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"Soldiers, when committed to a task, can't compromise. It's unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage, absolute loyalty to others, not letting the task go until it's been done."
~John Keegan
Chapter Seventeen: The Nest
"That," Julie Richardson mused, peering prone from a high bluff at the lights below, "is an installation."
"No shit?" Da-Xia Liang looked remarkably impressed. "I guess that's the good part of bringing a psi-op. They can tell you things no one else possibly could. I thought the lights were from the Advent Folk Music Festival."
"Sorry." Julie winced. "I was just...I just meant..." She coughed into her elbow. "I guess-"
"Not now." That was Outrider, leaning half-over the bluff herself, mask's eyes glowing as she scoped out the landscape. Julie looked out with her, and there was that unpleasant twinge of dread again as she took in the scattered buildings and Advent turrets, and the black-clad soldiers on patrol all around.
"It doesn't look easy to break in," she muttered.
"Easy and possible are different things." Elena eased back, and she waved to the other two figures behind the team. "We can get down this cliff, but I don't want to risk coming back up it with Mox and possibly under fire. Meet us on the north side. See that riverbank up there?"
"Exposed," the Reaper known as Raj observed. Julie didn't like him, nor did she like his friend Mordecai. The pair were quiet, stoic, frightening, and decked out in dark coats that made Elena's look fashionable and understated. And she was pretty sure those giant hand bombs on their belts carried more explosive stopping power than some sections of the Avenger.
"I'm not green. I know that." Once Elena was safely out of sight from the base of the cliff, she got her feet under her and rose. "There's rocks in the trees on the near side of the bank. We'll make it seem we're fleeing down the river, then hit the rocks and push your way. Be alert: we'll probably be pursued."
"Got it." Raj checked his rifle, nearly a match for Elena's. He glanced to Julie and Liang for a moment, and the psi-op wasn't sure she liked his searching gaze. It was as if he was deciding whether it would be a stun lancer or a priest that finished her off.
"Okay, that's extraction," Liang muttered, as she scooted back and came up on one knee. Julie hurried in her wake, digging her elbows into the loam and trying to do her best "unthreatening moving bush" impression. She suspected she'd come across more as "large, dumb lizard" but that was just as unimportant to Advent, regardless of their love affair with vipers and mutons.
"Problem, corporal?" Elena glanced down. Liang scoffed.
"How do we get in, corporal?" The ninja impersonator rose, eyes hard in her neat little vision slit. "I see turrets, I see patrols, and I don't see any boxes to hide under."
"We get in by being quick and smart," Elena offered, which wasn't very helpful at all. Julie sighed.
"This is going to be difficult," she muttered. She froze when Liang cut her smoky, irritable eyes the psi-op's way. "That came out wrong!"
"Button up, ladies." Elena claimed her vektor, and she tossed Julie's assault rifle. The natural redhead caught it, sucking in breath. "I'll take point and you'll follow. Don't do anything stupid."
"Stupid meaning..." Julie coughed. "What, exactly?"
"You," Elena clarified, with a twitch of her eye, "just don't do anything unless I order it."
"...makes sense," Julie had to allow, even as her cheeks heated. "Yes, ma'am."
"I remembered it this time!" Jane patted the hilt over her shoulder. "Well, mine's broken, but I remembered my replacement!" She chose not to mention how her replacement was a hand-me-down from XCOM's other former Ranger.
"Good on you!" Aileen looked quite unreasonably proud. "You're finally growing up, Irish. Maybe soon I won't have to help you pull your trousers on in the morning."
"Shut up." Jane paused, ignoring David and Cameron Rogers' chuckling. "Aileen?"
"Jane?"
"What the hell is that?" She pointed to the...the...whatever it was in the Specialist's hands. "Is that a rifle or a bow?"
"We're calling it the Bolt Caster." Aileen's pride leaked into her voice. "Kind of a slow shooter, but you should see the stopping power. This baby could take out a muton."
Jane blinked very slowly. "That's one of the things recovered from the plane wreck, isn't it?"
