Sorry this one is quite a bit later than normal. I got a new computer, and had to re-install XCOM 2, re-make the people, and play a few missions to get to the point I was at. Thankfully though, this is a proper desktop gaming computer, so the game runs much better, no waiting 20 minutes per loading screen, and I'm hyped to continue this with the people. So the next parts should be coming out quicker now.
Blood Way. Maxim had woken and said that location, and 3 days. Aya had searched for any mention of that place for 2 days, and she eventually found it. She was wearing some ADVENT armour she had taken, she had cleaned the orange blood off first, and had gotten her way into one of the ADVENT HQ'S. Thankfully the armour belonged to an Officer, so all she had to do was look at anyone who questioned her presence, and they backed off, the armour was a bit too big for her, but that also worked in her advantage, as it allowed her to fit into it, without showing off her less masculine figure. She hadn't seen any female ADVENT soldiers, so the other's might question seeing one. But she got in with no interruption, and made her way to the planning room. She had come into many of these before, trying to figure out what the aliens were up to, after 20 years, she had figures out some of the basic's of the language, and could figure out the general gist of what the soldiers were saying, and what any writing's said, she could even bark at them and say basic things, usually the alien's version of 'Fuck off, I'm busy', and it worked, most of the time. This was one of the times it did work. She got into the planning room, which was empty, and she began looking through some files. It was difficult to see through the mask, as it didn't quite fit her properly, and she couldn't make head nor tails of how it worked anyway, but she didn't take it off, since one of the soldiers could walk through the door, and it would look much more suspicious if she had her helmet off. She searched through the stack, and eventually found 1 mention of 'Blood Way'. She didn't stop to read the file, but merely slipped it into the armour on her back, there was some slack, so it fit through just fine. She began walking out, but, just as she was about to open the door, it opened in front of her. She react5ed quickly, and immediately stood up straight, ready to either bark at them to let her pass, or salute if it was another Officer. It was the latter. Standing in front of her was an Officer, he was slightly taller than her, and there was something different about it's armour, it seemed thicker, tougher, as if he was some kind of Elite, or Higher ranked, but that didn't exist right, they just went to officer then the other aliens, at least what she'd seen. But behind the Officer, she saw 2 other Soldiers, their armour was sleek, form fitting, it looked like it wouldn't stand up to a hard slap, but she knew from experience that it was tougher even than the Officer's armour, their armour was black, with red lines going around it, the face plate was also black, with a red outline. She knew these soldiers, Stun Lancer was what the civilians called them. They each had a rifle mag-locked to their hip, and a sword-like device on their back. Officially their purpose is crow-control, equipped with non-lethal weaponry, they would be the one's that would break up riots, but they had long-since been devoted to other means. They were extremely loyal, even more so that the other troops, they cared nothing for their own safety, and would charge into a hail of fire to get their target, they were also very fast and agile, and surprisingly strong for their lithe figures. They made ideal Bodyguards. They were know used as either Bodyguards for high ranking officials, or deployed on small strike forces, much like X-COM used to do. If they were here, shit was about to hit the fan. She quickly gave a salute as the 3 came in, hoping they'd merely ignore here. They didn't. The Officer turned to her, and barked in the alien language. She still didn't understand the language entirely, but the general gist was "What are you doing here!?". She responded back "Making sure plans were correct", before adding a quick "Sir"
The Officer looked her over, she was really glad she had that file down her back know, no way he'd let her leave with it if she was carrying it. If it had just been the Officer, she could have just round-housed him to the face, and walked out, but she didn't like her chances against 2 Stun Lancers in a confined space, she was nothing if not logical. The Officer finished scrutinizing her, and looked straight in her face, he took a small step forward, they were basically touching helmets. After a few seconds, of Aya staying stock still while he breathed in her face, he took a step back and said "Go gather your unit, we're moving out in an hour".
She could have asked where to, but she would have been questioned further, so she merely nodded, saluted, and left. As she went out, she noticed something on the Officer's shoulder plate, it was a small symbol, and it took her a moment to recognize it, it was the old XCOM logo, but it had an alien head, made out of human skulls on top of it. She had never seen that before, but she devoted it to memory as she stepped out, as it seemed like it would be important.
The rest of her journey was uneventful, she got within a few blocks of her 'home', and stripped off the armour, dumping it in an alleyway, then made her way back, with the envelope now under her cloak.
She climbed down the ladder, and sat down, then took out the folder. There was a map, showing an area, which Aya recognised as a few miles out of the city. There was an area highlighted in a red circle. At the top of the file was written 'Operation Blood Way'. She scanned the rest of the article, and realized why Maxim has told her about it, She quickly tucked it back under the cloak, went into the 'bedroom', picked up Maxim, threw him over her shoulder, and made her way out. The Officer had said there were moving out in an hour, and she couldn't ride a bike with Maxim like this, and taking a car would be too difficult, and she'd get stuck in the traffic anyway. She had to run it. Thankfully, she was built for endurance. But she'd have to get out of the city first. A woman in a cloak, running past with an unconscious man would be too suspicious, if she walked, she could say her boyfriend was drunk, and she was taking him home. She'd done that before when she had to move to a different location with Maxim. Hopefully, this would be the last time.
