The chance to test out the new XCR came quickly. A UFO had landed smack in the middle of a rural area in Colorado, sending the inhabitants into a state of panic. In a small village that consisted of no more than two hundred civilians, a UFO was big news. The token police force there - only a dozen men - would be cut to ribbons if the aliens chose to attack en masse.

The X-Com combat team had loaded up into the Skyranger immediately and came down close to the alien craft. Rather brazenly, it had set down in the middle of a field of golden grain, unceremoniously frying everything for dozens of feet in every direction. It was of the now-familiar silvery gray metal type, although this one was positively huge and shaped like some obscene cross.

"X marks the spot," Robert had quipped.

There was nothing funny about it to the nervous police officers keeping an eye on the alien craft. They had evacuated everyone in the immediate vicinity, then parked a squad car at a set of its opposing apexes.

Chief Edgar Williams was terribly relieved to see the combat team, and made no attempt to hide it. He was in over his head, and he knew it. Still, he volunteered his men - without asking them - to act as backup if required.

Looking at their puny pistols, Ivan forbore to sneer at how much help they would be. At slightly past midnight, the only light came from the flashing sirens of the police cars and their headlights. Add the darkness to the myriad places available for five-foot gray men to hide in, and there was a prime recipe for a slaughter.

Wolf did not like it one bit, and made it known in no uncertain terms.

"Breaklights," he ordered. "And NVDs."

The night vision devices were bulky scopes that were fastened to the top of the XCR iron sights. It was only a matter of moments to screw them into place. As the chemical lightsticks were being passed around, Wolf detailed assignments.

"Alright, we shall assume that at least some aliens have left the ship. Pieter and Ivan, you boys sweep around the UFO on that side, and Drake and Mariko will handle this side. Intel says that the door is on the far side, facing the road to town, so you fellows meet up there. The rest of us chaps will clear the house then join up with you folks. Once the area is clear, we'll storm the alien craft and make sure we don't lose it this time."

"We?" Robert murmured softly.

Wolf ignored him.

"Let's go."


Moving in an uncomfortable half-crouch, Ivan sought to move as quietly as possible. The gentle rustling of the corn in the breeze covered the slight crunches his feet made as they landed. Coupled with the noisy crickets and night birds, Ivan thought he was all but inaudible. Still, it paid to be quiet.

Stalking around the perimeter of the alien craft, Ivan came to halt some thirty meters from the alleged 'door' of the alien craft. He settled into a prone position, training his XCR on the apparently blank surface of the UFO. Behind him, he could hear Pieter quietly moving into place to guard his back.

Guessing that Mariko and Drake would occupy a position roughly similar to theirs, only opposite their current position, Ivan activated the small infrared light attached to his NVD scope. The light could be used as an aid to reading maps in the dark, adapted from the old US Army PSV-7 night goggles. In a combat situation, it could be used to accurately acquire targets through the scope. Ivan had thought it to be a joke on mounting something like this on a weapon scope, but now he was grateful for it. The light was completely invisible to the human eye, but showed up like a beacon if looked at it through another NVD scope. Best of all, it was completely silent.

Ivan put his eye to the scope after turning the IR light on, and was rewarded by a brilliant streak leading off to some brush almost opposite his position. Satisfied, he switched the IR light off.

Now all they had to do was wait for Wolf to finish his sweep.


The house was a small one, probably housing only the farmer and his wife, maybe a kid or two, though unlikely, Wolf thought. Single-storied and unassuming, it was dark and menacing in the darkness. The door was slightly ajar, probably blown open by the wind. The sound of a television set left on filtered back out.

Cautiously edging the door fully open, with Robert and Monique covering him, Wolf entered the kitchen. A corridor led to the living room, lined on either side by four doors. He swore silently; four possible ambush points.

Creeping along quietly, Wolf motioned Monique to cover the corridor while Robert took the first room on the right. He headed for the one on the left, the XCR cradled lightly in his hand. He absently noted that Robert had slung his own XCR over his shoulder and had drawn his Walther P-88. Holding his breath, Wolf strained to listen for any sound out of the ordinary; the blaring television made it all but impossible. Rather annoyed at this, Wolf peeked into the room quickly, leading with the muzzle of the XCR.

It was a study room. Shelves of books lined the walls, and a simple writing desk was set in the middle. Apart from behind the desk, there was absolutely no place for any alien to hide. Feeling the tension drain momentarily out of him, Wolf glanced at Robert. The Englishman shook his head once, then gestured with his pistol to check out the second set of rooms.