"We're all shipping with that stuff," David pointed out. He held up a blue-glowing device. "I've got this canister full of what passes for your heart, Irish."
"David, shut your mouth before I have to stick something in it." Jane scowled while he laughed at her, and deliberately turned back to Aileen. She patted her shotgun. "I still can't see any situation in which I'd rather use Glamdring than this-"
"You said you couldn't name it Glamdring."
"Yeah, but I don't see why." Jane fumed. "There is one Ranger on this ship: me. Who in the hell else uses a sword who would name it Glamdring?"
"Listen up, people!"
"Central?" Jane turned. "What are you-"
"You remember Rookie Weber?" Bradford waved on the blonde at his side, and she gravitated over to the team, poised at the base of the Skyranger's ramp. "She'll be coming out with us today, like Rookie Rogers."
"Lovely. Half the team's green." David chewed on that nauseating fact for a long moment. "We're fucked."
"Don't sound so confident," Rogers snapped. He deliberately took a step to Sophie Weber's side. "We can hold our own. I've fought the aliens before."
"I was raised in a remote community," Sophie added. "I learned to shoot and survive on my own while you were living it up in the city. You're the deadweight."
"Is that a fact?" David raised an eyebrow. "I think-"
"Soldiers." Bradford redirected their attention immediately, and Jane finally noticed his kickass assault rifle, and the blade on his back. "I'll be taking the lead on this operation personally."
"You're kidding," Aileen objected immediately. "You're..."
"I'm...what?" Bradford eyed her. "What am I, Corporal?"
"You're..." She swallowed. "...old."
"Damn straight I'm old," Bradford agreed, while Jane winced and the rookies snickered. "It means I'm not dumb. I wouldn't have lived long enough to grow old if I were."
"Can't fault that logic," Jane mused. "Long as you can keep up with the kids, sir."
"Watch me." Bradford eyed her. "You've got your sword."
"Mendoza's, but..." Jane frowned, noting the XO's intense glare. "Is that a problem?"
"Did you, or did you not, bother to read your gear orders?"
"Um." Jane chewed her lip. "Well, all that list has ever read is 'sword and shotgun'-"
"You clearly aren't in the habit of reading it, or you wouldn't keep misplacing your blade." Bradford reached out and, without ceremony or warning, unbuckled her scabbard strap. "You're shipping out with something a bit different today."
"Oh, joy. It's live-fire gear testing." Jane sighed, watching Central lay her blade down on a box. "You know, I never realized how attached I was to the murder machete until it was taken away..."
"That box over there." Bradford nodded. "Should be a set of axes inside."
"Bloody axes?" Jane demanded. "Sir, with all due respect, I thought I was reclaiming the throne of Gondor, not fighting my way through the mines of Moria."
"Take two. One for slashing, one for throwing. Trust me, you'll love them." Bradford gestured. Jane scowled.
"Can I name this one Glamdring?"
"I thought you were reclaiming the throne of Gondor." Bradford crossed his arms. "Axes, sergeant."
"I'm going, I'm going." Jane rolled her eyes once her back was safely turned, then hurried over to the identified weapons crate, keenly aware of all eyes in the hangar boring into her back.
"Holy..." Jane broke off as she lifted one of the axes out, taking in the curved handle and the huge striking surface. She examined the weapon's keen edge, and tested how light it was in her hand. "Damn."
"Told you you'd love it." Bradford beckoned, and Jane dutifully claimed a pair of axes and the harness to hold them. She took a few experimental steps, getting used to the different way the weight on her back was balanced out.
"Ready," she finally muttered, hoping the axes didn't get her killed.
"Good." Bradford took a breath, and the Irishwoman saw his posture change as he fell back on that Old World military style. "People, we're on search and rescue today. We're looking for one of the finest minds to ever serve XCOM." Nostalgia flashed in his eyes, and Jane wondered how close he had been with this person. "I don't know what all we're going to find down there, but I know she's out there, and I know XCOM never leaves a man behind."
"Yes, sir!" That was Rogers, and Weber echoed him a moment later. Jane and David traded a glance, but then Aileen saluted.
