[esarai]

All troopers start as a generic class, and once you make squaddie it's randomly assigned, if I recall.

[NGTM-1R]

Yeah, I can't promise you a class. Sorry.

[Fury]

There is research that makes rookies into squaddies though. But I'm sure you knew that.

[Alex Heartnet]

*A news logo flashes on the television screen, followed by a nicely-dressed female reporter*

Our top story today concerns the laser pistols the Argentinan government started issuing to civilians for civil defense purposes.  Officials believe that this will help contribute to the casualty rate, but similar proposals have been met with fierce opposition within the USA.  Citizens are reminded at all times to follow safety procedures when operating lasers, and never under any circumstances to remove the built-in tracking chip.  Details at 11.

In other news today, a group of anti-human traitors were taken into custody today.  To discuss this latest development, we have expert psychologist Mike Migel on the line.  So, Mr. Migel, what is your take on the latest arrests?

"It's great!  These terrorists were spreading harmful propaganda in an effort to undermine humanity's survival.  It would of proved disasterous if they weren't caught."

There are those that believe that even in the wake of the ongoing invasion, personal freedoms remain important.  Would you agree with this sentiment?

"Absolutely not!  We are fighting a war for our very survival here.  If we had people just doing whatever they wanted, there would be no coordinated effort, and the war would already be lost."

Thank you for your time, Mr. Migel.  This has been Aleccia Heartnet, reporting from GNN headquarters in New York.

[LHN91]

Dang it. Started off the mission so well, too.

[Mort]

And another one bites the dust

[NGTM-1R]

Some more research has been accomplished in the Laser field. We now have viable designs for replacing all our existing weaponry with laser-based alternatives. Unfortunately, cashflow means that we've only been able to deploy one other weapon besides the two prototype rifles: the X-L2 Sniper Rifle has been issued to Dire Wolf for field tests. Talon has inherited LHN91's X-L1, after tests proved it had conclusively superior damage output to the old shotgun.



Which is fortunate, because the aliens have launched a full-scale attack on Moscow. Units of the Russian Army and Air Force are responding piecemeal, but have encountered heavy resistance. Two full divisions are en route but may have trouble getting into the city. We have been asked to assist by cracking a point of particularly heavy alien resistance along Kutuzov avenue to clear the way for the advance of IFVs and mortar carriers from the 106th Guards Airborne Division. Saving civilians in the area is a secondary, but important, objective. The aliens are expected to have made efforts to entrench, but we will hit them before they've had much time. (Trivia note: I actually did listen to Rammstein's Moskau for this.)



Talon picks off one Floater that charged directly at a civilian, ignoring the presence of armed enemies.


Another Floater down to Talon.(This shot is suspicious, I'm not sure he actually made contact. Oh well, it did die.)


Two more advance, Talon missing one, but Scourge of Ages brings it down.



Dire Wolf moves to a billboard for a sniper perch. His first kill comes moments after he reports in position, picking off the second Floater.



“Contact! Unknown hostiles moving up!” After Esarai fires on one and injures it, it retreats. The fact the aliens have things capable of surviving direct laser rifle strikes is more than a little disturbing.



The second new alien charges. Unfortunately, it runs directly into the fire lanes of pretty much the whole team and gets plastered, going down in a heap before it can advance more than five meters.



The other returns, but Esarai is on the job and brings it down with a second laser between the eyes.


“Esarai here. We have a civilian moving in the alien-controlled area. The aliens are ignoring him...sir this guy is clearly hurt, he's not moving right and I see blood.”

“Confirm, I have eyes on him...Control, something's wrong with this guy. His skin color is...green. His eyes are glowing.”


“This is Droid, are you saying he's a zombie DireWolf?”
“Uh...affirmative Control.”
“Right. No chances. Take him down hard.”



Mission complete. Raven-1 and Raven-2 were deployed to assist in bringing down UFOs providing close support to alien troops on the ground, but further assistance from HLPX-COM ground forces was not required.

The Russian president and the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne send their thanks. The BMD-4s and 2S9s of the division were able to reach their jump-off positions and flank the main alien concentrations, leading to a quick and thorough defeat of the alien presence in Moscow. Our success here, and the Russian's public success, has done a great deal to calm fears in Europe. Promotions all around.

[z64555]

[Peronnel log: "z64555" (Head of Tech)]

Just got news from over the comms (ok, I snuck into the situation room, so what?) that we had our first successful mission in a while. By successful, I mean none of our boys or girls got the plasma special (and I'm NOT referring the $5 bloodbank fair last year).

I'm also a bit beside myself, this is the first time in HLPX-COM history that we managed to get a very decent laser weapon for our snipers, as well as a new shotgun type! While at first glance, it should be a no-brainer that a sniper laser is the way to go, but you have to keep in mind that previous attempts had a serious problem with blooming as well as accurately linking the scope to maintain zero at any range. We've solved that bit by using a combination ultrasonic and IR laser ranger to synch up with a servo in the elevation control of the scope, and of course provide a manual override should either ranging device fail. I debated whether or not a windage control was needed, because lasers aren't affected by crosswinds, but then I remembered that it would still be a good idea to include one in case the scope got jostled around and lost its zero... since we didn't really want to spend much time in making the scope and the weapon's receiver in one solid piece.

