OPERATION FALLING APOLLO - AFTER ACTION REPORT (12 SEP 2016 @ 1603)

OPERATION FALLING APOLLO - AFTER ACTION REPORT

PREPARED BY: CPT Jared Houston

SITUATION

o Enemy Forces:
 - 5x Mutons, 5x Floaters, armed with plasma rifles and grenades

o Friendly Forces
 - LT Jared "Mercury" Houston (United States)
 - SFC Constance "Deadbolt" Makhandule (South Africa)
 - SGT Jermaine "Da Pain" Glynn (United States)
 - SGT Beatrice "Preacher" Rydberg (Sweden)
 - CPL Qutuz "Bad Hand" Safar (United Arab Emirates)
 - CPL Viktor "Dragon" Lehmann (Germany)
 - CPL Rhys "Blizzard" Waddell (Canada)
 - SPC Glenn "Freaky" Friendly (United Nations)


MISSION

o Strike Team deploys to Dao Paolo, Brazil, 12 SEP 2016 @ 1603 hrs, IOT disrupt Abduction Operations.

EXECUTION NARRATIVE

The Mission Alert came in at 1434 hrs. The Skyranger was wheels up by 1450, with boots down by 1603 hrs. As soon as we were on the ground, I sent Waddell up to get a look into the graveyard. Immediately he called contact with a squad of Mutons moving to engage. Preacher, Glynn and I all opened fire, while SPC Friendly moved to cover and tossed a plasma grenade into their midst, and SFC Mak launched a rocket. The rest of the squad advanced, firing, and the surviving pair of Mutons withdrew into the darkness.

Advancing under cover, Waddell spotted a pod of Floaters which attempted to swarm us; I managed to kill one, with Safar using his psionic abilities to disorient another, which slowed their advance; Meanwhile, Waddell managed to eliminate one of the Mutons who'd withdrawn earlier. The Floaters continued to aggress, Friendly winged one just as it shot me, burning through my armor.

Waddell and Lehmann advanced, drawing fire and managing to severely damage one of the Floaters. Meanwhile Glynn, still in the backfield, blew the head off one of the bastards on the right flank. Under the cover of fire, Deadbolt did what she does best, putting a Shredder rocket into the heart of the Floater cluster, killing one. Preacher and Friendly followed up, with Rydberg killing one of the Floaters, and Friendly crippling the last remaining Muton. 

Cowed, the surviving X-Rays did not advance; The Floater dropped down behind a tombstone, and the firing blindly at Waddell's position. Waddell ran forward, screaming wildly as the plasma burst all around him, then drew his laser pistol and executed the dying Muton. While the Floater was tracking Waddell, Lehmann darted forward for a flank and blew the Floater to pieces. 

We finished crossing the graveyard, but met with no further resistance. It was a surprisingly light mission, all things considered; It is my recommendation that we brace ourselves for heavier resistance in the future.

LESSONS LEARNED

o Sustain:
 - Synergistic fires and maneuvers
 - Maintaining tactical momentum

o Improve:
 - Explosive firing discipline
 - Distribute medkits throughout the squad

OPERATION CRYPTIC SLEEP - AFTER ACTION REPORT (23 AUG 2016 @ 1547)

OPERATION CRYPTIC SLEEP - AFTER ACTION REPORT

PREPARED BY: LT Jared Houston

SITUATION

o Enemy Forces:
 - 1x "Berzerk Muton Thing", 1x Muton, 6x Floaters, 4x Drones, 2x Outsiders

o Friendly Forces
 - LT Jared "Mercury" Houston (United States)
 - SFC Jade "Mineral" Colman (United Kingdom)
 - SGT Svetlana "Eclipse" Petukhova (Russia)
 - SGT Lara "Athena" Jordan (Australia)
 - SGT Clarisse "Interrogator" Poncelet (Belgium)
 - CPL Kelly "Luna" Meirelles (Brazil)
 - CPL Osazenomwan "Mental" Olufunke (Nigeria)
 - CPL Al Safi "Stretch" Ahmadi (Egypt)

MISSION

o Strike Team deploys to Boston, Massachusetts, 23 AUG 2016 @ 1547 hrs, IOT exploit a splashed UFO.

