“If you have a problem with the objective…”<\/p>\n
“Oh, I’m sure <\/em>I have a problem with our objective, but never mind that. <\/em>You want me to get shot trying to,” I glance at the first page, “get one of the council’s bowling partners out of enemy territory, sure, I’ll go drop into whatever snake pit he’s fallen into. Fair enough! This is, apparently, what I signed up for–put the condolence letter in the mail already. But I will be damned if the first line of that letter is going to read that Rachel Kennedy was killed in Operation WINTER STANK.<\/em>“<\/p>\n “It won’t. The mission codename is classified.”<\/p>\n “Are you fucking kidding me? Winter STANK?”<\/p>\n “It’s randomly generated.”<\/p>\n “Generated from a list<\/em>? Who wrote this list? What giggling syphilitic clown manually entered <\/em>‘stank’ as a thing to engrave on XCOM tombstones? Please tell me he’s on this fucking Avenger. Give me a bunk number.”<\/p>\n “Don’t you have a drop to prepare for?”<\/p>\n And so humanity’s greatest enemy remains at large. Fisher, if I don’t make it back today, promise me you’ll finish what I started.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n —<\/p>\n My name is Sq. Ranger Landon Fisher. In our final days of recovery, Kennedy informed me of her unauthorized campaign diary and expressed an interest that I contribute. Candidly, she insisted. It was her wish that I record the events of Operation Winter Stank from a detached perspective and, in the “pretty likely” event that something happened to her, continue it until “they get you too.” I assume, charitably, that she meant the enemy.<\/p>\n Operation Winter Stank was assembled in the early evening for deployment in the dead of night. The following operatives comprised Menace 1-5:<\/p>\n Kennedy expressed strong reservations about, “bringing two leadass sharpshooters to a mission that’s nothing but f—ing running,” several times; however, as I had not yet recovered from my injuries, and as no other operatives above rookie rank were available, the decision of the Commander was to prioritize Sq. King and Sq. Hawkin’s experience over their less than ideal specialties.<\/p>\n Menace 1-5 successfully deployed and secured the VIP without making hostile contact, as anticipated. The mission’s ultimate and formidable objective was to make it across a densely populated urban center to the extraction point, a car dealership roof, within a twelve-minute window. Under ideal circumstances, the chosen extraction point was approximately six minutes away. Advent forces were in a full state of readiness and stealth was not an option. This was a situation Sq. Specialist Kennedy referred to as a “shoot and scoot.”<\/p>\n Noting an automated turret guarding the main street, the Commander ordered Menace 1-5 to take an alternate route over a two-story building. They were to ascend one side, advance cautiously across the roof, and descend from the opposite railing. This is nearly what happened–until Sq. Grenadier Duncan was spotted by a sectoid and Advent soldier on the opposite grounds. Duncan fired a grenade to destroy their cover and discourage the Advent soldier from advancing. In this, he was not entirely successful, and a moment later Sq. Sharpshooter King caught a laser to the abdomen.<\/p>\n The sectoid deployed a mind-controlling effect on Sq. Sharpshooter Hawkins. As there is only a short delay before mind-controlled operatives become hostile, and as the effect can be most easily interrupted by the death of the instigating sectoid, the Commander made the decision to deploy the second of Sq. Grenadier Duncan’s rounds to finish him off quickly.<\/p>\n From there the engagement was straightforward, as was the tallying of its cost: two enemies killed at the expense of several precious minutes, Sq. Sharpshooter King’s health, and both of Sq. Grenadier Duncan’s grenade rounds.<\/p>\n Pressed for time, the Commander instructed Menace 1-5 to move straight up through the parking lot of the car dealership. Significant and swift foot progress was made without engaging any new enemies; Sq. Sharpshooter Hawkins, unfortunately, did rove within the line of sight of the turret and sustained a nonfatal shot to his ribcage. But the mission’s goal seemed well at hand until line of sight was finally obtained on the extraction point–and the two Advent infantry, Advent officer, and sectoid lying in wait there. It seems plausible that extraction intel was compromised. Sq. Specialist Kennedy speculated as much, repeatedly, over the mission’s remaining four minutes.<\/p>\n Menace 1-5’s position was undeniably unfavorable. They were charged with advancing under a strict time limit from their own inferior cover towards the enemy’s superior position, and two of their operatives could not engage the enemy if they moved at all–strictly necessary to do if they were to have any chance at extraction. This left two operatives, Sq. Specialist Kennedy and Sq. Grenadier Duncan, to engage the four hostile well-entrenched Advent forces while escorting the VIP forward. This assessment was probably shared by the sectoid who chose this opportunity to psychically induce panic in Sq. Grenadier Duncan. Rather than taking precious moments to advance, he opened fire–hitting nothing.<\/p>\n Sq. Sharpshooters King and Hawkins took their prepared shots, killing one Advent, injuring another. Both knew this would be the last free shots they or any other teammate would get. From this point onward they could all take one of two actions: they could charge out into the open crossfire and have a desperate chance at reaching the extraction, or they could engage the enemy and be certain they wouldn’t.<\/p>\n Their only consolation was that the decision was out of their hands.<\/p>\n The Commander’s orders were prompt and explicit. Hawkins shrank behind his barricade and threw a concussion grenade. White light burst through the windows of the dealership, blinding all Advent within it and without. Sq. Kennedy ran up the left flank, and, upon reaching the final stretch, skidded to a stop and neutralized the dazed Advent guarding the roof. Sq. King and the VIP bolted from cover together, desperately striving for the evac zone.<\/p>\n The sectoid ignored them both. Instead he fired blindly towards the car which Sq. Sharpshooter Hawkins and Sq. Grenadier Duncan were hidden behind. The superheated plasma struck neither Hawkins nor Duncan, but the car between them. Unfortunately, its tank was full of gasoline. They were killed instantly.<\/p>\n At precisely that moment the skyranger descended from cloud cover. Sq. Sharpshooter King was first onto the rope. The VIP followed on his heels. Sq. Specialist Kennedy lurched across the parking lot, knowing as well as anyone that by the time she reached the dealership it would be taking off without her. She radioed the following observation:<\/p>\n “Get f—ed! F— aliens, f— evacs, f— dealerships, f— f—ing Carl Sagan!<\/em>“<\/p>\n A mind control tendril struck her from behind. Her communication persisted:<\/p>\n “Arrgh! I’m gonna–Fisher, you gotta–I’m gonna kill the f—ing Commander! I’m gonna kill the f—ing Commander!<\/em> Aaaargh!”<\/p>\n This was the final communique of Operation Winter Stank.<\/p>\n I’m sorry. Sq. Specialist Kennedy would be able to articulate the pain and heartache and helplessness in a funny way. It’s a talent of hers that I’ll miss–one that I suppose I’m going to have to learn.<\/p>\n When I kick the door in, Bradford looks up from what could be an operator’s manual or a Bible. “Can I help you, Kennedy?” I slap the dossier on his desk. “How about we boot that mission computer back up, sir? What do you say you and me make a few last-minute changes to this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-play"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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