Episode 2: I ain't no Senator's son
Welcome to the Rice Fields, the first Xenonaut forward base. Housing two high power radar arrays and a pair of hangars for state of the art interceptors it'll allow us scrutinize and project power across the vast majority of Asia and essentially entirety of Oceania. Hopefully the Funding Council will recognize and reward this move. Both The Farm and Rice Fields will field an unorthodox pairing of an F-17 and a Mig-32, the Mig carrying a pair of repurposed antiship missiles dubbed Avalanche Torpedoes which provide a massive initial long range hit, which is being supported by the F-17 with it's pair of conventional Sidewinders and a potent Autocannon.
We are also making great strides analyzing and reverse-engineering alien technology, and thanks to the endless toil of the labcoat wearing heroes in our labs we now understand the principles of aliens' plasma weapons, and with that comes the knowledge of how to defend ourselves, with prototypes of the Jackal combat armour reaching our workshops.
Currently however the technology is not economically viable to hit the front lines. At 20k a pop outfitting a response squad with the Jackal costs as much as repurposing an entire already experimental Mig-31 into our own Mig-32 variant. On top of that the hefty 10kg weight of the armour is quite simply not in line with the conditioning of our troops right now. Command has found a compromise however, and is willing to outfit our breachers with Combat Shields which will greatly improve survivability of our response teams, as showcased by private JJLiautaud.
On the 8th of October the aliens catch us with our pants down again. The radar arrays in Rice Fields are not yet operational but Foxtrot-1 and Tav have already been moved there, while work on Foxtrot-2 is still underway. Perfect time for contact over northern shore of Australia, isn't it?
I scramble both Mem from The Farm and Foxtrot-1 from Rice Fields, just in case since the contact is larger than the Light Scout we've faced 3 weeks ago. As a testament to the sheer power of the Russian fighter the Mig manages to reach bogey designated UFO-2 before Mem does, despite taking off from mainland Asia. The massive Avalanches make short work of the alien vessel designated Scout-1 and it is swatted out of the sky.
The response team is dispatched with some new faces on board - Cpl.
@Agran, Cpl.
@Kane Lives and Pvt.
@JJLiautaud. Cpl. Youth sweeps one of the buildings and soon uncovers a grisly sight.
Behold! A tractor!
As the squad fans out an alien is spotted. It is noticably smaller and weedier when compared to Sebillans. Or rather would be visible pre-hamburgerization if not for the explosion and shrapnel provided by Cpl. Holstien.
Cpl. Kane Lives uncovers an open door, and remembers his Shakespeare well. Discretion is the better part of valor, and overwhelming firepower is the better part of building breaching. Cpl. Jarch6 collapses half of the farm building, and the blazing inferno reveals a bewildered xeno. Cpl. came4nudes services it with the FN MAG.
Alas! Another foul sight to behold. Yet again we see a red tractor. And a downed alien craft.
As the team prepares to breach the downed ship Corporal Rear Admiral Butthole [I have to read it in every single report, and so do you] spots movement in a shack and corners a xeno fighter. Both the service pistol and the trooper's marksmanship prove ineffective in stopping the threat. Cpl. Jarch6 attempts to silence it with an incendiary warhead, but for reasons unknown the walls of an outback shed fails to be defeated by it. Cpl. came4nudes fries the bastard with an incendiary grenade.
The final stage is breaching the UFO. Two assault troopers stack up with Pvt. Jjliautauo who opens the hatch, and is immediately hit by a hail of plasma fire. The Combat Shield shatters, leaving the private wounded.
He opens fire with his service pistol but it fails to put down the remaining alien, who once more fires with his plasma weapon. Cpl. Kane's shotgun barks in response and all xeno threats are eliminated. But what's even better, thanks to stellar performance from all soldiers nobody is being sent to the morgue while we recover priceless research and keep the populace safe.
Autopsy reports confirm what the troopers could clearly see - new threats, designated Caesan, are weedy and not really suited for combat. If not for those absurd plasma weapons they would be little more than speedbumps for our boys in blue. I'm sorry, what's that last file? Telepathy, psionics? Is this a joke?
