The definitive timeline...

[The Veteran]

Stemming from a discussion with Ki-tat a few days ago I realised that we really have no idea what actually happened in the XCom universe from 1950 to 2090... We all have a basic idea and we have the timeline here at XTC but various sources disagree with each other...

Now everybody here makes up a massive percentage of the XCommunity so I think it's about time we figure out what happened in the hundred and so years between XCom one and the hypothetical number six!

 

The basic timeline has to be;

Roswell

X-Inv

X-Com

UFOs

Enforcer

Cydonia

SORESO

X-Com experimental underwater facility

USOs

Hyperion sinks

X-Com operational

T'Leth

Global devastation

X-Com publicly revealed

The Frontier is established

X-Com establisghed in the frontier

UFOs return

Doomsday machine destroyed

Dimension gates appear on earth

X-Com once again top secret

new alien UFOs

Dimension probes launched

alien dimension destroyed

 

There's ALL of the basics! We need specifics though so let's figure it out!

[Hobbes]

We all have a basic idea and we have the timeline here at XTC but various sources disagree with each other...

The booklet included in Interceptor is the main source in my opinion. There are some conflicting items when comparing it to the TFTD handbook, especially concerning dates but in general the Microprose team made a real effort to get things straight.

Other than this there's a small background section on the Apoc manual that gives the summary of the situation at the beginning of the game. It gives a brief mention to the Frontier War but doesn't add much. The Interceptor booklet is the document to look at first, together with the news flashes that later appear on the game.

 

Another thing....there isn't any official mention of an X-INV that existed before X-COM. That happens because the timeline here at the site isn't the official one. It was written by Shanu some years ago (you can read it here) and he added a number of details that never appeared on the official material.

 

Hope this helps

[The Demi-Godly One]

Some manuals seem to contradict each other on the timeline...

[Jh316]

Gee, that's uncommon...

[Fox]

Posted by Hobbes

Another thing....there isn't any official mention of an X-INV that existed before X-COM.

 

Actually, if you look in the Interceptor timeline manual, they talk about X-INV. That's where I got the info to put in my fic.

 

Edit: Wait, isn't that a carbon copy of the interceptor timeline? LOL, it's like, exactly the same!

 

Edit 2: Oh, I guess it's a little different... Kinda cheap, if you ask me. But I'm pretty sure X-INV was in the original. Shame I don't have it on hand.

[Hobbes]

I got the original Interceptor timeline....the Kiryu-Kai is mentioned there but there isn't a single mention about X-INV.

And as the introduction to X-COM says: "After much debate, the decision was made to establish a covert, independent body to combat, investigate and defeat the alien threat". In terms of narrative it would be possible to have a unit that would have first investigated the UFOs but X-COM had been assigned that from the beginning.

 

PS - Other 'changes' made include the dropping of the reference that the last Avenger had replaced the Spirit of 76 and the calling of the Cult-Inquisitor war 'Jihad'.

[The Veteran]

Hobbes: X-Inv if not officially mentioned has been mentioned in so many pieces of fan fiction that I think it's impossible to leave off the timeline. Unfortunately I just checked my interceptor box and I don't have a manual... Damn you Microprose for your cheap repackaging scheme :hmmm: I tried to take into account the newsflashes in Interceptor but I realise now just how much I missed. We could do with trying to place these events later;

Loss of the Patton

Reforestation of earth

City reclamation

Construction of mega cities

Points again go to you Hobbes! I forgot about the Kiryu Kai as well. They didn't do much but if there's a timeline they have to go on it...

 

What is this all about?

PS - Other 'changes' made include the dropping of the reference that the last Avenger had replaced the Spirit of 76 and the calling of the Cult-Inquisitor war 'Jihad'.

[Hobbes]

The other problem with the 'existence' of INV is that it goes against the events set on the game and official timeline. It says that it was created at December of 1998 by the Council and a few months later it was turned into X-COM. Well, both the game and the timeline say that X-COM started its business on January 1st, 1999 so either they only had some three weeks to carry their work and report back to the Council (which is clearly insufficient) or X-COM wasn't created until well into 1999.

As for the fact that INV is already in so many fanfictions and it should be included on the original timeline, well I can think of a dozen other aspects that I've either read in someone else's fanfiction or included on my own that make sense in a official timeline.

