UFO Fanfiction Discussion

[FullAuto]

Yes, but what they are usually fighting for is conquest. Very few wars have been fought with the extermination of the population in mind. As for extermination of the human race, no war like that has ever been fought.

To sum up, I really don't understand placing such strictures on a force that's meant to be saving the planet. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and all that. It's not like X-Com has any other recourse, is it?

Still, the prevailing opinion seems to be we don't, so we don't.

[JellyfishGreen]

Man, this party can sure swing when they play the right song.

 

"Extermination of the human race"? Aw, it's not that bad. The brain'd just turn us into another slave race with occasional harvests of genetic material and no chance to find our own destiny.

 

X-Com becoming known is regrettable, but basically unavoidable, and the damage from that is minimal, really, compared to being shut down or wiped out by aliens.

[FullAuto]

So, these diplomats, who are meeting with the aliens and effectively (if unknowingly) trying to bring about the end of the world (as we know it, thank you R.E.M.). We're not going to do anything about them?

[Snikers]

Okay, my last point was kind of apples-and-oranges-ish. Here's a better one.

 

Yes, the diplomats are bringing about the end of the world. We know that because we have played the game and we know the aliens will stab everyone in the back.

 

No one in the fanfic has played UFO Defense. They can't be sure that negotiations are the wrong route. They think, or at least hope, that they can achieve peaceful relations with the aliens - they may or may not have to make sacrifices, but that's better than a huge war that could - as you say - lead to the extinction of the human race. The countries don't know that diplomacy is the wrong solution. XCOM ITSELF does not know that diplomacy is the wrong solution. Hell, even if he could get away with it (which he couldn't) Genega may refuse to authorize the slaughter of the "diplomats" because he could put his trust in them ending this war and stopping the slaughter of his soldiers.

 

Furthermore, if I was someone in the position to know and I was in the fic, I would put a LOT more trust in diplomacy than in Xcom. Look at it - Xcom has far inferior technology and a very poor strategic position (defending the whole GLOBE against a guerilla alien force). And really, the technology is two dozen nails in the coffin. You know when Napoleon invaded Egypt, and basically wiped out the sword-carrying army with a handful of riflemen? Well, that's not even close to the technology gulf between the humans and the aliens.

 

How about - imagine a fight against a pack of Neanderthals and a squad of well-equipped commandos. Now imagine that the Neanderthals have an impossibly large area to cover and the Americans can pick and choose where to attack and how. Now also imagine that the Neanderthals have no way in the forseeable future to actually lead an offensive against the Americans - they literally cannot take the initiative.

 

That's what the war looks like right now. And Xcom isn't the Americans.

 

If that weren't enough, keep in mind that Xcom's ONE and ONLY source of power comes from the funding and support of its respective countries. If Xcom shows those countries that it's willing to take violent action against them in order to further its own goals - well, they're going to put up with some sacrifices for a little while, because (as you said) we're talking about extinction here, but it's not going to be long at all before they say "we're going to take our own initiative and create a force that won't blow us up to further their own goals."

 

And of course, all I've said before about how Xcom will prove, by shooting down the helicopter, that they'll attack anyone that steps out of line. The countries of the UN will realize that there may and will come a time when they have to do something that goes against Xcom's wishes, and if Xcom is still around at that point it's going to try to assassinate their leader or something. They'll pull the plug, in pre-emptive self-defense.

[FullAuto]

I don't think the disparity in technology is that bad! Perhaps more akin to having a 17th century musketeer up against a modern soldier. The aliens are still stuck with guns, after all, even if they are very advanced ones. Their most powerful weapons still use solid projectile technology!

When you put the diplomatic situation like that, I suppose there is little else we can do, for the moment. X-Com aren't going to like it though. Yes, intellectually they know a peaceful solution would be best, but they've lost friends in this war.

