Sorry It's been so long since the last part. Got caught up with some stuff and didn't get around to writing anything until now. But, ironically, December is a month without a ton of stuff going on, so I should have more time to get more chapters out for you guys. Anyways. Enjoy the chapter.
Jenna sat opposite the other two. The Resistance guys had figured out where Mox was being held, so they were heading out to get him back. She was there for overwatch. Outrider and Guinea Pig would be sneaking into the building and grabbing Mox, she was to sit back at the Evac point, and keep the way clear. If things went right, Outrider would escort Guinea Pig in without being spotted, and Guinea Pig would be able to hack the locks without triggering the alarm, letting them just jump back onto the Avenger without a shot being fired. She kind of hoped something went wrong so she could put a bullet into an ADVENT.
The Avenger dropped down some distance from the facility, outside of its radar. Outrider and Guinea Pig headed off towards the facility in one direction, while she circled around to find a good position. While she snuck through the underbrush, she remembered Outriders initial reaction to her part in the plan.
"No way" Outrider had remarked "Sundqvist I understand. She's more skilled at hacking than I am. But we don't need a Sniper on a stealth mission, I can't escort so many people around"
"With respect, Elena, as skilled as anyone is, I always have a backup plan. Jenna is there to be support. If anything goes wrong, you'll be glad for her gun"
"She'll just get us caught"
"You... Do know how snipers work right?" Jenna interjected, her Scottish accent quite jarring to the room of Americans. "I worked as a Merc for 12 years. Most of my missions solo or in 2's or 3's, we had to take on far superior forces and did so with waiting until the right time to strike. Reaching a sniping position is what I do"
"And on that note" The Commander jumped in "You won't need to escort Jenna, she'll be a kind of separate group. She'll circle around and find a position to cover your evac while you get Molly in"
"Fine. Let's just get to it"
McDermot climbed up the tower, finding the ADVENT soldier in there, getting up behind them, and shoving her blade into the neck joint with her hand over the mouth part of the helmet to help muffle the noises more. She lowered the body to the floor slowly and removed the helmet. This one was female, it was almost impossible to tell with the armor on, and difficult even with their face revealed, their facial structure quite different to humans, but she'd seen enough to be able to tell the differences.
The soldier was still alive, but her knife had gone through the vocal cords, making it impossible for them to do more than wheeze bubbles through her blood. She leaned down so their noses almost touched. "Take a good look at this face, bitch. It's the last thing you shall see" she then twisted the blade, severing more arteries and severing the spine. With her clean hand, she tapped her com "I'm in position, what's your status"
"We're coming up on the facility, try not to get us caught" Outrider replied.
"I know what I'm going" Jenna replied, and cut off the com before Outrider could reply.
"If they're just getting here, I've got some time" she looked down at the corpse in front of her, cleaned and sheathed her combat knife while taking out a small one, resembling a scalpel more than a knife, and set to her work.
"We're inside," Outrider said.
"I gotcha" Jenna replied, keeping her rifle at the ready if alarms started blaring.
"I'm at the controls. They've got some tight security. Any immediate troopers if any alarms go off?" Molly's slight Swedish accent came through.
"A couple patrolling. One's been going back and forth in a line between you and the evac, and one other that will start patrolling away in a moment. Just give it a moment. Alright, other ones far enough, try and hack it. I've got the other guy in my sights"
"Jävla skit!" Molly cursed as an alarm started blaring "I forgot to check for a physical alarm!"
Jenna took the shot she'd been lining up, and the Trooper's brains decorated a lamp post. Other troopers were sure to be coming as quickly as they could "Way's clear, get to the evac" They'd set things up so Molly's hack would alert Firebrand, who'd been circling. She'd be there in seconds.
Elena came out of the building first, keeping her Vektor rifle ready, she was followed quickly by Molly carrying a body. Jenna hoped he was just unconscious or they went through a lot to do a proper burial. Elena and Molly reached the evac before any Troopers arrived. Jenna popped off one shot at a Sergeant running towards them, she didn't have a good shot, but the shot clipped the soldier's shoulder and drove him to dive for cover, buying her a few seconds to dive out of the tower. She rolled as she landed, keeping her momentum going, letting her armor absorb the worst of the impact, and using the rest to launch herself off at a full running pace. She grabbed a rope, and it was immediately pulled up. A single shot flying several feet below her foot as she was yanked into the Skyranger.
Mox was lying in the middle of the aisle, Elena and Molly already strapped in. Jenna jumped into a seat. "Is he alive?"
