The Invasion Has Only Just Begun(XCOM EW+LW, Interactive) - Page 6

Brian Swartz · 07-09-2015, 11:43 PM

deleted due to technical difficulties

Brian Swartz · 07-10-2015, 12:05 AM

Ok here's the deal: I managed to screw up pretty badly. I apologize

.

We are going to continue but I need to replay a couple of missions. I was going through deleting old saves no longer needed ... and realized too late I was getting rid of the wrong ones. The latest one left at the time I realized it was at June 6, 0255. So, that puts us just shy of 34 days to make up as of this posting(I had actually played up through the morning of June 12th and posted that info before removing it and putting the 'deleted due to technical difficulties' blurb. Truth be told, it would be more accurate to state 'deleted due to dynasty author forgetting the #1 rule of computers: always back everything up').

Arghzorz. Anyway, it's not really a total loss since I had sort of screwed up in recording/writing up those missions anyway. The covert extraction on June 6th, with the squad as mentioned some posts back for it, will be next up. Tomorrow I'm going to make sure I have all the needed maintenance done: roster and XCOM inventory up to date, etc., and then attempt to proceed. Who knows, maybe I can manage not to get anyone killed this time -- or just as likely, manage a total squad wipe with a resulting mission fail spiral. Time will tell.

The Commander apologizes again for his incompetence in invalidating the timeline.

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 11:20 AM

Ok, so here we go again on the EXALT data recovery mission down under.

OPERATION FALLING CROWN
6.6.2015, 0457
Australia

Protecting the encoder is job one, but we have to cross an open courtyard with the fountain seen here to get to it. They head in to hack the encoder almost immediately, and we've got no choice but to head straight across the courtyard with little to use for cover. Not optimal at all.

We take down two of them with Pillai and Brodie getting the finishing blows, but one is still there and the hack continues. Four more come down the street on the left, with another operative at least coming in from behind the building. That's six of them out there, minimum. Time for our covert op to earn his pay. Fujita snags the closest comm relay to buy us some time. With that done, I noticed three of them clustered alongside a white van, virtually begging a rocket to be sent that way. Soares obliges. She's a bit off target and hits the van, but all three are caught in the blast. Pena moves up and finishes them off with a grenade, but spots another quartet of operatives in the process. Argh.

We take the hacker out and wound another, but there's still five of them. One pops smoke and another moves in to resume the hack. Another grenade by Pena dispenses with quite a bit of their cover. Fujita looses a flashbang which may well have saved his life, since we missed most of our shots and only Russell knocked one out. That's five left -- all of which shot at Fujita and missed. I'll take that kind of luck, expect that three more showed up. There are eight out there now, and the hack on the encoder is nearly complete.

Faced with this many enemies, there is no such thing as 'enough explosives'

Pena has one grenade left but can't safely get close enough to use it. Soares still has a shredder rocket, and manages to take out the two wounded enemies by the encoder, but doesn't do much damage to the third. It was the best shot she had though. Path Twelve misses wildly, but Pena and Fischer combine to take one out while Pillai moves into the encoder zone to contest the hack. She's got a flashbang also and uses that on the exalt operative in there to improve safety. Russell suppresses the closest enemy down the street, but the second one moves and injures Fujita with a grenade. He's still ok, but that's not fun.

Geoff Russell, the killless wonder coming in(three missions without a tally) found more success in this target-rich environment

Soares did ok today. She missed the target with both of her rockets, but was close enough to get the job done.

Pillai and the exalt operative exchange point-blank fire, she hits and puts her scout training to good use in avoiding his barrage. Fischer goes clutch, clearing out one of the enemies on the street and the operative in by the encoder. By my count, that means there are four left, one down the left side by the comm relay and three more coming in behind. More suppression fire on the one visible by Russell.

A true 'fight-or-flight' scenario if ever there was one. Pillai won this encounter and it saved her life

He's a brave(or stupid) one, advancing anyway. Russell misses, Pena nearly takes him out, and Brodie can't finish the job. Meanwhile, another exalt operative moves into the encoder zone and a second hits Pillai hard, nearly killing her. A third covers the shooter with smoke, and more are coming in. A lot more -- five of them for a total of nine of them out there now! Bradford says this is the last of the reinforcements, but that's little comfort at the moment.

Path Twelve finally steps up, a one-shot-drop on the one close by Pillai in the encoder area. We can't see most of the others, so Pillai retreats, most of the squad reloads, and LT Axle heads over to heal up Fujita who will make a run for the comm relays when needed. We need to ready up for the final firefight here. Two of them make it into the encoder zone -- we've got to take both of them out. Pena's final grenade ... barely damages both of them. That's not what I had in mind.

Fujita hacks the comm array up the street, spotting an overwatching operative back behind the building. He misses there, but Soares and Russell eliminate the operatives by the encoder, ensuring they'll need to flood more into that area. They move one into the zone but otherwhise don't do much of anything. After getting healed up by Brodie, Pillai combines with Fischer for another kill and the zone is clear again while Fujita flanks and wounds the operative behind the building. By my count there's still six of them left, so we're far from finished. At least we have time to set up an overwatch net ...

Which doesn't do a whole lot of good when two of them miss. Russell doesn't though, taking out the next operative who moves into the encoder zone. One came from an unexpected angle to the right of the courtyard and missed a long-range flank chance at Path Twelve, that could have been unpleasant but you can't guard against everything. It works both ways: she fired back and missed, a shot that Bradford tells me she should be able to make better than 9 out of 10 times. Not a good time to miss.

We wound a couple of them, that makes three hurt but it's down to two again as one of them heals. Another, despite it's wounds, finds a flanking angle and injures Brodie. They're basically surrounding us at this point, and we're winning this but not without casualties. There's just too much to cover. Russell and Pillai drop two of the offenders, and Brodie medicates.

We only see movement from the one ... is he all that's left? A brave soul if he is, dashing in by the encoder. Twelve drops him, and the scanners go green. I thought there were more out there.

Post-Mortem

21 operatives dropped in the tense battle, and we lose nobody though that was often an open question. Fighting lasted nearly an hour, but it seemed like several times that. Elfriede Fischer's timely shooting after a rough start make her probably the hero of the day, and she is promoted along with Russell and Lakshmi Pillai, now lance corporals all. Pillai illustrates the struggle in keeping scouts healthy, she'll be no worse for the wear but she will be sidelined for nearly a month. Covert operative Takumi Fujita will be out about that long as well, but also promoted to lance corporal.

The intel gathered has conclusively proven that the EXALT HQ is not in France, and 3 oz. meld was recovered as well. I must say I was impressed with the recovery of 32 million in currency from seized bank accounts! The majority was spent on upgrading our officer training to allow for Company-level officers(Captain rank), as needed for LT 'Axle' Brodie to continue moving upwards. As in the 'alternate timeline', Dean 'Strobe' Hoo and Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee received their promotions to Lieutenant as well. While we rightly celebrate these successes, the Commander would be remiss if he did not point out that Tactical Ops now has a record 13 soldiers in the infirmary, nearly a quarter of our total numbers and a full third of those with combat experience. This is not a trend that we will long survive continuing.

Also, a rather sad note to report: it rarely happens, and only slightly, but Path Twelve actually LOST experience on this mission. Despite getting two kills, the number of good opportunities that were missed resulted in a not particularly glowing review(actual stats do not change, just progress to promotion). With any kind of decent showing, she would have moved up a rank.

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 11:24 AM

June 6, 0833 -- A couple hours after returning, a high-flying satellite hunter showed up in Europe. Bordoni went up, and got in a couple of hits. It wasn't enough though, and the satellite over Germany was shot down. Since there's not a whole lot of point to keeping interceptors where there are no satellites, all of them available ones were transferred to North America. Right now we have three that are flight-capable, with more satellites ready to go up in two weeks.

2103 -- Another high-flying medium UFO has hilariously showed up in Europe. Good luck, nothing to find there.

June 7, 0111 -- Abduction Alert! The islands of Japan are the target this time, with heavy activity and a 10m reward. This is the second of the 'replay' missions and again the same group will go out as before:

Strike Squad

LCPL Beth Campbell(AUS, Assault)
** Tactical Sense
LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, Engineer, CO)
** Sapper, Sharpshooter
LCPL Mac Roguru(AUS, Gunner)
** Sprinter
LCPL Sophie Deschamps(FRA, Rocketeer)
** Holo-Targeting
CPL Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper)
** Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot
PFC Ana Mendez(ESP)
PFC Jin-Soon Yoo(KOR)

Roguru and Hunter figure to get plenty of 'target practice' -- hopefully not on the receiving end.

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 01:37 PM

With no medic available for this mission, the loadout is light on flashbangs and we'll need some good shooting to get through it.

OPERATION TWISTED CROWN
6.7.2015, 0254
Kyoto, Japan

From falling crown to twisted crown -- there's a message in there somewhere. We land outside a military base and there's only one way to go, which is usually either very good or very bad. There's not going to be much room to maneuver. We see nothing, and hear nothing, very disquieting.

And then straight ahead, not to the right as we expected, three floaters were hiding! We're in business here ... Walker wounds one of them but most of the others can't get into decent firing positions, fortunately they just miss one shot and aren't in any mood to overextend themselves. Hunter wounds the leader, who is another example of the alien bastards improving themselves -- he's got the Damn Good Ground ability, making him all the harder to hit. We end up with all three wounded but none down. One goes on overwatch, while the leader misses again.

There's no good way to advance here, we just need to outshoot them. They've clustered close enough together to make a Deschamps rocket worthwhile though. She goes for the shredder variation and is a bit off-target ... both are badly wounded now though and should be easy pickings if we can hit them. Yoon buries the overwatching one for his first kill, and Mendez drops the leader for hers. The third one shows up soon afterwards but Hunter finishes it off and Campbell dashes down the pathway to snag the canister for a nine-ounce reward. That was a bit tense and fortunate, but we've got ourselves a foothold here, no casualties, and a tally for each of the rookies.

The squad takes some time to reload and listen for movement. Looks like not far into the tank rows on the left side, while there's meld farther up on the right but that's a pipe dream. Roguru moves over and spots them ... a quartet of seekers! None of them go to stealth, they want a fight apparently. A well-placed rocket by Deschamps knocks three of them out of the sky! A shotgun blast by Campbell weakens the last one, and Banerjee finishes it off. They didn't even have a chance to fire.

Three seekers with one blow

The squad spreads out, but soon they form up back to the left as more is heard straight up that direction. It took awhile, but eventually they spotted three more seekers and a drone along the left side of a large warehouse. No wonder we weren't hearing anything, it's all fliers on this escapade. Two of the seekers went stealth, Campbell dashed up to the third ... and barely scratched it. 'Walker' Hunter stepped up with the best sniper shot I've yet seen, enough to take down almost any enemy we've seen, and the seeker didn't have a chance. That precision shot training seems to be paying off. The drone ducked inside the building and we couldn't see it, so the rest of the squad settled into overwatch positions. Time for the seeker strangle rush.

They didn't take long. The first one went for Campbell as expected. Four soldiers fired ... three missed and one had their shot basically bounce off. Fantastic. The drone showed up to repair the damage. A second went for Lieutenant Banerjee, and Roguru got in a good shot there but couldn't prevent the follow-up strangle.

A for planning, D for execution

Roguru shows the proper way, but still can't dissuade the foe

Hunter took a piece out of the one on Campbell but couldn't release it's grip. Roguru finishes the other one off at close range, allowing the LT a shot which damaged the drone. A fine shot by Mendez nearly took out the seeker on Campbell ... it ducked inside the building, nearly gone. The drone proceeded to absorb her shotgun blast at point-blank range ... I've never seen that before. Deschamps was able to finish it off though.

The remaining seeker went to stealth, so all we could do was ready weapons. Most of the squad needed a reload or healing, but Roguru took care of business as it tried to attack again. Gone. That's nearly a dozen down, but the scanners showed there was still work to do. The reports were certainly accurate in labeling this a heavy-resistance mission, but at least we've been able to take them out bit by bit so far.

The squad reloaded and headed to the back of the warehouse, but instead they came from inside it. Four drones. Are you serious? Three of them fired at Campbell, all missing ... she has a good spot outside the freight door. She dropped the closest one, then Deschamps saw her bullets just bounce off a second. The others were further away though, giving us some time to get in position.

A drone quartet, more annoying than anything else

One of them fired at Deschamps but missed, the other two simply repositioned. Campbell moved into the warehouse and took one out, Deschamps and Roguru combined on the second. One left, across the warehouse as it had been much less aggressive. It simply retreated outside, forcing us to chase it. That wasn't going to work with someone as mobile as Campbell, she made it three of this last set of four downed by herself and finally we were clear.

Post-Mortem

A very clean operation overall, 15 killed and the only real hazard was the seeker strangle attacks. Even Dr. Vahlen was thrilled. No casualties of any kind, and four promotions. Campbell was given the moniker 'Tombstone', rather appropriate for an assault trooper, while Mac Roguru shall be known as 'Crash', assuming he doesn't object. Both of the privates got promoted as well. They went to the medic and engineer paths, giving us now 5-6 of everything except scouts, of which there are only four. No question that's the biggest need at the moment.

Artifacts Recovered

3 Floater Corpses
5 Drone Wrecks
7 kg Elerium
8 kg Alien Alloys
8 Weapon Fragments
10 oz. Meld
4 Seeker Wrecks

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 01:44 PM

PROMOTIONS

Mac Roguru, you have been promoted to Corporal after adding three kills for a total of nine in four missions -- very solid. Your callsign is now 'Crash' unless you would like something else.

** Shredder Ammo -- Your SAW/LMG will be loaded with this ammunition, causing internal damage to your targets. Anything you hit with your primary weapon takes additional damage from all sources for four turns, very useful in softening up particularly sizable enemies.
** HEAT Ammo -- Additional damage anytime you hit a robotic enemy.
** Damn Good Ground -- +10 Aim and +10 Defense against enemies at lower elevations.

Commander's Recommendation: All three are useful. Damn Good Ground is the weakest option since Gunners tend to be frontline combatants. Shredder Ammo and HEAT Ammo make a tough call between them. The choice is yours.

CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru, you are on the clock.

MacroGuru · 07-11-2015, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

PROMOTIONS

Mac Roguru, you have been promoted to Corporal after adding three kills for a total of nine in four missions -- very solid. Your callsign is now 'Crash' unless you would like something else.

** Shredder Ammo -- Your SAW/LMG will be loaded with this ammunition, causing internal damage to your targets. Anything you hit with your primary weapon takes additional damage from all sources for four turns, very useful in softening up particularly sizable enemies.
** HEAT Ammo -- Additional damage anytime you hit a robotic enemy.
** Damn Good Ground -- +10 Aim and +10 Defense against enemies at lower elevations.

Commander's Recommendation: All three are useful. Damn Good Ground is the weakest option since Gunners tend to be frontline combatants. Shredder Ammo and HEAT Ammo make a tough call between them. The choice is yours.

CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru, you are on the clock.

I think shredder ammo would be the best fit

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 03:57 PM

Shredder Ammo it is.

Heath: 7(--)
Will: 42(+4)
Aim: 74(+1)

Eeek. Not the best work I've ever seen, but at least you got a solid new ability.

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 04:44 PM

June 7, 0621 -- Fission generator finished, giving us enough power to start on the new Satellite Uplink. It will take three weeks and cost 20m. Another 2m went to more excavating on sublevel 3, and 25.2m more to another pair of satellites beyond the three already ordered. This took the current funds down to about 19 million remaining. It won't be long until another generator is needed -- we are currently at 59 of 66 capacity used -- but it was decided to hold off for now.

1421 -- Three more soldiers have returned, including Coffee 'Slim' Warlord. Dr. Vahlen presented her report on Xenopsionics, aka Project Backfire, a rather ominous name. Her summary sentence was as melodramatic as it was gramatically incorrect:

"A thousand rumors and charlatans over the centuries and yet, in a matter of weeks, we have proven it is true: Humans, with suitable training and technological assistance, can manipulate reality by thought alone."

She continued ... "We are still arguing whether to call this new branch of human experience psionics or noetics ...". Fabulous. We've actually regressed since the meld research: we can't even agree on what words to use. Epic fail, Doctor.

Dr. Shen detailed plans for a facility that will be required for training our soldiers -- a Psionic Lab. It will require a moderate amount of power to run, along with 10 kg of elerium and 25 million in funding to build. Definitely not cheap. If placed next to other laboratories, there will also be a side benefit of some gain in efficiency of our research due to pooling resources. It is added to the list of things that we can't afford to build that would benefit Tactical Ops.

Vahlen took this opportunity to regain the floor and blather on about her latest philosophical conundrum.

"Nothing will ever be the same. The work that we've done here -- to adapt the technology of a hostile enemy force, has advanced the scientific progress of mankind by untold generations. These weapons, these abuses of science -- we still have the opportunity to use them for a greater good. We have paid a heavy price, but our efforts have not been in vain. "

What's that? You're finally done talking Doctor? Good, now maybe we can get back to something OF PRACTICAL USE?!?! Methinks you are the abuse of science right now .... To that end, Improved Body Armor(7 days, 8 kg alien alloys) was selected as the next research task. The reports I have indicate Vahlen's 'early tests are very encouraging' that they will be able to develop a 'lighter, stronger' form of body armor that we won't be able to afford to outfit our soldiers with.

Brian Swartz · 07-11-2015, 05:33 PM

June 7 -- Heavy UFO activity was detected over Nigeria, and LT Benton Gale returned to active status late in the day.

June 8 -- Didier Keita returns to active duty. At 1321, another satellite hunter showed up in Europe. Seriously guys, you can keep wasting your energy all you want, but there's nothing there. The Council however views these incursions as missed opportunities to deal with UFO threats, so it still hurts the cause politically -- but defending North America is now priority one.

Late in the day, an intriguing offer came in from the UK. They want a half-dozen thin man corpses, and are willing to pay a unique price: an elite special forces operative that initial evaluations indicate would be of Corporal skill and capable of filling our need for more scouts. That's a small price to pay for such a soldier, and after the swap we are still a ways under the 30% line. The deal is approved. The new man is Owen 'Specter' Kirk, a flimsy man of lousy aim, but very mentally resilient and decent mobility. At the same time, another outstanding request was approved: a dozen weapon fragments are shipped to Brazil for the gain of an engineer. Expensive, but we've got a bunch of them.

June 9 -- LT Rebecca Burke is back from injury, and all of a sudden we have a wealth of riches by XCOM standards: three quality scouts ready to go out.

June 10 -- Three more soldiers are back, including CAPT Lily Brodie.

June 11 -- Another five back on duty, among them Path Twelve, and, back off the injured list once again, Ches O'Peake.

June 12 -- Nigeria was bombed in the early morning hours, pushing them over the edge into Orange Alert. There has been off-and-on heavy activity there for almost a week now, it's clear that's where the aliens are focusing. Shortly afterwards, at 0302, an abduction alert was received. The reports are that it's from Russia, where the activity is said to be off the charts, described as 'swarming', even more than the heavy readings we had from our last mission which ended up with 15 enemies. The reward is a bit larger as well, 11.5m, but clearly this will require a lot of fighting.

Strike Squad
CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago(HON, Assault)
** Extra Conditioning, Tactical Sense
LCPL Naomi Foster(USA, Engineer)
** Sapper
LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO)
** Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon
CPL Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout)
** Will to Survive, Low Profile
LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, Sniper)
** Packmaster
PFC Rin Mori(JPN)

Due to the level of resistance, only one private goes out here. Benton Gale is in command of his first mission in a while, with Coffee Warlord and Ivan Drago adding to a strong FOFC presence. Back to just under a month to catch up with now.

Brian Swartz · 07-12-2015, 04:42 PM

OPERATION STONE MIST
6.12.2015, 0337
Yekaterinburg, Russia

It's always strange going to a place I've never heard of before. They tell us it's a large urban area though, which is good I think -- we might have a chance to not take on a ton of the enemy at once if they are spread out a bit like the last outing. Oh, and stone mist? Seriously? Who is that supposed to confuse?

We land in between two buildings in a great spot to be flanked. No, thank you. Slim heads up on top of one to take a look, and three floaters announce themselves, one ducking out of sight immediately. Drago shoots the one inside the building, two hit the one flying up high but it's still aloft, while a couple of the squad aren't close enough to find decent spots up top and look to provide some fire down below.

It then goes from suck to blow. The injured one kills Mori in one shot, and two more show up. Gale hits one as it moves, but it still manages to tag Drago. Thankfully the other one misses, but this does not stop 'Slim' Warlord from panicking like a cowardly fool. Gale misses twice, further complicating things, but Drago, injured or no, moves up and takes another one down. Two barely flying floaters left. Khumalo misses but Foster finishes one off, leaving Demirovic to climb up and try a pistol shot of all things. Nope. Thankfully it misses trying to finish off Drago, and Vandal fires back, also missing. A rather hilarious scene given how close they are to each other. Slim moves in and gets the kill, and we are clear for the moment. Four floaters down, but it cost us a private and an injury to Drago -- an expensive foothold here.

Drago leads the way in clearing out the floaters

There's clearly still quite a few of them out there, and mutons can be heard but nothing else really. Might be another mission with a lot of flying fiends. It's not subtle for long. We hear something across the other building, though it's not obvious what level, and then a couple of doors opening -- there's meld over there as well -- yeah, we're definitely headed that way. We can't see anything else from this rooftop. Warlord and Drago still see nothing after getting up to the other roof, so the rest of the squad moves down and across the alley as well.

We can hear thin men out there, it appears there are multiple squads of aliens just past this building. Khumalo is up to the roof soon with the scouts and they see a couple of seekers just within view -- they don't spot us yet. Sectoids and thin men can be heard as well. No way to tell how many but it sure sounds like a hornet's nest. We need to be careful. Down in the alley the other three take a peek inside the building ... nothing on this side. With seekers out there we could be better off on the roof, but cover is better inside. After considering for a bit, I decide to keep the squad split. There's convenient ladder access so I think we can get away with a dual approach ... carefully.

All of a sudden they come close enough for a clear visual. It appears to be three seekers and two thin men. One seeker goes to stealth, and Slim gets a shot which gives one of the thins a flesh wound, I think. It all happened so fast. Inside, there's a muton, sectoid, and a floater. Ok, that's eight of them. Yeah. Time for a fighting retreat. A nice shot by Demirovic drops a seeker. Whiskey misses, but up top the Sheriff is clutch, dropping one seeker and wounding another. A grenade by Foster injures the muton.

A whole lotta targets, but one less now

Their turn -- and two seekers go to stealth, not sure where the thin men or muton are, but the sectoid and floater head to overwatch. Looks like they want the seekers to do their dirty work. Makes sense.

We ready weapons, but only one of them shows up. Drago gives it a faceful with his shotgun but it's not enough to prevent the attack. A second burst frees Foster from the grip, and Slim tosses a scanner to see if there's anyone else in the vicinity. There doesn't appear to be, but it gives Gale enough warning to wound a seeker that goes for an attack on his rear position. A well-placed AP grenade from Foster ends the muton, and Drago drops another seeker. Still no idea on the thin men, there's two sectoids out there one trying to flank on the left, and a floater still inside. A very dangerous situation.

'Whiskey' Khumalo missed this exact same shot at the floater here four times in a row, emptying her entire clip into the air.

As the building falls down around us, that sectoid on the left found a hole. Not much of one, but it was enough. A flanking shot dropped Drago dead on impact! The squad was stunned but they held together, but with a thin man sneaking around to the alley behind us, we were in trouble here.

One of XCOM's finest, an instant before his end

We manage to take out the thin man in the rear, and the flanking sectoid is nearly killed by another Foster grenade. Gale now has an acid problem though, and we're running out of healthy shooters. Whiskey Khumalo continues her miss-fest. It looks like there's only the wounded floater and one sectoid left though. We might yet get out of this. Demirovic still can't hit a darn thing, but Foster finishes off the floater. The sectoid misses again, and first Warlord and then Demirovic(finally!) take it out.

Post-Mortem

This was an expensive, expensive success. Ivan 'Vandal' Drago is the best soldiers XCOM has lost to date. We take out 14 of the enemy and clear the abduction zone but he and private Mori are lost. Drago's 20 kills rank fourth in the annals at this point. The way we were overrun there with ten aliens on us at once it's somewhat fortunate anybody lived through it. Demirovic and the usually-clutch Khumalo are the goats of this operation, they just plain couldn't shoot straight. On the other hand, engineer Naomi Foster did it with explosives and with her carbine, while Coffee 'Slim' Warlord's quick feet were instrumental even if his trigger finger wasn't as good as it usually is.

Crappy construction is to blame for the most part here, though perhaps I should have seen it coming. I didn't think Vandal could be flanked from his position, but part of the wall collapsed giving the sectoid a great angle to shoot through. As for Mori, that was just a 'stuff happens' moment, an unlikely bullseye by a near-dead enemy. Regardless of the reasons, the fact remains that Stone Mist will be remembered sadly, the first mission on which a corporal died and the first in which more than one soldier fell in battle.

Artifacts Recovered

2 Sectoid Corpses
5 Floater Corpses
1 Thin Man Corpse
7 kg Elerium
8 kg Alien Alloys
8 Weapon Fragments
2 oz. Meld
5 Seeker Wrecks

With the funding from this mission, I had intended to start working on equipment for Tactical Ops. Instead, I was forced to replace the arc thrower that Drago was carrying. This all but wiped out the General Fund again. Two steps forward, one step back it seems. The equipment situation in Tactical Ops is a major concern, but after consulting with the executive committee the price of rectifying it by an artifact sell-off is considered to be simply too high.

Brian Swartz · 07-12-2015, 04:43 PM

CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago, you have been given a place of honor on the Memorial Wall. You may reincarnate/rejoin or not at your discretion.

