(X-Com, Second Wave) The Embrace of the Creatures

[MacroGuru]

It has been years, the training has been intense and the secrets, well it has taken a lot to keep a lid on the organization and who she worked for. But Sarah Martin wasn't going to let this one go. When the leaders of X-Com approached her for a position in one of the first squads to greet the alien invaders, she jumped at the chance.

She was able to pick her squad and added the two Egyptians, Rahman and Imad and bringing in the cool Russian Vanya, they were off on their first mission.

Operation Demon Moon

On the flight to meet the aliens in Nigeria, Sarah had some time to think about this. X-Com knew they were coming, and upon orders from all the governments tried to negotiate peace, but they wanted nothing to do with it. X-Com's psychologists and xeno-biologists just assumed they would come in peace, the gauntlet was thrown down when multiple pods were launched from a very large space ship orbiting the dark side of the moon.

That was when the call came. She was on her R & R back in Sydney, enjoying the beach and the sun and had to rush to the base and catch a flight to meet the rest of the group and head to Nigeria.

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
RK	Sarah Martin	5	60	65	0
RK	Vanya Solovyov	5	48	85	0
RK	Hamza Rahman	5	62	80	0
RK	Hamza Imad	5	26	65	0

The squad lands just outside a trucking yard. There are semi's and trailers all over the place, providing a lot of hiding spots. Sarah moves up next to a load on a forklift, using the machine as coverage.

She orders Rahman to climb up onto a flatbed trailer to take the high ground. Upon getting up and peeking over the side, his voice crackles through the radio. "There are 6 small aliens, 3 in between the trailers to your right and three more towards the back." Just then, they heard the hiss of a radio or a clang of gear because they all turned, looking right at Rahman and you can hear their guttural language as Rahman shouts "They are scrambling!"

One moves in front of Sarah and she rattles off a shot, missing and peppering a trailer. Rahman keeps an eye on one who manages to hide behind some crates. Rahamn being up top, can still see and rips off a shot, taking the alien right in the head, his voice calm and cool whispered "got ya". Vanya moves up close to Sarah and catches sight of one between the open doors of a trailer. He brings his rifle up and squeezes off a three round burst, catching the unsuspecting alien right in the chest. That's two down. Imad moves behind a semi and moves to flank the aliens in the back.

The aliens scramble around and the only person that can see where is Rahman, he relays the information but his yell to get behind cover was a little late as Vanya takes a plasma blast into the left shoulder, it doesn't kill him, but tears open a wound on the arm. His yell prompted an alien to turn his plasma on him, Rahman dives to avoid the shot but it still catches him, right on the back tearing open armor and skin.

Rahman shakes it off and moves up to the high part of the trailer and drops the alien that hit him.

Imad moves to the front of the semi and peeks around the corner, he sees one alien and he steps out catching the creature square in the chest. It didn't even know where the shot came from.

Vanya unloads a three round burst into the side of the trailer where he knows an alien is hiding. Sarah notices the alien peeking out and lobs a grenade into the trailer and it explodes, destroying the trailer and the alien.

The last alien is out there somewhere and moves around, trying to escape this brutal group. Rahman drops down from the trailer and moves up to another and peeks around a corner and catches sight of the alien hiding behind some boxes. He opens up a three round burst catching the alien right in the only exposed part, it's big head.

Control radios to the group the threat is exterminated and they begin to mop up.

6 Aliens Killed
0 Operatives Lost

Sarah Martin, 1 Kill
Hamza Rahman, 3 Kills
Vanya Solovyov, 1 Kill
Hamza Imad, 1 Kill

With the first successful mission out of the way, X-com is now looking to sign agreements with the cloning centers that are out there....send your troops our way!

[Coffee Warlord]

The Fulfillment Division has received a production request, and will ship out a top of the line Coffee Warlord Combat Unit immediately.

Please handle with care.

[MacroGuru]

I am running another X-Com Dynasty, and interactive as the others in the past.

I am using Second Wave with New Economy (Random Econ Numbers), Not Created Equal (All Rookies have random ratings) and Hidden Potential (All characters increase differently as they promote).

X-Com HQ is in Africa.

After the first mission:

Martin is promoted to Squaddie Heavy
Rahman is promoted to Squaddie Assault
Vanya is promoted to Squaddie Support
Imad is promoted to Squaddie Sniper

Both Rahman and Vanya are wounded for 5 days, but that is ok with me, I need some cloning centers to help out.

[BYU 14]

Ace Idol shall return

[MacroGuru]

We finalize contracts with the Idol and Warlord cloning centers and begin scanning the skies for additional craft and put feelers out there, letting the governments know we are ready and that we were responsible for putting down the aliens in Nigeria.

2 days later we receive several requests for Alien Abductions:

Brisbane, Australia - Panic 2, Moderate, 4 Engineers
Paris, France - Panic 1, Moderate, 4 Scientists
Salvador, Brazil - Panic 2, Moderate, $200

While the money would be nice I know we need assets, so the toss up was between engineers and scientists and I regard the fact we need to get our research completed faster as a more pressing need, I let France know we will be on our way.

[MacroGuru]

Operation Lost Stallion

We have received our two newest rookies, Coffee Warlord and Ace Idol and send them out with Sarah Martin and Hamza Imad

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Sq	Sarah Martin	5	64	66	0
Sq	Hamza Imad	5	33	73	0
RK	Coffee Warlord	5	48	65	0
RK	Ace Idol	5	28	50	0

We are dropped in a shipping yard, right next to one of the asian shipping concerns. Sarah is again in the lead and orders Imad to the roof of the shipping office. Warlord is ordered to check the building out and Idol is to be on the six of Sarah.

