Improvements

[1]

They were starting to have a bit more success.

All of them.

[2]

On the sixth of February another survey ship landed off the coast of Miami. There were worries that this ship would have a new kind of alien on it. It did not, but the two Gillmen on the ship did put up a bit of a fight. They didn't come barreling out of the scouting sub, sonic guns blazing. That was something the aliens of the first alien war might do. Instead, they camped out in their own craft—presumably with their guns both aimed at the door; and when Seaman Phil Burnell opened the door he got both the best and worse surprise of his life.

Both aliens fired. There was probably no more than fifteen feet between Seaman Phil and the aliens, but only one of them actually managed to hit…and the hit was a glancing blow. Phil was sent spinning away from the double doors. A thin cloud of blood was leaking out of his suit.

Green sonic blasts continued to pour out of the alien sub. They were light and chirping: sonic pistols, which made sense considering the role of the sub. Most of them went wild and handsome into the blue depths behind the assault team. A handful smashed into flat seabed. Two—well…more than two—cut very close to Phil as he was tumbling through the water.

He was being backed up by Claude Dreyfus and Haru Ichiro, who had been the only survivor of the failed assault on the alien cruiser. There were only three other Divers on this mission. They were clearing out the reef to the north. The reef would turn out to have nothing more deadly than a tin of Anacin that had been loaded down with rocks for some reason. Hugo, who had found it, said "Kind of a 2020s drug isn't it?"

That earned him a slap from Rachel Henderson.

At around the same time he was being slapped, Haru and Claude were opening fire with their guns. Sacred Tear had not yet fully transitioned over to Gauss technology. The gauss rifles were done, but now the technicians needed to make the ammo.

To that end, the Divers on this mission were carrying a mixture of both gauss and gas technology. Haru and Claude were armed with gauss pistols. The technicians and instructors ordered the Divers to treat the gun as a submachinegun. It wasn't that accurate—not at all—but it could be fired quickly.

The two Divers took that advice to heart. They each took a corner of the door, and fired around it. Gauss weapons made a queer sound: instead of a bang, the guns sounded like some metal gear was being worked into place on some machine.

The gas technology had issues with stopping power. These gauss rounds did not. The gillmen bucked and sunfished. Their bodies shook like they had a pair of tits they wanted to shake. The hard, aqua plastic wall behind them was suddenly splashed brilliantly with blood. It spread out in a grotesque fan. The gillmen bucked and shook like they had a pair of tits they wanted the Divers to see. Their mouths opened in screams, and at least one of them managed to do it before the alien's head was ripped from its shoulders. The second one crumpled up on itself, like it was trying to make itself into a ball.

At last, it was over. The gauss weapons oozed a thin fluid that wasn't too much like ink, but it really was too much like ink.

"Holy shit." Haru said, his voice shaking and happy. "I think we got them."

Claude turned to his friend, an eighteen year old kid, and thought God he looks so old. He looks ancient. He looks like he's seen so many things that he wished he hadn't.

But how else should Haru look? Claud was feeling much the same way.

He began to radio the others. While he was doing so, he made sure to turn away from sub's open doors, as well as his friend's haunted face.

[3]

Captain Joe Vargas was pleased with today's report. None of the missions had been completed without at least one death. Phil Burnell would need a new hip bone, but that was a light-hearted turn when you considered previous victims of sonic weapons had had their bodies stitched together by the doctors before funeral service. Assuming they were able to obtain both halves in the first place.

The report said practically Zrbite though. That was most unfortunate but not surprising. The survey subs and escort subs (those things were turning out to be nasty fighters) had none to little Zrbite, respectively. That was fine. That would come with time. With successful missions.

Captain Vargas was more worried about the United States. The terror attack on Auto City had been thwarted, but at significant cost. Of the 140 police officers, 90 had been killed. A third of the civilian population had been wiped out. The US National Guard came in. Sixty of the two hundred deployed in the fight got killed. The Guard of New Mexico might have come, but President Douglas, a Republican, said the government would have to go to the US Navy and Coast Guard. To which President Belisma, in a speech, subtly reminded the US that New Mexico had a sizable navy of its own.

Vargas cocked his head up, leaning back in his chair.

Things were getting bad…and would only be getting worse. In the first alien war, the aliens had managed to infiltrate many countries at the highest level: including China, the States, and much of Europe. For all practically purposes, they had lost the war.

