First Contact: Sectoid
Skyranger, En route to Abduction Zone
The silence would be awkward had they not been flying to fight aliens.
Abigail Gertrude was just trying to stay calm as she clutched her helmet while not fidgeting or showing any sign of nervousness or terror. Privately, she hoped that the helmeted men and woman around her were struggling with the same feelings. But as she looked around the skyranger, each of them were clearly experienced soldiers. Each at ease and familiar with their gear. Just another day for them, another mission.
But not for her.
For the third time she reflected on the circumstances that had led her to joining a secret military organization devoted to fighting aliens. After graduating from med school, she had been looking at several career options including military work. Looking back, that was probably what had attracted the attention of XCOM, who had sent a man to speak with her.
She'd known from the start that he was a military recruiter, though from his lack of specification, believed he represented some sort of special forces. It turned out that she'd been half-right. The man had been very secretive at first but after threatening to walk away if she didn't get answers, finally revealed that he represented a paramilitary group devoted to fighting aliens, or simply "XCOM."
She'd laughed and told him that she was pretty sure she'd notice if aliens invaded and he'd responded by explaining that XCOM was a contingency for that very situation. He'd been deadly serious and she quickly stopped treating it as a joke. He'd given her an offer: she would be free to continue on with her life as normal and would receive a rather large salary in addition to whatever career she decided to pursue. But if XCOM was ever mobilized, she would have to join on the front lines.
In retrospect, accepting his offer was probably incredibly stupid. But really, could anyone blame her? What were the chances of an alien invasion? Astronomically small, she had believed. Besides, she needed the money to pay off some debts from med school.
Fortunately, for reasons unrelated to aliens or XCOM, she had decided to join the Marine Corps as a field surgeon and had enjoyed nearly three months of basic training before three men in armor showed up in the middle of the night, telling her that the XCOM project had been activated and she was to come with them.
They'd flown her to an underground base and had hastily fitted her with some kind of combat armor (which was surprisingly light!), slapped an assault rifle and pistol in her hands and ordered her, along with five others, into the plane called a skyranger. She'd zoned out for most of that, unable or unwilling to fully process what was happening. She'd nodded and followed orders like a good soldier. Only now did she realize how in over her head she really was.
She barely knew how to fire a gun, much less be on the front lines waging a war against such an advanced species. She was a medic, not a soldier and had tried to tell the man outfitting her that. His response had been "Good! We need as many of you as possible. Take these in case you need them." He'd handed her a small rectangular device with a handle and short nozzle along with a small package containing some basic medical equipment. "Med-kit," he'd explained. "Uses nanotech to seal up wounds and repair damaged organs. Only has a few charges though, so use them well. Otherwise you have your basic surgery tools."
To be honest, if she wasn't being sent to her likely death, she would be amazed and ecstatic that something like the med-kit had been invented. She was able to envision so many possibilities for its use.
As she was speaking with another soldier, she learned that the med-kit was not the only breakthrough from XCOM. The Brazilian, Kim Cortez, had told her that the weapons handed out were at least five years ahead of anything in modern militaries and the armor was at least ten years ahead.
There were probably other inventions from XCOM that she just hadn't seen and was looking forward to learning exactly what they were.
If she survived this mission.
Aside from Kim, she hadn't spoken much to any of the other soldiers on the skyranger. All she'd been told was the squad overseer was Liam Jaster, who happened to be the large man sitting directly across from her. Overseer was a rather odd word choice. Most militaries normally used terms like leader or commander. But it was becoming clear to her that XCOM was no ordinary military. In fact, she wasn't entirely convinced it was one. It appeared to be run more like a special forces unit rather than an actual military.
"Heads up Strike team. You're heading into Georgia," She looked up where the installed speaker was. She frowned, trying to remember that voice. He'd briefly addressed them before leaving…who was it? "The town went dark nearly twelve hours ago, if we're lucky, there may be survivors. We'll be monitoring at HQ." Bradford. That was his name, Central Officer Bradford.
"Assuming that these aliens exist." The woman sitting next to her muttered.
"You don't think they do?" Abby questioned, just to make conversation.
She snorted, her helmet making the noise harsher. "Let's just say I'm skeptical. Don't you think that if this was an invasion, people besides XCOM would know about it?"
"I doubt that we'd have been mobilized if they hadn't been sure," the man to her right cut in, his French accent pronounced. "It seems like a waste of time otherwise."
