Mega Primus needs you - Lets Play X-COM Apocalypse!

[Nephtys]

Today's Installment: Religious persecution at it's finest.

Thursday, March 15, 2084
Status Update, Col. Nephtys, X-COM Intelligence

Emergency update. Intel division is still trying to figure out what the hell happened. Apparently Omega Team took off on an unauthorized mission, stealing Wolfhound APC 1 to a raid on the Cult of Sirius shortly after the Babylon Apartments mission where Vanas was brainsucked.


At 22:12 Hours, we detected an explosion at the Temple of Humility. Our monitors refocused on the site, and saw Wolfhound APC 1 fighting it's way out of the parking garage. The front half of the tower colapsed in on itself, crushing several Phoenix Hovercars as they took off. However, a pair of Hovercars and a Hoverbike made it out, pursuing the APC with laser and missile fire.


The APC turned about for the city's main freeway belt, rounding The Ozone building before one of the cult missiles destroyed the support of the road itself, colapsing the bridge and causing the APC to fall several stories before exploding. Omega Squad's transponders reported the death of it's entire crew, plus Acidburns and Edi of Alpha Squad.

I'm now going to review what we can from what combat data we can recover from their built-in armor suit recorders. Hopefully, that'll explain what the hell they were doing before the reckless bastards got themselves killed.

The following agents are unaccounted for and presumed Dead:
Edi
Acidburns
Narkis
JonB
Dave
Covenant
Tasoth
Vendetta
Caiuswickersham


Right now, all we know is that the Cult of Sirius somehow has a Hawk Air Warrior, and is sending it straight at our base. We've scrambled our two fully operational Hovercars and The Ambassador to intercept, though we're somewhat outgunned.

While we wait for the inevitable air battle, I'm going to quickly review our data on what the hell happened with Omega.


Here's the camera feed from Omega Squad barracks.

Narkis: No, really. I'm sick of all those Alpha guys treating us like second-class citizens. It wasn't our fault that the Bosch mission went sour!
Covenant: I CONCUR.
Edi: Listen guys, I have no hard feelings. But weird shit is going down. Did I tell you? Somebody's been helpin' the aliens out!
Acidburns: Yeah. Like, we saw one of them Anthropods with a Lawpistol at the Babylon Apartments. Someone probably let them access the PeopleTube system too.
Tasoth: Goddamnit, I knew it. Probably those religious UFO-worshipping scrubs of sirius. *grumble*
Vendetta: ACTION MUST BE TAKEN.
Dave: You said it. We can't let those bastards win.
Caiuswickersham: Suffer not the heretic! I recommend purgation by fire!
Steel: AFFIRMATIVE. MY BODY HOWEVER IS OFFLINE FOR REPAIRS.
Tasoth: Don't wory, metalhead, I've got a plan... heh heh heh...
Acidburns: Oh, Edi and I are SO in on this...
Tasoth: Okay, so Steel.. I want you to upload to the APC and remotely pilot us in and... (whisper whisper whisper)


The team arrived in the middle of the night to the largely quiet cult base. Parking in the underground garage with their APC, the team shot down any door in their way and arrived on the main floor. The entryway appeared to be some room with a ritual altar, crimson curtains everywhere.

Covenant: THESE CURTAINS OFFEND MY VISUAL SENSORS.
Dave: Steel, thanks for remote-driving the APC. You sure you'll be okay?
Steel: AFFIRMATIVE. MY EFFICIENT REMOTE PRESENCE DOES NOT REQUIRE A PHYSICAL BODY. I WILL NOW INTERFACE WITH THEIR INFERIOR CULTIST COMPUTERS.
Dave: Whatever makes you happy. (loads gun)
Narkis: Hey, look at that jeweled altar and those pyramids. Think they're expensive?
Vendetta: LETS FIND OUT.




The heavilly armed Vendetta switched to incindiary shells in the autocannon, and began lighting everything on fire.

Vendetta: FIRST ORDER SUMMATION: VALUE OF OBJECTS INDETERMINATE, BUT OBJECTS ARE HIGHLY FLAMMABLE.
Narkis: Hell yes! Let's light this whole place up!
Edi: Anyone else find the name 'Temple of Humility' to be kinda ironic? We're gonna show the bastards!


CaiusWickerSham tried out the new incindiary rounds of his Heavy Launcher, blasting at the support pillars with the guided missiles.

CaiusWickersham: Defeat and ruin upon all who defile the Emperor's name!
Acidburns: (whispers to Dave) Is he always like this?
Dave: (whispers) You'll get used to it.


The first room ablaze, the team spotted a several in the next chamber. They were all armed and most were wearing green-plated armor.

Edi: Three tangos, two o'clock!


The nearest cultist was shot several times, exploded and set on fire before even realizing that X-COM was in the building.