 

The reference to the Spirit of 76 and the Jihad are two examples of how further the original timeline was changed by the author of the timeline that is at this site, Shaun. He dropped the mention that the last Avenger had replaced the Spirit of 76 and called the Inquisitors-Cult war a 'Jihad' or religious war.

[Fox]

I KNOW I've seen X-INV somewhere... because I put it in my fic. I never saw X-INV in another fic or anything... someone please help. It's got to be somewhere else!

[The Veteran]

The dozen other aspects you can think of are exactly what I'm after from everyone! Anything that has ever been written about XCom needs to be considered and we need to decide what's worth putting in a timeline.

 

I'd say that X-Inv probably existed for many decades beforehand but under a different name (probably as a result of the roswell incident) When alien sightings began to be reported in increased numbers in 98 there was a more secret branch created and that became X-Inv. When the first hostile action was encountered then it became X-Com in 1999

[Hobbes]

Fox: If you can find it great, otherwise sometimes the brain is pretty capable of playing tricks on itself. Hey, it happens to me all the time

 

Veteran: That's a discussion that I'd probably pass for the single reason that anyone is entitled to have their opinion since the official authors chose not to develop them too much. That's one of the nice things about writing X-COM fanfics actually since there's so much of the plot still in a vague situation.

But for argument's sake, here's a couple of points that I've found myself wondering about:

- If the aliens' presence was known since 1947 why wasn't anything done until the creation of X-COM?

- Where did the UFOs come from considering how fast they reacted to the discovery of an X-COM base? Wouldn't it take too long for the trip from Mars?

- There's hardly any mention of the Inquisitors on the timeline, even though Microprose released a short story called "Deposition" concerning them.

- What's up with the hybrids? First they were supposed to appear on UFO but they were scrapped besides a mention on the Sectoid's UFOPedia entry, then they show up on Apoc and it's mentioned that they existed since Roswell. Where were they until there?

- Why were there Sectoids imprisioned by the dimension aliens on their feeding chamber?

- What else has the Cult been up to in the years between Interceptor and Apoc? There are a lot of bizarre events related to them on both the timeline and the news briefs.

[Jh316]

- If the aliens' presence was known since 1947 why wasn't anything done until the creation of X-COM?

- Where did the UFOs come from considering how fast they reacted to the discovery of an X-COM base? Wouldn't it take too long for the trip from Mars?

- There's hardly any mention of the Inquisitors on the timeline, even though Microprose released a short story called "Deposition" concerning them.

- What's up with the hybrids? First they were supposed to appear on UFO but they were scrapped besides a mention on the Sectoid's UFOPedia entry, then they show up on Apoc and it's mentioned that they existed since Roswell. Where were they until there?

- Why were there Sectoids imprisioned by the dimension aliens on their feeding chamber?

- What else has the Cult been up to in the years between Interceptor and Apoc? There are a lot of bizarre events related to them on both the timeline and the news briefs.

1. Perhaps they didnt want to take much action until they were sure they were hostile, and there probably were things that were put together before, just not on an internation scale. IRL, there's reports of Soviet warplanes going after UFOs.

 

2. It takes us something like three months to get to Mars with our current technology, I beliieve, and they're obviously much more advanced than us. So it's not much of a stretch.They probably have to slow down for atmospheric flight.

 

4. Well, I imagine they were in hiding, as they wouldn't be accepted, would be hunted down, and would generally cause panic amoung the populace.

[The Veteran]

- If the aliens' presence was known since 1947 why wasn't anything done until the creation of X-COM?

Like I say (as an opinion) the US probably were investigating alien activities but the aliens at the time showed no sign of being majorly concerned with earth at all let alone being hostile towards it.

 

- Where did the UFOs come from considering how fast they reacted to the discovery of an X-COM base? Wouldn't it take too long for the trip from Mars?

Presuming that the build up of UFOs was because they had discovered the existence of XCom then they would simply have begun to mobilise more UFOs and alien troops. Bear in mind that for the first few weeks all we get are scouts. It's quite a while before bigger ships appear.

NOTE: I think Hobbes has hit something here. The aliens do start to appear just as XCom is created... It stands to reason that they had learnt of it's existence and fought a preemptive war...

 

- There's hardly any mention of the Inquisitors on the timeline, even though Microprose released a short story called "Deposition" concerning them.

