Time/Date: 2015 AD
Location: Sol System, Mars surface
While most would label Mars' surface romantically, it was a cold, dusty, dark, and very bad place to be. Oxygen was overruled by Co2 and sandstorms beat the crap out of anything on the ground.
But titanium-A hull plating made a VERY good shield in conjunction with Federation deflector shielding, Drake noted as he stared out the forward viewport of the UNSC Saratoga over Utopia Planitia, where, in the UFP timeline, a major shipyard facility gave birth to many classes of starship, including the Intrepid and Galaxy-Classes.
Now, it served as the hiding place for the UNSC ships, as they stayed put as the Ra Cailum handled what was going on at Earth. While they obviously couldn't leave to go outside, they were still safe from any alien attacks - especially with the upgrades currently being fielded across the combat-capable ships.
The Saratoga, Providence, and Jericho were all getting a decent Starfleet retrofit to let them stand a bit closer to Starfleet Standards. While not much could be done for their Titanium Armor, the engineers were able to retrofit other bits of technology, including Phaser turrets, a few photon torpedo launchers, deflector shields among other things.
And all it took was for Drake to accept Ron's offer of asylum. It felt like a betrayal, but to be honest, it was better than the UNSC would do. At least Ron was up front about the truth and didn't bullshit like ONI did.
"Captain, we're picking up a transmission from the Ra Cailum. Captain Pinkerton on the line."
Drake nodded "Patch it through," He said, turning to face the main screen, which then displayed the Starfleet captain that was very quickly becoming the UNSC Personnel's BFF. "Captain, what's the situation over there?"
"We've made contact with the locals; they've got a bit of an alien infestation over here, and I bet your Marines and ODSTs are getting bored. I'll supply the guns, you supply me anyone who wants to shoot anything non-Terran not wearing a Starfleet uniform." Another thing they liked about him: he thought they'd refuse a chance to shoot anything that was a threat to Earth.
Like hell they'd pass THAT up.
"I'll send word to the others," Drake nodded "They'll be more than happy to be the ones kicking alien ass for once."
"Fun times. I'd go down there myself, but… Sonja REALLY doesn't want to push The Button." Drake didn't want to know, and was spared the chance to ask. "Call me when your people are ready for transport. Pinkerton out." The call ended, and Drake drew up a short list.
All of them Spartans.
"Get the Spartans suited up for deployment," he informed. "And send word to Tarkov to get his best men prepped as well."
XCOM GHQ
Sonja held up a weapon she barely considered a weapon: the 22nd century phase pistol. While it was the ancestor to the phasers they used, issues with the weapon caused them to be phased out of service in 2178, forcing them to use modified hadron-infused pulse laser weapons until 2250, when the refined phaser entered service almost 70 years later.
She'd made the improvements to the weapons, as well as the phase rifles, bringing them just barely to spec, but it would just be easier to give them disruptor technology. The Klingons and Romulans wouldn't mind.
…Actually, NO ONE would mind. Almost everyone used disruptors. The only reason the Kazon didn't was the fact that the Trabe developed phaser technology.
"I KNOW that these are supposed to be more advanced and all… " One of the XCOM soldiers mused as they investigated one of the rifles, "But… I still kinda like our old rifles a bit more… they have more kick to them."
"Kick equals lack of accuracy. It's why these things phased out the EM-33 in 2151." She grabbed one of the XCOM plasma rifles, firing at a tritanium-ceramic target, hitting above the center before unceremoniously dropping the weapon and picking up a phase pistol and firing at the same target, hitting the center. "No recoil, better accuracy. Better accuracy, more chances your enemy will be dead and not you. I hope this fact gets through your head."
"…Do you have to be such a bitch?"
"Boss said it best: honesty is best. And if me being a bitch to get plain facts through your thick skulls is too much, bury yourself under a rock and stay there, ignorant to the fact that this—" She held up the phase pistol. "Is better than your guns. I can fire this thing on two settings and kill an alien or just stun it for capture. You… carry around a bulky stun gun."
"We make due with what we had," Colonel Kelley said, observing a Phase Pistol. "We understand the practicality… it's just a bit hard for some of us to move away from the classics. But so long as they can kill aliens, we won't complain."
Sonja opened up a box, withdrawing a weapon that looked vaguely familiar. A pistol grip, a top-loading helical magazine, foregrip and compact frame that was clearly designed to spew bullets was what fit snuggly in sonja's hands. "Against your enemies, our tech works better. But as you know, bullets and borg don't get along."
