Chapter 4

Catch a tiger by the tail...


On January 28th, a new, far larger contact appears on XCOM's radar screens: whatever this UFO is, it's big... not to mention freaking fast.

 
XCOM launches both its Interceptors armed with the maximum payload of Avalanche torps.  The contact bears south-west over Europe almost directly towards Sector 1, and the interceptors race out to meet it.  However, they underestimate the larger craft's speed and it blows by them over the Mediterranean, turning the intercept into a tail chase.  They shadow the UFO down the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and this time aware of its maneuverabiliy, catch it as it tries to double back to the north.  The Interceptor's engage the UFO in concert with their long range Avalanche torpedoes; it takes the full complement of both craft, 12 torpedoes all told, to bring the craft down.

Not sure what to expect, the ground team loads for bear.  To replace Romanticide and the wounded from last mission, msaadn, Aes Sedai, Lither, and SMARTAgentKC join the team.  Although Shotgunner42 is recovered, she stays behind to begin forming a base of soldiers with combat experience.  To replace Mooter, tbcr carries the squad's second rocket tube.  As they fly out and the interceptors return, the commander belatedly notices a dire lack of Avalanche missiles after the unexpectedly large confrontation and orders that they be restocked.

 

Aaaaaaand touchdown:

 
The Skyranger lands in a relatively open, grassy area.  xiaozanghou is the first down the ramp, pivoting to his left to survey the area to the Skyranger's right- hello there!

The new alien stands in front of the UFO, located just to the right and in front of the Skyranger.  Possession, the new left-side vanguard, sees a multistory farmhouse behind and to the left of the Skyranger, and two more structures to the left and forward.

Instead of testing the alien's resistance to gunfire, the team decides to let it eat a rocket.  tbcr follows xiaozanghou out and levels his rocket launcher.  Xeno eliminated!

After leaving the Skyranger, TechnoSam glaces skyward through the smoke and is startled to see a... creature staring back, from three stories up!  He fires upward, and the alien plummets to earth.

QWERTY joins TechnoSam in securing the rear, and Benoni scouts farther to the Skyranger's right, revealing more of the UFO's bulk, and three more of the orange beasts.

avianchild says hi.

Everyone else deploys from the Skyranger, msaadn with TechnoSam and QWERTY to the rear, SMARTAgentKC to the left flank with Possession, and the rest to the right.  MattM scores a solitary hit on the final beast, but that doesn't seem to faze it.

More of the caped aliens begin appearing out of the woodwork.  One appears on the roof of the farmhouse behind the Skyranger, and two more appear between the UFO and stable ahead of the Skyranger's nose.

Both of the latter fire into the formation of XCOM soldiers, striking the ground nearby and scorching the soil.

QWERTY pulls the pin on a grenade and lobs it towards the alien on the roof, but it hits the building's side and detonates against the wall.

His partners open fire, and msaadn scores one hit.  Meanwhile, Benoni regains visual of the orange beast to the Skyranger's right, and avianchild sends it to join the others.

The remaining troops on the right flank fire on the two caped aliens, but the smoke around the LZ effects their aim.  The narrow corridor is making the commander nervous.

Thevil1 scores a hit, but tbcr's rocket sails overhead.  Aes Sedai finishes what Thevil1 started and downs the nearer alien.  xiaozanghou chucks a grenade to finish the remaining one.

Though the grenade detonates only a meter away, the alien survives!  It turns and fires again up the corridor, as does the alien atop the rear structure, but this time the smoke works to XCOM's advantage, and the aliens score no hits, their shots instead peppering the grass outside the ramp and impacting the landing gear.  Another orange beast appears briefly next to the caped alien near the UFO before disappearing back into the darkness.

The caped one heads for cover behind the stable, prompting SMARTAgentKC and Possession to open fire, but they succeed primarily in destroying the walls of the stable.  SMARTAgentKC finally hits home, and Possession finishes the kill.

Possession moves forward into the remains of the stable.

TechnoSam and the others continue firing at the rear alien.  msaadn scores a second, then third, hit, finally bringing it down.

Thevil1 scouts wide right, spotting one of the caped aliens floating above a wheat field beyond where avianchild destroyed the orange creatures.  He, Benoni, jym, and avianchild all fire, every shot going wide.

Lither, Aes Sedai, MattM, and xiaozanghou form a firing line to protect against a charge by the creature behind the UFO. xiaozanghou catches a glimpse of it around the corner and throws his second grenade.

The Floater above the wheat field throws a grenade that lands in front of Thevil1 and jym, and a plasma bolt from another Floater to the right of them streaks past Benoni, who had sought protection by hugging the UFO's hull.

xiaozanghou's grenade detonates, but the creature shrugs it off and crosses the team's firing line with impunity, enters the ruined stable, and gores Possession on its tusks.

