March 22, 1999, 5:00:45 hours - Terror in Tehran

The skies were peaceful for a while after the victory in Kinshasa, and Interceptor patrols reported nothing out of the ordinary. Each unsuccessful patrol showed a bit more edge in the voices of the Interceptor pilots, anxious to test out their new craft-mounted plasma beams on alien scum. Suddenly, the peace was broken by a Priority Alert alarm. Again, the squad (with it's two newest members) met Commander LUEshi enroute to Hangar Alpha for their briefing.

"The bastards are unusually active this month. We just received a distress signal from Tehran, India. They're under attack by more Sectoids, accompanied by those damnable cyber-disks. Early reports indicate that you're going to be outnumbered, but that's nothing new for you men. Get out there and do what you do best. Good luck."

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Dawn was breaking when the Skyranger began it's decent. As the craft touched down, the squad scrambled to action. Mokujin spotted one immediately, startling it with his laser pistol. Sixty immediately followed with a killing burst from his rifle. Crazy Howard Dean exited from the other side of the ramp, and nailed a sectoid with all three bursts from his rifle, dropping it instantly. Zolthorg killed one hiding near a shop, and sonics worst enemy, accompanied by Ramza357, spotted one charging the Skyranger, but failed to connect with killing shots.

As return fire from the charging alien struck the Skyranger, The Grammar Police01 saw two terrified civilians flee their home, green plasma bolts blasting between them. He charged the house, ambushing their attacker and saving their lives, but had to duck for cover as a second Sectoid behind them opened fire on him. Sixty, coming around the front of the house, surprised the thing with a clean shot through a nearby window, ending the threat. Meanwhile, ConkerTheHedgehog killed the sectoid charging the Skyranger with a blast from his own laser rifle.

Crazy Howard Dean, investigating the store where one of the dead Sectoids had been hiding, spotted two Cyberdisks hiding around back of the building. He tried to line up for a shot, but the things saw him, and showing an unreasonable amount of intelligence for biological horrors, they retreated behind the wall. He retreated as well, calling out their location to the squad.

Child of Asuka cautiously advanced toward the front of the Skyranger, quickly ducking behind a wall as a plasma bolt detonated on the armored surface of the shuttle. Conker, from his vantage point, identified his attacker...another of the cyberdisks. Hearing this, Asuka broke and ran, trying to escape the blast radius. Conker levelled his weapon to fire, but spotted another sectoid, firing a blast at the creature but scoring only a glancing hit.

Mokujin, now quite irritated at his failure to kill anything, proved himself. His laser blasts cut cleanly through a window, six shots hitting the cyberdisk and detonating it, the explosion killing the sectoid that Conker had just wounded. He smiled to himself. "Two birds with one stone, not bad!"

His amusement was short lived. The explosion caught the attention of another disk, hovering in the air just above the now-dismembered sectoid's head. Before he could call out a warning, the thing opened fire. Conker was struck in the chest with two plasma bolts. As he fell dying to the turf, he weakly called over his commlink, "I'm finished. It's in your hands now, boys. Do the Commander proud."

Crazy Howard Dean, hearing the Sergeant's final words, levelled his laser rifle and drilled holes through one of the cyberdisks hiding in the shopping center, causing it to detonate in a blast that took out most of the structure and revealing the other to Zolthag, who immediately relayed it's position. Child of Asuka, seeing the cyberdisk that killed Conker descend, drilled it cleanly, detonating it in mid-descent, close enough to singe some of the hair from his eyebrows.

Meanwhile, Ramza was exchanging shots with the cyberdisk that Zolthag had spotted, scoring a slight hit. Mokujin drilled another Sectoid with his laser pistol, turning to assist with the latest cyberdisk threat. Child of Asuka hurried through the debris to provide additional covering fire for Zolthag and Ramza, scoring a slight hit on the disk that seemed to irritate it more than hurt it. Ramza's next shots caught the creature unawares, setting off the horror's self-destruct mechanism and destroying even more of the surrounding structure.

Crazy Howard Dean, seeing the thing detonate, turned to see to Conker, but spotted a sectoid preparing to ambush Ramza. Several clean shots through a window changed the thing's mind...or more correctly, destroyed it, drilling clean holes through the thing's skull and dropping it.

Conker's last words were revealed as truth. Although he was still barely alive when the squad reached him and began evacuation procedures, he died of his wounds enroute to Europa Base. But, thanks to his sacrifice, civilian casualties in there area were reported as surprisingly low, and the team toasted his bravery and sacrifice over their evening meal.

SUCCESS
Aliens Killed - 11
Corpses Recovered - 9
Civilians Killed - 4
Civilians Saved - 8
X-COM Operatives Killed - 1 (ConkerTheHedgehog)

Total Mission Kills (all missions)
The Grammar Police01 - 9
Crazy Howard Dean - 5
Sixty - 5
Child of Asuka - 4
Zolthag - 1
Mokujin - 3 (including a double-kill)
Ramza357 - 1
(ConkerTheHedgehog) - 5 lifetime

Promotion: The Grammar Police01 promoted to Sergeant.

RESERVES CALLED TO ACTIVE DUTY:
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<----- Chapter 8 - Chaos In Kinshasa
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