• Published 25th Jan 2018
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XCOM: Ranger - Wanderer D



Sunset Shimmer escapes Equestria... with unforeseen consequences.

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Chapter 17: Party

Ranger

Chapter 17: Party

By Wanderer D

The Skyranger shook a little as it encountered minor turbulence, but the soldiers inside ignored that, focusing on the satellite pictures of their next objective.

"A local resistance group attacked an ADVENT convoy, leaving some supplies for us to pick up," Bradford explained on the monitor. "We can expect ADVENT to try and take them back, so go in, eliminate any resistance, and secure those supplies. This mission will take place in a city known for being infested, so expect to see some Lost there as well."

"We're pulling up on the site, guys," Rainbow Dash called from the cockpit. "Get your gear ready."

Sunset shifted in her seat, her new armor feeling tighter than it probably was. The Predator armor was heavier, more durable and had more padding to absorb damage from alien weaponry better than what they all had worn before, but she had still taken the time to tweak how it looked so that it reflected her better.

The full design wasn't the same as before, however. Besides the decal of her cutie mark on the chest, she had created another depicting Celestia's own cutie mark and added it to her right shoulder pad. They created an interesting contrast with her usual dark-gray and black, but Sunset did not want to allow herself to forget her mentor again… and how she had failed her.

There was one thing, however, she didn't like.

"Still dwelling on the new nickname?" Jane asked with a grin, nodding at the nametag.

Sunset glared at her. "Sunset 'Bloody' Shimmer? Really?"

Mox snorted. "I think it makes perfect sense, considering every time I've seen you in battle you end up covered head-to-toes in it."

"I use an overgrown machete! Often! That's bound to happen!"

"You also possess a shotgun," Elena pointed out.

"And grenades," Laetitia added.

"Look, it's just sometimes the most efficient way to do this, okay?"

"If you say so." Jane shrugged.

"Menace," Rainbow called out, "we're here. Opening the ramp."

Sunset and the others prepared for the drop, pausing to examine the area before jumping.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Sunset grimaced, in the horizon, just outside the city, she could see a familiar building split in half long ago.

"What is it?" Jane asked.

"Nothing," Sunset muttered, turning to face the area below. "This is close to where I met Mox."

Mox leaned over and glanced around. "It is indeed. Good times."

"You would say that."

"Guys, if you're going to appreciate the view, why don't you do it at ground level?" Rainbow Dash called back.

"I'm going!" Sunset shouted back, annoyed. She motioned to the others and took a running leap out.

The city was deadly quiet, with the occasional gust of wind rattling through cracked windows, or whispering between alleys.

"Menace is on the ground."

"Come on," Sunset whispered, trotting over to take cover on the corner of a building. So far there was no sign of the aliens or any Lost.

She motioned for Elena to climb up the emergency ladder into the second floor of a building, while Jane ran past and hid behind a large trash container, followed closely by Mox, who took cover behind some abandoned boxes, across from Jane.

Laetitia, who had stopped on the other side of the entrance to the alley, shared a nod with Sunset before the pair made their way through, past Jane and Mox, to the end of the alley.

"Enemy spotted, Elena's voice came through their radio. "Small patrol. Captain, Lancer and Trooper. Standing at the base of the railway." There was a pause. "I see some Lost, almost a block away, to our right. They haven't seen the aliens yet."

"Roger that," Sunset whispered into the radio. "We see the patrol."

Laetitia motioned with her hand, and Sunset nodded.

"I also see two of the supply boxes. We can get to them quietly, but the moment we mark them for pickup, they'll know we're here."

"We'd better make sure we take them down fast, then," Mox said. "If we plan this properly, we can get rid of all of them without calling the attention of more Lost to our location."

"No grenades," Sunset acknowledged. "I have an idea. Mox, Jane, you'll move to our places. Elena, you're perfect there… if the angle allows you a perfect shot right now, keep your position. Laetitia, come with me."

