Innocent Bystander
First Post
X-com. Now there's a term I haven't heard in years. Makes me want to dig out my old diskettes and see if it'll run on my system. Looking forward to reading this.
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The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
X-COM (updated M-W-F)
- Thread starter Lazybones
- Start date
Lazybones
Adventurer
I will post the final update in the Thunderspire thread on Monday. I will resume this one then, and post initially on a M-W-F schedule.
Lazybones
Adventurer
The d20 Modern modification to Neverwinter Nights is very deadly, with relatively low thresholds for massive-damage saves. I had to make a few adjustments to the base system in my beta run, to keep characters from going down in one shot (very X-COMesque, but not so fun in a role-playing game). I also used a bleeding system that at least gave a fallen ally's companions a chance to stabilize a dying friend. Even so, firefights could be pretty nasty.
* * * * *
Session 1 (April 14, 2008)
Chapter 3
“Hrrrr,” Buzz groaned. He blinked and tried to get up, but everything spun around him.
“Careful,” a voice said. “Give it a minute.”
Buzz thought that was good advice, and after a few seconds, the painful brightness and spinning feeling began to recede. He looked up into the face of a stranger, a fit-looking man in his early thirties, clad in a dark coverall with a small red cross pinned to the lapel. “You a doctor?” he asked.
“Yep,” the other man said. “M.D. in Emergency Medicine from Harvard Medical School. James Allen. Nice to meet you.”
Buzz took the man’s hand, accepting his help as he stood up. They were still in the room from before, his other three companions watching him from a short distance away. He glanced back at the crate, expecting to see it in pieces, but it was lying on its side near where it had been when he’d opened it, black marks visible around the lid. “What happened?” he managed.
“Flashbang,” Jane said. “Looks like you got a full shot of it in the face,” Allen said, making sure that Buzz was steady before he let him go. “You sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Buzz said. His head certainly seemed to want to live up to his name, but at least the ringing was starting to recede more into the background.
Allen put several implements back into the satchel that hung from his shoulder. He started toward the elevator, but Smith’s voice came over the speaker again, interrupting him. “Better stick around, Doctor Allen,” the sergeant said. “They might have need of your services again.”
Vasily watched the exchange with a neutral look. “No more boxes. We open door.”
The Russian led them down the steps. The iron door at the bottom looked like it was about a million years old. Catalina stepped forward, and ran practiced fingers along the jam, careful not to disturb anything. “It’s been maintained recently. Fresh grease on the runners.”
Vasily took the handle and gave it a tug. The door slid open, revealing a short hallway that opened onto a larger room beyond.
Smith’s voice followed them from the speaker. “There’s some friends in the next room, they might not play friendly.”
Vasily looked back at the others. “Stay here,” he said. He turned and made his way down the hallway.
“It would seem that our Russian friend believes he can handle the world on his own,” Catalina commented.
“Like hell,” Jane said, hefting the big rifle, slipping after him.
Vasily stepped warily into the room, which was about three times as long as it was wide, the far side deep in shadow where the light from the two flickering lamps in the ceiling failed to reach. There was some scrap metal scattered about, trash that looked like it had been part of a large heating unit at some point. The Russian turned as Jane entered the room behind him, frowning as the others came forward in her wake.
He opened his mouth to say something, but a deep metallic groan from the far side of the room drew his attention back around. There was movement there; he lifted his rifle, drew off the safety in a practiced motion. Behind him, the others were readying themselves as well.
But Vasily had never seen what came forward out of the darkness before. As the figures entered the light, he could make out metallic outlines, humanoid shapes that were clearly nothing human.
“Robots?” Catalina asked.
“Cool,” Buzz breathed.
Vasily didn’t share the sentiment. He took aim at the nearer target, but before he could fire, he heard a hiss and felt something sting him in the gut. He looked down to see a pair of wires there, just as he felt a surge of electrical energy that blazed through his body like a runaway fire, blasting him off his feet.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Session 1 (April 14, 2008)
Chapter 4
“You’ll live,” Allen said.
Vasily grunted, pulling his shirt back down over the mark left by the taser. The device had been set to relatively low power, to stun rather than render unconscious, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt. Taking up his rifle—which still hadn’t been fired—he ignored the lingering pain as he got up and rejoined the others.
Buzz was still poking around the wreckage of the two—robots? Vasily was growing somewhat impatient. The things had caught him off-guard, but they’d responded to weapons fire as though they’d been human; likely they’d been programmed to simulate damage effects. He recognized the sophistication of it, even as his patience continued to ebb.
“Let us go,” he said, leading them to the next door.
They left the room and entered a crowded hallway, with several thick conduit pipes crossing the passage. There was a sickly sweet stink in the air, just strong enough to be unpleasant.
“Gas,” James said. “We probably don’t want to spend longer down here than we have to.”
The corridor continued, until they could see that the passage ended in another door up ahead. This door, unlike the others they’d used, had a lock set into it next to the handle.
“Door. Is lock?” Vasily asked.
Catalina drew out a small metal nail file. She ran it over her nails, then walked over to the lock. Grimacing at the dirty floor, she crouched next to it, probed at the lock with the file, then drew out a pin from her hair. Using both impromptu tools together, she poked at the lock for about twenty seconds, then stood, and smiled. Vasily leaned in, and grabbed the handle; the door drew open at his tug.
“Hm. Good.”
“Thanks.”
The room beyond the door looked like it had once been a repair bay or somesuch; it was difficult to tell with all of the heavy equipment removed. A few unused power cables dangled from fixtures in the ceiling. Another passage led off to the left through another doorway, this one standing open.
Smith’s voice sounded over another speaker set into the ceiling. “There’s a big bad robot blocking the way up ahead. He’s waiting for your to arrive. Guns might work… or maybe you can find something in that box that can help.”
“There,” Catalina said, indicating the crate lying on the floor under the speaker. She walked over to investigate, keeping her distance.
“You want to deal with the box, Catalina?” Jane asked, coming up to join her.
“I’ve no tools with me, which is making life difficult. This one doesn’t look like a hairpin will work.” She pointed to the locking mechanism on top of the box, which had a small numeric keypad attached and no apparent keyhole.