One of the XCOM Soldiers let out a low whistle. "Damn, is that a Calico M960?" he asked.
"Damn right. One hundred 9mm Luger rounds in the magazine, modified tritanium barrel with cryogenic cooling and a heavy-recoil damper. I almost never use it."
"Why not? It's an amazing gun!"
"Because most of the time, we never encounter the Borg and, contrary to that MMORPG, personal deflector shields work EXACTLY like their ship-sized counterparts. The bullets will not get through, and the Borg don't see the point in adapting it to their drones. No one uses projectile weapons."
The Colonel blinked, looking at Sonja "You've… been playing Star Trek Online?" He asked.
"Didn't need to; checked the wiki." Sonja shrugged. "Although the information there is out of date: the Iconian War is over, but I won't spoil it for you!" She then paused. "Though… a lot of the crew have downloaded it, been playing it like crazy… including Ron so he can relive his favorite moments to a degree. Some of the boys have been asking me and Cassie to set up a server onboard the Ra Cailum so they can keep playing when we leave this universe."
"I'll bet Starfleet Command is going to be weirded out."
"They're used to it coming from the Ra Cailum. They set up a special weirdness folder for us. I'll go talk to Shen and Vahlen. I got shit to talk to them about."
Walking through the interior of the XCOM Headquarters, Jaden couldn't help but draw parallels to the legendary CASTLE Base back on Reach. It was well fortified, concealed, and easy to defend from conventional assaults. Sure it might not stand up against Starfleet, but it proved it could handle the Aliens they just managed to fight off, and could probably stand against a Covenant assault.
However, thinking about Reach made him sigh. Here he was, a completely different universe from Reach… while he was grateful for what Starfleet had done for him and the other survivors… part of him still felt as if he should never have left Reach to begin with.
The Starfleet people were more at home in this base: Sonja was busy playing with all of Dr. Shen's toys and making them better, Rutia was comparing notes with Vahlen, Takeshi and his wife were doing god knew what, and their daughter was standing right in front of him.
'Wait, what?' The three year old (who acted like a seven year old) was standing in front of him and Jaden didn't even notice.
Screw Elites using cloaks; this girl was the stealthiest thing in the known multiverse.
"Hello," Larcei said.
"Oh, uh… Hi Larcei," Jaden said, regaining his composure. "What are… you doing here?"
"Tou-san and kaa-san wanted to keep an eye on me, and Uncle Ron is doing his laughing thing, and he doesn't like me around when he does that." Jaden tried to picture the 'laughing thing'. All he got was Ron stabbing a Hunter to death laughing like a madman.
That was something that brought a smile to his face.
"Well… nice to see ya again," he said. "How have you been?"
"Been doing okay," Larcei replied. "Thank you again for saving me from those bad aliens."
"Ah, it was nothing," he shrugged. "It's my job to keep people safe."
She smiled, before hugging his leg. "Regardless, it was really brave of you," she said. "Thank you very much… Jaden-nii-san."
Jaden blinked, not exactly sure how to react to this. Before he could say anything though, A tone sounded out over the PA. "All personnel, report to the situation room. Repeat, all personnel, report to the situation room."
"That means EVERYONE; Starfleet personnel, get your rear ends there NOW!"
It sounded like Ron was not in a pleasant mood if he was yelling like that over the PA.
"…EXALT?"
"Yes, that is what they call themselves," Adrian sighed, looking at the images displayed on the monitor. "We know very little about them - and every time we try to take one of their members prisoner, they kill themselves to avoid capture. They are a group dedicated to causing nothing but trouble to XCOM. While we can't say for sure that they're in league with the Aliens since we've seen them fighting them before, they've set up propaganda against Council nations, sabotaging our funding, and even hacking into our own research logs, putting our research on the aliens back. "
"I've spoken with the Commander on length about this," Ron said. "In short, I want these assholes in the ground after we shoot them. Repeatedly. With a veron-T disruptor!"
"Ok, someone's mad," Adrian said, before continuing "We have an operative on the inside, callsign Scarecrow. We want him recovered. We've got almost no intel on these bastards, and he's our only shot at getting it. Unless anyone wants to see someone suffer through the Borg treatment."
