<<Allrightey then! Since Mouse hasn't said much about this thing, I've decided to take up my own initiative. After each sim an objective report (in the style that I will display) will be written up by one of the participants using the XCAS log(s) and posted here. Usually it will be me, but if I can't make it to the sim then I would ask if someone else remembers to do it. I would also like this topic to become a pinned one.

NOTE MADE BY THE DEBRIEFER: These De-Briefs are constructed from the sims that are played only in the XCAS timeframe. In order to view our other sims with UFO, TFTD, Interceptor or Apocalypse theme........well......you'll just have to join XCAS to find out for yourselves

That said and done let us proceed onto the first ever military style XCAS mission report >>


Date: December 2063 <<November 10th 2002>>

Mission codename: Rolling

Pre-combat intelligence and preparations:

Since its scouts had recently failed to find NAO, the API decided to send 3 medium sized tanks (2 with 125mm cannons and one with a 55mm fusion barrell) along with support grunts and officers into the general area around the rainforest, with orders to locate and (if possible) destroy NAO. However the X-Com Commander deemed this general area to be too close to NAO. And so a task force of 9 X-Com soldiers (including the Commander) accompanied by 5 Red Skull members armed with ZG6 Incinerator Cannons, a Red Skull medium tank and a Red Skull APC would head out towards the API tanks and eliminate them. The X-Com team was to use the APC for transportation whilst the Red Skull team would use the tank to move around the battlefield. There were also reports that the API officers would carry XJB-68 rifles and ZF3 Fusion Combat Rifles, which is why the X-Com Commander decided to equip his team with the more powerful plasma rifles and allowed Corporals and Lieutenants access to heavier armour.

Combat report:

Both the X-Com team and the Red Skull forces met up on a plain not far away from NAO and began moving towards the hostile tanks. When the distance to the enemy tanks was about 1 mile, the X-Com and Red Skull teams were deployed from the APC and the tank (although Private McBenneth stayed in the APC against the Commander's orders and Lieutenant Ong was on site already, thereby also going against the Commander's orders to rendevous at the plain). The API tanks quickly responded to this by shelling friendly positions and deploying their own grunts and officers. The Red Skull tank returned fire and the Red Skull team moved towards the enemy, with the X-Com team somewhat behind. The API began directing much of their firepower on the Red Skull forces and they soon had to fortify their positions using special Ascidian barriers. The X-Com Commander then decided to split the team in two halves: The Offensive team would try and outflank the API tanks, whilst the Defensive team would reinforce the Red Skull forces.

But the Offensive team was never given a chance to do their part, since the API soldiers quickly noticed them and opened fire. The API tanks also began to split up: One of them headed to the left of the Red Skulls (most likely to outflank them), the one with the fusion barrell made a frontal assault on the Red Skull positions and the Defensive team, whilst the third one began moving towards the Offensive team. The API officers had also begun charging up and firing their ZF3s and managed to destroy the Red Skull tank. However they were swiftly taken down by the X-Com teams, which after that also began to inflict heavy casualties on the grunts, especially since Corporal Howardson had laid down a wall of fire behind the grunts, thus effectively cutting them off. The Red Skull team took advantage of this by charging up their ZG6s and aiming them towards the API tanks. The tank crews soon realized this and began retreating, but one of them was too slow and was incinerated by a ZG6 fusion bolt. However just after its explosion, Private O'Connor's motion detector indicated a huge fusion reaction occuring inside the tank's hull. Once the X-Com Commander was informed of this, he ordered a general retreat towards the APC and both the X-Com and Red Skull teams managed to get inside it.

The APC then quickly drove off towards a patrolling Red Skull dropship, which picked it up. The dropship then headed away from the destroyed tank's wreckage as fast as it could. After a short time though, the fusion reaction inside the wreckage most likely went critical since a humungus blastwave hit the dropship. Its power was strong enough to rip the cord that connected the APC to the dropship and the APC fell down towards a lake, the dropship barely surviving. When the APC splashed into the lake, the teams quickly swimmed out of it, although Commander Weindhoven required some help as he was wearing a Feronium Reinforced Combat Suit. The teams then headed back to NAO as any remaining API forces were considered to have been destroyed by the shockwave.

Statistics:

Enemy casualties:
-3 medium sized tanks (1 confirmed destroyed, 2 unconfirmed destroyed)
-3 API officers (3 confirmed killed)
-15 API grunts (4 confirmed killed, 10 unconfirmed killed, 1 confirmed injured but not confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 medium sized Red Skull tank (confirmed destroyed)
-1 Red Skull APC (confirmed damaged, but salvagable from the lake)
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Private McBenneth: A broken leg and damaged but repairable retinas)

Promotions: none

<<I would just like to emphasize the point that when I mention a single soldier doing something (like Howardson in this case) it is not because I just kinda like the guy, but it is strictly because he made an important strategic action and that he alone preformed it (same goes for McBenneth and Ong since I bear them no grudges for showing up late. )

Well that's more or less it. You can also post replies here in order to say what you think of the report, or to tell me if I missed something out, but please make them short. And if you ever have to write a report you don't have to go into this much detail, since very few people have the time or the skills to beat me.

Well DH how do you like THIS??? :alien2: >>

OK, the latest mission was a recon mission and because the mission's nature is, after all, to gather information, I'll be describing the enviroment a bit more. Now I know that this might seem a bit too stretched out for some of you, so I decided to put all of the descriptions in brackets. That way those that feel like reading the whole thing can just read on, whilst those that hate long descriptions can simply ignore the bracketed text.

I also made up a few unmentioned (but important) things so I hope you won't mind too much :angel:>>

Date: December 2063 <<November 17th 2002>>

Mission codename: Hazardous Recon

Pre-combat intelligence and preparations:

A few hours before the mission, NAO scanners detected power emissions coming from the planet Arkunis IX. A more detailed sweep indicated that the source was a previously undetected outpost, which was also constructed out of an unknown type of metal alloy. Since the Commander and his team was away on an escort mission for the Ascidian High Council, Colonel Cyriacus decided to take his own initiative and presonally lead the remaining X-Com soldiers. Their mission would be to recon the outpost and its surrounding area, collect any samples of previously unknown substances and retrieve any other information from the outpost. They would be transported by the Patton and were to be equipped with standard weapons and armour (Vacc suits were not necessary as the planet's temperature had risen because of the radiation caused by X-Com's previous assault on that planet), since an Alien or API attack was not out of the question.

Combat report:

As soon as the Patton landed about a mile away from the outpost, the team procceded towards it in a single file formation. After about a third of a mile they encountered debris (which was composed of an unknown type of black metal) and began to collect it. The Colonel then decided to split the team up: Squad A (with Colonel Cyriacus in command) would search the surrounding area for any objects of greater interest, whilst Squad B (with Sergeant Necro in command) would continue to move towards the outpost, sweep it of any hostiles and inspect it.

Squad A began to search for objects that possess higher densities, since they would most likely be of greater value. After a short time they found an object, which was completely covered by a 20 feet tall pile of debris. Upon Private McCarthy's suggestion, the Colonel decided to use C6 explosives to clear the rubble away (since it was too heavy to be moved).

As soon as the debris was incinerated, McCarthy began an analysis of the object using his DDU. Preliminary scans indicated that it was part of a MIRV (Multiple Independant Re-entry Vehicles) weapon and that its payload was still intact and primed. McCarthy attempted to disarm the device, but at that moment its defense mechanisms went online and the device released two mechanical entities from its interior. Their task was most likely to protect (or perhaps maintain) the object, since they both charged towards McCarthy (and whilst they did attack him, it should be noted that both of them possesed only close range fusion welders and no other advanced weaponry). After a brief hand-to-hand struggle, both machines were destroyed (one by Howardson's bullets and the other one only after McCarthy placed and detonated a C6 explosive on it) with no serious damage to the squad.

Meanwhile Squad B made their way to the outpost and entered it through a secondary entrance (the main gates were shut and inactive). They then proceeded towards the outpost's main building and after going inside, they located a room which was most likely a Sectoid biological research laboratory (several things confirmed this: The fact that all tables, chairs,... were made for the sectoid's size and several of them lying dead on the room's floor). Squad B then spreaded throughout the lab in order to recover as much data as possible (they managed to recover several data files from the Sectoid computers and a biohazardous chemical, which possesed psionic properties, according to Private Kacur's statement).

After some time, though, Squad A informed Squad B of the MIRV device they had found and also concluded that the other MIRV parts were very likely to be all around the outpost. Private McCarthy also managed to decode that there was aproximately 5 minutes left until their detonation and so the Colonel decided to order a general retreat towards the Patton. But as Squad B got underway, they were ambushed by a swarm of Arachomortuses (or "Spiders"), but thanks mainly to a well placed grenade by Private Kacur and to the Patton's turrets, there were no serious casualties. As soon as the team boarded the Patton, the Colonel piloted the ship out of the planet's atmosphere and managed to save it from any serious structural damage caused by the MIRV devices explosion. The entire outpost was eradicated along with its surrounding area, leaving almost no useful materials or data for any further recovery.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Colonel Brad Cyriacus
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Samuel Howardson
-Private Anne Rallwell
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Duke McCarthy

Enemy casualties:
-2 mechanical entities of unknown origin (confirmed destroyed)
-44 Arachnomortuses (24 males, 20 possible females - due to larger size) (20 confirmed killed, 24 unconfirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier (Daniel Jackson: A head concussion)

Recovered technology:
-unknown black metal alloy
-several Sectoid data disks
-a test tube containing a biohazardous chemical with psionic properties

Promotions: none

<<Okay now. As I said before I don't mention McCarthy and myself in order to say how good we were, but because we preformed actions that were crucial to the mission's outcome. I would also like to point out that the credits for the two new statistics go to DH and Brain.>>

<<Okey-dokey. The Saturday sim wasn't all that special (since I also happened to be GMing it for the first time :rolleyes: ) But still it was in a certain XCAS timeframe, so.>>

Date: December 2063 <<November 23rd 2002>>

Mission codename: Black Scoop

Pre-combat intelligence and preparations:

A few days after operation Hazardous Recon, the Commander instructed Private Martin Kacur to take a team to the location previously occupied by the alien outpost. He was to lead a scientific mission, whose primary objective would be to collect as much of the black metal, which was still around the area, and also to monitor the planet's changes that have occured since the detonation of the MIRV device. Although the Commander would have preffered Ki-tat Chung to lead the team, he and the Commander were needed in decrypting the Sectoid outpost files and it was up to Private Kacur (who was recently promoted from secondary Scout to secondary Scientist) to lead the science mission. However the team was nevertheless issued standard weapons and armour and at the first sign of trouble, Sergeant Andy Necro would take command.

Combat report:

When the Patton landed in the vicinity of the outpost's remains, the team spread out, whilst Private Kacur began examining the effects of the MIRV weapon on the black metal. But after a short time a craft began to descend on the team's position and when it landed it was confirmed to be an alien UFO (it was most likely investigating the alien's outpost demise as well). Upon landing, the UFO began attacking the Patton with its plasma arrays and also deployed several Floaters, which immediately opened fire on the X-Com team (during that time the UFO managed to damage the Patton's engines). The team quickly activated the Patton's own turrets and shields and began to return fire back at the Floaters.

After a few minutes of fighting the UFO would have dropped the Patton's shields, but two things prevented that from happening. Private Kacur managed to mind control a Floater to deactivate the UFO's shields and afterwards Sergeant Necro managed to place a C6 explosive close to the UFO, which destroyed most of its plasma arrays and also a hefty portion of the UFO itself. By that time only three Floaters remained which moved towards the X-Com team with grenades, however they were swiftly taken out before they could kill anyone with them (only Sergeant Jackson was injured by one of them, which caused him to internally bleed). The team then notified NAO to send an Ascidian ship with some spare parts and engineers in order to repair the Patton's engine. After that task was accomplished, the readings from the planet were logged by Kacur and the UFO's remains and all of the remaining black metal was transported back to NAO.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Corporal Samuel Howardson
-Private Martin Kacur

Enemy casualties:
-1 medium sized UFO (confirmed destroyed)
-16 Floater soldiers (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier severely injured (Daniel Jackson: A damaged mechanical leg and several ruptured blood veins due to internal bleeding)

Recovered technology:
-unknown black metal alloys
-14 floater corpses
-alien alloys from the wrecked UFO

Promotions: none

<<Okay it might be a bit sketchy but still, that's when a Private GMs, heh
>>

<<The saturday sim went quite well, with IonMage making a damn good effort at GMing and with several other "interesting" things :rolleyes: . Anyway I'll keep those things mostly to myself, just so that you know that IonMage put a rule to sim any character, but yours, so you'll also see the true names at the "X-Com personnel present" section. Well lets go...>>

Date: December 2063 <<November 30th 2002>>

Mission codename: Vessel Snatch

Pre-combat intelligence and preparations:

In the first hours of the day, NAO scanners picked up a large vessel of alien origin located in one of the system's small asteroid fields. At first it was considered to be a battleship because of its size, but more detailed scans determined that it did not possess a battleship's energy readings. It was therefore quite probably a mining craft of some sort, which would almost surely be manned by the races, that the aliens usually employ in such tasks, meaning Sectoids and Snakemen. The Commander was at that time busy attending one of the High Council's conferences, but was informed of this and authorized Colonel Brad Cyriacus to assemble his own team and retrieve the vessel intact. He also asked Cu'rag'us to send 5 of his skull members to assist, since the X-Com team would otherwise be quite outnumbered. They were to use standard weapons and armour.

Combat report:

Using asteroids to mask its approach, the transport carrying the team managed to dock with the alien vessel completely unnoticed. The team then moved towards the control centre without the alien's knowledge and upon reaching it, they found it was protected by a door requiring authorized access. Corporal Paul then procceded to hack the door's electronic lock, however he accidentally activated a defence mechanism, which reinforced the control centre door and activated a blast door behind the team. A floating camera then dropped from an opening at the ceiling and after recognizing the X-Com and Red Skull teams, it sounded a general alarm and released some form of gas into the room. The team then tried to open the blast door using their combined strength and after a while, a Red Skull member kept the door open, whilst the rest of the team went through it. However the member couldn't hold the blast door any longer and was after that crushed by it.

The team then went down the corridor from where they came, hoping to find a longer route to the control centre. They soon encountered several Snakemen, which they, however, managed to kill quickly. Colonel Cyriacus then ordered the team to replace their automatic rifles with the Snakemen's plasma rifles. After proceeding further down the corridor, they came upon a fork and Corporal Paul managed to translate the signs nearby the two corridors. One of them indicated that one of the corridors leads towards the ship stores and the team headed down it, since the stores would most likely be located close to the control centre.

They soon arrived at the storeroom, which was guarded by several Sectoids and fixed gun turrets. The X-Com team was detected by them and were quickly fired upon. The team responded by destroying the turrets and being quite successful in downing the Sectoids, however a Sectopod soon appeared and opened fire on the X-Com team. The team's plasma rifles had absolutely no effect on it and the Sectopod began to charge towards the team. However the Red Skull team was in the meantime charging their fusion weapons and released a fusion salvo at the Sectopod, which destroyed it completely. The teams then headed into the stores, where the Red Skull team quickly downed a Cyberdisk, that was guarding it.

The team quickly found a door leading to the control centre and proceeded to clear it of any hostiles. The room was heavily fortified though and the Ascidians barely managed to destroy the two Sectopods that were guarding it, before being knocked unconscious by one of the alien's small launchers. There were still 5 Sectoids and 3 Snakemen in the room and the team would have had a very hard time taking them down, especially because the room had to be intact, since they couldn't risk damaging any of the piloting controls. Colonel Cyriacus who found a small launcher in one of the store's crates, however, proceeded to fire several rounds into the control centre and the aliens were stunned very quickly. Corporal Paul then quickly knocked the security systems on board the vessel out and Colonel Cyriacus and Corporal Stone piloted the craft back to NAO.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Colonel Brad Cyriacus <<Corporal Howardson a.k.a. IonMage>>
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov <<Sergeant Necro a.k.a. Technomaige>>
-Corporal Robert Paul <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Corporal Katilin Stone <<Private Kacur a.k.a. Loonie>>

Enemy casualties:
-10 Sectoid soldiers (5 confirmed killed, 5 confirmed captured)
-7 Snakemen soldiers (4 confirmed killed, 3 confirmed captured)
-3 Sectopods (confirmed destroyed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 Red Skull soldier killed (Lu'ser'tot)
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Katilin Stone: A leg wound caused by a plasma shot)

Recovered technology:
-a fully functional alien mining vessel

Promotions: none

<<I just hope that Fox doesn't find out about the way I roleplayed her! :angel: >>

<<Okay, this one was quite good, but I do wish Mouse could have GMed it to the end . Anyway here it is and pay a paticular note on Ghost's position >>

<<You're hopeless Loonie. - DragonHawk 2002-12-04>>

Date: 30 January 2064 <<December 1st 2002>>

Mission codename: Scorched Scout

Pre-combat intelligence and preparations:

After a good month of regaining their strength, the X-Com team was requested by the Ascidian High Council to participate in a reconnisance mission of an area, local to the Ascidian Coaxial Warp system. The team was to recon the local planets and planetoids of the system for a week and after the Ascidian's desired locations would be investigated, they would return to NAO. Their first task was to investigate a desert planet with a surface temperature of 80° Celsius called Um'laut'nierg. The X-Com team would recon a promising area of the planet for any hostile activity, using standard equipment and utilising Vacc Suits Mk.2s in order to shield themselves from the heat. Their transport was to be an E'Colus class vessel.

Combat report:

The team was dropped off at the edge of the area and began scouting it. After three hours and a half, they encountered no opposition whatsoever and were making their way back to the dustoff site, when they noticed an oasis. The Commander ordered the team to rest at the oasis and conserve their Vacc Suit power supply. The E'Colus began making its way towards them as the X-Com team began to rest at the oasis. However as the E'Colus began to approach the team, the water of the oasis began to bubble violently and soon after a missile was launched from the water, which destroyed the E'Colus. Another missile was launched shortly after that and was heading towards the team. When it exploded on the ground, Commander Wiendhoven, Sergeant Yorke and Corporal Howardson were knocked unconscious and the team's Vacc Suits began to malfunction. Since they could not hope to repair the suits and would otherwise die from the planet's conditions, they quickly headed into the water in order to find an entrance to an underground base, which had to be located somewhere underneath them. Private Kacur managed to find a portal of some kind in the water and the team quickly headed through it, dragging the unconscious personnel with them.

The team ended up in a room which had two entrances. Most of the team was however trying to wake up the unconscious soldiers and only two people were woken up: Corporal Howardson and, for a few brief moments, the Commander. However his suit was stuck at a temperature of 75° Celsius and upon waking up he began panicing. The team managed to restrain him, although it should be noted that at that point Lieutenant Ong and Sergeant Necro went too far and kept kicking him when he fell unconscious from a heat stroke. They then decided to split up and go down the two entrances, leaving the unconscious personnel in the room with Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov. Team 1 consisting of Sergeant Necro, Sergeant Jackson and Private Rallwell headed down a corridor that went through a storage area, whilst Lieutenant Ong, Corporal Howardson, Private Kacur and Private McCarthy moved through the other one.

After a short time team 1 came upon a pair of Snakemen carrying small launchers, which were quickly dispatched. Sergeant Jackson also managed to retrieve one of the launchers and several of its rounds for further examination after the confrontation. Meanwhile team 2 came upon a large concentration of Snakemen and preformed an ambush on them. The Snakemen were defeated quite easily, mainly because of Howardson's incidary rounds, which proved to be a useful diversion, and because team 1 preformed a successful flanking manouevre on the Snakeman group.

When the group was defeated, the X-Com team dragged the unconscious Commander and Sergeant Yorke along with them and proceeded down the exit from where the aliens came from. It wasn't long though before the aliens sent four Reapers to deal with the team along with support Snakeman troops. The Reapers were taken down by the team quickly thanks to incidary rounds from Necro and an unauthorized grenade from McCarthy, but the other Snakemen were beginning to approach the team's position. At that time the X-Com team hurried towards the exit, whilst Lieutenant Ong and Corporal Howardson placed two grenades to explode when the aliens arrived at that position.

The team then reached an alien craft bay, where they spotted a stolen Ascidian E'Colus transport vessel. Lieutenant Ong ordered the team to head inside it and McCarthy was to fly the vessel, as he had the most knowledge about piloting. However the Snakemen then broke through the set grenades and began to open fire on the X-Com team. At that point one of the alien's stun bombs hit Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov in the chest and he fell unconscious. Fearing that the aliens would manage to capture or kill even more soldiers, Lieutenant Ong decided to leave Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov behind and tossed a grenade together with Private Kacur in order to delay the aliens from causing serious damage to the E'Colus. Private McCarthy managed to pilot the vessel out of the craft bay and put the ship into orbit around the planet, so that the X-Com team could recover and also inform the Asicidan High Council.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Commander Richter Weindhoven
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Kevin Ong
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Corporal Howardson
-Private Anne Rallwell
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Duke McCarthy

Enemy Casualties:
-8 Snakemen (confirmed killed)
-4 Reapers (confirmed killed)

Friendly Casualties:
-1 E'Colus class transport ship (confirmed destroyed)
-1 X-Com soldier captured (Dimitri Schmerjchanikov)
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Richter Weindhoven: temporary cardiac arrest, which also caused several blood clots throughout his artery system)

Recovered technology:
-1 small launcher with 4 stun bombs
-1 E'Colus class transport ship

Promotions: none

<<Okay, I want to make this point clear though: THE SMALL LAUNCHER MUST BE PUT UNDER THE "AVAILABLE RESEARCH" LIST :hmmm: It has to be, because it could prove to be very valuable to medics (especially Yorke) and would give them a new addition in weaponry. Ong, Necro don't take the "kicking the Commander" section too seriously, but I have to report those things for which a court martial would be needed . But apart from that, I would like you to show up at this Saturday's sim when we will rescue our "7 feet tall stealthy chunk of meat" (Ghost ) as DH put it >>

<<LLLLOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

Just a note - for an officer, a court martial offense is generally considered a bad thing, requiring flogging or death. However, since Ko has gotten away with it once (twice as an NCO), we'll ignore it this time. Try not to kick the Commander too often, 'k?

Thanks for the report Loonie.

DragonHawk - 12:36 EST>>

<<Okay, upon checking yesterday's sim's log I noticed that Brain left out a major fact: was the base taken over or not?! However since we were all retreating towards the end I'll simply say that it wasn't and DH or anyone else can post a roleplay post later so as to indicate that the Asc destroyed it shortly after the attack or whatever...

Too bad Ghost didn't witness the sim though >>

Date: February 1st 2064 <<December 7th 2002>>

Mission codename: None <<that's what it says in the Non-Combat briefing>>

Pre-combat intelligence and preparations:

Two days before the mission, a scout team was sent to planet Um'laut'nierg (see 2064-01-30-C-E01 - Mission De-Brief by Private Martin Kacur). The mission was a patrol sweep of the planet by X-Com, however during combat Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov was separated from the team. About an hour before the alien base, in which he got captured, was succsesfully assaulted by the 10th Royal Ascidian Combat Regiment, the Patton's scanners detected a Harvester class alien vessel leaving the base and heading towards a large alien mountain facility east of the base. Since no craft were detected leaving the base earlier and no craft left the facility, it was surmised that the Lieutenant was held captive there. The Patton's scanners also detected a very likely prison area that was located in the northwest underground sector of the facility.

The decision was made by the Ascidian High Council to destroy the facility. The Ascidian and X-Com teams would enter the base through the hangar area, which was to be bombarded and destroyed first by Ascidian artillery. X-Com would then take the northwest underground sector in order to find the Lieutenant, whilst the 10th Royal Ascidian Combat Regiment would clear all other areas of any hostiles. Once the X-Com team would retrieve the Lieutenant, they were to retreat to the E'Colus vessel, which would take them directly back to the Patton. As the Commander was still recovering from his injuries the previous mission, Colonel Cyriacus was to lead the X-Com team. Possible threats included Snakemen and also, according to Private Kacur's psionic scans, Ethereals. The team would be equipped with Vacc Suits Mk. 2 along with standard equipment for each class of soldier.

Combat report:

The team was paradropped towards the first rally point with no serious complications. The X-Com team (led by Lieutenant Kevin Ong) quickly moved towards the hangar door together with the 10th, whilst Colonel Cyriacus headed towards Colonel Xel'nag'azul of the 10th Royal Ascidian Combat Regiment in order to recieve a status update. After the artillery units demolished the door, the teams entered the hangar bay area and immediately encountered a large Snakeman squad. The ensuing battle lasted for approximately 5 minutes and despite a counter-attack attempt by the Snakemen, the X-Com and Ascidian teams managed to overwhelm them. The X-Com team then regrouped at rally point 2, which was an APC carrying ammunition in order to replenish the team's ammo supply. The Colonel joined the team there and after a short briefing they entered the northwest underground sector, whilst the 10th headed into other parts of the base.

