The General

Outskirts of Switzerland

The cover of darkness was an advantage in theory. One that was lost when a conscious choice was made to be as obvious as possible.

Peter Van Doorn glanced out the windshield into the night sky, the bright headlights of all the cars around him providing a decent illumination of the highway. If the United Nations was actually interested in security, they wouldn't have assigned a thirty man escort to him. The men and woman who he served had their hearts in the right place, but this was essentially painting a target on him, not to mention those assigned to protect him.

He'd tried filing a protest, but had been overruled. His safety was "Too important," to risk. Fortunate that he had a solution to the issue. In the event that they were attacked, the casualties would be much lower. At least, that was the goal.

He blinked as a truck unexpectedly swerved in front of him and he slowed down to compensate. Idiot drivers knew no borders, it seemed. He sighed and kept on going. There was a surprising amount of traffic this time of night, but that was just as well. Easier to blend in.

In some ways, he was almost glad that the UN had forced this escort on him. Driving had given him an opportunity to think and reflect. His days had recently been torn between tangling with the UN for answers and trying to deal with the growing list of towns whose populations had disappeared.

He wouldn't lie to himself. He was irritated with the United Nations at the moment. By this point everyone in NATO command knew that the abductions were due to an alien incursion. When he'd first made the discover, he'd gone directly to President of the UN asking to lead the defense.

In a rather shocking and surprising dismissal, the President had said that they were already aware of the situation and were taking steps to deal with it. That answer had not gone over well with the rest of NATO command. So if not them, than who?

He'd received reports of an armed force investigating the abduction areas and suspected alien activity zones. They appeared to be wielding advanced technology and as far as he could tell, answered to no specific nation. But even if the UN did have a secret alien task force, there was still no reason to refuse to keep NATO in the loop.

A few days ago, a man by the name Ali Ennor had requested that he come to the headquarters in Switzerland to discuss military action against the aliens. So it seemed they had changed their minds. Honestly, he was more put off by the lack of clear answers and secrecy surrounding these events than the refusal itself. The UN leadership wasn't stupid, it there was someone more qualified to lead, he would willingly step aside. But refusing to answer any questions only caused suspicion and distrust.

He glanced over at the man sitting beside him, focused on a laptop augmented with advanced scanning software and antennas. "Anything new?"

Private Glenn Friedlein, or more often just "Private Friendly," didn't looked up. "Nein," he muttered, not looking up. Van Doorn glanced over again. Friendly could, and usually spoke very good English, but the German only reverted to his native tongue when he was intently concerned.

"[What are you expecting?]" He asked back in German.

"[Anything,]" he responded wearily. "[If there was ever a time to strike at you, it would be now.]"

He sighed at that. It was slightly disturbing how everyone regarded him as some sort of legend and made him out to be such an important figure. He'd earned his position, he didn't dispute that. But he'd worked with men and woman who were just as capable as he was. They didn't have nearly as much field experience, but in terms of raw talent, he wasn't unique. "[Come on Friendly. I'm not any more or less valuable than the rest of the senior staff.]"

"[You may think so,]" he answered, finally looking up. "[But if that were true, why would you be asked out of all of them?]"

Friendly motioned to the highway. "[You should probably keep up.]"

Van Doorn looked out and realized that the "official" military escort was much farther ahead than him. Which really wasn't an issue, but the brass would throw a fit if he was spotted outside the vehicle they'd specifically assigned him.

In fact, the majority of his escort were in regular cars driving on the road. His hope was that if there was an attack, the aggressors would target the obvious convoy and no one else. It was the only way he could see to make sure the majority of people were safe. The trick was to stay close enough to the convoy to avoid suspicion, but far enough away so he'd be safe from any attack.

"[Do you think they'll listen this time?]" Friendly asked suddenly as he typed on his laptop.

Van Doorn pursed his lips. "[I hope so. I don't think they have many other options.]"

Friendly opened his mouth to answer when the bridge they were about to drive up exploded. His instincts and training kicked in. He raised his wrist radio to his mouth. "Code Red! Disembark and form a perimeter. Redirect the civilians as quickly as possible!"

He heard a chorus of acknowledgement from his earpiece and grabbed his Kevlar helm and slammed on the breaks as multiple small crashes happened on the highway.

Friendly slammed his fist onto his laptop. "[There was nothing!]" He yelled in a brief moment of despair. "[I didn't detect anything.]"

