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"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."
~Buckminster Fuller
Chapter Eighteen: Subject Gamma
"Well, let's focus on the bright side," Jane suggested, as at least a dozen vipers burst from wall and ceiling, slithering over solid rock on their way to the ground, shrieking their hate and dripping spittle and venom with every twitch. "They aren't quite as big as most vipers."
"That's what you notice?" Bradford demanded. Jane winced.
"Corporal Kelly is correct," Tygan chimed in. "The specimen lying before you is quite a bit smaller than most examples of this species. It also doesn't seem to be armed with a plasma-based weapon."
"No," Jane agreed. She studied the gun lying on the dirt. "Looks like the Bolt Caster's little cousin." She examined the body again. A snake that stood like a man, with spindly arms and a frill the size of Galway... "She's blue, too. Why's she blue? Vipers are orange-tan-"
"Can we discuss alien biology after we get through this?" Bradford demanded, and then his rifle barked and spat hot tracers.
"Oh!" Jane set her teeth, and she snapped her shotgun up. "Right!"
"Coming up on the left side!" David warned through her earpiece. Jane took aim at the swarm rushing toward her and the XO, and in a side part of her mind she noted how many scattered and collapsed under his withering fire. "Keep them busy for a few minutes and we'll engage from the flank!"
"Copy, David!" Jane squeezed the trigger, and with a boom she hurled buckshot into the throng. Neonate vipers shrieked and tumbled, spraying yellow blood, and Jane worked the pump again.
In their mad rush, she saw echoes of the Lost, and that sent cold chills up her spine.
"Get down!" Bradford ducked, and so did Jane as a half-dozen of the creatures aimed crossbows their way. Bolts shot through the air, pulverizing stalagmites and ripping holes in boulders, and Jane yelped when one passed so close to her ponytail that it flicked around in the wind.
"That's a huge projectile," she gasped, slamming new rounds into the chamber. "That could stop the SPARK-"
"Can it, Kelly!" Bradford popped up on one knee, put an eye to the targeting module on his rifle, and spat out another tongue of lead. Neonates slithered into cover, but that wasn't enough to save all of them. Yellow sprayed over rock and dirt, and Jane saw two of them collapse, thrashing and hissing out shrieks of agony with bulletholes stitching their torsos.
There were more. There had been fifteen or sixteen at the start, but there were at least another half-dozen coming up from tunnels in the ground, hunting for the source of the noise. Even counting the losses Jane and Bradford had inflicted, her rapid math said there couldn't be fewer than a dozen and change.
Bolts slammed into her rock. It shook, but Jane popped up anyway, heart pounding. Her shotgun roared, bucking like a cannon in her hands, and she distinctly saw two of the creatures go down, flinging their mini-Bolt Casters left and right. Their companions hung low, slithering at ten or twelve miles per hour across the low floor, faster than Jane could adjust-
Bang-bang-bang!
"On the left!" Cameron Rogers called, as his rifle fire tore into the neonates. David burst up at the rookie's flank a moment later, and Jane grinned as his machinegun spat tracers and death, spewing corpses and blood everywhere.
Then her grin faded as four of them reached her, and they sprang over her rock without a care.
"Shit!" Jane's next exclamation, considerably saltier, was drowned out by the boom of her shotgun, but this time her shot went wide. Viper teeth snapped, and she threw herself back hastily, flailing with fist and shotgun butt. She put out one long fang with a glancing blow from her weapon's stock, and something about how it clattered to the rock floor trailing yellow ooze gave her a moment's flash of triumph.
But only a moment's, because that was when one of those slithery bodies wrapped around her with the force of a vise. Muscles contracted, and Jane's arms abruptly snapped into her sides.
"Get off-" but she couldn't finish the demand, not with her breath shoved out of her, and the additional weight on her shoulders was too much for her legs. She collapsed to her knees in the dirt, squirming in the monster's grip to absolutely no avail.
Jane Kelly screamed as its mouth opened, and its saliva-dripping teeth shot toward her face.
