5.
Gotta Go Fast
We're still chipping away at the research for all of the Sonic weapons, but at least the rifles work.
Not much happened this month. The aliens have been quite good at evading our radar so far. The overwhelming majority of missions we've done at this point have been Terror Missions, so much of the world is left to wonder what, if anything, XCOM actually does. Free China, a "liberal" cyberdystopia formed after the fall of alien-infiltrated Red China, actually has the audacity to reduce our funding after what happened to them last time. Neo-Japan follows suit. Maybe there's something to that old addage that you should never turn your back on a gook.
In all seriousness the way the new countries of Earth treat XCOM in this game is something of a plot hole. One would think that after the events of the last game that the funding nations would have seen the logic in retaining XCOM as a permanent organization to defend against the aliens. Something that would make more sense I suppose is the existence of a rival UN organization to XCOM that is ostensibly supposed to do the same job, but is actually so mired in red tape and bullshit politics that there's no way they can save the planet, so you have to spend the game competing with them for funding.
That said, my cyinical side does appreciate the idea that after XCOM performs the incredible task of saving the Earth singlehandedly, the nations of Earth just go "lol okay show's over" and yank funding so they can instead spend 40 million dollars funding gender studies in Pakistan or go fight a 20 year drug war in some country nobody gives a shit about. In a way maybe that's a little too true to life.
Research on the most powerful energy weapon in the game, the Sonic Cannon, completes. Its slightly more accurate than the Heavy Plasma of the previous game, except it has no autofire and half the battery capacity. Woo. Its also heavier, because fuck you. I start researching a live Lobsterman Technician in the hope of getting a freebie tech, and you need to research a live alien anyway to get that chain started so why not.
Vancouver ehy.
I'm pretty sure I know what to expect this time.
Yeah.
It takes some pepper.
But eventually they will go down. 3 hits on average, 2 if you get really lucky, and you won't be tempted to waste any Time Units on autofire.
Like that.
God damnit. Even though
@Overcast has plenty of Time Units the Lobsterman that pops out of the train station nails him right away.
I sense that every update with Lobstermen in it is going to be screenshot-heavy.
The team uses what Time Units they have left to chip away at another one.
It occurs to me that I made the elementary mistake of leaving three people outside the Triton when my turn ended, so of course a grenade wipes out
@The Valeyard,
@Penne Dreadful and
@Gimmick Account.
Thomas Highway was standing close enough to the grenade blast that pulverized three of his comrades to get a sonic haircut and takes it about as well as any of us probably would. I take a few potshots at the aliens we can see but I don't leave anyone who can move outside at the end of my turn, there's just too much that has us in its sights.
Another grenade goes off on the wing of the Triton this time, and because of the weird geometry of the sub Thomas Highway narrowly avoids having the left side of his body taken off.
The two Lobstermen to the east have taken enough punishment that we can finally kill them.
I leave three troops outside again for a few turns and no grenades come our way, so I decide that its probably safe to advance. Pocket Dragoon spots what looks like a brain in a jar hovering nearby. This enemy is a Lobsterman Terror Unit known as a Bio-Drone. It is a compilation of many of the most annoying traits of enemies from the last game. It can fly, has a lot of Time Units, has a high accuracy, high damage weapon, and also explodes upon death like a Cyberdisk. The chief difference is that the fucking Bio-Drone is only one square in size, meaning it can fit through small gaps, use lifts and hide in closets. Additionally it produces fire on whatever square it hovers over, but considering there's only one map in the game where anything is all that flammable this isn't much of an issue.
Fortunately it also shares the Cyberdisk's relatively weak constitution. I fail to capture the explosion after its death though.
With that out of the way we can finally spread out a little.
Another Lobsterman is killed during our advance.
Not pictured in between all of this is scores of civilians dying to Sonic fire or the occasional enemy grenade.
Radical Cadre encounters another Bio-drone to the south. He misses his first shot so I elect to have him retreat and hide in the train station. If the Bio-Drone follows him draggs should be able to score some reaction fire at the very least.
Not only does the Bio-Drone follow
@Radical Cadre, it ignores reaction fire, rolls straight up to the window, and blasts him through it.
I waste a few shots trying to take the Bio-Drone down until I remember that unlike its Lobsterman handlers its perfectly affected by grenades. In a stroke of incredible luck the explosion disables it without causing it to explode, meaning if we complete this mission fast enough we'll actually capture a live Bio-Drone.
The last Lobsterman isn't too far away.
Negative score again since almost all the civilians were killed. At least we managed to defeat the enemy, and with relatively few casualties.
Hoping for a free technology was a waste of time.
Deja vu.
