Might as well. I've got a lot of room for pilots left and support stuff, but only a few infantry.
Some of them will be appearing now. Because do you guys feel like new content missions? I feel like new content missions.Commander. The Council has been monitoring unusual reports about a hijack attempt on a French military convoy. The perpetrators were human, but the French relief effort was interdicted by aliens. This raises interesting questions about the convoy and cargo. The Council has invoked its authority to investigate alien incidents. We need to know what happened to that convoy and what it was carrying.
Operation Cryptic Paramour, Lille, France, 6:45pm, 11 March 2015
Deployed: Irina Ignatyeva (Heavy, mission commander), Admiral Ralwood (MEC), MP-Ryan, Rodo, EuclideanGeometry
“Holy ****, what happened here?”
“Central, this is Strike Lead, somebody staged a serious firefight here. Severe structural damage to nearby buildings. Burned-out vehicles. I can see at least four obvious rocket launcher strikes from where we entered the AO and evidence of sustained machinegun fire. Central...there's no sign of alien weapons having inflicted any of this damage.”
“Strike, confirm negative on alien weapons.”
“Confirm negative on alien weapons, Central."
"Strike, this is the Commander. I will be personally supervising from now on. Move in
carefully. Somebody had an awful lot of firepower and wasn't afraid to use it."
"Okay rookies, you heard the man. Let's take this nice and easy."
"What the hell are those? They're not VABs.”
“AMCs. I didn't know the French actually had any in service. Those are AT4 tubes on the sides of the machinegun turrets, they packed a lot of firepower here...Commander, this is Strike Three, we have French AMC armored personnel carriers on the scene. One of them looks intact but the other has had its RWS station blown off, no sign of activity."
"The French report negative radio contact with their forces in the convoy, Strike. Identify yourself with code alpha three."
"No response. Commander, I can see bodies, but I can't make out if they're military or civilian."
"Continue on mission, Strike."
"CONTACT! Thin man! Contact down! Confirm aliens on-site Commander."
"Command, Ralwood, third AMC, this one was taken out by a rocket or someth-CONTACT! Son of a ***** cratched my paint."
"Firing. Target down. Score one for second MEC."
"Ryan, what's that AMC look like?"
"Empty, Commander. Checking the other two-contact! Thin man. He just hid behind a truck."
"Enemy moving up! Firing! Missed."
"Got him. Target down."
"Ryan, as you were saying."
"Other one is empty. Last one is definitely dead to a HEAT round, commander. Commander, there are bodies here, but they're not French military. A lot of them are wearing bandannas across their faces, orange armbands, civvies with some military bodyarmor over them. They've been killed with human weapons."
"Those aren't French-issue weapons lying around either."
"Would have been a nice little place to dance, once. AT4 stopped that. "
"Commander! Contact, single human!"
"Get over there and find out who he is."
"Alien rolling up! We missed him!"
"Minor damage. Chaingun empty, switching to flamethrower."
"Target is dead."
"Okay, let's do this right. Rodo, I want you on the roof of this building. Euclid, secure our backtrail. Ral and MP, secure the human."
Might as well leave me here, I've got nothing to say to you people.
"All that after Ral pointed a chaingun at him. Man's got guts. No brains, but guts."
"Unacceptable. He's the only living witness to this fight and he could have been one of the aggressors for all we know. He's coming in whether he likes it or not."
Pose as a team, because **** just got real!"Strike One, hostiles entering the AO."
"Dammit Rodo!"
"He's lost it, ****!"
"Ryan, bring that asshole down, you're the only chance Rodo's got!"
"He'll get poisoned either way!"
"If you don't kill it now it kills Rodo and flanks us from an elevated position!"
"Firing! X-ray down!"
"Got one on an AMC in front of us, bringing it down. Target negated."
"Not bad Euclid."
This is only the beginning, it's only a matter of-*coughing*
"Somebody under my command just died to save your life you prick, you don't get a voice."
You're nothing but a bunch of *cough* puppets.
"Ryan, if he talks again whack him."
"Strike, we have hostiles dropping on top of the building near your extraction point."
"I'll go."
"Euclid, you saw what happened to-"
"I'll go."
"...do it."
"Whoa! Pretty thick up here!"
"Target down!"
This is a waste of time.
"Goddammit, shut
up! I am so having Vahlen fry your brain!"
"The bastard just spit poison all over me! Target down!"
What're you trying to prove?
"Ryan, hit him."
"With pleasure!"
"Strike, X-ray dropping in."
"I have had absolutely enough of this ****."
"Jesus Irina, chill."
Still not getting anything from me.
"Goddamn, you don't know when to quit man."
We lost Rodo.
Bastards. It was all going...perhaps not well, but we were winning. We still are winning. It hardly feels it now.
There are many temptations when it comes to blame. Myself, the Commander, the people who inducted Rodo, those who elevated him. The Commander told me that the people to blame for Rodo's death are the ones who shot him, and there's no room for me in that equation. There is logic to what he says, but...logic has little to do with emotion. We are at the end so pitifully mortal.
Yet the system can work. We can produce miracles. EuclidanGeometry is one. On the rookie mission, four kills, the courage to climb that ladder and engage a pair of aliens at close quarters even after losing Rodo. That is one who has earned their black veteran's armor many times over.