enemy unknown
falkor
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| X-COM enemy unknown |
genre: fiction | started: 29/9/08 | falkor |
DAY MINUS THREE:
well I have had an amazing phone call last night
Apparently I am to be allocated a secret base in America, soldiers, craft, weapons, scientists, laboratories and authorisation from the world's countries to "act"
amazing how this has played out
on top of that a budget for "this month" of $6 million
okay, I am now going to get the details of where this base is and hot tail it over there
I plan to meet the soldiers, the scientists, oh yeah I have engineers too, I want to meet them all and see what I can do to "address this situation" post haste
 falk, what phone call? what the hell did they say? Have you left the UK yet? | ladyk100 30/9/08 |
DAY MINUS TWO:
Hi Ladyk - thanks for the comments
Yeah amazing - phone call from someone I used to know in the MET
I have been promoted to General in a brand new outfit called X-COM - you may have read in the press, about a number of TERROR ATTACKS happening in cities over in America and a couple outside that are all being linked
initially thought to be Al Quedia, there is now solid assessment coming forward that the terrorists are in fact aliens!
okay this sounds crazy but I should know for definite in the next 48 hours when I arrive at the base
TWO DAYS LATER!
| USA | $ 899 000 |
| RUSSIA | $ 309 000 |
| UK | $ 401 000 |
| FRANCE | $ 573 000 |
| GERMANY | $ 443 000 |
| ITALY | $ 239 000 |
| SPAIN | $ 245 000 |
| CHINA | $ 408 000 |
| JAPAN | $ 624 000 |
| INDIA | $ 250 000 |
| BRAZIL | $ 315 000 |
| AUSTRALIA | $ 371 000 |
| NIGERIA | $ 266 000 |
| SOUTH AFRICA | $ 379 000 |
| EGYPT | $ 161 000 |
| CANADA | $ 115 000 |
DAY ONE:I have finally arrived at the base which I now find is only one third completed, there are no base defences and precious few soldiers or scientists to begin the quest. Upon my arrival I was shown a video to get me acquainted with "what we're up against" and it wasn't pretty.
Never mind - there is much to be done, I can see that. The base is in North America and called "Platitudinus_4" apparently three other Platitudinus bases "did not make it" so here's hoping we'll be okay
My first meeting was with the scientists, numbering just ten. They had a few ideas on research projects that they needed to start on but needed my authorisation first.
We have a laboratory with room for 50 scientists to do research projects so - we could start all 3 projects with say 3 scientists on each project but my view was LASER WEAPONS are such a priority we need to get them researched and issued to our soldiers as fast as possible and this decision may have been why the first 3 bases didn't make it, I'm only guessing but maybe I will find out for sure in a few days.
So I found out that a huge amount of nations around the world are contributing to X-COM - the USA itself has committed to almost $1 million a month. The total income this month is over $6 million but by the time I arrived at the base $2 million of that has already been spent to get heavy duty equipment and facilities up and running, now with my arrival, no further financial decisions can be made without my signature!!
I visited some of the base facilities and found that the two "INTERCEPTORS" already in place were armed with a mixture of three different offensive systems
The INTERCEPTORS are awesomely fast craft, equipped with two offensive systems each, these are listed in order of range effectiveness.
The CANNON is a short range weapon and will shred an enemy craft in quick time, provided that their speed can be matched and that their return fire doesn't take you down first. The second two systems are far superior in that the range is so much more and will strike an average enemy craft before they know what's hit them. AVALANCHE is an amazing weapon and even one hit with this will normally take down an average sized enemy craft. I immediately set upon seeing whether more AVALANCHE systems could be ordered for the base, quite honestly I want AVALANCHE systems onboard all our INTERCEPTORS, it's the only way to be sure.
The first problem I hit on was that our storage areas are woefully inadequate and I set about doubling this goods accommodation, by ordering another Stores facility be built, this cost $150 000 and will take 10 days to complete but by having more stores capacity we can increase our options greatly, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING (I THINK!)
