AN: FINALLY, THE NASTY ONE HAS COME BACK TO FANFICTION! Welcome back everybody to the next chapter in the Xenonauts saga. Last chapter, the squad secured a crash site in Egypt, but suffered a serious wound to one of their members whose life now hangs in the balance. Can they make it back to the base in time to save them, how will the other crash site be handled in Afghanistan? Tune in to find out, as without further ado let's jump into this shit!
Chapter 5: FNGs
== In the Air (9/18/79) ==
Following the successful mission, Fujita was quickly loaded into the back of the Chinook as the others followed immediately after. Barnes wasted no time in taking off and was making record time back to the base, when an alert went off on his systems panel.
MISSILE LOCK DETECTED
'WHAT THE HELL!' he thought as he saw a glint behind the craft as he looked back and spotted the Fighter UFO that had previously shot down Foxtrot 1 earlier today.
'If that missile makes contact, we're dead in the water literally.' he mused as he looked down and saw he was over the Mediterranean Sea and just under one hundred miles from Sandtrap.
'Time to show off the moves I learned many years ago flying those Condors.' he said as he tightened the straps on his harness and turned on the Intercom to relay information to not only the base but also the soldiers in the rear.
"Everybody better hang on back there! We've got a bogey on our tail and I'm going to pull some fancy moves to get us home safely. Sandtrap we're going to need an escort or something cause we're cutting it pretty close here!" said Barnes as he cut the intercom and sent the Chinook into a nose dive as the first missile soared overhead of his now current flight path.
Everyone in back hung onto to the safety handles sans Danjuma who was busy keeping Fujita's body as still as possible to prevent further damage to the severely wounded man. The Chinook then jerked upwards rapidly to the point of almost stalling as another missile whizzed underneath them.
Barnes was nearly to the base as a third missile was launched at the craft, he wasn't going to make it as the missile was mere moments from impacting them.
"Not today damnit!" exclaimed a voice over the radio as an explosion rocked the sky behind Big Sky.
BOOM!
Looking back behind him, Barnes saw debris hurtling towards the ocean as a parachute was seen opening nearby the fireball still in the sky. It was the parachute for Condor 1's pilot callsign Spitfire. In the nick of time, the pilot had guided his plane into the path of the missile and taken the blow meant for Big Sky while also ejecting before the explosion. The pilot landed softly in the water out of harm's way as Big Sky hurriedly retreated into the base's hangar.
The base's turrets scared the UFO off as it went back towards the African coast while a search team was sent out to recover the remains of Condor 1 another 72-hour project which would leave the base down to one working fighter plane.
== In the Base ==
The soldiers quickly got Fujita loaded on a proper stretcher as the inside of the plane was hosed down to remove as much blood as possible. Fujita was sent into emergency surgery where the doctors on station were able to get him stabilized and estimated he'd be back to action in a few weeks at the earliest.
The Commander then informed them of the impending mission in Afghanistan as the squad loaded up and refueled as they waited for the scheduled time, they would launch Big Sky to arrive at daybreak after the ten-hour flight.
This meant they got to watch the revenge dished out by Condor 2 as it launched two minutes after their arrival and gunned the Fighter UFO down over Egypt and hour later at 1929 hours. The base collectively cheered as 1 Fighter Computer and 1 Alien Alloy were recovered from the wreckage. Not a moment later, the Chinook was launched as Big Sky began the trek to the latest crash site in an industrial park in western Afghanistan at 1930 hours.
== Ten Hours Later (0531 hours 9/19/79) ==
The team was currently going over their plan for the impending mission as the veterans had been in this situation before and were very cautious about every move they'd be making on the battlefield as they all remembered the "Nigerian Jungle Massacre" as the incident had become known. The rookie members of the squad however, weren't as nearly concerned and were more excited at being out in the field for the first time.
"Party on lads! This is going to be such a totally awesome mission!" exclaimed the youngest of the new soldier, 21 years old Pvt. Alan Vetec. Vetec was from Australia and served in the same branch of the military as Vidrai, the Special Air Service Regiment, but they'd never met. Vetec is a Caucasian male standing at 5' 11'' with a light brown crew cut and clean-shaven face. He was the most boisterous of the new recruits and was known for rampant partying when not completing training back at the base.
