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[DI7789]

Chapter 6: Based Very Loosely on a True Story

I'm writing this particular journal entry from the medical bay at Space Whale HQ. After visiting Spartan's ward, I accidentally wounded myself by walking in to a door. I've been here for a week, with my superiors taking over control of X-Com until I could recover. They shipped about 6 new soldiers here (Instead of the 3 I had asked for last week) and they also managed to down a UFO. McFrederick came in to my ward after the incident and told me all about it. (I should mention, I had a very accurate transcription made of our conversation, and McFrederick speaks with a thick, stereotyped Scottish accent)

McFrederick: Och, so sorry to here aboot your injury, lad.

Marcus: No worries, I'll be better soon. Now, about the latest mission...

McFrederick: Aye, aboot that...



McFrederick: We didn't really need to shoot 'er down, she was already groonded, those MI6 boys still ordered us oot though.



McFrederick: When the tank left the 'Ranger, it was shot at.





McFrederick: Tha' Obama bloke missed. Misson Control ordered everyone out of the craft to shoot the single alien.

Marcus: Well, not the best tactic, but at least it worked, right?



McFrederick: ...Not exactly.



McFrederick: Obama got it in tha end though.



McFrederick: 'Parently the UFO was big. 'Nd none o' tha aliens, 'cept that one that shot at them first, had left it.



McFrederick: They sent a Reddie in, but he go' sho' before he could kill an alien

Marcus: Oh...I don't like where this is going.

McFrederick: Ya won't. Trust me.



McFrederick: They sent in a team ta see if they could do any better. Then the video feed cut oot.

Marcus: Huh? How?

McFrederick: We doon't kno'. Bu' when it came back, the Reddies were all dead.



Marcus: That's not going to reflect well on the monthly report...



McFrederick: Then an alien came oot o' tha ship, tha' men got it before it could breathe tha' air.

Marcus: Oh, well...that's good.

McFrederick: Wha' 'appened next was worse.

Marcus: God...



McFrederick: A stun grenade, or sumthin', flew oot tha' door and blasted 'em.

Marcus: A stun grenade? The aliens have non-lethal weaponry? Why?

McFrederick: Ah dunnoo, but Mussolini got knocked oot.

Marcus: Well...could've been worse, I guess.

McFrederick: It almost was. After Mussolini went doon, they sent in Nirur.

Marcus: I trust he put his cannon to good use?



McFrederick: Aye.

Marcus: Brilliant, were those the last ones?

McFrederick: Nah, there was one tha' Obama missed.




McFrederick: 'E got it after'ard though.




Marcus: Four deaths? That's not good. Tell my superiors I am assuming command of X-Com from them. To hell with being bedridden, at least under me our men tended to live a bit longer.

McFrederick: Alright sir. Also, the soldiers' have had two interestin' additions.

Marcus: I know, I've seen their files.




McFrederick: They're good men, commander.

Marcus: Good to know. Any updates from the scientists?

McFrederick: Yep.




Marcus: They've finished two research projects? God, how long have I been in this ward.

McFrederick: They've made a start on making us some armour, too.

Marcus: Good. How is Sparta-

WARNING, UFO DETECTED OVER WESTERN GERMANY. SCRAMBLE ALL INTERCEPTOR PILOTS. SKYRANGER CREW, GET READY.

McFrederick: Sorry sir, I'm off. I'll send your regards on ta tha' new troops.



McFrederick: Alright, this 'un's for the Commander!

Meanwhile...

Marcus: Oh, screw this.

Nurse: I'm sorry, sir, you're going to have to stay in-

Marcus: Hell no. I'm not sitting idly by while my superiors screw up our operation. Nurse, take me to Mission Control.
javascript:void(0);
Nurse: Uh...yes, sir.



McFrederick: She's too fast! We can't keep up!

Pilot 2: It's massive, there's no way we'd even be able to dent that thing with our dinky missiles.

Marcus: Disengage, pilots.

McFrederick: Commander? But you're-

Marcus: Fully healed. Thank you.

Pilot 2: Disengaging.

Marcus: Good, I don't want more lives senselessly lost. Skyranger crew, stand down.


March 31st

Marcus: I've got the meeting with the Council of Funding Nations today. Hopefully, it should go well. The scientists have also announced they've researched Personal Armour, we'll have some working prototypes in the field shortly.




Marcus: I don't quite see why Germany's so happy. We haven't really done much work in their country, but an extra bit of funding goes a long way.

The Operations of X-Com. 1st April-30th April

Marcus: I'm pleased to announce we now have enough funding to buy a new base. Now...where to put it...

End of Chapter 6

Readers' Decision

Two for this update:

• Research. The current list of research is as follows:
   
  
  
  Feel free to choose which one(s) you want done, majority vote wins.
• Second, a new base. Yes or no? If yes, where, and what should be its name?

