Chapter Three: Touchdown
7th of April 2115
Gagarin Cluster
Planet Aurora
Two days. It has been two days since the mysterious attack. XCOM soldiers were sweeping the jungle top to bottom, but to little effect so far… well to no effect truth be told. Gloria led her squad through a jungle to the observation point on a cliff.
"Core temperature slightly above average". A little robotic voice said. Hover SHIV acting as temporary replacement for McCain until they could get some more boots on the ground.
"Do we really need to bring it with us?" Asked Daniels. "This voice is kind of creepy."
"I didn't really asked for it either." Gloria said. "But the truth is we need some extra firepower, so just bear with it for a while."
"We're here people." The sound of Martinez's voice cut the talk short. As they exited the thick jungle, they found themselves on a cliff overlooking the entire valley down below. The valley was huge, lush with trees and cut in half by a river. It was a sunny day without a single cloud in sight.
"Wow. Now that's a view." Said Elizabeth.
"Pretty as a painting indeed… alright people, 5 minutes and we're moving out." Gloria raised her comm. "Overlord, this is Coyote 1. We've reached OP Yankee. Over."
Glorias comm crackled giving nothing but static.
"That's strange. Everybody be on alert." She said as she attempted to raise the command again. "Overlord, this is Coyote 1. We've reached OP Yankee. Over."
Second try was just as successful as the first one.
"I'm going to try and contact their PSI comm guy." Gloria said as she closed her eyes and attempted to reach her target back at the camp. She built a visual layer around herself, an old phone on a coffee table. She picked up the receiver and punched in the number. After a brief moment the third signal passed and she spoke with her inner voice. "Hallo? Can you hear me Powell? This is Gloria, call sign Coyote 1-1. We're at OP Yankee, but I can't raise anyone, what is happening? Over."
"Gloria? This is Powell I can hear you. We have no idea, the comms just went dark. Hell not only comms, we've lost our scanners and we can't even raise Vigilance. We're blind. Hold position and wait for further instructions. Over."
"Solid copy Powell. Coyote 1 out."
As Gloria put down the receiver the world around her changed – the phone was gone, coffee table was gone, the darkness around her was gone. She came back to the real world and immediately spotted that something is off, something has changed. The cliff she was standing on was covered in shadow.
"My God… - O'Brien managed to say just that."
"Oh shit!" Gloria looked up and saw what there was to see. And she knew that there is no need for words right now.
The bridge of Vigilance was quiet. Captain sitting in his chair, pilots and navigators doing their jobs. However the silence shattered in a mere seconds.
"We have unidentified contact coming out of FTL speed… looks like a cruiser… it's not broadcasting ID signal." One of the navigators reported.
"Hail him! This is Ernest Vauclair, Captain of XSS Vigilance. This area is restricted, ID yourself or you will face the consequences."
Silence. Nothing came out of the ship.
"Captain! We just lost contact with our forces on the planet. I can't raise anyone down there."
"What the hell is going on in here?! Unidentified ship! ID yourself or we will use lethal force!"
"The cruiser changed course… on interception trajectory, I'm detecting massive energy build up… looks like he's powering up his weapons." The navigator continued.
"Fine! You asked for this!" Captain said as he cut connection with the mysterious ship and spoke to an intercom. "Everyone to the battle stations. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill."
"Laser batteries ready sir! Shields are operating at 100% capacity… cruiser is opening fire!"
"Steady!"
Realization came crashing down on them like a wrecking ball. The moment the orange beam hit their shields they understood. The captain, pilots, navigators… the entire crew understood. But it was too late. Impact came shaking the entire ship knocking people off their feet. The ship's captain was the first back on his feet.
"Damage report!"
"They broke our shields!" One of the navigators said, her voice filled with panic. "We have fires on a crew deck! Decompression in the cargo hold! Half of the systems is offline!"
"Full force forward! Open fire!"
