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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5043818" data-attributes="member: 143">Interlude: Results (July 5, 2008)Game note: this scene was played out on the forums, with me rolling the skill checks to resolve actions.It was a busy week at X-COM HQX. With Alpha Team drawing so many deadly missions, Beta Team got assigned to most of the "milk runs", such as investigations and site cleanup.  But one of those milk runs turned deadly when a sectoid infiltration team turned up on one of their missions.  In addition to some alien bodies and weapons wrapped in plastic that Beta recovered, they brought back one member of their team on a stretcher, a young Thai named Sonthi.  Even through the translucent wrapping of the body bag it was easy to see the fist-sized hole that had been blasted through his chest.  The rest of the team underwent a lengthy debriefing and later one-on-one meetings with Counselor Beauvois. Vasily applied his skill to the work of expanding the West Wing of X-COM.  His creative and expert use of demolitions shaved precious days off the time it took to get the new part of the base open and ready for the installation crews. (Vasily Kasprjak Demolitions roll: 12+9 = 21, Moderate Success, +2 to base construction)Jane helped the engineers adding the fixtures and other infrastructure to what would become the new Medical Lab.  Motivated perhaps by the wounds that Alpha and Beta Teams had brought back from their missions, along with the stories Jane tells of their combat missions, the engineering team pulled double shifts and the new lab was ready ahead of schedule.  It would take some time to transfer over all of the material and equipment from the current medical bay in Research Lab 1, but the engineering team was not needed to carry out that work. (Jane Swift Craft Mechanical roll: 9 + 11 = 20, Moderate Success, +2 to engineering work this week). Research Lab 1 completed its report on the autopsy of the new alien race, the Floater. The Floater was a created species, genetically engineered to a degree far beyond human science, and then further altered by the integration of machinery into its body.  The largest such device replaced the creature's legs, and granted it the levitation ability that gave it its name. Doctor White submitted a report the next day, adding information on the Floater blood work.  "Our study of the alien biochemistry continues," he said in the report.  "We are working on a biological or chemical agent that will target the alien physiology.  The work on the Floater indicates some potential methods that we can pursue.  Already we've discovered a substance that acts as an irritant on alien respiratory and sensory systems.  I've added this substance to the tear gas grenades stocked by Musa.  The grenades should stun Snakemen and Floaters, but note that Sectoids wear breathing masks, and will not be affected.”Doctor Sandesh sent a message to the Alpha Team members, asking them to meet him in Research Lab 2.  After what happened on their last visit, most of the Alphas brought their guns with them.  But the lab was quiet save for the Egyptian scientist and two technicians, who were closing the last access panel of the Heavy Weapons Platform as the last members of Alpha entered. The HWP looked similar to the one that had been destroyed before.  A dark opening a few inches across in the front of the device stared menacingly. "The prototype is ready for field testing," Sandesh explained.  "The device has a fully independent AI program, and will respond to voice commands.  It has been pre-programmed with all of your voice patterns; just approach it and give it orders to follow you, and it will remain linked to you until ordered to stop." Sandesh hesitated for a moment before walking over to the machine, shooing away one of the techs.  "I read all of your action reports, and I believe that the default gun that we were using for testing would have been... of limited utility against these new aliens.  Therefore I have installed a rocket launcher in this model.  The platform carries twelve sixty millimeter rockets with high explosive heads.  They have considerable range and should prove quite effective against most alien species that you have faced thus far.  However, be cautious, as the HWP's AI may target aliens without concern for allies that may be within the blast radius.  Remember that the HWP may be manually ordered to remain back should this become an issue.  The HWP is not equipped for close combat, so I do not recommend allowing it to engage in melee actions with aliens, especially if it has rockets remaining in the launcher." Sandesh finished by describing a few of the more mundane systems of the HWP.  He said that he was already working on plans for an improved model, capable of carrying a portable laser cannon along with heavier armor. With a few raised eyebrows, Alpha Team took possession of its new "recruit". The production of the HWP was not the last event of importance that week.  While the others worked on base improvements, practiced tactics, or caught up on their reading, Catalina was deeply immersed in a complicated research project.  She took the data that Buzz and Commander Hallorand had collected about the stolen files, and began painstakingly comparing them to various base personnel and computer access logs.  The information was not as complete as it might have been, and the British agent spent many hours in frustration trying to tie the scattered and vague links together. Finally, as midnight approached one night, she sat up suddenly, staring at the data on her screen.  The current file was a log of computer access in the workshops and research labs, juxtaposed against a list of project assignments. (Catalina De Farrago Search roll: 18 + 11 = 29, Complete Success)"I have to be sure," she said to herself.  She went to her bunk, and recovers a tube of UV-sensitive dust from her personal effects. HQX never really slept, but the dead-of-night shift was noticeably quieter than the others.  In the morning, the base woke with the sounds of the night shift meeting the first day shift in the mess hall in the South Wing.  Catalina walked through the labs and the workshops, armed with a portable UV generator, and her Glock riding on her hip. She finally caught up to her quarry in a dead-end service corridor.  She drew her gun, wary of a trap, but her target was alone. The UV light flooded the tunnel, and showed up blue on his fingertips.  He looked up, and she saw a look of resignation on his face. "I wondered how long it would take you to find me," he said.  "There is no need for that," he says, indicating the gun.  "I will go with you, quietly."</blockquote>

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