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We shall see how the facefuckers like our People Tube.

Hmm. Y'know, it resembles a bus less than it does a subway car. I change my nomination from Grayhound Bus to Elevated Line. People Tube stays though.

since it looks so un aerodynamic, how about Bumblebee.....

Adding my support for naming Omega's transport "People Tube"

Hmmm, for Alpha... how about "Facehump This!"

Omega's shall be called "Death Suppository" and Alpha's will be called "The Beer Truck".

Monday, April 17th, 2084
Status Update, Col. Nephtys, X-COM Intelligence.

Alpha and Omega are both being launched ASAP to recover these new, heavily-armed green UFOs. Our plans to retaliate against the aliens are on hold until we finish work designing a new, armed warship to escort Bio-Transports 'People Tube' and 'Short Bus' to retaliate against the aliens.

Preliminary analysis of the combat data suggests these vessels are bombers of some sort. Each fired powerful missiles with unknown warheads into the city. MegaPol is on high alert after the devastating attack upon the spaceport sector of the city. Intel Division thinks that the aliens have concluded their plan of secretly brainsucking key citizens has failed thanks to our vigilance, and have shifted to terror tactics and carpet bombing instead. Our mission however, remains the same.

Omega dispatched with 'People Tube' to one of the UFO sites, while Alpha followed with 'Short Bus' to hit another UFO.


Omega found two large doors on the 'front' facing of the alien saucer.


Covenant and Tasoth's breaching unit exploit a back door. Two lifts apparently lead up and down, to an engine room and a middle deck.


Narkis finds no signs of aliens in the Engine Room. The team continues inward, confident in their heavy armament and Toxi-Guns.


Poppers were spotted on the middle deck, near large shield generators. Ford Prefect Junior accidentallyheroically stun gasses his own feet to prevent two of the poppers and a skeletoid from attacking the team. With the small middle deck cleared, the team proceeds upwards.


The upper deck is very large, and stacked full of the alien missiles they used to bomb the city. Here, a strange gellatenous blob moved about the deck. Caiuswickersham reported being under some sort of psionic attack. This is the first instance of the aliens even hinting at having psionic capability.


JonB managed to actually make brief mental contact with the strange organism, suggesting that it was somehow sentient.


Before he could break contact however, multiple skeletoids rushed through a cloud of covering stun gas, and gunned the hybrid down with their powerful devastator cannons. JonB never had a chance. Vendetta was seriously damaged and brought down, but remained intact. The alien ameoba is vaporized by a devastator blast at close range to stop it's mental attacks.


Omega exacts harsh vengeance. The assaulting Skeletoids are cut down at close range by gunfire. Wautd fires a devastator blast at an anthropod beyond the smoke. It was preparing a grenade when the blast instantly kills it, causing a live alien explosive to go off. The chain reaction guts a nearby missile magazine, tearing a large hole into the side of the UFO. I guess we won't be fixing this one up.


Narkis mentally dominates an Anthropod to shoot two of his own comrades. The controlled Anthropod is killed in the cross-fire as well.


Ford Prefect Junior however, falls under the influence of the green alien puddle. His devastator cannon blindsides MontyPython, killing the relatively new agent with a single blast. Our first lost to enemy Psionics since the second alien war... Ford Prefect Junior may need some psychological counseling after such a horrible experience. The alien goo was hit by several Toxi-Gun darts, and Narkis mentally sensed it's death.


Sweeping the rest of the large top-deck of this 'Alien Bomber', Tasoth places a Toxi-Gun dart into the last remaining anthropod.


Mission Accomplished. Two losses. Very unfortunate given how we've kept losses recently to a minimum, but we've recovered several items of note. The new alien weapons system looks like a devastating MIRV dimension warhead. The psionic alien 'ameoba' is of concern. Alpha has been advised to be on the lookout for this alien form, and to see if it can contain some of this goo for analysis. They've also been advised to take no unnecessary risks around this surprisingly dangerous organism.

---

Shortly after, Alpha touched down at another crash site for this class of UFO.

Significant resistance was encountered at the entryway. Edi's toxigun makes short work of the skeletoids.


MkSheppard fires at a Skeletoid at close range with his devastator cannon. Surprisingly, some sort of energy field completely deflects the powerful energy blast! The aliens now are fielding some form of portable energy shield!


On the top floor however, Guppyshark fires his Minilauncher's HE shell at a small group of Anthropods. The blast detonates a nearby missile magazine, gutting the entire deck's ordinance! On the floor below, the show-down with the shielded Skeletoid ends abruptly as tonnes of UFO crushes the alien.


ForceLord is nearly killed by the colapsing UFO.


Horrified by his injuries, Forcelord retires gracefully from the field.


