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

[Brian Swartz]

Benton Gale

Ranger it is!

Health: 4(--)
Will: 57(+9!)
Aim: 62(+2)

You almost have to try not to get better aim improvement than this. On the other hand, looking good as a potential officer with a major mental boost.

[chesapeake]

Be aggressive. Maybe I don't hit much, but when I do, let's max out the chance that it is a big one.

[Brian Swartz]

Ches O'Peake

Aggression selected.

Health: 6(--)
Will: 37(+5)
Aim: 71(+4)

Solid if not spectacular. At the moment a solid #2 choice in the infantry class.

**Roster updated in the OP, was having problems with the 'edit' button lately.**

[chesapeake]

Unless my will improves substantially, I suspect I will be a danger to myself and others when the aliens start using more mind control.

[Brian Swartz]

That's making a rather large assumption that we survive long enough for that to be a problem .

[Brian Swartz]

April 16 0516 -- France requests 6 Sectoid Corpses in exchange for a scientist. Rejected, as we only have 11 right now. Two more operatives are back on active duty by the end of the day

April 17 0253 -- Shortly after a report of UFO activity in Canada, an abduction alert is sent! Light resistance again, with an 8m reward on offer.

There is only one infantry soldier available -- XCOM really needs more than three at this point. The other two are injured, namely Gale and O'Peake. It's too much of a risk to send the remaining one, so an extra experienced hand will make it two privates and four promoted soldiers for this mission.

LCPL Rebecca Burke(USA, Scout)
** Low Profile
LCPL Lily Brodie(SCO, Medic)
** Revive
SPEC Courtney Mason(UK, Assault)
SPEC Eman Hodzic(BIH, Gunner)
PFC Shigeru Endo(JPN)
PFC Carl Tanner(USA)

No FOFC representatives this time out. Not a lot of firepower here. We're headed to an urban setting with a number of buildings, or so intel says. This team is mobile, with an emphasis on disabling via Hodzic's suppression or flashbang grenades. Endo's rifle and Mason's shotgun will need to do a disproportionate amount of the damage if we get locked into an extended firefight, so let's hope that doesn't happen. If the squad gets swarmed this could get ugly, but a few at a time should be a walk in the park. Burke and Brodie are the best we have in their classes.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION MORBID BELL
0417, 4.17.2015
Toronto, Canada

The squad deploys on a street intersection, with serious obvious bomb damage to the buildings nearby. It's a wonder anyone is still alive to abduct here. Burke moves forward behind a red sedan and spots a canister on the roof of the nearest building. Taking the high ground isn't a half-bad idea anyway.

Thin men and sectoids can be heard. Burke moves up to the roof, spotting no resistance, and continues to the canister. Tanner moves up there with her, the rest are too far away to follow immediately. Mason spots a trio of sectoids, hiding behind vehicles on the opposite side of the structure. Here we go! Most of the squad just hunkers down as we've just got burned-out vehicles here which won't help much.

Burke grabs the canister. It seems the sectoids had the same idea as one hunkers down, another looks for reaction fire, and the third we can't really spot. Burke drops in on the one inside the building, almost literally, dodging it's fire, and executes it at close range. Still on the roof, Tanner can't spot the third enemy ... not sure where it might be, but Mason moves in for an easy shotgun blast.







Maybe there were only two? Either way, Brodie and Hodzic move up top to give us more options in case there are more nearby. We can still hear more of them out there somewhere, along with the thin men. We'll move carefully, three up top and three below, spread out to cover any possible approaches as we sweep the AO. There's an alley beyond this building, and another canister on the next roof. That seems to be where more of them are at by the sounds of things.

Moving forward, the noises keep coming but we can't see anything. Moment of truth as the squad reaches the far side of the building. Can we cross the alley safely? There's no choice but to try. Naturally it's Burke first. She spots nothing, the others cautiously join her. They pause to listen .... thin man and a seeker just outside the left of the building! Reaction shots miss except one which bounces off the seeker's hide. The canister on the roof has expired, unfortunate but one must be careful.

Mason uses a flashbang on the thin man, Hodzic gets a pretty good shot off at the seeker but misses. The others move in and shift that direction, setting up defensive fire in case they advance. The thin man misses a shot, seeker snags Burke up on the roof while our fire is just absorbed, and three sectoids are set to join the fight from the rear. This is not good. Mason shows off her skills, dashing up to the roof and explaining to the seeker why that wasn't a real good idea. Execution.







Endo maneuvers for a good shot at the thin man and nails it, but it's still alive. Hodzic can't finish the job, so Tanner is forced to with his high-explosive charge. Unfortunate that it had to come to that, but that thing had to die so we could focus on the sectoids, and it was far too close for comfort.





One of the sectoids supplied mind-meld support while the others moved in for psi panic attacks on Endo. Those worked, but this made them vulnerable to a counterattack. Even at a fair distance, Mason was able to drop one from the roof with a shotgun blast. Brodie was able to get just in range, also up top, and dropped the melder who was exposed, injuring the final sectoid. Burke dropped her flashbang on that last injured foe to make sure it couldn't do much. It fired at Brodie on the roof, missing -- that might have saved her.

Endo was too shaken to go for revenge, so he just healed up. The other newbie, Carl Tanner, moved into position to flank but didn't get quite enough and only left the sectoid badly wounded. Hodzic missed as well, and so it was left to Mason's shotgun to notch another.

Post-Mortem

Even Endo suffered no long-term effects, not a single injury and seven aliens killed. He wasn't promoted though, but three were including fellow private Tanner and Lily Brodie who becomes XCOM's first full Corporal, taking the moniker 'Axle'.

Artifacts

5 Sectoid Corpses
1 kg. Alien Alloys
5 Weapon Fragments
6 g MOG
1 Seeker Wreck

[Brian Swartz]

Time has run out for the following:

Coffee Warlord

Will to Survive training selected.

Health: 3(--)
Will: 44(+6)
Aim: 70(+5)

Pretty good, though you'll need more than 'will' to survive if you don't toughen up physically a bit.

Didier Keita

Opportunist selected.

Health: 5(--)
Will: 50(+5)
Aim: 57(+1)

Not impressive. Keita seems almost determined to never be able to hit anything.

[Brian Swartz]

It was a busy morning after everyone returned to HQ. With XCOM having it's first official Corporal, Bradford announced that we should consider building an Officer Training School. This is of vital importance in ensuring proper leadership for our soldiers and improved logistics. After careful consultation, it is agreed that it should be built as soon as there is room from the current excavations next to the thermal generator. Though it costs 20m, the OTS will require only 1 GW of power, leaving enough spare to built an access lift down to sublevel 4 for additional power plants. The potential gain from the new facility is considered to be worth almost any expense.

Three more soldiers returned to active duty as that constant cycle continues. With five missions already in April and still two weeks left in the month, there are almost always several in recovery. One, Yolanda Pena, was actually coming off an injury and there are still four more in that category.

Later in the morning the excavation teams gave the all-clear, and work on the Officer Training School began. It will take a week to build. Less than an hour afterwards, while it is not yet noon, Dr. Vahlen puts in her two cents again. It seems that Project Sagaris has been completed, the investigation into Alien Weaponry. This report has only a limited amount of technobabble in the intro:

"we've seen enough to confirm my worst suspicions about their technology ... that it is vastly superior to our own. However, I have been encouraged by the rapid developments the research team has made ... new integrated sighting module ... was heavily influenced by the aliens own targeting system"

There's always more bad news it seems, but Dr. Shen has three more schematics available based on the findings.

** Weapon Gyros will be of no use to us unless the policy against building SHIVs were to be revoked. They help with steadying the weapons on those units.
** Marksman's Scopes can be used only by Scouts, for extending the range on Marksman Rifles and Strike Rifles. Since our scouts operate close to the enemy and don't use such long-range weapons as a matter of course, these will be of no use either.
** Standard Scopes are far more useful to us. They provide a +10% aim bonus for primary weapons and rocket launchers, double the +5% currently possible with our laser sights. Unfortunately the cost is also significant. At 8m each, with more and more priorities being added to the queue for our very limited funds each week it seems, it may be a while before we can build any of these. The impact on combat effectiveness for our soldiers would be significant however.

Dr. Vahlen's team will next research Alien Materials, an investigation that aims to glean possible advances in body armor. With the number of injuries soldiers are racking up recently despite fairly liberal use of extra ceramic plating, any improvements here would be very well received. This will take a little over a week to complete. Materials required:

** 2 kg Elerium
** 2 kg Alien Alloys
** 5 Weapon Fragments
** 1 g MOG

There are currently 5 other potential research projects pending, four of which we currently have the resources for(the fifth, Alien Computers, requires double the current 2 intact UFO Nav Computers we have managed to recover so far). Like everything else, the needs of the war in terms of research and development are outstripping our capabilities.

[Brian Swartz]

Another soldier returns to duty later in the day, and the US desires a trade: 8 Weapon Fragments in exchange for a skilled engineer. We have not yet been able to add to Shen's staff at all, and we have enough to spare, 68 of them. The trade is approved.

The 17th was a very busy day.

In The News

** Images of American soldiers going into battle with advanced alien weaponry posted on Internet
** Pressure mounts in Canada as their inability to monitor alien threats comes into question
** Local media report indicates aggressive military response to ongoing threat of alien abductions in Canada
** Unusual activity outside the Nigerian capital of Abuja has been blamed on migratory birds, negating rumors of alien activity
** Stock prices continue slow decline in German pharmaceutical industry

A mix of good and bad lately. XCOM continues to succeed where we can, but is woefully incapable of doing everything that is needed to combat the alien threat.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, April 19

Not nearly as much happened on the 18th, a few more soldiers are back to active status and that's it.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, April 20

At about 0230 on the 19th Mexico requests 8 fragments for an engineer, just like the US did less than 36 hours ago. Again the answer is yes. We've got 52 left, and would probably approve one more such trade if it came up but that's it.

Quiet otherwhise.

[Kodos]

Reporting for duty, sir.

First Name: Chris
Last Name: Kodos
Nationality(optional): Whatever
Focus Attribute(optional, will try to pick a character strong in this): Aim
Neglect Attribute(Optional, will try to pick a character weak in this): Defense
Special Requests: Male, blond hair

Basically, I'd like to be a sniper.

[Brian Swartz]

Excellent! We have a Frenchman near the bottom of the list(although that doesn't mean all that much anymore, most of the privates have been in action) who has by far the best aim of anyone left. He also looks a lot like Roguru and Drago, square jaw with a flat-top blond cut. So Chris Kodos has been added, 11 FOFC soldiers now(+1 dead ).

