X-COM 1-Insertion

  A jolt of turbulence woke Tyson from his sleep. He was still tired, and the awkward position of his neck left him with an intense soreness. Not to mention the tender spot where he had been knocked out. Rubbing his neck he leaned back in the seat. He didn't feel any more energized than when he had fallen asleep. He tried to think back over the last few hours. Or however long it had been.
  He slightly remembered losing his car. That was lame. Though apparently his new paycheck would easily cover that. Rubbing his neck he wished it could have been handled differently. At some point after that, he awoke on a couch in a small room, dimly lit, and had got his bearings. There was nothing in the room except the couch and a small lamp on a coffee table. He hadn't remembered where he had been, he just remembered having some strange dreams. Before he could think to much the door opened and a man in a business suit addressed him.
  "Hello. I'm sure you are wondering where you are," the man said in a polite tone. "My name is Gerald Johnson. May I have a seat?" Tyson nodded groggily as he looked him over. He was an older man, and seemed to have a butler style to him. But, along with that butler look came the look of a hidden agenda. Certainly not something you want your butler to have.
  "As you may recall, you had been asked to attend a meeting on January 29th, with the Citizen Defense Initiative." Tyson did remember that. He and Kevin had both been asked to attend the meeting on the same day.
  The Citizen Defense Initiative was a relatively new program. From the early ads he had read, the purpose of the program was to train citizens in defense and military tactics. There was quite a push for enrollment in it, but it cost quite a bit of money. At the university there had been a program for it, which was discounted but still expensive. Though the program had been around for about a year, Tyson had received an email telling him that he would be able for free enrollment in the program. It also went through additional trainings that would be offered. The program began switching from more simple self defense and some combat training to enhanced military tactics and training. Apparently the company, which had initially been not-for-profit, had signed contracts with the military, which allowed a broadened scope of training and options for those in the program. Technically it would be more contracts, the CDI had started under some military or government mandate, in an effort to not only make cities safer but to prepare citizens in the event of a 'call-to-arms.' At first it had the potential to become a mandatory program, but politics had seen an end to that. Eventually it had enough customer base and military backing they began charging for programs.
  After that email about the free enrollment, in all of the programs aspects, Tyson had met with the leader of the local chapter. Not only would it be free, but it would also be flexible with whatever time he had. The lady had told him he was accepted into the free program because of his involvement with certain military testing that he had went through over a year ago. He hadn't thought much of it, it had been a requirement to go along with the computer course he was taking. Regardless, he wasn't even asked for a credit card number so he signed up. Later that day he learned that his friend Kevin had received the same offer and also accepted.
  "When you joined the CDI, and in previous meetings you learned that you may be chosen to participate in whatever may be required for you to do." That was true. In the 3rd meeting they signed a contract dictating as such. The meeting had been very serious, a military sergeant had told them that they could be asked to serve, and that signing the contract was completely optional. He told them not to sign unless they intended on following through with their signatures on the page. Also, he said that only the most pressing issues would cause a use of their names in this circumstance, and that those weren't likely. Tyson had been there with Kevin.
  "This is the catch!" Kevin said. "I knew there was something coming!" Tyson had agreed. Initially Kevin didn't want to sign, but Tyson had pressured him into it. Telling him that nothing had ever happened before, and if it did, it wouldn't be that bad. They had both signed the contract that night, though in reality, both were somewhat unsure about it.
  Gerald continued, "Due to your previous training, as well as your current standing you have been selected to operate in complete secrecy. You will be cut off from your family, to them you no longer exist. At the completion of this operation you will be permitted to return to them. We need your full cooperation in this involvement. Will you agree?" Agree without even knowing what you are doing?
  "So, what kind of operation is this?" Tyson was playing the diplomacy card. Basically the one that he always played.
  "That's relatively classified, but be ensured your services are needed and you will be fulfilling every measure of your training." Did that mean combat?   "We will bring you up to speed at our next stop. The helicopter is departing in ten minutes. Do I have your cooperation?" Gerald slid a small paper with an X and a line at the bottom towards him on the table.
  "What if I say no?" Tyson stared Gerald straight in the eye. His head hurt, which made him feel particularly apathetic about the whole situation.
  "I'm afraid that isn't really an option anymore." Gerald definitely knew more than he was letting on. And he was letting on a lot.
  Tyson took the pen from the table and hovered over the small paper. It brought back to mind the paper he signed that got him into all of this. And brought back the reasons he decided to sign that one.
  Gerald picked up the signed paper. "Well done then. Your friend has just woken up, perhaps you can help him make the correct choice you have just made." Still slightly groggy, but now quite alert, Tyson had followed Gerald out of the room.

