The first bit of this will be seen by someone else. I'll show it with Italics. A lot happened on a mission when I took out 'the B team', and I thought it would be fun to see things from another character's perspective. I may have other sections like this later if I think it fits, but not that often. It's still Maxim's story. I just didn't want to have a character describing what happened.

Harold ducked back behind the wall of the ship. The mission had started so well, they'd landed just in front of the ship, so no slog to find it, they'd set up in cover outside, and begun moving in, they'd encountered some Sectoid Commanders, taken 2 of them out, and the other one had run, they'd moved in a bit, then all hell broke lose. Apparently the aliens had been waiting in ambush. 3 Muton's, more heavily armoured than normal, and with bigger guns had run in from the back, followed by a massive bi-pedal robot with 2 drone accompanying it, as if that wasn't enough, 3 Floaters, similarly to the Muton's, more armoured and with bigger guns than normal. Ryo was outside the ship, taking shots from his cover with the plasma sniper rifle they'd gotten recently, Joe, Eva, and Chipo were all crouched behind a small wall on the ground, he was currently ducking behind the wall of the ship, reloading his shotgun, a new creation by the Engineering team, roughly the equivalent of plasma weaponry in power, but firing fragments of the alloy the aliens use, very deadly. The S.H.I.V unit that had come with them was inside the ship, drawing their fire so the soldiers could take shots in safety.

There was a loud explosion from inside, and Harold looked around the corner. The S.H.I.V unit was nothing but smoking rubble. He checked around, there was no cover he could get to that the aliens couldn't flank him from, so he put his shotgun away and took out his pistol, taking some shots, and destroying one of the drones. Chipo took out her rocket launcher, and damaged the robot, destroyed the other drone, and hurt a couple of the floaters.

"Spread out!" He shouted, the normal Muton's brought grenades to battles, so it was safe to assume these 'Elite' ones would as well.

Eva sprinted to the wall opposite him, taking a shot as she went, which finished off one of the damaged floaters. Ryo took a shot, destroying the other damaged floater.

"Smoke out" Joe called, as he took out one of the grenades that earned him his nickname, engulfing him and Chipo in smoke.

The aliens began their firing, beams of plasma flying over the heads of Joe and Chipo as the Muton's tried to hit them, but misjudged where they were in the smoke. The robot moved, looking like it was bracing itself against something, and a slot on it's back opened. Harold was worried about that, but didn't have the time to think about it before he heard a loud bang, and shouts of pain from next to him, he couldn't see clearly because of the smoke, but assumed one of the Muton's had thrown a grenade.

"Give me some cover!" He shouted, pointing to the Muton on the right side. Ryo and Eva both fired, Ryo's shot connected with it's helmet, and Eva's got it in the arm, but it didn't go down until it took another plasma bolt to the face from within the smoke cloud, as his brother followed his orders. A hail of plasma also came out, slamming into the robot, but doing little more than burning it's armour. Harold put pistol away, and took out his shotgun as he ran over to the wall that the Muton had been standing above, but he didn't use it yet, he turned to the Muton on the other side, and sent his anger at the alien, his own personal fling on the 'Mindfray' was to just use anger or some other strong emotion, and use that to fuel his powers. The alien roared and shook it's head, not dead, but clearly hurt, and, because of how it worked, disorientated, he was resting his hope on that preventing it from firing accurately. The alien raised it's gun, and fired at him, thankfully it didn't move, so he had a wall that covered him a bit, the alien also aimed too low, striking the ground with most of the hail, and the rest only connecting with the wall. He heard movement up above, and began getting ready to pull back, he didn't want to let an alien get above him, but was stopped by a loud whirring sound followed by dozens of loud booms, thankfully muffled by his tactical goggles. He glanced back to see the smoke dissipating, and Chipo lying on the ground, several feet further from where she'd been hiding, if not dead, then critically wounded. Joe appeared fine, apparently he'd been standing that few feet further that prevented, Harold was assuming it was a rocket barrage, by both the noise, and the scorch marks on the ground, from hitting him. Joe took out the med-kit and sprayed her, she dragged herself back to where she'd been, and Harold lost sight as she sat down behind the cover, but he was glad she was alive. Quickly he sprinted back to his last position by the wall outside, taking a pot shot at the Muton he'd Mindfrayed with his pistol, but missing. Ryo took a shot, striking the robot in the 'eye', it stumbled backwards, but was still up, until Chipo popped back up, opening up her LMG and spraying the robot with plasma, as he watched as the beams penetrated the armour weakened by the sniper shot, and turned away as it exploded. When he looked back, it was a smoking ruin in the ship. The S.H.I.V had someone to accompany it to Robot Hell now.

