It appeared that when Fate saw fit to give the besieged defenders of Earth a gift, she also saw fit to punch them in the face soon afterwards.
Dropping ship after ship with enhanced Dust-infused munitions, Central Officer Bradford believed that for once, he could afford to relax a little as XCOM pilots shot down enemy crafts of all sizes with terrifying efficiency. Neither Shen nor Vahlen lacked research materials, and the armouries were very well stocked with both Elerium and alien alloys captured from destroyed enemy craft. Panic across the globe was decreasing steadily, owing to the fact that the only time an outsider ever caught a glimpse of an alien craft since the alien base raid, it was one that was descending to the surface in flames – with a telltale XCOM interceptor hot on its tail. For once, the citizens of the world felt truly safe.
But if the guardians and watchers were busy watching and defending those who could not defend themselves, who was watching their backs?
The forces of evil never slept. They were ever watchful, ever patient. Always waiting for the perfect moment to strike; that single brief moment when the slightest hint of complacence crept into the guardians' minds...
It all happened when Ruby was with Strike One in the command centre of the base, preparing for a joint mission. Weiss was still in the barracks, helping Blake and Yang with the maintenance of Ember Celica and Gambol Shroud. Papa Bear was leading her around, walking her through the next plans of what they would do against the aliens. As Dr. Vahlen had almost completed her investigation of what they dubbed the 'hyperwave relay', a communications device capable of transmitting messages at superluminal speeds, which apparently reacted strongly with the latent psionic energy stored in sectoid commanders' remains, they believed that the device would be able to locate further alien bases on the planet – or elsewhere – allowing them to finally strike back at the aliens' leadership.
But at a certain point, Ruby's mind was starting to trail off what Bradford and Papa Bear were talking about. She passed by a wall of surveillance camera feeds, watching what other people were doing out of boredom. There were a few maintenance crewmen in the barracks common room, lounging around as they drank their morning coffee; Dr. Shen was in the armoury, testing some bulky prototype weapon that she couldn't recognise; Dr. Vahlen was checking on the capsules containing Team JNPR; and in the mech bay, there was a dazed-looking fellow stumbling about near a forklift, carrying a small square object in his hand.
At that moment, the hologlobe and all the lights in the command centre started to flicker. Every last one of the security feeds blacked out; a powerful tremor rocked the entire facility, dropping the room into darkness for a second before the backup generators kicked back on.
Ruby stared at the security feeds in horror. The mechbay erupted in a large explosion; the crewmen in the barracks common room glanced at a guardsman who approached in surprise, before the guardsman raised a pistol and shot all of them in the head at point-blank range. Thankfully, Yang dashed out of one of the side rooms and knocked him out cold with a punch to the jaw. The armoury's SHIV units had all activated, and were now shooting at rogue XCOM members, all of whom had an all-too-familiar purple glow behind their eyes.
"Mind control! Zey are close enough to pull off mind control!" hissed Eleanor. The woman had both of her plasma pistols unholstered, her eyes narrowed at the ceiling. For a moment, Ruby was completely confused; but as she followed the woman's gaze, she realised that she was looking at ventilation ducts.
"Bradford! Get the command crew to the safe rooms! Now!" roared Papa Bear, revving up his plasma machinegun. "Strike One! Form up!"
"There should be a console that I could use from there where I can access all the data feeds from the base," Bradford replied, nodding to Papa Bear, "I'll keep you all updated on the situation. For now, stay alive, all of you,"
"Yes, now go," he said brusquely, aiming at the ceiling vents.
Sure enough, a claw ripped through one of the armoured vent covers as though it were made of tissue paper. With a loud screech, the cover was ripped to shreds, and a pair of chryssalids fell down into the command centre. One was immediately gunned down by Papa Bear, while the other received two bolts of plasma to its head from Eleanor.
"Everyone that isn't prepped for combat, get the hell out of here! That's an order!" Bradford bellowed, as he dashed for the blast doors leading further down into the facility. All of the other command staff followed suit, leaving only half of Strike One plus Ruby inside the command centre.
"Well, Reaper, looks like it'll be an interesting day," Papa Bear murmured, glancing cautiously at the rest of the vents above them.
