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

[Brian Swartz]

The biggest current need is definitely infantry, which is strange -- usually I have plenty of them but we have only three. I would like at least two more of those, another scout or two, and another sniper. There are a couple spots where we still only have one active soldier but if things stay quite another couple days or so that will improve a lot.


XCOM ROSTER -- as of May 1

Assault(4)
** This should mostly be self-explanatory. The % listed is progress towards the next promotion. The number in paretheses by each class is the total number of that class currently in XCOM(including those who are recovering and/or injured)**

SPEC Beth Campbell(AUS, 1 mission, 1 kill, 44%) -- 3 Health, 14 Mob, 31 Will, 63 Aim, 3 Def
SPEC Ivan Drago(HON, 2 missions, 3 kills, 78%) -- 3 Health, 15 Mob, 32 Will, 69 Aim, -1 Def
CPL Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, 4 missions, 10 kills, 0%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 45 Will, 68 Aim, - 2 Def
** Bring 'Em On, Sprinter

Engineer(4)
SPEC Naomi Foster(USA, 2 missions, 1 kill, 44%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 34 Will, 64 Aim, 1 Def
LCPL Yolanda Pena(ESP, 3 missions, 7 kills, 58%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 39 Will, 67 Aim, 3 Def
** Sapper
SPEC Katia Rivera(MEX, 2 missions, 2 kills, 56%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 32 Will, 65 Aim, 5 Def

Gunner(6)

SPEC Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, 1 mission, 0 kills, 35%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 40 Will, 70 Aim, -3 Def
SPEC Geoff Russell(USA, 2 missions, 0 kills, 48%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 22 Will, 68 Aim, 0 Def
SPEC Mac Roguru(AUS, 2 missions, 5 kills, 94%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 35 Will, 72 Aim, 2 Def

Infantry(3)

CPL Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, 4 missions, 11 kills, 12%) -- 6 Health, 11 Mob, 54 Will, 79 Aim, 5 Def
** Opportunist, Executioner

Medic(4)
SPEC Soledad Sanchez(MEX, 2 missions, 1 kill, 46%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 61 Aim, -4 Def

Rocketeer(4)
SPEC Shigeru Endo(JPN, 2 missions, 1 kill, 44%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 34 Will, 75 Aim, 1 Def

Scout(4)

SPEC Carl Tanner(USA, 1 mission, 1 kill, 2%) -- 4 Health, 14 Mob, 31 Will, 69 Aim, -2 Def
SPEC Amber Mitchell(ZAF, 2 missions, 1 kill, 1%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 28 Will, 63 Aim, 2 Def

Sniper(3)

SPEC Alma Demirovic(BIH, 1 mission, 0 kills, 4%) -- 3 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 73 Aim, 1 Def

Private(7)
PFC Duncan Ross(FRA, no missions) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 34 Will, 67 Aim, 1 Def -- 1st
PFC Chris Kodos(FRA, no missions) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 30 Will, 69 Aim, -3 Def -- 5th


Recovery
LCPL Georgia Murdoch(AUS, 4 missions, 3 kills, 62%) -- 3 Health, 13 Mob, 55 Will, 68 Aim, -2 Def -- 16 hours
** Revive
LCPL Thozama Khumalo(ZAF, 3 missions, 4 kills, 16%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 51 Will, 65 Aim, -1 Def -- 22 hours
** Revive
SPEC Amiyah Banerjee(NIG, 3 missions, 3 kills, 36%) -- 6 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 61 Aim, 1 Def -- 1 day
LCPL Jace Hunter(FRA, 3 missions, 6 kills, 19%) -- 5 Health, 11 Mob, 42 Will, 83 Aim, 3 Def -- 1 day
LCPL Dean Hoo(UKR, 3 missions, 2 kills, 4%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 43 Will, 72 Aim, 0 Def -- 2 days
** Low Profile
SPEC Path Twelve(DEU, 2 missions, 4 kills, 81%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 34 Will, 75 Aim, 3 Def -- 2 days
LT Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, 5 missions, 7 kills, 11%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 45 Will, 79 Aim, -1 Def -- 2 days
** Low Profile
LCPL Eman Hodzic(BIH, 3 missions, 4 kills, 19%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 39 Will, 71 Aim, 1 Def -- 2 days
SPEC Esperanza Guerrero(ESP, 2 missions, 6 kills, 85%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 20 Will, 66 Aim, 1 Def -- 2 days

Injured
**Injured soldiers are out of action until they recover. The expected time until they are available for active duty is listed here as well.**

LT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, 7 missions, 10 kills, 64%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 50 Will, 67 Aim, -2 Def -- 4 days
** Revive, Paramedic
LCPL Ches O'Peake(USA, 3 missions, 3 kills, 13%) -- 6 Health, 13 Mob, 37 Will, 71 Aim, -2 Def -- 5 days
** Aggression
LCPL Didier Keita(MEX, 2 missions, 3 kills, 6%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 45 Will, 56 Aim, -2 Def -- 6 days
** Opportunist
CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, 5 missions, 16 kills, 54%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 63 Will, 68 Aim, -4 Def -- 8 days
** Ranger, Low Profile
LCPL Coffee Warlord(ISR, 3 missions, 5 kills, 59%) -- 3 Health, 15 Mob, 44 Will, 70 Aim, -1 Def -- 16 days
** Will to Survive
LCPL Eliana Soares(BRA, 3 missions, 2 kills, 9%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 40 Will, 71 Aim, 1 Def -- 19 days
** Steadfast
LCPL Sophie Deschamps(FRA, 3 missions, 2 kills, 26%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 36 Will, 73 Aim, 2 Def -- 22 days
** Holo-Targeting
CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim(KOR, 4 missions, 14 kills, 22%) -- 7 Health, 14 Mob, 42 Will, 72 Aim, 1 Def -- 32 days
** Resilience, Tactical Sense

KILLBOARD

CPL Benton 'Sheriff' Gale -- 16
CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim -- 14
CPL Brooke 'Twitch' Carter -- 11
LT Lily 'Axle' Brodie -- 10
CPL Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason -- 10
LT Rebecca Burke -- 7
LCPL Yolanda Pena -- 7
SPEC Esperanza Guerrero -- 6
LCPL Jace Hunter -- 6
SPEC Seung-yeon Kim -- 6(KIA)
SPEC Mac Roguru -- 5
LCPL Coffee Warlord -- 5
LCPL Eman Hodzic -- 4
LCPL Thozama Khumalo -- 4
SPEC Path Twelve -- 4
SPEC Amiyah Banerjee -- 3
SPEC Ivan Drago -- 3
LCPL Didier Keita -- 3
LCPL Georgia Murdoch -- 3
SPEC Ches O'Peake -- 3
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 Amber Mitchell -- 1
SPEC Soledad Sanchez -- 1

MEMORIAL
**Here are remembered all those missing or killed in action.**

PFC Ace Idol -- 0 kills in 1 mission. KIA during Operation Demon Pipe by a sectoid plasma pistol, March 17, 2015.
PFC Stephen Garner -- 1 kill in 2 missions. KIA during Operation Unceasing Night by a sectoid plasma pistol, April 4, 2015
SPEC Seung-yeon Kim -- 6 kills in 2 missions. KIA during Operation First Engine by a sectoid plasma pistol, April 27, 2015.

[Brian Swartz]

May 1, 0231 -- That 'quiet' thing barely lasted two hours! Abduction alerts went off in France. Light resistance, 8m reward. We do need the money ...

Strike Team

We'll stick with the standard 4-5 experienced, 2-3 privates for this kind of operation. It'll be 5 & 2 for this one as we can't spare an infantry soldier.

SPEC Soledad Sanchez(MEX, Medic)
SPEC Carl Tanner(USA, Scout)
SPEC Beth Campbell(AUS, Assault)
SPEC Naomi Foster(USA, Engineer)
SPEC Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, Gunner)
PFC Duncan Ross(FRA)
PFC Lakshmi Pilaj(NIG)

Duncan Ross finally gets a chance to earn his spurs. The class choices here were pretty basic, next-up in those classes that have spare soldiers ready to go. With no infantry and nobody above specialist rank, this will be the weakest group overall that XCOM has taken out in a while. Let's hope the enemy doesn't spring any particularly nasty surprises ...

