Let's Play X-Com: UFO Defense
Chapter One: Origins
On January 1st, 1999, representatives of all of the major countries in the world convened in America. The subject of the meeting was to create something to deal with the massive increase in the amount of alien encounters of the first and second kind in the world.
The product of this meeting: X-Com. The eXtraterrestrial COMbat unit. Following a vote, it was decided that the first base was to be set up in Scotland, in the UK, and that the British government would be most responsible for its upkeep.
The base was built with three hangars, enough living space to accommodate eight soldiers, and a lot of storage space. The hangars contained two Interceptor craft, one of which was piloted by a Scottish man named McFrederick who had already spraypainted the name "The Bagpipes" on the side of one of the Interceptors.
One notable soldier was:
The British Government appointed a man named Marcus Herman was appointed the head of X-Com. The following are mostly extracts from his memoirs:
Today, I got to survey this new military base that I'm apparently the head of. Scotland's a pretty nice place to put it, the scenery's great, can't say it's that good from a tactical point of view though. The furthest our radars are likely to work is probably somewhere in Northern Germany.
I saw the planes we'll be using for our operations. Can't say I like the look of our troop transport, the interceptors look great though.
After my tour, I went to my office and immediately placed a few orders for some better ordnance for our men, and some better weapons for our ships.
With our cash, I managed to purchase a brand new Avalanche Missile Launcher, and one of our Interceptor pilots, McFrederick, ran up to me and said he saw the crate it came in and asked for it to be fitted to his Interceptor. I didn't see why not.
Along with that, I ordered some of our scientists to start looking in to better weapons for our men. I've had a look at our guns and if what my superiors in MI6 were saying about the kind of enemies we were going to be fighting, they aren't enough.
And the best weapon in our arsenal. The one that cost a whole £480,000. The Heavy Weapons Platform. Hopefully it'll arrive before we make contact with our first UFO.
Bugger. Oh well, at least this should give us a chance to see what these aliens are capable of.
Tannoy: UFO Detected! UFO Detected! All Interceptor pilots scramble. UFO Detected!McFrederick: Och, aye! Finally somethin' to attack. I's been nearly a 'ole week with nothin' to shoot at!
Our Interceptors engaged and defeated the UFO over Italy, the UFO crash landed in the countryside. The Skyranger and her crew were scrambled to attack the marooned spaceship.
Redshirt: Hell yeah! Let's go kick some alien arse!
Mission Control: Okay, everyone, split in to teams of two. If you encounter any extraterrestrials in the area, eliminate them. Spartan 117 shall be your commander for this mission.
Spartan 117: Right, everyone, you heard Control. Spread out, once the area is clear, stack up on the entrance to the UFO.
Redshirt: We're taking fire! Alien presence in the field!
Redshirt: Aaaagh!
Redshirt 2: REDSHIIIIIIIIRT! YOU BASTARD GREY!
Redshirt 2: Ha! Take that!
Redshirt 2: Argh!
Spartan 117: Hey, Control! We're dropping like flies here! Please advise, retreat or keep fighting? Over.
Mission Control: Keep going. Over.
Redshirt 3: Another Grey down! Can't see the UFO though. At least one more Grey somewhere outside.
Redshirt 4: UFO in sight. Our Interceptors really did a number on this. There's a massive hole in the roof.
Spartan 117: Roger. Stack up on the entrance. I want one of you to continue searching the surrounding area.
Redshirt 4: I'm in the UFO now. Smoke's choking me. One dead Grey, nothing else.
Spartan 117: See what you can find on the corpse. Everyone else, any movement?
Redshirt 5: Think I saw something moving in one of the barns. Permission to open fire?
Spartan 117: Granted.
Redshirt 5: Not seeing anything in there.
Spartan 117: Okay. Redshirts, go take a look.
Redshirt 4: We have names, you know?
Spartan 117: Yes. I do.
Redshirt 4: Found one! Opening fire!
Spartan 117: You...missed? You were aiming at something not two feet away. With the handheld equivalent of a frigging cannon. And you missed?
Redshirt 4: It...ducked.
Spartan 117: Oh...serves you right.
Spartan 117: Crap, she was carrying the rocket launcher.
Redshirt 3: It's okay, I got this Grey...
*shot*
Spartan 117: Aw, great, 3's down. Screw this, everyone! BACK TO THE SHIP!
DebriefingI talked to Spartan 117 following that disastrous failure. He explained that the lack of skill demonstrated by our soldiers, and the general uselessness of our equipment (He made a point of mentioning the point blank miss of the Cannon). After dismissing him to let him have some rest. I had a friendly chat with my superiors, and they agreed to let me hire a few more scientists so we could speed up the process of building laser weapons.
Hopefully for our next encounter, we'll have a better chance of actually holding our own.
End of Chapter One
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Topic: Marathon Let's Play: X-COM! (Read 19203 times)