4692/Operation: Crystal Serpent

Operation: Crystal Serpent
Date of Scene:	17 October 2016
Location:	Earth-115<E115>
Synopsis:	UFO fall down, go boom. Elites and XCOM make the aliens inside go boom too.
Cast of Characters:	62, 774, Kotone Yamakawa

---

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    XCOM HQ, 14:00, Geoscape.

    "Central, RecSat Charlie has picked up a UFO signal entering US airspace." calls one of the operators from his station.
"Scramble Voodoo wing to intercept. What class is it?" replies Bradford, as he gestures to the Hologlobe, bringing the UFO signature into focus.

    "Large, sir. Probably a Supply Ship, but can't tell from here."

    At the US Interceptor station, Voodoo Wing preps for launch, four Raven interceptors, two arms with Laser Cannons, two armed with Avalanche Air Torpedoes. "Voodoo Lead to Tower, we done with preflight checks, are we go for launch?" "Voodoo flight, you are clear to launch. Gods Speed." The four craft stagger launch off the vertical catapults, rocketing out into the air and vectoring to intercept the large craft. "Voodoo Lead to Central, coming up on the target now. We'll be in intercept bubble in thirty seconds. All wings, you are weapons free. Fangs out!" The four Ravens break formation and come in from different angles, making the massive ship have to split its point defense fire between them, filling the sky with green plasma tracers, intermixed with missile contrails and lances of red laser light. It's a common practice to aim for obvious maneuvering ports and other surface features when trying to bring one of these massive ships down, instead of wasting time trying to core it out. Missiles strike the alien alloy hull, the explosions ablating away, while lasers score deep gouges along the outer skin.

    Voodoo four takes a plasma bolt and starts trailing smoke. "Damn, Voodoo Four to Central, I'm hit, I can't maintain the bubble, disengaging!" calls in the pilot, before peeling away as the remaining interceptors continue to dance.

    "Voodoo Lead, you're nearing intercept bubble limit, bring it down!" "Working on it Central... there! Target going down!" Just as the call came through, something inside the massive supply barge detonated, sending it slowly careening down to the ground. "Confirming coordinates, looks like it's going down near Seattle."

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    XCOM HQ, Geoscape, 14:05.

    "Commander to Mission Control." called in Bradford, "Strike Two to launch launch bay. Strike Two, to launch bay."

    Elise steps out of her office, as the six troopers of Strike Two pass through the lower catwalk from the Armory to the Launch Bay. "Report." she asks, putting on her headset and taking up position at the Geoscape, as the Skyranger starts dusting off. "We brought down a Large UFO signature outside Seattle. I've taken the liberty of calling in Elite response as well as deploying Strike Two to the area."

    "Good, lets keep our eye on it. Patch us through to the SCOPE net when they're on the ground."

    The word is out to any Elites, and the Skyranger would be able to swing by to pick them up, should they require it.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    This just absolutely takes the cake for 'wrong place, wrong time', doesn't it? Here Dorian is, relaxing on a nature hike -- because he was totally NOT lost -- and then DESTRUCTION RAINS FROM THE HEAVENS! Only through the grace of the Maker and Dorian's ability to Fade Step had he avoided serious injury from the massive craft falling out of the sky.

    Dorian pauses just outside the area of aforementioned rain of destruction, and reaches up to dust a piece of something off of the shoulder of his modern white suit, muttering to himself, "Because being lost in the middle of bloody nowhere isn't good enough; no, we have to drop the sky on your head, Dorian. You're tough, you can take it."

    And of course he'll notice it when people start moving in towards the downed craft. Dorian pauses, working to synchronize his radio with some local frequency. "I beg pardon. But I've nearly had a very large craft of some kind dropped on my head. Other than blasting it to the Void, what do you recommend done with it?" He assumes the locals would know more about it than him.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa hs responed to the attack, she's carrying somethng unexpected with her. While known for using SHIVs she's brought several other drones one that's about the size of a shiv if not a bitbigger but it looks spider like and several other drones. It seems Kotone has been busy as she arrives to move off the skyranger with them. Several recon drones are deployed to scout ahead they are cheap and basically flying cameras but hey? It's better than a rookie sticking their head around the corner, right? She's also got two other somewhat spider like thing following her which seem to be gun turrets, Kotone's really grown up from when she first met XCOM, hasn't she?