EXECUTION NARRATIVE

The Mission Alert came in at 1520 hrs. The Skyranger was wheels up by 1539, with boots down by 1547 hrs. Big Sky had dropped us closer than expected; No sooner than we'd pushed through the underbrush, but the UFO was before us. I ordered CPL Ahmadi to stretch his legs, and take a look around the aft of the UFO; Before he'd gone any sort of distance, a pod of Drones appeared, several of them taking shots before he could duck behind a stout tree. Eclipse had been tracking him with her scope, so it took her no time to refocus on the drones, and take one of them down. The rest of the squad cut loose, with SFC Colman and Poncelet registering kills. The remaining Drones zipped forward, with Athena and I managing to damage it, before Interrogator darted forward and took a close-range shot to finish it off.

With that initial engagement done, I order the squad to find cover before we advanced again, especially considering the likelihood that the Drones had signaled for reinforcements. Unfortunately a pair of Mutons and a pair of Floaters came around on our flank from the fore of the ship. The larger of the two mutons was different than anything we'd seen before. First, it was MUCH larger than its companion, and red; It also did not appear to be carrying a weapon. While the other muton and the Floaters took some sort of cover, this beast came charging directly at us, fast. Ahmadi took a shot at it, but misjudged its speed.

We repositioned and started taking shots at the monster, but it kept coming, despite several solid hits. Only the fact that it seemed intent on charging whoever shot it kept it from reaching me in no time at all. It was terrifying to see the juggernaut shrugging off laser fire, and I heard someone whimpering behind me; At the moment, I was only glad it wasn't me. Finally, as it closed on Luna, its monstrous paws reaching to tear her apart, she shoved her scatter las into its chest and fired; Finally, the beast succumbed. 

Eclipse reported that she never had a clear shot at the beast, so she focused on the others; I was too distracted to notice, but she reported a Floater down once we'd finally taken down the berzerker. Luckily, the remaining X-Rays didn't feel like engaging after we'd taken their monster down, so they withdrew and we had time to reload and regroup. As we prepared to advance, the other Muton darted out, apparently trying to surprise us, and was cut down by combined fire from myself and Jordan. 

As Ahmadi was in the back of the formation after our re-direction, Luna took point. As we neared the fore, several Floaters darted in, just at the edge of sight; Jordan and Petukhova managed to take one down, but the others remained out of range, taking potshots at CPL Meirelles. While they focused on her, Interrogator darted forward and took a shot, taking one more of the ugly bastards down. The other cowards had had enough, and withdrew again. I didn't allow myself to get overeager, and ordered the squad forward carefully. Meanwhile, Luna talked Eclipse onto the only visible target, which then quickly died.

Once in position, Mineral made short work of the only other Floater in range, and we moved forward again, until finally Ahmadi spotted and engaged the last Floater as it attempted to flee toward the far side of the UFO. It didn't make it. At this point, I was tired of chasing X-Rays that didn't want to fight, and re-directed again, into the UFO. It was time to take down the Outsiders I knew would be waiting inside. An earlier motion scan had given us their rough position, so we moved in through the deflector shields to engage. 

Once we were in position, Athena dissolved the door, and Luna darted in, just in time to see both Outsiders waiting for her. As she reversed course, dodging for cover, I order Olu to blow the wall. Before the smoke had even cleared, Mineral laid down a blazing wall of laser fire, covering Poncelet's advance with an HE grenade to further destroy any cover they may have left. As soon as I could see, I took two quick, targeted shots, one at each Outsider, hoping to wound them enough to try for another capture, but Interrogator's grenade had worked too well, and both of them went down.

Surprisingly, though we waited for reinforcements, and then did a sweep of the perimeter, there was no further resistance; Either this was a skeleton crew, or many of them had been killed when the craft crashed down.


