Chapter 4: A Walk Through the Forest of Death
A bright light passed back and forth across her eyes. Back and forth. Back and forth. If it went back and forth anymore Alicia was prepared to snap it in half.
"Pupil dilation looks normal" XCOM physician Dr Madison Albright declared. "No signs of a concussion, scans returned negative for alien contaminants"
"I was in prison less than twenty-four hours, Doc" Alicia explained. "I'm hardly likely to have picked up some alien STD"
Dr Albright seemed unimpressed by her patient's glibness. "Overall, I'm prepared to clear you back onto active duty" Dr Albright made a mark on her digital tablet. "Pending a mandatory rest period of not less than twenty-four hours"
"Oh, how fortunate for her"
Alicia pulled herself up into a sit in the examination chair. Across the AVENGERs infirmary Snakebite was sitting in another examination chair having her arm patched up by the doctor's assistant. "Tell that to my shattered arm"
"Glad to see you're both ok" Bradford greeted as he entered the Infirmary. Bradford immediately moved towards Alicia.
"How are you feeling?" Bradford asked.
"Fine" Alicia replied flatly.
"How did they catch you?" Bradford asked.
Alicia bit her lip, embarrassment and betrayal warring within her. "It doesn't matter" she simply replied.
Bradford was sceptical but chose not to pry, for now.
"Please tell me we got something" Alicia was quick to change the subject.
"Techs are still analysing the data. But they say they'll have something soon" Bradford explained he turned to face Alicia and Snakebite together. "Be ready, I want you both there for the next deployment"
Winter was bitterly cold in the European wilderness. Most didn't feel it though, safely buttoned up in the climate-controlled bubbles of the alien colonies. Only those stupid or desperate enough to live outside such borders ever felt it. Still, it felt good for Alicia to be back in her regular Assault armour. Somehow work shirts and skirts didn't really suit her.
The strike team were here because this was where they were going to find their VIP. The information retrieved from the ADVENT servers gave them enough intel to identify their target, Dr Elijah Cameron. Cross referencing it with data provided by the local resistance cells they tracked him down to an ADVENT convoy scheduled to pass through the area shortly. The Resistance had set up jamming equipment to stop the convoy from calling for reinforcements. It was up to XCOM to intercept and retrieve the VIP.
Snakebite hefted her replacement laser rifle in her arms. She had made to promise Shen she wouldn't drop this one. Peering through the scope she surveyed the challenge laid before them. An ADVENT checkpoint set up in the middle of the road surrounded by dense forest on either side.
A tall, gaunt Sectoid prowled around the front of the blockade, sniffing the air as if searching for prey before moving on. It seems ADVENT were utilising their more alien troops in more rural areas to avoid unnerving the human population in the cities. She much preferred them when they were smaller.
ADVENT Troopers were positioned all across the perimeter, moving in regular patterns to ensure the entire area remained under observation. All the while, their ADVENT Officer oversaw the entire facility from his position on the watchtower.
From her vantage point Snakebite could see as the rest of the team moved into concealed positions around the checkpoint. Sterling and Taylor on the flanks. Adams and Knightmare in the centre where they could direct fire as needed. O'Malley crouched on the far side ready to deploy medical and tech support as required.
"How's it look?" Sterling emerged over the radio.
"Pretty standard" Snakebite replied. "Big, tall and ugly up front. Drones circling the perimeter. Head drone standing on top of the tower"
"Ok, wait for my go and take out the Officer" Sterling ordered. "Provide fire support for the rest of the team on sweep and clear"
"Roger that, awaiting your go" Snakebite confirmed.
Snakebite brought her eye back to the scope, lining up the crosshairs with the deep red helmet of the ADVENT officer. She had to wonder if ADVENT had chosen that colour specifically to intimidate humans. All the other alien's blood were various shades of blues and greens intermixed with the occasional orange. It was always possible after a few decades of subjugating the entire planet they had come to learn the cultural significance underpinning-
Snakebite heard the rustle in the trees above her. She ignored it, focusing on her target.
"Fire" Sterling ordered.
Snakebite saw the Officer turning towards her in her scope. She fired. The front of its faceplate splintered into a thousand shards of superheated alien alloys. The officer dropped in a heavy slump. A moment later, an explosion tore through the far side of the facility, a grenade, as the rest of the team opened fire.
