UFO: Extraterrestrials After Action Report

January 15th 2108. Disturbing reports about the fate of Earth have been retrieved, and we now fear the extraterrestrial threat is turning against us.

All nations on Esperanza have banded together to create the Counter Alien Force (CAF), to protect us against this looming threat. To start our defensive war we've been given control of a main base housing all of our soldiers, scientists, and engineers - along with the necessary hangers, storage facilities, and detection centers.

While this is an excellent start, our detection centers and aircraft do not give us coverage of the entire planet, and as such we're going to start construction on a new base in Thermos, on one of the other continents. Unfortunately this base can only be used as a minor outpost as we are unable to construct an additional full fledged base that might include living quarters for soldiers and the like. Instead this base will act merely as a detection center and interceptor base - all of our significant actions will need to be conducted through the main base at Ilyria.

Back at this main base we are preparing for first contact with the enemy. When our interceptors manage to successfully attack an alien craft we will deploy a small force to the crash site composed of our four best recruits and a Desert Spirit tank in support. For now our men will only be armed with rifles and grenades--primitive to what the aliens undoubtedly are armed with. But that shall change soon as i've instructed our scientists to start work on laser technology, though it should take several weeks for some real benefit to be seen in the form of actual weapons.

It's a few days before we make contact with the enemy, but on the 19th our detection centers pick up a small alien scout entering the atmosphere near the southern pole, and we dutifully dispatch our interceptors to attack it.

After a short aerial fight we prevail and send the alien scout crashing to the ground where our land forces can more in to finish off any survivors and appropriate their technology. We touch down near the downed craft a few hours later. The surrounding area is lightly wooded from our initial appraisal, so our units should have some good cover. The first unit to go down the ramp is our tank, and it comes under immediate fire from at least two sources--though we only manage to spot one alien in the distance. Though its armor is already starting to fail the tank does manage to kill the floating monstrosity that CAF scientists would later term to be an alien attack larva. But, having killed it the tank takes further fire from the south before spotting its attacker, but out of action points there is nothing the tank can do to protect itself.

One of our rookie soldiers, Robert Swenson, attempts to kill the alien with his rifle--but his attempts are almost laughable, missing every shot. None of my other soldiers is able to get out to the fight without expending most of their action points so its time for the aliens to have their turn. Only the alien to the south manages to attack us during their turn, and his fire is mostly ineffective, but shots do hit Swenson and David Chester who had already came out of the vessel, though the wounds seems to be only minor. In response, Swenson throws a grenade at his attacker, injuring it and then finishing it off with a shot from his rifle.

Though the alien goes down, it hits Swenson again, injuring him further but causing no sustained bleeding. Chester on the other hand is bleeding profusely, we'll need to pull him back to patch him up with stimpacks. Before that can happen however our tank spots another alien larva. Missing its initial shot the tank is again a sitting duck and Chester moves forward to deal with the alien, killing it with a single shot on the next turn after the larva unsuccessfully attacks our tank.

Next turn our tank advances further south, managing to find the small alien craft and significant resistance in the form of another alien larva, and two more of the hostile humanoids. Immediately plasma fire fills the air, and our tank takes at least one more hit from the alien larva before our advancing infantry kills it. Thereafter, our tank and the two remaining aliens exchange several shots. Our tank kills one of the aliens, but the second finishes the job, destroying the unit and removing our best scouting unit.

This remaining humanoid quickly advances upon David Chester, who was close behind the tank when it was destroyed. Chester doesn't stand a chance and goes down in a crumpled heap, but though the wound might look fatal its not as i'm informed that he is incapacitated and in need of further medical treatment back at the base. While this is all going on, my three other soldiers are attacked by a further alien a little to the west, and it injures another member of my team - Susan Stanton - but despite all efforts our three soldiers are unable to hit the alien and it goes on to incapacitate both Stanton and Swenson.

That leaves me with just one soldier left and at least two enemies to kill. But, thankfully, it seems Mike Stanton has got the right stuff as he kills both the remaining humanoids without trouble--thereby ending the mission. The toll is particularly grim however as we review the casualty list. Three of my best soldiers are injured after having each taken two or more shots from plasma weapons. When we get back to base it looks as though each soldier will be out for almost a month--with Chester gone for 44 days as he recuperates. The tank itself is gone for good, but we can make up that loss by simply purchasing another one. The soldiers on the other hand, cannot be replaced as my only source of infantry reinforcements will come in automatically at only a snails pace. But--the war must go on.

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