10th August 1999From the diary of Frederica RossiWhen I was eleven, my seven year old brother was killed in a road traffic accident.
When I was fifteen, my father died of lung cancer, literally choking on his own blood in front of my eyes.
And yet...yesterday was by far and away the worst day of my life.
The alarm went off at around 10pm: "Incoming UFO...Incoming UFO. US-02 is under attack, repeat, US-02 is under attack. All troops to stations!"
I grabbed my Heavy Plasma, got into my personal armour in about 10 seconds and headed to my muster point in the rear living quarters.
To be clear: I am part of a garrison. 16 men and women, in charge of defending the XCOM base in Colorado. We have extensively studied the black box recordings accumulated by our EU colleagues across the Atlantic. We have trained extensively in "War Games". But none of us had actually fought an alien before.
From the access lift: Sectoids. Lots of them. The guys in the forward Stores engaged immediately, and definitely took a few out. But they all fell in a matter of minutes. Musashi and Gimsing definitely went down there. I'm pretty sure there was a third. May their family forgive me for not knowing.
Then, a Cyberdisc. Not a threat: taken out quickly. Then a chime...Private Schulz turns around with a dead expression in his eyes and empties his plasma into the chest of Gae at point-blank range. Mind control...
I leapt into the corridor and saw a sectoid progressing through the front living quarters. Got him. I heard a clatter as Schulz threw his gun to the floor, in total panic. He realised what he had done.
The order of events gets hazy. One of the sectoids came from the lift with a Blaster Launcher. Someone took it down, and someone leapt to pick it up. Eventually, that same someone fired the launcher into the hanger, and from the agonised moans we heard, probably took out 4 - 5 of them.
The dead look returned to Schulz's eyes, and like a zombie he shambled towards the Aliens. One of them shot him dead.
We tried to keep the fighting in the main corridor. When one of us fell, another took their place. I don't remember all the details, but the scorch marks on my armour tell me I took a direct hit to the chest and felt nothing from it. Someone must like me up there.
I fired at everything that moved...until eventually nothing did. After a few minutes of stillness Hill, Hoffman, Schmitz and myself advanced. We were not specifically ordered...we were the only 4 left. We swept the radar room...and from above two shots rang out. Zikos and Hoffman both fell. Schmitz then knelt and took out the last sectoid up the stairway with an amazing shot in the circumstances.
The base was saved...but 14 of our 16 troop garrison were killed. Once we had confirmed the base was secure, I retreated to my room and burst into tears.
Less than five minutes later, as I was still sobbing, I got called over the intercom to report to base command. It took me fifteen minutes to compose myself before complying.
The base commander shook me by the hand and promoted me to sergeant on the spot. I didn't care.
I'm not sure I'll ever care about anything again.
Freddi
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Diary of XCOM Commander Keld Maj, 13th August 1999Our plasma hovertank is my new favourite toy.
So imagine how utterly narked off I was when we lost it to a damn floater yesterday...in a routine small UFO crash site.
Yeah...you're right. That's exactly how bloody angry I was. Furious to the power of disgusted.
So I was in a pretty belligerent mood when base command called me into a meeting, asking me if I felt the time was right to deal with that alien base we know is sat there in Finland.
My answer: "Damn straight we're taking it out. Consider it destroyed."
Commander Maj
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Diary of XCOM Commander Keld Maj, 18th August 1999It was the worst mission I have ever been part of, let alone commanded. I am humbled.
The kindest thing I can say is: at least we were successful. The base is destroyed.
8 of my guys laid their lives down. We took a full 14 on the mission, no tank. So over 50% losses. Due to my orders.
Captain Danielsen, doing exactly what I commanded, immediately, obediently, diligently. Dead.
Morin, Hedlund, Mariam, Matene, Nowcika, Ukita, Novikov. Dead.
We landed and split into two assault teams, Vengeance and Fury. Fury breached the North West lift chamber, myself with Vengeance breached the central lift.
Straight away, mind control attempts. The scum repeatedly failed with it, but there was panic. Both teams tried to secure their lift base, both failed. In the end, my squad used blaster bombs to clear it somewhat, but our hold was tenuous. Mariam and Hedlund both gave themselves to the cause here.
Captain Fujita could see it was going badly, and she took personal responsibility. She went down, and took out two Sectoids single-handed. And then...the Cyberdisc.
It hit her, and we hear her cry out over the radio. But she's such a trooper, it'll take more than a Cyberdisc to take Mariko Fujita out. She returns fire and takes that metal monstrosity out. Then..."MEDIC!" comes over the radio.
