Innocent Bystander
First Post
It will be interesting to see if the Ethereal can be taken alive or if they decide it's just to dangerous and waste it.
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X-COM (updated M-W-F)
- Thread starter Lazybones
- Start date
Lazybones
Adventurer
The Alphas were thinking along the same lines. Capturing one of each alien race and type became a primary objective for Vasily's player. In the heat of battle, however, the group often adopted a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality. 
* * * * *
Session 21 (September 15, 2008)
Chapter 85
Catalina burst into the room to see Vasily on his knees before a robed alien. The alien held a gun pointed toward the Russian’s head, and as it looked up at her she fired reflexively. The plasma bolt missed its target, but splashed off of the wall next to the alien. Hot gases splashed over its robes, which did not catch fire, but the creature drew back, an unholy wail coming from within the dark depths of its cowl.
Catalina shifted her aim to put a blast right in the center of that darkness, but before she could shoot she felt a hammer slam into the confines of her mind. She screamed and fell to the ground, her pistol clattering away uselessly as the back of her head clanged hard against the dense alien material of the floor. She felt as though every nerve ending in her body was on fire, and her hands clawed at the ground as her back arched, the muscles twitching beyond her control.
Vasily felt as though a switch had gone off in his head, as clarity returned in an instant. He looked up to see the robed alien focused on something behind him. He didn’t hesitate, lurching up, the stun rod coming into his hands almost like a magician’s trick wand. He activated the trigger and stabbed the end into the creature in one motion, roaring as he charged forward, the alien twitching on the end of the rod as the electrical charge coursed into it. They didn’t stop until they hit the far wall, and Vasily could hear the audible crunch of the alien’s bones as they hit. The thing crumpled under him, but he gave it a few extra whacks for good measure, until he could see the wisps of smoke rising from its garment where he’d hit it repeatedly with the stun rod.
“Uhhhh,” Catalina said, groaning from the floor behind them. After one more wary look at the limp thing at his feet, he turned and walked back over to her. She was conscious and lucid, although it was obvious from the way she moved that she was still in a lot of pain.
“You okay?” he asked, offering a hand. She took it, and let herself be helped to her feet. “Yeah, but that hurt,” she said, bending to pick up her pistol. “What the hell is that thing?” she said, indicating the fallen alien.
Vasily shrugged. “New alien.”
A hissing static sounded over their com units; Vasily could just make out Jane’s voice. He activated his. “Is all… okay, Jane. Is all okay,” he said.
James appeared in the doorway, supporting Hadrian, who seemed pale if mostly intact, with a pressure bandage jammed into the ruined space in his armor. “Are we clear?” the doctor asked.
Catalina checked her motion sensor. “Looks like it, but we passed a few rooms, better check the rest of the ship before we send the all-clear.”
It was only about ten minutes later when the first of the Betas stepped into the cluttered wreckage of the alien engine room. “Clean up, Aisle 1!” Perez yelled, laughing.
“Is everything all right?” Jürgen Ritter asked, waving a hand in a vain effort to clear away the lingering smoke that still rose off of the ruined alien engine, filling the room faster than it could seep out through the open doorway.
“Everything’s okay,” Jane said, greeting them as they came in. “The others are up above.” She tapped her comlink. “Beta’s here,” she announced. “Welcome to the party,” she told them.
“Aliens clear?” Ama Ngunyi asked, grimacing as she looked at the sectoid bodies scattered across the room. The floor was slick with their blood, which gathered in a small pool in one corner where the slight list in the surface drew the viscid substance.
“Lot of dead ones,” Sveinn Ögmundsson said. The big Icelander looked a bit disappointed.
Jürgen turned back to the entry and activated his comlink. “Engineering team, Ritter here. Looks like Alpha has secured the ship.”
The lift port opened, and the other Alphas descended from above. “Man, you guys made a mess,” Alyssa Sanders said, shaking her head as she checked the bottom of a boot slick with sectoid intestines.
“You guys didn’t leave us any to play with!” Eleazar said, as Vasily clomped forward, the unconscious robed alien bound and slung over his shoulder.
“This lot not play nice,” he said.
“What you got there?”
“Found a new one that does a good job giving you the heebie jeebies,” James said.
“The engineering team can take custody of that,” Jürgen said, as Vasily paused at the exit. “They’re bringing in carts for the Elerium extraction.”
