X-COM (updated M-W-F)

[Innocent Bystander]

An appointment in workshop 2? New toys?

Talk about a whirlwind of activity. First France, then Russia, then the base assault, and now another possible alien base. No rest for the wicked...er, good guys

 

[Lazybones]

At this point, being called to the workshop instead of the medical bay equated to a big sigh of relief on the part of the harried Alphas. But yes, I tried to keep the action fast and furious in this campaign, which worked out for the most part, since most of the missions fit neatly into the two hours that we played each week. Some of the longer missions like the Russian base infiltration had to be split.

* * *

Session 19 (September 1, 2008)
Chapter 73


"Feel kind of loose,” Vasily said. “Rattles."

"We can fix that, Mister Kasprjak. Hold on."

A series of whirs and clanks followed, as the technicians tightened bolts and straps, while another made adjustments at the console the suit is plugged into. "Is that any better?"

The Russian made a fist inside the mechanised gauntlet, and took a few experimental steps. "It feel like elephant sitting on me," he complained, beginning to sweat. He couldn't imagine running and fighting while carrying weapons and gear in a getup like this…

"How about now?"

…and suddenly the crushing weight was gone, as the generator on the back of the suit began to hum. He took a couple more steps, bounced on his feet a couple of times, and nodded.

"Better."

Jane looked him up and down as he walked over to her. She’d put a lot of extra work on the suit project over the last week, and she nodded as he came to a stop in front of her. He was normally just a few inches taller than her, but the armor gave him a slight boost, and she had to crane her head back to meet his eyes. “Looks good on you,” she said.

In the hangar bay, Hadrian was the first to arrive, and was greeted warmly by Doctor Sandesh, who was trailed by the latest incarnation of the Heavy Weapons Platform. The Marine eyed the contraption dubiously. While he hadn’t been with them on the Canada mission, he’d read the mission files, and the report on the sabotage of the prototype platform in Research Lab 2. The HWP looked a little different than the HWP that Alpha had brought with them to Canada, with new bolsters along the sides of the turret, surrounding the bulky laser assembly, and a new bulge in the front that glowed slightly red, almost like an unblinking eye.

“It’s all tuned up and ready to go,” Sandesh said, pleased to show off his creation. “You have been briefed on their use, correct? I can initialize your voice patterns on the device, and it will follow your commands.”

“It any good?” Hadrian asked, his expression betraying his wariness of the machine.

“The laser is lethal, with increased penetration over the last model. Targeting is precise.” He went on to explain various features his team had upgraded. Hadrian listened, but he was relieved when the hangar door opened, and the other Alphas filed into the hangar.

It was a diminished company. Vasily was clad in the new powered armor, its weight causing the floor tiles to tremble with each step he took. Hadrian was happy to leave it to the Russian. His own training had focused on speed and stealth in the tactical environment, neither of which seemed to be a priority of the new suit. Jane wore the same Personal Armor he did, and carried an extra weapon, which she held out to Hadrian as she approached.

The Marine took it a bit reluctantly; the alien weapons made him a bit uneasy, as he didn’t like a weapon he couldn’t field-strip and repair on his own. From what little he’d been able to understand of the briefing materials on the new tech, trying that with the alien guns would likely leave him scattered about in tiny pieces. “New gun?” he asked.

“These were what the floater infiltrators were using,” she explained. “We’ve encountered a few samples before. They’re calling them ‘plasma rifles,’ although really they’re just a slightly upsized version of the pistol. They look ugly as sin and aren’t well-balanced, but they’ll deliver a more focused blast with about fifteen percent more stopping power, and more accuracy at longer distances. The only down side is the faster ammo consumption; you’ll get about fifteen shots before you deplete the cell.”

“Well, I think I prefer my trusty M4 for long-distance engagements,” Hadrian said.

“Regular gun not stop alien sometimes,” Vasily said. Hadrian saw that he had one of the weapons fastened to the hip of his armor, in addition to his heavy autocannon. “You expecting trouble on this mission?” he asked.

