Dang. Our powers barely helped at all avoiding that first patrol. We got lucky we weren't noticed. (If we're gonna keep being scout, we'll have to invest in stealth).

We've got an enemy corpse, and an unknown weapon? This seems the perfect time to try Psychometry. We could find out what's waiting for us up ahead, how that weapon works, or what it does. That info could be damn useful.

Ask your allies to hold up a second, and give it a try.

The weapon first. In your experience, living people and people that were once living tend to have nastier side affects when you try to read them.

"Hey guys. Hold up, I want to try something."

You bend down and pick up the alien weapon, resting it in your hands roughly how you think it should be held. You reach towards it with your thoughts, hoping to pull out something useful, or at least gain some idea of what it does. Without really thinking about it, you tuck the weapon more securely under your arm and slide you hand along the side, finding a slight indentation. Because of the size of your hands and the odd configuration of the weapon, it makes it awkward to hold it like this, but when you press down on the almost unnoticeable spot, the weapon sends a bolt of pulsing energy hurtling through the air, leaving a scorch mark in a nearby wall. You practically drop the gun in surprise, while all of your companions drop into defensive stances.

"What in the- Grey, what the hell did you just do?"

"Uh... I think I figured out how to make it work."

"You think?"

"Well... yeah. I still don't know what exactly it is, but... I can show you how to use it if you want."

"No... but bring it with us. Come on, we better get moving."

"One more thing."

You grab the weapon again and sling it onto your shoulder as best you can, then crouch down next to the corpse and take a deep breath. Here goes nothing. You touch the corpse and let yourself go, and get to experience the things final moments first hand...

----------

<They come>

<Quickly, into position. They do not know we are here.>

<They are stopping. Leader, what do we do?>

<Hold. They must get further in before we can spring the ambush. The second squad lays further on ahead, we are to attack the rear. This way we ca->

-----------

You pull back, the pain of death fresh in your mind. Well... that was... interesting. You can seem to understand them when your reading the memories at least. You did manage to scrounge up one bit of information. An ambush ahead...

"Hey Grey? You alright?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Yeah I'm fi-"

The world suddenly gets dizzy, and you realize you might've overstepped your limits. Still, you think you can keep going.

"I'm fine. There's another ambush set up for us ahead. I don't have exact positions, but... I don't think they want us getting to the center. There's something important there."

"Is there. Hold on while I relay this to Barbie."

You take the chance you get to rest a little, your breathing heavier than you thought. Wolf wanders over, the mechanical sound warning you of her approach quickly, and you glance up as she stops.

"You really alright, Grey? You ain't looking so hot."

>>>Input Command

>>493671
We were literally born to do this. We must continue on.

I think touching the corpse is a bad idea. Might get all the pain of dying and black-out, fucking over our squad.

Definitely try out the rifle though.

Hah! Working xeno-tech. Something for our science types to mull over. That might be worth a few brownie points.

>"You really alright, Grey? You ain't looking so hot."
Answer honestly. Which I'm assuming goes something like this:

Rerunning through a death isn't fun. Nor is getting inside a xeno-head. But I'll be fine.

(Seriously though, we need to work on our endurance, here. We haven't done much, but this stuff is taking a toll. Geeze, just imagine if we hadn't taken will).

>>493675
Yeah, we're psychically a wuss. Unless we're supposed to improve exponentially, I have no idea why we were sent to the front. We'll just have to maked do and move on.

>>493675
that or just "I will recover"

I might be paranoid but this town is creepy and I don't like how hard it has been to detect the xenos... perhaps action by a xeno psyker? Try to conserve your stamina for now.

>>493677
You were sent here because there is a great shortage and humanity barely fought the xenos to a standstill. Your commander asked for an external psyker but you are what was available. As you say we will make due.
The important thing is to never complain about your posting as that will get you a resentment and a bad rep

>>493681
We should pick up some External abilities later, if we can.

Working alien weapon is good hold onto that. Don't overexert yourself.

>>493681
Of course we'll never complain. Our commanders are merely insane.

