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[Chiefwaffles]

I'm probably going to start doing mini-updates as soon as something resembling a consensus is reached instead of waiting for any more possible suggestions. Or in updates following very straightforward ones - that is, updates that don't really present too much conflict or conundrums.

May go with a new update naming scheme as well. It'd probably be something like the more major the update is (as in, how much it changes the situation/just in general how important it is), the more complex the title is.
2nd Encounter at Destination 5: Update 11
"Enemy Territory"
You are still Emma Dawson. Operation leader.

By now you've assembled both teams and civilians in the Barracks, with most of the soldiers guarding the entrance. While Leaf continues to fiddle with various parts of the gate (you've given up wondering why at this point, really,) you take a bottle of water and hastily attach it to the pole. You motion for Leaf to get away and test the waters.

The bottle returns safe. Looks like the other side is as safe as it gets. Hopefully.
"Alright, people!" You yell. "We're going through the gate! Team 1, we go in first and secure the area. Team 2 and the rest of you, I need you to hold here until either we give the okay or Farpoint starts collapsing. Let's go!"

Team 1 embarks through the gate with you heading in first.
You, Leaf, and Lerth arrive on the other side to a see a single alien. Specifically, a hostile alien of the race that's currently trying to murder you.

All three of you raise your weapons. The alien does the same, while slowly backing away and as Team 1 piles out of the gate. Once he arrives, you make a signal to the soldier with the anti-materiel rifle.
BAM

The alien drops over, dead. You and the rest of the Team 1 quickly sweep the relatively small room for hostiles and find none. With the rest of the team in cover facing the single entrance, Lerth begins explaining what he believes is happening.
"This is definitely that alien vessel. Must have connected to the outside gate and somehow activate the one in Farpoint as well. Also probably means that we can't go back to Farpoint through this Warpgate."

What do you do now?

Spoiler: Team 1 (click to show/hide)

14 Soldiers
- 5 Assault Rifles
- 1 Rocket Launcher
- 1 Anti-Materiel Rifle
- 1 Flamethrower
- 1 LMG
- 5 Grenade Launchers

Sarah Leaf (LIGHT WOUNDS)
- Assault Rifle
Emma Dawson
- Assault Rifle
Jason Lerth
- Assault Rifle

Spoiler: Team 2 (click to show/hide)

3 Engineers
- 3 Assault Rifles
5 R&D Techs
- 5 Assault Rifles

Spoiler: Waypoint Base (click to show/hide)

Personnel
3 Soldiers (CRITICAL WOUNDS)
4 Soldiers (MODERATE WOUNDS)
1 Soldier  (LIGHT WOUNDS)

Dan Stevens (HEAVY WOUNDS)
- Nothing

Other
1 Man (Recovered from village) (CRITICAL WOUNDS)

[Vivalas]

Oh boy that sounds fun. Some kind of warp-tether generator that interrupts all warpgates in an area and overrides them? The way I see it the only way out is destroying the alien vessel or finding and destroying the generator that creates the interdiction field.

The way I see it we have 3 choices, unless someone comes up with a better idea

1. Destroy the alien ship from the inside somehow, or capture it. This would make the committee very happy.
2. Finding whatever generator or whatever that can override warp gates (lets call it the interdiction generator) and disable it. This would allow us to escape.
3. Using the missile silo to blow up the carrier.  This is risky.

I think we stand a better chance trying to fight our way through the ship as long as we utilize good tactics and move quickly, before they realize we're on board and they have time to assemble and form a team to stop us. e.g. entering rooms like this with only one alien in them at a time.

If I know X-Com, and I do, UFO boarding missions are always deadly regardless.

My vote is for option 2.


Also I'm wondering why they're putting so much effort into capturing a small team like ours. This makes me wonder about their size and strength. Do they have so much military strength that sparing one gigantic carrier is worth a small squad? Do they have so little that we're a threat? Since they captured that first soldier, do they use humans or other species to somehow further their science, use them as currency, use corpses as power? Do they want to capture the whole team for any of these purposes? Although it doesn't seem like they were trying to capture the team alive earlier when they were bombarding Farpoint.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

The anti material rifle actually works! Hooray!

Thanks GUNINANRUNIN for the water plan. That worked perfectly.

