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

Operation Unceasing Terror

Pubentz sat in her hospital bed, hands behind her head, feet propped up on pillows while her head thumped to the a particularly rhythmic classical staccato. Over time, she found having a slave, errr, robotic companion could be useful at times. In this case, she'd programmed it with her favorite classical music, much to chagrin of the others in Med-bay.

Pugh followed the music into Med-bay and was surprised when she saw Pubentz's GREMLIN silently hovering while blaring Mozart. Pugh gasped, "You can make them do that?!?"

Pubentz opened her eyes at the interruption and smiled, signaling the GREMLIN to stop. The sudden break was followed by relieved sighs behind several of the curtained alcoves. Pubentz patted a seat and looked over at Pugh, "You can make them do whatever you dream up if you know how to program them correctly. I'll show you what I've done, but I'm guessing that's not while you're here, what's up?"

Pubentz snapped her fingers and the GREMLIN disappeared around a corner, returning a few seconds later with a cold bottle of water. As Pubentz opened the bottle, Pugh began, "Commander has me going on this next mission. It looks like we have to hack some terminal for intelligence."

Pubentz finished taking a big gulp and looked back, "Who else is going?"

Pugh paused momentarily, "You've got the Gunner girl, Halverson, the crazy mech guy.." and there was a slight pause, "and the Ranger guy with the axe. I don't really like him much..."

Pubentz smiled. "He's a conceited jerk, but he will do what he has to and make sure you get back in one piece." She finished off her drink, then tossed the bottle straight up in the air. Her GREMLIN deftly caught it, and disappeared around the corner where they both heard the bottle clanging into the trash can.

Pugh paused again, "Zalewski keeps wanting to show me all the cool things he can do to my GREMLIN. "

"Do NOT let him touch your GREMLIN. I can help teach you how to program it, but do NOT let him touch it. I promise you, it will just go bad. Very, very bad. And I tell you what. Here's the key to my locker. I've got something special in it for you since I won't be using it for another few weeks."

Pugh looked on, wide-eyes. "Seriously, you'll let me use the bolt-caster?"

"Just be sure to bring it back – in one piece."
The GREMLIN returned, this time, with a small cup of ice cream which Pubentz began to eat. Pugh finally got curious, "...and why exactly are you in here again? You look pretty good to me."

Pubentz took a bit bite before responding. "Apparently, when you get hit by a grenade, concussion protocol means I can't do anything for a few weeks just to make sure. I'm making the most of it." She shrugged and snapped her fingers, and once against, classical music filled the med-bay. Groans could be heard from several of the alcoves. "NOT AGAIN!!"

***

The squad stood in front of the testing range while Dr. Tygan explained the most recent development.

"With the limited support we've had on the scientific side.." he gave a meaningful look to the Commander, "we've finally managed to complete our objective here and produce a tool we're calling the Skulljack." He showed the team a small thin device, smaller than the palm of his hand. "Insert this into the data jack of an alien commander, and we can finally access the alien network. It should also totally mess up the alien commander."

Zalewski had wide-eyes, totally enraptured with the ability to hack into the alien's mind and network. Ranger Van Dyke had totally glassed over until the scientist had mentioned something about totally messing up a commander. It was at this point he jumped up and yelled. "DIBS!"