Lazy Saturnday

Well, this will probably end up being the straw that breaks the camels back, the aliens are terrorizing Nagoya, Japan. We’re going to send a squad in, but sadly we still have no one experienced. Brent, Blake, Laura B. and Ali have volunteered for Operation Blinding Dawn.

Only seconds after we touch down and start directing civilians towards the evacuation route, a pair of Chrysallids shows up. Brent and Laura take a couple of wild shots, but these aliens move very quickly.

It takes concentrated fire from all four soldiers, but the closer x-ray goes down. The other flees back into the building and out of site. Ali pops the back door open and takes a snapshot at a Chrysallid created zombie, but misses. The zombie shambles forwards, much quicker than expected, and Ali falls back to cover. She can no longer see her original target, but spots another zombie skulking at the entrance to the other building. Her shots connect, but the zombies are surprisingly resilient. Brent swings around to cover Ali’s back and connects with the zombie chasing her, but also fails to put it down.

Another zombie, stumbles to the back door of the building, and Brent tosses a frag grenade in. It takes out the wall, but does minimal damage to either of them. Meanwhile a Chryssallid and the other wounded zombie are advancing from the front of the building. Laura falls back and takes cover behind a police car, and drops the flanking zombie. 

Blake manages to put down one of the two zombies at the back door, but the other collapses and spawns a new Chryssallid, which rushes forward and eviscerates Brent before anyone can even react. As if that’s not bad enough a pair of Floaters show up.

Blake fires and misses the freshly born Chryssallid, Ali is out of ammo, and manages to clip it with pistol fire, but that has almost no effect. Laura also misses it. Then Brent’s corpse stands up and the Chryssallid rushes forward and takes Blake out, causing Laura to panic! Ali falls back and reloads, to no avail. Blake’s corpse rises, the new Chryssallid swoops over to where Laura is hiding, and then a floater takes a bead on Ali.

Japan has now withdrawn from the Council, and I think I am going to call this game over. I really was NOT expecting Classic difficulty to be anywhere near this hard. Apologies to everyone I killed, and to everyone who never made it in the fight.

Memorial:
Anjoli KIA 3/5/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills
Will KIA 3/12/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Naeem KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 7 Kills
Patrick KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 2 Kills
Joanna KIA 3/26/2015; 3 Missions; 5 Kills
Duncan KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Highcove KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
James KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Wendy KIA 4/13/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills
Laura KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kills
Gary KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kill
Alec KIA 4/13/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Dave KIA 4/14/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills 
Caitlin KIA 4/14/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills 
Jake KIA 4/14/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Khadija KIA 4/14/2015; 1 Missions; 0 Kills
Evan KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Gray KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Adam KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Tim KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Brent KIA 4/25/25; 1 Mission; 0 Kills
Laura B. KIA 4/25/25; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Blake KIA 4/25/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Ali L. KIA 4/25/25; 1 Mission; 0 Kills

Yet again everyone with any experience is dead. Operation Swift Stroke is an assault upon an alien abduction in progress in Alexandria, Egypt. Evan, Adam, Gray and Tim are going in. Let’s hope they can clear this shopping mall out without any casualties.

The squad moves up carefully, and a couple of Thin Men burst from cover. Gray takes the first shot and misses, but Evan also lays down some fire and manages to connect, putting one of the x-rays out of commission.

Evan moves up to get provide covering fire while Gray and Tim take shots at the remaining Thin Man to no avail. The x-ray breaks cover and heads deeper inside the building, and Evan and Adam both fail to tag it. Drawn by the sound of gunfire a pair of Sectoids emerge and start circling around to the squad’s flank.

Evan and Gray both lay down fire on the closer Sectoid, and both hit, with Gray getting the kill shot. The second Sectoid holds for a moment, enduring some fire from Evan before deciding to move closer. Adam wounds it, and while it’s return fire misses, it does destroy the cover Adam and Evan were hiding behind. Unfortunately a pair of Floaters decide to show up before the squad can finish of the sectoid.

