Author's Note: First, I re-organized the chapters. Some of them were a little light, so they got folded in to others. I apologize if that caused any confusion for anyone. Next, I took a few creative liberties with this chapter. I'm trying to stay as true to the original game as I can, but I think this helped the narrative a little. I never actually experienced this in game, but read where it happened to others. Finally, I plan on going back to the Alien point of view and giving the Aussie team some action in the next chapter. As always, constructive criticism is welcome!
Date: 15 March, 1999
Location: Just outside Kaisers, Austria
The Skyranger circled around the site of the previous battle, looking for any activity. The site looked clear, so it landed in the same area as it had earlier that day. Captain "Ferocity" Smith was giving instructions as the rear ramp lowered.
"Zeta squad, you're out first, establish a perimeter around the Skyranger while we disembark. Gamma squad you'll make for the rock face and find the entrance. Private Calbred, you're with me for this one. Our call sign will be Alpha Squad. Captain Littlefield and her group will go by Beta Squad, they'll bring up the rear. Questions? No? Good. Move out!"
Gamma squad made it to the rock face without incident. "This is Gamma-1, coast clear, searching for the entrance, over."
"What? No welcoming reception?"
"They probably didn't think we'd be back so soon."
"That would fit with the superiority complex."
"Cut the chatter!" Captain Smith barked. "All squads meet by the rock face and look for the entrance. Let's get in there before they know we're here."
The base entrance was located after about 15 minutes of searching. Like the previous base, they found themselves in a room with a green floor. Four glowing red tiles were in the northeast corner, which they assumed to be the lift down in to the base.
The entire team made their way to the southeast corner of the base. From initial appearances, it had a similar layout to the previous alien base.
Captain Smith gave orders right away. "Zeta squad, you sweep west from here, until you can't go any further. Gamma squad, go north one room and sweep west from there. Beta squad, go north two rooms. I'll take Alpha squad north three rooms and sweep west from there…get on the radio as soon as you find the control center. Move out."
Zeta squad was the first to make it to the other side of the base. Sergeant Weisse called the team lead. "Alpha-1, this is Zeta-1, southern rooms clear, over."
"Roger, sweep north until you can't anymore, then sweep back east. Out." Captain Smith replied. Her squad entered the northern entrance of a big room. The Captain recognized the layout from the previous base. She signaled to Captain Littlefeild, who just entered the southern entrance.
"If I recall correctly, there is a small door on the western side. You and your team sweep south, we'll sweep north. Do NOT enter that door until we are all there, clear?"
Captain Littlefield remembered what had happened and simply nodded.
Both teams circled around and met up at the small door on the eastern side of the west hallway. Captain Smith's face went pale for a second, but she took a deep breath and the color quickly returned to her face. "Ok," she began, "I'll go in first. All of you remain here until I give the all clear, understood?"
"Felicity," Captain Littlefield started, "I remember what happened. You witnessed it. Let me go in first and you follow up behind."
Captain Smith shook her head. "I appreciate that, but no. Stay here, wait for my signal. If one of those bastards has a blaster launcher, you take him out before he does any more damaged, got it?"
"Got it….good luck."
Felicity "Ferocity" Smith steeled herself and ran in. She got to the lift, quickly went up and did a 360. The small room was empty, with a door on each wall, north, east, south and west. "This is Alpha-1, all clear."
Captain Littlefield let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, then quickly issued orders. "Tanaka, Calbred, with me. The rest of you, guard this door."
The three of them joined Ferocity on the second level, who immediately issued orders, "Littlefield, north. Calbred, east. Tanaka, west." She then went to through the south door and found the room empty. "Clear!" she called.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
All four met back in the center room. "Where all they all? This place is awful quiet." Captain Smith observed.
"Too quiet," Captain Littlefield agreed. "I recommend we find the control center as soon as we can."
"Agreed."
They didn't have to go far. Directly to the west, through the northern opening in the west wall, they found the circular room, along with the alien fungus on the floor, ceiling and walls.
