Part 21: GANGPLANK!!! ("You Sunk My Battleship!")

Part 21: GANGPLANK!!! (You sunk my Battleship!)



So… ?
It wasn’t a “Don’t touch my daughter” speech. He leaned in close, said I was doing a hell of a job and that he recognized how much hell I’ve been through and that it makes me one tough bastard in his estimation. He was also appreciative of how considerate I’ve been of Hilda. Though…there was one thing he said.
Huh?
“It’s not me you have to worry about.” Say… how’s Mimi doing?
Better, but she still needs rest. She’s been on EVERY mission we’ve had since she was cyberized. I don’t know if she even knows how to take it easy.



“Grassh fa grroola GREEE-GAAAA!”
“Your eyeballs will make… excellent armor wax…” Ah, good, the translator program is working! Soon we’ll know everything they discuss to each other.



Thanks to our base setup, we’re shaving off a lot of costs of building materials during construction, up to around 40%.
Great. I think it’s time to build a secondary laboratory next to the gene lab while we can afford it; it’s taking too long to unlock the aliens’ secrets. After we put the finishing touches on our more specialized laser weaponry, we need to research that Outsider Shard, according to the interrogations that thing is the key to finding the aliens’ home base.



Commander, you-know-who is calling us. They’re ready to put that alien battlecruiser out of commission!



This is it, boys and girls, assuming we don’t screw this up, we’ll have a wealth of alien technology at our fingertips to play with. But it’ll be hard. Our big guns are out of commission, so it’s down to the flesh-and-bloods to handle it. I know you can, though.



This may be a long mission, so I want both of our supports ready to provide medical support, and we are going to be blowing the crap out of strategic areas of the battleship, so we want heavies too. Princess, I’m sorry we don’t have laser sniper rifles ready yet.
It’s fine, I’ll make do, sir!
I feel so excited…
After this, we’ll be heroes!
Don’t count it as a victory until we’re victorious.



The short version, team, is that we need you to blow up five or six power conduits. The battleship has emergency antigravity engines according to our pilfered information, but destroying the power conduits will make their main engines die and the whole thing will gently sink to the ground. The chopper escorts we have set up are equipped with criss-crossed cables that we will use as a gigantic net to catch the whole thing, COMPLETELY intact.
Except for the parts we blew up. You’re sure the thing won’t just crash the moment we do this?
Positive. Worst-case scenario, I’m wrong and you’ll all die, but you’ll have taken a horrible weapon out of the hands of the aliens.
Great. I think one of us will live. Cam regenerates like Wolverine…
I am not immortal. Allen proved that.





Whoofs, we’re high up. I wish we had been equipped with parachutes…
I can see the buildings pretty close, we’re not THAT high up. In fact we’re going to be scraping the deck if we aren’t careful.
Move up SLOWLY. Time is on our side, we don’t have any meld canisters to worry about.



Okay, they didn’t spot me, but there’s Thin Men up ahead, guarding one of the power conduits.
Either blow it up or switch it off. There’s six of them in all.
Preferably switch it off if you can, because I don’t want you to waste rockets on things that aren’t trying to kill you!
Right. Everyone, surround the Thin Men and take ‘em out!





X-rays down!



Two more hopping in from…somewhere!
Gra ba-ma da! Gra ba-ma da! Fagreer!
That translates as some sort of intruder alert call. Watch out.



Got the low one, that just leaves the one way up top! He’s ready to snipe anyone!
I’ll draw his fire.



YOW! Haha, not even close.



That’s one conduit deactivated. Now, I’ll shoot the sniper…



GAIIGGGH!
Whoah. You buried him in rubble from his own cover.
Great! Everyone move up. Slowly. Cover all angles!



It seems instead of ladders, the aliens have some kind of… antigravity launching pads. What an excessive use of technology for a simple task.
I dunno, man, the opportunity to have real-life Unreal Tournament-style jump pads would be pretty awesome.



Cam, they have a chrysalid on this ship!
SHIT. They must have been saving it for emergencies! Everyone, keep your trigger fingers itchy.



I can see it! I’m not set up yet, taking a potshot with the pistol.



Everyone else on overwatch! The moment it pops around that corner I want you to vaporize that sucker. No zombies on THIS mission.



RAAAAAAAAA!



Hello again, Mr. Zhang.
Augh, gah…
Kill that bastard!
Oh, yeah. I got this.



Enemy down!
Great shot. I think I need to update your code name.



