[Let's Play] UFO: Alien Invasion

[JonB]

WARNING! The following post contains foul language and violence. Reader discretion!

---

13 March 2084
(Recording of defense of Mars Dam, Belgium)


Eli: "All points on the ground. Aliens north of us on the other side of the dam. They know we're here. Braun! Secure that building!"


Braun: "Yes Sir!" (sounds of running) "Shit! Civilians GET OUT OF HERE! All of you! RUN!" (sounds of civilians yelling back – indistinct) "Building clear! All aliens on the other side!"


Eli: "Wan! Cover us! Everyone else, get inside!"
Wan: "Yes sir!"


(sound identified as Alien Plasma weapon)
(sound of civilian screaming)

Mao: "Shit! Civvie down! Fuckers are killing people! They're on the causeway!"



Mao: "Returning Fire!"


Mao: "Miss!"


Eli: "Firing!"


Eli: "Fuck!"


(sounds of rapid plasma fire)

Mao: "Ahhhg!"
Eli: "Man down! Mao's down!"


Braun: "Nini's hit! She's dead! Oh god! The smell..."
(Mao Pavluk and Nini Jesus: KIA)


Braun: "Eat grenade, Xeno!"


Braun: "Humanity – Fuck Yea!"

Rasha: "Advancing! BURN!"


Rasha: "Fucker's down! Bridge secure!"


Eli: "Alien beside the other access building! Firing!"


Eli: "Got'em! Alien fragged!"


Long shot from Firebird Dropship showing European Union forces crossing bridge. Wan Coffey(Sniper) is highlighted catching up on the left.



Nyssa: "Two more coming up on the other access! Intercepting!" (This drone shot shows that Nyssa(Flamethrower) is aware of the two humanoid aliens in front of her, but not the spider-like creature behind the crates. This is the only image of it alive we have.)


Nyssa: "Burn! AHHAHAHAHA! Fire beats everything!" (Nyssa swings to hit the farther away alien, catching the spider-like one as it comes around the crates) "Snap crackl...ghlgh"


Eli: "Damn it! It killed Nyssa! Shot her while on it was on fire! The bastard! Firing!"



Rasha: "NYSSA! Nyssa! Hang in there honey!" (sounds of crying) "Hang in there. please? Nyssa?"


(Nyssa Samusenko:KIA)


Wan: "Hey, this guy dropped his rifle... Is that a trigger? I wonder..."


Eli: "Outta ammo! Switching to sidearm!"


Braun: "Nade! Hit! That's a kill!"


Wan: "Hey, this is... easy. Trigger... stock... Is that an ammocell of some kind? I can use this."
Xavier: "NADE! TAKE COV..."

(sounds of explosion – Plasma Grenade?)


(Rasha Melton, Eli Chan, Uttamesh Braun, Xavier Rashid: KIA)


Wan: "ohgodohgodohgod. We can't beat them. They're gonna kill us all.. ohgod...!"


(Wan Coffey, panicing, is seen attempting to reach the extraction zone)
Wan: "can't let them get me. can't let them get me..."


Wan: "oh god, they're infront of me... They'll kill me..! No! NO!!!!!!"
(sound of frag grenade being primed)
(sound of explosion)

(Wan Coffey: KIA)

---

Director Jon Berry looked up from the recording at the new meat. "03 March. Mumbai. March 4th, Bonn. 8Th, Johannesburg and Bangkok on the 12th. Mankind has been at Total War since the 6th. In that time 95% of all human military action has been like that recording. We are losing, people.

"On the 16th 04:30 local time, another major incusrion happened in the NorthAm city of Toronto on the same scale as the initial attacks. The American responded with three 50mt nuclear devices, delivering 100% casualties. We estimate 6 million civillians, 15,000 Aliens by ship count and 3,000 military dead.

"There have been no further attacks, but we cannot know if they are gone for good. Therefore, the United Nations has reactivated Protocol PHALANX. As the spiritual successor to the Extra-Terrestrial Combat Unit, PHALANX is tasked with defending this world from all threats from beyond our world. The members of the UN are dickering with politics and posturing, thinking the destruction of the armada over Toronto was the end of it, but we will operate on the assumption that they are wrong.

"PHALANX is purely a volunteer force. Our weapons and armor will be optimized to fight the alien menace. We are extra-national in mandate and operational scope. We are the first-responders to any and all future alien incursions. We are to kill them stone-cold dead, find out where they are coming from, and kill them there as well. We are to protect our world come hell and high water.

"Failure means death. Now, who'll join?"

---

UFO: Alien Invasion is a freeware, open source X-COM clone found at http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/News. I'll be playing the game on the latest stable version, 2.3.1.