The woman leaned back and Abby guessed she was smirking. "Sure, Shawn. There is no possible way that XCOM command could be wrong."
"Let's hope they are." Abby muttered quietly, folding her hands together.
The woman turned and appraised her. "This your first mission?"
"Yes," she answered quietly.
"Just stay in cover and follow orders," Liam Jaster spoke up suddenly. "You'll do fine."
"Thanks."
"Huh," the woman commented. "Didn't think they'd recruit rookies. What were you before?"
"A surgeon. Specializing in high-risk and time-sensitive surgeries." She replied.
The man sitting to Liam's right whistled. "Combat medic, nice. Glad you're here, though if we all do our jobs right, we won't need you."
"Agreed," the woman nodded. She extended her hand to Abby. "Myra Rodriguez, former Mexican GAFE."
Abby took her hand. "Abby Gertrude, former three month member of the US Marines."
Myra chuckled. "Well, you know how to use a gun at least."
"Since we're making introductions," the man to her right said. "Shawn Cage, former French Army. Not as impressive as the Mexican special forces, Myra, but I'm pretty good at what I do."
"I'm sure we'll see soon." Myra pointed at the man next to Liam. "You're next."
The man gave a sigh, amplified by his helmet. "Ernest Sims, Irish Army Infantry Brigade Three."
Liam looked around at the soldiers waiting for him to answer. "You know who I am. I don't need to repeat myself."
"C'mon," Shawn insisted. "We've got pretty diverse backgrounds here, you must have come from somewhere."
"Fine. Liam Jaster, classified."
"Cop-out," Myra commented good-naturedly. "Is there anything you can tell us?"
Liam looked directly at her. "Do you really want to know?"
Abby crossed her arms. "I think everyone does."
"Very well. I was a counter-terrorist operative."
Shawn clicked his teeth. "You mean you worked for…"
"Russian counter-terrorism. I never had the pleasure of meeting the so-called 'Commander.'"
Abby felt a small surge of relief at hearing that. She wasn't sure how she would have felt if one of the Commander's soldiers was working with them. True, she shouldn't hold each of them accountable for the actions of one man, but still…if even a quarter of the stories she'd heard about the Commander's war on terror were true, not counting his final atrocity…
Well, he was dead now. And she firmly believed he was burning in a special level of hell for people like him. She shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside. She looked at Kim. "Your turn," she said, inclining her head in his direction.
"Kim Cortez, former Brazilian Navy."
Myra nodded. "Nice to meet you all. Let's do our jobs well so we can head home."
Liam nodded. "Agreed-"
"This is Fallen Sky to Strike One," their pilot interrupted. "We've almost reached the landing zone. Prepare for deployment."
"Take positions!" Liam ordered the squad as he stood up to grasp one of the handles on the ceiling. Abby flipped her helmet around and placed it on her head. With a hiss of air and a click she was briefly blind. She gasped as the helmet's HUD lit up and her screen filled with information.
In the lower right-hand view of her display, there was a small replica of her assault rifle with an ammo counter. The suits are networked to the weapons? Apparently so. Opposite that was her name and rank: Private Abby Gertrude. On the bottom center of the display were several icons, a grenade and a medical cross with 1x and 2x on them respectively. It was incredible how sophisticated this technology was. She assumed that if she used the grenade she'd been given, the number under the grenade icon would turn to zero. Amazing.
She stood up and grabbed the handle as she looked around and discovered that if she focused on one of the soldiers, their name and rank would be displayed in a small rectangle above them.
"Deployment in thirty seconds." Came the warning from Fallen Sky.
"Brace for landing!" Liam ordered, shifting his feet into a more secure stance. Each of them followed suit, though there were clear differences between them. The plane shuddered but none of them were shaken.
"Contact," Liam stated, letting go of the handle. "Ready weapons."
There was a clattering and hissing as assault rifles were unhooked from the slots on their armor. Heart pounding, Abby reached for hers and was pleased that her hands barely trembled.
With a squealing of metal, the ramp lowered onto the pavement with a clang.
"Deploy!" Liam ordered and they rushed out into the street.
With a loud clamp, the ramp closed and the skyranger flew off.
"This is Fallen Sky to Central. Strike Team has been deployed at the town entrance, initiating Hawkeye Protocol. Squad Overseer, radio for extraction."
