Just when you thought it was safe to... TFTD, the soldier genocide simulator.

Saphroneth · March 11, 2011, 06:29:28 PM

"Move out. Helga, stay back here and cover our escape route."
"I can-"
"You can't, and that's the truth. You're too badly hurt."

"Deep one, six o'clock high!"

"Another, behind that one!"

"Wow, you're on form today."
Thanks for the compliment.
"Another target, middle level!"

"Closing in on the centre of the lower deck. "

"Althalus, you first."
Dheu.

"Engine room looks clear to me, continue sweep."

"Front-upper deck seems clear - arg!"

Are you okay?
"Erf... yeah. The mag pack took much of the blast, I've got a little injury but nothing serious."

"Galina! Damnit, where was that one hiding?"

"Entering overflow cargo hold."

"Good thing is we tend to catch them by surprise."
"Huh... huh... true."
"You said you were barely injured! My diagnostic says you're in need of urgent medical attention, don't try to be some kind of superwoman!"
"Can't... let... them win."

"Engine control room secured. We have motive power."
"Rest, Ensign Johnston. We won."

We saved nearly two thirds of the crew, even if a wayward XCOM shot touched off a barrel and took the life of a civilian.
But there was something of a price.
Ouch.
We don't even have a full crew at the moment.
Impressive hospital stay times.

llearch n'n'daCorna · March 12, 2011, 08:55:47 AM

Heh. I was wondering if "Anthalus" was a typo from the Redemption of Althalus, when I saw you mention Dheu.

Although Dhreu is probably more correct, for what's happening here. Either that or Bhlag. *grin*

... I forgot to mention it, mind, since the posts are so lengthy that it slipped my mind. Not that I'm complaining, mind...

Saphroneth · March 12, 2011, 12:15:18 PM

Well, I was thinking of the "going up in the lift" thing for the Dheu. I'm probably going to keep Althalus when I get Displacer/Sonic - he's actually got words relevant to the magnetic levitation.
And sorry for the massive length of the posts, I come by it honestly - Terror Missions in cargo ships are interminable. Please give me a land terror mission with Aquatoids, I want drills!

As a point of interest, I made it so that the fatal wounds of the ensign hurt in the first part were negated going into part two. The other injuries went unmodified, and two people were at serious risk of bleeding out by the end of the mission.

Frankly, I'm astonished that TFTD is being so lenient, that's not at all like it usually - OH GOD LOBSTERMEN

Saphroneth · March 12, 2011, 09:02:19 PM

We ordered in a large number of reinforcements at the end of the month, and they've started to arrive.

Reinforce.
Reinorce Zwei.
Okay, let's check out our new troops. Gunny?
Give me an attitude check!
Frack this!
Give me a positive attitude check!
Positively frack this!
Give me a negative attitude check!
I am not!
Joining!
The fracking!
Marines!
Oo-rah.

They're not USMC, such as that organization is now - it only provides the marine companies on US starships - but they fight underwater, which counts, right?

Sonic heavy weapon.
As expected from our look over, it has two major disadvantages compared to the first war HP gun - it has less than a third the ammo, and no autofire. We'll probably stick with the blasters.

Time you earned your princely salaries.
Good news is that we now have enough mag ion armour to outfit a complete drop(?) team. It really is amazingly tough stuff.

"Ambush fail."

"I think that's the end of the external forces, not sure though."
"Got it. Team, go over the top."
"Woah!"

*blhaaaagggghhh...*

That's my line.

"Ow! My overengineered chestplate!"

"Weren't ready for that, were you? Oh, er...ow. Medic?"

"Area secure."

More promotions. We sure have a lot of ensigns.
This won't be like Alien War One, will it? Too many sergeants and not enough privates?"
This should deal with the unfortunate tendency to get internal injuries. Though how it works through the armour is anybody's guess.

Well, that can't be good.
I recommend waiting until we have a full understanding of the Molecular Control phenomenon before the attack.

Small one.

"Woo!"