As the X-Com team progressed, they came upon a room which was guarded by multiple ceiling mounted gun turrets. Not being able to destroy them, the team retreated and called for assistance from the 10th. But at that time a Snakeman squad also approached the team from an adjoining corridor and opened fire on the team. The X-Com team responded with return fire and a battle lasted for about 10 minutes, during which the team deployed three grenades, which finally managed to wipe out the Snakeman squad (although the last grenade was an unauthorized one deployed by Private Kacur, which also caused minor damage to the X-Com team). After the alien team was dispatched, an Ascidian fire team arrived in order to eliminate the turrets and after a short time the room was clear of all gun emplacements. The Ascidian team then held back another Snakeman squad, whilst the X-Com team proceeded towards the presumed prison cells.

Upon reaching their destination, the team came upon two doors leading into a large room. The doors were destroyed with HE grenades and the team quickly moved in to secure the room where Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov was located and was apparently being tortured by six Ethereals. The team managed to take out three of the hostiles quickly, whilst two retreated to another smaller adjoining room and one was forced to respond to Private Kacur's psionic attack. After some time the Ethereal was finally taken out, whilst the two Ethereals in the smaller room began loading a Blaster Launcher and were preparing to launch a missile at the X-Com team. Corporal Howardson however quickly responded to this and threw a grenade inside the room, killing both Ethereals. Since the large room was almost certainly a laboratory of some sort, the Colonel ordered the place to be torched with incidary rounds. After the laboratory was set ablaze, the Lieutenant was carried back to rally point 1, with the Ascidian teams retreating as well, since they were unable to take control of the alien facility.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Colonel Brad Cyriacus
-Lieutenant Kevin Ong
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Corporal Samuel Howardson
-Private Anne Rallwell
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Duke McCarthy

Enemy casualties:
-18 Snakemen (confirmed killed)
-6 Ethereals (confirmed killed)
-5 ceiling-mounted turrets (confirmed destroyed)
-an alien laboratory (confirmed damaged, but with the extent of the damage unknown)

Friendly casualties:
-3 X-Com soldiers injured (Lieutenant Ong: A shoulder wound made by shrapnel, Private McCarhy: Three bullet wounds at his right leg caused by the automated turrets, Colonel Cyriacus: A flesh wound on his stomach)
-2 Ascidian soldiers killed
-3 Ascidian soldiers seriously injured

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<I was tempted to write Ghost as an injured soldier and with the explanation: "seriously damaged anus, due to an alien anal probe", but I couldn't due to him not being a soldier, but a captive in this mission >>

<<The Sunday sim was quite an interesting one. Take a look.>>

Date: February 9th 2064 <<December 8th 2002>>

Mission codename: Underwater Construction

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

After returning to the Arkunis solar system, the X-Com team was asked by the Ascidian High Council to protect one of their HVAs (High Value Assets). The main EMS reactor core on Hydroxa was about to be replaced in order to provide enough power for the Ascidian fleet's FTL drives, since it was to gain an addition of an Apocalypse Dreadnought and also a Classified new War Vessel. During the reactor's replacement, the facility was going to be more prone to infiltration and the X-Com team, under the Commander's leadership, was therefore requested to assist with base security. The Grey Skull faction reported no possible espionage or sabotage activities from either the aliens or the API, but did reveal that Black Spear was mounting a possible infiltration operation. Since the facility's structure was not made for combat, high penetration or explosive weaponry was not to be used by X-Com or the Ascidians. Also because of the EMS field generated, psionics were to be greatly dampened.

Combat report:

The X-Com team arrived at the base's HQ at aproximately 0600 hours Earth GMT time. Upon arriving, the head of the facility, Lug'wil'nig, warned the team of a possible infiltration effort. After that the X-Com team assisted the Ascidian engineers with preparations for the installment of the new reactor core, except for Corporal Howardson who assisted the Ascidian soldiers with the security measures. After two hours and a short break, most of the team went with Lug'wil'nig in order to help install the new power core, except for Corporal Howardson and Privates Rallwell and Kacur who went to put out a fire that was ignited by a malfunctioning turret.

The primary team in the meantime arrived at the reactor room however, several cloacked Black Spear operatives were also in the room waiting for them and began assaulting the team. After a brief moment of confusion, the Red and Grey Skull leader Cu'ra'gus and Ha'lu'sos rushed to the scene to assist the X-Com team and confirmed that there were probably several cloaked agents nearby. The Commander immediately notified the secondary team, which had by that time put the fire out, to entrench themselves at a security checkpoint and monitor the facility, with the use of cameras, for any hostiles.

Corporal Howardson acknowledged the order and fortified the team at security checkpoint 2 where the team would monitor the base. At that time Sergeant Jackson managed to detect the hostiles using his glasses microwave frequency and sent out a general warning to all teams to do likewise if they possibly could, also because the motion scanners were apparently ineffective against the cloaking signatures. After a short while, the secondary team came under attack from five cloaked infiltrators. Then Corporal Howardson activated the automatic turrets at the checkpoint to track the enemy on the microwave frequency. The turrets managed to down the enemies with the team following their lead.

Meanwhile the primary team suffered several injuries, but took out all of the infiltrators at the reactor room relatively quickly. But before the infiltrators were taken out, they had managed to plant a cloaked bomb on one of the reactors. The bomb was partially visible due to blood being over it, and it was clear that a fingerprint access was required to deactivate the device. The team removed one of the infiltrator's hands and shut the device down with its fingerprint. A text on the bomb made it obvious that the infiltration was preformed by Black Spear.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Commander Richter Weindhoven
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Corporal Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Ki-tat Chung
-Private Anne Rallwell
-Private Martin Kacur

Enemy casualties:
-8 Black Spear Infiltrators (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Corporal Ki-tat Chung with a broken right arm and several back bruises)
-Ascidian facility head (Lug'wil'nig with a severed left arm)

Recovered technology:
-several Black Spear cloacking devices
-a cloacking bomb

Promotions: none

<<What will our dear Commander think of next? Stay tuned to next week's reports >>

<<Looooooooooooooong time since we've had a sim. And I had to GM it as well!!! Still my own personal guess is that I am improving, albiet slowly, but I should let that judgement up to Mouse really (who also had the brilliant idea of testing my tolerance towards a certain partycrasher - namely himself.

Anywho here it is. As this was not an official mission it is more of an incident report. >>

Date: February 9th 2064 <<January 12th 2003>>

Mission codename: none

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations: none

Combat report:

At approximately 1100 GMT Earth time a series of hostile occurences had broken out throughout NAO amongst X-Com ranks. The first one was when the Commander had entered NAO's Med-Bay and asked Sergeant Yorke as to the location of NAO's Communications room. Yorke decided not to reply and a few moments later, whilst he was dissecting an Ethereal corpse, The Commander attacked him. Private Kacur, who had just arrived there at that time, managed to knock him unconscious together with the Doctor and signaled this occurence to all personnel across the base in order to notify them of this.

At the same time Corporal Howardson attempted to kill both Sergeant Necro and Private Ilyuschenko using an Autocannon. However the weapon was without rounds and the two soldiers managed to subdue him, also by using a nearby firehose. The third hostile occurence was at NAO's entrance, where Sergeant Jackson encountered both Private O'Connor and Lieutenant Ghost, which both tried to kill him. He had managed to stun O'Connor, but Lieutenant Ghost would have most likely crushed him, if it were not for Sergeant Necro who toppled him before he could do so.

In the meantime the Commander regained consciousness. (although it should be noted that Yorke had continued smacking him when he awoke and could possibly be reprimanded for this) He revealed, that he had remembered nothing about what has happened and at that time Kacur also managed to detect strong signs of psionic activity throughout NAO, but could not correctly determine its point of origin. After this, however, they noticed Colonel Cyriacus heading towards the Communication room and the Commander ordered all personnel currently not under psionic influence to intercept him. As they arrived at the room, the Colonel was attempting to reveal NAO's location to an alien outpost via a broad transmission signal. After several warnings he refused to back down and the rest of the soldiers present there brought him down.

At that moment Private Ilyuschenko also managed to detect the source of the psionic influence as being in the Med-Bay and he and Kacur went to investigate. Upon arriving they discovered that the dissected Ethereal's brain was glowing and had moved since they left the Med-Lab. Kacur kept the brain psionically ocuppied whilst Ilyuschenko quickly grabbed an Autocannon and several L-Nit rounds from the armoury and destroyed the Ethereal brain. Shortly thereafter all hostile activity in and around NAO ceased along with the Colonel, who began acting normally again. It is presumed that the Ethereal brain was somehow psionically influencing NAO personnel to commit these incidents and also to reveal the base's location to alien command. Because of this, the Commander is considering possible reprimandatory action against Sergeant Yorke as he was in charge of the corpse and should have anticipated such an occurence.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present (mentally):
-Commander Richter Weindhoven
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-1 Ethereal brain

Friendly casualties:
-2 X-Com soldiers injured (Sergeant Jackson: A broken (non-mechaincal) leg which was self induced, as he crashed into sensitive communication equipment whilst attempting to preform a flying kick. Richter Weindhoven: Severely damaged and irritated cheek skin due to Sergeant Yorke's constant slapping.

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Okay it might sound a bit wierd, but still I think it was better than my last GMing effort.

Yorke - DON'T WORRY! I'm sure you won't get anything serious as far as you having to anticipate this thing As far as the slapping is considered, well.......nothing too serious there either. Jacko shouldn't worry either since the sensitive equipment was fortunately not irreplacable. >>

<<Hmmm, really took my time with posting this one, but what the heck. Here it is. Also a little note to DH after reviewing his log, which had to be used since I got thrown off XCAS 3 times.

You might not be good at GMing, but you sure as hell are better than some people (myself included for now ) and if you think that the sim went to hell again or some other self-critical thing that you keep inventing for yourself, then you really aren't realistic, since you did a good job indeed considering the fact that 4 people (including yourself) got thrown off at critical times. In short?.......Always (and flasely might I add) overly-criticizing yourself? Man, get a life. >>

Date: February 17th 2064 <<January 19th 2003>>

Mission codename: UFO Down!

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

In the first hours of the day the Ascidian navy detected a large UFO heading towards a small village on Arkunis IV. The reason for this was not quite clear, but the craft was nevertheless succesfully shot down by an Ascidian rapid response fighter squadron. At that time Colonel Cyriacus was in command of NAO as the Commander was at the moment being personally briefed by Du'ra'nus at Ascidia. The Colonel had been briefed on the importance of retrieving the UFO and, on a need-to-know basis, instructed Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov to lead a team towards the crash site together with Lieutenant Ong with orders to clear the area of any hostiles. By using an adapted Transmission resolver (this knowledge was given to the Ascidians by the Commander's orders) they had managed to determine that the leading race on the UFO were Snakemen and that they had been sent on a terror mission, therefore the likeliness of Chrysallids and perhaps Reapers was also quite high. The equipment was to be standard, although engineering has requested that a new type of rounds should be tested for the X-Com Automatic Rifles in the field, so as to determine their combat capabilities. The X-Com team was assembled and arrived on scene within the hour.

Combat report:

The team was deployed approximately a mile away from the crash site and upon arriving they had immediately discovered the carcass of a local animal. Upon closer inspection it seemed that the beast was killed by a Chrysallid and this indicated that the aliens could have moved behind the X-Com team. Nevertheless Lieutenant Ong had ordered the team to move towards the crashed UFO at a steady pace through a jungle. After about half a mile the team came across an entrenched enemy ditch, where two Snakemen had set themselves in a position from where they could warn the crashed UFO of any incoming danger. The X-Com team attempted to flank them, but a few seconds into the manouver Sergeant Jackson had alerted the two Snakemen by stepping on a twig. Then Private Ilyuschenko had been forced to throw an already primed grenade into the trench, which eliminated one of the Snakemen, and upon this event, Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov also fired a shot with his sniper rifle which killed the other one (The reason, why Ilyuschenko had to throw the grenade, was because he had somehow managed to prime the grenade to detonate a few seconds after his electronic life detection system indicated that he was dead. However the system malfunctioned during the flanking manouver and therefore at the risk of the grenade detonating on his belt, the Private had to throw it away.)

After this event the team moved onwards to the crash site, but after a quarter of a mile Private Ilyuschenko psionically detected several Chrysallids rapidly approaching the team's position from the rear and were somewhere between 200 and 100 metres. The team then hurried towards the clearing near the UFO, as they would have better chances fighting them in that sort of terrain. Then the team split itself up: A team (headed by Lieutenant Ong) would clear the UFO of hostiles whilst B team (headed by Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov) would provide perimiter defense against the Chrysallids and also any other threats.

A team proceeded into the second floor of the UFO as the first was almost completely destroyed, except for its foundations. Upon arriving they immediately encountered stiff resistance in the form of as many as 6 Snakemen guarding the main hallway. The team was seriously pinned down by the aliens and only Kacur had managed to mind control one of their squad leaders to prime a grenade, though he didn't manage to convince the alien to drop it, until the other Snakemen saw him and after panicing shot him. The Snakeman position was eliminated and the team then proceeded towards the engineering compartment, where 2 more Snakemen were downed, whilst one was captured as a result of Private Ilyuschenko psi-controlling him and Lieutenant Ong beating him unconscious.

B team had in the meantime downed a Chrysallid that had decided to attack them. However another Chrysallid managed to move around the team and attacked them from the rear. A few moments later, the other two attacked from the front and the team would have most likely been eliminated, were it not for the new rounds from engineering and the fact that Andy Necro, who was previously not participating in the mission, demanded that he be paradropped into the area and arrived just in the nick of time (though unfortunately his parachute malfunctioned and he suffered a light fracture upon landing). The team was then ordered by Lieutenant Ong to move into the bridge area of the UFO to clear out any remaining opposition there together with A team.

Upon arrival the doors had been sealed by the aliens, however Sergeant Necro collected any remaining grenades that the team had, and demolished the doors by placing and detonating them on the door. Inside the room the last 5 remaining Snakemen were killed and the team began to ready itself to depart. However a Chrysallid had been apparently hiding in the ship's ventilation system and upon exiting one of the ventilation shafts, it managed to get close to Lieutenant Ong. However he had quickly moved out of the other X-Com troopers' line of fire and the Chrysallid was killed by them. The team then proceeded back to the dustoff site and an Ascidian team was deployed shortly thereafter in order to recover any technology and to collect the alien corpses.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Kevin Ong <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-16 Snakemen (confirmed killed, except one which was captured)
-5 Chrysallids (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Andy Necro: A slight leg fracture)

Recovered technology: Alien alloys along with several half functioning UFO navigational and coordinative consoles and a two fully working alien Power sources.

Promotions: none

<<Now how can a sim be in dissaray if I manage to make this much sense out of it DH? (even if I can make sense out of a lot of things )>>

<<An innnnntreresting setup was concocted for this mission (at least I think so) and the X-Com team also got hammered quite badly. What happened? Read on. >>

Date: February 25th 2064 <<January 26th 2003>>

Mission codename: Black Hole Escape

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Towards the end of the day an Ascidian Loki fighter squadron was investigating a strange energy signature, which was coming from a black hole situated about half a light year away from the Arkunis system. Upon investigating it they found an alien recconisance UFO which was apparently trapped at the site with its engines just about negating the black hole's gravity. Upon examining the signatures, Ascidian High Command managed to calculate that the UFO would nevertheless be sucked in by the black hole in approximately 10 hours from the time that the readings took place. When this was realized, the White Eagle immediately requested from Commander Weindhoven to dispatch a team (headed by Lieutenant Ong), which would be transported by an experimental rapid assault transport to the UFO. Their mission would be to board the UFO and capture it intact (this would be possible as the UFO also had to channel all of its energy to its thrusters and could not afford to attack the transport craft with its plasma weapons). Upon the ship's capture, an Ascidian ship outfitted with the latest Ascidian tractor beams would tug the vessel and help it escape the black hole's gravitic forces using its own thrust and using the tractor beams as a "tow rope". The X-Com team was to be issued lower calibre weapons (namely X-Com Rifles and Pistols only along with special equipment and no grenades) since the ship was most likely very sensitive and also filled with delicate equipment.

Combat report:

Using its Coaxial Warp system the transport managed to arrive at the scene with about two hours to go until the ship would be beyond any help. The pilot managed to dock the transport together with the UFO, though his approach could obviously not be a hidden one and the aliens were thus aware of X-Com's boarding. Soon enough the team entered one of the UFO's corridors via an entry point made by the Ascidian transport vessel and Lieutenant Ong ordered the two present Psionisists to scan for the type of life forms in each direction. After a short scan the left side of the corridor was apparently the location of the bridge as the Psionisists reported that it was filled with higher ranked aliens, whilst the right side of corridor was filled with more lower ranked aliens and most likely led to other sections of the ship. Lieutenant Ong opted to take the route to the bridge in order to take control of the craft quickly and ordered the team to move out.

After a short time however, the team encountered serious opposition in front of the bridge. Several Snakemen were guarding the entrance along with a Sectopod, but despite this the Lieutenant decided to attack. The Snakemen quickly retreated inside the bridge, whilst the Sectopod continued to guard the entrance, keeping the X-Com team at bay. After a short while though, several Ethereals approached from the bridge and began to psionically influence the team and soon after that Lieutenant Ong ordered a retreat towards the other end of the corridor. The team soon came upon the ship's storage bay and quickly barred the door through which they came in order to stop the Ethereals from pursuing them further. The Ethereals apparently did not manage to enter and the X-Com team proceeded to equip themselves with more powerful plasma weaponry that was located in the storage bay. They then headed through one of two other entrances towards what Private Kacur believed to be the bridge area, though from the other entrance several more Snakemen had quickly started to pursue them.

They arrived at the engine room shortly thereafter where they encountered two other doors again, though one of them was larger from the other and Kacur could sense the bridge through that one. For some reason the Lieutenant ordered the entire team to clear out the smaller room with the smaller door, whilst he himself went onwards towards the bridge. He soon encountered 3 Snakemen, which quickly shot him in the chest, thus incapacitating him just as the rest of the team arrived to the area by that time to aid him. The Snakemen were quickly taken out and the X-Com team then quickly moved into the bridge area to take control of the ship. Upon arrival they encountered 3 Ethereals and after a long struggle they were finnaly defeated with the instruments still intact. After that skirmish, the remaining aliens were starting to head towards the bridge to eliminate the X-Com team, but Lieutenant Ong, who was still concious at the time, managed to shut the bridge blast doors and opened the exit doors of the UFO, thus creating a vaccum throughout the ship and throwing any alien in it, except in the bridge area, into space. The Ascidian tractor beam vessel arrived soon after with just half an hour before the UFO would be pulled into the black hole and it helped the vessel escape from the hole's gravity. It was then flown to a nearby research station, where the craft would be more carefully examined.

Mission statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Kevin Ong
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-4 Ethereals (confirmed killed, but an unknown number was thrown out into space)
-6 Snakemen (confirmed killed, but an unknown number was thrown out into space)
-1 Sectopod (confirmed destroyed by being thrown out into the vaccum)

Friendly casualties:
-3 X-Com soldiers injured (Kevin Ong: a medium chest wound which was fortunately negated by the Lieutenant's LFS, Ned Yorke: a severe chest wound which was barely succsesfully treated as he was wearing only a basic suit, Daniel Jackson: A leg wound into his non-mechanical leg from a plasma pistol blast)

Recovered technology:
-A fully intact UFO, outfitted with the aliens' latest recon equipment

Promotions: none

<<Well, I would've liked for something ugly happening in the engine room, so that our time slot would've been limited and we might've lost the UFO. But X-Com always prevails,...YAY! >>

<<Okley dokley! Two sims to be posted, the first being from Saturday and being perhaps a bit too special in a way... :o buuuuut I'm sure we can take care of any research things any way we would want them. >>

Date: March 2nd 2064 <<February 1st 2003>>

Mission codename: Sewer Searching

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

The White Eagle contacted Commander Weindhoven early in the day in order to inform him of a situation that has occured in one of Ascidia's cities. The Grey Skulls have recieved reliable information that Black Spear had established a secret research facility in the city sewer system and as a result the Ascidian High Council had requested that an X-Com team preforms a recon sweep of the facility in order to determine the nature of its experiments before an Ascidian strike team is dispatched to destroy it. As Sergeant Jackson has recently asked to be demoted and Sergeant Necro refused to take command after his mission to Kanay V AND Sergeant Yorke refused to take command because of his medical needs as a doctor, Corporal Howardson was entrusted with the mission and temporarily promoted to Sergeant, since the Commander agreed to entrust him with the mission in order to observe if he would be suitable to replace Jackson as Sergeant. The team was otherwise to be equipped with the standard gear, though they were also issued the Mark I Ascidian cloacking devices, which had also been used by Black Spear in the mission "Underwater Construction". The Grey Skulls agreed to lend this technology to X-Com on this occasion, since there was also possible alien resistance apart from Black Spear guards.

Combat report:

The team was dropped off just in front of the city sewer entrance and began to move inside the sewers whilst being cloacked. Upon arriving in the central sewer tunnel they encountered a river of acid flowing down its middle. This was rather unusual as Ascidians do not dispose acidic and toxic materials into the sewer and it was quickly noted by Private Kacur that if the team followed the rivers' flow, they would eventually find the hidden Black Spear research facility. The team decided to follow the stream and soon enough they encountered 3 Chrysallids which, despite the teams' cloacking devices being activated, spotted and attacked the team. Two of them were quickly taken out with grenades and one of them was severely burned by falling into the acid river. After examining one of the corpses, it was quickly noted that the Chrysallids had cybernetic implants installed throughout their bodies, including their eyes (which would explain why they had managed to spot the team whilst it was cloacked). The team proceeded fowards to the research facility as the corpses were not intact enough to be recovered, whilst also quickly eluding an Ascidian repair team that was dispatched to repair the damage made in the skirmish.

It took some time, but the X-Com team soon came upon a duct in the sewer wall. As the team noticed that the acid was coming from the same direction from where the duct was leading to, they entered it whilst keeping silent so as not to alert Black Spear security. After a short time of navigating through the duct they found the research lab in which the team observed a Chrysallid impregnation of an Ascidian. The Ascidian however was not experiencing the typical seziures that come from impregnation and soon after an Ascidian scientist administered a special chemical from his medikit. After 5 minutes of being given aid the Ascidian test subject looked completely unharmed with no signs of impregnation whatsoever. Temporary Sergeant Howardson now decided that the team was to retrieve that medikit, in which the chemical was kept, at all costs. He and Yorke would retrieve it whilst remaining cloacked and they would also download any research data that Black Spear had about this chemical whilst the rest of the team covered them.

After quickly accomplishing both objectives however, the Ascidian scientists had brought up a human in the Chrysallid test chamber and it is surmised that he was genetically constructed by Black Spear in order to test the Chrysallids' impregnation against him. After noticing this, Sergeant Howardson ordered to rescue him by force and the team quickly killed all the scientists in the room and the Chrysallid, but not before it had managed to impregnate the human test subject. Sergeant Yorke quickly administered the special chemical to the human and after a short period of convulsions he seemed to have stabilised. The team then destroyed the lab using explosive grenades and left towards their extraction point, with the mysterious human identifying himself only as Skonar.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Temp. Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Temp. Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-3 cybernetically enhanced Chrysallids (confirmed killed)
-4 Black Spear scientists (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Daniel Jackson: forgetting to run away from the lab explosion and thus suffering minor internal bleeding, which was however quickly stopped on site)

Recovered technology:
-An advanced Black Spear medikit containing an unknown chemical inside
-Black Spear research data concerning the unknown chemical
-A Chrysallid embryo extracted from the human after arriving at NAO

Promotions: none

<<Wonder if we'll treat Skonar any better in NAO or will we turn him into a bunny too so he could duke it out with Drake on equal terms. (sorry about mentioning Drake again, I won't next time I promise )

Anyway some of you who were present at the sim are able to see that I left out the "PSI affecting of enemy memory" bit. The reason for this is simple. There are enough things concerning PSI as it is!

We had managed to convince the higher ups that there are currently 5 acknowledged features of Psionics now I want you all to abide by them - especially you Bio. These are:

-Psi-Attack
-Psi-Defence
-Psi-Sensing
-Psi-Probe
-Psi-Telekinesis (though only at a very small scale!)

So next time please try to abide as far as PSI goes under one of these five things. PSIs have enough abilities as it is so lets not expand them otherwise it could get really old really fast (as in unrealistic :hmmm:) >>

<<Aaaaand here's the Sunday's. On that day we tried out my new structure and though it didn't make a major breakthrough (which I didn't expect it would) it did however boost attention to the sim in my view. I could be wrong but we will see soon enough as we will repeat it the next week (not this one). So......here it is...........and an ugly mission it was for X-Com :o >>


*NOTE* Report was constructed by Private Martin Kacur using a video camera recovered from the field by a Grey Skull operative near the alien base and the Ascidian communication logs that were made during the mission. The camera apparently fell off Sergeant Jackson's shoulder and was after the mission recovered with no signs of the X-Com team that was dispatched on the mission.


Date: March 4th 2064 <<February 2nd 2003>>

Mission codename: Test Alpha

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

The Ascidian High Council had once again asked for X-Com assistance, this time by removing the alien presence from Arkunis VI, which is considered sacred by the High Council and the Ascidian people. The aliens had recently defeated the Ascidian forces protecting the planet and their fleet had begun setting up a base of operations on its surface. As the Ascidian forces were at that time stretched very thinly, the White Eagle asked Commander Weindhoven to lead a team of his soldiers with orders to destroy the base before it could be constructed. The team was to be outfitted only with light weapons and no explosive ordenance, as the Ascidians did not want their holy planet to be damaged too severely. The resistance was to be minor and in the form of Sectoids armed with Plasma Pistols and other light weaponry.