Brian Swartz · 07-12-2015, 05:18 PM

June 12 -- More UFO activity over Nigeria. Egypt wants 6 meld for a pair of scientists, and we agree. Five soldiers return, including Mac Roguru and Jace Hunter.

June 13 -- Three more are back, including one of the officers.

June 14 -- India wants a trade for sectoid corpses, rejected as we don't have enough. Just after 0600, Vahlen reports her latest task is finished. Improved Body Armor, or Project Linebacker, is ready for review.

"We've succeeded in creating a design for an advanced suit of armor ... the downside of using this exotic material is that we have no means of replicating it".

Designated the Phalanx Armor, the new suit provides +3 Health and +2 mobility, at a cost of 5.8m each and 6 kg of Alien Alloys. We have plenty of the material, the question is the money. Eventually we'll probably want enough to outfit a full squad. It offers a little more mobility and protection compared to our standard full armor, and compared to the lighter vest option it restricts mobility a bit but has much better protection. It would be preferable for most soldiers but is not a huge change.

We also have the new underarmor vest termed Reinforced Armor available. Not only is this more expensive(8.1m each) but it also inhibits movement. It adds damage reduction and survivability for the exchange of making the soldier easier to hit(-7 defense). I don't think we'll be investing in these.

Experimental Warfare(7 days, 10 weapon fragments) is up next. Vahlen's description here is vague, it appears to be largely theoretical but is based on the idea of further adapting alien technology to our use on the battlefield. Later, we get another soldier and another fighter back ... and heavy activity over Germany is reported. It appears the aliens are switching gears from Africa now to our home nation ...

June 15 -- Two more including Coffee Warlord are back. At 0916, Nigeria officially withdraws from the Council.

June 16 -- Canada offers two more scientists but they want a dozen meld for them. A steep price, but we have enough. The daily report includes a pair of soldiers back from Stone Mist.

June 17 -- Australia wants elerium for engineers -- the trade is approved. LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale is back and excavation of sublevel 3 completed. We also now have five fighters ready to go with the other three back in a week. North America has been very quiet.

June 18, 0124 -- More evidence that the aliens are now focused on Europe: abductions in the UK. It's a heavy/10m mission. While the loss of Vandal will sting for a while, Tactical Ops is looking good in terms of readiness with the recent downtime: only one operation in nearly two weeks now has left only six remaining in the infirmary and recovery is empty.

Strike Squad
CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim(KOR, Assault)
** Resilience, Tactical Sense
SPEC Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, Gunner)
SPEC Antonio Santos(BRA, Infantry)
CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO)
** Revive, Paramedic, Lead By Example, Field Surgeon, Semper Vigilans
CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, Scout)
** Battle Scanner, Resilience
PFC Ted Jordan(USA)
PFC David Campbell(UK)

It's been a while, but the roll of the dice leaves this mission FOFC-free.

Brian Swartz · 07-14-2015, 12:03 AM

OPERATION BROKEN CRONE
6.08.2015, 0145
London, United Kingdom

Deployment here is on a street behind a large building. There's no roof access, and very little room to manuever. It's a good thing Spectre brought plenty of scanners, because he spots three seekers that go to stealth immediately as soon as he looks inside. After tossing a scanner, he sees them all still clustered together. Private Jordan exposes himself to toss our only explosive grenade, but it does minimal damage. So do the rest of our shots at them with all but one able to get in range. Only one seeker is taken down, and the other two go for Kim, nearly killing him but he's still in the game. Another blast from Kim is largely ignored and Mirabeau misses, but Santos is able to drop both of the remaining damaged fliers and we're clear for the moment. Three medikits are required to get Kim back in top shape, taking up half our supply of them right away.

The seekers make a DJ sandwich that would have killed almost any other soldier

The rest of the squad moves into the building, hearing thin men but not seeing them. With Drago lost last mission and Kim headed for an extended stay in in the infirmary most likely after this, it seems to be open season on our assaults. That was a very expensive foothold -- we need to make it count. There is meld at the far end of the complex, but we hear sectoids that way, and see another quartet of seekers though they aren't quite close enough to detect us. We've got to find a decent defensive position at this end, and the cover isn't great.

Kim soon spots the seekers ... who fly directly away from us as if they didn't see us. That's bizarre, but I'll take it. We hear the thin men again and a couple of the seekers go to stealth. I really don't like this. We're not moving any more than necessary, just staying in overwatch as much as possible to ready for any advance. Another scanner toss to give us early warning if they approach is set.

One comes up the street and is hit twice, then retreats. Two more show up and go on overwatch, daring us to advance. That's not going to happen. Santos drops another one, then three more thin men come in from that direction. Mirabeau wounds one, but we've still got a pair of seekers and three thin man now, pretty heavy resistance.

Isabelle Mirabeau gets a piece of the enemy as they move

I consider falling back, but decide against it. Kirk moves up with a flashbang, catching two of the thin men in the blast. DJ has a shot completely absorbed by a seeker -- we really needed a kill there. Thankfully Santos is able to clean up the mess and wound one of the other thin men badly.

I know you were injured earlier DJ, but seriously -- how do you miss from that close?

One of the injured thins misses a return shot, the closest one is being suppressed but tries to move anyway. Bad idea. Mirabeau has training(Opportunist) for just this kind of thing, and the thin man leader is mowed down. One seeker goes to stealth, the healthy one comes in and strangles our scout(Specter) which is actually a good thing since he might have killed him if he just tried a plasma shot.

Training has it's benefits ...

Most of us are unfortunately out of ammo here, so finishing them off could get dicey. Mirabeau is able to release the seeker's grip, and Kirk finishes it off. Campbell knocks out one of the thin men while most reload, the one remaining thin man misses Brodie ... and here come the sectoids, a quartet of them from the rear alley that we came in from! Fantastic. If they'd just waited a bit longer ...

Sectoids may not be the most threatening enemy, but four of them when the squad is engaged in the opposite direction are not a welcome sight.

Kim is in the best position to take out the thin man and does so. We still don't know where that other seeker is. Kirk gets to cover and uses his last scanner to figure that out ... right on top us it seems! Santos wheels outside of it and drops it -- he's really been shooting fabulous today. Jordan and Mirabeau combine to take out one sectoid -- we're safe from flanking shots but not at all secure. One tries to sneak around through the adjacent store, going on overwatch. The other pair meld, but a shot at Campbell, long-range through the store, misses. We should be able to clean up this mess now.

Specter dodges reaction fire and flanks the flanker, gunning it down. Nice move there, leaving us with just two left. Jordan and Mirabeau move outside to flank in the alley, Jordan is close enough ... but he misses! Great chance there. Santos wounds one of them, everyone else who is close enough misses. Both of the sectoids retreat a bit and use their telepathic 'mindfray' on Jordan. Both are successful. He'll have to retreat a bit. Mirabeau puts suppression fire on one, a second retreats ... right into the waiting guns of Su-Min Kim.

Private Ted Jordan goes for glory! Ahem ... not so much

Mirabeau keeps the lone injured sectoid locked down with suppression fire as the noose tightens, eventually taking the last kill herself.

Post-Mortem

14 aliens killed, no soldiers lost. It seems we never have a simple, by-the-numbers operation anymore but this one is another success. The battle scanners gave us a small but very significant tactical advantage -- I think the memorial wall would have new additions if we didn't have them. Surprisingly Jordan is none the worse for his mindfray experience. Kim is out for what is I think his third, it's at least his second, stay of over a month on the injured list. He'll be fine eventually, but he just keeps getting shot up badly. No other injuries, and three promotions: private Campbell along with specialists Mirabeau and Santos, both of whom were instrumental with their timely killing espescially Santos. Campbell chose the Infantry route, which would not have been my preference -- we're now probably a bit over-supplied there at seven soldiers.

Artifacts Recovered

4 Sectoid Corpses
3 Thin Man Corpses
5 kg Elerium
7 kg Alien Alloys
8 Weapon Fragments
1 oz. Meld
7 Seeker Wrecks

The seekers are really piling up these days.

Brian Swartz · 07-14-2015, 12:17 AM

June 18 -- More UFO activity later in the day over Germany.

June 19, 0620 -- Council briefing. It's been a while since they put in their two cents. Apparently all of the activity overhead wasn't for nothing. They say a major plot to disrupt transportation networks in Germany has been uncovered. Obviously this cannot be allowed to stand. Not that we would require one, but a hair over 15 million has been offered for interdiction. We haven't had a priority mission in a while, but this definitely is one.

Strike Squad

LT Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, Scout)
** Low Profile, Close Combat Specialist, Stay Frosty
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon
LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry)
** Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression
SGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault)
** Bring 'Em On, Sprinter
CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, Gunner)
** Sprinter, Shredder Ammo
LCPL Shigeru Endo(JPN, Rocketeer)
** Battle Scanner
CPL Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper)
** Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot

Snake Eyes and Sheriff, the two most experienced lieutenants, head out with the team since Captain Brodie just went out on a mission. Jace 'Walker' Hunter and Mac 'Crash' Roguru make the grade as additional FOFC reps on this vital sortie. Burke will have overall command.

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 01:13 PM

OPERATION SWIFT MOUNTAIN
6.19.2015, 0631
Bremen, Germany

The squad arrives at a train yard in the vicinity of Bremen, and Bradford informs me that Council intel indicates a plasma bomb being primed in the area. Apparently it is drawing power from a number of power nodes, and disabling them will give us more time to reach the bomb itself. Time is of the essence here though. The usual caution with which we conduct field operations will largely have to be jettisoned. If we don't reach the bomb in time, the results will be catastrophic.

Burke is in range of one of them, and disables it right away. The clock is up to about 20 minutes, each disabled node seems to buy us about five more. We can see several more, and there's no sign of the enemy. Yet. I'm less worried about flanking than usual, ordering the squad into the center of the train yards. We need to find that bomb.

The last gasps of the first power node as it fizzles, then goes silent

The squad hears thin men -- lots of them, probably at least three distinct squads. Moving forward to another node, Burke spots two groups of them in two different directions, with a sectoid and a seeker as well. Something like 8 or 9 of them. Well, this wont' be boring. The clock is back up to 20 minutes, but we need to knock out some of these enemies or we'll be overrun. Hunter wounds the seeker but it's still up, and Crash misses a thin man. That's not what I had in mind here.

Spitfire misses the seeker as well, Gale finally brings it down but we really needed to take out more than one enemy here. Whiskey gets within flanking range of a sectoid, but it's only partly hurt. One group of thin men doesn't attack, and the others all miss. One was a flanking shot on Spitfire that was just plain a gift, but she's suppressed by a sectoid so she may not be going far. Still, I was expecting them to tag us pretty well there.

Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason is in the crosshairs, and very fortunate to remain unscathed

Gale suppresses the sectoid in return, allowing Spitfire to move up and execute the thin man, clearing one flank out a bit. A flashbang from Burke tries to pin down the two closest thin men in the area while the rest of the squad advances. We miss a couple shots at the sectoid, which simply reloads, the thin men go on overwatch, and a two more with another seeker come up behind them. Meanwhile, the clock is down to ten minutes.

A target-rich environment, and the clock is ticking ...

Walker and Crash combine to blow the new seeker out of the sky. Time for Endo to earn his pay with the rocket. It's a bit off-target and does almost no damage. Fantastic. Mason's 'close encounter's training pays off as she dashes in to execute the sectoid and one of the thin men before they can react, while Sheriff Gale manages to wound another at longer range. Whiskey grabs another node and finishes that enemy off. Only one thin man left visible though there are more out there. So far we are weathering the storm.

They withdraw, though we see quite a bit of movement. We'll need to be careful here, they are ever-mobile and could flank at any time but we have a bit of respite. Another two nodes are nabbed, but the thin men appear to all be shifting to our left for a concentrated push now that we are spread out. A couple overwatch shots miss. There's at least four of them, maybe five that we see.

Mason tosses her frag grenade, damaging three of them a bit and one significantly. We didn't get many other shots, but neither did they, settling for a miss at Gale and suppressing Burker. Continuing to flank around the right side are Hunter and Roguru, and the latter spots the bomb finally. He also snags another node, upping the time to 20 minutes again. It's looking good, but there's still a few thins out there ...

Burke draws more of their fire and ends one, Endo gets a wounding shot from the side on the leader. Still three more left. Gale lays down suppressing fire, and they go into defensive mode: one hunkers down, one overwatches, one puts some acid on Burke. Walker finishes the closest one off with a flanking snipe, Crash grabs another node. We've got all day here.

They continue to retreat, the injured one somehow hitting Burke. She's ok but hurt pretty bad. The other tries to hit Hunter and Roguru with acid, but gets the train in between them instead and both are clear. That's pretty much fatal for them. Walker and Mason clean up the mess and we've now got plenty of time to heal up, reload, wait for the acid clouds to dissipate, and move in on the bomb itself.

Exhibit A on the dangers of destructible cover positions

After deactivating it, Bradford warns us more are incoming. Six thin men drop in ... and we miss all of our shots at them except one. Unfreaking believable. Endo rectifies that situation by hitting a trio of them clustered with his remaining shredder,. Burke and Spitfire clear the enemies on one end, Crash and Walker take out two of the three shredded ones, but we are exposed and there's still another fiend out there. Whiskey drops the final shredded thin man ... and Bradford says we are clear! I thought for sure there was a sixth thin man ... maybe we did get him when they dropped in. Dunno. Either way, it's over!

Rather nice of them to present such a cluster of convenient targets ...

Post-Mortem

The bomb plot is stopped and we take out 16 enemies in the process. Definitely a job well done. Burke will be gone for four weeks but is promoted along with Endo and Hunter.

Artifacts Recovered

1 Sectoid Corpse
13 Thin Man Corpses
1 kg Elerium
2 kg Alien Alloys
14 Weapon Fragments
2 oz. Meld
2 Seeker Wrecks

15.1m received. Shortly after, 8 elerium is sent to India for a pair of scientists, and the first scope built(7.2m) is finally ordered.

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 01:23 PM

June 20, 0933 -- Experimental Warfare completed(Project Skunk Works). The only immediate practical results are for use with SHIVs, which are not part of our tactical approach. Dr. Vahlen has reported though that 'we've come to realize how the aliens managed to use these substances in conjuction with one another'. It is hoped that the increased understanding will lead to more impressive applications in the future.

Muton Autopsy(6 days, 10 muton corpses) is up next on the docket, and 6 Thin Man corpses are shipped to Egypt for a pair of engineers.

1233 -- Arc Thrower finished, we're now back up to two of them.

1833 -- The first trio of satellites are ready to go up. We'll keep one in reserve, and send up birds over the US and Canada. We've reached the fruition of the goal to cover North America! We don't have the money for it yet, but Dr. Shen wants a foundry built. With the reduction in cost, I do splurge for another fighter using what we have available in the air war portion of the budget: this one is 14m instead of the usual 20.

June 21 -- Hilariously, the aliens have returned to Nigeria. You control the freaking nation, idiots! Nevertheless, a bombing raid there was carried out this morning, perhaps in an attempt to ensure they stay on the sidelines. Japan wants alloys for scientists, but this deal we have to turn down.

June 22, 0403 -- Exalt has struck again. This time they destroyed valuable research information. Vahlen says the damage was minimal, partly due to the fact that we have a laboratory contained backups of some of the data. Approximately a day's worth of efforts were lost. The cell responsible operates out of the UK, and once again a covert operative is dispatched. In keeping with the standard operating procedure of sending out a relatively inexperienced but highly mobile soldier, both to get them experience and because they are relatively expendable, SPEC Kobe Cuvelier(BEL) is sent on this mission. It'll leave us short on assault soldiers for the time being, but it can't be helped. So far, covert operatives are 2-for-2 in getting hit by grenades on the recovery missions, resulting in one long-term injury and one death. Hopefully we'll do better this time around.

June 22 -- Four soldiers return, among them the long-injured Shaojie Zhang.

June 23 -- Finally what appears to be an easy one. Abductions in the US before our satellite can get in place. The readings show light activity, 8m minimum reward. Knock on wood, but it's a chance to get some privates out there and build up some more soldiers.

Strike Squad

LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, Gunner, CO)
** Low Profile, HEAT Ammo
LCPL Elfriede Fischer(DEU, Infantry)
** Sprinter
SPEC Jin-Soo Yoon(KOR, Medic)
LCPL Esperanza Guerrero(ESP, Rocketeer)
** Will to Survive
SPEC Christy Kodos(CAN, Sniper)
PFC Ted Jordan(USA)
PFC Jonathan Onifade(NIG)

With no available scout, we'll keep it to a modest two privates for this operation. LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo gets his first operational command, and Christy Kodos tempts death for a second time, trying out her splendid rusty sniper rifle :P. The privates are packing arc throwers; this is potentially as good a chance as we're going to get to capture another of the enemy.

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 01:49 PM

PROMOTIONS

After Swift Mountain, there are two to deal with. First up, LT2 Benton 'Sheriff' Gale is now eligible for the second and for now final Captain slot! This effectively makes you the most senior officer in all of Tactical Ops, superceding even CAPT Brodie. Your officer training options:

** Fortiores Una: Any squad member within 12 tiles gains an extra point of damage reduction if in cover.
** Semper Vigilans: Entire squad gets +5 to defense when in cover.

In general the Commander is of the opinion that it's better to not get hit in the first place than it is to take reduced damage when you do, but both have their value. Captain Benton 'Sheriff' Gale, you are on the clock.

Jace 'Walker' Hunter, your four kills upped your total to 19 and you have been promoted to Sergeant! That makes you the first sniper to reach that rank, and there are only a handful of all classes at that level.

** Sprinter: +4 mobility
** Extra Conditioning: Bonus health, heavier armor increases the bonus
** Battle Scanner: Two uses per battle

Commander's Recommendation: This is a clear case of one being better than the others. Sprinter will allow for more tactical flexibility, and the option to wear heavier equipment if more protection is deemed necessary. That makes it better than Extra Conditioning, and Battle Scanners are nice but not nearly as useful for a sniper as they are for scouts and other front-line soldiers. Commander's Prerogative is exercised and Sprinter chosen. With this, your biggest weakness as a particularly limited mover is removed.

Health: 5(--)
Will: 47(+4)
Aim: 96(+5)

Quite solid. SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter remains the best marksman in XCOM by a considerable margin.

Breeze · 07-15-2015, 01:58 PM

Gale is all about helping as many people as possible, combined with the agreement with the commander's mindset that not getting hit at all beats reducing the damage - the selection is Semper Vigilans

Travis · 07-15-2015, 02:06 PM

Sweet, like how that upgrade worked out. Hopefully it'll translate to improved performance in the field.

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 02:11 PM

So ordered. CAPT Gale, here's the obligatory shot of your promotion ceremony, complete with captain's medal now:

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 02:15 PM

OPERATION EMPTY SMOKE
6.23.2015, 0406
Houston, United States

A storage yard of some kind is our destination, near a waterfront. No sooner had we landed then three of the squad reported contact with a trio of seekers. That's what I call getting started off on the wrong foot. No scanners with this group

.

Hard to see here, but the seekers are on the left at the edge of the building, diagonally across from the squad

They didn't see us, and of the trio who wouldn't have to move, Kodos had passable cover and the hardest-hitting weapon. Strobe ordered her to fire at the closest of the flying menaces. Bullseye! The seeker wasn't just down ... it was shattered. The other members of it's 'pack' went to stealth and one broke a window heading inside. There was a meld canister out past them, but first things first. The rest of the squad went to overwatch positions. They didn't have to wait long. Only one attacked at first, and it was cut out of the air in a hail of gunfire. That's a heck of a start. Into the building, awaiting the final one but also heading towards that meld.

A brilliant shot by Christy Kodos to get the ball rolling

The last one came to say hello, the leader, and it was a big son of a gun. It was badly damaged by the reaction fire but absorbed enough of it to still be able to lock Kodos into a stranglehold. Hoo finished off that nonsense and ordered the squad to move out toward the canister. Jordan got there in time, and reported these were down to seven-ounce containers from the nine-ounce earlier in the month. Perhaps, and this is just conjecture, subduing Nigeria had taken some of the aliens' built-up resources so there weren't as many to go around. In any case, it was a good recovery.

The cover to advance was mostly crappy and we had to circle around right or left. Most would head left since it sounded like they were over that way and there were large shipping containers to shield movement. Getting there first, Fischer reported that they sounded close, and more off to the right. When they were finally spotted, they came straight on, another trio of seekers. Blarg. Guerrero prepped a shredder rocket, but had to do it in a hurry. It shredded them all, but did little direct damage.

Kodos was up next -- another hit, just off-center enough to allow it to stay aloft. Still, all three of them were damaged to some extent now. Jordan missed and the rest were too far away to do anything. One of the seekers went to overwatch, the other two to stealth. Again Kodos hit, but this time for minimal damage. Jordan and Guerrero both misfired. Nobody else could move for a shot without risking getting hit, so it was overwatch again.

One of many misses by private Jordan, and without a scout it was too risky to swap him out for a more reliable shooter. The seekers outmaneuvered us here.

Strangely, the seekers didn't attack. Unless the stealthers were going for Kodos in the back -- which was very possible. She fired again -- and missed. Jordan missed. Guerrero's carbine burst just bounced off. This was getting old in a hurry.

The reprieve was over. One went for Kodos, and reaction fire damaged it but couldn't finish it off. The overwatch seeker moved forward, hitting Guerrero badly at close range. She stayed on her feet, but panicked like a frightened girl and would be useless for a while.

Fischer broke the grip on Kodos, but then missed her next shot. As for Christy, she just reloaded and hoped for the best. Jordan was shot at by a stealthed seeker on overwatch as he moved -- I didn't know he could do that -- but it's badly damaged as are they all now and it missed. Ok, time to mop up. Hoo cleared out one of them ... and the two remaining went back to stealth. As damaged as they are, that made little sense, but whatever. Overwatch again. . one went for Kodos but again our leader blasted it out of the sky. A second went for Guerrero, Kodos missed ... and another close-range dose of plasma to our rocketeer, just recently healed. She's up and not panicking this time but in bad shape. The doctors are going to have their hands full if she lives through this.

Strobe finally finished off the nonsense with this second group of the flying menaces. Guerrero's Will to Survive training probably saved her life here -- she was used for seeker target practice

Fischer took care of it, and by the time everyone was healed up the other canister of meld was long expired and we were down to one medikit. I'm really starting to hate seekers. There was at least one more group of them out here somewhere though. We pushed forward again. It took a while for us to reach them, but when we did ....

Yep. another pair of seekers, in the far corner of the yard. Good heavens. Fat lot of good these arc throwers would do. And then they saw us. Three, not two. One went to stealth, two approached. Kodos was on target again, damaging one but it was still up. The closest one was hidden pretty well ... until a perfect rocket shot by Guerrero, who was well-prepared this time, hammered it and also the stealthed one lost it's disguise. Now all three were there for the shooting, all badly damaged.

I don't think I've ever seen a better-placed rocket than this, ensuring we would eliminate the last squad safely

Onifade caused a bit more damage, then Jordan finally got his first kill. Yoon's shot bounced off, then it took Fischer two more bursts to drop the second one, so Strobe decided to play it safe and suppress the last one. Another chance for the newbies. Onifade's shot just bounced off the armor. Yoon missed. Jordan missed. For the love of ... Kodos, highly accurate today, missed as well. Fischer? Zero for two. For those of you scoring at home, that's one ineffective hit followed by five missed bursts in a row. What a bloody mess. Guerrero finally got the job done, a deserved kill after her rockets.

Post-Mortem

Nine seekers. I hate them. Oh, how I hate them so. Promotions for Jordan and Guerrero, who calls herself 'Cairo' now and will spend nearly a month in medical. Her wounds are very serious but a full recovery is expected. We have a lot of rocketeers, so we'll be fine without her. Jordan is now an assault trooper, which shores up a need for sure and we're back to five across the board in all classes. Hopefully he'll learn how to hit the target once in a while ... .

Artifacts Recovered

7 kg Elerium
9 kg Alien Alloys
7 oz. Meld
9 Seeker Wrecks

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 02:49 PM

June 23 -- It was a busy rest of the day. Japan wanted another half-dozen meld for a pair of scientists, but I don't think we can afford to ship out any more(we've already used and/or traded more than half of what we've collected) so that deal is refused. Another scope is purchased with the reward money from the last operation, and seven soldiers returned to bolster the active numbers. Captains Gale and Brodie and Corporal Roguru were among them.

'Fun' fact: we've now recovered more corpses/wrecks of seekers(66) than anything else except for sectoids(84). Have I mentioned how much I hate them?

June 24 -- SGT Hunter is back and another soldier with him. At 1321 we receive word of a terror attack in Ogmobosho. Um, Nigeria has left the Council ... but if we don't respond, Egypt may tip over the edge as well. There's really no choice.

** Possible bug -- visual cue suggests they still think they have to go after Nigeria even though it's left the Council. Enemy stupidity in our favor**

Note here the two 'swirls' of destruction in Africa. The one in the northwest is supposed to be over Nigeria, but as you can see from the location of the terror attack to the southeast of there, it actually isn't. There's no other african Council nation in the area. I figure we just chalk this up to surprisingly determined resistance fighting or whatever, but it's definitely an alien error in our favor and, so, far, the only bug of significance I've found in the LW mod.

Intervention Squad

CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO)
** Revive, Paramedic, Lead By Example, Field Surgeon, Semper Vigilans
CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, Infantry)
** Opportunist, Sharpshooter
CPL Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout)
** Will to Survive, Low Profile
SGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault)
** Bring 'Em On, Sprinter
CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, Gunner)
** Sprinter, Shredder Ammo
CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, Rocketeer)
** Battle Scanner, Fire In The Hole
SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper)
** Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot, Sprinter

Brodie will lead the team as usual, and a healthy complement of FOFC participation with Slim, Crash, and Walker all providing support to the team. And will someone please tell me what rocketeer in their right mind would call themselves 'Yeti' on purpose?

