UPDATE 49 - Alien City
When we last left off, the order to launch an assault on the dreaded alien city, T'Leth, was given.
Armed with our best weapons and most protective armors, will our aquanauts be able to save earth from the alien menace ?
As the Leviathan approaches the deepest parts of the ocean, the city comes into view.
Only to find it began moving ! We've launched just in the nick of time, any delay would have proven fatal.
And it goes up at an astonishing speed, forgoing any safety precautions due to pressure differences.
Our Leviathan manages to keep up, but any mere Triton or Hammerhead would have been destroyed by the rapid ascension.
The alien city is massive, taking it down will be no easy task.
Yet, from records of the Cydonia operation forty years ago, we can assume a central brain of some kind is controlling all the aliens. If we could just find it...
The alien city makes it to the surface before our team is close enough.
This is it, there will be no second chances. We won't have any time to launch another operation.
Finally, the Leviathan boards the alien city through an unoccupied sub pen, one of the many we destroyed.
This architecture is reminiscent of artifact sites. Maybe those were parts of the alien city that fell off during atmosphere entry ?
Tanks are sent first to scout out the area. The corridors are mostly empty, but contain vast amount of sarcophagi.
Shepard stumbles upon an alien as he explores west. It's an aquatoid.
It proves particularly resistant to molecular control attempts. Banelion had to use his three attempts until he finally took over.
Making it turn around, he spots another alien through his puppet's eyes.
Time for some suicide fire.
Both aquatoids are down, and Shepard and Mal will be able to fetch their tempting Disruptor Pulse Launchers.
Another alien is seen to the south. Still no shot fired.
Our tank reestablishes contact, and Banelion has no problem making the alien suicide again.
Another one is right here, but Banelion has used up all his attempts, and our other controllers can't do a thing.
The Displacer uses the last of its TUs to hide around the corner.
toastboy spotter finds an alien to the east.
He misses his shot, but Juggernaut manages to hit it squarely, saving the lives of the five soldiers nearby.
Another aquatoid lurks near Shepard and Mal.
And Black IV finds one checking out a sarcophagus.
Banelion makes it suicide.
Shepard grabs some goodies.
And our tanks keep exploring. They come across a large elevator, this is promising.
Pope Amole checks some upper level rooms for aliens, and finds disturbing machinery.
An alien was found, and Banelion made it fire its torpedo at a nearby wall yet again.
The large elevator leads to the exit area. Now we just have to move the rest of our troops to it.
Mal finds the alien lurking near him and Shepard.
This time, Banelion's help is not requested, as Mal fires his freshly gotten DPL and kills the alien.
Shepard finds another one.
And does pretty much the same.
There was an alien in the elevator waiting for us ! Good thing it didn't shoot.
Our Displacer has no trouble shooting it at this close a range.
Shepard, as he was ready to check a room on the upper level, suddenly falls unconscious.
No explosion or shot was heard, the team can but wonder about what happened.
There he is. Was he shot from above ?
Mal grabs the soldier on his shoulder and begins lugging him to a medic, but Shepard dies the following turn.
He was probably shot by a Sonic Cannon... but it's strange that we didn't hear any gunfire.
RIP Shepard
, we'll never know what hit you.
Mal finds an alien as he goes back for his dropped DPL.
He takes cold and precise revenge for his fallen comrade.
An aquatoid tried a series of M.C. attacks on Mal. It failed to drop his bravery a single point.
Meanwhile, soldiers are slowly but regularly piling up in the elevator area.
And soon, all of them make it.
Time to embark for the unknown.
And our team makes it down to the second level of the alien city. So far, the mission has gone almost perfectly.