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

Operation Dying Thunder

Anyway, I get my orders and run down to munitions to suit up where I see the rest of the squad I'm having to work with:
• Pugh – The coddled rookie who actually thinks she'll actually make it through this war in one piece. I have my doubts, even with Pubentz pretending to care about her.
• Campbell – The sniper who is afraid of snakes who can't seem to get out of med-bay. Awesome.
• Svagerko – The sub-par Ranger who thinks she's actually worth something, and...
• Gunner Van Dyke – The only person on this squad who is ALMOST as good as I am. She just seems to have a love affair with the med-bay staff or some-such. She hasn't died yet, for which I'm grateful, but I wish she'd try giving the med-staff a break for once....

As to our mission? We needed to backup...errr, save another cell that's under attack. The last time we went on a rescue mission, I got ambushed from above by some living ball of sand. I never really did hear the end of it. How would you like it if some civilian you were trying to save suddenly turned inside out into some kind of grotesque ball of sand and tried to eat you. I was not amused. I made a point to kill the subject before it came up on the ride over. Other than a slight smirk from my sis, I didn't hear anything which was a good thing. I really had my concerns about the group heading over. Things could go sideways really quick over there if things didn't go perfectly. That happened somewhat.

We landed in on the edge of the town. You could hear the screams already. We really had to be careful this time around. Outside of my sister and myself, the rest of the squad was either less experienced, or shaken – or in Svaagerko's situation – both. So we did the smart thing and sent expendable Svagerko out to scout. She's working on becoming a Stealth Ranger. She has a long way to go. I saw her the whole time.

But what she saw was something new. She spotted a Muton. Now I'd heard of Mutons from paper reports form the first war, but I'd never really seen one. Seeing them up close was honestly, nothing special. I knew they were alien grunt troops. Big and thick with the tendency to toss grenades your way. There was a grunt there too of course.

So Campbell moved into what was supposedly a safe spot, but she was immediately spotted by the pair who jumped into position. I can't believe she tipped them off. Doesn't really SURPRISE me, but... Svagerko did what she was supposed to do and tossed a greande destroying the cover and injuring the Muton. My sis pulled out her machine gun of death and began firing away obliterating the muton. That gun truly is amazing. You can hear the thing winding up and then when it hits maximum velocity it begins a rattling crescendo, unloading a torrent of death at anything she aims at – alive, metallic, stone, or otherwise. I'm almost jealous.

There was still the grunt that needed to be put down, so I ran and did that – put it down. It never stood a chance. Two down, who knows how many left to go.

We knew they were still out there somewhere – the screams, gunfire, screams, and then silence were still out there.

Actually, now that I think about this – why exactly were are supposed allies not fighting back? It's not exactly like they thought they were protected from aliens forever. Someone HAD to have known that aliens would come eventually. And if they DID come, what did they think was going to happen? Surely running around screaming like a bunch of sissy girls was the way to go. No wonder they need us around so much.

So, we come across this dry streambed where there was absolutely no cover. There were pedestrians everywhere as well – just sitting there in the middle of the street. We couldn't tell if they were like paralyzed with fear or what – but the aliens would just come along and destroy them one by one. SHOOT YOUR GUNS YOU IDIOTS!

It was the silly Rookie Pugh that spotted the next trio. It was a mech, a commander, and a grunt this time around. We were WAY out of position here. The newbies got out too far ahead – so we had to do what we could to cover them. Campbell jumped behind a log giving her an easy shot on the commander – and missed. I mean seriously. She MISSED. Svagerko moved to the ditch and readied herself for the inevitable. My sis and I both moved in next to her, but not too close. They had a mech which we learned through experience has a bad habit of tossing grenades everywhere. The Rookie jumped back behind some trees.