"Rebecca, we've got another patient for you" Keith called as he and Joe helped Harold into the med bay, Maxim following behind to see how he was doing.
Rebecca was standing beside a bed, which was already prepped with IV's and equipment of all kinds that Maxim couldn't even begin to recognise "Bradford told me over the coms" she explained
The 2 field medics helped the wounded Sargent onto the bed, they had removed his armour during the trip back, the kits were starting to wear off, so blood was beginning to ooze from the wounds over his legs (the wounds on his chest being caused by a plasma bolt, so were already cauterised), as the clotting agent wore off.
Rebecca looked over the bed and saw Maxim and the others standing there "Excuse us please, we will need room"
"Oh, uh, yeah" Maxim replied, looking sheepish "Keep us updated?"
"Of course, now shoo"
Maxim trotted off back to his room, he would be fine, he had the best doctor in her field working on him, as well as Keith and Joe.
As he was walking back to his room he bumped into Karl, who had been running up the corridor, Maxim had been lost in thought and hadn't noticed.
"Woah, Max, what's goin' on. Why's everyone run to the med bay?"
"Harold, the new guy, he got injured, bad. Genade and plasma"
"Ouch"
"Yeah"
"How bad is it?"
"It looks pretty bad, if Rebecca and Keith weren't there I would be worried"
"No-one dies without Rebecca's say so"
Maxim chuckled at that, she was really nice, but you didn't want to piss her off. Karl had once spray painted something, Maxim never actually saw what it was, on one of the walls, she had gone ballistic, shouting cursing, threats... Maxim had been worried she was literally going to rip his head off with her bare hands (One of her threats, minus about 10 swear words).
"As long as Harold don't piss her off, he'll be fine" Karl said again "Come on, let's go play COD"
"You suck at COD"
Karl shrugged "Still fun though"
Maxim chuckled again "Alright. Let's go"
"You're right, I do suck" Karl said as he died, yet again
"Wanna play something else?"
"Nah"
"Why are you playing it when you suck so much? How is that fun, it'd just frustrate the hell out of me"
"Heh, I like it. It really shows the futility of life, and the ease at which it can be taken away, just like that" Karl paused for about a 10th of a second before he burst out laughing "I don't know man, I just like it"
"You're a strange man Karl"
"Never claimed otherwi-... Holy mother of fuck"
"What!" Maxim jerked back to the game, thinking something had happened
"I got a kill!"
"Jesus, I thought you the game had broken"
"I think it has. I got a kill!"
"You're such a noob"
"That about sums me up- Aw, I was on a streak" Karl had rounded a corner, and ran right over a mine
"How were you on a streak?"
"I, sir, had a kill" pretending to look offended
"That's not a streak"
"It is for me, it's almost a new record"
"Noob"
"Why do you just keep spouting facts at me?"
Maxim laughed and got back into the game
"Operatives Maxim Popov, Karl Wagner, Keith Taylor, Ryo Goto, Aya Haidar, and William Ward, please report to the hangar"
"Aw, I had almost set a new personal best" Karl moaned as he put his controller down
"You had 2 kills"
"Precisely. One more, and it would a been a personal best" he said with a flourish as he left the room
"Let's hope you shoot better in the real thing"
"If you shoot half as well as you do in the game, I won't have to"
Maxim stopped halfway out the door as he realized the names that had been called
"What ya doing Max?"
"They called Ryo"
"Aw crap"
"Aw crap indeed" Maxim responded "How shall we deal with him today, do what he says, or the opposite of what he says?"
"Let's try ignoring 'im"
"Sounds great, Plan C is always a good plan"
"Unless he shouts that we're about to get shot and we ignore him"
"Alright, Plan C addendum, Ignore Ryo, unless it's directly related to the combat scenario"
"Sounds good to me"
They walked off to the hangar to head to the mission, feeling a little happy with their new plan
"The aliens are goin' full on terrorist" Karl exclaimed as he read the briefing
"It would appear they are" Ryo sneered "You are a very slow reader you know"
"Max did you hear something?" Karl looked around like he'd heard a strange noise
"Probably the ship powering up" Maxim smiled to himself
"Ah, that makes sense"
"Hey, what are you doing?" Ryo demanded
"It would appear they are ignoring you" Aya explained, locking her pistol to her thigh and picking up her shotgun (Now available in laser) "And it would probably be best to ignore their ignoring of you"
"Like fuck am I going to ignore it"
"Then you will get into a pointless argument where they will not respond. It would be like shouting at a wall. If they've decided to ignore you, they'll ignore you unless you actually go to hit them" Keith said, as he locked his rifle onto his back and picked up his helmet
"Then I'll hit them" Ryo took a threatening step towards the Karl and Maxim, who didn't move in the slightest (they'd discussed on the way over that he wouldn't actually be able to hit them, William would tell him not to, and Aya would kick his ass if he did)
"You will not" As if on queue the grenadier and team leader walked around a corner, his bulky armour, LMG (Laser as well... Maxim wondered what LMG actually stood for. Laser Machine Gun? But it was called an LMG before it was laser), and rocket launcher already on, and carrying a helmet under one arm (All of them had helmets except for Maxim, who was far enough back that the restriction to visibility wouldn't be worth the protection, and Ryo, he just never wore his, something about messing up his sense of smell and hearing, Maxim rarely paid attention when Ryo spoke)
Ryo growled and took a step back "You better watch your back"
"I think I got somethin' in ma ear, I keep hearin' things" Karl said, swivelling a finger in his ear (he took the gauntlet off first)
Maxim had to turn away so he didn't laugh
"You two are really immature" Aya said as she walked past, Maxim thought he could see a faint smile on her lips, but it was probably his imagination, or a trick of the light or something, Aya didn't smile.