Imad now has a birds eye view of the area in front of the building. Warlord moves into the entryway and has an immediate contact with 2 aliens, Dr. Vahlen has given them the name Sectoids. One jumps out the window and flees towards the back of the building and the other hides in the building. Sarah orders Idol to drop back and help Warlord out. Idol dashes behind some pallet stacks and catches a glimpse of both sectoids. One outside the building the other in.

He starts talking to himself about the mathematics involved and the blast range of the grenade and says oh what the hell and lets it go right through the window into the building, a perfect throw as the blast destroys both aliens and the wall of the building. Warlord shakes his head as the noise of the blast reverbs. Imad on top laughs as he feels like he is rocking.

Strategic movement is ordered as there are a variety of shipping containers and barrels placed throughout, one spot is forces the squad into a tight area and would be perfect to be ambushed. Sarah orders Warlord to the mouth of the area and he spots 2 more aliens and goes into over watch. The alien begin to move and Warlord misses the one but Idol cleans him up as the alien both hit their line of fire they had set up.

Imad moves up to provide support but brings an alien out of hiding and the alien hits Imad right in the chest, melting his kevlar and slightly wounding him.

Warlord and Idol both move up, shooting while they do it and both miss the alien.

The alien starts, yelling from what I can tell and backs up. Idol moves up missing, Imad misses and Warlod misses as well. Movement again from the aliens out of sight of everyone.

Idol moves up prompting the alien to step out of hiding and take a shot at him missing. Everyone else moves up strategically to spots they can spot the alien. Sarah misses, idol misses but Warlord is able to wound the alien. The alien fires back at Warlord missing and Sarah riddles the aliens body with her machine gun.

Sarah has dubbed Warlord her Bloodhound and sends him up. Warlord moves to cover and spots 2 more aliens. He fires missing one of them.

The aliens do some sort of mind meld and the one gets all hyper and excited as the connection takes place. He is a little jittery and misses his shot on Warlord. Martin moves up and misses as she shoots.

Warlord has expended ammo in his rifle so he steps up and tosses a grenade inside the building, wounding the alien and destroying walls. Idol moves into the entry way of the building while Imad moves up to cover using his pistol for now and missing.

The aliens continue their weird mind meld act and the one drops back behind some containers in the building. As he does Idol kicks open the door and fires rapidly as having the alien right there startles him, missing Imad takes aim with the Rifle and misses on a headshot, the alien fires back missing while the wounded one runs and jumps out the window, Idol relays that it is on the run to the side. Warlord acknowledges it and greets the wounded one on the side with a 3 round burst to the chest, alien down.

Idol moves into the room behind a crate and snaps a shot off at the alien hiding at the corner of the building, he misses. Imad opens up with the rifle and this time his aim was true, alien goes down in a green mess...

Successful mission!

6 Aliens Killed
0 Ops lost.

Ace Idol is promoted to Squaddie Sniper. He had 3 kills.
Coffee Warlord is promoted to Squaddie Heavy. He had 1 kill.
Sarah Martin had 1 kill
Hamza Imad had 1 kill and was wounded and will be out for 9 days.

[MacroGuru]

Xeno-Biology research and Excavation were completed. I order Weapon Fragment research and to finish up the excavation of the 1st floor.

[MacroGuru]

March 8
Operation Hidden Grave

We have UFO contact above Nigeria and send out RAVEN-1 to intercept it. They get into, well, a dogfight in the skies and their ship was quick but our pilots aim was true.

With such a short notice Imad and Vanya have yet to heal so the squad will be:

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Sq	Sarah Martin	6	64	66	0
Sq	Hamza Rahman	5	66	81	0
Sq	Coffee Warlord	6	53	67	0
Sq	Ace Idol	5	34	56	0

2 Heavies, 1 Assault and a Sniper should be good for an old fashioned UFO recon, not much can happen right...right?

Due to the way the squad unloads Sarah and Warlord head off to the left side while Idol moves towards the right middle and Rahman moves to the right. It's strategic movement up until the craft. Sarah finally moves into a spot and catches a weird being, it appears to be made of energy, he charges towards the squad.

Rahman misses with his shotgun, Idol is able to connect with his pistol, but it looked more like it pissed it off than wounded it. Warlord tries to flank it on the left side and tosses a grenade, destroying part of the hull, eliminating it's cover and wounding it. Idol snaps off a shot with his rifle missing but Sarah doesn't as she walks he LMG from feet to head.

Sarah orders Rahman to move up, as he does he comes into contact with 2 Sectoids. They scramble and one manages to snap a shot off at Rahman missing. Rahman moves to the right and as he does he has contact with 2 more sectoids bringing the total in this area to 4 and he is knee deep in alien do do. Rahman decides to snap off a shot at one and misses it.

The aliens start to move, almost strategically but one is dropped as Sarah was waiting for it and she unleashed a lead storm at it. Meanwhile 2 aliens think they have Rahman pegged and fire at him, both missing.

Rahman decided he has had enough and tosses a grenade toward two of them, he wounds one of them, destroying part of the hull of the craft. Warlord and Idol move up to take on some aliens. They fire at Warlord and Idol, missing them both.

Idol steps up with a headshot and drops the sectoid. Warlord has a perfect line of site with the hull missing and drops another. Rahman takes advantage of the confusion and rushes the last alien firing a blast from his shotgun catching the last one in the chest.

Clean up of the site happens and aliens are dead..

