The alarm sounded at 7:29pm. A satellite picked up an alien craft over Japan. The Raven-1 Interceptor was scrambled immediately. Time to make things happen.
The interceptor engaged the craft and in the space of a few seconds, shots were volleyed and one craft one down. Over the com, "This is Voodoo 37, X-Ray 0 has been shot down; repeat, enemy craft has been terminated!" The floor roared with cheers. Score one for the home team. I let them have their celebration, and I'll make sure Voodoo 37 gets to pick the dinner in mess tomorrow.
My internal celebration came a few seconds later, "This is satellite surveillance Asia, we have located the craft, and we have confirmed sight of alien crew moving. Alien craft appears intact." The message repeated again, but hadn't even finished by the time I had given the order to scramble a ground crew. An intact spacecraft, a swarm of alien bad guys, and a ground squad that's been itching to earn their pay. It's play time.
I met the crew in the hanger of the drop and smacked Wright on the shoulder where he had been hit before. Not even a wince... nice. I shouted at them all over the whining of the turbines, "I want every piece of that alien tech you can carry home on your backs, and I want it intact. The aliens... this ain't catch and release at the pond - tear 'em up!" The team whooped and sprinted onto the craft as it started to take off. Roster: Wright, Marcantelli, A. Bradford, K. Jones. Poor alien bastards.
They hit the ground running at 8:23, running straight off of the dropship and into immediate cover. The smoke at the crash site was thick enough that there was no visual on the craft or any E.T.s. Bradford and Wright peeled the A.O. to the right, Jones and Marcantelli to the left. Within two sprints, Bradford had a bead on the craft. Sleek, silver, ready for plunder. About the same time, Jones and Marcantelli spot alien movement to the left of the craft, and quickly take firing positions from cover.
Before I can even register whose monitor it is I'm looking at, I see scrambling to cover, sliding behind a boulder and a rifle pound three rounds into an alien. First kill: ... Wright? Payback, indeed. Need to keep my eye on that guy. He turns to face Bradford, who has taken cover of her own nearby and flashes him a smile and a thumb's up. Good to see them bonding, they'll need it the further this goes on. Jones and Marcantelli continue to circle around the craft into good flanking cover.
Wright carefully takes to closer cover, which was unfortunately under overwatch by an alien. Wright takes a shot to the shoulder. Shit. He's grinding his teeth so loud I can hear it over his mic, but he raises his rifle, returns fire and blasts another alien into whatever heaven awaits them. Wright: 2, Rest of Squad: 0. Huh.
Wright calls out more alien movement from within the craft and hits his shoulder with the Medikit. Good man. Apparently, Dr. Vhalen sees something on the monitors that alarms her. "A being of pure energy! We'll need to find a way to take it alive to study!". I can see a ball of energy transform into a lanky humanoid on Wright's cam. Dr. Vhalen's scratching notes on her clipboard faster than most people could type them. Hopefully, she'll get her wish, but it won't be today... we don't have the tanks to hold these things yet. As if reading my mind, Bradford lunges forward and charges to the wall of the craft, nice and close to the energy being and smacks it with a shotgun blast to the head. Unfortunately, one of his Sectoid buddies takes advantage of her position and she takes a shot to the leg.
Wright moves to her, fires back at the alien and misses. Bradford gets a revenge shot and hits it square in the chest. It's obviously wounded, but it's still moving and takes better cover. It returns fire but goes wide.
Meanwhile, Jones and Marcantelli have finished circling the craft and take firing positions, shooting into the craft blindly. Neither seems to hit anything of value, but it's enough to distract the aliens. Bradford gets a second shot off on her alien buddy and finishes the job. Unsure of which direction to expect fire, the last remaining alien drops down behind some ship bulkhead. He picked the wrong direction to defend against. Marcantelli finds a perfect flanking position, charges, fires, kills.
The team take their time to ensure no aliens remain, and begin salvaging the ship, prioritizing anything still bleeping and blooping. When they return home, they're able to inventory a wholly intact alien flight computer. Dr. Shen's already got his hands all over it before I can get to the squad.
Medics are already all over Wright and A. Bradford. Wright can't stop apologizing for getting hit. I reassure him that he earned that wound for daring to take out three of the ugliest space slobs this side of Mars, and that he's earned whatever rest he has coming to him. He grins, because he knows it's expected to when the Old Man tells a joke, but I can see the hurt in his eyes... he's out of the game again.
Bradford... A. Bradford, that is, is making no attempt at humor. Her legs is tore up pretty bad and she's yelling cusses that even I've never heard. I shut her up with Corporal stripes. Despite her wound, she's got great tactical sense and knows how to use the area to her defense... anyone else taking the same wound would have likely taken it fatally. She's a leader, and I know it. Now I just need to keep her in the fight and pull the leadership out of her.
Marcantelli and Jones are both obviously exhausted, but keep looking to Wright and Bradford, knowing they could be worse. Neither says much and they both return to the barracks.
After marking some damaged hardware that Dr. Shen says we can't put to any use as 'salvage' and contacting our Grey Market liason to take it away, I note the time as 10:08pm. Most eventful two hours of my life.
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