The depths of space. Cold unfriendly and empty. Except right here. Just entering the gravity well of Mars. There is a ship. Matt grey it looks like a cross between a stealth bomber and the space shuttle Discovery, this particular Avenger had the ugly addition of ominous looking bulges on the topside, mind shielding. Attached under the chin are twin launchers packing the smartest, most destructive payloads yet designed. The twin engines are flaring bright, angling the craft for a hot entry into the Martian atmosphere. Oddly it also seems to be ejecting green sludge out of its rear end.
Inside the craft is no less odd, Alpha Commando and its cut down support staff are busy attempting to put of their battle suits. Plasma weapons are being given their final checks and heavy launchers cleared and calibrated. Among all this bustle one man remains still, Ranma. Sitting lotus at the craft's front, deep in meditation, muscles slowly flexing under perfect control. Ranma had risen before the others, checked the final approach delta-v's and suited up. When he awoke his team he had issued final orders and now he was going about the process of going insane.
---------------------------------
Outside Ranma was wearing the latest in top-end hard shell. Super dense reactive armour, endo-framed, sporting a super-computer team-crystal and powered by a cold fusion cascade cell. Added on the outside of that was a flight unit capable of a full half hour of flight. The whole thing was painted a red-orange distortion pattern, specially designed for the mars mission.
Inside Ranma was empty, all thought discarded, reaching for that perfect emptiness that was Zen-shin, warrior's mind.
---------------- -------------------------
"T minus 5 minutes and counting" came Sarah's voice.
"Alpha locked and loaded" came the voice of Ranma's second in command.
"Psi –ops hot and heavy," breathed Gos, head of the psychic assault team.
"Okay team buckle up we are 5 minutes from hell." Ranma said, his voice cold, emotionless. The team obeyed instantly, a well oiled machine, long bitter experience having forged them into Earth's finest military product.
---------------------- ------------------------
At T minus sixty seconds the LZ came into view on the long range scope and so did they. As soon as this happened the Aliens started to try to bring them down. To begin with it was just occasional bursts but as the master site approached the Avenger began to shudder from heavier impacts.
"We are taking one hell of a pasting here!" shouted Sarah.
"We gonna make it" asked Ranma. Sarah paused for a few heartbeats.
"No, not a chance" she said. "Moment we start final deceleration we are toast."
"Don't slow" replied Ranma turning to the rest of the team. "We are dropping in," he ordered
All of a sudden the whole craft listed, falling off rapidly to port, and the explosion was followed by tearing sounds. "direct hit Port engine." Said Sarah " we are on fire and going Down!"
"Blow the doors!" Ranma ordered still an island of calm. Sarah punched the button and the back doors exploded outwards taking a section of the wall with them. Suddenly the harsh Martian wind was tearing through the compartment. Below the surface of the planet whipped by at near supersonic speeds. Sarah gave a short count and the team jumped almost as one.
There was a moment of perfect stillness, the team hanging there, motionless in air, the vast vista of Mars below. Above them Phobos shined brightly and from below came streams of deadly light. Then the moment passed.
Ranma suddenly found himself hurtling towards a cluster of pyramids, dust filled wind screaming by his helmet. Around him the others were spreading out, driven apart despite their best efforts. He turned in time to see the Avenger's cockpit go up in a fusion-white flare. The pilots would not be joining them after all.
--------------------------------- -----------------------
Gunnery Sergeant Laura Wain was the first person from Earth ever to voluntarily set foot on Mars. It was not a sort landing, her flying suit had malfunctioned and she came down far too heavily on her legs. Nevertheless she was up scant seconds later and already laying down suppressive fire for the others.
--------------------------------------------- -------------
Lieutenant David Hyslop was not so lucky. A bolt of heavy plasma struck him in the small of his back, his flight suit, rather than cutting out, went berserk and propelled him groundwards at an accelerated rate. He hit the ground travelling faster than when he left the plane. Lieutenant David Hyslop truly became one with Mars, with quite an area of Mars.
------------------------------- -------------------------
Even as they left the craft cold tendrils of hate started to brush across the minds of the team members. First to feel the true weight of the assault was Corporal Tupol Kivenski, newly attached to Alpha commando and by no co-incidence the weakest defended member of the team. Every agent was vetted for their psychic ability, those with the greatest potential were assigned to Psi-ops those who were found wanting left without ever knowing the true purpose of the organisation. Tupol was one of the very best, but among the giants of Alpha Commando he carried the flaw. It took less than ten seconds for the Sectiod commander to completely alter his perception of the world around him. Terror soon followed and then darkness. Tupol's last conscious action was to cut his team crystal.
-------------------- -------------------------
"Tupol's gone." Gos reported. So Ranma shot Tupol through the back of the head. Anyone who They could take was worse than a liability, SOP demanded instant neutralisation. Ranma didn't even blink as the man's brains flash fried and exploded outwards scattering themselves over the uncaring sand.
--------------------------------- ----------------
The surface of Cydonia base was hardly crawling with enemies. Five pyramids surround the Base elevator, each one living quarters for some of the Sectoid Top brass. With them were a few drones and little else. Since the alarm had been raised however these numbers were already starting to grow. Flying robotic discs used for sentry duties were already converging and beyond them came heavier flyers armed with much heavier duty soldier types.
---------------- -------------------- -----------------
Alpha commando cut through the local resistance with all the precision of a laser scalpel. No sooner was an alien spotted than Psi-ops would attack and commandos would lay down deadly accurate kill shots.
