The Rookie
Name: The Rookie
Version: XCom: UFO Defense
Map: Campaign
Player: Godzilla Blitz
Captain Rock’s voice comes over the helmetcom again. “T minus ten seconds. Attack positions.” Almost in one motion, the vets stand, grab their weapons, and turn to face the exit. I hear clicks as weapon safeties go off. The rookies—myself included—are fumbling with safety straps and trying to not fall on our asses in the cramped quarters. Somehow I manage to click off my safety.
Rock’s voice: “5 seconds. Brace.”
The Skyranger engines roar in reverse thrust. My body is almost driven through the floor by the deceleration. I see the vets bend their knees and take the shock like they’re doing a weightlifting squat. I’m not fast enough, though, and I fall back into my seat from the force of the drop in speed. My helmet bangs against the fuselage. More embarrassed than hurt, I struggle to get up.
The Skyranger lands as I make it back to my feet. The ramp clicks and then falls away with a crash. I see bright yellow sand stretching out in front of me. I grab my weapon. A wave of heat rolls over the interior of the Skyranger. My heart is thumping like a taiko drum on crack.
Rock’s voice comes over the helmet com. “Green! Tank, out!”
Green landing. Thank god for small favors. Our remote-controlled scout tank goes rolling out of the bay. It gets five feet down the ramp when a small red dot pops up on my HUD. Alien! Sectoid! Damn! Where? How do you read a HUD again?
Rock’s voice: “ET! Ten o’clock! 20 meters! Thomkal, hit it!”
I see Sergeant Thomkal run the five feet to the edge of the Skyranger bay and drop to a knee. He aims left of the exit and pulls the trigger. His Heavy Plasma barks red fire. The noise is deafening inside the small craft. It’s like putting a bucket over your head and having someone hit it with a jackhammer. I can’t hear a friggin’ thing. I see a plasma blast go screaming by the entrance. The Sectoid must be firing at us. I hear an inhuman scream. God damn, what the hell is that? Thomkal stops firing.
Thomkal: “ET down! Got it! Scratch one!”
Rock: “Thomkal! Fitz! Out! Secure exit!”
Fitz? Me? Is he friggin’ nuts? Out there? Thomkal disappears off to the right of the ramp. Sergeant Takada jumps up onto the bench to let me pass.
I stand still.
Rock yells, “Rookie! Get your ass out! Now!”
Bronson, right behind me, puts his boot in my back and pushes. I’m moving forward now. At the edge of the ramp. On the ramp. Our tank is moving through the sand away from us and left, toward the remains of the UFO. I look left, see the mangled heap of the dead Sectoid lying in the sand, see the smoking, silver UFO off in the distance. I jump left, off the ramp, and land with a crunch in the soft sand. My heart is racing. I’m almost hyperventilating. I feel so alone out here. What am I supposed to do? I glance at Thomkal at the other landing strut, on one knee, scanning the desert for aliens. I take three quick steps to the landing strut on this side of the Skyranger. Damn, these struts are tiny.
My hands are shaking, but I raise my rifle and look out over the still, rolling desert. I see some cactus. Sparkling sand. Nothing moving. Maybe they’re all gone? Nope. Threat sensor on the top right corner of my helmet HUD is yellow. Aliens about. Oh, shit. Please god, don’t let me die.
I catch a flash of something to my right. Plasma! Damn! A red streak comes right for my head! I hear myself scream. The plasma clangs off the fuselage of the Skyranger, right above my head. I duck, but look toward the spot the shot came from. Where is it?
Rock: “Thomkal, Fitz. Report.”
Thomkal: “Incoming. Eight o’clock. Plasma. Fitz?”
I blabber, “Something’s shooting at me. I can’t see a thing. All I see is desert. Help!”
Rock: “Shut up, rookie.”
There! I see it! “Sectoid! I see one! He’s coming for me! Shit!” I twist my weapon at the creature. It’s about 30 meters away, behind a small dune. My arms are convulsing with fear. I pull the trigger on my Heavy Plasma. The rifle jerks in my arms as pulses of plasma go roaring into the desert. My shots go all over the place. Down. Up. Left. Right. I’m not even close. Damn it, where is everyone? They just leaving me out here to die? The Sectoid pokes his weapon over the dune, aims for my head again.
“Help! Someone—”
Heavy Plasmas start booming right beside me. Tracers go screaming towards the alien, who ducks behind the dune before he can kill me. I risk a glance right. Schmidt, Bronson, and Takada are all on the ramp and firing at the Sectoid’s dune. I look back toward the dune. It’s getting ripped up with plasma, but my HUD is still showing a red dot.
Takada: “Bastard’s dug in. No angle.”
Rock: “Got it. Anderson, take it out.”
An instant later I hear a loud whoosh. Out of the corner of my eye I see a white streak sail out of the Skyranger bay, loop around, and slam into the sand dune in front of the Sectoid. The ground shakes as the missile explodes. I hear a scream inside the explosion. Sand, fire, and smoke rise in a small mushroom cloud into the clear desert air. The red dot on my HUD fades away.
Takada: “Visual. Scratch number two. Put that one in a baggie.”
Rock: “Stand down. Area secure. Good job, men.”
Huh? Stand down? Then I realize that the threat sensor in the top right of my HUD has turned green. That’s it? Only two aliens?
I’m alive? I’m still alive? I did it! I am still alive!