News from the front
On the 5th of July the aliens unleashed new horror upon us. Instead of they themselves attacking one of our cities they sent forth a mishmash of monsters to wreck havoc. Presumably these creatures have been cooked up by a "mad alien scientist" since most of these "monsters" are what we find here on our beloved blue earth - but in a much smaller size. X-com responded to this threat and landed on the island with the intent of killing all these creatures and saving as many island inhabitants as possible. What X-com discovered was giant locust swarms that frenzied for human blood, and even more perplexing some kind of mass of worms with telepathic / mind altering abilities. Very dangerous indeed, especially for unarmed civilians. The locusts didn't prove to be much of a challenge for our experienced aquanauts, but the worms did show worrying abilities while still being easy to kill. In the skirmish they somehow managed to panic one aquanaut and put two other to sleep through telepathy. There were no casualties among X-com, but unfortunately some of the civilians were killed or turned into some kind of weird worm zombie.
Large monster attacking a city somewhere in Russia
X-com has slowly been stepping up on the underwater USO war. The budget was re-planned to carefully step up fighting, and it proved useful. While technicians work on underwater fighting drones. X-com HQ ordered in more Seamaster-ships with D.U.P torpedo capabilities. One on one these ships don't stand much of a chance, but attacks in tandem have been proved successful. This in the long term mean that X-com can shoot down more USO's which leads to more captured equipment and tech. We are also hoping on behalf on X-com that they feel loss the same way we do. But since we don't know the alien USO capacity there is only hoping that we are actually making a dent. In other tech news the new aquanaut armor is completed - while providing more armor and flexibility it's does not have a guaranteed effect on survival since the alien ground weapons have been proved to be much deadlier than anticipated, especially their heavier rifle versions. As a last tech note, X-com has now a third base constructed out there in the vast oceans - location withheld for obvious reasons. It will provide the organisation with extra sonar capabilities and strike-crafts.
X-com underwater craft patrolling the seas
On the 12th of July X-com sonar managed to pick up that a medium sized USO had landed in the Atlantic. While dangerous - it is too good of a price for capture that just can't be ignored. While the mission was declared a success with all aliens killed and tech captured - the now infamous Codex squad had to pay a heavy price for it. Everyone assigned to the mission died in the fighting, except one man - Commander.
Kutulu. The lone survivor, while taking grievous wounds himself managed to signal the capture to X-com high command after crawling inside the Triton and pushing the "auto-home-navigation" -button. We here at Federal Network salute all these men dying. Keep up the fighting!
With this incident many have questioned X-coms ground tactics. Is it really sustainable to lose this many men on one mission? One obvious trap to avoid is night-time missions, but as it's not always possible to wait for daylight these missions will always be considered extra dangerous explains X-com's PR-representative. The reason X-com can't wait for better circumstances in some cases is that the alien crew usually blow up their crashed USO after a day or two if they can't manage to repair it. Which is a loss in itself since X-com as stated need the tech for continued resistance - he explained further.
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This month started so good. Shot down a couple of USOs. Had a great terror mission, killing weird monsters to the left and right. Everyone increasing stats, ranks, in other words X-com and Codex squad were doing great. Then we spot a medium sized USO ready for the taking... and boy that turned out bad. Always dangerous with night missions, and well, I expected a couple of causalities, but not 90%! The last two deaths took the cake for me. While killing the last alien through reaction fire he managed to throw a nade and got two men. It's just pure luck the whole mission didn't go to hell.
Kutulu got wounded for the third time and surviving.
MediantSamuel that turned out to be such an excellent killer with his gascannon got wrecked by a Gillman - unfairly I think! He managed to plug that bastard with a armor piercing bolt right through the chest but he didn't care at all.
Storyfag also showed great promise but was cut down way too early. If only the men could take reaction fire when an alien decides to open and step through a door
But amazingly enough we are still hanging in there... somehow.