Harold hated this part. Moving around the Avenger, he kept himself busy, mostly by beating the stuffing out of training dummy's, and kept the hunt-pain away. But sitting in the Sky Ranger, on the way to a fight, but not able to do anything. The hunt-pain returned with a vengeance. He grit his teeth against it, but had to make sure he kept the cigarette in his mouth. He didn't want to end up forgetting and killing everyone in the Ship. He looked at them all. Ash. He has a good eye, and there might be more to him than meets the eye, but he was a ranged fighter, he wouldn't even put up a fight. Roman. He was strong and tough, but Harold was stronger, faster, and tougher, a bit more difficult, but he still wouldn't be a problem. Alice. She was smart, and good with the rifle, and he'd never seen her in close range, but he could safely assume that he could take down the 'Nerd Brigade' no problem. Aya. She would pose a threat, she's strong, fast, and tenacious. Of everyone in the Sky Ranger, she was the only one that would have a chance of brining him down. It was oddly comforting to know that, if he did flip out, Aya could put him down. He doubted even he could catch her in a fight, she'd just run circles around him, and bring him down with Sword and Shotgun. He just really hoped it wouldn't ever come to that.
Ash was uncomfortable. Not because the seat was hard, or they were going through turbulence, but because of what they knew about him now. Although none of them actively treated him differently, he could tell something had changed with the way they acted around him. Very well, if they were going to doubt him, he'd just have to prove himself worthy. Just as he did every day before joining XCOM, he'd always worked to prove himself the equal of those around him. It was partly why he's had so many Mr names. He's been everything from Mr Clean, to Mr Sectarian, to Mr Ash, and had done a multitude of different jobs. Although he liked Ash a lot better than the other names, and the job was much better. He found himself dreading the day when Phoenix would call him to return. Hopefully that wouldn't happen for a while, but it was always a possibility. Although he toyed with the idea that when the call came, he'd ignore it, and join fully with XCOM, but he knew that wouldn't happen. When the call came, he'd answer it, just as he was conditioned to do. He shook the thoughts from his head. He needed a clear head to do this properly. He'd have to be really careful with his aim. ADVENT was attacking another Resistance Haven, and this time, they managed to wipe out the fighters too quickly for them to form an Evacuation. So it was up to XCOM to go in and rescue them themselves.
Aya rolled her shoulders, loosening up the muscles for the fight to come. She was still concerned with Maxim, if the research team couldn't come up with anything, they'd have to table the project, and Maxim would remain in his coma. The bay doors opened, and Aya was the first one down. She slid down the rope, and did a quick scan of her surroundings. They were on a large Plateu, lightly forested, which ended abruptly a short distance ahead. There was a building, just visible in the distance, and there was an RV parked in front of them.
She looked over, and noticed a civilian crouched behind a tree, she was just about to whistle to get their attention, when a green beam shot up from below the edge of the plateu, and struck them in the chest.
"Everyone, move up. Ash, to the roof" Alice called out, and they all began moving. Aya kept cautious, she hadn't seen any ADVENT forces use Plasma weapons before. As she got near the end of the RV, she saw a creature she hadn't seen in years. A Muton. It's armour was a lot less bulky, and it looked more agile than before, but it was defiantly a Muton. It had just finished climbing up a ladder that had been placed on the edge of the plateu, it noticed them, and immediately ran to cover behind the tree the Civilian had just been. Everyone else was on the other side of the RV, so they couldn't even see it. And there was a stack of tires in Aya's way for a clear shot, only Roman had a shot, and he hadn't seen these aliens before. So it took him a moment to fire, and by the time he did, it was already behind the tree. Roman's shots struck the tree, and caused it to begin collapsing off the edge of the plateu (unfortunately not towards the Muton). But Aya was already running. Before the tree even fell over fully, Aya was right next to the Muton, shotgun in hand. It hadn't expected her to move as fast as she did, few things did, and didn't react in time to bring it's gun up before she placed her shotgun right in front of its head, and fired. A Berserker could have taken that shot and punched at her still, but a Muton wasn't that tough, and it had a lot lighter armour than before. The shotgun blast destroyed it's head, and sent it's body flying back off of the plateu, falling down with the tree. Hopefully any civilian's would move out of the way of the tree.