I also ordered engineers to build us a LARGE RADAR SYSTEM, this cost $800 000 and will take 25 days to complete but we need this to detect enemy craft that are way off from us, this will be of great benefit I am sure. I also ordered that a second Small Radar System be put in place at a similar cost. Finally I instructed that additional living quarters - for arriving scientists and soldiers at a cost of $400 000 be built - this takes our current finances down to a worrying $2 206 000
I then begain checking on how the Scientists were getting on and I realised that a second laboratory was needed, this was at a cost of $750 000 and will take 26 days to complete - after that our finances were down to $1 456 000, blimmen heck we are running out of MONEY!!
| 1 | Samuel Stephens | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 2 | Gunter Mederow | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 3 | James Taylor | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 4 | Werner Faerber | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 5 | Helga Hafner | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 6 | Frank Cannell | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 7 | Andy Blake | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 8 | Uladmir Scnarov | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
As you can see the soldiers have already been assigned to the SKYRANGER present on the base I chatted to the soldiers and found that many of them are "green between gills" and although they have undergone basic training their actual battle experience in many cases is pretty low if not nothing! Nevertheless - these men and women are very brave indeed, I noted that all the soldiers have hi-quality CCTV helmet cameras, every mission they go on will be filmed from each of their positions as it happens
We will literally be viewing the missions as they happen back in the COMMAND POST from eight different angles and see the soldiers problems and decisions as they occur.
As I was talking to the soldiers, I couldn't help but wonder if any of them would still be alive to tell the tale in 12 months time, they have incredibly dangerous times ahead of them but they do seem to be in good spirits and as far as I'm concerned deserve the George Medal right here and now!
I passed the RESEARCH DEPT on the way back to the COMMAND POST and met the ten scientists again. I was pleased to advsie them that I am requesting another dozen scientists to join them - this lifted their spirits greatly and when I got back to the COMMAND POST the subject of our finances, now at $736 000 was hot on the lips of the 2 other Army Generals present. They appreciate that much needs doing and didn't envy me the task of making these decisions but they were worried about the base cash flow situation being under a million. I think that possibly this is quite likely to happen again in the future - we need stuff doing and we need people to do it - so HEY! cheques need writing out!
It was then time to do a tour of the hangers, one of the other Army Generals came with me and first we checked in with the crew of "INTERCEPTOR 2"
I found that this craft was equipped with Stingray Missiles (6 missiles ready to go) and on the other side, CANNON with 200 rounds ready to go.
I told my colleague that I felt the CANNON was simply too short range to guarantee the crew's safety. There was a spare AVALANCHE LAUNCHER so this I ordered be used to REPLACE the CANNON, I have to tell you I was greatly pleased with that being sorted very quickly too. The craft was fully fuelled and as soon as the crew confirm their craft officially ARMED they can launch
Onto INTERCEPTOR 1 and a similar story there. Again I found that this craft was equipped with Stingray Missiles (6 missiles ready to go) and on the other side, CANNON with 200 rounds ready to go.
My colleague guessed straight away that I would not be satisfied with a CANNON system installed so we looked at what else was available. Unfortunately there was no other AVALANCHE systems on the base. In stores were 3 spare CANNONS and 1 further STINGRAY MISSILE system so I asked for the spare STINGRAY system to replace the CANNON on this craft.
The REARMING of the two INTERCEPTORS is a controversial topic really. If you have really really powerful systems installed, you run the risk of literally blowing the enemy craft out of the sky, destroying the craft in mid-air but if you are seeking decent intelligence info from the enemy would it be better to use less destructive systems, down the enemy craft so that they spiral onto terrafirma where X-COM troops can retrieve huge amounts of enemy data, hardware and software for our scientists to research back at base? Which approach is best? Well on balance I feel the safety of our crews is paramount, we'll use the most powerful systems we've got I think
So finally we came to the SKYRANGER hanger and saw the pilots who were awaiting orders for the first mission. We had a good chat with these guys and heard that they had trained in 20 different locations worldwide with the SKYRANGER craft. It was excellent in all terrains and armoured to a most impressive degree too. I noticed it had space for ten soldiers and one tank. The tank/ rocket launcher vehicle - which I had a look at on video - looks like a must to me, it launches devastating rockets from twin launchers mounted on the top of the vehicle - at $400 000 each "tank" is an immense amount of money but I can see straight away how this vehicle will lift troops spirits in any battle! We have to have a few of these for definite!
FIRST CONTACT!
I was in the COMMAND POST when at 12:03 our first contact was made with enemy craft. Officers showed us a very small enemy craft tracking across the West Coast of North America - I felt numb, I thought "so this is how it starts"
INTERCEPTOR 1 was still REARMING but INTERCEPTOR 2 was ready and LAUNCHED to fight the enemy craft. We had real time CCTV of the INTERCEPTOR's position and instruments read outs. I was hoping against hope that our guys would succeed in MISSION 1.