This is an audience participation LP. I'm looking for meatshields (as there are no vehicles available for combat yet), a couple pilots and the usual assortment of scientists and workers. The game is still being refined, but I will play it as far as I can until I lose (by unrecoverable losses) or until I reach as far as the game will allow. For that time, I will take directions from you, the participating audience, as to how best fight the alien menace, what to research, and how to equip my teams.

My planned update schedule will be twice a week, usually Monday for one, with the second update during the week. No pressures to put up new updates for me! Much.

Who's with me?

[The Vortex Empire]

Sign me up as a dude with a big gun!

[Dave]

Meatshield.

[Force Lord]

Tanks for me.

[JonB]

Tanks for me.

No Tanks yet. You want something different?

[Academia Nut]

I will sign up as the head of the R&D department. In the fine traditions of XCOM I shall get drunk while handing poorly tested equipment manufactured in Russia over to rookies and then stand back to see what happens.

[The Romulan Republic]

Please sign me up as either a scientist or a pilot.

And thanks for reminding me of this game. I had it on my old Mac, but never got around to downloading it onto my new one. That has now been rectified.

[HMS Sophia]

Pilot After the last X-com LP collapsed I need more volleyball...

[SirNitram]

One scientist, defrosted and angry. And still kept scarily medicated to prevent my tests of new shipboard weapons to be on the combat teams.

[FaxModem1]

Worker.

"I'm Scruffy, the Janitor."

[OmegaChief]

Once more signing up for the duty of meatshield.

[phred]

Pilot, or failing that, sciencey researchy stuff.

[Force Lord]

Tanks for me.

No Tanks yet. You want something different?

Then give me big guns.

[Edi]

I'm in! Sniper, assault, machinegun or assault shotgun (or other close combat weapons) are all okay with me.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Heavy Weapons, because, ahem:

[VROCK advert]Only cissies use assault rifles! REAL MEN stand in the rain, using a bazooka, and listening to VROCK![/advert]

[JonB]

I sat at my desk, listening to the busybodies around him in the refurbished command center. Before me was an email from SecGen of the UN, the only message in his new inbox.

It was the usual message. "Here's your promotion, and some dudes. Go kill aliens." Well, the language was more formal than that, but that was the gist of it. There was also a 'suggestion' for which areas he should focus on protecting, which just happened to include New York in its operational radius.

The world was divided into 8 major regions. Well, 9 if one wanted to be specific. North America, Latin America (which, due to the recent spat of revolutionary fervor over the past decade was often called "The Revolutionary Countries"), The Greater European Union which stretched from Israel to Greenland, The Middle Eastern Alliance (a triangle formed by Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan), Russia, the Chinese led 'Asian Republic', New Africa and finally the Commonwealth of Oceania (which oddly included South Africa, Madagascar, India and the Oceania nations proper). The last region is Antarctica, but no one has claims there due to some treaties from the middle of last century.

That's going to come back and bite me in the ass, isn't it?

My first decision was to choose which PHALANX base to reactivate. The technology is over 80 years old in all of them, so I had to choose wisely which to bring up to modern standards first.



I chose to activate the Istanbul / Constantinople base. It's position allows us to rapidly respond to any incursions in the densely populated Europe, western Russia, and the MEA. This, I know will cause the SecGen to blow a gasket, but I've already figured I'll reactivate a second PHALANX base in south-central NorthAm. Perhaps the Amarillo base? Well, once I have the finances...

“Hey! How much money do we have right now?” I asked, figuring it wouldn't hurt to know how much the nations of the world donated to the cause. We were just starting so I knew there would be a few kinks to work out, and more money we had meant more money we spent on resources.

“19490c, sir, until the end of the month.”

“WHAT.”

“Yes sir. Our initial operating budget was 1.3 million, but we spent 1.1 on refurbishing the base, buying equipment and all that.”

“Nineteen and a half THOUSAND?!?!? Are you sure you didn't drop three zero's somewhere?”

“No sir. However, the nations have promised more funding on the 1st.”

I sat back in my chair. Seriously? Are they trying to strangle us in the grave? But there was more money promised with the monthly budget, so perhaps this was one of those kinks?

Damn it, I needed to take a walk. Familiarize myself with the layout of the base and some of the people involved.



The base is divided into two sections. From the Command Center, I walked west into the Workshop. This facility was divided into two separate major rooms for safety purposes, with blast-doors between them. Here, I met with FaxModem, our head engineer / production worker.

Fax: “Ah! Hello Director! Come to see the Workshop?”
JonB: “Yes, a bit. Doing an inspection tour. How are things?”
Fax: “Good! My team have already started on building some extra components for our interceptor. ECM and Targeting Computers and extra armor to replace damage in battle.”
JonB: “Excellent. Our budget is a bit tight until May, so do your best with what we have.”
Fax: “Of course sir!”

I left the workshop, passing again through the command center, observing the holographic geoscape map. Right now, it was showing the major political boundaries as well as the limits to the base's radar coverage. Ireland, Portugal, Iceland and Greenland were all outside nominal coverage, but once we tied our system in with the radar of other nations, that problem would go away.

