Xenonauts: Dreadnought

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

The time has come to use the plan to end the aliens for good and the old Commander leads Parker Sanctuary, Stray Cat Brandon, Dr. Tygan, Captain Logan, Straggler Rachel, Straggler Rashida, Carol Hattier, Timeflies Stomachio and Billy Bob O'Reagan with hover tank support onto the alien dreadnought to immediately waste the initial lizardmen guards and charge forward to the upper temple.

En route, Billy Bob is flanked and killed by terminators while martian men with big guns and good aim destroy the hovertank from far away - the explosion catching and killing the commander, painting his pieces along the metal walls. Dr. Tygan is sniped by a jetpack guy as he locates the High Praetor whom Rashida snipes. Brandon also falls to plasma fire while the team uploads the virus and clear out the remaining enemy shooters.

Alas, the escape pods aren't working - they have to back track to activate them but to their horror discover a swarm of (never ending) reapers pouring in after them. Establishing a firing line they put down dozens of the reapers before finally a round of bad shooting and reloading lets one get the drop on Logan. They are overrun, impregnated into zombie bitches and then are autowarped by the virus to who knows where. The entire squad is lost but no one cares because it is VICTORY FOR THE PLANET! YEAAHHHHHHH! Once again the Earth is saved.

The Xenonauts last stand.

Decluttering Day 25: Xenonaut rough journal, since this story is done! :)

Xenonauts: Based

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

As aliens also dislike being called stupid they send strike cruisers to attack both Hopecenter and Eagle bases but are severely crippled or outright destroyed in the latter case thanks to the defenses long established in them. Eventually the Xenonaut air force manages to down a battle ship UFO on land (as opposed to the ocean which makes it worthless), and a Praetor is found within - except it's dead so that's no good. Lucky there is data about another Praetor hiding in an alien fortress down in Australia.

A corner and some cattle prods are all we need!

Xenonauts fight through the terminators guarding him, losing the scimitar tank and time traveling Sir Igwane on the way to taze that bastard into captivity and clear out the remaining hostiles. Despite the victory, Australiasia also now pulls out of the funding committee after realizing the aliens were better leaders than their own government I guess but it doesn't matter. The Xenonaut scientists use torture science to extract information from the captive Praetor to formulate a plan to win the war.

In involves baiting their mothership dreadnaught, killing their god the High Praetor, and using a virus thingy to warp devices and make the entire alien fleet basically warp into each other / the sun / a black hole. It doesn't really matter. Basically it will fall upon a small team to get this uploaded within a time limit and escape annihilation. A super hovertank and brand new dropship that can carry even more soldiers are developed to aid in this final mission. All that's left is to assemble the best soldiers and do it!

Decluttering Day 24: Small whistle.

Xenonauts: Dili

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

An aerial terror strike at Reykjavik proves to be a good time to unleash the newest marauder aircraft to butt kick the aliens back into space, but a terror mission in Dili introduces a new alien variant - the tough, large headed wraiths who have a knack for teleporting.  Dr. Monique is caught be surprise and wraithed while Megan Allen is mind controlled into a building that the scimitar tank drops down on top of her for an instakill. Worth it as it took three wraiths down too! The large drones that accompany them are also decently annoying and a good match against the scimitar.

Of course, the Xenonauts didn't know these were NOT the Praetors they needed to capture and lost a few soldiers trying to take some in with Straggler Rachel plasma-ed by a lizardman and Ursula getting lizardmelee'd to death, Sera getting sniped by a jetpack boss and Ghorlak Beholder eating a friendly grenade to ensure a clear path to capture a creature they didn't actually need to.

Since the aliens are clearly becoming stronger (like those lizardmen are now regenerating) MAG rail-gun type weapons are produced for all the soldiers as well as three power armors for the LMG carriers which makes it easier to win battles against the alien battleships landing to terrorize Nairobi and Cape Town. Despite this Dr. Isaac is still killed when taking the bridge of one of those multi storied UFOs. 

It's the only way to be sure.

