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

[Brian Swartz]

So, with BYU14 moving on to other things after an entertaining failure and the other thread dying out, it's time for another XCOM dynasty thread to see how many Coffee Warlords(and others) we can kill.

Oh, some aliens too.

You know what to do ... name, appearance if you want, blah blah blah, and which soldier you are claiming.

I've got better and changed tactics and strategy some. Having said that, I'm still pretty sure the aliens will kick my butt eventually. They always do.

Remember our motto -- to die horribly and leave a messy corpse!!

[CrimsonFox]

Fox McCloud
Short guy with red hair and ponytail
Someone fast with big guns

[Breeze]

Benton Gale wants in again...really doesn't matter what I look like 'cause I have a feeling I'll be pale and red pretty shortly after the dynasty starts...

[Coffee Warlord]

Department of Acquisitions checking in.

Coffee Warlord Combat Unit Model 65-A7, Build D has been activated and shipped to an undisclosed location.

[sterlingice]

Sterling Silvers - copy the last thread for my info

SI

[BYU 14]

Ace Idol is in, mean looking bald guy

[MacroGuru]

Lets Go with DJ Thomas, Can be US / UK...other than that we need to work with Warlord facility to perfect the cloning and mass marketing that they have perfected.

[Brian Swartz]

Thanks all!

The initial mission is named FINAL DAWN, in Cairo, Egypt. Final dawn ... does that mean this is my last chance, and if(when) we fail again the universe will spontaneously implode?!

So we embark at a paper factory with Fox McCloud, Benton Gale, Coffee Warlord, and Sterling Silvers assigned to the first squad random people.

It didn't go perfectly. They managed to get off four shots at us, and we were lucky to escape clean, needing to blow half of them up via grenade to do so. But a clean mission it was, no injuries.

FINAL DAWN ends with 6 dead sectoids, 0 dead operatives.

SQUAD REVIEW

** Fox McCloud(EGY) -- 2 kills, promoted to Heavy Squaddie. In other words, you got the big guns part(no I didn't script that). I don't know about fast though, if you're 'fast' carrying an LMG you're a better man than I.
** Benton Gale(EGY) -- 3 kills, promoted to Assault Squaddie. Egyptians stealing the show here!
** Coffee Warlord(NIG) -- 1 kill, promoted to Support Squaddie. Hahaha! Warlord is going to make sure everyone else stays alive. This could be bad.
** Sterling Silvers(ZAF) -- no kills. You did manage to miss a few shots and dodge some though.

That's right, an all-African squad. Never seen that before. Don't know what to make of it.

ARTIFACTS
** 6 Sectoid Corpses
** 6 Weapon Fragments

ROSTER

So that's the A Squad to start things off.

B Squad
** Ace Idol(Luxembourg)
** DJ Thomas(USA) -- bumped up to this position as he was originally on C Squad
** Lucy Hall(ZAF)
** Jesus Delgado(ARG)

C Squad
** Patrick O'Doherty(IRE)
** Greg Jackson(CAN)
** Rachid Canaan(SA)
** Tao Yang(CHN)

Any others who join(or those who re-join), just let me know which of these fine citizens you want(I'll bump up people in order to the next position to see action, one useless peon is as good as the next)

[Brian Swartz]

Administrative details ...

The powers that be have chosen a location, foolishly, where there is no steam till the bottom level. So we'll have to subsist on ordinary power generators. Morons.

We build a couple medkits and excavate one space on the top level. 182 credits left. Alien Materials is our first research tech.

March 5, 12:17 AM -- Alien Abductions Alert!

Seriously. It's like always in the hour after midnight. No sense of timing whatsoever.

Hamburg, Germany -- Low, Moderate, 200 credits
Chongqing, China -- Low, Moderate, 4 Engineers
Alexandria, Egypt -- Very Low, Easy, 4 Scientists

Either Germany or China, and in the long run the Engineers will be more valuable. Not having engineers is ... painful ... financially. So, we're on our way to Chongqing!

We'll take along two of the heroes from the first mission, Sq. Fox McCloud and Sq. Benton Gale. Sterling Silvers gets a chance to do something useful unlike last time(other than a target I guess) and Ace Idol will head out for the first time.

[sterlingice]

Sterling is an excellent decoy.

SI

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION SHATTERED CHANT
Chongqing, China
Touchdown: 1:31 AM, March 5th

We're in an abandoned but intact gas station. I hate gas stations. And furthermore, how exactly do you shatter a chant? These and other questions will assuredly not be answered today.

Two sectoids come at us from diagonally across the lot almost immediately. Idol is too far away, the others open fire. Two miss, one hits and doesn't kill their target.

We spread out for better coverage, and they advance. Silvers misses. Warlord misses. Both of the enemy fire at, and miss, Sterling Silvers. Nobody can hit a thing. Guess he is a good decoy :P.

One of them's in the open. We manage to miss two flanking shots, but Coffee Warlord finally doesn't miss, and the other sectoid retreats into the convenience store building. Replaced by two more coming out farther down. Oh joy! At least Ace Idol managed to take one of them out.

Fox McCloud slides over to the third and final lane, missing a flanking shot. Silvers misses too, forcing Coffee Warlord to cover him with a smoke grenade. These guys ... could not hit ... you finish the expression. Whatever you're familiar with.

They mind-meld and fire at McCloud ... hitting the gas pump in front of him which explodes. Thankfully that's a solid pillar he's behind, shielding him from the blast. Nothing to do but attempt to retreat and reload.

Another mind-meld, Idol is the target and they miss again. They are going to hit us at this rate. Soon we will all be dead. We can't retreat out of firing range ... screw it. As ridiculous as it sounds, McCloud unleashes a rocket, incinerating their attacking sectoid. And the gas pump near him. And the car next to that.

Lane 3 is completely destroyed.

We get a bit of a pause ... and then Fox McCloud sees two more of them on the right. Silvers actually manages to hit something ... but can't kill it. They miss Idol.

Whaddya know, Fox McCloud actually shoots straight for the first time all mission, and another one is down. That's four. There's at least two more out there.

