Training Day
XCOM:_Gray_Dawn#Recaps
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When we last left off...
Game #25 (S2E0) 1/17/15
Day 26
Training Day
In the real world filled with meat, disease and responsibility, Rumi wages a losing battle with gut-demons, knocking her out of the game. Simultaneously, the game group adds Nate to its ranks. Since the group's pilot is grounded, no one wants to steal her thunder by proposing they all get in the Firestorm and fly the hell out of Brazil. Instead, since the alien invasion fleet is barreling down into Earth's atmosphere, the team prepares for possible alien retribution for destroying their base. The coming battle provides an opportunity for Nate, taking on the role of Brock, to whet his violence whistle with some alien blood...
The team sets up internal and external defensive perimeters at the entrance to the base. An alien ship flies overhead and uses a strange "soldier launcher" device to air drop a combined-arms assault team. A pair of Shay-Tan blend into the undergrowth and make their way into the base entrance, where they are cut down by AJ and his base defenders. Topside, Brock decides to wage a one-man war against the remaining 83.3% of the force (And keep in mind, that's 83.3% by numbers only; if you're counting by sheer mass of the force Brock decided he could lick all on his own, we're easily into the nineties; the two snakemen combined might have weighed a couple hundred pounds, whereas Brock decided that since they'd already killed enough single Behemoths, now was the time to take on two at the same time).
Brock learns that Behemoths are incredibly sturdy, and laugh at most small arms fire. They can even power through hits from his .50-caliber sniper rifle...until he tries to shoot them in the only unarmored spot he can find. While it is a tricky shot to pull off, one or two holes drilled right in their big alien faces tends to put even a Behemoth down. Brock gleefully repeats this experiment, and finds out a corollary lesson: sitting still and taking carefully aimed shots in the middle of a battle where you are the only target for the enemy tends to get you shot a bunch.
Luckily, the squad of troops on the far side of the caldera (guarding the improvised back door into the base) sees the fire that Brock is drawing to himself. They are too far away to land solid hits on target, but they provide fire support, and help suppress and pin down some of the Grays taking pot shots at Brock. This gives Brock the chance to lay down some smoke, find new cover, and rethink some recent life choices.
Meanwhile, with Brock completely distracting all the aliens topside, AJ swoops up out of the base entrance using their people-flinging pad, and rolls out into the fight like a slow-motion explosion backed by a heavy, brooding bass line. Attacking from the flanks, he burns mags from his AK, tosses hand grenades into foolishly clumped groups of frightened Grays and makes a general nuisance of himself. Brock is inspired by the squad leader's presence, and helps mop up the rest of them.
Oh, yeah, and while all that stuff was happening, Douglas spied on the alien UFO tracking info coming over the base computers (probably so he could run off and spill secret beans to Vladimir Gurov), and Marie hid and succeeded in not getting shot, because some people evidently believe that whoever dies with the least bullet holes, scars and plasma burns...wins.