North of the Command Center was the Hospital and Workshop. It was my sincere hope that the hospital not ever be used, but this was war. It would be full long before we were done here.

I walked into the Lab, to be met by my senior researcher, Academia Nut. The man smelled of vodka, but by all accounts he was a genius while slightly tipsy. And given the alien nature of our foe, conventional thinking might not be the best idea.

A.Nut: “Direktor! So good of you to come by! We must discuss what we shall research next!”
JonB: “Oh?”
A.Nut: “Yes! You see, PHALANX left notes on possible lines of research that were left buried when the UN shut them down. Now, they are MINE to command! Or research. Whatever. Let me brief you.”
JonB: “Alright.”
A.Nut: “First thing. Frikken Laser Beams. PHALANX was developing some interesting koncepts on directed energy weapons. We should be able to weaponize them based on these notes, then scale them from pistol sized to huge FUCK-OFF sized for static defenses. Ya?”

I must admit, the thoughts of light-speed weapons appealed to me.

JonB: “What else?”
A.Nut: “Ah, there were also notes on developing some sort of hyper-kinetic cannon, man portable at that. Koil gun technology, I think. Maybe railgun. Don't know yet. Will have to research.”
JonB: “And?”
A.Nut: “Finally, there are requests from Col.Falkland to find out where the Aliens are coming from. Will require coordination with many nations, taking time. Knowing where to look will help, I think? That is all at this time.”

I considered the options, weighing them in my mind. Two different potential weapon systems and information about the enemy. Which to focus on?

---

Here's the first choice for you guys – What to Research! We can go for Alien Origins, which opens up the alien tech and UFO research tree. Or we can go for the Electromagnetic Rifle (think Gauss, but less sucky), which gives us what I said earlier – a man portable railgun. Long range and heavy damage. Finally, we can go for Laser Operations. This tech doesn't give us anything right away, but does open up Laser Pistols, Rifles, Cannons, Aircraft Lasers and Base Defense Lasers for further research. Lasers have stupidly high accuracy, but low to moderate damage.

So! What will it be?

• 1: Alien Origins
  2: Electromagnetic Rifle
  3: Friken Laser Beams

---

Having made my decision, Academia cackled with glee and set about his work.

Next, I passed into the living quarters, where the soldiers were taking a break. I greeted VortexEmpire, Dave, ForceLord, OmegaChief, Edi, EternalFreedom and others. I would hopefully get to know them better after they've survived a couple missions. But until then, no real commitments.

Finally, I wandered to the far side of the base, where the two hangers and Alien Containment resided.

The first hanger held the Firebird VTOL dropship. This beautiful ship contains room for 8 troopers and a pilot, in addition to a modular weapons mount on the nose. It will ferry our troops too and from battle. RomanRepublic is the assigned pilot, and so his file indicates that he's good at getting into and out of firefights safely, which will be good because we're expecting a lot of hot landings.

The smaller hanger comes with a newly developed Stiletto Interceptor. This is our primary anti-UFO fighter, piloted by the exceptional Barnest2. No, I don't know what happened to Barnest1. The Stiletto is currently equipped with a Shiva-class Autocannon and Polymer armor. Without the ability to get proper radar locks, the cannon is our best bet for downing alien craft.

Alien Containment was empty, but ready as it would ever be for what corpses – and captives – our men bring back.

My self-guided tour finished, I returned to my office in the Command center. Everything was ready. Now we just had to wait for the aliens to show themselves.

[Force Lord]

"Hey guys, wake me up if they call us up to kill some xenos, okay?"

Zzzzzzz...

[Eternal_Freedom]

2. Electro-Magnetic Rifle. It's just awesome.

[Force Lord]

*Wakes up suddenly*

"EM rifle please."

*goes back to sleep*

[HMS Sophia]

Barnest1

Ah, my progenitor in the cloning program. Lost over 'Nam, piloting an F-4. I still get letters, talking about the vietcong concentration camps. Apparently cold rice is very tasty after several decades.

Also, barnest2 respectfully suggests electromagnetic cannons

[The Romulan Republic]

"Sir, I suggest researching Alien Origins."

[FaxModem1]

Fax Modem's hands wring together in anticipation.

"Frikken Laser Beams, I can't wait to get to work on those babies.."

[OmegaChief]

"As Sun Tzu said, we need to know our enemy, I vote for Alien Origins"

[SirNitram]

Perhaps, with A N in R&D, I should be shoved back into engineering. You know. The people who do the REAL WORK.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Perhaps, with A N in R&D, I should be shoved back into engineering. You know. The people who do the REAL WORK.

Real work, ha. Remember Science Boy, if it wasn't for us going out and twatting them aliens, you wouldn't have anything to study