Operation: Fading Light
The Sky Ranger soared through the night sky in route to the UFO landing site. Within it, was a total of 6 Xcom soldiers. They had been informed of a UFO landing within a small town in Russia. The squad consisted of Guy Simmons, Don York, Both were assault classes. A support class with the name of Jena Flores. Andrew Weldon, a Heavy. Erin Hue, who was a rookie sniper on his second mission. Lastly a MEC unit, named Wendy Cooper.
Erin didn't know what to expect, his first mission was a crash site with a weakened crew, he never fought an alien in good condition.
"So rookie, you nervous?" Andrew asked Erin with a smile.
"A little, yeah." Erin replied, to which Andrew said, "Well don't be, these alien bastards can't fight for shit. Not to mention most of em' die in one. Little. POP!" Andrew pulled out his pistol, and pretended to shoot at something, when he said the last word.
"I know, but you never know what they will through at ya next, am I right?" Erin said smiling at Andrew.
"Erin's right in that Andrew, ya gotta give him that." Guy said to Andrew.
"True, but what's the worst that will be at this site, some Sectoids, Mutons, no big deal! I mean we got Wendy here!" He said whilst tapping Wendy's metallic shoulder. Guy spoke up and said,
"Andrew, remember MECs can fall too, remember Randy?" Andrew's smile faded to a frown and he said "Don't talk about that! The damn Floaters ganged up on him!" Erin, confused asked
"Um, who is Randy?" Jena Leaned over and whispered, "it was Andrew's older brother, he died 2 weeks back. Poor Andrew, saw him die clear in the daylight."
"Damn…" Erin grimly said.
"Guys, let's focus on the task at hand, we can't think about that now." Don said with authority. Andrew gave Don a disgusted look and said in a low voice,
"That's just you, always thinking about the mission. You never take consideration for these things!" Don replied with
"It's not like that, it's just if we think about the dead it effects our combat performance." Andrew Lifted the bars holding him in his seat and tried to stand, when Wendy grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down.
"Leave him." She said in her robotic voice. Andrew grumbled something to himself before lowering his bars again.
Minutes passed, until they heard the pilot,
"Central this is Big Sky, we have reached the AO, requesting permission to advance on LZ over." They heard Bradford's voice say
"Roger Big Sky, Strike one is green for deployment." At that the Sky Ranger's Doors opened, the squad readied their weapons, put on their helmets and exited the craft. They quickly moved from cover, to cover looking for the alien craft.
As Guy ran passed a window of a nearby shop, Plasma rounds blasted through the glass pounding Guy in the shoulder. Guy fell down and crawled behind the nearest car.
"MUTONS!" He shouted, while crawling. The squad heard the Muton group giving their familiar yell, in the store. Jena sprinted to Guy's position dodging incoming fire. She pulled out her medkit and sprayed on Guy's burned shoulder.
Erin took place behind a truck and took aim, at the door of the shop. Don chucked a grenade in the window, hopefully to flush them out. As the grenade went off one Muton was able to escape the blast and run out the door, Erin took this opportunity, and fired. His bullet made its way to the Muton's eye and its body crumpled to the ground.
Wendy moved into the building to finish them off, she killed one with her Rail gun, but missed the other, resulting in her being shot a few times. Don was able to rush in and take out the last Muton, with his trusty scatter laser. Guy was back on his feet thanks to Jena.
The team moved forward more cautiously. They came to a halt, when Don spoke up,
"Listen, hear that?" The team focused their ears and listened, they heard the steps, of an unfamiliar foe, around the corner. They all took cover and waited for whatever it was to turn the corner.
Finally they saw it. It looked like a Sectoid, encased in a large robotic suit. Erin mouthed "What. The. Fuck." To himself. Without hesitation, the new foe turned and fired at Wendy, causing heavy damage. The whole squad began pelting it with their weapons. The Alien machine turned to them and started suppressing them, their weapons did damage it but they were all out of ammo, and their cover nearly gave away. Andrew quickly pulled out his Rocket launcher, and fired a shredder rocket. The rocket struck it I the face, blowing of the top half of the Suit.