Jane drew the bolt on her rifle, and pointed the barrel at the lock.
“Hey! No! Box may have explosive…” Vasily yelled, but he was cut off by the sound of the rifle shot. Catalina simply looked at Jane with an open-mouthed look of horror.
“There you go,” Jane said. “Next time I ask, there’s your choices.”
“Would have been a good idea to make it clear to begin with, you trigger happy moron,” Catalina muttered under her breath, as Jane bent to examine the contents of the box. “Hmm. Grenades, explosives.” She handed up a package to Catalina, who took it, after a moment. “Anyone else want grenades?” Jane said, holding one up.
“Surely these aren’t real?” Buzz asked.
“Training gear, but same as real as far as robot concerned,” Vasily said. “You think you can make ambush for robot?” he asked Catalina, who was still examining the explosive device Jane had given her.
“I’m afraid explosives aren’t my specialty,” she said.
“Give it to Igor here,” James said, motioning to Vasily. The Russian sent a hard look at the doctor, but finally said, “Give me explosives. I try set trap.”
They made their way down the other passage, which bent to the left after about fifteen paces. Vasily progressed to the intersection, peered around the bend. “Okay,” he said. “Robot in next room. I set trap, you bring it through here.” He handed his rifle to James, who accepted it after a moment’s pause. While the others went on ahead, he knelt at the corner, focusing upon the device, pulling out a tripwire from the mechanism, looking for a place to anchor it. He wasn’t having much luck when there was a clank and clatter from ahead, followed by the rattle of automatic weapons fire, punctuated by the deep cough of single shots.
Catalina was the first back. “Too late, it’s seen Calamity Jane.”
“Incoming,” Jane said, with Buzz and James right behind her. They bypassed Vasily, careful to avoid the tripwire he’d strung across the corridor. The Russian cursed as he tried to find the trigger to arm the bomb; he wasn’t familiar with this particular type of construction. The loud thump of the robot’s tread drew steadily louder.
“Fifty feet,” Jane said, glancing around the corner.
Vasily felt his fingers slip, but it was too late to do anything but close his eyes as the explosives went off in front of him. The simulated blast was only about as strong as another flashbang, but it blinded him, searing his hands and face with the force of it. He fell back, dazed. He could still hear the others shouting.
And the tread of the training bot, which came ponderously around the corner, right into the midst of the new recruits.
SERVER : [DM] Vasily Kasprjak : Demolitions Check, Roll 1d20: 3 + Modifier: -4 = Total: -1
The bot was twice the size of the man, and its servos whirled loudly under a shell of plate armor that covered most of its body. It was armed with tasers that it fired at point-blank range, striking Catalina and Jane. Both women screamed and fell, Catalina banging her head on the nearby wall, while Jane dropped her rifle and crumpled into a heap. The bot came forward, almost stepping on Vasily’s hand as the Russian tried to recover from the explosion he’d inadvertently set off.
With a whistling noise the bot drew the taser cables back into its torso, turning toward James Allen, who was backpedaling away from it, his eyes wide. It had missed Buzz entirely, who’d fallen back against the far wall, still trying to blink away the flare from Vasily’s bomb. As the bot started forward again, right toward the fallen Russian, something just snapped in him; he rushed forward, and grabbed the access port that sat squarely in the center of the robot’s lower back. A confused welter of wires and gears was visible.
He reached in and started yanking. Something flashed, burning his hand, and he screamed in pain. He kept on screaming as he drew out the handgun that Jane had given him, held its muzzle up to the opening, and pulled the trigger.
There was a flash, a loud noise. Suddenly the bot stiffened, and slumped over.
“Very cool,” Jane said, as quiet returned to the corridor. She extended a hand and helped Vasily to his feet.
“Neat work,” Catalina added.
When he could see and hear clearly again, Buzz took a closer look at the hole in the giant robot’s back. He saw that his wild shot had penetrated what looked like a control box set right in the guts of the thing’s torso. Tendrils of electricity still flashed around the opening.
“We’re lucky someone wasn’t killed,” James said. “This is getting ridiculous.”
“All right, looks like you kids get to call it a day early,” Sergeant Smith’s voice came from the speaker in the room behind them. “Too bad, we had a pool on how many times you’d each ‘die’. Come on ahead, it’s clear back around to the elevator.”
There were more than a few muttered growls in the direction of the speaker, as the battered recruits gathered together and made their way to the exit.
Chapter 4
“You’ll live,” Allen said.
Vasily grunted, pulling his shirt back down over the mark left by the taser. The device had been set to relatively low power, to stun rather than render unconscious, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt. Taking up his rifle—which still hadn’t been fired—he ignored the lingering pain as he got up and rejoined the others.
Buzz was still poking around the wreckage of the two—robots? Vasily was growing somewhat impatient. The things had caught him off-guard, but they’d responded to weapons fire as though they’d been human; likely they’d been programmed to simulate damage effects. He recognized the sophistication of it, even as his patience continued to ebb.
“Let us go,” he said, leading them to the next door.
They left the room and entered a crowded hallway, with several thick conduit pipes crossing the passage. There was a sickly sweet stink in the air, just strong enough to be unpleasant.
“Gas,” James said. “We probably don’t want to spend longer down here than we have to.”
The corridor continued, until they could see that the passage ended in another door up ahead. This door, unlike the others they’d used, had a lock set into it next to the handle.
“Door. Is lock?” Vasily asked.
Catalina drew out a small metal nail file. She ran it over her nails, then walked over to the lock. Grimacing at the dirty floor, she crouched next to it, probed at the lock with the file, then drew out a pin from her hair. Using both impromptu tools together, she poked at the lock for about twenty seconds, then stood, and smiled. Vasily leaned in, and grabbed the handle; the door drew open at his tug.
“Hm. Good.”
“Thanks.”
The room beyond the door looked like it had once been a repair bay or somesuch; it was difficult to tell with all of the heavy equipment removed. A few unused power cables dangled from fixtures in the ceiling. Another passage led off to the left through another doorway, this one standing open.
