Update #2
Lab Report 5th January 1999
Lead Scientific Officer Dr Kevin RichardsonA breakthrough! Lasers are no longer just for reading CD ROMs...we can weaponise them! It's all to do with a long series of slightly curved glass lenses, strengthening the ray as it travels. But its all in the report, no space here.
Brass are impressed, want a practical design ASAP. We're starting with a pistol, seems easiest.
10 new fellows have arrived, I have added them to the project.
Things are going well!
KR
...
From The Diary Of Private Sara Lombardi (Last Entry)5th January 1999
What a series of cock-ups. They couldn't organize a wine tasting in a vineyard this lot.
First of all, they order a tank, one of those remote relay ones with no crew. Then they realize there's only enough space to store one single mission's worth of ammunition in the stores. Then they realize we're short of grenades and smoke too and they haven't got anywhere to store them.
Assholes.
Long and the short of it: they're now building a second storage facility. And another living quarters. And a larger radar.
12 new soldiers, the second batch they call them, arrived last night, along with 10 more research boffs. Haven't had a chance to talk to any of them yet: hope they're more competent than that blind clown Leona.
I am actually really bored. I hope something happens soon. Maybe they've gotten scared? Yeah, I bet that's it. Cowardly aliens. Bet they can't shoot straight in a real fight.
Hooah!
Sara
...
Iucihi Akara's Diary, 5th January 1999Hello diary-san,
I write today with great sadness. The brave Amercan lioness Sara Lombardi shall roar no more. Our first loss is our most painful.
A small UFO was detected, landed a mere thirty miles from our base. Two options were discussed in the briefing: we could send an interceptor to await the craft's eventual return to the sky, or we could go in on the ground, in the hope of recovering the craft in better condition. Sara was the most vocal proponent among the troopers of the second option, and so it was chosen by the commanders.
We were only airborne for around 10 minutes, and we landed just a few hundred metres from the landing site, which was on a medium-sized farm in the shires outside London. The UFO was somewhat shorter than our Sky Ranger, but fatter. Overall it was similar in size.
We sent the tank out first, to scout around. It had barely left the landing ramp when it's heat sensor had picked up a shape in the nearby cornfield. We all stared at the relay camera, and saw a short, maybe 4 feet tall, grey skinned, vaguely humanoid shape with large, oval, black eyes. It's head seemed somewhat too large for its body, which was skinny and rather scrawny looking. It looked...disconcerting, but not especially tough.
The operator at base chose to take fire immediately. The turret swivelled to face the creature, and a 76mm shell boomed out from it.
To my eyes, it was a direct hit. I think we all fully expected to see the creature explode in a mass of gore and guts...but...THAT SKINNY LITTLE CREATURE WAS STILL STANDING THERE, ALMOST AS IF NOTHING HAD HAPPENED!!!
It all happened so fast...
Sara was first to move down the exit ramp. She leapt down, took a knee and fired off three quick shots at the figure from her standard issue M16. She missed. After a fractional pause, she fired off a fourth. The little grey man moaned so loudly we could hear him in the Sky Ranger, and sunk lifelessly to the floor. Our first kill in the fightback against the horde!
Mancini-san popped a smoke grenade and threw it down the hatch after Sara to cover her. It popped, covering the area surrounding the exit in smoke.
A second later, a green streak came from nowhere, and crashed into the front landing wheel, just above Sara's head. I saw her turn slightly, and look at the red-hot glowing patch on the stanchion where the green fire had hit it, a look of wonder on her face.
And then...a second green streak. It...crashed into Sara's head. She dropped to the ground, soundlessly. Lifelessly.
She was gone. In an instant.
The tank swivelled again, trying to get a fix on the enemy combatant. Quick as a flah, Mancini was bounding down the exit ramp, fury in his eyes. As he hit the bottom and leapt to the right, the tank locked on: a second grey man in the lower wheat field.
Mancini dropped to his knee and fired off three shots. But he only needed one: his first shot went straight through the creature's left eye and it sunk to the ground with another whitering shriek.
Kaminski went next, and went left. He stopped in his tracks. Standing by the barn, maybe 20 metres from the ship, stood a third grey man, holding what looked like a pistol that would have been at home on the set of a Star Trek movie.
Kaminski was carrying the AutoCannon, and he unleashed a round. From 20 metres a direct hit would tear a man to pieces. He scored a direct hit: textbook centre-mass. But the grey man didn't even flinch.
I was next. I was terrified. But I was not going to let my comrades down. I ran down the ramp in a surreal, dream-like state. I stood beside the kneeling Kaminski, and aimed my rifle at the monster. I fired. Three shots.
Miss. Miss. Miss.
Nelson was right behind me, with a Heavy Cannon, and almost simultaneously with my last failure, pushed me out of the way, raised the giant weapon to his hip, and fired.
Miss.
Eli, Private Frazer, followed, and did to Nelson what he had done to me.
Miss. Miss. Miss.
Then Leona, who was bottom of the class in the shooting range, slid between Eli and Nelson. The little grey man seemed to have snapped out of the temporary shock that had prevented it from firing, and pointed the pistol at Nelson. I was sure he was a gonner.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Leona fired three times. I didn't see which shot did it...maybe I had my eyes shut at this stage. But I heard the horrible shriek and the now familiar thud. Our worst shot just took the most important shot of the war so far, and came up with a peach.
Maybe 2 seconds later, a fourth grey man came storming out from the far end of the barn. It shot its green fire into the smoke, where 6 of us were badly placed. It missed. It fired again. It missed again.
Nelson had now recovered his composure. He swivelled, hoisted the Heavy Cannon once more and fired twice. He missed.
Leona also swivelled, and cool as a cucumber, fired. A hit. A shriek. A thud.
The tank moved towards the UFO, but it didn't get far before another shape was detected on the scanner. Standing by the side of the UFO, a fifth alien, identical to the rest.
At least three of us blasted away at it: later, the cameras identified Kaminski as having downed it with his 4th shot of the Auto Cannon.
Then more movement from the barn: another one of the bastards came flying out and took a shot at the tank. It missed at almost point blank range. And then, from near the alien craft, another flash of green fire streaked at us, narrowly missing Leona's head.
Kaminski aimed carefully at the barn stormer, and took it down with one. Leona...well, when you're hot, you're hot. She squeezed off three shots at the alien by the UFO, and even though it must have been 150 metres, we heard the all-too-familiar shriek as it fell.
We scouted the area and managed to get inside the ship: there were no more grey men. After an hour, base declared the area safe, and we moved to secure the contents of the UFO.
The cleanup crew arrived twenty minutes later. They were very excited to get their hands on an in-tact UFO. They seemed especially excited about the large, orange tube they extracted, and the panels of somewhat odd, purple-tinted metal that made up the interior walls.
Myself? I cried, diary-san. I had only known Sara for a few days, but she was a sister of XCOM. I will not allow her death to be in vain.
On review, the brass have promoted Mancini to Sergeant. I do not know why him and not Leona, but they must have their reasons. Her, and three others, are now Squaddies. But I am not. I had my chance, and I missed. I missed. I missed.
I failed, diary-san. But I will not fail again.
Iucihi