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION LONE FLAME
5.1.2015, 0249
Paris, France

We didn't have to wait long for the action to start. An electronics store was our first objective and two seekers immediately went to stealth while a thin man complicated matters. Tanner brought a battle scanner with him, but he had to get safety first once we spotted them. Ross got the first shot at the thin man, well high. Sanchez did no better. Foster gave the red vehicle the thin man was hiding behind the HE treatment. It did not appear either seeker was in the blast radius, but he wasn't looking too healthy after the explosion so it was a worthwhile grenade.

The thin man sought better cover behind the building and we saw nothing of the seekers. Tanner tossed out the scanner to see what he could find ... jack diddly squat. Wherever they were wasn't in the bulk of that store. Superb. Ross would next play a key part in a two-man game. He slid up along the yellow SUV and tossed out a flashbang, just getting it close enough to disorient the thin man. That allowed Campbell to safely dash up there and take care of the thin man, getting a visual on a canister and a facefull of acid in the process. But it was worth it to eliminate the threat.

The rest of the squad moved that direction to try and claim the canister while keeping reaction fire up. Those seekers will be coming, probably soon. We heard floaters, and then the seekers came behind us! Pilaj and Mirabeau, the latter our best weapon against them right now, were strangled with two of three reaction shots missing and the third causing minimal damage. Ross was the closest, but couldn't do enough damage to release the grip on Pilaj. Tanner's SMG just bounced off the armor. Foster finally took out the first one, but there was one left on Mirabeau and I was running out of guns. Sanchez took care of Campbell's acid problem, but she couldn't get close enough for a shot and Mirabeau's injuries became more serious.


The seekers outsmarted us this time. Battle scanners don't work as well when they've already left the area ...




Thankfully nobody else came to the party, and a shotun blast finally released the grip. Tanner was able to snag the canister in time -- they are up to eight ounces, another poor omen -- and medkits were dispensed along with the needed reloads. By the time it was done, half of the medkits were gone. Hopefully additional encounters would go smoother. It seemed the rest of them were in a larger building across an alley to the rear of the electronics store, so we'd head that way after regrouping.

I doubted we could get there in time, but might as well try for that second canister along the 'north' side, the same side Tanner and Ross were on by the first one. We heard movement inside the grocery store on the north side of the block, and the other canister went silent. Figured as much. Up on the roof, Tanner could see nothing so they must be on the ground floor. There was roof access across the alley as well, and a combined approach high and low seemed as good as anything.

Tanner, Ross, and Duncan ventured up top. Still nothing. Then they spotted a pair of floaters along the far side of the building ... they hadn't seen us yet. Pilaj and Sanchez made it five on the roof -- perhaps we could take them out with a massed strike. Still they patrolled below the rooftop, we could make out their location only with audio. TAnner still couldn't see them at the very edge, but this time their route took them around the corner and into Mirabeau's sight range. She missed, but we had a fix on them now and should just be able to drop over and clean em out.


The strange cat-and-mouse game with the floaters finally ends





Mirabeau missed again. Tanner wounded one of them, but not badly. Ross dropped in, injured the other. They were too close to let them live ... Pilaj dropped one, Sanchez got in a decent shot but the leader wouldn't go down. It was left to Campbell to finish it off again.


Duncan Ross gets a good shot in here, but not enough to take down the enemy.





Five down, and we spotted the other group. Three drones, in the adjacent store, just enough light for us to get a visual. With the dividing wall the roof seemed the best approach again. Potentially we could drop in from either side, or both, and give them a nasty surprise. Their sensors picked up Pilaj heading up though, complicating matters. So much for surprise.

We readied for their assault, but it didn't come. The longer they waited for us to prepare the worse it was going to be for them, but I wasn't about to argue. Mirabeau and Foster came in from the 'back' way by the alley, and they were still clustered up hiding in the corner of the building. Incredibly, both of them missed. That wasn't the idea.


Not the boldest of foes ...





They moved to meet the incursion and all fired at Foster. The first blast ended in a minor wound, and Foster panicked like an idiotic fool. The other two missed. By moving away from the window though they'd exposed themselves to our waiting soldiers on the other side. Mirabeau finally hit something and dropped one of them at close range. Ross did his usual light damage and Tanner had an SMG burst simply bounce off. Sanchez took out the second one, Pillaj had a shot bounce off, so Campbell moved in to finish the job. Except she didn't. Somehow the stupid little drone absorbed enough of the blast to stay aloft. Super. We're all exposed here.

The drone moved back towards the alley, but apparently was too damaged to fire. As good as dead anyway. Another chance for Ross ... nope, he was too far away to get a shot. Foster missed a chance at revenge, knocking the green paint off the wall and doing little else. Mirabeau finally put the stupid flying pile of junk out of it's misery, and we were all clear.


Post-Mortem

Bit of a tense start with the seekers but otherwhise it was a very clean sweep. 8 more aliens killed, nobody was lost or really even close to it. Foster will miss a little over a week, Mirabeau two weeks as the population of the medical ward continues to grow. Campbell and Pillai are promoted. Ross remains a private -- he performed well overall and was in the middle of the action, but only managed to get in a couple of damaging shots on the enemy, no kills.

Artifacts Recovered

2 Floater Corpses
1 Thin Man Corpse
3 Drone Wrecks
4 kg Elerium
4 kg Alien Alloys
6 Weapon Fragments
9 oz. MOG
2 Seeker Wrecks

[Brian Swartz]

With the reward money a second arc thrower was ordered, the last of the emergency projects waiting. Pillai joined the scout class where she figures to be a solid addition.

A couple more soldiers returned to active duty later in the day, and two more followed on May 2nd. Jace Hunter was among them.

[Brian Swartz]

May 3, 0046 -- UFO Analysis: Raider finished. As we have noted, they are tougher than scouts are. Durability has been classified as moderate, with a very light amount of exterior armor. They are similarly multi-role craft and Dr. Vahlen believes that is why they are not more dangerous combatants. Recon, resource-gathering, and research roles have been noted, as in the case of the scout. Similar improvements in training and weapons systems have been devised as before, and the current prevailing wisdom is that avalanche missiles will be best for these as well given the light armor.

Dr. Vahlen now gets to work on her most important assignment yet. We will soon find out if she can crack communication barriers and learn anything useful from interrogating our sectoid captive.

0051 -- Before I could even finish the summary of the Raider research project, Project Fisher, Bradford broke in with the report of more abductions. Again light resistance and 8m reward, this time in Japan.

Strike Team

This was an interesting group to try to assemble because we cannot spare a scout or infantry.

LCPL Georgia Murdoch(AUS, Medic)
** Revive
SPEC Ivan Drago(HON, Assault)
LCPL Yolanda Pena(ESP, Engineer)
** Sapper
SPEC Geoff Russell(USA, Gunner)
SPEC Alma Demirovic(BIH, Sniper)
PFC Takumi Fujita(JPN)
PFC Hannah Cullen(CAN)

Fujita can fill the role of scout best, he has elite mobility and good instincts. The squad has a good medic and a bit more experience than the last mission went out with, so they should be ok. Ivan Drago is the lone FOFC representative.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION SILENT EMPIRE
5.3.2015, 0229
Kobe, Japan

A small remote settlement is the site for this mission. It was slow through a parking lot without much in the way of good cover or approaches, and then in an outdoor dining area we are greeted by a muton and a floater. Private Hannah Cullen found a perfect time to utilize her explosive grenade, and the muton's cover, formerly a table, was reduced to ashes.







It was eventually the other private, Fujita, who would finish it off. Demirovic and Drago both missed the floater, which escaped into the diner ... where it had friends, a drone and a pair of sectoids.


Reinforcements



Demirovic and Pena combined to take out the exposed floater, while most of the rest moved to form a better position. Not a lot of good cover here away from the building, so hunkering down was better than exposing oneself as a target. Fujita and Drago were the closest -- one sectoid suppressed the rookie while the other two missed shots at our Honduran assault trooper. That was basically their one chance.


Sniper Demirovic didn't move for quite some while, firing away from behind a construction barrell. Various other members of the squad can be seen in other foreground positions, moving in on the building.




