The bump of the Skyranger landing jolted Alan out of his reverie on the past month. As the engines wound down all twelve of the occupants sat there and looked at each other. Oh crap, Alan thought, we never did figure out who was in charge. The bigwigs had said they were looking at the training tapes and were making their decision, but in the excitement of boarding and getting them to the landing site it must have slipped through the cracks. For several uncomfortable seconds everyone sat there looking at each other, and it was plain on everyone’s face. Now what?

With a sudden motion Alan heaved himself out of his seat and grabbed his Heavy Cannon, loaded the clip with the HE shells. Looking around he said, “Well, come on. Let’s get out of here and go figure out what’s going on. Mattias, lower the ramp and take the left side of the ramp. Leonid, you jump and take the right. If you see anything give a holler.”

As if his words broke some spell, the interior of the Skyranger broke into furious action, everyone started loading clips into their weapons and preparing to disembark. Mattias, a small nervous 19-year old from Brennon, Germany quickly lowered the ramp and jumped off of the left side, with Leonid Shadrin quickly following him on the right.

“Looks quiet, a lot of small wooden structures to the west and a hedge to the southeast of the LZ. Damn its dark out here.” Mattias spoke into his radio. They never had trained in a night scenario, so someone must think that risking the entire X-Com group was worth the reward.

“Alright, throw your electro-flares in an arc around the LZ and then move out. Mattias you lead, and you three follow him to those wooden buildings.” Alan pointed at the first three on his left, turning he pointed to the first three on the right, “You guys follow Leo and find out what is past that hedge.”

Looking at the four remaining platoon members Alan said, “Alright Micheline, Gerhard, we have the most firepower so make sure the HE is loaded and we’ll wait until the others have made contact…if they do. Micky, you stick with us and provide close-in support in case something gets to close to use HE on.”

Micky, called that because there were two Micheline’s in the unit and she was Irish, nodded her assent and after a minute they left the comfort of the Skyranger and took positions behind a low stone wall just to the south.

“Leo, Mattias, anything?” Alan asked.

“Nothing here,” Mattias quickly answered. “We’ve cleared the three smaller buildings to the west and have two more, two-story barns to clear before the north and west containment lines are clear.”

“Roger, Matt. Leo, what’s your status.”

“We’re in an orchard, and it looks like a plowed field further east and one of those big barns southeast of us.”

“Roger, check out that barn and let me know. Everyone don’t forget to throw your flares, its dark and we need to see.” Alan figured that when they got back, he was going to ask about Night-Vision goggles, this stumbling around in the dark was for the birds. As he, started moving his group of four toward the orchard the radio came to life.

“Holy #%&*$#, what is that?”

“Who was that, and what’s going on!” yelled Alan.

“It’s Shigeo, and I think I’ve found the UFO. I see something metal directly south of the orchard and directly east of the barn Leo is headed for. I’m going to the corner of the barn and see if I can’t get a closer look at that thing.”

As he headed south through the orchard, Alan jumped when he heard a grenade go off further south and east of where he was. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, he heard a M-16 firing on full auto from the same direction.

“Who’s firing, what’s going on, someone answer me!” Alan frantically screamed into the mike, while motioning the others with him to take cover in the southern tree line of the orchard.

“I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it.” He heard over the radio, followed by what was unmistakably the sound of someone throwing up. A few seconds later a weak voice could be heard. “This is Leo, I saw some movement in this barn, so I tossed a grenade and followed it in. There was this gray thing just around the corner of the stairs, I shot it twice and it fell down. It spilled this green goo all over the floor and it screamed! Just like some damn person, it screamed!” Leo’s voice was shaking.

“Alright, Leo. Good job, just calm down and come out to the west side of that barn and observe that side of the UFO.” Alan directed, hearing a quick roger from Leo.

Moving forward Alan could just see the metal structure Shigeo was talking about in the dim light of an electro-flare, it was about ten feet tall and made of a dull silver metal. He was unable to see how far the wall stretched or how big the UFO was. Alan was just about to call for an update when he heard M-16 fire from the barn Leo was in, followed by a scream over the radio.

“Leo? Leo! Does anyone have a visual on Leo!”

“Negative, I’m heading over there now.” He heard Shigeo reply

Sitting there waiting to find out what happened was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He wanted to jump and run over there to find out what was going on. He keyed his mike to talk to Shigeo when another M-16 opened up! Leo, he was all right and just out of contact!

“God, this is disgusting. Alan, I shot another one of those gray aliens, just south of that barn. It looks like it waited by the door and killed Leo when he came through. They must have some kind of gun, because Leo has a hole the size of my fist in his chest, and there is no way that skinny gray thing could do that with his fist.”

Well that proves the aliens intentions Alan thought. “Roger that, Shigeo. You and the other two work your way around the east side of the UFO. Mattias, when you’re done, come back through the orchard and move around the west side. We’ll meet at the south side, wherever that is.”

Motioning to his little group of four, he sent Micheline and Gerhard around the west side, while he and Micky followed Shigeo to the east. It took several minutes for Mattias’ group to clear the rest of the barns, slink to the UFO through the orchard and meet them on the south side of the UFO. A hurried update showed the UFO was in the shape of a plus. On the south arm of the UFO a seam could be seen in the middle of the wall and it was everyone’s guess that this was the one entrance into this thing.

As everyone stopped to catch their breath, Alan saw ten expectant faces looking at him, waiting for a plan. How had he become the boss, he thought? When had it happened? He felt particularly unable to lead knowing he had sent Leo into the barn without backup, but that didn’t matter to the team, his team.

“Alright, since we don’t know the layout, we’re going to try and open the door, do a quick recon and re-group out here. Micheline and Akinori load your Auto Cannons with Armor Piercing rounds so you don’t blow us up with a miss. Ok, Gerhard, do a quick check of the door and see if you can find the door knob.”

Gerhard smiled as he moved out, the Heavy Cannon cradled easily in his big right hand. He makes it look so easy, Alan thought as he shifted the weight of his own Heavy Cannon in both hands. Mattias and Shigeo teams took opposite sides of the door, staying far enough away to avoid the blast area of the high explosive rounds Gerhard was carrying. Gerhard laid his left hand on the door, and it opened suddenly causing Gerhard to stumble into the UFO. He immediately straightened and fired a round off to his right. The explosion drowned out the sound of the return fire, so it was a surprise to see Gerhard double-up and crash to the deck of the UFO. Before anyone could respond the door snapped shut.

Alan stood looking at the door in disbelief. Another man dead and they still knew nothing about the UFO. Well, that’s not exactly true, he quickly thought. We found out it has the capacity to kill without warning.