Part 27: X-COM SOLDIER BRIEFING for April 30 - COLONEL CLEARANCE LEVEL
X-COM SOLDIER BRIEFING for April 30 - COLONEL CLEARANCE LEVEL
Greeting from the lovely Kiryu-Kai base! I hope you are all settling in here. I've found it quite liberating to be able to pursue research topics of my choosing, instead of what Dr. Markus wants. Anyways, this is my first research report I've had to write for X-COM, so please forgive any spelling errors.
Things have been going great! X-COM is in the red a bit due to the expansion of the Kiryu-Kai facility. Fortunately, all funding nations have increased their monthly pay.
Well, except for Australia, but they're always months behind on everything anyway.
UFO activity is down all over the world, except for North Africa. A lot of abductions have been taking place there this month, though with the capture of two of those ships we expect a corresponding drop in alien activity.
In other news, all soldiers have successfully undergone surgery for psionic implants. We suspected from the use of the alien "mind probe" that a form of mental resistance exists to psionic influence. Some people were read easily by the mind probe, others could disrupt the probing through concentration and other factors. We can now empirically gather this data and sum in up as a "Psi Strength", from 0 to 100%.
Cooked Auto has the highest P. S. on Early Light, with Commander Ulysses and Priest tied for second at 84. Dr. Markus has the lowest strength we've ever recorded, scoring a complete zero. We suspect this is why Dr. Markus is one of the few individuals who could communicate with the Sectoid Allen without psionic implants.
Conversely, Otto Zander has the highest strength ever recorded.
Since there is only capacity to train ten soldiers in psionic use, only the ten strongest soldiers from each base are undergoing training.
Before we risk interrogating the Sectoid Leader, the one who gave us psionic technology in the first place, we need a way to prevent it from subverting our personnel on base. The 'Mind Shield' can amplify or dampen psionic activity. In addition to masking the psionic presence of life forms on our bases, it can be tuned to prevent psionic attacks, yet allow psionic communication.
Construction of the Mind Shield is underway.
Oh, and in my spare time I made a pretty cool laser gun, but it's vastly inferior to the Heavy Plasma.
X-COM Head Scientist, Kiryu-Kai Base
Dr. Lily Takakumi
SELECTED FAN ENTRIES BELOW
Tasian posted:
Personal Log
Private "Tasian" of Kiryu-Kai
April 17, 1999
- Sleeping Quarters -
I just got back from the review of Kiryu-Kai's latest skirmish, which is part of the training the newbies go through. It kind of reminds me of those anti-drunk driving videos where they show the worst car wrecks in hopes that the viewer won't make the same mistake. I really wish they didn't add those goofy sound effects, I don't think getting hit with a faceful of plasma makes a BOING! noise. That reminds me, rumor has it that Colonel Zander from the Early Light base is transferring to Kiryu-Kai, due to the sudden increase of "honorable early retirements" here. The situation's become so dismal, each bed has a whiteboard attached to the base with the soldier's names written in dry-erase marker, and if your name is erased off, that means you're going on the next mission. Real vote of confidence there.
April 19, 1999
- Mess Hall -
I just met the 7th President of the United States of America. I must say, I... I can't believe I just wrote that.
April 22, 1999
- Sleeping Quarters -
Something really weird happened today, and that's coming from a guy who's going to fight aliens. After exiting the bathroom, I spotted an orange cat wandering down the hall. He (or maybe she, I didn't look too hard) paused for a moment and looked at me, I figured a pet or two wouldn't hurt. My hand was 2 feet away from the kitty's head when 3 guys suddenly rushed me and shoved their rifles in my face, shouting "YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO TOUCH THIS PUSSY!" Geez, didn't think I'd hear that line again. Despite the commotion, the cat calmly rounded the corner of the hall before one of the guys released me from his submission hold. When I finally got enough strength to look up, the 3 guys were gone, just like the cat. I'm going to pretend nothing happened and just quietly listen to the radio for the rest of the day. The American media is still going on about some major story that happened two days ago, really shook everyone up over there.
April 26, 1999
- Sleeping Quarters -
...My name has been erased from the bed's whiteboard. A lot of thoughts surfaced at the time, but I believe the "MOTHER LOVIN' CRAP ON A POCKY STICK!" was the most prominent.
April 27, 1999
- Kiryu-Kai Medical Bay -
I can't believe Command deployed some crazy soldier with nothing but flares, I mean come on! It's freaking obvious that survival odds are bad enough as it is! It was almost like... a higher-up was trying to make Colonel Zander's first Kiryu-Kai operation go sour! Somehow, we managed to pull through with only a couple dead and a pretty successful mission, but seriously! What the hell is Command thinking?!Who's stupid idea was itah, why am I asking questions that a grunt will never receive answers for, anyway? Speaking up about it will only mean double toilet duty on curry night.
I learned an important lesson about battle tactics in the field: Let someone else (in my case, fellow rookie Wild M) walk through the UFO door first. He seems to be taking it rather well now, he only pauses for around 10 seconds of heavy breathing before walking through any doorway in the base. It's good for a cheap laugh.