Smith’s voice sounded over another speaker set into the ceiling. “There’s a big bad robot blocking the way up ahead. He’s waiting for your to arrive. Guns might work… or maybe you can find something in that box that can help.”
“There,” Catalina said, indicating the crate lying on the floor under the speaker. She walked over to investigate, keeping her distance.
“You want to deal with the box, Catalina?” Jane asked, coming up to join her.
“I’ve no tools with me, which is making life difficult. This one doesn’t look like a hairpin will work.” She pointed to the locking mechanism on top of the box, which had a small numeric keypad attached and no apparent keyhole.
Jane drew the bolt on her rifle, and pointed the barrel at the lock.
“Hey! No! Box may have explosive…” Vasily yelled, but he was cut off by the sound of the rifle shot. Catalina simply looked at Jane with an open-mouthed look of horror.
“There you go,” Jane said. “Next time I ask, there’s your choices.”
“Would have been a good idea to make it clear to begin with, you trigger happy moron,” Catalina muttered under her breath, as Jane bent to examine the contents of the box. “Hmm. Grenades, explosives.” She handed up a package to Catalina, who took it, after a moment. “Anyone else want grenades?” Jane said, holding one up.
“Surely these aren’t real?” Buzz asked.
“Training gear, but same as real as far as robot concerned,” Vasily said. “You think you can make ambush for robot?” he asked Catalina, who was still examining the explosive device Jane had given her.
“I’m afraid explosives aren’t my specialty,” she said.
“Give it to Igor here,” James said, motioning to Vasily. The Russian sent a hard look at the doctor, but finally said, “Give me explosives. I try set trap.”
They made their way down the other passage, which bent to the left after about fifteen paces. Vasily progressed to the intersection, peered around the bend. “Okay,” he said. “Robot in next room. I set trap, you bring it through here.” He handed his rifle to James, who accepted it after a moment’s pause. While the others went on ahead, he knelt at the corner, focusing upon the device, pulling out a tripwire from the mechanism, looking for a place to anchor it. He wasn’t having much luck when there was a clank and clatter from ahead, followed by the rattle of automatic weapons fire, punctuated by the deep cough of single shots.
Catalina was the first back. “Too late, it’s seen Calamity Jane.”
“Incoming,” Jane said, with Buzz and James right behind her. They bypassed Vasily, careful to avoid the tripwire he’d strung across the corridor. The Russian cursed as he tried to find the trigger to arm the bomb; he wasn’t familiar with this particular type of construction. The loud thump of the robot’s tread drew steadily louder.
“Fifty feet,” Jane said, glancing around the corner.
Vasily felt his fingers slip, but it was too late to do anything but close his eyes as the explosives went off in front of him. The simulated blast was only about as strong as another flashbang, but it blinded him, searing his hands and face with the force of it. He fell back, dazed. He could still hear the others shouting.
And the tread of the training bot, which came ponderously around the corner, right into the midst of the new recruits.
SERVER : [DM] Vasily Kasprjak : Demolitions Check, Roll 1d20: 3 + Modifier: -4 = Total: -1
The bot was twice the size of the man, and its servos whirled loudly under a shell of plate armor that covered most of its body. It was armed with tasers that it fired at point-blank range, striking Catalina and Jane. Both women screamed and fell, Catalina banging her head on the nearby wall, while Jane dropped her rifle and crumpled into a heap. The bot came forward, almost stepping on Vasily’s hand as the Russian tried to recover from the explosion he’d inadvertently set off.
With a whistling noise the bot drew the taser cables back into its torso, turning toward James Allen, who was backpedaling away from it, his eyes wide. It had missed Buzz entirely, who’d fallen back against the far wall, still trying to blink away the flare from Vasily’s bomb. As the bot started forward again, right toward the fallen Russian, something just snapped in him; he rushed forward, and grabbed the access port that sat squarely in the center of the robot’s lower back. A confused welter of wires and gears was visible.
He reached in and started yanking. Something flashed, burning his hand, and he screamed in pain. He kept on screaming as he drew out the handgun that Jane had given him, held its muzzle up to the opening, and pulled the trigger.
There was a flash, a loud noise. Suddenly the bot stiffened, and slumped over.
“Very cool,” Jane said, as quiet returned to the corridor. She extended a hand and helped Vasily to his feet.
“Neat work,” Catalina added.
When he could see and hear clearly again, Buzz took a closer look at the hole in the giant robot’s back. He saw that his wild shot had penetrated what looked like a control box set right in the guts of the thing’s torso. Tendrils of electricity still flashed around the opening.
“We’re lucky someone wasn’t killed,” James said. “This is getting ridiculous.”
“All right, looks like you kids get to call it a day early,” Sergeant Smith’s voice came from the speaker in the room behind them. “Too bad, we had a pool on how many times you’d each ‘die’. Come on ahead, it’s clear back around to the elevator.”
There were more than a few muttered growls in the direction of the speaker, as the battered recruits gathered together and made their way to the exit.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Session 2 (April 21, 2008)
Chapter 5
The interior of the APC stank.
Or more accurately, Catalina thought, we stink. They hadn’t been offered the opportunity to shower or change their clothes at the staging base, which had continued to come apart around them following the training exercise. All that Sergeant Smith had told them was that they’d have a chance to rest and get cleaned up once they made it to the new base.
Of course, there was no telling when that would happen. They’d been in the vehicle for at least two hours already, the ride just as jouncy as their original trip to the staging base. Most of them looked as miserable as she felt, although the Russian was slumped back in his seat, and appeared to be snoring.
By the time that the vehicle rolled to a stop, she thought that she would have traded her pension for five minutes in a hot shower.
Vasily woke without having to be prodded, and he was the first to the door when the latches popped. The five of them—James Allen had come with them—disembarked onto a barren expanse of rocks and sand. It was about an hour before dawn, and all that they could see was a line of vague shadows that might have been mountains far to the northeast.
“Over here,” Jane said.
