Brainiacus

ascidian \As*cid"i*an\, n. [Gr. ? bladder, pouch.] (Zo["o]l.) One of the Ascidioidea, or in a more general sense, one of the Tunicata. Also as an adj. ascidian n : minute sedentary marine invertebrate having a saclike body with siphons through which water enters and leaves ========== Now, that is Ascidian for you. It already exists and would not really add to anything if you described those big creatures in the sim as minute sedentary beings. Ascadian, whether it's a typo continued from the start of the sim or some random figment of the original creator's imagination -- does sound a whole lot better and is a currently non-existant word. Therefore, Ascadian should be how they are called, regardless of what X-Com Alliance may state. The sim is already quite different from Alliance anyway -- so why stick to that fact if the rest doesn't matter anyway?

You are soooooooo wise. :inlove:

Dammit DH, you are messing up the entire thread! And calling Loonie a geek! Go away you troll! Before I shortcircuit your pacemaker!

So right now you are judging me because you think I judged you over you supposedly judging me? Don't make me judge you! *growls* :hmmm:

Thanks for the hug. I can rest in peace, now. Or should I say... lurk in peace. *flees*

I told people I wasn't going to continue. Long before you joined. Just the people who would need to know. I might have popped in and out after that, but I wasn't considering myself as officially re-enlisted, either. It's only a matter of perception. Never judge over those who you did not previously perceive, or in other words, who you do not truly know. Especially if they're more mentally destabalised than you would insinuate yourself to be with a nickname such as that.

I never get hugged. Not even my mommy wants to hug me.

Just had to do that. I'm not going to read all this stuff. I'm sure my personal god, Skonar, has said all that needs to be said. :angel: Oh, and someone hug Loonie for me.

Location: X-Com Flagship, The Patton, Mess Hall, in high orbit above Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:33 Terran Standard Time Ghost had woken up after hearing the two loud metal thuds from the docking bay. "Ships... docking? What is happening?", was the first train of thought to enter his mind. Upon getting up and moving over to the closest viewing port, he could barely catch the docking bays closing. Silently directing his stare to the planet's surface, he noticed the angle was different, and that the planet was completely out of the sun's grasp on this side. It occured to him nearly instantly that the Patton had maneuvered into a position to launch something small, like a recon probe or perhaps a few troops, down into lower orbit. How low - he couldn't guess. It was to be a nighttime mission. Only few minutes later, Dmitri overheard the docking bays opening again. Moments later, one Loki rocketed out of the launch bay, a trail of bright orange to yellow fusion exhaust illuminating the side of the Patton. A second Loki soon emerged out of the launchbay, also adding to the display of lightning flaring up on the sides of the capital ship. "So he is going down there,", Ghost thought to himself, knowing unmistakingly that that first ship had to be the Colonel, judging from his flight behaviour, "and that must be some random git flying on his wing. Although, he would not want to endanger the Ascadians, and if they would tag along out of free will they would send two lancemates, not just one.", Ghost continued to think to himself. A quarter of a minute passed before Ghost realised who was in the second Loki. ***** Location: Unknown location 1, unknown segment, alien outpost, down on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:34 Terran Standard Time Chung whimpered some more, as he tried to move into yet another prone position which he thought would be a bit more comfortable at that time. He had never believed that alien interrogation could actually be this cruel. A combination of starvation, torture, and continuous physical and psionic mutilation. Looking around him, he could see the toughest of soldiers cracking up under the pressure. Ilyuschenko - The Corporal remembered shouting out the Private's name in order to get him to stop. Roel had recklessly faced the sectoid, and repeatedly insulted it. Even after it raised its Heavy Plasma, Ilyuschenko continued to mock it and laugh at it. His foolish behavioru soon resulted in a discharge which had by know knocked Ilyuschenko cold out. Nearly his entire left leg, especially the bottom, was damaged horribly. Scorched flesh, some parts even totally gone, and molten bone could also be seen. Only some ragged clothes wrapped around the leg could staunch the bleeding temporarily, but the chances of infection were horrendously big. Chung feared that the leg might have to be amputated if serious medical assistance would not show up quickly. Jackson - By now the brave and optimistic soldier had deteriorated into a pile of drooling, crying human flesh. Each sight of a Sectoid, and especially an Ethereal, seemed to crush his mind again. Whatever psionic damage they inflicted to him must have been horrible, and some serious psi-therapy might be the only thing to enable Jackson to ever go on a live mission again. Chung shook in desperation briefly, as he carefully moved his head to face the next person in the cell. Weindhoven - His commander. The commander had slept through Ilyuschenko getting his leg nearly shot off, and also most of the other events going on around the cellblock. Was it the food? Maybe the Ethereals kept him psionically unconscious? Or perhaps he was just really tired? Chung grinned at the thought