Molly nodded "He's breathing. But I'm no doctor, he could just be unconscious, he could be drugged, could even be in a coma. Tygan will have to have a look at him"
"Let's just hope they didn't get too much out of him," Jenna said, looking at his very scarred form
"He's very strong-willed, and wasn't with them for long, I doubt they even got his name" Outrider replied, a bit quicker than Jenna would have expected.
"Yeah, and he never actually got on the Avenger, so, aside from some names that wouldn't really be helpful to ADVENT, about all he could tell them about would be the Skirmishers" Jenna surmised
It was hard to tell since Outrider was still wearing her mask, but Jenna was pretty sure Outrider was speaking through gritted teeth "That would still harm our cause, the Skirmishers are our allies now"
"No need to get pissy Elena. I'm just saying" Jenna smiled and sat back in her seat.
The Sergent stepped cautiously into the Shadowwitch's meditation chamber. They were very nervous about their task. Bad news was not something that anyone enjoyed hearing.
They spoke in the barking language of ADVENT. "Mistress Dessurik. I apologize for interrupting your meditation, but I have news"
"Make it quick" the Chosen hissed back, not turning from her crosslegged stance facing away from the door.
"The prisoner has escaped"
"Which prisoner"
"The traitor, Pratal Mox"
Kon-Hur stood, elegantly standing without using her arms, and turned to face the Trooper, the scar on her cheek still fresh from healing. "What!?"
"We believe some XCOM operatives infiltrated the facility. The alarm sounded, and an aircraft was detected but left before anyone got a visual on it. 2 Troopers were-"
Before the Trooper finished, The Chosen had crossed the gap between them, faster than the eye could blink, her blade was to their throat.
"So, you're telling me that you failed in your one duty"
"I- I did get visual on one of the insurgents"
"Well. Get on with it"
"A human, female I believe. In one of our watchtowers. I was running over to attempt to stop any prison escape, and a shot struck my side, forcing me to take cover. I managed to look up in time to see the same figure climbing into an aircraft"
"So you did get a visual"
"Pardon"
Kon-Hur's eyes blazed with rage "You told me no-one got a visual on the aircraft"
"I-I-"
"What did the craft look like"
"It-It matched our other descriptions of the craft known by the XCOM insurgency as 'Skyranger'"
"Anything else of use you can tell me?" The Chosen hissed through her teeth
"One of the Troopers that was killed was found to have symbols carved into their head"
"What kind of symbols"
"I ordered to have them analyzed, but there hasn't been anything found matching them yet"
"Useless" She pushed her blade through, decapitating the soldier in one motion "Failure is not tolerated. Someone more capable will replace this failure"
"Indeed it is not" a voice spoke into her head. She recognized it immediately as one of the elders, but they'd never contacted her so directly before
"And yet, you have failed us twice already. You were supposed to prevent the Co-Ordinator being released. You failed. You were supposed to see to the failure of the alliance between the Insurgent factions, but your actions only strengthened it. The others have not failed us as you have"
"But they also do not have my list of successes, Elders. Neither of the others have uncovered as much of their inner workings as I have. Ref-Mai could not discover as much as I have"
"But Ref-Mai serves us loyally, with no sign of disrespect or failure. But we are unsure if you serve as faithfully"
"I have done nothing but serve you faithfully all these years"
"Perhaps"
The voice faded.
Kon-Hur returned to her meditation. She had more to think on now than normally.
Tania and Lance sat awkwardly on one side of the Skyranger. Their new 'friend' sitting opposite them. She was to be the liaison between XCOM and the Templars. She hadn't spoken much, hadn't even removed her helmet yet. She wore the same armor as the other Templars, a lot lighter than the XCOM armor. But while most of the others had bare skin showing through in some places, mostly the joints, showing purple veins, this one had fabric covering the joints. Her armor was also yellow with black detail, while most had black or other dark colors as their primary color.
"Um, excuse me" Tania ventured. The Helmet turned towards her "I don't think I caught your name"
"Dancing Fox" The voice was distorted, sounded like it was coming out of coms rather than spoken from 2 feet away.
"No, I mean, your actual name, not your codename"
"That is my real name"
"Oh"
"Could you take your helmet off?" Lance asked "It's really awkward talking to a sheet of metal"
There was a moment of silence before Dancing Fox replied "Very well" and she removed her helmet
She had dark skin, with tattoo's covering most of her face, a strange design, swirling and angular, clearly some kind of tribal design, but Tania wasn't exactly an expert on tattoo styles. Her hair was a Pixie cut, and stark white and her eyes were purple. The strange coloring of hair and eyes very common among the Templars, apparently being some side effect of Psionic usage. She also had a small scar on her lip.
