Hordes of Locusts

What happened in Cologne, sure as hell did not stay there. All kinds of shit hit the fan at the X-Com Central, Council was all over the place encouraging us to save everything, twice, and so on. The only tangible thing we got was a handful of weapons and a couple of bags of remains of something, that turned out to be called as sectoids. Small and harmless-looking, the business cards they seemed to have as their standard equipment drew a huge difference between the guts of a man and them. Sometimes literally so. Laboratory was busy ripping newly found evidence about the extraterrestrial life apart, and the military end of the X-Com company ended up getting busy. New recruits were needed and on this race, everyone started from the same line. Everyone has a fair chance to shine for the mankind. Council had some bright ideas about callsigns, that men don't need one before time - isn't it amazing, how important issues sometimes matter to the white-collar folks while the grunts crawl in the gutter? We decided that every man is worth a callsign, if that gives them the extra confidence to pull through. I'm sure Mad Marl will be one hell of a better soldier than rookie Wihlborg, so here goes.

Boss had news, both good and bad. Good was that the men did not have to entertain themselves in the barracks any more, but the bad was that they could be sent only to one location. Sounds like a start-up world saving company? Yep, that's about right. The next mission sent the folks to the docks at Locust Point, Baltimore, Maryland, US of A, where abductions were in progress.

[SKYRANGER CREW TRANSCRIPTION]

Pilot: "Aight, buckle up and let's go. Marl will tell you jokes and serve you coffee, could someone dance during the flight so you don't need a knife to cut through the suspense when we arrive?"

Marlon 'Mad Marl' Wihlborg: "What do you mean, jokes and coffee? Come on, Sal."

Sébastien 'Proxy' Pacetti: "Hey, proxy soldier, you heard the deal. Coffee, merci, with sugar and milk."

Mad Marl: "You don't want a coffee from me. Trust me."

Frédéric 'Sureshot' St.Laurent: "Oh yeah, while you're at it, can you pour me a scotch? I definitely need one to be able to shoot straight and you don't want me to do that on the field."

Mad Marl: "..."

Michael 'Ironside' Ironbay: "My name is Michael Ironbay and I'm a writer. I was about to go to a holiday, but duty called and wanted its brains back. For that sake, I would also need one cup of damn good coffee."

Proxy: "A writer? To me, you look more like that type of a standard sidekick guy in the movies that always delivers."

Ironside: "Gee. Anyway, I'm thinking this world saving stuff makes a wonderful setting for a book. Given that I live that far. Maybe I should write on the go so I don't forget everything afterwards?"

Proxy: "I was in Cologne, I don't think I will forget that very easily any time soon. Nor the fact that I'm going to save the America from the aliens with the help from folks who drink and write on the field."

Pilot: "Aight, stop your grinning and drop your linen, we're approaching the docks. It looks like...I mean, it doesn't exactly look like a party venue to me."

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

Skyranger dropped the brave four into the docks, behind a large construction office, some cargo containers and crates. There were a lot of signs of struggle present, but no bodies. Abduction, indeed. Mad Marl had always thought that stuff existed in fairy tales and propaganda, but now it was time to renew the script. Proxy showed significant physical prowess by rushing to the construction office and climbing the rainfall pipe up, with a light machinegun and a rocket launcher on his back, agile as a squirrel. Sureshot took the left flank behind the cargo container, Mad Marl rushed to the building door and slowly opened it. Ironside moved behind some baja maja toilets by the office wall. Nothing caught their eyes, except the light rain. Again. At the end of the world, it's always raining.

Proxy advanced on the rooftop. Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" was ringing in his ears and he found a tall ventilation structure at the end of it and hit the cover just in time. At least so he thought; he could catch a glimpse of two sectoids behind a pile of crates and rubbish before hitting the deck. In the meantime, Mad Marl rushed to a small hallway and stood by another door, trying to listen if there is anything going on inside. Sureshot had advanced all around the cargo container, only to observe something move behind a pile of crates far to the right. Ironside continued behind another toilet, closer to the construction office corner.

A blast broke the silence. Half of the ventilation chute disappeared and for a split-second, Proxy was very thankful he had decided to hit the deck immediately. Ironside stormed to the right to flank the assailant and sprayed his assault rifle fire all over the place. "Damn dancing waiter, I'D NEEDED THAT SCOTCH!" he was thinking to himself. Ironbay reacted to the gunfire by popping around the corner and catching the other sectioid square in the forehead, like a boss. Proxy returned machinegun fire from the rooftop and nailed the other one. Mad Marl rushed through the window on the construction office to move forward towards more cluttered containers. From now on, it looked like close combat.

X-Com Central: "Good job, boys. Proceed with caution, there's some dangerous container arrangements ahead, looks like a perfect place for an ambush."

Proxy jumped down from the rooftop and continued forward, while others guarded his advance. Crouching behind another cargo container some twenty meters ahead, static broke in his headset.

X-Com Central: "It looks like there's a blockade ahead, could also be a makeshift fortress. Wouldn't be surpr...hold on, there are at least two more sectoids ahead. See if you can catch any of them with your rocket launcher, blasting that structure to bits would anyway be a good idea."

Proxy: "Affirmative."

BOOM!

Debris flew across to the sky and among them the remains of the two mentioned sectoids. Proxy had hit bullseye with his rocket launcher and both enemies caught the blast. Some payback from Cologne, at least.

X-Com Central: "Area secured. Good job, now get back home."

[SKYRANGER CREW TRANSCRIPTION]

Mad Marl: "Man, that was cool. Boom! Like a boss!"

Proxy: "..."

Sureshot: "Not bad, for a writer."

Ironside: "I guess I want to write to book bad enough. Good job, Proxy. Would have been an uphill run without you."

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]