The Invasion Has Only Just Begun(XCOM EW+LW, Interactive)

[Brian Swartz]

July 7, 0626 -- Within less than an hour, the report came in from Fischer that it was time for a stealth retraction with the info from the US EXALT cell.


Extraction Squad

CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO)
SPEC David Campbell(UK, Infantry)
LCPL Carl Tanner(USA, Scout)
LCPL Didier Keita(MEX, Gunner)

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION SPECTRAL PYRE
7.7.2015, 0813
United States

This ... could get interesting. Fischer is all the way on the other side of an abandoned military base. There is a comm relay close by, however. She'll definitely need her legs for this. An operative spots her before she can get there though, and she's forced to seek cover. Time for us to get moving.

Tanner spots one and wounds it, forcing a retreat but another half-dozen or so show up, all around the second relay. A second shows up over by Fischer and pops a smoke grenade. She snags the first and moves towards the second -- the only way this works is if we can give her enough cover to get to it. We manage one minor flesh wound and that's it, while two more drop in behind her. That's 11 operatives now, for those scoring at home. Fischer dashes for the second relay -- and just makes it, right in the thick of the hornet's nest. Time to go ...

Keita guns one down as we retreat, five more arrive. We're not taking many of them with us, but I could care less. They can't catch us as we make the final dash.


Post-Mortem

We only take one of them down but grab the intel and suffer no casualties. If Fischer was even a step slower, she'd have been dead, but she made it. Another 20 million is recovered, and we now have evidence that the EXALT base is not in South Africa.

[Brian Swartz]

Fischer is promoted, giving us enough ranks to upgrade our standard mission allotment to the maximum of eight soldiers! All we have left in the OTS is the progression of higher officer ranks, the logistical improvements have all been taken care of. This costs 12 million, easily paid out of the recovered funds. Another suit of armor is ordered, with a bit of the money being conserved for the time being. An older trade offer is also approved, six ounces of meld for a pair of scientists to Japan. We've got enough to spare now, and it's the least we can do after the failed abduction.

Later in the day, more UFO activity is reported, this time over Australia.

July 8, 0550 -- Low-flying medium raider spotted over Russia. The fighter situation is looking good, so we'll go after this one. 'Chainsaw' Katz, one of our best, gets in a few hits but is fortunate to get out in one piece. 'Peanuts' Hatch can't take it down but nearly does so, perhaps one more can finish it off? 'Plugger' Martin takes care of it for his first kill, but once again it's a destroyed UFO with nothing to recover.

While all that was going on, the access lift was finished. Excavating our way over to the steam vent begins, the first stage taking a pricey 8 million that far down. The rest of the bounty from the UFO goes another two suits of armor. We've now got two with five more in production, nearly enough to outfit a full squad. Two of the fighters will be out for the better part of a month, so we'll have to be a bit more cautious for a while. Russia though is pleased with our efforts.

July 9, 0259 -- Brazil requests 20 weapon fragments for an engineer. We have far more than we are using, and make the trade. Less than an hour later, I'm in my office reviewing the latest from Dr. Vahlen on the autopsy of the purple menaces known as Chryssalids. The title says simply, Project Ridley

"I had never encountered something quite as beautiful, yet equally as deadly, as this species. ... When a human is bitten, an embryo is injected into the host and immediately begins to gestate. Once gestation is complete, which remarkably lasts only minutes, a new Chryssalid will emerge, destroying it's host in the process."

"we have finally managed to isolate the exoskeletal renegenerative capabilities."

That last part is the most relevant, as it offers at least the hope of a practical application. In the meantime, Dr. Shen says that we can build something called Chitin Plating from their remains, but we can't reproduce the materials ourselves. At 9 million plus 20 kg of alloys and 10 carcasses apiece, they are not cheap. It's somewhat heavier than our current underarmour plating, but provides better protection(+3 health) and also reduces damage from any melee attackers such as the chryssalids themselves along with allowing resistance to the seeker strangulation assaults. Definitely worth considering, it might be a good thing to equip privates with to keep them alive perhaps the hard-hitting infantry and assault soldiers that seekers pursue most aggressively. At the moment, we don't have enough raw material in the form of chryssalid remains to do anything with this immediately.

Dr. Vahlen is pleased to begin her next task, as we will finally interrogate the thin man that has been cooling it's heels in containment for some weeks now. This will require six days, and it is not expected that the subject will survive the process ...

By day's end, two more suits of phalanx armor were ready for deployment.

July 10, 0022 -- A large UFO on a very low orbit is spotted near the pacific northwest in the United States. The obligatory token effort is made. We're down now to a half-dozen operable fighters, three on each continent. The aliens continue on, landing in Dallas followed shortly by an abduction alert(moderate/9m). Off to Texas ...


Strike Squad

LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, Gunner, CO)
SPEC Kobe Cuvelier(BEL, Assault)
LCPL Naomi Foster(USA, Engineer)
SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, Infantry)
SPEC Luca Basso(ITA, Medic)
LCPL Hannah Cullen(CAN, Rocketeer)
SPEC Christy Kodos(CAN, Sniper)
PFC Roberto Alfonso(MEX)

With no scout available, caution is the order of the day here. On the other hand, we'll be taking out a full squad of eight for the first time. Christy Kodos and LT Strobe get another crack at it.

[chesapeake]

Aw, crap. Bad bit of luck, that.

Sign me up for another go 'round.

[Brian Swartz]

Will do. Any specifics? Ches O'Peake II, or something else? You were looking for USA nationality, no preference on skills last time -- I'll go with that again unless you tell me otherwhise.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION MORBID SENTINEL
7.10.2015, 0320
Dallas, United States

The squad lands in front of a laundromat, no roof access so we move inside. We can check the other side from a pair of doors or there is an adjacent building we couldn investigate, but I like the cover better in here. Sounds like mutons -- and also, I think, a cyberdisc, out past these doors. Fan-freaking-tastic.

A pair of thin men are actually first. A grenade by Foster destroys a dumpsters one is hiding behind, while Cuvelier is on the far roof with the second one. Strobe can't quite finish the first one off though, so Basso has to do it. Cuvelier reports there is indeed a cyberdisc here, approaching from past the rooftop he's on, and the second thin men misses a shot at him. No time to discuss in committee, he dashes along the roof and blasts the thin man ... somehow failing to kill it. Well that's just great.


This was NOT the time to be a bit off target





Nobody else can get there. Foster moves out into the alley and tosses up an AP grenade to finish off the thin man. Now we can, hopefully, focus on that approaching cyberdisc. Strobe handles one of it's drones, while the others work on getting in position. A sectoid and muton approach from the other direction, while the disc moves up to the roof and misses a shot at Cuvelier. This is getting interesting fast. A combination of grenade and Alfonso burst badly injure the muton but it's till there, while Cuvelier climbs down and launches his grenade, giving the sectoid something to think about. There's a floater as well though ...







We miss overwatch shots, they all fire at Cuvelier and miss as well. We had the muton suppressed and he had decent cover from everyone else. Now he's suppressed, and everyone is involved in this: drone, cyberdisc, muton, sectoid, floater. The critical moment is definitely here. Twitch takes out the second drone. Now the disc is alone in it's efforts. Kodos sights in -- and completely misses the cyberdisc. That was not the time to screw up ... A huge shot by Cuvelier takes care of the sectoid, ending the suppression and Foster's final grenade finishes off the muton. Alfonso gets in a wounding shot on the floater, and Strobe suppresses the cyberdisc, but they've still got plenty of firepower between those two to cause plenty of pain.


