Big Bada-Boom in Japan

Pacetti found himself thinking about Germany more and more, how all of the short straws seem to be found right there. The days in the hospital became long while he was rolling back and forth in the memories of the Japanese doctor, Russian big bear, laid-back Swede and now Mad Marl. Across the room, Ironbay was not much more talkative either as he had really liked the cheeky infiltrator. St.Laurent paid them daily visits and one day told that he's got to go to Japan to make the Council happy. He'd insisted that he's not leaving his veteran buddies behind, that can't Council wait for a while, but the answer was a steep NO.

[SKYRANGER CREW CABIN TRANSCRIPTION]

Sureshot: *sipping from his scotch* "Some wiseass named this mission as Lost Jester. Let's make sure it's going to be a victory lap for the jester we lost in Germany."

Martin 'Hipster' Bedard: "You having scotch on a mission? We don't even know yet what's the deal."

Sureshot: "Yes."

Chris 'Snake Catcher' Cockburn: "Guess there's a reason."

Artturi 'Harmony Lad' Kyrömies: "I don't need a reason, isn't that a reason in itself?"

Snake Catcher: "Finland, I presume?"

Harmony Lad: "How did you guess?"

Hipster: "Vodka, sauna, knives?"

Harmony Lad glares at Hipster less harmoniously.

Sureshot: "Ok, here's the Council deal. We bend over and go disarm some bombs in Sapporo and they give our boss money for that. I'm going to be perfectly honest with this and saying that I'd much rather be on this trip with the guys in the hospital, but I have no choice. Act like men, that's all I ask."

Harmony Lad: "What the...wanna go?"

Snake Catcher: "Yey for a tourist trip to Japan!"

Hipster: "Leave it, I hear what you're saying and I know. Now, let's just get done with it."

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

The mission was simple: enter the train station and disarm the bomb that has been planted somewhere within. Or that was how Sureshot presented it to the rest of the squad of greenest soldiers he had ever seen. He had never been more nervous about a mission than today, after the alien attacks started. Fortunately he had got his scotch on the trip. More information was available as soon as they entered the Sapporo station. The bomb was hidden somewhere and had to be charged before it could be detonated. It turned out that aliens were using some kind of recharging technology to feed the bomb with energy from separate nodes, that would buy them more time. All of a sudden it was a race against the clock with a team that had zero experience in fighting with any of the aliens he'd met. Despite the scotch buzzing in his veins, he was nervous as they ascended on the train platform the bomb had to be located on. Sweeping the station gave them no movement, nothing, so this was the last resort.

From the final stairwell they could see an abandoned train standing majestically still by the platform. Silence could have been cut by a knife as they ascended the final steps. Hipster saw some faintly glowing structures along the platform and started making his way behind timetables and benches with Snake Catcher towards them. Harmony Lad jumped down to the tracks and Sureshot kept guard at the corner for all three, thinking about modern day kindergartens. He was hoping to that guy he doesn't believe in that this didn't turn into a bloodshed.

Hipster got by the first object. It was metallic, cylindrical with some kinds of legs, pulsing green light and buzzing on a slowly ascending pitch. He tried to figure out how does it work and then caught his eye on a suspicious-looking knob. He hesitated for a second, drew deep breath and grabbed it. It turned out to be a slider, and moving it into downward position shut down the pulsing light and the buzzing fainted.

Hipster: "Ok got it how these things work. Slide the knob down and it should shut down, possibly buying us more time."

Snake Catcher: "All right, following you, let's go check the other two further ahead."

Harmony Lad jumped on the platform across the tracks and saw something in the corner of his eye, on top of the train. Something somersaulted down faster than he'd ever seen and disappeared onto the tracks around the corner of the train. "What the h--" as plasma bolt broke the silence, missing Sureshot just narrowly and destroying several windows far behind in the station wall. Harmony Lad pulled the trigger and this unreally thin and tall figure shrieked, disappearing in a green cloud.

Sureshot: "Thin men! Look out, they are fast!"

Hipster and Snake Catcher deactivated another alien generator and Sureshot followed Harmony Lad to the other side of the train, peeking through the windows constantly for additional threats. Sureshot advanced past two flower boxes and caught something behind. It was a sectoid. Knowing how these small aliens can behave, he didn't hesitate and spattered burst fire through the orchids, fatally hitting the sectoid. Harmony Lad flanked to the right behind information desks and panels and saw another sectoid further down where the previous one died. To his misfortune, the sectoid saw also him and fired away. He was partially hidden by a vending machine, but it turned out that did not provide much cover. The plasma bolt seared through the vending machine like a drill and hit him on the side. He crouched in agony.

On the other side, Hipster saw the firefight that started on the other side of the train. He vaulted through the train glass and fired a burst at the sectoid, glancing it. Snake Catcher did the same, jammed his assault rifle through the window and planted a point-blank into its skull. Hipster jumped back to his original timesink, to try to deactivate more of the generators. He had no clue if this worked or not, but he had no choice. Snake Catcher stayed on the other side and Sureshot covered Hipster instead.

Advancing further, two more generators were found and finally Harmony Lad saw also a bigger object by some information table. That had to be the bomb. Limping towards it he hoped he could figure out what to do with it, and that not too many enemies appear from somewhere. It had looked like just a couple of whatever-these-were would be dangerous enough. He reached the object and noticed that there were several knob-like constructions on its surface. After a short while of fiddling the knobs without exactly knowing what to do, the humming the object had been emanating faded off and he heard a crash behind him. One of those thin men jumped through the window, vaulted onto the top of the train and jumped over, without him being able to react at all, so fast they were. Then he heard brief assault rifle bursts becoming longer and saw another jumping through the train at him. He pointed his assault rifle at it and hit home. Green cloud appeared again.

Sureshot: "We got two over here, report on the other side?"

Harmony Lad: "Bagged one."

X-Com Central: "Looks like that was it. Good job with the bomb. Council will be happy."

Sureshot: "I never thought to say this, but this went well. Good job, boys. Lost jester was found and can now rest in peace."