Aside from the obvious repair work to be done on a certain stretch of corridor, the access lift, and patches of the hangar, the base weathered at assault well. XCOM restocked on items destroyed in the fierce battle - laser weapons and stun rods, mostly - and on the explosive munitions that were the lynchpin of the defense. The commander ordered a very generous shipment of high explosives, nearly doubling what they'd had available before. A few new recruits - malfion, TheAppleFreak, Snickie, and nodsviper - also arrived at Sector 1.
jacobbeahm finally recovered from his injuries and was transferred back to active duty on the Skyranger squad. Research completed their analysis of the alien alloys and pushed through a companion project to turn them into a viable armor in record time. Now it lay with the engineers to fabricate the suits based on those designs - that is, as soon as they finish the run of medi-kits. Research turned their attention to the alien specimen captured in the attack on the base. They soon developed a method of communicating with it, and XCOM began interrogating the creature.
After a week and a half of quiet, a small UFO was detected just west of the Suez Canal. When an intercept was attempted it evaded with the alien's characteristic maneuverability and flew south-east over the Indian Ocean like a bat out of hell. The best the interceptor could do was match speed, until eventually the craft suddenly bled speed, reversed direction, and turned back towards land. Now able to easily keep pace, the interceptor matched their speed until they reached the coast and brought them down in western India.
dreamowd is the only veteran still wounded. LaserArrow and MooterZolo-Kira are also kept off the squad to give some of the promising new members some combat experience.
At the UFO, things start off badly.
No less than FOUR aliens are visible occupying the building directly behind the Skyranger. Two on the second floor...
...and two more on the roof.
Oh, and one of the latter is holding a grenade. Ready to throw it into the Skyranger. Lovely!
The-one, at the front of the Skyranger, chucks the protective smoke grenade, but the aliens are already upon the them. A Sectoid on the roof fires, blasting The-one.
This at least gives avianchild a clear shot at the building. She lets a rocket fly straight into the smug face of the Sectoid in the near window.
...which annihilates the near half of the farmhouse and earns her a bit of return fire in the process, which luckily just impacts the side of the Skyranger.
Atlas, the second rocket-bearer, steps in front of avian and into The-one's former place, and unleashes his rocket into the bowels of the second floor, where it impacts an interior wall, blowing the building to bits.
There simply isn't much left afterwards. avianchild gives the scene an admiring once-over and tells the newbie rocketeer to remind her never to piss him off.
The squad waits in the Skyranger for more smoke to issue from the canister, but belatedly realize it was knocked out of sight by the concussive force of the rocket barrage. A Sectoid appears around the side of the ex-farmhouse and everyone in the Skyranger opens fire. One of the lasers nicks Peace Keeper 2014's arm, but the injury is minor. Although they succeed in putting more holes in the farmhouse, the Sectoid is unscathed, and is joined by a second.
Atlas notices the secoid Sectoid is banged up, and had appeared from behind what was left of the farmhouse. Had he knocked one of them off the roof? He reloads and dismounts the Skyranger, then fires again at the pair of extraterrestrials. The rocket collides with a windowframe just off the intended target, obliterating yet more of the building and killing the nearer of the pair.
Peace Keeper 2014, Shotgunner42, and others exit the Skyranger and pepper fire at the remaining Sectoid. MrTrooper dashes out and scouts the left flank of the Skyranger, ensuring there are no other threats bearing down. drpdrp97 scores a hit on the Sectoid, but it stays a threat until a follow-up shot from Immudelki brings it down. Searching joins McTrooper and together they burn a hole through the low hedges so they can more easily explore the Skyranger's left flank. Everyone else forms an arc of fire to the Skyranger's rear.
In the remains of the ex-farmhouse's ground floor, Immudelki spots a Sectoid through the thick smoke. How has it survived in here? Immudelki notices that it isn't armed, and is already bleeding green fluid. It must have be one of the two from the roof. Perhaps those rockets were less effective than they had appeared. jacobbeahm's first shot neutralizes the bleeding Sectoid, and the remainder of his burst puts a hole in the back wall of the building.
malfion advances into the ruined farmhouse, and Gemini follows. SearchingLyoko and MrTrooper continue exploring the area to the Skyranger's direct left, and spot the UFO. Immu walks towards the pair of dead Sectoids outside the farmhouse and spots another one, standing at the door of the second farmhouse, directly behind the bombed-out one.
drpdrp97 headshots the alien, removing the threat.
