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

X-COM 2: Round 2

Corbin stared at the reports in front of her and sighed. She should be out in the field somewhere, disintegrating the alien hive with her mind, not stuck behind a desk reviewing requisitions. She signed the current request for additional boxes of bacon and flipped to the next one. It was a request for advanced robotics parts. It must be for engineering she thought mindlessly. She was about to sign off and move on when she caught the requestor, Zalewski.

Corbin paused. Her stamp of approval hovered less than an inch from the screen, the screen which would allow Zalewski to construct a new advanced monstrosity above and beyond what he'd developed during the simulation.

Swiping her finger, she denied the request and smiled. While she wouldn't be liquifying an alien's brain today, she could at least dash the dreams of somebody. It was a good day after all.

***
Pritchett sat in her private room and smiled. It was easy to find a private space in the ship when it hadn't been cleared out yet. Her space would be transformed at some point in the future, an engineering bay or med bay perhaps. But for now, nobody deemed it worthy of attention, and Pritchett found a nice little space where she could sit and clean her rifle in an enjoyable silence.

She barely noticed when a figure loomed over her from behind. She barely had the time to turn before a figure tumbled over her, sending her, her makeshift table, and her rifle sprawling into the alien debris all over the floor.

Pritchett regained her footing in an instant, fuming mad, and quickly drew her pistol on the interloper. The figure was slower to get up, coughing and sputtering and he slowly made his way to his feet. After dusting himself off, he pulled his goggles up and turned to look at his potential assailant. "Oh! HEY Pritchett! What are you doing down here?!? I didn't you see there. Hey, that's a nice pistol! If you let me..."

Pritchett quickly pulled her pistol away from Zalewski's grip. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!" She looked at the floor as Zalewski stomped all over her rifle in excitement.

"Oh? Me? I'm just looking for spare parts. My requisition was denied for new robot parts, so I figured I'd go searching for whatever else I could find. Isn't that cool?"

He was practically jumping now. Pritchett looked down in consternation. Shouting at him didn't seem to work, so she decided to go the other direction, "You know...I think I saw some AWESOME parts in the next room! I bet you find some REALLY cool stuff there."

Zalewski's head perked up and he was gone in an instant. Pritchett looked down at the floor. Her rifle had been scattered everywhere, bits and pieces strewn about amidst the alien wreckage. She picked up the pieces she could find but she could tell she was missing a few key components without having to lay them all out. With a deep sigh, she set it all back down on her makeshift table and stood up. She didn't know who denied that request, but they were going to have a little talk.

***

Halverson lay on her bunk, muttering to herself as she stared aimlessly at the ceiling. Gunner paused to assess the potential sniper. The nearly ceaseless muttering was punctuated by a few expletives every so often, but otherwise, Halverson didn't move. A few minutes later, Gunner sat down next to Pubentz, the two looking at each questioningly, their food trays sitting untouched before them. It was Pubentz who finally broke the ice.

"Well?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Haalverson hasn't said a thing. She gets up in the morning, after we've all left, eats after we've all left, works out and trains after we've all left, then returns to the bunk where she stares at the ceiling till the next day where she starts it all over again. Is there anything you can do?"