Lt. White's voice comes over the comm net once we've all got our gear on. "OK, we're touching down in five mikes. Get good and hydrated before we pop the hatch, the pilots said it's one oh two down there, so you'll dry up fast once we see some action. Looks like the UFO landed pretty hard, we'll see how many survived the crash."

I open up my water bottle, then down the last half of it before screwing the top back on and putting it under my seat. I grab my overhead bar and get ready for the shock of landing. Broski's voice comes over the PA. "On deck now... now... now." The Skyranger bumps a little, but Broski gets us down smooth. White asks for final checks from everyone, he gets seven thumbs up back. "OK Broski, pop the hatch."

The ramp separates from the back of the plane and starts to swing down. Immediately, a blast of hot, dry wind sucks the air out of my lungs as it replaces the cool, air conditioned atmosphere I enjoyed for the flight over. All I can think is... Nevada sucks. I'm first out today, with Sumie right behind me. I step down the ramp, boots clanking on the metal until I hit the sand and bush. The UFO's Atmodome is easy to see downrange, shimmering in the desert sun. This one is another large scout like my first mission. I wonder if they'll be Sectoids this time, or Floaters again. Doesn't matter too much, we're going to do our best to kill them either way. The terrain is a little hilly here, so I move to the left to put one of the hills between my team and the UFO. Don leads his team off to the right. They've got a bit further to go to the nearest cover, so it looks like we'll be door guard this time around. Sumie moves off to my left and behind about 10 meters, Son and Mikhail another 10 behind her as we move toward the hill in formation at a brisk walk. The altitude and heat are definitely taking their toll, I'm a little winded and a complete sweaty mess after covering the 100m to the hill. Once we get there, Son reports we're in position. Lt. White rogers. "Copy. Have Yamada poke his head over the hill and see if the door is on your side." Son replies "Wilco." and looks at me. I nod my head and start making my way up the short hill. As I near the top, I drop to a crawl and poke my head over the top of the hill. I see the UFO, identical to the one from my last mission. The door is on our side and... "Oh shit!" I duck back down.

"Alpha One, Lead, Report." Lt. White sounds irritated.

"Lead, Alpha One, unknown alien sighted next to the UFO."

"Go ahead."

"It..." I try to think how to describe it. "It looks like a big green Lindsay." I hear Lindsay mumble something about hurting me over the common net, drawing a quick 'Can it' from Lt. White. I'm too freaked out to smile, so I try to continue describing the alien. "It's about two meters tall, humanoid, and wearing some kind of skin tight green suit. Looks like it's carrying one of the heavy plasma guns."

"Copy, standby while we get into position."

"Roger."

I switch to the squad net. "Son, I'm going to go back up and peek over the top with my mirror." Son replies "Rog. Be careful."

I turn over and pull out my mirror, making sure the sun is behind me so I don't reflect it back to the UFO and give away our position. Peeking over the edge, I get a better look at the... thing. It's still facing away from me, so all I can see is its green back. The thing is huge, with rippling muscles on top of muscles. As I watch, it starts making its way around the UFO, maybe to inspect damage.

"Target one bears 330 at 45m. Moving westbound to circle around the craft."

The red enemy designator dot pops up on our HUDs as Lt. White acknowledges my call. "Roger. Wait until it gets out of sight. Alpha Three, I want you and Alpha Four on overwatch from that hill. Alpha One and Two, sweep to the left a little and cover the angles to the door."

Son copies the orders and works his way up alongside Mikhail to the top of my little hill. He slaps my helmet. "Good job Ian. You and Sumie move to that next hill to the left. I want Sumie watching the door with us, and you scanning the 'Dome to the west."

"Rog." I wait for him and Mikhail to get their Laser Cannon and Dragunov set up, then Sumie and I work our way to the next hill over. When we get there, we set up about 10m apart, her watching the door, and me the close side of the UFO and the rest of the 'Dome. I don't see any sign of the alien or any of his buddies, and hunker down to wait for Bravo to come around from the right.

Suddenly I hear the very loud, very terrifying sound of plasma weapons firing. Lt. White's voice snaps over the net. "Get down Mike! Bravo, fall back and get some cover. Alpha, Bravo has been sighted, falling back. I don't think they're aware of your unit, sweep around UFO to flank."

Son acknowledges with a terse "Roger. Alpha, on squad net." I click over to the Squad only net, leaving Son in contact with Lt. White and Bravo. I hear Mikhail and Sumie check in as I come up. "Two's up." "Four's up." I check in; "One's up."

Son quickly passes out instructions. "OK, let's get moving around this thing. Line ahead, stop and dash, STAY BEHIND THE HILL." We all roger up. Since I'm One today, I scoot back down the hill a little bit, then start dashing along the slope, keeping it between me and the UFO. As I reach the end of the hill on my right, I start to slow down a bit to make sure there are no nasty surprises for us around the corner. I hold up my fist, palm forward, to let everyone know I'm stopping. Looking away from the hill, I see the carcass of an old cactus lying on the ground I can use for cover, then take a quick peek around until I can see the edge of the UFO. It looks clear so far, I'm guessing the aliens are pretty focused on killing Bravo right now. I pump my fist, palm in toward me; to let the squad know I'm continuing to move, then make my dash toward the cactus. As the sweat starts pouring down all over my body, I feel my muscles start to complain about the strain and lack of oxygen.

