(In this post, Manny gets a word in!)
February 1st, start of a brand new month. The funeral for The Chosen was held on that day. Attendance was low, it appeared he didn't make many friends while here. Strange code name... Tamunshin did not attend, she was still working through her issues.
X-Com operatives had still not located Dr. Richard Gableman. The coast guard had been mobilized for the entire west coast to find the ship, Canada and Mexico had also lent their aid. The cruise liner Hyperion has a passenger capacity of over 3000 people and it was concerning that they, along with Dr. Gableman, could be lost at sea.
Using the newly acquired funds I had my X-Com operatives recruit 10 more scientists. Late in the day I received news that the engineers had finished producing the med-kits I had ordered.
I sent a message to Aura Luna to have the excess units sold off. As well I asked her to have the engineers start producing five new laser pistols.
The next day, 10 new scientists arrived on base.
It is amazing how quickly my operatives work outside the base. I immediately had them join the other scientists on the laser rifle project.
On the third of February I attended a demonstration put together by Manny and the other equipment techs. The presentation was being held at the shooting range, One of the little gray men we had captured was restrained against a target dummy. When everyone had arrived and the time to start had come, Manny addressed the audience.
"My department has received a lot of complaints about our weapons. They are not accurate, they are not powerful enough, yadda yadda yadda." He pauses for a moment. "Let me show you a video taken in Nevada, USA about 5 years ago..." He turns on a screen, setup on the nearby wall.
The image that appears seems to be a recording from an American soldier riding in a hummer in the middle of a bright desert. He and his fellow soldiers are joking about their mission to recover a crashed ufo. After a few minutes of this the driver of the hummer urges the others to be quiet as he had spotted some smoke coming from a "light blue metal room or something." He soon stops the vehicle and the soldiers get out, the camera focuses on a very familiar shape. They approach the ufo cautiously but soon one of them yells out "Look out!" The camera jerks and turns to show a little gray man hold up a plasma weapon. A fraction of a second later the camera goes snowy for a moment and falls to the ground. In the sideways image the alien remains in view. The sounds of heated combat fill the room as we watch the alien take on several bullets without much deterrent at all. Behind the alien a soldier appears suddenly and knocks the alien out cold with the butt of his rifle. "What the fuck was that?" Yelled one soldier. "Fuck I don't know! i-it got Jeremy!" Footsteps could be heard for a moment before the camera is picked up and turned off.
"As you could all see" continued Manny "conventional weapons had little effect on the alien. It lasted over 10 minutes in direct fire and had to be taken out with a solid jolt to the head from behind." He held up a handgun. "This is a desert eagle. It is loaded with piercing .44 magnum rounds. To illustrate to you just what were are up against, I will fire this entire clip into our captive at 10 meters." He moved over to the firing range and aimed his firearm. He squeezed the trigger 8 times in rapid succession, each bullet hitting the alien and promptly falling to the concrete floor.
He turned to his audience with nothing short of anger in his eyes, It matched his usual temperament well. "Our enemies are bullet proof, they're very skin is dense enough to stop traditional munitions." Manny moves to a table that has been layed out with the weapons we have been using thus far. "You may or may not have questioned why all our clips, save our auto cannon and heavy cannon rounds are so large and completely sealed." He picks up a pistol clip and uses a small tool to pry it open, he dumps the contents onto the table and picks up one of the bullets and holds it out for the audience to see. "This is a .65 caliber bullet. It is armor piercing and made out of solid hardened steel. If a civilian got their hands on this kind of firepower and managed to find or make a gun that could fire it, they would most likely seriously injure themselves." He pauses for a moment to appraise his audience.
"But how can you not notice such a large caliber? Obviously most of you have used a firearm before joining X-Com. The answer is simply that you are using the most advanced weapons human technology can create that incorporates explosive propelled metal." Manny puts down the bullet he had been holding and turns to the table. Some light metal clicking can be heard as he disassembles a rifle. He turns with the rifle in his hands and shows it to the audience. "The kickback of the higher caliber ammunition is diffused using a unique recoil system."
"This technology is at least 10 years more advanced than what is currently available on the world market. The firing system feels in-accurate because its redirecting a huge kickback in a weird way. With enough practice you'll find it to be a very efficient gun for the type of munitions we are putting in it." Manny puts down the rifle and turns to the audience. "Now do any of you blokes have any more damn complaints about our "crappy" weapons?" The audience was mostly silent.
The rest of the day passed with no change in the base situation. Dr. Gableman and the Hyperion had not yet been found and the scientists had no news on their work with the new laser rifle prototype. Aura Luna however managed to organize my computer files and streamline many of the electronic forms I had been creating from scratch. It's amazing what an office administrator can do on their own.
The next day promised to be quite dull as I drank some iced coffee, reading over some notes Aura Luna had sent for me to read on the base's finances. My computer bleeped at me urgently before a familiar announcement aired over the PA system. "All commanding officers are required at the command center."
I quickly moved over to the command center and turned on my personal command console. The radar technician's assistant promptly came up to me and explained the situation.
"A small ufo has been detected heading north east at 1400 kt/s, It was detected on the west coast of Canada, Sir." She read from her clipboard.
"Good work, lets not hesitate people. Scramble Mac's Interceptor and take it down." I looked at my watch, 10:30am. Strange, the aliens usually showed up first thing in the morning. It did not take much waiting for Mac to catch up to the ufo. He closed the distance quickly but took a few plasma shots. The plasma blasts thankfully seemed to not be very effective against the aerodynamic shape of the Interceptor. None the less he was not in very good shape.
"Mac, maybe you should head back to base, we'll send out the other Interceptor." I suggested.
"No commander Snow. I want this thing's blood, it scratched my pinup!" He growled through the radio.
The ufo managed to outrun Mac but he kept on it's trail, following it into northern Canada. Before he could reach it again the ufo descended and landed. "Scramble the Skyranger, we're going hunting!"
TO BE CONTINUED
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Topic: Anya's x-com LP - UPDATED! Augest 17th (Read 92911 times)