Aya heard a bang, and turned to see Harold aiming his shotgun over the edge of the Plateu, and, judging by the lack of return fire, he killed his target. Aya began heading over, loading another shell back into the gun, to make sure she had a full clip, she could go through ammo fast.
"Form up at the edge" Alice called "Aya, Harold head down. Scout a bit"
Aya nodded, and dropped down the plateu, not even stopping her run, rolling as she connected with the ground to absorb the impact, and to prevent it slowing her, coming out of the roll behind a rock, and turned to see Harold behind a tree next to her, loading another shell into his gun. She looked out, and saw a frozen river in front of them, that would make advancing difficult if they wanted to go in anything other than a straight line across it. For a brief second she noted how insulated their armour is that she didn't even notice the cold, but that thought left very quickly, she didn't go off on tangents during mission. There was a chain fence across the river, and there was some mechanical equipment inside. But that wasn't what caught her eye, along the side of the fence, between it and the cliff edge, were 3 figures. 2 of them, she recognised from combat, and Officer and a Stun Lancer, but the other one she'd only seen on ADVENT propaganda, a massive humanoid robotic unit, a rifle the size of a person in it's hand, and a grenade launcher poking up from it's back. The group noticed them, and began running towards cover, aside from the MEC, which just advanced to the edge of the river, and raised it's rifle. But it never got any further. Aya had seen analyses' of it's armour, and knew a weak point, just under the 'head'. She picked up a large rock from next to her, and threw it. The rock flew true, and struck it straight in the weak-point, damaging the motors and it's Gyro-scope, quickly she then got up, and pumped a shell into it, following the rock, the shots struck into it's 'head' and 'chest', and the robot flew backwards into the fence, deactivated. Riding with the recoild of the gun, she hurdled the rock in front her, slid across the frozen river, grabbed onto the lip of the river with a hand, and flipped herself over and into cover behind a rock. The Stun Lancer from the group was running towards her, and Aya reached behind her for her sword, the Stun Lancer stumbled, as it took a shot to the chest from a sniper rifle, but Stun Lancer's were tough, and it kept coming, but it was wounded, Aya ducked under it's clumsy swing, drove a punch into it's side, then decapitated it with a swing from her blade as it doubled over. There was a sound like groaning, and Aya looked over to see a Civilian stand up, and contort, their body grew, and grew, until they were over 10 feet tall, the arms reached past it's knees, and ended in long claws, it turned, and began running at them. It took a burst to the chest, but kept coming. Aya briefly wondered why a shape-shifting alien would have a such a large natural form, before she raised her shotgun, and pumped a shell into it's head, deforming the face into a mess of meat and orange blood, and dropping the alien before it could even raise it's arm to swing at her.
There were several bangs, and Aya saw a Sectoid get destroyed by a combination of Harold and Roman destroying it's cover with shots that it ducked under, before being killed by a pistol shot from Alice. There was another set of groaning, and another Civilian from further away turned into another of the Shape-Shifting aliens. It began running at them. Aya and Harold both raised their shotguns. Harolds shot connected with it's leg, and Aya fired a the same leg, but just as she fired, that leg seemed to shrink back to human size, so her shell flew through the area the leg had just been, the transformation lasted only a fraction of a second, but it was enough to prevent it being damaged by her blast. She was about to reach for her sword, when the alien seemed to trip, and it collapsed on its face, sliding to a halt on the ground just a few feet away from Aya.
She got around her rock, and kicked it, it didn't move.
"Salut" came a call from behind her, and Aya turned, and noticed a Civilian walking towards them. Hands in the air. "You are, XCOM, yes?" he asked as he came over. He was a short man, and bald, and not just normal bald, he didn't even have any eyebrows.
"We are. Who are you?" Alice said from behind her
"I am Alex Ducan" he had quite a heavy French accent.
