SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
AB
*****E-Mail Intercept File A0254176*****
****Transcript Begins****
Dearest Mum.
I just want some action, I've been sitting here for a week now not knowing what the hell is going on because they won't let us watch the telly. Some of the other lads are going on about this whole "Yellow Sign" business being a cover-up. I know what it is, Brussels finally grew a pair and formed a European response force against terrorism, like that book I read on the plane out here, Rainbow something?
My only question is why Spain of all places? Sure it's nice and you can get a beer if you talk slow enough to the barman, but why Spain? Maybe someone is throwing 'em a bone, this facility can't have come cheap. Economic crisis my arse.
Still, that's about it. Tell Uncle Derrick my tan is coming along nicely and no I haven't eaten any of the food or drunk the tap water.
Europe +€20 [Level 1] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 14, +2 bonus]
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, +2 bonus]
Asia +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Oceania +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
North America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
South America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Internal: +€20
Research
None
Narrative
Red Alert in The Pit came with appropriate lighting but rather than a klaxon sounding there was only dramatic music. Somebody technician's idea of a joke. Generalmajor Reichenbach was standing in the centre shouting commands. Hiller's team were going to Egypt, the interceptor was stopping whatever the hell was about to enter European airspace. And it was all happening doubletime and the logistics teams were quick to find their seats and start doing their jobs.
Several large screens around the periphery of The Pit flickered to life. Static internal camera angles and then a shot of the strike team hustling down the corridor. Hiller forcing cigars into one of his jacket pockets as he jogged, rifle slung over one shoulder. Obviously noticing the blinking active LED on one of the cameras he pauses briefly to pose and give a thumbs up to the The Pit upstairs.
The assault lander was a deeply unattractive aircraft. Like a squat version of a space shuttle. Still, it could hold a fully armed strike team and the VTOL capability meant it could get them as close as possible to the action. It also had the advantage of being straightforward to pilot, not that that mattered particularly to Hiller. He took the controls with his four team mates strapped in behind him and blasted out into the autumn sky. Compared to the interceptor though, it was a slow and awkward craft. The public were never kind to the Eurofighter program or its heavily delayed output: The Typhoon. That particular model was over a decade old now. The prototype which burst was a hidden underground runway in the Spanish hillside had only been tested two days ago. The sonic boom knocked over several trees, the launch vector would need to be adjusted or they'd end up painting an arrow towards the facility in destroyed vegetation.
Two blue voxels joined the mass of green currently buzzing around the globe hologram. Both of them closing rapidly on their assigned targets. Live image feeds from both craft occupied two The Pit's screens. The interceptor's target entered Portuguese airspace and estimates had it skimming the northern shore of Spain, heading for somewhere further east. Possibly Russia or Ukraine.
The alien craft was unmistakeable. A ragged hunk of rock hurtling just above cloud level. Irregular metal protrusions extended through the greyish-brown stone: At the rear was an open orifice which must have been an engine or drive system of some type. Circles of what looked like water vapour puffed out from the opening, their geometrically perfect forms becoming broken and ragged in the turbulence. Given that the rock-craft was travelling at mach 2 it was a very leisurely looking drive. In total, it was little more than a boulder, maybe fifteen metres across.
It made no response to the arrival of the interceptor, which matched speed and took up position a few hundred metres behind. There was a moment of hesitation from The Pit. Did they open fire? Generalmajor Reichenbach gave the order. Missiles streaked through the air, each easily carrying enough explosive to reduce a lump of stone that size to gravel.
Unless it chose to suddenly stop in midair. Which is exactly what it did. Both missiles streaked past the suddenly stationary target. The interceptor pulled sideways, a desperate barrel roll to avoid a collision. Any later and the interceptor would have been reduced to scrap. As it was a wing sliced through several of the spindly metal prominences of the enemy. The interceptor juddered slightly, but it was still fighting fit.
Immediately, the craft started to move again. Coming up behind the interceptor with impossible acceleration on an collision course. The interceptor increased speed and then pulled up dramatically, straining against the manoeuvre which had every chance of sending the craft into an irrecoverable stall. The gambit worked, the rock struck only empty air and while it rotated for another ramming attempt the interceptor brought its guns to bear. Lumps of the stony exterior were sheared away, and twists of metal fell down through the thick coastal clouds.
