Rasicar

To my knowledge, just that one so far. I figured that Warlord, Rick and a few others would probably survive. I recall initially wanting Donovan to go out in style at some point, but figured... what the hell. I'm still thinking about what to contribute to the UFO. Despite reading it all, I'm still digesting it.

Wiping the condensation away from the mirror after he got out of a hot shower earlier in the morning seemed like a year away. He remembered looking at his, now almost slate grey hairline, and scarred face and vaguely remembered the young face that used to look back at him in the mirror when he was at Pine Gap, during the first war. The face had slowly changed over the course of the war as battle took its toll on Jack's body. He didn't recall exactly when he lost the young face of the fresh cadet that was brazen enough to take down a rifleman during practice; he was sure it wasn't when the blaster launcher had given him a scar on his face that made his nickname change from Ripper to Two-Face. In fact, he thought it was when he came home from Cydonia; one of the few that survived that mission with both their body and mind intact. But the innocence was gone when he mentally looked back at the cost of the war. Humanity had survived, but the cost was part of humanity's soul. That was proven when, after the alien menace had been countered, nothing changed. Countries went back to warring with one another over petty squabbles; there was no real unification of mankind. The Cult of Sirius had also proven just how little the politicians and bureaucrats cared about preventing misinformation. The aliens had proven that they were hostile from the get go. Cattle mutilations and abductions were just the start. Eventually they moved to a full invasion, and the cultists still insisted that they were our friends. After the battle between Sirius and the remaining X-Com battalion (that had secretly formed a para-military group called 'The Inquisitors') ended, there was little place left on this planet for old war heroes. Jack didn't want the fame of being a survivor, though he accepted the respect that came with it. But he feared dying sick in a bed and not on his feet. He spent the remaining years staying as combat ready and capable as he could. He knew that the head-shrinkers would probably have labeled him as suffering 'Bug Fever', a form of post-traumatic stress unique to the Cydonia assault survivors. He just considered it having something worth living for; now he just needed a new cause. That cause came in the form of a phone call two days prior. He remembered it as well as he remembered how to field strip an X306 Plasma Rifle. "Mr. Donovan?" a voice said. "Who is this?" Donovan replied. "My name is Ali Hussein. Is this Captain Jack Donovan?" Ali asked. "Former Captain. I was discharged, what's this about and who are you?" Donovan asked. "Yes, well. I don't know if you remember me. We served together in the Cydonia assault. We were from different locations though. You served at Pine Gap while I served at Unterkep in Deutschland. We met up in the alien base after the structural collapse. You saved my life." Donovan had to dust off some cobwebs from his memory. He did recall a very young, mildly inexperienced Corporal that he had hauled out from underneath a large girder after a structure collapsed from a poorly aimed blaster bomb. "That was a long time ago, but yes I do remember you. How have you been?" Donovan asked. "I've done well enough. About as well as you did after they discharged us due to lack of funds." Donovan remembered that day too well. He had just received a promotion to Captain when he was informed that that he was being honorably discharged from X-Com because the founding countries decided that their money would best be spent elsewhere. "Anyway, I'm going to come straight to the point. What I'm about to tell you is considered Code Black, Top Secret, and any other eyes-only terms you can think of, so you must not repeat it to anyone at this time: X-COM has been reassembled and is in need of seasoned combat veterans. While you may not have much skill in diving, you survived Cydonia, and were one of the very few soldiers who started out at the beginning of the war and lived to see it's end. We would be foolish to let that skill go to waste. Your age may be a liability in some eyes, but I want to offer you this opportunity to come on board and at least have a shot at proving yourself. You are also one of the only original fighters still alive and in good enough shape to serve." At that point, Donovan was not looking out of his eyes, he was almost seeing himself in third person; hovering right over his own shoulder. No sooner did Ali finish his statement then the words "I'm in" come out of Donovan's mouth. "Mr. Donovan, you have to understand that this is only an invitation to see if you can pass the necessary tests. You'll be having to do things, that quite frankly, a body of your age has never tried. It is highly likely you will fail, possible that you will have a severe adverse reaction to the point of paralysis and, or, death." "I may not know what rank you have now, but I would like to point out Corporal, that if I pass the tests, I have a higher chance of dying. I will pass those tests. I may die afterwards, but at least it will be on my feet and not in a bed," Donovan said. The rest of the phone call he couldn't remember; aside from chatting about old times and swapping war stories they also went over where he was supposed to go and who he was supposed to report to. He came to like Hussein during that call and was looking forward to meeting him at some point. That was two days ago. Now he was just getting off a transport ship with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a fresh, familiar military cut on top of his head. He knew that he would pass whatever tests they had given him. There was no way that he wouldn't. He was glad that he enjoyed swimming, though he'd never fought under the water. At least he finally felt alive for the first time in years. He didn't speak with the other people in the transport. He kept to himself, reading a book and going over the information and reports that he had requested Hussein send him. While he was keeping his Captain rank in X-Com, he knew coming in as an untrained officer wouldn't fly with the base commander, so he requested a ordinary uniform with a rookie rank; he used his real rank to get eyes-only information so he could know exactly what was going on - he hated being in the dark. In his periphery he did notice the other recruits periodically stare at his horribly scarred face, but none of them bothered saying a word to him. He was fine. He'd get to know them eventually; he was more interested in the sit-rep he was reading. When the lift to the surface reached bottom to the main part of the base, there was a klaxon going off and red lights were flashing. Something was definitely going on. Rather then track down the base commander, he wandered around the base before he finally the barracks and an empty rack between two filled bunks. He tossed his duffle and started unpacking, putting stuff in his footlocker and some books on a stand right next to the rack. Though he didn't know, this was the bunk that previously belonged to Goldstein. While the siren was blaring, he kept reading; eventually feeling the urge for some chow, he put the eyes-only file in his pillowcase and wandered off to find some food.

