jack cloudy

I always change a few of the names. But I don't name them after family or something. In fact, the people I name them after only excist in my imagination. (such as my avatar's name here.) This does provide a probem. What if Jack Cloudy dies? He's my alter ego in X-com, so that means I've lost and have to reload.

Sure the brain is dead, but there are still a few Etherial bases left. And the main problem is going to come up with background to flesh out the war without simply ripping of other people's work. After all, the entire war could not possibly be fought by one man. I think I should give the sergeant a forced retirement or something. (not much left for him to do but get shot, and that isn't going to happen, knowing his luck.) And what I meant by bringing it into my other fic, here's the idea I have right now about what the new fic is all about. Several months before the start of X-com Apocalypse, the current X-com commander comes to the conclusion that X-com is useless in its current form and that humanity is dying. To help that, he decides that starting all over again on one of the colonies is the only option. but rebellions are always smacked down by Marsec. Solution, raid Marsec for weaponry and take it all to a top secret X-com base (built in case the main base was destroyed.) known to only one man alive, the grandson of commander Vogel (who is now in charge of X-com.) In the base they encounter both the REAL Avenger that went to mars (AV-1, the Avenger in the museum is the AV-2), along with a few Firestorms and Lightnings. The stolen Hawk has a tracking device of sorts and Marsec comes along for payback. X-com base goes skyhigh, the renegade X-commies fly of into space, capture a big merchant vessel that nearly falls apart and jumps away, in a seemingly random direction (hopefully with the oportunity to later jump to a colony). They turn up in an alien system, Jumpmodule breaks down and several Alien ufos come take a look. Once on the inhabited planet of the system they find out the alien empire is gone and are in the end put into control of the planet's defense, since the bugs themselves never learned much about it. What follows is standard X-com affair, but with much more aliens than humans. Several things I like to include: The relation between the various aliens. (Ethereals master, Brains in control of everything and servants of the Ethereals.) Alien weaponry on the side of X-com. (And our latest gift, the Sectopod. I hope this pleases you.) Space battles with aliens ships and the mushrooms from Apocalypse. The hunt for Elerium. (No mines in this system) Tensions between humans and the bugs. Tensions between civilians and ex X-com personell. Ethereals plotting behind everyones back. New technology. aliens in X-com squads. Hmm, maybe i'm a bit too ambitious.

Well, I've got X-com and Windows XP. With the exception of a rather fast Geoscape and sometimes it shuts me down to windows, there're no problems. Don't ask me how though. It might be because I use what I think is the collector's edition. I've got this file called xcom1fix.exe which I use to run it. And for the playstation version, I don't own one of these game consoles myself, but a mouse owns any kind of joystick for me. At least in games like x-com where you're mostly pushing buttons in a menu. But I suppose the difference lies somewhere else.

Alright, here are the first two fanfics I ever wrote (and finished). Since I'm thinking of tying it up with my new fanfic, I thought I would post them here to get some suggestions on how I can make things a bit more complex. Now it is just all bang bang BOOM (and the place has been wrecked again.) it takes place during the first alien war. Sergeant Ironhead goes wild (and annoys his boss). Commander Vogel tapped with his feat on the ground in annoyance as he waited in front of the ramp of the Skyranger. Where the hell was that guy? They were going to attack an alien base somewhere in South-Eastern Asia, he needed every man or woman he could get. Just as he was about to turn around and enter the Skyranger with the intent of leaving without waiting for the late soldier, a power suited figure came running towards the Skyranger. In one hand he held a Heavy Plasma, while in the other one, he held a big bag that seemed to be filled with all kinds of things that were visible as unrecognizable shapes that were deforming the bag to the point at which it nearly burst apart. His belt and backpack were filled just as much as the bag, but this time with more clips than the rest of the squad combined. The figure skidded to a halt in front of the commander and raised a salute:,, Sergeant Ironhead reporting for duty, sir" ,,Damn right you