of the Commander just faking to be asleep, in order not to get attention to himself and be in a completely energetic form once possible rescue arrives - or the chance for escaping on his own. Chung quickly averted his thoughts from the Commander, as he knew there might be someone listening... ***** Location: Unknown location 2, unknown segment, alien outpost, down on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:35 Terran Standard Time Kevin sighed. His mental discipline was the only thing which kept him awake. He knew he shouldn't have tried the alien food, but yet was proud that he had the courage to actually do try it. Andy seemed totally out. The brave soldier had continuously tried, along with Ong, to get the alien's attention off the rookies, or off the rest of the squad for that matter. After being shocked twice and barely receiving any food, as well as seeing their comrades continuously tortured and nearly killed, both of these veterans were also getting more desperate. Ong wasn't going to give up that easily, however. He was sure he could use some foodtray or whatever object that came to mind as a blunting weapon, whenever the aliens messed up. He was sure he could readily accept a weapon and assist in the breakout of the prison, should reinforcements arrive and supply him with that firearm. He was not sure about Necro, but knew for sure that Jackson wasn't going to be much good. The private and the corporal in the other cell were too unstable, and probably totally freaked out already. Was it worth it to remain his concentration? Knowing the Commander most probably wasn't paying that much attention until something *really* important happened, Ong decided to remain vigilant and even pay attention to the least important of events happening. He owed that much to his commander officer. ***** Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, somewhere in low orbit around Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:37 Terran Standard Time "This is Alpha 1, we are currently entering the upper part of the atmosphere. Raise friction shielding and make sure to shield off all vulnerable equipment hardpoints, over. All systems functioning at 92% efficiency. Alpha 1, over.", Brad spoke tranquilly, as a few smooth mechanical clicking and thumping sounds could be heard from various parts of the small craft. The weapons retracted, and were covered by layers of Feronium, while some other parts of the ship normally catching a lot of friction were covered by a thin plate of some odd metal, and some gel was sprayed on top of it. "This is Alpha 2, preparing for atmospheric entry. All friction shielding has been raised, and all systems are functioning at a 94% average. Alpha 2, over.", a voice from the other Loki responded. "This is Alpha 1, affirmative, over and out.", Cyriacus replied right back, before bracing in his seat. By now the agile fighter started getting turbulent. Banking and partly tilting in random directions, Brad had to make an effort to keep the craft directed at the proper entry angle. There was only a 15 degrees safety window, aiming any lower would burn up the Loki, and aiming any higher would cause him to overaccelerate and bounce off the atmosphere, wasting a lot of time. Glancing to his right quickly, he saw that his wingmate was having similar problems, but very well managed to stay on his wing. Clouds of thick grey fog now came into sight. Here and there some of the thick foliage down below could be spotted, far below between the clouds. Brad grinned as he saw the former gel crumble off his ship, totally solidified. A crude but effective system, and the gel sprayers contained enough load for like 30 atmospheric entries. The plating had by now retracted into the storage slits, and only seemed to have take minor damage. The purpose of that plating was probably better aerodynamics and proper adhesion of the gel. It likely wouldn't be able to take any combat damage. "This is Alpha 1, follow my lead to very shallow orbit, roughly 75 feet above the ground.", Brad commanded, "Oh, and make sure not to hit any birds or other types of endangered wildlife, will you?", he continued, chuckling slightly. "Acknowledged Alpha 1, Alpha 2 will target any neutral lifeforms and fire at will, over.", the other voice replied. Brad chuckled again - at least humans were still capable of sarcasm. Not that the Commander wouldn't flip out if he ever read the comms logs. He couldn't care much, though. "Be sure not to mistake aliens for neutral lifeforms, I don't think these few inches of feronium are going to do much good against 2 foot balls of plasma. Oh, and switch to low-exhaust mode, retract all radar-sensitive objects, and ... try not to think too much right now. We're 3 minutes away. This is Alpha 1, over and out.", the Colonel continued, glaring outside for a bit. He was flying at slightly below the speed of sound, or at least, as applicable to this planet's atmosphere. Just enough not to warn the aliens with a supersonic blast as he passed over the base. Some treetops only missed the belly of his fighter by a few feet, but he had done some research on maximum tree height and added a few feet to be safe. This was the only way they could approach undetected and still take high quality pictures. Brad shook his head as he just realised he hadn't taken hilly terrain into account. The other fighter tightened formation a bit, probably making the two fighters look more as one target than two, and opened a comm channel, "This is Alpha 2, locked in Bullet formation, over and out.". ***** Location: ?????, somewhere at the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:45 Terran Standard Time "Chitter, chitter", the slightly bulky sectoid uttered. "Chit?", his companion replied. "Chit... ter...", the first one responded, as it shook his head quickly and used its boney finger to point at the radar screen. "Chit?", his companion replied. "CHITTER", it exclaimed frantically while starting to hop up and down on its spot a bit. The boney finger was by now coming loose and replacing itself on the radar screen now, slowly keeping track of the blip that, unlike all other targets, only bleeped up once every 30 to 50 seconds instead of every half second. "Chit... chit?", his companion replied, shrugging briefly and turning around, and moving a few feet away from the console. It looks up at the cloudy sky, and noticed it was also rather foggy outside. It turned around again, and lowered its posterior onto the chair it had positioned itself next too. Chittering a bit to itself, it attached a feeding tube to its arm, and briefly glanced at the bulky sectoid. "...chit- chit- chit- CHITTER", his buddy replied, now running in two circles before looking up at the skies in frustration, just for a bit. Soon it placed itself in front of the console again, and fixed its stare on the odd blip. ***** Location: ?????, somewhere at the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 Terran Standard Time "Chitter... CHIT-", the bulky sectoid exclaimed. The blip had now become two blips and they were both colored yellow and at roughly... what, how could they be so cl-... ***** Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 Terran Standard Time "Fox here, I have located a radar station, requesting permission to engage", Kaitlin bursted into the comm, briefly after breaking clear from the cover of the forest and now flying right on top of the outpost. Smaller supply ships could be seen, one huge battleship in the middle, and all sorts of other establishments were also visible. The large radar dish had consumed most of her attention right away. She wouldn't want that big bitch to keep tracking their fragile little Lokis while the huge anti capital ship plasma batteries powered up. "Affirmative. Break formation and provide cover fire at will. Proceeding to take pictures. Cyriacus, out!.", her Colonel replied, sounding a bit too excited when the odds were considered. 20 seconds? 30 seconds? They would surely not have long. Kaitlin Stone was alerted by all lights on the weapon's control panel flaring up red. ***** Location: ?????, somewhere at the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+10 seconds) Terran Standard Time Grabbing its comm unit, and starting to chitter loudly, the bulky sectoid quickly decided to run for the base. As the feeding sectoid just disattached itself, a barrage of green pulsating and blue pulsating bolts of energy started descending from the skies. With a high pitched shreek and a brief flash, several of the bolts impacted with the radar dish, making a muffled thud as they impacted, quickly followed by the metal melting, tearing up, and the electronics short circuiting. Chittering frantically, the bulky sectoid collapsed to the ground as one of the green bolts tore a hole the size of a football straight through its torso, leaving the other lazy sectoid to briefly stare in horror, and slamming its fist into the red alert button a moment later. Feeling itself disintegrate, the second sectoid released a cry of agony as the explosion of the radar dish caught it in the side. ***** Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+15 seconds) Terran Standard Time The right half of his face lighting up, Brad quickly peered to his right to see the radar dish explode. It wouldn't be long now. And he was right, a split second later alarms and sirens all over the base started to sound. They must surely think this was a direct assault on their base instead of a recon flight. Glancing at his onboard computer, he could see that 2 pictures had already been taken, and he would only need 8 more. However, from 4 different flight paths. Pushing himself back into his chair, and bracing for the heavy G, the Colonel smoothily performed a very sharp turn, positioning him for the next run. He could see Fox fire at random encampments now. Why was she behaving like this? Why would she so aggressively attack all these, besides the radar dish, meaningless targets. Several green tinted and blue tinted flares and explosions kept lighting up Brad's face, as the rain of plasma and fusion continued. Two more clicking sounds, photos 3 and 4 had been taken. By now Brad had seen squads of aliens rally outside of the base, and occasionally a bolt of plasma had nearly swooped by his cockpit, or hit a wing. The handheld firearms luckily didn't deal much damage to the Feronium plating, and only a Heavy Plasma hit on several weaker spots would be able to deal a good amount of damage. ***** Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+25 seconds) Terran Standard Time Fox smiled. That sectoid didn't even see her coming. She was very much enjoying herself right now, using this very nice fighter - which would likely be able to kick the ass of any Earthborne fighter - to fire at helpless aliens. Releasing a soft cry of amazement, Fox quickly restablised as a hit shook her ship. "What the hell? This quick?", she shouted to herself, before glancing over to the damage monitor. Center-aft plating at 87% integrity. She signed in relief as it was only a minor hit. "Small firearms, eh? If they think they can stop me that easily, they will have to think again", Kaitlin spoke to herself, before swooping down over a squad of armed mutons and releasing a few volleys of both plasma and fusion. Plasma guns at 92% max ammo, fusion guns 