5 Aliens Killed
0 Ops Lost

Squaddie Sarah Martin was promoted to Corporal and learns Bullet Swarm.

Recovery of the UFO earns X-Com:
25 Elerium
35 Alien Alloys
UFO Flight Computer
UFO Power Source
Damaged Flight Computer

We promptly sell the Damaged Flight Computer.

[MacroGuru]

Weapon Fragment Research is complete and we are able to build SCOPEs now.

We start research on an Arc Thrower and begin building an Alien Containment Unit.

[BYU 14]

Ace's willpower is scary, he is a panic attack waiting to happen!

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Ace's willpower is scary, he is a panic attack waiting to happen!

Trust me, every time I put him out there I am thinking, don't let him panic and shoot up the squad...

[law90026]

Da Law ready to go!

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by law90026

Da Law ready to go!

Very Cool, I will get him out on the next mission, I have another one I just finished I will be posting, then he will be added to the roster.

[MacroGuru]

Council Mission / Bomb Disposal
Operation Rotting Serpent

Sydney, Australia calls the X-Com asking for us and Sarah wastes no time getting prepped, she is heading home to save home. So we tag the following to join her.

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Cpl	Sarah Martin	6	69	67	0
Sq	Vanya Solovyov	6	52	88	0
Sq	Coffee Warlord	6	53	67	0
Sq	Ace Idol	5	34	56	0

We were informed that the aliens have planted a series of plasma devices and a bomb inside the train yard.

As we touchdown in the train yard we see several plasma nodes close by Sarah in a panic runs towards the one but I was able to relay some sense to her and she stopped and took some cover waiting for the rest of her squad to cover the node. But as she peeks out the corner she sees an alien, tallish, human looking and Dr. Vahlen starts freaking out saying it is a seen out of They Live, where they have already infiltrated us.

While Sarah was rushing, Vanya moved to cover and he spotted the alien run and opened up on it, wounding it. Warlord moves to a spot to shoot and misses, while Sarah misses as well. Idol moves up next to Sarah.

Alien tosses some sort of alien lawn dart that is full of poison that explodes next to Idol and Sarah. Sarah bends down and diffuses the node while Vanya moves up and takes out the alien.

Idol moves over towards Vanya to get out of the poison cloud. Vanya hits Idol with the medkit curing the poison. Warlord moves up to the left and he spots 2 Sectoids.

Idol manages to wound one with his pistol on over watch. Sarah misses and Vanya finishes it off. Warlord is able to move up and disarm another node. Vanya moves to a node and disarms it while spotting the bomb.

The command is to now disarm the bomb, but working through an unknown number of aliens might make it tough, so Warlord is told to disarm nodes as he works his way to the bomb on a flanking maneuver. While he does this he is able to disarm a couple of nodes.

Idol get's a little closer to where the last alien was seen and as he moves the little bugger pokes his head out and fires, wounding Idol. Idol gets to his spot and is pissed, he grabs a grenade and lobs it, killing the alien.

Vanya begins moving up and has contact with 1 alien. He sets and fires missing. Sarah moves and snaps a shot off missing the alien to. The little guy manages to send a plasma stream towards Vanya missing. Sarah has spent her ammo and begins to reload while Warlord is moving over shooting and missing the alien.

Idol takes a shot at the alien missing him. The alien in a panic at the big gun noise from it's right snaps a plasma shot off at Warlord missing him completely. Sarah slams in the belt and pops up from behind cover and shreds the Sectoid.

Warlord continues moving towards the bomb and disarms another node and he manages contact with another alien. His ammo is spent so he lobs a grenade and takes the alien out.

Sarah and Idol take a covering position over the bomb as Vanya rushes to it and disarms it.

New orders come in that we are to eliminate all aliens in the area and are warned we have 3 more on their way. These 3 human looking aliens drop from the sky, they must be using stealth type technology as we didn't see or hear anything.

The positive here is that all three landed in the firing zones and Sarah, Vanya and Idol unleash hell on of them all but pulverizing it. Sarah then spins and shoots at one that has high ground on her. She wounds him but Vanya doesn't miss dropping it.

Warlord laughs as his ammo is spent and grabs the rocket and sends it hurling towards the last alien and the explosion and splat pepper the cargo and the train car right next to it.

8 Aliens Killed
0 Ops Lost

Sarah Martin is promoted to Sergeant, Trains on Shredder Rocket, wounded for 6 days.
Ace Idol is promoted to Corporal, Trains on Snap Shot, Wounded for 6 days
Coffee Warlord is promoted to Corporal, Trains on Bullet Swarm
Vanya Solovyov is promoted to Corporal, Trains on Covering Fire

With Sarah's promotion we are able to develop an Officer Training School.

[MacroGuru]

I order engineering to build the Officer Training School and a Power Generator.

Arc Thrower Research was completed and I order research on Beam Weapons, something tells me we will need them soon.

Alien Containment is complete as is our Satellite.

I order the Satellite launched over Brazil, they are willing to pay $130 a month and they were at a Panic of 4. I shift RAVEN-2 to South America.

Power Plant and Officer Training School is complete and I order a scope built.

[CrimsonFox]

Fox McCloud will come on board to to fix the coffee machine...

[Breeze]

Benton Gale reporting for duty...and hopefully in this world he's at least competent....

[Coffee Warlord]

Ahhh, gotta love the early success.

[MacroGuru]

McCloud and Gale will be added to the roster here tonight.

As for the early success, I am worried it's going to end soon. I am hoping to get the beam weapons up and running and the bring in the armor as fast as I can.

Once I have us loaded up there, my comfort level will allow for development in other areas.