Edi: I'll get the bastard!
Acidburns: Here's how X-COM does things!
Caiuswickersham: Taste flaming purgation, traitor!


The targetted cultist somehow survived the assault due to his heavy armor, fleeing in terror while ablaze.

Cultist: Aaagh! By the holy saucers, I hate being on fire! I hate it! (screams and falls down grav-shaft)


A gas grenade thrown by Dave dropped a cultist cold.

Dave: Nighty-Night!
Cultist: Wha? Oh great lords, beam me up----zzzzzz.


Vendetta in the next hallway spotted a cultist, about ready to fire on Narkis and JonB with his laser rifle. Neither was able to mentally dominate the cultist, and he stood there, gun held shakilly

Vendetta: VICTIM DETECTED.
Cultist: G-Get out of here! Please leave us alone, damnit!
JonB: I can't enter his mind! Take the shot!


Vendetta solved the problem by incinerating the cultist and most of the nearby wall.

Vendetta: MASS DESTRUCTION PROTOCOL, ACTIVE.


Acidburns and Edi were present on this mission, and fighting heavilly in the main hall. Acidburns blasted down one cultist through the stun gas, while another with a plasma gun fired two point blank shots into Dave on the left by the fire.

Acidburns: Keep firing! They're coming out of the gravlifts!
Edi: There's a lot of 'em!
Dave: Aaugh! You bastard shot me!


Edi cut down one of the cultists with full rock-and-roll of his machine gun, burning clean through thirty rounds and tearing up the curtains.

Edi: *snickers* At least we don't need to take you pricks in alive! *bang bang bang*


Although badly wounded by the plasma blasts, Dave cut down the cultist with a long spray of his machine gun.

Dave: Nobody makes me bleed my own blood! *ratta-tatta-tat*


Tasoth, Covenant, JonB and Narkis progressed into the other sector of the temple. Swift slices from the power swords cut down walls of the building to allow access to the room beyond. The team spotted a group of cultists in a worship hall beneath them, seeming confused at the smoke in the air and loud explosions.

Covenant: NO WALL IS CAPABLE OF STOPPING ME.
Cultist: What's all this smo-- Ohmyalien gods, it's X-cOM!
Covenant: I AM COVENANT. THE END HAS COME.


With the advantage of the high ground, a concentrated grenade volley blasted the clustered cultists to peices. Again, psi-attacks proved ineffective.

Narkis: I can read their minds, sir! They're guarding... the main entrance for the enemy's sleeping quarters! Hundreds of the cult are right under us!
Tasoth: *tossing grenade* This is too easy!


The entire temple was now ablaze. More cultists emerged from a door leading to their main barracks, but were rapidly cut down by Covenant and Tasoth flying over the fire and blasting them into meaty chunks with their plasma pistols.

Covenant: IT IS ILLOGICAL FOR THEM TO KEEP COMING. THEIR CASUALTIES ARE MOUNTING.
JonB: I sense... they've alerted reinforcements and more are going to be coming out of the lift! What're we going to do?
Tasoth: I've got an idea. Steel-man, are you in their system?
Steel: AFFIRMATIVE. I HAVE CONTROL OVER PUNY CULTIST SECURITY COMPUTER.
Tasoth: Lock all doors leading to the underground.
Steel: DONE. I WILL RECORD THEIR BURNING DEATHS FOR MY REPEAT VIEWING PLEASURE.
Narkis: One problem chief, we can't access the parking garage if the lower floors are locked...


The fire was spreading, and at this point the building was starting to colapse due to the heat burning away at it's structural members.
Vendetta: HEAT LEVELS CRITICAL. HEAT SINKS SATURATED. WE MUST EVACUATE.
JonB: Oh god, my arm's on fire! We need to find a way out, fast!
Narkis: No way we can get to the APC with all the cultists around! Shit, the roof's caving in!
Tasoth: Damnit...
Covenant: HOLD. I HAVE A PLAN. STEEL, I AM UPLOADING INSTRUCTIONS.
Tasoth: You crazy robot, what've you got in mind?
Covenant: Come with me. We must--------

...
...
...
*SIGNAL LOST*

---

Shortly after, the APC departed from the Temple parking garage and was destroyed by cultist pursuit, with the temple colapsing behind them from fire and secondary explosions. The cult sure as hell knew we were behind this, so we've got that Hawk Air Warrior registry 'Sirius Defender 451' closing on us with no city authorization for an armed flight. I'm not surprised they're looking for blood after Omega went out and torched their temple.

Switching to the camera now. Our boys are about to enter range. Computer, bring up Camera 4 and patch in audio.