They snuck around the patrol, keeping their distance. Thankfully, the ADVENT troops seemed content to just watch over the boxes and not do any real patrolling this time around, which allowed both of them to get as close as they could outside of their view.

Sunset slid out her sword. "The moment I take out the captain, the other two go down," she whispered into the comms. "Elena, unless something goes wrong, keep yourself hidden."

Barely paying mind to the acknowledgements, she nodded to Laetitia, who also unsheathed her energy blades.

The pair exploded into a run. The ADVENT Captain had casually turned around in place and barely had time to shout in pain when Sunset came down with her sword, slicing him in half with a spray of orange blood.

The Lancer didn't fare any better under Laetitia's attack, falling much more cleanly, and the trooper stared at them for a second before running to take cover right in front of Mox, who didn't even bother moving before blowing his head off.

Radio chatter warned them that they had given away their position, so Sunset wasted no time.

"I got this one, mark the others!"

"Menace," Bradford said, transmitting directly to them, "We are recording a large amount of energy gathering in your area, it is consistent with the scans from the last encounter with the Assassin."

"I was wondering when you would come out to play again, XCOM," the Assassin's voice cut into the comms, making them all wince. "I am here now, too… and I will have fun carving your little chess pieces into nothing, Commander."

Another, previously unknown voice added their input into the comms. "Don't tell me you were planning on hunting in my domain without inviting me! That's so unfair, Aria! You never invite me to your parties anymore!"

"Menace! There's another, similar energy burst near you!"

"No shit, Bradford!" Sunset growled.

"It's the Hunter…" Elena's voice was next, low, almost a growl of anger. "She's the bane of my people."

"Great, why couldn't this be simple?" Sunset muttered, just as the box's destruction seemed to summon distant cries of Lost.

"Menace, you need to evacuate, abandon the crates and proceed to the nearest clear area for pickup."

"That's a negative, Central!" Rainbow Dash's voice was strained. "I'm being chased around by ADVENT air patrols, I'll need some time to get rid of them!"

It was then that Mox tackled Sunset, just as the box she had marked for pickup was obliterated by a dark-purple blast of energy.

"Don't ruin my fun, Skirmisher!" the Hunter called out from somewhere in the city.

"We need to move," Sunset growled, summoning her blood magic to amplify her vision and motioning for the others to follow. "Keep in cover!"

"This city is big," Mox said as they ran into the alley they had come from. Sunset looked up and could see Elena keeping to the rooftops, but following their pace as they emerged on the other side and ran down the street. "We should be able to find a way to escape them long enough for Firebrand to pick us up."

"Several Lost have begun attacking the Hunter," Elena noted. "She seems distracted… killing them."

"They haven't figured out where we are yet," Jane said as she ran. "We can't count on it lasting too much longer, though."

"Of course not," Sunset grunted, stopping suddenly and slashing with her sword just to the right of her friend.

The others didn't have time to react to her actions before Sunset's sword was blocked by another sword with a metallic clang. The Assassin materialized, grinning her shark-like smile as she held her sword confidently in a lock-down with Sunset. "Ah, the blood witch, it seems you survived our last encounter."

"I wouldn't give you the pleasure of not seeing me again before you explode into light dust again… Aria."

The Assassin's smile disappeared. "Don't you dare use that name!"

With much more strength than her slim body would indicate, the assassin's push threw Sunset clear a few feet, but in her anger, the Chosen didn't immediately become invisible, and received a full blast of Jane's magnetic rifle, although it merely shook her in place.

Laetitia's attempt to cut the assassin down was met with failure as the latter dodged both strikes easily and blasted the Templar with a psychic blast straight to the stomach.

Mox's Bullpup rattled as the Assassin retreated enough to give herself space. She turned invisible, but it was dispersed when Sunset, who had recovered, shot her straight in the back with her shotgun, sending the assassin sprawling.

"Seems like the mighty Chosen are having some trouble," yet another voice jumped into the open channel. "It's a good thing that I am always willing to help. For a price."

Cries of more Lost filled down the street, and it was then that Sunset saw the massive creature's beating hearts approaching fast. "Run!"

