Let's Play: UFO Enemy Unknown

[HyruleanHyroe]

Personal Log
May 29, 1999
Captain Dalton "Doomsly" McSlaughter

Yes, yes, YES! I'm on top of the world, baby! We blew through that Xenos scum like wind through a canyon! This is exactly why I transferred to X-Com. Just finished the counterattack, and my blood's still pumpin'.

Turns out that extra target practice with my sidearm paid off. Can't use a rocket to blast everything, you know. I came face-to-face with one of the bastards, would've blown myself to smithereens if I had reacted to quickly. But I'm X-Com, dammit, and we don't make those kinds of mistakes, we're just too well-trained.

No kills today, which is kind of a drag, but it's more than made up for by the fact that I knocked one of the buggers out for capture, and me and good ole' Shanks tag-teamed another. All in all, an outstandingly successful romp in the woods, if I do say so.

I'm kind of blown away by Saul's performance today. He practically walked through multiple explosions, unscathed. His arrival at X-Com has made a huge difference, and not just because of his battle prowess and apparent divine protection. The man is terrific for troop morale. All I've heard since he joined up is the guys talking about how incredible the man is. Even the high-ups show a healthy respect for the guy.

One last thing: that ANTX81 majigger, it's really redefined my opinion on artificial intelligence. I always thought of AI as virtual chess opponents, but (as long as you don't try to hold a conversation with it) ANTX could pass for a man in a suit. Plus it follows orders well. Good to have it on the team.

Now to rest before the next attack. I can't wait!

-Doomsly

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

(OOC: Can I just say that I'm really loving this reporting from everyone and it could make such a good story )

 

[ANTX81]

(OOC: i took a grenade blast to the skull and lived....and saul was getting saved by god left and right. Maybe the game is somehow interpreting our fluff?)

Data log of ANTX81 v1.0

DAMAGE//PONY TO UNITS SUBCORE PROCESSOR//BRAIN MEATS PROVED NINJITSU. MISSION SUCESSFULL//VICTORY GET. REPAIRS WILL TAKE 21 DAYS//504 HOURS//30240 MINUTES//1814400 SECONDS. >MY< HEAD IS LARGE//UNWEILDLY

WE CAN'T STOP HERE. THIS IS BAT COUNTRY.

>status:
stuns:2
kills:0
allies lost:1
civilians lost:7
assist stun:1
assist kill:2
casualties:0
damage received: sub core processor damaged

 

[Brett Alex]

WE CAN'T STOP HERE. THIS IS BAT COUNTRY.

(OOC: I laughed, so much

 

[AceDiamond]

WE CAN'T STOP HERE. THIS IS BAT COUNTRY.

(OOC: I laughed, so much

(OOC: So did I XD)

 

[ANTX81]

(OCC: I try)

 

[gamebrain89]

(OOC: Swine, am I correct in assuming that I haven't seen myself for a while because of the increase in squad members we have had? Just curious, cause Roots getting all the action )

WE CAN'T STOP HERE. THIS IS BAT COUNTRY.

(^ freaking awesome.)

 

[Schizzy]

Personal Log
============
Sgt. Konstantin "Schizzy" Sikorsky
May 29, 1999
==================================
Chyort voz'mi! Left behind again! Could only watch it all over Ace's shoulder from his UCV's video feed.

Speaking of which, Preacher Saul is quite something else. Three elerium charged grenades, and not a scratch. A miracle. God was surely with him and the two that got hit. Well, three, if I count the robot.

 

[GloatingSwine]

(OOC: Swine, am I correct in assuming that I haven't seen myself for a while because of the increase in squad members we have had? Just curious, cause Roots getting all the action )

Yeah, there's something like 25-28 active personnel now, and only 10 can go on a mission. Don't worry if you don't appear for a while, you'll be back.

