Millstatt Am See, South East Austria, 1:53 am October 10th
Hermann Moser, Maintenance Technician
It had been a long day, and Hermann knew that the large amount of beer and shots that he had downed at Pieter's birthday celebration would make tomorrow even longer. He stumbled to one knee as his head swam, the cool tarmac of the road taking a moment to pierce the alcohol fuelled dullness of his mind.
Despite a scrape on his jeans, that he knew he would regret the next morning, the road reminded him...
"But, 'I'm on the highway to hell' anyway, so why not live a little before going down…" Hermann chuckled at his own joke about the song playing as he left the bar.
He continued singing to himself, weaving somewhat unsteadily down the Main Street of Millstatt am See. The small town in Southern Austria wasn't exactly plagued by hordes of traffic at night, so Hermann wasn't worried about getting in anyone's way.
Given it was only March, the unseasonably heavy rains had caused the town to get less visitors than usual, but tonight the crescent moon was easily visible amidst the almost cloud free night sky. But, Hermann's mind slowly started to say through the pleasant dullness brought on by the alcohol, there was something out of place even given the lack of drunken tourists.
"A power cut… Or perhaps Mayor Shulz' is trying to save money again." Other than the light of the moon and stars, most of the village was in complete darkness, which given the need for street lighting was odd even to Hermann in his inebriated state.
Shaking it off, as it wouldn't become his issue until he at least made it home, Hermann staggered another twenty yards before he froze on instinct. It took a few moments for his mind to register what his instincts had reacted to, the sounds of scratching and… Skittering?
It was a noise that Hermann had never heard before, and as he tried to locate where the sound was coming from he found himself even more confused. Turning to the building he could hear the sounds coming from, Hermann couldn't see anything that could be causing the noise from in front of the house.
In fact, it sounded like the noises were coming from abo…
A moment later there was a wet slicing sound as a body was slammed into the floor. Poor Hermann barely had time to realise he had been impaled through the chest, before the light faded from his eyes.
Moments later, the body was dragged from where it fell off into the shadows, the only sign of what had happened being a bloody patch on the grass of the lakeshore…
Hermann's blood mingled with the light rain, which started to fall a few minutes later, joining the dozen other bloodstains that now covered the ground in the same area...
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X-Com Headquarters- Commander's Quarters, 11:30 am October 10th 2017
Harry Potter, X-Com Operative 'Ghost'
"And then there was the time that Harry decided to try and recreate the botched polyjuice potion that I made in my second year. I think it was as much out of boredom, rather than 'to see if the benefits of partial animal hybridisation could be replicated in a controlled and temporary manner'. He spent at least three months looking like a human/owl hybrid, before we were able to create a stable version that only lasted an hour…"
Harry had given up having his head in his hands due to embarrassment, his face so red that he honestly thought he might stay that colour forever. Hermione had very quickly gotten over her anger at Dr Vahlen, at least for the time being, the two descending into the stories of Hogwarts with a vigour that amused/terrified Harry in almost equal measure.
There had been an alert shortly after he had first revealed Hermione to the pair of them, but Kate had insisted she would deal with it, leaving the three of them to give her instructions to Bradford before returning about twenty minutes later.
"Fascinating, and you are sure that there is no way we can work to replicate these 'potions'? Whilst I realise that many of the more… Exotic ingredients wouldn't be available here, if we could reproduce even one of these mixtures, the potential insights into how magic functions would be incredible." The level of fervour in Dr Vahlen's voice seemed to even shock Hermione slightly, the portrait silent for a few moments before turning to him with a questioning look.
"Is that what I look like when I get really into something?" Harry nodded, a small smile crossing his face, as his mind subconsciously brought up the memories of Hermione reacting in almost the same manner on more than one occasion.
"I imagine that's what we all looked like at one stage, the wonder of magic in a positive light…" Harry wished he could still feel that way about magic, to be able to work from nothing and create something wonderful in an instant.
But he had seen the darker side of magic too many times, where beauty and life could be torn from this world just as quickly...