This was the big moment of this mission. Congratulations -- on screwing it up, Specialist Kodos. Back to the firing range with you ...





The floater fires back at Alfonso -- and he's history! Well that definitely sucks. Cyberdisc misses a shot at Kodos. Basso drops the floater. Now all we need to do here is end that stupid disc. We get in a few hits, but a couple are only glancing blows and none do major damage. Strobe has to suppress again. It's enough to make the thing miss Cuvelier.

Kodos misses, but Cuvelier finally ends it from up close. We aren't done yet, but that was the worst of it. Had to be, didn't it? We're a man down, but it could have been a lot worse. I think I took the wrong approach to the alley, and it nearly cost us a lot more. After reloading, we hear something, but whatever it is intermittent and quiet, from the street we arrived from. There's a nearby ladder: we'll take the high road.

Moving up, Cuvelier spots them -- looks like a pair of seekers, maybe three. One goes to stealth. Basso's SMG manages to just get through the armor for a minor bit of damage to the second. Foster misses, while the others scramble to get in position. One strangels Cuvelier on the roof, the second goes to stealth itself. Superb. Despite best efforts, it takes a bit for Twitch to get up there and do enough damage to release grip -- the others closer just didn't have the firepower. Cuvelier gets healed up and we ready for the other one. It goes for Foster and soon afterward a bit of revenge for Cuvelier as he blasts it to pieces.


Post-Mortem

Not happy about the loss of another soldier but at least it was just a private. We take down 10 of them including another cyberdisc, and get three promotions as well.

Artifacts Recovered

1 Sectoid Corpse
1 Floater Corpse
1 Thin Man Corpse
1 Cyberdisc Wreck
2 Drone Wrecks
5 kg Elerium
7 kg Alien Alloys
9 Weapon Fragments
2 Seeker Wrecks

Just of half of the reward money plus an extra million goes to recruiting two more soldiers. With three recent missions and the expansion of the mission squad, fresh blood is needed once again.

[Brian Swartz]

July 10 -- Finally we have a decent scout available, with Coffee 'Slim' Warlord cleared by medical to return.

July 11, 0554 -- Low-flying medium raider in the southeastern US. We don't have enough fighters to risk making a serious attempt to take it down, but 'Blinker' Kamala goes up, gives it a couple of hits in the token effort, then retreats.

0723 -- Fission generator finished. We've got enough power now to build a genetics lab, but need a little more cash first.

1823 -- Small scout in Russia. 'Boss' Bordoni takes it down easily, and this time we have an actual crash not a destroyed ship. Ok, this is our chance to perhaps finally capture an Outsider. With the way we are running low on fighters, there may not be another one for a very long time. Based on past experience, we'll probably outnumber the survivors of the crew; this is an opportunity we simply must cash in on.

**Almost caught up now, about eight and a half days behind. The missions are coming fast enough that it's like XCOM is toying with me to keep me from getting back up to 'present time'. We'll get there soon enough though.**

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Will do. Any specifics? Ches O'Peake II, or something else? You were looking for USA nationality, no preference on skills last time -- I'll go with that again unless you tell me otherwhise.

The name is fine. I have no preferences for anything else. Other than that you not get me killed this time.

[Brian Swartz]

No promises :P. We're at about the point in the game now where the likelihood of people getting killed on a regular basis is likely to rise considerably .

Ches O'Peake II is from Brazil(English-speaking), and is the next private slated to go out on a mission after the next one(third on the list, but two privates are set to go on the scout raid). The particulars:

Health: 5
Mobility: 13
Will: 19
Aim: 71
Defense: 2

Being physically tough should help with that whole not-getting-killed thing, at least in theory. Average mobility, very good aim, above-average defense to help avoid getting shot in the first place. This is all balanced by the fact that you cower in terror at the very thought of your own shadow. In other words, not officer potential, but the odds are good to eventually become a darn good soldier.





As for that next mission:

Assault Squad

CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO)
CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell(UK, Assault)
SPEC Ana Mendez(ESP, Engineer)
LCPL Geoff Russell(USA, Gunner)
SPEC Jonathan Onifade(NIG, Medic)
SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout)
PFC Simran Banerjee(NIG)
PFC Filip Jovanovich(BIH)

Tombstone and Slim are key here. Normally they wouldn't go on a small scout raid, but the point here is the importance of the mission. Their job will be to capture the Outsider, regardless of risk to their person -- they'll be carrying the two arc throwers. It will be 24-48 hours until we have another scout(Tanner will be back soon), but that's deemed a risk worth taking here. Mendez will provide explosives support if needed, and only two privates for the same reason of mission importance. The need for more soldier continues: the treasury is essentially wiped out with four more recruits authorized. There are 14 in recovery already, and 9 on the injured list. The pace of missions hasn't been bad lately, but it's been enough that with a couple of deaths and the increased squad size, the Tactical Ops roster will need to keep growing.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION LOST LINE

For the first time in I can't remember when, we're dropped in a fairly desolate countryside. When in doubt, follow the burning debris -- and soon there was the sound of a meld canister and what was probably floaters in that direction as well. It took almost 15 minutes, but eventually Slim spotted them -- five of the flying bastards. Well, this was certainly no ordinary scout ship if that was their opening salvo. Three went to overwatch, two approached, and the squad spread out while Slim gave the closest a bit of a flesh wound. The firefight had begun.

Sheriff and Jovanovic missed the leader as it approached. Four went on overwatch, while one teleported behind us. Onifade was the rear-guard and the medic took care of business, dropping it and reducing us to one front again. Some serious damage was needed here, we'll be flanked all over the place by these guys soon. Anyone who moved, even Slim, would most likely be dead with the hail of fire these guys could put down. Sheriff and Slim managed to wound two of them pretty good, and Sheriff and Russell combined to suppress the other two. Hopefully that would limit how much damage they could do.

Three of them overwatched again, a fourth moved slightly ... and overwatched as well. Were they waiting for us to run out of ammunition or something? If so, it worked. We did nothing but miss, miss, miss some more ... they adjusted their positions and continued to overwatch. Very strange. We mostly missed and reloaded, though Sheriff landed a good blast that badly wounded the leader. Only one healthy floater left, and it was kept on suppression lockdown by the captain while Russell finally knocked another out of the sky. Three left.

In response, they ... wait for it ... adjusted their positions slightly and went back on overwatch. It's as if there is a glitch in their programming. Oh well. Not that we were doing much better by missing ... and missing ... and missing ... and missing again. The furthest two finally moved, and the one healthy floater tagged Slim on a flank. He's still ok, but will need medical attention. A second fired at him and missed.


Equal opportunity here to shoot the air around the floaters but not the enemy itself. Onifade was the guilty part in this particular moment





Time to end this. Slim moved in a dropped one, Tombstone dashed over to the flanker and put it down. We couldn't get to the last one but it was hurt and just missed Slim again. At least five more misses, nobody could bring it down. Unfreaking believable. Onifade got to Slim with a medikit and Russell suppressed the thing again. Naturally, it went on overwatch.

After umpteen and a half chances, Jovanovic finally got his first kill bringing the stupid thing down. Ok. The ship was nearby to the west. We've gotten Slim hurt but not too badly, another medikit and he was right as rain for the moment. Everyone reloaded and advanced carefully, waiting to hear what might be next. We heard nothing. No meld, no more enemies. That was possible, but it would be strange for there not to be a second squad. Seekers or drones perhaps? Well, we'd soon find out. On to the ship.

