Operation Broken Daze (Site Recon - Newfoundland, Canada)

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 have trouble.  Contact was lost with a fishing village in Newfoundland, and the Canadian government wants us to check it out.  While this is technically not part of our mandate, we're the only ones up here with a Skyranger.

Why is this trouble?  Well, let's just say that this is the dreaded Newfoundland mission that is the Total Party Killer of legend.  Fortunately, I am a veteran when it comes to this mission, so it's possible that only some people on the team will die.  The reason why this mission has legendary TPK status will become apparent as the mission progresses.

So, on to the mission!  Our team today is:

Our infantry, Zilch

Our medic and squad leader, Scooby

Our sniper, Checkmate

Our assault, Caper

Our other assault, Geronimo

Our other infantry, Trips

Our rocketeer, Boom Boom

And our engineer, Kostopoulos

Caper and Geronimo breach the office...

...and contact!  It's a Zombie.

Well, where there's Zombies, there's Chryssalids.  Burn it, boys.

Nice shot, Geronimo!  Don't worry about not killing it - Zombies are tough bastards.  The rest of the squad can take it from here.

Exactly...

...like so.  Thank you, Caper and Zilch.

Remember what I said about Chryssalids and Zombies?  There was a whole pod of them just hanging out on a fishing boat, and Checkmate triggered them by moving to a better firing position.

Well, time for Boom Boom to do that boom-boom that she do so well.

Kostopoulos follows up with an AP grenade.

Trips finishes off the last one.  Well, that was terrifying.

Checkmate steadies.

A lone Zombie is an unlikely prospect.  Scooby overwatches just in case there are any more of them.

Yup.  There's more of them.

Fortunately, Zilch and Caper, the Zombie-Slaying Duo make quick work of it.  Caper notes how similar their situation is to the plot of Aliens.  "I vote that we take off, and nuke the site from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure."

Geronimo advances in case there are more of them.  There don't seem to be.

Boom Boom moves up and steadies in case we need another high-explosive remedy to our Chryssalid infestation problem.

Trips moves up and overwatches.

Zilch moves up to the flatbed and reloads.

Geronimo and Caper take the window.

Boom Boom once again moves up and steadies, while Kostopoulos moves along the dock.

Checkmate keeps his aim steadied...

...and the squad overwatches in the event of sudden Drop Chryssalid attacks.

In the aliens' turn, Geronimo hears movement coming from the docks up ahead.

Contact!  A pod of Thin Men emerge from the fog.  Kostopoulos and Trips take shots...

...and one explodes in a cloud of acid!

The other two survive, and book it to cover.  One of them gets on the roof of one of the stalls in the market and another covers it from the stairs, while the other hides behind the forklift.

Scooby misses her overwatch shot on the Thin Man behind the forklift.

On my turn, Zilch hits the Thin Man in the Market...

Trips hits the Thin Man that ran from the forklift to the bridge of a fishing boat...

...and then has to reload.

Checkmate hits the third Thin Man from long range.

Caper goes in for the kill on the Thin Man in the market.

On the way, her action flick sense tingles when she realizes that that shark would be the perfect hiding spot for a Chryssalid lying in wait.  It's just one of those everyday things that no one pays attention to.  No one would expect a ravenous killing machine to hide inside a ravenous killing machine...

...anyway, she gets the kill with pathetic ease, although she does find herself covered in acid as a result.  Yeah, these aliens totally ripped off of Alien with their biology.

Not about to leave Caper out to dry, Geronimo charges out at the Thin Man by the stairs...

...and gets the kill!  Great.  Now both of my assaults are covered in acid.

Moving swiftly on, Scooby finishes off the last Thin Man.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled overwatch.

Another Zombie shows its face, this time coming from the dockhouse.

Also, Caper was right.  There was a Chryssalid hiding inside that shark.  This naturally implies that every shark, swordfish, or other large piscoid animal hanging off of the hooks on the docks could potentially be housing chitin-plated death.  Great.

Fortunately, we have Checkmate here to take some health off of that Chryssalid hatchling from extreme range.

Geronimo and Scooby make quick work of the Zombie...

...while Kostopoulos finishes off the Chryssalid. Brilliant!

Caper hunkers down because of acid...

...and Boom Boom steadies...

...you know, just in case a pod of Chryssalids descends on us from out of nowhere...

...and bring along a pod of their friends, you know, because this simply isn't hard enough...

At least Trips gets a hit off on overwatch.  That'll make this marginally easier.

Boom Boom shreds all eight of them...

...and Kostopoulos follows it up with an AP grenade.  Unfortunately, a few too many of them survived for my liking...

Well, that's why we have Checkmate...

...and I would say that's why we have Caper, but of course she misses when we need her the most...

...I mean, it's not like some of us need to reload while there's still a freaking Chryssalid in our face, or anything...

Fortunately, we manage to get some good overwatch shots in...

...but it wasn't enough to save Kostopoulos from death by intergalactic killer space bugs.  This thing needs to die before it can get anyone else, and Zilch is the only one with eyes on it.

Fortunately for us, it does exactly what we want it to.

There's no doubt about it:  Kostopoulos is dead.  Nothing could be done.

However, we have some preparation to do, because the worst part of fighting Chryssalids is about to start.  Next turn, Kostopoulos will get up again as a Zombie, and he will try to kill us.  If he persists in this state for long enough, he will explode in a cloud of viscera and spawn a new Chryssalid, which will go on to kill as many of us as possible.  Every time a Chryssalid kills someone with its claws, that person comes back as a Zombie, and after a few turns will spawn a new Chryssalid.  Every time.  This is how they reproduce.  This should give you some idea of why this mission is legendary for Total Party Kills, in case you were still wondering.

Checkmate steadies his aim, just in case he has to put a bullet between his former squaddie's eyes.

Caper reloads her shotgun.  Why does she reload her shotgun, instead of take a pistol overwatch?  Well, she has Close Combat Specialist, which gives her a free reaction shot against targets that move within 4 tiles of her.  Two actions for the cost of one.

Meanwhile, Scooby heals up Geronimo.  We'll need him at full fighting capacity when the Zombie shambles up the stairs.

The rest of the squad overwatches.  We cannot afford to lose anyone else.

Boom Boom takes an overwatch shot on the Zombie.  By no means a kill, but it took some health off...

...for when Geronimo hits it on overwatch with his shotgun.  Not a kill, but fortunately, the Zombie can't get close enough to attack on its turn.

Zilch reloads...

...while Trips puts Kostopoulos out of his misery.  While we don't yet know if Zombies feel pain, or if anything left of the victim's consciousness survives zombification, at least no Chryssalids will be jumping out of his chest.  Rest in peace, Kostopoulos.  You didn't deserve this.

Well, that's XCOM.

Boom Boom and Checkmate steady their aim.

The rest of the squad advances and overwatches, in case yet more Chryssalids show up.

In the next turn, Boom Boom steadies her rocket while the rest of the squad advances.

Geronimo reloads.

The rest of the squad overwatches.

Moving up, Caper spots a large ship that ran aground, with a huge breach torn in the starboard-side hull.  "I have a bad feeling about this..."

Her bad feelings are justified when Boom Boom spots a Zombie emerge from the shipwreck.  If past experience is any indication, there will be more Chryssalids lying in wait aboard.

This is gonna suck.

And, that's where we'll leave this update for today!  Join us tomorrow for Operation Broken Daze, part 2!  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!