Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Scourge of Ages on February 01, 2012, 01:49:42 am
-
Following the bold steps of Shade (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76623.0), Polpolion (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=79421.0), and Trashman (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=79492.0), we have here the LP (my first ever) of the sequel to X-COM. Join us for drama, action, tragedy, aliens, shooting aliens, and aliens shooting X-COM soldiers! I'm starting this away from home, so I won't be able to add any of you to the squad (yet, but I'll take applications), though for a little while, you won't want to be. I'll be using the default names for a while, so if anybody has any suggestions for custom names, I'll put those in too.
I'll try to keep reloading when things go bad to a minimum, so any fatalities are dead for good, unless we party wipe. I'm using a mod, but mostly just for bug fixes and to re-equip soldiers for each battle.
Story: In 2039, alien activity started to pick up, again. We thought they had been vanquished after their *spoiler alert* defeat on Mars. A faction of aliens were sleeping beneath the ocean, and were awoken by a transmission from Cydonia. Anyway, they're back and causing a ruckus, so X-COM was reactivated and kitted up with the latest in sub-marine equipment, and sent out.
Speaking of that equipment, here's our primary rifle:
(http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1056/117ids.th.jpg) (http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1056/117ids.jpg)
It's... basically an airsoft-dart gun. And don't get me started on the pistol variant... it's not good. There's a heavy cannon version, which is useful for lobbing explosive shells long distances. We'll see that a lot.
So here we go! Let's start a new game, and play on "Superhuman" difficulty because why not.
(http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/8851/83425165.th.jpg) (http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/8851/83425165.jpg)
January 1st, 2040: We'll put our first base right here, and I'll call it "Blue Canary". If you don't know what a standard base looks like, it doesn't really matter; plus I'll post a picture of it later. Since it is a standard base, I take care of first things, first:
I built an extra Living Quarters, a Wide Array Sonar, General Stores, and an Alien Containment. Purchased/recruited 6 additional soldiers, 16 scientists, a cannon tank and ammo, 2 more HE gas cannon clips, 1 phosphorous (incendiary) cannon clip, 6 more grenades, and 2 tazers.
Equipped my fighter subs with all torpedoes and sold off the craft gas cannons. Those cannons are rubbish.
I put my scientists to work researching the underwater medi-kit. It's very sciency, I'm sure, which is probably why we have to re-research something we already had 30 years ago...
January 13th: Medi-kit research completed, and manufacture began. Researching gauss tech now.
January 15th: I lost track a little, and gauss tech has finished probably yesterday, gauss pistols are researched, and I begin manufacturing as soon as the medi-kits are done; I only finished 3.
January 17th: Living quarters done, 12 more scientists hired. We're getting a little bored. Wasn't there supposed to be an alien invasion or something? The soldiers are tired of playing cards.
January 20th: Here we go! Port attack in Bombay. That probably shouldn't make me happy, but it's something to do.
(http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/1102/51498120.th.jpg) (http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/1102/51498120.jpg)
Triton carrier sub is dispatched post-haste! We're carrying, in addition to the starting equipment, 5 gauss pistols, the tank, and 2 gas cannons.
January 21st: En route, gauss rifles were researched. More on that later, for now we've got aliens!
Touchdown! Tank goes out first, and fulfills its role, as, you know, a tank. It heads south and around the front of the ship.
Well, looky there, our first catch. A Deep One, if I recall correctly.
(http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2616/11890917.th.jpg) (http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2616/11890917.jpg)
Another soldier moves out and spots our second catch.
(http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/630/81414567.th.jpg) (http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/630/81414567.jpg)
That there alien's called a "Gill Man". Javier Centeno, the guy carrying the HE cannon, takes two potshots out of the sub. Both shots... miss wildly. See the smoke from the explosion, just a little too far away to do any damage? Yeah.
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1610/47471126.th.jpg) (http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1610/47471126.jpg)
Emile Gautier fires three rounds from his dart rifle, and scores a lucky headshot. BOOM! HA HA!
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/811/36315014.th.jpg) (http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/811/36315014.jpg)
At the end of the first turn, all of my soldiers are safely deployed behind the cover of my sub. Except for the tank, but it's a tank so it should be fine.
The aliens use their turn to murder some civies.
(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1653/21871224.th.jpg) (http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1653/21871224.jpg)
Mean of them, isn't it.
That's all I can type right now but I've got a bit saved up, so stay tuned for the exciting conclusion! (And let me know if I need to cut down a bit on the exposition or number of images or anything)
-
And now, Part 2: The thrilling conclusion to: The Battle of Bombay!
Our brave, autonomous tank moves forward, and spots another Gill Man.
(http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7340/18022420.th.jpg) (http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7340/18022420.jpg)
He seems to be unarmed, but I can't take chances. The tank misses a little, that is to say, completely.
(http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/1531/91055203.th.jpg) (http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/1531/91055203.jpg)
We've also spotted another Gill Man, but he's behind cover and we can't get a clean shot. Javier applies some explosives to remove the cover,
(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8107/68726084.th.jpg) (http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/8107/68726084.jpg)
and the other cannon guy moves up and blasts him. This guy's name's Victor Dudeski. I'm going to have to name somebody else "Broski" just to balance this out.
Moving on, we spotted another Gill Man lurking behind a yellow dumpster, and shot him a lot with a gauss pistol for another kill.
Do you remember this guy there? We still hadn't removed him, and now it's time.
(http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8928/65262557.th.jpg) (http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8928/65262557.jpg)
I have a soldier inside our flying sub prime a grenade, but he's just short of enough TUs to lob it over the sub. So Gerard there, the soldier with line-of-sight, just shoots him.
The tank spots another Deep One along its path, and blasts it.
We're done, so it's the aliens' turn now. A sonic bolt comes out of friggin' nowhere, and Javier is down.
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8567/26193535.th.jpg) (http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8567/26193535.jpg)
He will be missed, but we can mourn later; there're aliens afoot!
All right, my turn now, jerks. One of my soldiers who had gone around the back side of the map spots that same Gill Man from before up on the roof, shoots him, but fails to kill it. Did I mention the airsoft rifles we're using?
(http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7388/26963166.th.jpg) (http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7388/26963166.jpg)
And there's that scum!
(http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/9730/39909430.th.jpg) (http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/9730/39909430.jpg)
That's the one that must have hit Javier. Two of my soldiers' shots go wide, and the Gill Man laughs at them. But do you remember the other soldier holding the spoon down on the live grenade? He throws it, hoping for a good secondary explosion from those barrels. On this screen, the grenade is the little pink spot sitting on top of the crate.
(http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/5788/91522510.th.jpg) (http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/5788/91522510.jpg)
Surprisingly, my guy also has enough TUs for a snap shot, and is able to put the alien down early. It's a good thing too, because the grenade didn't do squat.
As my tank fights deeper into the map, it sees another Deep One,
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6585/42012661.th.jpg) (http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6585/42012661.jpg)
shoots at it but misses. The shot hits the barrel that was close by though, which explodes enough to kill the alien.
Oh, this one again. Two soldiers auto-firing is enough to finally end him.
(http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4255/34610813.th.jpg) (http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4255/34610813.jpg)
The aliens are up again, and on their Hidden Movement we spot two of 'em in a really sweet position.
(http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/6442/26604768.th.jpg) (http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/6442/26604768.jpg)
A couple bursts from a dart rifle doesn't scores enough hits on either Gill Man to do much damage, or to detonate the barrels. A burst from a gauss pistol does, however.
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5954/77975331.th.jpg) (http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5954/77975331.jpg)
Toasty.
The thing about Deep Ones is, they don't carry a normal sonic weapon like Gill Men and Aquatoids. They have a sort of biologically grafted weapon. It's short range, and fairly inaccurate; the discharge travels in an arc from the Deep One's head, and it looks like it's just spitting green stuff at you. Sorry I didn't get a screenshot of that actually happening. Anyway, Andrew narrowly avoided getting spat to death on the aliens' move, and turns about to face his attacker. He fires, and misses. He hits the barrel though, which is enough.
(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/9360/92606919.th.jpg) (http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/9360/92606919.jpg)
Victor moves up, spots a lone Gill Man, and blasts it through a fence
(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4724/95934104.th.jpg) (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4724/95934104.jpg)
The tank moves up to clear out a shack, and is treated to a nice pair of aliens.
(http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4550/12435562.th.jpg) (http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4550/12435562.jpg)
The Gill Man goes down, but the tank doesn't have enough TUs to get the Deep One. A soldier with a tazer moves forward, planning to knock it out from behind.
On the aliens' turn again, tragedy strikes! There's an alien hidden somewhere, and he shot my guy in the open.
(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1735/43075219.th.jpg) (http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1735/43075219.jpg)
Back to me. More business as usual, mounting casualties aside. See a Deep One, shoot it. While clearing a shack, see a Gill Man, kill it.
I didn't see exactly where the shot that killed my guy came from, just the sort of general direction it came from, so I sent my tank further south to find the naughty Gill Man, and on the aliens' next turn, he reveals himself!
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5199/20527940.th.jpg) (http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5199/20527940.jpg)
The Deep One that was left alone in that shed isn't content sitting still, so pops out and spits at Estella.
(http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3736/89889901.th.jpg) (http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3736/89889901.jpg)
It's not very effective, and combined reaction fire brings it down.
I order the tank to try to shoot down the wall to get at the sweet nougaty alien inside, but it doesn't work very well.
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1071/77106716.th.jpg) (http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1071/77106716.jpg)
I'll keep my soldiers on that side of the building under cover, until the situation is dealt with, I can't spare any additional casualties if I can avoid it. I've got somebody coming up from behind.
(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7494/57530958.th.jpg) (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7494/57530958.jpg)
He should be able to sneak inside while the tank has the Gill Man pinned down, and taze the alien.
Some more scouting, and we spot an Deep One on the second floor of a warehouse (look among those crates in the lower-left corner of the screen). After enough firepower gets poured in, it dies.
(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7654/41316131.th.jpg) (http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7654/41316131.jpg)
Another shack, another Deep One deep-sixed (I've been wanting to say that for a while now :))
(http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/9093/53013023.th.jpg) (http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/9093/53013023.jpg)
Gill Man Squad Leader Has Panicked and lost all his TUs. So sad. My guy runs in and smacks him in the face with a tazer.
(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5737/16188109.th.jpg) (http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5737/16188109.jpg)
Back near the docks, a lady aquanaut throws open a door to find a civie huddled in a corner, probably terrified out of his wits. Or perhaps I'm attributing too much AI to a 4 MB game?
(http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3180/98671404.th.jpg) (http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3180/98671404.jpg)
How's it goin' sailor?
On our next turn, she moves up to see yet another alien on another second floor warehouse.
(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5659/42944112.th.jpg) (http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5659/42944112.jpg)
She shoots, but misses, and ducks back behind the cover of that shed that had the civilian inside.
I have another soldier in position, he'll flank the Gill Man.
(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/897/61818541.th.jpg) (http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/897/61818541.jpg)
Alas, on the alien's turn, he goes berserk and fires wildly at any target he sees. Unfortunately, instead of a harmless crate or something, he picks my guy that he can see through the window. It ends about as well as you can expect.
(http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/7669/92384580.th.jpg) (http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/7669/92384580.jpg)
That's him, the mound of teal green near the top of the screen, being not alive any more. But Andrew climbs up, and shoots the offending Gill Man in the back. "This is for Jonesey!" (I forgot his real name, sorry dude)
And that's that for this mission.
(http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/391/86041058.th.jpg) (http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/391/86041058.jpg)
All in all, it was a pretty good first mission, considering we had no armor, and mostly starting equipment. We got 21 aliens, and only lost 3 X-COM operatives. 8 civilians were saved too, that's gotta be worth something...
And we got loot. We'll look that over when we get back to base.
That's all for now, but I'll try to post at least one mission per week, unless I find some extra time. I didn't realize how long one of these takes to put together. And seriously, if anybody has some advice on how to do this, I'm all ears.
-
Alas, no advice, but a request........
TO BE A SENIOR RIFLEMAN ! :yes:
-
Make me a heavy gunner. The heaver the better. I like big'uns, and I cannae lie!
-
If there's a shotgun, I want one of those. If not, I'm fine with being your average rifleman.
-
Dekker: Rifleman... Check
TrashMan: Cannon guy... Check, but you might have to carry a rifle for a little bit in between having gas cannons and sonic cannons
Sparda: No shotguns, so rifleman... Check
When I make fresh episodes, you're all in, and you'll show up after I finish going through the buffer I have saved.
-
I'd like to be a pilot of whatever kind is used in this game.
-
TrashMan: Cannon guy... Check, but you might have to carry a rifle for a little bit in between having gas cannons and sonic cannons
As long as there's a lot of Dakka.
The bigger the caliber OR hte more rapid hte fire...either will do.
-
I'd like to be a pilot of whatever kind is used in this game.
I tried, but there's no way to rename a craft, that I could find. However, since at least one soldier is required to be able to fly transports to and from missions... Congratulations! You're a rifleman!
-
You can't rename pilots? That's dumb. :P
-
Eh, it is what it is. And there's not so much "pilots" as "names of ships". So, it's only Barracuda-1 or Barracuda-2, etc.
Moving on, we have a couple of short missions and a lot of research progress.
First order when we get back to base after that big mission, is to replenish our funds a little bit. Interestingly, each alien corpse sells for 20k. Who's buying alien corpses? What do they use them for? These are silly questions, and the answer probably rhymes with "Sushi".
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9669/65339903.th.jpg) (http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9669/65339903.jpg)
But we have money, so that's good.
A few days later, my scientists finish research on the gauss rifle clip and started on the Deep One corpse. If I recall correctly, this should lead to something very useful. A couple of days later, the research is finished, and... YES! Aqua plastics! Started on that.
(http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9986/42360537.th.jpg) (http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9986/42360537.jpg)
We got a nice injection of funds at the start of February, and immediately spend a bunch of it. I know that in the future, I'll be needing a second workshop and another living quarters, so up they go.
(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/356/16419023.th.jpg) (http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/356/16419023.jpg)
Hey, there's the base I was telling you about. Everything is either pretty straight-forward or not particularly important.
And also with those funds, I finally hire enough scientists to take the total up to 50, and 3 more soldiers to replace those lost.
February 5th: I have enough gauss weaponry to completely replace all my jet-harpoon guns, so they're out. I order 10 more technicians to help with production in the near future. Even the few times when there's not things I'll be needing, manufactured stuff always sells for a profit.
February 8th: We researched plastic aqua-armor, but I can't produce any without aqua plastics. Those are typically recovered from enemy subs, but since we haven't so much as spotted any, we're forced to manufacture our own plastics. They don't cost anything but money, so it's cool.
February 13th: Finally, finally, we spot our first sub. It's a very-small, and I send Barracuda-2 up ('Cuda-1 carries the heavy torpedo, which will one-shot a very-small, which I don't want).
(http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8298/88895335.th.jpg) (http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8298/88895335.jpg)
There it is, and pretty easily, it's downed. We wait until dawn and send out the transport.
By this point, we have enough gauss rifles and pistols to outfit the whole 10-man squad
(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4923/40258589.th.jpg) (http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4923/40258589.jpg)
Heh, Emilio Estavez.
Here we go. Tank and three soldiers move and fan out.
(http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/6012/83906921.th.jpg) (http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/6012/83906921.jpg)
There's the ship, just south of ours.
(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9282/59003608.th.jpg) (http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9282/59003608.jpg)
(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7372/57108661.th.jpg) (http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7372/57108661.jpg)
It's a sunken airplane map, and I know the aliens love to hide on the top levels.
Sure enough, the tank spots one.
(http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/648/10633468.th.jpg) (http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/648/10633468.jpg)
The tank is absorbing fire from the alien, but it's ineffective. I've got a guy sneaking around behind, and hits the critter with a tazer.
(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7102/42146852.th.jpg) (http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7102/42146852.jpg)
Oh, that was the only alien here. Mission complete!
(http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3810/83574324.th.jpg) (http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3810/83574324.jpg)
February 14th: Research on Sonic Pulsers (alien grenades) is complete.
(http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/3494/69512065.th.jpg) (http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/3494/69512065.jpg)
And I start research on that captured alien.
February 15th: We've spotted another very small sub and send Barracuda-2 after it again.
(http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/9412/41663783.th.jpg) (http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/9412/41663783.jpg)
We're led on a merry chase across the Atlantic and South America. We can't engage over land due to being armed with only torpedoes, so we catch up and finally shoot it down just East of the Cape.
(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7942/37518283.th.jpg) (http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7942/37518283.jpg)
When the transport lands, we spread out in standard formation, flowing around the craft. It's a nice coral reef map, offering lots of nice cover.
(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/104/74055200.th.jpg) (http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/104/74055200.jpg)
An alien is spotted, but the terrain around it is not revealed; sometimes this happens. It's OK, because my Javier can still hit him from here, and he does.
(http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8480/10540705.th.jpg) (http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8480/10540705.jpg)
That was the only one on this sub, so it's Mission Complete again.
February 16th: We researched that Aquatoid. They're pretty freaky lookin'
(http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7919/71823639.th.jpg) (http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7919/71823639.jpg)
This gives us access to a new research called Alien Origins, which we begin.
-
February 21st: Small sub spotted in the mid-Atlantic. Barracuda-1 is deployed, it's the one with the D.U.P. heavy torpedoes. As my craft closes in, we get a good look at it.
(http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1074/40770129.th.jpg) (http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1074/40770129.jpg)
Our sub goes on the aggressive, and unloads all its D.U.P. Head torpedoes, but don't get enough hits to sink it, and the little bugger runs away.
February 22nd: As Barracuda-1 continues to chase the enemy sub down, the research on Alien Origins pops.
(http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3964/23213134.th.jpg) (http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3964/23213134.jpg)
While that's interesting enough, it's not particularly immediately important. I finally catch up and shoot down the alien, with only one torpedo to spare.
(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8696/98611892.th.jpg) (http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8696/98611892.jpg)
Triton out! Well, it's a nice peaceful lava map. Fortunately, the terrain isn't dangerous, so long as we don't step on any of it. It's impossible to step on it.
(http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3696/41393090.th.jpg) (http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3696/41393090.jpg)
There's an Aquatoid pretty quick who gets sniped (snope?) by a sweet shot from Lieutenant Andrew. Moving forward a bit more toward the downed sub, another alien pops out, shoots one of my soldiers twice and does almost nothing! That's the wonder of armor!
