Fenn Vs. Terror From the Deep

[Fenn]

Is this going to be a running gag for this series?

I hope not! Each dead Aquanaut is $40,000 down the drain.

Part 4:

So, this will be our first terror mission, and also the first surface mission. That means Hydro-Jets, Torpedo Launchers, and our Coelacanth's weapon won't function, making it only useful as a portable shield. That's not a bad use, but on the whole it's not worth the three or four soldiers it'd replace. Similarly, all of the HJCs and torpedoes are being left at base, replaced by Gas Cannons and Harpoon Jets; I'd bring some Gauss Pistols but I negelcted to manufacture ammo alongside the pistols.


We only have thirteen able-bodies Aquanauts for this mission, and we'll be bringing them all along. There's a few new recruits here; if they survive this mission, I'll take a look at their stat screens.


This mission has the potential to go very poorly indeed, and losing too many Aquanauts would be a great drain on finances, but ignoring it isn't an option; the score penalty would be too severe.


Most soldiers have one of two loadouts. Those with good firing accuracy like Haphazard take Gas Cannons loaded with explosive shells, our best weapon against aliens above water.


RefSteel is a good example of the second type: lots of grenades, plus a Jet Harpoon for backup. All soldiers will be carrying a chemical flare, smoke grenade or both in addition to their normal gear to help spot the aliens before they see us. Those with good reactions fit in a Thermal Tazer where they can - taking captives is important, even on a dicey mission like this


It's an open question of whether to venture outside on the first turn. Waiting means that many civilians will die, and the more that happens the more aliens will be free to focus on X-COM. Exiting the craft now would expose any Aquanauts to 2-3 reaction shots from any aliens that happen to be facing us, and these diving suits can't stand up to even a single sonic blast. I can easily imagine two or three Aquanauts dying instantly on the first turn. If I'd brought a Coelacanth that could withstand several shots, I might go for it anyway, but this time the crew will sit tight and wait for the aliens to expend their TUs.


Of course, without X-COM around to stop them, the aliens execute five civilians on the first turn.


Here we go. Just throwing a flare and sending out haphazard still attracts two reaction shots from this alien (a Deep One) off to the right, but luckily both miss.


First, AdrienIer primes an explosive pack and passes it to RefSteel, who throws it under the northern Deep One.


Second, El Grillo takes aim and blasts the other Deep One for the kill.


But it's not over yet: RifleAvenger throws a flare to the south and reveals two more aliens close by. After a moment's though, Whosit throws a frag grenade at the green alien, a Gillman, while Molach arms a proximity mine for Quagma Blast to throw at the Deep One. I do actually need to capture a Deep One alive for research purposes, but this early on in the mission, on such open ground, it's not practical to run up to aliens and try to stun them.

On hitting end turn, the Deep One up north dies to the explosive charge, but the Gillman lives through the grenade blast. The eastern Deep One does trigger the mine and die, at least.


While looking for the elusive Gillman, haphazard takes a shot to the side, dying instantly.


Perhaps the alien is by that open door? RefSteel and sunrise throw a pair of frag grenades over just in case...and are rewarded at the end of the turn by a satisfying death cry.


The next turn is a quiet one, with no alien contacts. X-COM throws a few more smoke grenades and flares, and advances a little further.

The alien phase however is a flurry of activity! A Gillman runs in from the northeast, misses a shot at novice, and dodges a reaction shot from Quagma Blast in turn; meanwhile a Deep One is spotted in the south, and a few more civilians perish.


First things first, Quagma Blast blows up the Gillman.


And here's that Deep One, tantalizingly close...but still too far away from our stunners. Instead novice just shoots it.


Not finding anything else, the squad advances further, trying to find some decent cover, like this shed Old Harry ducks into.


On the alien phase, a Gillman shoots a civilian in a building in the south, and this Deep One wanders past the northern troops before firing two volleys - both of which miss.


It's an easy mark for Old Harry. Automatic doors are rather good for setting up ambushes.


RefSteel moves forward only to stumble across another Gillman. He fires a burst from his Jet Harpoon and actually hits twice, but the Gillman is still standing after that so he retreats to let Dp101 throw a grenade.


