Once again I deployed my ace squad to assault the downed alien aircraft which crashed into a swampy marsh. Squaddie Ivanoff took immediate high ground to cover the rest of the squad as they cautiously advanced on the craft.
I don’t know if it’s just bad luck or if Squaddie Burk Dowell actually phones the aliens ahead of time to let him know when he’s about to move, because once again he was the first to provoke the enemy out of hiding. A crystalline type creature of pure energy appeared from within the interior of the ship and quickly took cover. Fortunately Burk got off the shot first and obliterated it before it had a chance to take aim.
Squaddie Handorf then moved forward next and revealed the location of two more little greys inside the ship. Being somewhat outnumbered however, Handorf quickly pulled back and took cover, bracing for their advance. And advance they did. Both Burk Dowell and Shannon Crow got off shots of opportunity but to no effect. To my surprise however, Burk managed to snap off a second burst and dropped one of the two greys instantly.
The skirmish took a serious turn for the worse however when Squaddie Michael Handorf advanced on the remaining grey up the left side and discovered that two more greys had snuck up behind him, flanking him on both sides out in the open. Pinning his back against a wall he unloaded with his heavy weapons on the greys at his back but to no avail. Frankly, things looked very bad for Squaddie Handorf until Squaddie Rich Ivanoff lobbed a grenade seemingly out of nowhere and destroyed both of the greys at Handorf’s rear flank. I wasn’t sure if I heard it right but I could have sworn I heard a stern, “You’re welcome asshole” from Mr. Ivanoff as he took up position again to assess the battlefield. There’s probably a reason Mr. Ivanoff prefers to work alone. One might say he’s not exactly a people person.
Shannon Crow suddenly rushed the craft to engage the last known position of the grey inside but found that it had simply vanished only to reappear on Handorf’s left flank. The alien unleased a volley from a plasma weapon which narrowly missed Handorf and most certainly singed his butt hair for weeks to come.
Hanford then bravely advanced, returning fire but did not connect. Seems to be a theme with Handord of late – lots of rounds spent and very little targets hit. That’s when Squaddie Crow sprinted across the entire battlefield between him and the front lines with reckless abandon and blasted the little grey full in the face. Another impressive kill.
Suddenly it was over. Five aliens in all dead and yet again, not a single scratch on my team. It was time for some promotions!
Squaddie Michael Handorf now had a solid three missions under his belt but with only one kill to his credit since apparently he can’t hit the broad side of a barn with his heavy auto cannon. Didn’t feel like the right time for a promotion.
Squaddie Burk Dowell however, now had three missions with four solid kills under his belt and for that he earned a well deserved promotion to the rank of Corporal. Corporal Dowell pointed out that he’s shown very quick reaction time and asked to be trained further in providing covering fire to which I readily agreed. He’ll still be a medic of course, but he was proving quite valuable in combat.
Squaddies Ivanoff and Crow now both topped the A-list with three missions and five kills each. Both were promoted to Corporal as well. Corporal Ivanoff wanted to be trained further to increase his reaction time allowing him to both move and fire his sniper rifle on the run while Corporal Crow asked to be trained in tactical improvements that would give her better chances of dodging enemy fire while rushing into battle. Both of them will receive the training they request with pleasure.
Our lead researcher, Dr. Vallen, indicated she was on the verge of making much more durable armor for our soldiers and I tasked her with making that her top priority while our engineering staff informed me they were getting closer to outfitting our drop ship to carry a fifth team member into the battlefield. It would be a while for that but at least we were on the way.
Our new power generator came online later in the month and I assigned more staff to clearing way for a second power generator. We still need more damn engineers however if we’re going to build another satellite uplink for detecting alien craft in the skies above.
Things were going along smoothly for our first month when suddenly the council approached me with a special opportunity. Apparently some high colored politician from the UK who’d been trying to get world governments to cooperate with our alien invaders had suddenly been turned on by his new alien friends and it was our job to save him and bring him in for questioning.