"Is it me, or are they not fighting as well as normal today?"

It's not just you.

Concerning, perhaps, but for now a windfall.
We're seeing if we can find a common thread in the Sonic weapons line to scale it up, perhaps on the Plasma Cannon hardpoint model. It would give us a lot more punch.
Almost there.
Tracking reports an Alien DN-class off Norway. Those things are terrifying, no way we're taking it on directly.
Keep it plotted and we'll see what happens.

Now Hear This! All hands, General Quarters! Man the airlocks, we are being boarded!
Well, crap.
Looks like the inventory only has a load of sonic weapons, nothing stun or explosive. Could be worse, but could be much better as well. At least we know how to use all of them.

llearch n'n'daCorna · March 13, 2011, 02:52:25 PM

Quote from: Saphroneth on March 12, 2011, 09:02:19 PM
Okay, let's check out our new troops. Gunny?
Give me an attitude check!
Frack this!
Give me a positive attitude check!
Positively frack this!
Give me a negative attitude check!
I am not!
Joining!
The fracking!
Marines!
Oo-rah.

"Let's have an attitude check."
"I hate this fracking place."
"Let's have a positive attitude check."
"I positively hate this fracking place."
"Let's have a negative attitude check."
"I don't like this fracking place."
"Let's have a short attitude check."
"Frack it."

If you're gonna quote, quote correctly. ;-] Even if you bowdlerize it.

Saphroneth · March 13, 2011, 04:19:13 PM

Grabbed it from John Ringo's Looking Glass/Vorpal Blade series, actually. About a page up from the bottom. So it was him who both screwed around with it AND bowlderized it (he had set up grapp as a fictional swearword and used that).
Still OOC, something in this update made me a very happy person. You can probably tell what.

The enemy has entered the base. The enemy has entered the base.
"Right, everyone load up. Command, is the TSDS online?"
TSDS is indeed online.
"Good. Sub active crew, concentrate near the door to the hanger, you're our reserve. Everyone else, move in pairs if you can, we need the enemy mapped. Althalus, head for the nearest hanger."

Aquatoids.
"...huh. You know, I feel a lot better now. Not sure what I expected..."

Easy.
"Okay, good. Hold that corridor and move forward slow as you like. North hanger?"

"There's a couple in here too, but I see a lot more movement over by the lift. I think they're going to try to regroup in here."
"Got it. Cut them down as they do so - hang on a sec."

"Yeah, Grand Banks Actual secure, I think that was the extent of the decapitation strike - such as it was. Severn?"

"My entrance to the north hanger clear."
"Good, I can mark that on. Garnier, you're too far from the rest of the team, get closer."
"Aye, aye, ma'am. Er, do we have any old diving suits in inventory?"
"What, the standard ones?"
"No, I mean more along the lines of those ones with the tube going up to the surface."
"What? No, none of those. "
"Oh, good. I was wondering. Because I just saw one."

"Hang on... okay, I patched your feed. Yeah, wow. I recommend shooting it. And get Stuart to give you some support on the flanks."

"On it - and I found it's handler."

"Active squad... take them!"

"Nice work, everyone. Now keep it up."

"Wow, so that's what an Aquatoid screaming in terror sounds like."

"Severn here, the enemy terror unit and handler have been neutralized."

"There's still more of them in the killing zone, people!"

"Good, keep up the pressure!"
"Ma'am, I think we hit their entire command team in the initial ambush. I read no reports of MC attacks."
"Good. Now, keep it up, we're breaking them!"

"The hell IS this?"

"One of them escaped the cauldron, but I'm only reading a stun launcher - that thermal shock thing. No major risk."
"Good to know."

"Hah! Too slow on the draw, bastard!"

"Keep pushing! Don't let them reorganize! Ensign, take a fireteam around the back of the sub and try to smoke out the remaining forces. Everyone else ready for crossfire on anything that makes it."
"Grenade!"

"Phew, it didn't make it in damage range of the suits."

"Pity we can't return the favour with one of these."

