X-COM Chronicle – Entry 32: Freaks and Geeks

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

10 November 2015 / Los Angeles / Operation Shattered Ground

We hit the pavement hard, releasing the drop lines and searching for cover. I stopped behind the charred husk of a sedan, setting up my bipod on the roof. Ewan slid to a stop nearby. I could feel the energy bubbling off of his skin. The air became charged, like before a lightning strike. His outward appearance hadn’t changed, and he still acted like the same Ewan. But inside his body were alien mutations that made him something else. 

“Ready to move.” The robotic voice took some getting used to. Victor loomed over everyone in his nine-foot-tall mechanical armor. The doctor’s had removed most of his body, or more accurately attached his head to a Meld-designed suit. His mechanical armor was called a Sentinel and carried some pretty impressive hardware. More than that, he was a walking wall of cover. It would take some serious damage to bring him down now. 

We were perched on the 405, surrounded on either side by massive green hills. The skeletal remains of the Skirball center climbed into the smoke-choked sky to our right. We walked in teams of three, clearing a path through the congested highway as we closed in on a UFO landing site. 

Yuzuki ran ahead, her augmented legs propelling her like a gazelle. She leapt into the air, landing atop a crane three stories overhead. It was breathtaking to watch, but more than a little unsettling. I shook off the feeling of unease and pressed on. 

A sudden explosion of noise caused me to hit the ground. I felt hot brass spill onto my back and neck and I rolled to get out of the way. When I looked up, Victor had his heavy canon. A stream of fiery lead sprayed at a squad of Mutons high on the nearby hill. They fell in splattered chunks, rolling down toward us in a bloody heap. 

“Enemy neutralized,” Victor intoned. 

We moved on, closing in on the lone scout. This wouldn’t even be a fight worth remembering.