Another sneaks out of the building, missing McCloud but setting the pillar by him on fire. He slides right, using a green van to shield his movements. They move around the van, but don't have time to fire ... McCloud closes to point-blank range, and gets another kill execution-style!!

The last one's in the building, and we split both ways to try and do a pincer movement. It proceeds to injure both McCloud and Silvers before we get to it, McCloud with the final kill. We're definitely fortunate to get everyone out alive.

OPERATION SHATTERED CHANT is ultimately a success: 6 aliens dead, 0 operatives lost.

** Sq. Fox McCloud(Heavy) -- 4 kills!, promoted to Corporal, wounded(out 8 days)
** Rk. Sterling Silvers -- 0 kills, promoted anyway to Sniper Squaddie. Sniper? Really? That's a bad joke.
** Sq. Coffee Warlord -- 1 kill, wounded(out 6 days)
** Rk. Ace Idol -- 1 kill, promoted to Assault Squaddie. Unfortunate career choice. I don't use Assaults that much, so either you or Gale is going to spend a lot of time at XCOM HQ doing paperwork, running errands for Bradford, or planting foreign objects in the doctors' beverages.

ARTIFACTS

** 6 Sectoid Corpses
** 10 Weapon Fragments

[Brian Swartz]

Ok, I've played ahead quite a bit last night and today, partly because I was on an XCOM binge and partly because I know I'm going to be real busy the next few days and I wanted to have stuff set to post here, so I'll be doing that and keeping the thread going.

For any of you interested in getting in, I'll just say that all of the six who have requested characters have them(some respawned of course) and there are two unclaimed operatives of note(meaning, they've been promoted at least once and have a class) waiting along with some on the bench who will get in eventually. I'm perfectly happy to keep going with what we have and their default names, but if anyone wants ownership, speak up! .

Having gotten that out of the way ...

Back at XCOM HQ

We get to work on a Satellite and a Workshop, which bleeds our funds dry but will be worth it.

March 9 -- Alien Materials complete. Next up is Xeno-Biology research.

March 14 -- 3:29 PM. We get our first UFO sighting! It's a small one, over Nigeria. Raven-1 brings it down with only light damage. Everyone's healthy for this mission, our first chance at getting a look at an alien vessel up close.

STRIKE SQUAD

Cpl. Fox McCloud(EGY, Heavy)
Sq. Coffee Warlord(NIG, Support)
Sq. Sterling Silvers(ZAF, Sniper)
Rk. DJ Thomas(USA)

Grenades for the front-line troops(McCloud and Thomas), medikits for the others. Traipsing around in the woods is no job for an assault operative which is why Gale and Idol remain in the barracks. I'm sure they'll have their own story ...

[CrimsonFox]

We need more recruits Where'd everybody go?

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION BLEEDING SERPENT
Nigerian Interior
Touchdown: March 14, 4:26 PM

Who's the serpent. Naturally, I hope it turns out to be the aliens, not us.

We have to cross what is basically open swampland first. McCloud spots a pair of sectoids first and retreats. The first one that advances gets a pistol shot from Silvers, and keeps coming ... Warlord misses ... but the rookie Thomas finishes it off! Impressive debut salvo by the American!!

We reload, another one approaches, and McCloud misses but Sterling Silvers nails it with his first-ever sniper shot! Two clean kills to start, by the last people I thought would get them. There must be a reality warp going on here or something.

It sounds like our next target is ahead a ways, and a bit to the left. After a while, it seems that either they are moving left more or there are more of them out there than just one group. Either way, straight ahead's the only way out of this swamp -- left and right the ridge wall is too steep. This time it's Coffee Warlord who spots them ... more sectoids ... and pulls back.

Again we wait, and Warlord misses one on the move. It fires at Thomas, but the shot's thankfully over his head. It remains perfectly placed to block the view of Silvers who can't get a shot, but the others all have a clear one. Thomas again notches it!

It's soon clear that the other sectoid is not as suicidal, falling back. We work our way on top of the ridge, taking the higher ground. Moving forward to the edge, Coffee Warlord is surprised to see it firing at her from a little nook in the rocks below! Very crafty this one, and at such close range it hit her, but she's ok. She has to move away, but McCloud drops over the cliff and around an outcropping for a simple, execution-style kill.

With the ship now in view, we needed simply to reload, regroup, heal CW, and finish the job. Thomas soon spotted the Outsider, a most dangerous enemy, certainly more lethal than the Sectoids. Coffee fired .. high. Thomas fired high as well, he didn't have much of angle to hit there. Silvers actually managed to hit it, but it wasn't killed ... no time to be subtle. Corporal McCloud finishes it off with a rocket, destroying not only the Outsider but it's cover and part of an internal wall.

Time to let the sweeper teams clean up the rest of this mess, our work here is finished.

OPERATION BLEEDING SERPENT yields yet another injury to the seemingly nine-lived Coffee Warlord, 5 dead aliens, and no dead operatives. Success!

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Sq. Coffee Warlord -- 0 kills, promoted to Corporal, wounded(6 days)
** Sq. Sterling Silvers -- 1 kill
** Cpl. Fox McCloud -- 2 kills
** Rk. DJ Thomas -- 2 kills, promoted to Heavy Squaddie

ARFTIFACTS

** 4 Sectoid Corpses
** 11 Elerium
** 46 Alien Alloys
** 8 Weapon Fragments
** 2 UFO Flight Computers(1 damaged)
** 1 UFO Power Source(damaged)

The damaged components bring us 50 much-needed credits.

[ntndeacon]

Deacon Palmer reporting for duty... and i don't care what he looks like

[Coffee Warlord]

It appears our experiments with kevlar skin and plasma resistant tissue on this particular Coffee Warlord Combat Unit (tm) has proven useful!

[Brian Swartz]

Quite clearly so!

Deacon Palmer will be added in, a male from Saudi Arabia. Your entrance into the story is a bit down the road from here, but significant.

XCOM Headquarters
Exact location classified, somewhere in central Africa.

