[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]
Harmony Lad: Whoa...I see colours. What did you stick into me?
Megawatt: Things that are considered illegal in many countries. I...I seriously thought...
Broden: I can't believe you are alive after that.
Harmony Lad: A part of me died, though. Let's go, it's payback time.
Ironside: I need that same shit he got.
[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]
Broden advanced down the ramp and took cover behind a structure some ten meters ahead. More visitors, two chryssalids this time. The lightning-fast skitterers were all of a sudden all over him, but alloy gun and Megawatt took care of them. Hipster and Ironside were advancing down on the left ramp and climbing on the left rise, when the buzz of drones caught them. Drones would have been okay, but there was also a sectopod lurking in the far corner. It came alive and started immediately seeking for targets. 44 and Hipster shot down the drones and all three hit the deck on the slope between the hangar and left rise. An immense wave of heat went through Ironside, past him and towards Hipster, who felt like being cooked alive in a tin.
In the meantime, Harmony Lad and Megawatt had reached the top of the right rise. Broden was posting guard on the floor, behind a structure that looked like a rack for some kind of containers. He didn't want to think they would have been for human body parts, but he couldn't avoid that thought either. Harmony Lad was actually in a position to shoot at the robot, and he did. He hit it, but it did not seem to even notice the hit. Instead, it decided to blast towards Broden. Broden got hit by something and in obvious pain, he grimaced and kept his post.
[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]
Megawatt: Moving forward on the right rise to flank the machine...
Harmony Lad: Watching over you.
Megawatt: Oh crap FALL BACK FALL THE FUCK BACK
[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]
From the far end of the hangar, mutons rushed forward. A berserker made immediate turn to the rise Megawatt was on and it was followed by a muton. Four other mutons - two of which looked like elites - took covers at the center pedestal at the far end, similar to the one the squad came through and all of a sudden it looked like 5 vs. 2 on the right rise and sectopod vs. all on the open ground. Harmony Lad got one muton in his sights and whizzed a plasma bolt past the head of Megawatt, who was running for her life in trying to retreat from the group of mutons. The bolt hit bullseye and one muton fell to the ground. Still, three remaining and a mad berserker trailing Megawatt. Hawkeyed 44 was already getting the berserker in his sights from far, far back. Hipster got a narrow opening to take a shot at the sectopod and he did not release the trigger until the robot was reduced to a molten pile of scrap metal. At the same time, 44 slammed two shots in the face of the berserker, who left Megawatt alone and roared down the middle ramp towards 44, who was much too far to reach. That was too much for its blind rage to comprehend, and slave to its nature, it ran past Broden, who stopped the behemoth right on the spot. At the sudden turn of the events, after Harmony Lad had finished yet another muton, the remaining forces retreated for the short while they had left on the clock.
After the furious encounter, also Broden needed patching up. The squad appeared the exit door at the end of the central ledge and managed through. Two drones proved no resistance, but this hall was too high and vast to fully comprehend. Huge ramps rose to the heights on both sides, and the team split up, starting their careful advance towards the top platform. There was definitely an eerie feeling in the air. On top of the platform, Broden was the first to notice a shimmering object in the middle of the floor.
[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]
Broden: Looks like a futuristic film projector of a kind...wonder what their adult entertainment would be like?
Megawatt: How appropriate and not so surprising first thought...
Ironside: Don't get me started.
Broden: Approaching the far side cover...
Ironside: Careful!
Broden: It...feels...so safe in here...
Ironside: ...?
Broden: Must...resist.....kill them all!
*reloading sound for an alloy cannon*
Megawatt: RUN! DOWN FROM THE PLATFORM! GO!
[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]
Megawatt was closest to Broden and noticed that he got all of a sudden a strange glow in his eyes. He was grinning kind of in a way plastic dolls do while he reloaded his alloy cannon and turned on the other squad members. The squad was already scattering around like rats and Megawatt was quick to follow, anywhere out of sight for Broden. Snipers took the far reaches on the sides, behind platforms and stayed put and the others scattered between, in the far corners, behind covers, in the shadows. Ironside caught something from the corner of his eye. A figure was moving on an elevated platform further ahead, and he decided to drop down to the lowest platform, hoping to be able to hide against it, below line of sight for the main room. He waited.
Megawatt rushed to the near end of the same bottom platform Ironside was on and saw also the figure on the elevated platform ahead. She fired the figure once before ducking for cover and noticed that she'd hit it, but it did not die. For much more immediate situation, Broden was rushing after the squad with an alloy gun in his hands and instinctively, 44 took a shot at him as he trotted across the slope.
[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]
Ironside: Cease fire, cease fire, I got an idea!
44: He's under some kind of control, I'm not taking any of that alloy gun if I get to choose.
[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]
44 glanced Broden in the shoulder, and it did not leave much of a mark on his titan armor. Broden dropped far down, next to Megawatt and stuck the alloy gun barrel on her face. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger, and Megawatt was covered in alien metal. The platform became decorated by Megawatt and that's when Ironside decided to move.
Ironside had caught a glimpse of the figure and had thought to wait, but now waiting was no longer an option. He rushed up the slope onto the floor and almost bumped into a sectoid-like creature crouching by a wall, apparently being concentrated on something else. It looked also heavily wounded.
[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]
Ironside: This has to be the commander the eggheads talked about. I'm gonna stun him.
Hipster: Whatever it is, do it fast!
[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]
The arc thrower had been recently improved by the engineers, but contemplating whether it worked better for the squad was useless at this point. There was only one option, Ironside thought as he pulled the trigger. The familiar arc of electricity springed from the device and the sectoid - apparently some kind of a commander sectoid - fell down unconscious.
[TACTICAL COMMS TRANSCRIPTION]
Broden: Huh...what...what has happened? Where am I?
44: You idiot shot Megawatt in the face. Miraculously enough, she seems to be still alive.
[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]
Against all odds, the whole squad had made it alive through the alien base, with the base commander and its extremely intricate communication device in a gift wrap. On the way back, as the Skyranger took off to the sky to take the battered squad back to the XCOM base, Ironside got the feeling that this was not the end, but actually just a beginning.
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