Dili then is the target of another terror attack, and since their previous efforts did not make Indochina return to the council this time they just nuke the entire city, populace and all. If you aren't part of the solution you are part of the problem! Then for whatever reason, Dili is terrorized and nuked AGAIN. Who were they terrorizing, I'm not sure... the aliens either really want something there or are just kinda stupid.

Decluttering Day 23: Broken Pig charm.

Xenonauts: Eagle

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

Turns out lizardmen leaders are almost as dumb as their troops so the scientists ask for a higher ranked alien while a new base "Eagle" is established in North America - only to discover the aliens already have a base here! The Xenonauts, while freaked out at the teleporter technology withing, clear out the small facility with patience. The same technique also works on the alien base discovered in Indochina where they also nab an alien martian type leader.

The aliens angrily respond with another terror attack in Tiksi where the lizardmen finally destroy the hunter car and a massive aerial terror bombing on Lagos which costs the Xenonauts many aircraft and pilots to stop. Despite their efforts Indochina decides to drop from the funding council and kowtow to the aliens, which forces the Commander to fire half his science division. Lucky they finished building a scimitar tank which is the next step up from the hunter car, and is even MORE effective as almost soloing maps and helping save Mogadishu against a terror attack.

In the skies above, alien cruisers now start appearing but the Xenonaut air division easily takes these two story ships down while ground troops make use of new fangled stun batons to cheese the teleporters within to stun an alien leader into submission! How? By getting fast soldiers to teleport in and out AND stay on the pad! This prevents aliens from using the teleporter but also keeps them in striking range for the surprisingly strong melee of the shock prods.  This alien at least provides some information on their supreme leaders, the Praetors, and of course the science division wants to get their hands on a live one of these next.

Glass, it's one weakness...

Decluttering Day 22: Snoopy toy with a "Joe Cool" shirt.

Xenonauts: Tarantula

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

With the 60 scientists keen on getting their hands on live captives samples, the soldiers are equipped with gas grenades which they use to nab a lizardman grunt at the cost of Ray Santos and Lily Shen as you need to be kinda close to throw said grenades. Alas the grunt knows very little so a second base "Tarantula" is established South America just in time to shoot down an alien corvette!

This one is literally inhabited by bullet resistant terminator robots and odd floating disc drones that kill Commander's old buddy, Central as well as Sherrif Val and Brenda Catatonic. It's only at this point that I realize corpses can be looted for potentially superior firepower! Also, to combat this new metal threat the Xenonauts now deploy a hunter car during away missions. This machine gun mounted killing machine takes the slots of two soldiers but it is well worth it as now the squad just sits tight until the car clears the map while locating the UFO. Pity it can't capture it though.

It's worth the two soldier slots on the drop ship.

The aliens response is to conduct a terror raid at Paramaribo, led by lizardmen who are now joined by reapers (who are basically XCOM Chrysalids) who move quick, kill in melee and turn their kills into impregnated zombies. Once the zombie is killed a new reaper pops out of it. It's a vicious cycle! Thanks to the hunter car (which runs out of ammo) and a good firing line the Xenonauts triumph and even manage to capture a lizardman leader!

Decluttering Day 21: "Hitman" duck.

Xenonauts: Hopecenter

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

UFO's have once again been detected in the atmosphere and so the hero Commander from the previous invasion arrives at "Hopecenter" base in the Ukraine to lead the defense against these new invaders. Unfortunately the old facilities (like the flying fortress) are gone and most of his active soldiers are also doctors from the science division who can't hit a barn door from twenty feet but at least the few planes available to him have competent pilots who shoot down a few small scout craft.

Ridiculously poor shooting? Check!

Securing the first crashed vessel guarded by the typical looking Martian Men results in the deaths of Hurt Builder and Clutch Pinya as they stormed the ship! Greater care is taken to capture the second vessel piloted by lizardmen who still manage to flank and kill sniper Quincy and the third... is just airstriked safely. What!? Yes! There's an option to just obliterate downed alien craft. While it doesn't give you XP or components, it does give you lots of money. I think I'll be using that a lot!

Since there's loads of new things to study the Commander expands the base and goes on a recruiting spree, ending the first month with three condor planes, one MIG, 12 soldiers, 15 engineers and 60 scientists all paid with funding from the global council. Should five members of this council leave, the game (and the world) is lost. No way that's going to happen... right?

