[Godzilla Blitz]

66th Mission: German Base Assault: The Expendables (Part III)

(Previously on X-COM II)

Sir Fozzie enters the east corridor from our entrance room, and comes upon two Sectoids! One is 15-feet away and heading for our position; the other is directly in line with the first one, but about 30 yards further down the corridor. Sir Fozzie pulls the trigger on his heavy plasma: green plasma blasts tear towards the Sectoid, but all of them sail wide. Man, we need shooting practice! Sir Fozzie looks death in the eyes, as both Sectoids go for their triggers at the same time. The one furthest gets off his shot first. Plasma blasts streak towards Sir Fozzie…

(Our story continues)

And slam into the first Sectoid! Its back explodes with a sharp crack, green goo goes flying, and it drops to the ground, dead! Wow! What luck! Sir Fozzie, amazed to be alive, scrambles back behind a wall in our entrance room. Travis III, who has been patiently waiting with Blade III for the entrance room to clear, hops into the grav-lift and drops to the first floor. He rolls right, and comes up on one knee, directly in line with the long corridor. From 50 yards away, he opens fire on the Sectoid on full auto. His initial plasma blast zips down the corridor and nails the Sectoid in the head! It wails and drops to the ground! Nice shot! Way to show ‘em how! Travis then scurries back up the grav-lift, as we want to keep the room relatively uncrowded, with that enemy Blaster Launcher still on the loose. X-COM 10, Aliens 2.

Once again, a wave of PSI-energy hits us. Condors II manages once again to stay with us, but he’s looking mighty shaky as he rushes to the grav-lift.

We get a moment’s respite, and take a second to form some kind of a plan. Bravo team is down to four active members, but they have our heavy artillery and our stun launchers. Alpha Team is still at full strength. The base’s central command appears to be east of Alpha team and south of Bravo team, and this is where we can expect to find the Sectoid Commander. Bravo team doesn’t have enough men to attack the command area without leaving their flanks badly exposed. If we’re going to attack, we’ve got to link our two teams. Also, until we can link up, Bravo Team will not be able to effectively set up a defensive perimeter. The plan, then, is simple. Send Swaggs, Wolfpack, Marmel, and Blade III on a northward, then eastward sweep to link up with Bravo team. Once there, the eight men will launch an attack on the command area, using our two stun launchers up front in hopes of bagging the base leader, if it’s still alive. Sir Fozzie, Japh II, and Travis III will hold the end of the sweep, and fill in where needed. We move out.

Swaggs heads north, reaches the north wall of the base, and turns east. Blade III enters the grav-lift in our entrance room, heads down, then breaks north to join up with Wolfpack. The two of them wait for Swaggs to clear the north area. Suddenly, Marmel is hit with a massive blast of PSI-energy as he returns to the main floor of the base! His confidence shatters, and he starts singing the Teletubbi theme song! Wolfpack quickly orders him to drop all his weapons, which Marmel manages to do just a fraction of a second before he completely panics. He sprints back into our entrance room, then breaks south and heads straight for the enemy command center. Marmel, you’re going the wrong way!

Meanwhile, back at Bravo Squad, the same wave of PSI-energy that hit Marmel swamps Condors II. He goes completely over to the aliens! Good thing he dropped his weapons first! He starts alternately hissing and singing the Oscar Meyer theme song. While this goes on, Lokugh II gathers up Sachmo II’s blaster launcher, heads down the grav-lift, grabs the Stun Launcher that Condors II dropped, and heads north to hole up in the small lab until reinforcements arrive. Mr. Bug breaks east, and quickly searches the northeast room of the base: all clear. Astott then half limps, half jogs to that room to set up a firing position with the Blaster Launcher. Afoci heads north to take a look at a long corridor that runs along the north wall of the base. It is clear of aliens, and this should provide Alpha Team with a safe, fast route across the gap between the two teams.

Swaggs continues east, and makes it to the long corridor that runs along the north side of the base. Once there, Blade III sprints to catch him, and once he reaches him, the two of them head for Bravo Team’s position.

Back at Alpha Team, Travis III leaves the entrance room again, drops to the main floor of the base, and joins Wolfpack in the room to the north. Together they move east, and set up a firing position that covers possible alien approaches from the south. With Marmel gone to the enemy, we’ll hold Wolfpack with Alpha team to help out on this side of the base. Japh II holds his position guarding the south approach to our main room. Sir Fozzie peeks down the east corridor again: Marmel is gone, completely gone. He must have gone into the alien command center. Suddenly, his life meter in our HUDs flashes yellow: Damn it. Now Marmel has gone over to the aliens too! Suddenly, as Sir Fozzie continues to peer down the long corridor to the command center, he catches Sectoid movement, about 60 yards away, within a portion of the outer corridor of the command center that we can see through a destroyed wall. Sir Fozzie takes careful aim and pulls the trigger on his heavy plasma: green streaks fly toward the alien and slam into its torso. We hear a low gurgle, and the alien topples over! Yes! That’s how we shoot! X-COM 11, Aliens 2.