(http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/2218/58853633.th.jpg) (http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/2218/58853633.jpg)
I can't get a clean shot through the half-open door, and Andrew couldn't quite get a grenade through the opening, it says he can't throw there. So he's holding the spoon closed on a live grenade (this happens a lot, but it's cool). My torpedo guy fortunately is close enough and puts a beautiful shot right through the door.
(http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/268/79698492.th.jpg) (http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/268/79698492.jpg)
It's his first torpedo ever fired and he gets it right on the money. Ka-BOOM!
(http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2915/33321908.th.jpg) (http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2915/33321908.jpg)
Meanwhile, another squad happens upon a pair of Aquatoids hangin' out. One of 'em dies pretty easily.
(http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4818/63525700.th.jpg) (http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4818/63525700.jpg)
But everyone else around can't even get close enough with explosive rounds to hit the second. Lyudmila misses wide with Phosphorous rounds, and just sets some rocks on fire. Andrew's live grenade gets tossed right next to him, detonates, and inexplicably doesn't do squat, except irritate the critter.
I'm all set to absorb some sonic pistol shots, but I guess the alien panicked or something, and all he did is run and hide.
(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4780/29402337.th.jpg) (http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4780/29402337.jpg)
Another round of useless explosives later, and 6 little pistol rounds from across the map takes him out.
That should have been everything, but the mission hasn't ended. There's one left, somewhere. I scouted the whole map, and it turns out that the last one standing was actually really close to the sub. Rookie gets him, and that's that.
February 28th: Another small sub is spotted, and Barracuda-1 busts it off the North American East Coast. Triton crew goes out and brings back another load of aliens. No casualties, but nothing really interesting to report either.
Bonus Preview of our next episode!
February 29th: Aliens launch port attack on Tokyo. Oh no! Triton away, as always.
March 1st: On the way to Tokyo, the month rolls over and we get more funding. And a small sub is spotted near our base and shot down easily. We'll deal with that one later.
Upon touchdown, my tank heads out and around the front of our craft, he reveals one Gill Man, and spots two more aliens, but they're hidden. The tank doesn't fire immediately.
(http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/3847/87428593.th.jpg) (http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/3847/87428593.jpg)
Lyudmila exits the Triton and spots a Gill Man with a sonic cannon. She very carefully takes aim and fires a burst of 3 rounds, and misses horribly. This doesn't draw any reaction fire, probably because the alien would have to see the action to react.
(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1931/82007578.th.jpg) (http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1931/82007578.jpg)
Emile Gautier steps out, fires three rounds, and hits with one. The shot doesn't do much to the tough alien, except get its attention. This does draw two shots of reaction fire, one of which goes wide, and the other hits Lyudmila squarely. She doesn't stand a chance in only plastic armor, and dies.
(http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/9769/89298181.th.jpg) (http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/9769/89298181.jpg)
Emile fires again and puts an end to that alien. This doesn't bode well. The score is 1/1 so far, we'll have to work on our k/d ratio.
-
Combined fire from the tank and soldiers clears the immediate area around the Triton of threats, and I begin to fully deploy soldiers. During the aliens' Hidden Movement phase, we spot one carrying a sonic cannon moving around to the North-West.
(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/5314/13066207.th.jpg) (http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/5314/13066207.jpg)
South of him, is an apparently unarmed Gill Man. That means he's likely an Engineer, and would be very useful if captured alive.
I start to run my primary stunner, Javier, in that direction to get into position.
(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/1995/59276009.th.jpg) (http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/1995/59276009.jpg)
He spots a Deep One, but Emile takes it out so Javier can use all his time units to run. Moving forward, Javier spots that Gill Man from earlier, and a Deep One to boot, right in his path.
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/536/85159110.th.jpg) (http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/536/85159110.jpg)
He fires, but is unable to kill the alien. Nobody else has a clean shot or enough TUs to save his bacon, so I do the only thing I can do: I move my tank in between the Gill Man and Javier, to tank.
(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/36/31717566.th.jpg) (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/36/31717566.jpg)
The plan works well, and the tank absorbs a sonic cannon and sonic rifle hit from another Gill Man, and is still alive. Unfortunately, Javier gets shot by a different alien hiding in a warehouse office to the North-East of our sub. It's only a pistol wound, but it's fatal, and Javier dies.
Next turn, the tank is able to kill the cannon-wielding alien, and my other stunner, Miguel, is able to shoot the previously unknown Gill Man with his gauss pistol.
(http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/4403/70830490.th.jpg) (http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/4403/70830490.jpg)
Estella attempts to use some HE rounds from her cannon to blast open the warehouse where I know that Gill Man is hiding, but she misses and just sets some trash of fire instead.
(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8806/64672075.th.jpg) (http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/8806/64672075.jpg)
On the aliens' turn, a sonic blast comes out of frikken' nowhere and kills Emile.
(http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4919/88016869.th.jpg) (http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4919/88016869.jpg)
While my soldiers down there scramble to find the source of the blast, Estella spots a different Gill Man on the third floor of that warehouse. Perhaps to make up for her terrible aim earlier, she puts a round right through the slit window and into the alien's face. It explodes.
(http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2285/100mrh.th.jpg) (http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2285/100mrh.jpg)
All that's left behind are some burning boxes, smoke, and gill chunks.
One of my greener Able Seamen, Deborah Aguila, moves forward, and spots the Gill Man who shot Emile.
(http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/214/102nf.th.jpg) (http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/214/102nf.jpg)
She fires, but misses. The Gill Man fires back, killing her.
Miguel has managed to get up to where the unarmed Gill Man was.
(http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/6733/103nx.th.jpg) (http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/6733/103nx.jpg)
He hits it once, but the alien is still standing. Miguel backs out of the shack to wait for next turn, and spots a Deep One hiding right in the other corner.
(http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8933/104ng.th.jpg) (http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8933/104ng.jpg)
He can't kill it, so the tank moves up and takes a shot, but that doesn't kill it either. We'll just have to hope that neither of those aliens have figured out how to open doors, or either Miguel or the tank are likely to die.
And it works! On their turn, the aliens stay kindly on their side of the gate.
The Gill Man sniping at my soldiers near the sub is still there, being all threatening. So next turn, rather than taking chances, Emilio Estavez throws a sonic pulser from his position on the wing of the Triton to where he knows that Gill Man is hiding.
(http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6182/105ge.th.jpg) (http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6182/105ge.jpg)
We'll have to wait to the end of the turn to hear if it works or not.
Back to Miguel! He opens up the sliding gate, runs in, stuns the Gill Man.
(http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7521/106zez.th.jpg) (http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7521/106zez.jpg)
And then he shoots that Deep One and kills it. That's enough for that turn, I think it worked rather well.
The grenade goes off and I listen for the telltale SCREEEEEEEEE of a dying Gill Man; and there it is.
(http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2449/107fw.th.jpg) (http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2449/107fw.jpg)
While that worked perfectly, it turns out that the Deep One that Miguel shot, was in fact not the same one from previously. It was still hiding in that little room, and killed him on the aliens' turn. Astra Donski was nearby and came in and finished the job.
(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/8215/108wc.th.jpg) (http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/8215/108wc.jpg)
Over the next couple of turns, I send two soldiers to flank the warehouse with the hiding Gill Man in it, and elsewhere, Lieutenant Andrew Northcott scores a magnificent aimed shot from clear across the map, and through light obstructions, to plant an explosive cannon round in the face of another Gill Man that had been dueling with my tank.
From here out, it should have been a simple mop-up. But it was not. Andrew came off his overlook to engage the warehouse-hiding Gill Man. He shot the alien once with a armor piercing round, but it didn't kill it. The Gill Man returned fire, wounding Andrew. He sustained three critical wounds, and was knocked down to only 8 health.
(http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/2886/109irq.th.jpg) (http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/2886/109irq.jpg)
Each critical wound depletes one HP per turn, so he has 3 turns to get some medical attention. He runs north toward Astra Donski's position, and she changes course to meet him with her medi-kit.
Emilio finally sneaks around through a secondary entrance to the warehouse, and pumps three rounds into that Gill Man, ending his reign of terror.
(http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7712/110sn.th.jpg) (http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7712/110sn.jpg)
On the next turn, Andrew collapses from smoke inhalation and pain from his wounds, but Astra is close enough and is able to administer aid.
(http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9600/111hpm.th.jpg) (http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9600/111hpm.jpg)
Three heals and a stimulant later, and Andrew is back on his feet.
As Emilio heads back to check out that back room of the warehouse, an alien inside reaction-shoots him.
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5899/112ol.th.jpg) (http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5899/112ol.jpg)
On the aliens' turn, that same alien comes out the other door and hits Estella in the head.
(http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/2843/113ew.th.jpg) (http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/2843/113ew.jpg)
Reeling from the losses, Astra just throws a grenade into the back room, obliterating the scum. From that point, it's only a mop-up operation. And victory, but at a great cost.
(http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6773/114tc.th.jpg) (http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6773/114tc.jpg)
Lyudmila, Javier, Emile, Deborah, Miguel, Emilio, Estella. You will all be missed. I can't help but feel partially responsible for the losses. If I had paid closer attention to the aliens' moves, and had planned a little better to keep my guys out of danger, perhaps some of these deaths could have been avoided. Or perhaps it was just one of those things.
The final k/d ratio is 18/7. Not good when you have about 14 soldiers protecting the whole planet.
Suddenly under-manned and under-equipped, we allow the downed sub nearby to languish. I don't know what happens to them if you don't recover them, but eventually, the crash site just disappears.
-
March 10th: Replacement soldiers have arrived, and enough armors have been manufactured for all 10 soldiers. A small sub was spotted in the Atlantic, and Barracuda-1 dispatched.
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5599/115vt.th.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5599/115vt.jpg)
It's heading South, and it doesn't look like we'll be able to catch it on a single tank of gas. Sure enough, 'Cuda-1 catches up, but it escapes immediately, and my sub hits bingo fuel shortly thereafter. Barracuda-2 and the Triton are dispatched (so that I could land and attack during daylight if it's shot down), but the alien ship goes out of range and tracking is lost on it. All ships return to base for refueling. Alien sub 6 resurfaces soon, over North America. Barracuda-2 is on the case, and after a brief battle, shoots down the alien. It's a new model, one I haven't seen yet, this game.
(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4327/116dwr.th.jpg) (http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4327/116dwr.jpg)
The Triton lands around dusk, just in time to not be too dark to operate. It's a fairly mundane mission. Only aquatoids about, and the rookies make a good account of themselves. There's only one loss, a rookie who died to a sonic pulser. We captured 2 live aliens, but I don't know what their roles were; they must have been knocked unconscious in the crash.
And so ends the pre-recorded buffer! Finally! Next up, we get the whole custom squad out.
March 14th: Small sub spotted, 'Cuda-1 out. The alien sub escapes, my sub runs out of fuel, and Barracuda-2 can't get there before it disappears. It comes back by our base on the 17th, the fool!, and I go after it again. A fierce battle ensues, but despite taking minor damage, Barracuda-1 prevails and shoots down the alien.
Before dawn even rolls around, another small alien sub pops up near my base. Barracuda-2 chases it to the southern coast of Africa, and dual torpedoes knock it down.
The Triton takes off for the first crash site once dawn... dawns.
(http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/8849/118qk.th.jpg) (http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/8849/118qk.jpg)
On mission start, the tank goes out as usual, followed by Dekker and Sparda, and TrashMan on the next turn. It's another volcanic map.
During the aliens' turn, we spot one moving around behind a hill.
(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6987/119ri.th.jpg) (http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6987/119ri.jpg)
Dekker's nearby, but opposite of another hill. He primes a sonic pulser and hocks it over.
(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1267/120hgc.th.jpg) (http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1267/120hgc.jpg)
The grenade explodes quite well, and on the next turn the tank surveys the damage. Two bodies! And check out the chunk missing from the hill too.
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3512/121kj.th.jpg) (http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3512/121kj.jpg)
As our soldiers swarm over the map, we spot the enemy sub. We know there's at least one alien hiding out in there. And Dekker spots another Aquatoid wandering around outside, sneaks up on it, and shoots it until it dies.
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/4336/124tf.th.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/4336/124tf.jpg)
While my soldiers form up around the sub, Son of Dudeski puts explosive rounds through the gap in the hull.
(http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9688/123fuii.th.jpg) (http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9688/123fuii.jpg)
If there's any aliens near that gap, they're going to be well pinned down. That's the theory anyway, I'm not sure the AI is smart enough to stay pinned down.
Anyway, we storm the sub, and Rakshasa spots him first, and she gets the kill.
(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6851/125ng.th.jpg) (http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6851/125ng.jpg)
-
Guess what! I've been sitting on this update for a week or so until I had some more to show, but I'll just put it up now. Remember, I'm still accepting applications!
Now without further ado, let's get back into it:
When we last saw our team, we had just handled a small sub crash, and had another lined up for the taking. We go to it after waiting for daylight. It's mostly a standard mission, with slow advancing and eliminating aliens by the numbers. Near the end of the mission, Rakshasa spots an Aquatoid around the bow of the enemy sub; she lines up a shot, drops to one knee to aim, and the alien takes a snap shot at her. Even at that range, it hits, and she drops.
Dekker shouts “nooooooooooo” and tosses a grenade over the ship, and blows that jerk to flotsam. The team storms the sub and finishes off the rest of the aliens for a successful mission.
Back at base, everyone takes some rest while the Triton is re-equipped. Ravana is assigned to the empty spot, and the last three gauss rifles are finished producing; the team is fully equipped with two gas cannons and HE rounds, two pistol/stun rod combos, and 6 rifles.
As we wait for the next thing to happen, research on the transmission resolver is complete. This will work much better than just my standard sonar arrays, and production begins a few days later. I'll consider building a sensors/attack sub base next month.
(http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/8714/dosbox2012040320472634.th.jpg) (http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/8714/dosbox2012040320472634.jpg)
A few days later, two separate very-large subs are spotted a few hours apart. I don't even bother attacking either one, as my ships would be extremely likely to not survive. I will follow them, however. It's possible they're supply ships, and I could get a lead on an alien base if my sub is close enough. They come around and leaves again a number of times, and I can never see where they're going or where they've been.
A few days later, a medium pops up, and I send my subs at it. It goes down surprisingly easy.
(http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2851/dosbox2012040320574611.th.jpg) (http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2851/dosbox2012040320574611.jpg)
As we move forward toward the enemy crash site, I notice something on the first alien move.
(http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9940/dosbox2012040321042689.th.jpg) (http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9940/dosbox2012040321042689.jpg)
The weapon that one Aquatoid is holding is bad news. That is an alien torpedo launcher, equivalent to the blaster launcher from the first game. I spot at least two others moving around. I find this understandably distressing, but fortunately none of them fire.
So I set upon them, and begin the dirty business of dispatching aliens. I was able to get all three rocket launchers, but there were a few others still alive: some looked unarmed, one was carrying a stun bomb launcher. The stun bomb alien kept trying to shoot my tank, which did nothing, as it is a tank.
(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3613/dosbox2012040321130675.th.jpg) (http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3613/dosbox2012040321130675.jpg)
Then, a strange thing happened. An alien threw a grenade, but not at my guys, it landed right on one of the surviving aliens.
Thumbnail's broken for some reason (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/205/dosbox2012040321112218.jpg/)
Alas, on another turn, an alien on the wrecked top level of the alien ship throws a grenade at one of my soldiers, which kills Luci, and critically wounds Son of Dudeski. Luci was carrying the medi kit, so Spardason runs up, grabs it and heals Dudeski up, while Dekker and Scotty put some fire into the top level of the sub to clear out the trouble maker.
Did I mention that we're under constant psionic assault? Because we are. Mostly Son of Dudeski and Dekker are the targets. That explains Dekkers low morale and subsequent panicking like a girl. Seen here:
(http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3718/dosbox2012040322040522.th.jpg) (http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3718/dosbox2012040322040522.jpg)
Anyway, here we are storming the staircase leading up into the sub.
(http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2443/dosbox2012040322150949.th.jpg) (http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2443/dosbox2012040322150949.jpg)
And here's the team kicking down the doors and shooting aliens. Broski takes down the last alien for a mission complete.
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6598/dosbox2012040322241931.th.jpg) (http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6598/dosbox2012040322241931.jpg)
(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6876/dosbox2012040322255332.th.jpg) (http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6876/dosbox2012040322255332.jpg)
Oh yeah, everyone, how's the thumbnail thing working for you all? Is it ok, or would you rather just see all the full size pics like in NGTMs-1R?
-
Sign me up. Rifleman, I'm sure you saw my post in the other thread.
-
Sign me up for whatever. Also I'd prefer bigger pics just so I don't need to click to see the detail.
-
Sign me up too. I wouldn't mind shooting things.
-
Heh heh heh. Got it, jr2, Polpolion, DJ.
-
And me
-
Good news, you're all in!
-----
Well, after reading that page on the wiki on soldier promotion, I decided that it was a good time to open up a second base. So I pop it down in the Sea of Japan, and name it “Eight Samurai (http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1prvirMdl1qebry0o1_400.jpg)”. I just give it the basic necessities, a living quarters, general stores, transmission resolver and alien containment.
As we wait for the next thing to happen, I order up a few more soldiers, and research completes on the Sonic Cannon! This is the heaviest normal weapon in the game, but we can't actually pack it out into missions until research is done on the ammo. If we happen upon one in the field, it's fair game though.
(http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1579/dosbox2012042220350863.jpg)
We spot a very small sub, and I shoot it down without incident. Yes, I'm terrified of night missions, so I plan to wait until dawn again.
And, of course, as we wait, something very bad happens, just off the east coast of the US:
(http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4609/dosbox2012042220354729.jpg)
Yes. The aliens are pirates now too. And despite my block against night missions, I have no choice but to go, since it won't last until daylight. And of course, I don't have any flares left, and only one clip of phosphorous ammo for the cannon. But I say why not, and go for it. What's the worst that could happen? HA!
When we land on the deck of the ship, it is DARK. Seriously dark. The tank moves out around the front of the sub, and sees nothing. Lieutenant Dekker moves out to take a look around, and draws fire from an unknown alien to the south. It misses, but hits SpardaSon, who's just hanging out in the sub. He takes it like a champ and manages to survive.
