X-COM II: The Earth’s Revenge (Part XI)

[Poli]

Ahem. I'm no longer "normal". I'm 'cautious". I want on that plane, dang it. I can't be dieing now.

[Poli]

Dola, like it matters. I'm like 5th on the alternate "confirmed" list.

[jerk3616]

Hooray! Soon jerk won't be some faceless soldier...he will be a faceless soldier with his stats posted. I sure hope my first jerkling does the family proud.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Update

Holy crap. Take a look. This is what the phone calls were calling about…

From the New York Times Special Edition…

Aliens Nuke Moscow!

Millions Feared Dead

Aliens Threaten More Bombings

Massive Riots Rage Worldwide


Moscow, 18 minutes after an alien nuclear missile hit. Photo: Aeroflot

8 December 2003 – (AP, New York) On December 8, 5:17AM local time (December 7, 8:17PM New York), Alien forces detonated a massive nuclear-grade missile in the heart of Moscow. A massive explosion followed, causing what Russian authorities have called the “total destruction of the city.” Millions are feared dead in the blast, which has been estimated at 150-kilotons, roughly 10 times the explosive force used on Hiroshima. It is believed that Russian President Igut Nohednau has been killed, as well as most members of his top cabinet. The space-based attack is the apparent fulfillment of the Alien Alliance’s threat issued late last week.

“Let the blood of the Russian citizens lie on the hands of the United Nations and those nations that support the terrorist X-COM forces,” stated Sectoid Leader, the Alien Ambassador to Earth, in a prepared statement released shortly after the blast. “For too long we have endured the death of our innocent citizens as they travel over Earth. We have given you every chance to join us in building a brighter future, to explore the universe together, and to create a world of lasting peace and prosperity. At every junction you have chosen to reply with violence. Enough. You will be given one more chance: capitulate in full within one week—your deadline is noon Greenwich time on December 15—or we will begin launching one ballistic missile a day at randomly selected major cities of the world, and continue until you are all dead or you surrender.”

Details on the extent of the destruction are currently unavailable, as rescue workers and military forces cannot get within ten miles of the city due to high winds, fire, and radioactivity caused by the blast. It is believed, however, that all life within a five-mile radius of ground zero has been eradicated.

There is no word yet on the United Nations reply to this second ultimatum, but world leaders are gathering at an emergency summit in New York as this edition went to press.

World reaction to the bombing was rapid and violent. Riots between pro-alien supporters and anti-alien supporters broke out in most metropolitan areas across the planet as news of the strike spread. Enforcement officials in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago all report fierce, widespread clashes that have spiraled into full-scale riots. It is feared that thousands more have died in the violence that still is raging out of control. “There are thousands of people fighting in the streets,” reported Maggie Numbpluss, Chief of Chicago Police. “We simply don’t have the personnel to control (the violence). They’re killing each other with bricks and sticks. It’s beyond anything I have ever seen.” Large-scale clashes have also been reported in Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio De Janeiro.

Related Stories: Pope Calls for Calm (page 1A); Gatesville Coach a Moron? You make the call. (page 1C); Yankees’ Owner Doubles Price of Spaceship Tickets to $10 million. (page 1F).

[Poli]

Makes me want to curse.

Jeeber friggin D.

[jerk3616]

That would explain the falling star...

Bastards. I really am starting to hate those aliens...

No offense, Kodos.

[hoopsguy]

If I'm able to get into the combat mission then I'll go cautious. Probably would have gone at least normal before the psychic showed up, but may as well try to preserve some decent PSI abilities, bag the kills that come to me, and see if we can earn our way on at the tail end of the Mars picks.

[hoopsguy]

By the way, I think Detroit would probably be a better choice for rioting than Chicago. Just ask Jimmy Kimmel

[jerk3616]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

By the way, I think Detroit would probably be a better choice for rioting than Chicago. Just ask Jimmy Kimmel

Or nuking.

[hoopsguy]

I like the cut of jerk's jip, if that doesn't sound too disturbing.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Update

December 8 PM

I have been summoned to the United Nations for the emergency talks. Apparently there is a strong movement calling for surrender to the alien forces. By 10:00 CST, I am flying for Manhattan.

December 9 AM

In order to prevent the surrender of Earth’s forces to the aliens, I am forced to describe in detail our plans to launch an attack on Mars to the dignitaries at the United Nations. The classified meetings last throughout the day.