“Always expect trouble,” Vasily returned. Behind him the hangar door slid open again, and they turned to see Catalina coming toward them. She was dressed in her field kit, including her stealth-blackened Personal Armor, and was trying her best to conceal a slight limp.

“No way I’m letting you leave without me,” she said, with a slight grimace as she caught up to them. Vasily nodded in approval, then looked over her shoulder as one of the surgical nurses, still clad in scrubs, burst into the hangar behind her.

“Miss De Farrago!” the nurse exclaimed. “Someone tied Garrison to the surgical bed! Gagged him, too!”

“Hmm,” Hadrian said, his expression sere.

“Must be some sort of terrorist flitting around,” Catalina said deadpan.

The nurse frowned. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” he said.

“Well, you’ve got a prescription pad, doc, and I’ve got a plasma gun,” she said. “So I guess I get to do what I want.”

“We bring her back safe and sound,” Vasily said. “We only going to Dallas.”

Hadrian raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. They turned to the Skyranger, and the mission ahead.

 

[Lazybones]

Session 20 (September 8, 2008)
Chapter 74


“I knew a girl from Dallas,” Ken said over the intercom, as the Skyranger banked into a wide turn and began its descent. “She left me for an Air Force pilot.”

“Don’t you traditionally shoot presidents there?” Catalina asked, flinching as a sudden jolt bumped her head against the back of her seat rest. It was just turbulence, not an attack, but it didn’t help the mood in the passenger compartment of the aircraft.

Hadrian had spent the flight working on his xPhone. “I haven’t been able to access any blueprints for the target area,” he reported. “No records from the entire district. Computer database is blank.”

“There’s a surprise,” Catalina said.

“Don’t suppose we could visit city hall and look up the paper versions first?”

“Sheesh, Hadrian. Let’s go sit in the reading room while they look them up for us. I’m sure the aliens won’t do anything nefarious while we wait.”

“Fine, blind recon by fire it is then.”

“Getting some scanner readings from the site,” Ken reported. Some weird power readings. We’ll be on site in ten minutes, I’ll try to localize.”

They continued their approach for several more minutes before Ken’s voice returned over the intercom. “Getting a ping on the Hyperwave Decoder. Sending to HQX… Database confirms. Floaters, and one other signature, not clear. Almost certainly another alien type.”

“‘Not clear’?” Vasily asked.

“My guess is reaper,” Jane said. “The med techs said that since they hadn’t finished the autopsy on our big friend yet, they don’t have a hard signature for the hyperwave.”

“Okay, I think I’ve localized the power signatures,” Ken reported. “Looks like two signatures, fairly close together. I’ll set you down near them. Hang on…”

The ship banked hard, dropping rapidly in the familiar but still gut-wrenching sensation that they’d gotten used to with Ken’s flying. When the engines fired to slow their descent, they were ready, and as soon as the aircraft touched down they were up and heading for the hatch.

“Energy sigs are to the east and northeast of our current position,” Ken said. “I’ll dust off and wait for your signal from the designated holding position.”

They filed out of the Skyranger to see a quiet, run-down industrial district sprawled out around them. The buildings were old shells, mostly sprawling warehouses that took up most of a block, nearly all of them streaked with visible rust, water damage, or both. They could see a few tall, round buildings in the distance, probably storage tanks for oil or other liquids, and the vague outlines of the Dallas skyline off in the distance to the north.

Ken had put them down in the middle of a street, the asphalt cracked and battered by the passage of heavy trucks. Once Sandesh’s improved HWP had slid down out of its compartment in the Skyranger’s belly, the pilot took it back up into the sky, dust flying wildly around them as the aircraft rose steeply and jetted off to the south. Up ahead they could see a tiny building, perhaps a security shack or storage shed of some sort. The wreck of an old pickup truck was lying next to it. Long chain-link fences topped with razor wire ran along both sides of the road, although the security gates that had controlled access to the warehouses had been broken open, and most of them stood open

“Anything on motion detector?” Vasily asked.