Ginny's smiling face as they walked through Diagon Alley…
A small child, blonde hair swaying in the wind, holding up a small bracelet of wild flowers…
Black flames erupting, even as Harry noticed the child's blank gaze, screams filling the air…
Ashes, spreading in the wind, charred and burnt red hair the only remains...
Breaking from the memory with a start, Harry immediately forced himself to his feet without consciously thinking about it, Dr Vahlen and Kate starting slightly as he managed to relax himself from falling fully into a combat stance.
"Ginny?" It was a sign, both that Hermione knew him too well, as well as the fact that he had these lapses far too often.
"Yeah, sorry. Bad memories." There was several moments of silence after that, made more awkward by the fact that Harry could see Dr Vahlen struggling to not ask what was, undoubtedly, the first of many questions she had in mind.
He tried to think of something to say, a distraction to take attention away from being asked about the darkest parts of his past, but his mind was blank...
"Commander, report to the Command Centre immediately! Sabre team is under attack!" Never before, and probably never again, would Harry be so happy to hear Bradford's voice over the base tannoy.
"I'll take us, save five minutes… See you later Hermione, Moira." The portrait smiled at being addressed first, but as Harry turned away to look at a surprisingly nervous Kate, he missed the frown that appeared at the use of Dr Vahlen's first name.
"Is there, is there anything I need to worry about?" Harry suddenly remembered that this would in fact be the first time that Kate had experienced apparation, unlike the entire research team and Erin, who seemed to actually enjoy the sensation.
"Wrap an arm around mine Milady, I will ensure that nothing happens, gentleman's honour." It was definitely overplaying his British stereotype, but as Kate relaxed slightly whilst grabbing his arm firmly with both her own, it was clear she didn't mind.
Whilst he only needed to grab someone to apparate them, it always calmed those not used to apparation more if they were able to gain a firmer grip themselves.
A flick of his holly wand later and the two of them disappeared with the smallest of cracks. They appeared in the Command Centre, in the 'magic circle' that had been painted for him to apparate to, the space designated to ensure no one stood in it or placed equipment there.
"Commander, Sabre team arrived as back up for the Austrian army unit, which had been investigating the reports of aliens just before dawn, but the entire unit had been massacred having barely entered the town. Sabre team was checking the bodies when, well…" Bradford gestured up at the main screen before turning and typing into his console for a few moments.
Helmet cam footage, from the feed of Sabre team's rookie given Harry could see the other three members on the screen, though the man seemed to be struggling to deal with the aftermath of the attack around them. To be fair to the man, it was pretty brutal, limbs and blood scattered around like gruesome confetti.
"No signs of an explosive trap or even projectiles, which makes sense as the explosive force required to cause this would have levelled the nearby buildings." Sergeant Rodriguez seemed to be even more pissed off than usual, though his analysis was pretty accurate.
Harry stopped paying attention to Sabre team though, knowing that Bradford hadn't started from this particular point for no reason. A quickly mental count, as the feed continued to roll and the rookie collected fallen assault rifles, gave him a guess of 6-7 bodies scattered in what he guessed was the main road into the town.
"There are bodies missing…" The fact that Rodriguez and he spoke at the same time showed Harry was at least on the track, having counted at least twice as many weapons discarded where they fell.
"Survivors?" The question from the Rookie, Obi if Harry's memory of a quick glance through the man's personnel file was correct, caused a disbelieving snort from Rodriguez whilst both he and Kate shook their heads.
"With their main weapons here? Unlikely Rookie. And because the Commander is letting her feelings get the better of her, we aren't any better armed." Another mention of what happened whilst he had been distracted, but Harry's attention was on the flicker of movement at the side of the camera feed, he could ask the others for details later.
The camera didn't catch more than a blur, something shifting from one piece of cover to the next, but that was enough to make up Harry's mind. Whatever did this was fast, at least as large as a human and had already killed at least 15 soldiers from what he could count.
"Are the others ready? I can portkey us to their location using the key stones in Sabre team's armour." Going through a quick mental checklist, as Grace suddenly shouted about movement in front of them and the feed turned to see almost three dozen people staggering towards them, before he noticed everyone in the room staring at him.
"What?"
