XCom: Future Unknown

Daring sighed to herself slightly as she finally settled into her seat on an Equestria bound train. It had been...difficult trying to organize the diamond dog helpers at the station so that all of her things and the objects she had recovered from the site managed to arrive in the storage car on the same train as herself. All in all it had been more then a headache, but she was thankful that it was done and that she was finally headed back to Pony lands and the comforts that she knew and loved...not that she was saying anything bad about Diamond dogs but their concept of a good meal was fresh meat and gems, two things a pony did not eat nor ever would. She snorted slightly when she remembered the looks on her hosts face when she insisted on eating what they called 'the green bits'.

Daring watched the landscape fly by as her mind switched to another subject, Humanology in general this time, and chuckled slightly when she remembered hearing the rumor about a mint green unicorn in Ponyville that wanted to be a human. She knew the unicorn in question of course, Her name was Lyra and unlike Daring the unicorn was a Human Sociologist, instead of investigating human history, she would try and figure how how they lived. For example she figured out that humans stood up on two legs and she based this off what chairs explorers like Daring found during their travels...of course trying to emulate human sitting styles had started that sad rumor and had, for a while, turned her into the laughing stock of most Humanologists. Thankfully Lyra had taken it with a pinch of salt and a laugh at herself as well. Daring smiled slightly as she wondered just how Lyra would react, not only to the new items Daring was bringing back with her but also to the news that there might be a Human base hidden somewhere near Ponyville.

Of course the subject of Human items and Lyra eventually lead Daring Do to the darker side of Humanology and that was their weapons of war. Daring didn't know what Humans used except for what she saw when she interacted with a Memory Shard and even then she doubted that was 'standard' equipment. Not that what she had seen was much better and something told her that they had come up with deadlier weapons at some point. She shivered slightly as she remembered the first 'memory' she had that had involved humans fighting an enemy unlike any others she had seen. She took a deep breath before slowly closing her eyes and fading back into that 'memory'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was Andrea Garza, known as Blackjack to her comrades during combat, and she was one of the first volunteers for the Mechanical Exoskelatal Cybersuit program. As far as she knew about the process, the techies back at abse had removed her organic limbs and replaced them with robotic counterparts that could be removed so that she could interface with the suit. Oh and apparently some new material called "Meld" was involved in the process for some reason but she had tuned out when the man in charge had started spouting technobabble. All she knew was that now, she could plug into a giant mechanical suit that made it look like she was some kind of Mechanical Hulk and kick some ass while retaining as much mobility, if not a bit more, then her organic counterparts...at least for the time being, she had heard about some other experiment going on but apparently it hadn't given results before they had left for the current mission.

Garza turned slightly when she heard a man's voice over the intercom. "Your going into Germany next, Enemy forces have begun a terror attack on Berlin and X-com is the only force that can respond in time. Your objective will be to secure the civilians and to eliminate all enemy forces on the ground. I have also gotten word that the X-com base in Europe is operational enough to send a team of rookies to help you and gain experience so that they can operate on their own, so be nice to them." A few chuckles resounded within the Skyranger before the man, known only as Central, continued his briefing, "According to reports you'll be facing Sectoids, Floaters and the occasional Thin Man, though we have had reports of some kind of insectoid creature on the ground as well, so keep an eye out. Because of how large the mission area is the Commander has decided to split you into two teams, Blackjack will go with the rookies and the rest of you will take a couple of rookies with you."

As soon as Central was done the ramp opened and the man at the back, Garza only knew that he was called Casino and that he was an Assault Specialist, kicked out both ropes so that the team could rappel to the ground. As soon as human members were out of the way Garza charged forward and leapt out the back of the aircraft, crashing into the ground without damage. She straightened up and pulled her weapon out, a Mark V Arlington Minigun which was designed to fire 50. caliber rounds at about the same rate as the gatling guns on blackhawk helicopters, Sadly that made it terrible for trying to suppress enemies since it tended to over heat. She noticed the European recruits rappelling out of a second Skyrange about one hundred feet to her teams left. "I'll see you guys later then," She declared before she turned and began stomping towards the rookies, who looked slightly put off by her appearance. She sighed slightly as she looked at the team, who were shifting slightly as they watched her, she knew they all knew English along with their national language, but she really didn't want to take command of people would were fresh out of boot camp. "Well, let's get moving, them Civi's are gonna save themselves." She said before she turned and began stomping down the street, the rookies ambling along behind her and chatting to themselves slightly.