Decluttering Day 20: Remotes for a TV we no longer have.

XCOM 2: Avatar

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

It's not long before the UFO finds us and forces us to land with an EMP spike. They then send loads of units to try capture the ship while our forces must push forward and destroy said (literal) spike AND return to the ship before lift off (an excellent mission which I aced)! Pretty we constructed those defensive turrets.

Once we've escaped, our scientists reveal what they learned from all the material we gathered so far. The alien leaders are dying and have found the correct host to be the titular Avatars. Millions of people are being secretly processed for the human component and the coordinates for their main base which sits underwater is located. The only catch is it needs an Avatar to open the gate.

Luckily we have one of those, so I volunteer to neural link up to pilot it and lead a squad into the alien infested base but find the psionic powers of the avatar to be super strong. Null Lance which pierces through everything and void rift which is huge AoE are amazing and let the team slaughter our way through easily. 

Is that a Saiyan under that mask?

That is until we find the three enemy avatars we must defeat (one at a time) who continually summon servants each round. Their worst ability is mind control, and Jane Kelly manages to become the bitch of all three - killing her teammates Rev with a point blank shotgun blast to the face and cutting William down with her plasma blade before I take her out of the equation with a Null Lance. Goose also gets ripped apart by a void rift (bad guys can do it too) before the final enemy avatar is slain and their base destroyed.

With the ADVENT plot exposed, their remaining and now leaderless forces worldwide are overrun by the growing resistance... a total victory for XCOM!

Tactics Tip: For that last fight I advanced really slowly and held on the right side before the bridge, then sent Jane alone to trigger the enemy avatar sequence.

XCOM 2: Facilities

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

Since hitting facilities really damages the Avatar project that's what the soldiers are sent to do, and a few more give their lives to the cause, the most horrifying being IzzBee being impregnated by a chryssalid (who are exactly the same from last time) - eventually dying on the field from its fluids and was turned into a fleshy birth sack that her team mates destroyed before full gestation occurred (which is +3 chryssalids on the field).

Also lost Katz who was obliterated by a pair of sectopods (huge, two legged war machines), Aaron who was beheaded by an archon, Squidman Dan who took cover behind a flaming truck (carrying explosives), Mickey and Rocio exploded by MEC missiles, and Cash who was melted by Andromedon acid.

These things are basically tanks.

During this time Jane Kelly managed to skulljack a codex which spawned what the science team refers to as an avatar, which her squad promptly dealt with as well as a psionic gate guarded by a large floating ball (which hides a psionic tentacle alien) which were all transported back to the Avenger for further study. All this has almost put the Avatar project back at square one, and the aliens are so pissed they finally send a UFO to hunt us down.

Fun Tip: If there is a "fixed" extraction point in a mission and it is not on ground level and somewhere inconvenient / dangerous, blow it up to force it to move.

Skyrim: Return to Nirn

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

And you thought Death Mountain was weird!

After eight or so maps of falling I finally ended up... on a UFO? What? Someone call XCOM! Haha! The view was amazing though. There were also some really cool shoes that negate falling damage just sitting there, which I figured I'd need - on the way down! LOL! Definitely one of the strangest adventures I've come across so far.

Prepare for re-entry!

It was back to business when I was back on Nirn, as Brutus told me Njada had been kidnapped (again) by a vampire and his bandit cronies. We made a beeline for the shipwreck that served as their base, and Brutus showed off his talent by killing everything himself. All I did was free Njada. Why do I even give her weapons? *sigh*

Decided to head to Riften to see if there were any rumors about where those bandits came from, and instead I find a more disturbing encounter, a dunmer "dreamer" who keeps talking about his resurrected lord who speaks to him in his dreams: Dagoth Ur.

Not you guys again!

Skyrim: Out of the Ordinary

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Our trip to Markarth was cut short by the fact that all the guards still were after me for slaying that wandering vamp in the streets (whose body was still lying there I might add, all these years later). Fortunately the Arbiter's helm also came with a special ability: Megaphoning his deep decree and scaring everyone away for a good amount of time. I used this to collect all the stuff in my home in that city and with Guomundr and Red Shadow's help (horsey), transported it all to Solitude.