>>493707
Okay, I really don't see where you're getting that (and that's really not what Grey should be thinking. We're not motivated by fear of disobeying madmen). Barbie's irritation and stress seems perfectly justified and rational in her situation. And the overall perception of manufactured and/or brains is unfortunate, but hardly insane.

>>493711
Actually, I had a four page speech on our situation originally in that spot, but I decided to cut it down a bit. Sorry, instead of insane I should have put "silly". I'm a little zonked out.

Tell wolf you just need to catch your breath, When living the last moments of anything then being there when it dies takes a bit out of a person you know

"I just got shot in the head, but I'm OK now".

"Rerunning through a death isn't fun. Nor is getting inside a xeno-head. But I'll be fine."

"If you say so. Just let me know if you need to rest or something..."

After Ten relays his information, Barbie comes over the coms herself and starts passing out orders. It seems that the new objective is whatever the soldiers are guarding. She want Wolf to go straight in, taking the brunt of the incoming fire, while everyone else supports her to the best of their abilities. The group heads out after getting organized, and soon enough, you catch another enemy at the edge of your senses. Unlike the last ones, they apparently have no qualms about opening fire, and suddenly there are bolts of death flying everywhere. You quickly duck down behind cover, extending your senses as far as you can to try and pinpoint the enemy. The whine of chain-guns starting to spin can be heard, and there's the crack of Ten's assault rifle spitting out rounds rhythmically. This is what you were born to do. Suddenly, you feel extremely calm, unlike the last battle, this is actual combat, instead of just killing. This is home.

"Two in the far building. One on the third floor across the way. Another one in the second building on the right."

The chain-guns roar as they open fire, sending rounds pounding into the far building. A sharp crack from far off suggest a sniper round getting send into an enemy, and you feel him drop. More however, are starting to push up from the center, taking the place of those downed. You hear Wolf start shouting something unintelligible into the comms, from what you can gather various insults meant for the Xenos. Ten focuses mostly on keeping enemies suppressed until Wolf can turn her attention to them. You keep you head down and eyes closed, focused entirely on dispensing information as best you can.

"Reinforcements. Three coming down the left side. Four the right. One in the far building second floor. Two more coming through the left building. One right above m-"

Ah shit.

>>>Input Command

>One right above m-
Fuckshit.

Throw yourself out of the way, and fire strait up with your pistol or the alien gun. (The alien gun is probably preferable in that it packs more of a punch, but if you can't reach it quickly enough, default to the other).

>>493783
Point Xenogun up, depress firing mechanism rapidly

Draw whatever weapon is quicker for you to draw and drop that Xeno bastard

Jump your off the way while you fire, with your abilities, visual aiming is redundant.

Later we should wonder how it got close like that before we sensed it. Did it fucking jump or something? Maybe it was also psionic, and had some sort of stealth ability, we will need to check that out with head- searching.

>>493818
If it's right above us, it might be a flying unit of some kind. Which explains how it got into position while staying out of our detection range. (Also nicely presents us with possible targets- shoot out a wing or whatever and kill it with a crash).

And after what happened last time I kind of get the feeling we've pushed dead-reading as far as we can for one day. If we try that again without resting, our allies will be left carrying us home.

You move, reacting partly on training and partly on instinct, the alien weapon lining up perfectly with your mind's eye. Your finger carasses the trigger spot, and the weapon spits out a bolt of energy, the thing above you screaming in pain before dropping to the ground next to you. Your sense of calm, however, never leaves you, and without so much as a pause you keep rattling off positions. Soon, you've decimated the enemy, and they've retreated back towards the center, probably to regroup and prepare for your assault.

"Role Call! Sound Off!"

"Wolf here. I think I'm fine, although one of the fuckers managed to peg one of my stabilizers. It'll be a bit slower going for me."

"Wash- Out, down one clip. Got two full though."

"Monkey, still kickin. Bored though, can't really shoot shit that ain't there."

"Grey, present and unharmed."

