Match with Sergeant Pepper complete! Results: 2-1. Pepper wins!
Match 1: Drinking on the job, with a side of fried calamari. THE RETURN OF SNIPER-SHOTGUN.
Apparently disheartened by their defeat at the hands of Taugaunt's men and women (and aliens), the Normandy members went to the bar to drown their sorrows. Upon arrival, however, they spotted the units fielded by Sergeant Pepper. Sovereign, in an effort to learn more about pigeons, ascended to the top of the roof to investigate some ruffling noises. Unfortunately, those noises were caused by birds fleeing from the Cyberdisc that had just positioned itself on the roof. Sovereign expressed gratitude for it's cloaking device at that time. A drone was also spotted.
Knowing that the enemy would likely try to drop on top of them, most of the others made their way to the bar door, with the exception of Ashley, who remained next to an alien pod the watch the rooftop. The disc did indeed try to drop onto them, however it descended over an alleyway rather than directly over the door. It briefly saw the group huddled at the door as it glided, causing a number of plasma bolts and an alloy shot to pass it. Some of the plasma hit, credit to Legion. Having landed in shadows, the disc couldn't see the group and moved over near another alien pod. This elicited a laser shot from John, which unfortunately missed.
At the other end of the bar, a door was thrown open, and a small object flew over to the group's door. It turned out to be a grenade. At the same time, a Muton Elite appeared at the other end of the bar, taking cover behind a counter. Legion expressed infuriation (word doesn't exist. Shut up, it's Legion. He does what he wants.), and took a shot at the disc. Due to footage corruption (read: I can't remember exactly), it is unknown whether this shot connected. Jane, however, certainly did, Running and Gunning over to behind the pod and blasting the disc with an Alloy Cannon. The explosion hurt her, but not by much.
Legion now turned it's attention to the Muton on the other side of the bar, taking a shot. It missed. Sovereign, sensing an opportunity, moved to strangle a human soldier (class unidentified. My memory's really bad today.), only to find itself revealed. Somewhat shamefully, it simply shot him. Ashley, seeing that the soldier was next to a truck, fired a rocket into it, blowing the soldier up. In a similar attack, the drone floated down from the roof and detonated itself right next to Legion.
At the same time, a MEC trooper revealed itself from the door the grenade had flown out of. Sensing victory, it took a shot a Legion, surprised when it missed. Jane, meanwhile, had started to sneak around the back, all the better to get a flanking shot. Sovereign moved in behind the Muton and shot it in the back multiple times before it finally got sick of it's shit and killed Sovereign outright.
Legion managed to damage both the Muton and the MEC before operation ceased due to exosuit damage, which is fancy talk for "He died." Ashley too was eliminated when she tried to retreat behind a "Virmire Shipping Co." truck. Now, only Jane remained.
Through a her position behind them, she managed to kill the Muton before it could react. For a moment, she lost the MEC, and later swore she could hear it humming the Jaws theme at times. Eventually, she spotted it searching through the bar and fired blindly. Surprisingly, the shot connected and the MEC failed. Score one for Taxor.
Match 2: This could have gone better.
This encounter was simply embarrassing. The PAYDAY gang decided to do what was supposed to be a "Low-key" heist of a fast food restaurant. However, some of the customers included men from Pepper's forces. Caught almost completely unawares, Hoxton and Wolf were incapacitated and their Bulldozer severely injured before anyone could do anything. A MEC came and obliterated Chains with a single punch, and Dallas fell at some point during this. The Bulldozer was dispatched rather easily after that.
I have to recommend that we train all units to expect trouble. This operation went absolutely abysmally, with only one injury on the other side. Serious review needed.
Match 3: Yo, I heard you liked 95% chance shots. So I made you miss your 95% chance shot so you can take the shot again.
This defeat seemed to enrage the PAYDAY gang. Instead of accepting it, however, they decided to try and steal some intel from the X-COM HQ. Dallas went upstairs on the right, and Chains went into the same area, only on the ground floor. Hoxton followed the Bulldozer through the middle, and Wolf went over to the left. This soon turned out to be a poor idea when a MEC and several EXALT soldiers appeared on the other side of the hangar. The Bulldozer tried to assist, but then found itself caught in the heat aswell. Wolf doubled back and threw a smoke grenade between Hoxton and the Bulldozer to make them harder to hit.
Meanwhile, on the right side of the hangar, Dallas opened a door to discover two Muton Elites staring at him. He dropped back with a curse, composed himself, and took a 95% shot. He missed, much to the consternation and general mad of Chains below, who was forced to climb a ladder behind the Mutons to help fix the problem. One Muton was dutifully eliminated, but the other, with a sneer (we assume it was sneering. Behind those masks it's stupidly hard to tell what a Muton is thinking.) it moved behind Chains and killed him. Dallas fired again, and this time didn't miss.
After an explosion destroyed his cover, Hoxton ran for the safety of a pillar. An enemy Mechtoid spotted him and fired, but missed. Wolf was surrounded by an MEC and an EXALT trooper. He panicked and ran outside to shoot the EXALT soldier, but only managed to wound him. An EXALT heavy nearby finished him off.
The MEC came over to the Bulldozer and stared at it for a few seconds, staring into it's soul. Then it deployed an EMP burst, killing it. Hoxton had by this point fallen to the Exalt soldiers.
Dallas, with only 5 health points remaining, decided to abandon the plan. (read: I crashed.) Due to the inability of the group to recover from such a total defeat, we have named that a victory for Pepper.
Pepper is thus victorious. As a result, our illustrious leader has adopted a mark of shame - the addition of a the letter "r" into his name. For a time he shall be known as Traxor, ruler of farm equipment.
Match 4: This would have been nice if it counted :/
There was another skirmish between our forces training Ms Anderson at a heritage-listed building site later that night, which our side won. Of note was the teamwork between Anderson and Meta Ridley in killing two heavy floaters, and Legion for scaring the shit out of another and causing it to flee. Moreover, Anderson showed some skill with the rifle, shooting through the building to hit an enemy sniper directly in the head. There may be hope for her yet.
All in all, the mission was a resounding success, similar to the second operation against Pepper. However, this did not accomplish anything for us, and so must still be considered a failure. (We decided to have another match for funzies, and to give me some... satisfaction.)
I am not pleased with our progress thus far. We will have to improve our efforts if we wish to lose with any dignity.