Snakebite tracked for another target. An ADVENT trooper crouched behind a barricade. Snakebite fired; another helmet shattered. Snakebite heard a further rustle above her. It soon became too much for her to ignore.
Snakebite looked into the tree above her to see the long elegant figure of a Viper uncoiling itself from an overhanging tree branch. Her eyes met its piercing yellow orbs staring down at her. The creature let out a sharp hiss with a flick of its forked tongue.
Snakebite barely saw it move before the creature lunged forwards, coiling its serpentine body around her. The Viper began to tighten, jamming her rifle between her bodysuit and the creature's scaly tail. Her fingers convulsed around the trigger. The shot fired into the tree canopy, a shower of burning leaves and disintegrated branches falling on top of her. The creature did not allow her a chance at a second shot.
A sharp bolt of pain tore through her recently healed arm, the shock of the moment threatening to overwhelm her as the air was forced from her lungs with each tightening constriction. Snakebite focused herself on fighting to stay conscious. This defiance seemed only to serve in angering the creature further.
The body of her rifle buckled, its shattered remains the only saving grace as it prevented the Viper from gaining a firm and total grip around her. This allowed Snakebite to wriggle her arm free, pawing frantically for anything which may help her.
Her fingers clutched at the grip of her magnetic pistol still in the holster at her hip. Her finger slipped inside of the trigger guard. She couldn't see where she was aiming. She just silently prayed it was towards her own leg and fired.
The shot rang out. A sharp hiss of pain. She felt the creatures tail loose around her. She fired again. Another deep howl of pain, a loosening of the hold around her. She saw the Viper turn towards her, rage boiling beneath its golden eyes as it prepared to lunge towards her.
A third shot rang out. The Vipers head slumped, the light dimming in its eyes as it keeled over into the dirt still coiled around its victim turned killer. Snakebite fought to free herself of the Vipers dead weight. Her head was spinning with adrenaline. She felt like she was going to be sick.
O'Malley charged up the hill as fast as he could. He found Snakebite laid out on the floor next to recently deceased Viper, clutching her recently healed arm.
Snakebite glanced down at the dead Viper. "Guess she wanted her own back for me killing her dad"
"I can tell already that you're going to be one of my problem patients" O'Malley reached back to retrieve his Medkit form his belt. "Let's take a look here-"
"You back off Doctor Crippen!" Snakebite wielded her hand in front of her as though she were sign of God to the Devil himself. "Just give me the Medkit, and everything will be alright"
Despite his reservations O'Malley reluctantly unclipped his Medkit and handed it across. Snakebite held the Medkit to the wound and pulled the trigger. The sharp intake of breath gave credence to its effectiveness as the affected area was temporarily sealed against further infection or trauma.
The rest of the team were in the final stages of preparing the ambush when they heard the sound of engines on the horizon. They set about concealing themselves amongst the barricades and crates scattered around the facility. The convoy approached down the road; a civilian luxury car followed closely by an ADVENT troop transport.
The vehicles pulled to a stop short of the checkpoint. The air of tension only intensified as they idled just out of range. ADVENT guards stepped out of the transport. An Officer, two Troopers and a Lancer. The soldiers fanned out and began to advance towards the checkpoint.
"Remember people, we need him alive so no explosives and no shooting the humans" Sterling instructed.
The lead ADVENT trooper stopped, its head shifting to the side as if something caught its attention. A pointed finger shot out in front of it, a string of coarse alien tongue as it called out to the others.
"Drop him" Sterling ordered.
Snakebite fired. The chest plate of the trooper erupted in shattered metal and alien innards. The XCOM team opened fire, the ADVENT soldiers responded. Chaos descended. The ADVENT car tried to pull back; its way blocked by the troop transport behind it as it slammed into the vehicle in its desperate bid to break free. The car surged forwards in search of an escape. Aadams and Taylor turned their fire onto the front of the car, determined either to kill the driver or disable the engine.
The car swerved. The reinforced metal body scrapped hard against the road barrier with a screech of metal tearing against metal. The car turned hard to break free, overcompensating before losing control and smashing headfirst into the base of the guard tower. The engine of the shattered car strained and clicked with the sound of slowly cooling metal.
