Sorry for the delays guys. After the Convention, I just ran out of energy. Totally my fault. But true to my word, we have reached our research goal!
2:59, 01 October 2084
Production Facility
Builder of Chinese DOOM, The Asian Republics
Geever rolled his shoulders. As the new head of the production, it was his responsibility to make sure that all the equipment being produced for the PHALAX was up to standards.
But how does one measure standards when the products being produces are alien in nature and construction?
Building the new aircraft plating was an exercise in frustration from start to finish. Sure, they had the raw elements involved – for the most part, but the methods, the fabrication... It was all so foreign. He prided himself on his work in his fields prior to being recruited for PHALANX.
This...
This was all wrong.
They were working on things that they barely had any understanding of. Only the most basic of tentative theoretical underpinnings for the technology they now faced and fielded.
It was wrong.
But it still had to be done. There were worse things out there that could happen.
07:00
Research Labs, PHALANX HQ
Turkey, GEU
I looked over the technical specifications that came with the report. A 'lightning gun'. And something that Academia thought was a good idea. Honestly I've no idea how the thing is supposed to work. There was things about using lasers to clear out a channel of empty air with plasma to act as a conduit for the electrical charge.
There were requests to build a couple for field work, but I couldn't order the Chinese Base to drop what they were doing on the new air-frame armor plating for this technology. Not right now at least. And besides, the
Heart of Darkness was slowly coming on line as a secondary production facility for just this purpose. I decided to have the
HoD queue start with that. That way, Academia would be satisfied knowing I was taking his projects seriously and Geever would know I was keeping a solid production schedule rather than switching things around.
10:25
Large Hanger
Not Area 51, United America
“Alert! Contact Alert! Albuquerque, New Mexico!”
Hawkwings made one last check to see that the area around the Firebird was clear before shutting the hatch and letting their pilot know that they were good to launch. “Albuquerque? Seriously? What did they do, get lost?”
A ripple of laughter echoed in the small chamber. The seats were small fold-out things, designed to hide away once the team was ready to land. And given that it was only an hour of calm weather to the target, it was decided to take turns in the seats, rather than shuffle things around to set them up properly for everyone.
11:40
Albuquerque, United America
Hawkwings looked up through the thermal goggles at the building in front of them. For some reason, the aliens had abandoned their craft and tried fortifying themselves in this residence.
The eight PHALANX members passed the burning wreckage of the UA armored vehicle that tried to press the issue about 20 minutes earlier. “Why the hell don't the Director and those in charge spread the technology to fight the aliens better? I mean, if they had Nanocomp armor like ourselves, or even just on the vehicles, how many lives would be saved? How many incidents would be dealt with before we got there?” Edi pondered aloud as they began to breach the building.
Eternal Freedom, checking around the right side of the building, answered over the secure comlink. “It's a combination of factors really. First thing is that while PHANLANX is under a UN mandate, it is not, in fact, a UN organization, or even an international one.”
Edi expressed his confusion.
“PHALANX is non-national. That is, PHALANX bases have no nationality, no political masters, no nothing.” Allison supplied as she covered the entrance to the kitchen with her plasma rifle. “And before you ask, the same applies to us. As active members of PHALANX, we rescind our nationality as well. We are persons without a country. Without a home.”
“I hate to interrupt, but I've got a Taman in armor coming around the back on my side. Took a round to the chest, but is still up.” Eternal ducked back around the corner of the building. “And he tinged me.”
OmniQ passed through the kitchen. “Need a medic?”
Eternal shook his head. “No. You got a shot?”
OmniQ lined up his EM rifle, spotting through the wall at the torso of the Taman. A single pull of the trigger later and he heard a body fall dead, a new hole through the stone barricade. “You know, why is it that I'm the only one who can do that with any regularity?”
Edi ascended towards the second floor. “Alright, why are we extra-national?”
Vehrec triggered his own thermal imaging, hoping to spot any potential ambushes. “Actually, that question kinda bothers me as well. I mean, I know about it, but the details eludes me.”
“Xeno spotted. Plasma.” Pe-Zook intoned as he took two shots to kill the alien, the third blowing through the two walls behind it. “The first has to do with how crossing borders work. In the aftermath of the last war, the laws were written in such a manner as to deny access to nations based upon their nation of residence. By being extra-national, we have to nation of residence, and thus, can cross modern borders with impunity. It's a loophole that the current lawmakers are looking to close once PHALANX is done its duty.”
