XCOM 2 - Part 9

XCOM 2 STORY: Operation Brooding Heart
Location: Toronto Slums District – “Glassjaw Heights”
Date: February 14, 2039
Objective: Sabotage ADVENT Emotion Engine / Extract Resistance Asset

🎖️ SQUAD DEPLOYED
Captain Nicole “Woolf” Kidman – Sniper

Major Ron “Ghostline” Woodward – Grenadier

Lieutenant John “Disco” Travolta – Psi Operative

Captain Joe “Cipher” Jukic – Specialist

Major Tom “Crusader” Cruise – Ranger

🟥 BRIEFING
On Valentine’s Day, ADVENT activated a new Psionic Emotion Engine buried beneath Toronto’s crumbling Glassjaw Heights, broadcasting synthetic despair across all resistance frequencies. Civilians reported mass panic, hallucinations, and loss of will to fight.

XCOM Command feared this wasn’t just psychological warfare—this was a test-run for global pacification.

Operation codename: Brooding Heart.
Target: Cut the signal. Save the people. Break the machine.

🚁 SKYRANGER DESCENT – 0400 HOURS
The team touched down on a frost-covered rooftop. Ice shimmered in the wreckage of old apartment blocks. In the distance, a glowing psionic spire pulsed with red tendrils like veins across the city.

Nicole “Woolf” Kidman, posted high on a fire escape, scanned the killzone.

“Visual on relay tower. Two sectoids. One Archon. Three troopers. And a damn Gatekeeper,” she muttered.

Ron smirked. “Happy Valentine’s.”

🔥 ENGAGEMENT PHASE
Ron “Ghostline” Woodward dropped first. A proximity mine under the Archon’s patrol route, followed by a plasma grenade—boom. The Archon fell like a burning angel.

Nicole fired. Headshot. One trooper collapsed.

The Gatekeeper roared open—its glowing death maw charging.

Joe “Cipher” Jukic hacked the adjacent turret with a Combat Protocol and turned its guns against the mechanical horror.

John Travolta, recently inducted into Psi-ops, hovered just behind. His fingers pulsed with violet energy.

“Opening their mind,” he said, unleashing Domination on a sectoid. It fell to its knees—now a weapon for Earth.

Tom Cruise was already in motion, a blur of motion and blade. He blinked behind the last ADVENT officer and whispered:

“Not today,”
Then struck. One clean cut. One life ended.

🎯 PRIMARY TARGET: EMOTION ENGINE
The team pushed into the underground station where the Engine hummed like a sick heart.

Nicole held the upper rafters, picking off reinforcements. Joe and Ron breached the chamber. John sent the dominated Sectoid in first—bait.

The Engine pulsed, screaming.

Ron tossed a plasma grenade beneath its core.

“From Earth, with love.”

Boom. The red psionic light blinked out. A shockwave of freedom spread across the district. Civilians stopped screaming. The spell was broken.

🛬 EXFIL – 0500 HOURS
The team escaped as the tunnel caved in behind them. Above ground, Toronto’s gray dawn broke through the cloud cover.

Joe patched his wounded arm. Tom sheathed his sword. Nicole looked skyward.

“We win today. We give them hope tomorrow.”

🧠 PROMOTIONS & AFTER ACTION REPORT
Nicole “Woolf” Kidman → Promoted to Major

New Ability: Serial – Multiple kills with your sniper rifle refresh the action.

Ron “Ghostline” Woodward → Promoted to Colonel

New Ability: Salvo – Using a grenade or heavy weapon as the first action no longer ends the turn.

John “Disco” Travolta → Psi Level Up: Void Rift

Joe “Cipher” Jukic → Promoted to Major

New Ability: Restoration – Sends the Gremlin to heal or revive all nearby allies.

Tom “Crusader” Cruise → Promoted to Colonel

New Ability: Reaper – A deadly melee chain that gets stronger with each kill.

OPERATION BROODING HEART became a message broadcast across resistance cells worldwide:

“The aliens tried to drown Earth in sorrow. We answered with steel, flame, and soul.”