Harold was beginning to think they might be able to get out of this ambush. Shen would be pissed they'd broken the S.H.I.V, but they can always make another one. That was until he heard the beep, and saw the grenade come flying towards Joe and Chipo. He tried to shout a warning, but the alien had timed it perfectly, it reached the air between them, and detonated.

Rage filled him. He activated the stims in his suit. Engineering had made these a while ago, but he'd never used them before. Instantly he felt strength fill him, and felt 'the Red Veil' come over him, as it stimulated his body to release ungodly levels of Adrenaline into his system. He sprinted forwards into the open, no longer caring for his own safety with the pure rage filling him. He reached the middle of the room, and took a shot with his shotgun, the rain of shrapnel hit the alien in the face as it raised itself to take a shot at him, but didn't kill him. He heard rather than felt the shots the alien fired at him, he knew they were penetrating his armour, even though it was a new suit created by Shen, designed to withstand almost any punishment, but not feeling any pain, and not caring. He could hear the others taking shots, but also didn't care, all he felt was rage, and he let it fuel him. He focused his rage on the alien that had thrown the grenade, and killed it with the Mindfray, he sensed it's head explode, but couldn't see it as it's helmet blocked his view, and was disappointed at that. He felt more shots, but the stims kept fuelling his rage, he turned and sprinted over, crossing the hangar and getting right in front of the Floater than had shot him, he grabbed it with one hand as it tried to fly away "Don't fly away no little raven, we aren't finished" as he jammed the muzzle of his shotgun into it's face, actually pushing the gun through the helmet with his enhanced strength, and blowing the aliens head into nothingness, covering him in the aliens green blood, enjoying the slight burning he felt as it connected with his bare face, before throwing the body away. He could feel the stims warring off, but, using his Psionics, he stimulated his mind himself. He looked around, the other aliens had been killed, but there was only 2 Muton corpses, and he heard a loud stomping above him. He gave chase. Running up the ramp, and out the alien 'door'. Seeing the interior of the ship, but running down the other ramp, towards the area the alien had run, he got to the middle of a hallway, and heard a plasma weapon firing up, he didn't even look over, but focused his rage, and killed it with his mind.

He heard a voice in his ears, and released his grip on the Psionic powers, finally allowing his mind to return to normal.

"-turn to base" he caught the end of Central's usual all clear, and turned, seeing Ryo and Eva standing behind him, looking shocked, he was about to say something when he say Joe come down the ramp at the back, and he pushed past them, and ran over to him, and wrapped his brother in a hug.

"I thought you'd died" he muttered, feeling utterly drained as the adrenaline drained out of him, and he began to feel the pain of his injuries

"I almost did" Joe replied, Harold could hear the pain in his voice, both physical and emotional "Chipo wasn't as lucky"

Maxim was awoken by a loud Klaxon. "Oh come on" he complained. The Commander had said they'd be getting some time off, since they now had enough soldiers to form 2 teams, with the addition of one of the robot S.H.I.V units and Chipo, so 'The B team' had taken over the last couple missions, and 'The A team' were having a break from operations. Maxim took the opportunity to get a lie in. But apparently something was going on. He dragged himself to his feet, and went out of his room. He saw Aya in the corridor "What's going on?"

