Thanks for the game while it lasted, it was a nice change of pace.
Would you be able to mark it as inactive?
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"I don't think we're likely to get evacced in this, do you? Besides, we've got a mission to complete." Mark says, rubbing his hands together. "What's our supply situation like? We might be out here for a day or two. Obviously we can make water from the snow, but is there any food?"
Once the squad reaches the garage, Mark begins co-ordinating a sweep of the building for hostiles. Using hand signals so as not to give their position away Mark directs Pete and Jack to lead check upstairs while he and Anna review the ground floor for hidden compartments or other access points.
Mark follows Pete's course through the falling snow, making sure to keep in visual contact with all members of the squad while simultaneously keeping a watch for any alien threats that may appear.
Mark stops at Pete's signal and spots the turrets he points out. Keeping in hand on his weapon, he motions to Pete to circle around the turrets so as to not give away their presence.
The driving rain obscures much of Mark's vision.
Mark nods at Pete. "Agreed, may as well get moving." Mark stows his nav gear, tightens the sling on his M4, and follows on behind the rest of the squad, keeping a watch behind them as they move onto the target.
The weather closes in as Mark leads the squad through the forest to the target. Forced to rely on long-unused land nav skills he learned in the Brecon Beacons as part of UK Special Forces Selection, Mark concentrates on the map and the compass bearing, ignoring the cold in his feet and the ache in his legs. "I don't think we have time to set up an OP," Mark says, forced to raise his voice slightly over the wind. "This weather is only going to get worse. Let's try and get into the garage and lay up there."
Don't worry about it, hope you're feeling better.
Just started XCom 2 on the Xbox One, got it for my birthday on Sunday. Pretty fancy so far, but only one mission in. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.
"Just take their kit and secure them to the thickest tree you can fine. We haven't got time for any b%#@@ing and moaning," Mark says, frustrated at the delay. "We need to be on target by the time this storm hits or we could be stuck out here for days." Mark reviews the tac-map for the most efficient route to the target, hoping they've got enough time before the Alaskan weather gets too rough.
"Good job guys. We can't be carrying the prisoners with us, so we should make sure they're secured to something so that we can come back to them," Mark says, getting out his tablet to mark the position of the prisoners with a tag on their tactical map. The message from Powerline introduces an unwelcome complication. "We'd better get going then," Mark suggests, checking his kit over and tightening the straps on his webbing. He checks the tac-map for any caves or overhangs between their current position and their target. "If we make good time, we should be able to find shelter in the camp, but we might need to hole up elsewhere if the s+%& hits the fan."
Mark sees the last two aliens drop, one with an explosion of gore and the other twitching and jerking as Jack tases it into unconsciousness. "Get those tased ones bound, and let's drag them into cover. I don't want more of those things coming for us," he calls as he moves towards Jack to help him secure their prisoners. As he moves Mark looks around for any evidence of further hostiles.
And finally Anna is rewarded for the dice nearly killing her earlier. Thanks for the Righteous Fury info Pete, I always forget that it's slightly different in Only War. I'll hold my action until I know whether Anna dropped her target or not. If not, I'll shoot it. If so, I'll try and wade into melee to help out - even if I sick at melee I can help provide an outnumbering bonus.
Mark ducks behind a tree as soon as he snaps his shot off, and a split second later his tree is rocked by a blast of alien fire. "Roger Diehard. Bring them down!"
I'm going to pick up Xcom 2 for my new Xbox One. Can't wait!
The smoke provides welcome concealment and Mark uses the opportunity to take aim at one of the alien forms through the mist, before trying to bring one down with a well-placed shot.
Sometimes the devil just craps in your teapot, but it would've been nice if it wasn't like that!
Could have been way worse. If I'd not dodged I'd be down to 3 wounds!
Mark ducks behind a tree truck as the aliens return fire. He feels the impact of the alien rounds against the tree before he pops back out to lay down some more fire at the oncoming targets who seem to care nothing for their safety. "Get into cover, these guys mean business," Mark calls.
"I don't want these guys to get close with those spiky things! Bring them down!" Mark calls as he raises his M4 to his shoulder, sights on the head of the nearest creature and fires a single shot, the suppressor limiting the sound to a dull pop.
"Good plan, let's find some cover and lay up. We can see if anything's still on our tail." Mark slings his new sniper rifle across his back, checks the safety on his suppressed M4 and makes ready to move out.
Mark listens to the information from Powerline, then unbuckles his restraints and leaps out of the helicopter. "Let's get into cover before something tries to strafe us," he says to the squad, turning back to retrieve his gear. Leaning deeper into the chopper he calls to Powerline. "Any idea which direction these craft were coming from?"
Flying with Powerline is no different than normal - an uncomfortable rollercoaster of nap-of-the-earth flying. Things take an unusual turn with the sound of missile countermeasures being launched and the loud whoosh of a passing air-to-air missile. Reflexively grabbing the strap above his head, Mark braces himself for an uncomfortable landing. "Radio it in! Give HQ our position!"
I've swapped some of my gear around, equipping myself with a silenced sniper rifle, adding a silencer and manstopper rounds to my M4, and dropping the smoke grenades I've only used once so far. All ready to go.
"Right then, I'll get to the QM and get some grub. See everyone on the flight line at 1130," Mark says, standing from the table with the folder full of intelligence. He leaves the briefing room and heads towards his room to grab his weapons ready for a discussion with the base QM.