[storm turmoil]

the bottom line is, if all the governments make a fuss of this, the fanfic ends here. It's that simple. X-com WILL be disbanded, and a few days later everyone involved will be 'disappeared'. End of story.

 

on the other hand, Genega has the ultimate counter argument: the terror ship that went down over washington, coupled with the china terror site footage from the skyranger and the HWP ( I'm going to presume they were recording.) given that, all they have to say is " do you really want this kind of thing to happen, Mr President. That's what we thought was going on."

 

of course, it's not entirely the truth, but as you say, They don't necessarily know that

 

of course, the only overt response might be a reducing of funding, A kind of, " We know you did something bad but we don't want to expose ourselves as not being a team player, so we'll let you off with a slap on the wrist this time."

 

one possible outcome we can explore that the game didn't offer is that the country involved might withdraw from X-com, not to sign a pact with the aliens, but to bankroll it's own anti-alien group using it's own reverse engineered teach ( the japanese Kiryu-Kai couldn't do it, but if they have some alien tech already, they might do better)

 

this would put Xcom in the position of having a rival organisation snapping up UFO shootdowns it needs for the research opportunities, which could be fun to write.

[FullAuto]

I just don't get passing up a potential target, not to mention a chance to go on the offensive. X-Com are going to resent the diplomats, especially if they don't have the highest authority to carry out the diplomatic mission (as JFG says), they're just oportunists.

As for the troopers having battle fatigue, that won't wash. They didn't go on the terror mission, we've had no debrief of the terror mission squad (what's left of it), nor have we discussed the dissemination of knowledge that the aliens have psionic abilities to the others, or any interaction between the teams mentioning it.

What are we going to say? The squad was really wound up about getting mind ontrolled but we forgot to mention it?

[Snikers]

That's a good point Turmoil, but even that excuse won't get us through blasting apart an unarmed government helicopter. It may save us from looking like the Gestapo, but it'll instead make us look like a bunch of paranoid trigger-happy loons.

 

That may just work for the fact that we fired on them from the ground in the first place, though we'll get the slap on the wrist you describe. Killing all the diplomats, though? I doubt it. But that's just me...

[FullAuto]

We could also claim we were fired on first. No one knows any different. Not that we need to. Wartime rules of engagement allow soldiers to shoot if they feel threatened.

[JellyfishGreen]

So I came up with

 

Gia: "The helicopter must have been badly damaged, it mysteriously crashed while I was following it."

 

Cold, dudes. Plausible for the fic, but really cold, for Gia.

Unless it really did mysteriously crash, but no-one but Gia will ever know for sure.

 

The poor pawn Martin Rice is the heli pilot, unless he took off on foot after getting the alien pistol. If so, there's no-one on board but diplomats, and no reason for Gia to shoot it down to keep the pistol escaping (although she doesn't know that). If not, we're dooming Martin Rice's family too, aren't we?

 

I guess between these two dilemmas I'd go with the "escaped-on-foot" scenario followed by a "mysterious crash", there's every chance we're going to get the pistol back with the raid on the Yakuza in the future, which would wrap loose ends up nicely.

[Snikers]

Gia may have gotten away with a "mysterious crash" before, but she made a big deal about how she wanted to shoot it down. It's going to raise suspicion, and they're going to investigate the crash. If it shows anything that even suggests Gia shot it down, Genega's going to can her on the spot and the UN is going to eat us alive. If we can't get to the crash site, they're going to check Gia's ship to see if there's been any ammunition expended. And even if there's no evidence linking Gia to the diplomat's deaths, Genega is going to stop trusting Gia. She'll never have a place of any importance again. Also, our funding governments will probably dissolve Xcom anyway - so Gia didn't shoot it down, it's still because of Xcom damage that the chopper crashed. Just because it was due to small fire rather than air-to-air weaponry doesn't mean we're going to get away with it.

 

Marvin's (with a V) on the chopper, too. He's the pilot. It wouldn't be flying without him.