Captain Littlefield and her squad went through the southern opening in the western wall and found themselves in a huge bay or hanger of some sort. Lori remembered what had happened last time and braced for the worse, but it was empty. The other two squads came up from the two entrances in the southern wall, but there were no aliens.
She motioned them over and all three squads went north, joining Captain Smith. Ferocity looked at them and nodded. "Ok, Beta and Gamma squads, circle around to the west and then the north. Zeta squad with me. We'll all meet at the north doorways."
All four squads met up at the doorways and lined up on either side. Captain Smith opened the doors and plasma bolts were exchanged immediately. Who fired first is anyone's guess, but the fight was fierce. It was also brief and ended with two dead Mutons and no casualties for the XCOM soldiers.
"Zeta squad, guard the door. The rest of you, split up and meet at the south doorways." Captain Smith ordered.
The groups circled around and met up without incident. "Ok, Gamma squad and my squad will run in, toss some grenades through the lift and run out. B-L, you and your squad cover us." Smith gave her orders, abbreviating, Captain "Big Lori" Littlefield's nickname.
Ferocity opened the doors, counted down with her fingers and ran in with her team. Six grenades were through the lift. A few plasma blasts came through in response. One of them hit Private Calbred in the back, sending him flying forward. Captain Littlefield and Sergeant Tanaka pulled him through and Tanaka tended to his wound.
The rest of the team made it back unscathed. The listed for the half dozen explosions and dozen or so secondaries, the noise drowned out the angry screams of the Mutons. They waited a full five minutes after the noise died down, before going in to investigate. Captain Littlefeild went in without a word. Captain Smith followed her and motioned for the rest to cover them.
They found complete destruction on the second level. The grenades had set something off. It almost looked as if there was a bit of a chain reaction. The Mutons didn't stand a chance at survival. The captains counted four bodies, but they were barely recognizable. They decided four was a good number.
Sergeant Tanaka approached as they returned to the rest of the group. "Ah, apologies Captain. Private Calbred…" he shook his head and looked down sadly.
"It's ok, Doc, it's not your fault," Smith said. Then she turned to the others. "I need two volunteers to bring Lotis back to the green room. The rest of us will sweep south."
Tanaka was the first to volunteer. Private Alton Boot volunteered next. The rest of them met up with Zeta squad, and then broke up to sweep the base again. Everyone met back in the green room without incident.
"Doesn't this seem odd to you?" Big Lori asked.
"Yeah, this place is empty…just six of them? And only near the control center? Where are the rest?" Ferocity answered.
"We swept the place twice." B-L observed.
"Yeah, ok, I'll call it." Captain Smith replied, then got on the radio. "Control, this is Alpha-1, site secure, 1 KIA, 6 aliens, recommend sending salvage team, over."
"…"
"Control, this is Alpha-1, over."
"…"
"Control, this is Alpha-1, come in, over."
"…"
Smith turned to Littlefield. "Shit." She said. "Something's wrong. We need to head back, stat." She turned to the rest of the group. "Back to the Skyranger. Move your asses!"
Once everyone was aboard, she went forward to the pilot's cabin. "Base isn't responding, get us back, quick as you can."
"Could be the mountains," the pilot responded. "They could be interfering with the radios."
"Not these radios. We need to get back. I know I can't give you orders, but you need to push this thing to its limits."
"Roger," the pilot responded as he worked the controls. The Skyranger shot up into the sky and then shot forward with barely a transition. If Felicity had not been holding on, she would have flown backwards. She wondered if the pilot did that on purpose, but he was doing a good job at hiding whatever amusement he felt.
Date: 15 March, 1999
Location: XCOM-CENTRAL, Radar Center, Two hours prior
The Battleship appeared on the scope without warning, just a few miles out. The tech wasted no time in sounding the alarm.
The Alert-5 FIRESTORM was launched immediately.
"Control, Firestorm-1, Uniform-11 appears to be a battleship, over."
"This is control, roger, engage with caution."