Catalina finished her sweep. “Something small to the northwest. Coming closer.”

They lifted their weapons, only to lower them again when a bird fluttered over the top of one of the warehouses. As it caught sight of them it veered off, disappearing to the west.

“All right,” Vasily said. He glanced back at the HWP, which had just sat there since disembarking. “Stay close, shoot what we shoot at,” he directed. He led them forward, the four of them scanning the deserted neighborhood warily as they made their way to the north. The HWP trundled along behind them, leaving a small plume of dust in its wake.

They stopped in front of the security hut, which looked as ramshackle as the surrounding warehouses. It had a small access window in the front blocked by metal shutters that had rusted solid, but on examining the door Catalina found that the lock had been hammered out. She listened at the door for a few seconds, then pushed it open with the barrel of her pistol. The interior of the hut was a mess, with everything down to the fixtures on the walls torn out and dangling remnants of wire that had been pulled for its metal content. A few heavy metal filing cabinets had been left behind, but were tipped over, the drawers yanked out and stacked in a pile in the middle of the floor. Someone had cut the security desk in half and stacked the pieces end-on-end against the back wall.

“Empty,” she reported.

“Did you hear that?” Jane said, turning toward the big warehouse to the southeast, behind the security fence. The others spun in time to see a reaper emerge from around the corner of the building. It lifted its head, as if tasting the air, then it swiveled toward them. A second one appeared behind the first, and let out a low snuffling sound that carried clearly to them even across eighty meters of open space.

Before the Alphas could do anything but lift their weapons, both creatures lowered their heads and charged.

 

[Innocent Bystander]

What, when they got out no one said "It's quiet...too quiet."?

Hopefully the alphas can figure out some more effective tactics than Cat's 'Fire and run like hell' and get some lucky shots or this will be a rough start to the mission.

 

[Lazybones]

Session 20 (September 8, 2008)
Chapter 75


The Alphas opened fire, but their initial shots failed to do much; striking the chain-link fence, the plasma blasts exploded prematurely and left gaping holes but little more. The HWP’s laser beam did somewhat better, lancing through the fence and slicing across the flank of the first reaper, leaving an ugly black scar but failing to stop or even slow the oncoming monstrosity. Hadrian fell into a crouch and fired short bursts from his M4, but the bullets might have been spitwads for all the effect they had on the reaper.

The pair reached the fence and kept coming; the chain links barely slowed them as they tore through it and left a cluttered wreckage in their wake. The Alphas were scoring hits, now, as Jane clipped the lead creature on the shoulder with a plasma bolt that exploded in a nimbus of white fire and alien blood. Vasily’s explosive-tipped rounds pattered across its chest, and Catalina hit it on the meat of its left thigh, but still the alien kept coming, the other one just a long stride behind it.

“Into the building!” Vasily yelled, standing at the door, pouring more rounds into the alien as it bore down on them. The others darted in around him, and as the alien lunged he slid inside. He saw the HWP fire one last pulse from its laser cannon before a long claw slapped the machine aside, knocking it end-over-end as though it had been a toy. Hadrian started to shoulder the door shut, but then the whole building heeled over, as though it had been kicked by a giant. The door was flung back open, and both Hadrian and Vasily were knocked to the ground. The reaper’s arm thrust through the door as its outline filled the frame, the claws clutching at the fallen Alphas. Vasily and Hadrian tried to get out of its way, but the probing claws found Vasily and dragged him down, seeking a secure grip as he struggled to get free.

“Blast it!” Catalina yelled, firing her plasma pistol into the doorway, filling it with white fire. Jane stepped forward and aimed her plasma rifle point-blank at the alien’s probing arm, shooting it in the elbow. The alien roared and jerked back, knocking Hadrian into the wall before it withdrew fully.