"Understood, Fallen Sky," Liam replied. "Central, this is squad Overseer Jaster. We're prepared to do a full sweep of the town. Permission to proceed?"
"Permission granted. Bring any surviving civilians in for questioning."
"Will do, Overseer Jaster, out." He turned to them.
While he was talking, Abby looked around. The town was rather small from what she could see. In front of her were some large office buildings and small stores, mostly those found in the older parts of town. There were even more buildings around the sides. The task seemed daunting. How could the six of them possibly search this entire area?
"Listen up!" Liam began. "We're going to start by sweeping this street. There'll be two teams, one per side. Me, Abby and Shawn will take the left. Myra, Kim and Ernest will take the right. Questions?"
She felt that it was obvious, but nobody was asking it. "How are we going to clear the entire town with just six of us?" It was probably a stupid question, but this was her first mission. She could be forgiven for asking basic questions, right?
"We're not," was the reply. "The last time this happened, several strange pods were found. If we tamper with them, the aliens will probably come to investigate."
"So we're looking for evidence of alien activity?"
"Correct. Now follow me." They strode quietly to a closed door leading into a jewelry store. Shawn and Liam took positions either side of it while she leaned beside the corner. She gripped her rifle harder, trying her best to overcome the shaking throughout her body from the adrenaline coursing through it.
Liam gently gripped the door handle and pushed. Apparently seeing nothing, he charged in as Abby held her breath.
"Clear." She heard and let out a breath.
"Abby, come with me. Shawn, stay on the outside and proceed slowly."
"Copy, Overseer."
Abby quickly entered the building and took shelter behind a shelf. Deep breaths. Nothing here. Nothing here yet. Liam had also taken cover behind the shelf and motioned her up.
"Blink twice," he whispered. She frowned but complied and gasped as her HUD filled with images.
"Cover integrity indicators," he explained. "The more the shield is filled, the better cover it is. Very distracting I know, but it's a lifesaver in firefights. Got it?"
She nodded, blinked twice, and the blue shields disappeared. Liam pointed to the door at the other side of the store. "That door connects these buildings. We're going to move through slowly until we reach it. Keep your eyes peeled and never stay out in the open. Ready?"
Finding it difficult to speak, she just nodded. They both advanced though the store slowly and carefully. She was probably being overly cautious, but deeply appreciated that Liam was indulging her and keeping at her pace. They finally reached the door and took up positions beside it.
"Overseer," She started as Shawn's voice broke in unexpectedly. "I've found one of the pods. Instructions on how to proceed?"
"Stay there and wait for me," Liam ordered. Addressing Abby, he continued. "Assume an overwatch position. You'll hear from me soon."
"Overwatch?"
"Sorry, military term. Means you're to look out for enemies and be ready to fire. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
He quietly opened the door, so she wouldn't be surprised if anything came through. Then he left, though not before giving a reassuring slap on her shoulder. The seconds dragged on like minutes as she frantically looked in every direction for something. She kept this up for what felt forever and glanced at the clock hanging in the store.
Five minutes.
Seriously? She allowed herself to relax a little. There was no way she could keep up this level of awareness without something in her snapping. Deep breaths. In and out.
Her eyes snapped wide open and her rifle shot up as she heard scuttling and her body started shaking again. She frantically looked every which way, trying to find the noise. The shaking only got worse when she heard chittering that did not sound normal.
"I think I heard something!" She hissed into her helmet.
"Unsurprising," came Liam's reply. "Shawn is tinkering with the pod. We might have-"
"No!" she nearly shouted, her voice trembling. "There's something in this building!"
"Acknowledged. Keep calm Abby. Shawn's on his way."
"Thank you." She breathed emphatically, calming down at the thought of not being alone anymore.
She turned back, looking into the connecting shop when she saw it.
A gray, scrawny, naked thing with long fingers, a large head, bulbous eyes, no mouth and something attached to its arm.
"Contact!" She screamed and let loose with her rifle.
Every bullet missed, of course and the alien scampered away on all fours and took cover behind a desk. Through her hail of gunfire she spotted three more of the things, all taking up cover positions.
"Myra! Converge on Abby's position immediately!"
"On it!"
"Abby, how many are there?!"
"I..I.." she stuttered as the she heard strange whooshing sounds frighteningly near her. A green bolt of something hit the column right behind her.
"Answer me! How many?!"