In hind sight I should really just pay off the guards. That's what all this gold is for right? Anyway, once there I again studiously worked on blacksmithing, finding I could craft a most powerful weapon...

Totally not overpowered...

I soon received word from Njada that strange things were being seen on the Eastern border of the region, so I left Captain Guomundr there to watch over my stash in Solitude (the guy earned a break), and instead recruited Captain Gamli, Captain Ghoragdag and the Hunter to scout out the snowy, mountainous area. And boy did we find something out of the ordinary.

A UFO!?!

Back to how it all Began

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Alert: Terror attack in Kolkata! With the SHIV still damaged and some other people wounded I sent Alpha, Sledge, Bondi Vet, Techno Viking, Big Mike and Elvis to handle the threat at some public office. Looked like a swarm of chrysallids were in the area - a horror for any other squad but these experienced troops wiped them and their zombie bed buddies out easy. One zombie literally got the drop on Alpha as he fell from the roof and whacked her, but Techno Viking alloyed its face and Bondi Vet fixed her up. This was immediately followed by a sectopod who stood in a bad spot and got triple rocketed to death before it could do anything. The last muton squad was in terror themselves when my team coldly executed them. 9 our of 18 civilians saved, and promotions all around - Sledge has now reached the Colonel rank!

Next up was a mission to disable a bomb at a German train station. Sent Party Girl, Elvis, Alpha, Big Mike, Techno Viking and Bondi Vet to deal with the large thin man unit trying to commit suicide. Again it was so much easier than the first bomb run we had in France. Bondi Vet really proved his usefulness by saving the life of a downed Big Mike and Elvis, and again on the next mission to clear a crashed UFO where Bald Witch and a SHIV replaced the two injured heavies - he resuscitated Party Girl from an early death to elite mutons.

With that came the end of another month, and I got another grade of "A" from the bald man. Also, with all foundry projects complete and an army of SHIVs under construction it was finally time for my "volunteer" Adolf Hitler, equipped in Psi-Armor to enter the Gollop Chamber and establish a link to the alien mother ship... erm... temple ship. Despite all of the psi-testing it seemed I only had two psionics - Hitler and Gravedigger. Dr. Vahlen warned that this would be the final mission (seriously, with a big red lettered warning prompt). It didn't matter - it was time to end this!

Soldiers Lost in the Ninth Month: 2
Campaign Total: 33

Where's the Gallop Chamber?

Future Combat

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Alpha and Buster Downs were sent with "newbies" Elvis, Badass, Party Girl, Rocket Man to handle a small UFO scout ship in some forest in the USA. The Sky Ranger strangely dropped them off on the side this time (guess it didn't want them to escape) putting them in between a heavy floater squad and an elite muton bunch. In the exchange of fire Badass opted to fire a rocket at the mutons instead of taking cover, trusting his life to Buster Downs to put down the last jetpack boy flanking him. Buster missed. The alien did not. Despite the loss of Badass the rest of the team cleared the remaining enemies and entered the ship proper to find another ethereal (they're all over the place now) and one elite guard. They managed to injure both but then the ethereal made the mistake of mind controlling Rocket Man. This panicked the rest of the team (except Alpha) into unloading all their ammo at them - killing them both. Odd way to complete a mission.

The team then traded Alpha for Blunder Buss and filled the remaining slot with our new hover SHIV tank for field testing against a supply barge in Canada. It had the same layout as the previous one but this time the team started off on the side. Though Buster was killed in action through floater fire and finished off by being electrocuted by a drone, the rest of the team defeated the floaters, berserker, sectopod, cyberdisk, elite mutons and ethereal captain with little issue thanks to the tough, highly mobile, and super accurate SHIV unit and its mounted plasma cannon. It couldn't be mind controlled and thanks to its flight capability easily outflanked all enemy defensive positions. I agree with Shen that this is possibly the future of combat as it out performed most of its human counterparts.

It sees you... ALL!