After finishing college, a job and a divorce, ....I'm back..... Let's write this bitch... Still reading through everything and collating all teh characters (you guys added quite a bit.)

my my my things have been interesting. It is good to see the fanfic is progressing. Just to give a heads up. First of all...... I'm BACK!! Secondly: Business... I'm am going to spend the next couple of days carefully going over the fanfic after my last post about a year ago to catch up on what is going on especially since it looks as though there is a battle in session. Then I shall be rejoining the fic; that is if ya'll don't mind. ;-)

Superb job. I just have one question about the post which might turn into a minor edit for you. Did we say there was going to be an HWP on this mission? Last I checked it was going to be emplaced in the third one where most everyone dies. -Ras

Dude, if you have something to introduce into the UFO post, just post it. HOwever, please read the backstory and also the character profile section as well so you can get a feel for the characters and not have them do anything "out of character," such as Trigger suddenly becoming serious when he's talking with some of his pilot buddies or with Rick, Donovan becoming a loud-mouthed jack-ass, or Poison actually being out right nice to someone, etc. Yeah, that is about it. Anyone have any other suggestions? -Ras

Poison was pinned down in a corn field by enemy sniper fire. So far the operation ahd gone less then smooth. They were lucky that thus far, the farmer who owned this field hadn't decided to get involved. Last word was that they were either not home or were cowing in fear in their house which was just fine with her. She had more iimportant things to take care of, such as not getting her head shot off. They had disembarked from the Skyranger without incidence. Gold team, which she was the leader of was sent out ahead of the rest of hte squad to scout out the area. At first it seemed as though all the aliens had died in the crash; she could see the smoke rising from the site in the distance. She called on the comm. and gave the all clear for the rest of the squads to proceed. That is when all hell broke loose. The aliens appeared to be one step ahead of the team. They had lie in wait, for all the squads to disembark and spread out before engaging. The first alien to fire was now lying underneath the remains of what used to be the barn. It had cut Tipping from Red Team down with two shots, creating a hoel in his chest and decapitating him. the other shot had missed, but the following salvo had seperated the two remaining members to the point where they were no longer able to support one another efficiently. It took a volley of HE rounds from Norton's autocannon, from Blue Team, to remove the alien, which coincided with the barn collapsing. Two other aliens commenced firing on Green team from a spot within a wheat field that was near the barn just to the left of the crash site. All that transpired within the span of four minutes. Now there was chaos with everyone barking orders and reports that she couldn't hear a solid word from the head sets. She shook her head and cursed under breath. She was used to being a loner, but she knew when to work with a team, unfortuntely it didn't seem as though anyone else here was willing to do the same. Lance Wether's voice finally came on the headsets over all the chatter. "Everyone shut up!! Poison, can you and Hiroshi get near the craft and give intelligence?" "Negative sir, we are pinned down by sniper fire coming from the near the crash site. We have taken cover in the corn field to the east side," she reported. "Roger that. Norton, do you copy?" "Yes sir." "I want your squad to lay down some suppressive fire in the direction of the crash site. If you see a place that an alien can hide, shoot it." "Roger that." Lance turned his attention back to the two aliens that had them in a crossfire. He turned his head just in time for his eyes to be enveloped by green plasma, and his body dropped to the ground. Sending the squad into disarray.