Alison advanced to cover the other side of the dining room. “Second Xeno spotted!”
“gyahh!”
Vehrec: “Alison!”
Edi: “I'm going in! Flamethrowers For the Win!”
Ah, the joys of reaction fire. The problem is that the table and chairs are both impassible objects for the Flamethrower. And trying to make it to a clear shot, the Ortnok killed them.
At least it wasn't a grenade. That would have been bloody for either them or me.
PeZook: “Hell! Hostiles entrenched! Grenade!”
Like that one. Sorry, no screenshot where you can see it. Some two-handed weapons allow you to put something in the off-hand, preventing the use of the primary until the secondary is empty again. What I did was I pulled a 'nade out of the belt into the offhand, and threw it.
It only killed one enemy due to the bad weapon skill meaning it wasn't a properly central explosion like I wanted.
Hawkwings: “Oh god that's a lot of blood. And other things...”
Hawkwings: “There's one more above us. You guys clear it out while I try to stabilize these guys for transport.”
06:30, 02 October 2084
Command Center, PHALANX HQ
Turkey, GEU
“And now taking bets if this guy goes into the drink, or if he gets past the Missiles and Interceptor.”
“Aw damnit. He came down on the coast? Who won the pool?”
“Academia and Sir Nitram did.”
“Fuck. Why do they keep winning?”
14:49
Command Center, Not Area 51
“Looks like he'll pass just north of us.”
“Yea, but he's still going to be going through our missile defenses.”
You can see in this picture quite clearly the graphic for the missiles used by the exterior defenses. And the crashed UFO.
02:31, 03 October 2084
08:00, 04 October 2084
Command Center, PHALANX HQ
Turkey, GEU
Academia damn near
skipped into my office as he presented his reports on the alien engines.
I looked up at him, and Sir Nitram, who had arrived while I was reading. “Barnest.” I said, and they nodded in understanding. Our only cyber-pilot didn't have a proper 'body' to worry about, and if anyone out there was going to be our test pilot for the new engines, it would have to be him.
“We also have a couple new pilots who passed screening,” Sir Nitram added. “With your permission, I'll begin a regimen to train their bodies to be able to better handle the stress. The old pilots can be transferred to the Dropships if they can't handle the new requirements.”
I nodded. “You report says we can improve the engines on our ships. How does that work?”
“It's more than that, Director.” Academia shrugged. “Our existing airframes simply were not designed with the fuel requirements and the massive stresses Anitmatter Engines put out. We'll have to design a new series of Interceptors and Dropships from the ground up to make use of these designs. We
could try retrofitting, but I cannot guarantee anything except that when it blows up, it will be spectacular to watch.”
I nodded. “Very well then. I suppose this means that you already have something to show me?”
The head researcher nodded. “Yes sir. We're calling it the
Dragon Interceptor. We feel that improved capacity to shoot down Alien craft is preferable to improved Dropships at the moment, so we want your permission to dedicate R&D into this project.”
“Do it. Both of you.”
The two nodded, and left.
04 October 2084
00:00 05 October 2084
Command Center, El Dorado
Revolutionary Countries
I watched from the Command Center as the Geoscape was updated with the new Radar coverage from the deep portions of South America. With this, the only major landmasses uncovered by PHALANX radar was Antarctica, India and Australia. One could be covered by a minor radar base, while the others would require a full base to defend.
I wasn't looking forward to trying to activate a base at the South Pole, that much was certain.
We were quickly rewarded with multiple Xeno contacts, helping to explain why that continent was always loosing faith in PHALANX.
Remember this picture everyone. REMEMBER IT. You see where that UFO – Fighter is, by the Amazon River? I think that's where the UFO base is. But I don't have the technology yet to go looking for it properly.
With the high likely hood of more UFO's flying through El Dorado Airspace, I ordered the constriction of a small Interceptor facility there.
Then that Harvester landed.
Look! New map type! Mission was routine though.
07 October 2084
07:55, 08 October 2084
Command Center, PHALANX HQ
Turkey, GEU
I was thrown out of bed by the blare of a remote base attack alarm. I scrambled for the Command Center, only to find out that the Heart of Darkness base had been attacked. With no defenders, the base had been wiped out.
13:00, 09 October 2084
Command Center, Not Area 51
United America
“Another UFO shot down by our base defenses! We really need to put more of these babies up around our southern hemisphere bases you know. They're awesome!”