In response, the rock fled. Suddenly travelling vertically upwards as it continued to shed chunks of ragged stone. Confirmation arrived seconds later, the unknown craft had left the Earth's atmosphere. Mission success. Time to come home.
[Phase 1 - Interceptor (rolls 2, 4) No hits. Unknown craft (roll 14) One hit
Phase 2 - Interceptor (rolls 19, 4) One hit. Unknown craft (roll 10) No hits
Phase 3 - Unknown craft retreats]
The landing site was just outside Mut in Egypt. A tiny village that must have stood more or less unchanged for a hundred years. A labyrinth of mud-brick houses and winding lanes around a small oasis. A peaceful place marked by one clearly out of place item. The craft looked like a jet engine rotated through ninety degrees so that it pointed skyward and scaled so that it was almost ten metres tall and four across. A dull purple sheen spilt out of the end of the central cylindrical void which penetrated the whole design. Six equally spaced bulbous pouches projected from the base and hung just above ground level. THe ship itself was anchored to the ground with a trio of spiked feet which had burrowed into the sandy earth.
Sweeping over the mostly abandoned houses, the assault lander put down in a square only just larger than the aircraft. Hiller led his men out, jogging forwards with weapons raised to take cover on the approach. They'd been spotted when they arrived, no doubt, so the enemy was going to be ready. A brief yelp came from somewhere in the distance: a human sound.
The squad split to take up positions within a pair of the archaic and empty houses. Through the unglazed windows they could see the craft. And the three creatures around it. Bulbous, armoured things that walked on silverly tentacles. One had a tentacle coiled around a limp human figure and was forcing its captive (or corpse) into one of the bulky masses at the base of the craft through some kind of gel-membrane.
Hiller took the initiative and opened fire. The noise of the semi-automatic combat rifles was drowned out by the screaming whirr of Cooper's autocannon. Each of the multi-lobed creatures dropped down in response, their tentacles bending to bring their glistening, metallic bodies as close to the earth as possible. Their strange shells shifted and rearranged, allowing two of the things to project tumbling cylinders from their bodies. The cylinders howled through the air and detonated like flash bangs, sucking colour and sound from the world. The third unfurled like a flower, what had been its skin (or clothing or armour) exploding into an array of mirrored petals. Several projected green beams from their centres which bounced through an unfathomable pattern before being reflected towards the strike team. Where it struck it left only the stench of ozone and gaps in the masonry.
Rifle fire plinked away at the alien menace, the bulky figures made for easy targets but their hardened outer shells seemed to shake off most of the force. Cooper had more luck with the rotating drum of his autocannon drawing a stream of destruction that pushed the aliens backwards off sending their coiled tentacles reaching for support. Gradually, through concentrated fire, the strike team were able to carve ragged holes in the alien armour and start wounding whatever terrors were hidden within.
Halverson froze in panic, his mind unable to process what he was seeing. The shouts of his comrades went unheard, and he didn't move as the green streamer of energy lanced towards him leaving only a smoking rifle on the ground. All other evidence that the Norwegian had ever existed was gone.
One of the tumbling explosive stun-flares passed cleanly through the upper window where Dutch and Cooper were positioned. The huge Austrian leapt bravely upon the explosive, taking the full brunt of the blast and collapsing uselessly behind his friend. Seeping a viscous pinkish goo, one of the grenadier aliens collapsed into a twitching heap.
Hiller fell to a direct hit from one of the stun grenades. Seconds later Wolner, with a shot that took more luck than skill, severed one of the tentacle feet of the remaining grenadier. It lurched backwards and the brunt of Cooper's machinegun fell upon it shredding the interior until it oozed out of the bullet holes.
That left only the one with the energy beam weapon. The reflectors cracked as bullets struck them but it didn't seem to make a damn difference to the damage the beam caused. A supporting pillar was struck, leaving Wolner in a collapsing house. A mud brick smashed against the top of his head, blurring his vision and knocking him to he ground. His team were mostly dead or down now, it was up to him. He had to pull himself together. Grabbing the weapon that had previously belonged to Halverson, he cursed loudly and reopened fire. Clearly he hit some critical part of the thing's anatomy as it shuddered and collapsed.
Dropping to a crouch, Wolner reloaded, unable to believe that it was over. And that was when the alien ship exploded. The jet-engine shape pulled itself inwards into a black swirling mass of energy that burst outwards, carving a perfect circle in the town and leaving only traces of scrap behind.
