"Never seen one go that low before. Their scouts usually stay around twenty-five klicks up. What do you think, Bradford? Is he landing?"

"Current course and present rate of descent hit Cologne dead on, sir. If it's not landing, it's getting close enough to drop something."

The Commander nods. "It looks like it. Garcia, get in touch with our Bundeswehr liason, I want local forces on alert in the area, and see if you can get us a radio link to some officer on the ground, so we can get some intel. Bradford, scramble a strike team to the Skyranger and prepare to launch on my orders." He frowns. "The U-FO's going upwards of Mach 5. Are there any fighters in the area with a hope of intercepting it?"

"Yes sir," Bradford thumbs his mic "Delta Squad, this is Central, load out immediately. Standard equipment, urban set, briefing en route to Cologne."

He taps again and listens for a moment. "Two Eagle-Cs scrambling out of Ramstein, six minutes out. Can't catch our bogey unless it lets them. I'm sure the French have something launching too but their Air Force still won't link into our network." 

The Commander shakes his head. "Figures. Nothing we can do about that now though."

"U-FO One has changed course and speed, new bearing eight-zero-point-two, new speed three-zero-zero klicks. Altitude is one thousand metres and dropping. Looks like he's coming in for a landing."

"That acceleration... the craft must have been subjected to thirty gees at least! Commander, this craft is most likely automated. A human-like crew would not survive that."

"Noted. Bradford, make sure to tell the crew they may be fighting robots here."

Delta Squad hurries to the waiting Skyranger, where several techs are performing various checks: landing gear, fuel levels, control surfaces. Eva's time in the FES ensures she's used to the idea of setting off on a mission at a moment's notice, but this is extreme even for her. She takes her seat, strapping on the four-point harness. From the deployment orders being issued over loudspeaker to her and the seven other on-duty soldiers sitting in the Skyranger took three minutes and fifty seconds.

Nor is she used to knowing so little about a mission. They haven't trained for this action, and will apparently be briefed in the air.

[EDITED: there are eight people in Delta Squad, not six]

"We have launch clearance." The pilot's voice hisses through the intercom. "Hold onto your asses, kids."

The Skyranger lifts out of its hidden helipad with more strength than grace, the heavy, lumbering craft pushing itself into the air with brute force. After it clears the treetop level, it begins to accelerate, its enormous turboramjets whining as it continues to pick up speed. Three minutes after takeoff, the craft has exceeded MACH 1 and is still accelerating.

Pierre isn't sure why they tapped him for team leader, but team leader he is. Once the Skyranger is in level flight -- still picking up speed, but not jumping into the air anymore -- he reaches out to turn on the small screen installed for briefings. Central Officer Bradford appears on video.

"Delta, you're our first chance to get a look at what the aliens are up to. The Germans say their ship touched down for less than a minute, then scrammed. The site is a warehouse cluster two klicks south of Cologne city center. Don't have to be a genius to think they left something, and I doubt we'll like it. Whatever it was pulled thirty gees on landing, so expect it to be tough. Top priority is recon, second is ruining their day.

There's some german MPs - Feldjäger - arriving on scene in the next ten, you'll be five minutes behind them, and then half a dozen units coming in over the next hour. We're hammering them about IFF, but on an op like this it's still a danger, even if it should be obvious who the enemy is. Stay safe out there and keep comms open." Bradford's image is replaced by several hastily collected images of Feldjäger uniforms and insignia. After a minute it switches to a satellite view of the area - eight warehouses wedged at odd angles between a park and a railway. 

"Rude of them to not land on a nice flat firing ground without any civilians, but that's why we have you."

The Skyranger swings around, killing its velocity. Switching to VTOL mode, it lands on a patch of pavement in the park. The rear ramp begins to lower.

"Out! Out! Out!" At Pierre's orders, Delta Squad begins running down the ramp and taking cover.

Eva is the third to leave the Skyranger. She takes up a firing position behind a car, resting her assault rifle on the hood.

Pierre is the last to leave the Skyranger. "B Section, overwatch. A Section, forward!" He himself is with A section, and dashes to a low concrete barrier as half the squad moves forward. He crouches, sweeping the street in front of him for hostiles. No sign of any civilians -- but also no sign of the Feldjäger. Seeing that all of A section has taken up overwatch positions, he waves his hand forward, signalling B Section to advance.

Eva and the other three members of B Section run forward, taking up positions behind some shipping containers. They've reached the warehouses, now, but their doors are closed.

A flat dirt area in front of the warehouse is broken and torn up in a 50 meter circle, rocks scorched black and tossed around. The immediate vicinity is quiet - they can spot a few people hiding in their cars and peeking through blinds, but no one is jumping to make introductions. 20 feet ahead of A section is a white van with the Feldjäger logo on the side and all its doors open, but no one inside, parked directly between the landing zone and the nearest warehouse door.

A section leapfrogs past B section, sweeping the blackened circle. Pierre sweeps the inside of the van with his rifle. Nobody's inside.

He turns to his team. "We need to breach the warehouse." Pointing here and there, he has both sections take up positions around the building, covering the doors with overlapping fields of fire. 

Eva takes up her position to the left of the door selected for breaching.

"Go! Breach!" Pierre is behind cover a short distance away from the door, able to supervise the operation.

The soldier on the right of the door kicks the door open and rushes into the warehouse. Eva follows.

A small monster, gray skin stretched tight over thin limbs, is crouched on the warehouse floor in front of three frozen Feldjäger. Its head snaps up, showing flat glassy eyes glowing a dull red. 

Then it dives behind a stack of crates while the MPs swivel in eerie unison and open fire.

Eva sees the guns come up and gets behind a steel box just before the bullets start to fly. Her partner isn't as lucky, catching a shot in the shoulder. Eva fires in the direction of the MPs, keeping her head down. She keys her comm.

"We have Feldjäger traitors, at least three!"

Andrew feels the shot in the shoulder. Ow, that stings, he thinks absently, but adrenaline is a wonderful painkiller.

The rules of engagement specified no weapons were to be used until they were shot at. XCOM is now being shot at. With his good arm, Andrew takes a flashbang from his belt and throws it towards the enemy.