"Okay, Hernandez, be ready to fire when the smoke clears."

"I have a bead on the last one."
"Actual confirms all other aliens accounted for. Take the shot."

"Phew. Looks like a load of corpses got blasted when the grenade went off - hey, one of these Aquatoids is alive!"
"Alive or dead, they're harmless now."
"Yeah, nice work... Commander."
"What? Me? But I... there are other Lieutenants, and..."
"You took command instinctively and directed the battle well. You deserve it."

"..course, Commander in a naval setting isn't as good as Captain, so there's that..."
"Shut up you."

In the not too distant future,
Way down in Deep 13,
Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank,
Were hatching an evil scheme.

They hired a temp by the name of Mike,
Just a regular joe they didn't like,
Their experiment needed a good test case,
So they conked him on the noggin and shot him into space!

"We'll send him cheesy movies,
The worst we can find! (la la la)
He'll have to sit and watch them all,
And we'll monitor his mind!" (la la la)

Now keep in mind Mike can't control
Where the movies begin or end (la la la)
He'll try to keep his sanity
With the help of his robot friends!
Robot Roll Call
Cambot! (Show yourself!)
Gypsy! (I'm not ready!)
Tom Servo! (Hello there!)
Crooooow! (That's one "o!")

If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts (la la la)
Then repeat to yourself "It's just a show
I should really just relax

For Mystery Science Theater 3000!"

Man, they really like watching that program in the second base. Good thing it finally came out on DVD last year.

What, again? Already?
At least it would be Aquatoids again.

Saphroneth · March 13, 2011, 09:56:13 PM

Quick question: what should I research next?

Calcinite Corpse, and hence Drills,
the Sonic Oscillator (basically the First War plasma cannon, also gives me flying tanks with the sub techs),
the MC tech line (not completable at this point but I can get to screening troops),
the Thermal Shok line (stun bombs),
the Disruptor Pulse Launcher (Underwater Blaster Bombs) or
the sub techs to give me better interceptors?

techmaster-glitch · March 13, 2011, 11:21:20 PM

if it were me, who's never played these games before, I'd go for stun bombs, -if- they are automatic takedowns. Mass-produce em, equip every soldier with at bunch, then live-capture every blasted aqualien you see.

...but if that were really as good as I think, then it stands to reason I would see it more often. So, I'm wondering what the crippling drawback is here

in lieu of that, flying tanks sounds quite awesomely powerful.

Corgatha Taldorthar · March 14, 2011, 12:03:50 AM

I admit, I haven't been playing very close attention to this let's play, but how are you council-wise? Are you generally taking down the USOs? If you're having trouble actually making contact, I'd suggest the sub research. Otherwise, I'd suggest getting the MC chain started.

Saphroneth · March 14, 2011, 07:36:26 AM

Okay, good and bad points.

MC tech: takes months to get setup, and until Tasoths turn up I can't get the Disruptor to use offensively anyway.

Stun launcher: does (lots of) stun damage, which is less resisted than other damage types and hence has proportionately more effect. Problem is, it's still random damage (witness my first war soldier who tanked a stunblast to the face) and especially with aliens with high HP and natural weapons there's no way to tell HOW stunned they are. And the damage gradually wears off.
Final problem with it is that it's annoyingly ammo hungry, the shots are singletons rather than clip based.

Drills: I'll need either this or the Stun Launcher pretty sharpish after the Lobstermen become a serious threat, but for now it's not as necessary. Drills do great damage to everything including a whopping double (!) to the Lobstermen. Oh, and they take tiny amounts of the turn to use and never miss.

Sub techs including Oscillator: At the moment I'm doing pretty well with the council - even that month where I missed two Terror Missions and got a negative score, I still got more money.

And a side option is the Sonic Pulser (the Alien Grenade of TFTD, massively powerful) of which I have about a hundred in storage.

Corgatha Taldorthar · March 14, 2011, 10:03:43 AM

You didn't get the grenade yet?