They followed her around the vehicle, where they could see a squat metallic structure half-buried in the ground. It didn’t look like much, maybe twelve feet by twenty. A dark slit appeared to be a staircase or ramp that led down into the interior. A man emerged from that opening, clad in a pale khaki uniform and body armor, his face shielded by a visor that extended across the opening in the front of his helmet.
“Hey, rookies,” he said. “They’re expecting you. Go on inside, the lift mechanism’s set for manual activation.”
“There better be answer inside,” Vasily growled. Catalina looked at him; apparently the Russian was becoming grumpy. “It would indeed be nice,” she said in agreement.
“This getting stupid,” he said, heading toward the opening the soldier had emerged from. The others followed. Behind them, the guard spoke quietly into his throat mike. “Security authorization, roger. The newbies are here.”
The building’s interior contained nothing save for an open-sided lift in the center of the space, its corners marked by steel shafts that extended up to the roof. There was a control panel that rose on a strut at one corner of the lift. The five of them stepped onto the platform, and James pressed the lower of the two buttons. The lift activated, descending into a shaft that took them down into the earth.
It took them a good two minutes to reach the bottom. There was a metallic grate there blocking the exit, which drew up into the ceiling as the lift settled.
“Couple of hundred feet,” Jane noted. Catalina nodded, she was glad that the others were paying attention.
The man who was waiting for them behind the grate was dressed in a uniform similar to the one worn by the guard above. He was older, probably pushing fifty, and had a weathered look that bespoke experience hard earned. “Welcome,” he said in greeting. “I’m Mark Hallorand, Base Chief.”
The five made their introductions, although it was pretty obvious that Hallorand knew who they were. “I know you’ve come a long way, and I imagine that you’re a bit tuckered out from your trip. So I’ll show you the barracks, give you a chance to get some rest, a shower.”
“Thanks, that would be appreciated,” James said. Catalina thought it was the answer to a prayer, but she kept an eye on the others. Buzz was looking around, his bright eyes taking in everything, while Vasily still looked like his features had been carved out of solid rock.
Hallorand led them into a hallway that connected to the lift room. There were a pair of armed guards there, who gave the newcomers a thorough looking over as they passed. “When you’re ready, I’ll arrange for a little tour of this facility,” Hallorand was saying. “I’ve gotten word that Director Garret is going to have a briefing for you tonight, but plenty of time before then.” He turned at a steel door. “I know you probably have a lot of questions, but I’m sure the briefing will answer them. I’d just like to say, welcome aboard.”
“Thanks,” Jane said.
Hallorand pressed the control panel to the right of the door, and the heavy steel slab slid open. “I can say that we’re all pretty new to this,” he told them, leading them into the brightly lit room beyond. “This base has only been operational for a few weeks.”
The five recruits blinked as they looked around the room, which had been decorated to function as a nicely apportioned lounge. Several deep padded chairs flanked two doors to their left, while to the right there were two large round tables surrounded by more chairs, a couch, and of all things, a small piano, which looked rather out of place. The far side of the room had another door and a long counter, which supported a few cabinets, a microwave, and a soda dispenser. A portable stereo system had been set up on the end of the counter.
“This is our rec room,” Hallorand explained. “Over here on the left are the briefing room, and the communications center. I’ll show you the commissary after you’ve rested. If you want a snack, there’s a variety of instant meals near the micro.” Catalina felt her stomach grumble at the reminder that she hadn’t eaten since the flight—how long ago had that been? But she stifled her complaining stomach and followed Hallorand to the far door.
That one opened like the first, and led onto another long hallway with doors on both sides. She recognized the universal symbols on the doors to the left, the familiar white-stenciled outlines of a man and a woman, but Hallorand opened the first one on the right. “This is your barracks. New quarters for Alpha Team. That’s you lot.”
Catalina took a look. The quarters were spartan at best, with tiered bunk beds running down the long, narrow room in a row on one side, with plain metal lockers opposite. There was a poster stuck on the wall, depicting a very scantily clad blonde woman posing at an improbable angle.
“Shared?” Catalina asked.
“Sure, why not?” Jane said. “If the guys aren’t embarrassed by bras and stuff.”
Catalina smiled. “Well. At the very least, we will need a fireman calendar to balance… that.”
“But you said the showers work, right?” Buzz interjected.
“Yes,” Hallorand responded. “Men’s and women’s restrooms, with showers, are just across the hall. And there are privacy screens that pull out, divide this room into smaller compartments. Unfortunately we just don’t have the space for individual quarters at this point, things are even more packed for the base crew and technicians, believe me.”
“I just hope no one snores!” Buzz exclaimed.
“I’ll try to keep it down,” Catalina replied dryly. She headed to the far end of the room, and stopped at a locker that had her name on it. “Hmm. Well, isn’t this… basic,” she said, pulling out a plain coverall uniform. “Ah, our luggage!” she said, digging deeper into the locker.
“Your personal possessions were forwarded here. We’ll get you fitted out more properly once you get settled in,” Hallorand said. “Remember that this entire base was empty just two weeks ago.” He checked his watch. “I have to attend to a few things, I’ll come back for you around noon, for that tour. You may hear a few unusual noises, nothing to be alarmed about. We’re still building out parts of the base.”
The chief paused at the door. “Grace Thelon, our engineer, will be by with IDs and communicators by the time you’ve rested. Until you get the IDs, best not to wander around too much. Go ahead and use the lounge, if you want.”
“Any computers around?” Buzz asked.
“There’s a few laptops in the rec room, but local access only, I’m afraid. No hookups to the Internet. I’ll see you all at noon.”
Once he had left, and the door had swung shut, Vasily shook his head. “If anyone have idea what this about, please tell.” He was obviously tired, his accent thickening until the others could barely decode it.
“James?” Jane asked. “You were here before we were.”
“Only for a day,” he replied. “There is some threat, something related to the reports of aliens in the press. Other than that, I know about as much as you do.”
“Don’t look at me,” Catalina said, “they refused to brief me properly. ‘Necessary to keep an open mind,’ I was told.”
James looked thoughtful. “Well, either there actually are aliens, or… something stranger yet.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Well, all I know is that I need a shower,” Catalina said, taking her toiletries bag out of her locker. “Excuse me, gents,” she said with a smile, heading for the facilities.