"The other team just came back from the mission"

"Well that's-"

"Something happened. Apparently it was an ambush"

"Oh shit"

"I came to get you. Come on Vampire" Aya turned and began walking off. Maxim followed

Harold was exhausted, and he was suffering from dozens of plasma burns on his arms and chest. Joe had tried to give him a med-kit, but Harold insisted he was fine. The wounds weren't life-threatening, they just hurt like a bitch, and he was keeping most of the pain under wraps with his Psionics. Apparently the extra ability he'd gotten was the ability to just control his body functions, so he could release pain dampeners, and other body chemicals at will. Joe's injuries were a lot worse, it was a miracle he was still conscious. He'd survived the grenade only because of his armour, the right side of which was now a ruin, along with his skin, which was riddled with burns and shrapnel, there was a good chance he could lose the eye. They'd grabbed Chipo's body, and left immediately. Leaving the collection of the aliens to the scavenger team that came to the crash or landing sites. What a right fuck up of a mission. His first go at command, and they'd lost a S.H.I.V unit, and a soldier. The first X-COM soldier to die in action was under his command. He knew he should feel bad that he was thinking about his reputation rather than the dead woman, but he'd do that later, right now he'd rather not get into mourning. They were racing back to HQ as fast as the pilot could go, he didn't want Joe to collapse before they could get him to Rebecca.

"What happened?" Maxim asked as he came into the Hangar, the door above was open, but the Skyranger wasn't here yet

"We don't know" Rebecca said, she was there with a few other medical staff, wielding IV stands, stretchers, and other medical equipment that Maxim didn't recognise "Harold just contacted us, said Joe was in critical condition, and they were coming back as fast as they could"

"That's it?"

"It didn't sound like he could explain much else. We'll get the details when they get here. All we know is the aliens had been waiting for them"

"It was an ambush?" Aya asked

"Apparently" Rebecca said

This was insane. They hadn't had a serious injury for over 3 months, they'd had some minor stuff of course, it's unavoidable, but now the group had been ambushed, and someone was in critical condition. This didn't happen at X-COM. Right?

"Here they come" Rebecca said. A loud noise could be heard in the distance, the Skyranger was approaching, and fast by the sound of it.

A minute later the Skyranger came into view above, lowering into the hole, faster than it normally did.

"Get back" the Commander shouted as he came in and saw in lowering. Everyone backed up, giving it extra room to land. The Skyranger slammed into the ground, the ramp lowering before it landed. Harold exited first, supporting Joe with an arm over his shoulder. Joe looked fine. Harold and Joe turned and headed over to Rebecca, and Maxim caught a glimpse of Joe's right side. It was burned and covered in shrapnel, his right eye was shut, and the armour was in shreds

"Holy crap" Maxim muttered. He was amazed Joe was still conscious, looking closer, he notice Harold's armour was also broken in dozens of places, his skin visible through it was burned horribly, he also had a few cuts on his face, they didn't appear to be bleeding, but they looked bad. He tore his gaze away, as he heard footsteps on metal, and saw Ryo (kind of disappointed), and Eva carrying a body on a sheet of metal. 4 of the medical staff ran over with a stretcher, and they moved the body of, Maxim just realized Chipo, onto an actual stretcher, and then ran past, on their way to the infirmary. Rebecca put an arm around Joe's shoulder from the other side, and she, and the rest of the staff made their way to the infirmary. Eva following behind, a slight limp as she followed. Ryo was the only one that stayed in the Hangar with the other soldiers and the Commander.

"What happened?" The Commander asked.

Aya's rival didn't last long did she. First mission I took her on and she got wrecked by a Sectopod. In the actual mission, I ran her back out of the way of the Sectopod, and Joe to the side by Eva. But Chipo got hit by the rocket volley. I honestly thought I'd moved her far enough to be out of the way, but she got smacked and taken down. I'm not playing Iron Man, but I am playing Honest Man. That was an error of judgment on my part, and an error the soldiers could make in real life, since that was the first time they met one of those. And honestly, that mission was crazy. I go into the ship, and the entire crew's in there waiting for me. In a normal game I would have called the games Bullshit, and reloaded a save so it was different, but since I'm doing a story, I thought that'd be a fun mission to write up. Harold's got some anger problems. I honestly have never used Combat Stims before, never saw much use, then this shit happened. And Harold went full tank of their ass. He was getting shot by Elite Mutons, and taking 3 damage. I love them now. Harold's keeping them.