With the ADVENT guards dead, the XCOM team advanced towards the car. As they drew closer a beam from a laser weapon suddenly erupted from inside of the car, forcing the team to scramble for cover. Another shot lashed out.
Sterling crouched behind one of the roadblocks. "Snakebite, can you see him?"
"Negative, no view inside of the car" Snakebite reported.
Adams moved to crouch down next to Sterling. "Flashbang?"
"Too much of a confined space" Sterling rebuffed. "We can't risk permanent injury. We need them lucid enough to answer questions the moment we get back to the Avenger"
"Wait them out?" Aadams asked.
"Could be injured. Or ADVENT are already en-route looking for their missing convoy" Sterling explained. "Besides, I doubt that laser weapon is going to run out of change anytime soon"
Yet another reason to hate aliens.
"So, we're doing this the hard way?" Aadams asked.
"Afraid so" Sterling replied.
Sterling clutched his rifle tighter to his chest. "Alright everyone. We're going to have to rush them. Aadams and O'Malley rush the car from opposite sides, throw open the doors and subdue the target. Taylor and I will provide covering fire. Knightmare and Snakebite, if they get out you have clearance to terminate"
Rushing the target from two sides still left at least one of them in the firing line. Still, there didn't seem to be any better options.
Sterling raised himself out of cover, firing his assault rifle towards the car while avoiding the passenger compartment. Aadams and O'Malley approached low from each side, both expecting a fresh barrage of laser fire to erupt towards them. O'Malley reached for the door handle, yanked it open and prepared to-
O'Malley and Aadams froze.
"It's not our guy" O'Malley announced beneath his breath.
"What do you mean?" Sterling questioned.
"Like I said, this is not our guy" O'Malley reiterated. "This one's female"
Taylor stepped forward beside O'Malley, peering inside the shattered vehicle. She felt a sudden chill pass over her as she saw them. Sarah, the same Sarah who had handed her over to ADVENT, with a single red mark beneath her chin matched by one erupting through the top of her head. A single self-inflicted laser shot.
A surprisingly clean death, probably painless. The thought passed her mind that it was far better than what a traitor deserved but dismissed the idea immediately. If they started thinking like that, how long until they were little different from the aliens. Part of her found it a rather unsatisfying ending, so much she found herself unable to resolve. Such were the realities of life in the resistance. Whatever happened you had to keep moving. And sometimes, bad people die on their own terms.
"Menace 1-5, status report" Bradford broke through the looming silence. "Do you have the package?"
"Avenger. Negative on target" Sterling reported. "It's not our guy. Repeat, person in the vehicle is not our target. The passenger is female"
"So, where's our target?" Bradford questioned.
"Unknown" Sterling answered. "We'll search the area and…"
The rear door of the ADVENT transport eased open. A figure stepped down, stumbling and grasping the door for support. Taylor glanced over; a flash of surprise passed over her.
"Stop!" Taylor called out.
The figure ran from the checkpoint. A pale, bald man in a dark suit. A thin line of blood trailed down the side of his head. His hands clutched at his side as he ran. Taylor fired her assault rifle. The target kept running. The rest of the strike team followed her, adding another volley of fire to the pursuit.
"Cease fire!" Sterling ordered. "It could be our guy"
The gunfire faltered. The figure escaped into the woods; a thin trail of blood left in his wake in the snow.
"Central, we've spotted our target" Sterling reported. "He's escaped into the woods, we're pursuing"
"Understood Menace 1-5" Bradford replied. "The resistance jamming is still active; he can't call for reinforcements. He may be attempting to make it outside of the jamming range"
"What's the issue?" Aadams questioned. "He's just an ADVENT pencil pusher, he's hardly going to make it far in the snow if he's injured"
"He could moonlight as one of ADVENT's top killers for hire on the side" Snakebite countered. "They could train their researchers better than they train their field operatives. There's a lot of sensitive information in those eggy heads of theirs"
"Information we need. So, let's go find him" Sterling ordered.
The team split up to find him. O'Malley, Taylor and Adams went straight after him. Sterling and Snakebite flanked from one side while Knightmare moved to come from the other.
As they made their way deeper into the forest, Adams found his tension growing.
