The Let's Play Archive

X-COM: Apocalypse

by GuavaMoment

Part 20

Saturday, March 24, 22:00

*BEGIN RECORDING*

Even though it's never good news when there's a UFO encursion, it's refreshing to see that we're not facing a huge armada. We can take this entire UFO force down.

The scouts seemed to know they were outgunned and quickly retreated back to their dimension.

But our collective firepower took down the two transports.

We attempted a simultaneous capture of the two UFOS. The first team was composed entirely of androids - 'Dini', Monkey-OD, HAL, Untalented, Said and OldMold. LightReaper and Striker were sent to escort the androids.

Monkey-OD...

..fired his minilauncher...

...and started a fire that killed many anthropods.

'Dini' has become quite proficient with the power sword. I was initially hesitant to equip our agents with a melee weapon, but the swiftness that the sword can carve our enemies into pieces is amazing.

Androids are resistant to fire and didn't hesitate to use fire's potential to their benefit.

Also being immune to brainsucking, the androids cleared the UFO without incident. I'm wondering if it might be a good idea for future missions to have a large force consisting of nothing but androids? This test of android potential certainly opens that possibility.

BeerDeer made an important discovery in the other UFO.

The skeletoids are now using what appears to be a heavier version of the disruptor gun, plus a powerful new grenade.

The aliens in this type of UFO group close together and are vulnerable to heavy weapons fire. Coolswa was attempting to breach the UFO to fire a deadly rocket into a group of aliens when he was severely injured by a popper.

Then a second popper appeared.

----

Acetone: Hey, why is Coolswa's rocket launcher down here?

Acetone: Coolswa? COOOOOOOOOOL-SWAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

----

Finally, the uninjured members of our team were sent to a warehouse that was infested during the UFO incursion.

El Maligno continues the proud tradition set by the late Coolswa of accidentally hitting his own team members with incendiary fire.

The last living alien inside the warehouse unfortunately took over LighReaper.

The loss of two members is an acceptable trade off to take out two transport UFOs.

*END RECORDING*

Sunday, March 25, 8:00

*BEGIN RECORDING*

Early last night our researches finished investigating the alien life cycle.

The most curious result of the research was the short life span of the aliens. Alien biology seems to strongly rely on a chemical compound that is not stable - at least in our dimension. A large group of alien eggs in the city could produce a large number of aliens, but all the descendants of the eggs would die in a few weeks. We're not sure how alien eggs are produced but have seen no production of them on Earth.

What are the aliens trying to accomplish? Every alien in the city is sentenced to death very quickly from birth. The only clue we have is that the brainsucked soldiers captured, Jimmy Tango and Xmas Future, do not appear to rely on the chemical and will have normal human lifespans. Brainsucking must therefore be an important part of their invasion strategy, but we don't know exactly how. Finishing our research on the higher alien life forms may tell us the reason for the alien invasion, but in the meantime this unstable chemical they rely on is an important weakness.

I've been promised a new biotoxin design later in the day to exploit this new weakness.

The quantum physics division has a new lab to play with and soon make important discoveries as well.

*END RECORDING*

Sunday, March 25, 12:00

*BEGIN RECORDING*

OUR BASE HAS BEEN ATTACKED...sort of.

Osiron hovercars seeking revenge no doubt attacked this recyclotorium shortly after my last entry. Why this recyclotorium?

Because as far as the government knows, that is where our base is. Everyone knows by now that our ships leave from the slum building Evening Star is built underneath. We've been feeding certain organizations disinformation saying that the actual base of research and combat operations is located in a different building. No one yet suspects our base is carved out of the foundation of the slum (but the explosion and alien attack on the base remain unexplained). We suspect that when Osiron members attacked the senate, they somehow hacked a computer and downloaded this piece of misinformation.

Since Osiron believes this is where our base is, we played it up and sent Justice and The Welcoming Committee to destroy them.

Osiron is quickly becoming the dominant gang in the city. For whatever reason, they now have huge amounts of money and restricted equipment to utilize win the wars they've been fighting with the other gangs Diablo and Pyske.

For comparison, the Cult is barely holding itself together. The rebuilding of the Temple of the Apocalypse is complete, but they'll be paying for it for years to come.

The toxin I've been promised has arrived. The 'B' toxin acts as a catalyst for the decomposition of the alien chemical they rely on. Death to the aliens comes swiftly. This new toxin is still dangerous to humans, but no longer lethal at the levels one dart would deliver. Manufacturing of toxiguns is complete, so we will begin creating the ammo we need without ever having produced a single clip of A-toxin.

Now I've been getting a lot of feedback regarding our planned use of biological weapons. Some people applying for soldier position such as Velius feel that using biological weapons (or chemical weapons produced from our bio-weapon program) violates some kind of ethics law and isn't fair to the aliens. These pansy-ass hippy tree huggers can go join the Cult of Sirius for all I care if they're that determined to find ways to make X-COM lose this war. Others, namely actual hired X-COM members, have different views.

Mindfish posted:

Melt those damn aliens! I love the smell of melted alien in the morning. Smells like... phew, what's that smell??

OldMold posted:

IT IS PLEASANT TO UTILIZE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE, KILL THE MEATBAGS WITH OTHER DISGUSTING LIVING ORGANISMS. IT BRINGS MY POSITRONIC BRAIN MUCH ENJOYMENT.

Veterans and rookies agree - we need to use any edge against these aliens that we have. We can contemplate moral dilemmas once we are no longer in danger of being brainsucked as a species.

An equally important discovery is our understanding of the alien control system. With the knowledge of the alien propulsion system, power source, and control system, we now know exactly how the alien UFOs work, and more importantly, how they're able to use the dimension gates.

We're approaching the end of the first chapter of the third alien war. The next part of the war and the future outcome of Earth will occur not here, but in the alien dimension.

We're close to making our first small steps.

*END RECORDING* THE ALL TIME X-COM SOLDIER LIST AS OF MARCH 25 in semi-chronological order

Soup-Bot: Active
Guerilla Medic: Brainsucked
Manjaw Sally: Brainsucked
El Maligno: Active
MacGyvers_Mullet: Killed in the "staplegun" incident
Coolswa: Killed by Popper
Shanty McHardass: Killed by Coolswa-induced friendly fire
BeerDeer: Active
Willie Tomg: Fired due to suckage
Fermata: Killed in the "staplegun" incident
Zap Rowsdower: Brainsucked
Cletus Van Damme: Brainsucked
Mindfish: Active
Ciwila: Killed by Hyperworm
LightReaper: Brainsucked
staplegun: Blew himself up to injure X-COM, motives unknown
Kurks: Killed by Coolswa-induced friendly fire
Xmas Future: Brainsucked (captured)
Sin Nerone: Active
Cowcaster: Killed by Popper
Jimmy Tango: Brainsucked (captured)
not lame!: Killed by Popper
Tempest56: Brainsucked
SynthOrange: Active
Acetone: Active
UberJew: Active
untalented: Active
OldMold: Active
Sair: Active
HAL: Active
Monkey-OD: Active
El Nato: Active
'Dini': Active
Striker: Active
Schlock: Active
lilljonas: Killed by Osiron laser fire

El Maligno and Mindfish are co-sergents and leaders of the whole squad.