(X-Com) The Council of Nation Needs You! -- Part II

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION DRIVING APOLLO
Somewhere in Germany
June 25, 10:21 PM

Who's Apollo. Driving him where? Sigh ... I digress.

We're on a dry riverbed, right and left seem to provide better cover and definitely a bit better elevation. We choose the right side for now, Nova in command of course. We fan out that way and soon hear the enemy up ahead. Snow moves forward into a gully and spots a pair of Mutons to the left, guarding the front door of the ship.

Almost everyone's in secure cover, but we can't flank them ... we decide we have the firepower to shoot it out with them. Kodos moves up, and almost takes one of them out with a low-percentage shot, and McCloud finishes it off! Some lucky shooting there, and one is down. Snow retreats to try to goad the other into advancing, while the others spread out to limit potential grenade damage.

The plot stinkens. We have three floaters to the left, the muton appearing to have withdrawn. A reaction shot by David Gonzalez only wounds one of them. McCloud wounds another, neither is down. What crap. The others retreat to support positions.

Most of the floaters hold position, one teleports ... and we have a cyberdisc off to the right at the edge of the ship! Well now, isn't this fun. Two drones, a cyberdisc, 3 floaters, and a muton still out there somewhere. 7 at once. Flash O'Peake is closest, retreating to better cover and and destroying a log in front of a floater. Ah well. Kodos tags a drone, but it's still up. Snow takes out the closest floater, so we at least have another one down but still a lot of them out there. Support positions for the others, and Gonzalez uses a smoke grenade.

A drone fires and misses, floaters approach from the left again and McCloud misses a reaction shot, one of them flanks Kodos who is hurt badly. McCloud again, takes one of them down, the last one being still wounded ... nobody can get to it without exposing themselves. Nova has the best chance ... he misses! Well, Kodos still has a shot ... misses as well!!

Snow moves out that way ... and spots three more Mutons! We're in a world of hurt now! Retreat is the only choice. O'Peake launches a rocket at the muton group, injuring only one. Bastards. He then panics as the muton screams. Wrong time for that, pal. A brilliant shot by Gonzalez takes out the closest muton ...

The disc flanks and critically injures Kodos, while a drone flanks and hits Nova Silvers. The floater suppresses Nova also.

Our only chance is to abandon Kodos and withdraw. Silvers takes out the floater and injures a muton by it with a rocket, while McCloud covers herself and Nova with a grenade. Might not be enough. Snow retreats, Gonzalez finds better cover and takes out a drone. Still a crap-ton of enemies out there.

The cyberdisc fires ... Nova is hit again, and he's dead!! Flash unloads on that thing, which is almost on top of him ... good grief, he almost took it out singlehanded with his bullet swarm there! McCloud moves up, and the metallic menace is history! That's a big kill there. Snow hits a Muton, it's still up, but we're at least fighting back a bit here.

Two mutons go for O'Peake, one hits him but he's still alive. We retreat as one to try and thin them out and make a stand.

They hit Flash in cover -- he's dead. McCloud fires back, missing ... a muton retaliates and now he's critically wounded. The two operatives remaining have no contacts and reload ... this just went south in a right big hurry.

One of the Mutons moves to flank, Snow and McCloud adjust positions and prep for defensive fire. They fire at McCloud but hit snow's tree instead, then McCloud is critically wounded .... this is over, time to run for it!

DRIVING APOLLO is a failure, 7 aliens killed, 4 operatives lost. Clearly our 'fight or flight' response to shoot it out was the wrong one.

Cpl. Ren Snow II -- promoted to Sgt., nicknamed 'Spike'!
Sq. Fox McCloud III -- promoted to Corporal, gravely wounded(14 days)
Sgt. Ches 'Flash' O'Peake -- 6 kills in 6 missions, KIA.
Sq. David Gonzalez II -- 7 kills in 2 missions, KIA.
Cpt. Sterling 'Nova' Silvers IV -- 2 kills in 2 missions, KIA.
Rk. Kodos II -- 0 kills in 2 missions, KIA.

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

We immediately bring in four new recruits ... 5 credits left.

June 26, 4:06 AM -- Abduction alert sounds the very next morning!!

Alexandria, Egypt -- High, Very Difficult, 200 credits
Mumbai, India -- Low, Very Difficult, Sniper Captain
Marseille, France -- Very High, Very Difficult, 4 Engineers

We are going to lose multiple countries at the end of the month, but if we don't go to France, we will likely lose all of Europe. Part of Asia is going anyways, so Marseille it is.

We've got even less to send on this mission than the last one.

STRIKE SQUAD

Lt. AJ 'Shadow' Thomas(Sniper) -- Hopefully he can do something with that archaic rifle of his. And a scope
Sgt. Ren 'Spike' Snow II(Assault) -- scope
Sq. Benton Gale VI(Support) -- medikit
Rk. Coffee Warlord III(female, Scotland) -- scope
Rk. Deacon Palmer IV(female, France) -- scope
Rk. Ace Idol III(male, South Africa) -- medikit

Those are six of our seven active-duty operatives at the moment.