The corner of the restaurant takes a beating here, but Drago took no damage





Demirovic, who hasn't moved for quite some while, finished off the drone. Drago used a flashbang on the suppressor, freeing up Takumi for a flank shot on the other sectoid .. .which he completely missed. Nothing a Pena grenade and an easy mop-up for Murdoch couldn't fix.


The rookie shows how it's not done ...




Pena has a more effective way here. A good part of the inside of the building is incinerated, including the walls between the businesses





After an ineffective shot by the disabled sectoid, Drago snagged an 8-oz. canister and dashed back to the building to finish it off. We heard more movement, sounded like floaters, at the opposite end by the gas pumps. There was no reason not to slow down and use the roof approach at this point. Unfortunately, they didn't wait for everyone to get into position ...







A flashbang from Takumi made sure they wouldn't cause too much trouble, while Drago used his speed to get behind and take out the leader on the roof. Cullen wounded the other one, but it was in a tricky corner inside in the building and Drago was forced to finish it off himself.


The rest of the squad didn't have the best round of shooting, but Ivan Drago took out the last two floaters to end resistance





Post-Mortem

7 aliens killed, another canister recovered, no casualties. A lot of property damage as well from the grenades ... the squad did get shot at several times and that's never safe, but always in good defensive position. This operation really showcased how vulnerable cover that is made of combustible materials like wood can be. This is one reason that, while they do a bit less damage, the Commander prefers high-explosive(HE) grenades to their anti-personnel(AP) counterparts.

Vahlen voiced that she was impressed with the results. Drago and Fujita were the only promotions, not a lot of resistance or a lot of kills to go around.

Artifacts

2 Sectoid Corpses
3 Floater Corpses
1 Muton Corpse
1 Drone Wreck
2 kg Elerium
2 kg Alien Alloys
8 Weapon Fragments
9 oz MOG

[Brian Swartz]

Ivan Drago come on down! You doubled your kill tally from 3 to 6, gaining a promotion to lance corporal in the process. Training options:

** Tactical Sense: +5 Defense per visible enemy(max. of +20)
** Opportunist: No aim penalty on reaction shots, allows critical hits on reaction shots as well
** Low Profile: Partial cover offers the benefits of full cover.

Commander's Recommendation: None of these really help your main role which is to cause massive damage at close range. Opportunist is useless since you don't have a decent reaction fire weapon -- unless you want to go with an assault rifle instead of shotgun, I could do that it just doesn't take advantage of your core 'Run N Gun' assault ability, the point of which is to allow you to dash up close with the shotgun. Tactical sense helps most in tense firefight/ambush situations, while low profile is of more use on open terrain. Both of those would be helpful but the top recommendation is Tactical Sense. Assault troopers invariably get themselves into the middle of hairy situations, and that will help you stay alive in the midst of them.

LCPL Ivan Drago, you are now on the clock.

[Brian Swartz]

Dean Hoo returned to active duty while the Skyranger was on it's way back. Even with that, there were only 13 soldiers ready for duty. Fujita has gone sniper, a strange choice, but perhaps somebody knows something I don't. He saw a major gain in his shooting skill and perhaps there'll be a time we need a more mobile sniper. Seems a contradiction in terms to me really, but whatever.

A couple hours late, Egypt wants 8 fragments in exchange for an engineer. We've got enough for one more trade, and it is approved. The cycle continues with another four soldiers back on active status by the days end, including Path Twelve.

[Brian Swartz]

May 4, 0359 -- Medium raider spotted on approach to the UK. We have four fighters ready, with another set to be back in action by the end of the day. Too bad they couldn't wait. Just out of the training program with his new craft, 'Eightball' Lucero headed up to try and soften the target. He didn't so much as land a shot. Well, that wasn't encouraging.

'Lunchbox' Turnbull was up next, but the raider had landed before he could launch. It hadn't wasted any time, clearly having a destination set before setting out on it's flight path. An intact medium-sized UFO means significant resources and resistance. It also left me thinking whether we would ever get through this parade of non-stop action. There would be no privates on this mission.

Strike Team

With two of our three infantry soldiers still injured for a couple more days I couldn't afford to send one out. All the other classes at least had a spare in recovery that could go out if we got a priority mission close on the heels of this. The way things have been going lately, it wouldn't shock me if that happened.

SPEC Amber Mitchell(ZAF, Scout)
CPL Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault)
** Bring 'Em On, Sprinter
SPEC Katia Rivera(MEX, Engineer)
SPEC Mac Roguru(AUS, Gunner)
LCPL Thozama Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
** Revive
SPEC Shigeru Endo(JPN, Rocketeer)
LCPL Jace Hunter(FRA, Sniper)

Roguru and Hunter go back out there with an opportunity to do some damage. One thing's for sure, this will be a target-rich environment ... hopefully we're not the targets.

[Breeze]

Gale is a team player...I'm planning on taking the promotion, but I'm not sure which of the skills to take. Which serves the team better at this point, helping with the high priority missions, or training the inexperienced?

[Brian Swartz]

I don't know. Right now the other two lieutenants are one of each, mostly for balance. It really depends on what kind of missions we get, what kind of enemies we face, etc. Might be a toss-up.

If you like, I'll flip a coin and just pick whatever wins the flip .

[Breeze]

go with the coin flip then...sounds like there is no wrong answer...

[Brian Swartz]

Ok, sounds like a plan.

OPERATION DYING DRUID
5.4.2015, 0535
United Kingdom

Uneven terrain in a remote location. Relocating could be tricky here. We got in trouble right away. A quartet of floaters on our right, and not a whole lot of anything we could do in terms of finding cover. A lot of hunkering down with only one errant pistol shot by Mason -- we just tried to find a decent position behind a burned-out jeep that we could move from and do some damage in a bit.







Interestingly, they didn't actually shoot at us. One teleported behind, a second suppressed our scout Mitchell, and the other two went on overwatch. Mason damaged the suppressor, couldn't take it out but that freed Mitchell to go to the rear and kill off the teleported floater. One flank is pretty much always better than two. Rivera finished off the wounded one, but Hunter really failed when he was needed to land a sniper shot. Khumalo pleasantly suprised by taking out a third one, and the final floater was wounded by Endo and suppressed by Roguru.


You had one job, Mr. Hunter





That was just basically lucky as hell. We could easily have had a dead soldier or two already the way they ambushed us there. Endo finished the job, and we reloaded to see what else awaited ...

More floaters, sounds like maybe mutons, and a canister somewhere off in the woods. Plenty of more fun. It was soon clear that the closest sounds were coming from inside the ship. The squad moved off to the right, aiming to sweep the perimeter. There was something near the edge of the ship as we moved around it, but we couldn't tell what, keeping our distance to make sure we weren't flanked from the forest side. Soon a denser portion of the forest forced us to pass quite close to the ship in order to pass ... things could get very interesting here if they spotted us.


From right to left, Spitfire, Mitchell, and Rivera are the lead element attempting to sneak past the alien ship





We were close enough to hear the impacts of their passing in the UFO's passageways, and far too spread out ... but this was the only way around. It was tense, nervewracking, and I did not like it one bit. And then they saw us. Two mutons and a sectoid. Behind a narrow doorway the mutons were nearly impregnable. As much as I hate using explosives on an alien ship, there was no choice here. A rocket blast by Endo gave us a clearer path to take them out. A very impressive shot by Hunter took out the largest of the mutons, presumably the leader of this squad. Roguru hit the second but couldn't finish it off, so Khumalo took care of it, and Rivera knocked off the sectoid.


Endo's rocket had to be on target, and it was. When the blast subsided, the entryway was much larger ...





Shigeru Endo's rocket was the key there, it turned a losing engagement into an open field of fire. The damage to the ship was more than an acceptable trade. We could still hear more floaters and mutons afterwards. This was far from over. We hadn't gotten far when in the same area of the ship, three floaters showed up to investigate the noise. This time we didn't have many options. We decided to make a run for it, hoping to force them out into the open. Roguru suppressed the closest one, which fired back and missed. None of others were willing to chase and expose themselves.

