Alarms blared, their shrieking sound and pulsing red lights cut through the silence of the night. All over the base personnel heaved themselves out of bed, quickly returning to the posts they had held all day. Even the Strike Team Barracks weren't safe from the drums of war, as they too filled with the various combat personnel, all woken from what little sleep they had been allowed to get. For his own part Marius rolled out of his bed, his augments making a metallic sound as the landed on the metal floor. Groaning as he stood up straight, Marius stifled a yawn as he glanced at the clock before pulling his uniform on. In the darkness the green numbers on the clock slowly blinked 2:21 AM. "Damn" He thought as he opened the door, joining the steady stream of people in the hallway.

__________________________________
“It is a sight of pure chaos and panic here. It just showed up overnight and has begun to shell the city, I am also receiving reports that is has been landing a number of troops all around the city. We, as of right now, have….Wait what was that?” The reporter stopped mid-sentence as he looked around for the source of a sound he seemed to have heard, the question of what it was came all too soon as a Chryssalid came scuttling from the shadows, making quick work of the Reporter and his camera man. As the camera slipped from the hands of the dead man it landed on the ground, cracking its lens, but giving a clear picture of the Alien battleship that hung high over the city, green plasma fire erupting from its underbelly.
Gritting his teeth the commander switched from that news feed to another. “As of right now we have no idea why the aliens have targeted Vienna, all we can say is –“
The commander quieted the feed as he silently hung his head, this had not been the Programs shining month. First they had lost Alpha squad and now, almost like they knew they ripped a limb off of the project, the Alien’s launch another Terror offensive. Keying his ear piece Lawson contacted Officer Bradford in central. “What is the status of Sigma” he said his voice low and his eyes never leaving the screen.
“All combat personnel are ready sir. As for Sigma they are probably getting their equipment together. They will be in the air in 5.” Came the hurried reply
“Good, get them To Vienna at best possible speed, let’s not lose more than we can afford to.”
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Marius yawned as the access lift stopped on the lab floor. Striding through the various research labs he finally came to the room he was looking for, the Cybernetics Integration Lab, lovingly called the MEC lab by everyone in the base. Walking in he marched passed the augment table to a small key pad that sat next to a raised platform in a wall recess. After punching in a short code, Marius stood on the platform and faced the room. Soon, a clamp like arm lowered from the ceiling and secured itself around Marius’s chest and waist. Others came down as well, four in total, each removing an augmented limb as the central arm lifted him upwards. As the arms preformed their macabre dance, the rest of the room was working as well. From a bay in the back of the room, a conveyor line brought forward the hulking mass of the full MEC suit and slowly, what was left of the man was lowered into the suit. Half asleep from this already familiar procedure, Marius was jolted awake by what felt like a massive static shock as the suit linked up with his augment slots. Blinking as the various targeting reticles and sensor readouts invaded his eyesight. Flexing his hands and shrugging his shoulders he strode forward and retrieved his waiting particle cannon. Working his way back to the access lift that would take him up to the hanger, Marius began to wonder how the rest of the squad was coping with the 2 AM wake up call. As he did so a slight smile crossed his face.

"Chort tzdbya beeree!"

Nic's gruff voice filled the barracks as his barely opened eyes glanced at the time on the clock. 2AM. Now, he wasn't mad at the fact that he was getting up so early, it was mostly the fact that he hadn't got to sleep. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and sluggishly swung his legs out from underneath the covers, where they came to rest on the cold floor. At the end of his bunk lay the newly-put-together beauty that was his LMG. Katyusha, he called it, as it reminded him of home and the Nationally famous war song.

"Oh, Katyusha, why must sleep slip through my grasp so easily? When I think I have it in a choke hold...The damned Aliens lay waste to some poor-ass citizen. What is it they want with us anyway, with a civilization so hell bent on surviving on this barren rock, what threat could we pose?"

After taking a moment to ponder the thought, his tongue rolling across his pointed teeth, Nic began throwing each piece of armor on. Heavy as it may be, it had long ago become light to him as his body grew accustomed to the enormous pressure it put upon his frame. Any normal Assault wimp would crumble underneath the sheer mass, but not Nic. No, Nic was made for this. He was born a Heavy.

