The battle starts. At this time, Ute, Harold, Diego, and Samantha have basic athletics training, allowing them to run.
The big yellow circle in the middle is the gate. Enemies will eventually spawn around it. Circled in red is the only ramp down from the UFO to the gate. I have helpfully illustrated where the mech is, directly adjacent to The Device*.
*Mech is not actually armed with dual rocket launchers. Mech does not actually have sharp teeth.
My first step is to send everyone down to stand in a line roughly in front of it. I like standing in a line to shoot things not armed with explosives; you'll probably end up seeing me do that a lot.
Contacts appeared, messing up my plans of standing in a line.
As someone who cannot be trusted with dynamite, I reacted explosively. Fall back!
Diego took a critical hit while running away from the explosion.
The retreating team found some drones by the UFO. Diego rejoins the pistol-armed folks in a flanking attempt. The dynamite still has not exploded.
And there it goes. Crawling drones are pretty slow, and it has a nice AoE.
Benat wasn't actually supposed to be on this expedition, being a second technician. I sent him up to watch over the ridge, with Harold for backup.
[color=3]Mistake 3:[/color] Splitting everyone up.
More drones appeared from the exploded area. Mech sighted.
I decided to have the rifle-armed people distract the mech while Diego runs around behind it with dynamite. Tadeusz and Pauline, having pistols, not knowing how to run, and being critical dual-class types, head back.
Note the hit chance in the top message box, 24%. Note Ute and Samantha's life bars. That thing kept rolling critical hits.
Samantha went down to yet another critical hit. Diego gains a brief strength increasing buff from a friend in danger. Samantha can still be saved at this time, if I can get it to stop shooting her long enough for the stun to wear off.
At this time, I abandon my original plan to explode it and fall back, as it would leave Samantha vulnerable for the long timer. I instead switch the Reticulan pistol to snapshots at point-blank range.
I also bring Ute up for burst snap-shots at point-blank range. It critically hits her, and she goes down.
It critically hit her
again. Without a medikit, the only way to save her would have been to end the mission. Sadly, the mission is to retreat back to the UFO, which means she cannot be saved.
On the plus side, her sacrifice distracted the mech long enough for Diego to bring it down. Being capable of self-repairing red damage, it kept getting back up. Diego shot it each time it did so, buying Samantha time to recover and retreat.
Its recovery animation involves it moving slightly. It slid through impassable terrain while I waited for Samantha to get up.
Diego nearly reached the ramp before the explosive charge finished the mech off. Nothing spawned close enough to shoot him, so he got out alright.
Ute's suit cam caught a picture of the attacker.
Beastmen without tails. Well,
I never.Dubious victory.
Goodnight, Ute. Your struggle is over.