[ntndeacon]

Deacon Palmer to the rescue!

[CrimsonFox]

Do failures in this game occuer because of player error or is it just bad luck?

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Do failures in this game occuer because of player error or is it just bad luck?

Both.

I have been playing some test adventures before I started this one up. I wanted to test some tactics and strategies and combo's and I think I have found a good mix.

I will say this, a couple of times I thought some of the OPs would/should have been killed but there were misses, so I think we have gotten lucky so far.

[Tellistto]

Tell Perj reporting.

[MacroGuru]

The call comes in for abductions across the globe:

Beijing, China - Panic 3, Difficult, 4 Engineers
Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Panic 1, Easy, Assault Sgt.
Moscow, Russia - Panic 1, Moderate, 4 Scientists

Looking at that you would think I would take Beijing, but with the asian economy down it doesn't really matter if I lose China. The Assault Sarge would be nice, but the extra scientists will help us get to where we need to go so I let Russia know we will be there. I give Sarah and some of the others a rest and send:

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Cpl	Vanya Solovyov	6	57	90	0
Sq	Hamza Imad	5	33	73	0
Cpl	Coffee Warlord	7	59	69	0
Rk	Da Law	5	28	65	0

Imad will end up with the SCOPE for his Sniper Rifle while Vanya as our Support Specialist will end up with the Med Kit.

Operation Black Justice
A roof top construction site is where we touch down at. Warlord is calling the shots this time up. He sends Law to the left behind some equipment while he moves forward. As he does he manages contact with 2 Sectoids. The aliens scramble while Vanya and Imad try to get into position. As the aliens try to maneuver around the squads perimeter Warlord opens up on one missing. Vanya is a marksman though and takes one out while Law spins and drops the other.

Law moves to the left with Vanya following up. Imad moves to cover Warlord who has moved up more. Warlord catches a glimpse of 2 Aliens to the left over by Law. They scramble right into Law and Vanya. Law drops one almost point blank as he stumbles back into some boxes. Vanya moves up to cover Law and misses his shot. The alien must have been panicked because he snaps a plasma stream at Law and misses. Law is still rolling on the ground trying to get up but manages to get off a protective shot that grazes the alien. That was enough to make it jump back right into Vanya's sights. Vanya squeezes the trigger and obliterates it.

Warlord moves on top of a shipping container to cover the group while Imad is moving to get on top of a new rooftop building.

Everyone maneuvers to the left, trying to clear the site. Both Warlord and Imad are on top while Vanya and Law are on the ground. Vanya manages a brief contact with 2 more Sectoids. They scramble, Vanya hits one of them wounding it as it ducks behind a wall thinking it is hidden. The other runs up into an iron frame of a building. Law snaps a shot off at the wounded one, missing and tearing up the cinder block wall it is hiding behind. Imad just moved into position and doesn't have time to scope with a rifle and drops the wounded alien with his Pistol.

Vanya tries to move into a better position and the lone alien shreds him as he does, but that was all the opening Imad needed as he catches the Sectoid with a head shot.

6 Aliens Killed
0 Ops Lost

Da Law was promoted to Squaddie Heavy
Hamza Imad was promoted to Corporal and is trained on Snap Shot
Coffee Warlord was promoted to Sergeant and is trained on Shredder Rocket
Vanya's wounds will keep him out for 4 days.

[MacroGuru]

Beam Research is complete meaning we can build Laser Pistols and Rifles. I turn our team of researches over to studying the Alien Materials next.

The newer squad members will be trotted out soon:

Fox McCloud
Benton Gale
Deacon Palmer
Tell Perj

[Tellistto]

I would have to say that engineers are much more important than scientists. Simply for the reason that the research tree is limited, but building speed and cost is always reduced by the number of engineers you have. Just food for thought.

Tell

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Beam Research is complete meaning we can build Laser Pistols and Rifles. I turn our team of researches over to studying the Alien Materials next.

The newer squad members will be trotted out soon:

Fox McCloud
Benton Gale
Deacon Palmer
Tell Perj

it's sounding like a meat grinder or firing squad kind of trotting out...

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

I would have to say that engineers are much more important than scientists. Simply for the reason that the research tree is limited, but building speed and cost is always reduced by the number of engineers you have. Just food for thought.

Tell

The engineers I am focused on next...I wanted to get Beams and up to the armor as fast as possible. I am building stuff quickly right now, but as we get more complex I will need more engineers.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

it's sounding like a meat grinder or firing squad kind of trotting out...

Hey...past results are no guarantee of future performance...

Has the stock market taught you nothing???

[MacroGuru]

Council Report

As we hit the end of March I am called into a Council Meeting.

I am immediately hit with a China has withdrawn why did you let this happen statement. I just shrug it off.

Even though we haven't had an Op death and every mission has been successful, we still on received a B rating.

Right now things are tough in Japan and can get crazy in South America, South Africa and India real quick.



Alien Materials research is complete, we run a sectoid autopsy next and complete it quickly. We then focus on Carapace Armor.

I also spend the money to kick our squad up by 1 for missions.

I then order an Access Lift built and a workshop.

Australia has asked for 4 Laser Pistols, I am without the funding right now, so we will see how fast I can get some to build them out.

[MacroGuru]

On April 5th we pick up that a UFO has landed in Brazil. We scramble the team to head out.

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Sgt	Sarah Martin	7	73	68	0
Cpl	Vanya Solovyov	6	57	90	0
Cpl	Ace Idol	6	41	59	0
Sq	Da Law	6	30	66	0
Rk	Tell Perj	5	54	60	0

Idol gets the SCOPE for his Sniper Rifle, Vanya is our Support specialist so he picks up the medkit. I bring in rookie Tell Perj to help build up some depth.

