Apocalypse Fanfic

[Tammy]

Tinboy came to check in with Tammy on a pretty regular basis, and he was making one of his regular visits to update her on the current situation. This time he had rather unusual news for her, though. In his expert hacking into X-COM's computer database, he had inadvertently alerted Pete to what he was doing. It was pure chance that Pete happened to be looking at just the right file at just the right time to notice what was happening. He knew there was only one agent who could hack so expertly, so it was easy to pinpoint Tinboy as the culprit. He came and talked to Alan, who explained the situation. Surprisingly, Pete volunteered to come down to talk to Tammy and Warlord, saying he needed to get out of the office for a while anyway.

 

***********************************************************

 

Back in the medlab, Tammy was being subjected to another treatment in the grueling regimen prescribed by her doctors. Amazingly enough, it seemed to be working a bit--she could wiggle her toes a bit now--but it was intensely painful. Warlord had tried once sitting with her during the treatment, but he had left halfway through and hadn't been back since, so she was alone with the doctor when Pete came in.

 

Pete entered quietly and sat in the chair next to her bed, giving her an encouraging smile at her progress and a look of sympathy when the pain was obviously as much as she could stand. Finally, the treatment was finished, and Tammy looked at Pete with a raised eyebrow.

 

"What brings you to the torture chamber, sir?"

 

Pete smirked a bit at that. "Where's Warlord hiding?"

 

"Haven't seen him in a while, actually, but I'm sure he'll show up when he hears you're here. Want me to ring for the evil dreadlord of this place? I'm sure if anyone can locate him, she can. Of course, you could just go to him unless you came to watch the torment. Might be easier than getting him in here."

 

Pete glanced sideways at Tammy, and said, "No, if he wants to hear what I came to say, he'll join us in here."

 

At just that moment, Warlord entered, walking very slowly, but on his feet finally, at least. "Did I hear Pete's voice?" he asked from the doorway.

 

"Come on in. He wants to talk to both of us," replied Tammy.

 

Pete didn't waste any time on small talk. Things were too crazy at the moment to waste that kind of time. "The fact is that I need you two back on your feet as soon as possible. I'm afraid that's going to mean doubling up on treatments and therapy, as well as some experimental drugs. You're free to refuse because the drugs could be dangerous, and I've just gotten a little glimpse of the treatments," he shuddered. "Take your time and think about it. You have twenty-four hours to decide."

 

Tammy and Warlord looked at each other for a moment. When they'd first gotten to the medlab, they'd spent hours talking about how they could speed up getting out of there, but they hadn't talked much lately at all. The treatments and frustration had been getting to both of them. Still, the look that passed between them spoke volumes. They looked at Pete and spoke in unison. "We'll do it."

[Snikers]

(OOC: I'm going to poke this thing in the side and sees if it moves.)

 

While most of the XCOM base was built for substance rather than style, the lobby was well furnished. Any visitor from the government, Megapol, or otherwise would spend at least ten minutes in the lush room for security reasons before being allowed further into the base, and they usually walked away with a positive feeling due in no small part to their tour's lavish beginning.

Behind the polished desk sat the desk attendant. The day passing slowly, he was scrawling a doodle on his portable computer with his electronic pen. He was finishing the touches on a large, black crab like creature he had seen in an XCOM themed movie when a loud screeching from outside cut into his ears.

Looking up sharply, he had a clear view through the double glass doors into the street. It was not difficult to find the cause of the noise; a blazer turbo bike was scraping along the median, sparks flying up in a dramatic show.

The bike left the median but continued to swerve about the road. The attendant raised his lawpistol and moved out from behind the desk cautiously. It was his duty, practically his ONLY duty to insure no one attacked through his position.

The bike was all but uncontrolled. The attendant could see the driver was using only one hand, but even then it was bad. The bike sideswiped a car twenty feet from the entrance and went wild. Spinning, it flew over the curb. Devoid of its electromagnets, the car made contract with the sidewalk, white sparks fountaining from the bottom. After ten feet, the slowed bike made contact with one of the glass doors and came to a rest. The driver, cracked goggles over his eyes and holding a longish metal pole, half-stepped, half-fell off the bike and pushed himself through the unobstructed door.

He leaned heavily on the pole as he walked; one of his legs was dragged lazily behind him. He was covered from head to toe in both blood and some sort of muck, and smelled of both the sewer and the area outside the city. His pole was being held on an akward side, but the attendant noticed the other shoulder drooped disturbingly. Most noticeable, of course, was that on his head was a smelly, stained, but definite beret.

Only XCOM still issued berets.

The figure let go of the pole. It stood on it own for a second before falling slowly forward and smacked the ground without further movement. The person extended the freed hand towards the attendant, expecting fingerprinting.

It spoke slowly, but clearly.

"Rookie Kristoff Snikers...I am not adverse to cybernetic replacements."

The dirty figure then followed the metal pole.

[The Veteran]

The lobby was soon filled with soliers and administrative staff all busily crowding around the body of the most disgusting soldier they had ever seen. Covered from head to toe in sewage and filth and with one bone visible through the flesh the rookie immediately caused a stir throughout the base. Within minutes the medics arrived from the medlab with a stretcher and the rookie was taken for xrays, skin grafts and possibly even limb and organ replacements...

