XCOM 2: Resistance is Futile

[Raven Hawk]

It's been quite some time since I've posted round here, but I've got a week off and I thought I'd start up a "quick" XCOM 2 dynasty for shits and giggles. This could be the fastest XCOM dynasty ever as I will be playing on Legendary difficulty in Ironman mode. The fun of this is that it's not just me walking through a game, but rather getting beaten up and sucker-punched by a game.

I've defeated XCOM 2 on Commander difficulty multiple times, but not with Ironman engaged. I have defeated the game once on Legendary difficulty without ironman engaged either. I'm hoping that taking the time to write this up will give me the patience to play it right. Usually I get into a binge on a weekend and by the 7th mission at 2am I'm making poor decisions that you can't recover from. So please feel free to read and enjoy. Or not. In the older traditions, if anybody wants to "sign up" to be a recruit in the game, I'm happy to have you to make this fun. I do expect a high casualty rate, though.

Settings:
Difficulty - Legendary
Ironman - On

Expansions:
Alien Hunters - On (Dr. Vahlen created bosses for you to deal with, but comes with cool gear)
Shen's Last Gift - On (Dr. Shen leaves a SPARK for his daughter to find)

That's about it. XCOM 2 doesn't have as varied of settings as XCOM did. ENJOY!

[Raven Hawk]

I awake on a cold slab, a makeshift surgeon's table. I have a headache like you wouldn't believe. It's pounding at the back of my skull. I reach around to feel my neck and find stitches there.

"Commander, you're up" says a voice from behind me.

I twist to see who's talking. It hurts. I see tall black man wearing glasses and a white lab coat, head shaved bald, walking over to me.

"Commander, let me introduce myself. I'm Dr. Tygan. You've . . . been out for some time," he says, "you were captured by the aliens and were recently rescued by XCOM operatives."

At that point it all floods back into my brain. I remember the aliens returning . . . with an offering of peace. It struck odd to me that an invading force that we had just driven off our planet 15 years ago, would come back offering peace. And the Advent Accords were signed guaranteeing peace between humans and the aliens.

I then recall being awaken in the middle of the night by an Advent Officer and hurriedly escorted out of my house . . . my wife pleading with the Officer to let me be. The Officer nodded to a Trooper and heard the quick buzz a laser round going off. I couldn't hear my wife's voice anymore, only my own screams as I was now being dragged out the front door. Then the needle going into my neck. And that was it . . .

The doctor's voice snapped me out of it.

"The stitches on the back of your head. We had to remove a chip from your brain. The aliens put an implant inside your skull."

The look on my face must have worried Tygan as he shifted the conversation a little.

"Look. I have the scars, too."

He turned around and showed me scars on the back of his head. I felt them, ragged and bumpy on his clean shaven scalp.

"Anybody who works for Advent or goes to their gene therapy labs gets them. I'm hoping I have the opportunity to figure out what they do," he continued, " but enough about me. I think you ought to head up to the Command Center, there's somebody there who would very much like to talk to you."

I stand and the room twists a little on me.

"Don't worry," says the doctor, "just lingering effects of the anesthesia. I'll fetch an operative to assist you upstairs."

The operative arrives and I drape an arm over his shoulder as he steadies our ascent up a set of stairs. A set of doors shift open and I see a familiar face staring up at a very familiar holo-globe. It's my Executive Officer, my XO, from back in the day - Bradford or "Central" as we all liked to call him. He looks over and smiles at me.

"Commander, it's good to see you. Come on in . . . "

[Raven Hawk]

Operation Gatecrasher

Objective 1: Plant X4 charges on the Unification Day monument
Objective 2: Neutralize all enemy targets

Operative Rk Simon picks up a unit of 3 Advent Troopers, or Clackers as we call them. We move to ambush. Rk Li throws a grenade and hits two, killing one. Simon drops one more in the crossfire, but one retreats out of range, in low cover. Rk Martine moves to take a shot and drops him. We pinwheel on Li and look for our next target. One of the Clackers dropped something. We’ll want to grab it if we can.

We pick up a Sectoid and Martine fires first, hitting him. More guns go off and Simon ends up dropping him. He’s hanging with a Clacker, though, and we still need to deal with him. Rk Andersen and Simon move to cover as Martine grabs the loot. Looks like a nice laser sight. Martine then dives for cover. Li moves in to support.

The Clacker fires on Li, but Li has good cover. Simon moves to lob a grenade at the Clacker in hopes of getting him out of his cover. The grenade explodes injuring the Clacker but his cover is still up. We keep our rifles trained on his location. His cover finally gives and Andersen takes the shot, dropping him. Andersen calls for the unit to reload as we locate the monument we’re looking to hit.

Martine moves around her cover and spots and Officer and 2 Clackers. Simon is positioned to flank 2 and moves to take a shot on the furthest target. She drops him. Li shifts to cover and freeze the Officer while Martine and Andersen look to deal with the last clacker. Martine tosses a grenade but doesn’t finish off the Clacker. As we’ve got heavy cover, Andersen covers the target.

The Officer moves to fire and Li misses, so Andersen takes a shot and hits. However, it distracted her from covering the Clacker. The Officer fires at Li, missing. The Clacker fires at Andersen, missing. Simon takes care of the last Clacker. Li moves around her cover, hiding from the Officer hoping to draw him into a cover fire trap from Andersen and Martine. It works and Andersen gets a shot, but she misses. The Officer is injured and in a better position for Li to flank. If Li misses, Andersen can lob a grenade at his position. Li tags him and takes him out. We don’t have any other enemy readings. Time to plant the X4.

Martine plants the X4 and the squad hops on the Skyranger as they watch the monument blow.

Operation: Gatecrasher

Enemies Killed: 8
Soldiers Wounded: 0
Soldiers Killed: 0
Rating: Flawless
Loot: Advanced Laser Sight, Corpses

AAR: Played this one well. Kept the team in cover and got high percentage shots. Was patient and did not move anybody out of cover fire.

