Same as last time, we expect this mission to go smoothly thanks to our new technology, despite the fact that we've generally had very bad luck in the car factory.
| Squad | members and weapons | |||
| 1 | Marcus (Dev) | Chris (Tox/MS) | Alissa (Dev) | Matt (Dev) |
| 2 | Dave (Dev) | Taina (Tox/MS) | Megan (Dev/PS) | Lorien (Tox/MB) |
| 3 | Kevin (Dev) | Scott (Tox/MB) | Steve (Tox/MB) | James (Dev) |
| 5 | MStar (Dev) | Matthew (Dev) | Lindsey (Dev) |
Despite our shields, we aren't messing around in this place. All squads moved forward immediately. Squad 5 flies up to the ceiling for a better view. Squad 2 heads towards the ramp to the lower level, while squads 1 and 3 move forward into the factory, hopefully away from anything that goes boom. Squad 2 spots a popper at the bottom and chases it off with a stun grenade. This gives the squad time to get situated on the ramp, and it easily kills the popper with carefully aimed toxin darts.
Taina, in squad 2, comes under fire shortly after from at least two unseen aliens and see a third approaching from the side. They pull back to the top floor, hoping to draw the aliens on to the ramp where they would have no cover and would be clearly visible from the top. They are pursued by brainsuckers as well as anthropods, but squad 1 makes short work of them from the far side of the ramp.
While squads 3 and 5 continue exploring, a cloaked skeletoid, likely one of the unseen attackers that fired on Taina initially, appears from nowhere at the top of the ramp behind squad 2. Matt Metke probes the skeletoid to check its equipment, noting that it is unshieled. Squads 1 and 3 kill it with a few simultaneous devastator blasts.
Aliens continue to approach via the ramp. Other than a few eggs found by squad 1, it seems that all of the aliens started on the lower level. Squad 5 flies over to the ramp to assist with containing the aliens there. Lorien tries to Mind Control the next skeletoid, fails, but manages to probe it with her remaining energy, confirming that it has a shield and heavy explosives. Squad 2 takes it down before it can prime any of them.
The next skeletoid, unshielded but cloaked, is killed trying to run back down the ramp. It is carrying some brainsucker pods, but there are too many X-Com agents already pointed that way for the brainsuckers to get very far.
A shielded Anthropod with an entropy launcher tries next, but squad 5 arrives just in time for Lindsey to mind control the Anthropod, force it to drop its weapon, throw away its shield, and run up the ramp to be an easier target. Matt Staroscik grabs the next Anthropod and makes it drop its gear as well.
The multiworms finally arrive, but can't spit far enough into the air to hit squad 5 from the bottom of the ramp. Squad 5 tosses a couple of stun grenades at the multiworms to help soften them up, and pound on them with devastator cannons for a while. The grenades stop a couple of brainsuckers that hatched while squad 5 moved forward, and squad 2 moves forward to assist with all the hyperworms. After killing one last panicking spitter, terrified into immobility, all units returned to base.
Because the aliens all approached via the ramp (and because squad 2 didn't charge down into their faces), this mission went extremely well. We were also lucky in our mind control attempts, particularly with the rookies who are still relatively untrained.
Back