"Final count, two men stunned but unharmed, one dead, one wounded. We're coming home, Central."
[Five agency units, three alien
Phase 1 - Agency (rolls [12] [19,6,4] [7] [7] [20]) Three hits, one each. Alien forces (rolls [1,9] [14,6] [6]). One [stun] hit on Dutch
Phase 2 - Agency (rolls [2] [16,4,7] [9] [1] [6]) One hit. Alien forces (rolls [11,3] [2,10] [12]) Three hits - Dutch [stun], Cooper [stun], Halverson
Phase 3 - Agency (rolls [13] [10,1,15] [20] [3] [8]) Two hits. Alien forces (rolls [6,1] [18,16] [12]) Three hits - Dutch [stun], Hiller [stun], Halverson. Dutch is stunned
Phase 4 - Agency (rolls [17] [3,11,5] [20] [12]) Three hits - One alien down. Alien forces (rolls [3, 5] [2,16] [10]) Two hits - Hiller [stun], Halverson. Halverson is dead
Phase 5 - Agency (rolls [19] [18,7,10] [8]) Two hits - One alien down. Alien forces (rolls [17,16] [12]) Three hits - Hiller [stun]. Cooper [stun], Wolner. Hiller is stunned
=50% friendly forces down. Panic attack (rolls [6] [16]). Wolner takes 1 Psyche damage=
Phase 6 - Agency (rolls [20,20,14] [8]) Two hits - One alien down. Alien forces (roll [8]) One hit Wolner
All aliens defeated. Self-destruct of craft [6,5,3] No hits
Halverson is dead, Wolner has 2 wounds and 1 psyche damage]
Back in The Pit there was a muted celebration. Success had come at too high a price. The smartly dressed couple, the European Council observers, Mr Fish and Ms Chia beckoned over Generalmajor Reichenbach,
"Don't be too hard on yourself, Generalmajor, your men did well. I think two of them just earned themselves a promotion - Now we know what we're fighting"
[Promotion: Blain Cooper is now a Squaddie. Earns [Tough]: +1 wounds]
[Promotion: Edvard Wolner is now a Squaddie. Earns [Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action]
Two of the three alien incidents had been dealt with. Radar contact with the third had been lost in northern Canada somewhere.
[+2 on diplomacy checks against Europe and the Middle East next turn. -2 on such checks with North America]
The return of the strike team was met with cheers, most of the facility staff having grouped down in the hangar and deciding that it was best to focus on the good that had been achieved rather than mourn the loss of a good man on the first day of operations. Hiller and Dutch both looked groggy from their run ins with the alien stun technology as they walked down the ramp into the assembled crowd. Wolner looked harrowed, he kept his eyes low and slipped back to the barracks with all haste, not wanting to celebrate or be checked for a concussion.
During the celebrations over excited scientists discussed the next steps. The alien craft had self destructed, but the strike team had collected as much of the scrap as possible, they could still learn a great deal from such small fragments. Dr Thomas wanted to find a way to talk to the aliens, or at least hear what they were saying, she had ideas about systems that could be mounted on the existing aircraft. The loudest voices were those that wanted to get to dissection immediately, who knows what information could be lost by rotting? Or just exposure to the Earth atmosphere!
While most of the research would be performed on-site, the European Council had also set them up with a distributed network. They could farm out isolated modules to research institutions across the continent, drawing in all manner of experts who wouldn't need to know what they were even working on. It would vastly improve their research speed.
Next
A - Perform focused research [additional +1d12 RP this turn]
B - Hire new military personnel (specify number) [€20M each, you can afford up to 2]
C - Train existing military personnel (specify soldier) [Difficulty 10+Rank to promote]
D - Hold negotiations to improve funding (specify council)
1 - Research Personal Armour [RP 50]
2 - Research High Capacity Transport Aircraft [RP 25]
3 - Research Alien Communications [RP 25]
4 - Research Alien Craft Scrap [RP 25]
5 - Research Alien Corpses [RP 50]
6 - Research Alien Stun weaponry [RP 75]
7 - Research Alien Beam weaponry [RP 75]
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
I think in future I won't bother with the combat numbers, typing that stuff in slowed me down quite a lot when I could quickly just do it on a bit of paper.