Health: 5
Mobility: 12
Will: 30
Aim: 69
Defense: -3

Low defense and mobility, average will, high aim and health. Pretty good odds for a successful soldier here. As of the morning of the 21st, you are 7th on the roll of privates waiting to go out.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, April 21

The first couple of fighters are back in action, and another trade of weapons fragments for engineering support is approved, this one with our host nation of Germany.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, April 22

A evening request from Mexico for weapons fragments was rejected. They are too late unless we come up with a bunch more, for now we can't afford to ship any more out.

[Coffee Warlord]

Oh shit, we've got an alien on the squad.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Excellent! We have a Frenchman near the bottom of the list(although that doesn't mean all that much anymore, most of the privates have been in action) who has by far the best aim of anyone left. He also looks a lot like Roguru and Drago, square jaw with a flat-top blond cut. So Chris Kodos has been added, 11 FOFC soldiers now(+1 dead ).

Health: 5
Mobility: 12
Will: 30
Aim: 69
Defense: -3

Low defense and mobility, average will, high aim and health. Pretty good odds for a successful soldier here. As of the morning of the 21st, you are 7th on the roll of privates waiting to go out.

Feel free to throw me into a different role if needed, since sniper is well populated.

[Brian Swartz]

Will do, I only have so much control of it and infantry is really needed right now(similar skillset required as well). Sniper is actually not that populated though, with three of them(we have at least three of everything and will need at least five) and they will be gradually needed more as time goes on. We'll see what happens, right now we're in another cycle of down time.

[Brian Swartz]

Your regularly scheduled absolutely nothing at all dominated the news at XCOM over the last couple of days. Yesterday on the 23rd, literally nothing worth mentioning happened.

The day before though, at 28 minutes past noon local time, Alien Containment went on-line. The first Arc Thrower is not yet finished, but with the holding facility up and running XCOM has passed a major milestone in the attempt to capture and interrogate aliens species.





As this photograph shows, it's basically a large holding cell with a notably reinforced office to the left. Given the location of the facility just to the right of the access lift on Sublevel 2, we can only hope that Dr. Shen has properly seen to all possible security precautions.

All of the remaining soldiers in recovery are back on active duty, as well as Geoff Russell. The long-term injured list has only three left on it. Gale, O'Peake, and Keita, FOFC soldiers all, remain in the medbay for treatment.

[Brian Swartz]

April 24th, unlike the several days preceding it, was in fact a momentous day in XCOM's desperate journey. At 1328, the doors of the Officer Training School were opened. Located on Sublevel 3, just past the thermal generator, it is a place where the best of XCOM's soldiers are to be admitted for the purpose of studying squad command, leadership, and advanced tactical & logistical concepts.





Surrounded by banners symbolizing in the agency, it is this traditionally-designed lecture/debate hall where the first officers corps to represent all of humanity will be formed.

The completion of the structure was only the beginning. Two different paths of techniques were made available. The first was logistical in nature, involving expanding the number of soldiers that can effectively be included in each squad. The second was the officer commissioning itself. The equipment and training materials involved in both require a significant financial investment, and a threshold test has been established as well for ensuring that XCOM's soldiers have enough critical mass of experience to be prepared to use these advances properly. That experience is specified by the number of ranks required(specialist = 1 rank, lance corporal = 2 ranks, etc.). XCOM's soldiers presently possess a total of 42 ranks, enough to allow for the first stage of each path to be achieved immediately. The financial consideration though, was another matter.

Increasing squad size from the current six to a seventh soldier for most missions requires 12 million, while the treasury presently has just 8.5 million available. Tactical officers training, allowing the commissioning of lieutenants, requires another 6 million. This put the Commander in the position of making an important decision. The only way to bring in the additional 9.5 million immediately would be authorizing emergency sales from the reserves of alien artifacts on the gray market. XCOM has not yet taken this step, preferring a long-term approach to any financial needs and the preservation of limited resources, though bylaws do still allow for trades, a few of which have already been done and announced, and sales of up to 30% of all total artifacts with the rest reserved for internal use.

After consulting with Bradford, Shen, Vahlen, and others of note, the Commander decided that this was a necessary if unprecedented step. The importance in both the short and long-term of the OTS investment cannot be overstated. Increasing squad size improves not only mission viability and survivability, but also in the longer term will accelerate development of more soldiers. It is hard to quantify the significance of this. Officer development was also a priority. Plans are in place, when we have sufficiently experienced officers, for investing in several higher levels of command beyond the tactical/lieutenant level. These plans cannot even be considered without having officers with experience in the field at the lower level.

After a careful inventory was taken place, it was discovered that over 27 million could be generated from the sale of eligible artifacts, nearly three times the required amount. Although this is a notable reduction in inventory, it certainly would not cripple the agency. A proportional sale across all categories resulted in 9.4m being raised from the following:

2 Thin Man Corpses
6 kg Elerium
6 kg Alien Alloys
4 oz. MOG
1 Seeker Wreck

The general fund is now deep in the hole and will nothing available other than the case of the most dire emergencies for some time. Nobody has come up with a compelling argument that it was not necessary, however. These contingencies exist for a reason.

Further increasing squad size to a maximum of eight will require 115 ranks, nearly three times the current number. Obviously that will not happen for a long time. The next level of officer training, the Company-level officer or Captain, will require 45 which XCOM has nearly reached. The limiting factor here will be in training up lieutenants to reach that level. The cost for both is 12m each.

Officers Briefing

A few notes, highly classified naturally, may be useful at this point detailing the role of officers. Those selected must meet the following criteria:

** Veterans of five operations. An additional five must be completed as the commander for a squad in order to merit the next level of officer training.
** Corporal rank is required to become a lieutenant, the next level up for Captain, and so on.
** Officers continue to receive the same enlisted training as anyone else when they are promoted, but they receive officer training as well.
** Should other specialized types of training become available as XCOM's capabilities grow, being an officer may preclude a soldier from pursuing those opportunities(I can't be more specific without being spoilerish )

At the present time, XCOM has only one soldier of corporal rank, though there are three open lieutenant billets. Lieutenant training involves two additional abilities. The first is common to all. Newly commissioned officers are taught to Lead By Example. As a result, they are able to substituted their will for the will of any soldier near them on the battlefield. An important implication of this is that strong-willed soldiers and those whose responsibilities tend to put them near the center of the squad make the best officer candidates. Conversely, the mentally weak or classes such as snipers or scouts who tend to stray from the pack are less useful. The second training is elective, as are all that follow with future promotions. A lieutenant may choose Legio Patra Nostra, granting a +1 will bonus to every soldier in the squad for each unique nationality represented, or Stay Frosty, which will reduce recovery time by 24 hours after their missions. Like enlisted training, these are permanent once selected.


A historic moment. Cpl. Lily 'Axle' Brodie, the only available candidate but a fine one nonetheless, is the first commissioned officer in XCOM. She is no longer Cpl Axle, but now Lt. Axle!



In unrelated news, 'Blinker' Kamala's fighter returned to active duty later in the day, giving us three total.

[Brian Swartz]

April 25 -- In the morning hours, both Egypt and Brazil reported significant UFO activity. At 0217, the first reports of abductions came in. They are from Egypt, with the usual 8m reward, light activity reported nonsense.

LT Axle is an automatic choice here, as getting the officers experience is a priority. With the addition of a seventh soldier, there will be three privates going out along with the four experienced squad members. Her first command is as follows:

SPEC Amber Mitchell(ZAF, Scout)
SPEC Ivan Drago(HON, Assault)
SPEC Naomi Foster(USA, Engineer)
PFC Katia Rivera(MEX)
PFC Soledad Sanchez(MEX)
PFC Shigeru Endo(JPN)

Drago will represent FOFC on this abduction, while Duncan Ross for the second time is the first person on the private queue not to make the cutoff. His time will come soon. The three privates here have all been out before, and should be promoted assuming they survive.

Overall, the squad is a high-mobility, low-firepower group, but Drago's shotgun and Foster's grenades add some punch and of course the seventh member will increase the odds.


OPERATION BANISHED PARAMOUR
Giza, Egypt
4.25.2015, 0241

We'll just pretend we didn't hear that opname and move on. We're on a suspension bridge of all things, with the Skyranger awaiting us on the far end. A sharp eye picks out a spinning canister through the darkness. The one thing Axle wants to avoid here is getting flanked. The squad spreads out, preparing to sweep the area end-to-end.







All we hear initially is sectoids, which is strange. Does that mean seekers are about? Mitchell has a scanner if we do, that possibility was anticipated. She spots a pair of the pasty white crawly jerks as she moves forward, and it's time for everyone to seek firing positions.

They move forward towards us behind a blue vehicle. The leader is used to using such imperfect positions, but the second one on overwatch is not. Foster wounds it and Rivera finishes it off. Mitchell moves up and snags a canister, which yields seven ounces -- they've been five apiece lately, it looks like the aliens are continuing to ramp up their operations. That's unfortunate.

The leader sectoid decides it doesn't want to take on seven of us at once, and retreats back down the right side of the bridge. That's our cue to move forward, hoping to snag that second canister. Mitchell spots it ... and a pair of drones. Annoying twits, those things. The sectoid is just hiding along the right railing ... so far we've taken almost half the bridge and not so much as been shot at.







All of the good cover is on the left, which means we're going after the drones and leaving that sectoid alone for now. We're too far away to get in good shooting positions. The sectoid retreats further which is fine by us, and both of the drones miss us. Time to make them dead. Endo, best shooter of the rookies, bullseye's one on the first try! Rivera does the same to the second! Well that was ridiculously simple.


The drones attack, but accomplish nothing





Three enemies down, one sectoid and who knows what else back there. Forward again, seeking out that canister. Mitchell spots the lone sectoid, wounds it but doesn't quite take it down. Three more of them show up on the left though, and we're in a fight again. A reaction by Foster misses, about the only thing that hasn't gone right today.


Mitchell's SMG doesn't pack quite enough punch to send this interloper to it's grave





There's no good way to advance, so we withdraw hoping they'll come to us. Some of us needs to reload anyway. One approaches and Sanchez wounds it. A pistol shot by Drago trying to finish it off fails. We have no good shots, but the sectoid doesn't want to press it's luck either. Sanchez fires again, wounds it again, still can't take it down. Endo hits it a third time, just a flesh wound. Still not dead. Unbelievable. We can't just rush forward because there are three more out there, it would be far too risky.


