AN: FINALLY, THE NASTY ONE HAS COME BACK TO FANFICITION! Welcome back everyone to the latest installment of 'A War to End All Wars' here on the site. Last chapter four rookies, or as I like to call them FNGs, got to experience their first taste of combat against the aliens with a mixed bag of results. Will the fallout from this mission help or hurt the squad in the long run? Only time will tell as we trudge forward into the unknown here. So, without further ado let's jump into this shit!
Chapter 6: A Desert Rendezvous
Following another ten-hour flight back from the crash site, the squad returned to the arrival of more scientists and engineers to help out the personnel already at the base and no new missions awaiting them. With that the squad went about unwinding after the mission as they reflected on what the unit would be like going forward. Hopefully they're trending in the right direction and not heading for a disaster.
== The Next Day (9/20/79) ==
Dr. Snidely and his team had finished their latest batch of research topics and submitted their findings to the Commander to read as they began their latest endeavor, improved combat armor for the soldiers in response to the plasma weaponry the aliens possessed. Their first topic concerned the alien plasma pistol that was in the possession of the redshirt Caesans. The pistol itself after field testing was found to be effective and deadly at close ranges, able to kill in one well-placed shot, but was horrible at longer ranges. The report also detailed significant anatomical differences between the hands of the aliens and humans which would prevent the soldiers from effectively using the weapon as the researchers weren't one hundred percent sure how the weapon fully functions with the alien technology. Down the road they would need to find more samples to use for study to effectively replicate the weapon and allow the soldiers to use it in battle without severe accuracy penalties. This path of research allowed for the improved combat armor to be researched to counter the dangerousness of the plasma weaponry.
The next topic of research involved the newest UFO encountered by the pilots in the last round of air combat. The Fighter UFO is something never seen by any of the researchers before as they were faster and more effective than any known fighters in use by any military force on Earth. They are no match for a Condor one on one, but put them in a squadron of three and they become a hassle for any of our aircraft. Also noted was the UFO's behavior when it went after Big Sky on its return from Egypt. This meant the alien forces had Interception missions in their cards that they could use to try and shoot down our troop transports when responding to and returning from crash site investigations. The team also advised that the possibility of a security detail backing up the Chinook may not be a bad idea in the future.
The Commander was left to reflect on these reports as he awaited the next dropping of the metaphorical shoe from the aliens next plan of attack. What did the future hold for his men?
== The Next Day 2008 hours (9/21/79) ==
It was late in the day at Sandtrap as the personnel were settling in for another quiet evening when suddenly Radar leapt to his station preemptively as a radar contact was suddenly detected.
RADAR CONTACT DETECTED!
The size of the contact depicted a normal UFO as it was found over Central Africa around the bottom of the radar's effective range. With only one plane at his disposal, Spitfire was still down for about 48 hours and Foxtrot 1 was out 34 hours, the Commander sent out Condor 2 callsign Maverick to intercept and neutralize the threat. Fifty-nine minutes later, the mission was a success as Maverick shot his target down over Eritrea along the coastline near the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa. The territory was still fighting its independence with neighboring Ethiopia but thankfully the crash site was in a very remote desert area with no chance of civilian contact. The soldiers going on the mission were kitted out and loaded up for departure two hours later sporting one new member for the wounded Bhandari.
== In The Air (0741 hours 9/22/79) ==
The newest member of the squad was extremely nervous about being on their first mission against the alien invaders. It didn't help that they were also the worst shot on the entire roster consistently finishing dead last in any shooting contest/training held in the Barracks.
Said individual was Pvt. Natalie Smith a 28 years-old American from the 101st Airborne. Smith stands at 5' 9'' with messy black hair down to the back of her neck and a Caucasian skin tone. Smith had no combat experience prior to joining the Xenonauts project but was one of the strongest members of the unit being only surpassed by Lefebvre.
Noticing her nervousness Prieto decided to try and ease her worries with some advice that might help her out in the long run. He reached into his right pants pocket and pulled out a pack of gum.
"Gum?" he asked breaking Smith out of her train of thought. Looking down and registering the question she accepted it from the glasses-wearing man.
"Thanks, what's this for?" she asked.