Combat report:

At the beginning of the mission the Ascidian pilot had made a miscalculation and landed the team in a bog which quickly engulfed the craft. The team managed to escape the E'Colous quickly enough with their gear, whilst the pilot stayed in the craft trying to save it and subsequently died with it. The Commander immediately attempted to establish communications with the Ascidian fleet in order to request an additional vessel, but interference from a massive storm over their area managed to hamper planet-to-ship communications. The team after this attempt proceeded northwards to the alien base, which was 2 clicks away.

After some time they encountered a downhill mud slope, over which they went by digging their boots and hands into the mud and carefully proceeding downwards. When they had almost cleared the slope they encountered an alien Cyberdisk, which opened fire on them. The team tried to defeat it, but were armed only with light weapons and eventually had to retreat from it further towards the alien base with half of their ammo supply depleted. Upon evading the Cyberdisk they found the base entrance, from which however a battalion of 25 Sectoids emerged with Heavy Plasma weapons. The team quickly hid amongst the trees whilst observing the Sectoids and at that time the Ascidian fleet also managed to relay to the Commander the coordinates for an extraction point. After this message Lieutenant Ong advised Commander Weindhoven to retreat to the liftoff zone and it was soon agreed that the team will have to retreat. The Commander ordered the team to move around the Sectoids, who were apparently switching their Heavy Plasma weapons for Small Launchers, and head towards the awaiting E'Colous vessel. However after a short time it became obvious to the team that the Sectoids have found out that X-Com was hidden somewhere nearby, as their damaged Cyberdisk returned to their base and relayed this information to them. The Sectoids apparently decided to stun the X-Com team by firing with their Small Launchers randomly throughout the jungle. The last footage from Sergeant Jackson leads us to the conclusion that the aliens had fully succeeded and that the entire X-Com team was captured by the Sectoids.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Commander Richter Weindhoven
-Lieutenant Kevin Ong <<Private Martin Kacur a.k.a. Loonie>>
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Corporal Ki-tat Chung <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties: none

Friendly casualties:
-6 X-Com soldiers captured

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Dear dear........whatever shall we do? Who will rescue our brave X-Com soldiers from the dreaded Sectoid anal probes? :o Tune in this week >>

<<I don't know if this went quite as Mouse would've wanted it (since he wasn't present unfortunately) but hey....Brain did a somewhat good job too. Once again.....no word on wether or not the alien base was destroyed, but it most likely wasn't so that makes it possible to make yet ANOTHER mission to clean it out this following weekend and also to find Fox (or we could write that the Ascs magically recieved reinforcements and defeated it but....ugh

Anyway I must say this was THE longest sim I have so far attended - overall lasting roughly 3 and a half hours...I got a splitting headache the next day because of it :rolleyes:>>

Date: March 5th 2064 <<February 9th 2003>>

Mission codename: Alpha Extraction

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Approximately 19 hours after operation "Test Alpha", the plans to rescue the captured X-Com team were still not perfected by Colonel Cyriacus, Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov and Corporal Stone. It was the planning teams' opinion that the Ascidian recon photos were not taken appropriately and as a result Colonel Cyriacus and Corporal Stone decided to personally preform a reconnisance flight over the alien complex using two Ascidian Loki fighters modified for recon missions. Whilst Colonel Cyriacus produced the necessary photos and safely returned to the Patton, Corporal Stone's fighter was shot down and as it was not recovered she is still deemed as MIA. The photos taken by the Colonel however were sufficient for Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov to formulate a rescue plan.

The team was to avoid the heavily protected main entrance of the base and was to enter it from the bases' mess hall dump chute. Though the area was heavily patrolled, Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov believed that they would be able to sneak in unnoticed and once inside they would make their way towards the prison area of the base. During the mission the team was not to open fire unless strictly necessary and were to use X-Com knives primarily to silently dispose of hostiles, whilst Private Kacur was also to block any psionic eminations from the team in order to lessen the chances of being detected that way. Once the prisoners would be located, the team would escape with them through the same way and hopefully avoid any alien patrols as they made their way back to the dropzone. Despite stealth being crucial, the team was to use heavier armour and weaponry so as to prevent the chances of themselves being captured.

Combat report:

The team was deployed roughly 2 miles away from the alien base, being transported by a Thunderbolt Corvette, and began to proceed towards the entry point under the cover of the night. After reaching the perimiter of the base without incident, Colonel Cyriacus ordered the team to follow Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov as closely and sliently as possible at all times as he would lead the team between the alien patrols. The team had managed to reach the base unnoticed and barely avoided a Muton patrol by moving into the chute and reaching the mess hall. After the team had succsesfully inserted itself into the base they proceeded to move carefully towards the prison area.

Though unbeknowst to the rescue team the captured X-Com team had in the meantime escaped themselves. They were freed by two Sectoids who claimed to have arrived at the base using a small saucer and had claimed to be part of the alien dissident faction that the X-Com UFOpaedia classifies as "Osiris". After disposing the Sectoid guarding the prisoners, they freed and led them out of the prison facilities and promised to help the prisoners escape through a "secondary exit" of the base (which was fortunately enough in the direction of the mess halls' garbage chute). However the Osiris Sectoids had accidentally triggered an alarm whilst trying to operate a blast door and the base was quickly alerted to the escapees and had sent detachements to deal with them. But the prisoners along with the Osiris Sectoids had managed to escape through the blast door as it had sealed itself shut shortly afterwards.

The two Osiris Sectoids then led the team to the 3rd floor of the room and then attempted to open a heavy door leading to a vault on that level. Lieutenant Ong quickly burned a hole through the door which was large enough for one of the Osiris Sectoids to jump inside and open the door from there. After that the two Osiris Sectoids proceeded to open a hatch in the vaults' ceiling just as the blast doors leading to the prison facility had been breached by the alien squads. In response the prisoners began throwing explosives, that they had found in the vault, down on the attacking Sectoids and after they finnaly detonated them, the entire 1st and 2nd floor crumbled from the explosions. Just as the 3rd floor began to collapse as well, the Osiris Sectoids managed to hack the hatch and the entire team escaped through it just before the 3rd floor had succombed to the effects of the explosions.

When they arrived in the next room, the two Osiris Sectoids said that they had not planned to arrive in this section and the team moved out of the small room only to find what was most likely an alien research lab of some sorts. The team began slaughtering the Sectoid scientists who had by then begun scrambling to either escape the room, activate the alarms or attack the team. However all of them were quickly defeated, save for one Sectoid who had apparently managed to open a containment system thus releasing 2 Chrysallids into the room. Since the room apparently also suffered a blackout, extinguishing all lights, the Chrysallids managed to impregnate the two Osiris Sectoids very quickly, before the team had any idea of what was going on. By the time that the lights came back on, Private Ilyuschenko spotted the two "zombified" Osiris Sectoids and quickly shot them both, making the newborn Chrysallids quickly emerge. He had managed to take one out but the other one evaded him just as his Plasma rifle ran out of ammunition. After some additional skirmishing however (and an accidental friendly fire incident from Ilyuschenko that hit Necro in the shoulder), the majority of the team was knocked out by the 2 remaining Chrysallids, who were preparing to impregnate Private Ilyuschenko and Commander Weindhoven just as the rescue team arrived on scene.

After quickly dispatching the two Chrysallids (one taken down by Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov and the other through team effort), the rescue team quickly helped to drag the unconscious four prisoners along with the Commander and Private Ilyuschenko still being conscious. They managed to escape through the garbage chute and were fortunate enough to find that the patrols were apparently called off to assist in finding the prisoners inside the Alien base. With practically no opposition the team managed to reach the Thunderbolt with its prisoners extracted.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Commander Richter Weindhoven <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Colonel Brad Cyriacus
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Kevin Ong
-Sergeant Andy Necro <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Corporal Ki-tat Chung
-Private Anne Rallwell <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Joey McBenneth <<Captain Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-8 Sectoid soldiers 36 Sectoid scientists (all confirmed killed)
-2 Sectoid Zombies (confirmed killed)
-4 Chrysallids (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-6 X-Com soldiers severely injured (Richter Weindhoven: 2nd degree burns on his left arm from a combustable liquid and a shallow cut on his chest, Kevin Ong: Severely bruised wrists, Daniel Jackson: Infected optic nerve link which required immediate treatmen with several parts having to be reconstructed, severe psychological damage resulting in his complete unresponsive state to any and all external influences, the duration of which is at the moment unpredictable, Andy Necro: 3rd degree burns on his right arm and a Plasma wound on his shoulder, Ki-tat Chung: Severely damaged rectum due to a prolonged alien anal probe, for which medical treatment was required, Roel Ilyuschenko: An extensive Plasma injury to the lower portion of the left leg, which, as a result of too much incinerated flesh and bone along with a huge infection at the spot, required the segment to be amputated and replaced by a mechanical lower leg portion.

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Gaze and amaze at our mighty Captain Ko who had managed to play as many as FOUR characters....impressive . Also chalk one more anal probe victim curtesy of ONCE AGAIN DH (yes it is since you roleplayed Chung that way if you remember correctly ). But apart from that I've decided the injuries from the stay at the Sectoid hilton to be mainly extensive because it will provide greater opportunities for the roleplay .

Also I'm going to point out why Ilyuschenkos' leg was amputated. The reason was simple. If he had worked hard on containing infection, watching out for the leg from damage,....ect. he could've saved it. But since he chose to ignore it, it obviously got infected AND thusly had to be amputated. Just so as you know that you need to reassess your priorities the next time something like this happens and not continue onwards like nothing happened. >>

<<In any event after a loooong time of being stuck in a single day of activity the brave XCAS team finnaly got enough nerve to try and rescue Fox, deciding to risk her deadly staff over becoming untrue to their motto of not leaving any soldier behind ........or did they really stay true to that motto? :o Read on. >>

Date: March 6th 2064 <<March 10th 2003>>

Mission codename: FOX ONE!

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Several hours after operation "Alpha Extraction" the Ascidian flagship of the fleet Xan'per'latos detected an SOS signal marked with the registration LOKI*FK5*739A525K. This serial number was identical to the one with which Corporal Stone's Loki Fighter was marked. A few seconds later two Black Spear Valkyrie Interceptors had de-cloacked nearby a friendly Loki Fighter squadron and almost completely decimated it. The Xan'per'latos then extrapolated their course and it was apparent that they were heading directly towards the distress beacon, in no doubt to retrieve Corporal Stone. The Ascidian vessels along with the Patton then lost track of the hostiles for a few minutes until one of them had apparently collided with a stray asteroid by accident as it was cloaked. A nearby Trafalgar class crusier Mes'vanos'trin had after that destroyed it completely and had also managed to detect two other Black Spear Valkyries docking at the only other Centurion class destroyer in the fleet aside from the Xan'per'latos.

It was more than apparent that the ship at which they had docked was either a Black Spear Centurion class destroyer, which had managed to infiltrate itself into the fleet somehow, or that the ship was manned by Black Spear symphatizers who had collaborated with the Black Spear leadership well before this date. The Black Spear Centurion then engaged the Mes'vanos'trin and had succeeded in destroying it, but not before the friendly ship had managed to warn the rest of the Ascidian fleet about the destroyer. Immediately upon being notified of this Admiral Hep'lagun'ah ordered the fleet to converge on the Black Spear capital ship and prevent its escape. X-Com would however use an Ascidian shuttle boarding craft to take advantage of the battle and move closer to the Black Spear destroyer in order to transport a team inside, under the command of Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov, which would quickly extract Corporal Stone before the Black Spear ship would be destroyed. They would then be extracted via another shuttle craft which would pick them up at the main shuttle bay of the destroyer.

Opposition was expected to be in the form of Black Spear security personnel along with possible aliens on board the ship. The team was to be issued Vacc Suits Mk.2, since there was a high risk of depressurization on the ship at any point and time. They were also not issued any grenades or explosives as that could easily cause a hull breach.

Combat report:

After the X-Com team was briefed of the situation en-route to the Black Spear Centurion, the shuttle craft managed to take advantage of the battle between the Black Spear ship and the rest of the fleet quite well and cut open a hole in the destroyer near its nose. The X-Com team then deployed inside the ship and cleared the area around their entry point with no complications, except for a pair of Black Spear guards which were quickly taken out by Corporal Howardson and Sergeant Necro. After a short time of proceeding towards both the brig and the shuttle bays, the team came upon a predicted junction, where each path would take them to each of the two areas. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov then decided to split the squad into two parts. He would lead Team One towards the brig area of the ship and extract Corporal Stone whilst Team Two would, under the command of Sergeant Yorke, secure the ship's main shuttle bay.

Team One proceeded towards their destination down a hallway, which had several rooms leading into it. As the team almost made it across to another junction, where one of the corridors would take them to the brig, a team of 3 Black Spear security personnel had come up behind them and upon discovering the 2 dead Black Spear soldiers they sounded an alarm and caught up with Team One, opening fire on them immediately. As one of them was taken down by the Lieutenant, Black Spear crews began to pour out of the rooms and into the hallway, making it impossible for the remaining 2 enemy soldiers to follow the X-Com team to the brig.

Once the team had arrived there they cleared the room quite quickly of opposition and found Corporal Stone, although two Sectoids approached them from behind with Heavy Plasma weaponry soon and opened fire on them. Private Rallwell attended to the Corporal as much as she could and the team retreated out of the brig, with her still being unconscious, through another exit that led towards the main shuttle bay.

Meanwhile Team Two moved quickly towards the same direction and on their way they had passed the communications room of the ship. As an Ascidian technician came out of the room Private Kacur mind controled him so that Sergeant Jackson could quietly cut his throat so as not to alert the rest of the Ascidians in the communications room. The team then proceeded onwards to the main shuttle bay area and upon entering it they immediately faced opposition. After an extensive battle between the X-Com team and 5 Black Spear pilots armed with fusion pistols, along with 3 Black Spear security guards, the team had managed to clear the area of hostiles. A message then came in from Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov which reported that Team One had been ambushed by two heavily armed Black Spear pilots and that they would need assistance, but not before Team Two would use the ship's communications to signal the extraction shuttle to pick up the teams in the shuttle bay. Team Two then proceeded back into the communication room and cleared it of hostiles very swiftly before sending the message to the extraction shuttle. They then proceeded towards Team One in order to assist them.

It seems as if the two Black Spear pilots had used some sort of sophisticated 'flashbang' to stun Team One completely. For some reason they did not kill any of them, but did however take the unconscious Corporal Stone and escaped with her through another door, which they quickly sealed afterwards. With the X-Com team rejoined the Lieutenant decided to pull out and leave Corporal Stone behind, since the destroyer was about to be destroyed by the Xan'per'latoses Omega Cannon. And so the team quickly made their way to the extraction shuttle, which was by that time already waiting for them in the shuttle bay. The shuttle then escaped the Centurion's destruction and docked back at the Patton. Admiral Hep'lagun'ah decided to pull out of the Arkunis VI system with the fleet and the Patton afterwards, as the Ascidian fleet had been weakened too much by this confrontation, leaving Arkunis VI under the posession of the alien forces.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Private Martin Kacur
-Private Anne Rallwell <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>

Enemy casualties:
-15 Black Spear security soldiers <<13 confirmed killed, 2 unconfirmed killed>>
-7 Black Spear pilots <<5 confirmed killed, 2 unconfirmed killed>>
-unknown number of Black Spear technicians <<2 confirmed killed, an unknown number unconfirmed killed>>
-4 Sectoids <<1 confirmed killed, 3 unconfirmed killed>>

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier killed (Corporal Stone has been presumed killed in action as no Black Spear craft were detected leaving the Centurion.)
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Private Kacur: 2nd degree burns on his left arm caused by a fusion blast)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions:
-Private Kacur promoted to the rank of Corporal for exemplary preformance in the field.

The soldier's preformance that day: 3 kills, 2 psionic kills (1 assisted psionic kill), 4 stuns, 1 moderate wound.

<<NOTE: Not intended to brag at the promotion section. This will be done for each person recieving promotion in the future. I've also decided to make this mission as if I switched from Private to Corporal here, despite being marked as one during the sim so as to make the thing more fluid storywise.

In any event the aliens now posess Arkunis VI! And apart from that We've lost Fox again! My oh my. Whatever is happening to X-Com without its leadership present. Mouse! Save us! >>

<<This is actually the first time I forgot to do a De-brief after the sim. Thanks to Ghost for reminding me.

Okay I had sooooo wished this mission would be called "FOX TWO". It would be a lot more appropriate considering the one before, but alas we have to thank Ghost for a different title. >>

Date: March 7th 2064 <<March 16th 2003>>

Mission codename: Foxhole

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

After the mission "FOX ONE" the Patton seperated from the rest of the Ascidian fleet and headed out of the Arkunis VI orbit. However about 2 hours into its journey it recieved a message from the Alien resistance movement known as Osiris. They informed the X-Com forces that the Black Spear pilots did indeed succsessfully make off with their soldier (referring to Corporal Katilin Stone) and had just come in contact with the Alien fleet. They apparently touched down on an asteroid, hereby designated Asteroid Delta, and were requesting an Alien craft to take the prisoner in exchange for safe passage out of the system. The Aliens however, seeing their chance to seize a Valkyrie fighter rather then having to do the strenuous task of extracting the data from Corporal Stone (who is one of the two only humans to have flown a Valkyrie), had decided to come over and act as if they will adhere to the deal, but rather than assist they would kill both of the Ascidians and Corporal Stone and then take the Valkyrie for themselves.

As Osiris was, and still is, trying to convince X-Com and the Ascadian High Council of its intents, they provided the X-Com team with the location of the asteroid. A team was to be dispatched under the command of Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov to safely retrieve Corporal Stone and, as a secondary objective, capture the Ascadian Black Spear soldiers and their Valkyrie. Initial scans from the Patton's sensors indicated that the asteroid posessed an intricate cave system and the targets would most likely be located somewhere within it.

The expected resistance was to be anywhere from 18 to 24 Sectoids along with possible additional Cyberdisks as well as the two Black Spear pilots. The team was to be equipped with their standard weapons, which were modified and used special ammunition in order to function in vaccum enviroments. Scouts were also to be equipped with a stun rod and the entire team would use Vacc suits Mk.2 because of the lack of any atmosphere.

Combat report:

After the Patton stopped some 300 kilometres away from the asteroid, the team was to land at the target area using one of the Ascidian lent shuttles. The X-Com team landed on the side that was illuminated by the Arkunis sun so that visibility was relatively good on the surface. Upon deploying the squad moved towards the nearest cave entrance so as to initiate the search. Upon arriving at the entrance, the team witnessed one of the Black Spear pilots being pursued by 3 Sectoids. The X-Com team immediately opened fire on the aliens and also managed to stun the Black Spear pilot. 2 of the Sectoids were taken down, but one of them retreated after calling in support from two Cyberdisks. Through the use of Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov acting as a sniper and diversionary tactics by the rest of the team, the two Cyberdisks were destroyed and the team proceeded onwards to the caves.

Inside the cave system the squad came upon 3 tunnels to choose from and the Lieutenant, Private Ilyuschenko and Corporal Kacur quickly scanned them all. After Private Ilyuschenko detected 5 lifeforms moving towards the team in the left tunnel, Corporal Howardson made a rash action and threw a grenade down that tunnel without authorization. Fortunately Corporal Stone was not one of the 5 lifeforms and the team instead proceeded onwards through the central tunnel, where Corporal Kacur detected faint psionic imprints.

After a short time the squad came upon Corporal Stone and the other Black Spear pilot who opened fire on the team. After being taken out quickly however, 2 Sectoids came from behind the team and opened fire, one of them deploying a grenade, which fortunately caused no injuries or deaths. But it did destabilize the cave support quite badly and the team rushed out back to the evacuation shuttle, with Corporal Stone in tow. The cave collapsed shortly after the team exited the tunnels and at the same time the Alien UFO departed the asteroid. When the X-Com team returned to the Patton, they preformed a scan of Asteroid Delta also from the other side, something that they could not do so before. No trace of the Black Spear Valkyrie was found, meaning that either the Aliens had retrieved it and activated its cloacking device as they piloted it away from the asteroid, or that it was still cloacked somewhere on the surface. The latter possibility is to be found out by Ascididan detection teams.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Sergeant Ned Yorke <<half preformed by himself, half by Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Sergeant Andy Necro
-Corporal Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Martin Kacur
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-9 Sectoids (confirmed killed)
-2 Cyberdisks (confirmed destroyed)
-2 Black Spear pilot (1 confirmed killed, 1 captured)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Corporal Stone: heavy concussion, traces of hemorrhaging and a broken left leg)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Okay, I'm keeping the Valkyrie thing open so that if Ghost wants he can post that it was recovered OR we can make yet another mission to retrieve it. All in all after reviewing the log I must say that it was actually not such a bad sim. Two things though impeeded it. One was Ghost being dropped twice (note to self: when this happens next time do not wait up for him as it slows down the sim) and two was the fact that I didn't connect the first skirmish with the second well enough and thereby didn't keep the intensity of the sim. That also resulted in the sim going on for about 2 hours, but what the heck.

I've posted this for all of you GMing interested people as useful tips. Maybe we could even do a special section on the forum labeled as "GMing tips" heh, but it's just a though. >>

<<This was one of the sweetest sims I've ever done. Four people turned up with Ghost as its GM dropping out in the middle of the sim due to his evil ISP, but amazingly despite this it was a terrific sim as it ended with just 3 people. Read on.

NOTE: A 4/3 man sim on a Sunday has now happened once and once only since I have arrived at XCAS. Next time I might start doing some nasty things to certain members (like making their votes during techs worth less and their opinions less valued) :devil: >>

Date: March 8th 2064 <<March 30th 2003>>

Mission codename: Demolition Men

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

A few hours before the Patton would reach its home base an urgent distress call for any military craft in the area was recieved by its communications array. As there were no Ascadian craft in the area the Patton decided to reply to the emergency call.

A building in one of the main residence areas of a populated moon of Arkunis IV was slated for demolishing. They proceeded placing demolition charges and detonated them. Unfortunately however there was something wrong with the charges as the building did not fall straight down as expected, but it fell a bit to the side so that several pieces of heavy debris crashed onto the building next to it. There were also people known to be in that building and not all had been accounted for. As the local Ascidian rescue teams were busy with yet another emergency at a different site in the same city, the call for the military was made instead for a quick response. The Patton was the first military vessel to respond and Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov had prepared a plan upon recieving the building's layout. The X-Com team would enter the building at the base floor and make their way up the levels. The last reported civilian activity was on the 3rd floor so it was assumed that the team wouldn't have to clear too many levels until they would rescue all of the civilians.

The team was to be equipped with Basic suits for maximum mobility except for Engineers who would wear FRCSes. Weaponry was to be only with a single X-Com pistol with 5 clips except for the Engineers who would also use Fusion Welders to cut through any debris or doors and any auxilliary equipment for any other troops. As most of the team was on the brink of exhaustion due to them being extremely active for the past 4 days only four soldiers were successfully assembled. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov was still fit enough to lead the team with Sergeant Jackson (who had exhibited enough energy since his re-vitalization from his coma), Private Rallwell (who was an emergency replacement for Private Duke McCarthy and for whom it was doubtful if she could operate efficiently in the FRCS) and a newly defrosted Private Jason McBurke.

Combat report:

After the team arrived at the entrance to the building, via an Ascidian APC that transported them from the star port where the Patton had docked, Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov was briefed about the current situation by the local chief of police. It seemed that 5 to 10 Ascadian civilians were still stuck somewhere in the building and that the structural damage would cause it to collapse most likely within the hour. The team headed out into the building after Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov gave the order.

Inside on the ground floor the team came upon an obstruction comprised out of debris and rocks, which also blocked the entrance to the stairs. The team held a loose girder in place close to the rocks in the hopes of preventing the roof from collapsing and Private Rallwell in the meantime used her fusion welder to cut through the rocks. After some time she had managed to create a wide enough passage for the team to move through and shortly after they did so the opening collapsed again as the girder was no longer supported by the team. They then encountered a wounded civilian, which was quickly administered medical aid by Private Rallwell and ordered to stay where he was so that the police forces would reach him once they cleared through the obstruction behind them. The X-Com team then proceeded onwards to the stair entrance.

They soon came upon two more Ascadians buried under rubble, one of them somewhat injured but quickly healed and sent over to the exit and the other dying before the team had arrived. They then moved up the stairs onto the first floor of the building and upon arrival they had come upon the last 7 Ascadians.

