After snapping out of my daydream about telekinetic, telepathic space doliphins with giant lasers [Don't laugh. I happen to like giant lasers. I could be daydreaming about much less interesting things then giant lasers], I decided to just pay Osiron's fee. It brought them back up to neutral with us. I was understandably pleased.
At 0900 the aliens attacked us again. I'm pretty sure we managed to down all their scouts before they could infect any buildings.
At any rate, that night marked the end of our first week of operations. With it came funding.
I also received a news report of new items on the market. Hawk Air Warriors looked nice, with three weapons and twice the durability of a Valkyrie, but they come at the steep price of $100,000 each. In comparison, hoverbikes carry one weapon, are hard to hit, and only cost $5000 each.
Marsec armor, on the other hand .... noticeably weaker then Megapol armor, but also much lighter. The torso piece also comes with a built-in anti-grav unit. Only two torso pieces were on the market, so I ordered both. One would be for myself, and I would ask for a volunteer for a "special assault unit" later. I also sent a memo out that any soldier who felt overburdened was authorized a switch to Marsec armor, sans torso due to availability concerns [keeping the Megapol torso, of course].
The aliens that infiltrated Superdynamics have started all dying. Maybe it's like War of the Worlds, where we'll actually win this war due to germs killing off all the aliens.
Of course, if X-Com loses, I lose out on a rather well-paying job.
Since we now have money again, I hired two new recruits. One was a mutant, and the other seems like he's good at killing things. He seemed disappointed that he couldn't carry one of each of our guns.
I conferred with my engineers, and they claim that the current workshop space is too small to build anything that will be able to go through a portal. Since we're out of living space and have nowhere else to build add-ons, I ordered work to begin on a new base. For now, it will only have a pair of security stations and a small living area. I also bought several new hoverbikes, and we have a bit of cash leftover to buy new weapons if anybody requisitions any.
I idly mentioned the possibility of another raid on the Cultists to the troops, to see how the new rookies behave. Mr. Freeman proceeded to grab a hoverbike and leave. I thought he was scouting ahead, so I ordered several others into the APC to follow him. (Yes, in Apocalypse you can have multiple vehicles drop troops off at a non-UFO battle. Up to 36 soldiers can be present in one battle.)
I was wrong, and he attacked head-on. The Cultists seemed to be jamming my comms to him, but I managed to get a hold of the security camera footage later.
Cultist B: "Ha, that sure was some raid last week. Hey, how many X-Com agents does it take to replace a light-bulb?"
Cultist A: "GORDON FREEMAN!!!"
Cultist B: "Haha, no. The answer is seven. Six to blow the old one up, and one to put a new one in."
Cultist A: "No, I mean Gordon Freeman is here!"
Cultist A&C: "TAKE COVER!"
Cultist B: "What? Who? Why? Hey, where'd you go?"
Cultist C: "Gordon Freeman is here! Run!"
Cultist D: "Can I have your autograph?"
I really should tell Freeman that that's only a stun gun.
Cultist D: "Killed by ... Freeman. I never hoped ... such an awesome death."
The Cultists were apparently trying to smoke him out.
Cultist E: "Die, intruder! AHHH! It's Gordon Freeman!"
He's rather good at killing.
Cultist A: "Why didn't I run?"
That's when the rest of the squad arrived. He had already killed everything, and calmly saluted them, returned to the hoverbike, and flew home.
There wasn't much loot left for the remaining soldiers to loot, thanks to his explosive ammo. They did hack a few computers to bring me the tapes. Overall, an impressive performance by Mr. Freeman. (Only one shot hit him. Most of them were running about like idiots. Of course, I would be too if Gordon Freeman was attacking me.
There will probably be no more single-soldier missions.)
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