Chapter 11: "No friends of mine"
A new morning dawned, bringing a beautiful sunrise. Mick admired it from Ian's hotel window. Mick, Ian, Maria, and Kate discussed what should be done about the organized group of aliens. Based on what they learned, the aliens/Advent coalition hoped to keep their band of terrorists in their sights.
"While we slept, there were a few raids on some of our friendly towns." Ian read from a beige folder, mentioning key information while highlighting it for future refence. The four of them talked a while, much to Mick's despair. He was sure this would be an easy day. Mick hoped to remain in a deep slumber until twelve, but instead here he was, commencing business at the ass-crack of dawn, and on his day off no less. The man was no longer tired, instead he was merely annoyed. As opposed to wanting to crawl back into bed, the hapless now man wanted to bang his forehead upon the nearest wall until the meeting ceased, for he was now too tired to sleep.
"Look…" Mick interrupts, sleepily scratching the top of his head. "…we'll wait for another strangely named alien, capture him, or one of his friends and do what we do best." The other three agreed, though the women were still uneasy about the torturing branch of their plan. Seeing the looks on their faces, Mick rolled his eyes recalling that there was no other way. "These warriors will fight to the last breath for their cause. They won't readily give us intel. You know that." Ian shrugged, agreeing with his cousin while their better halves reluctantly chose to follow them. Samson came over to see his friends, partially entering the room, he popped open a dark beer bottle, generously passing it to Ian. The man admitted that he was trying to get into the right mood, before their mission. Mick cautioned Samson not to get too far into the bottle, the man nodded, before taking another chug.
Later when John, Central, and the Commander met with Ian and Maria, the one-eyed leader explained that he was hoping to deploy Maria, Sixto, Joji, Jana, Samson, and John to hit a supply train that was just outside one of the afflicted towns. After everyone was in agreeance, they were dismissed, returning to their respective armories to prep for Operation SILVER STREAK.
Ian sparred with Maria, hours before the mission. He didn't quite understand why, they both knew she wouldn't be able to get any real practice from it. Maria fighting Ian would be considered bullying. The two trained for a while, hoping to run down the clock. Their friends readied their weapons and rehearsed the plan, afterwards they all huddled around in the infirmary to watch as Mick handed over Dante's skull bandana to Naomi, as reward for her success. Naomi shook Mick's hand, promising to be of better use in future missions. Even Carrie and Christine were in attendance, waiting until Mick and their Boss concluded to congratulate her.
"Don't be modest, Naomi, you did great. If you weren't there to help I'd be dead." Mick acknowledged, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Meeting his eyes she wiped the tears from hers, thanking her mentor.
Elsewhere, after the ceremony for Naomi, Jana and Joji trained with John and Herman at their shooting range aboard the Avenger. Comparing their sheets, the four found that, aside from her skills in medicine and computers, she also was quite adept in shooting. She was the best out of the four of them. Joining up with The People, John, Jana, and Joji seemed to fit right in. Joji made the squad laugh and roll on the floor. Meanwhile, Jana learned many things from Maria, she had been like a second sister, Maria even awarded her the skull bandana, before the young woman went off with her sister to join XCOM. John proved to be an intelligent and capable leader. He shared Ian's mental strain, constantly asking himself if he could've saved just one more of his units, or if he could've done things better. At the same time, he had Mick's stoic demeanor when pondering the upcoming battle.
Later, while on the mission, the crew found the railroad and rigged it to blow. When the pretty red button was hit, the train was derailed. Everything proceeded as expected, and the squad plundered the train while receiving no casualties. When the Skyranger sat down, John's squad had to make a brief trek through the wooded area.
"Good job, Maria." John commends, never experiencing the prowess of a Marshal in actual combat. "I bet the Marshals gave The Advent hell, until the bitter end." John imagined, watching his footing and surroundings.
"We still are, Captain." Maria corrected. "We were just forced to leave Texas. We'll just call it a tactical retreat." She explained. "Ian likes to be poetic and say 'They're all dead', but The People who used to be part of the Marshals know that we're very much alive." Maria informs, before spitting on the memories of the Marshals who chose to join Advent, instead of taking the death penalty.
Resting his hand on the door of the airship, John commented on how he detested traitors, before sliding open the door to see Captain Brown looking down to him. Firing a .44 magnum into the man's chest, just above the heart. Brown stepped aside to let a quartet of Mutons exit the Skyranger, weapons at the ready.
Watching her commanding officer hit the ground Jana panicked and fired wildly at whichever alien she thought she could hit, missing every one, until a muton rushed her, knocking her unconscious. The rest of the team got behind cover and returned fire. The chopper began to lift itself off the ground with Brown inside. Sixto shot a grenade near the chopper hoping to bring it down. Though it killed one muton the blast only rocked the chopper before it sped off.
"Fuck!" Sixto shouts hurrying after the chopper with Joji following close behind, shooting one muton that tried to pursue them. Maria and Samson remained in cover, hoping to get a chance to rescue Jana.
"This ain't workin' out." Samson complained, dodging a blast that would've hit his face. Tossing a flash grenade, Maria stunned one of the aliens, allowing her friend to mow him down. The remaining alien commended the duo, hurling a grenade in their direction. Luckily the grenade's explosion wasn't what it was supposed to be, it's blast radius was very small, only causing minor damage to Maria, dizzying the woman. While Maria sat dazed, beneath the tree, Samson noticed the alien hurrying over while spraying a green flurry of rounds into Samson's general direction. Waiting for the alien to get in view, Samson fired his shotgun, as fast as he could, into the muton's chest-plate, failing to penetrate it. Rather than slay the creature, it merely pushed him back a few feet, before running out of shells. Luckily, the muton dropped his plasma rifle onto the grass, due to the tremendous force of the shotgun. Drawing his sword, Samson watched as the strangely dressed alien shook his head left to right, drawing only a heavy sigh in response. The muton didn't even bother taking a fighting stance.
"A one-armed soldier?" The alien asked, before having a good laugh. "Y-your people couldn't last in a fair fight with one of mine!" He reminds, before motioning to Samson's metallic appendage. "This is what is known as a handicap." He chuckled, aggravating Samson even more by offering to fight with one hand behind his back. Shaking off her dizziness, Maria tried to shoot the Muton, only to have her gun jam, tossing it away, she ran over to the two arguing soldiers, causing the alien to laugh heartily.
"You don't look like the other mutons" Maria noticed, while the alien caught his breath.
"Oh, definitely not." He chuckled, before introducing himself. "I am the brave Marquis Naberius." He informs looking at Maria who stood ready for a fight. "Are you seriously thinking of fighting too?" The hoarse voice muton began to laugh, before allowing Maria to take a free hit. Drawing back, she punched the creature as hard as she could, hurting him, but not staggering him. Naberius shook his head a bit, before he tried to speak, Maria cut him off by punching him again, this was repeated twice more, before Naberius stepped away from the angry woman, before angrily drawing his sword to engage the two of soldiers.
"Why'd Brown set up our friends at XCOM?" She asked, watching as the alien stopped to think about her question.
"Well, we expect you humans to conform to our ways; Talk our talk, walk our walk, and dance our dance…" Naberius began to explain. "…unfortunately, XCOM doesn't dance, and if they don't dance then they're no friends of mine." The alien laughed, before charging at Maria. A loud clang echoed through the forest, causing birds to scatter into the air, calling Joji and Sixto's attention. The two continued through the forest, barely keeping the chopper in sight.