Aya wasn't sure she could trust this man, after those 2 civilians transformed, this could be some clever alien. She brought out the knife from her ankle, which she always kept on her, and approached the man. "I need to ensure you aren't an alien"
The man nodded, and held out his arm "I understand"
Aya brought the knife onto the mans palm, and cut the hand. The blood was red. She sheathed the knife again and nodded. The man then clenched the hand, to stop the bleeding, and to help with any pain.
"Check any civilians" Alice called, as they went about securing any civilians. Bradford had scanned the area and confirmed there was no more aliens, though they didn't know if they could detect these new alien form when they were in human form. "Aya, secure him"
Aya nodded as Alice jogged off to get more civilians. "Follow me" she said, and headed back over to the ladder so he could get to the Sky Ranger.
"You are, Valkyrie, yes?" the Man asked as she lead him to the ladder
"That is my nickname, yes. How do you know"
The man tapped his head "I also know that you need a psionic to help your friend Vampire"
Aya turned to the man, now a lot more suspicious. "How do you know this? Are you a Mr?"
"I am not sure what that refers to, but no. I believe the word in English is, a Telepath. Someone who can read minds, collect information"
"You're a psychic"
"Indeed"
They got to the top of the ladder, and began heading for the Sky Ranger, which had now set down in the clearing.
"I wasn't doing it on purpose though. I can normally control when I read people's thoughts, but, your thoughts are, loud, I guess is the best word. I don't know anything more"
"So, you know about Psionic's"
"Some, yes"
"Where did you learn?"
"Difficult to explain"
"Explain it" Aya replied in French
The man replied in French, he looked surprised for a moment "Oh. You speak French. Well then. Since I was 14, I always heard voices, went to therapists, took drugs, nothing helped. One day, a man approached me, introduced himself as, Mr Mind, and said he could get rid of the voices. I would have done anything at that point. He taught me all about this power, how to control it, and the theory's behind it. This training lasted years. I'm sure my parents just think I disappeared. Once I reached 26, the man said I was done, and dropped me off here. I've been living here for 10 years now"
"Of course it was them" Aya muttered in English
"Pardon?"
"Never mind. You know how psionic's work then"
"Some of it. I am not very strong with my abilities. Even if I put in a lot of effort, I still cannot get more than surface thoughts and feeling. Things you are feeling and thinking at the moment"
"Would you be willing to assist XCOM's research team?"
"Of course"
Aya stopped faking emotion in her voice "Then come with me"
"How is the researching coming" The Commander asked Dr Tygan
"Excellent" Tygan turned around in his chair "With Mr Ducan's help, we have devised a method of containing Maxim's excess psionic energies. However, this will require a decent amount of space to contain. I am just finishing up the blueprints to send to Dr Shen"
"How long will construction take?"
"Not long. We have all the available resources. It is actually quite amazing, it's such a simple combination of materials, but it works amazingly. With Shen and a couple Engineers working, not much longer than a week I should think"
"Then I will tell Shen to get working"
"Oh, one other thing Commander"
"Yes"
"It appears that this will have some side-effects on Maxim. While allowing him to regain consciousness, he will need to carry a round a device to focus the energies at all times, or he will return to the coma. And, he will have to re-learn how to use them"
"Why does he need to re-learn?"
"Because it will be a way of harnessing powers completely new to him, and a new power level"
"So we are back to square one. We still need someone to train him"
"Not necessarily. Mr Ducan has said he would be more than happy to train him"
"Can he do it?"
"I believe so. Although we can't exactly afford to be picky. The only other person we know of that could do this, is this Mr Mind character Ducan described. And going by the description, it seems he is with Miss Lost"
"Meaning we'll never find him"
"It appears not"
"Very well. Send Shen the blueprints. And tell Alex to prepare himself, Maxim can be a handful"
We're finally getting Maxim back. So excited to write from Maxim's perspective again. Especially with his new-found power. Thank you for reading, and I hope you are as Hyped as I am for everything to come.