The COMMAND POST was packed with base officials as INTERCEPTOR 2 closed on the enemy craft. INTERCEPTOR 2 had long range AVALANCHE MISSILES (3 ready to go) and the MEDIUM RANGE STINGRAY system (6 missiles ready to go) so I felt extremely confident that the crew would take this very small craft down with no trouble
There was a gasp as INTERCEPTOR 2 fired off just one avalanche missile and the enemy craft was blown to pieces in mid-air - nothing left - wow - mind you this enemy craft was probably nothing more than a one man scout from the size of it. Nevertheless - MISSION 1 was a huge success and we couldn't help break out the champagne and replay the video of the whole thing several times.
FOUR DAYS LATER!
since the first contact with enemy craft NOTHING HAS happened, it's been a worry actually, thinking about whether our radar installation has gone wrong or what - still we will soon have additional radar online - the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned!
DAY FOUR
12 new scientists have arrived today - we have welcomed them and greeted them and for their first 6 hours given them a base tour and plenty of refreshments
Research progress on LASER WEAPONS is GOOD so I have allocated the new scientists to their own project "Medi-Kit" - we need the soldiers out in the field to have cutting edge medical equipment that is both highly effective and mobile, so the SCIENTISTS arriving have been briefed to that effect.
THREE DAYS LATER!
DAY SEVEN
The quiet hours have gone into quiet days. All this tranquility has allowed base personnell to socialise on a most positive level. We have all got to know each other and have been enjoying great food, communications, briefings and even leisure time too. It has done us the world of good.
Today the team of scientists researching LASER WEAPONS has reached a landmark achievement. They have found a way of directing a laser that will cause battle damage effective to our needs. They are now researching an actual weapon for our troops "the laser pistol." This is great news for us.
DAY ELEVEN
Our second storage area is now complete. I am clearing old gear out of the original store too. Any CANNON firing systems and ammo can go back - together with some military pistols and rifles that I rate as insufficient to our needs, some of the other staff were grumbling about this but I doubt we will ever use these "standard weapons" and I certainly hope we don't have to rely on them. I got some refund monies for the return of these items and took the opportunity to order a $480 000 Tank/ Rocket Launcher. The rockets it fires are $3000 each but well worth I can assure you.
The "AUTO-CANNONS" at £13500 each are far superior to the standard issue rifles issued to our soldiers. The AUTO-CANNONS are superb weapons and are able to fire armour piercing (AP) high explosive (HE) or incendiary (I) ammunition. The troops just adore these AUTO-CANNONS and I took the opportunity of ordering seven of these too. This took our finances to an all time low of $209 974 which truly shook the staff in the COMMAND POST I can tell you
DAY FOURTEEN
The Scientists researching the Laser Pistol have called me over to see their work. They have completed the schematics for an issue LASER PISTOL and are now researching a LASER RIFLE. The LASER RIFLE I feel sure will be a brilliant weapon for our battle troops. Alongside the AUTO-CANNON the troops will have a formidable arsenal at their disposal. My 2 fellow generals seemed genuinely pleased at this great progress.
Our TANK/ ROCKET LAUNCHER has now been delivered to the base and I could not help but go over and take a look at it. It is a fantastic vehicle for sure. It can move at quite a hefty rate and the top mounted rocket launchers look like they pack a mighty punch.
DAY SEVENTEEN
SECOND CONTACT!
At 0:00 our second contact with an enemy craft was confirmed, I was in bed but thankfully was awaken by a pal of mine, Arnie Sacnusam - he knew I wouldn't want to miss this. I hurried along to the COMMAND POST and found that the enemy craft was a small ship flying EAST Another GENERAL already present in the COMMAND POST approached me and pleaded with me NOT to launch the troops we had. His argument was persuasive
He briefly described to me that with the previous 3 X-COM bases - enemy craft had landed close to each of the X-COM bases and destroyed all inside and the bases!
As we have no BASE DEFENCES whatever (yet) - his argument that the base should not be deprived of it's soldiers, made me think again.
The SKYRANGER would not launch on this mission and we did not even launch INTERCEPTORS to engage the enemy craft either. That night was a pretty depressing affair. Why had none of us discussed this prospect before? Morale took of a bit of a dent and I had to take responsibility for it.
DAY EIGHTEEN
Our finances are pretty stretched at the moment, but I have now used most of the outstanding revenue we have, ($209 974) to get five more recruit soldiers signed up for our base - we'll get more revenue in 2 weeks time when our money comes through from the funding nations, I can't believe we have just $9000 left in the kitty for the rest of this month! I've bankrupted the base!! Well not really - we have plenty of funds coming in every month (I hope)
| 1 | Stefan Vogel | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 2 | Shuji Shimaoka | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 3 | Robert Severn | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 4 | Yuri Shadrin | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
| 5 | Jungo Shimaoka | Rookie | SKYRANGER-1 |
DAY TWENTY
Another five soldiers are on base.