"Kelly's bound-"
"They're concentrating on her and Central-"
Edward Gallant's eyes bored into the holodisplay, ignoring Sophie Weber and Cameron Rogers and their panicked chatter. He watched the mixed icons of Sergeant Kelly and the viper, wrestling and wriggling across the floor, and his grip tightened on his cane. Tightened, and tightened...
"Sir." Someone touched his shoulder.
"What?" Gallant whirled, and it took every ounce of his self-control not to twist his cane's handle and lash out. He quivered, hissing breaths in and out.
"Sir..." Lily Shen wasn't unaffected by his anger, but she was unyielding in the face of it. She held out both hands, and Gallant's eyes flicked down to the pills and cup of water.
"Not now, Chief." The Commander turned back to the rioting display of his latest Stalingrad, grinding his teeth. "Leave me alone."
"Sir." Lily's next touch was a bit firmer than a tap. "I'm not taking no for an answer."
"It's the answer you're damn well getting, Chief," Gallant snapped, pretending the bridge crew weren't subtly watching the display. "I'm fine. Get out of my face."
"Would Doctor Vahlen get out of your face about this?"
Gallant's next breath wasn't just hissing, it was seething. If he were a dragon, sparks would have flown over the bridge, with a fair bit of flame to their core. He bored his gaze into Shen, harsh and furious at once, clutching his cane with white knuckles. Red rage burned him from the inside.
But she was right, and wordlessly Gallant swept all his pills up in one hand, tossed them into his mouth at once, and then reached for the water.
"Commander." That was Tygan, and he was either the most ignorant ditz in the world or very good at pretending he hadn't seen the clash of wills his CO had just lost in dramatic fashion. Gallant's glare, moderately less wrathful, turned, and while combat chatter continued to erupt from the holodisplay, his chief science officer gestured to his terminal. "I've run decryption on Doctor Vahlen's signal, and am working to open up her log notes. I can initiate playback of the clear transmission-"
"Do it." Gallant threw the cup away the instant he no longer needed it, heedless of how Sylvie Richard scurried to clean up the spill and mess. "Let's hear it."
"As you command." Tygan hit the play button.
"An extreme biological hazard is present throughout this area," said that voice, that musical accented voice Gallant had missed so much. "Genetically enhanced alien species are of particular concern to the civilian populace. Do not approach under any circumstances - all attempts should be made to avoid contact with these life forms."
Silence. For a moment there was silence, even with the battle chatter.
"My God," Gallant finally muttered, clenching his teeth. "This isn't a signal. It's a warning."
In his time on Earth, John Bradford had killed just about anything that walked or crawled. He'd battled sectoids with his trusty old Colt .45 during the fall of XCOM, and he'd run with the Indonesian Resistance fighting thin men and vipers during the assault on the Avenger. His trusty rifle had served him virtually since the fall of humanity, and despite his age, Bradford was as capable as soldiers came. He still had the fastest right hook on the ship, and no one wanted to get in a ring with him to challenge the record any more.
He still had the Colt, too, and when his Multipurpose Combat Rifle clicked empty, as neonate vipers rolled over the rocks with dripping fangs, Bradford calmly drew it from his thigh holster.
Bang! The pistol was as reliable as it had been when his grandfather had carried it across the Pacific, and two shots was probably more than was strictly necessary to put down the first of his two attackers. Five more crowded around Jane Kelly, Bradford noticed in a heartbeat, and he would have to execute every single one with one bullet apiece at this rate. He wouldn't have time to reload...and no one was that good of a shot.
The second of the neonates took two in the chest as well. It got further than its friend, though, and those teeth snapped down on Bradford's hand. Fortunately, he pulled it out of the creature's mouth in time to avoid amputation or mangling, but his pistol flew. This wound up being a pyrrhic victory, because when the neonate collapsed on its arms, impact jolted the trigger and its head fairly exploded. Bradford barely flinched, even as the remaining four neonates turned to him - and even as the fifth one continued strangling Kelly, jaws snapping at her face while she screamed.
Bradford's hand flew up over his shoulder.
The first neonate managed to snap its crossbow up. It got a single good shot lined up, only for Bradford's first wild swing with three feet of Damascus steel to whack the weapon from its hands. The creature screeched, clearly hoping teeth could make a difference, but Bradford was an aficionado of close-range combat, and his backswing lopped the neonate's head off in a flash and a spray of yellow.
