[deathfun]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiit
Things are about the get very, very interesting

[NGTM-1R]

I figured that, but I really wish we drew Site Recon, though. At this point it'll be...less impressive.

IN OTHER NEWS

I have two more infantry slots open so technically Blargher and Swashmebuckle are in, I haven't deployed them yet however.

[swashmebuckle]

I was unwittingly recruited into the b-thread as a blond Russian fellow who can't shoot straight, so I would not object to my spot going to someone else. I don't know if this planet is big enough for two swashmebuckles, though you could always recruit his German cousin boschmeswuckle.

[deathfun]

Up to the fellas involved in B-Company if they want the switch. I can always rename

[NGTM-1R]

Well then it's up to you, Swash.

Or if somebody not on the list on either site is reading this thread, speak up! We've got openings as interceptor pilots and infantry here!

[Droid803]

Make me into a mook plz.

[Scourge of Ages]

I think I'll stick with B-site for now, please hand my slot to someone else if it comes up

[Mongoose]

Might as well throw me in as cannon fodder on whichever list.

[swashmebuckle]

OK, I'll stick it out with team B and hope my aim improves before the really nasty aliens show up. Good luck to everyone (except the really nasty aliens).

[jr2]

If you have empty slots down the road, throw me in, this looks interesting, as always!

[NGTM-1R]

Alloy armor, same stuff the aliens make their ships out of. It's lighter than the existing Kevlar and cermaic vests, but also stronger. It should keep us from the constant sickbay times we've had before.

And shinier.

You've seen what deathfun wears, Commander. I don't think the aliens prioritize targets the same way we do.

Operation Cursed Pyre, Lyon, France, 10:45am, May 21st
Deployed: Admiral "Marauder" Ralwood (MEC, mission commander), Polpolion "Polly" (support), Deathfun "Fabulous" (support), Trashman "Walker" (sniper), Droid803 "Scotch" (support), Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang (heavy)

"And here they told me I'd have to wear rookie armor my first mission. But I didn't get a laser rifle."

"You are, Droid. It's in the color, not the type. You get to wear the black, or whatever color it is you decide you want, if you live. And...****, you didn't get a laser rifle? Goddammit! I'm going to smack the quartermaster around for that. Everyone should have them by now. Okay people, tactical spacing, take cover, we've got a site to clear."


"Where the hell are they? We've secured a Meld canister and swept half the site and they're not even here!"

"Cloak noises!"

"Firing!"


"Holy ****, did you just blow one away while it tried to cloak?"

"A life misspent in back alleys and darkness, Captain. I find it almost easier to hit targets I can barely see."

"Floaters in the garage!"


"Engaging. Target destroyed. Droid, see if you can get the other."


"Solid hit-no kill."


"Dammit, this is why you should have had a laser rifle. Somebody screwed up!"

"I have him."


"Nice work Zhang-Floaters in the waiting area!"


"Watch it, Fab! We kind of need our heads!"

"Firing! Target down!"


"POLLY! NOT HELPING! Where'd the last one go!?"

"He's outside, out front."

"Roger, bringing him down."


"Cloa-TRASH GET DOWN!"


"We done here?"

"Sky reports no movement. We're done. Weird there were so few of 'em."

_{Meanwhile, in South American, Very Special Agent StarSlayer calls for extraction. IT'S TIME FOR SOME EXALT CONTENT.}

[NGTM-1R]

"Apparently StarSlayer uncovered a major EXALT presence in Brazil, but got rumbled and needs extraction. We're going in to get our person out and get the intel. Don't think it'll be easy; Star reported significant genetic modification was evident in EXALT's operatives."

"This isn't exactly what I signed on for, Sanderson."

"I hear you Gortef, but they've decided the best answer is to fight us and deliver everyone into the hands of the aliens. We've got to stop them if we're going to stop the aliens as well. The Council has other ways to wage war, but we're soldiers, we use the tools and skills we have. They killed those French airborne without a thought, they'll try to kill you too. Don't hesitate."

