4816/Operation: Crimson Vengeance

Operation: Crimson Vengeance
Date of Scene:	26 November 2016
Location:	ADVENT Earth <XCOM>
Synopsis:	Sometimes, people do things that are rather stupid. Sometimes, those people get what's coming to them much sooner than expected. Council Mission: Interception.
Cast of Characters:	62, Karian Icefang, 571, Staren, Kotone Yamakawa

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Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Suburban area, Moscow, Russia.

    The Skyranger swings in from high altitude, dropping down to land and disgorge the contents of the troop hold onto the street. Six XCOM Troopers wearing Carapace Armour, three of which sport glowing red Laser Rifles. One a standard Shotgun, a Heavy carrying an LMG and a Sniper with a .30cal rifle and laser pistol. "Strike Four-actual to Central, we're on the ground, do we have a location of the package?"

    "Confirmed Strike Four, package is located here." the SCOPEnet indicates a location about 300 meters due north in an apartment block. "Be careful, we have multiple heat signatures moving around, and we've confirmed with the Russian envoy, that area has been cleared of civilian traffic."

Karian Icefang has posed:
    A thunderhawk roars out over the suburban area near the Skyranger, and from it deploy the elite space wolves. At their head was the old wolf, Karian. "What drives a man to go rogue against his nation..." he asks aloud, unsure of the what might make someone change, despite his worlds own bit of rouges and traders.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka steps off the Skyranger, toting her EM Gash rifle as she joins the other troopers. "DUrandal to Central, on-station and moving to track the package." She radios over comms. Thankfully, traffic being gone will make this go much faster.

    She hasn't been to Russia, any Russia, in ages. The Slav-Republic in her world is not entirely welcoming thanks to trade sanctions and condemnation of their foreign policy. The Sino-Colalition is one of their harshest critics due to the Slav's intervention in one of their wars, and as such are in the midst of a Cold War.

    But that's boring and not relevant here, and so Maaka's content to keep moving toward the apartment, her HUD tracking for any trace of the Rouge asset.

Staren has posed:
    Staren steps off the skyranger in his own armor, not unlike the Carapace but in a different style -- likewise toting his own laser sniper rifle. Thanks to future technology, both are a bit more compact than XCOM's, but they're getting there.

    Staren's not sure if he's ever been to Russia. Not to HIS Russia, certainly, though he once heard of someone from there, one of the few good Shifters, a resident of Lazlo who died several years ago. Such is the fate of many adventurers. Anyway, he may have been to some russia or another in his Multiversal adventures, but it doesn't stick out in his mind.

    For now, Staren hangs back with the XCOM troopers, staying in cover. The combat area is too big and unknown for him to rush into yet, but he does send some camera drones to scout down the street.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The Strike Team fan out in standard advance formation, the Sniper hanging a bit further back to provide overwatch cover. "Copy that Central, moving out. Pitbull, go with Durandal and provide backup. Crash, keep your eyes open on those windows, we don't want to end up in a killzone." The Assault grunts something German, then sprints to catch up with Maaka. "Jawohl. Let us kick some alien ass, ja?"

    The Heavy nods, and lifts her LMG up a bit higher, scanning the windows for movement.

    The three Supports, The Squad Leader Captain 'Congo', Corporal 'Doc' and Squaddie 'Sentinel' keep formation, checking their sectors and scanning for movement, while Corporal 'Demon' prepares her rifle to fire, sliding the bolt and taking a slow, calming breath.

    "We don't know Chaplain. Lot of reasons. Could be something as simple as money, or as alien as being mind controlled." says 'Doc'.

    The street is empty, as predicted. But the distant otherworldly 'hum' of some alien tech echos in the silent streets.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka nods to Pitbull with a grin behind her mask, before she motions for the Assault to keep close. She sweeps the streets, so to speak, her rifle trailing side to side as she secures the immediate area. Those hums are heard thanks to Maaka's impeccable hearing, and she mantles over a car, sliding over the hood while she advances.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone would be one of the people responding to the call for help so Kotone was here getting off the Skyranger, yet she's not visable for long. The Cyborg ripples vanisning from view as she heads out. She'll open up on to the local tac ned and she's going ahed to scout ahead as best she can she knows there are aliens about and would rather they find her first before someone else. It's funny the effect XCOM's had on the mechanic and vechile designer...

<< All right I'm heading out and deploying scout units.>>

the two small basically flying camera deploy and link their feeds to the network.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian nodded sadly. "Aye...Or flat out betrayal." He admits. But he hears the telltale sounds of aliens, and grips his bolter and blade tight. "Stay alert and aware. Pick your shots and keep each other overwatched." He says, treating the squad like his own pack.