Anyway, the doctor said I should get the feeling back into my face in a couple of days, just in time for some experimental surgery on my head. Alright!
May 1, 1999
- Mess Hall -
I just got my results back from the psionic testing that's going around. Apparently, my score is pretty good, and starting today, I'm going to go through extensive mental training. I was thinking it was going to be like an intense session of ink-blot tests or something, but... well, take a look at the first screen on the Psi Discipline Application:
How am I supposed to work with that?!
Dexanth posted:
Diary of L. Takakumi
Ms. Cuddles has been looking a bit bored lately. I think I'll go release a bunch of the lab rats to give her something to amuse herself with for the next week. It's too bad Wren isn't here, sending him to clean up what's left over again and again would just be icing on my kitty's cake!
End Log
E. Revenant posted:
Dirdums log NO READING IF YOU NOT DURDUM!!!
I am now at Curry Ki place but don't tell eny one its a secret. i got my own bed and a uniform and they even write my name on it so no one can take my bed. i also got a neet gun today it shoots green fire it not as good as one that shoot orange fire. they know I want the one with orange fire but they gave me green frie. i tell them them it want the orange fire but they don't listen and talk down to me. nobody whant the orange fire guns anymore so why not give for me?
oh it sound like a fire truck is coming that means i go to meat the aliens now.
Dirdums log 2 NO LOOKING AT DIRDUMS LOG IF NOT DIRDUM!!
I Saw the aliens today. i tryed to wave at them but thay shot at me. aliens not nice people. they shot my good buddy sam and my other buddy bee pollic but they not shot me. some guy was shooting the alines all the way in the back i need tell him you got to shoot closer or you miss them. when back at curry ki they try to take my bed by removing my name but i tell them it still my bed. and they put my name on it again.
Dirdums log 2 DO NOT WRITE IN DIRUMS LOG IN RED CRAYON ONLY BLUE
they took me to the doctor today and i feel asleep. i dreampt while asleep and saw me sleeping. only i was smoking and my chest was burnet and thy were doing stuff with my head. i should have woken up it looked like it hurt. suddenly they looked really sad and they put me down a trash hole and toss in a grenade for me. then i wake up and my brain hurt. I have a sigh strength of 42 which they tell is not so good but ill try harder to get mor sigh strength. I don't want to go to doctor anymore because I don't sigh enough.
Gay at Heart posted:
Spring, 18-??
Dearest Rachel,
Although I am now certain that my correspondence will not reach you, I have decided to continue writing in the hopes that some day soon I might be able to deliver these to you personally.
Since the last time I wrote, so much has transpired that I find myself at a loss as to how I should explain events to you. Therefore, I shall simply tell as true a recounting of the events as I am able to. I beg forgiveness, for these writings must surely sound like the ravings of a madman, but I swear on your honor all that I write here is true to my memory.
Since that fateful night, I have seen the impossible, and many more have I seen that that I wished was impossible. The armaments and transportation that both the Excombs and Sectoids posses is ages beyond our own, allowing men to fly through the sky as though they had wings and travel long marches in a matter of hours. I would not have believed this possible myself had I not recently been relocated to another base of the Excombs known as Kiryu-Kai, a land across the vast Pacific. I know not how the machines operate, and I care not to either. I have been acquainted with several of the soldiers here, among whom a man named Tasian seemed most bemused when I informed him of my presidency. I suppose that if I thought as he did that the current president was the forty-second rather than the seventh, I would have some manner of confusion as well.
Recently, the Excombs subjected the soldiers to a test of faith against the powers of darkness. I am told that I had among the highest faiths of all, second only to my Colonel. He strikes me as a true and honest man, someone to be relied on in this alien world I find myself in. The weaponry employed by both armies, through some act surely of the devil, projects a greenish hell flame that burns both the flesh and soul. Although it bothers me deeply to do so, I don their armor and use their weapons because of the great threat these Sectoids pose to not only the United States, but the entire globe. I place my faith in the Lord, and trust in him to protect me against this witchcraft. Although their motives are unknown, the Sectoids use their nightmare craft to abduct the good citizens of earth, and terrorize the population. The savage barbarianism with which they slaughter the innocent to see my fellow soldiers struck down, flayed to the bone makes my soul burn with a righteous fury. Through further witchcraft, I have even heard tales of the Sectoids turning soldier against his fellow man, and driving him to insanity. Although the Excombs who surround me are nearly as alien to our customs as the Sectoids themselves, they are still men, and I feel a brotherhood with them on the basest of levels while the Sectoids inspire nothing but justified rage. Already nearly all of the soldiers who initially took me in have had their lives snuffed too short. If I am able to do anything, anything at all to rid the earth of this alien menace and protect the lives of the men under me, then it is my duty not only as president but also as a fellow man to do all that I can.
Thus, it is with a heavy heart I must inform you that I must stay with the Excombs and fight these alien invaders as is my duty as a man. Know that everyday I am away from you breaks my heart, and I shall make haste to return to you as soon as the world is once again safe. When evil threatens the path of the good man, he must stand and face the tide, allowing it to break roughly upon him, or risk being washed away forever. It is not a heroic act to stand and fight, but rather the duty of all free men.
Sincerely,
Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America.