March 16 -- Workshop is completed, and we start excavacating the rest of the top level. Later in the day, Xeno-Biology research is completed. Alien Containment building is a high priority when we get the money, but we don't have it yet. Weapons Fragments is the next bit of research, the beginning of our investigations into advanced alien weaponry and how we might adapt it to our uses.

March 19 -- 3:57 PM. The Council wishes an audience. Well, at least they picked a reasonable hour.

It seems something strange is going on near a major bridge in Britain. They will pay us 112 credits to investigate, not to mention of course that it would be good for us to do something positive with the UK at Medium panic(only Germany's High is worse).

So be it!

The only unavailable soldier is Coffee Warlord, still out for a couple days, and that leaves us with no Support operatives available. This is a crucial mission, and we can't afford to send any newbies out there, so after heading down to engineering and procuring a pair of nano-fiber vests, we outfit the following team:

STRIKE SQUAD

Cpl. Fox McCloud(medikit)
Sq. Benton Gale(vest)
Sq. Sterling Silvers(medikit)
Sq. DJ Thomas(vest)

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION FINAL SHROUD
Location: Leeds, United Kingdom
Touchdown: March 19, 4:49 PM

A ridiculously morbid mission name, way to inspire us with confidence, guys.

I'm told there is a huge alien bomb about to go off, which means if we fail, it might turn to be entirely appropriate. We need to disable a number of power nodes in order to buy us time to get to the bomb itself. This is fantastic, since with time being of the essence, aggressiveness tends to end with dead operatives.

** OOC Note: This is my first-ever bomb defusal mission, I was beginning to think they were a fable.

We embark on a four-lane highway, and there's only one way to go. We fan out a bit, Gale and McCloud heading left of the median while Silvers and Thomas stay on the right.

Thomas gets to the first node, but we're still losing time here. McCloud spots our first enemy, a thin man on left ... it crosses over to the right side. Gale grabs another node. Early on we're keeping pace with the timer, neither gaining nor falling behind.

Silvers hits the thin man with a pistol shot ... still moving though. Gale closes in ... misses high! The only one left who can hit him is DJ Thomas -- got him! We really needed that shot, we were in trouble if he missed. McCloud dashes forward, spotting two more sectoids who dart out of sight immediately. The others move up, and we're starting to run out of time again.

Thomas knocks out another node -- we were close on the timer by the time he got that one. He moves along a semi near the middle of the highway to get close to another one ... a sectoid spots him and fires, but misses. McCloud unleashes a rocket, and gets two kills! Still another pair of sectoids out there. Thomas uses his rocket, taking out multiple vehicles and another sectoid. One left, fires at Silvers ... misses ... but the vehicle next to Gale explodes, and he's blown sky-high!

Benton Gale is XCOM's first casualty! We have no time to mourn the dead here though. We can just see the bomb up ahead. We appear to have bought enough time to be a bit more careful on the final leg. Silvers moves to better cover, missing a pistol shot. Thomas is up and takes out the sectoid, and that's all the visible enemies for now. Another vehicle blows.

The rest is a walk as we deactivate three more nodes to ensure plenty of time, and eventually Sterling Silvers does the honors as the bomb is deactivated ...

Bradford announces that more enemies are coming in. Apparently they aren't happy with the situation. Splendid.

Soon, THREE thin men drop in, triangular formation around the bomb. Both of our reaction shots miss. McCloud misses again, Silvers misses a sniper shot, Thomas manages to take one out but we really needed to get at least two with all of those chances.

One injures Silves with a shot, the second enveloping him and Thomas in a cloud of poison gas. Good grief. Fox McCloud ends one of them, and Silvers has to get out of that poison or he's dead. He has no shot after he moves, so he uses a medkit. Thomas stays and fires ... nothing, but the Thin Man fires back, and sets the vehicle he's using for cover on fire!

Thomas panicks, which basically is fatal when next to a burning vehicle. Silvers hits the Thin Man with a pistol ... nope, he's still not dead. McCloud is out of ammunition and already used his rocket, so he can do nothing but reload.

Thomas's car blows as expected. He's dead now too. For reasons that mystify me, the Thin Man poisons his corpse. He's already dead, moron! Whatever. Silvers panicks.

Just sheer chaos ensues. McCloud moves in and misses from point-blank range, which should be hard to do. The thin man uses the opportunity and moves to Silvers, executing him from point-blank range.

McCloud gets the last word and finally takes the thin man out this time, signalling the Skyranger with the all-clear. What an absolute mess. I hate Thin Men. Oh, how I hate them. Three good men dead in utterly stupid circumstances.

OPERATION FINAL SHROUD nearly is, a pyrrhic victory as we defuse the bomb and kill 8 aliens, but with three losses on our side.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW
** Sq. Benton Gale -- 3 kills in 2 missions, KIA
** Sq. Sterling Silvers -- 1 kill in 4 missions, KIA
** Cpl. Fox McCloud -- 4 kills! Promoted to Sergeant, nicknamed 'Lights Out' which seems particularly appropriate after that last mission.
** Sq. DJ Thomas -- KIA after 7 kills in just 2 missions. Brilliant, but he panicked at the wrong time and for a completely stupid reason(being missed by an enemy, for crying out loud!) and he's dead because of it.

I think there were more cars exploded than intact on that bridge when we left. Not exaggerating even a little bit.

ARTIFACTS
** 4 Sectoid Corpses
** 4 Thin Man Corpses
** 12 Weapon Fragments

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM Headquarters

We start work on Alien Containment right away with the Council funds.

March 21 -- 2:42 AM. Alien Abduction Alert!

Seriously? ARGH! Just leave us ... the heck ... alone! It hasn't even been a day and a half since FINAL SHROUD.

Lyons, France -- Low, Difficult, 4 Engineers
Sydney, Australia -- Very Low, Moderate, 4 Scientists
Guadalajara, Mexico -- Low, Difficult, Sniper Sergeant

This is a tough choice. France or Mexico. A Sniper Sergeant is incredibly enticing right now, but Europe is in some trouble. Russia's at Medium, Germany at High panic, so we really need to go to Lyons.