Chapter 5
The interior of the APC stank.
Or more accurately, Catalina thought, we stink. They hadn’t been offered the opportunity to shower or change their clothes at the staging base, which had continued to come apart around them following the training exercise. All that Sergeant Smith had told them was that they’d have a chance to rest and get cleaned up once they made it to the new base.
Of course, there was no telling when that would happen. They’d been in the vehicle for at least two hours already, the ride just as jouncy as their original trip to the staging base. Most of them looked as miserable as she felt, although the Russian was slumped back in his seat, and appeared to be snoring.
By the time that the vehicle rolled to a stop, she thought that she would have traded her pension for five minutes in a hot shower.
Vasily woke without having to be prodded, and he was the first to the door when the latches popped. The five of them—James Allen had come with them—disembarked onto a barren expanse of rocks and sand. It was about an hour before dawn, and all that they could see was a line of vague shadows that might have been mountains far to the northeast.
“Over here,” Jane said.
They followed her around the vehicle, where they could see a squat metallic structure half-buried in the ground. It didn’t look like much, maybe twelve feet by twenty. A dark slit appeared to be a staircase or ramp that led down into the interior. A man emerged from that opening, clad in a pale khaki uniform and body armor, his face shielded by a visor that extended across the opening in the front of his helmet.
“Hey, rookies,” he said. “They’re expecting you. Go on inside, the lift mechanism’s set for manual activation.”
“There better be answer inside,” Vasily growled. Catalina looked at him; apparently the Russian was becoming grumpy. “It would indeed be nice,” she said in agreement.
“This getting stupid,” he said, heading toward the opening the soldier had emerged from. The others followed. Behind them, the guard spoke quietly into his throat mike. “Security authorization, roger. The newbies are here.”
The building’s interior contained nothing save for an open-sided lift in the center of the space, its corners marked by steel shafts that extended up to the roof. There was a control panel that rose on a strut at one corner of the lift. The five of them stepped onto the platform, and James pressed the lower of the two buttons. The lift activated, descending into a shaft that took them down into the earth.
It took them a good two minutes to reach the bottom. There was a metallic grate there blocking the exit, which drew up into the ceiling as the lift settled.
“Couple of hundred feet,” Jane noted. Catalina nodded, she was glad that the others were paying attention.
The man who was waiting for them behind the grate was dressed in a uniform similar to the one worn by the guard above. He was older, probably pushing fifty, and had a weathered look that bespoke experience hard earned. “Welcome,” he said in greeting. “I’m Mark Hallorand, Base Chief.”
The five made their introductions, although it was pretty obvious that Hallorand knew who they were. “I know you’ve come a long way, and I imagine that you’re a bit tuckered out from your trip. So I’ll show you the barracks, give you a chance to get some rest, a shower.”
“Thanks, that would be appreciated,” James said. Catalina thought it was the answer to a prayer, but she kept an eye on the others. Buzz was looking around, his bright eyes taking in everything, while Vasily still looked like his features had been carved out of solid rock.
Hallorand led them into a hallway that connected to the lift room. There were a pair of armed guards there, who gave the newcomers a thorough looking over as they passed. “When you’re ready, I’ll arrange for a little tour of this facility,” Hallorand was saying. “I’ve gotten word that Director Garret is going to have a briefing for you tonight, but plenty of time before then.” He turned at a steel door. “I know you probably have a lot of questions, but I’m sure the briefing will answer them. I’d just like to say, welcome aboard.”
“Thanks,” Jane said.
Hallorand pressed the control panel to the right of the door, and the heavy steel slab slid open. “I can say that we’re all pretty new to this,” he told them, leading them into the brightly lit room beyond. “This base has only been operational for a few weeks.”
The five recruits blinked as they looked around the room, which had been decorated to function as a nicely apportioned lounge. Several deep padded chairs flanked two doors to their left, while to the right there were two large round tables surrounded by more chairs, a couch, and of all things, a small piano, which looked rather out of place. The far side of the room had another door and a long counter, which supported a few cabinets, a microwave, and a soda dispenser. A portable stereo system had been set up on the end of the counter.
“This is our rec room,” Hallorand explained. “Over here on the left are the briefing room, and the communications center. I’ll show you the commissary after you’ve rested. If you want a snack, there’s a variety of instant meals near the micro.” Catalina felt her stomach grumble at the reminder that she hadn’t eaten since the flight—how long ago had that been? But she stifled her complaining stomach and followed Hallorand to the far door.
That one opened like the first, and led onto another long hallway with doors on both sides. She recognized the universal symbols on the doors to the left, the familiar white-stenciled outlines of a man and a woman, but Hallorand opened the first one on the right. “This is your barracks. New quarters for Alpha Team. That’s you lot.”
Catalina took a look. The quarters were spartan at best, with tiered bunk beds running down the long, narrow room in a row on one side, with plain metal lockers opposite. There was a poster stuck on the wall, depicting a very scantily clad blonde woman posing at an improbable angle.
“Shared?” Catalina asked.
“Sure, why not?” Jane said. “If the guys aren’t embarrassed by bras and stuff.”
Catalina smiled. “Well. At the very least, we will need a fireman calendar to balance… that.”
“But you said the showers work, right?” Buzz interjected.
“Yes,” Hallorand responded. “Men’s and women’s restrooms, with showers, are just across the hall. And there are privacy screens that pull out, divide this room into smaller compartments. Unfortunately we just don’t have the space for individual quarters at this point, things are even more packed for the base crew and technicians, believe me.”
“I just hope no one snores!” Buzz exclaimed.
“I’ll try to keep it down,” Catalina replied dryly. She headed to the far end of the room, and stopped at a locker that had her name on it. “Hmm. Well, isn’t this… basic,” she said, pulling out a plain coverall uniform. “Ah, our luggage!” she said, digging deeper into the locker.
“Your personal possessions were forwarded here. We’ll get you fitted out more properly once you get settled in,” Hallorand said. “Remember that this entire base was empty just two weeks ago.” He checked his watch. “I have to attend to a few things, I’ll come back for you around noon, for that tour. You may hear a few unusual noises, nothing to be alarmed about. We’re still building out parts of the base.”