Over the crackling of a damaged light, they could hear the stomping of numerous feet on metal and concrete; so many, that it was impossible to tell which direction the aliens were coming from or how many there were. A loud bang came from the far side of the room, however, and the alarms blared on that side.
"Security breach in ventilation room, upper levels. Command centre blast doors sealing...error, blast door controls unresponsive. Manual override required," a computerised voice droned over the loudspeakers in the room, "Warning, security breach detected. Please evacuate in a calm, orderly fashion,"
"Not going to happen, chips. We stand our ground. Everyone, find cover and cover that door. Anything that moves from there, blast it,"
The telltale whoosh of rocket boosters told them precisely what was coming. "Floaters and drones! Take them down!"
Crescent Rose barked once, twice; two floaters dropped down with gaping holes in their chests. A barrage of green plasma rained death on everything else, courtesy of both the colonels present, dropping a swarm of little cyberdisc drones. But when the cyberdisc itself came through the doorway, they were unprepared for a high-powered shot that shattered the concrete pillar that Maria was hiding behind.
"Temptress, you okay?" Papa Bear shouted, tossing a grenade that detonated just below the cyberdisc.
"Just a little burn. Mierda, that stings," she hissed, shaking bits of concrete from herself. Blood trickled down her left arm, where a gash above her shoulder was.
"Get yourself patched up and start firing on these bogeys!"
"On it, Papa Bear. Give me...a few seconds,"
Another pair of cyberdiscs floated into the room from the breach on the other side of the room, though fortunately these ones shot very wide. The catwalks above them took the majority of the damage, melting under the powerful particle beams that they fired.
"Reaper! We need zis breach sealed, on ze double!" Eleanor barked. She had holstered her pistols and pulled out a plasma sniper rifle, blasting a clean hole through the centre of one cyberdisc. The other one bobbed and weaved, causing her second shot to miss. "Merde! A miss!"
"I got it!" Ruby shouted, using her Semblance to throw herself at supersonic speeds and catching the remaining cyberdisc with the blade of Crescent Rose. At such speeds, the scythe blade simply cleaved the creature in two, leaving only sparking halves behind on the floor. "Okay, so uhh...what do I do now?"
"There should be a red button somewhere near that door. Hit it and it'll close!" Maria called out, barely dodging another drone's particle beam, "Mierda. Hurry!"
The red reaper fumbled a little before she managed to find the red button, covered by a hardened glass case. Hearing the rocket engines of another cyberdisc about to come around the corner, she simply smashed the case with the end of Crescent Rose, shattering it and cracking the button behind.
"Manual emergency override verified. Closing in five...four...three...two...one..."
The thick steel blast doors slammed shut just as the cyberdisc came through; the hardened shell of the cybernetic creature could hardly resist the multi-ton pressure of the high-pressure rams that pressed the doors together. Only the front half made it through, wires and components still sparking as they tumbled out of its crushed and mangled form.
"Good work. That's one less way that the X-Rays can come into the command centre. Central, do you copy?"
"I hear you five-by-five, One-actual. We're reactivating base defense systems as we speak. There are four alien supply ships on the surface; we suspect that they are full of alien reinforcements,"
"Fuckin' Christ. Four fucking ships of reinforcements?" cursed Papa Bear, his face hardening in disgust, "Tell me you've got a plan,"
"We've scrambled all available interceptors from our base in Mexico loaded with singularity warheads, but it'll be another half hour until they arrive. Defence turrets are active in the mech bay, the hangar and outside the base; and the front gate is currently sealed, but our satellite scans indicate that there's a huge number of troops moving towards the entryway. We've got all our SHIV units coming out of the armoury to your position now; they should arrive in two minutes,"
"At least that's some excellent news," joked Maria. When she caught Papa Bear's glare, however, she meekly added, "Okay. I'll shut up now,"
"Strike One, be advised that we are detecting a very large number of hostiles moving your way. Heat signatures indicate that these are likely all biological. We're trying to re-establish the connection to the barracks as we speak, but it seems that several of our operatives have been compromised by mind control. Audio feeds suggest that there is a firefight down there at this moment, and we are unsure of the status of operatives in there,"
"Weiss!" Ruby gasped, remembering that the rest of Team RWBY was still in the barracks before the aliens attacked the base.
