Chapter 55: Risk
Ranger
Chapter 55: Risk
By Wanderer D
Celestia,
I'm not writing regarding… that issue you wrote me about, right now. I'm just giving you a quick update… Twilight decided to join the rookie team on a mission. It's supposed to be a simple one, but… things happen.
I tried to convince her to stay and I'm not very happy about it, but, well, you don't go through boot camp with your teammates and then just—anyway, she's in good hands at the moment and things are straight forward enough for it to be in and out. I know this is probably not ideal, but you might want to talk to Shining Armor if you need to talk to
someonesomepony about it.~Sunset
"I just want it on the record that I think this is a tremendously foolhardy decision."
"Noted, Tygan," Chrysalis said, leaning back so she was looking at him upside down from her desk. "But this is something that every soldier here has to go through."
"I… understand that, Commander," Tygan said reluctantly. "However, I find myself wondering how putting one of my team members through this will help anything. Twilight is not only a scientist of tremendous potential, but also a member of royalty from possible inter-dimensional allies."
Chrysalis sighed and leaned forward to look at the video feed again. "I've considered this, Tygan, but there are several advantages to this as well… first, it will show your team that they too can participate in operations, and trust me, with the information I've been getting? You'll need to spare hands from time to time."
Tygan crossed his arms and shook his head, but said nothing.
"Come on, Tygan," Lily said, smiling at the scientist. "It's an easy mission, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Crap," Chrysalis muttered. "Now that you said that, I really need to start paying attention. Thanks Shen."
"What?"
Tygan sighed. "Maybe I should join Lieutenant Shimmer in the firing range."
"Is that where she is?" Chrysalis did not turn around.
"Either there, or training with miss Dragunova to be more stealthy," Tygan said.
"Huh," Chrysalis grunted. "Useful."
"Actually, I think she's with Central right now, in the Command Center." Lily said.
Chrysalis smirked. "I figured she wouldn't want to miss it."
"If I may, Commander, I have noticed that you and Lt. Shimmer don't' seem to speak much as of late—"
"I don't want to talk about it," Chrysalis said. "It's personal, and she and I both know what it's about. Don't worry, we didn't start hating each other or something. We just need as much space as we can get in this ship."
Tygan and Shen exchanged looks, but neither felt like arguing the point.
"Okay, Bradford, Galahad, let's get this thing rolling," Chrysalis said into the comms.
Fortunately, there weren't that many civilians out at this time. The rookie team ran on top of the tall building, keeping out of sight of the very few people out and about.
Twilight followed Galahad's order and took an advance position behind cover. She glanced around, but saw no sign of patrols. "Nothing in sight," she reported quietly into the radio. "There's a small balcony in front of me, no civilians."
The only acknowledgment she had was when Monique ran past her, followed by Just Kevin, jumping over the side of the building and after hanging on by the edge by tips of their fingers. They landed nimbly on the balcony and spread out, taking cover and looking down at the street below.
"Clear on the East side," Monique reported.
"Clear on the West side as well," Just Kevin added.
"Ndlovu, Twilight," Galahad called in. "You're next. Take the middle, drop down to street level."
"Roger."
Just like in practice, Twilight followed the instructions. She vaulted over the edge of the roof, holding on tight to it to get her balance and a sense of distance then dropped down, landing carefully and running across the balcony before repeating the move again.
Next to her, Ndlovu echoed her movements as if they were a pair of dancers doing a routine. The moment their feet touched the ground, they ran behind cover.
That was the thing that had been repeated constantly to her and everyone else on her team: Cover. Cover. Cover.
A few seconds after they had settled in, Galahad had ran past them, almost as materializing out of nowhere. The man was ghost when he wanted to be.
Galahad pressed his back against the wall of the next building, and glanced inside. He then turned to face them, making a few quick motions with his hand. Twilight paid rapt attention.
Three civilians, unaware of their presence, inside building. Clear view of the windows.