"Nic! Move your ass, Sigma's being called for this!" came a woman's voice from the doorway, far too high pitched and loud for this time of day.

"Indanahway suka bluut..." was Nic's response as he slung on the rest of his gear (Along with Katyusha, of course), and trudged towards the door with his helmet tucked firmly underneath his arm. "How about you go tell Lawson I'm on my way, little bird. I don't have time to discuss such things. As you said, Sigma is needed. As for Marius, I'm sure he is on his way to the Hangar, no?" And with that, the large man shoved past the tiny Swedish Sniper, smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

As Nic rounded the corner to the access lift, he saw Marius waiting for it to reach his floor, and immediately lifted his large helmet into the air. "Ah...First one here, as always. Where is the rest of our circus troop? Still sleeping I assume?"

As was the same with every mission, Nic was quick to assume, and even faster when it came to readying up in the morning. Some would call him a Veteran, some would call him a machine. It didn't matter to Nic however, for he preferred the life of War and Destruction. He didn't even care whether or not this planet died, his job was to ensure the safety of the team, and the success of the missions by killing everything in sight before it got to him or the rest of Sigma.

Torkel rolled out of bed reluctantly, his eyes as good as glued together, he had to rely on his hands to locate his trousers…
His pants on, a shirt soon followed and he made his way to the locker. Luckily he’d repeated the task of putting on and taking his armor off so many times he could do most of it with his eyes closed, giving them a few more minutes of rest. With everything where it should be, he tightened some strapps and then checked the fuel on his rocket engines and the batteries for his weapon.
Not very assault troopers prefered the rifle as their weapons. They liked to use their speed and ability to fool their opponents to get close and blow them away with a well aimed shot to the face, not Torkel. He knew all too well that the closer you got to the aliens, the more danger you were in. The rifle on the other hand had the advantage of consistent damage no matter what range you were at. He didn’t have to sneak up on anyone, he only needed to flank them.

The door behind him opened with a loud bang that made Torkel jump. His eyes opened and helped his hands aim the rifle straight at a short, fat intel-guy.
“Get yer ass to the plane, yah leave in three minutes!” He shouted and held up three sausage-sized fingers. Torkel relaxed and put the safety on.
“I’ll be there in one” Torlek replied, his accent betraying his ancestry, if the blonde hair and over all aryan appearance wasn’t enough. He slung the strap over his head, swung the weapon back and started to jog. As he passed the door and pressed the button to make the door close the intel-guy had made his way over to the next door. Torkel heard his shouting something to whoever was in there, but didn’t stop to check.

After a little jog to warm up he started to run at a slow pace. His eyes were fully open, his heart rate was going up and before he reached the hangar all traces of his less-than-gracious awakening was gone. He entered the hangar and slowed down to a jog again. He had barely broken a sweat running through half the base to get there. That was the difference between assault troopers and the others, they focused solely on stamina and cardio. Sure, the whole shooting-thing and all that was important too, but in the end an assaults first duty was to run ahead of the team and find the enemy. An assault trooper who could not run was a dead assault trooper.
As he got closer to the transport plane he saw a familiar form coming from the other direction. Nicolai Mendaev, “Nic” for short. He came walking in full titan armor like it weighed nothing at all, a LMG nonchalantly leaned against his shoulder. Close by the whirring sound of the access elevator told them both that the MEC Marius was on his way.
Nic approached the MEC first. "First one here, as always. Where is the rest of our circus troop? Still sleeping I assume?" He said, then Torkel stepped out from behind a supply crate only a few steps away.
“How can anyone sleep with all this going on?” He asked, throwing his arms up into the air in an exasperated gesture “I think we can turn the sirens off now, unless we wanna wake up the dead too?”
The sirens stayed on, and while Torkel thought himself funny, he knew that some people couldn’t see the humor in anything before noon. Instead of pissing anyone off more he produced a small black, flat and round object from a pocket, opened the lid and revealed a brown-ish black mush. With three fingers he fiddled around a bit and managed to compress the moist goo into a small pyramid. He carefully lifted it out of the container and placed it beneath his upper lip. As is customary he offered the contents of the small container to his squadmates (knowing well that neither would try his poison) before he put the lid back on and returned the container to his pocket.
“Well.” He said, somewhat muffled this time, he adjusted the goo with his tongue and tried again.
“Well, we’re not making any babies here, how about we get on board and see what the cat drags in to join us?” He asked with a smile, revealing the brown glob in his mouth as he drew his lip back.

