Two officers sat in silence.
"So what is this idea of yours?" The Sergeant finally recovered enough to ask.
"Well. Obviously we need to break the mold. Conventional tricks have been tried. Special Forces tried and failed, and regular infantry with CQC training do an acceptable job with somewhat higher losses, but are so much cheaper. That about sums it up?" Captain Olsen had a grin on his face now. For now at least he was able to distract himself from the grievous losses earlier that evening
"Well yes, and?"
"I'm not a great tactician so I can't find some brilliant way to outfight the aliens on the field. Unconventional tactics need to come from the troops. So what we need is a quick way to inspire camaraderie, teamwork, planning, overall skills and originality. We're not fighting humans here so approaches to fight humans may not be the best choices."
"Okay. And just how do you intend to do that." The sergeant felt a sinking feeling and suspected he really didn't want to know.
"We are going to make pulling pranks an official training regimen."
For the second time in less than ten minutes he was totally stunned.
It took him almost a minute before he could speak again.
"You are joking right?"
Olsen merely grinned wider
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
X-com: First to fight
Episode 2: A map and an idea.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"This idea is insane." James said.
"Hey if you have any better ideas I'd love to hear them. In the meantime we're going to try this because just going on as we are is unacceptable." Captain Olsen said.
"You can't seriously believe this will work."
"Quite possibly not, but it can't make things worse. And if it doesn't and I survive we try something else. And we'll keep trying new things until we either die or we find something that works. Is that clear sergeant?!"
It was rapidly becoming clear that James had underestimated the captain quite a bit. He had a determination that hadn't been obvious before now.
"Look. I don't like this idea, but you are the ranking officer so I'll go along with it. Just how do you intend to get permission to do it anyway."
"Easy. I won't ask."
James considered. And well that was the logical approach. If it didn't help it'd be discontinued and it'd just be a brief pranking spree by some over eager soldiers in the higher ups eyes. If it did work however by the time they'd notice it was more than that he'd be able to put hard results on the table and ensure no real repercussions through that. And he was the last person who could argue about procedure and respect on this base.
Still it was so utterly unprofessional.
"Okay, you are the captain, but I refuse to do anything about it until we've both had some sleep. Hopefully that'll change your mind about this."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Egon stood before the base commander getting some new marching orders.
"As your team took a lot of casualties, which I do agree with sergeant Coburn was unavoidable in the situation. No intercepts will be attempted until you have received some reinforcements and we've had time to give them some training."
"Understood sir."
"A question before you leave captain. Can you handle the job? We're taking losses at a rate not seen for several wars and your record do state that you haven't seen any action or even that high stress duty before you came here. It's bad enough for the grunts, but the officer with the responsibility an immense pressure. We lost one of our previous field commanders to suicide."
"I'm here to do a job and I'll do it sir. And somebody needs to show these aliens that they can't just run roughshod over us even if we're primitive. Besides I have a few ideas that might turn things around." Egon replied.
"Such as?"
"I'd like to keep that as a surprise for now." Egon was again wearing what would soon become considered his trademark grin.
"Okay do it your way. Good job out there by the way."
"Thank you sir." Egon disagreed, but politeness didn't hurt.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Egon preferred working in the mess hall he found. He preferred being around people to being alone. Right now he was reading over personnel and inventory.
"Glad to see you on top of your duties here. Please tell me you've abandoned the idea."
"Sorry Sergeant Cockburn I've not even considered abandoning it."
Sergeant James Cockburn's face darkened.
"That's pronounced Coburn."
"Well its written Cockburn. No wonder you don't wear a nametag."
"Don't call me Cockburn again."
"You say something sergeant Cockburn I wasn't listening?"
"I'll kill you."
"Commission." James said with a grin.
"You are the worst Captain I've served under."
"Hey I'll do you a favor and not mention this to anyone if you do me a favor and help keep every Norwegian produced movie that might come along out of this base."
"Why do you want that?"
"Let's just say you aren't the only one whose name has made him a mockery target and there are certain movies I fear getting into wide distribution around here."
"And in return you'll never call me Cockburn again nor let anyone know about that?"
"Affirmative. But if even one of those movies shows up around here the deal is off."
"We have a deal."
"Right. I need to ask some question. Like what is the MP-AC listed here in the armory inventory. A missile launcher of sorts?"
"I don't know. The previous commander didn't use anything like that. Perhaps we should get down to the armory and check."
