The unanimious voting lead to Darkening Skies being chosen. Blackhawk-001 and Blackhawk-002 are sent to Crashsite-001 and Crashsite-002 respectively.
As the sun rises in the midwestern United States, near a crashsite, an eight man task force squad deploys via helicopter on a corn field roughly a few hundred feet from the crashed UFO. A few stray bolts of some kind of orange energy fly past the Blackhawk, but fail to hit it. The squad advances to better cover, and a soldier discovers two corpses; one of a giant lizard-like person, and a human farmer. A few 12 gauge shotgun shells are discovered nearby, as well as a pump action shotgun, and it appears that there was some alien firearm next to it; which was spiky and had rings composing parts of the weapon's frame; with an orb filled with a bright orange liquid. It seems that we're not the only ones in the fight against aliens. A brief firefight breaks out between two of the soldiers and another lizard alien, and the M16 of one of the soldiers jammed, before the same soldier having his cover (which was a haybale) get burnt by an alien weapon. A few 5.56x45mm NATO rounds managed to penetrate the skull of the alien, and killed it. After the M16 was unjammed, the squad went further forward.
Shortly after, the squad is ambushed by a pair of aliens, both armed with larger versions of the weapons used by the aliens fought before, and wearing light armor. Apart from a few soldiers sustaining burns, the aliens were shot to death. After that engagement, a few soldiers looked around for medical supplies in the surrounding buildings, but none were found. It would be wise for civilians to have medical supplies in their houses just in case, especially during an alien invasion, but these farmers just didn't have any.
A few minutes later, the squad sees the crashed UFO, and no aliens nearby; indicating that there's likely aliens inside. After the squad does some simple preparations to breach the UFO, the door opens, and the sole surviving alien (that wasn't shot by neither task force operatives nor local forces) is spotted, wearing no armor, and carrying a small alien gun. Three corpses can be found inside the UFO (all alien), with weapons on the ground next to them - two rifles and one pistol, and (damaged) alien machinery can be spotted, and there appears to be some kind of computer nearby, with a holographic display. Perhaps that's how the UFO is controlled? After the alien is killed after being taken by surprise by an entire squad of human soldiers, salvage crews were called, and the squad entered the Blackhawk to return back to base.
During the evening, a Blackhawk deploys on a rooftop and the task force troops disembark, before getting shot at by alien weapons; this time, instead of it being orange energy bolts flying past, there's red beams of energy. A soldier unfortunately got to experience firsthand how it feels to get hit by alien weaponry in the face, and dies. This is an arms race quite clearly inspired by the original X-COM games, what the fuck were you expecting? Another soldier yells "CONTACT!" before opening fire on the alien that just shot his comrade. A fireteam of soldiers - all armed with Tavor-21s - moves to flank the aliens, After a several dozen rounds are fired, the alien died after being barraged with gunfire from Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy graduates.
A few moments later, some soldiers hear voices in an alien language from inside a house, some breaching was done; not via using the door, but by using a 40mm high explosive grenade launched via a M203 to open a hole in a wall, before shooting the aliens inside, with the 3 alien bodies lying on the floor. Upon closer inspection, they seem to resemble typical grey aliens; one wore a blue shirt and black pants, and the other two wore dark blue shirts with armor vests and black pants as well. The helmet cam footage confirms that the weapons this alien ship equipped its infantry with aren't the same as the ones used on the other ship; as unlike the Crashsite-001 alien weapons, these ones were dark grey, more elegant looking, and had red, glowing barrels.
A few minutes later, the UFO is reached, and it's considerably larger; about the size of a large house. In an attempt to minimize casualties, a breach via grenade launcher usage was attempted; all 5 surviving grenadiers using their underslung M203 grenade launchers to all shoot at one spot in the door to open it. A dozen or so grenades later, a hole big enough to walk through is made, which leads to soldiers opening fire on the aliens inside, with stray shots from both the soldiers and aliens damaging the door further, while grenades are used to flush out aliens, and after a few minutes, the resistance inside the UFO is defeated. Another victory for the Task Force, but it wasn't without a regularly scheduled redshirt sacrifice.
We have gotten 100 credits from completing 2 missions, and 50 credits from a new turn starting.
It is now the Strategy phase.
Known UFO Locations:
UFO-003: Above Middle East, very small, two very small escorts
UFO-004: Above USA, very small, no escorts
UFO-005: Above South America, very small, no escorts
Balance: 170 credits
(you can rename the two alien species encountered so far (lizardmen and greys) to something else if you want)
Weapons:
-M16: An assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO rounds. Has 20 round mags and questionable reliability since our suppliers either fail to trust us with actually decent equipment, or just hate us. Acceptable for medium range.
-Low/Infinite/Unreliable
-M9: A semi automatic pistol chambered in 9x19mm with 15 round mags. Compact, but short range.
-Low/Infinite/None
-Tavor-21: A bullpup assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO rounds, and it's compatible with the same STANAG magazines used by our M16s. We've managed to procure a lot of 30 round STANAG magazines, primarily to use with it, but we can also load the 30 rounders into our M16s if we get desperate. The integrated M203 grenade launcher is quite heavy, but we've also gotten integrated reflex sights on these rifles.
-Below Average/10cr/None
Armor:
-Basic Armor: Surplus armor vests and helmets, worn over surplus camo. It might provide some protection from kinetic attacks, but who knows. Video cameras have been attached to the helmets, for live combat footage.
-Infinite Supply
Aircraft:
-Condor: A modified F-16, that has been optimized for UFO combat. Various modifications include heat resistant metals being used for plating, larger fuel tanks, and a lighter payload to reduce weight.
-1 cannon hardpoint, 4 light hardpoints
-Low/25cr/None
-Blackhawk: A transport helicopter. Has a decent amount of room.
-Can carry 8 soldiers and 1 vehicle
-Low/50cr/None
Aircraft Weapons:
-Autocannon: A modified Vulcan 20mm autocannon that's used on our interceptors. It has enough ammo for 300 shots, and shoots quite fast, but it hasn't been tested for anti-UFO usage.
-Mountable on Cannon hardpoints
-Low/Free/None
-Sidewinder Missiles: Light air to air missiles. One per hardpoint.
-Mountable on Light/Heavy hardpoints
-Low/Free/None
Phase 1 Human Weapons:
-IWI Tavor-21: 8
-Remington 870: 1
Phase 1 Alien Weapons:
-Alien Orange Rifle: 4
-Alien Orange Pistol: 4
-Alien Beam Rifle: 4
-Alien Beam Pistol: 6
Lizardman Corpses:
-2 lizardman guards
-5 lizardman crewmen
-1 lizardman pilot
Grey Corpses:
-4 grey guards
-3 grey soldiers
-4 grey crewmen
-1 grey pilot
Phase 1 UFOs:
-1 Light Scout Wreck
-1 Scout Wreck
Condor-001: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-002: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-003: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-004: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-005: Retrieving (1 turn) | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Condor-006: Available | Loadout: 1x Autocannon, 4x Sidewinder Missiles
Blackhawk-001: Available
Blackhawk-001: Available
Author
Topic: Task Force Xray - A PvE arms race against ayyliens (Read 11709 times)