Welcome back ladies and gents, to my XCOM universe.

Bad news. It's official. I'm going back to school come fall. So yah. Wish me luck.

Not much else to say really. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Xabiar, my beta reader, also writes XCOM stuff. They are also a much better writer than me, so go check out their stuff. It's awesome.

Also hit me with those reviews. Seriously. I love reviews. Do it now.

Cheers

Alex Lee


Wednesday, September 16th, 2024

0300 hour 12 Minutes 51 Seconds

I slept well that night.

Or rather I would have, had the familiar red light and distinctive siren not woken me from my deep, dreamless slumber.

"All Squad Lockdown members, report to hanger bay four. I repeat: All Squad Lockdown members report to hanger bay four."

"Fucking hell..." I grunted, my body automatically getting up and beginning to gather the various clothing pieces from my bag, despite the rest of my being begging me to simply lay back down, and pretend I had heard nothing.

"Fucking alarm… fucking aliens…. fucking fucking..." I muttered aimlessly, slipping on the base layer of my combat uniform before searching for the rest of my gear.

Pulling most of my kit out from under the bed, I was interrupted by a very loud, yet distinctive knock on my door.

"It's open!" I hollered out above the alarm, crouching down to tie the laces on my boots.

The door opened not a second later, followed quickly by a familiare set of light footsteps, as she made her way into my room.

"Five minutes to launch Crawford! Just grab your shit and prep on the ride! Ammo is on the ranger!"

I almost chuckled as the ice cold voice instantly woke my mildy mared mind from its deep slumber.

After all, who else but Lock could invoke such excitement this early in the morning.

"Roger that," I growled, reaching for my armor and weapons. "SMG or Rifle?"

"Rifle." She chirped with zero hesitation. "Now hurry the fuck up!"

Grabbing the revolver off my night stand, I ran a quick mental checklist to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, before turning towards Lock and the doorway.

"Roger that!" I smirked, dashing instantly past her, and out into the hallway, with a well practiced bound. "Just try to keep up!"

The hall was thankfully empty. Though that was probably due to it being three in the morning more than anything. Only the guards would be up, making a relatively clear path from my room to the hanger.

Or in this case, a rather empty race track for me to put Lock to the test.

Kicking hard off the ground with each step, I accelerated down the initial stretch of hall, skidding around the first corner, as my boots barely stopped me from crashing into the wall.

Take the next left

I smiled as ABBY chimed in, giving me timings and directions for each turn, while I focused on simply maximizing my speed. The bundle of gear in my arms though sadly slowing me down a lot more than I had hoped.

Almost to quickly, however I found myself screeching to a halt, as the front of the hanger doors loomed towards me.

Stumbling a few times as my boost failed to find traction on the smooth floor, I felt my body begin to tumble forwards.

"Woah there!"

A large grey metal arm shot out and plucking me off the ground just before I completely wiped out.

"Steady now. Wouldn't want to be down a member before the mission even starts!"

The booming voice of Psycho washed over me as the arm slowly lowered me back down to the floor.

Laughing I turned to find him towering over me in his full MEC suit.

"Thanks for the save, mate." I chuckled, flashing him a thumbs up as I shook my legs out. "Just don't tell the other's, ok?"

"Yah, a bit too late for that..."

Glancing over my shoulder, I was greeted with the bemused faces of the full Lockdown squad. Ace in particular seemed to be garnering the most enjoyment from my embarrassment, though Closure was not to far behind him judging from the smile.

"Tell me," he chuckled, raising his arm to stroke the shaggy beard he wore. "Do you purposely try to enter missions in the most dramatic fashion possible? Or it is just a coincidence?"

Opening my mouth to retort, I was cut off before a single word could be uttered.

"No, he's just naturally this reckless."

Lock in all her glory walked towards me with a familiar look of disbelief plastered on her face for all to see.

"You are an absolute idiot..." she muttered quietly while passing by me,. tTaking only a few seconds to reach the hanger doors.

"Alright Ladies!" She barked., "Clock's ticking! Let's load up and go before our rookie tries to kill himself again!"

"Oohrah!"


"That stunt you pulled was both incredibly immature, and stupid beyond all measure of words. You do know that, right?"

Locks voice filtered through my comms channel almost immediately as I took my seat next to Ace. Armor now comfortably set in place, and ammo fully replenished.

"Yah." I chuckled loudly. "But hey, it made you smile sooo I would say it was worth it."