"Might as well. Not much more to do until we get some troopers over here."
The armory was a small parts of general storage. It was just one that had an officer on watch at all times and more secure locks on its equipment.
The young man came to attention as the command crew (And only crew right now) of the combat team entered the armory.
"At ease soldier. We're just here to check out some gear we didn't recognize from the inventory."
"And what would that be?"
"The MP-AC and MP-HC. We've never heard of those before."
"Not surprised. They aren't very widely used. But they are totally sweet."
"Right. Lead the way, whatever rank you are as I can't see any rank bars."
"Call me corporal. That's the rank I had in my last posting."
"All right corporal. Oh and while I'm down here I'd like to exchange my FAL for one of the G3s you have down here according to the inventory. I just feel comfortable with one of those."
"Okay sir. We'll do that afterwards."
They reached a locker marked 'Experimental' that took the corporal a moment to unlock.
"This here is the MP-HC, or the man portable heavy cannon."
"Whoa." Egon said.
"That's a big gun." Was what James said.
It was long and roughly tubular with an unusual shaped mechanism at the end and a clip. It had a barrel it felt like you could put your fist into. He didn't think anything hit by this one could get back up.
"Real nifty. Complete with Armor Piercing, High Explosive and Incendiary rounds, carries a 6 round clip. We have two of these. Can order more but they are custom built so may take some time to deliver."
"I think that our previous team leader shafted us in the support weapons category. All we had was a machine gun."
"Yeah he was the one who had it locked up just before you arrived I think" He gestured to James.
"Why did he do that?" Egon couldn't see how anyone would turn down the sort of firepower this thing probably had against an enemy as tough as the aliens.
"He didn't trust the reliability being experimental weapons and all. And they do have a nasty tendency to jam."
"Stupid decision if you ask me. I'll have these reinstated for sure."
"And this:" The corporal reached deeper into the locker in a melodramatic act.
"Is the Man Portable Auto Cannon."
"Oh my god..."
"I think I'm in love."
The previous gun had a wider barrel. That was all it had going for it. This weapon was just a rotary 20mm cannon meant for a single person to carry. It was the nastiest looking gun either of them had ever seen.
"Has the same ammo selection as the Heavy Cannon. This gun can level a small house in one burst."
"Got a firing range rated for explosives?"
The Corporal just smiled. He loved it when he got to fire off the bigger guns down here.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
An office worker intending to squeeze in a few rounds with a handgun heard manic laughter as he entered the firing range and saw two troopers and the guy in charge of the armory firing away like crazy with the biggest most dangerous looking gun he had ever seen.
"It's heavy as hell, but damn it's the most awesome weapon I've ever fired." Egon commented.
"I probably don't have to ask but we're reinstating these weapons as support weapons right."
"I'll refrain from answering as I can't find a way to yell hell yeah while retaining my dignity. Of course there is the issue of reliability to deal with. They won't explode or anything?"
"No they'll just jam and the weight makes it rather cumbersome to unjam."
"I can live with that."
"Me too."
"Next time ET is going to get a nasty surprise."
"I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to a mission."
"We better requisition a lot of HE ammo."
"Of course."
"We should find out if there's some rocket launchers down here too.
"Absolutely."
"Glad to have an agreeable sergeant."
"After being shot at by plasma guns the only thing you know for sure is that more firepower equals good."
"You do know that you've now totally lost your image as an up stuck sergeant in my eyes for good."
"Crap."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Finally they were receiving more troops. Egon was running out of things he could prepare without them. Receiving six soldiers who none of them knew what they were walking into. He had only received their files this morning as they were rushed in to get X-com back up to par. He heard they were recruiting more to give him more reserve to work with. He hoped he'd be able to work without using it.
If he could get through the rest of this war without a single casualty he'd be happy. Yes war. In his mind it was a war now. And he'd do his damnest to win it
The troopers would arrive in one batch as far as he understood it. They'd first go to the commanders office for the introductory briefing, and then be handed over to him. He intended to be there to receive them personally (Not that he really had anyone else to send after them) immediately afterwards.
He didn't understand why the commander tortured himself by personally meeting every new trooper that likely would die fast. Okay that was a lie. He did understand how it would feel to have a duty to them.
Just like he had a duty to Al-Ansad, Matthews, Volkov and the rest of the ones who had died under his theoretical command.
They were received as a group. He wondered how they took it, but decided to leave it be. Best let the commander to this to face his duty to those he felt he owed to tell personally what they were going into.