Van Doorn grabbed his rifle and opened the door. He put a hand on the distraught man to shake him out of his state. "Worry about that later," he reassured him, reverting to English. "We have to get as many people out of here and survive first. It's not your fault."

"Yes, sir." Friendly nodded once, also reverting to English.

People were screaming as Van Doorn got out of the car. He looked up as something streaked across the sky with a piercing hum. He blinked. It wasn't often he was surprised, but he could swear that he'd just seen a UFO.

Most of his NATO escort were on the streets now, ordering people to stay down and rushing out to redirect civilian traffic. Some of his escort had driven cars up to the edge where the bridge had been broken to provide some cover. Most of the activity seemed to be there.

Friendly pointed toward the sky. "Look!"

No doubt about it. It was a UFO. Not quite a perfect circle, but pretty damn close. The ship streaked to the other side of the destroyed bridge and landed. He could guess that aliens would soon be coming.

He waved Friendly over and pointed to where most of the soldiers were converging. "Come on!" They dashed over to the edge of the burning bridge as civilians dashed away from the carnage. Some had even managed to turn their cars around and started speeding back. Good, the fewer here the better.

The NATO soldiers saluted him as he dashed up. "General," Sergeant Boan greeted. "We're awaiting your orders."

"Status of the convoy?" he asked while trying to get a glimpse of the burning mess of steel and rubber below.

"Assumed dead," Boan replied, shaking his head. "We can send out a search party if you want."

He bowed his head in respect for the fallen. "Negative. I have a feeling we're going to have company." The soldiers glanced over to the UFO landed on the other side.

"I can't believe this is happening," one of the soldiers muttered fearfully.

"Cut out that talk!" he ordered sharply. "They can die just as easily as any human."

He hoped, anyway.

"We should retreat," Friendly told him. "We have time and a clear path back."

"Probably best," Van Doorn agreed. "Do we have enough cars that aren't trapped?"

"I assume the civilians would have left their keys," Boan suggested. "We can utilize the abandoned cars."

"Let's do that," he nodded. "No-"

He paused as another UFO roared overhead and set down on the highway behind them.

They were trapped.

He did a quick head count. About twenty soldiers remained. He was now less concerned with winning this battle as much as surviving it. "Plan B." he said. He turned to Boan. "Send out the distress signal. Hopefully the UN will send someone." He turned to the private. "Friendly! Take six soldiers and set up against the UFO on the highway."

"Yes, sir!" Friendly acknowledged, then pointed at several soldiers. "All of you! Come with me!" The soldiers followed Friendly as Van Doorn turned back to Boan.

"Set up along the edge," he ordered. "We cannot give up the high ground."

"On it!" Boan responded.

Van Doorn pointed at three more soldiers. "Set up in the middle. Be ready to assist either side."

"Yes, General!" They saluted and rushed off.

"We've got a visual!" One soldier shouted and Van Doorn rushed over to the edge to see several little creatures coming out of the UFO. Pale and spindly, they appeared to be the size of a small malnourished child. Their enlarged heads and mouthless faces only unsettled him further.

"Fire at will!" He ordered, raising his rifle.

The sound of automatic fire filled the ruined highway as the aliens converged on their position. The battle was just beginning and unless they received reinforcements, it would end very soon.

Skyranger, En route to the Distress Signal

Despite the gravity of the situation, Patricia was unreasonably amused that the silent sniper had actually left the smiley face Shawn had drawn on his helmet. Maybe he just had an odd sense of humor. Regardless, it felt out of place as they tore across the sky.

No one was finding humor anywhere else though. Mira Vauner sat beside her, silent as usual. She'd also been designated Squad Overseer, which told Patricia that this was a mission where the only objective was to succeed, whatever the cost. She might not fully like the woman, but if there was anyone fit to command a high-profile mission, it was her.

Well…Patricia felt she would also be included in that category, but Mira did have more experience. Abby sat to her right, her medical gear, med-kit and emergency kit attached to her belt and strapped to her armor.

Carma Hoyle sat directly across from her. The woman was said to be a capable soldier, not exceptional by any means, but competent and that was sometimes more valuable. She wasn't a rookie anymore either, her recent promotion to the Assault specialization was proof of that. She'd been fiddling with her laser shotgun since they'd boarded, still not completely used to it.

The only one who could even slightly be considered a newcomer was Yousef Li, the Japanese soldier who'd been part of the CRF, Japan's most prominent special forces unit. He'd been relatively quiet throughout the ride, but then again, all of them had.

