*quivers with excitement*

HUH?

Ate burritos last night. Sorry 'bout that.

Woot! way to go everyone so far, we've been awesome. (Even if I did get paired up with Ardent. :) )

Awesome work pitching a shutout so far. Keep it up, guys!

Roger, let's not jinx it...

Mission 110: Mars (Part XI)

Inside the Alien Base, Mars, 1047 hours

The team swings into action over the next few minutes, carrying out Kodos orders.

Things start to happen so fast that it’s hard to keep up, as the battle breaks down into numerous small fire fights…

As our men scramble in all directions, Revrew fires a blaster missile that soars into the unexplored north side of the base. The base rumbles and we hear yet another alien death wail. X-COM 5, Aliens 0.

Two more waves of PSI-energy wash through our men, one right after the other. Once again, we hold tight.


X-COM troops converge on the alien command center. December, 2003. X-COM Archives Photo

As Achilles moves east to fill the hole in our perimeter created by our maneuver, he spots an Ethereal with a Blaster Launcher moving in on our position! He drops to a knee and opens fire on the alien, just as the alien tries to do likewise. Plasma punches through the alien’s chest and sends it tumbling backwards to the floor of the base. Whew! X-COM 6, Aliens 0.

Our north Hovertank turns a corner as it sweeps ahead of the wall of men guarding our north flank, and spots a large robotic creature—looks like something we’ve never seen before—and yet another purple slime trying to sneak up on our position. Qwikshot picks up the scene on his HUD.

Qwikshot: “Fat, Revrew, someone with a launcher got that? Someone hit that thing before it hits our perimeter! Now!”

Fat opens fire with the blaster launcher and sends a missile tearing through the corridors of the base. The missile hits the robot dead on and blows it apart. The subsequent explosion sets the slime afire, killing it as well. X-COM 8, Aliens 0.


A before and after shot of a blaster missile hit on two aliens. December, 2003. X-COM Archives Photo

We keep frantically converging on the command center. Another wave of PSI energy slams into us. This time we lose one: Raven Hawk, furthest east along our north flank, freezes. Spittle starts to drip down his chin. He’s shaking wildly.

(to be continued)

Darn you, Raven Hawk!

Gimme his gun!

Mission 110: Mars (Part XII)

Inside the Alien Base, Mars, 1053 hours

But Raven Hawk hangs on! Way to go! Within a minute, he regains his composure enough to continue on.

Our assault force continues its beeline for the enemy command center. Our Hovertank is the first to reach the double doors on the far side of the rectangular corridor that our men have been moving down. It crashes into the doors, pushing them apart. We see a long narrow corridor leading to a t-intersection at the end. Standing halfway down it is a Chrysallid! Our tank slams into reverse, backs out of the corridor, and turns the corner into the outer rectangular corridor, just as Wade Moore and Coffee pull up behind it. The instant the Chrysallid comes out of the long corridor, our tank and Wade open fire. Wade hits the thing once, then a fusion ball slams into it. Black goo and body fragments are blown down the hall in the resultant explosion. X-COM 9, Aliens 0.

Scouring the northern edge of our position, our other Hovertank comes upon the remains of the aliens Fat took out with the Blaster Launcher. Once there, it spots an Ethereal corpse that must have also died in the explosion. X-COM 10, Aliens 0.

On our east flank, Wolfpack, Achilles, and Jeeber D reach the east end of the base, and turn north to search in that direction.

On our north flank, Raven Hawk quickly snaps back in control, and he, Ardent, Qwikshot, and Thomkal continue to make progress north.

Things start to grow quiet along the flanks, and we pull Fat Football in towards our assault team.