"Death to the xenos, death to those who consort with the xenos."

"I heard that. Just because you have a laser rifle doesn't mean you're in the Imperial Guard. We have a much better survival rate, for starters."

Operation Demon's Vengeance, Brazilian coast, 9:00pm, May 18th
Deployed: Micheal "Gipsy D" Sanderson (MEC, mission commander), Mongoose "Strobe" (heavy), Irina "Casino" Ignatyeva (heavy), Droid803 "Scotch" (support), Gortef (support), TwentyPercentCooler (sniper)
On-site: StarSlayer "Viper" (sniper, covert operative)

"Star, Strike Lead, we are moving north from the LZ to meet you. How copy?"

"Strike, am I glad to see you! Area is very hot, Exalt operatives with gene mods, projectile weapons, explosives. Am trying to reach you!"


"We have movement ahead. Star, is that you?"

"Negative, negative, I'm pinned down by an Exalt comm relay." _{Hacking EXALT Comm Relays forces them to reload their weapons before they can fire, in effect causing them to waste a turn doing so, though they can still move somewhat}


"Roger. Target is spatter."


"Just saved my bacon, Sandy, moving out!"

"We've got Exalt ops moving up under cover of smoke...jesus, look at their faces..." _{EXALT troops come in the same classes as your own, and have abilities like your troops; their Supports have smoke grenades like yours do, and medikits like yours.}


"Gene mods. They weren't subtle or careful about them. Shame if something happened to his cover, like a railgun." _{Collateral Damage ability native to all MECs used to destroy the cover. Probably needless, but the smoke made me paranoid.}


"Gortef, drop him."

"Copy. Target down. Only one?"


"No way, I saw at least a half-dozen."


"Welcome in from the cold Star. Stay safe, you're not in armor."

"Don't suppose you brought a spare suit?"

"No such luck."

"Hostiles moving up! No hit, but he ain't happy."


"Eyes on two of them." _{Unlike the alien voices you get for the alien turn, the EXALT turn gives you scrambled radio transmissions.}


"Strike, Sky, hostiles entering the AO in number." _{One of them didn't even make it that far, Irina is explosively vaporizing his face in the last shot.}





"Get the **** out of my personal space!" _{An EXALT Support dropped next to Droid. And directly on top of Star.}


"Only winged him, going for stun-he just stabbed himself in the neck with a syringe. He's gone."


"Crazy bastards. Guess we knew that though. Dropped one." _{Exalt have grenades like yours, too.}


"Solid hit...my god, he took a full-auto heavy laser burst and he's still alive!"



"I told you they were aug'd up the wazoo, Mongoose-wait, did he just use a medikit? Like one of our medikits? That's proprietary tech! How the hell did they get that!"


"Got more moving up, firing! No hit!" _{I put TwentyPercentCooler on the roof of a large building for overwatch. It didn't work as well as it could have, lack of squadsight. Still, he got his back later.}



"Damn, likewise. Adjusting aim-firing-target down!" _{The Major ability for MECs is Overdrive; firing a regular shot as the first action of the turn acts just like a short move; you can still fire another shot or move or reload.}



"You just blew through a cargo container to kill him!"

"I have a railgun. Velocitas eradico, your cover is irrelevant."

"Dammit, missed the one with the LMG. Hit a truck."


"Maybe you'll get-damn, nope."


"Got more moving, missed him."


"Pfft, amateurs."


"Says the one with the pistol."

"Hey, I hit the target at a greater range than you missed."

"Strike, Sky, more dropping in."




"There's just no end to them."

"Dammit, another one survive a laser hit! These guns just aren't killing them reliably!"


"Can it people, we're HLPX-COM and these bastards aren't nearly as impressive as an alien battleship. We can do this."

"Taking fire, not accurate."


