ADVENT: History
The First Battle of Japan
"I now know what to tell my kids when they ask if magic is real. I don't know how else to explain what I saw that day."
- Anonymous ADVENT Soldier
After-Action Report
Operation: Thunderous Twilight
Personnel:
Astro 1 (Squad Overseer): Specialist Carmelita Alba
Status: Active
Kills: 37
Astro 2: Specialist Fakhr al Din
Status: Active
Kills: 14
Astro 3: Specialist Jamali Muhammad
Status: Active
Kills: 24
Astro 4: Specialist Lesedi Iminathi
Status: Wounded (Estimated 5 Days)
Kills: 40
Astro 5: Psion Matthew Hawkins
Status: Active
Kills: 27
Astro 6: Specialist Iida Keyoko
Status: Wounded (Estimated 6 Days)
Kills: 15
Astro 7: Specialist Sai-Kee Tan
Status: Deceased
Kills: 11
Astro 8: Specialist Pelin Mukadd
Status: Active
Kills: 12
Astro 9: MEC Soldier Amahle Mosa
Status: Online
Kills: 38
Angel 1 (Squad Overseer): Psion Patricia Trask
Status: Active
Kills: Unknown (Do we count psionic debilitation as at least a half-kill?)
Angel 2: Specialist Anius Creed
Status: Active
Kills: 22
Angel 3: Specialist Blake Harkin
Status: Active
Kills: 5
Angel 4: Specialist Analyn Roxas
Status: Active
Kills: 4
Angel 5: Specialist Charlotte Beags
Status: Active
Kills: 24
Angel 6: Specialist Nati Avraham
Status: Active
Kills: 41
Angel 7: Specialist Allison Monder
Status: Active
Kills: 20
Angel 8: Specialist Fiona Douglas
Status: Active
Kills: 15
Angel 9: MEC Soldier Sanya Olga
Status: Online
Kills: 59
Oriole 1 (Squad Overseer): Psion Iosif Bronis
Status: Active
Kills: 1
Oriole 2: Specialist Shun Anwei
Status: Active
Kills: 0
Oriole 3: Specialist Zara Venator
Status: Active
Kills: 3
Oriole 4: Specialist Gyeong Ki
Status: Active
Kills: 1
Oriole 5: Specialist Seok Myeong
Status: Wounded (Estimated 5 Days)
Kills: 2
Oriole 6: Specialist Nuan Kun
Status: Active
Kills: 0
Oriole 7: Specialist Anna Pavlova
Status: Active
Kills: 1
Oriole 8: Specialist Inori Kanata
Status: Captured, likely Deceased
Kills: 0
Pilot 1: Jason Olgard – Call sign: "Big Sky"
Pilot 2: Patrick Nokia – Call sign: "Lightning Sky"
Pilot 3: Barney Kimon – Call sign: "Gray Sky"
Pilot 4: Riley Ignis – Call sign: "Burning Sky"
Artifacts Recovered:
Note: Numbers are subject to change as more corpses, artifacts and technology is recovered and negotiated over.
12x Intact Alien Transports
5x Damaged Alien Transports
20x Unidentified Mechanical Units
300+x Assorted Alien Corpses (Exact counts still to be determined)
50x MELD Canisters
1000x Alien Weapon Fragments (Numbers may change)
4000x Alien Alloys (Numbers may change – Stripped from UFOs and unused mechanical wrecks)
That was without a doubt the scariest time of my life, and I don't mean the aliens either. The scale of what I was a part of was something that I can't adequately express here, suffice to say that I was one man in an army of thousands, and that's just what I could see. An army that was facing off against one with greater power and numbers.
I'd read the documents from XCOM, so I knew the things that were attacking us. But it's nothing like the manuals and pictures. The Cyberdisks are terrifying up close, and are almost impossible to kill without explosives of some kind, and their guns tore through a dozen soldiers with ease. Hopefully the tech guys can reverse-engineer that kind of power for our own weapons.