The usual rumbling of Bigsky's Ranger, was currently deafeningly loud due to the speeds we were traveling, making normal means of communication almost impossible. However, I swear I could hear Lock tell me to stuff it from the other side of the ship.

Smirking, I went back to ensuring my weapons were locked and loaded for the mission. Whatever that may be.

"Mission briefing incoming!"

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. As if on que everyone turn their attention to the rear hatch of our craft, for what could only be some great news.

Sure enough, not a second later Central Officer Bradford digitally appeared before us, this time accompanied by an unfamiliar map.

"Good morning. You are currently being deployed to Canada."

I nodded along with everyone else, as the familiar American voice continued to patch through our comms.

"At o two hundred this morning, the resistance base in Newfoundland, a fishing village up the coast from St. John's, successfully shot down an alien scout ship passing over them," Bradford continued.. "They then executed a recovery mission on the crash site, that resulted in the recovery of not only valuable resources, but a living Outsider as well.

Audible gasps could be heard through the comms channel as the news seemed to have shocked everyone.

Well almost everyone.

"A shocking turn of events to be sure," he continued undaunted. "However, our sources are now reporting a developing incident in this same village, which has since gone dark. Even worse, these reports suggest alien involvement."

"Your top priority is to secure the Outsider currently being kept in the resistance HQ here.," he explained pointing towards a small yellow blip on the map. "However alien activity is high in the area, and satellites are showing Berserkers, Cyberdisks, Mutons, Mechtoids and support units in the area. As such expect a heavy fight, no matter what."

Glancing over at Lock he made direct eye contact with her before delivering the final part of the briefing.

"Your secondary objective, if possible, is to eliminate the alien presence in the village.That is all the available information we have at the moment., I will update you if the situation changes.Stay frosty out there. Central, out."

Glancing over at Lock, I made direct eye contact before opening my comm link once more. "So… what's an Outsider?"

"Don't know." she shrugged in her seat, "And no I'm not saying that because you're not cleared to know. I mean we literally have no fucking idea what they are."

"Ok, but you guys have fought them before right?"

"Sure. But only on the alien ships we shoot down," she nodded. "Usually they disintegrate almost immediately upon death, so capturing a live one to be examined and interrogated has been an ongoing mission for us for a while now."

Glancing over at Holly she smirked a little. "Poor Holly here has been lugging around an arc thrower for almost a dozen missions now, on the off chance we ever ran into one of them. Seems that wa...

"Bigsky to Lockdown. We are T-minus twenty minutes to drop. Best make your final preparations now."

Sky's announcement ended, and just like that, the entire tone of the cabin changed.

Smiles faded away, and any non mission critical conversations stopped.

Each member began to meticulously double, and even triple checking his or her gear. Press checking weapons, ensuring each and every mag was full, some even making a run to the ammo dump for a grenade or extra ammo.

It was almost scary to watch how laser focused each member could become at the drop of a hat.

Taking a deep breath, I simply began running a mental check to ensure I was ready to go. ABBY also assured me of my mission ready status before running her own set of calculations.

Factoring the enemy's we would be facing, she provided me with a statistical probability of when I would run dry, along with our survival probability.

Her results were not very encouraging.

"Maybe an extra mag or two then…" I muttered, making my way over to the ammo dump once more.

Extra magazines recommended. Explosive proximity device also recommended.

Rolling my eyes, I nonetheless grabbed another claymore from the explosives pile, along with two more rifle mags for my pockets.

What was another two pounds to a genetically modified man like me anyways?

"Bigsky to Lockdown. We are T-minus ten minutes to drop. Central has advised me of active ground forces in the AO. Prepare for a hot landing."

Firmly tightening my flight harness one last time, I spent the remaining time doing my best to not to let the fear and adrenaline take hold just yet. We would need all the help we could get down there after all.

I lasted roughly eight minutes. Right until the first explosion sounded outside the hull.

"AA SPOTTED! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!

The entire ship shook as more explosions sounded outside. Rocking the craft from side to side, as Bigsky dodged and weaved her way through what I could only imagine was a burning hellscape of death and destruction.

Up, down, left, right, barrel roll, repeat.

"Bigsky to Lockdown! We are T-minus twenty seconds to drop! Get your asses to the door!"

Glancing over at Lock, she only spared me a second before undoing her harness

"You heard her! Go, Go, Go!"

