9. Sea of Evil
At least these Artifact Sites are actually not the worst kind of mission in this game. That... has yet to be seen still, oddly enough.
Small blessings, right?
What looks like an alien ambush is actually of great benefit to us, as we can just shoot everything standing around then let the doors close up at the end of the turn.
Some excellent shooting on display here. My officers are quite grizzled at this point.
Tasoths panic a lot easier than I remember. That grenade blast kills a Tasoth and a Tentaculat by the way.
They waste no time starting in on the psionic attacks though.
We've eliminated maybe about half the alien force at this point.
Despite our progress at least some of the site's defense force is still effective.
@ditdatdot is killed by a sniper. Both frazzled by psionic attacks; Mooger Meng and Frosted Flakes panic.
Enemy morale is collapsing though.
Midway through the battle, Pocket Dragoon manages the incredibly stupid feat of catching a live grenade in the nose of the RaceWarSub, right in front of his face. I have Dear Leader selected instead but Dragoon's Time Units are literally 0 after that throw. Nobody else has anywhere near enough Time Units to run out and pick the damn thing up either. At this point, I figure he deserves to get blown up for fucking himself like that.
The grenade goes off and he's... fine? Not a scratch of damage from a point-blank grenade explosion. See what I've been saying about this submarine's wonky nose? A Tasoth Soldier understandably panics when it notices a human has just survived a grenade going off right in front of him.
What are these humans? Lobstermen?
The saving grace of these miserable two-parter missions is that the first map is fairly small and easy to navigate, so it goes fairly quick.
I make a fatal choice here and leave HiramTheGrift in a really bad spot. His only shot bounces off a Tasoth at point blank range. Nobody else is in a position to get a shot through the embattlements or back him up.
He lucks out though; the Tasoth panics, giving him a free turn to wipe it out.
(Jerry Goldsmith, Rambo 3 - Night Fight)
My original plan to skip this part probably isn't a good idea with our budget being as low as it is. That said its also impossible to beat the entire map with the number of troops I have without save scumming. The name of the game this time will be blowing up the Synomium Device and just getting the hell out of here. All of the equipment is replacable. All of the loot can be found elsewhere. Just get in, and get out.
I start out with the same strategy as last time. I'm not even going to try and advance until I kill at least a few Tentaculats. Dear Leader's team is tiny, consisting of only four other troops, while Pocket Dragoon has the lion's share of the troops in the other starting room. Miraculously, both of the lifts are fairly close together and one of them is against the south wall, so there's only so many places the aliens can come at us from.
@McMitch4kf becomes a rather unwilling father.
Dear Leader drops down and wastes an Aquatoid that gets a little too ambitious. Meanwhile, Future Physical Violence gets the Tentaculat to burst out of McMitch. Pocket Dragoon drops a grenade and the two ascend to the safety of the second level. The grenade takes care of both Tentaculats.
Its Mooger Meng's unlucky mission as he comes under psionic attack again. Peasant makes a lucky find when he drops down to find a Tentaculat just waiting there. He wastes it while Dear Leader takes out yet another Aquatoid.
A stun blast just about nearly ruins my day.
We have no shortage of grenades, let's use em.
Ah, those pipes built into the floor are explosive. Good to know. The first grenade takes out the Aquatoid with the stun launcher, while the second grenade takes out
two Tentaculats judging by the death cries.
Holy shit that staircase right in front of the top lift leads to the control room.
The aliens remind us we're not the only ones with grenades by blowing up
@Corn Flakes.
You don't think I'm just going to let them get away with that, are you?
One thing is clear though, we can't put up this kind of fight for long. Peasant is told to arm a grenade and go for the control room. He has no backup, with the exception of HiramTheGrift covering him from the center of the lift room.
Another Aquatoid goes down while a fourth Tentaculat is accounted for. Peasant might actually survive his suicide run at the control room.
Something survived that blast in the fuel room though, since it fires back and manages to pick off
@Precious Bodily Fluids.
There's more where that came from motherfuckers. Dear Leader, Pocket Dragoon and Willy are all packing at least four grenades apiece, with each other marine carrying at least one if not two.
The battle is basically just pure chaos now. Neither side can see each other through all the silt. There are apparently enough Tasoth Squad Leaders left to drive Dear Leader berserk.
Peasant enters the lift. He has just enough Time Units to make it to the top, throw his grenade in and then drop down one level. Everyone else is ordered back to their lifts and sent as far up as they can go. HiramTheGrift ignores the order to head back to the lift, saying he's going to cover Peasant's escape. Dear Leader figures there's no time to argue with him.
Synomium Device destroyed! Everyone back to the lift!
While covering Peasant's escape, HiramTheGrift actually manages to get reaction fire on the fast as fuck Tentaculat, killing it in one blow. Peasant rushes past him only half a second later.
Peasant is safe! Hiram's the last one left on the ground.
Come on Hiram, get outta there!
MARINES we are LEAVING!
The final score indicates that we killed about 13 aliens on the second part of the level, at least judging by the corpses recovered from the first part. Its possible I could have stuck around and cleared the whole thing out, but all that would have done is get more of my troops picked off for dubious loot anyway. We did what we came here to do and got everyone alive back home safely. I call that a day's work.
After producing enough Medikits to replace the ones we had to ditch at the artifact site, the next order of business is producing a set of Gauss Rifles for profit to raise a little extra spending money. Shark Trip is in dire need of upgrades and supplies, but at the moment money is still tight, at least when it comes to the expense of new facilities.
Additionally, an order is placed for two Submersible Weapons Systems; drones equipped with torpedo launchers. Next Artifact Site we get sent to, the drones can be the ones to suicide rush the control room and take out the Synomium Device. Since they can't just be instantly killed by Tentaculats and they can theoretically take a bit more damage from weapons fire than an unarmored marine. Plus, if things get too dicey after the Synomium Device gets taken out, they we can just dust off and leave the drones behind. Its not like leaving a soldier behind after all.