As I approach the cactus, I slide behind it and peek back toward the UFO to make sure it's still clear. So far, so good. I scooch to my left a bit behind the cactus and wave to Sumie to follow, she dashes and slides to the cactus and takes up position to cover my next move. I hear Son come over the net again. "Mikhail, see if you can get visual on the aliens attacking bravo."

I hear Mikhail respond with a low "Da.", but I'm already dashing to the next hill to make my way around to the far side of the UFO. Lt. White has marked what hostiles he could ID so far. As I continue around the back of the hill, I watch three angry red dots make their way from outside my field of view to ahead of me and to the right. The distance marker reads 30 yards, so they must be behind some kind of cover around the end of my hill. I take a quick glance back, and see Sumie is close behind me, with Son behind the cactus still. Mikhail is on his back, peeking above the last ridge with his mirror. I hear him come over our squad net. "I have wisual. Three targets behind right wing of UFO and large cactus. Big hole in top of UFO."

Son replies "Roger, can you get a shot at them?"

Mikhail; "Da, I can take at least one, stand by."

I don't have time to watch Mikhail; I already have my mirror out and am trying to catch a peek at his targets. I have to scoot along the ground twice before I see the same, or what looks like the same, green back I saw before. I report to Son.

His reply is quick: "Roger. Grenade."

"Copy." This is going to be bad ass. I swing my laser rifle around to my back, then pull a grenade off my belt and set the timer to zero so it explodes on impact. Holding my rifle clear with my left hand, I step left just far enough to see my target. Heaving the explosive, I immediately take cover back behind the hill. a second later I hear a loud "BOOM!" and satisfying alien screams.

Son's voice, "Mikhail, status!"

"Direct hit with grenade. Targets all up, one looks like it is cut up, Fall back now."

Targets all up? What the shit, I nailed that thing...

I see a yellow ball with a blue stripe fly by, Sumie's proximity grenade lands just on the other side of the hill, directly on the path the Aliens should take. I decide running away would be a great idea. My feet slip a couple times on the sand as I try to start running and get up at the same time. They finally take traction, and I start a headlong dash back to my cactus. Sumie is already set with her rifle pointed straight at me. I see Mikhail's rifle kick, then hear the report a split second later. He has to fire four times before I finally hear "Target down."

Suddenly, I stumble forward as a wave of heat and pressure blast past me. Apparently one of them has found Sumie's grenade. I pick myself back up and half stumble/half dash behind my cactus just as I see Son and Sumie open fire over my head. Scooching tactically around the end of the cactus to take cover beside Sumie, I whip my laser rifle back around right as green plasma bolts start flying overhead. They always say time slows down when you're deep in the shit. It's true, but it's a little more like you're hyper aware of everything happening around you, so you're moving through this slowed down world equally slowly. Everything is reduced to the loud reports of Mikhail's rifle, the loud whine of the alien plasma weapons, and the sizzle of our Lasers super heating the air.

I see Mikhail's smoke cloud begin to build as he tries to find new cover; Son has whipped out the tripod on his Laser cannon and is in prone position, carefully aiming each painfully slow shot. Sumie is next to me, blasting away at full auto, I slowly whip my head around to see one of the aliens fully upright and walking toward us, heavy plasma at his hip, green streaks of death flying out of its business end. it shrugs off Son's laser hit and two by Sumie. It's clearly trying to get Mikhail; the shots are all going into the smoke cloud where Mikhail used to be. I take a split second to wonder if Mikhail is still alive then start blasting the juggernaut in front of me. It suddenly jerks back its right shoulder, then a leg as Son blasts it again and Sumie and I each score hits. It's still up, but starting to falter, dropping heavily to one knee. it tries to bring its gun back up, but is jerked again by another shot. I hear the loud report of a large caliber rifle and know Mikhail is OK. Sumie and I each score a hit on the thing, which finally decides to die. Letting out a blood curdling, low pitched roar, the alien clutches its chest and falls face first into the sand. Mikhail, cool as a Moscow ice bar in winter, says "Target down."

As Sumie and I look at each other incredulously we hear Son come over our squad net. "Holy fucking, son of a shit. Everyone OK?"

I hear Mikhail "Four up." Sumie "Two up." Me "One up."

Son again, "Stand by, let me see what's going on with Bravo."

While Son talks to Lt. White, Sumie and I just look at each other. She mouths "Holy Fuck." at the same time I mouth "Fucking shit dude."

"Good news team, Bravo is good to go; Lt. White says thanks for letting them get some shots in so they could take their guy down. Everyone back on top net." I click over and check in with the rest of Alpha. Lt. White's voice crackles over the net. "OK, looks like we're all somehow still alive. There's a total of three of those things down. We don't know how many are left in the UFO. Alpha, take position on those two hills and watch our backs while we take clearing duties."

Son Rogers up. He orders Sumie and Mikhail to take the first hill while Son and I take the second. Once we're in position, We realize we can see a little bit into the top of the UFO. It's hard to make out anything around the glare coming off the skin of the ship, but it doesn't look like anything is moving around inside. I can't even see Bravo go through the entry routine. All I can do is wait as I hear the door slide open, then hear the "Whump, Whump" of two grenades going off as I see the flashes inside the UFO.

I hear Don report over the net. "Inside's completely blown to shit. Looks like there's the leftovers from two of those things around with a lot of guts and stuff. You know, this reminds of the one when Riker was on an away mission..."