[BYU 14]

Wow, Thomas is still on incarnation one, please but Ace next to him

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Wow, Thomas is still on incarnation one, please but Ace next to him

Are we on the 3rd rev of Idol? If so...I want the bullet magnet as far away as possible.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by BYU14

Wow, Thomas is still on incarnation one, please but Ace next to him

Incarnation one by name only. He's the brother of DJ Thomas, who notably had seven quick kills and then died due to panicking in a poison cloud -- panic stupidly causes by an enemy missing him -- on the first council mission back in March(appropriately named Final Shroud). But still, second incarnation isn't bad. He's managed to be injured for some craptastic missions and therefore is still alive.

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Are we on the 3rd rev of Idol? If so...I want the bullet magnet as far away as possible.

Yes we are -- and as funny as this comment is, it's actually a plasma magnet -- much more lethal .

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION ENDURING VANGUARD
Marseille, France
June 26, 4:49 AM

That's optimistic. More accurate would be crumbling vanguard. Err, make that pathetic, rapidly distintegrating insult to the concept of a vanguard.

We're in the middle of a city street, buildings to the right or left and between them a smaller street straight ahead. Yeah, that's just asking to be flanked there. The on the right's closer, and we head there.

Idol is the first to spot a Muton trio, outside the building and to the right of it. There is no retreat option, just no place to go that's safe. Shadow opens up a door and lines up a sniper shot ... missed. Idol misses as well. This isn't going particularly swift. Palmer misses for a third round of fail, and nobody else even has a shot.

They advance on the right of the building a bit. One misses Idol, another misses Shadow, creating two more holes in the wall. We can all shoot now! Thanks for the LOS, fellas!! Shadow misses again. Good grief. Spike Snow -- should we just call him SS? That name's just awesome -- actually manages to hit one, while Palmer moves into the building and hunkers down.

Grenade time. Another hole in the wall. Soon, the wall will be an interruption of the empty space, not the other way around. One of them finishes off Shadow -- so much for all the congratulations. A panickfest ensues. The only thing left of this mission is filing the paperwork -- we just have no good options here, it's over. Idol moves right and finishes off the injured one, leaving him exposed and in poor cover. Not that there's any good cover to be had ... Palmer takes a similar risk and gets a flanking shot, injuring one of the remaining pair.

They divide their fire, injuring Idol and Palmer but leaving both alive. Having returned from the land of PanicVille, Coffee Warlord(just the third iteration) hits the injured Muton, but can't finish it. Idol moves up for an execution shot, and that's two down. Palmer retreats, and Gale VI covers Idol with a smoke grenade, first useful things he's done in ... well, basically since ever.

The muton swings around to the other side of the store, presumably because that's the only side without walls blown to smithereens and he wishes to rectify that fact. CW drills him, nearly killing him, but he's exposed ... Gale gets just close enough, and guns him down!

Ok, we're clear. Shadow Thomas is dead, multiple others injured, three Mutons eliminated. Most of two walls of the 'store', aka smoldering bomb crater/disaster area beyond the help of FEMA, are now destroyed as well.

We don't even move, and three Sectoids come from farther down the store. And here I am without any arc throwers. These guys should be easy pickings for us. However, they have good cover, we have jack squat, and once again can't retreat to anything better. Idol gets to cover and uses a medikit -- he's no good dead. Ok, maybe not much more alive, but ... We gun one down, and attempt to get the others to advance.

Cover be damned, they hit Gale anyway. Dodging reaction fire, Coffee moves in ... and two thin men decide to join the party! She retreats, and Spike risks dashing around a bookshelf, thankfully not springing any more enemies, and dropping another sectoid.

The thin men poison, then shoot Warlord. Again, cover is irrelevant apparently. We miss a sectoid on the move, and they continue to peg us, regardless of position. A reaction shot makes Idol the second casualty of the mission.

The final Sectoid creeps to the corner of the building, and the still-poisoned, still-panicking CW panics herself right into a kill. The thin men are still out there. Spike's lightning reflexes come into play, dodging the fire of one to reach a decent spot to take out the other. The remaining enemy moves to the corner, and Warlord is executed. Everyone else but Palmer panicks, and she has no shot.

Another ridiculous-angle shot ends the career and life of Spike Snow! Two more thin men arrive, and we fire at each other in a panicky mess. Next up to go down is Gale, then Palmer is hit on the move before taking out another thin man. She's nearly dead with no help and no medikits.

Yep, sayonara.

OPERATION ENDURING VANGUARD is anything but, 8 aliens killed, 5 operatives lost. We had crap for cover, the enemy didn't miss much, and there were few if any tactical options. Very bad combination.

Russia, China, and Japan respond by going to full panic mode.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Sq. Benton Gale VI -- KIA, 1 kill in 2 missions
Rk. Coffee Warlord III -- 1 kill in 1 mission, KIA.
Sgt. Ren 'Spike' Snow II -- 11 kills in 5 missions, KIA.
Rk. Deacon Palmer IV -- 1 kill, gravely wounded(12 days)
Rk. Ace Idol III -- 2 kills in 1 mission, KIA.
Lt. AJ 'Shadow' Thomas -- 12 kills in 7 missions, KIA.

[Breeze]

Gale VII (way ahead in the race to X)...