"I have a fix on his position, taking him down."


"Nice shooting Mongoose."

"Got more moving on the other side of the warehouse between us and the LZ!"


"Firing!"


"What was that, pistolero?"

"Not bad Gortef, perhaps you should have been a Sniper too."

"Hmm, so he thinks the edge of the building will protect him. Didn't learn from the death of his buddy. Firing."


"Backing you up, Mike-target, firing! Damn, he's still up!"


"Got another group!" _{EXALT rookies and a Heavy.}


"I have a shot from the roof, firing."


"What the hell, you used your pistol?"

"Didn't have time to set up the bipod!"

"Confirm they've got medikits, that one just used one."


"It's not going to help. Target is high-velocity spatter."


"Got one back on the other side trying to sneak around; missed him!" _{Heavies can get Bullet Swarm, which works essentially the same way as Overdrive I described above; but for them it's a Sergeant ability.}



"Scratch one."


"Target is running-target is down."


"****, frag incoming!"


"Star! Talk to me."

"Cut up. Think I've got shrapnel in my thigh. Can walk, it's not bad."

"Right. Minor armor damage here."

"And another new one!"


"...did we do that with our lasers, Irina?"

"I think we did, Mongoose."

"Winged him!"


"Surprise mother****er!" _{TwentyPercentCooler drops from the roof like Spiderman and pistol-kills this EXALT guy. DYNAMIC ENTRY}

[/img]

"He's running-missed!"


"His aim is rather poor."


"Frankly with all the lasers we've blasted at these guys, the fact their hands aren't shaking so bad they can't hold a gun is amazing."

"Target is down."


"Strike, Sky. No movement and no IR in the area. Coming in to pick you up."


"You ready to go home, Star?"

"Yeah."




First combat mission against EXALT. They fight hard; as hard or harder than we do. Pure fanatics, kill themselves to avoid capture, whole nine yards. I suppose in some ways that's not so different from us. Still, the bodies we brought back...

Doc Shen was brought in as the conscience of the project mainly because nobody trusted Doctor Vahlen to recognize when the bounds were being overstepped. She's not crazy, mind, but she's pretty gung-ho FOR SCIENCE at times, and having watched the lady interrogate a Thin Man once, I know she can appear to be quite lacking in basic morality. I've killed those things and they've tried to kill me and I still think it was a bit disturbing. Vahlen has no such excuse.

She was autopsying one of the EXALT operatives we brought back and she threw up.

Doctor Vahlen had to turn it over to somebody else from Biology. Her commentary in the base lounge wasn't just offended; it was disgusted. She called what was done to him gross butchery and perverse and a whole horde of German expletives that I'm honestly not sure I want translated. Not just augmentation and grafts, too. Combat drugs. One of the reasons they were so hard to down was they were high as kites on painkiller and stimulant mixes that would kill normal people. At the same time their adrenaline levels were so high the biology guys can't tell if they were just injecting it straight or if their adrenal glands were hyped to hell or even both. These guys took laser shots to the stomach, with no body armor, and kept fighting with half their guts blown away. Madness. And I worried I was throwing away my soul to fight for humanity. Well, that's in perspective now.

We did find out one other thing though. The EXALT ops...they were all civvies in their real lives. Worked regular jobs, banks and offices and stuff, the call came and they put on their bandannas and armbands and picked a fight with a squad of HLPX-COM troopers. Last thing they ever did. We think we wiped out the whole cell.

[ssmit132]

I've enjoyed following this so far. If you're still adding people then I wouldn't mind volunteering myself for the cause. Also if I survive long enough (and am in the right role) to be allowed coloured armour can I get a lime/bright green if that colour is there please?

[StarSlayer]

Did we just toast a Leo 2A4 with a laser rifle?   I don't know if I should be impressed about how powerful our weaponry is or concerned about how tough our enemies are that they can get hit by that stuff and survive...