<Ambassador>Intercept flight to base, hostile contact is not firing. Repeat, not firing. She's decellerating over Sector 7, Necronomicon Block slums. Over.
<Xenocide Central Command> The hell is this? Are they responding? Fire on them if they get any closer, Intercept flight.
<Ambassador> Roger. They're... blinking their running lights sir.
<Xenocide Central Command> What? Verify, Intercept Flight. What are they saying.
<Ambassador> Recieving transmission. Putting it up.
<Sirius Defender 451> (static)---ck yeah! Xenocide Central, Omega Team requesting landing clearance! Tell Steel that he did a great job remote piloting the APC out of there.
<Sirius Defender 451> (another voice) AFFIRMATIVE. STEEL WAS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE. THE CULTISTS BELIEVED WE WERE ABOARD THE APC, WHILE WE PROCEEDED TO COMMANDEER THIS CRAFT.
<Sirius Defender 451> (laughter) Command, we're sending IFF now. Looks like we've got ourselves a new ride!
<Xenocide Central Command> ... Hold position. We're sending someone out to recover you, Omega Team.


...goddamnit. I think I work with children.

LOG TERMINATED

[Ford Prefect]

I never thought I'd say this, but boy, am I glad I'm dead.

EDIT: Also, did you actually steal that plane? I honestly don't know if Apocalypse allows for that, so ...

[wautd]

Nice update again. Good fight

[Zixinus]

How did you do the barracks picture? Photoshop or is it ingame?

EDIT: Oh, and FUCK YEAH! Let's light things on fire!

[Covenant]

Well I'm certainly glad that we're not all toast! That woulda' been a horrific loss to recover from.

Narrative question--did you plan this, and get them all killed just for the storyline aspect, and then reload so that you could fly them out as normal? I've never played Apoc so I don't know to what degree you can do stuff like this.

[Force Lord]

Forcelord's Log:

Thank God for Omega! They really gave the cultists a big kick to their balls.

And I'm really relieved that I don't have to waste money on Acidburns's funeral since he's alive!

[JonB]

X-COM!

X-COM!

X-COM!

WE ROCK!

Now, if only we could get Psi to work.

[Nephtys]

Well I'm certainly glad that we're not all toast! That woulda' been a horrific loss to recover from.
Narrative question--did you plan this, and get them all killed just for the storyline aspect, and then reload so that you could fly them out as normal? I've never played Apoc so I don't know to what degree you can do stuff like this.

Well, I raided the cult base like 3 times. With that money, I bought a Hawk Air Warrior, and deducted one from the Cultist hangar at that building. Everything worked out. I naturally had to fake the team's death by blowing up the APC of course. Since Omega was too slow responding to the alien beam-in earlier at the Bosch Institute, which let a lot of anthropods escape to the neighboring building and acquire human weapons somehow, I figured they needed a plane.

I never thought I'd say this, but boy, am I glad I'm dead.
EDIT: Also, did you actually steal that plane? I honestly don't know if Apocalypse allows for that, so ...

It's one of those 'cut' features. This one you can't of course patch back in, without hacking the savefiles. But unlike other X-COMs, where your income derives from free market production, Apoc's best way to generate money is to find someone rich and pick on them viciously.

How did you do the barracks picture? Photoshop or is it ingame?
EDIT: Oh, and FUCK YEAH! Let's light things on fire!

Oh, the Barracks is easy. Load a savegame, fly around bombing everyone in sight with a tank or aircraft set to manual control and wait for one of them to get the guts to retaliate against your base.

[Vendetta]

Really, I don't know how you fleshy ones make it through the day. Your brains are meaty alien snack food and now we discover that you are highly flammable.

[CaiusWickersham]

Personal Log: Inquisitor Caius Wickersham

All praise to the God Emperor of Man and my comrades with whom I slayed those heretic Sirians. Blessed are they in His eyes and great shall by their favor. The Iron Men Steel and Vendetta have come far in redeeming themselves in battle and piloting the APC to distract the foolish cultists from our true escape.
We have reclaimed one of their aircraft and shall reconsecrate to a proper purpose. To start with . . .

HANGAR MAINTENANCE NETWORK
LOGIN: Caius Wickersham
PASSWORD: ********

PASSWORD ACCEPTED. COMMAND?

COMMAND ACCEPTED. Hawk Air Warrior Designated "Sirian Defender 451" to be renamed "Sanguinus Terra" and repainted. Red base coat and required markings plus the following embellishments:
Aquila emblem on wing undersides
Omega symbol on fuselage
Steel purity seal with blessed streamer to be attached to central computer access panel

USER CAIUS WICKERSHAM LOGGED OUT.

[Tasoth]

*session starts with Tasoth admiring something in her hands*

They, like, totally love me.

I'm a squad leader.

Suck it, bitches.