Then the alien grenade detonates, killing jym, Thevil1, and Benoni as well.

At this, MattM and SMARTAgentKC panic, frozen in place, and Lither goes Berserk, firing repeatedly into the shed wall.

msaadn turns left, scanning the area, and spots a Floater past the pair of dead Reapers and in front of a barn.

avianchild, her fourth and final rocket loaded, annihilates the Floater, along with the nearby Reaper corpses and the barn's front wall in the process.

QWERTY continues towards the hole in the two-story farmhouse made by his earlier grenade.

Back near the UFO, the commander ponders how to save his soldiers with half of them frozen with fear. xiaozanghou steps inside the shed and scores a hit with his rifle, but is forced to withdraw, lest he become Reaper chow as well.  Aes Sedai primes a proximity detonator, intending to place it between the Reaper and SMARTAgentKC, but finds he cannot throw it anywhere it would not catch his fellow soldier in the blast as well.  tbcr walks to the Skyranger's landing gear and kneels facing the corridor where SMARTAgentKC stands between the stable and shed.

A floater bursts into the room where QWERTY has entered the farmhouse, shooting him in the chest.

A second deadly bolt lances from the direction of the wheat field and strikes msaadn, killing him.

And to top it all off, the Reaper charges at SMARTAgentKC.  tbcr, avianchild, and QWERTY freeze up,and MattM drops his weapon then runs away from the Reaper.  Both Aes Sedai and Lither go berserk and fire four shots apiece at the nearby Reaper, every round striking the Reaper's bulk, but it shrugs them off like nothing.

With QWERTY frozen up, TechnoSam tries to fire the last four rounds in his magazine through the window at the Floater, but all four impact the window frame.  He hastily reloads his rifle.

Fortunately, SMARTAgentKC has regained his wits, and a barrage of bullets at point black range finally brings and end to the Reaper.

SMARTAgentKC steps into the stable and over to Possession's fallen form, hoping fervently there isn't another Reaper around the corner.  xiaozanghou, the only remaining trooper still possessing control of his faculties, rounds the corner of the UFO, finding only grass and an entry point into the UFO.

QWERTY falls to a second point-blank plasma bolt, and another bolt whizzes out of the farmhouse and past TechnoSam.  The Floater above the wheat field fires at the weaponless MattM.  tbcr and MattM once again panic. avianchild, all out of rockets, retreats into the Skyranger to rearm with the spares.

TechnoSam decides the farmhouse is overdue for demolition.  He detaches a high explosive charge from his shoulder harness, sets it for immediate detonation, lobs it at the opening in the wall, and runs.

Unfortunately, instead of landing inside, it catches on the corner of the ragged opening, lands outside the building, and detonates.

Elsewhere, xiaozanghou takes a deep breath and enters the UFO.  He encounters a Floater just inside and opens fire.  He hits the Floater once, but it returns in kind, and xiaozanghou retreats back out the double door, followed closely by several plasma bolts.

SMARTAgentKC and Lither cover the doorway, and Aes Sedai joins them and tosses his still-primed proximity grenade as far down the length of the UFO as his strength will allow.

Back in the blasted farmhouse, more plasma bolts assail TechnoSam.  The wall provided just enough protection for the Floater to survive.  MattM also has green globs sail past him - he is very fortunate the Floater above the wheat field is a poor shot.  Down at the UFO entrance, the Floater emerges from the doorway, and before SMARTAgentKC or Lither can slot him, it spikes a grenade at their feet.  SMARTAgentKC blasts it a moment later, but its death is a poor consolation prize: moments later the four of them are consumed in a fiery explosion.

At the sight of this, tbcr drops his rocket launcher and runs towards MattM, who is sitting in the open, still frozen, and avianchild breaks down into tears in the back of the Skyranger.

TechnoSam, fortunately, remains in control, if only barely.  This time he readies a grenade.  With no walls in the way, there is no way he can miss.

tbcr's panic just deepens.  Without the weapon that he left on the ground, he spins in circles, shooting finger guns in all directions, shouting, "Pew, pew, pew!"  avianchild continues her breakdown in the back of the Skyranger.  MattM finally recovers and walks to Benoni's prone form near the UFO's hull to acquire a rifle to replace his own.

The Floater near the wheat field has moved towards the barn that was blasted open by avianchild's last rocket.  Firing, he scores a lucky hit at extreme range but the rest go very wide.

At least the few remaining soldiers don't have plasma bolts raining upon them any longer: the Floater bleeds out from its wound.  tbcr runs back towards the Skyranger, but avianchild regains control of herself and resumes rearming, and TechnoSam and MattM move towards the dead Floater to make sure it was alone.

