As expected, squaddie Burk Dowell was healed up in no time and back in action before we even got our next assignment. This was very good as I wanted to see how he performed in action again as soon as possible before I made up my mind how close I wanted to get to the young man.
This new assignment was an alien abduction in Melbourne, Australia and promised to add four new engineers to my base operations if successful. If we were going to get more satellites in orbit to detect more of those alien ships were going to need more engineers to build them.
I opted to send the same four squaddies into battle together again. After all, it seems a high priority to me to get some veteran soldiers trained up as quickly as possible. There will always be time to bring in more rookies later and someone has to train them.
The first skirmish took place directly on a bridge leading into a major city. The team engaged greys almost immediately and wouldn’t you know it, Burk Dowell was the first to come under fire. For a moment I thought to myself that this kid’s got to be the unluckiest son of a bitch I’ve ever seen. I mean sure, they missed him thank god, but he seems to attract more fire than ten-year-old kindling. But when Burk fired back and killed another grey it dawned on me that he had just officially become the soldier on my squad with the most kills. Imagine that.
Squaddie Shannon Crow bravely rushed up the right side of the area of operation showing either bravery or stupidity. There’s a fine line between those, you know? She immediately exposed the position of a second grey but the distance was too great to take a shot with her assault shotgun so she ducked between cover between her team and the enemy front line. If she doesn’t get herself killed, she’s going to be a keeper.
Our sniper, Rich Ivanoff moved into a forward position staying concealed in and among abandoned vehicles but placing himself in the center of the battlefield for the best oversight of the entire field in front of him while Squaddie Handorf moved up the left side of the deployment zone with his heavy weapons.
Shanon Crow found herself the closest target to the front lines and came under fire again. The grey missed but set her cover on fire and it was clear that the vehicle she was sheltering behind was likely to explode if she didn’t move quickly. She withdrew back a few paces from the burning vehicle on the front line to get out of harms way but still managed to remain our most forward unit. Brave. I’m definitely leaning towards brave over stupid.
Burk Dowell moved next, quickly tucking in behind our sniper waiting for a better opportunity. Knowing what little I did about Rich, I presume he was less than pleased with someone drawing more attention to his position. Having said that, Rich ignored the added company and took advantage of his central position to snipe and execute the second grey from long range.
The entire team moved as one, advancing on the bridge in formation. A sight to behold for sure. Squaddies Handorf and Dowell teamed up now and moved together up the left side taking cover behind vehicles as Crow advanced up the center. Ivanoff remained in position from his snipers nest providing cover.
Squaddie Shannon took advantage of a truck with a ladder to climb up high for a vantage point as she advanced. Ice in her veins that one has. Squaddie Ivanoff followed close behind scampering up on top of the truck trailer for a better overview. From their elevated position, Crow and Ivanoff spotted two more greys advancing on their position.
Shannon dropped down to the street level, advancing again as everyone took defensive positions. I watched with pride as a psionically enhanced grey advanced on the unit and Dowell opened fire, wounding it significantly. Shannon peeked out from behind her cover and blasted the injured grey with her shotgun to finish it off.
Burk Dowell bravely advanced and unwittingly revealed the location of two more greys, now leaving three known targets in the field. Once again Burk somehow found himself hunkered down with multiple enemies primed to take an easy shot at him. This time however, before they could open fire, Burk retreated back and to the left to take cover behind a semi while the rest of the team braced for the enemy advance.
Goddamn Squaddie Crow was ready with her shotgun when the first grey advanced and she gave him a load of buckshot to the face, dropping him instantly. Damn girl. Let they guys have some kills, will you?
Another grew advance and Dowell, Handorf and Crow all unloaded with a shot of opportunity. All three of them missed. Somehow Ivanoff wasn’t able to get an eye on the target even with his vantage point. Shannon advanced straight ahead into the alien front line and was fired up and missed. Tucking in behind a median in the road she lobbed a grenade and critically wounded a grey but didn’t finish him off. Handorf’s heavy weapon errupted next also missing the wounded grey. That’s when Squaddie Ivanoff took two steps forward on top of the trailer to get a better shot and swtiched to his pistol to conserve ammo. With a quick couple of round Ivanoff dispatched with the wounded grey leaving only one known target lurking out there somewhere.
The grey advanced and Dowell took an opportunity shot and missed. Shannon suddenly leaped over the median, charging the grey and blasted him point blank in the face, ending the fight for good. All in all, six aliens dead, no soldiers wounded. A perfect day!
After the mission report was handed to me I took stock of my team’s progress thus far. Michael Handorf had completed two missions and killed one alien. Burk Dowell, two missions and two aliens. Rich Ivanoff, two missions and with three kills and finally, Shannon Crow, two missions and four kills.
Back at base I ordered our engineers to build a new power plant and delayed deploying our one and only reserve satellite for later in the month after I’m better able to assess needs of the council. Our research team developed a nano-fiber vest for our soldiers to increase armor but in my opinion at far too high a cost. I’d rather have my soldier carrying grenades into the battle field than a thin layer of padding that doesn’t stop much more than a pistol. I ordered our research team to begin working on some spare weapons fragments to develop our team some better weapons.
It was only days later that a UFO was detected over South America and our ill equipped fighter aircraft were in pursuit. To my astonishment we managed to shoot an actual UFO down and it survived nearly in one piece. It was time to send our best strike force in to see what we could recover!