Now another group of soldiers appeared in the lobby of Bravo base, emerging from the vehicle bays beneath the building. Mouse was leading Trigger, Bomb Bloke, Tankman and Doc into the base and all five were quietly contented with a good days work. They were all well aware that the consequences of their actions would be dire, but the Cult of Sirius lay destroyed and they had at least managed to rescue some of the staff of Alpha base before it completely disintegrated.

Now as they crossed the lobby they all noticed to bloody stain on the floor and a soldier approaching them at some significant speed from across the lobby.

"Trigger?"

The men stopped in their tracks and Trigger stepped forward. "Yes sir?"

"I need to speak with you myself but not now. Now I want you to report to the medlab and speak with Warlord. He insisted on it. Is Doc with you here?"

"Sir," Doc stepped forward.

"I'd also like a word with you soldier. Both of you are to report to the Commander's office in sixty minutes precisely. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir," said both men in unison.

The five men stood for several minutes as the man left and then asked each other "Who the hell was he?"

"I know who that was..." said Tankman quietly.

The men were silenced and all turned to him.

"That was the second in command. He usually fights as a soldier but I heard he was promoted after the last battle at the Cultist temple."

"Ugh don't remind us," said several of the men in near unison.

"Well now that Warlord is down for the count I guess he's taken command. Otherwise why would you be going to see him in the commander's office?"

"Well I think we've figured that out," said Doc with a smile. "But who is he?"

"That was Pete..."

 

Down in the medlab, Warlord had stayed by Tammy's bedside after Pete had left them and they were still in deep conversation over their new treatments which they had been told would begin later that day.

The two had been watching the air battle unfolding from their beds the whole time and now that he knew the men responsible for it were back at base Warlord had summonned the one he had become most impressed by over the recent days and weeks.

"You wanted to see me Commander?"

"It's just Warlord now Trigger. You may have gathered I'll be off-duty for a while..."

"Yes sir, we've just spoken with your second in command."

"Well you need to treat him as me for a while now. Just until I'm back on my feet. Well, properly back on my feet..."

"Yes sir, we all will. But what was it you wanted to see me about?"

"Tammy and I have been watching everything that's gone on out there and I just wanted a word with the person responsible."

Trigger's heart sank. He knew that the battle would carry consequences but he had hoped to escape them for slightly longer than this. What withc the Commander being in the medlab he'd thought he could do it easily... But he'd only just arrived back at base and he was already being pulled up for it... He had no choice but to accept Warlord's verdict.

"Yes sir, I... I didn't think of the damage it would cause to the city sir. We were just trying to protect the base long enough to evacuate it..."

"I'm well aware of what you were trying to do Trigger, I was watching the internal camera on the Valkyrie you were flying. I heard everything that was said in there..."

"I don't know what to say sir... I didn't realise how the Cultists would respond to the trap we laid them. They just became wild... They destroyed everything they could hit..."

"Trigger for the last time, I saw it all! I know what happened and I know how it happened. I know what craft we lost and I know the pilots missing in action. I know the missiles fired and what they hit. I know who ordered what, why they did it and how it worked! I know everything Trigger! But do you?"

There was a slight pause. "Sir?"

"How much damage do you think was done to the city today Trigger? A thousand? A million dollars?"

"No sir," said Trigger quietly eyes to the ground.

"The battle today has cost the government over sixteen million dollarsa just in residential areas. The industries have lost another seven million dollars worth of property and they claim almost twenty million dollars of trade in the time it will take for their buildings to be repaired... They're suing for compensation... And do you know who they're suing Trigger?"

"Yes sir." replied Trigger almost silently.

"You do? Oh good. Maybe you could tell us..."

Trigger swallowed heavily and shifted on his feet. "XCom sir..."

"No Trigger... They're suing the Cult of Sirius... For almost thirty million dollars..."

Trigger looked up for the first time and saw a massive grin spread across Warlord's face. "The Cult has been utterly annihilated Trigger. It has less crafts than even the weakest gang in the city and it's now facing to lose every single cent to the cities mega corporations. We've already had news that Marsec have cancelled their alliance with the Cult and many others are also drifting away from them..."

"But sir," said Trigger in mild confusion. "What about the residential damage?"

"Apparently the senate is already discussing the necessity of an XCom presence in the city... You seem to have made one hell of an impression on that major Trigger. He's heading up a movement to not only protect but to increase the funding of Bravo base! Alpha base is not lost in vain Trigger and it's all thanks to you..."

[Niml]

*******************************

 

From the wreckage of a Cult Interceptor, a bloody, beaten and torn figure rose up, looked around at the carnage and aftermath of the recent battle to eliminate X-Com, turned and started walking down the street toward X-Com's Bravo base.

"Dammit Matthew, all my friends, dead because of you, you will slowly rot with whatever alien carcass you are lying with now," snarled Nick Mathonwy as he continued down the street cradling his pulse rifle.

 

After walking for quite some time he slowly could see the doors of the base appear. Service bots and construction crews were moving the wreckage of a Turbo bike nearby. Head held high, Nick boldly walked into the base.