They drew a similar negative. Only the living room left. His nerves rubbed raw with anticipation, Wolf would quite happily have shot the television to bits if the two Sectoids were not in the way.

They were watching the television. Jerry Springer, to be precise. Wolf and Robert looked on in amazement as the Sectoids gestured wildly with their arms, exchanging unreadable expressions. They seemed totally oblivious to the outside world.

"It's called television," Wolf informed them helpfully.

Startled, they turned, just in time to catch a hail of lead from the sweep team.


Something was wrong, Ivan could feel it. He whispered quietly to Pieter.

"Do you feel it?"

He felt rather than heard Pieter's nod.

"Da. Listen, no birds."

Indeed. The night had gone silent.

Pieter shifted his cyalume lightstick into one hand, snapped it with a rapid movement and hurled it as far as he could. As it sailed through the air, the chemicals in the breaklight ignited, releasing a pale green glow that was startlingly outstanding in the dark night.

Moments before the breaklight landed, a blaze of crimson energy lit the night. In a remarkable display of accuracy, the bolt of power consumed the breaklight. Ivan and Pieter had been waiting just for this.

Ivan put his eye to the NVD scope mounted on his XCR. The Starlight device amplified whatever light there was, turning the dark night an eerie dull green. Through it, two small figures could be seen moving rapidly through the underbrush in his direction.

In addition to its light amplification properties, the NVD also had targeting crosshairs painted on its lens. Ivan drew a bead on the lead alien, and tightened his finger on the trigger. Every third bullet in the magazine was a tracer round; essentially, a pyrotechnic compound in a hollow base that was ignited by the cartridge powder whenever the weapon was fired. This provided for highly visible target spotting because the shooter could see the bullet trajectory.

A brilliant streak of orange flashed out to connect solidly with something. The familiar squeal came as the alien stumbled and fell. Its partner turned quickly, unleashing fiery bolts of destruction over Ivan's head as he buried his face in the dirt.

Pieter returned the favour two-fold, the harsh whine of his XCR spitting out Duplex rounds, cutting through the night. Faint fire blossomed as the heavy bullets shredded the remaining alien. From across their position, Ivan heard a hissing, followed by the sound of explosive ammunition ricocheting off metal.

"Unfriendlies!"

The warning shout came over the comm-net just as verdant energy washed over the corn stalks mere inches from Pieter's left. His wince of pain from the superheated air was quickly followed by the sound of Pieter diving for cover.

Ivan spun away from his defeated enemies to face the UFO. A door had opened in its side, and the enemy was pulsing fire at his position. Mariko and Drake were already pumping bullets at the aliens still contained within the craft, the heavy weapons specialist having replaced the MG36 he had lost on the previous mission in Taiwan. Duplex rounds mixed with 5.56mm shells in a metal storm that swept the UFO entrance.

The battle was joined.


In the house, the first alien caught Wolf's first barrage full in the chest. The explosive rounds hurled its broken body into the television set, finally silencing it. 9mm Parabellums took apart the second Sectoid.

"Never knew Jerry Springer had such intergalactic appeal," Robert sniffed.

The whine of an XCR from the rear of the house brought them running back into the kitchen, where Monique crouched behind the kitchen sink. Azure and crimson energy pulses flashed over her head, cratering the walls and sending Wolf and Robert to the floor in a hurry.

"What took you so long?" Monique demanded as she snapped off another shot over her head without looking.

"We stopped to smell the flowers," Wolf returned equally curtly, crawling back to the relative safety of the corridor. A crimson bolt punched a hole in the corridor wall a full handspan across.

"They've got us well and truly pinned down," Robert observed, risking a crouching run to the counter next to the door. He flinched as a concentrated stream of fire obliterated the door frame on his side, but held his ground as he poked the XCR around the ruined door frame and fired blindly.

"Back upstairs," Wolf ordered.

If nothing else, the higher elevation would give them a better sniping position.

They started backing up, laying down a stream of suppressive fire to cover their retreat. Monique even made it as far as the study room before the alien grenade landed just outside the kitchen door. Even from there, the detonation caved walls in on top of them, and turned the kitchen inside-out.


The stand-off outside the UFO came to an abrupt halt as a ruby blast clipped Drake over one shoulder. It was only a glancing blow, but the impact flung him to the ground. Drake lay there stunned, the cloth of the uniform over his shoulder completely vaporized. The flesh beneath was charred black, and the sickening smell of burnt muscle hung heavy in the air. Through the haze of pain, Drake retained enough discipline to mouth into his throat mike, "SAW is hit, SAW is hit."

