Godliberator
Well-Known Member
A path to the door began to clear as Godliberator moved towards it. He moved through the room with purpose, grabbing people to fall in behind him as he made his way out of the room. The four that he managed to muster made their way to the armory, and upon arriving at the armory, their Lieutenant turned to face them.
“Sonic, Ozy, Patchouii, and Ollee, I choose you four for this mission, codename “Falling Paramore” We will be the drop squad and first on site to rescue as many civilians as possible. Get geared, we have checks in 20, and we take off after checks are cleared.”
The team hustles to their lockers to suit up before grabbing their weapons from the armory and rushing to the loading dock for weapon checks. When the team arrived a jump jet was already prepped and ready, and the overhead door standing open in waiting for them to board. The team did quick com and gear checks followed by weapon checks before boarding the jet and taking off.
“We are going in as a strike team, ahead of the divisional forces. We have the element of surprise on our side this mission. They will not be expecting us and if we move fast and kill fast, we should save a lot of lives. Ollee, I want you to keep your distance but reach out and touch everything that shouldn’t exist when it passes into your crosshair. The rest of you, we are here to cause some havoc, and save as many civilians as possible. Keep your shots tight and avoid collateral damage at all costs.”
The jet lifts off and rockets out of the bay, screaming over the horizon flying low and fast. The team remains silent for the duration of the trip to keep their mind on the mission at hand. The flight goes by quickly and the team stands in unison as Godlib breaks the silence.
“Ready?”
The team gives an acknowledgement sound off, and they set their weapons to position one.
“Link up!”
The team’s coms click online and their HUD’s flicker to life as they get prepare to drop.
“I realize that we cannot save everyone, but we will be the tip of the spear and a thorn in their side. Make it hurt.”
The team responded with a loud “AYE SIR!” followed by the sound of weapon safeties being switched off and the almost atmospheric layer of adrenaline.
The ship shudders and with a loud metallic “thunk” the gangplank slams down and the team floods into a worst case scenario. They look from the outskirts of what used to be the metropolis of Moscow. The city had been devastated from the plasma bombardment that rained down on the city. The once towering buildings surrounding the historic red square were burned out fragments of their former selves. The thousands of screams from terrified and dying civilians pierced the air as they were trying to flee could be heard for miles. The team stood for a moment to survey the scene in front of them.
“Going to be a hell of a night guys” said Wooty
“Things may get a little hot to be sure.” responded Godliberator “Let’s get going.”
They moved quickly from their location, moving from street to street as large groups of civilians ran past to escape the city. The closer they got to the city center the more numerous and frantic the people were as they tried to escape.
A large crowd came swarming around the corner of a large building and plasma bolts could be seen firing over the heads of the crowd with a few shots impacting the civilians who were killed instantly. The team got into firing positions waiting for the attackers to emerge from around the corner in hot pursuit of the crowd.
Two floaters emerge into view and Ollee fires a shot through the crowd and one floater tumbles backward and collapses as the round impacts it causing its jets to launch its corpse into the side of a building before sputtering out. The other floater scrambled to cover after the shot impacted and the group of civilians was able to make it past the team towards the safety of the city limits.
The team continued to pepper the side of the building the other floater jetted behind to ensure that it did not dare move from cover as the team leap frogged towards the next street. They rounded the corner to find that the floater had retreated.
“Well, that was anti-climactic” Patchii chimed in.
The team continued to move into the city. Patchouii used her speed to her advantage to scout ahead of the team. Occasionally she would spot a civilian hiding out and rush to them to direct them to safety.
Godlib’s voice came over the com “You are doing a good job Patchii, but be sure to stay within range of the team.”
“I am following a group of floaters who are heading deeper into the city. Follow the path I marked; it will lead you right to me.”
Patchouii stayed hidden and had to move insanely fast to keep up with the floater pack.
Soon, several loud guttural shrieks were heard amongst the screaming as several civilians came running around a corner past Patchouii followed closely by two hulking insect like aliens who walked on four spiked legs and had long spiny arms with razor sharp claws. They moved extremely fast and their shrieks would send chills to the bone. The two aliens were running down the civilians and spearing them with their legs before picking them up , partially decapitating them before biting down on the neck of the victim.
