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

Operation Dragon Shield

The Ranger decided today wasn't the day to play with guns and pulled out his blade once again. It was the only way to be sure that at least one of the silicoids went down. And while the Ranger wasn't perfect with his guns, the axes were his pride and joy. They wouldn't let him down, and once again, another silicoid fell to its death in their humming cacophony.

Now silicoids are an interesting species. They can do all kinds of things that can lead to the dismantling of a squad, but generally over time. Unfortunately, this was not one of those times and the silicoid went the direct route and simply pulled out a plasma pistol and fired straight at the Ranger. The Ranger took the shot right in the back and went down face first into the water and muddy ground right next to the silicoid he'd just gutted.

His sister saw the shot and screamed for Pubentz. With rage in her heart, she pulled out her grenade launcher and launched her acid grenade. That thing was going to die, and she was going to make sure it was painful. Her brother was not the nicest of people at times...oh, who was she kidding, he was a jerk, but he was STILL family and seeing him go down set her off. The grenade exploded, sending acid all over the area, including the Silicoid trying to hide behind the corner of the building. The acid didn't seem to care and had no issues burning its way into the alien's skin. Its shrieks were heard across the area.

On the other side of the building, the Codex had reappeared and had summoned another one of the purple vortexes. The squad had learned from experience that purple swirling vortexes were bad and scrambled for further cover. Zelewski, seeing that his weapon was currently useless sent Bastion out to attack instead. Bastion did exactly what it was supposed to do, not having any real issue tracking down the Codex and shocked it.

The Codex had its now typical response, and cloned.

Pubentz yelled out in exasperation just as she hit the deck. One of the Codex had fired at her position. "WOULD YOU STOP THAT! JUST KILL THE THINGS!" Just as she was about to fire back, she heard Gunner's call, and knowing what was more important, rushed to his aid. There was enough firepower here to take care of the remaining twins.

Zalewski ordered another attack on the first of the digital twins, the electric charge doing enough damage to disrupt its personage and cause it to dissipate. Day followed up with a frost bomb, allowing himself plenty of time to get up right next to it and eliminate the thing with prejudice.

The final silicoid, trying to find some kind of cover form the inevitable dissolving of its outer layers of skin dove behind some cover. Gunner was having none of it and shot her final grenade right on top of it. The grenade exploded allowing the acid to burrow even deeper into its alien hide. It died in a gurgling mess moments later.

Pubentz quickly ran to the Ranger, who was face down at the side of the building. She quickly assessed the damage. There was some heavy burn damage and more importantly, a plasma shot to the back. Neither of them were serious on their own, but together, they looked to have pushed the Ranger's system over the edge. But it wasn't something she couldn't handle. It took a few minutes but an adrenaline shot, and a sling made out of what was left of the Ranger's shirt were enough to bring him back to the living. The Ranger opened his eyes, obviously in pain, but with a look of panic and then acknowledgement of what had just happened. He just nodded at her as she helped him to his feet.

Zalewski and Bastion came back from the computer, the wall having been opened up with Gunner's grenade blasts. "Got what we needed, we're ready to go."

It was then that Day looked around. "Hey....didn't we have six? Where's that sniper girl?"

Pubentz looked around briefly doing a mental checklist before sprinting back to the location of the first vortex blast. Sure enough, Halverson lay in the corner, propped up against the building, her head bent at an unnatural angle, eyes open wide in surprise.

"NOOOO!!!!" Pubentz dropped to the ground beside her, checking for a pulse but everyone could see there was nothing to be done here. Zalewski and Day took point, covering the front and rear as they gave Pubentz a few moments to recover. Finally, Gunner came up and helped Pubentz to her feet, taking her away and trying to talk some sense in her. It was at that moment, the limping Ranger dropped to his knees beside the dead sniper and looked into her unseeing eyes. Slowly closing her eyelids, he leaned close, whispering into her ear, "And that...is what you get for trying to burn me alive."

Deed accomplished, he motioned over to Day to pick her up. It was time to get home.

***

It was not the prettiest homecoming. Day, Pubentz, and the Ranger were taken to med bay. Halverson was brought to the morgue. The Commander wanted a full report on exactly what had happened down there. It wasn't going to be pleasant. There was plenty of blame to go around on this mission.

It was on the following day that Pubentz and the Ranger found themselves lying in adjacent beds next to each other in the med bay. Van Dyke had just returned from another round of skin regeneration while Pubentz had just had her brain scanned...again and was awaiting the results.

There was an awkward silence between the two. Pubentz finally broke it as she stared up at the ceiling, "Thanks for killing that brain sucker back there.... You have no idea what I was reliving... I was...

"Out of all the people on this squad, they did the smart thing and picked the strongest," there was a pause, "or second strongest to mess us up. I couldn't allow that to happen." There was another awkward silence, "...and thanks for patching me up. I knew it was a risky move, I didn't have much of a choice. It would have been worse if I hadn't done it."

The two looked at each other and nodded. Debts were paid.