We prepare our ambush on an unsuspecting viper and soldier scouting the area. Hyme pistols the soldier, leaving the viper for JCan, Hyme, and Susanne to finish it off. JCan and Health were both quicker on the draw, but Susanne's hail of bullets is what ended the beast.
A nearby patrol hears the commotion and enters the fray. (From left to right: Mec, officer, (stun) trooper). The officer marks Susanne for death, and follows it up with a wave of hurt. The officer and the mec both land their shots on her, shredding what little armor she had and leaving her vulnerable to the trooper's blade. She's stunned and alive, but barely. Hyme makes an expert close-range sniper shot on the trooper to kill it. Health fires three quick pistol shots into the mec, but only scratches the armor. Gaius's new shard thrower works much better against the thick metal plates and brings it down. JCan opts to not fire and instead keep Susanne in the fight with the help of his GREMLIN.
The officer retreats to above the nearby church, but can't run far enough away from Health's sniper rifle. JCan attempts another hack on a nearby tower, but predictably fails. If it's not a mec, he can't hack it it seems. Gaius, looting the dead officer's corpse, makes a surprising discovery: ADVENT troops walking on the church roof. Two soldiers and a sectoid. Not good when she was already far in front of the other forces. She runs back down, chased along the way. Health helps by eliminating one of the soldiers.
She reverses for a moment to slice the sectoid, but a missed shot from JCan leaves her vulnerable to return fire from the soldier. Hyme finishes the last soldier off. A flare pops up behind the squad. Reinforcements incoming! The forces are met with a barrage of fire, but none go down. Health executes a soldier with a point-blank pistol shot and with another shot kills the trooper. Susanne takes the last soldier.
Back at base the engineer's complete Shen's new playground. That should give her plenty of opportunity to build and test the new "Skulljack" she's envisioned for hacking into the ADVENT psionic network. Work is started on a new "Shadow Chamber" Tygan wanted for decrypting ADVENT communications. Times are dull as things go silent, until blaring alarms wake me from sleep. ADVENT was launching another retaliation strike against the resistance. While I would normally say I'm good for commanding, no matter the time of day, this mission shows I should clearly be more cautious during weird times of day.
Greeting us this time is a new type of alien. The "Muton". A hulking beast with strong armor, a strong blaster, and an upgrade to its agility. Hyme gets a shot in but it does little damage, and the aliens continue their rampage against the civilians. Hyme fires another shot, through a garage wall, but the alien still remains alive. Lovenought fires a barrage into the garage, getting a lucky shot and ending it. Health ends the trooper working with the muton and the team advances cautiously. More and more civilian deaths echo across the night. My first mistake: Being too cautious in deployment.
JCan moves forward towards a civilian, but is greeted with a mimic transformation. The alien's large claws do a fair amount of damage. Hyme and Health work together to bring it down, Health's pistol the killing weapon. Culise spots another patrol, and fires a grenade into the mec. JCan has a better idea and hacks in, gaining control, but leaving me with my second mistake: not having him get to cover after the workbench he hid behind was destroyed in the mimic's attack. He's a sitting duck!
Lovenought and the officer enjoy a useless firing match. Neither make a hit. Health shows him how it's done. Lovenought kills the nearby soldier, and what follows is my third mistake. Instead of having him reload, he fires into JCan's mec, leaving it nearly dead and him out of ammo.
We advance and the mec finds us our last group of aliens: a muton and two troopers. Culise launches a grenade onto the trooper, leaving it damaged and wide open for the mec to kill. Lovenought, unable to do something useful due to being out of ammo, has his GREMLIN support Culise. JCan orders the mec forward, and we find my fourth mistake: the mec's hardware doesn't allow for a shot around a cactus!
Instead, the mec bombards the other two ADVENT forces, wounding and eliminating their cover, but not killing any of them. JCan instead gets kill on Culise's trooper. A second mimic reveals himself behind the squad, and the muton destroys JCan's new toy. JCan finds himself in melee again with a mimic. They like him. Hyme brings it down with Health's assistance. Lovenought outflanks the muton and gets another kill on his belt. What follows is both stupid, worrying, and hilarious.
A mistake leads to JCan being sent out into the open, in plain view of the remaining trooper. Only Culise is available to provide overwatch fire. JCan, thinking it intentional, works to grab the trooper's attention; he's the bait, and Culise will spring the trap. The trooper, strangely, takes the bait. Charging towards JCan with his sword at the ready. Culise fires his trusty gun Alphonse, but it's too bulky and heavy to stay on target and JCan finds that he has brought a gun to a sword fight. He nimbly dodges the blade, but he can't keep that up forever. Hyme, with her characteristic no-nonsense attitude lands an expert shot on the trooper before it can do any real harm. I don't have the heart to tell JCan he was put in harm's way like that as a mistake. He seems to have enjoyed himself though.
Back at base the tech people finish their shadow chamber.
Maybe now we'll find out what that vial is for.
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