Slim heard something off to the right, so the squad diverted that way. After all this time, there was still an active canister ... but it expired just before he got to it. Naturally. Sigh. But that wasn't our biggest goal today. Still no other sounds or signs except back toward the ship. It was time to go get what we came here for.

Maneuevering back around to the door without getting close enough to be spotted was very time-consuming, but also absolutely necessary. Finally, all was in readiness.


Ready to move in on the ship



The outsider found a decent position when it spotted us, but really pretty accessible. It could have been worse. It was too far for either Slim or Tombstone to reach right away though. Jovanovic put down a flashbang to limit what damage it would be able to do. Russell flushed it out of cover, and Banerjee damn near killed the thing on accident. Everyone else looked for decent positions and waited. It just shot at Jovanovic, missing.







Ok, time to finish this off. As fast as these things heal, it was up to half strength again. Jovanovic moved in with a good pistol shot after a couple of others missed, and it was go time with the arc throwers. Slim was up first. The readout showed almost a coin-flip chance of success ... and got him on the first try!! Only a small piece was left as the alien disappeared as usual ... hopefully Vahlen could do something with it.


Coffee 'Slim' Warlord stands next to his prize. He may have gotten injured again on this operation, but his name is now a part of XCOM history as the man responsible for capturing the long-awaited next piece of the alien puzzle.



Post-Mortem

6 enemies were taken down, and what is being called the 'outsider shard' finally captured. Along with three promotions and a few more resources, one injury to show for it even to an experienced scout is a price happily paid.

Artifacts Recovered

1 Alien Carbine
5 Floater Corpses
6 kg Elerium
12 kg Alien Alloys
5 Weapon Fragments
2 Meld
2 UFO Flight Computers(1 damaged)
1 UFO Power Source(damaged)
1 Outsider Shard

[Brian Swartz]

I forgot to mention, both privates were promoted and both joined the Scout class. One of them is a bit on the slow side for that, but since neither can shoot worth a darn it's worth throwing bodies at a badly needed position. We may have four of them injured, but we're up to seven scouts total now.

An immediate executive committee conference was called after the 'capture' of the outsider, with Vahlen joining via videolink from the research labs, everyone else in the Situation Room.







Shen: "Is that all that's left of the specimen we attempted to capture?

Vahlen: "Yes. I believe we may have found the source of the strange readings we picked up when we first encountered it."

Bradford: "What ... is it, Doctor?

Vahlen: "We're not exactly sure. It's organic in nature yet highly magnetized and it appears to resonate very faintly within a specific electromagnet spectrum. It is currently unclear how, ... or ... "

English, doctor, if it's not too much to ask.

Shen(interrupting): "Perhaps that's because this is outside your field of expertise, doctor. If what you're saying is true, this object is an antenna -- one that's receiving a signal."

Bradford: "That signal -- can we trace it?"

Shen: "No. At least, not yet. We would first need to determine its encryption algorithm."

Vahlen: "My team can handle that."

Shen: "In that case, I will focus on constructing an interface between this object and our global communications array, which we will need to trace the signal."

Bradford: "Then it looks like researching this ... 'crystal' should be our top priority."

The work required to decipher this 'decryption algorithm' has been termed 'Alien Operations'. As of right now it would take almost two weeks, and finishing the current interrogation and one additional shorter project investigation the enemy's computing capabilities are slated to be finished first. By the end of the month though, I expect Vahlen's research teams to be working on this issue. We aren't going to delay it for long.


July 12 -- LT Cargo and three others return to duty. At 1116, a high-flying small satellite hunter of indeterminate class is spotted over Mexico. Time to go to work. 'Notso' Sharpe gets in a couple of hits but can't take it down. 'Mangler' Neale finishes it off easily and just like that, we have a second small UFO to go after in as many days! What's interesting is this was an unidentified class, meaning it doesn't match the known schematics for scout or raider. Perhaps this is something new.

Two more soldiers are now going to be needed. 10 are presently out injured, 17 in recovery with another eight headed on this mission. It's another one of those stretches where attrition seems to be the greatest enemy. The damaged components from yesterday's raid are just enough to fund the recruitments. The fighter situation is pretty bad once again as well. There are only two available with eight undergoing repair. Both of the operational craft are en route to North America, making Europe completely defenseless at the moment.

Assault Squad

CPL Katia 'Sentinel' Rivera(MEX, Engineer)
LCPL Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, Gunner)
SGT Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, Infantry)
LCPL Jin-Soon Yoon(KOR, Medic)
LCPL Eliana Soares(BRA, Rocketeer)
LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, Sniper)
PFC Mariya Markova(RUS)
PFC Ches O'Peake II(BRA)

Not having a spare scout or assault to go made it an easier selection of soldiers for this mission. Other than Zhang, it's a solid but unspectacular and definitely incomplete squad, especially with no officer to spare for it either. Nobody has died twice yet; will Ches O'Peake be the first?

[Brian Swartz]

**Grrr. Messed up again with the screenshots, I think I'm hitting the wrong hotkey. Unfortunate because there were a couple of good ones here. Hopefully the desc. will suffice and I'll work on the issue**

OPERATION DEMON GAZE
7.12.2015, 1515
Mexico

We touch down at a farm. Well, that's new -- we've seen the aliens just about anywhere else. Sounds like mutons at first as the squad moves into the maze of vehicles and small structures to investigate. Well, we didn't get all dressed up for nuthin' ...

Sentinel has been trained in the art of sprinting quickly around the battlefield, making her the de facto scout here. Soon we here movement ahead on the left near a barn ... and a canister straight right across a field. We can always use more resources; the squad wheels right. This puts privates Markova and O'Peake closest to Sentinel with the others attempting to catch up from their positions on the left of the previous formation.

Dashing across the field, Sentinel hears movement to the left but ignores it, just getting to the canister in time for a seven-ounce reward. Another one was heard way over by the barn; it's probably too late to get that one but there were enemies out that way. The search continues.

The enemy sounds a lot closer now as Sentinel reaches the edge of the field again. It's time to be more cautious. We spot the ship on the right as they cross back off of it, but there are other targets first. Demirovic finds a perch on top of a small shack to overlook the area.

That canister is still active, and sounds like it's in the barn itself. What we can hear is more like floaters than mutons now. Mirabeau ill-advisedly breaks a window and announces our presence, and then they come out of the barn. A muton, a floater, and something else that stays in there. Chilong's reaction shot is off-target. Here we go.

Yoon has a good angle on the floater and wounds it ... but he's spotted by the outsider and a drone inside the ship! Well this could be a lot more fun than I'm interested in. Sentinel moves in with a frag grenade, destroying the muton's cover -- and then panics at it's bellow of rage. For goodness sake, you're a freaking corporal! Act like it, soldier.

Chilong guns down the muton, and Demirovic wounds the outsider to keep it busy. She's a sitting duck if we don't keep them at a safe distance ... All kinds of activity now. The final canister expires, the outsider suppresses Yoon, drone flies out to be annoying, and the wounded floater teleports far behind us. Meanwhile, the last enemy in the barn was another floater, which tries to charge and a fine shot by Mirabeau atones for her mistake, dropping it instantly!