"Hmm here I am, in the base of the Enemy. Jesus what the hell was I thinking."

 

For the second time tonite a battered figure walked through the doors, the desk attendant looked up to see a figure dressed as a Cult soldier walk up to the desk. Pulling out his gun and bringing it to bear on the figure he shouted,

"Hey! Freeze and drop your weapons" While moving his foot to the alarm under the desk to call a squad of security.

 

Nick just kept walking to the desk and slammed his pulse rifle on the table, quickly followed by a belt with a plasma pistol and a Lawpistol.

"Here are my weapons, keep good care of them and I submit myself to security. I intend to join X-Com and I will even submit to a psionic probe from your interregators."

Startled by the movement and the weapons, the guard almost shot the beleagured looking man.

"Okay you wait here someone will come and pick you up in a moment..."

After a minute or so a fully armed squad of soldiers came, saw Nick and brought up there weapons.

"Freeze! put your hands on your head and kneel down"

"Don't you guys get tired of saying that? I mean I willingly put myself in your custody and already its getting boring and monotonous. Is this really the fabled X-Com or a bunch of old retired cops" Nick said biting off the last few words while also complying to their orders.

 

Watching the corridor pass as he was hauled off to the holding cells, Nick let himself smile for the first time in days. Everything was working out according to plan....

[Ki-tat Chung]

Soon after the shady CoS and battered X-Com agents got hauled off, Ki-tat stepped into the lobby. He walked calmly towards the receptionest and asked what just happened.

 

"Well sir, it seems another one from Alpha base managed to survive," he said. "He was quite a mess mind you. I wouldn't trust him. That hybrid, he was quite dirty. Wouldn't be surprised if he--"

"Thats enough," the squad leader siad, cutting the clerk off, "I didn't ask fior your opinion, just what happened."

"Yes sir. Well, soon after, a Cult of Sirus agent came and surrendered himself. Thats all so far."

"Thank you," he said as he walked off towards the med-lab to see this Alpha base survivor.

 

**********

 

In the pile of rubble, stood a shadowy figure. He wore a cloak and hood, and looked quite angry.

 

"Well, X-Com, it seems you may have won this battle, but the war is far from over..." he mumbled under his breath. He turned around and walked towards the red floating pyramid...

[bevan]

"Ahh sir... XCOM seems to have another base not that far from here, ill save the location to your computer" stated the Psyke hacker "I had to go through the Megapol server then past the..."

"...Save it" interrupted Bevan, "Driver lets go there now" The hovercar started up and was soon airborne, headed towards the XCOM base.

"What took you so long... we would have had to have been waiting for about an hour" stated Bevan

"Well I had to..." started the hacker.

"...I don't want to hear it" Bevan interrupted the hacker again, who just replied with a mumble then started to stare out the window.

"Jeez they made a mess" Psyko said from out of the blue, looking at the devastation left by the battle.

"Wouldn't like to be XCOM's checkbook right now" said the hacker with a grin.

"I thought XCOM was supposed to fight aliens, they spend more time fighting the damn Cult then anything else... Maybe XCOM stands for extra contingent of MegaPol or something like that, and I wonder if the government will pay for all this damage to get XCOM out of the deep end or will they push it all to the Cult." thought Bevan out loud.

"You think too much, im just going to stay as far away from it as I can, too much money for me to comprehend" joked Psycho.

"We are approaching the base" reported the driver.

"What are you going to do, walk through the front door?" asked the hacker.

"Why not, I have nothing to be afraid of" replied Bevan.

"But we just ripped off their other base" the hacked said unbelievably.

"Yeah but they don't know that" said Bevan calmly as the Hovercar landed. "Ill give you a buzz when I need ya, see you later Psyko, bye guys" said Bevan stepping out of the Hovercar.

"Ill call you in a few hours" called Psyko from the Hovercar as it took off.

Sure thought Bevan as he approached the glass doors of the XCOM base, which looked like any other building in Mega Primus. One desk clerk on duty eyed Bevan as he walked towards the entrance, one hand under the desk most likely grasping a law pistol and probably wondering why a lone MegaPol officer would be walking from an unmarked car.

"How can I help you" asked the clerk.

"I received this letter yesterday" replied Bevan, putting his bag down, producing a letter from his pocket and placing it on the counter for the clerk to view.

"Very well Sir" stated the clerk as he viewed the letter "just wait here and someone will be down soon"

"Ok" said Bevan, sitting down in a chair in the comfortable lobby and propping his feet up on his bag "Ill just wait here".

[Zager]

"Seitz! Report" came the call over the airwaves.

 

"Seitz here," replied Pat. "It's a destroyer. Came in through the portal, hovered over a MegaPol station, and is now heading towards the factory district. We are in pursuit as we speak. Requesting backup." Pat was leaning out of the window of the flying car, radio in one hand and his gun in the other, while Jon was driving.

 

"Roger that. Interceptors on route. Maintain your present position and velocity, but do not engage until backup has arrived."

 

"Roger that command. Will maintain pursuit."

 

Pat pulled his head back in the vehicle. "Keep your hands on the trigger," he said to Jon. "Backup will be here shortly."