are, sergeant. Do you know that we were supposed to be leaving seven minutes ago? And what the hell is in that bag?" ,,Just..." ,,Never mind, drop the bag immediately and board the Skyranger. And if you're late again, I'll have you promoted to grenade suicide scout duty, sergeant. Is that understood?" The man dropped the bag which fell to the ground with a lot of noise and took out his helmet which was one of the things he had put into the bag. He started to board the Skyranger, but turned around at the top and said with a quizzical expression on his face:,, I never knew we had a grenade suicide scout." ,,I just invented it, goddamned! Now get on board" ,,Yes, sir" After four hours of flight, the Skyranger finally landed near what looked like the entrance to a cave. The X-com troops quickly evacuated the transport while looking out for any alien that might have decided to give them a welcome. There was nothing in the area, except for a few birds that flew up when one of the soldiers stepped on a branch which snapped. One of the birds disappeared when it was struck by plasma. ,,Goddamned, sergeant Ironhead! What the hell is that?" ,,Weapon firing test, sir! To engage the enemy I have to be able to rely on my gun, sir" ,,Next time, you do that at base at the firing range. You got that?" ,,Yes, sir" ,,Now all units, enter that cave but be wary of any sentry that might be in there. The cave led deep into the mountain side and after about three hundred metres, the solid rock was replaced with the all too familiar alien alloys. Now there was no doubt left that there was an alien base here. At the end of the long cave, the orange glow of a gravlift became visible. Carefully, the soldiers entered the lift and descended into a green room. Till now, not a single sign of an alien had been seen. It looked as if the whole place was deserted. But with the aliens, you never knew. ,,Allright, listen up. Squaddie Krauser and squaddie Perez, you'll scout out ahead of us. The rest of us will follow behind you. Got that?" The commander said through his helmets communications system. ,,Yes, sir." The two squaddies descended the big gravlift in a corner of the room. Immediately, the sound of plasma weapons discharging echoed through the base. ,,I'm going in" Sergeant Ironhead shouted and stormed down the gravlift. ,,Sergeant, no! Come back here, you bloody buglover" But it was too late. At his feet, the corpses of the two unfortunate squaddies were lying on the ground. But the sergeant didn't even noticed it, all he noticed was the Muton that was standing on the other end of the room, preparing to pull the trigger. The sergeant was quicker though, and mowed down the big alien with a barrage of his Heavy Plasma. He moved over to the Muton to check if it was death when suddenly plasma fire came flying all over the place from his left, missing him by centimetres. He spun around and fired his Heavy Plasma in the room were the plasma fire came from. He mowed down two more Mutons and completely disintegrated the alien plants that filled the room. When he entered the room, he came under fire again. He quickly turned in the direction of this new threat and tried to fire at the Muton, but his clip was empty. ,,Allright, if you wanna play rough, then let's play rough, hotshot" The sergeant shouted as he picked up a Muton corpse lying at his feet with his free hand and threw it at his foe. The Muton managed to get of one more shot which scratched the Sergeants shoulder plate before it was struck on the chest by the corpse of his death ally. The Muton dropped to the floor and wrestled in an attempt to get the heavy corpse off of him. It growled while showing its sharp fangs as the sergeant reloaded his weapon and moved over to the fallen alien. ,,Are you hungry? Here, eat daddy Ironhead's special meal." And he send a plasma bolt into the aliens wide open mouth. ,,Sergeant, how much I appreciate the fact that you're enjoying yourself, next time you follow orders and stay with the rest of the squad, is that understood?" ,,Yes, sir" The sergeant responded as he picked up the Heavy Plasma that the now headless Muton was carrying. ,,Now I want you to cover our rear as we advance towards the enemies command centre." ,,Fine, sir, but I wanted to be on the front lines. I hate missing all the action." ,,Just follow your orders sergeant! That's what you're being paid for, not for having some fun" The assault on the alien's base went quite smoothly, and only half the squad was killed when they reached the corridors that surrounded the command centre. ,,Allright, listen up. That place will be heavily defended, we will have to overrun the enemy as quickly as possible. I want you, you, you, you and