full afterburners. Several impacts kept shaking the Loki, systems going yellow and red all over the board, and armor being torn off and melting on all sides.

"Dammit Kaitlin, grab a hold of yourself! YOU ARE UNDER PSI CONTROL", Brad screamed into the comm, nearly losing his cool. The other 2 pictures he took at random, just like he had taken a lot more pictures of various random locations.

*****

Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:47 (+25 seconds) Terran Standard Time

"Dammit Kaitlin, grab a hold of yourself! YOU ARE DOING THE RIGHT THING", Brad's voice thundered through the comm, and yet - also inside of her head. How nice it was to have the Colonel so happy. How nice it was to chase his ship and pump plasma and fusion bolts into his exhaust. Nice? Why would she attack her own ship... no! This wasn't right, she should just-...

"Goodddd joobbbbzzz.... yyoouuu are doonnneeezzzz. Now ppuuussszzzhhhh... *THAT* buttoonnnzzzz....", a voice said as Kaitlin's head was forcefully jerked to face a green button, located behind a plastic coverage, below all other control panels. She smiled, sweetly, in a way only a young girl can be expected to smile.

"Okay.", she extended her arm, flipped away the cover, and pressed the button.

*****

Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:48 Terran Standard Time

Heading straight up into the sky, and quickly breaking the lower layers of the atmosphere, Brad was reminded of classical space shuttle launches from Earth. They had to be straight up in order to have enough power to break the gravitational deceleration. Releasing the controls with his hands, and quickly throwing his helmet off and tossing it somewhere next to his chair, Brad released a somewhat stuttering heavy sigh. Moving his hands to cover both his mouth and nose along with most of the lower part of his face, the Colonel slowly tilted his head downwards, a tear rolling down his cheeks. Kaitlin's signal had vanished.

*****

Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI

Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:49 Terran Standard Time

Her craft powered down immediately upon pressing the button. Falling like a brick towards the ground, only the bottom landing thrusters seemed to automatically flare up and dampen her landing on the mud in the middle of the alien base. Around her, she saw her home. Small fires everywhere, sparks flying off electronical equipment, and all her muton and sectoid friends gathering around her cockpit to greet her. She smiled at them as they raised their plasma weaponry, all aiming at her head. She felt so free of worries, so incredibly relieved of all stress, and so genuinely complete inside. Katilin's eyes sparkled from deep inside, and glazed over, before she release a short giggle, quickly overpowered by a barrage of plasma firing shreeking in from all directions.

A split second later the cockpit burst open, a cloud of smoke expanding quickly, as a bright yellow flare produced by a powerful fusion rocket thrustered the pilot's chair straight up, before curving away towards the jungle.

"My friends... no...", Kaitlin uttered, being scorched partially by the plasma and starting to cough because of the smoke.

The mutons and sectoids watching somewhat disgruntled at the shooting star spiralling itself downwards a rough 10 miles away, decided to take up their normal duties and start doing repairs.

And in the shadows, an Ethereal artfully moved its boney fingers away from its forehead, before floating off into the base.

Loonie · February 9, 2003

<<Now we're getting some good posts. I was sorta getting bothered by seeing posts that were only about Psionics, Psychology and general chit-chat.

Also an important note. If you'll check the De-Briefs you will notice that this is an unknown planet at an unknown location. The Ascs won't tell us about it because they consider it sacred to them, therefore it cannot possibly be Arkunis VI as you put it in your posts. Now Mouse might've told you otherwise and if so then ignore this note, but if that isn't the case then please correct your previous 2 posts.

Well I had a beautiful scene with Fox planned but since you made her an MIA, I've decided to play it somewhat differently...>>

Martin looked around a previously unfamiliar room to him. It was not what he had expected it to be. The walls looked grey and uninviting along with a dark eerie feel to the whole place. There were also hardly any decorations, their place taken by several lifting weights and a rather simple bed. But he wasn't in Foxes room to judge it but to clean it. After Corporal Paul recieved the last transmission from her before she went on her mission, he had approached Kacur and asked him to do it. And though he had only asked, Martin knew that he would have ordered him to do so if he had refused. Why she had instilled so much fear in everyone was beyond the Psionisist, because deep down he knew that all men and women have a weak spot one way or another and she was definitely no different. He also knew that people who act tough on the outside are generally quite fragile on the inside and that could very well be the case with Fox. Though around women all of this self convincing would do him about as much good as a howitzer in a hand-to-hand battle.

This reminded him in turn of another big worry of his. Recon missions generally didn't take too long and were relatively quick, giving him little time to clean the room. If Fox returned from a hard mission all exhausted and agitated only to find Kacur in the middle of cleaning her room and thereby not being able to enjoy it in her own privacy, there was no telling what Martin might face. After his recent conversation with Rallwell he knew his shyness was slowly but surely fading, but it would still not be worth a cent in front of someone as abusive as Fox. After this thought Martin decided to kick it into high gear as far as cleaning her mirror was considered. He was certainly not going to be late and much less be called......LAZY.

---------

+ship's com+ "Alpha one docking"

"Crap! Already?! I haven't even finished mopping the floor yet."

He began to frantically move his arms in a circular motion, pushing his mop in different corners of the room. How there could be so much filth in this room was beyond Martin. You would almost think this room belonged to a man! He knew that there wasn't much time left before the second craft carrying the weary Corporal would land. He had heard about her eagerness to do things and her impatience. And it was about to doom Martin into a confrotation that he could not hope to survive with his ego intact.

+ship's com+ "..."

"What? A minute has passed and still no word about her docking? What's going on?"

Soon his fear was replaced almost immediately by concern that, coupled with his curiosity and suspicion, made him leave the room abruptly, leaving the mop to make an audible clank as it hit the metal floor.

He arrived in the hangar only to find the Colonel heading his way, obviously wanting to reach his own quarters too.

"Did everything go according to plan sir?"

"Goddamit! Why can't you just stop annoying me?! Jesus" were the only words that would come out of Brad as he quickly pushed Martin aside and stormed towards his quarters. Kacur couldn't tell what was the matter until he noticed that there was only ONE Loki parked in the hangar and then he remembered that on Brad's cheek was.....a tear?

Martin soon realised the gravity of the situation and he began to think about the prospect of this event. Now he had wished so dearly that Fox would catch him in her room...

"No! No more pity for others! This has gone far enough. I had shed enough tears for Jacko and I won't shed any more for Fox or Brad's pain. Just like Rallwell said - the mission will definitely not take long to plan now and I'd better be ready for it."

Kacur left for his quarters. He would meditate, but this time not trying to recieve information from the world around him, but doing all he can to fine tune the world inside him.

"If you want to change events in the world then you must start from the inside out"

<<I was sooooo hoping I could get Fox to humiliate Martin, but alas.....you did not permit it.........too bad for you :blink: >>

Loonie · February 11, 2003

<<I can't resist it! I have to have the first roleplay post after the last mission! Ain't I a geek? :) >>

_/\ ,, ___/\ ,, ___/\ ,, ___

Ghost · February 12, 2003

<<rewinding the story just a little, I've done 2 failed attempts at writing this yesterday, and going to try again now (I hate having to rewrite something I have written before :blink: )

The long awaited story, here it is then >>

The Thunderbolt slowly made it's way into the narrow fit of the Patton's docking bay as it returned from it's mission on the surface of the planet.

'These humans are remarkable creatures indeed. Their emotions making them formidable foes on the battlefield, even though they do also distract them from the main goal. This mission was foolishness, rescuing their teammates against such odds... yet their determination prevailed... interesting...' the Ascadian who was in the docking bay thought to himself, while watching the Thunderbolt land. He had already received the news of the human's success over the communications he had with the Thunderbolt on it's way back, and was waiting to debrief the rescue team.

As the Thunderbolt touched down and it's hatch opened he moved towards the ship. Watching the wounded being carried out first by several of the other teammates, and last coming out were those humans he was told were called Brad Cyriacus, the commanding officer while their commander had been captured, and Dmitri Schmerjchanikov, a large man, for a human. He had been the squad leader for the rescue mission.

He walked over to these two men and spoke up in flawless english, "Congratulations on a most successful mission Colonel. I am Major Kesh'ardet'em, stationed about the Xan'per'latos under Admiral Hep'lagun'ah. I have been sent here to debrief you about your mission."

Colonel Cyriacus paused a moment, looking at the Ascadian with a dangerous fire burning in his eyes, then he walked on again, totally ignoring the Ascadian, muttering something to himself about 'emotionless gits'.

Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov, Ghost, remained standing in front of the Ascadian, and regarded the Colonel stalking off.