Then on came the three, swinging with their weapon butts. Bradford parried, and in the flashing and ringing of metal, his world was abruptly a very simple place.
Stab! The first opening he saw wound up with his sword driven clear through the first of his foes, and it screamed as he laid its belly open. It hit the trigger as it went down, and the wild Bolt Caster shot ripped off into the ceiling, sending rubble falling like heavy raindrops. Bradford ducked a bite, catching the offending throat left-handed, and recovered his blade all at once, driving the hilt into his enemy's eye. His next strike was an overhead slice that nearly bisected its skull.
Which left one neonate, hesitating as it saw the mess that had been its friends. That hesitation cost the creature, and by the time it made up its mind to attack anyway, Bradford's feet had moved from ground to a large boulder, and he hurled himself at it with elevation and gravity, throwing all his not-inconsiderable weight behind the tip of his sword as it rammed into the miniscule viper's head.
The creature was dead before it even hit the ground. Bradford ripped his sword free in passing, racing over scattered rocks and dust, and he brought it up as he loomed over Jane Kelly and the creature tormenting her.
He wasn't sure whether it was the viper or the Ranger who screamed louder when the sword fell.
"Got it!" Elena pulled Julie's datapad from the computer desk, cloning the data to hers in a matter of seconds. That done, she took both and hurried from the clerk's office back to the doorway. "Liang?"
"Took you long enough." The Grenadier scowled, or at least Elena suspected she was scowling under her ninja wrap. "I hear transports revving out there, and there's a fuckload of shouting-"
"Well, Richardson should be on her way out with Mox." Elena flattened herself at the edge of the door, risking a glance out the neighboring window. "I don't think they've figured out what door we're taking just yet."
"That's a relief." Liang didn't sound like she meant it, and Elena waited as she took a moment's reprieve from guard duty to slide what was definitely not a fragmentation warhead into her grenade launcher. "Whose fault is the alarm, anyway? Thought this was a quiet op, damn it."
"Not important." Elena left it at that. "When they deploy, they'll start with a perimeter sweep coming down the left side. From there." She waved to the barrels of fuel her team had used for cover, and the nosy turret that didn't seem to have realized what the alarm meant.
"You mean like those guys?" Liang asked, when Elena paused to note the figures scurrying past their automated gun position. The Reaper flattened herself.
"...yes. Like those guys." She took aim with her vektor. "Looks like two infantrymen and..."
"And what?" Liang flanked the window, and her chaingun she held ready. "Stun lancer?"
"...priest," Elena finally muttered, examining the all-white armor. "Where the hell is Julie?"
"You rang?"
"Oh, good." Elena spared the redhead a glance, and then her eyes flicked to her passenger. "Mox-"
"Elena." The Skirmisher clutched his chest, and she winced. He didn't look well at all. "I am in your debt for rescuing me."
"It's me who's in your debt," Elena demurred. "You covered my escape from the Lost-"
"We have a situation here, damn it," Liang snapped. She took aim. "I have a shot on the detail."
"We engage, they find us," Julie warned.
"Extraction's already compromised," Liang argued. "They're coming right this way."
"You're right." Elena took aim as well. "I've got a shot on the priest. Julie, get out and get Mox to the treeline as fast as you can."
"But-"
"Don't turn back!" Elena ordered. "On my mark, you run for it and we'll cover you." She breathed slowly. "Three."
"Outrider-"
"Two," Elena continued, deliberately not looking back.
"Come," Mox encouraged. "We will have our day, Julie Richardson. There will be more of them shortly."
"That's comforting." Julie took up position by the door, though Elena heard a heavy sigh as she did. "Ready."
"Good." Elena resisted an odd impulse to clear her throat as she subtly twitched her scope. "Mark."
Crack! Ratta-tatta-tatta!
The single shot took the priest right in the center of the so-called sniper's triangle: left shoulder, right shoulder, and forehead. The thing jerked convulsively, and as it staggered, Liang's machinegun-fire ripped up the ground around it. Elena worked the bolt as quickly as she could, and she lined up her next shot even as one of the priest's companions collapsed.