Promotions
Li: Rookie > Squaddie SPECIALIST
Simon: Rookie > Squaddie RANGER
Andersen: Rookie > Squaddie SHARPSHOOTER
Martine: Rookie > Squaddie GRENADIER

Casualties
None

[Kodos]

Another X-Com dynasty? Yes, please! Feel free to add me as cannon fodder, should you so desire!

[Chas in Cinti]

I'm along for the ride as well... thanks!

[Raven Hawk]

Our Base of Operations is on South Africa.

Personnel Report - 8 Operatives are in the barracks currently:
Sq. Gabriel "Kodos" Simon - RANGER (FRA)
Sq. Mark "Chas in Cinti" Martine - GRENADIER (FRA)
Sq. Li Wei Pang - SPECIALIST (CHN)
Sq. Astrid Andersen - SHARPSHOOTER (SWE)
Rk. Don Price (USA)
Rk. Hilde Berg (NOR)
Rk. Jake Wells
Rk. Silivio Suarez

Research Report - We tell Dr. Tygan to work on Alien BioTech over Modular Weapons or Hybrid Materials. Esimated Completion time - 6 days.

Engineering Report - We make a request to Lily Shen to put together some Flashbang Grenades. She accommodates and we now have 1 Flashbang in our weapons locker.

Scanning Ops - We get a reading on a supply cache in East Africa and take the 4 days to scan it, recovering 54 supplies. We then get a reading on some Grenades and Ammo available in North Africa which should take us 5 days to scan. As we are scanning, we acquire and Advent target in Madagascar. We abandon our scanning to hit the new target . . .

*Welcome to the team, Kodos and Chas in Cinti! Despite the sex changes, you both still are looking good. I assigned you two to two of the Rookies that took part in the Gatecrasher op, so read the shes/hers as hes/hims.

[Raven Hawk]

The morale is high at the makeshift bar in the Avenger. High-fives are in abundance as the Squaddies recount their first operation to a handful of rookies hanging about the bar. After a large laugh there is a silence as the energy suddenly gets sucked out the door. It's Bradford.

"Andersen, Kodos, Chas in Cinti, and Price, gear up. We have a target." He looks around the room, noticing the smiles. "Let's not get overconfident. That was one misson. We've got a long way to go."

Operation Laughing Reckoning

Reward: Engineer, Martha Fisher

As it looks like an easier target, I decide to hold our Specialist back in favor of getting another Rookie some experience. Rk. Don Price joins the squad and Sq. Li stays on the Avenger. Sq. Andersen leads the squad again, with Chas in Cinti, Kodos, and Rk. Price in tow. We give the Flashbang to Kodos to equip.

We drop into the slum districts of Pretoria with the mission of locating and protecting a transmitter device.

Chas in Cinti and Rk. Price go high, Sq. Andersen and Kodos to low. Sq. Andersen spots an Officer and a Clacker. We move to ambush. Sq. Andersen lines up her shot through her scope and fires the sniper rifle. She hits the Officer, but it doesn’t go down. Kodos and Rk. Price both miss their shots. Chas in Cinti was out of range and didn’t fire. We have 2 to deal with. The Officer hits Sq. Andersen hard and then the Clacker fires on her as well. The Clacker takes her out – two heavy wounds, center mass and Sq. Andersen is lying in a pool of her own blood. Rk. Price panics as the squad leader goes down. He fires at the Officer but misses.

Chas in Cinti drops a frag on the Officer and takes him out. Kodos runs over and hacks at the Clacker with his machete but doesn’t drop him. Rk. Price recovers, flanks the Clacker, but misses his shot. Kodos chases him down and cuts him down, but we’re spotted by a Sectoid and 2 Clackers. Chas in Cinti decides to drop her last frag on one of the Clackers, but fails to kill him.

The Sectoid uses its psionics to resurrect the Officer as a Psy Zombie. One clacker shoots at the transmitter we’re here to protect. The other one moves to a burning van and fires at Chas in Cinti. The Clacker misses Chas in Cinti and the van explods, killing the Clacker. Rk. Price drops a frag on the Sectoids covered position. Chas in Cinti fires at the Sectoid and hits but fails to drop him. Kodos moves around his cover so the last Clacker can’t flank him and takes a shot at the Sectoid, dropping him. The Zombie, unsupported by the Sectoid’s psychic energy vomits and collapses. The injured Clacker retreats out of range. It looks like the Sectoid dropped some loot.

Rk. Price moves to flanks him and finally hits a target, dropping the Clacker. Rk. Price also has positioned himself to pick up the Sectoid’s loot. Looks like an energy core and a scope. Chas in Cinti and Kodos cover him.

We get visual on another Sectoid and two more Clackers. Kodos misses his cover shot, Chas in Cinti connects but fails to drop the Sectoid.

Rk. Price moves to cover and hits the Clacker but doesn’t drop him. Kodos moves to heavy cover and drops his flashbang on the injured Clacker and the Sectoid. Chas in Cinti backfills Kodos’ position and goes to overwatch.

The Sectoid takes a shot and hits the transmitter. Clacker-2 moves around to try to get a shot on the team but misses on a shot at Chas in Cinti. The injured Clacker dives for more cover and Chas in Cinti misses his cover shot.

Chas in Cinti takes a shot at Clacker-2 and misses so Kodos charges it with his machete and hacks it down. Rk. Price moves around his cover to get a flanked shot at the injured Clacker. He drops it.

The Sectoid relocates and animates the Clacker that Kodos just dropped. Chas in Cinti takes a shot to drop the Zombie and connects, wounding it. Kodos moves around the Zombie and tries to hack at the Sectoid, but misses! Rk. Price comes over and drops the Zombie, but Kodos gets lit up by the Sectoid that he missed with his machete – he’s injured, but still breathing.

Rk. Price climbs up onto the rooftop and races over to flank the Sectoid. He empties his clip and drops the Sectoid.