In the north, RifleAvenger spots one...


...and then another alien in inconvenient locations. The Deep One might be a good candidate for capturing, but that Gillman's got to go. No taking chances here - Whosit II and Quagma blast each throw a grenade near him, which should be enough. RifleAvenger for his part backs off - those oil drums will explode once the grenades go off.


Incredibly, the Gillman survives two grenades plus oil drums going off. Wow! This time Rifle Avenger throws an explosive charge courtesy of Molach - there's no way the Gillman can survive that.


A second Gillman shows up to the east of the shed, but El Grillo has it well in hand. RefSteel sees a third creeping about in the south and throws an explosive pack of his own...but then I realize novice could just shoot it, which he does. Oh well, one corpse is no big loss.


There's another Gillman showing his face down here; Whosit makes a pinpoint proximity mine throw under its feet, but otherwise we can't get a good angle on it. Fortunately, the mine suffices to kill the Gillman when he tries to walk away.


The next turn finds a Deep One wandering outside this office building, apparently unaware of our troops. RifleAvenger misses a burst, but Quagma Blast's cannon round...knocks it out! Maybe we can take this thing alive if it doesn't bleed out too quickly.


Another Gillman, another high explosive. AdrienIer does the honors this time. On to the next turn.


Molach heads up the stairs, and hey, there's the Deep One we saw earlier. Molach retreats to the ground floor; hopefully the Deep One won't find us and RifleAvenger can stun it.


Near the south squad, a discarded sonic rifle can be seen. Looks like there's a panicked Gillman...somewhere around there.


Then during the alien phase, another panicking Gillman runs down the stairs here, taking a harpoon bolt from Whosit along the way. Whosit finishes him off on our phase, but the Deep One upstairs is suddenly nowhere to be found, so Molach ducks behind a filing cabinet in hopes of seeing it next turn. In the south, RefSteel and Dreylin look for their Gillman but can't find him, so it's off to the aliens again.


There's that Deep One!


And in the perfect spot, too - RA stuns him with a single jab of his taser.


Quagma Blast scouts ahead, finding a stray Gillman. Nobody can get an angle to shoot him, but Dp101 has a proximity mine and makes a precise long-distance throw.


Old Harry locates what might be the southern panicked Gillman, but it's hard to tell if he's armed or not in the murk. For now the squad pulls back a little.

During the alien phasse, this Gillman comes closer to the squad, showing himself to indeed be unarmed. Accordingly, RefSteel tosses his Tazer to Dp101, who stuns the Gillman. Turns out it was a Squad Leader, and still had some kind of grenades on hand - good thing it didn't get a chance to use them.


I'm beginning to think that might have been all, but then in the far northwest near the starting position a Deep One tries shooting a civilian. Strange that he'd only show himself now.


After a turn spent moving back west (and one more dead civilian), the team spots the Deep One in this odd position. AdrienIer and sunrise miss their shots, but Dp101 lands a direct hit with his Gas Cannon and puts an end to that little adventure.

But not the end of the mission. Where could the rest of the aliens be? Two turns pass without any sightings, but then:

A Gillman in the far southeast appears. Dreylin takes aim, and slays it with his Gas Cannon. With that, the mission is over:


This was honestly a lucky break of a mission. The aliens whiffed on several fatal shots in the early turns, and we often got the drop on them. Killing so many of them with so few losses on our side caused several Gillmen to panic as well. In my previous attempts at TFTD I've gotten used to six Aquanauts dying before the third turn on terror missions! Still, a Deep One and Gillman captured! Only one X-COM fatality (RIP, haphazard)! One of the civvies even survived!


Lieutenant Dp101 continues to improve, especially in terms of strength. And now for a look at the newest recruits:


Dreylin is very good all around, except for his poor reactions; he'll be best off in the backlines, sniping aliens from afar. Quagma Blast is stronger and has better reactions, which will stand him in good stead once we get our hands on some melee weapons.


Molach didn't directly kill any aliens during the Terror Mission; instead he primed explosives that other agents threw. Perhaps he'll get a greater share of the glory in the future. novice has proven to be a pretty good shot and has good physical ratings, but his abysmal Bravery may prove to be a problem.