5 of them were trapped in a corner of a large room, since the floor around them had collapsed and the gap was simply too large for them to jump across. There were also two other wounded but conscious Ascadians in another corner, to which Private Rallwell quickly tended with medical aid. Meanwhile, upon Private McBurke's suggestion, he and Sergeant Jackson moved a long beam over to the gap and after McBurke proceeded to the other end to the trapped Ascadians the two Troopers proceeded to evacuate the civilians. All of them had made it out safely except for one which grabbed onto the girder before falling. Sergeant Jackson helped him by letting him grab onto the fusion welder, which Rallwell had thrown him, and McBurke at the same time started making his way back over the girder. But just as he was almost over it the beam broke and McBurke grabbed onto Jackson's other arm and the Sergeant would probably slide down with the two were it not for Rallwell who barely pulled them to the floor by Jackson's legs. The team then made their way out of the building with 9 out of the 10 civilians rescued and the Ascadian local authorities showing great appreciation to the X-Com team which had preformed the daring rescue attempt.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Sergeant Daniel Jackson
-Private Anne Rallwell <<Martin Kacur a.k.a. Loonie>>
-Private Jason McBurke

Enemy casualties: none

Friendly casualties:
-5 Ascadian civilians (1 confirmed killed and 4 confirmed injured)
-1 X-Com soldier slightly injured (Private Anne Rallwell: severe exhaustion and burned out muscles - recommend at least 3 days of rest before reinstating to active status)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<As I said, despite all of my expectations a darn good sim. It really gave me hope. Just don't grace me with such a lousy turnout next time. :hmmm: >>

<<People, I won't rephrase this a single time more. Show up. 6 people on a Sunday is relatively OK but it is not the amount that was regularly showing up before, though considering members and everything it should be. So show up. Not fooling. :hmmm:

Okay the first exercise went rather weird and we didn't really train that well in tactics and suchlike because of lack of 2 crucial members, but still....it was fun. Read on...>>

Date: March 21st 2067 <<April 6th 2003>>

Mission codename: Healthy Competition

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Any and all active combat troops were to be transported via a dropship to the as of yet unexplored Xa'notar'os mountain north of NAO with their full paintball gear. Ascadian reports indicated that the area in and around the mountain was filled with various lifeforms, some of which would be capable of posing life-threatening danger to unarmed targets, but no significant threat to armed and alert soldiers. Kappa and Support Teams were to be deployed by the dropship at a random location 500 metres below the mountaintop, whilst Alpha Squad was to be deployed directly at the mountaintop. Once Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov would inform Lieutenant Kacur that the session could begin the paintball exercise would start.

Both Kappa and Support had the task of making it to the peak past Alpha Squad, though they could have taken down enemy soldiers for extra points. Alpha Squad's mission was to track down and eliminate all Kappa and Support team members and prevent them from reaching the mountain peak. The area around the mountain was mostly forested, though there was a plain at the top marked as the "Area of high exposure" which was somewhat large and could have proven a hazard to anyone trying to reach the peak. Because of hostile indigenous lifeforms each soldier was also issued an X-Com Pistol in this training exercise. Paint magazines were also decreased in number so as to enable maximum mobility, but this meant that running low on ammo was to be all too easy. Psi-Amps were also restricted, since Alpha Squad could have had too big an advantage with them.

Points were to be accumulated in this manner: Kappa or Support soldier killed - 1 point for Alpha; Alpha soldier killed - 1 point for Kappa and Support; Kappa or Support soldier reaching peak - 2 points for Kappa and Support.

Combat report:

After being picked up by a dropship at NAO, the X-Com teams were transported to the Xa'notar'os mountain. Despite a slight insubordination matter concerning Private Ilyuschenko the trip was uneventful and soon enough the pilot landed the craft 500 metres below the summit on its east side and Kappa and Support teams deployed. After that the pilot flew onwards to the peak of the mountain where he dropped off Alpha Squad and then proceeded to circle the area around the mountain in case assistance was needed.

At that time the two teams decided on their strategy. Alpha Squad was to post Corporal Jackson to provide sniper observation for the south and west side of the mountain whilst Private McBurke patrolled at the edge of the forest on the east and north side. Lieutenant Kacur and Private Ilyuschenko proceeded into the forest at the north edge of the forest in the hopes of intercepting Kappa and Support whilst they were still in the forest part.

Kappa and Support proceeded through the forest pretty much undetected until Lieutenant Kacur spotted Sergeant Yorke from an elevated treetop. After signalling Private Ilyuschenko to move in and get a good position on the target, and moving closer himself, they opened fire. But unknowingly to the two men Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov had also spotted Private Ilyuschenko who was making a loud noise and almost managed to snipe-kill him. Lieutenant Kacur then did his best to find the sniper whilst Private Ilyuschenko and Sergeant Yorke engaged. As Private Ilyuschenko provided a lot of inaccurate fire he soon ran out of ammo and charged at Sergeant Yorke, who defended himself with his stun rod. In the hand-to-hand battle however Private Ilyuschenko did turn out to be more skilled and eliminated Sergeant Yorke quickly. He then proceeded to help out Lieutenant Kacur who was still no closer to pinpointing Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov. Soon enough he was taken out by one of his shots and that only left Private Ilyuschenko and Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov on the battlefield. Just then however Corporal Jackson made a huge noise as he entered the combat zone. This enabled Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov to take him out very quickly with a head shot, but this in turn exposed him to Private Ilyuschenko who promptly took him out.

The situation on the "Area of high exposure" however was quite different. A strange six-legged goat had apparently attacked Private McBurke, who after repeated shots with his paintball rifle and X-Com Pistol did not manage to kill it because of some sort of personal energy shielding, which was later found to be embedded into the creature's skin. Corporal Jackson managed to distract it enough though and the two men finnaly brought it down after its personal shielding apparently ran out of power. But soon after a Nova Arkunis Tyranosaurus appeared and once again attacked Private McBurke, although the beast was quickly taken down by the two men's combined firepower. Corporal Jackson then quickly left for the forested region and after the combat exercise was over the team then departed towards the summit and was quickly picked up by the Ascadian dropship, carrying the goat creature with them for more extensive study. The final score was Alpha = 10 points and Kappa and Support = 15 points with Kappa and Support winning overall, but failing in their primary objective.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko
-Private Jason McBurke

Enemy casualties:
-1 unindentified goat creature
-1 Nova Arkunis Tyranosaurus

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Private Jason McBurke: broken pelvic area due to the goat's ramming)

Recovered technology:
-1 goat creature
-1 personal shield device

Promotions: none

<<That's it. From now on I would like better attendances on the Sunday sims, because we need to get our tactics and strategies straight and we can't do it if key members are missing. Necro do your homework earlier and Howardson I find it hard to believe that the weather is THAT bad over there. >>

Pheh, skill, more like luck and creative use of some1 elses weaponry

<<Twas a good sim last night despite the shaky attendance as always (I really can't say I've been expecting more than 6 people to show up, despite the fact that the others could've, considering they hadn't posted on the Absence Board.)

Anyways here is the final training mission. Next time we start missions against aliens IF we have enough manpower RL. >>

Date: March 27th 2067 <<April 27th 2003>>

Mission codename: Capture the Fort

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

X-Com forces had been extended an invitation by the Red Skulls to participate in a joint exercise that was to take place on Ascidia in a remote region away from the vast cities. The area consisted of a single large Ascadian fort, inside which there were not only training facilities but also a vast array of defensive emplacements to protect the fort from any hostile incursions. At least 60 Ascadian soldiers, even including 3 Red Skulls, were manning the fort.

The facility itself was extremely well guarded, consisting of at least 24 flak defenses spread throughout the entire compund, which were controlled by a joint computer in a bunker located at the northern part of the compound. There were only two access routes to the fort. The main door, which was manned by at least 8 Ascadian soldiers carrying ZF3s and XJB-68s, and an emergency escape route which had only 4 soldiers with lighter weaponry, but was also quite harder to cross since it required anyone who wanted to go in or out to move over a narrow bridge. In the event of an attack the facility also possesed lockdown security doors which could be activated at any time by a controller in a special control room, the location of which was unknown to X-Com.

X-Com's mission was to take and seize complete control of this fort using only their limited number of soldiers. The Ascadian goal was to neutralize or capture every X-Com member. All weapons and munitions, including the flak cannons and the Avenger's weapons, were outfitted with paint rounds.

Combat report:

The X-Com Avenger dropped off the team on the north side of the fort, which was also the side at which the emergency escape route was located at. The team made its way towards the back entrance of the fort and proceeded to eliminate all 4 guards using sniper fire and mind control. There were queries coming in from one of the guards' radios however as the strike was not executed perfectly, but Lieutenant Kacur managed to mind control one of the surviving guards to reply to the radio upon Sergeant Howardson's suggestion. They then quickly disposed of the guard and moved over the bridge and inside the fort's perimiter.

The X-Com team then made their way to the flak control bunker nearby and after managing to quickly clear it of any hostiles, Lieutenant Kacur began hacking the computer and disabling the flak defenses so that the team could call upon the X-Com Avenger for Close Air Support. In the meantime though a patrol of 3 Ascadian soldiers discovered the bodies at the back entrance. Were this simulation a real combat situation then the patrol would've been eliminated without reporting back to the fort's HQ about the dead guards, because Corporal Jackson correctly calculated that a sniper shot could penetrate a tree behind which one of the soldiers was hiding. But the paintball round couldn't penetrate the tree and the soldier sounded the alarm before Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov managed to take him out.

Soon after more than 15 Ascadian soldiers were scrambled to the X-Com team's position and except for Lieutenant Kacur, who was still disabling the flak defenses, the X-Com team soon engaged the Ascadian platoon. As the battle went on the Ascadians were slowly but surely advancing along X-Com's flanks thanks to their large numbers. There were also several Ascadian snipers that managed to score two kills during the conflict and also two injuries. Finnaly Lieutenant Kacur managed to disable the flak defenses and called in the X-Com Avenger for Close Air Support against the Ascadian contingent. The Avenger managed to single handedly scatter the Ascadian forces and the X-Com team took advantage of this and quickly headed inside the main structure of the fort.

Inside the structure the team entered a lift which would take them to the command centre, where they would hopefully capture the fort's commander. However the Ascadians were expecting them at the command centre and were redirecting themselves towards the lift entrance. Upon notification of this from the X-Com Avenger, Lieutenant Kacur ordered the gunship to raze the command centre through its windows whilst the team remained inside the lift. Once the Avenger completed its attack the X-Com team stormed the command centre and quickly captured the base commander, who ordered his troops to surrender to the X-Com forces.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro

Enemy casualties:
-41 Ascadian soldiers KIA
-13 Ascadian soldiers captured

Friendly casualties:
-3 X-Com soldiers KIA (Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov, Sergeant Ned Yorke, Corporal Andy Necro)
-1 X-Com soldier injured (Sergeant Samuel Howardson)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Well, the sunday's mission went quite well. Didn't expect so many people to turn up, so it does give me some hope. Got a little distracted by a Jackass video next to me so that made me slip every now and then, but otherwise here is the report. >>

Date: 30th of April 2067 <<4th of May 2003>>

Mission codename: Escort Duty

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Since the aliens' established base on Arkunis VI alien activity throughout the Arkunis system had tripled. Sporadic attacks were being made on freighter and passenger convoys throughout the system and the Ascadian Navy did not have enough ships available to protect each and every one of them. However they did move to cordon off and contain the alien presence to a limited area of space, the extent of which was yet to be seen. However until the alien threat was contained, Ascadian transports required additional escorts.

X-Com was assigned to provide escort alone and without any additional support from the Ascadian fleet to a very important transport carrying a top secret Blue Skull weapons system. Since alien intelligence on Ascadian movements was until that point very good, the Grey Skulls believed that the aliens will most likely consider the single X-Com Avenger as being a weak vessel and will therefore send only one of their ships to intercept and board the convoy. This will be their own undoing and the X-Com team aboard the Avenger was to disable and board the attacking UFO itself, firing at a power generator at its top. Once the UFO was disabled and cleared of hostiles, X-Com was to continue with its escort duties to the Ascadian transport until it had reached its destination safely. The opposing force was considered to consist out of Sectoids, Snakemen and Mutons and the X-Com team was equipped with standard weapons and armour.

Combat report:

At about the middle of the transport's journey, a single medium sized UFO had engaged it as it had been predicted by the Grey Skulls. The Avenger even managed to hide itself behind the transport and the UFO therefore considered that it was simply not escorting the transport after all. The aliens proceeded to use tachyon beams to disable the transport and began descending towards it in preparation for boarding. At its most vunerable point the Avenger appeard from behind the transport and began to fire several shots at the UFO. However pilot Jason McBurke forgot to aim at the generator at the top and the UFO quickly fled with the Avenger in pursuit. After several more laser shots the UFO almost managed to get away, but had its generator destroyed by a lucky shot just before it could do so.

The Avenger then proceeded to board the enemy vessel and upon entering the X-Com team soon met stiff resistance, fighting on two hallways thanks to Private Jason McBurke who fired on two aliens, who hadn't noticed him yet, without asking for permission first. Finnaly as one of the hallways was cleared of hostiles, half of the X-Com team moved to flank the aliens that were firing down the other hallway and managed to eliminate them. The team then proceeded towards the bridge, which was apparently sealed off by a blast door. Lieutenant Kacur asked for the team to cover him whilst he proceeded to unlock the door. However the team apparently did not pay attention to his order and the doors were quickly opened by 3 Snakemen soldiers, one of which shot the Lieutenant in the head and almost killed him. The rest of the team then quickly responded with Sergeant Howardson taking over command. Despite a minor insubordination from Private Roel Ilyuschenko, the team managed to clear the bridge and the UFO without too many complications. The Avenger then turned back to NAO because of the critical condition of Lieutenant Kacur and several other injuries, requiring the Ascadian fleet to provide one of its Trafalgar Cruisers as an escort to the transport for the duration of its flight.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko
-Private Jason McBurke

Enemy casualties:
-4 Sectoid soldiers (confirmed killed)
-8 Snakemen soldiers (confirmed killed)
-3 Muton soldiers (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-4 X-Com soldiers injured (Lieutenant Kacur: A heavy concussion with suprificial bleeding of the head caused by a Plasma Pistol shot; Corporal Jackson: A medium plasma burn on his non-mechanical leg; Corporal Necro: A light plasma injury on his left shoulder; Private Ilyuschenko: A medium plasma injury on his right arm.

Recovered technology:
-1 medium-sized UFO

Promotions: none

<<Keep it up with the attendances. If we manage to keep this number of people attending on a regular basis then we've got it licked I'd guess. >>

<<A relatively good mission. I must say that our posts are getting quite a bit more longer and slightly more descriptive. Apart from my faliure to plug DH in and my pathetic one-liner, I'd say it was a pretty good sim. Read on. >>

Date: April 1st 2067 <<May 11th 2003>>

Mission codename: Downtown

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

On the evening of the 1st of April an emergency had arisen and its warning was almost ignored by X-Com under the belief that it was an April Fool's joke. The Ascadian fleet had by the time of the warning managed to encase the Alien forces into a set area of space within which they managed to contain them. However the containment field was established too late. A single large UFO managed to escape and proceeded on a direct course towards Ascadia's main city. Before proper countermeasures could be undertaken it unleashed a terror strike force, which was rampaging closer and closer to the heart of the city, killing anyone who stood in their path. Immediately the X-Com team was called upon and after a slight delay dispatched a team of their own. They would clear one of the sectors that the Ascadian commanders had established before their arrival. It had the highest concentration of aliens which had to be cleared by X-Com alone.

Civilians were also of primary concern as X-Com could not afford Ascadian-Terran relations to sink. The alien forces were apparently amongst the elite ranks, comprising of Mutons and a small number of Ethereals and Sectopods and their numbers were considered to be higher than 25 in X-Com's sector. The X-Com team was nevertheless going to be issued standard weaponry and armour so as to maintain manuverability in the urban surroundings and was to be led by Lieutenant Martin Kacur.

Combat report:

The X-Com team was deployed at the edge of their sector and proceeded to track the main alien contingent by following the corpses of dead civilians. Soon enough they came upon a T-junction where a single civilian was just injured by a Sectopod. The team quickly took down the hostile and presented medical aid to the civilian, sending him to a safe building afterwards.

The team then continued to follow the trail of corpses until they came upon the main contingent of aliens. Using the Defensive Plan they managed to ambush the enemy force, taking it momentarily by surprise. However the aliens soon responded by sending Muton squads to move up towards X-Com's position and also dispatched two Sectopods which successfully flanked Corporal Jackson who was designated as team sniper. He had however manage to take out one of the Sectopods nonetheless before the Avenger was called in to provided Close Air Support for him and managed to take out the second.

On the main front however the Muton squads had moved up slightly and had even managed in capturing Sergeant Yorke. Finnaly Lieutenant Kacur recieved a psionic message from one of the Ethereals to cease fire momentarily. Both sides did so as the Ethereal then proceeded to communicate through a Muton, which was apparently holding 3 civilian hostages. The Ethereal demanded that the alien force was to be left alone until they reached their UFO and departed, otherwise the civilians would die. Lieutenant Kacur however quickly coordinated the team to take out the remaining Ethereals, knowing that without their control the aliens would lose. When he had finished he refused and opened fire at the aliens, where Sergeant Yorke stunned the civilians and the Mutons around. though one of the Mutons survived and managed to kill a civilian before being taken down. Only one Ethereal had remained and had successfully taken control of Private Ilyuschenko, since the Private initiated the attack himself under orders. Private Ilyuschenko managed to injure Sergeant Ong before being knocked out by Sergeant Howardson. At the same time Lieutenant Kacur and Sergeant Yorke went to find the last Ethereal, who managed to injure the Lieutenant slightly before being taken down by Sergeant Yorke.

The sector was after that apparently secured by X-Com and soon after the remaining sectors were cleared as well, though with horrendous structural damage and also a substantial loss of civilian life.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Kevin Ong <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-6 Ethereal terrorists (5 confirmed killed, 1 captured)
-11 Muton terrorists (confirmed killed)
-4 Sectopod terrorists (confirmed destroyed)

Friendly casualties:
-2 X-Com soldiers injured (Kevin Ong: A medium bullet wound at his right leg, Roel Ilyuschenko: A malfunction at his mechanical leg)
-2 Ascadian civilians (one confirmed killed, one injured in the foot)

Recovered technology:
-1 Large UFO
-Ethereal Navigator
-Muton Corpse

Promotions: none

<<Lots and lots of attendance this week. Real glad to lead the sim, though it had only a minor twist it still had quite some action and a most interesting development. Read on. >>

Date: April 3rd 2067 <<May 18th 2003>>

Mission codename: Station Investigation

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

At approximately noon Earth Standard Time a video broadcast had reached NAO. It showed the destruction of the Ascadian orbital station around Arkunis V, with several Alien craft flying away from it. The source of the transmission was also from the orbit of Arkunis V, but the sender was unknown, not showing typical Ascadian, Terran or Alien communication patterns. The video transmission was analyzed by the Ascadian Blue Skull faction and it was determined to be authentic, meaning that the Ascadian station around Arkunis V was indeed destroyed. This came as a shock, since the station had never sent an emergency signal that it was under attack.

A recon/sweep fleet was quickly assembled, consisting of 2 Trafalgar class Cruisers, 4 Thunderbolt class Corvettes and the X-Com Avenger carrying a boarding party. Their mission was to reconnoiter the Arkunis V orbit, find any leads as to what had caused the station's destruction and also to clear the area of any remaining Alien forces. The team was to be equipped with standard armaments and armour.

Combat report:

As the fleet entered the orbit of Arkunis V it began with scanning the debris that was still floating in the planet's orbit. It soon turned out however that an Alien UFO was hiding amongst the debris and upon being discovered it immediately attacked the X-Com Avenger. But already after the first pass of the two vessels the UFO began flying in an erratic pattern and a transmission was sent from it directly to the Avenger. A Sectoid was claiming to belong to the Osiris faction and that he and his fellow soldiers are fighting to take control of the UFO. He managed to stop the UFO and lower its shields so that X-Com could board and assist them. Knowing that Osiris might have some valuable information on what had happened to the space station the X-Com Avenger's troops quickly boarded the UFO.

Upon arrival the X-Com team arrived in the middle of a corridor and was attacked from the right direction whilst gunfire could be heard coming from the left direction. The team split up into two halves. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov took one half, which would fend off the attackers coming from the right, whilst Lieutenant Kacur would investigate the gunfire from the left with the rest of the team.

After a short time of going down the corridor Kacur's team came upon a Sectoid which was quickly killed by another Sectoid. The second one communicated that he was from Osiris and urged the team to follow him so that they may assist him and his fellow soldiers in fighting off the Alien force. After a short run the Osiris Sectoid, along with Kacur's team, came upon two more Osiris members who were pinned down by the enemy Aliens and a Cyberdisk. The firefight could've lasted for a long time had it not been for Corporal Necro's brilliant idea to shoot at a control panel above the Cyberdisk. An electrical wire fell from it straight onto the Cyberdisk and the resultant explosion from it killed all oposition. Kacur's team then decided to head back, escorting the 3 Osiris Sectoids as they were the only ones left alive on the UFO. But halfway back to the Avenger they were ambushed by an enemy contingent, where one of the enemy Aliens possesed what would most likely be a Blaster Launcher. A single shot killed two of the Osiris Sectoids and critically wounded the third. Kacur's team barely managed to hold the Aliens back as they retreated towards the Avenger, taking the injured Osiris Sectoid with them as well.

Meanwhile Schmerjchanikov's team encountered heavy resistance and after a long firefight one of Private Rallwell's grenades took out the majority of the enemy forces. Corporal Jackson then quickly advanced, but did not anticipate that a Cyberdisk was hiding behind one of the corners along with a single Sectoid. Before he could finnaly escape them he had suffered severe injuries. Just at that time Lieutenant Kacur ordered the retreat signal, since once the X-Com team would leave the UFO the Ascadian Thunderbolt Corvettes could simply destroy it, thereby ending the Alien threat. Both teams retreated to the Avenger and as soon as that was done the Ascadian Thunderbolts destroyed the UFO. The X-Com team then returned to NAO, with a single Osiris Sectoid in critical condition, which would hopefully reveal to them what had happened to the orbital station around Arkunis V.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Anne Rallwell <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko

Enemy casualties:
-1 Medium sized UFO
-10 Sectoid soldiers <<all confirmed killed, unknown number unconfirmed killed>>
-2 Cyberdisks <<1 confirmed destroyed, 1 unconfirmed destroyed>>

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Corporal Jackson: 1st degree plasma damage on his mechanical leg, severe plasma wounds on his other leg and left arm, serious blood loss, a self-induced headache as he was banging his head on the way back to NAO and a hyperactive state from painkillers which he was given on the way back.) <<in short a real grocery list >>
-2 X-Com soldiers lightly injured (Sergeant Yorke: plasma wound on his left shoulder, Private Rallwell: 2nd degree plasma burns on her right leg.)

Recovered tecnology: none

Promotions: none

<<And that's that. >>

<<The last mission was an extensive one indeed. Note to self: When splitting up the team ALWAYS designate a secondary GM to the second group cause you're not bloody fast/accurate enough. >>

Date: April 6th 2067 <<June 1st 2003>>

Mission codename: Forest Ambush

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

After the successful interrogation of the Ethereal Navigator, that had been captured during the mission "Downtown", valuable intel on Alien movements within the Arkunis system had been extracted. One of these troop movements paticularly caught X-Com's attention. It had been uncovered that the Aliens were planning to construct a secondary base on Arkunis V-b, the moon of Arkunis V. At approximately 17:24 GTT on the 3rd of April one of their Excavator UFOs would land at a specific spot on the planet, the location of which had also been extracted from the interrogation. Upon landing it would begin drilling the planet's surface in order to create the necessary space for the Alien underground base. Once this process was complete other UFOs would inbound to its location and begin providing the necessary working force and materials for the construction of the base.

Lieutenants Schmerjchanikov and Kacur both agreed that the construction of this base had to be prevented at all costs. It was known that the Excavator UFO's are indeed very valued and only one or two are ever constructed or assigned to an Alien task force, since the construction of these craft is a very complex and difficult process. The plan was therefore set to ambush the Excavator UFO and though R&D teams would very much like to examine it, the arrival of other UFOs shortly after the mission would make it impossible to capture the craft. Therefore it was X-Com's task to destroy the UFO and its crew, which would thus beset the Aliens' progression schedule severely.

Kappa Team had the task of covertly infiltrating and planting C-6 explosive charges onto the main elerium engine of the UFO, whilst Alpha Squad had the task of taking out any aliens that would be deployed on the ground. Once the mission was complete all X-Com troops would retreat towards the Avenger for immediate dustoff, since the rest of the Alien fleet would arrive to the site shortly thereafter. The planning and execution of this mission was and still is entirely concealed from the Ascadians due to matters of X-Com security. The team was to be outfitted with standard equipment and armour with possible alien threats including Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen.

Combat report:

The Avenger managed to land some distance away from the alien's landing site covertly. The team quickly deployed and headed towards the presumed site. Upon arriving the Excavator UFO soon landed and began drilling the surface whilst two squads of aliens deployed from it and started combing the area for hostile forces. X-Com managed to remain undetected and Kappa Team made its way to an entrance, where they managed to stun the guards and make a covert entry.

Alpha Squad at that same time did its best to manuever and avoid the patrols so that they could get into good firing positions. Lieutenant Kacur gave the orders to target Floaters primarily, whilst the Snakemen could be taken out later more easily due to their limited mobility. But before every soldier had acquired his target, Private Scott fired upon and killed a nearby Floater, thereby tipping off the remaining alien forces outside the UFO. Though most of the Floaters were downed, a few still remained and Alpha Squad quickly responded. As the battle progressed the X-Com squad was flanked by alien forces and though the response to the threat was relatively quick, thanks to Private Scott's well thrown grenade, the squad had suffered several injuries, including that of its Lieutenant being seriously wounded and unable to issue commands. After a long fight however Alpha Squad did win, though with serious injuries on their side being the result.

