The colds of the morning blow into the Avenger's landing gear, chilling the metal and groaning the steel. The crew of the Avenger was already awake even before the frigid, arctic winds began to blow. The life of a soldier is never a very comfortable one. The clothing and the heating in the craft have kept them relatively warm. All of the vipers have not been very appreciative of the cold winds, chilling them past their scales.
The humans were taking the cold much better than their reptilian allies. Travis and Cunningham were glad to lend their heavy blankets to their comrades, helping them stay warm. The men typically remain warm in their outer clothing anyway. Once the sun rose, the temperature rose considerably. Ice melts off of the windows of the Avenger as the sun peeks over the bleak horizon.
The morning was as bleak as any. The soldiers of X-com did their regular regimental exercise, keeping themselves in shape. The vipers had a very different workout than their bipedal allies. Without legs to exercise, the vipers exercised with their large, long tails. Sometimes lifting things with them, or doing very intricate, swift actions. The vipers are already in such good shape from the harsh ADVENT training that they will have to completely abandon all physical fitness kinds to fade from their current condition.
Many recruits have joined X-com recently, much to the pleasure of the Commander. That only means that Gamma squad has been quite busy as of late. Alpha squad is still used mostly for all of the dangerous missions that the recruits cannot yet handle. Kath has been spending more time with Fire-Brand, the pilot of the SkyRanger, as she is training to pilot it someday. For right now, she only operates the newly added cannon on the craft. They have limited ammunition for it, so they use it sparingly.
Yenta is fully versed in Alpha squad's structure. Everybody there sees her as a valuable asset, except for Jackson. The squad leader has still not accepted the fact that an alien is in his squad. He has every single right to hate ADVENT, but Yenta has proven herself to X-com. Now she has to prove it to him too. Travis Lewis has been bonding closely with Kath as he takes her to the ship's shooting range quite often now.
Michael has moved on past his loss. Alex was unique to him, but he could not allow those feelings to chain him down forever. He mourned and then moved on like she would have wanted him to.
As breakfast was being eaten in all of the bunk-rooms, Alpha squad sits around their table. Yenta finds the strange fluid 'coffee' to be rather beneficial to her. It does help warm her insides up after a cold night. After downing her mug of the warm, dark beverage, Yenta looked around at everybody. The meal was simple: eggs and toast. The MRE's are exclusively given to soldiers going on long term missions.
Yenta smiled as everybody ate, having already finished her meal. People tend to take their time more. At ADVENT, she had to eat her food as fast as possible to keep efficiency as high as possible. And with the humans, they just are trying to appreciate their food as much as possible, even if Travis burns it a little bit.
After countless small conversations and comments, Yenta got interrupted in her sentence by a loud buzzing sound. A single flash of the red light over the door in their bunk-room, all of Alpha squad knew what it meant. The team quickly finished their meals and downed their drinks. Rushing out the door and going towards the bridge. The Commander does like things to be brief.
As all of the squad assembled, the Commander turned around to face them. He was standing on the small platform above the rest of the deck, allowing him to look closer at the hologlobe and some of the screens. As they came upon him, the Commander removed his aviator sunglasses. His eyes were revealed to be grey with scars above his eyes. He folded them and put the glasses into his collar.
He spoke with such authority and dominion. Not rude or harsh, just such a powerful presence. "You all are going on a perilous mission, more dangerous than the Black-site. We located Ember-17, a viper hatchery. We are not going there to kill innocent hatchlings, but to capture the director of the facility." His grey eyes turned to Yenta. "I know this will be hard to do, but with that VIP, we could figure out how to destroy the psionic network, ending this war for good." The Commander paused and looked at the squad for a moment. "You are leaving in an hour. The operation will begin at nightfall. See you then." The Commander turned and replaced his glasses.
The squad quickly went back to their quarters to get ready, but Yenta stayed there for a moment. 'Commander."
"Yes, Corporal?"
"What else will we do there? I-"
"You are loyal to X-com, but you are still loyal to your kind." He said and turned back around, looking at her past his sunglasses. "It is easy to tell. Your entire kind is loyal to each other. A prime example is that Lazarus. He was one of the Elders' chosen, and he rebelled to fight for his kin."
Yenta nodded, not surprised that he already knew what she was going to say.
