AN: FINALLY THE NASTY ONE HAS COME BACK TO FANFICTION!
What's up everyone? Sorry about the gap between chapters, but the recent snowstorm where I live has kept me busy with shoveling and canceling school so I've been enjoying my time off. However, now that school is back in session for me the gaps between chapters will become more consistent. But, I'll do my best to update when I can find the time. Also, before starting I'd like to give a quick shout out to Neversaydie72 for following this story and to TheXPWriter for favoriting my other XCOM story. It's a great feeling to see people who enjoy the work I'm doing and it motivates me that much more to keep posting for you guys. Anyway, enough of my rambling it's time for the story.
Chapter 12: Operation First Future
== On the Skyranger ==
The pilot was already guiding the aircraft through the French airspace as they were nearing their destination in the heart of Marseille. It was just before dawn on the tenth of May as the five selected soldiers were preparing for another abduction mission that would contain another batch of aliens that have succeeded in capturing more of the world's citizens. The Commander had looked down the roster and had noticed some soldiers that were in desperate need of experience, so he made the audible to send three Squaddies with only a Sergeant and Lieutenant watching them. Confident that there wouldn't be anything they couldn't handle, the squad accepted the assignment and had hurried onto the Skyranger.
The five soldiers were now casually talking with each other since they were done their final weapons checks. Lt. Kim "Cargo" Green was in charge of the mission and was currently conversing with Sgt. Tatyana "Prototype" Zaytseva her second on the mission.
"So Prototype, how are things with Cobra?"
"Good. We finally did it last night."
"Really how was he?"
"Cargo! I'm not entirely comfortable talking about this!" said Prototype as she blushed a deep shade of red.
"Aw come on! You know you want to." teased Cargo, who really enjoyed doing this to the normally gruff Russian.
"Alright! He was magnificent, and o God could he go for hours!" exclaimed an exasperated Prototype who looked like a combination of unmixed Strawberry lemonade with her blond hair and red face.
"Damn girl you got lucky with him." said a now jealous Cargo, who wished she could find a man like Cobra.
On the other side of the aircraft, the three Squaddies were conversing with one another about what they would encounter on the mission.
"I honestly believe that we'll encounter Floaters and Thin Men. What do you two think?" asked XCOM's resident sage Sq. Katsume Goto. The old man was close to ranking up and the Commander felt it was best for him to go on the mission.
"I think it'll be Floaters and Sectoids." said the generally quiet Sq. Cheng Chen who was busy checking if his Medikit was fully stocked and only half paying attention.
"It doesn't matter to me. I'm just happy to be out in the field again." was the eager reply of Sq. Alex Smith. The young American was finally going on his second mission after a month of no action since the Thorne recovery mission.
"Don't be so overeager Smith. Your recklessness may get either yourself or one of us killed." replied Goto. The Japanese Sniper had become increasingly annoyed with the American after all he did was complaining back at base at not seeing enough action.
"Don't be a party pooper Goto, sometimes aggressiveness is the key to winning a battle as it throws your opponent off long enough to kill them." replied the American as he brought up his shotgun at the end of his statement and cocked it into a ready position.
"Will you both be quiet? You're giving me a headache." stated the Chinese Support soldier who had by this point finished his Medikit check and was massaging his temples.
All sound came to a halt, as Bradford came on screen and gave the squad the basic rundown on the ground situation. The aliens had assaulted an office space which had a shipping warehouse connected to it which was situated to the right of the structure. The squad would be landing in front of the warehouse's front entrance and were going to flank around to the loading docks situated on the warehouse's right side where two semis were in the process of offloading their payloads when the attack occurred. Their approach would be blocked by a large stone wall that would hopefully keep the aliens in the dark long enough for the squad to get the drop on them and end this mission quickly. With the plan agreed on, the Skyranger descended to the ground, as the landing ramp dropped and allowed them to charge out into the early morning darkness.
== On the Ground ==
"Central this is Big Sky. Strike One has reached the outer marker, requesting authorization to deploy."
