May 13, 2015

0403 local time

Undisclosed location in central Africa

The voices of the techs surrounding the terminal of the massive holographic globe formed an oddly pleasing susurrus as she stepped into Mission Control. She didn't have to look at her watch to know that she'd been out of the room for less than an hour. Vanessa thought wryly to herself that she might as well have a cot or something set up in a corner since she spent far more time here than anywhere else. Especially her bed.

Off to the side she could see Central Officer John Bradford rubbing his forehead as he talked to another tech who was pointing at his screen. Seeing the puffy dark circles under the officer's eyes, she suspected that he hadn't even attempted to leave to get some sleep.

Feeling bad about to heap more of her issues on his shoulders, the tall, plain woman with short cropped dark auburn hair and storm grey eyes quietly wended her way through the bodies that were between her and her destination. Vanessa always expected to be disregarded since she preferred to wear one of the generic green XCOM jumpsuits rather than the distinctive uniform that had been provided for her position.

Yet every person she stepped around, or rather attempted to step around, would move out of her way instead. Of course they always had to say either, "Commander" or "Commander McKenzie".

Not for the first time she wondered how they could recognize her so quickly since she'd checked to see if she had been tagged with something that would alert them as to who she was. She should have been able to just blend in with the rest of the staff.

Thank God none of them tried to salute her. That was always an awkward feeling having to remember that she needed to salute back. Since she technically wasn't military it didn't take long for them to break that habit. Well, according to the paper she signed and the oath she swore made her temporarily military or something like that. Half asleep and jet lagged to hell and back, she wasn't entirely sure how that worked.

Of course, the whole setup with XCOM was just strange in general.

She also silently acknowledged to herself that she was punch drunk from lack of sleep due to the number of operations she'd ended up supervising over the last couple of days.

Though it wasn't her exhaustion that still made her question who had the bright idea of putting her in charge of a military operation of this magnitude when she'd never seen any kind of service. Not even in the ROTC during her school years. It was the fact she was a naturally paranoid person who had a hard time believing they'd put a non-military person in charge of this mess.

Not that she'd deny the alien invasion. That was all too real.

Trying to ignore the buzzing in her head she dismissed those questions. Somehow they were holding the things back. Though they were all fucked if the things had more numbers to bring to bear.

The buzzing started to affect her physically as she finally got near Bradford causing her to shiver involuntarily as her skin prickled from the goosebumps forming on her skin.

The tech returned his focus to his terminal as Central stepped away and swiveled to face her. "Commander?"

Surreptitiously rubbing her arms in the vain effort at banishing the creepy crawlies, she asked, "I thought you were going to crash around the time I left, Central?"

"Pot, kettle, Commander," he replied lightly with a small smile. She started to smile back until another, more violent, shiver wracked her.

Her second-in-command studied her, his forehead creasing in the way it did when he was trying to find a diplomatic way of saying something to her. "Are you feeling all right, ma'am? Normally you don't seem to have a problem being cold."

Leave it to Central to be too polite to say that she bitched about roasting. Which she was as usual, but that buzzing was grating on her nerves. Trying not to grit her teeth, she said, "I'm not cold, but I'm wondering if Vahlen is running one of her little experiments without telling anyone?"

The creases deepened as he actually frowned, "She better not be after how… firm you were with her about doing that without your permission."

That was true. Vanessa had been quite unhappy seeing that Vahlen was trying to cook up something with alien genetic material, she had gone into full on pissed off Commander mode. She didn't remember what she said, but apparently the soldiers on guard duty had been impressed.

Of course it turned into a popular topic with the rest of the troops.

Another shiver washed over her, this one painful the way it caused her skin to tighten. His mouth pulled down, but didn't exactly frown as he studied her. "Commander, I think you should go to the infirmary to get examined. We don't need you out of commission from something that could be preventable."

Hoping that she didn't sound as crazy as she felt herself going, she said, "I feel fine actually. It's just that a few minutes ago something jolted me awake. Since then I've felt this buzzing in my mind and now I feel it physically. And-"

She paused again, feeling even more stupid and foolish.

