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

Operation Dying Mask

Gunner spoke up, "Yo! BOOM! Over here. Don't think we want to attract enough attention for two over there..."

"But...."

Pubentz shut him down quiet and efficiently. "We are all pushing through this door. Now get over here...."

"But..."

"NOW!"

Zalewski frowned and tromped over to the other side and got into position. Bastion picked up on its owner's mood, bellowing a big plume of black smoke in protest.

Pubentz put her hand on the door to open it when Pritchett put hand on top of it to stop her. A worried expression crossed Pritchett's face. "Are you sure? If this place uses the Snake-King as a common GUARD, what the hell is in there? We may be entirely outmatched," as she nodded towards the closed door. Pubentz looked back at the closed door and frowned in concentration. "I guess we'll find out won't we..."

She opened the door.

In the middle of the large factory floor looked to be something reminding Pubentz of a gigantic rotisserie. The same pods the squad had seen were being slowly rotated through some kind of liquid in the center of the factory floor. On the far side, behind some kind of protective barrier was a glowing container.

Zalewski immediately spotted it... "LOOK! SHINY!!"

But Ranger Van Dyke was more interested in the shiny faceplate of another mech that he spotted on the far side of the room. "DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" Along with the mech, another lancer and a silicoid brain-buster were among the trio that were now deciding how they were going to dissect the squad.

Zalewski slid into position just inside the door behind a console. He had the opportunity to really take a look at the mech. Mechs weren't all that different from Bastion, and none of them like electricity. Bastion had this nice little electric charge. Would it work against a mech? Even better maybe? "BASTION! Discharge mech!" The little GREMLIN bopped and weaved across the battlefield, avoiding fire and finding itself face to face with a much larger and much more fearsome mech. That didn't stop the little droid from zapping the mech. After the mech paused momentarily and jolted, BASTION decided to do it again for good measure. The mech jolted in position, heavily affected by the little droid. The rest of the team fired as well – Pubentz taking out the lancer single handedly, and the pair of Van Dyke's mowing into the mech taking it out and enjoying its death throes of groans, cranks, and sparks. This left Pritchett, who wasn't enjoying herself quite as much anymore as she lined up her shot on the sectoid and managed to hit it, her shot off slightly from the pounding she'd taken in her shoulder.

The sectoid ran into a more defensible position and suddenly, the once dead lancer came back to life – sort of.

The Sectoid had moved into heavy cover – not something any of the squad could really hit in the current positions, so Ranger Van Dyke slipped into a better position, closer to the creepy slime water that the pods were being drenched in. In addition to the silicoid which was his target, he caught sight of another trio, ANOTHER mech, a grunt, and a lancer.

"You have GOT to be kidding me.... WE'VE GOT MORE TANGOS!"

Gunner Van Dyke lookedin her brother's direction and spotted the retinue as well. The squad simply wouldn't have enough firepower to take them all out at cone, so they needed to take out as much as they could before they figured out what was going on. Fortunately, two of them are a little too close for comfort, and she tosseed a grenade between the grunt and the already injured sectoid. The two went down in a glorious display of gibs. Pubentz had to wipe gore off her face and gave Gunner a disapproving frown. The rest put their sites on the lancer with the exception of Zalewski, who once again sent Bastion out to do the dirty work against the mech.