Operation Falling Father (Alien Abductions - Alexandria, Egypt)

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 Alexandria, Egypt, where the aliens have been abducting people all over the city.  The latest hotbed of activity is on a highway, so that's where we're landing.

This is just your standard Abduction mission, so there's really not much more to say about it.  So, on to the mission!  Our team today is:

Our sniper, Checkmate

Our squad leader and medic, Scooby

Our rookie, Vernon

Our infantry, Zilch

Our other rookie, Mbatha

Our other sniper, Long Shot

Our engineer, Sikafuo

And our other infantry, Plunder.

Our position is great for our snipers, but not so great for everyone else.  See, we're at the part of the map that's at the top of a huge trench that's been torn into the highway, and while that means that the trench and the high ground on the other side are a shooting gallery, it's a pain to advance through due to limited cover and full line of sight.  Essentially, our snipers need to be supporting the squad's advance from the rear, and in some cases they'll be the only ones shooting.

Anyways, Mbatha makes contact as he starts to advance.  A pod of Thin Men.  Well, we have an answer for that.

Checkmate gets the first kill of the mission with contemptuous ease.

Long Shot moves up to cover and steadies aim.

Mbatha makes contact with another pod while trying to get to cover - a couple Floaters.

Plunder joins Mbatha in the low ground.

Finally, Sikafuo throws a smoke grenade to give them some extra protection.

The rest of the squad overwatches.  Scooby joins Plunder and Mbatha.

One of the Thin Men spits acid on Plunder.

The Floaters overwatch.

Next turn! Checkmate hits a Thin Man, but does not kill it.  Well, ballistic sniper rifles are beginning to show their age...

Meanwhile, Long Shot kills a Floater.

Vernon misses a Thin Man.

Scooby brings a Thin Man down, managing a hit on a 59%.  Nice work, Scooby!

Mbatha misses a Floater.

Plunder hunkers down, due to still being covered in acid.

Sikafuo hits a Thin Man.

And Zilch finishes the turn on overwatch.

A Thin Man misses Sikafuo.

One of the Floaters pisses off into the unknown.

Next turn!  Scooby hits a Thin Man.

Sikafuo also hits the Thin Man.

Mbatha, however, gets the kill on a 40% chance to hit.

There being no targets left, Checkmate and Long Shot steady aim.

Plunder hunkers down due to acid, ending the turn.

At the start of the next turn, Plunder hunkers down again.

Sikafuo needs to reload.

Long Shot and Checkmate steady aim.

The rest of the squad advances and overwatches.

Contact!  More Floaters.  On Mbatha's movement.

You have a penchant for activating pods, don't you?  I sure as hell am not making you a scout.

At least you managed to hit one of them.

Checkmate sees an opportunity for an easy kill...

...and takes it.  Target eliminated.

Long Shot ends the other Floater as well.

Zilch moves up, and spots the Floater that got away.  He manages to get a hit in on it.

Meanwhile, Plunder manages to catch up with the rest of the squad, being finally free of acid.  The squad overwatches.

That last Floater tries to make a break for it, but Scooby gets it right between the turbines on overwatch.

Op success!

No wounds, and a few promotions to boot!  Excellent work out there, people!

Vernon and Mbatha are both medics, since we could always use more, and I didn't feel like taking on more engineers.

Egypt is grateful for our efforts.

I think it's about time we got ourselves a Foundry.

Back to the Hologlobe!

Muton autopsy research complete.

Let's get advanced beam lasers!

Nigeria wants flight computers?  OK.  Just make sure they don't fall into the hands of any Nigerian princes.

UFO over Mexico!  Hooter, bring it down!

Hooter engages the UFO...

...and completely blows it to pieces.  Excellent.

And, we have our Council Report for July.  Good work all around.

Let's get our first satellite nexus with all the money we just got.

Also, we could use a genetics lab.

Let's just expand the base a little more.

We could also do with some of that new body armor.  I think 8 suits should do us just fine.

China wants Muton corpses.  You're welcome to them!

Our first MEC Suit is complete.

About an hour later, Luther "Bull" Steiner wakes up after the augmentation procedure.  At first, he doesn't know where he is or what happened to him, but his confusion quickly turns to alarm when he realizes that he doesn't have any arms or legs anymore, and his torso is covered in an armored shell.  Drs. Shen and Vahlen explain the procedure to him, and that they had to get his sister's consent to operate on him because he was comatose at the time.

After some more tests, Shen's engineering team fitted Bull with robotic prostheses to replace his arms and legs - prostheses that are designed to be removable so that they could fit him into the MEC Suit they had designed.  Vahlen tells him that he won't be able to join combat as infantry anymore, but after a brief adjustment period, he'll have access to the powers of the MEC Suit in the field.  The training regimen that Shen and Vahlen have devised attempt to emulate Bull's infantry training for the sake of familiarity, while still taking advantage of the new abilities the MEC Suit provides.