The door opened and the rookies filed out.
He and James Cockburn (He'd never be able to think of his full name without resisting a snicker) stood waiting.
"Welcome newcomers. I'm sure you have a lot to absorb so let's head down to friendlier pastures for the introductions."
The mess hall was rapidly becoming his favorite place on this base. People tend to be at least content while eating, and at risk of sounding hippie he liked being surrounded by positive emotions and well for lack of better words vibes.
"I'm Captain Egon Olsen formerly of the Norwegian army. I'm the commander of this unit. As I suspect you too did I signed up without any idea what the hell I was getting into, but I intend to make the best out of the current situation." He gestured towards Sergeant Cockburn.
"This stony face here is Sergeant James Coburn. British..."
"English." James corrected.
"Okay English, and the second in command. Your turn" He gestured to one of the now seated troopers. Let them do it in their own words. He could learn a lot from that.
"I'm Steven Gough, formerly of the Royal Welsh Regiment. I don't really have much more to say than that right now." Young, a bit unsure, reminded him of Matthews, he suspected that he'd respond well to the new training regime.
"Jessica Hawkins, US Air force Pararescue. I won't let you down sir." He still was baffled at getting a Pararescue. Those guys were well trained and honestly wasted in this unit. But apparently she'd applied back while they had tried special forces, but reapplied after they stopped trying to use them. She had some personal reason for being here. Either she needed money or she had some prior history with the aliens. He suspected the first. Still if she was Pararescue her competence was not in question. Being highly professional would probably be the worst disposed to his ideas.
"Jean Despereaux, I'm French and I'm here to kill aliens. There have been some rumors after all." This one gave him the vibes that he was slightly psycho, still if it was directed to the aliens instead of humans that'd be a good thing. Despite the initial assessment he had hopes for this guy though he couldn't figure out why.
"Marcus Fenix, Grenadan. Signed up for the pay." He tried too hard to be the hard soldier type. He needed close watching to be sure of him.
"Sharif Patel from India. I think this'll be an interesting deployment." A friendly fellow, he also suspected he'd enjoy the pranking more than strictly necessary. Something Egon could live with.
"That leaves me last then? Well I'm Eric Lockheart from Canada. And... I can't think of anything more to say." While he seemed insecure he had a good feeling about this one. Someone who'd adapt well.
"Great. Then you can go change into uniforms and meet me at the armory for issuing weaponry. We have some new toys we'd like to field test and we need to find the lucky volunteers."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Taking a page from the corporal's melodrama they had set up a table and covered the weapons under a piece of cloth.
As the last trooper arrived they made their move.
"Glad you could make it, well time to introduce the support weapons." He revealed the weapons with a flourish and watched their faces.
Certainly an experience he'd like to repeat.
"What the hell are those?"
"X-com's best personal support weaponry, given some previous field experiences me and Sarge have decided on a larger than usual heavy weapons group, which does mean we'll be using all of these. Yes that means the Heavy Cannons, the Auto Cannons and the missile launcher here, usually loaded with HE, but other ammunition will be available on demand. They are rather heavy, so I won't recommend you try without some strength training. I know I don't lift enough weights to handle these in the field so if we don't have enough weight lifters we'll have to leave some behind"
"I'm taking the autocannon though." Sergeant Cockburn (Snicker) interjected to the disappointment to a couple of troopers.
"Those of you that don't want any or get any will have to make do with the FN FAL. Our standard rifle."
"Why not a 5.56 weapon like the M4?" Hawkins asked. Special Forces tended not to use the heaviest weapons available.
"Because those are utterly insufficient for the job and FALs are barely sufficient. Trust me the ETs are harder to get rid off than a bad soap opera."
"Ah."
"I'll let you people work out who'll carry what on your own. Report back to me in the mess hall when you are done and we'll give you our training regimen."
Every one of the rookies wondered why their sergeant shifted uncomfortably when Egon mentioned training.
"Oh and no fistfights, anyone who resorts to violence doesn't get to use a heavy weapon."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"You have to be joking!" The Pararescue woman was as expected the most resistant to the idea.
"No joking. A thorough analysis of field experiences shows that this is the best training method we can find that may work on short notice."
"Now you are just bullshitting us." She continued.