  "We will be landing in 5 minutes! Passengers prep for landing." That was the lingo for fasten seat belts, or at least that was what Tyson assumed. He looked over at Kevin, who was sitting a seat down the row looking out the window.   "Hopefully everything will work out alright."
  Five minutes later they were alongside a large ocean of water, the sun beaming straight down, and a massive desert extending away from the coast. The helicopter flew to what looked like an abandoned point and landed in a opening in the ground. Tyson's excitement began to over ride his nervousness.
  "You two! This way!" The copilot marched past them and signaled with his hands. Tyson and Kevin started at each other, then jumped up and followed.
  The inner landing area was large, racks with missiles and ammunition lined the walls. Two large fuel canisters sat in the corner. The rooftop above was sliding shut, and the room was growing dark. "You've got 20 minutes to refuel, then you've gotta move. We've got an interceptor heading back in to land," a flight tech was telling the pilot. "You two, help unload that stuff." In a few minutes they had moved several boxes off of the helicopter, when the roof opened again, and the helicopter ascended into the scorching bright sun.
  "You two the new soldiers? I guess, come with me." The flight tech led them through some doors into a large hallway. The area was fairly deserted, but from above there were quite a few sounds.
  "To the left is your living quarters, you've got the radar area down that hallway to the right. Food is straight down there." They continued down the corridors.
  "So, where are we?" Tyson figured it was worth a shot. "And what are we doing?" Kevin was more bold.
  The guy glanced back at them. "As far as where you are, North East Africa. As far as what you are doing, well, that's what they're going to explain in a minute." They walked a little farther. "My name is James, by the way. I'm in Hangar 3."
  Tyson had lost focus on the word 'Africa.' "Wow, that is a long way from home. Had we been flying that long?" They approached a large grey door, which opened and led up some stairs. James knocked on the door. It slid open, and he had a hurried conversation that Tyson caught little of. He looked at Kevin.
  "Africa?" Tyson rose his eyebrows.
  "I know it's crazy man. Crazy." Kevin looked around. "This is quite a base."
  "Alright, looks like they aren't ready for you in there yet, um, follow me." James led them across the hall to a small room. There were chairs, a table and a type of boombox sitting on the table.
  "Take a seat. Here's some reading material. They are going to be back down here shortly, so they'll get you taken care of. Uh, yeah. See ya around." James half smiled and left. Tyson opened the black folder he had given him. Inside was complimentary welcome, or congratulations, or whatever you would call it. Behind that was a map of the base, 'Euro COM,' some information about something called the X-COM project, and diagrams for different weapons. Tyson began reading the opening letter. Signed General William Grey. Sounded familiar.
  "Check this dude. It's a recording or something." Kevin held up a CD. Written on the front was a large #1 followed by 'Radio recording.'
  "Let's try it out," Kevin said. He opened the radio, pressed play and they both took a seat. The CD began playing:
  -Begin transcript, 3,2,1.
"We're about to touch down, get ready to deploy!"
  "Alright boys, get ready!"
  Tyson looked in the back of his folder. One paper said 'Transcript of Combat, Mission #1' With some data underneath. The words on the CD were verbatim with a letter code next to them. Tyson began reading along.
  B1-"Got something over here!" Then a burst of machine gun fire, followed by some very loud sounds that fizzled into a high pitch, as well as static. More gunfire. B1-"Holy smokes!...I got him!" More loud noises. They sounded almost like psuu, but amplified like a cannon with a high screech.
  Kevin stopped the CD. "Look at this. It says this mission was after 'UFO-2, sighted over Egypt at 1859, Jan. 1. UFO, what?" Tyson looked in his folder.   "Check these pictures." There were three pictures of an Earth map.