Gray misses his shot at one of the Floaters, but Adam falls back to cover and puts the other one down. Tim takes a shot with his pistol to conserve ammo, but it’s wide.

The Thin Man returns, and wings Evan who panics, as does Gray. Gray fires wildly into the building and the sectoid manages to clip him as well. The wounds are critical, but someone should be able to stabilize him. Evan grabs some cover. Tim and Adam both keep their cool, Tim calmly finishing off the sectoid while Adam move towards Gray and takes out the remaining floater. Unfortunately the car that Gray had been using for cover exploded before Adam could get there.

The Thin Man took advantage of the confusion to move forwards and finish off Evan. Then nimbly dodging Tim’s fire it put him out of commission as well. Adam moved into better cover and reloaded, and the Thin Man ran up right in front of him. However somehow Adam managed to miss at point blank. Sadly the Thin Man did not.

Yet another Failure, and now China, Japan and India are panicked!

Memorial:
Anjoli KIA 3/5/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills
Will KIA 3/12/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Naeem KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 7 Kills
Patrick KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 2 Kills
Joanna KIA 3/26/2015; 3 Missions; 5 Kills
Duncan KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Highcove KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
James KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Wendy KIA 4/13/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills
Laura KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kills
Gary KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kill
Alec KIA 4/13/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Dave KIA 4/14/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills 
Caitlin KIA 4/14/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills 
Jake KIA 4/14/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Khadija KIA 4/14/2015; 1 Missions; 0 Kills
Evan KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Gray KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Adam KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Tim KIA 4/16/25; 1 Mission; 1 Kill

When we left our heroes yesterday in the midst of Operation Fallen Prophet Khadija had been KIA and Caitlin was unconscious but stable. Jake also was injured, and Dave had been injured, but had mostly patched himself up. 4 sectoid had them pinned down, and they hadn’t even broached the alien space-craft which had landed in Wyoming.

Jake moved to better cover but whiffed his shot, and sadly the aliens’ return fire took him down. Dave managed to remain calm, taking down another x-ray, and getting shot as moved up to block one that was trying to flank him. He put down the flanker with ease. This did leave him with an empty clip so he fell back and reloaded, barely dodging some more fire. He traded a few more shots with the aliens, but it was really pretty silly to think he’d be able to finish the rest off them off with only 1 hit point left.

Memorial:
Anjoli KIA 3/5/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills
Will KIA 3/12/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Naeem KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 7 Kills
Patrick KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 2 Kills
Joanna KIA 3/26/2015; 3 Missions; 5 Kills
Duncan KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Highcove KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
James KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Wendy KIA 4/13/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills
Laura KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kills
Gary KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kill
Alec KIA 4/13/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills
Dave KIA 4/14/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills 
Caitlin KIA 4/14/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills 
Jake KIA 4/14/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill
Khadija KIA 4/14/2015; 1 Missions; 0 Kills  

Dave and Caitlin are our only experienced soldiers now, Khadija and Jake will be embarking on their first mission, Operation Fallen Prophet. A UFO has been spotted on the ground in Wyoming, USA.

The squad crept up extra slowly since this craft was entirely intact; several minutes into the op and Dave flushed two squads of sectoids. The squad move closer carefully, since they were at extreme range. Caitlin was pinned down for a second but the shots were wide. Dave had taken cover behind some rocks, and was hit by some fragments, but it was only a scratch so he didn’t even bother with his medkit.

Jake moved up and got a solid hit on one of the X-Rays, but it didn’t go down. While moving to better cover Dave took a solid hit from one of the aliens, but managed to hold it together and returned fire, taking out a pair of aliens thanks to their psychic link. Caitlin took some fire while moving up to try and finish the wounded alien off, but she also came under fire, and the pain was too much and she missed the shot.

The aliens returned fire, one missing and one Caitlin and knocking her out. Jake and Khadija both panicked, but managed to concentrate enough firepower on the alien that they were able to take it out. Dave took this brief respite to patch himself up a bit and move to a better position. Jake moved up to try and get to were he could stabilize Caitlin, and Khadija tried to get to a covering position and took some fire and a flesh wound, sadly her return fire went wide.

