[Phantom Hoover]

Ouch, I didn't notice Anette got critically wounded. That Will penalty is not going to do her psychic ability any good.

[StarSlayer]

She was Gravely Wounded, she took some hits but didn't need to be stabilized.

[NGTM-1R]

There has been an incident.

While it didn't effect the savegame, it does mean I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to post probably. Stupid sinks.

[NGTM-1R]

_{Okay, so, my wife broke her arm, so I'm basically wiped. But I'm gonna try to keep up again.}

"Has anybody considered the EXALT base is actually in Russia, because we keep playing whack-a-mole with Russian cells?"

"That only works if you think they're dumb enough to **** where they eat. Saddle up, people, Star needs us!"

Operation Brutal God, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 7:03 PM October 21st
Deployed: Admiral "Marauder" Ralwood (MEC-3, mission commander), Enioch "Chops" (asault), Annette Durand (sniper, psy-ops), Gortef "Fire Magnet" (support), Twenty "Alpha" PercentCooler (sniper), CommanderDJ (assault)
On-Site: StarSlayer "Tiradora" (sniper, psy-ops)

"Looks quiet out front."


"The data transmitter's set up in that conference room. The window gives a good field of fire from outside...and to outside. Sorry guys, no perfect answers."


"Contact! Multiple Exalt!"


"LOTS of contact!"

"Dammit, are you serious!?"


"DJ, down! Damn, no hit."


"Target is terminated."


"I have this one. Finite."


"Hostile medic down."


_{Submitted without comment, because none could make sense.}


"We just wasted five of his buddies in an instant, and he stands up?"

"Nobody said they were smart, DJ."

"Swing and a miss, sucker. Die."



"Oh I see how it is. Pick on the giant target!"


"Watch your flanks!"

"Target down!"


_{DJ is doing a really good impersonation of the Master Chief here.}


"More of them, coming in through the back!"

_{Only Gortef is good enough to hit. And Twenty.}





"You. Die."


"They have to know by now, they can't win."


"Would that stop us?"

"He just popped smoke!"


_{Awfully dead EXALT.}


"More! Jesus, how many are there!?"

"Does it matter?"

"Oh damn, damn!"


"Got this one."


"Another from this side!" _{That was a really weak crit, there...stupid Iron Skin genemod actually matters for once.}



"No hit!"


"I got this." <sub>Twenty, like a proper ninja, swipes the kill with a pistol shot.


Random car explosion.</sub>


"Winged him!"


"I got this. Target down."

Strike, Sky, we are negative for contacts. Upload complete.

Strike, this is the Commander. Well done. Return home ASAP.

The Commander was happy. Handed out a lot of promotions.


Because, for EXALT at least...the end is in sight.

[Gortef]

Damn that was a lot of fellas in one room. I think we got them right when they were having a tactical meeting or something. And that's when their tactics went down the drain in an instant.

[NGTM-1R]

_{This took me way too long. I apologize.}

"Well then, are we sure?"

Positive. We've tasked a recon sat to the site as well for the last six hours but I'm not particularly eager to play whack-a-mole much more. We have no idea how easily they could move base.

"Da. EXALT has been trouble long enough by now."

All right. Ignatyeva, assemble a team. Bradford, have the Skyranger prepped and announce training exercises for the Asian Firestorms. We're going to India.

Operation Fading Mist, Bangalore, India, 9:23pm, October 24th
Deployed: Admiral Ralwood "Maraduer" (MEC-3), Irina Ignatyeva "Casino"(heavy, mission commander),  The E "Psycho" (assault), Enioch "Chops" (assault), Annette Durand (sniper, psy-ops), Gortef "Fire Magnet" (support)

_{Gortef is channeling ODST's Rookie here.}

Strike, Sky, at drop point.

"Dark and stormy night."

"Quiet, Snoopy. Nice rugs, nice wallpaper, nice books...CONTACT!"


"Take this you bastards!"


"How do we score that one?"

"I've got more than enough kills, let Annette have it."

_{Check out the whole ancient weapons and armor.}


"Hi. Die."



"Target is terminated."


"That furniture looks antique. The books look antique. I'm pretty sure I see a first folio edition of Marlowe over there, maybe the Bronte girls too. How much money did they spend on this place?"


"Wrong question. How long has EXALT existed?"

"Are you saying this is a raid on the ****ing Illuminati?"

"Fnord."

"Goddammit, E, I did not need to laugh right now!"

"More of them, opposite side!"


"Firing-missed!"


"ROCKET INCOMING!"


"Sound off, damage and injuries!"

"Marauder here, MEC  is still good to go."

"Gortef, no breach."

"Durand, no breach."

"Ralwood! GET DOWN! Target dead!"


"Gortef!"

"Armor is breached, ****!"

"Dammit, stop living up to your name!"