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Millstatt Am See, South East Austria, 12:04 pm, October 10th 2017
Grace Kelly, X-Com Sabre Team Corporal
"Another group!" Fahid's call barely got Grace's attention, the blood loss from the stump that had once been her left hand, made it difficult for her to concentrate.
Rodriguez' caution regarding unknown combatants had paid off on first contact, though given the rather gruesome condition of the 'zombies' that attacked them, Grace liked to think they would have guessed something was off.
They had been mowing down the walking corpses, after Fahid's initial approach had proved they were hostile, when there was a scream from behind them. Even now, the memory was terrifyingly fresh in her mind...
Even as she had turned around, Grace grabbed the lightened and enhanced pistol she had 'forgotten' to hand back in from its back holster, no one screamed like THAT for fun.
As the creature, having impaled Obi through the chest with one of its single pointed talons before discarding him still screaming to the side, threw itself at her, Grace guessed that her act of ill discipline wasn't such a bad plan after all.
The thing, easily 6 foot tall and looking like a horrific cross between an alien spider and Edward Scissorhands, was terrifyingly quick and agile. It closed the gap to her in the time it took her to finish drawing her sidearm, the assault rifle fire from her team barely slowing its assault as it kinked and dodged with supernatural ease...
The creature had taken her right hand at the wrist with its scything charge, before two .50 calibre rounds from her 9 MM. burst it's head open like a very gross watermelon. But, with Obi torn apart by Zombies before they could reach him, the situation had gone from bad to FUBAR remarkably quickly.
The shambling noises of the walking corpses approaching her brought Grace back to reality, and she made a snap decision.
"I've got these three, cover Rodriguez!" As Fahid reluctantly moved to help their former leader clear their route forward, Grace raised her pistol a little unsteadily to point it at the nearest of the three zombies.
Firing three shots as quickly as she dared, Grace frowned when only two of the zombies collapsed, the third only losing an arm just below the shoulder as it staggered backwards. This injury was affecting her more than she thought…
The zombie groaned for a moment and then resumed staggering forward, before a fourth shot took it's head off with a meaty squelch. Grace breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, before a skittering sound slowly became more and more audible, the sound filling her with dread.
"Creeper!" It wasn't the most inventive name for the assassin/stalker alien Grace thought, as she tried to draw a bead on the creature leaping from the rooftops to the street in front of her, though the poor naming wouldn't matter unless they got out of here alive.
Her first shot missed as the creature skittered forwards, the second round grazing it's chest as it got within ten metres and leapt. Luckily, the last two creepers had carried out similar attacks, so Grace had already had her pistol tracking it's trajectory. She fired, the Creeper's left talon explosively separated from the things body…
Click.
The noise, as she pulled the trigger again, made Grace despair for the moment she had to spare before the thing finished its leap, it's mouth spread wide as it unleashed a ear piercing screech…
Straight into an earthen fist? For a moment, Grace honestly thought she was hallucinating, her mind playing tricks on her in her last moments of life. Then she felt a hand land on her shoulder, the world twisted and Grace found herself not in Millstatt am See but back on base, surrounded by the Command Deck staff.
"Sergeant Kelly? Jesus! Get a medical team here now!" Bradford was next to her in moments, loosening the torquinet Rodriquez had put just below her right elbow.
The returning feeling in her lower arm brought with it pain and dizziness, Grace barely able to remain focussed as Commander Rayleigh stood in front of her.
"Sergeant, what happened out there? We lost contact with you after the first sighting of the Fallen civilians…" There was another slight crack, before there was a sudden wet thud next to Grace's collapsed form.
"It, it was a bad first day to return to basics Commander…" Before she could say anymore, there was shouting from somewhere behind her.
"Get out of the way. We need to get her to surgery now! Bradford, you grab her hand, Harry was nice enough to send it back, so we better not waste the chance to try and save it!" Oh, so that's what the other sound was, good to…
"We're losing her, get me a shot of…" As darkness descended, Grace decided she could work out what she missed later, after a brief rest…
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Outskirts of Millstatt Am See, South East Austria, 1:10 pm October 10th 2017
Harry Potter, X-Com Operative 'Ghost'
"Well this explains why we lost contact with HQ. We just thought that the Commander was ignoring us, nice to see she sent her pet project to save our asses…" After the discovery that Kate had banned the strike teams from using any of their new equipment and weapons amongst other things, Harry had not been in the best of moods by the time he had arrived on site at Millstatt.