Operation Forgotten Dirge
We land in a sparsely populated, wooded area. Sarah orders Perj, Law and Idol to the left and she moves to the right with Vanya. I am going to have to talk to her later about the decision as she should have split herself and Vanya up.

The movement is slow, as the 2 groups are moving and covering as they move closer to the faint outline of the ship. Just as they start to catch the edge of the ship Perj has contact with 3 aliens that scramble. Idol moves up and sets himself in position behind rock cover. Law sends a rocket, not wasting time and blows an alien up. This alien had an angle on Perj and no one would be able to get it with a gun. This allows Perj to drop back in a more defensible spot.

The aliens move up and one sends a plasma stream at idol and catches him, sending him spinning, but he manages to stay up. Vanya and Sarah abandon their movement on the right and sprint to the left to help with the fighting. Perj moves up to get into position to fire and is hit as the 2nd alien pops out of hiding and hits. It doesn't stop Perj as she flings a grenade at the alien and kills it.

The last Sectoid falls back and is trying to draw them back and yelling for help. Help arrives in the form of 3 flying aliens. We haven't seen these ones yet, they appear to have armor on, kind of a robotic type combo. Sarah stands fast and shreds one pretty badly wounding it and then is able to squeeze off a second barrage and drops the alien. These guys look tough, but are about as strong as a thin man.

Vanya moves to the left, he is trying to get to Idol and he shoots, wounding one of the flyers. Sarah then sends a shredder rocket trying to aim it and catch both of the flyers and only gets one, sending the carcass over 20 yards away. Perj wheels around and drops the wounded flyer.

Vanya gets to Idol and heals him up. The team then moves strategically closer to the ship and they finally bring the one alien out. Vanya shoots and misses, Sarah too. The alien continues to drop back.

Sarah then has contact with 3 more aliens and they scramble with the other one back there. Sarah hammers one of them with her machine gun, it is empty now.

Vanya and Idol both miss on over watch. An Alien sends a stream of Plasma towards Perj missing. Another Alien mind melds with the one that has been running from the squad. Idol manages to get an alien in his sites and blasts it right in the head.

Sarah left with a choice of reloading or raining a rocket, sends the rocket and drops the last 2 sectoids.

As the team moves towards the entrance of the spaceship, Law manages to notice an energy alien. Idol tries to catch it as it is running and misses. Law is trying to get to cover and as he dives towards it he is shredded to the bone in several areas from the Alien, he is bleeding bad, but manages to weakly speak out that he is ok and pops a grenade at the alien taking out part of the hull and wounding the alien.

The alien drops back shooting at the squad as they maneuver up into position. Idol pops up and tries to get a head shot in and misses, but it forces the alien to dodge towards Sarah who has reloaded her machine gun and shreds what's left of the creature.

10 aliens killed
0 Ops Lost

Ace Idol is promoted to Sergeant and will learn Damn Good Ground. Idol is wounded for 4 days.
Tell Perj is promoted to Squaddie Support and is wounded for 4 days.
Vanya Solovyov is promoted to Sergeant and learns Field Medic.
Sarah Martin is promoted to Lieutenant and learns HEAT Ammo.
Da Law was gravely wounded and will be out for 14 days.

The cleanup of the site managed to produce 25 Elerium 60 Alien Alloys, 2 Flight Computers and a Power Source.

[Tellistto]

Very nice, successful first mission and a promotion to go with it!

[MacroGuru]

Isell 1 power source, 6 sectoid corpses.

I Build 2 Nano Fiber Vests and an Arc Thrower.

We receive the call for Alien Abductions:

Vancouver, Canada - Panic 1, Moderate, 4 Scientists
Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Panic 3, Difficult, Sgt. Support
Lyons, France - Panic 1, Easy, $200

Obviously, we have to keep the trouble in our own backyard down and take Port Elizabeth.

[MacroGuru]

I call down and order the following squad to get ready:

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Lt	Sarah Martin	8	78	69	0
Sgt	Vanya Solovyov	7	59	93	0
Cpl	Hamza Imad	6	37	76	0
Sgt	Coffee Warlord	7	63	71	0
Rk	Deacon Palmer	5	54	70	0

Imad receives the SCOPE, Warlord gets a Nano Vest, Vanya has the medkit and Palmer has the Arc Thrower.

Operation Driving Sentinel

We land in an alley way between what appears to be a pub.

Sarah moves up and has contact with 2 flyers. Imad manages to move up and get good position to shoot, he does and misses. Warlord rips a rocket from where he is at and destroys a delivery fan and sends both flyers tens of yards away.

The explosion and maybe telekinesis has brought 2 thin men running up from an alley way. Palmer takes aim and misses, Imad manages to move behind an SUV and drops one with a head shot.

Warlord catches out of his peripheral vision that 2 flyers are trying for a flanking maneuver behind and to the left of the squad and calls out. Imad takes aim at the second thin man and misses by a mile. The thin man rips a poison dart at Imad and hits.

Vanya spins and moves up, dropping one of the flanking flyers. Sarah stands up with the rocket launcher and destroys the police car and the thin man that was standing behind it.

Palmer misses one of the flyers on over watch. The last explosion manages to bring out 2 sectoids to try and help the last flyer.

Vanya moves and fires wounding the last flyer and Warlord drops it with a blast from the machine gun.

The sectoids are inside the Pub and everyone maneuvers towards the doorway and windows to try and get a clean shot.