Kappa team in the meantime proceeded towards the engine room through the help of a map that was provided to them by X-Com's Intelligence Officer. They did however encounter four Sectoids quite soon and did not manage to take them out quietly. The result was that they had later encountered heavy resistance at the engine room, which was however dispatched with only one injury on Kappa's side. The explosives were then fitted and the team quickly retreated back the same way. At the exit however they were ambushed by the aliens and only through Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov and Sergeant Ong covering the rest of the team did they manage to escape. They had called upon Alpha Squad to cover them as they exited the craft too and the entire X-Com team then retreated back to the Avenger. At the minimum safe distance Private Rallwell triggered the explosives and the UFO was taken out, though none of the stunned aliens were brought back for interrogation.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov <<half as himself, half Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Kevin Ong
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Anne Rallwell <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Joseph Scott

Enemy casualties:
-5 Floater soldiers <<confirmed killed, unknown number unconfirmed killed>>
-5 Snakeman slodiers <<confirmed killed, unknown number unconfirmed killed>>
-4 Sectoid soldiers <<confirmed killed, unknown number unconfirmed killed>>

Friendly casualties:
-2 X-Com soldiers suffering medium injuries (Martin Kacur: Heavy Plasma wound at his lower abdominal section; Andy Necro: Plasma Pistol wound at his lower left leg)
-2 X-Com soldiers lightly injured (Daniel Jackson: minor Plasma Pistol wound at his right upper arm; Anne Rallwell: mediocre Plasma Pistol wound at her lower abdominal area)

Recovered technology: None

Promotions: None

<<If we manage to keep attendances up like this I'll be one happy man. Now if only I can get more people to write in the roleplay sections... >>

<<Well, kinda short this mission is considering there were only 4 participants, but still...it wasn't that bad. And it sets up the story to come quite well. Read on. >>

Date: April 12th 2067 <<June 8th 2003>>

Mission codename: Archeology Today

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

X-Com's GPS system had just recently come online so that a detailed scan could be made of Arkunis IV from orbit. Though the Patton's sensors were quite capable of pinpointing several interesting sites of interest on the surface, this time X-Com could recieve much more detailed scan results.

Shortly after activation a site was discovered where a certain cavern pattern existed in the middle of an icy penninsula about 1260 km north-east of NAO that could not have been created naturally. It was therefore no doubt a base of some sort that had not been discovered by the Ascadians before and a recon mission of the site was in order under the command of Lieutenant Kacur. Though this was most likely another archeological mission X-Com soldiers were still equipped with minimal weapons and gear, since previous such missions had proven themselves to be quite hazardous from time to time. This outfit was however to be very light, including the armour so as to maximise the soldiers' mobility during the mission.

Combat report:

The X-Com Avenger proceeded towards the penninsula but was forced to drop off the team about 2 km away from the site because of severe weather conditions. It then headed back to NAO as the elements of Alpha Squad proceeded towards the site on foot. Severe snowstorms and freezing conditions severely hampered their movement, but they finnaly arrived to their destination. They found an entrance upon arrival and went inside to recon the caves.

After a short time they came upon an artificial light source at the end of a tunnel which they had entered and cautiously proceeded towards it. About halfway a trap door opened below Corporal Jackson making him fall some 30 feet into a pit of icy water. His suit was ill-equipped to handle the effects and he would soon die from hypothermia. Corporal Necro stayed behind to keep Corporal Jackson alert and swimming whilst Lieutenant Kacur and Private Scott headed quickly towards the light source in the hopes that they would find some form of rescuing the Corporal.

When the two soldiers arrived they discovered a medium sized underground base and also encountered a Black Spear soldier (by his uniform) and a Sectoid. A fight broke out during which the Sectoid managed to activate a defense Sectopod sentry near Corporal Necro, which proceeded to pursue him and also activated a flood sequence which would destroy all equipment inside the base. This flood sequence however also slowly raised the water level inside Corporal Jackson's pit and he was able to crawl out of the trap soon after. The Sectoid was after that quickly taken out by Private Scott, whilst the Black Spear soldier managed to escape whilst suppressing the two X-Com soldiers using a ZG6 Fusion Cannon.

The two soldiers then went back to assist Corporal Necro, who was until that point dodging the Sectopod's shots. They arrived just in time to witness Corporal Jackson crawl out of his trap behind the Sectopod and use his sniper rifle to destroy the Sectopod's sensor array, thereby disabling it. The team then noticed the water which was still flooding through the trap into which Jackson had fallen at an alarming pace and thus proceeded out of the base using the tunnel through which they had first come in. Just before the exit however they were caught by a tidal wave which soaked up the team. The extra water meant that on their way back the team would have an even harder time with the cold than when they made their way to the cave. After about a kilometre of walking all of the troops except for Lieutenant Kacur (who was wearing a more efficient LFS) were exhausted and beginning to suffer from hypothermia and would most likely have a hard time returning to the rendevous point had the Avenger not been preforming a recon sweep, during which it had found and transported the team back to NAO.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Joseph Scott

Enemy casualties:
-1 Sectoid soldier (confirmed killed)
-1 Sectopod sentry (confirmed destroyed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Daniel Jackson: a severe case of hypothermia which resulted in his organic foot going numb for at least 2 weeks. Recommend constant exercise to remedy the situation)
-2 X-Com soldiers suffering medium injuries (Joseph Scott: 1st degree burns on his left arm from a ZG6 fusion shot and hypothermia; Andy Necro: hypothermia)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Though it lasted only an hour it wasn't too bad. Jacko didn't have that much to do during it unfortunately, but that's why I've given him a temporary disability when walking - so you'll have a bit more to write about >>

<<well.....what can I say. Terrific this sim was. Such a shame that only 4 people witnessed it. I really am sorry for the rest of XCAS. Take a look at what you've just missed... >>

Date: April 13th 2067 <<June 22nd 2003>>

Mission codename: Alternative Terrorism

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

A group of Ascadian soldiers entered the goverment tower on Arkunis IV's moon. They claimed that the governor and his family were in great danger and that the soldiers would secure the room from any possible unauthorized access. When the governor asked for the soldier's identification however they responded by killing the governor's private guard and proceeded to secure the room. One of the guards however managed to notify the authorities of the hostage situation before he was killed and the Ascadian local police set up a perimiter around the building and started negotiations with the terrorists.

Not too far away from the goverment tower the authorities also discovered a damaged Valkyrie Interceptor. With that there was no doubt that these terrorists were the Black Spear soldiers that escaped the secret base on Arkunis IV in mission "Archeology Today". They immediately began negotiating for a means back to the Aliens' region of control. Their last demands included a spacecraft and safe passage to it. Upon arrival to the ship they would release all hostages except for the governor which they would supposedly hold until they had entered Alien space.

Du'ran'us however had made it clear that negotiations with the terrorists were absolutely unacceptable. Considering how much better X-Com did at the last mission on Arkunis IV-a (the moon), he decided to authorise X-Com forces to replace the original Ascadian S.W.A.T. team which would have executed the hostage rescue, also because the terrorists could've easily outgunned the local S.W.A.T. team. Upon arrival the senior officers would be briefed about the plan that the Ascadians had of the tower building. On this mission the X-Com team was equipped with the standard gear and weaponry and was headed by Lieutenant Kacur. The primary mission was to rescue the hostages, whilst also capturing any terrorists if at all possible.

Combat report:

Upon arriving at the courtyard of the tower building Lieutenant Kacur consulted with the local Ascadian militia and breifed his team about the layout of the tower. The team then proceeded towards an elevator inside the building which took them all the way to the first level that they were to clear out of a total of three levels.

Upon arrival the team found themselves in a corridor. They decided to split up into two halves, one headed by Lieutenant Kacur and one by Corporal Necro. After a short time Necro's team encountered two terrorists patrolling the level and managed to elude detection by them, whilst at the same time Private O'Connor discovered an explosive set up by the terrorists in an office room. As the Private had some experience with explosives he could tell that the charges were to collapse only the office room and everything above and below it in a column pattern. Why this was so was not known yet at the time, but Lieutenant Kacur ordered him to stay behind and attempt to disarm the explosives whilst the rest of the team would continue to the second floor.

Soon the team met up on a stairwell that led up to the next level. Managing to sneak past another terrorist lookout, the team advanced to the third floor, except for Private Scott who had to deliver Lieutenant Kacur's DDU to Private O'Connor so as to assist him in defusing the explosive charges. Private Scott managed to deliver it without being detected whilst returning back to the second floor where he kept observing the lookout that the team had previously passed (at the Lieutenant's order of course).

Meanwhile Lieutenant Kacur along with Corporals Necro and Jackson reached the third level where the hostages were being held. There were three terrorists guarding three hostages, one of them armed with a ZF1, another with an XJB-68 (who was also constantly keeping his weapon trained on the hostages) and one even with a ZG6 Fusion Cannon. Lieutenant Kacur then attempted to psionically control the Ascidian guarding the hostages, but the moment he succeeded the leader of the terrorists spotted his mind-controled comrade and ordered the X-Com team to show themselves or he would execute the hostages. Without much choice the team revealed itself and Lieutenant Kacur tried to calm the terrorists down so as to at least make them release some of the hostages.

But then Corporal Jackson had made a fatal blunder of making fun of the head terrorist. As a result he infuriated him enough so that a firefight erupted. At that moment Private Scott took out the Ascadian guard on the second floor (as he was ordered to do in the event of a firefight breaking out) and was immediately called upon to give assistance to the rest of the X-Com crew, just as an Ascadian SWAT team took out the two terrorists patrolling on the first floor. X-Com however was severely outgunned until Private Scott came in and made a suicidal charge towards the terrorist with the XJB-68, firing his guns in the process. Though he did take out his target he himself suffered heavy wounds and was in critical condition at the end, just as the terrorist with the ZG6 was also taken down by the rest of the X-Com team. However before the terrorist leader died he detonated the explosives next to O'Connor. The Private died as the floor collapsed and he fell to the bottom of the tower structure. It was clear that the explosives were set up to destroy only the column above the HOSTAGES so as to ensure that they would be quickly disposed of, though X-Com managed to rescue them from that spot before the floor caved in. They were then evacuated and Ascadian fire teams took over shortly after that.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Tim O'Connor
-Private Joseph Scott

Enemy casualties:
-6 Black Spear soldiers (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier KIA (Private Timothy O'Connor - Intelligence Agent: killed in the line of duty whilst trying to defuse an explosive charge set to kill civilians - awarded Medal of Valour)
-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Joseph Scott: internal bleeding, fractured arm bones, serious blood loss and damage to his lungs which had to be stabilised)
-2 X-Com soldiers lightly injured (Andy Necro: splintered muscles on his lower left leg and moderate bleeding; Daniel Jackson: 2nd degree fusion burn on his left arm)
-1 Ascadian civilian injured

Recovered technology:
-Damaged Black Spear Valkyrie

Promotions: none

<<And that's that. Note: I killed O'Connor off because his position as an Intelligence Agent must be clearly accessible to other new recruits who might want it As I said it's a damn shame people didn't attend as they should. This one really was worth a lot' a fun :dontgetit: >>

<<And so it begins. Once more into the breach my friends........well......kindof a breach anyway since I don't consider my GMing to be at exactly the highest standard in this case. >>

Date: April 24th 2067 <<June 29th 2003>>

Mission codename: Chink in Armour

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Thanks to the recently awoken Osiris Sectoid extracted from the mission Station Investigation, X-Com had recieved much useful information about the Alien operations in the Arkunis system. The data was in fact sufficient to allow X-Com to formulate an incursion plan into Alien held space, which would hopefully succeed in removing them from the Arkunis system once and for all.

About 500.000 km away from Arkunis VI a single small moon orbits the planet, also containing a minimal atmosphere. It covers a relatively small, but nonetheless specific, part of the space around Arkunis VI, meaning that should the facility be destroyed the Ascadian forces would have a big enough gap to pass through a contingent of their fleet, which would later hopefully be able to take the Alien fleet around Arkunis VI by surprise and subsequently manage to defeat it.

However though it would be possible to simply destroy the facility, as it was unprotected by UFOs, using the Avenger's on-board weapons, the Aliens would obviously be aware of the facility's destruction and would of course assume that X-Com would be making an incursion through that area of space. Therefore it is of primary importance that the facility was not destroyed, but continued to operate and report in regularly to the Alien HQ on Arkunis VI. The Osiris agent would be the only one capable of preforming that task, since persuading the Aliens at the facility would be practically impossible.

X-Com was therefore issued a special cloaking utility installed on the Avenger by the Blue Skulls, an experimental version which would hopefully work. The Avenger was to land on the planet's surface and the X-Com team would proceed towards the outpost. Once there they would eliminate all resistance, where it was vitally important that the Aliens never had a chance to signal back to their HQ on Arkunis VI that they are under attack. Once that is done the Osiris Sectoid was to remain at the facility and regularly check in with the Alien HQ that the listening post is not detecting anything. The X-Com troops would in the meantime preform a sweep of the area and camp out on the moon's surface using the Mars Survival Kits. They were to remain there observing that all goes well as the Ascadian fleet gradually passes through the sensor gap. Since the gap was to be rather small it was estimated that a total of 2 days would be needed for the fleet to pass completely through. After that time X-Com would pack up and board the Avenger craft in order to accompany the fleet into Alien space.

Since this was such an important operation Lieutenants Schmerjchanikov and Kacur had decided to take along every last X-Com soldier, leaving NAO in the hands of the Ascadians for the time being. The expected resistance was primarily in Floaters and Cyberdisks who would be the most efficient in traversing the low-G enviroment of the moon, though a few Sectoids would also be on site. X-Com was to be issued Plasma Rifles to replace standard X-Com Rifles, though ammunition would be sparse in the future missions as the possibility of resupply was eliminated. Scientists, Engineers and also Scouts were also to be issued Laser Pistols for the first time, as they had not been produced in large enough numbers for the entire team. The moon's surface was also just then going through a meteor shower which would aid the team in their mission

Combat report:

As the Avenger approached the predesignated landing site on the moon everything was going according to plan until the cloaking utility began to falter. Fortunately enough the pilot was capable of landing the craft quickly enough and thereby get below the Alien sensor arrays' scanning range. The majority of the X-Com force then stayed near the Avenger to guard its perimiter in the case of something going awry and sent a squad over to seize control of the Alien outpost.

After about 3 kilometres the squad encountered two Floaters and a Cyberdisk who were heading in their direction to investigate a fallen meteor that had just crashed about a kilometre behind the X-Com squad. Lieutenant Kacur ordered the squad to split up, he himself leading his own Blue Team from Alpha Squad to the left and having Sergeant Yorke take the second team to the right in the hopes of avoiding the Alien patrol and also in order to proceed towards the Alien outpost more safely. However the patrol did uncover the team's tracks and one of the Floaters followed them towards Sergeant Yorke's team and the team would have to quietly eliminate him.

Meanwhile Blue Team had arrived at the Alien outpost which was in the center of a large crater, with patrols going along its rims and searching the area. There were four buildings consisting the outpost and using another meteor impact as a diversion the team created a dust cloud as well to cover their descent towards the facility. Once they had arrived they began to search the buildings to see which one of them was the communications building. Soon enough they had encountered it and preformed an assault to eliminate any resistance. However in the middle of the attack one of the Sectoids managed to send a transmittion to Arkunis VI. Blue Team managed to tweak the transmittion so as to make it appear that the base had only technical difficulties and then cut off contact with the Alien HQ (this would later on apparently turn out that it had worked, though just).

In the meantime though Sergeant Yorke's team had managed to dispose of the Floater, though somewhat messily, and began to make its way towards the outpost. However just as they arrived Blue Team began storming the communications building, which sent the base into general alert. They had found themselves seriously outnumbered even with assistance from Blue Team. Fortunately though X-Com was now able to call on the assistance of the Avenger and after about 10 minutes of fighting the outpost was secured and later on also the entire moon, allowing the first step of the operation to proceed.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Kevin Ong
-Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro

Enemy casualties:
-3 Sectoid engineers (confirmed killed)
-3 Sectoid leaders (confirmed killed)
-20 Floater soldiers (confirmed killed)
-5 Cyberdisks (confirmed destroyed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier lightly injured (Samuel Howardson: a plasma injury at his lower left leg)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<OH YAY! We Got to the second page of our ever XCAS debriefs WOOHOO!!! >>

<<Started out quite fine and went on relatively well too all the way until the most MOST confusing end. Heh,... >>

Date: April 27th 2067 <<July 6th 2003>>

Mission codename: Alien Titan

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Over the last two days the Ascadian Fleet had begun to converge onto the Alien forces around Arkunis VI. The odds looked more or less even, until a major factor appeared, which X-Com was assigned to take care of.

The Osiris Sectoid had briefed X-Com intelligence about it before departure from NAO. A single mothership class Alien vessel which had less fighter protection weaponry in exchange for a cloaking device. This enabled it to decimate practically any opponent short of an Apocalypse Dreadnought. However in return its protection against fighters was limited, giving X-Com a chance to board the vessel.

X-Com was to engage the enemy and assist the Ascadians until this mothership appeared. They would then immediately head towards it and would hopefully be able to avoid its defenses long enough to attach their ship to it. Once that was accomplished the X-Com troopers were to disembark and split up into two groups. The larger one would head towards the main command centre, but since it was known for a fact that a vessel of such magnitude had X-Com severely outmanned and outgunned, that force was to act as a diversion, doing its best to attract attention as much as possible and hold out. The other group would in the meantime take advantage of that and would head over to the main reactor core and plant an array of C-6 charges, which would hopefully be sufficient to destroy the vessel. Both groups would then retreat back to the Avenger and escape the mothership.

The Osiris Sectoid would guide the second group to the main reactor chamber. Plasma Rifles were still to be used along with Laser Pistols and even an example of a Fusion Pistol (though it would not survive the conflict intact). Also Vacc suits were to be worn in case of a hull breach.

Combat report:

Upon arriving at the battle the X-Com Avenger, piloted by Private Scott, began to assist the Ascadians in a fighter skirmish where it managed to divert some fire coming from the Alien UFOs and even managed to destroy one of them. As soon as the mothership appeared it changed course towards it and apart from a UFO pursuit, which was quickly destroyed by an Ascadian Valkyrie, the process of boarding the mothership went well. Once the X-Com forces were on board the vessel they split up heading into two different directions. Lieutenants Schmerjchanikov and Kacur were to lead the second group whilst Senior Sergeant Yorke would take the remainder of the troops towards the bridge area.

After splitting up, group two soon encountered an Ethereal and a Muton which were blocking their path. After they were taken care of it seemed that a Sectopod came up from behind the team and soon opened fire on them. The team rushed forwards into a chamber area, where the doors were not wide enough for the Sectopod to continue. The X-Com team was apparently in a chamber which was used by the Aliens to breed Arachnomortuses which could be used in ship boardings. After a short walk through the chamber the eggs inside it began to open and out of them many Arachnomortuses crawled out and began attacking the team. After a short while, and one paralysed soldier, they managed to escape the chamber onwards, with Corporal Necro torching it using his incideary rounds.

The team then went on whilst leaving Corporals Chung and Jackson behind on an intersection so that Corporal Chung could provide Corporal Jackson with limited medical care. The rest of the team went on and soon reached the reactor chamber, clearing it without any major incident. Just then however screams were heard from the communications channel from Corporal Chung, who had gone into panic. The team quickly returned to the two soldiers, leaving behind the Osiris Sectoid to rig the C-6 charges around the reactor.

When they arrived at the team several soldiers restrained Chung and checked the corridor at the intersection that led towards the bridge area. Alien forces began their assault through that corridor soon after and the X-Com team was finding it hard to hold out, though it was necessary since if the intersection was not held then the Osiris Sectoid would not have his escape route clear.

After several mind-control incidents and a long firefight (during which it should be noted that Private Scott also mismanaged his Fusion Pistol, which could've potentially caused serious harm to the X-Com team) the Osiris Sectoid completed his job and the team immediately retreated back towards the Avenger. The first group had already managed to egress back to the craft in the meantime and was awaiting the second. But just before entering the Avenger a Sectopod was awaiting the second team and opened fire on it, in response to which Private Scott threw an unauthorized grenade towards the Alien. As a result a hull breach was caused from whose effects the team managed to rescue itself into the Avenger except for Corporal Necro and Lieutenant Kacur. However thanks to Sergeant Ong's help the two managed to climb aboard the Avenger, which then departed, leaving behind the mothership which was later completely destroyed as a result of its reactor going hypercritical.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Kevin Ong
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Ki-tat Chung
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Joseph Scott

Enemy casualties:
-4 Sectoid engineers (confirmed killed)
-16 Arachnomortuses (confirmed killed)
-6 Muton soldiers (confirmed killed)
-1 Ethereal leader (confirmed killed)
-2 Sectopods (confirmed destroyed)

Friendly casualties:

-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Daniel Jackson: injection of a paralytic poison from an Arachnomortus causing gradual tetraplegia - paralysis of all limbs)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<And that's part two. Join in for part three in the somewhat plain saga that has spawned from my not-up-to-things brain >>

<<I noticed that I actually for the first time in XCAS history forgot to de-brief. Well, not surprising considering what I was going through the last week I didn't even give it a shred of thought. Anyway here it is now. The last of the.....well....not best but something that would like to be best >>

Date: April 29th 2067 <<July 13th 2003>>

Mission codename: The Beginning and the End

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

After a long battle the Alien fleet had finnaly been defeated by the Ascadian fleet, due to the successfull "Alien Titan" mission preformed by X-Com. Some of the Ascadian capital ships pursued the escaping Alien vessels, but most remained in orbit of Arkunis VI, from where they would launch the last attack together with X-Com to destroy the Alien base on the surface.

A plan was drawn up by the two X-Com Lieutenants and the Ascadian Generals through which it would be possible to destroy the Aliens' power system which was harnessed by the Alien AA defenses. Once the power to the defenses was cut Ascadian bombers could easily level the entire base completely. However X-Com proposed that whilst that is executed a squad of their soldiers would at the same time covertly paradrop into the base with the mission of capturing any high-ranking Alien in the base they could find, since the opportunity was simply too great to ignore. Once they would have collected some prisoners the power could be cut, allowing a breif period of time for the X-Com Avenger to extract the squad and the prisoners just before the bombers would ingress and level the base.

The plan was set. X-Com was to be equipped with the best technology they could muster, including heavier armour for most soldiers along with plasma and laser weaponry, though plasma clips were in short supply as a result of rapid fire during the last two missions.

Combat report:

A squad of eight soldiers was paradropped from the Avenger guncraft over the Alien base just as the main attack was half-way towards reaching its objective of cutting off the power. The AA batteries did not detect the soldiers because of their size and they managed to descend onto the base. However just before touching down the team encountered a Sectoid and two Muton guards, who quickly spotted Corporal Jackson who was quite noisy as he had to fight off a flock of birds that had just got entangled into his parachute. Before they could react Corporal Jackson's parachute wires were torn up and he fell on top of the Sectoid, killing him with the impact. The rest of the team landed shortly after that and also managed to dispose of the other two Mutons quite quickly.

The X-Com squad then oriented itself towards the nearest building with the least activity according to Private Scott's motion tracker and headed towards it. There they discovered a large room with cylinder-like pillars spread throughout it along with a lift room in the middle that would take them to the lower levels of the base. But as they began moving towards the lifts an Alien squad entered on the opposite side of the room, but did not fire immediately. Then apparently they initiated a Psi-Panic attack towards Corporal Jackson who went beserk and fired off several shots in random directions. Apparently that activated the cylinder objects to reveal themselves to actually be sentry turrets and as a result of the gunfire they began targeting all entities within the room, Human and Alien. The X-Com team barely managed to make their way towards the lift area where they locked themselves inside it before proceeding down to the lower level.

Upon descending they came accross two pathways. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov took Private Scott to stealthily investigate the right passageway whilst Lieutenant Kacur took the rest of the team towards the left corridor. Kacur's team came across an Alien Med-Lab apparently where they successfully took a Sectoid Medic and Navigator as prisoners. They also found the bodies of Privates McBenneth and McCarhty who were by that time apparently carried over to the room by the Aliens after they had died in combat with the main group. The team moved onwards however and soon came upon the Alien Command Centre.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov and Private Scott came across a large storage area of some kind and were trying to determine the location of the Command Centre when they noticed two Muton soldiers carrying Private McBurke, who was captured during the main assault. The two X-Com Scouts decided they would rescue the Private and ambushed the Mutons, but during this ambush Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov accidentally killed Private McBurke using his stun rod. The ambush also alerted the Aliens who began to flush the two of them towards the left entrance to the large room in which they were in. That entrance fortunately also led to the Command Centre however.

