Part 27: Spoils of War

Part 27: Spoils of War



Are you sure that wasn’t just a part of its illusion?
Positive. I would have died without Allen. Looks like she saved us all. I know it’ll be impossible to prove to anyone, but…
Don’t worry. I’ll give Carol Allen as many posthumous awards as I can get my hands on.



Great job, everyone! Woo!
Yeah! You’re awesome! We kicked those aliens back to Uranus!



Don’t you think this is a bit premature?
Hey, we just blew up the enemy’s only base and killed their leader. I’d call that a win, doctor.
They come from outer space. There’s more of them.
I don’t follow. We’re on Earth, not outer space.
*sigh*



Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to him in baby steps later. So, what’s this glowing orange thing the Sectoid Commander was guarding?
Um…it’s orange…
Oh, god…
Well, it broadcasts energy. It’s not a weapon, so we think it’s some kind of communicator. If the Sectoid Commander was talking to anyone, it was either its fleet or its masters. Once we spend the time cracking its secrets we might be able to get much more detailed information on UFOs, and find the true source of the invasion.
I see. How about our prize corpse?



Its brain is fascinating. If we could replicate the effects it was able to generate, we’d have—
TELEPATHIC SOLDIERS! YEAAAAH!
Ahem. Yes. At the very least, we could engineer a way to interfere with the effect to make sure it could never happen again in the future.



Excellent work, XCOM. The council… is very pleased. About ten percent of the people kidnapped were able to be rescued and recovered. Hundreds of people will be going home to their countries. Their leadership… is celebrating, with good cause.



Leroy, you’re promoted. I’m running out of promotions to give you people…
Hey, no complaints, sir! And since I like backing other people up I’ll just be second-in-command to Cam. Probably won’t be long before Mimi’s a Colonel too…
Now for the bad news. Everyone who went in that base is on leave for the next week or two.
What?!
As a precaution to make sure there isn’t any residual mental contamination. Once you check out, ladies, you’ll be back to kicking ass. In the meantime, we’ll have everyone else doing their thing.



I’m sorry about your friend. If you want to cry about it over a couple of medicinal beers, I’ll be right here.
Thanks, Mom. Well… I guess you’re gonna be doing your thing out there without me. Just be careful, okay? You don’t have any gene mods to regenerate you when they spit poison in your face or shoot at you with superheated green shit.
I’ll be fine, kid. Enjoy your break. I hunt ghosts all the time in Germany, shooting a few corporeal aliens will be a breeze.
…you… you what?
Oh, they didn’t clear you for that intel?



So, since I’m off the team for now, I guess it’s time to relax with a little pool.
Ohhh no, little lady, you can’t fool me. I know hustlers.
What’s a hustler?
…this is gonna be good.
I warn you. The world’s best sniper needs no rifle… only a pool cue.



Look at all this new stuff for us to research!
Sadly, Commander, we’re not going to learn much new from all this.
What? Bullshit.



What about those alien pods we found all the people in?
They’re identical to the tubes we meld our soldiers in. Nothing new there.



Surely their surgical bays—
Roboticized, but nothing really revolutionary compared to what our own basic scalpels and respirators are capable of.



We have no idea what they were storing human meat for, either. This is a bust.
Damn!



But the strobing thing at the top of their base had to be important too, right?
It’s just a holographic screen-saver for an alien video game.
Son of a BITCH! Fine. We’ll sell it all to the Gray Market. But we’ll play it up as much as we can, see if we can’t get a few fighter jets worth of money out of those stingy bastards.


TO BE CONTINUED!