🚀 go-pugleaf

> You can't leave it like that - I want to know what happened next!!!

She ducked down a corridor and grabbed the only explosive she could find - a
single blaster bomb. Shrugging off waves of psi attacks from unseen aliens,
Evelyn sprinted a final death-or-glory charge to the command centre. If
Ishii's nemesis sectopod got there first those Ethereals would be able to
pick through her mind at their leisure. It wouldn't be a nice end.

Ten, fifteen seconds at the most. She paused only to load the blaster
launcher and continued with her mad dash. The door was just a few feet
ahead, the Sectopod had to be taking the other route round the room, so
where *was* the fucking thing?

A burst of plasma ripping alongside her neck answered that question. She
ignored it and entered the room. As she headed up the elevator she felt
another barrage of psionics, the strongest yet. Mentally thanking her
squadmates for the fatal room-clearance they performed in sight of the
objective, she took cover behind a row of seats.

As in uncounted UFOs and bases across the globe, she wondered how these
seats accomodated the various breeds of alien, from Sectoids to Floaters,
and who got first say on their design. Then it all disappeared, her
concentration shifting to the launcher as she set a single waypoint - right
at the back of the brain.

The weapon was controlled with the mind of the operator. As she willed it,
the smooth silver blaster bomb, accelerated by gravity waves, headed
straight out of the muzzle without even a hint of recoil. It struck the
brain square-on, exactly where she'd planned, and the entire room filled
with flame.

For a second she fancied she could see skulls cavorting all around her
flying suit. Then the explosion subsided and the room was empty. She swapped
the Blaster launcher for a heavy plasma, miraculously left undamaged by the
explosion, and two spare clips. She went a-huntin'.

And that was that. Blame Diane Duane if I've overestimated myself as a
storyteller ;)

--Off the Rails