The deployment had been ordered with a sense of urgency she hadn't experienced in XCOM for a long time. The familiar vibration on her wristband had been accompanied by a verbal reminder over the loudspeaker indicating the seriousness of the situation. She'd wasted no time and had barely arrived in the hanger when Fallen Sky had walked out and ordered them to load up.

She expected that the full briefing would come within a few minutes but had entertained herself in the meantime by trying to figure it out herself. This was clearly time sensitive, hence the increased urgency and speed of deployment. So that ruled out an abduction and UFO assault based on previous experience.

So what was left? Perhaps an extraction of some kind? She suspected that the Council was involved with this, though her circumstantial evidence wasn't much. For one, four out of the six were some of the best XCOM had, one was competent and the final one could only be considered new if you went by alien encounters.

Furthermore, she'd noticed that the sniper always tended to accompany them when an important mission was taking place. Zhang's extraction, the France mission…something didn't add up with him and for once she didn't have a decent theory. Then again, it wasn't a topic she'd really been concerned with lately

She did like the name Liam had muttered jokingly once. "The Silence." Somewhat cliché, but it fit. If he didn't give a name, it was inevitable that someone else would. Besides, calling him "the sniper" was getting old. Oddly enough, Abby probably had a better idea of him than she did, since Patricia knew that they'd spoken. Well, probably just Abby had been doing the speaking, but it was more than anyone else.

Back to their actual mission, there were several more clues that indicated that this was a rescue/extraction mission. First, Abby was coming, possibly for more experience-or in case the target in question was wounded. And as she had noted earlier, Mira was involved and her methods of putting the mission before everything else would be essential in a life-or-death situation.

Whatever the case, she was expecting a difficult mission.

"This is Fallen Sky to Squad Overseer Vauner," the pilot said, interrupting her train of thought. She cleared her mind and focused on Fallen Sky. "We're about twenty minutes from the LZ. Patching the Commander in now."

"This is the Commander to Seahawk Team," The Commander's familiar voice greeted. "You're being deployed to perform an extraction op at the request of the Council." So she'd been right. A smile spread across her face under her helmet. "Your target: NATO General Peter Van Doorn."

She frowned, trying to recall the name. She was certain that she'd heard it before but she hadn't gone out of her way to become familiar with NATO and their command structure. Abby, however, cocked her head at that. "Is this the same Van Doorn that-"

"Retook Syria from the Caliphate? Yes, the very same."

Ah. Now she remembered why she recognized the name. The Commander had been credited for winning the war on the Caliphate, but one of the major reasons he'd been able to defeat them was because of the so-called "Battle of Syria."

In the final days of the war, the Caliphate had the capital of Syria and begun imposing their law on the populace. It was unique in that it was the only country that the Caliphate had been able to essentially capture. Sure, they'd conquered many small towns and villages in the Middle East and performed acts of terror across the world, but conquering a country had eluded them. And that achievement prompted the United Nations to actually intervene.

The Army of NATO, under the commander of Peter Van Doorn had waged a long and grueling siege on the city of Damascus. Despite the length of the campaign, the General had earned the respect of many military and world leaders for the way he waged it. Civilians, family members of the Caliphate and surrendered soldiers were off-limits, captured soldiers were treated well and collateral damage was kept to a minimum. In retrospect, he was the exact opposite of the Commander.

The UN had of course touted his eventual victory as proof that they didn't need to stoop to the Commander's level to win the war. As much as Patricia wanted to believe that nice story, she was skeptical of its validity.

The reason being that the Commander had not ignored Damascus and waged his own, much smaller, war as well as his regular strikes on the Caliphate. Depending on who you talked to, the Commander had been just as instrumental in Damascus's fall as Van Doorn, as he'd provided crucial information to the General, allowing him to take the city as well as eliminating key personnel. Some rumors also had it that the Commander and Van Doorn had collaborated in taking the city, though she doubted that was true.

The point was that Peter Van Doorn was not solely responsible for the liberation of Syria. Crucial, yes, but she considered it wrong to ignore the Commander's contribution, no matter how much some despised him.

Well, if Peter Van Doorn was in trouble, then it was no wonder they wanted XCOM to retrieve him. A man like that couldn't just be replaced. A shame that he was with NATO, XCOM could use a tactician like him, if only to make it easier for the Commander.

"Do we know why the distress beacon was activated?" Mira asked.

"No. Only that contact was lost and the beacon was activated."

"Should we expect aliens then?"

"Possibly. XCOM Intelligence has determined another party may be in play. They identify as EXALT and as far as we know, are unaffiliated with the aliens."