STRIKE TEAM

Sgt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud(Heavy, medikit)
Cpl. Coffee Warlord(Support, medikit)
Sq. Ace Idol(Assault, vest)

Those three are no-brainers, as our only experienced troops available. Joining them will be Benton Gale II, bit of a strange name for a South African woman, but whatever. Hopefully she can be our next sniper. A vest for her as well.

XCOM needs its mojo back. One bad mission, particularly one ultimately salvaged at least technically, can be overcome once in a great while. The project needs to start a new winning streak today.

[kingfc22]

David Gonzalez ready to spread alien guts everywhere

[Kodos]

Kodos reporting for duty!

[CrimsonFox]

I hope I have a good psychiatrist after this. Call Sydney Freedman!

[MacroGuru]

AJ Thomas is reporting to avenge his brothers death!

[sterlingice]

Silvers can be rebooted as many times as necessary

SI

[Brian Swartz]

Yay! Fresh meat for the grinder!


Ahem. More coming tonight.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION BANISHED THRONE
Location: Lyons, France
Touchdown: March 21, 3:27 AM

Banished Throne wouldn't happen to be a reference to humanity's place in the food chain, perhaps?

We start in a crowded area, tough to get the open fields of fire I prefer. Lots of semi trucks parked and some other equipment. A pair of them on the right or a bigger row on the left are the only real options to begin, straight ahead means getting flanked early and often.

Coffee Warlord gets into the rear of a blue semi truck on the left, spying a pair of Sectoids immediately. So much for surprise. Normally we'd go around it, but we try defending from inside the open trailer itself.

One of them comes around from an unexpected angle ... flanking Idol and seriously injuring him. Warlord has a reply and kills it. That certainly could have gone better.

McCloud already has to burn his medikit, and Idol is mostly healed. Another one comes around the corner, but Idol leaps over the side of the trailer and finishes this one himself, a revenge kill point-blank with his shotgun. We split into two squads covering each end of the trailer, and on the far left Lights Out and Benton Gale II spy another pair. Warlord misses one of them.

The enemy splits as well, one on each side. The one on the left moved just yards in front of McCloud's LMG, with the predictable deadly results. The right sectoid overwatches instead, a more conservative and intelligent approach.

Ace Idol charges, not the smartest move, and he's hit again but not bad. His shotgun blast misses this time, but Coffee Warlord saves the day with a well-placed shot. I think Idol's number was up if that one missed.

Already a couple of mistakes on this mission, and Idol has gotten shot because of each one. We really need to get with it. Four sectoids down, there'll be more or worse upcoming.

More of them straight ahead, at least according to our ears. Probably a couple semis down this row. But before that, Coffee burns our final medikit to get Ace Idol back to basically full health.

Another pair are eventually spotted, and everyone but Gale fires ... got one of them there. I'm not sure who got it.

Further ahead and to the left is yet another group, but that one remaining sectoid is on the opposite side of the final semi. It slides left, spots Gale and is mystifyingly terrified enough to go back the other way. Great chance for her first kill, but she missed.

Lights Out tries to round the corner, but spots another two enemies, and he has to retreat to avoid getting flanked by them. Ace Idol around the other end ... another shotgun kill for him! We've fought our way through the parking lot, and now there's a lot of open territory up to a gas station, where the other two sectoids await us.

They mind-meld, and fire at Idol AGAIN. He's hit, again! Minor damage, but still. Award that man the order of the purple target.

Lights Out McCloud is just in range of a white van ... around the back corner and he's got a flank shot on the melder -- got him! Two for the price of one there, and it's over!

Other than getting Ace Idol shot every two seconds, this was a good mission. OPERATION BANISHED THRONE ends with 8 dead aliens, zone cleared, no operatives lost. Well done!!

*** OOC: I don't know whether to be proud or embarassed. I've never had anyone get shot three times in the same mission .. and live to tell about it. Not to mention 3 kills to go with it!

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Rk. Benton Gale II -- 0 kills. An inauspicious beginning, the one good opportunity was missed and a couple other off-target shots also.
** Sgt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 3 kills. Promoted to Lieutenant! Unquestionably the star operative of XCOM with 15 kills already(no one reached double figures in our first game)
** Cpl. Coffee Warlord -- 2 kills
** Sq. Ace Idol -- 3 kills, wounded(13 days). It seems getting yourself shot up like a practice range impacts promotions. Who'd have thunk. I'm just shocked it's not a grave injury.

ARTIFACTS

** 8 Sectoid Corpses
** 16 Weapons Fragments

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM Headquarters

March 22 -- 4 Sectoid Corpses have to be sold so that we can begin building a much-needed power generator. Then a couple more, and we finish excavating the top level of the base.

March 25 -- Weapons Fragment research completed. We can now build scopes. That is, when and if we have the money. Sectoid Autopsy is next up.

March 26-- Alien Containment is finished building. We have no way yet to capture aliens, but we do have a place to house them once that happens. The satellite is also finished, but we'll wait a couple days before putting that up.

March 27 -- About the fourth thing to happen in the last 24 hours, new power generator online and excavation is finished. That's all we can do for now.

Time to decide where to launch our satellite. Mexico and Germany are both at High panic, and all other things are basically equal except that Germany offers twice the funding. Germany it is, and we transfer one of our Raven interceptors to Europe.

[RendeR]

Ren Snow Reporting for Duty Sir!

BIG dude, White, brown hair, gotee

Gimme the HEAVY weapons!

[Brian Swartz]

MARCH COUNCIL REPORT

Grade: A

1 Council Mission Completed
1 UFO Shot Down
2 Abductions Stopped
1 Satellite Launched
3 Research Projects Completed
1 UFO Raided

Funding: 357 credits, 1 Scientist, 1 Engineer

We now have 19 Engineers, 6 Scientists, and cannot even build a laboratory yet. We get to work immediately on a satellite uplink, and are down to 68 credits. At the moment, our top priority is to do everything possible to get three more satellites up this month. We'll need to get up to 189 credits, 121 more than we have, within the next week or a little more. I'm hoping we will find another source other than having to sell off needed resources. Other projects will wait for the time being.

