Operation Final Shield (UFO Crash Site, United States)

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 UFO crash site somewhere in Oklahoma.  We're bringing a MEC Trooper and two rookies with us, as well as the best engineer we have for alien captures.

This is the standard UFO Crash Site mission, where you go to the UFO wreck, break a few alien skulls, and then strip the craft of everything that's not bolted down (and a few things that are).

Anyways, on to the mission!  Our squad today is:

Our Valkyrie, Bull

Our rookie, Nguyen

Our assault, Caper

Our engineer, Chilong

Our infantry, Trips

Our other rookie, Forrughi

Our squad leader, medic Congo

And our Patreon contributor, Oliver "Rascal" Albright.

Cover's not great for advancing in, but we'll make do.

After all, we have a MEC with us.  Bull advances and uses One For All to provide cover in case of enemy contact.

The squad advances and overwatches.

Bull detects Meld up ahead.

The squad advances again and overwatches.

Nguyen hears movement coming from the right.

The squad redeploys and prepares for contact.

And contact it is!  A pod of Floaters, no less.  Well, let's see what we can do about that.

No, that's not a duplicate screenshot.  Trips missed a Floater twice.

 Nguyen hits three of them with an AP grenade.

See, Trips?  Rascal can blow a Floater out of the sky in one shot!

In fact, he did it twice!

Even the rookies are doing better than you, Trips!  Even PFC Forrughi managed to hit one!

Seriously, the medic shoots better than you do!

Bull advances and uses One For All to provide some additional cover.

The squad overwatches.

Bull outright kills the last Floater on overwatch.

Anyway, the squad forms up to continue advancing on the UFO.  Bull uses One For All as a precaution.

Good thing that reloading doesn't break One For All, isn't it?

Congo reloads her laser rifle.

Forrughi reloads her laser carbine.

Trips and Rascal reload their rifles, as well.

 The squad overwatches.

Bull keeps picking up Meld nearby.

Bull advances, and gets eyes on the UFO.  Judge and Dutch really did a number on the thing, didn't they?

The squad advances and overwatches.

Trips hears movement.

Contact!  A pod of Sectoids.  How droll.

Caper moves around the hill in order to get a flank on their position.

Bull leads the squad in overwatches.

One of the Sectoids spots Caper and takes a potshot at her, but misses.

Nguyen kills a Sectoid on overwatch!  Nice job, rookie!

Not to be outdone, Forrughi grenades another Sectoid with the intention of denying it cover.  She was partially successful.

Caper pops Run and Gun.

"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum..."

"...and I'm all out of gum."

Nguyen hits the Sectoid behind full cover.  Impressive work so far, for a rookie.

Perhaps even for experiences troops, as Rascal wasn't able to hit the damn thing.

Chilong rushes up to attempt a capture.

Trips supports him by suppressing it.

Meanwhile, Bull and the rest of the squad overwatch.

The Sectoid attempts to Mindfray Trips, but fails hilariously.

Chilong gets right up next to it...

...triggering the Outsider, which runs away screaming...

...and fails to capture the Sectoid.  Well, since we'll need these Arc Thrower charges for capturing the Outsider, the Sectoid needs to die.

Can you do it, Trips?  No.

Also, you have to reload.

Nguyen misses the Sectoid.

Forrughi does not, however, and earns her first kill.

Now, to deal with this Outsider.  Caper moves to the side, setting up a flanking maneuver.

Meanwhile, the squad overwatches.

The Outsider misses Chilong.

Chilong responds with a perfectly on-target HE grenade.

Nguyen reloads.

Bull advances into the UFO and uses One For All.

Congo orders Rascal to suppress the Outsider...

...and suppress it he does.

Chilong flanks the Outsider, and takes out its cover with another HE grenade.

Meanwhile, Bull uses One For All to support Rascal's advance on the Outsider.

Caper maneuvers around the flank.

Rascal reloads...

Meanwhile, Trips suppresses the Outsider.

However, the Outsider clearly has other plans.  It rushes forward to engage my squad, braving my overwatch trap...

...but even Lightning Reflexes will not save you from the sheer amount of overwatch fire I had brought to bear.

That Outsider is very, very dead.

Op Success!

Promotions for many of you!  Welcome back!

Bull got promoted to Sergeant and gained Lock and Load.

Nguyen made Specialist and became an Assault.

Forrughi made Specialist and became a Scout.  Let's hope that Republican Guard training helps you to dodge bullets better than your predecessors.

And, we got a pretty decent haul out of it as well.  Too bad we didn't get a capture.

Back to the Hologlobe!

UFO contact over Mexico!  It's a big one, and it looks like it's about to land, so we should probably just let it do so and then clean up afterwards.  Our air wing isn't strong enough to take on a large UFO yet.

And, we have an Abduction mission in Leon, Mexico!  Let's bring the squad together.

Leading this squad is our medic, Scooby, with the standard loadout.

Rookie Groen from South Africa is coming along for training.  He's packing an AP grenade for blowing stuff up, but otherwise standard Rookie fare.

D.O.A. is our infantry on this mission, with the standard loadout.

We're also bringing a new infantry on the squad today, Anna "Gunner" Moller from Germany.  She's packing the standard infantry loadout.  Welcome to the team, Gunner.  I only hope you fare better than our last infantry from Germany did.

Stalker is coming along as our scout on this mission, packing the usual scout equipment.

Prototype's coming along, and could you believe that I forgot to promote him after his last mission?  He's carrying another shredder rocket along.  His equipment is otherwise status quo.

We're bringing another Rookie along, Sun Ting from China.  Alloy Plating to buff his abysmal health, but other than that, standard Rookie equipment.

Finally, Enforcer is our gunner.  Because we're out of Phalanx Armor, he's gonna have to do without.  He's bringing the autolaser and the backup medkit.

Strike One is on approach to the Abduction Site.

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