Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to read this story! I have had a past FF account, but have abandoned it after I realized that the archive I was involved in was corrupted...so my new account, which I plan to be primarily game focused, is going to be this...so...this is my first one shot for any archive, so I'm a bit nervous...but I love xcom to death so I plan on having fun with this, Thanks! To be clear, asterisks are to specify a change from the story to the report with Bradford!
The Corruption
The sky ranger landed with a scarcely audible thud as the door opened with a hiss. Out stepped five xcom operatives, the dim red glow of laser reflected off their colored armor. In front, a singular, independent man walked in front to inspect a piece of burning debris, the man was Captain Ross 'Rifle' Liuent a German Assault classed man, and the leader of this third hand operative group code named Strike Team Foxtrot. A squad of soldiers sent out to take care of lower level alien threats. On this particular night, a small UFO had been shot down in an Urban area. Foxtrot had been sent to clean up what was left of the squad on board. It was supposed to be a quick clean-up mission, but that was not even the tip of the iceberg that night.
*line break*
Reporter talking to Bradford, two months after the incident
Reporter: what exactly happened with Strike Team Foxtrot?
Bradford: those details are highly classified
Reporter: are you sure? Information has been reported that the incident was done on purpose.
Bradford: that is nowhere near to what happened!
Reporter: A T3 team being sent out to investigate a 'small' UFO contact...wouldn't you normally send out a larger crew?
Bradford: alpha was being treated in the med bay, and strike one was out taking the overseer.
Reporter: did it ever occur to you that the overseer could have been a diversion?
Bradford: You know nothing do you.
Reporter: I feel like I know something considering an elite, or throwaways as you may call them, group of soldier were...
Bradford: *forcefully at this point, had to be held back by guards* Are you accusing me of throwing away my soldier's lives?
Reporter: *yelling* It seems rather coincidental that you have five soldiers dead and that it has not been publicized at all, You release the names of all other soldiers on the memorial, they are not even listed there!
Bradford: YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY COMPREHEND WHAT EVENTS HAPPENED THAT NIGHT!
Reporter: Well maybe the world can
***
Team Foxtrot was known for their quick and clean missions, they hadn't had a single casualty in over four months. But they were not a permanent team, they were solely used for basic missions which included two captains, a Lieutenant, and High ranking Corporals. They were the most considered the most elite of Tier 3 soldiers, which is basically saying you were the coolest kid in a special needs class.*
On that night however, the high ranking captain Felix *Mud* Everbath had been rushed to the Medbay for unclear reasons, so standing in was Captain Jeffrey 'Doc' McStar, a high ranking Support that had been called down from team Golf. His mid-length black hair, which desperately needed a haircut, blew in the wind as he inspected a few tire tracks on the ground.
"These look new," He remarked turning to Lieutenant Meghan 'Bari' Weiss. The two had known each other for a long time, and had been part in the Ukraine-English Militia in the early 2014's.
"Could they have been left at the time of the crash?" She asked as she brushed her brown hair to the side.
"That car over there sure would suspect that," Corporal Phil Rogers added as he turned to a white, still smoking pick-up truck that had crashed into a brick building to the left of the team.
'We are wasting time!" Captain Ross exclaimed impatiently, "Split into two groups, I want Weiss and Doc on the right, I'll take Roger and Paladin on me."
"Paladin" was the fond nickname of Sergeant Heatherworth, a young, serious Heavy who had shown potential for Psi power, she would have been tested the next week.
"Yes sir," Doc responded as he and Bari moved silently to an elevated, side-roofed building that would give them a good vantage point. Without a word, the two silently moved up into position behind a small metal wall that would provide halfway decent cover for Meghan. Doc opted for a Air Conditioner unit that would provide halfway decent cover. With a grunt of relief, he unloaded his backpack and placed his Medkits and Combat Stims to his side, and steadily aimed his laser rifle towards the predicted position of the UFO. Their team had not received any Plasma credit. Bari, meanwhile, had snapped her S.C.O.P.E into place on her laser sniper rifle and steadied her aim to wait...to wait for hell to come.
Meanwhile, Ross had lead his team of three to the white pick-up and was planning on taking a defensive position there. But something about it changed his mind. He had had an uneasy feeling about that area, like he was being watched. This of course, was nothing new, he had been used to be stalked by aliens before...but this seemed different...almost supernatural.