The procession around the ship continued, seeming to take forever. The floaters did not pursue, but they'd have to be dealt with eventually. When they finally broke into the open again, Mitchell thought she heard mutons away from the ship. Just when the squad was about ready to pursue the sound, one of the floaters showed up. Almost everyone shot, and only one wound was managed. It simply shifted looking for defensive fire ...

but then three more with a muton showed up. Superb.



Enemies on two sides again. Problematic





Roguru finished off the first floater, allowing the rest of the squad to focus on the new group. Endo used his second rocket, a little off target but good enough. He would still be exposed now, but there was a chance of survival with the enemy weakened. Khumalo moved in and finished off the muton, Hunter bagged a floater, and Mitchell tried to get another but didn't quite kill it. Spitfire made it only one badly wounded enemy left ...


The sharp eye can see Mac Roguru behind a tree in the right background, here with a much-needed elimination of a pesky floater








And then the other two showed up again. Too far away to attack but they were waiting back by the ship, while the survivor out in the forest simply moved away and took a suppression shot. Amazingly we haven't actually been directly shot at by this group, but the danger was still far from over.







Spitfire Mason in the best position to clear out one flank. Two healthy floaters left for the others to deal with. Another easy shot for Hunter ... missed! He's finding a way to miss far too many today. A couple of good shots by Rivera and Roguru badly wounded them, but neither went down completely. Khumalo and Endo took care of the rest ... What a chaotic mess. Somehow, we have still not gotten anyone injured on this raid!


Mac didn't get the kill here, but acquitted himself quite well in this firefight with another on-target burst here. That's more than we can say for his comrade Jace Hunter





It was quiet as we entered the ship. Somewhere deep in here the outsiders waited for us, but it looked like everything else was dead. Dr. Vahlen put in her two cents about not destroying the flight computers once we got sight of them. It would be nice if she stopped acting as if I was an idiot. Then we found them -- two, in the center of the ship, as one might expect.







One shot, one kill for Spitfire with a fine shotgun blast. It took three(Roguru, Rivera, Khumalo) to finish off the second one.


Post-Mortem

16 dead aliens, 5 promotions, not a single casualty. Nobody took any damage. There were a couple of times when it didn't look like things would turn out nearly that well. Frankly we probably should have lost a soldier or two out there, but the fates smiled on us.


Artifacts Recovered

1 Sectoid Corpse
10 Floater Corpses
3 Muton Corpses
36 kg Elerium
42 kg Alien Alloys
19 Weapon Fragments
5 oz. MOG
4 UFO Flight Computers
2 UFO Power Sources

XCOM's best haul yet in terms of resources. The electronics alone are worth 24 million, and we now have more than enough flight computers to open up another potential research path down the road.

[Brian Swartz]

Promotions

Mac Roguru, you are now a lance corporal, having added a kill and a number of other good moments during Dying Druid.

** Vital Point Targeting: +2 damage against aliens that have been autopsied or humans
** Aggression: +10% critical chance(max. 30%) per enemy in sight
** Sprinter: +4 mobility

Commander's Recommendation -- This is an interesting group of training choices. All would be useful. Sprinter would allow to wear heavier armor and/or have the option to use the massive LMG rather than the typical SAW. Vital Point Targeting will become more useful as we do more autopsies, currently only the sectoids have been done so it's limited but will grow in it's effect. Aggression has the advantage of always being in effect, i.e. it will help against mechanical enemies that don't have 'vital points' such as the seekers or drones and whatever else might be out there in the future.

This could go any direction. I don't think there is a right or wrong choice. Forced to choose, I would probably go with Sprinter for the flexibility but I would definitely emphasize here that there is no bad call.

LCPL Mac Roguru, you are on the clock.

[Travis]

Sounds like Jace needs to spend a few days at the range. Yeesh. Glad his inaccuracies didn't end up being too costly.

[Brian Swartz]

On return, we were down to 10 soldiers with 16 incoming, so two more recruits were authorized. I also took a moment to peruse the latest headlines ...

In The News

** Images of Egyptian soldiers going into battle with advanced alien weaponry posted on Internet
** Purported alien abduction in Japan stopped by mysterious military operatives equipped with 'advanced weaponry'
** Alleged alien abduction in downtown Tokyo has been blamed on costumed anime enthusiasts
** Pressure mounts in the United States as their inability to monitor alien threats comes into question
** UFO landing site in the United Kingdom reportedly secured by military forces of unknown affiliation


May 5, 0018 -- The Council rang barely into the next morning. The encrypted message read as follows:

"A member of the Triad criminal organization has reached out to one of our contacts. Although we have little interest in the man himself, he allegedly has in his possession a piece of 'unique' technology."

Naturally they want us to investigate, with our reward stipulated as a scientist, an engineer, and an additional 5 million in funds. A Council request, even strange and shady as this one appears to be, means this will be a priority mission. But who is left?

Squad

LT Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, Scout)
** Low Profile, Close Combat Specialist, Stay Frosty
CPL Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, Infantry)
** Opportunist, Executioner
CPL Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic
LCPL Dean Hoo(UKR, Gunner)
** Low Profile
SPEC Esperanza Guerrero(ESP, Rocketeer)
SPEC Amiyah Banerjee(NIG, Engineer)
SPEC Path Twelve(DEU, Sniper)

There is literally now just a single non-private on active duty waiting in the barracks as this squad readies to load up the Skyranger. As it is, Whiskey just came back from Dying Druid and will have to go back out again, followed by a mandatory stay in medical. Snake Eyes gets her first command mission here, and we are reaching the point where I may have to seriously consider ignoring the next request for assistance that comes in if we don't get a break soon.

But first things first. Time to meet this Triad member and find out what is really going on ... It is also a career opportunity for Dean Hoo and Path Twelve. It's not every day a specialist gets a chance to impress the Council.

[Icy]

Drago goes with tactical sense. The more enemies around, the more his top reflexes get into action becoming harder to get hit.

[Brian Swartz]

Tactical Sense it is.

Health: 3(--)
Will: 39(+7)
Aim: 70(+1)

That ... could have been better. It'd be nice to see Drago's flimsy frame toughen up a bit. A good will increase gets you a little closer to average for a lance corporal though.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Promotions

Mac Roguru, you are now a lance corporal, having added a kill and a number of other good moments during Dying Druid.

** Vital Point Targeting: +2 damage against aliens that have been autopsied or humans
** Aggression: +10% critical chance(max. 30%) per enemy in sight
** Sprinter: +4 mobility

Commander's Recommendation -- This is an interesting group of training choices. All would be useful. Sprinter would allow to wear heavier armor and/or have the option to use the massive LMG rather than the typical SAW. Vital Point Targeting will become more useful as we do more autopsies, currently only the sectoids have been done so it's limited but will grow in it's effect. Aggression has the advantage of always being in effect, i.e. it will help against mechanical enemies that don't have 'vital points' such as the seekers or drones and whatever else might be out there in the future.

This could go any direction. I don't think there is a right or wrong choice. Forced to choose, I would probably go with Sprinter for the flexibility but I would definitely emphasize here that there is no bad call.

LCPL Mac Roguru, you are on the clock.

I am going to go with Sprinter, lets me get in and help ASAP.

[Brian Swartz]

LCPL Mac Roguru

Sprinter training added.

Health: 7(+1)
Will: 38(+3)
Aim: 73(+1)

You appear to be 'thick' in more ways than one :P. Hard to kill, but otherwhise disappointing progress here.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION CRYSTAL SWORD
5.5.2015, 0140
Wuhan, China

Zhang, our contact is waiting for us dressed in all black.

"Hmph. You must be my contacts. No-one who fears reprisal would make an entrance like that."

He calmly takes out a pistol and kills a nearby sectoid.

"Not so different from killing a man. It won't take long for them to realize I'm missing, especially now that I've got this thing with me. If you take me with you, it's all yours. "

Zhang has a disturbing calculated coldness in his manner and tone. The Council name for the mission, Friends in Low Places, is now better understood. We're here now, and might as well get to it. The extraction point is across a graveyard.

'I'm not sure where my boss got this thing, but he was taking offers from a variety of bidders ... regardless of their intentions.'