"They must have missed me, they even have a pinup. Firing. Two down." _{Seriously, check out Annette's picture on the wall there in most of these shots.}




"I've got more of them and...son of a *****, they even stole our hologlobe?"


"And you, die too."



"Scratch target."


"One remaining."


"No, way more than one!"


_{Told you they stole the hologlobe.}


"Target hit. Target down."



"Scratch one."


"Gortef!"



"I'm all right, I'm all right."


"More on the far side!"


"Target terminated. Also, jesus man, the internet is not for porn in that way. Firing on second target-no hit!"



"Kill!"



"Dammit Gortef!"


"Patching you up, Gortef."


"Firing! Merde, no hit. Resighting...target is down!"




"Okay. Police the bodies and weapons, then the computer gear, then the art stuff. If it's actually worth money, we might as well save it."

"Forget money, some of this stuff is cultural-treasure-priceless."

Strike, this is the Commander. I'm authorizing anyone who wants a tigerskin rug to pick one up, just this once. Save one for me.

"...did he really just say that?"

"I think he did."

"I think I'm in love."

"One, the Commander's married. Two, you're not actually that crazy. Start packing, Durand."

"Command, we're done here. Placing charges. Alert local fire-rescue on my mark."

Awaiting your confirmation, Strike.

"Mark."





And that's it. We win. EXALT loses. We recovered a huge amount of expensive art and literature from the EXALT base. They weren't quite The Illuminati like was suggested, but they clearly predated the alien invasion by a century or two. We have no idea quite how deep their influence actually ran, yet, but we have their computer systems so we can probably start guessing.

Their problem seems to have been that they represented no one of governmental authority. Rich folks, corporations, I'm sure the Occupy movement would have loved this, but unfortunately when you back the government against the wall and force it to fight for its life, the whole corporatist state analogy falls apart. Everybody wants to live. We are the means and the mechanism by which humanity will do so, and so HLPX-COM can deputize every intelligence agency in the world on a whim and get results that even the richest couldn't hope for.

They still hid themselves remarkably well for all that. Just not well enough. The covert operations division of HLPX-COM was formally shut down the day after the mission. We're back to fighting aliens alone.

Was nice of them to donate all that stuff to our rec room on base, though. I gather the Commander is quietly arranging for museums to take possession of some of the more significant bits of cultural heritage, and putting the stuff that can actually be valued, as opposed to being beyond price, in a vault against the day we might need the cash.

[AdmiralRalwood]

Personal log, Colonel Jason "Marauder" Ralwood.

Scratch two.

callback

[Gortef]

If I get a nickname Fire Magnet then it's up to me and only me to honor that merit.
I just wished honoring a name would not hurt this much.

[NGTM-1R]

_{Okay where the **** were we? Oh yeah.}

UFO over the central US, scout-sized. Scramble Demon-2.

Firing fusion lance. Target down in flames.

Anette, take some of the less-experienced troopers. It's a small and our reserves could use the exercise.

Operation Brutal Stroke, Kansas, United States, 9:00pm local time
Present: Colonel Annette Duran (sniper, psy-ops), Captain "Fire Magnet" Gortef (support), Lieutenant Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang (heavy), Sergeant Twenty "Alpha" PercentCooler (sniper), Corporal CommanderDJ (assault), Squaddie Herra Tohtori (heavy)

"Well, the giant skid mark probably matches their pants."


"Most of them don't wear pants. Some of them don't even ****."

"I sincerely hope the second group and the first are the same."

"Floater! Contact down!"


"Cloaky bastards!"


"Cloak before you move, genius. One down."


"Scratch two!"

"Nice shot DJ."


"Sectoids in the ship, red ones!"


"Ouch!"

Strike, warning, warning, Herra's vitals just went wonky.

"One target down. Somebody get the other one!"


"No hit, no hit!"


"Holy ****! We gotta-"

"DJ! GET IT TOGETHER!"

"Oh man, Herra's firing on me, this **** is for the birds."


"Dammit, missed!"


"Firing suppressive."


"No hit."


"Armor not breached. Still good to go."


"Hit him, but he's still up!"


"Going closer-CHRIST! Somebody suppress Herra already!"


"Target terminated."


"Welcome back to the right side, Herra."


"Ah ****. Really?"

"Really. God knows why you get promoted for that."

[NGTM-1R]

Due to the risk of being turned into a charcoal briquette by wildfires burning in San Diego, updates may not happen at the pace I, or most people, would like. I will attempt to keep you informed of my in-flames/not-in-flames status.

[Lepanto]

Nice to see that this is alive again! 

[Gortef]

Hey it's a promotion for succesfully not killing any allies while being controlled. Perhaps HT kept it at least somewhat together.

[NGTM-1R]

First, some housekeeping matters.

Doctor Vahlen's new hyperwave decoder toy nearly blew up the base.