She's also clad in her form fitting stealth suit which she kicks in even as they sweep out to find the aliens.

<<Samara here, deploying with new combat hardware.>

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Big Sky comes swinging in, and dropping down heavily at the perimeter of the crash site. It settles onto its gear, and drops the back ramp, letting Kotone off first, followed by the rest of Strike Two. They're a full Gene Mod unit, strange orange marks on their skin, as well as little 'anchor points' showing on their exposed arms. Two Heavy Weapons soldiers with their machine guns and rocket launchers. A support with a red cross arm band, showing they're a Medic of some kind. A soldier using a Shotgun with a heavier looking chest plate follows, then breaks into a sprint to take point with Kotone. The last trooper finds a hillock to lay out on, pulling out a long rifle with a scope atop it.

    In the distance, the deep, gutteral howl of some alien monster can be heard, along with a spine chilling chittering.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Thanks to Kotone's stealth suit, Dorian can't see her. However, he most definitely hears her over the radio. Patched into this 'SCOPE tacnet', he can also see the team he's supposed to meet up with. Due to his proximity, it shouldn't take him long to get there. Particularly not if he uses magic. Fade Step got him out of trouble, it can certainly get him back in!

    And so, from the strike team's perspective? A human male approaches, wearing a white suit, without a single piece of armor, and completely unarmed except for what must surely look to the strike team like a stick. It's carved with three dragon heads, but it probably looks to the strike team like a walking stick. Of course, Kotone will very likely know better than to think he's unarmed or defenseless. Hopefully he'll have registered on their radars as well, so they don't shoot him.

    Once he finds the strike team, he nods. "Lacking time for proper introductions, my name is Dorian Pavus. I've come to help." He's just about to ask what's going on... when he hears that racket. He looks in that direction, and then looks back to the strike team. "...Let me guess." He point in the direction the sounds came from. "That way?" Sigh. "Well, let's not go in there completely unprotected."

    But he aims at the strike team, sweeping his free hand out to the side. Blue-white wisps of magic will surround whoever stuck around long enough to let Dorian get this spell out, covering the targets of the spell with a Barrier. It won't last long, but it'll help for a little while!

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    This version of XCOM is no stranger to the oddities of the Multiverse. So while Dorian gets the Support's attention, and a Laser Rifle trained on him, they don't treat him like some useless civilian. As the Barrier goes up, the main strike team is sheathed in the protective layer, though the sniper is too far back to benefit.

    SGT. 'Zed', an arabic woman, calls in over radio. "Got eyes on a group of Mutons exiting the craft by the side door. Should I take the shot?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone's moving out and that spider tank drone is moving on a head followed by the mobile gun turrets. Kotone is moving on a head but she's making ready and looking for spots to deploy the gun turrets in the aid of the Squaddies while the spider tank moves to hover back near the squad for the moment.

<<Command moving Cyber Turrets into firing postions now if we get the go ahead>>.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian perks as he hears the words on the radio. Side door... he looks up; it'll probably about in time to see that door open. "Well, well. There's our party." He moves to the side of the team, so as not to be in the way of their fire.

    But that doesn't mean he's going to just stand by. Oh no. He tries to get nearer to the door, so he can aim at it. Why? For a Static Cage! The light strands of electricity will mark out an area literally right in front of the door, underneath an orb hanging in the air. Going INTO the marked area is no problem. It's when the aliens start trying to get OUT of the area that the problems happen.

    If any that were caught in the area try to leave said area, the orb in the sky will begin to shock them! That should at least mess with their aim a little.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Well, that'll do it. The Mutons, three hulking beasts in green armour, start getting electrocuted as they step out of the area, unaware of the trap. They look around for the source... and then one gets his head blown apart by a red tracer round from the sniper's rifle. This triggers the others to beat their chests and start firing blind into the treeline, hitting nothing but foliage.

    The Heavies charge forward, prop their LMGs up on a pair of outcrops, and open up a suppressive barrage of equally red tracer rounds, while the Support tosses a smoke grenade up between them to provide cover.