"Focus on the here and now, Reaper. We've got incoming!" barked out Papa Bear, spinning up his weapon and spraying the ventilation ducts with plasma fire. Several sectoids fell out as the plasma fire tore into the metal ducts; some were killed instantly, while others still had enough fight in them to let off several poorly-aimed shots at whoever was nearest. One even fell right next to Ruby, who promptly cleaved it in two with her scythe.
"More coming from this side!" shouted Strike One's engineers. Both Shang and Singh were rapidly firing their plasma rifles at an oncoming tide of chryssalids and sectoids, backed up by Li who was unloading shell after shell from his shotgun at those that came too close. "We need backup, now!"
"Hardcase, Atlas. Get over there and kill those insects. Dominatrix, Reaper, you're with me. Take up a position and shoot anything that moves that isn't human,"
"Affirmative, One-actual," Wilson grunted, echoed by Carson. The MEC troopers stomped over towards the beleaguered engineers, laying down a withering barrage of high-calibre rounds from their autocannons. Slowly but surely, the tide of insectoid aliens was pushed back by the merciless hail of high explosive shells, blasting chunks of chitin and blood everywhere.
Another wave of sectoids came down from the ventilation ducts, this time more numerous than the previous waves and accompanied by a number of chryssalids and a pair of muton elites. "Damn, they just don't let up!" snarled Papa Bear. His weapon beeped angrily as it ran out of energy. "I'm dry! Dominatrix, Reaper, cover me!"
"I'm trying, Papa Bear!" Ruby cried out, parrying a chryssalid's claw with the blade of her scythe. A shot to its face launched it clear across the room in pieces, but another three took its place, their claws ready to strike the girl down. A lightning-fast duel ensued, blades clashing against claws and chitin; bits of chryssalid flew left and right as the scythe's improved blade ripped into alien flesh. However, a glancing blow to her arm from one of the chryssalids knocked her off balance; by the time she recovered, one of their claws was already hovering just inches from her eyes, descending rapidly.
Only for a white-hot bolt of plasma to pass in front of her, severing the claw at one of its weak joints. "Keep your eyes open, zis is not over yet!" Eleanor shouted. Her pistols continued to unload on the enemies, headshot after headshot.
"Thanks!" Ruby gasped, reloading Crescent Rose and shooting a sectoid that was about to fire on Papa Bear. A little too late, however, as one of its shots blew off a chunk of his armour, causing him to hiss in pain. "Papa Bear!"
"Glancing hit. I'm fine, it's only a flesh wound. Keep shooting!" he grunted, ignoring the smell of burnt plastic and skin, "Central, status report?"
"Situation in the barracks is under control, but Two-actual, Three-actual and Five-actual are all down. Sectoid commanders are all dead in that sector. Armoury and engineering are both clear, thanks to the older SHIVs that were forced to work. We've got operatives in the barracks ready to engage the enemy, but they're in disarray; the aliens took out almost all of the command officers. One of you needs to come down and regroup them. Hold up, we're picking up more heat signatures. Bigger ones are inbound, Strike One; the ventilation ducts are clear, but the front gates are breached. There's at least two dozen mutons heading down that tunnel, and that's before they took out our surveillance cameras,"
Two dozen mutons. The large, lumbering creatures were almost like Ursai to Ruby; tough, slow, and rather difficult to kill. One or two were fine, but two dozen? It would take too long to kill them all before they'd all get overrun.
"...Copy that, Central. Strike One will hold the fort in the command centre for as long as we can," Papa Bear replied, shutting off his mic. For a moment, he simply stood there in silence, as though contemplating something; then he turned to face Ruby, a grim smile on his face.
"Well, Reaper, looks like you get to take the cubs up to fight. We'll hold them off here for as long as we can,"
"But I can fight!" protested Ruby, "You'll get killed if you're only fighting here on your own! Let me help!"
"This is not the time to be talking back, cub. Your sniper rifle isn't going to be able to kill the mutons fast enough, and I don't have enough ammunition to last the whole invasion. Get down there, and bring back some reinforcements,"
"But..."
"No buts, cub. Now go. Grab whoever is still up in the barracks, and bring them back here,"
The first blasts of plasma melting the walls of the mech bay beyond the command centre could be heard, along with angry shouts from the XCOM operatives that had cobbled together a makeshift defense in that room. Shakily, Ruby bit back the urge to retort and nodded. This wasn't a battle that they could fight on their own; she had no Aura, and limited use of her Semblance. She needed others that were still able to fight.