you two to charge down those corridors from both sides and take out the enemy. No not you, sergeant! You're staying here to cover our rear, you triggerhappy freak" The six chosen soldiers charged down the corridors and disappeared out of sight. Seconds later, the sound of a huge explosion could be heard. Then, silence. ,,Come in, answer me. Report your status immediately" The commander's only answer was static. ,,Finally, some action! Get ready, mutated gorillas. Here I come" The sergeant raised his two Heavy Plasmas and stormed down the corridors towards the place were just a few moments ago, six other soldiers had found their deaths. For minutes, the sounds of plasma and explosions echoed through the base. When it finally ended the commander rallied his two remaining soldiers, both rookies and entered the corridor, knowing that he could not abort this mission, or his superiors would surely ruin him. Death from a plasma bolt sounded a lot less painful ,,That son of a bitch sure made them pay a large price for his skin. They might be softened up." The commander muttered as he passed the six death soldiers and approached the lift leading to the command centre. He and the two rookies quickly ascended the lift, ready to fire at anything that moved. The commander froze in disbelief at what he saw. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room were filled with holes and scorch marks from the fire fight. Four wrecked remains of what looked like alien computers stood in the corners. Across the room, the corpses of death Mutons and a few of their terror units were lying on the floor, or what was left of them. And leaning against a wall, holding a somehow unshattered bottle of whiskey in one hand and a big smoking cigar in the other, stood sergeant Ironhead. With his armour covered in scratches and dents but miraculously, unharmed. ,,Sergeant, how do you do that?" The sergeant blew the smoke of his cigar out of his mouth and took a long gulp of his whiskey before he answered:,, I'll tell you how, commander. It's all because I'm the hero here. Heroes never die" The commander was speechless and just stood there, mouth wide open. ,,I do wish I didn't had to drop my bag though." ,,Uh...why's that?" ,,Because I wanted to hold a big barbeque. Most of these bugs are a real delicacy you know. Man I'm hungry" The second one. Honestly, I think the first ne was a bit better. Sergeant Ironhead sets foot on Mars. Space, the darkest and emptiest place you can imagine, damn cold also. Yet, in some small corners, there are a bunch of rocks. And one rock is green, and blue and has this bloody annoying rain all the time. That rock is being attacked by some funny creatures from a red rock, which is where we are going now. Ironhead looked at what he had written and frowned in disgust. ,,I've been writing for more than a damn week at this, and I can't even write one chapter" Commander Vogel and the rest of the people onboard the Avenger woke up at the sudden noise. ,,Dammit, Sergeant! Can't you be quite for one goddamned hour?" ,,But, sir. I'm bored." ,,Just shut up! Hawkins, go check our position." ,,yes sir." A few days later Mars. For years, setting foot on this planet has been one of the biggest dreams of humanity. And now it was going to happen, but a bit different than everybody imagined. The Avenger came in low through a raging storm to avoid the fleet of alien spaceships. Though with no doubt the most powerful weapon ever constructed by man, it was no match for the alien armada that was floating around the area. It touched down in the middle of the Martian night, on the outskirts of an area containing several ancient pyramids. The ramp came down and a plasma hovertank flew out of the ship, only to be torn to pieces from multiple directions by plasma fire. ,,Jenkins, Hopkins. Move to the right and take down whatever is firing at us. The rest of you, get out and head for the nearest pyramid. The tanks will clear the left." Vogel shouted before flying out of the spaceship. ,,Hey, I hate rain" Sergeant Ironhead said as plasma fire came down on the squad of soldiers from the top of the pyramid. With a tap on the controls placed on his chest, he flew up to the same level as a window built into the structure. He send in a volley of plasma fire with his Heavy Plasma. ,,Oops, my mom told me that throwing rocks at windows was a naughty thing to do, people might get hurt" he said as he saw the remains of a sectoid on the floor and the damage he had caused. ,,Sergeant! Get down here" ,,Yes, sir" When entering the pyramid, a soldier got taken down by a barrage of plasma fire. The sectoid that was responsible for it got taken out with a grenade, but when the squad entered, they