Zhang shows himself to be a man of action immediately





Things got real in a big hurry. A pair of thin men and a sectoid up ahead on the left, a pair of seekers and a thin man on the right, and flanking us to the left, two more thin men dropped in. Eight of them! Two were wounded by reaction fire. Twelve fired at the flanking thin man on the left, badly injuring but not killing it. A rocket blast by Guerrero completely missed the seekers, and we were in trouble. Hoo added to the miss festival before 'Twitch' Carter dropped one seeker and damaged the second a bit. Whiskey somehow finished it off with her SMG -- she's been shooting crazy accurate lately.

Zhang: 'The job itself seemed trivial. Delivering equipment to a predetermined drop point.'

Burke dashed across drawing fire, but somehow managed to miss the exposed thin man on the left. Even more of them came up, most of the enemies suppressing, but I had no idea how we were going to get out of this. Banerjee was caught in a cloud of acid as well.


Apparently we aren't welcome here ...




Guerrero's rocket made a big mess and a pile of rubble ... and that's about it





Burke dashed to the side through the haze of fire and managed to drop one thin man with a pistol shot. That was fortunate, I was just hoping to get some decent damage on him to break the suppression on Path Twelve. Twitch dropped the newly arrived seeker, and Twelve pulled out her pistol to finally end the threat from the wounded thin man on the left.

That was three more down, and still by my count five left out there. Since Hoo was suppressed, he simply suppressed back on the leader of the entrenched thin men on the left side. Another rocket by Guerrero was nowhere near the target, but did manage to take out a thin man.


Engineer Banerjee is the target here, suppressed and doused in acid and generally unable to do anything useful except hope the others can get her out of this mess.




This bullseye by LT Snake Eyes was highly improbable, to put it mildly, and it freed sniper Path Twelve up to do her thing.





They didn't do much to attack now, the suppressed thin man hunkered down, a second took a shot at Hoo that missed, a sectoid scrambled for cover and the injured thin man on the right simply looked for reaction fire chances. Another thin man dropped in, upping the enemy count to five again. Will they never stop coming?!

Path Twelve didn't have any good angles, but took aim at one of the thin men ... and dropped it! She pulled that shot out of I have no clue where, but I'll take it! Carter's executioner training came in handy as she dropped the injured guy on the right, and all of a sudden this wasn't looking bad with only three of them left.

Zhang: "I've crossed many lines during my life, but now we all face a common enemy"

Hoo kept up the suppression fire, Guerrero retreated to a safer overwatch position, a couple others reloaded. The suppressed thin man fired back at Hoo, missing, the sectoid retreated a bit, and the other thin man that had dropped in on the right? Nowhere to be found at the moment. Time to clean this out now. A series of shots at the leader thin man resulted in a significant injury, but no kills.

A renewed acid attack on Banerjee kept her still, the sectoid remains in defensive fire, and the other thin man joined a fray with a missed shot at Burke. At this point it's basically a long-distance pot-shot contest, we have numbers and elevation on our side. The aliens have missed their chance to overrun us unless they have a lot more out there. But this could take a while to finish off and you never know when one lucky shot might ...


An extended firefight against the remaining enemies consisted mostly of a lot of missed shots, both sides taking any chance to damage the other. Here Path Twelve's round goes sailing high.





Carter wounded the second thin man, everyone else missed, another thin man dropped in on the right. This may never end. Twelve, finally with a decent angle, took out the newcomer before it could find cover. Back to three it was. Another shot at Hoo, another miss. We could still hit nothing, and again they missed the Ukranian gunner. At this point, it almost seems the greatest danger here is boring each other to death.




Dean Hoo's suppression fire limited the aliens' chances to shoot back ... and also made him their most frequent target. His recent Low Profile training was invaluable here, allowing him to stay in the front line of the firefight with relative safety.





An SMG burst from Snake Eyes took the leader down to near death, but not quite there. The only significant threat right now is that sectoid. Was. Twelve with another fine shot was able to catch it sticking it's head out. Twitch finally got one of the others, and there was just a single thin man left now. More misses, more suppression, more missed shots back at Hoo nailing that stupid lamppost. It was Whiskey who finally finished it off.


The medic of all people, Thozama 'Whiskey' Zhumalo, ends the longest and most dangerous firefight XCOM has yet seen.





We've been here probably over an hour, constantly fighting for our lives. But now it's clear. At the moment. That could easily have ended with every last one of us dead, somehow once again nobody is even hurt!! Two more thin men dropped in, one of them ducking out of sight. Guerrero and Banerjee got the kills this time, spreading the wealth around.

Nearly halfway across the graveyard, a thin man dropped in at the far end. That wasn't an immediate concern ... but one of those stupid purple chryssalids was another matter and close by. That thing needed to die as in now. It took four tries, but it finally was dropped by Carter who is racking up the kills here.


It's not a real party until the purple nightmarish spider shows up ...





Burke led the way down the right side as the squad looked for that lone thin man out there somewhere. Eventually we spotted it past the graveyard in the street beyond, right between us and the extraction point. Hoo had a decent try at it but missed. Guerrero was the only one close enough and able to hit it, just a flesh wound. The thin man advanced, one-on-seven here, and missed a shot at the LT. A wall shielded it from view, so after Burke failed to hit the target, Banerjee took a grenade to the wall. Hoo turned what remained of it into rubble, and also ended the threat.


Any problem on earth can be solved by the proper application of high explosives.




I think most of the rounds hit the wall here, but there was no chance for the thin man to survive the hail of bullets from this range.





Unbelievably, they still weren't done. A thin man on each side. The one behind was a flanking threat, and only Twitch could see it. With that one gone, Twelve sighted in ... and somehow managed to miss a perfect setup on the second one. There's just no excuse for that. Whiskey blew it as well, before Guerrero finally stopped the stupidity. One last thin man dropped in as we neared the extraction with Zhang, but didn't have a chance to move a muscle as three shooters combined to mow him down.


They tell me a sniper should make this shot 19 out of 20 times. Path Twelve had some good moments today and multiple kills tallied, but this is a miss to put on the wall of shame.





Finally Zhang reached the Skyranger.

"I am alive! But the life I had is gone now. ... Funny, that my life should take such an unexpected turn. Turning my back on old friends to embrace a common enemy."


The package is secured, and wistfully philosophical. A near-death experience can do that.

With that, it was finally over.


Post-Mortem

I still can't believe we got through the initial rush without a scratch. Whatever that thing is Zhang has, it must be darn important. A total of 19 enemies were dispatched. Aside from the stated mission rewards, we also have a new soldier. Zhang, or CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang as he is now to be known, has joined Tactical Ops! Not everyone got promoted, but several did.

**OOC Note: I have literally never had an operation start that badly and end that well. The pessimist in me is concerned, because I feel that we are due for a bad mission of squad-wipe scale. For a while I thought this could be it. The aliens were suprisingly passive, relying on suppression and acid, and we bought just enough time by injuring a few of them as they came in. It still shouldn't have been enough though ... not that I'm complaining **


Artifacts

1 Sectoid Corpse
13 Thin Man Corpses
1 Chryssalid Carcass
2 kg Elerium
3 kg Alien Alloys
14 Weapon Fragments
3 oz. MOG
3 Seeker Wrecks

The Council had a few more words to say:

'Dr. Vahlen has confirmed that the device is genuine, although the aliens' presence at the extraction site was perhaps evidence enough. Dr. Shen has several theories as to the purpose of this equipment, and will notify you immediately when his team has reached a conclusion.'

[Brian Swartz]

Promotions

Path Twelve, you doubled your kill total from 4 to 8 in Crystal Sword, and have been duly promoted to lance corporal!

** Packmaster: Limited-use small items(i.e., medkits, grenades, etc.) receive additional uses.
** Executioner: +10 Aim, +10 Critical Chance against enemies with 50% or less health.
** Steadfast: Never panic as a result of injury, allies injury or intimidation.

Commander's Recommendation -- None are particularly fantastic choices, but Executioner just has a sniper ring to it . The others are of far more use to soldiers that deploy closer to the enemy more often.

LCPL Path Twelve, you are on the clock.

[Brian Swartz]

Zhang is set up the with infantry training, filling a much-needed hole. It looks like he'll be a decent one. He comes in at Corporal rank due to his previous experience, questionable though it is. Even with him, the continued drain on manpower required yet another five soldiers to be recruited. A minor sell-off of at least 2.6m was needed for this. Untill the new recruits come in, we have 40 still actually on-site. 24 are in recovery, 11 more injured! A single UFO flight computer brought in 3m, more than was needed.

