X-Com: Revenge of The Ethereals

Retry

A/N: Sorry for not uploading lately, on Wednesday it was a birhtday party (not mine :) ) and yesterday I was dead (school) Also I tought first two chapters are kinda short... enjoy ;)

My training at the shooting range was usefull. First, it was a little tough, the gun is lighter than the slug thrower they trained us in the army and doesn't give you so much recoil. Soon I managed to get used to it. Now I can turn faster and fire sharper, after all I might not fail again.

The next day after the breakfast we met in the training room again and Kingpin commaned us into seats. The room flashed away and soon, we were standing in the so-well known base, full in armor and with our guns in hands.

„Okay guys, I want everyone to show me the best of you. If we do this right, I promise you there will be les drills inside this place, but tactic is most important at the moment. And about you, Novotny, try to do what you are supposed to.“

„Yes, Sir!“ I nodded. Today, I'm going to show you my best, I tought and continued to listen to the briefing.

„Brox, you will take it to the right, Tweety, I want you on the left. I will go first and Novotny, you will cover our backs. Understood? Okay, lets go!“ and on his mark, we started to creep through the enemy base.

First few minutes were uneventful but as soon as we came to a doorway to some huge room, Kingpin gave us all a stop mark.

„There's a sectoid on the other side of the room. Brox, Tweety, cover the doorway, I will get myself behind those crates. Novotny, as soon as I am there, get him down. Aim for the head and be aware, sectoids never move alone.“

„Affarmitive,“ we agreed and moved to desired locations. I covered myself behind something, what ressembeled a railing, stabilized my gun over it, took and aim and shot. Clean head shot, the sectoid was dead in one clean hit.

„What was that noise?“ Tweety asked silently over the radio. „Watch out, the rest is comming!“ Kingpin announced and we took a ready positions. Second sectoid blindly rushed through the doorway and met with a crossfire from Tweety and Brox.

Third sectiod was, unfortunatelly, a bit more careful and took a cover behind some stuff in the room. As soon as I saw it aiming at Kingpin, I didn't waste time and shot. I hit it in the arm, not killing it but effectivelly distracting it from hitting him with its plasma pistol. As soon as Brox saw that, he moved in with his scatter laser, shot it from the point blank and bulked behind its cover from the opposite direction.

„Nice job, Novotny, you are getting better every time.“ Brox said and Tweety gave me a thumb-up. Unfortunatelly she didn't notice another sectiod comming from the room and it was quickly closing on Brox's direction. I wanted to warn them, but it was too late, the sectoid was too close. I took another shot at it, crippling its right leg at the same time Kingpin warmed up his laser and litelarry varporized his target. When he was done, only a pile of ash was lying on the ground. „Leave this for later, guys, I want you to pay 100% concentration.“

The room was clear and we moved through. According to Kingpin's guess, there were three other rooms, the last one with a leader. As we moved through the hallway between first and second room, we engaged only one chryssalid which was swiftly taken down by Kingpin's heavy laser. Then, after around 10 minutes after, we came to the second doorway.

„Okay, second room. This will be tougher than just few sectoids. Keep your heads up and ears peaked. Whenever you hear something, let everyone know. Novotny will scout for us as he has the scope on his rifle.“

I took a position behind the doorframe and took a peak inside the room. Across the room, there was a pack of three floaters. There was a walkway around the room with some alien stuff around and a huge space in the middle around three meters deep with some blue glowing tanks. I saw only these three floaters so I reported their position with a warning that something might hide in between these tanks.

„Okay, Novotny, waste one of these floaters, they will surely come. I will take down another one of them as soon as they come close. Brox will také down the third. Tweety, watch for anything neraing from the pit and pin it down as soon as it comes. Get ready and on my mark, Novotny, shoot. Three, two, one, mark!“ and I sniped one of these ugly creations.

As we expected, after seeing their comrade dying, floaters quickly got into the air and traversed the whole room in an instant. As soon as one of them stopped near us to take a shot at me, Kingpin hitted him with his laser.

I turned into a dash to get to the nearest cover but I fell down as soon as a sharp pain darted through my left leg. The second floater succesfully aimed and hit me. I grabbed the crate near me and slid myself behind there.

„Aw crap, I got it!“ I cried out over the radio. Brox blasted the floater instantly with his scatter laser and it fell down crashing into the ground. The last floater was dead too, I can only guess Kingpin hit something vital for it to survive.

As I was lying there, sharp pain darting through my leg, Tweety came over to me with her medkit in her hand. „Lay still, It will be OK.“ she said and started to spray the healing substance on my wound. Soon, the pain stopped as the hot plasma disappeared and the wound was cleansed by the substance. Tweety quickly bandaged it and I was able to get up again. I felt it, but it wasn't that horrible.

As we stood up we heard a shooting from where Kingpin with Brox were covering us. „Two chryssalids and a muton!“ Kingpin quickly announced and I took a shooting positon. I aimed at the closer chrysallid and pulled a trigger.

A chill ran across my spine as the only thing I heard was a click. „Damn, I gotta reload!“ I yelled as I was unplugging the battery from my rifle and quickly replacing it with another one. As soon as I reloaded, I took a shot at the chryssalid quickly covering the distance between it and a corner Brox was hiding behind. It fell flat to the ground.

The second chryssalid was taken care of by Tweety and her SMG. I saw a grin growing on her face as it fell to the ground. Then, she ran away and I took an aiming position.

The muton was much smarter than his chryssalid allies, mainly because it has a long range gun instead just claws. It was crouching behind the railway of a staircase rising from the pit. Suddenly, a wild idea crossed my mind.

„Sir, may you plase shoot at it?“ i asked. „What's your plan, Novotny?“ „I need you to destroy the railing. I will snipe it then, hopefully wasting it, if not, at least crippling it.“

„It might work, good thinking boy! On my mark.“ I put my eye to the scope and listened to Kingpin's countdown. „Three, two, one, mark!“ He yelled and started to shoot.

We caugth the muton unprepared as it hoped his cover would last until he makes a move. The alloy it was made of started to melt under the Kingpin's fire and soon, I had a clear sight at our enemy. I took a shot and hit it in the shoulder. The muton screamed in agony and dropped to all four. Brox saw the opportunity and quickly covered distance between him and the enemy. As he came to it, he aimed his scatter laser and wasted it from the point blank.

„Clear, no more enemies here,“ he announced then and straightened himself. „Good thinking, Novotny,“ Kingpin then said. „I see you are finally starting to prove yourself.“ „Thanks, sir“ I replied.

„Okay guys, check your guns and prepare for moving to the next room.“ Kingpin ordered and then he came to me. „Are you okay, where did the floater hit you?“ „It's alright, sir, I took it into the leg. Tweety patched me up.“

„I saw that, you'll thank her later. Now we must go.“ he said to me and then we started to move to the next chamber.