"This is Firestrom-1, roger, going hot on Avalanch…moving into range…FOX 1!"
The missile streaked across the sky and had no trouble hitting a target as large as the alien battleship. The UFO fired back, hitting the Firestorm.
"Control, I'm hit. Minor damage to avionics…FOX 1!"
The pilot fired off his second and third missiles back to back. Both struck the UFO, but barely did any damage. The UFO returned fire, causing more damage to the Firestorm, but it was still flying.
"Firestorm-1, Control, move to stand-off distance, stay out of range."
"Roger, maintaining stand-off distance."
The technician watched as the UFO approached the base. Sending up the Alert-15 would be suicidal. He made the call.
"All stations, UFO-11, inbound. Looks to be a battleship. ETA 7 seven minutes. Prepare for base assault."
XCOM-CENTRAL Accessway
Commander Jimenez joined his soldiers in suiting up. They had enough personal armor for everyone, but only six more Plasma Rifles. Fortunately they had three Heavy Plasmas. There were no spare clips though, so things would be tight. To make this even worse, there were only six soldiers on the base. Colonel Lancer, Major Xavier and the Commander would have to fight as well.
The soldiers were suited up, armed and by the accessway in a matter of minutes. Major Xavier and Private Mohammed were using the wall to the hangar as cover. The commander walked up and told the major to take cover on the other side of the accessway.
"Respectfully, no sir." Miriam replied
"Excuse me?"
"You should not be here at the front line, you shouldn't even be out here. I realize we're a little short on soldiers, so you suited up, but with your leg, you are liability, you need to be back there." She said, pointing. "Frankly, sir, we don't have time to argue about it."
The Commander hated to admit it, especially to himself, but she was right, on both counts. He could see the determination in her eyes. He'd felt it himself just a few short weeks ago. He nodded and moved to the hallway behind the accessway. A private had already taken cover there, and he simply said, "Move." His tone made it clear there was no room for argument. The private looked towards the Major, who nodded and he shifted back. All the soldiers were behind cover and just in time.
There was an explosion and the hangar doors were forced open. Mutons dropped through from above. "Open fire!" Major Miriam "Huntress" Xavier called out and she dropped a muton with two blasts from her Heavy Plasma
One of the Mutons threw an alien grenade that exploded in the accessway. All four doors were blown off. The explosion killed Major Xavier outright and severely wounded Private Tabrez Mohammed. One of the doors from the accessway finished him off. The remaining soldiers were stunned.
Commander Jimenez dropped to one knee, levelled his Heavy Plasma and dropped the Muton who threw the grenade. Another Muton fired at the Commander, but he ducked behind the wall. The plasma blast took a chunk out of the corner, leaving scorched marks around the edge. Colonel Lancer fired off two three round bursts, killing the Muton who fired on the Commander.
The Commander got back on his knee and fired his weapon, killing another Muton. "Did you all forget how your weapons work?" he screamed. "Open FIRE!"
That was enough to shake the soldiers out of their stunned inaction. All of them opened fire on the Mutons. Half dozen went down before they wised up and took cover. One of them threw an alien grenade but it fell short.
"Blaster Launcher!" one of the soldiers cried. Private Charles Jones saw it and fired his Plasma Rifle. He fired two three round bursts, the last two hit and that was enough to drop the Muton.
For the next hour, neither side made any gains or suffered any losses. The Mutons could not get close enough to use their grenades and the one Muton tried to grab the blaster launcher was quickly gunned down. The Mutons were unable to break out of the hangar, but tie was a loss for XCOM. The situation needed to change and change quickly.
"I'm out!" the Commander yelled. "Valich, switch!" Corporal Valich sprinted forward and took the Commanders spot.
"I'm out too!" The Colonel shouted.
"Callioni, switch!" The Commander ordered. Private Callioni moved to the Colonel's position. A muton took advantage and fired at her, hitting her in the leg. Corporal Valich took out the Muton.
