With a good number of soldiers still wounded from past missions, XCOM is short on able bodies for the Skyranger, so more Rookies are recruited to fill the void. In addition, the research labs finish work on the new medkits, and a small batch are queued for assembly after the run of laser rifles is complete. Thinking to provide the troopers with a preventative rather than reactionary measure, the labs next turn their attention to the large stock of alien alloys XCOM has recovered from the captured UFOs to see if they can be re-forged into something useful.
The next UFO is downed in northern Iran, near the Turkish border.
avianchild has recovered and is put back on active duty, and new Rookies Armitage, The-one, McTrooper, Peace Keeper 2014, and Atlas are added to the mission roster.
XCOM puts the mission team on standby, but waits a few hours to launch, assuring the Skyranger will arrive on site just after sunrise. Happily, enough laser rifles have been manufactured to make one available to every member of the squad.
Upon landing, the good news is the UFO is immediately identifiable from the rear exit of the Skyranger. Unfortunately, while the close landing ensures they won't have to dash across open ground towards the UFO as in last mission, now they find themselves all packed into the Skyranger, with an alerted alien aiming his sights right at the deployment ramp.
If they engage in a shooting match with the Sectoid, the veterans at the front rank and the rocket-bearers behind them will have to exit, and will lose what cover their transport affords them. Alternatively, they can fire from within the transport, but in the cramped space only the front rank could fire without risking hitting another trooper, greatly reducing their numerical advantage.
Or, they could throw a smoke grenade, wait for it to conceal their exact position, and then make their way out. But that wouldn’t stop the Sectoid from firing blindly into the cloud - and what if it had a grenade?
Shotgunner42 has only a few seconds to run through these options. She throws the smoke grenade. As smoke begins hissing from the canister, the Sectoid pelts the Skyranger with plasma.
The Sectoid continues firing into the smoke, one shot ripping through the space between Shotgunner42 and LaserArrow and impacting the interior wall.
As close as the shots came, nobody is hit.
When LaserArrow exits the Skyranger, the Sectoid standing in front of the UFO is nowhere to be seen. But she sees another one standing to the left of the UFO. The mass of rookies exiting behind her open fire first, but she goes to one knee and drops the Sectoid.
Another Sectoid is spotted in the wheat field to the right of the UFO, barely visible around the corner of a barn.
Mara Schaeffer steps forward to get an angle and fires a rocket, but it hits the fence around the perimeter of the field, knocking out a section of the barn's wall and setting it on fire. avianchild fires her rocket, which missed the Sectoid, but detonates on another building behind it, knocking out walls of both structures and killing the alien in between.
Laura Rola runs off to scout the UFO's left flank, Armitage is the first to the UFO door, and memoire-blanche heads to the ruined barn, where he spots another Sectoid through a hole in the wall of what used to be a fairly nice farmhouse. LaserArrow runs to take cover behind the barn's staircase, and spots another Sectoid near the farmhouse.
Armitage enters the UFO to find its interior a total wreck. LaserArrow peeks around the broken staircase and fires on the Sectoid outside, downing it.
This allows them to focus fire on the last Sectoid, standing just inside the farmhouse. XCOM laser fire perforates the farmhouse, blasting exterior brick and disintegrating interior walls, but none actually strike their intended target. The Sectoid moves outside as the laser barrage continues.
At last, Atlas scores a solid hit, ending the mission. It's obvious there isn't much to salvage from this UFO, but at least the squad can return whole for the first time in awhile.
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Mission Recap and Debriefing
LaserArrow: 2 kills
avianchild: 1 kill
Atlas: 1 kill
New Colonel: MooterZolo-Kira
New Captain: Strangely_Scott
New Sergeant: avianchild
New Squaddie: Atlas
No Fatalities
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Yup, you can get promoted without going on a mission. Now that there are more soldiers kicking around Sector 1 thanks to an extra-large recruiting drive, XCOM had to expand its command structure. But only 9 alien alloys... yeesh. At least they can't take away the value of the weapons and items recovered from the aliens’ bodies, those still sell for good cash... or will be saved for our later use. >:) And nobody died, which is a definite plus.
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