"Understood," Mira answered. "What's the priority for the General? Focus on him or him and any surviving soldiers?"

"The General is your priority. Secure the area for the soldiers if possible, but Van Doorn is your priority."

"Copy that."

"You will be updated if anything else is learned. Good luck. Citadel Command, out."

The sound clicked off and Abby leaned back. "Van Doorn," she mused, in a tone that suggested she was smiling underneath. "I always wanted to meet him."

"Yeah, well you can ask for an autograph after we rescue him," Patricia commented, folding her hands together. "The last thing he needs now is to be pestered by an overeager fan."

"Can Generals have fans?" Carma asked with a chuckle.

From the way Abby's body slightly pulled back at that comment suggested that she was offended. It was actually slightly amusing. "Why not? I respect what he's done and think he's a decent human being. Is that an issue?"

"You have strange tastes," Carma noted fiddling with her shotgun. "I thought you were a doctor."

Abby crossed her arms. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Carma shrugged. "It just seems an unusual interest."

"I find politics interesting," she defended. "Is that strange."

"Yes." Yousef Li answered.

Carma nodded in agreement. "I concur. There's probably something wrong with you."

Patricia snorted in her helmet. Politics may dictate countries, but she'd learned long ago not to get anywhere near them. It was one reason she'd never really attempted to rise any higher in the ranks. Sooner or later she was going to have to enter the political side of the military and she had no desire to screw her career up because she hurt some poor general's feelings.

The Silence started making motions with his hands rapidly. Abby nodded. "I agree."

Patricia looked at her. "You understand that?"

"Sign language?" She asked to clarify. "Yes, I do."

Well that was interesting. Unfortunate she couldn't understand it, otherwise she might be able to get something out of him. She was about to ask what he signed when Fallen Sky interrupted them.

"This is Fallen Sky to Seahawk Team. We're flying into a massive firefight here. It appears the General is putting up a hell of a fight."

"What are we looking at?" Mira demanded.

"Two UFO's, small ones at least. Landed at each point of the highway, effectively trapping the General and his soldiers."

"How close can you get us?"

"That depends. How comfortable are you deploying on top of a UFO?"

"If you can get us there, we can deploy," Mira told him quietly.

"Roger that. Be ready in thirty."

"Acknowledged." Mira stood up and the rest of them followed suit. Patricia grabbed her grappling hook preemptively since she suspected they wouldn't have much time to deploy.

"When we land on top, don't move until I give orders." Mira instructed them as the ramp opened and the wind howled around them. The sound of gunfire could be heard below.

"Understood!" They all shouted.

"Deploy!" She ordered and charged off the ramp as the ropes deployed from the skyranger. In her customary free-form style. The Silence followed her lead, and the rest of them secured themselves in a matter of seconds and dropped down onto the alien ship.

Patricia hit the metal with a hardly a sound. It felt…unstable…under her boots. Almost like dirt in that it seemed to give a little under her weight. It didn't feel like metal at all. She surveyed at the firefight between the aliens and NATO

The soldiers were doing their best to keep them from advancing, but the aliens weren't deterred, even though they appeared to have suffered some casualties, based on several thin men and sectoid corpses. However, the three remaining soldiers would soon be overrun.

"Carma, Li, Abby, on my order, deploy down and take out the advancing alien force." Mira ordered, readying her rifle. "Patricia, lay down suppressive fire and follow suit. Sniper, find a good vantage point and fire at will."

The Silence motioned at the ship with his sniper rifle. "No," Mira shook her head. ""I'm going to blow this ship up."

"I don't spot any outsiders," Patricia noted worriedly, scanning the battlefield, autolaser primed. "They might still be in the ship."

"Then they'll die." Mira stated. "Go now!"

As Seahawk Team began scaling down the UFO Patricia went to the edge and after taking a firm stance, lowered her weapon on the unsuspecting aliens. Five thin men, four sectoids. Now would be the perfect time for some quippy one-liner.

But she'd never really had that gift. Alien corpses would have to do.

Red bolts spit from her cannon, tearing into the flanked alien force, killing three outright. She swept back and forth a few times as they rushed for cover, now taking fire from two sides. The thin men hissed and began training their weapons on her.

Her clip ran out of juice. Time to find cover. Abby and Li were laying down beams of laser fire, giving her some precious seconds to join them. The alien ship was surprisingly easy to scale down and she made it in less than ten seconds.

