Harold swung the pipe into the aliens neck, not even surprised as his strength took the creatures head clean off, spray orange blood in all directions, as it's arteries pumped blood out of the stump. He vaguely remembered a time when doing that would have surprised him, but those memories were hazy, and felt like a lifetime ago, back when he could feel anything beyond anger. He felt a pinch in his side, and knew from experience that he'd just taken a hit to the side, probably a broken rib or something, but it was a glancing hit. Without even turning to look at the alien, he hurled the pipe. Not expecting such a response, the ADVENT Trooper had no time to duck back into cover, and took it straight in the head, it cracked through the helmet, into the aliens head, and out the back, pinning it to the ground where it twitched once before staying still in death. There was a shout in the alien language, and Harold turned to see the Officer of the group beginning to flee. Harold immediately flew after it.
The alien was a gene-enhanced soldier, designed to be able to out-run and out-strength any human in a straight match. It was in it's prime of fitness, whereas Harold was approaching his late 50's, and knew the area better than Harold. It had a slight head start and could call in re-enforcements if it could get a few seconds. It had on chance whatsoever.
Before the alien had even gotten 2 steps, Harold grabbed hold of the trailing cape, wrenching the alien back off it's feet, and spun, like an Olympic Hammer-Thrower, releasing as he completed the second rotation, sending the alien flying into a wall, where it slammed into it with a sickening crunch. It fell back to the ground, leaving a crater in the wall. Harold felt a dim amount of disappointment that the crater wasn't the shape of the alien. He looked around for more targets and, seeing none, braced himself, gritting his teeth. The pain came from the depth of his mind, as if someone was jamming an ice-pick into his brain, and wiggling it. It was not a physical pain, he never felt that anymore, even the hole in his side felt like little more than a bee sting, it was a mental pain. Harold didn't know where it came from, but he knew it only happened when he had nothing to fight. His life had become constant pain unless he was killing things, he stumbled back a step from the pain, before recovering. He called it the Hunt-Pain, since it occurred during his time of hunting down more targets, which formed the majority of his time for the last 2 decades.
Why did I come here? Harold thought as he looked around. He only ever entered cities when he needed supplies, and even then he only entered the outskirts, raided a store, and left before ADVENT forces could arrive. Sometimes he wondered why he even kept fighting them like this, he could just run into a city and fight every soldier he found, they'd send more and more until he was overwhelmed, it would be a good way to go, and he'd be free of the Hunt-Pain. But he wouldn't. He didn't know why, but something told him to keep fighting In the way he was. He couldn't remember why, some voice telling him to carry on, but it was dim, as if something was shouting from a mile underwater, and the more he tried to remember it, the more it faded back from his mind.
His ears pricked up as he heard a noise. He recognised it instantly. Gunfire. Not the slight whirr of the magnetic field powering up of ADVENT soldiers, but the door-slam bang of a slug thrower, a weapon that used kinetic energy to launch bullets at the foe, but it was muffled, anyone else wouldn't be able to tell it apart from normal city noise, only Harold's constant vigilance, and another voice deep in his mind that told him to listen out for that, allowed him to noticed it. He turned towards the noise, and saw the top of a gigantic statue. Gold-Plated and shaped like a humanoid figure with 4 arms and incredibly thin limbs, he recognised it, but, again, he couldn't remember where, but he felt his rage increase at the sight, the hunt-pain began fading as he found a target for his wrath, as he remember why he had come here. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the explosive he'd taken, checking that it was still functional, he put it back in his pocket, and went over to the ADVENT soldier's he'd killed. That was why there was so few soldiers, something about a celebration elsewhere in the city. Harold picked up the Magnetic rifle of the soldier he'd decapitated, taking the spare magazine's it had. Then going over to the alien he'd impaled through the skull with the pipe, ripping the pipe back out, and shaking off the grey-matter, skin, and bone-fragments from the end. Before turning, and running towards the noise. Something in the back of his mind made him want to shout, and he had long since given up resisting that voice, even if he never knew what it was telling him to say "X-COM!"
Alice dropped from the Skyranger, double checking the bolt on her rifle to ensure it was in full functioning order. 'The Nerd Brigade' dropped down around her.
Sean 'Legs' O'Connor, their stealth man, came down first. He was slightly on the short side, with a receding hair line of brown hair, and slight wrinkles on his face showing that he was older than the rest, 48 where the rest of them were in their late 20's. He was amazingly quiet, many people on the avenger had nearly jumped out of their skin as their hear Sean's soft voice from behind them after thinking they were alone, despite the fact that his legs were made of metal. Alice didn't know the exact story, but she knew he'd lost his legs during an altercation with ADVENT around 13 years ago, but had been given robotic replacements by Dr. Shen, you'd expect him to make a lot of noise, but apparent Lilly knew her stuff, and not even a whirr could be heard from the Scout's legs, some might consider giving him the nickname of 'legs' would be cruel, but Sean enjoyed it, he even started the nickname himself. A kindly smile on his face as usual, he was the grandfather of the group, the kindly voice, the calm in the raging storm of combat.
