Operation Oahu Storm is commencing. While leaving the facility online would give us the chance to intercept supply shuttles, this base is too far away from land for shooting them down effectively and too far from our radar range for effective ground assaults. Better luck would be had in intercepting Muton cargo heading to the base in the Northwest Territories.
Briefing: X-COM's current best operatives are being sent into an alien facility in Hawaii. Large concentrations of Floater forces are expected; Reapers may also be present. All alien forces must be eliminated or incapacitated so that the base can be shut down. If possible, X-COM forces are to capture high-ranking alien officers.
The squad gets armed for battle.
The squad is split between two entry points to the base. This makes things more difficult for our forces; having them divided like this makes them more vulnerable to attack from multiple directions. The best chance for success is for the two teams to fight their way through until they can converge.
Unfortunately, from the start things aren't looking to good. Trying to move across a room gets one of the units fired on and hit from a hostile lurking in a hallway.
Attempting to send the HWP after it leads to it taking two reaction shots that get through its armor by chance.
The next plan is just to wait against the wall and hope whatever's there comes into their field of fire.
The team on the other end of the base has a far better time of moving out, and manages to safely advance.
A proximity mine is set down to cut off the hallway, and the far team starts going around through another route.
As the team to the east advances, a Floater is encountered around a corner and taken out.
This clears the way for a continued advance.
Searching briefly on the upper floor finds some strange containers.
The far team continues to carefully move forward.
The main squad continues searching around through the twists and turns of the alien base.
Another mine gets set down to block off a potential ambush.
The far team continues pushing up to rejoin the main squad, which is also slowly pressing forward.
One of the far team gets hit by a Floater. She's alive, but unconscious.
One of the other squadmates grabs a medi-kit and applies treatment.
The other squadmate takes down the Floater.
The same squad member that was knocked out earlier gets hit again, this time fatally.
The best option here is to move forward and take cover behind the walls to get out of the line of fire.
More hostiles are encountered down the halls as the main squad advances.
Checking around the corner, it's confirmed the proximity mine took out a Floater trying to go around.
Looking above the enclosed space, the far squad fines more odd storage containers.
Another Floater is spotted, but there's no way to get a line of fire from here.
A bunch of aliens are spotted coming for the main squad. Most of them are Reapers and thus a minimal threat, but the Floater could pose a problem.
It is quickly eliminated, fortunately.
More hostiles are visible down the other way, though.
With more Reapers and Floaters coming at the squad, a grenade gets thrown down the hall, thinning out the herd.
Another Floater gets taken down, and the way is almost clear for the far team to meet back up with the main unit.
Taking out the Reaper makes the path between the two forces pretty much clear.
Unfortunately, standing next to windows leaves one of the far team vulnerable to an unexpected shot from a Floater. Someone else manages to get this one, but we've lost another of our officers.
Another Reaper gets mowed down.
One of the colonels pushes into the entryway to a large room. This looks big enough to be the command center for the base.
Another squad member gets ambushed by a lucky shot from a blind corner.
A Floater comes down from the accessway to the large room. It's heavily armed, so no punches are pulled.
The Floater that ambushed our scout is taken out by a distant shot.
One of the other team members is hit by a Floater coming out of another room, but is lucky enough to shrug it off entirely and immediately retaliates.
The large room that Thompson has been going after looks to only be a storage facility; the command center must be elsewhere.
The storage area has some reactors; it's hard to tell if they're powering the base or just being kept here. Either way, succeeding in this raid means we'll be able to obtain some UFO parts and Elerium.
Going through some large hallways and strangely lit passages locates a massive doorway. This must be the base's command center.
One of the squad charges in, and is hit by enemy reaction fire.
The remaining team is able to take out one of the heavily armed aliens from the lower floor.
We see another alien in the command room, but the team isn't able to hit it. It looks to be armed with a Blaster Launcher; what happens next is going to be ugly.
Fortunately, only one squad member is lost to the massive blasts; unfortunately, this is one less squad member we have to take on the remaining aliens in the command center.
One narrowly avoids a flurry of attacks while heading up to the smoke-filled chamber and taking out the Floater with the plasma gun.
An injured captain attempts a risky maneuver and charges right at the last Floater; if it wants to fire off another bomb, it will consume itself in the blast as well. However, it's either smart enough to not attack, or is out of ammunition.
The other team member in the command room picks up a dropped stun launcher off the floor and knocks out both ally and enemy, finally clearing out the base.
Results of Operation Oahu Storm:Samuel Thompson: 2 kills, not promoted
Dwight Kemp: 4 kills, not promoted; wounded, will recover in 7 days
Nikolai Ragulin: 3 kills, not promoted; wounded, will recover in 14 days
Otto Krause: Killed in action
Maria Davies: Killed in action
Sigourney Kemp: Killed in action
Clarence McNeil: Killed in action
Tatyana Torban: Killed in action
Gennadi Maleev: Killed in action
Shuji Iwasaki: Killed in action
HWP: Destroyed
16 aliens killed by X-COM ground forces
2 aliens captured
Alien command center destroyed
Alloys, reactors, Elerium, entertainment systems salvaged
Debriefing: Far more casualties were incurred during this mission than expected. Assaulting the command center was especially dangerous; squad tactics must be improved and adapted before an assault on the Muton base is considered. However, this victory is a massive political gain for us, and will reflect heavily on our performance review by the council of backing nations.
Using our new materials and surplus funds, we start on more HWPs.