"Corporal," he said, trying to hide his deceitful tone, "Clear the truck."
"Yes sir," Roger said as he readied his assault rifle and turned into the wreckage. What he saw was a horribly gruesome sight. The body in the truck seemed almost natural, except for the fact that his eyes were glazed over in purple, not immediately suspicious, they had seen traces of this before in research...but the body. The body was left almost unarmed, except for a few, small impressions of dark purple beneath the skin. The dark purple seemed to be following the veins.
"Doc," Ross said into his communicator, sending a picture of the body," what do you make of this."
"Probably a bursted vein," Doc's voice responded over the static, "the force of the crash may have dented a few."
Ross wasn't so sure, but it was all they had to go on at that point. Without giving it a second thought, he told Corporal to stay in cover here (despite objections) and he and Paladin moved ahead to scout around.
Reporter: Do you know what actually happened with Foxtrot
Bradford: From what we've been able to gather from the security footage, we can't know for sure.
Reporter: You act as if you know nothing
Bradford: and that is somewhat true, the only person who would be positive would be Bari, but as you know-
Reporter: She didn't make it either
Bradford: Correct, Voodoo-3-1 had given us some information on the events, but it's is still nothing we can comprehend.
Reporter: Was the recovery team able to find anything?
Bradford: They found some of the infected blood which was Doc's, DNA tests showed a strong mutilation in the Brain sector, but it was nothing that could have been triggered from plasma.
Reporter: Could it have been Psi abilities?
Bradford: That's what Valhen thinks, but it would have had to been stronger than anything we could have believed
***
The first reports of the thing came fifteen minutes after touchdown. Corporal was stationed about 60 meters west of Doc and Bari, and Rifle and Paladin were too far ahead nothing could have been done to save the young Corporal. Roger was looking down his iron-sights, when he thought he caught movement due left.
"Possible contact suspected," he whispered into his speaker, "Permission to engage?"
"Permission granted soldier, watch your six," Ross said, only half paying attention, he had located the spacecraft and was watching for movement.
Roger could be classified as an...overeager soldier, he often ran into battle without much hesitation. That hadn't all mattered much, he usually had the Captain looking after him; but this time he was alone.
Roger dashed into cover behind a severed tree trunk and took safety off his rifle, he could hear the cracking of leaves and saw the movement of the smoke. Silently counting to himself, he turned the corner and readied his weapon to reveal...
Nothing.
This couldn't be right, he spotted movement before...
Meanwhile, on top of the roof, Meghan had her scope trained in the direction of the Corporal.
"Anything Roger?" she asked through her wrist communicator.
"No nothing, I could have sworn I had movement..."
She was about to respond when she noticed something. A dark, hardly visible streak of purple light...energy...heading towards Roger. She barely got the words "Look out!" out of her mouth before Roger's head exploded in a mix of blood, brain, and that dark purple energy.
Chaos crackled through the radio as the four remaining panicking soldier screamed at each other as Roger's lifeless body fell to the ground. Bari was the only one that saw the grotesque, mutilated body that had the same purple vein problem the driver of the truck did. Panic swept in.
"WHAT WAS THAT?"
"THAT'S NOT ANY PSI"
"JESUS MOTHER F'ING CHRIST HIS HEAD IS MISSING!"
The crew was still panicking when the next victim was taken care of. Captain Ross was suddenly thrown backwards from his cover into a low lying tree limb. He got up just as he was able to see Paladin's arms literally torn from her chest. She screamed as the purple energy entered her body, literally making her implode. The crew was being played.
"VOODOO-3-1 FIRE UP THE RANGER!" Ross yelled over the communicator as he started to sprint back, "MISSION ABORT, REPEAT MISSION ABORT!"
"ROSS BEHIND YOU!" Doc's voice yelled as a heavy layering of laser came down behind Ross. Doc was giving him coverfire.
Ross snuck a look behind him to see a terrifying sight. The dark energy that had killed the other two was less than 2 yards behind him. It had no body, it just took on the shape of a psi beam...but this was no psi-ic power. No.
This was The Virus.
Ross barely had anytime to warn his two friends before the energy shocked his legs. Immense pain made him fall to the ground. He couldn't get up, he was paralyzed.
"DOC GO!" Ross screamed over the communicator in short, burst of speech that brought up much spit. He turned to face his death just as the energy swarmed into him.
The Virus was real.