"Sir," Jane agreed, before she and the Grenadier brought their own hands up.
Bradford nodded. "Let's go."
"We're moving in," Firebrand reported. Gallant watched the little holographic icon of the XCOM dropship in motion, soaring past rocks and over shattered rainforests, en route to the center of the emitting transmission. He waited with white knuckles, cursing his decision to allow Bradford to go in his place, hating himself for his crippled condition, and swearing that someday he would personally make amends for his cravenness today.
"Coming up on a bluff of some kind," Firebrand chimed in a moment later. "Looks like this installation is dug into the side of the cliff. I'm seeing what probably used to be a pretty well-concealed entrance."
"Deploy," Gallant ordered, narrowing his eyes. "Doctor?"
"I'm monitoring the target site," Tygan noted, from Bradford's usual position at Gallant's right. "Those energy signatures remain, as well as..." He hit a few buttons on his datapad. "Possible subterranean activity."
"Possible?" Gallant asked. Tygan nodded.
"I'm sorry, Commander. There's an awful lot of interference blanketing the area...and our sensors are having difficulty penetrating that rock face."
"Give me good news."
"We still have a steady read on Doctor Vahlen's transmission. It must be coming from a fixed transmitter, which implies this is some sort of active facility of hers." Tygan mused. "If the rocks are that capable of repelling even the Avenger's alien sensors, that would explain why Vahlen chose this location to take root."
"Yeah. She's smart like that." Gallant touched his comm. "Central?"
"Yes, sir?" He didn't sound intimidated. Gallant admired that.
"Exercise extreme caution," he ordered. "Find Vahlen and get out. God alone knows what's going on down there."
"Yes, sir," Bradford repeated. Jane eyed him, rising to her feet while the Skyranger twisted.
"Sixty seconds," Firebrand advised. "Put your knitting away, kids."
"All right." Jane felt awkward, what with Central sitting right there, but she grabbed the overhead handhold and faced her team just the same, glancing from Aileen to David to the rookies in the back. "Stay together and watch each others' backs. Don't get separated, mind your corners, and if you see something moving that shouldn't, shoot it. Sort the rest out later."
"Sound advice." Bradford joined her, and a moment later, everyone else made their way to their feet. The drop bay doors hissed, and Jane inhaled as they slipped open, revealing dry countryside and a sheer rock face. The XO shifted his weight, checking his obscenely high-powered rifle with its many protruding mods. "I'll take point. Kelly, with me. Quinn, you're with Weber, and White with Rogers."
"Ten seconds." Firebrand paused, and Jane winced as she got a better look.
"That...doesn't look good," she muttered. "There's smoke coming from the cliffside."
"Five seconds." Another pause, as the Skyranger settled out and the lines dropped. "Go!"
"Roger that, Firebrand!" Bradford hit the line first, and Jane scrambled to jump out after him. She caught rope, and her gloves absorbed friction as she slid from a hundred feet in the air, Aileen and Cameron behind her, and Weber and David after them.
Thump. Her boots met gravel and dirt, and Jane scrambled forward to the first rock she saw, shotgun up. She scanned the area, tense and waiting as the rest of the team came down and settled into cover themselves.
"Boots on the ground," Weber finally confirmed. The German scoured the surround for a moment before lowering her rifle. "We're in."
"Is that a cave?" Jane wondered, taking in the massive opening before them.
"No shit it's a cave," David grunted. "Congratulations, Irish. Your eyes work."
"You know what, David?" Jane grunted irritably. "I meant it could be man-made."
"Maybe a bit of both," Bradford said. "Vahlen's the type who would find a defensible fortification and expand on it."
"Look at all those support columns. This place is huge." Jane rose, following Central down the first few rocky steps into the cavern. "Huge."
"Talk about Mines of Moria, huh?" Bradford chuckled, but without much humor. "Kelly and I will push straight down the center. The rest of you fan out on the flanks and follow up."