We know in general where the shot came from, so Trashman carries his cannon out of the door. He gets shot too, but survives quite nicely.
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6594/dosbox2012042220453722.jpg)
He pops off a shot in the general direction of the alien, and it explodes well, lighting up the surrounding area.
(http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/953/dosbox2012042220454234.jpg)
Trashman: “Hey Dek, what's that? Looks like a big lobster. Also: Ow, I've been shot.”
Dekker: “OH **** NO. Everybody back in the sub, the ship's crew can probably fend for themselves.”
And so we do. The tank drives right back next turn, and we take off. (Spoiler: No, they weren't able to fend for themselves.)
-
Lame question... what exactly is the Triton? It seems it can gain access to land or sea... Is it a sub or an aircraft, or both?
-
Lame question... what exactly is the Triton? It seems it can gain access to land or sea... Is it a sub or an aircraft, or both?
both. Subs use lasers to heat air or water in chambers, using the pressure to push the craft forwards. so they are more aerosubs, problem is i dont think any craft weapons work in air
-
Lobster man....you should have enough firepower to bring it down...you got an entire team there.
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Lobster_Man
-
Lobsters are a 1 alien team in themselves, even on the easiest difficulty they are to damage as a sponge is to water
-
That's actually not a bad mission at night since much of it is indoors, but he had Gauss rifles.
I've seen Lobstermen absorb up to 12 hits before going down to those.
-
Aye. I was thinking to myself that if I ran into one of those guys under ideal circumstances, I would bring it down with gauss fire, grab the body and abscond. But being a nighttime shipping mission, it wasn't worth the risk. In a previous game, I researched heavy gauss cannons, and those still did practically nothing to lobstermen.
I'll have sonic cannons soon though, that should be a good edge on 'em.
And yeah. Airsub. It's the future, don't think too hard about it. Hey, if the Skyranger is a VTOL super-sonic transport, the Triton can be amphibious too, why not.
-
Yeah, but supersonic, sub-orbital flight capable transport aircraft have only need to keep the pressure in... not out! They're totally plausible!
:p
-
Yeah, but supersonic, sub-orbital flight capable transport aircraft have only need to keep the pressure in... not out! They're totally plausible!
:p
remember SkyRanger carries 2 tanks! (OK so they are probably more like the footprint and weight of a landrover)
so it is a medium sized transport (14 soldiers in full gear) with heavy lift capability (To carry the HWPs) on a VTOL engine platform which is also capable of supercruise (cruising speed is in the supersonic range)
which all makes the Trident even more insain
-
Well, we still had enough guys to go get that shot-down sub. There was only one alien out and about, and Dekker exploded it with a loooooooong bomb grenade after everyone else missed. Got some decent salvage.
April 3rd: Yay! Terror mission in Singapore!
On touchdown, the tank heads straight out the door, and right away spots a Gill Man with a sonic cannon, and shoots it dead.
Ravana heads around the front of the Triton, sticking close, spots a Gill Man on top of a building, and blasts it with a three round burst.
(http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4218/dosbox2012042817592037.jpg)
Broski, temping with the heavy cannon for Trashman while he heals, leaves the sub, spots a Gill Man down an alley, crouches behind the wing of the sub for cover, and shoots an HE round downrange. It explodes close enough, killing the alien. Broski will keep the landing zone clear, as best he can.
Coming around the nose of the transport, Ravana spots a Deep One, and decides that it would be best to try to take it alive. (http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1631/dosbox2012042910050436.jpg)
It's currently just out of range to stun though, so she falls back, hoping to draw it in a little closer. As she turns back to hide behind the sub, she spots something in the office building next to the sub. It's a Gill Man hiding on the third floor, with a sonic pistol and command of the entire landing zone. (This will be problematic later; why don't I ever remember these things?)
(http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/1413/dosbox2012042910051793.jpg)
Ravana fires some rounds in that direction to suppress it, and ducks behind the sub again.
Broski, seeing an opportunity, takes out a grenade, arms it, and tries to throw it through the third-story window.
(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9509/dosbox2012042910060696.jpg)
After carefully assessing the situation, he reports that he can't make it through that tiny opening, and would rather not try and fail, and have a grenade falling dangerously close to himself, and also he would rather not keep holding the very live, and very ill-tempered grenade either. He decides to just get rid of it, and throws it down the alleyway, to make some entrance holes in the buildings.
Next turn, Broski and jr2 move toward the office building, with Lilith and Son of Dudeski preparing to take that factory. Broski moves through the hole created by his grenade, spots a Gill Man inside, fires, misses horribly, but the explosion from the miss still kills it.
(http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4530/dosbox2012042910111159.jpg)
Meanwhile, Ravana sprints out of cover at the Deep One, but runs out of TUs just short of being able to hit it with the stun rod, so she puts a few holes into it instead.
(http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8479/dosbox2012042910082917.jpg)
Turning back around, she spots a Gill Man through some piled tires and chainlink fence, lurking suspiciously.
(http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/3424/dosbox2012042910122246.jpg)
Rather than walking around to get a clear shot and exposing herself to fire, she calls for help.
Scotty grabs a rifle, steps out of the sub, and coolly puts a single round through the Gill Man's chest.
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9250/dosbox2012042910123221.jpg)
Inconsiderate of just how cool Scotty was just then, the alien we left alive on the third floor snipes him in the back. He's down, unconscious, but alive, with three critical wounds in the left arm. He's bleeding pretty badly.
(http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4166/dosbox2012042918422357.jpg)
Dekker whips out his trusty medi-kit, and runs out to assist Scotty. He administers three shots of heal juice, and attempts to dash around the front of the ship. The alien sees this, is touched by the compassionate act, and blasts Dekker in the back of his head. But he lives! It's just a graze, but a graze by a sonic pistol is a dangerous wound.
EnsignDJ, having had quite enough of this, steps out, fires a couple of bursts into the building and the Gill Man drops dead.
(http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/84/dosbox2012042918444852.jpg)
In the other building, Broski and Son of Dudeski fire explosives into the factory, taking out two Gill Men and presumably injuring two Deep Ones.
(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1753/dosbox2012042918431815.jpg)
Earlier, we had spotted an unarmed Gill Man just milling around on the second floor of the office building. My guess is that it was some sort of squad leader, because it was carrying grenades. It... dropped one and exploded itself.
(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/364/dosbox2012042920500855.jpg)
Lilith closes in on the two partially wounded Deep Ones, and decides that they both don't need to survive in order to complete the objectives.
(http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3404/dosbox2012042920512060.jpg)
She blasts one, chases the other into that little room and hits it with the stunner. From that point on, it's a fairly routine bug hunt, with nothing spectacular to report.
Go med-kits!
(http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/3971/dosbox2012042921110547.jpg)
-
Yayz. I get to shoot more evil alienz.
They never can be nice, friendly aliens, can they? Noooo, they have to be aquatic alien invaders, which are actually even worse then non-aquatic invaders. Sign me up please.
-
EnsignDJ :lol:
I see what you did there. Very entertaining read, keep it up!
-
Grab a rifle (like a boss).
Be a badass (like a boss).
Shoot an alien (like a boss).
Get ****ed up (like a boss).
Thank God for medkits (like a boss).
-
I'm in the hospital for that scratch???
Put me back in the action capt'n. I want to get back at the scaly bastards!
-
I'm in the hospital for that scratch???
Put me back in the action capt'n. I want to get back at the scaly bastards!
Doctor's orders apparently countermand mine, but you should be up and at 'em shortly.
You're in Alex, we need reinforcements to fill the new holes in our soldiers squad, while they recuperate.
And :) CommanderDJ. If you'd like, I can also go the "Squaddie General Battuta" route also.
-
HELL YEAH!
-
Count me in!
-
Redshirt duty, plz.
-
Count me in!
You're already there, you're just in the back of the boat so haven't seen much action yet.
Redshirt duty, plz.
Got it!
-
OK now, before I start the next mission, I'll post our current roster:
Hard-Lighters:
Dekker - Lieutenant - 12 missions, 12 kills, 22 days to recovery
SpardaSon - Able Seaman - 5 missions, 4 kills, 4 days to recovery
Polpolion - Able Seaman - 4 missions, 0 kills, 4 days to recovery (he tries hard though)
Trashman - Able Seaman - 5 missions, 2 kills, 18 days to recovery
Scotty - Ensign - 12 missions, 4 kills, 23 days to recovery
jr2 - Able Seaman - 6 missions, 2 kills
Ravenholme - Able Seaman - 3 missions, 2 kills
EnsignDJ - Ensign - 7 missions, 4 kills
Alex Heartnet - Seaman - 0/0
NGTM-1R - Seaman - 0/0
EDIT: Mongoose! - Seaman - 0/0
Generic seat fillers:
Broski II - Able Seaman - 1 mission, 3 kills
Son of Dudeski II - Able Seaman - 1 mission, 1 kill
John "Jonesey" Jones - Seaman - 3 missions, 0 kills
Ravana - Able Seaman - 5 missions, 3 kills
Lilith - Ensign - 7 missions, 3 kills
-
If you need another warm body, toss me in there too. I did pretty well in NGTM-1R's playthrough until I took some plasma to the chest in my first mission.
-
18 days to recovery???
The screenshot showed barely any damage...like maybe 1/5th of my health bar was gone.
And only 2 kills? Something ain't right here.....
-
18 days to recovery???
The screenshot showed barely any damage...like maybe 1/5th of my health bar was gone.
And only 2 kills? Something ain't right here.....
Ha ha, yeah. It was a bit longer than I remembered. Wounds always take a long while to heal.
And the best kills/missions ratio is currently held by the replacement rookie carrying your heavy cannon with HE rounds. I think that was a fluke. The best kills/missions ratio for a legit soldier is Dekker, with a 1/1 rate. Not every soldier gets a kill every mission, since there's usually more of us than there are of them.
-
Sign me up. I can be anything; Rifleman, Heavy... corpse. I'm not that picky.
-
April 5th – Spotted a small scout sub, shot it down with authority, and landed soldiers to take it.
The new rookies handled themselves fairly well, with Gortef distinguishing himself by getting three kills (!) with auto fire from his gauss rifle. He was wounded in the process, but is expected to make a full recovery. Alex Heartnet got a kill when he bullseyed an alien at long range with an HE cannon shell.
Camping the door to the enemy sub, our tank gets wasted by the two surviving aliens inside.
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4016/dosbox2012050410114181.jpg)
Mongoose, unfortunately, perished when he missed at close range, drawing return fire.
(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5566/dosbox2012050410115575.jpg)
His angry ghost is already on station back at base, itching for revenge against the dirty aliens.
April 7th – Medium sub, mobbed by both Barracudas, and crashed south of Iceland.
For some reason, the game says I don't have enough store space to get a new tank, so until I can figure out why that is and clear it up, the squad is operating tankless. It could be worse, but we're professionals and veterans, right? Yes, of course, naturally.
The mission starts, and my soldiers spread out from the sub. No contacts on the first turn, but on the alien phase, we spot several Aquatoids milling about. They're carrying disruptor bomb launchers! Fortunately, nobody fires any yet.
Broski, covering the area to the rear of the Triton, gets sneak attacked by an Aquatoid with a sonic cannon. He takes a shot to the arm, but survives with 3 HP and 2 critical wounds. He even gets a reaction shot, but in his condition misses horribly. The alien ducks behind cover, thinking he'll be safe. Heh.
(http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4803/dosbox2012050410300183.jpg)
Broski fires two rounds at the general area the alien is in, but without the use of his badly wounded arm, naturally misses so badly that not even splash damage kills the alien. Jonesey tosses a grenade over there to handle it, while jr2 busts out his medi-kit to heal Broski.
Ghost Mongoose spots an alien to the south, but fails to kill it. NGTM-1R steps up and snipes it with auto fire.
(http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8489/dosbox2012050410314015.jpg)
Moving ahead of the squad, in order to try to make contact and eliminate any other aliens carrying disruptor launchers, Ravana is caught in the middle of some natural cover, and takes a direct hit from a disruptor bomb, and perishes. She's far enough from any other soldiers so that she's the only one.
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/884/dosbox2012050410350211.jpg)
(That's her body near the cursor, the explosion extends alllll the way to the other side of the screen. Those things are nasty)
Moving North, hoping to take out the alien that killed Ravana, Ghost Mongoose spots one. Is that it? Or just another bystander? Doesn't matter, Mongoose shoots at it. He gets one hit, but the alien doesn't go down. Mongoose moves forward to cover, and to allow NGTM-1R to get a clean shot from back near the sub.
NGTM-1R fires six shots at the alien, one of them hitting it and finishing it off, one of them accidentally hitting Mongoose in the back.
(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7435/dosbox2012050410362316.jpg)
“What the **** man??”, he probably shouts, as he turns around and starts to limp back toward the sub for medical attention. Just a few spaces that way, a hidden Aquatoid blasts him with a sonic cannon. His ghost is going to be extra-vengeful now.
NGTM-1R saw where the shot came from, and takes that alien out.
As EnsignDJ approaches the enemy sub, he spots two aquatoids carrying disruptor launchers. He has 40 TUs left, so he makes a judgment call. That's enough for exactly two snap shots, one for each enemy if all goes well. He takes aim, and fires. His first shot goes wide. That plan's not going to work, but if he can at least take out one of them, the chances of survival double. He fires again, and misses. Crap.
(http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/5510/dosbox2012050411050628.jpg)
Every other soldier on the map with enough TUs and a line of sight on the aliens fires everything they have, but nobody gets a hit. Except for Ravenholme, who shoots DJ in the back a little. He survives though, so it's cool. And much to my surprise and relief, neither of the aliens fires at anybody on their turn.
EnsignDJ tosses a grenade at one of the aliens, and then proceeds to beat a hasty strategic retreat. Ravenholme heads toward him at a good clip just repeating “I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry” over and over again. Even as DJ hands him his medi-kit and Ravanholme patches him up, he keeps repeating “I'm sorry” until EnsignDJ smacks him and yells at him to pull himself together.
Ravenholme packs up the medi-kit and marches bravely on toward the enemy sub, determined to make up for his failure, while EnsignDJ mutters to himself and heads back toward the Triton.
NGTM-1R hefts his own grenade at the other Aquatoid with a disruptor, turning it to chum.
Earlier this mission, Lilith had shot an Aquatoid, but just knocked it out instead of killing it. So on his way past, Alex Heartnet decided to check out what it was, and confiscate its weapons just in case it woke up. And also to drop a grenade on it in case it was not worth keeping.
(http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3531/dosbox2012050411220924.jpg)
Turns out it was a technician! That's probably worth keeping alive, so Alex just grabs its cannon and grenade and moves on. Next turn though, the alien is conspicuously not laying on the ground. Alex spins around and spots a few squares away, unarmed. Probably got woken up when Alex jostled it and rifled through his wallet.
(http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4431/dosbox2012050411234452.jpg)
He considers blasting it where it stands, but since it now poses no threat, calls Lilith back to take care of it. She runs over and hits it with a stun rod while Alex takes up her patrol around the south side of the map.
Jr2, NGTM-1R, and Ravenholme storm the sub, clearing it with a frightening efficiency. Jonesey comes under intense psionic attack and radios up to the squad to hurry up in there. The next turn, he comes under molecular control (this game's psionics), and shoots at Lilith who was rushing forward to join the attack.
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/713/dosbox2012050411302663.jpg)
She takes one round in the chest, but it deflects off her armor, and she ducks behind cover.
Hurrying up with the storming of the sub, Jr2 gets one kill, and so does NGTM-1R, Ravenholme takes down two, probably the commanders who were pestering Jonesey.
(http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1331/dosbox2012050411323025.jpg)
Mission complete! Upon return to base, the squad is greeted by a fairly irate ghost of Mongoose, and is also treated to a mandatory seminar entitled “Friendly Fire: Why It's Not A Good Way To Win Missions”.
(http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/5871/dosbox2012050411334320.jpg)
-
Am I still in the hospital?
-
Man I am so good at this game
-
Ooh three kills for me, nice. I just hope the karma of good aim doesn't backfire in the upcoming missions.
And tough luck for Mongoose again. He will be missed... again.
-
Am I still in the hospital?
Yeah, it's only been about 5 days since the last update.
Sorry Mongoose, hopefully your next body will be a little more resilient :)
__________
Gasp! Another update in the same day!
April 9th – Medium sub is spotted, and barracudas head out. We don't manage to catch it, and it lands off the coast of Greenland, just a few degrees north of our last mission. Considering how the last medium sub went, and the huge numbers of disruptor launchers about, I decide to not mess with an unexploded sub. It's likely to have way more aliens then I'm comfortable with at this point, so I leave it alone to do its thing on the ground. My best guess is it's scouting out a location for a base. I need a good base at this point, so I'm good with allowing this. My subs run low on fuel and return to base, and the alien ship takes off and runs away.
April 10th – The lead researcher, Frank, calls me and all the soldiers into the armory. He's got a big announcement for us.
Frank: “The past few weeks, you've been training with the alien sonic cannons. We are now happy to report that testing on the sonic cannon clips is finally complete, and we will now be able to pack them out on missions. If you'll direct your attention to Phil over there, he will provide a demonstration of the proper use of cannon ammunition.”
Phil: “All right, here's how you do it. First, pick up the cannon. Grasp it firmly in your left hand. Pick up the clip in your right hand, point the business end into the ammo compartment on the cannon, push it in, rotate, and it will click into position. Then you are set to fire the weapon.”
Phil fires the cannon at the paper target set up at the lab firing range, and it disintigrates. “Eh? Ehhhhhhhhh? Pretty sweet, huh?”
Dekker: “Hold on one second there, mate. You mean to tell me that for the past two weeks, we've known everything there is to know about the cannons, we've been pointing them at our targets but haven't been able to fire them because you say the ammo isn't ready? What took so long?”
Frank: “Well, we had to make sure that nothing would explode if used improperly, and we wanted to be able to know how they worked first.”
Dekker: “Arrrrgh, we really could have used these when we fought those lobster guys! If you wanted to make sure they wouldn't explode, I have an easier way! Jonesey! C'mere!”
Jonesey: “Yo.”
Dekker: “Load this cannon.”
Jonesey: “Sure thing boss.” *loads cannon*
Dekker: “Now, if he fires it and it doesn't explode, that's all we need!”
