Xcom 2: crash landing

by hydroemperor

Chapter 3: Friends

"So, what's the weirdest and toughest things you've fought?" Scootaloo asked Fatal as they walked through the Everfree. Scootaloo had been asking constant questions about the aliens, Advent, and the different resistance factions of humanity. Fatal for her part was happy to answer, but she left out as many mentions of death and killing as she could.

Fatal hummed in thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "The strangest of the aliens in my opinion are the gatekeepers, they are squid like creatures that reside in a floating white sphere most of the time. The strongest would have to go to one of the Chosen, they could teleport into a battle seemingly at random and we had to track them down to their bases to deal with them."

"Why did you have to track them down, couldn't you just take them down when they showed up?" Scootaloo asked.

Fatal thought of a way to answer that avoided mentioning that they had to kill the Chosen many times to deal with them. "We did... But they would always return, the only way to stop them for good was to track them down."

"So did they just always run away from fights, or could they come back from the dead?" Fatal was shocked by the bluntness of this question and that Scootaloo had managed to work out that the Chosen were dying and then coming back to life.

Scootaloo noticed Fatal's shocked look. "What?"

"How did you know that we were dealing with them that way?" Fatal asked.

"Well you said you were soldiers earlier, Equestria hasn't had a war for a long time but we still learn about them in history class, and I know Ponies, or well in your case people, die in them. Also thinking about the way that Guardian talked about the manticore made it sound like she was used to that sort of thing happening." Scootaloo answered in a calm tone.

"Ah... I see, well then yes, you are right. The Chosen could come back tov life once... dealt with." Fatal was still uncomfortable about using language like killed in front of the filly. "We had to track down their bases to destroy the devices that kept reviving them."

"Wow." Scootaloo was simply amazed by the idea of something that could bring back the dead. "Do you know how they worked?"

"No, the devices were left in no condition to study once we were done with them." Fatal stated simply.

The two then returned to science as Scootaloo had no more questions. After a few minutes of walking both arrived at the edge of the Everfree, in the distance Fatal saw a town which she assumed to be Ponyville. Most of the buildings seemed to thatch roofing and from this distance Fatal could make out two land marks. The first was a much larger building which Fatal assumed to probably be a town hall of some sort, the second was a large tree growing within the town.

"Well I better get going before I get in more trouble than I already am." Scootaloo said with a slight chuckle. "Do you think I could see you guys tomorrow?"

"Give me a moment." Fatal said while reaching for her comm. "Stinger, this is Fatal we have arrived at the edge of the forest near the town. Also Scootaloo is asking if she can visit again tomorrow."

There was a moment of silence before the response. "Copy that Fatal can you mark the trail on your way back, and yes Scootaloo can come tomorrow. Also if your backup comm is still intact can you give it to her so we don't have a repeat of our first encounter." For once stingers paranoia for each member of a squad carrying a backup of all of their more fragile gear came in handy.

Scootaloo watched as Fatal reached into one of the pouches on her chest and pulled out a small circular device. "This is a communication device." She said lowering her hand to allow Scootaloo to get a better look at the device. "This will allow us to communicate over a distance, place it in your ear and push down on it when you want to speak with us, you can also twist it to allow direct communication with an individual or the entire squad. Tell us you are on your way before you arrive tomorrow."

Scootaloo took the comm and looked into Fatal's large eyes and gave her a smile. "Alright, see you tomorrow." She said before hopping on her scooter and riding of towards Ponyville.

Fatal turned back towards the forest and pulled out a small beacon, she then used her ripjack to dig out a small amount of dirt out from under one of the nearby trees. Once she was done, Fatal placed the beacon inside the hole and covered it back up.

With the way back to the town marked, Fatal began the walk back to camp.

---

Overall the walk to the edge of the Everfree and back to the camp took about an hour. When Fatal arrived back to camp she was greeted by soothing sizzles and the smell of cooking meat.

In her absence the rest of the squad had set up a large fire pit, which they were all huddled around telling stories and cooking some meat, they had also taken some of the plating from the skyrangers interior walls and were using it as a makeshift skillet.

When Fatal approached the group turned to face her. "Ah you are back." Said Raven as she placed another piece of meat onto the metal plate. "I believe that the creature that Stormwalker killed earlier today is safe to eat, I will cook a piece for you now."

"So anything happen while you two were gone?" Hat Trick asked while cutting a slice of meat off his manticore steak.

"Well... Firstly I doubt that this nation has the capability to construct the parts that we would need to repair the skyranger if we plan to do so, their architecture at least seems very primitive, mainly consisting of stone building with wooden supports and thatch roofing."

Stinger looked contemplative for a moment. "We shouldn't give up hope just yet. For all we know they just developed in a different way then us." He stated.

Fatal gave a nod before continuing. "The second event of note is that Scootaloo now knows about the aliens."

There was a moment of stunned silence that was soon broken by Guardian. "How did she find out." She did not speak in her usual cold tone, instead she spoke with a minor amount of frustration.

Fatal did not flinch from this however. "She asked me why I was different from the rest of you, I could not come up with a true answer that would not lead to more questions, so I decided to tell her the truth. Although I did leave out mentions of violence and death where I could."

Guardian let out a sigh but seemed to calm down with this explanation.

"Why didn't you just lie?" Hat Trick asked through a mouthful of meat.

"Lying would only betray her trust." Stormwalker said. "She is the only one with information of us, as such she can construct any narrative she wants and could be seen as true. We should build a favrorable relationship with the young one."

Stinger nodded. "I don't think she's the type to do something like that, but Stormwalker right. It would be better to start a good relationship with her, it can help kickstart a good one with the general public and maybe whoever's in charge."

"Yes." Fatal agreed simply. "Also she likely would have found out regardless, when the topic of conversation moved to The Chosen she was able to piece together that we were unable to kill them just from the way I spoke of them, so she is rather intelligent."

"Well she did wander into a supposedly super dangerous forest on her own." Demon said.

Guardian looked at her with a look of irritation. "She's a kid if there anything like they are on earth, then I wouldn't blame her for poor decision making skills."

Demon's looked down to the ground, a look of guilt spreading across her face. "Yeah sorry, I was being a dick there."

Wolfmother gave her a look of sympathy. "Hey it's alright, were all a bit stressed." She reached into a pouch on her chest and pulled out two cigars, she put one in her mouth and handed the other to Demon. "Here chill fir a bit."

Stinger narrowed his eyes at this display, but not for the fact that Wolfmother was sharing one of her cigars. "Okay, where are you getting all those you've pulled out four now since we've got here."

Wolfmother gave him a sly smile. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Stinger gave her a hard look. "Yes I would. I want one."

He did not get one.