Note: This is my first piece of fanfic and is likely pretty rough. Creative criticism and thoughts are more than welcome.
Taylor dodged the incoming plasma fire as she reloaded her railgun. Her massive form made her an appealing target for the thin men. Glancing to her left she saw her fellow operatives moving forward to flank the bastards. Leaning outward slightly from behind the burning shed she saw the thin men beginning to fall back into a ruined home.
"Command, hostiles are falling back to an unsecured building. Permission to intercept? Over." She asked as she readied her kinetic strike module. Normally her voice boomed using the implants by her vocal cords and the hidden speakers in the mec, but her helmet muffled sound and she didn't want to give the aliens a chance of hearing her so she spoke without the implants aid. Her mec had taken a few hits so far both most were surface level and had missed her torso in favor of the armor closer to her arms. Still, it paid to be cautious. A part of her was dying to just fire her grenade launcher and blow the building to hell but the chance of captives was not a chance she wanted to take. The others were finishing up with the thin man and would likely not need any help unless something went wrong.
With a small wince, she recalled the number of times things had gone horribly wrong. She'd watched half a dozen die in the last six months alone and was only a mec trooper because of a disaster of a mission. Still, this was as close of a training mission as X-Com offered its rookies. A minor engagement, rookies die or prove themselves, and the aliens are gunned down. Easy mission.
Still, she'd had preferred to be with her normal squad instead of escorting the rookies. The rookies might have been the cream of the crop where they were from, but that didn't count for anything until they fought and killed aliens.
"Copy. Move-in from the side and breach. Watch your fire. Possibility of an ambush. Over." She heard through her helmet. The gunfire from the fight with the thin men had ended signaling that the rest of the squad was waiting for her mark. Moving forward slowly she held her railgun tight to her false shoulder and marched forward.
To call her stealthy would be a joke. Her feet stomped on the cracked concrete as she moved forward with a grim determination. Once this area had likely been a pleasant little suburb but now it was littered in corpses and on fire. Despite the number of attacks the aliens had launched most of the world was still in the dark. Any surviving videos were destroyed and photos doctored. Hell, X-com recruited most of the survivors so eyewitness accounts were limited. Though she rarely watched television, given how most of the channels were in German, from what she could tell the world believed the aliens had been more or less beaten back and the military's of the world were cleaning up the last units.
She paused her musing as she reached the side of the house. The squad she was leading, taking cover behind some burned cars and a palm tree. She raised three robotic fingers then dropped one then a second. On the final one, she activated her strike module and with as much force as she could, smashed into the house. Cheap wood and bricks fell and for a moment she was blinded from dust and smoke. Instinctively she reached out for her bugs but was bitterly reminded that they had not responded since she became a Mec-trooper. She had gone from the best shot and scout X-com had to a walking tank that could barely aim at times. She forced down a grimace and looked in the building ready to act as a shield for her squad if needed. Her servos whirred as she moved her limbs trying to see anything in the dust. Listening carefully she heard nothing and moved into the building.
As she bent down slightly to avoid smacking her head against the low ceiling she was surprised to see nothing. What was more surprising was the décor. The room, from her guess, appeared to be a lounge and was covered in posters and action figures. Looking at one of them on the wall she fought back a wave of nostalgia for her own home. At least there the end of the world stuck to a schedule and gave everyone a few months to prepare. "Smith and Alma, move into the kitchen and check for any signs of an occupant or the hostiles. "Prefect and Daniels go to the upper rooms and clear them." She said, her synthetic voice smashing through the silence like a hammer. The soldiers nodded and moved out with only a quick, "Yes Captain." Being the only thing spoken.
Once her squad moved to their positions she made her way to the only room left. The garage was the last place to clear. Once done they would complete a scan of the area and then head "home." Longing to get out of her suit and into the much easier to maneuver prosthetics Taylor moved to the garage door. She glanced at the pictures of the smiling family hanging by the door knowing they were likely dead.
