Apologies for the delays. As it happens, I've been doing most of my posting from my phone lately, as my computer got infected by this virus that basically makes it useless. It's called "Mass Effect", and whenever I was booting my computer up, it seemed to dominate the runtime. So, sorry. Anyway, really need to get this moving again, I've only got two weeks to finish, eek!

-Operation First Mother-
Fukuoka, Japan
5:01 AM

This mission was a Council mission disguised as an abduction mission. Despite our team's hopes of picking up a Sectoid to study, we encountered nothing but Thin Men. A lot of Thin Men.

We landed on a Japanese highway. The mission opened with a pair just north of our position. Most of our team was on Overwatch, but it was Jiro who managed to nab the kill (how he managed that with both the Overwatch penalty and Snap Shot penalty is beyond me, good job). MacGuyver's shot lit up the trash can in front of the car the team was using for cover. Fearing the car itself was lit, our team prepared to scatter. Ronnie blasted the second one with his shotgun, but unveiled another pair while he was at it.

Our Rookie burned the next Thin Man down, and Vivi eliminated his partner. When the car didn't catch fire, Jiro and MacGuyver felt a little silly for diving for cover, but, since everyone came through ok, there was nothing to worry about. Moving up, we unveiled a trio of the spindly aliens. One shot at Jiro, who wasn't in cover at the time, but missed, as Jiro has mad evasion skills. The second shot at our Rookie, burning into her armor, but not harming her. MacGuyver Run and Gunned forward, taking a flanking shot to eliminate the one on the team's left flank. Our Rookie moved forward and eliminated one of the ones on the right, while Vivi popped the third. Jiro and Ronnie moved forward to Overwatch, and encountered our last foes of the mission, another threesome of Thin Men.

The first Thin Man waltzed behind a bus stop, which Jiro and Ronnie proceeded to turn into an impressive piece of scrap metal, though they missed the alien itself. It proceeded to fire at our Rookie, hitting, and burning through her armor to hit her. Though not badly wounded, she'd likely be in the hospital for a week. MacGuyver lined up a shot on the now clear foe, and burned it down. Jiro tried to shoot at the next foe, but only wound up hitting the truck it was using for cover. Ronnie, deciding there was no reason someone couldn't snipe with a shotgun, took an extremely long distance 27% chance shot, and hit, eliminating the Thin Man and leaving only one foe, atop the cab of the eighteen wheeler at the end of the road.

The trailer prevented most of my squad from getting a line of sight on it, and Ronnie was the only one who could see it. But Vivi, far back at a fire hydrant near the LZ, wasn't going to let that stop him. One cold shot from his Sniper Rifle put that alien to bed before it even knew it was in danger, and ended the mission.
MVP: Balls MacGuyver. Really awesome use of positioning and flanking. Vivi had the most kills, but sometimes positioning and tactics win out. I mean, if it was always to highest kills, it would basically always be a Sniper, which would get boring for everyone else. So there.

Jiro, you actually could have gotten another kill in this mission (98% chance), but I deliberately gave it to the Rookie so that she could get her promotion without being carried to a second mission. So don't feel too bad about how you valiantly destroyed cover with most of your shots. Although that kill shot, like two of the three from your last mission, wouldn't have taken advantage of Snap Shot, so you should still feel horrible for picking that.

Promotions: Pretty much everyone. Our Rookie is now a Heavy (hey, Psy, some competition!), and I'll see if we have someone who wanted a Heavy in just a sec. Glad it's not another Sniper or Assault. Vivi didn't get a promotion, but he had just reached Major, so not surprising. Ronnie is now a Captain. Jiro made Major himself. And Lady Balls MacGuyver is now a Sergeant.

The mission resulted in more engineers, and a decrease in panic in Japan. However, Brazil and Argentina spiked to 4. With the council meeting in 5 days, we figured it was the perfect time to launch our spare satellites over those countries, picking up another continent bonus, and balancing out our panic before the meeting hit.