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 10:56 PM

OPERATION FORGOTTEN APOLLO
6.24.2015, 1405
Ogbomosho, Nigeria

It's a train station, and along with the usual screaming there is lightning flashing -- pretty much your basic horror scene. 'Crash' Roguru spotted a group of five zombies pretty quickly. Splendid. Yeti was a bit too far away to try a rocket, so we'd have to try and shoot them before they could reach us. Spitfire used her frag grenade, but didn't accomplish much. Walker dropped the first one, but we could only wound a couple others. Two of the survivors moved away, two towards us -- one killing a civilian horribly right in front us before we could reach them.

The zombie view of the squad as they advance into the station, a trail of destruction in their wake

Moving ahead, Spitfire spotted a trio of chrysallids and several more zombies. Well, now that everyone knows we are here ... she retreated and took out the closest zombie with her shotgun. Rocket time ... Yeti annihilated one chryssalid and badly damaged the other two. Brodie got another kill, there were lots of easy targets here -- the question was could we take enough of them out. Crash and Walker dropped the last of the chryssalids, but most of the zombies just moved away, taking out three more civilians. Four gone.

Yeti's rocket took most of the sting out of an attempted spider rush

A pair of shotgun blasts from Spitfire dropped the two closest zombies. She's really going to rack them up today. The rest were only wounding shots, but at least they couldn't move far now. Five of them visible, and we had their attention: three moved towards the squad, and only one more civilian died. We were drawing them away at least. Spitfire moved in to execute a couple ... and spotted five more down the tracks on the left! Good heavens how many of these things were there? She took out two more as planned but is now out of ammo like much of the squad. Yeti sent his shredder downrange towards the new group but was well off-target and only two were caught in the blast. Crash and Hunter each struck again but there were still at least a half-dozen out there. A sixth civilian died.

Of the supply of undead enemies there seems to be no end ...

Spitfire and Yeti had to reload, and the rest of the squad mostly had to move up into range. Slim and Walker notched the closest zombies while the others moved in. Two more civilians gone, almost half of them now. Spitfire and Axle took out one each, while the others wounded the remaining pair. It looked like that was it ... but no. A bloodcurdling death scream even further down the tracks indicated otherwhise. A full half of the civilians were now dead.

Slim moved forward and spotted three more zombies at the end of the train. This was truly getting ridiculous. Zhang drilled the wounded pair, emptying his gun for the second time, while the others focused on the new trio. Crash was out of range though, Walker out of ammunition, so we could do little. And then three more chrysallids showed up, one of the zombies took out a 10th civilian, and I could do no more than throw my hands in the air. There were just too many of them.

You've got to be freaking kidding me ...

It's one thing to spread out wounding shots on the zombies to slow them down: chryssalids are too fast for that, and even badly injured they don't lose much mobility. They had to go first, and until they did, the squad had to keep it's distance to a degree. Both of the closer chryssalids were wounded, but a couple other shots missed in a departure from what has been otherwhise an excellent shooting operation. Two more civilians bought it. This is officially a near-disaster from a PR point of view.

In the wake of the seemingly limitless parade of foes, all Slim and his mates could do was fire, reload, lather-rinse-repeat

A chryssalid and two more zombies were cut down, with Spitfire, Crash, and Slim getting the kills. We were just maintaining the status quo though: two fresh zombies appeared from recent kills and the remaining pair of chryssalids each impaled a fresh victim. Crash and Slim each finished off another zombie apiece: two more appeared. At least no more kills were detected. A one-shot kill from Walker and Axle finishing off the wounded zombie close by finally allowed the rest of the squad to try and advance again. With Slim scouting the way, Spitfire crossed through the train and unloaded a pair of shotgun blasts to take out another chryssalid. Still, another civilian died from the wounded chryssalid that's out there somewhere.

One more zombie in range, Spitfire did the honors and then the last chryssalid went to Zhang after Walker missed. Finally, it was over.

Post-mortem

Nobody was hurt and we took out 28 aliens. That's right, twenty-eight. That's an agency high, and it's not close; previously the mark was like 18-20 or something. And still it's hard to feel good about losing more than 80% of the civilians, just one of out every six made it. Slim was promoted as was Spitfire, the latter matching an XCOM record with nine kills to take the #1 spot on the board. She is now a Tech Sergeant, the first soldier to reach that rank.

Artifacts Recovered

5 Chryssalid Carcasses
5 oz. Meld

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 11:03 PM

PROMOTIONS

Coffee 'Slim' Warlord, you have been promoted to Sergeant, the second scout along with LT 'Snake Eyes' Burke to reach that station. Your training selections:

** Extra Conditioning: Bonus health, heavier armor increases the bonus
** Vital Point Targeting: +2 damage with primary weapons, +1 with secondary weapons against humans and all alien species that have been autopsied.
** Holo-Targeting: +10 aim to any shots by squadmates against the target in the same turn.

Commander's Recommendation: This is a really tough one I think. Any of them would be good. Extra Conditioning is nice for a scout given the inherent danger of the job. With sectoids/thin men/mutons autopsied now, chryssalids coming before too much longer, and regular missions against EXALT this is pretty much the time of the campaign that Vital Point Targeting really comes into it's own as a great firepower skill. It normally wouldn't be a great thing for a scout but in Slim is the rare recon guy who does his own dirty work as often as not. Holo-Targeting helps quite a bit against anything you can't take down in one shot, which is most enemies at this point and is a great scout ability since even with the assault rifle you aren't among the hardest-hitting soldiers.

Put a gun to my head and I'd say Extra Conditioning here but you could go any of the three ways and not be making an error. SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord, you are on the clock.

Brian Swartz · 07-15-2015, 11:28 PM

June 24, 2009 -- The first scope is finished. Finally Tactical Ops has a new toy to play with. It's not much, but it's something and it's a start.

June 25 -- Canada requests a dozen elerium for two scientists. We're too close to the limit and our research personnel are considered adequate at the moment: the trade is rejected. The satellites for Canada and the US have reached their assigned orbits now.

June 26 -- SGT Carter, a long-injured infantry star, is back to duty. 2009 the final pair of satellites ordered are ready. We aren't prepared to defend them yet though -- I want to wait until we get another fighter at the start of next month before trying to put one back up.

June 27 -- Several more return, among them Christy Kodos and LT Strobe. Also, India wants an engineer for 9 weapon fragments. That we can spare. Multiple reports of UFO activity over Germany. Muton Autopsy(Project Nero) completed.

"Standing over two metres tall, the subjects ratio of lean muscle to its body mass is staggering ... there is no part of this subject that has not been genetically engineered for combat ... are capable of withstanding otherwordly amounts of damage and seem to have an incredible tolerance for pain."

"we also noted a variety of ritualistic markings and tattoos, which imply some sort of past tribal structure among the Muton species. ... a number of distinct similarities between the Muton and Floater ... it certainly appears that at one time the Floaters may have been Mutons themselves"

Rather disturbing stuff theoretically. Practically speaking, we should be able to combat them a bit more effectively now. Next up is our first investigation into what we hope will be the next generation of field weaponry. Beam Lasers(6 days, 10 kg alien alloys, 25 Weapon Fragments) is expensive but it is hoped it will address issues relating to heat dispersion that have so far prevented any type of practical laser-based weapon.

Dr. Vahlen: "I've always thought of science as a way to improve our everyday lives. The aliens though ... it's obvious they view science as merely a means to an end, a way to achieve their ultimate goal -- whatever that may be."

Thank you Dr. Obvious.

June 28 -- Another soldier returns, but more importantly it's time for the covert extraction. Cuvelier has completed his work which means a stealth approach, only four operatives for this one, just a pure get him and go mission. Mobility is a major priority.

Extraction Squad

CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO)
** Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression
CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, Scout)
** Battle Scanner, Resilience
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon
SPEC Ana Mendez(ESP, Engineer)

Coffee Warlord · 07-16-2015, 07:33 AM

I think we're going Vital Point Targeting. We need to take them dirty aliens down.

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 08:30 AM

We certainly do.

Health: 4(--)
Will: 48(+3)
Aim: 79(+3)

Not great, but continuing the trend of being a shooting-focused scout.

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 08:41 AM

OPERATION FINAL FALL
6.28.2015, 0501
United Kingdom

One equipment note: Sheriff is the first soldier to test out the recently finished scope, which provides better aim(+10) compared to the laser sight(+5) that many soldiers typically carry. Every advantage we can get will help.

To begin with, the squad needs to navigate a long parking lot. Cuvelier is on a rooftop a building and alleyway away, and the first comm relay that he needs access to is inside that building. Hopping down off the building, he spots at least one exalt operative between the squad and his position -- but he's able to get to the relay and disrupt them to buy some time. A couple of them show up right away, but he manages to take a piece out of one with his pistol.

Sheriff spots one further out in the lot and guns it down, three others retreat from the area for the moment. Meanwhile, Cuvelier heads back around the corner of the building and drops a flashbang on the two that have him cornered. Hopefully we'll be able to converge soon.

So much for staying away from the rest of them -- three full squads come to the front of the store. Reaction fire injures one but those operatives will overwhelm us if we don't get out of dodge, as in now. At least the disoriented operatives by Cuvelier both miss him. We just need to hold out for a few minutes, which means it's grenade time. A frag from Mendez and a flashbang by Specter take a lot of sting out of their potential attack. A miss by Sheriff is unfortunate, but it was only a decent shot. They reposition, fix their weapons, and ready to generally make target practice out of us.

This isn't even all of them, just the ones I could fit into one shot. There were close to 15 EXALT operatives around as we got out of dodge as fast as we could

I have no intention of giving them any such time though. By now Cuvelier is close enough to hit the second and final relay. The squad moves towards the Skyranger, firing as they go and generally missing though Mendez does take one of the operatives down. Again they re-sync their weapons and four more show up. If we don't leave now they won't be able to identify what's left. We blast three more of them on our way out, but most importantly, we are clear with the intel and no casualties whatsoever!

Post-Mortem

Only 5 kills, but clean. Sheriff has been promoted. 20m is recovered, and we now have evidence that the headquarters is not in Mexico. It may have been by the skin of our teeth, but a clean extraction is a new thing for XCOM and I like it a lot.

Artifacts Recovered

1 oz. Meld

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 08:49 AM

PROMOTIONS

CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale, you've been promoted again! This one is for your soldier training -- you are now the equivalent on a Tech Sergeant on the enlisted scale, joining Spitfire at that level.

** Covering Fire -- Overwatch shots trigger on enemy attacks, not just when they move.
** Opportunist -- Eliminates aim penalty on overwatch shots, and makes critical hits on overwatch possible as well.
** Gunslinger -- +1 damage with secondary weapons, and eliminates the penalty for long-distance shots with secondary weapons also.

Commander's Recommendation -- Gunslinger is virtually useless for a soldier that relies on their primary weapon to do lots of damage with multiple bursts. The other two are both overwatch abilities, which means there will be a little bit of a shift in focus for you here towards a more defensive fire support role, perhaps shooting once and then overwatching in some situations. Opportunist is the better of the two, covering fire is nice but when in range of the enemy is usually better to just try to shoot them on your own turn. Commander's Prerogative is invoked.

Health: 4(--)
Will: 65(+1)
Aim: 76(+2)

There's no sugar-coating this: that's pretty comprehensively terrible. Perhaps resting on your laurels with 28 confirmed(#2 on the board)?

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 10:52 AM

1511 -- Satellite uplink completed.

1711 -- Scope finished. By the end of the day, four soldiers were back on the line including Mac 'Crash' Roguru.

June 29, 0011 -- Figures, it's just barely morning so the Council line is buzzing in the Situation Room. They can't just let the month finish out peacefully ...

On the other hand, this looks like it can't wait. Apparently Dr. Shen has analyzed the device Zhang brought to us some weeks ago -- I'd long ago given it up as a dead end. Apparently it's tied into the navigation of an alien battleship. They say we can divert it off course if we deploy some modified transponders -- where and what we would do when the battleship is diverted is not clear. Everyone seems to agree that we need to seize this opportunity though. It had better pay off, the reward of 8.5m seems ... unimpressive for something of this scale.

Of course this is a priority mission requiring our very best.

Priority Squad

SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout)
** Will to Survive, Low Profile, Vital Point Targeting
SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, Infantry)
** Opportunist, Executioner
CPL Georgia 'Strings' Murdoch(AUS, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic
TSGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault)
** Bring 'Em On, Sprinter
LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, Engineer, CO)
** Sapper, Sharpshooter
CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, Rocketeer)
** Battle Scanner, Fire In The Hole
LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, Sniper)
** Packmaster

Unfortunately, injuries combined with the recent string of important missions have resulted in their being no scouts ready. Slim will have to come back early, meaning there will be an automatic stay in medical for him after this -- assuming he survives. Both captains are also still in recovery, further limiting the options. It's been a while since Cargo went out, and she'll lead this operation. Twitch will take the scope for this, allowing the former to carry the less accurate but more powerful battle rifle.

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 01:07 PM

OPERATION CRYPTIC BELL
6.29.2015, 0129
Xian, China

A train is the target for the transponders, and we have less than an hour to deploy them. That's a hard limit: we either make it by then or this operation is a failure. The train is apparently the only way to get the transponders where they need to be in time. There's no room for dawdling.

We spot a pair of thin men right away: we nearly take out one but the other hits a ridiculous shot that knocks our medic, Strings Murdoch, out of the fight immediately with a critical wound! That blows, but we have to keep going. Demirovic moves over with a medkit to stabilize and two bursts from Carter's battle rifle end the thin men, but two more come at us from further up the train. Two good shots at them are missed, Endo damages one as they rush but one pops acid on Slim while another sectoid and two thin men show up in the other direction. This is not going well so far.

'Twitch' Carter couldn't prevent a pair of thin men from getting the drop on us.

We take out the two on this side, but the acid is really bogging us down -- Spitfire had to ignore it and now has a significant injury. Meanwhile the other three enemies move in and miss, but we're still getting nowhere with the transponders. A rocket from Yeti is a bit off-target but helps us with the closest thin man. Cargo's second AP explosive wounds the second, and Carter is able to finish off the first so that leaves one sectoid and one injured thin man out there. The rest try to stay safe and hope the acid leaves their systems soon.

One of too many missed opportunities, this one by Slim

With the acid infection problems going rampant, Cargo's grenades were a key staple of the arsenal. This one isn't quite enough to take out this thin man

The last thin man drops acid on Cargo now. This is getting ridiculous. No choice but to have Warlord draw the fire from that sectoid, acid or not. Demirovic misses but more good shooting by Carter puts them both out of commission. We can get moving again -- sort of -- but down to half an hour, it may already be too late.

They can hear more thin men out there as they move down the train but don't see any yet. Spitfire gets our last medikit application from Demirovic, then moves back up to join the others, a couple soldiers reload, while Cargo is still pinned down by the acid though the others are clear. Slim grabs the first transponder. 25 minutes.

A muton drops in, from the battleship according to Bradford who is getting antsy about the time remaining as we hit 20 minutes. No kidding, me too. The muton is on the right, with what sounds like more thin men ahead on the right according to Yeti who is the most advanced at the moment. Slim moves up to have a look, still spots nothing and ... misses the muton. Grrr ... Spitfire makes it a one-shot kill on the bastard though.

Mutons are getting airdropped now. How lovely

With 15 to go Carter snags the second transponder. Bradford informs that we have two remaining. This could really come down to the wire. Thankfully Cargo is ready to move again -- she's still got two frags and we may need them. Yeti gets the third, but the last one is at the front of the train, a car and a half away from us. Still, we haven't seen any more of the enemy, maybe most of them have been handled already.

Ten minutes to go, and a muton drops in -- but it's on top of the train! From there I don't think it can see us ... and Spitfire is close enough now to make a dash for that last transponder. I see no useful alternative -- she's got it! Bradford chimes in -- "now you just need to activate the train's drive system". Um, you said NOTHING about that before, dimwit!

Five minutes left. Everyone's set up on overwatch, and the muton comes down off the train ... and almost everyone misses. Spitfire gets a piece of it with her shotgun, four others miss, but it meanders around a bit and Demirovic finishes it off! Another thin man drops in on top but he's going to be too late. Spitfire moves up to the controls, and the train begins to move. We're out of here!

She hit nothing else all mission long, but Demirovic finishes off this muton to give Spitfire clear sailing to the control car

Yeti's rocket blew a hole in the side of the train, but it's still moving and we're clear!

Post-Mortem

Mission accomplished, and 13 of the enemy eliminated. With our medic knocked out of the fight immediately and three acid attacks from the thin men, it wasn't looking good at first but we were able to clean it up just in time. A couple of huge shots by Carter with her battle rifle made it possible.

Slim will be out a week and a half, Spitfire and Strings nearly a month each. A very costly success in that regard, though a full recovery is again expected in all instances. No promotions here. I'm a bit astonished by the next stage of the plan -- apparently the idea is that the ship is now low enough in orbit that we are going to try to land on it and capture the ship. Capture an alien battleship. A rather remarkable -- and perhaps stunningly stupid -- goal.

Artifacts Recovered

1 Sectoid Corpse
6 Thin Man Corpses
2 Muton Corpses
13 Weapon Fragments
1 oz. Meld

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 01:10 PM

June 29 -- For our end-of-month satellite launch, Russia and Argentina are the candidates with both offering an engineer reward. Trying to keep one satellite up in Europe would be nice, and Russia is presently the biggest risk among current Council nations to leave. Since they've come through with an offer I put it up earlier than planned.

June 30 --Jace 'Walker' Hunter and Zhang return to duty.

July 1 -- Two communiques from the Council at the same time. The battleship assault is ready to go ... but at the same time, we have their monthly report. After that is sorted, we'll be on with that as one heck of a start to the new month ...

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 02:05 PM

COUNCIL REPORT
June 2015 -- Fourth month of the war, and how many more? ...

Overall Grade: B(pleased) -- same as May

2 Council Missions Completed
4 Abductions Stopped
4 Satellites Launched
4 Research Projects Completed
1 UFO Raided
1 Satellite Lost
6 UFOs Escaped

The Air War continues to be a losing battle: thankfully though they are leaving North America completely alone.

72.8 m, 3 scientists, 1 Engineer(25.6m after maintenance)

Panic Summary

Green: Canada, Mexico*, United States*, Argentina*, Germany**, Japan
Aqua: Brazil*, United Kingdom**, France, China, India*, Australia*, Egypt***
Yellow: Russia
Orange: none
Red: none
Withdrawn: Nigeria, South Africa

*** Nations with well over half the maximum panic resistance.
** Indicates a nation with significant panic resistance due to trades for alien technology & artifacts with XCOM.
* Nations with a minor, but notable amount of panic resistance.

Nigeria was lost, but on the other hand Australia actually moved down from Yellow to Aqua and the overall picture is pretty similar to what it was a month ago. The new satellite over Russia moved them from 'nearly orange' to 'low yellow', so there is some hope there as well. XCOM seems to be doing enough to maintain the resistance fairly effectively.

Latest Headlines

** Civilian panic slows in Russia as new satellite monitoring allows alien UFO tracking
** Moscow residents on edge after continual reports of alien attacks near the city flood media outlets
** Commuter train diverted in China; large alien ship inexplicably pursues
** Pressure mounts in Argentina as their inability to monitor alien threats comes into question.
** Japan struggles with power outages as alien attacks destroy critical infrastructure

Gradually the reports have become more negative than positive. The world seems to slowly be growing more and more weary of the war.

Finances

Council Funding: 72.8m(+13.0m) -- a new high, just a bit more than we got in April
Aircraft Maintenance: 26.6m(-3.4m) -- two new interceptors and the cost goes down, the fruit of our North American strategy
Facility Maintenance: 20.6m(+4m) -- this is expected to do nothing but rise
Net Council Income: 25.6m(+12.4m)

UFO Bounties: none
Mission Rewards: 53.1m
EXALT Funds Seized: 52m

Gross Income: 177.9m(+44.6m!)
Net Income: 130.7m(+44.0m!) -- First time ever over 90m, a huge boost.

The direct funding from the Council continues to be less and less important compared to what we are getting from the specific field operations.

Air War: 50.25m
General Fund: 28.15m

We'll be gobbling this up quickly -- this is before any expenses and there are big plans for new investments now that North America's aerospace expertise is in our pocket.

Artifacts in Storage

2 Alien Pistols: 2m
1 Alien Carbine: 3m
41(85) Sectoid Corpses: 200k -- 19(22%) traded/sold
42(45) Floater Corpses: 300k -- 3(7%) traded/sold
43(70) Thin Man Corpses: 300k -- 17(24%) traded/sold
3(13) Muton Corpse: 400k
13 Chryssalid Carcasses: 700k
24(26) Drone Wrecks: 200k -- 2(8%) traded/sold
1 Sectoid Captive: 1m
1 Thin Man Captive: 1m
131(189) kg Elerium: 500k -- 50(26%) traded/sold
165(233) kg Alien Alloys: 500k -- 62(27%) traded/sold
145(251) Weapon Fragments: 100k -- 61(24%) traded/sold
71(140) oz. Meld: 700k -- 34(24%) traded/sold
8(9) UFO Flight Computers: 3m -- 1(11%) traded/sold
6(7) UFO Power Sources: 6m -- 1(14%) traded/sold
63(66) Seeker Wrecks: 300k -- 3(5%) traded/sold

Total Asset Value: 348.9m(+112.9m)

XCOM both brought in and used/traded a little more in artifacts compared to May, with the result of a similar impressive increase of over 100 million in assets that can be liquidated if necessary. Dr. Vahlen's research teams are continually using more and more of them for their vitally needed studies.

Personnel

Researchers: 39(+9)
Engineers: 38(+11)
Soldiers: 59(-1)

A pretty even split between research and engineering remains. XCOM did not need to recruit a single new soldier this month, which contributed considerably to the ability to invest money elsewhere and see some initial expenditures in equipment for Tactical Ops.

Available Research Projects

Beam Lasers -- in progress, approx. 3 days remaining
Chryssalid Autopsy(6 days, 5 Chryssalid Carcasses)
Interrogate Thin Man(7 days, 1 Thin Man Captive)
Alien Computers(7 days, 4 Flight Computers)
Advanced Body Armor(14 days, 15 kg Alien Alloys)
Advanced Aerospace Concepts(15 days, 10 kg Alien Alloys, 20 Weapon Fragments)
Gauss Weapons(19 days, 5 kg Elerium, 30 kg Alien Alloys, 50 Weapon Fragments)
Elerium(20 days, 35 kg Elerium)

These are ordered in the queue as they are expected to be researched at this time. As can be seen, XCOM has enough scientists for the projects that are anticipated for the next few weeks, but unless other smaller ones come up a larger staff and/or better facilities will be needed to keep up the current pace past late July. The last four projects on the list now are considered to be too complex to be efficiently handled by the three dozen-plus scientists currently working. It's also clear that this next generation of researching will require a lot more physical resources as well ...

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 03:20 PM

June Review

A quiet start to the month on the ground as XCOM was effectively kicked out of Europe so far the UFO battle goes. This gave way to some vital Council missions with the bomb operation in Germany, terror mission in Nigeria, and the trip to China to divert the battleship. The fighters were suprisingly bored in North America however.

Kills: 136(423 total, -9 compared to May)
Soldiers Lost: 2(8 total, -1)
Operations: 10(36 total, -1)
Kill Ratio: 68(52.9 overall, a new high!)

The limitations of our ability to prosecute the Air War really limit these numbers, which is both a good and bad thing. Until we can seriously contest their control of the skies, it continues to be the case that XCOM is merely an annoyance in the side of the alien invaders, fighting what amounts to be a delaying action. The North American haven can't last forever -- once they are done with Africa and Europe and wherever else they are intent on going at the moment, they will come for us. The fact that our kill ratio climbed significantly and they are still coming in increasing numbers tells everything we need to know about their resources: seemingly inexhaustible.

Air War Overview

XCOM has nine fighters, all of them operational. Three are in Europe, North America is full with a complement of six.

Tactical Ops Overview

Officer Training School -- The rank count is now at 109, +23 from a month ago. Only another six are needed before we will be able to expand the standard squad size from 7 to the maximum of 8. Company officers(captains Axle and Sheriff) were added in June: we aren't expected to be ready for the next step to Field officers(majors) until probably August but we have sufficient total ranks for it so all that will be needed is the funding when the time comes.

Tech Sergeant/Major -- 2(+2)
Sergeant/Captain -- 6(+4)
Corporal/Lieutenant -- 11(-1)
Lance Corporal -- 17(+2)
Specialist -- 8(--)
Private -- 15(-7)

We were able to shrink the ranks of the privates but upward mobility was limited, primarily because priority missions dominated the second half of the month so the past couple of weeks it's almost exclusively been just the elite soldiers going out again and again. From a class point of view, we've got a big problem in the scouts: four are currently injured and only two short-term, the two most inexperienced ones. The fifth is about to be injured because he's got to go out on the battleship priority mission and is still in recovery. Adding two or three more there would be very nice. Another assault/medic or two would be good as well: you can never have too many medics and the assaults have proven best at covert ops due to their run-and-gun ability which can be used to get to the communication relays a lot quicker than other classes can.

Current Priorities

In terms of the Air War, analysis now overwhelmingly indicates that throwing a lot more money at the problem is simply not going to help much. I will continue to authorize another fighter a month until we get to a full dozen(full complement for Europe and North America) but the two satellites in reserve are going to stay there and no more uplinks will be built for the time being. More often than not we can't even effectively combat medium let alone large UFOs. A major leap in aerospace technology is going to be required for there to be any hope of competing with the aliens in that arena.

The lions' share of XCOM's funding then will now go into two areas: getting equipment upgrades and improvements for Tactical Ops, and expanding the facilities at HQ. Those are the places where the treasure can still make a significant impact. I can only hope that at some point Vahlen and Shen will be able to give us better tools to combat the alien presence in the skies. The next step in understanding the enemy is still capturing an outsider, which our weakness in the air makes very difficult. We've haven't had but the one chance at it which was almost a month ago. That's really the second 'chokepoint' along with the air campaign in our efforts at the moment.