Back at Bravo Team, Swaggs and Blade III make it down the long corridor without incident and join up with the four remaining men. The men then quickly prepare to assault the command center. Swaggs takes a Stun Blaster from Lokugh II (who had two of them). Lokugh II and Blade III will head directly for the command center, while Mr. Bug and Swaggs will loop around to the east and come on the structure from that direction. Afoci will hold the west flank. While the men move into position, Condors II randomly panics and gets mind-controlled by aliens. He occasionally sprints in random directions as well, and has gradually worked himself to a position where he is about 15 yards from the command center.

Bravo Team, now reinforced with Swaggs and Blade III, finishes their preparations and sets out for the command center. While they make their initial moves toward the structure, Alpha Team keeps busy. Sir Fozzie, who has a good view into the northwest side of the structure, takes a lookout role: he takes frequent peeks down the long corridor in hopes of spotting alien movement. Japh II guards our westernmost position from flanking attacks from the south. Wolfpack and Travis III start to advance on a door in the north central portion of the base that most likely leads to some unsecured supply rooms.

Everyone continues on, but more frequent and stronger waves of PSI energy are hitting us. We still have no word on Marmel’s fate, but Condors II comes back to our side long enough for him to sprint back to the safety of our supply room. But just as he gets to safety, a ferocious wave of PSI energy hits Travis III; he goes completely berserk, firing in random directions! Wolfpack, who is only a few feet away, has to dive down a side corridor to avoid getting blown apart. Within moments, Travis III luckily comes back to our side. Wolfpack peeks around the corner, and orders Travis III to drop his weapons, which Travis manages to do. Seconds later, Travis gets hit by yet another wave of PSI-energy and goes completely over to the aliens! Wolfpack’s quick thinking most likely saved his own life, but we’ve now lost three agents to enemy mind control. We’ve got to finish this thing quickly!

Our command center assault team closes in on the command center. From what we can see of it so far, it looks to be of identical design as the one from our initial Sectoid base mission: a large central room surrounded by a winding, angular corridor. There has been enough damage to the north side of the structure that we should be able to get into this outer corridor without having to go to the west side of it, where the entrance doors lie. Lokugh II and Blade III close in on the north side, as Mr. Bug and Swaggs loop around and close in from the east. The key here is to make sure that our Stun Launchers are the ones to fire: we don’t want to kill any more aliens. We absolutely must try to capture the commander inside, if he’s still alive. As Lokugh II draws to within five-feet of the north side of the center, he catches a glimpse, through a small window in the outer wall, of a Sectoid moving along the outer corridor. Before he can get his stun launcher up, the Sectoid disappears from view.

Lokugh II rushes the outer wall and heads east, towards a broken panel in the outer corridor. Blade III is right behind him. Swaggs and Mr. Bug close in on this same opening, which looks to be the only such opening nearby. Lokugh II reaches the opening first, takes a deep breath, and steps inside…

Sectoid, ten-feet away, in the corridor! This must be the one that we just saw a moment ago. Lokugh II pulls the trigger on the Stun Launcher and sends a shell right into the Sectoid. The bomb goes off with a pop, sending stun gas up and down the corridor and knocking the Sectoid into unconsciousness. Lokugh II then stuffs another bomb in the Stun Blaster and heads for the entrance to the main room, which lies on the east side of the center. Swaggs, Blade III, and Mr. Bug reach the corridor a moment later. Swaggs and Blade III head inside. Mr. Bug holds outside and guards the approach from the south, which is still terra incognito.

Meanwhile, back at Alpha Team, we suddenly have an interesting thought. In flight, the stun launcher missile that Lokugh II used looks an awful lot like the Blaster missile. Maybe the aliens that fired the “dud” blaster missile on us earlier actually fired a Stun Launcher shell? Wolfpack, who is 10 yards away from two Sectoid corpses, abandons the idea of searching the supply rooms alone (aren’t they always empty anyway?), and heads for these corpses. Sure enough, the first one is carrying a Stun Launcher! Aha! That explains Japherwaki II’s lucky duds! Wolfpack grabs the Launcher and one remaining shell. He stuffs the shell in the launcher, straps his Heavy Plasma on his back, and starts towards the command center from the northwest. Sir Fozzie leaves his position guarding the long approach to the center and heads to provide backup for Wolfpack. Meanwhile, Japherwaki II decides to check out some of the corpses in one of the long corridors to the south. He moves out, quickly comes upon a Sectoid corpse, and takes a look: Blaster Launcher! It would be nice to find another Stun Launcher, but at least now we know that the enemy Launcher is down. This guy must have blown himself up when he fired at Japh. Japh leaves the Blaster Launcher and continues down the corridor.

Suddenly, Marmel comes back to our side! He’s standing in a corridor near the west side of the command area. The alien that Lokugh II took out must have been the one zapping Marmel. We try to get him back to the entrance room, but he is still having trouble obeying orders. He randomly panics and starts running all over the place, and alternates between speaking alien and speaking English. Sir Fozzie catches sight of him heading toward the west side of the base and screaming “Red Sox Rule!” over and over. Travis III, in the meantime, has crunched up in corner of the base near the command center, and is humming the theme song from the Jetsons. Sigh.