"Is that a way to talk to your commanding officer?"He said with his characteristic grin
"But even so while yeah there wasn't any analysis field experience does indicate we need some sort of training that gives quick way to inspire camaraderie, teamwork, planning, overall skills and originality. And guess what qualifies." His grin widened.
"And just how are we supposed to do this?"
"Simple. You guys come up with something you feel is worth doing. Run it by the group who'll nay it if it's too harmful, and if it isn't we work out how to do it while I procure the necessary materials to execute it. And then we plan and execute it as a group."
"What do you define as too harmful?" Desperaux asked.
"Anything that'll cause actual bodily harm or which will reduce the base's ability to operate and can't be undone fairly quickly. Everything else you can think of is free game. Anyone have any ideas?"
"Um... I may have one." Eric Lockheart interjected.
"Let's hear it."
"We're going to need a lot of duct tape, and I mean a lot."
"Right. I'll get right on acquiring it then. You guys work out a plan and tell me when I get back." Egon stood up and headed for the commander's office.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Ah Olsen what can I do for you?"
"Afternoon commander. I'm here to ask for an advance payment for my paycheck."
"We don't usually allow for advanced payments here, what do you need the money for?"
"Training equipment. Some tools I don't think I'll be allowed to requisition?"
"Just why wouldn't it be allowed?"
"Because it's too unconventional sir."
"Do I want to know?"
"Probably not." Egon said with his grin.
"Will anyone be hurt by it?"
"Not if I can help it."
Suddenly the commander looked a lot wearier and older.
"Will it reduce losses?"
"I wouldn't be trying it if I didn't think so."
"In that case your request is approved. I'll have it expedited post haste."
"Pleasure doing business with you sir. I take it I'm dismissed?"
"Dismissed Captain. And good luck."
"Thank you sir. See you later."
Egon was whistling as he left that office.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"The duct tape will be here by tomorrow. What's your plan?"
"Well you see..."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The office worker was having a bad day. He'd run out of coffee, his alarm clock hadn't gone off so he had to forego a shower. It was about to get worse.
As he entered his office he noticed something was amiss.
His desks, his chair, his filing cabinet, none of these were in the place they should be.
He looked up. There in a perfect upside down version of his office was the furniture. All of them duct taped to the ceiling.
All along the office block this scene was repeating itself. In the first office that wasn't upside down there was a small computer written note.
'Sorry we didn't get them all, but we ran out of duct tape.'
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Right. That went well. Any more ideas?" Egon managed to get out after they stopped laughing.
"Well we could..." Patel started with a small smile.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The young mechanic woke up and immediately knew something was wrong. The bed smelled wrong.
He sat up, it took him a moment, but he realized this was the room of this section's females. How the hell did he get here.
He jumped out of bed making a lot more noise than he expected waking up the rest of the room.
His mates from his room were all there. Some of them making less than dignified noises when they realized their situation.
"We're all here. Wait if we're here. Where's the women who were supposed to be here?"
A singular short shriek from down the hall gave a good indicator of that.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"I can't believe we moved half the people on this base around in their sleep and didn't wake anyone."
"Nice idea, this one can stand some repetition. Perhaps we should try for something extra spectacular this time around?" Egon asked hoping to inspire them.
"Like what?"
"I have an idea." Jessica Hawkins had gotten more into it after the duct tape prank.
"What's the idea?"
"Well we're going to need a lot of pink paint and a way to get it on fast..."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The mess hall was wild with speculations. The sudden wave of pranks had everybody a bit on the edge. Who did it? What is the next target? How do we get even? Those were the standard speculations.
Then suddenly the door burst open and a pilot rushed into the mess hall.
"Who the hell are the jokers who painted my interceptor pink!"
Everyone sat up and looked at him.
"Wait what?"
"Somebody broke into the hangar and repainted his fighter." A tech who followed behind him clarified.
"Oh we GOT to see this." Captain Egon Olsen feigning innocence like an expert stated.
"C'mon guys." He said as he got up and headed for the door.
Following the tactical team most the occupants in the mess hall followed to the growing panic of the pilot as he realized most the base was about to take a look on his fighter.
This was of course part of the entire prank.
In the hangar even the staunchest member of the base personnel couldn't resist at least snickering.
The interceptor was painted in pink all right. And the Yellow and Red Xs that usually adorned the wings and tailfin had been replaced with hello kitty faces.
A few of the people ran off to find cameras. Egon of course just happened to be carrying one around then and set about snapping pictures.
This was one for the record books.