"Gotcha, let's see what we got to deal with. Grey, you stay down here with Wolf, make sure nothing sneaks up on us. Wash-Out, Monkey, get up here, I want Wash-Out to join me on this roof I'm headed towards, see if we can't spot anything. Monkey'll help guard. Wolf, if Grey senses anything, you take it out. No questions asked."

There's a chorus of affirmatives, then everyone sets about their tasks. You take the opportunity to investigate what attacked you, and discover it to be a Spider. The things long claws seem completely disproportionate to the rest of it's body, but it explains how it dropped onto you. It had been using the walls to climb around. You spot a few others that got taken out by others, and find them all to be equally disturbing. Your's, however, has a crater in it's chest, the bolt of this alien weapon apparently tearing through it easily. You kind of wonder what would happen to a softer human if you hit someone with it.

"Hey Grey! Whatcha doing over there?"

"Just taking a look at this corpse. Looks like a Spider."

"Ah... those things suck. Hate them, so hard to aim at in this thing. They really outta get jump jets for TacArms or something."

There's more idle chatter coming from Wolf as the minutes tick by, but you remain focused mainly on catching any signs of ambush. Nothing happens though, and Ten and Wash-Out come back down looking a pleased.

"Managed to spot where they are. They holed themselves up in building near the center of the place. Barbie wants us to regroup with her, then we're to surround the place and then find out what to do from there.

"Grey, you want to try anything with any of these corpses? Maybe find out something else? Or do you think you've pushed yourself enough for today?"

>>>Input Command

Hey, Grey? Self assessment time. You feeling 100% again? Or close to it? Because you haven't had much of a chance to rest, and that last dead-headripping almost went too far (you own reaction, and Wolf's, confirm this).

So unless Grey really feels he can do it, I think we have to pass, or we run a good risk of knocking him out. We're more useful to the team doing our scanner thing than unconscious.

>a crater in it's chest, the bolt of this alien weapon apparently tearing through it easily
Nice. We got a weapon that puts bigger holes in things than the sidearm they issued us. And it's only rifle sized!

If we have a limited number of heads we can fuck with, we are likely better of using our power on the corpses of the enemies at the center of the town; the ones guarding the important shit likely know more important things.
If it's just a cooldown affect, though, we may as well use it as often as possible.

"Rather not if I don't have too, but if you think it would help I could give it a go"

Oh! To prevent a future screw up:

Remember that even if we're using the xeno energy weapon for now because it does more damage, we don't know what it uses for ammo, or how long it takes to run out of charge or whatever. We should be prepared to switch back to conventional munitions if it runs dry on us.

These are grunts and the spiders are probably not even sentient (if you win try to check up on that later)...
You need to conserve you strength for the actual fight ahead and for possibly scanning the leader's corpse to better identify whatever it is they are protecting.

You check your own condition, measuring how you're feeling against when you'd first started. You doubt you'd be able to even attempt reading another dead body right now, you'd pushed your abilities far beyond what you'd normally be capable of. Maybe you'd be able to do it one more time, but you'd rather hold off, and be in the best condition possible for what's to come.

After giving the negative, the group heads off again, moving a bit more slowly to keep Wolf with the group, and after a good 10 minutes you finally manage to regroup with Barbie, who's group is firing away at a building just around the corner, with alien weapons fire coming back. It's more of a general exchange though, to keep heads down.

"Took your damn time, Ten! We ready, or what?"

"Whenever you give the go ahead, Barbie."

"Huh. Wolf, Cruiser, you lot are taking point, keep them suppressed. Monkey, See if you can't find yourself a nice place to hole up and start shoving rockets down their throats. Ten, you're with me, Dug and Fisher, we're going to head in right after the TacArms. Wash-Out, head up onto that roof and start pegging the assholes wherever you find them. Tanner, Lot, head around and see if you can't flank the bastards. Grey... do whatever it is your brain power does. Just don't get killed, I don't want to have to request another of you bastards, the humans already don't like me enough."

Everyone else gets themselves into position, leaving you with the feeling that Barbie doesn't really like you. Still, you turn your attention to deciding how best to help in this fight.