This sectoid simply refused to die





It slides along a vehicle on the right, exposed to Drago ... but a panic attack lands on him. Fantastic. A second, healthy sectoid moves up to take it's place on defensive watch. This is not going great. Sanchez and Endo fire again. The Japanese is out of ammo but we now have three badly wounded enemies. And one healthy, supporting them with mind-meld. We redeploy a bit, Foster takes Drago's position and a good angle ... flesh wound. Sigh.

They continue to move forward on the right in defensive fire. We can't flank them up the left because there are two still out there ... this is getting silly. Definitely Axle is outmaneuvered here, we aren't getting most of our guns into the fight. Foster tries to weaken one of them with a grenade but it's too far away and the blast does no permanent damage. Brodie uses a medikit to get Drago going again.


A dangerous moment as Foster just avoids getting a face-full of plasma





They advance and shots are missed both directions. This is getting ridiculous. Drago ends the closest one on the left with a shotgun blast. There's no particularly safe way to end the threat on the right though. Another grenade from Foster does most of the work, then Sanchez moves around the vehicle for a flanking shot. Another one down, though she'll be a bit exposed there if the supporting sectoid moves forward.


Private Soledad Sanchez secures the right flank, though at an unfortunate amount of risk to herself





There's one on each side, the one on the left looking for defensive fire on us. Rivera has a good flanking chance ... um no rook, that's not how it's done. Mitchell? Wounded and still up. Axle tries some of that leading by example stuff ... a mile high. Facepalm. That was a great chance to take out another one.


Katia Rivera misses a golden opportunity, proving why she's on her second mission and still just a private





So they do ... nothing. The wounded sectoid on the left retreats, nothing from the one on the right. Unexpected. Mitchell probes forward, spots an exposed enemy, and a healthy Drago gets another shotgun kill. One more left, but it proved slippery. Eventually, a mid-range blast from Drago finished it off. He sure finished well, though the start was iffy.


The second of Ivan Drago's three kills to end off the mission. A cloud of dust from his shotgun and the enemy is no more.





Post Mortem

Seven kills, but a very uneven operation. We need more work in the tactical simulator. At the end, the squad got badly outmaneuvered after a great start and was lucky we weren't tagged in the final firefight. There were no injuries, including Drago even with the panic attacks. All three privates earned promotions, but nobody else.

Artifacts Recovered

5 Sectoid Corpses
2 Drone Wrecks
1 kg Alien Alloys
7 Weapon Fragments
8 oz. MOG

[Brian Swartz]

The Banished Paramour team returned to XCOM around 0430, and everyone tried to get some sleep. Few succeeded. Less than five hours later, the morning routine was shattered by reports of massive attacks in metropolitan areas coming in from all over the globe. The principals assembled in the Situation Room. Soon all the major networks were picking up the images:





The video broadcast shows panic in the streets, private recordings of bomb explosions, people running and screaming, all categories of chaos. In the US capital, one showed what seemed clearly to be an alien craft flying low over the city delivering it's payload of bombs:





Special Report Voiceover: "Breaking news at this hour, reports from around the globe indicate a shift in the alien phenomena now affecting cities worldwide. We are now receiving word of outright attacks ... densely populated areas ... some viewers may find these images disturbing ... we will keep reporting updates as this story unfolds ... "

He trails off. In the situation room CO Bradford, Dr. Shen, and Dr. Vahlen are glued to the main screen watching feeds come in from a myriad of sources. They didn't have much to say, mostly just standing there attempting to in some force process the horror of this. To call what was happening 'disturbing' was an understatement of criminal proportions.







Shen: "Looks like they're changing their tactics. But why? Why do this?"

Bradord(with depressed resignation): "It's a message ... to the entire world...that nothing can stop them."



There was no safe place in the cities under attack from the onslaught. The bombing runs turned even parts of buildings and vehicles into massive flaming projectiles, adding to the chaos and destruction.





This was bad enough, but one particular set of reports detailed a follow-on reign of terror on the streets. For some reason, the alien attacks in Melbourne, Australia were followed up by a ground invasion. Bands of the enemy roved the streets, killing any civilians fortunate to survive the air wave. Even when stories of heroism came in, they didn't have a happy ending. This man stopped running to help another who was hit in the leg and unable to move.





He found a relatively safe alleyway, then was startled by something behind him ...





The camera only caught a few seconds of what was left. A brief image of a new type of spider-like alien before it ripped the would-be hero apart.





There are some moments for which few orders are necessary. Everyone knew what needed to be done. The alpha squad, those on standby for an impending priority mission, didn't need to be told to outfit in the armory and head to the Skyranger. All that needed to be given was the destination. Once it became clear the aliens on the street were terrorizing Melbourne, they were headed to the land down under. The mission was simple: stop the violence. Kill any aliens encountered. Save as many innocent lives as possible. And perhaps even more importantly, show humanity that as horrible as it was, as many millions as were already dead and would continue to die this day, that we would not go down without a fight. However meager it might be relatively speaking, XCOM will continue to resist whenever and wherever we can.

This war is no longer being fought in the shadows. It is now front-page news, a sign tha the aliens do not fear us. As the Skyranger lifts off, I wonder if it will ever be possible for us to turn the tide.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

It's good to see Dunc is up at the top of the queue, because he's ready to see his first action. But...since the Melbourne mission is a job for the alpha squad, this probably means the inexperienced soldiers will be waiting back at XCOM, preparing for the next mission that suits their abilities...right?

[Icy]

Bad start from Drago getting in panic, but he finished well, hope he will become more valerous after this.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Greyfriars Bobby

It's good to see Dunc is up at the top of the queue, because he's ready to see his first action. But...since the Melbourne mission is a job for the alpha squad, this probably means the inexperienced soldiers will be waiting back at XCOM, preparing for the next mission that suits their abilities...right?

Correct. It would take a special kind of stupid, a kind I claim not to possess, to send a raw rookie out on this kind of operation. Light-resistance abductions, small downed UFOs, those are the droids you're looking for.

Edit: I'm off to see my brother in Death of A Salesman, after which I will report on the Melbourne operation.

[Brian Swartz]

Bradford classified this is a 'terror mission'. Seemed appropriate enough to everyone involved. Other than LT 'Axle' Brodie, the best of everything was available.

LCPL Georgia Murdoch(AUS, Medic)
LCPL Coffee Warlord(ISR, Scout)
LCPL Brooke Carter(USA, Infantry)
LCPL Courtney Mason(UK, Assault)
LCPL Yolanda Pena(ESP, Engineer)
SPEC Mac Roguru(AUS, Gunner)
SPEC Sophie Deschamps(FRA, Rocketeer)

Two FOFC soldiers are tapped here. Sniper was the odd class out(again), or else there would have been another. The loadouts emphasized firepower. We need to hit the aliens hard, though self-preservation will still be the top tactical priority. If we are overwhelmed by the enemy, it will do nobody any good to throw away the finest soldiers in the world.

OPERATION DRIVING SHIELD
Melbourne Australia
4.25.2015, 1143

By the time we arrived, it was estimated the aliens had been on the ground for two hours. They had targeted specific sectors of the city, and in some of them pretty much nothing moved anymore. But there were still some who might be able to be saved. We deployed near the rear of what used to be a paper company warehouse. Screams filled the air, and there were fires everywhere. I tried to remember that the former was a good thing -- it means we've gotten here in time to potentially make a difference.







There were three possible avenues of approach to us, we moved out and covered all of them but saw nothing. Most of the noise was coming around the back of the warehouse towards the opposite end, not to the left along the side where the semi is, so we'd head that way. At least one scream of a dying civilian had been heard that way. A pipe provided access to the roof, and Mason scrambled up there, seeing nothing. Whatever we were up against, that seemed the best avenue of approach and our more mobile soldiers would join her up top while the others entered the building itself.

More screams, more dying, and we spotted three of those ... spidery things from the footage.







They have been dubbed 'Chryssalids' and are frighteningly fast. We had few shots at them, and Deschamps couldn't find a decent angle. They hadn't seen us yet, but soon spotted Coffee Warlord as he dropped down to check out the front parking lot. He had to quickly dash in retreat, but it might not be far enough. Deschamps had a better angle on them now ... a shredder rocket hit it's target. Taking out the closest one was imperative. Roguru ducked outside around the corner of the building, and his SAW did the job! That was probably good enough to save CW, but not necessarily. Pena treated the other three! to a HE grenade. So there were four of them, not just the three we initially spotted. How lovely. Mason lobbed another grenade. Three for the price of one explosion. Time, not artifact recovery, was of the essence here.


Deschamps' shredder was flawlessly executed, and it needed to be here




An up-close-and-personal look at the general ugliness of a Chryssalid, this one the first to die as it crumples in the face of fire from Mac Roguru's SAW




After not one, not two, but three explosions in their midst, pieces of Chryssalid ... and building .. are everwhere. That corner is just falling apart. What crappy construction :P





Behind us! In the alleyway we had left, four floaters decided to show up and make their presence felt. Well, wasn't that just fantastic. Good firing positions over here were basically nil. I had few options and none of them great, but if we could get up to the roof into vaguely defensible positions, we might at least be able to beat them with numbers, getting most of our guns into the fight. Roguru was again a key player, ducking around the corner to suppress the lead and most dangerous floater to buy us some time. Warlord used a flashbang to provide further cover. This was made unnecessary when Carter managed to drop the enemy with the first shot, but better safe than sorry. Three of them left. Mason remained on ground level out of sight, ready to dash forward for a shotgun blast if we could reduce their numbers further.

A ... well, it's hard to call it anything but a zombie ... ambled toward us through the building while Roguru was nearly flanked by a floater that thankfully missed. The other two moved into overwatch. It's kill or be killed here, no way we can avoid flanking shots if they survive. Deschamps used her second rocket to take out one of them. Clearly we weren't excessive in the number of explosives!


Apparently we are firmly in the world of what-in-the-crap now, contending with zombies along with everything else





That freed up Mason for a close-range shot at the zombie, who took a point-blank barrage from here and Roguru but still didn't go down. Carter wounded a floater and missed with her two shots. Murdoch missed the other floater, Warlord moved in and wounded it.


Coffee Warlord didn't take this floater down, but he did manage to at least weaken it





Then we got just plain silly lucky. Pena finished off the zombie with a AP grenade, managing to perfectly place it so that her comrades won't hurt. the leader floater panicked and retreated, while the second one, injured, missed an exposed Murdoch whose rootop cover had exploded due to the deterioration of the structure. Remarkably, we remained unharmed!!

