"Lock and load" Alice said as she entered the Lounge, in her armour, and with her rifle on her back, and pistol on her hit.
"What?" William asked
"We're going out. Commander's busy. So I'm taking temporary command until he returns. Roman, Aya, William, Maxim, with me, we're going to the Sky Ranger. Everyone else, get ready, Shen's flying the Avenger to your location"
"What?" Stacy asked. But Alice had already walked out
"Any idea what's going on?" Maxim asked. He'd only been walking around for a week now, and hadn't been on any missions. He had no idea if that's how they normally do it
There were a few moments in which nobody did anything. But it was broken by Aya standing up "Clearly the Commander has some kind of plan. If he has gone himself, it must be important" she then followed Alice out. Everyone that she'd called quickly followed after her to get ready for whatever they were doing. It most certainly wasn't normal.
"Uh. How do I put this stuff on?" Maxim asked as he looked at the armour in front of him. The other's were confidently strapping it on, but he had no idea what they were doing.
"Here" Aya said, coming over and helping him to put it on. She'd finished putting her armour on before Maxim had even found his.
"Thanks. I might have mind powers, but I need a manual for this"
"There we are" Aya said as she finished putting the last of his armour on him
"Thanks again... Where's my gun"
Aya rolled her eyes, but smiled and pointed towards a rack with weapons on it.
Maxim smiled and ran over to it. Looking for his gun. He found a sniper rifle, and went to pick it up when Alice put a hand on his shoulder "Not that one. That's Ash's" she pointed further along the rack "That's your gun"
Maxim looked over at what she was pointing at, and saw a regular rifle. "Uh, no. I'm a sniper. Ask Aya"
"The Commander told me you'd react like this. You may prefer sniping, but you psionic abilities lose their power after a range, so you'll be more useful at medium range with an assault rifle"
"This is bullshit. I'm a sniper"
"Well we only have the one sniper rifle, and it's Ash's. You'll take the rifle and you'll like it"
"Ugh, fine" Maxim took the assault rifle, and put it on his back. It fell to the floor. "God damnit. How do I turn this thing on"
William and Roman watched Maxim struggle with his equipment "We are so boned" William said "He can't even use his stuff"
"He doesn't need to" Roman replied
"What?"
"Although he may be making a big deal of what weapon he gets, he probably won't use it much"
"What, he doesn't shoot"
"He won't need to. I talked to Mr Ducan a couple times. He can do just as much damage to ADVENT with his mind as he can with his gun"
"Damn"
"Indeed. He is very powerful, he just needs to learn how to use all his abilities again. He will quickly grow to outstrip us in power"
"That's, kinda depressing in a way"
"Indeed"
Maxim slid down the rope, and promptly fell on his ass "Fucking puddle" he cursed quietly
Aya deftly landed next to him, and gave him a hand up
"You look like a baby animal in a documentary" Alice said "You know, the one that you're looking at like. He's not going to make it"
"Gee, thanks" Maxim said "I could Soulfire you right now you know"
"Soulfire?"
"My damaging ability. I name them alright" he kicked a rock on the ground and looked down as he mumbled "Makes me feel like a game character"
"Welcome to the Nerd Brigade" Roman said
That made Maxim smile
"All right. Come on. We got a facility to raid" Alice said, a she took a step to the edge of the plateu they were on. They were at the edge of a plateu. Just ahead of them was a small building with a small wall around it. Just ahead of that building was a train parked in front an even larger building. "Head for the roof. We'll get a good view of the facility"
She dropped down, and ran over to the fence. "Hax. Turret on the roof"
"Oh goodie" William dropped down next to her while the others joined them "NOCLIP, I choose you" His GREMLIN hovered up and flew over to the turret "She's mine" He declared, looking at a datapad in front of him. "Sectoid and one of those, Mutons is what you called them, right Aya"
"Yes"
"Valkyrie, stay on the ground, your shotgun get's better range down here. Everyone else to the roof"
William, Roman, and Alice climbed up the ladder, while Aya ran across the courtyard to the fence on the other side. Maxim didn't even think, and just ran across with Aya.
"Vampire?" Alice asked when she didn't see him come up behind her from the ladder
"I'm with Valkyrie" he whispered into his coms.