CPL Brooke 'Twitch' Gale of the USA tied the single-operation kills mark with 7 confirmed during Crystal Sword. As a result, she now sets the high spot on the board with 18 total enemy deaths accounted for personally.

1123 -- The first five privates have finally arrived. Canada's Kim Fraser has elite shooting ability, Belgium's Kobe Cuvelier could be a fine scout down the road, while Italian Luca Basso is probably the best officer candidate of the group.

LT Lily 'Axle' Brodie was cleared by medical to return to duty later in the day. With her back, XCOM was up to 11 active soldiers, though eight are privates, with 18 more recruits still in the pipeline. Each day of quiet, assuming we get any, will see a significant jump in readiness. I also decided to complete a nearly-expired elerium trade offer with Japan. It was originally rejected, but with yesterday's UFO raid we now have enough to spare. With the two new engineers received we are now up to 21, enough to manage a third satellite uplink. Now all we need is the money for it .

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, May 7

Ah, a day of quiet. We finally got one on the sixth. A half-dozen soldiers are now back on active status, giving us enough to actually do another operation if one came up now. FOFC representatives PFC Duncan Ross and LCPL Ches O'Peake were among those released.

[chesapeake]

Back in the saddle! It's about time!

[Brian Swartz]

Well if you'd stop getting yourself shot ... :P

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, May 8

Didier Keita returned to active status, and 11 more privates came in, the bulk of the recruits. Overall they seem solid, a hair better than the initial group with I think three elite shooters and a couple more prime officer candidates. Looking forward on the calendar, we've got some important stuff coming up in a few days. Around the 12th it will start, a couple of arc throwers, interrogation results from the sectoid, seven more privates to be screened and transported to headquarters -- pretty much all of that is expected to go down in a 2-3 day window. Until then, all we're doing is hoping the aliens are relatively nice and let everyone heal up a bit.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, May 9 -- A bombing run has been reported in Argentina. They are one of the countries that we've been the most active in trading with, so the populace is firmly on our side but they are considering upping the alert evel from Green to Aqua with this latest attack. Another six soldiers are healed up.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, May 10

Another day of quiet passes. It was still an important day, with ten more soldiers back and ready. Path Twelve, Dean Hoo, Jace Hunter, and Ivan Drago are once again ready for hostile action.

[Brian Swartz]

LCPL Path Twelve was given the Executioner training.

Health: 3(--)
Will: 36(+2)
Aim: 80(+5)

Not great, but enough of a shooting increase to keep her among the elite.

[Brian Swartz]

CDB, May 11

Another quiet day. Four more soldiers are now ready to go, including LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale and Mac Roguru. Just after midnight though, the quiet ended with a spotting of a large, low-flying UFO in eastern Russia by a random fighter patrol ...

[Brian Swartz]

While the UFO situation was dealt with, Gale's commissioning ceremony was underway. The coin flip resulted in Stay Frosty training.







'Blinker' Kamala is sent up to deal with the UFO. We have no expectation of being able to take it down, but with four active fighters one can be spared to damage/dissuade it. They got it one hit, the UFO two, at which point the frame was very unstable. Another hit would almost certainly have been fatal.

At 0443, within an hour of returning, we got reports of abductions taking place in Murmansk, not far from the last sighting. It was a worth a try, but we did not manage to stop the alien mission and will now need to do so on the ground. As always, light resistance, 8m reward.

Tactical Ops is as healthy as it's ever been. Recovery is empty and there are only six injured. Three will back in less than a week, two more in a week after that. It's a great time to get more privates some experience so three will go out on this.

Strike Team

LT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO)
CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, Infantry)
SPEC Lakshmi Pillai(NIG, Scout)
LCPL Amiyah Banerjee(NIG, Engineer)
PFC Duncan Ross(FRA)
PFC Hannah Cullen(CAN)
PFC Chris Kodos(FRA)

Both remaining FOFC privates will be going on this one, and for Kodos it's his first time out.

[Kodos]

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, I'm good at killin' aliens."

[chesapeake]

Watch your back, Ross. Something suspicious about that Kodos guy.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Kodos

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, I'm good at killin' aliens."

Yeah, about that ...

OPERATION HOT LINE
5.11.2015, 0503
Murmansk, Russia







No sooner was the squad dropped off -- literally -- than they spotted a pair of seekers. They didn't see us yet. Duncan Ross was the first to get into good position for a shot at them. He missed, and both of them went to stealth. Pillai moved in to toss a scanner ... they'd moved toward us, there was a canister on the other side of the plaza, and no other enemies apparent nearby.

Four shot at the leader, three hit it, two managed to get through it's armor. It was badly damaged but still up. Chilong's first shot on an XCOM mission took out the second. The leader missed a shot at private Cullen, but two more seekers showed up at the left end of the plaza, apparently intent on flanking us.

Chilong Zhang managed to miss the damaged seeker twice. Ross did as well. This was not the way to start. Pillai finished it off but had to leave herself a bit exposed to fire from the other two in order to do it. Kodos missed the leader, and the rest looked for good cover.

It went from suck to blow at that point. Three thin men appeared at the other end, one shooting and other others going to defensive positions. Both seekers advanced, only one hitting for a flesh wound on LT Brodie. We were fortunate they didn't do more damage, but we were really up against it here.


Axle gets hit first, thankfully nothing vital was impacted







Pillai dashed back that way, drawing their fire, then tossed a flashbang that just barely managed to catch all three thin men in the blast radius. That would only work if we could take out the seekers, because she was going to be a sitting duck to them now. We couldn't shoot worth a crap unforunately. The leader seeker was hit three times, damaging it but still up. Nothing happened to the second one. The seekers tag-teamed Kodos, and there was nothing I could do. He was gone. Pillai panicked, one thin man suppressed her, one shot at her, one shot at Zhang ... both missed.


The story of today's action in a nutshell. Banerjee fires at one of two big, close targets, and can't hit them.





The others can only watch in horror as Chris Kodos is obliterated. We hardly knew ye.





Brodie took out one seeker, but everyone else was either panicked, out of ammo, or barely able to scratch the second. It missed Brodie, but two of the thin man hit Zhang and he was critically wounded.


Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang was next on the aliens' hit parade. He was one of the few effective against the seekers, but paid a price for it







Pillai moved in to take out one thin man, while Ross flash-banged the remaining pair. Everyone else was out of ammo and had to just reload. The seeker, nearly 'dead', went to stealth. An acid attack on Pillai did little.


Duncan Ross buys time, especially for scout Pillai, with our last flashbang



Ross moved in to take out a second thin man. Banerjee knocked out the last one's cover and badly damaged it, while Cullen finished the job. Brodie did her medic thing, stabilizing Zhang, saying 'Walk it off'. Yeah, you try to 'walk off' a pair of plasma blasts to the face, Axle!


Banerjee's 'renovation' of the plaza ensured the final thin man would be easy pickings




Then the seeker was back, shooting Cullen in the back. Fortunately she was ok, and finished the enemy off herself.

Post-Mortem

Well, that pretty much sucked. The moral of this story is ... when you get ambushed, take advantage of any opportunity to thin their numbers. Normally we have, but there were way too many good shots missed on this operation. When you do that, and you don't have any room to maneuver, people die. 7 aliens killed, and private Chris Kodos light was extinguished. We'd been tempting fate a lot lately and what goes around comes around, unfortunately this was one of those days.

Ross and Cullen(1-week injury) were promoted, while Zhang, fortunate to be alive, was gravely wounded and will be gone about six weeks. I'm told there is a very real risk of PTSD in his case.

Artifacts Recovered

3 Thin Man Corpses
3 kg Elerium
4 kg Alien Alloys
3 Weapon Fragments
4 Seeker Wrecks

[Brian Swartz]

Unfortunately Private Chris Kodos ended up being far better at being shot by aliens than shooting them. He had one burst bounce off a seeker and another completely miss before getting killed faster than any XCOM soldier has been killed before.