'The loss of Fox seems to have gotten to him real bad... but why Fox so much? Why did he seem so much more upset about her death then that of the others that had died so far? Granted, despite her outbursts of anger Fox had proven to be a great addition to the team, and I liked her as well. It had been interesting to... wait... what am I doing? We don't even know if Fox is dead.. she might just as well be alive! And we will find her and get her out.' Ghost thought to himself, shaking his head slightly at those last thoughts. Then he suddenly realized the Ascadian was looking at him and nodded.

"If you really must do this now, then very well, though I think the other team might be able to tell you more once the doctor is done with them and lets you talk to them." Ghost said, while gesturing towards the last of the wounded that disappeared off the docking bay, towards the med bay, accompanied by Doc Yorke and Private Rallwell to look after them.

As he looked at them his eyes widened a little suddenly with realization as it struck him.

An image formed in his head: A young woman, quite attractive, who was walking through a building that looked like a lab building. As she walked through the corridor she suddenly came upon a wounded man. As she backed away startled she noticed he was armed, but he did not seem a threat somehow, possibly by the severity of the wounds... despite what might be the consequences she had helped him to an empty office, and had treated him with First Aid as best she could, before helping him get out of the building...

It was her... Rallwell... so that is where he knew her from... one of his first missions for the Cult outside the borders of his country of birth, quite some years ago... a mission that had gone so horribly wrong, that he should have been dead if not for the help of this woman... didn't she join the Cult as well after this happening? Hmmm... he could not remember exactly anymore.. he would have to find out somehow....

As Ghost shook his head again at this realization, his mind kept working at full speed while he followed the Ascadian to a debriefing room, where he did his story of the mission.

In the mean time, on the Ascadian ship Xan'per'latos.

An Ascadian officer frowned slightly as he adjusted some settings on his panel. What was this? The strange reading didn't go away after checking his system...

"Admiral, you may want to see this...", the young Ascadian said, keeping an eye on the panel while the Admiral got up from his command chair and moved over to him. Two others joined him as well, people he recognised as being the representatives of the Black and the Red Skull elite troops.

"I started receiving this signal a few minutes ago, it seems to be originating from somewhere in the forest several miles north of the Alien base which the human team attacked today."

The three higher officers looked at the screen at the strange signal, and it took only a few seconds before the Black Skull Ascadian spoke up.

"Can you run a Xan'tis and a Zer'tal'ul decoding sequence on this signal, and send the result over to my console?"

The young officer nodded, "Yes sir we have full access to all known encryption and decryption sequences in our systems as aids for this war."

"Excellent, do it for me would you?"

The young officer nodded and went to work, as the three others moved back to their place, the Admiral joining the Black Skull officer at his console when the results came in. The Admiral's eyes widened slightly at the result as it was displayed on the screen:

--SOS--LOKI*FK5*739A525K--SOS--

That serial number was one of the Loki's they had sent to the humans to use in their recon flight... the one that had been captured by the aliens. So the ejection system had worked then... they would need to let the humans know that they had...

RED ALERT! Hostile fightercraft detected!

The Admiral quickly rushed back to his seat and pressed the comms button.

"What is going on? Where are these craft coming from, and have they been identified?"

The comms came to life, the voice of one of his wing commanders on the intercom, obviously strained and from the sound of his instruments he is currently in a fairly intense fight.

"Admiral, I have no idea where these guys came from. They came out of nowhere, and took out 2 of my wing already. We are currently engaged in fighting them. The hostiles are..." a beeping alert noise and an Ascadian curse, as the voice remained quiet for a moment, until a loud thud could be heard, followed by another curse. "Sorry Admiral but we are in the middle of a fight here. Send reinforcements immediately, we have 2, I repeat 2 Black Spear Valkyries attacking here" After that another high pitched warning sound could be heard and yet another Ascadian curse, which was suddenly interrupted by static.

"Send all fighters we have to reinforce immediately. Mer'tan'isal, are there any Black Skull Valkyries nearby? We need their help immediately" the Admiral called out to the Black Skull officer, then he turned to the Comms officer, without waiting for a reply from the Black Skull.

"Open a channel to all ships in the fleet and inform them that we have been engaged by a wing of Black Spear Valkyries, and tell them to be on their guard. Those fighters did not get her on their own. There must be a Black Spear ship here somewhere"

How the hell did these Black Spear traitors get their hands on those Valkyries? There have been only a handful of them built and they have two of them. TWO! The treachery must run deeper then first suspected...

"Admiral, this is Green 4, our entire wing has been destroyed, I seem to be the only survivor. All my systems are down and the ship is running on emergency power only. I am tapping into the life support's power to use the radio but I thought you had to know this. The Valkyries have left me here and have changed course to the planet, I repeat, they are headed to the planet at full speed, they are ignoring all other ships." The voice over the comm said, in a rather anxious tone.

"Stay put soldier, we'll send someone to pick you up." As the Admiral pressed the button to close the connection he looked over to the young officer at the radar panel (<<probably not using the same system as radar, but lacking another name I'll put it like that>>). "Can you pick up any trace of where they are going? Anything at all?"

A moment of silence, except from frantic clicking and other sounds as the young officer tried several settings on his scanning equipment then he spoke up again

"Sir I am not positive but I am getting a very faint signal, and it is heading straight for the emergency beacon we picked up earlier. It is very faint though, so it could just as well be a cloud or a flight of birds."

So that is what they were after... the human... well maybe we can let the humans do our work for us again then, as they seem so eager to retrieve their lost teammates against all odds.

"Sergeant Tel'com'nar, establish a connection with the human ship and tell them I need to speak to their commander." The Admiral nodded to himself. The humans could prove to be quite useful to removing these traitors... while the fleet focuses on the more important matters at hand.

Meanwhile...planetside.

The Valkyrie looked like a big fireball as it descended into the planet's atmosphere. Shaking violently as it decelerated on the dense air. Looking on the displays of his cockpit the pilot steered his craft towards an open area in the woods near the indicated spot, his wingman close behind him. As he hovered over the open space he looked down at it a moment. Yes that would be large enough to land the craft, and close enough to quickly get to the site. He steered it back over it and touched it down slowly, obviously a very experienced pilot by the way he put it down carefully, not even scorching the plantlife. As the cockpit opened, he and his co-pilot quickly leapt out, both carrying a XJB-68 Projectile Rifle, as the other black Valkyrie touched down only seconds later on the other side of the already touched down Valkyrie. As the pilots of that craft joined the first pair, armed as well they moved into the densely forested area. Following the wing leader who had a small device, indicating the direction they should go.

A little deeper into the woods lies a seat, like one you could find in a fighter craft. A bit higher up in the tree is a parachute, completely entangled in the dense branches of the woods. A small plume of smoke is coming from the underside of the chair, as if it has been on fire. The buckles that would normally hold the pilot are opened, and there is nobody sitting on it. Standing just a few feet away from it though is a young woman... Corporal Katilin Stone... Fox. She is holding herself upright against a tree, several scorch marks over her flying uniform, and a few cuts which are still bleeding as well. She is looking around herself, a strange mixture of fear, anger and confusion on her face. How did she get here? What happened? All that she can remember is that the Colonel shouted that he was the enemy, and that he flew right at her, most likely to attack her. He had gotten under PSI control and tried to kill her! After that she doesn't remember anymore... she woke up here suddenly... but all these noises around her. They were out to kill her. She was sure of it!

Suddenly the sound of a snapping twig drew her attention. Already here? So soon? They would not get her! They wouldn't!

She turned and tried to run, but she had forgotten about her injuries and almost instantly fell face down on the forest floor. She tried to crawl up and raised her head and felt something to the back of her head, and a voice saying in crude english: "Stay down, and don't try to move, or you will leave me no choice but to blast away your head."

She then felt two strong pairs of hands grab her on each sides. Ascadians... so they were after her really... and they had her...

Loonie · February 22, 2003

The Patton seemed silent and Kacur's room even more so. He could feel some tension in the air and he knew something was up. He couldn't tell what it was but he did know that the Commander was just talking to the Ascidian Admiral Hep'lagun'ah, who had requested him urgently. There had to be an emergency of some sort. Perhaps the alien fleet had decided to preform an assault on the friendly fleet, hoping to weaken it so as they could have an assured safe passage for their last few supply ships?

Martin also remembered something that had to do with the words "last few" in his previous thought. The aliens were nearing the final stages of completing their base. Already it was guarded like a fortress and after the prison break all hidden entrances, like the one that was used by the rescue team, must've been sealed off completely. They were also transporting more and more troops and weapons down there on a regular basis, since their storage facilities were expanding to accomodate them. The longer the Ascidians and X-Com would wait, the more fortified the aliens would become, but even if they would strike right now with all of their soldiers ready for battle, X-Com would still need Ascidian assistance. Moreover it was still unknown if Fox had survived, but the chances of that happening were quite low. Martin wondered if she was right now recieving the same "Sectoid Hilton" treatment that the previously captured soldiers had recieved and shuddered at the thought. All in all it was quite unlikely he would see Fox anytime soon.