Of course, I seem to recall being stunned about how late you got it in the first game, I think it's just a playing style thing, I tend to like it to give everyone in the squad the ability to toss some explosive damage. But I'd change my vote to the pulser. (And then still get the MC game started, so you can at least screen people for psi-wimpiness)

llearch n'n'daCorna · March 14, 2011, 10:48:38 AM

Quote from: Saphroneth on March 13, 2011, 04:19:13 PM
Grabbed it from John Ringo's Looking Glass/Vorpal Blade series, actually. About a page up from the bottom. So it was him who both screwed around with it AND bowlderized it (he had set up grapp as a fictional swearword and used that).

Given you picked it up from Mr Ringo, and I picked it up from Mr Clancy, I suspect it's a widely-used military meme.

In which case, I withdraw my objection.

... and replace it with one to your link, which leads me to the first chapter of the book, not the page you meant, and I'm now hooked into reading it again. >.<

As for your query, I'd vote for drills: there is no kill like overkill. ;-]

Saphroneth · March 17, 2011, 07:22:05 PM

I think the DUP heads are actually bigger than the ship.
That thing we found in the base, in the armour suit, had a very strange way of moving.
Let's see what we can see about it.
Uggh. I'm glad it was in the suit now.
Still, it inspired our scientists into finding ways to emulate Simon the Digger.
Sweet.
These things attack just insanely fast. As in, they take less time to spin up and attack with than it takes to pick one off the floor.

Not that it'll be needed for Aquatoids again.

My aim isn't as good as, perhaps, it could be.
"Mine is."

"I see one isolated in the room here. I'll give the new 'blade a try."

"Ew. That is a mess."

OW.

"Last one down."

"You may now call me Skipper."

Why did we even research this?
Answer: it sells massively well. For triple the price of making it. It's no Laser Cannon, but it IS an economic miracle. That's the new job for the techs when we don't need something made desperately.

Oh, the month ended, and we got more money. And a notice of an alien colony in the Egypt area.
Well, we may as well go have a look at it, see if there's anything there of interest. The new drills should handle almost anything.

"Okay, stay sharp. This is Alien home ground, not ours, and the Med's really deep here."
"You got it, skip. Er, what are those?"

"Oh, ICK. And that looks uncomfortably like a heavy weapon in the dinosaur's hands."
"Skip? I think the best name for it is a Grell."
"What."
"D&D nerd, I'm afraid. Gotta love third edition."
"I'm only familiar with eighth."

"I... I can't control... AAAHH!"

"Crap! Whatever else those aliens are, they're MC capable!"
"Skip? The boffins heard that last bit. They want a sample."
"Oh, brilliant. Well, if you want a job doing properly, I suppose..."
"Skip? Where are you going?"

"I have a sample. Open season, everyone."
"Aah! There's one... gah, he missed! Eat drill!"

"Wake the sleeper. Wakethesleeper. wakethesleeperwakethesleeper-"
"Giant mutant jellyfish!"
"Captain to all crew! We are pulling out NOW!"
"Jellyfish down! Yeah, didn't like that did you!"
"When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was
killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the
W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned
them, but they swam on its surface.
The Sleeper cannot die. You will fail.
You are but chattel placed here by Him
to sustain Him when He awakes."
"Damn, I can't get a bead on him. Nobody deserves to be captured by an Alien like this."

"Captain, coxswain here. I can't pull out while that heavy gunner is covering us."
"Not a problem. XO, hold this."
"The alien?"
"Yeah. Problem solving time."

"Skip, that was the most beautiful shot I've seen in my life."
"Go! Now now now!"
"Dusting off, rolling ship and punching us up a vector to use the buildings as a shield."

"Crap! Underwater blaster bombs coming at us!"
"We're almost there. Just a little further... now, break west!"
*Thooooom*

The sub escaped by using an underwater volcano as a shield against the potent torpedoes. Analysis of the explosion has revealed something unusual - the weapon was an ardune warhead, until now merely conjecture. A collection of identical-colour quarks, the resultant explosion has three times the potency of antimatter of the same mass.

