Sorry, it's been so long since the last chapter. Couple things come up and this slips my mind so I forgot I need to write a thing for a few months, or rather, I remember, at 11 at night when I'm going to bed and already turned my computer off.
This Is not a proper chapter of the story. Kind of like a prequel thing, giving a bit of backstory to how the people found/were found by XCOM, and a thing from the photobooth of the game to show what they look like (If you prefer how you've been imagining them, keep with that, this is just how XCOM made them)
I also had a weird tech thing. Apparently, XCOM deleted Tania. Everything else was fine but Tania was not in the barracks. There's no one on the memorial so she didn't die in a mission that I forgot about or anything, there are no captured soldiers, and I know she was in the game since I've got her in chapters already, I have no idea what happened, but thankfully all I needed to do was recruit a random soldier and re-make her.
I did intend to have a picture of all the soldiers from the Photobooth. But for some reason, it won't let me put pictures into these, then I intended to put it as the thumbnail thing for the story, but it kept cutting off the side of it, so eventually decided to make a Deviantart and upload it on that, just because DeviantArt is the first place I thought of where I could upload a public picture.
skalathrax2/art/The-Final-Journey-Soldiers-786310804?ga_submit_new=10%3A1550579098
If you want to have a look, feel free to, and if you don't like how they look in the thing, that's fine, continue imagining them the same way you were before.
I'd also like to apologise for how wonky it is, but i only have Paint, and that was the best i could do without spending several hours getting them perfect, or uploading them all individually, which would take a long ass time and would just not be worth it.
Hiroyo 'Psycho' Saito
Hiroyo sat behind the wheel of the truck. A great APC they'd grabbed from somewhere or other a while ago. She flicked some of her hair out of her face, damn she needed to get this cut but she'd been out here for a few weeks and it had gotten annoyingly long. Sure she could just take a knife to it, but she kind of liked her hair. She looked around the truck and found a bandana lying on the seat next to her, figured why not, and tied it around her head to keep the hair off.
She stretched out as well as she could, which was not very well, and cracked her knuckles, cracked them too hard and now her hands hurt. "Oh for the love of, ow, why do I do that".
She checked her watch "Oh for the - Fuuuuck"
She jammed her foot on the accelerator. Taking corners as fast as possible without tipping over.
She made it to the intercept point in time, barely, and had no time to think as she barreled headlong towards the convoy she was intercepting.
She had just enough time before the impact to realize she'd forgotten to strap into the seat before her face was smashed by an airbag and everything went black
Psycho opened her eyes. Nothing hurt. She wasn't sure if that was good or really bad. Then she noticed her arm facing the wrong direction and suddenly the pain hit. "Ow" she grunted and looked around.
Somehow, she wasn't upside down, which was a good thing, and nothing seemed to be on fire. She kicked the door and it opened easily. Her foot hurt like fuck from doing it and she realized she probably should have just tried opening it first.
She climbed out, and saw the destruction, smiling to herself. Not bad.
The main escort vehicle had been absolutely wrecked. Apparently, the APC managed to go straight through it before colliding with a tree. The bus with the prisoners hadn't been hit, but the spray of orange on the windscreen meant the sniper had been on time at least.
She walked over and found that she must have only have been out for a couple seconds. The people hadn't gotten over the shock and figured to run yet.
She stepped onto the bus "Alright ya feks. I'm here to help ya. Can anyone drive? I would but my arms a bit fucked right now so i could use the extra hand"
A bald man near the front tentatively raised his hand and she dug the device out of her pocket, thankfully the thing was as tough as she was, it looked like a calculator that had vomited up some electronics. She hit the button and the manacles on the man detached, freeing him, and the device grew insanely hot in about half a second, forcing her to drop it.
"Sorry, one-use thing. The rest of you'll be done when we get back to HQ. Just sit tight and enjoy the ride"
She turned to the man "Well, get on the wheel, I'll direct you"
Hiroyo stepped off the bus, and breathed in the air of HQ. Ah, the glorious smell of burning tires and unwashed masses never gets old. She located what passed for the hospital in the ramshackle construction of crates and wooden logs that made up HQ and approached, halfway there a man stepped out in front of her. An older looking man, she'd guess somewhere in his fifties. Short cut brown hair, and about a week and a half's growth of beard.
"Yeah, what's up?" She asked as he got in her way.