Galahad pointed at a nearby drain pipe that went all the way up, then to Twilight and Ndlovu, indicating that he wanted the two of them to take point and go up.
Ndlovu and Twilight looked at each other and nodded. Twilight tilted her head and he ran in first, deftly climbing up the pipe with as much ease as a spider would have. Twilight was next, the moment he was over the edge of the roof, she was running across the street.
She slowed down, a bit intimidated by the sheer steepness of the thing, but, taking a deep breath, she reminded herself of practice. Her gloves were designed to grant her a better grip, and she could feel the difference as she grabbed the pipe with both hands and pulled up, setting her boots against the wall.
With a push up, and quick movements, she moved upwards, grabbing and securing her place with with a mixture of pulling and pushing. She repeated the process until she was two stories up and rolling onto the safety of the rooftop, where Ndlovu gave her a smile.
"Couldn't have done it with more grace myself," he said.
Twilight giggled and blushed, but a quick tap and a nod from him got her moving. They spread out as well, covering each one side of the building.
"East side clear," Ndlovu reported.
Twilight's breath caught in her throat. Below, walking slowly away from the building and down the street were familiar ADVENT soldiers and something she'd never seen before: it was bipedal and heavily armored, with some sort of thick, green glass covering where the head and torso would be. The rest of its body looked like it had been stuffed into some sort of astronaut suit. "I see a patrol, West side. Troopers and… I don't know what that is."
"Never seen one of those before," Bradford agreed on the comms. "Keep out of sight, don't engage unless absolutely necessary.
"Roger." Twilight responded. "Kevin, do you have sight on the X-rays?"
"Confirmed," Kevin said. "Can't see the new unit, but I see the two Troopers."
"Kevin, Monique," Galahad called in. "Join Twilight and Ndlovu," Galahad said.
"Team, the VIP is due to leave soon, make sure you make it in time."
Twilight watched nervously as Kevin and Monique crested the edge of the building and ran past her and Ndlovu.
'What if we fail? What if we get there and the VIP is gone? Will we have to do basic all over again?' she thought worriedly, 'I don't want to go back! What's the point of all that effort if I have to do it again!'
"Don't worry about Central right now," Galahad said on the radio. "We do what we need to do. It's his job to keep us updated, but don't let the urgency get in the way of the job, or distract us from our mission."
"Roger!" everyone echoed.
Monique reported in: "We have visual on the objective, black van, there's a small patrol there. A captain, a lancer and a trooper."
"Roger that," Galahad said. "Twilight, you and Ndlovu are with me, Monique, you and Kevin stay up here. Alejandra, scout ahead, prepare the area for the Skyranger to pick us up the moment we take them down."
"Roger."
Twilight swallowed, following Galahad and Ndlovu to the side of the building opposite from where the patrols were. After taking a quick look to ensure no civilians or ADVENT were around, they made their way down the building.
Ndlovu dashed behind a car, while Twilight took cover on the corner of the building. Galahad stood next to her.
"Choose your targets," Galahad whispered into the radio. "Kevin, any sign of the patrol?"
"None, sir."
"Good. You keep an eye out for them. On three. One."
Ndlovu braced himself, glancing once at Twilight and nodding.
Twilight bit her lip, raising her rifle and taking deep, calming breaths.
"Two."
The small patrol in front of the vehicle turned away, facing West.
"Three!" Galahad called, rushing around the corner, blade coming out of its sheath. The captain didn't even have time to turn before his body had been almost split in two by Galahad's downward swing.
The Lancer turned, surprised and tried to take cover.
Twilight felt the kick of her rifle shake her arms as her body instinctively braced itself for the shots. She blasted at the lancer, who took a full hit to the side from her shot, spinning in place with the impacts just a second before Ndlovu's rifle tore whatever was left of its chest appart.
The trooper tried to run as well, but Galahad had spun around just in time to basically decapitate the trooper, and if it wasn't enough, Kevin had also shot at him. The trooper collapsed in a heap, just as Galahad turned. "Twilight!"