Greg awoke with a start. He leapt to from his bed sweating and panting. He had another one of his nightmares that he didn't dare tell the others about. He got up out of bed and walked out to his locker to begin suiting up. As he put on his armour it reminded him of when he was offered to be a MEC trooper for the first time, to which he 'politely' replied no. The reason he had turned down the offer was because he didn't think he would have to give up his humanity to beat another inhuman enemy. He was confident in his power as a man and nothing else. While most would see it as a disadvantage he saw it as an advantage being that he would need to train just that much more to be on par with his comrades.

After he finally put in his heavy armour he ran to get his weapons which he kept under his bed due to it making him feel more prepared for an attack. With his weapons now in his arms and holster he ran to the hanger bay occasionally saying hello to passing by staff. When he finally got there he yelled out "I'm not last am I?" Being the Assault of the squad being last would be pretty bad on your record.

Stan jumping out of bed as he heard Sigma was being called for, he ran about the barracks seeing the others in his squad getting ready. He made his way to his things and began putting on his Ghost armor. A tight fit as usual but it was alright, picking up his plasma rifle and looking to his others. three uses. He quickly jogged to med-bay to obtain a med-kit for the battle. Grabbing what he called "Life in a Can" he ran back to the barracks. Flicking switches on his gun and adjusted his med-kit to fit three uses he made sure everything was in order. When he got back he realized his team had finished up and that he needed to speed through. He first checked his biotics, everything was in order more or less he never really understood his new alien parts.

His armor and things equipped he ran to the hangar bay his armory clacking under his feet his gun making a scratchy noise as its power source flickered. He made sure he had his extra ammunition with him as he met with his team. "Nope, looks like I am last my friends." He said seeing the assault. He loaded himself onto the ship and spoke with his team. "So....First mission since Alpha Squad." He said his head drooping slightly."So then, lets kick extra ass in their names!" He shouted to his squad. His eyes looked back and forth from his squad. He quickly ducked his as he worked with his ghost armor, so that he could flick the switch at any time whenever they were in battle. He took a deep breath, for this was not only the first mission after Alpha, but the first with his new alien bits. He knew he had another person with alien bits that would surely help him out a bit but he was scared thinking he would be slowed down or something.

Hoshi had spent the majority of the night in the Psi lab for "minor testing and observation". Now that Hoshi was the only surviving Psi Ops Soldier, the Psionic Lab Research team took every available moment to run tests with her. It wasn't like she had a choice, after all, when they volunteer you for Psionic testing it's absolutely mandatory. She was practically the property of the XCom Psionic Lab. So there she sat in a small folding chair with an odd-looking helmet designed to monitor her brainwaves while the research team gave her simple instructions from the other room. "Focus on the object closest to you... Now focus on the object furthest away... Good, now we need you to-" Alarms blared as news of the terror attack came in. A small part of Hoshi thanked Buddha for any reason to get out of that lab but that faded quickly since innocent people's lives were in danger.

Once she made it out of the test chamber she made a dash for the lift to the armory which, after her sprint, seemed to take ages to reach the armory where her gear was waiting. She had gotten mostly into her armor when the quartermaster approached her. He was American and had taken several tours of duty in the middle east before coming to XCom but how did she know that? Never mind, it wasn't important but the look on his face told her exactly what he was going to say. "The rest of your team already came through here so you'd better move your ass!" His voice was stern and Hoshi felt like she was being scolded by her father once again. A brief moment of sadness fell over her as she ran for the hangar with her rifle in one hand and her chest piece and helmet in the other. It was embarrassing to be seen scrambling around like a rookie so when she finally made it she straitened herself out and gave a bow, "Sumimasen... sorry for the delay." At that point she really wished she had managed to put her helmet on before reaching the hangar but now that she was here she took her seat in the Skyranger and started to fix the rest of her gear.