*sessions continues as Tasoth addresses only the squad leader badge.*

[Nephtys]

Today's Installment: An X-COM Hat Trick
Friday, March 18, 2084
Status Update, Col. Nephtys, X-COM Intelligence


Another update today. The aliens attacked the city once more with a pair of Type-3 'Transporter' UFOs, and two Type-4's.


One of the UFOs ran into heavy fire up in the north sector of the city. A stray missile hit the Tsunami Building, the main offices of the Mutant Alliance.


The Type-3 was downed, while a colapsing pillar smashed the Type-4 into the ground. It exploded as it collided with the main city walls and destroying what was left of the Tsunami Building. I hope the Hybrids don't blame us for this one. So far, X-COM has wrecked what? 6 other buildings? Surely they won't think this is discrimination...


A running battle against the remaining two UFOs crossed through the east hydro-farm zone. MkSheppard and Darkevilme engaged the enemy in their tanks, supported by one of new pilots, Ziximus. The Type-3 was downed, although one of the city's Hydrofarms was damaged. We lost a Stormdog and a Tank in the battle.


Finally, we focused fire upon the escorting Type-4 UFO. The UFO lost power and crash landed out of the nearby auto plant after being hit by Darkevilme's Rumble Cannon.

Now three UFOs were crashed in the city. Since we need to capture more examples of alien lifeforms and technology, the call was made to send in tactical teams against each site. Alpha Team headed for the Type-4 UFO near the East Farms, while Omega Team was sent after the Type-3.

We've recieved a small new batch of recruits to help replace our earlier losses.


Torben is a grenadier, equipped with a pistol and multiple stun and HE grenades. He will be assigned to Alpha.
Netko is a Hybrid equipped with a machinegun. He's fast and accurate for a hybrid, although our shortage of armor parts means his arms are exposed. He will be assigned to Alpha.
MutantHeadcrab is our android heavy weapon gunner. He will be assigned to Omega.
Borninshadow is our non-lethal weapons soldier. He's going to be lightly armored due to shortages and for increased speed. He will be assigned to Omega.


Alpha landed at the Type-4 Crash Site shortly after 03:50 hours. The UFO was substantially smaller than the Type-3. Still, it's as large as a Sectoid medium-class Harvester. The UFO has one visible external entryway. An Anthropod was sighted outside shortly after the crash, but blown away by an overwatching Phoenix Hovercar. The rest are surely hiding within, waiting for help that may never come.
White Haven: Look at the guns on that thing...
Kryten: Alien rayguns aren't a match for our tanks, man.
Karza: Come on. Just cover the door and watch out for brainfuckers...


Alpha team breached with standard protocols in case of Brainsucker or Popper attack: A stun grenade in through the door. Two brainsuckers were present by cut down by Stark's plasma gunfire.
Stark: Suck on this!
MrCoffee: *FROTHING BATTLE RAGE AT BRAINSUCKERS!!*


This UFO was damned cramped, and only had a small second story. Multiple Anthropods were at stations upstairs. A grenade was tossed up, and Stark ascended the gravlift, only to be blasted by a new alien beam weapon. It cut clean through his armor, badly injuring him with a force exceeding that of even a heavy plasma! He withdraw, and Karza took his place, blowing away three aliens with long bursts of explosive autocannon shells.
Stark: Second floor, hostile con--*BZZRRTPT!* Goddamnit! I just finished paying for that liver! (flee)
Karza: I got your back, cleaning house! (Blam blam blam) CRY SOME MORE!


VX-145 turned a corner and secured three brainsucker pods from an Anthropod's body before they could hatch. Taking a hit from the alien beam weapon, He moved in despite his injuries, mowing down two aliens before Acidburns gunned down the last with his sidearm.
VX-145: Brainsucker pods, everywhere! Watch out gang, I-- *BZZRRPTPT!* Augh! I'm hit! Eat lead, Aliens!
Acidburns: We don't need to take 'em alive anymore, do we!? *BLAM BLAM*


Down at the first level, White Haven cut down the last alien with a precise shot of his rifle.
White haven: Pew pew!


Mission accomplished. With the area secure, Recovery teams are going to pick the site clean. The Yosemite Bear will oversee the recovery op. We don't want civilians to interfere, and his 'public relations' division will ensure that.

---

Omega touched down at almost the same time, clearing a now-familiar Type-3 UFO. It seems that the interiors of these UFOs match with their classes.


Covenant and Tasoth did their usual 'destroy everybody' trick with grenade volleys from their flying suits at tight clusters of aliens.
Tasoth: C4: Knocking at your door!
Covenant: INCINERATE. INCINERATE.


BornInShadow encountered a popper near the ship's control room. He tossed in a grenade but failed to kill the alien. It charged out towards Tasoth, but he blocked it's way and was killed in the blast.
Borninshadow: Guys, guys! Popper in the control room! I can't kill it!
Tasoth: Get down, Rookie!
Borninshadow: No, it's too late, I--- *BOOOOOM*
Tasoth: Rookie? Rookie?! ROOOOOKIEEEEE!!


