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OPERATION BANISHED THRONE
Location: Lyons, France
Touchdown: March 21, 3:27 AM
Banished Throne wouldn't happen to be a reference to humanity's place in the food chain, perhaps?
We start in a crowded area, tough to get the open fields of fire I prefer. Lots of semi trucks parked and some other equipment. A pair of them on the right or a bigger row on the left are the only real options to begin, straight ahead means getting flanked early and often.
Coffee Warlord gets into the rear of a blue semi truck on the left, spying a pair of Sectoids immediately. So much for surprise. Normally we'd go around it, but we try defending from inside the open trailer itself.
One of them comes around from an unexpected angle ... flanking Idol and seriously injuring him. Warlord has a reply and kills it. That certainly could have gone better.
McCloud already has to burn his medikit, and Idol is mostly healed. Another one comes around the corner, but Idol leaps over the side of the trailer and finishes this one himself, a revenge kill point-blank with his shotgun. We split into two squads covering each end of the trailer, and on the far left Lights Out and Benton Gale II spy another pair. Warlord misses one of them.
The enemy splits as well, one on each side. The one on the left moved just yards in front of McCloud's LMG, with the predictable deadly results. The right sectoid overwatches instead, a more conservative and intelligent approach.
Ace Idol charges, not the smartest move, and he's hit again but not bad. His shotgun blast misses this time, but Coffee Warlord saves the day with a well-placed shot. I think Idol's number was up if that one missed.
Already a couple of mistakes on this mission, and Idol has gotten shot because of each one. We really need to get with it. Four sectoids down, there'll be more or worse upcoming.
More of them straight ahead, at least according to our ears. Probably a couple semis down this row. But before that, Coffee burns our final medikit to get Ace Idol back to basically full health.
Another pair are eventually spotted, and everyone but Gale fires ... got one of them there. I'm not sure who got it.
Further ahead and to the left is yet another group, but that one remaining sectoid is on the opposite side of the final semi. It slides left, spots Gale and is mystifyingly terrified enough to go back the other way. Great chance for her first kill, but she missed.
Lights Out tries to round the corner, but spots another two enemies, and he has to retreat to avoid getting flanked by them. Ace Idol around the other end ... another shotgun kill for him! We've fought our way through the parking lot, and now there's a lot of open territory up to a gas station, where the other two sectoids await us.
They mind-meld, and fire at Idol AGAIN. He's hit, again! Minor damage, but still. Award that man the order of the purple target.
Lights Out McCloud is just in range of a white van ... around the back corner and he's got a flank shot on the melder -- got him! Two for the price of one there, and it's over!
Other than getting Ace Idol shot every two seconds, this was a good mission. OPERATION BANISHED THRONE ends with 8 dead aliens, zone cleared, no operatives lost. Well done!!
*** OOC: I don't know whether to be proud or embarassed. I've never had anyone get shot three times in the same mission .. and live to tell about it. Not to mention 3 kills to go with it!
PERFORMANCE REVIEW
** Rk. Benton Gale II -- 0 kills. An inauspicious beginning, the one good opportunity was missed and a couple other off-target shots also.
** Sgt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 3 kills. Promoted to Lieutenant! Unquestionably the star operative of XCOM with 15 kills already(no one reached double figures in our first game)
** Cpl. Coffee Warlord -- 2 kills
** Sq. Ace Idol -- 3 kills, wounded(13 days). It seems getting yourself shot up like a practice range impacts promotions. Who'd have thunk. I'm just shocked it's not a grave injury.
ARTIFACTS
** 8 Sectoid Corpses
** 16 Weapons Fragments
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