“Guys, you need to get here as fast as you can. I am not sure what these things are, or what they are doing, but I may be in deep shit here” Patchii relayed to the team.
Godlib responded “Hold position, we are on our way to you now.”
Patchii’s com light blinked once to confirm the order.
Patchouii watched as another group of floaters herded a group of civilians into the clearing with the Chrysalid aliens. The two insect like aliens quickly ran down several more of the escaping civilians and killed them, each time biting their bodies on the neck before tossing them away in a crumpled bloody heap. The group of remaining civilians ran past Patchouii’s location and the large aliens were in a fast pursuit.
“Shit” Patchouii muttered under her breath when she realized her position would soon be compromised.
Patchouii knew she could not outrun them but she needed to be fast. She reached up and grabbed a grenade from its holster and pulled the pin, letting it cook as she waited for the last civilian to pass by her. Patchouii tossed her grenade and darted from cover, the alien spotted her and began to give chase but her grenade blew directly beside the monstrous creature, causing two of its legs to disintegrate and filling the rest of its body with shrapnel. The second alien gave chase and patchouii fired her pistol at it while in full retreat. Each shot found its target but was shrugged off as the large insect continued its chase. Patchouii’s pistol clicked empty and with a blur of movement she dropped her magazine and slid another it its place and chambering a round. It was catching up to her quickly and she knew she could not outrun it.
She spotted an abandoned car and she sprinted for it with the alien just behind her. Patchouii lept as one of the spiked legs swished past her. Patchouii turned mid-air and fired several rounds into her pursuer before crashing backwards through the window of the car and landing on the back seat. The alien crashed into the side of the car and crushed in the door before reaching down and in one smooth movement flipped the car over itself causing it to land on the roof. The weight of the car crushed the roof in on itself trapping Patchouii inside.
The Chrysalid tossed the car like it was a toy once again landing upside down. The alien puched its leg through the side of the door as it tried to get to Patchouii. She obligingly answered back by firing several rounds through the car door and into the attacking alien until she had run dry on ammunition.
The alien punched two of its legs through the door and began to tear a larger hole through the metal into the car. Patchouii pushed herself back against the other side of the vehicle out of its reach, watching as the hole was being shredded open. Patchouii reached up and pulled her knives from their holsters and poised herself as best as she could, waiting for her chance to strike.
Patchouii never had that chance though, as Godlib opened up on the alien with his heavy machine gun. The alien was pushed backwards over itself as several rounds punched through the thick armor like skin of the alien who then turned to attack the team, not before it let out a loud shriek seconds before Ollee put a large shredder round through the aliens head and it finally slumped over dead.
The second alien, still alive but struggling to move because of the damage the grenade inflicted began to shriek loudly and crawl towards the team. Sonic fired a burst into the torso of the alien and its movement slowed before Ozy walked over to it, leveled his shotgun and fired a slug into its insect like face. The alien collapsed with a wet thump in a pool of its own blood.
“Patchii? You good?” Ozy called out.
*BANG* the door of the car is kicked open and Patchouii emerges.
“Your timing needs some work” Patchouii responded while holstering her knife.
“WE GOT INCOMING!!” Ollie shouted to the team.
Three floaters emerged into the clearing and began to fire at the team. They ran to get to cover, but Ollee stood his ground as plasma bolts flew past him at close range. He lined up a shot and put a round through a floater who collapsed instantly in death.
The remaining two floaters ducked behind a car and began firing at the team. They exchanged fire with the floaters but the legless creatures were persistent and continued to bombard the team with plasma shots.
“God Damn, can somebody please take care of those two!” Ozy yelled across to the team.
Godlib opens up on the car and pins the floaters down behind it as the bullets impact the car, and give the rest of the team time to move forward.
Ozy hops over the ledge in front of him and falls to the ground, his shotgun fell from his hands and out of his reach, with something tightly grasping his ankle. Ozy flips to his back to see what pulled him to the ground. He is immediately horrified by what he sees. The corpse of a civilian has been re-animated. The civilians head rolled to one side due to its partial decapitation. The mouth was snarled, its face contorted, and eyes rolled back in its head. It was biting furiously at the air, its teeth clicked loudly with each bite. A mixture of human blood and some sort of green plasma like substance oozed from every orifice on the creature as it began to pull itself up onto Ozy with an almost inhuman strength. Ozy kicked hard and scrambled backward, but no matter what he tried, he could not shake its grasp.