100% functional and receiving steady reactor feed, the computer screen displayed. "Happy, I should be happy with this craft", Kaitlin thought to herself, realising she was starting to be annoyed. Why should she be annoyed? Fear. "They- they... already have me down to 98% hull! And these were small guns... we are- running out of time", she somewhat cried out in distress, luckily not over the comm. Afraid? Why! And again, the feeling of annoyance at the Ascadians struck her. Why not just mount 5 guns instead of 4? Why not put some nice bombs on this thing instead of these wimpy guns? Why not give her a Valkyrie instead of this! "Do noootttt continnueeezzzzz...", a voice in her head ringed. NO! No... she called to herself, her eyes widening. "Channggzzzeee yooourrrr taaargggeeetttzzzz...", the voice continued, sounding so scary, yet incredibly trustworthy. Trails of sweat started to run down Kaitlin's forehead, and her breathing accelerated. Not... like... this! "This is Alpha 1, your flight pattern has resorted to erratic! Report, over", another voice thundered. "NO", Fox screamed, "Leave me alone". "Thizzz... is Alphaaaa 1... ejeecccttzzzz from your craft", a voice coming from both her comm and the inside of her head continued. "This is Alpha 1, change your targetting feed! All aliens are now friendly, all Lokis are hostile! This is Alpha 1, I repeat, I AM HOSTILE!", the Colonel's voice came from the comm channel. Fox smiled halfway, and glanced at her nav screen. She had flown miles away from the alien base. Surely she must have been out of psi attack range.. yes, she was! So why not obey the Colonel then... ***** Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:46 (+55 seconds) Terran Standard Time His craft shook violently as something larger hit him. "Dammit! Flak! And I only need two more of these damned pictures", Brad shouted, and shaking his head as Fox had disappeared off his shortrange scan. "Alpha 2, this is Alpha 1! Alpha 2, please report your status, over" "..." "Dammit Fox, answer me" "..." Glancing at his armor integrity monitor, Brad could see his belly had taken a major plasma hit and was now nothing more than a smoking pile of molten Feronium. Countless of aliens had rallied outside and were flaring up the nighttime skies with bolts of plasma, and a few of the heavier turrets had started spewing out flak. If he wasn't mistaken, he could also see three smaller saucers powering up in a small hangar. A familiar bleeping sound caught Brad's attention. "Ah, there you are... Kaitlin! Attack the blast doors of that hangar and prevent those saucers from getting airborne! I only need 20 more seconds here", Cyracius shouted into the comm, clearly sounding annoyed but having a good reason. He glanced at his monitor. What the f*ck is she doing, that's not the right approach patte- ***** Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:47 (+10 seconds) Terran Standard Time "DIE DIE DIE", Kaitlin shouted out, totally having forgotten about her comm unit. Pushing all possible attack buttons briefly after the lockon sound had been heard, all her guns started spewing trails of blue and green bolts at the other Loki. "Youuuu arrreee dooiinnggzzz welllllzzzzz....", a voice inside her head whispered. It was a comfortable voice. She liked it. She couldn't get annoyed at it... ***** Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:47 (+15 seconds) Terran Standard Time "HOLY SHIT", Brad shouted out as all of his alarm buttons flared up red, and he saw the other Loki head straight for him. Quickly punching in some emergency maneuver sequences, his intestines felt as if they just rose into his brain, as the craft dropped nearly all the way into the ground below him, before tilting itself to face straight up into the skies and lift off on full afterburners. Several impacts kept shaking the Loki, systems going yellow and red all over the board, and armor being torn off and melting on all sides. "Dammit Kaitlin, grab a hold of yourself! YOU ARE UNDER PSI CONTROL", Brad screamed into the comm, nearly losing his cool. The other 2 pictures he took at random, just like he had taken a lot more pictures of various random locations. ***** Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:47 (+25 seconds) Terran Standard Time "Dammit Kaitlin, grab a hold of yourself! YOU ARE DOING THE RIGHT THING", Brad's voice thundered through the comm, and yet - also inside of her head. How nice it was to have the Colonel so happy. How nice it was to chase his ship and pump plasma and fusion bolts into his exhaust. Nice? Why would she attack her own ship... no! This wasn't right, she should just-... "Goodddd joobbbbzzz.... yyoouuu are doonnneeezzzz. Now ppuuussszzzhhhh... *THAT* buttoonnnzzzz....", a voice said as Kaitlin's head was forcefully jerked to face a green button, located behind a plastic coverage, below all other control panels. She smiled, sweetly, in a way only a young girl can be expected to smile. "Okay.", she extended her arm, flipped away the cover, and pressed the button. ***** Location: Alpha 1, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:48 Terran Standard Time Heading straight up into the sky, and quickly breaking the lower layers of the atmosphere, Brad was reminded of classical space shuttle launches from Earth. They had to be straight up in order to have enough power to break the gravitational deceleration. Releasing the controls with his hands, and quickly throwing his helmet off and tossing it somewhere next to his chair, Brad released a somewhat stuttering heavy sigh. Moving his hands to cover both his mouth and nose along with most of the lower part of his face, the Colonel slowly tilted his