There is already a pecking order becoming evident as the troops who were here on DAY ONE obviously feel superior to the new guys, even though none have yet seen action. Something tells me that it won't be long now though.
DAY TWENTY ONE
THIRD CONTACT!
Another small enemy craft spotted by our radar staff resulted in INTERCEPTOR 2 being scrambled
THIS TIME WE WE WERE READY TO GO FOR SURE
We all watched with sweat running down our foreheads, INTERCEPTOR 2 made incredible time to the enemy craft and launched an avalanche missile. The missile hit but the enemy craft just kept on going! WOW! And another avalanche missile was fired, this time the enemy craft spiralled out of the sky and hit on North America's EAST COAST, time to launch the SKYRANGER to sift through the debris, THIS was land mission one!
All the original soldiers on base on DAY ONE were called to the SKYRANGER for launch plus two of the new arrivals, Stefan Vogel and Shuji Shimaoka, this left three soldiers behind on base.
The tank/ rocket launcher was also loaded aboard and our troops were GONE!!
Arriving at 21:27 the SKYRANGER put down close to the crashed enemy craft
We watched on the soldiers' CCTV cameras at the tank rolled off the landing ramp straight towards the crashed enemy craft which appeared to be 50 metres off
The tank was extremely impressive and rolled straight up to the enemy craft, there was no sign of opposition whatever!
As the soldiers began disembarking the SKYRANGER the tank did a patrol right around the enemy craft and over the other side of it, all was quiet so far!
The immediate surroundings were fields, orchards and some crude looking houses.
Frank Cannell opened an electronic door on the enemy craft backed up by several other soldiers near to him.
From his CCTV we could see a fire inside the enemy craft billowing thick black smoke across the interior of the whole ship.
We then heard an explosion from right the other side of the craft. Our tank had fired a rocket at vegetation to clear a view - the tank then rolled over the flattened hedging to gain access to a previously "walled in" orchard - however, there was apparently nobody about.
Frank Cannell then walked into the ship and saw a terrifying sight. Over to his left about 40' in was a grey humanoid creature, quite obviously alien - Cannell fired his AUTO-CANNON and the creature was toppled to the floor with no further ado, a cheer went up in the COMMAND POST and we felt this was a great omen for the mission.
As Helga Hafner entered the enemy craft too she was joined by a third soldier. All three soldiers then spotted a second alien occupant. HAFNER fired her AUTO-CANNON and took this one out too! WOW this mission was just way too good to be true surely! As Frank Cannell moved over to the left of the craft he spotted a third alien.
He levelled his AUTO-CANNON and fired. The alien dropped to the ground. You could hear the radio transmissions going absolutely wild between all the soldiers - they were so chuffed - but this was cut short by a determination to press on for any other aliens who had bailed out.
We heard another huge explosion!! It was the tank taking the side of a house out with yet another rocket. The whole side of the house was rubble, exposing the interior for all to see. Nothing around by the look of it!
As the three soldiers began to explore the downed craft we suddenly heard that the tank was under attack from plasma fire!
The tank's cameras focused on a humanoid being similar to the others encountered, walking between two houses - the tank fired off another rocket aiming for the alleyway between the houses. Unfortunately the rocket hit the side of the house instead - now we had two houses with their sides blown to bits!! The residents must have already fled as they're no sign of 'em!!
Two soldiers some 50 yards off from this, moved up closer to see if they could aim a shot. Meanwhile, exploration of the ship did not reveal any further aliens.
The tank fired another rocket. This time the rocket went straight and true right down the alleyway exploding on impact with the alien creature. A great big explosion revealed the death of the thing seconds later as the smoke cleared.
Now all the soldiers who had been exploring the craft left the craft to search the nearby houses. As Vladamir Scharov was moving towards a farm storage area she came under plasma fire from an adjacent house. She returned fire using an AUTO-CANNON with HE ammo. The shot was a tricky one but found it's target blowing the alien apart. No further aliens were found!
SKYRANGER-1 lifted off with alien carcasses - artefacts and an amazing NO CASUALTIES whatever!!
>> Frank Cannell and Vladimir Scharov have both been promoted to Sergeant!
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| X-COM enemy unknown |
genre: fiction | started: 29/9/08 | falkor |