LESSONS LEARNED

o Sustain: 
 - Explosives shape the battlefield to our advantage
 - Preparation leads to smooth execution

o Improve:
 - Don't make assumptions about X-Ray locations
 - Never assume we've seen everything

OPERATION BLOODY MOTHER - AFTER ACTION REPORT (07 AUG 2016 @ 1508)

OPERATION BLOODY MOTHER - AFTER ACTION REPORT

PREPARED BY: LT Jared Houston

SITUATION

o Enemy Forces:
 - 5x Seekers, 3x Floaters, 1x Thin Man

o Friendly Forces
 - LT Jared "Mercury" Houston (United States)
 - SGT Svetlana "Eclipse" Petukhova (Russia)
 - SGT Monica "Alpha" de Matos (Brazil)
 - SGT Leigh "Beacon" Fahey (United States)
 - CPL Sa'idah "Wing" Ramli (Egypt)
 - CPL Rhys "Blizzard" Waddell (Canada)
 - SPC Caio de Abreu (Brazil)
 - PFC Mahjoub Benhassi (Algeria)

MISSION

o Strike Team deploys to Boston, Massachusetts, 07 AUG 2016 @ 1508 hrs, IOT disrupt an Abduction in Progress.

EXECUTION NARRATIVE

The Mission Alert came in at 1425 hrs. The Skyranger was wheels up by 1448, with boots down in Boston by 1508 hrs. We approached the office building cautiously, but met no immediate resistance. Once the squad was positioned inside, I sent CPL Waddell up to open the door that lead deeper into the building. Immediately, a pod of Seekers swarmed through the door. PFC Benhassi had a rocket readied, so Waddell and SGT de Matos scrambled back as he fired, severely damaging the Seekers and most of the nearby walls. Before the smoke even cleared, Alpha snapped a shot off, and de Abreu followed up with an AP grenade, destroying most the original Seekers just in time for another to come into view, as well as a pod of Floaters entering the back room.

Waddell was completely exposed, his cover having been blown in the rocket blast, so I yelled at him to get to cover, as Ramli and I finished off the last of the Seekers. Before he moved, he reported a Thin Man in the back; Eclipse said she had him, and a long moment later I hear the sizzle of her rifle and the gaseous detonation of a dying Thin Man in the distance.

Rather than advancing into the unknown, I order the squad to stay put, and let the Floaters come to us. They jet into range, and Alpha is the first to fire, putting down the first of the monstrosities. Beacon dives through the window and blasts the second Floater that was moving directly for Benhassi. A few tense moments pass, and just as I'm about to order the squad forward, a Seeker comes in on our rear flank, and goes down in a hail of laser fire.

Another minute of silence, and Waddell reports that he believes he heard the sound of a Meld canister from the back, so I direct the squad to move that way. No sooner than we start our advance than a final Floater blasts into view on our right flank. Petukhova cripples it as soon as it comes into sight, and I execute the severely damaged wretch with a quick burst.

We continued our careful advance through the building, managing to recover the Meld, and encountering no further resistance.

LESSONS LEARNED

o Sustain:
 - Explosives to deal with clustered threats
 - Massing fires to quickly remove threats

o Improve:
 - Flank awareness
 - Don't count on cover to survive an explosion

OPERATION BURNING CROWN - AFTER ACTION REPORT (25 JUL 2016 @ 0605)

OPERATION BURNING CROWN - AFTER ACTION REPORT

PREPARED BY: LT Jared Houston

SITUATION

o Enemy Forces:

 - 6x Chryssalids, 1x Cyberdisc, 1x Drone, 4x Seekers, 3x Thin Men

o Friendly Forces
 - LT Jared "Mercury" Houston (United States)
 - SSG Spencer "Leo" Donohue (United States)
 - SSG Ana Lucia "Mustang" Mardones (Ecuador)
 - SGT Jade "Mineral" Colman (United Kingdom)
 - SGT Lieselott "Maschine" Faber (Germany)
 - SGT Sylas "Fawkes" Maillet (Canada)
 - SGT Jirina "Stiletto" Markusova (Czech Republic)
 - SPC Osazenomwan Olufunke (Nigeria)

MISSION

o Strike Team deploys to Ogmobosho, Nigeria, 25 JUL 2016 @ 0605 hrs, IOT combat Alien Terror Attack.

