Right. First mission against Snakemen battleships?

Success. No other way to put it. Of course, no time to rest on our laurels.

"Alright men. Back on the Skyranger. Any cowardice will be met with a fate worse than death."

"But we just got back!"

"Had to give Cubey some new toys. You all get to go hunt snakemen twice in one day. Aren't you lucky."

BRC coughed slightly, then muttered something about the oppression of the workers. Communists.

Well, looks like some people were about to learn why X-COM's territory is legally classified as a dictatorship.

As we landed, I noticed a smaller craft taking off. Worth remembering. Also, that meant the most valuable crewmembers of the ship would be gone, meaning a total slaughter is a viable strategy.

Lopez took out the minimal resistance outside the ship, while Copper, Trazoi, and I headed in to scout. Tengu, BRC, and Slaanesh were on radio contact in case any Snakes tried to pull something funny.

After several rousing minutes of laser based gunplay, ducking plasma, and a lot of very creative swearing from both sides, we managed to clear most of the upper deck.

After sending Trazoi down to check some suspicious noises, which netter us another Blaster Launcher, I decided to check the last room.

Of course, Tengu insisted he's had nothing to do with this, that it was a very good thing I'd disarmed the navigator quietly beforehand, and there was no way he was attempting to seize control of the base. Times like that, I miss Knight. Oh well, no sense in killing a valuable resource when maiming will do.

After breaking all the fingers on Tengu's left hand, I looked over the spoils. It seemed we had just got our hands on more Elerium than we'd ever need. Ferrus's suggestion of a "Giant army of Elerium powered walking death machines" was now back on the table.

As soon as we were back, I went into the labs to ask Cubey about that. I mean, he'd mentioned it before, and we had the resources.

I found a smoking crater where the weapon range had been, Chumbley looking equally impressed and horrified, some still sizzling bits of Chryssalid flesh, and Cubey writing some notes next to a Blaster Bomb launcher.

I really should have seen this coming.

"Please tell me you did something other than blow up the lab in the 3 hours I was away."

"I'd be lying, though. I did, however, do something earlier this month. It's in the manila folder."

"Isn't manila used for clean underwear? Or was it porn..."

"Never cared much for filing. I leave that to Copper."

I snuck a glance into the folder.



Hoo mama. So this was the design Cubey had been holding hostage until he got some good explosives. Gotta say, this thing was worth the loss of half the lab. Fort Fri would work on this one immediately.

If we knew where the aliens were striking from, this would pretty much guarantee us a chance at payback. Sweet, sweet payback.