Ranger
Chapter 74: Short
By Wanderer D
The rain had lasted overnight, but their camp had been set up properly and Fluttershy's people had very good instincts on where their caches would be stationed. Thus, the group had stayed up long enough to eat their meals, and decided on guard duty, with Angel taking the first turn, followed by Sunset, Mox and finally Elena.
The night had been uneventful, with a single possible sighting of a panther by Elena. The large cat had prowled around the camp, but soon decided it would be too much trouble to attack them and had retreated into the night, climbing up into the lower branches of a tree, and jumping from there to the next one.
Eventually the rain died and the usual noises of the jungle returned, with an overabundance of crickets and frogs this time and lasted deep into the night. At last, just as the sun started to lighten up the distant horizon, Elena woke up Mox and the pair went over to where Sunset and Angel were sleeping.
"It is time to resume our mission."
Mox's amused words woke Sunset up, wrapped in the warm coils of Angel. She grimaced and cuddled up into the Viper's embrace, resting her head on the alien's bossom. "Ten more minutes, Mox."
Angel hissed in agreement.
"As comfortable as you are, I must remind you we have a mission to accomplish."
Sunset groaned, but slowly pushed up. She couldn't resist and nuzzled Angel much like she would another pony. "Thanks. You were right, you're very comfortable."
"Only you would be able to sleep comfortably while you have a predator wrapped around your body," Elena said, shaking her head.
"Hey, you're just jealous because you had to sleep on the floor," Sunset said, standing up and stretching. Angel, for her part, simply slithered around her until she was upright next to Sunset.
She hissed playfully at Elena with a rather smug look.
Elena raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't know how comfortable Vipers are as beds, but I know that they can be rather chewy if not cooked properly."
Angel reared back, her tongue flicking into the air as she gazed at Elena. Then she turned to hiss at Sunset.
"Yeah," Sunset said, nodding after a pause. "I'm sure she's not joking."
Another hiss.
"Nope, I never ate any alien when I was with them."
"A fact that disappointed Natter to no end," Elena said.
As the group started gathering their equipment and getting ready to set out again, Angel hissed another question at Sunset, who shrugged. "Well, I did promise to tell you about it…"
She spoke as she packed her things. "After living with the Skirmishers for close to seven months, it was decided that I should go back to "my people"," Sunset started to say, only for Mox to snort in amusement.
"If by that you mean being kicked out for attempting to take over the whole Faction, then you have a gift for understatement,' Mox said.
The other two gave Sunset a look.
"I…" Sunset sighed. "I was a very different person back then… with completely different objectives."
"I think I would like to hear that," Mox said.
"Maybe… some other time," Sunset said, pulling the strings that tied her sheets tight. She carefully loaded her backpack and secured all pieces. "It's just… personal, and reflects a side of myself I'm working to change."
Angel hissed, her clawed hand touching Sunset's arm comfortingly.
"Thanks," Sunset said with a smile. "Bradford taught me a lot, he… he wasn't at his best when I met him, but it didn't take him long to earn my respect. We went through a lot together, and I like to think, in a small way, I helped him too.
"He taught me more about this world's tactics. Got me a copy of The Art of War somehow... he walked me through missions, showed me what had gone wrong or right on each. When I went out with New Hope's guerillas to attack ADVENT, he was there to welcome me back and talk to me and go over the missions… anyway...
"After we set out to find the Avenger, we visited several places where acquaintances and allies of his had set up base, one of them being the Reapers. The first person I met there was Natter, who was just shy of 5 foot four, perky and entirely crazy.
"She volunteered me on a hunt and after how that went… well, I was now on their good graces, even if it was by virtue of comedy value. My pride had taken a hit with how that initial hunt had gone, and of course at the time, I only knew their skills as hunters through rumor, rather than experience.
"So I got it into my head that I wanted to earn their respect and eventually lead them…"
"I'm starting to see a pattern here," Elena muttered.