"I do not aim for any vipers to be killed during this. That VIP and any information you can grab is your mission." He said, trying to assure her that he is not aiming to exterminate her entire race. It is hard to convince a soldier to walk into an occupied hospital and not have doubts, but, in this case, a nursery. Hundreds of vipers were likely born there. How could she betray her people and allow them to die if she is ordered to? She was utterly unable to do that.
The Commander knew this too. He knows how deep their love for their people runs. He may not know their history or culture, but he already figured out that they are much more cohesive than humans. Quickly tossing off any social boundaries when the time comes, and seeing each other as family. Even now, a rebel viper would die for her people, and Yenta would do the same.
The viper nodded and quickly slithered away from him.
After an hour of grabbing gear and tossing it into the back of the Skyranger, Alpha squad was leaving to go to the mission site. The team is still adorning the Predator armor set, with some new modifications to the suits. Tygan has been experimenting with trying to find a new armor set. Lily Shen has been aiding in that endeavor. The flight will take several hours, as the site is almost an entire sector away from the Avenger. After the SkyRanger left, the Avenger relocated to a closer location.
Kath is in the SkyRanger too, getting some flying hours. After flying for some of the time, she shifted into the back bay and sat next to her larger, older sister Yenta. For privacy's sake, they often converse in their serpentine language, as not a single human can utter those words.
Kath is not wearing any armor, but a flight-suit that has been adjusted to fit her form. The black fabrics are concealing her while providing decent warmth.
"It is very odd, sister… I have spent many nights with Travis, shooting his rifle. Do you think he likes me too?" She asks nervously, with her words being swiftly spoken. To the humans around them, it sounds much like quiet hissing and smaller, higher-pitched words. They would make no sense of it.
Yenta smiled and looked at her sister's eyes. Yenta's verdantly green eyes looked into the red irises of her sister, noting the nervousness thereof. "Of course, Kath. I doubt he would train that much with me."
The two sisters exchange their thoughts about how the sharpshooter feels about the pilot viper. Yenta is supportive of it, as she wants her sister to be happy. It was all she wanted before. With Jensa, she just wanted to make her proud, and with Kath, she just wants to make her happy. As the SkyRanger soars across the sky, upsetting what remains of the local wildlife, the squad gets ready for their operation. Kath returned to her duties in the cockpit, likely being briefed by Fire-Brand.
Jackson puts the magazine of his rifle into the mag-well and primes the gun. "Let's not have the whole of ADVENT crash down on us. We want a quick and quiet op." The squad nodded and agreed to that plan. The Commander said that he did not want to have much conflict at all. A snatch-and-go operation. They are here just for that VIP. Unknown to them, the VIP already had left.
As the craft approached the site, the entire squad was ready to go. Yenta looked at the humans around her as they pull their masks up to protect themselves from the cold. Yenta's armor has some heaters around the collar to keep her warm enough to fight.
The bright green light turns on within a few minutes, and the rear of the craft swings open. The SkyRanger pivots sharply and gives the posterior part of the craft towards the facility. Ropes dangle from the hatch, and the crew slides down them. With the squad on the ground, they all move towards the facility.
Jackon takes point with Richard and Michael. Yenta and Travis are the best shots in all of X-com, so they stay back. The sharpshooter took a position with decent cover, provided by a rock, and overlooks the facility.
"Looks dead inside. No patrols, nothing."
Jackson hardly believes that nobody at all is here.
"Nothing at all? Any signs of combat?" He asks, moving closer to the main door of the facility.
"Negative. Nothing on the outside. Moving up." Both Yenta and Travis quickly move to join the rest of the team with clearing the facility.
Jackson and Michael enter first, clearing their corners carefully. As Travis looked around, the base looks normal, save that it is devoid of all life. The elevator is not present, so Michael moved over to it and pressed the button.
"Nothing on the floor. Sublevels could tell more. Maybe they abandoned it?"
Yenta responded as she slithered in with Travis, seeing how every system is still online.
"No. They would not have left everything like this. They would have at least shut the place down…"
The entire team moved to the elevator as it dings loudly. The doors have issues opening, stuttering, and shaking some. A strident scratching is heard as the doors slide open. The elevator inside the elevator told the story with several troopers' corpses and the berserker's remains—hundreds of bullet casings lying on the ground, littering everywhere.