But the aliens weren’t giving up, and the whole building shook now as the reapers came at them in earnest. Daylight shone into the tiny building as great rents opened in the walls and ceiling, and the whole structure started to lean as it came apart. Reaper claws were replaced by the unholy visages of the creatures as they pushed their way inside, and the Alphas unleashed their full firepower to greet them. At that range they could hardly miss. Hadrian thrust the barrel of his carbine almost into a reaper’s snarling jaws and fired a complete magazine at full-auto, the bullets caroming off its teeth and battering at the slightly softer flesh on the inside of its mouth. The alien roared in fury and redoubled its efforts to get in, and the entire front left corner of the building collapsed under it. It lunged at Hadrian, who leapt back and ducked behind the ruins of the filing cabinets where the others had taken shelter behind him. Multiple plasma bolts wreathed its head and upper body in streamers of superheated ionized gas, and the scent of charred meat filled the air inside the remnants of the hut. Vasily screamed something unintelligible as he poured fire from his autocannon, the barrels of his gun beginning to glow as he kept firing, the recoil driving him against the back wall.

The entire building collapsed, the slat roof crumpling onto them in pieces, coming apart under the continuing reaper assault. A huge slab of it was flung aside as the first reaper lunged forward, oozing blood now from the terrible wounds it had absorbed, half its face a blasted wreckage. Jane shot it in the throat, the backblast seeping from the sides of its jaws, and it fell, crushing the file cabinets and knocking Catalina roughly over onto her side. For a moment they were blinded by the swirling cloud of dust and smoke that wreathed the dying creature, then the second reaper suddenly loomed over them. They kept firing, even Catalina, on the floor, screaming as she fired shot after shot into the alien. It lunged forward, and punched Vasily through the back of the building, the only wall left standing. The others glanced at the hole with incredulity; the thing had batted the armored Russian through the fiberboard as though he’d weighed nothing.

The alien kept on attacking, sweeping a claw at Jane, who ducked just in time to avoid a pulverizing blow that scattered the fragments of the wrecked desk, one half flipping up and over before vanishing over a fence a good twenty meters distant. She fired back, the plasma bolt savaging its elbow joint. It lunged forward to take a bite out of her face, but before it could seize her, Hadrian reared up behind the remnants of their barricade and thrust the barrel of his plasma rifle into the hollow under the reaper’s protruding ribs. He fired, the weapon making a dull thump as the plasma bolt bore a hole into its chest cavity before exploding. The reaper tottered for a moment, a weak groan hissing from its jaws before it toppled over onto its back. Hadrian reached down and helped Catalina to her feet; behind them, the back wall of the hut finally gave out, and fell over, leaving nothing but scattered wreckage and two huge alien corpses where a building had stood just moments before.

 

[Innocent Bystander]

Now that was just wild! Hopefully some of the players will come on and post their personal reactions to that battle.

 

[Vanya Mia]

LB has fleshed the battle out a little descriptively, at least from what I remember, but that doesn't matter much. The real talent LB' has as a DM is keeping you on the edge or your seat while you're in game. It's always a challenge and I've never seen any PvP in a mmorpg to beat it. Always a good story, always accomodates PC character, and so fast and furious any campaign of his would keep an adrenalin junky fed!

That said, this one was awesome and the battles against the Reapers were some of the most intense we had. The only ones that were worse were..... well. That would be telling. I'll just say you haven't seen anything yet!






((Can Keyta have her level back now LB? *bats lashes*))

 

[Lazybones]

Thanks for the commentary, VM!

As for the level, I'll consider a partial reimbursement for Karg's unfortunate spell selection next time. Though you guys might want to place a moratorium on the use of raise dead in favor of resurrection from here on out. (Another campaign, for those of you following at home.)

* * * * *

Session 20 (September 8, 2008)
Chapter 76


“Good grief, those were the slashing rippy things?” Catalina asked, her hands trembling as she reloaded her pistol.

“Welcome to reapers,” Jane said. She was helping Vasily, who’d landed on his back a good ten paces from where the reaper had struck him. His heavy armor had kept him together, but he let out a deep breath of relief as Jane poked the contents of a medikit into him through one of the access ports that Grace had built into the powered armor.

