Summary: XCOM investigates the Blacksite.
Even with strict orders for bed rest, Bradford was finding out just how hard it was to keep a stubborn dog leashed.
Placating the Commander with the occasional good and bad news was no longer cutting it. Even the news of the successful rescue of Mox barely lightened her mood.
Any attempts to ask Jynn about that day that shot her mood ended in hostility and at least one instance of a broken nose for him. All this foul tickled that taste for the bad habit Bradford had fought for so long. He started avoiding passing through the bar as he felt the urge grow in response to the Commander's growing stubbornness.
Stubbornness. She broke orders time and time again, like the stubborn mule she was until they eventually gave up. Jynn wanted to be back on the Bridge whether he and the others liked it. Especially for their future raid on the ADVENT Blacksite in a few days.
If her health wasn't in question, Bradford wouldn't have minded that stubbornness and tenacity. It reminded him of the old days. Of her butting heads with the Council members that always had a bone to pick. But her health was in question. She was wearing herself down, and it was showing.
She barely slept or ate, and at other times, she seemed spaced out. Everyone questioned how she even functioned.
A few of the Bridge officers started making bets to see if Bradford would exit her quarters covered in the latest attempt to get her to eat. Let's just say Bradford kept a set of clothes stashed on the Bridge.
Betting continued with the doctors' attempts. Who would be maimed and who wouldn't? There were many times there was the sight of a few doctors racing out of her room after an attempted check-up. From her shouting and a few instances of broken noses, she still had some bite to her despite her wasting appearance.
"Keep moving, Menace, and get into that building. The facility is on alert and we're getting reports of dropships heading your way." Central said.
So far, the squads' infiltration to the Blacksite was going well. They had a few run-ins with the guard patrols, especially the Viper patrols, but so far, things were going well. Shots were traded, and a few hits were taken but were still in the game. They were just outside the main building. Those chimneys were pumping out ominous black smoke. Crossing the railroad tracks after clearing out another guard patrol and automated turrets. And there was a train stationed there, loaded down with the latest shipment that was on it and just outside the building.
"Hold on! Are those…!?" Shen gawked. She was keeping tabs on the mission from her workshop when she saw the shocking sight.
"What the!? Are there people in these?" Falcon shared the same shock as she got a closer look.
There were pods with green-tinted glass on the train and around the building. The pods were filled with bodies. Human bodies.
"The aliens are still abducting people." Central said. He never felt like that had truly ended after the Invasion with the amount of missing people, in and outside the cities, growing every day.
"They never really stopped." Commander Reeves shook her head.
"Those containers look like they have self-contained power cells, it could be some kind of stasis system. It's possible at least some of those people might still be alive." Shen pulled some data from Farsight's Gremlin that was running some scans.
"Not our focus for now, Shen." Commander Reeves said somewhat coldly. "We don't have the manpower to move those pods, nor the space to store them. Then we don't even know the states of the people inside of them." Her heart went out to all those innocents in those pods. But they couldn't do a thing for them. Who knew what ADVENT did to them, let alone if they were even alive in those things?
"Right… it's a note for the future."
As the squad moved closer to the building, looked as if the forklifts were loading the pods onto conveyor belts that went into the building.
"I feel like this is a processing plant." Commander Reeves muttered under her breath. Reminded her too much of the old alien bases. She wondered if they would find the poor inhabitants of those pods on the inside being dissected. Then something caught her eye on one screen.
"Don't touch them! We don't know if they have a security system on them!" She suddenly shouted. She had noticed one of their soldiers was about to touch the keypad to one pod. "And you don't want to activate any fail-safes. You do not want to witness a body being liquified."
"L-l-liquified?" Rowdy stuttered. He looked over to whoever it was that was not keeping their hands to themselves. It was Clicker. Sometimes his curiosity got the best of him. "Am I hearing you correctly?"
"What the Commander says is true." Central said. He mentally shuddered, remembering that back in the day. "You do not want to see that."
Clicker cringed at everything he heard. He retracted his hand from the keypad. "I'll keep my hands to myself."
The squad reached the door. A quick scan from Farsight's Gremlin confirmed they had some hostiles on the inside. Something to keep in mind.
"Opening the doors." Raven said as she opened the door.
"Holy shit."
"My god."
"What the hell…"
All the squad members said something as those doors opened. Several of the Bridge operators shared the same shocked reactions as those in the field. Chatter nearly ground to a halt as they watched what was on the screens.
"They really never stopped." Central said, eyes wide as he watched the screens. He could feel his stomach churn. He swallowed hard. Others weren't so lucky. He heard the sound of wrenching come from a few on the Bridge.