 

By the way - we WERE fired on first. Of course, firing at the diplomats shows a serious breakdown of policy (and is my fault - I'm very, very sorry) but we were shot at first.

 

Countries get REALLY pissed when you kill their diplomats. Hell - there's basically NO WAY we can kill these diplomats and get away with it. There never was.

[storm turmoil]

Snikers: Are you trying to kill this fanfic?

 

because the rest of us are trying to keep it alive!.

 

ok, so that may sound harsh, but at this juncture, all we're getting from you are negatives, and it won't wash. if it gets as far as any court martial, it is going to be death sentences (even if it isn't; these people know too much: they'll be 'disappeared'.) Can we really afford to kill off that many characters?

 

we are aware of the negatives. we know we've written ourselves into a corner. what we need now is help writing our way out.

 

which brings us to our only defence at this point: nobody pointing the finger. the governments involved will have to keep stum on this for our sakes, under the pretense that if they don't they know their neighbours will round on 'em for keeping technology secret that they want ( not that that's what they'll say but that will be the reason.

 

because otherwise, the fic ends here. all at once and nothing first.

 

as for Gia, what happens depends on what happened, and How Genega feels about it.

 

possible situations:

 

1: Gia outright shoots the chopper down, because She can. this is not good for Gia, but oddly enough, not as bad for the organisation, since it can be put down to a single rogue pilot.

 

2: Gia deliberatley buzzes the chopper into crashing. pretty much the same as above, though forcing it down IS slightly more acceptable.

 

3: if anyone on the chopper is armed at all, Gia deliberately gets close enough that She starts taking fire, and 'returns fire' shooting down the chopper. This one is dependant on Genega. He may not be amused, and He'll know what went on, but He'll be able to defend it, IF He wants to, using the Interceptor telemetry.

 

4: The chopper is let go. this drops Gia in it, again, this time for competency, and also leaves a Damocles sword hanging over the whole organisation, since several people with grievances will escape to make them, possible with footage of a suspicious aircraft tailing them part of the way..

 

in any of these cases but #4, there is opportunity for Marvin to escape on foot post crash, taking his 'souvenir' with him

 

The other odd fact is that since the diplomats now know too much, they may be 'disappeared' by their own governments, to help provide deniability. This plays directly into X-com's favour, of course. It's vaguely plausible that some of the diplomats( if any survive) might actually petition X-com for asylum from their own countries over fear of reprisals by their superiors for messing their 'meeting' up. I have no Idea how this would work, except that since X-com is a UN organisation (albeit a secret one) it might actually be possible. if necessary, fake assasinations may be stageable to support this.

 

also, one of Genega's reforms after this might be a formalisation of the 'agents' thus creating a network of specialists to deal with this sort of thing in future. this gives him more options in future, and also sounds good to any oversight commitee that might look into this; Genega can always plead inability to respond properly, and if He shows measures are being put in place to prevent further ocurrences, He may be able downplay the incident as a tragic accident caused by having no alternative but to send in tne troops.

[Snikers]

Snikers: Are you trying to kill this fanfic?

because the rest of us are trying to keep it alive!

I'm going to try to reply to this in a calm and sensible manner.

 

ok, so that may sound harsh, but at this juncture, all we're getting from you are negatives, and it won't wash. if it gets as far as any court martial, it is going to be death sentences (even if it isn't; these people know too much: they'll be 'disappeared'.) Can we really afford to kill off that many characters?

 

Who's going to be court martialed? Xcom? Because we're only going to be taking death sentences if we kill all these civilians. If we don't kill the diplomats, Xcom isn't dissolved and nobody dies. It's that simple. The countries won't be happy, mind you, that we fired on their diplomats, but we didn't kill any of them and they sent them into a hot situation without telling us anyway. We'll get flak for it, but they're not going to dissolve Xcom and end the fic IF WE DON'T KILL THE DIPLOMATS.