"Honestly, not what I was expecting," Lance said admiringly
"What do you mean?" Dancing Fox asked, now that her voice wasn't coming over some kind of internal Com in her helmet, she clearly had a Canadian Accent.
"You're a lot cuter than I thought you'd be" Lance smiled. Tania elbowed him in the gut, making him double over.
"I'm sorry if it's disrespectful or something, but might I ask about your tattoo's," Tania asked, trying to move the conversation from Lance's outburst.
Dancing Fox smiled and leaned forwards slightly "The tattoos have quite a few meanings. Kind of a marking of coming of age. When a woman reaches adulthood, we receive a tattoo to commemorate it. It's also a symbol of strength and endurance"
Tania saw pretty clearly that Dancing Fox was enjoying talking about this, and guessed that not a lot of people bothered to ask about them.
"Would the number and size of them then indicate greater endurance"
"Sometimes. There's also a measure of spiritual meaning to them. Receiving a tattoo a kind of ritual cleansing"
"Do you have any others?"
"Quite a few. I can show you them later if you're interested, but removing more than the helmet is a bit of a pain"
"Wait. Are you an Inuit?" Lance blurted out. Tania again elbowing him.
Dancing Fox smiled "You don't need to elbow him for being curious, Tania, was it"
"That's right, he's Hunter by the way, but everyone calls him Lance. I was just worried he was being disrespectful"
She tilted her head to the side a bit "Seeking enlightenment is never disrespectful. But yes, you are correct, Lance, i was a part of an Inuit tribe"
"Was?" Tania asked
"ADVENT has not been kind to those who prefer to live outside of cities. The Templars rescued me from an attack on my community"
"I'm so sorry to hear that"
"I'm sure we've all lost something to ADVENT. It's why we fight"
Tania nodded, remembering her Husband "Indeed we have"
"I thought that whole 'named after the first thing the parents see' thing was a myth," Lance said
"Very few tribes did it. Very few in my tribe did it. My father was something of a traditionalist"
"You ever considered using a more, normal, name"
"No"
"To the point"
"Dancing Fox is my name, why would I change it"
"I just meant- Nevermind"
"May I ask why you are the one that was chosen to be the Liason between XCOM and the Templars?" Tania asked, again trying to cover up Lance shoving his foot in his mouth
"Well. I'm one of the best fighters among the Templars. Only Geist can defeat me in a one-on-one duel. I'm also one of the most adherent to the Templar code, so the best to show our ways to your people"
"What are these ways"
"More than I can share in a few hours. They take years of study and meditation to understand, and a lifetime to master. They describe how one should live their life and handle difficult situations. The code guides my actions. Watch me, and you will learn much about how we operate"
Dancing Fox sat in her room on the avenger. She'd arrived a few hours ago. The Commander was not what she'd expected, but apparently, everyone thinks that when they meet him. She'd spent some time exploring the ship to get her bearings and had then retired to her room. The drone of the engines was hard to block out, a constant thrumming that rattled her teeth. She knelt on a matt she had placed in her room and closed her eyes. A number of wooden figurines rising from the ground and floating around her head, surrounded in a purple energy. She focused on this psionic energy, allowing it to flow through her, to take with it any uncomfortable feelings or thoughts, allowing her to empty her mind and zone out the droning of the engines.
She saw flashes of light dancing across her eyes. A vision she'd seen often. A vampire with purple eyes and white hair powerful psionic user, the most powerful living Psionic human, more powerful than even an Eldar in sheer Psychic might, but not knowing this, his powers untempered and wild, consuming him, placing him in a slumber. But there were others. A Valkyrie from Old Norse Mythology, helping to raise him from his slumber. And another, a small yellow-furred fox, helping the vampire to control this power, teaching him control.
She'd seen this vision almost every night. She was the fox, she knew that much, but the Vampire and Valkyrie she had yet to meet, but knew that the day would come, and they'd be vital to ending the threat of the Elders to humanity.
She opened her eyes, but a lingering trace of psionic energy remained, and she looked towards the door that had been opened while she was meditating, the image of the Valkyrie remaining as an after-image on her eyes as she looked to the person that had intruded into her room, and saw a shorter woman, with short undercut hair, one side of her face scarred with burns, piercing orange eyes, and tribal tattoos on her arms.
"You must be the Valkyrie" Dancing Fox spoke as she stood.