 

[Dramatic Flare]

(OOC: Swine, am I correct in assuming that I haven't seen myself for a while because of the increase in squad members we have had? Just curious, cause Roots getting all the action )

Yeah, there's something like 25-28 active personnel now, and only 10 can go on a mission. Don't worry if you don't appear for a while, you'll be back.

-raises hand- I have a question.
So, does the game scale in difficulty which ship numbers and sizes and, since you're on the hardest difficulty I recall, is doing this because you've been too effective, or is it entirely random chance that you have to face four ships at once?

 

[GloatingSwine]

-raises hand- I have a question.
So, does the game scale in difficulty which ship numbers and sizes and, since you're on the hardest difficulty I recall, is doing this because you've been too effective, or is it entirely random chance that you have to face four ships at once?

You'll have noticed in the hyperwave decode screens it says what mission the aliens are doing. Certain missions have certain patterns of UFO activity associated. The final stage of an Alien Infiltration mission looks something very much like this, two battleships and associated smaller fluff. The actual missions the aliens do are somewhat randomly selected.

The only difference difficulty makes is the stats of the aliens and how many of them are in a mission. (I'm not playing on the hardest difficulty, only the second of five, which is where the aliens are at 100% stats, so it's essentially a "straight" fight, on the lowest difficulty their accuracy and armour gets cut 50%. Without the mods I have installed, the game defaults back to the lowest difficulty after the first mission due to a bug).

 

[GloatingSwine]

*** CLASSIFIED: ABOVE TOP SECRET ***
X-Com Command Staff Eyes Only

X-Com Battle Report, UFO Crash Recovery 17

After we assaulted one of the battleships leading the diplomatic mission, the rest of the aliens pulled out before the skyranger could refuel and return. One of the ships had been downed by interceptors on approach though, so we were back to clean it up.

AceDiamond finally gets to deploy his new UCV, a plasma armed hovertank, this new chassis is faster, more responsive, and better armoured than the previous UCVs available to X-Com, and it's ability to hover like the alien Cyberdiscs allows it to command overwatch positions over the battlefield and flank enemies from unexpected angles.

The new hovertank exits the skyranger first, it takes no fire on exiting, and so the squad leave behind it, throwing flares to illuminate the battlefield.

The light of a flare thrown into a barn to the west shows up a Muton moving on the first floor. It runs down the stairs and opens fire on the squad, but scores no hits. AceDiamond returns fire and hits the alien, but it still lives.

More movement is spotted on the first floor, indicating the presence of another alien above. Doomsly McSlaughter looses a rocket into the barn, destroying the upper floor and sending a second Muton tumbling to the ground.

Waiting for this chance, Bling Cat II opens fire and the Muton goes down.

Kevvers, Dekkarax, and another soldier open fire on the first Muton, Kevvers scores the only hit, but the creature still stands. Birras shows his squad what to do, and lines up a rocket and blasts it in the face.

The squad disperse further, Preacher Saul throws a flare into an orchard to the northwest, surprising a Muton hiding in the trees, who fires wildly back but doesn't score a hit.

Kevvers uses the illumination to sight on the alien, and his shots don't go wide.

To the west AceDiamond spots another alien at the edge of the flarelight, he takes some potshots at it but doesn't score any hits.

An X-Com soldier flanks the alien from the south and terminates it.

The LZ is cleared, and the team make ready to enter the UFO. The new aerial combat power of the hovertank, coupled with the gaping hole the exploding power core blew in the UFO's roof means that AceDiamond can add a fourth prong to the assault on this vessel, attacking from above.

The charges go off, and Preacher Saul moves to the breach, he spots an alien and Bling Cat II moves up to kill it.

A scout spots another alien to the north, he fires a stun bomb but the creature keeps moving, it fires back but the power armour absorbs the hit.

Dekkarax moves in to finish the creature off.

Meanwhile, AceDiamond hovers the UCV down through the hole in the celing, he spots another alien to the south of the UFO, and blasts it with the UCV's plasma cannon.

