XCOM 2 AAR - The Resistance

Turns out our mysterious friend here is the same mysterious leader that had briefed you twenty years ago. Back then the secrecy seemed overly cautious with the large threat of the aliens, but now it seems potentially deadly. Trusting those who don't trust you like that seems overly risky.

Yet, his information on where to find you was good, and he does seem to be on the level. Best to go along with it now and make sure to be cautious ourselves.

There's not much information to go on here. He tells us of a black site where something is happening, but with little information to go on, we can't do much yet. We don't even have the location. To find it, we'll have to contact the local resistance forces and use them to get the intel we need. This gives us our first quest objective: research resistance communications, make contact with the local area, and then infiltrate the black site and see what we can find.

Simple.

The doc meanwhile finished his research on the implant he removed from your skull. Turns out it was similar to the implant he had worked on while doing his research for ADVENT. It's a fancy piece of work; data is sent to it, then the data is processed by the mind, and sent back out. From what we can tell, it was used to run battle simulations. Over and over simulations had played through your mind, a massive quantity of them - the doc was surprised that your mind had lasted so long. Because his work had been for higher-ranking ADVENT officers using similar implants, he believes that they should have the same implants. Once we have the resistance communications research done, he'll give the officers an autopsy. See what he can find.

The engineers finished cleaning out the alien debris and added a "Guerilla Tactics School" in the space. Fancy word for "Gym", but you know engineers. With more supplies we'll be able to learn some improvements for our squads, mainly team training to allow for more squad members in a mission, but right now the rookie Culise is going to get some light training. With Susanne out of commission I want a replacement grenadier. Stealth is great, but sometimes you need the heavy ordinance.

A top scientist wants to join up with us and stop working on...fashion design? Really? Well, we'll take what we can get. Corporals Health and Gaius and Squaddies Lovenought and Jcan roll out.Health gets a fancy upgrade to her rifle. Alien repeater that usually doesn't work, but when it does, well, that target is dead. Straight up dead. (5% chance to insta-kill on hit) Gaius gets an implant we salvaged earlier. The doc assures everyone that they're perfectly safe; the simulations running through the implant should improve her mobility, allowing her to move farther. (2 tiles farther)

Nice digs doc. A little too public for the sneaky work we prefer, but we'll make do. In what should not be much of a surprise, ADVENT does not have a large presence here. They'll arrive with overwhelming force soon enough, but right now, there's little in the way between us and our evac...way over there. JCan spots an ADVENT tower and tries to hack in for a small boost in visibility. Unfortunately, he fails, giving the aliens some limited access to our feeds. They'll have a defense boost going forward. 

(Rant time: Didn't think at all that the downside would be so bad. If I succeeded, at a 46% chance, we'd get a small but noticeable increase in vision. Fail, and they get an increase in mobility and defense. Eh, can only be a small boost if it's that hard to hack and gives so little bonus? No. 20% boost to defense for the entire mission. Ridiculous)

We move forward as quickly as we dare, making good progress when two patrols catch our forces. Three ADVENT soldiers and a commanding sectoid.

Reacting quickly, JCan drops the first soldier. Lovenought goes for the flank and drops the second soldier. The third is smart and hides behind a good strong wall. JCan is smarter and lobs a grenade. Gaius, with the help of the fancy new implant, dashes across the entire store, climbs up the pipe, and cleaves the sectoid in two. All done in but a few moments. Terrifying.

The group continues on, meeting the third and last patrol guarding the building where our evac is located. Another sectoid and a final soldier. JCan manages another hit on the sectoid, but fails to bring the beast down. Gaius flanks the soldier, killing him quickly. Health though misses her shot on the sectoid, giving it time tor respond.

The sectoid reaches out to Health's mind, attempting to dominate her and turn her against us. She resists, shouting defiance and lobbing a grenade into it's face. JCan and his quick reflexes finish off the stunned and undefended sectoids.

The squad continues on and evacs by the book with our new scientist in tow.

(Not sure what the first percentage there is for)

Our repeated attacks against ADVENT recently have angered them. So much so that they've launched a large punitive attack against resistance forces in Mexico, with an accompanying propaganda video sent to the entire world.

We won't take this lightly. 

Wanting more heavy ordinance on this run, JCan and Lovenought flip a coin to see who goes, with the newly trained Grenadier Culise taking one of their spots. Lovenought wins, and the team rolls out to save what they can of the local resistance forces.