Vigilo, Confido - An XCOM RP (Open/PM for Entry) (Started)

[HellsingerAngel]

Alex stayed silent during the conversation of who outranked who as the skyranger jetted towards their LZ. He was pretty sure staff sergeant out-ranked private. In fact, he was pretty sure everyone in the skyranger out-ranked him. Just another mystery as to why he was even here in the first place.

Then the briefing began. It was short and sweet, with no real information; surprise, surprise. It was increasingly frustrating to have to deal with superiors who refused "conjecture" in any of their reports. It made the young man wonder how any other military force functioned without a working grasp of educated assumption. Then again, the French didn't have the most polished military record in history.

Alex's internal chastisement was cut short as the skyranger swooped low, readying for landing. He gripped his rifle tightly, nervous and anxious about what he would encounter in the streets of Algiers. Before he could think about it, his legs were pumping him forwards and out of hatch in the back of the transport. He heard Baxter shout out that he was taking point which caught Alex off-guard. He almost hesitated, wondering where he was going to position himself if he wasn't taking his designated position. It was something he would have to worry about later as the LZ needed to be secured.

Filing out of the skyranger, the young man rounded around the transport to take up position on their six. His trained eyes quickly scanned the horizon down the sights of his rifle, picking out every detail with precision. After he knew the coast was clear within his field of view, he gently tapped his comm to activate it.

"All clear on the six," he barked out in a very stoic manner, "what are our orders, sir?"

 

[ImSkeletor]

Vanson thought quickly before saying, "Black, Yates, and Labelle, your with me. Team two will be led by Hill. Summers and Larson go with him. Hill take the left side of the street with your men. I will take mine and cover the right. Remember, don't leave cover unless you are moving to new cover. I don't care if it will give you a better firing position. I don't want anyone getting liquified on the first mission under my command. Any questions?"

 

[Ruedyn]

"Yeah, can we shine a light on that place Adam pointed out first? I want to make sure it's a hallucination before we start moving." Baxter started moving towards Vansons position, making sure to follow his advice.

 

[The Critic]

4:55 (UTC +1)
March 4th, 2015

"Frau Doktor" Commander Attano greeted the newly-arrived Head of Research with a smug smile and raised eyebrow. Contrary to what nearly all of XCOM's staff believed about the relationship between Commander Lucas Attano and Dr. Silvia Vahlen, their rivalry was actually a friendly one, and their constant needling of one another was generally in jest, playing up their national rivalry for fun. Their arguments, however, still could get rather heated, even if both participants weren't really trying to get on eachother's nerves.

"Still practicing that German singing voice of yours I see, Monsieur Commander." Vahlen replied, returning the raised eyebrows and following up with a faintly amused grin.

At this point, Hagen decided to intervene. She may not have been in charge concerning rank, but this was her Mission Control, and she would be damned if she'd abide by this kind of distraction. Not at a moment like this.

"If you two don't mind, we do have business to attend to."

Both Commander and Doctor stared at the Central Officer, then glanced at eachother, then wordlessly walked towards Hagen's monitoring station. It was rather out of character for "Sunny" Hagen to put a damper on something like this, she was notorious for attempting to maintain a light modd during even the most serious of times, and the now-serious Norwegian matching their gazes unnerved both of them.

It was at this point that Daniel Mastick chose to make his remark to Commander Attano's earlier words. The Commander assumed that he would have said more, but Hagen's now-withering death stare probably had something to do with the shortness of his statement. "No more interruptions, Mr. Mastick. Focus on the job at hand." She deadpanned.

Hagen now turned her attention back to monitoring the ground team.

...

"Delta, this is Central. I have an update on the missing Algerian Recon team. the team was six men strong, and judging from the final radio transmissions, they never were able to properly land their Helo, an Agusta-Westland AW101. With that in mind, you should expect to find them, and any of the chopper's surviving crew, close to the crash site. Speaking of which, we may have a fix on the helo wreck's location: approximately 340 meters from your position due north...right by that anomalous contact that Larson picked up. Seems like it went down right in front of a warehouse. I'll have TP&I try and pull blueprints for it, but in the meantime, proceed with Caution, Delta."