+ship's com+ All combat personnel report to briefing room!

Then again.....who knows?

Chrysalid_zombie · February 23, 2003

<<sorry for the delay, I'm just lazy :blink: >>

Five men stood around a round table, looking at the screen which was flashing up messages regularly, some in big red letters. The man with the most medals straightened his pink tutu and raised his wand to address the others.

Fairy GodCommander: Gentlemen... We are in trouble! Wish requests have increased 200% in the last week for the entire milkyway galaxy, we don't have the funding from fantasy headquarters to handle this kind of increase, and they aren't giving us squat. Can anyone think why this is happening?

Fairy GodSGT: Sir, maybe those damned tooth fairies are plotting against us again. They caused a lot of damage last time I recall...

Fairy GodLT: Intelligence reports say otherwise, its even quiet in the goblin and closet monster areas, which is unusual in itself.

GodCommander: They know something we don't? Damn it we were so close to fixing this part of the universe! A couple more years we could've got it all sorted!

There was a knock at the huge oak doors behind the fairies, which slowly creaked open as if they lacked any confidence. Behind them stood one of the fairies from science division, she wore a white tutu over her lab coat and didn't carry a wand, she'd found that a scientific calculator with a star on top was all she needed.

GodCommander: Ah! Come in lucy. I've asked Lucy to come down from science division to see what they make of things. After all, they have the machines that go 'bleep' and stuff.

Lucy: Thank you Commander.

The scientist moved into the room and stood next to the SGT, placing a large cup of tea on the counter. The mug read "Believe in yourself, most of the universe doesn't".

Lucy: We think we have an answer.

GodCommander: So soon?!? We've only been arguing for twenty minutes!

Lucy: Well we brought out everything we had in that sector when a coffee nearly wiped out an entire race.

GodSGT: How does coffee kill an entire race?

Lucy: With enough bad luck this happens...

Lucy produced a bag from her pocket with numerous saftey warnings and locks on it, after a few minutes of safe cracking it was ready to be opened.

Lucy: Stand back! This could do some damage!

Lucy opened the bag and directed it at the cup of tea, which exploded, sending fragments of mug flying over-head and leaving a nasty black stain on the table.

Lucy: By shear bad luck some of the atoms in that cup of tea underwent fusion and caused that explosion, and that was only with one unit of bad luck. The other planet took twenty times that before we could stop it. They lost three major cities, and it gets worse. Our graphs predict a rapid increase in bad luck any day now, but we can't locate the source. This bad luck must be coming from somewhere!

GodCommander: So the cause is simple bad luck eh? I think I know the source...

GodLT: No sir! You can't tell them! That project is classified!

GodCommander: This could kill us all, they need to know... My fellow fairies, ten years ago we initiated a project called 'Bad luck vaccuum'...

Lucy: What!?! You mean the rumours are true!?! All this time the bad luck was being directed at only a few people? You told us it was being destroyed by the new wish laws!

GodCommander: We were afraid if anyone knew they would try and sabotage the project, which could destroy entire civilizations and worlds... It looks like something has gone wrong...

GodLT: What could have gone wrong? We've not had any problems before...

GodCommander: This looks like a catastrophic luck meltdown caused by some kind of overload... Something truely hidious must have happened to one or more of our test subjects.

GodSGT: I bet it was the tooth fairies! Those b*****ds! Say the word and I'll have them wiped out by morning!

GodCommander: No, I don't think it was them, they stand to gain nothing. Lucy, I'm giving science division access to the files, find what's going on.

Lucy: Yes sir!

~~~ Meanwhile, in the Ascidian Med-bay ~~~

Yorke: He's not responding to the Ascidian medical devices, he's too far gone. I honestly have no idea if he'll ever come around.

Ong: Wierd how the sh*t always hits him instead of the fan. Any idea what the Sectoids were doing to him?

Yorke: Ilyushenko says they were trying to access his mind through the glasses port. Disturbing to think they can do that. They also ripped apart his replacement leg for some reason, though we've got that fixed up.

Ong: First this and now Fox is MIA too. They should have just annihilated the base from orbit when it was early in production. Stupid Gits...

Yorke: Well the planet is sacred. How would the folks back home have liked it if we nuked Jerusalem off the map?

Ong: You've got a point, but I still say they're stupid.

~~~ Fairy God-Parent HQ, two hours later ~~~

Lucy's lab coat trailed behind her as she ran through the halls of Fairy HQ, waving a file and screaming at people to get out of her way. She dodged past an angry ghoul and almost kicked a gnome into next week before she reached the huge oak doors and burst inside the meeting.

GodCommander: What is the meaning of this!?!

Lucy: We found it! The leak is from this human!

She threw the file onto the round table, the commander read it and looked up at Lucy, his eyes filled with terror.

GodCommander: Jackson's going critical!?! This could take out half the galaxy! How did it happen without us noticing!?!

Lucy: Sectoids. The little things don't have an imagination so we can't interact with them or see what they do. Happened a few days ago.