Ukita didn't hesitate, straight down the lift and running to her captain. She patched Fujita up.
I radioed to all "Considering mission abort. Opinions?"
In less than a second, Fujita is on the radio, gasping slightly. "No...fudging...way...sir". (She may not have used the word fudging...).
"<crackle>I'm pretty sure...this is...the command center sir...giant lift...in the middle of a chamber..let me go in sir."
I considered it for a second. "Send co-ords of lift".
She did.
I tapped them into the blaster launcher and fired down the entrance lift. The missile zipped its way around the walls and up the lift into the control center.
A boom. And multiple sectoid moans.
"Go go go Fujita".
And she went. She told us that, other than the dead sectoids and smoke, she saw lots of purple consoles, with large screens covered in green text and what looked very much like CCTV of the base. Without much ceremony, she fired her plasma multiple times into each of them.
Then, a noise, not dissimilar from our own Self-Destruct system began pulsing through the base. I made the call.
"I think that's self-destruct. Back to LZ now. Go go go".
As I was saying it, a Sectoid rounded the corner and shot Ukita, who had been covering Fujita's rear. I heard Fujita shriek "NOOO!" over the radio and then fire off three shots. She killed it, then raced back to the lift.
We had barely gotten to a safe height, certainly no more than 2,000 feet, when a huge flash of light enveloped SkyRanger 3, followed by a huge boom. The base obliterated itself beneath us.
I was filled in on the horror that occurred around the North lift, where Captain Danielsen and 3 other top guys bought it. It was all I could do to keep it together.
Back at base, 50 minutes later, Fujita was diagnosed with 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung. Doctors say she should make a full recovery in 6 - 8 weeks. I was so relieved. I of course nominated her for Colonel, and my recommendation was accepted.
Not a great mission. At least in terms of bases destroyed though, it is one-nil to XCOM.
Commander Maj
(OOC: First base assault and I take exactly 0 screenshots in the battle...man, I suck at this!)
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Official Statement from XCOM CEO Russell Lambert, CODENAME KickAssAndGiggle, 20th August 1999People of Earth,
The reports that have been circulating in the media are relatively accurate. Yesterday, XCOM base US-02 was attacked by the aliens for a second time in 10 days.
It is with pride that I can inform you that the garrison, despite being very inexperienced due to the massive turnover after the 9th August, successfully fought off the alien menace. It is with sadness though that I report that the two heroes of the 9th, Sergeant Frederica Rossi and Squaddie Michael Schmitz, along with 5 other brave soldiers, gave their lives for our cause.
I would like to affirm here my strong belief that these attacks are merely acts of desperation from a side that knows it is losing the battle. Our great success in Finland shows that to me clearly.
The war will be won, it is a matter of dedication and time. We have plenty of the former, and we will use it to buy ourselves the latter.
Regards,
Russell Lambert, CEO
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Lab Report 1st September 1999
Lead Scientific Officer Dr Kevin RichardsonThe first twenty days of August was spent mainly performing autopsies. I was reluctant, I do not see what we learn from them that we do not already get from the black box recordings. But the brass were adamant. I can barely even remember the reports we filed: I let Dr Janowski handle it, it was her kinda area back in her real life before the war.
After we finished the Sectoid, I insisted we interrogate the Navigator Maj and his lads brought back on the day he lost our first hover tank.
It turned out to be a master-stroke of an idea. According to that cowardly piece of filth (we didn't even have to mention the word "torture", we literally just sparked some electric wires together in front of it's face and it sung like Tweetie Pie), UFO's each send off a unique "Hyperwave" signature. Hyperwaves are between X Rays and Gamma Rays on the spectrum, and now we know what we're looking for, we can probably track them.
We are working on something very interesting now: a radar that should be able to pinpoint the exact location, type and mission parameters of every UFO that ever enters the atmosphere. If it works, no invention is going to do more to win this war.
KR
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Official Statement from XCOM CEO Russell Lambert, CODENAME KickAssAndGiggle, 1st September 1999Stakeholders,
Thank you for your appraisal of our efforts in August. I would agree with your assessment of "Excellent". The defeat of the alien base in Finland and two successful defences of US-02 should surely convince the aliens that they are losing this war, and badly.
I would simply re-iterate here my words of my last statement made on the 20th: the war will be won, it is a matter of dedication and time.
Regards,
Russell Lambert, CEO
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