"Gives you something to take your mind off of you aiming difficulties." he said as he popped his own piece of Spearmint into his mouth.
"That obvious huh?" she replied as she did the same.
"You were literally shaking your leg a mile a minute." he laughed in reply as she had the decency to look sheepish.
"But seriously, I find it helps me aim as well. I think of it as a good luck ritual." he explained as she listened to his explanation with a thoughtful expression.
"Makes sense to a degree, let's see if I have the same success." she chuckled as the two continued to converse the rest of the flight to the bewildered surprise of Vetec.
"Seriously! He's the one that she starts talking to, ugh that's just swell." he complained as Abdel just chuckled at his friend's misfortune.
"That's the way life is sometimes. Nobody knows why things happen, they just do." he said with a shrug of the shoulders and laid-back demeanor as Vetec could only groan in response.
Before any further discussion could occur, the red light came on and the squad was on alert and focused on the mission ahead as they descended to the ground. The aircraft landed without issue on the desert floor as the green light came on as the ramp dropped, and a sweltering arid breeze greeted them as they were greeted to the sight of an empty desert landscape.
== On the Ground ==
Teams Structure:
Team 1 – Vidrai (Sniper), Abdel, Zielinski, Vetec and Smith
Team 2 – Meier (Sniper), Rodrigues, Loharani, Prieto and Silva
Team 1 headed north from the landing zone as they approached some rather large rock piles akin to individual walls (two in total). Team 2 advanced in a western direction from the landing zone and immediately had contact with an extraterrestrial. A redshirt Caesan was seen in the middle of nowhere ahead studying a cactus. Meier took three steps out of the Chinook's right door and immediately unleashed a round from his sniper rifle.
BANG! SCREECH!
The shot connected as the alien let out a cry in response as it spun around to fully face the Xenonaut forces. To Meier's right, Silva and Prieto had advanced to a small rock formation and were currently crouching behind it as Silva raised his gun to fire.
BANG! SHREIK!
The alien received a round to the face as it fell backwards into the sand unmoving. Prieto offered Silva a fist bump in acknowledgement of his first kill, but Silva just shook him off as now wasn't the time nor did he really care about the accomplishment. Prieto shrugged and fist bumped the rocks in front of him as he carefully watched the area in front of them for movement. Loharani and Rodrigues moved down the squad's left flank as they were there to prevent and sort of outmaneuvering on that side.
BZZT!
Just then a shot whizzed over the heads of Prieto and Silva as they couldn't see the assailant from their current position, but knew it came from their right front. They radioed Team 1 to let them know before regaining their bearings.
Silva was the first one of the two to peek over the wall and saw a blue-shirted Caesan in front of them and off to their right slightly. It appeared to have come over to investigate the earlier shots.
BANG! SCEECH!
Silva fired off a round from his M16 as it struck home in the alien's chest but the defiant creature stood strong.
BANG! SHREIK!
That didn't last too long as Prieto was up and fired a round from his M16 that struck the alien in the neck. The humanoid creature fell over without another sound after the last shot as he fist-pumped in celebration.
"Nice shot bookworm!" shouted Vetec as he tipped his helmet to him and Smith smiled at how happy he was about it. The two had broken off from Team 1 after the radio message to help sure up the gap between the two squads to prevent them from being cut off from one another. The rest of the teams advanced cautiously forward as Vidrai, Zielinski and Abdel made it around the first rock pile wall and advanced to the west as well seeing nothing else ahead of them, while Rodrigues and Loharani advanced to the left side of another rock pile wall on the left flank with Meier behind them providing watch over them.
BZZT! BZZT! BZZT! OW!
Three shots rang out from in front of Rodrigues and Loharani as the first two missed wildly, but the third one nailed Rodrigues in the gut.
BANG! SCREECH!
In response, Meier rattled off a round at the offending alien (another blue-shirted Caesan) which struck it right in the stomach.
BZZT! OW!
In retaliation for that, another shot rang out from Meier's right as he was struck in his right side but he was unable to find the culprit as the creature was still out of his sightline.
Hearing the shot, Prieto and Silva advanced forwards to a second low rock wall a few yards ahead of their position. When they arrived there, they spotted another blue-shirted Caesan directly in front of them, behind them Vetec and Smith arrived on their right flank twenty yards away.