We lost someone on the trip, sadly. But there was nothing we could do.
Research into Molecular Control is beginning immediately.

Lobster men? What? This is just getting silly.

Saphroneth · March 17, 2011, 07:46:18 PM

Trapped.
That was the one thought at the front of Seaman Bakeovich' mind. The mind he was now, as the thought indicated, trapped in.
He'd managed to dump his Blasta when the attack had come in, before the icy feeling had crept into his muscles and veins, moving them without consulting his CNS. He was no longer in control of his own actions.
But he was a trained Psi-resist, like everyone in Xcom. And he knew what to do.
Moving under puppet strings, dancing to the whim of a cold, cold reptilian mind older and vaster and hungrier than anything born of the Earth, he lurched into the Alien colony. Passing reptiles, their purple crests wafting in the sluggish currents. Seeing strange monsters with tentacles and beaks, or like a great jellyfish, or a vast nautilus with a cannon nestled in its' tentacles.
And every last moment logged away in his mind as data.
His lurching movement came to a stop in a lift, which transported him down onto the bowels of the colony.

A strange pair of rings, shimmering and dancing. Drawing all the heat out of the air hungrily, absorbing light, even sound - such as it was.
It began to rise into another configuration, and the Seaman felt the stirrings of a powerful presence at the edge of his mind. So this was their psionic, the way they would pick his brain.
Well, too late.
Bakeovich spared a moment to remember his beloved steppes, which he would never see again.
And triggered the programme in his Neural Lace.

His armour flashed into emergency power mode, expending Zrbite almost ten thousand times faster than the best ships the Aliens had did, for two purposes.
One: transmit. A stutter of gravitic distortion blasted out of the grav/pulse com in the suit, the communication device that was the only one certain to work anywhere, even underwater... encoding the complete sensor take of the interior of the Alien Colony.
The second thing his armour did was to overwhelm his resisting, treacherous limbs and take his spare Blasta clip in one hand, his Vibroblade in the other, and crack the Blasta casing.
With a muffled thump of overpressure followed by a terrible rending, Victor Bakeovich' suit cracked and imploded, denying the mind of the torpid W'rkncacnter the chance to learn what faced it.

Captain Cook, her officers, and the enlisted men of Grand Banks stood in silence as the playback ended.
Nobody spoke for almost a minute. Then Akira raised his head.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the tradition lives."

Saphroneth · March 22, 2011, 10:43:18 AM

We're off to see the lobster...

"Now there's a strange sight. Are we suddenly in some kind of Japanese monster movie?"
"We've been somewhere like it for decades, seaman. Now, open fire!"

"The hell is with this? This thing's bouncing far too many blasta rounds."

"Finally. How many was that?"
Four hits or so.
Skipper, I see another - alert!

"Giving support fire here."

"Argh!"
"Damn, they can shoot straight. Medic, over there ASAP!"

"How are you still conscious?"
"Drugs. Lovely, lovely combat stims."

Might be a good idea if you fellows got over here right about now.

"Hang tight, gentlemen. This is a drill."
"Worst pun ever, if the Captain will allow."
"Privilege of rank, Ensign. Get used to it."

Crash backup successful. I hope that was spectacular enough.
"Good work, Althie. Rest now."
Don't... call me... that...

"Hah! We have one of them captured live."
"Good. See if there are any high rankers."

"Another technician, I think."

"Yeah."

Not bad. But the loss of the SWS is a pity, even if we do have the Gestalt.

Good to know we can get testing people soon.

Thoroughly routine, apart from the bayonet charge at the end.

Good news is now we can tell which aliens are the best ones to capture.
Now it's time to actually find out what that stuff we're fueling the suits, guns and MC Readers with... well, is.

The ship's grounded. Go take it.

"Move out. Secure the perimeter."

"Immediate area is secure. Field Actual to all squad Sixes. Gather them up and move out."