Operation: Laughing Reckoning

Enemies Killed: 10
Soldiers Wounded: 1 - Kodos
Soldiers Killed: 1 – Rk. Andersen
Rating: Good
Loot: Superior Scope, Elerium Core, Corpses
Award: Engineer, Martha Fisher

AAR: Made a mistake early on that cost us. Should have had Rk. Andersen on the roof early instead of the Rk. Price and Chas in Cinti. But I moved Chas in Cinti first into a position that I couldn’t get A around to get to the roof. Paid the price. Kodos paid the price for missing a killing blow with the machete. Would have been worse for Kodos if Rk. Price and Chas in Cinti didn’t finish off that Zombie.

Casualties
Rk. Andersen: KIA – Clacker fire
Kodos: Wounded – 35 Days (need to get the Advanced Warfare Center built)

Promotions
Rk. Price: Rookie > Squaddie GRENADIER
Kodos: RANGER Squaddie > Corporal

[Raven Hawk]

The Skyranger lands on it's pad on the Avenger. Medics are waiting on the platform as the rear ramp of the Skyranger opens and drops. Chas in Cinti and Rk. Price walk off the Skyranger supporting Kodos between them. The medics role two stretchers out to the base of the ramp. The squad mates let Kodos down gently onto one stretcher. The other stretcher rolls past and up the ramp to gather the remains of Rk. Andersen.

I stand next to Bradford in the Command Center as we both look down on the scene from the window.

I sigh as I begin to speak, "and so it begins. Central, please notify any known kin of Andersen's demise. And hang a picture of her somewhere we can all see it. We need to honor the fallen and remind ourselves of the danger in what we are doing."

Bradford replies, "I know just the place."

Hours later, Bradford can be seen pinning a picture of Astrid "Blitz" Andersen up on a wall in the Bar area.

[Raven Hawk]

I return to my Quarters. I'm rummaging through some of Tygan's notes as a call comes in on my view screen. It is our Bald Benefactor. I'll refer to him as BB.

In his basso voice, BB congratulates us on a successful mission despite the casualty suffered. He informs me that the Council, with whom he used to participate, has sworn allegiance to Advent. He is the only member who has not done so. He will keep us funded to his best abilities, but lets us know that support will intermittent as he can provide.

He gives us some intel on an Advent Blacksite that he has learned of that is based in Western Africa. He feels that XCOM needs to find out what is happening there and tasks us with investigating the site. I agree, but only agree to do so on my own timeframe. He warns that time is a luxury that I may not have, before fading off my view screen.

OPEN OBJECTIVES:

1. Complete Advent Officer Autopsy

2. Contact Resistance in Blacksite Region

3. Make Contact with West Africa

4. Research Resistance Communications

Engineering Report – Have Martha Fisher starting to clear out debris from portions of the Avenger, but switch her to building the Advanced Warfare Center once we complete the Alien Biotech research. The Advanced Warfare Center will allow us to heal faster and unlock custom abilities for soldiers. This project will take us 21 days.

Research Report – Tygan analyzed the chip that they found in my brain. It was being used to do war simulations where they could gather tactical tendencies from me. To further understand the technology he will need to autopsy an Advent Officer corpse. Luckily, we have one available. However, we will work on Modular Weapons because the Scope that we found on our last mission is a Superior Scope (Level 3). Need to put it to use.

We complete Modular weapons and we can now use the Advanced Laser Sight and the Superior Scope. Want to save the Superior Scope for the next Sharpshooter. But will deploy the Laser Sight on next mission. Next up: Resistance Comms. Need to make contact with more regions to increase our funding.

Scanning – Heading back to scan the Grenades and Ammo. Successful scan gets us an incendiary grenade and tracer rounds. Have a unique scan opportunity at a Locator Beacon to recover some Lost Cargo. We're scanning the Lost Cargo site when BB gives me a call. We have an opportunity to extract a VIP and gain some intel . . .

[Breeze]

Breeze reporting for duty...

enjoying the read so far...

[chesapeake]

In as well. Happy to die for the cause.

[Raven Hawk]

Great to have you guys on. Breeze - I'll put you on Rk. Price. Who just completed the Laughing Reckoning mission with 4 kills. Chesapeake - I'll put you on a new recruit that comes after the next mission. Without giving too much away, you don't want to be in Hilde Berg's shoes right now . . .

Edit: I'm a little further along in gameplay than I am in write ups, so I didn't realize that I had originally started with 8 Operatives, not 6. Chesapeake - you'll be assigned as Rk. Jake Ellis.

[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)

[Raven Hawk]

Bradford and I, again, find ourselves watching the troops exiting the Skyranger. We see Li with his left shoulder bound up and arm immobilized. Chas in Cinti has his head down as he walks off. We notice Breeze specifically waiting for Chas in Cinti to get off the Skyranger before him. We both know Berg's remains were left behind and don't say anything.

Bradford says, "We can't continue having these casualties, Commander. We barely have enough operatives available to field a squad."

"I know," I reply. "We need to recruit. Do we know anywhere we can get some fighters from?"

"We'll put out the word to the Resistance Network and see what we come up with."

"In the meantime, you know what to do."

Bradford nods.

Later that day, Bradford makes another trip down to the Bar to post a picture . . .

[Raven Hawk]

OPEN OBJECTIVES:
1. Complete Advent Officer Autopsy
2. Contact Resistance in Blacksite Region
3. Make Contact with West Africa
4. Research Resistance Communications

Personnel Report – We are down to 6 Operatives, 2 of which are wounded for extended periods of time. We do not currently have supplies to recruit more Operatives. When supplies are available, that will be a priority.

Research Report – Tygan is happy to have the help. He quickly puts Dr. Sun to work. This should make our research go faster. Resistance Comms were completed, which gives us the ability to contact new regions and increase our income. We opt to start working on Hybrid Materials.

Engineering Report – Still working on the Advanced Warfare Center

Scanning – Back to the Locator Beacon that we found before the VIP rescue mission. We found an old Skyranger with some weapons stored inside. These are quality weapons that will be put to good use, hopefully: Bolt Caster (1 shot, heavy damage, can reload, can stun target); Shadowkeeper (improved pistol which can grant conceal if used correctly); Hunter’s Axe (upgrade to machete, comes in pairs and can throw one without using an action); and Frost Bomb (an essential grenade that freezes enemies for 2 turns)

We’ve located some more supplies and are going to scan for them at an overgrown checkpoint. Will take 6 days to scan. On completion, we’ve found 55 supplies. We have also identified an Abandoned Colony where we hope to find a few recruits. Scanning will take 6 days when we get to it, but BB has orchestrated a Supply Drop for us to pick up first – 150 supplies. Those will also come in handy 3 days to scan.