Taylor took a deep breath and raised her left foot. With a great smash, she kicked the door off its handles and sent it clattering into the room. Bounding in she saw the remaining aliens and a strange device humming. The device was unlike the other machines they had recovered from the aliens. Instead of the normal pillar-like design and is made of advanced metal, this looked like trash. It was made from wood and from what seemed to be car parts. It had exposed wires and had a smartphone and laptop jammed into the side. Glancing at the car in the garage Taylor saw it looked like it had been disassembled partially for the machine. Not caring what it was she focused instead on the charging berserker.
The berserker raised its fist to grab her suit but she caught it with her fist, the metal of her armor creaking and her servos whirring in protest as the feedback warned her of possible damage. Dropping her railgun she activated the strike module and, still holding tight to the alien fist, punched the bastard in the chest as hard as she could. The beast went flying and tore through the flimsy garage door as its body landed on the pavement outside. As she dunked to grab her gun she noticed that the arm of the berserker was still in her grip. With a grunt, she dropped it and raised her gun to fire on the remaining aliens.
"Talos to Command and Squad. Hostiles in the garage. Over." She said as the aliens drew their weapons. Only two thin men and a muton remained. With a humorless grin, she raised her gun and fired at the thin man closest to her. The alien narrowly avoided it and screeched something at its fellow. The second thin man began to work on the device as it hummed louder and the phone and monitor lit up showing dozens of symbols that she couldn't make sense of.
Briefly, Taylor considered just blowing the aliens up and the device, but the tongue lashing she would receive from Vahlen would be far worse than a plasma shot to the face. For the umpteenth time, she missed having access to her bugs and cursing whatever it was in meld that had burned out her Corona Pollentia. Still she could curse the good doctor later, right now she needed to focus on killing the hostiles. The thin man not working on the machine fired a bolt of plasma at her. It smashed onto the armor and burned inward for a moment. The damage was minor but it had burned several servos and wires making Taylor feel slower and more at risk of being shot. The thin man hide behind a cabinet filled with tools.
With a grin, Taylor shoved the cabinet over and blew the alien's head off with her railgun leaving a hole in the wall. Turning to face the last one she stopped. The thing had vanished. Walking forward carefully she looked towards the device. It was practically glowing now and the humming was closer to a drone. "Command final hostile missing. Unknown alien device seems to be activated. Requesting retrieval squad for the device while I and my squad find the alien." She spoke into the comms.
Waiting a moment she heard nothing and repeated the message. Again nothing. Figuring the device was a jammer she began to back upright as it grew brighter once again. "Command alien device seems to be active. Requesting extraction and bomb squad to be deployed." She said not sure if she'd get a response.
"Squad clear the building and move back to big sky. Unknown device seems active and is possibly a bomb." She said and received static in return. Though she heard the footsteps thudding through the house which reassured her that she could at least broadcast.
Sighing she started to leave the garage through the hole she had made with the berserker's body when she felt something thud on her back. The thin man hadn't disappeared. He had just jumped on the ceiling. With a cry of rage, she reached behind her neck to throw it off her. It responded by crawling out of reach and used its plasma pistol to blast an exposed joint connecting her left arm to the main chassis.
She tried to keep her arms up to grab it but her left arm collapsed downward. The servos began to repair themselves at once but for the next several minutes she was down a limb. Glancing down at her feet, Taylor activated the jet boots in them with the same way a normal person would close their fist. The Mec and alien flew up into the ceiling and fell back to the ground as the ceiling was torn open.
Glancing around in the dust-filled garage, Taylor looked for the thin man. It was only when she picked herself up that she saw it. Half crushed from her falling onto it after it must have released her when she used her jet boots and not been able to get up in time when she came crashing down. Grinning she smashed it's head with her foot and went to grab her gun. It had fallen when she lost control of her left arm and had skidded to the base of the device. She moved to pick it up when she saw something at the back of the garage. Knowing she was likely on a time limit she hesitated but knew it would take but a moment. Besides she could smash through any door or wall if needed. Picking up her railgun she walked to the corner and sighed as she looked at the body.
The man had been shot by a plasma gun. Likely the thin men were responsible. Pursing her lips Taylor began to leave the building wondering why the aliens would bother killing a civilian when they could kidnap them instead. The man seemed gaunt as if he hadn't eaten in weeks and was covered in oil and grease. She made a mental note to have Vahlen autopsy the man and see what was in his skull.