With this in mind, the following expenditures were authorized:

** One new Raven-class fighter interceptor(14m, 3 days), bringing our total to 10.
** Construction of a Foundry(20m, 6 GW power, 18 days). Shen's strong recommendation here indicates there is hope for new developments that will aid at least tactical operations.
** Another Fission Generator(12m, 10 days). The Foundry will leave us with only a single GW available, not enough to build much of anything.
** Another Access Lift(10m, 1 GW, 7 days). Using up the last of our power, this will give us access to the bottom level of the base, Sublevel 5. To further add to our power supply, we will want to make use in probably the not-too-distant future of the second steam vent down there.
** One additional scopes(7.2m, 6 days) to aid our soldiers in their shooting accuracy.
** Two suits of Phalanx Armor(11.6m, 6 days, 12 kg alien alloys) to offer better protection for our soldiers.

All together, that's almost 70m shelled out but it should give us a good start towards a better foundation, both in terms of facilities and equipment. At the moment we are now down to 3.4 million left until we can bring more in from whatever missions come our way.

Here's how it looks below the base with the new projects set to begin:

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 03:57 PM

For reference as we have a couple more weeks to speed through, here is your obligatory wall of text, otherwhise known as the roster update. The ever-growing killboard has a number of FOFC names pushing up towards the top -- but due mostly to her exploits on the terror mission Spitfire dominates it with 38 confirmed. Since she's now out till near the end of the month, it will be interesting to see if anyone can catch her in the interim. Also worth noting is Vandal on the Memorial Wall -- as of this moment he still has more kills than the rest of the fallen soldiers combined. Definitely sad that he is gone.

XCOM ROSTER -- as of July 1

Assault(5)
** 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)**

CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell(AUS, 4 missions, 10 kills, 2%) -- 4 Health, 14 Mob, 36 Will, 69 Aim, 3 Def
** Tactical Sense, Ranger
SPEC Ted Jordan(USA, 2 mission, 1 kills, 46%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 28 Will, 66 Aim, -3 Def

Engineer(5)
CPL Yolanda 'Angel' Pena(ESP, 7 missions, 13 kills, 76%) -- 7 Health, 12 Mob, 44 Will, 69 Aim, 3 Def
** Sapper, Smoke and Mirrors
LCPL Katia Rivera(MEX, 4 missions, 6 kills, 77%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 39 Will, 66 Aim, 5 Def
** Sapper
LCPL Naomi Foster(USA, 5 missions, 7 kills, 81%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 43 Will, 65 Aim, 1 Def
** Sapper

Gunner(6)
LCPL Eman Hodzic(BIH, 4 missions, 10 kills, 85%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 41 Will, 74 Aim, 1 Def
** Opportunist
LCPL Didier Keita(MEX, 3 missions, 3 kills, 63%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 50 Will, 57 Aim, -2 Def
** Opportunist
LCPL Geoff Russell(USA, 4 missions, 5 kills, 54%) -- 7 Health, 12 Mob, 24 Will, 71 Aim, 0 Def
** Flush
LCPL Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, 3 missions, 5 kills, 49%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 44 Will, 71 Aim, -3 Def
** Low Profile
LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, 6 missions, 11 kills, 41%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 48 Will, 73 Aim, 0 Def
** Low Profile, HEAT Ammo, Stay Frosty
CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, 6 missions, 14 kills, 75%) -- 7 Health, 12 Mob, 42 Will, 74 Aim, 2 Def
** Sprinter, Shredder Ammo

Infantry(7)
LCPL Ches O'Peake(USA, 4 missions, 6 kills, 54%) -- 6 Health, 13 Mob, 37 Will, 71 Aim, -2 Def
** Aggression
LCPL Antonio Santos(BRA, 2 missions, 5 kills, 19%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 37 Will, 77 Aim, 1 Def
** Opportunist
SPEC David Campbell(UK, 1 mission, 1 kill, 0%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 39 Will, 69 Aim, 0 Def
LCPL Elfriede Fischer(DEU, 4 missions, 10 kills, 75%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 72 Aim, 2 Def
** Sprinter
CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, 2 mission, 5 kills, 65%) -- 7 Health, 13 Mob, 39 Will, 75 Aim, 0 Def
** Opportunist, Sharpshooter

Medic(5)
SPEC Jin-Soo Yoon(KOR, 2 missions, 1 kill, 43%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 29 Will, 72 Aim, 3 Def

Rocketeer(6)
SPEC Duncan Ross(FRA, 3 missions, 3 kills, 90%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 41 Will, 72 Aim, 1 Def
LCPL Hannah Cullen(CAN, 3 missions, 4 kills, 6%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 47 Will, 73 Aim, - 1 Def
** Holo-Targeting
LCPL Eliana Soares(BRA, 4 missions, 5 kills, 56%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 40 Will, 71 Aim, 1 Def
** Steadfast
LCPL Sophie Deschamps(FRA, 4 missions, 6 kills, 79%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 36 Will, 73 Aim, 2 Def
** Holo-Targeting

Scout(5)

Sniper(5)
LCPL Path Twelve(DEU, 4 missions, 10 kills, 79%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 36 Will, 80 Aim, 3 Def
** Executioner
SPEC Christy Kodos(CAN, 2 mission, 3 kills, 64%) -- 3 Health, 13 Mob, 31 Will, 75 Aim, -2 Def
SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, 8 missions, 24 kills, 35%) -- 5 Health, 11 Mob, 47 Will, 96 Aim, 3 Def
** Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot, Sprinter

Private(15)

Covert Operations

Recovery

CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, 12 missions, 15 kills, 61%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 51 Will, 70 Aim, -2 Def -- 17 hours
** Revive, Paramedic, Lead By Example, Field Surgeon, Semper Vigilans
SPEC Ana Mendez(ESP, 2 missions, 3 kills, 56%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 28 Will, 67 Aim, -2 Def -- 1 day
CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, 2 missions, 3 kills, 49%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 54 Will, 76 Aim, 0 Def -- 1 day
** Battle Scanner, Resilience
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, 10 missions, 16 kills, 50%) -- 6 Health, 14 Mob, 57 Will, 69 Aim, -1 Def -- 2 days
** Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon
CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, 7 missions, 8 kills, 63%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 79 Aim, 1 Def -- 2 days
** Battle Scanner, Fire In The Hole
LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, 5 missions, 6 kills, 78%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 46 Will, 81 Aim, 1 Def -- 2 days
** Packmaster
CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, 11 missions, 28 kills, 6%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 65 Will, 76 Aim, -4 Def -- 3 days
** Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression, Opportunist
SPEC Kobe Cuvelier(BEL, 2 missions, 0 kills, 87%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 31 Will, 64 Aim, 1 Def -- 3 days
SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, 8 missions, 28 kills, 45%) -- 7 Health, 11 Mob, 56 Will, 84 Aim, 5 Def -- 3 days
** Opportunist, Executioner, Suppression
LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, 8 missions, 7 kills, 47%) -- 6 Health, 13 Mob, 50 Will, 67 Aim, 1 Def -- 3 days
** Sapper, Sharpshooter

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.**

SPEC Luca Basso(ITA, 1 mission, 3 kills, 10%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 28 Will, 67 Aim, -1 Def -- 1 hour
LCPL Takumi Fujita(JPN, 3 missions, 2 kills, 47%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 30 Will, 76 Aim, 3 Def -- 2 days
** Covering Fire
LCPL Lakshmi Pillai(NIG, 4 missions, 6 kills, 40%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 42 Will, 70 Aim, 3 Def -- 3 days
** Aggression
LCPL Carl Tanner(USA, 4 missions, 1 kill, 19%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 24 Will, 72 Aim, -2 Def -- 5 days
** Rapid Reaction
SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, 8 missions, 15 kills, 34%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 48 Will, 79 Aim, -1 Def -- 9 days
** Will to Survive, Low Profile, Vital Point Targeting
LT2 Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, 9 missions, 14 kills, 11%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 47 Will, 83 Aim, -1 Def -- 16 days
** Low Profile, Close Combat Specialist, Stay Frosty, Holo-Targeting
CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim(KOR, 5 missions, 17 kills, 54%) -- 7 Health, 14 Mob, 42 Will, 72 Aim, 1 Def -- 22 days
** Resilience, Tactical Sense
CPL Esperanza 'Cairo' Guerrero(ESP, 5 missions, 13 kills, 21%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 31 Will, 73 Aim, 1 Def -- 22 days
** Will to Survive
CPL Georgia 'Strings' Murdoch(AUS, 7 missions, 5 kills, 51%) -- 3 Health, 13 Mob, 61 Will, 69 Aim, -2 Def -- 22 days
** Revive, Paramedic
TSGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, 10 missions, 38 kills, 34%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 53 Will, 73 Aim, - 2 Def -- 27 days
** Bring 'Em On, Sprinter

KILLBOARD

TSGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason -- 38
CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale -- 28
SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter -- 24
SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter -- 23
CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago -- 20(KIA)
CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim -- 17
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo -- 16
CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie -- 15
SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord -- 15
LT2 Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke -- 14
CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru -- 14
CPL Esperanza 'Cairo' Guerrero -- 13
CPL Yolanda 'Angel' Pena -- 13
LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo -- 11
CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell -- 10
LCPL Elfriede Fischer -- 10
LCPL Eman Hodzic -- 10
LCPL Path Twelve -- 10
CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo -- 8
CPL Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee -- 7
LCPL Naomi Foster -- 7
LCPL Alma Demirovic -- 6
LCPL Sophie Deschamps -- 6
SPEC Seung-yeon Kim -- 6(KIA)
LCPL Ches O'Peake -- 6
LCPL Lakshmi Pillai -- 6
LCPL Isabelle Mirabeau -- 5
CPL Georgia 'Strings' Murdoch -- 5
LCPL Geoff Russell -- 5
LCPL Soledad Sanchez -- 5(KIA)
LCPL Antonio Santos -- 5
LCPL Eliana Soares -- 5
CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang -- 5
LCPL Hannah Cullen -- 4
LCPL Katia Rivera -- 4
SPEC Luca Basso -- 3
LCPL Didier Keita -- 3
CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk -- 3
SPEC Christy Kodos -- 3
SPEC Ana Mendez -- 3
SPEC Duncan Ross -- 3
LCPL Takumi Fujita -- 2
LCPL Amber Mitchell -- 2
SPEC David Campbell -- 1
PFC Stephen Garner -- 1(KIA)
SPEC Ted Jordan -- 1
LCPL Carl Tanner -- 1
SPEC Jin-Soon Yoon -- 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.
PFC Chris Kodos -- 0 kills in 1 mission. KIA during Operation Hot Line by a seeker alien pistol, May 11, 2015
LCPL Soledad Sanchez -- 5 kills in 5 missions. KIA during Operation Glass Heart by floater light plasma rifle, May 23, 2015
LCPL Amber Mitchell -- 2 kills in 4 missions. KIA after Operation Black Heat due to injuries suffered by an EXALT frag grenade, May 27, 2015
PFC Rin Mori -- 0 kills in 2 missions. KIA during Operation Stone Mist by a floater light plasma rifle, June 12, 2015.
CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago -- 20 kills in 6 missions. KIA during Operation Stone Mist by a sectoid plasma pistol, June 12, 2015

Brian Swartz · 07-16-2015, 04:08 PM

And now it is time to attempt the nigh-unthinkable: raiding the diverted alien battleship.

Assault Squad

LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, Gunner, CO)
** Low Profile, HEAT Ammo, Stay Frosty
CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell(AUS, Assault)
** Tactical Sense, Ranger
CPL Yolanda 'Angel' Pena(ESP, Engineer)
** Sapper, Smoke and Mirrors
CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, Infantry)
** Opportunist, Sharpshooter
SPEC Jin-Soo Yoon(KOR, Medic)
CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, Scout)
** Battle Scanner, Resilience
SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper)
** Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot, Sprinter

I have some serious doubts about whether we will be able to pull this off. No captain again, LT Strobe gets the call by default as the only officer that is ready to go. As it was Specter had to be pulled out of recovery and when this mission is over, all five of our scouts will be injured. Yoon still has a lot of work to do as a medic but was the only one available. Even under perfect conditions it seems an incredibly tough ask. But this is the best we have, so off we go. Scopes to Chilong and Walker, the emphasis in loadouts here is to be able to hit the enemy hard and fast. We're missing a rocketeer but the soldiers in the other classes are either more essential or better. The die is cast, the Skyranger is loaded, and off we go!

Travis · 07-16-2015, 04:39 PM

Excited to be a part of this mission sir. Hoping to make your doubts seem very unfounded shortly.

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 12:41 PM

Hopefully you are right, Sergeant Hunter. On we go. As a warning, this will be a bit longer post due to the rather epic nature of the mission. Here's the view of the massive ship as we approach ...

OPERATION FALLEN VENGEANCE
7.1.2015, 0145
Beijing, China

Bradford chimes in as usual with more details once we set down. Self-evidently he says we should expect maximum resistance, but more useful is the plan of taking out six power conduits to disable the battleship and allow us to take it down for a more thorough study and to salvage whatever we can find -- resources, technology, etc.

Now it's up to the squad. Bradford warns that the aliens are dropping more in. We see a thin man in the distance, and hear mutons moving about. It's about to get real. Specter triggers the first door ...

A bit hard to see here, but the conduit is that thing on the left, you can see into the understructure of the ship directly below it a little

Nothing, though we can see the first conduit far below us. The thin man dropped in past it and on the left. The rest follow cautiously, setting up what firing positions we can. Still nothing. The squad moves up to the ledge ... still nothing. But soon that changed. Two floaters and a muton showed up, and a pair of thin man dropped in. Bingo. This is where we get the drop on them ... or get blasted off the ship.

No place for the timid, this. Yoon took care of one exposed thin man, it took both bursts but Chilong erased the other. We had the high ground and initiative on the rest of them. Pena moved up and got a burst in on the closest floater, Specter wounded the muton a bit, and Strobe laid down suppression on the other floater. The muton fired back at us and missed, the floaters went to overwatch. We held the high ground and so far were making good use of it -- they were spread out enough that grenades wouldn't help much, we just needed to gun them down.

Walker was now up in position, and his job was to take out that dangerous muton. It was only a glancing blow, and I learned that the floaters have now upgraded again: they have covering fire. Fantastic. Again Kirk tagged the green monster, and Chilong's second attempt brought it down. Yoon got the kill on the first floater, while Strobe suppressed again to support Tombstone moving in on the conduit for a better shot. Unfortunately there was a thin man down below, and we were lucky it missed her. She took out the floater, but the thin man hopped up behind Pena, flanking her and she was lucky to only be badly wounded. A chryssalid dropped in as well.

Guh. Only a thin man has the mobility to flip up to the walkway for this kind of shot.

Walker had the best shot at it and notched his first kill of the day, while Pena came back up top to be healed. We waited for the spider to make it's move and reloaded, but it didn't come. Fine with me for now. By the time it did, we were ready. Chilong took it down to within an inch of it's life, and Tombstone finished the deal. With Pena back ready to go, it was time to move on. We could still hear mutons out there, and there were five more conduits to go.

I was surprised to reach a set of three towers before any more enemies showed up -- it seems they were moving away from us. These were great positions to watch over the next conduit, but as soon as we got there a thin man dropped in well in front and a sectoid well in back of us. We'd have to wait them out first, or at least the thin man: Zhang was able to easily take care of the sectoid. The thin man didn't advance though, so after a while Tombstone moved in on the conduit. Two down. Still nothing. One airdrop well behind us forced us to wait and be ready in both directions. Zhang moved up into his perch and noted it was a chryssalid. He took a piece out of it and Strobe finished the kill. Taking them out one at a time like that would go a long way towards evening the odds.

Good defensive positions are hard to find, but these work nicely

Specter moved up and spotted a trio past the next set of split doors -- two more floaters and a muton. Ok. One of the floaters was in Walker's sight line, he'd been just chilling there for quite a while now but a one-shot kill here took a bit of pressure off. Specter hunkered down and hopefully they would come to us. Sort of, close enough for Walker to take a shot and miss at the floater. I was in no hurry though. The junior member of the squad, medic Yoon, gave it a flesh wound on the way in and a more serious one a moment later. The muton was still fine but it wasn't coming yet.

The floater moved in just a bit, trying to goad us -- Yoon was not amused and a third straight hit from him knocked it out of the sky. It didn't look like it was coming, but then Angel spotted it in the open, the sneaky bastard ... and completely missed. Walker was on the money again, another one-shot kill! And so endeth this part of the battle. It was time to push forward past those doors.

Junior medic Yoon was a surprise standout here. Apparently he just really had it in for this floater

The end of this phase of the battle -- one of Walker's more impressive snipes drops the green giant in one blow

From the sounds of things there were probably some of them behind both doors. The squad split in two, half on each side. There could be a real firefight on our hands, but there was no other way. The doors were triggered ... and this strange-looking silvery disc, almost like a saucer, floated in the air near the conduit on the right.

Dr. Shen put it his two cents -- 'We can't get a read on that thing. Its movements are so ... inconsistent'. On the left, two more floaters and another muton. Well, this was just all categories of awesome. Enemies both familiar and new.

Add another one to the list of alien creations. After all, mutons are so passe now, so 'old hat'.

Walker won the exchange of fire with one of the floaters, wounding it but not badly. Specter moved in, and -- lovely ... the long lost thin man was here also. A nice close-range shotgun blast made the muton go away. The squad got a piece of everything except that flying metal disc, which Strobe suppressed. Both sides were exposed but hopefully they'd mostly miss given they were damaged and we had the initiative.

Or not. Pena and Specter were both blasted, both critically wounded and out of the fight. Meanwhile a sectoid dropped in to join the fun. Walker finished off his target, while Zhang tagged that disc-thing twice. It wasn't having a lot of fun now, but still aloft. Yoon took out that twirp of a sectoid, Strobe dropped the floater that was suppressing Tombstone, and in turn she dashed over to the disc. It wasn't quite done yet though and a muton with two more floaters decided to show up. Ay caramba.

To fire, the silvery saucer disc thingy went all Transformers on us, revealing an impressively powerful main gun that puts out at least as much damage as the full-size plasma rifles the mutons carry, though it's a different type of energy. Maybe more damage even. Angel got the receiving end of it, suppressed or not. Dr. Shen would later hypothesize that the 'original form' is a shell of sorts allowing it better protection. Sort of a catch-22 there -- it might kill you in one shot, but it if it didn't, you can take it down easier. We also learned that they blow up when destroyed, a self-destruct mechanism of some sort. Thankfully everyone was far enough away to avoid damage, but these things suck in all kinds of interesting and deadly new ways

Both sides mostly missed for a while which helped us as we were able to get to the injured and stabilize them just in time. Tombstone took out the floater but we still needed to do something about that muton, and now. Walker missing for the second time in a row isn't what I had in mind, though he had a relatively poor angle. But still, that's why he's here. Zhang gave him a bit of a wound, and Strobe added his suppressing fire, hoping it would be enough.

It was. The muton just fired back angrily, and Tombstone moved in to clean up the mess. The rest of the squad, reduced by two to five, had to regroup. There was no margin for error. If they could get the four remaining power conduits, their comrades would still live.

The remaining thin man and floater showed back up, but somehow the floater missed. Don't ask me how, it was on top of Strobe. I didn't care either. Both were exposed, and Strobe and Yoon each added to their tally. Again we set up to hit the close-by conduits. Walker hit one, and two thin men dropped in. One was a ways off, the other obliterated by Tombstone's busy shotgun. Strobe got the drop on the second one.

Still three more conduits and goodness knows how many of the enemy left. A thin man and muton dropped by. The second was further off, and the first made the mistake of showing up right in front of Chilong. Goodbye. The big one walked in Walker's sight-line, and he went down as well. Back to where we were -- anyone else before we take out another conduit?

Another thin man near the remaining conduits as we dropped the count to two. We were almost there, but it looked like they were going to fight us every step of the way. Walker's aim was true again, and the unfortunate enemy was reduced to so much acid before he could chamber the next round.

Walker takes out the last bit of trash with this perfect assassination

That was it. Tombstone and Chilong disabled the final conduits almost simultaneously, and Bradford had this to say:

'Nicely done strike one. That ship is now officially ours -- although I don't think it will fit in the hangar.'

**facepalm**
**double facepalm**
** triple ... never mind. Bradford, you just went maximum stupid. Never go maximum stupid.

Post-Mortem

26 pain in the butt enemies eliminated, all power conduits, disabled, battleship captured. Astonishing, but true -- we did it! And two near-dead soldiers during the heat of the battle against that ... that ... that thing. Chilong is now a sergeant, Yoon a lance corporal. Spectre and Angel will both be gone until well into August, about a month and a half each. Permanent damage is possible. But it's hard to say, in this case, that their sacrifice isn't worth it. Easier, when you consider that for the next two weeks, we have only two low-level scouts available under the best of circumstances. That could prove costly.

But for today, it's relief and congratulations! This could have gone sideways a few times, but more often than not the squad came up with the shots it needed at the right times. Just enough, but it was indeed enough.

Artifacts Recovered

2 Sectoid Corpses
8 Floater Corpses
8 Thin Man Corpses
5 Muton Corpses
1 Cyberdisc Wreck
2 Chryssalid Carcasses
56 kg Elerium
58 kg Alien Alloys
37 Weapon Fragments
6 oz. Meld
6 UFO Flight Computers
5 UFO Power Sources
2 Fusion Cores

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call a HAUL. That new silvery disc thing that basically can take almost twice as much damage as a freaking muton is called a cyberdisc apparently. It's 'main gun' is highly impressive, to say the least. And fusion cores? I don't even know what the heck they are, but Bradford says he thinks we could get ... wait for it ... twenty million euros apeice for them on the grey market. All together, the above items are worth -- drumroll please -- some 162+ million. In other words, though we will be using some of it of course, the total worth of XCOM's disposable artifacts accumulated over the past four months was increased by nearly half in this one operation! Not bad -- not bad at all.

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 01:36 PM

0633 -- Two and a half hours later, the collective decided(wisely, I have to admit) that this was the time to strike. Abductions in China. 10m, heavy activity.

Strike Squad

LCPL Ches O'Peake(USA, Infantry)
** Aggression
SPEC Luca Basso(ITA, Medic)
SPEC Ted Jordan(USA, Assault)
LCPL Katia Rivera(MEX, Engineer)
** Sapper
SPEC Duncan Ross(FRA, Rocketeer)
LCPL Path Twelve(DEU, Sniper)
** Executioner
PFC Jonathan Onifade(NIG)

It has been a long time since a squad with nobody corporal or higher went out. There's no officer to lead them, and no scout. This is either a bunch of sacrificial lambs, or a great opportunity for some mid and low-level soldiers to get promotions and prove themselves. Ches O'Peake, Duncan Ross, and Path Twelve, I'm looking at you. All are very likely to see a rank increase -- if you survive. A scope will be taken by O'Peake -- Twelve, like a couple of others on this mission, has a combination of low survivability and low mobility making adding one to their loadout impractical.

Good shooting everyone -- I'm a tinge nervous about this one for basically opposite reasons as the last mission.

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 01:55 PM

OPERATION SHATTERED SKULL
7.1.2015, 0802
Harbin, China

Deployment is in the parking lot of what looks like an ice cream shop. Right is better cover: left is access to a nice roof that overlooks the area and could be one heck of a position to snipe at the aliens -- unless of course they are fliers in which case it won't matter. Tough call, but with this group I'm taking the bird in the hand. There is no initial contact. The sounds are those of sectoids and floaters. It could be worse. The squad keeps moving right, intending to use the vehicles to shield their movement and clear that flank. If that works, there's better approaches up that side of the building, the main doors are that way -- it's the safest route all the way around.

Soon Onifade spotted a quartet of thin men, and there was no good way to approach them without risking running into more enemies. O'Peake and Jordan attempted to swing around a large van, with the hope of goading them into a pincer movement. As it was there were not four, but five. Without many good shooting positions, Rivera hit one as they moved inside the store, a trio on overwatch while Rivera and Onifade were caught with acid. This was not going well.

They had chosen a direction though at least. A rocket by Duncan Ross relived a couple of them of cover and caused some damage. A bit of a dream of a pistol shot by Jordan finished off one, and Path Twelve nearly took out another. It hurt Rivera a bit but her and Onifade moved to safety. It looked to be a tough fight, but we had a decent position to engage now. Two of them overwatched, and one missed a shot at Onifade. Now it was looking better.

The explosion was far more impressive than the damage resulting, but still

A pair of shots by O'Peake did minimal damage but weren't bad combined. Ross found a good angle but completely missed, Basso did no better, but Twelve finished off the guy close to O'Peake. The others could do nothing but wait. One close-range shot tagged Ross but he was still up, another missed, and a third went to overwatch. Time to finish them off. Rivera, healed from the acid, lobbed a frag grenade at one of the close ones. Ross, of all the stupidity, couldn't quite finish it off and Basso helped his survival chances by using a kit. On the second try Ches O'Peake ended to overwatcher and Jordan dashed in by the entrance for a flanking shot. A long-range shotgun, but he made it good.

Hitting anything through this haze of acid, rubble, smoke, and bodies is pretty darned impressive if you ask me

The last thin man missed Ross again, taking out the wall -- and then six mutons showed up on the far side. Yep, six of them. The crap-o-Meter was now pretty much off the scale. Had to do whatever we could. Ross finished off the thin man, Twelve wounded the closest one, and the others healed up/reloaded/repositioned. Hopefully they'd give us something to deal with and not, say, kill half of us immediately.

It's not hard to find targets here

Three missed Jordan on the right flank -- he had a good spot but that was still fortunate. Onifade and Rivera combined to take down the injured one as it advanced, and another did that bellowing thing they call 'blood call'. According to Vahlen, it increases nearby muton's aim, will, and mobility for a 15-minute period. Three including the 'roarer' were affected.