[The Veteran]

"What is it with these goddamned cowboys! They can never wait for us to show up so they have to do it themselves" Pete stood in what was now temporarily his office and he was fuming. This was only the third UFO that had entered the city but ever since Megapol had downed the first scout they'd refused to keep out of XCom's affairs. After the second UFO had been secured they had contacted XCom to ask if two of their officers had been found in the vicinity of the crash site but no trace had ever been found.

Now a third saucer had entered the city and Megapol was intercepting once again. At leat three hovercars and two valkyrie interceptors were already en-route and XCom was at the distinct disadvantage of being twice the distance from the dimension gate as Megapol were. True, the portal had floated slightly closer to the base since the last intercept but only slightly.

Now Pete was in the process of addressing Trigger and Doc on their recent performances. Doc had been reinstated as Alpha Squad's tactician and Trigger had been commended by both Pete and Warlord on his input in the dogfight despite his recent injuries. If it hadn't been for the new UFO sighting Pete would have now been gathering the rest of the soldiers present in the battle for a ceremony marking their achievements. As it was though there would be no such ceremony until all was quiet again in the city at large.

Prompting Doc to follow him Pete now left the Commander's office and headed for tactical command to oversee the interception of the new target. The bases full compliment had been launched to deal with the destroyer.

Several craft on city patrols were already in the air and had been near the UFO for some time. The two ex-Megapol officers were finidng it especially difficult to refrain from engaging, especially now they saw their old colleagues approaching.

X-Com's own craft were still five minutes out when the first of Megapol's own vehicles arrived on scene. With a total of seven hovercars, ten bikes and three large fliers, they had sent a large portion of their forces to deal with the threat. X-Com however had sent over five times this amount and every single craft they had deployed was armed to the teeth with lasers plasmas and new experimental shields and weapons.

The transport craft that was the last to be intercepted and the only sighting of any relevance up till now had been fairly poorly armed and fitted, proving an easy meal for X-Coms Valkyries if not their hovercars. This Destroyer had been aptly named by the aliens who built it, X-Com only knowing the name by the decoded messages it was transmitting through the gate.

From initial scans and surveys the craft seemed to be approximately fifty meters in size and it had visible weapons that had not been seen before. So far it had not engaged or made any move to engage any human craft but now as Megapol arived it began to hover over a nearby building. The Corporate headquarters of Superdynamics.

The craft rotated slowly and perfectly, hovering only meters above the roof of the building. From the bottom of the craft a light began to shine and some kind of beam lit the roof of the building for a moment, blinding the incoming Megapol craft and visible even to the distant X-Com agents. The beam twitched and fluctuated but remained intact for almost twenty seconds before being suddenly cut off.

The Megapol craft now able to see once again took this as their chance to engage and all craft sped towards the UFO with missiles and lasers alike locked onto their target. From several hundred meters the heavy fliers began opening fire with their powerful heavy lasers. The hoverbikes and cars swarmed around the UFO and most at a range of fifty meters began firing rapidly with their weaker but quicker weapons.

Rockets were soon closing in on the UFO from every direction, impacting hard with soft wet explosion which hurled chunks of the ship's semi-organic hull out into the city below.

The UFOs armour was stronger than the Transporter though, much stronger. And now the UFO stopped it's spinning motion and began simply sliding back and forth and side to side. Two slabs of alien flesh opened in the UFOs sides and a further two weapons were revealed along with those already visible. The weapons extended slowly and locked into place as the ship almost came to a stop.

Megapol craft began to take up evasive maneouvers as massive rockets slid into place in the ships vast launchers. The more nervous pilots turned and fled while the wild cards and hotshots of the fleet let loose their entire arsenal on the saucer as it hovered over their city.

As X-Com craft arrived on the horizon the UFO unleashed it's first volley. Eight rockets, the size of small torpedoes, shot from the UFOs four sides, two from each launcher. Purple fire belched out of the rockets as they shot through the sky and one by one found their target. The rockets seemed to head directly away from the saucer but once they reached fifty meters they began tracking.

All at once, in one split second all eight rockets increased in speed tenfold and sheered off at right angles from their initial tradjectory.

Three of the rockets sped past the hovercars and bikes missing in one case by barely inches one of the smaller fliers. Instead though they continued and in second two Valkyrie interceptors and one Hawk gunship were vast fireballs slowly falling to the ground.

The other five rockets targetted the hovercars but they were more intelligent than any human equivalent and all five of the remaining rockets proceeded to target a hoverbike before tearing it to pieces and proceeding to it's primary target.

Only two hoverbikes were slow enough to be caught by the rockets but all five hovercars targetted were destroyed without hope. With only two hovercars and a handful of bikes left Megapol was in tatters with the remaining pilots either fleeing or panicking.

The UFO proceeded to load another eight missiles but instead of launching it simply followed the retreating megapol vehicles at such a speed that it would eventually catch up with and crush every one of them.

The last two hovercars were rammed and utterly broken but once again the bikes proved to nimble to make a target for the disk which now seemed to abandon it's pursuit and hover once more over nothing in particular.