"There is another mission," Adrian informed, pulling up a map of France. "Scarecrow sent us one more message before he told us his cover was blown. EXALT was transporting… something across a Dam here in France, but Aliens attacked the convoy, and the Dam. We need to deploy two teams: one to extract Scarecrow, and the other to clear the bridge of aliens - prevent the whole dam from collapsing, and figure out what EXALT was transporting that the Aliens thought was worth attacking them for."
"We've got more then enough people to hit both at the same time," Ron said. "I'll be providing intel from the Ra-Horakhty for the dam mission, so if you want air support, ask. Speaking of which, the Avenger will be ready by the end of the week. Thank God for 25th Century construction practices."
Adrian grinned. "Thanks for the update," he said. "Team Alpha-One will deploy to evac Scarecrow, while Alpha-Two will head to France." He looked at the Colonel "Colonel, you will lead Alpha-One on this mission, make sure Scarecrow is secured. Isabella will lead half of your team to head for the dam." He looked at Ron "I leave it to you who goes with with team, Captain Pinkerton."
"Take, Luna, you're going on the damn dam mission." Ron smirked "So if you screw up and get hurt, damn it, Larcei will have my damn ass."
"WHY must you do puns?"
"Genocidal aliens and retards HELPING the genocidal aliens, Take. You know what happens."
Take winced. Humor, poor and otherwise, kept Ron from turning into a one-man killing machine in these situations. "Corpie, Jaden, Sonja, you get to deal with the cowardly scarecrow."
"…Was that a reference to Wizard of Oz, boss?"
"Three guesses, first two don't count; suit up and bring me back a massive number of dead enemy corpses, please."
"I'll join the Colonel in the recovery mission then," Jaden informed. "I've dealt with groups… similar to EXALT back in our universe."
"The insurrectionists, no doubt; I've read the file. Make sure they either come back to us for an actual interrogation or in body bags. Dismissed."
Takeshi and Luna were seated in the Skyranger as it moved towards the dam site. "This is how you get everywhere?" Takeshi asked.
"Yup, this here Skyranger is Big Sky's pride and joy," Isabella said, tapping the inside of the craft. "It can circumvent the entire world within 24 hours, fastest thing we've got next to the Firestorms."
"Huh," Takeshi remarked, before another topic came to mind. "So, I think we have a bit of time… think you could give me a bit more of an explanation on the topic of Psionics?"
"Hm?" Isabelle asked, before shrugging "Well… the Doctor would be a better person to ask, but… the way I understand, Psionics were first discovered when the aliens attacked us… Sectoids showed they have some sort of telepathic ability, while the Commanders were capable of outright mind-control and loads of other abilities. When we killed our first Sectoid commander, the Doctor was able to determine that humans possess the potential to achieve a similar psionic potential." She flexed her hands, as psionic energy flew between her fingers. "I was one of the first to ever awaken these powers… they gave us the fighting chance we needed against the X-Rays."
"Interesting," Takeshi mused. "…is there a chance that humans not native to this dimension could have Psionics, too?"
Isabelle shrugged. "Probably," she said. "We didn't exactly expect you guys to pop in out of nowhere and help. As far as we know we've got the same biology so… it's possible."
"What are the requirements?" Luna asked.
"Well… the Doc always said something about Willpower being a major factor," she informed. "We'd often look at any of our people that the aliens tried pulling some Psionic BS on but manage to fight 'em out."
Takeshi nodded. "Well, I managed to fight off a mind control attempt during our first encounter here," he mentioned. "So I should be covered in that department." He paused. "Also, I have something called Spatial Awareness - I'm able to sense hostile intent directed in my direction, and presences to a degree."
"Oh! Like a Newtype?" An XCOM trooper asked, causing the others to look at the soldier in question. "Oh, umm… you know, like in… Gundam?"
"Gun… dam?" Takeshi asked. "That another sci-fi show around here?"
"Yeah! Big giant robots fighting, space opera, all sorts of cool stuff!" the Soldier said. "Though in the UC continuity there were people called Newtypes which are basically humans who evolve in space to get psychic-like abilities and all."
"Huh," Takeshi remarked. "So, these 'Newtypes' could do things like I described with my Spatial Awareness?"
"Yeah, basically," he said. "Oh! And use specialized weapons like Funnel's that they can control with their minds, or DRAGOON's like in Gundam SEED… speaking of, it's kinda funny that your last name's Yamato, since the main character in that series was Kira Yamato…" Takeshi blinked, but before he could respond the Soldier looked at Lunamaria. "And… holy shit I can't believe I am just realizing this, but you look just like Lunamaria Hawke from the same series!"