The suit's legs fell to the ground. The squad reloaded, and pressed on. Wendy's suit was sparking, her auto, repair module, was damaged in the attack so she needed manual repairs. They spotted the craft, around the corner were the Suit came from. They picked up the pace to the Craft, but then they heard another Muton yelling above them, the all looked up and saw a berserker leaping down on Wendy. It began raining punches on her.
She tried to use her kinetic strike module, but the Berserker's blades cut through the circuits of the suit rendering it useless. The rest of the team, fired at the Berserker in a futile attempt to save Wendy.
"Life support failing." Wendy said as she fell dead on a car. The Berserker leaped off, and charged at the closest person to it, Andrew. Although wounded and bleeding profusely, it ran quickly, and impaled Andrew,
"You, Fucker!" Andrew yelled as he pulled out his Rocket launcher,
"I'M COMING RANDY!" He yelled as he aimed and fired the rocket square in the Berserker's face, killing them both.
The blast knocked the remaining 4 on the ground. Guy got up and yelled,
"ANDREW! WENDY!" He fell to his knees, banging his fist on the ground. The team, let Guy have his moment as they had their own moment of silence, for their fallen team mates. After that they continued, to advance to the UFO. They were about 20 feet away from the craft, when they heard something uncloaking behind them, a seeker. It grabbed Don and started constricting him.
They turned to shoot it off, when another seeker uncloaked in front of them and shot plasma at them. Jena fired a laser round at it destroying it, as Guy blasted the one constricting Don, he fell gasping for breath, he thanked Guy, when Guy held his arm out to help Don, a plasma shot hit him in the head, killing Guy. Erin turned to the assailant, a Sectoid, he took aim, and hit the Sectoid's heart, killing it.
They couldn't believe it, they weren't even in the ship yet and half their squad was dead. They didn't meet any other resistance when they got inside, no aliens were inside, they all must have left the craft that means only an outsider remained.
They positioned themselves at the door, leading to the room with the outsider, Don ran in, but the outsider had already materialized, as if it were expecting them. It Shot Don multiple times and he fell, while on the ground, he was able to shoot the shard in the middle of the outsider killing it instantly.
Erin, and Jena kneeled next to Don, Jena pulled out her Medkit to stabilize him. "No, Jena I'm too banged up" Don struggled to say, Jena denied and said
"No you can be stabilized!"
"No, I think he ruptured a lung, I'm a goner, but you, you can save yourselves, go now!" Don commanded as he coughed up blood, and went limp.
Jena, and Erin stood up, saddened by all the losses today, but they were just happy it was over, but when they exited the ship, they heard it. A Cyberdisk floating overhead with 2 drones guarding it. The Cyberdisk was waiting until they had a false sense of security. Erin took aim and missed one, drone, but Jena was able to destroy the second. The Cyberdisk appeared to give an order to its remaining drone, the drone quickly flew toward Jena and self-destructed, Jena hit the wall of the ship injuring her leg.
Erin helped her up on his shoulder and started fleeing with her, yelling for an emergency Evac. The Cyberdisk unfolded, and blasted Jena, she screamed as she fell out of Erin's arms, lifeless. Erin panicked at this, he through his sniper rifle on the floor and made a Bee-line for the Sky Ranger. The Cyberdisk was in hot pursuit of Erin.
"I just need to get to the ship, just get to the ship!" Erin helplessly repeated in his head.
Erin then heard a beeping behind him, the Cyberdisk threw a grenade, it exploded next to him sending him careening toward a car, he was only 30 more feet to the Ship. He tried his best to crawl, but it was no use, he flipped on his back and remembered the day he left to join Xcom, he had promised his 5 year old daughter, and his wife he would come home safe.
He realized he would never fulfil, this promise as the Cyber disk stared directly at him, completely devoid, of any emotion, or remorse. He remembered the last thing he said to his family
"I promise I will come home safe, I love you both, See you when the war is over." He remembers hugging them one last time, and then, The Cyberdisk finished Erin off.
"Central, this is Big Sky Squad is down, repeat squad is down."
"Roger, Big Sky Confirming Black status, return to base." The Sky Ranger lifted up and took off back to HQ leaving the destruction of Operation: Fading Light behind.
(So there's my first X-Com story, I hoped you enjoyed, Please tell me what you think. And I'll see ya soon.)