Marius grinned as the sniper booked it to the plane, shifting over a bit to allow her room to finish putting on her gear his simply replied to her apology his voice, monotone and robotic, a side effect of the MEC suit, "It's alright, at least you got here before the door closed." Almost as if that was a prediction, the door on the VTOL's bay slowly closed as the engines began to rumble as they lifted the craft and it's cargo into the air. Once they were free of the confines of the stronghold, the rumble of the lift engines slowly changed into the whine of the main drive engines.

Inside Marius swallowed, even with heavy augmentations he hated this part. Not because he was traveling over the earth at speeds that make sound seem relatively slow, but because of what it did to his stomach. He normally had no problem with flying, but when they hit the sound barrier, it sent his stomach lurching. He was able to keep it all down, but that still didn't help the discomfort when the plane shook as it hit the barrier. Luckily he was able to keep his face passive as well, not a hard feat for a MEC trooper, as when your head is full of weapon stats, firing arks and damage reports, emotion becomes a conscious effort to show.

His thoughts were interrupted by the holo screen flickering to life, a map of Vienna painting itself in the light. As the light show went on Bradford's voice came over the comms. "Alright Sigma, you are being deployed here." A red dot appeared on the map "This square seems to still contain some civilians, your mission is simple you are to clear the area of hostiles and save as many civilians as you can. While you are doing that Ravens 1-3 will work on drawing the battleship away from the city." Bradford's voice faded out, replaced by the pilots "We are 5 minutes out, secure gear and weapons, i'm going to have to drop you and wont be able to land until you clear the LZ."

"Understood" Marius replied as the text in the corner of his eye scrolled across with "Objectives updated. Turning his attention back to his squad he checked the current ammo on his Particle Cannon "You heard him. Load up and lock down, from the sounds of it we are going to be in the thick of it from the minute we hit pavement."

During all the running around and getting into place, Nic remained calm and collected. He had been in more battlefields than he could count, so why should he try to push all other emotions out and focus on something else? The only emotion he needed was hate. Hate for the Aliens that destroyed Alpha, hate for the friends he lost, hate for every person that said he could never become a soldier. All of this ignited a fire inside him that only death could extinguish.

Upon receiving the orders, he merely shook his head and placed the thick helmet on, locking it in place. He finally opened up his mouth and spoke a simple sentence as the rear of the VTOL opened, revealing their drop zone. "Бог дал, Бог и взял." (Meaning God Gave, God Took Back) before jumping out of the low-flying craft.

His large boots cracked the pavement under his weight, and Nic grunted ever slow slightly as he quickly moved to maintain balance. He threw a Russian curse over his comm system and then raised his LMG, scanning the area for anything suspicious. To his left was a civilian, not moving, but seemingly crouched in the corner. He took note of this as he slowly made his way towards the individual, veteran eyes still scanning the area. He noticed that his companions hadn't dropped (At least, he hadn't heard them yet), and did a quick 360 to confirm his assumption.

Noticing that in fact, they were not directly behind him, he shuffled as quietly as his armor could take him to the civilian, and pushed roughly on his shoulder. "We need to g-FUCK!"
Upon being touched, the Civilians body cracked and crumbled into a pile of flesh and bones. It seemed something burst out from inside of him, and had cleaned his innards out almost completely. Nic cursed once more and called over his comms; "Marius, Torkel, anyone? I've located a civilian body near the Motel, it seems something has...eaten it...sucked it dry. Something. Where are you?".

As if to answer for his team members, Something loosed a horrendous scream from behind, apparently from the small parking area that was in front of the Motel. Despite his size, Nic had the reflexes of a cat, and he quickly spun around and began firing in bursts at the nearby vehicles, hoping for a lucky shot on whatever had caused the noise. Deciding the best thing to do was to push his large frame into some sort of corner, Nic backed up over the dead civilian's body, his Titan armor crushing the remains into a human pancake.

Becoming frustrated at the fact that nothing had died yet, Nic flipped to full auto and sent laser beams rocketing into the ground and every car in the parking zone. A few caught on fire, and one blew up, obviously must have been carrying some sort of flammable item. A loud clicking noise interrupted his barrage of beams however as his cartridge ran dry. At this time, a dark and tall shape took the opportunity to sprint around the side of the building and out of sight. By the time Nic had his large Laser rifle fitted with a new cartridge, the Alien was already gone.

"Once more he called over his comms; Contact. Enemy. East side of Motel, Armed and Dangerous. Be careful, comrades."

