Once again, friend strongly urged I post this one somewhere. This one's already got quite a bit of work done on it up towards the tenth chapter at this point so expect updates over the next few days.
"All attempts to contact the invaders thus far have failed. Their only purpose seems to be destruction and chaos. One fact is quite clear: the militaries of the world are severely outgunned. In the absence of a miracle this could very well be the end of civilization as we know it." She'd heard the same thing, day in and day out. It never seemed to end. How many had she killed already? Did it even matter?
All of a sudden she was spurred from her thoughts as another woman she knew to be Sandra Bennet, sat down next to her. The American woman had rather bright red hair which she kept tied up in a bun. "Not still thinking about all of this are you Zero?"
"How can I not?" She looked back up at the screen. "All the pain... Suffering... I just feel so powerless to stop any of it."
"Maybe alone... But that's why you're part of XCOM. Together we'll come out on top." Sandra paused. "Hey, Sarah." She looked up at Sandra. "No matter what happens. We're a team. I've got your back."
Sarah formed a small smile. "I don't see how you can be so positive." She leaned back on the couch. "But it sure does rub off on me."
"Well... A pessimistic medic sure doesn't get far. 'Doesn't look good Bobby. Was a good run. Bye now!' Yea I'm sure that's what you want to hear when you're bleeding profusely." Sandra rolled her eyes with a grin which earned a soft laugh from Sarah in response. "I prefer the 'you'll make it' approach. After all... the human psyche is crucial in the process. "
Sarah nodded. "Yeah... I see what you mean. Guess I just can't be the little ray of sunshine you are."
"Wouldn't want you t-... Hear that?"
"Hear what?"
Sandra placed a hand against her ear and shook her hand. "Something's wrong... Communication is jammed." Sarah did the same to check if Sandra's device was simply malfunctioning and then she felt a sense of dread form in the pit of her stomach.
Static. Nothing but static.
"That's not norm-" Sandra placed a hand over Sarah's mouth to silence her as she muted the video in front of them. Sandra got to her feet slowly, pulling Sarah with her. The sound of pattering feet could be heard in the distance.
The footsteps were made by small feet lacking shoes; the sound of flesh against rock. A sound they had prayed never to hear; not here. Sandra made a motion with her hand to move for the hallway. Sarah turned to move with her. A single blast of plasma to flew between the two, narrowly missing both women. Sarah stumbled backwards, and ducked down behind the couch while Sandra dove forward and took cover behind a bookcase right next to the door. The pattering grew closer. There was no way Sarah could close the gap without being shot at again and without any of her armor she would be dead soon after she took the first hit.
Sandra glanced out only to have another blast sent her way. Luckily it was another miss, barely. She then slipped through the door. Sarah reached for her as she left, the pain of abandonment sinking in. As the steps grew closer she returned to her senses. She was on her own now. Her hand drifted to her hip, instinctively reaching for her sidearm. To her dismay, she only found cloth and flesh. "Shit..." She muttered under her breathe.
Several gurgled clicks followed her quiet exclamation. They were now moving in her direction no doubt. Moments felt like minutes. Seconds felt like hours. She then saw what she had feared. A grey hand with elongated fingers grasped the edge of the couch before pulling its large head around to stare at her with beady eyes. This was it. This was how she was going to die. Abandoned by her friends and face to face with lowest of the alien's troops. She couldn't even go down fighting without a single weapon at her disposal. She looked away and closed her eyes as she felt a small discharge of heat from the Sectoids wrist. The plasma preparing to fire.
The sound of a gunshot filled the room. Sarah paused and placed a hand to her chest to find her heart was still beating. She looked up only to find the Sectoid was now dead in front of her. A second gunshot filled the air and an alien scream soon followed. She looked up to see Sandra had returned with a single revolver in hand. She then rushed to Sarah's aid once she was sure it was clear.
"Are you alright?" Sandra asked.
"No I'm not alr-!"
Sandra silenced her. "I know... Sorry... But if I didn't go, we'd both be dead right now. I told you Sarah. I've got your back. I won't leave you behind." Sandra then handed Sarah a small knife which she immediately identified as her own blade.
"Where'd you?"
"You left your door open. Figured it would do better in someone's hands than lying on the dresser." Sandra pulled Sarah to her feet.
Sarah took the blade and placed it in the sheath on her boot. "So what should we do then?"
"I think we should get to Central. Let him know what's going on... That is assuming he doesn't already know." Sarah nodded in response. The pair continued down the hallway. Sandra took a moment as the moved to place two more rounds in the revolver's cylinder.
