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

Operation Death Tower

They didn't have to wait long. The aliens moved forward, the grunt hiding behind a streelamp while the sectoid dashed behind a tree. Watt proved that he may be more than a rookie afterall as he fired at the dashing sectoid, wouding it badly just prior to it taking cover behind the tree. The alien is made of a bit sterner stuff than what the team had faced up to this point, and still managed to lurch forward to cover.

Well out of reasonable combat range, Campbell dashed forward towards Halberson and Van Dyke, but the grunt finds Campbell an easy target and sent her crumpling to the ground. She rolled into cover, against the building but Halberson can tell she's not looking good. "WATT! Get your ass over to Campbell..NOW!"

Watt glanced across the field, noting that Campbell was still standing at least, "I seem to have my OWN problems thank you very much. Now SHOOT the damn things!" With that, Watt, Van Dyke, and Campbell all fired on the pair of sheltered aliens making a fantastic amount of noise that leads to absolutely nothing.

The grunt alien returned fire and took chunks out of the building Campbell is hiding behind. The other alien gets up and looks directly at Halberson. Suddenly, swarms of bugs began materializing out of the ground and start heading towards her. Halberson screams, gets up and runs away from the onslaught of alien bugs. Seeing the swarm still coming after her, she turned and fired into the ground trying to kill the things all the while screaming at the top of her lungs. Van Dyke, Campbell, and Watt look at her in confusion. Halberson just got up and ran for no reason. Van Dyke looks over at Watt, "We just might have to change her name from Artsy to Bugsy."

Campbell, who hadn't been listening, saw an opportunity, and even in her weakened state, got up and tossed a grenade at the grunt watching her. The alien has just enough time to understand the situation before the grenade exploded, removing it from active duty – permanently, as well as the wall and a nearby lamp post. The lamp post was somewhat explosive as well it seems as THAT exploded further injuring the Sectoid taking cover nearby. With all nearby cover removed, Watt lines up the shot and fired, taking the Sectoid square in the chest where it goes down with a "squish". He wasn't one to leave a job half-finished.

With the immediate threat gone, and no pressure on the transmitter, the team regrouped. Watt jogged over to Campbell who was sweating and breathing heavily with pain. He pulled out his medkit and quickly sprayed a cannister of something across her stomach. Campbell quickly looked up, "What did that do?" Watt put the cannister away as he tossed his pack back over his shoulder,

"Just making sure you don't accidentally lose your guts before the mission ends."

"I like my guts."

"Yes, your guts are fantastic, but they smell and I don't want to smell them. Now we've got a job to finish, so let's go."

The team cautiously moved forward towards the transmitter. It was eerily quiet. Halberson climbed across a nearby roof looking for anything to shoot, and was disappointed. As she and most of the team huddled behind a park bench, A sectoid and grunt appeared from further up the street as they exited a building.

The grunt saw the team first and dove for cover behind a nearby car while the sectoid ran into the house hosting the transmitter. The team isn't sure how many aliens are left, but decided to go for broke here. Halberson, from behind the park bench primed her grenade and ran into the middle of the street where she tossed it where it lands JUST shy of the alien. The grenade exploded, setting the car on fire, but leaving the alien unharmed – for the moment. Van Dyke, who sees that Halberson is woefully out of cover refused to allow a team member go down on his watch. He quickly lined up the cowering alien and fired – taking it down with a quick shot to the head.

Campbell, still in a world of pain, rushed to a nearby streetlamp where she gets an angle on the Sectoid inside the house. Amazingly enough, she caught a glimpse of it and fired through the window, obliterating the window and surprising the hell out of the alien as it seemingly gets hit from nowhere. Watt, seeing the potential rushed up to the side window of the house, where the alien stands in the middle of the room, bleeding as it tries to figure out what just happened. Breaking the window, Watt fired away removing any thought the alien might have had that there was a way out of the situation.

As the last of the gunfire echoed away, the team looked around and listened. They heard nothing. After a quick sweep of the area, the team calls in, "Area Secure. Mission Accomplished"

Goal: Protect the Transmitter – Success
Roster:
Van Dyke (W): Rookie – 2 kills
Campbell: Rookie – 1 kill (wounded)
Halverson: Rookie – 1 kill
Watt: Rookie – 2 kills

As the Skyranger landed back at base, Campbell was immediately sent to the medical wing. Apparently the shot she took to the gut was a little more drastic than originally thought. She'd be spending a good amount of time in the med ward. However, for her actions, she was awarded a promotion to Squaddie. Her Sniper Rifle was set beside her bed as an incentive. She was tasked with giving it a name.

The others were ushered into debriefing where additional promotions were given for a solid overall performance. In front of the rest of the team, Van Dyke was promoted to Ranger, complete with samurai sword. And not just a ceremonial sword, but a fully functional, eviscerating sword. He was happy, but he was all but tackled as he began 'practicing' inside the debriefing room. Watt was sent to the armory to pick up his new heavy gunner / grenade launcher combo. He was rather pleased.

And that left Harverson. The commander thought long and hard before handing over a brand new sniper rifle. "Several members of the resistance died looting this warehouse. Treat her well."

Harverson took it hesitantly before responding, "But....but I don't want to be a sniper."

Pubentz heard the comment and immediately jumped in, "OOOO OOOO, I want to be a sniper! PICK ME! PICK ME!"

The Commander pinched his nose before he looked back up. "Harverson! Sniper rifle! Yours! GO!" He turned to Pubentz, "You! Why are you not in med bay? You have a job to do! Now GO!"

Pubentz grumbled as she left the room, swatting away her droid buzzing happily around her.