The Wolfhound APC backed slowly into the empty loading dock and settled onto the armored skirts protecting its gravitic drive train. The restive soldiers inside were jostled slightly as the vehicle came to a shuddering stop silently except for the interior crackling radio traffic. "C1 to C2, in position, ten-four?" Squad Leader Ian Raide, an afro-American ex-SWAT teamer in his forties, spoke over the tactical net. "C2 to C1,confirmed, C2 is in position monitoring your entry, C2 out", the comtech in the Wolfhound's sister APC responded.
Acting as command and control for the assault, the C2 Wolfhound had covered the approach of the strike team into the underground loading area of the Cult of Sirius’s Temple of the Apocalypse, GLM missile packs bristling. The C1 Wolfhound had taken care of the shoddily constructed barricade barring the entrance to the Temple by the simple expedient of putting an HE Airguard cannon shell into it and then slamming through the remains all in one fast penetration. The APC had then backed into the large capacity loading dock and halted, top mounted cannon covering the door leading to the inner reaches of the temple.
"Okay boys and girls, you all be sure an remember that we parked in the crazed towel-wearing clone-head lot so no one gets lost on the way back, understand?" most of the veteran troopers just grunted at Raide's attempt at humor but a few nervous laughs escaped from the rookies in back, "Sergeant LONER you have anything else for us?" An overly large figure stood up, backlit by the glow from the displays in the vehicles. The figure wore standard MEGAPOL power armor but there was something too fluid and efficient about its posture and bearing which marked the well armored being as inhuman.
"You humans and mutants, the android began, are the best soldiers XCOM has been able to assemble over the course of a full month." "You come from varied backgrounds and experiences, but you have all taken an oath to defend Earth and this city against any threat, alien or otherwise." "Many of you undoubtably have second thoughts about attacking humans and that's quite understandable," LONER went on." However, the Cult of Sirius and the criminal gangs infesting the de-regulated areas where some of you live and raise families are just as much a threat to XCOM and the city as the alien invaders, lets get this job done and go home."
LONER motioned to Raide to order the deployment as he remained standing. "An odd one", Raide thought, LONER had only recently been re-discovered on the ocean floor several miles from the wreckage of the ancient alien colony ship, T'leth. Apparently, he had been one of the Artificial Intelligence's driving an old SWS platform during the final assault on the alien city and had been left behind in the scramble to escape the death throes of the huge colony in the final cataclysm that ended the second alien war.
Only recently had the site been declared safe for underwater exploration teams, after a full forty years of being radioactively "hot" and LONER's destroyed Coelecanthe fighting vehicle was one of the first artifacts to be found in the remains, its removable core memory unit surprisingly intact. The XCOM techs had hooked the old core pack up for testing purposes and they immediately found out that the AI was alive and kicking even after all the years of water damage and radiation exposure, sustained while lying in the layer of debris surrounding T'leth.
Of course, why the sentient machine had agreed to command's proposition of becoming a combat instructor and advisor to the new assault teams being assembled to fight the "Mega Primus infestation" was a mystery to Raide. He sure wouldn't have rejoined an organization that left him buried in toxic ocean silt for forty years but then again, a lot of things had changed since the U.N. Artificial Intelligence Liberation Amnesty of 2009. Since then, the resolution had been revoked and followed by laws passed to persecute the many existing AI's produced by the Cyberweb corporation for military and commercial use.
The remaining sentient machines lived as outcasts in the de-reg zones outside Mega Primus. Their only mode of expression was the political lobbyist group, the Sentient Engine Liberation Front or SELF which negotiated political concessions for repair parts and software from their once benevolent parent, Cyberweb, that had dropped them like so much dirty linen when the AI Exclusion Acts were passed. The whole situation was a shame in Raide's opinion, since he had worked with some of the now outlawed police enforcement units in his old post as Precint Chief for MEGAPOL but even these relatively sophisticated machines paled in comparison to LONER.
The strange machine from long ago and far away seemed almost human when Raide talked with "him" during the training exercises XCOM had held at its new base in Mega Primus and the experiences the AI described were astounding. This was no watered down STORM series soldier droid, LONER actually seemed alive to the ex-police officer and he had begun to realize why the XCOM soldiers of yester-year had relied on these devices for protection and help in times of need.
Raide considered his options as he assessed the assembled fire teams, 12 soldiers total, four three person teams for the assault. All of his handpicked troops had at least a full year as members of subsidiary elements of the Global Police Force or XCOM Heavy Assault Groups. Some of the troops were even ex-MARSEC or XCOM Solar Exploration Team members with one even coming from the Hostile Environment Brigade, a division of XCOM ground forces dedicated to urban pacification and repair of biological or radioactive contaminated areas of the globe. Further, at least half had a full year as members or liasons to the Mega Primus Mega Police division of MEGAPOL, the Earth based organization with close ties to XCOM that supplied the Global Police Force with weapons and equipment not generally available to law enforcement.