“Hey man, don’t forget your tin can!” Eleazar yelled after them. Vasily didn’t turn, just dropped the alien at Jürgen’s feet and headed out the door. The others followed behind; as they left they could hear Eleazar shouting out orders to set up a security perimeter, collect what intel they could, and loot everything that wasn’t nailed down. Catalina paused to tell Jürgen what they’d found in the control room above, and then hurried after the others.
They passed the engineering team as they left the ship, six men and women in biosuits escorting two powered carts laden with tools and the bulky Elerium extraction units. As soon as they had exited the outer door and stepped out into the clear air of the day Vasily punched the seals on his helmet and yanked it off his head. He stood there for a moment and just breathed, deeply, looking off toward the gray mountains in the distance.
Finally, he turned to his companions. “Hadrian—” he began.
“Don’t sweat it,” the Marine said. Vasily frowned and opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off as their com units buzzed loudly. Now that they were clear of the interference present inside the alien ship, Ken’s voice was crystal clear in their ears.
“Did Beta get in there all right? Tell them to hurry, Firestorm’s indicating three enemy cruisers are headed our way. ETA 18 minutes!”
“Hear that, Beta?” Catalina said. There was a slight pause, then they heard Sveinn’s voice, clicking as the signal struggled to make its way through ship’s hull. “Ya, ya, we make with the hurry, got it.”
“Do we stay, or do we go?” Catalina asked.
“What more can we do?” Vasily said. “Good luck,” he said through the comlink.
“Brainiacs here, loading fuel,” Sveinn returned. “We be out, ten minutes.”
“Roger that,” Ken said. “We… what the hell?”
The Alphas all looked up together. “Now what?” Jane asked.
“Ken?” Vasily asked.
“Firestorm, confirm that… where the hell did he come from?”
“Ken!”
“I’ve got a small ship… crap, it got inside our perimeter somehow, it’s landing to the west of the crash site.”
“If they get inside ship while tech team still inside, it massacre in making,” Vasily said, hefting his autocannon.
“Crap!” Ken reported. “I’m reading snakes on the decoder.”
“Beta not equip to handle snakemen.”
“They have landed and are approaching from the west,” Ken reported.
“Got ‘em,” Catalina said, looking down at her motion sensor.
“Let’s go,” Jane said.
“On me,” Vasily growled, lifting his weapon and heading toward the line of trees to the west.
* * * * *
Session 21 (September 15, 2008)
Chapter 85
Catalina burst into the room to see Vasily on his knees before a robed alien. The alien held a gun pointed toward the Russian’s head, and as it looked up at her she fired reflexively. The plasma bolt missed its target, but splashed off of the wall next to the alien. Hot gases splashed over its robes, which did not catch fire, but the creature drew back, an unholy wail coming from within the dark depths of its cowl.
Catalina shifted her aim to put a blast right in the center of that darkness, but before she could shoot she felt a hammer slam into the confines of her mind. She screamed and fell to the ground, her pistol clattering away uselessly as the back of her head clanged hard against the dense alien material of the floor. She felt as though every nerve ending in her body was on fire, and her hands clawed at the ground as her back arched, the muscles twitching beyond her control.
Vasily felt as though a switch had gone off in his head, as clarity returned in an instant. He looked up to see the robed alien focused on something behind him. He didn’t hesitate, lurching up, the stun rod coming into his hands almost like a magician’s trick wand. He activated the trigger and stabbed the end into the creature in one motion, roaring as he charged forward, the alien twitching on the end of the rod as the electrical charge coursed into it. They didn’t stop until they hit the far wall, and Vasily could hear the audible crunch of the alien’s bones as they hit. The thing crumpled under him, but he gave it a few extra whacks for good measure, until he could see the wisps of smoke rising from its garment where he’d hit it repeatedly with the stun rod.
“Uhhhh,” Catalina said, groaning from the floor behind them. After one more wary look at the limp thing at his feet, he turned and walked back over to her. She was conscious and lucid, although it was obvious from the way she moved that she was still in a lot of pain.
“You okay?” he asked, offering a hand. She took it, and let herself be helped to her feet. “Yeah, but that hurt,” she said, bending to pick up her pistol. “What the hell is that thing?” she said, indicating the fallen alien.
Vasily shrugged. “New alien.”
A hissing static sounded over their com units; Vasily could just make out Jane’s voice. He activated his. “Is all… okay, Jane. Is all okay,” he said.
James appeared in the doorway, supporting Hadrian, who seemed pale if mostly intact, with a pressure bandage jammed into the ruined space in his armor. “Are we clear?” the doctor asked.