Roguru moved directly under the leader floater ... and managed to miss it anyway. Just how hard is it to shoot a gun, even a heavy SAW, straight up into the air when the enemy is close enough that it occupies nearly half your firing arc? Apparently, too hard for Mac to pull off. Thankfully, Mason fared better. One floater left. Murdoch went for the first shot on it, and her aim was true, leaving it's crumbled and lifeless body dangling over the rooftop edge.


An amusing final resting place, though gravity or cleanup crews won't allow it to stay there forever





The rest variously reloaded or dashed forward through, around, and on top of the building. We could hear more floaters out there. Soon another four appeared in the parking lot. Our formation was broken up, but with them focused on us we could afford to retreat into a better position. Civilians had stopped dying. 11 remained alive, while we'd saved 1 and 6 had been killed since we showed up. If we could save the rest and take out these guys without any soldiers joining the dead, I'd be elated with this operation. Big if.

While we carried out the tactical retreat and prepared to engage them from any direction, three of the floaters readied for defensive fire while a fourth slaughtered another civilian. So much for that assumption, but we were so spread out from the previous group that we'd been in no position to stop it anyway.

Out of rockets, Deschamps fired a carbine shot that was simply absorbed. Pena, too far away for a grenade, could merely try to discourage an advance. Warlord used his reflexes to dodge some fire and badly wound the closest of them, and the rest of the squad continued to move into position.


Another floater finds out that CW does not often miss





In the warehouse, Deschamps was nearly flanked by a dangerous floater but the defensive fire continued for all of them. Again Coffee, the only one getting anything done here, drew a bit of fire and got a flanking shot. Again a wound, not a kill, and he's out of ammo now. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Deschamps landed a crucial blow, wounding the flanking floater. She's still far from safe, but has definitely improved her chances of it missing her. Most of the others continued to move through the building, while Mason is stuck on the roof, awaiting a reasonably safe time to enter the fray.


Out of rockets and nowhere to safely go, Deschamps literally saved her own hide on a coin-flip burst





The floaters literally did the dumbest thing I've ever seen next. Three of them just moved around and did nothing, while one remained ready for reaction fire. Finally in position, Carter missed twice. Deschamps moved to a more secure position and fired, but couldn't finish off her target.

One of the floaters essentially did nothing, while two missed Murdoch inside the warehouse and the final one remaining in defensive mode. Carter finally finished one off, while Warlord's job of pressing his luck got him a decent shot which he missed after nearly getting himself killed.


Having taken a near-mortal wound, CW proceeded to shoot like it. What has that semi trailer ever done to him?!>?





Pena tossed a grenade to finish off another, leaving just the two retreating floaters in the parking lot. Mason, finally in the fight, moved up for a flanking shot on the floater that had blasted Warlord ... it was too far for a shotgun, but she landed the bullseye of all bullseyes and dropped it with a pistol shot! Incredible.

Warlord was potentially vulnerable, but cornered and alone the floater wanted no piece of that. We were in no hurry either. Pena made her way around the exterior fence, while everyone else just tried to stay safe.


The floater is holed up between the squad care with the flashing sirens and the fence, which Yolanda Pena worked her way around





Or not. The floater got it's courage up all of a sudden, darting over the wall and injuring Deschamps at close range. She panicked, but was still alive. Roguru, close by, ended that nonsense with his SAW.


The floater's last hurrah. Deschamps would live, and Mac Roguru would make sure the enemy didn't.





Post-Mortem

Driving Shield, a very well-named operation if I may say so, was a tense success. 13 enemies dispatched, 8 of them floaters and the remainder four of the new Chryssalids and a zombie, also new. 11 of 18 civilians were saved, and no soldiers were lost. In reality this is a rousing success considering the expectations, but it's hard to be happy considering how many died today. Not just here, but around the world. XCOM probably expended as many explosives on this as we did in all previous missions combined, and every last one of them was needed.

We won't be seeing Warlord(out three weeks) or Deschamps(four weeks) around anytime soon. Fortunately, Coffee Warlord is proving to be one tough SOB, and no signs of permanent PTSD damage have been noticed. He should make a full recovery. Deschamps can at least console herself with a promotion. Brooke Carter became the second XCOM corporal, now referring to herself as 'Twitch', and a third is Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason.

Artifacts Recovered

6 Floater Corpses
1 Chryssalid Carcass
3 kg Elerium
3 kg Alien Alloys
6 Weapon Fragments
2 oz. MOG

[Brian Swartz]

Panic increased across Asia in the aftermath of the so-called 'terror attacks'. Japan is the only nation that didn't raise it's alert level, and they considered it. Australia is at Yellow(level 3 or medium), the first nation to reach that, while China and India are at Aqua(level 2/low). Those two are promoted forthwith to fill the two open lieutenant spots. They're both solid candidates. There are probably three or four soldiers better suited out there at most, and who knows how long it might be until they reach the proper rank? Getting them out there commanding, gaining experience, and helping our lower-ranked members survive missions is deemed most important. Spitfire has also taken over the top spot on the killboard at 11.

There are only 23 available soldiers now, requiring five more to be recruited(12.5m cost). That meant another sell-off in the gray market:

2 Floater Corpses
1 Drone Wreck
2 kg Elerium
3 kg Alien Alloys
2 oz. MOG

Another 4.7m was raised, and the needed personnel brought in. That brings the total soldier count from 40 to 45. About half of the 'expendable' artifacts have now been sold off or traded, a situation that will merit increased concern if needs continue to exceed funding as expected.

In The News

** Successful incursion by mysterious operatives in Australia bolsters public confidence in government response to alien threat
** Eyewitness accounts of battle between unidentified military forces and hostile aliens in Egypt indicates effort to stop abductions
** Brazilian officials offer no response to increasing reports of alien UFOs streaking across the night sky
** Images of German soldiers going into battle with advanced alien
weaponry posted on Internet
** Australian Prime Minister offers no official statement on repeated sightings of strange lights over several major cities

At least we can take comfort in the fact that major heads of state are even more clueless in the present crisis than we are/I am ...

[Greyfriars Bobby]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Correct. It would take a special kind of stupid, a kind I claim not to possess, to send a raw rookie out on this kind of operation. Light-resistance abductions, small downed UFOs, those are the droids you're looking for.

Edit: I'm off to see my brother in Death of A Salesman, after which I will report on the Melbourne operation.

This raw rookie appreciates, it, and hopes you don't think I was implying you were that kind of stupid. Nothing of the kind was intended.

[Brian Swartz]

No, I was just being sarcastic. I do that from time to time.

[Brian Swartz]

April 26, 0756 -- Satellite finished! 'Notso' Sharpe's fighter is also back in action. We must still await the completion of a new uplink in a few days time before launching the satellite however.

1156 -- The first Arc Thrower is completed! Another milestone in XCOM's strategic vision, this allows for the possibility of capturing aliens for interrogation. We have both the device to stun them, and the facility to contain them. We have everything we need ... maybe. Possibly. We think so. Everything we need to make an attempt, at least.

1356 -- Yet another notable development, just six hours after the first one of the day. On the heels of two missions in a brief period yesterday, the past 36 hours have produced a rather dizzying amount of activity, especially after it was quiet for nearly a week previous to that.

Dr. Vahlen has announced the results of research into alien materials, codenamed Project Looking Glass. Fortunately, I am not greeted by the mad hatter -- though she does a good impersonation on occasion -- or the white rabbit. The report begins with the usual obtuse Vahlenspeak:

"we could spend years deciphering the complex manufacturing processes required to produce and manipulate these substances ... "

Yes, yes doctor, we know that if we weren't at war with the aliens we would all do well to worship the ground they walk on -- or the air they fly in, in some cases. But on the point if you please:

"we have managed to crudely adapt some of the observed techniques ... our first development, a multi-walled carbon nanotube weave ... "

English, if you don't mind?

"has proven to possess a greater tensile strength than any material previously recorded in known science. Adapting this armor into an armor reinforcing vest will surely afford our soldiers increased protection on the battlefield."

Saying that ten minutes ago would have sufficed. She's speaking my language now. The good doctor also notes that in terms of capturing a live alien, 'the rest is up to our forces on the ground' -- get moving Commander, in other words. She also ponders that 'I just dont understand! Why use such advanced technology against innocent civilians?!'

Oh do grow up Doctor. The world is larger than and not as innocent as your test tubes.

Dr. Shen has schematics for the new Alloy Vest. They are similar in concept to our plenteous Ceramic Vests which we have used on many an occasion as a layer of reinforcement underneath the main armor for our soldiers. Making use of the alien materials, each requires 5 kg of Alien Alloys and costs 5m. Not cheap, but twice as effective as the ceramic variant. At this point in time, had we the money to invest in better field equipment, and we don't, I would probably put most of it towards scopes and not these new vests. They are definitely a useful improvement though, it's just a casualty of the fact that we have only a fraction of the money needed to do everything we'd like to do.

There are now nine distinct research projects available. It seems the possibilities are multiplying, and we cannot possibly keep up with them all. The war in the skies will take precedence next with a quick analysis of the Scout-class UFOs we've come in contact with.

[Brian Swartz]

April 27 -- Benton Gale was cleared for duty by the medical staff in the mid-morning. At 1256, the aliens decided to show themselves again. A medium Raider-class ship, at low trajectory, inbound to Germany from the north polar region.

Of the two kinds of UFOs that we are reasonably familiar with(raider and scout), the raider are the tougher and more versatile combat vessel. This won't be an easy takedown. I send up our best('Chainsaw' Katz) to see what he can do. Whether we pursue the target further will depend on his success.

It goes decently. They trade shots at about an equal rate, with Chainsaw getting in three confirmed hits with his Stingrays. 'Mangler' Neale, still looking for his first kill, goes up next. If he can down it or nearly so, we'll send up a third to finish it off. If not, I'll hope to have disuaded it. I don't want to use the entire contingent of fighters on this thing.

Mangler takes heavy damage as well, but about halfway through the dogfight the raider started listing. A couple more hits and it went down, just seconds before he would have had to break off. Hard to complain about those results.

So, we've got a medium UFO to go after. We've only done one of these before and a significant number of enemies is expected. This is kind of a 'tweener' mission, maybe the first of it's kind. It's not a priority mission but not one we want a bunch of greenhorns going out on either.