"I'm Central Officer Bradford"
Lihong 'Chef' Li
Lihong stepped off of set in a huff. SHUT DOWN! Him. THE Lihong Li, shut down after 3 seasons. How dare they. Don't they know who he is!? Unwanted they'd said. "Nobody wants to watch cooking shows, we're going to show another speech from the Speaker"
He'd kick something if he didn't want to ruin his shoes. He checked that he hadn't messed up his hair during his anger. Everything was fine. Wait. No it wasn't. He'd been shut down. What would he do now? He'd have to go back to being a regular chef. He shuddered at the thought. At least he had enough saved for a couple months. Right now, he just needed to get home and check on Ryan.
He arrived home to find the house empty. Oh, that's right. Ryan was going to one of those clinic things. Hopefully, he'd be back soon.
3 days of no responses later, Lihong had had enough. First, they cancel his show, then, his son goes to a clinic and doesn't come back. The officials were telling him something about intensive care and he wouldn't be back, ever, but wouldn't go into details.
Do they not know who he is!? No, of course, they know who he is, he shouted it at them enough times, so many times that they threatened to sick one of those troopers with the shock swords on him.
He'd been about to go and kick in the door of that clinic and demand some answers when a pamphlet was slid under his door.
Something about kicking the aliens off their world and getting answers. It said that those clinics were traps to send people off to some experiment, and he believed it. He'd had some bags packed and got in his car to find this 'Resistance'. If he had to fight, so be it. He was good with a cleaver in more ways than one.
Lily Thompson
Lilly crouched next to her father, "Are you sure about this?" she asked for the hundredth time, gripping her rifle tight.
"Nope. But someone's gotta do it" he smiled at her "Don't worry Lilly, we've done this before haven't we?"
"And you lost a finger last time"
"Bah, finger shminger, it wasn't the one that pulls the trigger"
"But what if-"
"Lilly. We can sit here and debate what if's all day. Or we can nut up and do it" he laid a hand on her shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes "This is our world, Lilly. Not theirs" he stood up and stretched his back, winked "Afterall, it's better to do the thing" he left it in the air
Lilly sighed "Than live in fear of it"
"There ya go. Now, just keep a good hold of that rifle, and don't go hitting me in the back will ya?" he chuckled, and snuck further through the undergrowth towards where the ADVENT soldiers would be coming through.
Her father was in her arms. She had a cloth held to his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. There was too much. She didn't know what to do. She needed to get the bullet out, but there was too much blood. She'd lost her med-kit somewhere in that chaos and didn't have anything on her. If she tried to find it... She didn't know if he'd make it.
"Lilly-"
"Shh, don't talk, save your strength"
"We both know that save your strength thing is bullshit. And we both know there's no healing this"
"Don't say that. I can-"
"Lilly. The bullet hit my heart. Not a direct hit, but it hit it. You'd need a team of surgeons, and even then it'd be 50/50. So, you damn well listen to what I have to say here"
She nodded, holding back her tears.
"There's a group. XCOM they call themselves. Came to me a bit ago, asked me to join. Was gonna go see them after this" he reached into his breast pocket and took out what looked like a coin, a small round piece of metal with 'Vigilo Confido' stamped on it, he looked at it "Too bad the pocket was on the wrong side, eh"
He slid the coin into her pocket "You take that, and you head north, directly north of here, about 2 days, there's a small town of ramshackle buildings. Ask for Den Mother, show them that coin"
His head fell back and he coughed "Ah, fuck, whoo, getting woozy. Never forget Lilly. This is our world. Do whatever you can. Get these fucks off our-"
His head slumped and he went limp.
She cried over him for a long time. She had no idea how long. But eventually she stopped, and she dug a hole and put him in it. No markers, wouldn't want ADVENT getting any ideas. But she made sure to take as best a mental picture of the area as she could. No matter how long it took, she'd get ADVENT off of earth, then she'd come back, and make sure he was buried as he should be, somewhere that heroes go. She knew it was a stupid idea. He would slap her upside the head and tell her not to bother. His bones don't care what hole they lie in, but she owed him that much at least.
She took the coin out of her pocket. A small stamp of iron, stained red with her father's blood. Vigilo Confido. She didn't know Latin, but she figured it probably meant something like "Vigilance, Confidence". Whatever it meant, it meant XCOM. Her father had wanted her to go to them, so she would. She'd make ADVENT pay for what they'd done. "This is our world," she said to the forest and began the long trudge north.
Molly 'Guinea Pig' Sundqvist
Molly sat in front of the radar dish. The thing was practically an antique. Hadn't worked in 10 years. But they needed the extra range it'd give, so here she was. She looked through her kit. She felt like she was forgetting something, but everything was there. No doubt she'd come across something and realize what it was, but that'd be a problem for later.
Right now, she had to figure out how to fix this piece of shit. They'd told her to bring someone else with her for security and an extra hand if she needed it, but other people tended to just get in her way, and she preferred to be alone most of the time anyway.
