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XCOM: Ranger

by Wanderer D

Chapter 48: Chapter 46: Suits

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Ranger

Chapter 46: Suits

By Wanderer D

The room echoed with the sound of the electric guitar and the raspy voice of the lead singer. By the gods did Chrysalis hate 80s and 90s music.

She hated it.

So much.

And yet, she couldn't work without it playing. Absolute silence brought back memories. From before the war. During the war and during her abduction.

Dreams of looking through an alien's eyes and making decisions on how to move troops. How to dismantle human armies that opposed them despite orders to lay down their weapons.

Memories of Thin Men cruelly smiling as they operated on her, while she was still conscious. Of being bagged into that damnable suit and plugged into a machine when she couldn't move her body. Of fading away… dreaming of Sunset.

Chrysalis shook herself and turned off the music when she noticed the flashing light for an incoming message. She had set it so it was impossible to miss. Wouldn't do for the Commander to be hating on Sound Asylum while her ship went down. She shook her head and rolled her shoulders before accepting the communication.

"Commander," Bradford's face appeared on the screen. "Wolf Team has contacted us. They are at the location and found the signal beacon. There is an ADVENT van with blood inside in the parking lot for the old lab, and equipment inside indicates that someone performed some sort of operation… probably to save whoever of the two was injured.

"The amount of blood reported in the Van is not encouraging, and there were several medikits strewn around. However, neither Sunset nor Jane are in the area.

"Lieutenant Kiba reports that there are signs of struggle, and part of the Alien Containment unit was destroyed by a large explosion. There's however no indication of what happened there. They found an emergency hatch, but it's been disabled, and without specialized tools neither Sunset nor Jane would have been able to open it."

Chrysalis growled. "Neither of them would have left without communicating with us, or turned on the beacon if there was any danger they were aware of."

"Squaddie Durand says that her GREMLIN has located a faint signal from another, active GREMLIN far below the surface." Bradford said. "We don't know how they got there."

Chrysalis nodded. "Have them evacuate the area for now, and regroup in a safe location. I was hoping to take the Avenger there and load all we could find still there, but if there's any danger… we'll need to make sure we eliminate all opposition and if possible save Jane and Sunset."

"Understood, Commander. Dragon team has offered to join Wolf—"

"You don't need to beat around the bush, Central," Chrysalis said. "You and I are joining Menace. We know what it's like. Get them ready."

Bradford smirked and saluted. "Aye, aye, Commander."

They opened the door and waited. When there was no sign of enemies, Sunset ran out first, followed by Jane.

They had intended to head up, again, but it appeared the mysterious heavy mec's steps had hidden additional noise… the entrance to the hallway was now sealed by a thick, metal door, with no apparent way of opening it.

"What the f-" Jane growled, punching the door panels and wincing. She shook her hand. "Since when do mecs think about things like these?"

Sunset's brow darkened as she studied the door's edge for any sign of a panel or hackable interface. "They don't. Someone, or something, is controlling them. I can't see a way of opening this… now we need to go in deeper to find the way out."

"Great, just effing great," Jane muttered, turning to look at the hallway. Her grip on the magnetic rifle tightened.

Sunset had to admire her. She had been shot, survived, woken up in a strange place, found out she had what amounted to magical alien unicorn blood inside her, been dragged into combat against weird machines, and now confronted with this.

Most people would be wailing in despair by now. XCOM really was made of sterner stuff, but that was part of the deal, along with a short life expectancy.

"This is not going to end well, is it?" Jane asked, sighing.

Sunset smirked, patting her on the shoulder. "Not for them, it isn't. I've got your back, and you have mine. Come on… we might be able to find another emergency exit and get the hell out of here. At least now we have some protection." She grinned. "We're all suited-up!"

Jane grimaced. "Yeah…" She nodded. Then looked up at Sunset with renewed conviction. "Yeah. Let's find out what the heck is going on, kick their collective asses and drink ourselves to a stupor tonight."

Sunset chuckled. "Deal. We have plenty of reading material for later, after all, thanks to you and Galahad."

The pair walked forth slowly, feeling like they were being watched.

However, there was no sign of enemies yet, and none of the cameras they occasionally encountered appeared to be live. In the distance, heavy stomps echoed occasionally, but there was no sign of the undoubtedly big mec that would create them.

With the sound working in weird ways, it was muffled enough to be above them, or even below. Until they saw whatever it was, they wouldn't know.

As they moved, further down the hall, they came to a crossroads. The lines indicating "exit" turned right into a sealed hall, and the straight ahead they could see the level above, and several metric tons of rock, metal and dirt had caved in, blocking the way completely.