Also, you guys need to name a new type of alien!
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I just want some [REDACTED], I've been sitting here for a [REDACTED] now not knowing what the hell is going on because they won't let us [REDACTED] the [REDACTED]. Some of the other [REDACTED] are going on about this whole "[REDACTED REDACTED]" business being a [REDACTED]. I know what it is, [REDACTED] finally grew a [REDACTED] and formed a [REDACTED] response [REDACTED] against [REDACTED], like that [REDACTED] I [REDACTED] on the [REDACTED] out here, [REDACTED] something?
My only question is why [REDACTED] of all places? Sure it's [REDACTED] and you can get a [REDACTED] if you talk slow enough to the [REDACTED], but why [REDACTED]? Maybe someone is throwing 'em a bone, this [REDACTED] can't have come cheap. Economic crisis my [REDACTED].
Still, that's about it. Tell Uncle [REDACTED] my [REDACTED] is coming along nicely and no I haven't [REDACTED] any of the [REDACTED] or [REDACTED] the [REDACTED].
Luv [REDACTED]
****Transcript Ends****
****Sensitive Data scrubbed, Forwarding****
Redaction software upgrade enabled. Personnel are reminded not to [REDACTED] when conducting personal [REDACTED] or the administrative office will [REDACTED] your [REDACTED] with a severe [REDACTED] right up your [REDACTED].
+1
Options
Shiny New Toyswhere am i?its dark in hereRegistered Userregular
B (2) - We are going to need some more troops to fight these b******s 3 - and find out what they are saying
After this massacre I'd say we need to figure out what's a vital organ for our guys to aim at.
Also, is it possible for us to buy new weapons from Earth governments? We need some anti-tank missiles.
electricitylikesme on
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
B(2) 1
*****E-Mail Intercept File A0254198*****
****Transcript Begins****
Dear Mum,
Well, something finally happened over here. The lads went off on a [ROUTINE TRAINING EXERCISE] and managed to make a right horlicks of it. Some Norwegian bloke managed to get himself killed and the German guy has a look in his eye that says a lot that you don't want to know. On the plus side we might be getting some new faces around here.
Hopefully one of them will have a deck of cards, that bloody Norse borrowed mine and no-one will tell me what he did with it.
Tell Uncle Derrick that he should try something called "San-gree-aah", it's not bad for foreign muck.
Love [REDACTED]
****Transcript Ends****
****Sensitive Data scrubbed, Forwarding****[/quote]
Indeed. I could care less at the moment what the aliens are saying. This attrition rate is horrendous at best and might very well bleed us dry before we are ready to take off. Having some personal armor may turn an absolute kill into a critical injury, that we at least have a chance at patching up. If anything it will help our soldiers knowing that they simply wont cease to be.
As far as the alien designation...
Tendrils for locomotion
Armored Shell
Man O'War or "Jelly" for the ground-pounders. Nice, succinct, descriptive and suitably derrogative in two syllables.
After reading the mission report, and reviewing agency-approved options for proceeding, I have two suggestions. First, we should capitalize on the progress made in Egypt, and see if that goodwill can garner us additional oil funds, selection D - Middle East on table 17-A1. Second, while the primary loss, the death of Pvt. Halverson, was due to the alien beam weaponry, and understanding that would assist both in defending against it and wielding such technology against the invaders, that effort would nevertheless take a good deal of time. The fragments of debris, however, are available for analysis once we set up a few quarantine chambers, and could yield useful data very quickly. I propose option 4 on table M.
Junior Intelligence/Analyst Specialist Deborah M. Mainer, ID JA6-Delta-17B2
Addendum: I would further recommend grief counseling for all surviving squad members, particularly Cpl. Wolner, who seems to have been hit harder than the others.
Addendum 2: I must admit that I was caught off-guard by your proposed initiative last night, but I agree it is worth pursuing. Shall we discuss it at eight PM tomorrow night in the commissary's back room?
since you put up that vid, snikety I added suitably derrogative to that list of reasons.
I was debating between hanar and manowar, but we can do better than rip names from video games :P
Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
A-5
Head research scientist T.R.Virus here, gentlemen.
I know that we have had some setbacks today. We weren't prepared for the tentacled horrors that we came across. Nobody was. We lost a good man today and came close to losing two others in the process, all because we didn't know how to kill these damned things.
