Seeing as the Countdown Calendar for XCOM 2 was such a massive success, I decided to use some discarded character concepts and a couple new ones for what is essentially season 2 of the project. For those of you who don’t know: Every Tuesday until the day WotC is released, I will reveal a new soldier on the Avenger, so you can get a small dose of XCOM to bridge the gap.
Quick reminder: I am in no way affiliated with Firaxis, and all this content is fanfiction/headcanon/whatever term you prefer.
An encounter with:
Fergus “The Highlander” Sturgeon, from Scotland.
Sturgeon is relaxing on a couch, eyes fixed on an ancient tube television set. Each move of the wrestling match displayed earns roaring laughter from the Scotsman. When a hulking titan of flesh dressed in a luchador costume slams a second giant dressed as a muton onto the mat , he rises, and begins to shout at the screen.
“Yeeeeees! That’s what happens when you fight El Monstruo!”
His Spanish pronunciation is surprisingly good. He turns around, an exalted grin on his face.
“That right there is my mate Ramon! He fuckin’ slapped that muton right round didn’t he? I used to tag team with him all the time! We slapped a lot of sense into guys with alien costumes, I’ll tell ya that.”
He sits back down. Despite his age, his muscle-packed frame is still very impressive, and his melon-sized hands look like they could rupture a sectoid’s skull with a light squeeze.
“Unfortunately, real aliens use plasma guns dunnae. Can’t punch those out the air, though I’d certainly love to! It was always too real for him, everything. Wrestling is a performance, warfare is not. Forgetting that is what cost Ramon his life. Didn’t even go out in a blaze of glory like he deserved.”
He is silent for a moment, and pulls a tin can from a cooler.
“You want some Irn Bru? Got some off Bahadur’s bazaar. It’s easier to get a hold off these days than when I was touring North America, ironically. That’s what I like to see this as: a world tour, seeing the greatest arenas of the most important tournament ever fought. The title belt is freedom, and I’m fighting with the best against some terrifying opponents. Got my Kilt Kleanser, she’s a beauty, named after my finisher back in the day. I’m still tryna get a grenade launcher called Haggis Chef, which was always my favourite move to be honest, so I can blow the fuck out of these alien cunts. This is when I always get to think, ya know? ‘Am I not just as stupid as Ramon? Should I go back to making subversive wrestling tapes instead of fighting?’ He picked up arms against the aliens to avenge his family, I did it to avenge him. Doesn’t that take away my right to call him stupid? Or does it just make me as stupid as him?”
He downs the entire can in two gulps, then crushes it with his hand.
“At the end of the day, I’m not Mel Gibson. This isn’t a fucken film, and it’s not a choreographed wrestling match, either. I fight for XCOM because I lost the man I loved, and to punch some mutons in the face.”
Who is Betty? 