Yeah I know you feel like you just got ripped off on this one. 'Point seven five? Seriously?' Ok, so I'm being a bit sarcastic. Really have been falling into that pit recently...
The sun shone over the mountains through a layer of low hanging clouds. The crisp winter air was still on such a morning. It seemed to have an air of foreboding. The short rooftop was the perfect vantage point for the operation about to take place.
"Raven, we've got the roadblock ready to deploy down here." Raven glanced over to the wall to his left. Three stories down, there was a roadblock. Well, there would be soon.
"Good Blackbird, wait for my mark." It wouldn't be long now. The plan had been in effect for a few weeks. There was some additional preparation, but Raven hadn't been hired before the beginning of January. Now, roughly a month later, the operation was almost complete. He had been approached by e-mail, informing him that his experience was needed, and that he would receive quite a fund for his service. He had chosen his team, men he had worked with before mostly. When he met with the man whom he now termed the contractor, he realized the part he was playing seemed to be a much smaller operation than what pieces it seemed this man had in play. It didn't matter much to him, he was given complete control over ensuring the operation went over without a hitch, and promised a healthy pay for accomplishing it. He was informed that the his part of the plan, the act of taking, was the easy part, while the act of persuasion was going to be the hard part.
"Hawk, what's your location?" Raven knew they should be close.
"We're just nearing the checkpoint now. Get everything ready, ETA about ten minutes."
"Alright everyone. Ten minutes to showtime. Everyone clear?" The team rattled back over the radio that everyone was in position. The job should be easy and go as planned. Apparently whatever was happening was partially in the minds of the victims as well. They would at least partially have an idea what was going on and why, hopefully that meant less resistance. Raven wasn't worried about this job. Like all of them, screwing up wasn't an option.
The haze had drifted across the rooftops now. Raven looked at the view one last time, before mounting the wall and climbing on the ladder to the ground. The sun's rays left a shimmering color that silhouetted the stark, dark buildings in the early morning frost. The rungs of the ladder were slick, but Raven's black gloves still found traction on them, melting small prints through the frost.
"We're rounding the last bend." Hawk's update meant the action was about to begin.
"Go with the roadblock, Blackbird." Raven reached the ground of the parking lot behind the building. A large dump truck was parked at the far end, and an SUV to his right. The lot was bordered by either a brick wall or brick buildings, one entrance directly to his left, another across the lot on his right.
A car pulled to a stop in front of the barricade. Obviously confused, they slowed to a halt in front of it. Crow approached the car, pointing them to their left. Raven could see them skeptically pull through the entryway into the back parking lot. He stepped from the side wall and stopped the car. He could see both of the passengers, yes, they looked just like they did on the photographs.
Hawk's car pulled in behind them, effectively blocking them off. Raven pulled an official looking badge out of his coat, and determinedly walked towards the car. The window rolled down. Hawk was exiting his car; the roadblock removed, Blackbird and Crow were approaching also.
"Donald Rasmussen, CDI, can you both of you sirs step out of the car?"
"What's going on? Isn't there a meeting or--"
"Sir, please step out of the car."
"But I don't know what's going on!" Raven was getting tired of this. He reached for his pistol in it's holster, and both of the passengers froze.
"Now, if you'll please exit the car, we don't have much time here."
"What's going on?" the driver asked as he exited. "What are you going to do with us?"
"That's classified, and it will all be explained later." The script was even going textbook. "I need you to come with me." Seeing they were surrounded my men with guns made compliance very easy for them. There wasn't any danger, everyone had only stun weapons since the human cargo was what they were after here.
Raven led them to the door of the SUV. "Get in, one in the back and one in the middle." There were two operatives in each of those seats as well.
"Were are you taking us?"
"Get in the car."
The dump truck's engine came to life, and as Raven's passengers entered the SUV it began accelerating towards the car. Raven climbed in the passenger seat. "Let's go Eagle." The SUV started. "That's my car!" An audible crash sounded as the dump truck T-boned the small civic. "That's not even the best part," Raven thought.
"What are you doing!? Where are we going."
"Sorry, it's confidential." Raven turned around and nodded to the operatives. Both used pressure points to knock out the two hostages, and then proceeded to tie their hands together and put bags over their heads. As the SUV drove away, Raven could see as the fuel tanks under the dump truck ignited, lighting it and the cab of the smashed car on fire. His team was dispersing, and he turned around. It all looked like an accident. And his job was done. He sent the text message confirming the operation complete, and shortly received one telling him the documentation would be taken care of, and that there would be a check in his mailbox. Whatever was going on, it was big. But that wasn't part of Raven's concern. He settled into his chair for the ride to the airport.
Also a bit of an intro for how the story is going. One thing about the gameplay of X-Com. First, battle is always in turn based mode. Each unit has an amount of energy they can use in a turn, and after your turn it is the alien's turn. Either way, there is a definite line between the two sides moving. Almost like a time travel thing. And since you move your pieces one piece at a time, rather than everyone moving, everyone seeing an alien, everyone shooting, you have one moving, one seeing an alien, one by one shooting till you hit it (which still isn't a guarantee.) There are some tricks you can use to exploit some of these features, which as long as I remember them I will definitely use as many as I can. But for the story purposes, the setup is going to be as squad tactics, just to add a bit of reality to this whole thing. So, despite the funky time warp aspect, otherwise I'm trying to add a bit of reality into my story, as well as some unreal advantages over the aliens. Both good. I think.
Along with that there is a bit of a "modern weapons" aspect I am adding in. Starting on beginner you don't really need them, but it seemed pretty cool, so we'll see how it works. Besides, when you get 2 UFOs on day one, that's pretty early as it is. Regardless, expect some action!
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