"What th-" Alice stopped herself "Fine. Wait for Roman to start it"
A few seconds later, a grenades flew from the roof, and landed right between the Muton and Sectoid. Followed quickly by a barrage of bullets from Alice, the Sectoid was already running, and got behind a tree without getting shot, but the Muton didn't react quite as fast, and took a burst to the head, and dropped. But the Sectoid's speed only saved it for about a second, because when it reached the tree, Aya was already there with her sword out, and in one quick flick of her wrist, separated the aliens head from it's neck. Maxim looked up at the Turret that William had hacked, and raised his gun, and fired a burst into the side of it.
"The fuck you doing Vamp?" William asked
"They have reactive firewalls, you'll be kicked out of the system fairly quickly, we should destroy it before that happens"
"How the fuck you know that?"
"I have no idea" Maxim replied
"Everyone move up to the Train" Alice said "Kill that Turret as we go" Those on the roof hurdled the railing, and rolled as they landed. Aya and Maxim headed for the train as well. Maxim walked backwards, and put another burst into the turret. It sparked and went dead, the gun part dropping and pointing at the ground as it died.
"Turret on Roof" Alice said as they got onto the train
"NOCLIP, go" his GREMLIN flew towards the turret "And Slee-"
He was interrupted by the bark of Aya's shotgun, as she fired from extreme range of the shotgun, and destroyed the turret in a single shot
"Aw" William said
"Officer, MEC, and, it looks like an armoured Trooper, but it's wearing white" Roman said as he took out his greande launcher, and fired to the left. The grenade landed right as the 3 got into their positions, and destroyed their cover. Alice fired off a burst, catching the Officer in the chest, and dropping it. Aya got out her sword and ran over, slashing at the armoured trooper, there was a screech and sparks as her blade sliced across the armour. Maxim thrust a ball of purple energies at Aya, and she quickly spun with the blade, and spinning all the way around in a 360, then used the momentum of the spin, to throw her sword into the MEC in a perfect spearing throw. The blade went straight through the 'head' and the MEC, and it deactivated and fell to the floor. She then ran over, pulled her sword out of the MEC's head, and got back behind a box on the platform for cover. She did all that in the time it took William to pop up from cover and fire a burst into the Armoured Trooper., catching it right in the neck between it's armoured plates, and dropping it. They all turned to look at Aya as she dropped back behind the box. Even for her, that was fast. She'd just run over, sliced across the armour of one, took out the MEC in a single sword thrust, retrieved the sword, and got back into cover, in the time it took for William to shoot a single guy. Only Maxim and Aya knew had she'd been able to react so fast.
"You are indeed the Valkyrie" was all Roman said
"Anyway, let's carry on. Get to the door" Alice said
They formed up at the door, reloading their guns as they went. Aya and Alice went on either side of the door in breach position. Roman was behind a fence, just a bit away from the door. Maxim was behind a lamp post. And William was behind an outcropping of the wall next to the door.
"Breach" Alice called, and Aya opened the door and move inside. The door was double-sized, but it slides, so Aya opened the entire door. Inside was 1 large room. The middle of it was filled with racks of tubes with a green fluid inside, humanoid forms could be seen. But that sight didn't last long, as the racks slid down into the floor. As they slid down, it revealed a small room on the far side of the facility. Which had a device from floor to ceiling. In the middle was a glass tube, and in side of that was a small vial, about the length of a persons forearm, and a couple inches in diameter. Aya lead the way inside. As she stepped inside, she quickly ducked behind a console "MEC and 2 Troopers, far side"
Roman brought out his grenade launcher, and launched an acid bomb, his last explosive device, towards the two. There was a soft popping sound as it burst open, followed by a loud hissing, and some loud screaming as the Troopers were melted inside of their armour. Aya brought up her shotgun, and fired a shell into the MEC's torso, breaking straight through the melting armour. It fell into the pool of acid burning into the floor.
"Move in" Alice said. Maxim went to the side, along a walkway above the green liquid on the bottom. As he moved up, he saw what could best be described as snake-women through the window at the back. 1 'ran' to the left. The other 2 slithered around, 1 of them staying outside the door, the other coming in, and getting behind sa pillar, after going through the acid pool.
