...And Hell Followed With Him
AKA Operation Nutshot
When we last left off, Trevor Kamastafall had just been rescued from the clutches of the Vipers just as the UFO that would have taken him away was landing. The UFO was too valuable a resource to allow the aliens to keep, and its weapons would have been able to destroy them if they attempted to flee, so the team decided their best course of action was to attack and attempt to board the vessel. AJ could hardly drag his son along with him while clearing the vessel and refused to leave him behind after just rescuing him. Carville offered to protect him, escorting Trevor out of the area and onto the gunship and back to the bunker, per AJ’s insistence.
They had an advantage here: the craft was the same design as the Firestorm, so it ought to have a similar layout, internal components notwithstanding. The X-Com team should be able to navigate through the different areas of the ship with ease that the aliens would not expect.
This was not so much an issue, as it turned out that almost every bit of resistance the mixed-species crew of the ship threw against them met the same ignominious fate: An early battle retirement courtesy of a stray shot to their alien chonies. One after the next, from skinny Sectoid soldiers to beefy Muton warriors, they all went down from such withering gunfire-based sexual harassment, Coach Bradley Buzzcut would have even winced and looked away.
That is, until they attempted to storm the bridge. The aliens there were spared the same quick and embarrassing demise primarily because most of them had taken up positions behind a low wall that protected their junk. This was where they were able to put up a much greater fight and managed to almost knock the humans on their heels. In the end, though, X-Com was able to overcome the defenders and secured the bridge.
Fayth was hoping to interface with the ship’s computer and possibly add another UFO to the roster but discovered that the aliens had wised up a bit and had some kind of a failsafe on this ship that fragged the computers and flight systems when the captain’s vitals flatlined. Ah, c'est la vie. At least with the ship intact and not blown up, as this was one discussed option for neutralizing the threat it posed, it would provide useful resources when a recovery team came to break it down.
When the fight was over, AJ got a call on his comm. He immediately feared it was Naomi calling to tear him a new asshole over what happened to Trevor, but it turned out to be Carville, reporting that Trevor was safely on the gunship, and they were enroute to the bunker and the sick bay.
When the team returned to the bunker, AJ went to check on his son. He encountered Naomi in the medical department’s main area, fixedly staring at the bed assignment board. After a few minutes, she finally noticed him, and AJ braced for impact. However, she wasn’t mad at AJ; as he gratefully discovered, she was wholly enraged at Dr. Mark Vandross, the lead surgeon and medical director in duty in Fayth’s absence. He had disallowed Naomi to take part in caring for her son when he came in and booted her out of the room, citing that she was too personally invested being his mother and all. She admitted to AJ that he may owe the man a favor, since Dr. Vandross had made her so angry at him, that she had no misguided fire left for AJ. Her husband said he’d take that under advisement.
Fayth and Dr. Rhys directed cleanup efforts. The bunker now has a fresh supply of new resources, and Dr. Rhys has yet more research to keep him busy. A large number of live and wounded aliens were captured, and might just be science resources on the hoof, if he can figure out how to milk the secrets out of them.
The recovery will take a few days, and during that time, the soldiers of Bunker November are preparing to hold a memorial for their fallen from the assault on the bunker.