"I'm ok, Armor took it" Callioni said. She immediately began firing on the Mutons, who were behind cover. She hit one of the oil drums, causing an explosion that took out the Muton behind it. The other Mutons scrambled for more suitable cover.
"What do you think, Nurse?" Miguel asked.
"I think we're running low on Ammo and may have to switch to laser rifles."
The commander nodded. "Pierre, head to the armory, grab as many laser rifles as you can carry and bring them back here…move!" Private Allure ran to the armory to carry out his orders. Before he got back, the Mutons stopped firing. At first, they heard a marked increase in the plasma weapons firing. Then, dead silence. They waited for a few minutes, but silence remained.
It was suddenly broken. "Clear!" came a voice. "Hold your fire! Friendlies inbound! 78362-Sierra!"
"Hold your fire!" The commander ordered. "Ferocity! Good timing! Have your team sweep the hangars. B-L, have your team sweep the exterior." Both Captains nodded and carried out their orders.
Commander Jimenez half sat, half slumped to the floor and let out a breath. "That was close, Nurse." He said.
"I know. Too close. We need more soldiers, and more weapons."
"Well, I'm assuming alpha team was more successful in their base assault than the aliens were. Weapons and clips should be ok. Let's note right now, to not ever sell plasma magazines of any sort. We'll talk about the rest later. Make sure clean-up operations go smooth. I'm gonna get our base operational again."
Michelle nodded and set about carrying out her orders.
Commander's Office – Twenty minutes later
Captain Smith, Captain Littlefield and Colonel Lancer were sitting at the Commander's table. The captains were being debriefed on their mission first, then they would be briefed on the alien's failed assault.
"The base was laid on in a similar fashion to the first one, although the rooms were laid out differently. We entered the base near the southeast corner. We broke up into four teams and swept east to west. There was absolutely no resistance. We all met up at the control center, which was in the northwest part of the base. It was only here that we encountered the slightest bit of resistance."
"Define 'slightest bit'," the Colonel said.
"When we opened the north doors to the control center, there were two Mutons guarding the entrance."
Colonel Lancer nodded and motioned for her to continue.
"We entered the outer circle and made our way to the south doorways, into the control room proper. We threw some grenades up on to the second level. There were a dozen or so secondary explosions, but not before they fired blindly in our direction. Private Calbred was hit in the back by a lucky shot, he didn't pull through."
"Damn," the Commander observed. "Sorry, please continue."
"We did another sweep of the base, this time from north to south. Nothing. There were only six Mutons total. Two when we first entered into the control center area and we found four bodies in the control center itself when all the explosions had finished. I radioed in for the salvage team, but could not get through.
"Yeah, we had our own issues here. I'll get to that in just a moment."
"Yessir. We made it back here as quickly as we could. Pilot pushed the Skyranger to its limits, and then some. We saw two of the hangars blasted open. The one furthest from the access way was empty, so we repelled in there. We managed to surprise the Mutons from behind. It was an intense firefight, but we got them all, without any further injuries to our team."
"Anything to add, Captain Littlefield?" The Commander asked
"No, sir. We did our sweep, like you ordered, but came up empty. It was odd how empty that base was. Think they knew we were coming? Chose to launch the attack with fewer soldiers to defend our base?"
"More than likely, our previous visit alerted them that we knew where they were. That base you assaulted was very likely a staging ground for what they did today. Once they were discovered, they had no choice to but hit us. I tried to get you all out there quickly, but not quick enough, apparently."
"Jefe," Colonel Lancer began. "Miriam's death was not your fault."
The Commander opened his mouth to respond, thought for a moment, then closed it. The Captains looked at him questioningly. "Let me brief you on what occurred here while you were out," He said.
"We had a very large UFO inbound. We launched the Firestorm."
"Did it work? Oh, excuse me sir." Captain Smith interrupted and then apologized for her interruption.
"S'ok, it did…sort of. It withstood the UFO's weapons but took heavy damage. Still, it survived three shots. Hit it with three Avalanche missiles, doing minimal damage. We do have a more effective interceptor and in another day or two, we should have more effective weapons to mount on it. We're going to build more, but I'll get to that later."