William 'Hax' Wright, their group hacker, he was rather prone to going off mid-battle to hack into some ADVENT database, but more often than not he found something useful, and didn't bring the ADVENT forces down on their heads, most times. He fixed his cap and headset, tapped the equipment on his back, Alice wasn't sure which of it was for hacking, and which of it was for communication, but he did both. He had that cocky grin on his face that he never lost, even in the midst of a fire-fight. The best way to describe him was something he often said himself 'I am a hacker and I must hack'.
Roman 'Boom' Garza, the explosive expert in the group, he was a short man, just a little over 5 foot. He didn't speak much (the exact opposite of what you'd expect by someone named Boom) but when he did speak, everyone knew it was important. His face was impassive, black haired, buzzed short, with brown eyes. Despite being the shortest of the group, he was easily the most intimidating.
And herself. Alice 'Archive' Molander. She was the leader of the group in the field, she had long brown hair, tied into a pony-tail so it didn't get in the way during combat. She wasn't very remarkable physically, at least she didn't think so. She scanned the area and began issuing orders.
"Legs, scout ahead. We don't want to be surprised by ADVENT"
"Yes Mam" Sean still had a slight Irish accent, and he began moving forward, moving surprisingly fast without making any sound.
"Hax, Boom, we'll take the high ground" she said, motioning towards a drain pipe leading to the roof of a building just to their left.
"Gotcha" William replied, he had a bit of a British accent, and Boom gave a nod, and began moving towards the pipe, Alice following behind.
They moved across the roof, getting into cover behind the railings, giving them a view over the field below, and a great position to fire from.
"Troopers" Sean's soft voice came over the coms before Alice noticed them, and she turned to see them, they were standing in a light group, moving slowly across the field, obviously not in any hurry, regular patrol probably. The soldiers never expected XCOM to be able to get this deep into their cities without alarm's being raised. But they were well disciplined, and would react very quickly when they engaged.
"Anything else?" Alice asked, keeping an eye on the troopers while scanning the rest of the area
"Nothing I can see" Sean replied "But they could be on the other side of the statue"
"Too far to respond" Alice replied, she had long ago figured out the range that ADVENT could hear their weapons, and knew they wouldn't respond to the noise straight away. "Fire at will"
"Not at Will" William replied "ADVENT"
Alice smiled to herself, he did that every time, and lined up one of the aliens head in her sights. And fired off a short burst, barely a second later, William and Roman fired as well, and 2 of the Troopers went down before they would even react. One almost made it into cover before Sean popped out of his cover, and brought down the last Trooper with a burst into it's head and chest.
"Nice job" Alice said "Sean, wait up, they'll be on alert after hearing that" Although they wouldn't respond immediately, they would have heard that, and would be more cautious, their training was strict, and Alice could appreciate how much it would take to condition every one of their soldiers to respond like that, but it was also something they could used, the reactions of the ADVENT forces was easy to predict.
Without a moments hesitation, Roman hoped over the ledge, grabbing onto the lip that came off, then dropping down, and landing in a 3-point crouch in the grass to muffle the sound of the landing, before getting into cover. Alice and William followed suit a second later, dropping down and taking cover. Alice looked over, noticing the strange box-art near to the statue, it was a good position, slightly raised, and tall enough to completely cover someone. "Legs, Hax, head to the box. Boom, over there" she motioned to the area in front of the statue, which would put him in a good position if they moved around that side of the statue, and it wouldn't take him more than a second to re-position to flank them if they came around the other side. Alice began moving towards the Box-art, taking position behind a bench, she wasn't as covered as the others, but she could pull back if she needed to.
"Troopers and Officer, far side" Sean said as he opened a barrage of bullets behind the statue, a second after that volley, Alice saw one of the troopers come around the corner of the statue, and she opened fire, she saw a spattering of orange on it, and finished off the wounded alien with a burst of shots to the chest. The alien fell to the side with a screech. Alice heard more gunshots and turned to see a trooper that had apparently been attempting to flank, as it came around the other side of the statue, and straight at the waiting gun of Boom, who knocked it back with a single shot to the chest, and into a burst from William. That just left the officer, but Alice couldn't see it. Half a second later she saw a slight red beam of light come out from behind the statue, followed by the whirr of an alien Mag Weapon, and the Officer opened fire from behind the statue, at Sean. She heard a shout of pain from the box, she was about to call for Roman, but before she'd even uttered the first syllable of 'Boom' he was already next to her, and was hurling a grenade, she took out her own and sent it following the other. 2 explosions sounded out and a loud scream of pain from the alien, but she knew the strength of the armour of an Officer, it would still be alive, just, but it would be staggered, just long enough for Will-
She had been expecting a burst of shots, but had been expecting it to fire into the Officer from the left, and had expected it to be the muffled bang of their rifles, instead she heard the whirr of a mag weapon, followed by some kind of screech from the alien, and she saw it's rifle come flying past the statue. Then she heard a loud crack, followed by a sickening crunch.