At last, XCOM regroups.  In addition to her rockets, avianchild grabs a rifle and a spare clip, then departs.  tbcr enters the Skyranger to re-equip himself as well.  Used to the weight of a rocket launcher and spare rockets, he grabs enough explosives to blow the UFO interior to smithereens if necessary.  Slowly, the remaining four troopers re-converge on the UFO entrance.

avianchild reaches the entrance first, and deciding that her launcher will be of little use indoors, trades it for thrown explosives off the bodies of her fallen teammates, and unlimbers her rifle.  MattM and TechnoSam follow her lead and poach additional explosives.

avianchild leads the way into the downed UFO.  Inside she discovers the remains of the ship's power sources, destroyed interior bulkheads, and dead crew.  In the center is a lift that leads to the upper deck of the craft.

They move further inside. avianchild circles along the back hallway, finally spotting the far end of the huge UFO.

TechnoSam moves to explore the front passage, but through a hole in the deck overhead, he spots a Floater one floor above.

TechnoSam fires and misses. tbcr comes forward and fires up through the hull, this time hitting the Floater.  It turns towards them and fires back down, killing tbcr instantly.

MattM fires as well, hitting the Floater again.  He and TechnoSam press against the interior bulkhead, hoping this will not be their death.

A Floater down the corridor avianchild is covering.  It shoots her, and she returns fire, also hitting the enemy.

The deck above, the Floater pulls back slightly from the lip of the hole.  avianchild goes berserk, shooting the Floater twice more at close range, killing it, then puts two more rounds into the corpse.

MattM panics, dropping his gun and running right under the hole in the deck above, and a Floater immedately tags him with a plasma bolt, wounding him and knocking him unconscious.

TechnoSam steps out and fires up at the alien, but cannot land his shots.  The Floater fires once, plasma bolt impacting next to the unconscious MattM.  TechnoSam retreats back to cover.

An unseen alien shoots through a slot in the ceiling at avianchild, but misses.  MattM bleeds out on the floor of the UFO, his squadmates powerless to help him.  TechnoSam peeks out from cover and finds the Floater has joined him on the bottom floor!  He kills it with a burst and remains in cover; avianchild searches the far end of the UFO for her attacker.

TechoSam pops out once again and spots another Floater hovering directly above, over the rift in the deck.  Firing up, he kills it, eliminating the final alien aboard.

Despite the loss of 12 heroes of the human race, XCOM is victorious.

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Mission Recap and Debriefing

avianchild: 4 kills
TechnoSam: 4 kills
SMARTAgentKC: 2 kills
tbcr: 1 kill
Possession: 1 kill
MattM: 1 kill
msaadn: 1 kill
Aes Sedai: 1 kill

No Promotions

xiaozanghou: Squaddie, KIA on his 4th mission with 2 kills - kept his wits when no one else could
tbcr: Rookie, KIA on his 4th mission with 3 kills - first rocketeer to die
Possession: Rookie, KIA on his 4th mission with 1 kill - first to be killed by a companion species, first to be killed by a large unit
Benoni: Sergeant, KIA on his 4th mission with 1 kill - first to be multi-killed (joint), highest-ranking trooper to die to date, tied for most accurate trooper at time of death
jym: Squaddie, KIA on his 4th mission with 1 kill - first to be multi-killed (joint)
QWERTY: Rookie, KIA on his 4th mission with 0 kills.
Thevil1: Squaddie, KIA on his 4th mission with 1 kill - first to be multi-killed (joint)
MattM: Rookie, KIA on his 2nd mission with 1 kill - first to loose his cool (joint), first to be knocked unconscious
msaadn: Rookie, KIA on his 1st mission with 1 kill
Aes Sedai: Rookie, KIA on his 1st mission with 1 kill
Lither: Rookie, KIA on his 1st mission with 0 kills - first to totally freak out
SMARTAgentKC: Rookie, KIA on his 1st mission with 2 kills - first to loose his cool (joint), died on his first outing but took two bastards down with him

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Well, that was one hell of a mission.  I had no idea what to expect, I've never seen a terror ship in the first month, usually the aliens wait a month or two before launching terror attacks.  Although it was a close call, trust me, facing a crew weakened by the crash is much preferable to facing the full complement in a city, possibly in the dark.  Blown power sources have their benefits, lol, and even so, I've never had to take on so many aliens with just rifles!

A very amusing mission, this one.  I swear jym and Thevil1 dying side by side was happenstance. xD xiao usually takes the lead just because he was the first person to register on CLE, thus the first soldier was named after him and he deploys at the front of the Skyranger. (I can change the order around, but in general keep it the order of recruitment) avianchild is proving to be an absolute rambo, I'm so happy she survived... er, not that I don't wish everyone had...  TechnoSam was the only one to make it out without a scratch, I bet the next batch of rookies will be hanging out real close to him. =P And Shotgunner, man, we'll see how he deals with the survivor's guilt...  No promotions this time because there's so few soldiers to command, so the chain of command shrinks. =(

P.S. Grenades. Fear them.