Battle ResolutionMission Type: Intercept
Craft(s): 1 Raven
Destination: Egypt
The small UFO tears through the thin atmosphere above Egypt at hypersonic velocity, descending steadily towards it's destination. It's sleek, dark hull blends with the darkness of space above, it's flickering shields making it shimmer as if it were a gemstone set into the sky. It's a serenely beautiful sight, which is shattered suddenly when UFO's plasma turret opens fire.
A burst of veridiscent plasma bursts through the sky, just barely missing the closing Raven interceptor. In response, the cutting edge XCOM interceptor opens up the throttle, and jumps towards the UFO. The pilot confirms his target, and takes aim.
Still closing quickly, the interceptor launches a missile from beneath each wings. The Avalanche missiles sweep towards the UFO, which enters a tight turn to avoid them. One missile looses course and overshoots, but the other hits dead on. The armor piercing warhead detonates, and a supersonic jet of liquid metal pierces through the UFO's hull. A part of the hull dissappears suddenly, and debris spills out of damaged compartment. Wounded, but far from defeated, the Ufo continues on.
Another missile volley erupts from the wings of the interceptor, sweeping towards their target. A veridiscent plasma burst speeds the other way, hitting the cockpit head on. The superheated plasma washes over the plane, scouring away the paint, melting the fuselage, until the entire thing disintegrates, half melted parts dropping down towards the Earth.
But even from death the interceptor still strikes true. Radar imagery shows the UFO tumbling from the sky, landing somewhere deep in the desert. Without an interception team ready however, we have to wait until other forces can secure that side. Whatever damage we've done to the UFO must have been tiny, because the site is empty when forces arrive, and we have some radar returns of a ship claiming back to space.
Efforts to recover anything from the site are unsuccesfull. Initially, there are claims that some of the debris shed from the UFO was recovered and sold to tourists, but recovery of some of those supposed artefacts revealed them to simply be random scraps.
Result : Mission Intercepted, UFO got away.
Mission 2
Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols, Meld container) (1UP, 1EP)
1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: South Africa
Fire engulfs the UFO as it descends towards the Earth from space. It's hull appears to deal effortlessly with the heat, but the UFO does not appear entirely immune. It's sensors are blinded by the heat, letting the Raven sneak in from below. Despite the heat, the design differences between the UFO and any human craft are obvious. Unlike a human craft, the UFO does not appear to have a clearly defined front and back. Instead, it looks as if it were capable of flying backwards or forwards as easily as any other direction.
Not that it gets any chance to show of such tricks. From the perfect firing position, the Raven fires 4 missiles straight into the UFO. One still misses, 2 tear great rends into the hull, but the last must have hit something vital, as the entire UFO goes up in a ball of flame.
Result : UFO Destroyed
Mission Type: Harvest
Craft(s): 1 Small Scout (1VP)
Unit loadout: 1 Sectoid (Plasma Pistols) (1UP)
1 Scout Drone (1UP)
Destination: Nigeria
Contrary to the two other missions, the UFO in Nigeria has already been on the ground. UAV reconnaissance, though complicated by repeated plasma fire from the landed UFO, eventually identifies all the aliens on the ground. There appear to be the scrawny pink aliens found earlier ("now classified Sectoids") and some kind of tiny, floating silvery orbs. They appear to be trying to capture as many humans as possible, with the silver orbs hunting them down before injecting or electroshocking them, while the sectoids drag them back to the UFO.
The Skyranger appears just as the UFO's are wrapping up operations, moving quickly to avoid plasma fire. Our NOTSOFT squad gets dropped of on the town's edge, and effectively moves to engage the enemy. The following data has been derived from footage streamed from the team's equipment kits, as there were no survivors.
The battle was brutal, but brief. Our NOTSOFT soldiers showed enormous tenacity in the face of adversity, but they were outnumbered, and the enemy had an uncanny knowledge of our movements. Their scout drones popped up from unexpected vents and nooks and crannies, injecting our forces with severe tranquilizer and poison, or electrocuting them into unconsciousness. Their weaponry fires hot plasma blasts, tearing through the walls of the structures our forces hide in, and inflicting horrific burn wounds. Our forces don't go down easily, killing sectoids and scout drones, but they go down eventually.
With the town left burning behind them, the remaining sectoids take off with their UFO and disappear into space.
Result : Operation FAILURE
Vehicles
Raven (Interceptor) : Way beyond the bleeding edge of technology, the Raven is far beyond any other jet fighter ever build on Earth. With upgraded avionics, adjusted tracking, and advanced pulse detonation engines, the Raven is capable of pursuing even high speed alien craft. If needed, it can use it's avalanche missiles to shoot down any intruders. Cost : 2 VP
Skyranger (Troop Transport) : World's first supersonic troop transport. The Skyranger is high speed, heavily armored troop transport, capable of deploying and retrieving a single squad of soldiers in various situations. Cost : 1 VP
Equipment
Basic XCOM Rifle : XCOM's standard rifle. Cutting edge, custom designed, yet still affordable. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
Basic XCOM Grenade : A simple grenade. Activate, throw, explode. Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
BASIC XCOM PISTOL : A simple, highpower pistol. It packs a pretty heavy punch, making it an effective if chalkenging sidearm Part of standard equipment.
Cost : 0
Training Program
Rookie Training Program : A basic introduction to the entire Xcom project. The absolute minimum that any soldier needs to know to operate successfully at XCOM. Cost : 1 Unit Points.
NOTSOFT training regimen : The harshest of harsh training regimes. Provides forces with a wide variety of skills, as well as injuries and trauma's. Less than effective due to high fail rates and a focus on harshness over training. Cost : 3 Unit Points.
Mission Profiles
Interception : A simple mission profile that focuses on intercepting an alien vessel as soon as it's detected, destroying it before it can do any damage to any innocent people.
Down and Capture : A more complicated mission profile that focuses on downing an alien vessel (or waiting for it to land), and then storming it with ground forces.
XCOM Resources
Island Mountain HQ [An isolated, hidden underground base on a remote island in the Aegean]
Aereal reconnaissance program : A simple program that allows us to requisition drone reconnaissance on suspected UFO sites.
5 VP
3 UP
3 EP
It's now the design phase.AABBCCDD