As these two groups of men hold our flanks closed, the rest of our men enter the long corridor into the command center. Apparently, the bulk of the command center must lie above us, as we can see the glow from green grav-lifts coming from each side of the t-intersection at the end of this inner corridor. The men cautiously advance along the corridor. Occasional waves of PSI-energy slam into our men. No one cracks. We make our way to the t-intersection at the end of the corridor. At each end of the “t” is a narrow grav-lift going up. Over the next couple of minutes, the following men gather in the corridor and prepare for the final assault:

Coffee Warlord II, Kodos, Wade Moore, Real Deal, Jeff Nights II, Swaggs, Fat Football II, AStott, and Illinifan V.

(to be continued)


X-COM troops prepare to assault the upper floor of the alien command center. December, 2003. X-COM Archives Photo

Great. Put me by the guy that nearly cracked. :p

Completely awesome so far. although, who knows whats beyond that final door.

Mission 110: Mars (Part XIII)

Inside the Alien Base, Mars, 1100 hours

Kodos: “Coffee, sneak up under a grav-lift, see if you can see something. There’s PSI-energy coming from above. There’s got to be something up there.

Coffee creeps up to the left grav-lift and peeks up into the upper floor…

Ethereals! At least two of them, gathered near the top of the grav-lift. Neither of them has spotted Coffee. He crawls quietly back to Kodos.

Coffee: (whispering) “At least two Ethereals, right above us, near the top of the grav-lift. You get 'em on your HUD?”

Kodos: “Yeah, good work. AStott, crawl over there and say hello.”

As the rest of our squad backs up to safety, AStott crawls forward cautiously, sets a firing course with the blaster launcher, and pulls the trigger. The missile disappears up the grav-lift, and follows AStott’s random course around the second floor. A second later it hits something good: there is a massive explosion, followed by a subsequent series of explosions right on its heels. The base shakes and rumbles. Dirt from under the ceiling plates drops down on our men. Then everything falls still…

Kodos: “Charge! Everyone up the lifts! Go Go Go!”

The men pour up the grav-lifts and into the enemy command center. Coffee Warlord is first. As soon as he takes two steps into the room, he stops. He is standing in a pile of four Ethereal corpses. There are no aliens left alive in the medium-size room. The rest of the men pile up the grav-lifts. X-COM 14, Aliens 0.

Coffee: “Holy shit! There it is.”

(to be continued)

Mission 110: Mars (Part XIV)

Inside the Alien Base, Mars, 1104 hours

At the other end of the room is the massive, bulbous, pulsating alien brain. Purple, green, red, and infused with massive black viens, the thing must be fifteen-feet across and at least ten-feet high. Translucent, the insides are glowing with a dark sentience. Wires and plugs are hooked into it, and run into a series of panels that make up the back room.

Qwikshot: “Wow. It actually looks like a brain.”

Kodos: “All squads, all men. Hold your fire. Everyone, if you don’t have a weapon, grab one from one of the Ethereals here. Perimeter troops, converge on the command center. You’ve got to see this, and we’re all doing this together.”

Over the next few minutes, the perimeter agents make it up to the command center. Soon, all 18 men are gathered in front of the alien brain.


The 18-man Mars Assault Force prepares to destroy the alien brain. December, 2003. X-COM Archives Photo

Kodos: “Ok, everyone got a weapon? Double file, men. First rank kneels. On me, we fire. Let’s send these aliens back to hell. One…two…three…FIRE!!!!!”

All the rage, all the anger, all the pain of the past year comes pouring out. Screaming, smiling, tears of joy streaming down their faces, the 18 men of our Mars assault team open fire with blaster missiles and heavy plasmas. Shot after shot slam into the brain. It lets out a wail of primordial pain, then more plasma and missiles rip it into oblivion.

Within seconds, there is nothing left.

It is over.

We have won.