As we’re scanning for supplies – our comms to the resistance network are interrupted and a global signal is sent out by Advent leaders. There propaganda indicates we are the enemy and that they are coming to destroy our cells. Our feed is restored to the resistance network that shows our allies being attacked. A final signal shows a human undergoing a grotesque change into some sort of monster . . .

[Raven Hawk]

I turn to Bradford as the transmission ends, "What the hell was that thing? You saw it, right?"

"I don't know," he replies "but we know that Advent has secrets that we haven't discovered yet. Best to send out a squad with some heavy ordinance."

Down in the barracks, the mission alarm goes off. Breeze has just finished changing bunks, taking the bunk furthest from Chas in Cinti's. He drops his gear on his new bunk and moves to the door. He and Chas in Cinti get to the door at the same time and Breeze motions for Chas in Cinti go first. Chas in Cinti rolls his eyes and moves through the door. All active operatives head to the armory for assignment.

Operation Steel Strike

Objective: Stop the Advent Retaliation

Despite the mind control incident, we give the lead to Cpl. Chas in Cinti for this mission. Sq. Breeze comes along giving constant side-eyed glances at Chas in Cinti. We have two rookies with the Grenadiers, Rk. Chesapeake and Rk. Suarez. This is the last of our uninjured operatives. We are deploying some of the fun new toys with them. Chesapeake will get the Bolt Caster. Breeze will take the Frost Bomb and pass the Flashbang to Suarez. Tracer rounds are put into the Bolt Caster for Chesapeake. Breeze still carries the cannon with the laser sight.

Again we start the mission without concealment. The zone is hot and we’re dropping into a massacre. The hope is that we can stop it without getting massacred ourselves. We will need to save at lease 6 civilians and eliminate all hostiles.

We get into the Area of Operations and see a couple of civilians in close by. We’re able to get one back to the Skyranger quickly, but as we’re heading for the second a plasma bolt comes out of nowhere and levels the poor guy. We peak around the corner and spy a HUGE SNAKE! Tygan calls over comms, saying that these are what the Thin Men really look like, but since there is no reason to hide their true form any longer, they don’t anymore. It looks pretty scary to us - best to drop it quick. The snake has a Clacker with him.

Breeze drops a frag in on the Viper and destroys its cover. Suarez fires on the exposed Viper and misses. Chas in Cinti gets in position behind some rocks and lights up the Viper, killing it. Chesapeake has a shot on the Clacker. He fires the Bolt Caster . . . and misses. The Clacker moves in on Chas in Cinti, fires and misses.

Chesapeake reloads the Bolt Caster and takes a second try, obliterating the Clacker. We need to move quick to save the civilians, so Breeze gets moving toward the sound of gunfire. We hear screams as civilians are dying.

Suarez catches a Clacker out of the corner of his eye. He fires and drops it! Chas in Cinti quickly moves to the top of a building structure and fires down on another flanked clacker, killing it. The Clacker drops some loot. Suarez climbs up another building and hits an Officer hiding behind a plastic barrel. Chesapeake is late to the party, but he gets in range of the Officer and fires the Bolt Caster. He takes out the officer, hitting him through the plastic barrel. Breeze gets to another civilian and directs her back to the Skyranger. We’ve saved 2 civilians – need to get 4 more.

We hear a plasma bolt discharge in the distance and start making our way there. Chas in Cinti finds another civvy and sends her back to the Skyranger – 3 down. We hear another plasma bolt and another scream. Dammit! Another civvy down. But we know where it is and figure it to be a Sectoid.

Suarez moves to pickup the loot and finds a Hair Trigger and an Advent Datapad. Chas in Cinti scares up a Sectoid and 2 Clackers who make a break for it. Breeze’s covering fire misses. Chas in Cinti then drops the incendiary bomb on the Sectoid, injures it and sets him on fire. Chesapeake moves in and drops the Sectoid with the Bolt Caster. Suarez is exposed and needs to move back to cover. Breeze is out in half cover, without cover fire, and two Clackers in close proximity. This may not bode well for him.

A human starts to morph into one of those massive ugly monster with huge claws that we saw on the comm screen. It comes at Chas in Cinti. One of the Clackers flanks Breeze and scores a hit on him. He’s hurt but he’s standing firm.

Breeze exclaims, “So it’s gonna be like that, huh? Eat some lead, Clacker!” Breeze stands up and empties his clip into the Clacker and wounds explode all over it until it falls to the ground.

The remaining Clacker is on overwatch waiting for us to move. He thinks he’s got us covered so his Faceless friend can come in and stomp all over us . . .

“I don’t think so!” Chas in Cinti calls as he lofts a frag toward the Clacker on overwatch. It explodes and the Clacker’s overwatch is broken.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Chesapeake yells as he puts a hole the size of Texas in the Faceless one with the Bolt Caster.

The Faceless one looks curiously at Chesapeake as the hole starts to close up and is now more like a hole the size of Arizona.

“What the . . .” Chesapeake's disbelief trails off.

Suarez moves back into the fray and fires on the Faceless. She connects but fails to drop it.

We hear that same sickening sound and moments later we see another Faceless standing right behind the first! This is nuts!

For some reason, the Clacker decides to fire on a civvy and kills it. The Faceless, with the holes in him, sweeps his big claws and nails Chas in Cinti. He takes it like a champ! But now there are two Faceless standing right next to him!

Breeze sighs and says “I don’t believe I have to save HIS ass.” He launches the Frost Bomb at the two Faceless and freezes them both! Chesapeake takes out the remaining Clacker with a good shot from the Bolt Caster. Suarez finishes off the injured, frozen Faceless. Chas in Cinti moves back and opens fire on the remaining Faceless. He hits it, but it is still stands there, seemingly unaware that it is both frozen and wounded. But he gets a good look at what’s happening from such close range. These Faceless continue to heal themselves even when they’re frozen! We need to take this guy down! Chesapeake reloads and fires the Bolt Caster. More damage, but the Faceless is still standing with a dumb look on its face. Breeze fires at it and misses. Good thing Suarez is there. He fires his rifle finishes off the final Faceless.