We can fix this. We can study our enemy. To truly beat him, we must first know him. Know his strengths, know his weaknesses. We can win this war if we are smart.
This is why, gentlemen, I ask that you allocate some extra research funds to my team and give us the clearances needed to investigate these corpses.
Know yourself and your enemy and you will win every battle against him.
Know yourself and not your enemy and you will win half the battles against him. Know your enemy but not yourself and you will lose every battle against him.
After this massacre I'd say we need to figure out what's a vital organ for our guys to aim at.
I agree with this completely. B(2) 5
Virgil_Leads_You on
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
edited October 2012
AB
Nice to see we ended up in Europe even though I got here too late to vote. I would have voted Government as a good little Commie, but Research is pretty cool too.
- We are going to need some more troops to fight these b******s
- and find out what they are saying
B (2)3
I'll vote with Shiny here.
How are we supposed to insult the aliens if we can't first talk to them? We can call them all the derogatory names we want, but until we can make it clear to them that we are insulting them, what's the point?
see317 on
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Quoting other people's votes makes things annoying for me when I'm counting up. So if you could just snip those bits out of the posts when you do it that would be super.
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Our operatives are the backbone of kicking E.T.'s ass. We need to be at full complement, and provide them with the necessary equipment to survive and win future encounters.
We can't get to probing alien assholes mysteries if our agents can't stop 'em on the ground.
D - Middle east, 3. We need more men, better equipment and better facilities. In order to do any of those things, we need to focus our efforts on getting financing. We sacrificed a man today to curry favor. Let us now turn that favor into a steady flow of capital.
Further, I believe that understanding our enemy is the key to victory. If we can speak their language, we could negotiate a peace, or bluff or taunt them into striking where we want them to. At the very least, we need to be able to intercept communications and learn about their movement before they arrive.
What is the greatest defense of mankind? The unimaginative will say our guns and bombs. The poetic will list our drive and dedication. But I belive the most practical defense is our cooperation. No other animal can reach out to a different pack to coordinate, and it is this ability to communicate that makes us strong.
We have lost a good man on foreign shores. But we did so in order to help not ourselves, but to protect our species. This is why I encourage reaching out in a dipolomatic mission to the Turkish govenrment. With a combination of resources, we can strengthen not only our office but also our global unity.
I will continue to fight. As long as these "jellies" continue to land I will put every effort into defending my country, my people, and my planet. I will do all I can to protect my warriors, but warriors must walk into to combat and will never be fully safe. But we make due, and though our losses may be great we will soldier on. Humanity will soldier on.
Further, I believe that understanding our enemy is the key to victory. If we can speak their language, we could negotiate a peace, or bluff or taunt them into striking where we want them to. At the very least, we need to be able to intercept communications and learn about their movement before they arrive.
I speak the same language as my Subway server but that doesn't mean I can negotiate them giving me the right sandwich.
We're not hosting an award ceremony we're saving mankind. We can't afford to go soft with all this diplomacy baiting distraction!
The craft seems to have an automatic self destruct when the last member was killed. So to grab a usable craft we need to stun the aliens so it doesn't auto self destruct.
But beam guns first. Research deadly weapons, always.
We should look into getting some more funding this turn, then hiring more solders next turn.
Sure I want to talk to them, I want to ask why they are killing humans, but first we need to stop them from doing that!
D(Middle East) 7
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
Europe +€20 [Level 1] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 14, +1 bonus]
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, +1 bonus]
Asia +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Oceania +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
North America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
South America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Internal: +€20
Research
None
Narrative
With Halverson dead and Wolner undergoing intensive psychiatric and physiological care the powers that be were left with no real option but to recruit. The Generalmajor had a thick file with details of hundreds of suitable candidates. Out there in their safe little armies and navies they may have been Sergeants and Wing Commanders but once they arrived on site they were just fresh meat. Rookies who had yet to prove themselves in the field. Two names were at the top of the list. A local Spaniard and a decorated marine from the other side of the Atlantic. Perhaps down the line there'd be some animosity about poaching talent from other council territory, but as far as anybody in the agency knew the USA was floundering about in the wake of the attack. Some Alaskan was tipped to take the top job, but they were determined to hold elections. The international media was claiming it would be Christmas before they had a new leader.
Here and there were reports that the other governments were gradually setting up their own systems for facing the extraterrestrial threat.