"I don't like this" Adams announced.
"Capturing an ADVENT VIP rather than killing him?" O'Malley asked.
"The forests" Adams replied. "Italians never did well here"
"You really think the aliens are going to charge out wearing fur and war paint?" Taylor joked.
Adams retorted. "I wouldn't put it past them to-"
A rustle emerged in the bushes beside them. Both turned with their weapons raised. No movement. They cautiously advanced side by side as they-
A beam of energy tore through the dense underbrush to strike Adams in the centre of the chest. Despite the limited force of the impact, Adams found himself thrown onto his back in surprise. As he flailed on the ground, he looked down to see the front of his armour seared by the heat of the shot. Out of instinct his hands reached out to clutch at the mark in search of a wound. That, was a mistake.
"Motherfu- that's hot!" Adams cursed, flicking his hand in a desperate effort to dissipate the lingering heat radiating through his glove.
Taylor and O'Malley fired into the brush, nothing.
"Come on, get up" Taylor reached down and pulled Adams back to his feet. The three charged off in the direction of the shot, resuming their chase.
They could feel the uneven ground rise and swell beneath their feet. They broke through the edge of the forest, emerging out onto the edge of a high cliff overlooking the dense forest beneath. The fugitive from the convoy stood perilously close to the edge, plasma pistol drawn and ready. A single look confirmed their target, Dr Cameron.
"You haven't shot me yet, which means you want me alive for something" Dr Cameron quickly deduced. "Well, I'm not doing it"
Sterling and Snakebite emerged behind them, adding considerably to the sum total of firepower pointing in his direction. This did little to change his attitude.
"All you do, you just fuck everything up" Dr Cameron spat. "I had a great life, a house, a job. But just being suspected of being near you means I'm good as dead"
"Then let us help you" Sterling interjected. "We can keep you safe"
"You think you can help?" Dr Cameron laughed coldly. "You think anything you did helped? How many of your own people you have lost? How many civilians were killed during your blatant acts of terrorism? You poked the beast and the people felt its claws!"
"We fight to stop ADVENT" Sterling persisted. "We put everything we have on the line to protect who we can"
"How do you think that makes us different!" the panic began to rise in Dr Cameron's voice, the plasma pistol wavering in his hand as his eyes searched for a way out. "You think you can stop them! You think-"
A single step was all that was necessary for the Doctor to lose his perilous footing. A loose soil gave way beneath him as he began to fall. Taylor and Adams were the first to react, charging forward they lunged to save the target that moments ago had nearly brought their deaths. Their quick reaction was all for nought however as they watched the Doctor disappear over the edge. The Doctors scream carried after him until there was nothing left in the air but silence.
"Menace 1-5, status report" Bradfords voice pierced through their radio. "Is the target secure?"
"Central" Sterling responded. "Negative. Package is lost, he went over the cliff"
"Understood Menace 1-5" Bradford responded, his air of professionalism never faltering. "We'll contact Firebrand for evac. Return to AVENGER"
A deep sense of cold despair passed through them in an instant. All that work, all that sacrifice, had been for naught. But they couldn't linger, couldn't let themselves be overtaken by their failure. With the target lost they knew all they had left was escape. ADVENT would arrive shortly to investigate and they knew they had to be gone before they arrived.
Already though, over the whistling of the breeze. They swore they could hear, engines.
Fearing another attack, the team readied their weapons for-
A thunderous roar split the silence followed swiftly by a blazing inferno of deep red light. Over the lip of the cliff came the jet-black outline of Knightmare. And secured between the SPARKs robotic hands, unharmed but for the loss of his weapon, was the Doctor himself.
"Humans are so predictable" Knightmare said with what could only be described as a hint of smugness in its synthesised voice. "That is why machines will always be superior"
Dr Cameron was escorted into the interview room by the barrel of the pistol held by the XCOM security officer. He took his place in the empty chair, his handcuffs clanging as he laid his hands down on the metal table.
"Dr Cameron" a voice spoke from across the other side of the table. The figure leant forward from the shadows; his white lab coat illuminated by the dim overhead light. He clasped his dark-skinned hands in front of him to mimic his counterpart. The man peered over the rim of his glasses as he spoke in a calm tone "Tell me about AVATAR"