The ground team waits sullenly for the clean up crew to arrive. Captain Hayreddin Barbarossa lay motionless inside the skyranger while the rest of the ground team makes sure to keep the area secure. The clean up crew arrives and the mission is declared a success.
No one cheers however. As the clean up crew lifts off, Mario's heavy weapons platform is loaded into the Skyranger and deactivated. The flight home feels twice as long for the Skyranger's passengers.
I met the team in person upon their return. The more jaded and experienced soldiers continued with their less than chipper attitudes while the newer, more emotional recruits were a mix of anger and terror. Terror over which of them would be buried next.
Manny came up to me and took my attention from the returning soldiers. "Commander, I told you we were running out of storage space and now we can't even unload the Skyranger! Storage is packed with aircraft munitions and alien crap! When are you going to get rid of some of that nonsense!?" He barked at me.
"That "alien nonsense" is a mixture of the most devastating weapons mankind has ever seen. Weapons which tear through mankind's best armor like it was a wet paper bag. Selling this "alien nonsense" to our funders was a desperate move I hope to not have to repeat. Can you imagine what would happen if these things got into civilian hands? Or worse, back into the hands of our alien foes. No Manny, we stockpile until we research them, file them and once they are obsolete, then we can think about selling them off." I looked Manny in the eyes, I could see his blood boiling to the surface so I decided to bring up a fact that might cool him off. "Besides, the new storage extension is due to be completed tomorrow."
Manny raised his arms in protest but said nothing. He turned to head back to his office, mumbling and grumbling about being up to his ears in neon colored shit.
Aura Luna sent out an e-mail inviting everyone to Hayreddin Barbarossa's funeral the next day.
The next morning I received an e-mail from the head of construction telling me that the addition to the general stores was complete.
Manny, of course, had immediately sent me an e-mail afterward. He explained, essentially, that the expansion was just a band-aid on a much larger problem.
The funeral was held at noon. After the chaplain had preformed his service, I opted to say a few words.
"When I first met captain Hayreddin Barbarossa, I thought I had a lost cause on my hands. Captain Barbarossa was one of those people who liked to bring a knife to a gun fight, except that he wanted nothing to do with a knife at all. He was an accomplished martial artist and athlete who joined for the challenge. The first thing I did was shove a pistol and a stun rod in his hands and layed down the law. What a disservice I did him. What I had actually received that day was a soldier who had the courage to fight an enemy he knew nothing of, using weapons he never asked for." I paused for a moment and looked over all those who attended the funeral. "Captain Hayreddin Barbarossa was a sterling example of the human drive to excel. He took that pistol and that stun rod and he took to the enemy lines in a charge. He showed them that he didn't need super advanced weapons or enhanced vision. All captain Barbarossa needed was his courage. We should all follow his example while we work to drive out our other-worldly foes. If we had even ten more of his kind, our alien aggressors would be the ones running in the streets!"
I stood back and allowed everyone else their chance to speak. Afterward I gave everyone the day off. Many did not take me up on the offer. Did the base personnel feel especially motivated to work together and bring down our common enemy or was the death of our soldiers becoming more common place?
The next day I awoke from a strange dream. It had faded before I could recall a single detail. I checked my computer and saw that I ad recieved an e-mail from Dr. Richard Gableman. "Finally" I thought out loud. I opened the e-mail and read it with haste. He had been briefed on the purpose of X-Com and why we needed him. He agreed to work with us and was already setting up appointments with Tamunshin as well as each other ground soldier. I complimented him on his initiative and invited him and his family to dinner topside sometime in the future.
Later that day a ceremony was held to promote Darkwind and Ashley Smith. Darkwind received the rank of captain for her distinguished efficiency and motivation. Ashley Smith received her promotion to sergeant for quickly rising to, and surpassing, our expectations.
In the evening, Archangel came to my quarters and requested a short talk. I let him in with a smile. Archangel has always seemed to have a level head and his support of Tamunshin has been instrumental to preventing any additional problems. He requested to take on the additional responsibility of carrying a high explosive charge into his field missions. Despite his history with explosives, I decided that his good behavior merited a reward.
"OK Archangel. I will let Manny know that he is to stock your locker with a high explosive charge." I smiled and looked up at him from my desk chair. Archangel was a tall, strong man. Coupled with his intellect, he was an excellent example of what the human race had to offer.
"On one condition." I added. "I want you and Cerapa to host a presentation of our explosives and their activation systems. Each soldier on the ground should be able to use any explosive we make use of without endangering themselves or others. Will this be a problem?" I ask Archangel, being careful not to put a negative tone into my voice.
"Not at all commander." He replied with a smile. He left quickly, I can imagine he was already thinking on how to go about the presentation.
On February 7th the soldiers Aura Luna had sent for arrived. One of Aura Luna's tasks was to manage the amount of soldiers we had on base, replacing them as needed. The first was Tiberius Seius Cato.
He was a soldier from Greece who applied to our recruiters. He was motivated and met all our requirements with ease.
The second soldier was Gogandantess.
