OPERATION CRYSTAL SHROUD: Council Mission Site Recon.
St. John's, Canada. 26 May, 2015
Note: While the team was enroute to Canada, a UFO bombed the Russians again which increased panic. I wasn't lying when I said they were going after Russia hard.
"Council intelligence was taking an intense interest in the Canadians during the early days of the war. Since their fall, things had been.. disturbingly quiet north of the American border. A lot of UFOs were detected coming out of Canadian airspace, but otherwise things seemed to be normal. Sure the Canadians were no longer communicating with anyone, but it seemed the average civilian was still living close to a normal life. That all changed when the American NSA, working for the council at that point, detected a strange silence coming from St. John's. St. John's isn't the largest town by any stretch, but it is close to the United States border and the NSA was worried about the possibility of a land invasion.
XCOM thought this was unlikely since the aliens seemed to rely exclusively on UFOs for transport, but the Council was not so easily convinced. They all but begged the Commander to intervene. The various council members may have been regretting their choice to give sole command of the operational side of XCOM to a single individual as many members of the council were swiftly being relegated to irrelevance. Africa as a whole was largely the personal fiefdom of the Commander all ready. When the Asian bloc of the council protested the choice of the Africa and threatened to leave, the Commander (some claim) allowed Shanghai to burn as a lesson to them. The only power the council had was the power of the purse-strings and they clung to that power jealously. At least one plan to assassinate the Commander was discovered, but it never really got off the ground as anyone in XCOM was fanatically loyal to the Commander.
The council knew the only thing they could offer the commander that would sway her (him? I swear the Commander is a guy - C.G. Spender) would be the promise of more funding.The Commander agreed but rejected the calls from some of the operatives that a special team be hand-picked for the operation. I remember him saying, 'If our squads can't handle any mission assigned to them when at full strength, then what is the point of organizing the direct action platoons as a platoon level force? Third squad will take the mission they are next on the rotation. They will augment with appropriate Legion members of course.' That was that. With a spoken word, the Commander cemented the platoon organization of XCOM - at least for now."
--COL. Terry Bradford (ret.)
--Interview with C.G. Spender for
The Long War Project
The Council comes to XCOM - along with a substantial offer of funding.
Okay listen up everyone. We're going to Newfoundland. Yes, Canada. We're going to be on our own up there - extraction is unlikely if things go tits up. Our objective is to recon the small village of Conception Bay hereby referred to as Objective Shroud. Satellite scans and what available SIGINT we have indicated zero movement in the vicinity. No cars, no pedestrians, no radio, no signals what-so-ever. Our mission is simple. Get in, assess the situation, take appropriate action if needed, then extract. Shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. The big-wigs are concerned about some sort of invasion force, but why the aliens would mass a force on an island is anyone's guess. Enemy situation is unknown, but be ready for anything. No one has been to Canada in almost two months and returned so we need to move fast. That means dropping the heavy armor people Tac Vests only for the mission. I want to be on the objective for less than 30 minutes in case the aliens have some sort of quick reaction force set up. Okay. Gear up people. PCI/PCC in 15 minutes.
--LCPL Stream Dragon briefs his 3rd Squad on Crystal Shroud.
Third squad conduct last minute pre-combat checks and pre-combat inspections. Note the light armor and heavy use of explosives. Third Squad continues the tradition of pioneering new technologies by deploying the new laser sniper rifle. Legion 23 and Legion 3 are both chose for their familiarity with explosives and their speed.
Third Squad fast ropes into action on the bleak Newfoundland Coast
From Left: Bullockist, Talizvar, and Carlos 13th land in enemy territory
"We needed to figure out what was going on, but I wasn't going to rush. Third Squad isn't the best squad in XCOM because we rush. Let 2nd platoon carry out their shock assaults. We advance with discipline and good fire control."
--LCPL Stream Dragon
3rd Squad advances through the deserted village - guns raised.
"God, that awful skittering... I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Things were quiet. Then just out of nowhere this ... avalanche of skittering. Chryssalids came at us from our left. Luckily, both Legion troopers were in position to provide overwatch and They gunned one down before they even got close."
--LCPL Bullockist on first contact.
Legion 3 wounds a charging 'lid for Legion 23 to finish off. 3rd Squad would face multiple wave attacks by 'lids throughout the mission. Not pictured is the other wave of 'lids approaching from the front.
Carlos 13th claims the first of what will be many kills with a laser sniper rifle[i]
[i]more 'lids charge the besieged 3rd squad.
"Fall back! Fall back. Firing line 10 meters behind us. closest targets first! Rockets and grenades on the further squad. Move!"