"I'll be back soon! I promise!" she shouted, dashing towards the circular door that headed to the elevator, peeking at the furious firefight that was happening inside the mechbay. Strike Two was holding the line, along with quite a few mechanics and other support staff who had been forced to pick up guns and fight back; though with the tide of aliens swarming in through the main gates, they would no doubt be overwhelmed eventually.
"Come on, come on..." she muttered impatiently, hammering repeatedly on the elevator's control panel. It beeped in complaint, though soon the metal contraption zoomed down into the lower levels of the base.
When the door slid open, she was greeted by the sight of a dozen laser gunsights aimed all over her body. "Don't shoot! It's my sister!" she heard Yang shout out, and the red dots painted on her body soon vanished from sight. A quick look around the barracks showed that there were dozens of sectoid bodies scattered all over the floor in various states of dismemberment. Weiss was kneeling in one corner, panting and clutching at her chest as she was being tended to by another squad's medic while Blake held her steady.
"Yang! Where's everyone!?" Ruby yelled, pushing past the squad and getting to her sister.
"You're looking at them. What's going on, Rubes? The lights just flickered out and suddenly we're swimming in aliens! We were lucky that we had our weapons in our room,"
"The base is under attack! Papa Bear's holding them off at the command centre with the rest of Strike One and Strike Two, but there's hundreds of the aliens out there. We need to get there, now!" she cried out, causing several of the operatives to look at each other before nodding.
"On it, Reaper," one of them replied in a deep voice, "Strike Four, on me! We're going up!"
"Strike Three, let's go!"
A dozen operatives immediately saluted and marched to the elevator, keen on rejoining the fight up top.
"Weiss? Are you okay?" asked Ruby, turning to her injured girlfriend. The plates of her armour's chestplate had a large burn on its front where a plasma bolt had struck, but thankfully did not penetrate. Judging by the hacking cough that the heiress had, though, it had likely hurt far worse than it looked.
"I'll be fine. You go on ahead, I'll catch up later," she wheezed, pushing Blake weakly away and sitting down on the side of the room.
Ruby looked at Weiss, and then at the retreating forms of the other squads' operatives. She wanted to stand by Weiss and make sure that she was safe; but on the other hand, if she did not go and lead these men and women, there wouldn't be anything left to save at all if the base were to be overrun. Sighing, she walked to Weiss and squeezed her hand gently. "Alright. Stay safe, Weissy. Blake, come on!"
The elevator ride back to the command centre was no less nerve-wracking than the ride down. Every so often, an explosion would rock the base, causing bits of dust and earth to fall from the ceiling. The power on the elevator had by that stage fallen to emergency levels, shrouding it in a dim red light. Only the bright lights on the control panel stayed fully lit, slowly counting its way through the floors of the XCOM base.
"Ground floor. Command centre," the announcer spoke, and the elevator doors slid open. The men and women of Strike Three and Strike Four charged out, guns blazing at the surprised alien forces that were almost into the command centre. Several sectoids immediately fell dead under the hail of mixed laser and plasma fire, while the some of the mutons managed to find cover in time. Fury raged in every single one of the operatives' faces as they saw the remains of engineers that had been forced to fight; without armour, they had been torn to shreds by incoming fire and explosives.
"Strike One, reinforcements are inbound. Stay focused," Bradford spoke through the base's communications network, "Strike Three, Strike Four, be advised that there are still at least a dozen mutons present in the mech bay. Strike One requires immediate relief in the command centre,"
"Alright, guys, go!" Ruby cried out, "Strike Three, Strike Four, defend the mech bay entrance! We'll help the rest of Strike One!"
"Will do," their leaders responded, taking cover behind what was left of the supplies present in the mech bay.
"Yang, Blake, come with me. We have to help Papa Bear,"
A quick look at the command centre revealed evidence of a terrible firefight. Almost all the pillars in the room had been melted or shattered; all the consoles were smashed, and a smoking crater was left where the hologlobe once was. Ruby gasped in horror when she noticed a large, blackened bloodstain on the ground with what looked like the mangled remains of an arm next to it, and what looked like hundreds of little pieces of chryssalids scattered about. Another look to her right revealed the bodies of the two engineers of Strike One – or rather, half of each one, having seemingly been torn apart by a plasma grenade.