EXECUTION NARRATIVE

The Mission Alert came in at 0420 hrs. The squad was assembled and ready to roll by 0437, with boots down in Nigeria by 0827 hrs. The site was completely destroyed by the time we arrived, but we found what cover we could as the first pod of Chryssalids came into view. Stiletto was the first to fire, managing to injure one of them, with Olu taking a shot immediately after, injuring a second. Donohue flashbanged the pod, which caused them to pause briefly in disorientation, allowing Fawkes and myself to maneuver and kill two of them. The last one, showing more self-preservation than we've previously seen from the bugs, fled into the line of fire from Mineral and Maschine, who put it down. Only seconds later, another pod of 'Lids charged Mustang. She let loose several hasty shots, but only managed to slow them down slightly, injuring one as she withdrew.

Olu followed up with a Rocket which seriously injured the pod, leaving Fawkes to bomb them into oblivion with an AP grenade. When there was no more immediate resistance, we advanced to locate civilians to evacuate. Stiletto made contact with a single drone, but did not manage to do more than graze it. This brought the Cyberdisc into the open, where it started to focus fire on her. The rest of the squad took shots at the Seeker that swooped over the wall, hitting it with several shots, but failing to stop it before it wrapped Markusova up. Faber didn't let that stick too long; She put the Seeker down from the back almost as soon as it got to Stiletto.

Markusova didn't rest long; Despite just having been choked by the Seeker, she drew her pistol and designated the Cyberdisc for Mineral. Unfortunately, it managed to jink aside as she cut loose with her cannon, completely avoiding damage. The rest of the squad, lacking a clean shot, held in place and waited for a target. Meanwhile, we could hear the X-Rays continue to make civilian casualties.

Colman took a second before firing another burst, and managed to nail the Disc head on, while Stiletto eliminated the Drone before it could move forward to support the Disc. Instead of advancing, the Disc continued to focus it's fire on Stiletto, who thankfully avoided it, and spanged a few pistol rounds off of it, which didn't seem to help the rest of the squad. Fortunately, Olu had been taking careful aim with his rocket, and managed an air-burst which badly damaged its armor, without seeming to slow it down any. Finally, Mustang took it down with a shotgun blast, freeing the squad to move.

Our line of advance didn't reveal any more X-Rays, but Fawkes did manage to direct two civilians back to the Skyranger, before I decided we needed to flex to the right. As soon as we redirected, A pod of Seekers jetted out from behind the ruins of the building. I managed to take the first down with a reaction shot, while Fawkes ran up and lobbed an AP grenade, damaging one and killing another. Leo took a few shots and managed to finish off the damaged Seeker before it could close further.

When Fawkes move to the left flank, he spooked three Thin Men into cover, though his HE grenade blew one of them out of cover before it had properly made it. Stiletto, waiting for a clean shot, finished the Thin Man off before it could recover. I moved up and managed to wing another as it peeked out from cover. When it tried to advance, Olu, from his elevated position, finished it off. Leo and Mineral managed to eliminate the last one as it tried a desperate charge into range.

We scouted the rest of the ruined district, but we managed to find no more civilian survivors. The only thing I was thankful for is that we didn't have to deal with any survivors that had been caught by Chryssalids. We evacuated the two survivors, and returned to HQ.


LESSONS LEARNED

o Sustain:

 - Use of Cover and Terrain

 - Explosives to control the fight

o Improve:

 - Faster OPTEMPO could have saved lives

 - Pre-Combat Checks on Equipment

Butter Bar Blues (06 JUL 2016)

Naomi and Jared sat together on the love seat in the farthest corner of the day room. They'd been talking all night, occasionally laughing, as they shared stories of their fallen comrades. Jade had been with them until about an hour ago, and for the last ten minutes, neither of them had spoken. They'd broken out the whiskey again, as they always did after a death, but the buzz was long faded, and they just sat in silence.