...

"Do you notice a bit of radio interference, Brit?" The Commander asked, pointing to the connection strength indicator on one of the nearby displays.

"Might just be weather conditions, or possibly some residual atmospheric entry radiation from the ET objects."

"Possibly, but something's bothering me about it..."

"What's bothering you about it, Commander" Dr. Vahlen interjected, also examining the connection strength indicator "Is that the interference isn't constant, but rahter is in a regular pattern of higher and lower interference. It actually may be..."

"...A radio broadcast." The Commander finished, coming to the same conclusion as the Doctor. "What are our contact protocols with the Algerians on the perimeter?"

"They's supposed to use a secure encrypted channel to contact us. What you're looking at, isn't that. It's basic, regular, and unencrypted."

"Hmm..."

...

"Big Sky" the radio chimed in the Skyranger "this is Command. We have what may be an anomalous radio transmission originating in your area. Set one of your secondary radios to channel 610.00 and have it automatically forward us whatever it picks up. Command out"

 

[ImSkeletor]

"Good question. Yes we can soldier. We will move to check it out. Just do not leave formation unless you are told otherwise by me or Hill if I am not available. Any other questions before we move out to check out the possible bogie?" Vanson said in a forceful tone mostly because he doesn't know how to speak any other way. Vanson then heard the message from command. "Heh guess we had to head there anyway."

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Nathan checked his rifle and began walking towards the crash site.
He turned on his radio contacting command "Are we shooting first or are we going to wait for them to if we see them?"

 

[Spector29]

Daniel's brow furrowed, barely comprehending the officer's words, "Adam, look around some more, i'll see if I can't- Oh. Oh dear."

Adam didn't like the sound of that. "We're not about to get buttfucked, are we?"

"Well...I've lost them. Switch to thermal." Adam did so.

"Jesus christ, I've sighted the target." Adam said into the Team's radio. "A couple hundred yards straight ahead, we've got one hell of a hot mass ahead. Probably the downed chopper. Ain't no word on the X-rays, they've gone off towards it though."

Daniel inched closer to the screen. "Night Vision."

Daniel recoiled when his partner switched viewing modes. "Oh my god...CONTACT!" Daniel practically yelled, before Adam had the chance to relay his brother's sentiments.

"Warm bodies approximately twenty meters to the side of the presumed crash site. They're fully mobile, which isn't usually common in aviational accidents."

Adam was lining up a shot, waiting for confirmation from somebody.

 

[ImSkeletor]

Vanson replied in his deep south accent, "Well, they appear to have already made there intentions clear due to all the missing people. So I would say that if you have a shot you better take it, soldier." He heard the yells of Adam and Daniel, "Well it looks like we are going to make contact boys. Open fire when you see fit."

 

[Ruedyn]

"Wait, we should at least check to make sure it's a bogie, right? We could be shooting a friendly. Perhaps a signal with our laser sight?" Baxter raised his rifle in spite of himself, aimed to kill anything that moves. He smiled grimly at his own hypocrisy.

 

[The Critic]

04:57 (UTC +1)
March 4th, 2015

"Delta, this is Central. Confirm your targets before firing, I don't want blue-on-blue!"

...

"I need a visual on the subjects, someone pull up Larson's feed!"

The image was grainy, the lack of clarity from the camera was exacerbated by the Night Vision filter through which the scene was viewed. Hagen, the commander, and Dr. Vahlen all studied the picture.

The image showed the large bulk of the helicopter, still very warm and possibly having a few embers still burning, judging from the glow it gave off. To the right of the crash site, there were the warm bodies, moving and pulsating in the darkness, staying in the same few spots but clearly moving and shifting around. There wasn't a clean visual, though, and the graininess and the smoke coming from the wreck obscured the bodies. Still, something didn't seem quite right...

"...Larson may be a bit jittery. We've got warm bodies in view, but they don't look mobile. Looks like two bodies close together, both appear to be moving, that might explain why he thought it was one fully-mobile contact. There's a similar group a short disrance closer to the wreck."

"Mastick, relay to Larson, tell him to do a visual sweep of the front of the warehouse. It looks like what he saw may be what's left of the Algerian team.

