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$1.00+ Subscribers: Oliver "Rascal" Albright, Colin Wells, Lynne "Vixen" Triplett, Marshal "Banzai" Reeves, Ryan Dow

Friday, December 30, 2016

Operation Lone Spark

Gentlesophs, I am your host, the Kid With A Pen, and welcome to XCOM:  War Interminable - my playthrough of XCOM:  Enemy Unknown, with the Enemy Within expansion, the Operation Slingshot DLC, and most importantly the Long War mod.  Links to all of these can be found on the "What is XCOM:  War Interminable?" page below this post.
Today, we're going to a bank in Atlanta, United States to respond to a bomb threat.  Normally, we'd let the police deal with it, but the ones making the threat are aliens, they killed everyone in the bank, left the money in the safe, and they're hanging around waiting for the bomb to finish arming so they can blow up the whole city.  So yeah, we're going in.  Good thing we're an international task force, otherwise Georgia might have come to regret voting in favor of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Anyway, on to the mission!  Our team today is:
Our sniper, special contributor Brienne "Lady Grey" Frost
Our squad leader, medic and Patreon contributor Lynne "Vixen" Triplett
Our rocketeer, Prototype
Our infantry, Patreon contributor Marshall "Banzai" Reeves
Our other rocketeer, "General" Van Doorn
Our scout, Stalker
Our Marauder, special contributor J.R. "Rhino" Klein
Our other infantry, Trips
Banzai disarms the first power node.
Stalker disarms the second.
Contact!  Mutons and a Berserker!
Trips hits a Muton.
Stalker follows up with a hit of her own.
Van Doorn moves up and steadies aim.
Prototype finishes off the Muton.
Vixen moves up, and the squad overwatches.
Incoming Berserker!  Vixen misses it on overwatch.
Rhino gets an overwatch hit on the Berserker.
My turn.  Rhino hits the Berserker again.
Trips gets a couple hits in on the Berserker...
...but ultimately, you want to leave the killing to the big guns.  In this case, Rhino.
There's still a Muton in the safe, so Van Doorn makes sure that it isn't.
Prototype makes his way towards a power node and steadies aim.
Contact!  Cyberdisc!
Correction!  Two Cyberdisc pods!

This is one thing I don't like about this map - it's really small.  Considering that the mission's barely started and we've already run into three pods, two of them activated on the same turn...

Well, let's just say that I'm glad we have multiple rocketeers on this op.
Vixen hits a Drone on overwatch.
A Drone holo-targets Banzai...
...and the Cyberdisc follows up with a shot of its own, which thankfully misses.
Lady Grey and Banzai trigger their power nodes.
Banzai hits the Drone that holo-targeted him.
Vixen misses her target Drone, but blows out a chunk of the wall in the process.
Prototype rockets the other Cyberdisc pod.  The Drones never saw it coming.

The car explosion on top of the rocket blast is what makes it art.
Rhino moves up to support Banzai and Lady Grey, and reloads his laser lance.
Van Doorn drops a Shredder rocket on the other Cyberdisc pod.
Trips moves up to full cover that won't explode when shot at, and reloads.
Banzai hits the Cyberdisc.
Stalker runs the Cyberdisc's overwatch...
...and holo-targets the other Cyberdisc by taking out the wall between them.  Somehow, that clock is still hanging on the wall.
Lady Grey gets a hit on the Cyberdisc.
In the aliens' turn, the Cyberdisc goes to the roof and grenades Banzai.
Contact!  Mechtoid!
Lady Grey slays yet another Cyberdisc.
Stalker holo-targets the Mechtoid.
Vixen deactivates another power node.
Prototype shreds the Mechtoid pod.
Van Doorn follows up with another Shredder rocket.
Trips picks off a Sectoid.
The squad overwatches.
Trips misses the Cyberdisc on overwatch.
The Cyberdisc flanks Stalker, and gets a solid hit in.

To add insult to injury, the Cyberdisc's attack also took out the wall that Stalker was hiding behind...
...leaving her exposed to the Mechtoid's next attack!
At least she's only bleeding out and not dead.
Lady Grey moves up and reloads.
Rhino makes his way around the flank of the enemy's position, only to encounter a Sectoid that had been overwatching on that flank.
However, you'll need more than a Sectoid to stop a Marauder.  Rhino vaporizes the Sectoid.
That was just Rhino's Close Encounters shot.  In order for Vixen to get to Stalker, someone needs to run the Mechtoid's overwatch.  Normally, that would be Stalker, but she's indisposed at the moment.  So, it's up to Rhino to trigger it.
Banzai hits the Cyberdisc...
...but Trips gets the kill.
Prototype pops another power node.
Van Doorn hits the Mechtoid.
Vixen orders Banzai to fire again.
Banzai gets another good hit in.
The Mechtoid shoots at Van Doorn, but misses.
It does not, however, miss Banzai.  Fortunately, it didn't do much.
Lady Grey gets a hit on the Mechtoid through a window and a hole in the wall.
However, it's Rhino who gets the kill.
Banzai reloads.
Vixen revives Stalker and patches her back up.
Prototype's found the bomb, so he goes to the roof and reloads.  Rhino will disarm the device.
Van Doorn also makes his way to the roof.  We'll have drop-ins any time now, so it's best to be prepared, and the high ground is the best place to fight from.
Trips reloads.
Stalker ducks into the safe and reloads.
Rhino moves up to the bomb and reloads.  He'll disarm it next turn.
The squad overwatches.
Lady Grey can't quite make it to the roof, but she can get on top of that truck.  She steadies aim.
Rhino deactivates the bomb.  The rest of the squad overwatches.
Three drop-ins right on top of Lady Grey.  Not good at all.
Another two in our blind spot by the front door.
Some more drop in by the drive-thru.  One of them doesn't survive the attempt.
Banzai misses his Thin Man target twice.
Guess that blind spot wasn't so blind after all.  Vixen kills the Thin Man who dropped in by the front door.
Prototype moves up and steadies aim.
Van Doorn kills the other Thin Man by the front door.
Lady Grey maims one of the Thin Men flanking her, but fails to kill.
Trips overwatches.
The two distant Thin Men shoot at Lady Grey.  The first one misses, but the second one takes half her health off in one shot!
The third one opens up!  Bri, I'm sorry!