"Explosives are a good shout, particularly if we need to make entry to a building or take down something big. I hear the tech guys have got some new taser gear - maybe that's worth a try. Especially as you've been so successful electrocuting stuff so far," Mark says looking over at Jack. "I think I'm going to visit the QM and trade out my pistol for something with a bit more power. I'll see what he's got AP round-wise, and I'll probably pick up a L115A3 for some long-range punch."
"Understood sir," Mark says, and takes a folder. He sits down with the rest of the squad to review the available intelligence. "Lots of open space, lots of separate buildings. Gonna be difficult to clear them all quickly. I think we should set up an OP in the forest somewhere, which would allow us to check out where the enemy activity is concentrated," Mark suggests. "These new aliens sound like they're going to be a significant problem. We might need to adjust our kit to be able to deal with bigger, stronger targets. Any suggestions?"
Mark readies himself as the techs and medics start to set up their gear. He sits upright in the chair as the lead medic sets up an IV line and connects it to a bag of slightly cloudy looking white fluid. The medic says nothing to Mark as he opens the tap and the milky fluid streams down the line into Mark's arm.
A cold numbness spreads up Mark's arm, leaching out across his chest and the rest of his body. A prickling sensation develops in his skin, but there is, surprisingly, no pain. As the infusion finishes, Mark waits to see what happens. The lead medic, in his ongoing stony silence, disconnects the line, pulls the cannula, and tapes up the cannula site with a gauze dressing. The briefing continues throughout Mark's treatment, and he listens to the end when the CO presents their next choice of missions. "Those all sound potentially significant, sir. My feeling is that the loss of the logging camp is most important. A site like that would provide an unobtrusive staging area for further incursions, and we should deal with it ASAP."
Mark muses over the commander's words before responding. "I'll volunteer sir, if the tech guys are confident that it'll do what they say it will."
You're not the only one, I thought that too! XP spent on Mighty Shot, all 400 of it. I'm thinking about ditching my silenced pistol, seeing as the M4 is an equally good close in weapon, and switching it for a sniper rifle. It'd cost me my last rarity slot, but I could transfer my silencer and red-dot sight onto it to make it extra-deadly at range. Does anyone think that's a crap idea?
I'm very happy with how things are going. Bit slow at times, but that's the way with PbP. Good group of characters, good roleplaying, good missions.
At the debrief, Mark delivers a concise but comprehensive review of the action covering their human opponents and the automated turret they encountered. "We only found one of our missing men, sir. No evidence of where the others might have been taken. We recovered as much as we could from a rudimentary surgical set-up in the warehouse's basement. We have biological samples as well as a number of encrypted laptops. Our guys are still missing sir. We have to get them back." he says solemnly. At the mention of an experimental alien-derived gene product, Mark asks a number of questions. "What do the tech team think this product will do sir? And what do they mean by side effects?"
"Let's get out of here," Mark suggests, carefully pulling out the biohazard bags from the fridge and adding them to the rest of the collected evidence. "Pete, lead us out. Anna, you and Jess grab our guy."
"Valkyrie, is he in a condition to talk? We need to know where the rest of our guys are," Mark asks as he starts checking over the contents of the fridge. The biohazard bags are intriguing, but they give no clues as to the contents.
I've played a fair few card games in my time, so I thought it might be one I've heard of. Never got on with MtG, always found it ludicrously slow.
You're right, I know little of it.
Good work. Which game?
No, me neither.
Once the cordite smoke starts to clear, Mark organises a quick evidence gathering operation. "Valkyrie, patch that guy up as best you can and see if he knows where everyone else is. Diehard, see if there are any other tunnels round here that the others may have used. Beowulf, give me a hand grabbing these laptops and whatever is in that fridge. This looks like an intelligence goldmine, let's not waste the opportunity." Mark moves towards the laptops, closing the lids and looking for a backpack or duffel bag to stuff them in.
"With Beowulf, moving in," Mark responds, M4 in his shoulder and scanning for targets as he moves.
Moving cautiously down the stairs, Mark looks for any further booby-traps or hostiles lying in wait.
"Let's move then," Mark says. He leads off towards Pete and Anna's last reported position in the parking bay, watching carefully for any sign of hostile activity or any more automated weapons.
"Understood Valkyrie. We are making our way down." Mark holsters his pistol, the time for a suppressed weapon very much past, pulls his M4 up from it's three-point sling, and looks over to check that Jack is ready to go.
"Understood Beowulf," Mark responds as he rolls out of cover. He runs down the corridor towards Jack. "Right, let's RV with Diehard and Valkyrie. Sounds like they've got something going on." He switches back to the squad channel. "Diehard, Valkyrie, sitrep."
"Roger Diehard," Mark responds, though anything else he was going to say is cut off by Jack's shout from the end of the corridor. Mark turns to look past Jack and the autoturret.
"Understood Valkyrie. Keep us informed." Mark replies. He then calls down the corridor. "Beowulf, what's happening?"
Mark ducks back as Jack sprints past him and unloads a burst of shotgun fire at what seems to be an automated turret. "Beowulf, see if you can get behind it to disable it!" he calls down the corridor after Jack.
Mark ducks into a doorway as bullets crack past him. He risks a peek around the doorframe to work out whether the weapon is some sort of automated turret or if a hostile is manning the machine gun.
"Negative Valkyrie. We're under fire. Automatic weapons fire on our position."
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