She stepped back from the dish. Tried to wipe some of the grease off her face, only succeeded in spreading it around. Of course, she'd forgotten to bring a cloth. She figured it was better than forgetting a tool she needed for it, so she'd just have to deal with it until she got back.
Not the worst thing that wouldn't get off her face.
She froze. The clank came again. Something on the other side of the radar. She'd not heard any animals around, and ADVENT weren't exactly known for being subtle. A scavenger then. Someone come by to strip it for parts. They weren't very hard to scare off, just wave a weapon and they normally get the message and run off.
She took out her pistol and started moving carefully around the dish.
The Scavenger was a woman. She currently had her head inside part of the disk but was wearing some kind of armour, probably Kevlar since it looked like bulky fabric, and there was a small robot floating behind her. She crept closer. The stuff looked new, or at least well maintained, so if this was a scavenger, it was recent. Maybe she was with another resistance cell. In which case things could be amicable here… Hopefully.
She crept closer and the woman shifted around in the innards of the radar. Molly froze worried she'd heard her, but the woman stayed in the radar. She gritted her teeth and looked nervously at the robot. She'd not seen anything like it before, it could be looking right at her and she wouldn't know. She looked back to the woman and continued onwards. Damn, she had a nice ass.
She shook her head, not the time for that.
The woman in the radar shifted a bit and spoke, "I'm not here to steal anything, just looking"
Molly froze, and the woman clambered out of the innards of the radar. She seemed to be of Asian descent, with black hair in a bob cut. Molly found herself at a loss for words and had to stop herself from furiously blushing for some reason.
The woman approached and held out a hand to shake "I'm Lilly. Lilly Shen"
Jenna McDermot
The world spun around in a pleasing way. Jenna tapped the bottle, trying to get the last few drops out before placing it on the table quite a bit harder than necessary before leaning back in her seat and looking around the grungy dive bar. She couldn't see much, wouldn't be able to even if it was sober, a lot of smoke in the air, but it certainly seemed a lot more pleasant now than when she arrived.
Damn, she was bored.
She'd been bored for 18 years. Since those aliens came in, nobody hired mercs any more, and shooting things was about all she could do. Couple resistance cells had hired her for one thing or another a few times, but nothing that lasted.
A figure walked towards her out of the smoke. Silhouetted by the dim lighting. She looked up at him " Yeah, wuss up" at least, that's what she intended to say, she had no idea how it actually came out, probably just a jumble of vowels.
"You are a soldier of fortune correct" he had a deep voice. He sounded like he'd be good at voicing movie trailers.
"Yea, I work for money. Ya got a job?"
"I have little money, but I can offer you a place to see, alcohol, and something to do beyond sit in a bar and drink with stolen money"
She had to admit, she was off her face right now, but she was a very practiced drunk "Well, that sounds lovely, but I've had people try to fuck me before, and not in the fun way. Imma need some coin up front"
"I cannot promise anything after this, but I do have this" he set a briefcase on the table, and opened it, revealing several stacks, small bills, but still a decent amount.
"Alright, for that, I'll check it out. Who'll I be fighting?"
"ADVENT. You won't need to hold back, and I assure you the people will be, tolerant, of your, habits, in battle"
"Sounds great, let's get going" She managed to not fall over as she got up "Long as you can keep me busy and give me things to shoot, I think we'll get along well"
Savvina Tombras
She sat in her room. XCOM was coming to pick her up soon. Best of the best they said, and they'd picked her. A good chance to take the fight to the aliens, probably the best she could get.
She picked up the picture on her table and took a breath. Put the picture in her bag. She'd been told only to pack what was absolutely necessary. A reason to fight certainly qualified to her.
She took the photo back out and looked at it again. Then again, her father had always said that a far better way to mourn is not to be sad that the life ended, but to celebrate what they did in life. She always tried. She felt a slight smile tug at her lips, remembering the silly things they got up to.
Her first day of school when her father had insisted they bike to school, even though it was a heat wave. When he'd done the same with her brothers. When she'd dragged them all to the self-defense classes. How her father had been floored a few seconds in after bragging and the teacher calling him out on it. When Vale had brought his first girlfriend over, and she'd gotten along really well with her father's stupid cooking antics. When Rab came out and none of them even looked up from what they were doing, just nodded said they'd expected for a while.
When ADVENT kicked in the door and dragged them all out. When they'd been thrown into separate trucks. When she was released, and waited by their house for a week.