"Don't die," Aileen encouraged, patting Jane on the shoulder. The Ranger watched her friend take Weber, and armed with Bolt Caster and rifle, the pair hurried off on the left. David and Cameron moved right, and that left Jane and Bradford together, working their way down the main steps toward a small bluff.
"There's lots of fire down here," Jane muttered after a moment, spotting smoldering embers and breathing in the reek of smoke.
"And skulls." Bradford's lips thinned as he pointed that out, and Jane nodded. She shivered, examining a display of them, all pinned together and set with torches. "Someone's been decorating."
"Tasteful." Jane swallowed, reaching up to check her axe handle. "Here's hoping we don't just give him more art supplies."
Elena Dragunova waited.
Her breath came in silently, and she tensed and released the muscles in her legs and shoulders almost constantly. To the outward eye she was still, but she couldn't risk anything stiffening up. She watched a trio of Advent soldiers, pacing the outer walkway of the black prison facility with their heavy boots stomping on metal and concrete.
Liang and Julie weren't nearly as quiet, or as still. Elena hoped their twitching and stretching didn't give them away, even as she berated herself for not trying to educate them in Reaper stealth techniques on the journey here. It was far too late now, and nagging the Grenadier and the psi-op would only run the risk of her voice alerting the enemy, so she settled for checking her claymore and vektor again.
The soldiers moved on. Elena eyed the turret looming past them, but its attentions were focused elsewhere. She'd spent close to an hour now tracking its scan pattern, and she was reasonably confident of a four-minute window before the gun emplacement's AI turned to a dedicated sweep of her quadrant.
So she watched the soldiers, scanned the crates and barrels and stacked weapons that gave the prison yard more cover than she could ever use, and made her decision.
Go! Elena signaled, waving her minions on. Without any verbal command or hesitation, she rose and swept across the scraggly grass for the low wall at the perimeter, not even bothering to crouch. She heard Liang faintly on her trail, and Julie far more clearly, as her wound kept her flagging.
Elena slid down behind a rack of mag rifles, holding her breath as the turret turned. Its scan was cursory rather than detailed - for now - but still the Reaper hoped Liang and Richardson had found good cover in time. They lacked her training, lacked her adaptive camouflage, and at least in the psionic's case, lacked a body functioning at one hundred percent.
Elena spared a glance, and she spotted the former behind the stocky base of a lightpost, and the latter laying prone behind a set of elerium fuel drums. What would happen to Julie, her stealth op, and likely XCOM's entire war effort if the turret decided to ignite the drums was not something Elena particularly cared to contemplate, and she clenched her free fist, mindful not to squeeze the trigger in her other hand.
Her fears were groundless. The red light of the turret's sensor swept away, and Elena let out her long breath, thankful neither of her teammates would see her relief behind her Reaper's mask. The turret had sensors far more sophisticated than mere visual detection, but the combination of the elerium fumes and the XCOM team's signal-blocking clothing had defied any attempt at thermal scanning.
Elena waved, and her team swept forward again, this time through the rest of the yard and up to the long, lean building that threatened from hundreds of yards distant.
"Door," she ordered under her breath, as she crept into position on its left. Liang took up a spot across the entryway, and Julie pulled out her datapad. She worked for a moment, biting her lip and very clearly working hard to not steal glances over her exposed shoulder.
"You're covered," Liang assured her, just as quietly. Elena kept her attention focused on what was ahead, certain no soldiers would round the corner and surprise them unless they suddenly developed the ability to run at forty kilometers per hour dead silent for the rest of their patrol legs.
"Got it." Julie lowered her pad as the door light blinked green, and then Elena glanced inside while it hissed open.
"Clear," she muttered. "Probably someone in the cellblock. Julie, you're with me. Liang, cover the rear."
"Roger." The Grenadier hurried into a small side chamber, and after her companions had entered, she hit the door seal and hunkered down behind a support column. "Don't take too long."
The next room was full of screens and monitors, and a center console with a swiveling chair. Red lights glinted at the corners, and Elena supposed it was part of the Elders' design: red lights didn't interfere with low-light vision. In the event of a power outage or an escape from the darkened cellblocks, no response unit from inside would be much deterred by the shadow.