"Reaper. Took you...long enough," Papa Bear growled, spitting out a bit of blood. The stub of a chryssalid claw was sticking out of the right side of his chest, and he was swaying slightly on the spot even as he wielded his machinegun unsteadily with one hand. Eleanor looked only slightly better; she was limping along on one leg, with the left part of her face burned beyond recognition.
"Papa Bear! Come on, let's get to Maria, she can fix you up!"
"That's not going to happen, Reaper. Temptress blew herself up with a grenade when she got surrounded by chryssalids. Took out eight of them before they could reach us,"
"She blew herself up?" Yang gasped, aghast.
Eleanor nodded gravely. "Oui. Zat she did. You know very well what happens to victims of chryssalids. She died to save us from being overwhelmed by its spawn. But zis is no time to stand and talk! Central, what is ze status of Strike Two and the SHIVs?"
"Strike Two is KIA. SHIVs are destroyed. Everyone on ground level, be advised; you have another wave of inbound hostiles. Heat and electromagnetic signatures indicate that there are very large numbers of both organic and mechanical enemies coming in through the main gates,"
"Merde. Please tell me zat those interceptors are inbound soon. Strike One is down to just myself and Papa Bear,"
"Affirmative. Interceptors are fifteen minutes out; we only need to hold out just a little longer,"
Fifteen minutes. Ruby felt despair grip her heart for a brief moment. Fifteen minutes was not terribly long in any battle; but with how few trained operatives they had left at their disposal, fifteen minutes was far too long.
"Strike Three, requesting reinforcements! We're being overrun! Only one autoturret is left!"
"We read you, Strike Three. Moving to overwatch position. Give the x-rays suppressive fire!" coughed Papa Bear. He grunted and staggered towards a nearby ladder, using his machinegun as a walking stick. "Eleanor. Help me up to the upstairs balcony. If I can't use my right arm to aim this damned gun, then God help me, I will use the damn railings as a gun mount!"
"Papa Bear, you shouldn't-"
"I will fight until I drop, Reaper. This is no time to be taking a break," he growled, with his second-in-command helping him along. Slowly, with a pained grunt on every step, he made it to the ladder and began to climb. If it were not for the powered Titan Armour frame, she was certain that he could not possibly move, let alone climb. "What are you waiting for!? Command the troops!"
Snapped out of her thoughts by the colonel's orders, she nodded and sprinted out of the command centre and into the mechbay. All of the MEC troopers available were holding the front lines, engaging the mutons in vicious hand-to-hand combat. The heavier armour of the MEC troopers took the brunt of the punishment, though even the thick alien alloy plating had its limits. Several of the troopers had missing or crippled limbs, with one in particular still valiantly fighting in the centre of the burning mechbay despite both of her legs' actuators having been cut by stray bolts of plasma. The lone surviving autoturret in the room was laying down a withering hail of autocannon fire, its one remaining barrel glowing red-hot from the sheer volume of shells it was spitting out. Strike Four was holding the line behind them, laying down what suppressive fire they could on the oncoming tide of thin men and cyberdiscs, while Strike Three lobbed explosives from the gantry above them, shearing apart armour and limbs alike.
"Yang! Move to the front and start pushing them back!" Ruby called out, Crescent Rose barking twice and dropping two sectoids, "Blake, see if you can kill some of them from the sides,"
"You got it, sis!"
"Will do,"
A valiant roar came from above her as Papa Bear finally reached his position on the railing on top. A hail of green plasma ripped through a cyberdisc, causing it to detonate in a hail of deadly shrapnel. More smaller shots followed, courtesy of Eleanor. Those found their mark in the heads of mutons that were too brave for their own good, forcing the rest of them to hunker down behind what scarce cover remained in the devastated room.
"Strike Four! Throw some grenades at the forklift!" Ruby cried out, spotting a cluster of mutons crouching behind the vehicle. Two green grenades sailed through the air and erupted in flashes of emerald flame, igniting the vehicle's fuel and blasting it apart in a brilliant fireball. The mutons roared in confusion as they were slammed against the walls, right before dozens of lasers put them out of their misery.