UFO Assault 101

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Dr. Shen completed this Hyperwave Relay device they wanted to build and upon scanning for UFO's we detected a large cloaked bastard lurking in South Africa. It wasn't the same one that shot McCool down unfortunately, but it didn't matter. I sent our local Firestorm in and it shot that bastard down.

Didn't seem big enough to be their leader's ship (I'd think that even for aliens, size matters) but I still sent "A" Team of Hitler, Gravedigger, Big Mike, Bald Witch, Bondi Vet and "new" Major Sledge. What followed can only be described as pure tactical genious! After eliminating a pair of elites patrolling outside, the team entered the craft itself where it sounded like everything was hiding in the central control chamber.

Breach, Bang and Clear!

Rather than walk around to the door, the squad took up a good firing position at their initial entry point and grenaded open the wall, revealing not only a frail alien commander but also 2 sectopod squads and four elites! Rained grenades and rockets into the room while Bondi Vet provided smoke gas cover to help survive return fire. In one round almost all enemies were dead, the two sectopods hobbling out and two remaining elites taking cover in an adjacent hallway. A second round of grenades cleared the ship of all enemies entirely, and the team returned without even taking a scratch. In addition, both Gravedigger and Hitler are now highest rank of Colonel! :D

As they brought back the wierd device they found a super large ship appeared on the map, even causing an earthquake at the base. Ahha, -that- must be the boss I thought to myself. Shen pointed out we have nothing to even damage that... yet, but I am confident whatever this device is holds the key in taking that thing down. The end is near, I can feel it.

Total Annihilation

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Soldiers Lost in the Seventh Month: 4
Campaign Total: 25

The end of a combat heavy month saw me with another grade of "A" and with funding from all but one country (since they didn't have a satellite yet). Soon after a giant alien craft was detected over South America, the one place I didn't yet have a Firestorm (it was in transit). Still, I had my last Raven interceptor and its ace pilot Vince McCool so I sent him out to sortie. He lasted 2 seconds before being annihilated by the heavy weapons on alien craft. With not much else I could do about that I turned my attention to a terror strike in Osaka where I decided to send out a freshly hired squaddie team of Clown Face, Rocket Man, Party Girl, Badass, Elvis and Hot Momma to earn their stripes. This time they had the best gear, all wielding plasma weaponry and in titan suits. What could go wrong?

They landed at a tank factory (wtf?) and annihilated the first group (cyberdisk) they saw while Clown Face busily saved civvies in the AO. Then came a zombie horde with crazy chrysallids and a sectopod. Things got very hairy as Party Girl handled the zombies while Clown Face was alloy-cannoning (turns out it's not that good) sectopods and the rest of the team focused fire on the mecha. It wasn't enough to take down the mechanical horror which then made Hot Momma live up to her name by disintegrating her with its special beam cannon. Her horrible death shriek spurred the team on to eliminate the robot in the next round. Luckily the surviving chrysallids decided to flee/eat other things and left combat only to be replaced by a muton berserker squad.

Why didn't I think of that?

With no more explosives and unlucky shooting the berserker pummeled Clown Face's skull into a fine mist and even punched Elvis (only the second man to survive such a hit - the first being Hitler in an earlier mission) before being taken down. With a few rounds to regroup and reload the remaining mutons and chrysallids were not an issue. 4 out of 18 civilians saved. Mission complete!

They have MECHS!?

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Alien Alert! A huuuuge UFO landed in a river in Japan - some sort of massive cargoship which we couldn't just ignore so I sent Gravedigger, Hitler, Bald Witch, Bondi Vet, Big Mike, and Okada to investigate what seemed to be a cargo ship. The large bay doors were open and inviting but given my untrustful nature I sent the team around the left flank first, eliminating some heavy floater guards as they moved up the side. They also alerted a pair of elite mutons but those aliens wisely opted to withdraw to the second section of the ship - some sort of stable? Anyway the team boarded on that second part, finding and eliminating the crafty guards.