"Roger that Big Sky. Reading you five by five, Strike One has the green light for deployment. Watch your backs out there people."
The squad immediately took cover behind the stone wall and made their slow and cautious approach around the building towards the two semis. Reaching them without any difficulty, Smith and Chen peeked through the open sides of the first semi and discovered that there wasn't anything inside at the moment.
Still with the element of surprise, the squad entered the building and was waiting for the enemy contact that never came. Moving forward slightly, two Floaters were seen patrolling the inside of the warehouse and were being really lax about their attention, obviously bored out of their minds. Seeing an easy kill opportunity, Smith and Chen patiently waited until the Floaters walked in front of the crates they were hiding behind. At this range it was a guarantee to hit, so both raised their weapons and fired.
Chen's laser struck true as the Floater's jetpack exploded and sent him crashing into a forklift as he fell to the ground lifeless with a scream, while Smith's shotgun riddled the other one with holes as his exploding jetpack sent him up into the ceiling where he exploded on impact leaving a hole in it.
"Whoops, do you think the French will be upset that I destroyed part of their roof?" asked Smith to Chen who just shrugged and both proceeded forward to the double wood doors that connected the office portion to the warehouse.
Chen was on the right side of the doors and opened it to see three creatures that hadn't been seen by XCOM before. The creatures were massive easily towering over any human, and wore green combat armor and seemed to be holding Plasma rifles with grenades on their belts. The thing that made them stick out the most was their red skin that gave them the appearance of great anger and aggression. Seeing Chen's head peeking through the doorway, the lead creature shouted into the air and pounded his chest alerting the other two. The three of them jumped out through the office window and took up positions behind the brick wall to fire into the office area.
"Uh guys! We've got some company and they look pretty pissed."
"Roger that Chen. What are we dealing with?" asked Cargo who caught a glimpse of them, but didn't get a good look at them.
"Looks like some massive hulking creatures that specialize in front-line combat if their armor is anything to go by. They look like what people would consider Infantry soldiers."
"And what's their armor strength and temperament?" asked Goto who had taken up a position in the warehouse that would allow him to shoot through a glass door that connected into a little front room that acted as a connector between the office's reception area and the warehouse.
"They appear to be overly agitated and want to rush our positions, they have extremely powerful rifles and what appear to be grenades. As for their armor, let me get back to you on that." replied Chen as he fired his rifle into the closest creature. It cracked the armor a small amount, but did little damage to the creature.
"They seem to have very strong armor. It's going to take at least two or three shots from our laser weapons to kill them."
"Great so we're dealing with a giant version of Smith that has red skin, high powered armor, and deadlier weapons that's freaking lovely."
"Hey! That was uncalled for old man!" shouted Smith who had moved to the right side of the warehouse with Prototype.
"Shut up all of you! We need to kill these things fast!" said Prototype who was tired of the chit chat.
"She's right, we need to flank them and take them out. I'll see if I can go through that connector to the semi parked out front of the building on their exposed flank. Prototype, take Smith and go around the back of the building to the other semi parked out back. There should be a door directly in front of it that will allow you a straight shot into their front with your rocket. Goto stays put and covers my path, I'm sure that wounded one will try to follow me through the connector so be vigilant. Chen…" but Cargo's plan was interrupted by Chen's cries.
"OW! Motherfucking hell!" exclaimed the normally quiet Chen as plasma rounds tore right through his armor and impacted his left lung and ribs putting him in serious danger of death.
"Fall back and treat your wound before moving back up after the rocket explodes, you can pick off any stragglers. Let's go people!"
== With Cargo ==
Cargo had rushed towards the door leading into the connector and kicked it down before running to the front door and noticed that three Floaters were clustering near the unnamed creatures supporting them for an assault of the building. With little time, she raised her laser rifle and fired as she radioed the team.
"Contact three more Floaters are with the unknown creatures!" with those words, her beam hit the nearest Floater as he exploded into tiny pieces of debris and flesh.
BANG! CRASH!