Mission 110: Mars Wrap Up
Kills: Jeeber D, 2; Jeff Nights II, 4; AStott, 7; Wolfpack, 1; Illinifan V, 1; Achilles, 2; Revrew, 2; Hovertank Two, 1; Hovertank One, 1; Fat Football II, 3.
KIA: None.
Wounded: Jeeber D (very light).
Attribute Improvements: Not sure.
Final score: None
Mission Notes:
Wow. Everything worked perfectly, especially on the surface. The plan, the attack, the weapons layout. We didn’t get hit with one PSI-attack up top, and we cleared it in four game turns. They had no chance, we were on them so fast with such heavy weaponry that many of them didn’t even get out of their pyramids. The element of surprise was total. The base attack was a bit sloppier, but we had so many men, and still had the two Hovertanks with nearly full payloads, that it was a simple matter to hold a perimeter and let our artillery win the day. We won the bottom by winning so big up top.

The kill numbers are only the confirmed kills, and are conservative. I’m sure we got another handful of aliens with our blaster launcher shots, but I can’t see stats after the final mission: the game just ends.

Although I don’t think our decoys even got hit with a PSI-attack, I like the tactic. It allowed them to literally sprint across the surface and light the way for our troops in back. Coffee and Real’s performances on the surface were a big reason why the mission went so well up there. Down below, they were ineffective, but mainly because I had both Tasan and Real on the east perimeter, and I didn’t have any decoy on the north perimeter, where the PSI-attacks came. Raven Hawk II got hit with at least three attacks, and just managed to hang on after freezing once. A decoy should have been out front there.

Jeeber D got hurt in the final few minutes of the battle, when he tried to clear a fungus room with a blaster launcher that he picked up from the Ethereal that Achilles killed. There was a kickback into the room, and a metal fragment opened up a three-stitch cut in his forearm. He was our only casualty.

WOO!!!!!!

I'm proud to have given my life for a higher...oh, WOOT I LIVED!!!!!!

I will always wear my scar with honor!

Excellent work, men! The Earth is saved! Hooray for X-Com! Hooray for Godzilla Blitz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent work men!

I think Kodos will finish just ahead of me as all-time kill leader, yes?

Stunning, we are returning to Earth as gods! Bring me the women...

I'm almost positive someone is going to be hating life when we get home. Who maxed out their credit cards??

Fantastic!

Whoot!

Great job, GB! Never thought it would end, did you? :)

No worries...when I got all those cards and maxed them out on crack and hookers, I put them in your name. :cool:

Hell of a job men.


GB - EXCELLENT dynasty. Thanks for all the great reads.

Everyone, just pretend I said 'Carter' a couple of pages back.....I hate real life sometimes.....;- )

Update

Now this is much better…

From the New York Times…

X-COM Saves World!

Surprise Attack Destroys Alien Martian Base

World Rejoices as Alien Forces Flee System

Three-Day Alien Reign Kills Millions


X-COM Forces Are Treated to Confetti Parade UN Photo

17 December 2003 – (AP, New York) In a brilliant surprise attack that may be humankind’s most significant military victory, renegade X-COM forces destroyed an Alien Alliance Command Center on Mars that contained a massive alien brain—a type of super-computer—that controlled all alien activity in our Solar System. With the death of the brain, all alien life on Earth proceeded to die within minutes. It has also been reported that all alien UFOs have been spotted retreating out of our galaxy. After three days of horror under alien reign, citizens were stunned as on Tuesday morning about 11AM, EST, aliens around the world started dropping dead.

“It was amazing,” said Harry Anderam, a resident of Little Rock, Arkansas. “We were being herded onto a huge UFO for transport somewhere. There was screaming, pushing, shoving. It was awful. The aliens were beating us, shooting the slow ones, and then eating the bodies. Then all of a sudden, they just started keeling over and dying. I still can’t believe I’m alive!”

“The brain was their one weakness,” states Commander Kodos, the leader of the heroic raid that took place on the morning of December 16. “Fortunately, we had the element of surprise, and despite fierce resistance, were able to knock out the base with no casualties. Once the brain is dead, the aliens cease to function. It was a complete victory. The planned worked to perfection.”