 

 

we are aware of the negatives. we know we've written ourselves into a corner. what we need now is help writing our way out.

I'm trying. I do not want to kill this fanfic. Nobody does. I'm sorry if I sound confrontational. It's not deliberate.

 

 

which brings us to our only defence at this point: nobody pointing the finger. the governments involved will have to keep stum on this for our sakes, under the pretense that if they don't they know their neighbours will round on 'em for keeping technology secret that they want ( not that that's what they'll say but that will be the reason.

 

Er...a thousand pardons. I don't think I understand that paragraph.

 

 

because otherwise, the fic ends here. all at once and nothing first.

Why? If we don't do anything grossly outrageous, the fanfic doesn't have to end.

 

 

as for Gia, what happens depends on what happened, and How Genega feels about it.

 

possible situations:

 

1: Gia outright shoots the chopper down, because She can. this is not good for Gia, but oddly enough, not as bad for the organisation, since it can be put down to a single rogue pilot.

Okay. That could save our skins. And it's on record that Genega ordered Gia not to fire. Xcom would survive. But Gia will be court-martialed and executed at the very least. Then Vet's out one of his characters, which isn't good. But this could work.

 

Just because it could, though, doesn't mean it's the best solution.

 

 

2: Gia deliberatley buzzes the chopper into crashing. pretty much the same as above, though forcing it down IS slightly more acceptable.

 

Won't fly. We might be able to get away with this in a fair world, but it isn't. Even if we can introduce reasonable doubt this way, this isn't a court of law. The governments hold all the cards. if they want to pull the plug, they'll pull the plug.

 

 

3: if anyone on the chopper is armed at all, Gia deliberately gets close enough that She starts taking fire, and 'returns fire' shooting down the chopper. This one is dependant on Genega. He may not be amused, and He'll know what went on, but He'll be able to defend it, IF He wants to, using the Interceptor telemetry.

That could work...but if Xcom hadn't gotten so close, the helicopter wouldn't have been "scared into defending itself." And even if the UN lets Xcom go on this, Genega still knows Gia deliberately put the chopper in that position. He'll fire Gia on the spot. Then Vet's out a character again, and nobody wants that.

 

 

4: The chopper is let go.

 

This is the one I think is our best option.

 

 

this drops Gia in it, again, this time for competency

 

Competency? Why? She was ordered not to fire. She's following orders. She's not incompetent for following orders.

 

 

and also leaves a Damocles sword hanging over the whole organisation, since several people with grievances will escape to make them, possible with footage of a suspicious aircraft tailing them part of the way..

Alright, alright, maybe. So the diplomats have a grudge. What are they going to do? The only retributive action they can take is telling their superiors what happened. Their superiors, or their superiors' superiors, or whatever, know what Xcom is. They won't attack Xcom (unless, of course, Xcom goes and does something insane like deliberately attack their people).

 

in any of these cases but #4, there is opportunity for Marvin to escape on foot post crash, taking his 'souvenir' with him

 

Marvin is barely an issue anymore. We don't care about him. We're discussing the shooting down of the helicopter.

 

Hell, what with Shipley taking off with an alien, Marvin's whole "alien technology leaks to an unknown third party" is basically moot anyways.

 

 

The other odd fact is that since the diplomats now know too much, they may be 'disappeared' by their own governments, to help provide deniability.

 

Since they already knew about the aliens I assume you mean they knew too much about Xcom. Like I said, they'll tell their superiors and they'll promise to take care of it. Then a bogus story is produced. You don't think that every participating government doesn't have a department to cover up sightings of Xcom already?

 

And they may well be disappeared, but those things are dicey. I'm not going to say it doesn't happen, but it's used sparingly (in first world coutries at least). They open up a whole can of worms.

 

 

This plays directly into X-com's favour, of course. It's vaguely plausible that some of the diplomats( if any survive) might actually petition X-com for asylum from their own countries over fear of reprisals by their superiors for messing their 'meeting' up. I have no Idea how this would work, except that since X-com is a UN organisation (albeit a secret one) it might actually be possible. if necessary, fake assasinations may be stageable to support this.