[Brian Swartz]

April 2 -- Sectoid Autopsy completed. Thin Man Autopsy is next.

April 8 -- Strange offer from Canada, they want a satellite and are willing to pay 200 credits for it. We have no spares and none being built yet, which means their offer will expire before we can fill it. Shame.

We are out of time and need to build our own, which even after selling almost all our spare corpses requires about a third of our key stocks of Elerium, Alien Alloys, and Weapon Fragments to raise the required funds. We'll pay for that down the road, but the satellites are crucial.

Thin Man Autopsy also completes. The Arc Thrower is next, a device required to stun aliens for capture, making our Alien Containment useful for more than storing coasters. We are worse than dead broke a week into the month. Fun times.

April 11 -- Just after midnight, a medium-sized UFO is spotted in northeastern Nigeria! It very nearly shoots down our Raven, but we are victorious!! Now it's up to the ground team to ensure that space battle was worth the risk.

We send all of our best, and can't afford to outfit them with scopes.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION FLYING JUSTICE
Location: Somewhere in Nigeria
Touchdown: April 11, 12:24 AM

Great op name, that's all I can say. We land where it looks like the ship crashed, and there's a highway, large one, that it carved through the forest.

Idol's in front, hoping not to get shot again. After a while, it's McCloud who spots a trio of sectoids. Warlord is off target with a shot, and Lights Out Suppresses the lead enemy who is mind-melded and misses a return shot.

McCloud retreats, dodging reaction fire ... they move just into range, and hit Coffee Warlord, who apparently is trying to compete with Ace Idol for the title of 'most shot-up operative'. She panicks and hunkers down ... at least she did something vaguely intelligent. We're pinned down ... McCloud has to alleviate the pressure, and takes out one with a rocket. They fire at Idol, missing.

This is totally not going well at all. Ace Idol goes aggressive, dashing forward with a shotgun blast from close and takes one down. The other goes into overwatch, and we reload ... the remaining sectoid takes out some rocks near Idol, but is joined by a pair of floaters. Joy!!

A desperate retreat by Idol is followed by more suppressing fire by Fox McCloud. Warlord swings left, and flanks the sectoid. Now we need to deal with those floaters.

They don't advance, for whatever reason. So far the battle has been poorly planned and executed worse, but we're still doing ok. Another missed shot by Coffee Warlord, Idol is back with the rest of the squad, and exchanges off-target fire with the floaters.

Coffee has a chance to flank, and takes one of them down. Second good flanking maneuver she's made today, both after getting shot ironically. Gale moves up to get the second one ... misses! Idol runs and guns to shotgun range -- and two more floater spot him! There is no freaking way those guys were there just a minute ago ... McCloud and Idol both miss their shots anyway, and we're still in a bind here.

Fortunately, their tactics are a mystery. Even to themselves, I surmise. One teleports behind us, another withdraws, a third fires at Lights Out and misses. How nobody has died yet is completely beyond my comprehension. Basically there's two in front, one behind. McCloud suppresses the closest one while the others wheel backwards. Idol injures it with a pistol shot.

The rear floater flanks Gale, yet both enemy and operative manage to miss each other with easy shots. The second one teleports out to gang up on Benton. What a crazy fight this is. We should so be dead already so many times. Gale moves up the ridge to join Coffee, and kills one! Finally!! That allows Warlord to flank the second one, and we're clear. Shouldn't be, no way in hell, but we are.

One more floater out there somewhere, and who knows what else. How have we killed five with no casualties? Ace Idol stays in the 'highway' and waits for the others to rejoin him. The floater returns, then retreats again.

Finally we can start moving forward again, weapons full and at the ready. Idol spots the floater just above the ship in the distance, missing with a pistol shot again. There's nowhere to form a coherent firing line, so we trust in combined firepower. Warlord misses, Gale hits it but it's still alive. Idol is able to creep just close enough for a reasonable shotgun try, and he's on target! Seven enemies down!!

Now that we're actually near the ship, we have the entrance well-covered. Nothing inside the immediate door. We slowly clear one room, then another ... and finally spot the Outsider! Warlord and Gale are well-positioned outside the door and fire ... I think Gale had the kill there, but he's gone and that's it!!

OPERATION FLYING JUSTICE is far more successful than it had any right to be. 8 aliens eliminated, no operatives lost. A bloody miracle, that one.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Rk. Benton Gale II -- 1 kill, promoted to Support Squaddie! She is now the backup to Coffee Warlord.
** Lt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 1 kill.
** Cpl. Coffee Warlord -- 3 kills, promoted to Sergeant! She is now nicknamed 'Missionary'. Wounded, and will be out 9 days.
** Sq. Ace Idol -- 3 kills, promoted to Corporal!

Three promotions! If I can stop screwing up, maybe we can form a good squad out of these soldiers.

ARTIFACTS

** 3 Sectoid Corpses
** 4 Floater Corpses
** 18 Elerium
** 76 Alien Alloys
** 4 UFO Flight Computers(2 damaged)
** 2 UFO Power Sources(both damaged)

We get 100 credits for the damaged parts, but have yet to get a single Power Source intact.

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM Headquarters

We build a pair of scopes and another power generator, after which we'll need an access lift as the top level of the base is filled.

It literally takes less than an hour after we arrive back at the HQ for this to happen ...

Alien Abductions Alert!

No rest for the weary.

Mumbai, India -- Low, Moderate, 4 Engineers
Port Said, Egypt -- Medium, Very Difficult, 200 credits
Glasgow, United Kingdom -- Very Low, Easy, 4 Scientists

This is a no-brainer, off to Egypt we go. The Warlord will not be coming with us obviously. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud, Ace Idol, and Benton Gale II will be joined by a rookie fourth. Really it's Lights Out and company, as none of the others are established yet. This could be tough. Rookie Sterling Silvers II is from Argentina, and we'll see if he's as good a decoy as the first edition was.