As the ship had finally entered the air he awaited their mission, the ship could cut through the damn place at what felt like a thousand miles and hour! Flying in a ship so fast, with tech this advanced. It made Stan feel as though he was one of the extremely high up people in the world, or untouchable. But he wasn't, he still had a job to do and he would still die if he fucked around or showed off.

Moments from touching down Stanley went through checking over his guns and making sure his suit was in proper order, his medikit had three uses and his smoke grenade was thick.Bradford began speaaking with them before they had touched down, a map of Vienna "Understood." He spoke after Bradford was done briefing us. Repelling down his metal shoes made a clacking noise as it hit the ground, marking that the games had begun

He loaded out around the MEC trooper, hearing that contact was made after many bullets were fired he would extra support so that the big guy wouldn't die so easy, loading up next the door of the gas station he set up his position to fire on the first enemy that would pass by by. His biotics making him blend in a little better with the gas station.

Greg was giddy the entire time on the ship. For him it was just a marvel that the age old question of 'are we alone in the universe' had been answered and now he would be on the front line. Coming in to the destination Greg ran out of the ship and quite a ways past where most were setting up. He heard the Russian firing off shots and his voice over the comm. Greg looked around for any extraterrestrial life but all he could see was the utter destruction.

"Anyone got visuals?" He said through the comm hoping for something. Greg was now fairly nervous and on edge.

As soon as the Skyranger’s engines shifted to hoover-mode Torkel was ready. His role was to leap head first into the battlefield and that was what he did. The rappel lines had not touched the ground before the blonde giant threw himself out of the flying machine. He touched down, drew his rifle and started to survey his surroundings. No movement. The others came down one after the other as Torkel took up a defensive position behind a busted car. He wouldn’t remain for long, just long enough for his team to take up a fighting position. As the last one slammed into the ground behind him Torkel leapt over the hood of the car, rifle at the ready, and began to move toward a dark alley nearby.
He positioned himself right at the entrance to the alley and tried to look in. Some garbage, a few broken boxes and such, nothing of interest. He went in just to be sure. It didn’t take long to check the whole alley, and as he didn’t find anything useful Torkel left the darkness only a few seconds later.

While he moved around Torkel tried to stay within eyesight from at least one of his team members. Danger was lurking behind every corner and the faster you could get help, the better. the comm radio came alive and Nic’s voice appeared almost as a ghost out of thin air. "Marius, Torkel, anyone? I've located a civilian body near the Motel, it seems something has...eaten it...sucked it dry. Something. Where are you?"
Torkel was just about to reply when he heard a high-pitched scream coming from somewhere to his right. Suddenly a myriad of lights came at him from only nearby and the big guy threw himself behind a wall for cover. The laser beams weren’t aimed at him, but too close for comfort. A few cars caught fire and exploded from the heavy fire and Torkel thanked his lucky stars that he’d chosen the massive brick wall as cover instead of one of the vehicles.
The laser fire died down just as suddenly as it had started and so once again Nic’s voice called out over the comms; “Contact. Enemy. East side of Motel, Armed and Dangerous. Be careful, comrades."

Torkel jumped out of cover and ran across the wasteland between himself and the russian.
“”I’m on it” He said as he practically flew past the bulky man, his long muscular legs carrying him forward at speeds the heavy trooper only had seen on TV before. he reached the corner and fused his spine to the wall. His great height was an advantage while peering around corners, most people didn’t expect a head to appear so far from the ground.
He inched himself forward and took a quick look, not long enough to actually see any details, but enough to see if someone was waiting for him. Empty. He dared to investigate further and peeked out along with his rifle. No sign of movement, no tracks to speak of either. He was just about to accuse the heavy trooper of hallucinations when something moved rapidly in the dark. He wasn’t expecting it, and didn’t get a good look or even a shot off. Whatever it was moved very fast. It climbed the wall, apparently not even bothering with ladders or anything else of the sort. Before the swede’s eyes could pinpoint the body of it, whatever it was had scaled the wall and had successfully broken the line of sight by hiding on the roof.
“Enemy confirmed, on motel roof, giving chase” Torkel spoke into his comm before he activated his jet pack.

