XCOM 2 AAR - Interlude

I said before that it was time to hit that blacksite at the vial's coordinates and I meant that, but previous experience has taught me that bringing a specialist along for healing would be much appreciated. I'd like our entire squad to come back in one piece, if possible. Six days and JCan would be out of sick bay. That's short enough for me.

In the meantime, there's another UFO just waiting to be looted. For a longer mission I dont' want to go without a specialist, but a short mission like this should be just fine. Shen even has a present for us: a new W.A.R suit, she says is an upgrade over the previous EXO suit. Heavily armored, with a heavy weapon hard point, and the ability to generate short range shielding. Could come in handy.

Culise is given the new suit, while Susanne keeps her old EXO suit.

At the mission site, the group sets up in a very favorable position. Couldn't ask for better terrain. The archon goes down in three shots, finished off by Van Wezel, but surprisingly both mutons stay alive. One grenades Spyhawk and Susanne, the other bashes Culise upside the head, hurting and disorienting him. Perhaps he should have worn a helmet?

Susanne finishes off the injured muton and Health fires three pistol shots from her perch to end the second. The rest of the team gets up close to the UFO. As per the last attempts, we'll have to move quickly if we want to stop that distress signal, especially without a specialist handy to unlock it from afar. As is also usual with UFOs, there's a whole wealth of cover inside. Normally I might say to reduce damage so as to make sure we get as much as we could from this place, but we've got more than enough supplies at the moment. Susanne and Culise get the go-ahead for a full bombardment.

A patrol steps outside and sees our forces just beyond the door. They retreat inside, but Susanne fires in a grenade to break it all open. Behind them is another patrol, this one filled with heavier elements. Culise fires his own grenade, destroying what was left of the original patrol and shredding the armor off the new heavy mec. Van Wezel goes in for a skulljacking on the advanced officer, but fails and spots the last patrol of two vipers and an archon. It's an all out brawl here! Gaius goes in for a slice on a viper, but fails to land a killing blow. Well, this looks ugly. Spyhawk takes care of the pesky codex clone behind our lines with a well-placed grenade.

We're now outnumbered, Gaius and Van Wezel are behind them, cut off from the rest of the team, and they're all relatively healthy. Health has a perfect view for a good kill zone over the entire UFO, but things still look ugly. Van Wezel takes a shot from the soldier, but the new armor is more than capable of absorbing the blow. Gaius is hit by the plasma staff and then grabbed by a viper, but she should be alright. The wounded viper is, thankfully, finished off from a sniper shot by Health.

Susanne continues her shelling of the entrance, launching a rocket and then a grenade into the heavy mec and archon. The archon goes down and gives Culise a good angle on the viper holding Gaius. He frees her from the viper's grasp, giving her the chance to cut it down. Spyhawk kills the wounded mec, leaving two soldiers behind still working Van Wezel.

Just look at all that destruction. Van Wezel is easily able to take care of himself, killing the soldier on top of him, leaving the final officer surrounded and vulnerable to every member of the team. Everyone gets a shot before Gaius finishes it off. Mission well done.

The more *ahem* gung-ho nature of that little brawl did leave the team with many small injuries. Nothing too major though.

It does mean though that Gaius, Spyhawk, and Culise won't be available for the blacksite mission.