Gemini and malfion move to investigate the second farmhouse as everyone else converges on the UFO, blasting down barriers as necessary to advance. Up at the second farmhouse, things get much hotter than expected, fast. A Sectoid lines up a lucky shot and shoots malfion through the window. Then, a Sectoid on the roof rains down fire on XCOM members already far, far away, moving on the UFO.
Gemini gets the Sectoid on the first floor through a different window, blowing the door behind it off it's hinges to boot.
drpdrp97 backtracks towards the second farmhouse to spot the alien on the roof. He fires once, then takes cover behind the nearby hedges. avianchild fires a rocket, but it goes over the Sectoid's head.
From across the map, Atlas fires his launcher. Unfortunately, it impacts the side of the building. Though the resultant fireball isn't quite as expansive as last time, the explosion blows out part of the near-side wall on both stories, and Gemini is nicked by shrapnel.
Gemini takes cover behind what remains of the first farmhouse's first-story back wall. jacobbeahm and Immudelki both fire on the rooftop Sectoid from range to little effect, and take cover with drpdrp97. Meanwhile, closer to the UFO, AeonFrodo spots a Sectoid around the corner. Seeing an opportunity, AeonFrodo chucks a proximity detonator in front of it (while dodging a plasma bolt) and withdraws behind the corner of the UFO.
The rooftop Sectoid fires down at the trio behind the hedge, a bolt flying past jacobbeahm's shoulder.
The alien decides to abandon its advantageous but exposed position and drops from the roof down to the second floor through the hole created by Atlas' rocket. Meanwhile, the Sectoid around the corner of the UFO triggers AeonFrodo's proximity detonator.
Unfortunately for the remaining alien, he couldn't see Gemini's position when he leapt from the roof. Gemini peeks from cover and can quite clearly see the alien's exposed head through the hole in the second story wall.
He lobs a grenade, underhand, that lands about the surprised Sectoid's ankles. Gemini doesn't even wait for the explosion before turning towards the UFO to join in on the assault in progress.
Shotgunner42 and AeonFrodo are leading the charge around the "top" of the UFO, while Twio, MrTrooper, and Peace Keeper 2014 head around the "bottom." SearchingLyoko and avianchild lag behind AeonFrodo in order to secure the sheds to AeonFrodo's left. Atlas trails behind Peace Keeper 2014. Gemini and the remaining three troopers who provided supporting fire jog towards the UFO to follow Shotgunner42 and AeonFrodo.
Reaching the entrance first, Shotgunner42 and AeonFrodo decide to breach immediately rather than wait around, and each cover one of the passages leading to the control room. Before any more troopers can join them, Shotgunner42 is shot by a Sectoid from the passage he was covering. Pivoting and kneeling, AeonFrodo fires back up the passage and shoots the Sectoid multiple times, killing it.
Thus concludes the mission, the remainder of the UFO proving to be empty.
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Mission Recap and Debriefing
AeonFrodo: 2 kills
Gemini: 2 kills
Atlas: 2 kills
drpdrp97: 1 kill
Immudelki: 1 kill
avianchild: 1 kill
jacobbeahm: 1 kill
New Captain: SearchingLyoko
New Sergeant: Twio
New Squaddies: AeonFrodo, drpdrp97, Immudelki
The-one: Squaddie, KIA on his 3rd mission with 0 kills and 1 capture - first trooper to capture an alien (Mission 8)
malfion: Rookie, KIA on his 1st mission with 0 kills
Shotgunner42: Captain, KIA on his 7th mission with 1 kill - longest-serving trooper to die to date
Death. To. All. Buildings. And ten Sectoids. Not shabby at all, especially considering the infested landing zone and that we still don't have any armor. Bummer about Shotgunner though, I should have backed back out once I saw the first room was empty. Also of note is that Twio has joined the ranks of top shooters, with accuracy equal to dreamowd. This mission, however, SearchingLyoko and jacobbeahm both gained a bit of accuracy, making them tied for the title of top marksman and leaving dream and Twio tied for runner-up. As long as they don't have an "accidental" friendly fire incident, a bit of friendly competition is good, right? =P
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