Frank: “Well sure, but that's not very scientific.”
So now we all have sonic cannons. The gas cannons are phased out, and now only rookies will carry gauss rifles. The stun squad will still use gauss pistols though. And hopefully soon we'll get some better armor!
-
Lol @ Ravenholme and DJ's antics.
I'm really enjoying your writing style. Looking forward to seeing where this is going.
-
Apparently, I'm competent. This is a new feeling for me.
-
Sign me up for Spec-Ops... Gauss rifle and a stunner.
Oh, and do try to keep me stealthy. :)
-
Anything but a brain in a jar. But if i die, i'll settle for a brain in a jar.
-
Real men don't die... they take a vacation in Valhalla.
-
March 10th: Replacement soldiers have arrived, and enough armors have been manufactured for all 10 soldiers. A small sub was spotted in the Atlantic, and Barracuda-1 dispatched.
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5599/115vt.th.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5599/115vt.jpg)
It's heading South, and it doesn't look like we'll be able to catch it on a single tank of gas. Sure enough, 'Cuda-1 catches up, but it escapes immediately, and my sub hits bingo fuel shortly thereafter. Barracuda-2 and the Triton are dispatched (so that I could land and attack during daylight if it's shot down), but the alien ship goes out of range and tracking is lost on it. All ships return to base for refueling. Alien sub 6 resurfaces soon, over North America. Barracuda-2 is on the case, and after a brief battle, shoots down the alien. It's a new model, one I haven't seen yet, this game.
(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4327/116dwr.th.jpg) (http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4327/116dwr.jpg)
The Triton lands around dusk, just in time to not be too dark to operate. It's a fairly mundane mission. Only aquatoids about, and the rookies make a good account of themselves. There's only one loss, a rookie who died to a sonic pulser. We captured 2 live aliens, but I don't know what their roles were; they must have been knocked unconscious in the crash.
And so ends the pre-recorded buffer! Finally! Next up, we get the whole custom squad out.
March 14th: Small sub spotted, 'Cuda-1 out. The alien sub escapes, my sub runs out of fuel, and Barracuda-2 can't get there before it disappears. It comes back by our base on the 17th, the fool!, and I go after it again. A fierce battle ensues, but despite taking minor damage, Barracuda-1 prevails and shoots down the alien.
Before dawn even rolls around, another small alien sub pops up near my base. Barracuda-2 chases it to the southern coast of Africa, and dual torpedoes knock it down.
The Triton takes off for the first crash site once dawn... dawns.
(http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/8849/118qk.th.jpg) (http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/8849/118qk.jpg)
On mission start, the tank goes out as usual, followed by Dekker and Sparda, and TrashMan on the next turn. It's another volcanic map.
During the aliens' turn, we spot one moving around behind a hill.
(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6987/119ri.th.jpg) (http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6987/119ri.jpg)
Dekker's nearby, but opposite of another hill. He primes a sonic pulser and hocks it over.
(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1267/120hgc.th.jpg) (http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1267/120hgc.jpg)
The grenade explodes quite well, and on the next turn the tank surveys the damage. Two bodies! And check out the chunk missing from the hill too.
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3512/121kj.th.jpg) (http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3512/121kj.jpg)
As our soldiers swarm over the map, we spot the enemy sub. We know there's at least one alien hiding out in there. And Dekker spots another Aquatoid wandering around outside, sneaks up on it, and shoots it until it dies.
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/4336/124tf.th.jpg) (http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/4336/124tf.jpg)
While my soldiers form up around the sub, Son of Dudeski puts explosive rounds through the gap in the hull.
(http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9688/123fuii.th.jpg) (http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/9688/123fuii.jpg)
If there's any aliens near that gap, they're going to be well pinned down. That's the theory anyway, I'm not sure the AI is smart enough to stay pinned down.
Anyway, we storm the sub, and Rakshasa spots him first, and she gets the kill.
(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6851/125ng.th.jpg) (http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6851/125ng.jpg)At the daily briefing for X-COM soldiers, Lieutenant Dekker speaks.
"Now that the commander finished up that training sim codenamed "FO:NV", we can get back to work. Hold your cheers, we have a spot of bad news first:
Our sister program, HLPX-COM lost all hands on a disastrous mission just two days ago. HLPX-COM will be back on its feet shortly, and I've already received word of a successful first mission and some temporal hijinks. But this just underscores the importance of keeping our wits and finishing this fight! First if possible! OK, you can cheer now."
*cheers*
April 15th : We spot a small sub lurking, and shoot it down. This will be an excellent opportunity to test the sonic cannons in a real-world situation without too much stress. On touchdown, SpardaSon parks next to the front of the Triton. An aquatoid spots him, takes a long-range potshot, and splashes him full in the chest. Most of the blast is absorbed by his armor, but two internal injuries promise to put him in the ground if not tended to.
SpardaSon fires a quick shot back at the alien, but misses. He dives behind the nose of the sub, so that he can still see over, tosses the med-kit he's carrying on the ground next to him, and more carefully snaps another shot at the alien. It connects, and the aquatoid explodes in a cloud of green and reddish.
Polpolion steps out to help, and uses the med-kit to administer some coagulants and tissue regenerators. The healing boosts SpardaSon back up to full health! After a quick visit with a doc back at base, he should be clear for duty.
(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1080/dosbox2012051116375445.jpg)
Vengeful Mongoose and z64555 exit the sub next. As rookies, they'll be the second line of attack, so hopefully they can get their kills, promotions, and sonic cannons. (And then I remembered that z64555 specifically asked for a rifle, so he'll keep that later, and the stun rod)
As Mongoose scouts out to the south, an Aquatoid spots him and lobs a grenade with its flabby, squishy little arms. The grenade falls short and hits a rocky section one level above Mongoose. When it explodes, it does nothing but mess up the scenery.
Mongoose then proceeds to get line-of-sight on the alien, and pumps 6 rounds from his gauss rifle in that general direction. None hit, and Mongoose doesn't have enough TUs to get to cover. Fortunately, Polpolion is close enough and lobs a grenade of his own over there. It lands wide, but more than close enough to blast it to flinders.
As we move forward toward the sub, another Aquatoid takes a shot at Polpolion, but hits a bit of sea flora instead. Our new seat filler-stunner, Artemis fires a trio of gauss pistol shots at it, but only one hits and it's not enough. z64555 is close by, and puts a rifle round cleanly through its ear-holes for his first hit and kill of the game.
Artemis breaches the door to the enemy sub, with three members of the squad providing cover.
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7793/dosbox2012051117013603.jpg)
She surprises an Aquatoid solder standing right there staring back at her. Before he can even raise his sonic rifle, she squeezes off a trio of quick shots. One digs into the alien's left shoulder, but it's not enough, and even as she holds the trigger, the alien shoots her down.
z64555 covering the breach from behind a rock, yells and sprays rounds into the sub. The Aquatoid, looking continually more surprised, is split into bitty pieces from the weapons fire. Bursting through the remains of its companion, another Aquatoid fires its own weapon, but the shot hits the rock that z64555 is taking cover behind, just as the doors slide closed.
Vengeful Mongoose continues to scout vengefully to the south, and sees one more enemy. This time, he cannot fail. He crouches, lines up the shot, and shoots the alien through the chest.
Vengeance!, he cackles maniacally.
The last alien is shot dead inside the sub when Alex Heartnet flanked through the busted hole in the front of the sub, and SpardaSon charged through the door.
April 24th: Transmission resolver construction complete, which will help greatly in spotting subs, and also in planning a method of attack. Also, finished that day, research on Ion-Beam Accelerators.
(http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/905/dosbox2012051117302740.jpg)
That's on the right track for the endgame, and some extra awesome tech down the line. Meanwhile, construction at Eight Samurai continues, and we stock up eight more (generic) aquanauts and transfer in some equipment from Blue Canary. Sub pens are going to take another half-month, at least, and then we'll be able to launch missions.
April 25th : Now THIS is interesting. Floating Base Attack mission, you say? Bring it.
(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7807/dosbox2012051117323128.jpg)
Well, they didn't go for the attack. I guess they're still scouting for me. Losers.
April 29th : Another sub like #18, is spotted in the Atlantic, and we shoot it down. As the Triton is on its way, Eight Samurai gets its first hit on the transmission resolver. I find this ones mission also interesting.
(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6930/dosbox2012051117400419.jpg)
I dispatch Barracuda 2 to follow it to ground, but it's too far out of range.
April 30th : Touchdown just after midnight at the site of the crash of the cruiser-size sub. Everything went smoothly, and all hands distinguished themselves by ample application of badassery. Mongoose extracted more vengeance by means of a sonic grenade. Lilith was shot and wounded, but survived.
Promotions!
(http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4404/dosbox2012051118094570.jpg)
And more research complete!
(http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/8640/dosbox2012051117402808.jpg)
-
i can haz rename to LieutenantDJ?
It's only fitting. Wait, can you even rename soldiers?
-
i can haz rename to LieutenantDJ?
It's only fitting. Wait, can you even rename soldiers?
yes
-
You don't think we managed to generate these names alone?
-
Lol, it was done immediately :)
In other news, Eight Samurai is finally up and running, complete with a Triton and Barracuda. I transferred the seat-fillers over to take command of the newbie squad. If anybody else wants a change of scenery and a guaranteed command position, let me know.
-
As we move forward toward the sub, another Aquatoid takes a shot at Polpolion, but hits a bit of sea flora instead. Our new seat filler-stunner, Artemis fires a trio of gauss pistol shots at it, but only one hits and it's not enough. z64555 is close by, and puts a rifle round cleanly through its ear-holes for his first hit and kill of the game.
That little extra time at the shooting range paid off. :)
Artemis breaches the door to the enemy sub, with three members of the squad providing cover.
She surprises an Aquatoid solder standing right there staring back at her. Before he can even raise his sonic rifle, she squeezes off a trio of quick shots. One digs into the alien's left shoulder, but it's not enough, and even as she holds the trigger, the alien shoots her down.
z64555 covering the breach from behind a rock, yells and sprays rounds into the sub. The Aquatoid, looking continually more surprised, is split into bitty pieces from the weapons fire. Bursting through the remains of its companion, another Aquatoid fires its own weapon, but the shot hits the rock that z64555 is taking cover behind, just as the doors slide closed.
Sorry I couldn't save you, Artemis, but at least I was able to shred the bugger into confetti.
GJ on the commanding, Scourge!
-
A few days later, a very special interrogation is completed. No, I don't know why he's holding a dirsruptor launcher, they don't generally carry weapons, or operate underwater.
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4387/dosbox2012051119421219.jpg)
Quite possibly the most offensive enemy we've encountered, the Deep One is a genetically manipulated and hybridized human captive. All the ships that go missing, coastal communities that are attacked but never reported to us, provide fuel in the form of new recruits for the hostile forces. Killing these things is a release for the tortured people who've been warped and forced to fight their own.
May 1st : A Very Large Sub on a base expansion mission is spotted in the vicinity of Eight Samurai. Barracuda 2 is dispatched to try to follow it. Another small sub on a land attack mission is also spotted, and Barracuda 1 is sent to attack that one. The Triton is also sent after the small, to hopefully pick up the pieces once it's shot down.
Both Barracudas run out of fuel before they can even get close enough, and have to return to base. The Triton can make it though, and tracks the sub to its last known position. When it arrives, it picks up the scent of a sub touched down on the sea bed, and attacks! If this is the same one from before, it could be full of Lobstermen. Which could be bad, but we'll try it anyway. It's a night mission. :shaking:
Trashman (yes, he's back!) tosses a chemical flare into the darkness, and illuminates... Yep. One of those guys.
(http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8706/dosbox2012051119561669.jpg)
But this time, we're ready for 'em. Trashman doesn't have enough TUs left to fire, so he ducks behind the Triton. Polpolion takes two snapshots, one hits the Lobsterman and doesn't draw return fire, the other misses by a little bit. Alex Heartnet, coming around from the aft of the sub, fires a snap of his own, and cracks the shell of the Lobsterman.
Remember, kids: the sonic cannon is the most damaging direct fire weapon in this game, and it took two hits to take down a Lobster.
Moving forward, Ravenholme spots a second Lobster, standing pretty much in the same spot as the first.
(http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/2097/dosbox2012051120042218.jpg)
One spot North, but that's enough to be out of Polpolion's field of view. Only Trashman and Alex Heartnet have a shot and enough TUs to make one, and they both miss. Hopefully there's enough cover between us and the Lobster to prevent any deaths.
(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1337/dosbox2012051120081226.jpg)
(http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5692/dosbox2012051120082999.jpg)
Nope. Ravenholme goes down in one shot. And we spot yet another Lobsterman in the same area.
But this turn, we have enough soldiers to really handle them both. jr2 fires an aimed shot, but misses and hits the apparatus behind the Lobstermen, which explodes in a huge cloud of oil. That'll make the next few turns interesting as we try to fire accurately into the cloud.
(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7920/dosbox2012051120113660.jpg)
Alex Heartnet deploys smoke of his own, in possibly the first time ever in any game by anybody. Vengeful Mongoose does the same.
Dye grenades are notoriously ineffective :/
(http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2464/dosbox2012051120173831.jpg)
While the tank moves up to try to spot the third Lobsterman, the troops hold position, and SpardaSon lays down cover fire from atop a small rise.
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6153/dosbox2012051120211275.jpg)
Bingo! The tank manages to capture its attention, and a flurry of sonic cannon bolts stream off the firing line according to telemetry from the tank. Most miss, since the soldiers can't quite see into the cloud, but jr2 gets a hit, and SpardaSon gets the kill.
The tank continues to advance, and spots another Lobsterman right at the entrance to the enemy sub. It feeds the telemetry in, and NGTM-1R fires a pair of snap shots from half-way across the map and bulls-eyes the alien twice. Very similar to a boss.
(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5397/dosbox2012051120295444.jpg)
Yet another alien exits the sub and shoots the tank. It proves to be a bad move, as we now have tracking data on it.
Dekker (Yep, he's back too) has a clear shot, and pulls an NGTM-1R, putting down the second lobster at the door to the sub.
Filled with confidence, z64555 decides that while he can't kill a Lobsterman with his gauss rifle, he might be able to stun one. So he heads for the oil cloud, hoping to sneak to the sub and get some stunning done. Except there's another alien already hiding in there.
Again, combined long-range fire from jr2 and SpardaSon remove that one from the picture.
There's at least one alien inside the sub still, possibly two. One of 'em shoots at the tank, and then runs up to it. Wonder if those claws on its... head? back? are functional or just decorative? Nothing happens on that turn, except an uncomfortable closeness.
(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6767/dosbox2012051120390895.jpg)
Two shots from Alex Heartnet and Polpolion finish it.
Oh, I guess there were two after all. The other Lobsterman exits, shambles around behind the tank, and proceeds to assault it with its apparently quite functional claws. Functional, but not effective against tanks.
Vengeful Mongoose fires twice, hits the lobster once, and the tank once, but not too hard. Dekker finishes it off. Mission complete! Only one death, not bad for our first actual combat against Lobstermen. And sweet! 3 of the occupants were knocked unconscious in the crash and were captured alive!
(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4386/dosbox2012051120491351.jpg)
-
Ooh promotion. And rather good job with the lobsters. Shame on Ravenholme though, we salute you diver.
-
It's good to be me, unless you're me getting killed.
-
And I was getting married in one week! DAMN YOU TROPES!
-
Were you planing on retireing too?
-
And I was getting married in one week! DAMN YOU TROPES!
You were asking for it every time you showed off that picture of your fiancee. We genre savvy operatives even warned you about it.
-
This is what I'm a grizzled widower with an estranged daughter and a sleezy rival.
-
It's good to be me, unless you're me getting killed.
:nervous:
May 5th : Research complete on the M.C. Lab. We'll start construction of the labs immediately, and start screening for aptitude.
(http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2303/dosbox2012051120532220.jpg)
And then for quite some time, nothing particularly exciting happens. Well except for this. Boo yah.
(http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/3909/dosbox2012051121052051.jpg)
We also do some more cool researches:
(http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1300/dosbox2012051121174160.th.jpg) (http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/1300/dosbox2012051121174160.jpg) (http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/2199/dosbox2012051309524175.th.jpg) (http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/2199/dosbox2012051309524175.jpg)
We spot some rather alarming subs, but nothing comes of them. And we can't even attack them, since we still only have three total barracudas, and only human-designed torpedoes:
(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/2310/dosbox2012051121094285.th.jpg) (http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/2310/dosbox2012051121094285.jpg) (http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4892/dosbox2012051121272447.th.jpg) (http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4892/dosbox2012051121272447.jpg)
Construction of sub pens finishes at Eight Samurai, and it finally has a full complement of everything needed to make a good attack outpost. I transferred over the seat-filler soldiers to take command of the new squad.
May 22nd : Terror attack on Bangkok! Hey, it's something. Triton 2 is low on fuel from a scouting mission to the Antarctic, so Triton 1 is sent out. In the time since we researched the M.C. Lab, we also researched Mag. Ion Armor, and built enough to equip the majority of Squad 1 with them. So yeah. The aliens are in deep trouble.
Tank exits, turns toward the aft of the Triton, and hello, what do we have here?
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/17/dosbox2012051123040508.jpg)
Little UFO brain things? Cool, let's see if they die like the rest. The tank fires twice and hits, nothing. Polpolion exits the sub and fires, hits. Nothing. Next turn, Alex Heartnet does the same, and it collapses in a heap. And then explodes.
We don't know much about this new threat. Just that they're tough, about as tough as Lobstermen it seems. And they explode when killed. And really, really hate civilians. I heard so many death-screams that turn, it was kind of insulting. Oh yeah, they hate tanks too.
(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9295/dosbox2012051123061457.jpg)
After that UFO thing, we killed two more, and a Lobsterman carrying a stun bomb launcher. Even after that, there's another lobster somewhere that looks unarmed, and one carrying a sonic cannon. One of them throws a grenade, and blows the back off of the Triton. Right off.
(http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9601/dosbox2012051123164831.jpg)
On the plus side, our new armor is incredible. Trashman took two directs hits from the UFO things' weapon, SpardaSon took one, some of the other guys took a couple hits, and the firing line absorbed a stun bomb without going unconscious.
z64555 didn't come on this mission, so it's LieutenantDJ who's carrying the thermal tazer (stun rod) this mission. Since we saw that one unarmed Lobsterman, and shot it at least once, DJ charges it with the tazer and knocks it out. Navigator!
