That proved a damn close call. Had ordered a troop transport bearing ten heavily armored, experienced troops, plus a hovertank mounting a heavy plasma cannon to recover a hostile alien craft after having a fleet of interceptor aircraft outfitted with the latest in heavy weaponry plus a few with mounted very long-ranged and immensely destructive missile weapons for dealing with the very largest, heavily armed and most dangerous threats, whilst able per mounting point able to carry only two warheads, they put nuclear-tipped devices to absolute shame in the massive damage dealt to such craft, to the point where four fighter aircraft are often able to prove enough to down their largest craft, at least if they are not wiped out by a single shot from the huge weapons batteries carried by the enemy craft, which typically results in the interceptor fighter aircraft being destroyed instantly, or if they are lucky just critically damaged.
And it turned out that not only was the craft downed crewed by some of the most exceedingly dangerous enemy of any, physically weak but with immense psychic abilities; able to send troops into a helpless panic, or even to temporarily force them to turn on their own side, if the soldiers targeted are not well-disciplined enough to cast off their influence. Some of the greener troops I was having to order to unload their weapons and proceed with stun batons only of use at point blank range, and making sure that any of the enemy force were taken down fast the moment their position became known.
Got another vessel to neutralize with a ground assault and recover, plus have discovered what seems to be one of their bases. If its crewed by those damn psychic creatures though, and I hope not, that would make one damn tough fight, especially to manage without any of my own troops being killed. Got to get a team inside nevertheless, to fight their way to the heart of the facility and cripple it from the inside, allowing the resources used to build it to be taken, technology, weapons and ammunition as well as alien corpses and potentially take captives for interrogation with stunning weapons since nabbing the commanders of the base ought to give quite a lot of information on operations, before the captive is sent for autopsy.
