Operation Soaring Sword (Alien Abduction - Leon, Mexico)

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, Strike One is responding to alien abduction attempts in the warehouse district of Leon, Mexico.  The AO includes a deli, its meat locker, and its cold storage facility next door.  Given the aliens' interest in our dead, our livestock, and our wildlife, it's safe to assume that they'd be after our beef for the same reasons.

That said, ours is not to reason why, ours is to make those bastards die.  So, on to the mission!  Our team today is:

Our newest infantry, Anna "Gunner" Moller"

Our medic and squad leader, Scooby

Our rookie, Groen

Our rocketeer, Prototype

Our other rookie, Ting

Our scout, Stalker

Our other infantry, D.O.A.

And our gunner, Enforcer.

This map is a challenging one.  There's a truck between the deli and the cold storage that blocks line of sight, and the only flanks are the ones without good cover to attack from.  Furthermore, the deli itself is a close combat nightmare, full of easily-flanked high cover and multiple entrances and exits.  In my experience, it makes the most sense to pick one flank and stack deployment on that side, supported by another team moving through the deli, so that's what we're going to do.

Contact!  One Mechtoid, three Sectoids!  This is an auspicious start to the mission...

Prototype, lacking targets, steadies aim behind a car.  The rest of the squad overwatches.

Scooby kills a Sectoid on overwatch.

Gunner and D.O.A. tag-team another Sectoid that tries to advance on our position.

Gunner and PFC Ting advance to press the attack, and make contact with a pod of Floaters.  Exactly what we need with a Mechtoid running loose in the meat locker.

The Floaters mostly overwatch, but one of them hits PFC Ting for some serious damage.  Good thing he has armor.

Also, good thing Scooby's nearby to patch him up, even if it did take two medkits to do so.  We need better medkits.

Ting kills a Floater in one hit.

Prototype advances and steadies aim.

The squad overwatches...

...and it's a good thing we did, because that Mechtoid just bursts out of the meat locker and charges through our overwatches!

Come on, people!  This thing cannot be allowed to see the end of its move!

Unfortunately, a full squad on overwatch wasn't enough to stop the Mechtoid from killing Gunner point-blank.  Of course it had to be one of our infantry.

And to add injury to insult, a Floater hits Stalker.

Fortunately, the next one misses Prototype.

Now, the challenge of bringing this Mechtoid down before it kills anyone else rears its ugly head.  Ting gets a good hit in, but it's not nearly enough.

Scooby gets a hit too, but the thing's still standing.

Enforcer inexplicably shoot at a Floater instead of the imminent mechanized death right in front of him...

At least Stalker lands a decent hit on it, and gets holo-targeting up...

...allowing Groen to get the kill.

Prototype lets loose a rocket on the Floater pod, but it did not have the desired effect.

D.O.A. finishes off the turn with an overwatch.

A Floater takes the high ground and flanks Scooby, but misses.

Another one gets a near flank on Ting, but suppresses him instead.

Scooby hits her Floater in retaliation.

Enforcer takes the roof and ends the suppressing Floater...

...freeing up Ting for the kill.

Stalker advances and reloads.

Prototype also takes the roof and steadies aim.

D.O.A. moves to the back of the meat locker and leads the squad in overwatches.

Contact!  A pod of Drones.

D.O.A. misses her overwatch shot.

On the aliens' turn, the Drone pod advances.

Stalker gets holo-targeting up on the leading Drone.

Ting needs to reload.

As does Scooby.

At least Prototype is making some headway in the whole Drone-shooting effort.

D.O.A. finally brings one down, but has to reload afterward.

Lacking targets, Enforcer goes into overwatch.

On the aliens' turn, Enforcer misses a Drone on overwatch.

Another Drone holo-targets D.O.A.

Meanwhile, another misses Scooby.

I don't know what this one was doing, but it double-moved a whole 4 tiles right in the middle of my formation.  There's no way this one will survive my next turn.

On my turn, Stalker kills the Drone harassing Scooby.