Or they would have if the engineers hadn't completed the Avenger two days before hand. By the time they'd sent forces to shut down the project, the final team was already on Cydonia carrying out their assault. Then Otto Zander had shot the alien brain. He'd shot it until it exploded like a plastic explosive.

On planet Earth, the UFOs plummeted to the ground. A few city were unfortunate enough to be below a UFO when that happened. Detroit, New York, Austin, Cambridge, Madrid, Johannesburg, Beijinn, St. Petersburg, Berlin. All of these cities were still being rebuilt. There was no point in even going over the casualties.

The aliens on the ground died as well. The Ethereals went first. They had the only real bond to the alien brain; the other aliens were bonded to the Ethereals, effectively setting up a domino chain. It saved the life of many humans. For some it doomed them to die.

One such human was Eris Wilson. She'd been hooked up to an Abductor's exam table. Said UFO had crashed in the Arctic. People later theorized that it'd been going from Canada—where her Abduction had been reported—to northern Europe. It had crashed without exploding and Eris Wilson's body—along with the bodies of a dozen other Canadians—had been remarkably well preserved. Wilson's grieving parents had been somewhat eased by that. Captain Vargas sympathized with them.

"Where are you God?" he asked the ceiling. "Are you even out there?"

If he was, then He wasn't too worried about them. People had been flapping their gums about the Rapture since time out of mind. The captain thought now would be a great time for Jesus to come down and miracle everyone up into heaven. The aliens had killed religion—or at the very least had mortally wounded it. That much was certain. It was hard to say your planet, as well as human creation, was the whole point of the universe existing when there were aliens from outside the Milky Way flying around on saucers. Never mind the notion that God just had to resemble a human.

"No." Vargas decided. "We are all by ourselves. God won't help us. He won't save us."

For some strange reason, that thought was comforting.

He went to back to his report. The council report for last month was "Poor." That was thanks to the squad wipe on the cruiser mission and the terror attack on the part. Their monthly funding had only dropped by $200,000. They could make it up, if they fought well from this point on. Already this month was better.

A screen popped up on Vargas' computer. The Gauss rifle clips…

[5]

"…should be able to work now." Technician Carl Yamata said proudly. A crate of freshly manufactured clips sat on the table in front of him.

He was talking to Commander Laura Dreyfus, who was sharing much of his excitement. No more peashooters, she thought, Thank God Almighty we are free at last.

Before she was able to stop it, she laughed.

"Something's funny, eh?" Yamata asked.

Laura nodded. "You got that right buster. Those gas guns seem weaker than even the conventional weapons they used in the First Alien War."

"I'm not surprised." Yamata said. "Water is a whole different ballgame to air. People tried using guns with hydrodynamic bullets. Like the APS gun that the Russians used. But that's only half the story. Whether they are hydrodynamic or not, they are going to stop real fast in the water."

He went on: "Water is thick. It seems thin when you run a faucet through your fingers, but you already know how it is to swim in it. Lemme paraphrase the people on for a moment. 'Water is fluid, yes, but it can only get out of the way so fast.' That's where the gas technology came in. The dart guns, the jet harpoons—both of them have much better range than any bullet in the water, because the gas propulsion keeps it moving even as the water begins to slow it down. You could snipe someone with the guns, if you were able to."

Laura said: "I have."

"I expect nothing less from you commander." Yamata said, smiling. Then the smile was gone, and he went back to business, "These coilguns will be even better. Their muzzle velocity above water will be insane, faster than any sniper rifle. Their muzzle velocity in the water will be comparable to a conventional weapon above water. Keep that in mind."

He was working himself up into a frenzy. There was a look in his eyes that Laura didn't care for. Not at all.

He was about to launch into a tirade about the stopping power. Something about the pigs that had been target practice. The scientists had used them right after the good results on the ballistics jell. Aiming for the head usually blew up at least one-third of it…

That was when Laura raised a hand. "Easy Carl. I don't wanna be hear all day."

Carl Yamata looked visibly hurt. She put a hand on his shoulder. "These things are super. No fuck that—they're awesome. Par excellent."

Yamata nodded, grinning. "We haven't leveled the playing field. Not yet. But we're making headway. You have to let George Rankin know we gotta stay that way."

[6]

A new weapon came in, a Coelecanth submersible weapons system. For all practical purposes, they were to be called tanks. This particular tank had a gas cannon weapon with a clip of thirty rounds, which would be more than enough for the average missions. It'd been ordered three weeks ago, but only now came in. It fired the same gas cannon bolts that the Angler's did. Another tank, with Aqua Jet torpedoes, would be here in a week.