Worryingly, she noted the priest had only jerked, and remained on her feet.
"Come on!" That was Julie, and Elena shifted around the door as the psi-op took her charge and they burst free from the prison. They shot for the fence, and Elena held her breath as the turret turned.
"Die!" Liang screamed, bringing heavy gunfire to bear. Red mag-shots blew holes in the walls around both women, but Elena added her shots to the mix, aiming for the turret's optical sensors. Whether it was her accurate fire or Liang's spray-and-pray, someone managed something, and the fortified emplacement's barrage snapped off heavenward without any guidance.
"Donut!" shrieked the surviving soldier, taking careful aim at Liang. "Bit of old vinegars!"
"Call a taxi!" replied the priest, and Elena shot her again out of annoyance.
But then the mag-fire wasn't all that was incoming. The Reaper's eyes widened when the priest swept an amp from her back, and abruptly-
"Outrider!" Liang cried, as everything went violet.
Jane Kelly crashed in the dirt, coughing and sucking in grateful gulps of air. She beat on her chest, rolling on her side to get away from the reeking stench of dissected viper.
"Hot...holy shit..."
"You all right, Sergeant?"
"Am I..." She looked up at the man looming over her, then around in unabashed wonder. "Did you-"
"On your feet, kid." John Bradford leaned down and took her arm, and Jane had no egotistical complaints about leaning on him for a minute. She gawked at the...at the strewn trail of bodies...
"Did you kill...all...of them?" she finally whispered. "There must have been seven of them!"
"I counted six, Miss Kelly." Bradford flicked his weapon, then wiped it on one of the corpses. "I told you a sword can make all the difference in battle."
"Yeah, you did, but..." Jane coughed. "Thank you, sir. I owe you a round."
"More of even, isn't it?" Bradford countered. Was he red? "I owe you for Paris."
"Right." Jane leaned down to claim her fallen shotgun. "So why can't I name it Glamdring?"
"Taken." Bradford paused to eject his murder rifle's clip and insert a new one. Jane frowned.
"I'm the only Ranger on the Avenger."
"Are you?" Bradford gave her a look, and Jane blinked.
"...no. No, you did not-"
"Sir!" That was David, appearing ahead with Cameron Rogers at his side. They both paused, taking in the pair of Rangers. "Looks like the last of them."
"Good." Bradford waved. "Come on. Door's ahead, and that's where we'll find answers."
"Already at the entrance," Aileen reported, while Jane hurried to join the boys. Bradford led from the front, which was undoubtedly proper for the number-two man in the entire organization. Then again, after that display, Jane wasn't going to tell the old bastard where he could and couldn't go.
"Yeah, thanks for the help," Cameron growled, racking the bolt on his rifle. Jane shoved him in passing.
"Orders are orders," she snapped. "We did well enough."
"Central." That was Doctor Tygan, and Jane claimed the point position as Bradford seamlessly retreated into the fold of his unit to take the call. The Irishwoman waited, ill at ease even as they approached the great steel blast door with Aileen and Sophie at its flanks, ever vigilant. "I have managed to decrypt some of Vahlen's files. I can begin streaming data at any time."
"Do it," Bradford ordered. "We're entering her facility now."
"Very well," Doctor Tygan agreed. Jane swallowed, coming to a halt by the door.
"Breach in five," Bradford ordered. "White, Kelly."
"Roger." David appeared by her side, and Jane took immense comfort in his bulky presence. They waited as Bradford checked the rest of the team's readiness.
Someone coughed. Jane nearly jumped, until she realized the speaker was inside her ear.
"System dictation," said the accented voice Jane could only presume belonged to the mythical Doctor Vahlen. "Initial entry. It has taken me longer than I care to admit, but the secondary power systems are finally operational. At least, enough so that I can finally move to more edifying work."
"Not sure I like the sound of that," muttered Gallant's raspy voice. Jane waited as Bradford raised his hand to count down, finger by finger.
"While attempting to salvage materials from what appeared to be a totally inert storage system," Vahlen lectured, reminding Jane of the mother she'd hated so much, "I made an astonishing discovery. A single cryostasis unit - intact, operational...and occupied. This..." Jane could hear the giddiness in her tone. "This changes everything."