Twilight stood there in shock, not believing what she had done. She had actually taken the shot on instinct, something that she never thought would happen. She expected to be calculating, to be coldly able to hold herself back from shooting but the moment the black and red armored ADVENT swordsman had moved…
"Twilight!"
She snapped back to reality, eyes wide as Galahad jerked his head towards the van. Nodding, she took cover behind the door, kneeling right next to the dead body of the captain and trying to not look down or throw up. There would be time for that later, and she expected it to continue for a while.
She barely registered as Alejandra dashed past them, crossing the street in a second and disappearing around a corner.
Galahad took position next to her, working furiously on the lock. "Dammit, of course they would secure it. It's just their goddamned VIP." He glanced down at Twilight. "Doing alright over there, Sparkle? You look a bit green."
"Urp. I-I'll be fine, just… please do that faster…" she whispered.
Galahad chuckled, returning to his hacking. "Kevin, any sign of the patrol?"
"Not yet... "
"Good, you and Monique come down and take positions across the street. Alejandra should call in Skyranger in that area when the VIP is ready, you will provide cover fire if necessary while we escort the VIP."
"Roger."
A few seconds after both of them had ran past and taken positions across the street, Galahad called out, "Hack complete! Retrieving VIP!"
The doors opened and Galahad jumped in. "What the.."
Twilight looked up in surprise when something slammed through the side of the armored vehicle. Some sort of blade had gone completely through it… from the inside out. Rolling around she turned to look into the van, just as Galahad flew overhead, crash-landing on the car where Ndlovu was taking cover.
"Where is she?!" a cold voice hissed as a tall, blue humanoid with serrated teeth and twin pigtails stepped out from within. A glowing red gem palpitated on her chest. The humanoid viciously slid her across the interior of the van, where Twilight could now see the dead body of the person they were supposed to save.
"It's the assassin! Evacuate!" Central ordered on the radio, but it was too late.
"We've been spotted!" Just Kevin shouted, just as a green, glowing blob arched is way to explode between them.
Twilight heard Monique and Kevin scream. The green goo splattered on the street, melting the pavement and emanating green fumes that hurt to breathe even at that distance.
Galahad was not moving, Ndlovu emerged from behind the car, shouting in defiance and shooting straight at the blue woman/creature. His shot missed, striking the door next to her. Almost negligently, the assassin pointed her own rifle at him and splattered his chest on the street.
She looked down and grinned at the paralyzed Twilight, grabbing her by the front of the armor, and lifting her up to her level. Twilight tried to bring up her rifle, but the assassin batted it away from her arm.
The screams had died down and Twilight could hear the metallic stomping of the alien they had seen earlier approaching.
"Well, well, well," the assassin hissed, her smile vicious as she leaned in to smell Twilight. "What have we here?"
She glanced down at her chest, where the gem pulsated stronger, then looked up at Twilight. "An Equestrian… and not the Blood Witch? My… how many of you are here?"
"Twilight!" Sunset's voice emerged from the radio. "Twilight!
"Ooh… I can hear her voice on your device…" the assassin said, caressing Twilight's face. "Yesss… I think I can make use of you…"
With a yank, she removed the bodycam and the microphone, focusing it on her face. "Listen well, Blood Witch… she is mine now… I will enjoy torturing her. Twisting her. You will regret ever challenging me!"
She crushed the camera… and the feed went black.
o.0.o End Chapter 55 o.0.o
Stats
Page generated in 0.1 seconds
Total duration
824 users online
671,283 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Twilght, you do great so far! (assassin appears) Oh no... But one thing’s for sure, Sunset will save her, she wouldn’t leave her behind.
Well, say hello to the Spectre
Thats not good
WHY DID YOU SAY SUCH A STUPID THING YOU IDIOT!
8844548
Spectre?
I think you might be misreading the line. Its an Andromedon. Spectres dont have anything resembling Green Glass covering it and nothing resembling an Astronaut suit.
