Sorry that this one took a bit longer than usual. I've been a bit busy recently. I'll try and get this finished before I go back to school, but it might end up taking a bit longer.
"Operatives Maxim Popov, William Ward, Joe Sanders, Aya Haidar, Masambe Digkale, and Harold Sanders, please report to the hangar"
"Every time!" Maxim complained. There was still almost 8 minutes left on the match. "They never call me when it's searching for a match" he turned off the console and got up.
"Hey Max" Karl said, he was heading down the corridor
"Oh, hey. You heading to the bar?"
"Yep, and you gotta go on a mission thing"
"Yeah, but you gotta do the bar thing without Aya"
"Aw man. Didn't think of that. Well, I gotta figure out how to make my drinks like Aya does"
"Well, good luck with that. I'm gonna go shoot some aliens in the face"
"Kill one for me"
"Make me"
"Woah, cool armour" Maxim said, Masambe and Harold were wearing some new suit, it was considerably thinner than the other suits, even thinner than Maxim's own suit, which was designed to be as light as possible, and looked considerably sleeker, he could also see a thin line of purple running thought the armour, like a circuit, running from the helmet around the suit, then back to the helmet, without knowing how he knew, Maxim could tell that this psionic line was designed to re-bound the psionic energy back into them, allowing them to use their abilities more efficiently, and also created a thin veil around them, protecting them from outside psionic's "Damn. That's some serious psionic tech"
"Yeah" Harold said "Not very tough, but we can just wreck those aliens with our abilities now"
"Commander said he wants us to test out our capabilities with psionics in this armour" Masambe replied
"Why don't I get one?"
"Because you're too far back to be able to use the abilities efficiently most of the time, your skeleton suit is really useful for you, and creating these suits is extremely difficult, so they wanted to equip them to only Harold and I, since we are the offensive psionic-users"
"Sorry, mister science, i'll shut my mouth"
"Alright, enough chit chat, let's get going" Harold shouted out, he was already inside the skyranger, strapped into his seat
"A little eager" Maxim said
"He's been like this since the ambush incident. Perhaps the combat stims have caused some kind of-"
"La la la la" Maxim covered his ears and shook his head "Stop scienceing me. I preferred just philosophical Masambe, stop being science"
"Sorry. I'll leave the science to Vahlen"
"Thanks"
"Who's got the stealth suit this time?"
"Joe"
"Ooh. We have a stealth cyborg now?"
"Apparently, yes. But be careful using the C-Word"
"I never used the C-Wo-"
"Not that. Don't call Joe a cyborg, Harold doesn't like it"
"Oh yeah. Sorry"
"Don't be sorry, just be quiet"
"o.k" Maxim whispered
"Vampire, to the high ground" William said as the exited the skyranger
"Why another bloody forest" Maxim thought. None of them have been shot down in a field, or a town, or, something, anything but another bloody forest. But he did as William said, and grappled up to the plateau, getting behind a log.
"Smoke, stealth ahead" Joe shimmered, and then disappeared. But, again, Maxim could see the purple glow around him, he kept an eye on him as he went, and scanned the area with psionic vision. Nope. Why did the aliens never hide behind tree's or bushes. It's like they knew he could see them. The other's of the squad began to advance towards the ship wreck he could see in the distance, though his view of it was blocked by tree's, he could see through them, but not fire through them, he'd have to move before they entered the ship.
