I MAY NOT REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE, SO PLEASE REMIND ME!
Decided to keep Irina too, this way I have a spare viewpoint character when one gets shot or dies.
Operation Defiant Mist; 12:37 AM, Cologne, Germany.
Deployed: The E (assault, mission commander), Admiral Ralwood, Trashman, Irina Ignatyeva
"Sky says negative for infrared signatures."
"Just like last time. Okay rookies, spread out and grab cover. If you see an alien, shoot it and holler, preferably in that order. If you see a glowy orange thing, holler; the science types are real interested in those. You all remember the shutdown procedures? Good. Ral, you're with me. Trash, you're with Irina. You two better be in black armor and not bodybags at the end of the day or I'm kicking your asses. Move out."
"I got this one, take the other Ralwood."
"Contact, I got two in the back room of the place!"
"What the hell, they're ALL here!"
"Pull back, pull back. Trash, Irina, get over here!"
“One down, got him in the side when he moved up!”
“Trash, dammit, do not try to flank them, there are way too many. Pull back.”
“I can do it, I-**** flanking! Got one!”
this one came around the back and got shot through the window since it's not really obvious
“Trash, pull back now or I swear to Carl you're riding back on top of the Skyranger if you live!”
“OW!”
“Ral!”
“I'm all right, just winged me-****!”
“Ral, get back, way back.”
"Copy."
“Got another one!”
“Well dammit if you're going to be like that, make yourself useful. Irina, with me, move in.”
“He missed me-****, flank! Son of a *****!”
“Frag out!”
It's hard to see, but it's passing the transparent truck.
“Okay, good one Irina, moving in.”
“Scratch one. Trash, can you get the last one?”
“Sure thing. Frag out!”
“That wasn't what I had in mind, Trash, but okay.”
Ralwood came off the Skyranger on a stretcher. We learn about the reactions of our vests to plasma fire, as so much else in life, by doing. The first hit will not penetrate the vest. It will almost certainly break a rib or three, and we have learned to wear gloves to protect our hands from flashburns. The second hit, as Ralwood has taught us, technically will not penetrate the vest either. It will definitely break ribs and shatter the vest into several large sharp fragments.
Ralwood ran 20 meters with a ceramic knife in the guts, did not appear to even notice it until Trash pointed it out. Remarkable. I pressure-taped the wound without removing it, as there was no way to know what it might have cut. Nine days in sickbay, I am told.
The E's wounds did not appear serious, no worse than Micheal's in our first mission, and he walked off the Skyranger under his own power. He lifted off his vest and suddenly there was blood everywhere and the medical team was doing a very good impression of us in a firefight. His vest was faulty, there was internal layering in the ceramic. It spalled. The E did not even seem to know until nearly bleeding out between the hanger and medical. Stabilized now, but fourteen days in sickbay.
The commander was furious. He had our entire stock examined with the gear in the science lab and they found four other defective ones. I know the vests are South African, because I could hear the commander screaming at the South African attache from four rooms away. He threatened to load a team onto the Skyranger and raid the company, as he knows that politically there would be nothing they could do about it. The next batch of vests, they say, will come from America.