"Think there are more of them?"
"No doubt... You think they'd only send a couple Greys if they knew where our base was?"
"I was hoping you'd reply with something optimistic..." Sarah admitted.
"I'm a realist at times."
"Think we should stop by the armory?"
Sandra stopped at a fork in the hallway. "We can definitely check it out... But I imagine we won't be the only ones who would have had the same idea." Sarah nodded in reply. "If you're sure?"
Sarah nodded again. "Honestly... I feel so helpless with only a knife in my boot. And that revolver," She looked at it. "It might as well be a slingshot if the aliens have thrown some heavier units in the assault as well."
"I'm not so sure about the idea... I think we should just get to central. The more time we waste, the deeper and deeper the aliens will get and that means a greater chance that we'll have to fight."
"Which is why we need weapons to defend ourselves." Sandra sighed in response.
Everything then slowly began to fade to black before a different voice brought her back to her senses. "Zero. Zero!" It was an older male. It took a moment to register that it was Bradford calling out to her over her earpiece. "Zero! Are you awake?!" He repeated in a rushed whisper.
"Yea... Sorry... just." She replied as she rubbed a hand over her eyes.
"Pay attention. We're about to begin."
She nodded to herself. She had dwelled in the past enough for today. For some reason, that day continued to haunt her. She had thought she'd put it behind her but for some reason, it kept coming back to her. Sarah hart was now aware of her surroundings, twenty years later. Many would say that the years had been kind to her. Her hair was a light brown color, a bit lighter than it had been twenty years ago, but at least she had maintained her signature bob hairstyle. A single scar now adorned her face, running from her right eye down to her cheek.
"In response to the unprovoked intrusion on the eve of our most beloved celebration." Sarah turned her head to look at the screen in the streets below.
A new speaker then appeared on screen. "A small number of dissidents again repeat the mistakes of the old world. Striking as we celebrate a benevolent savior who time and time again offers only friendship and compassion. Yet these trivial actions could never break the bond between humanity and the Eldars."
The screen then switched to a different speaker. Sarah glanced down at her sidearm, placing a hand on the revolver's hilt. An "S.B." was barely visible on the hilt between her fingers. "Friendship my ass..." She gritted her teeth.
"Prep Gatecrasher, 60 seconds." Bradford's voice could be heard again. Sarah looked through the scope of her rifle the moment she heard his voice. She located him a moment later as he prepared to walk through an ADVENT checkpoint. Her breathing slowed as her finger inched towards the trigger. Sirens began going off as he stepped through. ADVENT troops then approached him shouting in whatever language it may be that they spoke. They appeared human on the outside, but it was widely believed within XCOM that they were genetically mutated in some way. Their armor was after all designed in such a way it hid most of their features.
One of the ADVENT rammed the butt of his rifle into Bradford's chest when he refused to move, which caused him to fall to his knees. She then watched Jane Kelly slip by and place the explosives on the truck behind them. She was away from the vehicle before anyone noticed. It went up in a blaze of fire the moment she was outside of the explosive's range. The blast sent the ADVENT soldiers to the ground.
Now was her time. Bradford got to his feet as bullets fled the muzzle of her rifle and embedded themselves in the bodies of those ADVENT who attempted to get to their feet to stop him. Screams filled the air as the explosion sent civilians running in various directions. Some of them taking a moment to stop and point out her position. "Shooter!"
She'd already stayed too long. She got to her feet and ran to the edge of the roof and leapt through the window of a nearby building. "Mor Balaten!" It seemed she wasn't alone in this room. An ADVENT trooper raised his hand in an attempt to stop her before raising his weapon to fire. Her revolver was in hand before he could raise his weapon and the sound of gunfire filled the air as the trooper fell to the ground. Sarah got to her feet and immediately made her way down the stairs of the building.
She shouldered her rifle and proceeded to replace the two spent rounds in her revolver before a flick of her wrist caused the cylinder to fall back into place. She holstered it once again before drawing the rifle. She then slipped through the backdoor of the building. She made sure to check that no one was looking before she slipped into the alleyways.
She made her way to the rendezvous point. No doubt ADVENT would be hunting for her. She continued weaving between the buildings. Some would glance in her direction but in the panic few would pay her any mind. She even bumped into several people though it did little to slow her progress. She could see a male just ahead waving her over. His blonde hair was kept rather short yet messy. A bandana covered the lower half of his face. She approached carefully. "Vigilo." She muttered.
"Confido." He replied. Sarah then approached and leaned against the wall. "Gatecrasher is well underway." He stated. That much she found to be obvious as gunshots continued to ring throughout the area.
