X-COM: Operation Phoenix

by Architect Ironturtle


They've Got Me Locked Down!

"Hey, look a flying sheep!" My attempt at distraction was an utter failure, and we did as any sane X-com soldier would when faced when such odds: turn around and run like a pansy. At least, Firebolt and I did. We had to drag Starlight to safety, and it quickly became clear why.

"We have to help them!" She shouted in my face, on the verge of panic. "My Dad's up there!"

Oh. Oh, boy. " How do you know?" asked Firebolt, "They all look the same to me." He shot wildly into the fray as we ran, killing two Sectoids and... one of the guards. We all winced as we neared the ledge, and I made a quick prediction that that little mistake was going to come back to bite us as we dropped down to the previous city level, barely avoiding the wave of plasma fire sailed over our heads.

"He's got a unique fighting style," I answered over the link, reminding them that telepathic comms couldn't be overheard. "He's the only guard that fights with a double bladed halberd. It's how he got his cutie mark, in fact." I brought my gun up and nailed a Thin Pony as he leaped over the wall to follow us, then sidestepped to avoid the falling poison cloud as I reloaded.

"Ah," siad Firebolt. "So what do we do?" A Sectoid came around the corner, and he opened fire, spraying green death in an area around the alien, killing it and digging several smoking holes in the ground, only narrowly avoiding shooting a civilian caught in whatever that green slime/rubber stuff was they used for live captures.

I peeked over the top of the wall to take another look at the forum. After our sudden appearance, the alien's tactics had changed drastically. Instead of the close-in fighting required by the mostly melee royal guard, they had retreated behind all available cover and were laying down a deadly web of crossfire. Frankly, they should have done this from the beginning, but if they had, the city might have fallen before we even showed up. The guards had been forced to hide behind the gate to the palace, reduced to taking the occasional shot with a crossbow. Their ranged weapons just couldn't keep up with the alien tech, understandably. The few exceptions were Double Strike, Starlight's father, and the other powerful unicorn guards, who were able to send their weapons out to attack the aliens without putting themselves in danger.

However, this change in strategy required that most of the aliens turn their backs to the rest of the city, which gave us an opportunity. With a quick thought to the others, we moved, slipping behind each cover point and flanking the trio of Thin Men hiding there. Then we struck, wiping out the entire cluster before they could react. With their attention mostly focused on the guards, we were able to repeat this two more times, taking out four more sectoids and two Thin Ponies before a swarm of Floater reinforcements showed up, forcing us to retreat or risk getting flanked ourselves.

I wondered just where the UFO(s) had set down as we fell back, considering Canterlot (stupid pun names) was a densely packed city tucked into the side of a cliff. Wide open spaces were something of a rarity, everywhere except... ah, thank you Starlight's memories. "We need to get to the palace gardens! I shouted, "Starlight, can you lead the way?"

"After my Dad is safe!" she yelled, rolling behind a piece of cover as she shot at one of the floaters. It missed her intended target, but blew his buddy's head off. Only five left, now. I squeezed a quick shot. Make that four.

"He's a guard, he can take of himself," I shot back, "Besides, we've killed most of the aliens that had pinned them down." I suppressed a shiver at the surge of gleeful blood-lust that came over the link. Star was riding a battle high, and I didn't want to be anywhere nearby when she came down off of it, not that I really had a choice in the matter. "If we can get these Floaters to follow us, the Guards can mop up the remaining aliens.

"Aye, aye, commander," she replied jokingly, and took off in a zig-zag pattern that led us around the edge of the palace wall, using all available cover along the way. The Floaters pursued us, and we picked them off one by one as they came into range. At one point I had to stop and show Firebolt how to reload, and remind him that the middle of a firefight was not the place to freak out about killing someone, but other than that we made good progress. I also made my first Mindfray kill, when I'd run out of shots and there was still one left. I got scared for my teammates, and my body did the rest, channeling the purple energy into several sharp barbs that ripped its mind apart from the inside.

As far as I could tell, I'd been given the instincts and physical training of an X-COM soldier, but none of the higher thought processes. If I tried to focus too hard on what I was doing, it would fizzle and malfunction. I filed a mental note to figure out exactly how my powers worked once we weren't in immediate danger anymore, since I was pretty sure they could do a lot more than the game ever showed, and forced myself back into the present.

"In here," Star said, catching my attention, "This is the gardener's entrance. I used to sneak out to visit Donut Joe's when I got hungry, and this was the best route." She picked the lock with her magic, then pulled the door open with a slight squeak. "After you," she gestured, bowing. I rolled my eyes and chuckled as I stepped through while Firebolt's ears splayed back at the sound. Cool,I thought as I moved into the gardener's tool shed, My laugh unnerves ponies. I can use that.