I then sent them up to the roof of that section to take high ground and all hell broke loose as chrysillids, another muton group, jetpack boys and drones spotted me. The chrysillids came up first and I made it a point to explode them to death early. Next up were the floaters and drones which used up most of their move just to fly up - good shooting put all of them back down. While reloading and waiting for the muton group half the team was hit by some sort of missile barrage - no idea where that came from, but everyone was still up. Decided to clamber back down and use the main hall way to gun down the berserker and his buddies there. All the team was hurting bad at this point but Bondi Vet was doing his job of keeping everyone alive very well.

Intruder detected.

With reloaded weapons the team climbed up the other side of the stable section and rushed to the end where they found a new type of foe - an alien mecha! It survived everything we threw at it on initial contact, then opened its shoulder launchers as it took aim. At least now I know where those rockets came from! A good grenade throw from Hitler saw it explode into a gazillion pieces before it could fire again though, leaving the team free to enter the surprisingly empty control structure. Swept back down the ship and found a pair of sectoid commanders in the loading bay who were fed a shredder rocket and a lot of lead (and a little plasma) completing the mission with no casualties, but with a lot of injured and critically injured personel.

The Titan Project

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Soldiers Lost in the Sixth Month: 1
Campaign Total: 21

A large UFO appeared over Egypt just as the month came to an end and despite the best efforts of my Firestorm and Raven interceptors stationed there the crafty craft got away, leading me to get a grade of "B" at the end of month six. With almost all the world having satellite coverage now and good funding coming in (everyone still backing XCOM) I put in an order to get more Firestorms out there and to outfit them all with plasma cannons. Also, I finally decided to buy some armor for the troops now that there are people worth protecting - getting three suits of heavy titan armor constructed, which would see near to immediate use as a large UFO had landed in Mexico (maybe the one that got away from Egypt).

Sent Gravedigger, Techno Viking, Guy Smiley, Blunder Buss, Buster Downs and our second Psionic - Adolf Hitler to investigate. After eliminating the thin men and heavy jetpack boys guarding outside I got the team to circle around the craft to try something new. Buster Downs lobbed a grenade at the control compartment, revealing a pair of sectoid commanders who were easily gunned down by the surprise attack. From that position they also then exploded the opposite wall from which some wierd noises were coming from, revealing a muton team standing beside an alien powersource. A rocket from Hitler followed by good shooting put them down quick... and then came the cavalry in their blood red armor.

Not quite.

These elite muton bastards had armor to match our titan suits and put up a huge fight, injuring a number of the team and killing Guy Smiley with a ridiculously distant grenade throw. Eventually Techno Viking managed to flank them and really pour on the hurt, with Gravedigger mindflaying one to death. They were the last enemies on this site. Mission complete!

That Didn't go Well

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Finally we have constructed our first Firestorm, a hybrid of human/alien tech to make one badass plane. Got to try it out too as it shot down an unknown sized UFO (looked pretty big) without taking much damage. The Sky Ranger transport was not far behind with the Bondi Vet, Cosmos, Derka Derka, Lucky Jew, rookie Sofia and Captain Mustachio tasked with sweeping up the mess, and what a mess it would turn out to be! As the team neared the crash site the first thing they ran into is a mini-ufo!?

Oh... shiii@#!

Since it looked tough I ordered them to expend all their explosives on taking it down (which just barely did the trick) but just as soon as that exploded a large group of little sectoids appeared in the woods with two drones, and though the team survived the firefight they were all injured from the encounter as they proceeded into the UFO proper. It was there they encountered THREE sectoid commanders, and due to the teams lack of firepower at that point they failed to down a single one in their opening barrage, only injuring them.

The sectoids responded by mind controlling Sofia the rookie which panicked Cosmos into shotgunning her to death. Soon after Cosmos himself was mind-raped by one, causing him to put the barrel of his weapon into his mouth and blow his own brains out. A panicked Derka was shooting wildly, injuring Captain Mustachio who then found a face full of plasma bullets, melting it off and killing him in slow agony. Not sure how Bondi Vet and the Lucky Jew pulled it off then, but between the two of them (and ricocheting bullets from Derka) they downed the remaining enemies and got the hell out of there. Mission complete!