The sectoids divided their fire between XCOM and NATO, luckily not employing psionics at the moment. "Smoke in front of the entrance!" Mira shouted and she pulled her rocket launcher and took a knee. "Patricia, open the ship!"

The UFO entrance was shielded by the shimmering screen. Patricia had no idea how to open it but dashed over there anyway. As smoke began obscuring her, she hesitated, then quickly jabbed the screen which receded like a popped bubble.

Revealing two outsiders standing in the center of the ship.

Unafraid, they turned their heads slowly to her and raised their weapons. The alien computers around them provided cover should they choose it, but from their casual stances and confidant appraisal, they didn't seem to need it.

"Target locked!" She turned to see Mira on one knee, rocket launcher raised and resting on her shoulder. "Targeting the power source." With a hiss the rocket shot out and sped towards the glowing green column. The outsiders realized the danger but it was too late and the rocket collided.

The resulting explosion shook the ground, almost throwing her to the pavement, when she attempted to look back inside, the UFO was littered with strips of metal, ash and fuel. Fires were spread throughout the UFO, mostly concentrated around the back. Perhaps the engi-

A second explosion blew out the back of the UFO and she stepped back as the metal creaked and tore as the unsupported roof of the UFO slowly bent toward the ground. Green residue littered the remains of the UFO and smoke and ash choked the air.

Well, note to self. Check fire in UFOs. She turned to see Mira joining in the attack. The red beams tearing apart cover and slicing aliens into pieces. She focused fire at a sectoid cowering behind a car. Her laser bursts warped the metal and the car started smoking.

Realizing the danger, the sectoid chittered angrily and began dashing off.

Right into the line of fire from the NATO soldiers. The conventional bullets ripped through it's flesh and it fell to the ground with s shriek. Two thin men and one sectoid remained.

One of the thin men thrust his head forward and spat a green blob at Li who ducked prematurely, but it didn't matter as a cloud of green noxious gas exploded around him.

"Gah!" he yelled, and coughed. "I think..it..poisoned me!"

"Stay still!" Abby ordered as she began making her way toward Li.

"Covering fire!" Mira ordered as she pointed at the thin men. "Priority targets! Sniper, I want that sectoid taken care of!"

Patricia resisted the urge to look around as she fired several bursts towards the acid shooting thin man. Where had he gone? She looked over to see Abby pulling Li out of the toxic gas. Or more likely acid. The paint had been stripped form his armor and she could see several visible cracks. While Abby tended to him, Patricia paused to reload her weapon.

Two long streaks of crackling red light rained down from the top of a semi-truck. One struck the head of the thin man she was targeting, the other eviscerated the sectoid. She glanced up to see the Silence laying on his stomach gazing down the sights of his weapon.

"Carma, close the gap!" Mira ordered and the woman charged the final thin man while the rest of them ensured he didn't have a chance to fire. Carma slid in front of the hood of a car, raised her weapon and let loose multiple streaks of light that shredded the thin man. The dismembered body collapsed, poison spewing from the corpse.

Li was back on his feet, though clearly not feeling as well.

"You good?" Mira asked.

He gave a brief nod. "Yes, Overseer!"

"Reload and move forward!" She ordered. "Sniper, hold position."

Patricia complied and they moved forward, weapons raised. The NATO soldiers lowered their weapons at their approach. "Hey! Friendlies over here!" One called as he dashed up to them.

Mira slowed and raised a fist for them to hold behind her. "State your name." She ordered the soldier, her voice harshened by the vocoder.

The man seemed slightly taken aback but complied. "Private Glenn Friedlein, NATO. You're the team to get Van Doorn, right?"

"We are." Mira affirmed.

The private pointed further down the highway. "He's coordinating the defense down at the edge. We formed a line there after those freaks hit the bridge."

"What's your status?"

"I'm down five soldiers and I don't know how Van Doorn is faring," he answered, letting some exhaustion seep into his voice. "Look, you're clearly better equipped than us. We'll hold this area and you go get the General."

Mira nodded and motioned the rest of the squad forward. "Come on!"

The remaining NATO soldiers took defensive positions, weapons raised in case the aliens sent more reinforcements.

The man to his right screamed as a green bolt slammed into his face, killing him instantly. Van Doorn looked to the right to see several of those….things that looked human making their way through the wreckage.

"Hostiles on the right!" He warned, raising his rifle. "Suppress the greys on the left, split fire on the lookalikes!" He fired and the bullets actually tore into one which collapsed to the ground. Some sort of green smoke leaked from the corpse, but he didn't care about that at the moment. The other two aliens…hissed…at him and dashed into cover.