Ok, five mutons. The more damage we could do the better. Path Twelve struck again, a moderate wound but she is just basically not missing today. Like 5-for-6 or something. The more we could wound the better. One-out-of two for O'Peake injures another, mostly reloads/repositioning elsewhere. They miss Jordan four more times, an absolute gift by this point, and one overwatches while the building is falling apart. Some nice shooting this time around, concluding with a kill by O'Peake and Ross getting in a wounding blow. Rivera continues to move into grenade range but it's tough, and Twelve had to reload.

Four left, two injured. The let's-shoot-Jordan game continued, three misses there and one missed Basso. I'm telling you this isn't about tactics. We are out-shooting the gang of mutons who can't hit the target. That's all this is. I made our move -- but it didn't work as advertised. Jordan dashed up for a shotgun blast that did minimal damage. Same for Rivera's grenade. They were all injured, but not that badly. The squad had to clean up what they could. Path Twelve finished off the one in the store, Ross the one just outside it with some more good shooting. Two left on the far side, mostly healthy.

You had a good day specialist Jordan, but it'd be nice if you finished off the bastard when you're this close. Really it would.

One shot and missed, another retreated. What a joke of an excuse for mutons these guys were. Not that I'm complaining ... yet. A close-range execution by Jordan handled the first, O'Peake missed the second. Rivera was the only one to get a shot, weakening it with a grenade. The muton didn't care. In a pure act of revenge by the laws of nature, the badly injured creature shot Ches O'Peake stone dead on impact!

This miss was the last think O'Peake would ever do ...

Nonsense, and yet at the same time we deserved worse. Jordan, the man of the moment, panicked and we couldn't get another shot. The muton paused to reload ... and five sectoids came at us from the opposite side of the store we'd just come from. I wish it was a joke, but it's not. Back in the fight, Ted Jordan finished off the muton. It was six against five, and they are only sectoids. We got this ... right?

Nobody had time to ready for defensive fire, but we got into decent positions and awaited their attack. One tagged Ross from an unexpected angle, and he was almost dead -- panicked. Another panick attack on Onifade took him out. Ok, maybe we don't 'got this'. Rivera elminated the closest threat with her last grenade, Twelve had a rare miss, but the sectoids missed as well. Onifade is still babbling like a fool though, and the column he's behind is distintegrating.

Look here, it's Duncan Ross getting shot and nearly killed. Again.

Jordan dashed up and flank one that was going after Ross, who can do little of use other than 'not die' with the only medikits on the other side of the map. Twelve misses again, more manuevering, the sectoids miss again but two of them think it's better to overwatch now. Time to have a shooting contest, and they all have good cover.

Shielded by the green SUV from their vision, Basso moves up the front corner and flanks to take another one out, while Path Twelve takes her third try at the far one and it's head was a little too far out in the open. That was nice, only one left. It learns that wooden walls don't work great against shotguns. Jordan gets the last tally.

This was the most annoying of the creepy sneaky bastards, but Path Twelve got him on the third try and it was all but over at that point

Post-Mortem

If you told me we would end up in a shooting gallery with six mutons, I'd have taken one casualty with this group any day. It still sucks the way it happened though. Ches O'Peake will be remembered for having basically a stuff happens death. 16 killed, and China has been protected again.

Ted Jordan was the guy who couldn't get hit, until he was the guy who went on a rampage to end the mission. He's promoted, as are Onifade, Rivera, and FOFC's very own Duncan Ross He got blasted twice though, so he'd better enjoy that promotion as he won't be seeing the battlefield for a month.

Let's not forget the quite fine shooting of Path Twelve, earning a promotion as well and the callsign 'Garrote'.

Artifacts Recovered

4 Sectoid Corpses
5 Thin Man Corpses
6 Muton Corpses
27 Weapon Fragments
3 oz. Meld

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 02:09 PM

PROMOTIONS

Duncan Ross, you have 5 kills in your 4 missions and apparently nine lives as well. You are now a Lance Corporal!

** Packmaster -- Use small items once extra per mission. This is things such as battle scanners, medikits, etc.
** Rapid Reaction -- For overwatch, an additional reaction shot(up to three total) for each one that is a hit.
** Aggression -- +10% critical chance(up to 30% max) for each enemy in sight.

Commander's Recommendation -- To be honest, none of these are great. Aggression is by far the best, and will aid in doing damage when you aren't shooting off a rocket. Commander's Prerogative is invoked.

Health: 3(--)
Will: 50(+9)
Aim: 72(+5)

That's pretty fantastic work there! Keep up that kind of improvement lance corporal, and you may find your career taking off.

Path Twelve, you are to be known henceforth as 'Garrote'. Promotion to corporal is approved with 13 kills in 5 missions.

** Disabling Shot -- Does minimal damage but causes the primary weapon of the target to malfunction. They can reload to fix it, but for at least one turn it's out of commission. It's particularly useful on enemies such as the recently-encountered cyberdisc, particularly when they are too strong to be taken down in one hit.
** Precision Shot -- Walker has used this to good effect. +30% to critical chance and extra damage on critical hits based on the weapon's tech level. In other words, more advanced weapons will hit harder and harder as they progress up the tech tree. Err, if we progress up the tech tree

.
** Snap Shot -- You can fire/overwatch after moving. This is presently impossible: with this ability it still imposes a -10 to your aim.

Commander's Recommendation -- This is pretty much the same choice Walker had a while back. As I think I mentioned then, all are useful. I do think the choice of Precision Shot is overall the best but there are situations where a sniper has lost line of sight(Snap Shot) or is facing a particularly powerful foe that you can't one-shot-kill(Disabling Shot) where the others are better. The choice is yours.

Corporal Path 'Garrote' Twelve, you are on the clock.

Edit: I should also mention here that Ches O'Peake is always free to re-enlist. The Commander regrets to inform your next of kin that you were involved in a tragic head-on collision on I-95. Your 8 kills in 5 missions rank second only to Vandal among the deceased on the Memorial Wall.

path12 · 07-17-2015, 03:02 PM

Going for the Precision Shot!

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 03:32 PM

The 10m gained had to be immediately spent. 5 went to an intel scan, after which a cell was discovered in the United States. There's nobody right now really fit for the job, so up-and-coming infantrywoman Elfriede Fischer is sent out. She's got Sprinter training so her quickness is at least not in question. For the first time in several weeks, a pair of new soldiers were recruited as well.

July 1 -- Captain Lily 'Axle' Brodie returns before the end of the day, a good start towards getting some quality soldiers ready to go. It covers one of the three classes without an active-duty soldier: assaults and scouts are still missing.

July 2 -- Another returns.

July 3 -- One more soldier is back, but more importantly at 1106 Project Sunray, aka Beam Lasers research, is finished. Chryssalid autopsy will be next up. Vahlen's synopsis on the laser-based prototypes was not particularly noteworthy: the most important part is that the shotgun and sniper variants will require additional testing and developing, as they need more refined and controlled energy management.

Dr. Shen had a much thicker file on the matter. And no wonder -- some eight distinct personal weapon types are now available. The general upshot of things is that the controlled laser beams are more accurate than a conventional ballistic weapon, being far less affected by ambient conditions. Even on the most chaotic battlefield, aim can be significantly improved. This also allows for fewer 'flesh wound' outcomes, with more consistent damage, though the maximum is a hair lower.

As a representative example, consider the standard assault rifle, probably the most commonly used personal primary weapon in the XCOM arsenal due to it's mix of flexibility and firepower:

Conventional Assault Rifle:

** Range: Long
** Ammunition: 3
** Base Damage: 2-6
** Critical Chance: 10%, 6-10 damage

Laser Rifle

** Range: Long
** Ammunition: +3
** Base Damage: 4-6
** Critical Chance: 10%, 6-9 damage
** Accuracy Bonus: +7

Initial analysis indicates that under normal conditions, the effective damage is estimated to be around 45% higher with the laser variant. In 'scramble' types of situations such as the open-terrain fighting common against chryssalids and zombies in the terror mission last month, it would still be better but by a smaller margin, more like 10-15%. The latter scenario is less common, of course.

These weapons have leapt to the head of the class in terms of needed improvements for Tactical Ops. Each requires a few kg of alloys, and the price ranges from a couple million to 5-6 million depending on the type. With the recent appearance of the cyberdisc and the number of mutons we saw in China, it's clear the aliens are upping the ante yet again. The sooner we can get these weapons in the field, the better off we will be.

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 03:34 PM

Precision Shot it is for Garrote:

Health: 3(--)
Will: 41(+5)
Aim: 83(+3)

Fair -- could be better, could be worse.

Brian Swartz · 07-17-2015, 04:58 PM

After a long debate with the executive committee, the decision was made for our first artifact sell-off in a couple months in order to get some laser weaponry in the field sooner rather than later. This will be limited to a basic purchase of the most needed types available, as follows:

1 Autolaser(5.4m, 4 kg alloys)
3 Laser Rifles(4.5m, 3 kg alloys)
2 Laser Carbines(3.6m, 3 kg alloys
1 Heater(laser SMG variant, 2.7m, 3 kg alloys)

Total Cost: 28.8m, 22 kg alloys

We currently have a strong surplus of many artifact categories to sell, and the alloy cost here would be needed anyway but it is only a fraction, just over 10%, of the current stockpile. Under the circumstances it seems clearly better to make this modest investment than to wait for more financing to be available. The cost of that in terms of the lives of skilled soldiers is likely to be far higher. Just over 25m needed to be raised to supply the needed equipment:

7 Floater Corpses
5 Muton Corpses
3 Chryssalid Carcasses
3 Drone Wrecks
2 UFO Flight Computers
2 UFO Power Sources
8 Seeker Wrecks

It will take about a week and a half for Shen's charges to produce the weapons, although the autolaser(for gunners) will take a couple of days longer.

July 3 -- Three more soldiers returned during the remains of the day, but no assault/scout help yet.

July 4 -- The new Raven is ready. Soon afterwards, at 0436, the first sighting in North America of a UFO. Arriving from the west-northwest, it was a medium-sized raider flying nap of the earth. 'Mangler' Neale went up first, got in a several hits but couldn't take it down. It was badly damaged though, that was the most impressive flying I'd ever seen. The first shot by 'Lunchbox' Turnbull obliterated it, and there's not enough to recover despite the low flight path. That's disappointing, another missed chance to go after an Outsider. Not disappointing of course was the 20m bounty. It was put to immediate use: two more suits of phalanx armor were ordered and a heavy laser rifle, the new variant of the current battle rifle for elite infantry soldiers, were immediately begun. Dr. Shen is a busy man.

Seven more soldiers are back, including Captain Gale, Sergeant Hunter, and Lieutenant Banerjee. Included were a low-level assault and scout getting back from medical leave. They may not be the best, but at least we've now got somebody available at all stations.

July 5 -- Egypt would like sectoid corpses for scientists, eight for two. We have just enough to spare and the trade is approved. There's been no notable UFO activity the last few days, which is strange.

July 6 -- Eight return, including a couple of assaults, another scout, LT Hoo and CPL Twelve. Recovery has been cleared out but there are still nine in medical, which would be manageable if all but one of them weren't corporal or higher rank. A lot of our best are still out, but we've got coverage again. Weathered the storm, so to speak. A scope and the first two suits of phalanx armor have come off the line in engineering.

July 7 -- The UK wants a satellite for a pair of engineers. They may get it later in the month, but not yet. At 0135, another abduction alert goes off. This one's in Japan. It's another of the 10 million variety.

Strike Squad

LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, Engineer, CO)
** Sapper, Sharpshooter
LCPL Antonio Santos(BRA, Infantry)
** Opportunist
SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic)
** Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon
LCPL Lakshmi Pillai(NIG, Scout)
** Aggression
LCPL Eman Hodzic(BIH, Gunner)
** Opportunist
PFC Mariya Markova(RUS)
PFC Simran Banerjee(NIG)

Cargo and Whiskey will need to carry this group. We've got a pair of scopes and phalanx armor sets: they'll both get armor, but Whiskey won't need the scope, that'll go to Santos who is a budding talent in the infantry slot. Strangely enough, there's two Banerjee's, which will make describing the action a bit interesting. FOFC takes another mission off.

Travis · 07-17-2015, 05:36 PM

NICE! Glad that mission went really well in the end.

Brian Swartz · 07-18-2015, 01:23 PM

I'm glad you were there! By the way, I hadn't added them in yet when I posted the writeup, but you had six kills total to push you to 30 confirmed -- second best and more than twice that of any other sniper(I think you have more than the rest of them combined). A lot of that is because you were a bit ahead of the others and then just kept going out on priority missions, but regardless that's pretty darned impressive!

Brian Swartz · 07-18-2015, 01:39 PM

OPERATION SPECTRAL APOLLO

This will be brief, since I lost the writeup to a computer crash. Always remember, there are two kinds of people: those who save, and those who will :P.

Anyway, it was a highway map. No initial contact, eventually ran into a trio of floaters that were fairly easily dealt with. Four thin men showed up as soon as we'd dealt with them. Pretty good shooting all around to finish them off, a couple of extreme angle shots by Hodzic and the rookie Markov. Santos got a couple of kills as well. Cargo used grenades to good effect: three of the thin men clustered behind a bus for cover, practically begging themselves to be fragged. so she did. At that point everything's looking good, right?

Time for what I thought was the final enemy squad. And then this happened:

Uh ....

Two cyberdiscs, each with a pair of attending drones. One of them immediately shot Pillai, a critical injury and fortunate she wasn't dead. Hodzic tried to provide cover with suppressing fire so that Whiskey could revive and heal her. Much to my surprise it worked, thanks only to some fortunate misses -- we could only suppress one disc at a time. The squad fell back to the best defensible position, but even that failed: not enough heavy hitters in this squad and as with all flying armored enemies, they are tough to hit and tougher to bring down.

It came down to a choice between almost certainly getting the whole squad killed, or retreating. I chose option B. We eventually took down a couple of drones but if we'd stayed any longer, the cyberdiscs would have annihilated us. I consider myself fortunate that everyone got out alive. This was the 39th tactical operation of the war, and the first one in which the aliens finished in control of the battlefield. Morale in Tactical Ops has been shaken, and Japan is of course not particularly pleased with the ongoing abductions.

9 total enemies killed, we retrieved most but not all of the resources from them. Those who participated get no credit for it in terms of mission experience: they are recorded to have participated but that's it. Some credit was still given for kills, but that's it. Unsurprisingly, no promotions were handed out.

Greyfriars Bobby · 07-18-2015, 02:51 PM

After his last mission, I'm surprised Big Dunc is alive to enjoy his promotion at all.

Lance Corporal Ross accepts your recommendation, Commander, and chooses Aggression.

Oops...I missed the fact you'd exercised your prerogative, Commander. Accept my apologies, Sir.

07-09-2015, 11:43 PM	#251
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	deleted due to technical difficulties Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-10-2015 at 12:00 AM.

07-11-2015, 11:24 AM	#254
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 6, 0833 -- A couple hours after returning, a high-flying satellite hunter showed up in Europe. Bordoni went up, and got in a couple of hits. It wasn't enough though, and the satellite over Germany was shot down. Since there's not a whole lot of point to keeping interceptors where there are no satellites, all of them available ones were transferred to North America. Right now we have three that are flight-capable, with more satellites ready to go up in two weeks. 2103 -- Another high-flying medium UFO has hilariously showed up in Europe. Good luck, nothing to find there. June 7, 0111 -- Abduction Alert! The islands of Japan are the target this time, with heavy activity and a 10m reward. This is the second of the 'replay' missions and again the same group will go out as before: Strike Squad LCPL Beth Campbell(AUS, Assault) Tactical Sense LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, Engineer, CO) Sapper, Sharpshooter LCPL Mac Roguru(AUS, Gunner) Sprinter LCPL Sophie Deschamps(FRA, Rocketeer) Holo-Targeting CPL Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper) ** Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot PFC Ana Mendez(ESP) PFC Jin-Soon Yoo(KOR) Roguru and Hunter figure to get plenty of 'target practice' -- hopefully not on the receiving end. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-11-2015 at 12:56 PM.

07-12-2015, 05:18 PM	#263
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 12 -- More UFO activity over Nigeria. Egypt wants 6 meld for a pair of scientists, and we agree. Five soldiers return, including Mac Roguru and Jace Hunter. June 13 -- Three more are back, including one of the officers. June 14 -- India wants a trade for sectoid corpses, rejected as we don't have enough. Just after 0600, Vahlen reports her latest task is finished. Improved Body Armor, or Project Linebacker, is ready for review. "We've succeeded in creating a design for an advanced suit of armor ... the downside of using this exotic material is that we have no means of replicating it". Designated the Phalanx Armor, the new suit provides +3 Health and +2 mobility, at a cost of 5.8m each and 6 kg of Alien Alloys. We have plenty of the material, the question is the money. Eventually we'll probably want enough to outfit a full squad. It offers a little more mobility and protection compared to our standard full armor, and compared to the lighter vest option it restricts mobility a bit but has much better protection. It would be preferable for most soldiers but is not a huge change. We also have the new underarmor vest termed Reinforced Armor available. Not only is this more expensive(8.1m each) but it also inhibits movement. It adds damage reduction and survivability for the exchange of making the soldier easier to hit(-7 defense). I don't think we'll be investing in these. Experimental Warfare(7 days, 10 weapon fragments) is up next. Vahlen's description here is vague, it appears to be largely theoretical but is based on the idea of further adapting alien technology to our use on the battlefield. Later, we get another soldier and another fighter back ... and heavy activity over Germany is reported. It appears the aliens are switching gears from Africa now to our home nation ... June 15 -- Two more including Coffee Warlord are back. At 0916, Nigeria officially withdraws from the Council. June 16 -- Canada offers two more scientists but they want a dozen meld for them. A steep price, but we have enough. The daily report includes a pair of soldiers back from Stone Mist. June 17 -- Australia wants elerium for engineers -- the trade is approved. LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale is back and excavation of sublevel 3 completed. We also now have five fighters ready to go with the other three back in a week. North America has been very quiet. June 18, 0124 -- More evidence that the aliens are now focused on Europe: abductions in the UK. It's a heavy/10m mission. While the loss of Vandal will sting for a while, Tactical Ops is looking good in terms of readiness with the recent downtime: only one operation in nearly two weeks now has left only six remaining in the infirmary and recovery is empty. Strike Squad CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim(KOR, Assault) Resilience, Tactical Sense SPEC Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, Gunner) SPEC Antonio Santos(BRA, Infantry) CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO) Revive, Paramedic, Lead By Example, Field Surgeon, Semper Vigilans CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, Scout) ** Battle Scanner, Resilience PFC Ted Jordan(USA) PFC David Campbell(UK) It's been a while, but the roll of the dice leaves this mission FOFC-free. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-14-2015 at 12:05 AM.

07-15-2015, 01:23 PM	#267
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 20, 0933 -- Experimental Warfare completed(Project Skunk Works). The only immediate practical results are for use with SHIVs, which are not part of our tactical approach. Dr. Vahlen has reported though that 'we've come to realize how the aliens managed to use these substances in conjuction with one another'. It is hoped that the increased understanding will lead to more impressive applications in the future. Muton Autopsy(6 days, 10 muton corpses) is up next on the docket, and 6 Thin Man corpses are shipped to Egypt for a pair of engineers. 1233 -- Arc Thrower finished, we're now back up to two of them. 1833 -- The first trio of satellites are ready to go up. We'll keep one in reserve, and send up birds over the US and Canada. We've reached the fruition of the goal to cover North America! We don't have the money for it yet, but Dr. Shen wants a foundry built. With the reduction in cost, I do splurge for another fighter using what we have available in the air war portion of the budget: this one is 14m instead of the usual 20. June 21 -- Hilariously, the aliens have returned to Nigeria. You control the freaking nation, idiots! Nevertheless, a bombing raid there was carried out this morning, perhaps in an attempt to ensure they stay on the sidelines. Japan wants alloys for scientists, but this deal we have to turn down. June 22, 0403 -- Exalt has struck again. This time they destroyed valuable research information. Vahlen says the damage was minimal, partly due to the fact that we have a laboratory contained backups of some of the data. Approximately a day's worth of efforts were lost. The cell responsible operates out of the UK, and once again a covert operative is dispatched. In keeping with the standard operating procedure of sending out a relatively inexperienced but highly mobile soldier, both to get them experience and because they are relatively expendable, SPEC Kobe Cuvelier(BEL) is sent on this mission. It'll leave us short on assault soldiers for the time being, but it can't be helped. So far, covert operatives are 2-for-2 in getting hit by grenades on the recovery missions, resulting in one long-term injury and one death. Hopefully we'll do better this time around. June 22 -- Four soldiers return, among them the long-injured Shaojie Zhang. June 23 -- Finally what appears to be an easy one. Abductions in the US before our satellite can get in place. The readings show light activity, 8m minimum reward. Knock on wood, but it's a chance to get some privates out there and build up some more soldiers. Strike Squad LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, Gunner, CO) Low Profile, HEAT Ammo LCPL Elfriede Fischer(DEU, Infantry) Sprinter SPEC Jin-Soo Yoon(KOR, Medic) LCPL Esperanza Guerrero(ESP, Rocketeer) Will to Survive SPEC Christy Kodos(CAN, Sniper) PFC Ted Jordan(USA) PFC Jonathan Onifade(NIG) With no available scout, we'll keep it to a modest two privates for this operation. LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo gets his first operational command, and Christy Kodos** tempts death for a second time, trying out her splendid rusty sniper rifle :P. The privates are packing arc throwers; this is potentially as good a chance as we're going to get to capture another of the enemy. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-15-2015 at 01:23 PM.

07-15-2015, 02:06 PM	#270
Travis Pro Rookie Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Canada eh	Sweet, like how that upgrade worked out. Hopefully it'll translate to improved performance in the field. __________________ "I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it." - Rogers Hornsby

07-10-2015, 12:05 AM	#252
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Ok here's the deal: I managed to screw up pretty badly. I apologize . We are going to continue but I need to replay a couple of missions. I was going through deleting old saves no longer needed ... and realized too late I was getting rid of the wrong ones. The latest one left at the time I realized it was at June 6, 0255. So, that puts us just shy of 34 days to make up as of this posting(I had actually played up through the morning of June 12th and posted that info before removing it and putting the 'deleted due to technical difficulties' blurb. Truth be told, it would be more accurate to state 'deleted due to dynasty author forgetting the #1 rule of computers: always back everything up'). Arghzorz. Anyway, it's not really a total loss since I had sort of screwed up in recording/writing up those missions anyway. The covert extraction on June 6th, with the squad as mentioned some posts back for it, will be next up. Tomorrow I'm going to make sure I have all the needed maintenance done: roster and XCOM inventory up to date, etc., and then attempt to proceed. Who knows, maybe I can manage not to get anyone killed this time -- or just as likely, manage a total squad wipe with a resulting mission fail spiral. Time will tell. The Commander apologizes again for his incompetence in invalidating the timeline.