Palmer misses while Sarah is able to wound one. The alien returns fire and misses sarah. Sarah finishes him off.

The last alien runs behind the bar and fires, sending a plasma stream towards Palmer and misses. Palmer wounds the alien. The shot caused the alien to pop up and Imad takes it square in the chest.

8 Aliens Killed
0 Ops Lost.

Imad is wounded for 6 days.

We welcome our newest Support Sgt. Benton Gale from the South African Corps.

[MacroGuru]

Access lift is complete so we begin excavation the second level over a steam vent.

Carapace Armor research is complete and we begin Experimental Warfare research.

Our workshop is complete.

We build out 4 Laser Pistols and send them to Australia for $165. That allows us to build 3 Carapace Armor Sets and a Satellite.

We finish experimental warfare research and now have access to building a foundry and a Phoenix Cannon.

I then order research on the Power Source.

[MacroGuru]

The alert for abductions come in and they are:

Miami, US - Panic 2, Difficult, 4 Scientists
Kolkata, India - Panic 3, Very Difficult, $200
Cairo, Egypt - Panic 2, Difficult, 4 Engineers

Knowing where the money is at, we have to go to Kolkata. I call up the following:

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Lt	Sarah Martin	8	78	69	0
Sgt	Vanya Solovyov	7	59	93	0
Sgt	Coffee Warlord	7	63	71	0
Sgt	Ace Idol	6	48	68	0
Rk	Deacon Palmer	5	54	70	0

Palmer has the Arc Thrower. I outfit Warlord, Vanya and Idol with the Carapace Armor. Idol has a SCOPE while Vanya has the Medkit.

Operation Final Paramore

We land outside a fast food establishment, a Curry and Kebab type place. We slowly move up towards the building and Sarah has contact with 2 Sectoids that scramble when they are noticed. Sarah pulls up and fires with her LMG missing. Warlord and Vanya both take opportunity shots and miss.

The Sectoids try to move and take a better position to return fire. We have the building set up in a great fire position and Vanya is able to drop 1 as Sarah drops the other.

Warlord moves to the front left of the building and spots 2 more Sectoids and he misses an opportunity shot. Warlord tries to get better position and catches 3 flyers through the drive thru window of the restaurant and they turn at the noise and move.

Vanya takes down a Sectoid while another Sectoid moves towards Warlord. Warlord pops from cover and wastes it.

The Flyers maneuver and get into position. One Flyer fires at Vanya and misses while the other fires at Warlord and rips him pretty hard. Vanya determined to play field medic moves towards Warlord firing and dropping a Flyer.

Out of ammo and pissed off, Warlord reaches back and grabs his launcher and sends a rocket toward the flyers and he manages to explode one.

Meanwhile Palmer is over on the right side of the building and spots 3 Sectoids trying to flank the squad. They scramble when they realize they have been spotted. Palmer drops back as Sarah moves towards the right. A Sectoid fires and hits Palmer while the Flyer on the left side misses Warlord.

Sarah is moving trying to get a good position and is hit by one of the Sectoids. Sarah is able to return fire but it was more of a snap shot and only wounds the alien. Idol squares up for his first shot of the day and misses while a wounded Palmer runs towards Vanya screaming Medic the entire way.

Sarah is a sitting duck now that Palmer ran off, she has two Sectoids fire at her both missing but coming close. The Flyer was able to target onto Warlord though and shred his chest, he drops sending blood everywhere. He is screaming Medic as well and is bleeding out.

Sarah drops her LMG to the sling and grabs the launcher sending a shredder rocket between 2 Sectoids and 2 cars. The explosion not only obliterates the Sectoids but takes out both cars and sending the third running.

Vanya is able to get to Warlord and stabilize him with a Medkit. Palmer has managed to get his head together and move up to support and cover Vanya. Sarah is able to get out of her poor cover and reload.

Idol spots the last Sectoid through a side door from the restaurant and takes it out with a head shot. It was an amazing shot.

Palmer hits the Flyer wounding it and pissing it off. The Flyer turns towards Palmer and sends a stream of plasma his way. He is able to dodge it, but it would have definitely destroyed him if it would have hit.

Vanya steps out from cover, standing over the body of Warlord and sends the Flyer into Alien Hell.

10 Aliens Killed
0 Ops Lost

Vanya was promoted to Lieutenant, Learns Revive
Warlord was promoted to Lieutenant, Learns HEAT Ammo and is Gravely Wounded and will miss 14 days.
Palmer was promoted to Squaddie Assault and is wounded. He will miss 14 days as well.
Sarah is wounded and will miss 5 days.

That was a close one, if we wouldn't have had a medic there we would have lost Warlord and probably Palmer.

[MacroGuru]

With the money from the last mission we build:

Thermo Generator above the steam vent
Excavate 2 more spaces on the 2nd level.
Train on Wet Work

India requests 3 Arc Throwers for 3 Scientists. I order 3 built and we send them off to India.

I need Alien Alloys bad in order to build Beam Weapons and the only way I will get that is if I stop blowing aliens up, especially the Flyers.

[MacroGuru]

The call comes in, this one from Sapporo, Japan. Aliens are terrorizing and killing citizens.

This mission, Japan is at a Panic Level of 4 and is Very Difficult. With some injuries and needs to get some additional experience I call the Squad together:

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Lt	Vanya Solovyov	7	61	97	0
Sq	Hamza Rahman	5	66	81	0
Sgt	Ace Idol	6	48	68	0
Sq	Da Law	6	30	66	0
Sgt	Benton Gale	8	30	82	0

Operation Final Breath

Well, what a foreboding mission name. We land at a freeway interchange that has been partially collapsed and has cars and civilians all over it.