Excellent. He just needed to hold their advance. He took a risk and tried looking to the other side of the smoking bridge where the UFO sat, emitting a peculiar hum in between the sound of ballistic fire. The shimmering shield that he assumed was one of the…doors? Opened up and five more aliens walked out.

Two more of the spindly gray things and one of the human lookalikes. He frowned at the last two, then ducked as green bolts flew past his head. He wished he had binoculars of some kind. The last two aliens that had come out looked odd. They were about the same size as the lookalikes, but appeared to be wearing some kind of orange…armor?"

He stood up and laid down some suppression fire at the two lookalikes. "Grenade their cover! Right side!" He ordered.

"Yes, sir!" The soldier on the far right tossed a grenade in that area that landed right under a car leaking fuel. The aliens hissed and leapt away with inhuman agility as the car exploded in a brilliant fireball.

"Exposed targets!" Van Doorn yelled. "Hailstorm that area!"

Hailstorm was the tactic of using indiscriminate sweeping fire on a particular area. Three soldiers executing the tactics would annihilate anything standing out in the open. And these aliens weren't going to be exposed for long.

But even their enhanced reflexes didn't save the aliens from the hail of bullets. They weren't killing shots, but their bodies jerked as the lead tore into their arms, legs and torso.

"Tighten the field!" He ordered as the weakened aliens collapsed to the ground, struggling to rise. Only a few seconds more of sustained fire sufficiently executed the aliens who started leaking that green gas.

He let out a whoop. "Come on!" He shouted at Sergeant Boan who was focusing on the three grays cowering behind various burning vehicles. "Not fair if I have all the fun!"

He allowed a smile. Things were going much better than he'd expected. The battle wasn't over, but he might be able to pull through. He quickly appraised his status. Four soldiers had died so far which brought him down to ten, not including Friendly's group. Speaking of which.

The ground shook and he blinked in amazement as the UFO blocking the highway went up in a brilliant explosion. How the hell had Friendly…no, not just Friendly. They were still fighting aliens, but red beams were also added to the mix. It didn't look like they were attacking, but he didn't want to get his hopes up.

"General, more are coming!" One soldier yelled as he reloaded. "It's-"He was abruptly cut off as a bolt of green energy slammed into his face. Van Doorn looked around frantically, not seeing anyone.

"Sniper!" he called. "Get down!" Another bolt barely missed his head, but he risked peeking over to see the orange clad aliens walking calmly through the ruins of the bridge. He appeared to be wrong. It was more like some sort of crystal than armor. Worse, it appeared to actually be part of the alien.

And just like that, things were taking a turn for the worse.

"Fall back from the edge!" He ordered as another soldier was executed by the sniper. "Set up watches on the edges."

Ducking and weaving as bolts of fire barely missed him, Van Doorn hoped those were his reinforcements he'd seen.

Otherwise this battle would soon be over.

Patricia hopped over a piece of rubble as the squad charged toward Van Doorn's position. The screams of dying soldiers echoed over and she gritted her teeth and kept going faster.

"They're coming to us." Abby noted and Patricia saw she was right, thought it looked less like they were coming to them and more like they were retreating. One of the men wearing a more ornamented military vest and Kevlar helm noticed them and waved them over.

"You that ops team? Get over here!" A bolt of plasma that seemed to come from nowhere hit the ground a few feet away. "Watch for the sniper!" he warned.

"Commander, we've made contact with General Van Doorn," Mira said as they all warily made their way forward and integrated with the NATO soldiers.

"Can you extract him?"

"Negative. We're under sniper fire."

The soldier started firing as two sectoids climbed up the edge of the broken bridge and rushed to cover. Patricia added her weapon to the mix, the bursts of laser fire blowing the thin wooden boxes the sectoids hid behind to splinters. The soldiers looked at her in amazement, some with their mouths open.

She motioned at the two sectoids. "Focus!" She yelled as Abby and Li started firing their weapons. A beam from far behind her struck one sectoid in the head. About time he started making himself useful.

She dashed up by Van Doorn where Mira was crouching beside him.

"Thank God you're here," Van Doorn told them as more sectoids started crawling up. "If you didn't show up this would probably be a lot worse."

"Don't get to excited yet," Mira warned. "We're not going anywhere until that sniper is taken care of."

"I assume you have a plan?" He asked as he fired his weapon at one of the sectoids.