"It absolutely will be, this is going to be an easy and laid-back kind of mission." agreed the tanned male sitting next to him. Pvt. Nour (pronounced Noor) Abdel a 23 years-old Egyptian sporting a black/grey crew cut stands at 5' 10'' and was from the Kuvat El-Sa'ka a commando force in the Egyptian army. Abdel had seen combat in the Libyan Border conflict and was the most easy-going member of the batch of rookies. Nobody had ever seen him be angry with anybody nor be stressed about any of the rigorous training they were put through day after day.
"Speak for yourselves, I'm more worried about suffering from dehydration out there. Did you know that within a few hours you can experience hallucinations, heatstroke and then eventually death?" responded Pvt. Augusto Prieto a 26 years-old Argentina native from the Agrupación de Comandos Anfibios, loosely translated as Amphibious Commandos Group, of the Argentine Marine Corps. Prieto was the know it all of the new group always spouting useless information that nobody cared about nor asked for. He sported lightly tanned skin tone, a shaved head, black square glasses and stood at only 5' 9''.
The fourth and final rookie added to the squad for this mission, gazed at the conversation with minimal interest before scanning the plane and noticing that the other members of the squad were either annoyed or downright angry about the loud chatter and he decided to do something about it before they got their asses chewed out again.
"Think you guys should probably shut up now. The others are glaring daggers at you." he said simply before gazing out the window at the desert and industrial landscape below them. This was Pvt. William Silva a 34 years-old dark-skinned male from Brazil, Silva served in the COMANF otherwise known as the Tonelero Battalion or more officially the Marine Corps Special Operations Battalion located in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil. Silva stood at 6' 0'' and had short black curly hair with a clean-shaven face. His eyes also had a hard glint to them indicative of the time he spent fighting in the Araguaia War. The other members of his group wisely stopped talking as Vidrai briefed them on the situation.
"We'll be setting down in the southeast corner of this industrial area here." he said pointing to a crude map he'd drawn up rather quickly on some paper he'd grabbed from the base before departure.
"We've got two buildings directly in front of the ramp once it goes down. Rodrigues will take team two and clear them out, while team one and myself with clear out this factory building to the right of the Chinook's body. We'll link up in the northwest corner of the park where the UFO is likely to be per our forces on the ground. Any questions?" he asked as he finished his briefing.
"I got one!" exclaimed Vetec with an overly enthusiastic waving of his right hand above his head.
"Yes, Alan?" said Vidrai with an annoyed sigh.
"Will there be beer?" asked the party animal as Vidrai gazed at him incredulously while Meier slapped him upside the head with enough force to send his helmet flying off his head against the opposite wall of the aircraft.
"OW! What was that for?!" he asked angrily as Meier picked him up by his shirt collar and pinned him against the wall while the other rookies gazed on in shock sans Silva who was happy that Vetec was getting put in his place.
"That's for not taking this shit seriously! We've lost too many good men and women already to have an unserious dummkopf such as yourself trying to keep civilians safe! Keep this up and you'll be in a body bag by the end of the day!" said the angry German man as he threw Vetec against the wall before going back to his seat at the head of the row.
Bhandari reached down and grabbed Vetec's helmet from next to his seat and handed to him as the younger man dusted himself off.
"He's right you know; these creatures are not to be trifled with as they disrupt the balance of nature as it is. One wrong move and they'll be on top of you capitalizing on your mistake and sending either you or your friends to the afterlife." said Bhandari cryptically as he went back to his seat. Vetec could only strap his helmet back on and look at his fellow rookies who all shook their heads at him in disappointment. Before he could reflect on this, Big Sky's red light came on letting them know the drop zone was in sight.
The Chinook gracefully descended to the ground, and landed without issue as the green light was given and the squad hurried out into the fray once more.
== On the Ground (Afghanistan Industrial Site) ==
Teams Breakdown:
Team 1 – Lt. Vidrai (Sniper), Sgt. Meier, Cpl. Bhandari, Pvt. Abdel, Pvt. Vetec
Team 2 – Cpl. Rodrigues (Sniper), Cpl. Loharani, Cpl. Zielinski, Pvt. Prieto, Pvt. Silva
The teams landed at 0531 hours, 13 ½ hours after the UFO was shot down given the surviving aliens time to spread out and set up an ambush. The teams advanced cautiously towards their objectives taking care not to step into another trap. Team 2 was the first to reach their objective which turned out to be a one-story storage building, which was cleared without issue by the team as a whole. Team 1 reached a chain-link fence with gaps cut into it and decided to split up to cover more ground. Vidrai and Meier broke off and continued North towards a three-story factory building behind a wall of electrical generators, while Bhandari took the two rookies West along the fence line. Abdel was on point for the threesome and reached the edge of the fence and peeked around it to see a blue-shirted Caesan standing in front of concrete wall next to a dark blue van.