 

That's a nice idea...but we'll have to work to fit it in. The governments themselves know that the blame isn't on the diplomats, nor Xcom itself, for messing the meeting up. They sent in the diplomats to a crash that Xcom caused without telling Xcom. They dropped the ball.

 

Of course, they could shift the blame anyway, but diplomats aren't a dime a dozen. It could be done, thought, since it would add a nice dimension to the fic.

 

 

also, one of Genega's reforms after this might be a formalisation of the 'agents' thus creating a network of specialists to deal with this sort of thing in future. this gives him more options in future, and also sounds good to any oversight commitee that might look into this; Genega can always plead inability to respond properly, and if He shows measures are being put in place to prevent further ocurrences, He may be able downplay the incident as a tragic accident caused by having no alternative but to send in tne troops.

Sounds interesting. I like it. Just remember that if Genega stresses his inability to respond, they may just replace him with someone they think can, so it'll have to be done with a skilled touch. Looking at your writing, though, I'm sure you could pull it off. This is a very interesting idea.

 

And as for me killing the fic? I am not trying to end this. No one is.

Look - this is how it is. If we kill all the diplomats, Xcom is looking at some extreme measures and could well be taken apart (though the suggestions you've made above may be able to save us). If that happens, the fic ends. If we don't kill the diplomats, Xcom survives. That's the way it goes.

 

If we really want, we can force the chopper to LAND and take all the diplomats prisoner without killing them. Then we give them back to their countries when they *ask* for them. Marvin isn't going to allow himself to be captured, but he can do something like land and take off on foot or something (remember, his family dies if he gets captured). Once we have the diplomats, the countries will come after us and we can give them back to them UNHARMED. Then the countries will be angry, but they can't shut us down for it.

 

Look, I don't want this fic to die. But if we kill all the diplomats, it will. The end.

 

EDIT: Well, that's a mess. How do I get the quote tags to work?

[FullAuto]

No one wants this fic to end. I think Snikers is just trying to keep us rooted in the realities of the situation.

If we were fired upon first, we're pretty much blameless, you can't shoot at soldiers in a warzone and then go "They shot back" because that's what soldiers do. We've got audio/visual records of the mission, I'm sure Genega could take copies to the meeting and shut the UN up.

Yes, the countries will still be pissed, but they can't blame us half as much as they like. They can bluster, but that's it. Our best options are either Gia shooting the heli down, or letting it go.

If she shoots it down, she gets the chop. It's regrettable that someone will lose a character, but it's tough shit. Anyone want to accuse me of being callous can piss off, I lost several characters during the terror mission. This is a war. Most of the initial characters, if not all, will die, because that tends to happen in war.

If she lets it go, sod all happens. We carry on as per usual. Establishing a network of Agents will be ripping off my idea (head swells) but what the Hell, all good ideas get ripped off.

[storm turmoil]

okay, apologies time.

 

Snikers: for putting words in your mouth.Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I was mostly aiming for irony, but it didn't come across very well. I was just afraid I'd jinxed this fic by joining it.

 

Fullauto: sorry for stealing your idea. but, it is a good idea, that could help bail us out.

 

and thanks for not getting too annoyed at the smartarse noob .

[FullAuto]

LOL, no harm done st. As for 'stealing my idea', I really wouldn't worry about it, I don't hold a copyright or anything.

We've gotten stuck on stuff before, it's not uncommon. We muddle on.

[Snikers]

Actually, I think forcing the chopper to land (LAND, not crash) would be best. None of Xcom actually knows these are diplomats, even if we know they're unarmed. Proper action would be to force the chopper to the ground, take the diplomats hostage, and give them back to their countries when they ask us for them.