"We've got our own sniper," Mira answered. "We should-"

"Outsiders!" Carma yelled and all of them peeked around cover to see two of the outsiders leap up from the destroyed bridge to the contested highway.

"You've fought these before?" Van Doorn asked.

"Sad to say so," Patricia muttered as she aimed her weapon at the crystalline beings.

Van Doorn eyed her autolaser. "I don't know what outfit you're form," He commented slowly. "But I haven't seen gear like that before."

"Question time later, General," She answered hurriedly as she fired her weapons. The bullets the NATO soldiers were firing seemed to be doing nothing to the outsiders, just sparking off their body.

"Carma-" Mira began ordering when a plasma bolt slammed into the woman's helmet, killing her instantly.

"Soldier down!" Abby yelled as she rushed futilely to the body.

Two red beams rained down on the remaining sectoids, killing both. Abby looked at the dead sectoids, and back where the Silence was stationed. "He needs a visual! She yelled. "He can't get a shot off otherwise!"

It made sense. Wouldn't it be nice if he could actually tell them that? She looked at Mira. "I'll go up. Deal with the outsiders."

"Go," She stated and her and the General began firing at the approaching outsiders. Patricia leapt over her cover and dashed to the back of a moving truck. Trying to ignore how easy a target she was, she peeked out and moved her hand up to find the little knob by her earpiece. She'd never found a good use for it before, but was extremely grateful now that it was implemented.

In the background. She heard Mira and Van Doorn giving orders and distracting the outsiders. She tried her best to block out how close she was to the aliens. Zooming her HUD, she scanned across the gap between the bridge and highway. The smoke and ash made it difficult to get a clear picture, but it was the best she could do-

There!

On one knee, directly at the edge of the other side of the exploded highway was a thin man. But this wasn't the usual thin man, He wielded some sort of plasma sniper rifle and instead of the odd business suit, wore some sort of black armor, instead of spectacles, the right side of his face was augmented, presumably to assist his aim.

She thought furiously at how to implement the function she need, then blinked in remembrance. "Squad-sight function implemented!" She informed as she kept as clear a visual feed on the thin man sniper as possible. The seconds ticked by like hours as the thin man scanned for new targets.

Her heart pounded as his head turned towards her. The alien cocked his head and turned his weapon towards her.

"Anytime would be nice…" she hissed, resisting the urge to pull back.

Her patience was rewarded when a red beam burned its way through the thin man's head. The force threw him back as an acid cloud poured from the wound. She let out a cheer. "Nice shot!"

"Patricia, look out!" Li shouted and she turned to see one of the outsiders aiming it's weapon at her. She began firing and moving to the side, most of her bolts missing. The ones that hit staggered the alien, but it simply raised it's hand and shot back the absorbed energy.

"Sustain fire on it!" She ordered Li as she dashed back to the defensive line. Sliding behind an exploded car, she glanced over to see the situation was worse than she'd thought.

One of the outsiders hand reached the line and was executing the helpless NATO soldiers without mercy. Their weapons did virtually nothing as the outsider shot one in the chest, then rushed over to another one and grabbed her by the neck, then snapped it, killing her instantly.

"Sustain fire on it!" Mira ordered and a few seconds later three beams burned into outsider which slowed as it's whole body glowed orange. She added her fire as well and the Silence also fired.

The NATO soldiers along fell back as the outsider shattered from the energy contained inside it. She let out a sigh, about to reload-

"Duck!" Van Doorn yelled and without hesitation she fell and three bolts of plasma struck the metal above her, she could almost feel the heat and corrosion, they were so close. She sprang back up and saw the outsider preparing to fire again when the General himself slammed into the outsider, knocking the weapon out of it's hand.

The alien turned and appraised the General who leapt back while unloading his weapon on the crystalline being. "Come on!" He roared. "I won't go down without a fight!"

Was he crazy? Who would think to charge something like that? Not that she really cared at the moment, she scrambled back as two quick laser strikes from the Silence slowed the outsider from advancing on Van Doorn.

The outsider turned and looked to where the Silence was stationed and raised it's hand, energy gathering, then staggered back as Van Doorn slammed the butt of his rifle into it's back. With an inexplicable smile on his face he glanced at her. "Fire already! Not fair if I have all the fun."

Patricia complied, and this time, she didn't miss. The outsider staggered back, raising both hands to discharge the energy when the sustained red beams of Mira and Abby burned into the alien. Van Doorn was still a meter and a half away, putting a new clip in his rifle.