--Stream Dragon shouts orders over the constant fire.
Third Squad showers the aliens with grenades...
..flashbangs...
...and more explosives. Bullockist and Legion 3 have been caught trying to reload and need time to react. Stream Dragon had moved forward accidentally activating the second pod mid-XCOM turn.
"Fire the rocket, Legion or I will personally tear off your head and spit down your neck!"
--Stream Dragon orders Legion 23 to fire her rocket danger close to Stream Draong
Okay. We're in trouble. The aliens won't die. Legion's rocekt flew off course. (I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it which is why I fired the shredder after I had already grenaded these lids. Luckily the three behind the shipping container are flashbanged, but Legion 3 and Bullockist are still danger close to those guys. The last 'lid on the left is wounded, but not disoriented. He will definitely kill someone if we don't kill him now. I activate run and gun on stream dragon to place him between the squad and the charging 'lids. He comes up aces and kills the fast approaching lid.
"The other three 'lids charged us. They were blinded, deafened, and missing limbs, but they kept coming. Luckily we had slowed them down JUST enough that they didn't reach our lines.
Stream Dragon intercepts a charging 'lid.
Bullockist guns down the two 'lids just as they reach melee range
"I've been on plenty of operations, but that was harrowing. They just don't die like you'd expect something missing that much of them to. I'll admit at that point I considered ordering the extraction immediately."
--LCPL Stream Dragon recalls the uncertainty of Crystal Shroud
The squad pauses to reload and apply bandages.
"At this point, the mission timeline was shot. 3rd Squad was in heavy contact with Chryssalids and I tried to have the mission aborted. Better to lose the intel than lose the entire squad. Just as I was about to order to evac, the Commander walked up and put her hand on my shoulder. She said, 'Trust them. They'll come through.' I guess I trust her judgment. She reminded me of my older sister like that."
--COL. Bradford on the situation in operations and his relationship with the Commander.
"We continued our advance. More slowly now. We needed to find where the 'lids were coming from. Everyone did a quick count on how many grenades, rockets, and flashbangs we had left. By my estimation, we could sustain maybe two more rushes before the casualties would begin to mount.
--Stream Dragon
Legion 3, on point, spots a zombie and wounds it.
LCPL Talizvar finises it off with a shotgun blast.
and again as another zombie stumbles towards the squad.
Carlos 13th selects a perfect sniper perch as the squad advanes through the village.
The squad lays down fire as a particularly nasty zombie appraches.
"When the Chryssalid came bursting out of that shark, I almost lost my lunch. Chryssalids are gross enough... that sickly sweet minty smell combined with the blood and viscera of a 3 day old dead sea creature made for a olfactory assault that put me off sushi for the rest of my life."
--Legion 3 reflects on the unique smells of battle with XCOM.
Bullockist moves upto deal with a wounded zombie but once again, a pod is inadvertantly activated. Stream Dragon uses his flashbang to slow them down crucially, he can not flashbang all of them as they have spread out. One of them has dodged out of sight behind the shipping container.
With options limited and the aliens closing quickly, Stream Dragon decides to start getting as many kills as he can. There's more skittering off to his left. Here, Carlos 13th takes down the zombie.
Legion 23 is once again out of position for a good rocket shot and ends up only being able to wound 2 of the approaching 'lids
With the threat of the zombie gone, Talizvar advances and lays down a flashbang on the remaining closest 'lid.
The 'lids charge...
... 4 more Chryssalids rush 3rd Squad from the left. That's 8 'lids in close combat range of third squad.
Luckily, the 'lid charge falls just short before 3rd Squad can react. The wounded lids have surrounded Bullockist. Big Mistake.
"I swear he didn't even flinch. Just emptied his laser rifles into the closest 'lid and then transitioned to his sawed-off and downed another on."
--Stream Dragon on Bullockist's reaction to being surrounded.
LCPL Talizvar delivers the final blow against the three 'lids surrounding Bullockist.
Legion 3 opens up the slaughter on the remaining 'lids with a well placed
AP grenade.
Legion 23 redeems herself somewhat with her last rocket as she destroys two 'lids
Marine_With_Heart cleans up the wounded 'lid.
"Crystal Shroud... man that was a mission that was alternately terrifying and exhilarating. We'd be on the verge of being overrun, then we'd slaughter them."
--Marine_with_Heart in a rare interview with
The Long War Project."
Stream Dragon and Carlos would clean up the remaining two 'lids. 3rd squad had survived the second wave - even worse than the first.
"We were out of rockets, and we were running low on grenades. We only had one flashbang left. We could *maybe* sustain one more wave."