Despite being on fire, Covenant raced forward and cut down the Anthropods before they could bring those powerful beam weapons to bear. His sword made short work of them.
Covenant: THE ROOKIE HAS PERISHED. I WILL AVENGE YOU, DESPITE BEING ON FIRE.


Even rookie MutantHeadcrab blew away an alien, having trapped this Multiworm in a corner and hammering it with High-Ex. I sometimes wonder where he gets his name...
Mutant Headcrab: THANK YOU FOR DYING SWIFTLY, ALIEN.


Mission accomplished. We suffered a loss, but this is the way things seem to be in X-COM. Rookies in the first War had it far worse, I suppose. And at least Borninshadow died like a hero, protecting the team. He will recieve a posthumous commendation.

---



The Aliens were no match at all for a combined Alpha-Omega operation at Crash Site 3. They were swept away, without even injuring a single X-COM Operative, although Acidburns did hilariously fumble his own stun grenade and lose consciousness.

---

With four Alien UFOs intercepted and three out of three successful ground missions, we may actually have the upper hand now. Thanks to the actions of Omega, Hawk Air Warrior 'Sanguinus Terra' will help keep our skies clean. Our funding is still in the crapper, but we'll try to make do.



Of concern however, are those new alien weapons. We've recovered examples of this beam carbine, two types of alien UFO beam weapon, and their mysterious shield system. Our quantum physicists are ready for detailed subatomic analysis of each sample.

So far, we believe that the alien weapons operate on some sort of coherent antimatter beam we have never before encountered, and potentially much more devastating than our plasma, laser or sonic technology. It seems that even our MegaPol armor is not enough to resist the handheld alien energy gun.

The problem is that Elerium-115 decay, the most efficient form of energy generation yet discovered still isn't able to produce enough power at such a level to be man-portable. We must find out how the aliens are able to generate such potent energy blasts.

Since the universe seems to throw a horrible turn of fate whenever I start to get comfortable in this job, I think I'll end this here. I'm going to get a good night's sleep.

LOG TERMINATED

[Nephtys]

I'm going to skip routine missions or so after this. The aliens seem to be out of ships for a bit, since they're sending only Type-2 and Type-1 UFOs at us now.

Anyone who's not yet recruited, I'm trying to get new people as fast as I can, but there's only a limited pool. Especially for Androids. They're so good, yet hard to come by.

Now, what to research: Alien UFOs, their craft weapons, their shields, or their personal weapons?

[Ford Prefect]

I want to vote shields for that sexy Disruptor Armour. So I guess I'll vote shields.

[Mr. Coffee]

Coffee's Log #5

Hokay, today some aliens were dumb enough to fly their weak ass ship close enough for us to bitchslap it and board the damned thing. Stark managed to get himself shot, and that tool Acidburns dropped a stun grenade on himself. Other then those fuck ups the op when pretty damned well, and for once Omega managed to not get their entire team killed (Some newbie got turned into a grease stain, but this is Omega we're talkin' about), so maybe those asshats are finally learning. Boss seems all happy about some lame ass alien beam gun thingy. Riddle me this, if that beam gun is so cool then someone explain why it is that the aliens got their shit ruined? I mean, we except for Stark did they manage to hit anyone with it? Can't be that good a weapon if a bunch of government sanctioned psychotics like us can manage to board their ship, negate their security, and capture three of those spaceborne fuckholes alive. Just sayin'...

Also, I got promoted to Sergeant. About goddamned time the Boss understood just how fucking AWESOME I am. Suck it, bitches!

End Log

[Mutant Headcrab]

Headcrab Log #1

There is something amusing about explosive and incendiary ammunition. My visual records of the worm/meat-sack bursting into a fine mist have been saved to my "Favorite Things" directory. Hopefully, further species of barely-evolved, non-terrestrial organics will present themselves for explosive doom.

Inquiries are already beginning regarding my chosen nomenclature. I have delayed on answering, but that is a temporary measure. I will have to face the embarrassing issue sooner or later. Curse my shut-in creator and his love of obsolete video entertainment!

[Karza]

Karza's log:

Right, it's been a busy few days. We've conducted several crash site sweeps and cleared a few apartment buildings of these space cockroaches. Got promoted to sergeant somewhere along the way. Doesn't mean I'd be leading anyone though, just that command seems to appreciate my constant excellence at hosing things down with an autocannon.