"Yessir, thank you sir."
The Commander nodded and then continued. "We did not have time to evacuate people, but the changes we made to the layout of the base did keep the aliens from infiltrating past the hangars. We set up our defense in the accessway. Non-essentials were sealed away in the old hangar area. The Mutons came through the hangars, just like last time."
"We noticed the outer doors were blown open," Captain Littlefield confirmed.
"Major Xavier and Private Mohammed were up front. The mutons hit us with a grenade first, both of them were killed. We had mostly rookies, so the Colonel and I took down the first few Mutons, and then they seemed to wake up and started firing. We quickly fell into a stalemate. They couldn't advance and we couldn't get to them without exposing ourselves. One of them tried using a blaster launcher, but the alien was quickly cut down. The colonel and I ran out of ammo, so we switched places. That's when Callioni was hit. I sent Private Allure to fetch some laser rifles and that was about when you all showed up and saved our skins. Kudos to both of you."
Both captains nodded. Smith spoke up. "So, Huntress and Bolo, both gone in the same day. I'm sorry, sir."
"Thanks," The Commander let down his guard a little. "A few weeks ago…God, seems like ages now…I was on the other side of this table having a very similar conversation with my predecessor. I was even a Major at the time, so when Miriam wouldn't let me take her spot up front, I knew that she would gladly risk court martial before moving. I knew because I had that same look, which is why the Commander let me go on that first Base Assault…we lost Colonel Copperfield and I was permanently injured. Now I know exactly how the previous jefe felt when we came back. Both of you have shown exceptional skill and leadership, so I am promoting both of you to Major, but there will be one condition which you will not fail on."
They were both shocked, whether it was the sudden promotion or the coming condition, the Commander couldn't say, so he continued. "Both of you will hold me accountable to doing what's right, not what's convenient. The base and the soldiers and the program all come first. We can't let our own personal pride interfere, bad things happen. Are we clear?"
"Very clear sir," the both said. "And, thank you, sir." Captain Smith said.
"Don't thank him yet, you don't know what you're in for." The Colonel said with a smile.
The mood was lifted slightly and the Commander took his queue. "Major Smith, you are in charge of recruiting and training soldiers. I want twenty-four soldiers at each base. You will promote two team leaders to Captain and as many squad leaders to Sergeant as you need. You will also be the Colonel's back-up. The deputy deputy, as it were."
"Aye, sir." She replied.
"Major Littlefield, you will command both Alpha and Beta teams. Work with Ferocity on the rosters for both. Once they're set up, you make the calls. You're not to go on missions unless you are filling in a specific need. We'll need both of you here for base defense. We're sorely lacking experienced soldiers and it's only going to get worse when the new rookies arrive."
The commander then shifted gears. "Colonel Lancer, I want you to focus on researching a better armor for our soldiers. The Mark 1 Personal Armor was good, until the Murons showed up with their Heavy Plasmas. We're still losing too many soldiers, that needs to change and quickly. When will the Plasma Beam project be finished?
"Another day or two at most."
"Tell Dr. Albright she as one day, and then she needs to focus the team's efforts on better armor."
"Sir, if I may," Captain Smith began. The Commander nodded and she continued. "We could also use a better HWP. Our current one doesn't hold up much better against the Heavy Plasma."
"Good point. Armor first, and then a better HWP. Those are the two new priorities for our scientists. Ok, that's all I have. Any questions?"
"What about clips for the weapons?" Major Littlefield asked.
"Salvage teams are already enroute to the battleship and alien base. Another is coming through our base as we speak. We'll have enough for the time being. We're not selling clips anymore and our engineers will manufacture more if we need them. We need to conserve Elerium, but if we need clips, then we'll use some of our stockpile. Anything else?"
Neither of the newly promoted majors had any questions, so the Commander dismissed them. Colonel Lancer remained behind. Once the door was closed Miguel let out a long breath.