[Coffee Warlord]

Overnighting a new CW Combat Unit. Our engineers are confident the Panic Module has been sufficiently fixed in this build.

[MacroGuru]

A new Thomas model is on it's way.....AJ Thomas II

[BYU 14]

The Plasma Magnet strikes again - Idol IV please

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Overnighting a new CW Combat Unit. Our engineers are confident the Panic Module has been sufficiently fixed in this build.

If so, they've achieved the impossible ...

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

We sell enough much-needed gear to hire 5 soldiers ...

Satellites are now completed, and of no use.

Brazil offers to pay 3 Scientists for 3 arc throwers. Oh, why not.

The end of June arrives, making this an absurdly lame and short update.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

XCOM HQ

The end of June arrives, making this an absurdly lame and short update.

Oh I don't know how lame this update is...I'm not asking for a Gale VIII yet...

[Brian Swartz]

JUNE COUNCIL REPORT

GRADE: C

Australia, Egypt, and Japan withdraw from the Council. I'm surprised they are the only ones.

** 1 UFO Shot Down
** 1 Terror Mission Stopped
** 4 Research Projects Completed
** 1 UFO Raided

1176 Credits, 6 Scientists, 2 Engineers

Doom Tracker is at 3 of 8.

Well, we now have 8 Satellites, and their are only 13 council nations left. One nexus and two more satellites, as we still have those three in storage, can finish the job. We get two workshops, a laboratory, and a power generator going. If we can get the alloys for the nexus, we can complete the rest this month. If we can't(and with no experienced men, that's the smart betting option), XCOM is doomed anyway.

A bit different situation, we're doing ok with cash flow, 400 credits still. However, we've got 3 alloys and are running low on resources, particularly the required personnel to go get more. We have precisely one non-rookie soldier, Support Sq. Fox McCloud III, who is still hurt and out another 9 days, and is damaged goods anyway.

[chesapeake]

Do you use SCOPEs with heavy weapons and snipers? I found that I had a much better kill rate after I assigned those to my soldiers.

[Brian Swartz]

Usually, but it depends on the mission and situation. It does help.

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

July 1 -- Precision Lasers is complete. The laser-based versions of the shotgun and sniper rifle are now available to build -- and we haven't the alloys to build them. Joy.

Cyberdisc autopsy is next.

At 4:41, a UFO of unidentified class is spotted in northern Washington, United States. Oh, why not.

Six raw rookies are sent out for the slaughter. Their own slaughter, make no mistake. This month is going to be a death march -- I'll be shocked if we complete a mission.

STRIKE SQUAD

Coffee Warlord IV(Korea, male) -- scope
Kodos III(Japan, female) -- scope
Sterling Silvers V(Russia, female) -- scope
AJ Thomas II(Greece, male) -- scope
Ches O'Peake II(Germany, female) -- arc thrower
David Gonzalez III(Russian, male) -- arc thrower. He'll also have to make do with conventional weaponry.

[Coffee Warlord]

I dub this Operation Inevitable Doom.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION SHATTERED ENGINE
July 1, 6:46 PM
Northwest US, near the canadian border on the Idaho-Washington line

As will be the case from here on out, extreme caution is the order of the day. Like our last UFO mission, we head to the right where there is better cover. We can already see the ship -- this thing is freaking enormous.

Soon we're far enough up to approach the cavernous entrance, and there's no good cover to approach from in any direction. We stay together in a coherent line, making do the best we can and waiting for the enemy to kill us.

We spot a cyberdisc off to the left -- we're flanked, it's at the left of the line! Superb. AJ Thomas II is over there and in a world of trouble. We shoot amazingly and hit it three times, but it's still only half damaged.

A grenade hits four of us at once, destroying what passes for our cover in the process. Half the squad panics. Thomas closes in, and misses anyway. Kodos and Gonzalez can't get into firing range. It shoots back at Thomas ... he's gone!

A well-placed shot by Ches O'Peake finishes it off! Well, we took down a cyberdisc with only one death, it could have been worse. We drop a drone shortly aftewards, a second drone flees, and three floaters are spotted inside the ship. They take down two more of the squad before we are able to take them down -- Sterling Silvers IV and Kodos III are the latest casualties. Warlord's nearly dead, O'Peake injured as well.

We make it inside the ship, and a hulking red Muton-like thing, only much bigger, comes out ... we blast it with reaction fire, but it simply shrugs off our shots! Gonzalez hits it again, then panics as it screams and misses it from point-blank range. O'Peake is close by, and can actually use her arc thrower on it ... why not? It's down! I'm told by inimitable Dr. Vahlen that these things are called Muton Berserkers -- they certainly can take a pounding, and I'm astounded that we survived our first encounter.

After a couple of shots, Warlord finishes off the other drone -- and three regular Mutons scramble up the main hall towards us. That's it, time to go. No way we can survive a firefight with them.

Everyone makes it back to the Skyranger.