Uh, Doctors-

Just wait!

Stress on the main shaft is getting high, we're going to lose it-

That's it, I'm shutting it down-

JUST WAIT!

Vibration's dropping, it's within normal limits now.

We're getting data, it's coming up in the main command center now.

Second, Japan asked us for some of our alien-specialized flashbangs. We don't use them; during the time periods we would have found them valuable, standard frag was more effective. However, they're cheap, and Japan was offering us more than they cost, so we sent them along.


Apparently they've been quite successful.

And then, there was the last ride of the Interceptors.

We have a UFO over the central US/Canada border. Scramble Demon-3 and the Interceptors; we might as well fight them one last time.

None of them, however, actually got close enough to the ship to engage; it outran them. Demon-3 had sole honors.

Central, Scotty. Scratch one. One round expended. Remaining on station. Interceptor pilots are requesting permission to strafe, since it's the last time they'll get to fire their guns.

Scotty, Central. Permission granted. Strike is outbound.

NEXT TIME:

Operation Lazy Father, US/Canada Border, 6:28pm
Present: Colonel Annette Durand (sniper, psy-ops), Captain "Fire Magnet" Gortef (support), Lieutenant "Ravana" BritishShivans (support), Lieutenant Twenty "Alpha" PercentCooler (sniper), Sergeant "Twitch" CommanderDJ (assault), Corporal Herra Tohtori (heavy)

_{Someone whack me if I don't have it up by midnight.}

[Gortef]

Ooh, it's time to get back into action again, eh? Good, good.

I just hope that this vacation has not made us rusty.

[Scotty]

Flashbangs are the single greatest thing on God's green, alien murdering earth.  You should always use them, mostly because they totally **** with enemy move speed.  They are the anti-'lid.

[deathfun]

And with enemy move speed reduced so drastically, makes getting those low HP bastards arc'd

[NGTM-1R]

Operation Lazy Father, US/Canada Border, 6:28pm
Present: Colonel Annette Durand (sniper, psy-ops), Captain "Fire Magnet" Gortef (support), Lieutenant "Ravana" BritishShivans (support), Lieutenant Twenty "Alpha" PercentCooler (sniper), Sergeant "Twitch" CommanderDJ (assault), Corporal Herra Tohtori (heavy)

"Okay folks, we've done this before. Fifteen seconds."


"Down and locked! Go!"


"We got hostiles! Big red bastards!"


"****! No hits!"




"Scratch one!"


"Still missing this other one!"


"TWENTY, GET YOUR DAMN-"

"****! Armor held, just barely!"


"Christ, patch yourself up! Suppressing fire!"


"Suppressing!"


"I have had enough of this-

"-****, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

"He's dead, BritishShivans. I don't think he hears anything right now."

"Moving forward-we got us another one! He's headed your way!"


"Firing-merde! He's still up!"



"Miss! ****, Twenty-"


"Didn't even try for me. He was after Herra."


"Oh I am so sick of this."


"You use the heavy gun like this. Two hands!"


"Move in on the ship. Clear the aft area."

"Well, we're clear, checking the other side-oh, ****."

_{Understatement of the year award.}

"Got the drone!"


"THAT REALLY DOESN'T HELP WITH THE GIANT DEATH ROBOT!"


"Oh shi-"


"OW! Dammit, I felt that! Armor not breached but I'm pretty toasty here!"



"FOCUS FIRE!"








"Herra, don't-"

"I got it!"

"They blow up, Herra."


"Armor's not breached. Doesn't matter. Patchup time."



"Oh look, the SecMec crew. You guys are NOTHING."


"Someday, I want them to play Pistolero for me dammit."


"Another time, perhaps, Twenty."


"Incoming! Get down!"


"Mechtoid's hurt. DJ, you got this?"


"I got this. Mechtoid down."

Strike, warning, warning, Twenty's vitals just went wonky!

"It ain't going to matter. Arc up! Sectoid stunned!"


"Two more, in the bridge!"


"Oh come on, I can see his brains through his skull!"

"I did not need to know that, Herra!"

"You little bastards, do you think that will stop me?"


"Scratch one!"



"Target down."


"Third target down. You missed one in the corner."

Strike, Sky, no contacts remaining.

"Copy Sky."


"Returning to base, Control. No injuries. Armor's going to need a lot of work though."


_{Next time: the overseer UFO. After that...one more mission until Site Recon. ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR CHRYSSALIDS, GENTLEMEN!?}

[Scotty]

You have plasma and flying suits.  Chryssalids are literally totally helpless against both of those things.

[NGTM-1R]

You have plasma and flying suits.  Chryssalids are literally totally helpless against both of those things.

Well, that rather depends on how I play the mission, and I may have a horrible urge to watch the whale.

[deathfun]

Actually, come to think of it... if your entire team has jetpacks, you could literally just float and build up an insane body count