Alice sat in the Sky Ranger, she couldn't believe what was happening. ADVENT had discovered the location of one of the Resistance Havens, and had descended in force, they weren't even just targeting the soldiers either, from the reports she'd gotten, they were trying to get to the civilians that were evacuating. There was 4 of them, most of them, the normal Nerd Brigade. There was herself, Sean, William, but, instead of Roman, the commander had advised her to bring Ash, reasoning, quite rightly that his sniper rifle would be more useful than explosives in a defensive mission. Their goal here was to set down between the majority of the ADVENT forces, and the Evacuation, and just defend that area until the civilians got out, then evac, and Roman flinging around grenades would destroy their own cover as well. William wouldn't be as useful, since there wasn't going to be anything for him to hack, but apparently he'd done something stupid, and Shen wasn't happy, she didn't know the details, but something about hacking Rov-R, so it was best to get him away from the Avenger.
The Sky Ranger stopped, and the back opened, they got up, and slid down the ropes. The area was lightly forested, and there was a drop a little away, there was also a damaged car over to her right. She looked around, and saw 2 others were already there, they had armour and weapons, she assumed these were resistance fighters. There was a woman, with dark skin, and black hair, cut short, military style. The other was a man, but his armour looked strange, almost burned, like he'd run through a fire while wearing it. He wore an old-fashioned Gas Mask, which had a tinted visor, so she couldn't see his face, he also had a big helmet on, all in all, she couldn't see any bit of skin on him. She turned to the woman "I'm Archive, we're with XCOM"
The woman nodded "I'm Stacy" she pointed to the man next to her "We don't know his real name, we just call him Pyro"
The man grunted something "He doesn't talk" Stacy said
"Alright. Form up in a defensive position. Ash, take that tree. Everyone else, form up around him, we need to be able to react quickly whichever side they come from"
The all moved into position, Ash was furthest back, and had a pretty good view, the other's formed up in a semi-circle around him. The evacuation was behind them, and they would be able to intercept anyone that tried to get around them. Alice, William, and Stacy were on the left side. Sean and 'Pyro' were on the right.
"Flare" William called. Alice looked over, and sure enough, just a bit ahead was a red flare, signalling to the ADVENT ship where to drop off it's troops, those would drop only a few seconds before they arrived. Those on the left trained their guns at the area. Sean and Pyro stayed on the other side, to prevent any flanks. The troop ship flew overhead, they didn't bother shooting at it, they'd need a rocket launcher to damage it, it came to a near stop, and a group of 3 Troopers dropped, and they dropped hard. One didn't even make it to the ground, as the muted bang of Ash's sniper rifle struck it just as it dropped from the ship, and it just landed on it's face. The other's made it to the ground, but then suffered a hail of bullets from 3 soldiers. One was killed just as it landed, the other took a shot to the leg, releasing a spray of orange blood, it didn't get more than 2 steps, before it was finished off by a spray of shots to the back, from the Resistance fighter Stacy, who was firing on full auto while the other's used burst
"Nice one. Reload and reform" Alice said, moving back to the old position, and putting in a fresh clip.
"Sectoid" Sean called from the other side, there was the soft bang of the sniper rifle, but the Trooper accompanying the Sectoid jumped to the left and avoided the shot. It didn't get to enjoy it's escape for long though, because it jumped towards Pyro, who opened fire with his rifle, the Trooper was thrown backwards, and Alice could smell burning, and saw that there was no blood, and there was a small fire on the ground behind the Trooper, apparently Pyro used Incendiary ammunition. As Pyro had unloaded his shots, Alice had lined up her shots with the Sectoid, and it stumbled backwards a step as a bullet struck it's arm. it also didn't get to enjoy it's survival for long. It popped it's head over the rock it had gotten behind, and then a spray of yellowish blood gushed from it's forehead, and it slumped to the side. A flare dropped down a few feet to the side, and they re-formed to protect from that side. The airship flew overhead, and an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped down. The Officer was struck before he even dropped, and just fell out, Ash was on point today. The other's dropped down directly behind a tree, so the other's didn't get a shot, until a grenade flew over behind the tree, and detonated, a body slumped out, burning, and the tree ignited, that guy really liked fire. While that was going on, Alice saw a head poke up from the edge further off, and Alice pumped a shot into it, the Trooper fell backwards, but another one jumped up, and ran for cover. A GREMLIN flew over, and there was a loud crack of electricity, and the Trooper that had been behind the burning tree fell out, twitching. The final Trooper poked it's head around the tree to take a shot, but it had forgotten about Sean. Sean hadn't been firing, and with his usual noiseless movement, had gone completely unnoticed, right up until he drop-kicked the Trooper. There was a loud crack, as it's ribs were shattered by the force of the robotic legs, and it flew backwards off the cliff, into a trailer, where it slid down, if not dead, then certainly not getting up any time soon.