"3 Mutons. At the side-door" Joe whispered into the com's. Whispering wasn't really necessary, they helmet would block his voice from being heard anway, but it would probably feel strange to be stealthing and just talking normally. "3 more just showed up. First group went back in. Looks like they're on patrol routes or something"
"I can't get a view from here. Moving" Maxim said, noticing another plateau bit a bit further up, it was a bit too far to grapple, so he hopped down from the ledge, and began running towards it. Stopping by a tree to grapple. He heard a loud roar and turned to see 2 Mutons, running to cover behind some logs. And a Berserker, running straight for him "OH SHIT. ZERKER!" One of the muton's popped off a shot at him, but he ducked and it flew over his head. Just as the berserker reached him, and Maxim began wondering if his telekinetic field could repel melee attacks, the Berserker suddenly stopped running, stiffened, turned, and began charging at the Mutons, leaving behind a faint purple glow. Realizing what was going on, one of them had take control of the berserker's mind, he jumped over the log, getting cover between him and the Mutons, and hit one with a Mindfray
"Overheating" Joe called, as his stealth field ran too hot from over-use, and shut itself off, and set off the 3 mutons near him. One of the aliens roared as he hit it with the plasma rifle, followed by a grunt from Joe as he caught a plasma ball in his cyborg arm. Maxim turned from the Muton's. The berserker could take care of them easily, and moved over to another tree to get cover between him and the 'elite' Mutons. "Rocket out" William called, as he fired a rocket at the group, but, in a rare occasion for the demolitions expert, he aimed the tube a bit too high, and the rocket struck the ground a bit too far back and to the left. As the rocket missed, one of the Mutons just fell over, obviously a victim of a Mindfray (Man, screw guns, we have our mind-powers). And another of the Mutons stiffened, and turned to the other one, and took a ball of plasma to the face, dropping to the ground, shortly before it suffered a huge hit, from a combined Mindfray from Maxim and Masambe at the same time. It didn't quite die, but it was clearly fucked up. It tried to run back into the ship, but only made it about half way, before it took a plasma bolt to the face from Joe. Maxim looked around and did a quick head count "Wait a sec. Where's Psy-" but was interrupted by a loud thud behind them. He turned to see Aya jogging towards them from the corpse of the Berserker. Shotgun in 1 hand, a Berserker claw-blade in the other, and Maxim just noticed that the Berserker's head was actually a few feet away from it's body. Apparently complete decapitation could kill literally anything. "Why did you kill it! I had it under my control!" Harold shouted, storming towards her. "You were about to lose control of it, and you know it" she replied, in her usual monotone, seemingly disinterested in his anger, as she seemed to be trying to work out how to attach the blades to her own armour.
"I could have mind-controlled it again" Harold defended
"Vahlen recommends we do it only once per deployment. Doing it too often could cause some trauma"
"Whatever! It doesn't matter now anyway" Harold began moving towards the ship, pumping him shotgun.
"Wait Boomer" William said. Harold stopped, and looked at him
"What" Harold snapped
"Let me blow us a hole first"
"Fine"
"Everyone get into position for a breach"
Everyone began moving towards positions. "Got it" Aya said, Maxim looked over to see her moving her right arm around, 3 metal claws not attached to the wrist, extending over her knuckles, on the Berserker's, they looked little bigger than daggers, but on Aya's wrist, it became obvious, the blades were almost the size of a scythe blade. The blades over twice as long as her entire hand. "Careful you don't cut yourself" Maxim said
"I'm good with my hands" Aya replied. Maxim could practically hear the wink in the voice, and hadn't realized he still had psionic vision on, so he saw the wink as well. He could feel his face turning red, really wishing he had a full helmet now, and tried to cover it by pretending to reload his sniper, hoping the green glow of the plasma would cover it.
"Breaching" William called out, as he fired a rocket at the ship. Blowing a massive hole in the side. "Smoke, stealth in"
Joe re-engaged the stealth field, it having cooled down enough to be used again, and began moving into the ship. "It's one of the smaller one's" Joe called out "Cock-pit's at the back"
"Re-form inside then" William said. They moved inside. Maxim took position by a box-thing by himself. William at the one opposite him. Aya, Masambe, and Joe getting behind the railing-thing in the middle. "I'll blow the right wall" William said, getting a grenade out. Harold moved further inside, getting right by the wall, giving off a slight growl as he got into the position, and maxim immediately saw the normal ambient purple glow become pure black. For a second he thought he'd been mind controlled, then remembered that Harold had the combat stims. "Frag out" William called, and threw the grenade, it rolled right to the wall, and detonated, taking out the wall. Inside was an Elite Muton, and one of the 4-armed aliens, which Maxim had started calling Ethereal's, after the leaders of an alien race in a game he played (Because they had similar coloured skin, both used magic-like abilities. And because he liked the saying of the aliens in that game, imagining that's what the aliens would say 'For the Greater Good'), and the name had been taken up by everyone else. The Muton raised it's gun to fire, but stumbled as it took a Mindfray from Masambe, and it's plasma balls struck the ceiling. The Ethereal turned it's helmeted head towards the group, and Joe's entire left side went slack, and he began swinging his gun around, apparently trying to aim it at someone, but only able to use one hand, and being too close to Masambe to be able to move properly. Masambe bright up the LMG, and began unloading into the Ethereal, just as he began firing, Maxim saw a pulse around the Ethereal, and the shots that struck near the alien bounced back, and William ducked back down as some reflected shots grazed his shoulder, and Harold took several to the chest, but didn't even seem to notice, as he ran inside the cockpit, dropped his shotgun, jumped over the console the Muton was behind, and out of Maxim's sight. Aya leaped the wall, and began zipping towards the alien, using her suit to speed her even more, firing a shot point-blank into the aliens leg, causing it to fall. Aya raised her new claws, and seemed to be about to spear it with them, when it made a pushing gesture with it's 4 arms, and Aya went flying backwards into the wall, however, it underestimated her skills. As she hit the wall, she went with the impact, managing to move herself in the air, so she hit the wall feet first, bending her knees, and launching herself back up. She flipped around in the air, and landed, claws first, on the aliens face.