Mariko clinically noted that he was down for this fight, and quite possibly permanently if the shock did not kill him.

With the limited firepower afforded by only two aliens, Ivan and Pieter were able to leap-frog towards the open aperture in the UFO; while Ivan fired short bursts to cover Pieter, the other Russian would run for some nearby cover or just crash prone, then Pieter would do the same for Ivan. Unfortunately, as a natural consequence of the stress of high-speed movement and combat and the anticipation of getting hit by an energy burst, their aim was completely off. The fusillade of gunfire they returned did nothing but bounce off the tough metallic skin of the UFO. Firing into an open doorway is never easy, especially if it is dark inside the doorway, and the enemy is firing back at you.

The team only had one integrated rifle-grenade launcher. Fortunately, Mariko was holding it in her hands. The 40mm high explosive grenade chambered home with a satisfying click. She sighted along the IR line projected by her NVD scope, directly into the interior of the UFO doorway, then pulled the trigger gently.

The force of the explosive blast contained within the confines of the UFO interior was not particularly healthy to the aliens within the craft. There were terrified shrieks as the grenade went off. The night grew bright for a moment, punctuated with bits and pieces of flying alien.

Before the detonation had subsided, Ivan and Pieter were already sprinting for the door.

Regretfully leaving them to do so on their own, Mariko broke out the standard pocket-sized first aid bandage available to all armed forces of the world, and started seeing to Drake. If the big man was very lucky, he might even survive.


"What the ..."

Robert groaned as he pushed his way out of the wreckage. There was a terrible ringing in his ears, and he kept seeing bright flashing spots. Concussion, he analyzed. A bad one, too. He absently noted Wolf crouched down behind a pile of smoking debris, his nose and ears bleeding, but his eyes blazing with hatred. He did not see Monique anywhere.

Robert's blood went cold.

Unable to do more than that, he watched as if from a great distance. The first Sectoid stepped through the ruined doorway, obviously not expecting any threat. He saw its black-eyed glance settle on him, then the alien began moving purposefully towards the downed soldier. The deadly looking pistol the Sectoid held did nothing to comfort him. Behind the advancing alien, Robert could see another two more Sectoids, one following the first moving alien, and the other training its weapon on the smoldering portal.

No, Robert tried to gasp to Wolf, there are two more outside.

Wolf let the first Sectoid pass.

Robert found himself looking into the barrel of the alien pistol.

"Um," he began.

The loud crack of an XCR gave him a moment's warning before a veritable cloud of alien brains showered down all over him. Brushing frantically at the nauseating mess, Robert felt the Sectoid collapse on him, spilling more of its ichor all over him. He heard more sharp reports, and out of the corner of his eye, saw a very disheveled Monique cutting loose with her XCR.

As the team medic shot the head off the Sectoid about to execute Robert, Wolf moved into action. Fully aware that there could still be hostiles just outside the remains of the wall, he chanced a quick glance over the top of the pile of debris he was hiding behind. Spotting the two aliens Robert had seen earlier, Wolf saw the alien on overwatch begin shooting back at Monique as the second advancing Sectoid headed for the very same pile of rubble that Wolf was hiding behind, no doubt seeking cover. Neither appeared to have noticed him yet.

Wolf waited until the alien had crouched down, then vaulted over the mess and landed next to the surprised Sectoid. He bashed its broad forehead with the rifle stock, stunning it into dropping its weapon, then trained his weapon on the other alien.

Unable to decide whether to retaliate against Monique's fire or this sudden, new threat, the Sectoid hesitated for one fatal second. Monique flipped her XCR into full auto mode, and plugged the alien clean in the chest. As the first burst tore open the alien chest, Wolf dumped a few more of his own bullets into the already-open cavity.

A slim, four-fingered hand grabbed at his rifle then, pushing it upwards and spoiling his aim. With the overwatch alien already flying through the air in a geyser of green blood, that hardly mattered. Wolf released his rifle, then brought the flat edge of his hand down on the offending wrist and shattered it.

The Sectoid mewled in pain, immediately releasing the heavy rifle. Wolf drove a savage fist into the fallen alien, knocking the breath out of it. He drew his omnipresent katana with a single, fluid motion.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Wolf told the alien.

When Monique got to him, supporting the still-dazed Robert, she took one look at what Wolf had done to the Sectoid and promptly let the Englishman fall unceremoniously to the floor. Turning on one heel, Monique relinquished control over her stomach.


