Green Fields (Firebrand)

[thehonorablebat]

Summary: The second story I ever posted.

Before XCOM's victory over ADVENT, there was twenty years of struggle. Bradford isn't sure how he survived it.

A loose collection of snippets, pre-X2.

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A hijacked, burning truck blaring down an old desert highway. ADVENT troopers screaming for a wide variety of reasons, least of all was the fire. The woman driving turning to him and smiling like she was on a theme park roller coaster.

That was how Bradford met Firebrand.

She was just ‘Firebrand’ as she would tell him later, both of them smelling like smoke and gasoline. The diner in the Resistance Haven they crashed in for drinks was abuzz with activity at the surprisingly successful mission. He watched in silence as she checked the quality of the moonshine with a battered zippo lighter before daring to drink it.

“Red means dead,” she singsonged, watching for the color the flame would turn. When it burned blue she downed the whole glass in one go.

She hadn’t been part of the team that he had led to hijack the truck. Merely a bystander who leapt to action when she could have run. Her tattered US Air Force jacket had caught his eye, but the rock solid nerves she possessed when everything was going to hell in a hand basket kept his attention. After she got involved the whole thing was just a blur of adrenaline and action. If he had to write a report up it wouldn't be coherent.

“I need a pilot,” Bradford said. “I don’t suppose you know where I can find one?”

Firebrand smiled like the Cheshire cat.

“That depends, you got an F16 lying around?” she answered.

“Not quite. We call her the Skyranger. I’m sure it won’t take much for the two of you to get acquainted.”