While the crew is down, our resistance contacts have something interesting for us. The aliens are moving supplies and tech with a lightly-defended train. Perfect for us, even though we can't field a full team. Health and Lovenought will need to babysit the two new recruits, Hyme and Spyhawk.
We find the train stopped at a small depot during a snow storm. The usual alien patrols abound. We setup near the front of train, and get ready for our ambush. The ambush starts with Health giving the sectoid a good wounding, but both the rookies fail their shots. Lovenought, watching the other side of the train, spots a second patrol wandering over and takes out a soldier. We're off to a wonderful start with 4 aliens in total and two of our members out-flanked. Health is even disoriented from a mental blow.
Spyhawk takes his time with the next shot and eliminates a soldier, leaving Hyme to get to a more proper position from which to grenade the wounded sectoid. Health fires two pistol shots, killing one of the soldiers flanking Lovenought, leaving him to outflank them for another kill.
The squad takes a moment to reposition, reload, and grab the shiny loot. Lovenought spots another patrol, and takes a wild shot. He misses, hitting the trains fuel tanks instead. Damn it Lovenought, we're trying to steal those not blow em up! Hyme scores a solid but non-fatal hit on the trooper. Lovenought retreats and attempts another shot, grazing the soldier and finishing him off, but emptying many more rounds into the train. (Game-wise, Lovenought's gun has an upgrade where he always deals 1 damage, even if he misses)
While I'd love to have the rookies get more training, Lovenought's shots have made the train's cover become quite hazardous, locking them on the wrong side. He finishes off the final soldier while Health executes the viper with a well-placed head shot. Leaving us with the loot (most of it at least)
The next week passes with quiet. We establish contact with the black market and we establish a new radio relay in the eastern US. We'll soon be visiting Europe it seems. Our soldiers recover and one by one exit sickbay. Gaius unfortunately is a tad shaken with his bout with death. The docs inform you that he needs to get his confidence back. Make sure he gets a kill on his next mission. Mr. Mysterious has another mission for us: find and capture an ADVENT VIP for interrogation. We ready the team.
More nicknames abound. Lovenought needs to learn to share, so he gets the bench. (If I had supplies available, JCan would have a medpack) Spyhawk took a fancy to the sniper rifle, but 3 is too many. Susanne comes back onto the line.
The mission is done by the book. A quick ambush on a small patrol has JCan eliminate the soldier and Hyme a well-placed shot on the trooper. Susanne pumps lead into a wondering viper, leaving health to finish it off. "Jaws" throws off her jitters by slicing a trooper in two. Yikes. She leads the advance towards the VIP, knocking her out with a quick blow to the head and then grabbing the body. The rest of the team will provide support. Susanne looks longingly at the VIP's good footwear.
The rest of the team takes up a strong position above the others, ready to demolish the ADVENT troops waiting outside the doors. Hyme drops a grenade down on the sectoid, demolishing his cover. Health fires a pistol into both the sectoid and a soldier, leaving the sectoid for JCan to finish.
A response team flies in, and the group prepares to meet them. They prepare so well that every shot fired by the team misses completely as they rush from their transport. Two of the soldiers hunker down close to one-another in strong cover. Susanne sends a grenade their way, killing both. One more shot from Health brings the last soldier down. The way is clear and the team evacs with the VIP safely in tow.
Returning back to base, the doc announces his finished research: new guns! Magnetic weapons, railguns by another name. The ADVENT soldiers we've fought so far have used them against us, but they smartly gene-lock the weapons. Fail to unlock them properly and they deliver a lethal overcharge. We are, however, able to cannibalize the parts we need and manufacture the other bits in order to make our own. We don't have weapons for everyone though - initial designs only work for the shotgun, assault rifle, and pistol.
The soldiers rush to try out the new weapons in the targeting range, when claxons fire across the ship. The UFO is on our tails. We attempt evasive actions, but this is a cargo vessel against a combat ship.
The UFO fires EMP blasts to disable the ship. We'd have gone down hard if not for the quick-thinking of Shen, but we still have problems. The aliens deployed a spike nearby to pulse out EMPs, giving time for ADVENT forces to arrive and commandeer the ship. They're not playing nice. Even the nearby troops pulled on short notice should be a hard fight; if we don't get out quick the ship will be faced with overwhelming numbers.
Everyone out. Time to defend this ship.
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