Abduction mission in Japan, saddle up! Joining us this time is Rookie Mort. I'd prefer it if Mort comes back alive, but given the way things have gone I'm not willing to bet on it. (We pretty much had to respond to the Asian abduction, or write off the whole continent; China's already in a panic because I'm a derp and gave it satellite coverage without interceptors.)

Enemy Unknown identifies the true cause of the alien invasion: rising gas prices.

We have a minimum of four Sectoids who closed to contact on the first turn. Mort brought one down (25% hit chance, not bad work), but the rest have managed to avoid dying to Esarai and others.



Then one of them blows it and gets taken out by Scourge of Ages for wandering across his field of fire.

DireWolf redeems himself after an earlier miss.

Mort reports three Thin Men, who immediately dash off into the dark after being spotted. Scourge of Ages brings down the last Sectoid.

And then the mission goes to **** as Esarai kills one Thin Man that charged, and the other two combine fire to bring him down with an impressively large hole in his chest.




Mort, moving up, reports that Esarai is still alive, but needs immediate medical attention. The team responds with a lot of explosives. First, Mort blasts one of the Thin Men with a grenade, badly injuring it and removing its cover. Second, Scourge of Ages uses his rocket to remove the front side of this store, so that DireWolf has better sight lines.



DireWolf promptly brings down the Thin Man that hasn't been hurt yet.

Talon stuns the injured Thin Man.

Three more Sectoids run in, and then dive for cover when they realize what's going on. Mort kills one.

Scourge misses another, but DireWolf gets it with a grenade.


The last one foolishly got way too close to Talon.

Mission Complete. Esarai's injuries mean a lengthy stay in Sickbay.


Out of character now, I'm pretty sure this game is going down in flames because I started this as my literally first game (savegame number 1) and didn't effectively manage my geoscape and cash early on. My inclination is to ride the bomb all the way down, but it's really up to you guys.