"Damn it, Vahlen." It was telling, in Jane's opinion, that Gallant didn't even need further clarification to lay that down. "Just what the hell happened to her? Was she living out there?"
"Let's find out," Bradford decided. He nodded to the door. "Breach!"
"What the hell-"
Julie bit off the cry, ducking behind a tall sentry post as purple light seared over Dragunova. The Reaper twitched, but her vektor fell and she followed it in moments, dropping to her hands and knees as whirling violet power wrapped around her limbs. In an instant she was wrapped up in a dome, and Julie swallowed when she saw the Russian wasn't moving.
"She...she put her in some kind of stasis..." Julie glanced to Liang, still firing at the soldier laying down suppressive fire. The wounded priest stumbled for cover, amp still out and ready.
"I have to help," Julie decided, even though her heart pounded. She could hear more shouting, knew the next team could only be a minute away, but...
"Help how?" Mox demanded. He pulled, and she fell to one knee in cover in the instant before red mag-projectiles superheated the air around her face. "That priest is behind a wall from us-"
"That's not a problem." Julie unslung her rifle and handed it to the Skirmisher before she really had time to decide whether she was being stupid. "Cover me."
Gold light filled the air now. It wrapped from the priest's amp over to the soldier and his rifle, and Liang screamed, ducking low as his shots homed in. His eyes glowed, and something about him seemed stronger and more vicious.
Some kind of mind-merge! I heard rumors about the original sectoids doing something like this, but...
Julie drew her amp, even as Mox opened up with her rifle. That soldier was good, and he dropped in a flash. Liang rose cautiously, but the priest was well-protected from her.
But not from Julie, as she drew on her power and the thrumming energy of the amp.
"You...will...burn!" she cried, as the energy built on her palm. She turned it outward, and-
Bang!
Julie flew four feet backward, hitting the prison wall with a crash she barely felt. She slid onto her rear, vision hazy, chest burning with the most unimaginable ache that somehow didn't hurt much at all. It was like when she'd been shot in Sweden, but a lot more personal.
"Well...fuck," she growled, as the Advent soldier took aim for his second shot.
But she still had her power in palm, and with the last of her strength Julie almost physically hurled it - at the priest.
She heard two Advent voices screaming in accord as the world went dark.
"Julie!" Elena burst from her confinement in a blast of energy, unsure how she'd broken the prison holding her down. It probably wasn't her, honestly speaking: the priest's head was still halfway through the implosion process, but there was no doubting she was dead already. The psionic sledges Julie had taken to her skull hadn't just killed the white-clad devil, but feedback from her mind-merge had broken the Advent soldier's brain in half. Both collapsed, though Liang couldn't resist shooting the soldier anyway.
"Damn it!" Elena tore out the door, dropping to her knees over the bleeding psionic's limp form. "No! No, you don't get to die like this!" She reached into her coat, searching and searching...
"What are we going to do?" Liang demanded, running up and glancing over her shoulder. "There's no way the next group is more than thirty seconds out-"
"There we go." Elena pulled out a medkit, and she held her breath as she sprayed nanobots over Julie's red gash. She injected her with painkillers and stims too.
"I do not think I can walk unaided," Mox interjected. Elena spared him a glace.
"Well, you won't have to." She drew her claymore, and with only a glance she threw it. The little device fastened to an unobtrusive green barrel, and then Elena reached down for Julie, sweeping her up and over her shoulder as gently as she could.
"Here." Liang grabbed the redhead's amp, and Elena spared a second for the Grenadier to put it back in place on her charge's back. "She has a pulse, but it's weak."
"She's not going to die. Not on my watch." Elena knelt to reclaim her vektor, then she hurried for the camp perimeter. "Come! Raj and Mordecai are waiting."
"Easy on, there." Liang leaned down, and Mox threw his arm over her shoulders. The two rose, and Elena heard them behind her-
"Mor balaten!"
She turned. There were at least a half-dozen of them, split between troopers and purifiers. An officer led them, red cape flying out behind him as he sprinted. They shouted more in their language, and Liang and Elena both ground to a halt.