Cargo turned to look behind her as she heard those sounds and saw that the wounded creature had tried to follow her, but had met Goto's Barrett .50 caliber personally as a round had entered his head killing him instantly. This resulted in him falling forward through the glass door which brought them to the connector floor in a heap.
'That was close. Now I wonder where the others went.'
Cargo's thoughts were soon answered as one of the other creatures peered into the connector from the outside corner and fire plasma rounds into her right leg. Falling back, she pulled out her Medikit as she ordered Goto to cover her.
== With Prototype and Smith ==
Both soldiers had quietly opened the rear warehouse door and had rushed up the rear of the building as quietly as possible with their weapons at the ready.
Reaching their designated spot, Smith took cover on the door's left side while Prototype took the right. Opening the door, they both noticed the creature die from Goto, and the other one shoot towards Cargo. Knowing that time was of the essence, Prototype raised her RPG-7 and readied it to fire into the cluster of enemies.
"Fire in the hole!"
WHOOSH! BOOM!
The rocket impacted dead center into the alien cluster, one Floater exploded into nothingness, while the others suffered a critical amount of damage. Seeing their work done, the two prepared to fire into them again, but heard something behind them. Turning they saw two more Floaters on the semi's side about to fire on them.
"Suppress them, I'll flank!" shouted Smith as he ran into the building towards the east end, while Prototype ducked back into cover behind the semi and laid down suppressing fire on the two Floaters. One of them panicked and flew away, while the other fired through the bullets and hit Prototype in her right shoulder causing her to drop her SAW.
== With Smith ==
Smith had rushed to the door, before peeking through it slightly to notice only one of the Floaters was still in position behind the truck. Seeing his opportunity he rushed straight for the creature which turned at the last moment to meet shotgun buckshot dead on.
Seeing him collapsing thanks to half of his face missing, Smith ran back to check on Prototype and helped her wrap her shoulder in some cloth before picking up her weapon and both headed back into the fray.
== With Chen ==
Hearing the rocket go off, Chen rushed back to the door, and noticed the two creatures standing in the middle of what was now a destroyed no man's land. Noticing him, the two screeched at the tops of their lungs and tried to intimidate him into cowering. But, the collected Support soldier held fast and delivered a laser beam straight into the first one's exposed chest killing him instantly. Running forward he saw the other creature fall thanks to Cargo's beam tearing through its back as it was focused solely on him. Looking out again he saw Cargo taking cover behind a pickup truck reloading, as a floater dropped in out of nowhere.
== With Cargo ==
Cargo had reloaded her rifle and patched her wounds, and was about to regroup with Chen when she heard a familiar jetpack noise and looked up to see a panicked Floater landing right in front of her. Shaking her head at the enemy's lack of awareness she fired her rifle into his pack, killing him instantly in a flash of flame.
"Alright team, the area is secure! Regroup back in the…" she started to say before being cut off.
"Cargo duck!" yelled Chen as he raised his rifle towards her.
== With the Remaining Floater ==
He had somehow managed to escape the rocket blast with only minor damage as he flew away in the chaos of the situation. He could only watch on helplessly as the headstrong creatures were dispatched, followed by his other brethren that landed in the middle of the deadly crossfire. He was the only one left, and he would be damned if he didn't take one of those creatures with him as he died. Taking off he had his plasma rifle raised as he prepared to take out the one who appeared to be in charge, when all he saw was a red beam coming right for him.
== With Chen ==
Chen was about to walk out to meet Cargo, when he saw the whole thing unfold right in front of him, Cargo relaxing her posture, the Floater taking off from his concealed position, the Floater raising its rifle towards Cargo, the gleam in its eyes as it prepared to pull the trigger with its mechanical fingers.
"Cargo duck!" he yelled as he raised his rifle in one quick motion. The beam was unleashed just as Cargo hit the pavement and the look of surprise formed on the Floater's face as he was hit dead on by the beam and exploded. All the alien could do is shout as he fell to the ground in a pile of organic scrap metal.