"It hurts," Naomi said finally, breaking into the stillness. "Doesn't it?" Jared just nodded numbly, his eyes far away. She knew exactly what he was thinking, feeling, as it had only been a week since CPL Cable had died on her watch. It had been her first mission after her promotion, too. She'd heard it whispered about as the Curse of the Butter Bar; Only LT Lindemann had managed to lead his first mission as a Lieutenant without any casualties.

"Was it your fault?" She asked the question, knowing it would hurt, and wasn't surprised when she saw him flinch and tense up. She knew the answer, of course, but she also knew that he'd be blaming himself. She waited for him to answer.

"Allah help me," he whispered at last. "I don't know." He leaned back on the couch, bringing his hands up to wipe at his face in frustration. "I've been replaying it all, ever since then. I didn't know that Bombshell's cover had been blown inside the building. I feel like I should have known, but I didn't. Carter though..." He trailed off, and stared at the ceiling. "He was a volunteer, did you know? He told me how he'd raised hell when the news reports starting coming in about the attacks, about how they should be doing something. Eventually, he got mysterious transfer orders, and was only told where he was going when he was already en route." Jared grinned hollowly as he spoke.

"I know," Naomi replied. "I spoke to him when he arrived, gave him a bit of a tour." Jared nodded, remembering that he was her countryman. "He was just so excited when he realized what we were up against. Kid wasn't even twenty, and nothing scared him."

"That's the honest truth," Jared agreed. "He told me that he had a clear line on the Cyberdisc, and he knew he could take it down. Hintikka reported that he didn't see anything else in the vicinity, so I gave him the go-ahead." He sighed, dropping his eyes from the ceiling, meeting her gaze for half a second before looking down into the hands he'd folded in his lap. "It was only after he'd reported the Disc going down that anyone saw the Drones move in."

"So you made the best decision you could, based on the information you had?" she asked gently. Jared looked up at her sharply, but after a moment of tense eye contact, he let out his breath in a gust, and looked away. "Merc', you know that leaving the Cyberdisc operational any longer than necessary would have put the whole squad in danger. He probably saved other lives by taking it down."

"I know," he admitted. "But seriously, two? No one else has lost two troopers, and this wasn't even that intense of a mission. It wasn't an assault cruiser flying through the sky, or anything." His voice was bitter, and she heard the thickness of tears in his throat.

"Lorena wasn't your fault," Naomi said. "She was my friend, and I loved her, but she was also a veteran who knew what she was doing. She took a risk, and it didn't pay off for her. She was strong enough to take responsibility for her own choices. Don't take that away from her by blaming yourself."

"It's just... It's getting harder, isn't it?" Jared met her eyes firmly, and she could see the worry in them. "Mistakes are costing more, the stakes are getting higher. We're seeing new threats we've not seen, and I don't think we've even begun to see what they've got." Naomi nodded quietly, as she'd had some of the same worries. "Can we even win this fight?"

"Of course we can. Yeah, we've lost a bunch of our friends, our brothers and sisters, but look at how far we've come. I agree that it's just going to get harder as the fight goes along, but we're going to win. This isn't a couple of nations disputing a border, or foreign policy. This is an enemy from behind the stars, and they've come to try to take the lives and freedom of every human on the planet." Naomi reached across and covered Jared's clasped hands, and squeezed. After a moment, he squeezed back and smiled a little. "We will win this fight, Jared. We'll win because we have to."

Salat al-Janazah (21 JUN 2016)

[Author's Note: This story directly follows OPERATION DEMON HYMN despite being published after OPERATION COLD HYMN; Due to real life issues, and the sensitive subject matter in this story, it took much longer to write than it should have.
Also note that this is a work of fiction, written by a Christian and an American. I have solicited advice from muslim acquaintances, but this is pretty much entirely the result of internet research. No disrespect is intended if I have not gotten any details right. I hope to show honor to any and all muslim troopers who adhere to the rightful teachings of the Prophet, and to those who fight the good fight to defend their fellow man, no matter what their creed or beliefs.]

It was another somber night in the XCOM HQ.