The Vigilance's retaliation salvo aimed true hitting the cruiser. As the beams hit the hull of enemy's ship, captain's display was flooded with status reports. Suddenly the voice of ship's AI cut in.
"Warning. Catastrophic damage in: Crew Deck. Loss of atmosphere in: Crew Deck, Cargo Hold. Hull integrity at 75%."
Another salvo form the cruiser came hitting its mark. Another shot, another shock.
"Warning. Loss of atmosphere in: Crew Deck, Cargo Hold, Engine Room. Sensors in Engine Room inaccessible. Engines failing. Hull integrity at 47%. Evacuation recommended."
Ernest Vauclair took a long breath before speaking to the intercom.
"This is captain. Abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship. Everyone who values his life into the escape pods now! Get the wounded off the ship first. It was an honor serving with you… Captain out." He looked at one of his pilots and said. "Dominique, get to the pods."
"While you do what?! Go down with the ship?!"
"In a manner of speaking." He placed a hand on Dominique's shoulder. "Go! Someone has to take care of these people… besides they took out half of our pods, there's simply not enough room for everyone." Though the situation was dire the captain's voice was calm. Dominique looked at the captain's eyes and saw it. Acceptation. Then she understood. Captain knew he won't walk out of here alive. He already made his decision.
"I'll see you on the ground, sir." She said, as she left her chair and disappeared into a corridor.
"I hope so girl… I sure hope so. AI, initiate override. Manual flight controls… let's see if I still have it in me."
Vigilance began its descend. Its final flight. Holo displays were all filled with various warnings, but captain paid no attention to them. Not anymore.
"Warning. Current speed is above recommended value for orbital descend. Reduction of speed is recommended." Ship's AI continued her tirade. Pointlessly, relentlessly as the ship continued its fiery descend. "Warning. Atmosphere reached, catastrophic heat levels detected…"
"Brace for impact!" Captain Ernest Vauclair shouted into the intercom in the last, desperate effort.
Shock and awe. Two words that precisely summed up Gloria's feelings right now. Watching as Vigilance comes down in flames right before her very eyes. She snapped form it just in time.
"Hit the deck!" She shouted, as she fell to the ground, her teammates did the same. Shockwave came just a few seconds later. Trees were breaking like the matches, some of them even went flying. Thunderous sound filled the air. When the air cleared, once beautiful landscape had a new element.
"Everyone OK?" Gloria asked as she brought herself from the ground.
"I'm OK!" Daniels reported.
"The hell just happened lads?" O'Brien asked.
"I'm getting too old for this." Martinez said.
Gloria surveyed the landscape once again. This time it was way more fiery with a enormous wreckage of vigilance in the middle of the valley. Then she saw it, as did others. About a dozen of ships flew over their heads heading towards the crash site. All similar in design – circular shapes of various sizes. Gloria immediately established connection with Powell. This time there was no phone on a coffee table, no time for visualization, just crude, direct connection.
"Powell, this is Van Doorn. Vigilance just hit the ground! Multiple air contacts converging on its location! I'm moving in to secure the crash site! Requesting reinforcements! Van Doorn out!" She cut the connection without waiting on Powell's response. "Alright people we have to get to the crash site and locate the survivors before they do! Double time!"
"I don't understand what the fuss is about."
"Commander Van Doorn." The image of a poorly lit bald man filled the holographic display in commander's office. "You should have informed us about relocation of XCOM's fleet. You know how much Council dislikes being out of the loop."
"We're not talking about relocation of an entire fleet, I just felt that Drakken will be more useful somewhere else. You put me in charge of this project, so you could at least show a little bit of trust."
"The Council never doubt your judgment. Your motives are a subject of our concern."
"My motives?" Ian asked as he took another drag from his cigar. "I'm not sure if I follow."
"Please commander. We both now that the only reason you send that frigate to Gagarin Cluster was your daughter."
"Now that's just…"
Ian's response was interrupted by Mei's intrusion into his office.
"Commander, we have a problem!"