[Nirur Torir]

Hurray, I can aim HE rounds!

1 - Heavy plasmas and clips
2 - How about a base to mass produce laser cannons, with a radar array or two? X-Com Manufacturing, Co. in east asia or the USA takes my vote.

[Spartan 117]

Field Commander "Spartan 117", personal log.

!#@*&%@!$%^*!($@!^&!&!!@*!@$#%!@^&$@!$^&*%$#@!

OW OW OW OW, no, keep that awa...sleepy...nuhhh....

[Mephansteras]

I agree with Nirur, go for Heavy Plasma and clip, and make a base in the USA. Probably a combination Manufacturing/interception base.

Call it Revolver Station.

[Spartan 117]

Yeah, heavy plasma/clip.

Then plasma cannons.

Then E-115, and Power armor.

As for a base, put it in the USA. Manufacturing and interception.

Name it Area 42.

[Itnetlolor]

Agreed, but Area 12 seems more appropriate. and place the location in a bay. Somewhere on American soil sounds good for surveillance/interception. Making it a mass production facility also sounds reasonable.

As for research, I think the lasers are good still, we need better armor first though. E-115 -> Power Armor.

EDIT:
I also agree with Mephansteras. I guess we should know exactly what we're dealing with, and have an advance warning as well.

[Mephansteras]

Hmm...actually, we have a Navigator. We should research him so we can get Hyper-Wave decoders. That will help our interception capabilities a good bit.

On that note, we might want to consider beefing up our ship capabilities. We're going to get to the point soon where fighting off Battleships trying to create new bases is going to be important.

Heavy Plasma is good, but we haven't even found Snakemen yet, so I don't know that it's strictly necessary at this point.

[Spartan 117]

Our interceptors are good for now, they just need dual plasma cannons, which require heavy plasma researched.

Although, Hyperwave Decoder probably should come before power armor.

[Nirur Torir]

Okay, I change my vote to Heavy Plasma+clip > E-115 > Plasma cannons > Navigator > Hyperwavedecoder.

[Servant Corps]

I have a lame question. Is it possible to win XCOM without killing any Sectiod?

[Nirur Torir]

It would be only a bit annoying early on if you were stunning them with stun rods, but they'd be quite annoying once they got mind control if you couldn't use blaster bombs on them. If you mean no stunning or killing, retreating from fights with them .... It would be an interesting challenge. Yes, it should be possible. I don't remember any serious funding hits for not sending ground teams to downed UFOs, and they only get mildly annoyed if you run from a terror mission after landing at it. Of course, woe to you if the sectiods attack your primary base while you're not shooting them.

[CJ1145]

Hmm, could I have a guy?

Name: Roald "Ruckus" Ulfman
Equipment: Tank, if possible. But if that's out of the question, let's say he likes to make things go BOOM.
Bio, because as a D&D player I can appreciate making extensive and detailed stories for people who will likely be dead within minutes of their introduction: Roald was born and raised in West Virginia, somehow being a Redneck yet not a Confederate. Roald shot his first rifle at the age of 8, and was much disappointed with it. So, he joined the army just in time for Vietnam. He spent his time there ignoring commands, doing pot, and achieving a level of insanity described by his squad leader as "Demented enough to make the devil wet himself with fear, and beg God to let him back into heaven-anything to assure he'd never meet Roald again."

During this time, Roald earned the nickname "Ruckus" among his army buddies after the fore-mentioned leader broke under the strain of war, and ordered his men to jump off a cliff and start flapping their arms to chase after an enemy helicopter. When Roald protested, the officer attacked him, only to have his lower spine snapped in a bloody fight.

Later, Roald first got behind the wheel of a tank, and prayed that he'd never leave that wheel. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and he was sent home. Now, he has signed up for X-COM in the hopes that Ol' Betsy (The name of his tank) and Ruckus can bash a few more heads.

[DI7789]

Chapter 7: Aliens? In Cardiff?*

*No actual Welshmen shall be in this update, nor shall Cardiff.

Operations of X-Com in the Month of April. 1st-30th. Entry no.2

Well, me and the scientists have been having a bit of an old chinwag and the upshot of it all is we're researching some of those Alien Artefacts that the team brought back with them.



More good news, I've been able to set up a new base of operations for X-Com.





When it is fully completed, the base should serve as the major protector of America, and it should be able to cover part of the Atlantic, part of Canada and part of South America.

Oh, and in even better news.

Spartan 117's made a complete recovery.

Hehe, now the only injured man left is Metal Militia (He was injured in the mission that claimed four Redshirts. Unfortunately McFrederick left it out of his report). I just hope our engineers can finish their work on the personal armour before another UFO rolls around.