The remaining aliens are cleaned up easilly. Robo-Phred personally destroyed several of them, earning him a promotion given his continued service to X-COM even after the death of his biological body. Guppyshark's proficiency at unintended but fortuitous collateral damage continues a fine X-COM tradition.

---

The remaining UFO wreckage has been cleaned up without incident. I'm rather shocked by our loss of two agents, but hopefully their deaths were not in vain. The Alien fleet is gutted. They've shifted from infiltrating our city to outright bombing it, a definite sign that their plans are being actively thwarted.


We're very fortunate to have recovered an intact energy shield from the alien crushed by Guppyshark's wild blasting. These shields can absorb a great amount of damage, but become useless once they burn out. We can adapt these shields for our soldiers use and manufacturing will begin shortly. However, this miniaturized shield technology has lead to another discovery...


Thanks to our knowledge of advanced alien materials and power systems, combined with the shield technology, we've been able to design this: A new powered armor suit created for combat in the alien dimension. Able to withstand more punishment than any personal armor yet deployed, alien power-assist and grav fields grant it virtual weightlessness. We are unable to integrate a flight unit with the armor however, so we will continue to employ the MarSec torso unit.


Finally, with our Bio-Transports completed, we've begun construction on our first two combat vessels designed to enter the alien dimension. Meet the euphamistically named 'Explorer' class vessel. These ships are as heavilly armed as a Hawk Air Warrior, yet as agile as a Phoenix Hovercar. They're fully Dimension Shift capable. Once they come online, we'll crush the alien city with a devastating missile strike.

They'll never know what hit 'em.

LOG TERMINATED

Ahhh, I see we're preparing the Shep Solution for the alien dimension.

Damn, I'm dead, and don't get to see the end-game.

Ah well.

Actually, this thread inspired me to go and play this game.

I have to ask: what's the best solution for fighting strong crafts in the default game?

Oh, and when will we have hilarious stun raids?

JonB wrote:Damn, I'm dead, and don't get to see the end-game.

Ah well.

Same here. May Shep and co. show the xeno scum the true meaning of 'shock and awe'...

Is that psyke mission something you patched back in or something? The tracker gun was cut content, right?

Forcelord's log:

Holy shit! That was fucking close! One missed step and I would be anatomically transformed...for the worse.

I'll be stuck in the infirmary for a while.

The guys are saying that the new Explorer-class ships will wipe out the city with bio-weapons. Thank God: we're finally going to seriously fuck up the xenos once and for all!

On a more private note, I better get myself some of the shiny new armor coming up. Hope I recover quickly enough, since if I miss any more missions, then it'll be a damn sha-OUCH!

Goddamn it!

Zixinus wrote:Actually, this thread inspired me to go and play this game.

I have to ask: what's the best solution for fighting strong crafts in the default game?

Oh, and when will we have hilarious stun raids?

Well, the 'optimal' build for defeating the aliens seems to be spamming the hell out of Hoverbikes armed with Janitor Missiles and later, Plasma beams. Alternatively, Phoenix Hovercars, but those are a bit more fragile until you get shielding. The Valkyrie and Hawk Air Warrior are both kinda sub-par compared to their weight in Hovercars, but I got them to get some flavor and to get a big troop transport.

Stun Raids are lame and kinda exploits

Satori wrote:Is that psyke mission something you patched back in or something? The tracker gun was cut content, right?
Is that psyke mission something you patched back in or something? The tracker gun was cut content, right?

Yeah. You can hack Tracker Guns back into the game, and they actually do work strangely enough. A pity capturing leaders and interrogating them was cut from the game. Though I did go and crash a Stormdog into one of their limos head-on.

The deceased and new people are being rotated into the replacement queue. Alpha and Omega are both down to about 10 people each, so it may be time soon for a fresh wave of new bodies. It's going to be a bitch though. Transtellar hates our guts, and won't provide Taxis. Our Soldiers need to WALK to base, or use dangerous public transportation. Scientists and Engineers meanwhile can't even hitch rides to their jobs. One of the scientists is stuck at the Electric Company, where he used to work, because Transtellar refuses to ship him to our base.

By the way, am I the only one that found out that you can reduce alien infiltration levels by going to various buildings of that company and conducting investigations? I managed to lower Transtellar's infiltration level back to zero with this.

EDIT to previous post:

What I mean Nephtys, is have you tried to do that? I did manage to do so. Once I cleared out some aliens from Transtellar apartments and their infiltration levels dropped.

Well, the 'optimal' build for defeating the aliens seems to be spamming the hell out of Hoverbikes armed with Janitor Missiles and later, Plasma beams. Alternatively, Phoenix Hovercars, but those are a bit more fragile until you get shielding. The Valkyrie and Hawk Air Warrior are both kinda sub-par compared to their weight in Hovercars, but I got them to get some flavor and to get a big troop transport.