Abdel stopped his movement in the nick of time as the humanoid opened fire on his position.
BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!
Thankfully all three shots missed their mark, as they instead impacted the solid concrete wall that met the corner of the chain-link fence. Bhandari and Vetec took cover behind a light blue sedan's hood directly behind Abdel as they prepared to push up and open fire on the alien.
BANG! *SCREECH* BANG!
Abdel fired two shots at the alien, striking it once in the chest as it let out a short screech signifying the round struck home.
BANG! *SHRIEK! *
The alien suddenly crumpled over with a shot to the forehead as the trio looked to see Loharani posted up near the front door of a two-story office building on their left flank. She gave them a thumbs up as the trio nodded gratefully before noticing smoke coming from over the concrete wall the alien was standing in front of. They headed in that direction as they knew now where the UFO was located.
== With Team 2 ==
The other four members of the team cleared out the work area behind the storage building, before moving around the rear of the building Loharani was out in front of. Prieto moved to a window on the first-floor left side of the building and saw movement inside of the rear right corner of the building as the door was opened allowing him to see in. The other three cleared the area behind the building and moved around its right side and took cover behind the van the alien was standing next too.
Prieto signaled Loharani and she breached the front door of the building before moving quickly to the rear room and discovered a lone civilian cowering in fear of the aliens. Looking back out the window, she signaled to Prieto the all clear as the two then cleared the second floor of the building without issue.
== With Team 1 ==
Vidrai and Meier were joined by a local policeman armed with a shotgun at the front door of the factory and the trio breached it together. Not coming into contact with any aliens, Vidrai went up on the second-floor walkway and cleared the rest of the building as Meier and the policeman checked their corners.
BZZT! *DEATH MOAN*
The sound of a plasma round and a death scream tore through the quiet air as the trio turned to the right as it came from behind them slightly. Knowing the UFO was in the opposite direction, the soldiers agreed to secure it first before coming back for this unknown threat and the policeman remained in the building in case it tried a flanking maneuver. The two moved out the rear door of the building and took cover behind a yellow sedan as the other three members of the squad were in breaching position on the UFO.
Bhandari was against the UFO's hull to the left of the door and was ready to open the door for the two rookies who were crouched behind two concrete barriers on the sidewalk in front of the crashed UFO's door. They were poised and ready to fire, but before Bhandari could open the door it slid open on its own!
*WHIR*
The door slid open revealing one blue-shirted Caesan and one red-shirted Caesan inside of the craft. The blue shirt made a suicidal charge out of the ship and stopped in front of the concrete barriers as both rookies looked on with wide eyes and were quickly bringing their guns up in response.
BZZT!
The alien instead of firing at them, fired at the sedan and missed both Meier and Vidrai as the two instinctively ducked as the shot flew overhead harmlessly. This led to a volley of shots from the three breachers all of which connected.
BANG! *SCREECH* BANG! *SCREECH* BANG! *SHRIEK *
Bhandari's shot hit the alien in the back first, followed by Abdel's which connected with the alien's left side when he spun back around. Vetec's was the fatal blow as it entered the alien's right eye and sent it to the ground unmoving after the loud scream. They were celebrating their luck, when the red-shirt peeked out and fired on Bhandari.
BZZT! OW!
Bhandari was struck in the right side of his chest as he was sent back against the UFO hull by the force of the blow. The alien then retreated back into the UFO as the door slid shut.
Bhandari moved forward despite the heavy bleeding he was dealing with and opened the door for the rookies as Abdel fired a single round through the forehead of the alien.
BANG! *SHRIEK *
This wound was fatal as the alien fell to the ground unmoving. Bhandari then started treating his wound with his medical supplies as Meier and Abdel secured the crash site. Vidrai took Vetec back with him around the rear of the factory as they went hunting for the alien he'd heard earlier.
== With Vetec and Vidrai ==
The duo was walking down the rear alley quietly as Vetec was still thinking on the confrontation with Meier earlier.