If this is the ship then that means there is at least one Warpgate on this ship, probably more if this one was so lightly guarded. Which means even more Warpgates for the Warpgate God.

If Lerth's thinking is correct, we could step back through the Warpgate to see where we end up. Depending on how they deploy their forces, that could be a good idea or a bad one.

Once they get to Farpoint, they will probably find the active Gate and possibly ambush us from behind, so we'll want to keep on the move. We could try to disconnect from this end, though it might not work.

We don't really have any idea where anything is and we don't know how to read their stuff most likely. Have we checked to see if we can have a conversation with the villagers? They might have knowledge and insight that we totally blew past.

I motion that we do a slow and steady advance, keeping an eye out for surveillance and security systems, while we try to learn more about where we are.

Goal wise, I say we should sort that out once we find something of interest.

@Wondering: Those are good questions. If they do have more forces, they might try to reinforce through Warpgates as we go on or if we capture the ship.

[Parsely]

Thanks GUNINANRUNIN for the water plan. That worked perfectly.

No problem!

Fuck yes, we're in! Let's get everyone inside and start wreaking havoc.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Thanks GUNINANRUNIN for the water plan. That worked perfectly.

No problem!

Fuck yes, we're in! Let's get everyone inside and start wreaking havoc.

Hmmm. If we're able to close down the Gate and lock the door somehow, we could keep the civilians here while we explore and finally take advantage of the most powerful of XCOM tactics. The ambush.

[Parsely]

That anti-material rifle is probably deafening indoors.

[Kashyyk]

Conversely, we've now got the job of body guarding a load of foreign speaking civilians through hostile territory. We can't even give them all side arms because they'll do sod all.

Although that would give the hostiles other things to shoot at in a fire fight...

[Chiefwaffles]

Not doing an update today because I don't feel that the actions are exact enough to use.
So far it seems to be "clear your way towards wherever the gate-controlling thingy is", but then there's also suggestions for an ambush, etc. But then there's problems: what kind of ambush? Surround the entrance and wait for enemies? Go out and set up an ambush somewhere else?

It would probably work best if an action like the one I did in quotations would be confirmed, or if more precise actions were given. Either works. With a general plan "try to find this thing, keep _______ in mind, fight [this way], etc", I can just use that and have the group follow that action until they either find the thing or have a serious problem. With a more exact action, I can just continue in the same style the rest of the encounter has been in.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Ah, sorry. With the ambush thing I meant that our troops should try to move quitely and then make sure to strike hard and fast when they encounter HS#1 soldiers. Getting the first hit in and being the ones to choose when engagements happen is something that I've seen overcome odds that were quite otherwise impossible.

Before we do that, we should see about trying to make the entrance room secure such that the civilians can "safely" hide in there. Being able to move out without worrying about them would be useful to say the least.

Actions:
Attempt to secure the entrance room so that the civilians can be somewhat safely left there. If such is impossible, have them follow with our troops until we are able to secure such a room. (Blah blah caution blah blah stealth)

Once we secure the civilians, continue cautiously and with all possible stealth to search the ship and eliminate all HS#1 soldiers that are encountered. Make sure to mark targets and to be the ones who choose when and where the engagements begin. If there is time and a convenient place to hide bodies, do so, otherwise do not worry about it.

[Vivalas]

Ah, sorry. With the ambush thing I meant that our troops should try to move quitely and then make sure to strike hard and fast when they encounter HS#1 soldiers. Getting the first hit in and being the ones to choose when engagements happen is something that I've seen overcome odds that were quite otherwise impossible.

Before we do that, we should see about trying to make the entrance room secure such that the civilians can "safely" hide in there. Being able to move out without worrying about them would be useful to say the least.

Actions:
Attempt to secure the entrance room so that the civilians can be somewhat safely left there. If such is impossible, have them follow with our troops until we are able to secure such a room. (Blah blah caution blah blah stealth)

Once we secure the civilians, continue cautiously and with all possible stealth to search the ship and eliminate all HS#1 soldiers that are encountered. Make sure to mark targets and to be the ones who choose when and where the engagements begin. If there is time and a convenient place to hide bodies, do so, otherwise do not worry about it.