Those too sharp brown eyes stared at her. "And what, Commander?"

"I can smell them. The aliens. Like when one of the fireteams bring in a large number of fresh corpses for Vahlen to experiment with. Almost as bad as when they bring in live specimens."

Vanessa had to give the man credit for not sighing at her as he said, "I know you're not happy –"

Feeling even more irritated she raised a hand to stop what he was about to say. "I'm resigned to the need for live samples, Central. I'm just –"

The power flickered causing an electronic scratching noise from the hologram and silencing everyone in the room. They both looked around as Central voiced confusion for both of them. "What the hell?"

One of the wide eyed techs tried to remain calm as he shouted out his report "Sir, internal systems are shutting down all over HQ!"

The floor beneath their feet shook from thumps of multiple explosions in distant sections of the base. Another tech started to read off damage reports with a hysterical edge in his voice. While Central was occupied with the first tech, she went over to the second to place a calming hand on the man's shoulder. "Easy now. Take a deep breath, let it out slowly and start over."

It put her into a good position to see a man running towards Bradford with a fire extinguisher in his hands. Since he was holding it like a weapon, Vanessa called out a warning. It wasn't enough for Central to avoid the attack, but it only staggered him for a moment.

Without missing a beat, Bradford spun around to land a solid punch to the man's jaw giving him enough breathing space to grab a pistol from a compartment under the hologram's console. Grabbing the man by his throat, Central held the pistol to the man's temple and screamed, "What have you done?"

The man stared up at him silently with blank white eyes. Bradford pistol whipped his attacker into unconsciousness.

The room rocked with another explosion peppering everyone with debris from the ceiling.

Ducking down for cover, Vanessa saw that there was another compartment near her. Unfortunately for her, there were only papers in there, no weapon. Silently cursing the situation, she hunched even further under cover so she could fish out her headset to see where her troops were and what they were up to.

Of course her best fireteam that was based out of HQ was still enroute from their last op. They wouldn't be back for another couple of hours. Everything would be all said and done by the time they got back.

She was very grateful for the cover when the next detonation went off. Some of the other people in the room weren't as lucky judging by their screams. Wincing as a draft brought the scent of burnt flesh mingled with smoke, she looked around for anything that would serve as a weapon. While she didn't have the combat training her soldiers did, Vanessa had picked up enough over the years to be able to protect herself in general. Sometimes growing up in the "bad side of town" proved to be useful, but it wasn't enough to protect her from trained soldiers.

Bradford abruptly loomed over her. A small cut over his left eye trickled blood down the side of his face His green commando sweater was singed in spots, but he appeared to be otherwise unhurt. He offered her a hand up, then handed her a pistol as soon as she got to her feet.

It had taken more drilling than she cared to think about as she checked the action of the pistol and to make sure it had a full clip. He nodded in approval. "Come on, Commander. I'm in contact with some of our security forces. Stay behind me while we go to them."

Her pride rebelled at the implied criticism of her ability to protect herself, then it deflated. The truth was, she couldn't defend herself in this kind of situation.

"Do we know who's attacking? Though I have a feeling I know the answer."

"They found us somehow, Commander." The anger in his voice matched what she was feeling.

Another blast, this one much closer, sent them flying. For a long moment she lay on her side, partially covered by rubble, as she tried to shake off her shock. Hearing the approach of the distinctly non-human voices of mutons , the aliens' shocktroops, she tried to scramble to her feet, but her legs didn't want to cooperate.

Squirming on her belly to the wall near her, she saw Central's fallen form. He was more than half buried by the debris. Even worse, it looked like a large chunk of cement had smashed his face in. She couldn't tell if he were still breathing or not.

Knowing that he wouldn't thank her for trying to free him at a time like this, Vanessa turned to run.

Only to see that she was too late as a muton loomed over her from the smoke that had filled the room. Pain blossomed in her face she got slammed by the butt of the creature's rifle.

So many regrets swirled down into unconscious with her as she was hauled away by the monstrous brute.