A Little Bit of Conversation

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Dr. Vahlen killed the captive during her "interrogation", and now she wants another one, specifically an alien pilot. With a stroke of luck a UFO had landed in Japan so I sent valkyries Ikede and Murphy with Bald Witch and newbies Ragnar the Red (another Viking) and ex-terrorist Derka Derka. Despite encountering heavy resistance from sectoids, floaters and thin men they managed to capture said pilot while only suffering minor injuries (well, in Derka's case severe - but he lived).

While Vahlen and Shen "talked" to the outsider I killed time by sending Mister Mustachio, Panicman, the Italian, Cosmos and Airhead to a trainyard in Brazil where a floater army was abducting commuters. Easily put an end to that safely and quickly through good overwatch fire and by the time they got back the captive was dead and Shen wanted to construct a "key" out of its remains.

Oookay.

With most of Europe on the verge of total panic and the rest of the world not far behind I let them go ahead and do whatever with our remaining funds. It's actually very surprising how often this project that is "protecting the world" is bankrupt. Still, it turned out to be a good call because whatever they did - they managed to locate a large alien base in Asia! Damned sneaky aliens. This time we're going to take the fight to them!

My Churro, Your Taco

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Soldiers Lost in the Second Month: 2
Campaign Total: 9

After selling a surplus of scopes to Russia to help them with some missile launch, it was time for another council meeting and the end of month two. Thanks to last minute satellite launches everyone was still onboard with the XCOM project giving me a grade of "A" again, but those little panic bars just seem to keep creeping up. A large UFO made an appearance not long after but my little fighter plane had no chance to shoot that one down so I ordered it back while it could still fly. Back in the base I -FINALLY- have my officer training school and can now send FIVE operatives on the field.

Just what I need, because Dr. Vahlen's wailings were getting too annoying and it was time to capture one of the bastards. Next contact was at a gas station in Mexico where floaters and thin men were enjoying burritos I suppose. I sent veterans Panicman, Mister "Nuke" Mustachio, Big Mike, Gravedigger and David "the lucky Jew" because he got to carry the tazer. :P

Taking cover next to cars and pumps at a gas station sounded like a catastrophic plan but it surprisingly worked very well. With suppressing fire from Panicman, accurate sniping from Gravedigger and well placed grenades and rockets from heavies Big Mike and Mustachio the aliens lost their cover pretty quick, followed by their lives. The Lucky Jew even managed to taze one before almost getting killed himself, yet on one HP he killed two more bastards with his pistol and flanked a thin man for a point blank shotgun blast.

Mission complete! Excellent performance all around if I do say so myself, and finally Dr. Vahlen is happy. I saw her singing and skipping past my office door with a large bottle of lube in hand. That poor, poor alien we captured though...

Dr. Dolly Vahlen is ready to begin the "interrogation".

Raiders of the Downed UFOs

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Finalising a trade to Australia (who wanted to buy alien alloys) the UFO alert went off again, this time in Japan. A bigger ship than last time! Fortunately I had constructed an interceptor there and our ace pilot Vince McCool was visiting the region at the time. Looked like a nasty dogfight but Vince shot down that bastard in the end despite taking a ton of damage himself. Deployed Mister Mustachio and Panicman along with newbies Cosmos and David.

Seemed this ship contained Jetpack boys AND Thin men along with the little dudes. The first group was a non issue, eliminated by overwatch fire mainly while the thin men got to enjoy high explosives of the rocket and grenade variety. It's annoying then that as the team advanced on the ship Cosmos was downed by overwatch fire from the normal little dudes, because he didn't DODGE!

Even the aliens facepalmed.

After teaching those SOBs a lesson my remaining three men busted into that UFO, surrounded the alien pilot and summarily executed him (Dr. Vahlen: WHYYYYYY!?). At least it seems I'm improving with these UFO raids. The following one that landed (not shot down) was tactically cleaned out by David, Big Mike, the Italian and Mustachio with no casualties through liberal use of explosives and lure and kill tactics. As a celebratory gesture I let them explode the ship. (Dr Vahlen: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY RESEARCH!)

Missions Complete, and somehow Cosmos actually survived (guess I finished before he bled out)! Despite all these victories though it seems like most of the world is on the verge of panic. Oh well, I'm sure that's not important. Right?