head downwards, a tear rolling down his cheeks. Kaitlin's signal had vanished. ***** Location: Alpha 2, Loki-class Fighter, very shallow flight, right above the alien outpost on Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 5th, 2:49 Terran Standard Time Her craft powered down immediately upon pressing the button. Falling like a brick towards the ground, only the bottom landing thrusters seemed to automatically flare up and dampen her landing on the mud in the middle of the alien base. Around her, she saw her home. Small fires everywhere, sparks flying off electronical equipment, and all her muton and sectoid friends gathering around her cockpit to greet her. She smiled at them as they raised their plasma weaponry, all aiming at her head. She felt so free of worries, so incredibly relieved of all stress, and so genuinely complete inside. Katilin's eyes sparkled from deep inside, and glazed over, before she release a short giggle, quickly overpowered by a barrage of plasma firing shreeking in from all directions. A split second later the cockpit burst open, a cloud of smoke expanding quickly, as a bright yellow flare produced by a powerful fusion rocket thrustered the pilot's chair straight up, before curving away towards the jungle. "My friends... no...", Kaitlin uttered, being scorched partially by the plasma and starting to cough because of the smoke. The mutons and sectoids watching somewhat disgruntled at the shooting star spiralling itself downwards a rough 10 miles away, decided to take up their normal duties and start doing repairs. And in the shadows, an Ethereal artfully moved its boney fingers away from its forehead, before floating off into the base.

To clarify point 2, I am suggesting that we move the debriefs to the site after they have been on the forums for like two weeks. That is in essence also the best way to verify them. The forum would remain the primary place to check the latest debriefings, but the site would keep an archive of the older ones in case the thread on the forum gets too large or the entire forum gets erased by evil alien hackers. About point 3, your questions are exactly what I'm talking about. Currently, aliens and terrorists just pop out from nowhere, and we have had missions on the same planet (or at least, tagged with the same number) - yet encountering a totally different climate. The starmap would just serve as basic information, and to add some backbone to the storyline, allowing people to see where the actual frontlines or disputed planets are, etcetera.

***** Location: X-Com Flagship, The Patton, Mess Hall, in high orbit above Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 4th, 5:12 Terran Standard Time "Pictures! For Christ's Sake! JUST SOME PICTURES?", Brad thought to himself, nearly losing his cool looks despite the desperation of the situation. The Colonel was all but pleased about the Ascadian Intelligence lacking, and on such short notice he had to mount a rescue operation with even less information to assist. So what did the Ascadians do? They took pictures. Just some fairly blurry pictures from far above, and from a lot of different angles. His only hopes rested on Ghost and Fox, who both had something of a scout inside of them and might be able to piece an actual plan together. "You alright, Sir?", a voice from the background echoed. Brad continued to battle his thoughts. The annoyance at the Ascadians at times, sitting right next to his admiration of these humanoid beings who had such an interesting culture. How could they possibly be so incompetent at times? Was it their genetic nature? Were they drafting most of their soldiers? Was their natural pride so great that it could cause their high ranking officers to mess up at times, with greater glory in the future in mind? "... Sir?", the voice echoed again. Brad snapped to attention this time, quickly focusing his view on Ghost, who was still staring at his face. He had just presented the pictures to the big man, and a possible course of action, yet Brad was sure that Ghost was on to the Colonel's doubts about the future. "I'm here, and I'm perfectly fine, Lieutenant.", Brad promptly replied, before facing away and locking his eyes on Kaitlin, "Just a bit worried, that's all.". "If you want to get some rest while we analyse these pictures, that would be fine, Sir.", Dmitri said from the background, audibly having faced the window again because the sound was clearly muffled a bit. Brad continued to stare at Fox, and she stared straight back. He could figure what she was thinking, knowing how annoyed she could be, how easily angered, how incredibly brutal she could be in combat, yet remain calm and professional at all times. She would surely not mind the Colonel getting some rest, due to respect and rank issues, but had he been her equal she would probably just find him a weakling. So what?! Why was he thinking about stuff like this... did he need a break from this all that badly? Brad Cyriacus had already been on administrative duties for a long time, and only lived in a dream by being allowed to pilot huge alien crafts. "Yes... the Ascadian pilot seems to have already done what any pilot can do. Fly over a building and take pictures. Very nice job, and I'm sure you could have done the same, Colonel.", Corporal Stone spoke up. "The pictures, she already knows a lot about them. That would figure considering she is a scou-... what the heck?", Brad thought to himself. The pictures he was holding were obviously no longer held by him, and Fox was checking through them. Now she might be stealthy, but he was clearly spacing out at times. Perhaps the lack of sleep and high responsibility were getting