****
Report with Bradford:
Reporter: You said that this was a Virus of sorts?
Bradford: We had seen a small sample of this purple stuff in the lab, we had assumed that it was a type of bacteria at first, but then realized that it had to be a virus.
Reporter: And you said that it wasn't lethal?
Bradford: We were quite sure that it was calm at first, but had an idea that it could have been used together to give a sickness of sorts, sort of like the cold.
Reporter: Except this literally rips the body apart.
Bradford: *silent* not necessarily...we have made a basic conclusion now that the virus is capable of living on its' own for a shortened period of time...but it needed a host to live in. It seemed to be un-lethal to the aliens we tested it on, the sectoid and Muton. But it is perfectly possible that the human body couldn't withstand the amount of pressure it gave, therefore it tears it apart.
Reporter: According to these reading, the craft had been more abundant of the Virus the day it came down...is it possible that the aliens knew this would happen?
Bradford: I sincerely doubt it-
Reporter: Bradford, the point of the invasion from what we've been able to understand is that they were not trying to destroy Earth. Do you think that there is any way The Overseer could have been a diversion?
Bradford: *silent* Providing the aliens knew what this virus was capable of...yes
"ROSS ANSWER ME," Doc screamed into the radio, he was met with horrible, barely audible but still terrifying screams. He looked up to Weiss "We need to go."
"Voodoo 3-1 we need that craft up ASAP," Bari called in, her S.C.O.P.E still trained on the area of destruction.
"Roger that, move guys...hang in there," was the softened response.
Doc threw open his backpack and dumped out various support items, medkits, smoke grenades, until he came upon a single, leather bound book, he turned to Bari and handed it to her.
"That is not Psi, that is the Virus." He said quickly as he also revealed a set of Caraprace armor.
"Wait what are you talking about?" Meghan asked nervously.
"Bradford sent me along, I've been working with Valhen in the lab and we've found traces of this...thing. He sent me along to try to gather samples...this is all my research, you need to get this back to HQ.
"Why aren't you bringing it?"
Doc looked Bari in the eye. He looked at his friend...his partner...his person he could turned to in times of need, "I'm not coming along."
The words were enough to strike silence between the two, Doc broke the silence, "The Virus will only feed on one person..."
"No, you can't...let me take the blame," Bari pleaded.
Doc shook his head, "If I go back, I'll be back at this research, doing stuff I thought would benefit Earth...but now I know...it was all a trap...Meghan, we were the guinea pigs."
Meghan looked at Jeffery, this couldn't happen...
"Take the Caraprace, I'll cover you." Doc said, water forming in his eyes.
Without a word, Bari walked over to him and embraced him in a tight locked hug, tears ran down both their faces.
Doc helped Bari into the armor, and gave one last tearful goodbye.
"Hang in there Meghan...I still have your back."
And with that they were off, Doc stood up and opened fire at the Virus. Splashes of Laser reflected off the inhuman substance as it sped upon him.
Doc then spoke his last words, revealing a grenade in his hands, "Bring it on you Mother-"
And then the explosion shook, just as Meghan made it to the Skyranger, Voodoo was waiting for her.
"Quick it will only be a moment before-" Meghan started but was cut off. She slowly turned to Voodoo who had a pistol cocked in his hand.
"I'm sorry Lieutenant," he started, "But you've seen too much."
Meghan looked him in the eye and spoke, "Jeffery was right."
Her death was quick, as her body hit the floor, Voodoo reached for his communicator, "Central, mission is a success, Virus is positive, shall we send in a clean-up crew?"
"Not yet," Bradford's voice crackled back, "I wAnt to see what Doc was hiding from us."
Reporter: did you eventually send in a proper crew in?
Bradford: Yes, all traces of the virus were eliminated, at that sector
Reporter: Now you said that the virus could function on its own? Do you think it's possible that it could still be out there?
Bradford: That is indeed possible.
Reporter: But we'll never know for sure?
Bradford: that is correct...unfortunately, Doc and Bari were killed by Mutons whilst trying to escape.
FIN
So that was my first fic for this account. I apologize for grammar, this was done almost entirly on an Ipad, and the clarity could be a bit rough, again sorry. I'm looking into to writing a multi chaper story for the new XCOM enemy Whithin DLC, if I could get feedback on this and if you'd like to see another fic from me that'd be great! Be sure to review and if you really liked it, favorite it!
Thanks!
BandNerd11