The Pyramid containing the lift was cracked wide open by a fusion cell missile, a second one following soon afterwards to annihilate the alien response team that had "secured" the area.
Ranma himself dealt with the last of the sectoid commanders by the efficient method of forcefully pushing his rifle butt into the bug's oversized cranium.
-------------------------- -------------------- ------------------
Just over three minutes later the somewhat diminished team was assembled on the elevator and starting their descent into the beating heat of Alien power in our solar system.
"Five dead including the pilots, one injured." Reported Ranma's 2 i/c. "Ammo status good. Morale fan-bloody tastic." There was a moment of real release when it suddenly sunk in how far they had got, a moment that passed even quicker when they all realised how far they had to go. Ranma of course felt none of this, his mind was still racing along absorbing information and adjusting for losses.
----------- ------------------ ------------------
As the lift stopped the team felt the presence of the Alien queen for the first time. The crushing weight of its intelligence descended on all of them for a moment driving out all other thought. The team were immersed among totally alien thoughts, drowning in a sea of emotions and experiences totally beyond human experience.
Then as quickly as it came it was gone.
Ranma's vision cleared, as he flipped to his feet he drew his weapon to firing height. There was no shortage of targets. Plasma streaked out screams answering. Aliens and commandos died the final moments of their lives characterised only by searing pain.
Ranma found himself crouched with his back to a wall, his rifle was smoking and his ears ringing. The weight of the alien mother mind was still there but somehow muted. As he looked around he spotted other members of his team, llike him they were crouched in covering positions. Like him they were porting smoking weapons and still scanning for enemies.
"Count off!" he barked. So they did, and it was not good, seven of his team were still alive including Gos. The psi-ops chief had obviously been injured by the blood running from his ears and mouth but was somehow managing to crawl to cover.
"Gos?" Ranma Asked
"All I can cough cough do to hold off Queen." Coughed Gos around the blood.
"Alpha Move!" Shouted Ranma. The longer they stayed still the more likely the bugs were to get a missile in on their position.
"Sir, holding position!" cried Gunny Laura
"Continue?" voiced Ranma
"Unable" replied the Gunny, another shot to her bad leg had fixed that. So they left her.
"Watch the tube. Protect Gos and aid fallen if poss" ordered Ranma as the team ran off down the corridor.
------------------ -------------- ------------------
The team swept through the building at full tilt. They moved from cover to cover, each individual automatically watching their own fire arcs. Aliens got in the way and then they died. Ranma, as ever, took point. Where others would never have lasted Ranma's inhuman speed kept him dodging and alive. Plasma blasts, acid spittle and the sweeping claws of Chryssalid mankillers all were dodged with inches to spare. Each movement efficient and precise, neither time nor energy wasted. Retribution soon followed, swift and deadly.
All the while the tendrils of hate lashed at their minds, the queen now supported by Ethereal aristocracy. Again training and natural ability was all that stood between the team and oblivion.
------------------ -------------- ----------------
"Major, Alpha four, have located HQ parameter match."
"Roger. Team converge!" Ranma replied. The team moved to the newly discovered location. Slightly off centre of the base's lowest level a secure double door led to a levitation pad. The symbols on the walls and design layout all suggested that this was something special.
"Five and fifteen secure. Twelve and twenty with me." Ranma ordered He and the selected others moved to the base of the pad. "Watch your fire up there. Secondary objective is probably inside." The others were suddenly Very concerned, Ranma NEVER restated mission objectives. Ranma too realised that his mind was slipping back up to normal, the psychic strain of being the prime target was showing. Given time he could restore what was lost but time they did not have, Already they could hear the Gunny's weapon keeping up sustained fire.
"Follow follow!" Ranma ordered and leapt into the ascending beam.
------------------ ----------------------- ---------------
The room above was large, octagonal and populated. Six of the strongest psychic aliens in the solar system, armed with some of the deadliest weapons the Alien civilisation had ever made were topped off by the mother brain itself. It hovered beyond the arrayed seats, surrounded by holographic screens depicting everything from Washington to the corridor below. The alien queen itself was a brown-purple sphere about five feet across, with a band of eyes surrounding its equator. Every yellow eye was spitting alien hate in his direction. The Ethereals opened fire and Ranma almost dodged them all, almost. His own weapon span off in the opposite direction to his dodge, with most of his right arm still attached.
Behind Ranma the other two agents swiftly rose to the fight. Plasma bolts screamed back and forth, to be answered by screams.
And then it was over, only smoke and fire remained. The alien queen, unable to move under its own power remained hovering, silently surveying the scene.
Ranma slowly stood up, his webbing belt tied tightly around his upper arm. He slowly walked over to Lieutenant Porter, who from his position slumped against the wall, handed Ranma his rifle. Ranma slowly turned and raised the weapon in his good arm. He tilted it to check the ammo readout and then drew a bead on the Brain.
"STOP!" It commanded "WE MADE YOU! WITHOUT US YOU ARE NOTHING THOUSANS OF YEARS OF CIVILISATION CANNOT BE UNDONE BY SUCH AS YOU –" the alien's tirade was cut short by a burst of plasma. Gore, bone and brain sprayed across the screens surrounding the dying queen.
-------------------- --------------------- ------------------
As the queen died the psychic connections that bound its servants were suddenly severed, leaving them alone for the first time in their existence. The result was shock and paralysis.
At that instant the Alien threat from above was dead.