I know little of the inquisitors but from what I know (or think I know) they weren't around until well after UFO, possibly even TFTD... Same time as the cult obviously but I forget when they came into being either. The inquisitors simply wanted to eradicate the Cult of Sirius (possibly because it consisted of ex-XCom soldiers. Wouldn't you be annoyed if you saved the world and everyone hated you for it?) The inquisitors lost the ensuing war with the Cult of Sirius that may or may not be classed a jihad. I personally would say it is as both sides considered themselves to be religious cults...

(I've not read the story Hobbes where can I find it?)

 

- What's up with the hybrids? First they were supposed to appear on UFO but they were scrapped besides a mention on the Sectoid's UFOPedia entry, then they show up on Apoc and it's mentioned that they existed since Roswell. Where were they until there?

JH316 is spot on with this one. If you watch the newspaper reports you will see a sub timeline going on in Roswell. Goes something like this...

- Many hybrids live in secret shame on earth before 1947

- Roswell incident prompts the hybrids to seek out their brethren

- Many hybrids are united in Roswell and form a small but secret dwelling

- Dwellings become expanded civilisations built mostly below ground

- Most hybrids see earth as home and oppose Alien Wars 1 and 2

- At the time of AW3 the US government unearths the alien colonies in Roswell possibly in search of elerium deposits there.

- The hybrids are shipped to a top secret base for research and interrogation

- The CoS storms the installation and frees many of the alien hybrids

-The remaining hybrids are later released by the government (I forget why)

 

- Why were there Sectoids imprisioned by the dimension aliens on their feeding chamber?

The sectoids were a delicacy among the dimension aliens. The question I would ask is how they got them. Were these the aliens that the Ethereal race was at war with in the frontier? If you remember the newspapers in Interceptor it is reported that many Ethereal ships were found alongside other foreign vessels. It could be that this was the Alliance aliens or it could be that it was the Apocalypse aliens... There's something else to ponder!

 

- What else has the Cult been up to in the years between Interceptor and Apoc? There are a lot of bizarre events related to them on both the timeline and the news briefs.

The Cult would probably be amusing itself by releasing the imprisoned hybrids, destroying XCom research and facilities (possibly even hunting down it's ex-personnel) Other than that it's anyone's guess. What would be interesting to enter into a timeline would be something to explain how all of the gangs formed in Mega Primus though. Maybe that could be related to the Cult of Sirius? They must have been pretty powerful by 2084 but they don't seem to be in the game... Maybe it was a split? Who knows!

[Jh316]

I know this is a bit off-topic, but...

With the whole thing about the ships coming from Mars, I thought of something:

Why wasn't the Avenger attacked on the way? I imagine that with all the battleships and such they have out there by the time you're able to send it to Cydonia, an Avenger hurtling towards their main base would attract some attention.

[NKF]

While I'm not tracking this topic in particular, I would like to add that I think you haven't mention T'Leth crashing into Earth many millions of years ago because its systems were shorted by a solar flare.

 

Of course, if you mean recorded history... well, I don't suppose anyone was around to record the event happening. So it obviously didn't make a sound.

 

- NKF

[The Veteran]

lol, I knew you'd be along sooner or later. True that's been missed off but I don't much fancy recording several million years worth of alien activity... Might take a while

[Hobbes]

Some more questions I just remembered:

 

- The classical one regarding TFTD: where are the lasers, at least?

- There seem to be a lot of alien 'Queens' or 'Brains' hanging around: there's the original one at Cydonia, T'Leth, the Queen Alien on Apoc. Now the million dollar question is that since the aliens have a hive like society who is really in charge? The Ethereals or something else?

- Back to Cydonia: the Brain claimed that Mars used to be a paradise and the buildings were old. How old? 50 years? A million years? And how come there's a massive artificial human face on an alien base?

 

Veteran, as for the answers you gave they are valid but I could think of some other reasons for them. Everyone can have its own view on the subject but those are simply things the creators of X-COM never bothered revealing or answering. If you want to read the story I mentioned go check the literature section of XCommand (there's a link somewhere on this site).

[Jh316]

Well, for the first question, the laser would be refracted and such underwater, making it pretty much useless, or at the very least, be entirely impossible to hit somehting you're aiming at. X-Com didn't want to devote resources to something which can only be used on land, as most times they would fight underwater.

