code:

Terror Mission 2: Buenos Aires

Waddle Dee operating the tank

Otto Zander, Getao, Keyboard Fox, Sugary, Mr. Peepers, The Raz, Loden Taylor, Ice Phisherman, Broose, Terashell attending

code:

Casualties: Getao, Keyboard Fox, Mr. Peepers, The Raz, Ice Phiserman, Broose

Terashell posted:

After Action Report - Captain Dominic "Terashell" Maxwell - February 24th, 1999 - Terror Mission in Buenos Aires
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Mission to Buenos Aires was both a success and a failure. We succeeded in eliminating the alien threat, but at a substantial loss of life, both civilian and XCOM team members attending. Casualties included several rookies and veteran members. I suggest a stricter training regime for raw recruits before putting them in the squad rotation. I am glad to see progress being made on armor and medical supplies for use in the field, as that will increase survivability.

I would like to put forward that Waddle Dee receive a commendation and, if possible, a promotion for his efforts. He is usually the first off the ship, and is constantly in the fray, saving other team members, and providing a substantial punch with his main guns. There are several instances in which I, and other members of the team, were saved by his efforts. We owe him our lives.

We recovered several alien artifacts which were placed in quarantine until the science personnel have a chance to look at them. We burned several of the alien corpses, but did bring eight back to base for further study. The civilians present were debriefed before returning to base.

Mission time was approximately 12 hours given travel time.

===
Report ends
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Playing Log - Captain Dominic "Terashell" Maxwell - February 25th, 1999 - XCOM Facility Early Light
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Jesus fuck. My first mission back was another goddamn terror mission. And those assholes in my squad didn't hear a word I said, apparently. I'd be more pissed off if I didn't have this sneaking suspicion that they were fucking with me.

I'm running low on whiskey, after that. I've got another bottle... bottle and a half left, but I'm a captain now, I should be able to get off base once in a while... If not, I'm sure there are other avenues of getting shit.

The flight there was not pleasant on my ass, given that those planes vibrate like an overloaded washing machine sometimes. I can sit, but just not for long.

Had to fill out my first report to the brass now that I'm leading a squad. That was fun. Hard to not to swear at those fuckers... Hopefully once the armor and medkits the eggheads are working on hit the field, i won't be reporting anymore casualties for a while.

===
Log ends

Dexanth posted:

Diary of Lily Takakumi, 2/25/99

Belated note to self : When delivering get-well cards, do not write them out in the middle of the dissection lab.

Compiled Research Notes, L. Takakumi, 2/99

This last month has been hectic. Things started out slow, but eventually all recognized how wise investment in laser weaponry would be, just as suggested from the start. I imagine it would be possible to further strengthen the beam, perhaps even to the point of being usable as an airborne weapon, but it would rapidly lose power over a short distance comparative to the missiles we possess - The beam simply decays in integrity too fast to maintain cohesion over greater distances.

Furthermore, attempting to develop the hand weaponry to be more powerful would appear to come at a greater loss in accuracy and handling capability. It would simply be much bulkier, yet at the same time more vulnerable to minute muscle twitches deflecting the beam by a wide margin. Unfortunate, but as will be noted later, I have already found a new avenue which may render laser weaponry itself obsolete.

However, I am feeling rather torn on what direction would best serve our research efforts. On one hand, extraterrestrial primary weaponry is considerably stronger than our laser rifles. Having access to what appears to be concentrated plasma would yield powerful results, particularly if we could then engineer it as aircraft weaponry - Due to plasma being a 4th matter state, rather than simply concentrated energy, it is far less vulnerable to the dissipation effect that would prohibit laser weaponry being viable at far distances. The range would be equivalent to our missiles, but far more importantly because of how fast the stream would travel, and therefore gravitational and motion effects rendered effectively moot, pilots would not need to lead their weaponry whatsoever- Point and click, and boom, target hit.

On the other hand, I've also done studies on the material used for shielding in alien spacecraft. The results are quite remarkable - In terms of military application, rather than the traditional composite armor which is more or less multiple compounds sandwiched together, the aliens have fused the 'sandwich' into a single compound. Furthermore, it appears to be geodesic in nature, to a point - in other words, increasing the total armor volume at first results in a disproportionate level of defensive value, which means that while we are quite capable of taking down smaller and medium-sized UFOs with conventional weaponry, anything better shielded is going to require much, much more firepower, as it will be extremely effective in dispersing both piercing, explosive, and laser weaponry.

I must give them credit, this alloy is effectively designed to offer considerable protection against any conventional Earth-based weaponry. I would presume a nuclear missile would be enough to knock out even the terror ships with little difficulty, but those should only be utilized as an absolute last resort, nevermind we do not have access to such. The one weakness I have found is that the ablative shielding can be overwhelmed by extreme heat - Not the conventional 1,000 - 5,000 Kelvins generated by explosive weaponry. Laser weaponry is more effective at penetration, but still not to the degree as to be highly effective in single bursts, at least against heavily shielded targets.

The greatest weakness, in fact, is the alien's plasma weaponry itself - at one point, I successfully managed to set off one of their rifle-equivalent weapons, and it was quite effective in alloy penetration - Yet, there was very noticeable energy dispersion.

At this point, then, I see one of two research paths to advocate - Either we attempt to harness their weaponry for ourselves, which should lead to the benefit of turning their own infantry weapons against them, and give us a weapon with the range of a missile, far greater destructive capability, and a very high ammunition capability.

The problem, though, is in how it works. I believe that somehow that the Elerium compound the aliens use allows them to create a contained magnetic fusion reaction, which they are then able to focus and then direct it offensively. The Elerium itself appears to be the necessary component in creating and containing such a powerful reaction in so small a space - The plasma is approximately 100,000 degrees Kelvin, which would be sufficient to rapidly overwhelm the ablative shielding of alien armor.

Path two is that we investigate the alloys themselves, attempt to learn how to create them, and then we can focus on creating our own armor. Fewer soldiers would die as a result, and it's a well-known fact that combat experience directly translates into increased combat capability.

Furthermore, I tentatively hypothesize that as Elerium can contain a plasma reaction long enough to be used as a weapon, then if there were some way to fuse it with the armor, it would greatly expand the defensive capabilities - Something that I do not believe the aliens themselves have ever realized, or perhaps dismissed as impossible. I don't believe this to be the case - I would need more time, of course, to run experiments and work out the mathematics, but with the results I have produced thusfar I do believe my judgement is sound.

-Lily

Allen Wren posted:

(sweep, sweep) The temp agency said this would be a government contract with 100% travel. And it is. Janitor at a super-secret lab. Cool by me. The debt collectors can't find me, I'm makin' a fair bit of money, and...what? Oh, all on-site personnel have to undergo arms training? Okay. I'll get that taken care of. (tap broom against wall, sweep up resulting pile) Anyway, like I'm saying, even though the soldiers are a bit nuts, for how often they appear to be DYING, it's kinda reasonable. I've got no complaints, except for when Dr. Sugar Tits over in the lab cuts open another alien thing and leaves the mess for me to muck out and sterilize. Hey, wait. Whaddaya mean "Private" Wren? I'm a contractor. Getattaheah, ya jarhead. (stops sweeping, thinks for a moment)

...I don't like where this is going.