The recruits from each of these units were the best of the best out of their respective commands and each had to prove exactly how tough he or she was to pass XCOM's exhaustive soldier evaluation. Fully eighty percent of the applicants screened were turned down during the testing phase and the ex-swatcop personally believed he had some extremely special people covering his ass. Raide gave the order,"First team on-line, Farrel, Harm, and Stewart, move!"
The two men and one woman composing the fire team were up and in position at the APC's rear access door. Luisa Farrel was a Hispanic ex-MEGAPOL SWAT officer like Raide, who had what he thought of as an unstoppable determination to accomplish her goals. Luisa had been a member of NYPD SWAT and participated in the reposne to the fungal outbreaks of 2068 when she had to help quell widescale panic and disorder as huge alien growths devoured skyscrapers and filled the air with deadly spore particles. Farrel would lead the first team into the temple.
The squad's point man was Terrance Harm, two-hundred and ten pounds of black South African bad news with a lightning quick temper and killer instinct. Raide hadn't had time to fully evaluate the young soldier with the shaved head but he struck the Squad Leader as extremely efficient at what he did, which was death dealing. Harm's weapons of choice were two MEGAPOL Lawpistol's which he handled with the the grace and skill of long practice.
Finally, rear cover was Ron Stewart, a dark brooding Irishman, who's specialty was heavy weaponry. He brought up the rear with a MEGAPOL assault cannon, the latest and greatest distillation of the old General Electric M-300 XCOM had used in the first alien war, so long ago. Farrel carried another of the heavy weapons insuring that the team had variable firepower to balance Harm's in close sharpshooting skills. Overall, this gave first team firepower enough to deal with anything short of a Company size enemy unit.
Raide moved toward the door,"First squad, check!" That signalled the team to run a final equipment inspection before they hit the loading dock. "Outrider", this signalling the vehicle's remote computer pilot,"target door, if anything except red force units come out, put an airguard shell through it!" The turret gun traversed to cover the temple door. "First team, go!" Even as the squad leader formed the words, first team was out of the bay door and onto the loading dock accompanied only by the muffled sound of clattering boots on metal, thanks to the seamless mechanics of their exo-armor.
"Second Team, on-line, with me!" Raide had already assembled his own fire team as the noise of first teams passage receded. "We're in , C1", Farrel's slightly accented standard english fed back over the Battlecom net, "All quiet." "Ten-four, 1S, we have you on visual feed", Raide bent to re-check his own auto-cannon as his two other team members assembled outside of the APC's hatch, ahead of third team. "I'm remoting your visual feed to my HUD, standby."
Raide switched over the digital feed to his helmet display as Farrel's team went to ground and secured the entrance hall. "Sergeant", Raide said,"You're now C1, I'm heading in to join the party." The other veteran Squad Leader, Derek Knight, simply nodded his head as LONER turned toward him, "Take care of your teams, Squad Leader" was all the hulking machine said. "Yes, Sergeant", Raide nodded and was gone, dog trotting forward to the cargo door above the loading dock, his two squaddies in overwatch behind.
Turning to the right off the lock brought second team into the atrium area first squad had rushed through seconds earlier. Farrel's team was off to second team's right, near a stairway leading down into what appeared to be a highly stylized courtyard crowded with benches and sculptured columns. "T2 is in, searching to the left of the "court area", over", his two squaddies spread out, one to further cover the courtyard, the other to support Raide downrange while he advanced.
Suddenly, shots echoed over the battlenet along with the muffled thud of impacting rounds, followed by,"T1, 1S here, one out, two strikes", indicating one enemy wounded or dead and two captures. The baseball terminology the XCOM trainer's had pulled out of old hardcopy books would not easily be understood by anyone evesdropping over the channel an unlikely proposition, but still possible even with the high speed scrambling systems in each helmet's comm package.
"Ten-four, 1S, tag and bag, T3 is on the way in, 2T out", Raide used simple arm signals for intra-team communication and his squad went to a crouch while watching the huge red doors to their front. Raide switched back to the helmet view from Farrel's camera to watch the first team secure the prisoners.
"Motherfucker drew a gun on me, wish I'd got him an his friend here", Harm had one of his Lawpistol's out and fixed right at the neck of the green uniformed cultist as he patted the man down and handcuffed him. "Stupid bastards", an unseen Farrel commented, "Where the hell did they get these uniforms from?", the short hispanic woman looked down in contempt at the trussed up form she had already handcuffed, "The Megamall?" "Buncha rich kid cloneheads trying to play soldier", Harm finished tying up his own prisoner and used his gunbutt to knock the Cultist to the ground where the young man resumed crying, "Wish they knew how it is in the de-reg zone."