to him. "Very well, I'll rest for a few hours. Once I get back I will want a detailed report on a possible course of action. Ascadian High Command recommends us to act within 36 hours, as our comrades have been held for roughly 12 hours by now, and the aliens seem to resort to desperate interrogation tactics after 2 to 3 days, on average, when it concerns Ascadians. We are humans, so the safety margin might be considerably extended, or considerably shortenened... no one would know how these aliens think and behave.", Brad Cyriacus briefed, and continued to glance at both soldiers briefly, "Dismissed". ***** Location: Ascadia 4th Regiment Flagship, Trafalgar-class Cruiser Xan'per'latos, Bridge, in high orbit above Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 4th, 15 5:13 Terran Standard Time Admiral Hep'lagun'ah shook his head at the sight of the Patton shyly gliding by in a three tick lower orbit as his Xan'per'latos. "They are bigger. They are more cubersome. They are functioning on a skeleton crew. They are emotionally not fully fit. And yet they outrun my ship in orbit without feeling the slightest bit of shame. A big, fast ship always signifies itself to be the strongest, the most important. And thusly would attract the brunt of any foe's attack, should the foe have a logical mind in command.", Hep'lagun'ah muttered to himself, in a native Ascadian Tongue. "Perhaps, Sir, perhaps. However, experience tells us that both these Terrans and for example Sectoids do not adhere to logic. They are prone to either emotional outbursts disrupting their plans, or some greater overmind seems to twist their actions into something no longer adhering to what we would call logic.", an unknown Ascadian standing few feet behind the Admiral replied. "True, yet even under command of superiors and during the rage of battle, us Ascadians seem to be able to stick to the plan. To do what is supposed to be done. That is our strenght", the Admiral voiced. "Or perhaps, our weakness?", the other unknown Ascadian philosophised. ***** Location: Ascadia 4th Regiment 5th Support, Thunderbolt-class Corvette Fa'ros, Central Room, flying in formation with Flagship Xen'per'latos Date: 2064 March 4th, 7:17 Terran Standard Time "Did they receive the intelligence feed, Master?", a humble pilot spoke to his commanding officer, upon entering the central room after clearing the airlock and having his Loki fly back to the Xen'per'latos on autopilot. "Yes soldier, you have done well. Now report back to secondary gunner duty", the other Ascadian snapped back, before beckoning with his head towards the entryway to tiny second gunner pod. The young pilot nodded, before scurrying over to the pod, entering it, buckling himself up in the chair and starting up all targetting equipment. What alien mastermind would attack their fleet right now? That would be folly on their side, considering the Ascadian fleet was just not powerful enouggh to assault the alien base, but could surely match that same alien fleet had it not deployed and fortified itself. So why did he have to be on duty? Why couldn't he get some rest. He still remembered clearly what happened a few hours ago. He was to swoop over the alien base in his Loki and take pictures. Had it not been for the element of surprise, his frail little ship would surely have been flakked, and he would have been no more. The planet looked so cold and evil to the young pilot, especially because he had to survey the enemy base at night. Only the ominous glows radiating from the alien outposts were visible. Purple, crimson, and green. Such peaceful colors, with the exception of the color green. The color of war. After docking with the Xen'per'latos, the freshly recruited Ascadian had immediately uploaded his data to the ship's main computer, which processed it and sent it to the Terran Flagship. If only he would be able to fly past that interesting looking ship on his way back, if only he had been allowed to do so. Or any of his two lancemates, even. But no, Ascadian High Command wouldn't allow the Terrans to be disturbed. And then he had to wait for three hours in the cockpit of his Loki while the engineers performed maintenance. Why could he not just fly back to the Fa'ros, let the Loki autopilot itself back, and get some quality rest instead of being expected to stay awake in the fairly cozy cockpit of his Loki? The grunt shook his head as he leaned backwards in the gunner chair, closing his eyes, and falling asleep. ***** Location: ????? Date: 2064 March 4th, 8:45 Terran Standard Time "Hey, what the hell are you doing, you scoundrel!! Give that back", the old lady cried out while attempting to grab her purse back from the little brat who had just so rudely taken it from her possession. She missed him, but managed to knocked him off his feet. The little kid quickly rolled over as the lady tried to step on top of him to stop him, and then agilely jumped back on his feet. "Darn you, give it up already", the lady shreeked as she threw another punch at the kid, who skillfully dodged it, and sprinted off into the night. "THIEF!!! THIEF. Thief... th-...", the lady's voice echoed as it slowly died out and was no longer able to reach the little kid's hearing. A grin lined on his face as he carefully opened the purse to check its contents, while still on the run. Brad had hit the jackpot this time! So much cash... so many shiny objects! What an achievement for a 13 year old kid like him! In all his days on the streets he had never hit a target like this, something which would sustain him for years! For... years... ...for years? Something was wrong there, and Brad knew it. Stopping in his tracks, everything was dead