I put my back to the wall and nudged the other door open, giving me a clear view into the gardens. When no aliens showed themselves, I signaled for the others to follow and moved forward, eyes sweeping. We found the alien ships just outside the hedge maze, or what was left of them rather. They had been some of the bigger vessels, but I couldn't tell which ones as they looked like they had been dipped inside a nuclear reactor, scorching them beyond recognition. We circled each craft slowly, then checked the command decks, finding only the shattered remains of an orange crystal and several smoking computers. As we moved deeper into the gardens and left the wrecks behind, I found myself mildly disappointed. Those ships would have been extremely valuable if they were still intact, but that thought was quickly overshadowed by the question of who, or what, could have done this. Alien ships could survive hitting the ground at high speeds without denting the hull, so anything strong enough to strip said hull away along with many of the support beams must have some serious firepower.

My question got answered almost immediately in the form of a flying Mechtoid, basically a Sectoid in a suit of power armor. The Mechtoid was not flying under its own power, but had been thrown, and quite forcefully at that. The poor alien's trajectory combined with the renewed sound of fighting allowed us to track down just who had thrown it, after we had recovered from the mad scramble of an alien sailing over our heads. It had come from the middle of the hedge maze, and since none of us felt like trying to navigate it, we just cut our way through, melting the hedgerows as we went. This turned out to be a mistake.

I hit the dirt as a pillar of fire blew through the hole we'd just cut in the wall, and from the other side a voice boomed, "Come, monsters, and meet your fates at the hooves of the Royal Princesses!"

Princesses? Plural? Oh, right, Celestia's little sister. I'd forgotten about her. I peaked through a gap in the hedge and saw two alicorns, side by side, surrounded by a ring of dead aliens, and glaring in our direction. I flattened myself out again as Celestia conjured up another fireball to throw at us, and Starlight stepped into view, shouting, "Wait, don't shoot!" The fire dissipated almost instantly as the matriarch rushed forward to meet her, only to pull up short, her eyes narrowing when she realized just what Star was holding. I groaned and buried my face in my hands, smudging my already filthy glasses, getting a quizzical glance from Firebolt, who was still out of sight.

"You'll see," I told him.

88888888

I rubbed Star's shoulders as she wailed into the cot in our cell while Firebolt tried his best to carve a circle in the floor. We'd been arrested for possible collusion with the invaders due to using some of their weapons, and had been thrown in here while the Princesses went to oversee the disaster relief efforts. Our weapons had been confiscated and left up in the throne room, and the only I was still wearing anything at all was that my armor had displayed the ability to resist removal by anyone but myself, forcing them to let me keep it. I'd considered trying to get away when we first got caught, but decided I didn't really want anything strong enough to send a Mechtoid flying chasing me, not without a couple of snipers for backup, anyway. Besides, I still had my Psi abilities, and Starlight her magic and Firebolt his strength. We weren't defenseless, just in deep cover, so to speak.

I was pulled out of my musing by a sudden pressure on my chest. It turned out to be Star, who had abandoned the cot for not being sympathetic enough and latched onto me instead, still bawling loudly. "I-I," she stuttered, looking up at me through her tears, "I k-killed them. I killed all of them! And I enjoyed it!" Her sobs overpowered her ability to speak, and she buried her face in my chest once more. Firebolt stopped moving long enough to give us a disappointed scowl, then resumed his patrol. His thoughts were shuttered, but I was still able to pick up on his annoyance at Star. He'd killed too, and another pony at that, and we didn't see him breaking down!

I wasn't falling apart either, although I was closer to it than I appeared. Human culture and our predatory tendencies had given me a decent level of violence tolerance, but I'd never killed anything before today, not even a frog for dissection, and now I'd ended at least ten lives, all in the space of few hours. It was getting to me, enemies of all other sapient life or not, so the chance to comfort Star in her misery actually provided me with something of an outlet for my own: petting the most adorable creature I had ever met. Seriously. Best. Therapy. Ever.

The monotony dragged on until Starlight's sobbing had turned to sniffles before it was interrupted by a guard with orders to bring to the throne room. My hands were cuffed behind me before we left, probably due to my being a wild human, and I know for certain I was treated more roughly than my compatriots. We walked through an endless number of hallways, each lavishly decorated save for the odd plasma scorch mark, and I drew a constant stream of weird looks at my attire. My hopes sank as we entered the throne room. Celestia and, Luna, that's her name, were sitting on their thrones, both looking down at us with disapproval. Our weapons were directly in front of them, and guards lined the walls on all sides. The most important feature, however, was the presence of six surprisingly normal looking ponies standing to the left of the throne. Six alarmingly familiar ponies.

"Starlight Glimmer, Firebolt," Celestia began, her voice carrying the weight of an executioner's axe. "You are charged with vandalism, killing a royal guard, breaking and entering, cooperating with the creatures that attacked us, training this human to fight for you, and using dark magic as a weapon. How do you plead?"