All hostiles are down in the AO.

That’s it. Whew! We all walked out – some worse off than others, but all still alive.

Operation: Steel Strike
Enemies Killed: 10
Civilians Rescued: 7
Soldiers Wounded: 2 – Breeze and Chas in Cinti
Soldiers Killed: 0
Rating: Excellent
Loot: Advent Datapad, Hair Trigger, Corpses (Including a Viper & 2 Faceless)
Award: +15 supplies at supply drops

AAR: All told, we did well. We got into one sticky situation where Suarez had to make the choice of being flanked and drawing fire or exposing Breeze. Not a great choice one has to make. He could have taken a low probability shot on one of the Clackers, but that would not have done any good. I was happy, though, that Breeze was still alive to fire the Frost Bomb at the 2 Faceless or we would be burying at least 1 more operative. The Bolt Caster is a great weapon and Chesapeake enjoys wielding it!

Casualties
Breeze: Wounded – 36 Days (SHAKEN)
Chas in Cinti: Wounded – 28 Days

Promotions
Breeze: Squaddie GRENADIER > Corporal (Add Shredder Rounds)
Chesapeake: Rookie > Squaddie SPECIALIST
Suarez: Rookie > Squaddie SHARPSHOOTER

Kill Count
Chas in Cinti - 2
Breeze - 1
Chesapeake - 4
Suarez - 3

[Chas in Cinti]

Finally an operation where some luck lands with us!

[Raven Hawk]

The Skyranger lifts off from the AO. Chas in Cinti is sitting across from Breeze. Both are tending to their wounds. Chas in Cinti looks up at Breeze.

"Hey, man," he says, getting Breeze to look up at him, "thanks for freezing those maggots." Chas in Cinti dabs at a bloody claw mark on his face, then checks the gauze for blood.

Breeze holds a hard face for a moment before letting a smile crack. "All in a day's work, brother. Just like last time." He winks at Chas in Cinti.

Chesapeake takes notice and asks, "What happened last time?"

Chas in Cinti and Breeze exchange glances. Chas in Cinti nods a silent assent. Breeze speaks up.

"We were extracting a VIP from an Advent controlled zone when we were engaged by a Sectoid and a couple Clackers. Chas in Cinti dropped both Clackers with a fire bomb, but the Sectoid was dug in good and we couldn't get him down. Next thing we know Chas in Cinti's eyes are glowing purple and he's got his cannon trained on me. Lucky for me Chas in Cinti is a horrible shot."

Both Breeze and Chas in Cinti smile.

Breeze continues. "I was finally able to flank the Sectoid and railed him with my cannon. As soon as that Pinky dropped, Chas in Cinti snapped out of it. Scared the shit out of us."

Chesapeake leans towards Breeze. "Why didn't you shoot him?" He nods towards Chas in Cinti.

Breeze raises his voice. "Because that's what you DON'T do. You try your best, Rookie, to save each others' asses any opportunity you get. You saw it today. It's scary out there. I'd like to think that if a Pinky got in my head you wouldn't just turn on me and pull the trigger."

Breeze stares intently at Chesapeake. Chesapeake shifts his gaze to the floor and then to Suarez. Suarez shrugs his shoulders.

Silence settles over the Skyranger and stays that way until they land back on the Avenger.

OPEN OBJECTIVES:
1. Complete Advent Officer Autopsy
2. Contact Resistance in Blacksite Region
3. Make Contact with West Africa
4. Research Resistance Communications

Personnel Report – Still have 6 Operatives, but 4 are injured, for significant periods of time. Will need to spend 80 of the 150 supplies getting at least 2 Rookie recruits.

Engineering Report – We expect that Advanced Warfare Center to be available for use in 8 days.

Research Report – Hybrid Materials completed – allowing us to build a nanoscale vests, if we choose. We decided to do the Advent Officer autopsy to knock out a goal instead of Magnetic Weapons or Armor.

Scanning – We finish scanning the Supply Drop and recover 150 resources. We’re going to go check out the Abandoned Colony to see if we can get those recruits before our next mission. Hoping we can use the resources elsewhere. Unfortunately, our next mission comes up halfway through the scan. We recruit 2 newbies from HQ to become Operatives. Welcome to the show, noobs!

[Raven Hawk]

Operation Storm King

Reward: Scientist – Dr. Man Shik Hong
Objective: Destroy Alien Transmitter

As we’re low on operatives we give the lead to a Squaddie who has only on mission under his belt. Chesapeake will be leading this mission and he’s bringing along Suarez as well as the two newbies we just picked up from HQ – Rk. Greco and Rk. Willis. Chesapeake keeps the Bolt Caster – in fact, he’s been caught sleeping with it under his pillow. We’ve outfitted Suarez’s sniper rifle with the Superior Scope and given him the Shadowkeeper. He also still has the Flashbang. Willis has the incendiary bomb and we fitted his rifle with the Hair Trigger. Greco has the Frost Bomb.

As this is a covert op, we drop in concealed, which should give us the ability to close a little more ground to the transmitter quicker. There is bakery right in front of us. We all head up to the roof and get a good sight line on a Sectoid and a Clacker. AG chucks the Frost Bomb at them and freezes them both. It is now easy pickings. Willis takes out the Clacker with one shot. It takes shots from both Suarez and Chesapeake to take down the Sectoid, but there wasn’t any risk.

We move to the other end of the roof and don’t see any hostiles. Greco and Willis get down on the ground and spot and Officer and a 2 Clackers. Greco fires and hits the Officer. All other cover fire misses, but we hear the Officer call for backup. The party is about to get bigger.