You gotta take it easy, Zhang, you’re not a young man any more.
Geh. The armor took most of it… but perhaps you’re right.



Right, for the next bit, everyone use the jump pads to get on top of these towers.
I sense more aliens up ahead, as well as another power conduit. We’ll need the height advantage.



Yup, what did I tell you?
Rash ja nana-gaaa. Corrum-bra.
Something I can’t translate. “Six -something- becoming less?” I don’t think it’s talking about the power conduits.



Taking the nearest one down!





I got the one on the right!





More have appeared. Gaaaah, I missed!



Knock-knock! Fashion Police!
Huh?
We’re here to shoot everyone wearing tacky Action Wada suits.



Second conduit and Thin Man down, but there’s another bug over by the door to the right.
ANNIHILATE!



Once again, Officer Gutierrez to the rescue!
Great job. Everyone, reload and stack up on the doors.
Fah ba ba grag. Corrum-bra-naloog.
“Prepare for death. Four becoming less.”
Oh…SHIT! It’s not counting the power conduits, it’s counting DOWN. If we don’t disable this ship it’ll self-destruct, blow up the whole city!



We’re set up! I sense at least one alien behind each door.
Now, breach!




Hilda, vanish and scout ahead!



There’s one little sectoid guarding the conduit to the right. No sign of...what the hell is THAT?



The hell is that?! It’s a mini-UFO!
I don’t see any gun ports on it, but I don’t trust anything we haven’t seen before. As soon as you’re in position, blow that sucker apart, heavies!



I don’t know what it is, but it probably won’t like being shot with an EMP dart.



Positive hit, but it’s still moving. This thing is much tougher than anything we’ve ever faced before!



Another thin man by the last conduit on the right. I’m taking the shot!



There’s a Muton too, next to the left conduit. Must be the announcer guy, maybe the captain. He’s got one of those extra-big plasma guns! I don’t want to risk being shot, I’m popping smoke.



SHIT! That was too close!
RAAAASH FA MOOO NARGA!
Something like, “you shall become our shoes!” I think this is a metaphor for imperial conquest.
I sense more enemies incoming! EVERYWHERE!



Behind you, Hugo!



Behind you, Cam!



And in front of ME! SHIT. Thin Men on all sides!
You didn’t think it would be THAT easy, did you? Face death with dignity, Cameron Watkins. The self-destruct procedure cannot be terminated.
If that were true you wouldn’t be shooting at us, asshole. No more stalling. Heavies, kill that disk before it makes our heads explode with microwaves or something. Everyone else, pick a skinny and toast him!



Get the hell out of my country!



Two in one minute. This old dog isn’t dead yet.



Got this one, Hilda, take out the guy behind me!



He’s dead.



RRRARRRG GUULA GUUGGG!
“Your mother gave birth to you!” Uh…I think he’s insulting the fact you’re NOT a clone.
Oh, you son of a bitch. My mother? Let me tell you about my MOTHER!
Grauugh!



He’s running!
I got him!
Great shot! Eva, you’re amazing.
Hee hee.



I got this power conduit. Someone power down the last one, that should disable the self-destruct and let us take control of this battleship!
Will do!



Twenty aliens dead, and a simply enormous amount of alien material salvaged. I’d give you all a vacation if I could, but instead, take heart knowing that I’ll probably be able to give you all really cool gadgets to play with. And pay upgrades, too.



Hugo, you’ve earned yourself a code name. Zhang, we didn’t know anything about you when you were hired, but you’ve definitely earned your keep.
I thought perhaps you might execute me to preserve your secrecy. Thank you for disproving my pessimism.
Trust me, I learn from the mistakes of other agencies. Killing you would be like chopping off one of my own fingers. Take some time off in the hospital, you got really singed, there.



We destroyed the disk before it had a chance to attack us, but even from a preliminary examination I can tell you it would have been very, VERY bad if it had. It’s some kind of robot, armed with powerful plasma beams. The battleship’s fusion cores can also be examined for more directed-energy weaponry, once we have time.



We have a shitload of raw material to work with. Now I don’t feel so bad about selling off some alien junk before. But this time, we’re keeping it ALL. We need to build a better UFO-detector. And next I’m prioritizing the research of that Outsider Shard… we want to know what the hell it is sooner rather than later.



So, Eva…you seeing anyone?
Not…currently.
Well, let’s have a date. We’ll keep it simple; grab some popcorn and watch a movie in the Officer Training Center. I hear tonight they’re showing something good.
Ooh!

To be continued!