"Hey stop staring! Go away! Don't take any pictures" The pilot tried desperately to shoo the people away with little success.
Suddenly the intercom crackled.
"Interceptor team prepare for launch."
The pilot looked even more mortified. He'd have to launch looking like that!?
The rest of the group suddenly didn't look so cheery anymore.
"We should get to the skyranger Captain. If it's not too far away we got better odds of getting there before nightfall and I'd rather not fight another night battle if they manage to intercept it." Sarge said.
"Excellent suggestion, all right team we'll load up into the skyranger and launch. Make sure you got all your gear."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
The UFO was a replacement for the last UFO they shot down, a scout for an abductor mission. Having lost a smaller ship they now sent a large scout to attempt to finish the job.
It picked up what might be a hostile somewhere behind it, but it didn't matter. It wouldn't be able to reach it before it landed. And those fighters couldn't stay on station for long. They'd be finished before they could get a second fighter there and then just go full power early.
The pilot of the Pink Interceptor which of course was the only one able to launch cursed.
"Control, the UFO just landed and I have no weapons able to hit a grounded target."
"Confirmed Interceptor Pink, I mean Interceptor 2. We have a strike team enroute as we speak to hit it on the ground."
Okay the primary suspects of the repaint were the combat team, but even he wouldn't wish for them to engage a full strength Alien UFO on the ground like that. They had lost full teams doing that sort of thing.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Okay we're about to engage a landed UFO . There isn't a lot of experience with such a thing so I'd like to ask for ideas how to deal with this. A general brainstorm before we reach it." Now it was time to see if this paid off.
"What sort of environment are we fighting in?" Hawkins asked
"As far as I can tell it's a farm. Unfortunately we don't have exact maps of the area and will be going in fairly blind."
"What about the farmers? What happened to them?" Gough asked
"If the aliens keep their SOP they'll all be dead by the time we land."
"So essentially nothing stops us from hitting all possible hiding spots with a torrent of heavy weapons fire?" Desperaux asked.
"Not really. I'd say that is a viable operations plan."
"We'll have to storm the UFO right? Anything volatile inside?"
"Quite a lot of things command doesn't want destroyed unfortunately. Still if it comes down to blowing valuable shit up and one of your lives I say we give them a double helping of HE."
There were grins at that.
"So we basically go down there. Blow up every hiding spot, kill anything not hiding, and then take the UFO?"
"That's about it." They had just thrown together an ops plan for him without realizing it. It wasn't a brilliant one, but it'd give a solid core to adapt from.
"We're approaching the LZ and almost ready to touchdown stand by." Came the voice from the cockpit. It occurred to Egon that he didn't know the pilot and that he'd have to do something about that soon.
He took a view of the equipment his squad carried. In the end the missile launcher had been left behind.
The sergeant carried the unreliable autocannon, Patel and Lockheart carried heavy cannons. They had been fully trained in how to use them in the field and to unjam them if it came to that. But in general they wouldn't be exposed to that much enemy fire until after they had already killed anything that might engage them from there.
The engine tune changed as they hovered, and then there was the thump of touchdown and the ramp dropped.
"Go!"
As per usual he was the first one off the ramp. They had landed in a field a bit from a couple of small buildings and a large bushy garden.
He could swear he saw movement in the second floor of one of the houses. "Tango, House 11 'o clock."
"I'll take care of it." Sarge replied as he stopped at the foot of the ramp. He wasn't intending to be a heavy weapons as standard, but just once he wished to make the aliens feel like he felt when he was up against their overwhelming firepower and his teammates dying all around him. So he had requested to use the auto-cannon for the first mission in a while.
"Die ET bastards!" He yelled as the torrent of HE shells from his autocannon rapidly reduced the small farmhouse to cinders and the alien that had been laying in ambush within it to pulpy green bits.
"Tango down!" This was remarkably therapeutic.
"Sir shouldn't we hit the other one for good measure. Just to be safe I mean."
"Might as well." Egon conceded.
"Go ahead and fire on it. And anything else we'd have a hard time seeing somebody hide."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Sectoids couldn't really feel fear anymore. They had forcefully through genetic alterations erased most emotions to be more efficient. The closest they could handle was worried.
And now they were worried as hell. The interlopers had arrived as per usual. Unlike usual however they seemed far more aggressive as well as far more destructive. As they watched another pair of eyes blacked out. This one without actually seeing the enemy that killed it as it ran to get out of the hedges it'd hidden within to impede the enemy's movement.