Demirovic has the best handle on the floater behind us, but misses it. Mirabeau does as well. That could be trouble. Soares has to use her standard rocket to finish the job. The floater goes up in flames, as to two pickup trucks. Overkill, but we can't fight on both sides and Demirovic really dropped the ball on that shot. Markova heads toward the ship to help out -- and gets tagged by a seeker that nobody saw, stealthed near the barn! Jerk aliens are really being sneaky in this one. She fires back, on target though she received more than she gave. A critical moment, and Ches O'Peake slides over and downs the bastard! Zhang tags the outsider which has to release his suppressing fire, allowing Yoon to retreat and bounce a few shells harmlessly off the drone. That may have started badly, but it ended well.

The drone simply advances, unsure of what to do, while the outsider comes out within range of Demirovic -- but misses. It's hurt, but that was still a gift. She fires back and basically erases what it gained through it's natural rapid healing. Sentinel moves in with a frag grenade, exposing the bastard so that Chilong can gun it down. That stupid drone though eludes a number of shots. O'Peake is again the man on target to bring it down -- heck of a start for him! The scanners say there are still more of them out there somewhere though ...

Everyone reloads, Markova gets healed, I have no idea where ... oh. There was another seeker. It strangles Soares, catching everyone by surprise. Markova's shot just bounces off. Even Mirabeau's machine gun from close range barely does anything. Demirovic puts the lights out on it though and we're finally clear.


Post-Mortem

For a small raid with seven enemies, this one sure had a lot of surprises. Mariya Markova is proving to be one bad-luck private: she hit two enemies with her shooting but is injured for almost four weeks and after two missions, has nothing to show for it in terms of rank or kills. Demirovic is promoted despite blowing the floater shot, and so is our most recent private after a fine two-kill performance.


Artifacts Recovered

1 Floater Corpse
1 Muton Corpse
1 Drone Wreck
6 kg Elerium
12 kg Alien Alloys
6 Weapon Fragments
7 oz. Meld
2 UFO Flight Computers(1 damaged)
1 UFO Power Source(damaged)
2 Seeker Wrecks

Once again 4.5m is gained from the damaged components. This ship has been designated the fighter class, analysis of this type based on the info recovered is now possible.

[Brian Swartz]

Ches O'Peake II, you did not stay a private for long! You have been promoted to specialist after bagging a seeker and a drone, and quite possibly saving the life of your fellow private in the process. Well done!!

Gunner/Rocketeer has been pre-selected. Your skills make you at least decent at any class and you'd be good at either one. We currently have six of each. Choosing random might get you a slightly less crowded profession(five in Engineer, Assault, and Sniper right now) or something more so, although scout(7) is the only one. There's a pretty decent balance right now.

Commander's Recommendation: I'd lead toward random, with a half-decent chance you could take your accurate aiming into a premium killing class like assault, sniper, or infantry. It's also possible you could get stuck as a medic, engineer, or scout which would all be less optimal than the gunner/rocketeer choice so it's not without risk. Really depends if you want to take the risk or not.

SPEC Ches O'Peake II, you are now on the clock and the choice is yours to make.

[chesapeake]

I'm OK with random. Let's roll the dice and take our chances.

[Brian Swartz]

And the result is ... Scout. We now have 8 of them. However, they do get used a LOT as has been seen -- but it's not exactly the best choice for staying safe as half your job is now basically to get shot at.

Health: 5(--)
Will: 26(+7)
Aim: 76(+5)

Quite a nice bump here. Average mobility isn't great for a scout, but it'll pass. Looks like you'll shape up to be fairly similar to Slim(Coffee Warlord), an offense-oriented scout; not as fast, but an even better shooter.

[Brian Swartz]

1926 -- About a half-hour after the team returns, the first of the laser weapons are finished by Shen's engineers. These will help significantly, but we will also need to be careful. With most soldiers regularly going out with all manner of advanced equipment now, any losses will be costly not just in terms of the manpower but in the loss of the classified gear they are using.

China immediately requests some of the new weapons, offering a corporal in return. Um, no -- we're going to need those.. Another suit of phalanx armor is finished a couple of hours later.

July 13 -- Excavation finished on the bottom level. Another effort is needed to clear the space by the steam vent itself, but that will have to wait for financing. Five soldiers return, including Captain 'Axle' Brodie. Also, the rest of the laser weapons and two more suits of armor are completed.

July 14 -- Australia joins the 'we want a satellite' chorus. No way we can try to cover a third continent. LT 'Strobe' Hoo and Christy Kodos along with a pair of others are back. A third fighter returns to give us just a hair of breathing room; Europe now at least has something to send up.

July 15 -- Recovery continues to clear out with five more soldiers ready now. At 0626, the report on the thin man interrogation hits my desk. This one is titled [i]Project

'proven both illuminating and disturbing ... the captive was surprisingly ... pliable once we began the procedure ... the Thin man proved to be quite familiar with alien energy management systems.'

That last bit will allow our research teams to significantly improve the speed of laser weaponry advances according to the good Doctor. That would have been good to know a few weeks ago, but there are still more applications that will benefit. Any increase in research speed is extremely valuable and beneficial; perhaps I have been remiss in not prioritizing the capture of floater and muton specimens.

For now, UFO Analysis: Fighter will take just a couple of days and requires no further resources, so they'll take time to knock that out.

July 16, 0229 -- Alien abductions in Australia. Heavy/10 million for this one. At least we've got quite a few soldiers back now. 11 injured, and most of the 10 in recovery will be back soon. Still quite a few but manageable.

This is our eighth mission of the month, one every other day on average so far. July looks like it's set to be the busiest of the war so far. Have we accomplished anything other than annoying the aliens?

There was a lot of campaigning to go out here and get a chance at using the new laser weapons. Everyone would get their chance though, and the normal criteria that have served XCOM well in balancing the immediate and long-term needs of our seemingly interminable fight for the freedom of our species would be followed once again.


Strike Squad

LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, Engineer, CO)
LCPL Ted Jordan(USA, Assault)
LCPL Antonio Santos(BRA, Infantry)
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
LCPL Sophie Deschamps(FRA, Rocketeer)
LCPL Carl Tanner(USA, Scout)
LCPL Takumi Fujita(JPN, Sniper)
PFC Lewis Ferguson(SCO)

[Coffee Warlord]

Coffee needs an officer's commision.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Coffee needs an officer's commision.

The Commander wishes to inform you that this is relatively unlikely. That isn't to say that you aren't qualified. Among non-officers, on the strength of you own merits(i.e., raw will comparison, high enough min. experience), you would be tied for the third-best choice. However, there already is a scout officer(Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke), and scout is the second-worst(after sniper) class for an officer to be since some of the abilities depend on being close to the rest of the squad in order to be effective.

You're still a general badass -- your role is to be the #1 scout of choice for priority missions. Nobody else has the combination of mobility and shooting that you do. A more likely path for your further development is as a candidate for genetic modification or possibly even psionic training, though we aren't *quite* there yet.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION ENDURING CRONE
7.16.2015, 0421
Perth, Australia

From the starting street corner the squad heads left towards a possible canister location to start. It's in the street, movement in the building ahead and on the right as we approach. Jordan dashes in to snag another 7-ounce load before it expires, spotting a pair of thin man and another of seekers as he gets there. One of the seekers charges, the other to stealth. He could be overexposed there. He blasts the first seeker and drops it ... and two drones approach from the building. Ok then.