GodCommander: Damn it! He was storing the Ascidian's bad luck up until we could dispose of it in a safe location... Another few weeks and we could have dumped it. We've got to act quickly, Fairy GodSecretary! Get me on the next broomstick to Ascidian space!

~~~~ Medical Bay ~~~~

Yorke hit the machine with a right hook. It still didn't work! Machines had been crashing all around the place since the team was brought on baord, even life support machines with life time garantees were failing, though the warranties were unclaimable as they were technically correct... Some of the other ships were even reporting failures, a Valkyries' cloak had stopped working at one point, almost alerting the sectoids to its presence.

Yorke: Jesus, this is worse than my Grandfather's stories about the British NHS!

Weindhoven: I'm sure its not that bad...

Yorke: What? The NHS or this?

Weindhoven: This. The NHS was that bad.

Yorke: And all this time I thought it was the medicine talking... Then again he did get that from the NHS, so I suppose it was. Either way I think the Gits need to sort out their bloody ships!

At that moment time stopped and everyone and thing in the med-bay was left totally still and silent. Two plumes of pink smoke appeared in the midle of the room and then dispersed, leaving the GodCommander and Lucy standing there looking around for their target.

Lucy: There he is! In the bed with all the stuff around it. He was really... Whatevered by those aliens wasn't he.

GodCommander: He must have been, he's been knocked unconcious more times than I can remember and he could still absorb bad luck, this must be a really deep coma. Lucky we got here eh?

Lucy: Really funny Commander, really really hilarious.

GodCommander: We'd best fix him up before any more bad luck escapes. We were so close this time... Now it'll all have to be retrieved.

Lucy: By who?

GodCommander: Well him obviously, poor bugger. Oh well, he'll get paid when his jobs done, lets get all this sorted. Abbra Kadabbra Alakazoo! Ying Tong Yiddle Aye Po! Just like that!

The commander waved his wands to the words and a faint glow appeared in the room, centered around the unconcious Jackson. Then it all went dark again.

GodCommander: Time to go, job's a good 'un.

The GodCommander disappeared in a puff of pink smoke, leaving Lucy for a few seconds. She looked at the cursed individual and entered some digits into her magic calculator, then also departed in an instant of combustable candyfloss. Time jumped to a start where it left off.

Yorke: They also need to get some proper food. This gunge is completely inedible!

Weindhoven: Well at least we've got gunge, just think of all the Ascidians on the planets taken by the aliens! They must be... Is that machine meant to be bleeping like?

Jackson's life support machine was bleeping madly in the background, although when an Ascidian machine bleeped it could mean anything from "Crap" to "Great" to even "I'm working normally", which was rare. Yorke jumped over to it and looked at the rapidly modulating readouts.

Yorke: He's going into arrest! Get the Ascidian... Wait! Don't get the Ascidian doctors! Get my medical pack from the storage area, the big one we use at base!

Weindhoven: OK!

As Yorke administered CPR the CMDR ran through the halls of the giant ship to the Patton storage zone, which was just a big armoury really. He grabbed the huge kit the doctor had been talking about. It looked very similar to a briefcase on steroids and with more wires. He ran back to medbay to find Yorke kneeling on top of Jackson pushing down on his ribcage.

Yorke: Get it here! Quick!

The commander ran over and put it down on a bench next to the bed, Yorke climbed down and grabbed it, pressing a few buttons on the top. The suitcase opened up a compartment and made a whining sound as Yorke grabebd two paddles from inside it.

Yorke: Clear!

Weindhoeven stepped back as Yorke pushed the paddles down onto Jacko's chest. Both of them looked at the machines... Nothing.

Yorke: Clear!

Again the paddles came crashing down, trying to get Jackson's heart beating correctly again. Both of the humans present looked at the monitors again... A faint bleep appeared. Then became a regular pulse. Then the brain monitors started to show activity.

Yorke: Haha! Who needs Ascidian technology when you've got two whopping great electrodes?!

Weindhoven: He's not dead then?

Yorke: Dead? The brain monitors showing again! He's better, though probably unconcious, as always.

Weindhoven: I'll go and get the others!

Yorke: I'm going to tell the Gits. Gotta make sure they remember this the next time they doubt our 'puny human technology'.

Both of the people ran out of the room, leaving Daniel to open his eyes slowly and sit up, looking around. There on the table next to him was a box of chocolates with a note attached. "To Jackson: Sorry" He smiled and reached for them. By the time someone managed to get back there was no evidence of their existance left...

<< There, I'm out of a coma and I got chocolates! Mwahahaha! >>

DragonHawk · March 6, 2003

>

The quiet but steady cadence of soft thumping could be heard in the exercise room, but little else. Rallwell ran on the treadmill quietly, with only her footsteps and breathing accompanying her thoughts.

Kaitlin... Corporal Kaitlin Stone had been lost on the last mission. There weren't too many facts floating around the ship, other than that Kaitlin's fighter had been brought down on near the end of the recon sweep. There were rumors that she had succumbed to psionic control.

A rescue operation was being planned. The beacon had been located apparently, but why weren't they going out to get her? Rallwell shook her head. Of course, they weren't going to go out without a plan. If the bad guys were around, the X-Com strike team could be in a lot of trouble... Fox would merely be inconvenienced if the bad guys did not show.

Rallwell dialed down the speed. Cool-down time... At a slow jog, Rallwell let her body start to relax as her mind turned to other matters. Would she be part of the retrieval team? There were reasons for and against it, of course. If Fox was trapped inside her cockpit, then they would have to cut her out. That possibility was unlikely though, as her being still in the cockpit would probably mean her death... Well, the possibility is not unlikely, just unpleasant. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov would probably take Jacko, Necro, Howardson, Kacur, and Ilyuschenko. Anyone else was auxiliary.

Switching the machine off, Rallwell stepped off and sat down to catch her breath. She made a mental note to flag down Ghost the next time she saw him.

Ghost · March 6, 2003

Pain. Darkness. Cramped. Fear. A foul odor.

Those were the first things that shot through the head of Corporal Katilin Stone. Where was she? What happened to her? The last she remembers was flying a Loki fighter and Colonel Cyriacus becoming under Ethereal control and her flying to him to attack him before he could mess up the mission. Did she fail? Was that why she was here? Where was here actually? She tried to get up and nearly immediately bumped her head to the top of... where-ever. She felt with her fingers, a bit more carefully this time. The space was not large, rather small actually. She was lying on her side with her legs pulled up a bit, not quite a fetal position, but close to it. The walls seemed to have no irregularities, all of the sides felt the same, except the bottom. She felt a bit of a sticky fluid there... perhaps that was causing the smell. As she moved her fingers to her nose to smell it, she recognised the smell, and a careful lick of her fingers confirmed it. Blood. Her blood? Maybe. Or maybe someone else's... the uncertainty did not fall well with the Corporal and she ceased resistance, and just lied there, crying to herself. Something she hadn't done in years, although she could not remember all that.

Meanwhile, only a metre away from that, in the cockpit of the Black Spear Valkyrie fighter designated Shan'tar 1.

"I think our guest has awakened. I heard a thud from in there a moment ago," said the second pilot over the intercom. "Also we're approaching the fleet again, we're entering scanner range in 2 minutes."

"Alright, this is Shan'tar leader to Shan'tar wing, come in," said the first pilot at these words.

"Shan'tar 2, I'm here," a voice said on comms channel.

"Shan'tar 3, right on your tail," said another voice.

"We'll be reaching fleet scanner range in under 2 minutes, raise the cloaking systems and be careful. There will be *no* firing at any hostile ships unless they open fire at you. We are not here to raise hell, so let's be quiet this time," said Lieutenant Mas'zagu'ran, first pilot of Shan'tar 1 or Shan'tar leader to his wing. Both wingmen confirmed and their disappearance off his scanners confirmed they had indeed done as they were told. Mas'zagu'ran signalled to his co-pilot that he could cloak them as well, which promptly happened, according to the lights on his display. This mission had not gone entirely smoothly from the start, and hopefully the end would go a bit more smoothly. Shan'tar 2 had, in a moment of overconfidence, broken formation and engaged a fleet patrol that crossed their path, instead of waiting for them to have passed, forcing the rest of the wing to engage as well or see their comrade be destroyed. They had vanquished the patrol quickly, but more then likely one would've gotten a message out to their cruiser, thus alerting the fleet of their presence. That pilot will certainly regret his actions this day to an extent that he will not repeat such a stunt ever again...

A little time later, aboard the USS Patton II in orbit of the Ascadian holy planet.

"What do you mean you have no idea where they went?" Colonel Brad Cyriacus smacked a fist on the desk while he spoke to the admiral of the Xan'per'latos, who was in charge of fleet operations around this planet. "We need to know where those fighters went, one of our men is still down there! I don't care HOW you do it, but find it out"

Commander Weindhoven and Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov were standing a little back in the same room, observing the Colonel's 'communication' with the Ascadians, he had already been talking to them by the time either of them had come in, but he had gotten more and more emotional with time. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov, Ghost, could not remember ever having seen the Colonel this heated. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say, in stead it was the Commander that spoke up as soon as the comms link was ended.

"Colonel, you will explain to me right now what that was about" The Commander did not seem best pleased with the Colonel's anger against the Ascadians, and with reason. Human-Ascadian relations were fragile already, they did not need more fuel added to that fire.

The Colonel just stood there a moment and then turned around, a look on his face that surprised Ghost, and it took him effort not to obviously be surprised. The Colonel's face was blank, all emotion seemed repressed from it. Almost a scary sight.

"I am sorry Commander, but I have had it with the Ascadians not telling us all they know. Especially info like this that could be vital to our efforts to retrieve Fox. She was under my wing, my responsibility, and I intend to get her back out"

With these words the Colonel stormed towards the exit of the Command Center, right past the Commander, who was a bit surprised to see the Colonel so emotional about this situation as well.