Maxim heard a whistle, and looked over at Aya, she nodded towards the Snake-women, and began running over to them. He knew what she meant, and brought a hand to the purple orb of light, throwing it towards Aya as she reached the edge of the pool of Acid, and jumped, kicked off of the wall next to it, and propelled herself across, she landed and rolled, coming out of the roll just outside the door of the facility, and dragged her blade across the aliens chest, just as the purple light hit her, and her reactions sped up. Quickly she noticed that what had meant to cut the alien in half, had only slightly cut across it's stomach as it dodged backwards. She jumped, and flipped backwards, sheathing the sword during the backflip, and taking out her shotgun, bringing it up as she landed, and fired. The alien was completely unprepared for the speed and agility of the move, and was just staring at her, dumb-struck, as she fired a shell right into it's face. Shredding it's head and torso, along with the bits of flesh along it's head, like the 'crown' of a king cobra, the upper part of it's body just turning to mulch as the pellets ripped through it. She heard a noise inside, and recognised that the others were firing at the one inside, but didn't hear any death screams. She noticed the other one slithering towards her from the left, and she jumped up, and grabbed the railing, pulling herself over the ledge onto the dip in the roof, only up 1 storey. As the alien came around the corner, Aya levelled her shotgun, and took it's head off as well. Meanwhile inside, the alien had got down under cover, and all their shots had either hit the pillar, or the creature had dodged the few that got around it. As the hail of fire stopped for a brief second, the alien had slid out from around the pillar, coiled back, and , lunging it's head forwards, had shot out it's tongue, which lashed around Roman, and pulled him straight through the railing he was behind, over the goo, and right in front of the alien, where it released the tongue, and wrapped it's coils around him, and began constricting. It didn't get to constrict him for long, as Maxim looked at it, and reached over his shoulder, throwing some purple glow at the alien, it struck the alien, and it released Roman, and dropped into the floor. Burns and cuts appearing along it's body as it fell.
As the viper fell, Aya stepped back inside.
"Everyone form up, I'll get the vial" Alice said, as she began heading over to the room with the device inside.
Maxim headed over to Roman "You alright Boomer?"
"Yeah. That's a nice move. Whoa watch your step" He exclaimed as he noticed Maxim walk straight through a pool of acid that was left on the ground that still hadn't burned away, but instead formed a shallow pool in the metal floor. As Maxims foot entered the pool, a purple glow spread up to his knee. He lifted his foot back out, and there wasn't even a slight burn on the armour "What?"
"I've been learning how to create a permanent barrier. It can't block bullets yet. But it can stop environmental hazards from hurting me. Fire, acid, poison, that stuff"
"That'll be useful"
"I thought so" Maxim said with a smile
"No radiation. No significant energy readings of any kind. Whatever it is, it's safe to handle" Dr Shen said over the coms as Alice scanned the vial with a device that was essentially a supped up Geiger counter. Alice put the counter away, then punched the glass. It cracked, but didn't break, and pain flared in her fist, she shook it, she hadn't punched it hard enough to break anything, but it hurt like hell. She brought out her pistol, and flipped it around, then hammered on the glass with the handle on the gun until the glass broke. She then reached it, and wiggled it free of it's housing.
"I've got the vial" Alice said a she slipped it into a holster on her waist.
"We've got company" William said as a Flare dropped outside, between them and the evac site. Everyone formed up by the window to get a view on what was dropping. A MEC, and 2 Troopers hopped down. The 2 Troopers barely got 3 steps before Alice unleashed a hail into them, and dropped the 2 of them as they tried to run. The MEC lasted a bit longer, but Maxim put a burst into it's torso, followed closely by a shotgun blast to its 'head', and the MEC fell to the ground sparking.
"Aww" William said "I wanted a pet"
"Let's get to evac" Alice said
"One moment" Roman said, as he took out an X4 charge, and placed it on the wall, tapping a few buttons, then turned "We've got 5 minutes before this place explodes, lets get going"
They moved outside to the evac zone, and Firebrand brought the Skyranger over them, dropped down the ropes, and the were pulled back up, and began heading off. They wouldn't be able to catch up with the Avenger, which was probably already in Europe. But they could head to the rendezvous point.
"Can I have a look at that?" Maxim asked, pointing at the vial
"Make sure you don't drop it" Alice said, handing it to him
Maxim took the vial, and switched on his psionic vision, the one trick he'd managed to keep from his psionics before, and had a look at the vial. It didn't look any different. No psionic energy readings, no hidden things in it. Just a vial of green goo, maybe a slight purple, but that could just be from him holding it, it was difficult to tell, maybe some very very minor absorbing of psionic energies, but that's about it. He handed it back to Alice "I don't see anything psionic in it"
Alice took it back "Hopefully Tygan will be able to find something about it. Apparently the aliens were using it from something, and taking this will be a blow to them"