07-11-2015, 11:20 AM	#253
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Ok, so here we go again on the EXALT data recovery mission down under. OPERATION FALLING CROWN 6.6.2015, 0457 Australia Protecting the encoder is job one, but we have to cross an open courtyard with the fountain seen here to get to it. They head in to hack the encoder almost immediately, and we've got no choice but to head straight across the courtyard with little to use for cover. Not optimal at all. We take down two of them with Pillai and Brodie getting the finishing blows, but one is still there and the hack continues. Four more come down the street on the left, with another operative at least coming in from behind the building. That's six of them out there, minimum. Time for our covert op to earn his pay. Fujita snags the closest comm relay to buy us some time. With that done, I noticed three of them clustered alongside a white van, virtually begging a rocket to be sent that way. Soares obliges. She's a bit off target and hits the van, but all three are caught in the blast. Pena moves up and finishes them off with a grenade, but spots another quartet of operatives in the process. Argh. We take the hacker out and wound another, but there's still five of them. One pops smoke and another moves in to resume the hack. Another grenade by Pena dispenses with quite a bit of their cover. Fujita looses a flashbang which may well have saved his life, since we missed most of our shots and only Russell knocked one out. That's five left -- all of which shot at Fujita and missed. I'll take that kind of luck, expect that three more showed up. There are eight out there now, and the hack on the encoder is nearly complete. Faced with this many enemies, there is no such thing as 'enough explosives' Pena has one grenade left but can't safely get close enough to use it. Soares still has a shredder rocket, and manages to take out the two wounded enemies by the encoder, but doesn't do much damage to the third. It was the best shot she had though. Path Twelve misses wildly, but Pena and Fischer combine to take one out while Pillai moves into the encoder zone to contest the hack. She's got a flashbang also and uses that on the exalt operative in there to improve safety. Russell suppresses the closest enemy down the street, but the second one moves and injures Fujita with a grenade. He's still ok, but that's not fun. Geoff Russell, the killless wonder coming in(three missions without a tally) found more success in this target-rich environment Soares did ok today. She missed the target with both of her rockets, but was close enough to get the job done. Pillai and the exalt operative exchange point-blank fire, she hits and puts her scout training to good use in avoiding his barrage. Fischer goes clutch, clearing out one of the enemies on the street and the operative in by the encoder. By my count, that means there are four left, one down the left side by the comm relay and three more coming in behind. More suppression fire on the one visible by Russell. A true 'fight-or-flight' scenario if ever there was one. Pillai won this encounter and it saved her life He's a brave(or stupid) one, advancing anyway. Russell misses, Pena nearly takes him out, and Brodie can't finish the job. Meanwhile, another exalt operative moves into the encoder zone and a second hits Pillai hard, nearly killing her. A third covers the shooter with smoke, and more are coming in. A lot more -- five of them for a total of nine of them out there now! Bradford says this is the last of the reinforcements, but that's little comfort at the moment. Path Twelve finally steps up, a one-shot-drop on the one close by Pillai in the encoder area. We can't see most of the others, so Pillai retreats, most of the squad reloads, and LT Axle heads over to heal up Fujita who will make a run for the comm relays when needed. We need to ready up for the final firefight here. Two of them make it into the encoder zone -- we've got to take both of them out. Pena's final grenade ... barely damages both of them. That's not what I had in mind. Fujita hacks the comm array up the street, spotting an overwatching operative back behind the building. He misses there, but Soares and Russell eliminate the operatives by the encoder, ensuring they'll need to flood more into that area. They move one into the zone but otherwhise don't do much of anything. After getting healed up by Brodie, Pillai combines with Fischer for another kill and the zone is clear again while Fujita flanks and wounds the operative behind the building. By my count there's still six of them left, so we're far from finished. At least we have time to set up an overwatch net ... Which doesn't do a whole lot of good when two of them miss. Russell doesn't though, taking out the next operative who moves into the encoder zone. One came from an unexpected angle to the right of the courtyard and missed a long-range flank chance at Path Twelve, that could have been unpleasant but you can't guard against everything. It works both ways: she fired back and missed, a shot that Bradford tells me she should be able to make better than 9 out of 10 times. Not a good time to miss. We wound a couple of them, that makes three hurt but it's down to two again as one of them heals. Another, despite it's wounds, finds a flanking angle and injures Brodie. They're basically surrounding us at this point, and we're winning this but not without casualties. There's just too much to cover. Russell and Pillai drop two of the offenders, and Brodie medicates. We only see movement from the one ... is he all that's left? A brave soul if he is, dashing in by the encoder. Twelve drops him, and the scanners go green. I thought there were more out there. Post-Mortem 21 operatives dropped in the tense battle, and we lose nobody though that was often an open question. Fighting lasted nearly an hour, but it seemed like several times that. Elfriede Fischer's timely shooting after a rough start make her probably the hero of the day, and she is promoted along with Russell and Lakshmi Pillai, now lance corporals all. Pillai illustrates the struggle in keeping scouts healthy, she'll be no worse for the wear but she will be sidelined for nearly a month. Covert operative Takumi Fujita will be out about that long as well, but also promoted to lance corporal. The intel gathered has conclusively proven that the EXALT HQ is not in France, and 3 oz. meld was recovered as well. I must say I was impressed with the recovery of 32 million in currency from seized bank accounts! The majority was spent on upgrading our officer training to allow for Company-level officers(Captain rank), as needed for LT 'Axle' Brodie to continue moving upwards. As in the 'alternate timeline', Dean 'Strobe' Hoo and Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee received their promotions to Lieutenant as well. While we rightly celebrate these successes, the Commander would be remiss if he did not point out that Tactical Ops now has a record 13 soldiers in the infirmary, nearly a quarter of our total numbers and a full third of those with combat experience. This is not a trend that we will long survive continuing. Also, a rather sad note to report: it rarely happens, and only slightly, but Path Twelve actually LOST experience on this mission. Despite getting two kills, the number of good opportunities that were missed resulted in a not particularly glowing review(actual stats do not change, just progress to promotion). With any kind of decent showing, she would have moved up a rank.

07-11-2015, 01:37 PM	#255
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	With no medic available for this mission, the loadout is light on flashbangs and we'll need some good shooting to get through it. OPERATION TWISTED CROWN 6.7.2015, 0254 Kyoto, Japan From falling crown to twisted crown -- there's a message in there somewhere. We land outside a military base and there's only one way to go, which is usually either very good or very bad. There's not going to be much room to maneuver. We see nothing, and hear nothing, very disquieting. And then straight ahead, not to the right as we expected, three floaters were hiding! We're in business here ... Walker wounds one of them but most of the others can't get into decent firing positions, fortunately they just miss one shot and aren't in any mood to overextend themselves. Hunter wounds the leader, who is another example of the alien bastards improving themselves -- he's got the Damn Good Ground ability, making him all the harder to hit. We end up with all three wounded but none down. One goes on overwatch, while the leader misses again. There's no good way to advance here, we just need to outshoot them. They've clustered close enough together to make a Deschamps rocket worthwhile though. She goes for the shredder variation and is a bit off-target ... both are badly wounded now though and should be easy pickings if we can hit them. Yoon buries the overwatching one for his first kill, and Mendez drops the leader for hers. The third one shows up soon afterwards but Hunter finishes it off and Campbell dashes down the pathway to snag the canister for a nine-ounce reward. That was a bit tense and fortunate, but we've got ourselves a foothold here, no casualties, and a tally for each of the rookies. The squad takes some time to reload and listen for movement. Looks like not far into the tank rows on the left side, while there's meld farther up on the right but that's a pipe dream. Roguru moves over and spots them ... a quartet of seekers! None of them go to stealth, they want a fight apparently. A well-placed rocket by Deschamps knocks three of them out of the sky! A shotgun blast by Campbell weakens the last one, and Banerjee finishes it off. They didn't even have a chance to fire. Three seekers with one blow The squad spreads out, but soon they form up back to the left as more is heard straight up that direction. It took awhile, but eventually they spotted three more seekers and a drone along the left side of a large warehouse. No wonder we weren't hearing anything, it's all fliers on this escapade. Two of the seekers went stealth, Campbell dashed up to the third ... and barely scratched it. 'Walker' Hunter stepped up with the best sniper shot I've yet seen, enough to take down almost any enemy we've seen, and the seeker didn't have a chance. That precision shot training seems to be paying off. The drone ducked inside the building and we couldn't see it, so the rest of the squad settled into overwatch positions. Time for the seeker strangle rush. They didn't take long. The first one went for Campbell as expected. Four soldiers fired ... three missed and one had their shot basically bounce off. Fantastic. The drone showed up to repair the damage. A second went for Lieutenant Banerjee, and Roguru got in a good shot there but couldn't prevent the follow-up strangle. A for planning, D for execution Roguru shows the proper way, but still can't dissuade the foe Hunter took a piece out of the one on Campbell but couldn't release it's grip. Roguru finishes the other one off at close range, allowing the LT a shot which damaged the drone. A fine shot by Mendez nearly took out the seeker on Campbell ... it ducked inside the building, nearly gone. The drone proceeded to absorb her shotgun blast at point-blank range ... I've never seen that before. Deschamps was able to finish it off though. The remaining seeker went to stealth, so all we could do was ready weapons. Most of the squad needed a reload or healing, but Roguru took care of business as it tried to attack again. Gone. That's nearly a dozen down, but the scanners showed there was still work to do. The reports were certainly accurate in labeling this a heavy-resistance mission, but at least we've been able to take them out bit by bit so far. The squad reloaded and headed to the back of the warehouse, but instead they came from inside it. Four drones. Are you serious? Three of them fired at Campbell, all missing ... she has a good spot outside the freight door. She dropped the closest one, then Deschamps saw her bullets just bounce off a second. The others were further away though, giving us some time to get in position. A drone quartet, more annoying than anything else One of them fired at Deschamps but missed, the other two simply repositioned. Campbell moved into the warehouse and took one out, Deschamps and Roguru combined on the second. One left, across the warehouse as it had been much less aggressive. It simply retreated outside, forcing us to chase it. That wasn't going to work with someone as mobile as Campbell, she made it three of this last set of four downed by herself and finally we were clear. Post-Mortem A very clean operation overall, 15 killed and the only real hazard was the seeker strangle attacks. Even Dr. Vahlen was thrilled. No casualties of any kind, and four promotions. Campbell was given the moniker 'Tombstone', rather appropriate for an assault trooper, while Mac Roguru shall be known as 'Crash', assuming he doesn't object. Both of the privates got promoted as well. They went to the medic and engineer paths, giving us now 5-6 of everything except scouts, of which there are only four. No question that's the biggest need at the moment. Artifacts Recovered 3 Floater Corpses 5 Drone Wrecks 7 kg Elerium 8 kg Alien Alloys 8 Weapon Fragments 10 oz. Meld 4 Seeker Wrecks

07-11-2015, 01:44 PM	#256
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	PROMOTIONS Mac Roguru, you have been promoted to Corporal after adding three kills for a total of nine in four missions -- very solid. Your callsign is now 'Crash' unless you would like something else. Shredder Ammo -- Your SAW/LMG will be loaded with this ammunition, causing internal damage to your targets. Anything you hit with your primary weapon takes additional damage from all sources for four turns, very useful in softening up particularly sizable enemies. HEAT Ammo -- Additional damage anytime you hit a robotic enemy. Damn Good Ground -- +10 Aim and +10 Defense against enemies at lower elevations. Commander's Recommendation: All three are useful. Damn Good Ground is the weakest option since Gunners tend to be frontline combatants. Shredder Ammo and HEAT Ammo make a tough call between them. The choice is yours. CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru**, you are on the clock.

07-11-2015, 03:57 PM	#258
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	Shredder Ammo it is. Heath: 7(--) Will: 42(+4) Aim: 74(+1) Eeek. Not the best work I've ever seen, but at least you got a solid new ability.

07-11-2015, 04:44 PM	#259
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 7, 0621 -- Fission generator finished, giving us enough power to start on the new Satellite Uplink. It will take three weeks and cost 20m. Another 2m went to more excavating on sublevel 3, and 25.2m more to another pair of satellites beyond the three already ordered. This took the current funds down to about 19 million remaining. It won't be long until another generator is needed -- we are currently at 59 of 66 capacity used -- but it was decided to hold off for now. 1421 -- Three more soldiers have returned, including Coffee 'Slim' Warlord. Dr. Vahlen presented her report on Xenopsionics, aka Project Backfire, a rather ominous name. Her summary sentence was as melodramatic as it was gramatically incorrect: "A thousand rumors and charlatans over the centuries and yet, in a matter of weeks, we have proven it is true: Humans, with suitable training and technological assistance, can manipulate reality by thought alone." She continued ... "We are still arguing whether to call this new branch of human experience psionics or noetics ...". Fabulous. We've actually regressed since the meld research: we can't even agree on what words to use. Epic fail, Doctor. Dr. Shen detailed plans for a facility that will be required for training our soldiers -- a Psionic Lab. It will require a moderate amount of power to run, along with 10 kg of elerium and 25 million in funding to build. Definitely not cheap. If placed next to other laboratories, there will also be a side benefit of some gain in efficiency of our research due to pooling resources. It is added to the list of things that we can't afford to build that would benefit Tactical Ops. Vahlen took this opportunity to regain the floor and blather on about her latest philosophical conundrum. "Nothing will ever be the same. The work that we've done here -- to adapt the technology of a hostile enemy force, has advanced the scientific progress of mankind by untold generations. These weapons, these abuses of science -- we still have the opportunity to use them for a greater good. We have paid a heavy price, but our efforts have not been in vain. " What's that? You're finally done talking Doctor? Good, now maybe we can get back to something OF PRACTICAL USE?!?! Methinks you are the abuse of science right now .... To that end, Improved Body Armor(7 days, 8 kg alien alloys) was selected as the next research task. The reports I have indicate Vahlen's 'early tests are very encouraging' that they will be able to develop a 'lighter, stronger' form of body armor that we won't be able to afford to outfit our soldiers with.

07-11-2015, 05:33 PM	#260
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 7 -- Heavy UFO activity was detected over Nigeria, and LT Benton Gale returned to active status late in the day. June 8 -- Didier Keita returns to active duty. At 1321, another satellite hunter showed up in Europe. Seriously guys, you can keep wasting your energy all you want, but there's nothing there. The Council however views these incursions as missed opportunities to deal with UFO threats, so it still hurts the cause politically -- but defending North America is now priority one. Late in the day, an intriguing offer came in from the UK. They want a half-dozen thin man corpses, and are willing to pay a unique price: an elite special forces operative that initial evaluations indicate would be of Corporal skill and capable of filling our need for more scouts. That's a small price to pay for such a soldier, and after the swap we are still a ways under the 30% line. The deal is approved. The new man is Owen 'Specter' Kirk, a flimsy man of lousy aim, but very mentally resilient and decent mobility. At the same time, another outstanding request was approved: a dozen weapon fragments are shipped to Brazil for the gain of an engineer. Expensive, but we've got a bunch of them. June 9 -- LT Rebecca Burke is back from injury, and all of a sudden we have a wealth of riches by XCOM standards: three quality scouts ready to go out. June 10 -- Three more soldiers are back, including CAPT Lily Brodie. June 11 -- Another five back on duty, among them Path Twelve, and, back off the injured list once again, Ches O'Peake. June 12 -- Nigeria was bombed in the early morning hours, pushing them over the edge into Orange Alert. There has been off-and-on heavy activity there for almost a week now, it's clear that's where the aliens are focusing. Shortly afterwards, at 0302, an abduction alert was received. The reports are that it's from Russia, where the activity is said to be off the charts, described as 'swarming', even more than the heavy readings we had from our last mission which ended up with 15 enemies. The reward is a bit larger as well, 11.5m, but clearly this will require a lot of fighting. Strike Squad CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago(HON, Assault) Extra Conditioning, Tactical Sense LCPL Naomi Foster(USA, Engineer) Sapper LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO) Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic) Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon CPL Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout) Will to Survive, Low Profile LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, Sniper) Packmaster PFC Rin Mori(JPN) Due to the level of resistance, only one private goes out here. Benton Gale is in command of his first mission in a while, with Coffee Warlord and Ivan Drago adding to a strong FOFC presence. Back to just under a month to catch up with now.

07-12-2015, 04:42 PM	#261
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION STONE MIST 6.12.2015, 0337 Yekaterinburg, Russia It's always strange going to a place I've never heard of before. They tell us it's a large urban area though, which is good I think -- we might have a chance to not take on a ton of the enemy at once if they are spread out a bit like the last outing. Oh, and stone mist? Seriously? Who is that supposed to confuse? We land in between two buildings in a great spot to be flanked. No, thank you. Slim heads up on top of one to take a look, and three floaters announce themselves, one ducking out of sight immediately. Drago shoots the one inside the building, two hit the one flying up high but it's still aloft, while a couple of the squad aren't close enough to find decent spots up top and look to provide some fire down below. It then goes from suck to blow. The injured one kills Mori in one shot, and two more show up. Gale hits one as it moves, but it still manages to tag Drago. Thankfully the other one misses, but this does not stop 'Slim' Warlord from panicking like a cowardly fool. Gale misses twice, further complicating things, but Drago, injured or no, moves up and takes another one down. Two barely flying floaters left. Khumalo misses but Foster finishes one off, leaving Demirovic to climb up and try a pistol shot of all things. Nope. Thankfully it misses trying to finish off Drago, and Vandal fires back, also missing. A rather hilarious scene given how close they are to each other. Slim moves in and gets the kill, and we are clear for the moment. Four floaters down, but it cost us a private and an injury to Drago -- an expensive foothold here. Drago leads the way in clearing out the floaters There's clearly still quite a few of them out there, and mutons can be heard but nothing else really. Might be another mission with a lot of flying fiends. It's not subtle for long. We hear something across the other building, though it's not obvious what level, and then a couple of doors opening -- there's meld over there as well -- yeah, we're definitely headed that way. We can't see anything else from this rooftop. Warlord and Drago still see nothing after getting up to the other roof, so the rest of the squad moves down and across the alley as well. We can hear thin men out there, it appears there are multiple squads of aliens just past this building. Khumalo is up to the roof soon with the scouts and they see a couple of seekers just within view -- they don't spot us yet. Sectoids and thin men can be heard as well. No way to tell how many but it sure sounds like a hornet's nest. We need to be careful. Down in the alley the other three take a peek inside the building ... nothing on this side. With seekers out there we could be better off on the roof, but cover is better inside. After considering for a bit, I decide to keep the squad split. There's convenient ladder access so I think we can get away with a dual approach ... carefully. All of a sudden they come close enough for a clear visual. It appears to be three seekers and two thin men. One seeker goes to stealth, and Slim gets a shot which gives one of the thins a flesh wound, I think. It all happened so fast. Inside, there's a muton, sectoid, and a floater. Ok, that's eight of them. Yeah. Time for a fighting retreat. A nice shot by Demirovic drops a seeker. Whiskey misses, but up top the Sheriff is clutch, dropping one seeker and wounding another. A grenade by Foster injures the muton. A whole lotta targets, but one less now Their turn -- and two seekers go to stealth, not sure where the thin men or muton are, but the sectoid and floater head to overwatch. Looks like they want the seekers to do their dirty work. Makes sense. We ready weapons, but only one of them shows up. Drago gives it a faceful with his shotgun but it's not enough to prevent the attack. A second burst frees Foster from the grip, and Slim tosses a scanner to see if there's anyone else in the vicinity. There doesn't appear to be, but it gives Gale enough warning to wound a seeker that goes for an attack on his rear position. A well-placed AP grenade from Foster ends the muton, and Drago drops another seeker. Still no idea on the thin men, there's two sectoids out there one trying to flank on the left, and a floater still inside. A very dangerous situation. 'Whiskey' Khumalo missed this exact same shot at the floater here four* times in a row, emptying her entire clip into the air.* As the building falls down around us, that sectoid on the left found a hole. Not much of one, but it was enough. A flanking shot dropped Drago dead on impact! The squad was stunned but they held together, but with a thin man sneaking around to the alley behind us, we were in trouble here. One of XCOM's finest, an instant before his end We manage to take out the thin man in the rear, and the flanking sectoid is nearly killed by another Foster grenade. Gale now has an acid problem though, and we're running out of healthy shooters. Whiskey Khumalo continues her miss-fest. It looks like there's only the wounded floater and one sectoid left though. We might yet get out of this. Demirovic still can't hit a darn thing, but Foster finishes off the floater. The sectoid misses again, and first Warlord and then Demirovic(finally!) take it out. Post-Mortem This was an expensive, expensive success. Ivan 'Vandal' Drago is the best soldiers XCOM has lost to date. We take out 14 of the enemy and clear the abduction zone but he and private Mori are lost. Drago's 20 kills rank fourth in the annals at this point. The way we were overrun there with ten aliens on us at once it's somewhat fortunate anybody lived through it. Demirovic and the usually-clutch Khumalo are the goats of this operation, they just plain couldn't shoot straight. On the other hand, engineer Naomi Foster did it with explosives and with her carbine, while Coffee 'Slim' Warlord's quick feet were instrumental even if his trigger finger wasn't as good as it usually is. Crappy construction is to blame for the most part here, though perhaps I should have seen it coming. I didn't think Vandal could be flanked from his position, but part of the wall collapsed giving the sectoid a great angle to shoot through. As for Mori, that was just a 'stuff happens' moment, an unlikely bullseye by a near-dead enemy. Regardless of the reasons, the fact remains that Stone Mist will be remembered sadly, the first mission on which a corporal died and the first in which more than one soldier fell in battle. Artifacts Recovered 2 Sectoid Corpses 5 Floater Corpses 1 Thin Man Corpse 7 kg Elerium 8 kg Alien Alloys 8 Weapon Fragments 2 oz. Meld 5 Seeker Wrecks With the funding from this mission, I had intended to start working on equipment for Tactical Ops. Instead, I was forced to replace the arc thrower that Drago was carrying. This all but wiped out the General Fund again. Two steps forward, one step back it seems. The equipment situation in Tactical Ops is a major concern, but after consulting with the executive committee the price of rectifying it by an artifact sell-off is considered to be simply too high.

07-12-2015, 04:43 PM	#262
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago, you have been given a place of honor on the Memorial Wall. You may reincarnate/rejoin or not at your discretion.

07-14-2015, 12:03 AM	#264
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION BROKEN CRONE 6.08.2015, 0145 London, United Kingdom Deployment here is on a street behind a large building. There's no roof access, and very little room to manuever. It's a good thing Spectre brought plenty of scanners, because he spots three seekers that go to stealth immediately as soon as he looks inside. After tossing a scanner, he sees them all still clustered together. Private Jordan exposes himself to toss our only explosive grenade, but it does minimal damage. So do the rest of our shots at them with all but one able to get in range. Only one seeker is taken down, and the other two go for Kim, nearly killing him but he's still in the game. Another blast from Kim is largely ignored and Mirabeau misses, but Santos is able to drop both of the remaining damaged fliers and we're clear for the moment. Three medikits are required to get Kim back in top shape, taking up half our supply of them right away. The seekers make a DJ sandwich that would have killed almost any other soldier The rest of the squad moves into the building, hearing thin men but not seeing them. With Drago lost last mission and Kim headed for an extended stay in in the infirmary most likely after this, it seems to be open season on our assaults. That was a very expensive foothold -- we need to make it count. There is meld at the far end of the complex, but we hear sectoids that way, and see another quartet of seekers though they aren't quite close enough to detect us. We've got to find a decent defensive position at this end, and the cover isn't great. Kim soon spots the seekers ... who fly directly away from us as if they didn't see us. That's bizarre, but I'll take it. We hear the thin men again and a couple of the seekers go to stealth. I really don't like this. We're not moving any more than necessary, just staying in overwatch as much as possible to ready for any advance. Another scanner toss to give us early warning if they approach is set. One comes up the street and is hit twice, then retreats. Two more show up and go on overwatch, daring us to advance. That's not going to happen. Santos drops another one, then three more thin men come in from that direction. Mirabeau wounds one, but we've still got a pair of seekers and three thin man now, pretty heavy resistance. Isabelle Mirabeau gets a piece of the enemy as they move I consider falling back, but decide against it. Kirk moves up with a flashbang, catching two of the thin men in the blast. DJ has a shot completely absorbed by a seeker -- we really needed a kill there. Thankfully Santos is able to clean up the mess and wound one of the other thin men badly. I know you were injured earlier DJ, but seriously -- how do you miss from that close? One of the injured thins misses a return shot, the closest one is being suppressed but tries to move anyway. Bad idea. Mirabeau has training(Opportunist) for just this kind of thing, and the thin man leader is mowed down. One seeker goes to stealth, the healthy one comes in and strangles our scout(Specter) which is actually a good thing since he might have killed him if he just tried a plasma shot. Training has it's benefits ... Most of us are unfortunately out of ammo here, so finishing them off could get dicey. Mirabeau is able to release the seeker's grip, and Kirk finishes it off. Campbell knocks out one of the thin men while most reload, the one remaining thin man misses Brodie ... and here come the sectoids, a quartet of them from the rear alley that we came in from! Fantastic. If they'd just waited a bit longer ... Sectoids may not be the most threatening enemy, but four of them when the squad is engaged in the opposite direction are not a welcome sight. Kim is in the best position to take out the thin man and does so. We still don't know where that other seeker is. Kirk gets to cover and uses his last scanner to figure that out ... right on top us it seems! Santos wheels outside of it and drops it -- he's really been shooting fabulous today. Jordan and Mirabeau combine to take out one sectoid -- we're safe from flanking shots but not at all secure. One tries to sneak around through the adjacent store, going on overwatch. The other pair meld, but a shot at Campbell, long-range through the store, misses. We should be able to clean up this mess now. Specter dodges reaction fire and flanks the flanker, gunning it down. Nice move there, leaving us with just two left. Jordan and Mirabeau move outside to flank in the alley, Jordan is close enough ... but he misses! Great chance there. Santos wounds one of them, everyone else who is close enough misses. Both of the sectoids retreat a bit and use their telepathic 'mindfray' on Jordan. Both are successful. He'll have to retreat a bit. Mirabeau puts suppression fire on one, a second retreats ... right into the waiting guns of Su-Min Kim. Private Ted Jordan goes for glory! Ahem ... not so much Mirabeau keeps the lone injured sectoid locked down with suppression fire as the noose tightens, eventually taking the last kill herself. Post-Mortem 14 aliens killed, no soldiers lost. It seems we never have a simple, by-the-numbers operation anymore but this one is another success. The battle scanners gave us a small but very significant tactical advantage -- I think the memorial wall would have new additions if we didn't have them. Surprisingly Jordan is none the worse for his mindfray experience. Kim is out for what is I think his third, it's at least his second, stay of over a month on the injured list. He'll be fine eventually, but he just keeps getting shot up badly. No other injuries, and three promotions: private Campbell along with specialists Mirabeau and Santos, both of whom were instrumental with their timely killing espescially Santos. Campbell chose the Infantry route, which would not have been my preference -- we're now probably a bit over-supplied there at seven soldiers. Artifacts Recovered 4 Sectoid Corpses 3 Thin Man Corpses 5 kg Elerium 7 kg Alien Alloys 8 Weapon Fragments 1 oz. Meld 7 Seeker Wrecks The seekers are really piling up these days.

07-14-2015, 12:17 AM	#265
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 18 -- More UFO activity later in the day over Germany. June 19, 0620 -- Council briefing. It's been a while since they put in their two cents. Apparently all of the activity overhead wasn't for nothing. They say a major plot to disrupt transportation networks in Germany has been uncovered. Obviously this cannot be allowed to stand. Not that we would require one, but a hair over 15 million has been offered for interdiction. We haven't had a priority mission in a while, but this definitely is one. Strike Squad LT Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, Scout) Low Profile, Close Combat Specialist, Stay Frosty SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic) Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon LT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry) Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression SGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault) Bring 'Em On, Sprinter CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, Gunner) Sprinter, Shredder Ammo LCPL Shigeru Endo(JPN, Rocketeer) Battle Scanner CPL Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper) Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot Snake Eyes and Sheriff, the two most experienced lieutenants, head out with the team since Captain Brodie just went out on a mission. Jace 'Walker' Hunter and Mac 'Crash' Roguru** make the grade as additional FOFC reps on this vital sortie. Burke will have overall command.

