Red November Chapter 2
Yards distant, Corporal Lewis was dodging sonic pulses while spraying the
darkened alleys near the pier with ineffectual Bearcat fire when Tower
four seemed to leap skyward before subliming into a glowing fireball. The
black wings of panic enfolded the young soldier's heart, shrinking his
words to a whisper, "My God, the chief was in there!!" Totally unhinged,
the Corporal emptied the remains of his rifle's clip into the surrounding
area, before running back towards the pier he had recently been patrolling.
Shadowy movement followed him as he fled. Rain and tear blurred shapes
coalesced into the form of another security trooper, firing out towards
the advancing enemy from behind several stacked cargo pallets. Lewis reloaded
his rifle, then dropped and rolled to a position nearby. Pausing to change
clips, the other soldier gave Lewis a quick thumbs up before he resumed
laying down suppressive fire on the pier. John couldn't have done a thing
to prevent what happened next.
The Tasoth's titanium hard claws buzz sawed into the back of the unfortunate
soldier, ripping deep into his spinal column and slamming him to the ground
under the weight of the reptilian alien. The victim's screaming was drowned
out by the deeper howl of Lewis's rifle as he unloaded the entire new clip
into the obscenely leering serpenoid and it's unfortunate prey, alien green
spurted and mixed with darker human red. The Tasoth's hunting screech abruptly
climbed to a hate filled shriek of mortal outrage as the rifle's breach
locked open, signaling with a futile click, the soon to be departed life
of one John Lewis. With a renewed rage filled bellow, the alien turned
and reared, mortally wounded but still lethal.
Sudden laser fire from the shadows center punched the creature, hammering
it into the wall with an ultra precise three shot burst. The Tasoth slid
to the ground while the characteristically salty smell of charred alien
meat blossomed in the wet night air. Lewis stumbled, sliding back on his
butt away from the smoking alien corpse as the squat, well armored, form
of a Tank Laser Cannon HWP emerged from the night. "Enemy threat neutralized,
Corporal." The voice was coolly unemotional as if the intelligent battle
machine were commenting on the weather, "I request further advisory as
contact with command authority has been cut off." "Jesus, Rusty, is that
you?" the trembling human soldier was barely hanging on to the tattered
remnants of his mind, he was totally unhinged. "Corporal, I detect no allied
units or officer level units in the immediate combat zone, therefore, as
per Platoon directive 510-A, I am assuming command." The voice was again
totally emotionless as the mini tank's dun colored turret traversed, scanning
for the enemy. "Rusty, you can do that?" Fear was joined by disbelief.
The old HWP had always been treated as more of a curiosity than anything
else, originally assigned at the end of the First Alien War to guard the
supply depot as part of the XCOM force draw down of 2010, "Rusty" had remained
in service ever since, patrolling the base, ready for anything. Even after
the beginning of the Second Alien War when most of the remaining HWP AI's
had been reassigned to Coelacanth's or later Disruptor SWS's, Rusty was
left to guard the depot, apparently too old to upgrade. Lewis had finally
managed to stand, using his expended weapon to lever himself up while the
HWP moved forward to better scan the area. "What do we do, now?" Lewis
asked dumbly, the night was alive again with sonic fire from the outskirts
of the base.
"Combined arms, Corporal" the tank replied as it's turret traversed to
cover the southern seaward approach. "My sensor's detect two enemy OPFOR
contingents, one attacking from the northern land perimeter, the other
invading along the western cargo pier from the pilings at the mouth of
the harbor." Rusty's analysis was briefly cut off as the tank blazed out
two line straight bolts of laser fire, screams from the area near the pier
were testimony to his accuracy. "I extrapolate a total of 110 possible
scenarios as to the nature of the enemy force and it's primary objective,
however, there is too little data to draw a conclusion, one or both of
the enemy forces may be a diversion." The Corporal had pulled himself together
enough to crouch behind the tank and reload his rifle as return fire from
the alien's near the shipping terminal began to pound the un-armored warehouse's.
"That's fuckin wonderful, but what the hell do we do!"
"We will commit to an orderly tactical withdrawal to GRIDMAP coordinate
block 12 and rendezvous with unit's Coelacanth Gas Cannon 38 SHARK and
Coelacanth Gauss Projector 113 HAMMER, I have been in continuous communication
with them since the attack began." Return fire from the dock area was becoming
dangerously accurate as Rusty slewed his tracks sideways to avoid a concentrated
burst of blasta fire. A near miss had already vaporized a swatch of armor
off the tank's front ablative, leaving a molten runnel in it's wake. The
HWP backed at a walking pace, laying down covering fire as it retreated,
giving Lewis time to stay behind the shield provided by the vehicles armored
bulk. Mini tank and soldier fell back into the maze of alley's leading
from the storage warehouse's to the base armory.
Just
out of range of the tank's sensors, a green shadow 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 materialized from the direction of the pier 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 viscous solution, there a Snakeman
drifted, spilling loops of ragged intestine, the morgue was utterly still
except for the muted sounds of the raid team as it efficiently proceeded
forward 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 slowed
somewhat, 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 prey. 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 quickly slotted through the door's security reader, releasing
the magnetic locks and letting the halves of the massive door part with
a slight hiss of decompression.
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 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 seconds, and four of the units were on the way out of the
cold-storage 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 sentry 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 exfiltrate from the target site and the security alarms
scattered around the warehouse went off in a deafening burts of light and
sound.
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 closed 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 quietly into the rough surf rolling up the
nearby cargo pier, as if they had never been.