I have Bradford consult the archives, since I don't really remember how the last one went. It was Devil's Hammer, less than three weeks ago on the 8th. We faced what I think is still a record of 14 enemies, but two lance corporals and four specialists were able to handle it. We can now take an extra soldier with us, but can't really improve on that squad in terms of ranks and experience. The decision on who to take is a difficult one. We've got four still on the injured list and another dozen in recovery, most of them with around 48 hours left before they'll be ready to go. In the end I decided we need a standard squad here. It's a risky decision. If we get a priority mission before some of the others recover, we could find ourselves starting down a dangerous path in terms of readiness and fatigue.

Strike Squad

SPEC Seung-yeon Kim(KOR, Scout)
SPEC Thozama Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
LCPL Benton Gale(JPN, Infantry)
** Ranger
LCPL Su-Min Kim(KOR, Assault)
** Resilience
SPEC Dean Hoo(UKR, Gunner)
SPEC Eliana Soares(BRA, Rocketeer)
SPEC Path Twelve(DEU, Sniper)

Three FOFC soldiers will be going out this time. Dean Hoo will be looking for his first kill, and probably put on suppression duty a lot so it may not be that likely. Path Twelve is the first sniper to see action in weeks, and Benton Gale, fresh out of the medical bay literally four hours ago, will have no time to rest. Seung-yeon Kim will be the first to take out an arc thrower. We may not have an occasion to use it, and it has but a single charge, but if the opportunity presents itself it will be taken.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION FIRST ENGINE
4.27.2015, 1336
Germany

The squad deploys in a wooded area, but it's a canyon of some sort. We've got to get out of this onto higher ground, it's an ambush waiting to happen. There are better fields of fire to the right, so Kim heads that way. Initial sounds appear to be mostly sectoids, but also something that sounds ... massive. A deep guttural growl. Not appetizing.







We seem to hear the enemy first just up an incline in the direction Kim has chosen to find higher ground -- figures. This is our beachhead, so to speak. It seems to move away from us though as we slowly advance ... perhaps drawing us into a trap? Or am I just paranoid? The trees ahead of us burn, and beyond that, a devastated clearing. It's not hard to figure what's there.







Finally, in the desolate clearing, Kim spots a trio of sectoids. Not a bad way to start, they've got to cross a stretch with no good cover to reach us. Defensive positions are not plentiful but we've got the advantadge of terrain here if they want a fight. Kim wounds one that is fairly exposed by a log, but Path Twelve has to finish it off. The other two move forward, one looking for us to advance and the other landing an unlikely shot against Kim ... but it's just a flesh wound. Khumalo returns the favor, but Dean Hoo is not content with that. A fine shot gives him his first kill! We probably aren't going to get a better chance to deploy the arc thrower, so we try to move in for that, but the sectoid just retreats. So begins a slow chase across the clearing, both Kims moving in and the big guns staying back in the trees for fire support.






Finally presented with a chance, Seung-yeon Kim checked the readout. About two chances in five of success. And to think these things were state of the art. She closed the distance, with her countryman ready with the flashbang in case it failed. It worked! Oh my goodness, it worked!! Numbed by the electric shock, the sectoid fell to the ground, immobile but still alive. Dr. Vahlen was gleefull -- 'Now we can begin the interrogation!' Um, not yet doctor. Need I remind you the aliens still control this area? Still, it was a great moment.


A historic moment in time is captured here. The first deployment of the arc thrower meets with success and an incapacitated sectoid!





The team retreated to the tree line and wheeled left towards the canyon. Spending more time in that clearing was not on our happy fun list. Unfortunately, the sounds came from that way. Further left, but back in the open. Khumalo took care of SY Kim's wound, and back that way the squad angled. This was slow going, but slow and safe sure beats the alternative. She spotted the ship, and we purposed to go no further in that direction. I sure wasn't going to approach that thing from here, not without checking out the perimeter. The last sounds had thankfully been some distance from the vessel.

What happened next was bizarre. Two seekers arriving from the clearing wasn't a big surprise. One advanced, and one went to stealth. Hoo's reaction shot missed wide. But a drone also appeared to the rear. A single drone apparently. I'm not sure if it saw us, but Path Twelve saw it. She had a crucial shot here -- she needed to take it down or we would have to fight on two fronts. Missed.


It's never a good idea to fight on two fronts, even when one is just a lowly, solitary drone





That one hurts. It's only a drone, but I don't like getting flanked by anything. Practically underneath it, the 'other' Kim damaged the first seeker. Gale showed off her skills in the incinerating-the-air department, but got the job done on a second try. Time to try out this battle scanner -- it worked! The second seeker 'appeared'. Khumalo's burst just bounced off it though. Soares' did the same. Hoo took a big chunk out of it as it advanced, but that didn't stop it from landing a significant blow against our brazilian rocketeer, who immediately panicked. Meanwhile the drone advanced but couldn't get into range.


There you are! Kim is 2-for-2 on experimental XCom technology already on this operation. The seeker can no longer hide from us.




Dean Hoo takes aim at the mechanical menace. His aim was true, but it just kept coming.





The Kims took over at that point. Seung-yeon closed to point-blank range and finished off the seeker, while Su-Min dashed the other way and handled the drone, with Path Twelve's sniper rifle actually too close to it now. A bit of a strange and unorthodox fight, but we survived it. Khumalo burned another medkit to get Soares close to operational again, and it was time to resume the sweep. So far we've learned that the arc thrower and battle scanner do work, thank you very much. But the sounds of the forest indicate this fight is far from over.

Soon we hear more of them, back into the forest the way the drone came from. Perhaps it has 'friends' out there. Err, had friends. There's only one narrow path up the hill, and the approach is cautious -- particularly since the ship is not far away. It's a very dangerous way to approach but we see no other option.

Moving up the hill, Kim sees it ... that must the big one we were hearing. Vahlen refers to it as an obvious front-line unit. Just a massive green hulking thing. Shen -- "I don't envy anyone who has to go up against that thing". It doesn't see us yet, so Kim takes advantadge of that and fires. It's wounded, but still alive -- and there'a another, even larger one and a floater with it. Stupendous. Soares tries a rocket, which is off-target and only manages to finish off the wounded muton. The other two are still alive, and she's exposed if they advance. Fabulous. This could go bad quickly. If that thing charges ...


Seung-yeon Kim gets our first glimpse of a new kind of enemy, the massive muton. Barely visible in the shadows, it is greeted with her assault rifle and soon exterminated by a Soares rocket.





We scramble to get into the best firing positions we can. Khumalo and Hoo can only find overwatch, others firing positions are too far away to allow an immediate shot. Su-Min Kim dashes forward and gets a mid-range shotgun blast on the flanked floater, taking it out. We can do nothing to that muton though ...

And it retreats to the rear and right, over near the ship. Ok. We've got a massive rogue tank called a muton wandering around over there now. That sounds great. We gradually move forward to pursue it, and Seung-young Kim spots the muton again. She fires off-target, and the trees block Path Twelve who doesn't have a shot. Dashing into better cover position, Su-min Kim spots a trio of sectoids. Most of them dart into the blackness ahead and on the left. This is getting way too interesting here. However, at least Twelve has line-of-sight on one of them. It's still up, but wounded.


From her setup behind a tree well back from the heat of the action, sniper Path Twelve missed an absurd number of times in this firefight. She doesn't get the kill here, but at least managed to hit the target




One of them wanders around the corner ... fires ... and Kim is gone! Oh, that was some serious horsecrap! Twelve takes out one sectoid, then Su-min Kim moves up and executes the one who took out his comrade, but that really hurts. Our scout is dead!!


In case you've ever wondered, this is what happens when a melded sectoid is killed. They do not go gently ...





The muton fires for Gale, and misses. That should be it's last chance to do a damn thing. From roughly a half-mile away, Path Twelve misses but we've got plenty of guns in the area. Dean Hoo's SAW cuts it down to about half-size. Gale misses, then hits and that's all for the leader muton. We advance looking for the final sectoid ... and Kim finds it. Or rather, it finds him. Cleverly hiding behind a crevace in the rock and without a scout to search, it tags him hard, nearly killing him! Through the pain-induced haze he sees well enough to send the evil bastard to it's grave, but this definitely hasn't gone as planned.


Su-min Kim is fortunate to live through this dastardly ambush





We've now taken down a dozen of them, including two new massive enemies. On the other hand, we've taken multiple injuries and lost our talented scout. It's time to regroup. Path Twelve hears movement inside the ship now. Looks like it's time to breach. She keeps watch with Hoo and Gale, it's the FOFC on guard duty while the others heal, reload, and prepare to join them for the assault. We are down to one of the original six medkit applications by the time Kim is nursed back to full strength.

There's no real need for a 'door', half of this side of the ship was blasted open by the impact. Hoo spots them as we move in, sort of in no-man's land here as we can't get to good cover in the ship but must leave the trees. Two outsiders, one of which dashes out of view. The only real option here is to retreat, hoping to draw them out. One comes, the other does not. We only get one shot at it, a pistol from Kim, who misses. There's no choice but to risk it now. He dashes up with a shotgun, one-shot kill!

One left now, and we need to cover our brave assault trooper. There's no safe way to do it, we just find the best cover we can and hope for the best. The other outsider was sneaky, and it got off a good shot at Hoo. We are lucky as hell he wasn't hit and lying dead on the ground there.


Dean Hoo could well have bought it here





It just missed, and now having exposed it's position, that outsider is as good as gone. Gale gets in the first blow, Twelve misses a pistol shot and Khumalo misses as well. Soares only does a flesh wound. Hoo gets a chance and incredibly manages to miss from practically on top of the damn thing. Seriously dude. It's right the hell in front of you! It's up to Kim's shotgun ... which glances off and does minimal damage. The outsider fires back at Kim, who is injured again and panics, but he'll live.

Unbelievable horsecrap. We should have been able to kill that thing damn near twice. Hoo tries again ... and finally ends this mission.


Post-Mortem

Well, First Engine will definitely go into the books as a costly success. We lost our first experienced soldier, scout Seung-yeung Kim, on what was ironically one of the least dangerous incoming fire situations on the entire operation. Often it has not been the case, but the alien tactics were frankly impressive at several points. Unfortunately, they may be learning tactically as well as the other improvements. But in this case, it was just a 'stuff happens' moment. A bloody sectoid, while she was in good cover behind the cliff rock. Su-Min Kim could easily have been killed twice, and wasn't. Hoo never had a chance to use his suppression abilities, though I sure would have if I knew he couldn't hit an outsider standing five feet in front of him. We get our first capture of a sectoid, but it will be our last for a while.