Should you choose to re-enlist/re-spawn/reincarnate/etc. the good news is there are enough privates right now that you would be able to get a talented one in the area of your choice.

Duncan Ross, you did better on your second mission than your first, which was decent. You have been promoted to Specialist! The choices given were Rocketeer or Gunner.

Commander's Recommendation: We have six gunners right now, more than any other class and they aren't in particularly high demand. I recommend against that strongly. You'd make a fair Rocketeer, low mobility means it would be hard to carry multiple rockets but you have solid aim so accuracy shouldn't be a major issue in general. We've currently got four of those, which is the amount we have of most classes, none have less, so it would be a decent opportunity. Going random could either be better or worse, probably in equal probabilities. It's a tough call but given that we have two of our rocketeers currently out on fairly long-term injuries, I'd say rocketeer by a nose.

Specialist Duncan Ross, you are on the clock.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

Commander, I'll follow your recommendation and choose Rocketeer.

[Brian Swartz]

Rocketeer it is.

Health: 3(--)
Will: 41(+7)
Aim: 72(+5)

Solid work, that. I'd say you're off to a good start. As it happened, Cullen went Rocketeer as well.

[Kodos]

That was... brief. Although fairly reminiscent of how fights go when I play X-com on my PS3.

Pick out a promising recruit for me. Son of Kodos shall avenge me!

[Brian Swartz]

Will do. I have a few questions though to nail down your next avatar, as it were.

What name should I use? Chris Kodos II? SonOf Kodos? Something completely different?

Assuming you have the same preferences as before(high Aim, low defense, male and blonde) I have a Canadian who would fit the bill only 4th on the current list of privates. Problem is that its a she, so maybe a Christy or Kristina Kodos? :P Otherwhise, I have males that fit as well but much further down the list. 8th is a 70-aim Korean with very poor will so not that far down, but after that we've got to go almost all the way to the bottom for a Brazilian and a Scot(71 and 72 aim, as good as we've seen so far)

Let me know what you'd like, I figure since we got you killed so quickly the least I can do is fix you up with the next character .

[Kodos]

Christy Kodos works.

[Brian Swartz]

Private Christy Kodos, currently 4th out of 18 privates with the last 7 more due to arrive in the next 48 hours or so.

Health: 3
Mobility: 13
Will: 28
Aim: 72
Defense: -1





May 11, 2045 -- The first of the new arc throwers is finished.

May 12 -- Whiskey Khumalo is back. Around 0745 Germany came in with a request for 6oz. of MOG. Expensive, but it was given in exchange for a pair of scientists.

At 1915, a small scout was detected over the Atlantic, well west of the UK. 'Lunchbox' Turnbull took heavy damage in getting his first confirmed kill, but that was better than the scout fared. It broke up in mid-air, and we received only the Council bounty. It was enough to mostly pay for a new satellite(12.6m).

2245 -- Report complete on sectoid interrogation ...


Bradford arrives in the primary research complex to discuss the findings with Dr. Vahlen





Bradford: So, how'd it go Doctor?

Vahlen: Better than expected. Before the creature expired, I was able to extract some new information from it.

Bradford: You're saying that thing spoke to you?

Vahlen: Not precisely. But when you have access to a creature's brain, certain patterns can be discerned -- recent images and thoughts.

Bradford: And what exactly was our late friend thinking about?

Vahlen: This particular image occurred in the creature's thought patterns several times throughout the procedure.







Bradford(mildly frustrated): We've already met that thing, Doctor! This is hardly the kind of breakthrough we're ...

Vahlen(interrupting): And ... there was a neural link in the creature's mind between that image, and this one.


Bradford's latest 'Eureka' moment. We have a new target, a new directive





Bradford(with recognition and a little excitement): That's the thing that pulled a disappearing act when we shot down our first UFO. And let me guess -- you want to poke around in it's head too.

Vahlen: It is the next piece of the puzzle. And this time, instead of shooting it, I suggest we attempt to capture it alive.


The interrogation report was filed under Project Roanoke.

"... a learning experience for all parties involved. ... traditionally an interrogation would involve a discussion or sorts ... We were instead forced to undertake a more aggressive approach, namely, through a series of cranial probes inserted into the subject's prefrontal cortex."

I'm guessing this was not a pleasant experience.

"we were able to discern a great deal of information ... seemed to have little understanding of the various modifications it had been subjected to at some point ... we did garner some information relating to the aliens miniaturized implants and power cells"

The unoffical triumvirate(Bradford/Shen/Vahlen) has recommended twin goals for our next strategic step. Capturing an outsider per their conversation in the first, researching the alien genome is the second. Learning more about our enemy continues to be the focus of XCOM's efforts.

Dr. Vahlen believes we will be able to apply the knowledge of Project Roanoke to investigations into the field of cybernetics. It was the plan to do an autopsy of thin man corpses at this point, but only slightly slower and more vital given what we have learned is the field of xenogenetics. Dr. Vahlen states that the aliens cells have been found to be 'rife with' the mysterious orangish stuff we have been finding, and that potential applications on our soldiers may result. With the information gleaned from the sectoid, this study can now be completed in just over a week. The go-ahead was given, and the required 10 oz. of the goo as requested for the work.

Vahlen: We should be focused on capturing this strange alien creature, the one that formed around the crystal when we downed the first UFO. It's all we have to go on at the moment!

Shen: In times of war there's always a general, a leader. These aliens can be no different. The real question is, what kind of power or authority does it take to command such a vast array of alien species? What incentive do they have to follow through with this plan?

I'm more interested in the 'real question' of where is King Tut of the alien collective so we can blow it to kingdom come. I'll worry about the philosophical horsehockey afterwards.

Bradford: Dr. Vahlen's interrogation technique certainly is .... efficient. You'd never know it by looking at her, but that woman is an alien's worst nightmare.

[Brian Swartz]

May 13, 0950 -- A couple new soldiers arrive, and a pair of new trade requests. We can fulfill one, shipping 8 weapons fragments to the US in exchange for another engineer.

1345 -- Second arc thrower is finished.

[Brian Swartz]

May 14, 0245 -- Small, unidentified class of UFO spotted over the eastern Atlantic. It's on a high trajectory with that 'scanning' signal emittion again. Hopefully our two remaining fighters are enough to handle this. 'Boss' Bordoni is up first. He did considerable damage to it, but 'Notso' Sharpe was not so fortunate(pun intended), unable to finish it off before the UFO broke contact.

0553 -- That UFO is still out there but we have no more fighters available to send up, all of them are in repair for the second time. The last of the soldiers are now on site. We have 62 total, 25 of them privates. There is much training work to be done.

0950 -- Still the UFO flits about near the UK. 8 Weapon Fragments are traded to the country for an engineer. Soon afterwards the ship disappears. Whatever it was doing, it appears we once again dissuaded it from it's mission.

1615 -- We now have one fighter back in service, and a low-flying scout is spotted to the north. This is not an important enough task for a lone interceptor to deal with, and we let it go. It will be over a week until we have another one back, and for that time we're back in a situation where we can only afford to go after the most dangerous and vital contacts. Eventually the scout flies out of satellite scanner range, having finished whatever it was up to.

[Brian Swartz]

Strategic Update
From the Desk of the Commander

As mentioned, the last few days have wrapped up a few issues at XCOM. We have a lot of new soldiers, and now two of every five are privates. There's a lot of training to do but we have little control over that other than waiting to see what missions come up. All three officers available have been commissioned, and it will yet be a while until any are ready to be promoted again. We also have two arc throwers built and ready to be used when needed. The only real short-term project right now is the latest research into xenogenetics, which is expected to last another few days and be completed on or around May 20th.

In the bigger picture, getting satellite coverage over all of North America by the end of June is still the focus of our efforts. Time is becoming an issue. We have a month and a half left, but there are many steps needed. We need an access lift first, followed by excavation so we can build another power generator. That group of projects will take a few weeks, and then afterwards another three weeks to build the satellite uplink. We cannot afford to wait any longer: if we do, we will miss the target on this and the savings are expected to be about 15 million in the first month and more as time goes on. The vital importance of the air war has been shown once again recently in the fact that we have no active fighters ready to go up for the second time.