"What do we do?" Liang asked. Elena narrowed her eyes.
Just a little closer...
"Run," she ordered. When the Grenadier hesitated, Elena's eye twitched.
"Run!" she repeated, before lifting her vektor one-handed.
She had time for one shot. More Advent poured from around the corner, and there was at least one priest and a stun lancer in that mess. It wouldn't be long before that army unit responded - in fact, Elena suspected she could hear the whine of its rapid-reaction units coming in on transports - but even the dozen or so enemies cornering her team should be enough to finish them. And Elena only had time for one shot.
Fortunately, she thought, lining up her scope on the claymore fixed to its unobtrusive perch, I only need the one.
Bang!
It detonated, and that blast was enough to take out the leading three members of the Advent team. Their officer staggered, wounded but somehow alive, but flying shrapnel eviscerated his two closest follows. Elena's heart soared when one of them turned out to be a purifier, and his flame tank cooked off in dramatic fashion, spewing incendiary fuel over the prison yard. That was perfect, even if there were still eight or nine Adventers barreling down on her.
It was fine, because the barrel she'd attached her claymore to was one of the elerium drums.
"God damn!" Liang cried, as a green blast shook the ground. A mushroom cloud of emerald shot up into the sky, while ash and fragments of metal flew. Elena almost lost her footing, forced into using her vektor for stability as she started for the edge of the yard, Julie still slung in place. The acrid tang of burning fuel ripped into her nose, and she heard agonized screaming from behind her.
"That's all we've got!" Elena cried, as she made it to the far fence. Liang was ahead of her, and when she paused, Mox laid down a quick burst with Julie's rifle. Elena almost broke a grin when she heard another purifier pack cook off to show for it. The screaming...
"Into the trees!" she ordered instead, boosting herself over the fence. "We'd better get to Raj and Mordecai and be long gone before they regroup, or we're in deep trouble."
And, she reflected, contemplating the weight on her shoulder, if Julie doesn't make it, "deep trouble" is a gentle description of what I'll be in with Gallant and Volk.
She was positive she heard the whine of transport engines.
"Breach!"
Jane burst into Vahlen's lair first, which she wasn't exactly super excited about, but it was in fact her job. She snapped her shotgun to the first sign of motion as the door blew open, and then instant Jane saw the outline of a muton-
Boom!
"Steady!" Sophie Weber called, catching Jane's arm as she worked the pump and took aim again. "They're holograms, Kelly!"
"What?" Jane paused, and after a moment's looking, she supposed she had to admit the German had a point. "Oh." She looked around the open chamber, with its three glass containment cells and the holographic displays set before each of them. "That's...that's the biggest muton I've ever seen."
"Looks like a berserker who's been juicing," Bradford agreed. "And the archon-"
"Oh, I don't like archons," David muttered. "And that looks like one of them went to bed with Satan."
"It appears to be the remnants of some sort of alien genetics facility," Doctor Tygan chimed in.
"Yeah." Cameron examined one of the tanks. "They're busted open." He glanced around. "Damn near everything's broken but the holographic emitters. Someone wrecked this place."
"Damn it," Bradford growled. "What did Vahlen do?"
"Look at this one." Jane tilted her head at the third of the holographic displays. "She doesn't look so dangerous."
"She's just a viper," Sophie agreed. "What's she doing here?"
"I am resuming the feed of Doctor Vahlen's notes," said Tygan, sounding more than a little concerned."Perhaps they can shed some light on this situation."
"Success!" That was the German's voice again, and Jane couldn't fathom how she could be so excited by alien anything. "I have managed to remove the genetic blockers the aliens implanted into the subjects in order to repress their traits. Now they will flourish. While subjects Alpha and Beta show promise...I must admit, it is subject Gamma I find the most intriguing."
"Gamma?" Jane frowned. "Which one's which?"
"Archon says Alpha," David chimed in.
"Berserker says..." Aileen sighed. "Illegible. Damaged."
"While subjects Alpha and Beta both continue to exhibit...exaggerated versions of traditionally observed behavior, Gamma has grown to be something else entirely. There is an intelligence behind those eyes I have never witnessed in an unaltered specimen of its kind."