Vests for the rookie and Idol at the front, a scope for McCloud, and medkit for Benton Gale II.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION FORGOTTEN CHANT

It's a restaurant location, and right away things get off to a craptastic start. We discover two thin men, and after a blown up car, severely damaged van, and a strange bug in which I don't flank one of them despite standing right next to him, the thin men are gone and so is Sterling Silvers, executed at point-blank range in about as quick a death as you can have in this game. Gale has been injured, and uses up the only medikit.

This could get ugly. Three left, and plenty more enemies I surmise. We move through the restaurant, surprisingly encountering no resistance. A methodical sweep takes time, but eventually out back there is a semi truck, and three sectoids.

We make short work of the first, McCloud on a reaction shot. They miss a return shot, and Idol climbs into the trailer, executing a second foe. The third retreats before we can do anything about it.

It tries to approach again, but Lights Out is there to ... well, you already know. He couldn't shoot thin men worth a thing to start the mission, but is two-for-two against these sectoids.

Movement around the left rear of the next building ... we open the large vehicle door in front, and there's two sectoids right on top of us! Gale and McCloud both miss. One stays just inside the door, another scampers to the roof. Idol moves in, gets the one on our floor, and three floaters show up!

Three of us, four of them, and they seem to multiplying no matter how fast we take them down. One is really close to Idol, who blasts it away. Gale looks for cover around the right corner of the building ... and the sectoid on the roof somehow spies her and she's hit. How he saw her, much less shot her, I haven't a clue. She misses floater number two, but McCloud ducks behind the semi and does not miss.

The floater comes around the building, missing Gale. It's exposed now, McCloud maneuvers for a shot around the left end of the truck up by the cab ... he can see the sectoid from here, and we might be able to get em both. A potshot from Gale misses, but a fairly lengthy shotgun blast nails another floater for Idol, and McCloud guns down the sectoid on the roof!

Well done, clean there at the end, and we are home free!

OPERATION FORGOTTEN CHANT. 10 dead aliens, 1 operative. Other than the thoroughly craptastic start with Silvers dying stupidly, an excellent mission.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Cpl. Ace Idol -- 4 kills, promoted to Sergeant! Now known as 'Spitfire'
** Sq. Benton Gale II -- 1 kill, wounded(9 days)
** Lt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 5 kills, promoted to Captain!
** Rk. Sterling Silvers II -- KIA, 0 kills in 1 mission. He lasted about two turns. Maybe three.

ARTIFACTS

** 5 Sectoid Corpses
** 3 Floater Corpses
** 2 Thin Man Corpses
** 20 Weapon Fragments

[CrimsonFox]

Just make Sterling a zombie!

[sterlingice]

#3!

SI

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM Headquarters

We get the 200 credits from Forgotten Chant, but will have to wait for the power generator to finish before we can use any of it. With two soldiers out over a week, we are very limited with only two non-rookies, and two do not a squad make.

April 15 -- The next few days pass uneventfully, thank goodness. Satellite Uplink is now completed.

April 16 -- New power generator online. We need to build an access lift down to the second level now ... the women are still four days away from health.

April 17 -- It was fun while it lasted. A small UFO has been spotted over southwest Germany. Raven-1 is off, taking significant damage but taking it down.

We'll head out in the Skyranger with a pair of rookies, making me more than a little bit nervous.

STRIKE SQUAD

** Cpt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud(Heavy) -- medikit. Things have come to a pretty pass when the great Captain McCloud(of the clan McCloud, naturally) is reduced to the role of medic.
** Sgt. Ace 'Spitfire' Idol(Assault) -- vest
** Rk. AJ Thomas(IRE) -- medikit
** Rk. Sterling Silvers III(CAN) -- vest. He'll probably die anyway.

We hire a pair of new soldiers before heading out. Only two warm bodies are fit and staying back at HQ, and should the worst, i.e. the largely expected happen, we need to be able to at least field a full squad.

[sterlingice]

Is SS3's vest red?

SI

[Brian Swartz]

I can't change the armor colors. You can imagine it looking like a pink power ranger or whatever you like tho :P

[sterlingice]

I was thinking more of a Star Trek redshirt

SI

[chesapeake]

Ches O'Peake, locked, loaded and looking for trouble.

[ntndeacon]

pink is like red though!

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION SILENT PARAMOUR
April 17, 2:40 PM
North central Germany

Who is that referring to? I'm not sure I want to know.

We don't have to wait long ... Spitfire Idol spots a pair of floaters immediately. He retreats and we form the most coherent battle we can. Silvers III and McCloud open fire on the right as one approaches, looks like Lights Out there with another kill. The second retreats, and we've got our foothold.

Some time later, Idol moves up a ridge and spots the floater again. He misses with a longish shotgun blast, Silvers hits it but it's still moving. Two thin men ahead and to the left ... either McCloud or Thomas got one of them. McCloud and Thomas injure the other one but fail to bring it down.

We really needed to take one of them out, but they both just retreat, which is a gift. By the time we regroup both are out of sight.

A clever hiding spot for the Thin Man later on forces McCloud to use a rocket on him ... it misses wide left but is just close enough to catch the enemy in the blast later on. Pure luck on that, and a good thing as Idol was exposed. The floater moved up and shot Spitfire anyway, but he survived it.

Idol moves up to take it out ... and spots the Outsider! Well, we're already committed, nowhere to retreat to. He pulverizes the floater with the shotgun, and it's back down to one enemy. The only one far right enough to flank is Thomas, who annoys it but it's still moving, and the other miss the crap shots they are able to find. McCloud suppresses it.

The Outsider basically just stands there, doesn't advance, doesn't shoot. Thomas finishes it off, and we're done!

OPERATION SILENT PARAMOUR goes well enough, 5 aliens killed, 0 operatives down.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Sgt. Ace 'Spitfire' Idol -- 1 kill, wounded(14 days). Ouch. He'll be out a while.
** Rk. AJ Thomas -- 2 kills, promoted to Sniper Squaddie! Nice, we needed one of those. He'll have a chance to make a name for himself.
** Cpt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 2 kills
** Rk. Sterling Silvers III -- 0 kills. But he survived! Maybe he's returning to the 'decoy' strategy, which is proving considerably superior to the 'get shot immediately' maneuver.

