XCOM 2 AAR - Purple Everywhere

Another day, another mission. A new wave of guerrilla ops for us to choose. The two we've learned about seem easy to deal with, so the hidden one it is again. A simple op, one we've had before: resistance members set up a data tap on the ADVENT network, and the tap needs to be defended while it does its thing. Main difference? We're after a skulljack on the codex the shadow chamber says will be here. Top crew this time. I'd like to get some experience for the newer of the team, but after last mission I want to avoid another death.

We land in a town out in the boonies. Wide street between us and the tap, but with good cover on our side. We'll head up to the roof, secure it, and move on. Should be a good location for the snipers.We find our target, the codex patrolling with an advanced trooper. No idea what will happen, so we don't set up for a proper ambush. Susanne gets her shot from above on the poor trooper and he goes down quick. Gaius rushes in for the skulljack, and does succeed.

In what should not be a surprise to anyone, a being pops out from ...somewhere, looking dangerous and ready to shoot.

What follows is a rather frustrating experience. The thing is quick, each time we shoot it, it teleports away, finding a new location to hide. It's tough to boot, but our team has this covered. Culise uses his new acid grenade on it removing the armor and giving it a nasty burn. Health gets a pistol shot, followed by an assault rifle burst from JCan before teleporting inside the building. Health is able to follow it in and get a final pistol shot for the kill.

Not sure what that was all about, but it's dead and our scientists will have something to do for the next week. The mission continues, with Gaius stumbling into a patrol of two mutons and an archon. Yikes. Hyme manages a sniper shot on the archon, but it doesn't go down and they're well able to get some shots in. The archon attacks Gaius, but she's well able to dodge, and the mutons shots on the team both impact harmlessly on the store walls.

Health and Hyme work together to bring the archon down, leaving Susanne and Gaius for the first muton. Culise suppresses the last muton, but the muton is able to fire through the hail of bullets back at him, dealing critical damage and definitely making Culise angry. Thankfully his armor stops most of the damage and he's fine. Hyme's supporting position from above gives her a good shot on it for the kill. Now to find the last group before they can eliminate the tap.

The final squad is a group of two soldiers lead by an officer. The first trooper makes an aggressive move towards Gaius, but is met with a rocket blast from Susanne, a shotgun blast from Gaius, and a final sniper shot from Hyme. The officer tries a similar move, and finds himself on the short end of a shotgun blast and a burst from JCan. The final soldier tries to fire at Gaius, but JCan's protective GREMLIN and her natural agility keeps her unharmed, giving Susanne  chance to fire a grenade, wounding him in the explosion and demolishing the roof he was standing on. Unlike the earlier mec, hybrids aren't built to withstand a long fall like that and his body remained unmoving in the rubble.

I'm not entirely sure why, but Tygan is calling the purple being we killed is an "avatar" and highly related to the avatar project. I'm not sure what to make of it, to me it seems a cross between a human, a codex, and a super saiyan. The aliens are always full of surprises.

While everyone stays busy on board the Avenger, we complete a few new projects. Shen completed her crash course on using the viper autopsy results to enhance our medkits. That should come in handy. Her engineers also completed the new psi lab.

Looks creepy if you ask me, but it should do its job. Shen highly recommends that we don't send anyone already experienced in the field to train here, so I grab a new recruit, a Ms. Jamie Trajan.

She seems rather excited and all around happy. Hopefully her experiences in the chamber don't crush her spirits.