"Four!" she shouted. "In the connecting building!"
"Got it. Shawn, give them something to think about!"
She decided to take a risk and peek out. Her HUD flashed with a reticule on the alien's large head. It seemed to be chittering to its friends so she raised her rifle and was surprised when a percentage number appeared next to the alien's head. She frowned, not sure what it was. The percentage rapidly increased or decreased when she tried to line up a shot. Was it telling her how good a shot she had?
She spent a few precious seconds trying to line up a shot but couldn't get the percentage indicator to rise any higher than sixty-one percent. Oh well, it was the best she could do. She squeezed the trigger and stumbled back from the recoil but was rewarded with the beautiful sight of the alien lying dead in a pool of yellow blood.
"I did it!" she crowed, elated. "I got one!"
"Nice shot," came the voice of Shawn. "My turn!"
She blinked twice and the cover indicator came up. She was in decent cover now and felt it best not to move. An explosion shook the building and she peeked in to see most of the wall facing the street was gone. The now-flanked aliens scuttled away, chittering furiously, and she took the opportunity to take a rather poor thirty-percent shot, which missed, of course.
Shawn and Liam had far better luck. Their bullets tore into the retreating aliens backs and legs. One was killed outright and another was shot in the leg. As it pulled itself away, Shawn abandoned caution and charged the wounded creature. Too wounded to respond, it only stared up as Shawn unloaded several bullets at point-blank range into it's face.
"Overseer!" Myra's voice cut in. "We've made contact with…something!"
"Short gray creatures?" Liam probed as all of them took up positions to corner the final alien.
"Affirmative. Four to be exact. One is taken care of, we can handle it."
"Acknowledged," Liam answered as green bolts flew past his head. "It missed!" he roared at Abby and Shawn. "Return fire!"
She tried lining up a shot, but the alien had very good cover behind the window. As hard as she tried, she couldn't get anything higher than forty percent. She brought up the cover indicator and saw some that might give her a better angle. Dashing towards it, she almost missed that the alien was rising to fire.
"DROP!" Shawn yelled frantically and without thinking Abby collapsed to the floor as the green bolts barely missed her head.
"Covering fire!" Liam yelled and the sound of bullets filled the air. Lying flat against the ground, with the sound of splintering wood above her, she couldn't see if he hit anything.
She heard Shawn's voice in her ear. "Abby, crawl forward. Slowly!" She did until she felt a wall. Looking up, she realized she was right next to the window the alien was hiding behind.
Panic almost overtook her and she began hyperventilating.
"Abby, throw your grenade out the window." Liam ordered, then she noticed a strange strand of purple heading directly toward him, but so faint she wasn't sure if she was imagining it. "Ah…!" Liam clutched his head.
"What's wrong?" Shawn demanded as he took a shot.
"Headache…something…I'm not thinking clearly…"
"Abby, throw the grenade!"
"It'll blow me up at this range!"
"You've got an AP! You'll be fine!"
"What?!"
"Just do it!"
She grabbed the grenade and pulled the pin, praying that she wouldn't kill herself and tossed it out the window. Hearing a discharge and an alien squeal, she believed it had worked. Shawn dashed up to the window and peered out.
"Got it," he commented, nodding at her. "Nice throw."
Through shaky breaths she answered. "Thanks, thought I was going to die. What kind of grenade is that?"
"Come see for yourself." She stood up and peered out the window. If she hadn't been a surgeon, she might have thrown up. The alien lay in several pieces, shrapnel jutting out of it's body and most of the skin flayed off.
"Anti-personnel grenade," Shawn continued. "Absolutely deadly to unarmored soldiers. Aliens as well, it seems."
They walked back over to Liam and Abby kneeled beside him. Shawn stood back. "This is your specialty, doc."
She didn't hear him. "Liam? Can you hear me?"
He coughed. "Yes, yes. I'm fine."
"You didn't sound fine."
"I wasn't. But it's gone now, I think that alien did something to me."
"What?"
He groaned. "It was like having a migraine, but worse. I couldn't think clearly and my vision was blurred, or maybe that was just my imagination. Regardless, my ability to concentrate was seriously compromised."
She nodded. "I'll do my best to help. But one of the doctors back at HQ should probably look at you."
"This is Myra," her voice interrupted. "All threats have been neutralized. I think that's the last of them."