"They find what they're looking for?" Sarah asked.
"We don't know yet." He pulled a rifle from within a nearby garbage can. "Ready?" He asked. Sarah nodded. He then rushed from the cover of the alley into the streets, ducking down behind a car. She stayed behind in the alley to cover him. He then waved her over as he raised his head to do the same for her. She dashed towards the vehicle, sliding in behind it as she approached. Down the street she could see the area open up into a clearing with a large monument in the center.
From here she could see one of their own closing in and finishing off an ADVENT trooper only to be gunned down from the flank. A voice was heard over their radio. "Crasher-2 is down! She's gone!"
"They're getting killed over there. We've got to hurry." The blonde stated. Sarah nodded in response and gripped his shoulder as she got to her feet. The pair moved to the next vehicle and stopped behind it. A quick glance over the hood allowed Sarah to see Bradford eliminating the last ADVENT trooper in the immediate vicinity of the objective. Another woman appeared behind him, who Sarah identified as Jane Kelly from earlier, as he approached the body and slammed his foot against the trooper's helmet. She assumed he had failed to kill it.
"Looks clear." Sarah stated. The blonde nodded back at her before getting up to move and rushing to regroup with the others. Sarah was right behind him every step of the way.
Bradford looked at the two. "Nice of you to join us." He stated. Sarah briefly glanced at the body of their fallen comrade. A soft sigh escaped her lips but the moment was interrupted as a transport for ADVENT flew in from above. The doors flew open and immediately they were being fired upon. Sarah dashed for cover behind a waist high crate that was nearby. She then looked down to notice her chest was covered in blood.
She placed a hand against her chest. There was no pain, and no bleeding. She glanced where she was standing to see that the young male was on the ground reaching out for her slowly. A small blood trail could be seen from where he tried to pull himself over to face her. Behind him she could see the ADVENT troopers dropping down from the transport before it departed. One of the troopers approached slowly and began firing into his legs, causing him to cry out in agony. She had no doubt the trooper was trying to force her hand.
Bradford and Jane had bolted into the building and were now dealing with a door within. The last remaining XCOM operative outside the building ran over to her side, firing into the oncoming group as he did. "Just go! I'll try to stall them here." Sarah nodded before getting up to jump through the shattered window behind her. Covering shots rang out as she moved to prevent the ADVENT from taking advantage of the moment to shoot her.
Inside she found that Bradford and Jane had managed to get the door opened. She then made her way inside to find Bradford looking at some sort of stasis pod, or at least that's what she assumed it was. He paused in front of it and lowered his rifle. "This is the place..."
"Are you sure?" A female voice replied through her earpiece. She immediately recognized the voice to be that of Lily Shen, the chief engineer within XCOM.
Bradford then approached the pod and flipped a switch. "Yes..." He stated as the doors opened and a human figure was revealed within. A green liquid surrounding it but it was immediately draining from the pod. She assumed it was a human but it was rather hard to tell as whatever it was, was within what she thought resembled a diver's suit. Now all that separated Bradford from the contents of the pod was glass casing.
"Looks like there's an access panel attached. If you get me a better look I can-"
Bradford approached the pod and smashed the glass in with the butt of his rifle. "Next time..." He lifted the body onto his shoulders after removing it from the pod. "Let's get out of here." More gunshots could be heard from outside as the sound of boots grew louder. The sound of death could be heard outside as another of their ranks fell.
"No! Central! Crasher-1 is down! You have to get out of there!" Shen exclaimed.
Bradford looked around though it appeared there was no other exit to this room. "We need another exit now!" Jane pulled a pin from a grenade on her belt and tossed it at a nearby wall in response. The wall then came crumbling down. "Works for me!" Bradford then began carrying the body outside. Sarah stayed near him as he would be unable to defend himself in this situation. She exited the building after he did and hugged a wall; her rifle ready to fire. Several shots were fired into Bradford's back as the ADVENT now approached the doorway but somehow he managed to shrug them off and made his way to the evacuation zone. Jane was through the wall a moment later.
Several shots were fired in her direction as she retreated. Sarah provided covering fire as Jane left the building. She even managed to land a hit on a trooper, sending him to his knees. She had stalled as long as she could for the other two and now sprinted toward the evacuation zone. A single rope was thrown down for her as the Skyranger prepared to leave. She dropped her rifle and leapt forward, latching onto the rope tightly as the transport began to gain altitude and speed.
Several shots were fired in her direction but none came close enough to worry her. The rope was already being pulled back up and she'd be inside within moments.