Ivan flattened himself against the side of the open UFO door, Pieter opposite him. A nod from Pieter, and he turned deftly to fall into a crouch, the XCR muzzle covering the door. All was silent though; evidently, Mariko's grenade had taken care of the aliens guarding the UFO door.

The UFO interior behind the door was a sort of broad Y-shaped junction, with the portion interconnecting the corridors widening into a small room. The ceiling gave off a faint, white glow that provided enough illumination to navigate by. The floor and walls had been blacked from the grenade blast, and the remains of three Sectoids lay strewn all over the room. From his vantage point, Ivan could see either exit from the central room terminating in a sort of door. An engraved symbol next to each door twinkled mischievously in the dim light.

Ivan moved all the way into the UFO, Pieter right behind him. Once inside, even with the main door open, it became unnaturally quiet, as if the very walls were absorbing all noise. His nerves strung tight, Ivan was horribly aware of the fact that he and Pieter were the only X-Com personnel aboard this alien vessel. There would be no reinforcements until Mariko finished tending to the wounded Drake outside.

The door behind them gave a sudden chirp, then slammed shut. A low hum filled the air, and Ivan thought he could feel vibrations through the craft. Panic almost consumed him, until training asserted itself. Alright, so they were sealed in. The door looked to be electronically opened, so all they had to do was find and shoot apart the control apparatus. Simple.

Pieter was also visibly anxious. He pointed with the XCR towards the right exit, and Ivan nodded in reply. He positioned himself facing the exit, while Pieter flattened himself against the wall containing the alien sigil. Taking a deep breath, Pieter touched the strange glyph.

The panel in front of them slid open with a soft hiss. The way was immediately clear, and Ivan lost no time in barreling through with his XCR leading. Pieter crouched down so that he was half-concealed by the panel frame, his XCR poking through the aperture at the room beyond.

It appeared to be some sort of control room, similar in structure to the one they had just left. Immediately across their entrance point was another exit, this one sealed shut. At the apex of the Y-shaped room, exotic machinery covered the walls. The centre wall was dominated by a huge display screen. Alien hieroglyphics flashed across it in a dazzling display.

Most interesting of all was the Sectoid standing in front of the screen. It was touching various symbols over the length of the walls, its four-fingered hands moving with surprising speed and precision. Pre-occupied with whatever it was doing, the alien turned as the entrance slid open and Ivan charged through. It squeaked in surprise and dove for cover as XCR bullets sizzled past it. The potent bullets shattered the display screen. The insistent hum of the ship was instantly silenced. Ivan and Pieter tracked the fleeing Sectoid, methodically walking their fire after it, destroying whatever alien machinery happened to be in the way. The Sectoid got as far as the other exit before a volley of 6.7mm bullets finally caught up with it.


Mariko caught up with Ivan and Pieter as they were killing the last alien. She had binded Drake's wound and propped him up against the side of a tree. They swept through the rest of the craft, fortunately turning up no more aliens. It certainly looked bigger on the outside than it was on the inside; apart from the entrance and control centres, there was a much smaller utility-type room located just behind the door the last alien had been trying to reach. From there, another door led back to the main entrance room.

Of greatest interest was the compartment located at the intersecting 'arms' of the X-shaped UFO. It reminded Ivan of the plasma propulsion tubes in the engine room of the U.S.S Enterprise in Star Trek. Those were only television props; these were the real thing. An elaborate set of alien controls sat on a panel in front of the column. Orange fire within the tube itself cast a warm shade on the walls of the room.

In the interim waiting for the Skyranger to arrive for dust-off, Monique took another look at Drake. The wound was far less serious than it looked; she judged it to be only second-degree burns. A bit of rest, and Drake would be back on duty with two weeks. It would be tender and sore while it healed, of course, but former Delta Force soldiers were supposed to be unspeakably tough. Drake's grumbling did not help the illusion.

Robert was more of a problem. He had most certainly received a serious concussion, and there was no telling if there was anymore internal damage until they got him back to an advanced medical facility for testing. The alien grenade had caved-in the kitchen as well, and Robert had been hit by a falling support beam. At least there was no clear cerebrospinal fluid leaking out of his ears.

Monique herself had taken the least injury, having been farthest away from the grenade when it had exploded. Apart from numerous bruises and a couple of splinters in awkward places, she was fine. The Colonel had been lucky enough to escape serious hurt as well, although he would experience tinnitus for the rest of his life.

All told, it had been a relatively good fight. No-one had gotten killed, although they were all a bit worse for the wear. And they had bagged their first intact UFO.

Well, intact apart from whatever Ivan and Pieter had shot apart.