To outfit the soldiers I order a batch of weapons, armour, personal shielding units and all that fun stuff, which takes around 12 hours to arrive from standard military installations and the manufactorums around Ilyria.
Check the top right for the notification of their arrivalWith the gear in the base stockpiles, I outfit the soldiers and choose the best ones to be Team 1, aboard our only dropship in the base currently. My previous experiences with this game suggest that the aliens will chew you up and eat you for breakfast, because the standard Desert Rat armour is worthless.
Meet Team One - Commanded by NGTM-1R, and consisting of himself, Trashman, LHN91, CommanderDJ and a tank driven by Spoon. Scourge is their pilotFour days pass uneventfully, with absolutely nothing happening, other than the boffins working on Laser theory, aided by another delivery of ten scientists to boost my research rate. Finally, though, our radars at the base pick up a small UFO flying from the North West in a South Easterly direction past the base.
Scotty and Dragon are scrambled to attempt an intercept.
However, as soon as they emerge from the base the UFO either goes to ground or exits to space. The two are given a CAP pattern in the area in which we lost the UFO, but they are forced to RTB due to low fuel and we never do resolve the UFO again. Hardly an auspicious start.
Another few days pass quietly, before we detect yet another small UFO, heading towards Pulsar. Both Raptors are scrambled, but once again, it disappears long before we get within attack range. A repeat of the last incident. Clearly we're going to have our work cut out for us. Laser theory is researched and I begin research of Laser Pistols, along with the Advanced Ship Cannon.
Two days later, about the worst thing happens. Pulsar falls under alien control, without any warning. We've barely seen any alien activity and we've already lost a country to them.
Well, ****.With no intel coming out of Pulsar, I do the only thing I can think of. Scotty and Dragon are scrambled once more, this time to provide aerial reconnaisance of the country, see if we can't find out what exactly happened to them.
The flyby yields fruit when they find an installation that should not be there, in the mountains in southern Ilyria. It seems that the Aliens managed to covertly establish a base and subvert the country without anyone knowing. What's worse, is that it's possible that small UFO we missed was responsible for this. With no time to lose, Team One is dispatched to assault the base, straight into the unknown with Scourge of Ages at the helm.
The base defences aren't online yet and Scourge drops the team off at a surface access point. They descend the elevator and enter the lion's den, with no idea of what to expect.
They take up defensive positions as soon as the elevator stops descending and prepare for contact.
Absolutely nothing happens for several turns, so Spoon nudges his Desert Spirit IFV towards the elevator doors and opens them, and finds himself face to face with two aliens, one a bipedal creature in strange armour and holding what is clearly a weapon of some sorts, and the other a floating, brown-green pod. Spoon is quicker off the mark than either of them and his tank's cannon barks two shots, killing both of them.
He retreats back inside the elevator and the team waits again. Nothing happens. Once again, Spoon exits the Elevator and spots another bipedal alien to the right. This time, he dispatches it with one of the ATGMs on the rack, doing some lovely damage to the base.
The team waits again, and still nothing happens. Reluctantly, NGTM-1R concludes that the aliens aren't going to come to them and make this an easy bug hunt, so the team begins to move out, the Spoonzer blazing the trail whilst the infantry advance behind him, moving as a knot and covering every angle.
They find another door to the left of the Elevator, and Spoon checks it out, easing his 'Spirit through. He comes face to face with another set of Aliens, which he dispatches with as much aplomb as the others.
Spoon proceeds to clear that room, whilst the team moves parallel to him in the main chamber, keeping his IFF signal clear on their HUDs. The humans encounter one of the bipedal aliens in the main chamber, and NGTM-1R gets his first kill, spraying it down on full Auto.
They continue bug hunting through the base, methodically clearing each room. Both NGTM-1R and CommanderDJ are wounded by the floating pods at one point, when two flank the team on either side. It turns out they fire toxin gas projectiles, and whilst CommanderDJ manages to patch himself up after the fight and getting clear of the gas, NGTM-1R endures the rest of the mission coughing up blood and will definitely need hospital time when we get back.
Eventually, the last of the floating pods are hunted down and dispatched, mainly by Spoon, LHN91 and CommanderDJ.
(Steam didn't take some of the screenshots for some reason, I think the overlay was derping)With the aliens dead, we get salvage in to recover what they can before we blow the base to deny it to the enemy.
Scourge moves in to pick the team up and return them to base, and NGTM-1R, who's condition has worsened, is moved to the hospital to recover. Several hours later, a larger UFO is spotted moving East - West on a course that will take him right past the base, and Dragon and Scotty are scrambled to intercept. A running air battle ensues. Scotty gets the kill, but his fighter is heavily damaged in the battle and he limps back to base, his Raptor more hole than aircraft.
In the mean time, the team prepares for contact - We have a crashed UFO to investigate.