For those of you out there who have forgotten just who is in squad 2 (like I have) I have liberated from the Annals of the discussion the listing of squad members. Squad two is Kilam Chung (Heavy weapons and temp. squad leader) K. Green (The G escapes me!) Cleo 'Poison' Andrews (mean pistol scout) H. Escalar (No idea on mortality or name but he's a permanent entry) C. Keller (wierdo with rifle ) B. Dujardin (rifle armed medic) R.Ross (seems eager to die and has only a rifle so he probably will!) Gaston Duchante (The French demo expert I hate this guy!) Norton 'Stick' Wexford (rifle infantry don't ask about the callsign!) L.Wethers (no idea but permanent member of squad two) Now, my only request is that people come forth with who controls who because it shows that L. Wethers is a permanent entry, yet we have not seen / heard hide nor hair of that person. Who controls him et al. here are the teams as I've created them since no one else has. Gold Team: (scouts) Poison Hiroshi Escalante Blue Team: Norton Wexford Kristel Keller Karl Green Green Team: Lance Wethers Tank Gardener Red Team: Tip Tipping Ricco Ross Gaston Duchante Now let the killing begin. Also, unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm under the impression that this UFO is going to be cross shpaed. If it ins't, I'll edit the post later.

Okay, maybe I'm just being stupid but wasn't Ki-Tat in squad 1? If so, wasn't he wounded? If that is also true, what the hell is he doing on the skyranger with squad 2? Sorry Ki-Tat, but I'm just getting boggled by the possible continuity error here. -Ras

Hey all, I'm back. I have my Japanese final this Tuesday so wish me luck. After that, I should be posting much more often. ::grumbles:: stupid school getting in the way of my fan fiction. Oh and JFish is prolly gonna get irritated at me for this because it means he will have to go back and alter the sheet that he made, but I'd got a bad case of "too attached to my character," and have decided that Donovan is going to stick around for a now undetermined period of time so JFish, if you could drop his mortality percentage down to minimal if none at all that would uber-cool. However that doesn't mean that other people can't control him. -Ras

I've always been one of those kind of people who believed in peace through superior firepower, so definitely go with the cannon. Also I don't know about you NFK, but I've never had to shoot a lobsterman more then 3 times to drop one. But then again, I also have not noticed any difference between the difficulty settings either. Maybe I just have a really old version of the game. -Ras