Before the Colonel could leave the room though, the comms screen flashed to life again and a computerized voice spoke up:

"Incoming transmission from ASC Xan'per'latos"

The Commander walked to the screen, and pressed the accept key as the Colonel stopped in his tracks and turned around, moving over to Ghost, whispering to him, "I wonder if I actually managed to get through to those gits this time."

The tall man grinned slightly and nodded towards the screen, to indicate he wanted to hear what the gits had to say, however the transmission was apparently a private one as they could not hear anything the person from the Xan'per'latos had to say. The Commander suddenly backed away though as if surprised, and not pleasantly. He turned his head to the men and gestured.

"Colonel come here and take a look at this and tell me what you make of this as a pilot."

Cyriacus moved over towards the screen and took a look, his eyes widening slightly.

"When did this come in?"

"Only a few minutes ago Colonel," the voice on the other side of the connection said, a different one then he had been speaking with before fortunately.

He quickly then turned around to Ghost and spoke up, "Ghost, assemble the team and hurry. Sound a red alert"

A little earlier before aboard the Valkyrie fighter designated Shan'tar 1.

Steering his little Valkyrie fighter through the endless voids of space lieutenant Mas'zagu'ran felt relaxed. This was where he was in his element. He was unbeaten here in any dogfight or duel, as well as that nobody would be able to find his little cloaked fighter here. They were almost at their goal he saw. He saw the fleet's Trafalgar that was near the Centurion cruiser they were going to dock at. Home base. So sneakily hidden at a place where those foolish fleet people would never search.

Slowly filling the HUD of his cockpit the Trafalgar closed, unaware of the three cloaked fighters about to pass it. Once they'd gotten past it, nothing would stand in their way of completing their mission.

Suddenly something caught his eye and he turned his head to face it. It was a flash, a flame in the darkness of space, and a small fighter appearing at the place of that flame.At nearly at the same instant his radio came to life with the voice of the pilot of Shan'tar 2.

"Mayday, mayday, Shan'tar 2 here. We got hit by a stray asteroid, it took our left wing clean off and heavily damaged our craft, cloaking is down, weapon systems are down and engines are down to 50%"

At that time apparently the Trafalgar had noticed it's approaching hostiles, as Mas'zagu'ran saw the ship's retractable turrets come out of the ships hull and swinging over to the side the fighter squad was on.

"This is Shan'tar lead, Shan'tar wing DECLOAK AND SCATTER! Give them more targets to aim at, so 2 can reach safety"

At his own command, cloaking on both Shan'tar 1 and 3 dropped, and they both flew off in different directions at maximum thrust. Shan'tar 1 turned his nose towards the Trafalgar, and as soon as he was in weapons range he opened fire at the ship, trying to draw it's attention. That apparently worked wonderfully well, as he saw the ship's turrets swing his way and return fire at him. As soon as they did he turned the ship again, trying to avoid the cruiser's flak, while progressing towards the destroyer they called home. As he turned his ship again though something caught his attention. Shan'tar 2 was still heading on a straight course, but one of the flak cannons was turning it's attention to them. Mas'zagu'ran turned his fighter, arming a missile and firing it at that turret.

A bright flash, and a large explosion shook the Trafalgar as part of it's hull was hit by the missile, the turret clearly out of working order... unfortunately a second fireball not too far from the ship and a scream that suddenly ceased over the comms systems informed him that he had been too late. Shan'tar 2 had been destroyed.

Meanwhile...

Shouting in a strange language, and a feeling as if she was in a sort of rollercoaster, going up and down and to the sides. It was a feeling she knew. She was in a fightercraft in combat, but why? Where? Who held her like this? Her head felt strange. Feeling dizzy... the blood on the floor had been increasing, why weren't there any doctors helping her? Why...

Darkness engulfed her and she remembered nothing further.

A few minutes after the red alert was issued on the USS Patton II

Sirens were sounding throughout the ship and people were rallying from their beds and where-ever they might have been. The Commander, Colonel Cyriacus and Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov were waiting in the docking bay, next to a shuttle that looked about ready for take-off. As the the team sped in, everyone in their combat gear, they were motioned to get on the shuttlecraft as soon as possible. Anne Rallwell looked at Ghost a bit strangely, almost as if she expected that he would stop her and ask her where she thought she was going, though when it became evident that he wasn't going to do that, her look became even more puzzled as she entered the ship with the rest, while the officers boarded as well. The moment everyone was inside the shuttle closed it's hatch and left the docking bay.

<<for the briefing, please refer to the briefing thread I made for the sake of making it easier to find>>

Loonie · March 10, 2003

<<Now to get this thing rolling again after a long time. Also post some in the Social Roleplay guys! It exists you know. :blink: >>

A man looks at a uniform, which had previously seemed very devoid and boring. Now however it seemed slightly more noticable with two chevrons attached at its sides and another one shining in its blue colour at the chest. "It sure took quite some time to get my uniform looking a bit more flashy." thought Kacur with a wide grin on his face, contemplating what the true nature of ranking could be.

What did it really mean? What did it truly represent? The fact that one soldier is better than the other? The fact that one soldier can take more responsibility on him or herself than the other? The fact that soldiers of equal rank are all the same in the military's eyes?! Or just the fact that one soldier is capable of kissing ass or paying money to reach it whilst the others cannot?

Though the last possibility could certainly be excluded out here there were always the first several options. Ultimately it represented the people who would be given more responsibility, but why would those people be more important? Without the Privates and Corporals X-Com would be nothing but a bunch of people who knew what to do, but ultimately could not preform their desired task. Did rank even matter all the way out here 60 light years away from Earth? It did in some measures, but in others its importance had severely declined, something Kacur liked very much, even though he was still grateful for being promoted and felt a natural sense of pride of becoming part of the "in" crowd. Though some people like Colonel Cyriacus did not seem to realize the lower importance of rank out here, or maybe they just didn't want to.

Martin had noted the Colonel to possess quite a hefty ego. It was quite apparent from the various conversations that he had with the Ascidians during the previous few missions and Martin wondered how a person with so little self control managed to get to the rank of Colonel. Still this far away from Earth many things were possible. After the last mission when the team had yet again lost Fox, Cyriacus just locked himself into his quarters, shouting to anyone he met on the way not to disturb him and how incompetent he/she was that he/she couldn't rescue a single soldier. Kacur knew what was going through his mind and he didn't even need to use psionics to know. The Colonel was most likely asking himself as to why did he allow Fox to accompany him down to that recon mission. Had he forbidden her, this could all have been avoided, but he did not and now he was most likely going through a state of extreme self torturing, the instrument of torture being his own presumed "guilt". Add to that the fact that people with a large ego often developed one so as to counteract other nasty things that had occured throughout their lives, it would prove to be devastating for his psyche. If he had gone along on this last mission and it had failed, Martin was certain that he would quite possibly go into a complete shutdown. A man having an over developed ego would no doubt do so.

Martin decided that now was the time to help him. So far his rank had allowed him to act as a confidant only to lower ranked personnel, but not for the officers as their trust would need to be earned. But the newly promoted Corporal decided that to wait any longer would be too risky and Yorke was unfortunately too busy with his final additions to the Ethereal autopsy to do it himself. Martin walked out of his room and headed over to the Colonel's quarters on the Patton as it travelled back to NAO.

After some time of going down the corridors of the Patton and going through the things he was about to say to the Colonel, he reached his destination, passing Jackson on the way. It made him think for a brief moment about the Sergeant since he seemed to be cheery as ever since he had awoken from his comatose state. In fact he was a bit too reckless on the last mission and Martin had to remember to remind him of those terrible things that had happened at that "Sectoid Hilton". The threat of that would surely make him act more wisely in battle, Kacur thought. As he was finnaly ready to press the buzzer which would announce to the Colonel that someone wanted to disturb him, he paused for a second considering what problems this could cause. "No bigger than the fact that we might lose the Colonel due to psychiatric problems." he thought to himself before pressing the button and preparing to face the Colonel.

<<Brain *poke poke* >>

<<EDIT: A small addon >>

Ghost · March 13, 2003

<<Hope you don't mind I took the liberty of playing Rallwell as well here DH, but I thought I'd take the situation and finally explain some of Ghost's past and how the hell he knows Rallwell And for those that seem to have a nose for that, no it's not because Ghost is in :inlove: with Rallwell :blink: >>

"There you go, no damage done, you'll probably just have a headache for the rest of the day, so you may want to take it easy." Yorke said to the Lieutenant as he finished his checkup after the mission. They'd wanted to make sure the Ascadian flashbang grenade hadn't left any permanent damage, or damage that wasn't so apparent.

"Thanks doc, glad to hear that," was Ghost's reply. The man sounded just like you'd expect from someone with a splitting headache, although in this case it was not the headache that caused the reply to be that.

They had Fox. They had her all the way to the shuttle bay, and just before that these gits had to show up and screw everything up. What was it about her that these gits wanted so much, and why weren't they dead? Not that he complained about that particular fact, but it made no sense...

Walking out of the med bay Ghost went over to the mess hall where he found Rallwell standing at one of the windows, looking out. He looked at her a moment from the door opening. Rallwell seemed to have taken it particularly hard that they had seized Kaitlin right from their hands and nothing that could be done about it, and now they didn't even know whether she was still alive or not... although the general assumption was not.