We slowly move up and Law comes into contact with 2 Crawling type aliens, they are ugly as hell and move fast, they scramble but one moves into the firing lanes of most of the squad and is decimated almost immediately. It's hard to call who got the kill there.

Law is able to get the other Crawler in his sights and wounds it. Rahman moves into position and is able to fire, finishing it off.

Gale moves up and frees a civilian. Idol follows Gales lead and frees a civilian.

Then the smell hits, and the groaning. The squad turns and notices a Zombie wandering towards them. Vanya manages to hit the thing twice. The rifle shots must have called in the rest of the alien crew because we have contact with 2 Flyers.

Idol squares a flyer up in his sights at drops it with a head shot. Rahman is freaking out as he sees the zombie move towards him and misses as he is shaking so bad. Law fires off at the Zombie, ripping its head clean off its shoulders.

Gale continues his mission of helping others and moves up freeing another civilian. A flyer cuts across the road and rips Rahman. Idol moving to higher ground was able to take down a flyer.

A flyers runs into the area, looking to do some damange. Rahman has dropped back to Vanya who manages to heal him while Gale misses his shot.

Flyer is able to dig in and catch Idol who is out in the open on a billboard edge. Gale is able to wound a flyer. Law would normally have the kill here but he is empty and reloads. Vanya to get a better shot, he signals to Rahman and they both shoot and miss.

The Flyer returns fire and re-opens the wounds for Rahmn. Law finishes slapping in his belt and rips the Flyer apart.

7 Aliens killed
0 Ops Lost
16/18 Civilians Saved

A pretty successful mission and I am proud of the guys.

Vanya is promoted to Captain, Trains up on Combat Drugs
Idol is promoted to Lieutenant, Trains up on Battle Scanner
Law is promoted to Corporal, Trains up on Bullet Swarm, is wounded for 4 days
Rahman is promoted to Corporal, Trains up on Aggression, is wounded for 8 days

Panic decreases across Asia.

[BYU 14]

Woot, glad Ace is keeping it together. That squad was not one for staying cool with those willpower ratings.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Woot, glad Ace is keeping it together. That squad was not one for staying cool with those willpower ratings.

I was a little worried putting it together but I was more concerned with losing all talent...I tend to get my ass kicked with the Alien Terrorizing..

[Coffee Warlord]

Delicious, delicious morphine.

[MacroGuru]

Just a bump, I have a UFO landing to report on and a few other missions...time has been limited lately.

[MacroGuru]

Our satellite sends us a feed of a UFO trying to sneak by it over Nigeria and I scramble one of the Ravens. The Raven gets into a dog fight and shoots it down. The Raven comes back to base limping though, the pilot was lucky.

I call up the following squad:

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Lt	Sarah Martin	8	78	69	0
Cpt	Vanya Solovyov	8	66	99	0
Lt	Ace Idol	7	52	73	0
Sq	Tell Perj	6	59	64	0
Sgt	Benton Gale	8	30	82	0

Operation Empty Daze

We touchdown just south of the wreckage. We can honestly see the ship from ground, we normally touchdown far enough that we have to hike to it.

As we start moving up Vanya has contact with 2 Sectoids to the right and they scramble to hide. Sarah moves to the right and catches one of the Sectoids as it tries to hide. She reports him down.

Gale moves up and sets and shoots, missing. Perj and Idol both try to occupy spots that provide a clean opportunity shot.

Vanya continues to move to the right and has contact with 2 more Sectoids, his shot manages to wounds one of them. The gun fire has also brought out 2 Flyers.

Vanya wheels and shoots, dropping a Flyer. Idol misses one of the Sectoids. Perj moves up with Gale and pops a smoke grenade to cover the two of them.

A Flyer misses Idol and Perj manages to catch a Sectoid square in the chest ending it's life. A Flyer moves towards Gale and Vanya is able to wound it and Idol plays clean up and drops it.

Vanya has managed to reload his weapon and notices a Sectoid is in a mind meld with the other, he shoots it, killing it and the other screams and collapses. 2 FOR 1!

The squad moves into the UFO and comes in to contact with the energy being, this is the closes we have every been. Not knowing if we can capture it, Gale attempts to hit with an Arc Thrower and it is ineffective. Perj runs up and hits the thing almost point blank and Vanya hiding behind a wall pops out and finishes it off.

7 Aliens Killes
0 Ops Lost

Benton Gale is promoted to Lieutenant, Trains on Rifle Suppression
Sarah Martin is promoted to Captain, Trains on Danger Zone

We recover from the ship:

21 Elerium
66 Alien Alloys
2 UFO Flight Computers
2 UFO Flight Computers (Damaged)
2 UFO Power Sources (Damaged)

[MacroGuru]

I sell off the damaged gear.

We study the Power Sources and our research is complete. We can now make Elerium Generators.

We perform an Autopsy on the Floaters and our Thermogenerator is complete.

I order a Foundry to be built and a Satellite Uplink.

When we finish up with the Floater I order an autopsy on one of the Chryssalids.

[MacroGuru]

The Monthly Council report for April:

Grade A
+$331, +1 Scientist, +1 Engineer

Panic Levels
USA 4
CAN 4
MEX 4
ARG 3
BRA 2
UK 3
RUS 2
FRA 3
GER 2
JPN 1
IND 1
AUS 1
EGY 4
S. AFR 2
NIG 1

[MacroGuru]

I order 2 laser rifles built, 2 more Carapace Armor and we upgrade to Squad Size II.