Staren has posed:
    This time, Staren hangs back with the sniper. Both to, well, snipe, and to provide some defense in case aliens sneak up behind them. "Kick away." he replies to the assault. "Stay frosty." to noone in particular.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Corporal Finn 'Demon' Berg nods appreciatively to Staren, as she views down the scope of her .30cal. Not as big as the .50cal the Commander uses, but with a better ballistic penetration factor over middling distances. She spots the telltale glow along the edge, before the hull of a Cyberdisc comes around a corner. "Movement, 200 meters." she reports. "Shit, Cyberdisc!" She holds fire. A bullet would just bounce off the rounded Alloy hull of the mechanical alien.

    The rest of the unit spread out, hiding behind whatever's available... but not fast enough. The Cyberdisc emits a deep, resonant tone, then unfurls into its Assault form, bringing firelinked laser pulars to bear on the Heavy, peppering her cover with thousands of micro bolts of searing light. "I'm pinned down here!" she cries out, hunkering down and unable to return fire.

    The Cyberdisc isn't alone. As is seeming standard operation procedure for the Aliens, a pair of 'Drones' come winging out in the flank of the Cyberdisc, central camera eye glowing orange as they scan and pick up additional targets, then spitting out small plasma bullets of their own. More a nuicense than anything.

    "Aim for the carapace joints, hold fire until you have a clear shot! It'll just turtle back up if you hit it randomly!" calls out 'Congo', before popping up, taking aim and silencing a Drone... which draws the attention of the Cyberdisc onto her.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian quickly grabs cover, but for just a moment. He ejects his current clip of bolter ammo, and swaps in a clip of Kraken armor piercing rounds. He pops out and fires right at the cyberdisk, trying to grab it's attention. "I'll distract it!" He calls out.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Cyberdisc. Maaka hears the name and feels her blood run cold, and she slides behind a downed vehicle for cover. "Pitbull, stay on me!" She orders the Assault, before she pops out and aims down her scope. The rifle kicks against her shoulder, the recoil murderous to anybody without her enhancements while just fine for her, and her shots streak towards the Cyberdisc itself.

Staren has posed:
    As someone sees a cyberdisc, Staren takes note of it on the tacnet... but before he can do anything, it's attacking them! He ducks behind the cover, waiting for some of the fire to let up. He doesn't need to expose himself... with the scopenet, he can use indirect fire! He could try to hit a weak point, but this time, he goes for making his own -- Three little missiles arc through the air for the cyberdisc, tipped with shaped charges that try to blow a tiny hole clear through it in hopes of hitting something vital!

    Perhaps he's getting overconfident with his technology.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone would find that She'f find there was a cyberdisc she knows they are a major issue. She also knows the frones are an issue but she gets an idea as people open up on them she's going. To try and either hack the drone or force it to shut down either will do honestly but it may not matter for too long with all teh fire that's going on around here. If she's lucky she can put it out of the fight or turn it into an asset at least for a bit.

<<Attempting drone hack.>>

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The first drone goes down, sparking from the laser hole melted through it.

    The second drone, however, shifts position when missiles start coming in. The orange 'eye' turns blue, and with a series of rapid pulses, shoots down the micro missiles harmlessly. Looks like the Aliens have adapted.

    Maaka's Mag rounds slam into the tough carapace of the Cyberdisc, making it rock and emit another growling tone, before it quickly 'turtles' back up into Guardian form. It directs a thing golden beam of light across where the shots came from, possibly marking targets, before it ducks behind a car.

    "Strike elements, be advised, we've detected multiple intermittent contacts closing on your location. Moving fast."

    The contacts turn out to be a group of Thin Men, leaping and wallkicking along the street in a rapid manner. Once they're in range, they pause briefly, then open fire with their light rifles, adding plasma fire to the chaos.

    A Thin Man goes down to a shot from the Sniper. "X-Ray neutralized." While Sentinel screams in agony as his left leg is scored by a plasma bolt, going down behind his cover. Not dead yet though.

    Kotone's attempted hack meets a firewall, if she pushes it hard enough, she'll brute-force the issue, which causes the drone to self destruct, shattering into several fragments that rain down in the local area, Harmlessly.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Roger that, Central!" Maaka radios over comms. She notices the Thin Men on approach, scowling under her visor, and she takes aim at one of the lanky infiltrators. She fires twice, before the target can scurry away. There's not much she can do about the cyberdisc while it's turtled up, so she deals with the more nimble foes for now.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    "Grr....damn it." Karian growls out. Enraged that one of his soldiers got hit, he takes off in a full bore run for the nearest alien. Said alien would find a massive claymore sized sword coming down to di-sect it. "COME ON, ALIENS! TAKE ON A REAL TARGET!!" He bellows out, clear to all trying to draw attention.

Staren has posed:
    "Tch..." Staren mutters, as the drone intercepts his missiles. He needs to step up his game, clearly! However, the cyberdisc will have to wait -- right now a group of thin men is ambushing... well, everyone! Staren winces as someone goes down, but they're behind cover, they have a little more time. Staren takes aim at the thin men and fires the underbarrel grenade launcher at the group!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pushes the drone as hard as she can brute force wise. She doesn't care she didn't get it, the drone's out of the game but they have a bigger problem Sentinel is hit and that's not good. Armour has got to the point that with cover? They are alive but for how much longer? Who the hell knows much longer. Kotone's going to start on the move to try an reach them with the drone now a smoking wreck.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    Maaka manages to wing one of the infiltrators, earning a hissing shriek before that one goes down to the splash from Staren's grenade. The rest of the group scatter in the wake of the explosion, wounded but not downed.