"You did well, Jefe." Michelle said.
He just looked at her.
"I mean it. You saved the base, you listened to your subordinates, you kept your own pride in check, and frankly, you were pretty badass out there, gimp or not."
That last part brought a smile to the Commander's face. "Thank you, Nurse…healing the mind as well as the body, eh?"
She laughed, "Yeah, I guess so."
"Bolo was one of us. One of the original eight, I mean," Miguel started. "I think that hits the most. Just you, Jaques and myself now."
"We're going to lose more soldiers before this is over, we can't stop that."
"No, but we can minimize it. Huntress and Bolo were both some of our best. We can't stop soldiers from dying, but we can do everything in our power to prevent it. We can't keep going out there with rookies anymore, Michelle. We need more experienced troopers, and we only get the experienced ones, by keeping the inexperienced ones alive."
"No argument here, Jefe. I'll make sure we get better armor for our troops, you keep from beating yourself up, ok? You really are doing a fine job. The council was smart to put you in charge."
"And here I thought you were bucking for my position."
"Not on your life, it's way too hard and too much paperwork for me," she said with a laugh.
Barracks – Five minutes later
As typically happened, word of the captain's promotion to major reached the barracks before they did. Most the soldiers were cleaning their gear or cleaning themselves, but they all looked up when the two women arrived and greeted them with applause.
"Yeah, yeah, thanks and all that." Major Smith said, but she was smiling.
"So, Ferocity, how'd it go?" Private Boot asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the up close and personal with the Commander. How was the old coot?"
Major Smith started to correct him, but Private Antoni Valich beat her to it.
"Hey, watch what you say about the Commander. He saved all our asses today while you were out dicking around."
"Right, a man with a cane is a superhero?"
Antoni decked him. Major Smith stepped to intervene, but Major Littlefield stopped her.
"Have you even bothered to read anything about XCOM? You little suka? That 'old man with a cane' was the first to encounter an alien and not freak out. He went on every mission he could, even when he didn't have to, even when he was injured. You didn't seem him out there today. When the Major…umm, I mean Major Xavier…was killed, we all froze. He took out two Mutons before any of us could find our fucking triggers. That 'old man with a cane' has more alien kills than any one on this base…more than all of you rookies put together. You best show him a little more respect, or it will be more than my fist you feel, understand?"
Antoni's message was received loud and clear, by all of them. Littlefield gave Smith a knowing smile and then went to clean up.
Date: 16 February, 1999
Location: Muton Staging Area, Sol System
The Commander of the fourth legion was engraged. He had three of his Cohort leaders present and for the first time, some of them were knowing fear.
"How could this happen? How could those primitive baka* destroy then entire ground force we placed?"
"My liege, if I may…?" The leader of the second cohort began.
"Stop your groveling and speak!"
"Our base went offline after the assault was launched. This would indicated they waited until the base was empty before they took it…"
"WHY WAS OUR BASE LEFT UNGUARDED!?" The Commander roared.
"We can only assume it was the decision of the Prime," the leader of the third cohort said deftly.
The Commander saw through his ploy. "We do not blame the dead for our failures. The Prime was ten times the warrior as any of you. He died in the face of the enemy, like a true warrior should. Yes, he failed on his first assault, but he lead this one personally and died with honor. You will not sully his name with your pathetic excuses. You want his position? You earn it."
"To that end, my liege, I have a plan," the second cohort leader began, with more confidence than he felt.
"Explain."
"Our infiltrators are only in a select few countries. We should send a message to the rest. We've already hit one city in the…in the United States…we should hit another, this time, I will see to the details myself. If we can't hit the resistance force directly, we can erode their support."
"Normally there is not much honor in fighting a lesser enemy, but there is a certain cunning to your plan. Make sure you succeed…you're all dismissed."
*Baka is actually a Japanese word that is roughly translated as idiot, fool, moron. I thought the context was a little fitting. I'm going to attempt to show how the different races relate in future chapters.