(http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3387/dosbox2012051123350224.jpg)
TrashMan, NGTM-1R, and Alex Heartnet move forward, boldly absorbing incoming fire, and returning it twice over. NGTM-1R makes contact with a Lobsterman, and shoots it once.
(http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/1883/dosbox2012051123394258.jpg)
Alex is in range, but doesn't have a clear shot, so throws a grenade. The grenade explodes but doesn't do much, and on the next turn the Lobsterman shoots NGTM-1R right in a weak spot in his armor, and kills him.
TrashMan is already in the building, leaving Alex Heartnet to deal with it. Lobsters sound like cows when they die, heh.
While approaching that office/warehouse, LieutenantDJ came under fire from behind, and also from the right. He spots a lobster, but can't get close enough to stun, and hasn't seen the other shooter yet, so heads inside the shack. Gortef and Scotty move toward the building cautiously.
(http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/1183/dosbox2012051123460056.jpg)
Dekker draws it's attention, and two pistol shots that simply glance off his armor, and then LieutenantDJ burst through the door and proceeds to lay the ice-cold beat-down on it. It's just a soldier though.
Scotty makes a mousehole in the wall to duck inside and try to avoid fire from above, and runs smack into a Lobsterman. Scotty excuses himself and ducks back outside.
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/493/dosbox2012051123515190.jpg)
Not sure quite how to proceed without getting somebody reaction-blasted, Dekker peeks around the corner of the fence he's taking cover behind, and shoots it in the back. It doesn't respond, so Dekker ducks back around the fence before it can.
(http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/437/dosbox2012051123540199.jpg)
Scotty pops in, snaps a shot off, misses, and pops back out. Through a window slit, jr2 can see it though, and shoots it down cleanly.
We know there's something behind that building, it shot a Gortef a few times. SpardaSon tried to flank around the corner to see what it was, and it shot him in the side, and again found a weak spot in the armor, killing him.
(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4121/dosbox2012051123590960.jpg)
Ah, it's just a Lobsterman that's been causing all that trouble. As jr2 prepared a grenade to flush it out, it flushed itself out and shot him in the chest. His armor absorbed most of it, but he's still a little shaken and internally bleeding. But he now has a clear shot and full TUs. He fires twice but only hits once, and TrashMan saves him by getting the second hit. Now jr2 just needs some medical attention. Alex Heartnet is right there with a heal and a stim.
LieutenantDJ heads up the stairs to the third floor of the office building, where we knew a Lobsterman was hiding. When he got high enough on the steps to see it, he spotted a second one there too. He promptly turned about and headed back down the stairs to bide his TUs and wait for reinforcements.
Next turn, when reinforcements arrived, the four of them stormed the third level, each firing one shot (DJ hitting one with a tazer instead), and both Lobstermen went down.
Meanwhile, Scotty was on the ground outside the building, and one of the lobsters nonchalantly tossed a sonic pulser out the window at him. Scotty had time only to shield his face before it went off, but it was enough to save his life. His ears are bleeding, and he feels a minor sonic aneurism, but that's nothing that a good medi-kit can't fix. Alex Heartnet does the medic thing again.
As we storm the final stronghold, jr2 spots a lobster in the shed, and it fires at him but is ineffective. On closer approach, in order to get behind the cover of the wall, jr2 also spots a second Lobsterman through the open door. This is bad news, as he's out of TUs. The three sonic cannon-armed soldiers on the third floor of the office building try to snipe the second lobster from the windows. They score two hits, but this bugger is tougher than the others.
One of the aliens shoots jr2, but doesn't hurt him, then they throw two grenades. One misses jr2, one lands at Alex Heartnet's feet. When they explode, Alex dies.
We're proper angry now, and the massed fire from the office building, TrashMan, jr2, and Gortef finish off the mission.
(http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3759/dosbox2012051200265060.jpg)
These are the heaviest losses I've suffered in a long time, but in a way, still our most triumphant victory. We killed 13 aliens, and captured 5 alive. Each one was either a Lobsterman or an equally tough UFO Brain thing. We've now proven conclusively that one X-COM aquanaut is a match for roughly six of the enemies toughest soldiers. Let them chew on that.
Properly recognizing the contributions of those who survived, promotions all around! Dekker made Captian! And CommanderDJ finally made Commander!
(http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3747/dosbox2012051200325582.jpg)
-
Damn Lobstermen. Worse than Tasoths. I'll kill them all as soon as put myself back together.
-
/me salutes the fallen.
I'm a Commander now! Yay!
-
Damn, I die in this LP too. Time for a clone.
-
Show them who's the boss Commander DJ!
-
Mayday, Mayday! Direct hit on Barracuda's engine array! Losing altitude, we are going down *static*
...Oh wait, I'm not a pilot.
Can you make my clone one?
-
...Oh wait, I'm not a pilot.
Can you make my clone one?
Well, I didn't think I could at first, but I can now. What do you want, interceptor or transport?
-
Well, I didn't think I could at first, but I can now. What do you want, interceptor or transport?
Interceptor please. I know flying with twenty tons of angry steel around you isn't the same as as a flying suit of armor, but still...
-
Alright, done :D. You are now the proud pilot of Barracuda 1, keeping the seas clean and friendly.
May 29th : M.C. Labs were completed and ready for enrollment, just in time for the turn of the month. All active soldiers were assigned to training. It'll be some time before we will actually be able to do anything with the training, but at least we'll be ready.
One more research is complete:
(http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1143/dosbox2012051521430178.jpg)
May 1st : Along with fresh funding, comes a report from our scouting network. Seems a scientific expedition to Antarctica noticed something strange. They forwarded their readings to us, and we discovered: An alien base of operations off the frozen coast of Antarctica, near Cape Horn on South America. It's added to the list of things to nuke when we have the technology. For now, it will be left alone.
All the replacements, and fresh generic seat-fillers got a cool bit of experience taking down a number of small subs, varying crews consisting of Aquatoids or Lobstermen. Eight Samurai base got their first interception and recovery of the game, with only one death.
We're going through tanks pretty quickly though, and they take like 4 days each to replace. But it's worth it to help protect the soldiers.
Alex Heartnet's clone continues to sweep the Atlantic, and to provide fresh meat for Squad 1 to train against. He curses the Barracuda's consistent slowness, fragility, and short range, and keeps visiting the workshops to pester the techs for a Manta.
Meanwhile, we haven't even spotted anything larger than a small cruiser. There've been no further attacks, and every sub we see, we shoot down. I'm beginning to worry. Either the aliens have something really big planned, or they actually are intimidated by my awesome teams. I'm concerned it's the first thing.
-
I mentioned the Lobstermen sound, and so did NGTM-1R, so I thought I'd share this. On a recent mission, underwater recording devices picked this up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1UCqR5Trac&feature=youtu.be
-
May 16th : Interception and recovery of small subs continues, and we spot and shoot down another medium. This could be trouble, but Triton 1 heads out.
Standard deployment, though a bit more cautious than usual. Tank on the first turn, Trashman in another direction on the second turn, z64555 over the top of the sub on the third turn. Each of the three spot an Aquatoid carrying a sonic cannon.
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7171/dosbox2012051810313323.jpg)
Trashman easily splashed his, and had to help finish off z64555's. z64555 had emptied a full clip on two different aliens, but only got one hit that didn't do much. The tank wasn't able to hit even once, but the alien it was facing was quite able to, and scrapped it in three shots. Gortef peeked out of the sub and grenaded it.
While z64555 had been able to survive a sonic pulser, another alien that hadn't been seen sneaked (snuck?) up the next turn and shot him in the side armor for a one-hit-kill. Gortef hopped up on the sub and put it down.
(http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3412/dosbox2012051810394486.jpg)
Son of Ravenholme next emerges from the sub, to scout the immediate vicinity of the landing zone that had been neglected, and happens upon an Aquatoid lurking behind a hill, and blasts it.
Gortef and Son of Ravenholme move out as a team, drifting through the water on their Mag-Ion Armor at the second level. Why, you ask? Why would I expose my soldiers to fire without the benefit of terrain? Because grenades only affect a single level in this game. Case in point, somebody threw a pulser at Gortef, which landed beneath him, and did no damage. It did vaporize z64555's body a little though :/
(http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4412/dosbox2012051811184739.jpg)
We get a view of the enemy sub.
(http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/4691/dosbox2012051811251628.jpg)
It seems to be a different configuration than the other two I've taken down. Maybe that explains why these aliens haven't been carrying disruptor launchers. That's good news for me (sorry z64555).
Vengeful Mongoose finds a back door... Alien!
(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/539/dosbox2012051811383591.jpg)
It does not survive. There was a backup Aquatoid behind it, armed with a stun bomb launcher. It reaction fired, and knocked itself out. Good job, alien!
jr2 breaches the door to the sub, and spots an Aqutoid looking right at him. The look in their huge eyes when they're surprised is priceless :)
(http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/2757/dosbox2012051811411905.jpg)
jr2 says, Boo! And welcome to Earth! And then he shoots it. The Aquatoid's scream almost sounded like the words, But we were here firrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrst!
Gortef enters the sub and steps on the body for good measure. As he runs up the stairs, he spots a pair of Aquatoids. His first thought is, how can I kill both of these with only one shot? Can't do that. Which one to take out, stun launcher, or guy probably with grenades? Wait, stun launcher? I wonder...
Showing remarkable boldness and fortitude, Gortef sprints up the stairs and slaps the alien holding the stun launcher in its big bald head. Shocked at the display of human arrogance, it fires a stun bomb. Knocking all three of them out.
A couple of turns later, when the other soldiers have arrived, an Aquatoid pops out of a side room, blasts Vengeful Mongoose and ducks back inside before jr2 can get a shot off. I'm going to have to think of a new adjective for his replacement now.
(http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/3152/dosbox2012051811495266.jpg)
jr2 follows the alien and shoots it at point-blank range, liquifying it.
Mission complete. Ugh, that didn't go so well. It seems like I'm losing more soldiers than when I was using only plastic armor.
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/183/dosbox2012051811524783.jpg)
Current roster, after that mission:
Blue Canary
Dekker Captain 16 kills, 77 TUs
Polpolion Lieutenant 8 kills, 68 TUs
TrashMan Ensign 11 kills, 65 TUs
jr2 Lieutenant 10 kills, 62 TUs
Scotty Ensign 7 kills, 67 TUs
CommanderDJ Commander 8 kills, 70 TUs
Gortef Ensign 10 kills, 63 TUs
Son of Ravenholme Ensign 6 kills, 64 TUs
F'n Angry Mongoose Seaman 0 kills, 55 TUs
z64556 Seaman 0 kills, 59 TUs
Eight Samurai
NGTM-3R Able Seaman 0 kills, 58 TUs
SpardaSon23 Able Seaman 0 kills, 56 TUs
Seat-fillers, both bases
Broski Able Seaman 7 kills, 62 TUs
Son of Dudeski Ensign 2 kills, 57 TUs (why does he outrank Broski?)
Lilith Lieutenant 7 kills, 71 TUs
John Jonesey Jones Able Seaman 5 kills, 51 TUs
Rahu
Azrael
Mephisto
Asmodeus
Mara
Taurvi
Dis
Moloch
Perseus
Apollo
-
Hopefully the 556 model will be tougher and packing a bigger punch, Lol. The 555 model served fairly well... I think.
Hows your tech tree look so far?
-
556 is already doing pretty good for himself :)
Tech tree is... lopsided. I have armor and sonic cannons, but still don't have sonic craft weaponry or displacers. I did a test and my game is not bugged, I just have to focus my research a little more. It's coming.
-
Bit late to the party, but if you want somebody with an actual name, feel free to put me on the list.
I wound up as Tentaculat food in the other thread, maybe my luck'll improve over here.
-
We've got better armor and a Dental plan!
However, we don't have Spoonzer tanks just yet. Seems to be some sort of copyright war...
-
Bit late to the party, but if you want somebody with an actual name, feel free to put me on the list.
I wound up as Tentaculat food in the other thread, maybe my luck'll improve over here.
Got you in, and a few missions under your belt already.
June 21st : The Manta is complete, and now fully armed with the finest torpedoes that Earth has to offer! Yeah, the same that we started off with. Alex Heartnet is just itching to take it out for a spin to blast some aliens, but is slightly apprehensive about the armaments. The lab guys swear they're closing in on sonic craft weaponry, but some bugs in the system may be stalling progress.
June 23rd : Alex Heartnet takes the Manta out against its first target. The speed of the Manta is incredible, Alex was heard over the radio shouting Oh holy **** this is fast! Whooooooooo!. Unfortunately, he had insufficient ammo to down the enemy craft, and sea traffic control denied his request to try ramming. The enemy USO escaped, and the currently unnamed pilot of Barracuda 2 took it down.
Scotty puts the sub down, and we're immediately greeted by a whole clutch of Lobstermen.
(http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2586/dosbox2012051814141276.jpg)
Lobsters, Mr. Dekker, zillions of 'em!
There was another squad of three or four Lobstermen to the south, who were dispatched with a similar ferocity. I think those things have gotten tougher, they seem to be surviving two shots from a sonic cannon with increasing frequency.
But it's no matter, our brave aquanauts just line up and knock 'em down.
(http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2323/dosbox2012051814214711.jpg)
Mission complete! (By the way, I'm not really recording any small subs any more, unless there's something interesting about them. To save time and not bore you too much)
Some research! This marks required tech #3/5 that I require before attempting to assault an alien base. The next two being Displacers, and disruptor launchers.
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6999/dosbox2012051814304026.jpg)
The thermal shok launcher, much like the thermal tazer that we've used previously, uses extreme cold temperatures to put subjects into a comatose, hibernative state. Unless they have climate controlled suits (like we do) or ridiculous thick armor or high HP (like quite a few aliens), a single bomb is usually enough to subdue all targets in a wide area. Also it has a really neat effect on sea water, it seems to flash-freeze, but then almost immediately the ice dissipates into little snowflakes, before melting completely.
June 27th : Medium sub spotted, Heavy Cruiser class, filled with Aquatoids. Alex Heartnet takes out Manta 1, backed up by Barracuda 2 to bring it down. The 'cuda is too slow to catch up in time, and the enemy sub lands. The Triton is dispatched.
We land, standard deployment. Soldiers spread out, TrashMan is first out the doors, and heads south-east. Jr2 jumps up into the airplane to clear it out and seriously, what is those guy's obsession with airline restrooms?
(http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2018/dosbox2012051814410475.jpg)
Wellp. Trashman has been mind controlled. I don't know where the alien is, so we're basically going to hide from Trash, and keep pushing forward as quickly as possible.
(http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/5136/dosbox2012051815045555.jpg)
Alien-Trashman shoots Son of Ravenholme in the arm, wounding him as he jumps into the wreck of the plane there. CommanderDJ is already inside, ready with a med-kit. z64556 also suffers a shot, but takes no damage.
Next turn, he gets MC'd again, but causes no further harm. And then whatever alien was bugging him lets go, and Trashman panics and drops his weapon. Good; if he gets taken again, he can't do anything (much).
While shooting at an alien, and missing, CommanderDJ hit an intact fuel tank of the downed airliner, and it exploded hard, killing at least one alien.
(http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/5987/dosbox2012051815135702.jpg)
We advance from all sides, cutting swaths through the Aquatoid defenders. The tank takes out one enemy carrying a disruptor; he never got to fire it, lucky for us.
(http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7408/dosbox2012051815195062.jpg)
Our soldiers storm the sub, z64556 getting several kills. The Aquatoids put up a valiant defense at the door to their sub, but were no match for us.
(http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/4443/dosbox2012051815234240.jpg)
Son of Ravenholme and others enter through a hole in the top floor of the sub, surprising a few aliens, one of whom is killed immediately. The other two are carrying thermal shok launchers, and one of them knocks itself out. Son of Ravenholme procures its weapon and fires at the final Aquatoid, for a mission complete.
-
I think the 556 model would like the the Thermal Shok launcher... even though for some reason it gives me a chill down my spine whenever I hold it.
-
July 4th : Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day! Also! There's aliens in Japan, let's go shoot them! America!
Umm... Anyway. Squad two is making a short hop to Tokyo to shoot some Lobstermen. At night. As if they weren't scary enough during the day, to grizzled veterans. Fun!
Lilith is going to keep one hand on the Abort! Run away! button at all times, just in case.
We're not doing too bad so far, already got a kill.
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/6210/dosbox2012051823365624.jpg)
Surprisingly (if you have poor pattern-recognition skills), the tank is scrapped by a UFO Brain thing. And one of the rookies is toasted too. I could have saved him, but the medi-kit interface locked onto the person in front of my soldier, instead of the dying guy at his feet. And I didn't realize that until it was too late.
(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8466/dosbox2012051900035986.jpg)
Two lobsters and a UFO thing on a tower are shot down, eventually. Three grenades were thrown on one turn, but nobody died from them. A huge hole was opened in the Triton, but it should be good to fly with a little duct tape. Almost sounded the call to Flee! after SpardaSon23 went down from an unseen assailant, but for now, we'll keep going.
Lost another one. We're under fire from all sides, the Triton took another grenade. I can't see where the hostiles are. Lilith calls it, Marines, we are LEAVING.
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/711/dosbox2012051900061325.jpg)
Eugh. The Japanese are not going to be happy about this.
(http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/5095/dosbox2012051900062624.jpg)
I swear, that civilian just got caught in the blast when a UFO brain thing exploded. All the rest were legit alien kills though. Well, as legit as you can get shooting a completely defenseless stupid civilian who won't even take stupid cover when your city is being attacked by stupid giant lobsters.
Furtunately, Japanese defense forces were able to mobilize enough mecha to quarantine the area, and eventually spray enough bullets and rockets into the battlezone to render it lobster-and-UFO-thing-free.
July 15th : Very Large USO spotted, Dreadnought class. Listed mission is Floating Base Attack. I've seen plenty of these, and still can't feasibly tangle with one, so I just keep an eye on it as it comes closer... and closer to my base. It is heading right for Eight Samurai. Oh boy, this could be it...
(http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3955/dosbox2012051901265844.jpg)
It passes by overhead. If we had base defenses, we could have shot at it. But we don't, so we just watch it make a few passes, and not land. I think they're taunting us. And then, like nothing, it shoots off over the Pacific ocean. I guess we dodged that bullet. We'll be better prepared next time.
