Operation Lone Thunder
Date: 03/26/2015
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Objective: Deactivate Bomb and prevent reactivation
Squad
| Name | Rank | Specialty | Missions | Kills |
| Coffee Warlord | Squaddie | Heavy | 2 | 3 |
| Poli Rules | Squaddie | Sniper | 3 | 2 |
| Benton Gale II | Rookie | none | 0 | 0 |
| Da Law | Squaddie | Assault | 2 | 4 |
Upon landing we are fully briefed and have limited time to deactivate the bomb, though we can extend it by locating the power nodes used to charge it and destroying them. This is already less than thrilling.
We send the rookie Gale towards the first activation chamber and he spots a thin man, who scampers for cover. Gale gets off a shot and wounds him. Warlord also has a shot and to everyone’s surprise misses…The thin man advances, evades an overview shot by Law and then hits Law and Poli with poison gas…Bad.
Poli gets out of the poison field and goes next to Gale for help, bur Gale ignores her and deactivates the first power node before going to overwatch. CW goes after the thin man, shoots and SCORES, her first non-rocket kill in ages, champagne later. Gale is doing work and deactivates a second node. Poli and Law are both suffering the effects of the poison, but will soldier on hoping it wears off.
A second sectoid appears as CW deactivates the 3rd node, we are holding steady on the clock for now. Poli spots the sectoid hiding behind a tanker and goes for a head shot, just missing. Things are getting desperate as the sectoid repositions and wounds Law. The bastard has us pinned and we need to gamble to get more time.
Law rises up and sends the little greenie harassing us to hell. Poli moves towards another node and spots the Bomb, it is now a matter of luck if we can get to it in time. The rookie comes through again, deactivating another node, but an alien spots him as he does so. Gale is in the open and we have to act. Warlord goes for broke, but can’t get a site on the alien, who then pops out and misses her. A close call for CW as she is also without cover.
We need to get to another node as we cannot reach the bomb this turn, so CW does the only sensible thing and takes out the sectoid with her rocket, with the bomb just out of the blast circle….a bit too close on that one. Law sprints up and spots another sectoid, already badly hurt he is on a bad position. Poli moves up to provide overwatch fire with her pistol, while Gale gets yet another node deactivated.
The sectoid pops out, Poli misses it and the bastard lines up Law and fires killing him….Dammit!!! Poli lines the murdering alien up and misses a head shot, argh. Gale then has to scramble to disarm another node, while CW makes a mad dash for the bomb, getting close enough to disarm it next turn, but she is totally vulnerable.
The alien creeps closer to Poli, fires and misses. Poli returns fire and this time puts a round through its chest, killing it. As Gale moves to provide cover, CW sprints for the bomb and disarms it. We think we are home free, but command indicates a new wave is now coming and they are pissed!! Two thin men pop down and Gale takes a reaction shot on one, but misses. We are going to be in a firefight here.
Poli looks to get into an advantageous spot, while Gale lines up the first thin man and blows him off the top of a box car for his first kill. CW draws a dead on the second thin man and plasters it!! Coffee Warlord has found her stroke!!
Summary
Operation Lone Thunder - Success
Aliens killed: 6 – Excellent
Operatives lost: 1 – Good
Bomb disarmed
Artifacts recovered
3 sectoid corpses, 3 thin man corpses and 10 weapon fragments. We can now conduct a thin man autopsy as well.
Promotions:
Poli Rules – Corporal, trains in squad sight to allow firing at any target in allies sight radius.
Benton Gale II – Squaddie, sniper.
Coffee Warlord – Corporal, trains in holo-targeting which gives +10 aim to any allies attacking an enemy she fires at or has suppressed.
We carry another body home, though Law takes one with him. Poli and Gale II both add kills as well, but Coffee Warlord is the hero taking out 3 aliens, two at pivotal points in the mission. No more jokes about her poor rifle skills! Poli will be out 6 days with her wounds and will spend the time celebrating her promotion and mourning the loss of her friend Da Law. We gain a much needed 196 credits and keep panic down as a result of our success.