“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK SHIT FUCK!!!!!” screamed Ozy as he continued to struggle to get away.
*BLAM-BLAM-BLAM*
Ozy managed to get to his side arm and put three rounds at close range into the creature’s chest. The corpse continued to hold its grip as Ozy emptied his side arms magazine into its chest. It reached up with its bloody, claw-like hands and grabbed Ozy by the throat squeezing hard. Ozy dropped his side arm and grabbed for his knife unsheathing the blade and sinking it into this creature through its ribcage and continuing to repeatedly stab at it while its increasingly tight grip and incessant attempts to bite through his shoulder plate armor persisted. Ozy felt himself falling away from reality as he started to lose consciousness; quickly he moved from stabbing and in one quick motion sliced at its wrist. The pressure on his throat let up enough to give him the burst of energy he needed to survive and with a final swift motion he had severed the creatures hand from its arm. Ozy felt the hand loosen and he gasped for air. No sooner was one arm free did Ozy feel the creature roll off of him.
*BOOM-BOOM*
Ozy opened up his eyes to see Ollee standing over him with the barrel of his sniper rifle still smoking from firing two rounds through the head and chest of the creature. Brain matter, alien plasma, blood, and bile were everywhere.
“What the fucking FUCK was that?!” protested Ozy.
“I don’t have a fucking clue, but we have to get back to cover, those floaters are still firing on us!” Ollee shouted as he grabbed Ozy by his collar and pulled him back over the low wall.
“CLEAR! GODLIB, HIT THAT SHIT HARD!!!” Ollee Yelled.
Godlib sidestepped out from cover, dropped to his knee and fired a shredder rocket into the car. The explosion engulfed the floaters and the shrapnel tore them to pieces. The two floaters were tossed over near Ozy’s shotgun where they lay in a lifeless, burned up heap.
The team began to regroup on Ozy and Ollee’s position. Ozy stood and climbed over the low wall again to retrieve his shotgun. Ozy leaned down and had just picked up the shotgun, when one of the floaters moved. Ozy kicked it onto its side. The floater opened its remaining eye to look at Ozy as he rested the barrel of his shotgun on the head of the floater.
*KABLOOSH*
Ozy turned, ejected the spent cartridge before walking back towards the team.
“We may have a bit of an issue here guys” Sonic stated while scanning the area.
The team quickly scanned their area and saw to their horror several re-animated corpses stalking towards them.
“Anybody have a plan?” Patchouii asked “I only got about a mag and a half left”
“I think we are all fairly low on ammo, currently” responded Godlib.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAP!! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAP!!
The ground explodes around the team as a jump jet sails over the top of the team. The door gunners were firing bursts from their mounted mini-guns. The corpses surrounding them turned to a heavy brown mist after mixing with the dust being thrown up from the bullet impacts on the ground. The Jump Jet touched down as several more of a fleet began to land and offload the battalion of resistance soldiers.
The team quickly boards their transport back to base and through the open hatch; they watch the resistance fighters mop up what was left of the zombified corpses. A few plasma bolts strobed the darkness as the resistance flushed out a few stranded aliens from the city ruins were the last images the team saw of Moscow as the jet made its ascent.
Godlib shoved his machine gun into the storage rack and locked into the jump seat next to Ozy who rubbed his throat, which was bruised.
“Ozy, when we get back, you hit the showers, that is an order”
Ozy looked himself over, his armor was covered in everything that thing oozed all over him.
“I do know how to make a mess don’t I?” Ozy responded.
“You also know how to smell the whole place up, too.” Sonic finished the conversation.
The rear hatch to the jump jet finally closed and the engines began to whine as they accelerated to return to the XCOM base. Not much was said on the return trip, but nothing needed to be said. This was what they signed up for.
To be continued….