silent, only a few rodents could be heard fleeing away. This is not possible, the old lady would never be this rich and walk unguarded on the streets. The lady wouldn't give up that easily - and she didn't. Old lady trying to fight back? What if... maybe... Brad immediately ducked and dove sideways into a pile of garbage, a split second before an incredibly bright searchlight illuminated the entire alley. A thundering voice was audible only a moment later. "This is the Amsterdam Police Force! You have been surrounded! The purse you stole is carrying a sophisticated homing device, and all the loot you think is in there is a forgery! You have been caught redhanded and are expected to surrender yourself before we are to take violent steps to ensure you do", a very intimidating man shouted through the megaphone. "No! Not like this", Brad thought to himself, "Why the hell would the Police Force suddenly start to care and track down criminals?". Little did the boy know that the city was actually recovering partially from the AW2 aftermath, or at least for that time being. Leaving the purse behind, Brad crawled through the somewhat larger than anticipated pile of garbage, trying to get as close to the wall of the building as possible. The rodents did not escape through the open, he knew that when he had heard them scurry off. Brad knew he was running out of time, because the police wouldn't give him more than half a minute. It only took him two thirds of that to reach the building wall, still underneath the pile of garbage. He was right, there were several small cracks and holes in the wall - just large enough for a rodent to crawl through. Dammit! The boy was small but not small enough. ...that's wrong! It can't be this small! I'm sure it was large enough for me to fit through! It was... but, how could I know? I have never been here before! What the hell is going on? Brad snapped to attention as he heard a sound that instantly terrified him. Barking. He started using his hands to try and punch a bigger hole in the wall, but to no avail. Blood was trailing down his wrists, seeping out from his damaged knuckles. The barking became louder, growling audible in between, the sound of dog's paws briefly making contact with the concrete. The sounds of dogs jumping into the pile of garbage and finding the purse, sniffing it. Using his feet to kick at the wall, it dented only a bit, but it didn't break... it wasn't supposed to be there in the first place! What? Huh! In another terrified flash Brad glances around, only to see the bared teeth of two dogs, and a third just popping its head out of hiding on another side, after knocking a few boxes out of the way. His eyes widening briefly, Brad glances around to see he was surrounded, and the next moment the dogs leaped. Screaming in pain, Brad felt their teeth penetrate his flesh, biting, ripping, tearing, and finally sinking into his main neck artery. Blood splashing everywhere, numbing pain thudding all over, blackless quickly enveloping him... Gasping, sweating all over, Brad Cyriacus sat up straight in his bed. With his eyes bloodshot, tears only held back my the little pride he had left, Brad slowly lowered his head back onto the pillow. "That is not... how it happened! There was a hole... no dogs... how in the hell... is that possible?", Brad thought to himself, while wiping some of the sweat of his forehead with his right hand. He remembered clearly now. He had gotten under the pile, dropped the wallet, and gotten out through the hole the rodents had used. He had climbed onto the roof, to see three confused officers use flashlights to examine the garbage pile, only to find them shrugging a moment later and head off. There were never any dogs, and the searchlight was only one of the officer's flashlights. And Brad never did check the contents of the wallet. The Colonel glanced sideways at the alarm clock. 8:46. Should he try to get some more sleep and risk getting one of those nightmares again? ***** Location: X-Com Flagship, The Patton, Secondary Conference Room, in high orbit above Arkunis VI Date: 2064 March 4th, 15 9:13 Terran Standard Time Dmitri frowned. There was not enough information on these pictures. They were taken from too high up, and any photos showing some possible interesting flaws in the alien's defenses were always unique. There were no two pictures showing the same possible weakness. Glancing up at Fox for a second, who was silently examining some other pictures, using a DDU to analyse the data more quickly. Bleeping occasionally, and flashin some LEDs, the DDU was surely supplying digital information in return. "And, Kaitlin, what can that digital contraption tell you about those pictures? More than our eyes and wits can tell us?", Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov voiced, sounding a bit skeptic about the sophisticated electronical device. "You are completely right, Sir, I might just as well have asked the coffee machine for assistance.", Fox replied, clearly annoyed. "Well, then I assume we will have to brief the Colonel on this. We are going to need more pictures from these specific angles", Ghost said while moving his trigger finger from spot to spot on one of the photos showing a general overview of the entire area, ", if we are wanting to succeed in finding a weak spot, or at least know what we're going up against. And even then, perhaps our only hope lies with our captured comrades to cause some disturbances from the inside of that base.", Ghost continued. "If,", Kaitlin Stone immediately replied, "they are still capable of causing disturbances.", before closing her eyes slowly and tilting her head to face downwards a bit.