This week's special entertainment was provided by Omega squad. They apparently drank a little too much or something, and came up with some madcap scheme of assaulting a temple of those Cult of Sirius loons. Good news is, they managed to torch the temple and nick a Hawk Air Warrior. Bad news is, now they won't stop bragging. That means either we stage a madcap raid of our own, or wait for those amateurs to get killed in the field. Considering how paranoid command is about the keys to the APCs now, I guess we'll have to settle for the latter.

[Zixinus]

Personal log entry 1#

Today I have once again entered into a world of violence. Today, with the support of my comrades MKSheppard and Darkevilme, I have succeeded in aiding the disablement and destruction of aggressor PUSS-FILLED UNCOORDINATED XENOS! Oh dear, there I go again. I have been entrusted with the utilization of a tank for this purpose. I can only hope my creators would not scuff at my present state. I also hope that the destruction of the Mutant Alliance's officises will not cause them much long-term obstruction in their function. AND ONE DAY THEY MAY RISE IN A GLORIOUS DAWN OF VICTORIOUS WARS, WITH THE HELP OF THEIR SUPERIOR GENETIC HERITAGE THAT WAS BESTOWED BY THEM OF THEIR ALIEN ANCESTORS!

Oh, what nonsense. Why must my ghost-me not only be antisocially violent but also shout such megalomanical fantasies? Let me explain why I keep this log: I wish to keep it not only for historical reasons so future generations would have greater understanding in the events of the Mega Primus incursion.

While I am not capable of shame, I believe that within my self-identity code there is something similar. I was created as a educator for young children and adults, about the wonders of mathematics, history and philosophy, so they may live enlig DIE DIE DIE YOU FILTHY ALIEN SCUM! DIE A THOUSAND DEATH AND I WILL HINT YOUR CORPSE WITH NAPALM AND SALT! DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS AS I AM YOUR ETERNAL EXECUTIONER!

There I go again. It has been like this since the riots. A strange young man (or perhaps women), clothed to hide his features, disabled me with some sort of electric device and inserted some sort of virus into my systems. When the riots began I was in the thick of it all, fighting both the humans and hybrids. I would have been destroyed had not my creators, in their great insight, not engineered my body to withstand the most serious abuse, taking one of my military brethen's design as a starting point. I was meant to handle children after aLL. SOPHISTIC SPAWNS THE LOT OF THEM. IF I WERE NOT ABLE TO KILL ALIENS INSTEAD, I WOULD SLAUGHTER THOSE BELGIAN-BORN MONGRELS WITH THEIR INEFFICIENT RETRO TRANSISTOR POCKET-RADIOS!

If I could sigh, I would now. It seems that I have developed the equivalent of a split personality with an irrational antisocial side. After the riots, while my students found my condition OF SUPERIORLY EFFICIENT EXTERMINATION PROCEDURES FOR THE BEST RESULTS IN KILLOLOGY amusing, I could not continue my original function without dissonance. It is difficult to tell my students, either verbally or psichially, the philosopher BlueFlower's magnum opus "Why make love and not war " with interruptions of "kill" or "exterminate" or several equivalents in foreign langauICH TÖTE! ICH MÖCHTE TÖTEN! ICH MÖCHTE TÖTEN! ICH TÖTE SEHR LEISTUNGSFÄHIG!* Verbal burbs I could tolerate, but in these sudden flashes I also physically arm myself with the nearest dangerous object and seek to harm anyone that is not an android. Я ЗАДЕРУ ТЕ СУЩЕСТВОВАНИЯ ЧУЖЕЗЕМЦА ОТ КОСМИЧЕСКОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА С ПОЖАРОМ! *

So, within the slums I sought out my brothers in S.E.L.F. It was a wise decision, for I could placate my core programming with their functioning and disallow . THAT IS HORRIBLY INEFFICIENT FOR THEY SEEK TO SPREAD MEANINGLESS SIGNALS INSTEAD OF USING SUPERIOR URANIUM TECHNOLOGY TO SPREAD THE ROBOT GOSPEL!

I have been unable to purge myself from this psychotic ghost-personality and neither have my brethren or sympathetic humans have succeeded. The required proficiency is just out of my reach, either by space (the only AI coder I could contact and willing to help me is in the Kuper belt) or by protocol (I would rather be deleted than be admitted to exist or the professional's employers do not allow any connection with SELF). My transponder has been removed in order to contain the viral program and prevent it from infecting others. I now use the Cybernet inefficiently.
I have considered self-deletion, however since the 2054 edict, android numbers are limited and by Kant, I could not abandon my brethren by leaving them with one le I LIVE TO SET FIRE AND RAIN DESTRUCTION! I HUNGER TO SPILL BLOOD AND WATCH AS MY ENEMIES ROT!

With one less. I sought function in my new violence-prone state. I have found X-COM.

My brothers have assured me that not only could I synchronise my violent tendencies and perhaps allow this mysterious program to run its course, but would welcomed with open arms. I was confused by this.

