Stop ****ting up every thread in Games, dammit!
So, updates.
First, my save corrupted as already mentioned. Apparently, sectoids are metagaming bastards. So we did the Havana mission over again, and made a much more clean win. Rodo, Jr2, congratulations: due to quantum uncertainty you're no longer dead, at least for awhile. Headdie is no longer permitted to use a missile launcher after he nearly killed TrashMan by reaction-firing a rocket into an enemy who was only four squares away from Trash. Rodo shot the tank, again. Titan blew up a gas station (and a cyberdisc). And SpardaSon is now a Sergeant. We'll call his group “the B Team”. Those of you under The E are now “the A Team”, but wearing of gold chains is punishable by immediate execution.
We have some good news. First, a major expansion of Dekker's Pad is underway to allow it to house an Interceptor and more radar equipment. We will also be moving some manufacturing operations there after fiance informed me it might be possible to free ourselves from the pitiful amount of money we get from the member nations by building laser cannon for export.
Dekker's Pad also detected its first UFO, over Germany. It headed out over the Atlantic but ran into Dekker himself and Interceptor 1, who shot it down several hundred miles out to sea. Member nation naval units are sweeping the area, but it's doubtful anything will be recoverable; the ocean is too deep there. At the same time a UFO was detected over South America, coming north. Interceptor 2 and Nuke met it off the Florida Keys, but were unable to close to weapons range until it was over land. A pair of Avalanche AAMs completely destroyed the target, most of the remaining debris falling into the Everglades.
HLPX-COM again denies the use of nuclear weapons. Particularly with Elerium enhancement.
There is also an ongoing alien attack on Nairobi. The Skyranger is en route.
The welcoming committee is decidedly cold and robotic, so SpardaSon and Rodo kill it. This is what happens when a cyberdisc dies, by the way; you see why Col. Fishguts, who fought one at relatively short range inside a UFO, was lucky to escape with his life when it went down.
Another cyberdisc approaches from beyond the convenience store that Darius brought us down next to. Rodo and Fishguts both engage and score a hit each, but the cyberdisc fires back and hits Spoon's tank. This proves the aliens have not learned a critical lesson: don't **** with Spoon. A single round from the new Laser Tank brings the cyberdisc down.
You might notice something different now. This is the new HLPX-COM Personal Armor. Made of the same materials as the UFOs we've been fighting, it is primarily flexible metallic mesh with solid inserts in key areas. The mesh is proof against any Earth-designed small arm save for our own Lasers, and the inserts offer some protection again alien plasma weapons, though not very much. Still, the odds of being merely wounded rather than killed by plasma fire are measurably higher.
We didn't have enough to outfit the whole team when the call came in, so the suits were issued in the order people come off the Skyranger.
This alien tried to kill SpardaSon. He missed and hit the ramp of the Skyranger. SpardaSon fired a snapshot back and hit the alien in the face with a high-explosive rocket. The alien no longer has a face, or a life. (And it's not because he took up Let's Playing.)
Trashman, who has been experimentally armed with a missile launcher, blows the **** out of a cyberdisc...accidentally destroying the one that Spoon gutted. Oh well.
Remember when I said you had measurably higher odds of just being wounded? That's not the same thing as “good”. Fishguts is unfortunate enough to demonstrate for us that the new armor is still vulnerable, and goes down with a huge hole in his side. He's gone.
Rodo absorbs a grenade. Thanks to the armor and some distance, causalities are relatively light. Rodo is killed. Titan, kneeling on the ramp of the Skyranger, is injured, and so is SpardaSon. TrashMan might or might not be inside the blast radius, but if he was his armor protected him completely. Trash applies first aid to Titan, who then applies it to SpardaSon, while Jr2 deploys from inside the Skyranger and spots the responsible alien, blasting it with two hits in the side of the head from his laser rifle.
Spoon, having gone around the other side of the building, reports a third cyberdisc. This one is in visible flight rather than just being off the ground. He fires once but the shot does not connect. Jr2 spots a fourth cyberdisc moving up past its previously disabled comrade and brings it down with six rounds and four hits while Spoon and the cyberdisc he spotted get in a shooting match. Both heavily damage the other. Trashman, having reloaded his missile launcher, steps out wide to clear the store we landed next to and kills the cyberdisc.
Dry on missiles now, Trash recovers Col. Fishguts' laser rifle to carry on the fight.
The E takes down an alien that Trash spotted lurking in the strip mall across the street. He reloads the launcher afterwards.
This alien threw a grenade at Titan and Jr2 as they entered the huge smoke cloud caused by repeated missile and cyberdisc detonations on the far side of the store. It missed, badly, and neither of them was actually injured. Titan sprays nine laser beams inaccurately at the alien, but his injuries are inhibiting his aim and none connect. Jr2 takes it down with a single well-aimed shot through the left eye.
Meanwhile, this alien attempted to use a stun launcher on Spoon's tank. Not only is this a highly dubious plan in and of itself since you can't stun a tank, the alien actually hit the fence next to it and knocked itself out. For its ineptitude it will now spend many hours being interrogated by HLPX-COM scientists.
Trashman spotted another cyberdisc. The E used his last missile to kill it.
The team spreads out, hunting for more aliens, but no contact is made for several turns. They're out there, though, since they can be heard firing on occasion at civilians. Mjn.Maxel locates one behind a building.
This alien started off is looking the wrong way. It never sees Mjn.Maxel raise his rifle to open fire...but despite a hit between the should blades, it somehow manages to spin around and return a couple of plasma rounds. Both miss, one striking the hedge, one passing between Mjn.Maxel and the corner he just stepped out from behind, through the window behind him and the store, out the blasted front, and across the street, nearly hitting Trashman. Unfortunately for the alien, Mjn.Maxel and Axem are operating on the buddy system. Axem rushes forwards and shoots the alien high in chest, so it has matching front and back wounds. It goes down with an anguished scream.
TrashMan finds the last alien hiding in a warehouse and blasts it. (I finally caught one mid-death animation.)
Mission complete. Now if only I'd remembered to grab the screen! We won by a decent but not very impressive amount, about 260 points, and for the first time managed not to kill civilians ourselves.