UFO 1, very small size, with I-1 en route to waypoint east of target. waiting to engage.


UFO-2, small size, sighted over Egypt. I-2 sent to engage.


UFO-2 shot down over south west Egypt. Skyranger sent to engage ground forces.

  The pictures didn't make much sense. UFO's? What? Kevin hit the play button again. Tyson glanced back through the pictures. There was a segment of map like ones, apparently indicating the movement of the soldiers across the battlefield. Though not comprehensive, it certainly could help him decipher some of what was going on. Along with it was the names and positions of the soldiers involved in the fighting.
  A1-"Clear that LZ" Alien weapon blasts.
B3-"Plasma from up the hill! I can't see it, no lights out here!"
  A1-"Steven advance! Get out there and cover fire! Let's move!"
C1-"Covering you Steven." B3-"I still can't see anything. Pulling a grenade!"
  More alien shots C3-"Steven is down! That shot just hit him in the face we have a man down!" B2-"We're taking fire from the north! Can't see it!"
  A1-"Taylor, advance up the hill, we'll cover you! Bravo engage-" Gunfire.
C1-That alien is down. Moving to the UFO."
  C3-"On top of the hill, can't see-"Alien weapon again. "Whoa, taking fire!"
A1-"Taylor advance, we're covering you, the rest of you go north to the UFO!"
  C3-"I've see him!" Machine gun fire from multiple weapons. A1-"Todd, take him down with the grenade launcher!" Two deeper shots, then the sound of an explosion. C3-"You got him!"



B2-"Lining up sight on the UFO. He-"More alien. "Head's up, grenad-" A huge explosion sounded and the recording was silent for a minute.
  A1-"Taylor is that alien down?" C3-"Yeah, he's down. That thing was flying!"
B1-"I'm gonna toss a grenade into that hole on the UFO, take out the aliens inside."
  More Alien weapon fire. What was that? A1-"Another one to the east! I see him, floating!" Machine gun fire. A1-"I got hi-"



-Transcript ended. All aliens were neutralized. One operative KIA.

  As the tape ended, Tyson started realizing what they just heard. Was this a joke?
  "It's not a joke, gentlemen, that actually happened on January 1st." Tyson and Kevin whirled around. "I'm General Grey. I'm sure you'd like to hear about our operation. Here, come with me." Tyson and Kevin again glanced at each other, the slowly rose and followed the General out of the room.

Ok, so there's the story. I know, not very much relating to actual game play. Never had two UFOs on the first day like that. That was really crazy, also to have a mission...unreal. And it went unreally well. That plasma was flying, it was crazy. And I get it, you kinda missed out. I'm sorry, I'm tired from all the storytelling. This is a storytelling episode. Once Tyson and Kevin get in on this action it will amp up. And as for whether we die or not...well, let's leave it up to the great mind of X-COM. And leave me to figure out a decent plot. It will be fun. If only you could know the end from the beginning...

Actually in game it is only Jan 14 I think. I'm not sure, it might still be the 2nd. I had to start over since the first one didn't save. The first one had 2 missions, no deaths. Pretty cool. This one isn't that bad either.



I started research on laser weapons. I kinda want to go with some human stuff rather than rushing to laser rifles or pistols right off. Also, bought a cannon tank, just for ole' times sake and to try it out. I'm not quite as by the book as I was but I still remember most of the military tactics. I think I'm better than some of those Libian rebels. I saw a video of them...we are blessed to have war games so that if we ever get into a war we can actually use some fancy moves we learned from games. Not XCOM though, TomClancy. Socom maybe, I don't know. Also started large radar, living quarters and alien containment at the base. Good good!

One final thing, check out this picture:



Thanks for reading. More action in the next episode, for sure.

X-COM .75- Introduction

Yeah I know you feel like you just got ripped off on this one. 'Point seven five? Seriously?' Ok, so I'm being a bit sarcastic. Really have been falling into that pit recently...

