** Author's Note **

Disclaimer

I do not own XCOM. XCOM belongs to 2k Games or Mythos or whoever stakes a legal claim over it. This is just a story based on a mission I played in the game.

Appreciate any C&C on the story. Thanks for reading!

Outnumbered & Outgunned

"Xrays coming in from the sides! Holy shit! What the hell is that? Cover my flank! Cover my flank!"

That was the urgent request that Capt. Zaytsev heard over his radio. The request came from corporal Guiteraz which he had just ordered to run towards a van parked just beside the office of the petrol station where their latest operation is being carried out. Zaytsev was attempting to flank the 3 aliens, known as 'Thin Man' that they had spotted earlier lurking near the diner of the petrol station. They had been called in to stop the alien abduction attempt at this location.

Capt. Zaytsev, callsign Overseer, quickly peered over his cover behind a petrol pump to assess the situation. War was hell but hell was pretty compared to this. He saw Guiteraz running back towards his position. Guiteraz was trying to make it to the pillar just a few feet in front of him for cover. Behind Guiteraz was an alien contraption that he had never seen before. It was a silver disk the size of a small car, hovering from behind the office building. UFO has never had a more apt description than this. Right behind the hovering silver disk was another unidentified floating object. This one was smaller and looked like a spider with 4 legs but still it was about the size of a big oven with a glowing green light at its center. He knew that any unknowns encountered during battle means bad news. They have no information on this new foe but he had no doubt that it could do a lot of damage.

"Shit!" Overseer thought. The silver disk looked to be metallic and heavily armored. There was no time to ready his laser sniper rifle so he pulled out his laser pistol and took aim. It was fortunate that the silver alien thingy was large but he was not sure if his pistol could do enough damage to put it out of commission.

"Squad! Unidentified objects coming in from the left!" Overseer shouted into his radio as calmly as he could, alerting the other members of the new arrivals in the battlefield. "Anyone has visual? Need to be taken out ASAP!"

"Negative Overseer! I've got my hands full with these "Thin Men" here on the right!" came the answer from Rogue. Lieutenant Mary Ryan, callsign "Rogue" was his field medic but she loves to run to the front lines and get into the heat of the battle. That's how she earned the nickname Rogue. He glanced at Rogue's position and saw the Lieutenant her firing off a laser shot from behind a pickup truck. "Xray down!" was the response from her announcing her kill of the aliens that resembles humans the most but for their unnaturally pale complexion and reptilian eyes.

"I've got it in my sights!" Hex called over the radio. That was a bit of a small relief as Hex or Lieutenant Kelly Barnes was the team's other sniper apart from himself and she had her laser sniper rifle all primed and ready to fire. Overseer had learned over many battles that it was vital that the team was covered by at least one sniper as they moved in.

"Take the shot!" Overseer ordered as he himself fired from his laser pistol. He saw the shot connecting but it did little damage. He mentally cursed the ineffectiveness of these new laser pistols. Just a week ago he was praising the improvement of this very pistol against the conventional ones that they were issued before. Those were so ineffective that most operatives did not bother carrying them into combat after the first few encounters with the aliens. The new laser pistols were effective against the Sectiods and the Thin Men but they were facing another form of adversary here. An adversary that's a lot tougher in terms of armor.

"Firing now," Hex replied and Overseer saw her shot connecting. The shot punched a hole right into the floating disk and sparks flew out. It was damaged but it was still functional.

"Damn! Xray still up!" Overseer reported. "Guiteraz fire on the target! Oh shit! Grenade incoming! Take cover!" Overseer screamed into the radio as he saw the flying disk rotate and fling a grenade over to where Guiteraz was. He ducked behind the pump and heard the grenade go off followed shortly by a much larger explosion. The vehicle parked next to the pillar had exploded. He thanked his lucky stars that the pump he was ducking behind did not go off too but the relief was shortlived when his thoughts returned to Guiteraz. He quickly peered over the pump to hazard a look.

The fiery scene that greeted him proved to be no consolation. The car just beside the pillar had exploded as he guessed and Guiteraz was lying motionless on the floor beside it. The silver floating disk meanwhile had transformed into a scary looking spider-like metallic beast with many protruding appendages that looked very much like weapons that can be fired at them.

"Damn!" he stifled the curse and ducked back behind the pump just in time as a couple of plasma shots flew past where his head was just a few seconds ago.

"Man down! Guiteraz is down!" he said into the radio. "I need that silver floating thing taken out now!"

Before he can react beyond this another report came over the radio. "New contact!" Sargeant "Patch" Weiss reported. "Mutons sighted coming out from the building! 3 of them!" Patch was on the right near where Rogue was. This means that the both of them had their hands full at the moment and cannot respond to the threat from this silver disk alien.

"I've got them Mutons in my sights!" Rogue replied. "Taking shots now! Once we get them out of the way, I can tend to Guiteraz!"

Overseer looked over to where Patch and Rogue was. He could see them firing at the Mutons from behind their respective cover. He had a clear line of sight from where he was to the diner from where the Mutons have emerged. Although he could no longer shoot at the silver floating disk, he could shoot at these Mutons from a relatively safe position. He quickly prepped his laser sniper rifle.

