Xcom2: Error from the deep: Mission 2

Kane paced up and down on his crutches. The medical team wanted him resting on a bed. He hated feeling useless, while everyone else was out on the mission, risking their lives. They were due back very soon. He waited.

21:50, 21st January 2040
Mission: Sub Capture
Location: Icelandic Union Waters
Code name: Operation 2x3dent

“Sit back down seaman!” Kris suddenly shot up and stood in front of Belona. The grey skinned half alien half human hybrid towered over Kris. She and her quiet fellow Regini were hold overs from the last war, the result of experiments by the invaders on the human population. The X-com organization was one of the few places they were accepted on earth. Not that that stopped an argument breaking out between the two.

Belona growls, and sits down reluctantly. Kris addresses the rest of the sub. “Just a reminder, we're taking this alien craft intact. It was last seen nosing around some underwater pipes. We're going to find out what they're up to, but we'll be asking the questions later. It won't be the ragged survivors of crash we'll be fighting this time. I don't want to lose anyone on this mission.” She sits back down, feeling a lot less confident than she sounded.

***

Kane sat outside the debriefing room in agony. The Triton sub had been back for an hour now. He had peeked into the hangar earlier and saw three body bags being taken away. He hoped none of them contained Drew and hated himself for wishing they were some of his other friends instead. But he couldn't help it.

***

The unmanned tank explodes ahead of Kris. It had done its job as far as she was concerned, drawing fire away from the living humans. And half humans, Kris reminds herself, as Regini snipes an alien hiding in the seaweed. Kris tears up another alien with her gatling canon. So far so good.

“Dani, Sora, come with me. You too Belona,” she orders, feeling like she should keep an eye on the belligerent greyskin. “Everyone else take the other side. We'll surround the enemy ship and meet around the other side.” The waters are even darker than usual at this time of night but she can just about see the strange alien vessel by the lights of the chemical flares her team were throwing about the place.

Cody added, “Watch your fire, there are oil pipes near by.”

She was leading her half of the team through the meager cover of a patch of seaweed, when Belona suddenly stands up and charges forward screaming “Die xenos scum!” Kris swears under her breath  and tries to see what Belona is shooting at. She sees it. Another alien. She guns it down herself.

Then she sees a surprising sight: an alien takes out a grenade but fumbles with it, exploding by its feet. Kris whoops with joy. “Dani, Sora, use those bubbles for cover.” Kris was having a very good feeling about the mission now. She even dismissed a distant explosion as the other half of the team killing more aliens.

But when she cuts by the wreck of the tank Belona gives her a shove from behind. She turns around sharply. “What the hell is your problem?”

The tall half human leans her helmet against Kris's so what she says doesn't go through the coms. “You stole my kill, human!”

“Were you trying to get yourself killed, charging off ahead like that?” Kris says angrily. This new recruit was really trying her patience. “I probably just saved your life!”

No sooner does she utter those words does Belona get shot. Kris's eyes widen as Belona dies right in front of her. She turns around instantly, avenging Belona by filling her killer full of holes. With a scream she charges forward and runs right into a surprised alien. Kris thrusts her weapon at it. And finds she's out of ammo.

Trapped in a vulnerable situation, she curses herself for doing exactly what she had just chewed the late Belona out for. Dani and Sora see shes in trouble and try to take the alien out but they don't have line of fire. The alien's surprise doesn't last long and as it turns around Kris knows she doesn't have time to turn back.

That's when Regini snipes the alien in the skull. Kris lets out a deep breath. But as the other fire team meets up with her by the doors to the alien craft, she notices somethings wrong. There's only four of them

***

Kris looked out of the debriefing room's window. She'd given her report. All there was left was to deal with Kane waiting outside. As she was in charge of the mission, she felt it was her duty to give him the news. She gulped.

***

Cody's half of the team advances around the other side of the ship. Suddenly blasts came out of the darkness. Macy up front is killed instantly. Gail ducks behind some seaweed and returns fire. A grenade explodes right in front of him but he survives and shoots Macy's killer. As he goes to check on her body, the rest go around the alien ship, hugging the walls.

Drew takes the lead, but gets shot when she goes around a corner by an alien lying in wait. The others spread out to get a better shot but its too late for her. Cody always thought she would go out in a more spectacular fashion.

Soon enough they come around to the front of the ship and Regini takes an alien about to shoot Kris. Kris does not take the news that two of them didn't make it very well and storms off to grab a new weapon.

Cody doesn't wait for her. He takes Mila, Regini and Gail and pushes up against the entrance to the alien sub. He silently makes a countdown with his finger to the others. Three fingers. Two fingers. One finger.

They burst in. Cody makes a difficult shot at an alien through a doorway. Gail shoots another before it can hurt anyone as it charges through another door. Soon enough they secure the ship. Completely intact.

***

Mission Complete. Casualties: 30%. Score: 200. Xcom command rate the success as: OK. The intact ship will boost our research efforts immeasurable. The team brought back one live alien but we don't have the facilities to hold it safely so it was destroyed. We don't know what nefarious purposes the aliens were up to in the area, but we might be able to make a guess soon. Parts of the sub were sold to independent contractors to offset the cost the unmanned tank that was lost. If we're more careful with equipment in the future we might be able to turn a profit. More expendable hybrids have been assigned to the away team to replace losses.

***

The chief had a talk with Kris later. He offered her a promotion to Lieutenant. Kris had to politely decline. She said she had no interest in leadership. Privately she didn't think she was worthy of it. The post ended up going to Cody instead. Kane had put up a picture of Drew on one of the walls of the base, next to photos of Cory, Saki, Gail and Macy. Kris stopped by later and added a photo of Belona.