Another 14 enemies killed, one of our lost. We have five promotions, with Su-Min Kim now out a record five weeks. Soares will miss three weeks. The main question was on Su-Min's mental state, and he appears to be fine though he's not the best in that department to begin with.

Seung-yeon Kim had 6 kills to her credit, and will be remembed as the first to successfully deploy the arc thrower and battle scanner. Her day started so well ... until it was over. For all the varied and advanced enemies we've encountered, all three soldiers that have been lost were killed by sectoid pistols.

Dr. Vahlen was breathless in her excitement -- 'I know it wasn't easy, but bringing an alien back alive could lead to great advances in our research!'. Yeah, how about you mourn the lost for a good five seconds before you concern yourself with that?

Artifacts Recovered

1 Alien Pistol
5 Sectoid Corpses
1 Floater Corpse
1 Muton Corpse
1 Drone Wreck
1 Sectoid Captive
21 kg Elerium
17 kg Alien Alloys
11 Weapon Fragments
2 oz. MOG
4 UFO Flight Computers(3 damaged)
2 UFO Power Sources(1 damaged)
2 Seeker Wrecks

[Brian Swartz]

Promotions

Dean Hoo and Benton Gale, congratulations are in order! You have both been promoted and may now select your next training option.

Dean Hoo is now a lance corporal of the gunner class.

** Close Combat: automatic reaction shot against any enemy that closes to within four tiles
** Low Profile: ability to use partial cover as if it was full cover.
** Executioner: +10 Aim and critical chance against enemies with half or less health

Commander's Recommendation -- None of these are fantastic for a gunner, all are of some use. I'd go with Low Profile. Gunners operate at a moderate distance from the enemy typically so close combat is of limited use, ditto with executioner for a suppression soldier who will not often be targeting such enemies.


Benton Gale, you are the first FOFC soldier to reach full corporal! Accordingly, you have been given the provisionary callsign of 'Sheriff'. You may change this is if you would like. Your training options:

** Extra Conditioning: Bonus health based on the armor being worn. The heavier the armor, the better the bonus.
** Low Profile: Use partial cover as full cover
** Battle Scanner: In addition to your normal item choices, you will bring a pair of battle scanners on any mission.

Commander's Recommendation: Battle scanners are a waste of your ability to fill the air with lead. There are no options here to increase your lethality. I think it is better to not get hit in the first place than it is to be able to take more punishment, though certainly there's something to be said for both. I recommend Low Profile, which will allow you to more often operate in relative safety and get your gun into the fight in situations like the clearings experienced in the last mission.

Dean Hoo and Benton Gale, you are on the clock. The Commander urgently requests a rapid decision if possible from Cpl. Gale. XCOM faces a high-priority mission, and due to the quick turnaround your services are desired despite having just returned from your last mission.

[law90026]

Low profile for dean Hoo!

[Brian Swartz]

LCPL Dean Hoo

Health: 5(+1)
Will: 43(+5)
Aim: 72(+2)

Decent improvements. Hoo is one of the better gunners in XCOM, probably second in the class at the moment.

[Breeze]

Gale will go low profile as well...

[Brian Swartz]

CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale

Health: 4(--)
Will: 63(+6)
Aim: 68(+6)

It's about freaking time! Nice aim improvement there.

[Brian Swartz]

Dr. Shen took one look at the remains of Seung-yeon's equipment and declared the Arc Thrower would never be used again. It was damaged beyond repair by the sectoid's plasma blast. We need a new one. Funding won't be available for quite some time, and in addition we need to recruit another six soldiers now. We have five privates incoming in about a week, but only 17 ready for active duty for the next 36 hours or so. part of the cost, 7.5m, is gained from sale of the damaged UFO parts.

Vahlen -- 'We should begin interrogating the alien subject immediately. I'm confident we can safely house it within the containment facility, but I can't say for how long'. In this case she is not going to get her wish. Estimates are that it will take two weeks, and the research team has other vital projects. Dr. Shen doesn't share her pessimism, and believes we can hold the sectoid indefinitely with no ill affects.

We still need a hair over seven million in order to bring in the required recruits. The latest sell-off figures?

7.1m needed

1 Thin Man Corpse
1 Drone Wreck
5 kg Elerium
5 kg Alien Alloys
2 oz. MOG
1 Seeker Wreck

Everyone was pretty much in agreement that while we definitely need to replace the arc thrower, and in fact need to really have at least two or three of them, it is a somewhat less vital manner with a sectoid in custody. Still, having it destroyed was a significant financial hit. The expense of replacing it should be lessened somewhat when the new workshop comes on-line in a couple of days, but right now it is not considered prudent to sell any more artifacts to get a new one. As it is, over half of the available items for emergency sale have been sold.

[Brian Swartz]

April 28 -- 0034. Early in the morning, the Council requests our presence. Apparently they've been getting unusual reports about a hijacking of an unauthorized French military convoy. Allegedly the perpetrators were human but there were also reports of aliens in the area. The situation seems quite confused and uncertain. They want us to investigate immediately. The reward for this mission is a pair of scientists and engineers each, as well as a modest financial boost of 7.5 million. The Council has given this operation their own codename: 'Portent'. That's ominous.

We have yet another priority mission, but unfortunately don't have the personnel for it. There are a half-dozen on the injured list, another 16 in recovery!! It's just been a crazy finish to the month. We have no choice but to bring the best squad we can, however.

There are no active infantry or medics, so somebody will have to go on short rest from those two classes. This means an extended stay in medical when they return, but its either that or risk total failure with an inadequate squad. 'Axle' Brodie and 'Sheriff' Gale are selected for this duty. The remaining five positions were able to be filled in the typical fashion from active soldiers.

LT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic
CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry)
** Ranger, Low Profile
LCPL Rebecca Burke(USA, Scout)
** Low Profile
SPEC Amiyah Banerjee(NIG, Engineer)
SPEC Eman Hodzic(BIH, Gunner)
SPEC Esperanza Guerrero(ESP, Rocketeer)
SPEC Jace Hunter(FRA, Sniper)

Another pair of FOFC participants here. This is a solid team but not great by any stretch, with most of the more experienced soldiers not available for duty at the moment. We'll have to hope it will be good enough to get us through. Updated kills going into the mission:

KILLBOARD

CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim -- 14
CPL Brooke 'Twitch' Carter -- 11
CPL Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason -- 10
LT Lily 'Axle' Brodie -- 9
CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale -- 9
LCPL Rebecca Burke -- 7
LCPL Yolanda Pena -- 7
SPEC Seung-yeon Kim -- 6
SPEC Mac Roguru -- 5
LCPL Coffee Warlord -- 5
SPEC Esperanza Guerrero -- 4
SPEC Jace Hunter -- 4
LCPL Thozama Khumalo -- 4
SPEC Path Twelve -- 4
SPEC Ivan Drago -- 3
LCPL Didier Keita -- 3
LCPL Georgia Murdoch -- 3
SPEC Ches O'Peake -- 3
SPEC Amiyah Banerjee -- 2
LCPL Sophie Deschamps -- 2
LCPL Dean Hoo -- 2
SPEC Katia Rivera -- 2
LCPL Eliana Soares -- 2
SPEC Beth Campbell -- 1
SPEC Shigeru Endo -- 1
SPEC Naomi Foster -- 1
PFC Stephen Garner -- 1(KIA)
SPEC Eman Hodzic -- 1
SPEC Amber Mitchell -- 1
SPEC Soledad Sanchez -- 1

[Brian Swartz]

Guerrero is very mobile, unusual for a rocketeer. I loaded her down with the maximum of three rockets, two standard and a shredder. This team is built to end encounters quickly. If we get into an extended firefight, it could go sideways quickly -- there's only one flashbang in the group.

OPERATION CURSED STROKE
Bordeaux, France
4.28.2015, 0057

Bradford gives me the latest as we touch down less than a half-hour later. Despite 'widespread speculation' we don't have much to go on. The primary concern is the reports of alien activity. Mission parameters are to secure the site, and search for any evidence of what happened.

It looks this place was bombed to hell and back, but there is a mostly intact building we can use initially and explore a bit. Burke will take the shooters, Hunter and Gale, up to the roof while the rest move through the structure. We hear thin men, haven't seen those jerks in a while. Lots of them out there. This isn't going to be a social call.







We continue to hear them as we move through the building ... and then a thin man bursts through the far doors! It has a sectoid and a second thin man with it. It's go time.

Banerjee moves to a good flanking position on the leader, wounded but still up. Up top, Gale breaks the skylight and finds a good angle on the sectoid down in the street -- toast! Hunter is not yet in position for any kind of shot, but Burke drops a flashbang down on the second thin man, who we can't get any kind of angle on yet. Guerrero moves up and finishes off the leader, and we have a good overwatch net set up in case the one remaning enemy advances. Good shooting there.







It fires at Burke on the roof, missing -- somehow able to see her while she can't see it. The acid cloud from the dead thin man makes some approaches hazardous, but Banerjee opens a delivery door and ducks outside. An AP grenade finishes the job. Didn't think it would take him out completely, but oh well. Better to be safe. .


Sometimes a grenade works better than you want it to ...





We can hear more of them out there. The shooters find good perches on the rooftop. We hear more thin men out there -- a lot of them, apparently straight ahead in the next building. We move across the street and spot them ... one thin man, and a seeker! Ah, so they brought more friends ... Hunter time. He unloads at the seeker, has a great look ... and barely scratches it. Gale finishes it off, she's been a stone-cold assassin so far! Burke misses it high, and it retreats into the building, not wanting to take us all on yet.

Meanwhile, Bradford has noticed something in the street ... 'those bodies don't look like they were killed by alien weapons fire. Those men were killed by conventional bullets'.


The plot stinkens



But we've got other issues at the moment. Moving across, Burke spots the thin man near the other side of the second building, which is largely on fire but appeared to be a couple of shops of some kind, the first one relating to music and the second too damaged to really tell. Banerjee considers an explosive grenade to create a better field of fire, but that could work against us as well if there are more out there. We should be able to handle one thin man. Burke takes another crack ... even worse aim this time and her SMG is out now. Gale is down off the roof and across to the second building, while Hunter remains to cover the crossing.

The thin man retreats out the back, Banerjee taking a shot but only killing a window. That was ok with me because two thin men and a seeker showed up. We've now got four out there and need to do some damage here fast. All of them are concealed by walls from Hunter's view though. Gale continues to be a markswoman and knocks the seeker out of the aim, then finally misses at one of the thin men. Banerjee is on target, but the burst just bounces off. Freaking carbines! Brodie has a pretty good angle but misses high. Everyone else is across the street.