After a few more days, the replacement Sub Pens come online, letting us dismantle the southern pens. In the event of an invasion, we'll have fewer fronts to defend on.


A few days more, and the committee sends in a glowing monthly report, leaving X-COM three million richer after expenses. That gives us some room to hire more scientists - we have a lot of research topics to work on, and ten scientists just won't be enough.

[TankSinatra]

"This game takes place in the future, so we need some cool futuristic country names."
"Neo-Japan!"
"Great!"
"Euro-Syndicate!"
"Awesome!"
...
"New Mexico?"

This series is great, and it prompted me to check out the original X-Com one, which is also great. I'll take a bullet (or a lobsterman claw) for earth.

[RefSteel]

Dear Diary,

We had a super important mission today! The other aliens were attacking the humans! some other humans! The ones in Hong Kong! Who are human just like us, since we are in no way strangers to this planet or for instance to land-based combat!

Anyway we landed our Triton on the ground, which is a really weird experience, but from the sound of things, the aliens had heard us fly in, and they were all waiting and looking for us with their sonic weapons on hair-trigger. That was okay with us: They didn't have any weapons that could penetrate our Triton's walls, and as long as they were focused on us instead of killing civilians, we were winning! So we listened to see what would happen next, and when we heard all the human death-screams that meant the other aliens had gotten distracted killing off the local population again, we all piled out to save the day!

We were hurling explosives left and right every time we saw an alien ... and unlike last mission, we hurled them left when the aliens were to the left, and vice versa, instead of the other way around! Although maybe I should have waited that one time when my squadmate had a Gillman right in his sights already....

Also, there was this great moment when Sunrise and I spotted an open door! We didn't know how long it had been standing open, but there was a chance whoever had done it was still right around there! I looked at Sunrise. He looked at me. "Might be a Gilman," I warned him.
"Might be a Deep One," he warned me.
"Might be a civilian," one of our squadmates who shall remain nameless reminded us both.
We looked at each other again. Both at the same time, we said, "Nahhhhhhh."

I mean, it's not that we were lucky that the death scream we heard when our 'nades went off was an alien death scream. It's that with all the murdering we'd heard the aliens doing already, there weren't a lot of things still moving around that weren't alien marauders. You know what I mean?

Anyway, we cleaned up all the baddies - I even shot one twice, although it didn't do any good - and took the victorious flight back to base. I'll really miss haphazard1 though; he helped out a lot on all our missions, and command even said he was the kind of soldier with good firing accuracy: Exactly what we need to shoot down the alien menace!

They also said I was a good example of the other kind of soldier, so ... I guess I'm glad I could be a good example anyway?

That wasn't the best part though! The best part was, we saved Hong Kong! I mean, we may have banged it up a little with all our high-explosive charges, but I'm sure the one survivor will have it all fixed up in no time! Plus, I didn't see any cloning vats among the stuff we blew up, so probably all the others will have new incarnations popping out any time now, just like haphazard2!

Humans totally grow in cloning vats, right? I mean, that's a thing? For, um, you know, civilian humans and not just totally human defenders of the planet like us, I mean?

...Well, hopefully.

Yours always,
RefSteel, Able Seaman

[haphazard1]

First terror mission...oh boy, this will be challenging. And dangerous, very dangerous. At least I have a nice gas cannon with exposive shells, so I can actually damage any alien I manage to hit. Notice the weight of all my gear exceeds my strength. Extra fatigue and stamina drain.

I'm the first aquanaut out of the Triton? I'm, uh, honored. Yes, honored is how I feel. OK, dodged two shots from that...whatever that thing is. Whew, survived getting out of the Triton, and RefSteel blew up the alien. Maybe I will live through this mission. Now, where did that green scaly thing go?

<ZAP>
[Aquanaut voice log ends]

Ouch. Oh well, at least I managed to kill some aliens before getting blasted. Three missions survived is not too bad for the early game in TFTD.

Overall, an excellent job! Two captures, including a deep one (required for some research to progress). And one civilian even survived, somehow. Probably was hiding on a building's upper floor or something. And with monthly council funding, XCOM will actually be able to afford some more personnel and facilities and such.

