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

Operation Perilous Throne

Halverson and the Newbie Pugh were mollified. His sister, no so much. "Oh, and who died and made you god? Just because you have a higher rank means you think you can just go and order us around?"

The Ranger looked around, trying to fault the logic before he answered. "Well, yeah, I do!"

The young Boomer simply rolled her eyes and checked her equipment as the Skyranger began its descent.

***

"Everyone, move up. Halverson, why don't you take to the roof and see if you can spot anything." Halverson nodded and headed that direction. The Ranger looked over at his sister and nodded beginning their trek towards their target.

As they looked up, they saw that their enthusiastic rookie had indeed moved up. WAY up!

"Son of a goat..."

Pugh had evidently not seen the pair of aliens staring at her from inside the building. The Bomber did though. She quickly loaded a grenade into her launcher and landed it perfectly between the two aliens, sending them sprawling to the ground and removing the wall they were using as cover. The grunt and sectoid immediately got back to their feet and ran for cover.

"Halverson! Take them out!"

Halverson looked around, "Take WHAT out?!?"

The Ranger just shook his head. Pugh was on her first mission, and she was going to get pulverized if he didn't do something. She just might not make it back at all. The grunt would definitely fire, but the Sectoid had all kinds of different tricks up its sleeves. It just might not mean instant death if it lived a moment longer. The Ranger quickly lined up the shot on the grunt and fired. It went down with an alien garble.

The Sectoid hissed at Pugh, sitting on her flank, then jumped further into the building, giving itself some cover. Pugh could see the end already. But instead of firing its gun of plasma death, it decided on bringing in reinforcements – from the dead. The newly dead grunt suddenly got back to its feet, its dead eyes staring lifelessly at Pugh.

Pugh just stared, "It's a ZOMBIE!"

The Ranger roared back, "Kill the big one, and it's all over!"

"But it's a ZOMBIE!"

"I said KILL THE BIG ONE!"

"But it's a ZOMBIE!"

"DO AS I SAID ROOKIE!"

Pugh finally snapped, running into the building, hiding behind a desk and with shaky hands shot at the wide open alien. Her patterns on the far wall behind the Sectoid were something to behold. The Sectoid glaring at her? Not so much.

Ranger Van Dyke groaned in frustration, "You have GOT to be kidding me? How do you miss that shot?!?" The squad would have to save her twice in the same encounter. He looked over at his younger sister, "Can you do it?"

Bomber Van Dyke just smiled. And not one of those friendly smiles either. It was one of her evil, "I'll be happy to rip its heart out" smiles along with that cackle. Ranger Van Dyke had seen and heard quite a few things during his time aboard the avenger. But the cackle that his sister brought forth during those certain times were just something that STILL gave him shivers. There was a reason he moved out of the house as early as he did.

Bomber Van Dyke ran to a position just outside the building, and with just a sense of knowing where it was, unloaded into the building. The Sectoid didn't make it. Neither did the wall that was between her and the Sectoid as it came crumbling down around her.

Pugh just sat there, her jaws wide-open as the zombie collapsed on top of the now downed wall.

Bomber Van Dyke looked around, "Did someone here order Pizza?"

Her brother chirped in, "Stop the chatter, we have work to do!"

As if they had been listening, another pair of guards appeared at the front of the safe house, an alien commander, and a lancer.

Halverson rushes to the front of the building, and from her perch tosses a grenade onto one of the unsuspecting aliens, injuring it severely, but more importantly, removing its cover. This gave Pugh a clear shot on the wounded alien. "I GOT IT!" she shouted. Ranger Van Dyke cringed again, he thought the aliens in the next country heard that.

Pugh lined up carefully this time, but another section of the wall behind her collapsed just before she fired, startling her and sending her shots high. Ranger Van Dyke mumbled to himself, "This is the LAST time I bring a rookie along..." He looked over at his sister who just nodded meaningfully.

Armed with her hip mounted mini-gun, Bomber Van Dyke walked straight down the path towards the cowering alien and open-fired. The little bit of cover in the area was no use when her spray of metal covered everything in the area. The blood in the creature could not exit fast enough.

This left just the commander. It had slipped out of cover and was lining up its shot on Pugh once again. They really wanted to take that rookie out. "Not on my watch...." The Ranger quickly grabbed one of his axes off his back and hurled it across the battlefield. The commander heard the incoming doom and had just enough time to turn his head before the ionic axe buried itself deep into its chest.

"Keep going!"

Bomber Van Dyke crashed through a nearby window and targeting the package cowering inside the building. Pugh simply pushed straight up the middle into the large room where the package was on his hands and knees.

And that's when she spotted them, another lancer and one of the snake-men everyone had been talking about. Even with the Bomber right next to her, she did what every life-loving marine would do in this situation, she strategically retreated, tossing a grenade behind her for good measure.

The grenade rolled into the wall where it exploded, taking out the wall and temporarily stunning the two aliens. Bomber retreated as well, firing during her retreat – not doing any real damage but making them pause slightly nonetheless. It didn't take long for them to regain their courage though. The snake-man used its inhuman strength to grab Bomber Van Dyke, dragging her across the floor (and across the package no less), into its coils where it began to squeeze. A quick grunt and then nothing came out of the Bomber.

The lancer did what was now becoming a pattern, they seem to like to hit the back ranks. It literally jumped over Pugh and Ranger Van Dyke to run over to Halverson and jab the stun stick right at her chest. While not quite ready for the move, Halverson did have enough reaction to mostly jump out of the way where it hit her shoulder instead, sending her to the ground with a numb shoulder.

Pugh, with an enemy not staring at her and a friend in need did what any self-respecting marine would do. She shot the thing in the back! And finally, her shot was true and the lancer went down in a bloody heap. She quickly helped Halverson to her feet and then turned as they heard the Ranger's battle cry. As much as the Ranger and his sisters had issues, they were still family. And you did NOT mess with family. The Ranger had pulled out his remaining axe and ran straight at the snake-man monstrosity. The thing had just enough time to hiss before the Ranger decapitated it. The coils quickly unraveled and Bomber just sat there breathing for a second before regaining her feet.

As the squad reconvened in the small office building loosely surrounding the package (who had slowly gotten to his feet now that the fire-fight had concluded), the Ranger looked at the two injuries. He quickly pulled out his med-gel and tossed it to Halverson, who quickly sprayed it on herself, immediately lessening the pain in her shoulder.

Bomber Van Dyke looked at her brother in silent questioning.

He responded, "On the Skyranger, the first person who asked me about it wasn't going to get the med-packs. You gave me smack." He nodded over to Halverson, "she gets the med-pack."

The man had been standing silently, listening and then chuckled at the Ranger's reaction. Bomber quickly balled her first, and with all her effort punched the fool in gut. He went down with a whoosh, balled on the ground, trying to catch a breath – ANY breath. Bomber simply walked out towards the rendezvous point.

The Ranger looked around, "Rookie, pick up the package, we have a plane to catch."

Pugh quickly grabbed the man, tossed him over her shoulder despite the man's feeble protests, and followed the squad. She felt good about herself. She'd survived her first mission.