...

"Delta, this is Central. It looks like you may be looking at the bodies of the recon team, or possibly the chopper crew. There still appears to be movement, though. Someone may still be alive. Move to investigate, but proceed with caution. And again, confirm targets before you fire. Stand by for any more information...."

...

"We've managed to identify the weird radio transmission that we noticed earlier, sir. Looks like it's a looped message." said one of the Tactical Planning & Information personnell.

"Play it." replied Attano.

The sound quality was garbage, but there was still words very clearly being spoken on the other end. Being spoken in a human language, no less. Attano was the first to pick up on it.

"I'm out of practice, but I'm fairly certain that that's Arabic. It sounds like whoever is on the other end is saying "Help Me", in the Formal register, stragely. Normally interjections like that are spoken in the colloquial dialects..."

The transmission continued to repeat the same words slowly, over and over again, but then something changed.

"....Aidez-moi....Aidez-...moi...."

"That's French! Accented, but recognizable. Whoever is on the other end is still saying, however, the same thing. 'Help Me', is still being repeated. Can we get a fix on the signal's origin?"

"Only in a general direction, sir, we don't have the setup for in-field triangulation."

Attano looked at the TP&I tech "Well?"

"Relative to Big Sky...It's coming from...the direction of the crash site, sir."

"Commander" Dr. Vahlen spoke up, again examing the various monitors "judging from the strength of the broadcast, I would hazard to guess that it is originating from withing a structure near the crash site. Perhaps the Warehouse."

Hagen reached the inevitable conclusion at the same time as the Doctor and the Commander. She turned to another TP&I tech.

"As soon as you get those blueprints for the warehouse, send them to Vanson's tablet."

...

"Delta, this is Central, we have a new development. We're picking up a strange radio broadcast from your area. Putting it on now..."

Hagen played a small portion of the broadcast, samples of both the French and Arabic alternating parts, over the squad's local radio net.

"It keeps repeating over and over: 'Help me' in both Arabic and Arabic-accented French. We're not sure for certain, but we believe that it may becoming from the warehouse by the crash site, based on the signal strength and direction. Judging from the content of the broadcast, it may be one of the Algerian recon soldiers. After you've investigated the wreck, we want you to check this out. We're forwarding the warehouse blueprints to you now. Central out."

 

[Spector29]

After Central finished it's broadcast, Daniel cut back into Adam's head. "Orders from on high, we gotta get a better look. Command says could be friendly."

Adam relayed Daniel's words to the squad, adding, "But if someone opens fire, I say we go for the legs and see how they react. Anyway, let's get our asses in gear, right boys?"

Adam moved up before hearing Daniel again, "See if you can get bullet vision of the contacts, it should be able to tell us whether of not these things are... terrestrial."

Adam began moving forwards, aiming to be a hundred yards away before scoping into BV mode. He made sure to keep pace, and a bit behind the rest of the squad, though.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Nathan looked around before sprinting towards the crashsite, ahead of the rest of the team.

 

[The Critic]

04:59 (UTC +1)
March 4th, 2015

"Crashsite's coming into view now."

"I see it.....My God, look at that..."

The Crashed helicopter was, at first glance, unremarkable, the only signs of something strange having occured were the anomalous burn damage site, similar but far smaller in scale to the American fighter jet that had been hit a more than a week ago; but the bodies near it were certainly strange.

"Some appear to still be alive, but only just. That explains the movement that we saw."

"Doctor, is there anything that our troops can do for them? They are carrying medkits..."

A finger pointed towards the display "I'm afraid, Central Officer, that our men are too late to help." On screen, one of the bodies ceased to move, soon followed by it's nearest neighbor. The other bodies in view lay still, giving no indication of clinging to life.

"...Damn. So, we lost the recon team, or at least, most of it. Let's take a count; 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... and it looks like there still may be one body in the cockpit. That's the crew accounted for, and nearly all the team, save one..."

"Ma'am, the radio message is still playing, and we may have something new on it. We thought it was a loop at first, but we've analyzed the pitch and volume variance; it's a live broadcast, just spoken in monotone."

"Live? Then, that must mean that..."

...

