[Raven Hawk]

Operation Knife Prince

Objective: Extract VIP
Reward: Scientist, Dr. Jia Li Sun; 81 Intel

Sq. Li will be leading the mission and bringing along Sq. Chas in Cinti and Sq. Breeze. We have another Rookie, Rk. Berg, who is joining us since Cpl. Kodos is unavailable. Chas in Cinti gets the Incendiary Grenade. Breeze gets the Flashbang. Li gets the tracers. We decide to give Breeze the Advanced Laser sight. After he got over his nerves last mission, he performed solidly.

We have Dr. Sun in tow at the start of the mission and need to extract her. Advent knows we’re here, so we’re not concealed. We will need to be a little more cautious from the outset.

We take up initial positions and we spot an Officer and a Clacker. We were on overwatch and were able to injure the Officer, but the Clacker got to cover.

Li moves to flank the Clacker and the tracers help. He hits it and drops it. Berg moves up and lobs a frag at the Officer who is in heavy cover and drops him. We continue moving forward with Dr. Sun skitting along behind us.
Li moves up and spots a Sectiod and 2 Clackers. Chas in Cinti moves in and drops his incendiary grenade on the two Clackers – drops them both. Chas in Cinti grins as he says, “Me likey the new ordinance.” Breeze notices that Chas in Cinti has the Sectoid flanked and moves into cover right behind him. He fires on the flanked Sectoid, but he misses. Berg moves into cover postion.

The Sectoid moves out of Breeze’s range and gets some Psionic Energy flowing. Chas in Cinti’s eyes roll back in his skull and start glowing purple. He turns on the rest of the unit! Breeze moves to quickly frag the Sectoid. He wounds the Sectoid, but doesn’t knock out his cover. In a desperate move, Li climbs to a rooftop to get a better angle on the Sectoid and fires. He hits him, but the Sectoid is still up, dammit! It’s up to Berg who has a low percentage shot on the Sectoid to take him out and bring Chas in Cinti back to us. She fires . . . and misses. Dr. Sun clears out and hides. Chas in Cinti, controlled by the Sectoid, moves to flank Breeze, fires, and . . . . MISSES!

The Sectoid makes his own move, flanking Berg. He discharges his plasma rifle and . . . . hits Berg square in the back. She goes down with a huge hole in her torso. Luckily, nobody panics. Li and Breeze both move to get a better shot on the Sectoid., but both miss their shots. Chas in Cinti turns his attention to Li, firing his cannon. He hits him in the left shoulder. About the panicking . . . I spoke too soon. Li panics, runs, and hunkers down. The Sectoid’s head starts glowing purple again as he resurrects the Officer that we dropped. We now have a Zombie in the mix to distract us from taking the Sectoid out.

But we’re smarter than that. Breeze finally flanks the Sectoid, fires his cannon, and drops him. The Zombie chortles as its psionic energy dissipates and it falls to the ground. The Sectoid has dropped some loot. Chas in Cinti falls to his knees grabbing his head. Li stops panicking.

“Wha? What happened?” Chas in Cinti asks.

Breeze calls out over the comms, “The Sectoid got in your head. You shot at me, you bastard!”

Li jumps in quickly, “Shut it. We’ve got work to do.” He spots Dr. Sun hiding behind a column and beckons her forward.

Everybody reloads. Li strolls over to the Sectoid corpse, kicks it hard, and then picks up the loot. Looks like another Elerium Core and a nice scope. We’re running out of time to extract, but we’re not too far away from the extraction point. However, we know there are still hostiles in the area and Li is bleeding pretty badly. We know that the extraction point is on the roof of the building we're next to, but have no visual on the other hostiles. We set ourselves up to make a run for it. Sending Dr. Sun first. And GO!

Dr. Sun sprints for the extraction point! She makes it without any hostile contact. Li goes next as he needs to get to the first aid kit onboard the Skyranger. He takes off! He grabs the Skyranger’s rope with his good arm and gets reeled in. Chas in Cinti and Breeze follow without alerting the hostiles either and the Skyranger takes off. Li gets to the first aid kit as the Skyranger takes off.

Operation: Knife Prince

Enemies Killed: 6
Soldiers Wounded: 1 – Sq. Li
Soldiers Killed: 1 – Rk. Berg
Rating: Good
Loot: Superior Scope, Elerium Core, Corpses
Award: Scientist, Dr. Jia Li Sun, 81 Intel

AAR: In hindsight, when Chas in Cinti had a flanked shot on the Sectoid, he should have taken it. The decision to drop the incendiary grenade on the two Clackers was good, but hindsight being 20/20, the Sectoid tore us up. Breeze and Chas in Cinti were lucky to escape unwounded, though both perhaps mentally scarred. Alternatively, Breeze could have dropped the Flashbang on the Sectoid instead of saving it for later, preventing him from using his psychic powers for at least 1 round. Thought we had him when Breeze was able to drop a frag on him and Li was in position to take advantage of his cover being destroyed. With the cover holding, we were unable to take him out for a few turns, exposing our soldiers to gunfire, injury, and Berg's death.

Casualties
Berg: KIA – dropped by a Sectoid plasma bolt through the back. Remains left in AO.
Li: Wounded – 47 Days (need to get the Advanced Warfare Center built!)

Promotions
Chas in Cinti: Squaddie GRENADIER > Corporal (Shredder Rounds)