When all of the X-Com squad was assembled in front of the Command Centre they invaded it and managed to capture an Ethereal Leader in the process. They then quickly retreated as by that time the power was already destroyed by the main force. They arrived back to the courtyard in which they had landed and were forced to fight off a Muton squad as they boarded the Avenger which extracted them. The Ascadian bombers then ingressed and devastated the Alien base completely, thereby ending all significant Alien presence in the Arkunis system.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Robert Paul <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Anne Rallwell <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>
-Private Joseph Scott
-Private Terra Fleche

Enemy casualties:
-1 Sectoid soldier (confirmed killed)
-1 Sectoid medic (confirmed killed)
-4 Snakemen soldiers (confirmed killed)
-6 Muton soldiers (4 confirmed killed, 2 unconfirmed killed)
-1 Ethereal leader (confirmed killed)
-1 Ethereal commander (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-2 X-Com soldiers with medium injuries (Daniel Jackson: a broken left leg which then also suffered from a Plasma Rifle shot, slight mental panic of lobsters attacking him after the mission was concluded; Anne Rallwell: a Plasma Pistol shot which managed to burn away a portion of her chest and cause shock.)
-1 X-Com soldier lightly injured (Joseph Scott: a hit on the head from Lieutenant Kacur which was necessary so as to bring him under control.)

Recovered technology:
-1 Sectoid medic
-1 Sectoid navigator
-1 Ethereal leader

Promotions: none

<<Actually.....the more I think about it I have the feeling I DID post a debrief about the previous mission once. To everyone! Make sure you save the posts you make on a notepad file or something in case your post misteriously vanishes. Bob had the same thing happen to him I think. These boards must be a bit screwy. >>

<<And finnaly the last sim, where X-Com hast encountered a new enemy...read on...>>

Date: May 1st 2067 <<July 20th 2003>>

Mission codename: The Clean-Out

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

After the destruction of the Arkunis VI Alien base, reclamation efforts began going underway so that the utmost would be recycled from the site. Ascadian leadership also believed that, since X-Com could have information that the Ascadians didn't, they would also observe this process to determine any important artefacts that the Ascadian military could miss.

Therefore a task force of the few X-Com soldiers that were elligeble for active duty was assembled under the leadership of Lieutenants Schmerjchanikov and Kacur. The equipment and armour of the team would be of the lightest of nature since the only possible hostile force at the site could've been local fauna.

Combat report:

The X-Com squad was departing NAO in the Avenger and had just managed to reach the stratosphere of Arkunis IV when they recieved a distress signal coming from NAO. The Ascadian crews there reported being attacked by an unknown force just before the transmission was cut. This persuaded the two Lieutenants to turn the Avenger back to NAO so as to investigate this anomaly.

Upon arrival the hangar was inactive and the Avenger had to land on a grassy plateau a bit away from the base. The team then moved towards the two entrances to investigate. Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov took a team to check the base through the secondary entrance at the Hangar whilst Lieutenant Kacur headed with the other half of the squad through the primary entrance.

The group entering through the primary entrance managed to access the blast doors using the Lieutenant's access card and began to move inside. The base's power was apparently shut off along with its security system and after a short search the team encountered several strange anomalies in the form of aerial distorsions. At first it was unknown what this exactly was, but soon enough one of these distorsions uncloaked itself to reveal an alien being which attacked Corporal Jackson. After a short fight the creature was thwarted away with no serious injuries. Lieutenant Kacur then ordered the team to quickly move to the Laboratory section so that the team could defend itself more effectively. Upon arrival they immediately suffered more attacks from the creatures, who apparently had cloaking abilities and favoured close combat, and managed to take them out, though not without injuries. Lieutenant Kacur also managed to restore power and the security system back to NAO using the labs' computer system. After that the team proceeded towards the Living Quarters, killing even more aliens as they went.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov's team successfully entered through the hangar entrance and began investigating the Hangar area along with the General Stores. Soon enough they came across an alien contact in the stores area and after a quick battle managed to take it down. Having cleared the two areas they decided to go around to the Security Station and then towards the Command Centre. After several problems passing through the automated defenses they arrived at the Command Centre. Checking out the Communications Room they came upon 7 Ascadian survivors, who had apparently taken refuge their. Private Scott then detected movement in the Reactor Room and the team rushed towards it to immediately check the anomaly out. Upon arrival they managed to also take down one of the creatures, just when the other team had joined them in the room. The base was more or less cleared, with further patrols still ordered after the incident so as to insure that all of the aliens had been taken care of.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov (Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk)
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Private Joseph Scott
-Private Terra Fleche
-Private Atzel Evander

Enemy casualties:
-8 unknown aliens (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Daniel Jackson: internal bleeding and a severe concussion to the head)
-2 X-Com soldiers with medium injuries (Terra Fleche: supreficial torso wound; Andy Necro: supreficial leg injury)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Heh, after being bugged by Ghost and Jacko to get this done I am forced to concede. Read on. >>

Date: May 16th 2067 <<July 27th 2003>>

Mission codename: Rescuing Alpha Soldier

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

At approximately 1400 hours GGT Corporal Jackson recieved a transmission from the UGS Patton, which was returning back to NAO at that moment. At first it requested a daily status report but after that another signal came in from the Patton which interrupted the first, this one coming directly from Cu'rag'us, leader of the Red Skulls. He had reported the Patton to be under attack from unknown forces and requested immediate assistance as the White Eagle was in danger along with Commander Wiendhoven and Colonel Cyriacus. This was even more so since one of the Red Skull members' thermonuclear device was activated and could not have been properly deactivated.

Lieutenants Schmerjchanikov and Kacur immediately responded by readying and launcing a team within 10 minutes time of recieving the distress call on board the X-Com Avenger and headed towards the coordinates of the transmission. The team was to be equipped with the standard weapons and armour setting, with the primary objectives being clearing out any hostiles in the area and also disarming the thermonuclear device, thereby saving the Patton.

Combat report:

*NOTE: MOST OF THIS REPORT IS CONSTRUCTED FROM THE LIVE VIDEO FEEDS ON BOARD THE SOLDIERS' ARMOUR AS THEY WERE TRANSMITTED BACK TO NAO FOR RECORDING

As the Avenger approached the Patton it had apparently suffered damage as a result of a ship-to-ship battle. Numerous ejection pods were launching and reattaching themselves to the Patton, which was most likely a novel way for anyone on board to avoid any hostiles. Indeed as the Avenger arrived to one such dock one of the pods arrived directly at it soon afterwards, carrying the White Eagle on board. Shortly after that as the team assisted him as much as they could, Cu'rag'us made his way towards the X-Com team with his Red Skulls and informed them of the situation. Apparently the bomb was attached to the primary fuel coil in the engineering section and could not be removed. The only hope for the team was to deactivate it using the proper Ascadian algorithms. Both the Commander and the Colonel's whereabouts were also unknown, though Commander Weindhoven was last sighted in the armoury section. The enemy also apparently had the ability to morph into inanimate objects and then re-morph into their normal selves again at their behest. The Red Skull team then departed using an E'Colous transport which had just arrived to assist them and would evacuate the White Eagle and also attempt to rescue their own squadmates that were still captured onboard the Patton.

The X-Com team however decided to split up so as to cover the ship more effectively. Lieutenant Kacur would lead his team towards the back of the Patton towards the armoury section and hopefully find the Commander somewhere near there. He would then head into the engineering section and await for Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov, who would search the front of the ship for the Ascadian de-activation algorithms. He and his team would then make their way from the front all the way to the back at the engineering section where they would assist in defusing the bomb.

Right at the time that they split up they already came across one of the morphed opponents which delayed them considerably before dissapearing somehow. However the team did split up after that accordingly.

Lieutenant Kacur's team first entered the mess hall from where, after a brief insubordination incident with Private Scott, they proceeded towards the armoury section. Upon arriving they examined it and found the Commander in an open duct, wounded somewhat and unconscious. The team administered medical aid to him in order to stabilise him and bring him back to consciousness and after accomplishing that carried him along to the engineering section, where they would examine the bomb. But on their way there they were attacked by another morphing opponent which was however defeated and discovered to be of the API faction. The Commander then regained his strength enough to walk and operate normally and informed the team that the Colonel had been captured and also said that the technology that the API was using was apparently called 'Nephilim' - a morphing/cloaking ability. Regardless the team proceeded forwards to the engineering section.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov's team was shortly after proceeding towards the bridge area assaulted by another API hostile which they did manage however to take down quickly. After arriving to the bridge they found the de-activation algorithms for the bomb and sent Senior Sergeant Yorke to Lieutenant Kacur's team so that he could give them over to them. They then continued investigating the ship and whilst doing so were also attacked by two more hostiles, both of which were however defeated. After that Lieutenant Kacur signalled in that the Colonel was not onboard the Patton and requested the team's presence in the engineering section.

After recieving the data pad containing the de-activation algorithms from Senior Sergeant Yorke the team went to work of defusing the device where the Commander managed to succeed. However after that the entire team was ambushed by several API troops and were taken prisoner through the use of some very unorthodox technology. The video feeds indicate it to be strange water with cement like properties whilst the Ascadians APIs themselves somehow skated on top of it. What is relatively certain though is that the X-Com team had been captured as the last transmissions show the API holding stun rods over the team who was captured somehow in the water.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Commander Richter Weindhoven
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Senior Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Kevin Ong
-Private Joseph Scott
-Private Terra Fleche
-Private Atzel Evander

Enemy casualties:
-4 API Soldiers (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-8 X-Com soldiers captured

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<YAY! I GOT TO POST MOUSES CHARACTER AS PRESENT!!! >>

<<And here is....the escape! What else?! Duh! >>

Date: May 18th 2067 <<August 3rd 2003>>

Mission codename: None

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

The team of soldiers was apparently being tortured in one of the API's facilities which harbored a special psionic dream device which granted any wish to any of the X-Com soldiers. This would continue until the soldiers would be violently torn from this pleasure and tortured. Obviously the X-Com team's mission was to somehow escape from this prison.

Combat report:

In the middle of one of these sessions the facility apparently came under attack. Later it would become obvious that Black Spear had mounted the attack against API and this gave the X-Com crew the chance to escape and subdue their two jailkeepers. They were all accounted for except for Colonel Cyriacus who was apparently held in another segment of the base. After the team had escaped they headed out of the prison section towards the armoury so as to retrieve some weapons. However the armoury was locked down and the team decided to head towards the laboratory section instead, where their weapons would much more likely reside. Whilst retrieving their weapons a team of 3 Black Spear soldiers also came into the lab and a battle ensued where the three were quickly dispatched. X-Com them armed themselves with the weapons and armour and after doing so headed out towards the hangar area.

Upon entering it the X-Com team came upon some opposition from the API, but managed to deal with it relatively quickly before proceeding out of the hangar area and spotting a Black Spear ship, most likely the one that was used by the organization to mount this assault onto the API. In any event X-Com quickly retreated towards it and managed to operate it to safely escape the API installation. After the escape the pilot on board was able to determine the location where they were and successfully flew the craft back to NAO.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Commander Richter Weindhoven
-Lieutenant Dimitri Schmerjchanikov
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Kevin Ong
-Corporal Daniel Jackson
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko
-Private Joseph Scott
-Private Terra Fleche
-Private Atzel Evander <<NPC>>

Enemy casualties:
-4 API soldiers (confirmed killed)
-3 Black Spear soldiers (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Atzel Evander: severe surgical incisions made by the API and frequent electroshocks which have left her severely weakened. Recommend at least one weeks rehabilitation.)
-2 X-Com soldiers injured (Daniel Jackson: broken right organic leg; Joseph Scott: fusion blast injury at his left leg)
-1 X-Com soldier captured (Colonel Brad Cyriacus)

Recovered technology:
-API data disks
-Nephilim suit

Promotions:

-Private Joseph Scott promoted to the rank of Corporal for extraordinary bravery in the line of fire.

-Private Terra Fleche promoted to the rank of Corporal for excellent service to X-Com as a combat medic.

<<And there it is. >>

<<Well, this week's mission was labeled as one thing and turned out to be quite something else, also with the first ever mechanical X-Com unit deployed ......and subsequently also destroyed . Read on. >>

Date: May 26th 2067 <<August 10th 2003>>

Mission codename: Sniffing the Foul

Pre-mission intelligence and preparations:

Preliminary data about the API, that was forwarded by the Commander, revealed to X-Com that the API had managed to establish a base covertly on Arkunis IV on the other side of the planet than the one where NAO was located and on desert terrain. The GPS sattelites therefore began scanning the rough coordinates, that the Commander had provided, and after a few hours it had detected several patterns that indicated a camouflaged base in that region.

A scouting mission was therefore immediately in order. A team was to head out towards that area so as to investigate it and hopefully pinpoint the bases location. Once found they were to accumulate as much info as they possibly could about it including everything, from Ascadian personnel stationed there to vehicles and equipment, and then report back to base. All personnel would therefore posses Basic Suits except for Lieutenant Kacur who would lead the mission. Armaments and weapons were also to be of the lightest nature. The first of the experimental Heavy Weapons Platforms would also accompany the team, but would not be used in the mission itself. Rather it would be tested near the Avenger by personnel for rough field results, thereby saving the engineering teams the time they would need to recreate desert terrains at NAO.

Combat report:

After a low approach by the Avenger towards the base, which included it heading through a desert canyon so as to avoid any detection, the team was deployed some 5 kilometres away from the base. Upon deployment the Lieutenant ordered Sergeant Yorke, Corporal Necro and Private Ilyuschenko to remain at the Avenger and test the HWP platform whilst he would lead the rest of the team towards the API base.

Managing to penetrate towards the inner perimiter of the base the team saw a single guard patrolling around a dune and guarding the entrance to the base. Moving towards him as he turned away and went behind the dune the team tried to use their knives to silently dispatch him, but at that point another guard appeared from the back and was alerted by the X-Com team's sounds. However thanks to a stone being thrown by Sergeant Ong the team avoided detection by that guard. But the other one that was guarding the gate just came from behind the dune and would almost spot Corporal Scott had he not assaulted him with his knife. After some more help from Corporal Fleche the guard went down, but in doing so they made quite some noise which alerted the previous guard that was behind the team. At that point Sergeant Howardson decided to open fire with his Laser Pistol and was followed closely by Lieutenant Kacur. However the beams were spotted by other guards elswhere and the alarm was raised in the API base.

However the alarms were apparently also raised because of an incoming Black Spear assault transport that had somehow managed to avoid detection to Arkunis IV. It began descending at the bases perimiter and was apparently poised to assault the API base itself. Landing near the team however they also opened fire on X-Com and Lieutenant Kacur immediately called for reinforcements from the team at the Avenger. After a severe battle the team arrived and began providing covering fire for the Lieutenant's team as they egressed out of the area and towards the Avenger so as to abort the mission.

As they arrived at the craft however the HWP was lost due to a new type of Ascadian weaponry being used by the Black Spear that was quite similar to a rocket launcher, albiet firing solid beams with some kinds of explosive properties. That same weapon was also powerful enough to severely damage one of the Avenger's engines and it wasn't until the team deployed all of their grenades at the enemy that the Avenger could finnaly safely dust off and escape. The mission was more or less failed as no significant information was recovered about the base itself.

Statistics:

X-Com personnel present:
-Lieutenant Martin Kacur
-Senior Sergeant Ned Yorke
-Sergeant Kevin Ong
-Sergeant Samuel Howardson
-Corporal Andy Necro
-Corporal Joseph Scott
-Corporal Terra Fleche
-Private Roel Ilyuschenko
-Heavy Weapons Platform (Tank/Cannon) <<Derrick Ko a.k.a. DragonHawk>>

Enemy casualties:
-2 API soldiers (confirmed killed)
-8 Black Spear soldiers (confirmed killed)

Friendly casualties:
-1 X-Com soldier heavily injured (Kevin Ong: large superficial gash at his right stomach part along with internal bleeding)
-2 X-Com soldiers somewhat injured (Roel Ilyuschenko: fusion wound at his left shoulder area; Andy Necro: a somewhat deep knife wound at his back from an accidental throw by Sergeant Howardson)
-1 X-Com soldier lightly injured (Terra Fleche: a light fragmentation wound at her right shoulder)
-1 Heavy Weapons Platform (Tank/Cannon) (confirmed completely destroyed)

Recovered technology: none

Promotions: none

<<Our first mission with a HWP and it gets blown to peices. Heh, fun >>

<<This next couple of de-briefs come straight from Dragon Hawk. >>

Mission: The Team must enter a Black Spear under water base and extract information from the base computers as to their actions against the API organization.

The Mission, summed up:

1. E'Colus drops X-com into water.

2. X-Com swims down, assaulted by all manners of marine life (electric eels, or something of this nature).

3. X-Com locates entryway - the base reactor's exhaust line.

4. Yorke and Kacur undo the grate, reactor exhausts - 15 minutes until the next exhaust.

5. X-Com scoots in, undoing another grate on the way. Yorke, in his uber-skinniness, gets past the two people ahead of him.

6. Ilyuschenko pops the hatch of the subtank - X-Com enters the reactor room.

7. Reactor room is empty. Argument ensues as to where to go next.

8. Team 1 under both officers moves to attack the security area. The assault is successful - they capture some of the information that they are looking for.

8. Team 2 attacks the command centre, and captures two enemies after a brief firefight.

9. Both teams fall back to the hangar bay and leave.

Mission: The team must locate and destroy an enemy Ascadian munitions stockpile.

Description:

Aerial reconnaissance was conducted by Pilot Evander and Co-Pilot Scott over the target area. Radar/radio sensors were ineffective at locating the stockpile, but IR scanners showed a sizable heat source underneath the largest hill in the area.

The hill and surroundings were inspected upon arrival, and were determined to be artificial in nature. A cairn on the top of the hill provided a marker for the base, as well as an entry mechanism. Activating the cairn opened the entrance to the subterranean warehouse through a nearby smaller hill.

Contact was made shortly after entry. An unsecure area for temporary storage was guarded by two warriors and two automated gatling lasers. All threats were eliminated - the gatling lasers by distracting the turrets in order for Private Goorit to shoot critical components, and the guards via ranged combat and psionics.

Entry into the warehouse proper was attempted but prematurely ended by contact with another Ascidian squad. A combination of rifle fire and grenades reduced the threat, but the grenades set off secondary explosions that resulted in the release of liquid fuels.

X-Com chose at this point to exit the facility. The stockpile was destroyed when the base' hydrogen compressor caught on fire and exploded.

<<Again, Dragon Hawk should be credited with these. In the future I'll do my best to live up to Loonie's quality and detailed de-briefs and not just have someone else do them. >>

<<I had hoped to have gotten this finished a couple days ago, but school and a few other things decided to simultaneously arise to muck up my plans. So here it is! Enjoy...>>

Mission File: 2067-06-12-C-B00

Operation Date: June 12, 2067

Background: The destruction of such a major munitions stockpile has hurt Black Spear efforts on Arkunis IV. One of the less disciplined bands has panicked and taken matters into their own hands. They have taken over a small farming community by the equator and are demanding weaponry, money, and a ship out of system, the location to be announced later. What they do not realize is that the High Council will not negotiate with these terrorists on Arkunis IV. They are willing to risk lives in order to remove the threat.

Mission Objectives: Alpha Squad is to enter the village and assault the rebels. Primary objective is to remove the threat to the villagers, the second is the capture of leading members of the organization.

Expected Resistance: The band is known, as of the previous month, to be at a strength of thirty members. Few are from the military; most are merely disgruntled citizens. Regardless, all will be armed with rifles and other firearms; plasma or fusion weaponry is not to be expected in large quantities.

De-Brief: The X-COM detachment was split into two teams and brought, via a pair of Ascadian APCs, undetected into the general viccinity of the Ascadian village. After the dropoff, Sergeant Howardson ordered the two teams split up into different directions, sending Doctor Yorke's team to converge on the village from the East and his own to approach from the west.

Sergeant Howardon's team approached the village uneventfully, stopping at the outskirts and spotting three Black Spear rudimentary guard towers. With the combined effort of Private Goorit's scouting and Private Ilyuschenko's psionic scans, the majority of the Black Spear's contingent was uncovered, including the Black Spear commanding officer's position inside the village central building complete with numerous hostages. An attack was not an option, as the Black Spear Terrorists were very nervous and would likely respond to anything unexpected with shooting the hostages. Private Ilyuschenko had then attempted to mind control the Black Spear leader, when suddenly some gunshots were heard from Team 2's (Dr. Yorke's team) location. This caused a group of eight Black Spears to investigate, making the village defenses that much weaker. At that point Private Ilyuschenko had managed to fully mind control the Leader and had ordered him to send the troops guarding inside the central building to move outside and in the guard towers to "Watch for enemy targets". Black Spear terrorists still infested a number of the small structures around the central building, each with hostages of their own. At that point, Sergeant Howardson ordered Private Ilyuschenko to mind control a Black Spear grunt in one of the small structures to open fire on it's own comrades, it was a success, causing the Black Spears in the other buildings to run over after hearing the fusion shots and enter the the building.

Sergeant Howardson immediatly ordered a full frontal attack. Taking the Black Spears by surprise, Corporal Necro snapped off an HE round from his Autocannon at the base of one of the guard towers causing it to explode into splinters killing the Ascadians inside and some on the ground. The Black Spear Terrorists had begun converging on Team 1's position in full force, coming out of the buildings and leaving the hostages behind. Another shot from Necro managed to blow up six Ascadians, while fifteen more approached several others were killed with the combined firepower of Sergeant Howardson and Privates Goorit and Ilyuschenko. The two sides were then locked in a stationary shootout behind the cover of the planet's flora and rocks... Until a group of five Ascadians came running nuttily out of cover into one of Corporal Necro's grenades... Bringing their offensive number down to ten. Suddenly the Ascadians had spotted Private Goorit perched on a high tree with his sniper rifle, and attempted to shoot the tree down with their projectile weapons. Private Goorit had managed to snipe a single Ascadian before recieving a projectile wound in his leg, causing him to collapse and almost fall out of the tree. At that point, Sergeant Howardson and Corporal Necro had managed to take down three more Ascadians with armor piercing fire, and Private Goorit was somehow able to snipe down a fourth Ascadian.

With just five Ascadians remaining, the shootout continued for quite some time, both sides trenched in the ground and only succeeding in wasting a significant amount of ammo. Until suddenly the team had discovered a group of Ascadians attempting to flank them from the right, and had managed to shoot down all except one of them which threw his weapon down and surrendered. As well as the three remaining Ascadians entrenched earlier. The entire force had thrown down their weapons and had given up. Sergeant Howardson had then contacted Team 2 and had confirmed the mission to be a success then called in the Allied Ascadian APC vehicles to pick up the four surrendered Black Spears...

While Sergeant Howardson's team moved in the west, Dr. Yorke's team moved through the forest in the East. Their trek was uneventful for several minutes until they were 30 meters from the edge of the woods. At that point both Corporal Scott and Private Skitzo detected three contacts on scanners, closing in on their location from straight ahead. The team had gone into cover, taking up ambush positions in preparation... Their suspicions were soon confirmed as a trio of armed Black Spear Ascadians had come into view. They had not yet noticed the squad of X-COM soldiers in the trees and had begun socializing with one another. It was decided to take down the two targets with stealth, and the team had begun converging on the Ascadian's position by strategically surrounding them. As the team got into their respective positions, the three Ascadians had gotten into a mild argument and were almost at one anothers throats. Private Rallwell had taken this opportunity to approach the closer Ascadian with a can of bugspray, which she happened to have with her at the time, with the intention of blinding them with the somewhat deadly poison allowing the team to take them down without a sound. However, as she got close, one Ascadian took a few steps back and accidently bumped right into Private Rallwell, causing it to jump back in surprise as it saw the human standing there. Wasting no time, Private Rallwell unleashed the painful poisonous contents of the bugspray into the Ascadian's eyes, causing it to drop it's weapon and grasp it's face in pain. At that point, Corporal Fléche had leapt from behind cover, brandishing her standard X-COM combat knife, and slit the throat of one of the other surprised Ascadians before they could react. The third, yet unharmed, Ascadian attempted to fire on Corporal Fléche, but the combination between her quick reflexes and a burst of laser shots from Corporal Scott caused the Ascadian to miss and fall dead. The blinded Ascadian thrashes around a bit, but is eventually downed as Private Rallwell administered a brutal beating over it's head with the bugspray and gave it a good kick in the groin to pacify it, whilst Private Skitzo had run over to slice it open at knife-point.

The commotion of the battle aroused suspicion in the village, as some voices from the village could be heard by the team. Noticing this, everyone quickly went back under cover. Private Skitzo then checked his motion scanner, finding a total of eight contacts approaching their location. After the team managed to take cover once more, they found the contacts to be another eight Black Spear soldiers, and they had spotted the dead bodies from before and had begun searching the area for hostiles. Dr. Yorke then ordered the team to open fire, which no one wasted time in doing... The Black Spear expedition was quickly overtaken, as the combined fire of Corporals Jackson, Scott, Fléche, and Private Skitzo had sent a half dozen Ascadians dead onto their backs. In the shootout Private Rallwell had primed a smoke grenade and thrown it amidst the confused Black Spears, causing the last two to become disoriented and take cover. However, one of them managed to see well enough through the smoke to aim it's projectile weapon on Corporal Jackson and land a jolly good shot right in the poor guy's right arm, but it was promptly downed by gunfire from Corporal Fléche. A frag grenade from Corporal Scott also managed to eliminate the last surviving Ascadian. After, a brief recover from the incident, no more motion was detected nearby on the scanners. That said, the team finally progressed to the village.