  The sun shone over the mountains through a layer of low hanging clouds. The crisp winter air was still on such a morning. It seemed to have an air of foreboding. The short rooftop was the perfect vantage point for the operation about to take place.
  "Raven, we've got the roadblock ready to deploy down here." Raven glanced over to the wall to his left. Three stories down, there was a roadblock. Well, there would be soon.
  "Good Blackbird, wait for my mark." It wouldn't be long now. The plan had been in effect for a few weeks. There was some additional preparation, but Raven hadn't been hired before the beginning of January. Now, roughly a month later, the operation was almost complete. He had been approached by e-mail, informing him that his experience was needed, and that he would receive quite a fund for his service. He had chosen his team, men he had worked with before mostly. When he met with the man whom he now termed the contractor, he realized the part he was playing seemed to be a much smaller operation than what pieces it seemed this man had in play. It didn't matter much to him, he was given complete control over ensuring the operation went over without a hitch, and promised a healthy pay for accomplishing it. He was informed that the his part of the plan, the act of taking, was the easy part, while the act of persuasion was going to be the hard part.
  "Hawk, what's your location?" Raven knew they should be close.
  "We're just nearing the checkpoint now. Get everything ready, ETA about ten minutes."
  "Alright everyone. Ten minutes to showtime. Everyone clear?" The team rattled back over the radio that everyone was in position. The job should be easy and go as planned. Apparently whatever was happening was partially in the minds of the victims as well. They would at least partially have an idea what was going on and why, hopefully that meant less resistance. Raven wasn't worried about this job. Like all of them, screwing up wasn't an option.
  The haze had drifted across the rooftops now. Raven looked at the view one last time, before mounting the wall and climbing on the ladder to the ground. The sun's rays left a shimmering color that silhouetted the stark, dark buildings in the early morning frost. The rungs of the ladder were slick, but Raven's black gloves still found traction on them, melting small prints through the frost.
  "We're rounding the last bend." Hawk's update meant the action was about to begin.
  "Go with the roadblock, Blackbird." Raven reached the ground of the parking lot behind the building. A large dump truck was parked at the far end, and an SUV to his right. The lot was bordered by either a brick wall or brick buildings, one entrance directly to his left, another across the lot on his right.
  A car pulled to a stop in front of the barricade. Obviously confused, they slowed to a halt in front of it. Crow approached the car, pointing them to their left. Raven could see them skeptically pull through the entryway into the back parking lot. He stepped from the side wall and stopped the car. He could see both of the passengers, yes, they looked just like they did on the photographs.
  Hawk's car pulled in behind them, effectively blocking them off. Raven pulled an official looking badge out of his coat, and determinedly walked towards the car. The window rolled down. Hawk was exiting his car; the roadblock removed, Blackbird and Crow were approaching also.
  "Donald Rasmussen, CDI, can you both of you sirs step out of the car?"
 "What's going on? Isn't there a meeting or--"
  "Sir, please step out of the car."
 "But I don't know what's going on!" Raven was getting tired of this. He reached for his pistol in it's holster, and both of the passengers froze.
  "Now, if you'll please exit the car, we don't have much time here."
 "What's going on?" the driver asked as he exited. "What are you going to do with us?"
  "That's classified, and it will all be explained later." The script was even going textbook. "I need you to come with me." Seeing they were surrounded my men with guns made compliance very easy for them. There wasn't any danger, everyone had only stun weapons since the human cargo was what they were after here.
  Raven led them to the door of the SUV. "Get in, one in the back and one in the middle." There were two operatives in each of those seats as well.
  "Were are you taking us?"
 "Get in the car."
  The dump truck's engine came to life, and as Raven's passengers entered the SUV it began accelerating towards the car. Raven climbed in the passenger seat.   "Let's go Eagle." The SUV started. "That's my car!" An audible crash sounded as the dump truck T-boned the small civic. "That's not even the best part," Raven thought.
  "What are you doing!? Where are we going."
 "Sorry, it's confidential." Raven turned around and nodded to the operatives. Both used pressure points to knock out the two hostages, and then proceeded to tie their hands together and put bags over their heads. As the SUV drove away, Raven could see as the fuel tanks under the dump truck ignited, lighting it and the cab of the smashed car on fire. His team was dispersing, and he turned around. It all looked like an accident. And his job was done. He sent the text message confirming the operation complete, and shortly received one telling him the documentation would be taken care of, and that there would be a check in his mailbox. Whatever was going on, it was big. But that wasn't part of Raven's concern. He settled into his chair for the ride to the airport.