Apparating to a location he only had a picture for was even harder over such a large distance, and thankfully he didn't splinch himself. Finding the team hadn't been hard either, the gunfire and shouting enough to quite possibly wake the dead. After sending Grace back to X-Com, and summoning her 'extra' limb to turn that into a Portkey as well, Harry helped the other two members of Sabre team fall back to where their Skyranger had landed.
"These Creepers really are something else, and if that weren't enough, the damn zombies…" Fahid caught himself as he finished gathering the largest remains of what had been the Skyranger's pilot and two aircrew into a single pile.
Given the lack of gunfire, or other signs of conflict, the only positive spin Harry could even begin to conjure up was that at least the three of them seemed to have died quickly. The interior of the Skyranger was a similar mess, the walls and floors ripped open and various pieces of wiring torn from inside it.
"We are going to need backup if we are going to deal with these bastards effectively…" Harry's muttered comment was followed by the disbelieving snort from Rodriquez.
"What, you mean you can't just wave that magic stick of yours and come up with a solution? And here I thought you were our answer to ever…" Harry's frayed temper snapped for a moment at the constant antagonism from the Sabre team squad leader.
The Ecuadorian found himself pinned against the side of the destroyed Skyranger, almost a foot in the air and gasping as the air was forced from his lungs a moment later.
"I don't know what your problem is with me Lieutenant, and to be honest I'm not sure if I want to know. But, in the middle of an outbreak that has overtaken a town in a single night? That is really not the time to be throwing some kind of temper tantrum. Now, I am going to give you a Portkey, and you are going to explain to Command everything you know about these 'Creepers'. We will need army support to quarantine this entire region, until we can be sure that we have dealt with every single one of these bastards, and we will need Skyhammer team and some rookies to deal with the main groups of these zombies."
For once Rodriquez didn't seem to have a witty comeback prepared, the man cowed in the face of Harry's anger, merely nodding as best he could.
"While you are doing that, we will be retaking the area you first fought in, once the Corporal here has suited up of course. And then, when this situation is under control, I am going to have words with all of you…" Harry pulled a few items from his pocket, three of which he gave to Rodriquez, tapping the third piece of sectioned rope to send Rodriquez swirling away in the traditional Portkey manner.
The fourth he dropped to the ground, a wave of the Elder Wand cancelling the shrinking spell he had applied with a little too much zeal to one of the Exo-suits. He had quickly retrieved the suit from storage, when he had been filled in on Kate-The Commander's attempt to 'help' him.
"I have no idea if these Creeper things are actually intelligent enough to be working with the other Aliens we have encountered, or if they are just the space equivalent of terror weapons. But if a couple of them stop 'harvesting' and spread further afield…" Harry had experience with Inferni and other dark ritual creations, given Voldemort's love of 'The Dark' and the macabre such things were almost normal for Harry by the battle of Hogwarts, but these aliens took terror generation to a whole new level.
Inferni didn't have the capacity to turn their victims into other Inferni after all…
"Get suited up Corporal, we have a lot of work to do." To his credit, Fahid didn't say a word to the contrary, quickly following the procedure to get himself properly situated inside the exo-suit.
After the start up procedure, Fahid spent a moment grabbing his weapons and some extra ammunition from the remnants of the Skyranger.
"Locked and loaded Ghost, awaiting your orders." There was a respectful tone there that hadn't been there before, and Harry hoped this would be a more long term thing, rather than just out of fear because he was currently pissed off.
"Lead off then Corporal, the exo-suit's armour should make the walking corpses much less of a threat, but the talons on those Creepers can probably get through it if they try hard enough. I will do my best to deal with them before they can get close, but we will need to be cautious about ambushes." But for now, Harry would work with what he had, especially given their current problems.