It was brutally simple, but oh so effective. It would not be possible to stop them short of their ship and if they used the same firepower within the ship they could utterly wreck it. The logical response was to retreat.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Combat team. This is Control. Some of the thermal readings we're getting from the orbiting Interceptor indicates that the UFO is powering its engines. Recommend you fall back to the Skyranger and let the Interceptor take it down as it tries to flee. Any crew left outside should be easy pickings as they try to enter the ship."
"Roger that control. Relaying to troops now." Egon was happy at letting them go straight into the arms of the waiting Interceptor. It meant that for once they had managed to utterly scare the shit out of the aliens. Now he just had to relay the good news.
"All right men. The aliens are beating a retreat and..."
"What? We can't let them get away!" Fenix dashed towards the UFO. Gough followed after a moment's hesitation.
"... And we're going to let the Interceptor shoot it up a bit before we continue. Ah hell!"
It took just an instant to decide what course of action to take. Even if it might not be tactically wise.
"Cover me! I'll cover them!" He dashed after them cursing every over eager rookie ever born under his breath.
"Captain what the hell are you doing?!"
"I'm not letting them kill themselves through their own stupidity if I can help it."
There was an all too familiar green flash and Fenix was knocked back with a scream. Gough looked in the direction of the fire and froze.
The alien had been hiding in a field of some crop Egon couldn't identify, and was now taking aim on Gough.
Egon skidded to a halt and hurriedly raised his rifle and fired.
First shot missed, the second nicked the aliens shoulder and ruined it's aim so that the aliens shot missed Gough, before either of them could fire any more shots the crop field was hit by a heavy cannon shell.
"Tango down. Did you SEE how he flew?!" An exited Lockheart transmitted.
"Gough get..." Gough recovered and started charging again intent on seeing it through. If Egon was to guess he was scared, but so afraid of being a coward he forced himself to take insane risks. Right now regular panic would be better.
And now they were so close to the UFO they might as well.
Gough reached the UFO door and was about to perform X-com rookie mistake number 1 when Egon reached the UFO and through the expedient of letting the hull of the UFO absorb his momentum , or rather as Sarge would later put it couldn't be arsed to bloody slow down and slammed into it to save time, stopped right next to the door.
He grabbed Gough and yanked him aside just as the door opened and the pair aliens inside opened fire.
Thanks to the yank Gough wasn't directly in the line of the plasma fire and it only grazed the Rookie. He still screamed and collapsed though.
Egon fired one handed into the UFO at the one alien he could see of the pair scoring a lucky shot at the alien's hand forcing him to drop his weapon. He barely registered that Desperaux who had apparently followed him reached the UFO door on the other side opened fire and being able to aim properly dropped his foe easily.
The alien scrambled for his weapon, but now Egon had time to properly support his G3 and fired a couple of shots into its large head sending it to the floor in a heap.
"Two tangos down, Gough is injured. Hawkins get over here and help him. We're going in."
"Wait what?! Captain stop!"
"Not an option." He understood that this close they couldn't move anyone that wounded quickly. So they'd be exposed to fire from the UFO the entire fall back. Not a call he would make.
Of course he did fail to consider that with the door guard down and the engine powering up they'd probably not bother. And they could just move to the side where the aliens would have to leave the UFO and be exposed to fire from the X-com team. Well nobody ever claimed Egon was a tactical genius. Still he'd be hearing that from his sergeant afterwards.
"Let's go."
He and Desperaux moved in simultaneously, saw the door on either side and with a nod split up. Egon took left.
He had a good feel how fast Desperaux would move and tried to go through the door at the same moment, but as he stepped through he saw another door immediately afterwards, he rushed through that one too to see an alien turning towards the direction of the other door raising his weapon.
Two well placed shots from Egon stopped that move. And a second alien that turned towards him was dropped by Desperaux from the other side.
"Tango down."
"Tango down."
They entered what was apparently their control room and saw that there was just one door left into what they were pretty sure was the power plant.
"Only one room left. Any way we can open this door without exposing ourselves to fire?"
"The doors seem to open in combination to well intent to open and a large body approaching." Egon replied. The doors didn't make much sense. No control panel or anything. They just registered you wanted in somehow and then opened. If you didn't want to enter it didn't open. And unless you approached head on it wouldn't. It made opening it without exposing yourself to fire a real bitch.