Her thoughts were cut short as the device pulses with light and machinery. The air practically crackled with electricity. Taylor made for the exit but not before she saw a tear open up in front of the device.
"Command. Hostiles eliminated. The device seems to have created a tear through reality in the air. It appears to be a viewing device or a portal." She barked into her comms.
"Acknowledged. Bomb squad is two clicks out and the rest of Deacon squad is on the skyranger. If possible investigate to see if the tear is stable."
Taylor breathed a sigh of relief that the jammer had been disabled. Looking down at the dead thin man she saw what looked like destroyed machinery in it's pocket and smiled figuring that had caused the jamming. Looking at the tear Taylor had to blink a few times not sure if what she was seeing was real. Inside the tear a beast of knives and metal that vaguely resembled a wolf was engaged with a man wielding a halberd.
"C-command and squad. Possibility of mental manipulation in play. Treat all contacts in the building as potential hostiles." She said knowing the damage she could do if she was under the alien's control. One soldier was bad enough, given how no one wanted to shoot an ally. But a Mec could tear through a squad.
"Confirmed. Hypnos Protocol is in effect. All contacts in the building will be stunned and assessed. Good luck Talos."
Taylor grimaced. Being tazed and dragged back to base to be made sure she wasn't a traitor was not how she wanted this night to end but safety was more important. Making sure that the camera on her helmet was focused on the tear she peered closer. It had been close to a decade since she had arrived here. What followed had been months of being stuck on the street until she had been arrested for attacking a mob member by covering him in bees. She had been given the choice of prison and being studied or being studied and assigned to a black ops organization. She took the latter. A part of her had wondered if the memories had just been implanted by whatever gave her, her powers but she had never really believed that.
The man, Arms-something, was clearly holding his own and was pushing, Knifedog or something equally stupid sounding, back closer to the edge of the water. She couldn't hear anything from the tear and if she could her servos repairing themselves would have drowned out the sound. Flexing her fingers for her left hand she smiled slightly at the returned movement. She noticed the portal seemed to be widening which seemed a good sign for it being stable.
Leaning forward she wondered if this was some manipulation. Mind-controlled soldiers claimed that they had false memories of charging ahead and finding themselves surrounded by aliens while others said that they thought the aliens were allies instead. This hadn't happened before.
Taylor hadn't thought about home in a long time. Her last memories were of being thrown through some portal as she tried to fight Lung on her first night as a superhero. Was her dad still alive? Did he think she ran away or had been killed by some gangbanger?
Taylor watched the fight with interest but waited to be stunned by whatever squad was sent in to deal with her. It would be a pain to have to recalibrate her nerve implants and prosthetics as they never seemed to work right after being hit with electricity. Sighing she began to turn away when she heard a pop from the machine.
Glancing at it she realized it was now smoking and with a start, the tear was now growing rapidly bigger. She started to move backwards and readied her railgun but found herself unable to move. No, it wasn't that she couldn't move it was that she was being pulled in.
Taylor tried to grab onto something but nothing in the building would have held her weight. With a sinking certainty, she felt her joints and limbs being pressed forward and knew she could only hold out for a bit longer.
"Command and squad. The tear is a portal. It is widening rapidly and is pulling me in. It seems to be a portal to a known alternative Earth. I cannot escape the pull and will likely be pulled in. Requesting aid at once!" She shouted into the comm not bothering to turn off her synth voice causing whatever poor person was wearing headphones to likely be hearing ringing.
"Understood. Operatives Zhang, Durand, Van Doorn, Tariq, and Stone are en route and will provide aid once Hypnos protocol is no longer in effect."
She cursed as she was dragged in further. Not about the squad, they were the aces of X-Com and she enjoyed working with them. But that she was being sucked into a portal where a nazi and man with a medieval weapon were fighting and would still be tazed.
Finally, her legs went out from under her and she went flying into the portal. Her stomach dropped as she passed through and she went falling directly between the two combatants.