Groen needs to reload.

Scooby moves up and kills the Drone with a death wish.

Prototype hits another Drone from his lofty position on the roof.

The last Drone retaliates and hits Prototype.

However, D.O.A. runs up right beneath it and gets the kill.

Op success!

Look, I swear I'm not getting my new German Infantry killed/maimed on purpose!

Anyway, we have some promotions!  Stalker made Sergeant and gained the Battle Scanner perk, which gives her two free battle scanners.

Groen becomes our newest Rocketeer.

D.O.A. made it to Sergeant, and took Ranger, which adds a flat 1 point of damage on her rifle attacks.  Useful for crit infantry.

Ting becomes our newest Infantry.  Well, let's hope you do better than Gunner did.

We got a decent haul out of it.

Mexico is grateful for our effort in protecting Mexican delicatessens from alien attack.  Someone has friends in high places...

However, we have a lot of damaged equipment that needs to become undamaged.  Let's put this Repair Bay to work!

In the meantime, we need another MEC Suit.  I'd like to be able to field two MEC Troopers on missions at the same time (actually, I'd like 4, but let's start small, shall we?).

While you're at it, Lady Grey wants a laser sniper rifle.

Back to the Hologlobe!

Germany wants Elerium!  Have it!

With Experimental Warfare researched, let's get on to some of these autopsies, starting with the Floater.

Thank you, Dr. Vahlen.  Let me know when you're finished.

Well, that was quick.  I thought you usually prefer to savor these autopsies, but I guess since the war's heating up-

Never mind.  You clearly just wanted to figure out the best way to interrogate our live Floater captive.

OK.  Dr. Vahlen is now officially one of the most terrifying women I know of.  Yes, even with you in the picture, Lady Grey.

Brazil wants alloys?  I'm sure you'll find uses for it.

A large UFO went on a bombing run in Mexico.  They seem to have an unhealthy interest in Central America.

In the meantime, we finally got the Foundry built.  Now, Dr. Shen's team can contribute to the research process by coming up with improvements to the equipment we already have.

First, let's make our SCOPEs more capable.

Since you need to take one of our SCOPEs apart in order to experiment on it, let's build another one.

Brazil wants some of our Floater corpses, and they're willing to give us a Corporal-ranked soldier for them.  Sounds like a deal to me.

Dr. Vahlen's finished with her Floater interrogation.  Apparently, they have nerve endings in their mechanical components and are absolutely terrified of lug wrenches.

Next up, Dr. Vahlen wants to cut up a Thin Man corpse to see how they tick.

I'm beginning to think that Dr. Vahlen may enjoy her work a little too much.

In the meantime, the Gene Lab is finished.  Now, Dr. Vahlen can use the surgery skills she has honed on the aliens (alive and otherwise) to give our troops advanced gene therapy and make them even more effective.  Hopefully the process is reversible after we win the war.

Egypt wants Muton corpses.  Well, as long as you're not shipping them back to the aliens by stargate, we're good.

An alien Terror Ship is attacking Puebla!  Strike One, scramble!

Leading this mission is our medic and Patreon contributor, Vixen.  Standard medic loadout, nothing special here.

Zilch and Plunder are our infantry on this op, with the standard Infantry gear.

Boom Boom is our rocketeer, and she's packing a whopping four rockets (two standard, two shredder).  Knowing our luck with Terror missions, we might need all of them.

Checkmate's our sniper.  The laser sniper rifle is still not ready yet, so you'll have to make do with Ye Olde Bullette Gunne.  At least your sidearm is a laser gun.

We're bringing special contributor Klein on this one for added firepower.  This time, we're bringing high-cap mags so he doesn't have to reload every other turn.

Chilong's our engineer, and he's bringing the arc thrower along just in case something we can capture shows up.

Finally, Geronimo is our assault specialist.  I expect him to tag-team with Klein, but on a Terror mission, anything can happen.

Strike One has reached the Terror Site.  Touching down.

And that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us Friday for Operation Purple Throne!  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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