Our fearless leader shows us how it's not done




The leader moves up and takes aim at Hodzic, missing. The second thin man just tries for defensive fire. Instead of a rocket, Guerrero just plants the second one with her carbine, leaving just two left, but only one in view. Banerjee looses a HE grenade to deteriorate it's cover over there, and Hodzic finishes the job.


The most dangerous moment yet, but thankfully they miss





Bradford has an update ... 'sensors still indicate life signs in the area'. At first I think he's talking about that thin man who ran, but then we spot a human hiding behind the building! Then the thin man is back, dispensing a cloud of acid at Burke. Brodie moves in and wounds it. Gale is over there as well, and needs both bursts but finishes it off.


Look who's back ...





Bradford: 'Commander, it looks like there's still someone alive over there. If we can bring them in for questioning, maybe we can figure out what happened here.' Works for me. First, Brodie tells Burke to 'rub some dirt on it, you wimp!'. Um, dirt won't fix acid burns. She has the proper chemicals to handle the job though.

The survivor isn't particularly welcoming when we reach him. 'You might as well leave me here, I've got nothing to say to you people'. He's coughing and obviously hurt. Bradford concludes he's the only witness. We're bringing him in whether he likes it or not. Back to the Skyranger.


The ungracious, ungrateful whelp here is our only lead ...





It appears we aren't getting out of here that easily though. A pair of thin men drop in, but Gale and Hodzic take them out before they have a chance to do anything.

Survivor: 'This is only the beginning. It's only a matter of ... *cough* *cough* cough*'. Only a matter of what? Asthma?! This guy is already annoying me.

Survivor: 'You're nothin' but a *cough* *cough* ... a bunch of puppets'

Cool story 'bro. Feel free to shut the hell up whenever you feel like it. We continue to surround him on the ground, while Hunter and Gale each take a side of the rooftop.

Survivor: 'This is a waste of time' -- Hey buddy, you're welcome ... asshat.

Survivor: '*cough* *cough* *hack* What are you trying to prove?'

Sigh. At least at this point he finally shut up.

As we reached the end of what was a music store and now is more a pile of rubble, ready to cross the street, four more dropped in! Way behind us a sectoid, and three thin men closer by. Two of them were wounded with our reaction fire on the way in but all three were still up. Gale and Hunter finished off two of them, Brodie went back for the third ... and completely missed! She's now pretty exposed over there. Burke drew it's fire, while Hodzic moved into position and took care of business.


Eman Hodzic saving the day, and quite possibly the life of our lieutenant





Ok, one sectoid. We can handle one sectoid. Can't we? It hit Lieutenant Brodie, but fortunately was just a flesh wound. She finished the job personally, an appropriate end to it's miserable life. It was time to regroup. The squad moved across the street once we were back in position and Axle was healed up. Once again Hunter and Sheriff moved up to the rooftop, but we spotted nothing. Had they given up?


Rub some dirt on this, Axle!



Nope, not done yet. One thin man on each side. Brodie and Hunter both missed, swore, and fired again. The good lieutenant missed a second time, while Jace got his man. Burke moved in, barely dodging the plasma, and wounded the second. Would it never die? Once again Gale needed to clean up, dropping down from the roof and finishing it off. That was it, and we reached the extraction zone.


Jace Hunter bringing death from above. On the second attempt, but still

Survivor: 'Eh ... *cough* cough*. You're still not gettin anything from me!'

CO Bradford was less convinced: 'Our friend here might not be feeling very cooperative at the moment, but I have a feeling a chat with Dr. Vahlen might change his tune.'

A 'chat'. Nice euphemism there.


Post-Mortem

Cursed Stroke, Portent, whatever you chooose to call it, it was an unvarnished success. Gale will be spending a week and a half in medical, and LT Axle a week, making sure they are ok after a couple of missions in close succession for each. Nobody was hurt by enemy fire though. The VIP was secured, a record 16 enemies eliminated, and we have three more promotions to celebrate. All in all, this was one of XCOM's finest moments, and should help our relations with the Council.


Artifacts

2 Sectoid Corpses
11 Thin Man Corpses
1 kg Elerium
2 kg Alien Alloys
13 Weapon Fragments
2 oz. MOG
2 Seeker Wrecks

[Brian Swartz]

Promotions

Jace Hunter, you have been promoted to lance corporal!

** Close Combat: Automatic reaction shot on any enemy to close within four tiles
** Bring 'Em On: +1 damage critical hits per enemy you can see.
** Damn Good Ground: +10 Aim and +10 Defense in addition to usual elevation bonuses when shooting at enemies below you.

Commander's Recommendation: Close Combat is useless for a sniper, who can't hit a thing a short range. Damn Good Ground is excellent for a sniper on missions like the last one where you can operate on rooftops. Bring 'Em On is always active and doesn't depend on elevation, but snipers don't tend to get a ton of critical hits due to the fact that they are rarely in a flanking position. This one isn't really a choice, and Commander's prerogative is invoked for Damn Good Ground.

Health: 5(--)
Will: 42(+9)
Aim: 83(+6)

Bravo, Hunter! At the moment you have the most accurate trigger finger in XCOM, and are the clear #1 among snipers. You've got a respectable six kills to date as well, having added two more on this operation.

[Travis]

Nice! Hopefully that stat boost will translate into doing more consistent damage for you in future missions.

[Brian Swartz]

The available soldiers crisis has now escalated. With over a day yet remaining before anybody returns, there are only 12 ready-for-duty with the majority of those untested privates! Another five need to be recruited in addition to the 11 already incoming, and even with the reward from this last mission that means yet another artifact sale, with nearly five million to be raised.

1 Sectoid Corpse
1 Floater Corpse
2 Thin Man Corpses
3 kg Elerium
2 kg Alien Alloys
2 oz. MOG
1 Seeker Wreck

XCOM is now down to about a third of the available stockpile for such emergencies.

April 29, 0015

Workshop finished early in the morning. An hour later, the satellite uplink was completed. The spare satellite was launched over the UK. Anywhere outside of Europe made no sense as we don't have enough to interceptors to manage that. All three European countries are at the peaceful Green Alert Level and the UK's funding is much higher than France or Russia's so it was a no-brainer where to put it. A pair of engineers are provided as reward.

Egypt requested 8 kg of Elerium in exchange for a pair of scientists. We have enough to swing the deal, and it was approved.

1215 -- Dr. Vahlen again, reporting that UFO Analysis: Scout has been completed, aka Project Foxhound.

Analysis of the scout class indicates they have low durability and no exterior armor. The aliens appear to use them for recon, resource-gathering, and research missions so it's definitely a multi-use craft despite the name we've given it. Pilot training and weapons systems have seen minor changes to take advantage of what we've learned. With no armor, the higher-yield Avalanche missile is our best current weapon system against them, and improved targeting information based on this project will allow us to have slightly more effective salvos against it.

UFO Analysis: Raider will be up next, which is expected to garner similar information on this more advanced class of alien ship. It's another quick one, expected to take just four days.

April 30, 2317 -- Literally in the final hour of the month, Japan pipes in with a request for another elerium-for-scientists trade. We do not have enough to spare now, and have to say 'no for now'.

With that, XCOM has survived a second month! Nearly a dozen soldiers have returned from recovery these last couple of days, so the roster is looking much better. FOFC representatives Ivan Drago and Mac Roguru were among them. It's time now to step back and take a look at how we are doing in the war for humanity's survival as a whole, including what the council thinks of our performance in April.

(mostly) Brave soldiers of FOFC, your Commander thanks you for your service to your species and to XCOM. There are certainly many trying times ahead, but collectively we will continue to resist however, wherever, whenever we can.

[Icy]

Rally enjoying this dynasty, and at the same time every time i read it i really want to start playing myself but I have two issues, main one is lack of free time and second one is that the Long war mod for OSX is still a bit behind the windows version with some bugs last time i read about it (like training roulette unusable), so I might just start a vanilla game as I never finished it and try the long war mod in the future.

Anyway, keep it going!

[Kodos]

Ditto. I'm enjoying this dynasty, and am filling the hall of heroes in my first adventure with the PS3 version

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks guys! I'm definitely committed to keeping it going. Looks like a vanilla game might be the best thing for you Icy while they work the other issues out. Other than what passes as the plot, there's so much that changes it's almost like playing a different game between vanilla and LW so I would think the replay value would be quite high.

[Brian Swartz]

Council Report
April, 2015

The Council is extremely impressed with us still, giving us an overall grade of A!

** 1 Council Mission Completed
** 4 UFOs Shot Down
** 1 Terror Mission Stopped
** 4 Abductions Stopped
** 1 Satellite launched
** 4 Research Projects Completed
** 3 UFOs Raided
** 1 UFO Escaped

The lone escaped UFO is literally the only negative on the report.

Tactical Operations: 9
Aliens Killed: 92
Soldiers Killed: 2

Panic Summary

** Australia remains just into the medium level, or Yellow Alert.
** China, India, Nigeria, and Brazil area at Low, or Aqua Alert. Four nations on three different continents.
** The other 10 members of the council remain at Very Low(Green Alert).

In The News

** Pressure mounts in Japan as their inability to monitor alien threats comes into question
** Southern France site of clash between aliens and multiple unidentified human squads
** Witness claims to have seen unidentified military operatives capturing hostile alien alien, raising specter of government involvement
** Civilian panic slows in the United Kingdom as new satellite monitoring allows alien UFO tracking
** Egyptian military procurement records indicate unknown power source supplied by unknown agency

Finances

Council Funding: 71.6m
Aircraft Maintenance: 26m
Facility Maintenance: 16.1m

Net: 29.5m
UFO Bounties: 20m
Mission Rewards: 39.5m

This does not include about 20m in artifact sales. Maintenance was about a third of April's costs with all of the new construction, and direct Council funding just under half of the total income.

Air War Fund: 38.25m
General Fund: -35.35m

This is after initial spending for May, which consisted of the usual fighter addition and a replacement arc thrower(20m and 9m respectively). Bringing the two sides of XCOM into balance is vital, but with all the emergency funding needed the General Fund shortage approached 50 million at one point. With seven fighters now in the arsenal, at any one time one will need to be kept in the smaller aircraft bases on other continents. In this case North America will be used to base them. The maximum of six in Europe has now been exceeded, but the transfer only takes 36 hours and given how many are often damaged at any one time, simply swapping out the fighters with the longest repair time will help XCOM keep them ready to launch. Of the current six, two are currently ready for sorties, two more will finish their current repairs within a couple days, and a final two are in long-term repair at two weeks or more.