A flurry of movement followed, as each member crawled, hooked, and stumbled their way over to bay doors. Grabbing hold of anything they could to help remain steady. The bay doors themselves slowly opening to reveal the small clearing Bigsky had found to land us in.

"Touch down in Five!"

Four

Three

Two

One

The entire ship shook as we touched down, almost tossing both Holly and I out onto the bay doors. The rough landing kicked up a huge plume of of dust and dirt all around us.

"Everyone out! Quick!" Locks voice broke through the comm silence, as she grabbed me, and dashed forwards into the dust. "Fan out and eliminate any hostiles! Protect our ride out of here at all costs!"

Breaking through the debris cloud, we both quickly hunkered down behind an old truck parked off to the side of our landing site. Or rather what remained of the small park that once sat there.

"Think the village will want us to pay for that?" I joked lightly, shrugging towards the mangled remains of what looked to be a jungle gym, crushed under the Sky Ranger.

Lock barely even seemed to register my comment as her eyes continued scanning the area. "I think they have bigger concerns right now." She grunted, nodding in towards the interior of the town.

Any humor I had felt for the situation was lost upon sight of what was left of the village.

No doubt before the attack it would have been nice a nice place to see. Filled to the brim with well- builtd wooden houses, and small family businesses. A real small town atmosphere.

Now though, bodies, and fires littered the area in front of us. Reminding me that those same wooden buildings did not hold up so well, against both fire and plasma. And the unarmed, unarmored civilians, did not stand a chance against the claws and guns of our alien invaders.

It almost seemed like the aliens were intentionally trying to paint a very grisly scene for what the rest of this place could look like.

Swallowing hard as my eyes took in every detail, my mind now raced to find a reason for the brutality I was seeing. The scorch marks of where plasma rounds impacted. The destroyed walls where a Muton, or something equally big smashed through. The blood splatter fro…

Psychological warfare. Fear and anger has the potential to turns a good soldier, into a useless one. Civilian masses shown this level of violence will also be less willing to aid resistance. Emotional responses to tragedy not conducive to current mission objectives. Refocusing on priority one. Locating resistance HQ, and secure living Outsider. Current elevation limiting options. Rooftops would provide better field of fire and info.

The cold lodgical voice of ABBY washed through my head with the force of a bulldozer. Shelving away anything she deemed harmful to my own survival, before refocusing me once more on the mission.

Touchdown to high profile. Enemy units on route. Prepare for combat.

Forcefully taking a deep breath, I turned to Lock for directions, only for her to push me down onto my back not a second later.

Tcheeeeeeeew Tcheeeeeeeew

Twin green lines blew right through the truck we hid behind. Passing right above where Lock and I had been just moments ago.

Scrambling back to her feet, I watched as she dove back into cover, rifle now at the ready.

"Mectoid! Right side park exit! You take low! I'll go high!"

Spinning around onto my chest, I sighted the purple legs of the mechtoid from under the trucks chassis, not a hundred meters from us, and brought my own rifle to bear.

"Ready!" I called out, applying a small amount of pressure to the tigger as I waited patiently for Locks call.

"Now!"

poompoom

Boom

I couldn't help but smile, as both our round impacted solidly; slicing through the Mec's armor plating and topple the purple mass over onto its side.

"No fucking shield for you, buddy." I grinned, standing up, while loading a fresh round into the chamber.

"It's dropped!" Lock all be shouted over our comms. "Someone get in there and finish it off!"

Grabbing my shoulder, and pointing towards the rooftops she quickly motioned for me to follow her before taking off. Leaving me to play catch up as she quickly made an inhuman leap up to the top of a nearby two story tall housing unit nearby.

"Fucking nutter." I grunted before following quickly in her footsteps, and launching myself upwards to the top of the same building.

Cheeeeeeeese

Even as I flew, the sounds of combat rang out. A single green plasma trails whizzing past me as I nearly crashed into the flat roof below.

The moment my legs hit solid ground, they buckled, throwing me forwards into a small roll which thankfully dissipated most of the impact.

"Mectoid still operational!" Lock's irritation could be heard clearly over the radio, as the once more, the downed Mec slowly turned its gun towards out new elevated position. "Anyti..."

Bvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Despite not seeing it, I knew instinctively what had just happened.

A massive barrage of 7.62mm lead had just pummeled what was left of the poor purple machine, into an unrecognizable heap of metal parts.