OPERATION SHATTERED ENGINE is a successful failure, 7 aliens killed, 3 operatives.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Rk. Sterling Silvers IV -- 1 kill, KIA.
Rk. AJ Thomas II -- 0 kills, KIA.
Rk. Kodos III -- 0 kills, KIA
Rk. Ches O'Peake II -- 1 kill, wounded(7 days)
Rk. Coffee Warlord IV -- 4 kills, promoted to Sniper Squaddie! Gravely wounded(14 days)
Rk. David Gonzalez III -- 1 kill

[MacroGuru]

Ah damn, AJ Thomas III is on his way!

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

We hire three more recruits immediately.

July 2 -- Cyberdisc Autopsy completed. Another interceptor uplink is now available, this one useful in chasing down faster UFOs. Drone Autopsy is next.

July 4 -- Drone Autopsy done. UFO Power Source commences.

July 6 -- Power Generator completed. UFO Power Source research completes as well. Elerium Generator now available for construction. Elerium is the substance the aliens use to power their craft apparently. Our next research project will further investigate this material.

Each Elerium Generator provides an incredible five times the power of an ordinary one, and are slightly more efficient cost-wise as well, but they require 40 alloys and 2 power sources each, neither of which we have.

July 7 -- 1:56 AM, alien abductions alert!

Kolkata, India -- High, Very Difficult, 4 Engineers
Lyons, France -- Very High, Very Difficult, 200 credits

As Asia is probably lost to us anyway, and we're on the verge of losing even funding nations like Russia in Europe, we're off to Lyons.

Both promoted officers are still injured, so it's another six rookies.

STRIKE SQUAD

Rk. David Gonzalez III -- 1 kill last time out. He'll pack a scope this time, and carry laser weapons as he earned it by surviving.
Rk. Benton Gale VII(Ireland, female) -- scope
Rk. AJ Thomas III(Germany, female) -- scope
Rk. Ace Idol IV(male) -- scope
Rk. Sterling Silvers V(male, Nigeria) -- medikit
Rk. Ren Snow III(Ireland, male) -- medikit. As the last, he'll carry the conventional weaponry.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION FORGOTTEN HEAT
July 7, 2:39 AM
Lyons, France

It's a graveyard location, brown minivan straight ahead serving as our foothold of sorts. Ace Idol IV spots them first, a pair of thin men to greet us. We've got to try to outshoot them here. Idol takes one down, and AJ Thomas III gets the second. Good start, and we're a bit safer now.

A pair of mutons move up on the right. Again no room to retreat, but Gonzalez tags one as Ren Snow III misses. The close one has good cover, complicating matters. Thomas moves in for the only decent flanking position ... yeah that was a mistake. Three more mutons take notice. She takes out the first one, but there's still four left. The rest of us retreat and try to take them as they come.

Idol hits one of them with reaction fire. They hilariously suppress Thomas, then kill her. No surprise there as she was overexposed to get that kill. We injure a couple, and decide to try to outshoot them as they are in poor cover right now. Gonzalez finishes one off, and a second is downed by Gale VII!

Ok, well, not so bad now, one operative down but we've taken out five and only have two mutons left at the moment. Another one of them charges -- Snow fires high! A second one on the move, they press up the right flank but it doesn't fire and is exposed. This is our chance, I think it's just the two of them out that way ... Idol misses a shot, so Gonzalez moves in -- and spots three more, one a berserker! Crap, crap, crap. He misses. Naturally. Three of the squad combine to take out one more, but we're still in trouble.

Gonzalez is flanked and hit, and a number of the squad panic. The berserker slams his way through a wall, brutally killing Silvers. Another one suppresses Gonzalez, again pointless as the final one finishes him off.

With everyone else in panic mode, Ren Snow knows this is over. He dashes for the Skyranger -- one's still in range and fires, missing. The berserker takes out Gale for good measure.

Idol returns to his senses, and is hit on the move as he heads to extraction. One of the mutons takes him out despite cover, and there's nothing left for Snow to do but signal for takeoff.

OPERATION FORGOTTEN HEAT is one I'd like to forget, indeed. 6 aliens killed. 5 operatives lost. We were a bit too aggressive at least once, but I don't know that there were any passable alternatives.

The UK and India are now in full panic, making five in that category: France, Russia, and China. If everyone else stays and those five leave, the Council will not survive.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Rk. AJ Thomas III -- 2 kills, KIA.
Rk. Ace Idol IV -- 1 kill, KIA.
Rk. Benton Gale VII -- 1 kill, KIA.
Rk. Sterling Silvers V -- 1 kill, KIA.
Rk. David Gonzalez III -- 2 kills in 2 missions, KIA.
Rk. Ren Snow III -- 0 kills, survived. For now.

[Breeze]

Gale 8 - maybe non-roman numerals will be better luck...

[MacroGuru]

Looks like AJ Thomas is going to begin matching Idol in numbers

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Looks like AJ Thomas is going to begin matching Idol in numbers

But I am still 1 ahead

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

But I am still 1 ahead

meh...small numbers...you still trail badly in the race to X...

[Brian Swartz]

So now we have a furious competition to see who can die the most?! *sigh*

Originally Posted by Breeze

Gale 8 - maybe non-roman numerals will be better luck...

Nah, first you'd have to survive long enough for the aliens to care what your name is :P

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

We hire five more soldiers to get back to a full dozen.