He glanced at the Commander. She looked to be holding up so far, but he was starting to worry this would bring up some terrible memories.
Commander Reeves was silent, eyes were locked intently on the screen. Though she looked stoic, her hands tightly gripped the arms of her seat, turning her knuckles white. What is your game, Elders? What have you found in humanity that you all do this?
Towering high from the ceiling to the floor were racks containing tubes upon tubes. Naked bodies were within a sickly green soup contained within the tubes. Bodies of humans of varying sizes and possibly ages. Bodies stripped down to their bones. Some tubes only contained skeletal remains. Just how many people were in this facility? How many had been processed before they finally came across this place?
"So many victims, processed with such brutal efficiency. Test subjects for some sort of weapon, perhaps?" Tygan made his observations.
"That looks more like a refinery to me, doctor." Shen added her thoughts. Then she noticed something and was getting some readings. "Picking up something in the back of the room."
As the team hesitantly continued to enter, the racks shuttered and began to descend into the murky green waters one after the other. As they did so, they revealed a room in the back. In the center, something was glowing yellow and bright.
"What the hell?" Someone muttered, noticing the glowing sight.
"We see it." Central said as he enhanced the image. Looked to be a vial. "Maybe be a sample of sorts. Once we get our hands on it, we'll know for sure what they were doing in this place."
Gunshots rang through the air, followed by the barked yells of ADVENT Troopers.
"Look alive! Got a MEC and some Troopers!" Raven shouted. She had been spotted. Over to the right were a pair of Troopers accompanied by a robot.
The team quickly spread out to avoid a missile barrage from the MEC. A few hesitantly entered those murky waters that contained those body-filled tubes to get to cover and shoot back. Thankfully, nothing alive was in there.
It was close-quarters combat, but the squad took down the latest threat. A quick scan from the Gremlin and there were no more hostiles in the immediate area. They quickly made their way to the room in the back.
"Guessing that's not water in there. Shen, any readings?" Central commented as the squad entered that room.
"No signs of radioactivity, no significant energy signatures of any kind. Whatever it is, it's safe to handle." Shen said.
"I've got it." Fearing little, Raven went up to the strange holder and grabbed the vial. Nothing happened. "Wonder what the hell this is…" There was definitely some liquid in there.
"We've confirmed the acquisition of the sample. Rendezvous at the extraction point." Central said.
"I've got a container." Farsight said as she came over with a small lockbox to put the vial in.
As Raven was handing the vial over to Farsight, a shot rang out as the nearby window shattered. A bullet whizzed past the two, just as the handoff finished.
"ARGH!" Clicker cried out, dropping his cannon. He was gripping his right arm tightly, as a red stain grew on his clothes. "WHAT THE HELL!?"
The place was empty. Who fired the shot?
"Even when I miss, I still hit." A deep chuckle infiltrated their comms. "I'm just that good."
"Oh, for the love of." Central recognized the voice and the cameras quickly found the culprit.
"Hello to you, Central." It was Kon-Ris, the Hunter. He was out to the west, having found a nice little perch on an outcropping to snipe them from. "Can't let your people leave with that vial. Though I could care less, the Elders aren't too happy you found this place."
"Wondering when one of you would show up." Commander Reeves mumbled under her breath. He was still in the region after ambushing their squad that recovered Mox. She thought he would have been busy torturing that Reaper. Most likely had to stop his fun per the Elder's demands.
"Aaaw, cat got your tongue, Gresham?" He grinned. He was watching the XCOM squad quickly scramble for more cover and treat their friend. But cover would be of little help. His scope switched to an X-Ray-like mode, and he could still see them. And those metal walls meant little to his rifle. "Will taking off the heads of one of your soldiers make you more chatty?"
"Go to hell." She said. "Farsight. Have your Gremlin scramble."
"Right that!" Farsight snapped her fingers. "Do it, buddy."
Just as the Hunter had lined up his next target, the screen to his scope became a messy blur. His target blended in with the background. He couldn't make heads or tails of what was what.
"Oh, that's new." He pulled back and looked. He could see the squad moving again shortly after his scope went haywire. "This shall be interesting."
He holstered his rifle and raised his arm. That grappling hook fired off with a metallic zing. The next moment, he was skyward, pulling himself to the roof of the building.
"Keep moving to extraction. You don't want him to cut you off." Commander Reeves said.
"Heads up! dropship is just outside." Central said.
On cue, three Troopers and an Officer landed on the ground just as the squad was leaving the building. This quickly caused the squad to retreat back into the building as a hail of suppressive fire came down on them.