BANG! SCREECH! BANG!
Prieto fired off a round from his rifle striking the alien in the right leg as it let out a yelp of pain. Silva followed that up by missing a shot into the rock wall to the creature's right.
BANG! SHREIK!
Another round was fired off from behind them as it struck the alien in the forehead as it fell backwards onto the sand unmoving. The two turned and saw the round had come from Smith's M16 as the barrel was still smoking. Vetec could do nothing but look on in shock as the worst shot in the Barracks had actually connected with a living target. Prieto smiled and gave her a thumbs up as Silva just kept his head forward looking for any other hostile targets.
BANG! SCREECH! BANG! SHREIK!
Back on the left flank, the other blue shirt was taken care of as Meier fired a sniper rifle round into the creature's left leg further wounding it before Rodrigues finished it off with a rifle round to the face in retaliation for having been shot by it. Loharani got to work patching up Rodrigues' wound, and the trio advanced forward and cleared out the left flank fully.
Back with the main group, Vidrai, Zielinski and Abdel had cleared out the right flank and they were ready to crash back in to pincer the supposed location of the UFO as they heard the door to it open but no new contacts emerged.
Smith took point for the center group and spotted the UFO directly in front of her along with another blue-shirted Caesan aiming its rifle at her.
BZZT!
The shot soared overhead harmlessly as Silva, Vetec, and Prieto moved forward to support her.
BANG! SCREECH! BANG! SHREIK!
The support would be unnecessary as two shots struck the creature from its left effectively ending its life. Abdel's shot had wounded the creature's side, but Vidrai's struck it in the center of the chest as t fell over without so much as a twitching appendage afterwards. The two teams advanced cautiously to the UFO door and opened it to see it was empty and mostly intact following the crash. Seeing as there wasn't anything else remotely close to their location, Vidrai called the mission completed as the team went about securing the site and stripping it of materials for a return to Sandtrap with the spoils of war.
== Mission 6 Summary ==
Alien Combatants Killed: 5/5
Civilians Saved: 0/0
Xenonauts KIA: 0/10
Xenonauts WIA: 2/10 (Cpl. Rodrigues and Lt. Meier (moderate wounds))
Kill Tally (Active Soldiers Only): Sgt. Santos (4), Lt. Vidrai (4), Sgt. Fujita (3), Lt. Meier (3), Cpl. Kurniawan (2*), Cpl. Loharani (2), Sgt. Lefebvre (1), Cpl. Zielinski (1), Pvt. Abdel (1), Cpl. Vetec (1), Pvt. Silva (1), Pvt. Prieto (1), Pvt. Smith (1) and Cpl. Rodrigues (1)
*Game doesn't count these as they were killed by the UFO explosion not him physically. I'll still tally it anyway.
Promotions: Joaquim Rodrigues to Sergeant, Nour Abdel, Willaim Silva, and Augusto Prieto to Corporal
Active Roster:
Lt. Alten Vidrai
Sgt. Zee Loharani
Cpl. Natalia Zielinski
Cpl. Alan Vetec
Cpl. Nour Abdel
Cpl. Augusto Prieto
Cpl. William Silva
Pvt. Natalie Smith
Out of Action Roster:
Sgt. Masao Fujita (1½ Weeks)
Sgt. Joaquim Rodrigues (6 Days)
Lt. Jens Meier (4 Days)
Sgt. Fernando Santos (2 Days)
Cpl. Bayomi Danjuma (2 Days)
Sgt. Mohandas Bhandari (1 Day)
Sgt. Claire Lefebvre (1 Day)
Cpl. Andy Kurniawan (2 Hours)
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 we were given a short and rapid paced mission in the middle of one of Africa's deserts. The squad got away relatively unscathed with some light wounds, and we got to meet the final member of the Barracks, Smith. Seems as though her and Prieto have a bit of a spark between them to the ire of Vetec and the amusement of Abdel. Will this pose any problems moving forward? When and where will the next mission happen? Who knows, but tune in next time on another rousing adventure of the Xenonauts in 'A War to End All Wars'! Until then, this is "The Nasty One" signing off!
PRAK #TheNastyOne