Our next mission is the type of mission I always dread. It’s the worst kind of mission there is. Our team is sent into a crowded civilian population to try and rescue survivors before the aliens in and among them can kill more human life. This sort of mission means my men will be pressed to take more risks and take less cover in order to save civilians. It’s incredibly dangerous and stressful for the team and I expected someone is going to get seriously hurt or even killed on this one.
Lieutenant Shannon Crow wasted no time, immediately sprinting at full speed to the front lines while Lieutenant Ron Johnson spotted a civilian and rushed in to secure them next.
Lt. Crow moved forward again to rescue a civilian hiding behind a car but drew the attention of two floaters in the process. Damnit, she was WAY out in front without adequate backup.
I held my breath as Lieutenant Dowell moved close enough to take a quick shot and hit one of the floaters. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to drop it. Lt. Handorf then pressed forward and took a second shot at the floater, finishing him. Sergeant Ivanoff then quickly moved up and took a shot at the remaining undamaged floater and missed while Sgt. Johnson flanked and and fired, hitting the floater but not incapacitating it. Finally, Lt. Crow took ANOTHER shot at the injured floater and missed. Jesus, what the hell was happening out there? Things were looking grim and one thing was for sure, we simply can’t afford to have two or three soldiers tied up per enemy unit like this.
The injured floater suddenly advanced and blasted Lt. Handorf HARD in the chest. Thank God he was wearing the newest armor or that would have been it for him right there. Even so, he may not survive and if he does, he’s out for a while for sure after this. Sgt. Johnson took another shot at the injured floater and destroyed it thankfully, but it felt like a small victory after the beating the team was already taking. Injuries and spent ammo were racking up FAST while screams of dead and dying civilians filled the air. Fuck I hate these missions.
Somehow Lt. Handorf managed to limp ahead to rescue a civilian but found himself engaging two new floaters. This wasn’t looking good at all.
Shannon kept pressing the action, moving to another civilian to rescue. However, as she moved forward she saw she had been flanked one of the new floaters. Attempting to change her position for the better, she charged straight at him, blasting him into oblivion but leaving herself exposed to the second floater.
Lt. Johnson swiftly moved head to rescue a civilian and take up a defensive position behind Crow while Lt. Dowell found himself with a great angle on the second floater and dropped him quickly with a well placed shot.
Now it was Sgt. Rich Ivanoff who moved up to save a civilian and get a better shooting angle on the battlefield. Things were looking bad but the team was making the most of improving their position.
Shannon moved forward once again and encountered two entirely new types of aliens, some sort of spider looking creature with heavy armor and venomous looking fangs. Shannon took two rapid fire shots in reaction, connecting with only one and seemingly only lightly damaged the creature. Now she found herself in serious harms way out front and center facing two formidable foes with most of her team well behind and out of range to offer support.
Lt. Handorf moved in on the right to assist and shot the same creature Shannon had previously. The shot scored more damage but unfortunately it wasn’t enough and all I could do is constantly remind myself we can’t keep using two or three soldiers for one kill!
Lt. Johnson moved up hoping to finish the creature off but missed! That’s now three soldiers expending ammo and the thing is still alive! Fortunately, Sgt. Ivanoff was able to snipe if from long range or Shannon would surely have lost her life in the next moments or two. Still, there was one more within close enough range to worry about. It wasn’t over.
Lt. Dowell took a shot and hit it but didn’t finish the job. The only positive thing for our soldiers now was that the thing decided to feast on a civilian instead of charging at Shannon. Still, our job was to protect these people and we were failing on multiple fronts.
Lt. Johnson unloaded his magazine on the injured crysalid and hit but also couldn’t finish the job of getting through it’s tough armor. That’s when Sgt. Ivanoff put himself in harms way, moving out of cover to deliver a head shot from long range. I was reminded that if my team survived this, I think I just found the moment Sgt. Ivanoff earned his promoted.
And then just like that we realized the fight was over. It was a bit of a shit sandwich but we survived. In all, six aliens had been killed and fourteen of eighteen civilians were rescued.
The after action report looked like this. Lt. Johnson now had recorded 4 missions with our squad with 4 kills.
Sergeant Ivanoff now had seven missions under his belt with eight kills and with today’s performance I was impressed to promote him immediately to Lieutenant. Lieutenant Ivanoff requested we assign him some battle scanners to enable him better oversight of the battlefield and I made the immediately available to him.
Lieutenants Crow and Hanforf each had eight missions and nine kills under their belt but Handford was going to need some time off. He’d be out at least a week.
It was time to declare an official squad leader and with Lieutenant Dowell’s eight missions and a whopping thirteen kills, I decided to promote him to Captain. As a reward I also gave him one of our special combat enhancement canisters. Like grenade, the canister could be lobbed in battle to provide soldier in range a boost to willpower and critical strikes.
With only a few days left till our council report, another set of missions came in to choose from. This assured me that I’d be going without Lt. Handorf who’s still in medical. The real choice I had to make was to go for the moderately difficult mission for two hundred credits at a time when we were severely cash poor or come to Canada’s aid where the challenge was very difficult but if we didn’t quell the alien uprising we risked losing them from the council. It was a near impossible decision because going into a very difficult mission down one of our best men didn’t sound wise. Then again, we simply can’t afford to lose North America going forward. I decided to take the gable in order to help secure long term funding.