From the North, X-Com fliers were arriving on scene and already the UFO had recieved several vague hits from the longer ranged plasma weapons favoured by X-Com.

The heavy fliers had already turned to flee the battle on seeing the ease at which the destroyer annihilated the Megapol interceptors. The saucer proceeded to make it's shot however and once again eight rockets lanced out of it's hull followed by violet gas and flame.

The rockets turned at the same fifty meter point and sped towards the cluster of X-Com craft. The smaller fliers dodged the missiles easily and had clearly not been targetted but the larger craft were slower and clumsier.

As the rockets tore through the assembly of craft they began to lose speed and height, X-Com's interceptors now at a distance of well over a kilometer from the saucer. The slow moving rockets were failing and as the saucer fired another salvo they died altogether falling to ground like dead birds.

As the rockets impacted on the numerous buildings that littered the city four more struck X-Com vehicles nearer the saucer. With four rockets either destroyed by the more nimble hover bikes or distracted by the hovercars countermeasures only four hovercars had been lost in the salvo.

Now while the launchers were being reloaded the craft all saw their chance to make an attack but without guidance it would be hopeless.

Back at base Doc had been watching from numerous craft, building and satelite cameras. Now he knew what had to be done and as the last salvo was fired he had sent the craft their orders.

The hoverbikes came as close to the UFO as they dared, some within meters of it's hull. As the craft swerved in the air several bikes were knocked from the sky but only one caused a fatality. It was obvious that however close they got however their weapons would not take down the Destroyer alone.

Now it was up to the superior firepower of the hovercars to finish the job and as they encircled the disk they locked their weapons on the launchers and the very interior of the ship. Over twenty missiles launched and a line of staggered explosions proceeded to tear the craft apart. With two of the launchers destroyed by the rockets they were loading and another made useless by the collapse of it's hatch, only one weapon remained on the saucer.

It would not be fired however, as three rockets had missed both the ships hull and it's weapons. Instead they had reached the very interior of the UFO and it's systems were destroyed internally. The rotation became erratic and the saucer began to fall at one side.

As the hoverbikes rallied for one last run the saucer scraped the top of a nearby office block and skidded off the other side of the building dropping even lower.

With one last effort, the hoverbikes released all the firepower they could muster and in such a concentrated blast the UFOs hull was torn clean open. A gash was ripped into the top of the disks armour and the internals were revealed for all to see.

The craft's last systems failed and it's decent to earth quickened as it ploughed through the nearby tower of a hydrofarm and crashed to earth just beyond it.

The X-Com pilots cheered into a city wide comm link as the saucer touched down and immediately Bravo base began mobilising it's troops to get them to the crash site. As the city watched, an enormous explosion tore through the UFO, smoke billowing out of the cavity in it's roof.

It was now unlikely that X-Com agents would find any survivors but it couldn't be guaranteed until it was checked. The saucer was without a doubt looking in a sorry state though. There would be little salvage from it's recovery if any at all. The tear caused by the hoverbikes final run now sliced almost halfway across the UFOs hull and metal and concrete lay everywhere with a large section of the nearby Hydro-farm still laying relatively intact atop the smoking wreckage.

Today was turning out to be quite a day it seemed...

[Zager]

"Command, this Phoenix-12, we're at the crash site," Pat radioed in, as the hovercar landed near the crash site, he opened up the door and took a look around. "Looks clear-" A blob of green acid smacked against the hood.

 

"Damn it! Survivors! We got a spitter," he shouted, returning fire with his automag while holding onto the radio his other hand. Three shots boomed out, and the pink alien was hurled back against the side of the UFO.

 

"Tango down, nothing we can't handle until backup arrives. We'll be ready to go in with the assault teams."

 

"The assault teams will be there soon, ETA eight minutes."

 

"Good."

 

Suddenly, an anthropod appeared. As Pat leveled his gun, it aimed and fired. A purple beam smacked against the car door that Pat was using as cover, and knocked out a plate from the armor. Pat fired off two wild shots and ducked back inside the car

 

"Shit! Command! Hurry up with the backup! They got some sort of new weapon. Looks like a laser, except it's a purple beam. And a hell of a lot more powerful. Get us backup! NOW" Pat screamed into the radio.

 

"We recomend you fall back to a safe distance in your Phoenix," said the officer in Command.

 

"What? And let them get loose into the city. That's insane! We're staying where we are. You tell your people to get equipped in the Valkrie. Get them here soon"

 

As the anthropod continued to fire, Jon moved the joystick, and held down on the trigger. The autocannon boomed, racking its shells across the side of the UFO until it hit the Anthropod. The cannon was an anti-vehicle weapon, just one shell was enough to blow it to pieces. Unfortunately, that was it, the booming sounds of the cannon seized, just replaced by the whiring of the barrels as the spun.

 

"Damn it, we're out of shells, must have used them all during the battle," cursed Jon. He pulled on his helmet and pulled out the Marsec machine gun, then leaned out the window and started shooting.

[Ki-tat Chung]

Klaxon alarms sounded and redlights flashed everywhere. As Bravo base agents were scrambling to get their gear, Doc put on his earpiece and sat down in the command center, just in time to catch the end of Pat's message.

