XCOM: Resist

Chapter 19-Fallen Bird

"Are you sure it's here," Chailux asked as he pushes away a couple of branches, "could you of made a mistake? It has been 20 years and the reports didn't sound so good."

"Positive Commander," BigSky replies as he is followed by Bradford, "it was a rough landing," the tip of a wing shows above the trees and he rushes pass the two, "but I've survived worse."

"Well what do you know," Bradford exclaims as he and the Commander arrive shortly after. They were standing in front of the original Skyranger crashed in the dirt but relatively intact. "You think she'll still fly?"

"Give me a second," Chailux throws up a Gremlin which starts to survey the damage, "with some basic repairs the Skyranger will be airborne again." He raises an eyebrow at a beeping and pulls out a tablet, "I'm receiving a transmission. It's one of ours but..."

He hands it over to Bradford who goes wide eyed. "It's Vahlen," he said and BigSky jumps down to join them, "the signal is strong. She must be close."

Chailux calls back the Gremlin and initiate it's scan protocol. "There's an outpost built into a cave not far from here," he points into the general direction as BigSky tosses them some weapons left inside the Skyranger, "let's check it out."

The sun was just starting to set over the landscape as the three arrive at the entrance of a cave leading into a mountain. "Found something," BigSky tosses a datapad towards Bradford who starts looking it over.

Chailux looks over at the skeletal remains of a scientist and draws a long breath. "Moira was definitely here," Bradford pockets the datapad and the group looks into the cave to see a run down structure, "she was researching something here."

The team slide down into the cave and activate flashlights to get a better view. "Reading multiple life signs," Chailux reports and they stuck behind some rocks to see a less developed Viper, "I only see the one."

Bradford sneaks around to flank and takes it out quietly. The other join him around the Viper and question it's appearance. BigSky looks to the weapon it was carrying and examines it, accidentally firing a bolt into the wall behind them. "Oh, I'm keeping this," he said and Bradford picks up two discarded axes while Chailux an odd looking pistol.

They come to a small shack and enter, moving some of the skeletons aside. "Whatever Moira was doing here, it wasn't good," Bradford points out as he stands guard, waiting for Chailux to finish up on a console.

A screen flickers on with Doctor Vahlen standing in front of three cryogenic chambers with scientist keeping an eye on them. "Doctor Moira Vahlen, log 17. My team have managed to replicate what we could from the original DNA. Surprisingly subjects Alpha and Beta are stable, it's Gamma that's got me interested," a couple of alarms go off and the video goes static. It returns to Vahlen looking down into a cavern behind a glass wall, "Gamma escaped several hours ago. No sign of the recovery team. I wish the Commander were here. I'm sure his guidance would of been useful. I'm going after Gamma myself."

"Looks like you had more of an impact than I thought," Bradford comments and hisses echo through the cave, "we've got company!" Vipers started to crawl out of the walls and floor, blocking off the entrance to the cave, "move!" They fire back at the Vipers are they move deeper and deeper into the cave.