The Skyranger, bearing the remains of SGT Khadem had just departed for Egypt, where he would be interred with all proper ceremony by his family. The barracks and the common areas were full, but quiet, as they always were following the death of a comrade. Unlike the previous times, there remained a small group in the hangar.

-

CPL Jared Houston looked around at the others. CPL Ramli, SPC Safar and PFC Benhassi were known to him, but not exceptionally well, but they all shared the same faith. When Khadem's death had been reported, SGT Hassan had requested Houston to visit in the medbay, where he'd asked him to prepare for funeral rites for Khadem. Jared had agreed immediately, though he was only a somewhat recent convert to Islam. He was the ranking person of the islamic faith, and XCOM had no chaplains. The Skyranger was inbound with the squad and SGT Khadem's remains, so he got to work.

Between his copy of the Qur’an and the internet to fill in the blanks, Jared got a passable understanding of funeral rites. Once he was done, he hesitantly approached CPL Ramli, who was also from Egypt, with his plans. She was surprised to be consulted, but she agreed that, under the circumstances, with such a mixed lot of islamic faithful, that following some of the general muslim funeral rites would be best. The he went to Bradford, to request the remains be given to his brothers and sister for preparation, before being sent home.

The Skyranger was vectoring in for a landing when the word came back from the Commander. With no chaplain on staff, it seemed appropriate that Khadem be honored as best as he could be by his fellow troopers, though their time would be limited, in order to get him home to his family as expeditiously as possible. CPL Houston asked Central Officer Bradford to relay their gratitude, and that it would be enough.

When the Skyranger landed, they discovered that SPC Dhalon had been wounded, and would not be able to join them. He, like SGT Hassan, would be stuck in medbay. This left the task of preparing SGT Khadem's body to the four of them.

Houston, Safar and Benhassi had prayed and performed their ablutions to become wudhu prior to the Skyranger's arrival, so CPL Ramli escorted the medics who brought the corpse to them. They did not have the necessary herbs to make sidr or camphor water, a problem that Bradford said they'd try to fix for the future, so they'd opted just to do the three cleansings with pure water drawn up from the natural reservoirs beneath the XCOM HQ.

Khadem's body was mostly untouched, except for his head. He'd taken the plasma blast above his left eye, and most of his head on that side was gone, and the burns marred much of the rest of his face. The only grace was that the heat had completely cauterized the wound. Houston had helped guide the medics in placing the body with the feet facing northeast, toward Mecca. Once they had left, and CPL Ramli had stepped outside, they carefully stripped the body, placing a folden linen bedsheet over the lower belly to upper legs, and then began the ghusl mayyit.

Later, after the body had been enshrouded in a kafan improvised from bedsheets, they'd finally taken SGT Khadem's body back to the hangar. Jared prayed that their efforts would be acceptable to the family, and would be sure to push the issue of proper funeral preparations in the future. Still, though it had not been the same as might have happened in a primarily islamic nation, Houston felt that SGT Khadem would be satisfied with the honor paid to him by his brothers and sister.

-

The hangar doors close above, cutting off the dim twinkle of starlight, and leaving the four in darkness and silence. With no words exchanged, they turn and file out of the hangar, making their way through the corridors to the medbay, where Hassan and Dhalon await. It had been decided that, even though his body would not be present, that they would recite the Salat al-Janazah for themselves and their fallen brother. His face only betraying the slightest nervousness, Houston stepped forward, and his fellow troopers gathered around the two medical beds in front of him.

"Allahu Akbar," he began, then took a breath and continued. "B-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi..."

The prayer continued, with the other troopers murmuring and speaking at the appropriate moments. A few times, Jared caught hesitation and realized he must have done or said something incorrectly, but he pushed through it the best he could. It didn't take long before he felt the sting of tears, and the warmth of them upon his cheeks, but he didn't allow his voice to waver.

"Assalaamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu-Allah", he intoned, bringing the prayer to an end and bowing his head for the final time. Peace and blessings of God be upon you, my brother. Finally wiped his eyes, and saw tears standing on the cheeks of the troopers gathered in front of him. The small smile from the bed-bound Hassan told him that he'd done well enough.