[The Veteran]

- The classical one regarding TFTD: where are the lasers, at least?

I've been beaten to this one... XCom didn't need lasers because they fought under water. Spot on Jh316... Presumably they kept lasers stocked in their main bases but they were soon replaced with Gauss and Sonic weapons... The people who did develop laser weapons were civilian branches of earth's security force, marsec, the police etc. That's why they all have lasers in Apoc.

 

- There seem to be a lot of alien 'Queens' or 'Brains' hanging around: there's the original one at Cydonia, T'Leth, the Queen Alien on Apoc. Now the million dollar question is that since the aliens have a hive like society who is really in charge? The Ethereals or something else?

The queen alien in Apoc is completely unrelated. It is debatable but I personally think it's fairly certain that they are a different species entirely... The apoc queen alien could have been the uber queen in which case XCom has annihilated the Apoc alien species. But my guess would be she was only a sub queen, like the brains from XCom...

Coming to them I'd say the TFTD alien was one of the brains before evolution got hold of them. When the colony ship went down the rest of the controlling creatures like him evolved to be hugely powerful in mind (therefore not needing a molecular control net) but physically pathetic... There are probably tens or possibly hundreds of the alien brains in the galaxy (presuming they haven't left the galaxy which is possible) I'd guess there was no higher power above the brains. That would be too much of a weakness for the alien race to have. Perhaps there was an uber-queen once and the alien brains that it spawned realised this and destroyed her, learning to live without her... This is worth discussing on SO many levels!

 

- Back to Cydonia: the Brain claimed that Mars used to be a paradise and the buildings were old. How old? 50 years? A million years? And how come there's a massive artificial human face on an alien base?

Good point Hobbes! Presumably the paradise on Mars began to wane at about the time T'Leth was sent to earth (that would explain why it was sent to earth in the first place!) The human face I think we'll have to come to an agreement on between ourselves! Maybe they made it there so that the new race they had seeded would look to space one day and be drawn to the brethren to live in peace. When this became an obvious impossibility the aliens invaded. (XCom was founded to defeat the aliens proving earth's hostility to it's creators)

[Rattler]

I think Vetren just summed this all up pretty well

[Hobbes]

... This is worth discussing on SO many levels!

You got that right

 

The better thing considering the X-COM storyline would be to make something like a FAQ. You could bring these points and others and then add the several hypothesis related to each item on it. That way you could accomodate a variety of opinions.

 

As an example:

 

- Why did the lasers and the other sophisticated weaponry and armor disappeared on TFTD?

 

1) There wasn't Elerium to power it.

2) Lasers are useless underwater since the beam scatters and Elerium becomes inert upon contact with salt water.

3) There are lasers but Gauss and Sonic weaponry is more effective.

 

etc., etc., etc....

[Rattler]

Isn't it mentioned some where that Alien Alloys break down after coming in contact with sea water? And just how long did the all the Alien Wars last?

[Araanor]

Refraction? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't refraction an effect of light passing through the boundary between two different media, like entering water from the surface.

 

High-powered lasers with shielded elerium would pack a punch...

 

Honestly, I see no point in trying to fit in TFTD into the timeline, the game itself was just a re-skin of the original game to attempt to cash in on the fans. All the equipment is virtually the same and the logic is bent to allow for that.

 

It seems like Mythos tried to forget it happened at all in Apocalypse, what makes it funnier is that David Ellis in turn wanted to bury Apocalypse when working on Genesis.

[NKF]

Mind you, X-Com Apocalypse may not have happened yet in Genesis.

 

One other theory regarding the sectoids in the alien dimension could be that they are earth engineered sectoids. They needed sectoids to work on to produce the hybrids...

 

But if that were true, when did the Micronoid infested aliens capture them and how? And why were sectoids running loose in Megaprimus? Could they not have their racial information downloaded into their heads like all their clones did in UFO, hence their abject docility (or headless-chicken-ness ala the civilians)?

 

Or may not. Some things are perhaps best left unanswered so that your imagination can fill in the gaps.

 

- NKF

[Araanor]

Have you read the David Ellis interview? He states Genesis comes after Apocalypse.

 

As for the sectoids, it was probably just a "these aliens are nasty, so nasty they eat your old foes"-thing Mythos threw in.