X-Com's Finest (An X-Com 2 play through)

Operation Blood King

As they took a quick breath, Pritchett looked up to the roof of the building they'd been fighting in and saw a civilian there. "What about him?" Van Dyke glanced up before returning to surveying the immediate surroundings. "He'll be fine until we're done here. Nothing will get him up there."

And then there was the roar. Pubentz, Watt, and Pritchett could do nothing but stare as this civilian morphed into a constantly shifting 8' tall pile of goo. It roared again before jumping down to the second level of the house, then finally to the ground floor where it landed right next to Van Dyke who was still surveying the surroundings. The shock from the rest of the squad prevented any warning and the beast roared again. Van Dyke had just enough time to turn his head before the beast ripped him across the chest, sending him and his rifle skidding across the ground.

Now marines are made of stern stuff. They spent months training through rigorous simulations to mentally toughen themselves and account for just about any situation. Unfortunately, these Squaddies were not official marines. They did not have the background or the experience of facing these things before. Having an eight foot ooze monster come jumping at you from above and ripping into your chest is bound to get the most of someone – even a marine. Van Dyke did what just about any sane person would have done. He ran into what was left of the house and dove for cover.

The rest of the squad just looked at the thing.

What. The. Snot.

Watt quickly broke the spell and pulled out his launcher one more time, "I knew I brought this along for a reason..." He loaded his ice grenade and fired it straight at the big blob of goo. The grenade shattered causing the entire area to experience an extreme winter wonderland. And not in a good way.

Pubentz immediately reloaded her gun from the heavens and fired again, sending an arc of lightning at the creature. The electricity / ice combination ripped through the creature. Pritchett, a little too close to use her rifle, pulled back and shot her pistol at the thing, wounding it badly, but not quite taking it out.

Watt, who looked around and noted that Van Dyke was the closest shouted out, "Come on Van Dyke, are you really going to allow Svagerko to use this against you?"

The competitive drive finally caught up to Van Dyke, who quickly recovered himself, took stock of the situation, grabbed his discarded rifle and fired at the thing at next to point blank range. It was enough as he all but melted the gooey face off the thing before it stopped shifting. Van Dyke can claim to be the first one to take down the blob. The fact that Pubentz and Pritchett both hit it ahead of him would be ignored in his narrative.

Pubentz mumbled something about idiots as she quickly retreated to Van Dyke's position and used her medkit. The steady stream of blood stopped flowing from his upper chest as the insta-glue took effect. The rest of the team moved further up as additional screams were heard further in the compound.

Once again, the Captain blared over the comms, "WE'VE ALMOST LOST HALF OF THE RESISTANCE THERE, GET IN THER NOW!" Pubentz and Pritchett looked at each other, and both pulled their earpieces off and stuffed them in their pockets. They'd had enough of the Captain's whining From there, the squad began leapfrogging deeper into the compound between a pair of buildings. Pritchett considered briefly heading to the roof but decided it was too risky and stayed on the ground.

Finally, under the remains of an old gas station, Pubentz moved forward and spotted the final pair of alien soldiers. Pritchett found another clear shot from a solid distance and fired – stunning one of them. Van Dyke, from his location took a shot on the same one, putting the soldier on the ground. Watt fired at the other alien with his massive machine gun, but the burnt out car in front of it absorbed most of the damage.

When Watt's gun finally wound down, the alien popped out of coverage and stood there with Van Dyke straight in his sites. Pubentz cringed as the shot fired, but when the laser cleared, Van Dyke stood determined and sound right where he should have been. It looks like he had pulled his axe out and actually deflected the laser bolts heading his direction with his axe.

How? She hadn't a clue, but somehow, Van Dyke was whole and sound.

Pubentz didn't waste any time, she quickly scrambled to the other side of the car looking for a better shot. She found it and fired. The Bolt-caster did exactly what it was supposed to do. The alien dropped to the ground as the electricity raced through its body.

Finding a nearby rebel, the comms confirmed that no further aliens were in the base.

Mission accomplished.

***

Back on board the flying base, Van Dyke was quickly scanned and deemed stable. He was brought in to sit next to his twin sister who was in the process of being released.

The two looked at each other before the sister asked, "What happened to you?"

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"That bad huh?"

"I said, I really don't want to talk about it."

"Whas it something stupid? Embarrassing? Or both?!?!" she asked enthusiastically.

"I SAID...

"Yeah, yeah, yeah...that's fine, I'll just ask your squad shortly. If you don't want to talk, it's GOT to be good. I can't wait!"

Van Dyke just grumbled and rolled over as best he could.

***

During debriefing, Pubentz was commended for her fine overall performance, the saving of citizens, the quick healing of Van Dyke, and the removal of enemy resistance. She was promoted to combat medic. Along the way, people had started dubbing her as M&M. Nobody exactly knew where the nomenclature came from, and nobody really knew what it stood for, but rumors began to surface – mean medic, medicinal maniac, mother mechanic, maniacal monster, and others were all talked about behind her back. She did nothing to support or deny any of them.

Van Dyke was deemed stable and was given his promotion from the medical ward. He was promoted to Assault Ranger. When he returned to active duty, he'd be more than ready for the next blob to come his way.