The Dangers Of Friendship : Operation Bloody Mist
The UFO seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment it wasn't there, then the next , it was. The EMP shut down the engines and the ship made a semi-crash landing. The Commander ordered the usual team to gear up.
"There is a beacon out there. We don't know exactly what it is, but it is currently stopping us from just up and flying away. We need you to destroy it. We'll have the rest of the soldiers holding down the ramp from any potential boarders. Good luck."
Colonel Tora Wong had never lost a soldier on any one of his many missions. He had had a few scrapes himself, as had a few of his soldiers, but none had ever died on his watch. He wasn't looking for it to start now. As the sniper of his team, he made sure that everyone stayed as safe as they could, and he called the shots when things got hairy.
His dark brown eyes surveyed his team. Major Adrienne "Priestess" Colston, his specialist, the flame haired healer. Captain Josh "Shogun" Dennison, his first ranger. Captain Paige "Cougar" Wexler, another ranger. Captain Jared "Fridge" Hodges, his friendly grenadier. And Lieutenant Naoki Watanabe, his other grenadier. He smiled. These were his people. Every time they went into the field, they counted on each other. They wouldn't let him down.
His eyes shifted to the other soldiers. He was less sure of them. They saluted when he passed them on the Avenger, they went quiet when he went into the bar. They were soldiers, but they had not experienced the dangers of the field. They were the backups, much as Tora hated to think like that. They were there if one of his squad died. Now they were being thrust into a dangerous mission where any of them could die.
Tora sighed. I guess it can't be helped. He looked back at his team, remembering the days when they were surly teens, growing up together. They joined XCOM together. They trained, fought, and killed together. He smiled, reminiscing fondly, but shook himself out of it. This is not the time for that. He mentally slapped himself as the exit ramp to the Avenger opened. It's time to focus.
He walked down the ramp and the rest of his team ran for cover. He surveyed the field, noting where the enemy was most likely to come from. He took special note of the beacon, some several hundred metres away. He motioned to Paige to take the lead.
She hadn't gone ten steps when she spotted the first group, two mutons and an ADVENT officer. Tora quickly got a bead on the officer while the rest of his team took on the mutons. Less than ten seconds, and a hail of gunfire later, the enemies were dead. Tora smiled. It's like clockwork.
The squad continued along, stopping every few steps to listen and look for any other aliens. Seeing nothing, they continued on their way.
As they were reaching the end of the small cliff-like hill the Avenger had landed on, a mighty roar shook the air. A massive muton, unlike any they had previously seen, jumped up onto the hill, charging for Paige. As it approached, she raised her sword. The berserker almost seemed to laugh as it raised its giant fist.
Tora had a split second to act. He quickly raised his sniper and took a shot. It drilled into the berserker's shoulder, causing the beast to let out another ear-splitting scream. As Tora took another shot, a blast of green flew seemingly out of nowhere. It struck him on his right side, but he gritted his teeth in satisfaction as the berserker fell dead before his ranger.
Jared launched a plasma grenade into the general direction of the other shot. They heard a brief beeping, then an explosion rocked the ground, lighting up two normal sized mutons. Adrienne and Naoki took shots at them, blasting holes through their torsos and heads.
Tora grinned through his pain. "Nicely done team. Colston, can I get a damn medkit over here?" Adrienne chuckled, lightly punching his left shoulder. "You got it, boss," she replied. Tora rolled his eyes as her GREMLIN applied to cool salve to his wound. None of his team seemed to 'respect' his rank the way the other soldiers did, but he didn't care. That was how it should be between friends.
Back at the ramp, Andrea Robinison, a new rookie to XCOM, watched as the colonel's team destroyed several groups of mutons, then dropped out of view. She shook her head, awed.
"They sure are something, aren't they?" she muttered to her team. There were quiet murmurs of assent.
She spared them a brief look, then returned her view to the outside. She was one of two rookies, alongside a Chinese man named Lifen Xu. The team was co-led by two squaddies, who had earned their specialized classes. There was Jill Henry, a dark skinned sniper, and Ronan Morrison, and older specialist with a receding hairline and glasses. She wasn't so sure of Jill, but Ronan seemed like he knew what he was doing. He had a confident air about him.
"Robinson, Henry, move up and take up positions on the left side. I see a landing beacon for more ADVENT troops. Xu, head up to the right, I'm seeing movement over there as well. We need to keep this area clear of all aliens."
Andrea nodded, then followed Jill. Quickly taking up positions, she saw the colonel's squad mowing down more berserkers and mutons, then noticed a strange glimmering gold figure. It was gunned down by three members of the team, destroying it. The colonel was so focused on getting to the beacon, however, he didn't notice the alien craft coming, dropping off a few ADVENT troops, including an officer and a few heavy lancers.
"We take down the lancers on three, you got that, Robinson?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"One, two..."