Additionally, one of the recruits has gotten a nickname, "Ruckus", I'll append his file to the end of this chapter.



Aw...bollocks.

Alien Terror Mission: The Invasion of Vancouver, Mission Log



Obamarama: Goddammit, why can't I ever leave the ship without being shot at?




Obamarama: We got two Reapers and a Floater in sight!

Spartan 117: Okay, I want you and Nirur to open fire on the Reapers. The rest of you concentrate on the Floater. When that's down, help 'em with the Reapers.



Spartan 117: Floater down!





Nirur: Reapers down.

Undead Benito Mussolini: Not quite, there's another one!



Sir Snipesalot: Wow...down in one shot.

Undead Benito Mussolini: Well, I got in a bit of practise when I wasn't making the trains run on time.



Spartan 117: Hey, why isn't the new guy talking?

Ruckus: *muffled sounds*

Sir Snipesalot: I...I think he's...wearing a muzzle.

Spartan 117: WHAT?! Why?

Nirur Torir: I heard it was 'cos he made his squad leader back in 'Nam go nuts.

Spartan 117: So? That's no less insane than some of you guys.

Obamarama: HEY! I'm not like that, I'm just protective of my stuff.

Spartan 117: Yea...someone take that muzzle off him.

Sir Snipesalot: Got it, sir.

Undead Benito Mussolini: Watch out, Floater in the alley to our right.

Ruckus: Hell yeah, it's RUCKUS TIME!



Spartan 117: Excellent shooting soldier.

Ruckus: HELL YEAH!



Nirur Torir: Hey, I've got a Floater on the other side of these warehouses. Keep your eyes out guys, I think they're setting up ambushes.



Zombai?: Got another Reaper here.



Bahl: And a Floater.

Spartan 117: No worries, I got the Floater. Care to take the Reaper, Mussolini?

Undead Benito Mussolini: My pleasure.

Nirur Torir: Uh...guys...I'm running out of ammo over here...

Spartan 117: No matter, as long as you're hittin' stuff. We've pretty much got an inexhaustible supply.

Nirur Torir: Okay.




Nirur Torir: There's one down an alleyway. Spartan, I think you can sneak up on him.

Spartan 117: On it. Any more?

Nirur Torir: One just ran in to the nearest warehouse.

Obamarama: I'll get it.



Spartan 117: One down.



Obamarama: The other one's down.



Sir Snipesalot: Another Reaper!

Nirur Torir: On my way.



Nirur Torir: This autoshot switch is brilliant.



Spartan 117: Got another one in the air, gonna try and shoot it...oh crap...my rifle's gotta recharge! Someone, back me up!

Sir Snipesalot: No-one can get to you.

Spartan 117:  But you can see him, right?

Sir Snipesalot: Yea, but I'm on the other end of the street...

Spartan 117: Doesn't matter, open fire!

Sir Snipesalot: Oh well, time to live up to my name...



Sir Snipesalot: Holy <bleep> I actually got it!

Spartan 117: Well done, soldier.



Zombai?: Eh? Who died?

Sir Snipesalot: Some Redshirt.


Debriefing

We saved Vancouver, with only one casualty. That's excellent news. I'm worried about the size of their force though, it was much larger than any others we've encountered. I'm just hoping they're running out of soldiers. Because from the looks of things, this war's gonna be going on for a long while. As always, I made sure to personally congratulate the men as they left the Skyranger.

------------------




I don't think I can put the joy I feel right now in to words.



Hahahaha, we are on a roll. More scientists should be arriving soon, so we can finish off the research in to plasma and make a start on interrogating some of our captives.



Brilliant, now we can keep an eye on all the goings on in America too. The scientists have finished all the Heavy Plasma research and are now working on Plasma Cannons. McFrederick was quite ecstatic about our progress.

It's the end of the month, and I've got a meeting with the Council of Funding Nations. I think they'll be happy with our work.



Wow, those guys are unpleasable...Oh well, at least we're making progress.


X-Com Operations for the Month of May.



<bleep>...<bleep>ing <bleep>ers...How am I going to deal with this...

End of Chapter 7

Readers' Decision

Attack the Alien base, or not?

[Mephansteras]

Of course! Make sure we go in with stun rods in case it's a sectoid base. We'll want to capture some Sectoid Leaders/Commanders for study so we can get Psi power ASAP.

[Nirur Torir]

We should wait until we have armor and heavy plasmas for everybody. Also, I'd like for Nirur to be switched to a heavy plasma, for base assault missions only. I'd also like to requisition him a laser pistol sidearm for when he runs out of ammo from exploding everything.

Hey, could we get the post-mission promotion screens, please? They amuse me. It also amuses me that my avatar of explodyness now technically outranks Spartan 117.