Friggin' huge update today. With this update we clear out almost all of June.
The end of May reports confirmed our suspicions: the aliens had stepped back their operations dramatically after the Berlin raid. Doctor Bear's analysis of the captured sectoids confirms alien belief that X-COM's casualties were too heavy following the Berlin assault; they appear to have been caught with their pants down in the Nairobi operation. We hope that the swift boot to the xenos' nonexistent genitals we gave them will prove otherwise.
Early in June, Doctor Surlethe's team reported a couple of critical breakthroughs.
We can now use and manufacture the aliens' heavy plasma weaponry. The troops are
extremely ecstatic.
Engineers Fnord and Academia report they have adapted and improved upon the heavy plasma device, as well.
We can now arm our Interceptors with these new plasma beams, which are estimated to outrange any known UFO plasma weaponry to date. Now, if our Interceptors catch it, they can
kill it.
There were several small scout raids throughout the first half of June. We downed a muton medium scout over South America, and commenced the assault-and-clear. This was one of the most interesting clearance operations, as we were dealing with two unknowns: it was the first time we'd used plasma weaponry ourselves, and it was the first time we'd fought mutons face-to-face.
The ground operation was sobering: only one muton managed to hold off our entire force. The UFO itself was gutted by Erik von Nein's Avalanche missiles, and only one muton was alive in the wreckage.
We cornered it and tried taking it alive, only to have the alien withstand three direct hits by stun bombs and casually execute their shooters.
After losing Acidburns and Consequences to the mutons' fire, we finally put it down for good with our laser HWP.
With the exception of that unfortunate battle, June went almost
brutally well for us.
We encountered nothing but scout craft, most of which were dropped with breathtaking efficiency by the new plasma cannons. Every single one of our Interceptor pilots has become an ace by now, even the new ones.
Note: Not pictured are UFOs 27 and 30. 27 was the UFO with the stubborn muton in it. 30 was a medium scout that we dropped over the Atlantic.
Doctor Surlethe and Bear kept very, very busy studying the various odds and ends of alien technology. Both the sectoids and the snakemen were thoroughly interrogated for solid results.
A successful autopsy on the recovered mutons left chills running down our spines. We had definitely encountered the enemy's shock troops.
On a lark, Surlethe analyzed the alien entertainment we recovered from the downed terror ship on his off hours. The device is curious, and once again hints at strange mental technology on the aliens' part. Science division is theorizing possible weaponized usages of this technology, and we are all quietly worried as to whether the aliens possess this capability as well.
However, the coup de grace of our research in June . . . .
We have begun research on how to construct our own elerium-based aircraft. We anticipate a complete prototype by the end of July.
At the end of June, another snakeman terror craft was detected en route to North Africa.
PeZook brought it down over the desert with extreme prejudice.
Its time to see how those insect monstrosities deal with our latest toys . . . .