The chief paused at the door. “Grace Thelon, our engineer, will be by with IDs and communicators by the time you’ve rested. Until you get the IDs, best not to wander around too much. Go ahead and use the lounge, if you want.”
“Any computers around?” Buzz asked.
“There’s a few laptops in the rec room, but local access only, I’m afraid. No hookups to the Internet. I’ll see you all at noon.”
Once he had left, and the door had swung shut, Vasily shook his head. “If anyone have idea what this about, please tell.” He was obviously tired, his accent thickening until the others could barely decode it.
“James?” Jane asked. “You were here before we were.”
“Only for a day,” he replied. “There is some threat, something related to the reports of aliens in the press. Other than that, I know about as much as you do.”
“Don’t look at me,” Catalina said, “they refused to brief me properly. ‘Necessary to keep an open mind,’ I was told.”
James looked thoughtful. “Well, either there actually are aliens, or… something stranger yet.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Well, all I know is that I need a shower,” Catalina said, taking her toiletries bag out of her locker. “Excuse me, gents,” she said with a smile, heading for the facilities.
Lazybones
Adventurer
Session 2 (April 21, 2008)
Chapter 6
This place is huge, Jane thought, as they returned to the rec room. Hallorand had been as good as his word, taking them all over the complex. It looked as though X-COM had taken over an existing facility, as some of the infrastructure had been pretty dated, but they’d also been shown rooms that looked as though they’d been bored out of the bedrock just minutes before. The laboratories and workshops had been impressive, even though a lot of the components were still sitting around in boxes and crates. The commissary-slash-kitchen had been simple enough but the food had been decent; Hallorand had commented on the importance of having a good cook for the morale of any large organization. He seemed to know his business; after talking to him for a while, she guessed that he’d been an officer in a military logistics command.
She turned the small communicator over in her hand. Grace had called it an “xPhone,” and in fact it did resemble the consumer device that was all the craze now, with a touch screen and a sleek matte finish. But while Grace had only given them a brief summary of its features, she knew that there was more to it than met the eye.
The same could be said for all of this, this entire thing, X-COM, the base, the still-mysterious mission. She was perhaps a bit more open to it than the others, because she’d seen, she knew already, what was coming.
She glanced over at Buzz, who had already managed to get the back off his xPhone, and was poking around at the innards. Catalina was reading a file on her device, sitting on the couch with her feet up; James and Vasily had gone off somewhere, maybe to the firing range that Hallorand had shown them during the tour. She turned on the phone, and opened up the folder she’d only glanced at earlier.
X-COM Operations, she read, and started looking for answers.
It was a little after six when their xPhones chirped, indicating that it was time for the briefing. The conference room just off the lounge was decorated with a long table, its rich faux-grain top contrasting with the recently-installed paneling that covered the walls. Twelve black office chairs were lined up around the table. A laptop computer hooked up to a twenty-four inch monitor stood at one of end of the table, while a large LCD screen dominated one of the walls, with a bank of touch-input screens jutting out in a row beneath it.
The room was already occupied by a half-dozen people. Michael Garret stood at the table next to the computer. He nodded in greeting as the new recruits of Alpha Team filed in. “Ah, good. All settled in?”
“Working on it,” Vasily said, pulling out a chair. The others sat next to him, facing the wall screen.
“I believe you already know Grace, and Stan White, our chief medical officer. Allow me to introduce Doctor Kimberly Wagner, head of our research department.” The woman standing next to the wall screen was tall and blonde, in a white lab coat over a black blouse and trousers, stunningly attractive despite the subtle advance of years evident in her features. “Charmed, I am sure,” she said, a thick German accent tilting her syllables.
Garret continued the introductions, indicating a woman with long brown hair, dressed in jeans and a sweater, sitting near the far end of the table. “Doctor Jean Beauvois, our counselor.”
“Pleased to meet you all,” she said.
Garret indicated a young Asian man standing behind Beauvois. “Down there at the end, Ken Yushi. He’s a pilot, and more specifically, he’ll be your pilot, in Skyranger-1.”
“Skyranger?” Vasily asked.
“Ah, you’ll meet that member of our team a bit later,” Garret said. He turned to the woman seated next to him, the last to be introduced. She was a lean woman, dressed in a smart black suit, her hair cut short. She had a laptop in front of her, which she snapped shut as Garret spoke. “This is Agent Inise Drake.”
“Federal Bureau of Investigations,” Drake said, her words clipped.
“I am certain that all of you are curious about why you are here,” Garret went on.
“I think some of us had registered a passing interest,” Catalina said.
“I only had a chance to speak with you briefly at the staging base,” Garret said. “Let me explain, then, what it is that X-COM is about. Doctor Wagner, if you wouldn't mind providing some context?”
Wagner nodded, and turned to the control panel under the large wall screen. As she touched the controls, graphics started appearing on the screen to accompany her words.
“We have little hard data about our enemy,” she began. “A few months ago, we started picking up unusual readings from our various orbital devices. Space station... some secret arrays as well.” Images of the ISS, a map of satellite orbits, and various depictions of the Earth as seen from space cascaded across the screen. “Very fast, like nothing we had seen before.”
The new recruits leaned forward in their chairs as a grainy, pixelated image appeared on the screen: an oblong disk, with a fat bulge protruding from its center.
“Various air forces attempted to intercept these, for lack of a better word, ‘UFOs’. There were a few encounters. Russian air force, China’s, and American. Let us just say that those encounters did not end well for us.”
The FBI agent’s stare was penetrating as she looked at the new members of Alpha Team. “Your job is to make sure that subsequent outcomes are more favorable.”
“Agent Drake is our liaison with our host government,” Garret said. “We are on American soil, although technically, X-COM is an extraterritorial entity.”
“Yes,” Drake said, “I am here to ensure that the United States government’s investment proves fruitful.”
A few of the team members shared looks. Catalina locked eyes with Drake, a staring match that was only interrupted when Wagner said, “The briefing, I am continuing, yes?”