"Does it have to be the same body approaching as the one with the intent?"
"I don't know."
Desperaux looked down on the sectoid corpses in the room.
"I like the way you think soldier. Worst that can happen is some green splatter on the door." Egon grinned and grabbed one of the arms of the Sectoid corpse.
They swung it towards the door both intensely wanting it to open. And it opened up.
It didn't swing up because the trick had worked however. They just had the dumb luck to have an alien try to leave the room at that moment and got a faceful of alien corpse knocking him back.
A plasma bolt streaked out the door from further in the engine room.
Desperaux and Egon both pulled a grenade from their harness and threw it in both having decided on the same idea at the same time.
Both threw in an incendiary grenade. The door closed just as they exploded and coated the room in liquid flame.
They stood back covering the door.
It opened and the alien on fire that tried to leave got a lethal injection of 7.62 NATO. The second one on fire further in got his own dose.
"This is Captain Olsen. UFO secure.
"You are bloody insane captain."
"You should show some respect you know sarge." Egon said with a grin that was clearly audible over the radio.
"Or what?"
"Or commission." This statement was followed by a lot of grumbling.
"Hey you walked into that one. Anyway sweep the area and make sure we got them all."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Will he be okay?" Captain Olsen asked
"He'll live." Jessica Hawkins looked around and noticed nobody were near enough to hear them if they didn't use radios and decided to let the Captain have it.
"This mission was a mess. Poor coherency, poor discipline and preparation. I'm holding you responsible for Fenix's death and intend to report that to the commander when we get back." She had expected more from this unit, but apparently it wasn't anywhere near an elite unit.
Captain Olsen closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment. So he might regret it, that wasn't an excuse for a military officer.
"I might as well tell you now. I didn't give you people the full facts before to avoid killing morale even though I was scared that it'd backfire as it did."
"The full facts?"
"The casualty reports; while you may have figured there was a bad turnover. To date there had been no mission where there were less than three fatalities, no cases where the aliens lost more than the humans, and no case where an outnumbered human team took on a superior numbered force of aliens and won. Today we did all three. And before you ask this is just my second mission and the first one I can't honestly say I was actually in command."
She was metaphorically speaking knocked reeling by this.
"What?"
"Yes his death was my fault. I'm in charge so every one of you is my responsibility, and I agree I messed up here, but in all honesty it could have been a lot worse." He turned and left at that.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Sarge are we ready to liftoff." He pushed the memory of Fenix taking a plasma bolt to the chest aside and got back on his job.
"We're ready. X-com cleanup crews are on the way. And next time try to let somebody else storm the UFO okay? It'd be a really stupid way to lose a commander."
"So how did the mission go in your estimate?"
"I agree with Hawkins that Fenix died because we screwed up and didn't tell them clearly enough just how dangerous our enemy was, but the rest of them are alive because in the end we did something right. Hopefully we can fix what went wrong without losing what went right."
"So you were listening."
"A true sergeant has ears everywhere."
"Glad to hear that."
"I have to wonder though. How will the aliens react if we can keep this up?"
"I'd rather not think about that just now. It can wait until morning."
"I'd certainly hope so. And Captain."
"Yes?"
"You did better than I expected."
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not."
"That's the whole point." For once Egon faced his own grin on someone else's face. This of course led to him matching it with one of his own.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Next time on X-com: First to fight.
"The aliens scout patterns are different. They are going much closer to urban areas than we've ever seen before." The intelligence analyst said.
"Well whatever the reason I'm feeling much safer we can handle it now." The commander retorted fully sober as a result of the recent streak of successes.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Look at the size of that thing."
"Stop quoting Star Wars and engage."
"Roger that. Interceptor 1 engaging. Interceptor 2 Hang back and stand by to assist."
"Affirmative."
"Closing to firing range. HOLY SHIT!" There was a bright green flash and the Interceptor blew apart.
"This is Interceptor 2. Interceptor 1 is gone! I say again gone!"
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"The aliens are killing everything in their path. Nothing we send at them appears to even slow them."
"Call for X-com."
"Sir?"
"It's their job. They are the ones supposedly equipped to handle this sort of thing."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"What the hell is that?" Patil asked as they peered around the corner.
"I have no idea. Looks like some sort of miniature UFO. Watch out!" Egon yelled as the disk shaped thing opened fire and intense plasma fire tore up the walls around them.
X-com First to fight: Terror in Berlin