Tora's team wasn't faring too badly, but everyone had at least a little cut or shot on them. Tora has blood slowly leaking from a claw mark along his cheek where a muton had struck him. He knew his duty was to destroy that beacon, no matter the cost. His focus was so entirely on its completion that he had charged forwards into the fray, the last place a sniper wants to be. Stupid. That's a damn rookie mistake. Won't happen again. It better not.
Tora heard gunshots behind him, turning rapidly and firing his pistol twice, taking out the officer as a sniper round and a short burst from an assault rifle took out the two lancers. Tora nodded up at the two ladies who had just saved his squad's asses. However, there were more ADVENT troops being dropped off.
"Paige! Get up to the beacon and take it out! Take Jared with you to watch your back, we'll hold off the rest of them!"
Paige nodded, quickly taking off like a shot, leaving Jared to charge after her.
"Adrienne, set up here, keep Josh and Naoki with you. I'm heading on up the hill." Adrienne looked at him inquisitively. He gave her a wolfish grin. "Better vantage point. Plus, I can see the other side." With that he ran across the open ground, ducking as the new troops fired at him. He scaled the vines on the sides on the raised hill and took up positions as his friends charged in, blasting a MEC and two more lancers to pieces. As he turned to see how the rookies were doing, he saw Jill blast through an ADVENT trooper, Andrea tossing a plasma grenade at a MEC, and Lifen ripping into a muton. The muton raised its gun, but before it could get the round off, it was hit from two directions.
Tora's pistol was smoking, as was Ronan's magnetic rifle. Tora nodded at him, then turned back to his squad. Those rooks are handling this better than I thought, though I suppose those turrets don't hurt. He smiled, thinking back to when they were installed. Guess it wasn't such a waste of resources, huh, Bradford?
Tora took several more shots before he heard a huge explosion behind the building. Either Paige and Jared blew the damn thing up, or they're dead. Bradford's voice in his ear soon confirmed his thoughts.
"Alright, team, the beacon is down! I repeat, the beacon is down. Shen, how long until we can take off?"
"Less than sixty seconds, Bradford. All units, return to the Avenger so we can get out of this place!"
Tora was about to turn around when he saw another transport appearing, dropping off more troops by his squad. He gritted his teeth, then jumped down, pulling his pistol out in mid-air. He landed heavily, but stood up quickly, firing at each enemy in sight.
The three of them went down with bullet sized holes in the head and a spray of shards in their chests from Josh's shotgun. Tora looked at all of them, then nodded towards the Avenger. "Get going. I've got to make sure we've got the other two."
"Right here, man." Josh said. True to his word, the two were stepping out of a destroyed building that was between them and the beacon's remains.
"Nicely done, you two. Now get back to the Avenger."
"It was mostly her, I just watched her back. Had a few muties, but nothing we couldn't handle."
"Glad to hear it. Now move, you idiot. They're probably getting ready to drop more troops as we speak!"
Tora put his back to the cliff's base and formed his hands into a step. Josh did the same beside him. Together they boosted their team up to the edge, where they pulled themselves up. Naoki, Adrienne, Jared, Paige.
"Alright, Josh. You next." Josh planted a boot into Tora's hands and vaulted up to the edge, pulling himself up. As Tora grasped the vines to haul himself up into range of his team's grasp, a plasma bolt flew and struck him on the left shoulder. He let out a grunt of pain, before returning fire with his pistol. Up on the ledge, his squad did the same, firing repeatedly. The ADVENT officer went down, followed by the lancers as a sniper round shot one in the side of the head and a burst of bullets hit the other. Tora gave another nod to Jill and Andrea, then resumed his climb.
After making it to the top, the troop started going towards the Avenger. Tora lagged behind due to his injuries, but took up position behind a tree as ADVENT troops started climbing up after him.
Josh looked behind him and saw that Tora was no longer there. He let out a startled gasp, then leaped into the cover by the end of the ramp of the ship. "Tora's back there!"
Naoki, Adrienne, Paige and Jared all took up positions by Josh, aiming at the troops who were coming directly towards them. Josh motioned for Tora to join them.
Tora shook his head. He knew he was too slow to make it, and if they stayed, others could get hurt, or die. He pointed his index finger up and mouthed the word, go.
As the aliens began to fire on them, they heard the engines to the Avenger start up. Adrienne stood up, firing at the lancers. Josh and Paige both fired at the MEC closest to them, Jared and Naoki started firing their LMGs into the enemy. Tora started firing his pistol, then noticed an officer to the side of him, aiming at Adrienne.
"NO!" He bellowed, turning to face the officer to fire at him.
Two guns went off at the same time. Tora's bullet flew through the officer's chest, wounding it. It's bullet went into Adrienne's back, bringing her to one knee. Tora charged forwards as Ronan began to panic, leaping out of the cover and somehow ending up outside of the evacuation point. Ronan fired blindly at the approaching aliens, killing one.
Tora fired again at the officer, killing it, but not before it let off another shot that struck Adrienne in the other side of the chest, knocking her to the floor, unmoving.
Ronan stood up as Tora charged towards him, tackling him over the barrier and onto the Avenger.