"Can't this wait Mei? Can't you see am in the middle of an important conversation?" Ian said pointing on his display.
" No!" The Asian's voice was demanding. "We've just lost contact with the Gagarin Cluster! Vigilance and Base Camp are not responding!"
"How long before Drakken arrives on site?"
"An hour, maybe two."
"Still think that's just about my daughter?" Commander asked Council's spokesman.
Jungle was never an easy environment to fight into. But now Aurora's jungle looked like a victim of angry typhoon. Trees broken like matches… and some of these matches were on fire.
"Come on people! We're almost there." Gloria shouted as her team made its way through labyrinth of broken trees and walls of fire. The air contact they sighted from the cliff left shortly afterwards. Vigilance's wreckage was now towering over them. Seems like it survived the impact much better than Gloria expected.
"The fire is spreading!" Martinez said. "We have to move fast or it'll catch us!"
Then a defiant roar pierced the air. Something angry. Very angry.
"What the hell was that?!" Daniels asked as he jumped over another log. Despite the fact that he was carrying the biggest gun in the team, he had no trouble keeping up the pace.
The smoke surrounding the crash site cleared a bit and they saw what was happening. They saw a literal lightshow. Bursts of green energy going towards the wreckage and unmistakable sounds of gauss rifle fire. Whoever was firing that rifle was fighting for his life.
As they got closer four large figures emerged from the smoke. Four big chunks of meat locked in green armor. They were carrying plasma rifles and keep shooting at defenders cowering behind chunks of scrap metal and broken trees. They never saw Gloria and her team coming.
It was over within seconds. Gloria and her team struck true. Martinez charged one while it was changing a power cell. It saw him, but Martinez already jumped towards it with his alloy blade raised. Daniels unloaded the autolaser's power cell into creatures back letting his six-barreled killing machine do its job. Gloria and Elizabeth tagged the other one. The last creature managed to turn around just in time to catch a butt of Martinez's scatter laser and some laser beams to the face. "Cease fire! Friendlies coming in!"
"Finally! Took your sweet bloody time, haven't you?"
As Gloria brought her team to defenders stations they saw how bad the situation must have been. A blonde woman in gray jumpsuit and two guys that barely knew how to hold a gun. The woman seemed to have been calling the shots.
"Are you ok? Who's in charge here?" Gloria asked in hope of getting some semblance of order into this chaos.
"That would be me." Blonde woman said. "Lieutenant Annika Hansen. And yeah I'm ok. A few scrapes and burns, and I think I broke a rib during a crash... couple of them in fact."
"What the hell were those things?" One of the engineers asked.
"They wear green so they're probably Leprechauns, right Liz?" Daniels inquired with a joke. "If they're Leprechauns then where's the gold mate?" The Irish medic picked up a joke. "Are you crazy?" Engineer asked with a terrified expression on his face.
"Guys stop. Those engineers are terrified enough as it is." Gloria said. "But judging by their appearance I guess those are Mutons."
"Mutons? Back from the times of the Great Conflict? But that would mean… that the xenos are back. They destroyed our ship."
"Well it wasn't a Santa's sleigh for sure." Hansen said then turned to Gloria. "As for you, we could use some help."
"Whatever you say LT."
"I need to get to the armory. We managed to hold them off, even if just barely. But we can't let them take control of the armory."
"Lead the way ma'am."
"Hey! You can't just leave us here!" One of the engineers yelled as Gloria and her squad prepared to move. "What if these things come back?"
Gloria looked at her team and then back at the engineers.
"You know how to operate a SHIV?"
"SHIV?"
"Super Heavy Infantry Vehicle? You know, that little hovering drone with a big laser gun mounted on it?" Daniels said pointing at the hover SHIV that managed to finally catch up with them. "You know how to handle it right?"
"Yeah, yeah I know how to operate it."
"Then take it." Gloria tapped a few times on her PDA transferring drone's control to the engineers. "Alright LT, which way to the armory?"
"Follow me."