XCOM 2 - Part 13

XCOM 2 MISSION REPORT: OPERATION WITCH BEAST
Location: Crater District, Warsaw Ruins
Objective: Neutralize all hostile forces, Recover Advent Artifact
Squad Codename: Storm Lance
Outcome: Successful Extraction – Critical Intel Recovered
Difficulty: Very Difficult

DEPLOYED OPERATIVES:
SGT Tom “Maverick” Cruise – Ranger (Squad Lead)

CPL Nicole “Woolf” Kidman – Sharpshooter

CPL Mel “Mad Max” Gibson – Grenadier

CPL Ron “Torch” Woodward – Assault

CPL Joe “Ghost” Jukic – Specialist

BRIEFING:
Central’s voice cut through the dim command room:

“Advent’s running something they’re calling ‘Witch Protocol’—some kind of bio-enhancement for psionic troops. Intel puts a mobile lab convoy in Warsaw’s crater district. You stop that lab, or we deal with Witch-class Mutons everywhere.”

Five soldiers. One shot. No backup.

DROP ZONE – CHAOS AT THE CRATER
The team landed under cover of dusk. Fires from previous battles smoldered in skeletal buildings. Mutons and Sectoids patrolled around a reinforced Advent transport.

SGT Tom Cruise signaled. Nicole “Woolf” Kidman perched atop a collapsed comms tower. One shot—clean kill. An officer down.

That’s when it screeched.

From the Advent transport, a Witch Beast Muton emerged: grotesquely tall, glowing with psionic rage. Its voice echoed like fractured glass.

Mel Gibson, deadpan: “Guess she’s not here to negotiate.”

THE BEAST UNLEASHED
The Witch used telekinetic slam—Ron “Torch” Woodward was tossed into a wall. Alive, dazed, but laughing:

“That thing hit harder than my ex-wife’s lawyer.”

Joe “Ghost” Jukic dove into cover, hacking the transport’s AI firewall. “Give me ten seconds!” he yelled.

Nicole tried to line up a shot but the Beast was phasing—appearing and vanishing in bursts. Gibson laid suppressing fire with his cannon while Cruise closed the gap.

“Not today,” Cruise growled, slashing the Muton’s side, forcing it visible.

Joe’s Gremlin flew in. “Override complete!” And just like that, the lab’s psionic dampener fried the Muton’s cloak.

Nicole fired. Direct hit.

Mel’s grenade followed. The Muton screamed.

Finally, it was Joe. Cool, quiet, focused.
“Let’s end this.”

He sent a combat protocol spike through the Gremlin. It hit the Muton’s neural net—and froze it. Then exploded.

The Beast fell like a collapsed cathedral.

DEBRIEF:
The artifact recovered from the transport: a plasma-sealed brain case housing the psionic blueprint of the Witch Beast. XCOM scientists believe Advent intended to mass-produce them as field commanders.

Storm Lance stopped that nightmare.

PROMOTIONS:
CPL Joe “Ghost” Jukic → SGT Joe “Ghost” Jukic
Unlocked: Haywire Protocol
Commendation: “Calm Under Fire” – For ending the Beast with surgical precision.

CPL Ron “Torch” Woodward → SGT
Recovered and promoted for bravery under direct assault.

Others received commendations but deferred promotions. Cruise, still the quiet leader, simply nodded.
“You did good, Ghost,” he said. Joe just grinned. “Took down a witch with a laptop. I’ll drink to that.”

COMMANDER'S NOTE:
Operation Witch Beast proved two things: Advent is mutating psionics faster than expected… and Joe Jukic? He’s not just a Ghost. He’s a storm coming.