01:00 Hours Pine Gap. Night time at the base was fairly spooky if you thought about it. When one is down in the main area of the base, namely underground you can't really tell if it is day or night if you aren't careful. Some of the scientists like Seamus O'Riork, Zager and Photon, took little notice of the passage of time. If one were to walk down the lengthy passages in the base, they would find each one of them in varying labs hunched over some kind of project or another. Seamus would be seen as busy; still carving away the new specimen that they got and looking at things under microscope. Zager could be observed watching technical readouts of laser testing and prying into secrets that would probably best be kept out of human hands. Photon with a little luck would probably be found in an office, going through reports and paperwork wishing for some time for some 'hands-on' work. Up a few levels, the Chief Watch Commander will be seen finishing up his first cup of coffee as he and his squad of soldiers get ready guard the base for another night. If an officer were to walk in on some of them, they would see that they in fact aren't really doing their duties which are described as looking at motion sensors and short-range radar screens; rather more immersed in the nightly game of poker they set up to pass the time. After all, what are the chances of the perimeter alarm going dead? Walking down the crew quarters, you can hear the sounds of snoring. Closer examination at the doors would show their to be lights coming from underneath, dimly lightling the hallway. Sounds of muffled voice are also heard behind closed doors as roommates get to know one another in those rare all night talking sessions that leave one feeling strangly refreshed upon waking in the morning. Rooms that hold various computer wizzes that keep odd hours by nature; one would hear the firing of weapons going on in a last ditch effort to rescue some hostage from a group of terrorists for the fifth round in a row. The canteen and recreation area are empty. The only sign of human life left there would the personnel asigned to cleaning detail just finishing up their nightly rounds looking forward to the time when their heads meet their comfortable pillows. Ground crew for the hangers are all asleep by now. The only rason anyone would be out flying at this hour is if their was an emergency. Besides, they all slept in shifts near the hanger anyway, ready to prep an intereptor and have it ready for combat at a moments notice. Yes, Pine Gap is a very terrifying place if one thinks about it. Home of slightly lackadaisical guards. Ammoral scientists who are busy trying to invent new kinds of weapons and armor so that we may kill extra-terrestrials and possibly ourselves more efficiently. And the most scary thought of all is that is it home to the biggest squad of elite trained killers on the planet. Pine Gap is very terrifying indeed.

In order to solve this problem, may I make the following suggestion. As far as the soldiers are concerned, hell we might as well include the scientists as well; the people who buggered off, if they don't come back soon, can their characters be open to all? There are a couple things I've been thinking of, but have't heard hide-nor-hair from any of the people who technically 'own' the character so I don't want to make any moves until I get a go ahead from either them or hear solid word that they really aren't interested in this fan fic project anymore. (Will post futher on this later) I am going to do some experiemental narration in my next post to help wrap up the big day that everyone just had. If anyone (namely the modders) have any issue with it, feel free to edit, I just ask that you keep the changes within the spirit of the narration. -Ras

.....Or the interceptors escort the skyranger there. It doesn't get shot down but rather an entire UFO is captured intact. Also, this is just somethign to think about, but I'm in favor of a time lapse coming up soon. Preferrably after squad 3 gets beaten like a red-headed step child. -Ras (will post further

Racey is good, don't worry about it. Something that just occured to me. If we are going to run with a perpetuating A.I. interface with that HWP, would it go without saying that it can A: Designate the difference between foe and civilian, and B: Not fire if it is aware of human presence within the rocket blast radius? My reasoning behind that is Isaac Asimov's 'I, Robot,' which states a robot will not harm, or by omission of action allow to be harmed a human being. Just a thought on the matter. Will post sometime this weekend, a followup on research activities, and soldier bonding. -Ras

So yeah... I just did a bit of a post. What does everyone think? I was kind of hestiant about it at first, but then it just kind spewed out. Going to add more in on Seamus' front later on tonight or tomorrow. -Ras