"TAKE OFF! NOW!" Tora yelling into his headset, picking up Adrienne and carrying her into the ship.
Tora ran, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and side, carrying her down to the medbay, The others all followed him.
He kicked open the door, startling the doctors, who had been preparing to receive her. Tora placed her on the bed and the doctors immediately swarmed around her.
"Sir, if you could please leave, she needs to be in a sterile environment, and you...well, you're not exactly clean right now." One of the doctors said.
Another doctor tossed him a roll of bandages. "If you need immediate medical attention, we will assign a doctor to you, sir."
Tora shook his head as he caught the roll. "I'll be fine. Do whatever you can. Please." He walked out of the room, seeing the rest of the soldiers around the door. He was instantly bombarded with questions.
"Will she be alright?"
"How did this happen?"
"Sir, are you all right?"
Tora's eyes fixed on Ronan. Tora took a few steps towards him, then punched him right in the jaw. The other soldiers cried out in shock, Ronan in pain. Andrea looked at him, shocked.
"Sir! What are you-"
Tora silenced her with a look. As she stared on, he turned back to Ronan, who was lying on the ground, Tora looming over him.
"What is rule number one, Morrison?"
"Sir, I'm sorry, I just-"
"WHAT IS RULE NUMBER ONE?!"
"Always stay in cover, sir."
"So what the hell were you thinking?! You were perfectly fine where you were! In fact, you could have taken off! I told you to take off! Why did you stay?"
Josh cleared his throat. "That fault lies with us, Tora, and you know it. We weren't just going to leave you there alone to die. Not one of us."
Tora took a deep breath. "I know. But orders are orders. There is a time for that kind of talk, Captain. This... this is not it. When I give an order, especially one with those kinds of implications, you follow them to the letter. It is not a command I give lightly, but I'm not willing to risk you lot to save me."
"With all due respect, sir, we're not willing to let that happen."
"Come on T, after all the time's you've saved our asses, we're not going to pull out of there without bringing you with us," Paige muttered. The others nodded their agreement.
Tora sighed. "I guess I should expect no less from my team. But you, Morrison." By this time, Ronan had gotten to his feet. "I expect that you keep a level head if there is a next time you are out in the field. Am I clear?"
Ronan stiffened his spine and saluted. "Sir, yes, sir!"
Tora nodded, somewhat mollified. "Dismissed, soldier." Ronan turned on his heel and walked off towards the living quarters. "Oh, Andrea, Jill. Stay back for a moment."
The rest of the soldiers went off towards either the living quarters or the bar. Jill and Andrea stood to attention.
"Sir?"
"I noticed you taking some damn good shots out there. Both of you. I'll be recommending you both for a promotion. Robinson, you have a specialization yet?"
"No, sir."
"Hmm. We'll have to change that. I'll speak with the commander. See what he thinks."
"Thank you sir!" Andrea was thrilled to be getting her specialization, and more thrilled to be getting praised by this paragon of alien killing power in her eyes.
"I won't forget you lot saving out asses. Several times, if I'm not mistaken." Tora smiled. "Dismissed. I'm sure I'll see you lot in the bar later. Don't feel the need to salute every time I walk in there."
Andrea grinnned, Jill nodded. "Yes sir."
As they disappeared from view, Tora sighed. He headed off towards his own quarters, ready to take off the armor and put on the bandages.
Adrienne woke up. Her eyes felt gluey, like she'd been sleeping for a long time. Tora was seated next to her, his uniform and armor changed for a black t-shirt and a pair of combat pants. He saw her eyes flicker open, and he grinned broadly.
"Hey there, Priestess, how are you feeling?" She sighed inwardly. He knew she hated that nickname.
"I'm hurting... what happened?"
"Morrison jumped out of cover. You got shot up by an ADVENT officer. Don't worry, I got him for you." Tora chuckled weakly, not knowing how she would respond.
Adrienne nodded. "I remember you trying to get us to leave without you." She said softly. "What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking about you guys. My job as a commanding officer..."
"My job as a commanding la dee da. As a person, how can you make five of your friends watch as you get yourself killed?"
"I-"
"I-?!"
Tora looked down as a small smile crept across his lips. Ever the same, Colston. Always thinking about others first.
"I'm sorry. I'll do better next time."
"...Fine. Apology accepted. But get out of here, I need more rest."
"Really? After two days in a medically induced coma, you need more rest?"
"Yes, you doofus. I got shot up pretty bad. And unlike somebody, I didn't have anybody help me with a GREMLIN high five of healing juice!"
Tora smirked. "Alright. When you get out of here, drinks are on me, got that?"
Adrienne smiled. "Definitely. You owe me that much."
Tora walked towards the door, stopping with his hand on the doorknob.
"Take care of yourself."
"I'm in the hospital, you moron, what could I possibly do?"
"You know what I mean."
She nodded. "Yeah. I do. You take care of yourself too, okay? No missions without me."
"I wouldn't dare, my friend. I wouldn't dare."