Catalina checked her motion sensor. “Looks like it, but we passed a few rooms, better check the rest of the ship before we send the all-clear.”
It was only about ten minutes later when the first of the Betas stepped into the cluttered wreckage of the alien engine room. “Clean up, Aisle 1!” Perez yelled, laughing.
“Is everything all right?” Jürgen Ritter asked, waving a hand in a vain effort to clear away the lingering smoke that still rose off of the ruined alien engine, filling the room faster than it could seep out through the open doorway.
“Everything’s okay,” Jane said, greeting them as they came in. “The others are up above.” She tapped her comlink. “Beta’s here,” she announced. “Welcome to the party,” she told them.
“Aliens clear?” Ama Ngunyi asked, grimacing as she looked at the sectoid bodies scattered across the room. The floor was slick with their blood, which gathered in a small pool in one corner where the slight list in the surface drew the viscid substance.
“Lot of dead ones,” Sveinn Ögmundsson said. The big Icelander looked a bit disappointed.
Jürgen turned back to the entry and activated his comlink. “Engineering team, Ritter here. Looks like Alpha has secured the ship.”
The lift port opened, and the other Alphas descended from above. “Man, you guys made a mess,” Alyssa Sanders said, shaking her head as she checked the bottom of a boot slick with sectoid intestines.
“You guys didn’t leave us any to play with!” Eleazar said, as Vasily clomped forward, the unconscious robed alien bound and slung over his shoulder.
“This lot not play nice,” he said.
“What you got there?”
“Found a new one that does a good job giving you the heebie jeebies,” James said.
“The engineering team can take custody of that,” Jürgen said, as Vasily paused at the exit. “They’re bringing in carts for the Elerium extraction.”
“Hey man, don’t forget your tin can!” Eleazar yelled after them. Vasily didn’t turn, just dropped the alien at Jürgen’s feet and headed out the door. The others followed behind; as they left they could hear Eleazar shouting out orders to set up a security perimeter, collect what intel they could, and loot everything that wasn’t nailed down. Catalina paused to tell Jürgen what they’d found in the control room above, and then hurried after the others.
They passed the engineering team as they left the ship, six men and women in biosuits escorting two powered carts laden with tools and the bulky Elerium extraction units. As soon as they had exited the outer door and stepped out into the clear air of the day Vasily punched the seals on his helmet and yanked it off his head. He stood there for a moment and just breathed, deeply, looking off toward the gray mountains in the distance.
Finally, he turned to his companions. “Hadrian—” he began.
“Don’t sweat it,” the Marine said. Vasily frowned and opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off as their com units buzzed loudly. Now that they were clear of the interference present inside the alien ship, Ken’s voice was crystal clear in their ears.
“Did Beta get in there all right? Tell them to hurry, Firestorm’s indicating three enemy cruisers are headed our way. ETA 18 minutes!”
“Hear that, Beta?” Catalina said. There was a slight pause, then they heard Sveinn’s voice, clicking as the signal struggled to make its way through ship’s hull. “Ya, ya, we make with the hurry, got it.”
“Do we stay, or do we go?” Catalina asked.
“What more can we do?” Vasily said. “Good luck,” he said through the comlink.
“Brainiacs here, loading fuel,” Sveinn returned. “We be out, ten minutes.”
“Roger that,” Ken said. “We… what the hell?”
The Alphas all looked up together. “Now what?” Jane asked.
“Ken?” Vasily asked.
“Firestorm, confirm that… where the hell did he come from?”
“Ken!”
“I’ve got a small ship… crap, it got inside our perimeter somehow, it’s landing to the west of the crash site.”
“If they get inside ship while tech team still inside, it massacre in making,” Vasily said, hefting his autocannon.
“Crap!” Ken reported. “I’m reading snakes on the decoder.”
“Beta not equip to handle snakemen.”
“They have landed and are approaching from the west,” Ken reported.
“Got ‘em,” Catalina said, looking down at her motion sensor.
“Let’s go,” Jane said.
“On me,” Vasily growled, lifting his weapon and heading toward the line of trees to the west.
Innocent Bystander
First Post
Hopefully their containment measures that had to be improved to keep the sectoid from taking over people's minds is strong enough to keep the ethereal from doing it too.
How much IC time has passed at this point?
How much IC time has passed at this point?
Lazybones
Adventurer
Each session represented about a week of game time, except when we broke in the middle of a mission. So 20 weeks +/- at this time.