The invaders are definitely picking up the pace, just two days later Rice Fields picks up a new Scout contact, it's intercepted over USSR airspace by a joint squadron of an F17 and a Mig-32, making it the first time an American made warplane comes in war over Russian skies without many people holding their breaths and looking over the horizon for omnious mushroom clouds. I guess we can look for the silver lining in world-threatening alien invasions.
Foxtrot-1 reaches out and touches the scout with a pair of Avalanches. Pvt.
@Tism the Return is barely able to get his kit on on the way to the dropship when The Farm picks yet another contact. While Charlie-1 is en route to the crash site the fighter squadron intercepts another alien Scout.
This time, somehow, the alien vessel survives the impact from a pair of Avalanches. The Foxtrot would've been in some trouble if not for Mem - a pair of Sidewinders silences the limping scout, and the wreck vanishes in the depths of the sea.
Charlie-1 reaches the crash site in the middle of frozen tundra. The dropship hits the crash site at night, but we have learned something since our previous foray into the night. Our troops disembark and start throwing flares EVERYWHERE, revealing two bogeys from the get go.
The first alien is hit by a shotgun blast and an HE grenade, and yet somehow still stands. This is also the last known image of Cpl. A_Callow_Youth, as a plasma bolt comes from the dark despite our flare coverage, and silences him in a single hit.
This tragedy galvanizes the squad, and despite a barrage of fire from the dark and continous psychic assault on our troops a solid routine is established. Targets are illuminated by flares, then illuminated by HE rockets. Survivors are ripped apart by shotgun and LMG fire. Again and again and again this proves to work.
Cpl. Kane takes a hit breaching the UFO, but thankfully he survives. The aliens do not. After a protracted shootout inside the craft the last three Caesans hit the dirt, and the site is secured.
Securing the site costs us the life of one soldier with two other being injured. The survivors are nearly universally promoted or decorated by command.
Alongside the shiny medal you can also gleam the new laser weaponry our great scientists managed to discover. Laser pistols are being manufactured to improve the accuracy and stopping power of Shieldbearers, with Laser Rifles coming in after that when money and resources are available.
The enemy gives us no time to breathe - Charlie-1 barely has time to return to base when the radars at Rice Fields picks up a new signature, an alien fighter craft.
It manages to get on Tav's tail and nails it with one missile, thankfully the other one is evaded by the pilot. The alien craft is not paying attention to the flanking Foxtrot which blows it out of the sky with a pair of Avalanches. Some hopefully valuable data and materials are recovered while the damaged fighter limps home. Just 9 hours later we have another contact, a Scout. Foxtrot-1 is dispatched and blows it to smithereens, the wreck hits the sea - never to be seen again.
The fighter's wreck is analyzed, and a grim observation is made. This fighter craft not only carries homing plasma projectiles and a plasma cannon, but the alien doctrine is to deploy them in squadrons of three. An expansion of our airforce is likely in order.
Just 4 days later we identify and intercept another alien fighter, and this one gets really hairy. The UFO evades both Avalanches and manages to hit the Foxtrot, and then jinks away from a pair of Sidewinders. This would not go well if not for the massive balls of Tav's pilot, who seeing that the alien craft can dance around our supersonic missiles decides to get the alien craft into a head-on and opens up with his autocannon. A hail of shells shreds the xeno apart with minimal damage done to Tav in return.
All's well that ends well, right? Exactly, maybe aside from someone making a STAGGER YOUR FUCKING LAUNCHES sticker and slapping it inside of the cockpits of every fighter we operate. Just 9 hours later we have another contact over Rice Fields. Tav and Foxtrot-1 are scrambled right after they're refueled, before we can even start repairing the damage. At this point the pilots have their Scout routine down to a T - open up with two Avalanches, bait the alien to chase the Foxtrot, have Tav finish it off with a Sidewinder or two.
With that we outfit our Shield troops with newly manufactured Laser Pistols and send brave young men into absolute hell of urban warfare enhanced by relentless psychic assault by alien telepaths.
We follow the formula stacking up Caesan corpses until the time comes to assault the craft. Pvt. Tism's combat shield is torn apart by plasma fire, injuring him. The alien shooter does not get to pull the trigger again.