She pulled herself out of the memories. No matter how hard she tried to focus on the good parts, the ending always came back. She shoved the picture into her pack and shrugged it on her back. They'd be there soon and she liked to make a good first impression.
Raul 'Soldier' Marquez
He shouldered his way through the underbrush. It was the third week of survival training. Never more than 3 hours of sleep, and barely any food, while doing rigorous exercises all day. But only a few had given up, and that had been within the first week. He knew the mindset of everyone there, it was his mindset. He'd not give up until he dropped then. Even then he'd keep going until they told him he could stop, even then push a bit longer just to make sure they meant it.
Survival training was tough as all fuck, but it was supposed to be. He was training to get these aliens off their world. XCOM had fallen, but that didn't mean they stopped fighting.
He smelled the smoke before he saw anything. He emerged from the trees to find what should have been their main HQ but was now little more than a charred ruin.
He could barely believe it. They'd all been left just a couple miles away and told to find it. It was their final task. He should have come back and been an official soldier, but now. He saw several figured moving through the ruins and took out his binoculars. Aliens. Well-armed, and his only weapon was a survival knife. It could cause some damage, but there were too many for him. Their guns exploded on death, so he couldn't even kill one for its gun.
He waited, keeping hidden for 4 hours, waiting to see if anyone else would show up. Only 3 others made it. He got them together with him. One had taken a bolt of plasma to the leg on the way there, seemed there were aliens patrolling. He could still walk thankfully. They all knew what they had to do. The main HQ was down, but they were alive and could keep up the fight. They were contingency plans, places to set up new bases just in case. They would go there.
Raul stood at attention. XCOM was back. Setting themselves back up, with a supped-up alien ship. They were recruiting the best of the best, and they'd picked him. Though he was sad to leave behind the cell that he'd spent 5 years setting up, and 15 years fighting for, he knew XCOM was the better way to do it. He could cause much more damage much faster with them than he could with the Resistance. He'd do all he could to ensure XCOM didn't fall again.
Andrea Sandoval
Andrea sat at the makeshift bar, absently chewing on a piece of wood, she looked at the man next to her "So, you've got this big elite group of guys to take on the aliens, and you want me?"
"That's right" the man was somehow silhouetted by a light behind him. No matter the angle she looked at him she couldn't see any details other than he was a large man (muscular, not fat) and he'd bald. He also had a very deep, announcer-type voice. "I've been told by everyone in the cell that you're a crack shot"
"I'm a good shot, wouldn't say I'm the best though, Charlie's got that down"
"We already have a sniper. I've also heard you have a very resistance personality"
She raised an eyebrow "What does that mean"
"You're able to crack jokes in even the most intense situation and keep things light"
"Well, you never quite lose the knack for comedy"
"You're just the kind of person we're after, good at fighting, and able to keep up with the stresses of being on call 24/7"
"You got a bar?"
"Naturally, run by Lihong Li. I believe you've heard of him"
"Oh, heck ya. I won't say no to a job with him cooking for me"
"Welcome aboard miss Sandoval"
"Thanks. What did you say your name was by the way?"
"I didn't" he got up and left the bar. Somehow remaining silhouetted the entire way.
"What a strange man. He'll be fun to work with"
"You talking about that dude or Li?" Charlie asked
"Either, both. This is gonna be fun" she looked to the bartender "Guess the next rounds on me"
Darius 'Grandpa' Green
"Darius Green, renowned soldier of fortune. Said there's no-one better at infiltration. Working for a resistance cell"
"What's you point Red?" Darius was getting tired of Red. An upstart newcomer, thought he was tough shit, and only cared about the payment. Pretty much how he was at that age.
"You used to be tough man. People'd pay through the nose to get you. Now you work for these Resistance guys, getting pennies and doing near impossible jobs. You could work for ADVENT, you know they pay good"
"I'm not into abducting helpless people from their beds"
"That's now what I heard. I heard back in the day you'd do that for fun"
"Well, people change"
"Bullshit and you know it"
"Maybe. But I'm trying"
He snorted at that "And what's this I hear about you joining XCOM? They paying well?"
