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

Operation Dragon Shield

Pubentz looked at hers as well. It was uncharged. "We don't have time! USE GREANDES!"

Zalewski glanced back from his cover behind a tree where he was taking position from the aliens hitting their flank. The glowing purple field was not a good thing. "They really shouldn't be there...."

The purple field began to grow in intensity.

Day and Halverson looked at each other and shrugged. They each pulled out a grenade and tossed it at their assigned Codex clone. Day's exploded, destroying the Codex in a fiery explosion. Fortunately, nobody was in its vicinity. Halverson tossed hers at its twin where the grenade exploded, disrupting the codex and causing that one to explode as well.

Unfortunately, the Ranger had just removed the head of the silicoid behind a nearby fence. The dilapidated fence provided little reprieve from the fiery inferno that engulfed them both. There was just a brief pause of shock before the pain hit, "SERIOULSY?!? SETTING ME ON FIRE IN A RAINSTORM?!? WHAT THE HECK?!?"

Pubentz spotted another grunt through the garage's side door and picked it off. "GREAT JOB! KEEP IT UP! JUST A FEW MORE!"

The purple vortex increased in intensity.

Zalewski looked at the growing intensity of the purple vortex, DEFINITELY not good. "GET OUT OF THERE!" He didn't think they heard him over the rain and explosions.

At this point, there was only one known alien left, and Pubentz had indicated it was inside the garage. The squad had done a REALLY good job and limiting the aliens to this point, and they just needed to finish off this one to limit damage for now. Neither Gunner nor Zalewski had a shot on it. It would take too much time to go around to the far side, and blowing a hole in the wall wasn't exactly a good use of resources. So gunner did the only sensible thing she could think of, she ran up to the garage door, and opened it.

There, sitting amid a lawnmower, a coiled hose, some long lost power tools, and a bicycle hanging from the ceiling was a silicoid who looked beyond surprised at having been discovered in such a simple manner. Gunner unloaded, sending waves of metal through the thing. Zalewski looked back just in time to find his shot as well, obliterating it with his magnetic weapon.

Just as the beast went down, Zalewski looked back at the swirling maelstrom. He had just enough time to see the jubilant expressions of the three defenders before the vortex imploded sending a shock wave in all directions, sending Pubentz, Day, and Halverson in opposite directions.

The swirling vortex vanished, leaving the team sprawled across the area. The team came back to regroup, but Pubentz coughing and wheezing ushered them on. "We're not done yet! Let me take a look and we'll keep going!" She did a quick touch up on herself, checked on Day, then followed the squad towards their objective.

Ranger Van Dyke tried his best to put out the flames across his body, but even with the pouring rain, the fires didn't seem to want to die, and eventually he had to simply roll in the wet slimy mud to finally get the flames to die out. The situation wasn't exactly pretty and nobody even laughed as the Ranger got to his feet, dripping water and mud from his entire body, "I am going to KILL whoever did this to me!"

Pubentz looked over, "You can kill them later! Come on, we have to finish this!" Just then, another shot fired. The firing came from the side of a pair of houses just ahead. A trio of civilians scattered as the squad approached. Gunner rounded the corner to find herself face to face with another trio of aliens – another codex and another pair of silicoids. "Biscuits" she muttered to herself as she launched a grenade at the codex. The impact diffused the codex but caused it to clone – one appearing right beside her with the other appearing further away. Day, who had been mirroring Gunner had a prime shot and destroyed the clone sitting right next to him. Van Dyke began suppressing it. If it moved, she'd get it. Unfortunately, the thing simply disappeared, teleporting to the other side of the building. There was nothing she could do about that.