Fujita takes aim at one of the thin men, missing. Cargo takes out part of the building and some cover, and Tanner moves up for a good shot from the upper level but can only give a glancing blow to the exposed thin man. Darn it. The thin men both go for suppressing shots while the cloaked seeker grabs a stranglehold on Jordan. Santos knocks a drone out of the sky as it moves, but another one shows up so there are still two of them out there. Definitely under a lot of pressure here.

Fujita misses again. He's doing no good so far. Deschamps misses as well, but Whiskey gets our first laser kill, melting a second drone. Tanner dodges suppression fire and nearly takes out the thin man on the upper level. He's on an island up there but so far is ok. Santos drops the final drone, but we only do light damage to the seeker and his grip increases. The injured thin man misses a shot at Tanner, the other ducks inside and goes on overwatch.


That building just blew up ... or a sizable part of this side of it, at any rate. What crappy construction




Whiskey demonstrates the power of the new laser weapons. The plant is history, but unfortunately the seeker was perfectly safe from the beam.





Fujita misses for a third straight time, Tanner's SMG is empty so he just gets out of there. Ferguson hits the seeker again, breaking it's grip but Jordan is hurt fairly bad and misses. Santos drops the seeker, but two floaters and a muton show up while the thin men retreat. We aren't ready for them.

Deschamps readies a rocket, destroying the mutons cover but she's very exposed to the floaters there and panicks as the muton bellows. Fujita finally hits something, dropping one of the floaters. An AP grenade does some serious damage to the floater, while Ferguson drops a flashbang on the two enemies we can see. Everyone else scrambles to reposition and hopes they don't die.


We're a regular demolition crew out there. No part of this block is safe.





I don't believe this. We get hurt with nothing but suppression fire, but three more floaters and another muton show up at the far end of the block again! How many are there going to be at once here? By my count we're looking at two injured thin men, two mutons(one injured), and four floaters(one injured). Eight enemies. All we can do is try to find decent positions, take out the close injured ones, and hope for the best.

Tanner, with a secure position behind a van, brilliantly misses a flanking shot down there. Santos drops the first muton, allowing Deschamps to move inside, and Cargo takes out the floater. I thought about a rocket but the error margin is very high, better to give her a chance to steady herself. Fujita and Santos ready to shoot at anything that moves ... nothing comes close enough. One floater overwatches, another hits Tanner and they are going to overrun his position soon. The muton missed out that way as well, while a thin man drops acid on Deschamps.


This sums up Carl Tanner's career so far in one image. This is his sixth mission, and he has only one kill so far. This kind of nonsense is why.





She takes aim with a shredder rocket anyway, doing minimal damage. Fujita misses again, surprising nobody. We reposition, and they do a whole bunch of overwatching. It's basically a standoff. Deschamps takes out the thin man finally, and a grenade by Cargo puts the muton close to death. Those floaters are another matter. Fujita comes through and badly injures one, and Santos finishes it off while Tanner continues to dash for cover and healing.

They just overwatch again while one of the floaters teleports behind us. All that did was make it an easy target. Ferguson gets in one blow, Santos another. It's still up. Whiskey misses completely. Are you serious?! Jordan dashes back ... and misses as well. Cargo is out of range and wounds the last floater on the other end.

When you can't hit the broadside of the barn, you generally pay for it. In this case, it was Tanner who survived far more dangerous situations but is executed by the near-dead floater that we just could not damn hit. What a bunch of nonsense. Jordan finally finishes the job, Cargo knocks out the other floater that had come in close and missed him, and we were down to an injured muton and that other thin man wherever the heck it made off to. Ferguson was now panicking like an idiot as well.

The muton had seen enough, and tried to run, but didn't get far. Cargo was the closest, and took care of it. Now about that thin man ... Ferguson spotted it up on the second level. It dropped some acid on him, but that wasn't going to stop us. Jordan dashed up for an execution and that was that.


A satisfying end to a tough day for Cargo. After using up her entire complement of explosives, she puts a new laser rifle to good use. In retrospect there, it really should have occurred to the Commander to get Jordan over there and attempt to capture it.






Post-Mortem

Carl Tanner is the third soldier we've lost and the month's only half gone. Another stupid death too, should never have happened. Specifically, the odds were around 1 in 17 that both of his comrades missed their final killing shots on the floater, not to mention the odds of a near-dead enemy missing even an exposed soldier are not insignificant. We lost a suit of armor and an arc thrower along with him.

14 enemies gone and another meld canister on the plus side. Deschamps is promoted, and the phalanx armor did it's job well enough to prevent any injury to Jordan.

Artifacts Recovered

5 Floater Corpses
2 Thin Man Corpses
2 Muton Corpses
3 Drone Wrecks
5 kg Elerium
6 kg Alien Alloys
16 Weapon Fragments
9 oz. Meld
2 Seeker Wrecks

[Brian Swartz]

UFO Fighter Analysis done at 1257. Project Flitter. I'm learning it's best just not to ask ... They have low durability, light armor, and stingrays are recommended to avoid that protection. The aliens use fighters primarily for anti-satellite operations. This improved assessment will allow us to identify them and take them down easier as with the scouts and raiders, but in this case it should lead to assistance in defending our satellites better, so this is an important development.

Vahlen's researchers move on to the heavier beam weapons with Advanced Beam Lasers(6 days, 15 kg Alien Alloys, 25 Weapon Fragments). Three soldiers return by the end of the day.

July 17 -- Australia buys 8 kg alien alloys, 12m price is more than worth it. Construction of a Genetics Lab(4 GW power, 20 million) begins and will take 18 days, completing in early August. Another four return, including Captain 'Sheriff' Gale.

July 18 -- Four more soldiers are ready. Ches O'Peake II and LT 'Snake Eyes' Burke gives us a full contingent of officers again.

July 19 -- Two new recruits arrive. At 1157, the Foundry is completed.


The Foundry: XCOM's latest facility, located on the far right end of Sublevel 2 past the workshop.





Dr. Shen's folder on this is surprisingly thick. To my astonishment, he lists over a dozen potential projects that we have the know-how to commence immediately, and is firmly confident more will be added over time. The strongest recommendations are the following:

** Improved Medikit(18m, 10 Thin Man Corpses, 10 oz. Meld, 4 days) -- Analysis of the thin man's physiology, particularly the chemicals it secretes, has resulted in ideas for battlefield medicinal applications which it is believed will allow us to double to effective impact of our medikits.

** Ammo Conservation(60m, 65 kg Alien Alloys, 20 Muton Corpses, 100 Weapon Fragments) -- Combat analysis of the mutons has revealed that their armor incorporates devices that effectively serve as automatic weapon loaders. The practical result of this is allowing them to go far longer between reloading.

** Alien Metallurgy(30m, 5 kg Elerium, 15 kg Alien Alloys, 60 oz. Meld) -- Investigations into the alien materials could allow us to increase by a moderate amount the alloy salvage from UFO recovery operations.

** Aircraft Boosters(5m, 10 Weapon Fragments, 10 oz. Meld) -- Development of single-use boosters that could aid our fighters in combat against the enemy UFOs; it is unclear what the precise benefits would be.

** Improved Salvage(20m, 10 kg Elerium, 20 kg Alien Alloys, 30 oz. Meld) -- Similar to the metallurgy project, an increased understanding of alien weaponry that would likely yield a moderate increase in the number of weapon fragments recovered after combat operations.