"Nope. All they pay is a place to stay and food on the table"
"Holy fuck man, if jobs are that hard to come by, I can find you some"
"I could find paying work if I wanted"
"They why not man. You could be-"
"I know damn well what I could be. I was it for a long time. I'd do whatever paid best and I'd live in luxury. Like you do, boy"
"You could be again, despite your age, old ma-"
Before Red could even finish his though there was a blade pressed to his jugular
"You call me old one more time, I push. Got it"
Red smirked at him "I don't think you got the stones for it"
"I've taken out better men than you for less insult" never-the-less he pulled the knife back. "But I reckon anyone can change if they try. Why not come with me Red. You're insufferable, but you're a damn good soldier. It's why you got the name. It don't pay good, but they get you food, and shelter, and you'll be fighting ADVENT"
"I'm preferring fighting for them. Hey, maybe we'll meet in a fight and we can have this talk again" he stood and started walking out "Don't think I'll take it easy on ya just cuz you're old"
A knife embedded itself in his thigh as he stepped out of the door
"Mother fuck-" The door closed, cutting off his curses
"He does raise some good points" Yellow added, not mentioning Green's knife throw "When did you start doing jobs gratis?"
"When I reckoned, I've taken enough good out of the world. It's too late to try adding some good to it, so I'll settle with taking some bad out of it, maybe I'll be able to even things out when I get to judgment"
"You really believe in that shit?"
"Never used to. But you get to the age where you know it aint to far away, you start wondering what if. Anyway. You can have this round on me. You're a good man Yellow. I hope we don't end up fighting"
"I reckon if I see you coming, I'll go the other way"
"If I do my job right, you won't see me coming in time to run"
"Good point. Reckon I'll stay out of ADVENT's books then"
"I can't convince you to come with me can i"
"I'm for not dying. I'll not go with ADVENT since I know you're against them and I don't wanna cross you, but ADVENT is not someone you wanna cross. I wish you luck, but I stay out of politics"
"Luck then, Yellow"
"Luck, Green"
Tania Ferreira
"You know this clinic is my only chance Tan" He'd said. He'd said it many times. And she knew it was true. Cystic Fibrosis is not something you just get over. His doctors had given him 2 years, 5 if he was really lucky, this clinic was offering a full recovery. She didn't trust it, but Ross had always been a gambler, and she'd never been able to change his mind.
"Just, be careful. I don't trust these aliens"
He smiled "Neither do I. But you gotta take a chance every now and then. I'll be back tomorrow. Then we can get my hockey stuff back out eh"
2 weeks later, his name had appeared on the sedition roll. A known traitor put down. She knew it was bullshit. Ross hadn't been one to give 2 shits who was in charge. He certainly wasn't about to fight over who collected the taxes.
She sat at the desk with his old Hockey mask. She knew what she had to do. She'd always heard of a group of Resistance fighters somewhere out in the wild. She'd find them, make them accept her, and she'd take the fight to ADVENT. She added her art supplied to her pack. And she'd not sacrifice who she was to do it.
Hunter 'Lance' Daniels
He threw the first bottle. He was the one that started the riot. And damn it felt good. Right up until the shock blade hit him in the face.
Hunter came to handcuffed and in a cell. Things hadn't gone as planned.
Several weeks later, he was out and making some Molotov's. His next bottle would be more destructive
Wait. How'd he get in the cell this time?
This time he took a revolver from his old man
The Stunnie had a gun too… Fuck!
And, the Stunnie was being shot. And now he's passing out from that jab it got in earlier. And now he's being carried. Ah! Fuck! He was just stabbed in the leg. Oh, that's better. Now he feels like he needs to jump off some walls. Wait, who was it that was carrying him? He looked up as she removed the blood-stained hockey mask. "I'm Tania"
"Uh, I'm, LANCE" he noticed a Lancer running up behind her, pulled the gun out of her holster, and shot it 3 times in the chest before it went down.
Tania laughed "Well, Lance. You seem to be just what we're looking for"
Dancing Fox 'Bumblebee'
She sat in her meditation chamber, legs crossed, eyes closed, a light purple glow surrounding her. She opened her eyes, her body covered in a thin film of sweat despite the cool air. The same vision. She got it every now and then.
Every Psionic had an ability unique to them. So it was written. Geist himself could manipulate the psionic energies of others, preventing them from using their abilities, or enhancing them. It was said the first Psionic could see through even the weakest psionic energies, and see through solid objects at will.
Dancing Fox had the gift of foresight. She couldn't always control it, and when she did it lacked detail. But there were several events she had predicted and had grown to trust her visions. This one she'd had many times.
Her fate, it seemed was decided. She had come to accept it years ago. She would die when it was her time. She knew from experience there was no changing the vision. Everything you attempt to halt it only causes it to happen. No matter what she did, it would come to pass as she saw it. So, instead, she'd do what she could to bring it to pass.
XCOM would come, and she would go with them, as a liaison to the Templars, and as a soldier. And she would help bring an end to ADVENT, and she would die. Either before or after victory she couldn't tell. But she would die, and she would face it with a smile.
There was a knock at her door, and the two XCOM representatives came into her room. She placed her helmet on. So, it begins.