Speaking of, OH YEAH:
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8297/dosbox2012051901303909.jpg)
With 80 technicians on the job, I have 6 of the guns manufactured and deployed within days.
July 20th : Small sub spotted by Blue Canary base, and Alex Heartnet takes out Manta 1 on a test run of the sonic oscillator. The only sounds on the cockpit recorder during the engagement were the whirrrrrrrrrrr-SHOOOOMP of the cannons, and Alex cackling maniacally.
(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8728/dosbox2012051901360334.jpg)
As the techs giddily finish up the sonic oscillators, and try to figure out what else they can stick them on to next, a communique comes in from HLPX-COM. It reads:
Dear Scourge,
In these dark times, with aliens swarming around our heads like krill, I believe that it is in Earth's best interest to share some of the fine technology that we've uncovered. Attached is a gift, schematics for the newest tanks we've been able to engineer; they are truly a marvel.
We do have one small request, however. As tradition dating back to the first Alien War dictates, my technicians insist that all Displacer-Sonic tanks produced be designated Spoonzer Elite. Tradition, don't you know.
Kind regards, and happy hunting,
NGTM-1R (totally not the dead one)
My techs happily set to work building a passel of shiny new Spoonzers.
-
Awesome, Spoonzers! The war will be won now!
-
Oh yeah, they're really helping out already! The armor is a huge help, though they still crumble under enough fire :/ I'm playing a bit ahead of the LP to build a buffer, and I can say we've already lost two, but we can build them pretty fast.
About to take out some alien bases, btw. Who else wants to carry the disruptor launcher, besides TrashMan?
-
About to take out some alien bases, btw. Who else wants to carry the disruptor launcher, besides TrashMan?
I volunteer model 556. ;)
-
About to take out some alien bases, btw. Who else wants to carry the disruptor launcher, besides TrashMan?
If I'm in good enough shape, then I'm always up for carrying the MOAR DAKKA!
-
Sssplendid.
-
The new rookies handled themselves fairly well, with Gortef distinguishing himself by getting three kills (!) with auto fire from his gauss rifle.
Wait, in a row? Were they all lined up or something?
"What the **** man??", he probably shouts, as he turns around and starts to limp back toward the sub for medical attention. Just a few spaces that way, a hidden Aquatoid blasts him with a sonic cannon. His ghost is going to be extra-vengeful now.
:lol:
And tough luck for Mongoose again. He will be missed... again.
Well, apparently not. He keeps getting hit.
(ba-dum, pish)
Also, sign me up for the troop roster. :nod:
-
Seriously, would it be too much to ask to make it through a single mission? :p
-
Seems like I'm this units The_E.
Let's just hope I have his luck too.
-
Seriously, would it be too much to ask to make it through a single mission? :p
Your third life, F*n Angry Mongoose, is doing pretty well, and hasn't died yet.
Welcome aboard Goober!
TrashMan, is as much as when you're mind controlled, the aliens don't shoot you, yes you're pretty tough :P And your survivability will probably go up quite a bit, now that you'll be carrying a disruptor launcher.
-
Wait so on that one mission I stunned one of the two aliens, which then dropped a stun grenade that stunned both me and the another alien.
Talk about a situation straight from a comedy show.
-
Wait, you're giving a disruptor launcher to someone who's prone to being mind controlled? :shaking:
-
Wait so on that one mission I stunned one of the two aliens, which then dropped a stun grenade that stunned both me and the another alien.
Talk about a situation straight from a comedy show.
Sort of, but more comical: you ran up there, shouted "hey look at me!" and it shot at you with the grenade launcher. "Slapping it in the big bald head" was a bit of flourish I threw in, due to you being right next to it, no tazer was involved.
The Trashman situation is under control: In situations where M.C. attacks are likely, he'll stay unarmed until such time as it is deemed safe or necessary to pick up a weapon. But I'm still a little worried...
-
That was a fluke!
Seriously... Any one of us could get MC'ed... you want us to wade into battle empty handed? I might as well cover myself in butter and pain a bullseye on me.
-
That was a fluke!
Seriously... Any one of us could get MC'ed... you want us to wade into battle empty handed? I might as well cover myself in butter and pain a bullseye on me.
Ah heh. It was no fluke... You seriously have 0 MC strength :nervous:
But the beauty of the disruptor launcher is that you don't have to be anywhere near the thing you want to explode. So you could sit right next to the Triton, lobbing high-explosive death all day.
Which you'll see in action, episode after this one:
July 26th – Large USO spotted, Battleship class. But this time, we can take it. Alex Heartnet leads the two Mantas on a strike mission. The ferocity of the attack was striking, and the Battleship was downed in the Baltic Sea, near Copenhagen, Denmark.
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5269/dosbox2012051916290019.jpg)
Deploying this time, for the first time, are four captured MC Readers. They will allow us to poke and prod into the minds of any aliens we lay eyes on, and get their rank and status and stuff. Not extremely useful on its own, but we're hunting a commander here. It'll help to know which one to hit, and how hard we'll need to hit it.
Ha ha ha, those crazy Danes. They built an underwater research base right where we shot down a OH **** BRAINS KILL IT.
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7735/dosbox2012051916473550.jpg)
*whimper* Spoonzer Alpha shot at it, but missed. Trashman steps up to the plate, fires, and misses. But, he hit the pipe it was hiding behind, which was apparently filled with high-explosives. The blast wave liquifies the brain's squishy parts, which was most of its body.
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/1610/dosbox2012051916483095.jpg)
Soldiers move to scout out each of the research pods, each one more cautiously than the last.
(http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7498/dosbox2012051917044986.jpg)
THIS IS WHY WE'RE CAUTIOUS! (Son of Ravenholme gets it in one shot though, so we're cool.)
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1876/dosbox2012051917052505.jpg)
And Scotty spots a Lobsterman, shoots it, and draws return fire. Seeing an excellent opportunity to test out the MC Reader, jr2 fires it up and takes a peek inside. Eh, just a soldier.
BRAAAAAAAAAIN! It tries to do who-knows-what to Spoonzer Alpha, but doesn't get anywhere. The tank however, takes offense at blows its insides outside.
(http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3822/dosbox2012051917225469.jpg)
The Spoonzer performed fantastically, taking more damage than three Coelecanths, at least, and dishing out far more. Unfortunately, one of the several lobsters inside the sub charged, and dug straight into the Spoonzer with its bare claws, and ripped out the control mechanisms. Combined fire, and a stun bomb from IronBeer took down the Lobsterman Technician (I wonder if that's how it figured out how to kill a Spoonzer?)
Foolish aliens, for every tank you rip apart, we can build four more to replace it. We will bury you!
Around the back of the sub... Frickin' BRAIN! Attacked my squad, but Son of Ravenholme and Mongoose shot it dead.
(http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6976/dosbox2012051917554965.jpg)
Son of Ravenholme takes a sonic cannon shot to the side, but survives with only a single fatal wound, which is patched up in short order.
Saw some movement up here during the alien move phase: at least two brains and a lobster. Dekker authorizes the use of grenades, lots of them.
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2482/dosbox2012051918074138.jpg)
Two grenades go up, Son of Ravenholme preps another, but can't get in to position to throw it that turn. He moves into the open next to Dekker, and gets ready.
(http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6043/dosbox2012051918134975.jpg)
The grenades blow, but nothing dies. One of the lobsters gets a little annoyed though, and charges down the stairs. Before anybody can even blink, it claws Ravenholme to death, and then Mongoose splatters its guts into the water.
(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4859/dosbox2012051918141035.jpg)
TrashMan grabs Ravenholme's live grenade and chucks it up onto the second level. It doesn't blow.
Is it a dud, or did Ravenholme accidentally hit “8” instead of “0” on the timer. That's probably it. Trashman ascends, and finds two targets. Brain.
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/706/dosbox2012051918195417.jpg)
IronBeer jumps up to the second level, and takes down both targets with a shok bomb. Live brain captured! I think there's another still up there though, wandering around. Just to be safe, the firing line descends, hopefully out of range of its groping tentacles.
Next turn, ever so carefully, Gortef heads up onto the platform. He spots the brain, and shoots it once and adds it to the collection of corpses.
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/6544/dosbox2012051918460631.jpg)
On the alien's turn, the final Lobsterman comes down the lift and gets blasted into unconsciousness by IronBeer. Mission complete.
(http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/9399/dosbox2012051918531826.jpg)
None of the Lobstermen were a commander though, so it definitely looks like we're going to be attacking that base sooner or later.
-
For some reason, I always wind up on capture/CQB duty in every HLP-XCOM thread. I even got to box with lobstermen on a couple occasions before I WAS THE ALIENS in the other thread.
IronBeer jumps up to the second level, and takes down both targets with a shok bomb. Live brain captured!
Hellyeah! That was what, 4 captures this mission? Too bad the don't count for experience tho. (captures indeed don't count, right?)
-
Ah heh. It was no fluke... You seriously have 0 MC strength :nervous:
Impossibible!
You have to schedule me for soem MC training then.
-
IronBeer jumps up to the second level, and takes down both targets with a shok bomb. Live brain captured!
Hellyeah! That was what, 4 captures this mission? Too bad the don't count for experience tho. (captures indeed don't count, right?)
My understanding is that just by swinging and hitting things you get experience.
-
Wait so on that one mission I stunned one of the two aliens, which then dropped a stun grenade that stunned both me and the another alien.
Talk about a situation straight from a comedy show.
Sort of, but more comical: you ran up there, shouted "hey look at me!" and it shot at you with the grenade launcher. "Slapping it in the big bald head" was a bit of flourish I threw in, due to you being right next to it, no tazer was involved.
Ah...
-
Impossibible!
You have to schedule me for soem MC training then.
Strength isn't trainable.
-
This pathetic clone of mine is not worthy to carry my name.
My mental fortitude would make even a SPEHS MAHRINE librarian green with envy.
-
Aye Scotty, you are correct, firing explosive weapons nets firing experience for everything caught in the blast. I don't know if he gets credit for "kills" however.
Sorry Trash, we didn't catch the problem until MC training started. I guess the boys at the cloning vats just plum forgot to put that part back into your brain. Don't worry though, most men go on to lead full and happy lives even without the use of a functional MC gland. It may negatively impact any future careers in rap music though.
-
That was a fluke!
August 1st : Researched the ammo to the disruptor launcher. That means that I'll be able to assault that base at my convenience. Orrrrrr... the new alien artifact site we just detected in the Mediterranean. Fun with brains, soon!
(http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5113/dosbox2012052016444787.jpg)
Hmmmmm. Artifact sites don't seem to be permanent, and I missed it. Oh well, there's still that base.
August 4th : Alex Heartnet takes down another Battleship in the North Sea. I'm not sure what the aliens are doing in the area, but I'll make sure they don't get to. Squad 1 dispatched.
Hey look at that. A brain. How interesting. Trash, kill it.
(http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2630/dosbox2012052018385155.jpg)
To fire a disruptor torpedo, you assign it a number of waypoints, outlining its path.
(http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5575/dosbox2012052018392098.jpg)
The torpedo has a really good turning radius, so it can get around and into almost anything. Wisdom is to give the path a wide berth around anything that it could hit accidentally and explode.
(http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/3425/dosbox2012052018394008.jpg)
Waypoints done, now hit the Launch button... zzap, zzap, zzap, zzap, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_638av8NUM) Yes. Multi-kill. Splendid.
(http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/5662/dosbox2012052018415353.jpg)
Oh interesting. More brains. Men?
(http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6061/dosbox2012052018450606.jpg)
Squish. Squish. Two more down, good work!
Spoonzer Gamma scouts the entire exterior of the map, spotting Lobstermen for the squad camped at the Triton, who shoot all of them, even sniping from clear across the map. Finally, the exterior is clear, and the squad moves forward toward the breach in the hull of the sub, like a terrible school of death-fish. Or perhaps a pod of murder-whales? Something dangerous, at least.
Everyone lines up near the huge holes in the bow of the ship, and prepares to attack. We've not seen any activity, but we can hear it. They keep opening and closing doors and stuff.
TrashMan, soften 'em up a little.
(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9329/dosbox2012052019371356.jpg)
Dekker sounds the charge. The Spoonzer goes first into the breach, with the other soldiers splitting between the second level and the bottom level. Spoonzer Gamma spots a Lobsterman Technician armed with a shok launcher through a hole in the floor. A few shots knock it out, but don't kill it.
Dekker and CommanderDJ land, spot a Soldier near the entrance door to the sub, and shoot it dead.
(http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7632/dosbox2012052019524432.jpg)
The MC readers indicate that there's a Technician somewhere on the second level, and it's freaking right out, panicking and going berserk. Readings on sensors mounted on the Triton also return at least two more contacts moving around in the sub that we haven't seen yet.
(http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1906/dosbox2012052020022566.jpg)
Carefully weighing our options to deal with the two lobsters staring down the Spoonzer, Dekker chooses the nuclear option: Ravenholme's Cousin fires a disruptor torpedo into the enemy sub, slips it past Spoonzer Gamma, past the two lobsters, and into the bulkhead behind them.
The bulkhead crumbles, but the lobsters survive. Gortef blasts one, and IronBeer stuns the other.
The previously panicking Technician un-panicks and shoots at the Spoonzer. The shots... sort of phase through it. It was weird, I don't recall including the ghost package in this model, but it's good news nonetheless.
Gamma shoots it twice, and Polpolion comes in from the lower level to finish it off. On the alien's turn, a Lobsterman comes through the second-level door and attacks the Spoonzer, right in front of our line of soldiers. Two reaction shots put it down.
(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/755/dosbox2012052020143969.jpg)
Note carefully how the Spoonzer is parked right on the lift? On one of the hidden movement phases, we caught a glimpse of three brains on the top level. This prevents them from coming down and murdering us. When we're in position, we can storm up there, or else nuke 'em through the lift (you can do that).
There's one.
(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9792/dosbox2012052020175831.th.jpg) (http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9792/dosbox2012052020175831.jpg)
And two.
(http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3553/dosbox2012052020181762.th.jpg) (http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3553/dosbox2012052020181762.jpg)
Annnnnd three. One shot each, and back down the lift, those brains won't get us today!
(http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4514/dosbox2012052020182554.th.jpg) (http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4514/dosbox2012052020182554.jpg)
All three go down, and we enter the bridge and stun the Navigator. Complete!
(http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4672/dosbox2012052020244994.jpg)
The seas are quiet for some time, allowing us to finish research in peace. Behold! The P.W.T. Cannon, the final answer in USO blowing-up.
(http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/3382/dosbox2012052219391795.jpg)
Also available are P.W.T. Defenses, which will allow my two expansion bases to operate with less fear of invasion.
(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/6452/dosbox2012052021070019.jpg)
Also a UFO-brain thing that managed somehow to not explode when we killed it was returned for autopsy.
(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9236/dosbox2012052021200088.jpg)
Hmmmm. It's actually exactly what it looks like: A UFO brain thing. Interesting, and terrifying.
August 21st : The Lobsterman Navigator we captured earlier had some very interesting things to say. After careful interrogation, the scientists have compiled a report.
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9800/dosbox2012052021143712.jpg)
Well, that explains how they got here, and why they're jerks, and what really happened to the dinosaurs, and what's with the Gillmen, but there's a question still: What are they planning? Make that two questions: How can we explode them?
The Navigator didn't have answers to those questions, but implied that a higher-ranking lobster might. They usually hang out around the control centers of alien bases, so... Let's go nab a commander!
Seriously... Any one of us could get MC'ed... you want us to wade into battle empty handed? I might as well cover myself in butter and pain a bullseye on me.
Ah heh. It was no fluke... You seriously have 0 MC strength :nervous:
But the beauty of the disruptor launcher is that you don't have to be anywhere near the thing you want to explode. So you could sit right next to the Triton, lobbing high-explosive death all day.
Which you'll see in action, episode after this one:
July 26th – Large USO spotted, Battleship class. But this time, we can take it. Alex Heartnet leads the two Mantas on a strike mission. The ferocity of the attack was striking, and the Battleship was downed in the Baltic Sea, near Copenhagen, Denmark.
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5269/dosbox2012051916290019.jpg)
Deploying this time, for the first time, are four captured MC Readers. They will allow us to poke and prod into the minds of any aliens we lay eyes on, and get their rank and status and stuff. Not extremely useful on its own, but we're hunting a commander here. It'll help to know which one to hit, and how hard we'll need to hit it.
Ha ha ha, those crazy Danes. They built an underwater research base right where we shot down a OH **** BRAINS KILL IT.
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7735/dosbox2012051916473550.jpg)
*whimper* Spoonzer Alpha shot at it, but missed. Trashman steps up to the plate, fires, and misses. But, he hit the pipe it was hiding behind, which was apparently filled with high-explosives. The blast wave liquifies the brain's squishy parts, which was most of its body.
(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/1610/dosbox2012051916483095.jpg)
Soldiers move to scout out each of the research pods, each one more cautiously than the last.
(http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7498/dosbox2012051917044986.jpg)
THIS IS WHY WE'RE CAUTIOUS! (Son of Ravenholme gets it in one shot though, so we're cool.)
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1876/dosbox2012051917052505.jpg)
And Scotty spots a Lobsterman, shoots it, and draws return fire. Seeing an excellent opportunity to test out the MC Reader, jr2 fires it up and takes a peek inside. Eh, just a soldier.
BRAAAAAAAAAIN! It tries to do who-knows-what to Spoonzer Alpha, but doesn't get anywhere. The tank however, takes offense at blows its insides outside.
(http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3822/dosbox2012051917225469.jpg)
The Spoonzer performed fantastically, taking more damage than three Coelecanths, at least, and dishing out far more. Unfortunately, one of the several lobsters inside the sub charged, and dug straight into the Spoonzer with its bare claws, and ripped out the control mechanisms. Combined fire, and a stun bomb from IronBeer took down the Lobsterman Technician (I wonder if that's how it figured out how to kill a Spoonzer?)
Foolish aliens, for every tank you rip apart, we can build four more to replace it. We will bury you!
Around the back of the sub... Frickin' BRAIN! Attacked my squad, but Son of Ravenholme and Mongoose shot it dead.