In the end, the UN gives X-COM until 11AM on December 15. If we have not sent word that the Alien Command Center has been destroyed by then, the UN will unconditionally surrender to the aliens. The Avenger will be complete on the afternoon of the 14th. We will launch as soon as possible after that, most likely within minutes of the last bolt being driven in. The Crappy Hyper Drive will get us to Mars within minutes. We should beat the deadline by almost twelve hours.

God help us if Sterling Ice can’t get that Avenger done on time.

Militarily, the day passes quietly. There are no UFOs sighted throughout the day.

World attention is focused on the events in Moscow, where an estimated 4 million people have died from the blast. The images on TV are stunning. There is nothing left of the city.

Riots continued throughout the day in major cities everywhere. The media consensus is that the participants are calling for the destruction of X-COM and total capitulation to the aliens.

In minor news, Sectoid Leader was deported to London after the bombing. Rumor has it that he is in the British base there. Maybe it’s time we dropped in for a visit.

December 10

As military and rescue forces try to pick up the pieces in Moscow, the war continues for us. Shortly after midnight, Africa COM’s Interceptor shoots down a large Sectoid scout over coastal Africa. We launch our EU COM Skyranger for the clean up.

On board:
Raven Hawk II, Japherwaki II, Real Deal III, Naiwf, Coffee Warlord II, Swaggs, Mike Vic, Chuck U Farley, ShaefIllini

They’ll strike at dawn.

Get some payback, men.

As soon as this mission is finished, we’re going after Sectoid Leader and the British base.

With luck, both of these missions should go up tomorrow, from which point we’ll play out the last days in semi-realtime: one game day = one real day.

It is now D-Day minus four days.

[Raven Hawk]

Raven Hawk II checks his gear as he has become accostomed to just prior to Skyranger lift off. He notices something out of the ordinary, stuffed deep into his backpack. Raven pulls out what appears to be a piece buckskin wrapped tightly. Upon further examination, the buckskin is wrapped tightly around something. Raven cautiously unravels the buckskin to reveal an old antler hunting knife with a with a decorative sheath made of bearskin and adorned with bear teeth. Raven immediately recognized the knife as his fathers and vaguely remembers the story.

"Son," said Raven Hawk Sr, "one day when I am gone, this will be yours . . . draw in the most dire of times to protect your people. My father passed this to me and his father to him before that. The bear teeth are enchanted by an old medicine man and as long as you wear the scabbard, bullets cannot harm you. This dagger protected our people before, and it will do so again. If not in my hands, then in yours . . ."

Raven fought back a tear and quickly checked to see if anybody else was looking. He drew the blade from its sheath. There, written in green blood upon the ancient blade . . .

"AVENGE ME"

THERE WILL BE BLOOD TONIGHT!

[Lokugh]

Move Lokugh to Agressive, I think, if he is on the mission. He will take his chances in order to avenge his Russian comrades. And yes, if it comes up, I will volunteer for the British base assault.

[jerk3616]

Originally Posted by Raven Hawk

Raven Hawk II checks his gear as he has become accostomed to just prior to Skyranger lift off. He notices something out of the ordinary, stuffed deep into his backpack. Raven pulls out what appears to be a piece buckskin wrapped tightly. Upon further examination, the buckskin is wrapped tightly around something. Raven cautiously unravels the buckskin to reveal an old antler hunting knife with a with a decorative sheath made of bearskin and adorned with bear teeth. Raven immediately recognized the knife as his fathers and vaguely remembers the story.

"Son," said Raven Hawk Sr, "one day when I am gone, this will be yours . . . draw in the most dire of times to protect your people. My father passed this to me and his father to him before that. The bear teeth are enchanted by an old medicine man and as long as you wear the scabbard, bullets cannot harm you. This dagger protected our people before, and it will do so again. If not in my hands, then in yours . . ."

Raven fought back a tear and quickly checked to see if anybody else was looking. He drew the blade from its sheath. There, written in green blood upon the ancient blade . . .

"AVENGE ME"

THERE WILL BE BLOOD TONIGHT!

Nicely done. Assless chaps I can do...creative writing I have to work on.

[Raven Hawk]

Originally Posted by jerk3616

Nicely done. Assless chaps I can do...creative writing I have to work on.

Lol! It appears that you are comfortable with the Assless Chaps also. Not many people can pull off that look.