"Thanks Chen! Alright, now the area is secure. Secure the bodies for the return trip back to base."
"Roger that Cargo! You heard her guys."
== Back at Base ==
The mission was a resounding success as none of the squad had perished and all of them would be coming out of it with a promotion. Cargo was promoted to Captain and chose to add Dense Smoke to her abilities, which would allow her smoke grenades to be twice as thick, and provide twice the amount of defense to her comrades in the smoke. Her wound also wasn't overly serious and she'd only be out 5 days. Prototype was promoted to Lieutenant and chose the ability of HEAT ammo which would provide her with double the amount of damage against robotic enemies. Her wound was the least serious and would only require her to miss four days. Chen was promoted to the rank of Corporal and chose the Sprinter ability which would allow him to cover an additional four tiles as he moved on the battlefield. Thanks to the rapid recovery perk he would only be required to miss 6 days, instead of 12 days had this not be purchased by the Commander.
Goto and Smith were both also promoted to Corporal and would be ready to go back into action immediately since they avoided getting hit by plasma. Goto now had the Squadsight ability and could stay back and still fire on targets his squadmates could see as long as he had a clear line to fire from. Smith chose the Aggression ability unsurprisingly, which added a 10% chance to get a critical hit per enemy in sight.
Moving on, the Commander decided to name the new creatures Mutons due to their aggressive style in combat, and their appearance. Also, thanks to the completion of the mission XCOM received a new Sergeant from the French as a mission reward. The soldier in question was named Julien Richard and he was a 6' 5'' dark skinned mountain of a man that weighed in at 235 lbs. Richard had his black hair trimmed down in a buzz-cut, and was 23 years old who was originally born in Algeria but immigrated to France at a young age. A career soldier since 18, Richard was a part of the Commandement des Opérations Spéciales, (French Special Forces), specializing in covert sabotage missions involving the destruction of alien ships and artifacts. He had volunteered to join XCOM after being promised that he could return to his old job after the war was over. Due to his specialization with explosives, the Commander designated him a Heavy soldier and gave him training in Rockets, Holo-Targeting, and Suppression as well as the call sign "Road Block" which Richard approved of.
== The Following Day ==
After the new guy's arrival, the Foundry was finally built and operational which would allow for the engineers to improve upon the current tech and make it deadlier against the aliens. However, the Commander wanted to save the funds for something else before beginning work.
== One Day Later ==
The Power Generator was finally online which lifted the previous power restrictions the base had been experiencing which would allow for future structures to be built at the Commander's leisure.
== Three Days Later ==
The research on Precision Lasers was finally finished, which freed up the scientists to begin the long anticipated research on the Outsider Shard. This would bring the project one step closer to finding the psychic alien who had slaughtered the German recon team at the start of the war.
The Commander used his surplus credits to build a Laser version of the Barrett .50 caliber, as well as a laser version of the Remington 870 MCS shotgun. These new weapons came with increased damage which should allow for fast destruction of aliens out in the field.
== Two Days Later ==
All was quiet, until the Council radioed into the Situation Room to get the Commander's attention about an impending attack. It came to the Council's attention that the aliens had constructed an object that was sucking in massive amounts of power equivalent to a bomb. The aliens then besieged a railway station in Argentina to deploy it where it would kill thousands if it went off. The Council was offering XCOM an amount of 202 credits, as well as Panic Reduction across South America if the mission was successful.
Knowing that this was a top priority mission, the Commander decided to use the perk that came with Cargo making Captain and activated the Squad Size II ability. This would allow the Commander to send six soldiers into the field at a time which should make dealing with the aliens all the more easier. Now with added flexibility, the Commander chose the six lucky soldiers who'd go down to Argentina and "defuse" the situation.
AN: And that's it for that chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed it, and will leave your comments detailing me how I'm doing and where I can improve as a writer. Also, keep those favorites and follows coming as it keeps me motivated to write these stories for your entertainment. Anyway that's all for me, until next time this is "The Nasty One" signing off.
-PRAK #TheNastyOne