July 11 -- Workshop completed. Shortly afterwards, the second one and a lab are as well. We start constructing a Satellite Uplink, which will allow us to launch those three satellites that are in storage. 145 credits left, which we'll conserve for new recruits.

Elerium research is also complete. Since it does not naturally occur anywhere in our solar system, our only source will be alien craft -- meaning we have to take down enemies too powerful for us to get more.

Light Plasma Rifle research is next.

July 13 -- Russia wants to buy 3 Scatter Lasers, the shotgun variant of the laser tech. We don't have the materials to make any, so they'll have to keep their 311 credits.

July 20 -- Small scout detected at the southern tip of Africa! A ship that size will be our best shot at taking out an alien vessel ... Raven-2 has the phoenix cannon and sustains heavy damage, but takes it down.

This may be our final desperate chance to do something before the end of the month. Everyone's healthy as well!

STRIKE SQUAD

Cpl. Fox McCloud III(Support) -- Medikit
Sq. Coffee Warlord IV(Sniper) -- scope, conventional rifle, laser pistol
Rk. Deacon Palmer IV -- 1 mission, 1 kill so far. Scope.
Rk. Ches O'Peake II -- same as Palmer.
Rk. Ren Snow III -- 0 kills as the only Lyons survivor. Arc Thrower
Rk. Kodos IV -- Our lone first-timer for this mission. Arc Thrower

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION DEFIANT FEAR
July 20, 8:48 PM
Somewhere in South Africa

Defiant Fear could not be more apt.

We land in an abandoned dirt road and find cover to the left in the trees, only to hear the enemy coming from the right. Ches O'Peake is the first to spot it ... a cyberdisc! I'd rather she hadn't. We form up defensively as best we can, McCloud loosing a smoke grenade.

A less benign grenade is tossed out by the disc, doing considerable damage. O'Peake panics. We open fire -- Palmer hits it once, and though he's exposed, Coffee Warlord goes for maximum damage -- now it's half gone! McCloud is just in range, but misses, and the remaining pair of Kodos and Snow can only dash into range.

The disc finishes off O'Peake, Palmer and Snow panic and fire -- Snow is on target at least. Kodos closes, and misses anyway. McCloud is far off target, while Warlord finds cover.

It blasts Kodos, nearly dead now, who panics and fires back -- missing, naturally. Warlord decides that the panic-and-horribly-miss thing sounds fun, and does it as well. Snow finishes off the disk, and we're still alive -- but not yet clear, as a drone stops by to say hello. We manage to miss it four times, but Palmer finally drops it. Kodos is by far in the worst shape, and McCloud uses his medikit.

Kodos is now at half health, Warlord about the same, Ches O'Peake dead, while the other three are healthy. The cyberdisc cost us one operative, halves of two others, and our medikit.

We advance along the right of the road, looking for what's next while not really wanting to know. Palmer and Snow are in front as we hear movement ahead and to the right -- sounds like the direction of the ship.

We move carefully on weapons hold -- we don't want to kill the Outsider if it's avoidable. Palmer spots it ... Snow will lead in, Kodos behind as they are carrying the arc throwers. Palmer takes a pistol shot, missing but taking out it's cover. Bit of good luck, there. Kodos hits it with a conventional pistol, and now we just hope it doesn't kill anyone before we can subdue it.

It moves up, fires at Kodos, and he's gone! So much for that. Two panic and fire back -- one misses, but McCloud doesn't. The Outsider is gone. Well, we did try.

There's more out there, just don't know where yet. We wait, listen, and reload, not moving a muscle at first. Something around the left edge of the ship ... we decide to move through the vessel, which seems to have better approach cover.

McCloud finds them, a pair of mutons, one a berserker. Yippee. We retreat, and the normal charges, earning a missed shot by Palmer and a wound by Coffee. Warlord fires again, and takes it down! Not bad for an archaic weapon. The berserker soon charges as well ...

Palmer and McCloud both get hits in on it, then both panic ... and both hit it again! Palmer with the insanely fortunate kill there.

And we're clear! We like, actually won a mission and stuff! 5 dead aliens, a pair of dead operatives in DEFIANT FEAR. You never want to lose anyone, but a pair of rookies isn't too bad.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Rk. Deacon Palmer IV -- 3 kills, promoted to Heavy Squaddie
Rk. Ches O'Peake II -- 1 kill in 2 missions, KIA.
Sq. Coffee Warlord IV -- 5 kills in 2 missions, wounded(4 days)
Rk. Ren Snow III -- 0 kills, promoted anyway to Support Squaddie
Cpl. Fox McCloud III -- 7 kills in 3 missions
Rk. Kodos IV -- 0 kills in 1 mission, KIA.

ARTIFACTS

** Muton Corpse
** Berserker Corpse
** Cyberdisc Wreck
** Drone Wreck
** 31 Elerium
** 57 Alien Alloys
** 12 Weapon Fragments
** UFO Power Source
** 2 UFO Flight Computers(both damaged)

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

We recruit two soldiers to replace the most recent losses. Two laser sniper rifles and a scatter laser follow -- we are just four alloys short of being able to get a second scatter. Still, we can now outfit any class with laser-based weaponry.