[Dreylin]

Whoa, I survived my first mission and it turns out I even have good stats this time! Maybe I was too quick to buy that monogrammed bodybag...

[Kaiser]

I would be open for a spot on the aqua team as well.

We need to keep this invasion under control!

[Fenn]

@RefSteel, it wasn't only the open door that drew the grenades - that's where the shot that killed haphazard came from. And if any civilian chooses to stand next to a killer alien, X-COM can't take responsibility for what happens next.

Part 5:

Following the monthly windfall, it's time to make some purchases. Thirty scientists are alarmingly expensive, and they'll draw a further $600,000 combined salary each month, but it's a necessary investment. Fighting the aliens with starter technology will quickly become extremely difficult and lead to more dead Aquanauts, more missions failed, less loot to sell and less money from the council.

I also start building a Wide-Array Sonar for the main base and sell some of the alien corpses, leaving X-COM with about 1.7 million spending money.


Not a day passes before another USO is detected, this time by the listening station in the Indian Ocean, and touches down just before it would have slipped out of sonar range. The Triton heads off in pursuit, with the Coelacanth and new recruits shallow_thought and TankSinatra on board.


El Grillo, among others, goes into battle armed with the first Gauss Pistol; it'll be handy in close quarters where his Hydro-Jet Cannon's incendiary or explosive rounds are less than ideal.


The Triton lands facing the edge of the map once again. The Coelacanth's initial foray outside doesn't attract any barrages, so everybody else exits too.


It looks like we're at the eastern end of a long, narrow map. You can also see where the various flares and dye grenades have been thrown by the blue lights.

Turn 2:

Nothing immediately presents itself on the interturn, so El Grillo climbs on top of the Triton to spread some illumination with his phosphor shells.


He does so, and also does a great job of setting himself on fire - good thing we're underwater or that could be deadly. In other news the Coelacanth finds an Aquatoid, but nobody's close enough to get a decent shot so we just throw a proximity mine at it.

Turn 3:
The Aquatoid perishes as planned, and we're free to move forward. Thanks to judicious flare support, the Coelacanth is able to find the next hostile from a good ways off:


This guy's beyond the reach of our direct-fire weapons, but that's what grenades are for after all. Whosit primes a proximity mine...


...but he can't quite throw that far, so he passes it to RifleAvenger, who hands it to El Grillo. Unmoved by being on fire, he manages an Olympian throw to the Aquatoid's feet.


This Aquatoid bounces a sonic blast off the Coelacanth's hull as it tries to maneuver. Luckily Dreylin's on the case:


His investigation proves to be a resounding success.


There's not much cover around, so the squad has to make its own with dye grenades in between ducking behind rock structures like this one Quagma Blast is in.


As the squad approaches the USO, Aquatoid sightings are becoming more frequent; first up is this carefree wanderer. TankSinatra gets him with his shiny new Gauss Pistol, though he still needs two shots to get the job done.


Moving forward, the Coelacanth finds another. He's protected from most of our troops by a rocky outcrop, but novice has been stationed on top of the Triton for just these kinds of encounters. Boom!


Old Harry blunders into the third Aquatoid; he can't move away or it might shoot him in the back, so Quagma Blast solves the problem with a torpedo from the right.


Turn 6, and we're nearing the sub. Molach tries to fire at this Aquatoid near the newly visible USO door and misses, but the blast kills an unseen Aquatoid anyway. Dreylin ends up doing in the original target.


Next turn, the Coelacanth is for once in a position to shoot the Aquatoid it sees, and pulls off a direct hit.


And that was that! The aliens only took a single shot, against the Coelacanth. Never even got inside the sub, or took any casualties - though El Grillo will need 22 days in the burn ward after his phosphorous mishap.

...Do we have a burn ward?

[Dp101]

Great mission! One of your image tags is broken though.

[haphazard1]

Nice work! Did not even have to enter the sub, which is always nice when it happens.

If XCOM does not have a burn ward, we should definitely set one up. Phosphorus can be nasty stuff. Especially when you hit yourself with it.

[Alhambram]

Interesting, I shall join if there is spot for me, wondering how many times I shall die.