Just 72 hours before the attack, X-COM bases were believed totally destroyed by alien and UN forces. However, unknown except to the highest echelon of X-COM commanders, X-COM had built a secret base in a glacier in northern Greenland. On December 15, a select team of X-COM’s best forces were able to sneak into the base and launch an attack on Mars using an Avenger-type starship.

And the rest is history. After three days of brutal alien rule in which as many as four million people worldwide may have died, celebrations erupted everywhere and have been ongoing since. Ecstatic people who mere hours ago were looking at horrible deaths suddenly found that they had been given their freedom again.

The heroes of the mission are facing a media barrage unlike any in recorded history. “Yeah, my phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” said Tasan II, one of the mission’s members, “And the only significant thing I did was throw up.” Movie studios, publishers, world dignitaries, everyone wants a piece of humanity’s greatest heroes. Even Ardent Enthusiast, who People Magazine readers voted as “Ugliest X-COM Agent,” reportedly has received 2,109 proposals for marriage.

“It’s pretty amazing,” he commented, “especially considering how I’ve never even had a date yet.”

Related Stories: Pope Bestows Sainthood on 19-man X-COM Force (page 1A); Detailed Account of Assault (page 1B). Gatesville Loses: Is Kodos’ Reign Over? (page 1C); Yankees’ Owner Offers Rocketship on E-Bay; No Bids (page 1F).

Woot!

I didn't know they would print that!

Random replies...

Kingfc: Thanks. Glad you liked it!

Sachmo: Thanks. No, I really didn't think it would ever end. When I got to about mission 50 and realized I was less than halfway, I really started to doubt that we'd make it to the end.

Wade: Actually...I believe AStott, with his four kills on the last shot of the war, jumped ahead of Kodos by one kill, 27 to 26, to win the total kills competition. Disneyland is waiting, Mr. AStott!

Real: Your performance on the surface was outstanding! Well done, squaddie.

Aftermath

The parties, events, and awards went on for a few months after that, they tell me. Slowly the world rebuilt Moscow and Chicago, and in many ways—as Raven Hawk so eloquently had hoped—the world seems a much better place now. The war, the reign of terror, the nuclear bombs, and the sudden and unexpected victory did unite people, and pull the Earth together in a way that no other event in history has. I’m not sure how long it will last, but it’s nice while it’s here.

After a week or so all the parties and events got to be too much for me, so I said goodbye to everyone and dropped of the face of the planet for a while. Miss Terry and I have been hanging out on an island in Thailand since then. Just us, the waves, the sand, the sun. Perfect peace. It is all I’ve wanted.

Whooooooooooooooooo!

GB, helluva end to this sucker. The hell you gonna do with all your spare time now? :)

AND! I must officially protest. You got off WAYYYYYY too easy on that final mission. Was hell on earth for me every time I played it. :)

Any and all X-Com soldiers are welcome to visit me in Maui.

A Word of Thanks

Thanks to everyone who made this dynasty so much fun for me to do, and to everyone who took time to write, participate, read, and offer suggestions and compliments. I’ve said it often, but this dynasty would have been nothing without all the additional jokes, commentary, and in-character writing that you all added to it. I would never have finished this thing had it not been for all your support and feedback.

I also would like to apologize if I missed replying to some comments and questions, especially at the end, when the pace picked up and the posts came in pretty fast. It was completely unintentional.

Picking out people for a special thanks is always dangerous because you might leave someone off, but I really did want to offer a special thanks to Kodos, who took a lot of time to help with the last thread’s start, and who led or troops to victory throughout the course of the war. We couldn’t have had a better leader. And although there were lots of great in-character additions over the course of the dynasty which made the dynasty a lot better than it would have been, I wanted to offer a special thanks to Raven Hawk, for his consistently phenomenal in-character additions. Also, this dynasty would never have existed if not for Vince, who created the idea so long ago, and then was kind enough to let me take over.

I’m heading off on vacation on Thursday, so I won’t be around for a while after tomorrow. If you post anything here after Wednesday, I’ll reply in mid-July.