ARTIFACTS

** 2 Floater Corpses
** 2 Thin Man Corpses
** 7 Elerium
** 48 Alien Alloys
** 8 Weapon Fragments
** 2 UFO Flight Computers
** 1 UFO Power Source(damaged). Again. Sigh.

[Brian Swartz]

Ches O'Peake, locked, loaded and looking for trouble.

You've come to the right place. That's something we can always arrange.

[Brian Swartz]

** Those who are waiting patiently, here's where we start adding you in. The more the merrier!

XCOM Headquarters

April 18 -- Arc Thrower research completed. Floater Autopsy is up next. We'll need to build and take a couple of the new arc throwers with us next time out. We have all the equipment required to capture and interrogate these guys ... but the hard part is actually doing it.

April 19 -- Alien Abduction Alert!

Sigh. They just won't let us get anyone healthy. Another day or two, and we'd have had more recruits and a couple of healthy vets as well. As it is, we're rather up against it.

** Mendoza, Argentina -- Low, Difficult, 4 Engineers
** Edmonton, Canada -- Low, Moderate, 200 credits
** Port Elizabeth, South Africa -- Medium, Difficult, Sniper Lieutenant

Wow. South Africa's fine, but panic levels are high across Asia and we don't even have the option of going there. If we head to Canada, South Africa will reach the tipping point; if we don't Mexico will. This is a very tough choice, one of the hardest I've encountered.

In the final analysis, I think South Africa is worth the increased risk. Bringing in a sniper Lt.(sorry AJ) will seriously upgrade our survivability and talent. They'd instantly become our #2 asset behind McCloud. We'll deal with the fallout in North America later.

After grabbing a pair of Arc Throwers, we are down to 122 credits.

STRIKE SQUAD

** Cpt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- Hasn't missed a single mission yet. He's the man for the job of taking an arc thrower, no doubt.
** Sq. AJ Thomas -- As close to quality assistance as Lights Out will get on this one. He'll pack a medikit, despite the fact that I'd rather give him a scope. No spare gear slots with the stun thingys coming along.
** Rk. Sterling Silvers III -- Medikit. Keep doing that decoy thing that you do so well.
** Rk. Deacon Palmer(SA) -- His first mission, and he's getting the second arc thrower. This is what we're reduced to.

We have five serviceable soldiers, three are injured on top of that. This is probably our most hazardous mission since the bomb disposal that was such a disaster. There's no margin for even minor error here. A key moment ... heroes will be made, hopefully they're on our side not that of the aliens.

[Brian Swartz]

OPERATION FALLING LAW
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
April 19, 4:29 AM

A well-named mission for once by our friends in ... wherever they are when they think up these things. Bradford just looked at me funny when I asked him.

We're in front of a restaurant. We get a decent firing line, but there's little cover, and Palmer spots a pair of thin men. Yay. Of the three kinds of aliens we've encountered, I hate these guys at least twice as much as the other two(sectoids and floaters) combined.

He retreats, and one advances. We miss two reaction shots, but he can't get close enough to shoot and is in the open. Oh, Mr. Thomas would you ... thank you. First-ever sniper shot for him is on-target and much-needed. We can breathe a bit easier.

The other one eventually gets bored and advances through the store ... Silvers misses a shot. It's not in the greatest of cover, just behind a table. We ought to be able to just shoot the thing from here. Silvers fires high, and then I remember that we're supposed to be capturing some of them. Duh..

Palmer is about to move forward ... welcome to being a target Deacon, as we try to take this bastard alive. He dashes forward to the corner of the building, McCloud moving up in support.

The thin man cooperates, firing at and missing Silvers. Just the way we drew it up. Err, maybe not, but ... The final step ... Palmer leaps through the window, closes, and fires the arc thrower! It fails!! That was not supposed to happen.

The thin man shoots Palmer, surprising no-one, but does not kill him. Palmer panicks and shoots back, hitting him but not killing him either. A mexican standoff, if you will. So we still have another chance. Lights Out moves in, but can't reach any cover, so he has to stand in the middle of the floor. This better work, because if it fails as well ... got him! The thin man is down and not getting up!

We hear movement to the left of the store, and the other members of the squad move to best firing positions. Silvers moves into the store, intending to ready a medikit ... and spots two floaters back in the kitchen! Lights Out misses ... could have used a clutch shot there, buddy. Now healed, Palmer moves to the counter and flanks one of them ... down and out.

Movement to the left just outside, looks like two more floaters. They suppress Palmer, but no direct attacks. Thomas misses a pistol shot. This has certainly been a tense battle so far! Thomas opens a door into the kitchen, giving him a good angle with his rifle ... this time he's on target, and another one drops! That was the floater suppressing Palmer, who is free now.

One more visible, and we try to weaken it first to gain another stun victim. Silvers moves behind the counter for cover, and misses a pistol shot. Palmer manages to find a spot that for some stupid reason has no line of sight. McCloud lays down some suppressing fire of his own, and once again we hope for the best.

The floater fires at McCloud but does not move, missing. Let's try this again. Silvers again with his pistol, and that one winged the floater, now it'll be a better target for arc throwing. Palmer gets the stun this time, and it's time to regroup again. One thin man down, two floaters down, one of each type stunned ... this is going better than we could have hoped!

Three thin men on the roof, before we have a chance to really get set! Thomas fires as they move, missing one. One in the kitchen, one outside front in the general direction we came from. Hmm, I thought there were three, only see two now. Silvers flanks the one in the kitchen for an execution-style kill. Palmer tries the other one ... nope, but Thomas is on fire with that rifle of his, bagging another! McCloud readies for reaction fire, as we are clear once again. Maybe this time they'll actually give us time to reload and reset, we haven't had a chance yet to fully do that since the mission started.

Palmer moves to better cover ... a floater outside the left front corner of the building! I knew there was another one out there. Silvers misses twice and Canaan once from close range. Good grief, fellas. Clearly this is a job for Fox McCloud, who shreds it. Scanners are clear!

