X-Com's Finest (An X-Com 2 play through)

Operation Wolf Chalice

OPERATION WOLF CHALICE
Goal: Retrieve the power converter
Roster:
Kelley: Squaddie Ranger – part of the original crew
Zalewski (J): Rookie
Pubentz: Rookie
Van Dyke (M): Rookie

It was their first mission. They were tasked to locate, stabilize, and retrieve an alien power converter. It was located on a trailer that seemed to have had mechanical problems, the result of the underground cell in the area no doubt. This was the first real mission for this group. There was no telling how they were going to perform.

The team landed and slowly made their way towards the trailer. They knew the converter was unstable and had to be adjusted. Having the converter go critical would be bad, if bad meant annihilating everything in a half-mile radius. They could do it, they just needed to get close enough. Initial recon showed two aliens patrolling near the converter, and another two stationed some way away. Three standard issue soldiers and a commander. Granted, they were ALIEN soldiers, but standard issue nonetheless. This should be a piece of cake if everything goes to plan. NOTHING ever goes to plan and this mission was no different.

Ambush – BUSTED!

Instead, of walking where they were supposed to, they walked to the far side of the truck where they discovered Van Dyke and Kelley. The plan had been for the aliens to do their survey, turn around and head on back where they would walk into the overwatch of Pubentz and Dr. Z. The survivor would scramble for cover right into the fire lines of Van Dyke and Kelley. It didn't quite work that way.

Now Dr. Z was a nickname of sorts. Zalewski was always fascinated by the alien weaponry, the laser rays in particular. Everyone started calling him "Death Ray" or "Dr" for short.

So one slipped right up to the other side of the box that Van Dyke was hiding behind, while the other took cover behind a nearby tree. Birdbones Van Dyke hopped onto the trailer trucks and unloaded her assault rifle into the covering alien's head. Apparently the aliens do bleed. She notched the first kill. Kelley decided to go psycho and pulled out her sword, charging the alien. Her plan was to decapitate the thing, but the tree got in the way and she only impaled it. Pubentz, realizing the danger the team was in, hopped up next to Van Dyke and fires at the wounded alien taking out the rest of the tree. Dr. Z pulled forward into overwatch covering the front.

The aliens didn't take this lying down. The injured alien retreated to a more defensible position before firing and landing a shot against Kelley. Even though she was ranked higher, a shot in the leg was enough to make her wince. The other two see Kelley fighting and jump into action moving forward right into Dr. Z's firing line. With a superb shot, he manages to splatter the innards of one of the aliens across his friend. The alien's partner wasn't amused and returned fire. Unfortunately, the storage container Dr. Z was taking cover behind was not enough to stop the alien rays that blasted him in the chest. Limping and coughing blood, Dr. Z panicked, yelling something about the sky falling as he ran back towards the way we'd come. Apparently, losing all feeling in his shoulder was enough to rattle him.

Jumping into a more defensible position, Van Dyke and Kelley both take shots at the alien, and it"s the calm, cool shot from Pubentz that finally manages to take the wounded alien out. The final alien, realizing he's overwhelmed, retreats out of site while Van Dyke and Pubentz follow, taking pot shots but not connecting. Dr. Z regains his senses and plugs his wound before returning to his overwatch position. Kelley, Pubentz and Birdbones all begin advancing on the truck, the power relay pulsing noticeably brighter the longer we wait. Pubentz quickly dives into the electronics while the rest cover.

It takes just a minute, and we're ready to go. Yes, we took a couple of shots, but mission accomplished!

Well, not quite yet. Command wants us to clear out the remaining aliens. Ok, so we have to go find the commander. Actually, we don't have to do anything, as the commander returns, and he brings friend – three of them, with one of them being a psychic leader of some type, and they advance as a group, all four of them.

Fortunately, Dr. Z had returned to his standard logic state, and to a defensive position behind those same crates he'd been taking cover before. They hadn't noticed him yet, that is, until, against his better judgement, took a shot at one of the standard aliens. He managed to mutilate it, sending it to the ground in pieces. On the other side of the field, Kelley, sitting behind the trailer, vaulted out from behind cover screaming obscenities as she roared out with her shotgun. The aliens sat stunned momentarily before she fired, missing miserably. Pubentz sat stone-cold, lined up the shot, and fired peppering the alien with assault rifle rounds before ducking back behind cover.

Dead – Stone Cold – and Panicked

The victory was short-lived. The aliens were not amused. The first alien turned and fired at Dr. Z who thought he was safe behind that same set of crates he was hunkered behind. Apparently, he wasn't and the laser fire sliced through his cover ripping into his already torn shoulder. The impact sent him sprawling across the ground. There was no whimpering this time. The second alien aimed for Kelley who was still trying to intimdate the aliens. The shot hit her straight in the chest where she collapsed right next to Pubentz who only glanced before turning back to the action. The final alien, which we later learned was a sectoid, took aim at Mary, hunkered behind the truck and still managed to blast through the truck and hit her square in the chest.

Unable to handle the stress, Birdbones starts screeching at the top of her lungs and runs towards the nearest available cover – which happened to be a tree right in front of the remaining pair of aliiens.

Pubentz looked around. Two marines were dead, and the two aliens had a slight advantage. It'd take some solid strategy and a little luck to pull this off. Fortunately for her and her training, she was used to stress.

"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER BIRDBRAIN!" she yelled as she pulled out a grenade. Nothing evened the odds a little bit like explosives. A perfect throw and a perfect catch later, there was one less alien. The sectoid, seeing the odds turned slightly against him, retreated to a more defensible position and fired back at the injured Van Dyke but she was too buried in the dirt trying to become invisible.

But Pubentz's words got to Van Dyke. She looked up slightly and with a surge of adrenaline ran towards the alien standing in front of it point-blank and unloaded everything she had into it. There wasn't much to say. Nor was there much left.

As the escort ship was on its way back, Pubentz and Van Dyke checked their two downed mates. Pubentz pulled Dr. Z over to the landing site and sort of stared at him. As Van Dyke dropped Kelley, Pubentz just sort of stared at them.

"I guess Dr. Z got his share of Death Ray after all." There was a slight pause. "I don't think he liked it."

Van Dyke looked up at her in disbelief as the shuttle landed and marines came rushing onto the scene securing the power source and bagging the dead.

OPERATION WOLF CHALICE
Goal: Retrieve the power converter – Success
Roster:
Kelley: Squaddir Ranger – 1 Kill – KIA
Zalewski (J): Rookie – 1 Kill – KIA
Pubentz: Rookie – 3 kills
Van Dyke (M): Rookie – 2 kills

Returning to base was a somber affair depending on who you talked to. Van Dyke sat in her seat, recounting the encounter and promising herself that she would never allow herself to panic ever again. Pubentz sat in her seat examining her nails before finally allowing herself a yawn and taking a nap, the body of her lifeless teammate bagged on the floor in front of her.

Upon returning to base, Pubentz and Van Dyke were debriefed. Shortly thereafter there was a quick ceremony where Van Dyke and Pubentz were awarded a promotion. Van Dyke was promoted to Squaddie and given a grenade launcher which looked to be half the size of her which she looked at hesitantly before hauling it off.

Pubentz waited anxiously. She was also given a promotion to Squaddie, and given a droid. "Congatulatinos! You're a Support! Here's your droid!" Pubentz looked on in disbelief. "Be sure to make good use of him, he's very valuable!" Pubentz glared back, the disbelief boring holes into the head of her superior before stomping out of the room, the droid hovering happily around her. Her superior could hear Pubentz muttering unintelligibly under her breath as Pubentz left the room.