Saturday April 1st, 2084

Thanks to our new recruits and the effectiveness of our shields in the last mission, we can field 15 agents in this one. The rookies, all hybrids in lightweight Marsec armor for speed, make up squad 5.

Several things happen at once.

Lindsey spots the first aliens, heading towards squad 1 on the upper level. Squad 1 backs off into the lift to give squad 5 a chance to get some practice against live targets, with Chris taking down one spitter trying to follow. Meanwhile, squad 3 spots an Anthropod heading towards them and squad 2 comes under fire from an unseen assailant. Because there's no cover in the hallway and lift doesn't leave much room to retreat further, squad 2 charges down the hallway, counting on their shields to protect them, soon spotting an Anthropod.

Squad 3's Anthropod has taken cover and is exchanging fire with squad 3, resisting a mind control attempt from Scott that would have allowed us to strip its shield. Squad 5 kills off the multiworm and the spitter on the upper level. Squad 2 is still unable to return fire effectively on their attacker without shooting through the walls, and we still need to minimize damage to friendly facilities wherever possible.

Squad 2 finally catch up with their attacker, stunning it with Lorien's psionic stun attack and Taina's toxin darts. Unconscious aliens cannot use shields, and the devastator blasts from Dave and Megan on the unshielded target kill it very dead.

Squad 5 come under attack from at least 3 aliens, firing a combination of devastator blasts and entropy missiles at them. Initially charging across the room and exchanging a few shots, they take enough hits to decide to retreat. Since they were facing skeletoids, some of which were probably cloaked and all of which were probably shielded and fairly psi resistantant, they likely would have been badly injured or killed trying to take them on alone without toxiguns.

Squad 2, not being very careful about watching their back, get surprised by an Anthropod coming from the northeast. Megan and Dave have plenty of shield energy left, and twice the firepower of the lone Anthropod, so they are able to quickly turn and wipe it out.

Squad 2 is once again forced to charge down a hallway, this time towards a cloaked skeletoid. By the time it is visible, Dave's and Megan's shields are starting to look a little puny, so they duck into a hole in the wall conveniently blasted open by the skeletoid as they ran towards it, leaving Lorien to kill it off with a carefully aimed toxin dart or two.

Group 1 worked it's way around to attack the skeletoids that drove off group 5 from the upper level. Chris was out in front, with full shields and a toxigun, so he knelt and started calmly picking them off one at a time. The remaining skeletoids panicked at the sight of a single human facing down and rapidly killing off their squad. Seeing this, the devastator cannon wielders held their fire as they arrived, allowing Chris and Marcus to finish off the last two with toxin darts and stun grenades in order to capture their shields intact.

It would have been interesting to see what squad 5 could do against a group of Anthropods, or even skeletoids if they had been armed with toxiguns, but it's hard to be disappointed with no injuries and another 4 shields captured. Lindsey's kills at the start of the mission earned her a promotion to squaddie.