    Karian's charge earns plasma fire from his target, before the Thin Man becomes even thinner, falling to the ground in two halves... then releasing a toxic cloud of poison.

    The rest of the team open fire on the Thin Men, trading red laser with green plasma. "Crash here, gonna blow a hole in that 'discs cover!" she slings the LMG, unslings and expands the rocket launcher, then takes aim as the Cyberdisc starts coming out of cover again, beginning to unfold into Assault Form. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

    The rocket streaks out, and nails the half-transformed Cyberdisc in the side as it tilts over onto its edge, the warhead blasting through an opening seam in the armour, which causes the entire thing to detonate as its Elerium core ruptures. The remains clank to the ground, and the Thin Men begin firing in earnest, one beginning to transmit some kind of signal. Probably a call for reinforcements.

    Kotone's movement finds 'Sentinel' gritting his teeth, and applying his medipak to the wound, a horrific melted burn that went straight through the synthmesh bodysuit that goes under the carapace outer layer, the plate just in the wrong position to absorb the strike.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    the streaking plasma fire hits Karian and warps his armor in spots. He was also thankful in that moment to have the implants and augments to nullify poisons. But he gives a glare to the nearest alien that suggested that whatever they called death had come for them. He leaps for the nearest creature, howling like a possessed beast, but retained enough sanity to give orders and hear his allies.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Toss smoke, I'm flanking ahead!" Maaka barks into her comms, when she spies Thin Men behind cover. She produces smoke grenades of her own, tossing them downrange before she begins to flank the pinned aliens.

    She sprints and vaults across debris and vehicles, then she stops and drops to a knee. Her rifle fires in bursts, aiming for the Thin Men before they can keep spraying poison and laser fire everywhere. At least the Cyberdisc is down, so thank Crash for that.

Staren has posed:
    "Tch..." Staren makes a sound of distaste as the thin men scatter. Then he cheers as the cyberdisc explodes! Then he picks one of the remaining thin men and aims his laser just beside their cover, readying to shoot as soon as he sees them pop out of cover.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa cringes as she sees Stentinel's condtion but he's alive and has his wits still. Given the application of the med kit. IT's not perfect but it should help. Kotone also has something on her that should aid in his long term recovery. She gets a nanopatch and will apply it after giving him a signal she's going to do something it should help with the pain at least and aid the effects of the other medical pack.

Elise Leroy (62) has posed:
    The Thin Men are being hard pressed. Karian's a big threat they can't ignore, and a good weight of their fire goes for the Wolf Lord. His ability to distract seems to be the deciding factor in this engagement.

    Staren gets a bead on a Thin Man, his laser shot striking true and searing the alien's head clean off as he pops up to fire. Another one down.

    The XCOM team keep trading shots, Crash laying down suppressive fire while the laser equipped troops take shots of opportunity while the Thin Men are on the back foot. Doc pulls a cylindrical grenade from her belt, and tosses it out with the ones Maaka throws. This one has the added bonus of aerosol 'combat stims' helping sharpen Maaka's and Pitbull's awareness.

    Pitbull seems to have a Genemod, as he takes a running leap, and crests the top of the building the Thin Men are camped on. "AHCHT JA! GUTEN MORGEN!" he crows, as he delivers a buckshot special to one very surprised alien, the force of the shot sending the corpse over the edge on the other side, before it explodes in the street. Maaka scores another kill as well, the mag bolts slamming into the center mass and punting the alien clear across the rooftop and through the storefront of some family business across the other side of the street. They'll be reimbursed by the Council.

    Sentinal nods appreciatively to Kotone. "Gomabseubnida." ("Thank you"). He then pops over his cover as the bandage and medipak do their triage work, binding the wound and numbing the pain, taking a few potshots of his own at the thinning crowd of aliens.

    Demon fires in a steady beat. BAM clik-chak. Bam clik-chak. She's not scoring kill shots each time, but the red Reaper Rounds are disrupting the Thin Men's ability to return fire.

    Soon enough, the final alien falls, and the suburb goes silent. "Central to Strike Team. RecSat Echo is in position. Confirming zero additional readings. Area Secure, come on home."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    And they're dead. Maaka's boost in combat effectiveness is noted, thanks to Doc's thrown grenade. She covers Pitbull when he makes a leap onto the building, opening fire on the Thin Men as they fall one by one.

    By the time the aliens die, Maaka exhales softly and reloads magazines, before she slings her GASH. "Durandal, bugging out. C'mon folks, it's Miller time."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa grins at Sentinal, she got the message and she'll help him thin out some of the remaining aliens. It shouldn't take too long and they are getting the hell out of here when all is said and done now.