The security operator was busy. Elena supposed that was why he hadn't cared to investigate the door opening and shutting outside of routine: he was far too busy with a vigorous magazine the Elders probably wouldn't have approved of being read in one of their critical installations. Feet up on the security console, eyes very intent, he traced outlines with one finger, whistling cheerfully under his breath.
He did look up just in time to see Elena's vektor butt crack in between his eyes.
"Now what?" Julie asked, as Elena threw the senseless body to the floor, and stomped on his magazine on general principles. Human publications like that served a purpose. But what anyone saw in vipers...
"Mox." The Russian swept over the computers, frowning as she moved from monitor to monitor. "The cells are empty."
"Say again?" Julie's eyes widened. "He's not here-"
"No. They're all empty." Elena growled. "This place has been cleaned out, and recently."
"Why? Where'd they take them?"
"I don't know-" Elena broke off. "Wait! One cell occupied." With fingers that shook a little despite herself, Elena called up the cell's information listing. "That's...no name, but...capture date..."
"Well?" Julie asked, after the better part of a minute.
"That's him," Elena finally told her. She hit a few other buttons. "Give me your datapad."
"You don't have one?" The psi-op provided hers anyway.
"Oh, I'll copy this data to mine, too. But I'm far more likely to be killed in action than you are, and someone needs to get this data to..." She coughed. "To the Commander."
Best not call him "the cripple" while on mission, I think.
"What is it?" Julie asked. Elena shook her head.
"I think I can find out where the prisoners were being shipped." She scowled at the screens. "Some kind of facility in the Ural Mountains. Black site..."
"What about Mox?"
Elena jerked her head to the corridor. "Cell Six-five-nine. There's a guard patrolling the walkway. Take him out and I'll follow when I've got the data."
"Right." Julie turned for the door. "Don't take too-"
The redhead jumped as a klaxon went off. Elena froze for a moment.
"The operator. Must have had a heartbeat monitor." She kicked him, and also herself for her sheer ungalled stupidity. If she'd still been working under Volk, he'd have had her on camp cleanup for a month.
"Now what?" Julie demanded, teeth clenched. Nervous yes, but she was in fact a soldier, and Elena's opinion of the psi-op clicked up a little.
"That guard. Kill it." Elena redoubled her efforts. "We have two or three minutes until they figure out where the alert is coming from and mobilize a team. We'd better have Mox and be out of here by then, or..."
"Right!" And then Julie vanished into the dark. Elena's fingers flew over the holo-keyboard, and she watched the data transfer bar impatiently.
She checked her claymore and rifle again.
Crunch.
"I'm trying very hard not to think about what it is I'm stepping on," Jane muttered. She studiously kept up the effort, kicking aside anything she reasonably could and trying to ignore the putrid stench that overrode her nostrils.
"Probably for the best." Bradford left it there, the light from his rifle passing over scattered bones from various creatures Jane couldn't identify and also didn't want to. The XO's back was straight, and his teeth were set, but for it all he resembled to Jane more a coiled spring than anything else: at any moment he could snap, and it wouldn't be she who paid for it.
Hopefully.
Jane's breath rang in her ears, echoing around the open cavern. She felt her heart thumping, and listened to the faint crackling of flames.
What are the odds...I don't know...what are the odds this is just some kind of party? She tried not to cough, mindful of how silent Central was. What if the bones are to scare away enemies, and the flames are...for interior lighting?
Kelly, she imagined David saying. Kelly, shut up.
Still...maybe...
Thump.
"Huh?" Jane frowned. "That wasn't a bone."
"Then what was it?" Bradford asked.
"I don't know, sir. I'm still trying not to find out." She felt very stupid after saying it, and before the XO could ream her a new one or just deploy his irritated old-man glare, she hurriedly knelt, brushing dirt off the little bump she'd stepped on.
"Well?" Bradford demanded. Jane plucked the offending item from the dirt.