07-15-2015, 01:13 PM	#266
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION SWIFT MOUNTAIN 6.19.2015, 0631 Bremen, Germany The squad arrives at a train yard in the vicinity of Bremen, and Bradford informs me that Council intel indicates a plasma bomb being primed in the area. Apparently it is drawing power from a number of power nodes, and disabling them will give us more time to reach the bomb itself. Time is of the essence here though. The usual caution with which we conduct field operations will largely have to be jettisoned. If we don't reach the bomb in time, the results will be catastrophic. Burke is in range of one of them, and disables it right away. The clock is up to about 20 minutes, each disabled node seems to buy us about five more. We can see several more, and there's no sign of the enemy. Yet. I'm less worried about flanking than usual, ordering the squad into the center of the train yards. We need to find that bomb. The last gasps of the first power node as it fizzles, then goes silent The squad hears thin men -- lots of them, probably at least three distinct squads. Moving forward to another node, Burke spots two groups of them in two different directions, with a sectoid and a seeker as well. Something like 8 or 9 of them. Well, this wont' be boring. The clock is back up to 20 minutes, but we need to knock out some of these enemies or we'll be overrun. Hunter wounds the seeker but it's still up, and Crash misses a thin man. That's not what I had in mind here. Spitfire misses the seeker as well, Gale finally brings it down but we really needed to take out more than one enemy here. Whiskey gets within flanking range of a sectoid, but it's only partly hurt. One group of thin men doesn't attack, and the others all miss. One was a flanking shot on Spitfire that was just plain a gift, but she's suppressed by a sectoid so she may not be going far. Still, I was expecting them to tag us pretty well there. Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason is in the crosshairs, and very fortunate to remain unscathed Gale suppresses the sectoid in return, allowing Spitfire to move up and execute the thin man, clearing one flank out a bit. A flashbang from Burke tries to pin down the two closest thin men in the area while the rest of the squad advances. We miss a couple shots at the sectoid, which simply reloads, the thin men go on overwatch, and a two more with another seeker come up behind them. Meanwhile, the clock is down to ten minutes. A target-rich environment, and the clock is ticking ... Walker and Crash combine to blow the new seeker out of the sky. Time for Endo to earn his pay with the rocket. It's a bit off-target and does almost no damage. Fantastic. Mason's 'close encounter's training pays off as she dashes in to execute the sectoid and one of the thin men before they can react, while Sheriff Gale manages to wound another at longer range. Whiskey grabs another node and finishes that enemy off. Only one thin man left visible though there are more out there. So far we are weathering the storm. They withdraw, though we see quite a bit of movement. We'll need to be careful here, they are ever-mobile and could flank at any time but we have a bit of respite. Another two nodes are nabbed, but the thin men appear to all be shifting to our left for a concentrated push now that we are spread out. A couple overwatch shots miss. There's at least four of them, maybe five that we see. Mason tosses her frag grenade, damaging three of them a bit and one significantly. We didn't get many other shots, but neither did they, settling for a miss at Gale and suppressing Burker. Continuing to flank around the right side are Hunter and Roguru, and the latter spots the bomb finally. He also snags another node, upping the time to 20 minutes again. It's looking good, but there's still a few thins out there ... Burke draws more of their fire and ends one, Endo gets a wounding shot from the side on the leader. Still three more left. Gale lays down suppressing fire, and they go into defensive mode: one hunkers down, one overwatches, one puts some acid on Burke. Walker finishes the closest one off with a flanking snipe, Crash grabs another node. We've got all day here. They continue to retreat, the injured one somehow hitting Burke. She's ok but hurt pretty bad. The other tries to hit Hunter and Roguru with acid, but gets the train in between them instead and both are clear. That's pretty much fatal for them. Walker and Mason clean up the mess and we've now got plenty of time to heal up, reload, wait for the acid clouds to dissipate, and move in on the bomb itself. Exhibit A on the dangers of destructible cover positions After deactivating it, Bradford warns us more are incoming. Six thin men drop in ... and we miss all of our shots at them except one. Unfreaking believable. Endo rectifies that situation by hitting a trio of them clustered with his remaining shredder,. Burke and Spitfire clear the enemies on one end, Crash and Walker take out two of the three shredded ones, but we are exposed and there's still another fiend out there. Whiskey drops the final shredded thin man ... and Bradford says we are clear! I thought for sure there was a sixth thin man ... maybe we did get him when they dropped in. Dunno. Either way, it's over! Rather nice of them to present such a cluster of convenient targets ... Post-Mortem The bomb plot is stopped and we take out 16 enemies in the process. Definitely a job well done. Burke will be gone for four weeks but is promoted along with Endo and Hunter. Artifacts Recovered 1 Sectoid Corpse 13 Thin Man Corpses 1 kg Elerium 2 kg Alien Alloys 14 Weapon Fragments 2 oz. Meld 2 Seeker Wrecks 15.1m received. Shortly after, 8 elerium is sent to India for a pair of scientists, and the first scope built(7.2m) is finally ordered.

07-15-2015, 01:49 PM	#268
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	PROMOTIONS After Swift Mountain, there are two to deal with. First up, LT2 Benton 'Sheriff' Gale is now eligible for the second and for now final Captain slot! This effectively makes you the most senior officer in all of Tactical Ops, superceding even CAPT Brodie. Your officer training options: Fortiores Una: Any squad member within 12 tiles gains an extra point of damage reduction if in cover. Semper Vigilans: Entire squad gets +5 to defense when in cover. In general the Commander is of the opinion that it's better to not get hit in the first place than it is to take reduced damage when you do, but both have their value. Captain Benton 'Sheriff' Gale, you are on the clock. Jace 'Walker' Hunter, your four kills upped your total to 19 and you have been promoted to Sergeant! That makes you the first sniper to reach that rank, and there are only a handful of all classes at that level. Sprinter: +4 mobility Extra Conditioning: Bonus health, heavier armor increases the bonus Battle Scanner: Two uses per battle Commander's Recommendation: This is a clear case of one being better than the others. Sprinter will allow for more tactical flexibility, and the option to wear heavier equipment if more protection is deemed necessary. That makes it better than Extra Conditioning, and Battle Scanners are nice but not nearly as useful for a sniper as they are for scouts and other front-line soldiers. Commander's Prerogative is exercised and Sprinter chosen. With this, your biggest weakness as a particularly limited mover is removed. Health: 5(--) Will: 47(+4) Aim: 96(+5) Quite solid. SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter** remains the best marksman in XCOM by a considerable margin.

07-15-2015, 01:58 PM	#269
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	Gale is all about helping as many people as possible, combined with the agreement with the commander's mindset that not getting hit at all beats reducing the damage - the selection is Semper Vigilans

07-15-2015, 02:11 PM	#271
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	So ordered. CAPT Gale, here's the obligatory shot of your promotion ceremony, complete with captain's medal now:

07-15-2015, 02:15 PM	#272
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION EMPTY SMOKE 6.23.2015, 0406 Houston, United States A storage yard of some kind is our destination, near a waterfront. No sooner had we landed then three of the squad reported contact with a trio of seekers. That's what I call getting started off on the wrong foot. No scanners with this group . Hard to see here, but the seekers are on the left at the edge of the building, diagonally across from the squad They didn't see us, and of the trio who wouldn't have to move, Kodos had passable cover and the hardest-hitting weapon. Strobe ordered her to fire at the closest of the flying menaces. Bullseye! The seeker wasn't just down ... it was shattered. The other members of it's 'pack' went to stealth and one broke a window heading inside. There was a meld canister out past them, but first things first. The rest of the squad went to overwatch positions. They didn't have to wait long. Only one attacked at first, and it was cut out of the air in a hail of gunfire. That's a heck of a start. Into the building, awaiting the final one but also heading towards that meld. A brilliant shot by Christy Kodos to get the ball rolling The last one came to say hello, the leader, and it was a big son of a gun. It was badly damaged by the reaction fire but absorbed enough of it to still be able to lock Kodos into a stranglehold. Hoo finished off that nonsense and ordered the squad to move out toward the canister. Jordan got there in time, and reported these were down to seven-ounce containers from the nine-ounce earlier in the month. Perhaps, and this is just conjecture, subduing Nigeria had taken some of the aliens' built-up resources so there weren't as many to go around. In any case, it was a good recovery. The cover to advance was mostly crappy and we had to circle around right or left. Most would head left since it sounded like they were over that way and there were large shipping containers to shield movement. Getting there first, Fischer reported that they sounded close, and more off to the right. When they were finally spotted, they came straight on, another trio of seekers. Blarg. Guerrero prepped a shredder rocket, but had to do it in a hurry. It shredded them all, but did little direct damage. Kodos was up next -- another hit, just off-center enough to allow it to stay aloft. Still, all three of them were damaged to some extent now. Jordan missed and the rest were too far away to do anything. One of the seekers went to overwatch, the other two to stealth. Again Kodos hit, but this time for minimal damage. Jordan and Guerrero both misfired. Nobody else could move for a shot without risking getting hit, so it was overwatch again. One of many misses by private Jordan, and without a scout it was too risky to swap him out for a more reliable shooter. The seekers outmaneuvered us here. Strangely, the seekers didn't attack. Unless the stealthers were going for Kodos in the back -- which was very possible. She fired again -- and missed. Jordan missed. Guerrero's carbine burst just bounced off. This was getting old in a hurry. The reprieve was over. One went for Kodos, and reaction fire damaged it but couldn't finish it off. The overwatch seeker moved forward, hitting Guerrero badly at close range. She stayed on her feet, but panicked like a frightened girl and would be useless for a while. Fischer broke the grip on Kodos, but then missed her next shot. As for Christy, she just reloaded and hoped for the best. Jordan was shot at by a stealthed seeker on overwatch as he moved -- I didn't know he could do that -- but it's badly damaged as are they all now and it missed. Ok, time to mop up. Hoo cleared out one of them ... and the two remaining went back to stealth. As damaged as they are, that made little sense, but whatever. Overwatch again. . one went for Kodos but again our leader blasted it out of the sky. A second went for Guerrero, Kodos missed ... and another close-range dose of plasma to our rocketeer, just recently healed. She's up and not panicking this time but in bad shape. The doctors are going to have their hands full if she lives through this. Strobe finally finished off the nonsense with this second group of the flying menaces. Guerrero's Will to Survive training probably saved her life here -- she was used for seeker target practice Fischer took care of it, and by the time everyone was healed up the other canister of meld was long expired and we were down to one medikit. I'm really starting to hate seekers. There was at least one more group of them out here somewhere though. We pushed forward again. It took a while for us to reach them, but when we did .... Yep. another pair of seekers, in the far corner of the yard. Good heavens. Fat lot of good these arc throwers would do. And then they saw us. Three, not two. One went to stealth, two approached. Kodos was on target again, damaging one but it was still up. The closest one was hidden pretty well ... until a perfect rocket shot by Guerrero, who was well-prepared this time, hammered it and also the stealthed one lost it's disguise. Now all three were there for the shooting, all badly damaged. I don't think I've ever seen a better-placed rocket than this, ensuring we would eliminate the last squad safely Onifade caused a bit more damage, then Jordan finally got his first kill. Yoon's shot bounced off, then it took Fischer two more bursts to drop the second one, so Strobe decided to play it safe and suppress the last one. Another chance for the newbies. Onifade's shot just bounced off the armor. Yoon missed. Jordan missed. For the love of ... Kodos, highly accurate today, missed as well. Fischer? Zero for two. For those of you scoring at home, that's one ineffective hit followed by five missed bursts in a row. What a bloody mess. Guerrero finally got the job done, a deserved kill after her rockets. Post-Mortem Nine seekers. I hate them. Oh, how I hate them so. Promotions for Jordan and Guerrero, who calls herself 'Cairo' now and will spend nearly a month in medical. Her wounds are very serious but a full recovery is expected. We have a lot of rocketeers, so we'll be fine without her. Jordan is now an assault trooper, which shores up a need for sure and we're back to five across the board in all classes. Hopefully he'll learn how to hit the target once in a while ... . Artifacts Recovered 7 kg Elerium 9 kg Alien Alloys 7 oz. Meld 9 Seeker Wrecks

07-15-2015, 02:49 PM	#273
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 23 -- It was a busy rest of the day. Japan wanted another half-dozen meld for a pair of scientists, but I don't think we can afford to ship out any more(we've already used and/or traded more than half of what we've collected) so that deal is refused. Another scope is purchased with the reward money from the last operation, and seven soldiers returned to bolster the active numbers. Captains Gale and Brodie and Corporal Roguru were among them. 'Fun' fact: we've now recovered more corpses/wrecks of seekers(66) than anything else except for sectoids(84). Have I mentioned how much I hate them? June 24 -- SGT Hunter is back and another soldier with him. At 1321 we receive word of a terror attack in Ogmobosho. Um, Nigeria has left the Council ... but if we don't respond, Egypt may tip over the edge as well. There's really no choice. Possible bug -- visual cue suggests they still think they have to go after Nigeria even though it's left the Council. Enemy stupidity in our favor Note here the two 'swirls' of destruction in Africa. The one in the northwest is supposed to be over Nigeria, but as you can see from the location of the terror attack to the southeast of there, it actually isn't. There's no other african Council nation in the area. I figure we just chalk this up to surprisingly determined resistance fighting or whatever, but it's definitely an alien error in our favor and, so, far, the only bug of significance I've found in the LW mod. Intervention Squad CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, Medic, CO) Revive, Paramedic, Lead By Example, Field Surgeon, Semper Vigilans CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, Infantry) Opportunist, Sharpshooter CPL Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout) Will to Survive, Low Profile SGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault) Bring 'Em On, Sprinter CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, Gunner) Sprinter, Shredder Ammo CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, Rocketeer) Battle Scanner, Fire In The Hole SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, Sniper) Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot, Sprinter Brodie will lead the team as usual, and a healthy complement of FOFC participation with Slim, Crash, and Walker** all providing support to the team. And will someone please tell me what rocketeer in their right mind would call themselves 'Yeti' on purpose?

07-15-2015, 10:56 PM	#274
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION FORGOTTEN APOLLO 6.24.2015, 1405 Ogbomosho, Nigeria It's a train station, and along with the usual screaming there is lightning flashing -- pretty much your basic horror scene. 'Crash' Roguru spotted a group of five zombies pretty quickly. Splendid. Yeti was a bit too far away to try a rocket, so we'd have to try and shoot them before they could reach us. Spitfire used her frag grenade, but didn't accomplish much. Walker dropped the first one, but we could only wound a couple others. Two of the survivors moved away, two towards us -- one killing a civilian horribly right in front us before we could reach them. The zombie view of the squad as they advance into the station, a trail of destruction in their wake Moving ahead, Spitfire spotted a trio of chrysallids and several more zombies. Well, now that everyone knows we are here ... she retreated and took out the closest zombie with her shotgun. Rocket time ... Yeti annihilated one chryssalid and badly damaged the other two. Brodie got another kill, there were lots of easy targets here -- the question was could we take enough of them out. Crash and Walker dropped the last of the chryssalids, but most of the zombies just moved away, taking out three more civilians. Four gone. Yeti's rocket took most of the sting out of an attempted spider rush A pair of shotgun blasts from Spitfire dropped the two closest zombies. She's really going to rack them up today. The rest were only wounding shots, but at least they couldn't move far now. Five of them visible, and we had their attention: three moved towards the squad, and only one more civilian died. We were drawing them away at least. Spitfire moved in to execute a couple ... and spotted five more down the tracks on the left! Good heavens how many of these things were there? She took out two more as planned but is now out of ammo like much of the squad. Yeti sent his shredder downrange towards the new group but was well off-target and only two were caught in the blast. Crash and Hunter each struck again but there were still at least a half-dozen out there. A sixth civilian died. Of the supply of undead enemies there seems to be no end ... Spitfire and Yeti had to reload, and the rest of the squad mostly had to move up into range. Slim and Walker notched the closest zombies while the others moved in. Two more civilians gone, almost half of them now. Spitfire and Axle took out one each, while the others wounded the remaining pair. It looked like that was it ... but no. A bloodcurdling death scream even further down the tracks indicated otherwhise. A full half of the civilians were now dead. Slim moved forward and spotted three more zombies at the end of the train. This was truly getting ridiculous. Zhang drilled the wounded pair, emptying his gun for the second time, while the others focused on the new trio. Crash was out of range though, Walker out of ammunition, so we could do little. And then three more chrysallids showed up, one of the zombies took out a 10th civilian, and I could do no more than throw my hands in the air. There were just too many of them. You've got to be freaking kidding me ... It's one thing to spread out wounding shots on the zombies to slow them down: chryssalids are too fast for that, and even badly injured they don't lose much mobility. They had to go first, and until they did, the squad had to keep it's distance to a degree. Both of the closer chryssalids were wounded, but a couple other shots missed in a departure from what has been otherwhise an excellent shooting operation. Two more civilians bought it. This is officially a near-disaster from a PR point of view. In the wake of the seemingly limitless parade of foes, all Slim and his mates could do was fire, reload, lather-rinse-repeat A chryssalid and two more zombies were cut down, with Spitfire, Crash, and Slim getting the kills. We were just maintaining the status quo though: two fresh zombies appeared from recent kills and the remaining pair of chryssalids each impaled a fresh victim. Crash and Slim each finished off another zombie apiece: two more appeared. At least no more kills were detected. A one-shot kill from Walker and Axle finishing off the wounded zombie close by finally allowed the rest of the squad to try and advance again. With Slim scouting the way, Spitfire crossed through the train and unloaded a pair of shotgun blasts to take out another chryssalid. Still, another civilian died from the wounded chryssalid that's out there somewhere. One more zombie in range, Spitfire did the honors and then the last chryssalid went to Zhang after Walker missed. Finally, it was over. Post-mortem Nobody was hurt and we took out 28 aliens. That's right, twenty-eight. That's an agency high, and it's not close; previously the mark was like 18-20 or something. And still it's hard to feel good about losing more than 80% of the civilians, just one of out every six made it. Slim was promoted as was Spitfire, the latter matching an XCOM record with nine kills to take the #1 spot on the board. She is now a Tech Sergeant, the first soldier to reach that rank. Artifacts Recovered 5 Chryssalid Carcasses 5 oz. Meld

07-15-2015, 11:03 PM	#275
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	PROMOTIONS Coffee 'Slim' Warlord, you have been promoted to Sergeant, the second scout along with LT 'Snake Eyes' Burke to reach that station. Your training selections: Extra Conditioning: Bonus health, heavier armor increases the bonus Vital Point Targeting: +2 damage with primary weapons, +1 with secondary weapons against humans and all alien species that have been autopsied. Holo-Targeting: +10 aim to any shots by squadmates against the target in the same turn. Commander's Recommendation: This is a really tough one I think. Any of them would be good. Extra Conditioning is nice for a scout given the inherent danger of the job. With sectoids/thin men/mutons autopsied now, chryssalids coming before too much longer, and regular missions against EXALT this is pretty much the time of the campaign that Vital Point Targeting really comes into it's own as a great firepower skill. It normally wouldn't be a great thing for a scout but in Slim is the rare recon guy who does his own dirty work as often as not. Holo-Targeting helps quite a bit against anything you can't take down in one shot, which is most enemies at this point and is a great scout ability since even with the assault rifle you aren't among the hardest-hitting soldiers. Put a gun to my head and I'd say Extra Conditioning here but you could go any of the three ways and not be making an error. SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord*, you are on the clock. Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-15-2015 at 11:05 PM.*

07-15-2015, 11:28 PM	#276
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 24, 2009 -- The first scope is finished. Finally Tactical Ops has a new toy to play with. It's not much, but it's something and it's a start. June 25 -- Canada requests a dozen elerium for two scientists. We're too close to the limit and our research personnel are considered adequate at the moment: the trade is rejected. The satellites for Canada and the US have reached their assigned orbits now. June 26 -- SGT Carter, a long-injured infantry star, is back to duty. 2009 the final pair of satellites ordered are ready. We aren't prepared to defend them yet though -- I want to wait until we get another fighter at the start of next month before trying to put one back up. June 27 -- Several more return, among them Christy Kodos and LT Strobe. Also, India wants an engineer for 9 weapon fragments. That we can spare. Multiple reports of UFO activity over Germany. Muton Autopsy(Project Nero) completed. "Standing over two metres tall, the subjects ratio of lean muscle to its body mass is staggering ... there is no part of this subject that has not been genetically engineered for combat ... are capable of withstanding otherwordly amounts of damage and seem to have an incredible tolerance for pain." "we also noted a variety of ritualistic markings and tattoos, which imply some sort of past tribal structure among the Muton species. ... a number of distinct similarities between the Muton and Floater ... it certainly appears that at one time the Floaters may have been Mutons themselves" Rather disturbing stuff theoretically. Practically speaking, we should be able to combat them a bit more effectively now. Next up is our first investigation into what we hope will be the next generation of field weaponry. Beam Lasers(6 days, 10 kg alien alloys, 25 Weapon Fragments) is expensive but it is hoped it will address issues relating to heat dispersion that have so far prevented any type of practical laser-based weapon. Dr. Vahlen: "I've always thought of science as a way to improve our everyday lives. The aliens though ... it's obvious they view science as merely a means to an end, a way to achieve their ultimate goal -- whatever that may be." Thank you Dr. Obvious. June 28 -- Another soldier returns, but more importantly it's time for the covert extraction. Cuvelier has completed his work which means a stealth approach, only four operatives for this one, just a pure get him and go mission. Mobility is a major priority. Extraction Squad CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, Infantry, CO) Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, Scout) Battle Scanner, Resilience SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, Medic) ** Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon SPEC Ana Mendez(ESP, Engineer)

07-16-2015, 07:33 AM	#277
Coffee Warlord Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Colorado Springs	I think we're going Vital Point Targeting. We need to take them dirty aliens down.

07-16-2015, 08:30 AM	#278
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	We certainly do. Health: 4(--) Will: 48(+3) Aim: 79(+3) Not great, but continuing the trend of being a shooting-focused scout.

07-16-2015, 08:41 AM	#279
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION FINAL FALL 6.28.2015, 0501 United Kingdom One equipment note: Sheriff is the first soldier to test out the recently finished scope, which provides better aim(+10) compared to the laser sight(+5) that many soldiers typically carry. Every advantage we can get will help. To begin with, the squad needs to navigate a long parking lot. Cuvelier is on a rooftop a building and alleyway away, and the first comm relay that he needs access to is inside that building. Hopping down off the building, he spots at least one exalt operative between the squad and his position -- but he's able to get to the relay and disrupt them to buy some time. A couple of them show up right away, but he manages to take a piece out of one with his pistol. Sheriff spots one further out in the lot and guns it down, three others retreat from the area for the moment. Meanwhile, Cuvelier heads back around the corner of the building and drops a flashbang on the two that have him cornered. Hopefully we'll be able to converge soon. So much for staying away from the rest of them -- three full squads come to the front of the store. Reaction fire injures one but those operatives will overwhelm us if we don't get out of dodge, as in now. At least the disoriented operatives by Cuvelier both miss him. We just need to hold out for a few minutes, which means it's grenade time. A frag from Mendez and a flashbang by Specter take a lot of sting out of their potential attack. A miss by Sheriff is unfortunate, but it was only a decent shot. They reposition, fix their weapons, and ready to generally make target practice out of us. This isn't even all of them, just the ones I could fit into one shot. There were close to 15 EXALT operatives around as we got out of dodge as fast as we could I have no intention of giving them any such time though. By now Cuvelier is close enough to hit the second and final relay. The squad moves towards the Skyranger, firing as they go and generally missing though Mendez does take one of the operatives down. Again they re-sync their weapons and four more show up. If we don't leave now they won't be able to identify what's left. We blast three more of them on our way out, but most importantly, we are clear with the intel and no casualties whatsoever! Post-Mortem Only 5 kills, but clean. Sheriff has been promoted. 20m is recovered, and we now have evidence that the headquarters is not in Mexico. It may have been by the skin of our teeth, but a clean extraction is a new thing for XCOM and I like it a lot. Artifacts Recovered 1 oz. Meld

07-16-2015, 08:49 AM	#280
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	PROMOTIONS CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale, you've been promoted again! This one is for your soldier training -- you are now the equivalent on a Tech Sergeant on the enlisted scale, joining Spitfire at that level. Covering Fire -- Overwatch shots trigger on enemy attacks, not just when they move. Opportunist -- Eliminates aim penalty on overwatch shots, and makes critical hits on overwatch possible as well. ** Gunslinger -- +1 damage with secondary weapons, and eliminates the penalty for long-distance shots with secondary weapons also. Commander's Recommendation -- Gunslinger is virtually useless for a soldier that relies on their primary weapon to do lots of damage with multiple bursts. The other two are both overwatch abilities, which means there will be a little bit of a shift in focus for you here towards a more defensive fire support role, perhaps shooting once and then overwatching in some situations. Opportunist is the better of the two, covering fire is nice but when in range of the enemy is usually better to just try to shoot them on your own turn. Commander's Prerogative is invoked. Health: 4(--) Will: 65(+1) Aim: 76(+2) There's no sugar-coating this: that's pretty comprehensively terrible. Perhaps resting on your laurels with 28 confirmed(#2 on the board)? Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-16-2015 at 08:50 AM.

07-16-2015, 10:52 AM	#281
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	1511 -- Satellite uplink completed. 1711 -- Scope finished. By the end of the day, four soldiers were back on the line including Mac 'Crash' Roguru. June 29, 0011 -- Figures, it's just barely morning so the Council line is buzzing in the Situation Room. They can't just let the month finish out peacefully ... On the other hand, this looks like it can't wait. Apparently Dr. Shen has analyzed the device Zhang brought to us some weeks ago -- I'd long ago given it up as a dead end. Apparently it's tied into the navigation of an alien battleship. They say we can divert it off course if we deploy some modified transponders -- where and what we would do when the battleship is diverted is not clear. Everyone seems to agree that we need to seize this opportunity though. It had better pay off, the reward of 8.5m seems ... unimpressive for something of this scale. Of course this is a priority mission requiring our very best. Priority Squad SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, Scout) Will to Survive, Low Profile, Vital Point Targeting SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, Infantry) Opportunist, Executioner CPL Georgia 'Strings' Murdoch(AUS, Medic) Revive, Paramedic TSGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, Assault) Bring 'Em On, Sprinter LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, Engineer, CO) Sapper, Sharpshooter CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, Rocketeer) Battle Scanner, Fire In The Hole LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, Sniper) Packmaster Unfortunately, injuries combined with the recent string of important missions have resulted in their being no scouts ready. Slim** will have to come back early, meaning there will be an automatic stay in medical for him after this -- assuming he survives. Both captains are also still in recovery, further limiting the options. It's been a while since Cargo went out, and she'll lead this operation. Twitch will take the scope for this, allowing the former to carry the less accurate but more powerful battle rifle.