"Watch the punishment, 1F", Raide decided to reign in his playful doberman's before they did permanent damage, "those people are up to the interrogation teams now not us." "Yes sir, 2T," was all he got back with a touch of the malice he'd heard before still lingering, Raide frowned to himself.
Harm had already killed at least two men as a teenager in the L.A. DMZ in semi-legal hand to hand combat matches fought for money and who knew how many before that, he would bare watching. Sudden movement drew Raide's attention as the massive doors to his team's front opened, revealing two green uniformed Cultists.
Assault rifles drawn, the sentries charged forward toward second team's position, fingers on the trigger. "Fuck", Raide opened up at full auto as high power AP rounds winged past his crouching form, the Cultists fire was all wild. Raide's controlled burst impacted right at waist level dropping both thugs in there tracks at forty yards. More movement, three more Cultists ran out from the door area to press the attack before being cut down by return fire from Raide's team.
"T3 on-line", Raide ordered as laser beams from unseen snipers zipped by. "T2 hold what you got and watch for anybody coming from the north side, backup is on the way", Raide switched over to the camera view of third squad’s leader, a young Squaddie named Jade Lee, who apparently had family who served in the first Alien War. Return fire from the open doorway slackened and then stopped all together once the cultists began to figure out that they didn’t have a target.
Raide squatted and rolled past the corpse of a cultist guard,
stopping only to check for weapons and ID on the body before going prone near the end of the hall. "2T to 1S, diversion, out." Near the far corner of the room, Farrel motioned to Harm to comply with the request. The exo-armored soldier nodded his agreement and holstered one of his drawn Lawpistol’s before carefully approaching one of the circular lift platforms leading into the Temple basement.
"Here comes your diversion baby", Harm muttered under his breath before grabbing an incendiary grenade and two other HE shells off his suit’s battle harness. Quickly rechecking his assault gun, the Squaddie took a grenade in each hand and pushed down with his thumbs to initiate the contact fuses before hurling both bombs down into the temple lift field, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Harm rolled clear a nano-second before the greenish yellow gravitic lift field disappeared in a wash of orange and yellow light.
Smoke poured out of the hole followed by human screams, confirming Harm’s suspicion that the cultists had reserve guards nearby . Farrel was already at low ready position, covering her retreating team member even as her helmet eye filters damped down, shielding her sight from the blast. Secondary explosions rocked the lower hall’s as stored ammunition began to cook off, shaking the upper floor and adding to the chaos.
Raide switched his remote camera view off and concentrated on his own team’s advance, the other two squad’s could take care of themselves for the immediate future. Squaddie Harm apparently had plenty of grenades left, though, as new explosions resounded throughout the suddenly still building. Third squad had closed to only a few meters distant and was providing cover and flank protection for Raide’s element as they swept the remainder of the temple.
Smoke and in some places flame from the fires raging in the basement had begun to collect in the upper reaches, obscuring corners and making the sweep team’s job harder which couldn’t be helped. "General Freq, 2T to all units" Raide’s key phrase opened the comm net for all to hear, "Sweep looks clean, prepare to pull back." Raide’s two squad’s had staked out a perimeter and checked the courtyard like areas below, "1T, relay those two
pigeons out to C-1, have someone from T4 meet you at the loading dock, over."
Even as the young squaddie acknowledged the command and began to ferry the tied up young cultists back to the waiting APC, Raide’s team started the lengthy chore of picking over the bodies of the slain, checking weapons and ID’s. Next, each squad laid proximity mines around nearby doorways, where they were most likely to be tripped when the Cultist’s returned to the temple. Raide nodded to Lee as she finished priming a mine and prepared to pull back the way they had come. The tac net remained quiet as the combined force of six soldiers finished stowing scattered psiclone implants and other captured equipment.
"Uh, 1T to 2T, over", Raide’s roving eyes paused as he stopped to listen, "2T, something ain’t right about this guy we shot, over." Raide frowned as he considered and then asked for details. "2T, the body of the guy we shot is bleeding some kind of green junk, some kind of bioweapon suspected, over." Raide paused to speak but was interrupted by an inhuman shriek and the staccato pulsing of Lawpistols followed by the deeper hammering of an auto cannon then silence.