Saphroneth · March 29, 2011, 04:42:11 PM

"Targets?"
"On it."

"There!"

"Another as well, over on the west side! Take them!"

"Let me test this MC reader... oh, that's interesting."

"The lab boys reconfigured it to read out like our own reports."
"Wait, are those numbers right? My gran's a better shot than that."
"Wasn't your gran at the siege of Boston?"

"Your point being?"
"Oh, this one looks conscious. Bag'im."

Not too shabby.

Couldn't we have called it something pronounceable?
And with that the research into how submarines work progressed.
Apparently the hydrodynamicist started crying when the full extent of the Aliens' blatant warping of fluid physics became apparent. Ah well, he'll get over it.

Oh, great. Lobster terror mission? Not fun sounding at all.
At least we can intercept the scout ship on the seabed.

"Okay, everyone, CQC if you can manage it. Pistol drill, people, and I don't mean practicing with pistols."

"Technician. Looks like the highest rank in the area. We already have one of those, drill'em."
"Also holy hell that is a fit crustacean. Too bad for them that they can't aim."

"Biomaterials should not give way that easily."
"Crap! Welcoming party!"

"GRENADE!"

"...medic!"

"I need medical attention over here, too, I have a couple of bad arm hits that aren't stopping bleeding."

"Right, we've made it to the ship. Blades on, no mercy."

Nice haul again.
Now all we need to do is-

Damnit.

At least we finished the Big, powerful shipboard rechargeable weapon. Maybe we can try to shoot down the next terror mission Battleship.

Port attack on Aberdeen? I hate to say this, but why bother?

"Lobsters everywhere. At least we don't have to worry about any of those Ardune torps on land..."

Corgatha Taldorthar · March 29, 2011, 07:47:38 PM

Quote from: Saphroneth on March 29, 2011, 04:42:11 PM

Port attack on Aberdeen? I hate to say this, but why bother?

North Sea Oil?

Saphroneth · March 30, 2011, 10:23:08 AM

This is the future. We use eco friendly Elerium power now.
caution: may not be eco friendly on the lifeless ball of strip mined rock that used to be Pandora. But those blue xenophobes had it coming.

Saphroneth · April 03, 2011, 03:07:06 PM

"Sniper on the top floor!"

"Everyone into cover! Medic to the front of the sub, what's in that building on the starboard side?"

"Some kind of drone, I'd say it was a mini Cyberdisc but it... mutters to itself..."
"Anything else?"

"One of their Squad Leaders and... looks like another drone."
"Fire at will."

"The Drones have suicide charges, everyone look out!"

"Rubbish design, these suicide charges. They have to be triggered by ranged fire. Not melee, range. Idiots."

(Boris Mannski)
"NO!"
"Damn, another death..."
"Keep it up people, we can mourn later."

"Bio Drone down."

"Lobstermen... this one blew down the door keeping me from him."
"Looks like the blast wasn't kind to ya though."

"Found one!"

"Good work. Move in to capture."

(Rodreigo Hernandez)
"Stay SHARP, people! I don't want to lose any MORE."

"Tagged and bagged. We got one."

"That's the last Drone."

"And we're done."

Tactically, it's a phyrric victory by XCOM standards. Strategically... it's a bit better.

First test of the new Sonic Oscillators later in the day.

The vengeful Seamen ripped the Aquatoid crew to pieces.

We got more fuel out of it, and yet another set of Alien ship parts. As well as ammo for our reverse engineered guns.

The new recruits arrived on the turn of the month, and thus we didn't have time to quickly test them before we had to assign MC schedules.
The rest of the MC potential test results show a good set, though.

llearch n'n'daCorna · April 03, 2011, 03:45:19 PM

Ivan and Smillie seem to be... slightly short on MC, there.

Saphroneth · April 03, 2011, 04:23:58 PM

I'd rather take a set with a 7, an 0 and this many 90+ than one where everyone was 30-70.

Corgatha Taldorthar · April 03, 2011, 05:29:53 PM

Besides, you can always sack psi-wimps.