OPERATION FALLING LAW is an incredibly surprising success. 6 dead aliens, 2 captured as well, no operatives lost. The only one we yet need to capture is a sectoid, didn't see any of them this time out.

As expected, Mexico goes ape-shit over our failure to head to North America.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Sq. AJ Thomas -- 3 kills, promoted to Corporal!!
** Rk. Sterling Silvers III -- 1 kill, promoted to Sniper Squaddie. Enjoy your seat on the bench there, pal.
** Cpt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 1 kill. He's probably sick of getting promotions at this point anyway.
** Rk. Deacon Palmer -- 1 kill, promoted to Support Squaddie! Gravely wounded(11 days). That's unfortunate, but when you get a plasma load at close range, bad things tend to happen to you.

Dr. Vahlen -- "I know it wasn't easy, but this could really be a turning point in our research." It better be.

ARTIFACTS

** 2 Light Plasma Rifles
** 3 Floater Corpses
** 3 Thin Man Corpses
** 1 Floater Captive
** 1 Thin Man Captive
** 12 Weapon Fragments

Our new recruit is Lieutenant David 'Demon' Gonzalez of South Africa. Despite the excellence of AJ Thomas in recent missions, he becomes our top sniper. Two missions ago, we had none ... now we have three, two of which are reasonably good.

[Brian Swartz]

XCOM Headquarters

April 21 -- We've got some people back on duty now after a small break, and the new access lift is online. We sell off nine corpses in order to be able to do some excavating and build an officer training school, our most urgent priority.

April 25 -- It's still quiet. Floater Autopsy is complete. We work on our first interrogation with the floater as our subject.

Just hours later, the aliens begin terror attacks in major cities around the world. We find the best place for us to respond is in Acapulco, which makes sense given that Mexico has been making noises about leaving the Council, with Canada and the US edgy as well.

Another vital mission, but this should be our best squad yet.

[CrimsonFox]

Just make me a 5 star general and be done with it.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

he becomes our top sniper. Two missions ago, we had none ... now we have three, two of which are reasonably good.

Words hurt, man

SI

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Words hurt, man

SI

Oh, he was talking about you? I thought for sure he meant me...

[Brian Swartz]

Lol!

OPERATION LONE SUMMER
Acapulco, Mexico
April 26, 12:23 AM

Due to a clerical error(i.e., me pushing the 'Launch Mission' button on accident), I royally screwed up in setting up the squad. I wanted to take our healed Sergeant Coffee Warlord along; instead we have Captain McCloud and our three snipers -- Demon Gonzalez, AJ Thomas, and Sterling Silvers III. We could pay a big price for my stupidity here, particularly considering we have but one medikit.

Situated on a street corner, we head towards the corner of the building ahead to try to save as many as we can. Demon tosses a scanner left down the street that way, and it spots a pair of Chryssalids in the building. Enemy type number four, and those purple spidery things are tough to bring down.

Two civilians die. 16 left, 0 saved, 2 lost.

McCloud moves forward, and the spiders scamper away. Thomas gets to one civilian, and the others move up. Another civilian dies, two floaters are spotted to the left, and a Chryssalid bursts out the front door. This is getting real.

14 left, 1 saved, 3 lost.

Lights Out fires at the chryssalid, hitting it once. Silvers finishes it off. Incredibly, Demon and Thomas both manage to miss good shots at the floaters. The second chryssalid bursts out some doors up on the right, and one of the floaters misses Silvers.

Still 14 left, 1 saved, 3 lost.

McCloud hits the chryssalid, but it's still moving and he is out and reloads. Silvers misses a floater, but Demon manages to finish off the second spider. Left with no targets, Thomas nabs another civilian, and is injured by a floater shortly thereafter. Two more death screams of innocents follow.

11 left, 2 saved, 5 lost. Not looking great for Acapulco.

The constant missing of floaters continues, but Thomas does finally manage to take one down. No idea where the other one floated off to(pun intended). McCloud moves inside and nabs a civilian, Demon inside now as well. A zombie and two floaters appear to the right. Great, more targets!

10 left, 3 saved, 5 lost.

At least we appear to have most of their attention, keeping them from killing as many civilians. That's half the battle sometimes. Lights Out drills the zombie twice, and it's out of commission. Demon risks a long climb to the roof, two stories up. Silvers uses his medikit on Thomas -- 'take some aspirin, you'll be fine'. I think plasma scoring and burns require a bit more than a tylenol, dude!

Thomas swings around the corner to head right, there's all three of the floaters congregated. He injures one with a pistol shot, and they proceed to ignore us and take out a pair of civilians on the roof. Looks like Demon was a bit late with his idea.

8 left, 3 saved, 7 lost.

Thomas and Silvers miss floaters again. Criminy!! Their shooting sucks right now and we're running out of ammo. McCloud injures a floater, but it's still up. Demon injures a third ... so we've managed to injure all three without killing any of them. Good grief! One teleports, while two more civilians die thanks to our incompetence.

6 left, 3 saved, 9 lost.

Thomas finishes off the teleporter with his pistol, while Silvers and McCloud are out of ammunition and can do nothing but reload. The other two are up on the roof, literally right on top of Demon. He tries a grenade, just far enough away not to catch himself in the blast. It takes out a civilian on the floor below, unfortunately, but also takes down both of the floaters, and gets both of the flying foes to their graves.

That's it, time for the sweeper crews to mop up.

OPERATION LONE SUMMER results in 7 dead aliens, no dead operatives, and 8 of 18 civilians saved for a poor rating in that last category. Still we survived with a substandard team. This is unquestionably a success.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

** Cpl. AJ Thomas -- 1 kill, promoted to Sergeant! Nicknamed 'Shadow'. Gravely wounded(4 days). Sigh.
** Sq. Sterling Silvers III -- 1 kill, promoted to Corporal!
** Cpt. Fox 'Lights Out' McCloud -- 1 kill, promoted to Major! Seems there's no stopping our fearless leader.
** Lt. David 'Demon' Gonzalez -- 4 kills! Quite the debut for him.

ARTIFACTS

** 4 Floater Corpses
** 2 Chryssalid Corpses
** 4 Weapon Fragments