This time it was Luna's turn to blink. "Huh… and my maiden name is Hawke…" she said. "I guess Ron's constant usage of the IDIC principle has a point."
"Doesn't help that we grew up together!" Both Yamatos facepalmed as their commander spoke on the comms. "Hope you kids don't run out of fuel before you get there!" The XCOM personnel would have been trying to lynch Ron for that had they not known that he could kill any of them that tried. The Skyranger's speed came at a cost: five very, very thirsty engines. A large amount of the XCOM project's 800 billion US dollar budget went to the JP-7 fuel used by the Skyranger and the Interceptors, which was why there was only a handful of the transports in existence.
"Hey, my girl here has gotten us all across the globe before!" The pilot - Big Sky - shouted. "She won't go down now!"
"Cool it Big Sky," Isabelle said. "We'll be fine Captain, just be ready to give us some RFCAS if things go wrong." She glanced around. "While our mission is to investigate the site, we need to fix the Dam before the whole thing goes and floods the area. Sure hope you Starfleet boys can fix Dams on the fly."
"Not much we can't fix. Three hours and a working tricorder and Sonja can fix a Borg cube."
Kelly chuckled before the serious look on Takeshi's face made him go deadly pale. "She didn't actually do that, did she?"
"She did. Used it to blow up a Borg-occupied starbase we couldn't recover." Kelly's jaw figuratively hit the deck. "…You people are INSANE."
"Sometimes the crazy works," Takeshi admitted. "Anyway, let's get this mission done with, so we can get back - I'd like to talk to your Dr. Vahlen, maybe see if I could be tested for Psionics."
France, 4 hours later
The Class-1 shuttle briefly touched down, the rear hatch dropping to allow the XCOM/Starfleet/UNSC attack force to drop and go. "This is Flying Death: heading to altitude. Just remember to call for air support; I've got 20 micro-torpedoes and six phaser emitters to unleash death with. Get the informant and get to the pickup site."
Jaden hopped out of the shuttle "Roger, heading to rendezvous point." He said, as the other troops disembarked before the shuttle rose back up into the air.
"Let's move it," the Colonel said. "Scarecrow's transmission told us to meet him at the rally point. Keep your eyes open - EXALT probably has agents in the area already."
The team entered cover, advancing by leapfrog, encountering nothing for a few minutes. "Hold up, people: sensors are picking up human lifesigns down there, about 60 meters ahead. And to the best of my limited knowledge, there aren't any civilians in the area. So, I'll provide target locations for you to, you know, make them die. Have fun!"
Kelly and Jaden shared a look of horror. "This is FUN for him?"
Sonja scoffed. "Please. His hobby is making stupid things die. In this case, his hobby IS his job."
"…every time I think I've discovered the maximum amount of crazy we can ever encounter, you people always find a way to show that I've barely even touched the abyss of your insanity." Jaden groaned.
"It's what we do best." Corpsa opened up her tricorder, the map area displayed on the screen. "I've got them. 20 degrees north, four contacts. Can't tell if they're hostile or not."
"Do they have G36's, UMP's, FN Minimi's and wearing business suits with bandannas over the lower half of their faces?" Kelly asked.
She pulled out her phaser rifle, a scope lifting out of the weapon before she smirked and fired a bolt. A moment later, she turned to the Colonel. "One of them doesn't have anything above the neck now."
"You took off his HEAD?"
"It's currently pulling a fountain. Body'll run out of blood in a minute."
"…and here I was thinking we were trying to be a bit stealthy," Jaden grumbled, "I'll advance ahead on my own, link up with Scarecrow."
Kelly nodded, preparing his laser rifle "Right, we'll draw their fire. Hopefully they'll focus more on us than you." He said, as Jaden leaped down from the building, before dashing into the shadows of an alleyway.
The EXALT idiots were spooked shitless by the decapitated man, and had taken panicked cover. One idiot even put a bullet into his own comrade by accident.
Even trainee UNSC Marines didn't make that mistake. These people weren't military; they were just doomsday prophets and alien worshipers with guns. If he had another squad of Spartans, they wouldn't stand a chance in hell.
But Jaden didn't have another squad. It was just him; the lone wolf.
…The squad killer.
The Skyranger flew low towards the Dam, touching down with the cover of several trashed cars around it. "I'll keep her parked here!" Big Sky reported. "Hit 'em hard ladies and gents!"
