@Eisenhorn

[color=lightgray]A shaky, poor-quality video displayed across a large screen in the command center of XCOM's European Base. The base commander, Bradley Delmote, watched as black smoke rose from what appeared to be the surface of a cruise ship. One of the alien devices known to incapacitate civilians was in the center focus spewing green bands of energy targeting the passengers while screaming filled the audio. It cut abruptly when a sectoid came into the frame [color=7bcdc8]"This video was uploaded shortly after a distress signal from the ship was sent out ten minutes ago. Playing it now."[/color] A technician on one of the consoles voiced.

[color=f7976a]"Mayday! Mayday! This is the S.S. Paradise! We have just been struck by several unknown objects...*static*...What's it...?"[/color] The audio reduced to complete static and was cut [color=fff79a]"I was able to trace the signal off the coast of Sicily. Displaying coordinates"[/color] A male, robotic voice came over the command center's comms. It was the XCOM A.I. nicknamed 'Arthur'.

Bradley glanced at the numbers on his personal screen in front of the geo-scape. If they acted quickly they might be able to rescue some civilians and intercept a UFO in the process [color=f7941d]"Arthur, pull up satellite imaging."[/color] he firmly ordered. The paused video was switched for an aerial view of the coordinates recovered revealing a heavily damaged cruise liner obscured by large amount of smoke. The S.S. Paradise was without a doubt dead in the water [color=f7941d]"I want the Sea Dogs prepped ASAP and two squads ready for back-up. Send Crusader 4-1 to secure the air. Send word out to any police or military personnel in the vicinity of our operation, keep them in the dark."[/color]
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Novak Vilmos was the only member of the Sea Dogs catching up with some shut-eye within the barracks, Lucia was too busy trying to win at least one game of poker against Felix after a series of extraordinary bad-luck at the barracks' table.

Felix peered down confidently at the four of kind currently in his hand, playing against Lucia was like stealing candy from a child. The frustration in her face was painfully clear [color=a187be]"What could possibly be taking you so long?"[/color]

Lucia was debating on changing out some of her cards, she thought Felix had to have a great hand with how confident he was "[color=f6989d]"Don't rush me. You've had your way for too long!"[/color] She was about to trade in the cards she selected when they got the message to ready up. Quickly she peeked at the cards she got dealt and smiled cheerfully before tossing a pillow from one of the beds at Novak [color=f6989d]"Hey Princess stop kissing your pillow, we got a mission."[/color]

Novak heard the familiar noise their belts made when given a mission and was already opening his eyes as he caught a face-full of white fabric. He tore the pillow from his face and jumped off the bed [color=c4df9b]"Who needs alarms when we got that loud mouth of yours." he responded as he began changing into his combat gear.[/color]

The rest began to do the same, Isak came running in afterwards [color=7bcdc8]"Looks like a cruise ship in the Med. An interceptor just got cleared for take-off."[/color] he frantically spoke getting to his gear.

The squad leader Annika had been in the middle of drink with Helene Mauss of the Grim Crows, which is why she immediately knew that XCOM's ace team was their back-up. She stepped soon after Isak with clear authority, a woman who took no nonsense when a situation got serious but otherwise was laid-back [color=gold]"I'm glad to see none of you are wasting time. Command wants us mobile immediately."[/color] she spoke moving quickly towards her locker. 

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