Unfortunately, we don't have the funds to start on the access lift: there is 5.8m of the 10 million needed in the treasury. That meant yet another artifact sell-off was needed. A single one of the valuable UFO Power Sources brought in six million. We still have five more of them remaining, and they are of no current use. One wonders if there will be a price for this down the road, but all I can do is what seems best at the moment. Soon our first new construction in weeks was begun, the access lift down to Sublevel 4.

Meanwhile, it's a good time to take a look at the latest headlines ...

In The News

** Reports indicate unidentified object shot down after prolonged aerial battle with unknown fighter craft
** German government issues small laser weapons to civilians, citing 'civil defense'
** Australian Navy seen conducting unusual patrols along the coast following sightings of 'alien craft'
** Images of British soldiers going into battle with advanced alien weaponry posted on Internet
** Images of American soldiers going into battle with advanced alien weaponry posted on Internet


Meanwhile, overheard in Mission Control ...

Bradford, to a technician: 'Are you really using our tracking terminal to play Civilization? I at least hope you're going for a military victory'

Do shut up. Both of you. NOW. '

Shen: 'I can only imagine what the brave new world will face if the aliens succeed in their efforts'

Focus, doctor. We can only control what we can control. Fearful hypotheticals are not useful here.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

LCPL Path Twelve was given the Executioner training.

Health: 3(--)
Will: 36(+2)
Aim: 80(+5)

Not great, but enough of a shooting increase to keep her among the elite.

Sorry, I've been swamped the past few weeks and wasn't around. Back now though!

[Brian Swartz]

No problem, I expect some in and out stuff like that with a project this long.

CDB, May 16 -- Heavy UFO activity reported in Australia during the morning hours on the 15th.

[Brian Swartz]

May 16, 0224 -- Abduction alert reported in China! This one looks like a little tougher than usual, moderate resistance and because of it another million in reward money for a total of 9m. The squad will take two privates along instead of the usual three for a light mission.

Strike Team

LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO)
SPEC Carl Tanner(USA, Scout)
SPEC Soledad Sanchez(MEX, Medic)
LCPL Yolanda Pena(ESP, Engineer)
SPEC Takumi Fujita(JPN, Sniper)
PFC Rin Mori(JPN)
PFC Elfriede Fischer(DEU)

Sheriff gets her first mission command here, and other than Pena it's a relatively inexperienced group. The privates are fairly balanced soldiers, nothing all that special about them one way or another. She is warned before liftoff that the LZ is expected to be hot, there won't be a lot of time to get organized if that report is accurate. Tanner and Mori are packing arc throwers, in the event we have a decent opportunity to use them. Dr. Vahlen advises that it would be especially useful to interrogate a different species of alien other than the already captured and disposed of sectoid ...

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION ENDURING SCEPTER
5.16.2015, 0348
Qinqdao, China

The team deploys in a parking lot outside a bank. No immediate contacts but there is a nearby canister visible.







Tanner moves up and almost immediately spots three seekers out that way, with two going to stealth immediately. A pair of floaters are soon spotted in the other direction. Gotta shoot our way out, there's no safe place here. A grenade sets fire to the car the floaters are hiding behind, and a pair of shooters, ending with Sanchez, takes out the leader. The second retreats, but we weren't able to do anything to the seekers with a couple misses. The visible one shoots private Mori, who is then further strangled by one of the stealthers.





So we've got to rescue Mori, and additionally have another seeker and a floater out there, along with somewhere another stealthed bastard. Pena moves to give herself cover from the floater, but misses. Two on-target bursts from Sheriff mostly bounce off, and Mori is still in the enemy's grip. Fischer manages to miss as well. This wasn't the idea, people. Sanchez of all people takes care of it with a SMG burst, and Fujita moves in with a medkit to try and keep Mori alive.


Sheriff Gale can't break the grip of this seeker, and we're under attack, exposed and/or flanked right off the bat with no chance for a defensible position





The remaining seeker shows up and strangles Tanner. We're in basically the same situation with less ammo, but at least all of the enemies have showed up. They miss a pair of shots which was silly fortunate. Another grenade by Pena is surprisingly effective, dismissing the floater. That's one threat down. A shot is missed at Fujita, but the rest of the shooters were unable to loosen the grip on Tanner so he's in serious trouble now.


Scout specialist Carl Tanner learns that being strangled by a seeker is ... unpleasant. Especially when your squadmates don't shoot for crap and can't break the hold in a timely manner





Another round of firing and we loosen the grip of the strangling seeker, almost killing it, and Mori is able to damage the second one. The first goes to stealth, who knows where it is, while the second learns how to shoot and Fujita takes a plasma wound. We miss the exposed one six times. Six. Nobody could hit it. It reloads, while the strangler is back going after Tanner again.


A wonderful game of Miss The Exposed Target was played here. Actually not wonderful at all. It's a wonder everyone didn't end up dead.




The only reason they didn't is our foe was just as hilariously inept much of the time.





Fischer finishes the job on that one. Then Sheriff takes out the other. Finally. Five enemies down, half the squad got injured, and it could have been worse. They've barely moved since dropping in. The raspy sounds of thin men can be heard, but first it's time to expend nearly all our medikits healing up and get set to move out.

They don't give us enough time to be fully ready. A thin man and a seeker, but we're ready enough to get a couple of reaction shots . Fujita's sniper rifle takes a moderate bite out of the thin man. I'm sick of seekers. Really sick of them. Fujita fires again, and downs the latest flying monstrosity. Sheriff Gale does the whole lead by example thing, finishing off the thin man. Seven, and we aren't done yet. The squad tries again to get ammo'd up.







More thin men are heard. Superb. It sounded like they might be on the roof, but Tanner moved up there and ... nothing. Still was a better place to maneuver from. It would be nice to capture one of them ...

Then a sectoid burst through the building and two thin men did those impossible jumps up to the roof. From what we've been hearing, this was probably the last of them. A pinpoint shot by Pena ended the sectoid. Fischer got herself a facefull of acid to take out one of the thin men. The leader is all that was left. We weren't likely to get a better chance than this, but it was holed up pretty good. An AP grenade from Pena helped, but we still needed to weaken it more.







The thin man spewed an acid cloud at Fischer and Tanner. That would complicate matters. Another grenade by Pena would probably just kill it. A pistol shot added a further wound, and it was time to take the chance. About a coin flip chance, but Tanner's arc thrower failed. Mori was too far away to get there in time. The thin man made a run for it, jumping off the roof. Fujita's pistol shot could have killed it, but just wounded it further. It was almost dead now.

After Tanner revealed it's position -- and dodged some point-blank fire -- Mori hopped down to give the other one a try. Thankfully, it worked.







Post-Mortem

A very dangerous operation, but ultimately successful. We have now captured a thin man and all told ten of the enemy were dispatched. No soldier deaths, but Tanner will be out a few days and Mori three weeks. Three promotions. Though Mori stunned the thin man, she didn't get one which surprised me. Surviving the attack on all sides at the start was quite tense, and a little surprising. I was also surprised to have only two lost to injury by the end of it.


Artifacts Recovered

1 Alien Carbine
1 Sectoid Corpse
1 Floater Corpse
2 Thin Man Corpses
1 Thin Man Captive
3 Elerium
4 Alien Alloys
4 Weapon Fragments
1 oz. MOG
4 Seeker Wrecks

The reward money will be held in the treasury, for use in excavation once the access lift is finished.

[Brian Swartz]

Nigeria traded two engineers for a sample of the orangish stuff later in the day, putting us near our limit on that with another 6 oz. going out. Three more soldiers were back by the end of the day as well.

May 17 -- Two more including LT Axle were back in the morning. Another small, unidentified class, high-orbit UFO emitting that 'scanning' signal arrived. I have only one ship to send up. 'Mangler' Neale is launched. He's nearly shot down, lands only one stingray hit but it's enough to do major damage. Too bad we didn't have anyone else left to go finish the job.

That will leave XCOM once again without fighter coverage for several more days. The UFO eventually left with no real clue to what it's mission really was.

2155 -- Another one showed up, same deal. Small, unknown class, high trajectory, scanning signal, but this time there was nothing I could do but wait and see what would happen. At the same time, the UK requested a weapon fragments for engineer trade. We don't have enough to spare, so it was rejected.