XCOM: Enemy Without
August 30th;
It's been a month, give or take, since Operation: Hidden Throne. This was the mission that used the Engineer's fancy 'Skeleton Key', the one where we dropped right on X-ray's house party. Myself, Maria, Col. Ramirez, Maj. Boor, Maj. Okeke, and...James.
We broke in and got to work. I was the single Assault-Class Soldier the Commander decided to send on this mission, something I still don't know how I feel about. I wanted the A-Team along, but Matt was clipped in the arm by a Muton's Plasma Rifle during the Terror Attack on Moscow, and the Commander wasn't about to risk a vet. So we brought James along.
James was a damn fine soldier, but he was green as the weed Matt 'kicked' when he joined up. Still, it was amazing he never flipped and panicked like the other rookies I had the displeasure of training.
And The Commander brought him to die. Not specifically, hell, we all thought we would die If-when the base fell.
But James was holding the Arc Thrower, and everybody but him knew what that meant.
True to his role, we managed to capture the damn psychic bug. But on his way out, he was nabbed by a Seeker and...
Well, the memorial wall is there for a reason. The Commander commissioned some new protocols, and The James Doctrine was born for use in contact with Psionic Aliens. So that's something.
But I'm out of the Medbay today. I ate a Muton's grenade during Hidden Throne, last I remember was Okeke zapping me back from death and into a healing coma. Hopefully I didn't lose enough digits to send me into a MEC.
--
You grouse to life, having slept under your own power for the first time since the mission. Your own room, which you attained by reaching Colonel and requiring trace Medical Supervision, was rather small and very dark. Growling and hitting the lights, you notice the light of several notices on the terminal on the other side of the room.
Debating on returning to dreamland, military discipline decided to kick in and hall your lazy ass out of bed.
Wearing nothing but your own hair, you stride over to the terminal and play the messages while you scavenge things to wear.
*MESSAGE FROM: MAJOR MATTHEW HUDSON [15 DAYS AGO]*
Out from one knife and under the next. Turns out I didn't even need to go on your mission after all. With all the shit they salvaged from that base, everyone from the Top-down is getting a Genetic Makeover. The lab coats looked all to happy to cut me up, but I'm getting a full suite at least. Come on down before they spend all the Meld on me, yeah? Should be out in about 15 days.
~MAJOR MATTHEW HUDSON~
*MESSAGE FROM: COLONEL MARIA BOOR [10 DAYS AGO]*
Hey, lazybones. The brass might not care where you are, but the Rookies are looking for their Field Commander. James was a good guy, and the grunt who fist-fought a Muton to protect him seems like a good enough guy to follow. Hard to believe none of these guys really got their asses dragged out of the fire by the Commander like us, huh? XCOM's getting so big these days we might eventually outnumber the Greys.
Sorry, I'm rambling. I sent you a message to let you know I'm getting sealed up in a PSI Pod for about 10 days. Everyone from Hidden Throne is, as well as all those badass NCOs that couldn't remember how cover worked. (Not looking at you and Matt, of course. :P)
Come on down when you're up, and I'll see you on the other side!
Love,
~COLONEL MARIA BOOR~
Note to Myself:
Check with requisitions that my stuff is still useable. Hate to have to get used to a new gun after a month-long nap. It's not pressing, but if
Maria and/or Matt are boring (sorry, babe :P) it's something to do.
~Booker Durand~
You crack your back and pop your neck around, ready for your first day back at XCOM.
Where are you headed?
[Just to Clarify, Maria and Matt are getting out of their prior engagements right now, so if you choose to visit one of them they will indeed be there. Also, first quest, yay.]