** New Combat Systems(10m, 10 kg Elerium, 15 kg Alien Alloys) -- Development of new accessories to increase tactical flexibility and aid our soldiers on the battlefield. The specific type or types of these accessories and their practical use is not yet known.

** Security Training: Investment in the security forces at XCOM HQ allowing them to effectively use any spare phalanx armor suits(4m) or laser rifles(2m) in the event of an emergency.

Initial Analysis

Obviously building the Foundry was money well spent and probably we should have done it a little sooner. The one project that would make the biggest difference right away is Ammo Conservation: even a few minutes longer between reloads would dramatically increase survivability and combat effectiveness in the extended firefights we are seeing more and more often. It is also by far the most expensive, and right now we have only 11 of the 20 muton corpses required. It will be at least some time before that can be seriously considered.

Right now we are still almost two million short of the money needed to replace the arc thrower lost on the last operation, so none of this will be happening right away. As soon as we do have more funding though, these projects will receive very serious consideration alongside new equipment and infrastructure. Dr. Shen believes the Foundry is an absolutely vital part of our efforts, and I agree with him on this completely.

[Brian Swartz]

July 20, 0457 -- The Council wants a word again. On notifying me, Bradford adds sardonically, 'Guess who'. Apparently an important United Nations official has been caught in an alien attack taking place in Russia. Strange that we've heard nothing from our satellite in the area, but we don't yet have perfect detection success of course. The Council is offering a pair of engineers and a smidge over 19 million in funding if we can extract this person.


Extraction Squad

CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO)
CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell(UK, Assault)
CPL Naomi 'Saturn' Foster(USA, Engineer)
CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, Gunner)
SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, Infantry)
CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, Rocketeer)
LT2 Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, Scout)
SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter(NLD, Sniper)

Nothing but the best here. Snake Eyes joins the squad as a rare second officer since we have no other experienced scouts available, while FOFC is represented by Crash and Walker once again. Crash has the autolaser which goes out for the first time, ditto with Twitch taking the heavy laser rifle. Research is still ongoing for the laser-based weapons that Walker and Tombstone would use, but most of the rest have the new stuff.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION CRIMSON WHISPER
7.20.2015, 0531
Chelyabinsk, Russia

Upon arriving, Bradford gave us the mission update. Apparently the official we're here to get isn't just any official, but a general named Peter Van Doorn. He's trapped in a section of the highway that collapsed during an explosion at the beginning of the alien's attack. Time is obviously critical here. Almost immediately after landing, a muton and two floaters came at us down the left side of the highway. One of the floaters charged, the other two stayed further back. There wasn't a lot of good cover here, we'd have to shoot our way out of this.





Tombstone dashed up closer and ended the floater that had charged us. The remaining floater hung back while the muton charged, but didn't have time to shoot. Tombstone did most of the work, and after a few more misses someone finished it off, I don't remember who. Twas a good position but with pretty much everyone taking shots at it somebody was bound to get lucky.


Only a burned-out vehicle turned on it's side stood between Tombstone and the monster, but she got the better of it



It was a lot of the same after that. The squad didn't move much, with two more squads of the same composition -- one muton, two floaters -- advancing with enough time between them for us to take them out. I couldn't have drawn it up better. Rarely did they even get off a shot. Eventually they did stop coming, and we pushed forward to where there was a drop-off. As we approached, Van Doorn called to us from below, but we had other problems. One more squad was trying to hide just past the edge, and we couldn't see them until we got up good and close.





Most of the squad didn't have a vantage point to shoot. Saturn helped the situation by tossing an explosive charge down there.





The muton fired back up and missed, and both floaters advanced. We took one out in a hail of fire but only wounded the other. It had a good rear shot at Snake Eyes, but thankfully missed and Walker added to his tally for the day in finishing it off. After that, we moved down and made contact with the general who had clearly had one heck of a bad day. He was upset about losing most of his men, which was only natural, but he simply would not shut up. Even during that last firefight, he kept telling us to get down there when we obviously had our hands full. Man needed a sedative.

The aliens didn't give up there. A few thin men dropped in on the way back to the Skyranger, but nothing we couldn't handle. There were plenty of shooters, and they never got off a shot. Van Doorn got a little more grateful afterwards: 'I owe you one, seriously. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your help.'


Post-Mortem

17 killed, not a single casualty. It doesn't get any better than this one. Tombstone is promoted to Sergeant. A clean operation like this was is a big boost to keeping our top soldiers healthy.


Artifacts Recovered

8 Floater Corpses
5 Thin Man Corpses
4 Muton Corpses
4 kg Elerium
4 kg Alien Alloys
25 Weapon Fragments
5 oz. Meld

[Brian Swartz]

Afterwards, Van Doorn made good on his desire to get another shot at the 'alien bastards', donning a soldier's uniform as an assaul trooper. After an assessment he starts out as a lance corporal. Another good man can always be used. Apparently he's got no trouble taking orders from the Commander if it means sending a few more of the invaders to their graves. An arc thrower, scope, and suit of phalanx armor are ordered with the reward money.

July 20 -- Brazil offers engineers for 16 thin man corpses, which is a bit more than we can afford to let go right now. One more soldier returns.

July 21 -- Two more soldiers are back, and the rest of the new recruits arrive. We're up to a new high of 67 in Tactical Ops, but still have nearly a third(20) that are privates. At 1839, the aliens strike again -- a terror attack in Brisbane.

Strike Squad

CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO)
LCPL Ted Jordan(USA, Assault)
CPL Katia 'Sentinel' Rivera(MEX, Engineer)
LCPL Eman Hodzic(BIH, Gunner)
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
LCPL Hannah Cullen(CAN, Rocketeer)
SPEC Ches O'Peake II(BRA, Scout)
CPL Alma 'Witchy' Demirovic(BIH, Sniper)

Sheriff doesn't have the best squad here for a priority mission. There's some good soldiers and some others who need a bit more seasoning, but coming so soon on the heels of Crimson Whisper there's a number of our best out right now. Ches O'Peake II has a very big job to do on just his second mission, but with neither Slim or Snake Eyes available he's the best we have. A good opportunity to pick up where he left off -- or get killed like his predecessor.

**The game is also conspiring against me here. I was only hours from being caught up, but we can't catch a break. In a couple days there would be a lot more soldiers to choose from. Hopefully this will be enough**

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION TWISTED DREAM
7.21.2015, 2054
Brisbane, Australia

O'Peake gets to one of the civilians right away, spotting a trio of seekers. Two go to stealth, with Demirovic and Jordan combining to take out the third. We're in business. One of the stealthed bastards is swatted out of the sky by Sheriff as it approaches, but the second gets in a stranglehold on our grenadier, Sentinel. Meanwhile, a trio of chryssalids show up -- we've got some trouble here already.






At least if they are attacking us, they aren't attacking the civilians ...





Sheriff breaks the grip of the seeker, and Sentinel drops an AP grenade on the chryssalids once free. Jordan adds an explosive charge to the mix, and two of them aren't moving anymore. Hodzic and Witchy finish off the rest of the job and we are clear. O'Peake greets another civilian, and we're feeling pretty good about ourselves -- until we hear a cyberdisc out there somewhere and, a while later, another civilian dies.

Two saved, two lost, 14 still in play with six alien threats eliminated. It's time to pick another fight. Most of the screams are coming down the street to the right ... O'Peake gets another civilian to safety, and spots three more seekers. The same pattern holds; one approaches, two go to stealth. Jordan moves in but misses, after mixed results Hodzic finally takes it out. We're pretty much exposed here to those other two and whatever they feel like doing though.