I'm however a bit skeptical about the quality of the prisms in the shotguns. Oh, the facets of the prisms are no big issue, but rather the quality of the glass we're using. It turns out that it absorbs a bit more of the infrared spectrum than I would like, thereby not only reducing the power of each shot somewhat (compared to the same number of beams by the XL-1) but also increases the spread of the shots as the glass deforms. I've asked our materials engineers to look into experimenting with a glass mixture that uses some of the... optics, from all those plasma weaponry we've come across.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot about the heavy lasers! With these beauties, our interceptors should be able to bring more heat to the skys, heh.

<ding> over already? sheesh.

[end log]

[Droid803]

Zombies? O_o

[Mongoose]

The idea of a laser shotgun is pretty ridiculous...ly awesome.

[StarSlayer]

Hell's Highway is probably one of the best maps to take on a terror mission. plenty of cover to advance up and you can typically make first contact with the crysallids early and with a meat grinder to meet them.

The zombie is a host while the chrysallid larva is gestating.

[NGTM-1R]

Zombies? O_o

Die to Chryssalid melee attack.

Turn passes.

Get up as zombie.

Last...3 turns? I've never let one do it.

Turns into new Chryssalid.

[z64555]

The idea of a laser shotgun is pretty ridiculous...ly awesome.

It was featured in two mod/expansion packs for Fallout 3, "Broken Steel" gave you a 3-shot laser rifle, while "The Pitt" gave you a proper shotgun pistol (Metal Blaster) as a prize for collecting enough steel ingots from the trog field. I do not know if it was used elseware.

[deathfun]

The idea of a laser shotgun is pretty ridiculous...ly awesome.

It was featured in two mod/expansion packs for Fallout 3, "Broken Steel" gave you a 3-shot laser rifle, while "The Pitt" gave you a proper shotgun pistol (Metal Blaster) as a prize for collecting enough steel ingots from the trog field. I do not know if it was used elseware.

You forgot the unique laser pistol you could get normally in Fallout 3 which acted as a shotgun. I believe it was called Protectron's Gaze



And damn, that was a fast and hard mission right there. In, out, many dead bodies, not a single injury
Not bad

[esarai]

Personal Log: Cpt. Esarai
Date: 04-21-2015
Well holy crap, we all made it back in one piece.  These new laser rifles are some fearsome monsters.  New alien appeared today--command's calling them Chrysalids.  They're tough as f**k, can take a XL shot to the face, but not much more than that.  'Rookiegrinder' worked well today, kept to cover and combined fire to mow these ****ers like an overgrown lawn.  Combined XL-small arms fire is a thing to see--Chrysalid's carapace cracks under laser fire, then the bullets shatter it like a window, and another volley of XL sears the innards to dust.  If only our guncams had higher framerates.

Also saw a sight I'm not going to forget for a while--some poor russian bro was seriously f**ked up, turning green, his veins about to pop.  Usually the aliens just web people up... this was something else.  It was like he had something underneath all that, something inside pushing against his bones, keeping him from moving right.  Looked painful.  I hope the science types can tell us what the heck was going on there.

We met up with the Russians after the op incase further combat ops were required, but those guys are professionals.  They laid the law and didn't give the ET's an inch.  When we were on standby some of our comrades sauntered over and tried to talk to me, but dammit I don't speak russian.  They looked pretty confused.  I think being a yank with a Russian flag on my armor is what threw them... but hey, my great-grandfather was part Russian, so hopefully that counts?  Seriously how did my registration files get that wrenched?  Ah well, not worth command's time to sort it.  We're saving the Earth, and if we win no one's gonna give a damn about that stuff anyways.  We're supposed to be the best of humanity, not the best of Russia or the USA.

Oh and I'll need to remember to thank command for the sunblock--I only got half a sunburn this time.  Man, tanning salons are never gonna be the same.

[Fury]

NGTM-1R, out of curiosity. Why did you research and manufacture laser weapons? Plasma should be available fairly quickly. It doesn't seem to be possible to sell old equipment, or I have conveniently missed how.

[Scourge of Ages]

Because all plasmas must be captured (or built at extreme cost), and until you capture

Spoiler:

a Muton or Elite Floater, the biggest you'll get is a Light Plasma Rifle, which is functionally identical to the laser rifle, but way more expensive to build.

[TrashMan]

^
It also gets a +10 aim bonus for some reason and that actually makes it superior to he laser rifle.

[z64555]

The idea of a laser shotgun is pretty ridiculous...ly awesome.

It was featured in two mod/expansion packs for Fallout 3, "Broken Steel" gave you a 3-shot laser rifle, while "The Pitt" gave you a proper shotgun pistol (Metal Blaster) as a prize for collecting enough steel ingots from the trog field. I do not know if it was used elseware.

You forgot the unique laser pistol you could get normally in Fallout 3 which acted as a shotgun. I believe it was called Protectron's Gaze

oh damnit. and it comes from the quest that I so often complete with taking both the AntAgonist and the Mechanist out of their costume shenanigans.

***z64555 checks to see if Fallout 3 is still installed on his desktop

[Fury]

Because all plasmas must be captured (or built at extreme cost), and until you capture

Spoiler:

a Muton or Elite Floater, the biggest you'll get is a Light Plasma Rifle, which is functionally identical to the laser rifle, but way more expensive to build.

Well, I did manage to equip my squad of six with plasmas before I had even researched laser. On the other hand, I'm playing on easy because I got tired of getting roflstomped later in the game because I didn't quite understand all game mechanics yet. I didn't play any of the old xcom games either.