90 credits remain. We're up to four officers, three squaddies and a corporal. That's the best we've looked in a while, which doesn't say much, but still ...

July 20 -- Light Plasma Research complete. This is very significant. We have two of these weapons already(from the thin man and floater we captured some time ago), and plasma is the next stage in weapons development. Now that we understand this technology at a basic level, our soldiers can use them.

It costs more alloys than we have to make a single one. Compared to our now-standard Laser Rifle, the Light Plasma Rifle is almost exactly the same but more accurate. Further developments in plasma weapon technology are now possible -- with the right resources, of course.

Berserker Autopsy is up next -- this is the first time we've managed to bring back a corpse.

July 21 -- Berkserker Autopsy completed. From it's glands we derive a chemical that can be used in combat stims, requiring more berserker corpses. At this point I wouldn't consider them worth the price of investment anyway, not compared to another things we need to carry such as scopes and arc throwers and medikits.

Plasma Cannon is up next, a new interceptor weapon most likely.

July 25 -- Alien Abduction Alert!

Beijing, China -- Very High, Very Difficult, 4 Scientists
London, United Kingdom -- Very High, Very Difficult, 200 credits
Brasilia, Brazil -- Low, Very Difficult, 4 Engineers

South America is of no concern right now, so Brazil's automatically out of consideration. We can't afford to lose countries in Europe with two satellites there already, so off to the UK we go.

STRIKE TEAM

Cpl. Fox McCloud III(Support) -- medikit
Sq. Deacon Palmer IV(Heavy) -- scope
Sq. Coffee Warlord IV(Sniper) -- scope
Sq. Ren Snow III(Support) -- medikit, light plasma rifle
Rk. Sterling Silvers VI(Scotland, male) -- scope
Rk. AJ Thomas IV(Australia, female) -- scope

This is the most firepower we've put out there in a long time, but the rookies will lead the way and if it appears that multiple officers are about to go down, we're pulling out. Nobody has conventional weapons of any kind, other than Palmer's new rocket.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION BURNING FOG
July 25, 3:52 AM
London, United Kingdom

Yeah, whoever came up with that op name was just channeling all kinds of extra stupid.

It's a print shop location, and we try to stay together as we move forward. A landing pod, then a yellow cab are up the street to the left. We hear movement from the shop, head that way -- then a cyberdisc comes at us from further up the street!

It's right out in the open, and we've nowhere to retreat to. Silvers misses it to the right by a mile, while Thomas connects for minimal damage. Ditto for McCloud. Snow moves a bit closer for our first-ever plasma shot, and scores a hit! Warlord preps his first laser sniper shot -- not even close. I'd prefer not to use it so quickly, but Palmer looses her rocket. She'd better not miss ... a couple vehicles and the cyberdisc are gone, exploding into shrapnel!

A drone moves up the street, and we're still exposed ... but it's just a drone. Palmer misses, and Warlord snipes only the air again. Snow misses. So does McCloud. Seriously? We kill a cyberdisc, but can't take out a freaking drone?! Silvers finally takes it down, but that was just horrid shooting there people!

We press up the street a little more, intending to lengthen our line a bit before moving into the store. Three floaters ahead and on the left! Well, we've got decent positions behind vehicles, and Palmer takes one of them down. A second shot just removes a wall, and Silvers gets a second one. Warlord manages to do something intelligent with that rifle for once.

Five enemies down and somehow we haven't had a scratch. We're feeling pretty good about ourselves ... and then three mutons approach, one a berserker! Some were reloading, but reaction fire manages to hit one normal and the berserker to take them down a bit. They're too close -- it's time to run, run, run.

Back down the street, but we can't get completely out of range. The berserker wanders around aimlessly, the healthy muton injures McCloud with a plasma blast, and the second one is finished off by Snow on reaction fire. Ok. The healthy one is the biggest threat right now as we've got some distance on the berserker, and it exposed itself a bit for that shot.

The truck next to the berserker explodes. Two more mutons come at us from the store on the left -- apparently they don't want to wait as their comrades get mowed down. Three of the squad panic. So do I.

We drill the berserker, while the normal moves up and kills Thomas. Superb. One rookie gone, three mutons out there and two of them are just hanging out in the store and ignoring us for now. Fine by me. We're low on ammo and part of the squad has to reload, Snow misses, but Palmer finishes off the guy in the street. Warlord misses on one of the enemies inside, destroying cover only. A cab explodes in the street, one of the other pair misses Palmer while a second simply yells at us.

Warlord is on target again finally -- great shot there, a one-shot kill! Now we can focus fire on the one remaining green jerk -- Snow hits it, and McCloud finishes it off!!

We got somewhat lucky here. It could have gone sideways on us a couple times, but I'll take being lucky rather than good a bit. OPERATION BURNING FOG results in 10 dead aliens, 1 dead operative.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Sq. Deacon Palmer IV -- 7 kills in 3 missions, promoted to Corporal!
Sq. Coffee Warlord IV -- 7 kills in 3 missions, promoted to Corporal!
Sq. Ren Snow III -- 2 kills in 3 missions.
Cpl. Fox McCloud III -- 8 kills in 4 missions, promoted to Sergeant! Nicknamed 'Cookie'. Really? Cookie?? Wounded(7 days)
Rk. Sterling Silvers VI -- 2 kills in his first mission, promoted to Assault Squaddie! We now have one of each class, for the first time in over a month!
Rk. AJ Thomas IV -- 0 kills, KIA. Sigh.