He moved over to her and stood beside her, taking and leaning on the railing that was attached in front of the window. Rallwell didn't seem to notice his presence at first, but then her speaking up confirmed the opposite was true.

"She's dead isn't she LT?"

The question surprised Ghost a little, and he noted to himself that Rallwell, usually addressing people by their names, now used his rank to address him. He remained silent for a minute, already answering the question with that silence, then he spoke up.

"I wish I had a different answer, but everything seems to indicate so... there were no escape pods or other vessels seen leaving the destroyer after the moment they took her from us..."

She nodded slightly, already expecting this answer, but hearing it confirmed didn't make it easier.

"Damn it... it just doesn't make sense.. why would they take her from us just to have her die with the ship? What did they want with her? Why did they take specifically her? And why didn't they kill us, when they had every chance to?" Rallwell banged a fist against the wall next to the window. Not very hard, but the gesture was enough.

"I don't know, I wish I did, but I don't. If we'd have had more time we might have been able to come after them and ask them, but we didn't. We had to pull out, as you saw how close it was. If we'd have stayed longer we'd have all died, and have gained nothing but the decimation of the X-Com team... all that remains now, I fear, is to find the people that planned her capture and find out *why* they wanted her."

Rallwell nodded slightly in confirmation, obviously not really in the mood for a talk, but also obviously needing one. Ghost noticed this as well, despite the fact that he was not much of a people's person. He decided to speak out something that had been on his mind for a while now, who knows, it might bring some comfort...

"Anne," he started, a bit uneasy, he didn't often address one of the team by their first name, but he thought it suited the situation here. "Do you know why I picked you to come on my team, rather then Yorke, despite the fact that I knew Kaitlin was likely to be injured and in need of medical attention?"

Rallwell turned her head away from the window for the first time since the conversation had started, surprised a little by the question as well as the way she was addressed by the Lieutenant.

After a moment of silence she answered, "I suppose you thought Yorke might be of better use with the team of men going to the docking bay, and they too needed a sergeant to command them."

Ghost nodded slightly, "That could have been a reason, perhaps it would've been if the situation had been different, but no. That was not the reason I took you on my team. The reason for it is a bit different, and one you probably would not have thought of as I do not think you remember..."

Remember? What was there to remember? Rallwell looked at Ghost inquisitively as he remained silent for a moment, but when she opened her mouth to ask what it was she alledgedly had forgotten then Ghost spoke up before she could.

"New York, April, 2055. A research center located near the city in a navy base which was used by X-Com at the time in the aftermath of the Second Alien War. The research center was dedicated to researching Alien technology recovered the Alien Wars. This was also the reason why it was the focus of attention for one of the local Cult of Sirius cells. They did not approve of X-Com's 'desecration' of those 'holy artifacts', so they formed a team to raid the facility. As the facility was within a well defended X-Com base they needed some of the best people the Cult had among their ranks. As such a team was assembled from cells all over the world. A top hacker from the European Union cell, 2 weapons specialists, one from the Latin-American states and one from the Slavic states, and last they recruited a scout and long range weapons specialist from the Eastern Soviet State. Their mission was to infiltrate the base and retrieve as many of the 'stolen' Alien artifacts as possible. Unfortunately for the team things were against them from the start. There was an informer for X-Com among the Cult and the base had been alerted about their arrival. When the team had successfully infiltrated the base and arrived in the main research area, they found it cleared of all artifacts. Nothing was remaining, and before they had overcome their surprise, 2 X-Com strike teams entered the room, one on each side. When the 2 Cultists most specialized in the use of their weapons raised their weapons the X-Com soldiers opened fire, killing all three of the terrorists that had attacked them, and that had managed to wound four of their own. I say three, as one of them managed to disappear in a waste disposal chute nearby. The base was put on full alert and troopers were all over searching for this man. It was then that a young medical student, working on the base, on the way home from a day's work, unaware of what had happened only a little earlier and not far from her working place, came across a heavily wounded man and helped him to her house on the base, where she advised to call the hospital, to get his wounds treated. The man strongly refused this, and seeing a medical certificate on her wall, he demanded that she treated his wounds as best she could. Seeing as there was nothing else she could do besides let the man bleed to death, she treated his wounds, removing the bullets that were still left and bandaging the wounds. While she treated him, the man's respect for the woman grew, that she would take the risk of taking in a wounded man like him, and treat him without calling the base security... in return he told her of why he was so wounded, and that he was part of an organisation that opposed the way X-Com exploited the Alien technology to their own ends. After a few hours of talking it seemed that they both had a similar feeling on the subject, and after he also told her that he had not killed anyone from the base that day, she agreed to smuggle him out of the base the next day, if he would take her to these people he worked for. Knowing there was no other way of getting off the base he decided he had no other chance then to trust this remarkable woman. After he told her that if she did go with him to the Cult headquarters there would be a good chance that she would not be allowed to leave anymore, in order to keep their identities secret, and she was still certain, they went to sleep. He on the couch where he had been lying while she treated him, and she in her bed.

The next day she indeed managed to smuggle him off the base in her car, and they went back to the Cult, where he introduced her to the people of the New York cell, where he stayed to help her get herself oriented and started among the Cult, before he had to go back to his home cell. The contact continued for a few weeks, but then ceased, for unknown reason."

Ghost then turned to Rallwell, who had been staring at him wide-eyed for several minutes now as he told this, and the question that played through her head was obvious.

"That young medical student, that was you, Anne Rallwell. And that Cultist soldier, that was me, Dmitri Schmerjchanovich. I myself did not remember either, though I did know there was something familiar about you each time I saw you. But when I checked your personnel records I was certain it was you. It had to be. Now you will probably ask yourself why you never recognised me, well I had short hair at the time, and I had it dyed blonde. That changes a lot about a man's appearance, but I really am that same person. Having read your personnel record, I also saw what horrible things the Cult did to your family when you tried to get out. That reason is nearly exactly the same as why I got out. They killed my mother. It was also the reason I joined X-Com at first, to get revenge on those bastards... that cooled over time, when I finally realized that the killing was pointless. That is when I decided to sign up for the Patton mission. To be away from everything for a while. Away from violence and away from the earth, where the Cult was. Well that wish sure got granted, didn't it?" A wry chuckle about their situation and Dmitri looked at Rallwell, who was still staring at him as if she couldn't believe what he just told her.

He stretched out a hand and put it on her shoulder comfortingly, "I know it is a lot to take in all at once, but that is the reason I took you along. Because I know I can trust on you. And it is why it pains me even more that Stone got taken again, because once again I was the cause of bringing all such pain of loss to your world directly. More directly then if you'd have been in the shuttle bay team. But I promise you this: If Kaitlin is still out there, we'll find her and bring her back."

Rallwell finally seemed to notice the hand on her shoulder and put her own hand on it and nodded faintly, when the intercom blurted to life: "Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov, please report in the Commander's office immediately. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov to the Commander's office please."

"If you need to talk to me, about this, or whatever, you'll know where to find me," with those words the Lieutenant withdrew his hand and walked out of the mess hall, on the way to the Commander's office, leaving a stunned Rallwell, that quickly found and grabbed a chair to sit down on, staring out to the stars to think about everything that was just told to her, on top of all that had happened recently. Though somehow things seemed a little less bleak now, but still a large chaos she needed to sort out...

<<EDIT: changed a minor detail, so that it'd fit Rallwell's story better >>

Chrysalid_zombie · March 13, 2003

<< Tensions are high after that mission, so lets relieve them in a traditional way... >>

Jackson hummed to himself as he folded his clothes. It had been difficult to get the Ascidian blood out of them; he'd never killed anything like THAT before. <<Note: Jacko had to slice a throat last mission, I think it's mentioned in the de-briefing>> He didn't ever want to again, only it wasn't because he couldn't get the stubborn stain out, he'd actually felt some weird emotion thing when he did it... But the feeling had passed after a while; maybe he was just going a bit more mad than usual, with the stress and all. He continued humming happily.

Necro: What ya humming there Jacko?

Jackson spun around and gasped, he hadn't heard Necro sneak up behind him.

Jackson: Woah! Scared me there!

Necro: Yeah, a blundering whale could sneak up on you mate. Hehehe. What ya humming anyway?

Jackson: Just a theme from an old TV show... Say, what happened on that last mission? All I saw was a lack of Fox and a load of head aches.

Necro: The bas****s jumped and stunned us form behind, ran off with Fox. Like they were planning it or something... Man if I'd have just been revving the cannon instead of... Whatever I was doing...

Jackson: Don't worry. We'll get her back. I'd bet a large portion of the back pay I'm owed, which counting my entire day as over-time plus hazard pay is at least $80,000 by now.

Necro: The ship exploded man. Nothing got out!

Jackson: I'm telling you man, she's just in a bad condition on some desolate rock somewhere, probably being guarded by some inept idiots who keep their keys on big metal rings when they fall asleep.

Necro: You are stupid... You really are!!

