Just out of range of the tank's sensors, a green shadow shape stopped to make sure the enemy combat vehicle had actually retreated before moving on. The sapper squad of Aquatoids were already nearing their objective, the maximum security biological storage warehouse near the port shipping terminal. Suddenly, eight black shapes appeared from the water's edge, moving silently to intercept the alien squad. The Aquatoid Leader brought it's gun to bear on the lead soldier, ready to fire, until the device wrapped around it's neck again activated. The creatures visibly relaxed as the now obviously human team joined them at the warehouse security lock. Two five fingered human hands signaled to the alien all it needed to know and the creature handed over the electronic access card it had retrieved from the now lifeless sentry at its feet. Seconds later, the eight humans and four aliens were moving in modified diamond formation through the cold and dark interior of the Biowar vault.
Alien corpses hung suspended in cryonic vessel's, every race of xenomorph ever encountered by XCOM was represented to some extent. Here a dead Floater again floated as it had in life in the vile solution, there a Snakeman drifted, spilling loops of ragged intestine, the morgue echoed only to the sounds of the raid team as it moved onward in a carefully prepared ballet of death. Mounted lights played over endless rows of dead alien biology, the legacy of two successful wars waged by XCOM. The air became markedly colder as the raiders patrolled further into the shadowy complex. The Aquatoids were in general uneffected, used to the cold water of the deep ocean but the human warriors were less adapted, whisps of condensate from sweating men drifted off and cooled on cold surfaces.
Section 2, Section 3, Section 4, the team moved like a single organism hunting for it's goal. Finally, the apparent leader of the human's brought his hand up in a quick arc, halting the advance. Four feet ahead, red low watt bulbs illuminated the frost covered door of the warehouse's primary teratogenetic isolation block. A hurried consultation with another of the human's apparently confirmed their location as correct and the leader of the Aquatoid's was summoned. Using another hand gesture, the human made his intentions known, pausing so that the creature could assemble it's own troops at the lock, stacked in a line, weapons slung. Another stolen keycard was slid into the door's security reader and the massive halves of it rumbled open.
The first Aquatoid was already inside, while the supercool atmosphere of the isolation block would incapacitate an unprotected human, an Aquatoid would only be slowed down slightly. The four creatures didn't even notice the security camera's staring down at them from the ceiling as they used their skinny arms to wipe the layer of frost off their objective, twenty cylindrical biohazard storage modules, each painted a dull construction yellow color and locked to the floor by armored storage clamps. Freeing the cylinder's was the work of nanoseconds, and four of the units were on the way out of the cold-block, each clutched tightly by a worker Aquatoid. The humans were positioned farther back, keeping watch over the operation inside the vault and making sure the escape route remained unobstructed. As each cylinder was brought out, the squad leader checked the serial number and name on the unit on a small paper pad.
Eight units out, now ten, the Aquatoids were showing signs of stress as they moved, they were not built for such taxing manual labor. Every other second, a pair of the human's came back from their guard positions, lashing a cylinder to each other's back for transport, time was running out. The team's instructions had allowed them to temporarily disable the primary warehouse security systems but not to obstruct the security camera's, apparently the higher up's wanted the operation recorded for posterity. Twelve cylinder's were out now, as many as the combined force could carry easily, the weakened Aquatoids each strapped on a unit using the specialized clips built into their web gear. Operation complete, the hooded leader of the penetration squad smiled under the black balaclava he wore, like clockwork, exactly like the simulations. He was still smiling a moment later when he gave the hand signal to move out and the alert klaxon's scattered around the warehouse went off like hell's own banshee's.
The alert was out, each human team member pulled two grenades from pre-positioned tabs on their harnesses and threw them in different directions, the squad leader's two went rolling merrily right into the cold vault. Running now as the massive vault door descended the strike team had just cleared the outer warehouse door when the grenades went off. Chaos flaring in their wake, the humans and aliens slipped into the rough surf rolling up the nearby cargo pier, as if they had never been.