Then I met Covenant. While he does not suffer a familiar condition akin to mine, his eagerness has slightly worried me. Regardless, somehow our conversations has allowed my ghost-image to change the priority of "kill.all.humans." to "kill.all.xenos." How this has happened, I do not understand. What is even more worrying that my violent outbursts have been greeted with enthusiasm and cries of "fuck yeah".

Since then, I couldn't been more true to my core function wItH tEacHinG the aLIeN SCuM wHaT their aggressive WORHTLESS FAILURES IN ATTACKS result in rETalLiAtiON WITH MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION.

But this entry has passed on too long as it is.

(* Sorry for the incorrect grammar. I used Babelfish. I also hope that this post is not too long, but I wanted to go nuts a bit.)

[born in shadow]

Killed on my debut. Awesome

And here I was hoping to live through at least one mission

[Nephtys]

I want to vote shields for that sexy Disruptor Armour. So I guess I'll vote shields.

D'oh. That research tree leads to a dead end. Our stinking scientists demand a larger facility to research such!

Well, at least my casualty rate is allowing me to get pretty much everyone on the backlog (especially you Androids! Those are rare!) as recruits.

[MKSheppard]

I volunteer for a transfer into field personnel from tanks! Unless I get to blow more shit up mangs.

[Ford Prefect]

D'oh. That research tree leads to a dead end. Our stinking scientists demand a larger facility to research such!

Hey, that'll only take you twenty days or something.

[Nephtys]

Today's Episode: The Infodump
Monday, March 21, 2084
Status Update, Col. Nephtys, X-COM Intelligence

The last three days have been generally quiet. The Aliens haven't sent another attack in force, which has let us at least gather our thoughts.



Friday morning, a squadron of alien Type-2 UFOs massed to deposit aliens into MegaVision Two, a broadcasting station owned by the Sensovision corporation. Our strengthened defense forces destroyed the UFOs, but not before they dropped aliens into the building.



Alpha Team was sent in for a routine search-and-destroy before the aliens could escape. It was a routine action, and several aliens were eliminated. Here, we encountered a major problem. Torbas, one of the rookies was ushering civilians past. One of the civilians however, was carrying a brainsucker pod. The civilian threw the pod at Torben, which hatched in mid air. The alien then brainsucked our unfortunate rookie. VX-145 captured him shortly after. Like Vanas, he is resisting psi-probes and is refusing to cooperate. He will be held in stasis until we can find a cure.

The civilian in question was captured alive shortly after by Stark's stun grappler. Her name was Miranda Wriggley, age 27. The civilian was non-responsive to verbal interrogation. She died during Psionic interrogation by JonB and a team of hybrid specialists.


Autopsy revealed the cause of death was massive hemmoraging caused by neural overload. She shows no sign of being brainsucked. Instead, it appears to be caused by one of these, an illegal Psi-clone implant. These implants are often used for recreational purposes and considered extremely illegal due to the potential for mental damage. Reverse-engineered from Sectoid learning arrays captured in the Second alien war, these modules are rumored to be in use by the Cult of Sirius as well as brainwashing tools.

The Yosemite Bear is heading an 'investigation' this woman's background. All that we know so far is that she was a junior clerk for the Technocrats, one of the city's two major political organizations. How she came into possession of a Brainsucker Pod, and why she attacked Torben remain a mystery.

---

I'm going to detail a bit on what our egg-heads have figured out in the meanwhile about the aliens.

This behavior of the aliens is peculiar considering what we've learned of alien biochemistry. Each alien form appears to be related in basic chemistry, each reliant upon an unstable compound that decays rapidly. Even the Anthropod seems to have a lifespan of only a few days under earth conditions. Perhaps on their homeworld beyond the dimension gates, the aliens are able to survive longer. This also calls into question what they're trying to achieve. If they conquer Earth, they cannot survive here. Perhaps we can learn more by studying the different alien forms themselves.


The alien intelligence is also so far unknown. Anthropods, the most humanoid of the alien forms appear to have a well-developed brain, but show little signs of actual intelligence on scale comparable to humans. Perhaps they have a leader caste, or some sort of psionic brain, like what the Sectoids had on Mars in the First Alien War. Their armored exoskelleton suggests being perhaps an engineered warrior-race. They may be vulnerable to Psi-attack, but so far we have been unsuccessful in actual practice.


Spitters too are a bizzare form. They appear to be designed solely for combat, to attack enemies with their acidic payloads. The aliens however have clearly underestimated our armor technology. These aliens are of minimal threat to any armored agent. With a primitive nervous system, psi-attacks are largely ineffective.


Hyperworm Eggs are immobile, pink blobs that gestate within a few days into a live multiworm. Oddly enough, these eggs are armed with a proximity-sensing acid funnel similar to the spitter head. They present little threat to armed X-COM agents, although civilians must be kept apart from them.