 

That would probably be the best possible thing to do, because I just realized they don't know they're diplomats...standard proceedure (I think) and they can't blame us, because they went behind our back. We'll get some nasty looks from the diplomats, but we'd have done nothing wrong (except for shooting at the chopper with the small arms).

 

How important is it for us not to be able to interact with these diplomats?

[FullAuto]

They could just refuse to talk? If we take them prisoner, I've no doubt Genega would stamp on anyone who tried to interrogate them, so as long as they don't blab straight away...

The fic's going very Lethal Weapon 2, isn't it? Just as long as we get to kill some of them at some point!

 

"Diplomatic immunity"

"It's just been revoked."

*BANG*

 

 

 

What?

[JellyfishGreen]

I detect some bloodthirstyness from FullAuto. Interesting that we don't want the truth of what happened to become public, but we do want them quietly declared "unwelcome persons" by the US government and kicked out. (which is the usual procedure for diplomatically-immune white-collar spies, if I remember my Clancy.) What crime, really, can we charge them with on US soil?

 

Snickers has delineated the shape of our painted-in corner quite well... if Gia hadn't turned comm off, this would be easier. (Gia's one of mine, by the way, and although I'd say fire her if it makes a better fic, I had pictured the more traditional "death by battleship". Although this way she lives, and maybe Trigger learns something in the process.) So my next idea is she has second thoughts about her mission and the human profile of her target, and decides to let them be arrested after all. (Quarantine of alien technology isn't in her mission parameters IIRC.) The next step is to raise them on the radio, and force them to land. Anyone know if there's a standard channel for this sort of thing?

 

If the intent is to have XCOM/XINV arrest them then perhaps she could force them to land within the perimeter guarded by the first squad or their Osprey reinforcements. (This would make Marvin Rice's escape at that point unlikely. Maybe one of the 'diplomats' is able to fly a copter although I admit that's unusual. But it makes sense to me that Marvin wouldn't have stayed on the copter after taking an alien pistol off one of the passengers at gunpoint.) Maybe Marvin lands early & outside the perimeter claiming engine damage.

 

By the way, wouldn't it be hard to "tail" a helicopter using a supersonic fighter? They're respectively referred to as "slow movers" and "fast movers" after all. Would you make a couple of overshoots every minute even just above your stall speed?

 

----

 

NB background on the diplomats, if they are foreigners on US soil but with positions of power in their own country, they probably arranged their individual visits to the US to coincide with the secret alien landing, and are in the US under diplomatic passports with some cover story (eg 'visiting the UN to help with aid distribution policies'). FullAuto, you referred to such people in your Agents fic as "The Opposition". They've been in existence longer than XCOM but XCOM is forcing a few hands. Some of the diplomats' superiors know their real mission (and can be considered part of The Opposition) and some don't. It's unlikely we'll find out which in the fic.

 

The Agents (the XINV network) already exists and know very well about The Opposition, but as all this is shadowy they don't know all the players. Note the Yakuza (as I'll loosely refer to them) is another player in all this entirely, and don't have much intact alien tech yet. The Opposition may have a few gifts but XCOM's sitting on piles of spoils of war at this point.

 

On alien interaction, the implant was a gift, I'd say there are only three people on Earth with such favored status as Shipley. An actual alien having to hide with humans to protect itself from other humans is a rather exceptional circumstance and you can bet he doesn't intend to let it happen again. But now there's going to have to be another secret meeting somewhere just to send him back.

[FullAuto]

Contacting the heli? I imagine there's a standard civilian frequency, check the FAA/FCC (that's the US right?) website maybe?

Tailing the heli would be easiest if Gia circled it (lazy 8s?), just above stall speed, even with the heli going all-out Gia could keep pace easily, and the constant banking would keep her speed down.

 

The Yakuza could be brought into this through a Japanese member of the Opposition, perhaps the head of a keiretsu (multi-company conglomerate) with ties to the Yakuza? This would give them enough power plus the ability for kidnapping and blackmail.