The aliens moved up and took Khadija out, but Jake was able to stabilize Caitlin, but in the process got glanced himself. Another trio of sectoids has shown up as well, leaving our two remaining mobile soldiers in a tight spot.

Sadly it is late, and I am not feeling so hot IRL, so I’m going to call it quits for the moment. Tune in tomorrow to find out if Dave and Jake are able to take down the alien menace and get Caitlin back to base before she bleeds out.

Operation Fallen Daze

An alien craft was spotted by our satellites; the fighter we scrambled was able to force it down in the Nigerian interior, but it was so heavily damaged in the fight it is amazing it made it back at all. We’ll only be sending one Rookie (Alec N.) on this mission. Laura H. (Sniper), Wendy H. (Assault), and Gary B. (Heavy) will hopefully show him the ropes.

The squad moved up slowly on the crash site, taking advantage of cover. They were practically right up on it before a couple of sectoids poked their heads out. Wendy and Gary took snapshots at them, but they skittered back into the depths of the ship.

The aliens returned fire, wounding Gary slightly. Gary acquired better and patched himself up. Laura moved up to a better position for sniping, but the x-rays pegged her with a lucky shot. Gary and Wendy both missed so Alec tossed a grenade in doing considerable structural damage, but taking out the two x-rays that had the squad pinned own.

The squad moved cautiously into the alien wreck, but not cautiously enough, Alec was taken down by one of the Energy form aliens; Gary tried to finish it off, but missed and was mowed down as well. Wendy traded several shots with the alien, but it finally made a mistake closing to point blank, and while it did hit Wendy, it didn’t kill her, and her return fire made short work of it. 

With all immediate threats neutralized she took a quick breather to heal and reload. She scouted the ship and found it to be deserted, but a trio of floaters was hiding out behind the ship. Due to long range she switch to pistol and winged one of them. However they swooped in overwhelmed her with numbers.

Sadly this was another total mission failure.

Memorial:

Anjoli KIA 3/5/2015; 2 Missions; 3 Kills

Will KIA 3/12/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill

Naeem KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 7 Kills

Patrick KIA 3/26/2015; 4 Missions; 2 Kills

Joanna KIA 3/26/2015; 3 Missions; 5 Kills

Duncan KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills

Highcove KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills

James KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Mission; 1 Kill

Wendy KIA 4/13/2015; 3 Missions; 7 Kills

Laura KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kills

Gary KIA 4/13/2015; 2 Missions; 1 Kill

Alec KIA 4/13/2015; 1 Mission; 2 Kills

Mission 5 (Operation Fading Giant) is another abduction site. This time Wendy and Dave are both out of med-bay, though Caitlin is still recovering. We’ll at least have two Squaddies who have seen combat this time. The location is Bloemfontein, South Africa. Gary and Laura H., the two Rookies on this mission will surely learn a lot from Wendy and Dave. Everyone has been equipped with medipaks this time.

Dave spots a pair of Sectoids and opens fire but the shot is wide. Wendy moves up to a covering position and flushes a pair of Floaters. Things are heating up fast. Wendy misses, but Laura manages to get her first hit, though sadly it only wings the Sectoid. The Floaters try to flank and lay some heavy suppression fire down on Dave.

Gary takes out the Floater on the flank, but the suppressing one is too far away. Wendy moves up and finishes off the wounded sectoid and Dave goes on Overwatch, hoping for the aliens to make a mistake. And another pair of sectoids shows up. The squad is advancing slowly, but the graveyard is full of cover which cuts both ways, and most of their shots wound aliens at best, or go wide entirely.

Wendy takes a risk drawing fire from a Sectoid but making it to cover and putting down the last Floater. Laura manages to get the first double kill, as apparently when you kill an alien that is using mind control on another, the controlled alien is also killed. Hurrah, this is our second injury free mission!