    The Assault charges through the smoke screen, coming up to the ramp leading up to where the Mutons are, by now, cowering behind the guard barrier, Reaper Rounds embedding in the alloy they're using as cover. "Movin' at the speed of death!" she chirps, before bounding up the ramp, leaping over one Muton to shotgun the other in the nape of the neck. She then backflips off of the corpse and retreats back to light cover, though she's still exposed.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone now creeps along as they are making ready to go she now orders the turrets to lock into place. Both turrets swing their gun barrels to life and will open up on the Mutons attempting to supress them and give support fire to the Squaddies. They will even pause shooting when there's a risk of hitting any friendlies. Kotone has a lot of control, over these things. Kootone her self leaving the turrets to act as support? Is going to try and sneak past the Mutons and get into the UFO, oh she's got a plan but she needs to find a console to work with of some sort.

The arachnos tank meanwhile scuttles after her as well hopefully anotehr divsion and at least support for the Assault, seriously someone's a bit eager today.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian elects to remain with the Support for a bit, since that's what he's doing as well. Once the smoke screen goes up, that's when he moves, using Fade Step to (hopefully) move faster than he can be shot at. Once he's close enough, he begins casting individual Barriers at the team. The spell from before will have worn off by now. But the members of the team are too far apart for him to get them all with one Barrier spell. So he has no choice but to target them individually.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The Turrets, along with the withering fire from the Heavies finally forces the Muton to retreat, earning him winging shot from the Sniper before he can get away. Purple blood spatters in his wake, but it looks like he'll be able to summon help before he bleeds out. "Tch, just winged him." reports Zed.

    The peace doesn't last too long, as out of the cargo bay, closer to the team, bursts a trio of giant, black insect monsters, slathering and locking their beady eyes onto the group. They rear up, clacking mandibles and bashing their razor sharp leg talons into the deck of the ship, before leaping over the railings and charging head first into the side flank of the team.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    The clacking sounds draw Dorian's attention to the ship again, where there are... things coming out of it. Bigger things than had already come out. "...No shortage of beautiful things here, I see." Yes, he's being sarcastic. The snark can be heard easily. However, he hears the remark over the radio, that all fire should be concentrated on those black insect monsters. And he decides to make that literal.

    As the Chryssalids start to charge for the side flank of the team, Dorian sweeps his arms out to his sides. As he does, a clear line separating the Chryssalids from the team appears. Nothing else happens, though, until he turns his hands palm-up and then jerks them upwards, as if to say 'up'. And then, fire erupts from that line on the ground. It's far enough away from the team that it shouldn't hurt them unless they go charging through it. They should be able to shoot through it fine though.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
There is a word that makes Kotone feel fear and that word is Chryssalid. She hear they are coming the turret will get up and start to move trying to provice fire against the Chryssalids now while Kotone gives up on getting into theship turns and joins her turrets in attacking the bugs who'd find they are no flanked but the movment makes Kotone fairly easy to see for the bugs and any other X-rays even as her SMG opens fire.

<<Flanking. Don't worry about me take those things down!>>

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Zed shifts position, lines up and fires at the Chryssalids. She takes a leg off one, but that just slows it down a bit. She goes to reload the next bullet, but she won't get another shot before the monsters get into the middle of the group.

    Fortunately, Dorian's fire wall makes the monsters come up a bit short, the wounded one not able to stop in time and getting burned to a crisp by the flames, shreiking horrifically as it's cooked alive.

    Kotone's SMG bursts make the monsters howl in anger, one turning on the non-organic soldier. The rest of the team manage to turn on the Chryssalids before they get too much further, LMG tracers lancing out, the laser rifle of the Support lashing against the carapace of one Chryssalid, while the Assault unclips a grenade and throws it at the feet of the remaining Chryssalid, the plinking device then detonating, pouring shrapnel into the underbelly of the Chryssalid, shredding it into green blood and black chitin.

    "X-Ray neutralized... Central, any reading on remaining hostiles?"

    Bradford looks over at Elise, the latter speaking. "This is Command. Reading a remaining twelve hostiles, unknown composition... correction, eleven, one signal just went dark."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian wrinkles his nose at the scent of cooked... whatever that thing is. "Vishante kaffas, what a horrible stench...!" he comments, bringing a hand up to his face, though not quite covering his mouth. He's quite disgusted though. He waves his hand before his face to wave the smell away. It doesn't help. Well, at least it's dead.