"All contacts clear. Well done everyone" Bradford came over the coms.
Joe stopped swinging his gun around, and slumped to the ground. "You all right?" William asked
"Yeah. Cybornetic's just being unresponsive. Difficult to stand up with 1 leg and one side a lot heavier than the other" Joe replied. Lifting his right hand and removing his helmet. His cybernetic eye was dull, whereas before it had a light in it
"Maybe mind-control can't take over cybernetic parts" Masambe suggested
"Probably" Joe agreed
"Here's hoping they start working again. Otherwise someone's gotta carry you back to the ship" Maxim joked
"Here's hoping" He leaned his head back against the railing thing.
Maxim looked up, in time to see Harold moving back into view. He was covered in blood. Orange blood. Muton blood. Like, completely covered, it looked like he'd gone for a swim in the stuff.
"Woah. What happened to you?" Maxim asked. This cause the others to look up, except for Joe who remained sitting
"I was just giving that fucker what it deserved" Harold said, nodding his head towards the direction he'd come from, behind the wall. Maxim was suddenly really glad there was a wall there still, as he was pretty sure he didn't want to see what's behind it. As he remembered what Vahlen had said about the combat stims when they'd made them, before Joe and Harold had even joined X-COM.
'These stimulants will release adrenaline, and other chemicals, which I wont bother listing, since only Keith would understand what they were, into the users system. Granting near immunity to pain and fear, and increasing the user's physical strength ten-fold' remembering that, and how strong Harold was anyway, and what Joe had told them about what he had done the other time he'd used them, left him virtually certain, that Harold had gone, and ripped that Muton apart with his hands. He never thought he'd feel sorry for one of those buggers, but facing an angry, stimmed up Harold wasn't something he'd ever want to face.
"Aya" Maxim called. She looked up from where she was, trying to pry the claws from the aliens head, presumably they were also stuck into the ground as well, since her fist was almost touching the alien's head. "That was awesome. How'd you do that"
"Conservation of momentum, and moments of inertia" Aya replied, still trying to wiggle the blades free, and slowly getting her fist further from it's head.
"What?"
"Science talk" Masambe replied
"Ah"
With a grunt of effort, Aya finally managed to wrench the blades out of the aliens head, unleashing another torrent of green blood. Damn, those stick guys had a surprising amount of blood for their size.
"I just realized. I think we only had 1 kill with an actual gun the whole mission" Maxim said
"Seriously?" Joe asked
"Yeah. You got one with your rifle as it ran, other than that, it was psionic's, or melee by Aya and Harold"
"Mind over Matter" Masambe said
"Yeah" Maxim replied "Fuck guns, we have brains"
There's going to be 1 more non-combat part. The final mission. Then a final part, to finish up the story, and set up for XCOM 2 (Not sure on a title for it yet. But it'll tell you in the final part if you want to carry this on. I could, of course, go for, A Gamer's Career 2, but, 1. that just sounds a bit strange, and 2. I'm thinking of having the next one bounce more between characters, so we get perspectives from quite a few people, and won't really have any 1 main character).