Sunset pretended she hadn't heard her. "...but I was really not that great at what they did, and their combat style didn't really fit my up-close and personal style. However, they had a lot of skills that would be useful, so, when I found out Natter and one of her friends were heading out to hunt, I decided to ask Bradford and Volk to let me go with them.
"It took some doing, but they let me go, although I had to learn as much as I could, how to think like a Reaper." Sunset chuckled. "I thought at the time I could do it… let's just say it takes more than being good at a couple of shared skills."
***Two Years Earlier***
The alpine air was cold, but invigorating.
Sunset had never gone camping as a filly, and even her stay with the Skirmishers was a completely different experience from this.
They were up in the mountains—somewhere in Europe—several days away from the main Reaper camp, where Volk and Bradford had an ongoing discussion that for some reason would still take several days.
Sunset was wearing a less-bulky, but much warmer armor on loan from the Reapers, and currently was on the trail with her friend Natter, who had somewhat forced the friendship into happening and Vehoski. The latter's first name was Don, but he never answered to his name for some reason, preferring to be called by his last name only.
In fact, Don seldom spoke, but he added that sense of stability to the whole situation that, were it lacking, Sunset knew would drive her mad.
Even though she didn't have the patience to become a sniper, after the Elk incident, Sunset had insisted they help her learn stealth. Never again would she be tossed around, and become the unexpected rider of a panicked Elk in the middle of a forest.
Despite Natter's promise that she would never tell anyone about it, Sunset knew the reality was she was never going to live it down. Especially with the looks the shorter woman gave her from time to time just before giggling.
"So, what's the plan?" Sunset asked once they were ready to move on.
"Well, we still have a few days before we need to head back, and we've only managed to show you a few tricks. I think it's time we start tracking the big one."
"The big one."
"Yes! And I have the best idea—"
"No."
The pair turned to look at Don, who was looking down at Natter with a neutral expression.
"But, Don! I saw—"
"I know, I saw them too, we don't want to do that." He glanced at Sunset. "She's not experienced enough. She could get killed."
"What?" Sunset asked. "What is it? Was it the bear?"
"See, Don?" Natter insisted. "She's not useless! She noticed the bear trail!"
"You danced around the pawprints singing Let me be your Teddy Bear," Don pointed out. "It is hard to not clue into that."
"Look," Sunset spoke up, "Whatever it is, I'm up for the challenge."
"Really?" Natter asked, raising an eyebrow. And Sunset knew it was not a good idea to say yes.
"Yes," Sunset said. "Really."
Natter grinned and looked at Don, who sighed.
"Good! Then we go down south, past the river," Natter said, pointing down the slope of the mountain. "And pay attention as we go, because by the time we get there, you'd better be a ghost."
Sunset grimaced, but nodded. As the trio started trudging down the mountain, Sunset once again asked, "So, what are we hunting?"
"My favorite kind of sushi," Natter declared.
"What?" Sunset asked, bewildered. "We're hunting fish?"
"No," Don said, "we're hunting Sectoids."
o.0.o End Chapter 74 o.0.o
Can anyone tell me how dangerous sectoid in XCOM 2? I only played XCOM:EU. And there they are pretty weak.
8885816
Against poorly equipped rookies they can be deadly. Against well equipped, experienced troops they are more of a nuisance. They can mind control your forces, and they reanimate the corpses of their dead comrades. Rather than waste time trying to kill the reanimated corpse, its better to take out the sectoid, because doing so will cause the reanimated body to die ( again ) as well.
8885850
Or you put mindshields on everyone and nerf them into the ground. Seriously, mindshields are rediculous.
8885816
Think of the EU sectoids, but they had leg day everyday.
Everyone’s going on about the sectoids, meanwhile I’m wondering if Pinkie pulled a ‘Dash with the Reapers
8885816
Imagine if every sectoid was a sectoid commander. With the ability to make zombies. That's xcom 2 sectoids.
YESSSS!!! The cuddle gods have been appeased by this tribute.
tfw you will never get snek cuddles. it hurts.
Happy hunting!
Oh crap... someone going to die tonight.
8885894
Wouldn't that be more like "Pinkemina" in this case, Or are you thinking old school 'Cupcakes'.