 

"--et them here soon"

 

**********

 

As DIPUTS got back onto its feet, it relised that it was no longer inside the Hydrofarm towed, but outside in the city. It started to move back to the Hydrofarm before it was grabbed by a humanoid in red holding a machine gun.

 

"Hold still" he shouted before he started to push DIPUTS forward. Now DIPUTS was just a Hydrofarm droid and had absolutly no idea what was happeniong, so it just decieded to listen to the man and move forward, though it wondered why he kept on pushing it. It thought that the man had its best interests in mind before it had its servos and chips blown out of it by a purple beam.

[Snikers]

The purple beam blew out what amounted to DIPUTS's midsection and he fell to the ground. However, DIPUTS did not have internal organs and did not suffer from shock - although it was more than a little confused. It attempted to push itself up on its arms, but found them at only limited capacity. The right arm was at nearly full capacity, but the left was weak.

Filing all data for a later report, the droid compensated and pushed itself up. It tried to get to its feet, but found that they weren't responding. In fact, it couldn't detect them at all. It peeked over its sloped chrome shoulder - yes, he was correct. His legs were no longer attached to his body.

Another array of purple beams sliced through the ground in front of the droid. Though its modern AI was too simple to know fear, it was wired to avod damage if at all possible. The city was hardly a safe place, after all. It turned its camera to the side and took a picture of the blue humanoid - security reasons.

"Sir. Please do not damage this droid," a prerecorded message droned. The blue humanoid fired again and hit DIPUTS in the shoulder, while bullets raked the gnarled piece of wreckage it had taken cover behind. The purple beam sliced through the polished chrome, melted some metal and exited through its upper back. DIPUTS's good arm gave out, dropping it again to the ground. However, its simple AI survived, and it began to drag itself along on its bad arm, as well as emit a high-pitched distress alarm.

DIPUTS saw the blue humanoid stand up, aim carefully - and fall, as bullets from the red humanoid's weapon smacked into its chest and sprayed purple blood over the broken cement.

The weapon clicked empty, and the red humanoid cursed. DIPUTS was about to advise it not to curse in the hydrofarm, realized he was no longer in the hydrofarm, and continued to drag itself in the direction the red humanoid had pushed him.

[Zager]

Pat ducked down behind the car, raised his pistol over the side and fired off a few shots. "Command, where the hell are those reinforcements?" he shouted into his radio.

 

The response was a sonic boom of a Valkyrie passing overhead. "Scratch that last question," Pat said, as the Valkrie settled down on the ground nearby.

 

"Glad to see you," he shouted over, as the X-COM soldiers started to disembark. "The aliens were getting real anxious to see you."

[The Veteran]

*Ok ladies and gents we're here,* called Mouse over the Valkyrie's comm. *Snipers, do your stuff!*

Pat looked up at the interceptor as it circled the crash site cautiously. As he did he saw a red panel in the side of the vessel slide away and a long barreled rifle poked out of the craft.

Trigger tugged on his harness one last time then leant out over the side of the ship looking to the ground below him. The pillars of smoke rising from the numerous fires on board the craft were irritating but he squinted and ignored them.

Raising the scope to his eye he shouldered the stock and scanned the scene below. For a few minutes he saw nothing and remained motionless as the air rushed past him. He could make out a dead mutliworm and some of it's smaller offspring but not much else was visible.

*We got anything back there yet you guys?*

"We got nothing," replied Trigger moving his gaze to the scorched ground surrounding the saucer. "We got nothing at all." He lowered the rifle and took one last glance over the area below before pulling himself back into the Valkyrie and sliding the hatch closed.

"Let's take her down Mouse, I can't see anything up here for all the smoke."

*You got it, we're going down now.*

Trigger sat himself down as the craft took a sharp course change and slowly touched down.

The craft's rear doors swung open and the troops quickly began filing out.

Pat and Jon quickly appeared alongside the rest of the XCom troopers and suddenly felt a lot more secure.

Trigger was the last off the craft, the snipers windows being at the front of the craft. As he waited for the rest of the soldiers to pile out his gaze landed on the hatch opposite him. That was Tammy's window but she wouldn't be using it for some time yet.

Noone seemed to be paying much attention to protocol or training just yet. Until they saw something alive they probably wouldn't care too much. Besides, there was a huge hole in the top of the saucer and there was nothing inside. The only contact outside was dead. What was there to worry about.

The squad leaders all exchanged orders and the troops prepared to move out but they stopped before they did. Less than a hundred yards away, Pat and Jon's hovercar had just errupted into a ball of flames.

Noone was aware that the cause of the explosion had in fact been the slow acting spitter acid but all of a sudden they were holding their weapons much tighter.

Jon stood in silence watching the car burn...

[Nightshade]

The short sharp snaps of a sniper rifle snapped his head round just in time to see a blue man sized creature fall just outside of one of the smaller holes in the saucer.

"Good shot Trigger"

The previous air of complacency had been shattered by the explosion of the hovercar and the death cry of the anthropod. The XCOM team was split into two teams, one to go in and one to cover the outside of the saucer from any aliens that escaped the crash were trying to return to defend the saucer and from the usual crowd of onlookers, it would have not been the first time that had an operation had almost turned to disaster by the actions of a few curious civilians trying to get a better look.