Even if the Creepers weren't psionically linked like the other aliens they had encountered so far, they showed enough animal cunning with their ambush tactics that they couldn't be thought of as stupid or simple opponents by any means. A wave of his wand later, and dozens of small birds were flying above and around them, each charmed with a simple 'attack anything not human' mechanism.
There wasn't a single local animal in the area to worry about setting them off accidentally, it seemed that the animals had enough sense to get the hell away from these Creepers when they arrived. Or they served as pre-town assault snacks…
"Walkers ahead, at least half a dozen, preparing to engage." Fahid's comment brought Harry out of his thoughts, another wave of his wand sending half of the bird constructs shooting forward over the Walkers' position, the constructs instantly shifting into a series of dive bombing attacks on something up in the trees.
"Creeper too, and it's going to be pissed in a minute!" There was a screeching noise that resonated through the small patch of woodland that they were in, before a Creeper came leaping from the trees, talons swinging around viciously at the attacking constructs.
The talons caught at least one of the constructs with each pass, but the others were doing a successful job of distracting the thing as Harry lined up his shot. The accuracy of a bombarda, over a distance of more than thirty metres, was questionable at best. So, Harry wasn't too upset when his spell caught one of the Creeper's swinging talons, rather than full in the chest.
Even if his aim hadn't been perfect, the end result was pretty much the same, the things screeching increasing to an almost deafening level as it's limb was violently separated from its body.
"SCREEE!" The wound seemed to infuriate the thing, skittering forward with terrifying speed, dodging the two piercing spells Harry fired in its direction as if they were flying through treacle.
The amount of purple blood, rapidly escaping from the remnants of the Creepers shoulder and splattering the trees and undergrowth, was more than enough to make it clear it was a mortal wound. But as the Creeper almost bisected the first transfigured wolf in its path, which Harry created with several quick flicks of his wand to try and slow the Creeper down, it was clear that the Creeper wanted to take something down with it as it died.
"Holy shit!" Fahid's cry was mirrored mentally by Harry, the Creeper mutilating the remaining five wolves in as many seconds, the screeching still ringing in his ears as the Creeper leapt in his direction...
Right into the fist of Fahid's Exo-suit, the enhanced strength of the powered armour ending the Creepers screeching with a bone snapping punch, the Creeper's body sailing through the air to slam into a tree a moment later.
"Thanks…" Harry spun round to deal with any stragglers that Fahid might have left whilst saving him, but all that was left were mangled corpses scattered around the area, a testament of how useful the exo-suit was if nothing else.
"If you get killed, we're all as good as fucked, today's proved that. Perhaps even Avenger will believe that now, though I doubt it…" Fahid's tone wasn't friendly, the man sweeping the area once more with his shotgun, but it was clear he wasn't going to give Harry any more problems right now.
"We better keep moving, we need to get somewhere more open before the others arrive." Skyhammer team would be using the other portkeys, which he had sent back with Rodriguez, which were keyed to the specialised wardstones in the exo-suit armour Fahid was wearing.
Because the location wasn't fixed, the magic required for the link to function effectively put a heavy strain on the wardstones, so at best the wardstones would only last two or three 'jumps' before the magical strain shattered them. But given the utility such devices provided, Harry wasn't going to complain too much about having to regularly replace them.
"We are nearly at the initial contact point. If you can, I would like… We need to recover Obi, or what's left of him… His uncle works in the maintenance team, was the one who recommended him." There was an edge to Fahid's voice now, and Harry could tell the man was struggling to maintain his composure.
"Of course, we will make sure he can rest peacefully, and that all of these poor souls get proper burials." Harry had dealt with enough death in his life to have set his moral code in stone regarding the dead.
And if the Commander tried to order the corpses be examined any more thoroughly that necessary for a typical examination… She'd find out exactly how far he was prepared to go on the matter...
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X-Com Headquarters Council Room, 6:42 pm October 11th 2017
Kate Rayleigh, X-Com Commander
"Two and a half thousand dead civilians, over a thousand more that we have yet to find or identify, and forty dead or injured military personnel. The only possible upside to all this, this terror attack, is that the aliens seemed determined to stick to the town and its surroundings. If one or two had slipped away…" Finishing her update to Azrael, Kate had to resist the urge to yawn that was building in the back of her throat.
