I'm sorry if some codexers feel neglected. I will try to change the Triton teams a little more and shuffle soldiers around even if there's been no or few deaths.
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UPDATE 35 - Peek into the Future
For this update, the time has just jumped a whole month. This is highly irregular, but its outcome is too particular to be dealt without a vote, and I cannot continue until a decision is made. The next update will go back to the regular time.
June has just ended a few minutes ago, and Alien launch a new type of terror mission. They've begun to reactivate a synomium device, and must be stopped.
A very small sub is found while Triton-2, carrying Pacific Team, is en route.
Barracuda-2 is sent to deal with the intruder in Chinese waters, and does the job nicely.
Aquanauts arrive at dusk near the Artefact site.
The first level is similar to that of an alien colony : find the elevator to the second part, or kill all aliens.
Two aquatoids, right in front of the sub. Easy preys! Merkwurdigliebe kneels without looking to his side, and a thermal shok explodes right on his face...
The outcome is brutal. Merk is unconscious.
So is Thrombone.
And Pelvis Knot.
Krraloth goes down too.
Pope Amole is stunned by the blast.
Juggernaut doesn't resist any better.
Trash suffers the same fate.
Desmodus Rotundus falls down as well.
And so does Mal.
Edward R Murrow too...
And finally, Vereotypical Stillain is also rendered unconscious.
Out of the squad of fourteen, three soldiers are left standing. Golgepapaz Iki, Storygafowski and Darthowski.
Command decides against aborting the mission early. Let's do some damage and wait out the stun. Golgepapaz finds the alien responsible for the thermal shok, but can't do anything yet.
The next turn, Darthowski finds multiple alien, in perfect position for a grenade. He could use a Disruptor torpedo but the blast radius could hit our stunned soldiers, who would die on the spot.
The pulsers blow up the aquatoids
The Tasoth is merely wounded. Checking on its stats, the team finds out it's quite accurate.
A second pulser kills it though, and a hidden aquatoid as well!
The following turn, Golgepapaz snipes a Tasoth who came investigate.
Exhausting a whole medikit of stimulants pays off, as Mal wakes up.
But M.C. attacks are getting stronger and stronger. Nobody is spared, and Golgepapaz storms out after he suffers a panic attack. He stops when something shoots him from his right side.
Darthowski throws a pulser, but it fails to kill.
Darthowski falls under Molecular Control. We're down to three soldiers for this turn.
Mal gets out the big gun, no more Mr. Nice Guy toward these ancients ruins.
He aims a torpedo at the estimated position of a Tasoth.
It kills at least one.
Darthowski comes back under our control, but panics and runs far away. In his mad rush, he spots a Tasoth.
Mal aims a torpedo carefully so that Darthowski isn't caught in the blast radius.
The Tasoth and a hidden aquatoid die, and Darthowski survives!
He keeps running away further the following turn, and finds yet another alien.
Mal kills it with another Disruptor torpedo.
Golgepapaz falls under molecular control.
And Darthowski goes back to the alien's side.
The following turn, he is shot by a Thermal Shok bomb.
Darthowski survives only a little hazy, but still panicked.
A Tasoth is seen coming out of an ambush spot.
Another one shoots at Darthowski, hitting the weak side armor plates. The aquanaut is killed.
RIP Darthowski
, even panicked you were a decent spotter.
Golgepapaz keeps getting panicked by aliens, and runs away. He finds a Tasoth and freezes.
Mal sends a Disruptor Torpedo, but the alien survives a direct hit !
It panics the following turn though. And so do our three aquanauts.
Storygafowski is shot but absorbs the impact.
Mal succumbs to alien control.
Golgepapaz too, and Storygafowski as well. The mission ends...
Well, this is pretty terrible, but not nearly as much as expected. Something is wrong. Only one operative killed ...? We just lost the whole squad.
Yet here are the unconscious and molecularly controlled soldiers, assigned to a mysterious craft named Weapon-2.
We did lose everything Triton-2 contained, as expected, but the soldiers somehow made it back.
Obviously, we've just stumbled on a bug which happens when the whole team is under alien control. What's left, however, is to decide what should happen to the thirteen aquanauts of the team. Should we :
A - Sack them. There's no way they could have survived and made it back on foot.
B - Keep them. The game has its bugs and we shouldn't try to compensate them.
The vote will end in two days. The fate of Pacific team is in your hands.