All hell breaks loose when the UFO is stormed. Sergeant Rear Admiral Butthole opens the UFO's bay door and comes face to face with an alien trooper. Fraction of a second later both the Sarge and the alien are torn apart by another xeno's reaction fire. Sgt. Agran and Sgt. Kane Lives fall in the struggle as well, and the squad rather than regroup pushes on, trying to regain initiative by the sheer mass of bodies. Somehow, thankfully, we outlast the invaders, at a great cost in lives.
Miraculously Sgt. Agran is revived and is transported back to The Farm in critical condition. He is immediately awarded the Crimson Heart and he will live to fight another day.
Lieutenant Came4nudes, Sergeant Jjliautauo and Corporal Tism receive field promotions for their overall stellar performance.
It's the 29th of October and we get three more contacts, two Scouts which are dispatched over the shores of Australia and central russia, whereas the Medium contact outruns our fighters and disappears somewhere above eastern Europe. The Scouts do not prove to be a threat.
Privates
@Fougaro @Agarathium1066 and
@ChucklesTheJester and you can see that the strain and pace of this month is getting to me. Those two manufactured Laser Rifles would've been damn useful in the upcoming fight.
Cpl. Tism is ambushed right after we depart from the dropship, his combat shield can't help against multiple hits from a plasma rifle firing full auto. Pvt. Fougaro corners and executes the Caesan as it tries to hide in a storage shed.
Sarges Jjliautaud and Neo-Holstien seem to work good together. One baits out the attention of a Caesan, the other gently sneaks an HE rocket into the side of its head.
The commander frowns upon stomping the smoldering, jellified remains of the xeno into the ground, Sgt. Neo-Holstien. It is not grounds for a reprimand yet, but further such action will be seen as wilfully endangering the mission.
Breaching the craft is, once again, a massacre. Sgt. Jarch6 dies during the initial assault while Pvt. Fougaro is blindsided by the very last Caesan holding out in the engine room.
To makes matter worse, aside from losing nearly half the squad in the last stage of that mission, not only is the Funding Council cutting our resources by horrifying amounts, but we also have a possible data breach when it comes to pricess, humanity-saving research.
Let's honor our fallen as we reach All Saint's Day, the 1st of November 1979
First of all, I'm absolutely floored when it comes to the music selection from 1979. Initially I wanted to start with a couple well known bands and dig into more obscure ones, but the sheer amount of absolute classics is amazing. Everything featured so far is from 1979, and maybe I'll dig down to the point of giving you music released in a given month I'm covering.
Also, for all the troopers involved - I've already shat the bed as far as introductions/first missions go. Xenonauts has a habit of sorting and re-sorting your soldier roster whenever you open it, making it a chore to keep track of fresh meat for the grinder. Some inaccuracies or missed shoutouts may happen, I'm comparing screenshots of outgoing squad rosters while writing this thing and my tiny brain is boiling. No individual loadout/stat screenshots this time, I'll make up for it next time while showcasing new gear too, as our loadouts need a complete overhaul.
I hope there are bigger transport ships right around the corner, the 8 man squads do not feel big enough - if I were to tackle 10 Sebillan soldiers in urban combat it feels like we'd be bringing back nothing but body bags. I'm also really disappointed by the performance of incendiaries and high explosives. The latter are still usable in rocket launchers, but both HE hand grenades and all incendiaries used so far were underwhelming at best.
To counter that bit of bitching - I love the air combat in this game. It manages to give you a really interesting and compelling experience from just a handful of mechanics, it's fun as hell directing your tiny planes on that radar map.
Need input on:
1. Names of our pair of Foxtrots
2. Placement of base #3 - you can see from the funding council report that we're hurting for cash bad, and some countries have basically withdrawn funding. My primary idea is a base in north africa which should have coverage over all/most of Europe, North Africa and parts of South Africa, but I'm willing to consider a base in North America too as they're dropping in funding as well. North Africa has the advantage of extending our existing radar and interceptor coverage rather than creating an isolated spot.
3. Update length. I wanted each episode to cover a month of in-game time, but the pace is picking up quickly. Let me know if you prefer something less hefty - poll will be up for the next couple of days.