only found an empty room with a lift leading upward to the place that had been wrecked by the sergeant. ,,Great. Allright, Alpha squad will check the left pyramids, Beta squad will check the right." ,,Um, what about me, sir?" ,,I don't know sergeant, just go and take a walk." ,,yes, sir." The sergeant decided to check on the tanks that hadn't said anything for the last few minutes and found their wrecked hulks on the edge of the combat zone. When he came closer, a Cyberdisk floated out of its cover and fired, missing wildly. ,,Damn Frisbees" He shouted and ran for the only cover in the area which was the exact same pyramid where the Cyberdisk had been hiding. Once there, a game of hide and seek began with the sergeant and the alien weapon flying around in circles. ,,Man, this is getting annoying, I'll just fly through that window and take a rest." He had just entered the pyramid when he saw the Cyberdisk floating past underneath him. ,,Oh, boy. I feel like riding a horse." He muttered and jumped back out of the window, right on top of the disk. The alien machine was not programmed for the sudden added weight and plunged down to the floor. It managed to correct its mistake just in time, only to get blasted by a hail of plasma fire from the sergeant who was now flying upwards to avoid the large explosion coming from the disk's selfdestruct device. ,,What took you so long, sergeant? Now get over here and go down that elevator." Commander Vogel said as they all sat down in a closely packed formation and looked at the insides of the mars base. ,,Yes, sir" Sergeant Ironhead quickly descended the elevator and looked at his surroundings. The room he was in looked empty, so he called over the rest of the squad. ,,Allright. Alpha squad goes to the left, beta squad to the right. I'll follow Alpha. You just stay out of the way, you braindead idiot" ,,Yes, sir" the sergeant responded and moved off into the corridor. The base was quite, too quite. The silence was disturbed as the sounds of plasma started to echoe through the underground labyrinth. ,,Finally, it was getting boring here" Ironhead shouted and sprinted in the direction of the sounds. When he arrived, the fight was over. ,,Dammit, I'm too late. Now what am I going to do now? Hey, Hawkins! Umm, where is the rest of Beta squad?" The figure of Hawkins, wearing a powersuit that had been torn to pieces and with half of his head missing, came closer without responding, green ooze dripping out of the corner of his mouth. Suddenly, his arms reached out and knocked the Heavy Plasma out of the sergeant's hand. ,,Hey, calm down! What's the matter with you? Got a bad day?" Ironhead said as he avoided the remains of Hawkins who was swinging his arms around with inhuman strength. ,,You know, you don't look so good. Hey, wait a minute, what's that green stuff coming out of your mouth? Hold on, the guys with the lightbulbs told me something about it." He said while still avoiding what once had been Hawkins, finally noticing the obvious. Intelligence wasn't Ironhead's strongest point. ,,Hey, I remember! You've been zombified! Come here" The sergeant rushed in and had his hands come down like a pair of raging elephants on the zombie's head. The zombie staggered backwards, its head knocked of by the force of the blow. Then its chest ripped open, and a dark clawed figure crawled out of it. As the zombie's remains fell down on the floor, the Cryssalid charged. Ironhead managed to grab his Heavy Plasma and let it rip on full auto, taking out the Cryssalid and blowing deep holes in the walls, revealing the bare rock behind it. ,,all units, we've found what seems to lead to a command center of sorts. Rendezvous with us at our current location" The voice of Vogel ordered through the intercom. ,,Out of the way, you flying water balloon" Ironhead said as he rushed towards the rendezvous point, leaving the smoking remains of several aliens behind. He rounded the last corner and immediately ducked back towards where he came from. Hot plasma flew past him, blowing chunks out of the wall. When he peaked around the corridor, he saw a grenade exploding on top of the huge alien killing machine's head. After the explosion cleared, the Sectopod was still standing, turning towards whoever had thrown the grenade, with a few cracks and a small hole visible in its thick armour. ,,Come on, I'll take you out" The sergeant shouted and stepped back into the corridor. He raised his weapon and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. ,,Oh, shit! Here we go" The sergeant screamed a battle cry and ran for the Sectopod that had taken out the grenade thrower, Leaving his empty Heavy Plasma behind on the floor. He jumped on top of