Colony Assault II

AN: Again, not going two months without an update. New terror unit at the end. It has a new power, that I'm basing off its name. Ya'll know what it is.

[1]

They spread out in a small line, with Commander Laura in the middle.

They were in an abyssal plain. A wide open one. Aside from a few rises here and there, there was no cover at all. If an alien torpedo came there way, there'd be nowhere to go.

That didn't mean that it would be a sure hit. The alien torpedo launchers were somehow less accurate than the blaster launchers in the First Alien War. In that war, when it came to the aliens and their rockets, there had been no misses. Not at all.

In this war, there had been plenty of misses. The raid on the crashed medium earlier in the month had been proof enough of that.

The blaster launchers had been able to turn, and sharply—perfect for nailing XCOM soldiers behind corners. Which had happened plenty.

That didn't seem to be the case with the torpedo launchers. Laura didn't know if that was the aliens and their stupidity, or the launcher itself, or a combination of the two.

She tried not to think about that. But there was nothing more pleasant to think about. The alien colony probably had some weak aliens. Some Gillmen and Aquatoids. They would die in one shot from a gauss rifle. For the most part.

What else? Her brother Claude was here. That was both good and bad. Good because he was a fine Diver. She'd had doubts about him. His accuracy was average at best, but he was fucking fast. So that was good.

There'd been a small mission about a week ago. A survey ship—the equivalent of a medium scout—had landed. Gillmen had been its crew. One of them had shot at Claude from medium range.

Claude had dodged that shit. It had gone for his head, and he just tucked himself in the fetal position and let himself roll forward. The sonic bolt had grazed his plastic aqua armor, breaching it, but just barely.

"It'd aimed too high." He said later. But that shit didn't matter to Laura. Every other Diver probably would've had his or her head popped like a busted soufflé, no question about that.

Claude was probably the best, the fastest, most reflexive scout they had. No question about that either.

And Laura didn't want him here. That was the bad part. They were about to raid an alien base. Or colony. Or whatever. There would be big units. Terrorists. They would have abilities and powers that none of them would know about until it was too late.

Stop it! Stop thinking you've lost before the battle has even STARTED!

Think positive. Yeah, that was the ticket. They weren't going in with a tank. That was good. No Machine Control for the aliens, if that's what the fucking shit was even called.

But that, too, was both good and bad. She'd rather lose a tank from concentrated alien fire. That's what tanks were for. It was even better even if the tank was critically damaged. The technicians could have it back up and running in a week. Sometimes less than that. A wounded Diver could be out of commission for two, three, sometimes four weeks.

Positive! Think positive!

They had tier-2 weapons. Gauss weapons. They could kill Aquatoids and Gillmen with fantastic efficiency. Rail technology. That was the ticket. Nothing should be able to stand up to it. The ammo problem was ten-pound pile of shit in a five-pound bag, but the Divers were getting good with them. Taking aimed shots instead of spraying all over the place and hoping to hit something.

They were nearing the trench, heading into the dark below.

[2]

They had Tanya hang back, crouched behind the lip of a rise in the plain. The Divers moved out in front of her, splitting apart so that she had an unobstructed view.

"You got anything?" Laura asked.

"Nothing."

Her nerves were frayed. Her muscles were as tight as piano wire. Panic seized her for a moment, and she turned around suddenly. She'd been damned certain something was behind her. It was dark. Not as dark as it would be in the trench, but very dim. Laura allowed the team to deploy a flare every hundred feet or so. They had to save the majority of them for the trench.

Taxi and the Triton was behind her, of course, but the headlights weren't on.

Tanya watched as the defined figures of the Divers shrank and shrank into toy silhouettes. She grew more nervous. She kept looking over her shoulder. Only now she was doing it with her pistol drawn.

"Anything Tanya?...Tanya?!"

She nearly jumped from the shout. "No. Nothing."

It occurred to her that maybe she needed to look through the scope before saying that.

She did. There was nothing as far as she could tell. "Can I regroup with you guys please."

"Yeah. Do it."

Tanya made sure the radio was off so they wouldn't hear her shout of joy and relief.

[3]

At the lip of the top of the trench now.

It was massive—an immense mouth cut into the earth. It looked to be about three hundred feet in diameter. They actually couldn't tell from here. It was so large, and the light was so meager, that they couldn't see all the way to the opposite side.

But they could see down. Rachel let out a chemical flare and it floated down and down and down...

The decline was steep and smooth. They wouldn't be able to hide anywhere on the way down, or use anything for support on the way up.

The objects down there were only hintings of objects. The Divers could see them because they were that large.

And some of them had their lights on. And somebody was definitely home.

"Should we have Taxi come a bit closer?" Rachel asked.

Laura stared down. She honestly wasn't sure. The alien colony had a sonar system—or an equivalent—in place more likely then not. They had probably pinged their flying sub already.

"We'll have her pull up halfway." Laura finally said, and got on her radio to give the order. Taxi obliged, her tone was dull but Laura knew she was afraid. Dumb bitch better not try blasting off without us.

But Laura shut that thought out.

She waited until Taxi was about one hundred feet behind them.

"We go down." Laura said. "Not much cover. Tanya you set up here. Claude, you—"

"I know." He said, and readied his gun.

"You stay here." Laura finished, her eyes narrow. "And don't fucking interrupt me again."

Claude looked at her, eyes raised.

"He's not going first?" Downey asked. He looked scared, as though he might be volunteered in Claude's place.

"We need someone to cover. Dayako's going first."

"Oh fucking bullshit!" Chikage almost screamed.

"Shut up cockhole!" Laura yelled. "You ever question my orders again and I'll blow your head off before the aliens get a chance. You're a lower rank. Get fucking moving asshole."