 

The first team went straight in what was left of the doors under the cover of a smoke grenade, according to the motion detector there was only one thing moving in the actual spacecraft. Not being fooled again the XCOM team dropped a stun grenade to the bottom level of the spacecraft, a quick search found that it was unneccassery as the only occupant was a dead spitter.

 

The source of movement turned out to be an anthropod which had had its legs removed in the crash crawling along the floor. Since there was no way it would stay alive long enough to be good for the scientists it proved good target pratice for the 3 rookies in the team.

"Area secure, they were all dead" The squad leader radioded in to mouse who was alone in the valkyrie.

 

No-one noticed Pat and John standing by the valkyrie. It was only till Mouse saw the three hyperworms that trigger saw from the air sliding into the cargo hold towards the open cabin door.

"aarrghghh" yelled out Mouse into his radio, we got 3 hyperworms in the cabin, HELP" Yelled mouse as he emptied the contents of his lawpistol in their general direction, Since he was panicking only 1 hyperworm stopped its progress now missing its head.

 

Hearing the pilots scream Pat and John rushed into the cargo hold to see the hyperworms only a few metres from the pilot, Pat did the only thing he could, picking up an autorifle that was sitting on a crate, it happened to be filled with incendiary ammunition. The 2 hyperworms were flash cremated in an instant. The entire doorway to the cockpit burst into flames and Mouse who was wearing no armour on his legs was jumping around trying to extinguish the flames that were now licking up his legs. A quick burst from the fire extinguisher put out the flames.

[The Veteran]

Absolute chaos... In a matter of hours the city had been all but demolished... The biggest Hydrofarm in the city had lost one of its towers, a whole tower gone! An office building had been half crushed by a falling wreck, the top few floors were at twenty degrees... Of the sixteen missiles fired at X-Com craft eight of them had fallen into the streets below destroying roads, vehicles, homes and offices. Even a warehouse had been hit and they didn't like that one bit...

 

Now as Pete watched the mayhem unfold at the crash site he just wanted Warlord to get better and take his job back. This was the safest part of the day and no mistake. The walkthrough of the Destroyer had been just that. Dead aliens simply littered the interior of the craft, most had apparently been operating the launchers when the loaded rockets detonated! Still though, the paperwork that would follow such a disasterous encounter would take him a lifetime to fill out and he knew it so well.

 

He sat down at his desk, or more accurately Warlord's desk, surrounded by monitors, speakers and comms. That was if he pretended the stack of memos, invoices and bills next to him weren't really there. If he didn't then he was also surrounded by half a rainforest...

 

He continued to watch the UFO cleanup on one monitor while he brought up an overview of the city on another. It wasn't so bad really, not considering they'd managed to take out a Destroyer, and this was the biggest ship they'd seen so far and no mistake.

 

Looking on the bright side, all of the damage to the city was confined to a relatively small area... Unfortunately the damage to that area was extensive... Still, blame Megapol for that he thought, as soon as X-Com turned up they made an easy show of it. No denying that at least.

 

As he watched the red X-Com flavoured blips return to Bravo base he could turn around and see them from the window behind him. It always unnerved him that this room was above ground, the people who owned the hangar there gave him the strangest looks. Of course it wasn't like the first war in the goodold days... Everyone knew XCom now. Most of them had visited Pine Gap and bought the T-shirt... As an unnerving result everyone knew where XCom was in the city and now that Alpha base was no more everyone was likely to start on Bravo...

 

Pete turned back to the monitors and saw an idle security controlled screen switch to a city overview screen. This was just what he'd not wanted to end the day with. The city view was overlayed with a frequency grid mostly green with some yellows around the slums and a large amount of orange in the Cult of Sirius territory.

 

Alien activity, what a fantastic tool, tells you exactly where to avoid on a day out and what the next piece of paperwork is going to be. Pete got a feeling that it would be a big one, the Corporate headquarters of Superdynamics was glowing bright red...

[Snikers]

Boots clanged on the metal floors as the agents filed out of the Valkyrie Interceptor, whose engines were still whirring to a stop. Nearby stood a pair of Xcom's other employees, specializing in the service of the medical bay. One stepped forward, eyes alert, and one agent slowed.

"Looking for the wounded?" he asked, voice muffled by his helmet, and the agent nodded. An armoured arm pointed back to the cockpit of the ship, where Mouse was sitting in painful silence. "Pilot. Took some burns to the legs, but it doesn't look serious. Probably first degree, maybe some second degree in spots.

The two from the medical bay moved in a hurried but not rushed speed over to Mouse, trying to lift him out of the chair without touching his legs. "Need a third set of hands?" asked the armoured Xcom soldier.

The one of the medical staff that had stepped forward looked up and nodded, dark hair bobbing. Between the three of them, the two from the medical bay and the one soldier, they managed to carry Mouse to the medlab without undue trouble. Once through the doors more medical staff took over and the armoured man dropped back. Reaching up, he released his helmet from its clasps and pulled it off his head. His fair hair was stuck to his head with sweat.