 

As for sending the alien back, not necessarily. An individual alien would be regarded as expendable, I think, and returning him could be seen as too risky. Two in the back of the head?

Sorry if I'm being bloodthirsty.

 

EDIT: 122.75 or 122.85 seems to be an air-to-air frequency used in the US (one of them, anyway).

[Bomb Bloke]

*sidles back in*

 

Who says the diplomats have a clue who X-Com is? I mean, I can hardly see the X-Com troopers wearing visible badges at this point, let alone those badges being recognised. That's assuming X-Com is even accused; we could always say we were busy shooting down a certain terror ship while all this was going on...

 

Besides, we don't have a meeting of nations for, oh, about a whole month. If one country is going to start talking about being friendly with the greys, the other's won't all agree. The Chinese, for instance, won't be happy about the idea of diplomatic talks with the aliens.

 

Playing by game rules, X-Com has to perform really badly for two consecutive months to bring about closed doors... Heck, my soldiers sometimes even target the poor civilians when they panic. Stray rockets don't help either. It happens, but since when were the penalties mind blowing?

 

But let's review.

 

X-Com turns up in an area where the aliens are waiting for diplomats. X-Com starts killing aliens.

 

Diplomats arrive in what is a battlezone. X-Com, having polished off all known alien forces in the area, start to converge on what is possibly a threat.

 

X-Com comes under attack by human forces. The hostiles are mostly wiped out. The co-pilot in the chopper is killed by Dodge.

 

Diplomats and Mercs escape, but not before the chopper tries to run down an X-Com unit, and of course there's however many machine gun bullets come out of the 'Ranger. Both of the craft are fired on by X-Com, but only with light ground weapons - as it stands, our aireal units haven't done much more then cruise around.

 

So, to sum up, X-Com is attacked by an unknown human group. There's no reason why either of them should know what the heck is going on, either group is very likely to think they've run into some renegade military group trying to steal alien tech. Sure, Shipley seems to have an idea what happened, but she's split up from the rest of her group. Half the diplomats didn't even seem to know they were supposed to meet aliens.

 

All that's left for X-Com to go by are a bunch of dead military units, and Bernard, of course.

 

The combat results are:

Lots of dead aliens.

A couple of injured X-Com troops.

One dead co-pilot.

A heap of dead mercs, all armed.

No dead (or injured) diplomats.

 

And I'll also note that the aliens didn't give us a scratch. All X-Com injuries were dealt by the mercs.

 

Is that really so bad?

[FullAuto]

I've no doubt Bernard's government will claim him.

 

"Have you seen this diplomat?" type notices will start appearing if we hold onto him and torture him for information. Yes, I said torture, yes, it's outlawed, yes, everyone does it.

[JellyfishGreen]

An actual alien having to hide with humans to protect itself from other humans is a rather exceptional circumstance and you can bet he doesn't intend to let it happen again. But now there's going to have to be another secret meeting somewhere just to send him back.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As for sending the alien back, not necessarily.  An individual alien would be regarded as expendable, I think, and returning him could be seen as too risky.  Two in the back of the head?

Sorry if I'm being bloodthirsty.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd think the Opposition would treat one of their primary contacts as an honored individual, so ixnay on the ungay, eh? Although the Overmind brain would certainly consider clone#193 as expendable.

 

Anyway, who's up for writing this next post? If I don't see anything for a week, I'll take another turn. (cue further shock and fainting ladies)

 

JFG

[FullAuto]

Couldn't the little bugger just suicide?

[Bomb Bloke]

Bernard is more trouble if we drag him back to base. Probably easiest to just leave him in the snow field.

 

On the other hand, we could always pretend to be one of those renegade military groups I was talking about, and have him released after a few weeks or so back to his goverment... Great way to draw cover, so to speak.

 

And we could always take Marvin prisoner, as well. His story is so close to Terrick's that we could easily have them recognise each other and take things from there.