Chikage looked like she was about to cry. For a moment, Laura didn't think she would do it. A God damned mutiny before the actual mission was even underway. That would be an interesting debrief.

Dayako sniffed and starting going down into the basin.

Below them, the alien structures stood out like T's. There were three main structures that they could see, with the one in the center being the largest.

Wiles went after her, and Kitten Weston went after her.

They hadn't even made it halfway down when they made contact.

[4]

It was an alien torpedo.

"Take cover!" Laura screamed over the radio. Only there was no cover to take.

When Dayako saw it come racing from between the left and center buildings, a golden orb of pulsing death, she was sure that was it. Here lies Dayako Chikage. Or least, where she would lie if there was anything left to bury.

But something happened. She had no idea what. The thing was heading for her, for her team, sure. However, it wasn't heading directly at them. The alien firing the damn thing either wasn't aiming properly or didn't account for the recoil.

The shot was high. Much too high. A shot rang out. That was Tanya, firing a shot at the.

For a moment, Dayako thought the alien torpedo would miss the wall of the basin entirely, flying out through the hole at the top.

But it did hit the wall of the basin. High and to the left. Instead of obliterating anyone in the squad, they were covered in a wall of smoke and sand.

It was not thick however, and the wide open space gave it many directions to move in.

"Everyone okay?!" Laura shouted.

A bunch of yes ma'am's, yessirs, rogers and affirmatives.

"I see the fucker! Aquatoid!" Tanya said and fired her heavy gauss a second time. Dayako could see the shooter as well: a small glint of red light in the distance.

The gauss bolt sailed off to meet it. The alien had probably no idea that something could tag him from so far away, but tagged he was. The red glint blinked out of existence.

Dayako did spy some cover. That was good. But it was at the floor of the basin. That was bad. And the "cover" was a piece of the building. That was worse.

Specifically from the center building. A long and narrow tongue of metal jutted away from it, ending in a short L. Dayako called it out to the rest of them.

Laura rogered that and gave them the order to move out. They let go of flares, which floated forward lazily toward the colony.

The squad quickly realized two things.

In the center, there were not three separate main buildings. All the buildings were linked, connected by metal rows that Laura assumed were hallways on the inside. The one on the left was not really a full building at all, but an extension of the central building. It had a second floor that was like a T-shaped balcony. A single window blazed with yellow light.

The central building had a wide base, narrow neck, and wide second floor. The many windows (Dayako counted ten on this side alone) were also lit yellow, and Dayako fancied she could see shapes darting across it.

On the left side of the central building's metal "tongue" was a door. It opened and another Aquatoid came out. It was wielding something small and one-handed.

"Contact!" Morgan Liner said. He fired three times and missed three times. The Aquatoid's eyes shined red, and it raised its weapon. It wasn't rushing with its aim, even though it was facing down fourteen heavily armed Divers.

Jahani fired once. The bolt exploded the ground in front of the Aquatoid, spewing sediment into its face. That fucked up its seemingly deliberate aim, and it fired the next split second.

The round was blue in color. The yellow light from the window put green pinpricks in it.

The alien had been aiming for Dayako, Jahani and Morgan. They were grouped far too close together. Instead of hitting them, it touched the basin wall slightly to the left of Donald Dawson. There was a thick, almost juicy explosion. Dayako turned and saw Donald was completely frozen.

What the fuck is THIS?

Jahani fired again. This time the shot tore off the leg of the Aquatoid. It screamed, tumbling away from them.

Dayako turned and fired. It hit center mass. The alien stopped screaming.

[5]

Forward and forward. They were fifty feet away from the buildings.

The right building was only slightly larger than the left "building." It had a single window on the second floor. Strangely enough, it also had a gap in the building. It was on the second floor, a translucent fence-thing covered the bottom half. It was a true balcony.

There was something looking through it. Something Gabrielle Wiles absolutely did not recognize. It had golden-yellow skin. Its eyes were shining red.

"What the fuck is that?" she screamed.

"Everyone make for the buildings!" Laura said again. Though the jury was out as to whether everybody—or even anybody—was listening.

Tanya fired at the yellow monster. It made no attempts to dodge. Tanya's aim wasn't great but improving. The gauss bolt hit center mass.

She cried out in triumph, but it was cut off before even a second had passed.

The yellow creature was still standing. The shot had made the thing lurch back, as if punched, but it recovered almost immediately.

It raised its weapon. Fired. A torpedo cut through the waters.

It went for Gabrielle Wiles, whom responded with feeble discharges of her gauss rifle. One of the bolts hit. This time, the yellow creature didn't even flinch.

Too little, and much too late.

The crackling torpedo sailed passed Gabby's shoulder and detonated on the basin wall just behind her. The plastic armor gave her some protection, so instead of Gabby being completely disintegrated, she was ripped into four pieces. Her charred remains were sent hurtling toward the alien colony.

"Fucker!" Tanya roared and fired again. This time the bolt screeched off the balcony's fence. Amazingly, the creature ducked into the building.

"You guys see that thing?!" Tanya said.

"We saw it!" Kitten yelled. "Haru was lining up a shot!"

"What the fuck is it?!" Theodore Downey asked.

Laura said. "I dunno, but we gotta get into the building! We are sitting ducks out here."

[6]

They were making good progress, all things considered. Two more Aquatoid's appeared from the central and right entrances, but both were gunned down before they could get a shot off.

They were going to make it. Once inside they would have more of an advantage. The aliens would probably fire the torpedoes at close range; no way would the aliens fire off them off at point-blank range.

Then Tanya caught something unusual in the scope of her. Something that was like a immense bubble of clear meat, in which glowing and translucent organs rested.

Then the phantoms appeared.