"Unaltered?" Jane paused to look around the lab, shivering. "Why's it so cold in here?"
"Probably some kind of cryostasis for the subjects," Aileen suggested.
"What was that?" David turned, looking up at the ceiling. "I heard something-"
"Quiet!" Bradford touched his earpiece. "I think Vahlen's going somewhere with this."
"The extent to which the Elders tamper with the DNA of their subordinate races knows no bounds," the Doctor mused, while Jane returned to contemplating the huge, angry viper in hologram form. "It occurs to me that this is the first male of the species I have ever seen. Is this a form of population control? Is this the fate of my own species?"
"Yeah, not if we can help it," Jane muttered.
"Shut up," Bradford snapped. Jane subsided with a growl, rubbing her arms for warmth.
"David?" Cameron took a half-step out, raising his rifle. "I think I heard it too. Like...slithering, yeah?"
"There's snakes everywhere in here." Sophie waved. "It's nothing."
"Commander...I have made a terrible mistake."
"Oh, lovely," Jane began, breath misting. "Those are the best words to hear-"
"Shut up," Bradford repeated, giving her a furious glare. Jane wilted.
"Sometimes I wish you were here to guide me, or Bradford or Shen. Without your counsel, I fear I have ranged too far afield." Vahlen inhaled deeply. "Subject Gamma has escaped. A fissure opened a minute crack in its containment unit, and that was all the creature required. It shattered the metal, cracking it as if it were glass, or a sheet of thin ice."
"Ice?" Jane frowned, teeth chattering. "Wait a minute." Her ears perked up. "Boys..."
"Run a scan on the caverns," Bradford ordered Tygan. "Are you picking up life signs?"
"Scanning," the science officer assured him. "...it's very hard to make out details. Our sensors are being obscured by-"
Roar!
Jane spun. David spun too, and Cameron with them. Sophie, Bradford, and Aileen were all slower on the draw, but only by an instant.
"Oh, God..."
It was long, it was lean, and it was blue and white from head to tail, similar to the neonates but much bigger, much nastier. Saliva and venom dripped from its fangs, and its armor was stylized, with horns and flares and spikes on arms and head and shoulders alike. Its chestpiece glowed at the heart with some kind of miniature power cell, and Jane could feel the waft of frigid air on its breath as it shrieked defiance and challenge at the special forces team invading its home.
"...I believe that would be Subject Gamma," Tygan murmured.
Author's Note 18: What To Expect When You're Alien Hunting
Can we talk about this DLC for a minute?
I love the mission. I love the gear. I love seeing Bradford as a soldier - and especially as a Ranger. I quite enjoy the suits you can make with the alien rulers' bodies.
I do not enjoy the Rulers themselves.
Give them a crapton of hit points, sure. Give them extra actions, okay. Give them powerful abilities and make them change the game. Sure, make them bossfights.
But don't give them the ability to react to every action your soldiers take with a full action.
I wouldn't be terribly upset if the reaction was limited to, say, a move, or an overwatch, or some kind of defensive ability, like hunkering down. Or if they had to charge their special moves and they could use their reactions to do so. I would even accept that the Viper King could bind as its reaction move, if someone was dumb enough to run up and slash it. But the whole system as currently implemented is awful, even with the fixes in War of the Chosen. It's damn near unplayable prior to those fixes. I used to deliberately avoid this plot mission entirely, just so I wouldn't have to deal with the Rulers on my campaigns - and I've been tempted recently. I recently acquired a large selection of mods, but whereas I went out of my way to find an unconsciousness fix, I did not look for one that removed the Rulers' reaction actions. I should have. I won't play Ironman mode with Rulers in the game - and I don't consider it shady tactics at all to use ctrl-alt-del to force-crash the game on an Ironman run as a result of getting REAMED by a Ruler. They're so OP it's not even funny, so cheating is practically required to beat them.
Stun lancers and Rulers. Everything else can get me salty in the wrong situation, but those two are virtually guaranteed to bring on the salt no matter what happens...and the Viper King is by far the easiest Ruler to deal with.
Until next time, Vigilo Confido.