Dana wiped the sweat from her brow. She was no programmer, she never claimed to be one, but for some reason she felt as though she were doing two MIT computer wiz-genius' jobs at once. She wanted to go over and help Daniel with his motion scanner progress but this Weapons Platform that she was working on was pissing her off. The Artificial Intelligence was starting to malfunction for the fifth time today and the voice input device for manual control still didn't recognize half the commands that she had given it. Tapping a computer console next to her she went back over the code again and read through various sections that the computer was telling weren't compiling correctly and then reading what was prior to it. No matter how many times she looked at it, it still looked like a bunch of jibberish. She realized that the 'boss', Photon, only wanted blueprints, but because she had always been an overachiever, she decided to also include a tactical simultion, which was almost done, and an actual visual of the chasis. The visual was done the quickest, only taking her a day and a half to design and render, mostly in her off time. The thing that was bothering her though, was the integration of the A.I. into the simulation. It just wouldn't work. "The hell with it," she muttered and cleared the screen and pulled up a personnel list and scanned for a particular department. When she found what she was looking for, she picked up a comm-phone and tapped in the extension. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The music was blasting in his room as work was busy trying to crack a code that he had been given. He was so enthralled in his work and the music that he almost didn't hear the phone ring. Annoyed that he had to pull away from his computer, he turned down the volume and picked up the comm-phone. "Worm here," "Worm, it's Dana." "Dana.... dana, dana...." he said, trying to remember the name. "From the HWP project?" "Oh right, sorry. I've been kind of busy with some side work. What do you need." "I need to you come here and look at the A.I. code you wrote earlier for the project." "But I've already got some code I'm working on. Can't Slice do it?" "Worm, come on. You wrote most of the damn thing, you know it better then any of us. Now could you please come here and help me, I've already had Photon bugging me once for results, I don't want him in here again until I'm finished." The last part was a lie, but she figured a little guilt trip probably help. Worm looked up at his ceiling and flipped some mental quarters in his head. They all landed heads. "Yeah sure, I'll be down in a minute." When he arrived he saw Dana waiting for him and she beckoned him over to a terminal. "I'm having trouble integrating this A.I. code into this simulation, I was wondering if you could tell me what was wrong, if anything? I mean, do you think maybe there could be an error or a mistyping or something?" Worm glared at her. He thought about commenting on how his code is never incorrect, but thought against it. Instead he pulled up a seat without speaking and immediately started to go through the code. An hour later he finally spoke. "Got it, here it is. This line of code is incorrect. I'm surprised that you're little toy didn't start shooting at things left and right." "Actually, that is what was going on in the simulation. Will this also fix the voice software as well?" Dana asked. Worm cocked his head, "Eeehh... it's possible. Here, let's see what happens." Worm corrected the code and then compiled it. Within fifteen minutes they then integrated it into the computer simulation and Dana picked up the mic. and spoke into it. "Forward, five meters," the simulation responded by the showing the chasis moving forward the designated distance. In the simulation were five targets clustered around the area, some looked like buildings, others looked like soldiers. Some in groups, some singular. "Target, thirty degrees." The gun swivelled around to the nearest target within that degree designation. It was a bulding. "Fire." The gun fired a rocket out of it's main cannon. The building blew inward and then crumbled forward. "Ouch," Worm said, "I'd hate to be whoever lived there." "Engage auto-fire sequence, move and engage as necessary." Dana spoke into the mic. The 'tank' in response started to move around, using debris as cover and systematically destroyed the remaining targets in quick succession. Dana looked at the simulation and smiled. "I think Photon is going to be very pleased," she thought to herself, "and maybe a little jealous," she added with a smirk. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seamus was hunched over the operating table, looking down at their dead grey 'guest.' "Autopsy of Subject Zero-Zero-One finished. Further examination of individual organs underway. "First of note is that there doesn't appear to be any definite reproductive organs. Or at least non that appear to be familiar with any species that is on this planet. How do they reproduce? Further study will be required. "All organs appear to be of a simple structure and rather vestigial digestive system. It appears similar to that of a fetal infant, requiring, and only able to digest, simple nutrients. No vocal chords appeared to be present in trachial disection. As to how this creature communicates is still a mystery." Seamus paused and thought for a little bit on what he just said into the recording device. "Hypothesis: Due to the enlarged cranial capacity, could it be possible for telepathic capabilities? It would certainly explain the lack of vocal chords and atrophy tongue muscles used primarily for talking. Some organs in the body remain unidentified at this time, however from the looks of them, they appear to serve no use what so ever in that they appear to have been dead tissue even while the creature was still alive. "Extraction of the eye has revealed a highly sophisticated biological organ, far surpassing our own capabilities. It would be surprising if these creatures didn't see better then humans in the day time, and more then likely even better at night seeing as how there are signs of biological filtering layer on the far outer layer of the eye. "Extraction of the brain has been met with mixed results. We have successfully extracted the brain, however it is obvious it is highly advanced and we definitely have much research to do in figuring out what certain new sectors of the brain do. Only time and effort will be able to unlock the secrets held in this creatures brain." He reahed up and switched off the recording device and looked around at the empty lab. "And now to put that all down on paper," he said aloud to himself.