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this episode of this series and I would love to hear what you guys think. I want to apologize for the length of time it took me to get it posted. You can also post any comments or ideas in the thread for the series which can be found at this link right here.. Thank you for reading and look forward for Episode 8
“Sonic, Ozy, Patchouii, and Ollee, I choose you four for this mission, codename “Falling Paramore” We will be the drop squad and first on site to rescue as many civilians as possible. Get geared, we have checks in 20, and we take off after checks are cleared.”
The team hustles to their lockers to suit up before grabbing their weapons from the armory and rushing to the loading dock for weapon checks. When the team arrived a jump jet was already prepped and ready, and the overhead door standing open in waiting for them to board. The team did quick com and gear checks followed by weapon checks before boarding the jet and taking off.
“We are going in as a strike team, ahead of the divisional forces. We have the element of surprise on our side this mission. They will not be expecting us and if we move fast and kill fast, we should save a lot of lives. Ollee, I want you to keep your distance but reach out and touch everything that shouldn’t exist when it passes into your crosshair. The rest of you, we are here to cause some havoc, and save as many civilians as possible. Keep your shots tight and avoid collateral damage at all costs.”
The jet lifts off and rockets out of the bay, screaming over the horizon flying low and fast. The team remains silent for the duration of the trip to keep their mind on the mission at hand. The flight goes by quickly and the team stands in unison as Godlib breaks the silence.
“Ready?”
The team gives an acknowledgement sound off, and they set their weapons to position one.
“Link up!”
The team’s coms click online and their HUD’s flicker to life as they get prepare to drop.
“I realize that we cannot save everyone, but we will be the tip of the spear and a thorn in their side. Make it hurt.”
The team responded with a loud “AYE SIR!” followed by the sound of weapon safeties being switched off and the almost atmospheric layer of adrenaline.
The ship shudders and with a loud metallic “thunk” the gangplank slams down and the team floods into a worst case scenario. They look from the outskirts of what used to be the metropolis of Moscow. The city had been devastated from the plasma bombardment that rained down on the city. The once towering buildings surrounding the historic red square were burned out fragments of their former selves. The thousands of screams from terrified and dying civilians pierced the air as they were trying to flee could be heard for miles. The team stood for a moment to survey the scene in front of them.
“Going to be a hell of a night guys” said Wooty
“Things may get a little hot to be sure.” responded Godliberator “Let’s get going.”
They moved quickly from their location, moving from street to street as large groups of civilians ran past to escape the city. The closer they got to the city center the more numerous and frantic the people were as they tried to escape.
A large crowd came swarming around the corner of a large building and plasma bolts could be seen firing over the heads of the crowd with a few shots impacting the civilians who were killed instantly. The team got into firing positions waiting for the attackers to emerge from around the corner in hot pursuit of the crowd.
Two floaters emerge into view and Ollee fires a shot through the crowd and one floater tumbles backward and collapses as the round impacts it causing its jets to launch its corpse into the side of a building before sputtering out. The other floater scrambled to cover after the shot impacted and the group of civilians was able to make it past the team towards the safety of the city limits.
The team continued to pepper the side of the building the other floater jetted behind to ensure that it did not dare move from cover as the team leap frogged towards the next street. They rounded the corner to find that the floater had retreated.
“Well, that was anti-climactic” Patchii chimed in.
The team continued to move into the city. Patchouii used her speed to her advantage to scout ahead of the team. Occasionally she would spot a civilian hiding out and rush to them to direct them to safety.
Godlib’s voice came over the com “You are doing a good job Patchii, but be sure to stay within range of the team.”
“I am following a group of floaters who are heading deeper into the city. Follow the path I marked; it will lead you right to me.”
Patchouii stayed hidden and had to move insanely fast to keep up with the floater pack.
Soon, several loud guttural shrieks were heard amongst the screaming as several civilians came running around a corner past Patchouii followed closely by two hulking insect like aliens who walked on four spiked legs and had long spiny arms with razor sharp claws. They moved extremely fast and their shrieks would send chills to the bone. The two aliens were running down the civilians and spearing them with their legs before picking them up , partially decapitating them before biting down on the neck of the victim.
“Guys, you need to get here as fast as you can. I am not sure what these things are, or what they are doing, but I may be in deep shit here” Patchii relayed to the team.
