So we interrogated the Sectoid.
The bald report omits several things. We would never have been permitted to use this process or many of these techniques on a human, regardless of the stakes. Most of the techniques used were immensely painful to the Sectoid. At least two of our soldiers who were present for part of the interrogation have expressed concern about the method and manner of it.
The probes caused permanent brain damage starting during the third hour, and ultimately the Sectoid entered a coma by hour six. There is no reason to suspect it will recover and it has been given over to the Special Weapons Group for biochem weapons testing.
Capturing the Sectoid also meant that its weapon did not self-destruct. As we suspected from wounds to our soldiers and damage to the environment, they are plasma-based. We haven't conducted full research on the subject, however, though there is news on that front.
The X-9 battle rifle has been the standard weapon of X-COM since the agency was first skeletonally set up in the 1990s. Designed by Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal, it has a number of features that are not present in other weapons. The cartridge is significantly heavier, a special 9mm rifle round, and the selector offers single shot and five-round-burst options rather than the common single and three-round. We had no idea what we'd fight ultimately, so massive overkill for humans was considered necessary. As a result the weapon has significant overpenetration issues against human or humanlike targets, punching small neat holes through them without doing much damage, which is why some aliens manage to stay up after a hit.
We have a solution.
The X-L1 Rifle. Using what we learned from examining the miniaturized power sources for the implants in the Sectoid, and the heat dump systems from their plasma pistol, we've managed to develop a workable, non-chemical laser weapon and the means to reload it in the field. It's expensive, each individual weapon costs over thirty thousand dollars US, but it is currently the best rifle deployed on Earth, even slightly outperforming known alien weapons.
As we are responding to alien abduction being reported in Manchester in the UK, the two prototypes have been issued to Esarai and rookie LHN91. Also attending are Polpolion, Talon 1024, and Rodo. (I switched it around so everyone's names would be visible in screens like this if they had a 1-part name.)
Look children! Targets for Esarai to test his new laser rifle on. Then he misses, disappointing me greatly.
Rodo clears up a minor cover-related issue with a grenade. Sadly our standard frags aren't actually powerful enough to kill Floaters. Their mechanical bits provide just enough protection to their vital organs for fragmentation weapons to lose a lot of their value.
Talon, being Talon, turns their flank and kills one.
Polpolion gets the other. Nothing to see here folks, just the HLPX-COM Assaults cleaning house again.
Well, the laser rifle made a hell of a mess of that door anyways.
And nobody can use it now because it's on fire. This causes some Sectoids to come check it out and then immediately run for cover when they realize that HLPX-COM is here to **** them up. Esarai fires, but misses again, and says something about still trying to compensate for recoil his weapon doesn't have.
Moving up, he finds the Sectoids, who blow their reaction shot at him.
And he also found some Thin Men who are pretty awkwardly placed and could flank without much effort, so he pulls back again...and gets shot by another Sectoid which apparently didn't spend its reaction fire. The injuries aren't too serious. (But since he followed the same path it doesn't really make sense there was unspent reaction fire.)
Polpolion tosses a grenade, clearing cover and hurting a couple of the Thin Men. Rodo follows up by bringing one of the injured ones down.
LHN91 moves up and puts Esarai to shame by scoring a solid laser hit, which kills one Sectoid directly and one from psychic backlash.
The aliens retaliate. Rodo is hurt by one of the Thin Men spitting some kind of poison, while another tries and fails to hit Talon at a range of about two meters.
Polpolion does some more of that turning the flank thing that Talon made a name doing. Say goodnight, Thinnie.
LHN91 moves up and the last Sectoid blows its reaction shot high and to the right. Then comes the laser back along the shot trajectory, and it's all over for this particular Grey.
Talon stuns the Thin Men that's still alive and was injured in the grenade blast.
A couple of Floaters turn up. LHN91 misses his first laser shot of the mission, but severely ****s up a building with it. Talon and Polpolion combine fire to kill the Floater that didn't retreat out of sight. (Note that I added a screenshot of Polpolion knocking out the window with a shotgun butt; your troopers do this for windows and doors when they're standing next to them and going to shoot through them.)
Then the one that retreated hops forward and blows away LHN91 with a single shot. Son of a *****! I thought we had this mission in the bag and then some alien cock jockey ruins everything.
Esarai rushes forward and fires, finally connecting. The Floater goes down dead with half its head gone.
The mission to Manchester must be considered a success, despite the loss of LHN91 on his rookie mission. He showed great promise, and was instrumental in the proving of the X-L1 Rifle, making making his loss triply painful.
Others have survived similar hits without being nearly so injured. (It was a straight 6-damage no-crit on a weapon that usually does 3 or 4 damage despite its theory cap of 6.) As near as we can tell, LHN's armor was defective. z64555 has sacked the responsible technicians and testing of the existing armor stocks is underway. This won't happen again.