Thanks again for a fun ride!
GB

Absolutely fantastic :) Amazing last mission...what a great read all the way through.

Coffee: Yeah, I was really nervous that I was going to blow the last mission and lose the game. I can't believe we lost no one. It was almost too easy.

I'm not sure why, but I think we had a good equipment loadout. The two fusion ball Hovertanks and the four Blaster Launchers really gave us some punch. Also, except for the three decoys, we had studs as far as PSI-ratings were concerned. The large majority of our casualties in the last half of the war came from PSI attacks, so not having to worry about guys cracking made things so much easier. The decoys really helped on the surface, too. We cleared the whole surface in four turns, and knocked out all the aliens in the process. Lastly, I think after playing so many missions so slowly (it really gives you time to think about the mission when you write up a report), I have a pretty good idea where aliens will be on the battlefield without having to spot them. We had a few random, blind shots today that knocked out a lot of aliens, but I had a pretty good guess that there would be aliens there when I took the shot.

As for what's next, no real plan. Got a few ideas, and have a couple of things started already that I put on hold in order to finish this. Whatever it is, I want to make sure I get a better handle on the scope of the thing so it doesn't take forever to finish. This was a monster.

Vince: Thanks! Oops!

*runs to go edit the "special thanks" section*

There's always Terror From the Deep. :D

WHEW! Just got through with this. Amazing!

I've had final battles be this short, and some be insane where everyone dies on the topside. Nice work!

Nice to see Tasan II carrying the family torch of "Go on a gigantic mission and walk away without a single kill. I'm guessing the assless chaps played a part in the aliens' distraction(thanks for the idea Jerk3616). At least thats what I'll keep telling myself. A big thanks to Crappy for the special translucent armor!

Now off to sign a book deal. Hows this for a title "Me and the Rest of XCom went to Mars, and all I killed was Time" by Tasan II?

Lordy thats one LOOOOOOOOOOONG game. I finally made it all the way through about 6 months ago. The final battle is way cooler, but a LOT longer. I had 3 guys left by then, I think.

Next!

Next!

GB is going to have another dynasty coming soon.

I'll be there like one of those nerds waiting in line for a week to view a Star Wars movie.:D (I only wait for 4 hrs.:p)

Absolutely incredible dynasty GB!:D

Damn you kicked ass during that final mission

Outstanding work, GB. I'm going to miss X-COM. I wish I would have found out about it earlier--but I'm glad I was able to go on the final mission.

FIN

It's truly not an overstatement to say this may have been the greatest dynasty ever in the history of mankind.

Bravo, GB!

Congratulations GB - a fitting end to an outstanding dynasty!

Congrats GB - a perfect dynasty...one that should be saved and read again and again.

Not just a shutout, but a perfect game! Way to close this one out, GB. Thanks for a fun read over the last few months (year?), has been a lot of fun.

Congratulations, GB! You made it through the bazillion missions and a daunting amount of writing to get to the end, and then you managed to win the final mission in an overwhelmingly successful fashion. It's like Elway winning back-to-back Super Bowls to cap off a Hall of Fame career. Just incredible.

I've made no secret of the fact that I think this is by far the greatest dynasty that FOFC has ever seen. The great writeups, the way you got people to participate and contribute their own side stories - they just tell you how much people loved this thing. I know numerous people registered at FOFC just so they could stop lurking and get in on the action. I can't think of a higher compliment than that. I look forward to whatever dynasty you decide to go with next (if indeed we are lucky enough to get another one). Thanks for pouring so much of your time and enthusiasm and creativity into this thing. You have set the bar REALLY high...

Now for heaven's sake: Go and take a well-deserved vacation!

- Kodos :)

A great ride GB.

I don't think I have ever heard of anyone doing the final mission without losing a soul.

If not for the fact that you were constantly kicking ass, it might have been anti-climactic.

Damn straight.

SI