.........

.........

OK, it missed.  That was damned fortunate.
Lady Grey exacts revenge on the Thin Man who shot her.
Van Doorn drops down to ground level and reloads.
Banzai finally kills the Thin Man he missed twice in one turn.
Of course, he now needs to reload, exactly when Lady Grey needs his support.
However, it's Stalker to the rescue!  Only able to stand due to the miracle of medkits, she got a clutch kill at the 11th hour, winning us the mission and saving Bri from almost certain death!
Op Success!
Stalker's going to be out for a couple months, so we're gonna MEC her.  Still, we have a few promotions.

Also, Lady Grey is only fatigued, not wounded.  I can only assume that we have Field Surgeon to thank for that.
Trips made Gunnery Sergeant, and because he's an overwatch infantry, he's getting Sentinel.
Stalker made Tech Sergeant, and gains Concealment.  However, we're chopping her into a Pathfinder MEC, so she won't have it for long.
We got a decent haul from this one.
The Councilman passes along the thanks and gratitude of the President of the United States.  Given how the election's shaping up, this may be the last time this happens.
Stalker opts for augmentation.  At her request, Dr. Vahlen drafts a letter to her husband, informing him of her decision.

"Cher Monsieur François Giraud,

J'ai le regret de vous informer que votre femme, le sergent-major Rosalie Giraud, a été blessée dans l'exercice de ses fonctions. En raison de la nature classifiée de son travail, je ne peux pas vous dire les détails de la façon dont elle est blessée ou quand, mais je peux dire qu'elle est actuellement comateuse et sur le soutien de la vie entière, et alors qu'elle n'est pas en danger de mourir, C'est mon avis médical qu'aucun traitement conventionnel n'améliorera son état.

C'est sur ce sujet que je voudrais m'adresser à vous. Un traitement expérimental existe qui peut théoriquement lui redonner une santé presque complète. Cependant, elle nécessite l'implantation de prothèses cybernétiques avancées pour contourner les parties endommagées de son système nerveux central et remplacer ces membres et les organes internes endommagés au-delà de tout espoir de guérison. Cette procédure est très invasive, et n'a pas été approuvé par toute autorité médicale dans le monde. Même si elle réussit, il y aura des changements importants à ses capacités physiques et peut-être même sa personnalité. Cependant, je crois que c'est sa meilleure chance pour le rétablissement, et parce qu'elle est incapable de le donner, je demande votre consentement avant que mon équipe puisse procéder.

En ce qui concerne les soins de longue durée, je peux vous assurer que le coût du maintien de ses implants sera entièrement couvert, bien qu'elle devra prendre sa retraite du GIGN en raison de l'étendue de ses blessures.

Si vous avez des questions, je serais heureux de répondre comme je le peux.

Cordialement,
Ursula Vahlen, M.D.
Chercheur principal, Institut de recherche en sécurité avancée
Département des opérations de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies"
In the meantime, Dr. Shen's team begins implementing Dr. Vahlen's plan to add alloy plate armor to our interceptors.
Back to the Hologlobe!
Germany wants Cyberdisc wrecks?  Sure, we'll take another soldier.  Let's just hope they fare better than the last ones.
And, a Terror Ship attacks Wuhan, China!  Let's quickly get the team together!
Leading this mission is our medic, Congo.
Zilch and D.O.A. are our infantry for this op.
Chilong is coming along as our MEC Trooper, packing more cover destruction and utility items than most people know what to do with.
We're going to need Boom Boom's firepower on this mission.
Barbosa is our assault on this mission.
Forrughi is our scout.
And Cervantes is our other assault.  The reason why I'm bringing three Lance Corporals on this mission is mainly because I don't have anyone else, and they'll all suffice for the roles I need them to fill.  Forrughi can run overwatches, and Barbosa and Cervantes can hold the line with CCS.
Strike One has reached the Terror Site.  Preparing to drop.
And that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us Monday for Operation Blind Star!  Remember, you too can join the fight by going to https://www.patreon.com/user?u=177434 and subscribe today!  Every subscriber gets to have a rookie named after them!

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