Marius waited for the others to get out, seeing as he took up the most room and his landing is more, "unorthodox". There was no way any of the rappel cords would hold him, so instead he just jumped. The street cracking and breaking beneath his feet as the behemoth landed. Standing upright he disengaged the safeties on his weapon, before moving forward. From the sounds of it the squad had already mad contact.

“Enemy confirmed, on motel roof, giving chase”

Marius keyed his own comm, "Roger Torkel, remember not to get isolated." He moved up to where Greg was taking cover and motioned Stanley to follow him, but to stay behind him. Working his way into the Gas station, everything seemed normal, until a bolt of green shot out from behind the counter. The shot passed close enough that it cause the MEC's shielding to flair. "Damage minimal, scanning for origin.". The scanners had an easy enough time spotting the shooter, it was a hulking figure clad in green armor, that had hidden behind the counter, immobile until it had shot at the MEC. Behind the figure Marius could also make out two other similarly shaped figures.

"Mutons spotted, engaging." Marius broadcasted over comms, as he brought his Particle cannon to bear on the enemy. Which after the short whine of warm up roared to life the lethal beam of particles, ripping the Muton's shoulder apart. Still there was two more to handle

Nic had only just begun to peel himself from the wall by the time Marius dropped into the battle, his heavy suit leaving an even greater dent than Nic's own departure from the Skyranger. With quick acknowledgment of Torkel's status update, Nic began dashing towards the Gas Station, LMG up and at the ready for any sort of contact. As a green series of shots erupted from behind the counter that was now painted green with Alien guts, Nic slid underneath Marius' MEC arm and against the gas station wall. Not noticing the acid-like substance that had just barely grazed his Titan Armor, Nic immediately lifted the large LMG up and over his head; right at chest level with the gas station. With a quick flip of his finger, the LMG went into a long and rapid series of shots.

Nic did his best to keep the weapon steady, his muscles flexing and relaxing in-time with the burst fire of his weapon. He kept his eyes focused on the MEC trooper, attempting to figure out where he should be firing. "Marius, see movement?" was the simple words spoken over the comms once the LMG fire died down. Nic was going to wait for a response before moving from his cover, not wanting to risk being hit once more. The smell of burning armor was already thick in the air, and Nic sighed at how much it would cost for it to be repaired. Being a soldier at heart, Nic liked to keep his equipment flawless, and was furious at the sight of his once perfectly red and shiny armor being black in one area.

The Russian popped out the spent cartridge and thumbed in another the empty slot, locking it in to finalize the reload measure. To his left, he saw Torkel still in pursuit with the aggressor from before, and to his right was the MEC, it's still-spinning weapons facing the destruction that was the gas station. As a last measure, Nic grunted as he pulled a large cylinder from a slot inside his armor, then spoke once more into his comms; "Torkel, see if you can't get that bastard off the roof, and do it fast. I have a surprise for our friend."

Within the next couple of seconds, the pin was pulled, and the grenade was lobbed towards the Motel. The blinking time-bomb landed at the bottom of the nearest ladder, and Nic rolled onto his stomach with his LMG pointed at the area, waiting for something to happen.

Following Marius into the gas station, he quickly ducked down and hid behind the checkout desk, a green blast of plasma firing past him and hitting a wall. Nic appearing as the dust settled, getting his LMG ready to fire. Thinking nothing of it he fired a shot off in the direction of where the muton's shot had come from, Nic laying down his shots in the general direction as well until what seemed liked his entire clip was gone, using the cover to flick the switch on his ghost armor using it to run up a bit closer and see if he could see any more or them.

His ghost armor flickering to life and causing him to have nothing more then a slight bit of anything able to see them if they looked close. Though even then, it wouldn't do much with his biotics acting as a cherry on top of a wedding cake. Holding his gun up ready to fire on anything moving past him, not yet seeing anything, "If I see anything I am shooting it." He said looking around, peeking his head around, to see if he saw anything, he saw what he the was the brute who fired. "I think I got something, muton, maybe the one who shot?" I am shooting it get ready mates." He said as raising his gun, and taking a shot. Hitting it in the chest it not even knowing what hit it until it hit "It ain't happy!" He said last as he stood.

