What follows is a journal written by one of the operatives in the second XCOM campaign, Alan Robertson.

Operation Starving Shield – April 20th,2035

Today’s mission sees us heading back to East Africa. Today, we are tasked with recovering a data vault from an ADVENT facility in the slums district of Cairo. We recently all undertook more training on the Avenger, and now are capable of taking five soldiers into the battlefield. So, today I am joined by Sgt. Kelly, Cpl. Ishikawa, Cpl. Girard, and Sq. Yosef.

As soon as we drop into the area, Central advises us that charges have been placed and we only have eight minutes to recover this data before it is destroyed. We’re on an elevated highway, and so Yosef moves up the guardrail on the side, and spots a sectoid and trooper. Kelly drops over the guardrail and takes cover behind a barricade. Ishikawa does the same behind a different barricade, and spots a stun lancer and another sectoid. Yosef drops down and takes cover behind a bench. Girard drops down and takes cover behind an information kiosk. I prefer to keep my elevation and take cover behind the guardrail.

We watch as the first group of enemies continues its patrol. All of us except for Kelly set into overwatch. She pulls out one of her axes and hurls it into the back of the sectoid and kills him. Spooked, the trooper tries to run, but as soon as he moves I take him down with one quick sniper shot. The other sectoid and stun lancer start to move forward. Ishikawa takes a shot and hits the sectoid, and Yosef misses the stun lancer. Kelly rushes from her position and near the sectoid and takes him down with one nice axe swing.

The stun lancer moves out of the building and discharges his stun baton on Kelly. Ishikawa and Girard and Yosef move in closer. I line up a shot and take down the stun lancer with my sniper rifle. Central advises us that all hostiles are down, and we can focus on the data vault. Kelly moves in and hacks the vault to disarm the detonator. We did an excellent job today. Kelly will spend a few days recovering from being hit by the stun baton, but again we’re all coming home. Ishikawa is also being promoted to a Sergeant and is learning how to Suppress the enemy. This allows him to take reactionary fire if the unit moves, and gives it a penalty to its aim (Kinda hard to aim with someone firing a barrage of bullets in your direction).

Author Heath Markley

I have been an avid gamer for 32 years now. It started with the Atari 2600 my parents bought me as a child (my mom still says she regrets that decision), and I have never looked back. For my gaming, I enjoy RPG and strategy games the most, but I will play almost all games. Besides gaming, I am a family man (beautiful wife and three wonderful children) and a healthcare IT professional. So, gaming time is a premium for me, but I make the most of every chance I get.



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