Session 21 (September 15, 2008)
Chapter 86
Stan White looked fully absorbed as he bent over the eyepiece of the microscope. “This alien… its brain chemistry is… it’s incredible.”
James grunted something, but his thoughts were elsewhere as he stared up at the image of the comatose alien on the huge wall screen. The rest of the team assigned to HQX’s biological sciences research laboratory milled about excitedly, a quiet murmur of talk filling the room that James found himself tuning out by reflex.
I’ve never seen anything like it,” Stan went on. “Its brain is four times denser than a human’s.”
That did catch James’s attention. “Denser? How is that possible? Non-water based chemistry?”
“I suspect that this creature is going to redefine a lot of our assumptions in the field of biology,” Stan said. “I think I’m going to have them turn up the sedation, just to be safe.”
“Yeah, don’t let that one regain full consciousness. It… it did some nasty things to us, in the ship raid.”
Stan looked at him with understanding. “Rough one, I heard.”
“We barely got out of there before the aliens came down on the site like a ton of bricks. I think our new guest is important to them, Stan.”
“Might want to talk to counselor Beauvois…”
“I want to be in on the research team for this one, Stan.”
The older doctor sighed and nodded. “Of course.”
In the lounge, the door to the barracks wing opened and Alyssa and Sveinn came in, the big Icelander stepping aside to let the smaller American woman through before him. Catalina, Vasily, and Jane looked up from the table where they’d been sitting. “How’s Perez?” Jane asked.
“He’s got a concussion,” Alyssa said. “Can you believe it? After all that, Perez gets hit by a storage box that wasn’t secured properly.”
“Oh well, as long as it hit his head, he going to be just fine,” Vasily said.
Catalina let out a soft chuckle. “Not going to be anything he’d use often,” she said.
“Boring mission,” Sveinn said. “Bring my best gun for nothing. Ol’ gal, she gets lonely.”
“I heard you kept a bunch of snakemen off our backs,” Alyssa said.
“Not so many,” Vasily said. After the horror of fighting the robed alien, the snakemen had almost been a relief for the Russian. Their hides had been as tough as ever, but they’d had plenty of gas grenades, and the trees had offered at least some cover from the aliens’ plasma rifles. They’d taken some wounds in the firefight, but had dished out far worse. By the time that the aliens were all down, Beta had successfully extracted the research team and retired to Skyranger 2; Alpha made it to their ship a scant two minutes ahead of the alien cruisers, which had obliterated the entire site with a plasma barrage.
“How much Elerium did we get?” Catalina asked.
“Well, only one of the storage units was intact,” Alyssa began.
“We lose some. But I get impression cleanup crew took all that left?”
“Hallorand said he hoped it might be enough to keep us going for a few months,” Alyssa said. She leaned on the edge of the counter for a moment. “For all the big guy’s bravado, it looked pretty dicey in there. Glad you guys were there to take the brunt of it.”
“Glad we could help,” Jane said. “Say hi to Perez for us.”
“Will do,” Alyssa said. “Come on, Sveinn, I need you to bully the cook into giving us some real coffee. Later, Alphas. Vasily.”
They left, the outer door sliding shut behind them with a soft clang. Vasily looked across the table at Catalina, whose gaze had lingered on him. “What?”
“Did I say anything?” Catalina asked, returning to her newspaper.
* * *
Innocent Bystander
First Post
I'm a little surprised the Beta's haven't been upgraded to lasers or heavier weapons yet. Though I guess all the manufacturing lately was tied up on the firestorm and it's plasma cannons.
It sounds like the Alpha's are at that point where going after the small ships is pretty much a cake walk now. Did the players ever take over the Beta team for a run or two to change things up?
And it's funny to read about the increased security measures before waking the ethereal. Was that the Alpha's decision or an NPC one? Either way, I called it
It sounds like the Alpha's are at that point where going after the small ships is pretty much a cake walk now. Did the players ever take over the Beta team for a run or two to change things up?
And it's funny to read about the increased security measures before waking the ethereal. Was that the Alpha's decision or an NPC one? Either way, I called it
Lazybones
Adventurer
Beta did tend to end up with Alpha's hand-me-downs. I had them in my palette as NPCs but never had the Alphas run them directly (though they did appear in some of the vignettes that the players posted on the game forums).
Today, the aliens take the gloves off.
* * *
Interlude: Total War (September 19, 2008)
Most of the alien ships that had been encountered thus far had had a certain sleek elegance to them. With their Elerium-powered antigravity drives, the ships did not need wings or bulky thrust units. For all their size, they were almost graceful.