Alice was stunned, what had just happened. She cautiously got out of cover, turning to Roman "Plant the X-4" then put a hand to her ear-piece "Hax?"
"Yeah" he replied
"Call Firebrand. And check on Sean"
"Aye"
She was walking slowly, keeping her rifle up, moving to get vision around the corner as quickly as possible while maintain distance from it. She could still hear those crunches from around the corner.
She got around, and saw something she never thought she'd see.
Harold slammed the alien's head into the base of the statue one more time, before he heard a gasp of surprise, and looked up to see a woman, with a rifle in her hand, long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He did a quick up and down to establish who she was, and noticed a symbol on her left breast. He recognised that logo. He released the aliens head, dropped the pipe onto the body, and moved towards the woman.
Alice couldn't believe her eyes. There was a man, about average height, black hair cut short, but not styled, like someone had just used a knife to cut it themselves, he was wearing only a red t-shirt and black trousers, and she could see the insane amount of muscle the man had, and also the scars, she also noticed a large spot on his side, darker red than the rest of his shirt, too localized to be splatter. He slammed the Officers head into the statue, and looked up at her, she was too stunned to move. He looked up at her, grunted, and dropped a pipe that he'd been holding, then began slowly walking towards her. Still she couldn't move, she had no idea why she was so afraid of this, they were the same height, and she was holding a gun, and had 3 armed soldiers just a couple dozen feet away, and yet, she had a feeling that if they fired at him, he could rip them apart with no problem. He was right in front of her now, looking straight into her eyes. Then his gaze went down. She'd normally slap someone immediately if they did that, but she still couldn't move. "Name" the man said. The word croaked out like he hadn't spoken for years.
"Uh-Uh-" Alice stammered
"Name" the man repeated, more sternly this time.
"My name?"
The man looked back up into her eyes "No. Name!" this time she noticed that he was pointing at her left breast, she was very confused for a second before she remembered the logo on her chest
"Oh. XCOM" she said
The man seemed to stiffen at that "X-COM?"
"Yes, XCOM. I'm-"
"X-COM. Commander. Bradford. Shen. Vahlen" the man said the words as if he was just remembering the words
"You... You know us?"
The man suddenly stumbled backwards, and hand going to his head, and he began growling and hissing, seemingly at himself
"Hey!" a voice came from behind her, and she recognised the voice of William "Leg's is fine, he took a graze to the shoulder. Firebrand's coming in-" William stopped as he saw the man, hunched over, holding his head and growling "Whose your friend?"
Suddenly the man lunged forward. He moved with incredible speed, crossing the 20 meters between them in the blink of an eye, the man was right in front of William, and picked him, a hand either side of him, one on each arm "Psycho! Vampire! Boomer! Whirr! Crash! Scotch! Shield! SMOKES!" at the last word the man dropped William, who landed heavily on his ass, screamed out a curse, and collapsed onto his face, a small splash of red came out as he struck the ground, probably breaking his nose from the impact with the ground
"Who the hell is this guy?" William asked as he got back up, and looked at the massive man, collapsed on the ground, that had picked him up with no effort.
"I don't know" Alice replied "But those words sounded familiar. And he mentioned Shen, Bradford and the Commander"
"X-COM" came a voice from the side, and Alice turned to see Roman coming over. He had a thick German accent. "old X-COM" emphasising the 'Old'
"This" he said, motioning towards the man, "Is Harold 'Boomer' Sanders, one of the soldiers of the original X-COM, 20 years ago. We have to get him to the Commander"
"Very well" Alice said. She didn't doubt Roman for a second. If he said that's what was going on, then that's what was happening "We need to get him on the Skyranger"
Alice turned to Roman, and tell me everything you know about this, Harold character.
Series 2 is here. This time I'm going to have the battle a lot more imaginationry (I don't think that's a word, but whatever). So I'll be a bit less turn-based, hopefully easier to follow in real-time. We got a new crew, and new enemies, and some familiar faces. Hope you enjoy this New Journey (Coming up with a title was annoyingly difficult)