"Can't have been here long. Was just covered in a little bit of rock and rubble, so most of the ceiling must have caved in before it fell." She presented the device with both hands, still crouched. "It's a datapad, sir."
"I'm not that old," he snapped, before plucking the device from her grip. Jane coughed, pushing herself up and reclaiming her shotgun.
Damn near time I named this thing, she thought, before having to growl and shift her weight. Never thought I'd miss my stupid sword - these axes don't sit at all as comfortably!
"Still has a charge." Bradford hit the power button, and Jane covered him for a moment as the XO hunted through the device's menus. The old man scowled.
"Password?" Jane asked. "Maybe Shen should-"
"No." Bradford hit another icon, and the device crackled with sudden sound.
"This data must be preserved!" a woman's voice cried from the speaker. Jane jumped.
"Stupid French-"
"She's not French," Bradford snapped, before holding his ear a little closer. "Shut up, Kelly!"
"Take this!" the not-Frenchwoman said. "Take this, and find Bradford!"
"It's her," Bradford muttered. Jane blinked.
"I thought she was German."
"Avenger, this is Bradford." Jane might have been a potted plant for all the attention he sent her way from that moment on. "We've found a data unit with a recording of Doctor Vahlen on it. She must have given it to an underling and sent him on his way."
"Is there any sign of her messenger?" Doctor Tygan asked.
"...no," Jane mumbled, glancing around. "Maybe he went to the bathroom?"
"Find her!" Commander Gallant ordered, his voice breaking through her weak attempt at levity. "This doesn't look good, John. Find her now, before..."
"Trust me, sir. We're on it." Bradford hesitated. "Doctor-"
"I had hoped to meet my predecessor under less...extreme circumstances." Tygan took a breath. "I am tracing her broadcast, Central, and I believe it is coming from a position directly ahead. I'm sending you coordinates now."
"Good man-" Bradford broke off. "Kelly! Movement right!"
"Sir!" Jane snapped her gun up. She aimed at the faint outline of a man-made door seal, large enough she wondered if it was supposed to be a hangar. "David, Cameron-"
"We're moving in-"
A shape appeared, right and up, from a crevice in the cavern wall. Jane pulled the trigger without thinking, and buckshot sprayed the rock and dirt. Bradford ducked to the side, and Jane dove behind a boulder, waiting as something tumbled down the wallside, rolling and sliding until it appeared between Ranger and XO.
"...vipers," Bradford finally muttered, taking in the lithe corpse. Jane swallowed, blood running cold as she heard - and felt - more movement in the walls. "It had to be vipers."
Hiss...
The guard spun. Red light tinted dark armor, and to his credit, the speed with which he raised his mag-rifle was impressive. Most likely that targeting module was a night vision or thermal scope, and he bent his knees, sweeping the far end of the corridor without an ounce of give or quit to him, hunting for the source of the sweeping hiss of winter breath that had unnerved him so.
Which was unfortunate, because it had never been real in the first place.
Wham! The butt of Julie Richardson's rifle hit the back of the unfortunate Adventer's head, and he collapsed on all fours, rifle clattering away. He reached for his sidearm, but the natural redhead drove her knee down between his shoulder blades, slamming him face-first into the metal latticework of the walkway.
"Sorry," she muttered, without being sorry. The soldier finally wrapped his fingers around the handle of his pistol, but Julie had her rifle, and another two blows to the back of his head cracked his skull in at least two places. He lay very still, and Julie spent a moment weighing whether to shoot him just to be sure.
"No point," she finally told herself, before reaching to his belt and swiping his key card. "Besides, gunfire might alert more guards."
The psi-op scrambled to her feet, releasing her rifle to hang from its shoulder strap. She reached for her amp, though she didn't fully draw it, merely keeping her options close to hand as she hurried down the walkway, scowling as the klaxon continued to ring out.
"Maybe it wouldn't have mattered," she mused, as she turned a corner, counting cell numbers. "No one would possibly hear a shot over that. And who would ignore the alarm, but come running for a shot?"