I vote C, but for right now I see we have our first terror strike be a small town, not necessarily a large city. Will post more thoughts on the matter later. -Ras

1. I suggest that we give the squads names when they start to prove their worth and wheat gets sifted from the chaff. (Namely those that can't hack it get killed) Until then, just give them numbers. 2. Also, I think someone needs to post how others of the base are handling the outcome of the first mission. We know how Donovan is dealing with it, we know how Genega feels about it as well as some others, but what about Warlord, or Tammy? I think it would help flush out the characters more. 3. As far as skills go.... this is an elite international paramilitary organization, I think it goes without saying that these people are going to keep their skills honed, even during R&R, so I think we can skip out on some of that writing with the exception of when it includes character interaction / character building, such as the interaction between Donovan and Terrick. 4. Also now that we have some sectoid corpses to play around with, we should also start hitting the scientific and technical areas of the base too. Keep in mind that this is all stuff that can be hit on in the future and doesn't need to be done immediately, however I think we should put some heavy consideration into points 2 and 4. -Ras

Okay, very simple. I am with with the idea of a terror mission. Have it be a small town and have X-Com 'not' be victorious. We said that squad three was going to get their clocks cleaned, so let's go all the way with this and have this massive defeat the reason why X-Com has decided to become aggressors to the menace. The cross thing has been fixed. I was wondering, for future ceremonies, since this is an international organization, do we want to thave a 21 gun salute, or should their be something more specific to X-Com. I thought the salute to the hill was the most appropriate. Anyway, I must be off. Oh, the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is starting in November, so most of my writing time is going to be dedicated to that so I may not be posting here as often as I'd like to. www.nanowrimo.org for all those interested. -Ras

Character's Name: Seamus O'Riork Character's Callsign: N/A Character's Background: Seamus graduated the top of his class in college. His accolades include Bachelor of Science: Biochemistry, Biology. Masters: Genetics. Ph.D: BioGenetics. Was approached by X-INV, now known as X-Com after he created a synthetic organism which breaks down petro-chemicals present in crude oil spills and industrial accidents. He could easily lead a successful research team of his own, however his personality prohibits his getting any any leadership position. Character's Personal Information: Seamus displays signs of obsessive compusive behavior regarding his resarch and work. He himself suffers from a severe introverted personality which makes him have trouble trouble talking to people, especially his superiors. Spends his free time, what little he has, reading, drinking privately, and as he puts it, 'blowing the holy hell out of terrorists' in Counter-Strike.

Sure why not, I seem to remember it coming out around this time period. I think the only thing we might want to consider changing, time-line wise would be world politics (obviously) other then that, unless the politics would have a side effect on things, everything else would probably continue as it has. -Ras

Well, I gothte detailsright, I just screwed up on Grammer. As to why I've been gone, summer vacation rolled around and I got involved in a few things and to be honest, just flat out forgot and then sat down at a computer and said, 'oh yeah, I'm doing a collaberative fanfic.' Anyway, I got a few ideas on the backburner, but I'm going to wait for a few people to post before I throw up another one. -Ras

All right. I'll run an edit and I'll attach along with it the ceremony. I haven't heard what people are going to do with the alien so I'll throw in what sounds good. If someone doesn't like it, I can edit it out later. -Ras p.s. Okay, the ceremony is done and same with the alien. If anyone wants to go into tech. detail on it, by all means feel free to. Also, Seamus O'Rourk is everyones to play with. I'm introducing him as a bio-geek in case you couldn't tell. Not the head mucky-muck of the division, but VERY intelligent. Edited the earlier post and slugged a couple commas in to help make everything clear and reworded a very small section to make things easier. Any questions, comments, etc. fire away.

If Zager doesn' t mind, I'll take care of the containment from the scientific aspects of it sometime this weekend as well as take care of the ceremony for O'Malley and Shuwei if no one else wants to. I figured I'd kick up the time a little bit and we can assume that everything went fine as far as the UFO mop-up and transportation went. Honestly, I think that Squad 1 would probably have left once the containment team arrived, and that probably would have been fairly shortly after the green smoke had been given. Reasoning for this would be that the containment team would more then likely have some soldiers with them to not only relieve the current squad but also to make sure that nothing weird happens while transporting the alien equipment and craft. Also I'm thinking about addingin a new character. I leaning towards having it be a computer savant or some other kind of geek that will fit into R&D and Intelligence. Also thinking about introducing a character who's specialty is biochemistry / neurology that everyone can use. Again, just a thought. So yeah, I'm done with my spiel, give me some feedback if you have any suggestions. -Rasicar