Glad to know the UEI counter insurgency training from before XCOM was put to good use.  After staking out these asshats for a while I'm pretty convinced they are seriously no bueno.  Commander, I'd like to volunteer for any covert ops we need to run against Exalt in the future.  It might be a slow road to promotion taking on these missions but I think figuring out what they are up to might be critical to XCOM.

Also can I get a call sign change to Tiradora?

[TwentyPercentCooler]

"Surprise, mother****er!"

That is awesome. And I really need to get this game, combat against EXALT seems like a hell of a lot of fun.

[MP-Ryan]

I realize I'm a few pages late, but apparently I'm trying to set a record for most number of kills by a guy who spends more time in sickbay than actively running missions.

[Grizzly]

Joshua Vandenberg's autopsy report.

A voice echoes down the hall. The voice is very familiar, yet the utilization is very far from such. Being Dutch from origin, I am rather familiar with the german language, but I shall save anyone the details of the language that Dr. Vahlen directed in everyone's general direction. I have never seen her so angry... It's... exhilarating and terrifying, at the same time. With considerable fear, I took over the autopsy of this man's body.

Subject: "Johann Faust"
Auburn caucasian male.
Age estimated to be in mid thirties.
Cause of death: Extremely severe heart failure.

Additional notes:
I can see why dr. Vahlen felt... uneasy. Especially considering her method of 'taking it all in' when it comes to science. This body must be observed with caution, taking in detail by detail, for one quickly gets consumed by it's horrifying aspects if one goes too quickly.
The biggest shock is probably the considerable crudeness that went into the modifications. All organs show signs of having grown considerably in a very short time, as does the bone structure. This rapid growth must have caused considerable growth pains, which might explain the heavy use of anesthetics. I am amazed at the ability of the EXALT operatives to hide this in public.

The heart has been subject to incredible growth, coming in at a size that is atleast 50% bigger then even our most healthy XCOM operative. This process seems to have taken place in an incredibly short time. It shows the same signs that, say, one of the famous "plofkippen" has, chickens which have been grown for the slaughter and are ready in as little as six weeks - as a result, the meat is suprisingly weak and very easy to rip apart.
The same was true for this subject's heart. The subject's entire blood system seems to emphasize quantity over quality - every vein and the heart have been increased in size to accomodate ridicilous amounts of blood, which, alongside changes to the bone marrow which seem to facilitate an heavily increased blood production, all in support of all the other organs which have similarily increased and require more blood to work at full capacity. However, the net result does seem to be that the subject will not bleed out as easily.
The problem with this particular subject, however, is that the heart and the veins (And indeed, all the organs) have increased in size in such a manner that they seem to have lost some of it's structural integrity. This leads to this subjects cause of death:

The last hit by an XCOM operative caused this subject's adrenaline to spike. This, in turn, caused the heart rate to go into overdrive.
The rapid and very significant change in heart beat has caused the subject's vascular system to be fractured by the increased pressure, killing him in a very painfull manner by matter of several internal bleedings. The picture is extremily horrifying, as a lot of traces of dried blood below the skin are visible, especially near the temples. I can not, and do not, want to imagine how the subject felt when his veins started bursting one by one, obviously leading to an even more accelerated heart rate as his body died around him.
The pain must have been agonizing.
Even with all the stims.

[NGTM-1R]

Did we just toast a Leo 2A4 with a laser rifle?   

Also can I get a call sign change to Tiradora?

Heavy Laser, technically, going full auto, but yeah.

And as for the second, consider it done. I'm actually reluctant to send you on more missions, however, as you lack the pistol specialization that I'd normally want to send on these missions. Then again, we have only one other sniper and since I can't guarantee Trash will be available, we'll see.

[Grizzly]

Savegame edit the special spez in .

[NGTM-1R]

Savegame edit the special spez in .

He asked for the other one! It's Gunslinger or Damn Good Ground, and he asked for Damn Good Ground.