And comon! 2 soldiers dead at a terror site. That's not too shabby. Annoying, this late in the game, but you can muscle your way through *much* higher losses.

Saphroneth · April 04, 2011, 03:34:11 AM

As I found when I made everyone PsiSkill 1 to check their Strengths, one of the dead was another high psi.
Annoying...

But yeah. I think it's because I'm playing for LP, so I rushed the armour techs first and now I get injured a lot more than I get fatalities. But TFTD hasn't gone evil on me yet.
I only need one more Alien for T'Leth. Just one more Lobsterman Navigator...

Saphroneth · April 24, 2011, 04:30:51 PM

Oh, brilliant. Hang on, where?
Looks like the backup crew are handling this one.
To victory!

"Gill men!"
"Brilliant, we might live."

"Landing area clear, move out."

"Ugh, these things are horrible."

"And I don't like that strange screaming, either."

"Woo, long shot!"

"How many enemies are there on this ship?"

"Gah!"

"...huh. I haven't been shot."

"Unarmed? Wow, they're getting desperate."

"Lot of Deep ones in this raid."

"Who packs so many statues on a liner, anyway?"

"That brings the count up to five Deep Ones. This is getting annoying."

"Upper deck clear, everyone to the big cargo lift."

"How did we get the SWS down here? It won't fit anyway..."
I am remarkably cramped.

"Room clear?"

"Not yet."

"Now it's clear."

"Ack fire! Give me some cover, Leon!"

"That do you?"

"Deep one. Deep one. Deep Six, I get the picture!"

"Break through the dream!"
"Okay, general order. No more Gurren Lagann references unless it's something more impressive you're fighting."
"Aww..."

"Not. Another. Word."

"At least they're easy targets."

"Argh... I'm hit! Gill man, the suit's not quite sealed it."
"It's OK, I've got a medpak."

"Job done."

This is getting concerning.
At least we have another good weapon now.

Saphroneth · May 10, 2011, 05:39:21 PM

Well, here we are again.

It's always such a pleasure.

Remember when you tried to kill me twice?

Oh, how we laughed and laughed.

Except I wasn't laughing.

Under the circumstances, I've been shockingly nice.

You want your-

"I swear, every few years she gets into the speakers... okay, science report?"
"Tasoth.

Nasty things. Designed to be the perfect soldiers, not certain they succeeded but they did make an enemy capable of acting as a router node for an MC hack from the... entity."
"Did you get anything from that study?"

"Yeah. We reverse engineered the bionode, and we got this. It's entirely mechanical, interfaces with implants in the soldier to allow for a back-hack on the enemy connection."
Invaders off the port bow! Man the cutlasses!

Erwin...
Sorry.
Engage lockdown.

"Main enemy are likely to be in the North hanger. Again. Move by teams and neutralize."

"Report."
"Few minor altercations, nothing serious."
"Good."

"Go!"

"Damn, someone's been hacked."

"Sorry to lose her for the mission. Right, everyone, keep moving! Stay wary!"

"Gah! Medic!"

"Someone make sure she's not bleeding out! Everyone else, stop the shooter!"

"Got him!"

"Casualties?"
"Nothing permanent."
"Good. Now, we can at least get a respite before-"

llearch n'n'daCorna · May 12, 2011, 03:41:52 PM

*snerk*

Saphroneth · May 13, 2011, 02:54:42 PM

"Flamin' nora. And whose idea was it not to load all the guns? I can understand storing a Sonic Cannon without a charged clip, but a stun weapon?"

"At least we have a full loadout of sonics available."

"Argh!"
"Damn! Man down!"

"How the hell did they get past the doors?"
"They're behind us! We're all going to die!"

"No, we are NOT. Someone grab Otto's body. Poor guy, looks like his arm came o-"
"Clear this channel, that's not helping!"