>>>Input Command

>>495499
Iunno. Do what we did last time? Only with more shooting alien beamguns?

Since our range is limited with our ability we're best in the front. Hopefully that changes b\c we're awfully squishy right now.

>how best to help in this fight
You don't want to be on the front-front lines, because you're going to get killed. But you need to be close enough to the action that you can help by ID-ing targets for the others.

Hmm. I guess the question is, who would benefit most from having an omniscient spotter helping them?

We can also shoot things, of course.

I'd say stay behind the two death mechs but maybe a little ahead of group two that is going in after them so we can call out where to shoot and still not be in the direct line of fire. I do feel it is safe to say that the two mechs will be taking the brunt of the fire.

Head off with the flank team, tanner and lots. they will be getting close, so that means you will have a pair to protect you while you get in and tell everyone where important targets are.

This way we maximise the advantage we can provide, while not putting ourselves in maximum fucking danger.

You decide it's best to tag along behind the TacArms, gravitating to Wolf as you know her best. You position yourself so that she's blocking the enemy fire, and the comms crackle to life again as Wolf notices you.

"Grey? What you doing up front here with us? You're a little tender to be taking fire."

"That's what you are here for. Try to keep yourself in between me and enemy fire. I'll see about spotting targets for us."

"Roger that!"

The order is given a minute later, and the TacArms spring into action, rounding the corner and opening fire with the chain-guns, even as her fellow TacArm begins advancing, firing what looks like a more heavy duty cannon. You stick close, occasionally taking shots at the aliens with their own weapon, even as the ever familiar chatter of rifle fire begins to permeate the air. A rocket zips over your heads and collides with a building, blowing a hole in it and revealing a few disoriented soldiers. You open fire along with your fellows, and manage to hit one, giving yourself a sort of satisfaction. Soon, though, you manage to make it within range, and you reach out with your senses, already beginning to call out locations. As your approach the alien defended building, however, the weapons fire seems to intensify, and you are forced to duck behind Wolf to avoid getting shot. Some of your allies are not quite so lucky.

"Dug is down. Fisher, can you reach him?"

"Doesn't matter. His heads gone. Not surviving that."

"Damn... another requisition order than. Quartermaster already hates me enough as it is. Wash-Out, top left window."

"I see him."

The fighting continues, but just as you reach the 2/3 mark, your senses pick up something new. You try to puzzle it out for a moment, getting a very bad feeling from whatever it is. Before you can call out a warning, however, something slams into Cruiser's TacArm and begins burning its way through the metal. Cruiser starts screaming as it reaches him, and it's only then that you get an actual look at whatever it is. The thing is a little smaller than a TacArm, but it has a larger hissing cannon clutched in it's clawed hands. It looks almost mechanical in origin, but you can clearly see it moving and acting like a living thing. It seems to shout odd clicking noises, language, you think, then the aliens begin opening fire again.

"SHIT! Cruiser is down. Vitals flatlined on his TacArm. Fuck, someone take that bitch out!"

A crack of gunfire is heard again, and the... whatever it is goes down in a burst of gravel. Another rocket smashes into the building, sending rubble everywhere, and as the machine thing starts to stand, Wolf begins pummeling it with rounds. Barbie and Fisher begin firing at the other aliens, but the overwhelming fire is starting to rip through even Wolf's heavy armor. Pinpointing locations is all well and good, but you can't really do anything except know where they are. Then Tanner and Lot start their own push, your senses picking them up just before you hear a familiar beeping and then the thump of grenade explosions. More fire is heard, then something comes over the comms.

"Shit! We got spider incoming! Me and Wash-Out are gonna have to deal with them, but... some help would be nice!"

"I don't think we can spare anyone, we got a good 20 guys on our side of things, we might need all the help we can get... Hey, Brain! If you think you can make it, go help Monkey and Wash-Out! If not, don't sweat it!"