Also a bit of an intro for how the story is going. One thing about the gameplay of X-Com. First, battle is always in turn based mode. Each unit has an amount of energy they can use in a turn, and after your turn it is the alien's turn. Either way, there is a definite line between the two sides moving. Almost like a time travel thing. And since you move your pieces one piece at a time, rather than everyone moving, everyone seeing an alien, everyone shooting, you have one moving, one seeing an alien, one by one shooting till you hit it (which still isn't a guarantee.) There are some tricks you can use to exploit some of these features, which as long as I remember them I will definitely use as many as I can. But for the story purposes, the setup is going to be as squad tactics, just to add a bit of reality to this whole thing. So, despite the funky time warp aspect, otherwise I'm trying to add a bit of reality into my story, as well as some unreal advantages over the aliens. Both good. I think.

Along with that there is a bit of a "modern weapons" aspect I am adding in. Starting on beginner you don't really need them, but it seemed pretty cool, so we'll see how it works. Besides, when you get 2 UFOs on day one, that's pretty early as it is. Regardless, expect some action!

X-COM .5- The Prequel

I would like to start off in not story mode today. Perhaps this will be published one day, and in that case I want this in it! So, how have we come thus far? Well, rather than fight with the colors and look for downloads, Kevin offered a five dollar bargain with Impulse, which, when I heard I impulsively went and spent the five dollars! The game didn't download due to some technical difficulties (Red, but with no alt text:( ) but the email promised it would be delivered in good time. I had a busy day schedualed for this morning. Most of it went cheaply and without a hitch-except for one major hitch. Firstly, my GPS, a Tomtom, is fairly outdated, and had a difficulty finding a road yesterday. Not a good sign when you have to go to people's houses to install their stuff. The updated maps cost a grand total of $63, not too bad considering your other option is a new one or an I-Phone (bought at full price.) At first I started the download, and a rough wicked long time later (about 1:30 to 2 hours) the download was done, the computer got lazy and turned off. When I returned, I found absolutely horrible results as the computer would not download a new file and also would not install it on the GPS. In much annoyment I moved the file to the desktop and the download (along with the hearty time) started again. Two hours-ish later, the device was ready to go. Or so I thought. I typed in the road from yesterday (it's been in existence for at least about a year and a half) only to receive the grand news that no! that road is not in the map! After $63 dollars! AFTER 63 DOLLARS! Ok, so I was pretty mad but maybe not that mad.

Regardless a devastating challenge lay ahead- to either take the best you can likely get (Google maps) or to risk another GPS. Smart phones had been recommended me by about everyone on the team, so I was thinking of that route. Add in that I spent 60 bucks for nothing, well, kinda annoying. Long story short I ended up buying a Garmin. $100, not too bad, good actually, I just wish I didn't have two of them. I also got put on the list today, meaning the next job that comes I will be paid for. Thank goodness! I've had quite a bit of overhead already. Though it is now 8, and no jobs yet. Perhaps I will be first tomorrow.

As for X-COM, I have it downloaded and ready to go, but I haven't launched it yet. That is about to happen. Let us hope it preforms better than Tomtom. (Grrr) And then, I imagine, we will start the story. Or something.

Or I get a job. Good deal!

Back After a While

Well, here goes nothing. And that's really the kicker. The big question of the evening, all or nothing. You see it everywhere, buying stuff, applying for stuff, DTRs, everything. (Note: I forgot all my fancy HTML texts. Hmm, I'll have to relearn them I guess.)