They don't show up. Two more civilians die out that way. O'Peake gets to another, but spots the cyberdisc and it's attending drones. They all fire at him, he's hit but not bad. Witchy demonstrates her recent training and fires a shot that disables that thing's main gun. The cyberdisc moves away, and the drones each attack civilians, one getting a kill. We've got bigger problems though. Two chryssalids and two zombies are on their way in, plus one of the seekers gets a stranglehold on Sentinel again.







Jordan releases the grip, while Witchy drops the closest spider. Sheriff has a good perch from which she ... misses the seeker twice. Grrr. Cullen launches a shredder that will slow down the second purple people impaler and the closest zombie, while O'Peake II has a good chance but is in too much pain to focus and misses finishing it off. Hodzic moves up to do that, but we still have the problem of that seeker. Whiskey is the latest to miss it and there's nobody left. More civilians die, one by a drone but I don't have the luxury of caring all that much right now. One zombie advances, another goes back the opposite way ... the damaged seeker goes to stealth and who knows where, while the last one shows up and strangles Whiskey.


Slightly organized chaos, but we're holding out





Long story boring, we've got to take out one seeker and that zombie at least. Sheriff has a near-gimme target and it takes two beams but he drops the seeker and our medic is free. Hodzic and O'Peake combine to drop the zombie that is basically on top of them at this point, while Witchy has a near-perfect look at one of the drones and just barely nicks it. Sigh. Sentinel finishes the job though.

No clue on where that cyberdisc is, it sure did us a huge favor by losing interest -- though not the civilian population. The other zombie is back but there's just that and the one remaining drone in this area. Witchy and Hodzic take out the undead, while Jordan dashes up to finish the drone -- dodging fire from the cyberdisc which is a little further out that way for good measure. Whiskey attends to O'Peake's injuries, which takes care of most of us.

The seeker is back with a lovely strangle present for Sentinel yet again, while the cyberdisc approaches and gifts Jordan a grenade. O'Peake finishes off the seeker and Witchy disables the cyberdisc's main gun again. It's do-or-die for Jordan who blasts the disc from up close. Whiskey misses but Cullen actually does something and tags it with a rocket. It's still there but not looking too great.


The cyberdisc tries to blow Jordan up, but only partially succeeds. That is one tough dude





Gale can't get close enough for a shot. The disc just withdraws, but a vehicle explodes. Whiskey and Sentinel were too close to it and are hurt, but not looking too good. This needs to end now. Only Jordan is close enough -- and he finishes it.


Few enemies could survive that inferno, but not for long in this case





Post-Mortem

That's it, 11 civilians saved! A lot better than our last outing though that stupid exploding vehicle is going to cost us a couple of fine soldiers for a while. 16 aliens killed, the attack was stopped, and we didn't lose anyone though; it's a success, if not one without cost. Those two will be gone for a month but we have nobody else with lasting wounds. Jordan and Hodzic are both promoted; that pair has been doing some great stuff lately, esp. Jordan. Witchy demonstrated the value of disabling shot on this mission, but if the cyberdisc hadn't taken about 15 minutes to go away and pick it's nose or whatever in the heat of the battle, things might have gone much worse for us.


Artifacts Recovered

1 Cyberdisc Wreck
3 Chryssalid Carcasses
2 Drone Wrecks
7 kg Elerium
11 kg Alien Alloys
5 Weapon Fragments
1 oz. Meld
6 Seeker Wrecks

[Brian Swartz]

In the aftermath, Australia is at Red Status, nearly ready to leave the Council but our intervention has kept them in the loop for now. Hopefully we can keep them around a while longer. Asia as a whole is much more concerned. The cycle continues with three more soldiers back active by day's end.

July 22, 0040 -- Advanced Beam Lasers research has finished, titled Project Livewire

"we've finally succeeded in focusing an energy beam through a narrow-field lens while still maintaining adequate energy efficiency."

I think that's good news, but I'm not entirely certain due to the denstity of the technobabble. A number of practical applications are available now, more even than anticipated. The Scatter Laser(shotgun variant) and Laser Sniper Rifle can now be built. Also, we can build a laser cannon for use on our fighters. These cost 9.6m and 10kg of alien alloys. A fighter weaponry comparison follows:

Laser Cannon

Accuracy(by selected tactics): 40/55/70
Range: Long
Fire Rate: Medium
Damage: Medium
Armor Penetration: Low

Stingray Missiles

Accuracy(by selected tactics): 25/40/55
Range: Long
Fire Rate: Slow
Damage: Low
Armor Penetration: Medium

Avalanche Missiles

Accuracy(by selected tactics): 25/40/55
Range: Long
Fire Rate: Slow
Damage: Medium
Armor Penetration: Low

In practical terms, the laser cannon is a significantly more accurate, faster-firing replacement for the avalanche missile. Stingrays are probably still at least fairly comparable for alien craft with a significant amount of armor and will not be replaced, but against scouts and raiders laser cannons are the recommendation.

Alien Computers(6 days, 4 UFO Flight Computers) is the final of the current short-term projects we have in the queue.

1143 -- France wants 16 kg elerium for two scientists. The deal is approved. Later in the day, bombings are reported in Egypt.

**We are now back on schedule, finally. The breakneck pace will be discontinued and updates will be back to roughly day-by-day events, or the lack thereof. Thank you all for your patience with the Commander**

[Brian Swartz]

July 23, 0210 -- Abductions in Argentina. This is something like the 11th mission in July. Moderate/90m, so a relatively smooth operation with some development of the talent is at least possible theoretically.

Strike Squad

LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, Gunner, CO)
LCPL Kobe Cuvelier(BEL, Assault)
LCPL Ana Mendez(ESP, Engineer)
CPL Elfriede 'Devil Dog' Fischer(DEU, Infantry)
LCPL Luca Basso(ITA, Medic)
SPEC Simran Banerjee(NIG, Scout)
PFC Lewis Ferguson(SCO)
PFC Ananya Sarin(NIG)

Intel suggests the LZ might be hot for this mission; close-quarters combat is expected. Strobe gets the nod for mission command on this one.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION ENDURING FATHER
7.23.2015, 0359
Mendoza, Argentina

It's a bank, and right away four floaters say hello. Strobe downs one immediately, and our two rookies combine to drop another. There's no point in being bashful, we have nowhere to hide -- kill or be killed. The rest is a bunch of missed shots but we did enough damage that they run, for the time being. Cuvelier has an arc thrower and it'd be nice to try and capture one of them, if we can ... but first things first. There's a meld canister on the left and it's as good a goal as any for now. All of a sudden, half the city shows up. A cyberdisc, and two drones ... it misses Basso after one of three overwatch shots, by Devil Dog Fischer, does some serious damage.







There's a seeker and a floater out that way, and on the other side of the restaurant a muton and a pair of floaters as well. This is some serious stuff coming at us. Moderate resistance my arse. The meld canister was destroyed but that's basically an afterthought at this point.