Back at the command center, as Lokugh II, Blade III, and Swaggs make a final approach on the main entrance, Wolfpack nears from the west. Suddenly, a Sectoid steps out in front of him! Wolfpack takes aim, but the Sectoid turns and runs before he can get a shot off. Wolfpack gives chase, and spots the alien as they round a corner. Wolfpack fires the Stun Launcher, but the shell misses wide and explodes harmlessly further down the hall. Now unarmed, Wolfpack turns around and runs away. Swaggs leaves the other side of the command center to see if he can help subdue this Sectoid. Sir Fozzie spots the thing as it runs west down another side corridor. This alien has clearly completely panicked, as it has not fired despite two great chances. We gain confidence and give chase at a full sprint. Wolfpack, Swaggs, and Sir Fozzie all try to corner the thing so Swaggs can blast it with the Stun Launcher. If it keeps going the way it’s headed, it will quickly run into Japherwaki II as well, who has been making a methodical search of the hallways in the southwest corner of the base.

Back at the command center, Blade III and Lokugh II prepare to make the final assault on the main room. They arrive at the main doors, and decide to go on three. One…two…three! They pull open the doors, and step inside…

Nothing! The command center is empty! There is a grav-lift up to the second floor however, and the two men head for that.

Meanwhile, Swaggs, Sir Fozzie, and Wolfpack quickly gain ground on our panicked Sectoid. Shortly, Swaggs is able to get an easy ten-foot shot off at the thing, but his aim is sloppy at a full sprint and the shell flies wide. Damn it. Swaggs only has one more shell left. As the Sectoid continues to flee, Swaggs reloads and starts off again after the little bugger.

Meanwhile, back at the command center, Lokugh II and Blade III reach the main grav-lift. Once again, on three. One…two…three…

They step in and head straight up to the top floor. Once there, they frantically spin and scan the large operations control room, filled with high-tech machinery…

Nothing? There’s no one home? Is the alien we’re chasing the last one left? Maybe the commander?

Back at the west side of the base, Swaggs can’t afford a miss with his last shell. He is much faster than the Sectoid, and within a minute he is right behind the thing. He leaps for it and tackles the Sectoid by the legs. The two of them topple to the ground. Swaggs barely manages to hang on to the Stun Launcher. He quickly pulls up the gun, sticks it in the alien’s face, and pulls the trigger. Bang! The blast shatters the alien’s nose, drives its head backwards, and fills the air the stun gas. Both alien and Swaggs drop into unconsciousness…

And that is all she wrote! Wow! The rookie patrol did it! Way to show those UN assholes a thing or two about FOFC X-COM! Booyaa! Only two KIAs! Our best base mission to date!

The men begin the search for valuable artifacts and weapons. These bases are usually loaded with goodies, and unlike Portugal, this base was taken relatively intact. We haul away large amounts of alien artifacts to be lifted up the air vents. The resale value could fund our operations for a month. The men also duct tape the two Sectoid captives, and haul them up the airshafts.

It isn’t until an hour or so later that Astott glances at his HUD and notices that Marmel’s LED indicator is no longer on. Astott quickly questions the men. No one has seen Marmel since the final chase for the last Sectoid. The men begin an intense search of the base, but find no sign of him. Finally, Japherwaki II finds a small escape vent in the northwest corner of the base that has been pried open. On the edge of the metal is some dull gray paint, the same color as our Power Suits. Mr. Bug and Japherwaki volunteer to search the shaft, and head inside. After a hundred meters of horizontal crawling, the shaft goes straight up. The two men find ladder handholds, and start up. Ten minutes later they emerge into the now dark German countryside. Marmel is nowhere to be seen. Another one has gone over to the dark side?

After packing the Skyranger and loading up the two prisoners, the men get on board for the short jaunt home. Three empty seats let us know that once again, the aliens have extracted a price for our success.

Kills: Travis III, 1; Sir Fozzie, 3; Afoci, 1; Astott, 2; Mr. Bug IV, 1; Condors II, 2; Swaggs, 1.
KIA: Sachmo II, Katon.
MIA: Marmel.
Wounded: Astott (9 days).
Attribute Improvements: Lokugh II, Travis III, Sir Fozzie, Afoci, Astott, Mr. Bug IV, Condors II, Swaggs.
Final score: 961. Take that, Germany!
Mission Notes:
Well, the idea was to try this to cut down on KIAs to our more experienced agents, but we ended up losing Sachmo II anyway. Tough loss on that one. He never cracked under fire, and was an extremely reliable agent. We’ll miss him, and just have to hope that someone can step up and fill his shoes.

The big question is whether we’ve bagged our badly needed Sectoid Commander. Only time—and Crappy—will tell.

I’m glad I finally figured out the mystery of the “dud blaster missiles”.

Congratulations to Sir Fozzie, who led our agents with three kills today! Well done!