Anyhow, the question that stands before us now is the question of this blog, of it's continuation or it's ultimate downfall. As far as reclaiming X-COM, well, it may be possible. The window's version doesn't seem to like to run perfectly, DosBox, well, maybe. So, the game in question would definitely be secured. As for continuing what happened before...I'm afraid that in the two years we've been apart we've changed, we don't really know each other any more. I've forgotten a lot about it, and as for those memories, they are great to look back on but we are just to different now...And more to the point the old computer is buried in the basement and the old game of Xcom with it. Not to mention currently 2100 miles away from me at this point.

While continuing the game is a great possibility, writing about it....well, that is a huge area of love/hate. And here's why:

Obviously if we are going to use reason we have to use a list. And if we are going to use a list we are going to use the pro's and con's. The most famous decision list ever! Start with the positives.

So, the Pros to writing an X-Com battle report:
-The game is way more fun when you get into it and write about it. WAY MORE FUN!
-Because I have a desire for adventure, and since I can put myself right in a game, well, why not?
-Killing aliens and saving the world with a team of champions is really fun. When you write about it, it is even more fun. So much fun that just playing it just can't be the same. And since I've already tasted of the writing style, I don't know if I could go back.
-It's fun to try to make something that someone would like to read, make something interesting and entertaining.
-If it sucks, nobody is reading this anyways. (Sorry Kevin)
Cons:
-It takes a super long time. Especially if you are wanting to make something that is really worth quality reading.
-Thinking of ideas and something creative is plenty time consuming as well.
-Even taking the time to play the game is fairly time consuming. And time is one thing that I have very little of. Especially when it comes to playing video games. Definitely not a hobby of mine anymore.
-After all that work, no one is actually reading this. (Sorry again, Kevin)

So, like most things in life, even having a list of what I want or don't want, what I think is good or not good, well, sometimes the odds are just to close. Sometimes you don't really know if something might work until you actually try it out and see if it does. I definitely have to say that the scales are tilted very much on the side of the 'not blogging' option, simply because of the time restraint. How much time can I really invest in this? Likely not what it requires, certainly not what I had put in to it before. Which makes me wonder if it will actually work.

On to the next list. How to write the blog. Firstly, the way I really want to do it is from a third person story involving the characters. That takes quite a while because it involves combating a common enemy: writer's bloc. But, when you go back to that adventurous side; well, how better to put yourself into the game than to write it out? Let's see the list again.
Pros:
-I really want to do it
-It's way more realistic when it is written out, much more entertaining. Just a common report can be funny (and doubtless there will be additions in there with it) but it doesn't really describe the battle the way that you can with a written style.
-I think it would be a fun experience, even if it is about something totally dorky. Who's reading this again?
Cons:
-It takes a bit more time to think up how to write the story, make it realistic and interesting than just a normal entry.
-It's really hard to write a story with main characters and have the next mission totally random. The fact that everyone you know and love can be dead in 5 minutes makes it hard to set up any extra plots or anything. To be honest, that first blog I felt like Tyson, Kevin, Zen, and Courtney were the luckiest soldiers. Ever.
-Because the blog involves real people, it seems an actual story would need to be fairly realistic, vs. fictional people you can do what you will with. I think the relationships, as well as the seriousness of the circumstances are a bit harder to pull of when using real people. Also, the whole 'death' aspect of it all is a bit unnerving, when it comes to writing about the flight home.
"So, how'd you feel about that mission?"
"Oh, I think it went well. Wish I had shot the alien instead of James."
"Oh yeah, I hate it when that happens."
"Yeah, but what can you do. Hey, now that Sam's dead, you might be next for commander!"
"Maybe, we'll see what happens when we get back. Did you hear about that shot by Tasha? She totally took down three aliens at once!"
"Oh, that's awesome! Wait, where is she?"
"Well, she didn't see the one behind her. By the time she turned around, it was too late."
"Oh, that's awful..."
Yeah, pretty morbid and tasteless...

But, I really like the reality part of it. I mean, you think you know the ending of the story, but next mission who knows who is going to die? That's so awesome, I love it!

Now, that's about all I have for this post. Biggest problem as far as starting out is the colors still come in really strange. Also, work. It's a constant. Which is good, more busy means more money here, so keep busy! Till next time-