No point turning back. Julie scurried past empty cells, counting off under her breath. Six-four-eight...six-five-six...
"Six-five-nine!" Julie stopped outside the door, and plucked Mister Guard's key card from her pocket. She inserted it into the lock, and it chimed softly, in a way that still managed to send a shiver up Julie's spine. She paused to glance around at black with red lighting, and all the creepy elder symbols on the walls.
"I'd rather die than wind up in one of these," she mumbled, and was more than half sure she meant it.
Pledge made, Julie hit the red button to open the door, and waited while hydraulics hissed. She could barely make out anything in the faint scarlet light, but she thought she could see some kind of metal shelf that passed for a bed.
"Mox?" she demanded. "Pratal Mox?"
Movement from the shelf. Julie hesitated to enter, warily eyeing the door and wondering if it would just snap shut behind her.
"You...do not look like Advent." That was a very distinct voice. It was almost mechanical, and Julie's hopes soared.
"I'm not. Mox, I'm Julie Richardson, and Commander Gallant sent me."
"Gallant?" Mox shifted, and Julie realized he was trying to sit up. "Alone?"
"No. I'm here with Da-Xia Liang and Elena Dragunova." Julie entered, forgetting the door and hurrying to the Skirmisher's side. He was very weak, and she worriedly took his arm. "Here, sir. Lean on me."
"There's no need to call me sir," he objected. The slurred way he was talking...he had to be drugged. Mind-altering? Painkillers? Julie wondered exactly what the interrogators - much less, perhaps, the Assassin - had done to him.
"Of course not. Sir." Julie could hardly see Mox in the dark, but she tried her best not to focus on his ritual scarring, and the odd implant lines ringing his chin. He couldn't pass for human, and just the glimpses she got of him made her skin crawl - to say nothing of his smell. It wasn't rank, it wasn't musty - well, no more than a human's would be, in this cell - but it was just that little bit alien, just inhuman enough that Julie's stomach shivered.
Stop it, she tried to tell her body's automatic reactions. He's a friend. Different doesn't mean bad!
"On your feet, sir." Julie pulled him up, and he leaned heavily on her arm. Quickly, she threaded his over her shoulders. "Come on. Liang and Outrider will cover our withdrawal. Let's just walk, you and I."
"My legs are numb," Mox mumbled, though more with the air of a soldier supplying tactical information than someone complaining. "I will find it hard to move quickly."
"That's why you have me." Julie supported him out of the cell, and she turned right in a heartbeat. "Come on. Let's get you home. Sir."
Author's Note 17: Reapers
My opinion of Reapers has gone up since the last time I discussed the new classes in WOTC. Skirmishers remain my favorite, but I've finally figured out the tactical utility of the claymore, and I have to admit it's quite a bit heftier than I originally thought. Not so useless, when it means the Reaper can participate in an ambush without revealing herself, especially if you're also in situation where your sharpshooter would have to move to participate, and isn't heavily pistol-skilled. Reaper throws claymore, sharpshooter pistols it, ka-boom! Literally.
That said, Reapers remain hamstrung by the same core problems I remember from my first playthrough. Much like Scout-specced Rangers, once they leave stealth their core utility drops dramatically, and that's only increased by the fact that they're virtually undetectable while in stealth. They can reenter Shadow much easier and they can use certain abilities and attacks while in it without a certainty of breaking concealment, but that doesn't change that they're far more useful in Shadow than fighting in 75% of circumstances, and in most of the remainder you'll hesitate to have them take any actions because you'll want them in stealth for the NEXT problem...and their guns don't do much damage, which is something I hope to find a mod to fix.
And the Shadow UI is annoying. So much green, so much on screen...it's awful.
This has nothing to do with anything, but I want to brag: I recently got Flawless on Lost and Abandoned. The main mistake people make is in holing up on the causeway when the Assassin is invulnerable to reaction fire - you have to go looking for her, and you can tear her to shreds with a grenade, some guesswork, and a couple flank shots. Depending, of course, on her strengths and weaknesses.
Until next time, Vigilo Confido.