"Delta, this is Central. We can confirm that the entire helo crew and almost all of the recon team are KIA, but it looks like our mystery broadcast coming from the warehouse in the last remaining soldier. We don't know his condition or exact position, but if we hade to guess, he's probably located somewhere in the center of the structure, most likely on the ground floor. This overrides everything else. Get inside and find that soldier. We've analyzed the blueprints on the warehouse, and I would recommend a simultaneous breach through the front door and front windows, after checking through them, obviously. After that, move as a group towards the center of the warehouse, but go slow and be careful, this has trap written all over it. Keep a sharp eye out and check your corners and flanks, you're going to have a lot of narrow spaces in there, and it could get difficult to manouver through those box piles. We'll be monitoring your progress. Central out."

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Nathan slinged his rifle onto his back and began checking the dead for weapons and ammo.
He found an assault rifle near the helicopter and grabbed a few magazines for it from the nearby corpse, as well as a grenade.

He checked the rifle, decided that it was in working condition and approached the building, he positioned for the breach at one of the windows.

 

[DuchessCorset]

*comes running out of the skyranger being the most Lilith member she seems to cover more ground then her bulky male mates and takes cover behind a flipped over ambulance*'Central am in position and i can see one of the objects and a very badly mangled body it looks military how copy central"*peeks around to see where the Sergeant is and the big heavy and sniper went*

 

[Ruedyn]

Baxter flashed an 'I told you so' smile to his comrades, jogging to the warehouse, ever mindful to stay behind covers. He took a position near the window, peeking in.
"It's really fucking dark in there, flashlights on when we go in."

 

[HellsingerAngel]

The second squads had been drawn up, Alex had moved into a protective firing position to cover Adam. Sniper babysitting wasn't really up the young man's alley, but it wasn't as if he had a choice in the matter. Besides, he thought, Sergeant Hill will want to get moving up soon enough. He had seen the sergeant drill and the man seemed to prefer being at the vanguard of the action.

However, time passed and there were no orders to move. Sergeant Vanson's squad had already made contact with the crew as more and more information was fed from Central. Alex was almost on the balls of his feet, ready to sprint towards the breaching point if it weren't for his lack of permission. He gave another sideways glance towards Adam, then Thomas in turn, waiting impatiently for the order to move up.

"Figures..." he muttered under his breath.

 

[DuchessCorset]

*reach's out to flick the lamp on that's at the end of her shot gun*Soon Bella so what do you think happened to those body's tho there all mangled and hacked up ? also i'll take the right sir * ( ok am a tad confused as to whose who here can we maybe get like a set up from central on whose positioned where ? )

 

[The Critic]

Spoiler: OOC

Once again, I must apologize for the lateness of my post. I'm afraid that my home life has been getting rather hectic as of late, and I'm sorry that I've let that affect my involvement here.

05:02 (UTC +1)
March 4th, 2015

"Delta, Central. I would recommend a 2-3-2 entry plan for the warehouse; Baxter and LaBelle, take the right window, Hill and Makhuba will take the left window, while Vanson takes the double doors with Larson and Black. If at all possible, I would recommend a quiet entry, but regardless, go in expecting a fight. We've managed to pinpoint the location of our missing POI, you should be able to get a visual on him the moment you clear the first aisle of boxes. Assume he's armed, and assume that there are hostiles covering him. I get the feeling that this is too convinient to be anything other than a trap, so make sure you cover all your angles. We're sending you an updated floorplan of the warehouse now. You may breach when ready...Good luck."

...

The Central Officer turned towards the assembled Mission Control techs, addressing them. "I want every video feed and audio feed from Delta fully recorded. Everything. Get every single bit of information that we can pull. Tell the Algerians to put a copter in the air, one with recon gear and give me an out-of-zone flyby. Relay the findings to Delta. I want to see if there's anything that we're missing."

 

[Ruedyn]

Baxter wasn't a fan of quiet, but he felt his friends would prefer it. He held his breath as he opened the window. It echoed through the warehouse, but there didn't seem to be any movement. He exhaled, and slithered his way in, looking a bit ridiculous in the process. When inside, he turned on his flashlight, taking the rightmost route deeper inside.