The outsider struggled to rise, and after a few seconds, gave up and clenched it's fists and crossed it's arms over it's torso. Patricia's eyes widened as pulsing orange energy began to gather. It knew it wasn't going to live… which meant…

Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she realized what the outsider was trying to do. "It's going to blow!" She yelled and dashed toward Van Doorn and with a flying leap tackled him to the ground.

With a shriek like shattering glass, and the sound of a whirling gale, she heard the outsider explode. She placed her arms over Van Doorn's exposed face to shield him from any repercussions. She screamed as what felt like dozens of hot needles tore into the entirety of her back side.

Then there was silence.

She attempted to move and let out a groan as white hot pain coursed through her body. She heard footsteps running over to her. With an audible scream, she pushed herself off Van Doorn and lay gasping and curled on the ground.

"Easy," Abby told her urgently as she knelt down beside her and she heard her unhook her med-kit. "Hold still, we have to get the armor off. She nodded to show she understood and Abby hurriedly unhooked the back armor piece off.

"This is going to hurt," she warned, then pulled. Patricia gritted her teeth as what felt like a dozen needle were pulled from her back.

"This'll help," Abby assured her and Patricia felt the blessed coolness of the med-kit as it was sprayed on her back. She made an attempt to rise and gasped as sharp pains wracked her legs and feet, but Abby pushed her down. "We need to get you back to the Citadel, there are still shards on your legs and helmet. I'm going to put you under so we can move you safely.

Patricia nodded and once Abby injected her with the sedatives, eagerly embraced the darkness of unconsciousness.

The wounds appeared to be mostly superficial, but Abby wasn't taking chances. Li and the sniper carried the unconscious Patricia to the landed skyranger while Mira and Van Doorn talked nearby.

As far as she could tell, instead of simply shattering, the outsider had directed the energy inside him to act like an anti-personnel grenade, shooting tiny shards of crystal in all directions. If not for the armor, Patricia would have been dead. But as it was, her wounds were probably not as bad as initially supposed.

She walked over to Mira and the General. "We should head back now. I think she'll be fine, but I want to examine her sooner than later."

Mira nodded. "Agreed. Come on, General."

He crossed his arms. "I'm not leaving my men."

"A UN team is on their way now." Mira told him. "This isn't up for debate."

"We'll be fine, General," one of the solders told him. "Your safety is more important."

He let out a sigh. "You sure, Boan?"

"Completely, sir."

"Very well," He answered, then nodded toward the skyranger. "Lead the way miss…"

"Vauner."

He nodded as they began walking. "It was looking pretty bad out there," he told Mira. "We wouldn't have made it if you hadn't shown up."

"No," she stated. "You wouldn't."

He looked a little taken aback at that, but appeared to shrug it off and they all boarded the skyranger. Within a few minutes they were airborne and heading back. Patricia lay on the floor with Abby kneeling on the floor beside her, monitoring her vitals and sedative levels. Van Doorn cleared his throat.

"I owe you one, seriously," he told them. "I wouldn't be here without you. I don't know what you have, but when we get back, drinks are on me."

Abby chuckled at that and Li nodded in approval. "I agree with this decision."

"So, if you don't mind my asking, just who are you?" Van Doorn asked, clasping his hands together.

Abby opened her mouth to answer when the skyranger jerked hard to the right. Abby reached up and grabbed a seat to steady herself as Mira looked to the cockpit. "This is Squad Oversee Vauner to Fallen Sky. What was that?"

"Change of plans," Fallen Sky actually sounded…worried. "We're being rerouted."

Abby frowned.

"Why?" Mira demanded.

"This is the Commander to Seahawk Team," the Commander interjected, the underlying tenseness in his voice immediately making her nervous. "Apologies for this, General, but we have no choice. The aliens are attacking Germany and we need as many people there as possible."

After-Action Report

Operation: Glass Cage

Personnel:

Seahawk 1 (Squad Overseer): Specialist Mira Vauner

Status: Active

Kills: 4

Seahawk 2 – Specialist Patricia Trask

Status: Wounded (Estimated 5 Days)

Kills: 4

Seahawk 3 – Specialist Abigail Gertrude

Status: Active

Kills: 3

Seahawk 4 – Specialist Carma Hoyle

Status: Deceased

Kills: 2

Seahawk 5 – Private Youseif Li

Status: Active

Kills: 2

Mission Director: The Commander

Pilot: Tristen Ward – Call sign: "Fallen Sky"

Target(s) Extracted:

NATO Army General Peter Van Doorn