"What're you thinking so in-depth about?" asked Vidrai as the duo paused at the building's corner and peeked around it seeing nothing.
"Just about what happened earlier, I was just trying to make a joke Jens didn't have to react like that at all." said Vetec pointedly as he was still fuming about that.
"That's just Jens' way of trying to give advice. I told him to be a little less angry when he speaks, but that might just be how his temperament is." said Vidrai matter-of-factly as he remained calm in the face of Vetec's anger.
"I still don't see what the big deal was though, this mission has been super simple up to this point!" he exclaimed as Vidrai silenced him with his hand.
"You think this has been easy!? Mo almost died back there! A few more inches to the left and his heart would've been destroyed and I'd have another letter to write to relatives back home!" replied Vidrai sternly and angrily but never raising his voice. Vetec just sat there in defiant anger before responding.
"Whatever man, not my problem he almost died back there!" replied Vetec as he stepped out from around the corner and came face to face with a red-shirted Caesan with a plasma pistol.
"Holy shit!" he exclaimed while ducking as the Caesan fired at where his head used to be.
BZZT! BANG! *SHRIEK *
Smoke was still emitting from the barrel of Vidrai's rifle as the alien fell over from the close-range headshot missing the back of its cranium. The shocked Vetec could only stare in shock at the dead body that was on the ground in front of him.
Footsteps quickly approached them as the duo looked up and registered Zielinski and Prieto running at them.
"You two, okay? We heard the gunshots and came running as fast as we could!" said Zielinski as Vidrai looked down at Vetec and shook his head before walking away back to the Chinook.
"All good, let's get out of here." he ordered as Zielinski jogged after him to catch up while Prieto remained behind with Vetec and offered him a hand to get up.
"You done acting all high and mighty?" he asked while pushing up his glasses. Vetec didn't acknowledge him right away, but did take the offered hand and got himself off the ground.
"I think so. This isn't going to be as easy as I thought it was." he cryptically responded as he walked slowly back to the Chinook. Prieto followed closely behind as hanging around with a dead alien gave him the creeps.
== Mission Five Summary ==
Alien Combatants Killed: 4/4
Civilians Saved: 2/3
Xenonauts KIA: 0/8
Xenonauts WIA: 1/10 (Cpl. Bhandari (moderate wound))
Kill Tally (Active Soldiers Only): Sgt. Santos (4), Sgt. Fujita (3), Sgt. Meier (3), Lt. Vidrai (3), Cpl. Kurniawan (2*), Cpl. Loharani (2), Sgt. Lefebvre (1), Cpl. Zielinski (1), Pvt. Abdel (1) and Pvt. Vetec (1)
*Game doesn't count these as they were killed by the UFO explosion not him physically. I'll still tally it anyway.
Promotions: Jens Meier to Lieutenant, Loharani and Bhandari to Sergeant, and Vetec to Corporal
Active Roster:
Lt. Alten Vidrai
Lt. Jens Meier
Sgt. Zee Loharani
Cpl. Joaquim Rodrigues
Cpl. Natalia Zielinski
Cpl. Alan Vetec
Pvt. Nour Abdel
Pvt. Augusto Prieto
Pvt. William Silva
1 Unknown Rookie
Out of Action Roster:
Sgt. Masao Fujita (2 Weeks)
Sgt. Fernando Santos (5 Days)
Cpl. Bayomi Danjuma (5 Days)
Sgt. Mohandas Bhandari (4 Days)
Sgt. Claire Lefebvre (4 Days)
Cpl. Andy Kurniawan (3 Days)
Memorial Wall:
Cpl. Benjamin Muller (KIA on Mission One)
Cpl. Delfina Calvo (KIA on Mission Two)
Cpl. Konsta Mattila (KIA on Mission Two)
Cpl. Rameen Bhabra (KIA on Mission Two)
Cpl. Moheem Kurd (KIA on Mission Two)
AN: And that's a wrap on this chapter as most of the rookies get their first tastes of combat versus the aliens. Some of them had an uneventful time, one got more than they bargained for (and a promotion lol), and the other got a kill. When will the team's next mission be? Only time will tell as for at least a week we only have one combat ready fighter plane! Tune in next time to see how well this works out for us. Until then, this is "The Nasty One" signing off!
PRAK #TheNastyOne
Also, don't forget to favorite, follow and review the story to let me know how you feel about it and where are places I could improve it. Thanks, in advance!