[Lokugh]

The assless chaps look is sooooo 1985. Everyone knows the stylish alien prison 'ho wears the PVC g-string and leather bondage mask. I mean, really. If you are going to go for the alien pogey bait look, you have to wear the uniform. Oh, and a full body wax job is required. Sectoid Leader is turned off by hairy humans...

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

...Russian President Igut Nohednau...

He's missing a whole lot more than his head.

Those alien bastards will PAY!!!!

[Poli]

Kill them!

[Godzilla Blitz]

Battle Competition Final Rosters

Well, here we are. The final fourteen contestants for the battle competition...

Danny Van Halen (14) Normal
Wolfpack (13) Cautious
Qwikshot II (12) Aggressive
Naiwf (10) Normal
Split Personality III (9) Aggressive
Breeze (8) Normal
Illinifan V (8) Cautious
Real Deal III (7) Normal
Chuck U Farley (5) Aggressive
Glen Goyne (5) Normal
Alf III (5) Normal
Mr. Bug IV (5) Normal
Blade6119 (4) Normal (have to check wound status; might be unavailable)
Vince (3) Aggressive

Alternates
Ardent Enthusiast (3) Normal
Lokugh III (2) Aggressive

Take a look and make sure I've got everything the way you want it, as I've already started moving agents to EU COM to launch this mission as soon as the Skyranger gets back from its current mission. This mission will launch later this morning.

Last chance to bow out or make changes.

Real: I wasn't sure how to interpret you last post about the mission. I'll leave you in and at aggressive for now, but let me know if you want to make a change.

[Poli]

GET ME IN THERE!

[Raven Hawk]

Ardent your best chance will be for Real Deal to get the Twisted Puzzle win before this mission leaves. Then you'd be in like Flynn.

[RealDeal]

change me from aggressive to normal.

[JeeberD]

With the way that RealDeal is cleaning up the Twisted Puzzle competition I would have though he would have gone ahead and just dropped out of this mission...

[Poli]

DROP OUT REAL DEAL!

[JeeberD]

Hmmm...wonder why you want him to drop out? It's purely in his best interests, right AE?

[RealDeal]

I would drop out, but the problem is Shaef keeps coming on, and I don't know how long the trivia competition will last, or if GB will make the last round worth 100 points or do it at 4:00 a.m. in the morning or something like that.

I obviously don't want to take someone else's slot on the challenge mission or risk my life if I already have a ticket to Mars in the trivia contest.

[Poli]

I heart you RealDeal.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

I heart you RealDeal.

You're not getting his bud light, Ardent.

SI

[Godzilla Blitz]

Quick update

Ok, we just got "unstuck" with the problem with my work project, so I should be finishing that up in a bit and be back to truly important matters here right after that.

For now, though...

Let's do this with the Base Assault. Blade6119 is healthy now, so he'll go. That would leave Ardent and Lokugh out of the mission, but...

There are two people on the list that I was definitely going to select as part of the Mars Assault. I'll post them shortly and then pull them off the base assault. That'll free up spots for Ardent and Lokugh.

I'll be back in about an hour to do that, and then we should be able to get started on the base mission.

Just got to finish this work thingie and then get some food in my stomach.

[Vince]

Though I'd really love to see my guy head off to Mars, and I have a pretty good track record so far (more kills than missions...how many officers can claim that?), I think it wouldn't be fair to those that have followed the series from the get-go. My participation has been streaky at best, so I'm actually going to take myself out of the Combat Competition - you can slot someone else in there instead of me, GB.

[Katon]

If there's a slot available - not sure, with all these changes - I'll go. Cautiously.

[tucker342]

wow... I didn't even know that the aliens did that in X-Com... How much of the details did the game tell you?

[Poli]

I'm on the plane! GB, if it's not too late, I did request earlier to be changed to "cautious".

AE

[hoopsguy]

I'm also looking on the Combat Competition if a slot is open. Cautious, as indicated earlier.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Vince: Very nice gesture of you. We'll free up that spot.

Of the number of agents that want to go, Katon and Hoops Guy have the highest current kill total at 2. We go to the tie-breaker, which is family pedigree, and Katon's dad's two kills gives him the edge over Hoops Guy who doesn't have a dad in the game. So...

Katon is on the flight.

