[Raven Hawk]

I turn to Bradford as the transmission ends, "What the hell was that thing? You saw it, right?"

"I don't know," he replies "but we know that Advent has secrets that we haven't discovered yet. Best to send out a squad with some heavy ordinance."

Down in the barracks, the mission alarm goes off. Breeze has just finished changing bunks, taking the bunk furthest from Chas in Cinti's. He drops his gear on his new bunk and moves to the door. He and Chas in Cinti get to the door at the same time and Breeze motions for Chas in Cinti go first. Chas in Cinti rolls his eyes and moves through the door. All active operatives head to the armory for assignment.

Operation Steel Strike

Objective: Stop the Advent Retaliation

Despite the mind control incident, we give the lead to Cpl. Chas in Cinti for this mission. Sq. Breeze comes along giving constant side-eyed glances at Chas in Cinti. We have two rookies with the Grenadiers, Rk. Chesapeake and Rk. Suarez. This is the last of our uninjured operatives. We are deploying some of the fun new toys with them. Chesapeake will get the Bolt Caster. Breeze will take the Frost Bomb and pass the Flashbang to Suarez. Tracer rounds are put into the Bolt Caster for Chesapeake. Breeze still carries the cannon with the laser sight.

Again we start the mission without concealment. The zone is hot and we’re dropping into a massacre. The hope is that we can stop it without getting massacred ourselves. We will need to save at lease 6 civilians and eliminate all hostiles.

We get into the Area of Operations and see a couple of civilians in close by. We’re able to get one back to the Skyranger quickly, but as we’re heading for the second a plasma bolt comes out of nowhere and levels the poor guy. We peak around the corner and spy a HUGE SNAKE! Tygan calls over comms, saying that these are what the Thin Men really look like, but since there is no reason to hide their true form any longer, they don’t anymore. It looks pretty scary to us - best to drop it quick. The snake has a Clacker with him.

Breeze drops a frag in on the Viper and destroys its cover. Suarez fires on the exposed Viper and misses. Chas in Cinti gets in position behind some rocks and lights up the Viper, killing it. Chesapeake has a shot on the Clacker. He fires the Bolt Caster . . . and misses. The Clacker moves in on Chas in Cinti, fires and misses.

Chesapeake reloads the Bolt Caster and takes a second try, obliterating the Clacker. We need to move quick to save the civilians, so Breeze gets moving toward the sound of gunfire. We hear screams as civilians are dying.

Suarez catches a Clacker out of the corner of his eye. He fires and drops it! Chas in Cinti quickly moves to the top of a building structure and fires down on another flanked clacker, killing it. The Clacker drops some loot. Suarez climbs up another building and hits an Officer hiding behind a plastic barrel. Chesapeake is late to the party, but he gets in range of the Officer and fires the Bolt Caster. He takes out the officer, hitting him through the plastic barrel. Breeze gets to another civilian and directs her back to the Skyranger. We’ve saved 2 civilians – need to get 4 more.

We hear a plasma bolt discharge in the distance and start making our way there. Chas in Cinti finds another civvy and sends her back to the Skyranger – 3 down. We hear another plasma bolt and another scream. Dammit! Another civvy down. But we know where it is and figure it to be a Sectoid.

Suarez moves to pickup the loot and finds a Hair Trigger and an Advent Datapad. Chas in Cinti scares up a Sectoid and 2 Clackers who make a break for it. Breeze’s covering fire misses. Chas in Cinti then drops the incendiary bomb on the Sectoid, injures it and sets him on fire. Chesapeake moves in and drops the Sectoid with the Bolt Caster. Suarez is exposed and needs to move back to cover. Breeze is out in half cover, without cover fire, and two Clackers in close proximity. This may not bode well for him.

A human starts to morph into one of those massive ugly monster with huge claws that we saw on the comm screen. It comes at Chas in Cinti. One of the Clackers flanks Breeze and scores a hit on him. He’s hurt but he’s standing firm.

Breeze exclaims, “So it’s gonna be like that, huh? Eat some lead, Clacker!” Breeze stands up and empties his clip into the Clacker and wounds explode all over it until it falls to the ground.

The remaining Clacker is on overwatch waiting for us to move. He thinks he’s got us covered so his Faceless friend can come in and stomp all over us . . .

“I don’t think so!” Chas in Cinti calls as he lofts a frag toward the Clacker on overwatch. It explodes and the Clacker’s overwatch is broken.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Chesapeake yells as he puts a hole the size of Texas in the Faceless one with the Bolt Caster.

The Faceless one looks curiously at Chesapeake as the hole starts to close up and is now more like a hole the size of Arizona.

“What the . . .” Chesapeake's disbelief trails off.

Suarez moves back into the fray and fires on the Faceless. She connects but fails to drop it.

We hear that same sickening sound and moments later we see another Faceless standing right behind the first! This is nuts!

For some reason, the Clacker decides to fire on a civvy and kills it. The Faceless, with the holes in him, sweeps his big claws and nails Chas in Cinti. He takes it like a champ! But now there are two Faceless standing right next to him!

Breeze sighs and says “I don’t believe I have to save HIS ass.” He launches the Frost Bomb at the two Faceless and freezes them both! Chesapeake takes out the remaining Clacker with a good shot from the Bolt Caster. Suarez finishes off the injured, frozen Faceless. Chas in Cinti moves back and opens fire on the remaining Faceless. He hits it, but it is still stands there, seemingly unaware that it is both frozen and wounded. But he gets a good look at what’s happening from such close range. These Faceless continue to heal themselves even when they’re frozen! We need to take this guy down! Chesapeake reloads and fires the Bolt Caster. More damage, but the Faceless is still standing with a dumb look on its face. Breeze fires at it and misses. Good thing Suarez is there. He fires his rifle finishes off the final Faceless.

All hostiles are down in the AO.

That’s it. Whew! We all walked out – some worse off than others, but all still alive.

Operation: Steel Strike
Enemies Killed: 10
Civilians Rescued: 7
Soldiers Wounded: 2 – Breeze and Chas in Cinti
Soldiers Killed: 0
Rating: Excellent
Loot: Advent Datapad, Hair Trigger, Corpses (Including a Viper & 2 Faceless)
Award: +15 supplies at supply drops

AAR: All told, we did well. We got into one sticky situation where Suarez had to make the choice of being flanked and drawing fire or exposing Breeze. Not a great choice one has to make. He could have taken a low probability shot on one of the Clackers, but that would not have done any good. I was happy, though, that Breeze was still alive to fire the Frost Bomb at the 2 Faceless or we would be burying at least 1 more operative. The Bolt Caster is a great weapon and Chesapeake enjoys wielding it!

Casualties
Breeze: Wounded – 36 Days (SHAKEN)
Chas in Cinti: Wounded – 28 Days

Promotions
Breeze: Squaddie GRENADIER > Corporal (Add Shredder Rounds)
Chesapeake: Rookie > Squaddie SPECIALIST
Suarez: Rookie > Squaddie SHARPSHOOTER

Kill Count
Chas in Cinti - 2
Breeze - 1
Chesapeake - 4
Suarez - 3