[7]

Angler pilot Daphne Sixx was back in action on February 12th. It was largely thanks to the technician's new med kits, or so everyone thought at the time.

Rainbow was quieter now. More reserved, even more so than Jordan Year. It was a change of personality that nearly everyone made note of. The two of them went on a routine patrol to the eastern coast of South America, where there'd been reports of ships being sunk from out of nowhere.

They went around the coast of Brazil for two hours, then came back. The whole time, Rainbow had perhaps spoken twenty sentences and short ones at that. Year had tried to pass the time talking about his newborn son Caleb. For the most part, Rainbow answered him with yes or okay, but sometimes nothing at all. By the time their patrol was up, Jordan Year was more aggravated than he ever did in his life. Even more so than when he was frantically trying to rescue Rainbow.

On their way back to base, there as a sizeable blip on the radar. It came from behind them.

And was closing in.

[8]

Dr. George Rankin and his research team had finished their research on the particle disturbance sensor. It was very much like the motion scanner from the first alien war. But the motion scanner only worked above water. Below it, the scanner would simply short out. The particle disturbance sensor was the opposite, and would only work underwater. As the name implied, it would sense any disturbances in water, but only at a close range.

[9]

New Year's voice came on the radar. "Rainbow…"

"I already see it." She said. It was cutting through the water behind them, and gaining fast. "Let's split up and see which one of us it goes after."

"You got it."

Rainbow banked to the left; New Year to the right. Rainbow herself was slightly farther ahead. Perhaps that was why the alien sub chose to follow Jordan.

"Taking evasive action!" New Year roared.

Rainbow turned back to the right. At thirty kilometers, her DUP torpedoes were already in range.

Sounds of distant explosions in the distance. Flares of green light.

"Hurry up Sixx! I've already taken some damage."

She zoomed in on it, zoomed back out. It was another cruiser, like the one that'd wiped out Haru's squad. This time, things would be easier for the assault team. Because Rainbow was about to kill about half the aliens in it.

The green targeting reticule turned red. Target locked.

Her finger closed around the trigger.

(let him die)

Rainbow's head trembled back and forth. She blinked rapidly. What the fuck had that been? She was about to fire again. The voice—and it was a voice—spoke again. Louder than before.

(Let Him Die)

She tried to fire, but her trigger finger was suddenly as rigid and immovable as stone.

Shit! she tried to say…but she could not move her jaws either, or her entire face for that matter. Her body had become a tight statute. Her foot was still on the throttle and she powered forward, closer to the alien submarine. She could not fire on it.

(that's right let him die let him suffer he mocks you to the others they mock you they fear you kill him kill them)

No! she screamed in her mind, and it felt as loud as a shotgun blast. The voice, which was not just one but several, screamed out in agony and horror.

Her muscles relaxed almost immediately. Just as immediate, her finger depressed the trigger. The DUP torpedoes surged forward with a thick and hollow rushing sound.

She smiled. Then she remembered her battle with the escort (for all purposes a dedicated fighter) and she wondered if this larger cruiser could do evasive maneuvers as well.

Boom

She smiled. No…it could not.

She emptied the launchers at it, not really sure if the ship would be destroyed. Likely, it would only be downed and that would remain the case until they got the underwater equivalent of a Fusion Ball Launcher.,

The two bright explosions became six (haha isn't that funny?) and yes, ladies and gentlemen, the alien sub was looking mighty disabled. Pieces were fall off of it. Inky pink fluid was running out of it, nearly obscuring it. Instead of diving quickly, it was sinking slowly—the way a balloon would if the flame guiding it up had lost some of its strength.

They'd done it. She'd done it. How many aliens had that killed. A good half-dozen, she thought. Some XCOM Divers had been on several missions and had only killed a fraction of that amount, if that.

"New Year!" she called out on the comms. "You there?"

His Angler was still pinging the sonar, but she was answered with nothing more than dead silence. It lasted six seconds. Six seconds much too long. Rainbow was about to press the comms button again when his voice crackled through.

"'amaged. Still 'live. Ang' 'adly damaged. Come in!"

She went over to him, believing that she'd never been so relieved in her life.

[10]

Officer Clarita Mendoza gave her official resignation to the police department of Auto City. She joined XCOM not even two hours later. She was in reserve, along with many others. She would be transferred over to a new base in the Indian Ocean. It would called Sea Metro.