New missions pop up
Cattle Mutilation case opened at 00:00 on the 29th of May, resolved about 3 hours later with 168 score and no casualties. The three farmers were armed with a single hoe, that was a piece of cake.
Strange Life Form case opened at 00:00 on the 28th of May, agents arrived 49 hours later, at 01:28 on 30th of May, immediately after dusk. I decide to wait till dawn - this way the respond time will be also between 48 and 72 hours (2 and 3 days) as is the current time (49 hours). The mission starts at 12:31 on the 30th of May, it is 60,5 hours since its appearance.
Turn 1There are Muckstars! I hate them, the creatures attack at distance with fast reaction and high accuracy. Several agents were injured during the last (unsuccessful) mission against them, the only one until now.
OK, there is one Muckstar near and no more are visible. Let's try flashbang, dog bite and shotgun shots on it. No way! The moment Roman the rifleman sidesteps out of the van's hood to throw his flashbang, he spots another Muckstar (at 19 tiles) also staring at him as the first one (at 9 tiles).
OK, let's try flashbanging the nearest from another side - around the van's backdoor. No way! That Muckstar spots the agent–Carlos Fraga, survivor of the last Red Dawn apprehension–first, in spite of him moving strictly forward to the creature (hoping for
mutual suprise), and electrocutes him to the death with two HITs.
Carlos Fraga from Cuba is killed
OK, let's just take the revenge with our attack dog Boo Boo then! The dog misses two times. Time to try the shotgun. Fehmi can make three snapshots. Snap shot (6 tiles)! Damage: 0 0 HIT HIT. The creature falls down unconscious and bleeding (and dies on the next turn).
Turn 2They are fragile - it gives hope. And since there are civilians nearby (one scream has been heard) it suggests responsibility. The impromptu plan for the nearest future is: retreat is no option, the pair of dog and shotgunner goes after any spotted Muckstar, the last rifleman covers their backs. If some of the remainging members of van company is killed then retreat.
The dog runs up to the second Muckstar (spotting the third on its way) and is ready to spoil its reaction fire in close quarters while Roman the rifleman makes an aimed shot (24 tiles, 96% with 77 accuracy points).
HIT! The creature dies.
Turn 3What a good present at the start of turn! The third Muckstar moves in by itself. The dog can't get close enough because of some box on the ground. Eat it! No, it's too big. Bark at the creature then! The box is in the way. Bark from another place. OK, the sound freezes the third Muckstar. Fehmi the shotgunner kills the creature from 2 tiles with one shot: HIT 0 HIT HIT.
Having disposed of the immediate danger the squad looks around and the commander have managed to arrange a full map of discovered parts of the area. One conclusion arises from looking at that huge map: it's impossible to clear this area with just three units! The squad encountered three Muckstars gathered in just one 10x30 sized corner of that 60x60 area, one enemy for 10 square tiles. There can be about 36 enemies in total (fear has big eyes, yeah). It takes one agent to kill that three enemies, the two remaining agents and their dog won't be enough to kill the others.
The plan: pursue the only visible civilian, knock him out and drag to the van for evacuation!
Must pickup tasers from the van.
Turn 4The sight of civilian was lost, that's bad. No screams during hidden movements, that's good.
The squad carefully advances, units wisely step out of corners. Two enemies spotted!
Roman attacks the nearest with an aimed shot (96%, 9 tiles) – and misses! Then hides around the corner.
Another civilian wanders to the south. No screams during hidden movements.
Turn 5Roman spots an enemy again and kills it now. Fehmi runs with a taser picked up. Boo Boo runs too and spots that first civilian again.
No sounds during hidden movements except for some door sounds. It seems there are no 30+ Muckstars here.
Turn 6-7The squad advances. The dog smells the air. Both earlier spotted civilians are located. Three enemies are wandering at a big distance, one hit the civilian man once. Fehmi runs closer to the woman... And is hit by a hidden Muckstar in the back! No damage, but the agent is in danger, he has no time to hide.
Turn 8An electric discharge and a male scream are heard during hidden movement phase. The man is dead and the place is marked with cross on the map.
Strangely, the Fehmi's assaulter hasn't discharged its weapon but has only moved closer to the agent. Is it playing cat-mouse? Don't know, attack it!
Roman's Minebea SMG roars in full auto, filling up the creature with hot lead till its death.
The saved agent turns around for the woman, finds her inside a house with a help from the dog's smelling ability and tries to tase her without a greeting word. The woman stands after hit.
Turn 9-12The non-taserable woman: - Excuse me?
(she is a well-mannered lady indeed!)
Fehmi the X-COM representative: - Stand still and say CHEESE!
(Taser discharge follows, the lady is down. How rude, man!)
The goal is almost achieved, just need to bring the civilian back to the van and evacuate. That is successfully done without any enemy spotting.
Roman: - Let's go!
Fehmi: - Wait a sec, I'm going to grab poor Carlos and stuff!
The grabbing ended on Turn 18 (first aid kits, hunting rifles and Muckstar corpses cost money, you know). The squad departures with the woman still unconscious.
The tased woman awakens and the agents sooth her. She thanks for the rescue from monsters and van driver drops her before crossing the Guatemala-Mexican border. Her name remains unknown to X-COM, since she evades meeting with Council Salvagers (either as a living person being questioned or a corpse being identified after a success or a failure of X-COM). The Council doesn't sum up the woman's salvation to the score
The agency remembers fallen Carlos and all that Muckstar case on Guatemala-Mexican border. The fight with the paranormalities and the Enemy Unknown continues...