+1

[Chiefwaffles]

I'm going to assume that you wanted to leave 2 soldiers behind with the civilians. It's a bit of a stretch, but as the room was already secure that's the closest reasonable thing I could think of.
2nd Encounter at Destination 5: Update 12
"Forceful Entry"
You are still Emma Dawson. Operation leader.

You and Leaf both approach the entrance. Sarah waves her hand in proximity to the accompanying panel. Nothing.
Leaf then picks up a soldier and holds their hand up to the panel. The door slides open.
"Huh. Pretty similar security system, seems like." She remarks.

You leave behind 2 AR soldiers to guard the civilians (both groups are now considered parts of Team 2)

...

The team skulks through the hallway. While 12 soldiers is still extremely unwieldy when it comes to stealth, the sparse nature of the corridors help. Occasionally, patrolling soldiers are spotted. Every time this happens, you manage to alert the rest of the team and hide in the prior corridor until the patrolling enemy passes.
Strangely enough, no one seems to have been alerted by the deafening anti-materiel rifle shot. Let's hope that they just have some really soundproof walls, you hope.

...

Eventually the team arrives at a fairly large and long room. A giant piece of machinery extends from about the center of the room to the end, with tubing  extending across it and connecting it to the wall, with glowing fluids being pumped throughout. More machinery lines the walls, with sparse panels faintly illuminating the poorly-lit room. At the end of the room where the object ends, going into the wall, are two exits at both sides of this part of the room. Both doors lead to fairly similar yet much louder rooms. Both of these side-rooms seem to be inactive.

Both Leaf and Lerth tell you that they really have no idea what this stuff is after inspecting it. What do you do now?

Spoiler: Team 1 (Unknown Room) (click to show/hide)

12 Soldiers
- 3 Assault Rifles
- 1 Rocket Launcher
- 1 Anti-Materiel Rifle
- 1 Flamethrower
- 1 LMG
- 5 Grenade Launchers

Sarah Leaf (LIGHT WOUNDS)
- Assault Rifle
Emma Dawson
- Assault Rifle
Jason Lerth
- Assault Rifle

Spoiler: Team 2 (Warpgate Room) (click to show/hide)

2 Soldiers
- 2 Assault Rifles

3 Engineers
- 3 Assault Rifles
5 R&D Techs
- 5 Assault Rifles

20 Civilians
- Nothing

Spoiler: Waypoint Base (click to show/hide)

Personnel
3 Soldiers (CRITICAL WOUNDS)
4 Soldiers (MODERATE WOUNDS)
1 Soldier  (LIGHT WOUNDS)

Dan Stevens (HEAVY WOUNDS)
- Nothing

Other
1 Man (Recovered from village) (CRITICAL WOUNDS)

[Parsely]

Check one door, then, if we don't run into hostiles, check the other. Not much to decide until we know what's inside.

[Chiefwaffles]

Both rooms have already been checked and are secure.
As was stated, both are pretty similar to the main room. I can't really describe it well, but they just have general machinery in them that seem vaguely similar to the stuff in the main room.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

The secure thing was mentioned earlier (I thought?) with trying to shut off the Gate so that if HS#1 gets through Farpoint they won't so easily stumble upon the civies, and trying to lock the door/entrance because no details were provided about that. I'm personally good with having two ARs covering the civies and helping direct Team 2 with weapon usage if it comes down to that.

The hand scanner means that Farpoint is 90%+ likely to not have direct HS#1 origins. Useful.

I expected to engage with HS#1 soldiers, but I'm fine with us getting through there without harm. It'll make the return trip a bit harder possibly but we'll deal with that when we have to.

So we have rooms with pipes, glowing liquids, and lots of machinery. It's probably a bit important. The two side rooms are probably redundant systems or don't need to do whatever they do at the moment (my money is on power generator of some kind based on the Weapon we deconstructed or similar important role.). We'll probably need to blow up all three to make the impact we want, though just blowing up one could provide us with a distraction without the ship going completely destroyed. And if it is interacting with the Gate blocking, it could provide us with an opportunity to get back in contact with Waypoint. The questions I'm seeing is whether or not Waypoint will want to have this intact to study it, whether that's worth risking our lives to leave it intact, and how big of a boom it will make after we wreck it.

I'm thinking we can use HE and Frag grenades with remote or timed detonators to set the active room to go kaboom while Team 1 GTFO. If they can be detonated remotely and selectively, I'd want to set up explosives to eliminate the other two rooms as well, but not detonate them quite yet. If we only have timed fuses then I'd just want to blow up the main room.