"Rogue! Patch! Keep the Mutons suppressed. I'll take them out! Got a clear line of sight!" he ordered. He lined up his first shot.

"Roger that," came the reply from Rogue and Patch.

"You get them Mutons cap!" Sargeant "Big Gun" Tanner called out over his headset as he took aim at the first Muton. "I'll take care of the silver dish!" Tanner was out to his left. He left the dish thing to his fellow soldier trusting him to eliminate the threat before it managed to drill through the pump he was huddled behind with its plasma shots.

Overseer lined up his rifle and squeezed the trigger. He heard the rifle charging and unleashed its shot. The red beam screamed towards the Muton and it went down in a burst of alien innards. He quickly shifted his aim to the final remaining Muton as Rogue and Patch dropped the the third one. As he fired off his second shot, he heard "Big Gun" shouting out his victory cry.

"Booyah! Gotcha you asshole!" Big Gun called out as Overseer saw the final Muton drop from his second shot. An explosion was heard from where the silver dish was. He quickly peered over to that direction and found that the silver disk had self destructed upon its death taking the smaller drone with him.

The battlefield suddenly became silent of gunfire from both sides. Overseer took a quick assessment of the situation. No more aliens were in sight from where he stood.

"Headcount!" he ordered. "Any more xrays in sight from any of you?"

"Rogue here. I'm fine and no xrays here."

"Hex reporting in. No xrays."

"Patch here. No sightings."

"Big Gun reporting. No xrays."

"Alright. Rogue I need you on Guiteraz ASAP," Overseer ordered. "I'll cover you. Big Gun and Patch, secure the perimeter!"

"Go on boys," Hex chipped in. "I've got your asses covered."

"Roger that, Hex," Patch replied. "Securing perimeter!"

Overseer keep his eyes peeled as Rogue ran towards Guiteraz and started to check him. He kept his rifle safety off as he scanned the now burning diner and office.

"Big Gun here on the right perimeter," came the report over the radio. "No xrays in sight."

"Same here on the left captain," Patch's voice called out. "I think we got em all."

"Roger that," Overseer replied as he walked out from his cover and towards Rogue and Guiteraz. "Eyes open people. We don't want any surprises." Overseer reached the site where Rogue was. He peered down at her as she looked up. Slowly she shook her head.

"Damn!" Overseer stifled another curse as he grimaced.

"Guiteraz is gone," Overseer announced the bad news to the rest of the squad.

"Shit!"

"Fuck!"

"Damn it!"

The various colourful phrases came over the headset. Overseer let the profanities slide. He knew that its better the troops express their emotion rather than have it bottled up. He looked around the battleground. The petrol station was a wreck now. A few vehicles were on fire and most of the building was also ablaze. The site where the silver disk exploded had 2 walls completely blown in. Smoke was everywhere.

Captain Vassili "Overseer" Zaytsev cursed the aliens that had invaded the earth. Why had they come? What do they want? With their presence, they had been pulled into this war where the humans had been hopelessly outclassed. These aliens. These "xrays", as the XCOM operatives like to call them, had way better weapons and better technology. This was the second battle in which Overseer and his team had brought in laser weapons. They were newly developed by the XCOM science research team that worked tirelessly to produce in an attempt to level the playing field a little. Although more effective than the normal conventional weapons, these new laser rifles offered just a little bit more in terms of damage to the formidable alien armor as was evident in the battle they had just gone through.

Still Captain Zaytsev had lost men in as many battles as he had been in. He could count this battle as fortunate as he lost only one soldier. He himself had come close to death in more than a few occasions. Could they hope to prevail against the invaders? He dared not think beyond the moment. He hoped that the science team could come up with some real breakthrough so that they can end this war.

"Captain Zaytsev to Central," Overseer reported to the HQ on the battle that had just concluded. "Operation was successful. Repeat successful. All alien threats had been neutralized and we have one casualty among our men. Requesting permission for clean-up and return to base. Over"

"Captain Zaytsev, this is Central," came the reply. "Good work down there. Proceed for clean-up and you may return to base once completed. Over"

"Roger that Central. Zaytsev out," he concluded the report. By that time Hex was already by his side standing over Guiteraz's body which Rogue had covered with a body bag.

"Alright people," he said to Hex and Rogue. "Let's get Corporal Guiteraz into the Skyranger." He leaned down and grabbed a corner of the bag and helped to move the body into the waiting transport aircraft. He hated doing this but he knew that as an XCOM operative, he had a higher duty to protect the earth as best he could. While they battled down on the ground and put their lives at stake, others were fighting their own desparate battle against the alien invaders. The scientists were fighting to produce better weapons and armor. The engineers were fighting to quickly manufacture and test these new weapons and armor so that the troops can be deployed with better armarments. He understands that as a soldier and it is his duty to fight in the battlefield. He also understands that war was hell and that hell was prettier compared to this lopsided battle with the alien invaders. His only consolation is that he wasn't shooting at another human being.

Arthur C. Clake was right. There are 2 possibilities. Either we are alone in this universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.

THE END