The Price of Pride
Commander’s Note
I’ll try my best to complete this Let’s Play, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last. Also, most of the story will be told in poster form, because that’s one of the coolest things XCOM 2 War of the Chosen has. Lastly, I’m trying to keep my character pool and in-game bonds as ‘rp’-ey as possible, so I’m going in on Medium Ironman because I want to be able to make mistakes and still feel like a story is being told. So… let’s play.
March 2035
20… 2035? It boggles the mind when I think about it. Shen (the daughter, not the dad) tells me I’ve been under for twenty years, and the victories I remember were just figments of the imagination, fever dreams and calculations that the aliens ran me through. What a Brave New World I’m in though. Humans are aliens and aliens are our friends. Yeah. That’s right. We just had a pow-wow between some sniper ninjas and alien sympathizers. Except those were aliens that were sympathetic to US. XCOM. Not the elders.
No wonder Bradford looks so old now. I’d be old too if I had to live through that.
Upside, that whisky I promised that we’d break open when we won the war is aging beautifully. I remember having opened it so many times. Maybe the next time I open it it’s going to be real.
XCOM has turned into a resistance in the past 20 years, but it’s time to bring the war back to the aliens. Shen and Bradford have been keeping this place going, and we have been making amazing inroads with against ADVENT in the past few days. People have been flocking to our cause now that they feel like we might have stand an actual shot. Even the Reapers and Skirmishers (that’s the sniper ninjas and sympathetic aliens) seem like they’re interested in working with us, even if they don’t show it.
And some of the troopers we have in here are just great. Tat and Jack have hit it off over their shared love of bringing down big game, and Russ is a demon with a blade. You should have seen him when the ADVENT attacked the New Artic Haven. Took down three troopers and a freaking flesh monster without making a sound. He still didn’t make a sound after that fight ended though. They say he came from New Haven. They say he’s alone now.
New Haven’s not the only ones who have lost people. Took a few hits here and there. Cpl Neo gets night terrors of being puppeted by the damn greys, and we lost a rookie from Mexico during a supposed routine op. They tell me he liked comics. Wish I had talked to him more.
April 2035
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Central, Shen and Tygan all say that I’m the best man for the job. After Diamond Giant, I don’t know if that’s still the case.
It was supposed to be a milk run. Drop in, grab the scientist, get out. The intel was solid, or so the Skirmishers said. We were riding high off managing to force the Assassin into retreat, it really seemed like another by the numbers mission when it started. We were clearing ADVENT troops and old Squaddie Zack even managed to gun down a sectoid in spite of his… depth perception issues.
Then the shit hit the fan. A surprise ADVENT mech fusillade left Reuben dead and Ol’ One Eye bleeding out. Ed picked Zack up and we high-tailed it to the meet-up point where the scientist was, except so was about a dozen other ADVENT troops. Apparently they were holding back their forces till they could envelop us. Ed and Zack ate it next, and I made the tactical decision to beat a retreat. Recoup my losses. Eddie got gunned down on the way to the evac point. The worst part though is it was almost worth it. The scientist managed to survive a veritable hail of bullets as he bolted to firebrand, but we couldn’t stay long enough. He leaped for Glynnis’ hand as we broke away, and missed her hand by inches. We flew off as she saw the scientist get ripped to shreds.
It was the biggest lost XCOM had in recent memory, and I didn’t want to make any propaganda posters. It seemed… disrespectful, you know? Like their deaths were to be used to further the cause. But Glynnis went again my command and posed for a poster anyway, with her squadmates’ blood still on her face. She told me that not spreading the word would be even more disrespectful.
She has a point. Zack always talked about how each loss was a sacrifice on the road to victory. He said he never really saw the Xenos as a threat until they took his eye and wiped off his podunk town in Eastern Europe. Cadia, I think it was called. Let’s hope that Zack and Glynnis are right. Let’s hope that this sacrifice is worth it.
Commander’s Note
I jazzed it up a bit, but all of this actually happened. The scientist ate 5 shots over 2 turns. 2 misses, 1 wound, and 2 overwatch misses as he he ran to the evac zone. He ended up 1 square away when I evacced out. BOTH of Glynnis’ posters (the bloody ones) are ENTIRELY procedural (the rest I made).
