*** Classified: Above Top Secret ***
X-Com Command Staff Eyes Only
Excerpt Personal Log, General McSwine, X-Com
Day 26: Escalation
It appears that X-Com's activities have been noticed by our adversary. They have chosen to respond by striking directly at civilian targets in heavily populated areas. This is, quite understandably, a nightmare scenario for X-Com. We cannot use excessive force in these areas as it would endanger the civilian population, but our enemy has no such limitation.
Nevertheless, our responsibility is to respond and protect what lives we can.
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X-Com Battle Report, Terror Mission 1
The Skyranger arrives and sets down in a clear area on the western edge of the deployment zone in the suburbs of Tokyo.
AceDiamond deploys the UCV and spots an unfamiliar alien, these new aliens appear to be completely unrelated to the Sectoids we have encountered so far, but their goals and methods of operation appear the same..
Since the background is clear, AceDiamond fires a rocket and takes the alien down.
As the rest of the squad deploys, Bling Cat spots an alien in an alley to the east of the Skyranger, he fires but does not hit the target.
Dekkarax has more luck and the alien goes down.
AceDiamond advances the UCV to the main street through the area, he spots another alien, and Combined and Looney fire on it but score no hits. Gamebrain89 manages to tag it though and scores the kill.
The screams of civilians panicking and dying assault the squad, and Bling Cat gets a glimpse of an alien much larger than we've ever seen before in an alley to the south, but loses sight of it again. On the north side of the street an alien manages to blow itself up with an ill-thrown grenade.
Bling Cat finds the large alien again, but cannot hit it from where he is.
He and CAPSLOCK FURY take cover in a nearby building and fire out until the alien is dead.
AceDiamond spots another of the large aliens in an alley to the north, and kills it with a rocket.
Whilst advancing down the middle of the street, the UCV comes under heavy fire from an alien hidden by smoke to the north.
The alien is sighted, and long range sniper fire from Looney ends it's threat.
The advance down main street continues, another large alien is spotted at the edge of the mission area, and Combined and a scout engage it with sustained fire, finally killing it in a hail of heavy cannon and laser fire.
Meanwhile, the UCV is fired on again from the south, but ineffectually this time. AceDiamond responds with a rocket, felling another alien and another of the large aliens behind it.
All at once, Birras and Deccarax come under fire from an alien rounding the corner of the building they are flanking, but they are not hit, and return fire and kill the shooter, and CAPSLOCK FURY is surprised by one of the large aliens rounding a corner, but is able to retain his compusure and fill it with laser.
Whilst sweeping the buildings to the north of the LZ, Jack Lavish finds himself face to face with an alien at point blank range. Before it can react he riddles it with automatic laser fire.
As they complete their sweep of the warehouse, Bling Cat and CAPSLOCK FURY find yet another of the large aliens, and CAPSLOCK FURY gets another notch on his laser rifle*.
At this, the aliens pull out, and we are left to count the dead.
Report Ends
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Mission Debriefing, General McSwine
The first strike of alien forces on civilian populations has gone about as well for X-Com as could have been hoped. Some civilian casualties were unavoidable, but the attack was repulsed before they could climb too high.
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* OOC Note: CAPSLOCK FURY went on a rampage this mission, but every single reaper he downed was actually unconscious not dead, so they've not been counted as kills by the game, and we have an alien containment unit all stunk up by Reapers.)