Dr. Yorke's team had decided to clear one of the smaller buildings containing contacts before proceeding to the main central building containing the bulk of the Ascadian hostages. Corporal Scott was the first on the scene, breaking into the front door with Private Skitzo following close behind. No hostile contacts were found, just a number of hostages huddled together in a group. After the building was secured, Corporal Jackson and Fléche calmed the hostages down and led them out into the woods to safety. Dr. Yorke then ordered the main Central building to be motion scanned, while Private Skitzo complied Corporal Scott wasted little time and immediatly moved to the Central Building entrance. Kicking the door in, Corporal Scott barely managed to dodge a sudden blast from an Ascadian projectile gun and one of the two Black Spear terrorists inside shouted out that they would kill the hostages should the "humans" foolishly enter.

The team soon regrouped right outside the Central Building, it was determined that a diversion was needed if they were to wrest the hostages away from their captors. Corporal Scott volunteered to go inside unarmed and negotiate with the Black Spears, and did so after authorization from Dr. Yorke. Corporal Scott, claiming he could pilot a ship for them to leave safely, was accepted inside and put with the hostages. Meanwhile, Private Skitzo had fixed some frag grenades in the side of the building with the intention of blowing a hole inside while Private Rallwell prepared a smoke grenade beside the building entrance. Soon, Corporal Scott gave the signal by requesting the Avenger to be brought to the building, Dr. Yorke gave the go and Private Skitzo detonated his grenades from a safe distance, blasting a big hole in the side of the building. The two terrorists were shocked by the sudden 'boom' and were distracted long enough for Scott to engage one in hand-to-hand combat. Then the sudden combination of Private Rallwell's smoke grenade and a stun bomb launched by Dr. Yorke sent all the occupants of the room unconscious, including Corporal Scott, however Corporal Jackson had run in through the new door a little too hasty and shot one of the Ascadian Terrorists in the head on it's way to the ground. Also, despite it being a decent POW, Private Skitzo had approached the unconscious body of the last remaining terrorist and delivered a final bullet into it's brain, killing it.

In the end, all the hostages were saved. And all surviving Black Spear terrorists captured and accounted for.

**MISSION COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY**

Participating X-COM Officers:
Sergeant Howardson
Sergeant Yorke
Corporal Jackson
Corporal Scott
Corporal Fléche
Corporal Necro
Private Skitzo
Private Rallwell (AKA Saber Warrior)
Private Goorit

Enemy Casualties:
26 Black Spear Terrorists, confirmed KIA.
4 Black Spear Terrorists, taken prisoner.

Friendly Casualties:
Corporal Jackson, a projectile wound to right arm. Minor.
Private Goorit, a projectile wound to right leg. Minor

Recovered Technology:
A number of Ascadian projectile/fusion weapons.

Promotions:
None.

End of Report.

<<THERE! Finally done. I am compelled to point out though, that this was, needless to say, a split sim due to large attendance. Yet despite that we STILL only had one GM, Ghost. While I must say he did a good job keeping things in as much order as he did, but I also noticed he was pretty stretched throughout the mission. Was that big topic on oversized sims a couple weeks ago just a big farce? I was under the impression that we were to have separate GMs for split sims... Well anyways...>>

Mission File:
Resourcefulness.

Operation Date:
N/A

Background:
Due to low resources in NAO, the team must head to the excavation site to extract more minerals. As it is possible that hostiles may be in the area due to the increased API/BS activity, full weapon kits will be brought. The team will be brought to Objective Alpha in a K3 transport with all necessary equipment.

Mission Objectives:
To extract the primary resources, titanium, aluminum and iron.

Expected Resistance:
Possible, yet unlikely contact with API/BS or Arkunian Dinosaurs.

De-Brief:
On a clear, sunny, warm, and humid day, the present X-COM team emerged from the forest aboard an Ascadian Unarmored Personel Carrier. (The civilian issue UPC was used because all the standard APCs were in the shop. ) The team surveyed the mountainous area through the windows of the UPC, also spying the cave not far ahead of them. The UPC soon stopped in front of the mine cave, and the team exited to secure the area only to be interrupted by a sudden short tremor in the ground. The team was left a bit confused, since there were no reports of such seismic activity before... But the questions were suddenly answered, as a loud roaring sound (Indicating a very big creature) came from the forest in the distance. Confusion was turned into mild fear, as the team drew their weapons in the direction of the sudden roar... Private Xiggores, however, cared little what the roar was and began firing his X-COM Rifle in it's direction, likely informing it of the team's presence if it hadn't known already. Doctor Yorke moved in and quickly disarmed Private Xiggores of his firearm, throwing it to the ground and reprimanding him accordingly.

Then out of the blue, the trees in the distance had started shaking and toppling. And out emerged a gigantic helluva tough Arkunian T-Rex, it had certainly spotted the team and had begun to charge for them. At the sight of it, the entire team raised their weapons, letting loose a massive barrage of gunfire in the dinosaur's direction... Except for Private Xiggores who ran away screaming in the other direction... A number of direct hits were made on the T-Rex, but it's hide was unnaturally tough and deflected the bullets with ease. Commander Weindhoven had then called a full retreat back into the UPC, seeing it was useless to combat the beast with conventional weaponry. Everyone had managed to make it back aboard save for Private Xiggores, who had run off in fear, and Private McBannok, who tripped over a rock onto his face. Commander Weindhoven had recalled Private Xiggores back to the UPC and had run over to help up Private McBannok. As the three finally reentered the UPC with the rest of the squad it was too late, the T-Rex had closed in and rammed the UPC, sending it tumbling into the mine. The squad inside tumbled about like clothes in a washing machine, smacking into each other and the onboard furnishing. The UPC eventually came to rest, the team was battered and bruised now and needed an emergency extraction. Commander Weindhoven then ordered an immediate distress signal to the Ascadians in orbit around the planet, which was promptly done by Sergeant Howardson on the UPC radio. Meanwhile, as the team got their bearings straight, the T-Rex had rampaged into the cave roaring. Private McBannok reacted quickly, bring his rifle to bear and planting a single shot in the eye, somehow managing to hit a critical part of the Dinosaur's brain causing it to collapse lifelessly on the ground. The now dead T-Rex was then followed in by eight Arkunian Raptors which immediately stopped at the cave entrance, the X-COM team retreated further into the mine while shooting back, but the swift maneuvers of the Raptors was a little too much for anyone to land a single shot. The Raptors decided to then split up, five of them went running off into different sections of the cavern and disappeared while three just charged right for the team, roaring in their own ferocious way. Privates Stax and Goorit had halted their retreat and turned to fire on the pursuing dinosaurs, along with Doctor Yorke who took a kneeling position and fired as well. The Privates each managed to knock a Raptor dead, while Yorke only managed to tag one in the leg sending it skidding forward onto the ground on it's side. Despite the hostiles being down and out, Private Xiggores had continued his retreat into the mine, forcing Private Stax to run him down and tackle him. After a brief struggle between the two, Private Stax eventually released Private Xiggores, and were promptly interrupted by the screams of an Ascadian from deep within the mine accompanied by the familiar sound of fusion gunfire. The team prepared themselves and got into covering positions aimed at the sounds of screaming and fusion shots, soon finding an API soldier running out from the shadows while shooting behind him... Not yet noticing the squad of X-COM troops it ran right into Corporal Jackson before anyone could react, sending both parties onto the ground. The Ascadian recovered but accidentally dropped it's fusion weapon, Corporal Jackson also recovered but it took a few seconds for him to return to reality after the sudden collision.

Commander Weindhoven ordered the team to reassume firing positions while Sergeant Howardson held the retreating API at gunpoint and interrogated it as to what it was doing there. Sadly, all Sergeant Howardson could divulge was that the "Dinosaurs were eating the Ascadians" and that "They needed help." However, it was only to keep the Sergeant preoccupied in thought, as the Ascadian leapt out of his reach and retreated into the shadows, only to get it's head bitten off by a Raptor that suddenly emerged from the darkness. Privates Goorit, Bradly, and Stax opened fire on the Raptor instinctively, Private Goorit managed a good head shot while Private Bradly tagged it several times in the legs... Private Stax's aim was hindered, however, as Private Xiggores had clung onto his arms in fear. A mild argument then brewed between Privates Goorit, Stax, and Xiggores as to the young scientist's competence in the field... As the rest of the team attempted to get their bearings straight, Private Bradly got a gut feeling of danger and was suddenly ambushed by a big ferocious Raptor from behind the ruined UPC. The entire team was ready this time, and let loose a rain of bullets onto the Raptor, turning it into red chunks of flesh, unfortunately a shot to the jaw sent one of it's teeth tearing into Corporal Fléche's leg in a painful freak incident. It was then, after some more slander from his team mates, the Private Xiggores finally announced he was in possession of a Motion Scanner and activated it.

As Doctor Yorke moved over to tend to Corporal Fléche's wounds, Private Xiggores detected contacts all around the team in the darkness of the cave. It was safe to assume that they were now surrounded, and as a hiss came from the darkness Private Xiggores dropped the scanner to the ground in panic, causing the device to break into pieces. Another five Raptors emerged from the darkness charging for the team, the entire team opened fire, Sergeant Howardson wasn't quick enough however, as a Raptor charged and head butted him into the UPC before he could react. Private Xiggores finally gained the courage to fight back, but being unarmed he attempted to hit an oncoming Raptor with a high kick to the head only to get his left foot bitten right off. Unlike the rest, Corporal Jackson raised his weapon in time to gun down a Raptor running towards him and Private Goorit managed to take another two down while covering Corporal Fléche. A quick shot from Private Stax managed to take down the Raptor over Private Xiggores, Corporal Jackson turned his fire and gunned down Sergeant Howardson's Raptor just before it could to bite his head off.

At this point, Doctor Yorke had finished with Corporal Fléche's wounded leg and immediately moved over to Private Xiggores' severed foot, placing it in a containment unit to preserve it and began applying pain killers and other crap to his leg stump. Meanwhile, the rest of the team hears the sound of armored footsteps and screaming Ascadians from within the cave once again, slowly getting louder, indicating they were getting closer. It wasn't long before four API soldiers ran into view, obviously running from something else, into the squad of X-COM soldiers. Yet another Raptor leapt from the darkness onto one of the running Ascadians, pinning it to the ground and devouring it's raw flesh as another jumped out taking down yet another Ascadian to the ground. Doctor Yorke expedited bandaging Private Xiggores wound, and Private Stax ran over and dragged the crippled scientist to safety behind a rock near the UPC. Private Goorit and Corporal Jackson opened fire on the two Raptors tearing apart the API soldiers, each taking one out as the rest of the team was uncertain whether they should open fire or not. The two remaining Ascadian APIs stood in place, staring horrified in the general direction of the squad. At first it was assumed that they were surprised at being saved by a bunch of 'humans' but then one of them pointed behind the squad at the UPC wreckage.

Commander Weindhoven had turned around to look at the UPC, only to come face-to-face with another Raptor just inches away. It was suddenly knocked down before a reaction could be made, by pistol fire from Private Xiggores. Just in time for the Allied Ascadian E'Colus transport to land right outside the cave entrance. The team's comm. system cackled with an Ascadian voice indicating that their evacuation service had arrived. At that, the whole team abandoned the mission and boarded the E'Colus... But not before a small team of Ascadian demolitionists rigged the entrance of the mine to explode and collapse in on itself with a "Thermonuclear Boom."

The team escaped, the mine blown up. The mission was a brutal failure.

**MISSION COMPLETED UNSUCCESSFULLY**

Participating X-COM Officers:
Commander Weindhoven
Sergeant Howardson
Sergeant Yorke
Corporal Fléche
Corporal Jackson
Private Bradly
Private McBannok (AKA Saber Warrior)
Private Goorit. (Promoted to Corporal)
Private Stax
Private Xiggores

Enemy Casualties:
13 Arkunian Raptors, confirmed KIA.
1 Arkunian Tyrannosaurus Rex, unconfirmed KIA.
3 API Soldiers, confirmed KIA.
2API Soldiers, Confirmed KIA.

Friendly Casualties:
Private Xiggores, severe leg trauma from Raptor bite. Left foot severed from main body. Critical, patient expected to receive prosthetic replacement.
Corporal Fléche, flying Raptor tooth wound in left leg. Minor.
The rest of the team received minor bruising from the tumble of the UPC early in the mission. Insignificant.
Sergeant Howardson, mild concussion from being thrusted head-first into a UPC. Minor.


Recovered Technology:
None.

Lost Equipment:
One Ascadian Unarmored Personel Carrier, crippled by Dinosaur attack. (Annihilated by "Thermonuclear Boom".)
Private Xiggores, one Motion Scanner shattered on the ground due to impulsive nervous behaviour, one X-COM standard Rifle disarmed by Sergeant Yorke, one basic Vacc. Suit discarded due to excessive amount of human waste found inside afterwards...



Promotions:
Private Goorit, promoted to Corporal for excellent performance in the field of battle.

<<Phew, woulda had this here done this afternoon. But, if you've tried, you should know what it's like trying to run the same word file on two completely different word programs, apparently they decided that saving much more than a quarter of the text was unnecessary and filtered it out. *Sigh* Anyways...>>

Mission File: Diverted Route

Operation Date:
N/A

Background:
Ascidian High Command has received intelligence that the aliens are planning an assault on the Ascidian homeworld's capital, The city of Ascidia. The civilians are being evacuated, however many will still remain in the city. However, they also received information that Black Spear Warships were to intercept a convoy of API warships at almost identical times. However, AHC has notified us that our presence will be required to defend Ascidia, along with the Red Skulls and General Asicidan Forces, while the Black Skull squadron will attempt to engage both the API and BS ships in an attempt to disable them all. This seems a coordinated attack by both the aliens, and between the BS and API. The motives are not yet understood.

Mission Objectives:
To defend the city of Ascidia and it's inhabitants. Minimise damage to city and civilian casualties.

Expected Resistance:
Unknown planetary incursion forces, probable alien terror units.

De-Brief:
The team was brought to Ascidia <<You have no idea how badly I was tempted to call it "Ascadia". >> via an E'Colus transport to the spaceport. Commander Weindhoven had given the 'in-mission' briefing with a computer map display, indicating that they were to accompany a small squadron of Ascadian soldiers to a certain position. At which point the team disembarked, the Ascadian partner team came running in on cue, and Commander Weindhoven had suddenly received a surprise message from Sergeant Ong of Kappa Team (Which was on-world at the time for a separate matter.) informing him that Kappa was on the way to help out. After some idle chatter back and forth between Alpha and Kappa Team, there was a sudden interrupting explosion at the other side of the city. Alpha decided to move on ahead to the explosion to see what was up, letting Kappa catch up via a freefall from a VTOL transport. A UFO was sighted as the team approached the earlier explosion, bearing witness to a bombing run, and discovering a transport UFO land not 500 meters away.

Alpha, Kappa, and the Ascadian Regular Forces had taken cover positions in preparation for whatever may exit the UFO. "Gray" things and Snakemen came running/slithering out of the ship and moving into the alleyways of Ascadian buildings and taking defensive positions. All the while, Alien bombers made their runs across the city laying waste in their path as Ascadian Anti-Air guns returned fire. The combined power of Alpha, Kappa, and the Ascadians managed to take down a number of Chrysalids and Snakemen exiting the UFO transport, however most of the Chrysalids were missed that had ducked into the nearby alleys... Doctor Yorke then noticed a creme colored object hurtling toward him, confused at first, the Doctor suddenly recalled a memory from his training and dodged the object, judging it to be a Blaster Bomb, as it flew past and completely destroyed a building behind the team. Private Bradly attempted to shoot down the object before it hit the building, but it only distracted him long enough for a Chrysalid to sneak up on one of the Ascadians covering him and jam it's mouth into the poor Git's chest. If things weren't bad enough, an Alien bomb had suddenly landed on a very close by building causing a massive explosion, momentarily distracting the squad from their train of thought. Private Bradly was thinking clear enough to shoot the nearby Chrysalid's head off though, leaving the ravaged Ascadian dead on the ground. Private Bradly then administered a few shots to the Ascadian's corpse to ensure that it didn't hatch into a baby Chrysalid.

Snakeman "Launchereers" had then taken position in front of the UFO transport, sending a single Blaster Bomb into the fray of Ascadian regulars. The regulars all managed to duck and cover to avoid the blast, save for one that froze and was caught in the core of the Blaster Bomb explosion. Commander Weindhoven then ordered that the team would have to advance in on the UFO transport to take out the "Launchereers", the team complied and slowly advanced towards the ship as UFOs bombed the area, sending yet another building down in flames. The team laid down heavy suppressive fire on their way, and the Snakeman numbers began to dwindle from the hail of bullets. A retaliatory shot came from one of the Snakemen, landing a plasma cloud right in Commander Weindhoven's leg, it didn't penetrate the armor unfortunately... I mean fortunately ... And the good Commander was unhurt.

Ever so slowly, the team managed to get within 250 meters of the transport, yet as the Commander tried to recover from his Plasma hit a Chrysalid leapt off of the roof of a nearby building, tackling him to the ground. Private Bradly managed to catch the Chrysalid off guard with a few shots from his rifle before it could make Commander Weindhoven the mother of it's children. Another Blaster Bomb was shot from a Snakeman "Launchereer" that exterminated a number of Ascadians and sent the Commander and Private Bradly flying a good 250 meters into the UFO transport's hull, leaving the rest of the team behind. Commander Weindhoven banged his head pretty hard on the ship and quickly fell into unconsciousness, while Private Bradly merely received minor bruising and aches. Corporal Fléche attempted to run to their aid, but was readily intercepted by a line of 5 Chrysalids. Corporal Fléche managed to gun down a couple Chrysalids, while Lance Corporal Ko downed the other three from afar. Doctor Yorke and Corporal Fléche had run to Private Bradly and Commander Weindhoven's aid, as 15 young Ascadian children suddenly ran out into the crossfire of the battlefield for no reason. The team had become hesitant in their fire, but the enemy Snakemen mercilessly continued shooting. 3 of the dumb Ascadian children were vaporized by plasma clouds. Corporal Fléche and Doctor Yorke had begun treating Private Bradly and Commander Weindhoven when suddenly another building exploded nearby, sending the team under even more pressure.

Lance Corporal Ko attempted to get the Ascadian regulars under control by sorting out their Commanding Officer in order to gain an advantage, but to little avail as they all replied at the same time confusing the poor Lance Corporal. All of a sudden, yet another Blaster Bomb is fired by the "Launchereers" at the Ascadian children, whom decided that it was a good idea to hide out in the middle of the street. Sergeant Ong, however, managed to catch the bomb off guard with a miraculous display of marksmanship by shooting down the Bomb en route, saving all the children. All the while, Corporal Fléche finally managed to take Commander Weindhoven out of unconsciousness and Doctor Yorke diagnosed Private Bradly with a broken arm. Commander Weindhoven, while fighting off minor sleep sickness, suddenly found 4 Chrysalids charging for Corporal Fléche and kicked her to the ground causing one to slam against the hull of the ship, in her tumble Corporal Fléche managed to down two of the Chrysalids with her rifle, the one that hit the ship, and one that was charging for her. The last two decided to alter their objective and began running for Doctor Yorke and Private Bradly. Corporal Fléche, however, managed to take down another Chrysalid with her rifle, sending it right into it's partner, impaling it.

Then, completely out of the blue, one of the Snakemen "Launchereers" misfired a Blaster Bomb from inside the ship, sending it packing into the inner hull of the craft and blowing a great big hole around the ship entrance. Meanwhile, yet another Chrysalid appeared from the alleyways and charged for the Ascadian children still huddled in the middle of the street, but fortunatly it spontaneously combusted before reaching them. <<Lucky buggers.>>

Fire from an Ascadian Anti-Air turret somewhere in the city had suddenly flakked a UFO out of the sky, sending it careening towards the X-COM and Ascadian team near the UFO transport. The team immediately took up shelter inside the UFO transport, where a wounded Snakeman "Launchereer" was found and killed by Private Bradly. The UFO crashed, sending a violent tremor inside the transport causing everyone to fall onto their backs. As they got back up, a Chrysalid leapt from the shadowy corridors of the UFO and tackled Lance Corporal Ko to the ground. Corporal Fléche ran over to bash the Chrysalid over the head as Sergeant Ong drew his saber on it and impaled the creature before it could impregnate Lance Corporal Ko... But not before stabbing his leg. Corporal Fléche had begun tending the Lance Corporal Ko's intense leg wound as 6 Ascadian Regulars had run into the ship, covering the squad from the aliens outside. After a brief conversation between the Commander and one of the Ascadians, it was discovered that the Alien invaders had begun pulling back and were in full retreat. Commander Weindhoven ordered the team to return to the Spaceport.

As everyone slowly and cautiously stumbled back in the opposite direction, Sergeant Ong was in the lead and spied a strange 1.2 meter tall alien walking to a building in the distance. The rest of the squad got a good look at it before it discovered their presence and turned around to escape. Corporal Fléche managed to get a running head start though, moving a good 60 meters chasing down the Alien, and tackling it to the ground. Doctor Yorke soon arrived, as Corporal Fléche struggled with the creature on the ground, and injected the alien with a heavy sedative to knock it out. The two then picked up the alien, each grabbing an end to carry it due to the lack of a mobile stretcher.

Alpha Team eventually made it back to the Space Port and boarded an Ascadian starship. Kappa and the Regulars broke off the group for their own reasons. And the mission was, surprisingly, a success.

**MISSION COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY**

Participating X-COM Officers:
Commander Weindhoven
Sergeant Ong
Sergeant Yorke
Corporal Fléche
Lance Corporal Ko
Private Bradly

Enemy Casualties:
Uncertain, mop up operation still in progress. <<Count the kills more, Mouse! >>

Friendly Casualties:
Private Bradly, mild concussion from hard thrust into UFO Hull as well as a mild bone fracture in right arm. Wounded. Subject estimated to require one week before recovering to full combat status.
Lance Corporal Ko, severe trauma to right leg, minor bone fractures on shin and upper leg. Wounded. Subject will be staying on Ascidia for treatment.
Commander Weindhoven, mild concussion from hard thrust into UFO Hull. Also received a slight plasma burn on left leg. Minor.

Recovered Technology:
Undetermined number of Blaster Bomb Launchers and Blaster Bombs.
Undetermined number of Plasma Rifles and Plasma Rifle Clips.
1 unknown alien body, alive and unconscious.

Lost Equipment:
None.

Promotions:
None.

<<For the record, ahem, between the exploding Chrysalid, Snakeman "Launchereers", and Svengali's new profession, it took an extraordinary amount of willpower to keep myself from making this de-brief ten times sillier than it is now. Skonar would've had a ball with this one I'd bet.>>

<<I almost forgot about doing this. Luckily somebody left me a good reminder. >>

Mission File:
2067-06-28-C-B00

Operation Date:
28 June 2067

Background:
The capture of key personality Ula'da'nor and other ranking officials has been a boon to our efforts against the entrenched API on Ascidia. The many military and civilian officials whom were marked as API collaborators have decided that it is not in their best interests to stay in the Ascidian capital. A number of them, including the opposition's deputy and the commander of the 8th Royal Ascidian Combat Regiment, have fled to the Norhern Continent under the cover of the alien raid to await pickup by API forces.

The base itself is a recently decommissioned fortress. Designed to keep conventional intruders out, the base was home to all manners of experiments, both military and conventionally illegal. The base consisted of a building proper, housing the administration, and a network of caves below the mountain. The base fell into disuse after a newer, state of the art facility was build closer to the Northern Capital. API members reactivated this base as a last holding point for their important members. The base itself is known to contain a small shuttle landing pad and considerable hydroponics facilities. The government does not want its assets damaged, so has ordered infantry operations to commence.

Alpha Squad has a preliminary reconnaissance mission on the target. The base covers a rectangular area, roughly two hundred metres across the front and three under along the sides, with a wall height of one hundred metres at the highest. The mountain slopes up, so the wall at the rear is actually only forty metres high, despite being at the same level as the front. Four machine gun turrets were present on each of the rear, right, and left side walls, and three mounted turrets were present on the front of the base, with another two guarding the entrance proper. Each gun is powered and semi-smart - each gun has electronics capable of detecting movement. The capability of this equipment is not known, but the possibility for IFF identification is also a possibility.

Three major weaknesses in the base'defence were highlighted. First, the ground-based nests are vulnerable due to their fire control system. Severing the power link would disable the guns momentarily as the operators attempted to troubleshoot the problem. Second, the orifice on the side of the east wall, five metres from the ground, is weak enough that entry here should be gained quite easily, but the ultimate destination of this path is unknown. Third, some sort of previously stopped sewage containment or expulsion system was unleached, revealing a bath that moved far and deep into the base. Again, as before, the ultimate destination from this path is unknown.

Strike Teams 1 and 2 from Strike Base 1 will also be participating in this action. The resources of the 15th Royal Ascidian Combat Regiment (infantry, armour, artillery) and the 10th Bomber Wing will be available to the mission commander.