Willis flanks the Officer, but misses his shot. Grego takes a shot at the Officer and also misses. Suarez snipes a Clacker from distance and behind cover. Chesapeake reloads and covers. The reinforcements arrive – they drop in out of site behind us - another unit with an Officer and 2 Clackers. The injured Officer moves, but gets picked off by Chesapeake. Bradford comes over the comms and tells us that we are running out of time to drop the transmitter. We look at the timer counting down and panic. We have got to move to the objective. Now! The rookies get ready to make a break for it.

Suarez sets them up by sniping the remaining Clacker that positioned itself between Greco and Willis and the transmitter building. They make a break, sprinting hard, to try to get to the transmitter. Greco pops in the door to the building where transmitter is. When he kicks in the door, he sees a Sectoid and 2 Clackers . . . and he’s standing completely out in the open. Decision time. The objective is expiring soon.

Greco turns and fires on the transmitter. He’s damaged it, but it’s still transmitting. It will take another shot to take it out. Willis comes sprinting in behind Greco, but finds full cover and tosses the incendiary grenade through a window at the Sectoid. The Sectoid is on fire. The Sectoid screams in pain, but still manages to fire his plasma rifle at Greco . . .

The plasma bolt hits Greco in the side of the head. Greco’s body goes limp as it drops to the floor.

Chesapeake and Suarez are so far off that they can’t help the rookies. But, they have their own problems as the reinforcements wander up on their position and spot them. Chesapeake drops the Officer as it tries to get cover. The two Clackers are able to get behind some half cover. Suarez reloads his sniper rifle and tosses the Flashbang at the Clackers. Chesapeake drops another Clacker with the Bolt Caster from his elevated position. The remaining Clacker takes a shot at Chesapeake, but its disorientation causes it to shoot wide. Chesapeake reloads the Bolt Caster and ends the Clacker.
Back by the transmitter, Willis now has a decision – move to fire on the Sectoid, move on either of the Clackers, or destroy the transmitter. As he consider his decision, he hears the hiss of a bullet scream past his head. The hiss is followed by a thud and a scream as a Clacker's chest explodes and it falls to the ground. What a shot by Suarez! That had to come from about 70 meters! Willis steels himself and turns to fire on the transmitter. He destroys it just in time. Objective complete. Now we just need to finish off the Sectoid and one Clacker and we can get out of here.

The Sectoid, still on fire, moves in on Willis and starts summoning the psionic juice. We suddenly lose comms with Willis.

“Rookie, do you read me!” Chesapeake yells into the comms. Silence. “Shit.”

Chesapeake and Suarez fix their sights on the corner of the building where they last saw Willis. Suddenly, Willis comes charging around the corner . . . eyes glowing purple. Chesapeake pulls the trigger and drops Willis. Suarez looks over at Chesapeake with jaw dropped. Chesapeake doesn’t even look over at Suarez, he just reloads the Bolt Caster.

The last Clacker comes out into view and we see the Sectoid hiding around the corner where Willis came charging at us. The Sectoid decides to animate a Zombie from an Officers corpse. At this point, we’re just happy the Sectoid didn’t reanimate Willis. Chesapeake stuns the Zombie with the a shot from the Bolt Caster as he doesn’t have a shot on any other hostiles. Suarez goes to overwatch. The Sectoid leaves cover and Suarez drops him mid-stride. The Zombie goes down when Sectoid falls. The Sectoid drops some loot. The last Clacker charges out and takes a shot at Chesapeake, missing horribly. Chesapeake reloads the Bolt Caster and puts the last Clacker down.

All hostiles are down in the AO.

The mission was a success, but it cost us 2 rookies. Yet, it was the rookies that were able to win the objective for us. It’s too bad that they had to sacrifice themselves to do it.

Operation: Steel Strike
Enemies Killed: 11
Soldiers Wounded: 0
Soldiers Killed: 2 Greco and Willis
Rating: Fair
Loot: Elerium Core, Alien Data Cache, Corpses
Award: Dr. Man Shik Hong - Scientist

AAR: We were rocking until I got notice that we were running out of time. Had to get the transmitter down. I know the consequences of failing a mission and just didn’t want to take the hit when working on Legendary difficulty. Greco and Willis sacrificed themselves for XCOM. Suarez and Chesapeake were ruthlessly efficient. With the reinforcements coming in behind us, there wasn’t much they could do to support the rookies until they took care of their own threat. The only other thing I could have done was fire on a propane tank next to the wall that would have opened up the wall for an easier shot at the transmitter for Suarez instead of having Greco kick in the front door.

Casualties
Rk. Greco: KIA – Sectoid Plasma Bolt
Rk. Willis: KIA – Chesapeake’s Bolt Caster

Promotions
Chesapeake: Squaddie > Corporal SPECIALIST (Medical Protocol)
Suarez: Squaddie > Corporal SHARPSHOOTER (Long Watch)

Kill Count
Chesapeake - 7
Suarez - 4
Greco - 0
Willis - 1

[Raven Hawk]

Central and I are watching the events of Operation Storm King unfold on the body cams. As we see Rk. Willis drop after the discharge of Chesapeake's weapon. I turn to Bradford.

"Is this what we're teaching our operatives now, Central?"

"This is war, Commander. After that first encounter that Operative Chas in Cinti had, we changed our tactics. If you recall, saving Chas in Cinti cost us the life of another operative and put Operative Li in sick bay for an extended period of time."

"So what exactly ARE we training them to do?"

"If we have a clear firing solution on the Sectoid, we take it out to save the operative. If there isn't a clear firing solution on the Sectoid . . ."

"Our operative becomes a bogey?" I huff as I sneer. "We're down two more operatives, Central, I hope you have some new recruits stashed somewhere. We only have Chesapeake and Suarez healthy enough for field duty."

Later . . .

It now has become ceremony. As Central enters the bar, there is a small crowd waiting for him. He places two more pictures on the wall and turns to survey his audience. He sees Suarez has come to the vigil, but there's no sign of Chesapeake.

[Raven Hawk]

As the Avenger begins to take off, the ship begins to shudder. Lily Shen's rover begins reprogramming itself and starts hacking into our network. The disruption only lasts a few moments, but long enough to flash a picture to her of her father, Dr. Raymond Shen.