"WHY do we even still have torpedoes in this room? We sold off all the launchers! Come to that, we sold off all the torpedoes."
"You're injured, ma'am. Please, fall back and-"
"I'm not making my troops take any risks I won't."
"Ma'am, you're taking risks none of the rest of us are! You're all but unarmoured!"

"Shut up and hand me a stun launcher that works."

"Snap out of it, soldier!"
*Crish-fwoom*
"Wow, the Thermal Shok launchers really do work. Nice bag, that's what, four?"

"Please, ma'am, there's no point to all this."
"No point?"

"I'm still the commander, still one of the best markswomen on the base, still-"
"Still doped up on so much morphine that you can barely move? Your legs will need reconstructive surgery after this and you'll probably be off active for a month."

"Seems quiet... Damn! Another poxy ambusher! My neck, MEDIC!"

"Why is everything moving so slowly? Something seems to be creeping up my spine, into my hind brain... NO! Get out!"

"Won't ambush anyone else, now will you?"

"Enemy diving suit of death is neutralized."

"No hiding in our base."

"Area secure. Again."

Now that is one nice piece of kit.

...ew. Alien probe mission? Don't want to know, really.

My Own Private Vimana.

These things are amazing. They're basically the First War plasma hovertank, but even more powerful. And since the Sonic weapons take longer than Plasma did to build up a shot and this doesn't (thanks to a nifty internal resonance capacitor), I'm sold on it.

That ought to solve the problem of the Aliens knowing where we live. Pity we can't make them crash their USOs with it.
Actually, there's something that's been bothering me. Alien USOs are used to resupply their underwater colonies, but not only do we not have them tracking towards the Yucatan Peninsula like expected - sometimes their supply run return routes terminate in mid air, and they just vanish from the radar abruptly at full speed.
What kind of technology is there in that sunken lair? The only way I can think of that sort of thing could work is a Hyper Missile style Tunnel Drive. And being able to exactly equal the gravity field on a flying object in the destination location, well, it's scary, especially as it means that the... Thing... could just end us all if it has Hyper Missile technology and Ardune warheads.

Priority one: do not let the Enemy know we have the capacity to attack until we actually do. They'll crack the planet before letting us keep it.

Bit disappointing, really. All that armour and it's so easily drilled through.

In 2040, a satellite detects a mysterious heat bloom beneath Bouvetøya, an island about one thousand miles north of Antarctica...

Oh, brilliant. The Chryssalids weren't bad enough, now we get to re-enact Alien VERSUS Predator?
Someone call me when we have that Ardune warhead figured out.

llearch n'n'daCorna · May 16, 2011, 01:53:04 PM

"Poor chap, looks like his arm came off..."

*giggle*

Saphroneth · May 17, 2011, 08:50:38 PM

Not to give anything away, but the next mission is one where the enemy invited me to a meeting. Positively a Symposium, in fact.
And unfortunately, many of my highly psionic/MC troops were unable to attend for medical reasons.
(Crap damnit argh artefact site help)

Saphroneth · May 18, 2011, 04:43:27 PM

So, as it turned out, we had a few minor budget problems.
Until we sold the one hundred and twenty scanners that were piling up and put ourselves firmly back in black.

This can't be good.
And it's not. An old Hyper Wave Decoder picked up the signature of a Dominator class Psychic Amplifier on the sea bed north of Alexandria. A quick check on the MC decoder reveals that it's an MC device, too, and could bypass the shields of every Psi except strong 'paths and those with special law enforcement training.
We have maybe eight hours to stop it.
And I don't feel all that confident in - hello...

Extreme case.
Everyone else with neither MC vulnerability below 50 or time left in traction was taken. As well as the first of the new Sonic SWS tanks, Boson.
Right you are... *sigh* sir.

To battle.
We have maybe an hour left. The trip took some time. There is a contingency plan in place, though - the first poor attempts at Ardune warheads. The problem is miniaturization, currently, so the smallest warhead we have would probably destroy the entire Nile Delta, cause a massive tsunami chain across much of the Mediterranean and kill tens or hundreds of millions.

We're going for the covert option first.