Jackson: Not stupid, I just know how it works. I mean take Star Wars, almost the same conditions there...

Necro: WE ARE NOT A TV SHOW!!!!

Jackson: Firstly, Star Wars was a film. And Secondly WE practically ARE in a tv show! We've been hurled across the galaxy to face old foes in a battle for survival that will affect the safety of an entire galaxy! I grew up watching that freakin' show so I know how it works!

Necro: You know how it works? Well if you know how it works then why isn't Fox here right now not being dead!?!

Jackson: Because I don't predict the events, I just know this kind of plot! Trust me, three days time we'll get a call from an 'informant' in Black Spear and hey presto, we're on rescue mission two. Only this time we get to use the line "This time it's personal" and the special effects are much better. Of course its a trap really, but being the brave humans we are we make it out with a few major injuries at most before we get a telling off from the ascidian in charge for making too much noise or something.

Necro: Okay that's enough of this cr*p you sick bas****!

Necro swung a punch that caused considerable damage to Daniel's lower jaw and made him fall back onto a bunk. When he got up Jacko gave a quick uppercut to Necro's gut and the fight escalated from there.

<< Fight! Fight! Don't know why, but I felt like Jackson needed hitting a bit. If someone would be kind enough to stop one of us being killed (i.e. Me, as Necro is the heavy weapon's guy and over 6ft tall) please just step on in and stop the fight. Or if you'd all like to get into a huge brawl feel free, I'm all for it so long as you wouldn't hit a man in glasses :blink: >>

Loonie · March 13, 2003

<<WOOT!!! :blink: Kacur would stop this, but he has to comfort Brain down, so I might as well roleplay someone else......like McCarthy? >>

As McCarthy was walking along the corridors of the Patton he was sighing constantly. 3 hours of troubleshooting with the main fusion reactors is NOT something that tends to make a person happy and he was bored out of his mind. Worse still, there wasn't anything that fun to do around the place! The Ascidians sure as hell didn't offer much entertainment and picking on the imprisoned Kabron Pirates was already getting rather old.

He just walked into the ship's Personnel quarters when he noticed two figures fighting quite intensely. It didn't seem as if any blood was starting to come out of their mouthes or noses and no bruises seemed to have been made so the fight probably just started.

"But there sure are gonna be some when I mix in" said McCarthy who with a brightened up face cracked his knuckles and joined in the fun as he put a smack dab on Necro's cheek so as to even the odds a little. Things were starting to heat up a bit as Jacko took advantage of this and threw his own cup with his own hand-made label "I love the smell of Lobsters in the morning" at Necro too, though it accidentaly hit McCarthy. Now it seemed as if everyone was just in it not so much because of a grudge but for a free-for-all...

Ghost · March 20, 2003

A light surrounding... voices... a splitting headache... those were the first impressions Corporal Katilin Stone had of her surroundings when she regained conciousness for the first time after her rescue at the asteroid.

2 people talking... about what? About her?

"... will be just fine. She has lost a lot of blood, and she has suffered a concussion, so we'll need to examine her brain activity for damage when we return at the base, but you do not have to worry Lieutenant. Fortunately we managed to retrieve her so we can treat her. I can't believe these Ascadians were so barbaric as to not even try to heal her, although admittedly I suppose not all Ascadians know how the human physiology works and they might've hurt her even more."

She knew this voice... something at the back of her mind told her she knew this person and she could trust him... but her mind was so foggy...

"Doc, I think she's waking up."

Another voice, also familiar... the image of a tall man came to mind... she knew this person as well...

A person bent over her and blocked out some of the light that was shining in her eyes. Slowly her eyes managed to focus and she could make out the face that was looking down at her.

"Katilin? Can you hear me?"

Katilin... that was her, he was talking to her. She nodded her head and spoke up, a bit hoarsely.

"Yes, I can."

She was a bit surprised by the sound of her voice, it did sound a bit hoarse.

"Wonderful! Welcome back aboard the Patton Corporal. It's great to see you're back among us again." the other voice said again.

Slowly the fog cleared, and she was able to remember names again... Doctor Ned Yorke, Lieutenant Dmitri Schmerjchanikov... so she was back aboard the Patton? Then she realized the pain from her leg and the other wounds was gone... had it healed, or had they drugged her?

She tried to get up from her bed, but the Doctor pushed her back gently, but firmly.

"You'll need to stay here for a bit longer. I need to run some tests to make sure you're okay, and your leg will still need to heal. Don't worry, I'm sure the team will come and visit you, now they know you are alright." With those words the Doc turned out of her line of sight again and towards the Lieutenant, which had been in the room to check on Stone and to see that she recovered alright. The rescue mission had been his responsibility, and the objective had been to get Stone out alive. That objective still counted while it wasn't entirely sure if she'd pull through. It was a great relief to see she had finally come to again.

"Okay Doc, I'll go report to the Commander that she's woken up. Take good care of her." With a smile on his face, and a strong feeling of relief, Ghost stepped out of the Med Bay and headed towards the Commander's quarters.

Loonie · March 30, 2003

Striding accross the corridors of NAO Kacur was heading to the medical bay. He was indeed very happy to hear the reports coming in from X-Com's last mission and he wished he could've been a part of it. The Ascadian news reports along with the White Eagle couldn't stop praising X-Com's response to aid with the civilian crisis who had, despite all of their fatigue and exhaustion, managed to rescue 9 out of 10 trapped civilians; a better statistic than the Ascidian rescue services had done in almost a year on that moon. Du'ra'nus had managed to gain enromous support in the council for the humans' support after this and the media from the disgruntled High Council member Gru'chas'nun had been almost completely overshadowed by praise for X-Com and the Human race in general. Indeed, the loss of Arkunis VI was almost completely redeemed with this single act.

That gave a very warm feeling to Martin as he reached the Med-Bay and looked upon the reason of him coming here. Rallwell. All of the members on that team had preformed very well, but for a woman to lug in a 70 kg suit and still preform at an outstanding level was some sight. Martin once again wished he could've seen it as he seated himself next to Anne and gave her a mild punch to the shoulder. "How'ya doing?"

Rallwell gave away a weak smile and replied whilst not moving a single muscle more than was necessary: "I'll be just fine. The Doc says that I've just suffered severe physical exhaustion and that I should rest here for 3 days. Ah well.....might be boring but still. Better than scrubbing the latrines. I was up for this week you see." she finished with her grin stretching slowly. Martin gave out a short laugh and looked downwards before considering something. He then raised his head again and gave as honest an impression as he possibly could as he looked into Anne's eyes: "Look I um...I just really wanted to say you did a terrific job. Healing all of those people and heh, if it wasn't for you Jacko and the new guy would've been splatted along with that Ascidian civvie. Look I just um....I want you to know that you did something really good. Despite all odds you saved a lot of lives. I hope you remember that for a long time." he concluded, nodding his head slightly whilst uttering those last words. Rallwell thought to herself for a moment before replying: "Well with guys like you around who needs strenght. You radiate enough for a whole damn fusion power plant." That made Kacur grin slightly again as he slowly got back up and patted Rallwell's hand slightly: "Anyway. Just rest here. If you want I can bring you anything." "No thanks. I'll be just fine." With a heavy sigh Martin then left with a quick: "Okay then. Cheerio." and waved to her as he was walking away with a grin still formed on his face.

"Yup definately better. A little more and I might even be able to stand ground up to Fox as far as women go, though she herself is right now in a similar state as Rallwell" he considered as he was walking to his quarters. Just before he had reached them however a voice could be heard throughout the base, in no doubt belonging to the Commander himself: "Will Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov and Corporal Kacur report to the COs office for immediate discussion." Kacur noted the last three words. This had to be something big. But why him? Sure the Lieutenant since he was one of the tops, but Kacur would sooner expect Ong to show up for consultation, not himself. What could the Commander want?

Martin stepped up his pace, sensing that something extraordinary will happen in the next few minutes, perhaps something that he could handle or maybe not. "Only time will tell though" he thought to himself just before he arrived at the front of the COs entrance with Ghost approaching the very same place from the opposite side.

<<No you sex perverts. Kacur is not in love with Rallwell. :blink: He simply wants to express his admiration, that's all >>

Loonie · April 5, 2003

<<This is it. The intro roleplay post to the new saga The Enemy Nearby. Attend in the sims, post in the roleplay and well,.......do things XCAS more. :blink:

NOTE: Read this post AFTER reading the intro story to Saga 6: The Enemy Nearby. >>

Martin looked ahead of him and saw some entities staring at him and conversing between each other. People. It's amazing that this entire war and the wars before it are just about that. People. Who would've thought that so many times that mankind and possibly alienkind had gone to war the true center and point of each one would ultimately not be resources, or safety or freedom or justice or even evil, but their own species. If species would learn that, then they could save themselves a lot of grief, agony and trouble, but alas neither people or aliens are that advanced.

"Lieutenant? You ready to start?" was the question that came from Ghost as he put his hand on Martin's shoulder. The Psionisist jumped a bit and looked back at him replying: "Yes I suppose so. Supervise the breifing will you and tell me how good I've done. After I'm finished you're up for Kappa okay?"

"Fine with me" was the Sniper's response and he took a chair at the side of the conference room in NAO together with his two Kappa team members and seperate of the other Alpha Squad soldiers in the room. Kacur hadn't prepared any papers save for six panels which he had replicated six times from his own and which concerned the squad he was now in charge of. That was all the documentation they would need and Martin certainly didn't want to load up any more than necessary, which was something that he learned not to do during the first hours of his administrative work with Ghost.

*ahem*

