The XCOM Project [DEAD]

2: Mess

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
        -Arthur C. Clarke

Maria Kuznetsova staggered to the mess. Her burns were nowhere near as bad as the doctor said. She had walked off the Skyranger under her own power, and still was. Certainly her left arm and leg both hurt where the... projectile had grazed them, but it was nowhere near as bad as the doctors said.

Roberts, the American, and Zhao sat at a single table. She thought Larsen was with a pair of other northern Europeans, but she wasn't sure. She grabbed a seat at her own table. Another woman entered from the direction of the barrack rooms and looked around before grabbing a meal and walking over.

"Hello," she said in Russian.

Maria looked up from the meal. "Hello." Maria went back to eating. They were both from Russian special forces. Marina Vinagradova was the other's name, and beyond that, they carefully avoided speaking. It was the done thing. Enforcement was tough work and bred tough, independent souls.

Today's silent meal, however, was interrupted by the two men of the previous week's mission. "May we sit?" asked Zhao. The two Russians shared a look, before motioning to the open chairs.

"I... wanted to apologize," began Roberts.

Marina looked at her eating partner, before returning to the delightfully unnoticable meal. Maria, meanwhile, looked up. "Why?"

"Both of us did," answered Zhao. "I didn't give you cover-fire when you needed it. It's my fault you're injured."

Maria shrugged. "It was out of your line of sight. And besides, we downed all our targets. I call this acceptable losses," she said, gesturing to the gauze coverings over what exposed skin the armor had left.

"We had no idea what their weapons did. If you were a little less lucky, or if I hadn't advanced on the one behind the counter when I did, you wouldn't be off missions for the week," responded Roberts. "For all we know you could have been vaporized or erased from existence."

"Hardly. If they had weapons so powerful, they wouldn't have lost."

"I guess what I mean to say is, we made a mistake," said Zhao. "Either of us could have done something different and you would have been safe, but we didn't and now you're laid up for a week."

"By now it's more like three days. Besides, we're here to be hurt. If we couldn't shake it off we'd be quite useless."

"Fight on and achieve the objective, first and foremost" muttered Marina beside her. Maria thought she recognized the motto from somewhere, but couldn't place it at the moment.

Zhao rose, and Roberts followed suit. "Thank you. When you're back again, we look forward to fighting with you."

Marina looked at her as the two men retreated. "Did he just say what I think he said?"

"No. His grammar was just ambiguous. Sloppy." They went back to their meals. It was quiet again.