Mission Objectives:
Alpha Squad is to neutralize the API presence in the base. Capture of key personalities is considered a secondary goal, subject to the consideration of the team commanders.

Expected Resistance:
Resistance is expected to be heavy. The entire 8th Royal Combat is expected to be housed in the facility somewhere. It is likely that the tunnel system is heavily guarded. The base' many hydroponics systems are below the mountain, making their ability to hold there indefinite.

De-Brief:
The squad was separated into two teams from the start. Team One, head by Lieutenant Kacur, and Team Two, lead by Sergeant Howardson.

Team Two entered the base through the East. Approaching through the rocky landscape, they reached the wall of the base with little trouble as it appeared that the majority of the sentries were on the other side of the base. Up the jagged wall they located a sealed grating that lead inside, however it was rusted and weak. Sergeant Howardson ordered Private McBannok to kick it in, the Private followed his order but not without causing a very loud racket busting it in. With the grating opened, the team moved in, making it by the 10 meter thick walls through the narrow tunnel. Upon reaching the other end, two API patrols were spotted in the North West and South East patrolling in a counter clockwise rotation. Seeing a chance to make their move, Sergeant Howardson commanded his team to make a break for the northern entrance into the compound building, where they all took covering positions while Private McBannok began placing C6 charges along the entrance doors. However, someone must have spotted them as klaxon wails sounded throughout the base.

The southern patrol located the team at the doors and began charging for them. Corporal Goorit and Private Bradly had taken them out with sniper fire, giving their location away completely. At this, they retreated behind a small building on the east side of the base and set off the charges. The building entrance collapsed in on itself, sealing it off completely. 15 Ascadians were then found dotting the ground, moaning and screaming in pain from the explosion, likely some of which were from the second patrol. Sergeant Howardson and Private McBannok had aimed their weapons and slaughtered the defenseless, yet potentially dangerous, wounded Ascadians. At which point the 15th Ascadian unit had begun bombarding the front walls of the base with artillery and demolished it completely.

Once that was finished, Team Two regrouped with Team One in the main lobby of the central building. They spotted Sergeant Yorke and Corporal Fléche patrolling the second floor...

***

Team One moved into the base along the dry riverbed trench to the west of the API base, aiming to get inside via the main sewage system. However, halfway down the riverbed the team encountered a small degree of trouble as the base searchlights nearly caught sight of them, but luckily nobody managed to get caught and the searchlights had gone by causing little harm. As the team progressed further they finally made it inside the sewer system. The entire team trudged through it, knee deep in Ascadian crap, swearing and bumbling about how bad the smell was. I mean, have you ever thrown up in a toilet that didn't flush right and then suddenly had a turtle head poking out and had to go right then and there, and when you finished you hit the knob on the toilet, by reflex after forgetting it didn't work, and it shot out it's contents all over the place? Yeah, it was kinda like that.

After several minutes of cursing the grotesquery of the sewage and the Ascadian's probable eating habits, the team finally made it to their target: A line of orifices in the ceiling that was distributing this sewage into the corridor at random... Fortunately there was a maintenance door conveniently located just to the left end of the team, and they most certainly did not hesitate to use it. They left the sewage, still covered in crap, and entered into what seemed to be a janitorial room. The team quickly brushed all the crap off of their suits and progressed onward, leaving the room with expedience.

The reemerged outside within the Ascadian compound. After a few moments of chatter, Corporal Scott eventually scanned the area with his motion detector, sighting heavy contacts throughout the compound, including one that was servicing nearby vehicles. Private Chavez moved in and mind controlled the Ascadian, after some degree of resistance. With the Ascadian then under his control, Lieutenant Kacur ordered that the newly controlled creature take point ahead of the squad, replacing the current Scouts.

Private Chavez showed a remarkable degree of Psionic skill, as he managed to command the Ascadian to move into the main structure lobby and recklessly smash a camera to pieces. This gave the squad the opportunity to move in undetected, they quietly swarmed into the lobby as the controlled Ascadian remained completely docile. But as the team had gotten inside the lobby, an Ascadian security guard came down some stairs down a corridor, clearly curious as to what had happened to the camera. It was about to disperse the disobedient API soldier standing still, but suddenly the guard noticed numerous brownish, greenish, reddish, bluish, and orangish footprints tracked throughout the entrance of the lobby. The guard called in a security team via it's own communicator, which prompted Lieutenant Kacur and Corporal Scott into action. Lieutenant Kacur let off a salvo of bullets into the mind controlled Ascadian while Corporal Scott lunged at the guard with his knife, slitting it's throat nice and clean. At this point, klaxon alarms had sounded throughout the base, the team's cover was now blown.

The team had started a hasty search of the complex, but were instantly disrupted as a pair of Ascadian guards came running in through another door, accidentally running into and knocking down Lieutenant Kacur and themselves in the process. Lieutenant Kacur tried taking them on in melee with a knife, but they were too strong. However, support fire from both Corporal Scott and Corporal Jackson took the guards down quite easily. At that, the Lieutenant called the 15th Royal Combat Regiment to fire artillery shots at the front gates and commanded his squad to search the entire buildings for Ascadian VIPs. The team separated once again, sending Sergeant Yorke, Corporal Fléche, and Private Stax onto the second floor while everyone else took the ground floor.

Corporal Scott opened the first door and, aided by Private Chavez, managed to take a pair of Ascadians hostage. The rest of the ground floor team entered the room to find the API soldiers on their knees to them, however Corporal Scott had suddenly broke one of the Ascadian's ribs with a swift kick without a single warning, alerting Lieutenant Kacur to him. The Lieutenant then lost his temper with the Corporal and struck out against him with a hard strike to the face, sending the Corporal on his back. Corporal Scott didn't take kindly to this and attempting to take Lieutenant Kacur with his bare hands, but due to the Light Ferronium armor, Corporal Scott managed only to thrust him back with sheer momentum. Private Chavez intervened in the madness, grabbing Corporal Scott by his arms, but not before he could aim his pistol at the Lieutenant and fire off several shots deep into the Ferronium suit. Luckily the armor was thick enough to keep the bullets from puncturing it the whole way, and Lieutenant Kacur was able to disarm the frustrated Corporal before any more harm could be done. Lieutenant Kacur then ordered for the Artillery to hold fire and commence storming operations. A squad of Ascadians soon arrived inside the building to escort Corporal Scott off the premises for misconduct.

As that happened, Sergeant Yorke, Corporal Fléche, and Private Stax made it up to the second floor and spotted a pair of guards. Corporal Fléche took position behind Sergeant Yorke along with Private Stax as he readied his blaster launcher and knocked them both out with a well place blast right between them. Corporal Fléche quickly moved into the room where they emerged and made a quick sweep, finding nothing she then went back to the unconscious Ascadians laying on the ground only to fall to the ground by a sudden tremor caused by the artillery explosions outside. The windows in the room and across the corridor smashed open from the vibrations alone, disorienting the top floor team a bit. After some mild chatter between Sergeant Yorke and Corporal Fléche, they turned to the next door, not yet realizing that Private Stax was knocked unconscious from the artillery shockwave. As Corporal Fléche opened the door, she immediately came under fire from an Ascadian hiding behind a desk in fear. At which point, Team two had conveniently arrived, and Corporal Goorit "Randomly" made Corporal Fléche's location and stood by as her escort. The two opened fire at the cornered Ascadian, ripping it to shreds. After securing this room, they made their way over to the final room, where Corporal Fléche managed to convince Corporal Goorit to take point and move in first, which was a bit of a mistake. Corporal Goorit drew his pistol and kicked the door in, opening fire on an unarmed and cornered Ascadian sitting behind a desk. The poor innocent thing was slaughtered...

Lieutenant Kacur heard Corporal Fléche and Sergeant Yorke ridiculing Corporal Goorit for his mistake and immediately ran right up there to disarm the guy of his pistol, likely becoming tired of the senseless violence... Everyone, including Team two, had then regrouped once again on the ground floor, to investigate the final room in the complex. Private Chavez took point to open the door while Sergeant Yorke prepared his stun launcher to clear the room. As Private Chavez opened the door, Sergeant Yorke fired off a single bomb into the room, the momentum of the blow sent the door flying open and a stray bullet zipped out and gave Corporal Jackson his mandatory shot right in his mechanical leg. The unconscious Ascadians in the building were then shipped out and the mission was a success.

**MISSION COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY**

Participating X-COM Officers:
Lieutenant Kacur
Sergeant Howardson, (AKA DragonHawk)
Sergeant Yorke
Corporal Jackson
Corporal Scott, (Currently in detention.)
Corporal Goorit
Corporal Fléche
Private Chavez
Private Bradly
Private Stax
Private McBannok, (AKA Saber Warrior)

Enemy Casualties:
23 API Ascadians, confirmed KIA.
5 API Ascadians, taken prisoner.

Friendly Medical Analysis:
Lieutenant Kacur, light skin abrasions from friendly fire. Minor.
Private Stax, mild concussion from artillery shockwave. Minor.
Corporal Scott, bloody nose from friendly fire "sucker punch." <<:P>> Minor.
The entirety of Team One has been given ample amount of Dremamine to counter the stomach effects caused by the Ascadian sewage.

Recovered Technology:
None.

Lost Equipment:
Corporal Scott, 1 standard X-COM Pistol disarmed by Lieutenant Kacur due to friendly fire, likely confiscated by allied Ascadian forces.
Corporal Goorit, 1 standard X-COM Pistol disarmed by Lieutenant Kacur due to improper use, likely confiscated by allied Ascadian forces.

Promotions:
None.

Mission File: 2067-07-01-N-T00
Mission Date: 1 July 2067

De-Brief Transcript

*Recording Started*

Commander Richter Weindhoven (RW): Right, the recorder is on. Let them come in.

Colonel Brad Cyriacus (BC): Ko, Chavez, we're ready for you now, come on in. You guys look horrible.

RW: We ARE on record, Colonel, so please refrain from making untoward comments. In your own words, can you please describe the situation?

Lance Corporal Derrick Ko (DK): Yes sir. Senior Sergeant Ned Yorke was interested in examining some of the local wildlife. Local persons directed him to a small mountain range, just north of the city, where a large avian species was normally present at this time of year. We were to go up to the cliff to get some first hand information. Pictures, some audio recordings, general observations.

BC: That is in-line with the request forwarded to our attention. Private Chavez, could you explain what happened?

Private Calvin Chavez (CC): Sir, yes sir! We decided an approach on foot would be best, so that we wouldn't disturb any of the birds. It started off pretty easy. Sarge Yorke and Ko were talking about the Ascidian warrior mindset, while Shadow and I were joking around... We also talked about psionic control... Say, have you ever been controlled? Sirs?

RW: A few times, Private, and its never fun. You need not have such a grim look on your face for it though, it's not a terribly common occurance.

CC: Yes sir. Uhh... So... Yeah, we talked a bit. It started to rain too, as we approached the cliff, but we decided on climbing anyway. Our climbing gear helped a lot to traverse the steep slope, but I managed to slip a bit on the way up...

BC: Because of the bird attack?

CC: No sir, not at this point. The bird attacked shortly after though. It took a peck at Ko. We tried to ignore it and defend it, but it was no good. The stupid bird grabbed Shadow and lifted him upwards.

DK: The bird was actually quite large, Commander, Colonel. It's wingspan was quite long, and the muscles manipulating those wings were well developed.

RW: I see. What happened then?

DK: We made it to the top of the cliff, just in time to see the bird, with Corporal Goorit, fly over the nest. Three smaller, undeveloped birds, likely to be hatchlings of some sort, were in a nest... They obviously saw Corporal Goorit as food. The bird dropped Goorit into the nest, so I took a shot at it to get it out of the way. It angled in towards us though. Yorke managed to use the nest as cover, but both Private Chavez and I were knocked off the cliff...

RW: Have either of you seen the doctor?

DK: Yes sir. I'm off of active status for the next little while, maybe a few days.

CC: Yes, I did. All ok sir. At any rate, I managed to grab a solid rock on the cliff, and caught Ko with my other hand.

BC: Your bravery and actions have been noted in your record, Private.

CC: Thanks. Anyway, from what we saw after we climbed back up into the crevice, Shadow was going crazy on the little remaining birds with his machete. Yorke was using his stun rod, trying to end the combat without more lethality. It wasn't working, so Sarge switched over to his handgun. He uh... accidentally shot Shadow.

DK: The bird was subdued eventually... Rather, it was stunned, possibly, and Corporal Goorit managed to land the final blow on an undefended target... At this point, a freak lightning bolt hit the cliff, and a portion of the crevice was destroyed. We were all knocked unconscious for a time. Unfortunately, Corporal Goorit was close to the impact point. His arm was lost.

BC: For the record, his arm is incinerated. Doctor Yorke has assured me that an advanced prosthetic can be fitted to replace his arm.

DK: It's not the same, no offence intended, Colonel.

BC: I know. What happened then?

CC: With Shadow bleeding, I administered first aid to slow or stop the bleeding. I actually managed to halt the bleeding... The Sarge was out of it for the rest of the mission. At that point, a larger bird which we presumed was the father, came out of the local cave system which opened right into the crevice. Ko called for pick up from here and we edged away from the bird, firing our weapons. The VTOL showed quite quickly. Ko covered us and the Ascidian crew member who grabbed Yorke and hauled him into the VTOL.

DK: I tried to use the stun launcher to take the bird down, but I didn't take into account the compression wave as the bomb detonated. It nearly tossed me off the cliff, except for the quick reflexes of Private Chavez.

RW: And this is it?

CC: Yes sir!

BC: What's the status of each team member?

DK: Sergeant Yorke was not wounded. He is still active. Corporal Goorit will need some time to get used to the new bionic arm, when it is crafted. He may be out for a week. I'll be out of action for a day or two, for my neck to get some rest. Private Chavez is still good to go.

RW: Excellent. Thank you, gentlemen. Brad, flip the recorder off.

BC: Right, boss.

*Recording Ended*

Mission File: 2067-07-03-C-E00
Mission Date: 3 July 2067


X-Com Personnel Involved:

Martin Kacur, Lieutenant, X-Com Combat Corps
Ned Yorke, Senior Sergeant, X-Com Medical Corps
Jonathan Goorit, Corporal, X-Com Combat Corps
Andrew Necro, Corporal, X-Com Combat Corps
Kevin Bradly, Private, X-Com Combat Corps
Mordechay Hoz, Private, X-Com Combat Corps
Jarl Ryan, Private, X-Com Combat Corps
Christopher Xiggores, Private, X-Com Research Division


Background:

See 2067-07-03-C-B00 for details.


Objective:

The sensor outpost is to be secured and it's prisoners freed. All hostile forces are to be neutralized.


De-Brief:

Alpha Squad deployed via Viper shuttlecraft directly to the surface of the sensor outpost. As per the plan, two of the Navy's patrol corvettes maintained a stationary position at a safe distance away from the base, negotiating with the commander for the release of the prisoners. The team made their way to the secondary access airlock, roughly 100 metres in vacuum, and entered the facility.

Once inside, it was determined that both of the bombs lay to the arbitrarily-defined left side of the base. The brig door was essentially sealed by a large claymore-style explosive on the door. This was bypassed in favour of exploring the reactor room. There, the second explosive device was found, next to the base' hydrogen supply. Two Ascidians, possibly engineers, were there arguing over the weakness of the detonation system - the explosive was triggered from the main control room via a long wire - and its ease of disarmament. Corporal Goorit and Private Hoz were sent to dispatch the two quickly and quietly. Hoz used his knife to stab one Ascidian in the brain, while Goorit used his machete to slit the other's throat.

Xiggores was left in the reactor room to study the bomb while the rest of the team made a short trek to the control room. With the right side corridor clear, they entered the control room, which they found to contain fourteen Ascidians. With the element of surprise in their favour though, Alpha managed to sack the room easily. Necro targeted and eliminated the Commander's aide at close range, while Ryan sprayed fire into the room, hitting a number of operators. Hoz targeted guards in the far corners of the control room. Goorit shot down the engineering Captain while Kacur took control of the base commander and disarmed him. Yorke's stun bomb launcher neutralized many targets in the close quarters of the control room.

The Black Spear operators made one final attempt to get to the detonation box, slowed by Necro, Goorit, Hoz, and Ryan. The one operator that did make it to the box slapped the reactor core detonation button, but by this time Xiggores had already cut the signal wire. Goorit's attempt to disable the box with shots to each button backfired - he accidentally transmitted the signal to the brig claymore, starting the countdown there, roughly five Terran minutes. Xiggores reported this on his way to joining the team, and disarmed it by removing the detonation device.

Goorit and Hoz went to cover Xiggores as the rest of the team moved to secure the last two areas of the base, and reported that both Snakemen and an Ascidian were approaching the control room. The whole team became bogged down in the combat. The Snakemen attempted to keep the team in the control room, but with Goorit and Hoz outside already, they could not advance. Kacur's shots destroyed the eggsac of one of the Snakemen, forcing it down, while fire from Ryan kept them at a distance. The standoff was ended when Yorke's stun bombs blew a hole in the middle of the formation, while Kacur's thrown grenade detonated from behind, killing everything in the hallway.

Subsequent searches in both engineering and the barracks yielded nothing, so Alpha Squad left the combat scene to troops on the corvettes.


Aftermath:

Troops aboard the two corvettes secured the facility and released the prisoners. Damage is estimated to be moderate and repairs to the base will take approximately two weeks. The station commander conveys his thanks to X-Com for their aid.

Alpha Squad has returned to NAO in preparation for their next assignment in conjunction with the Ascidian military. There are no injuries - every trooper is ready for combat.

Mission File: 2067-07-11-C-E00
Mission Date: 11 July 2067


X-Com Personnel Involved:

Richter Weindhoven, Commander, CO Cydonia Mission
Martin Kacur, Lieutenant, CO Alpha Squad
Ned Yorke, Senior Sergeant, Support Services Leader
Joseph Scott, Sergeant, Alpha Squad
Kevin Bradly, Private, Support Sniper
Mordechay Hoz, Private, Support Sharpshooter
Roel Ilyuschenko, Private, Alpha Psionisist
Jarl Ryan, Private, Support Combat Medic
Gerrit Volkernas, Private, Intelligence


Background:

See 2067-07-11-C-B00 for details.


Objective:

The Patton is under attack from an Alien battleship. The Patton must be defended at all costs. As a secondary objective, the Avenger is vulnerable to attack and must be protected as well.


De-Brief:

The Battleship docked with the Patton without resistance. In preparation to repel boarders, X-Com troopers had erected extensive barracades using empty containers and other unused equipment. All of the soldiers waited for the enemy to emerge from the attacking ship.

The initial shock force consisted of four cyberdiscs. They rushed the barriers, shooting randomly and trying to pick up targets at the same time. One of the 'discs was destroyed almost outright by laser and rifle fire, but the others allocated targets and determined that Sergeant Yorke and Private Ilyuschenko were the major threats.

One of the cyberdiscs was damaged heavily in the process, and Private Ilyuschenko attempted to finish it off but risked moving out of cover to do so. He was only partially successful - his hit damaged the identification systems, and instead of trying to crash into the Avenger, the cyberdisc turned on him instead. Volkernas tried to save Ilyuschenko, but the cyberdisc rammed the psionisist at full speed, skidding across the hangar into the Avenger itself, both the cyberdisc and the Avenger exploding.

Control of the team was lost temporarily as each soldier reacted to the loss with a wide range of emotions, from rage to sorrow. Sergeant Yorke pulled his troops together and supervised the re-ordering of the team under fire.

Mutons then poured out of the ship, attempting to overrun the hangar bay. X-Com troopers returned fire in an attempt to eliminate the assaulting aliens. Neither side spared any expense as both used their grenades and other munitions as effectively as possible. Too many grenades made it back into the battleship, however, and their blasts destabilized the ship's core, causing a huge detonation. The battleship was not destroyed completely, however, as troops continued to fire ordnance out of the demolished doors.

What did happen was that the hangar was damaged sufficiently that it could not maintain its environmental seals. The X-Com troopers beat a hasty retreat from the hangarbay, but the injured Gerrit Volkernas did not escape quickly enough. He, along with the many of the bodies and other debris in the hangar bay, were swept out into space.


Aftermath:

The deaths of Private Ilyuschenko and Private Volkernas have hit the team hard, but the team's determination has solidified to ensure that their comrades' sacrifice is not in vain. Private Volkernas' death was confirmed via med sensor and visual tracking as his body was incinerated in the atmosphere of Yulinis VI.

Minor injuries to the team are inconsequential - the squad will drop as scheduled.

Mission File: 2067-07-12-C-B00
Mission Date: 12 July 2067
De-Brief Transcript

*Recording started*

Weindhoven: Alright... The current time is 1300. A day ago the Patton allowed an Ascadian supply freighter was meant to have boarded us, granting supplies in exchange for medical attention and repairs to their ship. It turned out to be a trap set by the aliens... Snakemen, Ethereals, Mutons, Floaters, and Sectoids were hidden within the cargo transported to the Patton.

Scott: The Ethereals and Mutons were on the ship sir, not in the crates.

Kacur: Scott!!!

Weindhoven: Ahem... We believe that the aliens had destroyed two of the three frieghters that were to dock with us and boarded the third, taking it over somehow. Kacur...

Kacur: Thank you sir... The first sign of suspicion was when I, and several others, noticed that some of the wounded Ascadians had fusion burns on their bodies... At first I thought there may be Black Spear aboard or that the present Ascadians were Black Spear themselves... But... While unloading some of the cargo I felt a psionic presence from within a cargo container. It had the familiar signature of a Sectoid but it was very faint, and I could've been wrong. I sent Sergeant Scott and Corporal Goorit to the armory to fetch armaments for the squad while I had everyone calmly continue unloading the transport. When the two returned, all the conscious Ascadians had suddenly collapsed and my suspicions were proven correct. The containers had burst open and we were all promptly attacked by Snakemen, Floaters, and Sectoids. They didn't have the element of surprise though, at least not anymore, and we successfully countered the ambush. An Ascadian regained consciousness soon after the fighting and Sergeant Scott and I interrogated it... It explained that Ethereals and Mutons were aboard the ship, holding the pilots hostage.

Yorke: Of course the thing fell unconscious again soon after relaying the message...

Kacur: Indeed. Our new objective was to retake the supply ship at that point. Go ahead Scott...

Scott: Alright. This was about the time you piped in on the communicator, Weindhoven, and explained that the engines aboard the ship weren't damaged at all. It was important information but I'll explain that part later. We boarded the Ascadian ship and investigated. We first spotted the crew quarters, Corporal Goorit and I opened it up to find the place burned to crisp. I'd say it was the first place attacked by the aliens, we estimate a few blaster bombs were blown in there... Likely to take out the soldiers in their sleep, if the aliens boarded with that kind of stealth that is...

Weindhoven: Get on with it Sergeant.

Scott: Right... Next we went right for the bridge, when we made the threshold corridor it looked like the Ascadians made a last stand there. Bodies from both sides were stacked and strewn all over the place. Once again, Commander, you popped in on our communicators, this time informing us of a Battleship en route. So we picked up the pace and opened the bridge doors, catching the Ethereals and Mutons off guard... We killed them all with no casualties to the Ascadian pilots.

Yorke: Ah, Scott I believe a grenade I threw caused some minor wounds to the Ascadians, along with some damage to the bridge consoles.

Scott: Yes... Dr. Yorke threw a grenade, into a room with highly sensitive equipment we were supposed to salvage, and some of the shrapnel from the explosion wounded two of the pilots knocking them down... Lucky for us, a couple were still alive and healthy. At that point, as we were getting the wounded Gits off the bridge, I noticed the navigational and helm consoles were undamaged... That's when I suggested we abandon the freighter and use it to, at the very least, distract the Battleship long enough for the Patton to escape.

Kacur: Yes, indeed... I took the rest of the squad with me out of the ship, leaving behind the Sergeant and two Ascadian pilots to set a course. In order to keep them from being stuck aboard, they set the engine on a timed activation to give them time to return to the Patton.

Weindhoven: ... And Scott and the Ascidians made it back safe and sound, sending the supply freighter to the Battleship at a ramming vector. It was a complete success. The Battleship was destroyed by the collision, maybe now we won't have to deal with it anymore. But, of course, we lost all those supplies...

Scott: Sir... Would you have prefered we take on the Battleship without the Patton's main weapon array?

Weindhoven: No. It was a good move, I just hoped someone would've thought of a better one. Doctor Yorke, what casualties did we take?

Yorke: Ahem, Private Hoz was the only human wounded in the skirmish. He took a plasma hit to his hand while trying to engage a Floater in close combat. He's lost a couple fingers, but I can make an easy bionic replacement. As for the Gits... Well... I can tell you now that the majority of them aren't going to make it. I'm surprised some of them aren't dead already, it's going to take a miracle for a few to survive. But the pilots, Commander, and a few of the soldiers are going to pull through, no problem.

Weindhoven: That's too bad. I guess we could say the aliens caught us at a slight stalemate here. It's hard to tell who hit the other harder... Oh well, if there's nothing else...

Kacur: No sir...

Yorke: No sir.

Scott: Nope.

Weindhoven: Alright then... Dismissed! ... Ah, Doctor could you turn off the recorder on your way out?

Yorke: Yes si...

*Recording Ended*

**Mission Completed Successfully**