"What's with all the damn flares" Ash called, as he turned to see ne drop down right behind him. 3 Troopers dropped out of the transport, and right into the waiting crossfire. 2 of them were destroyed just as they landed, and one almost made it to cover, but Ash hip-fired his sniper rifle, it was so close to him, he practically had the muzzle pressed into it's chest. It's lungs were blown out of it's back as the shot ripped through it.
"Reform and reload" Alice called again. They were going through ammo fast, she only had 2 full clips left. Thankfully, the Evacuation was nearing completion, so they wouldn't have to hold out for much longer. "Flare left" she called as another one dropped down. They all aimed towards it, and again, an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped out of it, and were summarily destroyed by the hail of shots from 5 rifles and a sniper.
"Left" Sean called out, and they swivelled to aim at that side again. They took aim, and an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped out, The Officer and 1 of the troopers were killed outright, but the other Trooper escaped unharmed and unnoticed. It was behind a rock, aiming up a shot at Stacy, when a knife was jammed up through it's Jaw. Standing where the Trooper had been was a woman, she had black hair, which was short, but cut crudely, like she was cutting it with a knife, there was a thick grey cloak on the ground behind her, and she was wearing just a t-shirt and trousers, along with boots. She had a knife in her hand, which she had just yanked out of the Troopers skull, she put the knife in an ankle sheath, and picked up the Troopers gun. She looked at the assembled soldiers looking at her, she was about to say something, when she saw 2 Flares drop down, one at the back, and one to their left, so instead she just said "Flares".
They all kicked back into action, going back to what they were doing before, and turned their guns to the flares that dropped down. 2 Troopers dropped down behind them, and they were destroyed by Ash, Pyro, William, and the new girl. The aliens resembled just a pile of meat more than living creatures. From the side, and Officer and 2 Stun Lancer's dropped. The Officer was killed by combined fire from Alice and Stacy, Sean moved to try and get a shot on one of the Stun Lancers, but the Soldiers dodged around the shots, leaving Sean stunned, and he took a single shot to the chest. Sean fell backwards, clutching at the wound in his chest. Ash turned and pumped a shot into the Lancer that shot Sean, it tried to dodge it, but he nailed the creature right in the chest, however, it didn't go down, it moved backwards with the shot, and absorbed some of the impact, and was recovering just as a GREMLIN appeared above it, and a shock of electricity fried it inside of it's armour. Alice looked up from her cover, looking for the second one, she saw it, but too late, it had whipped out the Sword-like-device it had on it's back, and thrust it in a stabbing motion, but the attack never connected, as a woman flashed out of no-where, and blocked the blade away with a small knife. The Stun Lancer barked something in the language they spoke, and sung at the woman, she ducked under it, and brought her knife around to slash the alien, but it rolled away from the slash, it got up from it's evasion, and attempted to stab at her with it's stun weapon again, but the woman got past the soldier's guard, getting too close for it to use the sword effectively, and drove her knife into the alien's faceplate, shattering it, and driving the knife into the alien's face, and driving it to the ground, where she yanked the knife back out, then stabbed it into it's neck. Orange blood was spraying everywhere. The woman stood up, breathing hard, and turned to Alice. "Where's your evac?"
Alice would normally have questioned this woman, but was too shocked by what had just happened, and she though she recognised the woman's face, but she couldn't remember where from, so she pointed over to an area just behind where Ash was positioned, it was a slight clearing in the tree's, that allowed the Sky Ranger to drop it's ropes properly, so they wouldn't be climbing through tree's. The woman nodded "Wait for me" she then dropped the rifle she'd taken from the Trooper, retrieved her knife from the Lancer's neck, and ran off.
"Who's your girlfriend" a voice said from behind her. Alice turned to see William standing there, his GREMLIN, NO-CLIP, floating behind him.
"No idea. But she asked me to wait for her before Evac"
"And are we?"
Alice nodded, "She helped us out. We'll wait as long as we can, get everyone on the Sky Ranger. If more ADVENT shows up, we'll go. But we can give her a few minutes"
"Alrighty then"
"Transports coming" Firebrand says "We got about 20 seconds before they start dropping off ADVENT"
Alice was looking out of the back of the Sky Ranger "Give her 10 more seconds" she had a feeling, she didn't know why, but she felt that the woman was important.
8 seconds later, the woman came running out of the forest, she had a body slung over her shoulder, but she was running at an amazing pace, she looked like she could give Usain Bolt a run for his money, and she was carrying someone on her shoulder, and had also duelled with a Stun Lancer only a few minutes early, she had endurance as well. The woman ran up, and grabbed onto the rope with her free arm.
"She's on" Alice called, and the rope started pulling up into the Sky Ranger, as it was nearly all pulled up, the woman poked up over the edge, and slung the body she'd been carrying into the ship. Alice pulled the body in, then gave the woman a hand up.
"Who are you?" Alice asked as the doors started closing behind them.
"Aya. Aya Haidar" the woman replied, and she nodded to the man she'd been carrying "and that, is Maxim Popov"
Alice remembered where she'd seen the woman's face before, though she had aged a bit since the picture she'd seen had been taken, 20 years of aging to be exact. "Aya Haidar, and Maxim Popov, of the old X-COM? Codenames Psycho and Vampire?"
"I prefer Valkyrie now" Aya replied