Across the ESAC minds were focused on a modern, effective combat armour. Experts from material science, haptic robotics and even biotechnology were brought into the core team. Archives from abandoned European projects were unsealed for the scientists too. All manner of triple black projects from wars past: manilla folders stamped with words like Ultra or PURPLE with long serial numbers which no longer referred to anything. Treasures from another age. Anything for the cause.
The Pit remained busy but Mother was quiet. A single false alarm had a half-strength strike team rushing for the hangar, but the red voxel vanished after four seconds. System technicians were sure that it was just an artefact. A signal processing error to do with non-standard formats in the incoming aerial intelligence.
In their down time, the troops were frequently heard complaining about their upsettingly small weapons. Many reminisced about better times when they were charged with driving tanks, or firing rockets out of the side of helicopters to destroy enemy tanks. Most standard issue weaponry was no use in the agency, but there was something to be said for keeping an ace up the sleeve and maybe handing one or two of the men something a little larger.
Mr Fish and Ms Chia both remained quietly satisfied, frequently reporting to the assembled European governments on the fine work that the new agency was doing.
But the quiet times were coming to an end...
Next
A - Perform focused research [additional +1d12 RP this turn]
B - Hire new military personnel (specify number) [€20M each, you can afford up to 2]
C - Train existing military personnel (specify soldier) [Difficulty 10+Rank to promote]
D - Hold negotiations to improve funding (specify council)
E - See about purchasing some heavy weaponry for the strike team (specify number) [Anti-tank missile launcher, target 14, fires every other turn and deals 1d4 damage. €5M a piece]
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I see that we should push for funding after successful missions. (the good will modifiers degrade with time)
Next time.
For now... E (5)
We give 1 launcher per 5 men. and we have some in surplus if we lose the weapon.
While I agitated for this, I am a little concerned that those beam-weapon systems the Land Squids have could work in an anti-missile capacity. We should probably plan to send two of these on each mission and use focused fire.
Posts
*****E-Mail Intercept File A0254176*****
****Transcript Begins****
Dearest Mum.
I just want some action, I've been sitting here for a week now not knowing what the hell is going on because they won't let us watch the telly. Some of the other lads are going on about this whole "Yellow Sign" business being a cover-up. I know what it is, Brussels finally grew a pair and formed a European response force against terrorism, like that book I read on the plane out here, Rainbow something?
My only question is why Spain of all places? Sure it's nice and you can get a beer if you talk slow enough to the barman, but why Spain? Maybe someone is throwing 'em a bone, this facility can't have come cheap. Economic crisis my arse.
Still, that's about it. Tell Uncle Derrick my tan is coming along nicely and no I haven't eaten any of the food or drunk the tap water.
Luv [REDACTED]
****Transcript Ends****
****Sensitive Data scrubbed, Forwarding****
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Decision: AB - Operation Caution To The Wind
Numbers:
Funds: €40 [+€40/turn]
Research Progress: No project 0/0 [+2d12/turn]
Engineering Progress: No project 0/0 [+1d10/turn]
Agency HQ, Madrid
Distributed Research [+1d12 RP/turn]
Engineering bay [+1d10 EP/turn]
Radar Antenna Array [Allows detection of enemy vessels]
Hanger [Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Sickbay [Treats 1 wound or psyche damage / turn]
Personnel
Active
Squaddie Steven Hiller
[10,3,3] [Gunslinger] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Blain Cooper
[16x3,4,3] [Tough] [autocannon]
Rookie Alan "Dutch" Schaefer
[10,3,3] [combat rifle]
Standby
None
Medical Leave
Squaddie Edvard Wolner
[10,1/3,2/3] [Revenge] [combat rifle]
Morgue
Rookies: 1
Specials
[Gunslinger] - On a natural 20 gains an extra attack
[Tough] - +1 Wounds
[Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action
Craft
Assault lander [Unarmed, 2, 3] [Transport 3/5]
Interceptor [10x2, 3/4, 3]
Funding
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, +2 bonus]
Asia +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Oceania +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
North America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
South America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Internal: +€20
Research
Narrative
Next
A - Perform focused research [additional +1d12 RP this turn]
B - Hire new military personnel (specify number) [€20M each, you can afford up to 2]
C - Train existing military personnel (specify soldier) [Difficulty 10+Rank to promote]
D - Hold negotiations to improve funding (specify council)
1 - Research Personal Armour [RP 50]
2 - Research High Capacity Transport Aircraft [RP 25]
3 - Research Alien Communications [RP 25]
4 - Research Alien Craft Scrap [RP 25]
5 - Research Alien Corpses [RP 50]
6 - Research Alien Stun weaponry [RP 75]
7 - Research Alien Beam weaponry [RP 75]
Also, you guys need to name a new type of alien!
