Chapter 11

Phoenix

He woke up, as if from a long sleep. He was drowsy, and couldn't get a good feel for his surroundings. The last thing he could remember is a flash of green and then falling to the pavement…"Good. Is it implanted?" The man asked.

"Should be. We'll need to run some tests-"someone began saying, but was cut off from the other man.

"I need this… thing… for my troops on the ground, and I needed it for them yesterday. No, no tests."

"It is no 'thing', it is a man, and I deem you to call it such."

"Fine, get him loaded onto the Skyranger; you can give him any verbal tests there."

He was shuffled onto a Skyranger, which seemed vaguely familiar, and he was attached to the wall. That was new, he was sure of that.

"Marcus, can you hear me?" The man said.

"Marcus…?" He asked quietly.

"I see you've got a tad of amnesia. It should go away quickly. You were KIA while offloading from a Skyranger by an alien in hiding. Your team was luckily able to complete the mission without you. We were able to bring you back, but at a cost."

"What… Cost?" He asked slowly. He was having trouble speaking, and hoped he got used to that too.

"You are now the prototype Mech of Xcom. Your designation will from now on be 'Phoenix'."

"A… Mech?" He asked slowly yet again.

"A robotic body with highly intensified strength. You are equipped with a Fist and another brand new prototype, the Assault Cannon." He paused as if thinking, but then continued "I didn't want you deployed so early, but Zeta needs a helping hand down on the ground. You are being deployed to assist. Do you understand?"

"Yes… Shen?" He asked.

"No. Doctor Shen is gone, called away for more government projects. I don't understand how what he's working on is more important than Xcom, but that's their deal. My name is Carlos Santiago; I'm one of the new engineering leads."

"Understandable." He said.

"Good, keep practicing talking so you don't freeze up in combat. You should also keep practicing focusing; you'll need to be able to identify targets better than that."

"What… of Kuumba?"

"She is still alive, yes. Your squad made it out alive from that mission. Sadly however, Diallo suicided a few days after you were proclaimed dead."

"But… you were… working on me. I was… not dead." He said.

"We were unsure we would ever be able to recover you. So, just to be safe, you were proclaimed dead. We had no idea Diallo would react this way."

"Don't… make the same mistake… of counting me out… again." He said angrily.

"You're doing better. Now, this is frankly supposed to be Zeta's extract bird, so we can't deploy on the ground. It's too hot of an LZ. So, we'll get close enough to the ground for you to drop. Your mech form has been heavily reinforced; you won't have to worry about damages."

"Where… will I land?"

"You will land just south of their position. If you don't know how to walk, you won't be of any use to Zeta. We're dropping you now. Let me unattach you…" Carlos said, and he took him off the bolts of the wall.

Marcus then began awkwardly walking towards the open ramp, and he finally just fell. "This may be my hardest fight yet," He thought, "If I can't get this mech under control, Zeta nor I will ever have a chance against the aliens."

He finally hit the ground, and hard at that. But after a few seconds, Marcus noticed something. He couldn't feel his body. He couldn't feel his arms. He expected this, but that didn't mean it was any less strange or awkward. He began walking north. He could hear the bullets, and he took a right.

"We're patching you into Zeta's radio frequency now, Marcus, standby." He heard Carlos, and then the radio faded for a minute before coming back into focus.

"I swear to god, you better be our damn support. I don't know why there is only one of you, but Isaac is smart. Head a little further north, up the hill, and give us a hand!" He heard Niner say.

"Status?" Marcus said.

"We've got 2 men down, Kelly and Al. We're pinned at the far side of the clearing. We found some trees as cover, but they sure as hell ain't lasting long!" Marcus began walking a little faster, but knew if he fell he had no way of getting back up. He finally made it to the clearing, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

There had to be, 30 Sectoids firing had them, supported by a few mech's of their own. Marcus had never seen them, and they appeared to be circular disks.

Marcus quickly charged into the fray, surprising the aliens. He could tell exactly where they were by the armor hits he took. He hoped this armor truly was reinforced, with 30 aliens firing at him.

"This must be our backup! I can't see him, but there distracted, let's get to killing!" Darman said, and they all began firing their laser guns.

"Focus… on the mechs. I… will destroy… the rest." Marcus said.

"Perfect, they sent us someone with speech problems."

"Shut it, Fi."

The aliens eventually climbing him, but Marcus quickly used his fist to pull them off and smash them into the ground. Even with his Assault Cannon and Fist, there was no way he would be able to kill them all. They either climbed aboard, or fired at him with plasma pistols, and he felt those last few shots.

He finally slammed his fist as hard as he could into the ground, disrupting all the aliens and making them fall. He chuckled, and fired his Assault Cannon into their prone forms. There was no way of telling which ones were already dead, so he did a 360 and fired at everything. There was no more firing after that, which must've meant that Zeta had dealt with the mechs. He saw 3 figures approach, but he knew better than to fire.

"What in the hell are you?" He heard Fi asked.

"I… am Vengeance. I… am the alien's death. I… am Marcus Wyman… risen from the dead." He said.

"Holy…" Fi cursed.

"Good to see you finally complete. Looks like you still need a few tweaks." Niner said.

"You… authorized this?" Marcus said.

"Yes, and I'm pretty glad I did. You aren't out of the fight quite yet, Wyman." Niner said.

"Hey, you. Yah, you! I can see you circling up there. We're clear down here; could you extract us or are you going to sit there all day?" Darman said over the radio.

"Go ahead, Skyranger. Another day, another successful operation. I'll need to get Doctor Vahlen ready for the device; no doubt she'll want to see it."

The team climbed aboard the Skyranger, Marcus first. He noticed Fi delaying a few seconds, looking across the landscape, before he climbed aboard. The thought on Marcus's mind, was "How the hell do I go to sleep in this thing?"