    The mention on the radio of a signal going dark gets a frown. That doesn't sound good at all. "What might cause that?" he asks. "For a signal to go dark, I mean."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is going to keep shoot at the thing, she doens't know if the Chyrssalid is going to try to give her the french kiss of death anyway. She has no idea what would happena dn she doe snot wnt to find out. More fire power comes her way towards the last alien and the Assault takes care of it quite nicely. Kotne relaxes a bit and she pauses wait one alien just went dark? Was it the wounded one or something else? She doesn't know but Kotone recloaks has her drones fall in with the XCOM squaddies and she move on ahead cloaked once more.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    "Mostly life-signs flatlining. It could be a cloaking Seeker, but they always hunt in pairs." replies Elise back over comms. "My thought is that Muton that Zed winged earlier finally bled out."
    The rest of the squad form back up. The Sniper swapping from her rifle to the much more portable laser pistol on her thigh holster as she starts to move. "Alright Strike Two, move up, but stagger formation. I don't want you exposed too long." orders Elise from HQ, watching the events unfold on a large, birds-eyes screen. "Samsara, you're our scout, get in there and see if you can't find the rest of the X-Rays."

    As ordered, the squad moves forward, three moving while the other three go into an overwatch position, scanning for motion.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    "Let's hope so," Dorian returns over the comm. He will form up with Strike Two, and he actually seems to know what he's doing where that's concerned. He falls into more-or-less proper formation with the first group to pause and scan for movement. Dorian is basically mid-range damage/support, and he needs to be at the proper range -- close enough to cause damage but not close enough to be in the thick of the danger immediately.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone is on alert as she goes in deeper she's couting ahead and so far she's not run ingo anything too insane just yet. She does end up finding the X-rays were coming out oh she found them an outsider and pile of sectoids. <<Aliens spotted Sectiods and an outsider comming at you strike team.>> She ends up pining just where but as the aliens go? She pulls a plasma grenad arms it and lobs it into their ranks as they run past. No she's not playing fair as the aliens do not either...

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    "X-RAY SPOTTED!" cries one of the Heavies. As he opens up with the LMG. It's not accurate fire, more designed to suppress and get the hostiles to scatter and get their heads down so other units can move. The other Heavy swaps from the LMG to the rocket launcher on his back, taking an knee and aiming into a group of sectoids. There's still fix, as three fall to the rocket, and two more to Kotone's grenade.

    Back at HQ, Doctor Vahlen twitches, then chimes into comms. "Commander, please advise the troops to use explosive sparringly. We cannot research any artifacts that are blown to pieces."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian's eyes narrow at Kotone's headsup. The plasma grenade is noted, and he's about to add to the explosions, but then he hears Doctor Vahlen's voice over the comms. He didn't realize there was something they were looking for here. Time to switch tactics; explosions won't do here.

    After that one Heavy went to all the trouble to scatter the Sectoids, it seems remiss to pull them back together. So instead Dorian lets fly with lightning. Bolts of lightning from above, with seemingly no source up there. Not only that, but the bolts are likely to chain between the enemies if they get too close to each other!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa de-cloaks now with an impish grin on her face she's always ones lives before arttifacts there are other sources of help but she doesn't needlessly rain them down on the aliens however. She knows more than enough to not troll Vahlen too hard fter all. She'll take a few more shots if any of the aliens are still standing between the crossfire though? She doubts it will be much longer if they are lucky.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Between the barrage from the XCOM Squad, Kotone's own assault, and the chain lightning from Dorian, the Sectoids don't last long, all of them collapsing into pools of orange 'blood'. The Outsider is a tougher subject, but the lightning in particular seems to destabilize the matrix of it's humanoid form, forcing it to 'die' and retract into a strange, energy intensive crystal form.

    "Strike Team, this is Central. We're reading no more X-rays at the AO. Come on home."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian seems particularly surprised at the reaction of the Outsider to his lightning. He's never quite seen anything react like that before. But he hears the all-clear over the radio, and breathes a sigh of relief. "Good." Over the radio, "Understood." A look to Kotone, and then to the team. "Shall we, then?" he inquires to them all, indicating the exit with a flourish.