Redaction software upgrade enabled. Personnel are reminded not to [REDACTED] when conducting personal [REDACTED] or the administrative office will [REDACTED] your [REDACTED] with a severe [REDACTED] right up your [REDACTED].
3 - and find out what they are saying
I think improving our troops survivability would be a good idea, replacing them is quite expensive.
After this massacre I'd say we need to figure out what's a vital organ for our guys to aim at.
Also, is it possible for us to buy new weapons from Earth governments? We need some anti-tank missiles.
*****E-Mail Intercept File A0254198*****
****Transcript Begins****
Dear Mum,
Well, something finally happened over here. The lads went off on a [ROUTINE TRAINING EXERCISE] and managed to make a right horlicks of it. Some Norwegian bloke managed to get himself killed and the German guy has a look in his eye that says a lot that you don't want to know. On the plus side we might be getting some new faces around here.
Hopefully one of them will have a deck of cards, that bloody Norse borrowed mine and no-one will tell me what he did with it.
Tell Uncle Derrick that he should try something called "San-gree-aah", it's not bad for foreign muck.
Love [REDACTED]
****Transcript Ends****
****Sensitive Data scrubbed, Forwarding****[/quote]
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Indeed. I could care less at the moment what the aliens are saying. This attrition rate is horrendous at best and might very well bleed us dry before we are ready to take off. Having some personal armor may turn an absolute kill into a critical injury, that we at least have a chance at patching up. If anything it will help our soldiers knowing that they simply wont cease to be.
As far as the alien designation...
Tendrils for locomotion
Armored Shell
Man O'War or "Jelly" for the ground-pounders. Nice, succinct, descriptive and suitably derrogative in two syllables.
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:^:
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Sir,
After reading the mission report, and reviewing agency-approved options for proceeding, I have two suggestions. First, we should capitalize on the progress made in Egypt, and see if that goodwill can garner us additional oil funds, selection D - Middle East on table 17-A1. Second, while the primary loss, the death of Pvt. Halverson, was due to the alien beam weaponry, and understanding that would assist both in defending against it and wielding such technology against the invaders, that effort would nevertheless take a good deal of time. The fragments of debris, however, are available for analysis once we set up a few quarantine chambers, and could yield useful data very quickly. I propose option 4 on table M.
Junior Intelligence/Analyst Specialist Deborah M. Mainer, ID JA6-Delta-17B2
Addendum: I would further recommend grief counseling for all surviving squad members, particularly Cpl. Wolner, who seems to have been hit harder than the others.
Addendum 2: I must admit that I was caught off-guard by your proposed initiative last night, but I agree it is worth pursuing. Shall we discuss it at eight PM tomorrow night in the commissary's back room?
I was debating between hanar and manowar, but we can do better than rip names from video games :P
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Or Land Squid.
Oooh - definitely Land Squid.
hnnng
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Head research scientist T.R.Virus here, gentlemen.
I know that we have had some setbacks today. We weren't prepared for the tentacled horrors that we came across. Nobody was. We lost a good man today and came close to losing two others in the process, all because we didn't know how to kill these damned things.
We can fix this. We can study our enemy. To truly beat him, we must first know him. Know his strengths, know his weaknesses. We can win this war if we are smart.
This is why, gentlemen, I ask that you allocate some extra research funds to my team and give us the clearances needed to investigate these corpses.
Thank you for your time.
Know yourself and not your enemy and you will win half the battles against him.
Know your enemy but not yourself and you will lose every battle against him.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
-Pvt. William Hudson, Aliens documentary.
Nautiloid.
We need to ensure our men get shredded less next time. To that end, let's see what studying those bits of spacecraft tells us.
I agree with this completely.
B(2) 5
Nice to see we ended up in Europe even though I got here too late to vote. I would have voted Government as a good little Commie, but Research is pretty cool too.
I'll vote with Shiny here.