Those little flying drones were…well, honestly, I'm torn between an annoyance or threat. They didn't really shoot at us, but they definitely buzzed around the Cyberdisks and Mechtoids, fixing up wounds and damage we just inflicted. Extremely irritating, and the damn things were taking shots that should have put them down.
The Mechtoids, those were almost as bad as the Cyberdisks, and I say almost because the only reason they aren't worse is because they're on the ground and you don't have to worry about them suicidally flying behind you to wipe you out. Instead you get to watch them annihilate you from the front with those huge plasma cannon arms.
So yeah, all of that was bad enough, and then I hear some cheering and XCOM shows up, and I think every soldier just breathed a sigh of relief at seeing those guys charge into the fray. Blasting drones out of the air, healing the ones wounded and being all-around literal heroes. It was initially amazing to see, butI do firmly believe we would have won even if…that didn't happen.
I might have died, but I'm sure we would have won the battle.
Anyway, things suddenly got very weird very quickly. A few minutes after XCOM landed the Mechtoids started some awful mechanical screeching and collapsed to the ground. We didn't think much of it at first, and destroyed them as soon as we could. It was the Sectoids writhing on the ground that made me pause briefly and think after I killed it.
I looked across the battlefield and saw the same thing. The Mechtoids were somehow disabled and the Sectoids as well. The Cyberdisks and drones sort of froze up as well, maybe not sure what to do, I don't know. Then I got this weird humming thing stuck in my head, it didn't hurt and somehow wasn't distracting, but I knew it was there and it only got stronger as the fight went on.
I think I know what it was. Once we began pushing up, I saw what I'm positive was an XCOM soldier. But there was something wrong with him…her…I can't tell with the armor. It was red, I remember that, but the figure was distorted. Like it was caught in a heat wave or rapidly shifting back and forth. Blurry, that's the best explanation. They were blurry, stuck in some kind of purple transparent wave.
And then those machines came out, the big ones that probably would have killed more of us if the aliens hadn't started fighting each other. And I don't think that was the first time either, since I got a glimpse of the beach and saw hundreds of alien corpses, torn apart by something, and seeing as how a good number were chryssalids, I'm guessing it was them.
How? Don't ask me. But I'm positive that XCOM soldier did something to the aliens. Somehow turned them against each other. It would explain a lot, and when the UFOs started shooting the machines out of nowhere, right over the XCOM soldier I'm talking about, while s/he's pointing towards the machines…kinda spells it out pretty clear.
I don't think it was limited to the aliens either. I started watching the XCOM soldiers towards the end, while everyone was mopping up the survivors. They fought with a coordination that isn't possible. Their shots are almost perfect and they moved immediately to a new target, like they're some kind of human turret.
And I didn't hear them speak, which might just be my own fault…but it was unnerving to see, now that I think about it alone. That XCOM soldier fainted after the battle, or something, since I saw them taken away somewhere. And funnily enough, that humming in my head disappeared as well.
XCOM really is as good as they say, I guess. But if they can do that…I don't know. It makes me really uneasy, especially if we win the war. People with that kind of power can't be controlled easily and it's scary to think how vulnerable all of us are to them. Hopefully ADVENT has a plan if that happens.
But now, the Chancellor can keep them pointed at the aliens.
- Journal of Hideo Inari, ADVENT Soldier
COMBAT REPORT TO ETHEREAL COLLECTIVE COMMAND
REPORT NUMBER: 000010000111
GROUND COMMANDER: G'ORIEN
DESIGNATED RECIPIENTS: THE BATTLEMASTER OF THE ETHEREAL COLLECTIVE; COLLECTIVE ANDROMEDON COMMANDER J'LORAN; ZAR'CHON'RAVARIAN'VITIARY
MANUAL REPORT:
As anticipated, ADVENT forces were well entrenched within the established cities, and were well prepared for the arrival of Collective forces. Despite the recommendation of myself and Zar'Chon'ravarian'vitiary, the original plan of attack was executed and true to my calculations, we suffered massive initial casualties on beachheads across the country, which severely crippled our ability to advance further.