07-16-2015, 01:07 PM	#282
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	OPERATION CRYPTIC BELL 6.29.2015, 0129 Xian, China A train is the target for the transponders, and we have less than an hour to deploy them. That's a hard limit: we either make it by then or this operation is a failure. The train is apparently the only way to get the transponders where they need to be in time. There's no room for dawdling. We spot a pair of thin men right away: we nearly take out one but the other hits a ridiculous shot that knocks our medic, Strings Murdoch, out of the fight immediately with a critical wound! That blows, but we have to keep going. Demirovic moves over with a medkit to stabilize and two bursts from Carter's battle rifle end the thin men, but two more come at us from further up the train. Two good shots at them are missed, Endo damages one as they rush but one pops acid on Slim while another sectoid and two thin men show up in the other direction. This is not going well so far. 'Twitch' Carter couldn't prevent a pair of thin men from getting the drop on us. We take out the two on this side, but the acid is really bogging us down -- Spitfire had to ignore it and now has a significant injury. Meanwhile the other three enemies move in and miss, but we're still getting nowhere with the transponders. A rocket from Yeti is a bit off-target but helps us with the closest thin man. Cargo's second AP explosive wounds the second, and Carter is able to finish off the first so that leaves one sectoid and one injured thin man out there. The rest try to stay safe and hope the acid leaves their systems soon. One of too many missed opportunities, this one by Slim With the acid infection problems going rampant, Cargo's grenades were a key staple of the arsenal. This one isn't quite enough to take out this thin man The last thin man drops acid on Cargo now. This is getting ridiculous. No choice but to have Warlord draw the fire from that sectoid, acid or not. Demirovic misses but more good shooting by Carter puts them both out of commission. We can get moving again -- sort of -- but down to half an hour, it may already be too late. They can hear more thin men out there as they move down the train but don't see any yet. Spitfire gets our last medikit application from Demirovic, then moves back up to join the others, a couple soldiers reload, while Cargo is still pinned down by the acid though the others are clear. Slim grabs the first transponder. 25 minutes. A muton drops in, from the battleship according to Bradford who is getting antsy about the time remaining as we hit 20 minutes. No kidding, me too. The muton is on the right, with what sounds like more thin men ahead on the right according to Yeti who is the most advanced at the moment. Slim moves up to have a look, still spots nothing and ... misses the muton. Grrr ... Spitfire makes it a one-shot kill on the bastard though. Mutons are getting airdropped now. How lovely With 15 to go Carter snags the second transponder. Bradford informs that we have two remaining. This could really come down to the wire. Thankfully Cargo is ready to move again -- she's still got two frags and we may need them. Yeti gets the third, but the last one is at the front of the train, a car and a half away from us. Still, we haven't seen any more of the enemy, maybe most of them have been handled already. Ten minutes to go, and a muton drops in -- but it's on top of the train! From there I don't think it can see us ... and Spitfire is close enough now to make a dash for that last transponder. I see no useful alternative -- she's got it! Bradford chimes in -- "now you just need to activate the train's drive system". Um, you said NOTHING about that before, dimwit! Five minutes left. Everyone's set up on overwatch, and the muton comes down off the train ... and almost everyone misses. Spitfire gets a piece of it with her shotgun, four others miss, but it meanders around a bit and Demirovic finishes it off! Another thin man drops in on top but he's going to be too late. Spitfire moves up to the controls, and the train begins to move. We're out of here! She hit nothing else all mission long, but Demirovic finishes off this muton to give Spitfire clear sailing to the control car Yeti's rocket blew a hole in the side of the train, but it's still moving and we're clear! Post-Mortem Mission accomplished, and 13 of the enemy eliminated. With our medic knocked out of the fight immediately and three acid attacks from the thin men, it wasn't looking good at first but we were able to clean it up just in time. A couple of huge shots by Carter with her battle rifle made it possible. Slim will be out a week and a half, Spitfire and Strings nearly a month each. A very costly success in that regard, though a full recovery is again expected in all instances. No promotions here. I'm a bit astonished by the next stage of the plan -- apparently the idea is that the ship is now low enough in orbit that we are going to try to land on it and capture the ship. Capture an alien battleship. A rather remarkable -- and perhaps stunningly stupid -- goal. Artifacts Recovered 1 Sectoid Corpse 6 Thin Man Corpses 2 Muton Corpses 13 Weapon Fragments 1 oz. Meld

07-16-2015, 01:10 PM	#283
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June 29 -- For our end-of-month satellite launch, Russia and Argentina are the candidates with both offering an engineer reward. Trying to keep one satellite up in Europe would be nice, and Russia is presently the biggest risk among current Council nations to leave. Since they've come through with an offer I put it up earlier than planned. June 30 --Jace 'Walker' Hunter and Zhang return to duty. July 1 -- Two communiques from the Council at the same time. The battleship assault is ready to go ... but at the same time, we have their monthly report. After that is sorted, we'll be on with that as one heck of a start to the new month ...

07-16-2015, 02:05 PM	#284
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	COUNCIL REPORT June 2015 -- Fourth month of the war, and how many more? ... Overall Grade: B(pleased) -- same as May 2 Council Missions Completed 4 Abductions Stopped 4 Satellites Launched 4 Research Projects Completed 1 UFO Raided 1 Satellite Lost 6 UFOs Escaped The Air War continues to be a losing battle: thankfully though they are leaving North America completely alone. 72.8 m, 3 scientists, 1 Engineer(25.6m after maintenance) Panic Summary Green: Canada, Mexico, United States, Argentina, Germany, Japan Aqua: Brazil, United Kingdom*, France, China, India, Australia, Egypt Yellow: Russia Orange: none Red: none Withdrawn: Nigeria, South Africa * Nations with well over half the maximum panic resistance. ** Indicates a nation with significant panic resistance due to trades for alien technology & artifacts with XCOM. * Nations with a minor, but notable amount of panic resistance. Nigeria was lost, but on the other hand Australia actually moved down from Yellow to Aqua and the overall picture is pretty similar to what it was a month ago. The new satellite over Russia moved them from 'nearly orange' to 'low yellow', so there is some hope there as well. XCOM seems to be doing enough to maintain the resistance fairly effectively. Latest Headlines Civilian panic slows in Russia as new satellite monitoring allows alien UFO tracking Moscow residents on edge after continual reports of alien attacks near the city flood media outlets Commuter train diverted in China; large alien ship inexplicably pursues Pressure mounts in Argentina as their inability to monitor alien threats comes into question. Japan struggles with power outages as alien attacks destroy critical infrastructure Gradually the reports have become more negative than positive. The world seems to slowly be growing more and more weary of the war. Finances Council Funding: 72.8m(+13.0m) -- a new high, just a bit more than we got in April Aircraft Maintenance: 26.6m(-3.4m) -- two new interceptors and the cost goes down, the fruit of our North American strategy Facility Maintenance: 20.6m(+4m) -- this is expected to do nothing but rise Net Council Income: 25.6m(+12.4m) UFO Bounties: none Mission Rewards: 53.1m EXALT Funds Seized: 52m Gross Income: 177.9m(+44.6m!) Net Income: 130.7m(+44.0m!) -- First time ever over 90m, a huge boost. The direct funding from the Council continues to be less and less important compared to what we are getting from the specific field operations. Air War: 50.25m General Fund: 28.15m We'll be gobbling this up quickly -- this is before any expenses and there are big plans for new investments now that North America's aerospace expertise is in our pocket. Artifacts in Storage 2 Alien Pistols: 2m 1 Alien Carbine: 3m 41(85) Sectoid Corpses: 200k -- 19(22%) traded/sold 42(45) Floater Corpses: 300k -- 3(7%) traded/sold 43(70) Thin Man Corpses: 300k -- 17(24%) traded/sold 3(13) Muton Corpse: 400k 13 Chryssalid Carcasses: 700k 24(26) Drone Wrecks: 200k -- 2(8%) traded/sold 1 Sectoid Captive: 1m 1 Thin Man Captive: 1m 131(189) kg Elerium: 500k -- 50(26%) traded/sold 165(233) kg Alien Alloys: 500k -- 62(27%) traded/sold 145(251) Weapon Fragments: 100k -- 61(24%) traded/sold 71(140) oz. Meld: 700k -- 34(24%) traded/sold 8(9) UFO Flight Computers: 3m -- 1(11%) traded/sold 6(7) UFO Power Sources: 6m -- 1(14%) traded/sold 63(66) Seeker Wrecks: 300k -- 3(5%) traded/sold Total Asset Value: 348.9m(+112.9m) XCOM both brought in and used/traded a little more in artifacts compared to May, with the result of a similar impressive increase of over 100 million in assets that can be liquidated if necessary. Dr. Vahlen's research teams are continually using more and more of them for their vitally needed studies. Personnel Researchers: 39(+9) Engineers: 38(+11) Soldiers: 59(-1) A pretty even split between research and engineering remains. XCOM did not need to recruit a single new soldier this month, which contributed considerably to the ability to invest money elsewhere and see some initial expenditures in equipment for Tactical Ops. Available Research Projects** Beam Lasers -- in progress, approx. 3 days remaining Chryssalid Autopsy(6 days, 5 Chryssalid Carcasses) Interrogate Thin Man(7 days, 1 Thin Man Captive) Alien Computers(7 days, 4 Flight Computers) Advanced Body Armor(14 days, 15 kg Alien Alloys) Advanced Aerospace Concepts(15 days, 10 kg Alien Alloys, 20 Weapon Fragments) Gauss Weapons(19 days, 5 kg Elerium, 30 kg Alien Alloys, 50 Weapon Fragments) Elerium(20 days, 35 kg Elerium) These are ordered in the queue as they are expected to be researched at this time. As can be seen, XCOM has enough scientists for the projects that are anticipated for the next few weeks, but unless other smaller ones come up a larger staff and/or better facilities will be needed to keep up the current pace past late July. The last four projects on the list now are considered to be too complex to be efficiently handled by the three dozen-plus scientists currently working. It's also clear that this next generation of researching will require a lot more physical resources as well ... Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-16-2015 at 02:06 PM.

07-16-2015, 03:20 PM	#285
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	June Review A quiet start to the month on the ground as XCOM was effectively kicked out of Europe so far the UFO battle goes. This gave way to some vital Council missions with the bomb operation in Germany, terror mission in Nigeria, and the trip to China to divert the battleship. The fighters were suprisingly bored in North America however. Kills: 136(423 total, -9 compared to May) Soldiers Lost: 2(8 total, -1) Operations: 10(36 total, -1) Kill Ratio: 68(52.9 overall, a new high!) The limitations of our ability to prosecute the Air War really limit these numbers, which is both a good and bad thing. Until we can seriously contest their control of the skies, it continues to be the case that XCOM is merely an annoyance in the side of the alien invaders, fighting what amounts to be a delaying action. The North American haven can't last forever -- once they are done with Africa and Europe and wherever else they are intent on going at the moment, they will come for us. The fact that our kill ratio climbed significantly and they are still coming in increasing numbers tells everything we need to know about their resources: seemingly inexhaustible. Air War Overview XCOM has nine fighters, all of them operational. Three are in Europe, North America is full with a complement of six. Tactical Ops Overview Officer Training School -- The rank count is now at 109, +23 from a month ago. Only another six are needed before we will be able to expand the standard squad size from 7 to the maximum of 8. Company officers(captains Axle and Sheriff) were added in June: we aren't expected to be ready for the next step to Field officers(majors) until probably August but we have sufficient total ranks for it so all that will be needed is the funding when the time comes. Tech Sergeant/Major -- 2(+2) Sergeant/Captain -- 6(+4) Corporal/Lieutenant -- 11(-1) Lance Corporal -- 17(+2) Specialist -- 8(--) Private -- 15(-7) We were able to shrink the ranks of the privates but upward mobility was limited, primarily because priority missions dominated the second half of the month so the past couple of weeks it's almost exclusively been just the elite soldiers going out again and again. From a class point of view, we've got a big problem in the scouts: four are currently injured and only two short-term, the two most inexperienced ones. The fifth is about to be injured because he's got to go out on the battleship priority mission and is still in recovery. Adding two or three more there would be very nice. Another assault/medic or two would be good as well: you can never have too many medics and the assaults have proven best at covert ops due to their run-and-gun ability which can be used to get to the communication relays a lot quicker than other classes can. Current Priorities In terms of the Air War, analysis now overwhelmingly indicates that throwing a lot more money at the problem is simply not going to help much. I will continue to authorize another fighter a month until we get to a full dozen(full complement for Europe and North America) but the two satellites in reserve are going to stay there and no more uplinks will be built for the time being. More often than not we can't even effectively combat medium let alone large UFOs. A major leap in aerospace technology is going to be required for there to be any hope of competing with the aliens in that arena. The lions' share of XCOM's funding then will now go into two areas: getting equipment upgrades and improvements for Tactical Ops, and expanding the facilities at HQ. Those are the places where the treasure can still make a significant impact. I can only hope that at some point Vahlen and Shen will be able to give us better tools to combat the alien presence in the skies. The next step in understanding the enemy is still capturing an outsider, which our weakness in the air makes very difficult. We've haven't had but the one chance at it which was almost a month ago. That's really the second 'chokepoint' along with the air campaign in our efforts at the moment. With this in mind, the following expenditures were authorized: One new Raven-class fighter interceptor(14m, 3 days), bringing our total to 10. Construction of a Foundry(20m, 6 GW power, 18 days). Shen's strong recommendation here indicates there is hope for new developments that will aid at least tactical operations. Another Fission Generator(12m, 10 days). The Foundry will leave us with only a single GW available, not enough to build much of anything. Another Access Lift(10m, 1 GW, 7 days). Using up the last of our power, this will give us access to the bottom level of the base, Sublevel 5. To further add to our power supply, we will want to make use in probably the not-too-distant future of the second steam vent down there. One additional scopes(7.2m, 6 days) to aid our soldiers in their shooting accuracy. Two suits of Phalanx Armor(11.6m, 6 days, 12 kg alien alloys) to offer better protection for our soldiers. All together, that's almost 70m shelled out but it should give us a good start towards a better foundation, both in terms of facilities and equipment. At the moment we are now down to 3.4 million left until we can bring more in from whatever missions come our way. Here's how it looks below the base with the new projects set to begin:

07-16-2015, 03:57 PM	#286
Brian Swartz Grizzled Veteran Join Date: May 2006	For reference as we have a couple more weeks to speed through, here is your obligatory wall of text, otherwhise known as the roster update. The ever-growing killboard has a number of FOFC names pushing up towards the top -- but due mostly to her exploits on the terror mission Spitfire dominates it with 38 confirmed. Since she's now out till near the end of the month, it will be interesting to see if anyone can catch her in the interim. Also worth noting is Vandal on the Memorial Wall -- as of this moment he still has more kills than the rest of the fallen soldiers combined. Definitely sad that he is gone. XCOM ROSTER -- as of July 1 Assault(5) 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) CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell(AUS, 4 missions, 10 kills, 2%) -- 4 Health, 14 Mob, 36 Will, 69 Aim, 3 Def Tactical Sense, Ranger SPEC Ted Jordan(USA, 2 mission, 1 kills, 46%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 28 Will, 66 Aim, -3 Def Engineer(5) CPL Yolanda 'Angel' Pena(ESP, 7 missions, 13 kills, 76%) -- 7 Health, 12 Mob, 44 Will, 69 Aim, 3 Def Sapper, Smoke and Mirrors LCPL Katia Rivera(MEX, 4 missions, 6 kills, 77%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 39 Will, 66 Aim, 5 Def Sapper LCPL Naomi Foster(USA, 5 missions, 7 kills, 81%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 43 Will, 65 Aim, 1 Def Sapper Gunner(6) LCPL Eman Hodzic(BIH, 4 missions, 10 kills, 85%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 41 Will, 74 Aim, 1 Def Opportunist LCPL Didier Keita(MEX, 3 missions, 3 kills, 63%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 50 Will, 57 Aim, -2 Def Opportunist LCPL Geoff Russell(USA, 4 missions, 5 kills, 54%) -- 7 Health, 12 Mob, 24 Will, 71 Aim, 0 Def Flush LCPL Isabelle Mirabeau(FRA, 3 missions, 5 kills, 49%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 44 Will, 71 Aim, -3 Def Low Profile LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo(UKR, 6 missions, 11 kills, 41%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 48 Will, 73 Aim, 0 Def Low Profile, HEAT Ammo, Stay Frosty CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru(AUS, 6 missions, 14 kills, 75%) -- 7 Health, 12 Mob, 42 Will, 74 Aim, 2 Def Sprinter, Shredder Ammo Infantry(7) LCPL Ches O'Peake(USA, 4 missions, 6 kills, 54%) -- 6 Health, 13 Mob, 37 Will, 71 Aim, -2 Def Aggression LCPL Antonio Santos(BRA, 2 missions, 5 kills, 19%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 37 Will, 77 Aim, 1 Def Opportunist SPEC David Campbell(UK, 1 mission, 1 kill, 0%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 39 Will, 69 Aim, 0 Def LCPL Elfriede Fischer(DEU, 4 missions, 10 kills, 75%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 72 Aim, 2 Def Sprinter CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang(CHN, 2 mission, 5 kills, 65%) -- 7 Health, 13 Mob, 39 Will, 75 Aim, 0 Def Opportunist, Sharpshooter Medic(5) SPEC Jin-Soo Yoon(KOR, 2 missions, 1 kill, 43%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 29 Will, 72 Aim, 3 Def Rocketeer(6) SPEC Duncan Ross(FRA, 3 missions, 3 kills, 90%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 41 Will, 72 Aim, 1 Def LCPL Hannah Cullen(CAN, 3 missions, 4 kills, 6%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 47 Will, 73 Aim, - 1 Def Holo-Targeting LCPL Eliana Soares(BRA, 4 missions, 5 kills, 56%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 40 Will, 71 Aim, 1 Def Steadfast LCPL Sophie Deschamps(FRA, 4 missions, 6 kills, 79%) -- 6 Health, 12 Mob, 36 Will, 73 Aim, 2 Def Holo-Targeting Scout(5) Sniper(5) LCPL Path Twelve(DEU, 4 missions, 10 kills, 79%) -- 3 Health, 12 Mob, 36 Will, 80 Aim, 3 Def Executioner SPEC Christy Kodos(CAN, 2 mission, 3 kills, 64%) -- 3 Health, 13 Mob, 31 Will, 75 Aim, -2 Def SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter(FRA, 8 missions, 24 kills, 35%) -- 5 Health, 11 Mob, 47 Will, 96 Aim, 3 Def Damn Good Ground, Precision Shot, Sprinter Private(15) Covert Operations Recovery CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie(SCO, 12 missions, 15 kills, 61%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 51 Will, 70 Aim, -2 Def -- 17 hours Revive, Paramedic, Lead By Example, Field Surgeon, Semper Vigilans SPEC Ana Mendez(ESP, 2 missions, 3 kills, 56%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 28 Will, 67 Aim, -2 Def -- 1 day CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk(UK, 2 missions, 3 kills, 49%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 54 Will, 76 Aim, 0 Def -- 1 day Battle Scanner, Resilience SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo(ZAF, 10 missions, 16 kills, 50%) -- 6 Health, 14 Mob, 57 Will, 69 Aim, -1 Def -- 2 days Revive, Paramedic, Field Surgeon CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo(JPN, 7 missions, 8 kills, 63%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 41 Will, 79 Aim, 1 Def -- 2 days Battle Scanner, Fire In The Hole LCPL Alma Demirovic(BIH, 5 missions, 6 kills, 78%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 46 Will, 81 Aim, 1 Def -- 2 days Packmaster CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale(JPN, 11 missions, 28 kills, 6%) -- 4 Health, 13 Mob, 65 Will, 76 Aim, -4 Def -- 3 days Ranger, Low Profile, Stay Frosty, Suppression, Opportunist SPEC Kobe Cuvelier(BEL, 2 missions, 0 kills, 87%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 31 Will, 64 Aim, 1 Def -- 3 days SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter(USA, 8 missions, 28 kills, 45%) -- 7 Health, 11 Mob, 56 Will, 84 Aim, 5 Def -- 3 days Opportunist, Executioner, Suppression LT Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee(NIG, 8 missions, 7 kills, 47%) -- 6 Health, 13 Mob, 50 Will, 67 Aim, 1 Def -- 3 days Sapper, Sharpshooter 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. SPEC Luca Basso(ITA, 1 mission, 3 kills, 10%) -- 5 Health, 12 Mob, 28 Will, 67 Aim, -1 Def -- 1 hour LCPL Takumi Fujita(JPN, 3 missions, 2 kills, 47%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 30 Will, 76 Aim, 3 Def -- 2 days Covering Fire LCPL Lakshmi Pillai(NIG, 4 missions, 6 kills, 40%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 42 Will, 70 Aim, 3 Def -- 3 days Aggression LCPL Carl Tanner(USA, 4 missions, 1 kill, 19%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 24 Will, 72 Aim, -2 Def -- 5 days Rapid Reaction SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord(ISR, 8 missions, 15 kills, 34%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 48 Will, 79 Aim, -1 Def -- 9 days Will to Survive, Low Profile, Vital Point Targeting LT2 Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke(USA, 9 missions, 14 kills, 11%) -- 5 Health, 13 Mob, 47 Will, 83 Aim, -1 Def -- 16 days Low Profile, Close Combat Specialist, Stay Frosty, Holo-Targeting CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim(KOR, 5 missions, 17 kills, 54%) -- 7 Health, 14 Mob, 42 Will, 72 Aim, 1 Def -- 22 days Resilience, Tactical Sense CPL Esperanza 'Cairo' Guerrero(ESP, 5 missions, 13 kills, 21%) -- 4 Health, 15 Mob, 31 Will, 73 Aim, 1 Def -- 22 days Will to Survive CPL Georgia 'Strings' Murdoch(AUS, 7 missions, 5 kills, 51%) -- 3 Health, 13 Mob, 61 Will, 69 Aim, -2 Def -- 22 days Revive, Paramedic TSGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason(UK, 10 missions, 38 kills, 34%) -- 5 Health, 14 Mob, 53 Will, 73 Aim, - 2 Def -- 27 days Bring 'Em On, Sprinter KILLBOARD TSGT Courtney 'Spitfire' Mason -- 38 CAPT Benton 'Sheriff' Gale -- 28 SGT Jace 'Walker' Hunter -- 24 SGT Brooke 'Twitch' Carter -- 23 CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago -- 20(KIA) CPL Su-Min 'DJ' Kim -- 17 SGT Thozama 'Whiskey' Khumalo -- 16 CAPT Lily 'Axle' Brodie -- 15 SGT Coffee 'Slim' Warlord -- 15 LT2 Rebecca 'Snake Eyes' Burke -- 14 CPL Mac 'Crash' Roguru -- 14 CPL Esperanza 'Cairo' Guerrero -- 13 CPL Yolanda 'Angel' Pena -- 13 LT Dean 'Strobe' Hoo -- 11 CPL Beth 'Tombstone' Campbell -- 10 LCPL Elfriede Fischer -- 10 LCPL Eman Hodzic -- 10 LCPL Path Twelve -- 10 CPL Shigeru 'Yeti' Endo -- 8 CPL Amiyah 'Cargo' Banerjee -- 7 LCPL Naomi Foster -- 7 LCPL Alma Demirovic -- 6 LCPL Sophie Deschamps -- 6 SPEC Seung-yeon Kim -- 6(KIA) LCPL Ches O'Peake -- 6 LCPL Lakshmi Pillai -- 6 LCPL Isabelle Mirabeau -- 5 CPL Georgia 'Strings' Murdoch -- 5 LCPL Geoff Russell -- 5 LCPL Soledad Sanchez -- 5(KIA) LCPL Antonio Santos -- 5 LCPL Eliana Soares -- 5 CPL Shaojie 'Chilong' Zhang -- 5 LCPL Hannah Cullen -- 4 LCPL Katia Rivera -- 4 SPEC Luca Basso -- 3 LCPL Didier Keita -- 3 CPL Owen 'Specter' Kirk -- 3 SPEC Christy Kodos -- 3 SPEC Ana Mendez -- 3 SPEC Duncan Ross -- 3 LCPL Takumi Fujita -- 2 LCPL Amber Mitchell -- 2 SPEC David Campbell -- 1 PFC Stephen Garner -- 1(KIA) SPEC Ted Jordan -- 1 LCPL Carl Tanner -- 1 SPEC Jin-Soon Yoon -- 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. PFC Chris Kodos -- 0 kills in 1 mission. KIA during Operation Hot Line by a seeker alien pistol, May 11, 2015 LCPL Soledad Sanchez -- 5 kills in 5 missions. KIA during Operation Glass Heart by floater light plasma rifle, May 23, 2015 LCPL Amber Mitchell -- 2 kills in 4 missions. KIA after Operation Black Heat due to injuries suffered by an EXALT frag grenade, May 27, 2015 PFC Rin Mori -- 0 kills in 2 missions. KIA during Operation Stone Mist by a floater light plasma rifle, June 12, 2015. CPL Ivan 'Vandal' Drago -- 20 kills in 6 missions. KIA during Operation Stone Mist by a sectoid plasma pistol, June 12, 2015 Last edited by Brian Swartz : 07-16-2015 at 04:00 PM.