I order another Satellite built as well as 2 Interceptors.

We finish the Chryssalid autopsy and can now build Chittin plate if needed.

I order Precision Lasers to be researches.

Brazil calls with the need of 4 laser pistols and they will give us 3 engineers for them. I order them built and we take the Engineers.

We have a very large UFO in Nigeria, we scramble an interceptor and it is destroyed, the UFO then takes out our satellite. I have to launch the new satellite over Nigeria to reduce the panic that was increased.

[MacroGuru]

Alien Abduction calls come flying in and we are handed a list of the three worst areas.

London, UK - Panic 3, Very Difficult, 4 Scientists
Montreal, Canada - Panic 4, Very Difficult, 4 Engineers
Sydney, Australia - Panic 1, Moderate, $200

Sarah begs us to head to her home, but I have to look at the future of everything here. With Canada providing us more dollar potential than the UK I send the group of to Montreal.

Rank	Name	Health	Willpower	Offense	Defense
Cpt	Sarah Martin	9	81	70	0
Cpt	Vanya Solovyov	8	66	99	0
Lt	Coffee Warlord	8	55	73	0
Lt	Ace Idol	7	52	73	0
Sq	Deacon Palmer	6	60	72	0
Lt	Benton Gale	9	33	86	0

Martin is wearing one of the vests while everyone else has on Carapace Armor. Gale and Solovyov both have Laser Rifles, Idol gets the SCOPE and Vanya has the med kit. Squaddie Palmer has the Arc Thrower.

Operation Crystal Scepter

We touchdown outside a corner bookstore. Everyone starts moving and Palmer gets up close inside a bus stop. He spots 2 Sectoids inside the store. They scramble, one stops and fires at Palmer, missing but taking out a store wall with plasma.

The Sectoids must have yelled or telepathically sent something to the Flyers as three of them try and flank us on the right. Vanya and Gale each drop a Flyer.

Palmer takes out the Sectoid that shot at him and Sarah drops the last Flyer. Palmer moves a little more and has contact with 2 Thin Men. Idol whips his boom stick over and wipes out one of the Thin Men.

One of the Sectoids and Thin Men bail out into the side alley. The team moves into the building while Palmer and Idol head down the Alley.

It is a strategic move and cover dodging fire the Idol and Palmer take down the alley. Finally, they discuss and the plan is for Palmer to run out, hit the Sectoid with the Arc Thrower while Idol wipes out the thin man.

It almost happens to plan, Palmer rushes as Idol pops up, however his shot misses the Thin Man by a mile. Palmer is a tight spot and unloads his rifle at the Sectoid slamming it up against the wall. He then spins into his target spot hoping to get the Thin Man but he is slower and takes a plasma blast almost point blank. Palmer has a gaping hole in his chest and is bleeding, Idol is screaming for Vanya to come heal as he pops out and explodes the Thin Mans head.

Meanwhile, there are some large almost tank like Aliens moving in on the right trying to get the team into the store. Sarah misses one of them, Vanya pops up, shoots wounding one and runs towards the door to the alleyway. Gale is close and drops a smoke into the doorway and out into the alley providing cover for Idol and Vanya.

The Mutons have scrambles now, 1 ran into the neighboring building and out into the alleyway standing over Palmer, the other stays hidden in the building and the third has decided to go toe to toe with the squad. Sarah hits him with her machine gun.

The Muton in the alley fires once missing idol. Then the one out by Sarah fires and hits her. Idol pops a shot missing the Muton and it returns fire hitting Idol.

The chaos is starting to escalate as Palmer is groaning and Idol is still yelling for Vanya to get there. Vanya peeks out the doorway and sees the Muton, he fires and misses.

Gale makes a mad dash out of the doorway and slides into a dumpster by Idol, he pops up and manages to wound the Muton. Sarah takes a second plasma blast by the Muton and she is not to steady on her feet. Her armor is shredded, she is bleeding from everywhere, but she is still standing and returns fire, hitting again.

The Muton fires at Sarah and manages to miss. Gale takes a shot to the shoulder from the Muton out in the alley. Sarah takes another blast, this one is square in the chest and she finally drops. She is still alive, but bleeding out.

Gale takes a second shot and is still standing. Vanya pops out and drills the Muton right in the throat taking him out. Warlord finally gets into a position where he finishes the work Sarah did on the Muton outside.

Vanya manages to get to Palmer and as he picks him up to administer the med kit, Palmer gurgles a little blood and gives his death rattle. This one was close and Vanya and Idol will probably carry this one with them for a long time.

The squad manuvers back towards the neighboring store while Vanya scrambles to Sarah.

Warlord kicks in the door and is promptly hit square in the chest. He drops, rolls and grabs a grenade. He pops it and lands it in the Mutons lap. It explodes leaving a large hole in the creature and green blood all over the walls.

10 Aliens killed
1 Op Lost

UK is full on Panic.

Ace Idol is promoted to Captain and trains Opportunisty. He will be in the infirmary for 10 days.
Sarah and Gale will both join him, their stints will be 15 days and Warlord will be in there for 6 days.

[MacroGuru]

The Foundry is completed. We finish Precision Laser Research and now have the ability to build laser sniper rifles and a scatter gun.

We perform a Muton autopsy and when it completes we have the ability to understand ammo conservation.

We then begin Heavy Laser Research.

[Tellistto]

Scatter lasers are so awesome.

Tell

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

Scatter lasers are so awesome.

Tell

Me to, I need more Alloys though