1 Triton1 has submerged deep deep down, next to a LOBSTERMAN base.

Quite a tricky operation. Here you see a great piece of hardware to take along, looks like a tank, it is known as a Coelacanth/ Aquajet and can be ordered for missions from stores. These 'tanks' are really essential.

I have even gone on missions where I have taken along 2 of them, but you sacrifice the accommodation of 4 aquanauts for each 'tank' as the maximum storage of a triton is 14, so you have to watch it. On the average mission 1 tank and 10 aquanauts is optimum (using 2 tanks and 6 aquanauts can be hairy: those 6 aquanauts had better be crack troops, with cutting edge armour)

2 Anyway, on this mission we have used the optimum 1 tank and 10 aquanauts, it's the safest combination and gives the troops are real morale boost to know that they have plenty of comrades plus the tough Coelacanth/ Aquajet. This hardware has a spectacular torpedo launcher which I have actually seen fire during reaction time! Pretty rare but I have seen it happen and I can tell you it's quite a sight to behold. The torpedo will easily blow walls out on a house and kill low level creatures like Aquatoids, Gill Men and Calcinites in one strike.

The action you see here coming off is Able Seaman Ivan Bulakov firing his sonic-blasta rifle. You can't see what he has targeted but you can see the wake of the water as the sonic stream flies towards the other side of the base. Bulakov has a sonic-blasta rifle in one hand and in the other he holds a marker beacon that will illuminate a huge area if needed.

3 Check out the wake of that sonic stream. It has gone straight across the top of that lower level containing egg drives that you see there. Ivan Bulakov obviously targeted that Lobsterman.

Lobstermen are extremely tough enemies for Aquanauts, presenting massive armour and strength. A Lobsterman is quite capable of marching over to an aquanaut and with their huge pincer arms can deliver a clout that will simply kill the aquanaut right there and then. However, they mostly seem to prefer use of sonic cannons and Thermal Shok Cannon. They will not hesitate to use them either

4 What you can see happening here is that Bulakov's aim is way off. He has missed the Lobsterman, the sonic rifle has blown a part of the guard wall surrounding that lower level drive room that you can see there.

The Lobsterman appears to be holding a Thermal Shok Cannon and is quite likely to react with a chemical freeze bomb. If struck by one of these you are odds on to end up on the table of some Lobsterman Analysis Unit, being probed and dissected to death! The amount of armour that an aquanaut wears is in direct proportion to his resistance against chemical freeze weapons. Aquanauts with no armour will be taken out immediately. Ivan is wearing Plastic Aqua Armour which is the first (and chaepest) armour developed by X-COM.

5 Yikes, when that Guard Wall is damaged you certainly know about

Just look at that thing go! The explosion is pretty mammoth and causes a huge froth of bubbles about 10' away from that Lobsterman. You definitely do not want to be standing next to that wall when it explodes like that but ... knowing that it is soooo sensitive to sonic fire this could be one thing that an aquanaut could remember for future tactics! Just how devestating is the blast from that wall going up? Well I think we are just about to find out!

6 With a very loud roar the Lobsterman folds and goes down. He's been taken out by Ivan's sonic rifle blowing a section of Guard wall 10' away.

Hehe what a cunning plan now was that intended or just sheer flippin good luck?

Meanwhile Able Seaman Nick Whyte is getting ready to come out from behind that corner wall. See the arrow above Whyte's head? He is being instructed to move from there to the position marked by the yellow cursor and I can tell you that what he sees next is going to make him wish he'd stayed put!!

7 Whyte has spotted a Tentaculat and that thing is the scariest abomination that an X-COM crew could see, I can tell you that now.

Tentaculats have long tentacles which paralyse the victim. Next thing that happens is the victim becomes a zombie and there is no known cure developed by X-COM yet, so staying out of their way is priority no. 1 or even better taking 'em down first time every time if possible. Whyte has a choice of "Aimed Shot" or "Snap Shot"

From this distance Whyte is virtually assured to miss using a 'snap shot' and the distance is so great that even with "Aimed Shot" this is going to be a difficult hit

8 Whyte wastes no time and kneels for the shot.

He too is armed with a Sonic-blasta rifle and let's keep our fingers crossed that Whyte delivers. Tentacaluts have massive time units, being able to swim in all directions including up and down - once they have spotted an aquanaut he is in very real danger.

Looking at Whyte's data display for a minute, you can see that his time units available are 47, so he will still have enough time to fire again with an 'aimed shot' should he need to

9 Whyte's shot looks dead on target to hit that Tentaculat

Regarding the black areas of the level, these are deliberately blacked out because no aquanaut on the team has got close enough to those areas yet to "see" what the layout is. So you will see very large blacked out areas and your crew will simply have to explore "the black areas" which will then 'light up' as you get closer. Looks like there has been some action in this section already by the looks of the debris scattered across the adjacent chamber

10 Whyte's shot HITS but incredibly the tentacalut - although injured - looks on - as evil as ever. Meanwhile Siegfried Shultz has begun the launching procedure to send a torpedo straight into that Lobsterman's den.

Lt Greg Jeffries looks on in an approving manner - the tentacalut is STILL around the chamber to the left somewhere so the whole situation is escalating quite badly.

If Shultz's launch fails, that Lobsterman appears to be armed with a Thermal Shok-Launcher which looks bad for Lt. Jeffries

11 Shultz has a maximum of 10 way points to play with.

When the course is plotted for the 'Disruptor Projectile' (rocket) - the weapon can be initiated and you'd better pray that you have taken account of ledges, corners, slopes and even other X-COM crew or the rocket will detonate mid-course causing unknown chaos. Just because a course is 'plotted' and 'locked in' is no guarantee as many a mission will prove.

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