This is .... Honestly boringly predictable. Saw it coming from a mile away last chapter.
Also glad this updates almost every day, because this looks like the start of a cliffhanger congaline. So im going to wait a week for a good chunk of updates so I wont have to deal with that.
I do love the story, but this WAS an eye-roll worthy move out of the grimderp drama playbook. :)
8844589
Ah, right, As soon as I read green, I had to think of that green visor the spectre has. The “Face” of the Andromedon looks more yellow/golden to me with a mix of green.
I'm more like "Road Apples" They know what Equestrians are.
well damn. Guess we know the next Covert Op.
8844548
Nope, that ain't a Spectre, it's an Andromedon and far more annoying than a Spectre.
8844619
Well, I can already imagine Sunset’s reaction when it reactivates.
8844548
no, not the Spectre, you mean the Andromedon...
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/xcom/images/1/19/XCOM2_Andromedon.png/revision/latest?cb=20160220141201
8844626
I know, I mistook it. The visior just looks more yellow than green to me.
Well. That could've gone better. I blame Lily.
Still, hopefully Twilight won't go full damsel in distress. I'm not expecting Sunset-grade evisceration from her, but she may surprise everyone, including herself.
Of course this had to happen. You ask for a simple mission to start with and RNGeesus says “Sure thing, buddy!”. Next thing you know, you have 3 pods active, a Chosen on the field, and half your squad is dead while the other half is barely functional. The final twist of the knife is that you knew damn well this would happen, but decided to trust RNGeesus on his word anyways.
I’m surprised Sunset wasn’t caught first, but this is definitely more likely.
Huh. Were any of the others still alive to get Galahad out of there? Also, sending four rookies, a VIP and a vet to a mission? That's insane, Chrissy should know better. They don't even have plasma!!
Yeeep. This chapter doesn't qualify as surprising or deserve any further comment.
Even if it was an 'easy training mission', they should have had the elites on backup in case of shit like this happening. One thing you learn from experience in any kinda operation is that nothing is ever 'Easy'. The Elites like Sunset's team should have been following close behind the protect them in case of mistakes or ambushes like this.
sunsets gonna look good with her new shotgun and sword, have her kill the asassin with her own katana please.
8844689
...This isn't original X-com. They only have 1 Skyranger, so they can only send one team at a time.
This was bound to happen.
Lily jinxs it by saying :"It's an easy mission, what's the worst that could happen?" Everything. Never heard about Murphy's law?
The man was a ghost when he wanted to be.
God damn it, Lily. Murphy('s law) already enjoys fucking with XCOM, and you gave him an excuse to go further. Whatever happens to Twilight, I'm blaming you.
Everyone watched in horror of the events that transpired just now. Chrysalis slowly turned her head to face Lily Shen, who was just as shocked as everyone else, with a look of pure and utter disappointment. Lily caught sight of the Commander's glare. "Uhhh...sorry?"
Chrysalis could only give an exasperated sigh as she covered her face with her hand. "You and I need to have a talk about Murphy's fucking law, Shen"
8844723
True, but the XCOM2 version is to never have more than one or two rookies on a mission unless they're all you've got! Heck, after the first couple months I don't send any rookies, only squaddies from the GTS, and rarely more than 1 even then!
8844866 Actually, there are occasional special missions where you can't send anything but soldiers under Sargent lvl.
8844871
Ah. Haven't played any of the DLC yet so I've never delt with those. But still, squaddies and corporals. At least then they have useful skills.
Oh no, the mission went horribly wrong and Twilight got captured. Whoever could have seen this coming.
8844878
...War of the Chosen isn't DLC, it's its own expansion. The DLC for X-com 2 were just one two special missions where you get Bradford on 1 and Shen on the other. Afterwards you gained new equipment, and in Shen's Last Gift you even got a new Unit type which is basically X-com MECs, as in a MEC unit for X-com to use.
The special missions with no one below Sargent lvl allowed are just a part of War of the Chosen.
