Plasma bolts sizzled through the air, impacting on the sides and back of
the Skyranger, blackening the ceramic heat-resistant skin and sending slivers
flying. Johnson swore and jumped over the side of the ramp, landing in a
crouch, his eyes darting. The sound of gunfire followed by an unearthly scream
came from the other side of the ship. One for Shigero, the other scout.
The Skyranger had set down in a small clearing, surrounded by scrub
forest. Johnson scanned his side, peering in among the trees, tuning out the
radio confirmation of Shigero's kill. A small gray shadow moved, light glinting
off strange metal. Johnson fired, his pistol kicking in his hand. No scream,
so he sent another couple of shots at it, while moving around the side of the
landing gear, letting everybody else out. Evidently one scored, as the alien
dropped its weapon and fell. A flash and a boom indicated the remote tank found
a target too. It had weathered a barrage of shots when it first rolled out,
most missing, luckily.
"All clear from this side," Johnson said into the helmet mic. Shigero had
called all clear already on his side. The rest of the squad began unloading
from the Skyranger. The tank rolled forward, crushing leaves and twigs, while
the scouts, Johnson and Shigero, fanned out to the sides. The two heavy weapon
troopers were the next out; following behind the scouts, to provide cover fire.
"Got one," Johnson called, pointing at the bulbous gray head, then he
ducked down and behind a tree, as a burst of armor-piercing bullets from the
autocannon zipped by, at the alien.
He peered around the tree, through shredded foliage. The alien head had
disappeared. "It's gone, didn't sound like it died," Johnson radioed.
"Sneak up on it and stick that stun rod up it's ass," suggested Patricia,
the auto-cannon wielder.
"Yeah, right," Johnson replied, eyeing the blue stick warily. Like he was
going to get close enough to an alien to use that.
"Crosset, Johnson, cut the chatter," crackled the radios, with the voice
of the sergeant, Mallev.
Crosset muttered something under her breath, which Johnson ignored as he
crept from tree to tree to near where the alien had been. He peered around a
tree as the techie at base called in that the tank had sighted the UFO. Johnson
ignored the chatter as Mallev assigned a pair of rookies to guard the door.
They wouldn't go in until they secured the outside. And he had an alien to
find.
Where the alien had been earlier, there was just some greenish goo. Probably
blood. It looked like it headed off up the hill ahead. Looking back over his
shoulder, Johnson spotted the heavy weapons trooper just exiting the shadows of
the scrub forest, and another pair of troopers moving among the trees, headed
his way, rifles glinting dully when spots of sunlight hit them.
A sudden burst of plasma fire from the clump of trees on the hill made
Johnson duck and turn around. The shots flew past him, into the trees, hitting
one of the other troopers, burning right through their kevlar vest and their
chest. Crosset opened up on the trees, her autocannon splintering saplings and
shredding leaves. The plasma fire faltered, as the alien apparently decided to
hide behind a tree thick enough to provide shelter from the hail of fire.
Johnson dropped the stun rod, and grabbed a grenade from his belt.
Priming it, he threw it into the shredded trees, just as an ominous clunk
sounded from Crosset's ammo chamber. Her string of curses was muffled by the
explosion from the top of the hill, which sent splinters raining in every
direction.
Johnson stood and picked up his stun rod on the way up. He looked at the
wrecked hilltop and didn't see any movement, so glanced behind him. Crosset was
reloading her autocannon, the trooper who'd been hit was down and not moving.
The other trooper back there glanced at him, then turned away. Bulletproof
kevlar vest really didn't do much to stop plasma beams.
"Alien down," called Johnson.
"Make sure it's dead," replied Mallev, between orders to the squad
clearing the other side of the zone.
Johnson climbed up the hill, holding his pistol loosely. Considering all
the stuff that'd been fired the alien's way, it'd better be dead. As he crested
the hill, smoke from smoldering bits of trees made him cough. Only one small
sapling still stood, blackened but somehow otherwise undamaged. The small
crater from the explosion was empty, except for dirt and wreckage.
Johnson looked down, in the direction of the UFO. The trees were high enough to
hide it, but the path it had made crashing showed, as did the smoke. The
Interceptor pilots had reported it as a small scout, which matched with the size
of the crash path.
Turning back, he spotted a small gray shape lying sprawled over a rock.
Johnson approached it slowly, stun rod in one hand, pistol in the other. He
poked the oversize head in the side with the rod, rolling the Sectoid over. A
large pair of black eyes stared back, green blood smeared over them. Part of
the skull on the left side was caved in, and one arm was missing partway up,
most likely from the autocannon shots. "It's dead," Johnson reported.
"Okay, the area is secure, assault the UFO," ordered Mallev.
From inside the UFO, gunfire and plasma bursts sounded, muffled. Johnson
trotted in the direction of the UFO. Crosset's form, distinctive because of the
bulky autocannon was just disappearing into the trees ahead.
"Shit! That one dashed past me to the door! Somebody get it!" swore
Ulbright, his voice overlaid with static because of interference from the UFO
walls. A human scream echoed over the radio channels. It was Shigero.
"Somebody kill that Sectoid!" raged Mallev.
Johnson slowed after hopping over a fallen tree at the edge of the crash
site. The door to the UFO was on the other side, even so, he decided to be
cautious. Fallen trees and branches littered the ground. One particularly
large tree was lying under the left side of the ship as he approached it,
leaving the UFO lying tilted.
"I had it, but it ducked under the ship!" yelled Helga, one of the troops from
the front side.
"Johnson, it's headed your way. Deal with it," ordered Mallev, "And somebody
check on Shigero."
"Right," acknowledged Johnson. He perched on the trunk of the tree to look down
where the alien should appear. He was right about where it would be, as plasma
fire hit the tree trunk under his feet, knocking him backwards off the tree, and
banging his helmet against another tree.
Dazed, Johnson tried to grab his gun, but his arms felt that flopping around
randomly would be more fun. The Sectoid hauled it's little body up on the tree,
and stared down at Johnson with it's outsized eyes. The barrel of the plasma
rifle was turning his direction, when shouts from the side of the UFO reached
it's whatever it used for hearing.
The Sectoid turned and started running off down the tree. Johnson found his gun
and shakily aimed it at the retreating alien, who suddenly disappeared with a
scream in a trio of explosions. More shards of wood showered down on Johnson as
Crosset stepped out of the shadows at the edge of the trees, wisps of smoke
trailing from her autocannon. "The alien is down," she reported.
Johnson pulled himself to his feet, as his legs had decided to obey his brain
again. "That woulda been a bit nicer earlier," he commented.
"I would have, if you didn't mind being blasted to smithereens."
"Well, that would be a bit inconvenient, wouldn't it?"
A final round of automatic fire came from inside the UFO, alien screams
amplified by the hole in the UFO's roof over the engine compartment.
"Okay folks, cleanup time. You know the drill. Grab the important stuff, the
recovery teams will be here soon enough for the rest," said Mallev.
Johnson headed over to where the last Sectoid had been, and picked up a twisted
thing made of alien metals. "So much for that plasma rifle," he commented.
Crosset walked back toward where the first alien had fallen, while Johnson
stowed the mangled rifle in his backpack and headed toward the hill.
From his vantage point on the top the hill, he was able to see pairs of troopers
carrying back bodies on stretchers. "Everybody check in," ordered Mallev. A
chorus of acknowledgments later, he reported back, "Two dead, one wounded.
Everybody back to the Skyranger, let's go home."