Dr. Raymond Shen led the engineering department during the first wave of attacks 15 years ago. He died procuring the Avenger for XCOM and his daughter has subsequently taken up his work. Central gets coordinates on where the disruption came from. We will have to scan the area to pinpoint it's location. Lily Shen is anxious for us to look into it.

Shortly after, Marth Fischer, our only engineer (aside from Lily Shen), completes the Advanced Warfare Center. Wounded operatives are lined up outside the door before it is even officially open: Kodos, Chas in Cinti, Breeze, and Li. Luckily there's enough room for all of them. Fischer starts treating their wounds more effectively.

Next BB gives me a call on my view screen and informs me that he has a team that has been hacking the alien network. In the data caches, they have found reference to something called the Avatar project. As this term shows up regularly in highly secured communications, BB believes it is something we should investigate and disrupt if we can. We can start by picking up the Blacksite mission that he gave us a little while back.

Dr. Tygan is the next who calls for my attention. He has completed the autopsy of the Advent Officer. The Officer apparently has a chip implanted in it's head, but it's different than the one he dug out of my skull. He shows me what he's discovered on the monitors. The Advent Officers are getting tactical feeds regularly - as battles progress - that are tied into the alien psionic network. Apparently they are being fed my tactical tendencies that they harvested when they had me hooked up to the system. Bastards! That's why they always seem to be one step ahead. Tygan says that he can get more information from the Officers if we build a Proving Ground to test out experimental weapons and build something he refers to as a Skulljack, which can access the chips inside a live Officer - sounds like some close quarters work. I tell Tygan that we will prioritize it as we can.

OPEN OBJECTIVES:
1. Complete Advent Officer Autopsy
2. Contact Resistance in Blacksite Region
3. Make Contact with West Africa

Shen – Encourages us to scan for the source of the disruption.

NEW OBJECTIVE
1. Identify source of Disruption

Personnel – We are back down to 2 healthy operatives and 4 in sick bay. However, our completion of the Advanced Warfare Center will help us recover faster. Picking up 3 new rookies at the Abandoned colony helps our headcount situation, though.

Avatar Project (3/12)– We need to investigate Blacksite facilities.

Research – After we finish the Advent Officer autopsy, we start the Sectoid Autopsy. Sectoid Autopsy completes and we learn a little about Psionics and can build a mind shield against their psionics. Though one would think the mind shield an important advancement, it takes up space on our kit where we would store ammo or ordinance. Next Research: Advent Trooper Autopsy.

NEW OBJECTIVES
1. Construct the Proving Ground
2. Complete the Skulljack project in the Proving Ground
3. Use the Skulljack on an Officer.

Engineering – Fischer tending to the wounded and can’t start clearing debris for any more construction yet. We need more engineers. Stat!

Scanning – We complete the scanning of the abandoned colony and pick up 3 new rookies Welcome Rk. Ilyushin, Rk. Hendricks, and Rk. Anderson. We need more Engineers, but don’t have the supplies to hire one. Found an old Service Depot to scan for supplies. Scanning will take 7 days. While scanning for the resources, we hear about an opportunity to do a supply raid . . .

[Raven Hawk]

This is typically where I get destroyed at Legendary level. But I've learned that the AWC is more important than the Guerilla Warfare Center on Legendary difficulty. It is almost impossible to keep from getting into casualty trouble by this point. If I spent my only engineer on building the Guerilla Tactics School, maybe I'd have my 5th mission slot right now, but early on that's only an extra slot to get somebody wounded or killed. I need to get these experienced veterans back into the fray so they can gain abilities.

The AWC also gives fun bonuses like out-of-class skills. My favorite combination has been when a Ranger got Serial (paired with Reaper at Col. level, these Rangers become killing machines - literally). But other useful things also happen, like non-Grenadier classes getting Shredder or Holo-Targeting - both key skills to have to get through this portion of the game when aliens start showing up with armor points.

My next challenge will be not to go for the Shen expansion mission to early. You typically want to have a Proving Ground and some Bluescreen rounds for that mission. Additionally, the Vahlen expansion mission will be coming up shortly, too. At some point you have to bite the bullet and unleash those nasty bosses on the world, but I like to wait until I have Plated Armor before I take that one on.

Which brings me to . . . these research times and facility build/debris clearing times on Legendary difficulty suck! We're currently at about 32 days to build out Plated Armor. I can't spend resources on something that will take 32 days! I may have to consider spending some intelligence to speed research along - something you really don't need to do on lower difficulty levels.

Thanks for reading along! Please feel free to write in for your characters, I'm happy to incorporate your own story lines into the narrative!

[Raven Hawk]

Operation Black Stroke

Objective: Raid the Advent Troop Transport

We lost two Rookies on our last mission and the rest of the team isn’t quite healed yet. Two more Rookies get their chance at glory! Cpl. Chesapeake will lead again with Cpl. Suarez brining his Sniper rifle along. Rookies Ilyushin and Johanessen kit up. We give Rk. Johanessen the rifle with the Hair Trigger and the Frost Bomb. Rk. Ilyushin gets the incendiary bomb.

We drop in concealed and send the Rookies out on point, one moving forward to 2:00 and one moving forward to 11:00. Ilyushin picks up contact on a Sectoid and a Stun Lancer. As they move forward, we see that there are 2 Lancers in this squad. We are going to want to freeze them if we can.
Concealed, Johannessen moves into range to throw the Frost Bomb. He tosses and is able to freeze one Lancer and the Sectoid. The second Lancer charges us. Chesapeake misses his shot and Suarez hits, but doesn’t drop the Lancer. The Lancer pokes at Johanessen with his stun stick and . . . MISSES! Whew!

Johannessen moves back to cover and fires on the unfrozen, injured Lancer and finishes it off. Suarez tags the frozen Sectoid, but it’s still alive. Chesapeake drops the other Lancer with a single shot from the Bolt Caster. Ilyushin picks up the spare on Suarez’s Sectoid with a burst from his rifle.
The Rookies cover while the Chesapeake and Suarez reload and move forward into formation with the Rookies. As Chesapeake moves up, he spies a turret. He takes a shot and hits it. Ilyushing plays clean up again and finishes the turret off with his rifle.