"That's why we're here. Alright, everyone, we have idiots to skin and something to steal from them. Just make sure every target you find is in my line of sight, and we won't have any problems."
"Roger," Takeshi replied. He drew his katana. "Let's get to work."
"The dam can go at any minute!" Isabelle said, pulling out her rifle. "If we release the pressure valves we can buy us some time, but we need to get this whole thing fixed before the whole thing collapses!"
"This is the Isis: we've got an engineering crew standing by to beam down, but you'll need to keep them covered. So… clear out the EXALT forces, and our people will do the rest."
"Solid copy, Isis. …Wait, not the Ra Cailum?"
"The big ship's busy, so we're using the yacht."
Takeshi chuckled. "Not like we get much use out of the thing otherwise," he remarked, advancing along the bridge.
Bullets plinked off of Takeshi's personal shield, causing the XCOM personnel and their UNSC counterparts to jump into cover. "Everyone's favorite part of the job: cleaning up the gene pool." Luna took aim with her SRS99C, searching for some idiot stupid enough to pop his head up.
She got it, pulled the trigger and sent a 14.5mm round downrange, removing a man's head from his shoulders.
If they weren't idiots, Luna would pity them. But like every other bunch of morons she'd run into in her time as Chief Tactical Operations officer on board both of Ron's ships, all she felt was annoyance.
Takeshi dashed forward from cover to cover, popping up with his Type-2 for a shot every so often as he closed in towards melee range.
Another sickening pop signalled the death of another rogue agent, whose corpse fell just behind Takeshi from his cover up above.
"Sorry!" Takeshi shook his head. Sometimes he wondered why he married Luna. Then he remembered that Ron introduced them and basically corrupted them both by being around.
Isabella meanwhile used her Skeleton Suit's built-in grappling hook to latch onto a watchtower, flying up into it before she pulled out her rifle. "Heads up, we've got X-Ray's incoming," she warned, gazing down her scope. "Standard grouping, Sectoids and Thin Men up front, with Mechtoid's in the back with Floaters as air support."
"Understood," Takeshi reported. "Deal with them as they come into range." He managed to reach another EXALT operative, slicing them in two with his katana.
Another loud crack signalled another idiot's death at Luna's hands, and another corpse falling into the waters below. "Reloading. Projectiles are nice, but I think I should've packed a phaser rifle; I'm down to three clips of ammo!"
Another shot rang out from Isabelle's position, as her own plasma rifle fired a blast towards the approaching aliens. "Then make your shots count," The XCOM Sniper said, as her shot blasted the head off of a Mechtoid. "If you run out, punch 'em."
"Right," Luna replied. "Still… Isis, in addition to the engineers, would you be up for making an Ammo Drop?"
"Depends. Where do you want it: in your hands, or their heads?"
" … Sometimes I wonder whether Ron's humor affects the entire crew. This is one of those times. Beam it down here; I'll use it to cover our teams."
A crate of ammo for Luna's SRS99C materialized beside her.
It would soon be put to good use.
They never saw him coming. As one of the only two hyper-lethal Spartans, Jaden was very, VERY good at killing people.
Insurrectionist or covenant, if they ran into him, they usually died unless his orders were to the contrary.
The EXALT troops movements were textbook, moving in a single unit securing building after building, with snipers on overwatch. However this made them predictable, just like Insurrectionists. He targeted the Snipers first - a bit of active camo let him sneak up behind them and take them out nice and quiet-like.
Then… it was the fun part, or as one of his older teammates once called "Rambo Tactics". He proceeded to pick apart the rest of the EXALT team one by one, using pre-planned traps and striking those who stray just a little too far from the rest of the group. It wasn't until there were only two EXALT operative left that they realized what was going on… and two shots from his DMR took care of them.
"Christ, man, you remind me of what happened to that True way asshole that tried to kidnap Larcei from Earth last year." Jaden was understandably curious about that, but as it involved Larcei in some way, it was tied to her parents and uncle killing the bastards in the most painful and stealthy way possible.
"This is Kelly: we're moving forward. Any sign of Scarecrow, Noble six?"
Jaden was about to reply, before he heard the sound of walking as he aimed his pistol down an alley "Hang on there Rambo," A voice said, as a red haired man stepped out from the shadows of the alleyway. "Don't know where XCOM got you from, but glad you can take out EXALT."
"Scarecrow, I presume?" he asked, as the Agent nodded.
