(It's a quiet day in New York's central park as I walk alongside Sergeant Julian "Malochio" Forte. His gait is that of a predator, one accustomed to gazing at heads through a scope.)
"It's rumored that the first thing Major Zhang said to an X-Com team was how killing Sectoids was just like killing a man. He was right. Sight, breathe, shoot. Sight, breathe, shoot."
(He snaps out a quick rhythm with his fingers.)
"Operation Clipped Crow seemed screwed from the start, a Raven flight had downed a larger UFO, what we would later call a Large Scout, in the Absaroka Range, Wyoming. My squad was tapped to go and scout by ourselves as a few of the Skyrangers had maintenance issues. We got there quickly and my spotter and I found a small outcropping roughly 100 yards away to set up on while the rest of the squad went to go look at the UFO."
"That's when things went to hell. A small roar started to echo as a flight of 4 Floaters strafed the squad as they rushed towards the UFO, nailing Smitsen in the back with a plasma burst. My spotter and I started shooting, forced to look at the horrifying mish mash that is a floater through a microscope. My heart sank when I heard Plasma fire inside the UFO, apparently the squad had rushed into the sights of a group of Sectoids, killing Blunt and Cage before they even knew they were there. It took a while but my buddy and I finally brought down the Floaters, they were very good at dodging and jinxing, rushing to see if the others were alive inside."
"Brackman and Mags had survived but Santos had been killed in the crossfire. One good thing came of it though, Meld. For the first time, we managed to recover some for the lab. Good thing too, otherwise Vahlen might have never come up with half of what we have today."
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I'm baack!