At Garret’s nod, she pressed another button on the console, and another image appeared, one that looked like the scene from the end of a war movie. “This, we have kept quiet.”
The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to the screen like metal filings to a magnet. Doctor Wager continued, “This has been the worst incursion to date. An entire military base wiped out, in western China. The Chinese have not been especially forthcoming, but we've confirmed that this was the work of our unidentified ‘friends’.”
“Whoa,” Jane said.
“When did this happen?” Vasily asked.
“Seventeen days ago,” Garret said. “Doctor, tell them the rest.”
“There have also been incursions. Landings. At least sixteen worldwide. Some animals, and a few people, have been ... taken.”
“Sixteen that we know of,” Agent Drake interjected. “Some may have gone unreported.”
“That is likely, Agent Drake,” Garret acknowledged. “All we have is some grainy surveillance photos. Their ships are like nothing any human government has ever built. And their occupants…”
He nodded to Wagner, who brought up another picture, a grainy, long-distance shot, depicting a small humanoid figure. It was impossible to make out any details given the poor quality of the picture, but all of them leaned forward, peering at it.
“We are calling them ‘Sectoids’ for now,” Wagner said.
“You’re telling us that the Roswell paranoia that the media’s been going on about of late is true?” Catalina asked.
“There has been a lot of reports in the media, most of it wild fancy,” Garret said. “Thus far, the leading world governments have been reluctant to confirm or deny anything.”
“None of this information leaves this room,” Drake said.
James leaned back in his chair and let out a held breath. “Aliens invading and abducting humans. Wow.”
Wagner pressed a button, and the pictures vanished. “This is the mission of X-COM.” Bullet points appeared on the screen to match her comments, under a logo depicting the name of the organization. “One. Investigate and gather data.”
“Part of our job is to find out what we don’t know,” Garret said.
“Two. Research and analyze.”
“You’ve seen our labs,” Garret said. “We need to collect whatever hard data we can find, and figure out what makes these ‘Sectoids’ tick. That’s why several of you have been invited here. You have certain skills in this area that will be vital to our operation.”
Wagner stabbed at a button. “And finally, three. Intercept. Destroy.”
Catalina quirked a brow. “No ‘take me to your leader’?”
Garret’s expression was grim. “We’re not primarily a military organization. But Earth’s best militaries have proven ineffective against the Sectoids.”
“They don’t appear to be interested in communication,” Drake added. “They have ignored all attempts thus far.”
“We’re not above talking to them,” Garret said. “If we can figure out what they want.” He drew stare down the row of recruits. “You five are more than just our Alpha Field Team. You all have talents beyond firing guns and tromping about in heavy boots. You have seen what we have... but what we don't have, is a government bureaucracy. We're small. Our resources come as donations from the countries that comprise our consortium. We have a limited remit... and a lot of accountability. You will be given access to all of the data we’ve collected thus far, expected to assimilate it, and to participate in the mission profiles and the setting of priorities.”
He paced around the edge of the table, rested his fists on its edge. “X-COM has fewer than 500 operatives worldwide. We’re bringing in people as we speak. Scientists. Engineers. Soldiers. We’re building state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facilities here, and at our other operations centers around the world. The threat is real, and we’re going to do our best to confront it. “
He leaned back, sighed, in that moment looking more human than he had since they’d first met him. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Take the rest of the day to get settled in. Chief Hallorand will take you to Musa Babatola, our quartermaster; he’ll get you set up with uniforms and other gear. Doctor Wagner will send you the briefings via your xPhones, along with information about our current research and manufacturing priorities. If you have any questions, send them to the respective department heads. We’re busy as all hell right now, but we’re going to make this a team effort.”
Chapter 6
This place is huge, Jane thought, as they returned to the rec room. Hallorand had been as good as his word, taking them all over the complex. It looked as though X-COM had taken over an existing facility, as some of the infrastructure had been pretty dated, but they’d also been shown rooms that looked as though they’d been bored out of the bedrock just minutes before. The laboratories and workshops had been impressive, even though a lot of the components were still sitting around in boxes and crates. The commissary-slash-kitchen had been simple enough but the food had been decent; Hallorand had commented on the importance of having a good cook for the morale of any large organization. He seemed to know his business; after talking to him for a while, she guessed that he’d been an officer in a military logistics command.
She turned the small communicator over in her hand. Grace had called it an “xPhone,” and in fact it did resemble the consumer device that was all the craze now, with a touch screen and a sleek matte finish. But while Grace had only given them a brief summary of its features, she knew that there was more to it than met the eye.
The same could be said for all of this, this entire thing, X-COM, the base, the still-mysterious mission. She was perhaps a bit more open to it than the others, because she’d seen, she knew already, what was coming.
She glanced over at Buzz, who had already managed to get the back off his xPhone, and was poking around at the innards. Catalina was reading a file on her device, sitting on the couch with her feet up; James and Vasily had gone off somewhere, maybe to the firing range that Hallorand had shown them during the tour. She turned on the phone, and opened up the folder she’d only glanced at earlier.
X-COM Operations, she read, and started looking for answers.
It was a little after six when their xPhones chirped, indicating that it was time for the briefing. The conference room just off the lounge was decorated with a long table, its rich faux-grain top contrasting with the recently-installed paneling that covered the walls. Twelve black office chairs were lined up around the table. A laptop computer hooked up to a twenty-four inch monitor stood at one of end of the table, while a large LCD screen dominated one of the walls, with a bank of touch-input screens jutting out in a row beneath it.
The room was already occupied by a half-dozen people. Michael Garret stood at the table next to the computer. He nodded in greeting as the new recruits of Alpha Team filed in. “Ah, good. All settled in?”
“Working on it,” Vasily said, pulling out a chair. The others sat next to him, facing the wall screen.
“I believe you already know Grace, and Stan White, our chief medical officer. Allow me to introduce Doctor Kimberly Wagner, head of our research department.” The woman standing next to the wall screen was tall and blonde, in a white lab coat over a black blouse and trousers, stunningly attractive despite the subtle advance of years evident in her features. “Charmed, I am sure,” she said, a thick German accent tilting her syllables.
