Operation First Stroke
Date: 03/14/2015
Location: Rural Germany
Objective: Locate downed UFO sweep and eliminate hostiles
Squad
| Name | Rank | Specialty | Missions | Kills |
| Benton Gale | Squaddie | Heavy | 2 | 2 |
| Poli Rules | Squaddie | Sniper | 1 | 1 |
| Coffee Warlord | Rookie | none | 0 | 0 |
| Da Law | Squaddie | Assault | 1 | 1 |
We land in a wooded remote area, with large gaps of open space between suitable cover, so we will be very patient on this mission. No action as we deploy from the Sky Ranger and take our initial positions.
We continue to move up cautiously and finally hear something just east of the wreckage. I would love to get Poli to high ground, but there is really none to be found as the crash is on the most elevated area around.
Finally after what seems like an eternity we hit the wreck and Law and CW get the first visual of a sectoid as they creep up on it. Law fires and misses, but Warlord follows up with a kill shot. A second sectoid takes off to the right of the crash and spot Gale, wounding him with laser blast. Gale retaliates and takes the sectoid out with a full auto blast of lead and with no other bogies in sight we advance on the craft.
Gale spots 2 sectoids west of the crash as we continue to close in, but they immediately scamper into the swamp upon detection, CW joins Gale behind an embankment and they wait. Sure enough an sectoid re-emerges and in an exchange of gunfire all Gale, CW and the alien all miss. Meanwhile Law moves up closer and spots an alien we have not seen before in the craft. The creature move and Poli lines it up in her sights and misses. Law lobs a grenade at it and wounds whatever it is, taking a piece of its cover away as well.
Gale and CW both miss their quarry again and it proves costly as the sectoid moves to a better angle and rips off a shot, nailing Gale in the head. Benton is dead before he hits the ground, never knowing what hit him, our first loss. Warlord is able to wound the sectoid that took Gale, but the little bastard returns fire, thankfully missing CW. Law spots the CW’s target and employs a run and gun strategy, flanking the sectoid and then putting him in the dirt, Gale is avenged.
Still one left to the west, so Law and Warlord head that way. As they approach the sectoid appears, CW fires and misses her reaction shot. The sectoid fires at Law and wounds him. Poli can’t get a shot, so maintains her position outside the door to the UFO on overwatch. Law has the sectoid flanked and shakes off his wound to return fire, placing a round in the aliens chest dropping it were it stands. Turns out that the unknown alien Law saw in the craft succumbed to its wounds from the grenade, so that wraps it up!
Summary
Operation First Stroke - Success
Aliens killed: 5 – Excellent
Operatives lost: 1 – Good
Artifacts recovered
Alien nav computer, 4 sectoid corpses, 12 elerium, 46 alien alloys, 8 weapon fragments, UFO flight computer, UFO flight controller (damaged) and a UFO power source (damaged). A good haul and we will probably get a fair price on the gray market for the alloys and damaged salvage we can’t research.
Promotions:
Coffee Warlord – Squaddie, Heavy
The spoils go to Law with 3 confirmed kills and Gale and Coffee Warlord with 1 apiece. This was not a sniper friendly mission, so Poli comes up empty, but struck a fine figure with her snipers rifle. Unfortunately we take one of our own home in a body bag, oh Benton Gale, we hardly knew ye. May your kin last longer than you did. Law sustains minor injuries and will be out for 9 days recovering.