You mull over the decision a little, going over what you know. There are more enemies inside the building, although you think you're beginning to gain the upper hand. Still, if there are any more of those mechanical things, Wolf is toast, and with her gone, most likely the rest of the squad follows. Wash-Out, however, is just as needed, him keeping the soldiers in the windows from firing down on you all.

Decisions, decisions...

>>>Input Command

We have the choice of trying to spot the next mech-killer for Wolf (and we don't know if there will be one) or helping keep our other allies alive from spiders that are attacking them now. If your analysis is correct (ie, we need both the TacArm and our cover fire to stay alive) then the choice is obvious. We have to help the necessary allies who are in danger, rather than the one who might be.

That said, that thing had a distinctive feel, right? It stood out. You sense another one those- warn Wolf ASAP.

(Non-tactically though, if someone's gonna die either way and we're just choosing who... I'd rather save Wolf. Not that we should be thinking that way).

Well, now that you know what the new thing feels like, you're the best bet to make sure Wolf has prior notice which is outside of a very lucky shot is her only chance at surviving one of those.

On the other hand, the spiders are pretty mobile and sneaky, which means being able to quickly identify them is fairly helpful, and we know they're there where-as we don't know for sure they'll be more of those TacArm killers, though it's very likely there are more. Plus Wash-Out(according to the wiki) isn't all that great in close-combat.

It's a tough call, but given that even normal fire is starting to get to Wolf, I think we need Wash-Out and Monkey up now to help clear things out, otherwise we'll be whittled down. Pick out some clumps of enemies or ideally if the grenades pack enough punch some key cover points that'll make it hard to get a cannon in position unnoticed, toss some grenades, and then head on over to Wash-Out and Monkey.

go with wash out for now just keep your eyes, ears, and mind open for anymore mech killers and yell if you notice one. also do you think you could even hit one of the spiders because your not the best shot

>>495708
Hey, he knows the basics of how to shoot, and the perceptual stuff gives him an advantage that makes up for some of the lack of training. And we've hit one spider already.

The last enemy cyborg (or whatever it was) was too quick for you to warn anybody. If there is another there is little you could do except perhaps shoot it while its tearing through her armor (how long did that take?).

Unless wolf can come with you to save our snipers and then resume the attack then we should go to help them, I really really like wolf but standing behind her as she charges the main target seems less suited to your abilities then standing with the snipers and detecting a stealthy enemy that moves in 3d and tries to ambush them.

>>495708
Luckily they are melee so at the range of engagement he will be able to help.

You opt to help Wash-Out and Monkey. You let Wolf know, who grunts in response as she begins tearing apart another wall to get at the enemies on the other side, then you toss out two of your three frags you had with you, one ripping apart a group of enemies, the other falling a little short of its mark and blowing harmlessly. You frown as you begin to pull back, dashing from cover to cover in order to avoid incoming fire. You eventually make it back, moving as quickly as you can without winding yourself, and soon enough your senses pick up on the things. The rattle of a heavy machine gun can be heard, and as you come up to the building you hear Monkey spitting insults at the thing. The bark of a sidearm can also be heard, likely Wash-Out doing his best to help in some small way. Regardless, you can feel the enemy. Five of them. No, four, Monkey just pegged one of them. There's two on the floor above them, two rushing down that corridor and one... you kick the door open into the room your companions are in, nearly get your head blown off by Wash-Out, and pull the trigger of your alien rifle, aiming the weapon where you know the enemy is. The Spider jumps out of the vent just as the bolt reaches it, turning its head into a crater, but the temporary distraction let the others through.

Two Spider push literally burst in from the windows, probably having crawled through the second story windows to get down at you, and you feel one of them collide with your back, sending you sprawling. Its weight is suddenly on your back again, and you can feel claws ripping into your back. Your armor's straps get torn off, leaving the thing useless underneath you, but you use the extra mobility of having no armor to turn yourself and kick the thing in the face. It falls back screeching, and you manage to scramble to your feet to get a handle on the situation. The two coming from the corridor are still pinned down by Monkey, but he literally can't leave them alone, or they'll break through. Wash-Out is fighting with the other Spider, trying to keep it from ripping a gash in his chest. The last Spider is busy climbing up the wall, you think to try to pounce on you again.