The others didn't stop to question her order, just as the wall of the building next to where they had been standing exploded outwards. A massive berserker pushed its way through, as it grabbed a clinging Lost with one of its claws and splashed half its body against another building, and then grabbed another zombie, slamming it to the ground and squished like a bug it under its foot.

It was huge, double or even triple the size and bulk of regular berserkers; it wore a metallic helmet with a horn on it, no doubt intended for it to rush enemies, and with two armored claws, connected to a container on its back, pumping some sort of liquid into it.

"Of all the things Vahlen had to modify, she had to choose a Berserker." Bradford sounded intensely annoyed.

"Although I understand the curiosity, I agree that that wasn't the most… prudent of choices," Tygan added. "I do have to wonder how this… woman, is controlling such a creature, when even Vahlen herself couldn't do it."

"I would really prefer it if you looked at the creatures later and concentrated on my evac, Central!" Sunset called.

"Roger that, Sunset," Rainbow Dash's voice came back on the radio. "I've shaken them, but they're returning to patrol the city, you'll have to make it to the outskirts! I'm sending you the coordinates!"

A shot rang out, hitting the Berserker Queen on the rhino-like helmet, and making it stagger and abandon its charge.

"They've seen me," Elena called in grimly.

Sunset could see the Reaper running down into the building and then making her way from one to the other through holes and jumping from window to window.

"The coordinates are just down the street," Sunset announced.

"Do you really, really think I'd let you get away that easy?" the Hunter's shrill voice reached them.

"Don't kill them!" the Assassin shouted. "I want them alive! The traitor, the witch, the templar, the reaper and the XCOM bitch! If we capture them we will destroy XCOM's morale and and get much more information!"

"Aww, but I wanted to kill them!" the Hunter whined. "Wait, you're saying she's really a blood witch? How cool is that? We haven't seen one in like… centuries!"

Sunset felt her stomach grow cold at those words, but they continued running. Behind them, they could hear the Berserker coming.

"I want that red head," the Berserker Queen's mysterious controller taunted in the radio. "I want to open her up and see what makes her tick! I want to see how she survived the venom and healed so quickly!"

"Well, at least you seem to be popular with the girls," Laetitia quipped. "Should I be jealous?"

"Make sure the Berserker runs through the red truck," Elena whispered into the team comms.

"Keep through the middle of the street!" Sunset ordered, seeing the truck up ahead.

She turned in time to fire a shot at the Assassin, who cursed loudly and dodged, still wounded from earlier, then dashed after the others, running past the truck.

She didn't see it.

But she certainly felt it, heard it, and so did even more Lost, and definitely the Berserker Queen.

The moment the Berserker Queen had jumped onto the truck to catch up with them, an explosion had rocked the whole street, making them stumble and stop to turn around and face the massive fireball that had resulted from the explosives Elena had planted on the truck.

The Berserker Queen was nowhere to be seen now, although Sunset doubted even something like that would be enough to destroy that behemoth.

She shook herself off and pushed up, standing shakily with the others. "C-come on," she rasped. "We're close."

Behind them, she heard Lost cries and the Assassin swearing.

"Now!" Sunset took Jane's arm and pulled, getting her friend running between the buildings, followed by the others, including Elena, who had made her way down to them. "Before she kills them and catches up! I can see our coordinates, it's…" She trailed off as they emerged from the line of buildings onto the outskirts of the city.

She slowed down, almost walking up to the flare indicating the pickup place for Firebrand. They were outside a large building, covered in vegetation and surrounded by craters. The building itself looked like it had been carved in half by a hot knife.

And in front of it, a broken statue, with a base… that was intact. "How…"

"Ambush!" Jane cried out, just as the whole world exploded in light and heat.

Sunset felt herself lifted from the floor, and flipped in the air, flying straight at the base of the nearby statue. She crossed her arms in front of her face and braced herself. "Oh, shiiiiii—"

o.0.o End Chapter 17 o.0.o

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