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| PFC Jenkins & SPC Kobayashi, Mar 8, 2015 |
The mission itself was back home in Australia, maybe why I got picked. I don't know. The extras had started abducting people in a commercial area of Canberra. They sent us in to take em out. Aside from Kobayashi, SPC Rojas was second the in command veteran on the team. There was also PFC Cerna, Kovac and Natale with us that night. It was their first mission as well. We all knew each other from training, but none of us were really friends. The other three rookies were all from southern Europe, so they may have been the closest out of the six of us, or I maybe just imagined it. We were all chosen for a reason, though, so I knew I could count on them with my life if I needed to.
SPC Kobayashi didn't speak much. I'd never even heard the guy's voice before touching down that night. Even then, he only ever spoke when necessary, barking out swift orders over the comms in a heavily Japanese-accented English. His stoicism really set the tone for our team. Like his words, his actions were very deliberate and meaningful. He didn't like to waste time, especially in combat. At the time, I didn't know him particularly well, but I did like the guy.
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| Canberra Drop Zone |
In front of us there was this big, family Italian-style restaurant. On the left side of that building, there was a laundromat. We weren't sure where the aliens were now. There was enough evidence to assume they had already rounded up all the humans in both areas. The street was deathly silent aside from the soft shuffling of our boots and gear. You know, I'd make a joke about these naked little grey aliens being up all night doing their laundry or something, but honestly remembering the sight of human bodies all wound up in some green ooze turns my stomach at the thought. It's real hard to make jokes when you are seeing these horrible things from some sci-fi horror movie right in front of you.
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| Kobayashi & Jenkins Push To the Laundromat |
I remember Rojas mentioned over the radio coming to reinforce our position, but before Rojas's small team could retreat from their position, several more of these sectoid things burst in through the back door of the restaurant and a fire fight broke out inside. I couldn't tell you, honestly, what was going on next door. Kobayashi and I had our hands full, taking fire from inside the laundromat. If we let them take any more ground, these two groups of aliens would have us surrounded. I advanced up to the window to get a better vantage point inside, while Kobayashi fell back into a flanking position. From his new positon, Kobayashi clipped an extra coming around the corner toward the entrance of the building.
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| Kobayashi Takes a Shot Through the Front Door |
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| Jenkins Takes the Laundromat |
As I swept through the rest of the building to make sure there were no more creepers lurking in the shadows, I heard Private Cerna ordered to patch up Rojas who was suffering from a pretty serious shot. The rookies had a hint of anxiety in their voices, but Kobayashi was as firm as ever. He had Kovac and Natale push their way into the restaurant. Apparently a successful endeavor because Kobayashi soon asked me if there was access to the back alley through the laundromat. He had everyone but Rojas ready to breach into the alley expecting to find more resistance waiting for us there, but it wasn't the case. We could tell from some unusual sounds that there was activity inside the building across from us, so again the four rookies took up positions against two doors hoping to get inside and surround any enemies we found there.
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| Jenkins & Cerna Fire on the Drones |
Natale and Kovac managed to hit one, but it was Cerna next to me who finished it off. I managed to land a hit on the other drone as it tried to swarm out into the alley, but Kobayashi - that madman - ran intot he store and fired a bullet straight into its little drone face. I guess he was pretty confident that these things weren't swarming all over that store - or maybe he just knew we'd be able to take them down if they were. Whatever he was thinking, it was as crazy as it was impressive.
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| Kobayashi Finishes Things |
- from a talk with John Jenkins on the subject of serving under Shinji Kobayashi
XCOM Report - March 8, 2015 - "Severed Line"
SPC Shinji Kobayashi (Japan) - Squad Leader
- Confirmed Kills: 2 (1 Sectoid, 1 Drone)
- Total CK: 5 (4 Sectoid, 1 Drone)
SPC Roman Rojas (Guatemala)
- Confirmed Kills: 0
- Total CK: 2 (Sectoid)
- Condition: Serious Injury
PFC John Jenkins (Australia)
- Confirmed Kills: 2 (Sectoid)
- Earned Promotion
PFC Barbara Natale (Italy)
- Confirmed Kills: 1 (Sectoid)
- Promotion Earned
PFC Jarmila Cerna (Czech Republic)
- Confirmed Kills: 2 (1 Sectoid, 1 Drone)
- Earned Promotion
PFC Peter Kovac (Slovenia)
- Confirmed Kills: 1 (Sectoid)
- Promotion Earned