I am not purposing actions quite this second. I'd like to hear what other people think of my assessment.

______

After all this, I'm thinking we should all enjoy a bit of a break while we have R&D work on the various things we'll have to work on. Even if we don't get money boosts from this (Though if we manage to secure this entire ship with just Team 1, I will be astonished and have the smallest hope that the Committee will give us more money.) we should get money boosts from practical applications of research we develop. And then we can just do the smallest and most triple checked for safety of missions while we get more money to make base improvements.

This here is a list of various price check things for after D5 is done so we can have them all in one place.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Personnel:
Spec Ops (stealth soldiers specifically)
Combat Engineers (soldiers that are able to set up defenses and infrastructure of sorts in the field as well as demolish structures)
Linguists (we'll want a team with various backgrounds and areas of knowledge to dig into any and all languages we stumble upon. First project: Farpoint)
Teachers (to provide various personnel additional useful skills such as how to shoot better, how to blow things up, how to disassemble technology so it can be brought back to base, how to speak languages, etc)
Rock Star Scientists (it was mentioned before as not really a thing, but we might get lucky and get info on someone who happens to be working on things semirelated to what we've found)
Diplomatic Advisors/Speech Writers (No, seriously. If we can hire someone, or a team of someones, to write budget speeches for us, they could pay for themselves within the first budget period.)

Structures:
Training/Teaching Room
R&D Mk2 (Basically where we can throw more money to fit more science personnel per space. If that's not a thing, then better equipment and such. If possible, take the D out of R&D)
Engineering Bay (Taking the R out of R&D. This would be focused on making anything we design.)
Missile Silo & Guidance System
Even Larger Nuclear Reactor (Does it need the wall space separating two or more rooms to be destroyed to get us more power? Okie doke then.)
Large Medbay (two space?)
Large Barracks (two space?)
Even Larger Staff Quarters (two space?)
Above Ground Hanger Connected to Below Ground Hanger (If we can't build down or out, we can build up. Should let us juggled around more vehicles.)
Above Ground Facilities In General (mirrors of what we already have? Would the Committee be alright with this and if not, what additional costs/buildings need to be in place to make it alright if possible?)
Setting up a Power Generator (Nuclear or not) at Farpoint
Solar Panels & Power Storage (if we have the space, why not?)

Improvements:
Machine Gun Emplacements in the Gate Room
Automated Machine Gun Emplacements in the Gate Room
Camera/Security System throughout Base if we don't have one
Better Elevators (including a system to cut them and seal the top and bottom so that anything that wants to get out will have a much more difficult time)
Wall Creation/Destruction

Vehicles:
Quad ATVs
Truck, unarmored
Quad Mini Helicopter with surveillance equipment (A flying RSU!)
Tank
Unmanned Military Drone (with and without combat options)
Heavy Duty RSU (What we'd need to explore Acidic Underwater environments and Hotter Than Humans Can Survive But Not A Star Environments. If they need to be two different RSUs then so they need to be.)
Submarine(a normal science exploration one and one that can survive Acidic Water of the levels that the above HDRSU would be able to)


Weaponry:
MANPADSs
Automatic Shotguns with FRAG-12 HE-AP ammunition
Mobile Anti Air Machine Gun Turrets
Mortars
Explosives of various strengths
Claymore Mines
Missiles of various strengths
Artillery (the cannons that once set up are able to fire on positions many km away)
Remote Detonation Systems that are grenade incorperatable if we do not have them already
Heavy Machine Guns (will need to be set up in field to be fired)

Misc:
Better Environmental Suits (Space Suit level stuff. Also suits that if we send personnel out in a submarine at Acidic Water destination, I want them to have a chance of being able to swim back to the Gate)

[Parsely]

The best we could do with regular grenades is pile up a bunch near something that looks sensitive, then throw one that's been armed near the pile, which is probably what we did with the collapsing the cave earlier. I think? So not much time to escape if it does lead to something catastrophic happening to the ship.

If anything we should NOT be blowing stuff up in order to preserve as much of the ship as possible, but instead trying to first shut out whatever troops the ship has disembarked, through some means, then eliminate the crew, but I have no clue how we could do that.