--Stream Dragon.
LCPL Carlos13th spots for the squad as they advance. Carlos 13th would hang back in his sniper perch for the rest of the mission and provide deadly precise sniper fire.
Marine with Heart scores another kill.
Carlos13th keeps a low profile and covers 3rd squad as they move onto the fishing vessel.
"We made it up on the deck of that beached fishing vessel and the smell hit us like a sledgehammer. Rotting fish, blood, that minty smell all mixed with salt water and the diesel fuel smell of a freighter. There was this massive, bloated whale carcass in the deck of the freighter. Of course, you could see where the 'lids had planted their eggs so illegal whaling was the least of our concerns."
--Talizvar on the sight of the whale.
"The video feeds coming back to operations were horrific. The dead civilians, the zombies, that whale and those god-awful 'lids. They were so fast and they were implanting anything big enough to hold one of their larvae. It was at this point that the Commander quietly ordered me to destroy the town. 'Blow it all up. Nuke it from orbit if you have to. It's the only way to be sure.' With that she turned around a walked away."
--COL. Terry Bradford (ret.)
[i]3rd Squad gets it's new orders to activate the ships distress transponder in order to guide in XCOM's airwing.[i]
"Talizvar, go activate the transponder. We'll cover you from here."
--Stream Dragon.
Talizvar is in position but needs time to figure out how to activate the system. 3rd Squad opens fire on the 'lids that begin emerging. Finally, Talizvar figures it out.
"The Commander was very clear. We were to blow that village up. The Air wing had lifted off enroute to Newfoundland as soon as she had given the order. At the sort of speeds the air wing was capable of, 3rd squad had eight minutes to get out."
--Bradford
"We aren't leaving anyone behind and we aren't rushing, people. We have 8 minutes and we are all getting out of here. Now fall back in good order and keep the fire up."
--Stream Dragon to his squad as they fall back to extraction.
[i]Carlos13th scores another Chryssalid kill as the squad retreats off the boat.[i]
The Squad makes it to edge of the boat.
More fire from Carlos as the squad retreats
The squad performs a backwards bounding overwatch as two members alternate engaging the emerging lids then are covered by two more members while they retreat. The Squad meets back up with Carlos13th as he dismounts his sniper perch.
Chryssalids charge in ones and twos as the squad retreats. The ship is now crawling with a horde of 'lids all rapidly chasing 3rd Squad.
Chryssalids move to try to cut off 3rd's retreat
Carlos 13th downs another 'lid with his laser pistol
'In the end it was almost anti-climatic. We made it to the extraction with 2 minutes to spare and a ton of dead 'lids to show for it. No one rushed. Actually at the end I don't think anyone was even breathing hard. Stream Dragon just sort of smiled and told us that the rest of XCOM may get all hot and bothered with personal heroics and desperate fights, but 3rd squad would content itself with good execution and everyone coming home alive. With that he let Marine_with_Heart start picking the shredder shrapnel out of his leg."
-- LCPL Bullockist on completing Crystal Shroud.
The airwing pounds Conception Bay and Objective Shroud to ruin. The commander elects not to nuke the area.
OPERATION CRYSTAL SHROUD: Complete
Promotions are handed out liberally as the squad makes it back to base.
Befitting his careful nature, Stream Dragon learns further lessons on tactical sense and situational awareness. The more desperate things are, the clearer he thinks. The doctors would insist he spend two weeks in sick bay recovering from the shredding he took at the hands of legion 23.
Carlos 13th, probably the MVP of Crystal Shroud, becomes proficient at disabling alien weapons with his precise fire. This will be crucial in capturing the aliens in the future.
Continuing the theme of careful advances. Talizvar learns how to use battle scanners to their full effect.
Bullockist becomes insanely proficient at overwatch fire to the point that his snap shots are just as accurate as most people's carefully aimed shots.
"Of course the Council was relieved. Sure, a potentially 'life as we know it ending' new threat was discovered, but so far XCOM was up to it, and they felt they could exercise some control with the application of enough money. The Americans, who had already advocating nuking Canada at least once, were placated and the rest of the world was informed of this new threat. XCOM could breath a little easier, but Russia was still a disaster in the making.
Phew.. that was a close run thing a couple of times. I make that mistake a lot. One of the keys to success in XCOM is engaging enemies on your terms and twice I let that get away from me. Luckily, 3rd squad has some flexibility in how they are built and we were able to learn some valuable lessons about just how fast a flashbanged Chryssalid is. Good work 3rd Squad. Stream Dragon may have earned his Lieutenant's bars today, but I think the Commander has another "reward" in mind for him.