Smiling, I made my way to the buildings edge to take in the destruction.

Miniguns. The prefered choice of weapons for almost all Mechanized Exoskeletal Cybersuit Troopers, and a fucking menace to all alien life forms.

From our elevated position, it was easy to see the culprit. Psycho's blacked out Mec was all but waving at us as he lumbered forwards, weapon at the ready.

"Mectoid officially fucked." He radioed, the heavy steps of his suit leaving deep imprints everytime he moved. "Moving to parks edge."

Despite his head being entirely enclosed in a massive blast resistant tin can, I could still see the massive smirk that no doubt accompanied his rather cocky tone.

Intel needed. Scout building edges. Remain in cover.

Shaking my head, I quickly got back to work. Sliding in beside Lock as she peered through her rifle scope at the surrounding area.

"Ace. Closure. Chip. Three enemy units are converging on your location. Two Muton and a berserker. They will breach through the house in front of you in five seconds."

Swinging my rifle around to where Lock was pointed, I sighted down the street they all stood. Watching as both Ace and Closure took up cover behind a car, while Chip simply stood his ground and spun up his massive weapon.

Fire in three, two, one.

Trusting that ABBY knew something I didn't, I pulled the trigger. Watching in amazement, as the berserker smash through the house wall, right where Lock expected. Right into my waiting crosshairs.

Poom

Hesitation in firing. Round glanced off armor.

True to her word, I watched the Berserker stumble a little in her movements, but otherwise appear unscathed.

Not a second later however, everyone else opened fire.

The combined firepower of Lock, Chip and Ace alone would have probably been enough. But add in Closures shotgun, and the three armored units were all but shredded in a manner of seconds. The damaged armor they wore, and a series of green splatters on the walls behind them, the only evidence to what had occured.

"Hostiles eliminated." Ace's gruff voice coming over the comms, as he gingerly moved forwards into the house. "Moving to HQ."

"Roger that," Lock nodded. "Stay frosty."

Despite the overwhelming success of the maneuver, she seemed to only breathe a sigh of relief once Ace and the others had begun to move forwards again.

Reaction noted. Refocusing on priority one. Locating resistance HQ, and secure living Outsider.

Rolling my eyes, I began to scan the surrounding area once more in search of my hostiles. Though it became quite evident that everything thus far had been eliminated.

Eventually Lock decided it was time for us to move up with the rest of the squad. Sticking predominantly to the rooftops, to provide intel and cover fire for the rest of the squad, as they swept through streets and houses alike.

After the small stint of action everyone was on edge. Tensions were no doubt very high. The comms remained silent unless needed. No jokes. No banter. Nothing.

Still even as we continued further and further into the village, nothing happened. No enemies. No ambush. Nothing.

"Lock." I grunted, scanning the houses across the street from me, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

"You're not the only one," she muttered back quietly. Her eyes were now permanently glued to her rifles scope. "With the amount of fire we took coming in... there has to be more units."

"Boss." Chips monotone voice crackling over the comms helping to bring our focus back to the mission at hand. "HQ in sight."

"Roger." Lock nodded, motioning for me to get ready to move. "Moving to cover fire positions."

Standing up, I reslung my rifle in preparation for another leap. Following behind Lock as she made her way to the edge of the building.

"Psycho, Drew and I will stay on the roofs. You just link up with the others ok?"

"Got it." He miced in reply, before the sounds of destroyed asphalt and concrete could be heard far bellow.

Almost the same instant he took off, Lock made a running leap to the building across from us with me in tow.

It took all of twenty seconds to cover the distance between the two three man squads. But only two seconds for Lock and I to lay eyes on our objective.

Before us, lay the remnants of a small brick church. The once proud spire was knocked down into the square below, along with the bell that had hung there and a host of debris. The once pristine area around it now littered with smoking cars and trucks alike. The remnants of a battle very clear.

Both Lock and I quickly electing to lay down on the rooftops, using the rough shingles to our advantage, while only leaving our rifles and heads exposed.

"In position." Lock quickly commed. Signalling the rest of the team to begin the infiltration of resistance HQ.

Through the scope for my rifle, I watched as Chip and Psycho both formed up on either side of the churches main entrance, before smashing open the wooden doors to allow Closure and Ace entry and following behind them once Ace and Closure both called clear on first entry.

Listening to the comms and each room of the building was cleared, I made myself busy by scanning the entire area for mov...

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH