We’re down to 6 soldiers, one of whom is still in the infirmary. Times are rough all over, 4 of them are going in to try and put a stop to an alien abduction site in Lille, France. Sadly we have no experienced soldiers, so it’s 4 Rookies, Caitlin, Dave, James and Highcove who will be going on Operation Shattered Hero.
The squad starts moving to cover, and almost immediately spots a pair of Sectoids. Caitlin is first to bring her gun to bear but misses, James manages to hit his target, and Dave also misses, but the remain x-ray flees out of sight of the squad.
Highcove slips around a van, flanking the fleeing Sectoid and taking it out. The rest of the squad moves up and goes on overwatch. The keyword of this operation is going to be slow and steady.
While James is reloading another pair of Sectoids burst out of a building down the street. Highcove takes a couple of shots and they scamper back into cover. Dave and Highcove both move into cover and take a few shots, but the x-rays are too far away and have excellent cover. Caitlin charges through the building to try and get a flank position and James moves up. The aliens return fire, wounding Highcove.
Caitlin opens the back door of the building but is unable to draw line of sight to either of the Sectoids, so when Highcove ducks into the building, she uses her Medipak on him.
James and Dave exchange more fire with the x-rays, and Dave takes a hit. There’s not enough cover here, and we’re almost out of medical supplies. Of course this is when Caitlin spots another pair of aliens coming up the side street. Dave manages to sprint into the building and heal himself, but one of the Sectoids manages to hit James with a mortal wound.
Highcove manages to take an alien down, but the plasma weapons can blast through the walls they are using for cover, and with nowhere to hide Highcove is blasted. Dave panics, firing wildly. Caitlin meanwhile has found a quite corner to reload. Moments later recovers enough to take out an x-ray that was attempting to flank their position and Caitlin makes a surprise attack from her position beside a freshly collapsed wall.
The remaining alien flees to the roof then hops back down and takes cover behind a mysterious alien device. A third pair of Sectoids shows up, and one runs right into the ruins of the store, diving behind a display rack at the last second as Dave and Caitlin spot it. It wasn’t quick enough though, and Dave takes it out, while Caitlin puts down the Sectoid hiding behind the machine. Hopefully there really is only one left.
This final x-ray is quite brazen, running into the store and standing on the fallen corpse of it’s comrade to fire directly at Caitlin, wounding her. Dave takes a shot but misses and Caitlin runs for cover to reload. The alien runs outside, and when Caitlin puts it down proves that it is in fact the last one and the mission is at least a partial success.
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 Missions; 2 Kills
Highcove KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Missions; 2 Kills
James KIA 3/26/2015; 1 Missions; 1 Kill