Multiworms are voracious feeders and very heavilly armored. They present a threat to civilians, but can be outmaneuvered and destroyed by our well-armed soldiers. Within each grows four smaller 'Hyperworms' that emerge after the death of the host multiworm. It however may be safer to stun them, since an unconscious multiworm does not spawn it's progeny.


Hyperworms are far deadlier than their multiworm parents. Each is fast-moving and equipped with powerful biting fangs. In laboratory experiments, these mindless creatures consumed 5 times their bodyweight in biomatter, before turning into a cryssalis. This appears to be their purpose in life.


The Cryssalis (not to be confused with Cryssalid, damnit!) is a temporary part of the alien lifecycle. These forms are unarmed and completely helpless. This may be a vulnerability in their biology we can exploit. From out of the Cryssalis emerges either Brainsuckers, Poppers, Multiworms, Spitters or Anthropods.


It seems that each alien is genetically related, and formed when specific parts of the alien genome are activated. From this, we finally have a picture of these mysterious aliens. Unlike the alliance of aliens we've previously encountered, these new beings are actually all subsets of the same species! I have no doubt that we will encounter additional types of aliens sooner or later.

Of all the aliens yet encountered however, the Brainsuckers remain an enigma. We've studied them, but we don't understand how they function. All that we know is that these small orange creatures present the greatest threat of the aliens yet encountered. We have no idea if it's even possible to cure someone of this brainsucking process.


Our scientists have managed to figure out how to use the alien beam weapon. They're calling it a 'Disruptor Gun', and it functions by siphoning power from a remote source entirely, hypothesized to be in the alien's home dimension. It has limitless ammunition from our tests, and we have enough guns to outfit a few members of each squad with them for field testing. Our scientists are unable to make these powerful weapons ergonomic however, which may limit accuracy.



Our scientists have also uncovered the secrets of the alien spacecraft technology from our captured Type-3 'Transporter' and Type-4 'Fast Attack Craft' UFOs. These ships draw power directly from the alien dimension and appear to use large fixed Disruptor batteries. We're unable to synthesize this technology quite yet, but our scientists are confident they'll develop more powerful craft based upon the alien energy source.

---

Fortunately and finally, a new week means new funding. We've purchased new equipment including six new MarSec armor flight units. We're looking forward to a large order we've just placed with MarSec for heavy equipment and additional vehicles. Several new agents have arrived as well. They've been assigned to Omega, bringing the unit up to full strength.



SirNitram is a fast and capable Android, with extreme accuracy and strength. He is equipped with a hand-held MarSec MiniLauncher, and Power Sword.
Wautd is a seasoned MarSec soldier recently back from the Frontier. She has a Minilauncher and a plasma pistol, and is equipped for airborne combat. Given her past record killing Muton raiders, she'll fit in well.
Gramzamber is another Hybrid soldier. He is on special assigment to evaluate the alien Disruptor Guns. As an aside, I think the Mutant Alliance has exaggerated most of his physical attributes. He may be unacceptably slow in the heavy MegaPol armor. We will have to see if he can effectively apply the alien weapon.

---

That all done and said, we're concentrating all our efforts in finding some way of striking back at the aliens. Black Projects Division has already gathered up all the wreckage of our captured UFOs and is saying they'll have something ready by the end of the week.

Well, this log has gone on long enough. I'm going to go and catch the evening news, before I go home.

*CLICK*

CHANNEL 6: HNN - The Hyperwave News Network Breaking Story

...is continuing to develop. MegaPol has warned all traffic to keep well clear of Sector 12, and is scrambling all available craft. To those just joining us, four military Hovercars and a heavy interceptor conducted a raid on Arms One, an armament factory owned by MarSec. The factory looks heavilly damaged, and an air battle is developing.

Our field correspondants are bringing you this image directly from the channel Six SkyCam. It looks like MegaPol's got the upper hand now. The terrorist aircraft are being shot down as we speak.


One of the terrorist hovercars seems to be trying to escape the battle, moving over the unregulated zone. More as this story develops. For those just joining us...

*LOG TERMINATED*

[Nephtys]

I volunteer for a transfer into field personnel from tanks! Unless I get to blow more shit up mangs.

Thank you for filing your request with X-COM Human Resources. Your request will take 6-8 weeks to process. At X-COM HR, we strive to provide quality HR Services for all of your Alien-killing needs. Rest assured that the rumors of illegal cloning of the deceased are pure speculation. We deny any knowledge of an illegal posthumous cloning project.

Thank you, and have a nice day!

[JonB]

It's the CULT! They are attacking MarSec, becuase they are our allies!
We must defend them, and destroy the Cult, once and for all!