>>>Input Command

>nearly get your head blown off by Wash-Out
Remember, comm systems are your friend. Let your allies know you're coming next time.

>what do?
Priority is getting the two in the room. Depending on how much danger Wash-Out is in, that means either shooting the one on him first and then the other, or vice versa.

If you help Wash-Out first, you're probably going to have to use your mind's eye to dodge the attack when the climber leaps at you.

Take out the one on Wash-Out, then the one trying to pounce, then the two Monkey's holding back

If you can't get to the alien rifle pull out your sidearm and blast the spider that is the biggest threat then get the other in the room then help monkey with the last two

kill the spider threatening your teamate first.

You manage to grab your sidearm, and empty the clip into the spider that making for Wash-Out. You get a hasty nod of appreciation from your comrade before you have to deal with the one attacking you, its screech resounding in your ears as you begin to desperately backpedal away from its claws. It manages to jab you in the leg, then starts dragging you away, even as you desperately kick at it and try to reload at the same time. There's suddenly a ringing shot, and the spider's chest explodes. A quick glance around reveals Wash-Out using his sniper rifle for close ranged devastation, and you give your own nod of appreciation. What you don't notice through the pain searing through your head is the Spiders breaking through Monkey's suppressing fire and dog-piling him, beginning to drag him through a nearby window. You bring your sidearm up again, emptying your second clip into the pair, but only one goes down, and the other manages to drag the screaming man outside and out of sight. You rush to the window even as you reach out with your senses, and you find the spider dragging a now disables Monkey straight up the building. You curse out loud as you feel them leave your mapping range, and as you duck your head outside, you can only watch as the Spider leaps from building to building, dragging a limp Monkey behind it.

"Damn... Barbie isn't going to be happy about that. Not at all... come on, we'd better go see how the other ar-"

"Wolf is down. Her systems have gone offline, but I doubt she's dead."

Wash-Out leads the way outside, taking to the streets and finding himself a nice position to snipe from. You, on the other hand, continue forward, and reach the position you'd left. Barbie and Fisher haven't really moved, although they seem to be focusing less on taking enemies out than covering Wolf's TacArm, which is unmoving. Lot and Tanner are pushing across the way, you can see them at a doorway, firing into it, one prepping another grenade to toss in. Barbie catches sight of you and nods her head.

"Last push boys! I expect us in that place in the next few minutes! Grey, get over to Tanner and Lot, guide them to targets!'

You start hopping from cover to cover till you're standing just behind Lot, and he glances at you as you arrive. Your senses reach out, and you catch three groups of concentrated Xenos. One is on the far side of a hallway, concentrating fire on Wolf, another up some stairs and on the second floor, and a final group deeper in the complex, likely a command group. You have enough time to deal with one before the rest make their assault forward.

Taking out the group firing at Wolf frees up Fisher and Barbie, so go for that.

The command group is tempting, but without knowing the command structure of the aliens and how they deal with a loss of leadership it's a much more risky move then freeing up your more experienced and capable allies.

Well, hell. That went badly. Didn't expect the guy with the heavy weaponry shooting down a hallway to get overrun.

>Who kill?
The guys trying to crack Wolf, or a command unit?

As nice as it might be to try and screw up the enemy by taking out their officers, I don't think we can leave Wolf in a crippled Tac-Arm while buggers are trying to break in and kill her.

We want everyone for the push on command, but going straight for wolf may not be the best choice. if it sends like the ones upstairs are setting an ambush, take them out BEFORE your allies get to them. Otherwise, take out the ones attacking wolf, and then stay with the main push, help then drive through as they go.
The command cluster will be easier to kill when its an entire squad being directed by a mentat, raster than two guys.

tell whoever has the grenade to throw it wherever the closes/ easiest to hit xenos are. Better to take out who you can then try to take out something you can't.

Robots and clones are both usually pretty expensive. Save the clone in the robot.

Take out the command