Update 24: Rookie SquadAfter the uneventful base attack, things were quiet for a while.A new soldier arrived…
And the Firestorm in Morning Star reached completion.With the construction of the Firestorm, the Interceptor was rendered obsolete, and was sold to free up hangar space in Evening Star.The Firestorm received its first combat assignment when a Small Scout was detected over Central Asia, heading for Europe.It performed admirably, tearing apart the UFO in mid-air with a couple of shots.The next UFO was a Medium Scout……which promptly met the same fate.For the UFO after that, we decided to try something different.Instead of using the Firestorm, we used the Lightning to intercept the UFO. The Lightning was armed with only one plasma beam, thus reducing its power and allowing us to shoot down the UFO instead of destroying it.This was so that our newly arrived rookies could gain some experience dealing with downed UFOs.UFO-27 crash landed Jan 17 in Algeria
Soldiers: Naomh O’Dristoll, Foley, Hal Devios, The Poet, Phantom, Dakam, Dave, Anja Galena, Z-Beta-279, Wyoming Jones, Noa Vander
Phantom: Alright, here’s the plan. Officers stay here, mind control if things go south, rookies get out and fight. Sound good? GO!
Naomh: I hate being the first one out…
Dakam: It’s too dark, how are we supposed to see anything?
Phantom: You’ll know there’s an alien there when it tries to shoot you, dumbass!
Noa: Snakeman!
Jones: Got it!
Rion: It’s one of
their craft! How did
they survive the crash?
Dakam: Last one!
The UFO was in bad shape, and we were unable to salvage anything from the twisted mess of metal.However, the aliens at least provided the rookies with some combat experience.The next UFO was another Medium Scout, this time en route to Europe.Again, we shot down the UFO with the Lightning, so as to provide combat experience for the rookies.UFO-28 crash landed Jun 20 in Tibet
Soldiers: Naomh O’Dristoll, Hal Devios, Richard Muller, Rion Chrisson, Frank Braeded, Dakam, Crandel, Dave, Anja Galena, Z-Beta-279, Wyoming Jones, Noa Vander
Frank: Same plan as always; rookies go out and fight, officers stay behind and mind control, okay?
Naomh: Landing zone looks clear…
Rion: I don’t see any signs of
them.
Dave: I see the UFO. That thing looks even worse than before.
Noa: Sectoid near the rocks!
Naomh: Where? There are rocks everywhere!
Noa: THERE!
Naomh: Okay, I got it.
Dakam: Sectoid in the UFO!
Rion: Whoops, I missed!
Dakam: With six shots.
Z-Beta-279: I missed too!
Dakam: Will someone hurry up and hit that thing before I get shot?
Jones: No worries, I got it.
Once again, the UFO was in too much of a mess to recover any usable parts.A Medium Scout was detected on the 22nd.It was shot down by the Firestorm and recovered by the Lightning without incident. We could see that the UFOs were becoming more numerous, appearing days instead of weeks apart.The next UFO put Command on edge – it was a Terror Scout operated by the Snakeman, which had carried out a devastating terror attack nearly a month prior.The scout was detected over Hungary……but the Lightning sent to intercept lagged behind the scout.The Lightning managed to catch up to the decelerating UFO over Kazakhstan.Once the UFO was down, the resulting cleanup was relatively easy. However, we did not know if the UFO had completed its mission of scanning Siberia for possible terror sites.The UFO after was a Large Scout, again crewed by Snakemen.The Firestorm was faster than the Lightning, and was able to catch up and drop the UFO over the Atlantic.Then, on the 28th, we received the alert which we had been dreading.A Snakeman Terror Ship, headed straight for Siberia.