ARTIFACTS

** 3 Floater Corpses
** 4 Muton Corpses
** 1 Berserker Corpse
** 1 Cyberdisc Wreck
** 1 Drone Wreck
** 2 Elerium
** 4 Alien Alloys
** 23 Weapons Fragments

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM HQ

We bring in another soldier, and very soon our satellite uplink is completed. We'll wait another day or so before launching.

July 26 -- 12:27 AM. The Council's sense of timing has clearly been broken. They want us to do an extraction, and won't even say where as it's a flash mission. 112 credits and 5 scientists are the promised reward.

Our last Council mission was a walk in the park, the first one a tough loss and major blow in losing in three of four ops. I wonder what this one has in store, but we can't ignore it.

ESCORT SQUAD

We will sorely miss Cookie -- yes, I really said that! -- who is out for a week.

Cpl. Deacon Palmer IV(Heavy) -- scope
Cpl. Coffee Warlord IV(Sniper) -- scope
Sq. Ren Snow III(Support) -- medikit, light plasma rifle
Sq. Sterling Silvers VI(Assault) -- scope, scatter laser debut!
Rk. Benton Gale 8(UK, female) -- scope
Rk. David Gonzalez IV(Norway, male) -- medikit

Two of each of the bottom three ranks. A hair better than our last mission.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION DEVIL'S MOTHER
Birmingham, United Kingdom
July 26, 1:16 AM

Good grief, we were just here. Well, almost. We need to rescue an Anna Sing. Is ops really calling her the devil's mother ... AND telling us to extract her? What the ... ?

Whatever. We have a job to do. A couple of successes don't mean a whole lot if we can't consistently back them up.

We're in a plaza, routes right and left with a raised section with a fountain in the middle. That way offers poor cover and opportunities to be flanked from both sides. No thanks, I'll take what's on the right for 200.

Coffee is in command, Silvers on point. For the first time in forever, we actually have a point person. He gets to the rear of a large green-and-white bus, still no contact. Strange. We've been here quite a while now and have heard nothing. He moves around the bus ... and spots a trio of thin men. He moved just a hair too far, and is stuck there. Great. Snow covers him with a smoke grenade, and we ready to fire.

They don't move. Silvers moves into the bus, dodging reaction fire ... and sees two of them behind a police cruiser up ahead. He uses his scatter laser for the first time, and the shot is true, taking one of them out! There's no good cover to approach with, Gale uses the smoke on the right, and is joined there by most of the others. The rookie Gonzalez drops a second enemy. We can't see the third ...

Moving forward past the bus, Silvers is up to that police vehicle and spots the third farther down behind a van. It fires at him, misses, but sets the car on fire. Silvers retreats, and Gonzalez moves up. A long sniper shot from Warlord atop the bus ... on target! We sit tight for a bit, with three of them taken down so far.

The cruiser blows, but we are safely away. We keep moving up the street, and spot three more thin men! Warlord fires for the closest one, missing this time. They are well entrenched, so we withdraw and wait them out. Two advance ... we take out one, the second is just close enough to blast Coffee exposed on top of the bus. Oh, they are going to pay for that!

Silvers dashes to short range ... and spots three more, along with our VIP! It's a party now! Gale and Silvers each take out one, leaving us with that latest trio still out there.

We regroup, but three more arrive, closest to Palmer! Superb. Six now. Gonzalez uses a medikit on CW.

We spot only one, which misses Silvers. They're lying in wait mostly -- basically, we're on the right side of the plaza, thin men somewhere over on the opposite to the left, the raised area with the fountain and statue in the middle. Just past the plaza, in the middle is Anna Sing, so we are literally fighting over the damsel in distress at this point.

Silvers hops down and to the corner, spotting two of them along the far side of the wall. A nice pistol shot flanks one of them, but it's not enough to kill him. We mix reloading and overwatch fire, and Gale dodges a couple shots as she moves past the corner behind a pair of barrels ... then misses a flank shot, which she risked the move for. Super.

Multiple shots miss, and they poison Silvers. Half the squad panics -- Warlord moves pointlessly away from the battle, Silvers injures one of them, and Gonzalez randomly fires, killing another! We should panic more often!! Snow misses the closest enemy, but sets on fire the blue SUV it's behind. That might be just as good.

Two of them fire back at Snow, both hitting, and he's in bad shape now. The SUV explodes, taking out the thin man behind it. Four left that we know of. Snow moves away and uses our last kit.

We reload, one of them fires and misses. We just need to get all our shooters into the fight. Gonzalez moves forward, misses both ways. Only Gale manages to hit one. We're putting on a shot-missing clinic right now.

We still only see one, who misses Gonzalez. 4 shots, 4 misses for us. This is ridiculous. Two more approach, one flanks Silvers, who will be ok, another poisons Warlord and our fearless, peerless leader panics again. A third injures Gonzalez. This is getting serious.