“Vasily, I’m going to need your help over here,” Hadrian called. The Russian, nodding in thanks to Jane, walked over to where the Marine was attending to the damaged HWP. The portable tank had landed on its side after being flung aside by the charging reaper, but remarkably it appeared to still be functional. With the bolstered strength granted by his armor, Vasily was able to help Hadrian right the platform. The Marine jimmied open the bent access port in the rear of the machine, and went to work with the small tool kit he carried.

“Lets go see where they come from,” Vasily said. He looked back at Hadrian, who shrugged. “It seems to be working, but I wouldn’t put money on how long.”

The battered tank rattled and creaked as it trundled along behind them to the southeast, toward the building from which the reapers had emerged. It didn’t take long to reach it, and to make their way around to the far side where two doors, a regular one next to a roll-up metal door, were situated.

A quick examination indicated that both doors, while they looked as battered as the rest of the complex, had been used recently and maintained. The smaller door had a new lock on it, but it Catalina was able to cut it open with just a few pulses from her laser pistol. Vasily ordered the laser tank to remain outside and keep watch, and they went inside.

Most of the warehouse’s interior was a single large room, cluttered with the framework of storage units that had probably once held pallets of materials. A few side rooms were visible off to the left on the far side of the structure, but their attention was drawn to a large machine set up in the middle of the space, from which a loud hum rose.

“That worry me,” Vasily said.

“Want me to take a look at it?” Catalina asked.

“Just figure if it is bomb or something,” Vasily grunted.

“Looks like a generator, but I’ll be careful,” the British agent replied, moving over to take a look.

She gave the device a careful assay, pacing around it before moving in closer. It looked like a diesel generator, a big one, but there was no fuel tank that Catalina could see, just thick cables that ran into a hole in the floor. She was very wary around the control panel, which was unlabeled and had just a few small switches and glowing indicator lights. She took out her xPhone and took a quick reading. “It’s being shunted off somewhere else, and it looks like it would run a lot of houses, maybe one of your city blocks.”

Jane had moved over toward the side rooms, which might have been small offices or specialized storage units, their doors open. As she approached the last one in the row, she caught a glimpse of movement that might have been a trick of the light, or something more. She adjusted her VDU to improve low-light visibility, and sidled forward.

The room—it did look like an office, but with a thick film of dust over everything—looked deserted. There was a space on the desk where a computer might have sat once, but everything of value looked to have been scavenged long before. Jane stepped forward, frowning as she dragged a finger over the desk, leaving a trail through the dust.

A woman stepped out from behind the door, and pointed a very big pistol at the side of her head. “Who the hell are you?” she asked, drawing the hammer of her weapon back with a loud click.

 

[Innocent Bystander]

“Who the hell are you?” she asked, drawing the hammer of her weapon back with a loud click.

We're your local girl guides. Want to buy some cookies?

 

[Lazybones]

Session 20 (September 8, 2008)
Chapter 77


“It’s okay,” Jane said. “We’re humans.”

Back in the outer room, the other Alphas looked up as Jane’s words were carried over the open comlink. “Jones!” Vasily hissed, hurrying over toward the little room where Jane had disappeared.

“Tell your friends to stay where they are,” the woman said.

“I’m all right, just hold it a sec,” Jane said, raising her voice to carry; no sense in letting the woman know they were linked. The others stopped outside the door, weapons ready.

“Take off the helmet,” the woman commanded. The barrel of her handgun hadn’t wavered a millimeter. “Let me see. No sudden moves.”

Jane put her gun down on the desk, and reached up, taking off her helmet, which hissed slightly as the pressurized seal was broken.

“Well, that just proves you’re not one of them, not that you’re not with them,” the woman said. “What are you doing here?”

“We could ask you the same thing,” Catalina said. She’d crept up to the doorway, and now held her plasma pistol trained on the woman.

“Bastards trapped me in here,” the woman said. “I was just poking around a bit.”