It had been a long 24 hours for everyone at X-Com, and from his somewhat slumped shoulders, it was clear even Azrael had been hard at work dealing with the aftermath of the latest Alien attack.
"The results of the Aliens spreading would have been catastrophic, not that the actual results are a resounding success for X-Com Commander. I know that there is no way that you could have responded any faster to the attack, and in many ways we were fortunate that the town was in Central Europe, but the rest of the Council have questions about the… Execution of the mission."
Kate didn't react physically, it was hardly the first time that her commanding officer had questioned her choices on a mission.
"I made the choices I felt were pertinent to maintaining control of discipline in X-Com's ranks, and in an attempt to keep positive relations with one of our key allies sir." Short, to the point and remaining objective, it was the best way to deal with being criticised by the higher ups.
"And how is 'keeping positive relations' going?" It was a verbal kidney shot, delivered in Azrael's usual controlled manner, and another sign that the man had other ways of getting information from the base other than through their reports…
A flash of light from behind Kate signalled the return of the away team, as she coordinated the military cordon of Millstatt, with the NATO forces rapidly deployed to support X-Com's work. The flash was a sign that Har- Operative Ghost wasn't trying to be subtle, and as she turned around to face him Kate could see why.
Between the blood, dirt and other 'questionable' materials he had no doubt come into contact with in Millstatt's sewer system, Ghost looked like he had been caught in a stampede of Wildebeest and only just gotten out alive. Corporal Fahid didn't look much better, though Skyhammer team and the newly formed Seeker team seemed a little less battle worn.
Ghost didn't speak, though the stone like expression on his face spoke volumes as he threw something in her direction, before teleporting away with a loud crack. She caught the items thrown in her direction reflexively, but for the moment her focus was entirely on the recently departed young wizard.
"Officer Bradford, you have control, I need to…" Even as she started giving her orders Kate was moving towards the doors to the Command Deck, she wouldn't find Ghost if he didn't want to be found, but she doubted he would remove Hermione's portrait.
But, before she made it a dozen steps, Lieutenant Kumiko stepped into her path and shook her head respectfully.
"I wouldn't Commander, Harry really isn't going to want to talk right now…" Normally Kate wouldn't have let that stop her, but to her surprise the rest of Skyhammer team moved up behind their squad leader in silent agreement of her statement.
That grim solidarity made Kate realise exactly how bad things had gotten in Millstatt. Given the loss of communications, caused by Sabre transport's destruction, she only had the newly reinstated Corporal Rodriguez's report to work off.
"What, what happened out there…" Opening her fist and looking down at the items Ghost had thrown at her, Kate found herself looking at dog tags, and it didn't take a genius level intellect to work out who the four half tags belonged to.
The deaths of Trainee Obi, as well as pilot team Sabre were quite literally on her hands now. To make it worse, the fact that these were only half tags meant that Ghost had probably taken the other half with him. It was a sign that her decision had put those deaths on his conscience as well.
"Those Creepers, or the Alien bastards in charge, are sadistic beyond measure. They had all the children from Millstatt in reserve until we were storming the final sewer area… Harry had to deal with most of them before we even got into the room…" Kumiko was a hardened soldier, and what had happened had obviously shaken her to the core.
By God, what had it done to Harry?
"Not, not well sir. I will be speaking with an asset after this meeting, who has an understanding of Operative Ghost's history. Hopefully they will be able to provide an insight into how to remedy the situation." That was assuming that Ghost hadn't already talked to Hermione and that the portrait wouldn't ignore her, but at this point Kate was bordering on desperate optimism.
"Very well, I will do my best to convince the other Council Members that this was a single mistake, an attempt to hide our true capabilities from the Aliens at the worst possible time. But this has to be a turning point Commander, both for you and X-Com as a whole."
Azrael paused for a second, and it was clear that he was struggling to maintain a level composure.