Research on the alien Aqua Plastics completes not long after, allowing us to research the first set of personnel armor for our troops. Its of dubious benefit at this stage though as we don't really have the resources to construct it, unless we want to spend a lot of money synthesizing our own Aqua Plastics. Expanison of our research team completes shortly after and I adjust our research accordingly.
Research on the armor goes quick but again, we're not really in a position to start manufacturing it.
ScubaJace takes another sub down. We're about to depart when a transmission comes in.
Again?
I brace for the worst. Our score was already quite terrible last time.
Ah, its only Gillmen. XCOM deploys in standard fashion.
Since we started in the corner of the map the shoreline is already half secure. We storm forward. Command radios an odd request to Dear Leader: our scientists want a live Deep One for some unknown reason. Attempting this is certain to get somebody killed but the scientists insist a live specimen will be critical to their research.
So far nothing we haven't handled before.
MoffAlbert has the first encounter on this map with a Deep One, and even worse its within striking distance so he's ordered to pull his Tazer and try to take it alive. Other aliens are spotted to the north and west.
We scratch one of them but
@MoffAlbert is predictably killed trying to approach the Deep One.
Pocket Dragoon manages to kill the sharpshooter on the second floor.
I'm determined to take this thing alive. I have Honka Honka Burning Love get ready to the south, while chaosrevolutions blows a hole in the building fairly close to the Deep One, having already wiped out the enemy he saw out back.
chaosrevolutions waits for the opportune time and goes for it, stunning the Deep One successfully.
Standing out in the middle of the street during a firefight with no cover gets
@chaosrevolutions killed however. Honka manages to move up and avenge his death.
Honka subsequently gets surprised but a stun bomb of some kind. I have White Devil return the favor with a Sonic Pulser that gets two of the aliens.
Pocket Dragoon kills another Deep One in the west. Meanwhile,
@Dark Edea is killed by the last alien.
Its dealt with.
The mission is still in the negative for all the civilians killed, but at least the scientists got their specimen.
Now we can deal with that sub from earlier.
This map takes place on a new type of terrain that I'll do my best to show off; a sunken galleon.
Thankfully its just a Gillman USO this time.
A few more shots to show off the terrain. Who doesn't love a cool shipwreck?
I'm desperate for an alien navigator at this point so I can research this game's equivalent of the Hyperwave Decoder, so I order the team to go in with Tazers drawn.
Despite my efforts its just a Squad Leader.
Dear Leader is promoted to his rightful place as Captain of XCOM, the highest rank in Terror From The Deep.
With Sonic research almost complete I turn my scientists to the alien USO components.
As far as we're concerned no news is good news from the Council, though the USA and Neo-Japan still complain about our efforts and reduce our funding.
This alien sub leads us on a really annoying chase near Japan before touching down.
Maybe we'll get a navigator this time.
I'm desperate enough for a navigator that I have Pocket Dragoon, White Devil and Polyboros play Rambo around this coral reef.
We have some pretty close calls. I'm forced to shoot one to the northwest just because closing in on it would be impossible.
I manage to get them all with no casualties. I may or may not have saved and reloaded once or twice.
Not that it did me any good anyway, all of them are Soldiers. The one I killed was probably a Squad Leader.
I check the wiki after and find that Terror From The Deep has abolished the Leader rank and replaced it with Navigators, and that only Lobstermen and Aquatoids have Navigators,
and that the three smallest ships don't even carry one! Fuck this game.
Our new prisoners are sold off to whoever wants to cut them up. There'll be no execution of alien prisoners for now, live ones sell for a fair chunk of change and we can't afford to pass that up.
We finish up research on our rare live Bio-Drone. As
@LullerDerbyRollin alluded to in his last post, the alien Terror Units are controlled by some sort of implants that XCOM may be able to make use of. This research unlocks the MC Lab, which you can probably guess is Terror From The Deep's equivalent to psionics. The research is different though, we'll only be able to construct an MC Lab after researching it. Unlocking the power of this science will require a live specimen that we haven't seen yet.
I wish we could take down something bigger, but with radar this shitty these seem to be the only things we can get our hands on.
At least we'll have better weaponry for the interceptors shortly.
I had ordered about 20 soldiers earlier to bump our numbers up enough to allow someone to get promoted to Captain.
Newcomers:
@Mary the Goldsmith,
@Forever Sunrise,
@Peasant,
@Precious Bodily Fluids,
@HiramTheGrift,
@Some JERK,
@Swiss46
Clones/Resurrections:
@Niggermancer,
@Future Physical Violence,
@Genichiro,
@JongleJingle,
@ChucklesTheJester,
@Catgirls are Love,
@Considered HARMful,
@Friend computer,
@R00T,
@NerdShamer,
@SailingtheSaltySeas,
@Johan Schmidt,
@Pissmaster
Next Time: Japan is probably going to disown us again after this.