Not this one.
The monstrosity that descended from orbit was a bulging, awkward hulk. It formed a bright streak over the Atlantic Ocean as it entered the atmosphere, visible in the early morning sky from Cuba to South Carolina.
After steadying its course somewhat, it headed for New York City.
The Americans had not been idle in their preparations. Two Firestorm-Bs with conventional engines and forty F-35As armed with pulse-laser cannons greeted the alien ship. It punched through them almost effortlessly. Thirty-four fighters were lost.
Twenty nuclear-tipped surface-to-air missiles rose to greet the battleship as it crossed New Jersey. The ship was equipped with some sort of repulsor array, knocking the missiles out of the air while they were still dozens of kilometers distant. Only two of the missiles got close enough to detonate. The atomic blasts caused the ship to wobble, but weren't enough to stop it.
The battleship's main cannon made short work of the human city. Four fusion blasts bracketed Manhattan Island, leaving the core of the city a blazing wreckage, and the surrounding boroughs a smoldering wasteland.
The ship pulled away from the devastation it created, and started east, flying a high arc over the Atlantic. On its way to Europe, it was hit by a swarm of SLBMs from two British missile submarines, again with little effect. More interceptors engaged as the ship crossed over Iceland, including two X-COM fighters. Firestorm-1 was not with them, as its innards were lying strewn across the hangar bay at HQX as its new plasma cannon was being installed. In any case, it is doubtful that its presence would have made a difference. All fighters were lost without noticeable damage to the alien battleship.
The ship fired a pair of fusion bolts that vaporized 90% of London. It slid east, giving France a comfortable berth before coming down over the Low Countries and into Germany. German land-based laser batteries blasted the ship as it flew over the border, but again there was no apparent effect. The ship ignored the defenses, firing a last blast of its main cannon at the city of Frankfurt. The fusion bolt exploded directly over Saint Bartholomeus's Cathedral, and destroyed most of the city core.
The alien ship turned ponderously, and began to ascend once more into orbit.
Initial casualty estimates were in the millions.
Today, the aliens take the gloves off.
* * *
Interlude: Total War (September 19, 2008)
Most of the alien ships that had been encountered thus far had had a certain sleek elegance to them. With their Elerium-powered antigravity drives, the ships did not need wings or bulky thrust units. For all their size, they were almost graceful.
Not this one.
The monstrosity that descended from orbit was a bulging, awkward hulk. It formed a bright streak over the Atlantic Ocean as it entered the atmosphere, visible in the early morning sky from Cuba to South Carolina.
After steadying its course somewhat, it headed for New York City.
The Americans had not been idle in their preparations. Two Firestorm-Bs with conventional engines and forty F-35As armed with pulse-laser cannons greeted the alien ship. It punched through them almost effortlessly. Thirty-four fighters were lost.
Twenty nuclear-tipped surface-to-air missiles rose to greet the battleship as it crossed New Jersey. The ship was equipped with some sort of repulsor array, knocking the missiles out of the air while they were still dozens of kilometers distant. Only two of the missiles got close enough to detonate. The atomic blasts caused the ship to wobble, but weren't enough to stop it.
The battleship's main cannon made short work of the human city. Four fusion blasts bracketed Manhattan Island, leaving the core of the city a blazing wreckage, and the surrounding boroughs a smoldering wasteland.
The ship pulled away from the devastation it created, and started east, flying a high arc over the Atlantic. On its way to Europe, it was hit by a swarm of SLBMs from two British missile submarines, again with little effect. More interceptors engaged as the ship crossed over Iceland, including two X-COM fighters. Firestorm-1 was not with them, as its innards were lying strewn across the hangar bay at HQX as its new plasma cannon was being installed. In any case, it is doubtful that its presence would have made a difference. All fighters were lost without noticeable damage to the alien battleship.
The ship fired a pair of fusion bolts that vaporized 90% of London. It slid east, giving France a comfortable berth before coming down over the Low Countries and into Germany. German land-based laser batteries blasted the ship as it flew over the border, but again there was no apparent effect. The ship ignored the defenses, firing a last blast of its main cannon at the city of Frankfurt. The fusion bolt exploded directly over Saint Bartholomeus's Cathedral, and destroyed most of the city core.
The alien ship turned ponderously, and began to ascend once more into orbit.
Initial casualty estimates were in the millions.
Smart Alec
First Post
The beginning of the dark times, this.