Garret continued the introductions, indicating a woman with long brown hair, dressed in jeans and a sweater, sitting near the far end of the table. “Doctor Jean Beauvois, our counselor.”
“Pleased to meet you all,” she said.
Garret indicated a young Asian man standing behind Beauvois. “Down there at the end, Ken Yushi. He’s a pilot, and more specifically, he’ll be your pilot, in Skyranger-1.”
“Skyranger?” Vasily asked.
“Ah, you’ll meet that member of our team a bit later,” Garret said. He turned to the woman seated next to him, the last to be introduced. She was a lean woman, dressed in a smart black suit, her hair cut short. She had a laptop in front of her, which she snapped shut as Garret spoke. “This is Agent Inise Drake.”
“Federal Bureau of Investigations,” Drake said, her words clipped.
“I am certain that all of you are curious about why you are here,” Garret went on.
“I think some of us had registered a passing interest,” Catalina said.
“I only had a chance to speak with you briefly at the staging base,” Garret said. “Let me explain, then, what it is that X-COM is about. Doctor Wagner, if you wouldn't mind providing some context?”
Wagner nodded, and turned to the control panel under the large wall screen. As she touched the controls, graphics started appearing on the screen to accompany her words.
“We have little hard data about our enemy,” she began. “A few months ago, we started picking up unusual readings from our various orbital devices. Space station... some secret arrays as well.” Images of the ISS, a map of satellite orbits, and various depictions of the Earth as seen from space cascaded across the screen. “Very fast, like nothing we had seen before.”
The new recruits leaned forward in their chairs as a grainy, pixelated image appeared on the screen: an oblong disk, with a fat bulge protruding from its center.
“Various air forces attempted to intercept these, for lack of a better word, ‘UFOs’. There were a few encounters. Russian air force, China’s, and American. Let us just say that those encounters did not end well for us.”
The FBI agent’s stare was penetrating as she looked at the new members of Alpha Team. “Your job is to make sure that subsequent outcomes are more favorable.”
“Agent Drake is our liaison with our host government,” Garret said. “We are on American soil, although technically, X-COM is an extraterritorial entity.”
“Yes,” Drake said, “I am here to ensure that the United States government’s investment proves fruitful.”
A few of the team members shared looks. Catalina locked eyes with Drake, a staring match that was only interrupted when Wagner said, “The briefing, I am continuing, yes?”
At Garret’s nod, she pressed another button on the console, and another image appeared, one that looked like the scene from the end of a war movie. “This, we have kept quiet.”
The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to the screen like metal filings to a magnet. Doctor Wager continued, “This has been the worst incursion to date. An entire military base wiped out, in western China. The Chinese have not been especially forthcoming, but we've confirmed that this was the work of our unidentified ‘friends’.”
“Whoa,” Jane said.
“When did this happen?” Vasily asked.
“Seventeen days ago,” Garret said. “Doctor, tell them the rest.”
“There have also been incursions. Landings. At least sixteen worldwide. Some animals, and a few people, have been ... taken.”
“Sixteen that we know of,” Agent Drake interjected. “Some may have gone unreported.”
“That is likely, Agent Drake,” Garret acknowledged. “All we have is some grainy surveillance photos. Their ships are like nothing any human government has ever built. And their occupants…”
He nodded to Wagner, who brought up another picture, a grainy, long-distance shot, depicting a small humanoid figure. It was impossible to make out any details given the poor quality of the picture, but all of them leaned forward, peering at it.
“We are calling them ‘Sectoids’ for now,” Wagner said.
“You’re telling us that the Roswell paranoia that the media’s been going on about of late is true?” Catalina asked.
“There has been a lot of reports in the media, most of it wild fancy,” Garret said. “Thus far, the leading world governments have been reluctant to confirm or deny anything.”
“None of this information leaves this room,” Drake said.
James leaned back in his chair and let out a held breath. “Aliens invading and abducting humans. Wow.”
Wagner pressed a button, and the pictures vanished. “This is the mission of X-COM.” Bullet points appeared on the screen to match her comments, under a logo depicting the name of the organization. “One. Investigate and gather data.”
“Part of our job is to find out what we don’t know,” Garret said.
“Two. Research and analyze.”
“You’ve seen our labs,” Garret said. “We need to collect whatever hard data we can find, and figure out what makes these ‘Sectoids’ tick. That’s why several of you have been invited here. You have certain skills in this area that will be vital to our operation.”
Wagner stabbed at a button. “And finally, three. Intercept. Destroy.”
Catalina quirked a brow. “No ‘take me to your leader’?”
Garret’s expression was grim. “We’re not primarily a military organization. But Earth’s best militaries have proven ineffective against the Sectoids.”
“They don’t appear to be interested in communication,” Drake added. “They have ignored all attempts thus far.”
“We’re not above talking to them,” Garret said. “If we can figure out what they want.” He drew stare down the row of recruits. “You five are more than just our Alpha Field Team. You all have talents beyond firing guns and tromping about in heavy boots. You have seen what we have... but what we don't have, is a government bureaucracy. We're small. Our resources come as donations from the countries that comprise our consortium. We have a limited remit... and a lot of accountability. You will be given access to all of the data we’ve collected thus far, expected to assimilate it, and to participate in the mission profiles and the setting of priorities.”
He paced around the edge of the table, rested his fists on its edge. “X-COM has fewer than 500 operatives worldwide. We’re bringing in people as we speak. Scientists. Engineers. Soldiers. We’re building state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facilities here, and at our other operations centers around the world. The threat is real, and we’re going to do our best to confront it. “
He leaned back, sighed, in that moment looking more human than he had since they’d first met him. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Take the rest of the day to get settled in. Chief Hallorand will take you to Musa Babatola, our quartermaster; he’ll get you set up with uniforms and other gear. Doctor Wagner will send you the briefings via your xPhones, along with information about our current research and manufacturing priorities. If you have any questions, send them to the respective department heads. We’re busy as all hell right now, but we’re going to make this a team effort.”
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