"In the flesh," He said, "Though the real question is who are you? I'm guessing you're with XCOM if you know my code name."
"SPARTAN-B312, Lieutenant," he informed. "Your Colonel is here, and we're here to pick you up."
"Spartan? Like Halo? Fuck, if this is a joke—" A phaser beam shot past the pair, followed by the Andorian woman whooping. She was probably shooting at some EXALT fool Jaden missed. Or shooting for the sake of shooting; with these people, Jaden had NO idea.
"…Was that a fucking phaser beam? Like Star Trek?"
"It's a long story, Scarecrow." The agent turned to see Colonel Kelley approach them. "Come on, we've gotta RTB. You do have the Intel, right?"
"Is the pope catholic?" The Agent smirked, nodding. "Got what I could before I was blown, we can start scratching off a few more countries off the list."
"Then let's move," Kelly nodded back to where they came, as Six and Scarecrow followed the Colonel back, yet another mission complated.
A scream echoed throughout the dam as an EXALT agent fell to his very painful death to the waters below. "As Ron would say, another successful cleansing of the gene pool. Then again, he's a bit sick that way." Luna tapped her combadge, a combination of boredom and annoyance entering her voice and facial expression. "Yamato to team: did we find whatever it was those morons were trying to sneak through here?"
"We're finishing up with the last of the aliens - we're approaching some kind of truck," Isabelle said. "Suggest we all head here now just in case… no idea what could be inside."
"Isis, you may now send down engineering teams. Make sure they're all armed; the idiots might be just regrouping."
"You know Commander Henderson: we're combat engineers, we always carry at least two weapons."
Luna chuckled as she rejoined her husband. "Have fun?"
"No, not really. These people are following the aliens for… what, exactly?"
"Insanity? Delusions of power? Pure stupidity?"
"Something along those lines I guess," Takeshi remarked. "Anyway, let's see what's in that truck that was so important…"
The team assembled around the EXALT cargo truck, weapons at the ready for whatever might be inside. However as they approached, the trailer to the truck violently shook, causing the team to cease their advance.
"Careful…" Takeshi warned, as he approached the trailer hatch, opening it. He jumped back slightly when the corpse of an EXALT agent fell out, but then he heard footsteps…
…and bursting through the doors jumped out a woman, leaping over the whole team, before running forward. "Hold it!" Isabelle shouted, firing her pistol towards the runner's general direction, causing her to stop dead in her tracks.
"…Please…" The woman said, "You don't understand, I have to get to the others!"
"Calm down, ma'am." Isabelle warned, her weapon still raised - as were the others, not exactly sure what to expect from this… woman. "Let us help you out here-"
"You can't…." she said, looking back at them. "I… you don't get it!" Her hands balled up into fists "Do you know how many of us they've KILLED!" And with that shout, a proverbial storm of Psionic energy flashed around the woman, knocking everyone down onto their asses.
"Wow," Takeshi muttered as he stood back up. "She's gotta be some kind of Psionic… and a powerful one, too…"
The woman began to back up, and turned around to run again, but then she finally noticed the… handiwork of XCOM and Starfleet, with EXALT and Alien corpses sprawled across the streets of the dam. "You… you can kill them?" She asked, "But… how?" She shook her head. "Please, you have to help me find the others!"
"Others?" Takeshi asked. "Do you have friends that have been captured, too?"
"Look, this isn't exactly the best place to be playing 20 questions," Isabelle said, bolstering her weapon. "Come on, we'll bring her back to base and then we can sort this all out."
Takeshi nodded. "Right." He tapped his commbadge. "Isis, the bridge is clear."
"Beaming down engineering personnel now. Keep them safe."
"Understood," Takeshi replied, even as columns of light began depositing crewmen onto the bridge. "Ma'am, if you would please come with us."
The woman looked unsure, but Takeshi gestured out his hand. "Come on," he said reassuringly. "We're only here to help."
She hesitated for a moment longer, before nodding as she took his hand, just as the Skyranger landed nearby.
Takeshi Yamato: Two different missions dealt with at once. MAN, we're good!
117Jorn: Oh please, we have a LOOOOT more ground to cover for the XCOM Arc. We've barely scratched the surface here.
Ron the True Fan: Doesn't help that I haven't even finished XCOM: EU yet, so this is rather off the map for me. But that will change.
117Jorn: Soon, very soon, yes. So, until next time everyone…
Everyone: Ja Ne!