Godlib responded “Hold position, we are on our way to you now.”
Patchii’s com light blinked once to confirm the order.
Patchouii watched as another group of floaters herded a group of civilians into the clearing with the Chrysalid aliens. The two insect like aliens quickly ran down several more of the escaping civilians and killed them, each time biting their bodies on the neck before tossing them away in a crumpled bloody heap. The group of remaining civilians ran past Patchouii’s location and the large aliens were in a fast pursuit.
“Shit” Patchouii muttered under her breath when she realized her position would soon be compromised.
Patchouii knew she could not outrun them but she needed to be fast. She reached up and grabbed a grenade from its holster and pulled the pin, letting it cook as she waited for the last civilian to pass by her. Patchouii tossed her grenade and darted from cover, the alien spotted her and began to give chase but her grenade blew directly beside the monstrous creature, causing two of its legs to disintegrate and filling the rest of its body with shrapnel. The second alien gave chase and patchouii fired her pistol at it while in full retreat. Each shot found its target but was shrugged off as the large insect continued its chase. Patchouii’s pistol clicked empty and with a blur of movement she dropped her magazine and slid another it its place and chambering a round. It was catching up to her quickly and she knew she could not outrun it.
She spotted an abandoned car and she sprinted for it with the alien just behind her. Patchouii lept as one of the spiked legs swished past her. Patchouii turned mid-air and fired several rounds into her pursuer before crashing backwards through the window of the car and landing on the back seat. The alien crashed into the side of the car and crushed in the door before reaching down and in one smooth movement flipped the car over itself causing it to land on the roof. The weight of the car crushed the roof in on itself trapping Patchouii inside.
The Chrysalid tossed the car like it was a toy once again landing upside down. The alien puched its leg through the side of the door as it tried to get to Patchouii. She obligingly answered back by firing several rounds through the car door and into the attacking alien until she had run dry on ammunition.
The alien punched two of its legs through the door and began to tear a larger hole through the metal into the car. Patchouii pushed herself back against the other side of the vehicle out of its reach, watching as the hole was being shredded open. Patchouii reached up and pulled her knives from their holsters and poised herself as best as she could, waiting for her chance to strike.
Patchouii never had that chance though, as Godlib opened up on the alien with his heavy machine gun. The alien was pushed backwards over itself as several rounds punched through the thick armor like skin of the alien who then turned to attack the team, not before it let out a loud shriek seconds before Ollee put a large shredder round through the aliens head and it finally slumped over dead.
The second alien, still alive but struggling to move because of the damage the grenade inflicted began to shriek loudly and crawl towards the team. Sonic fired a burst into the torso of the alien and its movement slowed before Ozy walked over to it, leveled his shotgun and fired a slug into its insect like face. The alien collapsed with a wet thump in a pool of its own blood.
“Patchii? You good?” Ozy called out.
*BANG* the door of the car is kicked open and Patchouii emerges.
“Your timing needs some work” Patchouii responded while holstering her knife.
“WE GOT INCOMING!!” Ollie shouted to the team.
Three floaters emerged into the clearing and began to fire at the team. They ran to get to cover, but Ollee stood his ground as plasma bolts flew past him at close range. He lined up a shot and put a round through a floater who collapsed instantly in death.
The remaining two floaters ducked behind a car and began firing at the team. They exchanged fire with the floaters but the legless creatures were persistent and continued to bombard the team with plasma shots.
“God Damn, can somebody please take care of those two!” Ozy yelled across to the team.
Godlib opens up on the car and pins the floaters down behind it as the bullets impact the car, and give the rest of the team time to move forward.
Ozy hops over the ledge in front of him and falls to the ground, his shotgun fell from his hands and out of his reach, with something tightly grasping his ankle. Ozy flips to his back to see what pulled him to the ground. He is immediately horrified by what he sees. The corpse of a civilian has been re-animated. The civilians head rolled to one side due to its partial decapitation. The mouth was snarled, its face contorted, and eyes rolled back in its head. It was biting furiously at the air, its teeth clicked loudly with each bite. A mixture of human blood and some sort of green plasma like substance oozed from every orifice on the creature as it began to pull itself up onto Ozy with an almost inhuman strength. Ozy kicked hard and scrambled backward, but no matter what he tried, he could not shake its grasp.