Sorry to those that can't make it. I wish there was a way to get everyone on the Skyranger, but we're going without a tank as it is. We've still got the lottery to look forward to, so don't give up hope.

Time to get this show on the road.

[jerk3616]

All these agents treading cautiously...

Whatever happened to "exterminate with extreme prejudice?"

Like I can talk anyways...the only thing I've killed is myself.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Mars Strike Team Omega

Our next two members of Strike Team Omega:

1. Commander Kodos
2. Captain Revrew
3. Colonel Jfbbis
4. Colonel Wade Moore
5. Captain Jeff Nights II
6. Captain AStott
7. Sergeant Thomkal II
8. Sergeant Achilles
9. Sergeant Swaggs
10. Sergeant Coffee Warlord II
11. Squaddie Jeeber D
12. Squaddie Raven Hawk II
13. Captain Qwikshot II
Qwikshot has been an active and steady agent over the course of his career, has always kept us positive, and has shown solid cool under PSI pressure. While he doesn't have the high kill totals of some of our agents and could have difficulties if we sustain casualties, his long track record of excellence makes him a solid choice for the Mars mission.

14. Squaddie Illinifan V
The Illinifan family looks to have finally gotten things right with their latest X-COM member. Illinifan has nearly perfect close combat genetic talent: high bravery, quick reactions, and rock-solid PSI skills. Although he lacks the experience of many of our Omega team members, he brings a lot of potential to the table, and has performed admirably in over ten missions.

Welcome aboard, men.

Next up...
The Battle Competition. 14 agents fighting a point-scored base assault to earn one of two seats on the Avenger. This should be a dilly!

[Godzilla Blitz]

Battle Competition Final Rosters, Version 2

Well, here we are. Vince has graciously opened up his spot to allow Katon II on board, and Qwikshot II and Illinifan V have been selected for the Mars mission by command choice, so...

The final fourteen contestants for the battle competition:
Danny Van Halen (14) Normal
Wolfpack (13) Cautious
Naiwf (10) Normal
Split Personality III (9) Aggressive
Breeze (8) Normal
Real Deal III (7) Normal
Chuck U Farley (5) Aggressive
Glen Goyne (5) Normal
Alf III (5) Normal
Mr. Bug IV (5) Normal
Blade6119 (4) Normal
Ardent Enthusiast (3) Cautious
Lokugh III (2) Aggressive
Katon II (2) Cautious

This should really be the last chance to make changes, etc. Please let me know if I've got everything ok. Again, keep in mind that I usually play the game cautiously, so "normal" and "aggressive" stances will make things much more dangerous for you.

I'm going to try and play this mission tonight, and post results after every couple of turns. It'll take time (a few hours perhaps), and I won't be able to start until about 9:30 CST, but I'll keep plugging away as best I can. I'd like to finish before I go to sleep.

Before we do that, though, I've got to post the story of our latest mission to Africa.

[Raven Hawk]

Way to go, Qwikshot and Illinifan! Good luck to all in the battle. Anybody placing odds on these fellows?

[RealDeal]

I'll give up my seat on the challenge mission and hope I win the trivia contest.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by RealDeal

I'll give up my seat on the challenge mission and hope I win the trivia contest.

Cool.

Hoops Guy, you're in!

A big hand for the magnanimous gesture by Real Deal!

Speaking of trivia contests, I'm working on the next questions now. I'll post a time hint shortly.

[Poli]

GB, I'd like to request (again) that I be moved to "cautious".

[Poli]

X-Com game question:

Since I joined the game, I got a copy and have been playing on my own as well. Here's my problem. I have yet to figure out how to use that blaster launcher! I have researched both the launcher and the bomb, but I can't seem to get it work right. Is there a certain thing I have to do? Do I have to have the launcher in one hand and the bomb in the other? I'm clueless.

Thanks in advance for your help,

AE

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

GB, I'd like to request (again) that I be moved to "cautious".

Aggressive, armed with a tooth brush, and wearing an Big Bird suit?

Check! Got it!

[Raven Hawk]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

Aggressive, armed with a tooth brush, and wearing an Big Bird suit?

Check! Got it!

Classic.

[Poli]

Must kill GB.

[Poli]

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by ardent enthusiast

Must kill GB.

Will kill AE.

[Poli]

Tell me how to use that blaster launcher thingee.

[Blade6119]

oh god, ardent and i on a mission together....death must ensue