How are we supposed to insult the aliens if we can't first talk to them? We can call them all the derogatory names we want, but until we can make it clear to them that we are insulting them, what's the point?
See Wolner through, and make sure nobody else dies.
Our operatives are the backbone of kicking E.T.'s ass. We need to be at full complement, and provide them with the necessary equipment to survive and win future encounters.
We can't get to probing alien assholes mysteries if our agents can't stop 'em on the ground.
Further, I believe that understanding our enemy is the key to victory. If we can speak their language, we could negotiate a peace, or bluff or taunt them into striking where we want them to. At the very least, we need to be able to intercept communications and learn about their movement before they arrive.
What is the greatest defense of mankind? The unimaginative will say our guns and bombs. The poetic will list our drive and dedication. But I belive the most practical defense is our cooperation. No other animal can reach out to a different pack to coordinate, and it is this ability to communicate that makes us strong.
We have lost a good man on foreign shores. But we did so in order to help not ourselves, but to protect our species. This is why I encourage reaching out in a dipolomatic mission to the Turkish govenrment. With a combination of resources, we can strengthen not only our office but also our global unity.
I will continue to fight. As long as these "jellies" continue to land I will put every effort into defending my country, my people, and my planet. I will do all I can to protect my warriors, but warriors must walk into to combat and will never be fully safe. But we make due, and though our losses may be great we will soldier on. Humanity will soldier on.
-Generalmajor Reichenbach
I speak the same language as my Subway server but that doesn't mean I can negotiate them giving me the right sandwich.
We're not hosting an award ceremony we're saving mankind. We can't afford to go soft with all this diplomacy baiting distraction!
But beam guns first. Research deadly weapons, always.
We should look into getting some more funding this turn, then hiring more solders next turn.
Sure I want to talk to them, I want to ask why they are killing humans, but first we need to stop them from doing that!
D(Middle East) 7
Decision: B(2) 1: It's raining men. Heavily armoured men.
Numbers:
Funds: €40 [+€40/turn]
Research Progress: Personal Armour 10/50 [+2d12/turn]
Engineering Progress: No project 0/0 [+1d10/turn]
Agency HQ, Madrid
Distributed Research [+1d12 RP/turn]
Engineering bay [+1d10 EP/turn]
Radar Antenna Array [Allows detection of enemy vessels]
Hanger [Can maintain/hold 2 aircraft. Restores 1 aircraft wound / turn]
Sickbay [Treats 1 wound or psyche damage / turn]
Personnel
Active
Squaddie Steven Hiller
[10,3,3] [Gunslinger] [combat rifle]
Squaddie Blain Cooper
[16x3,4,3] [Tough] [autocannon]
Rookie Alan "Dutch" Schaefer
[10,3,3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Dwayne Hicks
[10,3,3] [combat rifle]
Rookie Jenette Vasquez
[10,3,3] [combat rifle]
Standby
None
Medical Leave
Squaddie Edvard Wolner
[10,1/3,3] [Revenge] [combat rifle]
Morgue
Rookies: 1
Specials
[Gunslinger] - On a natural 20 gains an extra attack
[Tough] - +1 Wounds
[Revenge] - +2 on combat rolls if a squadmate is killed in action
Craft
Assault lander [Unarmed, 2, 3] [Transport 5/5]
Interceptor [10x2, 4, 3]
Funding
Middle East +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, +1 bonus]
Asia +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Africa +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Oceania +0 [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
North America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13, -2 penalty]
Central America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
South America [Level 0] [Morale 0] [Difficulty 13]
Internal: +€20
Research
Narrative
Next
A - Perform focused research [additional +1d12 RP this turn]
B - Hire new military personnel (specify number) [€20M each, you can afford up to 2]
C - Train existing military personnel (specify soldier) [Difficulty 10+Rank to promote]
D - Hold negotiations to improve funding (specify council)
E - See about purchasing some heavy weaponry for the strike team (specify number) [Anti-tank missile launcher, target 14, fires every other turn and deals 1d4 damage. €5M a piece]
Next time.
For now...
E (5)
We give 1 launcher per 5 men. and we have some in surplus if we lose the weapon.
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While I agitated for this, I am a little concerned that those beam-weapon systems the Land Squids have could work in an anti-missile capacity. We should probably plan to send two of these on each mission and use focused fire.