Despite initial setbacks, the number of soldiers at our command were making slight progress against ADVENT forces, then also as predicted, XCOM deployed several squads to retaliate, dropping their forces where fighting was the heaviest. As we expected, the squads included both psions and MEC soldiers, both of which turned the battle against us.
This highlights the extreme danger XCOM psions pose to our forces, as the Psion Patricia Trask was effectively able to neutralize half of the force sent to Shirako, in addition to the multiple UFOs deployed over her position. As of right now we have no suitable counter to telepathic psions, aside from Ethereals and Hive Commanders.
It must also be stated that the other psions deployed were more dangerous to individual units, or useful for defending them. I personally encountered a defensive psion who attempted to take forward positions near Shibetsu, although defensive psions are easily controlled and handled. Despite that, he was powerful enough to defend against a concentrated Sectopod blast, which may prove problematic in later conflicts.
Aside from the capture of the city of Shibetsu, which ADVENT unsuccessfully tried to destroy, this was a resounding defeat for the Ethereal Collective. Despite this, there is much we can learn from this failure and it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of our current forces.
Our mechanical forces held up well against ADVENT, and proved their effectiveness during initial skirmishes. However, the Humans adapted quickly and capitalized on the weaknesses of these units. In particular focus-targeting our repair drones, using rockets exclusively for Cyberdisks and pinning our Mechtoids in one place while higher threats are dealt with. I should note that these weaknesses are likely to not as be easily exploited in smaller skirmishes, and not when army sizes number in the thousands.
As expected, the Sectoids were virtually useless in a combat situation. I understand that combat was not what these units were grown for, with the exception of the few Leaders we deployed, but they were easily killed by ADVENT, not to mention XCOM. Our Outsiders are unfortunately also useless on their own, as ADVENT will simply focus-fire them until destroyed, and with their gauss weaponry, that is an extremely viable tactic. Outsiders are no longer sufficient defenses for our transports, and I recommend we either put more of them on each transport, or upgrade every UFO to utilize the CODEX system.
Muton and Vitakara forces performed adequately, and had so many of them not died in the initial assault, I believe they would have been more effective than they were here. Borelians in particular were more vulnerable to the XCOM MECs, who are prone to use flamethrowers which Borelians are extremely vulnerable to. Mutons continue to prove as decent shock troopers, but once more display a lack of intelligence to adapt to asymmetrical tactics Humans will resort to, and continually lack an awareness of anything that is not right in front of them. Even the Centurions perform poorly against such tactics. I recommend a review of the current Muton combat indoctrination at all levels in light of this performance. The Oyariah performed better than expected, but are vulnerable to being outflanked easily, although with proper tactics that can be circumvented. I recommend a review of their current capabilities and strategic worth. They might prove useful counters to specific types of XCOM MECs.
Andromedon forces exceeded expectations, proving capable of withstanding the current weapon level of ADVENT soldiers, and exploiting the strengths and weaknesses of XCOM and ADVENT, while adapting to losing situations to turn them around. Our Battlefield Engineers proved instrumental in preventing outright massacres of initial assaults, and were the reason very few Andromedon soldiers died in combat. Many of them died here, and it is extremely inadvisable to waste more of them in such a useless manner.
In conclusion, this battle was not lost due to the forces here, but due to a poor battlefield strategy, lack of centralized command and a mismanagement of forces. But what we learned was almost as valuable as a victory: The Humans can stand against us and win. If the current global strategy remains consistent, we can no longer assume victory is assured, as this battle clearly proved.
I will continue managing forces in Shibetsu until the time comes for our reprisal. I do not recommend advancing on Asia until we have captured most of Japan, otherwise we are making yet another tactical error, and as we have seen today, tactical errors are fatal.
END REPORT