Augmentation of Bull and Klein is complete.  Apparently, Klein's already enjoying his time in the training suit.

Anyways, Bull has been retrained as a Valkyrie.  Valkyries are the MEC Trooper class derived from Infantry, and they much the same role - a firebase unit that can put out a lot of shots.

However, MEC Troopers are very different from non-augmented classes.  First and foremost, they can't take cover anymore.  This is mitigated by having more HP, more armor, better Defense, and better Damage Reduction, but they're still going to have to rely on smoke grenades to better avoid being hit.  Also, MEC Troopers can't become officers, or gain psionic powers or gene mods.  Officers and psionic troopers can't become MEC Troopers, and any soldier with gene mods loses them upon augmentation.

Secondly, the selection of small items that MEC Troopers can take doesn't overlap much with non-augmented classes.  They can take SCOPEs, alien trophies, motion trackers, high-cap magazines, and that's about it.  Everything else they can take is MEC Troopers only.  The only weapons and armor they can take are restricted to MEC Troopers only (right now, it's the MEC-1 Paladin armor and the minigun), and while they do gain the option to carry other weapons and equipment, they all have to be researched and have a very limited selection - more specifically, the flamethrower (a children's toy), the Kinetic Strike Module (basically a rocket-powered fist used for melee combat), the grenade launcher (MEC Troopers can't throw grenades), the Restorative Mist canister (MEC Troopers can't use medkits), the Proximity Mine Launcher (good fun, especially if they're triggered by Sectoids), and the Electro Pulse Generator (capable of stunning robotic units).

That said, MEC Troopers are powerful, and they also have quite a bit of tactical versatility.  Although MEC Troopers can't take cover themselves, they all come with the special perk "One For All," which allows other units to use the MEC Trooper as full cover.  The MEC Trooper can't move, shoot, or use any arm-mounted item while doing this, but having the ability to be mobile cover is quite useful.

Anyways, Bull's perks at Corporal (all MEC Troopers lose a rank after conversion) are Light 'Em Up (same as the Infantry perk, and all Valkyries start with it), Ranger (for improved damage, also Flush and Ready For Anything didn't sit right with me), and Rapid Reaction (basically, if he gets a hit on Overwatch, he gets to keep shooting up to three more times as long as he keeps hitting).  With any luck, he'll be an amazing overwatch support unit.

J.R. Klein is our first Marauder!  Marauders are the MEC Trooper class derived from Assaults, and like with Assaults, their job is to get up close and personal with the enemy and blow them away with overwhelming firepower.  Unlike with Assaults, Marauders start with Close Encounters instead, the main reason being that MEC Troopers can easily gain high Mobility stats due to the MEC Suit and various Foundry upgrades.

J.R. Klein, being a Specialist Marauder, only has Close Encounters at the moment, but he's not far from Lance Corporal, where he'll get Shock-Absorbent Armor - a critical ability for surviving engagements at Close Encounters range.

Also, our first run of Phalanx armor is complete!  Better armor is always better.

Advanced beam lasers research is complete!  This means laser sniper rifles, laser cannons for our interceptors, and laser lances for our MEC Troopers!

Finally, some research we should have done long ago, Experimental Warfare.

Australia wants Elerium?  You're welcome to it, mate.

UFO contact over Canada!  Raider flying nape of the Earth!  Peanuts, bring it down!

Peanuts engages the UFO.

After taking some serious damage, Peanuts breaks off the engagement.

I was about to send Judge up there to press the attack, but the UFO landed before he could get to it.  No joy here.  So, let's get the team together!

Leading this mission is our medic and Patreon contributor Lynne "Vixen" Triplett, with the only change from standard loadout being a suit of the new Phalanx armor.

Klein is going to be testing our new MEC Suit for the first time as our Marauder.  His armor and main gun were picked because those are the only options available, and he has a Targeting Module for improved crit chance and a SCOPE for improved hit chance.

Checkmate's our sniper on this one.  I would have liked to have brought Lady Grey on this one, but she's still in the hospital.  Standard loadout aside from the Phalanx armor.

Plunder and Zilch are our infantry here, both of them sporting the new Phalanx armor along with the standard infantry loadout.

Ahonen's coming along as our engineer, sporting Phalanx armor, the Arc Thrower for catching things, and a couple HE grenades for blowing things up.

Crash is our gunner for this mission, packing the standard loadout for gunners aside from Phalanx armor.  I didn't realize until after the mission started that I hadn't equipped her with the autolaser, but I'm sure she'll be fine.

Last up is our assault, Geronimo.  With Phalanx armor and a flashbang, I'm sure he's ready for anything.

Strike One has reached the landing site.

And that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us Wednesday for Operation Vengeful God!  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!

Can't subscribe to my Patreon campaign, but still want in on the program? Go here to see how you can get in: http://xcomwarinterminable.blogspot.com/p/join-fight.html  With that, I hope to see you next time!