Abby helped Liam stand. "Good work," he told Myra. "We're finished here too. If there were more, they'd have probably come to help. I'm calling in Fallen Sky. We're done here." Liam gently pushed her off and began slowly walking to the extraction point with Abby and Shawn following close behind.
"Fallen Sky, this is Overseer Jaster. We're done down here. Send in extraction and artifact recovery."
"Acknowledged, Overseer Jaster. Coming in five. Good work down there."
"Artifact recovery?" Abby asked.
"XCOM wants all alien corpses and weapons for study," Shawn answered. "Artifact recovery just means recovering all the alien corpses and devices."
She nodded. Hopefully whoever was in charge knew what they were doing. She let out a long breath. It was over. She'd done it and gotten a couple kills. Not a bad day, all things considered.
"That went well." She said, smiling.
"Agreed," Shawn nodded. "You did well, for a rookie."
She punched him in the arm. "I believe I got two of them, what did you get again?"
He chuckled. "Point taken."
"Hold off the celebration," Liam interrupted. "We got lucky this time. We surprised them and can't rely on that again. It's only going to get harder from here."
"Killjoy," Shawn muttered.
As much as she knew he was right. Abby felt a sense of pride in what had been accomplished today. It may not have been much in the big picture, but it was a start and she felt far better prepared for whatever came next. As the skyranger roared by, she holstered her rifle and began walking to the plane that would take her to her new home.
Skyranger, En Route to XCOM Headquarters
The Commander shut off the tablet and leaned back. He had briefly considered taking command several times, but ultimately decided against it until he knew more about XCOM's capabilities.
So, he had actual proof that aliens were in fact real, and conducting operations on Earth. Not that he hadn't believed it before…but it was one thing to be told it was happening and another to see it himself. He highly doubted that these were the only aliens just based on their physical appearance because they were far too weak to sustain an invasion.
No. The soldier Jaster was right. This was only the beginning.
He scowled. He sincerely hoped that XCOM HQ had a decent amount of information because that was the most essential element to winning a war. He needed their tactics, strengths, weaknesses and strategies and could only make some basic guesses from the short fight he had witnessed.
But he suspected he was going to have to start at square one. He appreciated a challenge, but he felt time was of the essence here. He couldn't spend years analyzing them and then making a move. He had to defend Earth now. Unfortunately, there wasn't going to be time for his usual plans. A shame, but he could make it work.
At least he seemed to have some excellent soldiers. XCOM hadn't skimped on recruiting the best, it seemed. Rodriguez and Jaster seemed excellent leaders, aside from a few questionable calls, which he could easily fix. The rest of them had done their jobs well and he'd been impressed with Abby in particular. She had nearly panicked a few times, yet still managed to pull herself together. Impressive. Rookies tended to do poorly in firefights in the beginning, not to mention against aliens. He'd have to keep an eye on her.
The Russian, Liam Jaster might be a problem. It all depended on how much of his past the Council decided to reveal. If they were smart that was a decision they would leave up to him. Based on that little exchange in the skyranger, they didn't exactly have pleasant thoughts about him. Unimportant. He had stopped caring about public opinion unless it directly affected him and saw no reason to start caring now.
"This is Big Sky," Jason informed him, disrupting his train of thought. "Commander, we'll be at XCOM HQ within three minutes. Stand by."
The Commander strapped in and folded his hands. He was very curious to see the capabilities of the XCOM project and more importantly, to take command of it.
After-Action Report
Operation: Fallen Star
Personnel:
Strike 1 (Squad Overseer): Private Liam Jaster
Status: Active
Recorded Kills: 1
Strike 2: Private Myra Rodriguez
Status: Active
Recorded Kills: 3
Strike 3: Private Ernest Sims
Status: Active
Recorded Kills: 1
Strike 4: Private Shawn Cage
Status: Active
Recorded Kills: 1
Strike 5: Private Kim Cortez
Status: Active
Recorded Kills: 0
Strike 6: Private Abigail Gertrude
Status: Active
Recorded Kills: 2
Mission Director: Central Officer Bradford
Pilot: Tristan Ward – Call sign: "Fallen Sky"
Artifacts Recovered:
-6x Alien Corpses (Moderate Damage)
-1x Alien Corpse (Acceptable Damage)
-1x Alien Corpse (Unsalvageable)
-12x Alien Weapon Fragments
-6x Alien Alloys
-2x Alien Pods
