BattleCraft(s): Small, Small, Small?
Current Trajectory:Medium Altitude, Descending
Location: Brazil
Three Ravens, the best aircraft humanity can produce, each equipped with twelve Avalanche missiles, blast of from XCOM HQ. A skyranger follows not long thereafter. Their target, 3 UFO's flying in formation heading towards Brazil. On paper, this should be an easy fight. With it's powerful avalanche missiles, the Raven is superior to any known alien craft, provided it doesn't take an unlucky hit. In a fair fight, 3 on 3 should be a hard fought victory, but a victory nonetheless.
It's unfortunate then that the aliens do not play fair. The Raven's are still setting up their intercept when one of the UFO's suddenly breaks away, changing trajectory in a maneuver that would have pulped any human pilot. The UFO, which on closer inspection appears to be an enlarged fighter, rather than a derivative of their lander, is among the Ravens before they even have a chance to open fire.
An overwhelming barrage of viridiscent bolts tears through the formation, wrecking one craft and forcing the other two to make evasive maneuvers. Before they can recover, the 2 light scouts are upon them, bringing down another fighter with a lesser barrage. And then the fighter's back again, firing at the last Raven. With death but moments away, the pilot fires all his missiles as a last act of vengeance.
The rushed barrage is inaccurate. Eight missiles fail to acquire lock and simply wander away. Two others hit one of the light UFO's, but do not inflict lethal or even delibitating damage. The last barrage inflicts the most peculiar behaviour. One UFO simply starts tumbling, the missiles overshooting it's just barely as something blocks their sensors. A few hundred meters, the UFO recovers and resumes flight.
Seeing the slaughter in the sky, the Skyranger dives, disappearing into the Jungle.
Hidden among the trees, XCOM's lone squad observes the aliens as they go about their work. The drones zoom out of the UFO's hull, spreading through the village as they hunt down the hiding population. Each time a drone finds one, it shocks or stuns them, then whistles as it waits for a Sectoid to amble over and drag them to the UFO.
Other Sectoids appear to be busy working with the glowing containers we've seen earlier. A touchpad on the site appears to open the container, which reveals a glowing crystal surrounded in a glowing dust. After that, they appear to leave it alone. In total, there appear to be nearly four times as many sectoids and drones as there are XCOM units. All appear to be identical to the ones encountered before, with the exception that some appear to be carrying softly glowing canisters that bear some resemblance to the power cores used in the alien pistols (and our very own railguns).
With the entire team now ready, they take up positions and open fire. Drones fall from the sky as they're eliminated one by one, and several sectoids are torn apart by the railgun rods. The opening volley is followed up by even more fire, taking several more confused sectoids. Even so, the sectoids catch on with remarkable speed, hiding behind vehicles and other cover. Doesn't stop the shots, but it does stop our forces from spotting them.
Despite the camouflage, the aliens catch on remarkably quickly on our troops positions, and both drones and sectoids start to converge. Plasma beams tear through the topiary, but beyond that have little effect at this range. Our forces continue to reap a heavy toll, until one sectoid comes to close, and the point of their canisters is revealed. One lands straight among the troops, the resulting explosion killing several of our units. Combined with numerical inferiority, this proves the end of our defense.
Mission Failure : [Severe Casualties inflicted have probably partially disrupted the enemy operation]
Notes :
* Performance of the Raven was subpar to expectations, perhaps due to suprise of the new alien fighter
* The railgun works very well against the aliens, especially at long range. With modest air support, luck, or more units, we could won here.
Vehicles
Raven (Interceptor) : Way beyond the bleeding edge of technology, the Raven is far beyond any other jet fighter ever build on Earth. With upgraded avionics, adjusted tracking, and advanced pulse detonation engines, the Raven is capable of pursuing even high speed alien craft. If needed, it can use it's avalanche missiles to shoot down any intruders. Cost : 2 VP
- Ground Combat Package : Replaces half of the Raven's Avalanche missiles with high tech air-to-ground SMART missiles
Skyranger (Troop Transport) : World's first supersonic troop transport. The Skyranger is high speed, heavily armored troop transport, capable of deploying and retrieving a single squad of soldiers in various situations. Cost : 1 VP [1 Free Skyranger available]
Equipment
Basic XCOM Rifle : XCOM's standard rifle. Cutting edge, custom designed, yet still affordable. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
XH-2 Railgun Rifle : An effective semi-automatic rifle. Fires a powerful railgun round with tremendous velocity and penetrative power. In addition, it's equipped with a smart SCOPE to allow it to identify enemy drone targets.
Cost : 1
Basic XCOM Grenade : A simple grenade. Activate, throw, explode. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
BASIC XCOM PISTOL : A simple, highpower pistol. It packs a pretty heavy punch, making it an effective if chalkenging sidearm Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
Training Program
Rookie Training Program : A basic introduction to the entire Xcom project. The absolute minimum that any soldier needs to know to operate successfully at XCOM. Cost : 1 Unit Points.
NOTSOFTER training regimen : A hard, effective international training regime, that gives our soldiers the tools and capacity to deal with aliens. Trains forces to a standard marginally higher than that attained by most special force units Cost : 1 Unit Points.
Inter Agency Cooperation teams : As part of ties developed through the NOTSOFTER training regime, we now have the capability of drawing upon special force teams. They're not as well suited to fight aliens as we're however, and nations will object if we keep losing them. Cost 1 Unit Point [SPECIAL : Can't use XCOM GEAR, No vehicle needed for deployment when used in North America or Europe]
Mission Profiles
Interception : A simple mission profile that focuses on intercepting an alien vessel as soon as it's detected, destroying it before it can do any damage to any innocent people.
Down and Capture : A more complicated mission profile that focuses on downing an alien vessel (or waiting for it to land), and then storming it with ground forces.
Combined Arms : A mission profile that integrates air and ground forces to storm UFO's, using aerial bombing, reconnaissance and strafing runs when available to take out enemy strongpoints or UFO armor.
XCOM Resources
Island Mountain HQ [An isolated, hidden underground base on a remote island in the Aegean]
Aereal reconnaissance program : A simple program that allows us to requisition drone reconnaissance on suspected UFO sites.
6 VP
3 UP
3 EP
1 VP token,
Africa
---> Egypt
---> South Africa
---> Nigeria
Asia
--->Australia
--->China
--->India
--->Japan
Europe
--->France
--->Germany
--->Russia
--->United Kingdom
North America
--->Canada
--->Mexico
--->United States
South America
--->Argentina
--->Brazil X
: The war intensifies. You receive one VP/UP/EP of choice, to use immediately.
Challenge : Write a (short) excerpt on any of the recent battles from any perspective. (Reward :
+ 1 unrestricted token)
Turn 4 StartAABBCCDD
Author
Topic: Vigilo Confido : XCOM Arms Race (Read 86812 times)