Report Ends

----

Mission Debriefing, General McSwine

This first field test of the hovertank has been a great success. It demonstrated it's enhanced mobility and precise firepower admirably, and allowed us to bring heavier firepower than ever before into the interior of this class of UFO, making assaults safer for the field team.

 

[AceDiamond]

Personal Log (Supplemental)
May 29, 1999
Maximilian "Ace" Diamond, X-Com: HWP Division

The new hovertank (which I have codenamed "Tom Servo") got its first trial run today when we took out the last remaining Muton presence in the US (that we know of). I have to say I'm impressed with the R&D team once again. They have effectively reverse-engineered the Cyberdisc technology we salvaged from Sectoid terror sites and then strapped a plasma cannon onto it. Granted the weapon didn't seem capable of penetrating Muton armor in one shot, but it was still effective nonetheless, and seeing the look on that bastard's face when I shot at him from the roof of the UFO was priceless. At least now I know the aliens know what fear is.

I am chagrined that the other two functioning UFOs in the area bugged out after we took down their battleship, but at the same time I know we can't have everything. I pray that what we did do was enough. Only time will tell.

 

[ANTX81]

which I have codenamed "Tom Servo"

I love you.

 

[HyruleanHyroe]

Personal Log
May 29, 1999 (Again)
Captain Dalton "Doomsly" McSlaughter

That new hovertank we brought along today sure is a pretty nifty toy. But did it bring down a whole barn? Nope. I did. Hell yeah. That was probably the single most 'AWESOME' moment of my life. And my birthday is tomorrow, too! Needless to say, I'm one happy camper right now.

The extra-terrestrial freaks have been turned back, and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. We're on a roll here, and I was looking forward to another mission or two. Ah well. There'll always be more. At least, until we eradicate every one of the Xenos bastards. They'll rue the day the f***ed around with Earth.

Sweet dreams for me tonight.

-Doomsly

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

(OOC: Swine, am I correct in assuming that I haven't seen myself for a while because of the increase in squad members we have had? Just curious, cause Roots getting all the action )

(OOC: I'm not really, I've only had about 5 kills, just that snipers tend to have a lot of AP spare so we can do overwatch)

 

[Kevvers]

Personal Log: Kevin "Kevvers" Everton
The other battleships escaped after the success of the first mission, giving us time to mop up the rest of them. I have to admit to be both relieved and frustrated by this. Did the first battleship buy them enough time to complete their mission? I guess we'll find out soon enough. Another night mission, damn I hate those. Luckily, the preacher was ready with the flares. The new tank is an impressive bit of gear, floating in through the ceiling like that. I'm already impressed by the tactical competence X-COM command, and this new recent addition is a definite advantage.

 

[GloatingSwine]

*** CLASSIFIED: ABOVE TOP SECRET ***
X-Com Command Staff Eyes Only

X-Com Incident Report, 31st May

May's little surprises were not, it turned out, quite over yet.

An alien supply vessel, obviously on approach to a base on Earth. This base had obviously been established with considerably less obvious activity than the last one. Interceptors launched to track the alien, and the Skyranger set out to try and catch it on the ground. Long before our interceptors arrived on the scene, the alien craft made landfall in Nevada.

Again, before the interceptors had arrived, and long before the Skyranger reached the scene, the UFO dusted off and began it's exit flight. The interceptors diverted to overfly the area to locate the alien facility close to where the supply ship had landed. When it was located, it was made clear how it had been established with such secrecy.

The base was on the site of the Air Force Flight Test Centre at Groom Lake, popularly known as Area 51. Long reputed to be the storage facility for captured alien technology. How far back did collaboration between the US Government and alien forces go?

With the skyranger already in the air and loaded for assault, Commander Birras made the call. We would attack the base directly, hoping to catch them on the hop before they had time to truly dig in.

Report Ends

----

X-Com Battle Report, Alien Base Assault 2

Although there were some concerns that we weren't ready to assault an alien base, they were offset by the advantage that the men were already fired up and had no time to get nervous in advance of the attack. The entrance to the base was located, and Birras directed his team to one of the two entry points.