Yay, non-lethal viper cuddles. Angel must have really soft poison sacs.
It's a theory that viper's "breast" are actually a specialized poison-sac, and combined with strong chest muscles, enables their feared poison spit attack.
8885881
Eh, mindshields are okay, but personally I find there are way too many other useful items to waste space on them.
8886412
I tend to agree with that assessment, although they're much more powerful in XCOM EU; that typically is what happens when they're made specifically from Elder corpses in EU, though.
8885960 If I had the talent, I'd draw the scene
8885902
And then there are new Commanders.
New sectoids are spliced with human DNA. Without shields almost all soldier would have good chance to be controlled. On way to stop control is to stun either party or kill sectoid, it doesn't have duration.
Welp, this won't go well. (Won't have gone well? Flashbacks do weird things to verb tenses.) Still, hopefully it'll be more farce than tragedy. And Angel can always give her comfort hugs in the present.
If you know what I mean
Alright Sunset's story with the Reapers is now unfolding and the snake cuddlers have been appeased.
So, is Natter Pinkie's daughter/close relative?
8886394
Or they're just snek tits
I prefer snek tits.
8887143
´Same here. Just decided to throw said theory out there in comment's.
Was cute to see Sunset cuddling the big Naga. But the rest of it was meaningless filler. So skip! Maybe next chapter we will finally get back to the story.
The Snek Cuddles...
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Snek cuddles, we've have snek cuddles!
Aww. I was hoping for Angel to tell Sunset how much she liked being wrapped around something warm-blooded all night. As I can only guess that vipers are cold-blooded, like most snakes.
... ... Huh. Y'know, I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but maybe that's one of the reasons the Elders use them so much? If Vipers really are cold-blooded, that means they'd barely show up at all in thermal imaging, because their body heat would match their environment since they don't produce any heat themselves. That might pose some serious challenges for XCOM detecting incoming Vipers.
Although, it would be a lot easier if they weren't carrying plasma rifles, which may or may not passively generate heat. And speaking of those plasma rifles... Tygan mentioned after the plasma weapons research in XCOM 2 that the plasma weapons the aliens are using are rife with faults and/or structural weaknesses in their design. Essentially, they're very dangerous and liable to fail catastrophically. Maybe even explode. Tygan mentioned this is probably because they don't value the lives of their expendable troops that much. Muton plasma weapons are "reinforced" for melee combat, though, so maybe theirs are less likely to fail. Still, we may get to see alien weapons suddenly cook off, or a take on the Fuse ability from a psi-op triggers one of the structural faults and makes the weapon melt in its operator's hands.
8894568
What about the Viper King? He shoot frost breath that fezzes you? And I think it less about being clod blooded and they came from a ice planet.
Aww, I like these flashbacks. They fill me with the amusing mental image of Sunset being more similar to the Reapers than she is aware of, with the minor difference of thinking "Can I lead that?" instead of "Can I eat that?".
Well ... story time continues to be amusing ... Sunset and Angel continue to be adorable ... I do approve .. this story needed a bit of fluff after all the tension ...
my only remark this time ... not an actual error, but I find 'comedic value' sounds better, especially in the context ...
Angel is best snek.
Angel, please don't 'upgrade' to crepy snek. Please. I beg of you.
-GM, master of dangerously close.
I like how Sunset is a Parseltongue.
9801181
I personally think the portal made it so that the one who passes through can understand the languages on the other side. Probably didn't take into account many different species.
8885850
Bring a late game squad full of top of the line equipment, but not realize that their will was low enough to be mind controlled easily, in a mission that was full of psionic enemies, and watch turn after turn as they're shot full of holes, mind controlled turn after turn, made into psy zombies by a gatekeeper, and have everything happen in a way that you're not done till turn 40.
They go down easy, but I'll never call 2's sectoids weak ever again.
And I keep a steady supply of mindshields now...
Well damn... The hunt is on i guess...
Objections, many males would love it, some female as well!
Yep, snek cuddle are best cuddle