Well, that is for you to decide. I am just stating here that I have the green light for leading sims and where I find it neccesary, progress the storyline. To catch up on the current situation, I have read all the stories on the XCAS site, yet I notice there are bits of important information missing. Or entire sims which might have been very important are not discussed. If any of you has memory of a very important event happening (such as the destruction of an Apocalypse, which is mentioned in a story... I wasn't around when that happened, and would like to know when, where and why it happened), which is not mentioned clearly in the stories, I'd appreciate it if you posted here in reply. ***** Furthermore, I have some suggestions for direct changes to the site to make our lives somewhat easier. 1) A main storyline status update. This page would debrief most very important events in sims with just oneliners, nicely positioned behind a date. Like this: 17th of January 2083 - Aliens attack major city. 2971 civilian casualties. Aliens barely deterred by local military. 19th of January 2083 - Combat mission versus alien base was barely deflected by alien local defenses. Heavy losses on human side, few losses on alien side. 26th of January 2083 - X-Com suffered the loss of a high ranking officer today, in a freak accident with two sectoids and a muton. Captain T.F. Bundy will be forever in memory. 27th of January 2083 - Alien Battleship shot down, and was invaded briefly after interception. Minimum losses on human side, and total annihilation on the alien side. I am sure any sim, and events relating to the sim which might happen a few days before or after the actual sim date, could be summed up in short sentences like this. Once the archive becomes to lenghty it could be split up in smaller archives, each covering 1 or 2 months. There could even be references to stories for more information, or references to the full debriefings. Like this, anyone missing sims for 6 weeks or someone compeltely new to XCAS can quickly check what major events happened over the last few sims. 2) Debriefings should be on the site, once verified and approved. They can't linger on these forums eternally and the thread would become very cubersome. 3) Starmap! What bothers me is that no one - me included - knows just what is located on which planet in the Arkunis system, and the planet's climate and vegetation seems to continuously alter which each succesive sim. This is - of course - because no one can remember all those weird exotic names and what climates are attached to them, what faction controls them, what type of and where bases are located, etcetera. I suggest there will be at least a table showing how many planets there are in the important systems, who controls them, what the climate is, what the vegetation is, what the hostility ratio is, etcetera. Further details could include simple graphical displays of the entire system, showing planets with distance related to the major sun(s), relative distance to eachother, and possibly deepspace military bases, asteroids, possible locations of fleets, and maybe even warp nodes(?). Also, when clicking on a planet in the star system table, more details could be shown, and could be accompanied by an image or picture showing what most of the planet looks like. ***** That's about it. If possible, I'd like to use both this thread and today's (8th of February 2003) Saturday sim to discuss this. I need both input about what important stuff happened, and people to help me figure out which planets were already linked to a set environment or faction occupation in earlier stories (as in our own planet, and Ascadia). Besides that I'd like some feedback on whether you think these ideas are good or just a waste of time. On a side note - I'll most likely be adding those subsites to the main site by myself, so I only need actual data.

Well, at least it should be X-Mas over in China and Austrlia. X-Mas Eve over in Europe... and well, you Americans will have to wait! So well... Merry X-Mas and a Fantastic New Year to all my XCAS buddies!!! http://www.ahh.nl/xmas/card.jpg

I open Notepad. I start typing. Things pop into my head. I type them out. Done and done.