(http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6976/dosbox2012051917554965.jpg)
Son of Ravenholme takes a sonic cannon shot to the side, but survives with only a single fatal wound, which is patched up in short order.
Saw some movement up here during the alien move phase: at least two brains and a lobster. Dekker authorizes the use of grenades, lots of them.
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2482/dosbox2012051918074138.jpg)
Two grenades go up, Son of Ravenholme preps another, but can't get in to position to throw it that turn. He moves into the open next to Dekker, and gets ready.
(http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6043/dosbox2012051918134975.jpg)
The grenades blow, but nothing dies. One of the lobsters gets a little annoyed though, and charges down the stairs. Before anybody can even blink, it claws Ravenholme to death, and then Mongoose splatters its guts into the water.
(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4859/dosbox2012051918141035.jpg)
TrashMan grabs Ravenholme's live grenade and chucks it up onto the second level. It doesn't blow.
Is it a dud, or did Ravenholme accidentally hit “8” instead of “0” on the timer. That's probably it. Trashman ascends, and finds two targets. Brain.
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/706/dosbox2012051918195417.jpg)
IronBeer jumps up to the second level, and takes down both targets with a shok bomb. Live brain captured! I think there's another still up there though, wandering around. Just to be safe, the firing line descends, hopefully out of range of its groping tentacles.
Next turn, ever so carefully, Gortef heads up onto the platform. He spots the brain, and shoots it once and adds it to the collection of corpses.
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/6544/dosbox2012051918460631.jpg)
On the alien's turn, the final Lobsterman comes down the lift and gets blasted into unconsciousness by IronBeer. Mission complete.
(http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/9399/dosbox2012051918531826.jpg)
None of the Lobstermen were a commander though, so it definitely looks like we're going to be attacking that base sooner or later.
-
Suiting up for the base assault will be: Spoonzer Elites Gamma and Epsilon, CommanderDJ (field commander), SpardaSon24 (trooper), Ravenholme's Cousin (Trooper), Scotty (Pilot, stunner, psi ops), TrashMan (heavy section), IronBeer (heavy section). These soldiers have some of the best reaction stats, or have requested to carry the heavy weapons and can safely stay away from the front lines.
SpardaSon24 is transferring back from Eight Samurai to join the assault, so we need to wait until he gets here. In the meantime, we shot down a small sub carrying Tasoths near Eight Samurai! Squad 2 go!
Well this is some interesting terrain. It seems we've stumbled on some sort of ancient shipwreck. There's pottery and treasure chests everywhere. Hope it survives, there's probably some archaeologists who'd like to study it all.
(http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/2/dosbox2012052223242137.jpg)
Our first catch of the day! Little, yellow, anthropomorphic, underwater dinosaurs, looks like. Spoonzer Delta takes a shot, hits, draws return fire. z64556 exits the sub and lands a shok bomb dead center on target. It's still standing. Grandson of Dudeski does enough damage with a gauss rifle to put it to sleep. Sleepy-sleep, not dead-sleep.
(http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/9049/dosbox2012052223162026.jpg)
Spoonzer Delta spots another, and this time one-shots it. Better than lobsters, for sure!
Well, the rest of the mission wrapped up pretty snugly, despite me forgetting to re-equip the squad with sonic cannons, and only having gauss and sonic rifles. We even captured one of the Tasoth soldiers. To the cutting room!
August 25th : Triton 1 launches against the alien base, with the assault squad aboard. Orders are to take no prisoners, kill 'em all.
Scratch that. Need the Lobsterman commander alive. Take 1 prisoner.
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/203/dosbox2012052300020278.jpg)
(Apologies, Fraps was a little wonky, and I didn't get every pic that I wanted, just... use your imagination or something?)
First target spotted is a giant jellyfish. You may recall the Hallucinoid from NGTM-1R's thread, page 15. The kill goes to Spoonzer Gamma. Nothing more is seen or heard from the aliens yet. Tension mounts.
Wait. Aquatoid toting a disruptor launcher, killed.
Spoonzer Epsilon exits the other direction, and gets three contacts, one Tasoth, one brain, and one unknown in the dark.
Epsilon splashes the brain, and TrashMan and IronBeer eliminate the other two with gusto, leaving massive burnt and blasted areas on the ground.
Ha! TrashMan comes under molecular control, but just as planned, he is currently unarmed. I put all his extra ammo on the other troopers for safekeeping, Trash doesn't even have a grenade right now.
The Spoonzers continue to scout and secure the area, while MC attacks continue. Trash is taken every turn, and SpardaSon24 was panicked once, but other than that this has gone fairly smoothly so far.
I'm pretty sure the elevator is inside this huge building in the center of the map, but I won't feel confident about moving on it until 1) whatever's launching all these MC attacks is killed, and 2) the structure is cleared of brains.
(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/8484/dosbox2012052300233215.jpg)
IronBeer has been putting the disruptor launcher to very good use, demolishing everything with surgical precision.
(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/2913/dosbox2012052300390307.jpg)
The Tasoths are starting to panic. That's a good sign :) And the Spoonzers continue to clean up...
(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8566/dosbox2012052300413649.jpg)
These brains fail to realize that they cannot zombify tanks, but the tanks can definitely destroy brains. And they do. The tanks will be handling the vast majority of combat this mission, for precisely this reason.
(http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7323/dosbox2012052300435987.jpg)
Satisfied that the immediate area is clear enough to start grabbing disruptor bombs from some of the aliens around, CommanderDJ leads the squad out of the Triton.
Turns out it was not quite as secure as I had hoped. A lone Aquatoid had crept close enough, and threw a grenade at the squad. Thankfully, while it didn't land at anybody's feet where it could have damaged the precious under-armor, it still compressed CommanderDJ's right arm armor pretty hard. The armor repaired and re-sealed itself pretty quickly, but DJ's arm needed a bit of medical attention.
I guess we killed whatever was launching all those MC attacks, probably all those Tasoths in the center area, and TrashMan regained his composure. The squad begins to move toward the lift. No additional contacts.
Brains! But the tank should be able to safely eliminate them.
(http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3316/dosbox2012052300550613.jpg)
One long bughunt later, we finish off all the defenders, and descend as a team to the next level.
(http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/823/dosbox2012052301311704.jpg)
I hate this part. All the team members start off split off from each other, with no idea of what's around the next corner, or between them and the next small group of friendlies. Case in point: BRAIN!
(http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/4964/dosbox2012052301361494.jpg)
Taking no chances, IronBeer nukes it. And everything around it, just to be sure. SpardaSon24 makes contact with IronBeer, hopefully they'll be able to carve out a defensible position somewhere. CommanderDJ's team just him and TrashMan, really is also scouting out safe territory.
(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8218/dosbox2012052301405922.jpg)
Spoonzer Gamma spots a Lobsterman Commander standing out in the open, and shoots it twice for some damage. CommanderDJ squares off against another lobster, armed with a shok launcher, but does not kill it and is knocked unconscious himself.
(http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9366/dosbox2012052301460472.jpg)
TrashMan hits him with a stimulant from the med-kit and brings DJ back to the land of the waking, albeit a little woozy.
Gamma has spotted an additional Lobsterman, and it's carrying a disruptor launcher! Better safe than sorry, IronBeer disrupts it in the face, but it survives a direct hit! On the plus side, it doesn't retaliate, the Commander doesn't die, and I hear a brain go squish, one that I didn't know was there.
(http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2186/dosbox2012052301571899.jpg)
The Commander takes a few swipes at the Spoonzer, but it is made of sterner stuff and easily survives.
Scotty finally lands a bulls-eye with a shok bomb and the Commander goes out cold. Meanwhile, CommanderDJ was knocked out again while scouting down a level, and TrashMan dares not go down there after him. Spoonzer Epsilon is en route though, to clear the area.
When the tank arrives, there's nobody there... TrashMan descends the lift and pumps a whole kit full of stims into DJ, but he's still down.
(http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1526/dosbox2012052302232612.jpg)
I say again: the tanks go first. Always. Especially when there's the possibility of brains. This is why:
(http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3880/dosbox2012052302362125.jpg)
I'm getting glimpses of alien movement in the darkness, and can hear some of the Lobstermen start to panic. The fear-cries from such a terrifying creature echo through the water in the facility and start to damage the calm of some of my soldiers.
The squad has finally formed all together, and they move out slowly through territory cleared by one of the Spoonzers. We move toward an area that looks promising, and that is too narrow for the tanks to get to.
(http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/3407/dosbox2012052302564022.jpg)
This must be it. Surrounded by lobster commanders, weird spinny thing, looks important.
(http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4387/dosbox2012052303152426.jpg)
CommanderDJ drops a grenade on it from above, and yep that's the thing.
(http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/6937/dosbox2012052303152211.jpg)
Although... If I manage to actually secure the whole base, I'll get a boatload of salvage. Scotty pumps a few shok bombs into the chamber and knocks out the commanders, IronBeer and TrashMan fire torpedoes to clear out the surrounding areas. The Lobstermen are kind of clustering together, and a combined force, including Scotty dual-weilding shok launchers, knocks most of them down pretty quickly.
(http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7562/dosbox2012052303250966.jpg)
(You might not be able to see it, but there's a whole mess of them to the left of this screen, and there're a few more hidden near that one in the center)
Even after all that, there's still something left. I don't know where.
CommanderDJ finally finds the last brain. He shoots it. It survives. Well, crud.
(http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/2692/dosbox2012052303494420.jpg)
TrashMan and Iron Beer both fire long-shot torpedoes, but they both impact obstacles before hitting, and do nothing.
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/507/dosbox2012052303501627.jpg)
Against all odds, the brain just sits where it was, and DJ finishes it off. Complete, and a huge sigh of relief. No losses! Plenty of damage and injuries, but no losses! Another fun fact: each tank starts every deployment with 99 rounds of ammo. Spoonzer Gamma ran out.
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/6858/dosbox2012052303523387.jpg)
-
Another fun fact: each tank starts every deployment with 99 rounds of ammo. Spoonzer Gamma ran out.
What.
I've never gotten a tank below 70.
-
I am a boss.
Um, I've actually got to ask. Am I the only trooper/pilot so far who's been in all of the X-Com Let's Plays who hasn't died at all yet?
-
What.
I've never gotten a tank below 70.
To be fair, quite a bit of it shooting holes in walls and terrain to make way for it, and it's accuracy was getting pretty low, what with all the damage, so missed a lot too.
-
z64556 exits the sub and lands a shok bomb dead center on target. It's still standing.
Hey, I thought I had the "Extra Potent" bombs? Must've been a logistics error...
-
Hmmmmm. Artifact sites don't seem to be permanent, and I missed it. Oh well, there's still that base.
Well, that's not cool. You get something like a 2000 point penalty for ignoring those; that's twice as bad as ignoring a Terror Site.
-
I was worried there for a second. Thanks for healing me, TrashMan!
-
I like how the tanks are called Spoonzer's even in this LP :p
-
Thanks for putting me on super-vengeful brain-killing duty. I can imagine laughing manically as I pulverize those scourges of my other life!
/brofist all around.
-
Um, I've actually got to ask. Am I the only trooper/pilot so far who's been in all of the X-Com Let's Plays who hasn't died at all yet?
In mine at least you've survived every engagement, even as a footsoldier. You've been wounded, but that's different.
I like how the tanks are called Spoonzer's even in this LP :p
But of course! Tradition, don't ya know?
Thanks for putting me on super-vengeful brain-killing duty. I can imagine laughing manically as I pulverize those scourges of my other life!
/brofist all around.
Word, bro. Brain killing is good for the heart. And even though it's everyone's duty, it's gratifying to put one who enjoys it to work :)
-
August 27th : Spotted and shot down a sub in the Mediterranean. It's just a small, which'll be a nice change of pace from my base-busting. The recovery went really well.
I discovered something interesting while browsing ufopaedia for an answer to Scotty's question above. When firing explosive weapons, you get shooting experience for every target caught in the blast. And sure enough, after that base attack mission, TrashMan has 91 firing accuracy. So in an attempt to power level some of Squad 1, I passed around the disruptor launcher until I ran out of torpedoes.
August 30th : Examination of the live Tasoth proved very enlightening.
(http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/91/dosbox2012052322175130.jpg)
We've discovered much more than before about the function of MC implants, how the aliens can even influence human minds despite our not having MC implants of our own, and most importantly, how we can turn the aliens' own implants against them. The concept is drawn up, and the eggheads of Eight Samurai are going to start engineering a prototype MC disruptor ASAP.
A Very Large sub, Dreadnought class, was spotted in the south Pacific, and in a pitched battle with Eight Samurai's and Barrier's (my newest base, near Australia) Mantas, was brought down in the Sea of Japan.
Squad 2 attack!
So it's another shipwreck map. Unfortunately, we won't be able to preserve too much of it this time. Showing a tasteful disregard for history, z64556 just blows the carp out of the top deck of that ship.
(http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3827/dosbox2012052322463842.jpg)
vvvv
(http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5307/dosbox2012052322464975.jpg)
While the squad stays in the Triton for the first round, Spoonzer Delta takes the brunt of the punishment from the enemy outside. It's mostly shok bombs though, and a hallucinoid.
z64556 really hates old timey ships, and this time nukes the bottom deck, where the tank had spotted an Aquatoid. Examination of the carnage, reveals... three bodies. Nice!
(http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5831/dosbox2012052322500541.jpg)
Lilith and two seat-fillers enter through a breach in the second level, while NGTM-3R leads two others through another breach on the bottom.
(http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/2761/dosbox2012052323043499.jpg)
(http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/2821/dosbox2012052323060431.jpg)
While securing the exterior battlefield, Goober5000 faces off against an Aquatoid soldier carrying a thermal shok launcher, and loses. He's knocked unconscious, and Moloch has to come pick him up.
(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9937/dosbox2012052323132062.jpg)
OK, I see what NGTM-1R was talking about with the thing with the Aquatoids not facing us. This guy just paced back and forth, right in front of Azrael, didn't bother looking over. Weird, but I don't mind.
(http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5812/dosbox2012052323273747.jpg)
Cleanup proceeds smoothly, with the last three kills on the bridge going to the first soldier to arrive, Lilith. Mission complete!
September 1st : End of month report...
(http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/9973/dosbox2012052323461963.jpg)
Hmmm. Looks like Goober was completely right, the Euro-Syndicate were not at all pleased about that artifact site that went un-invaded.
Updates on the intelligence front: The captured Lobsterman commander hasn't been extremely forthcoming in the initial interrogation, but the scientists did extract two very important pieces of information: He does know where T'leth is, and none of our current vehicles are even going to be able to approach it.
We're going to need a new sub. The researchers hastily start to compile all our current data and designs, and come up with a brilliant new flying sub in a matter of days: the Leviathan. This'll definitely get us to T'leth, wherever it is.
(http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/161/dosbox2012052323474195.jpg)
Bust out the rubber bands, we're going to press that Lobsterman for every bit of information he can give us.
Also September 1st : Hey cool, another shipping route attack. Squad 2 is right there, so takes off. Could be fun.
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/2248/dosbox2012052323534672.jpg)
-
I had a bad experience with 1400's sailing ships in Universal Studios. I'd rather not talk about it. :nervous:
-
Our first catch. Sweet, looks like it's going to be just Gillmen and Deep Ones. Piece of cake.
(http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/5111/dosbox2012052323581142.jpg)
While Spoonzer Delta scouts, soldiers disembark the sub and move toward the interior of the ship. Grandson of Dudeski is able to knock down the sniper on the conning tower, and Delta blasts another Gillman standing dangerously close to some explosive barrels.
(http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/5305/dosbox2012052400002986.jpg)
A single Gillman who had been right next to the Triton this whole time, but escaped being noticed by Delta, threw a grenade at the squad. It missed, and hit the barrels it was hiding behind instead. The barrels, though they combusted, also blocked most of the sonic blast, protecting our soldiers. The Gillman was not even close to being able to survive.
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8408/dosbox2012052400100029.jpg)
Scouting a corridor, z64556 comes under fire, and takes some wounds. He stumbled upon a whole squad of aliens in that room with the stairs. He can't take them all, but other soldiers are rushing to assist.
(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1125/dosbox2012052400385658.jpg)
6 aliens in that squad, split up just a little. These little silver dots are alien bodies, z64556 got the last kill of that batch.
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1858/dosbox2012052400422447.jpg)
Make that 7, there was a Deep One on the landing at the top of the first stairs that Lilith shot.
(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4733/dosbox2012052400441497.jpg)
*knock knock* room service! Who ordered the noisy death? You? OK, here you go.
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/866/dosbox2012052400492687.jpg)
A few more enemies, and we head below decks to finish up clearing the ship.
The Spoonzer heads out from the lift, and spots a few enemies. This Gillman took a couple of reaction shots, but missed badly. NGTM-3R took it down with a sonic bolt to the knee. You could say his adventuring days are over.
(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8373/dosbox2012052400583778.jpg)
There are some other Gillmen on some containers that the Spoonzer eliminates, and a couple of aliens that Goober and company handle.
(http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/4705/dosbox2012052401200219.jpg)
There's another small squad of enemies behind these containers, and z64556 pops up the lift to blast one, and then back down. NGTM-3R gets another, Spoonzer Delta takes out the Deep One, and Lilith got one on reaction fire that was foolish enough to go down the lift last turn.
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6241/dosbox2012052401285875.jpg)
Ah, fuel storage. The safest place to hide on a ship during a firefight.
(http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/1857/dosbox2012052401312653.jpg)
Deep in the bowels of the ship, we find living quarters for the crew. Goober5000 finds an engineering station or something with a Deep One in it. Don't know what it was doing in there, but it did not survive.
(http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3549/dosbox2012052401472432.jpg)
A couple more Deep Ones, and the mission is over, a superbly executed mission with no deaths. Every soldier performed exceptionally.
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/25/dosbox2012052401543312.jpg)
-
Woot!
-
What is it with these LP's and the AI's tendency to kill/stun itself? ...lol
-
What is it with these LP's and the AI's tendency to kill/stun itself? ...lol
Aliens' throwing accuracy seems to be really poor, and the AI I guess isn't sophisticated enough to throw over/around obstacles. And when they're carrying a stun launcher, I guess the AI just figures that one gun is the same as another, explosives be damned.