Gogandantess was a sturdy man from the Netherlands who was brought forward to us by his superiors. He was built strong and was very dependable. He excelled in most of his tests and passed every one of our requirements.
The base was fairly quiet. Everyone working hard and efficiently. Complaints and concerns about Zilvara's work habits even seemed to be dieing down. The next day I received an e-mail from the engineering department:
The laser pistols were fabricated and ready for use. Excellent news! I thought to myself. I forwarded the e-mail to each of the ground soldiers who were already equipped with pistols and told them to each pick one up from Manny and to give them a try at the firing range.
On Tuesday the 9th at 1pm a message was called out over the PA system. "All commanding officers to the command center." Before the announcement was over, I knew what was happening. I quickly arrived at the command center. The radar technician's assistant greeted me like clock work. "We have detected a ufo in the Arctic circle heading south west at 2700kt/s. It is categorized as small." She read the statistics from her clip board.
I opened up my command console and had a look at where the ufo was.
"OK Mac, get your Interceptor in the sky." I set the way point for Mac while I monitor the ufo's location. It continues to move south west, moving over the Kolyma mountains.
"We're losing it commander, it's moving out of our radar range and Mac isn't close enough to get it on his radar." Reported the radar technician.
I mentally traced the ufo's movements and pondered for a moment. "Mac, how would you like to go to Japan?" I asked quizzically.
"Maybe I could meet the makers of this jet fighter... Sounds good, but what about the ufo?" He replied.
"I'm thinking you might just run into it while your there." I explained. "I want you to patrol over Japan.
"Acknowledge commander." He called out through the radio. Over the next several minutes my operatives worked with the Japanese to negotiate our entrance into their airspace. The Japanese were more than accommodating, wanting to see their handiwork in action. A few minutes later Mac was patrolling the skis of the rising sun.
The room went quiet for awhile as Mac conversed with the local Japanese air control while patrolling. Suddenly the radar technician spoke up. "Commander, I don't believe it! We found the same ufo in Mac's radar coverage, it's heading towards him from China." He reported excitedly.
"Good. Mac, play time is over, take it down." I commanded.
"It's as good as dead commander." He replied and set his heading for the ufo. In but a few tense minutes he engaged the ufo.
He accelerated into firing range and let loose his twin auto-cannons, weaving around the ufo's return fire. Both Mac and the ufo took glancing hits before the ufo pulled away.
"Son of a bitch is running away!" Mac yelled angrily.
"Watch your fuel levels Mac, your running low." I cautioned, keeping an eye on his status.
"I'll land in Japan if that is what it takes to bring this asshole down!" He retorted and accelerated, staying on the ufo's tail.
"Scramble the second Interceptor. I want it to assist Mac in taking this ufo down." I commanded.
Mac chased the ufo across the eastern border of China and Mac began to catch up over the ocean. "Just give me 10 more minutes commander." He asked as he grit his teeth, pushing his jet fighter to it's limits.
Moments later the ufo decelerated and began to lower it's altitude. Mac saw his chance and re-engaged.
He closed in, dodging the ufo's weapons with expertise. He unloaded round after blazing round of cannon fire into the stubborn craft before it exploded brilliantly.
The ufo spun out of control and crossed the sky like lightening before smashing into the rough waters below.
"Ufo down commander, go ahead and send the other guy back to base, I'll see you in an hour." Mac reported with a grin.
By the time Mac reached our base his fuel began to red-line. How he managed to pull that off is a testament to his expert piloting skills.
I congratulated him on his return and offered to buy him a round while his Interceptor was being repaired and rearmed.
A few days went by before anything of note occurred. On the 11th Zilvara contacted me with excellent news. The laser rifle prototype had been created and the results were very successful. The plans had already been sent to the engineers.
"What should we focus on next commander?" She asked in her usual quizzical tone.
TO BE CONTINUED!
----------------
Finally got it done. Mac sure did an amazing job. went half way around the world, hung out for an hour and shot down a ufo with cannons then managed to make it all the way back on one tank of fuel!
looking forward to everyone's posts ^.^
now for the good bits: research
here is a list of researchable stuff:
couple notes:
a) wait... what? when the hell did we get a sectoid leader and why did no one tell me? well thats just awesome. I would like to take on research in a logical way and impose sensible tech tree additions that patch up little logical holes such as "how do we know the difference between aliens without being able to understand them? So I propose that we research mind probe before allowing ourselves to research live aliens.
b) How are we supposed to design armor to defend against plasma based weapons when we don't even know how plasma based weapons work (or even that they are called or can be described as "plasma based". So for the same reason as above I think it only makes sense that we research at least the plasma pistol before personal armor.
I'm in no hurry to reach the end of the game or getting the "good stuff" asap but I want to submit these two questions for player vote:
1) Self imposed "logical" tech tree which will help immensely, for me, to make the research fluff make sense: Yay or nay.
2) Which tech (or tech destination) next? I'm sure personal armor is going to be popular but dude! we have a sectoid leader in February! we could have psi capable soldiers by April! Screw mutons.
Author
Topic: Anya's x-com LP - UPDATED! Augest 17th (Read 92678 times)