Gonzalez finally takes down the closest one. Still two more. Snow manages to somehow miss a great easy flanking shot. Argh!! And a half. Gale has a very similar shot, and does not miss, thankfully. One to go, and I've had enough. Palmer looses a rocket, taking out two vehicles and another thin man.

The scanners are clear for now, and Gale reaches Sing. We reload and head straight up the center of the plaza, taking the high ground now. This is our turf. The VIP is clearly traumatized.

Two thin men drop in on the far side, what is now on our right, the opposite street from the one we used to approach. Gale moves that way and is hit and missed once each. Apparently every single operative needs to get injured today. She takes out one, and Snow blasts the second. Ok.

Clear again for now.

We reach the fountain, and another drops in on the left. Nobody's in range. Warlord wounds it with a pistol shot, and Gonzalez finishes it off. Onward!

Two more at the extraction zone. They seem serious about stopping us here, I've lost count of how many we've killed. Snow takes out one, and we set for reaction fire -- it poisons Anna Sing! Oh, it's on now!

Sing panics, and then Snow panics, and fires ... at Anna Sing. What the ... she's down. As in, permanently.

It's one of those moments when all you can do is shake your head and stare in disbelief. What the ... yeah.

Bradford is ticked. Hard to blame him.

OPERATION DEVIL'S MOTHER is an absurd failure. Anna Sing is dead by our hand, as Ren Snow III decided to murder her in order to relieve his battle stress. 17 aliens killed, 0 operatives lost. How ... how do you even understand, much less explain something like this?

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Sq. Ren Snow III -- 7 kills(not counting Sing) in 4 missions, promoted to Corporal! PROMOTED?! Wounded(10 days)
Sq. Sterling Silvers VI -- 4 kills in 2 missions, gravely wounded(12 days)
Cpl. Coffee Warlord IV -- 8 kills in 4 missions, wounded(2 days)
Rk. Benton Gale 8 -- 4 kills in her first mission! Promoted to Support Squaddie! Wounded(9 days)
Cpl. Deacon Palmer IV -- 9 kills in 4 missions, promoted to Sergeant! Nicknamed 'Cairo'! Only operative to NOT get injured today.
Rk. David Gonzalez IV -- 4 kills! Promoted to Support Squaddie! Enough supports, already! Wounded(7 days)

The Council is 'concerned' by this setback. I'd be flat enraged.

[Brian Swartz]

The computer that I had this save on died, so I'll have to summarize the rest of it. My apologies to those who participated for the 'on-again, off-again' nature of this dynasty.

It actually continued for quite some time past this. We're near the end of July: the aliens and XCOM largely settled into a state of indifference as with satellite coverage on all the contributing nations alien abductions ceased.

The odd terror mission still took out a nation every now and then, but we did manage to capture an Outsider and locate the hidden alien base as the squad did just well enough to overcome continued attrition(usually about 10 losses a month). Less than a week before Christmas, the raid(Spectral Sleep) was launched. At that time, though I'm hazy on the details, we had a full squad at Lieutenant or higher.

It went well at first, but then we ran into an open area, heavy floaters on the left, elite mutons on the right, couldn't get them to charge, a Sectopod and more elites showed up when we moved forward .... yeah it wasn't pretty. Complete annihilation. Notably it was yet another Major McCloud heavy leading the way. And dying with the rest. Before the rest actually, if I recall correctly. There was also Slim, a British sniper who made a career out of missing important shots, and Santa -- seriously, Santa -- a quality support Lt. who was far more useful than his ridiculous moniker would suggest. The others were not as memorable.

The game didn't treat this as an automatic failure, but I did. The idea that we could just go back and they wouldn't have relocated/changed defenses I didn't like given the spirit of the dynasty. And so the game ended there. Humanity had fought the aliens to a standstill -- and was doomed to endless war until such time as they chose to surrender, if any. We weren't a threat to concern the aliens, but neither were we able to fight them off. They could accept the losses we inflicted on them, and vice versa. They would tolerate our control of large sections of Earth while they continued their plans -- whatever those are.

Casualties ended up being nearly 100 operatives by the time all was said and done. Double-digit in most months, with no end of that in sight.

Anyway, thanks all for participating, I'm sorry it had to end this way but it wasn't worth replacing a motherboard on a decrepit computer.

[sterlingice]

I would like to file an official protest

Sterling Silvers V suddenly became the second Sterling Silvers IV
Thus the new Sterling Silvers should have been Sterling Silvers VI
And thus Sterling Silvers VI is actually Sterling Silvers VII

This could have possibly turned the tid-- yeah, anyways. We still couldn't keep up with Benton Gale 8.

SI

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I would like to file an official protest

Sterling Silvers V suddenly became the second Sterling Silvers IV
Thus the new Sterling Silvers should have been Sterling Silvers VI
And thus Sterling Silvers VI is actually Sterling Silvers VII

This could have possibly turned the tid-- yeah, anyways. We still couldn't keep up with Benton Gale 8.

SI

Hey...don't bad mouth 8...that one at least killed a couple of aliens...

Feel free to bad mouth 1 - 7 as most were completely worthless...