-
What is it with these LP's and the AI's tendency to kill/stun itself? ...lol
The AI's "am I going to hurt myself" algorithms take into account only lethal damage as projected from the desired impact point. This means they have absolutely no brakes on when and where they use stun damage, regardless of area of effect. I've seen them fire stun launchers point-blank more than once.
-
If its not too late, I volunteer for redshirtting or stun duty if there is any space left on the roster.
And I'm pretty surprised the AI stunning itself wasn't fixed by TFTD, in my UFO Defense playthrough at least 10 alien leaders have stunned themselves with small launchers at some point :/
-
Got ya, DireWolf. You'll be assigned to Squad 2 (after this update) and to the final assault.
September 2nd : A small sub was shot down, and Triton 1 once again heads out. Standard looking mission, with lots of disruptor bombing, and Ravenholme's Cousin cleaning up with crazy sniper shots.
(http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1149/dosbox2012052816451395.jpg)
and
(http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8563/dosbox2012052816460437.jpg)
September 6th : Ah, at last. The MC Disruptor is designed, tested, and ready for mass production. The technicians get right on that, making up a batch of 10, plenty for both forces.
(http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6193/dosbox2012052817071948.jpg)
Complicated electronics allow a trained soldier to completely overload an alien's MC implant, isolating it from the network, and even taking over the alien's body completely. It's evil fun.
September 8th : Well, the Lobsterman Commander finally cracked and spilled its guts, so to speak. Interrogations have been pretty simple lately. Ever since we figured out how to jam the aliens' MC implants inside the alien containment units, they started to panic and were remarkably easy to coerce into sharing their information. He revealed in full the location of T'leth, and the nature of the leader of the alien forces.
(http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1732/dosbox2012052817130088.jpg)
Yyyyep, that's bad. Time is short. The present alien activity is a harbinger of the Great Dreamer's return. Our timeline is going to be as follows:
September 19th, Leviathan 1 comes online. We'll give it a shakedown cruise or two, vs whatever's available.
September 24th, SpardaSon24 gets back on active duty after recovering from his wounds.
October 1st, September's MC training finishes, troops from Eight Samurai transfer to Blue Canary base.
October 3rd, T'leth or bust!
September 8th : Shot down two small subs, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific Ocean. Squad 2 out of Eight Samurai easily mops up the Gillmen, and Squad 1 goes after the Lobstermen.
In a shootout with lobsters at the entrance to the enemy sub, Dekker takes a bad shot to the right arm. Dang. That's his shootin' arm. He's going to be, by necessity, laid up in sickbay for at least a month, which means he'll miss the attack on T'leth. EDIT: 47 days until recovery. Ouch.
Gortef takes a minor wound in the chest, but is patched up completely by Ravenholme's Cousin. Unfortunately, and impossibly, jr2 is killed in a freak grenade accident. He tossed one into a small room in the sub, retreated to a safe distance behind a door, but the grenade explosion still killed him.
(http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/9130/dosbox2012052818122668m.jpg)
A thousand curses. Wellp. We saved his brain at least, and by some sort of dark arts, have managed to insert it into the body of one of the seat-fillers of Eight Samurai. The new body's not nearly as cool as the old one, but it should do well enough.
Also, TrashMan was field-promoted to Lieutenant!
September 12th : With the production and deployment of MC Disruptors, we finally get a chance to live-test them on some Gillmen on a downed sub. The psi-ops agents of Squad 2 are z64556, Goober5000, and Lilith.
z64556 isn't able to get a solid hold on the first Gillman, but Goober was able to successfully establish control.
(http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/9540/dosbox2012052900120910.jpg)
The first alien reveals a second, and Goober5000 takes that one as well.
...which reveals a third. Lilith takes it... and reveals a fourth Gillman. Lilith can't manage to snag that one, so Gillman #3 just blasts it. This is going to be the easiest sub breach in history.
(http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3548/dosbox2012052900212825.jpg)
Clean-up was a piece of cake, and fun, and safe for all (humans) involved!
September 15th : Very Large sub spotted, Dreadnought class. In a pitched battle with Manta 3, it was shot down a few hundred miles off the coast of China. Squad 2 out.
Psi-ops squad captures an Aquatoid technician carrying a disruptor pulse launcher, and uses it to nuke a pair of Hallucinoids. Another carrying a thermal shok launcher is captured, tosses its weapon, and walks into oncoming fire.
(http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/9286/dosbox2012052900433725.jpg)
The squad spreads out, clearing the area rapidly. Aliens inside the sub are mind-controlled and used to scout and clear further, before stunning themselves or getting shot by other aliens.
Goober and Moloch enter a breach on the bottom floor where one of the craft's engines blew from catastrophic damage. Some Aquatoids in the way were mind controlled, deprived of their weapons, and marched out for Goob to hit with a captured stun launcher.
(http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/8129/dosbox2012052901280555.jpg)
Lilith drives an unarmed Aquatoid soldier up the lift, to act as decoy and scout on the upper level.
(http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9994/dosbox2012052901545258.jpg)
Goober5000 gets the final two Aquatoids on the top level, for a mission very complete.
(http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3316/dosbox2012052902140522.jpg)
-
Since we finally have all the tech we need in order to assault T'leth, we can handle the other things that fall by the wayside. Techs that we had only a slim idea of what they did, we can now figure out exactly what they are and how. What I'm saying is, Science Update!
(http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6669/dosbox2012052822584925.jpg)
The techniques behind the aquatic species' cloning procedures are remarkably similar to their cousins from the First Alien War, and already well enough understood to be manufactured by humans. It's expensive, but worth it to keep willing and able soldiers such as Angry Mongoose, jr3, SpardaSon24, and Ravenholme's Cousin.
(http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/3791/dosbox2012052900000354.jpg)
Don't know what to say about these things, but they're certainly good for keeping food fresh for extended periods, and have pretty much replaced Blue Canary's refrigerators.
(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/6498/dosbox2012052900070164.jpg)
Pfffft, we've had these since 2025. Most schools nowadays are just federally mandated websites, from which students download lessons directly to their own brains. Unsurprisingly, the single most popular course is Kung-Fu.
(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2581/dosbox2012052900330291.jpg)
Ummmmm... Yeah. Ew.
-
October 1st – A lot of things happened. The Leviathan finished on schedule, and both squads have been training hard. Several enemy subs were sunk and recovered with no fuss.
Everyone's been performing spectacularly, and the psi-ops corps especially have proven their worth 10-fold.
Finally, it's time to end this war. Personnel and necessary equipment has been transferred from Eight Samurai to Blue Canary, we're just waiting for it to come in. Alien activity has been spotted north of The British Isles, but I can't risk tangling with brains at this point in the game. It'll be over soon enough, and no amount of alien activity can stop us.
(http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/1082/dosbox2012053023000344.jpg)
I let the Artifact Site fester, and disappear.
The transfers arrive ahead of schedule, at 19:30 hours GMT. With some creative assignments, we find space for everyone's equipment, and a pair of Spoonzer Elites. The final squad is:
CommanderDJ – Commander, field commander, rifleman
Polpolion – Lieutenant, second-in-command, rifleman
Ravenholme's Cousin – Able Seaman, rifleman
NGTM-3R – Able Seaman, rifleman
SpardaSon24 – Able Seaman, rifleman
DireWolf – Able Seaman, rifleman
F'n Angry Mongoose – Ensign, rifleman
Lilith – Lieutenant, chief in charge of psi-ops, psi-ops
Scotty – Ensign, pilot, psi-ops
jr3 – Ensign, psi-ops
Gortef – Ensign, co-pilot, psi-ops
Goober5000 – Able Seaman, psi-ops
z64556 – Ensign, psi-ops
TrashMan – Lieutenant, chief in charge of heavy section, heavy section
IronBeer – Able Seaman, heavy section
Assembly in the briefing hall. Dekker stands at the front of the room at a podium, his right arm in a sling, a medic standing by. Everyone is in attendance, and Dekker speaks.
“Well men, and Lilith (how are ya love?), the time has come at last. For the past 9 months, an enemy we never could have fathomed has made war against our planet, and our people. We've fought valiantly, some of you here have perished, but are with us once again.
You've sacrificed so much, so many times, all for Earth. The world leaders have asked me to convey their thanks to you all. As I'm sure you're aware, we have only one final mission on which to embark, and then we can all live in peace once again.
T'leth is the seat of great evil, the ultimate alien. It is the source of the hordes that have plagued us these past months. Our path is simple: board the ancient city, find the Great Dreamer, kill it.
I wish I could go with you, to share in the victory, but my bum arm has got me stuck here. I will be supervising operations through the remote Spoonz-o-cams though, so stay sharp out there.
Bleh. Enough of this stuffy speech rubbish. You've all got your briefing packets, and your kits loaded on the Leviathan. Get outta here. Go now, for Earth!”
The hall erupts in cheers and applause, and the soldiers file out to the armory to don their mag-ion armor for the last time, before heading to the flying sub. Techs and scientists line the corridors, saluting as they pass.
As Scotty guides the Leviathan toward the great city, he notices something alarming.
*ksschhhk* Blue Canary, this is Leviathan 1, come in. We have an issue here.
“This is Dekker, go ahead, Scotty.”
“Um, sir, can you see this on the scopes?”
“Let me see. Hmmmmm. Yes. The city seems to be leaving the ocean floor. How about you hurry?” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYRlJLBOnRo)
“Roger that, sir. Out.” *ksshk*
(http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/1252/wmplayer201205310203114.jpg)
Scotty tightens his grip on the steering yoke, and turns to Gortef. “Gortef, be a sport and spool up the cannons.”
“Aye, sir!”
As T'leth grows larger and larger on the view screens, the sonic oscillators whump three times. A breach is opened in the side of the city, and Scotty rams the Leviathan through the gap.
“Hey DJ, we're in!”
CommanderDJ yells back, “Yeah, we felt it! Everybody out!”
The door opens, and the Spoonzers blast out into the murky corridor behind. No enemy contacts were seen, not even any signs of them between the Leviathan and the entrance lift. As a team, the squad descends...
-
Pilot and psi-ops. Awwww yeah.
-
for king and country. spare no one.
-
4 graet justyz![/microsoft sam]
-
Quick everyone! Do fatal damage to a flying city while we're on it!
-
Ohhhhh man. Psi-ops is going to be SO much fun. That is, if '6 can get a good lock on them.
OH, wait, final battle. Right. :nervous:
Here goes nuttin!
-
Let's kick some ass!
We WILL send the aliens fleeing in terror and self-loathing! Let no inhuman invaders take our home while any of us yet draw breath!
For the fallen! For the lost! For all that still fight!
FOR EARTH!!
-
And now, the exciting conclusion...
(http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/225/dosbox2012053023363319.jpg)
OK. It is seriously dark down here.
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9761/dosbox2012053023535057.jpg)
One of the tanks spots an Aquatoid, and Goober5000 takes control of the alien which is carrying a disrupter launcher, and commands it to fire a torpedo. The torpedo speeds off into the void, and explodes. By chance, it takes another Aquatoid down.
(http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/624/dosbox2012053023585647.jpg)
So far, so good. Next turn, three other Aquatoids, all carrying disrupters were spotted, and mind controlled. Commander DJ gives the order to move out, satisfied that the immediate area is secure enough.
One of the scout-toids spots a pair of hallucinoids just chilling, but way too close together. IronBeer breaks 'em up. Explosively.
(http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7323/dosbox2012053100155828.jpg)
The decoy system is working perfectly! The enemy launches two disrupter torpedoes. One hits a decoy, one misses and takes out the launcher. It's beautiful.
We're almost to the end of the level, assembling at the exit, when for the first time all mission, TrashMan comes under MC attack. He's taken easily. Since I hadn't been attacked all mission, I had gone ahead and issued Trash's torpedoes to him. Fortunately, the alien crawling around inside his brain decides not to fire at anybody. Everyone who was already at the exit lift, evacuates back down.
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5003/dosbox2012053101181791.jpg)
CommanderDJ takes Polpolion, NGTM-3R, and Lilith to go track down whatever's causing the trouble.
In a room full of cryogenics tubes, Polpolion spots an Aquatoid carrying a disrupter launcher. Goober5000 mind-controlls it, and blasts the room apart, killing at least one other alien.
(http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6420/dosbox2012053101294155.jpg)
Those are the last ones on this level. On to the next!
At least the whole team starts mostly in the same area on this level, it should make keeping us alive a little easier. However, a really weird thing happened when we changed levels. The two disrupter pulse launchers we brought had just totally disappeared, along with all the torpedoes, and at least half of our sonic cannon ammo. We have enough for one clip each, but it's going to be interesting going, and IronBeer and TrashMan are going to have to scavenge something.
(http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/8267/dosbox2012053122465911.jpg)
Snail-thing!
(http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6019/dosbox2012053122471106.jpg)
Mongoose freaked out just a little when Spoonzer Gamma spotted it, but he calmed down pretty quick. Three soldiers line up to take pot-shots, and it returns fire at DireWolf. He's hit, but breathing, and gets patched up quickly.
The snail takes three sonic cannon shots, and is put down by Polpolion.
I thought the first alien turn was going to be uneventful, but nooooooooooo. Bloody brains, messing things up for the rest of us. One turns a blind corner, and zombifies NGTM-3R, but is promptly destroyed by reaction-fire.
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9345/dosbox2012053122560641.jpg)
There's nothing we can do here, so the squad does the only thing that comes to mind: dropping a grenade on the unconscious brain, and saluting the fallen.
(http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4792/dosbox2012053123055076.jpg)
Also, Gortef captured a Lobsterman, which will serve as an advance guard to prevent any further brain-related injuries.
Scotty breaches a door, and gets shot by an Aquatoid with a thermal shok launcher, and they both go down. Could be worse though, much worse. Gortef will be along shortly to administer stims, and IronBeer is on his way to collect the Aquatoid's weapon, so he'll be able to fight back.
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9430/dosbox2012053123193744.jpg)
The Spoonzers spot a Lobsterman carrying a disrupter launcher, and a Deep One. They're both conscripted into the Let's not anybody else get zombified today corps.
(http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/8457/dosbox2012053123322396.jpg)
Moving along, Mongoose pops open a door and comes eye to eye with a Lobsterman. Handled easily enough, the corps have a new member.
(http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/686/dosbox2012053123513377.jpg)
We pick our way slowly through the maze, and thin out the anti-zombification corps a tiny bit, so that they're easier to manage. The Spoonzers keep getting stuck, and are having to blast holes in walls.
CommanderDJ happens upon... another snail thing. He makes a tactical retreat, and calls for heavy weapons support.
(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/7568/dosbox2012060100395925.jpg)
Goober5000 scavenged a disrupter launcher, and should be in position to fire next turn. He is, and he does, turning the area into a rather large escargot broth.
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/97/dosbox2012060100523419.jpg)
Exit spotted! And a brain! Yay!
(http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6286/dosbox2012060101000161.jpg)
Not surprisingly, the brain kills my mind-controlled lobster. Surprisingly, it doesn't zombify it. Either way is fine with me, I have a Spoonzer elite standing guard.
The immediate area fairly secure, everyone makes an end-run to the exit, and arrives unscathed. We take a turn to rest, and head to the third level.
(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1940/dosbox2012060101412783.jpg)
Wellp. Here we are. Let me just save my game... OK. They took away the save function in here. How meta.
(http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7326/dosbox2012060101423675.jpg)
Spoonzer Gamma spots a lobster and a snail. IronBeer just nukes the carp out of the snail, and gets at least one Aquatoid in the blast. Bonus!
(http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1839/dosbox2012060101463861.jpg)
There were a whole mess of Lobstermen in that first chamber, and we captured most of them forming the spearhead of our decoy cadre.
The cadre also took out a brain and another snail, with disrupters.
(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/6785/dosbox2012060101571357.jpg)
We surge forward, faster than ever before, aliens falling like cards before the onslaught. We spot the goal, and everyone rushes toward the center.
(http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/694/dosbox2012060102210793.jpg)
Polpolion and CommanderDJ burst into the chamber, and fire away. Polpolion takes out a hallucinoid, DJ hits the first energy pylon. Our soldiers stream in, taking shots, disassembling the core of the great city.
(http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/720/dosbox2012060102223917.jpg)
IronBeer fires the final shot, and it's all over. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUsDqATkw5s)
The Tomb, ravaged and decimated. A bubbling roar comes from the casket in its centre.
"Fools, you will all perissssshhhh...
...none can escape."
A massive explosion erupts from the tomb and rips through the city, debris and smoke fill the air. The plans of the Aliens are foiled...
The twisting hugeness of T'leth begins to rupture. Flames and smoke spew from its gleaming spires and adamantium halls.
The mighty Alien fastness tumbles towards the sea, the screams of tortured metal and souls fills the air. No longer will the Great Dreamer dream of conquering the world.
One final ear-splitting concussion of sound, and T'leth tears itself apart.
The Alien threat is gone, the Earth is cleansed...
A sleepy, blue-green planet, in a distant corner of the galaxy.
The near future, a safe place to be.
The Alien menace to the Earth has been long vanquished.
Vast metropolis-like cities house the teeming billions of humankind.
The deeds of X-COM and the Alien Wars are the stuff of children's stories.
But legends have always had a habit of containing a grain of truth...
THE END.
?
-
*sniff*
-
I am proud to have served alongside you all.
Props to Scourge, this was an excellent LP.
-
On return to HLP-XCOM HQ, our heroes were served a feast of seafood, including some (slightly charred but nonetheless delicious) lobster. Dekker then proceeded to get roaring drunk, made a surprisingly coherent speech about how if another alien threat should show its face, X-Com would be ready and willing to fight them off again (or in Dekker's own words, "**** them up"). He passed out shortly after.
On a more somber note, we must remember the fallen. We salute NGTM-3R for his services to humanity. o7
-
We salute the fallen and celebrate the victory. That's all that's left to do.
Btw. you don't want to know what I found from that Lobstermans mind when it was in my mindcontrol.
-
Mongoose freaked out just a little when Spoonzer Gamma spotted it
Woo alternate-reality PTSD!
-
*Salute* everybody! Thanks for playing, this was a lot of fun.
And a bit more work than you might think it'd be :)
-
Better me than somebody from psi-ops.
Unless I was psi-ops.
-
Congrats all around! Once more, Earth is saved!
Now, the question is: what sort of memorial should we build for NGTM-3R and all the other casualties of our struggle?
-
Three Let's Plays, zero deaths.
**** yeah.