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

Operation Regal Beast

"Keep up the pressure!" Central shot once, sending one crashing to the floor, then turned and quickly took out another right behind it. Campbell ducked down behind cover, sweat pouring like a river down her forehead as she reloaded her pistol. She looked up to see a snake man leering at her through the window to the lab. She did what any sensible person would do in this situation. She shot through the window removing the little brain matter the snake might have been using. Unfortunately, the shot left her exposed and a snake man from the field fired hitting her in the shoulder from behind. She hits the ground with a thud and a groan.

"Pin the leader down!" Central shouted as he quickly evaluated the remaining threats. The larger snake-man leader, seemingly understanding Central's command slipped behind a building in the center of the area for protection. That didn't help it much though as Van Dyke determined this was the best time to pull out all the stops. She quickly loaded her last grenade, the frost one, and fired it behind the building where it encased everything, including the lead snake-man, in a layer of ice. Pubentz continued her massacre by casually firing and dissecting snake-man.

The conclusion of the battle was closing in quickly, one way or the other. Central continued to hold the flank, but the remaining snake-men begin to mass on his side. Two snake-men come to try to coil the Central, but they didn't know anything about Central. He quickly dropped his gun, useless as it was in close-quarters and pulled out his sword.

The rest of the team watched in awe as Central cleanly decapitated the snake nearest him. The other, realizing the imminent threat, hissed and retreated, just as Central turned and swiped in its direction. Campbell, irritated at her condition, found a target to her frustration and shot the unsuspecting snake, ending its futile attempt at life. Pubentz, as methodical as ever, aimed and hit the thawing snake-man boss through the wall. While the snake-man convulsed slightly, the wall collapsed in a noisy heap. Central, noting there was nothing left posing a threat other than the boss, played clean up, unloaded on the boss leaving nothing more than a barely recognizable snake form.

With the last immediate threat down, Campbell sat down, trying to determine how bad her injury was. Pubentz, who in the process of surveying the carnage noted the gesture and with a quick flick of the wrist, sent her GREMLIN over. The GREMLIN, beeping and booping in some organized fashion identified the worst of the injury and sprayed the 'pain-be-gone" all over it. Campbell smiled weakly, then slowly crawled to her feet.

All of the work to this mission had led to this particular form, that was encased in ice. Van Dyke had been busy examining the form. What everyone thought was the doctor did not seem to be matching the scans. "I don't think it's her Central."

The Central frowned. "Well, that's good news and bad news. The bad news is she's still out and about. We don't know what else she might be into. The good news is I still get a chance to smack her when I find her." He looked up and noted that the squad was mobile and motioned forward. "Let's go. Let's make sure we don't have any stragglers and we'll get out of here."

The cavern dropped down into a small cavern, with an exit on the opposite side. The Central had begun making his way over when he heard a loud hissing sound. VERY loud. He stopped in his tracks when this snake-man dropped from the ceiling.

The squad had thought they had taken out the leader in the prior room.

They had been mistaken. VERY mistaken.

This snake-man was gargantually huge. It was 17 feet tall not including the portion of its body coiled around the ground. Its eyes almost seemed to radiate ice and the hated from the thing was almost palatable. It was wielding some kind of weapon the team had never seen before.