Without a choice, they turned left and walked down the hallway. Here and there, old signs of combat remained; the metallic walls were singed with the impact of rounds on them, and in parts even melted through.

Some rubble remained, but for the most part, it was cleaner than the rest of the base. No skeletons were strewn around, and it seemed a lot less dusty. Still, the silence around them was unnerving, along with the feeling of being watched.

As cautious as they were, there was no indication of whether the invisible attackers from earlier would attempt to ambush them again, or what type of additional monsters might be lurking around them.

"Sunset…" Jane whispered, tapping her shoulder and motioning behind them. Just where the lights met the shadows, two more of the tentacled robots hovered, far enough to not be a threat so far, but clearly aware of them.

"Dammit... " Sunset whispered. "We're being herded, I knew it."

Jane gave her a look. "The fact doesn't make me feel any better…"

Sunset shook her head. "For now, I don't think they'll attack… we're being guided, so we might as well…" she stopped and waved at the robots.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then they approached, slowly, without fading away. Sunset motioned Jane to back against the wall. One of them passed them, moved a few meters ahead and stopped, turning to face them. The other, remained a little behind.

"You're not serious."

"What else can we do?" Sunset shrugged, motioning to Jane to start following the metallic squid.

The pair was thus escorted past several intersections, a couple had flying saucers and miniature claw-thingies hovering in guard.

Now that they were not rushing around, even with the low light, Sunset started to make out certain details. The armor of many of these machines was in poor condition, rusted and dented. A few seemed to have been repaired from heavy damage.

Whatever was going on, they hadn't stumbled into a well-prepared nest of alien tech.

The walk continued past a mostly destroyed workshop, and then it became mostly pipes as they went deeper down into the mountain, until it started to feel warmer. The air was less dry, and the metallic walls were mostly rusted by now under the heat and humidity. Steam escaped occasionally from some of the pipes, giving the whole area a haze.

"This looks intentional," Jane pointed out, pointing with her rifle at where some of the steam was coming out. And it was true.

The pipes had minor dents on them, as if they had been hit with something right at the edge, allowing some of the steam to come out.

"That's odd… why do that?" Sunset asked, noticing that the floor had been covered by some sort of soft moss. Just as they stepped into a large room, she gasped in surprise. While it was clearly an XCOM generator of some sort from 20 years prior, the room had been transformed.

Alien plants grew from between the pipes, with flowers and even bulbous fruit of some sort—or what she assumed was fruit—hanging down from the most sturdy of them. The flowers themselves were unreal, with petals the size of her arm, and filaments that lifted a few feet from their center and waved in unseen winds.

No insects flew around, nor could she hear any sort of fauna… just as well, she didn't want to suddenly find herself fighting alien lions.

She shifted a bit uncomfortably. The area was much warmer and very, very humid. Not unbearable, but certainly not comfortable. Next to her, Jane looked here and there, not with wonder, but with a hint of disgust and fear.

The overall feeling reminded her of the jungles in India, only there were no mosquitos or flies here. No snakes or ants… the smells were not pleasant, either. Besides the smell of humid earth, and the odd, sweet smell of the flowers, something remote smelled a little odd, like rotting meat, and other things just gave off a definitive sulfuric smell as well.

Perhaps a half-eaten carcass? But who would eat in here? The sulfur could just be naturally produced by the steam that fed and warmed the room.

"How is this even possible?" Sunset whispered. "As far as I know there was no alien plant life here until ADVENT affected certain habitats."

"Ah," a raspy voice said, seeming to come from all around them. "A very good question, yessss…"

Whispers and chatter emerged from the far corners of the room, but the pair were concentrating on the voice that just spoke. There was no sign of anyone being there.

Sunset and Jane squared off, ready for action as both of the tentacled robots slid past them and hovered above a large steam generator.

"Please, no need for violence, is there?" the voice continued, trying to be ingratiating. "After all, you understood the silent message our seekers passed on right?"

"Show yourself!" Sunset called out. "We got your invitation, least you can do is introduce yourself."

"Hmm… I suppose so," the voice said. Suddenly a figure dropped from somewhere, landing nimbly in front of the generator.

It looked like an unusually tall man in a dark, moldy suit. Small, circular sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose, and as he stood straight, he placed his hands—which Sunset noticed looked longer than a normal human's would—politely behind his back.

"Here I am." He bowed, one hand moving forward to touch his breast as he bent double from the waist up. "No need to be alarmed. I am Vikass, and I welcome you to our sanctuary."

o.0.o End Chapter 46 o.0.o

Next Chapter: Chapter 47: Fury Estimated time remaining: 22 Hours, 9 Minutes
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