UPDATE 15 - Minor Setback
April starts with the hiring of many new soldiers and scientists for the Pacific-1 base.
Some low priority alien artifacts are transferred there.
Aliens launch an attack on a ship a couple of hours into the month.
The Triton has just come back from the latest sub recovery and hasn't refueled yet, but is nearly done.
The site is rather far, hopefully the Triton will be slow enough to make the mission in daytime.
Wait..., what ? Halfway through the trip the the attacked ship, X-Com hears reports of another terror mission underway. Two in a single day, only a couple hours apart, that's a first.
But it's true, the nearby port of Vladivostok is under attack. Aliens are getting serious!
We only have one strike team so I chose to go for the ship attack, since we already saw a port mission earlier.
The Triton makes it there at dawn, with a little luck it'll be daytime.
By the time it arrives the port attack is finished. That's a heavy blow to X-Com, this mission cannot fail.
Ship attacks are the absolute worst terror mission of TFTD. These missions have two parts, each of which contain a 4 level map filled with tricky corners and hidden aliens ready to shoot soldiers in the back. I already regret my choice of not going after the port attack instead, but we'll see how it goes.
This is getting better and better. It's a cruise ship, the worst of the two kinds, the other being a freighter. The frighter has at least some wide open areas. The cruise ship is nothing but little rooms.
An alien hidden in one of the little alcoves draws first blood by shooting down dextermorgan II.
RIP dextermorgan II
, another poor soul lost in the alien war.
A pulser is thrown in the general location. No screaming is heard, that's not a good sign.
kazgar is targeted by heavy M.C. attacks. At least we're not up against Lobstermen, since they have no M.C. That leaves aquatoid & calcinites, or tasoths & bio-drones. The former would be tough, the latter will be a nightmare.
eklektyk and ironyuri shoot down walls to get a visual on the alien that killed dextermorgan.
It's a Tasoth alright. We remember them well from the colony missions, which were both so successful.
No less than five Vibro Blade attacks are necessary to bring the beast down. It's a blessing they don't have reaction fire to melee attacks.
ironyuri is the next target of Molecular Controllers on the alien side. He's armed with a Sonic Cannon, that's very dangerous.
Malak spots a Bio-Drone in the distance. These little floating brains are equivalent to compact Cyberdiscs. They have a deadly reaction fire, explode when killed, and take a lot of punishement before going down. Of note is the impossibility to tell its facing, which means getting in melee range is extremely hazardous.
Golgepapar Bir hits the machine but it's not enough.
Sergiu64 stuns ironyuri before he goes under alien control of shoots his gun in a berserk rage.
Malak tries to reestablish visual contact on the Bio-Drone, and is shot down in the process.
RIP Malak
, your family's luck is really terrible.
Roxorowicz gets ready to do what Malac was ordered to.
He manages to spot the alien without getting shot down.
Golgepapar Bir shoots but misses, his cannon blast landing dangerously close to Roxorowicz.
TripJack demonstrates proper shooting, and the terror unit blows up as it dies.
A Tasoth comes to investigate. TripJack takes it down in a single shot
Roxorowicz climbs on the upper deck and finds an alien hiding behind our sub, waiting in ambush for someone to climb the western stairs.
Yeesh III goes around and deals with the threat with two thermic lance strikes.
A civilian gets shot right before Roxorowicz's eyes.
And the culprit runs away as if nothing happened.
Soldiers are sent to spot it but fail to discover where it went.
Golgepapaz Bir, who was among the two sent in the search as he fell victim to a series of M.C. attack, is shot down the following turn.
RIP Golgepapaz Bir
, you wanted a pansy, you had a puppet.
kazgar is handed a grenade to deal with the aquatoid but fails his throw completely.
Luckily, the aquatoid is otherwise occupied shooting down civilians and doesn' take care of kazgar.
Opowiesciozerca shoots it down, after grabbing a dead Tasoth Sonic Cannon.
A Tasoth is discovered roaming on the western side.
And a Bio-Drone goes back and forth between the elevator and the door.
Roxorowicz kills the Tasoth, once again with a single shot. Sonic weapons are the way to go against these aliens.
Opowiesciozerca shoots at the Bio-Drone but fails to kill it. Slaughter II runs up in a suicide charge, drills it and ... nothing happens. Bio-Drones don't explode when killed in melee.
Yeesh III is shot down by a hidden alien below or on the stairs.
RIP Yeesh III
, you had survived so much, it's a shock to everyone to see your death arrive.
root throws a pulser, but that's not enough. He can still see the moving shadow of an alien.
Next turn, the alien hasn't moved an inch, so root repeats his previous action. This time, a Tasoth's death cry is heard.
kazgar falls under molecular control. And will remain that way for the rest of the mission.
Good Bye kazgar
, may you be happy with your new green and yellow friends
Slaughter finds a Tasoth guarding the corridor going south.
Sergiu64 grabs a dead Tasoth's sonic pistol, but he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.
The following turn, the Tasoth teaches him how to shoot. Too bad the lesson won't be of any use now.
RIP Sergiu64
, sniper was not your calling and you demonstrated it right until the very end.
root throws a pulser in the general area of the Tasoth. It's not enough to kill, but maybe enough to wound it.
Wounded it must have been, for root narrowly dodges a sonic blast.
Another pulser is thrown after the alien retreated past the corner. It still isn't enough.
Though more grievously wounded, this time the Tasoth doesn't miss root.
But root survives, barely.
However, he doesn't stay alive for long.
RIP root
, you did some demolition as you wanted. Too bad the bomb wasn't powerful enough.
Slaughter is shot by the Tasoth but survives as well, with extreme wounds.
That doesn't stop him from charging the alien and killing it with his melee weapon.
He can see something else in the distance, better investigate.
Opowiesciozerca goes down the elevator, and runs face to face with a Triscene.
These things are the heavy tanks of the aliens, with extremely high armor, lightning fast shooting and very good reactions. Our soldier didn't stand a chance in a straight up fight.
RIP Opowiesciozerca
, you had shown some decent shooting skills, and were definitely up for a change of role.
Slaughter falls unconscious from his wounds.
TripJack throws a pulser in the general location of the dinosaur but misses wildly.
Slaughter succumbs to his fatal wounds. This mission has seen more than enough death, it's time to pull out.
RIP Slaughter II
, your death will be the one too many for X-Com soldiers.
kazgar regains his senses for a brief moment, just enough to scare Roxorowicz and make him run further away from the sub.
TripJack makes it to safety.
But he's eager to fight! He goes out in panic as Stereotypical Villain makes it into the sub.
Roxorowicz manages to board the ship before it flies away.
With four survivors, and the stunned ironyuri, the Triton dusts off and leaves the cruise ship to the alien.
Well, that didn't go well, at all.
Promotions overdue for the outstanding last mission performance of two soldiers are finally awarded.
It seems we have run out of sonic cannon ammo.
No matter, we have more than 500 units of Zrbite, we can spare thirty to make more clips.
Our score doesn't look that great, -1500 points... We need at least -400 to have a month considered decent by the funding committee. That's 1100 points to get in the rest of April, that won't be easy. The only way I see it possible is by destroying the alien colony, but for that we'll need Disruptor Pulse Launchers. We also could camp outside the colony and raid supply ships, but we would need at least three of them intact.