Having spotted Ruby, a thin man lifted its rifle and fired off a volley of shots at the red reaper. Most simply struck the metal crates that she was hiding behind, though one went wide and struck the member of Strike Three beside her squarely on the chest. The man's Carapace Armour did little to absorb any damage; he went down, clutching the gaping wound in his chest.
"Medic!"
"We don't have any more medkits, Reaper!"
"We're all out!"
That was certainly not what she wanted to hear. She could still hear the man's ragged, laboured breathing; his hand reaching out to her, begging for her to save him; to do something, anything. But without any medic to assist, she was powerless to help.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, tearing herself away from the sight and focusing her rifle on the thin man that had shot him. A single shot later, and the alien lay face-down on the floor, though it still did not change the fact that she had lost one man under her command.
Something strange, however, had happened. The first thing that Ruby noticed was one of the other thin men had lifted its arm to its ear and begun to jabber away into a small wrist-mounted device. The next moment, several of the mutons that had been suicidally pushing into their lines began to retreat, running back towards the main gates while firing their rifles in the general direction of the XCOM operatives.
"They're...retreating?" Ruby muttered in confusion, a sentiment echoed by many of the other operatives.
Something about the retreat seemed off. It was not as though they were running away in panic. Rather, they were backing away in an orderly fashion; suppressive fire on the XCOM soldiers, while they slowly moved back, going from cover to cover.
And then another massive explosion rocked the base from behind them. And then another, this time from the front.
"Strike One, this is Central. Our long-range communications array has been knocked out by an explosion. We've lost contact with other bases, but by our last contact, the interceptors are still ten minutes out. Short-range scanners are picking up six more inbound alien transports, three minutes from landing,"
"What's that even mean?" Yang yelled out, still busy firing off as many blasts as she could from Ember Celica.
"The front gates need to be sealed, or the aliens are going to flood this base. We cannot call for any additional reinforcements from any conventional military armies! Strike Three, are your engineers still present? Attempt a repair on the damaged main gates' systems! We've got to get it up and running before the alien reinforcements get inside the base!"
"Too damn slow, Central. And they'll just burn right through it again," growled Papa Bear over the comms, "Shen, where do you have Ice Queen's gravity bombs?"
"There should be one in a sealed metal crate in the corner of the mechbay. Black and yellow stripes on top. What do you have planned for it?"
"We collapse the front tunnel. The other boys can dig us out later, but we'll live. The interceptors should be able to make short work of the alien ground forces and all aircraft in the atmosphere,"
"A risky proposal, but it is the best option we have at this stage," Vahlen chimed in with a sigh, "However, we do not have an available detonator present anywhere on the base. Priming it will require a high-energy impact or explosion. A grenade or a plasma rifle impact will function well enough as a detonator, though it will likely kill everyone in thirty metres of the bomb,"
Thirty metres. That was far longer than any sight line inside the base's ground floor, and well beyond the throwing range of any grenade. Which meant that one of them would have to sacrifice themselves willingly to do the deed. One by one, the XCOM operatives of Strike Three and Strike Four looked at each other and shook their heads, backing away from Ruby as though to avoid being picked by her. The young girl was completely crushed; she did not want to sign any of them to their deaths, but if the rest were to live, she had to sacrifice one of them.
"If none of you cowards will do it, then I will," spat Papa Bear, determination burning in his eyes, "Dominatrix. Help me up. Get me to the bomb. Reaper, clear a path to the front gates,"
"Papa Bear, no!" she protested, watching the man leap down from the balcony and onto the floor below.
"Look at me, cub. I can feel the chryssalid venom starting to get to me, and there's not enough medical supplies in Vahlen's cabinets for me to see another day," he spoke lowly, glaring at Ruby, "I will not die a useless, broken old man on a hospital bed. You will clear a path for me to the front gates. That is my final order to you, Sergeant Rose. Are we clear?"
"Y-yes, sir,"
"Then get to it," he muttered, lifting up his machinegun with one arm and spraying wildly at the retreating aliens. When the weapon beeped that it was empty, he tossed it aside and hobbled over to the black-and-yellow striped crate sitting in the corner of the mechbay. "Well? What are you waiting for?!"
Nodding hesitantly, Ruby shouted her order to the remaining XCOM operatives. "Strike Three, Strike Four, ready all remaining explosives! Blow those aliens up!"