"We cannot afford to risk the lives of X-Com non-combatants on missions if we can hope to succeed against these Aliens, the attacks on Civilians is already an unacceptable loss. Get Operative Ghost back on side Commander, by whatever means necessary. The rest can come later… Council out." With that rather abrupt dismissal, the screen shifted to static for a moment before shutting down, leaving Kate alone with thoughts that were almost as dark as the room she occupied.
Contrary to the popular belief amongst the X-Com staff, who were nowhere near as good at keeping their voices down as they obviously thought they were, Kate wasn't an emotionless and uncaring robot of a Commander. It was why she took the time to meet each new member of X-Com in person, as she knew she was ultimately responsible for that person and that well-being whilst they were part of her 'family'.
"Okay Kate, get it together. You are going to be fine." Even as she started a little mantra to herself, and began the deep breathing techniques she had learnt a long time ago, Kate knew she was anything but fine.
Obi and the flight crew weren't the first soldiers she had lost following her orders, the Wall of Remembrance that Harry had created a poignant reminder of that if nothing else. But unlike the others she had lost, both within X-Com and before, these were the first people who had died because she had stopped them having the equipment that could have saved their lives.
Not bad luck, or the enemy having superior numbers and technology, but directly because she had punished them in an attempt to make her position and authority as Commander of X-Com clear to them all.
"There is no way you could have predicted this Kate, don't let your head become your own worst enemy. Given the descriptions of these Creepers, the extra gear probably wouldn't have changed things…" Hindsight was a wonderfully terrible thing in this kind of situation, her thoughts jumping to each and every slight decision that could have potentially changed things, and what she could have done that would have meant four members of her team were down in the bar rather than the morgue.
"Ah shit…" Even as the thoughts bombarded her mind, Kate could feel the slight stinging of tears as they appeared at the corners of her eyes, and their arrival meant the barriers she spent so much time maintaining shattered.
Probably best if she didn't leave the conference room for a while…
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Millstatt Am See, South East Austria, At roughly the same time
?, ?
The steady rain, that had swept in during the early morning, meant that the formerly green fields that surrounded the outskirts of the town were now nothing more than muddy swamps. Transformed by the large number of military units that had traversed through them in such a short amount of time.
Whilst most of the NATO troops were now working to keep the area cordoned off, due to a 'large scale chemical accident', there were small groups that were assigned to clear the town of anything that could later indicate that something else had occurred. Of course, with such a large number of units called in at such short notice, no one had been truly 'in command' of the different units from all across NATO.
That meant, when a platoon of mixed nationality soldiers in black camouflage gear appeared with a large amount of sensor and monitoring gear to help with the search, there had been only a few confused questions. Once the papers about them being a 'Special Operations NATO unit' had been proved genuine, no one had batted an eyelid.
The fact that they all wore full breather gear and had every inch of their skin covered was mostly just written off a quirk of the unit's commander, who even now was stood on Millstatt's main street, his body language screaming at the desire for action.
"We're clear Operator, the only units left in the town are ours." The call from the man to his left, who had been talking over the satellite phone each unit carried with them, made a small smirk appear on the Commander's face as he gestured excitedly.
"Excellent, move the bodies we hid here and call for extraction." The six men around him nodded and moved away without a word, leaving the man to reach up and remove the gas mask covering his face.
As the gas mask dropped away, dangling partway down his chest off the special strap attached to the neck of his combat vest, a pair of yellow tinged snake like eyes surveyed the area from within a palid and sunken face.
Grabbing his own satellite phone, which was a far more high tech version than the one his subordinate, he typed in a six digit code, pausing for a moment whilst the phone's screen flashed blue, before typing in a sixteen digit code and bringing it to his ear.
"High Commune, the fools at X-Com have finally let down their guard." There was a pause, as there was the sound of voices on the other end of the phone, before the man spoke once more.
"Judging by the orders given to the other military units by X-Com forces before they departed, the Aliens are like a parasite and infect those they fell. That means that there will be plenty of Alien material for us to use." Another pause, before the smile widened into a full smirk, revealing a set of sharpened teeth that were reminiscent of a shark.