"Did the vipers revolt, maybe?" Jackson asks, poking the berserker with the barrel of his shotgun, wishing for it to stay dead. The large wound on the back of its head assured that long before he bunted it.
The squad moved into the corpse-filled elevator and pushed the only glowing button on the panel—sublevel one.
The elevator closed the doors slowly and began the rapid descent downwards. They would have thought that it was broken from how fast it fell downwards, but when it stopped abruptly, they knew it still operated fine.
The doors struggled, even more, to open on this floor. Within a few moments, and with the assistance of both Richard and Michael, the doors opened. It revealed a more grueling sight—even more dead troopers, with some fallen vipers scattered about.
"It looks like the vipers tried to escape. But who won?" Yenta inquires, slithering over the bodies, following the trail of bullet casings and blood.
"Hard to say. If ADVENT won, they would have cleaned this up already. If the vipers won, they would have destroyed this place." Travis assumes as ADVENT is all about keeping this image clean, despite how filthy it truly is.
Yenta found body after body. Mainly troopers and some vipers with some purple marks on their armors. She found the scorches to be incredibly odd. No standard unit has psionic repeaters like that.
This place is cold. Not as bad as outside is, but still bitter. The vipers vastly prefer the heat, which is why this place was built here like an old Gulag prison. If they escape the iron grip of their captors, then the cold would be their demise. There is no escape from this place. Only death can spare them from the harsh, brutal Arctic prisons.
A viper is even more susceptible to the cold than a human is. If they are out in the cold for too long, they would simply perish. Hypothermia is incredibly easy for a viper to contract.
The trail led to the stairs, heading deeper into the base. The elevator would not come down this far, so they have to use the stairs a lot from this point on. Bradford radioed to the team: "There is a strong energy reading coming from the floors beneath you. We do not know what could be down there, so be careful."
The team cautiously checked their corners, only finding more dead troopers and ruined mecs. There was hardly a soul left. As they got to the next floor, Yenta was the first to see the viper's proud symbol. The black and white outline of a serpent holding a sword and a torch proudly marked on the wall. The team joined her and moved to the window. She sighed heavily with relief to see the hatcheries and nurseries still unmolested by whatever fought here. The blast doors were all sealed save for several windows. Nobody could get in there very quickly.
The number of bodies is much more scarce down here. Jackson moved to the upcoming corner and peeked around. The first thing he noted was the oddly colored blood on the wall. Moving over to it, he allows his chest camera to show it to Command. Tygan requested a sample, which Jackson obliged.
Turning around, he looked into the room. The large sleeping pods are before him, with a single casing on the ground. The pistol that was fired in here must have wounded whoever stood here, but where did they both go? Jackson moved to the casing and knelt. He grabbed it and lifted it, looking at it.
"ADVENT casing. Recently fired."
The entire squad was cautious as they leave that room and go into the hallway. The corner did not bode well for them, as scorch marks line the wall in a strange hue of purple and black. Moving around the corner, Travis was the first to round it. He was shocked to see what was before them—dozens of dead troopers, all incinerated by a purple flame. The black marks line the walls, outlined in purple burns. What could have even caused this?
As they inch forward, they can see a golden light in the room at the end of the hall. The entire squad forms up and moves together very slowly and very quietly. They were moving over dead bodies, being careful not to make a sound. The light is hard to see through, but they can see a black figure in the room, looking down at something.
As they moved past the threshold, Yenta nearly let her jaw drop from who she sees. Lazarus. She can see his black scales and the black horns that outline his hood. His armor looks badly damaged, and some blood is flowing from his side it looks like. Lazarus is holding some glowing, golden object in his hands too. Did he do all of this?
As they got within ample range, they all aimed their weapons at him and turned their flashlights on, aiming it at his head. Yenta yelled out, in her raspy, cold voice:
"Drop the weapon, Lazarus!"
With his violet irises adjusting to the bright lights, the male viper spun around, with his hand raising to protect his eyes.
Hey, everybody! I plan to start writing a lot more. I got really out of the groove there, but I believe I am back. Thank you all for the nice reviews as well! Hopefully my story can give you some peace, in this peculiar times! Stay safe- Helix