A small USO recovery sounds almost relaxing after that misery.
Probably Tasoths again.
Yep.
Dear Leader is suddenly gripped by the notion that
@Mooger Meng has been mouthing off to him in chat.
Pocket Dragoon takes command once again. At least Dear Leader didn't pull a grenade off his belt.
Troops are dispatched at once to avenge Mooger Meng's death.
Hilariously, his death is avenged in kind as a Tasoth loses it and guns down his partner.
Christ these guys are useless when they have no backup.
When Peasant and Catgirls are Love line up to breach the UFO, no less than two Tasoths bumrush the door. The first one is taken down, but the second one shoots
@Peasant at point blank range. I'll note here that I definitely have UFO Extender Melee turned on, but it seems this game just ignores it like last time. I suppose we'll have to wait until XPiratez to see the melee system work properly.
A third one rushes the door and I figure a live capture will bump our score up a little.
Peasant's death takes place in the shadow of his (and XCOM's) great victory only two days prior. A bitter reminder of how the tides of fate turn. Mooger Meng was also a reliable officer, Future Physical Violence will have big shoes to fill. The sea giveth, the sea taketh away.
Unlike last time the initial power suit isn't worth the effort of manufacturing it. Instead its best if you just invest in the Magnetic Ion Armor, which features superior armor and the ability to fly. Research instead goes into the Disruptor Ammunition, as Artifact Sites will be rendered far easier if we can get even one working Disruptor Launcher on the ground.
Another medium sub.
We could really use some loot since we recovered very little from the Artifact Site.
An entire Medium USO filled with Tasoths. Great.
Oh fuck. That Tasoth is holding a Disruptor Launcher! Fortunately another grenade obliterates it before it can get a shot off as us. I hope there aren't any more with those things.
Jesus Christ!
Two of these assholes started out right on top of us!
Watch it!
How many of these damn things are there?!
Holy FUCK!
We try handing out a few grenades as supressing fire but they don't land remotely near anything that seems like a target.
Some JERK is understably unable to keep himself together between the psionic attacks and the Disruptor bombs flying around. The majority of them are aimed straight at Willy though, which is where they all miss since he's standing pretty much right on the edge of the map and the bomb vanishes if it goes out of bounds.
There's not much else we can do other than spread out and sweep the map. Willy heads northwest, while Hiram and R00T are set to advance down into the sourtheast with R00T at the extreme eastern edge of the map. Some JERK is left stuck in the center, his closest backup being Willy who is some distance away if he runs into any trouble.
Which predictably happens almost right afterwards. After taking a shot at an alien, the Tasoth returns fire, killing
@Some JERK.
XCOM continues its advance despite the loss though, with Swiss46 being brought up to assume Some JERK's place in the skirmish line.
Sensing weakness, the Tasoths target Swiss46 for psionic attacks and successfully take him out of the fight. Even worse, nobody can move up to take his spot because it might invite grenade throws from the aliens. Catgirls are Love and ChucklesTheJester leave the Triton and are told to follow Hiram's path to the USO, in preparation for a breach. Friend Computer is dispatched initially to take over Swiss46's spot, but once it becomes clear the aliens aren't going to shoot him he follows along behind Chuckles.
While the aliens are busy tormenting Swiss46, Willy secures the westernmost corner of the map and takes position on the USO main doors. Hiram and R00T aren't far behind, while Catgirls and HARMful are advised to be extra careful to slip past the erratic Swiss46.
This takes a little while, as you can probably tell.
Friend Computer is the first to crack the USO doors. I sure hope that's the last fucking Tasoth with a fucking Disruptor Launcher on this map.
We've finally killed enough of them for their lesser ranks to start losing it. This doesn't free Swiss46 from his torment though.
There's no sense stunning the panicked ones right now, there are too many still running around to make it worth the trouble.
They're waiting for
@Friend computer this time. Catgirls makes it inside though.
Hiram's a little off his game today, he only manages to blow out another wall.
It takes fire from both Chuckles and R00T just to take out one Tasoth, and eventually I realize I should get Catgirls out of there before he gets pasted.
I only catch the aftermath of it, but one of the Tasoths throws a grenade at the group, which fortunately explodes after the doors close.
The last Tasoth panics and tries to rush the door for some reason. We stun it because, fuck it, why not?
Given the absolutely insane amount of ordnance flying through the air in that mission I'm surprised I managed to scrape through with only two losses. No save scumming either, seriously. The team was saved by a combination of Willy's insane luck and the janky physics at the edge of the game map.
The Tasoth research is complete, and its here that the confusion between the Tasoth and the Deep One becomes noticable. The Deep One enemy doesn't look or act anything like the Lovecraftian Deep Ones, nor does it have an origin at all similar to them. However, the Tasoth might as well be a deadringer for the ones in the story, at least minus the psionic powers. One wonders why the names were swapped, as "Tasoth" doesn't seem to mean anything in particular. The game Deep Ones are said to carry electric weapons, so the name "Tasoth" was probably a pun on that if anything.
We're finally able to begin research on this game's equivalent of the Psi-Amp, the MC Disruptor. However I shift the research team's focus to the Disruptor Pulse Launcher as I want one ready to go by the time another Artifact Site pops up. A modest team is left to work on the MC Disruptor.
Other Medium USO is detected. I'm beginning to suspect the one we just took is a Fleet Supply Cruiser and there's an Alien Colony right in our back yard.
Next Time: Another Medium USO recovery, maybe uncovering another Alien Colony.
Waiting list:
A Clockwork Soybean