the big metal monster and took out his X-com semi-automatic pistol, a weapon that he constantly forgot to replace by something more powerful. ,,Fred, meet big metal chicken. Big metal chicken, meet Fred." He said and started pumping lead through the small hole in the machine's armour, wrecking the complex control systems inside. The Sectopod stopped moving. ,,Is that all?, No other survivors?" Vogel said as the four soldiers crouched at the end of a big corridor that split further away, with gravlifts on both ends. ,,We can't turn back. Let's just rest and prepare for our assault." ,,I'm not going to wait, I'm gonna kill those bugeyes" ,,No sergeant, come back! You don't even have a gun, you bloody stupid Rambo wannabe" But the sergeant already stormed up one of the gravlifts. The room at the top of the lift was big, with rows of chairs pointing in the direction of a large alien device at the far end of the room. What was more interesting for the sergeant, however were the Ethereals that looked at him, Heavy Plasmas ready. After seeing that he was unarmed and not a threat though, they decided to make him theirs. The sergeant could hear their voices speaking in his mind, telling him to let go of his hate and serve them. ,,No, get out of my head, you dirty psychopaths" The sergeant shouted and stormed for the group of Ethereals. He slammed into one of them with his full weight and gave an uppercut to the one standing next to it. Both Ethereals crumpled down to the floor. He was too close to shoot, if they missed, their leader might be destroyed by their shots, so they had no choice but to do things the same way as the berserking sergeant. One of them raised its Heavy Plasma and tried to hit him on the head, while the other one used its great telekinetic powers to push him away. The sergeant grabbed the Heavy Plasma and hit its owner with it. The alien alloys bended through the massive power of the blow, making the weapon useless. The alien fell to the floor, its skull shattered and its neck broken. The other alien managed to push the sergeant away far enough to shoot and raised its weapon. The hot Plasma was taken by one end of the twisted weapon the sergeant threw while the other end slammed into the chest of the alien, making it collapse to the floor. It tried to get back up and take on the sergeant with its mind, but it succumbed to the punches that rained down on it. ,,You truly are the luckiest bastard in the galaxy, do you know that?" Vogel said as he looked at the corpses of the Ethereals that lied on the floor. He diverted his attention to the alien device and moved over to it. ,,This must be their queen, the one the scientists told us about. It is time to finish this war and I'll become a hero by shooting this thing." The commander raised his weapon, but before he could pull the trigger, a screen lit up at the base of the massive alien brain, begging them to listen first to its story before making their decision. Scenes of a lush green mars filled with life were followed by images of earths history. ,,We wanted to help. You cannot destroy us, we created you. Think, if you put down your weapons, we'll let you join us, become part of the greatest alliance in the galaxy. Think, i...." The voice of the brain was stopped by a barrage of Plasma fire. ,,Sergeant, no! What have you done?! You just ruined everything! We could have become friends! It was right and we were wrong! They never intended to destroy us! Why?" The sergeant lowered the Heavy Plasma that he took from one of the death Ethereals. The now empty clip popped out of it and fell on the floor. ,,That was the worst and most boring movie I've ever seen. Lousy special effects." The Avenger was being prepared to leave, and the corpses of the death soldiers had been buried. The alien armada had been completely lost all of its coordination after the destruction of their brain. Most of them crashed, some of them simply kept flying in the direction they were moving in before, to later become a artificial comet that would plunge into a planet, asteroid or star after many years. Commander Vogel still couldn't understand why the sergeant had pulled the trigger, but he got some hope from the knowledge that it would be a long time for the aliens to come back and take revenge, he would be death by then. ,,Sergeant, what the hell is that?" ,,Oh, I've always wanted a horse, but I'm allergic to animals. So I just thought I would take this one here." Ironhead patted one of the legs of the remote controlled Sectopod. He then turned to the alien corpses he had thrown on a pile next to the ramp. ,,Oh yeah, I brought something else, tonight we'll eat fried Ethereal and drink a bit of my whisky. You'll love it!