“Looking around, eh?” Catalina asked.

The woman’s eyes ran up and down Catalina’s frame, and lingered on the insignia stenciled onto her chestplate. “Ah. X-COM, I presume?”

Jane said, “My name’s Jane.”

“Vala,” the woman said.

“How are you, Vala?” Jane asked.

“Well, Jane, I’ve spent the last five hours trapped in an alien infested warehouse, how are you?”

“We’re investigating,” Jane said.

“And have you found anything?”

“Enough,” Catalina said.

“You find out what the aliens are using all that power for?”

“Not yet, but our question still stands. What are you doing here?”

The woman lowered her gun, and tucked in into a holster on her hip. “Let’s just say that X-COM isn’t the only organization concerned about the alien threat.”

“Phoenix,” Vasily said, snapping his fingers.

“Ah,” Vala said. “I thought I recognized you. The Japanese restaurant. We’ve come a long way since then, no?”

Catalina folded her arms. “Oh. Her.”

“Who do you represent?” Jane asked. She moved back a step, careful not to make any abrupt moves toward her weapon.

“My employers aren’t looking for attention,” Vala said.

“A pity they now have it,” Catalina returned.

“They are very concerned that what happened to France doesn’t happen here. And you should be as well. There’s something going on in this complex, something that certain people don’t want you to know about. And if they learn that you’re here, they might just decide to blow it all to hell to keep you from finding it.”

Vasily grunted. “We working on it.”

“We won’t find out while we are standing here,” Catalina said.

“What can we refer to your group as then?” Jane asked. “Allies, perhaps?”

Vala’s lips twisted into a smirk. “Allies. Well, we’ll see.” She headed for the door. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment. My bladder, eh? You ladies understand. Five freaking hours.”

As she headed out into the larger room, Catalina stepped close to Jane. “Sheesh, Jane, a little caution, eh?”

“I’d like to see if she’s willing to work with us, or if we are on opposite sides.”

“Oh, and you can tell by what she answers that she’s a noble, upstanding individual.”

“I think we can use all the help we can get.”

“And an enemy of an enemy is our friend? Let’s wait until we know more before being too friendly.”

Jane put her helmet back on, and took up her plasma rifle while Catalina turned back toward the door.

Vala arched her back as she walked toward Vasily. “Nice armor,” she said.

“It work.”

“By now, they know you’re here. I wouldn’t dawdle.” She reached down toward her belt. “Oh, and say hello to Inise for me.” She touched something on her belt, and suddenly disappeared.

“Hold i—” Vasily began, lifting his gun, but he blinked and looked where she had been standing, which was now empty air.

“Silent mode now,” Catalina said from the doorway, “that’s clever kit, and we don’t know where she is.”

“Nice girl,” Hadrian said. “You know her, Vasily?”

“I not ‘know.’ She was… ‘investigating’ in one of our previous operational areas. Before you join team.”

“What are we going to do about that?” Catalina asked, nodding in the direction of the generator.

Vasily started to turn toward it, but before he could speak, they all heard sounds coming from the slightly open door leading outside. Guttural noises, snorts, the lumbering step of something big, followed quickly by the noise of the HWP firing, then a massive slam, then silence.

“Sounds like we have more reapers,” Hadrian said, lifting his plasma rifle as he retreated from the doorway. A shadow fell over the doorway. “At the door, get ready,” the Marine said.

“Spread out!” Vasily warned, spinning up the barrels of his autocannon, the high-pitched whine sounding overly loud in the cavernous confines of the warehouse.

The shadow withdrew from the door, and they shared a quick look, all they had time to do before the metal rollup door shuddered from a heavy impact. The metal dented heavily inward, and again, before it began to tear. Rents of sunlight filtered in, forming long trails along the floor. The Alphas held their fire until the entire door broke free and caved into the room, a reaper following in its wake, stumbling over the wreckage of tortured metal. Moving incredibly fast, the creature surged forward to attack.