We continue to move up and spot an Officer and two Clackers. Johannessen takes a shot and hits a Clacker, but doesn’t drop him. Ilyushin flanks the Officer and takes a shot, hitting him. Suarez and attempts to Shadowfall (using the the Shadowkeeper to kill an opponent) the Officer, hits, but doesn’t do enough damage to drop him. Shadowfall fails. Johannessen is also able to flank the Officer, fires his rifle and drops the Officer. Chesapeake moves to overwatch.

The injured Clacker moves out of cover and Chesapeake drops it. It, in turn drops some loot for us to check out. The remaining Clacker moves to flank Suarez, but misses its shot.

Damn. A Sectoid and two more Lancers must have heard the gunfire and move in to get some action.

Suarez drops the remaining Clacker from the first squad, freeing up the rest of the team to deal with the newcomers. Johannessen is able to flank a Lancer, but misses his shot! Ilyushin throws the Incendiary and hits the Sectoid, setting him on fire. We know that Sectoids can use Psionics even when they are on fire. We aren't taking our chances, so Chesapeake takes a low-percentage shot on the Sectoid, hits it, finishing it off. Shit, we still have 2 Lancers to deal with . . . . the Lancers charge.

Johannessen is hit, but not killed. He is disoriented, though. The second Lancer moves on Ilyushin, pokes him with its stun stick. Ilyushin’s hair stands on end and his body begins to shake as the energy from the stun stick courses through him. The Lancer pulls his stun stick back and watches Ilyushin drop to the ground, dead.

Suarez, recognizing the threat but wanting the loot, moves to pick up the loot before it expires and Flashbangs the two Lancers on his way. The loot is good – another Hair Trigger, a Repeater, and a PCS chip. Johannessen fires on the Lancer standing next to him injuring it. Chesapeake finishes Johannessen’s Lancer with a shot from the Bolt Caster. One Lancer yet to deal with, though it is a disoriented Lancer.

The Lancer that dropped Ilyushin charges Chesapeake, Bolt Caster and all, pokes Chesapeake with the stun stick and HITS! HARD! Chesapeake drops to knee as he exhales heavily, trying to manage the pain.

Johannessen flanks the Lancer, but misses his open shot. Suarez moves to flank the Lancer, but gets into a position where he can’t see the Lancer and has to go to overwatch.

Chesapeake, grunts as he stands up and runs for heavy cover. He gets his rover to heal him as he makes the dash. The Lancer charges Chesapeake, AGAIN! This shot hits Chesapeake in the leg. Chesapeake howls in pain as the energy courses through him . . . .

Chesapeake screams, but he's still up. He reaches deep, grits teeth, reloads the Bolt Caster, and sticks it into the Lancers chest. He pulls the trigger. The Lancer flies backward as the bolt tears a huge hole in its chest. All hostiles are down in the AO

Operation: Black Stroke
Enemies Killed: 10
Soldiers Wounded: 2 – Chesapeake, Johanessen
Soldiers Killed: 1 - Ilyushin
Rating: Good
Loot: Hair Trigger, Repeater, PCS: Focus (+11 Will), Corpses
Award: 112 Supplies, 57 Alien Alloys, 17 Elerium Crystals, 1 Elerium Core

AAR: We were doing awesome until that last squad dropped in on us. I was pondering if I should have moved back when I saw them, but saw that J could get a flanked shot in. I shouldn’t have gone for it. The Rookie didn’t have the firepower to drop the Lancer even if he did Crit the bastard. Those Lancers can be brutal when you don’t have a Ranger on the team . . .

Casualties
Ilyushin: KIA – Lancer’s Stun Lance
Chesapeake: Wounded – 8 days (the AWC REALLY helps here)
Johannessen: Wounded – 11 days

Promotions
Chesapeake: Corporal > Sergeant SPECIALIST (Haywire Protocol)
Johannessen: Rookie > Squaddie RANGER (speaking of Rangers . . . I’m hoping Kodos is good to go for the next mission)

Kill Count
Chesapeake – 5
Johannessen - 2
Ilyushin – 2
Suarez – 1

[Raven Hawk]

Bradford spoke low enough so only I could hear, "Another body bag and two more casualties. We aren't going to win if we keep taking these losses. Our best soldiers are out or action."

I reply, also in a muted tone, "How many active soldiers do we have?"

"We have Suarez and a Rookie ready to go."

"That's half a squad," I state as I pass my hand through my hair as I cope with the anxiety.

"Yes, Commander. Kodos should be back to active duty shortly. That will give us three active operatives, providing we don't have an important mission come up."

"We might have to skip it if we do," I say.

"Our benefactor will not appreciate that."

"That may be, but we need to be careful about expending operatives on non-essential missions."

"Non-essential? What could possibly be non-essential?"

"Are you volunteering to go back out in the field?"

Bradford is about to respond and I know what his answer would be. So I cut him off before he can speak.

"Just get me some more recruits. . . . and pick up an engineer or two while you're at it. Dr. Fischer can't sew up our wounded and build us another facility to boot."

Bradford nods and walks back to his command post.

Later in the evening Bradford heads down to the bar with a picture and a thumbtack. There is a larger crowd than last time. Word has gotten around. Quite a few mourners wearing their mix and matched bandages. Kodos looks anxious, chomping at the bit to get back at it.

Bradford says a few words and as he finishes, he notices a soldier darkening the door, on crutches. When he's noticed, he hovels away quietly.

[chesapeake]

I'm surprised that I'm only out for 8 days, given the beating I took.

[Raven Hawk]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I'm surprised that I'm only out for 8 days, given the beating I took.

Yeah - that is the importance of the Advanced Warfare Center . . . and having it staffed with an Engineer. I'm not sure, but I think that if an Engineer is not staffed there at the point we return from a mission (as opposed to staffing the AWC after we return from a mission), the injuries take longer to heal. I just have some anecdotal evidence on this, but will try to figure out if that is the case going forward.