“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK SHIT FUCK!!!!!” screamed Ozy as he continued to struggle to get away.
*BLAM-BLAM-BLAM*
Ozy managed to get to his side arm and put three rounds at close range into the creature’s chest. The corpse continued to hold its grip as Ozy emptied his side arms magazine into its chest. It reached up with its bloody, claw-like hands and grabbed Ozy by the throat squeezing hard. Ozy dropped his side arm and grabbed for his knife unsheathing the blade and sinking it into this creature through its ribcage and continuing to repeatedly stab at it while its increasingly tight grip and incessant attempts to bite through his shoulder plate armor persisted. Ozy felt himself falling away from reality as he started to lose consciousness; quickly he moved from stabbing and in one quick motion sliced at its wrist. The pressure on his throat let up enough to give him the burst of energy he needed to survive and with a final swift motion he had severed the creatures hand from its arm. Ozy felt the hand loosen and he gasped for air. No sooner was one arm free did Ozy feel the creature roll off of him.
*BOOM-BOOM*
Ozy opened up his eyes to see Ollee standing over him with the barrel of his sniper rifle still smoking from firing two rounds through the head and chest of the creature. Brain matter, alien plasma, blood, and bile were everywhere.
“What the fucking FUCK was that?!” protested Ozy.
“I don’t have a fucking clue, but we have to get back to cover, those floaters are still firing on us!” Ollee shouted as he grabbed Ozy by his collar and pulled him back over the low wall.
“CLEAR! GODLIB, HIT THAT SHIT HARD!!!” Ollee Yelled.
Godlib sidestepped out from cover, dropped to his knee and fired a shredder rocket into the car. The explosion engulfed the floaters and the shrapnel tore them to pieces. The two floaters were tossed over near Ozy’s shotgun where they lay in a lifeless, burned up heap.
The team began to regroup on Ozy and Ollee’s position. Ozy stood and climbed over the low wall again to retrieve his shotgun. Ozy leaned down and had just picked up the shotgun, when one of the floaters moved. Ozy kicked it onto its side. The floater opened its remaining eye to look at Ozy as he rested the barrel of his shotgun on the head of the floater.
*KABLOOSH*
Ozy turned, ejected the spent cartridge before walking back towards the team.
“We may have a bit of an issue here guys” Sonic stated while scanning the area.
The team quickly scanned their area and saw to their horror several re-animated corpses stalking towards them.
“Anybody have a plan?” Patchouii asked “I only got about a mag and a half left”
“I think we are all fairly low on ammo, currently” responded Godlib.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAP!! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAP!!
The ground explodes around the team as a jump jet sails over the top of the team. The door gunners were firing bursts from their mounted mini-guns. The corpses surrounding them turned to a heavy brown mist after mixing with the dust being thrown up from the bullet impacts on the ground. The Jump Jet touched down as several more of a fleet began to land and offload the battalion of resistance soldiers.
The team quickly boards their transport back to base and through the open hatch; they watch the resistance fighters mop up what was left of the zombified corpses. A few plasma bolts strobed the darkness as the resistance flushed out a few stranded aliens from the city ruins were the last images the team saw of Moscow as the jet made its ascent.
Godlib shoved his machine gun into the storage rack and locked into the jump seat next to Ozy who rubbed his throat, which was bruised.
“Ozy, when we get back, you hit the showers, that is an order”
Ozy looked himself over, his armor was covered in everything that thing oozed all over him.
“I do know how to make a mess don’t I?” Ozy responded.
“You also know how to smell the whole place up, too.” Sonic finished the conversation.
The rear hatch to the jump jet finally closed and the engines began to whine as they accelerated to return to the XCOM base. Not much was said on the return trip, but nothing needed to be said. This was what they signed up for.
To be continued….
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this episode of this series and I would love to hear what you guys think. I want to apologize for the length of time it took me to get it posted. You can also post any comments or ideas in the thread for the series which can be found at this link right here.. Thank you for reading and look forward for Episode 8
