XCOM: A Standard Day In The Office

The squad of 6 had been sent to Japan after hearing reports of a UFO landing. This will of been their 3rd alien contact this week, unfortunately, they never seem to come in peace. Like normal, the Skyranger was cramped. Matters were not helped by Chilong's larger-than-life MEC suit. The thrusters and mechanisms were humming loudly inside his huge metal fist, simply waiting to grind the latest alien threat to dust. Next to him sat Sheriff, a soldier sent to join up by Russia. She leaned down under her seat and picked up her helmet, it was a completely black dome, though she had drawn a crude looking skull as a face on it (Which everybody agreed was quite fitting). Spike was making idle chit chat with Sheriff as they were checking each other's equipment. After that they made sure their augmentations were working, they ran a finger tip down their bare arm and the two of them blended into the Skyranger's steel hold. Spike let out a small chuckle as they both came back into visibility, alloy cannon's in hand. The whole squad had been equipped with various augmentations and armours to let them pass unnoticed and take the upper hand on the hostile aliens they came across, all except Chilong, who was already in a MEC suit capable of crushing alien bones and firing grenades to 50 metres, so he had no reason to complain. Spike was a ex-Royal Marines commando. Ex because he was now a XCOM operative, and he loved it. Admittedly, the whole idea of fighting off aliens and saving humanity from enslavement and extinction was occasionally a little taunting, but he was a bit of a thrill seeker... Or a psychopath depending who you ask. Sitting across the Skyranger's hold was Casino, a American soldier recruited fairly recently. She bounced her heavy plasma gun on her knee. On her hip she carried 2 strange black tubes, covered in various blue lines all leading to a button, these were a new little gadget called "Ghost Grenades" capable of completely hiding those in the radius from sight. Sat next to her was Stalker, another Russian. He has been on the most missions so far, and has scratched a tally onto sniper rifle recording how many targets he has taken down. He lost count some time ago but he remembered it being somewhere around 150. Next to him was Ace, Ace was recruited from India. He carefully counts the med kit's he has been given, counting 3. The med kits aren't quite what you would expect, instead of being big cumbersome boxes these were quite small containers with handles. You hold them towards the wound and spray. Due to recently captured alien technology, these could heal just about anything... For a couple of hours anyway. The wounded still needed to find better treatment, but it was still very, very useful.
After the better part of a hour, the Skyranger arrived in Japan. It came to a quick yet gentle landing and the squad disembarked. Chilong got out first, and levelled his particle cannon into the surrounding forest whilst his smaller, less metal, squad mates rushed out into position. Casino activated her cloak and ran up against a log, ducking her head she signalled forwards towards the first aliens. A sectoid team. There stood a tall purple mechtoid with two smaller, uncased, sectoids scampering about at its feet. They moved almost like apes, but they had plasma pistols and apes didn't. The squad sneaked into position around the trio whilst Stalker and Chilong stood far back. Stalker levelled his rifle and aimed at the mechtoids exposed head. He pulled the trigger twice, the first bolt of plasma slammed into the mechtoids chest, stunning it, the second shot smashed between its eyes, green mist mixed with purple blood spread all over as the plasma dissipated, taking with it the entire creatures face. It staggered back and forth before it fell to the floor with a crash. The mechtoids two smaller companions immediately made a bolt to cover before Casino lept out from behind the log, her plasma cannons barrels already spinning. She opens up and the two sectoids are melted instantly.
Once the coast was clear, Chilong began striding towards the entrance of the ship, his motors spun loudly as he stormed forth. The rest of the squad followed his lead, using his large alloy armour as a shield or moving from tree to tree whilst cloaked.
Soon enough they came across the gigantic hull of the ship. It was circular with 4 entrances, Ace moved to one door whilst cloaked and peeked inside. Another mechtoid with another two sectoids, make that two. There was something a little off about the later two. Their heads seemed to be strained, there were obvious red veins pulsing around their heads. Ace signalled for Spike and Sheriff to enter through the door opposite in order to flank them. They both climbed over various fallen trees and foliage till they were in position. Chilong climbed on top of the ship and as quietly as he could he walked till he got to the third entrance. Once Ace had given the signal, Sheriff span the corner and fired twice into the mecthoid, blowing both its arms off and sending it flying onto its back where it refused to get up. The rest of the aliens were alerted, and they became to dash madly around the ship to find cover. Unfortunately one of them ran straight into the line of fire of Stalker, who was still around the Skyranger. Stalkers accurate fire burned straight through the sectoids chest, it let out a small yelp before its red, veiny head slammed against the floor with a splat. After a incredibly short fire fight, of which the enemy didn't even get the opportunity to fight back, one of the more intelligent sectoids ran outside, expecting to escape. It realised its mistake as soon as it heard Chilong roar as he leapt down in front of it. He was about to grab the pathetic creature until he heard a even louder roar from behind him, he turned and saw some mutons. Humongous creatures carrying humongous plasma cannons, he shoved the sectoid aside and ran inside to protect himself. Spike checked his ammo before cloaking once more before sprinting behind a close tree trunk. He didn't fire at the mutons, simply watched them whilst the rest of the team got ready. They were wearing red armour, decorated with gold tints on the sides. Casino moved onto the opposite side of the mutons whilst Chilong covered the closest door, to stop them from recovering their craft. Ace also aimed his rifle at the same door, a muton ran through, and Ace fired a burst into the aliens shoulder, it shrugged it off as Chilong fires his particle cannon, the shot flew over the beasts head as the monster took aim and fired into Chilong's chest. He let out a scream as the circuits took control and levelled its gun for another shot, he missed again as he staggered back from the impact. The small sectoid Chillong had previously ignored poked its large head around the corner and stared directly at Ace as purple mist shot out from around its skull, closing around Aces mind. He screamed in agony before going silent. "I-I'm a-alright..." he said. He took aim at Stalker behind him and was about to fire before Chilong had recovered and realised what the creature was doing. He quickly took aim at it and fired, melting the small things frame entirely before shooting the partially wounded muton, killing it. Ace came to his senses and looked back at the three aliens left. Casino came out of hiding and fired into the back of another muton, it toppled forward, what was left of its back was simply a bubbling and boiling mess of melted armour and flesh. Sheriff ran into the ship screaming, and fired into the throat of a muton, half its skull disappeared in a bloody mess as the other half hanged loosely as the body toppled backwards with a thump. With one left Chilong rushed forwards, the alien fired into his shoulder, he screamed once more, but he didn't break his stride as he gripped the creatures skull in his power fist and squeezed his fingers together until he felt its bones shatter. He let go and watched it tumble to the floor with its misshapen mess of a head.
After a brief scan, they decided that was all of them, and they climbed back aboard the Skyranger to head back to headquarters. Ace twitched nervously for the first few minutes, but after a while he recovered from his psychic encounter. Chilongs suit became repairing itself loudly as the rest of the squad talked between themselves. They arrived and got off casually, they all walked to the armoury where they took off their armour and weapons and handed them back in before going to the barracks. All in all, it went pretty well. Chilong was barely hurt by the 2 plasma bursts he had received, and Ace seemed okay.
Business as usual in XCOM headquarters.