The muton seemingly yelling, flicking off his Ghost armor Stanley got up and ran back to the MEC for support. Almost hoping over the checkout in the front. "Only saw one around the shelves, heavily damaged from what I can tell. I don't think a burn on his chest made him any more happy." He said to Marius giving him more or less a location "I need to make sure I need to catch my breath cover me." he said finally ducking down and waiting.

Hoshi stayed close to Marius as the others engaged the Mutons. It hadn't taken long at all for things to start heating up and she was starting to get anxious. Where's my kill going to be? Just as the thought ran across her mind Nic had jumped across the checkout counter and dragged a Muton in with him. It charged out of cover in a rage but Hoshi was ready for him. Just seconds after it rounded the corner she fired her rifle and a beam cut across the parking, lot through the window, and into the Muton's skull. "One less for worry." The other Mutons started opening fire in response so Hoshi took a dive behind the exploded car on the street. Just then she noticed the familiar sound of Floaters. She scanned the sky until she spotted two of them heading for the Skyranger. "Two Floaters gunning for the transport!" Hoshi took a shot at one but there movements were too erratic for her to hit with the sniper rifle. "Pilot take evasive action now!"

Giving the Mec version of a nod, Marius brought his weapon to bear on the area where Stanley had engaged the mutons, waiting for a target to present itself. As he was waiting the call came in from the various points, sounded like the squad was handling itself pretty well. That was until Hoshi's call came over that floaters were pushing towards the Skyranger. Gritting his teeth he staied where he was, the transport could handle itself, and right now there were bigger fish to fry. He could see the Mutons shuffling the back. As Stanley came running back Marius activated the defensive protocols, extending his shield to give him someplace to catch his breath.
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Outside the Skyranger's hover engines roared to a deafening volume, an effort to put distance between itself and the two contacts. As the ship climbed the Floaters began opening fire. For the most part they were scoring only superficial hits on the armor, until a stray shot from one of their rifles hit the intake fan of one of the hover engines. A dull groan began to be audible, slowly building in volume and intensity until with the screeching sound of distressed metal ripping itself apart. Within an instant the right side takeoff engine flared to a halt, before fire began to pour out of it. "Just lost one of out vertical engines, we cant hold here.There is a clearing in the street around a klick from your current location, we'll set down their and try and get this thing working again. Big-Sky out." With that the Skyranger pulled away, limping to the designated location, it's wounded engine threatening to cut out completely the entire time. The Floaters turned their attentions away from the Ranger as it peeled off, instead they turned their murderous rage on the creature that try to kill them as they attacked the VTOL, letting loose the choked cry of theirs they accelerated twoards the sniper.

Torkel easily leapt to the roof using a boost from his jet pack. As he landed he saw the alien he was after running across the roof, zig-zaging between ventilations fans. Torkel threw himself into cover and peeked out just long enough to spot the alien sitting pretty behind a vent. He fired a few shots off in the general direction to see if he could scare the extraterrestrial out, but it had no effect.
Very carefully he started to sneak around to the side. If he could flank the alien and put a laserbeam through its head he could get back to his squad. Carefully, quietly, minding every step. He kept his body low, always a vent or chimney or something between himself and the alien. After almost a full minute of sneaking, while the rest of the team engaged the mutons, Torkel had arrived, flanking position, just a quick shot to the head and everything would be done.
He arranged himself behind the vent. Crouching low, but both feet on the ground, quick up-and-down.
He aimed down his sights and stood up as fast as he could, before he was half-standing he could see the vent that the alien used as cover and turned his rifle to aim at nothing.
It had moved, he swept the rifle left and right, trying to find the alien, as he turned to look behind he slammed the barrel of the rifle into the alien’s face.
It yelled out in pain and jumped back, trying to get. Torkel got a good look at it this time. Huge claw-like legs, scary-looking… A chryssalid. Without a thought Torkel let loose a few more shots, but stunned and confused as he was, he could not confirm a hit.

