Monday. March 13th, 2084:
I spent most of Monday overseeing the biochemists and some civilian mutants led by Metal Militia and Crazy Mutant Lady. They somehow restored Spartan 117 to active duty. Metal Militia said it was like his bloodstream itself was psionically fighting for control over the body. It took nearly two dozen of them to suppress it, and his blood had to be fully replaced twice. Nearly all of his memories were wiped out in the procedure. Perhaps it's for the best.
After selling off the bio-transport modules engineering has been making, along with Dynamitri's excess high-explosives (THAT was particularly difficult to pull off safely), we managed to afford the new biochemistry lab in the new base. It still needs a name, so I'll ask the soldiers for suggestions again. That seemed to boost morale last time. (I didn't want to sell the bio-transport modules just yet, due to the way the market works. Prices work on supply-and demand. I'm not quite sure on the details, but if X-Com buys more of something than is being produced, it will go up in price. If X-Com is selling more than is being produced, it goes down in price. Sounds fine, right? Well, it only cares about what the NPC companies are adding to the market randomly each week. X-Com goods NEVER go up in price. They continue to drop in price so long as any units remain on the market, even if X-Com stops selling them.)
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Tuesday. March 14th, 2084:
We desperately need more training. Ufos attacked the city again. New ones this time. (Note: If you're playing along, be sure you get the round purple UFOs for research. They only appear for a short time starting at week 2, and are vital to the research tree. They might appear again later, but it might take a very long while.) We managed - barely - to shoot one down, but the second succeeded in depositing aliens into the city. It and its two escorts escaped unscathed.
The Valkyrie's scanners picked up lifeforms within, so we went in to kill them and capture it. The Valkyrie dropped us off right by what seemed to be a door, and got out of there.
John O'Conner: "I expected a bigger welcoming party. Or any welcoming party."
Nirur Torir: "Looks like a trap to me."
Crazy Mutant Lady: "I can feel a massive amount of panic. They're shell shocked."
Metal Militia: "They're starting to recover already."
Zchris13: "Shell shocked aliens? Ha. Hey, why do you let us call you Crazy Mutant Lady? Don't you have a name?"
Crazy Mutant Lady: "..."
Nirur Torir: "I swore under threat of pain to never reveal her name. Enough chatter. We have aliens to shoot."
John: "Sir, permission to guard here?"
Nirur Torir: "Granted. Spartan 117, IT-NT 101-OR, Dynamitri, Crazy Mutant Lady - With me. We're sweeping to see if any escaped and checking for other entrances. The rest of you, with John."
We swept around to the other side of the UFO. It was probably only about 20-30 meters at its base, and wider at the top. We found a similar door-looking structure opposite the first one.
Nirur Torir: "Dynamitri, hurry it up."
Dynamitri: "Yea, yea. Hey, I think I'll plant a mine here ... AGGH! The door opened! What's tha-"
Whatever it was, it was on him in less then a second and exploded, taking him with it. By some bizarre stroke of fortune, his explosives remained safe inside his pockets, belt, and backpack. I wish we could have said the same thing for him.
Nirur Torir: "Android, see if he's still alive. Spartan 117, triangulate sensors with the Valkyrie and John's team. Look for lifeforms outside the UFO."
Spartan 117: "Roger ..... Nope. Nothing living out here but us."
Nirur Torir: "We setup here. Blast anything else that comes out of there."
IT-NT 101-OR: "He's dead. Moving explosives out of firing area .. ! Calculating odds of a human carrying this many munitions. Error: Not a number. Unable to verify results. Recalculating. Error: Not a number. Unable to verify results Recal-."
Nirur Torir: "Android, you are ordered to cease those calculations. Now get those explosives out from in front of the UFO."
IT-NT 101-OR: "Orders confirmed. Throwing a proximity mine inside to provide cover."
After that fiasco, it was quiet. Then the mine exploded. Then it was quiet. Then the door opened and we proceeded to shoot into the UFO for nearly a full two minutes. The blue humanoid aliens had actual guns this time. John's squad moved in to finish cleaning it up, and we made short work of the remaining aliens.
We couldn't find any ammo for the guns, so the quantum physicists are taking a look at them. We found some sort of grenade-looking object shaped like a Roman Cross. This UFO's internals were in decent shape, so we might be able to learn something about them. We also managed to disassemble the craft weapons and get them back to base, but the engineers don't think it will fit on any of our current craft. (Except for a Hawk Air Warrior. But no. We're poor.)
I suppose it's time to start hiring more soldiers again. We could use somebody willing to carry a rocket launcher around.
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