"Fix my arm so I can fire some grenades their way!" Clicker barked at Farsight. The wound had been lightly treated, but not enough for him to have a secure grip on his Grenade Launcher.
"Yelling at me is not going to make me work faster." Farsight said through gritted teeth.
Four shots rang out.
"ARGH!"
"AH!"
"ARGH!"
"AH!"
Four voices cried out. Voices of ADVENT.
"What the hell?" Falcon had caught a glimpse of the helmets of each Trooper and Officer exploding into orange blood.
"Did he just…?" Central gawked.
"Shoot ADVENT? He doesn't care." Commander Reeves shook her head. "All is fair game."
"Come out, come out now." Kon-Ris hummed, satisfied at his little deed. Even if the Elders were yelling at him in the back of his mind. He didn't care. He wanted his fun. His challenge. He popped out the mag to his rifle and loaded in a fresh one. "I've got something special for you all. Something hot."
"Well, I got a present for ya!" Clicker said.
"Hm?" Hunter's eyes darted around. No one was in sight. But he felt a thud below his feet. He looked down, but nothing was there. Then he heard a click. Then muffled beeping. The other side of the ceiling. He shook his head but smiled as he noticed the squad quickly running from the building. "Oh, you cheeky ba—"
The next second, the second of the roof Kon-Ris was kneeling on, erupted into a fiery explosion. The Hunter barely let out a yell as he was launched off the rooftop and landed on the pavement below with several hard thuds.
"Ah…" He grunted as he slowly pushed himself up. He shook his head several times as a high-pitched whine rang in his ears. "Taking pointers from the Reapers? Cheeky."
"Those sticky Proximity Mines are a new favorite." Clicker grinned, quickly glancing back to see his work.
"Stay focused! We've got some trouble ahead!" Rowdy said, seeing two Troopers and a Viper near their extraction point.
As the squad engaged their last hurdle to freedom, the Hunter was on the one again. He picked himself up, teleporting his rifle to his hands, and quickly found himself some high ground. As he set his sights on his targets again, he shook his head. The ringing was still in his ears, and he had a growing headache.
"Ah…" He hissed. Nonetheless, he raised his rifle and set his sights on Farsight. "Not going to let a little headache stop me."
He fired.
But missed.
And kept missing.
"Hrm." The Hunter growled as he tried to steady his arm. "Seems like The Elders handy work isn't so perfect." Kon-Ris made a jab at himself.
With each missed shot, surrounding vegetation erupted into flames like dry brush ignited by the slightest spark.
"He's got some new ammo." Central commented.
"And he doesn't like explosions too much. Jot that down." Commander Reeves noticed the Hunter was disoriented after the explosion. Looked like the sniper had a weakness.
One crushing Viper tongue pull and bind for Falcon, and Rowdy quickly coming to the rescue with a well-placed blade, the squad quickly boarded the Skyranger and was off. Just in time too as more dropships were heading in.
"You win this time, XCOM." Kon-Ris chuckled. "Good. Wonder how much this will piss off the Elders. Till next time. Ciao."
"Is he seriously rooting for us?" Several people, both in the squad and on the Bridge, commented on that.
"He is a strange one." Central shook his head.
As the operation was wrapping up, Central turned his attention back to the Commander. She looked fine, but he could tell what they saw was bothering her. He could only imagine she was remembering what they saw back during the Invasion. Not the same gory detail, but it was all the same.
"Commander, how ar—
She raised her hand, silencing him.
"I'm… I'm going to go to my Quarters. Fill me in on what Tygan has to say about the vial when it gets here." She said. With that, she got up and made her to her room. Central sighed. He'd check on her sometime after their soldiers got back. But he was worried she was possibly going to spiral. He sent an internal memo to the doctors, telling them to be ready.
May 3 2035
120lbs / 5'11" / Restricted / — — —
Those bastards. Those damn bastards. The Black Site. How many bodies were there? How many processed? How many more places are like that?
I know you can hear my thoughts. Those abductions never stopped, now did they? You've still been plucking people, experimenting on them, tearing them apart. Why? What are you looking for? Answer me. I know you can hear me. ANSWER ME.
….
…
…
This… I know this is going to affect my dreams, my nightmares, and more. Damn it. I'm running on fumes already. I haven't gotten more than 4 hours of sleep for several days. The others are starting to notice. Same with the crew.
…
I think I'm starting to fall apart… Everything tearing at its seems. Barely keeping this mask on and it's slowly starting to slip. All starting to fall apart.
…
Just answer me. I know you can hear me. Why? Why all of this?
No more journal entries. For the next several days.