The main thought here is don't leave any of the major enemies healthy enough to flank us. Ferguson stays put and has a flanking shot on one of the floaters on the right -- planted! Good start. A grenade by Mendez and a shot by Banerjee do some serious damage to the muton. Ok, now about those guys on the left. Basso gets a flank on a floater by heading behind the semi on the left. Does some serious damage but it's only a standard SMG he carries so not enough to take it out. That whole area is basically begging for a grenade, and Cuvelier obliges. One floater and drone are gone after the initial explosion is followed by a secondary one as the vehicle goes up. Devil Dog drops the cyberdisc, and gets in a hit on the seeker as well. This is going better than I could have imagined! Private Sarin finishes off the muton for her second kill in quick succession, and Strobe suppresses the seeker.


This was the most destructive explosion -- actually, a chain of two explosions -- that I've yet seen and it basically singlehandledly turned the tide of this ambush. I'm glad Cuvelier had a HE grenade -- really glad.





We get some suppression and some enemies moving about ... we've still got problems but at least they are all in one sector. Cuvelier dashes around the semi cab and ends all thoughts of the floater over there flanking. The drone can do what it likes until we deal with the others. Sarin drops the seeker -- three shots, three kills. I know she's not this good, but I'm not arguing today. Really had her wheaties .. or something. Mendez tags a drone but it stays up -- these drones are a lot tougher than the ones we are used to. Twice as tough, actually. More upgrades, I suppose. Banerjee wounds the floater, so we've got two damaged drones, a wounded floater -- and a healthy one shows up but nobody even gets in a shot at us.


Ananya Sarin was definitely the suprise hero of this mission. This is her second kill, finishing off the wounded muton





Cuvelier drops one drone, Banerjee the healthy floater, and no question we are going to try to capture the other one. Devil Dog gets the final drone, and the floater goes on overwatch, not knowing what to do. Banerjee draws it's fire, and Cuvelier moves in with the arc thrower. It's about a 50-50 proposition, and this one fails. Near-perfect setup, but you can't win em all. Sarin makes it four-for-four. We get no meld, but after surviving that ambush and setting up a chance to take down that floater, I don't care.


Cuvelier had to drill this floater to keep us from being flanked, and he did so with ease





Post-Mortem

12 enemies down. There will be another chance to capture a floater or muton. I was really impressed by how we took down that ambush, with the biggest key being the grenade after they'd clustered on the left side. Lots of clutch stuff there though; very proud of how Strobe's squad performed here. It's the kind of execution that shows how far we've come, and makes me think we might someday have a chance to win this war. Both privates are promoted(Ferguson to Rocketeer, Sarin to Scout -- despite her shooting performance today she's just a bit above average there but a real speedster). The LT gets a bump as well ...


Artifacts Recovered

6 Floater Corpses
1 Muton Corpse
1 Cyberdisc Corpse
2 Drone Wrecks
7 kg Elerium
9 kg Alien Alloys
15 Weapon Fragments
9 oz. Meld
1 Seeker Wreck

[Brian Swartz]

PROMOTIONS

Lieutenant Dean 'Strobe' Hoo, you have been promoted to Second Lieutenant. At present your personal tally is 17 kills in 9 missions.

** Lone Wolf: +10 aim and +10 critical chance when not within 7 tiles of anyone other ally.
** Flush: A shot that forces an entrenched enemy to run out of cover. It is easy to hit with but does reduced damage.
** Danger Zone: Increases area of effect of suppression and other similar effects(rockets, grenade launchers, mine launchers, etc.).

Current Abilities: Suppression, Low Profile, HEAT Ammo

Commander's Recommendation -- Lone Wolf is out of the question. As a front-line soldier and an officer, you are about the worst-case scenario for this ability; scouts/assaults/covert ops are the ones who would benefit. Flush is useful in some situations when the enemy has a particularly fortified location, but I think Danger Zone is the winner here. The ability to effectively pin multiple clustered enemies in place has the potential to add another powerful tool to the Commander's tactical arsenal on your missions.

LT2 Dean 'Strobe' Hoo, you are now on the clock.

[Brian Swartz]

July 23 -- The reward money is used to build the last two core laser weapons needed: laser sniper rifle and scatter laser for assaults to use. 11 days on each of those. Canada requests every last one of our 10 chryssalid carcasses for a pair of scientists. No way. Three corporals return from the injured list, a nice little shot in the arm there.

[Travis]

Laser sniper rifle you say...

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, July 24 -- Nothing -- literally nothing -- of consequence happened today.

[Brian Swartz]

Hit a very bad snag last night. I swear sometimes I'm cursed when it comes to computers. The thing will not boot up at all, could be something really fun like a motherboard failure. It's going to need expert attention, but if it's anything major I won't be able to fix it anytime in the near future since the medical issues I've discussed a bit here have put me in a financial hole.

If and when I get that figured out, I'll post here about it but sadly this is almost certainly dead. Whatever happens, thanks to all who have participated. I hate being 'that guy' who starts things and doesn't finish, but in this case it appears that choice has been taken away from me.

[Coffee Warlord]

Sadness.

[law90026]

It was a really great dynasty while it lasted! Thanks for running it.

[path12]

I enjoyed it Brian. Thanks for your work.

[Kodos]

Thanks for entertaining us for months. You put a lot of effort into this, and it shows. At least it ended before I could die again.

[Travis]

If this is done, thank you, it was quite a ride. That said, I'm holding out hope that it'll only require a minor fix and we'll be back to following along again soon.

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks all for your kind words. It could be a minor fix. My suspicions are RAM or motherboard. If it's the latter, it probably won't get fixed. My brother(he's basically awesome and he built the thing a couple of years back) is going to take a look at it if a couple more things I want to try don't work.

So we'll see one way or the other. I'd really like to see this through as well, but time will tell.

[chesapeake]

Those bastards at EXALT are behind this. They knew we were getting close!

[Tellistto]

Let's hope the hard drive survived the experience. So long as it did and you don't have to format it the save games will still be there. Even if you have to reinstall windows over what is there it will still be there when you start the game back up.

My computer crashed awhile back while playing XCOM and it was the motherboard. Got it all put back together with a mobo I had replaced with the one that had crashed, but didn't deal with Xcom anymore. Bought it on the steam summer sale with Enemy Within and lo and behold, there were all my old save files.

YMMV,

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

I can access the HD through BIOS so I think that's ok. Right now I think it's either the processor or the motherboard but I don't really know. I'm not worried about it being fixable, I think it is but if it's a major component like that I'm not going to be able to afford to do it anytime soon most likely.

At any rate, tomorrow I'm going to take it down to my brother and he'll see what's what.

[Tellistto]

Well, you have power, you have video, you have bios access. Likely not the mobo as the last two require the mobo to be operational. Only other two things to test would be the RAM and the Processor. I assume you get no post when you boot up, which means the mobo defaults to the BIOS screen?

Wish I could sit down with it and figure it out, hopefully your brother is good with this stuff too.

Good luck, though!

Tell

[Brian Swartz]

He's very good, he built the system. Once you get past the setup/BIOS part of the bootup there's a small cursor on the screen but the computer goes quiet, then restarts/reboots after a few seconds.

I've tried moving the RAM around to different locations(I have 4 slots and 2 4-GB sticks) and it looks like it's recognizing those fine. If you are right, then it's 90+% the processor.

[Brian Swartz]

Finally made connection with my brother a few days later than expected. He'll take a look at the hunk of junk over the weekend and we'll see what's going on.

[Travis]

Pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleasework.

So want to try the laser sniper rifle

[MacroGuru]

Commander...are you there?

[Brian Swartz]

The Commander is still here. Unfortunately his hardware isn't.