| ~Beyond the Border~ > Akyu's Arcade |
| [SSLP] Red Tape and Xenos - The XCOM Files |
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| AzyWng:
File 002 The new year passed without much incident. Nothing had come up in that time. Second of January, though, things kicked up a little. Wasn?t long before we got word of some unusual activities in Detroit, so, sending in Dismas and Reynauld, we decided to investigate. The overwatch camera system was a bit difficult to get used to, but before long I was able to tell what everything was - even if it was all super pixelated. It wasn?t long before the target was spotted... Who, incidentally, looked like an aspiring bank robber, except for the fact he had a machete instead of a gun. That didn?t mean he was harmless, though - a fact Dismas soon learned as Reynauld took the suspect down with his baton. The suspect didn?t drop anything particularly useful. We?ll have to interrogate him back at base to learn more... Once the people in the office have all the basics sorted out... Before long, more calls started coming in, and Reynauld refused to leave Dismas? side in the infirmary - so it fell on two of the new recruits to start going on missions - a ?Cyberangel? and ?Nav??. I didn?t ask questions about codenames, they didn?t ask how I got here, the arrangement was that simple. First mission was in Hiroshima - more criminal activity taking place. Not much to say about that one other than ?What the hell was he wearing?? The second one was also a simple enough affair. Reports of an alien abduction over in Eastern Europe - we were able to reach the victim, though they... weren?t in a state to come quietly. Thankfully, there were no witnesses. Would have been a bit awkward trying to explain why we were subjecting the victim to a second abduction. Then there was the zombie one. The two found a pair of... well, zombies is the best way to describe them. Slouching posture, vacant expressions, and attempts to violently maul Cyberangel. That pretty much ticks all the boxes needed to classify them as zombies, right? Thankfully, with a bit of quick thinking, Cyberangel was able to take fend off his attackers before Nav? landed a final shot with her shotgun and took her out. And that?s when I can say without any shame that I ordered the retreat - the agents took the bodies to the car and drove off - making sure to restrain the unconscious zombie to keep it from slaughtering the agents. We?ll have researchers poking at them soon enough - again, once all the basics are put in place. We later learned that a pair of bodies were found in the forest the next day. The victims appeared to have been eaten alive, and the other zombies had disappeared without a trace. I guess I should have known that would happen... but I couldn?t afford to send my agents into danger blindly - well, not that I wasn?t already doing that to begin with... The next mission went relatively uneventfully, Nav? getting another takedown under her belt. After all the work we?d done, I figured we were gonna get a good grade on our evaluation reports, so I asked Helen to bring up a graph of our overall performance... Oh. Maybe we wouldn?t be getting such a good grade after all... And, finally, one more mission happened before this report?s writing. We?d received word that a local had been ripped to shreds by some kind of strange animal. Arriving at the scene only revealed a single civilian. Some guy looking for a lost dog. Yeah, good luck with that, pal. There?s danger afoot. As we passed him and searched the forest... We heard a growl and a cry of pain. Yeah. That?s what we found. As for what happened after that... I keep going over what happened in my mind, what I could have done to stop it... Guess I just panicked and gave orders without thinking... All it would have taken was having Nav? back up before firing, and Cyberangel could have lived... Been barely twenty days and I?ve already gotten someone killed. Worst part is, I barely feel anything. I don?t know what?s wrong with me - maybe it?s the screen, the fact he was a stranger, the fact that they?re supposed to be putting their lives at risk - but I don?t feel any of the guilt I should. No pangs of conscience, nothing. I can?t talk to anyone about this, I know what they?ll all say, anything from ?Make sure it doesn?t happen again, you dumbass? to ?It?s an occupational hazard, get over it, you pussy?. And I have an uneasy feeling that it will happen again. If we?re going up against creatures like that wolf, then who knows how long it?ll be before our luck runs out and we lose more agents? I... I didn?t sign on for this. But I sure as hell can?t back out now... |
| CyberAngel:
I'm not even angry, really :D *faint sounds of chipboard snapping* Feel free to reincarnate me in any way you see fit. Or should I come up with different name? But huh, the mod sure looks curious. Smaller missions, but things might pick up later, I guess? Also wonder what all that research and interrogations can come up with. |
| AzyWng:
I suppose I should at least explain why you died. In vanilla X-COM, melee combat is rather limited - the only player-wielded weapon is the stun rod, used to capture aliens non lethally. Additionally, there was little need for melee weapons - you could simply spray a weapon at point-blank range. However, The XCOM Files runs on what I believe is a modified version of the game engine, and melee combat is given more depth. Now melee accuracy really does matter, and point-blank shots are no longer guaranteed kills. When a point-blank shot is made, there?s a chance (depending on the melee and reactions skills of both combatants) for the shot to go off in a direction the enemy isn?t in. This is supposed to represent the fact a combatant isn?t just going to let someone put a gun to their head and fire it. Sometimes, like what happened just now, that causes things to work out... not in your favor. A different name would be nice. I think it would be difficult to justify why all those agents took the same code names... Edit: Also, take some comfort in the fact you accomplished at least one badass feat before dying - you survived two zombies and even knocked one down. |
| nav':
So that was just a misdirected point blank shot? Wow, good job me! At least I'm still alive and kicking... |
| CyberAngel:
Well, going melee in a shooting game is totally in-character for me :] I guess I'll base my names on my favourite Touhou game then, so let the next one be "Nightbug". |
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