"Trackers were applied to several of the bodies that X-Com have 'quarantined'. By the time they find them, we will have a legitimate excuse for knowing where there base is. I will assemble an infiltration squad once we reach Base Theta, and then we can show X-Com the true power of EXALT...
A/N: Things were going a little too well, weren't they? Admittedly, this is probably a little too much 'instant karma' for some people, but I like to think the Aliens aren't going to sit back and follow a 'schedule' if their testing teams are being massacred.
Hence the 'early' arrival of the Chryssalids. I can't see X-Com operatives calling them as such on first contact, so Creepers it became. Given the whole 'zombies turning into Chryssalids' thing, I have decided that such a thing takes an awful lot longer than in game, otherwise the Aliens wouldn't even have to send in Mutons, a dozen Chryssalids deployed in several different cities at the same time would wipe humanity off the map.
Not exactly conducive to the alien plan to 'harvest' human DNA, but it is not like X-Com know that…
So Harry now feels like his powers are responsible for the deaths of 4 people he didn't even know, and the Commander shows that above all else she is still human. I think this helps flesh the characters out a bit more, but let me know what you think.
This is considerably darker than usual from me, partially because I felt the story needed a bit more gritty realism, but also because unfortunately this is more lifelike in my opinion. Heroes aren't capable of shrugging everything off without a care, and even the best of them will start to breakdown if the world seems to be against them.
Next Chapter will start to see the appearance of EXALT properly, the 'all white, all male' organisation that felt a little too stereotypical supremacist group to me… So I changed it, whilst the 'working class zealots' will still exist, one does not become a massive organisation focussed on global domination with just grass roots fanatics.
We will have to see how this goes from here…
Below is the team Rosters, with code names and any other pertinent information, as someone pointed out I have introduced the Code names without really providing much of an official introduction:
Sabre Team:
Private (Lieutenant) Rodriguez 'Avenger' De Cote: Former leader of Sabre Team, and currently on probation within X-Com as a whole, the loss of the other two members of Delta team weighed heavily on Rodriguez…
Sergeant Grace 'Avalanche' Kelly: The youngest member of the 'Triple A' team, Grace took over as Team Lead when Rodriguez was demoted. Though, given her easy going attitude, Grace was more than prepared to let Avenger keep giving the orders for the most part.
Corporal Fahid 'Argonaut' Hassan: The former 'lone wolf' of Sabre team, Fahid has been forced to rein in his tendencies of being the first into the fight, after Tomasz' death was in part due to his actions.
Skyhammer Team:
Lieutenant Kumiko 'Samurai' Goto: Leader of Skyhammer team, Kumiko has the most experience with Operative Ghost, both on and off the battlefield. That knowledge has earned him her respect, but his destructive powers have also earned a healthy amount of caution.
Sergeant Erin 'Thor' King: The youngest member of X-Com, Erin is collectively considered the 'little sister' of at least half of the base staff, as much as she hates being treated differently for her age. Despite the horrors she has experienced whilst fighting the Alien invaders, Erin has retained much of her cheerful and innocent attitude that makes her so easy to get along with.
Corporal Hans Pieters: Former member of the German Kommandos, Hans is the oldest serving member of the X-Com Strike teams, and as such has the experience to back up his somewhat abrasive attitude. Before X-Com, Hans thought he had seen every surprise that could be hidden away in redacted files, and he struggles with the revelations of both the Aliens and Ghost's powers.
Corporal Alessandra Rossi: Whilst Alessandra holds many of the sharpshooting records in the Italian Army, this list of accomplishments is only match by the reprimands and marks against her, both for fighting and for disrespecting her superior officers. How much of this is due to Alessandra's disrespect for authority figures, and how much is due to Italy's still male dominated command structure, is something that Alessandra is more than happy to 'discuss' after a few drinks at the bar.
Big thanks to Treant Balewood, Eirik, Thomas Smith, Michael Thomas and Druid, for being supporters of my work. I'm still getting goosebumps when I write stuff like that. :P And if anyone wants to become a Fanling of mine (see previous chapter and/or search 'Defiasstone2' on Google), I would be hugely grateful.
Anyway, let me know what you think boys and girls!
Defias Out!