Touchdown in Germany

Now it was obvious, that X-Com was trailing after the first month of apocalypse. Not 3-0, but maybe 2-1 and news channels remained silent. Sparse satellites relayed a whole lot of emptiness, until after way too many days the whole board went blinking red. An UFO had been reported to touchdown in GERMANY. Proxy stared at the screen with his jaw open and shook his head. Now with Harmony Lad having taken a big role in the team, the usual bunch was sent to investigate, this time with orders to capture something live instead of shooting everything to bits. Laboratory had put together a few arc throwers, which were basically pieces of plastic duct taped together with a battery and one could almost imagine the Star Trek phaser sound it makes. Jokes aside, the arc thrower assignment was under serious discussion and Ironside was the voice of reason and saying, that he will have to do it because he will rush with a shotgun anyway. Looked like these defenders of humanity were more and more accustomed to the huge boots they had to step in when everything started going south.

It started all wrong. Everything the squad had planned in the Skyranger approaching the landing site on German countryside was forgotten as Harmony Lad took a few too brisk moves to find a suitable spot in the woods.

[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]

Proxy: Harmony Lad you are too far!

Harmony Lad: Taking cover, looks like a good spOH SHIT DEAR GOD!

Proxy: Come again?

Harmony Lad: *scuttling and crackling noise* Two, three, four SIX enemies at 10 to 12 some 30 meters away! Sectoids, th--

Proxy: FALL BACK FALL BACK

Sureshot: I got an idea.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

From the saucer - which was remarkably bigger than the crashlanded one, albeit designated as "light scout" - all of a sudden emerged all kinds of horrors Proxy had told the men to avoid. Sectoids, thin men and some flying creatures that seemed to consist of an organic upper body attached to some kind of a flying device. Proxy was sure, that Germany was ten seconds off to claim another sniper from his team. Three seconds from that, he saw Sureshot throwing something at Harmony Lad's direction. Purple smoke started to emerge from Harmony Lad's location and all of a sudden everything was crystal clear. Proxy commanded Ironside to follow him into the smoke to take positions and began to assemble his rocket launcher on the run. Unable to see much through the smoke, he simply fired the rocket to where he thought to see movement. Horrible shrieks filled the air, and this cacophony was soon accompanied by Ironside's shotgun blues and Harmony Lad's sniper fire. He could hear only gunfire and chaotic scuttling and shrieking and after the rocket explosion had finally faded, he realized that this plan seemed to have worked. The smoke cleared and the terrain in front of the saucer was like from world war trenches. Barren and bodies scattered everywhere. A lone sectoid was hurrying back towards the saucer as fast as it could, when Harmony Lad ended its life as well.

Ironside and Proxy continued towards the saucer's open entry hatch and while Proxy was covering Ironbay's advance, another floating alien roared around the corner and shot him from the flank before retreating back beyond the saucer hull. The plan must have worked much better than expected if these aliens were actually experiencing fear and retreating from combat. Although Proxy's armour held together, Sureshot had his hands literally full while bandaging. Proxy had been so severely punished over the past month that his survival, let alone his battle prowess was already much bigger medical miracle than rock star Ozzy Osbourne's venerable life.

Inside the saucer, Ironside advanced carefully in the middle of the alien structures and caught something moving just outside the rear hatch. He was told to use the arc thrower at point blank range, but he was not sure if he ever could reach that close before getting liquified by alien technology. His heart was pounding just a little bit too loud and just a little bit too fast and he tried his best to refuse thinking about possible scenarios if the plan fails. Grabbing the arc thrower, he sneaked around the corner, hoping that the welcome committee is not expecting him.

It wasn't. Ironside caught the alien from behind, lifted the latest hope of Earth technology up towards the horrifying creature and pulled the trigger. Loud static buzz was followed by a bright arc, which met the floating thing. While the current met its system, it started to twitch and tremble, and finally fell down. Hopefully still alive.

Ironside: Bogey down, at least for now.

Cheering filled the comms, and now it was time to wrap this present and introduce it to its new home, the brand new alient containment facility.