"So. Where are we goin'" Karl asked when they were on the sky ranger (which still had the design of a shark mouth on it, either Dr. Shen hadn't noticed, was beyond caring, or, possibly, actually liked it?)
"Did you not read the report?" Ryo shout-asked
Karl looked at the others, ignoring Ryo
"Oh for the love of-" Ryo was interrupted by William
"We are going to a bridge in Japan, I won't bother telling you the name, you won't care or remember anyway"
"Are we taking Xeno home?" Maxim asked
"I'll take you home you mother-"
"Enough" William interrupted "Vampire, you can ignore him if you wish, but do not insult him, we don't need the tension right now"
"Sorry" Maxim muttered sheepishly, shifting he arm (He'd been keeping the plasma pistol hidden from Ryo, since he was certain he'd report him to Shen or Vahlen immediately)
"You fucking better be" Ryo retorted
"I said enough" William never raised his voice, but everyone knew by his tone to shut up immediately
"Since we have quiet" William said "And since we will be pressed for time when we get there. I shall explain the tactics now, agreed?"
Everyone replied in affirmative (Ryo actually said affirmative, everyone else used of mix of yep, yes, sure, etc.)
"Well, for starters, Vampire will look for a good position to get as clear a view as possible"
"Gotcha" Maxim replied (It's easy being a sniper, no need to worry about specific orders)
"Xeno and I are the only one's with experience with explosives, so we shall have to be the ones to disarm the bomb, although Dr. Shen did say the nodes powering it should shut down after a good hit, it would still be preferable to allow one of us to do it if possible. So we shall split into 2 teams. Xeno, Psycho, and Scotch, on the right side of the bridge. Spray and I on the left with Vampire covering both sides" (William always made sure to keep Ryo, Karl and Maxim as far away from each other as possible) "If you see a node, alert either myself or Xeno, and we will disarm it, move up the bridge, the power readings are showing it will be ahead of out landing zone. Since this was a infiltration mission, we are likely to encounter multiple of the 'Thin men' variants, so keep spread out to discourage their poison spit"
"I really hate that poison" Keith muttered to himself
"You are not supposed to like it. It is poison" Aya replied
"If you do happen to get hit with the poison, don't panic, it lasts only a short time, and cannot kill you unless you suit has been severely damaged. If this is the case, call for Scotch and he will assist you. Although he only has enough for 3 doses, so we need to be as careful as possible"
"Why didn't we bring 2 medics then" Ryo said
"Because Mr. Smokes" (Oh, that sounded cool. Why did everyone else get cool names when Maxim was stuck with Vampire) "As you know, is currently occupied assisting his brother"
"He'd be fine for a few hours"
"But Mr. Smokes would still be worried about his brother, and would not be able to focus fully on the mission. The Commander takes a lot of time to choose who should go on missions. You would do well to not question it"
"Then why'd he put us and Ryo together?" Maxim thought, but didn't say it. That would be acknowledging Ryo was there, and they weren't doing that.
Sorry this one's a little shorter. I wanted to save the mission for the next part. As this is the last mission before the facility attack. I will have the next part up soon. Before the 7th of July, as I will be going on a trip, and wont be back until the following Friday (The 15th, not the 8th). Once I get back I will then have to actually play the mission as well, and then write it up. So part 11 will probably take a while longer than the others to get up, so I will make it longer, probably working like a 2-in-1 chapter, since the mission will be long anyways. As long as Maxim doesn't die in the foreseeable future this should carry on until the final mission (Here's hoping Maxim, Karl or Aya's a psionic... or even Ryo, that'd be fun). If Maxim dies I will probably have a first person scene of him dying, then, depending on how I feel about It, either have it end there, or carry it on from Karl's perspective, is he then dies, well, I think that'd be X-COM's way of telling me to stop. Anyway, I've waffled a bit here. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stick with me through this.