A barrage of explosives ripped apart the remaining aliens in the tunnel leading to the front gates. Without any more of their allies to cover, the thin men in the back of their lines simply broke ranks and fled, dropping their weapons; sectoids and cyberdiscs followed suit, hot on their heels.
"Strike One, the front tunnel is clear. X-rays are in full retreat and are likely regrouping outside the base. Get the tunnel closed, now! We're running out of time!"
"No need to say it twice, Central. Strike Two, Strike Three; return to the barracks. Tiger, Reaper, Shadowcat, come with me. Move the bomb to the middle of the exit tunnel,"
Between the three of them, they dragged the heavy crate along to the exit, while Eleanor helped Papa Bear move with them. After what seemed like an eternity, they had moved the explosive warhead to the tunnel's mouth.
"Good," sighed Papa Bear as he sat down on the crate. He stared down at the ground, not saying anything for a moment, before he chuckled darkly. "So, it's come to this. I have to say, this was not the end that I was expecting, but it is a worthy end regardless. I have no regrets. Reaper, come here,"
Ruby approached the gruff man, not knowing what to expect. He reached under his armour and lifted out a silver tab on a chain. A dog tag – and what appeared to be a pouch underneath it. From the way it jingled, there were likely many metal objects inside.
"Keep this, and the others," he said, thrusting the bag and the tag into Ruby's hands. Taking a look inside, Ruby noticed that there were dozens of other tags inside. "Every single XCOM operative that has fallen, I had their tags added to that collection. If their bodies could not be recovered, I had a copy made. Do you know why, cub?"
"W-why?"
"Because it reminds me. It reminds me of who they are, who I am, and what I fight for. Who I fight for," he spoke, "They are the ones who have sacrificed much to keep their loved ones safe. They are the ones that I will remember. These serve to remind me of the mission that we are all charged with, and I hope that it will do the same for you. Now go, cubs. We're out of time, and I've still got one last thing to do. Eleanor, watch over them for me,"
The blonde nodded. "I will do so. It has been an 'onour, Armand,"
"Just...go,"
He took out a plasma pistol from its holster at his hip and ran a gauntleted finger along its slide, almost longingly. "We are the watchers in the shadows. We are the shield of humanity. We fight because we must, for the survival of all inhabitants of Earth. Some must fight, so that all may live. In vigilo confido,"
Operation Deathless Watch: After Action Report
Sgt. Ruby 'Reaper' Rose: Active
Cpl. Weiss 'Ice Queen' Schnee: Lightly Wounded
Cpl. Blake 'Shadowcat' Belladonna: Active
Cpl. Yang 'Tiger' Xiao Long: Active
Col. Armand 'Papa Bear' Magnusson: KIA
Col. Eleanor 'Dominatrix' Delacroix: Severely Wounded
Lt. Maria 'Temptress' de Cervantes: KIA
+11 other KIA
A/N
I found the Alien Base Assault mission to be a bit underwhelming. Surely, if the aliens' mission was to annihilate the XCOM project so that they may continue their nefarious deeds, they would either use more troops than what was shown in game to overwhelm the defenses by sheer weight of numbers - or they would simply nuke the entire base from orbit, considering that they knew where the base was located exactly. The end parts of XCOM 1 and XCOM 2 reveal the objectives of the aliens; that is, to find a physical form considered suitable for an Ethereal mind - physically and mentally superior. But this was achieved through two different methods, and XCOM 2 implies that the original XCOM project failed at this stage of the game. I'm still somewhat split on whether to take this along XCOM 2 lines and make the XCOM project a hit-and-run resistance when the alien overlords stage coups on every major nation on Earth, or whether to take this along the original XCOM 1 storyline where the aliens are merely testing humanity's suitability of becoming their 'successor' by throwing tests at XCOM operatives. Whatever the case, I will explore both options before deciding on which yields more entertainment value.
JohnnieBoy11: Honestly, I had the early chapters of this story written before I was even aware of the existence of DrAmishMD's XCOM story (I don't actually read all that often - prefer writing, as it allows me to crank out ideas in a form that can be shared). I read both of his ones and I'll say they're great XD But you can be assured that this isn't a rewrite.
A special shoutout to playwars5, who has helped me beta this chapter and pointed out several plot holes in the early drafts of the chapter!
Until next time!