Yeah, I kind of figured that buying another Interceptor in the start was kind unnecessary.

Stun Raids are lame and kinda exploits

Which is exactly why they would be a hilarious thing to do!

Robo-Phred's log:
I was irritated at joining the ranks of the ground-pounders after my recent cyborgification, but it turns out I'm pretty good at it. So good, in fact, they made me a squad leader. Not only do I get to burn stuff down still, now I get to yell at people while I'm doing it!

I hear they are working on a new inter-dimensional ship now, so I may soon get to burn down aliens in their own homes. This is the best job ever.

Edi's log:

Sign me up for some of that new armor and a personal shield! The aliens seem to be getting serious about blowing shit up, both with UFOs and on the ground and I have no desire to take the Alien Grenade Express to low orbit that a couple of the other guys did.

I still have a bad feeling about this...

*end log*

From:Darkevilme
TO: XCOM human resources
Subject: Transfer request

I am formally requesting transfer to piloting one of the new Explorer class interdimensional combat craft.

I also would like to present the proposal we try and demolish that giant saucer the aliens have, if it is a supership then we want it destroyed while its not online, if isnt then its big enough that blowing it up will tick the aliens off some anyway.

Fax Modem's log:

They sent a bunch of people on a mission, I didn't have to go, still in training. Been learning that the part with the hole in it is not the end of the gun you hold it with. Oh, and they want me to wear a uniform too. At least this is better than paying off my loan debts in prison. Stupid sub-prime mortgages, how did I go wrong?

End log.

Oh, oh. Sign me up as another cannon fodder in the War Against Aliens.

Narkis' log:

JonB has fallen. Another martyr for the Cause. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. I will make sure of it.

In other news, I held an alien mind under my thrall today. Like a puppet, the foul xenos jerked to the whims of its remote master. It was glorious.

End log.

Darkevilme wrote:I also would like to present the proposal we try and demolish that giant saucer the aliens have, if it is a supership then we want it destroyed while its not online, if isnt then its big enough that blowing it up will tick the aliens off some anyway.

Agreed.

Nephtys wrote:The deceased and new people are being rotated into the replacement queue. Alpha and Omega are both down to about 10 people each, so it may be time soon for a fresh wave of new bodies. It's going to be a bitch though. Transtellar hates our guts, and won't provide Taxis. Our Soldiers need to WALK to base, or use dangerous public transportation. Scientists and Engineers meanwhile can't even hitch rides to their jobs. One of the scientists is stuck at the Electric Company, where he used to work, because Transtellar refuses to ship him to our base.

Sounds like it would be an idea to have a little snoop around their premises whilst preparing to attack the alien dimension.

Also, do we have some rosters / replacement queue lists? I wanna blow stuff up .

Tuesday, April 18th, 2084
Status Update, Col. Nephtys, X-COM Intelligence.

Well. Where to begin with this log? We outfitted the largest D-Shift capable vessel we had, the Whirlygig, with a massive one-shot rack of Retribution missiles. Her alien IFF appeared functional, so we were able to successfully infiltrate alien airspace, and maneuver the UFO into position. Our first target: The alien structure here. We do not yet know it's function, but probe recon indicates that UFOs seem to land here. Possibly it is a staging area or logistical base. An easy target for our massive retaliation.


Operation Shep II has failed miserably.

Well... it seemed like a good idea at the time. And I still insist that we were right to have tried it. Although we had to sell nearly our entire stock of excess alien weapons to finance the mission, it would have been criminal to not have tried. We could not have possibly predicted an energy shield system capable of withstanding such a bombardment. As it is, the alien city appears all but impervious to conventional attack. Whirlygig managed to run back to the Dimension Gate after launching it's full missile compliment. The aliens aren't going to fall for that again.

Our scientists are racing now to find an alternative solution. We've dispatched the probe to gather data and to hopefully find a weakness in the alien defenses. Our Explorer-class vessels meanwhile are nearly complete. If no solution is forthcoming, we can at least engage their fleet on their territory.

Ah, switching to Monitor 5. Dimension Gate Beta is reading activity. Our probe should be on it's way back.


...damnit.

LOG TERMINATED

"Air raid, X-COM Mega Primus Base. This is no drill."

SHIT! Get those SAM's operational, NOW!

Fax Modem's log:

Look's like they might not even need me, they're launching an offensive into the Alien dimension, and with me still here, it looks like I just might be safe for the rest of this war. Hell, with the skills they're teaching me, I could be a security officer at a coffee shop in no time. You know, I could really go for a-

Air raid, X-COM Mega Primus Base. This is no drill.

Ah cra-

Log ended.