"What the hell, come in 1S, now!" "Shit 2T", Farrel yelled into her pickup, "Some kind of fucking orange splat bag just jumped out of the basement grav well and tried to attack Harm, request backup!" "10-4, out" Raide turned and broke into a sprint only pausing to motion a member of his own team to follow him as he pounded back towards second team’s position. "T3, secure and fall back by the numbers to C1, T2 hold position and
keep an eye on that corpse, we’re not sure what we’re dealing with here!" "C1 to 2T", LONER broke into the tac net, "I am heading to T2’s position, sitrep there, C2 has informed
me that company is on the way."
Raide swore as he rounded the final bend at a dog trot toward’s Farrel, "Report!" "Whatever that thing used to be", Farrel pointed at an orangish blob coated in a mixture of red and green, "It jumped up from the lower level and went for 1F." "Ugly mother came right at me, sir", Harm rose to greet the Squad Leader from a sharpshooter’s crouch, "I fed it some AP and it went splat, then team lead finished it off with the cannon" Harm finished with a smiled. "That thing must be alien", Raide paused as Loner’s armored form stomp/walked into their midst.
"Sergeant", Raide began, "We have definite signs of xenomorph incursion, what kind of company are we expecting?" "C2 has several cultist vehicles confirmed as inbound by City Command", LONER hefted his own assault cannon in one hand as if it were a child’s toy, "We have what we came for, I suggest we pull out." "Sir, that’s bullshit", Raide turned to regard Harm’s helmeted visage. "We can take down any reinforcements sir, these cultist pussies couldn’t stop boy scouts let alone us." The final analysis was delivered calmly and precisely without a hint of the contempt Harm apparently felt for the enemy.
"You’re out of line, Squaddie", Raide’s voice was soft yet threatening. Raide paused only to exchange a glance with the offending soldier before turning back to the android, "Sergeant, I concur with your recomendation, we’re pulling out as soon as we can bag whatever the hell that thing is and have the mutants check for any traces of activity." Raide switched back to the general unit push, "2T to 4F, anything giving off a psionic signature?" "Negative, 2F" The disembodied voice of Shigeo Blade, one of the platoons two mutant soldiers echoed back, more inside of Raide’s head than over the short band hyperwave link.
"Ten-four, 4F, all red force units, general return order, converge on C1." With a final quick glance at LONER, Raide turned and motioned for first team and his own team member to follow him out at a slow patrolling pace.
"All charges set", came over the tactical frequency followed only by silence as Raide made his way back to the main lock and the waiting APC. Two members of fourth squad met the team at the cargo lock, simultaneously, as members of third and second squad finished bagging and stowing the bodies of the cultist corpse and the alien creature. Finally, fourth squad finished securing the cultist prisoners in the APC after which the sentries guarding the loading dock were pulled back.
"C1 to C2, eta on visitors?" Raide crouched near the loadout door of the grounded Wolfhound as captured weapons and the valuable psiclone implants were loaded. "Visitors due in fifteen seconds, C1" Raide smiled grimly to himself under his sealed armor, "C1 do you request cover fire?" "Negative, C2" , Raide was now in the APC’s operations center while the last two sentries sprinted in and the loadout door locked into place with an authoritive clang, "we’ll finish the job on the way out."
The APC’s lift units ran up to full as the soldiers in the cargo bay stowed their personal weaponry and strapped back in to shock
harnesses designed to keep them from falling all over the place during a hot landing or travel over rough terrain. Suddenly, heavy caliber bullets slammed into the APC’s armored side, rocking it, the visitors had arrived. "Outrider, designate and destroy, then return to base, priority yellow" Raide was back near the front of the carrier as before, contemplating the fact that he had just signed the death warrant of whoever was driving the enemy vehicles.
The massive airguard turret came to life in its cupola mounting on top of the Wolfhound pouring high explosive rounds into the fast moving pursuit roadcars. The AI controlling the twin cannon mount was as efficient as it was merciless, there was no return fire. "C2, prepare to provide cover before pull back", LONER spoke with finality as the APC pounded up the loading dock ramp and into late afternoon sunlight. The surprised screams of civilian city dwellers mixed with the higher screams of GLM missiles as C2 mowed down incoming cultist hover bikes from its concealed position.
Finally, the two armored transports sped back the way they had come as the remainder of the cultist force halted their pursuit, content to reoccupy the temple and cut their losses. Unfortunately for them, losses were just what the cloneheads would recieve if they weren’t careful about how they entered the temple, Raide thought to himself.
The number of mines that had been dispersed throughout the temple would make it unusable for at least a week by humans or aliens which would buy time for XCOM to interrogate the prisoners and research the alien corpse they had discovered. Raide eased back into his seat harness as the APC picked up speed and headed into the fast moving confines of the intercity grav-highway. XCOM had returned in force and God help anyone human or alien who tried to stand in their way.
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