Sir!
Calm down, make a proper report.
But, sir...the testing. A positive report.
Annette?
Yes sir.
Good news, then. Tell Bradford to add her to the ready team.
--------------------------Operation Bleeding Night, Western United States, 6:08am; September 2nd
Deployed: Micheal "Gipsy D" Sanderson (MEC-3, mission commander), MP-Ryan "Spike" (assault), Droid803 "Scotch" (support), Annette Durand (Sniper, Psy-Ops), Gortef "Cargo" (support), TwentyPercentCooler (sniper)
"Okay folks, you know what you're doing. Move in."
"CHRYSSALIDS!"
"MIKE! DUCK!"
"Christ, Twenty!"
"My thoughts to your thoughts. Merde, I need a better catchphrase."
"Catchphrase later, kill Chryssalids now! Target down!"
"Command center is clear."
"Good, then you can help me with these! Missed him!"
"Firing P-beam. Target terminated."
Railing Kill!"Rapid firing-no hits!"
"****! Armor held!"
"Die, you son of a *****."
"Heavy Floaters on the other side!"
"I winged one but I need some help here!"
"Mutons centerline. Coming."'
"Damn! Missed him!"
"Finite. One down."
"REALLY need help here!"
"Ow!"
"****, armor breached!"
"Oh, this is gonna suck-"
"Suffer."
"Did Annette..."
"Kill it with her brain? Yes."
"Oh **** you a-"
"GORTEF IS DOWN!"
Strike, Central, Gortef's vitals are still registering.
"Copy. Droid, get your ass over here! Firing-no hit!"
"That's for everything,
bastard."
"Paladin is operational. Returning fire-damn, missed."
"Target is still up, but injured. Droid, where are you?"
"Coming!"
"Target is terminated."
"Good shooting, MP."
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Gortef."
"Next time, run faster guys."
"Agreed. Popping Mist. Don't get shot again man, you've used up your quota, understand?"
"Armor's still a wreck, hold still a moment. There."
"Found the Muton!"
"Oh ****-damn! Armor holding."
"Do you not learn?
Suffer."
That stasis tank outline is looking really phallic there..."He's bleeding out of his...everything. What the hell do you do to them, Annette?"
"Never mind! Cloak noises!"
"Copy. Taking down the Muton."
"A pistol? A pistol! I am a
Titan!"
"And he's also flanked and dead."
"Target terminated. Perhaps Trash was right; the pistol really is powerful enough for us, but not them."
"Something's down there. I hear movement. Popping a mine."
"Explosions. I heard a pair of secondaries...christ, listen to that..."
"Something heavy."
IT'S SECTOPOD TIME!"Mutons-red suits, heavy weapons!"
"Your nightmare, it is just beginning."
"Firing. One hit, one miss, he's still up."
"Oh christ. What the hell is that?!"
"GET DOWN!"
"MP!"
"I'm all right, no hit, but I need help here!"
"Damn, damn! I can't move up to support MP!"
"Copy. Engaging on flank. Miss. Hit-christ, it shrugged a P-Beam."
"Moving-holy ****, he can do all that and he still has backup weapon?"
"Firing-no hit."
"For Dimitri."
"Holy ****! Mike!"
"Operational."
"Damn, it just soaked a plasma burst like it was nothing."
"KSM activated...****, it's still functional!"
"It soaked a KSM?! No ****ing way."
"He's launching something-no hits. Oh shi-"
"MIKE!"
"Still operational, barely."
"Hostiles moving!"
"I'm going to literally rip you apart-oh goddammit!"
"I've got red lights across the board. Paladin is nonfunctional."
"Get your ass over here. There. Now stop getting shot, because you've also used up your quota."
"I get you. Popping Mist."
"Did you really need to kick the dead Sectopod?"
"No, but it made me feel better. Find that damn Muton in the red shirt."
"He's in the aft cargo bay. Dropping him."
"We kind of wanted that one alive, Annette."
"When you are charged by an alien, you may decide in what state you wish it."
"Sectoid commanders."
"Target down."
"Sectoid is firing-trying to suppress! Missed!"
"I'm all right."
"Suffer. Merde!"
"Got your back, Annette."
"When are you going to learn it doesn't work, jackass?"
"Activating stun. Target is sleeping."
"Nice work MP!"
"Central, Strike. We are finished here."
Strike, Central, confirm. Bring your people home. We have docs standing by for your wounded.
That was...kind of tense. IronBeer had some unkind things to say about the state of my Paladin and myself when I got back. In the condition I was in if somebody had thrown a rock at me really hard, the odds are fifty-fifty the Paladin would have keeled over and shut down, and the loss of the onboard life support assists would have killed me because I wasn't in very good shape either. The medics have me and Gortef both on bed rest.
Annette's been by, twice, apologizing profusely to Gortef and staring confusedly at my augments. Granted she's seen them before, but I guess when you're actually not wearing clothes it's different. Kinda makes a guy self-conscious. Irina and E have also both been by to threaten to kick my ass for trying to get killed.
Ironically, it seems Annette's rage issues are working for her. She says her basic psionic attack is just to bundle up all her feelings about the aliens from her captivity and throw them at a target. The autopsy team is having a field day cataloging the damage she does with that sort of thing.
I'm just hoping we don't run into any more Sectopods. They're way too hard to kill for us right now. They were just soaking even the P-beam fire. Maybe Plas DMR or Heavy Plas can do better, but I doubt it. And the next time someone tests a Titan to destruction, they need to make sure there's no one inside first.