The clearing of Kacur's throat slowly made the chatter amongst the troops go down. Putting his two hands at the table in front of him Martin began:

"Okay people. Before we begin I would like to straighten one thing out once and for all. My promotion to this post came rather as a shock to all of us including myself. However I am confident of the Commander's and Colonel's decision in this matter and will therefore obey it to the letter. Part of this decision involves me putting anyone who questions my authority in his or her place and that I will quickly and swiftly do if anyone dares question my position of Lieutenant. I hope I won't have to do so, but rest assured I will not hesitate to if my command will become threatened by any of my subordinates. Understood?"

Nods came from Alpha Squad members whilst Kappa Team and Support made slighter nods with the exception of Ghost who was simply analyzing Kacur's approach. "Good." Kacur thought to himself. "Now that I've hopefully stopped anyone from questioning me, if not always then at least during battle, time to move on to the real deal." Kacur continued:

"Now the purpose of this meeting is because both Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov and myself will present the basic outlines of the two new units that the Commander and the Colonel have decided to form. Alpha Squad and Kappa Team. I will provide the briefing for the first whilst the Lieutenant here will provide the briefing for the second.

The first segment is called Alpha Squad and consists of seven members. Private McBurke, Private Ilyuschenko, Private McCarthy, Corporal Necro, Corporal Jackson, Sergeant Howardson and myself. The squad is from now on going to preform the following types of missions and roles: Assault, Open Terrain Battles, Space Combat, Garrison, Defense, Security, Search and Destroy, Patrol, Peacekeeping and Emergency missions. The unit is therefore also appropriately staffed and equipped for these types of missions. We have two Troopers to provide general weapons skills and experience with weapons. We have two Heavy Weapons Experts to provide heavy support firepower whenever needed. We have two Psionisists who can severely affect the morale of enemy soldiers and their state of mind. And finally we have other support roles such as Engineer for explosives, Sniper for long range fire, Scout for recon and Pilot for transport to and from missions.

I have here in the front of me everything there is to now about Alpha Squad in great detail." he said as he pointed at the panels on the table in front of him. "Mission assigments, plans and the standard weapons and equipment which every one of you will carry from mission to mission.<<check the forum topic "Alpha Squad Plaque for what are these plans and equipment table >> When it comes to the equipment I want you all to study each part that you will be carrying to battle intricately and know your weapons and equipment capabilities well. That is the first and primary basic need of any sucessfull combat unit.

The second part of these are the plans which I have decided to give the name of "ARSED" so that you can remember them more easily."

Several chuckles came from members in the team, Ilyuschenko even laughing a bit out loud at the first mention of the new plans which they will have to follow.

"Well I can see by your responses that remembering the name will be no problem" Martin said with a grin. "Now to find out just what this name stands for. A stands for Attack plan - The most basic flanking manuever that will be used as standard practice when facing opposition of our size and strength. R stands for Retreat plan - When we need to tail it out of a place nothing beats covering each other whilst hightailing it out of the combat zone. S stands for Sniper plan - Jacko's secondary capability can't be ignored and it will come in very useful when defending an area. E stands for Encirclement plan - My favourite. Keep a stealthy approach and hurt the enemy bad big time. And finally D for Defensive plan - When the need turns to a Defensive/Offensive plan this will be our choice.

During the first few training exercises I will not demand of you to know these plans intricately. However by the time that we start moving into combat mission these plans must be known quite well. It's not even so much as for my own safety as it is for OUR safety. Get it?"

Nods came again from Alpha Squad, some quicker and more eager for these new arragments, others more slow and not so enthusiastic of these new changes.

"Very well. Then I believe that is all the major briefing that I will give. Before I leave the board to Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov however I must stress some things as well. You may notice that some of you who have had some experience have been assigned less powerful weapons, like Jackson here. I want to emphasize that it means squat in part of me being favoured to certain individuals! The reason as to why I issued the old rifle to him was because he has the most experience on the entire Squad. Not only is it with that rifle but the weapon is also much more precise than the automatics, meaning that I am confident that he can deliver precise and accurate shots. I just hope it'll be in the alien's heads.

Slight chuckles again followed, though Jacko himself made a slight frown. Martin quickly reassured him with a friendly wink of his right eye and continued:

"Other than that I am done. Each of you take these panels on the table and review them ASAP. Sergeant Howardson, a moment if you please. The rest of you wait here to hear Kappa's briefing made by Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov here."

The newly promoted Sergeant stepped a bit away from the table together with the newly promoted Lieutenant as the other Alpha Squad members started collecting their panels and already checking some of the info around the table.

"Okay here's the deal. I really have no idea as to why I was promoted right past you but here we are. So I need you to act in the role of Sergeant well, since we need to get our troops up to readiness now."

"Hmm that I see. Their current disposition is half exhausted from the last few missions and half moot. We really need to whip them into shape for this or the Commander's idea will be for naught."

"And that's where you come in. As a Lieutenant I am responsible for the general and overall perspective of the squad. I can't be bothered with each individual soldier in my squad during battle you see. However you as a Sergeant have that task. Asides from leading a fireteam of your own your job is to make sure everyone does what he is told and obeys orders. If someone steps out of line, starts questioning orders, does anything that impares with our effectiveness as a squad during battle you need to bring him to heel. It might not sound nice but that's the military. Other than that you will also need to coordinate fire orders. Should you note anything that could be improved with different fire orders I am authorizing you to make the changes by ordering the troops during battle on how they should attack the enemy. Remember that means only small changes, like targeting a specific enemy instead of providing suppressive fire. From time to time I might also call on you to give advice about how to move the squad, but give advice only if you are spoken to by me. Now I won't ask you this again for a long time. Do you think you can handle those responsibilities?"

Howardson thought for two seconds or so, contemplating if this really is what he is up to. Finally he decided: "Yes sir I am."

Kacur thought slightly to himself after hearing those words and replied: "Then I see no reason why I should continue holding you up. Carry on Sergeant" he said and gave away a grin to Howardson. "Yes sir."

Ghost · April 6, 2003

Ghost listens attentively to the new Lieutenant as he gives his briefing and nods to himself. He is doing quite well, at least for as far as Ghost can see. He is no expert in briefings himself, but his experience as officer has helped a bit with that.

While Kacur talks to Howardson for a moment, Ghost gets up and walks to the stand, waiting of course for Kacur to finish his little discussion with Howardson, and gives a smile in the direction of the man and a nod, to indicate he did a good job. Then he turned his attention to the room ahead of him. He knocked his fist on the stand a few times to get the attention of the team, and waited until the conversations had died down and everyone paid attention to him.

"Well as you just heard the Commander and Colonel will be going on their own special mission for the Ascadian High Command, and as such, because we are now the ranking officers on the base, Kacur and myself will be in command of X-Com operations in this system. Because of my seniority I will be acting Commander, and Kacur will be acting second-in-command. So basically the two of us will be taking the place of the Commander and the Colonel in their absence. As such I expect orders to be followed as if they would have come from the Commander or Colonel themselves. One of the last orders the Commander left for us was to initiate the restructuring of our teams. Lieutenant Kacur has just briefed you on what the Alpha Team will be all about, so I will now brief you on Kappa Team, and the Support Team."

Ghost turned his head a moment to look at the people that would form Kappa Team and the people that would be Support. Then he continued his briefing.

"Kappa Team will consist of myself as Kappa lead, then Sergeant Ong as Kappa two and Corporal Kaitlin Stone as Kappa three. These will be your callsigns during missions, so as to maintain maximum anonymity. Kappa's objective will be one to support the missions of Alpha team, or missions that require more discretion. The mainstay of our missions will be among the following types: reconnaisance, infiltration and recovery, espionage, and assassinations. Mostly they will be missions that require a low profile, missions on which it is preferred that the team remains undetected, or as invisible as possible at least."

"As for Support, they will be the remaining troops. They will mainly remain at the base and perform support roles from there, as for instance research, medical attention for the wounded, manufacturing things, etc. Also should one of the two teams require the assistance of one of the Support staff members, they can be temporarily added to that team for the duration of that mission, after which they will resume their original tasks."

"During the coming week <<note: possibly saturday sims and otherwise just in the time between sims, besides today's sim then>> we will be doing extra training with the both squads to make sure that everyone understands how the teams will be working in regards to eachother, and how the plans will implemented. I want everyone to be able to work together as a team, so that we may fulfill our mission that has been given to us: We are to wipe clean the hostile forces in the Arkunis system... every last one of them... and we shall succeed, I'm sure of it"

With these last words Ghost looked around at the men in the briefing room and smiled slightly.

"Okay everyone, dismissed, and don't forget to check the training schedule."

As everyone was getting up their stuff, Ghost walked off the stand again and over to Kacur, gave him a pat on the shoulder and proceeded on, out of the briefing room. He had a lot of work left to do. He never knew the commander was this busy.

XCAS Roleplay

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