Now the hunt was on, the chryssalid was on its way back to the team, if Torkel could not catch the thing before it got off the roof the chryssalid could do some serious damage on the ground. He was just about to warn his team when a thick russian voice came from the other end.
"Torkel, see if you can't get that bastard off the roof, and do it fast. I have a surprise for our friend."
Exactly what he needed. a pincer-maneuver.
“I’ll send him to you within ten” Torkel replied and went into overdrive, his thighs flexing, sending his feet down with enough force to propel the tall man faster than most normal humans. The chryssalid had almost reached the edge of the roof but on the wrong side. A few shots at the place where the alien was planning to jump down changed its mind. It dropped into cover again, but Torkel could not wait. Another shot kept the alien pinned and drained the battery on his rifle. No time to reload. He left the rifle on the ground and pulled out his plasma gun. As he activated his jetpack he threw himself on the ground toward the alien. The booster dragged his body along the ground, and without the armor he’d be in a world of pain, but the guys down at R&D had done a fine job. Torkel could barely feel a thing. He only needed a second of boost and then cut it off, but his body kept going. while he flew across the roof, propelled now only by his own momentum, he turned around to get his feet first.
When he slammed into the short wall that marked the end of the roof his legs along with servoes built into the armor took the whole load and kept his steady.
There he was, lying on the ground, both feet against the low wall, both arms stretched out and both hands clutching the plasma gun aimed at the chryssalid. The alien wasn’t given a chance to react, the gun send green fire out towards it.
The first one would’ve hit if the creature hadn’t turned around, the second hit it in the back and sent it stumbling forward. It saw the handles if a built-in ladder and barely a second later it was climbing down, away from the crazy humans with all the guns. Halfway down an explosion shook the building and made the whole wall crumble down, the chryssalid was trapped under several hundred pounds of bricks, shards of glas and metal. Bones broken, internal bleeding, external bleeding… It died only seconds later. After retrieving his rifle and swiftly reloading it Torkel jumped down and confirmed the kill.

Looking at his clip he looked around, until a nice 'boom' crashed, and even better, a confirmed kill. Checking everything over Stan hopped over the checkout and began a run to where he was last standing to get another better shot at the Muton. Running full speed to his spot he was stopped as the yelling muton ran forward once more, this time he had a friend or two. Easily he noticed it was the muton he shot, a large black burn mark, and red glowey bits as if it was hot charcoal was across his chest. Stopping quickly he stopped firing another shot at it, hearing a loud yell and a crash ready to confirm a kill he was shoved by the other large muton. Sailing into one of the shelves he slowly stood back up. He got back up slowly from fallen over shelf. "Marius, I need a hand man!" He shouted raising his weapon to fire, dazed by what had just happened he missed, hitting another one of the gas station shelves. Only a few more left untouched, or at the very least not destroyed.

Dragging himself out of the situation he quickly retreated to a shelf behind him. The sound of floaters rumbled, "Oh yeah, the muton I damaged early is dead." He said as he checked his gun once more. It would need a new powercell soon but he could wait for the moment. As the muton he had shot earlier beat its chest with its open hand and made its way to the mech Marius. "I sent one your way mate, take it down, I can shoot it in the back if you don't kill it." He said shaking his head and attempting to do the same with the pain in his back. Wasn't much but it needed a quick pop to fix it. He would need to wait for it though.

"I sent one your way mate, take it down, I can shoot it in the back if you don't kill it."
Just as those words echoed into the headset Marius was using, a wounded Muton came barreling in straight for the MEC. Without skiping a beat Marius stepped to the side, his titanic form surprisingly graceful, as the monster charged past. Extending his left arm he grabbed hold of the Muton's armor and yanked him back, sending it sprawling to the floor. Toggling his equipment on his right arm, two jets sprung out of the side of the KSM as Marius pulled his elbow back, the fist aimed at the prone Muton's torso. As he swung forward the jets flared, sending the KSM straight into the Muton at an unimaginable speed. What followed was the sound of crushing bones and armor giving way, the blood of the muton spraying everywhere as its form was crushed, paint Marius's right arm a macabre deep purple. "Target neutralized." He said as he began to scan for more targets "Sigma begin to move up, we have civilians in the next building ahead. Agent Stan are you able to continue with the mission?" he asked, as the protocols that were running through his mind demanded. No matter the answer he moved forward slowly, sweeping the corners with his Particle Beam until he came to the back door of the convince store,. Kicking it open, and nearly off its hinges, with a huge crash, he revealed a nearly empty Ally that was lookning streight onto the back wall of a bookshop/Restaurant, the sounds of the trapped people echoing into the streets.