"'Scuse me?" The soldier half turned to one of the medical staff, behind him. "You know what happened to him?"

The soldier nodded. "Burns from incendiary rounds, out of an autocannon. He was back in the ship - he's a pilot - but some snakes managed to..."

"Snakes means hyperworms, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, sorry. Some hyperworms managed to get past us and into the ship. He called for backup and some idiot - I don't know who, I wasn't there - decided to spray it with some random ammunition. Just lucky it wasn't armour piercing I guess, could have been hit by a ricochet then."

"He doesn't look like he was hit by an incendiary round to me..."

"He wasn't hit, but it's not very roomy in there. Splash damage. Luckily we got him with a fire extinguisher almost immediately; you'd know better than me, but from what I saw it doesn't look like he's a disaster case."

"Good, we've got enough of those already." The doctor jerked a thumb over her shoulder, but the soldier couldn't see what she was pointing at. "Did he get bit by the snakes?"

"Don't think so. Like I said, I wasn't there, but their remains were a fair bit from the cockpit and he didn't mention anything about a bite."

"All right. We'll check for it anyways, but I wouldn't worry about it. Thanks, you've been a big help. Usually all we get is 'I don't know what happened! It was chaos! Everything went to hell and when I woke up he was all bleeding and stuff!'"

The soldier gave a chuckle. "Yeah, that's pretty much it. There really isn't anything in combat that will throw you if you just keep from getting swept up, but I guess that's a rare trait nowadays."

"Like I said, thanks. Maybe we'll actually have some info before diving in first. Like that guy - " she jerked a thumb over her shoulder again " - just shows up at the front door and passes out. We don't know what to do with him."

"You're welcome." The soldier managed to get a glove off and held out a hand. "I'm Joseph Koolata, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Koolata," said the doctor, shaking his hand.

[Dumb_Commander]

A three stories high building was standing west from Mega Primus, it was almost collapsed, only some rooms and the basement were intact. One Phoenix hover car and one Rescue Transport stopped near the building.

 

A couple of men came from the car. One of the gestured angrily and said. "Okay Charlie, tell me one more time. What the hell are we looking in this dump." His partner replied with an irritated tone. "You still don't understand Leo. Okay, listen. Our superior want us to find some fresh employees, and maybe some of the old technology from GR Tech buildings....." Leo interrupted his partner. "Okay i get it. But what the hell is GR Tech has to do with this."

 

The answer came fast. "GR Tech was first established at the end of the AW-1, it specialized on elrium, GR Tech also played with Cryogenics, and made the first Cryogenic Chambers, but these were un-reliable, some of the persons who used that Cryo, never got out of them, just because of some schematic glitches. Yet sometimes some of them survived."

 

"That still doesn't explain anything Charlie." Said Leo, while getting his lawpistol and loading it. Charlie replied with a very angry tone. "GR Tech merged with MarSec dumbass. Now, c'mon lets go."

 

As the two men aproached the building doors, Leo started to talk. "Hey Charlie, what do you think this building is?" Charlie replied while opening the door. "On the data that I've gathered, this is a some kind of storage facility.

 

"Nice storage facility" Sarcastically thought Leo, while following his partner.

 

Charlie and Leo started looking through the rooms that weren't destroyed by nature or time. Room by room they searched, only to find remainings of technology and other useless things. As time passed the rooms were starting to get emptier and emptier. Until they entered one last room on the third floor.

 

"Wow, never knew that cryos can stand for that long" Said Leo in total awe. The room was small, filled with un-necessary things and four Cryogenic Freeze Chambers, three of them, were already broken, only one of them was still working.

 

The computer terminal that was connected to the Cryogenic Chamber was still working. Charlie aproched it and tried to read what was written there.

 

Subject: Michael Cellman

 

Age: 49

Status: Fatal injuries, awaiting medical.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"Wow, I don't know how he survived, but maybe he'll tell us what happened" Said Leo while looking at Cellman who was recovering from the operation in the hospital. "Yeah, it's to bad that MarSec didn't have enough money for the full body recovery operation.

 

Cellman's right hand was replaced by a robotic, during the operation his left leg bone was replaced by a new, while the right eye was replaced by another, tough now he had one brown while the other was green, unfortunately his right leg was torn of and there were no donors for the leg, so it was replaced by a robotic one. His chest skin was almost burned of, the new skin grafts helped him, somehow his vocal chords were badly damaged so they were replaced by artificial chords, his lungs were so badly beaten that they couldn't hold air, so they were re-in forced.

 

"Hey doc, how long has he be here to fully recover?" Asked Charlie while turning to the doctor who was signing something on his papers. The doctor replied. "Maybe hour or three, that guy has suffered many things he's a fighter not a pussy! Why are you asking?"

 

Charlie wanted to reply but he was interrupted by Leo. "MarSec needs more employees, and needs them fast" The doctor replied to that. "Why can't you just hire someone from the slums or somewhere else?" When hearing that Charlie replied while gripping Leo's shoulder so thight that he grinned from the pain. "They ask to much salary"

 

After saying that Charlie and Leo walked away, leaving the doctor to finish up his paperwork.