As the squad entered through the elevator, an alien exited a room to the west and opened fire on Dekkarax, though several shots hit home, the power armour was undefeated, and Dekkarax and Bling Cat II returned fire and killed the Muton attacker. Movement from the corridor behind it indicated the presence of another, and Cyberoth II gave chase.

At such close range, there was no way the alien could survive.

Entering the room the Muton had come from, Looney spotted another through a window to the west.

She lined up and shot it through the window, but it survived the blast, so Cyberoth II continued his advance, flanking the alien and killing it.

The squad began to disperse from the entry point, Looney and Cyberoth II moving south through an alien hangar found two more aliens.

Looney sniped the further one.

Whilst Cyberoth II rounded the corner and blasted the closer.

Heading into the same large room from the southern entrance, AceDiamond spotted another alien hiding behind a display case.

He called it's position to Cyberoth II, who liquidated it.

Arriving to cover Cyberoth II and Looney, Dekkarax spotted an alien trying to flank them

He opened fire and killed it, spotting another, far stranger, creature behind it.

Cyberoth II turned and blasted it.

Meanwhile, moving further into the room, AceDiamond came under fire from alien hiding behind the central column, the toughened armour of the new UCV held up against the heavy plasma fire.

He blasted it point blank and it went down.

To the northeast of their position, Bling Cat II encountered another of the strange floating creatures, it attacked her with some kind of acid spit, but did not pose a serious threat to her armour and was swiftly killed.

Over in the southwest, Cyberoth II came under fire from an alien behind him, plasma pistol shots splashed harmlessly against his rear armour plates.

He hunted down and killed the alien responsible.

Whilst to the far west, AceDiamond spotted another alien entering the room.

He relayed it's position to Looney, who sniped it and it went down.

Movement to the far north alerted Armitage Shanks to the presence of another alien taking cover behind a wall, as he was advancing to kill it, he spotted another following it.

To avoid being flanked, he blasted this alien first.

Whilst a scout following him attempted to sight on the alien hiding in the central recess. Unfortunately, the alien was waiting, and the scout was speared by superheated plasma, the side plates of his armour gave way, and he died instantly.

Preacher Saul followed around the corner and spotted the alien, opening fire with both his stun bomb launcher and laser pistol, he put the final creature under, and turned to tend to the fallen.

Report Ends

----

Mission Debriefing, General McSwine

The successful demolition of this alien facility bears out the decision to assault it directly rather than waiting. Although the mission was not without loss for X-Com, and this will impress upon the other troops at the South East Asia facility that they are in as much danger as the main team, it cannot be viewed as anything but a success.

 

[dekkarax]

Personal Log
May 31st 1999

Well, another base down; you'd think these aliens would have bombarded us from orbit by now; but not yet; so much for superior intelligence.

I think I scored two kills in that base, I'm not sure; I'll have to check the power armour's camera; but I took a couple of hits, shook me up a bit, I can see the burn marks on the armour, guess I owe R&D. I saw what looked like a flying red kidney bean back there too, while I probably was in a lot of danger I couldn't help but laugh, you do that sometimes because you simply don't know how long you're going to live.

Must remember to ask R&D to develop something to was the power suits, they're starting to smell after being reused constantly for a couple of months.

 

[AceDiamond]

Personal Log
May 31, 1999
Maxmilian "Ace" Diamond, X-Com: HWP Division

I guess now I know why the US turned down Area 51 as the site for the first X-Com base. Clearly there has been some conspiracy at work for some time with the aliens. Well no matter, now nobody gets their hands on whatever relics were still there.

Tom Servo continues to take a lickin' and keep on tickin' as we mowed our way through the Muton forces stationed in Nevada. Sadly not without a loss this time as one of the scouts from X-Com Southeast Asia took a heavy plasma blast that breached his suit and vital organs.

Despite this loss, we've shown that we will not tolerate the subversive bullshit the aliens attempted here.