WAIT. WHAT?
How the hell did that happen?
You mean to tell me that that Ortnok SHOT THROUGH the crashed Fighter, killing Hawkwings? Despite the lack of a line of sight, the Plasma Rifle having no ability to penetrate walls, and some other factors? I call a mulligan. I don't mind people dieing, as long as it's an honest death. That was a bug or glitch, and I won't have it.
Let's hit the mission restart button.
...
No comment.
Aside from that little SNAFU, this mission gets a little bit more detail. You see this civilian here? Plain clothes, no armor?
She took a plasma shot to the back and walked away. Too bad I can't see her stats to see if she's just running around with 1HP or something like that. Still, that's pretty Ellen Ripley right there. Kudos to this civilian that we'll never see again!
Later that day, after I was informed that Hawkwings would make a full recovery from the blow – the major damage was caused by ablating armor, not the plasma itself – was that there was another incursion into China. So naturally, I ordered the dropteam assembled and sent out.
We were en route when reports of a second attack came in, this time from the far side of the Asian Republics. A graveyard in Korea was being attacked. I decided that the dropteam would go to Agartala first, then Daegu, then finally back to the Chinese Base for rest and refueling before going back to HQ.
Agartala
Daegu
White-Haven: “Does anyone else get the feeling that we're not supposed to be here?”
JonB: “Well, this is a gravesite. Maybe the Taman and their allies understand our cultures better than we do theirs, and thus attacked this place for psychological warfare reasons?”
Torben: “Seems unlikely sir. They haven't shown any interest in capturing people for study or anything like that. Just raids to cause damage and the like.”
The Graveyard is one of those maps I'm very blasé about. Sure, there's cover and open spaces, but there's little in the way of interesting things about it. There's no hidden messages on the gravestones either that I can see, so I'm slightly sad about that. 
Just another pretty picture of the Sun and Moon. Nothing unusual to see here.
12 October 2084
I once again deployed the Firebird. This UFO had crashed near the beach, and it was hoped that we could get to them before the ground forces made their way towards the nearby missile launcher.
01:01, 13 October 2084
While we were on route, I received a report from HQ. Academia had finished his development.
Interesting. A Sub Orbital Interceptor. A quick call to the Chinese base revealed that they had 7h to go on their current production que, then they would be able to begin construction of our first
Dragon
With this, I now had to decide what we were supposed to now research.
The first four options on the list were more infantry weapons. Mono-blades would replace Kerrblades and Combat Knives for melee work. The Plasma Blade might even supersede that. The Plasma Launcher was still on the table to refit a plasma grenade to work in our grenade launchers. The Laser Pistol wasn't something I was too interested in due to the effectiveness of Plasma as a sidearm.
Alien Astrogation was something that we could work on to try and backtrack the Alien flight paths around the world and beyond, but no promises. Alien detection promised to enable us to better find the UFOs out to farther ranges, while the Particle Beam was the Alien shipboard weapon of choice. And something we might be able to install onto our ships as well.
The
Star-Chaser Interceptor however...
Another not-quite dead end here, folks. You see, there is no pre-research writeup for the Starchaser, and this is just a placeholder. I have no idea what it promises. Wait. Let's visit the game's wiki. Ah. Here it is:
TO: Base Commander, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command
FROM: Cdr. Paul Navarre, R&D: Engineering Division, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command
DATE: %02i %s %i
SUB: Advanced Interceptor Design
Commander, as you will be well aware, our enemies have been fielding increasingly heavier craft and weaponry in our skies, perhaps in a response to our leveling the playing field with the new Dragon interceptors. Once again, we're feeling the pressure. My team and I have believe it is time for the next evolution in our air combat arsenal.
As our understanding of the UFO workings and alien doctrine grows, we are better able to incorporate that understanding into our designs. I've already got a rough draft of what I think will constitute a high-power air superiority fighter, but I need time and funding to come up with something definitive.
I suggest you give some priority to this project, commander. Our pilots are risking their lives up there every day, and each day the risk grows higher.
--Cdr. Navarre
There you have it! The Dragon will soon be produced, and now control over research is back in your hands my friends! Vote!
Also, could I get everyone to either PM me or sound off? I think I've lost a couple people in the kills, and want to make sure everyone who is still interested is represented. Thank you.