Well. Shit. Murphy's law strikes again!
8844922
Murphy's law could.
Now we get to see what, if any powers Twilight still has, granted her team may be a complete wipe at this point. That'll teach Cryssy to not send VIPs on missions and may finally put the nail in that coffin.
File it under R for REALLY bad plans.
Galahad had ran past them, almost as if materializing out of nowhere. The man was a ghost when he wanted to be.
Simple mission they said. It will be easy they said.
Well, let's see how well Twilight friendships then. She's going to need a lot of magic...
Keep going! ;)
8844595
The Chosen are the Sirens, so, as former equestrian entities they do know about Equestria.
Looking like we might get a Midnight Sparkle or whatever the xcom equivalent would be.
Well that was inevitable... why did they risk such a valuable asset again? I am still not certain an adequate explanation for that was given.
Galahad might just be a ghost even if he doesn't want to be.
Eh?
No?
Fine.
Alright, Twi, this is your chance to make friends!
well.... thats twilight good and properly traumatised.
...
"Come in Central, this is Firebrand. Emergency abort. Squad is down. Repeat, squad is down."
"We're receiving Firebrand. Code Black confirmed. Return to the Avenger."
8844548
I thought that it was andromous
8845329
Yeah, but green reminds me more of the spectre, the visior of the andromous looks more yellow to me
Ah fuck, we got a Code Black and Twilight has been captured what else can go wrong?
8844866 8844871
True, but those were for balancing the game, not more realistic story telling. If this was based on xcom 1, I could understand a mistake like this. But with it being xcom 2, the higher ups shouldn't be making mistakes like this at all. Even if not the elite of elites like Sunset, there should have been a second squad in the area still 'just in case'. Especially with a VIP, Royalty from an alien race in another dimension that can choose to invade in retribution for the humans killing their leader, and as Sunset has shown, some of them can be very powerful, and don't take long to train to be one of the best.
Sunset and Twilight has a bigger pool of magic, and thus can cast some spells. But what if Luna or Celestia were to cross over? Immortal Goddesses with massive pools of magic that would probably be about as powerful as a normal unicorn, which is very powerful in a world with no magic and thus no magic defense at all.
You'd think they would do everything possible to rig this 'Training Mission' to have everything as safe as possible, and a quick evac and rescue if something went majorly wrong. That they didn't have anything at all, I would say Chrysalis is incompetent, inexperience, and doesn't have the right to lead xcom.
8845884 Or you might just want to wait to read the next chapter instead of assuming that.
8845893
Well is it out yet? *Grabs and starts shaking* Is the next chapter out yet?!
8845901
trust the author? 
Good job everyone, I'm glad they decided to let Twilight go on the mission to, I don't know, intentionally put herself at risk or something.
8845884
That whole thing would have happened far to quickly for a backup squad to come to the rescue no matter if they were on site or not.
The Viper King showed us that unlike the game where a covert mission is required to find the right prison, here we can triangulate her position from her telemetry feed. So the question is: Are we taking the standard route of rescue, or will Sunset grab the crown and go tear the prison up demon style?
... Damn.
Everyone else is going on about how they expected it. I kinda knew in my heart it would go pear shaped. I was expecting Twilight to freeze and get someone hurt. Maybe if we were lucky the mission goes off without a hitch but Twilight suffers from the realities of combat she wasn’t ready for. But that escalated WAY faster than I expected.
Considering they HAVE the Intel on the Assassin now? .... Next chapter I suspect will be them assembling a WRECKING CREW and heading after the bitch ..... And If Luna reads this in the book? .... Assassin is NOT gonna have a good nights sleep before it happens either. :3
... Unless of course Twilight maniges to FRIENDSHIP the bitch .... Now THAT would be a hell of a twist!
8846069
But her coms equipment was crushed at the end
Ah... the classic writer's plot device, the dues-ex-go-fuck-yourself.
It just can't be simple, can it?