The next Fifteen minutes were spent clearing houses of their occupants and sending them back towards the 'safe' zone near the Sky Rangers, thankfully Command had been able to detect the Terror Ship before it had arrived at it's target so the attack had just barely begun, but Garza began to hear loud screams and plasma fire as the Enemy combatants began to fan out and attack anything they could find. Suddenly she stopped and threw up her left fist, bringing their group to a stop. She thought she had heard that strange clicking sound the Sectoids made when they communicated with each other, but more distressing was that she had heard a more insect like clicking even closer. "Advance carefully, possible enemy contacts ahead." She murmured and watched as the rookies began moving to take cover behind whatever lay nearby, like cars and mailboxes. Garza herself advanced slowly up the street, her minigun raised in case something should jump out at her team. Suddenly something charged out from an alley and Garza almost fired on it before she saw it was a civilian and that he was running towards her group. That was when something else charged out and grabbed the man from behind, sliding two long spike-like legs through the mans back and out his chest while it tore open the back of his neck. The creature then dropped the man and...well the only thing Garza could say was that it 'threw up' into the wound before it looked up and roared at them. The first thing that struck her was that the creature was indeed insectoid but only slightly, it stood on four spike like legs with a large, chitin covered body. It's neck was a bit long and ended in a small, centipede like head that had two very large, very sharp looking mandibles on it.

"Frag the fucker!" Garza roared while she aimed her minigun and fired, spraying death at the creature, who dropped to it's stomach and let the rounds splash into the wall behind it. However it couldn't dodge the shots the rookies sent it's way and it screamed in pain, a creepy sound that Garza had no way of describing, before it fell on the ground, dead. "That thing is really dead right?" Asked a french recruit, named Maria if the tag on her uniform was correct, while one of the recruits advanced on the fallen creature to poke it with his rifle. "Well, we can always put a few rounds into it if you want." Garza said with a small chuckle as she looked back to the other two recruits. She blinked when she noticed that the civilian from earlier was beginning to rise to his feet again and that one of the recruits had walked towards him. "Are you alright sir? do you need medical attention?" She heard the man ask as he advanced, Suddenly the civilian turned and rushed the operative, knocking the both of them over. The operatives friend called for help, but before anyone could get to the fallen soldier the civilian proceeded to beat the man to death with his fists. Garza raised her minigun and sprayed the obviously crazed man with bullets, sending the mad man reeling into a wall. She took a couple of deep breaths while the recruits reported the fatality.

Garza blinked when she realized she was being contacted by Casino, "What's up?" She asked, taking another deep breath. "Blackjack, if you've had contact with one of the Insectoids then be careful, as far as we can tell if they tear out someones throat they'll implant something in the body and make it rise again. I say again, do not approach any civilian that has been attack by the Insectoid creatures." The Assault said, his voice distorted slightly because of the radio and Garza sighed slightly before she responded with. "A bit late Casino, we've already got a casualty." She sighed slightly as she turned and looked up at the alien ship that hovered over a different part of the city, spraying plasma death and enemy combatants onto the unsuspecting Civilians and she briefly wondered if they could actually defeat them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daring shook slightly and she 'awoke' from 'remembering' that day. The woman she had been had felt despair and helplessness when faced with a new, far more dangerous creature then she had faced before and yet the man from her latest Memory Shard had been confident, if a bit shocked about the attack on an X-com base. So what had changed between the two dates? Sure she had seen several Memory Shards, but it was hard to determine when they came except for a vague 'before' and 'after' feeling and more often then not each one had different kinds of weapons. For example one had what looked like a projected energy weapon, she had 'remembered' was a Laser Rifle, while in another she had used a weapon very similar to the 'invaders' and the only difference was that she knew that the Laser Rifle had come 'before' the Invader weapon. Sadly she doubted she would ever figure out a concrete timeline from the Memory Shards.

Daring yawned slightly as she shifted in her seat slightly, she had at least a weeks travel time ahead of her and she wasn't about to spend it rooting around in old 'memories'. In fact she planned on sleeping most of the way to Equestria if she could do so. Of course she doubted she would because she was sure she'd be wondering exactly what she would find at her next dig site. She had managed to find many things over the years, many of which she now wished she had left behind but she wasn't about to ask the Museum in Canterlot to hide them away, no matter how dangerous she made them sound. Something told her those ponies at the Museum would laugh at her for stating they were dangerous, heck they had had a tough time even accepting they were relics of 'Those Who Came Before' and not props built by some ambitions ponies to fool them. She snorted slightly at that thought as she laid her head down, she had stated her case with the biggest find she had ever had with Human Tech and was just thankful there were no Humans around to drive the thing...if they could have anyway. Another yawn sent Daring on a trip to dreamland, with images of Humans, their relics and pretenious ponies dancing about her head.