Artifacts in Storage

1 Alien Pistol: 2m
27(65) Sectoid Corpses: 200k -- 13(20%) traded/sold
10(13) Floater Corpses: 300k -- 3(23%) traded/sold
20(25) Thin Man Corpses: 300k -- 5(20%) traded/sold
1 Muton Corpse: 400k
1 Chryssalid Carcass: 700k
6(8) Drone Wrecks: 200k -- 2(25%) traded/sold
57(81) kg Elerium: 500k -- 24(28%) traded/sold
69(85) kg Alien Alloys: 500k -- 16(19%) traded/sold
81(115) Weapon Fragments: 100k -- 24(21%) traded/sold
40(50) oz. MOG: 700k -- 10(20%) traded/sold
3 UFO Flight Computers: 3m
4 UFO Power Sources: 6m
11(14) Seeker Wrecks: 300k -- 3(21%) traded/sold

Total Asset Value: 154 million

Even with the sell-offs, artifact value more than tripled from the March holdings of 42.5 million.

** The number in parentheses for those that have it is the total gathered by XCOM, the lower first number indicates what we have left of that original total**


Personnel

Researchers: 23
Engineers: 17
Soldiers: 39(+16 being recruited)

We came a little closer to balance between the two civilian branches, with six scientists and seven engineers added. The increased stress on the military branch is best seen not through the two soldiers lost, but the eight currently on the injured list following the flurry of important missions at the end of the month. Only three will heal in less than a week, half of them will be more than two. DJ will spend the entire month of May healing up. The current seven privates will swell to 23 when the new recruits arrive about a week from now and getting them experience in the field will be a challenge with the increased risk of sending untrained men and women out there.

**OOC Note: If there's anyone out there reading this that wants in, that makes this an ideal point to sign up. I'm content to go with the solid FOFC roster we have but there's plenty of spots that I'll open it up to a second soldier for anyone interested as well. With this many incoming recruits there's likely to be some talented ones ... I hope.**

Available Research Projects

Interrogate Sectoid(**Priority**) -- 10 days, 1 Sectoid Captive required
Experimental Warfare -- 9 days, 10 Weapon Fragments
Beam Lasers -- 9 days, 10 kg Alien Alloys, 25 Weapon Fragments
Improved Body Armor -- 9 days, 8 kg Alien Alloys
Xenogenetics -- 12 days, 10 oz. MOG
Alien Computers -- 12 days, 4 UFO Flight Computers(we only have 3, needing 1 more here)
Elerium -- 34 days(35 kg Elerium)
Thin Man Autopsy -- 7 days, 10 Thin Man Corpses
Muton Autopsy -- 9 days, 10 Muton Corpses(we're a long way from this, possessing only 1

The number of available research projects continues to grow. Other than the elerium study all of these can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. The current plan is to find our what Dr. Vahlen can learn from our captive next, then move on to the thin man autopsy and probably re-evaluate at that point. Those two and finishing up the current UFO study will take the majority of May, and the situation will certainly have changed somewhat by that point.

[Brian Swartz]

Summary/Outlook

Any way you slice it, the aliens really upped the ante in April. We had three more operations than March and it would have been more than that without a pair of UFOs being destroyed instead of just shot down. After killing 50 for the loss of 1 soldier last month, we nearly doubled those numbers this month. Right now the total is 142 killed(well, 141 killed, 1 captured to be technical) and 3 lost for a 47.3:1 kill ratio.

By any normal standard that is an obscenely successful count, but we have no idea really if it will be good enough, even assuming that it is sustainable. There were many tense moments in April. To your not-so-humble Commander, too many. The one-group-after-another survival of Devil's Hammer, occasioned by the debut of the floaters, was one of them. Shortly afterwards, the extended firefight with thin men in Bloody God could easily have gone worse. The revelation that the aliens are developing better techniques and equipment for their troops just as we are threw a major sense of urgency into things and was generally terrifying given their technological advantage.

Unceasing Night brought with it a series of seeker swarms that injured almost the entire squad, and it was very fortunate that nothing worse happened while we were outmaneuvered during Banished Paramour. All of that paled in comparison to the massive urban bombings and terror campaign during Driving Shield. Aside from the nearly inconceivable damage and loss of life, we met a new enemy to hate and fear: the chryssalid. First Engine brought the first loss of an experienced soldier, and the hulking shock troops known as mutons, though we were fortunate enough to dispatch them with relative ease. As if things weren't bad enough, Cursed Stroke raised the specter of elements among humanity that might not be completely friendly to the cause.

Of course not all was negative. The research and engineering teams have been significantly expanded, we put up a second satellite, fighter coverage capability continues to grow, and major expansions were made in the lower reaches of XCOM HQ. Chief among these were the OTS(Officer Training School), allowing a better command structure and advanced training to enhance our tactical operations, and Alien Containment to house aliens captured in the field. The research teams have developed more applications than we can invest in, but they improved their knowledge of UFOs and most importantly, came up with a design for capturing aliens that was proven to work during First Engine. The increasing intensity of alien attacks is, in a perverse way, proof that we are causing them at least a small amount of concern.

In the grand scheme of things, we still can only fight for control of the skies over 2 of 15 Council Nations, with South Africa in the enemies' pocket already. Panic across the world is growing slowly, but it is still growing. Over most of the globe, our involvement is restricted to sparse intelligent reports and responding to abductions or more serious attacks. We can react to hotspots, but for the most part the alien collective has a free hand to do what it likes.


Air War Overview

With satellites up over Germany and the UK we have half of Europe covered. The current flight roster has two pilots at two kills each, three more at one each, and two with none. Seven total UFOs have been downed by our fledling air force.

The cost of enough aircraft to cover a significant fraction of the globe is a continually growing concern. It is an absolute necessity to build toward, yet astronomically expensive. A new strategy has been formed to mitigate this expense. If we can get satellite coverage up over the three Council nations in North America, the aviation giants there in combination with those governments have agreed to grant us facility access, maintenance expertise, etc. which will allow a 30% reduction in maintenance and construction costs for our aircraft. Right now that would mean a monthly savings of 6m on our typical fighter purchase and 18.2m in maintenance, a total of over 24 million per month! And that number will only grow.

The process of achieving this will take over a month, two is probably more realistic. The Commander has set a goal of getting it done by the end of June. At least three more satellites will need to be built, and by early July at the rate of one per month we will have nine aircraft up. Four in one continent, five in another -- that would be enough for barebones coverage but definitely a good number of UFOs might have to be let go. In the long run, the savings XCOM can get from this should be more than worth it. Another satellite uplink will be needed and right now we couldn't build it even if we wanted to -- we need more engineers. But that is the direction we are aiming for, meaning that no new satellites will be put up in Europe for the time being. France and Russia won't like it, but they'll have to deal with it.

Flight Roster

Lt. 'Blinker' Kamala -- 1 kill(Stingray Missiles)
Lt. 'Notso' Sharpe -- 1 kill(Stingray Missiles)

F.O. 'Lunchbox' Turnbull -- 0 kills(2 days repair)
Lt. 'Boss' Bordoni -- 2 kills(4 days repair)
Lt. 'Mangler' Neale -- 1 kill(14 days repair)
Lt. 'Chainsaw' Katz -- 2 kill(18 days repair)

In approximately three days time, the latest fighter with a new green flight officer will be available.


Sublevel View

Power Supply: 50 of 55 GW used





The financial pinch is really hitting hard here. A lot of expansion was done in April as has been discussed and can be seen here. The General Fund is deep in the red and there is so much that needs to be done.

** XCOM would like to build another laboratory, but it would take 6m and 15 days just to do the excavating to get the space opened up(far left of Sublevel 3).
** Field equipment is woefully behind. We will be constructing a second arc thrower as a backup, particularly given their low success rate, when the money becomes available but that may be the only thing Tactical Ops gets in May. Scopes in particular are needed, Alloy Plating would be nice, etc.
** No major construction can happen until we dig down further and expand power capabilities.
** We'll need a foundry at some point in the not-to-distant future, and building another workshop would help us save much-needed resources.
** OTS Update: Tactical Ops is at 55 ranks, more than enough for the Company Officers upgrade but Lt. Axle is only at two missions commanded and nobody else has any yet so it shouldn't be needed for another month. Expanding the squad size again requires 115 ranks, more than double the current amount. There's nothing we can do there for some time.

There isn't money for any of this. If it isn't necessary to dump another 40 million into recruiting new soldiers like it was in April, and Tactical Ops can maintain it's record of success, things might look better a month from now. Those are two ginormous IFs though.

[Brian Swartz]

Interlude here: the roster update is coming next, but a couple of things to mention. First of all, I somehow managed to delete the original post fairly recently during one of my edit attempts. I've got the roster info but not all the other explanatory blather so if anyone has any questions fire away. I think we're all more or less on board with the routine by now.

Also, I noticed something on the officers. I actually have only officially promoted Lt. Lily 'Axle' Brodie. I thought I couldn't promote the other two yet since they were in recovery, so I was just waiting to do so. It turns out that was incorrect. I couldn't promote them because they are a mission shy of the minimum -- they've only been out on four operations instead of five.

The Commander is not infallible, after all.

This is particularly important because our new kills leader(despite the fact that she can't hit crap), CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale, is one of two who actually do qualify right now for the other two positions. It should be mentioned here that the seven kills on the Portent mission just completed are a new XCOM single-operation record! We'll get more candidates soon, so the Commander will not force you into it. American scout Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke has just been commissioned at the start of the month, but Gale has a decision to make as to whether to accept the same honor.

Remember that being an officer does have the potential drawback of making other career paths impossible down the line(I honestly don't know how far down the line, so I can't say much more here). On the other hand, it is a great opportunity. Gale does have 63 will, the best in XCOM, and so she would be one heck of an asset in terms of helping the more inexperienced soldiers develop.

Two decisions here: accept or reject the officer commission. If you accept, you will get Lead by Example automatically and will need to choose between:

** Legio Patra Nostra: +1 will for all squad members per each different nationality on operations you lead(will increase only lasts for that mission). Best for leading inexperienced squads, less important for more experienced ones.
** Stay Frosty: 24-hour reduction in fatigue recovery time. This is more important for officers leading priority missions, allowing the best soldiers to get back into the fight sooner.

CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale, you are now on the clock.